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Dragon Ball: After the End

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Lailoken said:
He almost certainly has not. His father is a workaholic, and the whole situation with his mother is one big metaphor for a rape victim suddenly realizing that their sweet little boy looks awfully familiar now that he's a teenager. Her mind will reflexively avoid this entire line of thought and everything associated with it.
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I wonder if he has been losing actions to puberty like we would have.
 
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Whiplash Chat
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    • [X] Jaffur! Explain!
    [X] Chat (Golden Ape).
    [X] Chat (What happened that night).

    Whiplash Chat​

    Confusion melts smoothly into annoyance, and you frown at your opposite number. "Jaffur!"

    He grins, cocking his head. "Something wrong?"

    You grunt in annoyance, pull off a chunk of rock, and throw it at him. "Explain!"

    He doesn't even bother to dodge. With a puff of air, he clears the rock dust from his face. "And you're the diplomatic one between us."

    "Jaffur."

    He rolls his eyes. "Fine, fine. Quirk of the spell: Jaron visits me in his dreams, every night."

    You gape. "You mean that he's known the truth this whole time?"

    Jaffur shakes his head. "No. The Seal went wrong, it didn't fail. Jaron knows and remembers everything when he's visiting. When he's awake..." He shrugs. "It's like it's a dream, when he remembers anything at all. Mother's work holds up, just like she wanted." He grits his teeth for a moment. "The most I can do is hints -- and training him, while he's here."

    Beat.

    It clicks. You sit forward. "Oh-! You- you cheaters! That's why he's improving so fast!"

    Jaffur outright laughs. "Well, it's a part. He doesn't remember everything, like I said. It's just like a dream. He gets hunches. Other than that, though, nothing much. He just..." Jaffur's smile ebbs away. He looks off to his right. "...half the things my brother sees make him sure that he's missing something. He's been going around thinking he's forgotten something for his entire life. He keeps catching himself and thinking, 'wait, am I remembering that right? Did that actually happen, or is this just another weird feeling?' He's barely sure what's real." He sighs. "Mother doesn't help."

    You stare, disturbed. "What-?"

    "How did you come up with that new form?" he asks, avoiding your gaze.

    You stare at him for a moment, gauging his mood. After a moment you decide to let the subject change pass unremarked, and lean back. "Accident. My little brother Mato and I were training our oozaru forms together. He was having control issues. Nearly blew up the bystanders. And I just-" You grimace. "...I just needed to transform. Looking back, it really was that easy. We're still saiyans, even when we're monkeys. Why should oozaru be any different?"

    "But why go after oozaru in the first place?" asks Jaffur. "I mean, unless you know about the golden form, it's just a waste for super saiyans. Why bother?"

    You shrug. "Had a hunch. Or, well..." You tap your temple. "Maybe not just a hunch. I don't know. I had a feeling that there was something more there."

    He hums, looking down in thought. You wait for him to finish.

    And wait.

    And wait.

    You let out a sharp sigh. "What are you-?"

    "There has to be a way to get around the loss of speed," he says. "Have you tried endurance training?"

    "Endurance training?" you ask.

    "Yes, like how we master the super saiyan forms, that endurance training," he says, impatient. "Have you tried it?"

    "Oh, so you do know about that," you mutter. "Great. Here I thought I was gonna pull ahead."

    He rolls his eyes and gestures around the landscape. "Not even in literal dreams, Scion."

    You hiss at him by way of reply.

    He snickers. "But seriously, have you tried it?"

    You shake your head, still giving him an angry squint. "No. It's powerful enough that I'd blow out the Hall's wards trying. There's just no place for it."

    "Guess that's my job, then," he says, smug.

    You throw another rock at him, which again he declines to dodge. He snickers, wiping the fragments from his face, and silence falls for a moment. For a moment, you're content to just let it lay. You and Jaffur never shared quiet moments like this before the Sealing. He always had this...this edge to him that prevented things from being comfortable. Which is a shame, because mock anger aside, you're quite enjoying yourself. He doesn't seem to take himself nearly as seriously as he at first did. It makes him so much easier to speak to.

    But, as always, your hyperactive brain comes up with something to spoil the moment, and, of course, you're too curious a soul to just let it lay unexplored. You close your eyes and sigh.

    Jaffur notices. "Scion?"

    "Jaffur, what happened that night?" you ask, hating yourself for killing the moment.

    Jaffur goes rigid. The easy openness that not even Jaron ever shows is gone. His face is slate-smooth and hard in a heartbeat, and every line in his body is tense. "What night?" he asks. You can't help but notice and catalog that even his anger has changed from how it used to be -- less tight and boiling just under the surface, more smooth and detached fury encased in cold water.

    Focus, Kakara.

    You look him in the eye. "I heard your mom talking to my parents, the night before the Sealing. She was telling them her plans."

    "And you let it happen?"

    Ah, there's the old fury. You hold up your hands. "I had to pretend to be asleep, My Dad came up, and..." You flush in embarrassment. "Look, when you're eight it's hard to stay awake when you're that tired and your Dad is giving you a head rub, okay?!"

    He folds his arms, glowering. "Would've kept me up." He doesn't continue the argument, though; he's obviously aware of the differences at play. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. The rage goes back underwater, and he opens his eyes. "Go on."

    You shake yourself. "Your mom told my parents that she Sealed your dad when he was asleep, and that when she told you about her, you freaked out and tried to kill her." You look him in the eye. "Why did you do that?"

    A series of tiny, almost unnoticeable microexpressions flicker across Jaffur's face before smoothing away. "I...don't remember that happening," he says. "Why would I try to kill her? Then, I mean, sure, now I- but then, then I couldn't- how could she say that, I would never-!"

    You slide down off the rock and take a half-step forward, arms, raised. "Jaffur, Jaffur!"

    He swallows his next words and takes a few unsteady breaths, looking away. He doesn't look back at you, but after a moment he takes a shaky lungful of air and says in a flat tone, "Maybe she wiped my memory. That would explain why I don't remember it."

    You grimace. "She did say that she did that."

    "There you go," he says, dipping his head. You can't see his face behind all the hair. "Guess I did it, then."

    You open your mouth, unsure of what to say.

    Before you can, though, he pushes off of his own rock and starts pacing, renewed and frantic energy suffusing him. "No. No, it doesn't have to mean that. She could be lying. She could be wrong. I might have attacked her without wanting to kill her. I could have just tried to leave. That'd probably set her off. I could have-"

    flash

    Your head snaps over as the feeling of Jaron's ki erupts onto your senses in time with a massive explosion from somewhere out in the distance. A moment later, the sound of an anguished and enraged scream echoes over to you on the heels of a rolling shockwave.

    Jaffur halts in place and sighs. "Well, Jaron made it over."

    "...is he like this every night?" you ask, wide-eyed at the sheer enormity of the rage and hurt you feel from Jaron's presence.

    Jaffur gives you a flat look. "Imagine that every night you wake up, suddenly remembering everything that's happened to him and me. Every night it's fresh again. Every night there's more. Every night you can remember spending the last night furious because of what you've remembered, determined to hold onto something, anything, once you wake up, only to lose it all." He lifts off and starts flying in his brother's direction.

    You follow. "Is he okay?"

    Jaffur snorts. "Would you be?" He sighs. "This is why I have to get out. I need to be free before something happens to make him remember while he's awake."

    "...why?" you ask.

    He glances at you. "Because I need to protect her from him."

    You gape. "What?!"

    He looks away. "She's still my mother. I'm just going to kill her." The two of you approach the dust cloud as it begins to dissipate, Jaron standing sheathed in white at the center. "There are no words for what Jaron wants to do to her."


    Vote all that you wish, the top three win.

    [ ] ...Jaffur? Explain?
    [ ] Chat (may be chosen multiple times; choose once per subject; no sub-vote spam).
    [ ] Hug Jaffur. You've hit him with a lot.
    [ ] Hug Jaron. Maybe it'll help him cool down and have a not-terrible night.
    [ ] Try to talk to Jaron to cool him down. Jaffur could probably use a break from it, and the shock of seeing you might snap Jaron out of it for long enough to cut the trend.
    [ ] Write-In.
    [-] Any variant of, "No Hug." It lost, folks.

    THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

    Jaffur does not have a monopoly on being angry in this family. :lol

    Chatting proceeds apace. As a general note, this is something Kakara is starting to pick up on, but I had a tough time fitting into the text: your primary limiting factor on how long you can spend here is going to be the boys' social endurance. Jaron is an extreme introvert, he's in a blinding fury, and you and Jaffur have already covered a couple of very unpleasant topics. If Jaffur is anything like his brother, he's probably quite reclusive as well. Eventually they're just going to wear out, and Kakara will start thinking more of ways to make a graceful exit than of ways to maximize her productivity per second while in this mindspace.

    This is a feed straight from Kakara's social perceptiveness, so you may trust it to be accurate, given that it is not in relation to people having obvious crushes on her. :rofl:

    Have fun, everybody!

    PER THE USUAL, TWO-HOUR MORATORIUM BEFORE THE DISCUSSION OPENS​
     
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    • Okay BOTH of these poor kids need Hugs now.

    Also wow. Dandaleer you didn't just Fuck Up. You fucked Every Direction in 4 Dimensions.

    Poor, Poor Jaron. You've got to feel for the kid.
     
    So after the sealing undone, will Jaron and Jaffur meld, or will we have to make a separate body for Jaron, will there be multiple personalities in one body, what happens?
     
    I think that we need to tell Dad. There is no way he will continue to support this if we tell him.
     
    @PoptartProdigy If the option [] UNLIMITED HUG WORKS won, how would you interpret that? Since we now have both Jaron and Jaffur here lots of hugs is sounding more appealing and a single vote to hug both would probably work better than one for each. Probably.
     
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    ShadowAngelBeta said:
    ... So, if Jaron gets free we kill Dandoleer to spare both of them going through with what Jaron's likely to inflict on her, right?
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    Uh, you mean Jaffur's mother Dandeer, not our friendly Senzu sorceror Dandelor, right? I think that 'mercy-kill,' if it proves necessary, would be Jaffur's job.

    Kakara is, realistically, likely to try to prevent this killing. The Protector trait is a thing, and while its advantage is more openness to use of force to defend others, the disadvantage is that she cares about ALL others, not just the ones she likes.

    BurningSaiyan said:
    So after the sealing undone, will Jaron and Jaffur meld, or will we have to make a separate body for Jaron, will there be multiple personalities in one body, what happens?
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    Jaffur put tremendous effort into making sure we know NOT to just 'merge' Jaron and Jaffur, and that they're separate people. If we didn't care about keeping Jaron alive and separate from Jaffur, we oculd probably have resolved this whole thing a long time ago by some method like grabbing Jaron, using Instant Transmission to kidnap him, and pumping him so stupidly full of ki that the Masque explodes.

    It looks like we're going to need a separate body for Jaron, but it also looks as though Dandelor is reasonably confident of being able to accomplish this, if we can do the other things we need in order to carry out our Seal-breaking plan.
     
    Simon_Jester said:
    Uh, you mean Jaffur's mother Dandeer, not our friendly Senzu sorceror Dandelor, right? I think that 'mercy-kill,' if it proves necessary, would be Jaffur's job.

    Kakara is, realistically, likely to try to prevent this killing. The Protector trait is a thing, and while its advantage is more openness to use of force to defend others, the disadvantage is that she cares about ALL others, not just the ones she likes.
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    And if Jaffar isn't out yet? Which was my point.
     
    I think in that case we leverage our power advantage to somehow prevent Dandeer from being immediately torn to shreds (or whatever Jaron has in mind). And we would have a power advantage, because Jaffur agrees with us about this part and wouldn't be funneling extra power to Jaron.

    ...

    Hm. Some really big revelations and surprises in this last update.

    One is the anticlimactic one that, contrary to my hopes, Jaffur doesn't remember anything about the night of the Sealing. A Mind Delve or magical scan might get some useful information out of his mind this way, but we lack the means to even attempt that. That said, we had to try, and at least we have informal confirmation that Jaffur wouldn't actually have attacked Dandeer with intent to kill back then- the idea of having done so makes him distraught even now. This may inform our own decisions and evaluation of Jaffur, if nothing else.

    Another is that the situation involving Jaron and the Seal is a lot worse than we thought. Jaron himself has a split personality/memory on top of the divide between Jaron and Jaffur. As @fictionfan pointed out, it is fairly likely that Berra would stop supporting the Sealing if he knew this. At the very least it would force him to seriously reconsider, and force him to have doubts on the issue.*

    And yet a third is, as noted, the complicating variable that both the Jaffur and Jaron personalities have accumulated enough anger against Dandeer to want her dead, even if Jaron's memories of this anger is being forcibly suppressed. This could easily make things a lot worse, very very fast. It's a major complicating variable.
    __________________

    *[Note that if we have opposed checks against Berra directly regarding the Sealing, it is definitely good to make sure he doesn't have moral certitude that he's right and we're wrong. Dad gets explicit mechanical bonuses when he has such certitude; "Ally to Good, Nightmare to You" is one of his foundational traits.]
     
    Well Jaffur is going to master Golden Ape well he is in here which is a bit of a problem because it seems like we are going to want to be able to hold him down when the seal breaks.
     
    Put this way.

    We want to restrain Jaffur from getting to Dandeer, he's gonna kill her unless we can pull off some very impressive persuasion.

    We need to restrain Jaron, because what he wants to do involves such a horrible fate that even Jaffur's uncomfortable with it.

    It sounds like Jaffur might be willing to at least seriously discuss the idea of not killing Dandeer. Maybe. Probably not in this session of contact, but maybe another time.

    Jaron? Yeah, not when he's like this.
     
    @PoptartProdigy do we need to have wait until next year and take an action if we want to talk to Dad? Right now I just really want to tell him that we just had a vision about how the sealing really works.
     
    BurningSaiyan said:
    So after the sealing undone, will Jaron and Jaffur meld, or will we have to make a separate body for Jaron, will there be multiple personalities in one body, what happens?
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    You're not sure how that will natively resolve.
    Blonddude42 said:
    @PoptartProdigy If the option [] UNLIMITED HUG WORKS won, how would you interpret that? Since we now have both Jaron and Jaffur here lots of hugs is sounding more appealing and a single vote to hug both would probably work better than one for each. Probably.
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    Group hug! May include tackles!
    fictionfan said:
    @PoptartProdigy do we need to have wait until next year and take an action if we want to talk to Dad? Right now I just really want to tell him that we just had a vision about how the sealing really works.
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    ...let me think on it.
     
    Well, this makes things simple.

    We ask both their permissions to just kill her. Then we kill her. Then, when the only authority figure who might have a problem with that asks why, we let him mind-delve everything and get heroic BSOD before asking if he really, really wants to make a big public thing out of this.

    Alternatively, for the softies, we fake her death. At this point there is no good ending for her. Secret, possibly mindwiped exile means that she at least gets to keep breathing. She might even volunteer if we share everything from this with Grandma, Yammar, and Berra before unitedly confronting her with a multimedia projection of just how screwed she is. It's not like she has any reason to stick around. She's already a total pariah, and there's no way she keeping any part of her family.

    We're going to have to make sure that Jaffur gets to full power before Vegeta gets released though. We might not be able to swing keeping him sealed, but if Jaffur can at least face him on even terms the worst parts will be avoided. He was an effective lord, family issues aside.
     
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    PoptartProdigy said:
    Jaffur gives your a flat look. "Imagine that every night you wake up, suddenly remembering everything that's happened to him and me. Every night it's fresh again. Every night there's more. Every night you can remember spending the last night furious because of what you've remembered, determined to hold onto something, anything, once you wake up, only to lose it all." He lifts off and starts flying in his brother's direction.
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    ...Okay, we have to figure out if this is happening with Valentine/Vegeta. Because if it is, we have all the evidence we need to officially nail her to the fucking wall, without Berra stopping us.
     
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