Books and stuff. (Korado)

Tarine hadn't yet noticed the arrival of anyone else on the scene, he'd become invested a book detailing the supposed existence of an ancient structure hidden somewhere in the east, apparently an observation platform of some kind? He didn't believe it had anything to do with "deities" or "magic" as the text was implying but if a place like that really did exist he could only imagine the wealth of information that could have been stored there or the technology that could have kept it intact for such a long period of time. Even if he decided not to take the book then this "Lookout" was something he wanted to keep in mind should he ever be able to travel that far.

Looking up to grab another title he also happened to glimpse something much more interesting, a Saiyan wearing in some type of battle armour. Seeing something like that here put Tarine on edge, why take something made for combat to a place like this? Seeing the man look in his direction caused him to look surprised before shrinking back into his seat a little in embarrassment at being caught staring, it appeared the man was more interested in reading for now but Tarine wanted to get a read on his energy just to be safe.


And they was a LOT stronger than what he was expecting, probably at least 10 times stronger then his base and revealed the presence of another strong signature nearby. If this wasn't enough the man's signature felt incredibly similar to a Tuffle, meaning he was likely a hybrid of some kind. The second largest signature also appeared to belong to something in the man's backpack, he even thought he saw it moving slightly. He hoped they knew something was hiding in there because with that power it was in the perfect position to attack if it wanted, he couldn't hope to defend the man it if came to that but given an option he could at least alert this person to a potential threat before it became an issue. So he would slowly move himself over to where the man had moved, leaning over and saying in a hushed tone, "Hey, I don't mean to worry you, but you might want to take off that bag. I saw something moving in there and its giving off a lot of power."



PL still set to 5
WC - 397
Total - 761

Well, this guy didn’t appear to be too bothered by his presence, a good start to any conversation. But it appeared he’d forgotten that ki sensing wasn’t a common trait among humans “Oh, hah, yeah… that’s a thing I can do.” admittedly a little embarrassing, he was sure his face might have gone a little red at that. Apparently he wasn’t concerned as he already knew what the ki signature belonged to. As the bag was opened, he got a glimpse of the creature itself, some form of red slime thing, interesting, almost certainly wasn’t native to this planet, he could only imagine the sort of place you’d be able to find superpowered slimes.

Tarine was definitely invested in what the other man was saying, so that thing was his pet? Being able to control an animal of that power couldn’t have been easy, he must’ve had some impressive techniques behind all that strength of his. But his internal admiration for the man wouldn’t last long as he assumed that he'd interrupted Tarine’s researching session, Tarine’s response was to blurt out "What- no, that wasn't a big deal! I was just a little concerned when I noticed two higher than normal energy signatures show up suddenly. But I can see that things are okay here so I can- oh I'm T- uh Mel, yeah my name's Mel." Oops, he almost gave away his actual name there, sure this was almost certainly a Tuffle he was speaking to despite him not looking like it, but he needed to keep up the human identity for as long as possible until he was sure he didn't need it. Maybe he should try and shift this conversation onto something else. "So, uh I'm guessing by the armour and the unusual pet that you probably aren't from Earth, huh?"

WC - 316
Total - 1077

Tarine wasn’t aiming to give Korado a wrong impression of what Humans were actually capable of, he wasn’t really a good example of one aside from his appearance but maybe leaving him with the assumption that ki usage was more common than it actually was might leave him more alert in case he did  meet someone later down the line who would pose a threat. So for now he wouldn't make any attempt to correct him on that assumption. 

He did attempt to lower his voice however when Korado shushed him, he didn't think he was that loud but he didn't want to risk getting on his nerves or get himself thrown out before he could get what he came in here for. 
But at the mention of Plant he did stiffen slightly, not that he didn't want his suspicions confirmed but was the situation bad enough that Tuffles were deciding to leave the planet? He couldn't let himself get too angry at that fact, he needed more context and Korado could provide that. Korado might have picked up on a slight change in his expression at the mention of the war but he quickly changed back to something more neutral. Tarine was silent for a moment after Korado finished, he needed to choose his words carefully if he wanted more information. "I've... actually heard a little about Plant. Obviously I haven't seen it for myself, but if you don't mind me asking, what was it like over there? I know there's a war that's been going on for a long time but how bad of a place is it otherwise?"

WC - 273
Total - 1350

To be honest Korado hadn’t really told Tarine anything he didn’t already know about Plant but it still hurt to hear the truth in person, it hurt even more that he didn't have the power to act on that information. He didn’t even know what the Saiyans had to gain from war when they could clearly live on other planets just with no issue. Though if his hunch about Korado being a hybrid was correct then there must have been some interaction between the two species beyond conflict. Since at its most basic, Tarine’s purpose was to make sure the Tuffles continued to exist, so this information gave him some hope that the Saiyans could eventually be dealt with in a way that wouldn't risk more Tuffle lives, even if Korado didn't see that being anywhere in the near future.


But he had to put these thoughts to the side for now as he still had to keep up his end of the conversation. His reactions were genuine, he didn't look pleased to hear that Plant was a warzone, he might have even appeared to be holding back some other response that might of hinted he felt a more personal attachment to the planet, but now Korado had finished, even if Tarine wanted more information he felt he should probably try and move onto other topics since Korado didn't seem to want to dwell on the subject. "Well... I'm sorry to hear Plant isn't in a good state at the moment. If it's any consolation you might find Earth to be a pretty interesting place to live. Even if you're stuck to one place there's a lot going on in just this one city and before you got here I was reading about these ruins in the east somewhere that can keep themselves afloat somehow- I don't know how realistic the last thing is but at least the people here can create some interesting stories?"


WC - 329
Total - 1679

The more Korado had to say, the less Tarine wanted to hear, this really wasn’t painting a good picture of what Plant was like and it still frustrated him to no end that he couldn’t do anything about it. If he had the choice he would’ve been there right now, but if someone with that power wasn’t capable of putting up a fight then he definitely wasn’t, at least for now. Still he was certain he had to be on Earth for a reason, so as long as the situation on Plant appeared to be relatively stable then he should still have enough time to figure out what else Earth had to offer along formulating some plans for his own future.

Fortunately for now Korado appeared to have a somewhat similar goal to his current one, at least in the sense they were both looking for information on the Earth itself. Tarine thought this could be used to his advantage, he could continue his own search while helping a Tuffle get acquainted to a new planet and give himself a potentially useful connection in the future should he ever need it, this chance interaction might have turned out to be something very beneficial for him indeed.

He appeared to perk up when Korado suggested he didn't know what he was looking for, "Well I don't mind helping you look, do you have any idea what you want? Have any interests or other places you're thinking of visiting?" Glancing over to the table of books he'd collected, he added, “You know, I could probably tell you a little bit about some of the places outside Central City if you needed ideas. I might not have had the chance to visit them myself, but that’s kind of what I came here for. Maybe I've already picked up a book you’d be interested in?”


WC - Originally 251, additions take it to 318
Total - 1997

He was actually a little surprised Korado had taken up on his offer so quickly, it was so quick in fact that didn’t really have a response prepared, his face went blank for a few moments as he tried to pull together some fuzzy memories from the original owner of his body along with what he’d been able to gather in the weeks he’d been active.

“Oh, uh, well I can’t really give you a personal account of most of these places. If it wasn’t clear a lot of what I know about outside of the city is from going into places like this.” Damn, this was making him nervous. “Well, heh, it’d probably be easiest if I started with Central City, since this is what I’m used to… Well, this city is the largest of the main population centres, has one of the most well known schools on the planet and is home to King’s Castle, which is where the president of Earth lives along with where all the important decisions are made.” Wait, had Mel been there before? “Oh- Yeah they do tours of the place sometimes. I could keep going but that could take a while and you probably want to hear about something else” And he really didn’t know as much about the city as Korado probably thought, Tarine had to take another pause as this was really testing his knowledge. “There are a few settlements further north I think but it obviously gets a lot colder that way and some of them are pretty isolated from what I’ve heard.”



Again he needed more time to think, he wasn’t prepared and it was really starting to show as he’d now broken into a sweat. “Hold on, I need a moment…” Come on, what else did he know? “Uh… the Western regions of Earth are generally hotter and there's a lot of desert and wastelands over there, so that might not be the sort of place you’ll want to go if you wanted something different from Plant. But if you’re interested in technology, West City’s sort of known for that- there're a lot of tech companies in that area. The East is sort of more, uh, spiritualist? Well there’s apparently more martial arts related stuff out that way, and there was the floating ruin thing that might exist somewhere…" Okay, pause and take a moment to breathe. "Right, the South- hah, I- I don’t know a lot about what’s out that way except a lot of people go to visit? There's, uh, beaches and tourist things… food, I’ve heard the food’s good, and there’s a tournament thing that happens sometimes?” At this point he was a mix of nervous and expectant, he was really hoping he'd given Korado enough to work with.

WC - 486
Total - 2483
Edit: WC was originally 4 higher because the text in this box had been bolded accidentally.