Guys guys I have a joke

How is the final arc of BNHA like a vampire den

THERE'S NO FUCKING STAKES

Dragon Ball Super 067

“Fuck the Zamasu Saga forever...”

Last time, Vegito attacked Zamasu with everything he had and still couldn’t beat him, but that’s okay because Trunks... cut him in half.  And it totally makes how that worked!   Honest. 

Anyway, I was going to complain about how Zamasu kept talking even as he was being cut in half, but that pales in comparison to this episode, where he continues to talk after he’s been cut in half.  It’s called “dignity”, Zamasu, look it up some time.

Finally, Zamasu vanishes in a bright light and everyone congratulates Trunks for securing the win.  “I never heart of a Spirit Bomb coming from a sword before!” Goku says.  “Yeah, neither have I,” Trunks says.  “I don’t even know how that happened.  It’s like someone was making all of this up and they ran out of time and just slapped something together.  But at least we won.”

But they didn’t win, because over where Zamasu vanished, a big column of red and black energy shoots up into the sky...

... And a dark haze spreads out over the whole world.  Also there’s thousands of Zamasu faces, all cackling with insane laughter. 

Everybody’s out of power from all the fighting from earlier, but they still shoot their biggest energy blasts at the problem, and it does nothing.  Gowasu speculates that the Super Dragon Balls that made Zamasu immortal have allowed him to survive having his body destroyed, and now his indestructible essence has dispersed throughout the universe.

Earlier, Gowasu was contemplating Zamasu’s fused body breaking down, and he noted the irony of Zamasu being obsessed with divine, perfect beauty, and how he had become everything he despised.  Could Zamasu truly find satisfaction in his goal, if all it meant was becoming a broken god overseeing a vacant cosmos?  Now we see that idea apparently being made manifest.  Zamasu no longer has a body, and he seems to have been driven insane by his defeat at the hands of a mortal, so he’s just sort of going with it.  

Some of the faces shoot energy blasts down at the Earth below.

And while... someone... the Supreme Kai maybe?... manages to protect this small group and the time machine, anything else that gets hit is destroyed.

Android 8 dies, the Turtle dies, and all of the survivors in West City we’ve seen have died. 

Oh, and whatever Zamasu is doing to the multiverse in Trunks’ reality, it’s also bleeding into all the other timelines as well.  So that’s a thing.

Even Beerus and Whis can sense it, although Whis doesn’t quite seem to understand what it is.  Beerus knows, though.  Or maybe he just has a good guess.

Back to this world, when Zamasu is done, only the group with Goku are left.  Trunks confirms that he can’t sense any other survivors anywhere on Earth.  All the people who helped him defeat Zamasu in the last episode are 100% dead.  Mai shoots her gun into the air, but there’s nothing anyone can do.  Refreshingly, Zamasu has nothing to say here.  I’m not even sure he’s aware of Goku’s group still living on the surface. 

Goku still wants to try to fight Zamasu, but he’s lost too much power, and he’s out of senzu beans.  While he fishes around in his sash to find more, he discovers that button Grand Zeno gave him.  So he pushes it...

And the Grand Zeno of this timeline appears.  He doesn’t know Goku, since they never met in this timeline, but he’s still pretty chill about the whole thing.  He takes one look at the universe and finds it unpleasant.  There’s nothing here but Zamasu making that annoying laugh.

Goku explains that Zamasu is responsible and suggests that Zeno do something about it, and Zeno agrees.  he levitates to the sky and prepares to destroy “everything.”

I don’t think Goku was expecting such an extreme or rapid response, so he tells everyone to hustle those buns and clear out.  The Kais use their Time Rings, and everyone else hops in the Time Machine.  Goku and Vegeta ride on the landing struts.  I feel like that’s a bad idea, but so is staying here, so sure.

And as Grand Zeno does his work, all the Zamasu faces twist with confused terror and vanish.

Gowasu apologizes to Beerus for all the trouble caused by his shitty apprentice-selection skills, but there’s really nothing more to be said here.  Goku and the others return in their Time Machine, but Goku’s not done yet because he wants to take one more trip.  I’m pretty sure Bulma has to make more fuel for that, so I assume the next scene takes place some twelve hours later.

See, Goku wants to go back to pick up Grand Zeno, who’s now just floating in the void by himself.  Trunks handles the controls for this trip, and he reports that he has taken the machine back to the same coordinates they left.  I don’t know, it’s pretty ballsy of Goku to assume that they could even go  back like this.  I mean, would there even be a “here” for them to arrive at?   Would the time machine simply blip out of existence as soon as it arrived?   Or maybe this space Zeno floats in is only here because the time machine arrived here.

Anyway, Goku offers this Zeno a lift, promising to take him to another universe with lots of cool stuff.  Zeno’s like “Yeah, I’m in.” 

Then Goku asks the Supreme Kai to take him to the palace of the Grand Zeno in this timeline, and Goku introduces them.  He promised the local Grand Zeno a friend, and he’s delivered.  Promises made, promises kept. 

The Grand Minister is impressed, and asks if Whis had something to do with this, but Whis says this was all Goku’s idea.  The G.M. says he’s starting to like Universe 7, and Whis invites him to visit anytime.  Also, in this scene they refer to each other as father and son. 

So that wraps up most of it, right?  Well, there’s still the matter of Trunks and Mai, who are now the only survivors of the alternate timeline’s multiverse.   Zamasu killed everyone and Zeno erased what was left.  Whis suggests taking them to a time just before that all happened.   Basically, he would drop them off in the same timeline, before the crisis began.  Then he would contact the Beerus of that timeline, and convince him to destroy Zamasu before he could have the chance to cause trouble.  Beerus doesn’t approve, since that would mean Whis would create another alternate timeline.  

But Whis points out that Beerus has already violated the same taboo himself, when he destroyed Zamasu in Episode 59.  Beerus didn’t travel through time to do that, but he did act on information provided to him from the future, i.e., the similarity of Goku Black’s ki to Zamasu’s.  Therefore, he created a divergenge in the timeline, one path where Beerus destroyed Zamasu, and one where he did not. 

Vegeta has a more practical objection.  No one knows exactly when Zamasu obtained his indestructible body, so if Whis’ plan is going to work, he’d need to do this before Zamasu makes that wish.  Otherwise, Beerus destroying Zamasu would just produce the same ruined universe that Zeno had to erase.  Whis says he has some means of dealing with such a problem, more effective than their Mafuba technique.  But he doesn’t elaborate. 

Of course, that problem doesn’t actually matter, since Whis’ plan requires the Beerus of that timeline to still be alive, and he would have died when Dabura killed the Supreme Kai, years before Goku Black or Zamasu got started.  The real catch to all of this is that Whis can drop Trunks and Mai off in a “safe” version of the world they knew, a world recovering from the Androids, but still thriving.  However, that world will have a Trunks and Mai already living there, which would be kind of awkward.  Can they handle such a thing? 

They agree to give it a shot.  I mean, where else can they go?  I guess they can stay here, but there’s a Trunks and Mai in this world too, so it’s the same problem.  Anyway, before he leaves, Beerus tells Trunks that he’s going to absolve him of his temporal crimes, but only because Whis likes him.  Translation: Beerus had a soft spot for Trunks now. 

In Universe 10, Gowasu checks out his box of Time rings, and there’s a sixth one now.  I think that would be the one created by Beerus’s actions in Episode 59, but I’m still a little fuzzy on the Time Rings.   I’ll definitely have to try to sort this out in another post.  All that matters is that we now have a Timeline E and F in addition to the A,B,C&D timelines from the original manga.  And this suits me fine, because I like the idea of this shitty Zamasu saga involving a Timeline F.

Back on Earth, everyone says their goodbyes to Trunks and Mai, and Vegeta punches him, and he smiles when Trunks blocks it.  They’re both satisfied that he can handle whatever they run into next in their new home.

Also, Piccolo and Gohan fly over to see them off, and Gohan offers words of support, which makes Trunks cry.  Wait, I thought Whis escorted the time machine in this scene.  Maybe he just told them he was going to arrange all that stuff, and he secretly planted a bomb on the Time Machine to clean up the last loose end. 

Anyway, they’re gone, and apparently once and for all, so that’s the end of the Zamasu Saga.  Good riddance. 

It’s been said before, but the ending to this arc is incredibly nihilistic.  The original goal here was for Trunks to save his world from Goku Black, and in the end, he failed completely.  His Earth is destroyed, his people are destroyed, Goku Black and Zamasu are destroyed, and the entire multiverse of that timeline is destroyed as well.  Trunks and Mai get to live, but they have to blend in on an exact copy of the world they knew (give or take a few years), and there’s already a Trunks and Mai living in it, which is kind of an existentialist horror when you think about it. 

I think the creators were sort of hoping you won’t think about it too much after this episode.  After all, the Trunks and Mai of this story are gone for good, so we don’t have any way to check in on them to see how they’re doing in their new home, or even if they made it there at all.  As for the other characters, they can move on with their lives.  Most of the events of this arc didn’t affect them at all, since the bulk of the action took place in a separate world that no longer exists. 

The thing is, I still think about this, because I’ve been writing a Trunks fanfic as a hobby.   Well, it’s not a Trunks fanfic.  He’s in it, but he’s not the lead.  The point is, I do try to keep abreast of Future Trunks continuity, and I swiftly came to the conclusion that this stupid saga should be ignored entirely.  I hate the idea of Trunks’ whole future world dying in another conflict, a conflict so asinine that the only way to resolve it was a literal deus ex machina to destroy his entire reality.

And ignoring the Zamasu Saga is pretty easy to do, since the only lasting legacy seems to be the fact that there’s two Grand Zenos after this, when there was only one before.  So if you follow my Dragon Ball Super Machete Cut, which skips Epsides 3-14, 19-31, and the Zamasu arc, you won’t be all that confused.  I mean, sure, you’ll see two Zeno’s at the Tournament of Power, but they look and act exactly the same, so it doesn’t really matter how many of them there are.  It’s a small price to pay for skipping this dumb stretch of episodes. 

So we’re done.  No more Zamasu Saga.  Things can only get better from here, and now I...

Wait, I forgot I still have to do the manga version.  Damn.  It.

I’ll see you next time...

★ needy ★ a Frieza story

This is based on a request I got from an Anon - “ Do you think you can do a Frieza X Reader where Frieza feels more comfortable about being around the reader so much that he gets a bit clingy towards the reader?“

This will be a multi-part series. Oh how I do love Lord Frieza  ♡

TW - mentions of anxiety, kidnapping

“Yo!” You hear a familiar voice from behind you. You spin on your heel to find none other than the tall and hunky saiyan himself, Goku. 

“Hi Goku! How are you?” You smiled sweetly at him. He’s been your friend for quite some time now and you’ve gotten used to having him around. His face always lights up when he sees you, as you have a way with people, in this case saiyans. Both him and Vegeta had a soft spot for you and they never really understood why. They eventually just gave in and would do whatever you asked of them, being completely wrapped around your finger.

“I’m great! You ready to do this?” He smirked, making a hmph noise before cracking his knuckles and furrowing his eyebrows downward showing that he meant business. You had invited him over today because you were moving into capsule Corp. He was in charge of moving all your big, heavy furniture. Bulma requested you move in a few months ago but after the whole ‘Beerus almost destroying the world’ thing you decided it might be a good idea to go ahead and finally move in. That way you would always be kept in the loop. You were Bulma’s best friend and you were always babysitting the boys anyways so why not just move in? 

“Where do you want this?” Goku questioned holding your whole couch under one arm.

“Um, you can just put it in the loft! Thanks, Goku!” You replied with a kind smile causing his cheeks to turn rosy. You knew that he would do anything for you so you decided to return the favor by always being sweet to him. Everyone around here always called him an idiot and you didn’t feel that he was deserving of that. 

He had moved everything into your apartment so quickly without even breaking a sweat. Goku walked back down the stairs dusting off his hands as if it was the easiest task the saiyan has ever had to do. You were so thankful to have him in your life. 

“Gosh, thanks Goku. What would I do without you?” You reached up to ruffle his hair causing him to chuckle while he scratched the back of his neck.

“Don’t mention it! I’ll see you at dinner then?” He waved goodbye and took off using instant transmission. You were so excited to have a new place within Capsule Corp. Now if you needed Bulma, you could just walk down the hall instead of having to call her up. You sat on your couch and decided to get a nap in before dinner that evening. 

Later that evening, everyone gathered for dinner on the rooftop of Capsule Corp. It was honestly quite cute to have everyone sit together like a big family. You sat with Lord Beerus and Whis to your right and Trunks and Goten to your left. Lord Beerus also took a liking to you, which you figured it couldn’t hurt to have a destroyer on your side. He took the time to actually learn your name which didn’t seem to be a regular occurrence with him and mortals. After dinner you were playing hide and seek with Trunks and Goten, they always outsmarted you by flying or fusing together. You told them that if you were going to play, flying or fusing was against the rules. They weren't too excited about this but they would go along with it because they were always happy to just be playing with you. You were their favorite. 

After a tiresome game of hide and seek and finding the boys stuck in a tree you decided to head back to get some sleep. You yawned walking back inside Capsule Corp, that's when you ran into Bulma roaming the halls. She looked a teensy bit nervous and you felt the need to ask her what was wrong. 

“Everything ok Bulms?” You approached her slowly placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down a bit without spooking her.

“Oh! Hey, Y/N. Y-Yeah, I’ll be okay.” Her words came off a bit on edge and you couldn’t help but think she was trying to withhold information.

“You sure? You don’t seem okay, you seem a bit anxious..” 

“O-okay fine, you got me.” She shakily put her hands up in surrender and you finally let go of her shoulder to cross your arms together. You raised your brow curious to what she was going to say next. “Both Goku and Vegeta left. They went to train with Whis on Beerus' planet..” she paused. You felt as though there was something else she was leaving out. Your brow remained raised, unsure of where this was going. “….we have no way of staying in contact with them, I-I feel a little… unprotected I guess.” she shrugged as if saying it aloud sounded silly. Your eyes widened. A skip in your heart, earth’s greatest protectors - gone? What does this mean? Is there even a threat to earth? Is there going to be a threat? Your head spun a bit when you realized Bulma was still staring at you, she clearly needed comfort from her friend and not a freak out session. 

“Come here Bulms, it’s going to be okay” you grabbed one of her arms and pulled her into a tight embrace. “We still have Piccolo and Gohan with us. Oh! And the boys. We’ll be fine if anything happens we’ll just call up Tien and 18.” You unconfidently replied, breaking off the hug you held her shoulders in place so that she could see your trying sincere smile. Her anxiety seemed to knock down a few clicks as you helped calm her down.

“You’re right, It’s going to be okay.” She inhaled and exhaled loudly calming her nerves, “Thanks Y/N. Well, I guess I’ll try to get some sleep now. If you need anything please don’t hesitate to come get me, after all I’m only down the hall now!” She winked as she removed your hands from her shoulders and gave you a swift smile and wave before turning back down the hall towards her place. Finally, you can go back to your new apartment and relax. It had been a long day. 

You unlocked the door to your apartment and your living room was pitch black, the only light was emitting from your loft porch. Humming to yourself you walk around your dark room looking for the light switch, it was your first night in your new place and you cursed yourself for not knowing the layout of the room before it had gotten dark. You shuffled around reaching both arms out to feel around the walls for the light switch. At this point you were becoming annoyed, “Ugh” you grunted out loud. You pause for a moment to take a breather and that's when you see them. A pair of what looked like glowing red eyes in the far corner of your living room, they were locked on you and looked like they were coming from behind a lamp that Goku had placed there earlier in the day. You hesitate to scream, figuring maybe it was just an outlet or maybe the boys playing a prank on you. They started to move as if whomever they belonged to began standing up at their full height. That's when you started shaking and you could feel your palms becoming clammy with fear. Whatever it was was charging a ball of energy, the color matching their terrifying eyes. Now would be a good time to scream you thought to yourself, but you were frozen like a deer in headlights. 

Shit, shit, shit. 

Finally, you let out a gut wrenching scream hoping Goku or Vegeta would barge in and save you from whoever let themselves in your apartment. The being disappears from in front of you, in a frenzy you panic and look around not sure where it went. 

“Ah, ah, ah puny earthling.” The unknown creature was now behind you and clapped its large scaly hand over your mouth forcing no more noise out of you. “We don’t want the big bad monkey’s to know that I am here.” It tsked. You were stuck. Trying to calm your breathing you gave in, there was no way you could fight it off. Okay, what now? Still shaking you bring your arms down to your sides not realizing you grasped the hand that was placed tightly over your mouth. “Try that again and I will not hesitate to eliminate you right where you stand, under any normal circumstances you would already be dead at my hands, but unfortunately for the both of us,” a pause, almost as if it was annoyed to say the next part, “I need you to stay alive… for now.”

An understanding, you nodded your head in acceptance and it freed your mouth. All of a sudden the lights came on, blinding you. You covered your eyes trying to get the burn to go away when you finally opened them and saw it, well him? For a lizard man, he was oddly beautiful. He stood taller than you and had ivory skin with amethyst like crystal domes on his head, shoulders, and chest. His figure was rather slender but muscular. Flicking behind him was a long, ivory tail to match. It appeared to be made of pure muscle. He stood with one foot in front of the other showing off his three toed limbs. Wow. You had seen alien creatures before but never one quite like this. 

“Okay, what do you need me to do?” you cleared your throat and pulled at your shirt, fixing your appearance unconsciously.

“Rather compliant aren’t we?” he questioned while letting his head hang low, twisting his mouth to form a menacing and twisted smirk. “I will spare you the mechanics of my grand plan,” He raised his head to look you in the eyes while he spoke, “I have been watching you for quite some time, human.” This caused you to raise your brow in curiosity. Why was he watching you? “The monkeys left, and you see.. That will just not do, will it?” he started playing with his nails as if this conversation was boring him. 

You decided it was best for you not speak unless he asked you to and so he continued on.

“For now, you will be my hostage. My pawn, if you will. I need those infuriating baboons to come back to earth, I will not continue chasing them around the galaxy just to get my revenge.” He clutched his hand into a fist, anger seething through his teeth.

It finally clicked, standing only a few feet away was the ruthless and power hungry emperor, Lord Frieza. You swallowed your fear, not sure how you got here or why but you weren’t going to fight back in any way risking him to deem you no longer worthy to be in his presence. Goku and Vegeta have told you war stories about him. How did he come back? A single tear began rolling down your cheek causing you to sniffle quietly. Frieza must’ve noticed because he reached out and grabbed your face almost crushing your jaw with the action.

“Oh, do not grow worried little one. I will not hurt you…” a beat. “Today.” He chuckled evilly releasing your face. Great, you remembered Bulma telling you that there would be no contact with Goku or Vegeta. How long would you be Frieza’s prisoner? A panic sweeping over you, your head spinning and just like that your world went dark. You were knocked unconscious, Frieza had forced you to sleep. 

-----------------------

“Mom! Mom, wake up!” 

Bulma wiped the sleep away from her eyes. She sat up, yawning not sure if what was happening was a dream or not. Finally, fully awake, her eyes focus on Trunks who is hovering over her in a panic.

“It’s Y/N! I heard her scream, I went to check on her and her door was cracked open and there was no sign of her!” The worry in his voice caused Bulma to jump out of bed. 

“Trunks, I need you to go get Piccolo and the others. I am afraid something bad is happening.” Bulma tried her best to hide the worry in her voice.

Trunks left and Bulma started pacing her dark room, she had an itch of who might be involved. “Frieza.” she said to herself sternly, slamming her fist into her other hand. She thought to herself, how the hell am I going to get a hold of Goku and Vegeta?

I Can’t Handle You Being Back~Chou Tzuyu x black! fem! reader {4}

Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Pairing: Tzuyu x reader

Summary: You’re still acting careful around Tzuyu as the both of you start to practice more and grow closer as you both had did five years ago. Your rekindling friendship starts to bloom to something more as you guy's duo performance at JYPEs showcase crawled closer, your feelings start to grow into something more until someone gets in the way.

Word Count: 2, 917

Writer's Note: Chapter 4!  I hope yall enjoy and keep the comments coming, I'm glad you're loving the fic. If you have any requests send them my way and if you sent some in I'll get to them soon.

Another music show performance of I Can’t Stop Me drained me for the entire day. We arrived back to the dorms and I collapsed in my bed immediately and groaned while Jeongyeon flopped on right beside me. 

“So, how’d I do this time?” I asked with a muffle caused by the pillow. 

Jeongyeon nudged her shoulder against me. 

“You did amazing as always,” she said. “Now are you really going to stay in bed? It’s not even eight yet.” 

“No, no! Y/N the day has just begun!” Sana shouted, jumping onto the other side of the bed, squishing me in between her and Jeongyeon. “We’ve got so much planned!”

I’m able to turn onto my back to meet Sana’s face clouded in over excitement. 

“Like what?” I said. 

The moment the words leave my mouth, Dahyun and Nayeon strolled into the room with huge grins on their faces. 

“We’re all playing games!” Nayeon announced. “Mina’s getting her switch step up now!”

“You got to join us Y/N!” Sana said as she wrapped me in her arms. 

“Fine!” I said as I struggled a bit in her grip. “Just let me get up already.” 

Jeongyeon’s already on her feet, pushing a giggly Sana playfully while she helps me to my feet. 

“So,” I said as the five of us trek down stairs. “What are we playing?”

“Well, I kind of stalked your Instagram again and found your Twitch account,” Sana said, rather innocently with her hands behind her back. “I found that you love Dragon ball fighterZ so I begged Mina to buy it!”

“We both found it Sana,” Nayeon groaned.

They both bicker a bit; Jeongyeon and I met eyes with faces matching in confusion. 

“You could have just asked instead of stalked,” I said. 

“I know,” Sana said. “I just didn’t know how to ask. I know you’ve been with us for almost a month now, but it’s pretty crazy to have you here after five years.” 

Sana’s eyes cut to the floor. Her excited demeanor now replaced with something more reserved and sheepish. I take her hand with a grin before shaking her gently. 

“And I’m not going anywhere anytime soon OK?” I declared. 

Sana nodded and pulled me into a bear hug before she skipped over to the carpet of the living room where Chaeyoung and Mina sat putting the Switch together. 

Tzuyu, Jihyo and Momo sat on the couch facing Mina, Chaeyoung and the television. My eyes landed on Tzuyu, nothing but a smile spreads across her face. It’s not huge or anything, yet I still don’t know how to act around her. She defended me a few nights ago, not only in front of Onces but the entire world: it set the entire internet a blaze. Of course the loyal Onces stayed true and cheered Tzuyu and I on in helpful ways. (There are some that are already shipping us and dubbing us “Rush Hour line” due to whatever reasons, even though Tzuyu’s not from China and---they got the spirit but it’s still tone deaf and a bit racist on both of our parts.) 

Then of course the netizens had their take on it, but I don’t pay attention to them that much anymore. 

“You could sit here if you want, Y/N,” Jihyo said as she gestured to the spot between her and Tzuyu. 

Tzuyu nodded, solidifying my decision as I take the seat. 

Nayeon sat beside Momo and purposely covered the gap of space between her and Jihyo while eyeing Jeongyeon. 

“Oh, Jeongyeon no more room,” Nayeon said. “Guess you’ll have to sit in my lap.”

Jeongyeon shook her head, yet the redness of her cheeks remained. She slapped Nayeon’s arm. 

“Quit playing,” she whined, then whispered something to Nayeon, who moved her arms immediately and smirked. 

I look between Jihyo and Tzuyu, trying to ask what’s the deal between those two. Jihyo caught on as she leaned in towards me with a giggle. 

“They’ve somewhat had a thing since pre debut,” she explained. “They love each other to death, but it’s really complicated at times.” 

“Oh, makes a lot of sense,” I whispered. 

The living room filled with the opening music to Dragon Ball FighterZ blasting around us. 

“All right!” Chaeyoung announced as she hopped up. “Who’s ready for the greatest tournament the world will never witness?”

“Why would it be never Chae?” Tzuyu asked with a snicker. 

“Because we aren’t playing it for Time to Twice or V live or anything,” Chaeyoung said. “Unless you guys want to.”

A collective unit of no’s came from everyone. 

“Week got a week off before that stupid KBS JYP special we have to rehearse for,” Nayeon groaned. “I need time off from the cameras and time to get drunk.” 

She rose to her feet, and disappeared in the kitchen.

“Grab me and beer too!” Jeongyeon called. 

“Are you guys even playing?” I asked. 

“Nope,” Nayeon and Jeongyeon said in unison as they each cracked open their beers respectfully.

“What about the rest of you?” I said. “I know Sana happened to spur this on during the last minute.”

“Oh I’m defiantly playing,” Chaeyoung said as she wrapped her arms around Mina. “Mina is too, right babe?”

Mina giggled and nodded.

“I’ve been playing since the game dropped, but I only played it with my brother back in Japan so I haven’t tried it out on Switch yet,” Mina explained. “Playing on camera won’t be a bad idea for future uploads for Once.” 

“I’m playing too!” Sana said with a grin. “What about you Dubu?”

Dahyun shook her head. 

“Nope, I think I’ll kick back, and cheer you on as much as I can,” Dahyun said as Sana wrapped her arms around her. 

“I’ll sit this out too,” Jihyo said. “It’ll be interesting to see how long Nayeon and Jeongyeon stay sober this time.”

Nayeon gives Jihyo the finger; Jihyo  pushed her playfully and I turn to Tzuyu, who’s eyes were on me then averted to the TV. 

“You playing too?” I asked, while trying not to seem like I caught her wondering eyes. 

Tzuyu shrugged. 

“Why not?” she said. “As long as I can play against Chae first.”

Chaeyoung let out a roar. 

“You’re on Tzu!”

***

A few hours crawled past: Dragon Ball FighterZ night escalated with Mina and I going up against each other with a tied set. It’s 3 to 3, this game would settle. Sana, Jihyo and Tzuyu huddled up behind me while Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Momo rallied behind Mina; Jeongyeon and Nayeon were slumped on the couch, cheering us both on when they could. 

“C’mon babe, you got this!” Chaeyoung shouted. 

I bit down on my lip as Mina zoned out my final character, Goku with her own, Vegeta. This was not only a stressful, but the final fight was reflective of Goku and Vegeta’s rivalry that ran deep in the anime. My heart pounded in my ears as the time of the round continued to slip by as I waited for any mistake. Mina didn’t yield as she fired the energy blasts my way. I blocked every one, even through Chaeyoung’s insistent cheering. My hands started to twitch and I took a deep breath. 

“You got it Y/N! Just focus!” 

My body jolted at who shouted just as loud as Chaeyoung: Tzuyu. 

I moved, jumped over Mina’s blasts and then she vanished. Vegeta appeared behind Goku, aiming to make the finishing blow. My finger almost slipped from the analog stick, but I blocked and reflected the hits Mina tried. There’s the opening I needed! I struck. Getting Vegeta up in a simple combo and ending it with a level 1 special move to ensure victory. 

“Nooooooo!” Chaeyoung groaned.

“Damn,” Mina said. “Great stuff Y/N. Good games.”

We shook hands, then giggled it off with a tight hug. 

“Great job Y/N!” Jihyo cheered as both she and Sana took me a bear hug. 

I melted into them, even allowing Sana to kiss my cheek before she pulled back with a chuckle. Jihyo kept her arms around me however, and whispered a quick ‘I’m so proud of you’ before slinging off to deal with Jeongyeon and Nayeon. They’re already asleep: Jeongyeon’s head laid on Nayeon’s chest as they snored softly. 

“Can someone help me get these two to bed?” Jihyo asked. 

Mina, Sana and Chaeyoung helped upon request as a confused Nayeon grumbled over who won. 

“Congrats Y/N!” Nayeon shouted with a smile. 

I mumbled a thank you and watched everyone file out the living room. All except Tzuyu, who took my hand--and I froze. My heart pounded yet again, proof that I’m still alive and Tzuyu hasn’t crushed me. Dahyun caught my gaze, then threw a wink my way as she left the room arm in arm with Momo. I’m not even going to ask what they’ve got going on. It’s complicated and I’ll figure out with time. 

“I knew you could win,” Tzuyu said. “I doubted it a lot since Mina’s so good.” 

I shivered as she walked around to face me; she looked nervous too. 

“You sure you believed in me till the end?” I asked.

Tzuyu nodded sharply. 

“You have this face where your entire body goes still and you just become sharper,” she explained. “You look pretty--ah! Pretty lame when it happens.”

Tzuyu’s face grew red; I scratched my arm in embarrassment. Maybe this is real after all. Still same Tzuyu being sly when giving a compliment. 

“Yeah, and it was totally lame cheering me on right?” I countered. 

Tzuyu shrugged and turned away. 

“I-I should let you go rest,” I said. “Pretty long day, right?”

Her head whipped back to me, the red color in her face left.

“I-I wasn’t going to yet,” she said. “Um, is it OK if we talk? I-It’s about our KBS performances in a few weeks.” 

“Oh, yeah. Of course,” I said. 

Tzuyu let go of my hand and gestured to the couch. We sat, giving us enough space between but not as much as we gave a dew weeks prior. This is the first moment we’re alone, no other members or managers among us. Just Y/N and Tzuyu. I can’t help but think back to five years ago: how exhausted we were in the JYP dance rooms at 5 a.m. as sweat clung to us. We didn’t care though; the smiles continued even through the hardships until--

“Y/N,” Tzuyu said. “Are you all right?”

I met her confused gaze and I couldn’t help but think back to the days of Sixteen, my elimination and eventually her own elimination. The tears that she shed, begging me to stay on Korea and breaking her heart by saying no.

I shook my head at her question.

“What about you? Tzuyu?” I asked. “You were right about before, I have no idea how much I hurt you while leaving.”

“Y/N--”

“I’m so sorry Tzuyu,” I said cutting her off. 

Tzuyu destroyed the space between us and hugged me flush to her, shocking me in the process. 

“I’m sorry too,” she whispered. “I frightened you, didn’t I? You’re back now, that’s all I ever wanted was my best friend back.”

Her voice shook. A hint of tears threatened to spill but I pulled back to cup her face. Our eyes met again, even through the emotion that clouded and covered her face, she still looked beautiful. She leaned in, making my heart pump faster and faster. 

“Your heart is so loud,” Tzuyu said with a giggle.

I inhaled as she pressed a firm kiss to my forehead. 

“I-It’s just excited to know we’re on good terms, right?” I said. 

“Yes,” Tzuyu groaned. “What else do I have to do to prove it to you?”

Her question made me blush a bit at how close she once was. Tzuyu must have picked up on it as her face grew red. 

“You don’t have to do anything else,” I let out quickly as I grabbed her hand. “Well, you could help me brainstorm what we could do for our KBS performance.”

Tzuyu nodded, her face brightened up. 

“Yeah! Well, Momo unnie is doing a solo so that leaves the nine of us. I think Chaeyoung, Dahyun and Sana are doing a set. We could pair up together if that’s OK,” she suggested.

I nodded as Tzuyu rubbed her thumb over the back of my hand. 

“Yeah, we should pick a song. What about something from Rihanna,” I said. 

Tzuyu chuckled as a wistful look overtook her face. 

“Oh gosh, do you remember our performance on Sixteen? What song was it?” she asked. 

“Oh my God, I remember!” I said. “We were too young to be dancing to S&M anyway!”

Tzuyu fell into a fit of laughter that I thought I wouldn’t have been able to see ever again. It’s like she said, we’re best friends again and I can’t help but feel like I can’t function from all the excitement bubbling up inside. 

“Would you want to do that song again?” she asked. 

“Not really--”

I was cut off by a yawn that forced itself abruptly.   

“We’ve got plenty of time,” Tzuyu said as she stood. “You need to rest.”  

“So do you,” I said as she took my hand and led us up stairs. 

The door to Jeongyeon, Momo and I’s room was shut, so I had to be a bit careful of stepping in to not awaken them. 

“Well, thank you for believing in me,” I whispered. “And becoming my best friend again.” 

Tzuyu only nodded and brought me into her arms again. I hugged back, burying my head against her chest. She had hints of perfume from earlier, along with the warmth that she always carried whenever I needed her. Now she’s back and I didn’t need to worry anymore; I could breathe around her.  I relaxed in her arms so much so that I didn’t want to let go; Tzuyu didn’t either as she gently rubbed my back. 

“You sure you’re all right?” Tzuyu whispered, the sensation of her words warming my chest. 

She pulled back to examine me, her arms not yet leaving my back. 

“Y-Yeah, I just miss your hugs is all.”   

Tzuyu smiled, kissed my forehead and squeezed me tightly again before letting me go. 

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

“Goodnight,” I said, leaning the frame of the door until she disappeared in her own room. 

I did the same, albeit, carefully in case Jeongyeon and Momo were asleep. My hunch was right: Jeongyeon was snoring softly on her bed and Momo laying on her own while scrolling through her phone.

“So, did you kiss her goodnight?” Momo teased. 

My breath caught in my throat even at the mere thought. 

“N-No, “ I stammered. “We hugged. W-We’re friends.”

Momo shrugged. 

“So were Mina and Chae and now look at them.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered as I got in my own bed. my mind still on how warm Tzuyu felt. 

We just got back to being friends again, but I couldn’t help but think about how it would be if I did kiss her. No, she’s my band-mate. I can’t think like that, not anymore. 

***

Morning arrived quickly, even through the nonexistent dreams I still thought of Tzuyu and Momo’s words. Maybe I should talk to Jihyo about how Mina and Chaeyoung happened, even with Nayeon and Jeongyeon’s situation there had to be some agreement between the other members.

I waited until one groggy and hungover Jeongyeon rolled out of bed to help with breakfast, and for Momo to slunk behind her groaning about food. I shot a text to Jihyo for her to meet me here to talk privately. A knock soon came, forcing me to sit up and take a deep breath. 

“You can come in!”

Jihyo entered with a toothy grin and a sigh. 

“Sorry, I had to make sure Momo didn’t take all the food again,” she said as she sat beside me on the bed. “What’s up? Are you holding up OK?”

I nodded sharply; Jihyo noticed the nervousness and slid close to put an arm around me. 

“Breathe Y/N,” Jihyo reassured. “We didn’t overwhelm you yesterday, did we?” 

“No, of course not. It was really fun!”

“Yeah?” Jihyo said as she squeezed me gently. “What about the other members?”

“Ah, about that!” I said. “It’s about a member uh, Tzuyu.”

Jihyo nodded. The smile dropping from her face. 

“She hasn’t been giving you hard time, has she?”

“N-No, actually the opposite,” I said. “She’s been really cool. So cool in fact that I-I- our friendship picked up right where it left off five years ago. Jihyo I think I might like Tzuyu. Like her in a romantic way.”

Jihyo nodded throughout every word, but stopped once I finished. 

“Yeah, I had a feeling,” Jihyo said. “She always had eyes for you only, you should have seen her whenever you sung or performed five years ago. Saying she was mesmerized would be too simple.”

My face grew hot. 

Really? I saw pieces of it last night, but to this level?

“Nothing’s simple with any of us, is there?” Jihyo asked. “That’s why I’m going to let you do what you think is right as long as it doesn’t hurt either of you emotional, physically or harm your public image. However, I do have to let you know one thing before you let Tzuyu know anything.”

“W-What’s that Jihyo?” I asked. 

“I like you too.”         

Vegeta’s Character Analysis Looooooooooong Read

Oh my, what can I say? I just really love to write long essays in a language that isn’t even native to me, lol.

Well, nobody’s perfect, I guess. ... Were you expecting a Cell joke here? I may not be perfect, but that doesn't mean I have to be that predictable.

Ahem, anyway.

This isn't exactly a psychological analysis of the character - more like, hmm, a storytelling analysis. Or something in between, really.

You may not find anything fundamentally new in this text, but I definitely had fun writing it, haha.

It's mostly amateur. I have a useless psychology degree, but not a literature one.

My classic rant about vegebul fics is included, of course.

Summary: proper psychological analysis requires a single continuous personality, which Vegeta simply doesn’t have.

The more I think about Vegeta, the more I come to the conclusion that he is only pretending to be a consistently evolving character.

In fact, he's a bit like 10 different characters in one, which abruptly replace each other (and that's without considering the difference caused by the voice actors’ approach and the changes in his looks). Essentially, Vegeta's a collection of disparate images, arbitrarily lined up by Toriyama and hastily glued together. And the beginning of this line is so far from the end of it that these two extreme images cannot be perceived as belonging to the same person. Well, because human psychology just doesn't work that way.

(Not that Vegeta is unique in this respect – it’s a common feature of characters in long stories that authors compose as they write. Still, his case is quite extreme and interesting as example.)

I mean, take Vegeta in the Saiyan or the Namek arc. He's a complete psychopath. He clearly doesn’t suffer at heart from the unnecessary violence (as, for example, Guts from Berserk). His behavior looks like something natural for him, not an unhealthy defensive reaction. He enjoys it, he smiles happily, killing and torturing weak innocent people. And such a degree of psychopathy is not something that can be healed by a couple of deep personality crises or years of peaceful family life. Vegeta's redemption arc works through strong emotional impact and forgetfulness of the audience, but makes very little sense when viewed in retrospect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps the biggest, hmm, splitting of the personality occurred with Vegeta right after the Namek arc. Toriyama had already made a small retcon of the character’s motives before (to include Vegeta in the context of the Freeza army after the Saiyan arc), but it didn't feel that drastic.

You see, until Vegeta was invited to Bulma’s house…..

(Gosh, Toriyama, you could’ve done it more subtly, really. Vegeta killed Yamcha, threatened to kill Bulma, gutted Zarbon in front of her eyes, slaughtered an entire Namekian village... Oh well.)

…Ahem, anyway, right up to Bulma's invitation, Vegeta looked to me like a character who, hmm, has a life of his own? I mean, you have always felt that his motives and behavior were generated by the bizarre social system, not related to the little world of Goku and his friends. Simply put, Vegeta was a natural product of the big space civilization, an organic part of it. His whole personality was formed by it, all his plans, motivation and ambitions were associated with it. And although in the Saiyan arc, he gave the impression of an independent entrepreneurial chief at the head of a small hierarchy, in the Namek arc it was revealed that Vegeta is actually far from independent. He lost his throne and his people, he was in slavery to the tyrant all his life, and wants to take power for himself. So, his social background and the motives caused by it post factum get much more complex. But in short, Vegeta wanted a highest possible position in the hierarchy he knew. In this way, he was… social? His belonging to the Saiyan race was only a small (although important) part of the overall picture. Because the Saiyans were dead, but the Freeza Empire was alive.

But when Toriyama realized Vegeta's popularity and decided to keep him in the story after Namek, it came as a blow to the character's personality. Apparently, the author simply couldn't come up with an elegant way that could keep the character in all its complexity around, and therefore did a very clumsy thing. He roughly cut Vegeta out of his social context and almost forcibly glued him to the main character group like a poorly done appliqué. But although you see rough edges and glue drips, the story moves on rapidly, distracting you with Freeza and Future Trunks, and you don't stop to think about what happened. This is how, almost imperceptibly, Toriyama changed Vegeta's motives (and, consequently, the basis of his personality). Yes, Vegeta's saiyan pride was also significant part of his character previously, but when it became his sole and central motivation after Namek, you feel like a very big and important piece of him has been arbitrarily cut off. This wouldn't have happened if Toriyama had followed the logic of previously established social motives, rather than his desire to make Vegeta a convenient figure. Now, bound hand and foot by the author, the character is forced to behave as the plot requires.

Still, all this can be justified by the fact that Vegeta experienced a deep emotional shock as a result of death, which forced him to rethink his life priorities and wait for Goku (especially in the manga, where he just lived with Bulma for a whole year after Namek, without even trying to use dragonballs) ... And then he waited for the androids (despite the final death of Freeza and his father, which was an excellent chance to try to take over the decapitated empire). Anyway, this rationalization doesn't negate the fact that the character, as a result, has lost a significant part of the fire that he demonstrated in the Namek arc. His new energy, the energy of obsession with surpassing Goku, turns him into a new character – bitter, marginalized and focused on training.

(Ironically, the very splitting that made him a less attractive character in my eyes allowed vegebul to take place. After all, imagining the romantic relationship of the nice Bulma and Vegeta at the height of his villainous ambition is really difficult. That just would be a psychologically implausible story.)

In the Android and Cell arcs, after brief glimpses of the SSJ superiority, Toriyama turned Vegeta into a plot tool, whose personality flaws he could use to spoil the situation favorable for the heroes. As a result, Vegeta continued to be an angry and unhappy character who has lost most of his charisma, but on top of that, he also started to be really annoying. ... Still, also kinda amusing thanks to his truly impressive inability to draw obvious conclusions from the ego bruises he gets.

(If you ask me, the character's biggest contribution to the Cell arc was to ignore the existence of condoms, lol. Although strictly speaking even it was an achievement of Future Vegeta (RIP). But seriously, Vegeta's relationship with Trunks turned out to be one of the few things that I was really interested in about this part of the story.)

And then there was Goku’s death and the 7-year-gap. ... At the end of which Vegeta still didn't look like a happy man who has found his place in the world. Even though he had seven whole years (and a spaceship) to change something. I mean, this is the case when it'd be logical to expect changes in the character, but for some reason they didn't really happen (or they did, but veeery quietly and unstable). I mean, Vegeta trains with Trunks, yes. And he's married to Bulma now, apparently (which we learn only at the end of the arc though). And he hasn’t killed himself yet, which means that he sees some meaning in his existence. Hurray, I guess?.. The problem is that when we first see Vegeta after the timeskip, he keeps walking around with such a sullen expression, as if Goku had died just yesterday. (Remember Vegeta in the Saiyan arc? He smiled quite often. For the wrong reasons, but hey.) Basically, Toriyama tried to sit on two chairs at the same time here - 1) keep Vegeta as recognizable as possible (because he hasn't decided what to do with him yet) and 2) keep him around (which doesn't make sense for the character if he hasn't undergone significant changes during the timeskip). And the result of this hesitant approach is an undesirable effect - it feels as if Vegeta hasn't built a new life for himself all these years, but only waited for Goku to return.

As if the man is unable to evolve without Goku's influence. Until Kakarot does or says something, or is just around, everyone else in Vegeta's life and his own reflection has little or no meaning. Old social ambitions? His wife and child? New insights gained from life on Earth? Pffft. Goku is able to destroy the seven years’ worth progress (no matter how small it may seem) in one day, and at the same time, one fight with him is enough for Vegeta's character development to jump forward explosively. It sounds like a solid ground for shipping, but In fact it’s just a direct consequence of the author's poorly chosen narrative structure.

The thing is, Toriyama tend to avoid romance and slices of life, and shows Vegeta's personality mainly through fights and their consequences. And at the time Goku just turned out to be the only significant character for Vegeta, the fight against whom could be used as an excuse to develop the character in front of the audience. Well, Toriyama couldn't get Vegeta to fight Bulma or himself, you know.

I believe that the plot structure chosen by the author (rapidly changing action events immediately after a long timeskip) is not a very good basis for a redemption arc. For a good redemption, a character had to have screen time during which small changes accumulate gradually, between the big points. And Vegeta simply didn't have it. Besides, the scheme by which Vegeta develops is really messy. Because at first, Toriyama kinda froze his development at the neutral point (thereby partially devaluing the influence of Vegeta's family on him). Then in one moment, the author abruptly reversed even this the-end-of-the-Cell-arc development with Majin Vegeta (this time completely devaluing the family factor, because the betrayal was Vegeta’s conscious decision). God, how I hated the Majin Vegeta idea. And in the next scene, the author made a quick retcon, which gave the family’s influence the status of a ground for Vegeta’s personal growth again for no apparent reason. It's as if a huge bundle of family values was post factum squeezed into the character in defiance of everything that we just saw with our own eyes. This is a complete narrative mess.

But... oddly enough, Vegeta's redemption still manages to work, and work spectacularly. My guess is that it's because by that time the audience is already SO sick of Vegeta, frozen in his bitter anti-heroism, that it desperately wants the author to finally do something new with the miserable guy. Well, at least get him out of his misery. So people are willing to accept it in any possible form.

... And the author chose the form of a powerful emotional catharsis. The explosion was legendary, haha.

I don't even know if this is a good reason to call Toriyama a genius (after all, he found a very clever way out of a difficult situation, in which he found himself thanks to his own bad decisions.)

The only thing I'm sure of is that despite everything I was very sad because of Vegeta's death. I didn't even realize that I had become emotionally attached to this asshole until he made such a spectacular exit, lol. As if something had broken inside of me, and all the analyticity of my mind couldn’t prevent it. I was surprised when I found myself crying really hard - usually my emotions don't reach this level due to fictional stories. (Well, maybe it was due to the fact that my own father was dying of cancer at that time, and the moment just triggered my emotions. ... Oops, it seems a little too personal, doesn't it? Well, at the end of the day, this fact is an integral part of my unique dbz experience. Come to think of it, in dbz, fathers die regularly).

But while this scene greatly affects emotions and forces a new viewer (or reader) to truly reconsider their attitude towards the character for the first time, the absence of a neat gradual movement towards this moment weakens its influence somewhat.

At this point, Vegeta’s character splits once again (perhaps the last time within DBZ). You simply cease to understand who this man really is and who he was before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, when I look at all the images of Vegeta in general, I come to the conclusion that I like this character the most in the first two arcs and in the end of the last arc. Two directly opposite moral poles.

(Funny enough, because my initial reaction to Vegeta and Nappa was annoyance: "Well hello, the next stereotypical villains who like to chat and laugh maliciously instead of simply killing their victims." (Still, against the background of Freeza, Vegeta turned out to be a much lesser evil in every sense, haha). You see, usually I'm not a person who likes villains. Basically, I only distinguish such characters from others as a result of romance or redemption. It’s only after that I begin to see aesthetics in their villainous charisma as well.)

And now, in retrospective, I believe that at the beginning of the story Vegeta is at the maximum of his vitality and charisma. Especially compared to his ever-crisis moody version (who supposedly lives happily with a loving family). In the Saiyan arc, he's objectively the most powerful character (Freeza didn’t even exist in Toriyama's head at the time). Vegeta is domineering, playful and unpredictable, but most importantly - his self-confidence is fully justified. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. He's really in control. These are, if I may say so, quite exciting qualities in a man, haha. Even if he looks like an evil dwarf in stupid armor and bullies some weaklings. I'd even say his demeanor in the Saiyan arc (especially with the voice of early Horikawa) is suspiciously easy to translate into a sexual context (well, until he loses control and gets hysterical, lol).

The Namek arc, placing Vegeta in a broader context, somewhat spoiled his original image (after all the big words, it turned out that he was running errands for Freeza all this time), but gave him a more interesting background and a strong drive. He had ambitions and a socially significant goal, and he actively and passionately fought for them against a clearly superior enemy. In addition, his inability to defeat Freeza by brute force forced him to use his brains from time to time, and not just pull another power up out of his ass, as is now traditionally done in DragonBall. (Needless to say, I consider high intelligence to be one of the most attractive traits). All this made his position in the plot as interesting as possible. He literally sparkled with energy.

Well, we know what happened next. Brain Death, an eternal chase after Goku, and an off-screen family life on a backwater planet that Vegeta is supposedly happy with. Until he suddenly became a really beautiful character without a proper justification for this (well, at least the explosion was spectacular). Really, I like the general concept of redemption, and yet... the way Toriyama portrays it in the story just doesn't work convincingly enough for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another point I’d like to cover in this already too long essay ahhh I'm a monster is Vegeta’s personality in fanfiction.

Reproducing (?) Vegeta is a bit like playing with a lego set - his personality and behavior is always the result of a conscious reconstruction, which is based around a specific point on the long contradictory line. Depending on which end of the spectrum the chosen point is, the author is forced to shade facts related to the opposite end, or to give new context to Vegeta's past (or future) actions. It's always noticeable when the author extends the later, sympathetic Vegeta's image to an earlier segment of the story. Apparently, it's possible to kill the person who raised you (with an evil smile on your face) just because the situation was too stressful lol. Likewise, when the authors allow Vegeta to remain a charismatic psychopath, the story wouldn't work without ignoring some parts of the later canon.

(And, of course, there is always a "medium" type of Vegeta - Vegeta from the 3-year-gap, whose personality is almost entirely based on anime fillers. Yay, here comes the promised vegebul rant

Honestly, I'm pretty tired of this "gravity room exploded again woman grrr" type of Vegeta.

Because if you take the manga, we have no idea how Vegeta actually behaved with Bulma and her parents, what his training regimen was, and what he did in his free time besides unprotected sex. People elevate his rudeness and irrational self-torturing to the absolute because of all these filler patterns, but this is just one of the possible versions of the events and the character's behavior during this time (albeit partly canonical). But... there are also alternatives. There are smart Vegeta, curious Vegeta, civilized Vegeta. Honestly - I don't think Bulma would've married him later if there was nothing in his personality that’d make communication with him enjoyable. I mean, she's a rich modern woman, she doesn't need a husband just for convenience and Vegeta is a marginal freeloader anyway. And if we subtract good looks (which people often attribute to Vegeta) from the equation, then the idea that he has no interest in anything other than training and cannot maintain an interesting conversation becomes completely unconvincing. Toriyama clearly didn't attach much importance to the fact of their marriage, and generally avoided romantic scenes as if they were on fire (and, perhaps, did the right thing), but these two just had to be capable of adequate and mutually pleasant personal interaction in order to take this step.

In general, Toriyama's lack of attention to most aspects of the characters' lives other than fighting and training, on the one hand, can be considered a drawback of DBZ, but on the other, it creates a lot of room for fans' imagination. But not everyone uses it. Most authors generally repeat the same tropes over and over again and don't try to look at the three-year-gap from a new angle, although the canon provides all the possibilities for this. Because of this, fics in this genre often seem boring. But in fact, it's not the setting itself that is boring, but only dusty formulas in the heads of the authors.)

Ahem, so where were we?.. Oh yes.

Actually, Vegeta's inconsistency is a very handy character trait for the authors, as it minimizes the chance of accidental OOC. Indeed, it's quite difficult to make someone to behave out of character if he has many different canon versions of himself, lol. On the other hand, this leads to the fact that the character seems to... kinda disintegrate. You never see his whole face, because he simply doesn't have it. As a result, Vegeta turns into a mosaic that must be reassembled each time. And I keep staring at this crazy kaleidoscope like an idiot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, that's... quite a lot of contradictions in my relationship to Vegeta, haha. Still, life without contradictions would be somewhat boring, I guess.

Thanks for your attention I suppose?..... lol, as if someone really got to this point

The End.

P.S. 1: The antisocial version of Vegeta who doesn't understand stupid human rituals and hates crowds, but puts up with it for the sake of his family is my spirit animal, haha. This is just so damn relatable to my autistic personality. Maybe I'm an alien myself.

P.S. 2: Actually, my favorite dbz character is Piccolo. Yep.

Why Tashigi Deserves More Respect

I really gotta remember these other things I plan on writing XD Often I get reminded though by people around me criticizing something I realise ‘that’s a little misunderstood’ and then get compelled to write about it. For today we’re looking at the female Marine of One Piece, Tashigi. Now before we start, I want to make a point that Tashigi is still an underused character brimming with potential that Oda seems to shy a lot from. Oda can still sincerely do a lot more with her and I for one have been disappointed by her lack of use in Stampede and lack of appearance in Wano. However, I get a lot of people who feel that Tashigi is ‘useless’, and I’m going to say that this isn’t really the case.

Argument 1: Her Battles

Of course, a lot of strength regarding a character comes with their ability to come out victorious. It can harm any character in a show to constantly be on the losing side of a fight and it does hurt Tashigi (and Smoker) a lot that they do end up that way. While I would love Tashigi to have her first clean win since those guys in Loguetown I’d like to remind you that Tashigi’s fights do have a bit of defense to them, let’s look at all of Tashigi’s named opponents

Zoro (Loguetown) - We always knew that Zoro was winning this, while she was bested by Zoro the purpose of the story wasn’t ever going to be Tashigi being stronger, instead this was Zoro having to confront her similarities with Kuina in personality rather than skill.

Nico Robin/Miss All Sunday (Alabasta) - While Tashigi was unable to even strike Robin back in Alabasta, Robin’s devil fruit allowed her to be perfect for such a situation. A trained and deadly assassin, Tashigi’s physical confrontation was never going to succeed, but what was key to this battle was Tashigi’s realization in regards to the failure of Justice. In the end she had to rely on Luffy to defeat the Pirates the WG had assigned to maintain the balance.

Luffy (Marineford/Punk Hazard) - Luffy and Tashigi briefly crossed paths in Marineford, Luffy swiftly dodged her but again, Tashigi was never going to defeat Luffy and was merely a doorway to put Smoker and Luffy into a fight. It’s also worth reminding that Tashigi must’ve been capable enough to hold her own against Whitebeard’s lesser forces, since she was uninjured from Marineford. They also crossed at Punk Hazard, but then they were both weakened by being in unfamiliar bodies, something which Luffy even acknowledges.

Trafalgar Law (Punk Hazard) - as pictured above, Tashigi’s defeat to Law was another gateway for Smoker to enter the fight, but this one had more purpose in showing Tashigi’s willpower, which we will get to. As you can tell, there’s a theme: Tashigi would never have beaten Law in terms of the narrative, why do we hold it against Tashigi that she lost to the guy who later did this?

Ceasar Clown (Punk Hazard) - while listed as a fight, she fell the same way as Robin and Franky due to his DF being unrevealed, again this being a gateway to sell that Ceasar had a danger to him, I wouldn’t actually count it as a fight.

Vergo (Punk Hazard) - the Donquixote spy is one of Doflamingo’s deadliest subordinates. The original Corazon, Tashigi’s conflict with Vergo brought Sanji into the fight and once again highlighted to Tashigi the corruption within the Marines themselves. Like Law (and the next), we can’t be too harsh on Tashigi losing to Vergo, the guy easily fended off Sanji to the point of almost breaking Sanji’s leg, he also was able to beat Smoker

Monet (Punk Hazard) - Monet is a mixed one, because Zoro quickly defeats her she was quickly overshadowed by the fact that she struggled to even get on the offensive, broadening the gap between them. But, I’d like to remind everyone that Monet was able to force Luffy into fleeing their battle and was handling Robin, Nami and Chopper at once. Tashigi hadn’t completely lost either, I would bet that she’d fight without an arm, maybe not successfully but she would, and she got the finishing blow on Monet - her second offensive attack against Monet put her away and while technically this doesn’t count as a W for Tashigi she did not technically lose in this fight either

As you can see, while it’s easy to say that ‘Tashigi never wins her fights, so she’s weak’ it really undermines the opposition she willingly puts herself against. Narratively there’d be no reason for Tashigi to win these fights, doing so would lead to confusion and disbelief (for instance, would you have seen Luffy beating Kaido solo back in Bakura Town? No, obviously). Tashigi is still strong, she’s able to survive the Grand Line, easily deflect cannon fire with her sword and use Haki, the latter cannot be said for Main Characters like Nami, Chopper, Franky, Carrot and somehow Robin (like girl you spent 2 years with the Revolutionaries, where’s your Haki?). While we would love a win to validate this, Oda always puts her against an opponent that would be difficult for her to win against, and we thus mistake her inability to win as weakness. So that leads to another argument. Argument 2: Tashigi always punches above her weight While this is very much true, One Piece has often told us that being the strongest doesn’t always mean that you will win. Consider 90% of Nami and Usopp’s wins, Luffy’s wins over Crocodile, Enel, Lucci, Magellan, Cracker and Katakuri, the weak may not be able to choose how they die but that doesn’t mean that the strong can either.  I’d also like to argue that Tashigi’s motive on fighting strong opponents is not because she feels that she is stronger, she fights them because they are the enemy that needs to be stopped, her motives are pure in her pursuit of justice just as the Straw Hats fight stronger opponents because it fulfills a just cause such as saving Alabasta, their crewmates, people who had their shadows stolen, Camie, Fishman Island, the Punk Hazard children, Dressrosa, Zou or Wano. Tashigi really gets criticized for it because it doesn’t yield the results it does for major characters, often needing help to get the victory. In that I wanna point out a harsh truth as well; Goku - the people many anime fans will compare power scales against - almost never beats the main villain on his own in DBZ or DBS. Freeza - required damage from Krillin, Gohan, Vegeta and Piccolo before the win, and he didn’t finish him off, Cell - tags out to Gohan, who also needs Vegeta’s help to win, Buu - needs Vegeta’s help via fusion and a full power recharge by the Dragon Balls, Beerus - he lost, Golden Freeza - he got jumped by Sorbet and needed Whis’ rewind, Hit - he gave up, Fused Zamasu - lost, and needed Zeno to wipe him out, Jiren - needed Freeza and 17′s help and Vegeta’s energy and finally Broly - needed fusion. So maybe, if even Son Goku cannot win on his own, we can cut Tashigi a little bit of slack given that she’s not even a main character.

Argument 3: ‘She does nothing’ I don’t really like this insinuation. Often Smoker and Tashigi are the ones that pick up the mess after all the enemies are defeated, but for some reason that equates to ‘doing nothing’. I think because people see Tashigi as interchangeable with any other character she is thus useless because she is not mandatory. However, Tashigi’s role is much more complex than that.

Even if she’s not strong enough to fight the biggest fishes in the pond, she still manages to grow and prove her worth. If Tashigi was replaced with any generic marine captain a lot of what happened would be different. It was Tashigi who identified Wado Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu for Zoro, Tashigi who (albeit reluctantly) directed Luffy to Crocodile, Tashigi who kept the Straw Hats safe from arrest in Alabasta, Tashigi who convinced Smoker that he needed to swallow his pride and side with Law and Luffy to stop Ceasar and it was Tashigi who convinced Nami to entrust the Punk Hazard children to them. Through her experiences she also cultivates her own unique sense of Justice. While she follows Smoker’s doctrine of ‘A Pirate will always be a Pirate’ and that the Shichibukai system and the World Government as a whole is flawed, she has also learned for herself that there are times that pride must be set aside, in a way Tashigi’s sense of Justice has become a combination of Smoker’s and Fujitora’s: in order to rebuild justice, the navy itself must become strong enough to not depend on pirates, but pride cannot supersede the greater good. In addition, implying she does nothing also implies that she doesn’t practice her own sense of justice either. She stepped in on Zoro twice to protect her men from harm, before even arriving at Punk Hazard we learned that she had a good relationship with the parents who had their children kidnapped as they asked specifically for her which in turn led her to personally strive to reunite the children with their parents and she even protected the truth of Vergo from G-5 so that they didn’t feel betrayed and demoralized. Of the things Tashigi does, nothing is not one of them, she displays compassion, fairness and determination in definitive moments. Argument 3: She’s too hung up on her Feminism

So, one of the major dynamics of Tashigi and Zoro is her misconception that Zoro wouldn’t cut her because she was a woman, a belief that women have to prove themselves more to be seen as strong against men being one of the beliefs she shares with Zoro’s childhood rival Kuina. While it can be a tad irksome that she’d hang onto this with Zoro, until Monet Zoro never actually demonstrated the contrary to her. This is mainly a complaint by hindsight, we only dislike the opinion because we’ve seen Zoro more than Tashigi has, and she’s not 100% wrong, Zoro himself has been a bit of a traditionalist, in Skypeia he angrily chastised Enel for attacking Robin since she was a woman, and he only does step in on Monet to save Tashigi - not even finishing her off despite being very capable of doing so. Outside of Zoro, Tashigi’s feelings that she gets treated differently due to her gender is proven and reflected in how G-5 treat her with little authority, only really listening to her because she’s pretty. You can’t be too hard on Tashigi given that she is constantly faced with this truth on a daily basis, and her desire to be seen for her strength and skills are still an amicable one, it’s worth noting that even Law recognized that her mentality and warrior’s spirit was far greater than he swordsmanship, but he only thought this internally. In Tashigi’s case it would help her confidence to be given validation, and not in the condescending way Zoro usually talks to people.  While it can be annoying that she immediately thinks that she’s being treated differently because she’s a woman, this also shows that she wants to be treated as an equal; if she is defeated in combat she wants to be cut to preserve her honour, it is the mentality all Great Samurai have, including Zoro. Oda does something with Tashigi he rarely does with any woman in One Piece in making her less sexualised and body-confident to reflect her goal of being recognized by her spirit and actions rather than her appearance, but he also makes that complex for the character which in a way this is most important for.

Argument 4: She’s not a good Rival for Zoro

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Tashigi’s character is that she is meant to be Zoro’s rival, in a similar manner to how Smoker and Luffy are embroiled in a Garp/Roger-esque cat and mouse chase. Because of this, people expect Tashigi to advance at a similar scale to Zoro to keep him on his toes, to make sure that he doesn’t end up complacent in his strive to become the World’s Greatest Swordsman. Her former likeness to Kuina also adds to this misconception, since because Kuina was Zoro’s rival with the same goal and always stronger than Zoro himself, Tashigi must be similar.

But this is not why Tashigi and Zoro are always put together. Tashigi is not Zoro’s rival, no other character we’ve met has the same goal as Zoro, and this keeps his story free to develop with different challenges. Tashigi’s pursuit of strength is not for the same reasons as Zoro, she doesn’t want to be the World’s Greatest Swordsperson, she only wants to protect the sanctity of the Meito and keep them out of unworthy hands. Her pursuit of Zoro was both because he dishonoured her in their fight and so she could claim Wado Ichimonji. In the New World however we don’t see that as much from Tashigi, even when she sees Shusui she doesn’t make a point to declare taking it from him because he’s unworthy (like Kin’emon would later do), this is because she does acknowledge his strength and worthiness of using these Meito, her personal conflict now though is to be seen as worthy to him as a swordsperson rather than a pirate to a marine.  In reality, Tashigi is instead Zoro’s and Kuina’s foil. She is similar in looks and perspective to Kuina but different in everything else from clumsiness, skill and ambition, the fact that Zoro struggles to handle this leads to the two becoming entwined in their respective journeys. No person gets under Zoro’s skin like Tashigi does, even to a point where he was reluctant to even be in eyeshot of her - how many people have you seen Roronoa Zoro hide from? They are each other’s foil because they are both stubborn people out to prove something but put on two different sides that conflict. That is the true purpose of their dynamic, their confrontations expose one another and show places where they can still grow and I still feel that we haven’t scratched the surface of this relationship.

Argument 5: She’s not Important

A combination of the earlier arguments, Tashigi gets a lot of flack because people think she’s not important enough as a character to have the screentime she gets. While it’s not hard to see why people feel that, it usually comes with people giving up on the idea that there’s a greater plan for her. It may just be me, but I am reluctant to believe that Tashigi appears in several forms of merchandise including calendars, games (as NPCs, Bosses, Supports or playable characters) and even figurines and not have a purpose in the greater scope of the story, do we really expect that from Oda? I doubt that very much! Granted, Wano would’ve been a perfect placement for her to push herself given the views on women in the country and it being the homeland of famous Meito. And yes, she could’ve had a much greater role in Stampede given how well they managed Smoker in it. We are allowed to be disappointed by this, but the fact that Tashigi has remained as consistent in presence as she has been in the show does hint at a bigger role, even if it’s being that wave of revolutionizing the Marines with Coby and Fujitora, her own origins or finally proving herself to the audience and to Zoro, Tashigi is not done and thus she is still important. “Just because they say a bird cannot fly, doesn’t mean that it never will” - Oda SBS 17 on Tashigi and Kuina’s names being named after flightless birds So, Why does Tashigi deserve more Respect? Tashigi as a character is one of Oda’s more subtle progressions. In contrast to Zoro who we see grow, we don’t see how Tashigi gets from A to B, we can also contrast to Coby whose rise becomes as magnificent as his puberty that Tashigi’s growth is much less abrupt and more steady, we see her struggles more than we do Coby where his successes are only heard in passing. Tashigi can also act as the ‘normal person’ in the marines, we compare her to Zoro in strength because she uses a sword but we never give her the benefit of the doubt that Roronoa Zoro is a bloody superhuman, plus not everyone has the great luxury of being trained by Dracule Mihawk for 2 years...furthermore, her challenges against Devil Fruit users are always filled with good intentions and strong willpower, but still self-doubt and shame, if anything Tashigi is one of the most human characters of One Piece for this reason; she learns, she suffers, she grows and she does it all without the luxury of Shonen perks such as superhuman power or endurance. Also she is a good person, she has a strong sense of morality and will, an altruistic desire and even in the situation she gets put in she makes a step that leads to the plot going in a positive direction. And for a character that has been in as many arcs as she has, there is still so much potential left to be untapped that fans are still after 2 decades eager to see from her.

Tashigi is a strong, valiant and just person, who is still really powerful if people stop trying to compare her to the likes of Luffy, Law and Zoro. Even when she fails she picks herself up and can still come out with a small victory from protecting innocents, arresting criminals and escorting children to get help. She is a lot stronger than people give her credit for and it’s for that she deserves respect.

Homesick

Paring: GoChi

Words: 3,369

Summary: Set in the 7 year time skip. In Other World, Goku meets someone surprising. Meeting her both helps and hurts.

Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13694247/1/Homesick

Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26407174

Training for the rest of eternity on Grand Kai's planet was fun but taking a break sometimes was nice, too—even if my body didn't exactly need rest like I did when I was alive on Earth. My favorite place to explore was the planet the good people went to when they died. When I first visited the planet, someone told me that the place had something for everyone.

I flew over lush tropical jungles, arid deserts, around snowy mountain peaks, and over valleys that were forever locked in the perfect spring day. Fields of wildflowers blanketed the valley floors. King Kai told me people seek out the landscapes most familiar to them when they first arrived. It reminded them of home. King Kai said I might even find a spot that reminded me of home. I found my favorite spot not long after I died and visited often. It reminded me of home.

Tall, pillar-like mountains appeared in the distance. I kicked in a burst of speed, swooping low over a river toward the familiar landscape. I landed on the top of one of the mountain's grassy peaks and let my legs dangle over the edge.

I could just picture my house on the land below and imagine the mouth-watering smells of Chichi's home cooking drifting through the open windows. I smiled. I pictured Chichi as she stepped outside and called me in for dinner, a smile on her pretty face, and her hair let down from her usual bun.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes.

I definitely didn't imagine the woman standing with her back to me at the river's edge—a woman wearing a very familiar style of traditional dress with a long sleeved undershirt. I was sure she would have been wearing the same sort of loose-fitting pants and house shoes, too—if it weren't for the unsettling ghostly tail floating a few inches above the ground where legs should have been. A golden halo hovered over her head. Her long, dark hair reflected the halo's faint warm glow.

"No way." I slid off the edge of the rocky, grass-topped column and let myself free fall through the air. I slowed myself with a flare of energy only a couple of feet above ground and ran to her, my heart racing. I grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. "Chichi!? How—"

She yelped and stared up at me with wide eyes—a lighter brown than I expected. For that matter, the woman's hair wasn't the same shade as Chichi's hair was either. I let my hands fall away from the woman's shoulders. If there was anything Chichi drilled into me, it was manners so I decided to offer this strange woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to my wife an apology.

"Heh… sorry I scared you. You look just like my… ah…" I dropped my gaze to the river behind her and the silvery fish glinting in the sunlight as they darted around just below the surface. I rubbed at my chest.

"How do you know that name?" she asked, her head slightly tilted.

The woman's voice even sounded like Chichi's.

"Well. Ya see. Chichi's my wife," I said. "Heh… Or at least she was when I was alive."

The woman's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. "You're Chichi's husband!?"

I nodded. "Yeah. But—"

"I'm Chichi's mother, Lait!" she said, her expression brightening into an excited smile.

I stared at her. "Her mother…?" I mouthed. It felt like my brain froze—all thought grinding to a stop.

My attention snapped to a hand waving in front of my face. "I asked you what your name is," she said.

"Oh. Uh. I'm Goku. Son Goku," I said.

Lait clapped her hands in front of her chest in the same way Chichi did when she was excited about something. "Chichi got married! Oh, I hoped she'd find love!" Lait grabbed my hand. "Let's go for a walk."

Lait pulled me along a pathway following the river that wove between the column-shaped mountains. A forest of giant trees just like my mountain on earth lay ahead.

"An entire lifetime? Already?" murmured Lait. She glanced up at me and giggled as she scratched her cheek—a habit Chichi had when she was embarrassed about something. "Ah. Sorry. I lose track of time up here."

"Heh, yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

Gravel crunched under my boots as we entered the forest, the path still following the river. Lait floated along next to me.

"So, how is Ox after all this time?" asked Lait. "He was softening up into a real sweetheart when Chichi came along."

I stepped over a narrow stream that cut across our path and held my hand out for Lait—though I realized she probably didn't have to worry about losing her balance. "Yeah! He's a pretty cool guy! And an awesome grandpa, too!"

Lait halted just before the water, hovering inches above the stream's rocky bank. "Grandpa!?" She stared at me with her hand over her mouth but the shine in her eyes betrayed a smile.

I grinned. "Chichi and I have an amazing son named Gohan."

Lait's eyes filled with tears. "I'm a grandmother?" she murmured through her hand.

"Yeah!" I said with a nod. "Gohan is ten years old, super smart and incredibly strong. Heh. At least he was ten years old the last time I saw him. He's probably grown some by now."

I couldn't help but picture an older Gohan, nearing my height if not taller than me—though I didn't know exactly how much older

"Oh, I bet Ox spoils the daylights out of him," said Lait through a watery laugh.

I laughed, too. "Chichi got after Ox sometimes for giving Gohan too many presents every time he visited."

Lait accepted my hand and floated over the stream. She sighed wistfully. "That sounds like my husband."

We lapsed into comfortable silence. A small flock of chirping sparrows flitted by weaving through the trees. Lait looked at me, her mouth slightly open like she was about to say something. Instead, Lait bit her lip and looked toward the path in front of us. We followed the winding path deeper into the peaceful forest. The trail had left the river behind a ways back, though I could still hear the steady rush of water.

"Do you… Do you know if Ox ever found love again?" she finally asked, her voice quiet.

I looked at her and shook my head. "Don't think so." I thought back to the few times I heard Ox speak of his wife over the years I knew him—thought back to the way he spoke of her and the soft smile on his face. "Ya know, I think he misses you too much," I said.

With tears in her eyes, Lait fell silent again after that—aside from the occasional sniffle—leaving my mind free to wander. I frowned as we followed the path deeper into the forest, unable to shake the newly formed troubling question that pushed to the forefront of my mind: Would Chichi find love?

"Tell me how you and Chichi met," said Lait.

I glanced at her. "Oh. Uh. Well, we were just kids—twelve or thirteen maybe? When I first saw her, this huge dinosaur was chasing her and she cut its head clean off," I said through a chuckle. "Chichi was really strong."

Lait giggled, too. "Considering what her father was capable of, that doesn't surprise me." Lait and I crossed over a small wooden bridge built over a stream with crystal clear water. "How in the world did you manage to find Ox's kingdom, anyway? We were so far off the beaten path."

"My friends and I were searching for these things called Dragon Balls and tracked one to Ox's castle."

"The Dragon Balls, eh?" said Lait as she brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "I heard if you gather… seven, was it?" I nodded. "You can summon a mighty dragon that will grant you any wish. Ox and I never saw it ourselves but we believed the legend."

"The legend is true," I said. "I've seen the Eternal Dragon. Shenron is huge and powerful. If he's summoned in the daytime, the sky goes dark like it's night."

"That must have been incredible to see," said Lait with an awed smile.

"Sure was!"

"So… it was in this search for the Dragon Balls that you first met Ox and Chichi?" said Lait, her tone lifting at the end.

"Yeah! Ox overheard my friends and me talking about how to take the Dragon Ball from his castle. He didn't like that very much," I said.

A knowing smile twinkled in Lait's eyes. "He never did take kindly to anyone showing up to take his precious treasure."

I chuckled at the memory. "Yeah, he did attack my friends and me for that."

"Sounds like Ox," said Lait with a shake of her head. "Seeing that must have upset Chichi. Her dad scared her when he got like that when she was really little."

"Well, Chichi wasn't there right then," I said. "Ox sent Chichi on a mission far away from the kingdom."

Lait glanced at me, throwing me a look with an eyebrow raised and her upper lip just slightly curled. I knew that expression and I didn't miss the warning in it. "Away from the kingdom?" she said, her tone icy.

"Uh." I swallowed. "Y-ya see, a magical fire no one could put out endangered Ox's castle. He sent Chichi out to find the turtle hermit, Master Roshi to help."

"Master Roshi, huh?" Lait's expression of warning shifted into a surprised smile. "That's a name I haven't heard in a while. Master Roshi was Ox's childhood martial arts master."

I grinned. "Master Roshi was my grandpa's master! And then I trained under Master Roshi as a kid, too!"

Lait glanced up at me. "No kidding? Ox had expressed interest in training Chichi in the style of the Turtle Hermit school." Lait smiled ruefully. "I didn't live long enough to see that happen."

I touched Lait's shoulder as we walked. She reached up and patted my hand.

"Ox did train Chichi. She is one of the strongest women I know," I said.

Lait's smile grew genuine.

I spent the next few minutes telling Lait all about how I took Chichi to Master Roshi's house and back to her kingdom.

"Ox gave me the Dragon Ball for my help and even promised Chichi's hand in marriage to me for helping him and Chichi," I said. "I agreed because I thought marriage was a type of food when I was a kid. Boy was I wrong."

Lait threw her head back and laughed. "Did ya live under a rock?"

I scratched the back of my head and laughed, too. "Pretty much."

"What happened next?" asked Lait.

"Well, my friends' hunt for the Dragon Balls took me away from Ox and Chichi. I saw Chichi again a few months later and then didn't see her for a few years after that."

Lait stared at me. "A few years?"

"I was busy training for the twenty-third World Martial Arts Tournament," I said. "Didn't see my other friends for a while, either. Not until we met again at the Tournament."

"Did you return to her after the Tournament?" asked Lait.

I shook my head. "Didn't have to. Chichi found me to remind me of the promise I made to her."

Lait frowned sadly. "You forgot about Chichi?"

"Not exactly. When I first saw her at the Tournament, I didn't recognize her at first." I chuckled at the memory. "Chichi was so angry with me, she screamed in my face."

"Oh, dear. Sounds like she inherited her father's temper," said Lait through a giggle.

I nodded. "Yeah. But I really like that about her. I love her fiery spirit."

Lait sighed wistfully and said, "Chichi always was a stubborn child."

I laughed. "I can believe it."

"So, Chichi found you at the Tournament. Did she approach you after your matches?" asked Lait.

I shook my head. "No. She fought me."

Lait's eyebrows shot up. "Fought you? You mean she registered?"

I nodded. "Yeah! She was really good, too! She made it all the way to the semi-finals!"

Lait's face lit up with an awed smile that quickly turned into one of pride.

"I still didn't know who she was and she registered under anonymous," I said. "She said she'd tell me her name if I won our match so that's what I did."

"You won and she told you her name, I take it. And then?"

"Chichi helped me remember the promise I made to her but I still didn't know exactly what I promised," I said with a twitch of my shoulders. "I had to ask my friends what marriage was. They said I was supposed to live together with her for the rest of my life. I couldn't explain why, but the thought of that just felt right."

Lait sighed as we wandered down the forest path, a dreamy smile on her face. My thoughts drifted back to simple times, back to when my days consisted of training to keep Chichi and Gohan safe and coming home every night to Chichi's warm smile and amazing cooking.

"Goku?"

Snapped from my memories, I hummed a response. Lait's dreamy smile had turned into a troubled, sad frown.

"It couldn't possibly have been a whole lifetime for Chichi or for you. There's no way. How did you… ah…" Lait scratched at her cheek.

"Huh?" I put it together. "Oh. How did I die?"

Lait's eyes flashed wide a moment and then her cheeks went a little pink. Lait waved her hand through the air. "I… heh… Goodness. That's too personal. I'm sorry I asked."

I waved off her apology and offered a smile. "No, it's okay! I died fighting this really strong, evil guy named Cell. He was about to blow up the planet and, well, I couldn't let that happen."

Lait stared at me. "The… whole planet?" She shook her head. "Ox told me stories about some of Master Roshi's ability with ki but I didn't know anyone that strong existed."

"It's real," I said. "Cell was ridiculously powerful. Stronger than me, even."

"How did you beat him?"

I smiled toward the path ahead. "I didn't. Gohan did." I felt Lait staring at me. "My son and I trained long and hard to face Cell."

When I looked at Lait, I was surprised at first to see the pure rage burning in her eyes and directed at me. Chichi's temper didn't just come from her dad. It was almost comforting in a way. I did my best not to smile—I knew from experience smiling only made Chichi's temper worse.

Lait shoved her rigid pointer finger into my chest. "You made your ten-year-old boy fight against someone tough enough to destroy an entire planet?" Her voice rose with every word.

I nodded. "We didn't have a choice. We needed him against Cell just like we needed him against all the other strong bad guys before. My Gohan was stronger than me. And he won."

Lait huffed as she dropped her finger from my chest. Her lips remained pursed and her eyes narrowed.

"You know, you look just like Chichi when you do that," I said, unable to fight my smile any longer.

Lait's rage evaporated as her eyes lit up. She laughed.

Lait and I resumed our walk, following the path up a hill. The trees thinned.

"How about you? How did you end up here?" I asked. "Chichi and Ox said you got very sick but didn't tell me anything else."

Lait nodded and frowned down at the ground at her feet. "Yes, that's right. It was cancer. It spread too far, too fast for any doctors to do anything about it. Ox went so far as to hire shamans to try to heal me." Lait pointed a slender finger at her halo. "Chichi watched all of it." Lait hung her head as her hands balled into fists at her side. Her voice cracked as she said, "No little girl should have to watch her mother die."

"I'm sorry," I said as I touched her back.

Ox and Chichi rarely talked about Lait. Even then, I knew even then talking about her was too painful for them.

Lait blew out a breath. "I got to say my goodbyes when I realized I wasn't going to survive and not everybody gets to. It wasn't a disease or virus they could catch. I found comfort in that, too."

I didn't really say goodbye to Chichi before I left to fight Cell. I hadn't really said goodbye to her all those other times I left, either. I never was fond of goodbyes.

"What does Chichi look like now?" asked Lait.

"A lot like you," I said. "But darker hair and darker eyes than yours."

"And Gohan?"

"Well, Gohan looks a bit like me but he has his mother's eyes and different hair than mine," I said.

The path ended at the top of what turned out to be a cliff, a waterfall spilling over the wall of rock not too far from where we stood.

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, frowning despite the breathtaking view.

"You miss Chichi and Gohan a whole lot. I can see it in your eyes," said Lait.

I gazed out over the mountains and forest that looked like home but weren't and sighed. "Yeah."

Lait rested her hand on my arm.

"I was gone a lot before this. I know I hurt Chichi when I had to leave but she always forgave me for bein' gone." I smiled sadly. "I just hope she'll forgive me for this one."

"I know she will," said Lait, maintaining the comforting contact.

Goku, said a familiar voice directly into my mind.

I twitched as Lait gasped. I looked up toward the unnaturally gold and pink sky of Other World. "King Kai? What's up?"

There's something King Yemma and I need to talk to you about. You'll want to hear this. Trust me, said King Kai.

"Uh. Okay," I said with a shrug. "I'll be right there."

Good.

"Who was that?" Lait asked, eyes wide.

"You heard him, eh? Well, he's a friend. He's telepathic."

Lait nodded, but it was the slow sort of nod people did when they didn't quite believe what they heard. "I… see."

I chuckled.

Lait adjusted the shawl around her shoulders. Her skeptical expression shifted into a sad smile. "I guess this means you have to leave then?"

"Yeah."

"Don't be a stranger. Okay?" said Lait, tears gathering in her eyes.

I smiled as I tapped two fingers to my forehead. "I wont! I know this trick that lets me teleport to anyone no matter how far away. It's called Instant Transmission."

I concentrated a moment to get a good read on her ki, filing away her exact signature.

"Now I can find you whenever I want!" I said.

Lait closed the small distance between us and wrapped her arms around my waist. "Promise?"

Lait really did remind me a lot of Chichi.

I nodded and returned the hug. "Promise."

Lait stepped back and I got ready for Instant Transmission. I spared her an extra glance as Lait and the familiar landscape melted away.

I was surprised to find King Kai hanging out in Earth's check-in station with King Yemma. Last I saw King Kai, he was on the Grand Kai's planet supervising my spar with Pikkon. Whatever it was King Kai needed to see me for, it was big. Even more confusing, both King Kai and King Yemma had a smile on their faces, which they both directed at me. Fortuneteller Baba floated over the edge of King Yemma's huge desk, sitting cross-legged on her shiny crystal ball and smiling down at me, too.

I stared back and forth between the three of them. Whatever they were about to tell me was definitely going to be big.

Supernova: Chapter 12

I just finished 17 all of 20 minutes ago, so writing is happening lol...

Anyway, so... I might need to take hiatus in October. My dominant hand is hurting pretty badly from work, and I don’t know if that’s going to get better. I might need to rest it for a while to make sure I don’t develop carpal tunnel (or push it even further if I do have it) so we’ll see. If I have to take hiatus, I’ll let you know at the start of the month. 

If I’m not taking it, you’ll see me on... October 3rd, which means I am going to be hyped up on Nijigaku energy and useless to everyone. Get excited for that I suppose...

Anyway, thank you as always for reading and I’ll see you when I see you. Think happy thoughts for my poor, sore hand...

“Having fun yet?”

“Shut up, I hate you.”

A few hours had passed since the two had begun their training. Angel got a front row seat to it all, and in the end he found he wasn't too impressed. What sat before him was hardly a force of nature waiting to destroy anything that stood against it. Instead, she just looked like a frustrated 20 year old who didn't know how her powers worked.

Which... was pretty on the nose, he supposed. Hey, it wasn't like he was an English major or anything.

He had managed to get through a few chapters in the time it had taken Andy to go from standing to laying face down on the floor. It was a position he knew well from long nights of cramming during finals week. It wasn't a good look on anyone, but when your knees – did she even have those? - bent in weird ways, it took something familiar to the level of a rather pathetic horror movie. Honestly, he kind of felt bad for her.

Kind of – it was helping him get his homework done after all.

“Do you want to wrap it up for the day?” He closed his book to get a better view. Andy wasn't moving. She wasn't even breathing, not that he knew where to look. “Uh... you're not dead are you, cause you're not b-”

Andy's response oozed through the floor. “I don't.”

She rolled over onto her back, face blank. “And if I was dead, you'd be vaporized. So I guess you wouldn't be worrying about your homework.”

Maybe it was because they were spending time together, but Angel was starting to get the hang of figuring out her moods even without the tone behind them. This one, he figured, was clearly pissed off. That was something he knew well too – dare he say she was sulking over not being able to figure it out?

For an alien, she was being very human.

He shrugged his shoulders as he rose from his sitting position – oww, sitting in his work pants on hard floor was never fun. “You had a bad first session. It happens.”

“Did it happen to you?” Oh, there was some spite there. She was definitely acting rather human. He could only imagine what that would've sounded like had she been able to regulate tone. It would've probably been something fantastic to hear. She was a young 20 for sure.

He shrugged again. “No, but I was trained by Paladin and we shared a skill set. Just keep doing your weird Goku stuff, something should -”

In the blink of an eye, Andy was standing too. She was suddenly way too close for comfort. If she had been human, he would have picked up on her aura. The fact she didn't have one still set him off. He took a half step back – probably shouldn't have. She had him against the wall now, with very little distance between them.

“That's easy for you to say, you know what you're working with!” She grit her teeth, far too hard for any human without breaking something. Maybe the cover wasn't that fool proof after all. “I'm flying blind and all people can tell me is-”

Before she could say more, the door opened. Angel looked past Andy's solid shoulder, relief mixing with shock. There was an old man there, leaning on a cane he hadn't needed months prior. He was thinner, but his smile was still the same as he entered the room.

It had been three months since Paladin had come back to base.

“Are you two having fun?”

Andy let him go in favor of all but running to his side. “Uncle Leo, you're out of the hospital!”

“And you're out of the big house, I see.” He was smiling at her like she was his favorite grandchild. Something about that made Angel's stomach roll as he regained his bearings and defense aura. It was setting him off in the worst way.

Focus... his mentor could be friendly with anyone he wanted to be with. That was one of the perks of being an old man with cancer.

Andy's tone never changed, but her movements weren't as jerky. “Almost didn't get there. They actually shot me this time.”

“Well, they must've had a nasty surprise when that didn't work.” One eye focused straight on Angel. The psychic straightened under the gaze of his mentor. “Did they try to shoot you as well, Sky Rider?”

The man felt his face color under his helmet as he looked to the side. “They had a psychic, didn't really need it...”

Ah, projectiles. They had never been his friends, especially when he was stressed. Luckily Leo wasn't his teacher anymore, so he couldn't get a lecture over his piss poor control. Still, standing there with the feeling seeping over him, Angel very much wished he could vanish into the floor. That wouldn't happen of course; it wasn't in his skill set, just his wildest dreams when he managed to embarrass himself.

He did that a lot – it came with the territory.

“So, why are you here Uncle Leo? Did you need something?”

That monotone did wonders to drag him out of his pity party. It was as good a question as any, he figured. Maybe the old man was getting bored hanging around the hospital? It wasn't exactly fun, even when you were a psychic. In fact, being able to read minds tended to just make things worse.

“I figured I would stop by to see how you first day of training was going before you left.” He was gripping his cane pretty tightly though “And to encourage you to keep at it. We all have our rough beginnings. No doubt Sky Rider could tell you plenty of his if mine wouldn't suffice. After all, hovering a cow is hardly interesting now.”

The old man laughed, but it was weaker than it had ever sounded. It didn't take a genius to see just how pale he was, or how much he needed to lean on his cane. The only thing that had never changed was his smile.  That was always like a thousand suns, no matter how sick he got.

Ever the hero... did he ever worry about himself?

They locked eyes, briefly. The smile that Leo wore on his face didn't quite reach his eyes, which were just so... exhausted. Angel's stomach fell at the sight of them, but he said nothing as he watched the two interact.

So... it was getting worse then. Then why let him out of the hospital?

“Kid, we gotta get you back before your mom gets home.” PT's voice called through the room. Andy was soon waving goodbye to them both – mostly Leo, he noted – and then it was just the two of them in the room. There was a tension there that he hadn't felt before. Maybe it had been there all along.

Shit.

Angel bent to pack up his books, very much aware of the man behind him. He swallowed hard as he stood, bag slung over his shoulders. He was the picture of a normal college kid if you took the gear out of the equation. With it... well, he was never known for being fashionable out of costume. Why worry about it when he was geared up?

“I see you were getting some work done with Andy.” There was humor in Leo's voice as he took a seat in the only chair. Briefly, his hand touched his side. However, he stopped the second he realized his protege was watching.

His face heated up under the visor. “I can't really help her. She's...”

His words fell as he made a vague gesture at the door. Leo nodded in time with his motions, face knowing. At least the two of them were on the same page. Lately, that was happening less and less as he grew into his own form of hero. It was nice to call back to it at least one before...

He shook his head. Wasn't going to put that into the universe.

“She needs a friend too, you know. You're probably the first person out of a lab coat to know.” He smiled again, and it came close to his eyes but missed by a metaphorical mile. “That'll help more than anything else.”

Angel shrugged his shoulders as he crossed the room to be with his former teacher. “Be nice if I understood the mechanics. I don't get anything off her. It's worse than being around you.”

“Welcome to what the rest of the world deals with!” Leo let out a short laugh, but then it turned into a brief, hacking cough that made his fellow psychic's stomach fall. He eventually had to grab a tissue from his pocket to cough into for a long couple seconds. Whatever it contained, he stowed it in his pocket before Angel got to see. “Sorry about that.”

He finally stood, but his footing seemed weak. When Angel offered his arm, he took it. Together, they entered back into the main room. Here, the mood was somber. Scanner was at their rig, but something about the set of their shoulders and the way they were typing gave the psychic pause. Not only that, Ember was there, smiling in a way that reminded him of glass that was about to shatter. When had she gotten back, and why?

Andy and PT said their brief goodbyes, and then headed towards the door. The moment it slid behind them,  the room dropped five degrees as the boss lady sat down on the couch. Summer had turned to winter in the span of seconds, and he could feel the chill in his mind rather than his flesh.

Leo noted the shift and sighed. “I'm sorry to have upset you all.”

“Upset is putting it mildly.” Ember's voice cracked. “You're-”

Angel's stomach dropped into his shoes as he watched her lift her mask to dab at her eyes. It didn't work. Hot tears rolled down her face at a rapid pace, and her chest heaved with the effort. Scanner's shoulders were shaking now, and he was pretty sure he heard the tech choke back a sob.

Leo sighed as he leaned harder on Angel's arm. “Jocelyn... Sam...”

“No, Leo, we're not going to be ok!” Her golden eyes were burning with more fire than Angel had ever seen from her. “We thought you would be coming back after the chemo!”

Angel's stomach turned to pure acidic ice. A thousand possibilities flitted through his mind, landing on the one suggestion he had never wanted to give to the universe should it be listening. A cold swear formed on the back of his neck.

For a moment, the world stood still.

“You'll be ok without me. You're doing fine now.” Leo looked so much smaller than he had in the previous moment. “Jocelyn, you've become a wonderful leader. Have faith in yourself.”

The old man let go of his arm to reach for her shoulder. The two shared a moment, one that Angel an Scanner couldn't see. A thousand unsaid things passed between the two, from leader to leader. The set of her shoulders sagged, then straightened under the permanence of her new burden. Yet tears still trickled from her eyes.

He should've realized the whole 'not in the hospital' thing wasn't a good sign... but there was difference between bad and... this.

How much time did the old man have left anyway?

---

“I was studying, mom!”

“You were studying all night?!”

Andy could hear the argument through the floor, even though she was on the bed with a pillow over her head. It was more the symbolic concept than the fact that it could do anything that helped her – it was the sort of thing you were supposed to do when upset, right?

Well, she wasn't upset... but it was certainly aggravating.

Her sister and mother were going at it again. Since both could argue until the metaphorical cows came home, both would probably go until they were hoarse. With any luck, the older of the two wouldn't be able to talk tomorrow.

Of course, that just made her glances nastier. It was kind of a lose-lose situation they found themselves in.

“Hope Jen's ok.” Andy frowned as she pulled the pillow off her face. She technically wasn't banned from leaving, but she was pretty sure she was still grounded. Should she have disobeyed, that was definitely at least another week under house arrest.

But...

Her hand found the door that would open up to the ladder below. The arguing covered up her descent, and her heavy feet were masked by scream of where her older sister had been and whether their mother wasn't being a little too overbearing about things. For once, she was grateful for it as she crept to her younger sister's room and carefully knocked.

Jen all but pulled her in.

“You're going to get in so much trouble if mom finds out.” Anxious eyes darted, but Jen sighed in relief as she closed the door. “I hate when they get like that.”

Andy settled into a spot on the floor. “Me too. You going to be ok?”

Her sister took a spot back on her bed, where her phone was charging. “Yeah, I had my music playing. I didn't realize they were arguing until they overpowered the screaming.”

Well, Aunt Miri would be pleased in her niece's taste in music at the very least. Andy's shoulders shook at the thought as she lay on her back to stare up at the ceiling. Here, at least there were more things to look at. Jen liked putting star stickers on her ceiling. They were pale now, but tonight they would be absolutely glowing.

She had done a good job with the Big Dipper, but Sirius looked a little suspect...

“Are you feeling better?” Jen's big eyes were on her as she texted on her phone at supersonic speeds. “You were in the hospital for a long time again.”

Andy shrugged her shoulders as she vaguely pieced her cover story together. “Yeah, I'm doing better now. They have me going back for checks regularly though, so I'll be gone in the afternoons a couple days a week. You going to be ok with that?”

“I have practice, I'll be fine.” Jen frowned. “You're not getting sicker, are you? Uncle Leo hasn't been looking good lately...”

That got Andy sitting up as she waved her hands to dispel the thought. Her cover story was decent,  but that was the downside. Go to the 'hospital' enough times, and someone's bound to wonder how far you were from death's door. She had definitely wracked up the hours and then some to say the least.

But damn, as bad as Uncle Leo?

“It's fine, just part of my condition.” She stopped waving. “Yeah, he's looking kind of rough. He stopped by to see me before he left.”

Jen's cheeks puffed slightly. “No fair, he didn't mention he was getting discharged! I was planning to go see him.”

Had she been able to, Andy would have laughed at her sister's puffed out cheeks. Instead, she felt her insides bubble happily as she sat there in the house's one safe area. They may have been screaming downstairs, but it was ok here.

“Sorry, I'll let him know to give you a call if I see him when I go back.” Her shoulders sagged. “Which... yeah I'll be back there a lot. They have me on a new process and the guy monitoring my process is a real a-.”

She paused. “He's a jerk.”

“I know the word 'asshole', Andy.” Jen's matter of fact tone gave the alien pause as the teen kept scrolling. “Whatever it is, you can do it. You're awesome.”

A thump downstairs meant Andy didn't get a chance to answer. Out the window, they could see that Sara had left the house and was rapidly heading to her car. The argument was over for now, which meant her mother would be on the war path.

The two exchanged glances. Jen spoke first, quietly. “I thought they would be arguing for a few more hours.”

“Guess even big sisters have a breaking point.” The alien winced as she heard footsteps. The afternoon was about to get a lot more annoying.

Better make that two extra weeks of house arrest at this point... but at least it had been worth it to help Jen feel a little better. Andy would have to remember that as she steeled herself for the fallout that was soon to come.

Maybe she should've let the FBI take her after all...

---

If you liked what you read, I have a ko-fi here!

Okay I filled out that character thingy I reblogged

It’s a little unreasonable for everyone in a Middle Ages-esque fantasy to be perfectly literate, and writing with quills was considered legitimate labor! How well can your oc read and/or write? How detailed is their quest log/journal, if they keep one at all? Imogen took to reading quite readily. She can read high level material and is well read. Her vocabulary is decent. Her journal is fairly detailed, though mostly just emotions shes feeling.  Kalo has dyslexia, so reading can be tricky for him. He would rather read novels than textbooks, but it takes him a while to get through a book. He doesn't keep a journal at all. He just reads his sister's. How educated is your oc? Did their parents teach them, did they have a tutor or were they apprenticed to a master, or did they attend a university? What university? What are they educated in? How long did their education take? (Learned skills like blacksmithing count here too!) Imogen had tutors, and when she was old enough, she attended the Arcane University to study Conjuration and Mysticism. She will never consider herself good enough to stop learning. Even with the war going on, Imogen makes it a point to visit the Mages Guild to keep up with her studies. She also studies history and linguistics.  Kalo had tutors, but the war interrupted his studies. Behind his father's back, he took up swordplay, and he continues to practice. He is over confident in his skills, though he picks up how to fight rather naturally.  Does your oc have any kind of crafting skills that either aren’t in-game or don’t have as much importance in-game as they would in real life? (For example, can your oc sew or weave, etc? Are they skilled in any kind of art? Can they make jewelry or work glass? Are they musicians? etc) Imogen can sew, but not very well. Enough to patch holes. She learned to sing when she was younger, but she's too shy to ever do it in public.  Kalo is really good at making makeshift tools. Give him some sticks and some string and he's good.  What pantheon does your oc worship? If they worship the Cyrodiilic/Imperial pantheon, does that include Talos? If they secretly worship Talos, how do they justify hiding it?  How religious is your oc? Do they come into conflict with others over their beliefs? If their patron deity told them to do something extremely undesirable or against their moral compass, would they do it? Most iterations of Imogen worship the Daedra, but this one is fairly dedicated to Akatosh and Mara. She, however, questions her beliefs often and feels conflicted. Her mother was the head of a cult that worshipped Sanguine. It makes her wonder if Daedra are bad. would be tempted by Hermaeus Mora. But she holds to her moral compass. Kalo is agnostic. Mostly doesn't care about gods or things like that. Never really paid attention to it. But shows interest in some of the Daedra, much to his sister's dismay.   Does your oc have a family of origin? How many members of their FoO are still living? Do they have a good relationship? How much contact does your oc have with their FoO? How in-the-loop is your oc’s FoO about your oc’s being Dragonborn/HoK/Nerevarine? Well, Immy and Kalo are siblings. Their father is still alive but they are not sure where in the world he is because of the war. Haven't seen him since they fled to Glenumbra. Imogen never felt like she met her father's expectations. While he has a hard time showing it, though, her father does care for her. He tends to be colder towards Kalo, as he isn't convinced the boy is his.  Kalo tried to hide the fact he was the Vestige to Imogen. He didn't want her to know that he was soulless because she would have blamed herself. He's bad at keeping secrets though. What social class was your oc born into? Did they change classes at all? How?How politically active is your oc? Are they obviously influential, or is their influence more subtle? Mildly high. Niece and nephew of the Count of Leyawiin. Imogen tries to be politically active, but her emotions run too high. Kalo thinks politics are a waste of time. Especially now with the war. Blames political agendas on it.  What unplayable faction would/did your oc join, if any? Why? I'm still mad I can't be loyal to the empire... How trustworthy is your oc? Would they ever change opposing factions? Both are trustworthy. If they promise something, they mean it. Imogen is fiercely loyal to the empire, though meeting those outside of Cyrodiil makes her question it. She is learning that the empire might not be as good as she believes. Kalo is loyal to individual people. He allies himself with those he considers good.  What is your oc’s main source of income, if they have one besides plundering tombs and adventuring? If they’re mercenaries, are they part of a company? Does your oc own their own business, and if so, what is it?Is your oc good with finances? Bartering? How long can they keep the money they make? As the two take refuge in Glenumbra, they have no connections and no money. Imogen takes up odd jobs as a maid, scribe, bar wench, whatever to get by. Kalo takes odd jobs for people in town, which is how he gets roped into becoming the Vestige in the first place.   Does your oc have any particular rivalry or mutual dislike with any NPC?How well-liked is your oc? What is their reputation, if they’re well-known? Are they simply liked/disliked, or are they respected but feared, or personally liked but not taken seriously, etc? Do major factions consider your oc an important player? Imogen, surprisingly, has reservations on most of the NPCs you deal with in ESO lol. She doesn't trust anyone with the war going on. This makes her come off as cold, which probably makes her hard to get along with. She forms a small bond with King Emeric for helping out alongside Kalo (and for being the one to kill Septima oops). She sort of treats him as a father figure.  Kalo is definitely personally liked but not taken seriously by most people. He's young and reckless. But damn if he isn't loyal. I'd say the Covenant likes him for helping out.   Does your oc have a horse/other mount? A pet? How did they get this animal? If they were given the animal, do they have the money to maintain it? How careful/careless are they with their animal? What do they do with their pets while adventuring, especially on dangerous quests? Imogen has a shadow horse she conjures up. His name is Auferte. She has a stone that she uses to summon him.  Kalo doesn't have any pets but he would love a dog. Or a cat. Or anything really. Imogen won't let him. She doesn't trust him.  Does your oc take their time as they travel, or are they purposeful? How do they survive in the wilds, especially if they aren’t hunter-types? How dependent is your oc on civilized society? Imogen is purposeful; she feels like she's on a timer. Kalo takes his time unless he is on a mission. Imogen relies on her magic to protect her, and she doesn't do well outdoors. Gets tired easily. Kalo seems to be an endless bout of energy.  What does your oc like to eat? How much food do they eat? Can your oc cook, and can they do it well? Kalo eats like Goku from DBZ. Like dear god. Loves potatoes, meat, and bread mostly. Imogen eats like a bird, sort of picks at her food. Enjoys sweeter things like fruits...and actual sweets. Kalo can roast things over a fire. Imogen can't cook. It was not a skill she was taught, though now she's forced to learn to provide for herself and Kalo. She's okay at it, but she gets nervous while she cooks. Makes a mess. If your oc is a vampire, do they go outside in the daytime? Does the daylight affect or hurt them in any way different from in-game? If they interact with society, how do they justify looking half-dead and hating sunlight? How good is your oc at blending in? Do they even like dealing with society?If your oc is a werebeast, how much control do they have over their transformations? Have they ever lost control? What happened? If not, why do they have such strong control? Does Hircine ever call on them, and do they answer? NA What does your oc wear in the city/settlements? In the house? When travelling, but not adventuring or expecting combat? Do they vary their clothes depending on what hold/city they’re in? If they don’t, why not (e.g., if your oc wears the same outfit to tend their garden or lounge around the house as they did to meet Ulfric or Elisif, why?) Does your oc have a good or bad sense of fashion? How many clothes does your oc have?How picky is your oc about their gear? Do they have different equipment for different adventures, or is it the same suit of armor for everything (not counting upgrades like from steel to ebony)? How does your oc acquire their clothes, and from where/whom? While Imogen works in Glenumbra, she tends to dress the part. But once she joins in on the adventure she wears more Cyrodiilic clothing. Typically a tunic and tights. The sandals man. No matter what, she wears the sapphire circlet her mother gave her before passing away. She panics if she can't find it. She sold any other jewelry she had with her after they fled Cyrodiil. Occasionally, Imogen will wear Imperial armor. But that is rare.  Kalo dresses to match the domain. Not so much because he wants to but because he tends to destroy whatever he is wearing. As far as armor goes, he travels light. Prefers leathers to protect him.  Can your oc swim, and how well? Have they ever swam in the ocean, or only lakes/rivers? Remember, it’s much harder to swim in the ocean than in a lake! If your oc is an Argonian, do they take special advantage of it somehow (e.g., do they go diving for fun/for profit, do they instinctively hide in the water, etc)? If your oc is a Khajiit who can swim, how do they get their fur dry? Imogen has always felt a connection to water. She loves to swim in lakes and rivers. Kalo, surprisingly, is afraid of water (though he denies it). Poor dude can't swim. How easy/difficult is it to rob your oc? Pickpocket? Bribe? If your oc is part of one of the more morally questionable or outright evil factions, how do they justify it to themselves? Do they still consider themselves as morally good? How well known is their affiliation to these groups? Do they have separate personas (e.g. Dragonborn to some people, Listener to others)? Do their family/friends know? If they have separate personas, how do they keep their less than righteous activities secret? Imma be honest I'm tired and cant think for this one lol How helpful is your oc, and why? Are they helpful or kind even during difficult situations? Are they pragmatic, or do they have a hero syndrome? Kalo has hero syndrome. Imogen, while she considers herself a good person, has trouble agreeing to help others. Again, she is too cautious. Thinks people have ulterior motives. Will help those she cares about in a heartbeat

Wanted to practice writing fight scenes! So have the fight between Popu and Limon that turned Limon good- or well, not evil anymore.

Limon stood before the fallen warriors, dark aura enveloping her as her dark expression grew. A sharp tooth smiled bare for all to see.

“I thought you Z Fighters would put up a better fight! Since I was so easy to beat the first time around.” The young Majin mocked. This wasn’t her first fight with the Earth’s defenders. Initially when she came to this planet she tried to take them on, with the help of her Saiyan bodyguards of course. While the Saiyans provided a bit of an upper hand for Limon, she was no match once Goku and Vegeta arrived on the scene. However after a year of radio silence, the Majin was back and way stronger than they thought. But without her Saiyan friends. What a mistake that was.

However they seemed to have gravely underestimated the Majin.

She took down each Z fighter one by one, effortlessly almost. Where did all this power come from?! Limon taunted them from her place above them, beaten down and damaged. Goku and Vegeta were out of the count- nobody knew where they were right now. But it’d be really nice for them to drop in any moment now! Limon began approaching the fallen warriors. This was it, this was the end. A Majin finally came to destroy them and their world and they couldn’t stop them this time.

However before Limon got too close, a figure appeared.

It was quick and sudden, everybody looked up to the shorter pink Majin who appeared before them, eyes scowled and teeth bare.

“I thought I told you to scram and tell my father we wanted nothing to do with him.” Popu glared, causing Limon to snicker back at her. “You really think just because you asked I’d just leave? I’m as much an heiress as you are Popu! You have no authority over me.” Limon sneered, causing Popu to glare. “I’m not asking for authority. I’m asking you to fuck off.” She took a step forward. The Yellow majin made no movements, watching Popu with a delighted smirk. “Oh ho, quite unbecoming of you, your highness. Such words aren’t be coming for the crowned princess of our clan!” She mocked. In a second Popu made her move, Limon barely blocking with her own arm.

“Ah, you’re much faster than I remember. Have you been training?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Popu hissed, kneeing the other Majin. Limon coughed a bit, a devious smile appearing on her face as she dealt a blow to the side of Popu’s face. The smaller Majin growled. Now it was on.

Everybody watched in awe as Popu gave it her all. Watching her fight was a rare occasion, she much preferred to sit and watch and when she did fight, it was all for the fun of it. She held her arms up shielding her face as Limon dealt blow after blow against her. Raising one arm slightly, she blocked the other’s arm as she grabbed her incoming fist, trying to force the other down in submission. Limon growled, eyes wide and manic as she kneed Popu. As she doubled over, the yellow Majin clasped both hands together as she knocked Popu over the head, sending her flying towards the ground. The crater it left was immense, debris covering the smaller opponent in a thick fog of dust. Popu coughed as she pushed herself up, shaking her head. Oh, now she was pissed.

“I’m getting real sick and tired of this.” Popu growled, shooting back up and dealing an uppercut to Limon. The majin sputtered, flying back and shaking her head. Realigning her jaw slightly, she blasted towards Popu, shooting all kinds of Ki flares at her. Popu dodged them all effortlessly, teleporting behind Limon the moment she got close. They were causing too much damage to the city and it was best to deal with her quickly. Popu didn’t have time to tango with this pompous uppity piece of shit and she was going to end it as quickly as she could.

“What the-?!” Limon glanced around her, where had that tiny pink blob gone?!

“Stay dead.” Popu growled as her hands lit up in a menagerie of purples and pinks. Limon whipped her head behind her, pupils shrinking and eyes wide as the other dealt a Majin Kamehameha at point plank.

Popu thought that’d be the end of it, wiping her hands together and letting out a sigh. However, before she could set down on Earth, the sound of an Instant Transmission caught her as Limon grabbed her shoulder. “Did you forget I could do that too?”

Popu was sent flying, crashing into a building. Limon laughed maniacally as Popu came barreling out, resuming her fight with Limon.

She could match her in speed and strength, this was getting ridiculous. At this rate she might- she might…

“Feh!” The pink Majin snarled.

Popu let out a shockwave of energy, sending Limon back. She had no choice. There was no way she could overpower Limon at this rate. She was… She was going to have to learn how to control herself real fast and not lose herself in the process. The grounded Z Fighters watched as the fight progressed, growing more and more concerned for Popu. They knew she could fight- but she was quickly losing leverage it seemed. However, the girl began to change. Plumes of smoke began radiating from the vents in her body.

“What is she…” Krillin stared. Limon blinked back, furrowing her brows.

“Wait. What are you doing? You’re not-” Limon’s eyes widened. Popu smirked, glaring at Limon. “Mom and dad never taught you, did they?” Was all she managed out before she was enveloped in the smoke. Her breathing was caught in her throat and she began to change, a demonic roar being ripped from her throat as air rushed out of her, clearing the smoke. Her body contorted in ways that made anyone’s backs ache. Flopping forward like a limp doll, she lifted her head slightly to reveal wide dark black eyes and small red irises. A sharp tooth grin flashing itself to Limon. Her tendrils had joined to become one long one hanging off her head while her body morphed to be the spitting image of the malicious Kid Buu. The Majin symbol on her belt shined in the sun as she stood, glaring at the other. “Why so scared Limon? I thought you were stronger than me.”

“You…!” Limon clenched her teeth, hesitating slightly. THIS was purification. She didn’t know how to enter such a phase. But how?! Her sisters weren’t able to utilize the form either! Why was Popu able too?!

However, everyone on the ground was much more surprised and shocked than Limon was. Popu. Sweet little Popu who wouldn’t hurt a fly. With eyes full of stars and a smile so bright it felt like sunshine. She was the sweetest Majin to ever land on Earth. She was friendly, charismatic and generally harmless. Nobody thought she could become the image of something so evil and monstrous. But the truth was Popu had always been this way. She’s always been able to utilize this form and she was stronger than people took her for. Nobody ever respected Popu the way she wanted. She may have been cute but she was a fighter, she was the daughter of one of the universe’s most terrifying species. Majins weren’t all happiness and rainbows, there were some capable of atrocities around the universe who had no qualms of ending lives and destroying worlds. Popu comes from that lineage of Majin. And in this form, it becomes quite apparent.

The shockwave she made when colliding with Limon threw back even those on the ground. Limon struggled to keep her arms up as Popu mercilessly dealt throw after throw, a wicked smile as she relished in the struggle and pain Limon felt. Oh how good it felt to be back in this skin. How long has she gone in that smaller, inferior form? She wasn’t much taller when pure, she knew, but she much preferred the ferocity and power of this than what her unpure form dished out. Limon’s guard finally broke, giving Popu a good opening to send the girl flying. A cackle left the Pure Majin’s throat as she watched the other weakly pick herself up.

“Is that all you got?! What happened to your much ‘superior’ strength? Huh?” She taunted, crossing her arms. She moved out of the way as Limon’s ki blast barely scraped her cheek. Hm. She was rusty. No matter, the Majin smirked as she launched herself at Limon. Kicking up debris and dust as the two brawled in the pit she created.

Limon met each punch Popu gave, blocking kicks and elbows as the other became more and more barbaric in her attacks. Although base Popu had form and calculated strikes, Pure Popu would quickly lose herself in the heat of battle, just trying anything that would seem to work. This began to weigh in Limon’s favor, throwing her punch to the side and managing to get a hold of Popu, bringing her face against her knee, the pink Majin let out a bark of pain. In her daze Limon was able to follow up with another kick that sent Popu against the crater. She spat out some blood, staring at the vaguely magenta stain against the dirt. Oh, she was not having any of it. Growling, she caught Limon off guard with a vanishing ball. The shockwave bounced Limon against the ground, knocking the wind out of her lungs. Gasping, she stared at Popu as she approached. Her arm stretched attempting to smash Limon. Limon rolled quickly, scrambling to her feet as Popu continued to set her barrage against her. This was getting out of hand quickly. She had to subdue Popu quickly or else she’s not getting out of this alive.

She let out a calm sigh, reacting accordingly to Popu’s unpredictable movements. The unpredictable soon became predictable with each thrown ki blast and punch. Popu seemed to go back to the same few moves when she got frustrated, and that feeling of frustration is what Limon is gonna rely on to hopefully pull through as victor. But Popu was full of surprised. Anticipating one attack, Limon was caught in a Pearl Flash, ripping a scream of pain from her. Popu smirked as she grabbed Limon’s body. The other clawed against Popu, squirming and attempting to break free to no avail.

“Look at you. You’re no match for me Limon. Why do you fight anyways? For our father? You do know he doesn’t love you right?”

That struck a chord with Limon, causing her to furrow her brows up to the other.

“He never did. Not you, not me. If you think I’m a monster then do I got bad news for you. He’s a disgusting tyrant who’s using us as weapons and pawns. He sent you here to look for us. For me. You say you’re just as much of an heir as I am? In his eyes you’re nothing more than a lowly drone with your only mission being to bring back his precious crowned heir!” She spat, pulling Limon’s face closer to her’s. Popu’s teeth were bared in a snarl as the other winced.

“There’s no point in this. He’ll throw you to the curb the moment you complete your job. He’ll never love you no matter what you do and you’re either going to accept that or die in vain.” She threw down Limon against the ground harshly. Despite her unhinged nature in this form, she held enough of a grip on herself to be able to give Limon a choice. A choice to stop fighting and never show her face against or a choice to fight bared to the teeth and die a mistake.

“I…”

Limon stared at her hands, eyes hollow. For once, she questioned her obedience and loyalty to their father. True he had never once shown her an ounce of love. But she thought… If she could just do this one task… Perhaps…

“Hurts doesn’t it?” Popu’s voice cut through like a knife. Limon twitched slightly, looking back up to Popu. The smoke was beginning to ventilate from her once more as she let out a sigh, her form returning to what it once was. She no longer stared at Limon with contempt and ridicule. Instead it was more… Sad. Sympathetic. She was once in Limon’s shoes, angry at the world and not understanding why her parents didn’t love her. But she grew to understand that, it didn’t matter if her parents did or not. They may have raised her, but she wasn’t obligated to be their child. If that made sense. It took years to undo the gaslighting and manipulation that left her when she landed on this planet. Limon was a case forced to age quickly for a specific person. She was a drone. Not her father’s child.

Limon was silent once more. She didn’t know how to answer. She… Didn’t feel like fighting anymore.

The young Majin stood up, looking at Popu. Her eyes were empty, unreadable. Taking a deep breath Limon turned, taking to the sky and disappearing to the forest. Popu watched quiet as the other made her resolution. She hoped Limon could overcome her problems like she did and perhaps, one day, they could meet again on better terms.

Dragon Ball Z 162

Well, Vegeta wanted Perfect Cell, and by garn, he got Perfect Cell.    Trouble is, Vegeta can’t handle this guy.    He kicked him in the head really hard, and everyone kept going on about how awesome that kick was and how he definitely hit a vital area (as if anyone knows anything about Cell’s anatomy), and Cell just smiled at him

Fortunately, there’s still a chance.   Krillin knows that Trunks is holding back, because he didn’t want to embarass his father by revealing that he had surpassed him

But Trunks still doesn’t want to step in.   He’d rather wait for Cell to beat the shit out of Vegeta, and then save his dad while he’s unconscious.   So this proves that Trunks really is Vegeta’s son, since he inherited his father’s dominant trait of doing stupid horseshit for the sole purpose of protecting Vegeta’s fragile ego.

Trunks figures that even if Vegeta dies first, it would still be better this way, because if he were to rob Vegeta of his pride then it would be worse than death for him.    Again, these aren’t hypothetical scenarios, here.   Vegeta’s been humbled and killed before.    Frankly, he’s being humiliated here anyway, whether Trunks intervenes or not.    This whole fight was Vegeta’s dumb idea, and he was all “Durr, I’ll fight Perfect Cell, bring him on!” and now he’s getting his ass handed to him and he knows exactly who to blame.    

Trunks also says that it’s Vegeta’s pride that motivates him, and he thinks it’s what his mother always saw in him.   And this is sort of where I have trouble with Vegeta’s redemption arc.    Around this point in the story, it’s really more about other characters struggling to find positive things to say about Vegeta, while he continues to be a giant asshole

Let’s face it, he doomed the world by allowing Cell to become complete.    Not only that, but he attacked his own son to facilitate this.    Then Cell beat up Krillin and absorbed 18, all while he floated there with a stupid grin on his face.   But hey, he’s got plenty of self-esteem!   That’s admirable, right?  

The problem, I think, is that the word “pride” keeps getting used as a catch-all term for Vegeta’s attitude.    What Bulma and Trunks appreciate about him is probably his drive.   Vegeta’s a self-starter.   He doesn’t sit around and wait for others to solve his problems, he tackles them himself, usually head on.    He embraces adversity and rises to the occasion. 

What keeps making Vegeta a dick is his arrogance.   He puts down the other Z-Figthers--including Goku sometimes-- saying that they’re unnecessary and unimportant.    He routinely underestimates his opponents, as Cell is currently demonstrating.   He’s a valuable ally, but only up to a point.    When things go a little too well, Vegeta starts looking for ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  

I don’t think this is a translation issue, since the story here clearly involves Trunks’ inability to separate the two qualities.   He admires his father’s drive, but what he’s doing right now--plotting to rescue him in secret--is designed to placate his arrogance.    He’s calling them both “pride”, which is why he thinks his intentions make sense.    But Vegeta isn’t entitled to his arrogance right now.    He fucked up royally, and he deserves to get upstaged.   It’s going to happen anyway, whether it’s Trunks or Cell or Goku or whoever.    All Trunks is doing is allowing Vegeta to take a beating, and that’s fine by me, but I don’t think that’s what he really wants right now.

At last, Cell starts going on the offensive a little, just to show Vegeta what he’s up against, and he takes the time to thank him for being foolish enough to make this moment possible.  

Desperately, 16 tries to sneak up on Cell to sucker punch him, but Cell notices him before he can even get close.    I’m not sure what sort of condition 16 is in right now, but he seemed to have trouble standing before.    He’s completely out of his league here, but he seems to have recognized that Vegeta is too, so he’s determined to do whatever he can.   

Then Vegeta goes for broke.   He calls up all of his power at once, gathering it into a single attack.  

Then he dares Cell to take the blast head-on, since Cell’s already proven he can dodge just about anything Geets throws at him.   Credit where it’s due, this is pretty clever on Vegeta’s part.   At last, he’s finally started thinking like his opponent.   Cell wants to test his perfect form, and he has surpreme confidence in his perfect form, so he doesn’t actually think anything can hurt him.    So instead of trying to fistfight the guy, Vegeta is merely challenging him to a test of endurance.   

And Cell is all for it.   Why shouldn’t he be?   He’s been winning so far, and he’s not even trying.   Besides, he’s perfect now.     Dr. Gero’s computer told him so, and it hasn’t been wrong so far.

There’s just one problem with Vegeta’s scheme: He’s using so much juice that he might destroy the whole world whether he hits Cell or not.  

But hey, YOLO, right?  Vegeta lets it rip, and Cell seems genuinely shocked by the intensity of the blast.   

Hyperbolic Time Chamber Update: The Chamber has a fridge now, and apparently it’s been stocked with pineapples.     Goku just grabs an armload of food, and I like the part where he’s picking things and he goes “Gohan likes this!”  I’d like to think it’s the enormous radish.     Gohan’s all “Oh boy, my favorite!”

Then Goku asks Gohan to cook a cartoon hambone with a ki blast, and he ends up setting Goku’s hair on fire.   

Back at the battle, Trunks is pleased to see that Vegeta managed to confine his attack to spare the Earth, so at least that’s not a problem.

And Vegeta seems pleased with the results of his attack.  Did it work?

Cell’s alive, but he doesn’t look too happy.  

Probably because a huge chunk of him is gone.   I don’t remember when I first saw this, because I watched these episodes out of order around the time they aired on Cartoon Network, but this was amazing.   

Krillin’s all like “Yay we won!” ��

Look at this.   Are we seeing Cell’s innards, or is this some sort of seared flesh left behind from the Final Flash?    Who can tell?   Vegeta starts laughing with relief.     He’s won this.   There’s no way Cell can fight in this condition.  

And he knows it.    Cell bet everything on his perfect form, and it still wasn’t enough to--

LOL j/k, he’s fine.   

Yeah, he’s got Piccolo’s DNA, which means he can just regenerate the part of his body Vegeta destroyed.   Neat huh?

What was really dumb was when they basically recreated this moment in Dragon Ball Super with Vegeta and Jiren.     Jiren was kicking everyone’s ass, and Vegeta dared him to stand still and take his best shot, and Jiren did, and it didn’t work, and...... they all just kept fighting anyway.  

It was stupid for two reasons.    First, it was just a retread of a classic DBZ moment.   Someone probably thought it’d be cute to do a callback to this episode, except it’s not.   It just looked like they ran out of ideas and dipped into the nostalgia well.    

Second, the whole point of Vegeta’s Final Flash ploy was that he could only do it the one time.    He hurt Cell with it, and I suppose if he could repeat that attack several more times, it would be enough to kill Cell, except he put everything he had into that blast.     He can’t do it again, and even if he could, Cell wouldn’t be stupid enough to stand still and let it hit him again.

Dragon Ball Super’s mistake was in having Vegeta use a desperation tactic on Jiren, and then he just keeps fighting Jiren, defeats Toppo, and fights Jiren some more, and then he gave his remaining energy to Goku when he got eliminated from the Tournament of Power.     That’s all fine, except it makes you question what Vegeta was trying to accomplish with his Final Flash.  He clearly didn’t put everything into it, like he did against Cell here.    Maybe he just baited Jiren so he could get a free hit in and take his measure at the same time?   

Anyway, this is why DBZ is always better than Dragon Ball Super.   The Tournament of Power was really good, but it’d have to stand on a chair to kiss the Cell Saga’s butt.     We’re not recycling old ideas here.   Cell was created from the genes of other characters, the Final Flash is new, and so is Cell completely dismantling Vegeta.   Spirit first, then body.

And that does it for “Super Vegeta”.    Wotta maroon.

So now Vegeta has been knocked out, or maybe he’s already dead.    Cell thinks he’s still alive, so he’s about to finish him off, so if Trunks is going to act, now’s the time.  

And so Trunks starts powering up.

And this catches Cell’s attention.   Good thing too, because he could easily kill Vegeta in the time it’s taking Trunks to get into gear.  

So far, Cell seems pretty impressed...

Finally Found (Route 17 Fest Day 5: Reunion)

“Where are we? What is this place?”

“This looks like the Check-In Station to the Otherworld.”

“Didn’t think death would be so...normal. Waiting in line, really?”

One moment, Seventeen and Aki were staring death in the face, with nothing but a flash of pink before them. The next, they were waiting in line to be processed into the afterlife.

The cyborg was surprised, but also amazed. For someone who had never really been involved in any of the world’s disasters up to this point, Aki took everything with Majin Buu in stride. From entire cities being turned into candy to the majority of the world’s population being exterminated by energy, she didn’t break under the weight of it all.

“Honestly, this is kind of a relief.”

“What does that mean, Seventeen?”

He sighed. “This whole ordeal was rough. Never knowing when the final moment would come. I’m glad that, even if we didn’t end up making it out alive, at least we went out together, you know?”

Aki only chuckled. “You’re such a sap now. Six years really changed you.”

“What can I say? You tamed the wild beast.”

“Ahem.”

The two looked up, noticing they were at the reception desk.

“So, Mr. Seventeen, it says here. I remember you, from about seven years ago. How’s life been?”

“You could say it’s been alright.”

“Just alright? How offensive!”

Seventeen laughed. “Relax, Aki. You know I kid.” Turning towards King Yemma, the cyborg continued. “Life on Earth’s been great, honestly. Beyond anything I could have imagined.”

“Great to hear! Some of us were wondering if you’d end up here quickly after the first time, but you’ve really outdone yourself! The change you’ve underwent and the positive things you’ve done are incredible, so we’ll let you keep your body here.”

“And you, Miss Aki.”

“Yes?”

“Well, as the biggest reason for the change in our fine young man here, I’ll make a special exception for you and allow you to keep your human body as well.”

She smiled. “Thank you, sir, but it wasn’t all me. He always had the capacity in him to be good and never once showed otherwise.”

“Correct, but you actually gave him the opportunity to show that good and embraced him. In another time or place, he could have turned out completely differently, but he didn’t. And that’s a testament to both of you and your inherent goodness.”

“So what now, sir?” Seventeen was wondering where to go. Considering they were going to be here for a while.

“Both of you will be heading off to Heaven, but first, somebody wants to talk to you two, if you’ll allow it?”

The couple turned to each other and shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Is it somebody we know?”

“Aki has never met him, but you have, Seventeen. Just step outside, and he’ll be waiting for you.”

The door to the side of the reception desk opened, and Seventeen and Aki stepped out.

“No way. This isn’t real. Is it really you?”

Seventeen couldn’t believe it.

“It’s been a long time, Seventeen. I’m proud of you.”

That deep, gentle voice. The flaming red hair.

Sixteen.

Seventeen couldn’t hold himself back from embracing his brother.

“I missed you so much, Sixteen. Where were you? How have you been?”

“I, too, missed you Seventeen. I’ve been here this whole time, watching you and Eighteen from here.”

“But why?”

Sixteen smiled. “Seventeen, you and Eighteen were always of Earth. You were born as human beings and belong to the planet. The two of you always were supposed to return to Earth and live your life there.”

“But I was not a natural life of Earth. Dr. Gero created me from nothing, to replace the son he lost in war. The son whose death Dr. Gero blamed Son Goku for, creating an ambition that ultimately created me and modified you and your sister.”

“Sixteen, that doesn’t mean you didn’t have the right to return to Earth and live! You, above all, had an appreciation for life and gave everything to protect it. If anyone should have been brought back to life, it was you!”

“But Seventeen, I chose not to be brought back. I asked King Yemma to deny my resurrection.”

Seventeen stepped back.

“You chose to be here?”

“Seventeen, I am not immortal. My cybernetics would eventually malfunction. I would rust, and eventually waste away on the planet, years and maybe decades before you, a superior model, would. Here, I don’t have to worry about when my circuitry will fail, when I will be permanently deactivated. I have an eternity with various creatures around here.”

“Sixteen, I’m not superior to you. I never was.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Seventeen. Dr. Gero originally researched cybernetics and used human experiments to see if he could bring his deceased son back to life through technological means, but he found it was impossible to revive someone who was already dead. By his standards, you are more successful than I ever was. You are someone who can grow stronger thanks to your humanity, while I cannot. But even removing the twisted doctor’s standards, your inherent goodness and humanity make you more than the mere machine you always viewed yourself as.”

“But I would never have found those things if it weren’t for you! You’re the one who taught me these things!”

“Then, Seventeen, I am glad that my spirit can live on through you. Because you have lived out a wonderful life these past seven years, and I am proud of you. Proud that you were my friend the time we were together, and proud that you became a man who protects all life.”

Seventeen knew he was crying. All this time, he had wanted to see Sixteen, tell him how much he had missed him.

“Thank you. I’m sorry that I ended up getting yourself killed. It’s my fault. If I could, I’d listen to you and get away. Maybe then, you’d still be with us.”

“Seventeen, do not blame yourself for what happened to Cell. Eighteen does not, and I do not either. You are not responsible for what happened to me. It is Dr. Gero’s sick, twisted ambition of world domination that led to my end, not you. Until the end, we defied the doctor’s orders and proved that we are our own beings that cannot be controlled, couldn’t we?”

“Yeah, big guy. You bet.”

“And you, who was supposed to be a harbinger of destruction on the planet, have become one of its finest protectors. Your life alone is proof that Dr. Gero can and will never get the best of you. Because in the end, your life has always been your own to choose, no matter what programming he installed.”

Seventeen embraced Sixteen again. “Thank you, Sixteen. I’m glad we finally got to meet again.”

“Likewise. Now, please introduce me to your wonderful girlfriend.”

“Gladly. Sixteen, this is Aki, who I’m sure you’ve seen help me. Aki, this is Sixteen, the friend I’ve been searching the Earth seven years for.”

“It’s finally nice to meet you, Sixteen.”

“The pleasure is mine. Thank you for looking out for Seventeen and giving him a chance.”

She shook her head, smiling. “It’s just as you said. Seventeen’s always been good and had the capacity to do good. I’m grateful that he trusts me: he has every right to be hateful towards the world, but he’s not. And now, he’s the greatest protector.”

“The two of you are wonderful. I am so happy for the two of you, that both of you can bring so much happiness to the other.”

“I can see where Seventeen gets some of his personality from. I can tell that you have the same love for life that he does, or maybe it’s the other way around. You made a major impact on him and helped him become who he is today.”

“And the same to you. His old personality has slowly returned, and Seventeen has become the fun-loving person he always was again. You helped him through a transition period and some of the toughest times he’s had. Even when he told you the truth, you accepted him in a way most would not.”

“I always told him that he’d see you again. Because he always made me believe that my dreams could come true, and so I wanted his to become reality as well.”

Seventeen paused.

‘No matter how unlikely it may seem that you’ll meet your friend again, I know you will.‘

Aki really had wanted his dream to come true for his sake. His dream became one of her own, and she was radiating with joy.

He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. That no matter how long or short their lives would be, that they would spend their time together. Because he loved her, and she loved him. For just being Seventeen, it was enough.

He wouldn’t put it off any longer. Once they were wished back, he’d come up with a plan.

“Seventeen.”

He had been so lost in thought that he had failed to hear Sixteen, who had been calling for him for a while now.

“Yeah, big guy?”

“Please do not live bound to the past anymore. You are free from everything. What happened cannot be changed, and that should not affect how you live moving forward. You are not defined by Dr. Gero’s cybernetics or his ambitions. You live your own life of your own choosing. Your identity is your own. So continue to live out your best life, and continue to be truly happy. Not for my sake or anybody else’s, but your own. Because you deserve happiness, my friend.”

They embraced again. “Thank you, Sixteen. For everything. You’ll always be my best friend.”

“Likewise, Seventeen.”

Sixteen stepped back, smiling at the couple.

“I hope that the next time I see you two will be farther into the future. Live full lives and tell me stories about them when your time comes.”

Grasping his hand firmly, Aki nodded. “We will. Take care, Sixteen.”

A/N: Decided to this reunion, which isn’t necessarily what I would consider the original emphasis for the prompt. I thought about including the one I did for Eighteen and Seventeen already, but that’d make this mega-post even longer than it already is. You can find that in Chapter 1 of Learning to Live on FF (my username is the same as my profile, and it’ll be Chapter 2 overall, as the first is a prologue).

Keep sending feedback, everyone. These are all pretty rough drafts, but I’m glad people have mostly enjoyed them and commented on mutual/differing headcanons!

Nearly every member of the Z-Warriors has battled it out with Goku in the Dragon Ball franchise. In fact, the only heroes who haven’t come to blows with the show’s protagonist at one point or another are his youngest son, Goten, the present-day version of Trunks, and Chiaotzu. Everyone else, though, knows what it’s like to be at odds with the Saiyan warrior.

Goku and his allies have fought each other for various reasons in the anime. Some of these battles happened before they became properly acquainted, while others occurring during sparring sessions and tournaments. Plus, there are a few Z-Warriors who started out as villains of Goku, and had to develop into heroes later on.

Related: Dragon Ball: Why Future Trunks Can Go Super Saiyan God Now

Across all three shows, Goku won a great many of the battles he’s had with his friends, but not all have gone his way. Here’s every Z-Warrior who has fought Goku in Dragon Ball canon, and what happened.

Yamcha, who is commonly thought of as one of the weakest Z-Warriors, actually beat Goku when they first encountered each other. In fact, their fight wasn’t even close. Goku had the Power Pole on his side, but it didn’t matter against the sword-wielding Desert Bandit. He couldn’t withstand the flurry of blows that Yamcha bombarded him with, including his signature move, the Wolf Fang Fist.

Vegeta is Goku’s main rival in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, but that role initially belonged to his best friend, Krillin. While the two were pupils of Master Roshi, Krillin trained diligently to prove his superiority over Goku, despite the fact that the latter was always several steps ahead of him. He received a chance to test his mettle against Goku when he, after defeating a series of skilled opponents, squared off against him in the semi-finals of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. Krillin put up a good fight, but unsurprisingly fell to the young Saiyan. Even though the gap between their power levels widened to a point where there was no debating who would win, the two held a rematch in Dragon Ball Super, with Krillin having no choice but to rely on a fast combination of techniques. When Goku powered up to Super Saiyan Blue and unleashed a Kamehameha, Android 18 interrupted the fight, feeling that Goku was pushing him too hard.

Master Roshi secretly battled Gohan and Krillin in the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament under the guise of “Jackie Chun”, as he believed that either of his students winning could affect their confidence in a negative way. As “Jackie Chun”, Roshi saw first-hand how strong Goku had become, but he was still able to persevere.

Related: Dragon Ball: How Piccolo Could Surpass Goku

While being mind-controlled, Roshi fought against Goku a second time in Dragon Ball Super. To the surprise of fans, Roshi actually had enough strength to beat Tien and challenge Goku in his base form. It was a significant moment for the character, because it proved that he had been training in secret, and that he wasn’t as far behind the rest of the Z-Warriors as originally thought.

Before becoming a hero, Tien served as Goku’s opponent in the final round of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. After barely overcoming Yamcha, Tien engaged Goku in a heated showdown. Master Shen tried to use Chiaotzu to cheat on Tien’s behalf, but Tien was determined to have a fair fight. In the end, both were knocked into the air, with Goku landing first. Due to this technicality, he was declared the loser. Similar to the situation with Yamcha, Goku hasn’t had a proper rematch with Tien yet, but there’s no denying that he would come out on top if another fight were to occur.

Yajirobe, the laziest of Goku’s allies, didn’t have to do any training to pose a physical challenge to Goku in Dragon Ball. After a run-in in the wilderness, the two had a standoff, but the outcome was inconclusive, as Cymbal came onto the scene before a winner could be determined. In the present, Yajirobe - who has only dedicated a small amount of his time to training - is unfortunately no longer thought to be a match for any of the Z-Warriors.

After Demon King Piccolo was reincarnated, a new character was born. The new version of Piccolo emerged as an adversary of Goku for the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. Goku battled Piccolo in the finals, and came quite close to losing. Both characters used some of their strongest attacks in the match and sustained serious injuries. At the end of the fight, Goku flew for the first time in Dragon Ball history and landed a headbutt, which turned out to be the knockout blow he needed. Afterward, Piccolo planned to defeat Goku in a future rematch, but later events involving the Saiyan invaders caused them to evolve from enemies into allies.

Related: Dragon Ball: Every Z-Warrior Who Has Won A Tournament (& Which Ones)

Goku and Vegeta have had two serious fights in the anime, the first of which being the one that transpired in the Saiyan Saga. Thanks to the training he received from King Kai, Goku returned from Other World with a sizable power boost that put him far above Piccolo and the Z-Warriors. After effortlessly taking down Nappa, Goku fought Vegeta one-on-one and showed the Saiyan prince that he had truly become a force to be reckoned with by using the Spirit Bomb move and Kaio-ken technique. Seeing that Goku was stronger, Vegeta shifted the odds in his favor by forcing a Great Ape transformation. Following Goku’s defeat, he had to rely on Krillin, Gohan, and Yajirobe to finish the fight against Vegeta.

Vegeta later became a hero, but never gave up on the notion of being better than Goku. During the Buu Saga, Vegeta acquired a power-up from Babidi and finally had his much-anticipated second round with Goku. After narrowly beating his rival, Vegeta felt a degree of vindication until he discovered that Goku was holding back Super Saiyan 3 (a form he presumably could have used to win).

Goku has gone up against Future Trunks on two separate occasions. When they met in the Android Saga, Future Trunks – who had just been revealed as Dragon Ball’s second Super Saiyan – attacked Goku due to being curious about his power. They had a short fight, which lasted just long enough for Trunks to see that Goku was stronger than him. Goku remained on the defensive the entire time, and only blocked Trunks’ sword strikes with his finger. They had a similar encounter during their reunion in Dragon Ball Super, which culminated in Goku going Super Saiyan 3. Upon seeing this, Trunks realized that he was way out of Goku’s league.

Goku put Gohan through some intense sparring in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and guided him into unlocking Super Saiyan 2 form. Several years later, Gohan sought help from Piccolo so that he could regain his fighting edge. Once Gohan decided that he was ready for actual combat, he designed to test his newfound strength against the strongest opponent he could find: Goku. Gohan hit Goku with everything he had, and even managed to push him into accessing Super Saiyan Blue. Still, Gohan hung in the fight and wouldn’t go down until Goku combined this power with his Kaio-ken technique.

Related: Dragon Ball's Hercule Retcon Is Actually A Correction

In Dragon Ball Z, Goku impressively overpowered Majin Buu with his Super Saiyan 3 form, thus making it clear that if he would have won if the fight had continued. At the time, the Earth itself was at stake, but the circumstances of their rematch – which happened in Dragon Ball Super – were much friendlier. After losing a great deal of weight, the good version of Buu fought Goku (who refrained from transforming) and used tactics to ring him out.

On account of the heart virus, Goku missed out on the Z-Warriors’ conflict with Android 18 and Android 17, whose primary objective in Dragon Ball Z was to kill him. They both abandoned this goal, but 17 did get an opportunity to fight Goku during the lead-up to the Tournament of Power. In a shocking scene, 17 demonstrated that he had somehow become powerful enough to match blows with Super Saiyan Blue Goku, with one of 17’s biggest advantages being the fact that androids never run out of energy. Their battle eventually ended in a stalemate. After the fight was over, it was heavily implied that both characters avoided utilizing their full potential. That being said, the events of the Dragon Ball tournament and their respective performances confirmed that Goku was the superior fighter.

More: Dragon Ball Super: Every Z-Warrior Stronger Than DBZ's Goku

Dragon Ball Z: Every Z-Warrior Goku Fought (& What Happened) from https://ift.tt/32eU24O

Cinematic Comic Characters Ranked! (Year 2009) Part Three

It’s rough coming right after a fantastic year of movies (2008) but 2009 did pretty well for itself. Terminator Salvation is our only sequel and we also get an X-Men spinoff with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Kids favorite shows come out with Astro Boy, Dragonball: Evolution, and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, and we got a couple of thrillers with Whiteout and Surrogates. We also get the debut of the controversial Watchmen! Let’s get started with numbers #40-21!

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ALL HIGHLIGHTED MOVIES ABOVE*

40. President Stone/Peacekeeper (Astro Boy)

"Declare war! This is gonna get me re-elected."

How did this guy even get elected in the first place? He's an idiot who thought the only way to stay in power was through violent technology. It's his arrogance that gets Toby killed and it's his arrogance that puts the whole city in danger when he still decides to use the red core energy. He ends up getting absorbed by the Peacekeeper and starts a city-wide battle with Astro that only ends when Astro sacrifices himself and connects the two cores. Stone is then arrested by his own men and taken away.

39. Delfy (Whiteout)

"They don't make them like that anymore."

Delfy was just a regular pilot who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He's the one who first discovers Weiss's body out on the ice and contacts Carrie. Afterwards, she makes him her personal pilot as she sets up an investigation. This new job ends up nearly killing him twice: Once when he gets buried under fifty feet of snow with the others inside the Russian plane, and another when Haden breaks out and stabs him. He recovers and ends up bonding with Pryce and Carrie for six months until the winter is over.

38. Abel Shaz/Breaker (G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra)

"Is that Double Bubble?"

Although he isn't the only brains on the team, if anyone needs advice on technology, Breaker is your guy. I will always enjoy the member of the squad who understand gadgets like no one else can yet doesn't truly understand most jokes that said. With the nanobite warheads being the most dangerous pieces of technology known to man, Breaker comes in handy in helping the team stop Cobra from bringing whole cities down.

37. Agent Zero (X-Men Origins: The Wolverine)

"It's funny how innocent people tend to die around you!"

For some reason Wolverine and Agent Zero DID NOT get along with each other. Everyone would be joking along with everyone else then all of a sudden they're both threatening to kill each other. The years after Logan leaves Stryker's team doesn't cool off the tension because those two are ready to pop off again when they reunite. It's a pointless rivalry though because we all knew Logan would come out on top, and it's not because he's the main character either. I mean, yeah, Zero is really good when it comes to shooting bullets and jumping over high fences but bullets don't do anything to Wolverine especially once he gets the adamantium in his skeleton. So when the two clash, Agent Zero ends up exploding in a helicopter and Logan...remains unharmed.

36. Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre (Watchmen)

"I don't hate him because he gave me you."

The original Silk Spectre and one of the few remaining heroes alive from the Minutemen. Sally Jupiter is retired now and totally missing the game, so much that she trains her daughter to be the next Silk Spectre. She reminds me so much of those pageant moms that now live through their daughter's lives to fill young again. Although I'd really like to know why, it's never really explained, only assumed, why Sally goes back to sleep with The Comedian, who tried to rape her previously. The result of their one night stand is Laurie, who ends up coming to terms with it by the time she finds out and confronts Sally about it.

35. Chi-Chi (Dragonball: Evolution)

"Just because my name is Chi-Chi doesn't mean I'm an idiot."

I liked Chi-Chi and I'm pretty sure the only reason why they didn't have her in the movie more was because they knew I'd rank her higher than Goku if they did. I mean if I were in the group hunting Dragon Balls I would have totally added her in once I saw her fighting skills but it never happens. Instead we just see her every time we need someone to flirt with Goku.

34. Maggie Greer (Surrogates)

"It's better this way."

Maggie is Greer's wife and together they lost a son before surrogates became globally used. This causes her to mourn in a unique way where she locks herself in her own room and just lives her life through her surrogate. Even though she cares for Greer, she ignores the distance between them instead for the new fun life she has as a surrogate. When the surrogates are destroyed, she almost kills herself but ends up connecting with her husband again in their child's old room.

33. Dr. Bill Tenma (Astro Boy)

"You're still my son."

It took me a very long time to like Tenma, and I was starting to believe that he was a lost caused until he pulled through in the end. First he completely ignores Toby when he was alive, treating him like a unbothered teacher would a student instead of a father, then goes into a huge depression after he dies. Because of this, he creates Astro, a robot version of Toby but then completely abandons him shortly after and then aids President Stone in capturing him and shutting him down. It isn't until after he removes the core from Astro that he finally accepts him as his son, returning the core and bringing him back to life.

32. Goku (Dragonball: Evolution) 

"Kamehameha!"

With Dragon Ball being a Japanese anime I was glad that there was a lot of Japanese influence in the movie. The setting, the background actors, even some of the core cast but you know who wasn't? GOKU! Like I don't understand the reasoning as to why they thought casting a white guy as Goku would be a great idea when Grandpa Gohan was clearly Asian! But besides that, Goku was lame! He wasn't exciting to watch, which is a huge shame because I loved the watching the show with my older brother when I was little.

31. Bulma (Dragonball: Evolution)

"Everybody has a price."

Bulma was my favorite in the movie. I loved the guns, loved how she handled herself with the boys, and loved all her cool technology that basically was the reason they got around (her compact motorcycle) and found the Dragon Balls (Her D.P.E.). Her interest with Yamcha was fun and flirty and when it came down to business she was ready to help any way she can. She definitely should have been Asian, but at least her character wasn't as bad as Goku's.

30. William Stryker (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

"Welcome to the war."

Our mutant-hating government official is back and now we get to see how his connection with Logan came to be. On a mission to create the strongest mutant weapon for the government, Stryker creates a team of mutants, including Logan and Victor, to hunt down adamantium. When this costs the lives of innocents, Logan's out, which is bad business for Stryker since Logan's he key to his secret weapon. He creates an elaborate plan, staging the death of Logan's girlfriend, Kayla, and pinning him against Victor to bring him back so he can put the adamantium inside him and successfully create, Weapon X. Of course, everyone that's a mutant figures out he's playing them all and his plans go down the drain with the death of Weapon XI. His adamantium bullets are what cause Logan to lose his memories and they're eventually what kill Kayla, but not before she can control his mind and send him away for good...at least until he turns up again.

29. Cora (Astro Boy)

"Didn't your nanny-bots teach you not to sneak up on people?"

Cora accidentally ran away from Metro City to the surface world where she becomes a sort of leader to the orphan kids Hamegg takes care of. She's the first one to discover Astro and quickly befriends him and he proves he's a kind person. She's the only one who feels betrayed when it's revealed he's actually a robot, but she quickly gets over it and helps him save Metro City from President Stone. After everything is done, she's even able to reunite with her parents.

28. Edward Blake/The Comedian (Watchmen)

"This is a joke. This is all a joke."

The biggest asshole in this movie BY FAR. Like even though everyone had their faults and definitely weren't saints, The Comedian was straight up a bully working for the government. In his worst moments, he beats the shit out of citizens protesting, attempts to rape the original Silk Spectre, and ends up murdering a Vietnamese woman carrying his child! For some reason he suddenly cares about being a father when he wants to get to know his other daughter, Laurie, but ends up just drinking his life away until Adrian shows up to murder him. Even though he dies in the beginning of the movie, his bad punchline of a life haunts everyone throughout the film.

27. Wade Wilson/Deadpool/Weapon XI (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

"You whip out a couple of swords at your ex-girlfriend's wedding, they will never, ever forget it."

Wade Wilson is very conflicting because even though he's missing his signature costume, he was absolutely spot on when he worked on Stryker's team. He's deadly with the sword, has the same healing abilities as Logan, and will never shut his mouth. Then things got weird. Somehow Stryker is able to gain control over Deadpool and turn him into everything he's not by giving him powers of previous mutants Victor has either killed or kidnapped. Mouth sewn shut, Deadpool becomes Weapon XI and is such a threat it takes both Wolverine and Sabretooth to take him down.

26. Kate Connor (Terminator Salvation)

"I'm a doctor, not an engineer."

I don't know why, but I kind of expected Kate to have a bigger role? Not that being one of the only doctors in the resistance isn't important, because it is, but I always thought she would be like what Barnes was, a second in command. Still, she was fiercely loyal to her husband and was his support when he needed her. He especially needed her towards the end of the film, as it was her hands that operated on him to save his life.

25. Dr. Lionel Carter (Surrogates)

"My son's death will not have been in vain. Not if it heals mankind."

Lionel Carter created surrogates because he wanted people with disabilities, like himself, to live a better life then his partners and company took it to a global scale and by 2017, ninety-eight percent of the world population used a surrogate for basic every day activities. After his son dies for being mistaken for him, Lionle decides enough is enough. Using all his resources he gets a hold of the weapon that killed his son to return the favor to the man responsible. He also creates the ultimate virus that will destroy all the surrogates and kill everyone attached to them. Thinking his plan will never fail, Lionel takes a cyanide pill before seeing his plan come to life.

24. Dr. John Fury (Whiteout)

"I never meant for anyone to get hurt, but Haden got greedy."

I'm not gonna lie, I felt some type of way when it was revealed Doc was working with Haden to smuggle the diamonds. He probably had the closest relationship with Carrie and their personal conversations were some of my favorite scenes in the movie so when it turns out he was working with Haden, the guy who cause Carrie to lose two of her fingers, I was shocked. I guess the silver lining is that once he was caught he didn't fight it. He explained why he did it then walked outside to the deadly snow storm, killing himself.

23. Ana Lewis/The Baroness (G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra)

"Do it. You already killed me once."

I'm so glad it was revealed that Ana was being brainwashed to act as The Baroness the whole time because I just could not accept her willingly participating in the death of millions all because Duke disappeared after her brother's death. No one is that dramatic. Still, as The Baroness she was a force to be reckoned with. She killed all of the men in Duke and Ripcord's old unit, gave Scarlett her first fight, and she helped nearly destroy Paris. Good thing for the Joe's that Duke's gorgeous puppy-dog face broke her out of her mind control and she was able to free him and help stop her evil brother once and for all.

22. Dr. Elefun (Astro Boy)

"Everybody has their destiny, Toby."

Out of all the older males in the film, I truly believe that Dr. Elefun cared the most about Astro. He never saw him as just a robot that can be used for his own personal gain (President Stone, Hamegg) and he definitely didn't think he was a mistake that needed to be destroyed (Dr. Tenma). He really took his time to get to know and bond with Astro, who was still trying to come to terms with himself. I think in the future Elefun will morph into a huge father figure to Astro.

21. Remy Lebeau/Gambit (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

"You miss me?"

Gambit has been the mutant everyone wanted to see on the big screen ever since the first X-Men came out. He's always nearly made it in the previous films but was cut out at the last minute. Well now he's here and he was a little bit of a let down. He wasn't horrible but he had such a minor role. He's a mutant that escapes Stryker's island before going back to his thief lifestyle in New Orleans. His fight with Logan was cool because we saw his signature staff and kinetically charged deck of cards, but after that he just remains in the background. He takes Logan to the island then is the first one to talk to him after he loses his memory, going his own way shortly after.

What if DBZ treated its large supporting cast better?

An idea has been knocking around in my head because I’ve been too spoiled on some shows and stories that have as much love for their supporting cast of characters as they did for the main character, like in One Piece. But I have been enjoying the slice of life bits between the story arcs currently in Dragon Ball Super, which from time to time reminds me of all the characters that have been left out of most of the major story arcs just because. So how would I improve it so that most of the characters don’t get left behind in the dust by our main character? Easy, By treating death as more of a significant factor that only happens to a few characters at a time. Death should be important to some events and treated as it normally should. Wishes can bring people back to life, but I want to keep the death count of hero characters to as few as possible.

The Saiyan Saga.

Everything should play out as it normally does with the coming of raditz and the kidnapping of Gohan. Goku and Piccolo would team up and Goku will sacrifice himself like he does in the original continuity and the Saiyans will try and communicate with Raditz and overhear about the Dragon Balls. BUT! We will approach this with a change of direction in how they handle getting ready for the Saiyans. Piccolo will kidnap Gohan once when Bulma, Roshi, and Krillin arrive on the scene. They will find both corpses of Goku and Raditz and assume that Piccolo betrayed Goku and killed them both,. Cause remember, He is still kinda the bad guy from the original DB series. So Bulma, Krillin and Roshi try and figure out a plan on how to deal with Piccolo and bring back Goku with the Dragon Balls.

We will then divide the plot up between three stories.

-Goku’s adventures in the afterlife, Kami would usher him in and King Yemma will recommend meeting King Kai. Minus the snake princess filler and focus more on the build up of trying to reach the end of Snake way to start and end each episode. Until he evenutally meets King Kai and over the course of the events, trains and learns King Kai’s techniques.

-Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu Will gather up and try to track down Piccolo and rescue Gohan. They will initially find Gohan seemingly being terrorized and abused by Piccolo, much like how they initially behaved in the episodes from the original continuity. All the Z fighters will then challenge Piccolo and he takes up their offer, asking them to fight him all together. And based on the gap in their strength they seize the opportunity but find themselves outmatched. But instead they feel like Piccolo is holding back as they all should have been killed several times. So Piccolo then speaks frankly, saying the reason why Goku died was because they failed to fight as a team, depending on their individual strengths and tactics did more damage to them and resulted in their last resort being Goku’s sacrifice. So if the Saiyans are going to come, and if they are stronger than Raditz then they have to train and learn to fight together. So the Z Fighters then agree and train with Piccolo and Gohan.

-Bulma will once again go on a hunt for the Dragon balls, but because time is short, and she is not a skilled fighter to handle any obstacle like Goku would. So she goes to Chichi to break the news of Goku’s death to her, but then ask her help to find the dragon balls again. In turn they would then recruit the Ox King, Master Roshi, Oolong and Yajirobe to try and hunt for the dragon balls to wish Goku back to life. This allows us to have more fun with the old Dragon Ball Characters as they go on three and a half episodes worth of collecting Dragon Balls. Roshi might be pulled away to help Krillin and Yamcha train. But this will be the episodes that alternate between the ones focusing on the Z warriors training and Bulma’s group hunting for Dragon Balls. Then eventually the Saiyan’s will make Earthfall. Bulma’s group hasn’t found the last dragon ball. So the Z-Fighters go off to intercept and try and take their plan into action. Since they are six fighters in total against two, they figure their best option would be to fight 3 on 1. But their plans are immediately complicated by the use of the Saibamen. Now they would attempt to self destruct when fighting Yamcha, but Piccollo will notice this and save him. Now knowing what they are dealing with, the Z fighters will be fighting off the minions without blowing up. Bulma’s group will have found the last dragon ball and summon the dragon. This will cause tension as the group has to defeat all the Saibamen and then the Saiyans before they could go and steal their wish. Vegeta will then give Nappa the go ahead to clean house as as the last Saibamen are about to blow up. 

Nappa would dramatically overwhelm Yamcha and Chiaotzu who would be knocked unconscious or across a great distance. Tien can almost hold his own but is lucky enough to be saved by Piccolo and Krillin as he was about to receive a death blow, he too will be rendered unconscious from the force of the attack leaving three against 2. But then Goku is wished back to life, He uses his newly trained strength and speed to leave King Kai’s world and cross Snake way in a matter of minutes, insanely faster compared to half a possible 10 episode training arc worth of running. He will be met by Kami who will transport him to earth’s look out. Getting an update to the situation. Goku then plans to fly over to Yajirobe, Bulma, Chichi, and Ox King to personally thank them and to be embraced by his wife. He then decides on a plan to get senzu beans and help from them as he immediately flies out to save Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin.

Nappa would prove too powerful on his own, proving that their three on one strategy is not enough, as Gohan is still struggling to keep up, his strength is mostly dependent on his rage, but he is more terrified than angry. And when Gohan was about to be killed by Nappa as he does in the original series of events, Piccolo sacrifices himself and takes the brunt of Nappa’s attack. His death will play out like it should, as it does and this sets Gohan off. He will try to fight off Napa which knocks the saiyan back a bit, but his inexperience leaves him open and Nappa is about to kill Gohan till Krillian saves him. Krillin is distraught as he is almost the last man standing. But then Goku Arrives,

Goku peaks the interest of the Saiyans as they thought he was dead, Goku then reprimands the two as he informs them that he was dead, but wished back to life, using up the only wish the dragon balls had for a while. But since Piccolo is dead, Kami is too, and so the dragon balls are forever rendered useless. He punctuates this by instantly defeating nappa with a taste of his newly acquired strength and abilities from training with King Kai. This enrages Vegeta who tries to take out  his anger on Nappa, but as a show of strength and compassion, Goku would deflect the death blow that would’ve killed Nappa. Further reprimanding Vegeta’s actions as they have mentioned that they might be the only Saiyans left and how a life shouldn’t be so carelessly wasted. Vegeta and Goku will then duke it out as they normally would in the original story.

Once it gets to the point of when Vegeta turns into an Ozuroo. This plays out normally, but in the background of the fight, Yajirobe, and Roshi would be giving the Z fighters Senzu beans to wake them back up, but when Gohan recovers he sees the energy ball that triggered Vegeta’s transformation and transforms himself. This throws Vegeta off his game, Goku is debating using his spirit bomb but he could end up killing Gohan if he gets in the way. The rest of the gang who have experienced this situation before immediately jump into action. As Tien, Yamcha, Chiaotzu , Roshi, and Goku try to restrain both great apes, allowing Krillin and Yajirobe to cut off both of the great ape tails. Rendering both Gohan and Vegeta nearly unconcious. Vegeta struggles to get up, Nappa eventually gets up and he limps over to grab Vegeta despite the saiyan prince’s protests. Goku offers the same mercy he gave to Nappa to Vegeta. Nappa regretably accepts and retreats to his pod with Vegeta in hand. Vegeta promises to come back and kill them all.

In the aftermath, Goku will be severly injured, and when he asks for a senzu bean, Yajirobe pretty much used all Korrin currently had in order to recover everybody while Goku had been distracting Vegeta. Goku was gonna have to wait like he does in the original series. But now they had to wonder, the dragon balls are gone, and Piccolo died saving Gohan. Gohan then asks why they can’t bring back Piccolo like they did his dad. Mr. Popo will pop up and mention there is a way. Revealing that Piccolo and Kami were originally aliens called namekians, and they might have their own dragon balls. The group decides if it is worth having Dragon Balls back as everyone always is trying to hunt for them like Pilaf and might wish to rule the world. Goku vouches for the idea to go to Namek, Piccolo was Gohan’s friend and in his absence helped everyone protect the earth, despite his previous motives. He should be given a second chance. So they learn of the Namekian ship from Mr. Popo and make a plan to have Bulma, Gohan, Krillin, Tien, Chiaotzu , Yamcha, and Master Roshi and Oolong and Puar. go to Namek to meet the namekians and ask to use their dragon balls to bring back Piccolo and Kami. While Goku waits to make his own trip to follow them once he is healed back up.

I’m too tired to do the Freiza Arc at thi point. I’ll probably do it later on when I find the time. But with the changes made  We still keep most of our human cast alive, Nappa is alive to participate in other things. Piccolo begins his evolution into becoming a hero like the rest of the Z fighters and there is a deeper emotional connection felt when Gohan wants to bring him back to life despite how Piccolo first treated him,

Good Night!

Day 6: Birthday

Sol took a deep breath and prepped himself for what he was about to do; school had let out about a month ago but not a day later, he got an invitation to his archenemy’s/friend’s/crush’s birthday party. He was now standing right outside her house and Sol was so nervous he couldn’t stop shaking.

 “It’s going to be okay Sol.” His mom said as she patted him on the head. “I’m sure your girlfriend will love the present you got her.”

 “She’s not my girlfriend mom.” Sol replied.

 “Oh really?” Sol’s mom replied as she eyed the present in Sol’s hands. “After she sees what you got her I’m not so sure that will be the case anymore.”

 “MOM!” Sol exclaimed. The present in question was a long box that usually meant it was some piece of clothing but Sol had put so much time effort and energy into picking it out that there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Sol’s feelings towards Star were anything but hostel.

 This would no doubt earn Sol his second strike but avoiding a second strike at her birthday party would entail not actually having a crush on her. It didn’t mind Sol that much though, it was only his second out of three and it wasn’t like he was going to keep it a secret forever, he just needed to play it safe until he got the right moment to confess his true feelings to her.

 All that was for another day though, Sol had to collect his feelings and get ready for Star’s birthday party. “Okay.” He said weakly. “I’m ready, let’s go in.”

 They both walked up to the door and Sol slowly began to knock. Before long, the door slowly opened and none other than Star herself came to answer. “Sol!” She exclaimed as she pulled him into a hug. “I’m so glad you could make it!”

 The feeling of being hugged by Star, although very welcome, was a tad strange, not even a full year ago, had he showed up to her door, she would have accused him of trying to assassinate her or cause trouble and now they are almost the best of friends. “You know I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He said as he handed her the present he got her.

 She looked at the box wide eyed before looking back to Sol. “You know this is probably going to earn you you’re second strike, right?”

 “I honestly don’t think there is a way I could possibly avoid that today.” Sol replied.

 Star smiled and took the present from him before motioning for them to come inside. “Please come in, everyone else is in the backyard so I’ll meet you there.”

 Sol began to make his way inside as his mother placed a hand on his shoulder. “You know I would love to stay but-“

 “I know, you and dad are busy.” Sol replied almost a little too eager to get him mom to go. “I will be fine, you don’t have to worry.”

 “I know.” She replied as she rubbed Sol’s head. “Your father should be here in a few hours to pick you up and could you tell Mrs. Butterfly that I want a picture of the kiss?”

 “Wait, what-“ Sol’s eyes went wide as he realized what his mother was talking about. “Mom!” He exclaimed. “Look … for argument sake, let’s forget that it’s not going to happen, you are going to have to ask her for that yourself because I’m going to be too embarrassed.”

 “That is true.” She smiled at him before walking away. “Fair enough, but if I ask for the picture then I get to show everyone at work.”

 Sol blushed as his mom walked away and he walked into the house, making sure to close the door behind him. He slowly began making his way to the backyard where he saw a giant bouncy castle along with the Butterfly’s small playground. Of the other kids invited, most were the girls from their class with a few of the boys here and there.

 “Come on Sol!” Star shouted as she grabbed his hand. “Let’s have some fun!”

 She pulled him towards the bouncy castle and continued to hold onto his hand as they enjoyed bouncing up and down along with the other kids. As time passed, Star had forgotten that she was holding onto Sol’s hand but for Sol, her grip never left his mind. She was a lot stronger than he initially expected which was one of the reason’s Sol couldn’t actually not notice it, but it was nice and made him feel like the whole archenemy thing was always just for show.

 After some time, Star parents called out that a movie of some kind was about to begin and Star rushed off the bouncy castle dragging Sol along with her. The movie was set up in the living room where there was a giant television screen and a number of snacks set up on the coffee table. Star practically hopped onto the big chair leaving Sol in an awkward position of squeezing into the space right next to her or asking for his hand back. “Uh …” Sol began awkwardly.

 “Huh?”  Star looked at where she was sitting then realized that she was still holding onto Sol’s hand. “Oh, right.” She moved to the side making a little room for Sol to squeeze in but only then figuring out that it might not have been the best solution. “Or … I guess I should probably give you your hand back.”

 “Well unless you want me to squeeze into that chair with you.” Sol half joked.

 There was an awkward silence as both preteens waited for the other to mention it was a bad idea, however, that never came. “I mean if you want to then-“ Star began.

 “I mean if you want to, I mean it is your birthday and all so-“

 There was another awkward pause until Star finally pulled Sol into the chair with her and interlocked her fingers with his. A few of the other kids rushed in, not paying any attention to the two sitting together in the big chair as Star’s parents but the movie in and it started. Sol could feel his heart race as the screen began to flutter to life, he was sitting with his crush and now best friend about to watch a movie that he assumed would involve some form of princess or romance. What Sol didn’t expect however, was that they would be watching none other than the latest Dragon Ball Z movie, resurrection F.

 Sol quickly looked at Star with a mixture of confusion and joy. “Not that I’m complaining but-“

 “I got into it around Christmas, just managed to catch up to the most recent a few days ago.”

 Sol felt a warmth inside of him as he tried to sink deeper into the couch. “Well have you seen the newest dragon ball supper series?”

 “Seen up to the latest dubbed episode.”

 Sol was awestruck by how much of a fan she was but wasn’t able to make a comeback as the movie began causing both their attention to shift to it.

 Sol had seen the movie before with subtitles but never in English, he was actually enjoying it a lot more as was everyone else. When the time finally came where Goku blasts Frieza with his signature Kamehameha, Star couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “Vegeta’s reaction is just too funny.”

 “I know what you mean.” Sol replied as he looked over to Star. “He doesn’t realize that Goku saved his life yet and thinks that he just stole the kill for the fun of it.”

 “Yeah.” Star rested her head on Sol’s shoulder as the movie finished up and the credits started to role.

 Before anyone else could get up though, Star shot to her feet and pulled Sol along with her. “Come with me?” She asked.

 “Like I have a choice?” He replied as he motioned to his hand which was still firmly in her grasp.

 “Good point.” She dragged him into the kitchen and from there, into the dining room out of sight from everyone. “Sol?” She began as she took a deep breath. “I … I wanted to thank you.”

 “Thank me?” Sol asked.

 “Yeah … for … putting up with me.”

 Sol was shocked by her statement. “Putting up with you? That doesn’t … Star, I love spending time with you.”

 “Yeah but … back when we first met … you did actually trip and fall on me, didn’t you?”

 Sol gave a guilty smile and scratched the back of his head with his free hand. “Yeah … I mean there wasn’t much there to trip on so it was a little embarrassing.”

 Star nodded as she tried to avoid eye contact with him. “Yeah but … I called you evil for trying to destroy me but you played along and shared in my little fantasy world.”

 “Yeah well-“ Sol paused as he realized something. “Wait, so … you knew that I wasn’t trying to hurt you?”

 “Well I knew but … I didn’t realize it till recently.” She bit her lower lip and looked down. “When Lars … hurt me … it was like being violently woken up from a fantasy … I mean I knew it wasn’t real, I wasn’t crazy but … it was like I couldn’t really go back, even after you tried to cheer me up.” She tilted her head up to look Sol in the eye. “Is this what growing up feels like?”

 “I have no idea, I don’t even know if I’ve done it yet.” He let out a sigh then looked back at her. “I’m just glad we get to be friends while it happens.”

 “Friends?” Star asked.

 “Well yeah … aren’t we friends?”

 Star nodded happily. “That’s true … we’ve been something like best friends for a while but this is the first time you’re confessing to it.”

 “Oh!” Sol exclaimed. “Well … yeah … I mean you’re the most perfect girl I’ve ever known, you’ve got an amazing imagination, you’re adorable, you’re nice, you’re incredibly strong, very athletic, you’re into the same stuff I’m into-“

 “I have bad grades, people find me annoying sometimes, I’m … honestly terrified of junior high and highschool-“

 “That doesn’t matter to me.” Sol said as he placed his other hand on top of Star’s. “You’re still my best friend and we’ll handle junior high together.”

 “But there aren’t single designated classes!” Star exclaimed. “What if none of our classes match up, or what if we’re put into entirely different sections and don’t even have the same lunch!”

 “Then we’ll still be able to hang out outside of school.” Sol eased. “I’m nervous about it as well, so don’t feel bad.”

 They both stood there for a moment in complete silence until Star glanced up at Sol. “That’s really sweet … but I have to give you strike two now.”

 “I thought I already got my second strike.” Sol replied.

 Star shook her head. “I have to give them to you, remember?”

 Sol slowly nodded his head not really understanding what she was getting at. “Uh … give them … how?”

 Star gave a mischievous smile before quickly bringing her face closer and pressing her lips to his. Sol froze as his heart sped out of control, the kiss was gentle and quick but still much better than the previous one they shared.

 When they finally separated, Star smiled at the stunned Sol and gently placed a hand on his cheek. “Now be careful, we still have cake and a second movie and you don’t want to earn your third strike too soon.” She slid her hands out of his and walked out of the room leaving him alone.

 “Whoa.” He said as he looked back at her. “I … whoa.”