After Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Toriyama really expects me to believe Pan is closer to Goku than she is to Granpa Piccolo?

Thanks for Saiyan......

Man, it's been one heck of a ride with this series, and i have to say the very last episode of dragon Ball super

was amazing. Which was kinda funny to because after i first watch this show back in 2015, i didn't find this show much interest to me at first during my time in freshman high school when i was surfing tv channels at home. Then during that year my friend introduced me to this show and said i should watch this show, because it's really good. At first i was being skeptical because i didn't know if i'll like the show or not. so i gave it a try when i have the time. Sometime during that year(or late 2010 or early-ish 2011) My dog sadly passed away that i have her since i was a little kid and that sent me into an deep depression. So i watch season 1 and episodes 2 at that time to clear my sadness and i was totally hooked on this show. Especially when i first lay my eyes on my favorite character: Goku

And after that, I've been watching dragon Ball super. ever since then through high school and all. Now i'm 24 and it's be quite the fun journey and how this show have impact on so many people who came out of their shells(me included) to make new friends and have inspiration of making music, animation videos and making people happy and joy across the world and i'm pretty sure you all also, have been through this crazy fun ride as well.

That all being said, i'm really going to miss this show a lot. Dragon Ball taught

me great lessons of being more outgoing, confidence and mostly kindness to people, like Gohan and piccolo i can relate to, who i'm REALLY going to miss her the most(and the other cast too). So happy 31 anniversary of dragon Ball. and thank you Akira Toriyama

for bring these wonderful characters and series into our lives.I'll never forget them.;)

GoChi Week 2020: Day Five: Birthday Suit

Snippets in Time:

 Birthday Suit

  ChiChi stared at her image in the mirror. Staring back was the figure of a woman many would admire. The body staring at her was very fit. Her breasts were high and a nice size; her hips were fit but curvy. The arms and legs were tone and femininely muscled. The stomach was very admirable. This body birth two very strong children and yet one would think she never had kids with how cut and defined her stomach is. She worked hard on this. Two kids never stopped her from exercising. In fact, her kids encouraged her to keep fit. She had two very active physical babies that motivated her in her continuance of martial arts.

 Despite what Goku friends thought, ChiChi never gave up martial arts for the life of a wife and mother. She continued through her marriage with Goku as her partner. She did become less active after Gohan’s birth and used it more as a form of exercise to keep in shape than get stronger. It was the absence of Gohan and Goku for a year that ChiChi really dedicated herself to martial arts again. She found a good balance after Gohan was back from his time on Namek and Goku a year later when he returned from space. She had even more training alone when Goku, Piccolo and Gohan trained together for three years. She didn’t have Goku as her sparring partner anymore, but she never forgot the lessons he taught her.

 ChiChi applied it to herself and Goten. With Goten, she was very grateful she kept with her training otherwise she never would’ve been in shape to train him especially after he became a Super Saiyan. ChiChi was very proud of her looks. She never felt the need to flaunt her appearance with heavy makeup, tight or revealing clothes. She knew how she looked and knew she didn’t need adulation from others.

 But as great she looked physically all ChiChi could see now were small imperfections. A few stretch marks here, a scar there, a wrinkle that wasn’t there when her husband was alive. Her husband was the reason why she stared at her imperfections. When she learned Goku will return for a day, ChiChi was excited but later concerned. She aged while he hasn’t. ChiChi pushed those insecurities aside because Goku was only going to be back for a day. He would be too excited to be back to notice anything. Now that Goku had been brought to life for what ChiChi hoped a very long time, the insecurities filled her mind. She didn’t want Goku to see her nude. She wanted intimacy but only with dim lights. She couldn’t imagine being as adventurous as she was years ago: making love outside or in the various positions Goku encouraged her with.

 Looking at herself now, she felt she couldn’t do it.

 A light knock interrupted her thoughts. “Hey, ChiChi, how long are ya gonna be in there? Goten’s ready to go to sleep.”

 “I’ll be there in a moment.”

 ChiChi picked up her pajamas and put them on. Luckily, Goten has proven to be the perfect cock blocker. Since Goku’s revival over a week ago, Goten has slept with them. The first three days Goten asked to sleep with her and Goku. Since then, Goten naturally did it thinking this will be a permanent thing.  ChiChi was happy with this arrangement but she had a suspicions Goku’s patience was wearing thin.

 The first clue came early the following morning.

 ChiChi awakened feeling a hand caress her breasts and lips on her neck. In her sleep dazed mind, she panicked. Her son was in bed with her but so was a pervert. Immediately, she struggled to knock her intruder off her. It should’ve been easy given her strength but this person arms were like steel and his hold was unbreakable. She knew then it wasn’t an intruder but her husband.

 “Goku?” ChiChi whispered. She turned her head. The room was mostly dark but little light from the stars and crescent moon of the night peeking in the window, ChiChi could see features of her husband. “Goku,” she hissed, “what are you thinking? Goten’s in bed with us.”

 “I miss you.” His hand slipped in her shirt to squeeze her bare breasts. “And you won’t let me get you alone during the day.”

 Whoops. He noticed. ChiChi thought with the time Goku spent with Gohan and Goten during the day he wouldn’t notice how she avoided being alone with him.

 “This is crazy,” she whispered as loud as she could. Her eyes grew to saucers as she felt Goku pull her pajama and panties over her hips and then the feel of a warm hard penis between her cheeks. He couldn’t possible be… She wriggled wildly as she whispered. “Goku, Goten is inches from us.”

 “Your moving against me is getting me harder.” ChiChi stopped moving but it didn’t stop Goku from rubbing against her. She bit into her pillow and gripped her sheets. She couldn’t make a sound. Goten’s back was to her but he still only inches away. “Let’s go to the bathroom. We can be alone there.”

 She was actually considering it, but her cock blocking child saved her again.

 “Daddy?”

 The soft voice of her baby boy awakened her motherly instincts. She elbowed Goku with all her strength in his breadbasket. Off guard by Goten and ChiChi, Goku tumbled out of bed.

 The loud thump of a body hitting the floor when unnoticed by Goten who rolled over to ChiChi. “Momma, where’s Daddy? He’s not in bed with us. He’s not dead again, is he?”

 Not dead but praying he won’t be when she got done with him!

 “No, Daddy’s not dead.” ChiChi patted Goten’s head and held him close. With her blocking his view, she assumed Goku was sneaking in the bathroom and pretending to come out.

 Instead, she heard a scream from Gohan’s room.

 “DAD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?! WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS?!”

 ****

 Breakfast was unusually quiet the next morning. Goku hardly spoke during breakfast since he was so focused on eating. Goten was a chatterbox as always leaving ChiChi to entertain Goten when Gohan couldn’t. Gohan greeted her when he entered the kitchen but he didn’t even look at his father. He ate breakfast very fast and left for school. ChiChi understood his uncomfortableness. Gohan was old enough to understand what happen. He wasn’t like Goten who believed Goku’s excuse of getting a snack and getting lost returning to his room since he’s been dead for so long.

 “Daddy, wanna play with my toys with me?” ChiChi heard Goten say.

 “No, Goten,” ChiChi told her son while cleaning the dishes. “You have to take your bath and then we will go over your lessons for today.”

 “Okay, Momma. Daddy, wanna take a bath with me?”

 Silence.

 Goku’s usually quick to respond to Goten. Turning, ChiChi saw Goku looking at her. As much as she didn’t want to, they needed to talk. “Daddy will join you, Goten. I need to talk to him alone.”

 Goten giggled. “Is this because of last night?” Goku and ChiChi didn’t answer but Goten laughs got louder as he left the table singing, “Daddy’s in trouble.”

 ChiChi turned away from Goku once Goten left and resumed cleaning the dishes. “You and Goten should take a bath in our bedroom. I haven’t cleaned Gohan and Goten’s bathroom yet.”

 “Okay.” Goku joined ChiChi. He didn’t touch her but he was very close as he had one hand on the counter and the other on his hip. “Did Goten sleep with you every night when I was dead?”

 “When he was a baby, he slept in a crib in our room.” ChiChi rinsed off her soapy dishes. “When he was around two, he shared the room with Gohan. In the mornings, he would crawl in my bed but most times, he shared the room with Gohan.”

 “So, it’s me.” Goku chewed his lip thinking of a solution to their problem. “We have to tell Goten he needs to sleep in his own bed now. If he wants, we can have naptime in the afternoon.”

 We? Oh, she wasn’t telling Goten that. “Goten is happy he has a Daddy, Goku. There’s nothing wrong with Goten wanting to share the bed with us.”

 “Then it’s you.”

 “Me?” ChiChi feigned surprise. “What are you talking about?”

 “You’re not eager to be with me.”

 ChiChi pulled the plug in the sink. As the water drained out, she laughed while drying the dishes, “That’s ridiculous.”

 “You lock the bathroom door every time you take a bath. You haven’t been alone in a room with me since I came back to life. Anytime, we are alone, you suddenly have something to do.” It was the pain in his voice that caused ChiChi to look at Goku. She wished she hadn’t. Those eyes. It was heartbreaking. “Are you mad I didn’t come back to life after Cell?”

 ChiChi looked away from him. She gathered the dry dishes and placed them in the cabinet. “I’m not mad, Goku.”

 “Is there someone else?”

 ChiChi was grateful the dishes were now in the cabinet. She would’ve dropped them otherwise. “No! Of course not. Where did you get that idea?”

 “King Kai warned me you might have somebody. When I saw Goten, I thought he was wrong, but I don’t know.” He shrugged at a loss for words. “Do you have somebody?”

 ChiChi shook her head. “No, Goku. I don’t have anybody. There’s never been anyone since you died.”

 “Then what is it?” ChiChi turned away from Goku to dry the rest of the dishes but he grabbed her and turned her back. “What is it?”

 There were times ChiChi forgot Goku can get angry with her. It was so rare she never filed it to memory but now seeing his steely gaze and brief flash of green in his eyes, ChiChi remembers even she can push him but she never feared it or what that anger can do if pushed. She always knew Goku would never intentionally harm her. ChiChi gently pried her hand from Goku’s. “Goten’s waiting on you for your bath and I need to do some cleaning.” Keeping her cool, she kissed his right cheek. “After your bath, I need you to hunt some dinner.” She patted his stomach. “Since you’re back, our meat supply is disappearing faster than normal.” Wearing a warm smile, she left Goku speechless.

 ****

 While Goku and Goten took their bath, ChiChi cleaned the hall bathroom. There wasn’t much for her to do. Gohan always kept the bathroom clean. After a light wiping down of the sink, toilet, mirror and shower, ChiChi gather the clothes in the laundry basket and went to bathroom of her bedroom

 Unsurprisingly, it was messy. Goku and Goten’s clothes were scattered on the floor along with a few towels. She could hear Goku and Goten giggling and splashing water in the closed bath area. ChiChi mentally prepared herself for the mess she will clean there. As she gathered the dirty clothes and towels, the door opened. Goten stepped out first with Goku behind him. Both were naked with towels around their neck. ChiChi nearly dropped the dirty laundry in her hands when she saw the naked body of her husband.

 Seven years of celibacy, shutting off sexual desires crumbled at the sight of Goku. With him dead, ChiChi didn’t think about intimacy. She didn’t want anyone else. Sure, people like Bulma tried to encourage ChiChi to date or even have a one-night stand but ChiChi couldn’t feel sexual desire for anyone other than Goku.

 Now that fire she thought died with Goku’s death was suddenly rising. Her eyes roamed the muscles on Goku’s back. Flashes of her gripping the strong flesh through sex filled her mind. As her eyes moved down, she noticed his tail stub which sparked memories of her teasing Goku with it. His cute, tight butt brought back flashes of her gripping it and in times she was playful, biting it.

 And him biting her.

 “Let me help you, Goten,” Goku told his son as he crouches down and help dry Goten with his towel. This allowed ChiChi to privately stare at Goku even more and get lost in more memories of the past with her body silently responding.

 “ChiChi.”

 Startled, ChiChi snapped out of her daydream to Goku standing in front of her naked. How long was he there? How long was she daydreaming? She was in near perfect kneeling position in front of Goku. His penis hung loosely in front of her, tempting her, daring her to do what she hadn’t done since he died. If Goten wasn’t there……

 “Wh-what is it, Goku?”

 “Sorry about the mess.” Grinning, he pointed to the clothes and towels.

 ChiChi quickly scooped up the dirty clothes and put them with the other pile of dirty laundry. “It’s all right. I know you’re sexy—messy!” She frantically stood. “I need to put these in the washer. Goten, after you’re done, I’ll come by your room so we can start your schoolwork.”

 “Okay, Momma.”

 While Goten didn’t notice his mother rushing out of the room, Goku did and he was smirking.

 ****

 The rest of the day proceeded normally. Goku spent time hunting for meat like ChiChi wanted. He even skinned and cut the meat for her. He figured he hunted enough that will last the rest of the week. Gohan returned home in a better mood than he left. He and Goku had a friendly conversation and a spar after dinner.

 It was turning into a normal night again. ChiChi thought the incident of last night was forgotten. So, when she unlocked the bathroom door and entered her bedroom, she expected Goten to be in bed ready for her to join him and Daddy but was stunned to find Goku standing by the bed naked and smiling as if he was waiting for her.

 ChiChi made a split-second decision to disappear in the bathroom but Goku teleported behind her.

 “Where are you going?” Goku wrapped his arms around her and walked them to the bed. “The bed is this way.”

 ChiChi struggled in his arms but Goku wouldn’t let her go. “Where’s Goten?”

 “In his own bed.”

 “What did you say to him?”

 “Nothing but I wanna talk to you.”

 Angry, ChiChi hissed, “I have nothing to say. Let me go!”

 “Then I’ll talk. I thought you didn’t want me anymore but earlier, I saw you. I smelt you. I knew you wanted me like I wanted you. I thought about it for hours but I couldn’t figure out why you didn’t wanna be with me. Then I remembered something else King Kai told me. He told me don’t disappointed if your body is different.” ChiChi stopped struggling. Taking a chance, Goku released ChiChi.

 ChiChi took a step away from Goku as she turned to face him. “He said that?”

 “Yeah. I thought he was silly. I wasn’t gonna be disappointed in how you look. You always look great to me but he’s right, isn’t he, ChiChi?”

 He figured it out when ChiChi didn’t think he would. Since he knows…. “It’s been seven years,” she confessed. “You haven’t aged while I have. When you were coming back for a day, I was fine. You’re only here for twenty-four hours. You wouldn’t notice anything but being back for good I knew you will at some point. You wouldn’t say it, but I know you will think I’m different and find me less attractive.”

 Goku wanted to laugh but he knew ChiChi would read that the wrong way, kick him out of the house and never allow him to touch her. Instead, he touched the top button of her pajamas. ChiChi didn’t move but her eyes cast downward as Goku removed each button. Her top dropped to the floor with her bra quickly following. At this point, ChiChi closed her eyes as Goku pulled down her pajama pants and underwear.

 ChiChi couldn’t bear to see Goku’s face as he examined her birthday suit; see all the imperfections and changes of nearly eight years.

 “ChiChi,” Goku spoke calmly. ChiChi didn’t respond. “ChiChi,” Goku commanded. “Open your eyes.”

 Slowly, she did. Goku was smiling at her. Of course he will smile. He always did. He fooled so many hiding his real emotions behind a goofy smile.

 But it did look genuine.

 As entranced she was with Goku’s back earlier, her eyes feasted on his front. With Goten sleeping with them, Goku wore a tank shirt to bed. Now he was nude, her eyes feasted on the beautiful chest she used as a pillow many nights, loved with her lips, tongue and teeth. Her eyes moved down to his muscular stomach. She could feel her insides getting warm as liquid formed between her eyes. Her eyes kept moving south---

“Oh!!” Her eyes met up to Goku’s but dropped back down again at what stood at full attention at her nudity. Goku’s response time was always fast but being older, ChiChi didn’t think Goku would feel like that again.

 Perhaps she was wrong.

 “You see how wrong you were.”

 He was grinning wickedly now. He was enjoying making her feel foolish!

 “I don’t know.” She caught his crestfallen face before she shot him a wicked grin of her own. “Maybe you should show me how wrong I am.”

 ****

 Goten glumly entered his room. He sat on his bed with his elbows on his knees pouting and staring at the floor. Gohan, who sat at his desk doing homework, noticed his little brother. “What’s wrong, Goten?”

“Mommy and Daddy’s door is locked. I can’t go in.” Goten looked up at his brother. “Why did they lock the door, Gohan?”

 Smiling, Gohan left his desk and strolled to Goten’s bed. He pulled back the bedcovers and urge Goten to get in. He did and as Gohan tucked Goten, told him, “Remember when we talked about Dad coming back? I told you we should leave the night to Mommy and Daddy so they can have time together?”

 Goten nodded. “Yeah, but Daddy’s been back for over a week now. Mommy and Daddy have time together every night. I see them. Mommy sings me to sleep, kiss Daddy, kiss me and go to sleep. They have kissy kissy time every night.”

 Gohan chuckled. He wondered if he was ever so naïve. “Well, it’s normal for Mommies and Daddies to sleep together in bed and it’s normal for kids like you to sleep in your own bed. Maybe Mommy and Daddy locking the door is their way of saying it’s time to get back to normal.”

 Goten wasn’t sure if he liked that idea. “So, I can’t climb in Mommy’s bed in the morning or sleep with them at night anymore?”

 “Mommy and Daddy’s bed,” Gohan corrected Goten. “And if the door is locked, no.”

 “Goten, you love Mommy and Daddy, right?” Goten nodded. “You want them to be happy, right?” Again, Goten nodded. “Then let Mommy and Daddy have bedtime. You have the whole day to do what you want with Mommy and Daddy. When it’s bedtime, let Mommy and Daddy be happy together.”

 Goten thought about that. In the daytime, Goten spar with Daddy, fish with him, hike through Mount Paouz together and play with him. With Mommy, he learns his schoolwork but she also lets him help bake sweets like cookies and takes him to the park. Thinking about it, Goten realizes he does a lot with his parents in the daytime. At nighttime everyone goes to sleep. Why would Mommy and Daddy be happy spending time doing that?

Dragon Ball Z 023

I always forget that the Saibamen have a brief skirmish with the Z-Fighters before Tien and Yamcha show up.   Pretty sure it’s filler, but honestly, I’ve fallen so far behind on the manga that I’m not going to check.

Anyway, before the Saibamen really do anything serious, Tien and Chiaotzu arrive...

...And then Yamcha makes this grand entrance.

Now that there’s six enemies before him, Vegeta proposes they take turns fighting the six Saibamen in one-on-one matches.   Piccolo hates that idea, but Krillin reminds him that they need to play for time until Goku arrives.

The news crews get a little close to the battlefield again, so Nappa destroys on of their helicopters.  Pretty sure this is when Tien says he can see their parachutes in the Ocean dub, mostly because he’s actually here to say the line.

Meanwhile, Yajirobe is at some restaurant, telling anyone who will listen about the Saiyan invasion, and “his” team of guys, which includes Goku, Piccolo, and Tien.

Chi-Chi and Ox King arrive at Master Roshi’s looking for Gohan, and Roshi informs her that he’s currently with Piccolo fighting the Saiyans.   She faints.

To the Saiyans’ surprise, Tien defeats the first Saibaman with little difficulty, even though the Saibamen all have a power level of 1200, roughly the same as Raditz.   I want to talk about this for a minute.

This scene shows just how obsolete Raditz has become since he first appeared.   When he debuted, Raditz was shown to be stronger than every character who came before.   He fought Goku and Piccolo at the same time and overpowered them.    Now, when the current villains need to throw disposable henchmen at the heroes, they have to have power levels comparable to Raditz, in order to demonstrate that the heroes have advanced to at least some degree.   Tien trained for this fight, and even though he’s still out of his league, we have to show that he made some kind of gains.   So he gets a win on a Saibaman, showing that he could have beaten Raditz just as easily, if only Raditz had made it to this battle. 

It’s a little awkward though, because it makes it hard to justify a lot of Raditz’s bluster back in Episodes 1-5.   All of his talk about being an invincible, top-class warrior looks kind of ridiculous when Nappa literally carries six more in his pocket.   Then again, Vegeta himself gets similarly outclassed in the Namek Saga, so it just goes to show that the Saiyans were never as big a deal as they boasted. 

Anyway, Vegeta destroys the Saibaman who lost to Tien, because he ordered it to go all out, and yet it clearly didn’t fight with everything it had.  

Krillin plans to go next, but Yamcha insists on taking his place, since Krillin has died before, and can’t be wished back again.   He also declares that he plans to fight all five of the remaining Saibamen by himself, just to prove a point.

Back at Roshi’s place, everyone marks out for Yamcha, and for some reason Bulma’s all sweet on him again.   Honestly, this feels kind of manipulative.  Most of Bulma and Yamcha’s relationship is depicted as volatile at best, but whenever Yamcha is put in the spotlight, they try to do an about-face and play up Bulma as his best girl cheering him on.   That way, when something bad happens to him, it looks more tragic.  

Well this time, I’m just not feeling it.   If Yamcha crushed all five Saibamen, one-shotted the Saiyans, and beat Goku in a friendly match, he’d look like a million bucks, and then Bulma would get pissed at him all over again for some other reason.   If Yamcha lost this battle, but managed to escape in once piece, he’d probably go to Namek with the others, and Bulma would spend the whole trip reminding him that they’re still broken up, and she’s only putting up with him because it’s an emergency.

I’m not trying to make Bulma look like the bad guy in all of this.   On the contrary, I feel like the real problem is that Toriyama and Toei keep trying to romanticize the Bulma/Yamcha relationship only when it maximizes the drama.   That’s why it looks so phony and flimsy.   Goku and Chi-Chi are a long-term couple no matter what happens or where they happen to be at any given moment. 

So Yamcha fights a Saibaman, and much of the fight takes place as super-speed.   This is done so Gohan can get a lesson in using his ki to observe the battle instead of relying on just his eyesight.    So I guess Tien was moving a lot slower during his fight?

And Yamcha wins, quite handily.  I think this gets overlooked a lot, but I think it’s safe to say that Yamcha’s caught up to Tien by this point, and he’s surpassed Raditz by a comfortable margin.   But...

For all his fighting prowess, Yamcha took his eye off the ball, and the Saibaman manages to grab him and self-destruct. 

And here’s the iconic Dead Yamcha pose.    Like I was saying, this is such a well-known moment in DBZ that I think the context of the scene gets overlooked.   People make fun of Yamcha for being weak, but he beat this Saibaman.   The Saibaman exploded in his face, and his body is still in tact.   Yeah, he’s still dead, but it’s pretty impressive that Krillin’s first reaction is to run over and take a pulse, because there might be a chance that he survived.   No one’s checking the Saibaman’s pulse, is my point.

The problem with Yamcha is that he makes careless mistakes.    For all his talent, he gets cocky or sloppy, and when things don’t go his way, he gets desperate, which only makes him sloppier.  

To a certain extent, Yamcha’s carefree attitude is a strength.   He spent this whole arc looking forward to the challenge of fighting the Saiyans, and that positive energy kept him going through the past year.    I think it also boosted the morale of the others.   Yeah, the situation was grim, but Yamcha was in high spirits, and I think that rubbed off on the others.    There’s a reason his death in this episode hits everyone so hard.

But the Saiyans are nothing to fool with.   Goku was the strongest man Yamcha knew, and he was the first one to die.    The Saibamen were a wildcard no one was counting on, and the one Tien fought could spray acid out of his head, so Yamcha never should have underestimated his opponent.   He definitely shouldn’t have been talking trash to Vegeta in such a crucial moment.  The sad thing is, I’m pretty sure Yamcha could have beaten the other four Saibamen pretty handily, and he might have been instrumental in the fight with Nappa.   But here we are.

Everyone takes the whole thing pretty hard.   I think Tien’s win over the first Saibaman kind of gave them all a sense of hope, and Yamcha’s death completely snuffed it out.   Even if the other fighters win, they’ve still paid a high price here.   Yeah, Yamcha can be wished back with the Dragon Balls, but Krillin and Chiaotzu can’t, which was why Yamcha wanted to fight in their place.   He can’t protect them anymore, and if the Saibamen can kill him, they can kill anyone else.

Krillin takes it especially hard because he feels like that explosion was meant for him.   

But Vegeta doesn’t care, and he demands that Yamcha’s corpse be cleared away so they can keep fighting.

Krillin gets super pissed about this, and he starts getting all fired up.    What’s he gonna do?   Well, we’ll have to wait until the next episode. 

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting today and I just felt like sharing it here :) It’s not perfect, but I felt like it went pretty well.

The Savior has called us to feed His sheep, to care for our Heavenly Father’s children, in whatever situation we may find them. Ministering to them as He would do if He were here, and in so doing helping them and ourselves on our journey to become more like Him.

But there is a difference between providing food for the sheep, and lovingly leading and guiding them they way the Savior would. There is a difference between acting out of a sense of duty and purpose, and acting out of love. The key is charity. 

I recently returned from a mission, and in my mission we had a motto we would repeat along with the missionary purpose which stated “as missionaries, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is at the center of our lives and our love for Him is the reason for everything we do.” We said this to remind ourselves that it wasn’t about the numbers or the checkboxes or the little tasks to fill in the day, it was about Love for the Savior and Love for our spiritual siblings. This motivation helped to see further, beyond the everyday obstacles to the eternal goal.

When we minister to those around us, we cannot do so with short term vision. When visiting a brother or sister who hasn’t come to church in a while, we cannot go into that visit thinking that in 30 minutes we are going to reactivate them: They’ll come to church next Sunday and not miss a week after that! When we visit people with such a short term view, we ignore the complex nature of life, and often get frustrated, ending our efforts to minister prematurely and leaving the sheep out in the cold, feeling that they didn’t want our help anyway. 

In a recent talk from Sister Joy D. Jones, she shares a story of a family she and her husband were assigned to visit. They arrived with cookies and smiles and were promptly and clearly sent away. It was evident that this family did not want to be visited. Now, it would be perfectly understandable if Sister Jones and her husband had not had the desire to continue visiting them. This family didn’t seem to have any intention of ever returning to church, so what was the point? Why bother them with something that they didn’t want?

But, rather than let discouragement overtake them, Sister Jones and her husband consistently continued to visit, and she tells us “After many months of our standing on the doorstep, the family began letting us in. Eventually we had regular prayer and tender gospel discussions together. A long-lasting friendship developed..”

There are a few key phrases in this paragraph. Those are “after many months,” “eventually”, and “long lasting.” Sometimes we may hear stories like this, and expect our results to come as quickly as it sounds there’s did. After all, we have the pleasure of hearing the conclusion of this story after a few short paragraphs. But in reality, it took months of standing on the doorstep, rejection after rejection, before they could even get inside. And then, I imagine there were many rejected or awkward prayers, stunted conversations, uncomfortable silences, and unwelcome gestures of friendship before the families began to see one another clearly and understand the individual struggles of each of their lives. It was only then that a long lasting friendship could begin to develop. 

Another factor that I think is key is that Sister Jones doesn’t end this story with, “and then 5 years later the husband became a stake president and his wife was the relief society president” or something similar. Sometimes that is how these stories go, and it’s wonderful when they do. But Sister Jones doesn’t even tell us if this family became active in the church. What she does give is us a story of people who spiritually edify each other by building real friendships and taking the time to understand one another. 

That is the goal we need to have when we minister in the Savior’s way. Obviously it would be nice if they would come to church, we want all our siblings to partake of the ordinances of salvation because we’ve seen how they bless our lives, and we would love to see our friends at ward activities and service projects. But that is not the point, it is not the goal, of ministering in the Savior’s way. The goal is to help people know that they have people who care about them, who will care about them through whatever they go through, whatever they choose to do. That they have a family beyond their blood relatives and that they have people they can call if they ever need help or feel lost or just need to talk. 

It is for this reason that the Savior counseled the Nephites in 3 Nephi 18 “ye shall not cast [them] out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.”

We don’t know what is in store for anyone, all we can do is love them and be a support to them and help them know there is a place for them here if they choose to accept it. But that if they don’t accept it, we are still their friends. There are countless accounts throughout the scriptures about Jesus Christ which state that He “was moved by compassion” or “had compassion on him.” His motivation was always love. He never did a miracle out of a sense of duty or hoping to get something in return, He ministered to those around him because He loved them. Plain and simple.

In Elder David A. Bednar’s talk More Diligent and Concerned at Home, he discusses Home Evenings. He describes the rather rambunctious and chaotic atmosphere that often existed while he and his wife raised their children, and the exasperation they felt that “the righteous habits [they] worked so hard to foster did not seem to yield immediately the spiritual results [they] wanted and expected.”

Have we ever felt like this as we try to minister to people? I know that I felt it as a missionary. Feeling like the gospel truths I tried to teach my friends got lost in the chaos of their lives, and the doubts and trials the adversary threw at them. 

Elder Bednar continues, saying that he believes what his sons remember about their chaotic home evenings would not be what one might expect. “They likely would not identify a particular prayer or a specific instance of scripture study or an especially meaningful family home evening lesson as the defining moment in their spiritual development. What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent.”

In our efforts to minister: whether by assignment or in our friend and family relationships, may we always be consistent. Whether the person that we care about is going through a rough time, or if they seem to be on top of the world and without need of our attention, we should always show by word and deed that we are true friends, so when they time comes, they know they have someone to turn to. 

On my mission, I had a particular district leader who would end each and every conversation reminding my companion and I that we could call him if we needed absolutely anything. He would further clarify that, although some people just say that, he was being serious. He would say this after every interaction, without fail. My first couple of transfers around him I thought it a bit silly and over the top, although I appreciated it, and we never really took up his invitation but it was nice to know he cared.

A few months later, I was serving around him again, and he had never stopped with his reminders. This time I was in a trio, and me and my two companions each had very serious and specific trials we were facing - physically, mentally, and emotionally - and we knew exactly who to call. Because of this Elder’s consistent show of care and concern, even during times when it didn’t seem entirely necessary, when the time came that we needed help we knew we had a true friend to turn to, and a worthy priesthood holder to administer blessings in times of need.

It is my wish that we can all reach this point with our friends and family. As disciples of Christ, may we each be known as the person who will always be there for those in need. 

In his talk “Concern for the one” Elder Joseph B Wirthlin speaks of three possible reasons that some of the sheep are lost from the flock. I want to take a moment to say that sometimes, we can’t tell who might be in danger of getting lost. Maybe you see them at church almost every Sunday, they showed up to the last ward activity and you’re pretty sure they bore their testimony last fast Sunday, or maybe it was the month before that…. Either way, President Eyering learned that it is wise to remember “when you meet someone, treat them as if they were in serious trouble, and you will be right more than half the time.” Not to say that we should all treat each other as if we are seconds away from a breakdown, but show love, care, and compassion in all of our interactions.

The first reason some get lost from the flock is that they feel different. As Elder Wirthlin put it “They may look, act, think, and speak differently than those around them and that sometimes causes them to assume they don’t fit in. They conclude that they are not needed.” He goes on to say, “The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony.”

Christ taught in Luke 17:1 “It is impossible but that offenses will come; but woe unto him through whom they come.” The world is a difficult enough place for those that feel different and left out -whether because of race, sexuality, disability, or experience - if there is one place these people need to feel they belong, it is in our sacred meeting houses, and in our even more sacred homes. We each need to do our part to eliminate offense from among us. We must examine ourselves, asking “is there anything in my conduct that could make someone feel unwelcome here?” and then we must ask for the Lord’s help to rectify any wrongs that we discover.

Another reason Elder Wirthlin teaches that some may feel lost because they are weary. They feel they have given much and made little difference. He reminds all of us “Even when you feel that your strength can add little, the Church needs you. The Lord needs you.” When we minister to our loved ones, we can help them recognize their own unique talents and strengths. Sometimes we mistakenly think that ministering to someone must be all about their needs and weaknesses. When we take this approach, sometimes we can augment feelings of inadequacy, as if the person is a burden to those around them. Instead, a very important factor in ministering in the Savior’s way is giving people opportunities to realize how strong and capable they really are. Whether by asking for help ourselves - and showing that we trust them - or inviting them to help us serve others, when those we love know they are needed and appreciated, their understanding of their divine potential grows.

The third reason for getting lost that Elder Wirthlin discusses is straying. Some people make decisions that lead them away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. To those who are concerned for a loved one he counsels. “Love them. Be kind to them. In some cases, they will return. In others, they will not. But in all cases, let us ever be worthy of the name we take upon ourselves, even that of Jesus Christ.”

We have a divine responsibility to minister to all of our Heavenly Father’s children. As we study the life of the Savior and the words of his inspired messengers, we can learn how to more authentically love others in the way He loves us. 

(Talks I mentioned:

Sister Jones: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/10/for-him?lang=eng

 Elder Bednar: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2009/10/more-diligent-and-concerned-at-home?lang=eng

Elder Wirthlin: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2008/04/concern-for-the-one?lang=eng)

pigeonfeather replied to your post “also I really really really want to infodump some dragon ball /...”

I'd say the second one bc I'm always a ho for domesticity

Alright! Here we go! It’s long, but it’s not gonna go behind a cut because I don’t trust this website to actually function properly anymore!

Piccolo Living With The Sons (During the 3 Years Before the Androids) Headcanons:

So, firstly, I don't think Chichi was very impressed by her husband coming home and going "hi!! I'm home, but me n’ Gohan will be training nonstop for the next three years!!! I also brought Piccolo to stay with us!!!", but I also think Chichi was brought up to be really hospitable and courteous to guests, so she like. Begrudgingly accepted that Piccolo was just gonna be there, and she was already trying to work on burying the hatchet re: Piccolo Having Actually Wronged Her Before since Piccolo had at this point saved both Gohan and Goku’s lives a few times.

I also don't think that Chichi would have forced Piccolo to sleep outside-- I feel like Chichi was raised in such a way that to do something like that would be a big mark against her own honor as a person, even with someone she dislikes intensely. I think that Chichi actually was insistent that Piccolo sleep indoors, on the couch/a futon/pile of bedding on the floor, and that Piccolo was the one who had issues with that. I think Piccolo has some amount of residual fear of being in enclosed spaces-- especially dark, enclosed spaces-- leftover from their parent's trauma (being trapped in the rice cooker for a couple hundred years), and it took them ages to feel comfortable enough to sleep indoors.

Come to think of it, I don't think the sons have a couch in canon, but whatever, I want them to have a couch, and Piccolo slept on it once they started sleeping indoors. At first wouldn't even sleep they'd just meditate all night (which wasn't good for them), or slept in the same pose they meditate in, later on moving to sleeping curled up in the tightest ball possible (which is pretty tightly, as Nameks don't have bones.) It took for-ever for Piccolo to feel comfortable enough to sleep in a more open position.

Last thing on that note: Gohan gave Piccolo his old night light when he found out that Piccolo hated being indoors with the lights off. Piccolo of course grumbled about this, but it did actually help them.

Gohan definitely taught Piccolo a lot of things from his studies. It started as Gohan explaining his lessons out loud to Piccolo so that he’d better remember what he’d studied, but Piccolo actually ended up being really good at both listening and asking good questions for Gohan to explain. This is what got Gohan to get the idea that he wanted to be a professor when he grew up, he found out he enjoyed teaching people.

The tree outside of the Son household has clawmarks all over its trunk from Piccolo using it as a scratching post. (Namekians also mark territory this way.)

For that, and other reasons, Chichi took to calling Piccolo a “big, green hairless cat” as a term of endearment, much to Piccolo’s vexation.

Goku is a rambunctious nice boy, so there were definitely times when he, Gohan, and Piccolo were all supposed to be training (or doing other things) where Goku turned things into a game. Like, taking baths or going for swims often turned into splashfights; when flying to a place to train Goku would instigate a race, or a chase-game; and Goku and Gohan would try to sneak up on Piccolo while they were meditating to “sneak-attack” them. Piccolo was... Annoyed by this at first, but gradually grew more receptive to these shenanigans as time passed.

Also, when that was going on there were some initially hang-ups around Goku and Piccolo being of differing alien species and not being able to read eachother’s body language so well. Typically this manifested as Piccolo reading too much into Goku being playful, or just getting overstimulated and reacting badly (like in the Car Episode where Piccolo read Goku driving past them as a challenge and got aggro’d.) But Goku had real issues with reading Piccolo’s more subtle displays of annoyance or anxiety, which led to Goku getting in trouble with Piccolo at times.

Gohan on the other hand, was more-or-less an expert of Namekian body language from living with Piccolo beforehand, and from spending a good deal of time with the Namekians while they were living at Capsule Corp. So Gohan kind of became an interpreter between his three parents, explaining things like “No Piccolo, Dad wasn’t grappling you, he was giving you a hug.”

Piccolo has a lot of weird dietary restrictions as I’ve mentioned at length before (due to their useless Namekian gut), but Chichi was pretty insistent about Piccolo eating dinner with the family, even if that “dinner” was just tea. Cooking for people is how Chichi likes to take care of them, and she over time learned what Namekians can eat without dying or getting indigestion from, and started making special foods just for Piccolo to have (stuff like broths that are more like a tea made with herbs/vegetables/bones, fruit salads, fish, certain fermented foods.)

Piccolo did in fact learn to do their part around the house, after some clarifications on why Piccolo Cannot Just Make New Clothes For Everyone Instead of Doing Laundry, etc.

Chichi made the mistake of starting to vacuum while Piccolo was still alseep, which resulted in Piccolo startling and blowing up the vacuum before they realized what it was. Piccolo had sweeping/mopping duty for a while after that.

Anyways, this period of time was one of the happiest in Gohan’s life, as while his family was in no-way normal, he got to live with and spend time with his three parents who all love him dearly and care for him in their own ways, and who learned to coexist for his sake.

Emperors daughter Ch 13

Chapter 1 

Chapter 12                                                                                                                                              Johnny walks her to her apartment building, and, he spends the entire time talking to Selina. He makes her laugh, and occasionally he directs a question to Brenda. Brenda was never one to act shy, so she answers every question that she can. “Red!” She answers proudly when he asks Brenda, her favorite color. “She’s adorable” He insists. “You’re very lucky.” She smiles grateful, “Thank you” “Who’s the Father?” He asks softly. She sighs. “Different from the one in my womb” She says. “Momma says she has a baby in her tummy” Brenda says patting Selina’s stomach. “And in 3 months I’ll get to meet the baby, momma says she’ll be my little sister, but that’s silly babies don’t belong in someone’s tummy, why would a baby be there?” “I think that’s an answer for another day” He tells the little girl. Brenda seems to pout. “Momma never answer that question either!” She says annoyed. “Because you’re to young piccola” She tells Brenda. “I’m not piccolo, I’m grande!” She says holding her hands wide apart. Johnny can’t help but laugh. “You’re of no help” She mutters to Johnny.  She stops at the apartment building, the store wasn’t that far, so she saw no need to take her car. “Thanks for the walk.” She says, before she pulls Brenda inside. “I liked it, I was wondering… could I give you my number?” Johnny asks. Selina stops and stares at Johnny. He’s not a god, he’s (as far as she can tell anyway) human, he’s kind. He seems interesting. To be honest she’s quite interested in getting to know him better. She smiles. “Sure” ---     Other men when they realise she has a child, and another on the way. Don’t want to look at her. When they realise that the two children are by two completely different people they get a look of disgust in their eyes. Johnny doesn’t do that. He tries to be understanding. He listens when everything gets hectic, when the fear that she’s going to fail gets to much. He makes her laugh. He can play the guitar and it always seems to have this type of magic over her and is able to calm her down within a matter of seconds.   Brenda warms up to him quickly, she likes his stories, of Egyptian mythology. Of Ra, and Apophis of Horus, Osiris and Set. Brenda’s enraptured, and Selina allows him to tell the stories. “Any truth to the tales?” She asks him. After he’s had dinner at her house, and she’s putting the dishes in the sink. “There’s truth to every story told” She smiles. “You’re being purposefully evasive” She complains. “Do you believe the myths you tell are real.” “Do you believe the Greek and Roman myths are real? The Norse?” She stares at him for a moment, her heart beating far to fast. “What do you know about me?” “That you’re a single mother of two half siblings” He says. “Not much outside of that” Brenda’s running around in the living room. Pretending she’s an airplane. “Brenda be careful sweetie.” Brenda stops and pouts but then she starts banging on her little drum set. “Think you should give her lessons?” Johnny asks covering his ears. “Oh probably” Selina says. “Maybe when she’s older and can sit still long enough to be actually taught.” --- Callie Maglieri is born in a hospital like the one that Brenda was born in. Natalie came in running, drove over night to see the beautiful girl being born.  She has blond fuzz growing out her head. She’s tiny the size of her hand. Her cries are beautiful, and she knows that people will crowd from all over to her voice. She does not stop crying until she’s placed in her mother’s arms. “Hey Callie” She whispers to the little girl. “You’re so cute.” “She’s so beautiful” Natalie gushes. “Can I hold my niece” Selina nods she hands the baby over to Natalie while Brenda jumps on Selina’s lap. “Was I that pretty?” She asks. “Of course, all babies are pretty in their mother’s eyes.” Brenda smiles and leans against her mother’s chest. --- Johnny comes by a couple of weeks later. Arms filled to the brim with toys. “We’ve only known each other a couple of months” She says surprised. “You didn’t have to do this” “Yeah, well with taking care of Brenda, and work, I figured you hadn’t had time to get little Callie any toys.” “You’re too much Johnny” She says. "Nonsense you're kid deserves the best" He says. "I'm happy to help." "Seriously how did you even afford this." "I have my ways." Johnny says with a smile. ---- Brenda’s Birthday comes and Natalie drives all the way up as per usual to help celebrate. She seems to take a special liking to Johnny. He can make everyone calm. So, she’s not surprised that Natalie takes a liking to him.  He has a fascination with Greek Mythology, so she’s not surprised when their wrapped in a discussion of different mythologies.  With Selina occasionally throwing in a quip on Roman mythologies. He gives Brenda a gift, a fake wooden toy sword. She starts lashing it around the house. She takes it away from Brenda, when she nearly breaks a lamp. “Not now, Brenda” “But I’m your wittle fighter” Brenda says with a pout. “You are, and you can practice fighting with this sword when you’re not near your younger sister.” She says with a half glance at Johnny. “I read that Brenda in some regions means Sword, I took a guess” He says sheepishly. “Too soon?” Selina rolls her eyes. Natalie gives Brenda a box full of Legos. Selina gives Brenda an new book full of Norse Myths that has more myths then her old story book. --- Neither of them asks each other if they are dating, if they want to start dating, it’s a lot more gradual then that. Most of the time when Johnny and she go anywhere, they take the kids along.  So, she never actually considers it a date. They hang out at the zoo, Callie is hanging from her pouch. Brenda adores the gorillas. She laughs at there growling and their calls.  Though Callie seems terrified. Callie herself has a fascination with swans. Selina is holding tightly to Johnny’s hand. She hears people cooing at the adorable couple and their kids. A few even say that their kids are adorable. Johnny places and arm around her shoulders. Selina corrects them at first but then decides that it isn’t worth the effort. “Sorry about all that” She says. Johnny shrugs. “Being considered the father of your kids is probably the second-best thing” Selina laughs. “OH yeah, What’s the first?” “Being their father” Selina looks at Johnny in surprise. Half expecting to laugh and state he’s joking, but he’s being honest. It’s the first time they kiss. --- It’s late at night and they are still up talking, it’s Saturday and Selina don’t have to be at work and they’re just sitting by talking. “What do you like to do?” Johnny asks. “I mean besides taking care of Brenda and Callie.” “Hey, I adore my kids” Selina argues, but she sighs. “I played the violin, and I’ve sung on occasion.” Johnny whistles. “Nice, how are you on the violin” “I once played in an Orchestra, The New York Orchestra.” She says by way of explanation. “How old are you?” he asks as though he can’t believe it. “23” She says. “Wow” Johnny says. “Were the hours too awkward?” He says. “With taking care of Brenda, and Callie on the way?” “I auditioned for an orchestra here” She says taking a sip of tea. “Turned down, but after I was turned down I realized that the hours would have been awkward, so I applied for a waitressing job and I got it.” “How’d you get into the orchestra?” “I used to be a street performer in Boston, and a scout from New York-” “Your making that up.” Johnny said. “You were a street performer in Boston?” “Are you going to let me finish?” Silena says. Johnny raises a hand and leans back to let her finish. “Anyway, a scout from New York said I sounded too good to be playing on the street, and he gave a card and said that the New York Orchestra was looking for violin players. I auditioned, and I got the part, and so I moved to New York, where I eventually met Callie’s father.” “What led you to move here” Silena goes silent. Johnny waits and eventually she looks up. “Can we talk about that later?” She asks, pleading with him slightly. “I… I don’t want to talk about it.” Johnny nods in understanding.   She knows she can’t keep this up forever, but… she can’t tell him about the mythological side of herself. Not yet. --- Johnny and Silena have known each other a year, when he reveals his big secret. He’s a magician of the house of life.  He’s an Egyptian magician. Because of course he is. She can’t have one ordinary boyfriend, can she? No, they all must be related to some kind of mythology. All have to be some kind of supernatural being don’t they? She’s not even mad at Johnny she’s mad, at herself for not seeing it sooner. --- She doesn’t talk to him for days after the reveal, and Johnny gives her the space to deal with the news. After making sure she won’t tell anyone. She insists  to tell Natalie, that Natalie has kept so many of her secrets she won’t reveal this one, and Johnny must have seen something on her face because he relents rather quickly to her surprise. On the one hand this could be everything she’s wanted. This could be the protection she was looking for, from her father from everything. Truth is she’s just so blind sided every other magical being she’s dated she knew was immortal before they started dating. This throws her for a loop. “So what’s the problem?” Natalie asks. “Does this in anyway change him?” “Makes a few things make a bit more sense but otherwise… no.” “Then…?” Silena sighs. “He told me his secret, I… I don’t know if I’m ready to tell him mine.” “You told me yours” Natalie argues. “I was hoping you would run away in terror” Silena says dryly. “I actually want this guy to stay, also he’s Egyptian, I’m Roman, Egypt and Rome do not have a good history.” “So, the worst that could happen is that he leaves you, after all your other boyfriends him leaving should be easy for you.” “You’re not helping.” Natalie sighs. “You want some good news?” “Yeah?” “I’m seeing someone, and so is Fredrick” Her eyes widened. “Oh yeah? Who?” “Frey” “Frey… as in the Norse god Frey?” “Yep” “As in lord of Alfheim Frey, as in god of summer, Frey” “Yep” She rubs her forehead. “Well shitake mushrooms” She says with a half glance at Brenda who’s quiet looking over the mythology story book she recently got for her birthday. Callie is sleeping in her car seat. “Wait until I tell who Fredrick is seeing” “Who?” “Athena” “The Virgin Goddess?” “At least we know an unexpected child can’t appear from that union” “Well she and Hephaestus had a child together through a napkin so… anything’s possible.” Brenda looks up curiously but Silena gives her a kiss. “Later” “Oh yeah” Natalie says with a chuckle. “I forgot about that.” “Let me know how it goes.” --- She agonizes for days over how and what to tell him, when it comes to her. She doesn’t want him to stay for some misconception version of her, she wants him to stay for the real her. For the real Brenda and the real Callie, and if he can’t handle her then… she needs to move on. --- “Johnny?” “Yeah?” “Can you come over tonight? Around nine or so after the kids are put down? You and I, we need to talk.” “Are you dumping me?” Silena smiles against the phone bitterly. “No, but if we’re going to give this a try, there are things about me, I want you to know, things you need to know, about my past, about Brenda and Callie’s fathers.” Johnny stays quiet for a long time. “I’ll be over.” --- He comes over, and she talks, she tells him everything, of her father, of her mother of her first love, of her move to Boston and meeting Tyr, all the way to New York and her move to Dallas. She stays silent once she’s finished and waits for him to say something anything. He takes her in his arms, and she releases a breath she didn’t even know she was holding and she can feel herself letting out several years worth of tears. She breaks down crying on his lap at first trying to keep as quiet as possible so as not to wake the kids, but Johnny whispers an Egyptian word that she must assume means along the lines of ‘muffled’ or ‘quiet’ and she lets herself cry as loud as possible. Holding nothing back. Johnny just holds her tightly as she cries herself to sleep. --- Now that they know each other’s secrets, Johnny starts to be more free with his past. She finds out he started training and learning at the age of 6, in ancient Egypt. She learns that his preferred form of magic is music (Something that pleases her immensely) but he’s also quite proficient in certain elements. Like water and fire. And Hieroglyph magic. She tells him about her childhood, about her first love, about how her mother used to play the violin, about her twin. About her siblings. About the good times in her life, about… About her first love. Not in an overbearing way, not in a flyby way, but in a ‘it’s good to get this off my chest way’ It’s nice. He tells her of his dreams, of how he loves being a magician of the highs and lows of being one. Of how he hated the constant practice, but how he likes how the magic sets him apart from everyone else. --- He takes her to visit his parents who live at the nome in Texas. They eat dinner in a private room in the nome and they seem suspicious of her at first, but Selina is honest and polite, and slowly the suspicion dies away. Mrs. O'Hare adores little Callie and loves holding the young Grecian demigod in her arms. Mr. O'Hare takes a special liking to Brenda who finds her eagerness to fight to be a little charming. --- “Did you always know what form you wanted your magic to be?” She asks. “Not exactly, it’s not so much a pick and choose it’s more a case of what type of magic fits your personality, a person who prefers to have both feet on solid ground, and is no nonsense, would have a hard time seeing into the duat” Selina nods. She doesn’t completely understand what the duat is, as far as she can glean it’s something of an inner world that runs parallel to the physical world, parts of it can be used to mask parts of the mythological world from human eyes. She later tells him that the shield that hides the mythological world is called ‘the mist’ in roman and Greek mythologies. Which he argues is the ‘stupidest name he’s ever heard of’. To which she replies that it’s just a good a name as Duat. To which they both glare then proceed to glare at eachother, before the pair of them break out laughing. --- “Ha, ha, ha” “It’s not funny!” “Really? cause from my point of view it’s hilarious” “My brother was traumatised.” Selina sobers when she here’s that. “Really?” “OK he’s very freaked out, a baby just appears the fuck out of nowhere, with Athena telling him it’s his.” “Did she explain how?” “Something about the joining of minds and souls, or something, I don’t know, Fredrick was too freaked out to make much sense.” "Well Athena was born through Zeus's head..." She says with a shrug." "He tried to give the baby back, and have the girl raised on Olympus" "I'm sure Athena was pleased" "She refused to take the baby back." Natalie said softly. "And threatened to curse Fredrick to a lifetime of failure if he dared ask that of her again." "Yeah, the gods don't like their gifts rejected, what's the girl's name?" "He's decided to name her Annabeth..." "Least she'll have a cool aunt..." "And cousin" "What?" "I'm pregnant with Frey's child" ... "Congratulations" Silena says unsure of what else she should say. ---     Johnny smiles at her and takes her hand. “I have something I need to ask of you.” “You can ask me anything Johnny.” He get’s down on one knee and a ring box in his hand. “Will you marry me?” She smiles. “Of course!” She says. He slips the ring on her finger before he gives her a kiss.   

Chapter 14

Greetings fellow Toonami anime fans! I am now keeping those of ya who cannot get CN's Adult Swim Toonami on TV informed and up to date on Toonami's eppys each week. From now on, I am going to be posting updates weekly (Usually on Sundays) here at FB and Twitter as well as at Gaia's Chatterbox.

First off here's the new ASToonami schedule (All times Eastern):

11 PM: Dragon Ball Super

11:30 PM: Dragon Ball Z Kai

12:00 M: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

12:30 AM: Gundam:Iron-Blooded Orphans)(NEW)(Season 2)

1:00 AM: Hunter x Hunter

1:30 AM: Lupin III Part IV

2:00 AM: Naruto Shippuden

2:30 AM: Outlaw Star

3:00 AM: Cowboy Bebop

3:30 AM: Ghost/Shell:2nd Gig

Samurai Jack has been terminated but this coming 28-29 October Hall-o-we'en weekend, Toonami is airing a marathon of the final season of this long anime series.

Updates for 18-19 Nov 2017:

DBSuper:  Universe 6 is finally defeated by U 7 when Beerus's 'secret weapon' team member (The lil pink shrimpy guy) somehow 'defeats' Hit. Actually, Hit is merely repaying Goku who deliberately stepped out of the ring when Beerus refused to change the rules and allow killing meaning Hit could not use full strength nor could Goku. So when Monama narely hit Hit's thigh, Hit howled in agony and leaped from the ring, handing the title to U 7 and Beerus's team. This enraged Champa who swore he would destroy all of his weak team members. Goku was forbidden to interfere- by Beerus. Suddenly, the Omni King of all 12 Universes appeared and Beerus, Champa and most everyone present save for Goku & pals and the 2 Angels bowed to this lil pipsqueak kid! Goku said 'howdy lil guy!' and actually shook hands w/ the kid. The King decided that this tourney had bee such great fun, he dcreed an all out play-off Tournament of Power amongst all 12 Universes soon. U 7's prize was a wish for Beerus from the golden super dragon balls dragon. Champa handed ober his 6 balls (each one a thousand times larger than ordinary balls) but nobody could find #7 even on Bulma's DB Radar set which showed all 7 balls together. Then Monama said they were not looking at the overall big picture so off they were all whisked high above the stadium where it soon became apparent they had been fighting on Ball #7! Begrudgingly, Bulma gave Whis and Beerus the incantation to summon Super Shenron which must be given in the 'Divine Language' unknown to any but gods and angels. Summoned, the dragon swallowed everyone! However, Whis told them this was the only way to 'see' the dragon who was the size of a few galaxies! Beerus told Bulma he wished for a decent bed but secretly he wished for his brother's U 6 Earth to be made habitable again and repeopled. What's next? Find out soon!

DBZ Kai:  Trunks and Goten finally master fusion and become GoTenks while Buu continues his rampages across the Earth. When Goku and Gohan somehow break the Z Sword, the Supreme Kai from 15 generations ago is released who promises to imbue Gohan with the power to defeat Buu. Gotenks is unable to even put a dent in Buu and he returns to the Lookout. This enrages Piccolo because Goku gave up his full time on Earth to teach his son and Vegeta's son fusion to defeat the monster. Meanwhile, Mr Satan tries to placate Buu w/ poisoned chocolates, exploding video games and finally, becomes Buu's servant. Some hero huh? Buu's 'servant' finally shows Buu he must not destroy and kill and it works fine until a vicious hunter kills Buu's new pet puppy dog. Meanwhile, back to training for the impetuous GoTenks who arrives at Buu's place just in time for Fusion to wear off. Back to the Lookout where Trunks is bandaged by Mama Bulma while poor GoTen gets a bare bottom spanking from Mama ChiChi. On Kai World, Gohan's training continues- all he needs to do is sit still- for another 20 hours! The Supreme Kai from 15 generations back keeps falling asleep while transferring power to Gohan via mind send which is similar to Trek's 'mind meld' technique.

Jojo's BA: The latest Stand is a witch! Polnreff is almost killed by Centrefold's Mama's 'Justice' Stand which can reanimate the dead! This is in revenge because Polnareff killed her son- Centrefold. Jotaro to the rescue! When Mama nicks JoJo, he uses his Hamon powers to easily defeat her. Next stop- Egypt and DIO! The gang takes Mama along for questioning.

Gundam:Iron-Blooded Orphans: Orca now leads Tekkaman's kids as advisors to the now allies Gallahorn but all is not so peaceful.  After defeating the Dawn Horizon pirates, Orca and Miyazuki confront the leader of the Liberatis group (Allendium) who sent the DH pirates against Tekkadan and Gjallahorn. Miyazuki kills Allendium. Meanwhile, theprincess discusses the future with her friend on Earth. Tekkadan defends the new Arbrau Defense Force and Mars's princess returns with them to Mars. A war of attrition betwixt Arbrau/Tekkadan/Gjallahirn vs the Imperial Armies but beware! Does Tekkadan have a traitour in their midst?

Hunter x Hunter:  Despite losing a hand and sustaining varying injuroes, Gon finally defeats Genthru the Bomber Hunter. Using Angel's Breath cards, Bisky, Killua and Gon heal their enemy team trio and Gon. However, Killua opts to let nature and time heal his own injured hands. The game of Greed Island is now over for Gon/Killua/Bisky so it's party time! What now eh?

Lupin III: Lupin and friends which include the MI6 former agent Nick are all after the 'Dragon's Tail (a list of MI6 Agents worldwide) for different reasons- Lupin for money and Nick to save his daughter who is being used as a hostage by his former MI6 boss. In the end, Lupin saves the day and Nick finishes off his evil former boss man.

Naruto S:  More reminiscing from Naruto while they rebuild the Leaf Village. Naruto recalls coaching a Vendetta swordsman and  both learn a valuable lesson from the supposed Vendetta rival clansman.

Outlaw Star:  The MacDougall Bros are back! Harry challenges Gene to a one on one battle: His ElDorado vs Gene's Outlaw Star only Harry won't play fair! Aisha to the rescue?

Cowboy Bebop:  Jett returns w/ a bounty head to Ganymede where he once served as an ISSP cop 'Black Dog' and finally cuts his ties w/ ex wife Elisa. Jett renews his friendship w/ fellow ISSP cop Donnelly. Spike goes after a bounty (Now Elisa's BF who has killed a loan shark for his GF) only to run into Jett. Faye suns herself while Ed races all over the place. An important eppy because from Jett's 15 hour watch we learn that a solar day on Ganymede (A moon of Jupiter) is 30 hours long!

Ghost/Shell: 2nd Gig:  AI controlled choppers rebel and surround a refugee area of the city, firing at anything that moves! Enter the mysterious Gohda who explains how to stop them. Who is this ugly cyborg dude?

No video games this week. The weekend of 25-26 November is a holiday weekend so another marathon- DragonBall Z Kai.

See ya next time, gang. Tell your friends about my updates.- The Keiman.

Remember the Black Lagoon gang? They may be coming back to my fanficcys sooner than you think! Happy ThanksForGiving Day! BTW, anyone know of any anime series that have Thanksgiving eppies? I have the Naruto TG pix but not a clue which eppy it hails from, man! 

What They Don’t Understand

Figured I’d actually toss up one of my earliest works. Think this was, like, the 4th or 5th thing I wrote. And it did not feature the usual characters. Yep, that’s right, It’s a GoChi fic. Well, less a story than kinda shilling for their relationship via the characters (heh) but a GoChi shill! Maybe you’ll at least find it entertaining.

A young boy about the age of eight sat outside his home, running his fingers through his black hair that was finally starting to grow out of a rather unattractive bowl cut while listening to the voices of his parents coming from inside the house. They were fighting. Again. And his dad hadn't been home longer than a week.

Well, perhaps fighting wasn't the appropriate word; in all actuality, they were arguing. Once again, it was about him; his mother felt he was spending too much time training, not enough studying and his father was of the opinion that he was doing fine. Now, Gohan did have to admit that he'd been slacking on his particular end of their deal; he'd be allowed to train with Piccolo and his father, but only if he did a set amount of schoolwork per day. But, at the same time, he was YEARS ahead of anyone else his age. He could hold off on picking up a single book for the next four years and still be considered advanced for his age But, once again his mother had noted this fact and threatened to rescind their deal, and his dad had jumped in, saying that he was doing fine with what he had accomplished so far that week

Now, they were arguing again and he couldn't stand it.

Normally, this wouldn't have bothered him. Normally, he'd just shrug it off as his parents being… well, his parents. But now, after what the others had said, it worried him.

Not more than ten minutes ago, a group of kids about his age had passed through the area on a nature hike, part of some scouting organization or other. Gohan had relished the opportunity to talk to them; after all, his mom was always encouraging him to make some friends his own age, and though he considered Krillin and Piccolo to be very close, he had to admit it would be nice to hang out with someone his own age. Granted, Piccolo wasn't technically much older than he was, but still. Besides, playing catch or chasing butterflies wasn't exactly the large Namek's idea of fun.

Well, he'd finally had a chance to meet those kids and things had gotten off to a pretty good start, when the first shouts had come from inside the house. The result was the other children leaving quite quickly, but not before saying some things that worried him.

The house fell suddenly, quiet as Gohan began to dread what had occurred, when an entirely new sound began to come from the house, a sound that was of a different nature, but was still quite disturbing to his young mind. It never ceased to amaze him how his parents could go from fighting one minute to… to doing THAT the next. A disturbing thought indeed, but it did bring him a little comfort. It was certainly better than hearing those two fighting.

The noise was rather short-lived, as Goku soon came walking out the front door, that same dopey grin on his face as he called out at the top of his lungs, not realizing that his son was actually only a few feet away from the door.

"GOOOOHAAAN! DINNER"S ALMOST READY!"

The boy clamped his hands firmly over his ears and resisted the urge to jump out of his skin. One fact could not be denied, even by Vegeta: if nothing else, his father had the strongest set of LUNGS in the universe…

Gohan released his ears and looked up at his father. "Um, I'm right here, Dad."

Goku put his hand behind his head and laughed sheepishly. "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Well, c'mon, food's almost done." He waggled his eyebrows at him. "Mom made your favorite…"

Gohan just looked back down at the ground and began to trace light patterns in the dirt with his finger. "Yeah. I'll be there in a sec."

Goku's eyes widened a bit at that statement. Gohan, like him, had never been one to refuse a meal, especially when it was his favorite. It didn't take a genius, thank God, to know that something was wrong with the boy. He sat down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Gohan turned to look at his father, not quite sure where to begin. So many questions were running through his mind right now, he didn't know which to voice. Finally, he managed to come right out and ask. "Are you and Mom gonna… are you gonna get divorced?"

Goku's eyes flew open in shock. "What?! No! What in the world gave you that idea?!"

"Well, there were these kids that came this way earlier and they heard you two arguing. One of the girls asked me if you guys did that a lot because her parents used to do that before they got a divorce, a-and I'm worried that…" Gohan trailed off as he fought back the urge to cry.

Goku placed a hand over his face and sighed. He somehow knew this talk would come sooner or later, but not like this. "Gohan, your mother and I love each other very much. We're not gonna get a divorce."

"But…" Gohan became quiet again as his father held up a hand for silence.

"I know, it seems like we argue a lot, and we do. But that doesn't mean we don't love each other, and it certainly doesn't mean we don't love you. It's just…" he paused, looking for the right words. "It's just that, your Mom and I, well… we can be stubborn at times. And sometimes, when you have two stubborn people who have two different positions on a subject, they'll argue. But, nobody gets along all the time, Gohan. Heck, Bulma, Krillin, Yamcha and I practically grew up together, and we fought all the time! But, we're all still friends, aren't we?"

Gohan nodded and sniffled a little as his father continued. "And I know that a lot of the things we seem to disagree on revolve around you, but I want you to know it's not your fault, okay?"

He wrapped an arm around his son in a gentle hug. "Your mom and I both love you and want what's best for you. It's just that we disagree on how to go about that."

He smiled down at his son. "Mom just wants to make sure that you don't end up like me in the sense that, well, aside from fighting, I really don't have marketable skills. Granted, the way I was raised I didn't really have an opportunity for an edu- uh- education? Yeah, that's it. I kinda had an excuse, but there's a price to pay for that. Unless there's a tournament that's held somewhere, we don't really have an income. Fact is, we've actually had to live off Grandpa for a while now.

"But one day, you're gonna meet a girl…" Gohan made a face at that statement. Him, with a girl? Gross!

Goku smiled at his son's reaction. "Yeah, you might think that now, but one day you're gonna meet a girl and have a family of your own. Mom wants to make sure you can provide for them, and I agree with her. I do think she can be a little strict at times, but she's only doing it because she loves you."

Gohan then decided to ask his next question. "But, what about what people say about the way Mom acts? I mean, Vegeta says she's a crazy lady and stuff because she's always getting mad at us for doing what he says Saiyans are supposed to do..."

Goku winced, knowing full well what the 'and stuff' was that Gohan was referring to. Saying it to him was one thing, but to say it to Gohan…

"Look, Son, your mom only does that because she's worried about us."

Gohan looked confused. "But, Mom knows you're a Super Saiyan now. Why's she still worried?"

'Time for a history lesson,' Goku thought to himself as he searched his mind for the best possible answer. "Son, you know your Mom and I were only 17 when we were married, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And you remember what happened to me when the Saiyans showed up, don't you?"

Gohan remembered that painful experience all too well. "Yes…"

Goku looked down at his son, a tinge of sadness in his eyes. "Well, when that happened, your mom and I had only been together for five years. She was only 22 years old and she became a widow. That's not exactly pleasant. Before that, all we ever had to worry about was Piccolo, and he seemed to be too busy sulking to ever try to attack us again. Even if he did, he was nothing all of us put together couldn't handle if had doubled his power. So to your mom, losing me hadn't really been an issue. Then you came along and she just couldn't stop pining over you." He smiled at his son. "And I've got the baby pictures to prove it.

"Then the Saiyans arrive and suddenly, I'm dead and you're 'kidnapped' by the one she had always thought to be the greatest threat to her family. It wasn't easy on her, living here all alone. She couldn't really be visited by anyone, either, since they were busy preparing for Vegeta to arrive; Bulma came out when she could, though.

"Your mother pretty much lost us both for a full year, and the next time she saw us, we were almost dead again! If I were on the other end, I might get a little overprotective, too. She just wants to make sure we're both gonna stick around for a while."

Goku looked at Gohan and spoke the next words with all seriousness. "Son, I want you to know that you can't take everything Vegeta says seriously; he's just bitter. No matter what anyone says, to you, you should be proud to have her as a mother." He then seemed to switch topics. "Did you know that most men marry women like their mothers?" He scratched his head as he thought. "At least that's what Bulma spouted to us from her girly magazines that she always read on the island. We never really got the concept, since we never really got to know our parents. But, if my Mom was anything like Chi-Chi, then I'd say I was proud to have a mom who loved me that much."

Gohan looked at his father in a state of shock and awe. This was a side of him he'd never seen before. His grandiose thoughts were pushed aside, however, when he heard his father's stomach give a loud lurch.

Goku let out another laugh. "Wow, sounds like someone's getting impatient!" He stood up and offered his hand to Gohan. "C'mon, let's go get some food!"

He couldn't help but smile as he took his father's hand and pulled himself up off the ground. Sure, some people might think his parents seemed strange, but he knew better. They weren't really any different than anyone else; it was their circumstances that were different. It was a concept some people just didn't understand.

He was greeted upon entering the kitchen by a smile from his mother. "Well, it's about time you two got in here. I was about to go out and get you." She closed her eyes and her smile grew slightly. "Unfortunately, I had to pack your dinner up to take with you."

Gohan was slightly confused by that last statement. "Huh? Why'd you do that?"

"You're going to Grandpa's house for a few days, sweetie." She gave a sly smile to her husband. "It's that time of the month again."

Gohan regarded the way his parents looked at each other and remembered the noises coming from the house earlier that day as realization dawned on him. Without another word, he rushed up the stairs to grab his bag that he always kept packed for such a time as this.

'Then again,' he thought to himself, 'maybe there are some things about Mom and Dad that even I'M better off not knowing.'

How Master Roshi's Sacrifice in "Dragon Ball Super" Keeps the Original Manga's Lessons Alive

Spoilers for Dragon Ball Super episode 105 follow!

    When you think about Dragon Ball's Muten Roshi-sama—AKA Master Roshi, the Turtle Hermit, Kame-Sennin, or whatever you've grown up calling him personally—you probably think about "pichi-pichi gals," or nosebleeds, or any other manner of perverted musings. If you've been following Akira Toriyama's series from the beginning, though, you also think about one of the strongest martial artists, and best teachers, of all time. In the original Dragon Ball manga, Roshi went to extreme lengths to teach Goku and Krillin how to better themselves, and it all came to an impressively emotional head in episode 105 of Dragon Ball Super.  

    While we're smack dab in the middle of Super's high-stakes Tournament of Power arc, there's no better time to look back at Toriyama's original tournament scenarios. The Tenka'ichi Budōkai, or World Martial Arts Tournament, first kicked off in chapter 34 of Dragon Ball, way back in July of 1985, and was adapted in the anime starting with episode 20. While Goku seemed like a pudgy, non-threatening child at the time, none of his opponents could possibly predict how powerful he actually was. Muten Roshi put both him and Krillin through the wringer as far as training was concerned, from moving colossal rocks to transporting milk jugs and performing the type of farm work typically reserved for heavy-duty machinery. 

  But the true lesson Roshi bestowed upon our squat little heroes would come closer to the end of the tournament. Under the not-so-subtle guise of a contestant named Jackie Chun, Roshi entered the arena himself, going up against a hodge-podge of enemies while attempting to divert any suspicion that he may, in fact, be the invincible master himself. I mean, seriously, who could possibly get these two mixed up?!

    While one might initially suspect Roshi's intention was to prove he can beat up his own students—or maybe just find some roundabout way to get Bulma to give him a cheeky peek at something—his deceptive plan had a much more potent purpose behind it. After all, if he just wanted to wallop Goku and Krillin he could have entered under his own identity. Instead, Roshi wanted to show these young, incredibly bright and powerful students that, no matter how strong they get, there will always be a bigger challenge on the horizon. Rather than letting this tournament go to their heads, he wanted to show just how dangerous the world is, encouraging them to work harder and bounce back from defeat. 

  In case you couldn't tell from the hundreds of planet-leveling and evil-defeating episodes that followed, it worked. Thanks to Roshi's clever means of instruction and encouragement, Goku was eventually able to stand up against the first true world-dominating threat of the series, the mighty Piccolo. 

    These and other lessons came flooding back in Dragon Ball Super episode 105, "A Desperate Battle! Master Roshi's Sacrifice!!" While it seemed as if Roshi was on a roll in this one—handily taking down Universe 4 warrior Caway, despite the fact that she briefly managed to break through his supposedly newfound willpower against seduction—the situation turned dire rather quickly. 

    His second opponent, also hailing from Universe 4, was talisman user Dercori. She proved to be a more formidable foe thanks to her illusory powers, which had an immediate impact on Roshi's ability to fight effectively.

    A victory pretty much seemed in the bag for Dercori when she used Roshi's own shadow to lock him in place like a far-flung alien version of the Nara Clan's Shadow Imitation Technique. That's when Roshi reached way back into his Dragon Ball bag of tricks to bust out the legendary Mafūba, or Evil Containment Wave, which was first used to trap King Piccolo in a rice cooker. The second time he attempted to use the move on King Piccolo… he died! Such is the power of this containment technique, for those wondering why Krillin was so concerned when he attempted the same against Dercori. 

  This isn't the only time the Mafūba has reared its head in Super. It seems like a decade ago that we were dealing with the fearsome Zamasu, but Future Trunks eventually managed to use the move against him in episode 64, however temporary the solution may have been. 

  1988:

  2016:

  2017: 

  As taxing as this may have been on Roshi, he managed to move on to fight his third opponent of the day after going 2-0 in the tourney. And, as if to smooth out Krillin's furrowed brow in one fell swoop, he showed just how fresh he was feelin' after that bottle-poppin' Mafūba. 

    Unfortunately, his next opponent was another Universe 4 bruiser, and he wasn't happy at all about watching his two friends face defeat. Yes, it's true, Ganos looks like a 'roided-up reject from Duckburg when he transforms, but he's also one of those enemies who gets progressively stronger as the clock ticks away. 

    As predictable as his moves were, Ganos ultimately pushed Roshi to the edge, nearly pummeling him to dust before forcing him to bust some of his most fearsome moves. Roshi even tried to put Ganos to sleep through hypnosis, another throwback to the original series, but we know that only really works on Goku.

  1986:

  2017:

  When the time came to use the ultimate Kamehama, the legendary blast appeared to be his final undoing. Despite a clear victory that shot Ganos straight into the stratosphere, Roshi collapsed shortly after. The moment prior, however, gave him plenty of time to call out to his former students, encouraging them once more, and even echoing the lessons he learned from them in turn. "You two are the ones who taught me that this old man still has a future and it's too early to decide my limits," he said with pure determination. "You're the ones who taught me that by continuing to aim for higher heights." 

  They were able to do that, of course, because of the lasting lesson Roshi taught them as Jackie Chun. 

  His parting advice; words to live by: 

  Roshi didn't die, of course. Major characters rarely die in the Dragon Ball universe, and when they do we know there's a good chance we'll see them again one day. It might have been a powerful death for the character otherwise, but it'll take more than a strong-stronger-strongest clod like Ganos to spell the end of the Turtle Hermit. 

  His sacrifice remains just that, though; a fitting tribute to his legacy in Toriyama's long-running series. Just as he once did under the shroud of Jackie Chun, Roshi pushed himself beyond his limit to protect Goku, Krillin, and the rest of the Universe 7 team (yes, even Freeza, I suppose). He knew an enemy that gets more powerful by the second would end up proving a potentially unstoppable force at some point, so he took him out by any means necessary. 

  Muten Roshi: For that, and for the decades of dedicated teaching that somehow even manage to overshadow your legendarily lecherous livelihood, we salute you! 

     -------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. You can read his webcomic, BIG DUMB FIGHTING IDIOTS at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.

By: [email protected]

24 with............ broly/raditz ;)

“Oh my God, you’re in love with them!”

Yamcha plopped down on the bench next to Raditz and leaned back against the table. “So what’s eating you?”

Raditz glared at him. “Nothing.”

“Dude, you’re bouncing your leg hard enough to set off a Richter scale. You only do that when something’s bothering you. So what’s up? Maybe I can help.” Yamcha grinned at him. Something in Raditz’s gut clenched. It had been years since he’d first arrived on Earth, since he kidnapped his nephew and tried to eradicate all life on the planet. In that time, he’d tried to prove he was worthy of everything Kakarott had done for him. He’d fought monsters that far outstripped him in power, he’d died trying to set things right. (He came back, but he’d still died.) But that wasn’t enough for him. He didn’t deserve the friendliness offered to him by Kakarott’s friends, by his nephew.

By Broly, of all people.

“It’s nothing,” he said, “don’t worry your pretty head over it.”

Yamcha glared at him. “Look, I’m trying to be nice here. You’ve gotta talk about your feelings and shit with somebody and it may as well be me. You really want to hash your feelings out with Goku? Or worse, Vegeta? How about Piccolo, or Tien, or one of the other emotionally repressed assholes we keep hanging out with?” Raditz grimaced. None of those sounded appealing. Yamcha slugged him in the arm. “Come on, you can talk to me. I promise not to laugh.”

Raditz glanced across the park to where Broly was receiving meditation lessons from Piccolo. Ever since he’d crashed on Earth, he’d been making the same efforts as Raditz. Honestly, Raditz understood. There was something about Earth that made you want to protect it, even though it was as backwoods as planets got and probably wouldn’t even join the intergalactic community for a few more decades at best. It was quaint. And apparently, even the Legendary Super Saiyan himself wasn’t immune to its qualities.

That, at least, made him feel a little better.

“It’s like this,” he said, carefully choosing his words. “Now that Broly’s here, I feel like I should…I don’t know, try to be closer to him, I think? He’s one of only four remaining full-blooded Saiyans. And really…of all of us, I’m the oldest left. I’m the only one who remembers some of our traditions and stuff. Vegeta knows because Nappa made us learn, but he doesn’t care, and getting Kakarott to sit still long enough to learn anything takes either a miracle or six tons of rock.” Yamcha snorted. “But Broly–I don’t know. I just want to talk to him, I think. But he’s avoiding me because I look like Kakarott, and it bothers me. I’m not really sure why.”

Yamcha patted his shoulder sympathetically. “I’m sure Broly will warm up to you, Raditz. Hell, if Chi-Chi can, so can he.” He laughed and Raditz scowled. “Look, just go over and say hi, okay? It’s not hard. Maybe ask if you can join in the meditation lessons.”

Raditz bared his teeth. “I hate meditation.” Most Saiyans hated sitting still by nature. Their blood called for action, for violence–meditation wasn’t something they generally put much stock in. The only reason Broly was agreeing to it was in an attempt to calm and control his insane power. “Besides, Piccolo still doesn’t like me.”

“Piccolo doesn’t like anyone except Gohan; I wouldn’t take it personally.” Raditz snorted. “Go on, it’ll be fun! Well, okay, not fun, but it’ll be a start, anyway.”

Reluctantly, Raditz pulled himself to his feet. “If this goes badly, I’m blaming you.”

“Sure, whatever.” Yamcha waved him off. “Knock ‘em dead. Actually wait, no, don’t do that.”

“Too late,” Raditz called over his shoulder, sauntering towards Broly and Piccolo.

Broly looked up when Raditz approached and Piccolo immediately slapped his knee. “Concentrate, dammit,” he muttered.

“Raditz is here,” Broly said quietly, pointing.

Piccolo cracked an eye open and glared. “What?”

Raditz folded his arms. “I want to join in. That a problem?”

Broly perked up and turned to Piccolo. “Can he?”

Piccolo eyed Raditz, then sighed and closed his eye again. “Fine. So long as you’re quiet.”

Broly was becoming a problem.

Or, well, it wasn’t Broly himself that was the problem, if Raditz was being honest, but if there was one thing Raditz was good at it was not being honest with himself. He’d succeeded with his original plan of talking to Broly, getting a little closer to him, finding out more about him. And Broly was actually a really interesting guy. He was a lot quieter than Raditz expected when he wasn’t a screaming rage monster. He listened when Raditz talked–really listened, not just pretend-listening so Raditz would go away faster, or pity-listening. He seemed genuinely interested in Raditz and what he had to say.

And he was cute. Raditz wasn’t going to deny that. Broly was downright cute when he wasn’t the Legendary Super Saiyan, and having seen his other form Raditz could safely say that even as the Legendary Super Saiyan he was still hot as hell. He hated shirts in the same way that Raditz hated long pants, refusing to wear them unless strictly necessary.

The thing was that there was a sadness to him, a distance in his eyes, even when he was paying close attention to what was happening. Raditz could recognise it as the look of someone afraid of getting attached because they’re used to having what they want ripped from them without warning. He could empathize with it.

Broly laughed at Raditz’s jokes. Raditz prided himself on his awful, awful puns, sometimes getting into a pun-off with Yamcha to the dismay of everyone around them. And Broly laughed at every single one.

No, Broly himself wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Broly was perfect.

“Oh my God,” Yamcha said when Raditz told him all of this. “You’re in love with him.”

Raditz wrinkled his nose. “I am not.”

“You are!” Yamcha laughed and Raditz scowled. “Holy shit, you are totally in love with him! That’s…that’s fucking hilarious oh my God.”

“When you’re done laughing at my expense,” Raditz snapped, “I’m not in love with Broly. It’s just that he’s fucking perfect and it’s making me feel even more inferior than usual, jackass. Thanks for wrecking my day.”

“Okay, first of all.” Yamcha sat up straight, totally serious. “Broly is not perfect. I mean yeah he’s got the Legendary thing going for him, which is cool I guess, but the guy can barely talk without running away, he’s literally freeloading at the Lookout until further notice because Goku begged Piccolo and Dende to let him, and he is the clumsiest person I’ve ever seen. Seriously, just yesterday I watched him bump into a china cabinet of Mrs. Briefs’s and almost cry about it. That kid’s got issues, Raditz. He’s not perfect.”

Raditz hesitated. None of that sounded all that bad to him.

“Secondly,” Yamcha continued, “you should ask him out.”

Raditz looked flatly at him. “Absolutely not.”

“Oh, come on! It’d be fun!” Yamcha leaned in conspiratorially. “I bet he’s a real monster in bed, you know.”

He could feel his face turning red. “That’s not–no, I’m–look, you don’t get it. Even if I wanted to ask him out, which I don’t, he’s so much stronger than me.” Yamcha raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t mean much to you, but for Saiyans strength is everything. There’s too big a gap between us. And his father was decently high-ranking, or at least higher than my parents. So there’s that. I can’t ask him out. Not that I want to,” he added hastily. “It’s just…annoying, that he’s so great, that’s all.”

The smirk Yamcha gave him told him he wasn’t convinced. “Okay, sure. Whatever you say.” He stood up from the table and stretched. “Well, I guess I’m heading out. Say hi to Goku and Chi-Chi for me.”

“Raditz!”

Raditz pulled his blanket over his head. It was too early to be dealing with his sister-in-law’s yelling.

“Raditz, march your keister down here right this minute, bucko!”

He groaned and sat up, blinking blearily at the clock on the wall. It was definitely too early for this. He didn’t bother getting dressed, deciding that Chi-Chi could deal with his star-printed boxers and worn-thin t-shirt as punishment for waking him so early. He dragged himself down the stairs, rubbing groggily at his face.

“Whatever you want better be important,” he started as he walked into the living room. What he saw immediately woke him up the rest of the way.

Broly stood in the middle of the living room, hands awkwardly at his sides. He perked up when Raditz made eye contact. Chi-Chi stood in front of him, glaring between Broly and Radiz. “He said he’s here to see you,” she said curtly. “Whatever it is, you two are settling this outside, and away from the house, you hear? If you’re going to get into fights I want you to leave my house out of it.”

“Oh, I’m not here to fight, ma’am,” Broly reassured her.

Chi-Chi seemed to relax at being addressed as ‘ma’am.’ “Well, take it outside anyway. Raditz, you can come have breakfast when you’re done.” She shooed them out of the house and shut the door behind her.

Raditz turned to Broly. “What the hell are you doing here?” Broly looked down and scratched his nose instead of replying. “Uh, Base 633 to Broly, you there?” He waved a hand in front of Broly’s face.

“Do you really think all those nice things about me?” Broly blurted.

Raditz blinked, then realisation dawned. “Y-you–have you been talking with Yamcha?”

Broly looked up at him with a smile, timid but wide. “Maybe.”

“I’m gonna kill him.” Raditz ran a hand through his hair and stalked around in a circle. “I’m gonna kill him and his stupid cat.”

“Don’t,” Broly said, putting a hand on Raditz’s arm. Raditz almost flinched away, but held his ground. “If he hadn’t said anything I might not have known my feelings were returned.”

Wait.

“F-feelings?” he stammered. “You have–what kind of feelings?”

Broly stepped towards him and his smile brightened when Raditz didn’t move back. “Raditz, son of Bardock and Gine, would it be alright if I started courting you?”

A million thoughts and feelings flashed through Raditz’s mind at once–this was wrong, they were of completely different levels, they couldn’t be together, he didn’t like Broly like that, but yes he did, and who cared, they were on Earth now, they could play by Earth’s rules–before he nodded. “I think I’d like that.”

Broly’s smile was as perfect as the rest of him. “Courting starts now,” he murmured, and then his lips were on Raditz’s in a kiss Raditz hadn’t realised he’d been waiting for.

How it started

I have always felt a deep connection to music ever since I was young. My mom described my kicking in the womb as if someone was playing the piano in her tummy. My dad played the trumpet in the army and got to play for the president of Vietnam. He strongly believed music heals the soul and so when I was 5, despite us being tight on money, my dad asked me if I wanted to learn how to play the piano. I said yes!!! I had a Sunday school teacher who was also Vietnamese taught piano on the side. Through her, I learned basic piano skills on a small keyboard set up in my room. However, after a year, I had to stop taking lessons from her because she lived too far for my family.

A few years go by and my uncle tells my dad that he should sign me up for piano lessons with a Caucasian woman who lived in the same town that my cousin is taking lessons from. I was so excited to be having formal piano lessons again. Her name was Jane Ellingson and she was so kind to me even though I was very shy. My cousin and I performed recitals together and went to piano music festivals together for judging. I scored Superior (5) four years in a row and got a little trophy for it. 

Through piano, I fell in love with the flute and violin when I was about 12 years old. At my school, they only had the flute because there were no programs for orchestra (until after I graduated...of course!). The band teacher gave me a flute to rent and ended up waiving the fee, and gave me some extra books to practice and I picked it up almost immediately. I quickly became first chair in the school band all throughout middle school and high school. I love that feeling of being a part of the band and creating music together in a beautiful, harmonious way. I eventually learned how to play the oboe and piccolo for concert band and the alto saxophone for jazz band as well!

When I was 14, my parents lost their jobs and eventually I stopped piano lessons as it became too expensive for my parents. I went to college at 16, and I did not have as much time to practice as before. We eventually moved and I sold my piano so we could have some extra cash. When I graduated college, the first thing I did was save up for a Clavinova electric piano (so that I can wear headphones and practice without bothering anyone). Someday, I will get my real, baby grand piano! So ever since then, I’ve played my piano maybe once a few months. However, I have a new goal: learn 2 classical pieces every year! Right now, I am learning Clair de Lune. It is one of my favorite classical songs. My new profound love for piano is restored! 

I learned the piano, I learned the flute (and a few other instruments!), and the only missing piece is the violin. Why not start now? So yesterday, I looked up local violin teachers and contacted a woman that seemed kind, patient, relatively close and affordable. I will update on my journey through learning the violin and revisiting my love for piano and flute.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Lyn Coffin

author of poetry, fiction, drama and translation has published more than thirty volumes of poetry and prose, most notably The First Honeymoon (Iron Twine Press), a collection of her short fiction, and her poetic translation of Shota Rustaveli’s 12th century epic (Poezia Press.) Lyn has twice been a Wordsworth Poet in Seattle. Her poetry has won an National Endowment for the Humanities award and a Michigan Council for the Arts grant. Individual poems have won various awards, including the Jeanne Lohmann Poetry Award and first prize in StAnza’s Scottish International Poetry Festival Muriel Sparks’ competition (2018).

Lyn’s poetry was part of the International Poetry Festival in Soria, Spain (8/2017). This Green Life, her New and Collected Poems, were featured at the 2018 Soria International Poetry Festival, which also celebrated the publishing of the collection in Spanish (Pregunta).

Lyn has had short plays produced on and off Broadway, Malaysia, Boston and Seattle. Her translation (along with Nato Alkhazashvili) of Dato Barbakadze’s “Still Life with Snow” won a translation award from the Georgian Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection.

Lyn’s fiction has been praised by Joyce Carol Oates and Alice Fulton, among others.​

“Falling off the Scaffold has, in a sense, no characters at all, only the projected personaes of two people unknown to each other; yet it respects the contours of reality and gives us, in a most unusual form, a story about illusion and self-deception.” – Joyce Carol Oates, from her Introduction to Best American Short Stories

​“Coffin’s fiction shows evidence of an original and delightful intelligence. Her lively and memorable characters speak as if they are possessed by forces slightly beyond their control, in voices brimming with wit, intelligence, cunning, and love. The structure of her stories unfolds with such grace that one forgets the skill it takes to produce such ‘effortless’ architecture.”

– Alice Fulton, Winner: American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature

She has taught at several American Universities, (Michigan, Detroit, Washington), as well as in Malaysia and Georgia (Ilya University). She has also taught translation and Creative Writing at The Shota Rustaveli Institute in Tbilisi. She helped launch the 1st official Mexican Book Fair in Toluca, (8/2015) and lectured at the American University in Cairo in (3/2016). Widely praised translations include Standing on Earth, by Mohsen Emadi, (PhonemeMedia Press), translated from Iranian, with the author’s collaboration (9/2016) and The Adventures of a Boy Named Piccolo (Salamura), by Archil Sulakauri, translated from Georgian with Veronica Muskheli. This book, featuring illustrations by Vaho Muskheli, was displayed at Bologna Book Fair (10/ 2016). (Transcendent Zero)

Lyn’s translations of Nikoloz Baratashvili are featured in a book published by The Museum of Literature in Tbilisi. This volume includes all Baratashvili’s original poems, Boris Pasternak’s Russian translations, and Lyn’s English translations. Professor Harsha Ram of Berkeley, a scholar of Georgian and American poetry, said “Overall, if one were to compare these translations to Pasternak’s, one could say that while among Pasternak’s translations there are genuine masterpieces… they also take radical liberties with the original, while Lyn Coffin has achieved her success without permitting her own poetic sensibility to muffle Baratashvili’s own plangent voice.”

The Interview

Who introduced you to poetry?

My father introduced me to poetry. He would give us kids a dollar for every poem we memorized. I believe my first attempt was- As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. I met him there again today. I wish to God he’d go away.” Poetry caught on with me like wildfire moving across a forest without harming the trees. I loved the sound of it, the magic of rhymes. And I had already been caught by metaphor. My first creative writing ever was done in response to a prompt in first or second grade. The teacher asked us to describe ourselves and I wrote something like: “I am rectangular and made of wood. There is a hole in my head where people pour in ink.” (Something like that.) The teacher was wildly enthusiastic but I remember a lot of the kids thinking I had misunderstood the assignment in describing a desk. My father’s taste in poetry was narrow- I only heard him thoroughly praise four “poems”- one the speech from Julius Caesar- “There is a tide in the affairs of men…” The second, Masefield’s “I must go down to the sea again.” Kipling’s If which usually petered out after six lines or so. And “The Ballad of Yukon Jake,” by Edward Paramore, Jr., a parody or whatever it is which was so successful my father constantly misremembered it as having been authored by Service himself. My father was a businessman who had left the halls of learning (Brown) rather early under interesting circumstances, and (as he would be the first to tell you)not the intellectual my mother was. But. He loved to recite poetry and loved to hear us recite it to him. I think once I got $2 for reciting “The Hollow Men” at dinner. I also had friends who knew and loved poetry, including one early boy friend who left a part of “death shall have no dominion” scrawled on a piece of note paper taped to our cottage door (I thought he had written it, which I believe was part of his somewhat nefarious intent). I remember my parents told our plumber on the phone they had left instructions for him and when he found my friend’s poetic offering, he tried to make sense of it in plumbing terms. There were also assorted teachers who introduced me to certain forms of poetry. I remember a professor of Greek talking about Sapphic lyrics, and being so inspired I wrote this: “Poetry is all around us, everywhere you look. Stems ending in a liquid Is a lesson in my grammar book.”

2. How aware were and are you of the dominating influence of older writers, traditional and contemporary?

One is never aware enough. Growing up, I was very aware of the presence of Carl Sandburg, and wrote a parody for the Miss Halls School yearbook about my life, told in Carl Sandburg fashion. A few months later, I got a letter from him praising my poem, but by then I had “moved on” and now was enamored of Robert Frost (I’ve never quite shaken him- especially “Design”- the darkest poem I think I’ve ever read)- so enamored of Frost that I threw away Sandburg’s letter (which had committed the unpardonable sin of not being written by Frost). I don’t know much- I especially regret my lack of knowledge of foreign poets. I’ve always been embarrassingly ignorant. One example (a prosaic one)- My cousin was reading a book- I asked her what it was and she said “The Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant”- “Oh,” I said. “Who’s that by?” A pause. “Well,” she said. “It’s by Guy de Maupassant.” Another pause. “Some people know him as Guy de Mo-pass-ann.”   “Oh, Him,” I said.) I have had the great good fortune to stumble upon or be given the chance to become familiar with two GREAT poets most Americans have never heard of- One is Jiri Orten, a Czech (Jewish) poet, killed in the Holocaust and Edward Hirsch has been a great supporter and wrote about Orten’s “A Small Elegy” in my translation in his “How to Read A Poem,” saying it was/is one of the poems he most loves. I hope readers will look up Orten- but avoid the “other” translation. The man means well, but English is not his native language and the translations are (imho) very bad. I also “ran into” the 12th century Georgian (as in the country) poet, Shota Rustaveli and his epic poem, The Knight in the Panther Skin. This is a fantastic narrative, written in shairi (an old Persian form which I also used in my translation; shairi is sixteen syllable lines, rhymed aaaa, bbbb, etc., etc.) Shota wrote 1661 quatrains. The translation took me well over two and a half years. But it won the SABA Award, and that was really nice. I have a dear ear/sensibility as far as Whitman goes and I am only lately learning to edge in to Ginsberg. I have a soft spot for Billy Collins. I’ve written several “paradelles,” and hope some day he will see my “Paradell on Love” and write me about it. (Billy, are you there?)

I wasn’t aware of Poets Against the War, which I think was a crucial movement, until I met Sam Hamill later in (I was going to say “his life,” but it was/is mine, as well)— I copy-edited Habitations and I’m really proud of that. I am minorly aware of contemporary Seattle poets. We have a really active scene here- Jed Myers comes to mind, Judith Roche, Michael Dylan Welch for haiku, Carolyne Wright, Sharon Cumberland. And an only partially-discovered Tom Brush. I love the work of Ilya Kaminsky and Alice Fulton. I am aware of the dominating presence of my teachers, especially Radcliffe Squires (almost forgotten) and Donald Hall.

3. What is your daily writing routine?

This answer is easy. I don’t have a daily writing routine, and I don’t want one. I don’t like routines. Even things I do like seem to pall when they’re on a regular, daily basis. Sometimes I write a whole lot, sometimes nothing. I try to pay heed to that small voice (of a devil, an imp, an angel) and write when I have something to say. I don’t believe (for myself) in journal-writing, or workshops that operate from “a prompt.” If a prompt is used, I ask that everyone who has written a response

(if he or she is willing) read the response to the group. I find it somehow crushing or discouraging to have bunches of people writing and then going on to write something else, without any Communication taking place. The belief seems to be that the act of writing is crucial but what is written doesn’t matter. But sooner or later, when one operates in such a context, I think one comes to feel- If the thing that is written doesn’t matter, neither does the act of producing it. (I hope this makes sense.) I think prompts and exercises make it easier for the writing teacher, but are (not to overstate things) death for the writer, especially a beginning writer. I had a friend who was a writing teacher with me at the University. His classes always involved prompts and his homework involved complicated exercises- “Write a scene in which two people talk and each has a secret he or she does not communicate to the other.”  I commented once that I don’t write like that, write in response to “prompts” and he said, “I don’t, either, but it makes writing easier to teach.” If students can’t come up with an idea, I suggest they plagiarize. If you try writing a story or a poem you have loved (unless you have it memorized), your writing will creep in around the edges. I like to compare the teaching of writing, and writing itself, with taking a class of young kids to the Natural History museum. And you’ve prepared this lecture on the Native American way of life and as you go in the door, one kid yells, “Hey, a dinosaur!” And they run off to the dinosaur room. You can try to corral them and force them to listen to your lecture. But I think it better to go with the urge, the instinct, and do an impromptu lesson on dinosaurs.

4. What motivates you to write?

Uh. Well- This is one of those questions. The standard answers I can think of- 1) I dunno, I just always have; 2) That’s like asking what motivates me to breathe. Writing with me goes back a long way- I’ve thought of myself as a writer, or known myself to be a writer, since first grade. Motivational questions are always difficult questions, I think- very complicated. “Why?” has many roots. Even something like “Why did you have cheerios for breakfast?” (as I did this morning) could be answered Because they were out of Rice Krispies. Because I’ve had too many eggs recently and wanted a change. Because I wanted something to put under fresh fruit. Because…. Well, you get the idea. I write because I can, because it seems to me one way I can contribute to the world,because nobody stops me, because I’m a terrible bowler. More seriously, I like reading and I admire authors and as a young child, I “wanted to do that.” Writing releases uncomfortable emotions in me. Writing satisfies uncomfortable ambitions in me. But really- in our end is our beginning- I dunno, I just always have.

5. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

When I think “young,” I’m thinking elementary or high school (first). Let’s start with the short stories- I remember three short stories that really made an impression on me, and only one of them is known to me now. That one, by Richard Connell (I just looked it up- I read it way before author’s names were important), is about a big game hunter who hunts another hunter. I don’t think that had any influence at all. I don’t remember the titles or the authors of the other two- One was about a civilization in the future that had one pill a year to eat- The baby in the family ate a bottle of them and blew up. The other story was about a husband who is cheating on his wife (this one was high school) and he “sports with his mistress in the shade” and then she asks him some question, and he responds that he sleeps around but he only shares ideas with his wife. I don’t think any of these stories had any influence on me at all. Ah. I know. The one story I read early which Did have an influence was “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Many times over in my life, including in “The Gift Horse,” which I think is the best short story I’ve ever written, I’ve written or tried to write stories that carry over into the afterlife, that don’t end when there main character or narrator dies. As for poetry, I read Sandburg quite a bit and ended up writing a Sandburg parody that was published in my high school yearbook. Somehow it ended up on Sandburg’s desk and he wrote me a short letter praising my poem and predicting great things for

But by the time (a year later?) I got the letter, I had moved on and discovered Robert Frost. I was embarrassed to be “found out” as a lover of Sandburg and I threw the letter away. (I wonder if there’s a copy somewhere in the Sandburg archives- Or a copy of my poem? If only….) “If” and “The Hollow Men” were great favorites. I feel that I’m failng this question (which interest me a lot), so let me quote my first “independent, non-assigned” poem as a way of making up for lost memories. (I wrote this in my first year at college): “Beyond night’s

harvest/ moon-scythed/ fierce tigers stalk./ Green glades/ deep rain-dark

woords/ sheathe cool white claws.” (I regret the “fierce” very much.)

One stray memory- I liked The Little Prince as a child and have read it

countless times, usually when I’m trying to learn a language.

Whether it’s influenced me, I don’t know. I love(d) the little fox,

especially where he discovers there are no hunters on the little prince’s

planet and is really excited about it. Then the little prince tells him

there are no chickens, either, and the little fox says, “Nothing

is perfect.” Ah. I remember one poet I read early who I also remember

had a big influence on me, and that was Stephen Crane. His little nugget

poems (“But the man ran on…”) or “I eat it because it is bitter/ And because

it is mine” (if I remember rightly) paved my way to haiku. I used to discuss

haiku with Sam Hamill, and I remember his brilliant translation of and

interpretation of the famous Bassho frog haiku. Sam explained that

the frog jumped into the sound of water, not the water itself. Somehow,

that explained a lot to me. I have written a lot of haiku. hummingbird/

hovering/ both of us….

6. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

I had the great good fortune to translate Standing on Earth, (Phoneme Media) the poems of Mohsen Emadi, an Iranian poet living in exile in Mexico. Mohsen’s work uniquely fascinates and inspires me. Mohsen knows more about everything literary than any other person I have ever met. Through Mohsen, I became acquainted with the work (in translation) of the great Spanish poet, Antonio Gamoneda. I came close to meeting this archetypal, mythic poet when I was in Spain last summer. I still hope I will be able to tell him in person how much I admire him.

Reading today’s writers is always something in flux. I will do a reading in Ann Arbor in March with Keith Taylor, and I admire him tremendously. I seem to gravitate to poetry of place, and his is definitely a “planted” voice. I admire a poet named Jed Myers, a Seattle poet. I remember when Jed was just starting out and now he has found his voice. Jed not only writes poetry but he reads a lot and always has suggestions for me. He writes essay from his double perspective of poet and psychiatrist. It was Jed who turned me on to Robert Wrigley. I’ve only read two poems by Robert Wrigley, and I loved both of them. I will be reading more. There is a poet in my poets’ group whose name is Tom Brush. He hasn’t published much, but his is a terrific, uncompromising presence in today’s poetry world. There is a wild and outrageously wonderful Georgian(as in the country) poet named Irakli Qolbaia- I think he’s published a few poems in France and a few in Georgia, but he is close to unkown. And wonderful. The last poet I would mention is Ilya Kaminsky. His poetry is wonderful and he himself is a spirit to inspire and lead us. I love his work. I notice there are no women on this list. I admire Judith Roche’s poetry- She is another Seattle friend. I knew Alice Fulton at Michigan. I loved her poetry then but I have lost track of her. I admire the poetry of Carolyn Forche but don’t know it really well. There is so little time and so much poetry to read!

7. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?

How do you become a dog owner? I’m being facetious, obviously, because the question is problematic, hovering halfway between “How did you become a writer?” and “How does one become a writer?” I became a writer by writing lots of stuff and having some people like it enough to publish it. “How does one become a writer?” Some people think writers are born, not made. If one keeps writing, one is a writer. If one calls oneself a writer, one is a writer. Actually, the more interesting question (to me) would be- When does one fail to become a writer (when one wants to be)? THe answer would be- I don’t know- Never? I know plenty of people who write gibberish (on the net, for instance) and are taken seriously as writers. When do you become an adult?- You can assign a year, a state of mind. My son once asked me- “When did you first feel old?” and I fired back, “When did you?” (He was about 30 at the time.) But the question is not Why but How? Is this asking for a recipe? There isn’t any. The closest we get these days is to keeping a journal, and I don’t believe in keeping a journal. There’s a joke/ riddle somewhere- “How do you get a dog out of a box?” Answer: He’s out. I’m not grasping this as I should, probably, but “How do you become a writer?” Answer: You’re a writer. How did you become one? A writer of what? For what? To what end? I’m glad this question comes so near the end, because I basically don’t get it. At least not the way it should be gotten.

8. Tell me about writing projects you’re involved in at the moment.

Ah. Writing projects at the moment are varied— even scattered, I think you could say…. First of all, I spent this evening going back over my novel, The Aftermath. A friend had helped me by marking up a manuscript— inserting quotes, taking out quotes, making various and sundry complaints. I fixed a lot of small stuff. I’m not sure I’ll be able to take out 80 pages, as she suggests, however. This is a novel about a woman who is drugged and raped. The prologue moves very quickly, and leads one to expect a detective thriller or a crime novel, I suppose. But The Aftermath is quite different. My reader didn’t like the time I spent on labor and delivery. But it shows where my protagonist’s mind is…. Sigh. Another project involves Zipf’s law. I became fascinated when someone told me about word frequency, and I found Zipf’s law, listing the 100 most frequent words in English. I have been writing a story a day, increasing the number of common words I leave out. Tonight, I was up to 80, and I think I shall stop there. The story narrators are sounding more and more insane. (Available on my blog, at http://www.lyncoffin.com) Another project I worked on today was preparing the second edition of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther Skin. I am going back over this huge epic, trying to make the caesuras appear more regularly, as Rustaveli himself apparently did. Before, I just put a pause in wherever I wanted. But now I am informed, and reformed. I also looked at Angel Guida’s book of poems, Espectral. I hope to co-translate this before the summer. And I worked a tiny, tiny bit on writing lyrics for a melody that is being composed by my friend, Nino Basharuli. The topic of the song is “Seattle.” So there you have it. I did quite a bit of work on a number of different fronts. So much needs to be done. Thank you very much for interviewing me. Thank you for putting this series up on the web. If there is any mainstream publisher out there who would be willing to read the first 40 pages of The Aftermath, please contact me right away.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Lyn Coffin Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

Life With You: X

Part Ten:

The Announcement

  “Faster! Your strikes are good but you gotta move faster. Left! Right! Left! Right!” Goku dodged each punch and kick from ChiChi. She was fast but not as swift as stronger opponents like Tien and Piccolo. It was a good warmup for him, but it was a good workout for ChiChi. ChiChi wanted to get stronger and faster. So, Goku suggest she wear weights. ChiChi didn’t wear a heavy shirt like him but she did wear heavy boots weighing ten pounds each. It was a good starting point before she achieve the goal of wearing fifty pound boots like Goku.

 It was funny. When Mr. Popo gave him the weighted shirt and boots to wear, he complained. He thought he had enough of that training under Master Roshi and his turtle shell. ChiChi accepted it without question.  

 ChiChi broke in the boots a week before they started this journey of retracing Grandpa’s map. The first few days were difficult for ChiChi to walk, but seeing how smoothly ChiChi move during her sparring sessions with Goku, it was clear she was getting the hang of it and it made Goku proud. Working out with ChiChi this morning reminded Goku of himself when he fought Grandpa Gohan in this area many years ago. Then he was the student and Gohan was the teacher. Now the roles were reversed and Goku couldn’t be prouder of his student.

 ChiChi was up for every lesson. She didn’t quit or complain, and as a result, her speed and strength gradually increased. Oh, she got frustrated when she felt Goku was being too soft on her but Goku couldn’t help himself. He cared for ChiChi and didn’t want to hurt her.

 Goku could see ChiChi’s improvement and her improvising as they sparred this morning. Instead of throwing another punch, ChiChi flipped and landed behind Goku, who barely got his leg up in time to block her strike. It was a good attack except when she landed. “Go back and do that again,” Goku instructed. “You wobbled when you landed. It cost you a couple seconds when you threw your punch at me. If you landed correctly, you would’ve gotten me.”

 ChiChi lowered her stance. A smile rose on her pretty face. “Really? I almost hit you?”

 “Yeah,” Goku grinned. “You got me by surprise.”

 ChiChi’s smile fell. “But if I do it again, it won’t be a surprise. You’ll be expecting me.”

 Goku placed his hand on her shoulders. “It’s only practice, ChiChi. Right now, we’re focusing on your speed. Once you get that up, you’ll be landing blows on me in no time.”

 A half smile returned. “You’re just saying that.” She kissed him. “But I appreciate that.” She stepped back, getting into position. “Okay. So I wobbled when I landed?”

 “Yeah.” He pointed. “Your left leg. You can’t leave yourself open for any attack.”

 “Gotcha.” ChiChi exhaled, taking in Goku’s advice. She was ready to try this again.

 “If you come down like that again,” he gently warned. “I’ll show you what an opponent will do.”

 ChiChi nodded. “All right. Ready?”

 “Go!” 

ChiChi charged again, throwing kicks and punches where Goku easily blocked or dodged. This is how their sparring matches always went with ChiChi on the attack and Goku defending himself. With her obvious improvement, Goku decided to mix things up by throwing a punch. It wasn’t strong enough to hurt her but since he never did it before, Goku wanted to see how ChiChi responded. He expected ChiChi to dodge but she grabbed his arm and tossed him. Goku landed on his back and he only had a second to roll out of the way before ChiChi’s booted foot came down on what would’ve been his chest.

 Goku hopped back on his feet impressed with ChiChi. “No wobble.”

 “You’re a good teacher,” she winked before running to him to strike again.

 Goku put his hand up, signaling ChiChi to stop. “One more lesson and we break for breakfast.” He gestured to the cooking fish near their campsite. “Breakfast is almost ready.”

 “All right,” ChiChi gave in with a chuckle. “I can never win against your stomach.”

 “I want you to jump in the air and hit me with a Kamehameha Wave.” He saw apprehension on ChiChi’s face. “We practiced this, ChiChi. You can do it. Hit me with everything you got.”

 ChiChi knew she could do it but it worried her what Goku wanted her to do. “What if I hurt you?”

 Goku refrained from laughing in her face. That would set her off. “I’ll be fine. This is good training for you and me. This tests how much stronger you’ve gotten and if I’ve slacked off a bit. I have to be on top of my game with Piccolo still out there.”

 What he said made sense. She knew she wouldn’t hurt him. She saw how little affect her wave had on him at the tournament. Still, it was a powerful weapon and she didn’t want to strike her husband with it but she’ll do it because she trusted him and his skills as a martial artist.  

 When ChiChi jumped in the sky, Goku made an interesting observation. ChiChi’s jump was higher than the last time she did this. How did her jump improve that much in a week? As the Kamehameha Wave formed in ChiChi’s hands, Goku noticed the rise of Ki. Ki always rose when creating the wave but ChiChi’s Ki was really high! The wave was bigger, too. How did ChiChi improve so much in so little time?

 When ChiChi fired her wave on him, Goku held his hands up, ready to catch it. It was his plan to catch and squeeze the power out of the wave like a deflating balloon. When it struck him, Goku was actually forced back. His feet sunk a foot into the ground before he got a good hold of the wave. Once he got a steady grip, Goku realized squeezing it was out of the question. Instead, Goku pushed the wave back, hurdling it in the air.

 ChiChi saw his miscalculation once she landed. “Goku!”

 Goku saw it as well. “Damn!” He launched himself in the air to reach the wave before it hit a family of pterodactyls. Goku intercepted in time and took a direct hit on his back. The wave wouldn’t kill him but it was gonna hurt. He felt himself plummeting. His ears were ringing and his body was slow to react.

 It was faint but he heard his name being called and his body suddenly wrapped in someone’s arms. He opened his eyes to find ChiChi holding him, easing their descent as she gently landed.

 “Goku, are you all right?” her worried voice was frantic as she touched his body to check for any open wounds.

 His body ached but the ringing in his ears slowly cleared. He felt ChiChi lifting up his shirts to check his back. “I’m fine,” he assured her. “When I jumped in front of the wave, I didn’t protect myself.” ChiChi wasn’t listening as she checked his back for wounds. “Don’t worry, ChiChi.”

 “I’m your wife. I’ll always worry about you.” She pulled his shirts back down. “No wounds. So, I guess you’re all right.”

 “Told you.” He pulled himself to his feet, albeit a little more slowly. He was still sore but it’ll go away in a couple hours. There was something more important to talk about. “How did you do that, ChiChi?” At her blank stare, he explained, “How did you make your Kamehameha Wave so strong?”

 How? The answer was easy. “My two great teachers. My father and my husband.”

 Goku rubbed the back of his head. Maybe but his teaching wouldn’t have ChiChi improve that much so quickly.  She was grinning now. She will gloat over this for sure. Feeling playful, he swept her legs tripping her. ChiChi fell back but Goku was fast enough to catch her before her back hit the grass. His arm on her back, he gently laid her on the grass with his body covering hers.

 ChiChi, to his relief, didn’t get angry. She looked at him wryly. “I expect my opponent to knock me down if I leave myself open but I doubt he will be on me like this.”

 Goku winked at her. “Good thing I’m always your opponent.”

 ChiChi pushed her hips up to signal Goku off. He pressed down instead. Judging from his grin, she knew what Goku wanted to do. “Sometimes I think I should spar alone.”

 “Why?”

 “Whenever we spar, we always end up like this.” Her breath hitched feeling Goku nibble her neck. “You always want to fool around after my lesson.”

 As she said this, his hand reached the button of her shorts. As soon as the button became loose, a growl erupted between them. Goku released ChiChi and jumped back as if she was on fire. “What was that?”

 ChiChi sat up equally confused. “I think that was my stomach.”

 Goku stared at ChiChi’s stomach. It was always his stomach that roars when it’s hungry. Never ChiChi’s. “Wow. You really are hungry.” He grabbed her hand and pulled ChiChi to her feet. Loving never came before food.

 ChiChi leaned on him as they walked back to the campsite. “I think it was the wave that took my energy.” Her mouth watered as she stared at the cooked fish. She hoped Goku felt like catching another fish because she was so hungry she could eat the entire thing by herself.  

ChiChi must’ve been really hungry Goku thought later that afternoon. She ate half the fish. Normally, ChiChi would eat a small piece of fish and leave the rest to him. ChiChi was embarrassed she ate so much but Goku found it amusing. It reminded him of his childhood where Grandpa Gohan caught a big fish for them and Goku ended up eating almost the whole fish. ‘How does a small body have a big stomach?’ Grandpa Gohan would tell him. Now, Goku thought that with ChiChi.

 Following Gohan’s map with ChiChi had Goku feeling waves of nostalgia and longing for his grandpa. Each landmark they crossed brought back a fond memory. Goku running out of a cave of angry bears and receiving a whap on his fanny for disturbing the bears while they mated. Goku swinging from a tree with his tail with a family of monkeys while Gohan looked on amused. Goku and Gohan testing their balance as they cross an extend power pole over a waterfall. Goku laying against Gohan around a campfire, talking until he fell asleep. At night, when he was alone with his thoughts, the memories were heavy on his heart. There were times he actually thought about turning around and going home because the memories were too much but then he would look at ChiChi, see her smile, hear her laugh, her scream or feel her body pressed against his as she slept. Somehow, her presence eased the ache in his heart and her desire to see everything, drove him to continue.

 Now, as they were reaching the last marking on the map: the area where Grandpa Gohan found him, Goku felt sadness. It wasn’t the memory of knowing Grandpa Gohan died a few days after this trip. No. He was sad his trip with ChiChi was ending. They grew closer over these two weeks. It was such a role reversal, too. Since the start of their marriage, Goku followed ChiChi’s lead. She knew what they needed in a house, how to bring income into the household, how to be intimate with each other. On this trip, ChiChi followed his lead. He taught her how to catch a fish without fishing poles, how to deal with wild animals that crossed their paths and how to avoid them, which plants were safe to eat and which ones were poisonous. A few nights they sat around the campfire and talked. He would ask random questions and she would answer. She would tell stories of her and her father or he would share some of his adventures. One evening, they spent the entire night talking. Goku couldn’t recall doing that with anyone. Not even his grandpa.

 He wanted it to continue a little longer but knew they had to return home. He had to bring income in with the fish and lumber again but he also wanted to resume his intense training. Perhaps, after being home another week or two, they could do this again. Not travel Mount Paozu but go somewhere else on Nimbus and explore. The world was a big place and he wouldn’t mind exploring it with ChiChi.

 While Goku was lost in his thoughts, ChiChi was focused on her footsteps. They were walking down a long winding path towards a valley between the mountains. Due to natural erosion, part of the path was treacherous. They had to jump a few crevices, use the power pole like a pole vault and escape a few mountain lions but it was worth it when they reached the valley where Goku was found.

 “That’s the spot.” Goku pointed. “Grandpa found me right there.” Right there was a crater between the bases of two mountains.  ChiChi jumped down and walked around the area. Looking around, she guessed it was over twenty feet wide and ten feet deep. Why would someone leave a baby here? It didn’t make any sense to ChiChi. As ChiChi surveyed the spot, Goku rubbed the back of his neck puzzled. “It’s greener than the last time I was here. There was some grass but not as much as this.” The entire crater was covered with lush green grass and flowers.  

 “Probably grew a lot of vegetation over the years. Let me see the map.” Goku jumped down landing behind her. He handed ChiChi the map. ChiChi opened it and read over the map. She handed it back to Goku and looked around confused. “I don’t get it.”

 “Get what?”

 “Your grandpa drew a baseball marking this area. There’s nothing around here that looks like a baseball.”

 “Oh.” Goku read the map again. He looked at the area not seeing any baseballs either. “Maybe he means the crater is the baseball.”

 ChiChi thought about that for a moment. “I guess.” To think, she thought there was something mysterious behind the baseball drawing. Gohan probably was just drawing the crater and she interpreted it as a baseball. She inhaled, taking in the fresh air, the peaceful scenery, the flock of birds flying overheard. “It’s very pretty out here.” ChiChi removed her backpack. “I gotta get a picture.”

 As she bent over her backpack to retrieve her camera, Goku noticed ChiChi. On this camping trip, ChiChi brought six outfits. She’d wear the same outfit two days in a row before cleaning it in a lake or river and letting it air dry at their camping site for the night. The outfit she wore now was very distracting. She wore a plaid shirt tuck in shorts. The shorts were something similar to what Bulma wore. He never paid attention to Bulma but with ChiChi he had a hard time keeping his eyes off her legs. It wasn’t just the shorts he found distracting. It was ChiChi herself. Her scent was off. ChiChi didn’t smell like her normal scent or her intimate scent. He couldn’t put his finger on what the scent was. It was pleasant, sweeter than her normal scent and when she inadvertently release that scent, it left his mouth watering and fighting off the urge to be intimate with her.

 The rumbling of thunder alerted Goku to the skies.  He removed his backpack. It was gonna rain this evening. Last time it rained, Goku and ChiChi didn’t get their gear out in time. It was a nasty storm that forced them to camp in a damp cave for the night. ChiChi was not happy. ChiChi’s scent was very strong that night, too, and though he wanted ChiChi, she wasn’t interested. Goku didn’t want another night like that again.

 After taking a few pictures, ChiChi assisted Goku. He carried their tent in his backpack. ChiChi pulled out the tarp and laid it in the grass. “How soon will it be before the storm reach us?”

 Goku pulled out the tent. ChiChi grabbed an end of the tent and help Goku lay the tent on the tarp. “Still far off. Probably this evening.”

 Goku grabbed the tent poles while ChiChi pulled out the extra rain guard for the tent. “That’s a shame. I was hoping we’d camp out under the stars tonight instead of inside the tent.”

 As ChiChi walked past Goku, her new scent hit him full force. Inside the tent or under the stars, Goku vowed they will be intimate tonight.

 Lightening grew fainter as the night wore on. Thunder now tempered to a weak roar and light rain poured down the valley. In a tent, two occupants were unaware of the weakening storm as they were lost in themselves. A portable lantern shined brightly from the tent’s ceiling. It was initially used to provide light as the occupants played a friendly card game while the storm passed but locked in an enclosed tent, surrounded by his wife’s mysterious scent was too much for Goku to resist anymore.

 Goku and ChiChi lied on their large sleeping bag. Their naked legs intertwined each other, their bodies still glistened with sweat and a few playing cards. ChiChi lied on her back gazing at the ceiling with Goku on his side gazing at her. “I think we committed a sin.”

 “A sin?” Goku caressed ChiChi’s stomach. His fingers touched the muscles on her stomach. That was odd. ChiChi’s abs had a tight six pack. Now two of her ab muscles had disappeared. Where did they go? He wondered if it had something to do with ChiChi eating so much fish for breakfast and dinner.

 ChiChi wasn’t aware of Goku’s observation. She was lost in her own thoughts. ChiChi thought they would pass the time playing cards but Goku had other ideas. He couldn’t wait for her to put them away when he made his intentions known. She flick a card that clung to her mid-thigh. She grimaced knowing some were sticking to her back. Goku had a couple of cards sticking to his chest and legs. Making love over playing cards was funny but not what she thought as sinful. “Goku, we just made love over the area where Gohan found you.”

 “Why is it a bad thing?” His fingers continued to circle her stomach. Feeling something, his fingers traveled south following a strange Ki. Why would….

 ChiChi grabbed his hand and placed it back over her stomach. “How often did Gohan bring you here?”

 Goku shrugged as he thought over the question. “I only remember two times.”

 Two times. ChiChi thought over the answer. It was probably more but Goku was probably too young to remember the other times. She felt Goku’s hand traveling past her stomach again. ChiChi took his hand and put it on her left breast. Let Goku play with that she reasoned. “Goku, I never asked but did you and Gohan ever celebrate your birthday?”

 Goku noticed ChiChi kept her hand over his massaging a breast. This was nice but Goku really wanted to investigate the strange Ki at the apex of ChiChi’s legs. “Is that like cakes, balloons and presents?”

 “Yes.”

 A card fell from his chest and landed on ChiChi. Goku flicked it away. “No.”

 “So Gohan never did anything for you for your birthday?”

 Goku laid his head on her breasts. His hand moved south again, but ChiChi smacked it away. Giving up, Goku decided he will go to sleep. The mysterious Ki between ChiChi’s legs would have to wait. “I didn’t know birthdays were a big deal until I lived with Master Roshi. Launch wanted to have one for me but since I never knew my birthday, I never had one.”

 ChiChi pondered that. Since he found Goku out here, it’s understandable Gohan wouldn’t know Goku’s exact birthdate. “Did Gohan ever say when he found you? What season it was?” Another no from Goku. “We should pick a date on the calendar and celebrate it as your birthday. Do you have a favorite month?”

 “They’re all the same to me,” Goku murmured.

 “How about May?” ChiChi suggested. “The World Martials Arts Tournament was in May. We got married in May. It’ll be a fun month to celebrate. The weather is perfect, too. Not too hot or too cold.” ChiChi waited for a response but nothing came. Looking down, she saw Goku had fallen asleep. She caressed his hair, smiling, “Typical Goku.”

 It was a fun trip. Goku and ChiChi learned a lot about each other, created wonderful memories and grew closer but ChiChi would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit a sense of happiness and relief being home.

 “I love this trip, Goku, but I’m glad we’re home.” She smiled, feeling Goku remove her heavy backpack. “Thank you.” ChiChi slipped off her heavy boots and in turn removed Goku’s heavy boots from his feet before he took off his backpack.

 Goku collapsed on the sofa. He enjoyed himself, too, but it was so nice to be home. Living with Kami for three years and now ChiChi a little over five months, he was getting spoiled with luxuries like lights, a hot bath and hot, delicious meals cooked from a stove and not a fire.

 “Sleeping with you under the stars is nice but I miss our bed.” ChiChi pulled the heavy backpack to the sofa and drop beside her husband. She unzipped a small pocket from the side of the bag and pulled out her camera. “I can’t wait to look at all the pictures we took.”

 “I miss a hot bath,” Goku confessed with his face in a pillow.

 ChiChi giggled as she pulled her clothes out of the backpack. “You?”

 “It’s your fault,” he teased. “I didn’t take regular baths until I married you. Now I like ‘em.” He tugged her arm. “Come on. Let’s take a bath. Unpack later.”

 ChiChi shook her head as she removed the pans she brought. “I won’t want to do it later. Bring me your bag so I can get your clothes out. I want to wash everything now.” As soon as Goku got off the sofa, she remembered, “I didn’t check the mailbox before we came in. Could you?”

 “We never get any mail.”

 “We were gone for almost three weeks. There might be something.”

 Goku pulled his backpack next to ChiChi’s before going outside again. He came back a minute later with a handful of mail. “Hey, ChiChi! We got mail!”

 ChiChi had her hands full removing Goku’s clothes from his backpack. “What did we get?”

 Goku sat beside ChiChi, reading the magazine in his hand. “‘Betty Crocker Monthly.’ Who is Betty Crocker?”

 “Famous chef. Has a TV show and a monthly magazine with lots of recipes.”

 In other words, ChiChi’s mail. Goku opened a brown package. Inside was a book. “The Turtle Hermit Way.” On the cover of the book was a picture of Master Roshi. Goku read the author of the book. “Master Roshi wrote a book?”

 ChiChi nodded. “I guess you never wondered how he’s been able to finance himself all these years. He gets royalty checks every month from that book. I thought you might like it. It’s a semi biography of Master Roshi’s life and his teachings. Dad read this book as a kid and it inspired him to find Master Roshi and beg him to take my Dad on as his student.”

 Goku thumbed through the pages and pictures. He didn’t care too much about reading but he will read this book.

 “What’s that?” ChiChi asked of the letter on top of the cooking magazine.

 Goku put his book down. “Oh. Something from King Castle. It’s written to me.”

 “King Castle?” ChiChi put aside Goku’s backpack. “What does it say?”

 Goku opened the envelope and pulled out a letter. “Well, it says King Furry knows I killed King Piccolo and defeated his son at the tournament. He wants us to come to dinner so he can thank me and give me a medal.” He read some more. “There’s a number we should call to accept his invitation.”

 ChiChi gasped. “An invitation from King Furry?”

 Goku shrugged lost. “What, is that a good thing?”

 “Goku, King Furry is the elected King of Earth.” That meant nothing to Goku. “He’s a very important person. The world politically has been at peace for over twenty years because of him.” Still nothing. “Goku, you fought King Piccolo near his castle.”

 That triggered a memory. He vaguely remembered shaking the anthropomorphic dog’s hand after his fight with King Piccolo. “Ohhh.” Goku rubbed the back of his head. He didn’t get it but it sounded like a good thing. “So, do you think the food will be good?”

 “It’ll be wonderful.” ChiChi took the letter. “I should call them right now. We’re gonna meet King Furry!” she screamed. “I’ll have to buy a new dress. You should get a suit, too, Goku.”

 “Aww, ChiChi,” Goku whined. “Do I have to wear a suit?”

 Due to King Furry’s previous engagements, Goku and ChiChi wouldn’t meet with King Furry until a week after she called King Castle. It will be an overnight trip since they didn’t live near Central City and King Furry invited them to stay. They flew on Nimbus since it was faster than their truck. When they arrived at King Castle, they were met with King Castle’s Chief of Staff, Mr. Evans, who gave them a tour of the castle before taking them to their room.

 ChiChi took a quick shower in preparation for dinner. She stepped out dressed in a powder blue Cheongsam dress. She kept her hair down tonight, preferring it fall loosely and not pinned back in a band or up in a bun.

 Goku stood on the balcony looking out at Central City. He wore black dress pants, a white dress suit and loose tie. His dinner jacket hung on the back of a chair. As he stared at the city, memories of his fight with King Piccolo washed over him.

 “I remember fighting King Piccolo here.” He noticed some of the newly constructed buildings. “They really built up the place.” He felt ChiChi approaching. He pointed to where he and King Piccolo had their final stand. “After my fight, there was nothing but dirt there. Everything was destroyed.”

 ChiChi held his dinner jacket over an arm. She stood by him looking at what was rebuilt over the battlefield. She felt a strong sense of pride for her husband. There were so many people alive because of him. “So many people live and will go on to create families because of you. You don’t know how amazing you are, do you, Goku?”

 “Huh?” Goku turned to her. “How will I create families with them, ChiChi? You’re the only one I’m having sex with.”

 ChiChi chuckled as she helped Goku into his jacket. His innocence was adorable. “I mean because you saved so many people, they will go on to live. They will have children because they didn’t die when King Piccolo tried to take over.”

 “Oh,” he slowly understood. “I guess.” He stood still as ChiChi fixed his tie. “I never thought of it like that.”

 “You never do. Now,” her attitude changed from loving wife to stern teacher. “Remember your manners, Goku. We are meeting King Furry. Don’t forget to bow when we meet him, and when we eat, don’t eat sloppily or too fast. There will be plenty of food and plenty of time to eat it.”

 “What about you?”

 “Me?”

 “You’ve been eating really fast lately, and a lot, too.”

 “When did I do that?”

 It was normal for him to forget things. Not ChiChi. “This morning for starters. Don’t you remember?”

 “Breakfast is ready, Goku!”

 “All right!” He was in the middle of his exercises but when it was time to eat, it was time to quit. Goku ran in the house. He nearly kicked off his boots before he entered the kitchen. The kitchen table was laden with food. “Wow!” Goku dropped in his chair. “There’s a lot of food here!”

 “I think I got it this time,” ChiChi said proudly as she took her seat. “I think I made enough. I also don’t want you starving when we meet King Furry tonight and eat so gluttonously. It’ll be very inappropriate to eat before the king that way.”

 “Your Dad’s a king and I eat like that in front of him,” Goku gently argued.

 “You’re family,” ChiChi countered. “It’s okay to eat like that in front of family. Not in front of the elected King of Earth.”

 Goku shrugged. He didn’t understand why he should eat differently in front of others. “Eh, he’s just like us.”

 “Goku,” ChiChi called his name before he could dive in his food.

 ChiChi only had to look at him before he recalled what he did wrong. “Oh.” He jumped from his seat and washed his hands before coming back to the table. “Okay?”

 ChiChi nodded. “You can eat, Goku.”

 ChiChi had a smorgasbord of food all over the table. Goku grabbed his plate, piled it with food and began eating. Once Goku finished a plate, he loaded another with food and ate again. This food was so good. ChiChi’s cooking had to be the best in the world. He hoped whoever’s cooking the dinner at King Furry’s castle cooked just as good. Another plate finished, he piled it with food and ate again. It was during his refill of his tenth plate something caught his eye.

 ChiChi was still eating. Normally, ChiChi ate one plate of food and started on dishes or she would refill another plate for Goku while he ate. Instead, she sat at the table, ate very fast (for her), refilled her plate and ate again. It was strange watching ChiChi eat, fill her plate and eat again. He put his plate down and watched her eat, refill her plate and eat again. She never did this before. It was fascinating to watch.

 Nearly half the table was empty of food before ChiChi noticed her husband staring at her. “What is it, Goku?”

 “You’re still eating.”

 ChiChi looked at her plate, puzzled. She hadn’t realized. “Hmm. Guess I was feeling hungry today. I woke up starving.” ChiChi finished filling her plate and ate again. “Eat before your food gets cold, Goku. I wanna leave the house clean before we leave for Central City today.”

 Goku grabbed his plate and resumed eating. His eyes never left ChiChi. He wondered how much she will eat and more importantly, if she will eat all the food before he did.

 “I ate that much?” ChiChi pondered her behavior. She hadn’t noticed. “I don’t think I ate enough the night before. I guess its nerves before meeting King Furry.” She rubbed her stomach. “I’ll be glad when we eat. I’m getting kind of hungry. I didn’t eat much after breakfast.”

 Didn’t eat much? “You made a lunch for us before we left,” Goku told her. “You ate most of that on the way here.”

 A knock at the door prevented ChiChi from answering. ChiChi left his side to answer the door. It was Mr. Evans waiting to escort them to the sitting area where King Furry will award Goku the Blue Star Medal.

 ChiChi explained Goku prefers his anonymity so the only ones in attendance for the medal ceremony were Goku, ChiChi, King Furry and Mr. Evans. ChiChi watched proudly as Goku bowed before King Furry and stood still as he was pinned with his medal. Goku found the whole thing awkward. He didn’t fight King Piccolo to receive a medal. He had no need for it but ChiChi told him it was important and it will be something to show their children one day. ChiChi took pictures recording this moment and already thinking of the day she and Goku will share this story with their children.

 After the ceremony, Goku and ChiChi were escorted to the dining hall. ChiChi would normally marvel at the fancy room of paintings, bright chandeliers, the expensive dining set and the immaculate dressed staff on hand to serve them but what caught ChiChi’s attention was the food. There was so much and such a large variety. It smelled and looked so wonderful, too! She couldn’t wait to taste them all.

 King Furry wasn’t aware his staff cooked so much. He wanted to thank Goku and his wife with a proper meal but thought this was overkill. He looked at servant who stood by. “Are you sure you didn’t make too much? There are only three of us.”

 “I told the staff to prepare as if you were hosting a hundred guests, Your Highness,” ChiChi explained. “My husband can eat a lot of food. It’s just the two of us and I have to cook as if I’m serving fifty people.”

 “Ah,” King Furry laughed heartily. “Then eat to your heart’s content, Son Goku. I have plenty of food here.”

 Goku happily obliged. He ate fast but not too fast where he would choke on his food or belch loudly. He was careful to not be gluttonous as ChiChi warned him.

 While Goku ate, it was left up to ChiChi to carry a conversation with King Furry. “Thank you so much for the invitation to dinner and the medal but how did you know Goku killed King Piccolo? His name was never released to the world.”

 “When it was revealed King Piccolo’s son was at the tournament fighting Son Goku, the runner up of the last two tournaments, I knew he was the little boy who killed King Piccolo. My people went to Papaya Island after the tournament ended to look for Goku. I knew this was my chance to properly thank him. My people met the announcer who explained you and Son Goku arrived to pick up his prize money. He said you two were newlyweds and will be building your home on Mount Paozu. Since I knew where you will live, there wasn’t a rush to find you.”

 ChiChi appreciated King Furry’s generosity to give her and Goku time alone before contacting them. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

 As the three ate their dinner and converse, King Furry noticed how quickly Goku and ChiChi ate. The large number of emptied plates went unnoticed as servants promptly removed them. King Furry chuckled when Goku stopped eating to stare at ChiChi as she emptied plate after plate. King Furry wasn’t sure why Goku ate so much but he had a good idea why ChiChi did.

 “I say you two enjoyed your time as newlyweds,” he laughed. “If you don’t mind my asking, when are you due, Son ChiChi?”

ChiChi nearly choked on her food. Goku looked from his wife to King Furry lost. “ChiChi’s due for what?”

 ChiChi knew what King Furry meant. “I’m not pregnant, Your Highness.”

 King Furry blushed embarrassed at his error. “Oh, curse me and my strong nose. I ruined the surprise for you.” At Goku and ChiChi’s baffled and shock looks, King Furry explained. “I do have a strong sense of smell. I have women on staff and when they have the similar scent you’re displaying, they’re pregnant.”

 Shock reverberated through ChiChi as she placed both hands on her stomach. Pregnant? Could she really be? She noticed her period never came when she travelled with Goku. She thought she could be pregnant but she noticed spotting after they came back. She chalked up the camping trip to throwing off her cycle.

 As she thought this over, ChiChi noticed her plate. She was still eating? She always had one plate but now she couldn’t recall how many she had. She ate more than one plate of food this morning for breakfast, too.  On the way here, she packed a lunch. She packed it for Goku because she knew he would get hungry but she ended up eating most of the food.

 “ChiChi,” it was Goku calling her. She turned to see Goku looking confused. “Are you pregnant?”

 “I…..” she shook her head. She thought she wasn’t but with King Furry’s confession and her eating… “I don’t know.”

 ChiChi sat on the exam table wearing a thin exam gown nervous. A nurse had taken her blood pressure, blood and urine sample. Now, she waited for the doctor. She wanted to be pregnant. She hope she was pregnant but the tests she took said otherwise and it made her concern something else was going on.

 “I don’t understand. This is the third test that’s inconclusive.” ChiChi looked at the pregnancy tests box lined up on her sink. The first test had a plus or minus to let a woman know she’s expecting. Nothing appeared. The second test gave Yes or No answer but it was blank, too. The third test had one line for no, two lines for yes. Three lines appeared. “None of these work.”

 Goku sat on the edge of the tub. It bothered him ChiChi was frustrated and there was nothing he could do. “So, what do we do now?”

 ChiChi sat beside him. “I’ll have to make an appointment with the doctor. I hope he can tell me if I’m pregnant.”

 “And if you’re not?”

 ChiChi leaned on Goku worried. “Then something is wrong with me.”

 “Don’t worry,” Goku assured her. “If there’s something wrong, I’ll fix it.”

 “That’s sweet, Goku, but you can’t do that.”

 “No, I will,” Goku said seriously. “If there’s something wrong, I will fix it.”

 ChiChi was so nervous, she invited Goku in the exam room with her. She also brought him with her because she knew leaving Goku alone in the waiting room would drive others in the waiting room up the wall. Goku would not sit still and wait patiently. Even now he appeared bored, spinning around on his swivel stool.

 Dr. Morrow, a middle aged man entered the room. “Good Morning, I’m Dr. Morrow.” He shook Goku and ChiChi’s hands. He read her chart on his electronic pad. “So, you think you’re pregnant.”

 “I think so. I’m displaying some symptoms. I’ve tried three pregnancy tests and the results were ambivalent.”

 Dr. Morrow sat on his swivel stool. “How so?”

 “Two screens were blank and the third test that showed one line for not pregnant, two lines for pregnant showed three lines.”

 “Hmm,” Dr. Morrow pondered as he made notes on his pad. “We’ll find out for sure today.”

 Dr. Morrow begin with questions of ChiChi’s family medical history and entered it in his computer. Unfortunately, Goku’s was a complete blank. Once he finished entering all the information he had, Dr. Morrow stood. “We’ll get blood and urine results in a couple days but for now, let’s do a physical exam.” Dr. Morrow stood at the end of the exam table ChiChi sat on. He opened the stirrups. “Place your legs in these, Mrs. Son.”

 Goku watched curious as ChiChi slipped her feet in the odd stirrups. Why was ChiChi doing that? He didn’t like it. She was naked under the gown which meant with her legs spread in those stirrups, the doctor could see between her legs. Dr. Morrow moved his chair to the end of the table and slip on his gloves. He only lift the gown ChiChi wore an inch before Goku sprang into action. Dr. Morrow’s chair fell to the floor while his body was slammed into the wall with Goku’s hand on the doctor’s throat.

 “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

 For ChiChi, everything happened in a blink of an eye. One blink, Goku was by her side. Another blink and Goku held the doctor by the throat against the wall. “Goku, what are you doing?”

 “He’s trying to touch you.”

 “He’s a doctor!” she screamed. “He has to give me an exam!”

 Goku’s mind slowly processed this. Was ChiChi saying she wanted the doctor to touch her? Oh, he was not gonna allow that! “No man can touch you there except me. You said that on our wedding night.”

 ChiChi realized her error. She was so worried about the doctor’s appointment, she didn’t think to explain to Goku what will happen at the appointment. “I did, Goku, but I meant when we’re intimate no man can touch me there. That’s not what the doctor is trying to do.”

 “I’m really not,” the doctor said, his feet still dangling in the air. “I give this exam to all women and their husbands are fine with it.”

 Goku snarled. “You touch other men’s wives?!! You ain’t touchin’ mine!”

 “Goku!” ChiChi pulled her legs from the stirrups. She will have to physically separate Goku from the doctor. “Let him go!”

 “No!” Goku always listened to ChiChi but she was wrong here. It was not right for this doctor to touch her.

 “Please,” the doctor begged. “I won’t touch your wife. I swear.”

 Goku stared the man down hard. He read the fear on his face and knew the doctor spoke the truth. He released the doctor. Dr. Morrow slid to the floor coughing while rubbing his sore neck.

 “Goku!” ChiChi scolded her husband. “How could you do that?!” ChiChi knelt to Dr. Morrow. “I’m so sorry. My husband misunderstood. Please forgive us.”

 Goku stared at his wife confused. Why was she apologizing? The doctor was wrong! Not him.

 Dr. Morrow rubbed his neck. “It’s okay,” his voice was raspy. “I’ve encountered protective husbands.” As soon as ChiChi touched him, Dr. Morrow scrambled away from her. He pulled himself up and stood by the door, shaking as Goku approached, threateningly. “May I recommend a female doctor?” Goku kept approaching, slowly. “Sir, your wife needs to have this exam. I won’t do it but I can ask a female doctor to.”

 Goku stopped moving. He considered the doctor’s words. “As long as it’s not a man.”

 Relief broke across the doctor’s face. He wasn’t gonna die! “All right. I’ll see who can take on another patient. Excuse me.” Dr. Morrow hastily left the room.

 As soon as the door closed, Goku blinked rapidly as if he came out of a trance. What had come over him? Why did he react so violently? He didn’t like the idea of a man touching his wife there but he didn’t understand why he reacted the way he did.

 “Goku!” ChiChi screamed getting in his face. “I can’t believe you did that! Why are you acting like a caveman?! What were you thinking?!”

 It was happening again. ChiChi’s anger summoned that strange pull over him. “I was thinking I didn’t want a man touching my wife!” Goku argued back.

 “It wasn’t like that!” ChiChi yelled back. “He needed to touch me to see if I’m pregnant!”

 He didn’t care. Something inside screamed it wasn’t right. ChiChi was his and no man would touch her. He found himself almost roaring back. “No man touches you except me!”

 His anger was surprising. This wasn’t like the Goku she’s come to know. His nose flared, his cheeks were heated, and his eyes bore into hers. He looked possessive. ChiChi felt her heart beating a little faster, not out of shock or fear. No. She felt aroused. Why was she suddenly turned on by his anger? Why did it look like he was turned on by her anger? She could see it in his eyes. He wanted to kiss her. He gently grasp her and pulled her closer. His head dropped towards hers…..

 The kiss was electric. Her whole body was sizzling. She felt Goku pull the gown from her and lift her body in his arms. Her legs wrapped around his waist, her mouth fought his for control. When she felt her body pressed against the exam table with Goku on top of her, only then did she get a moment of clarity.

 What the hell were they doing?  

 ChiChi’s hands dug into the muscles of his chest. She pushed back and broke the kiss. “Wait,” she breathed heavily. “Wait.” Goku pulled up. She gazed at Goku; both were breathing heavily. “This is not the time or place.” Another gentle push from her and Goku got off her.

 Goku stepped back, putting some distance between them. “Yeah,” he breathed, “you’re right.” He rubbed his hand down his face and shook his head. What was going on with them? His eyes went to ChiChi again as she put her gown back on. This was definitely not the right time or place but he wanted her.

 “I need some water,” ChiChi suddenly announced. “Could you ask the nurse for some water?”

 Goku slowly nodded. He could use some water, too. Water and air. When Goku left, ChiChi sat on the exam table. She thought over what happened and can only conclude something was wrong with both of them.

 Are we becoming perverted delinquents to get so turned on by fighting, we almost have sex in an exam room?

 The way they were acting ChiChi wasn’t sure Nimbus would let either of them ride it anymore. Goku returned almost twenty minutes later with two cold water bottles. She didn’t question what took Goku so long. His calmer appearance told her he needed a moment to himself just as she.

 They waited in silence for another twenty minutes before a woman entered the room. She wore a white coat like Dr. Morrow, held an electronic pad in her hand and a stethoscope around her neck. She appeared younger than Dr. Morrow as she didn’t have a strand of gray in her chestnut hair. “I’m Dr. Barkley. Dr. Morrow has told me of the situation so if it’s all right, I will take you on as a patient. I’ve been an OB/GYN for ten years. I’ve handled natural, cesarean and even home birth. I’ve performed surgeries on babies and women. I haven’t lost anyone yet.”

 ChiChi looked at Goku, wondering if he will have an outburst again. She accepted Dr. Barkley. Will Goku?

Dr. Barkley seemed to be wondering the same thing as her eyes were on Goku.

 “Do you have to touch ChiChi?”

 Dr. Barkley smiled. “If you want me to find out what’s going on with your wife, yes.”

 Goku sighed and settled in his seat. “All right.” Dr. Barkley approached Goku. She kindly explain the exam she has to give ChiChi, where she will touch her and why. Goku asked questions and she answered them all in a kind tone. When they finished talking, Goku appeared relaxed with the situation. Dr. Barkley slipped on her gloves and started with a breast exam. Keeping a friendly tone, she asked ChiChi. “So, how long have you been married?”

 “Five months,” ChiChi answered.

 “Have you been feeling tired? Any nausea?”

 “No nausea and I think have more energy. I’ve been very hungry though. I’m starting to eat like my husband.”

 Dr. Barkley smiled at Goku, mentally sizing him up. “A healthy appetite is good. Have you not wanted to eat certain foods?”

 ChiChi shook her head. “No. Actually, I wanna eat everything; even foods I never wanted to eat.”

 Dr. Barkley nodded making a mental note. She stepped away once she finished the breast exam. She sat on the swivel stool at the end of the exam table. “Lie down, please. Place your legs in these stirrups and relax.” ChiChi did so. “When’s the last time you had sex?”

 “Three days ago,” Goku answered pouting. “ChiChi said we had to wait until after her doctor’s appointment.”

 Dr. Barkley grinned at Goku’s bluntness. Goku looked on as Dr. Barkley performed the pelvic exam. Thanks to their talk, Goku had a little understanding of the tool she used to insert ChiChi with and why. If Dr. Barkley hadn’t explained what the tools were for, he might’ve flipped out at her. ChiChi, while relaxed, didn’t appear she enjoyed this exam. He didn’t understand it but he was oddly pleased ChiChi didn’t wear the pleasant smile or make the pleasant sounds that occurred when he touch her.

 Once the exam was finished, Dr. Barkley removed her gloves, entered notes on her pad. She rose. “You can dress. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

 When she returned, ChiChi was dressed and sitting on the exam table quietly talking to Goku. Dr. Barkley sat on her swivel stool. ChiChi looked at her worried while Goku smiled, looking optimistic. “Congratulations. You’re pregnant.”

 ChiChi screamed and hugged Goku while he slowly processed the news. The more his mind understood what was happening the bigger his smile grew. “Pregnant,” he said wondrously. “We’re having a baby. Hey! We’re having a baby!”

 Dr. Barkley couldn’t hold back her laugh at Goku’s reaction. “Judging from what we’ve gathered so far, you’re probably six weeks along. Assuming blood and urine results come out fine, I’ll want to see you in a month. We’ll do a more thorough exam including an ultrasound where you’ll hear the baby’s heartbeat. Until then, take the prenatal vitamins I’ll prescribe for you and prepare for the new arrival.”

 ChiChi nodded listening to Dr. Barkley while tears rolled down her cheeks. Her tears caused Goku to panic. “ChiChi, why are you crying? I thought you’d be happy. You said you wanted to be pregnant.”

 “I am,” she sobbed and buried her face in his chest. “Oh, Goku, I’m so happy. We’re gonna have a baby.”

 Gyu-Mao’s castle was the first place Goku and ChiChi went to after leaving the doctor. Gyu-Mao was busy with the staff in preparation of the Fall Festival his kingdom will host in a couple weeks. Upon hearing the news his daughter and son-in-law had arrived suddenly and were waiting in his study, Gyu-Mao left to meet them. He hadn’t seen them in a while. With the couple traveling Gohan’s map, meeting with King Furry and his own duties, life was busy. He knew to expect them for the Fall Festival but ChiChi’s request to meet in his study had him concerned.

 “Goku. ChiChi.” Gyu-Mao closed the door to his study. “Is everything all right?”

 “Everything is wonderful!” ChiChi bubbled with excitement. “Goku and I wanted to speak to you privately. We have wonderful news.” She exhaled, fighting to keep her happy tears at bay. “Dad, I’m pregnant!!”

 “Pregnant!” Gyu-Mao cheered happily before sweeping up the expecting parents in his arms and swinging them around the room in a tight bear hug. “I’m gonna be a grandpa! A grandpa!”

 Goku grimaced at the tight hold Gyu-Mao had on him and ChiChi. First ChiChi and now Gyu-Mao. Who knew expecting a baby meant people get to squeeze the life out of you?

 Gyu-Mao realized this as well for he promptly placed the young couple on their feet. Gyu-Mao put his large hands on his daughter’s waist. “I squeezed you so tightly. I didn’t hurt the baby, did I?”

 ChiChi shook her head. “No.” She rubbed her stomach. “We’re fine. Everything is perfect!”

 Gyu-Mao clapped his hands. Indeed it was. This was wonderful news! “This cause for a celebration. We have to tell the villagers. We’ll announce your pregnancy at the Fall Festival!”

 ChiChi blushed. The very thought was mortifying. “Oh, Dad, don’t do that. It’s still early. I’m only six weeks pregnant.”

 “So? Your mother was five weeks when she told me about you.” Gyu-Mao’s mind was made up and he wasn’t changing it. “This is the best news to announce at the Fall Festival.”

 “Fall Festival?” Goku repeated unfamiliar with the words.

 “We have festivals when season changes during the Spring and Fall. It’s really for the farmers as they prepare to plant the proper crops for the changing seasons,” ChiChi explained. “But it’s also a good excuse for our people to get together for a big party. There’s plenty of food, arts and crafts, singing, dancing and games for kids and adults.”

 “Oh. Sounds fun.”

 “It is, Goku,” ChiChi agreed. “But Dad, let’s not announce my pregnancy at the festival. Let’s wait.”

 “No,” Gyu-Mao disagreed. “We should. Unfortunately, Mrs. Niver has been running her mouth. Somehow she knew you two had an argument and with us not seeing you and Goku in a while, it added fuel to her gossip you two are having problems. I reprimanded Mrs. Niver for her loose tongue and I told my staff and concerned villagers everything is fine between you and Goku but I’m only your father so it’s expected I defend you.”

 “In other words, they don’t believe you.”

 Gyu-Mao shook his head. “Not everyone. Announcing your pregnancy will convince everyone nothing is wrong.”

 ChiChi sighed. That woman. ChiChi did like her and ignored her sour attitude towards her marriage to Goku but the old woman was getting on her nerves.

 The Fall Festival was a popular celebration for Gyu-Mao’s kingdom where even neighboring communities attended. Booths were set up in the courtyards of Gyu-Mao’s castle where people sold food ranging from candy, snacks, meats, sweet bread, and a variety of yummy desserts. A section was cornered off for the arts and crafts booths while most of the land host the games for everyone from archery, to the dunking booth and the very popular Tilt-A-Whirl and Ferris Wheel whose long line hadn’t shortened since it opened.

 Once Gyu-Mao announced ChiChi’s pregnancy, the news spread like wildfire where every villager wanted to personally congratulate their princess and her husband. ChiChi was embarrassed by the attention while Goku welcomed it since everyone selling food offered him and ChiChi free food at their news.

 With this being Goku’s first festival, Goku visited every booth in the arts and craft area, even getting his face painted. He took part in some games like bobbing for apples, getting five in his mouth, showed off his strength in the log toss, goofily missing his target when he tried archery but perfectly dunking Mr. Olitz in the dunking booth. Goku and ChiChi spent most of their time among the food booths. They were eating free samples of wild boar on shish kabobs when Aki and a young teen approach them.

 “Goku! Mrs. ChiChi!”

 Goku’s mouth was filled with wild boar meat but that didn’t stop him from talking when Aki approached. “Oh! Whi, Mki!”

 “Goku,” ChiChi gently scolded. “Swallow your food first.” While Goku chewed and swallow his food, ChiChi turned her attention to Aki. “Hello, Aki. Hello Lara. Are you enjoying the festival?”

 Lara nodded. “Aki and I just left the Tilt-A-Whirl and the Ferris Wheel. It was awesome.”

 “Goku and I are hoping to ride the Ferris Wheel together later.” ChiChi put a hand on her stomach. “Goku’s riding the Tilt-A-Whirl by himself for obvious reasons.” When Goku finished swallowing his food, ChiChi continued with introductions. “Goku, I’m not sure if you ever met Lara, Aki’s sister.”

 Lara was Aki’s fourteen year old sister. It was clear besides the Tilt-A-Whirl and Ferris Wheel, she had also visited the arts and craft section with her painted face, handmade necklace and bracelet. ChiChi met her a few times at previous festivals accompanied by Aki or her mother.

 “Congratulations, by the way,” Aki said. He smirked at Goku. “Hit that home run early, didn’t you, Goku?” To ChiChi, he said, “Mrs. ChiChi, I know you’re very happy. You’re gonna be a great mom.”

 “Home run?” Goku repeated confused. “What are you talking about?”

 “I’ll explain later, Goku. Aki,” ChiChi addressed the young man, “for all you’ve done for me and Goku, you can call me ChiChi.”

 Aki blushed at the praise and honor. “Um, I don’t know about that. Mom always said we should show proper respect to our king and princess by acknowledging them with their proper title.”

 “I understand but I insist. You and Lara can call me ChiChi.”

 Aki rubbed the back of his head suddenly shy. “Gonna take me a while before I get used to that but I’ll try, Mrs…. Um, I mean, ChiChi.” Aki slung an arm around Goku’s shoulder. “Can I trade you my sister and borrow the father-to-be? Gotta get him a drink and celebrate.”

 ChiChi giggled. She understood the need for male bonding and was glad Goku found a friend among her people. “Have fun but don’t be gone too long.”

 “Thanks. Come on, Goku.”

 Aki purchased a beer for himself and water for Goku while Goku balanced three shish kabobs, four large onigiri and two huge soft pretzels in his hands. The two found an empty bench to sit on to drink and eat. “So, Goku,” Aki popped open the can of beer, “how do you feel about this?”

 Goku polished off one shish kabob in three bites. “This festival is great. It’s a lot of fun. I really like the food. I hope I can get on the Ferris Wheel later.”

 Aki grinned. His friend with the one track mind. “I don’t mean that. How do you feel about being a Dad? You’re 18 not 30. If one of my girlfriends told me she’s pregnant, I’d be scared out of my mind.”

 “Why?”

 Aki drunk his beer. “A baby is a huge responsibility. It’s a tiny life that’s gonna depend on you to take care of him. You’ll have to feed and clean him, figure out why he’s crying since he can’t talk. Mrs.….um,  ChiChi will do most of that but you gotta help sometimes. It’s a lot to deal with.”

 Goku finished off another shish kabob as he thought over what Aki told him. “I can handle it. Being a Dad sounds like fun and I won’t be doing it by myself. I have ChiChi.”

 Aki shook his head amused. “Goku, I wish I had your optimism but I guess after what you went through, you have to be optimistic or you’ll lose your mind.”

 Once again, Goku was confused. He took a huge bite of his onigiri. “What do you mean?”

 “You practically raised yourself alone in the mountains. You fought the demon King Piccolo and defeated his son. After surviving all that, marriage and fatherhood has to be easy.” Aki finished off his beer. Now that he thought about, Aki realized he was silly wanting to check up on Goku. Goku was naïve at times but he had his life put together a lot better than others and was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. “You’ll be all right, Goku. I was concerned but I think you’ll be all right.”

 Lara suddenly appeared balancing a large bucket of popcorn, a large pretzel and a large soda in her hands. “Here you are.” Lara took the empty seat besides Goku. “I thought I would get lost looking for you.”

 Aki frowned at Lara. “What are you doing walking around by yourself?”

 Lara rolled her eyes. “I am fourteen.”

 “I don’t care,” Aki argued. “Where’s ChiChi? Why isn’t she with you?”

 “She’s in the castle with Mrs. Niver. Mrs. Niver and Kaifun approached us when we were at the snack booth. Mrs. Niver wanted to show ChiChi some maternity clothes her mother wore. ChiChi wanted to talk to Goku and let him know so he can come with her.” Lara took a huge bite of her pretzel. “Mrs. Niver told me and Kaifun to get Goku while she and ChiChi go in the castle. I had no problem with that but when we were on our way here, Kaifun suddenly ditched me.”

 “He ditched you?!” Aki rose from his seat angry. “What the hell?!”

 “I’m fine,” Lara assured her brother. “I can walk around here by myself. It’s safe. Just crowded.”

 “I don’t care if it is safe!” Aki snapped. “Kaifun had no right to ditch you. Goku, can you….” Goku’s seat was empty.

 “He’s gone,” Lara remarked. She didn’t hear him leave and she sat next to him.

 “He’s pissed.”

 Lara looked at her brother confused. “Why do you say that?”

 “He left his food.”

 ChiChi visited her mother’s dressing room several times since the castle was rebuilt. She recalled being a little girl, marveling at the dresses her mother wore, having parties pretending to be her Mom while her stuffed animals were the guests. When she got older, she even tried on a few. During the many hours she spent in this place, she never saw her mother’s maternity clothes.

 The dresses Mrs. Niver brought out were very pretty at different stages of pregnancy. Three she decided she will take home today while the others she will pick up when she was further along in her pregnancy.

 Holding the dresses on her arm, ChiChi noticed Mrs. Niver still in the closet. “Do you need help?”

 “No, I have it,” Mrs. Niver backside suddenly appeared as she pulled a storage box from the closet.

 “Lara and Kaifun should be back with Goku soon,” ChiChi said. “We should wait for him.”

 Mrs. Niver snorted. “The day I get help from him is the day I die.”

 With that remark, ChiChi saw it as the perfect time to address another matter. “Mrs. Niver, my father told me of the gossip you’ve spread about Goku and me. I don’t appreciate it. I can’t stop how you feel about Goku but I won’t allow you to slander our relationship with lies.”

 “Grandma only spoke the truth.” Kaifun entered the room. He walked past ChiChi and took the box from his grandmother. He laid it on a table. “Goku did leave and you were having problems. It’s only logical to conclude you may break up.” He shook his head at ChiChi, his disappointment evident. “I certainly thought you would but you did the worst thing possible and got pregnant.”

 ChiChi looked from Mrs. Niver to Kaifun. The lack of Goku and even Lara’s presence and only Kaifun and Mrs. Niver wasn’t a coincidence. She remembered her promise to Goku. She wasn’t alone with Kaifun since Mrs. Niver was in the room but suspected Goku wouldn’t like this either. Neither did she. She felt this was a setup.

 “Being pregnant is the best thing to have happened to us.”

 Kaifun shook his head again. ChiChi didn’t get it. “You don’t realize you’re trapped now.”

 “Trapped?”

 “You’re pregnant by Goku!” he yelled hoping she will get it. “You can’t get out of the marriage. Well, you can but it’s not easy anymore.”

 “I’m not trapped being pregnant by Goku. I’m happy and I will never want out of our marriage!”

 “You don’t see the truth because you’re wrapped up in your feelings. Goku is not husband or father material. That fight you had with Goku is proof he wasn’t ready for marriage. That was your out, ChiChi, and you didn’t take it!”

 ChiChi felt her blood pressure rising. How dare he! “It was a misunderstanding that escalated.”

 “No! It was sign you should leave but you didn’t. Instead, you stayed and now you’re pregnant by him. You’re stuck. You will be tied to him for the rest of your life.” He sighed. “He’s such an idiot, too. I hope your child inherits your brains. To inherit anything from Goku would be a curse no child should burden.”

 ChiChi’s punch was so swift and strong Kaifun was knocked off his feet and sent slamming headfirst into the closet door.

 “Kaifun!” Mrs. Niver screamed. She rushed to her grandson. She shook his body, horrified to realize he was knocked out. “How could you do that to him? He cares for you!”

 “I don’t care what Kaifun says about me but he nor anyone else will say such horrible things about my husband and child in my presence and think they will get away with it.” Her blood was boiling now. “My father and I have been lenient with you two. A lot of it has to do with my father’s past with your family and your kindness to me when I was younger but I won’t tolerate this from you or Kaifun anymore. This is your first and last warning.”

 “ChiChi.”

 Anger dissolve from ChiChi at the soft call of her name. She turned and saw Goku in the doorway. How much did he hear? How much did he see? Oh, well. It didn’t matter. It was over now. In hindsight, she realized this should been settled a long time ago but she wanted Kaifun and Mrs. Niver to come around on their own. Now she saw that was never possible with them.

 “Goku.” In a flash, ChiChi’s voice went from venomous anger to pure happiness. She held up the dresses in her other arm. “Mrs. Niver was nice enough to find me maternity dresses my mother wore. I can’t wait to wear them.”

 Goku pointed behind her at the site of Kaifun’s unconscious head stuck in the door. “But….”

 “Don’t worry about that.” ChiChi linked her arm in Goku’s. “Like I told you. He’s harmless. Now, let’s see if we can get in line for the Ferris Wheel.” She placed a hand on her stomach. “Maybe I can use my father’s announcement to get us moved to the front of the line.”

 Goku laughed as he and ChiChi walked away. “And more free food?” he asked hopeful.

 ChiChi giggled. “Yes, Goku and more free food. Honestly, you have a one track mind.”

 As the happy couple walked away as if nothing had happened, one individual thought differently. Mrs. Niver tended to her unconscious grandson vowing privately. This isn’t over.

 Part Eleven: Super Moon

 AN: Since ChiChi is carrying a half Saiyan baby, I figured some normal symptoms Earth women experience will be eliminated like morning sickness. Saiyan babies will not be rejecting food. :P I think ChiChi will also be stronger since she is carrying Saiyan blood in her veins and will carry traits of a Saiyan, like strength, constant eating, heightened sense of smell, etc. I love the idea of Goku staring at a pregnant ChiChi as she eat, fascinated, and finally seeing what his friends see when he eats.

Xenoverse Log: The Brave and the Bald

So last time I wrote about XV2, I was whining about Parallel Quest 101.  It’s an escort mission, only this one has two useless dirtbags you have to protect.  Take a good long look at this pair of nerds:

[Above: 2 Stupid Babies]

In PQ 101, their job is to wander mindlessly in front of the enemies and get their asses kicked, costing ME the victory.  They’re dumb and stupid and I hate them.

The trouble with this level is that you fight two enemies at a time, and while you fight one personally, the other always goes after Tweedledum and Tweedledee.  You can bring two partners in with you, and I’ve been using a pair of Supervillain Coolers, but the AI isn’t very good in this situation.  They make a decent distraction/meat shield, but they tend to stand back if an enemy is already locked on to another teammate.  So they won’t help me and they won’t help Geeko or Vagisil when they’re under attack. 

So I finally decided to swallow my pride and get some help.  Let’s face it, the only way I was going to win this thing was to have a human partner who actually understood the strategic situation.  So I went into the Online Parallel Quests and waited for someone to show up. 

What I got was a fellow by the name of mikejohno, a male Saiyan with a red mohawk and a beard.  No words were spoken, for ours was a silent partnership and I have the microphone on mute for this game.  Unfortunately, no one else showed up, so it was just the two of us.  And so Luffa went once more unto the breach.  She had her meat in one hand, and mikejohno in the other.

Things started out well.  We picked our opponents and cleaned house.  Turns out the level is pretty easy if you can isolate the enemies and whittle ‘em down.  I don’t know much about mikejohno’s techniques because he was busy on the other end of the map, but I do know that he shares Luffa’s passion for spamming Special Beam Cannon, and he has the power of a Super Saiyan that has ascended past a Super Saiyan, ascended once more. 

Long story short, we won.  Piccolo and Tracksuit Gohan gave us some trouble, but we emerged victorious and earned the right to enter the Ultimate Finish of the level.  I was afraid it’d be more escort crap, but instead you end up having to beat up the two jerks you had to protect a minute ago. 

On the one hand, this was satisfying, because I could finally take out my frustrations on these stupid, stupid jerks.  On the other hand, I find it incredibly hypocritical to have the same characters be incredibly weak as allies, but incredibly strong as enemies. 

Don’t get me wrong, we cleaned house on those guys, but they had a lot of health, and I realized that the time limit was going to run out.  We needed a game changer, someone to tip the scales in our favor!  If only we had gotten a third person on our team before we started!  But then, as Luffa’s health dipped a little too low, I realized we had a third teammate after all, and he rushed into action just in the nick of time:

[”Somebody hit my music...”]

I honestly forgot I had Nappa set up as Luffa’s instructor.  But he had one more lesson to teach us: the power of kicking ass.  He wasn’t a Super Saiyan 3 like mikejohno, or a legend like his protege, or a Bluper God like our foes, but that didn’t stop him from diving taint-first into the thick of battle, desperate for a chance at revenge against the men who crippled and killed him all those years ago. 

Call him Nappa the White, because he came at the turn of the tide.  With his help, we were able to charge up our ki and spam Special Beam Cannon until our enemies were beaten.  We won.  Then he flew off into the sunset, vanishing as mysteriously as he arrived. 

And then I got an S-rank for the mission, so I’ll have to go back and do this all over again.  Still, from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say thank you, mikejohno.  And thank you, Nappa.  Just for being you.

Death straightened up slowly. IS THIS HOW HE REPAYS MY KINDNESS? TO STEAL MY DAUGHTER, INSULT MY SERVANTS, AND RISK THE FABRIC OF REALITY ON A PERSONAL WHIM? OH, FOOLISH, FOOLISH, I HAVE BEEN FOOLISH TOO LONG! 'Master, if you would just be so good as to let go of my robe —' began Albert, and the wizard noticed a pleading edge to his voice that hadn't been there before. Death ignored him. He snapped his fingers like a castanet and the apron around his waist exploded into brief flames. The kitten, however, he put down very carefully and gently pushed away with his foot. DID I NOT GIVE HIM THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY? 'Exactly, master, and now if you could see your way clear —' SKILLS? A CAREER STRUCTURE? PROSPECTS? A JOB OR LIFE? 'Indeed, and if you would but let go —' The change in Albert's voice was complete. The trumpets of command had become the piccolos of supplication. He sounded terrified, in fact, but he Managed to catch Rincewind's eye and hiss: 'My staff! Throw me my staff! While he is in the circle he is not invincible! Let me have my staff and I can break free!' Rincewind said: 'Pardon?' OH, MINE IS THE FAULT FOR GIVING IN TO THESE WEAKNESSES OF WHAT FOR WANT OF A BETTER WORD I SHALL CALL THE FLESH! 'My staff, you idiot, my staff!' gibbered Albert. 'Sorry?' WELL DONE, MY SERVANT, FOR CALLING ME TO MY SENSES. said Death. LET us LOSE NO TIME. 'My sta-!' There was an implosion and an inrush of air. The candle flames stretched out like lines of fire for a moment, and then went out. Some time passed. Then the bursar's voice from somewhere near the floor said, 'That was very unkind, Rincewind, losing his staff like that. Remind me to discipline you severely one of these days. Anyone got a light?' 'I don't know what happened to it! I just leaned it against the pillar here and now it's —' 'Oook.' 'Oh,' said Rincewind. 'Extra banana ration, that ape,' said the bursar levelly. A match flared and someone managed to get a candle alight. Wizards started to pick themselves off the floor. 'Well, that was a lesson to all of us,' the bursar continued, brushing dust and candlewax off his robe. He looked up, expecting to see the statue of Alberto Malich back on its pedestal. 'Clearly even statues have feelings,' he said. 'I myself recall, when I was but a first-year student, writing my name on his well, never mind. The point is, I propose here and now we replace the statue.' Dead silence greeted this suggestion. 'With, say, an exact likeness cast in gold. Suitably embellished with jewels, as befits our great founder,' he went on brightly. 'And to make sure no students deface it in any way I suggest we then erect it in the deepest cellar,' he continued. 'And then lock the door,' he added. Several wizards began to cheer up. 'And throw away the key?' said Rincewind. 'And weld the door,' the bursar said. He had just remembered about The Mended Drum. He thought for a while and remembered about the physical fitness regime as well. 'And then brick up the doorway,' he said. There was a round of applause. 'And throw away the bricklayer!' chortled Rincewind, who felt he was getting the hang of this. The bursar scowled at him. 'No need to get carried away,' he said. In the silence a larger than usual sand dune humped up awkwardly and then fell away to reveal Binky, blowing the sand out of his nostrils and shaking his mane. Mort opened his eyes. There should be a word for that brief period just after waking when the mind is full of warm pink nothing. You lie there entirely empty of thought, except for a growing suspicion that heading towards you, like a sockful of damp sand in a nocturnal alleyway, are all the recollections you'd really rather do without, and which amount to the fact that the only mitigating factor in your horrible future is the certainty that it will be quite short. Mort sat up and put his hands on top of his head to stop it unscrewing. The sand beside him heaved and Ysabell pushed herself into a sitting position. Her hair was full of sand and her face was grimy with pyramid dust. Some of her hair had frizzled at the tips. She stared listlessly at him. 'Did you hit me?' he said, gently testing his jaw. 'Yes.' 'Oh.' He looked at the sky, as though it could remind him about things. He had to be somewhere, soon, he recalled. Then he remembered something else. Thank you,' he said. 'Any time, I assure you.' Ysabell made it to her feet and tried to brush the dirt and cobwebs off her dress. 'Are we going to rescue this princess of yours?' she said diffidently. Mort's own personal, internal reality caught up with him. He shot to his feet with a strangled cry, watched blue fireworks explode in front of his eyes, and collapsed again. Ysabell caught him under the shoulders and hauled him back on his feet. 'Let's go down to the river,' she said. 'I think we could all do with a drink.' 'What happened to me?' She shrugged as best she could while supporting his weight. 'Someone used the Rite of AshkEnte. Father hates it, he says they always summon him at inconvenient moments. The part of you that was Death went and you stayed behind. I think. At least you've got your own voice back.' 'What time is it?' 'What time did you say the priests close up the pyramid?' Mort squinted through streaming eyes back towards the tomb of the king. Sure enough, torchlit fingers were working on the door. Soon, according to the legend, the guardians would come to life and begin their endless patrol. He knew they would. He remembered the knowledge. He remembered his mind feeling as cold as ice and limitless as the night sky. He remembered being summoned into reluctant existence at the moment the first creature lived, in the certain knowledge that he would outlive life until the last being in the universe passed to its reward, when it would then be his job, figuratively speaking, to put the chairs on the tables and turn aU the lights off. He remembered the loneliness. 'Don't leave me,' he said urgently. 'I'm here,' she said. 'For as long as you need me.' 'It's midnight,' he said dully, sinking down by the Tsort and lowering his aching head to the water. Beside him there was a noise like a bath emptying as Binky also took a drink. 'Does that mean we're too late?' 'Yes.' 'I'm sorry. I wish there was something I could do.' There isn't.' 'At least you kept your promise to Albert.' 'Yes,' said Mort, bitterly. 'At least I did that.' Nearly all the way from one side of the Disc to the other. . . . There should be a word for the microscopic spark of hope that you dare not entertain in case the mere act of acknowledging it will cause it to vanish, like trying to look at a photon. You can only sidle up to it, looking past it, walking past it, waiting for it to get big enough to face the world. He raised his dripping head and looked towards the sunset horizon, trying to remember the big model of the Disc in Death's study without actually letting the universe know what he was entertaining. At times like this it can seem that eventuality is so finely balanced that merely thinking too loud can spoil everything. He orientated himself by the thin streamers of Hublight dancing against the stars, and made an inspired guess that Sto Lat was . . . over there. . . . 'Midnight,' he said aloud. 'Gone midnight now,' said Ysabell. Mort stood up, trying not to let the delight radiate out from him like a beacon, and grabbed Binky's harness. 'Come on,' he said. 'We haven't got much time.' 'What are you talking about?' Mort reached down to swing her up behind him. It was a nice idea, but merely meant that he nearly pulled himself out of the saddle. She pushed him back gently and climbed up by herself. Binky skittered sideways, sensing Mort's feverish excitement, and snorted and pawed at the sand. 'I said, what are you talking about?' Mort turned the horse to face the distant glow of the sunset. 'The speed of night,' he said. Gutwell poked his head over the palace battlements and groaned. The interface was only a street away, clearly visible in the octarine, and he didn't have to imagine the sizzling. He could hear it – a nasty, saw-toothed buzz as random particles of possibility hit the interface and gave up their energy as noise. As it ground its way up the street the pearly wall swallowed the bunting, the torches and the waiting crowds, leaving only dark streets. Somewhere out there, Cutwell thought, I'm fast asleep in my bed and none of this has happened. Lucky me. He ducked down, skidded down the ladder to the cobbles and legged it back to the main hall with the skirts of his robe flapping around his ankles. He slipped in through the small postern in the great door and ordered the guards to lock it, then grabbed his skirts again and pounded along a side passage so that the guests wouldn't notice him. The hall was lit with thousands of candles and crowded with Sto Plain dignitaries, nearly all of them slightly unsure why they were there. And, of course, there was the elephant. It was the elephant that had convinced Cutwell that he had gone off the rails of sanity, but it seemed like a good idea a few hours ago, when his exasperation at the High Priest's poor eyesight had run into the recollection that a lumber mill on the edge of town possessed said beast for the purposes of heavy haulage. It was elderly, arthritic and had an uncertain temper, but it had one important advantage as a sacrificial victim. The High Priest should be able to see it. Half a dozen guards were gingerly trying to restrain the creature, in whose slow brain the realisation had dawned that it should be in its familiar stable, with plenty of hay and water and time to dream of the hot days on the great khaki plains of Klatch. It was getting restless. It will shortly become apparent that another reason for its growing friskiness is the fact that, in the pre-ceremony confusion, its trunk found the ceremonial chalice containing a gallon of strong wine and drained the lot. Strange hot ideas are beginning to bubble in front of its crusted eyes, of uprooted baobabs, mating fights with other bulls, glorious stampedes through native villages and other half-remembered pleasures. Soon it will start to see pink people. Fortunately this was unknown to Cutwell, who caught the eye of the High Priest's assistant – a forward-looking young man who had the foresight to provide himself with a long rubber apron and waders – and signalled that the ceremony should begin. He darted back into the priest's robing room and struggled into the special ceremonial robe the palace seamstress had made up for him, digging deep into her workbasket for scraps of lace, equins and gold thread to produce a garment of uch dazzling tastelessness that even the ArchChancellor of Unseen University wouldn't have been ashamed to wear it. Cutwell allowed himself five seconds to admire himself in the mirror before ramming the pointy hat on his head and running back to the door, stopping just in time to emerge at a sedate pace as befitted a person of substance. He reached the High Priest as Keli started her advance up the central aisle, flanked by maidservants who fussed around her like tugs around a liner. Despite the drawbacks of the hereditary dress, Cutwell thought she looked beautiful. There was something about her that made him — He gritted his teeth and tried to concentrate on the security arrangements. He had put guards at various vantage points in the hall in case the Duke of Sto Helit tried any last-minute rearrangement of the royal succession, and reminded himself to keep a special eye on the duke himself, who was sitting in the front row of seats with a strange quiet smile on his face. The duke caught Cutwell's eye, and the wizard hastily looked away.