Dragonball M: A DBZ RPG Sign-Up and Discussion Thread II

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Sorry, been busy. Will reply to the game later tonight.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Hey Cleric, is Cleos dead dead?

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Hey Cleric, is Cleos dead dead?

I mean, she’s a spirit (with a body) in the afterlife.

She, Vocado, and Banespell are all dead (in the afterlife).

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

I mean, she’s a spirit (with a body) in the afterlife.

She, Vocado, and Banespell are all dead (in the afterlife).

Alright.

/limit

[MrSandman]

I likely have to point out here real quick before you get a bit spoked cleric....but you don't have to worry about what just happened, I swear. it'll all be clear in a few posts.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

I likely have to point out here real quick before you get a bit spoked cleric....but you don't have to worry about what just happened, I swear. it'll all be clear in a few posts.

It’s all good.

Just don’t eat up too much of Ochazuke’s time. I’ll need him soon.

[Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki]

It’s all good.

Just don’t eat up too much of Ochazuke’s time. I’ll need him soon.

>sandy destroys the world

"It's all good."

lol

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

It’s all good.

Just don’t eat up too much of Ochazuke’s time. I’ll need him soon.

Gonna need a lotta hands for what's coming, yes.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

So………

What’s the plan here with Inanna? I’m…..kind of lost.

And to be honest, a bit…..confused too.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

So………

What’s the plan here with Inanna? I’m…..kind of lost.

And to be honest, a bit…..confused too.

Onibowl cometh.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Onibowl cometh.

Not going to lie, I was a bit irritated that the big bad end game boss is apparently a joke to her. Kind of makes the culmination feel less, to be honest (since she hasn’t taken any villain seriously in a while). Especially since her family and friends are at risk.

I’m presuming there is a method here, for Inanna’s…..disinterest though, so I am curious as well how you plan on integrating her back into the game proper.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Not going to lie, I was a bit irritated that the big bad end game boss is apparently a joke to her. Kind of makes the culmination feel less, to be honest (since she hasn’t taken any villain seriously in a while). Especially since her family and friends are at risk.

Well, it's probably best to look at this from Inanna's perspective.

Her entire life has been, largely, nothing but suffering and disappointment. After finally getting to place where she was beginning to recover and be happy... she was then turned on by her 'friends' (leaving the M-Fighters as a side effect, and was killed). She has no reason or desire to care, at this point, about anything to do with Sakin, or the M-Fighters. It's also probably worth noting that Inanna has barely spent any time with her own child as a direct result of all of this, so... that aspect of 'family' doesn't mean a whole lot, either. Then there's the issue of Inanna, the most tied to the cosmic plot of the PC due to her heritage, having the least to do with the... cosmic plot.

Add that all together, and she's got no real reason to care; and it'd be a disservice for me to force what isn't there.

... and then there's my side of it.

Already had to make changes, and roll with punches that caused fundamental changes to my character. To say nothing of the problems with Hakai, and how much of a meme it's become. Or how her only special training came in the form of a book Whis forgot in a cave (again, her ties to the cosmic plot are laughable). So... I'm not about to force Inanna to care about something she has multiple in-game reasons to not give a hoot about.

Least I can do is be consistent in the final arc.

I’m presuming there is a method here, for Inanna’s…..disinterest though, so I am curious as well how you plan on integrating her back into the game proper.

There's a plan, and I'm sticking to it.

[grampagen]

I'll be posting some sidequest filler in Part IV whenever we have a spare moment, just to inform the back end of the Five Schools story which I feel compelled to wrap up, retroactively or otherwise.

After careful consideration of my everyday duties and the time this would take to finish, I've opted to do a writeup of what I had planned.

Since we effectively already know the results with the status quo in Part V, they ultimately don't matter but for character shenanigans, and so it is.

OK, I think with the terms reached with the wholesome Kaiju family, but for the exception of a few sidestory posts I may or may not finish - how important is Zaofan's indignance with pro-wrestling, really? - I think I can finally get around to some Part IV housekeeping.

Lore and Setting related:

The Big Ghetti Star, Stargates

Earth as a Spacefaring Civilization

The Earth Defense Force (EDF)

Sidequests (in Chronological Order by Section)

Survival of the Fittest

Every Star in the Sky is an Enemy

All the Lights in the Sky are Stars

Survival of the Fittest Started in Month 1 and ended in the middle of Month 2, and was meant tie up some loose ends with the original Five Schools story, culminating in a duel between Ochazuke and the Crane Grandmaster, Chahan. Before the story gets to that confrontation, Chahan starts off as the POV character in a Post-Grinthorn world as he slowly confronts the fact that he, too, is effectively an artifact of a lost time. Seeing his heir, Aiko Fukuhara, Ochazuke's understudy, take the coffers of the Crane School and expand them to the point where they've got ties to global corporations and effectively rebuilt and owned Anvil City as a new base of operations, he takes this less as an expression of good will and growth than the slow decay of the school he'd stewarded and safeguarded for some 70 of his late-80ish years, and so he wanders the world to seek a worthy opponent.

In a world that's escaped the haze of the Dragon acting as its World President, there were stirrings of ancient horrors and monstrosities that were simply too afraid of Grinthorn to make a move while he ruled on the top of the food chain. With him out of the picture, the prosperity of Earth began to fray. Chahan notices this first in the East Ocean surrounding his ancestral seat of Tanchozurujima where Deep Ones began ravaging coasts and fishing fleets. He pays a desperate family of fishermen a large sum to take him into the deep water where he attracts one of them, and pursues a whale-sized gargantua into the wild blue with a harpoon. Too late, he discovers this is merely the thrall for the Deep One which drags him to the ocean floor, and plumbs Chahan's memories to get information about their new prey.

Having underestimated humanity's ability to cultivate ki and Chahan's 80 or so years of experience mastering his legacy, the Crane Master uses a kiai to part the ocean from the bottom, blinding the Deep One by allowing the sun into fathoms that had never known it. He doesn't escape unscathed, however, and bears a curse that attracts the denizens of Makai to him.

So begins Chahan's feckless global kumite, slaying monsters of local legends and myth that have heard the Deep One's death rattle and have vied to stake their claim as the dominant power on Earth. Fighting without rest for days, Chahan leaves a bloody trail behind him. Sentimentally feeling his age, he attempts to stave off a death by attrition by seeking a holy site, only in his error to find an order of Faceless Monks, among who he found Kuki, the Turtle Hermit. The duty to the ancient grudge and having found a worthy opponent, Chahan and Kuki clash, and the energies they give off attract another Master seeking the death of Masters. Shinkuu no Manto, the Crimson Cloak, Ryuu Shingen, master of the Hokuto Shinken order who attempted to groom Zaofan to join their ranks in his youth. When we left him last, Ryuu Shingen had only partially joined in the blood magic covenant with Belphagor, a demon lord of Makai. Now, having sacrificed the lives of his students and absorbed all the demon blood Chahan had shed, he sheds his flesh for an ingot of Golem Matrix that - through improbable means - began to take a foothold in the leylines near the monastery, effectively becoming a Super Katchin homunculus. After much trial and error, Kuki figures out how to strike at the soul within the body, and Chahan uses a technique, [Ikken Hissatsu: Tsuki (the Perfect Punch) to smash Shingen's limbs. While the masters cannot kill him, they effectively discombobulate and cripple Shingen.

While they made an effective team, Chahan remains so desperate to die he strikes out at Kuki, who suggests he look for his prodigal son instead for this sort of thing.

The story continues with Cruiserweight Division wherein Zaofan goes to New Anvil City to reach out to Aiko Fukuhara on official Five Schools business. On behalf of Ochazuke who is currently pursuing the Big Ghetti Star, his task is to deliver a letter. Accompanying him is Kenshiko, former Master Sergeant of the Red Raiders and the Master of the Tiger School. Since their illumination in the Sealed Chamber in the Ruins of Vermillion, she had since taken Zaofan on as a student and is, grudgingly, concerned for his well-being. Posing as a married couple, they plan to infiltrate one of Aiko's spectacle money makers, the Unlimited Class Grapplers League (UCGL), which is essentially shootfighting/Pro-Wrestling. Things go south the moment Zaofan discovers there's been a champion masquerading as Dixon Gordon Blue - down to the guise of a chef - and this gets him nettled. The night of the bout, while Kenshiko surveys the lay of the land and finds Crane acolytes running security, Zaofan makes a beeline for the locker room, knocks out a jobber, Ninpou Ginga Gear, and steals to the ring. Dressed like this.



Zaofan tries to air his grievances, but he's not mic'd and the helmet blocks both his face and speech. This results on him going far off script as he shoots on Dixon Gordon Blue who screams for help as he gets slapped around in a cage match as the promoters struggle to improvise with this. As Zaofan wins, he tries to address the crowd, but they boo him, they cheer for Dixon, a legend who has outstripped the man and he finds himself in a bind. Suddenly, the former champion, Garuda Mask, drops in from the rafters, and Zaofan, distraught, cannot fight back until he recognizes tells in her fighting style: Crane Sanchin, and Bear Clan Wrestling. Asking him to sell the next move hard, she hits him with an Izuna Drop through the floor of the ring, which leaves him in a room beneath a trap door where he is greeted by Alfredo Bedlam, one of Brutus' sons. Garuda Mask herself is revealed to be Aiko Fukuhara, who built up this promo to find fighters who are ki-adept, as well as give them something to aspire to. Ever since Simon Battersea was unmasked for what he truly was, martial arts and sports entertainment had taken a hit, so she's slowly bringing it back, teaming in cooperation with Alfredo to keep humanity on the right track.

Indeed, while Zaofan went off and caused a bit of chaos, Kenshiko had fought her way into the box seat and delivered Ochazuke's letter: A personal challenge to the Master of the Crane School for the right to succession.

[grampagen]

I have often joked in private that Ochazuke - and by extension Zaofan under my tenure since Cyke loaned him to me - are from an entirely different anime. So keep this vibe in mind.

The Rites of Succession would have been the closing chapter in this storyline. Answering Ochazuke's summons, the meeting is hosted at the New Dragon Temple, each martial house sending a representative. Among them are Aiko, the one challenged, and Jitori, an underclassman who lost face in a duel with Aiko and was blinded in one eye when Ochazuke blew it out with the Dodonpa; Eskrimato of the Turtle School, coerced by Zaofan and accompanied by Kuki; Samson and Marron of the Dragon School; Kenshiko of the Tiger School; Barlon and Brutus Bedlam of the Bear School; Leon the steward of the Dragon Temple. Each was called to witness this and to air grievances in the first gathering of the Lineage Schools since the Tournament of Succession and the shaming of Penhuoqi of the Dino School.

Sasheem was not invited, partially because he's pretty good at not being found if he doesn't want to be, but also Zaofan couldn't be bothered.

Formal rites, among whom only the Cranes, Kuki, Kenshiko and Leon remember to the letter, are performed, both as a declaration of intention and as a formalized ritual combat. Though it would be done in the witness of others, it is still fashioned in the manner of a 'closed-door' duel; it is not the business of anyone outside of the various clans, and so shall the matter remain clandestine. Ochazuke extends his formal challenge to Aiko, stating dissatisfaction with her leadership. She recognizes, however, the understated sarcasm in his tone, and the legal formalities of the paper, and the importance of the eyewitnesses, and reading through his gambit, she forfeits all lands, deeds and titles to him. With this he produces nine more letters - three are for Zaofan, one is for Sasheem - as an acting head of the Ten Schools to get it in writing that the house shall no longer be divided, for passage through the gates of the past were all but narrowing and limiting. Most of the houses accept, Zaofan and Balon signing in lieu of the departed Mara the Wolf, Tao'ro the Spider, and Cinder the Phoenix, and pending Sasheem the armistice is nearing completion.

It is around this time Chahan enters the temple, having torn off its plaque commemorating the ancestral words of the Nine Dragon Peak: "Move Second, Strike First", invoking his right as the Grand Master to evaluate his successor, a veiled challenge, and pending duel to the death.

For the first time since Darkle, Ochazuke loses control. Sealing the armistice, he hands the title of Master back to Aiko in mocking, then declares himself for the Tigers under Kenshiko as he accepts.

While his journeys and adventures with the M-fighters have broadened his horizons, it would be a mistake to assume Chahan would be a writeoff. As a Master of the Crane School, he's survived to an advanced age with tenacity through complete mastery of Kikojutsu. Life Energy sculpted in this manner fans ki to a greater extent than a technique that relies upon drawing from a surplus, for it augments everything in exchange for time; Chahan, being out of time, has used it to subsist his power nigh indefinitely, and the Thousand Crane Stance further allows him to match Ochazuke in a manner even his formidable senses cannot recognize. Though he had been learned in the Techniques of the Ten, Chahan is the undisputed Master of the One and leverages both his greater experience as well as the innermost knowledge of the prodigal son he raised. These are the sorts of things that had been conditioned into Ochazuke's fundamental learning, from Chahan being able to break his many stances, not yet perfected, to him speaking the names of the disciples Ochazuke trained that killed the Ajarn Kaibyo of the Tiger School. Ikken Hissatsu, the philosophy of One-Strike Destruction, carried across the Perfect Punch of Tsuki leaves its mark on Ochazuke, over and over again, and the hall filled with friends, mentors, and former enemies is silent as he is only held by the Sanchin stance. Chahan remarks how he created him as his weapon, and how easily he would strip his false fists apart until only the boy cast in his image remained.

Something begins to stir within Ochazuke as he realizes this fundamental truth, for beyond the markings of technique, there is the very foundation of that person set in his bones. What would this be but denying who he was? The entire journey, had it been about rebuilding what was lost, gaining strength, or merely picking up heraldry to weigh down his own wings? This lesson the Crane Grandmaster is a cruel one rendered in pain, and bringing him to the edge of his life but for his stubborness to fall, he is reminded once again that this life is not his own to lose.

Quite literally, the soul of the Tiger Master, Ajarn Kaibyo was grafted to his own. While she died that night years ago in Ori City, so strongly did she believe in his naive dream of rediscovering the mother art that she used the kikojutsu arts of her own clan to save his life, healing the scar bored through his chest with the last embers of her own life. It came in glimpses to him in desperate times, when creatures like Voidlings, Elder Dragons, and the Threshling Knight attempt to wrest from his mind the pain and anguish he'd lived through to this point. He had no name for it, but only now his eyes have truly begun to open: Kaigan. This time, however, he was wide awake to face his past, seize the present moment, and fight for his vision of the future.

To counter the teachings of his oldest teacher, he carries the spirit of his beloved Ajarn into the philosophy of Balon, who was the catalyst of the reunification; Thus he moves last, yet attacks first, splitting a double-knifehand strike with an orthodox chudan-tsuki that fatally wounds the old man.

Staring into his eyes, Chahan reaches up to behold him, applauding Ochazuke as his greatest student in a manner filled with venom. Using a technique long forgotten by the other Schools, the progenitor art was passed down through generations by means of an ancestral treasure - The memories are contained in the Jade Dragon Claw, the Tusks of Girimekhala and the Sapphire Shell are such artifacts. For the Cranes, however, two thousand years of ego-memory and beyond are passed down through bloody succession. Paralleling Kaibyo, Chahan grafts the memories of the Crane School to Ochazuke in this manner, though in death he finds his satisfaction. Though he had schemed to draw the old manipulator out of hiding, all too late does Ochazuke realize that is what the Grand Master had intended all along.

Strong men create good times; good times create weak men; weak men create hard times; hard times create strong men. The savage law of the universe that had been fought for since the Creator poses a riddle they cannot yet solve. It'd been ten thousand years since Zxu'ro, and a hundred thousand years since Arthur's time. By murdering his sensei in a duel, he'd all but proven this philosophy of killers in this, the final teaching of the Grand Master he will bear with him ever after. It's been written that to be able to destroy a thing is to truly have power over it, and that has perpetuated a cycle of violence and provided ample fodder for the Dragon to feed upon.

Yet the surge of power, even behind closed doors, was not unnoticed, for those dark things which had emerged from torment and myth had returned to where they'd spawned from long ago. There was, to Ochazuke's mind, some hope that they could escape the Shadow of Grinthorn.

So the unified House of Zxu'ro decided their beginning would be to structure the foundation of the age of Humanity.

_____

From here is the Earth, Big Ghetti Star, and Nevadian Trade Network alliance which is covered in another sidestory.

As we reach the end of this game, I'm running out of stories to tell. Perhaps this will better illuminate Ochazuke's character arc to inform you a little bit more about what sort of character he is beyond the skills he can do.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Get hype. With this understanding, Onibowl will be fire.