The way I see it is, we are born into massive political and personal power--and hence massive responsibility. Friends are important. Our people, who are counting on us, who we have been raised to serve and oreserve--much more so.
We have a duty, yes. But I argue that our friends are more important, individually, than any one of our subjects.
We have ridonkulous amounts of power. Sure, enough base saiyans can dogpile a SSJ eventually, even a FPSSJ. But we're already beyond that. With Golden Great Ape, we can likely take on all of Saiyan society at once and win. We cannot be effectively stopped by force. If we ever went off of the deep end, we'd have to be reasoned with. We'd be the Dark Willow of DB: AtE.
Our duty and responsibility to our people are important to us, but the friends we have who are our friends without knowing who/what we are are the people who can stop us. They're the close, personal, connections that we need to stay sane and focused. Do you recall the trait we narrowly avoided, back when we trained our tail? They're the reason we avoided it.
If we have the risk of being AtE's Dark Willow, we need to make sure our Xanders can't get trivially killed off by Joe Random with an AK-47.
This is the primary reason I think we need to get the Misfits up to some base level of ki knowledge - get them flight, and aura, and some ki sense. That way they're effectively immune to normal accidents, and can presumably get out of the way of incidental collateral combat damage.
That said, we don't have to do it quickly. We can't do much for them before the invasion begins, but in the time between the first wave and the follow-up, it might need to happen.
A note: I of course have been absent lately. The reason is that a friend has been preoccupied with personal troubles, and I have offered to spot them by briefly taking the reigns of the RP they run. I have partitioned off some time for update writing today, however, and will be bringing you the next update tonight. See you soon!
Okay, this one isn't getting done tonight. I know it needs proofreading, but I'm too tired to handle it myself. I'll see you all in the morning, once I've had some sleep and time away from it.
There was no winning vote, on account of there being no vote of any description. We now return you to the long-lost days of yesterweek, when Number Three was talking to Mato about what an insufferable shit he is...
Sibling Rivalry
"YOU'RE SO STUPID!"
This is going well.
"YOU ALWAYS ACT LIKE YOU'RE SO PERFECT!"
In fact, spectacularly.
"I HATE YOU!"
He hasn't tried to kill you once.
That said, the shouting is still not what you're aiming for. You sigh, and open your mouth. "Mato, I-"
"SHUT! UP!" His aura flares unconsciously.
And then, Dad is there. "Mato Goku, power down!"
Your brother does, instantly. He wheels on your father. "Dad-!"
"You do not raise your ki to your sister when she's trying to talk!" shouts Dad. "You are family, and I won't have you threatening her!"
Mato scoffs. "Like I even could." With a last, spiteful glance at you, he turns and walks off.
"That could have gone better," says your Dad, sighing.
You nod, at a loss for what to do about the situation.
A week later, you're chatting with Fennella as you finally have that spar you promised.
"All boys are stupid, Kari," she says, lunging at you with a wooden practice sword. "Doesn't matter if they're your brother or not."
You nod seriously. At twelve years old, now, Fennella is far more worldly and wise than you in such affairs. "Still, he's my brother. I have to like him."
"Not really. It's nice to, though. Ha!"
She spins aside from a feint and swipes low, aiming for your knees. You flip up, though, hanging upside down and pulling a face at her. "Ha ha, too slow!"
Fennella growls and comes on in a flurry of blows.
Trunks style is...odd. You're used to your Dad's style -- Goku Style. Very aggressive, very melee focused. Mono-focused, actually, to the point where it's almost (okay, fine, very) predictable.
Trunks style, on the other hand, is hard to pin down. Fennella is always on the move, rarely blocking things outright when she can instead deflect them to the side or dodge. It's not like she can't block, it's just that the form seems to rely on the idea that she'll never know if maybe this next punch is the one she can't hold back. So she's always moving. She attacks a lot from range, and when she does close, it's straight for the win. And dodging a sword is hard since any contact at all means-
The breath flies out of your lungs as a deceptive twist turns into a brutal slash that nails you in the stomach. "Oof!" You fall on your butt, catching your air back.
"YES!" Fennella punches the air, laughing. "I finally did it! Woo!" She offers you a hand up, grinning.
You take it, still panting. "Nice one."
"I know, right? Hehe." She shakes her head. "Still, it's not you at your best."
Fair enough; you are suppressing to just a little bit above her level. "I mean, I'm still a bit higher than you right now."
She shakes her head, though. "No, I mean your style, Kari. You never hit back! You just dodge all the time."
You let out a chuckle to hide your sudden nerves. "Works, though!"
"Well yeah, but I know you know how to fight back. Why don't you?"
You shrug. "It's good practice. Do you have any brothers?"
Fennella nods, distracted. "Yeah, two. No sisters, though."
"Are they jealous they're not House Heir?" you ask.
"Nah," says Fennella. "Dad's never really home. He's always working. I'm with him half the time. They don't really want that."
You huff. "I know, right? I don't know how my Dad spends so much time with us with all the stuff he has me do! I don't know why Mato wants it."
She shrugs. "Me neither. My little brothers can be big brats, though."
"How do you deal with them?"
She shrugs. "Usually just talking. They're brats, but they're my brats. End of the day, I'm their big sis. I'm supposed to take care of them. Besides, it's not like it's really hard. It's just them being jealous, usually. They want something, but they don't have it."
"But that's hard!" you say. "He is jealous. How do I stop that?"
She cocks her head. "You know how they teach us to control our anger? It's not really different. Go blow some stuff up in the Hall. Maybe yell at somebody who won't get you in trouble for it. But then you can come back when it's easier. And if somebody else is angry, you're just supposed to let them get it out. I dunno why we figured it out for being angry, but being jealous is supposed to be so hard."
You blink, struck by the simple wisdom in your friend's words. Is it...really that simple?
* * *
No. No it is not.
Mato has been talking for hours.
You lean back, hiding a sigh with the patience born of long hours of political lessons as he spills out yet another grievance to you. It is -- surprise, surprise -- even more about how unfair it is that you're Scion and he's not.
You're going to kill Fennella for suggesting this.
You're mad at Dad too. He was so happy when he heard about this idea. "Good practice for later," he said.
Hah.
But most of all, you're mad at yourself. Actually doing it was your stupid idea.
And then Mato starts to wind down a bit. "I just...you get everything, you know?"
You blink. That's new.
"You just have to ask for stuff, and everybody runs to get it for you," he says, looking down. "You wanna be a Super Saiyan. Dad'll help. You want somebody to teach you how to be a Seer -- because you're a Seer, too -- and Mom and Dad get Carrick Balor, who's supposed to be crazy good, to be your teacher. You wanna learn to be an Oozaru? Dad gets you a teacher the same day you ask, and then he brings you with on my lessons with him." He crosses his arms. "You want human friends and you get them, you want to never talk to any saiyans even though it's your job and Dad lets you, you decide you do want to talk to saiyans 'cause of the Cult Council and the High Priest sends you a letter telling you to come."
Now that's just outrageously unfair. "Hey, there's plenty I want that I don't get-"
"I don't get what I want," he murmurs.
Oh. You're being ignored.
"I've been asking since I was four for Dad to teach me Oozaru," he says. "And then he did. But only because he was fighting with you. I only got to learn because he couldn't talk with you and he was mad." Mato sniffles. "And then Mom was angry at him because he was being mean to you, and she yelled at me because I didn't tell Dad no when I'd been asking for years, and Fasha and E were mad at me too, and everybody is still mad even though they're happy with you now. And you didn't even notice!"
And...there is absolutely nothing you can say in response to that. Because he's right. You never did. You were too busy with the conspiracy, and being sad yourself, and so many other things, and Mato just...didn't rate. It never really occurred to you that there was more to this than simple envy.
"I wanted to have something special with Dad too," he says, beginning to sob in earnest. "And you know what? I wa- was glad!" He looks up, yelling at you. "I was glad you were fighting with him, because it was the only time he'd even spent time with me like he always does with you!" He scrubs at his eyes. "I- I want to be important too. I want to help! I want to be somebody special. But I'm not the Scion. I can't go Super Saiyan. I can't be useful. You are. And you get everything. You get to be special. You get to be important. You get Dad."
And he breaks down.
You stare, eyes wide. Three here. Mato is starting to cry now. What do I do?
...cut the link and hug our brother, dummy!
IT'S WEIRD, OKAY?!
Three! Cut! Now!
Fine!
You have absolutely no idea what to do. This is completely unfamiliar territory. But you have to do something.
What?
Choose all that apply. "All of the above" votes are viable, if perhaps more entertaining for me than you given that I then get to write a 5,000+ word social meltdown, and if you neglect to fill in, "Write-in approach/tone," votes, I get to decide what goes there. Vote by plan, please. In case it was not apparent: YOU HAVE ENTERED A SOCIAL EVENT CHAIN.
[ ] Panic
-[ ] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
--[ ] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
---[ ] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
----[ ][reference]*Screaming in Kagome*[/reference]
[ ] Hug your brother
-[ ] Also cry
[ ] Set him straight on this whole, "You get everything," misconception
-[ ] Write-in approach
--[ ] Write-in tone
[ ] Respond to his concerns supportively
-[ ] Write-in approach
--[ ] Write-in tone
[ ] Get up and leave
[ ] Stay silent
[ ] Yell back at Mato about your own grievances with him
-[ ] Write-in approach
--[ ] Write-in tone.
[ ] Also cry (without hugging Mato)
[ ] Write-in
THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED
As an experiment, for the various write-ins, see about how concise we can make them. I.e., use only about a sentence to explain approaches, try to capture your tone in five or so words or less, and just try for brevity with general write-ins. I want to see if that makes the votes easier on you and/or me. This isn't a hard requirement; I won't discount big votes. Just an experiment. If it proves to be a headache, then nothing comes of it.
If you plan on, say, staying silent and then waiting to see how Mato reacts to that, write that in. Do not simply vote, "[ ] Stay Silent," because if that's the winning vote, that's all that Kakara will do, no matter what happens. Such applies similarly to all such votes where something is implied, but not part of the vote; if it's not in boxes, then as far as I the vote interpreter is concerned, it doesn't exist. Doesn't have to be in detail; just telling me what you want to accomplish will have me make Kakara execute it to the best of her (rolled and IC history) competence, and I'll follow the broad approach you specify. But it has to be there for me to interpret off of a vote counter, not somewhere in the 10+ pages of discussion we often get. If there's some room for interpretation still and I don't have input where you couldn't have anticipated it being needed, I'll just break for another vote.
And, of course: WE ARE BACK! Enjoy yourselves, everybody!
NO VOTES UNTIL THE UPDATE HAS BEEN UP FOR FIVE HOURS
Obviously, whatever our final vote is, it'll involve massive amounts of sympathy. I don't think pointing out mitigating factors (we work ourselves to the bone, etc.) is the right approach here, even if applicable - he has some actually pretty fair grievances.
Aside from the dangers of schedule strain, that won't actually solve any of his problems - none of what he's said can really be fixed by hanging out with him. If anything, it might lead to inadvertently rubbing it in his face.
How did people resolve second son issues in Ye Olden Days, when heirs were a thing?
So, let's find a way for him to be useful! Or at least feel special.
Styles/skills:
Train Oozaru w him (cause we totally have the free time. Counts as prep against the aliens, I guess)
update just mentioned Trunks style being pretty cool, and what little boy doesn't want to swing a sword around? Lets him impress dad w something K doesn't have.
Info sheet says Dad recently learned Wolf Fang Fist. Mato could impress him by learning it too, maybe train Yamcha Style with him
Instant transmission? K and Dad are real good at it, part of Dad's fighting style, generally fun/useful
Politics:
Interface with a particular important house (ideally a pretty quiet one, though--no rebellion shenanigans)
Learn relevant skills (telepathy, diplomacy, house knowledge)
We need to get a Multiform in on this right now. We need to contact somebody and get Mom and Dad here right now.
This has been left to fester for long enough, and letting this go on will only make things worse...
Or getting mom and dad in and telling them point blank that this needs to stop would only make it worse because then it would only stop because we said so, and that wouldn't fix anything.
What we really need is something that we can't do that our Brother can. Something --
Huh. I actually was just recently watching Legend of Korra and something sort of like this came up.
...
As much as I think doing this will only make everything blow up... Mato and our Dad need to talk this out. And I don't know any way to make our Mom and Dad realize what they had done other than to sit them down and yell at them for ignoring their child.
I mean seriously, Mom. You're upset at your son for being happy to get what he has been asking for for years?
Mato NEEDS something to give him a connection to his father that he doesn't have...
Berra is working on Krillin style, isn't he? That would seem to be a good match. He'll need a partner to practice the teamwork with, and it's a style focused on fighting stronger enemies with that teamwork. All good things.
One downside of using every one of our Multiform actions is that we don't have any in reserve for emergency situations like this, at least without greatly advancing our understanding of the technique.
Or getting mom and dad in and telling them point blank that this needs to stop would only make it worse because then it would only stop because we said so, and that wouldn't fix anything.
One downside of using every one of our Multiform actions is that we don't have any in reserve for emergency situations like this, at least without greatly advancing our understanding of the technique.
At this point in time, by the linked update, Number One is sitting five feet in front of Dad mulling over the Maya reveal at this very moment. She can set the Maya problem aside and mention Mato right now if you all vote that way.
At this point in time, by the linked update, Number One is sitting five feet in front of Dad mulling over the Maya reveal at this very moment. She can set the Maya problem aside and mention Mato right now if you all vote that way.
No, I mean, given that the Maya situation is already resolved (metanarratively, at least), if you all go that route, the retroactive course of action you'll take is, "Mato now, Maya over the course of the week in between Maya agreeing to talk to Dad and you telling him about her." So, it's a viable option.
