Everybody speaks the same language because the gods can't be bothered to learn more than two. The method by which the language propagates varies from god to god depending on how creative they feel, from sending a prophet, teaching it to them directly or a god of destruction's learn it or die.
Either that or all species tend to that because it is the language the gods speak when not doing their magic jumbo so their sould pull towards it. Or it became common from all the species moved.
Battle ain't part of the kai's domain. They oversee and teleport shit and if there us too big of a mess, that is what the gods of destruction are for. Actually, one of the universes bios had a really proactive kaioshin that alwayshad projects but since they often went bad the god of destruction was always cleaning his messes.
There are valid reasons to dislike Methods of Rationality. Personally I enjoyed it, but I'm a strange person and I recognize that. It is not at all hard to come up with standards of quality that the story fails.
I nonetheless maintain that the particular scene I quoted stands on its own merits, as a good short story involving time travel, though. That scene works not (necessarily) as a Harry Potter story, but as a "Smartass gets a rude awakening that time travel is not a toy" story. I like that.
...
Now clearly, Seers in our game DO get to engage in a certain degree of "time travel is my plaything" via prescience, I know this. I mainly quoted that passage as a cautionary tale about ways it can backfire (or sideways-fire) when you try to use future information to deduce information about the present by process of elimination or whatever. Oedipus Rex is arguably the same kind of cautionary tale, if you want to go classical hard enough.
The gods winding up in a tangled situation that requires a mortal champion or three to straighten things out? Yeah, that's a fairly common mythological archetype even in settings where you don't have a straightforward path that leads directly from "random martial artist" to "convincing deity-impersonator" via pushups and meditation.
I mean, making the deities potentially face-kickable if you power up far enough is a bit unusual, but not unheard of; look at what some of the Hindu sages were supposedly able to do to some of their gods via "practicing austerities" or the like. Or what Diomedes did to Ares in the Iliad.
Everybody speaks the same language because the gods can't be bothered to learn more than two. The method by which the language propagates varies from god to god depending on how creative they feel, from sending a prophet, teaching it to them directly or a god of destruction's learn it or die.
Either that or all species tend to that because it is the language the gods speak when not doing their magic jumbo so their sould pull towards it. Or it became common from all the species moved.
[X] Plan Training Montage
-[X] Maintain Grades
-[X] Better Living Through Ki
-[X] The Ship Has Been Sunk, Now Hand Out the Life Preservers
-[X] Train Maya
--[X] Rise slowly to displayed power levels close to her maximum, and keep pacing her. Possibly 'cross' her briefly during training, now and then, to motivate her.
-[X] A Scion's Stewardship, Saiyan-Facing
-[X] A Scion's Stewardship, Human-Facing
-[X] Command Theory
-[X] Train Tien Style
--[X] Train with Mom
-[X] Study Jaffur's Form
--[X] With Mato
-[X] Research Project: Perfect Multiform
-[X] Transcendence
-[X] Train With Sensei
-[X] Contact Jaffur
--[X] Make Sure to Tell Jaffur About the Alien Invasion
Ready Up
News of the year!
Hello, folks, and welcome to Saiyan Radio. I'm Papata Fren, your host, here to bring you the breakdown on what all went down last year. We've brought you the news all year long, and now it's time to break down the biggest events for all us lonely Exiles.
As a reminder to all you folks, this channel is encrypted, and the local humans don't even know that this frequency works, so please do clear your surroundings before tuning in. If you're hearing indecipherable static, that's good! On the other hand, it means you're trying to tune in from a non-networked radio, so you should feel very silly.
Sorry that we're a few days late on the broadcast -- when all that stuff went down around year's end, we got caught up in the shuffle just like everybody else. Saiyan Radio has been completely down, as I'm sure you've noticed. But enough of that.
Folks, we have a very special round up to give today. Man, we thought the Sealing was big. We thought the systemic collapse of law and order in Clan Vegeta was significant. We thought Kakara Goku coming into the public eye was a big deal. We thought an alien invasion was reason to get fussed.
Nope. Because folks, this year topped them all. THE MASQUERADE HAS FALLEN!
Well, a part of it, anyway. First of all, it turns out that the unimaginative savages we're sharing a rock with honestly thought that nukes were a grand idea. Nukes! Really?! I could pop this planet like a zit, and I'm below average! It's made it through three centuries of people like us being around, but the Garenhulders barely split the atom forty years ago and already they're trying to turn whole countries into rubble. The fuck, folks?
But anyway. Lord Goku and Scion Kakara destroyed the nukes, so given what happened next the children should know that they're not allowed to turn their planet into a radioactive wasteland.
And what happened next, you ask? Well, it turns out that the scouts we've been hiding from didn't feel any particular need to help out with a nuclear exchange, and in fact decided that it was the perfect opportunity to follow Scion Kakara back to her school and jump her.
Bastards. I don't think anybody feels sorry for the beating they received. Honestly, I'm amazed she took as much trouble as she did talking them down.
But something else happened. Scion Jaffur -- or his Masque, whatever the hell is going on there -- broke through. Powered up to three hundred thousand and took out the leader with Scion Kakara. What I wouldn't have given to have seen it...
It doesn't look like the Seal is broken, but something happened. Maybe Jaron Somerlad is more important than anybody gave him credit for.
All of this happened in public, so the secret of ki is out. We're still humans as far as the natives are concerned, but they know about ki. This...this is big.
For now, I'm Papata Fren, and this has been the news of the year.
* * *
Dad grunts in annoyance, switching off the radio before turning back to his training. "You're sure you can't tell me anything about what Jaron did?"
You cross your arms. "Dad..."
He sighs. "Fine, fine." He transforms with a flash and starts firing blasts. "I'm pleased to see you starting to take your combat training more seriously. Given that vision you had, we need to be as ready as possible. Are you certain that you're doing enough, though? I'm happy to see you adopting a style, but whatever this vision was about, it was big. Big enough to get every Seer's notice."
"About time they caught something," you grumble.
He shoots you a chiding look. "Glass houses, Kakara. Besides, remember that I've had the Seers busy myself. They can only See so much."
You twitch. Of course, the Seers have been scrying out possible failure states for the attempt at breaking the Seal as well, so you can't really throw stones there either.
"Back to the point," says Dad. "You're sure you're doing enough?"
You shift, uncomfortable. Are you doing enough? Enough for a threat that had every Seer on the planet waking up in a cold sweat in the same instance? I mean, there's the multiform research project, but you don't expect that to bear fruit for years, and it seems a little reckless to assume that this threat that woke up all of the Seers is distant. There's studying Jaffur's form, but you know that that's a labor of years. Training your friends...for all that you plan to, it's probably not going to help with something of this magnitude.
So, in response to your vision, in the short-term you are getting into...entry-level Tien Style training. Maybe your work on military theory, if that counts.
Crapbaskets, are you doing enough?
Before you can respond, though, Mom shows up. "Alright, Kakara, come with me. It's time for your training."
You blink, looking up at her. "Huh?"
"Training time, kiddo," she says, patting you on the shoulder. "Come on. I've been waiting for you to figure out that you were taking this route for years."
You splutter. "What?"
"C'mon, it's been obvious that you've been leaning towards Tien Style," says Mom. "The Solar Flare, the multiform-"
You choke. "I haven't-"
"Kakara," says your father. "Your mother and I do talk to people from time to time. Even you're not fast enough to be in two places at once, let alone three."
"For what it's worth," says Mom, "I'm impressed. You got pretty good for somebody working on their own."
You look down at the ground. "Can I just not keep secrets or something?"
"Sure you can," says Dad. "I'm sure you have a couple things I don't know about. But seriously, when I'm talking to Mato and he tells me that he had a conversation with you at a time when I know you were studying with me, it's not hard to put it together. If it's any consolation, I don't think you'd make that mistake today."
You groan, hiding your face.
Your Mom chuckles and steps over to your Dad, whapping him across the chest. "Alright, Babe, enough teasing. Get! You can train somewhere else!"
He gives her a teasing smile. "Ah, can't I watch my girls having fun?"
"Not if you're going to be a little shit, like you are," she says, rolling her eyes. "Go!"
He takes off, laughing.
Your mother turns back to you. "Alright! I think our first lesson should be practical work. You tend to do better with that. We can cover the theory later. For now, show me your stance."
You nod, still not quite looking at her, and sink into a fighting stance.
Silence. You look up. You cringe at the look on your mother's face. "...it's bad, isn't it?"
"No, no," she says, shaking herself. "It's stable. It's pretty good. It just tells me that you tend to spar with your father, which isn't really news. It just looks more Goku than Tenshinhan. Here. You want to bring your weight back a bit. You're not getting ready to charge. You really want to root yourself." She guides your leg into a different position. "Feel that?"
You shift your weight. You're not as braced as your usual stance, but you still move less. This stance feels like it takes shocks better. "Yeah."
"Good," she says. Then, expression unchanging, she tugs, hard, in the opposite direction. You yelp as you go head over heels and your Mom hoists you up by the ankle. She smirks at you, bringing your face level with hers. "Still needs work."
"Very funny, Mom! Let me go!"
She rolls her eyes and obliges. You catch yourself in mid-air and right yourself, settling gently to the ground.
"Tenshinhan Style is the art of being able to do either of those things," she says. "Stand like a rock, or break your opponent's stance at its root. Everybody gets distracted by the fancy attacks and multiform, but they're really cheating themselves if that's all they do. The greatest strength of Tenshinhan is in its ability to engage at any range, in any way it needs to. Stick with this form, and you'll always know what to do, whatever the situation. You'll never be as good on the offense as a Goku Stylist...but you can blast at them from range all day long. You'll never snipe a Vegeta Stylist out of the sky, but you can tear them apart in close quarters." She smiles. "This is a good style. And I think you're going to enjoy it."
You smile back, hesitantly. You hope that she's right.
Style Gained! Tenshinhan [Novice].
Skill Gained! Kikoho [Unlearned].
Skill Gained! Dodonpa [Unlearned].
For those wondering, the relevant Intrigue check to keep Multiform a secret happened years ago. Kakara being discovered as a result of being multiformed between studying with Berra, training Maya in secret, and reconciling with Mato was the result of this check, not the cause of it occurring in the first place. Keeping multiform a secret required a yearly Intrigue check. You actually passed your first. The one you failed was the second. Berra won the check 119 to 74.
For a while, I tried to push myself to write more, but honestly this is a good place to break for now.
Vote: Of the following two scenes, which would you rather see first? This is not voting on what the next bit will be; just determining which will occur first.
[ ][SCENE] Seer training.
[ ][SCENE] Misfits and Maya training.
Furthermore: Papata Fren has contacted your father, asking for a live interview with you, a request which he has passed to you.
[ ][NEWS] Accept the interview.
[ ][NEWS] Do not accept the interview.
[ ][NEWS] Accept the interview, on the condition that it is not live.
THESE VOTES ARE NOW CLOSED.
As per the usual, if you have an opinion only on one task, you don't have to vote for the other.
Have fun, everybody! Welcome to Year 5!
TWO-HOUR MORATORIUM TO DISCUSS BEFORE VOTING OPENS.
The only reason to do it live would be if we plan on saying something big like explaining how the seal really works. Which would be a worse idea than just telling Dad right now.
Tien Style is a very balanced Style which is good because we plan on making our own style eventually so is better to start balanced.
"C'mon, it's been obvious that you've been leaning towards Tien Style," says Mom. "The Solar Flare, the multiform-"
You choke. "I haven't-"
"Kakara," says your father. "Your mother and I do talk to people from time to time. Even you're not fast enough to be in two places at once, let alone three."
"For what it's worth," says Mom, "I'm impressed. You got pretty good for somebody working on their own."
You look down at the ground. "Can I just not keep secrets or something?"
"Sure you can," says Dad. "I'm sure you have a couple things I don't know about. But seriously, when I'm talking to Mato and he tells me that he had a conversation with you at a time when I know you were studying with me, it's not hard to put it together. If it's any consolation, I don't think you'd make that mistake today."
Tenshinhan Style: This form is rarely-practiced, but deceptive for all that. Tenshinhan's form is refined and balanced, offering few concrete advantages, but unlocking the potential to pour the user's life force into an attack. Practitioners have no stylistic weaknesses, and gain a risky but powerful last resort option, in addition to a variety of strange techniques. Involved techniques: Solar Flare, Multi-Form, Four Witches Technique, Kikoho, Dodonpa, Shin Kikoho.
So anyway. Seer training is always fun to 'see', but I think we want to train the Misfits and Maya first. It's much more likely to lead to an event, and to have things that affect how we'll proceed the rest of the year.
Seer training could do any or all of that as well, and tends to do it more disruptively when it occurs (which argues in favor of doing M&M first).
I think an interview would be great. It's a way to get our voice out to all of Saiyan society and use our Communication skills. We can appear approachable and help calm people down. We can cement our authority as one of the leaders, and help our society stay strong, just like our Dad just showed us how.
But not doing it live means that if it goes badly we can get a do-over. And if it goes reallybadly, well, we have some time to find a new DJ.
anyway I've been thinking of a more "practical" Satan style.
Satan Style: Inspired more by the lessons learned from stories of it's namesake than his actual combat style. This Style is not truly a combat style and is unheard of to use in serious combat, nevertheless it does have a small following that use in play-fights and in order to humiliate opponents in duels. It offers no offensive capability outside of feints tripping and other disorienting tactics and it's defensive capability is mostly dodging and the very rare reversal it does however teach it's practitioners how to make (often enthusiastic) speeches and (flashy) demonstrations while not letting their guard down and losing track of the battle. Involved techniques: Combat Speeches, Solar Flare, Feints, embarrassing and frustrating opponents, Ostentatious but harmless Ki techniques. Penalised techniques: Hand to hand [All direct offence and defence cripplingly so], Ki projection [Anything that actually deals damage cripplingly so].
