Oh god, here we go again. This time with friendly support to keep me going.
From the Cradle (DBZ/Xianxia FI Featuring Pencrash)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
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Chapter 1
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
He awakens to a blinding light shining through his closed eyelids. He opens his eyes to find the source of this annoyance. It's coming from a lantern swaying slightly from the ceiling. Looks to be oil fed.
Wait, is the world bigger? Or is it just him? It's probably just him, right? It would be pretty crazy if the world had grown, heh...
Well, the world has grown. He's having a hard time processing it, honestly.
He's also in a cradle, which is pretty fucking weird. If he does say so himself. And he would, if he could. Which he can't, because his tongue feels really big. Too big for his mouth by far.
The room is rocking a little bit, a canvas ceiling suggesting that it's not a traditional western house. Perhaps a yurt of some sort?
Inside the room there are several stacked boxes, filled with what he cannot tell. There are also some books scattered about, the names of which he cannot read from where he rests.
…
...It seems that he also has a tail. Damn, new wacky things just keep happening, don't they? It's a monkey tail, covered in brown fur and is as long as you are tall.
Looking around the room, he spots a woman slumped in a chair, fast asleep. She is dressed in a simple shirt and pants with a set of armor piled next to the chair. She has long, spikey black hair and a brown monkey's tail, just like him.
She's also really big...
It's at this moment he realizes that he's been de-aged to that of a baby. Great.
~~~~~~~
He decides to experiment with his tail a bit.
He twists and curls his new appendage in the air and grabs onto the cradle's guardrail. He discovers that his tail can lift himself quite easily. His tail seems to be as dexterous as his old hands, if not more so!
At least he has something going for him.
Grabbing onto the guardrail causes the tiniest of creaking noises, which stirs the woman slightly.
After waiting a bit, the woman returns to her slumber, her chest rising and falling in a set pattern.
After experimenting with his tail, he turns his attention to the strange feeling in his body. The sensation is as if there was some strange inner heat permeating through his body but not actually heating him. It's feels quite weird, but also highly comforting, like a comforter fresh out of the dryer.
He decides to experiment with this energy inside his body.
It's quite difficult to move the energy in certain directions, moving too far causes a brief jolt of pain. But there are a few directions that moving the energy in is actually incredibly easy. Directions like the eyes, mouth, hands, fingers, feet, and tail. The closer to the skin's surface the energy gets, the brighter a glow appears. He is a bit hesitant to bring it out of his body, though.
He freezes, for fear of waking the woman.
After a minute of waiting for a reaction, thoughts of the woman waking up and finding him running through his head, he relaxes, as the woman didn't react.
~~~~~~
It's time to figure out how sneaky he can be in a baby's body.
He pulls himself up and onto the guardrail using his tail. Tails are pretty damn useful, apparently, as he is using it to balance on top of the guardrail.
He examines the door. Well, it's not so much a door as a loosely tied set of canvas flaps holding the outdoors back.
He decides that it's best to figure out where he is before making any long-term decisions.
How's he going to do that, you ask?
He's got no goddamn idea.
But first things first, escaping.
The floor looks pretty far, it doesn't look like his tail is long enough to reach the floor. Hmm...
Inside the crib are several blankets and pillows. He picks up the fluffiest pillow he can find and tosses it to the floor. He feels irrationally proud of this accomplishment.
Next step!
He lowers himself as far as he can using his monkey tail and then drops 7-8 inches onto the pillow.
He once again feels irrationally proud of himself.
It's at this time he notices the hair on his head. It's black and spikey, much like the woman in the chair's hair. But unlike the woman in the chair, he has two hair spikes framing his face.
Time to sneaky ninja baby his way over to the door.
He crawls to the flaps, cursing his weak baby legs all the way.
He'll allow nothing to stop him, not even baby legs!
But before he can make it to the flap, a womanly voice calls out from behind him.
"Hawthorn, what the fuck are you doing"
He decides to crawl faster.
"Get back here you little shit"
Before he can make it another foot, he's scooped up into the arms of the woman.
Dammit! He's been stopped!
The woman only laughs at his pout and tickles his chin.
No! His only weakness! Chin-tickles!
"Using the pillow is a pretty smart thing to do, but how did you... Godsdammit, Quickthorn and both of our golden fucking hair"
She places Hawthorn back into his crib and sticks her head out of the flap and hollers for this 'Quickthorn'.
"QUICKTHORN! GET YOUR PERFECTLY MOLDED ASS OVER HERE! OUR SON'S SHOWING SIGNS OF INTELLEGINCE! Not that he got that from you" She mutters that last bit under her breath, Hawthorn's ears just barely catching it.
The man named Quickthorn, Hawthorn's father, he suposses, bursts into the what you guess is the cart you're in.
He has black spikey hair with two hair-spikes framing his face, much like Hawthorn's own. He has his tail wrapped around his waist, like some furry belt. He's wearing armor as well.
He's also ripped.
Shredded.
Gains for days.
The woman Hawthorn assumes to be his mother is also jacked, now that he thinks about it. Looking at his own body, he finds that he's also jacked, well, jacked for a baby.
Quickthorn tilts his head at the woman in a quationing manner.
"Signs of intelligence? Rose-hip, have you been... hitting the leaf again?"
Rose-hip rolls her eyes. "Hawthorn tossed a pillow to the ground to break his fall. And while that's impressive, that's not all. I felt him messing with his ki earlier"
"So?"
"He's 18 months"
"Oh, that's impressive, right" He doesn't sound very impressed.
Hawthorn decides it's time to make his bid for intelligence by messing this 'ki' thing. He starts moving his ki towards his tail.
As he moves his ki to his tail, his apparent parents both pause and turn towards him.
"See?" Rose-hip gestures at him. "He can recognize words! Or at the very least can recognize the word 'ki'"
Both parents turn to each other with sparkles in their eyes.
"He's gonna be so strong!" They say in unison, clasping their hands together and jumping up and down in happiness, causing the cart to shake violently.
A southern sounding voice admonishes them "Keep it down in there! Make another kid in your own damn time"
Hawthorn sighs to himself, accidently letting the ki go. The ki blast shoots past the parents and through the canvas wall, burning a small hole in it.
He hears a mutter about 'overeager Saiyans and their mating habits'.
He decides to try again, but fails as his meager ki reserves are, well, miniscule.
The last thing he sees before falling unconscious is his parents looming over the cradle, grinning ear to ear.
His last thoughts before entering Morpheus' embrace were tinged by hints of fear.
His dreams are of war and conflict, but also of home and happiness.
~~~~~~~
AN: Boom, new thing, ADHD fucking sucks. But I decided that it would be fun to toss my buddy (and beta) @Pencrash (of course, he doesn't have and SV account, I don't think) into a dbz/xianxia world of my 'own' creation. By which I mean I'm just stealing the cultivation system of Ave Xia Rem Y
Wait, is the world bigger? Or is it just him? It's probably just him, right? It would be pretty crazy if the world had grown, heh...
Well, the world has grown. He's having a hard time processing it, honestly.
He's also in a cradle, which is pretty fucking weird. If he does say so himself. And he would, if he could. Which he can't, because his tongue feels really big. Too big for his mouth by far.
The room is rocking a little bit, a canvas ceiling suggesting that it's not a traditional western house. Perhaps a yurt of some sort?
Inside the room there are several stacked boxes, filled with what he cannot tell. There are also some books scattered about, the names of which he cannot read from where he rests.
…
...It seems that he also has a tail. Damn, new wacky things just keep happening, don't they? It's a monkey tail, covered in brown fur and is as long as you are tall.
Looking around the room, he spots a woman slumped in a chair, fast asleep. She is dressed in a simple shirt and pants with a set of armor piled next to the chair. She has long, spikey black hair and a brown monkey's tail, just like him.
She's also really big...
It's at this moment he realizes that he's been de-aged to that of a baby. Great.
~~~~~~~
He decides to experiment with his tail a bit.
He twists and curls his new appendage in the air and grabs onto the cradle's guardrail. He discovers that his tail can lift himself quite easily. His tail seems to be as dexterous as his old hands, if not more so!
At least he has something going for him.
Grabbing onto the guardrail causes the tiniest of creaking noises, which stirs the woman slightly.
After waiting a bit, the woman returns to her slumber, her chest rising and falling in a set pattern.
After experimenting with his tail, he turns his attention to the strange feeling in his body. The sensation is as if there was some strange inner heat permeating through his body but not actually heating him. It's feels quite weird, but also highly comforting, like a comforter fresh out of the dryer.
He decides to experiment with this energy inside his body.
It's quite difficult to move the energy in certain directions, moving too far causes a brief jolt of pain. But there are a few directions that moving the energy in is actually incredibly easy. Directions like the eyes, mouth, hands, fingers, feet, and tail. The closer to the skin's surface the energy gets, the brighter a glow appears. He is a bit hesitant to bring it out of his body, though.
He freezes, for fear of waking the woman.
After a minute of waiting for a reaction, thoughts of the woman waking up and finding him running through his head, he relaxes, as the woman didn't react.
~~~~~~
It's time to figure out how sneaky he can be in a baby's body.
He pulls himself up and onto the guardrail using his tail. Tails are pretty damn useful, apparently, as he is using it to balance on top of the guardrail.
He examines the door. Well, it's not so much a door as a loosely tied set of canvas flaps holding the outdoors back.
He decides that it's best to figure out where he is before making any long-term decisions.
How's he going to do that, you ask?
He's got no goddamn idea.
But first things first, escaping.
The floor looks pretty far, it doesn't look like his tail is long enough to reach the floor. Hmm...
Inside the crib are several blankets and pillows. He picks up the fluffiest pillow he can find and tosses it to the floor. He feels irrationally proud of this accomplishment.
Next step!
He lowers himself as far as he can using his monkey tail and then drops 7-8 inches onto the pillow.
He once again feels irrationally proud of himself.
It's at this time he notices the hair on his head. It's black and spikey, much like the woman in the chair's hair. But unlike the woman in the chair, he has two hair spikes framing his face.
Time to sneaky ninja baby his way over to the door.
He crawls to the flaps, cursing his weak baby legs all the way.
He'll allow nothing to stop him, not even baby legs!
But before he can make it to the flap, a womanly voice calls out from behind him.
"Hawthorn, what the fuck are you doing"
He decides to crawl faster.
"Get back here you little shit"
Before he can make it another foot, he's scooped up into the arms of the woman.
Dammit! He's been stopped!
The woman only laughs at his pout and tickles his chin.
No! His only weakness! Chin-tickles!
"Using the pillow is a pretty smart thing to do, but how did you... Godsdammit, Quickthorn and both of our golden fucking hair"
She places Hawthorn back into his crib and sticks her head out of the flap and hollers for this 'Quickthorn'.
"QUICKTHORN! GET YOUR PERFECTLY MOLDED ASS OVER HERE! OUR SON'S SHOWING SIGNS OF INTELLEGINCE! Not that he got that from you" She mutters that last bit under her breath, Hawthorn's ears just barely catching it.
The man named Quickthorn, Hawthorn's father, he suposses, bursts into the what you guess is the cart you're in.
He has black spikey hair with two hair-spikes framing his face, much like Hawthorn's own. He has his tail wrapped around his waist, like some furry belt. He's wearing armor as well.
He's also ripped.
Shredded.
Gains for days.
The woman Hawthorn assumes to be his mother is also jacked, now that he thinks about it. Looking at his own body, he finds that he's also jacked, well, jacked for a baby.
Quickthorn tilts his head at the woman in a quationing manner.
"Signs of intelligence? Rose-hip, have you been... hitting the leaf again?"
Rose-hip rolls her eyes. "Hawthorn tossed a pillow to the ground to break his fall. And while that's impressive, that's not all. I felt him messing with his ki earlier"
"So?"
"He's 18 months"
"Oh, that's impressive, right" He doesn't sound very impressed.
Hawthorn decides it's time to make his bid for intelligence by messing this 'ki' thing. He starts moving his ki towards his tail.
As he moves his ki to his tail, his apparent parents both pause and turn towards him.
"See?" Rose-hip gestures at him. "He can recognize words! Or at the very least can recognize the word 'ki'"
Both parents turn to each other with sparkles in their eyes.
"He's gonna be so strong!" They say in unison, clasping their hands together and jumping up and down in happiness, causing the cart to shake violently.
A southern sounding voice admonishes them "Keep it down in there! Make another kid in your own damn time"
Hawthorn sighs to himself, accidently letting the ki go. The ki blast shoots past the parents and through the canvas wall, burning a small hole in it.
He hears a mutter about 'overeager Saiyans and their mating habits'.
He decides to try again, but fails as his meager ki reserves are, well, miniscule.
The last thing he sees before falling unconscious is his parents looming over the cradle, grinning ear to ear.
His last thoughts before entering Morpheus' embrace were tinged by hints of fear.
His dreams are of war and conflict, but also of home and happiness.
~~~~~~~
AN: Boom, new thing, ADHD fucking sucks. But I decided that it would be fun to toss my buddy (and beta) @Pencrash (of course, he doesn't have and SV account, I don't think) into a dbz/xianxia world of my 'own' creation. By which I mean I'm just stealing the cultivation system of Ave Xia Rem Y
Chapter 2
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Hawthorn awakens to the warm feeling of sunlight on his skin.
That was a weird dream, he thinks to himself, but the sharp smell of nature around him quickly disproves that hypothesis. The smell is a strange one, but not in a bad way. Just, more intense than he had previously experienced. It's like the smell of a freshly mown lawn or of soil after it rains, but on steroids. It's a pleasant scent.
The small well of energy, Ki, he reminds himself, has increased by about half. He reckons that it might be enough for one and a half shots. Maybe more, maybe less, he's not exactly the foremost expert on Ki.
He opens his eyes and, well, he's not in a cradle anymore. He is being held in the woman's arms, Rose-hip, his mother-apparent. Ironically, he's probably more restrained here than he was in the baby cage.
With his newly opened eyes, Hawthorn examines his surroundings.
He is in the middle of a campsite surrounded be trees. The camp is being broken down and packed away as it is the morning, and, judging by the piles of dirty plates, it's after breakfast.
Milling about the camp are about a half dozen of the tailed people, Saiyans, he presumes. There are also several dozens of non-tailed people working, probably Humans.
Hawthorn, upon reaffirming that, yes, he is a baby, decides to cry for no reason just to be a nuisance because of his sour mood.
His mother's head snaps towards him in a display of great speed, she looks like she's missed a few nights of sleep.
"Hawthorn. Stop. Crying." A grey aura shimmers into existence behind her, punctuating her words.
He stops immediately.
Okay, okay, geez, he thinks to himself. He'll just take a nap or something. God, he savors the day he can properly express his sass.
Rose-hip's expression softens at Hawthorn's pout and she lets her aura fizzle off harmlessly.
As he closes his eyes, he spots his father...
Landing!?
How the hell!? What the...
He... He just flew down and landed in front of them.
Now, Hawthorn thinks to himself, he knows that he didn't have a tail a day ago, but as far as he's aware, that isn't how gravity works.
And yet, apparently, it is.
Rose-hip approaches him, carrying Hawthorn along with.
"Anymore Spirit-Beasts? I don't know how many more we can take before we start losing family members" She asks with a slight edge of worry in her voice.
Now that she mentions it, the camp does look rather ragged and on edge.
There's a male Saiyan nursing a bottle while resting a broken leg. An elderly Saiyan woman tends to him, her hands aglow with green light tinged with hints of grey.
He shakes his head. "No, none nearby. There was a particularly large one about 20 miles to the east, though"
A human walks up to Hawthorn's father with a nervous expression on his weasel-like face, his hands clasped before him.
"Have you seen any Spirit-Beasts?" He asks in a rather nasally voice. Hawthorn wonders at how he didn't hear the answer, he wasn't that far away.
Must be a human thing.
"Just one. Far away though" Hawthorn's father answers tiredly. Hawthorn can tell that he doesn't want to answer the same question again. Or maybe he just doesn't like this person. Hawthorn can't really tell.
The weaselly man nods once and scurries off. "Well, you get back to... Whatever Saiyans do, pick bugs out of each other's hair or whatever"
Rose-hip's right eye twitches and the hand not holding Hawthorn tightens into a fist.
"Oh, how I miss the days when we could just kill racist fucks like that"
"Yeah, but we need the money"
She sighs. "Yeah, yeah we do. Doesn't mean I can't fantasize though!"
Hawthorn, the former plan of napping forgotten, decides that it's time to experiment with Ki again. This time with using Ki in his hands, specifically in his left hand. He hopes it isn't as 'destructive'.
As he gathers his Ki, he notices that he can sense the Ki in others.
His parents feel like mountains of Ki and the other Saiyans aren't too far behind.
But what really surprises him is the strength, or the lack of it in this case, of the humans. If he were to describe his Ki as half a shot glass, the humans would be around a plastic water bottle in strength.
His parents, of course, immediately notice when he starts gathering his Ki. Rose-hip is quick to react and shuts down the flow of Ki, releasing it harmlessly into the environment. Hawthorn feels tired from the lack of Ki, but is otherwise shocked that that's a thing that can happen!
"Now, now, Hawthorn" She wags her finger in his face, his eyes follow with his brows furrowed. "We don't want the humans to see you doing that, cause then word will eventually reach a Sect, and we don't need your father, or myself, to be killing any more Sect Elders"
Okay, he may be a little shit, but he doesn't want anyone to end up dead.
"Later, Hawthorn, your dad and I are gonna teach you about the clan and a few other things that you might need to know. Seeing as you might actually understand it" His mother informs him.
Hawthorn gives a baby thumbs up. He may have a tubby baby body, but he still has hands!
She snorts, "How does he... Ah never mind"
~~~~~~~
Later, Rose-hip brings him back to the cart, which is now all set up and ready to go, along with everyone else's.
She sets him down on a crate and drags another one around.
"We, you, your father, and me, are members of the Grey Saiyan Clan, we specialize in Ki control. Everyone outside with a tail is also a Grey Saiyan along with our immediate family. For mercenary families like ours, the oldest and strongest warrior is the head of the family, most of the time. Sometimes a new head is chosen after an act worthy of great praise. Or someone is proven to be a better head than the current one. Your father is the leader of this family after an incident with a Frost Demon several years before you were born and a few years after I married in"
She sighs, "It-it wasn't a good time. When your Grandfather and most of his sons died. But we pulled through"
She shakes her head and starts up again, "There are other Saiyan Clans, like the Purple and Blue. We don't particularly get along very well with those two, on account of arguing about which of their innate skills are the best. The Blues with their ungodly Ki reserves and the Purple with their highly destructive and potent Ki and us with our precise Ki control"
She goes on over many topics, like when he'll start his Ki Training at 4 years. And when he should be able to talk, which is around 3-4 years of age. And the strange, to him, growth spurts of the Saiyans.
~~~~~~~
AN: There we go, next chapter done. Exposition dropped and my annoyance at formatting increases. Felt a bit off about this one, but oh well.
That was a weird dream, he thinks to himself, but the sharp smell of nature around him quickly disproves that hypothesis. The smell is a strange one, but not in a bad way. Just, more intense than he had previously experienced. It's like the smell of a freshly mown lawn or of soil after it rains, but on steroids. It's a pleasant scent.
The small well of energy, Ki, he reminds himself, has increased by about half. He reckons that it might be enough for one and a half shots. Maybe more, maybe less, he's not exactly the foremost expert on Ki.
He opens his eyes and, well, he's not in a cradle anymore. He is being held in the woman's arms, Rose-hip, his mother-apparent. Ironically, he's probably more restrained here than he was in the baby cage.
With his newly opened eyes, Hawthorn examines his surroundings.
He is in the middle of a campsite surrounded be trees. The camp is being broken down and packed away as it is the morning, and, judging by the piles of dirty plates, it's after breakfast.
Milling about the camp are about a half dozen of the tailed people, Saiyans, he presumes. There are also several dozens of non-tailed people working, probably Humans.
Hawthorn, upon reaffirming that, yes, he is a baby, decides to cry for no reason just to be a nuisance because of his sour mood.
His mother's head snaps towards him in a display of great speed, she looks like she's missed a few nights of sleep.
"Hawthorn. Stop. Crying." A grey aura shimmers into existence behind her, punctuating her words.
He stops immediately.
Okay, okay, geez, he thinks to himself. He'll just take a nap or something. God, he savors the day he can properly express his sass.
Rose-hip's expression softens at Hawthorn's pout and she lets her aura fizzle off harmlessly.
As he closes his eyes, he spots his father...
Landing!?
How the hell!? What the...
He... He just flew down and landed in front of them.
Now, Hawthorn thinks to himself, he knows that he didn't have a tail a day ago, but as far as he's aware, that isn't how gravity works.
And yet, apparently, it is.
Rose-hip approaches him, carrying Hawthorn along with.
"Anymore Spirit-Beasts? I don't know how many more we can take before we start losing family members" She asks with a slight edge of worry in her voice.
Now that she mentions it, the camp does look rather ragged and on edge.
There's a male Saiyan nursing a bottle while resting a broken leg. An elderly Saiyan woman tends to him, her hands aglow with green light tinged with hints of grey.
He shakes his head. "No, none nearby. There was a particularly large one about 20 miles to the east, though"
A human walks up to Hawthorn's father with a nervous expression on his weasel-like face, his hands clasped before him.
"Have you seen any Spirit-Beasts?" He asks in a rather nasally voice. Hawthorn wonders at how he didn't hear the answer, he wasn't that far away.
Must be a human thing.
"Just one. Far away though" Hawthorn's father answers tiredly. Hawthorn can tell that he doesn't want to answer the same question again. Or maybe he just doesn't like this person. Hawthorn can't really tell.
The weaselly man nods once and scurries off. "Well, you get back to... Whatever Saiyans do, pick bugs out of each other's hair or whatever"
Rose-hip's right eye twitches and the hand not holding Hawthorn tightens into a fist.
"Oh, how I miss the days when we could just kill racist fucks like that"
"Yeah, but we need the money"
She sighs. "Yeah, yeah we do. Doesn't mean I can't fantasize though!"
Hawthorn, the former plan of napping forgotten, decides that it's time to experiment with Ki again. This time with using Ki in his hands, specifically in his left hand. He hopes it isn't as 'destructive'.
As he gathers his Ki, he notices that he can sense the Ki in others.
His parents feel like mountains of Ki and the other Saiyans aren't too far behind.
But what really surprises him is the strength, or the lack of it in this case, of the humans. If he were to describe his Ki as half a shot glass, the humans would be around a plastic water bottle in strength.
His parents, of course, immediately notice when he starts gathering his Ki. Rose-hip is quick to react and shuts down the flow of Ki, releasing it harmlessly into the environment. Hawthorn feels tired from the lack of Ki, but is otherwise shocked that that's a thing that can happen!
"Now, now, Hawthorn" She wags her finger in his face, his eyes follow with his brows furrowed. "We don't want the humans to see you doing that, cause then word will eventually reach a Sect, and we don't need your father, or myself, to be killing any more Sect Elders"
Okay, he may be a little shit, but he doesn't want anyone to end up dead.
"Later, Hawthorn, your dad and I are gonna teach you about the clan and a few other things that you might need to know. Seeing as you might actually understand it" His mother informs him.
Hawthorn gives a baby thumbs up. He may have a tubby baby body, but he still has hands!
She snorts, "How does he... Ah never mind"
~~~~~~~
Later, Rose-hip brings him back to the cart, which is now all set up and ready to go, along with everyone else's.
She sets him down on a crate and drags another one around.
"We, you, your father, and me, are members of the Grey Saiyan Clan, we specialize in Ki control. Everyone outside with a tail is also a Grey Saiyan along with our immediate family. For mercenary families like ours, the oldest and strongest warrior is the head of the family, most of the time. Sometimes a new head is chosen after an act worthy of great praise. Or someone is proven to be a better head than the current one. Your father is the leader of this family after an incident with a Frost Demon several years before you were born and a few years after I married in"
She sighs, "It-it wasn't a good time. When your Grandfather and most of his sons died. But we pulled through"
She shakes her head and starts up again, "There are other Saiyan Clans, like the Purple and Blue. We don't particularly get along very well with those two, on account of arguing about which of their innate skills are the best. The Blues with their ungodly Ki reserves and the Purple with their highly destructive and potent Ki and us with our precise Ki control"
She goes on over many topics, like when he'll start his Ki Training at 4 years. And when he should be able to talk, which is around 3-4 years of age. And the strange, to him, growth spurts of the Saiyans.
~~~~~~~
AN: There we go, next chapter done. Exposition dropped and my annoyance at formatting increases. Felt a bit off about this one, but oh well.