Two Headed Boy [Inv]

Generally, the longer Taori spent in Sadala, the more he wanted to just head home to Tarbel. His parents lived in Sadala, as did Alpinia's, and running into them wasn't exactly something he wanted to do, given their last interactions. While he doubted there'd be any sort of fighting between them, it'd be... Awkward. He didn't care to fall into awkward situations. The Saiyan let out a sigh as he walked down the street, his eyes only focused on the road ahead of him as his hands tightly gripped two grocery bags, each filled to the brim with various ingredients. All he had to do was pick up a few more things, then he could head home. 

Alpinia really loved to cook extravagant meals, and Taori really loved to eat those meals, but the smaller, less well stocked grocery stores of Tarbel just didn't quite have everything Alpinia was looking for for a lot of the meals she wanted to make. Which meant trips to Sadala for groceries happened about once a week or so. They took turns, and this week, Taori was up. A lot of the time, though, he thought it'd be better if she just went herself - so many of the ingredients she wrote down were unfamiliar to him, he always had to spend extra time staring blankly at the aisles for several items he just could not find.

That, and the fact that he'd only been in Sadala just the day before, made Taori really just want to get this done and get home. He was so focused on his task, though, that he hardly noticed when someone approached him and asked a question. "Hm?" he mumbled, pausing to look at whoever had just spoken to him. What the...? "Uhh..." Taori gaped up at the man with the interesting visor, who was a solid foot or so taller than him. Was he a Saiyan...? "He's... Fine? I think," Taori replied. "Are you uh, a friend of his?"

As the strange... Saiyan(?) with the visor began to talk a whole lot more, Taori mostly stared at him with a half surprised, half amused facial expression. His manner of speaking was odd, to say the least, as his inflections didn't necessarily match the content of his words. His voice wasn't necessarily emotionless, but rather, any emotions his voice did give off seemed disjointed, fabricated. Artificial. As the blindingly blue Saiyan leaned in uncomfortably close to Taori, Taori simply stood still and continued to star up at him, his charcoal black eyes only occasionally blinking and his posture unchanging. And as for what the strange man was saying, well, it sounded like a whole lot of random nonsense to Taori.

Finally, the Saiyan stopped talking, after he gave off what Taori vaguely recognized as a threat of some kind. A few moments of silence occurred, and then... Well, Taori just couldn't really stop himself from laughing in the eccentric's face. "Haha... Hahaha!" he bellowed, his laugh not one intended to mock, but rather one that a person gave off as if they had been told a genuinely funny joke.

After a moment, though still occasionally chuckling, Taori stated, "So, let me get this straight: you spot me waking a guy up from his medical pod a few weeks ahead of schedule, adding another fit and determined fighter to our increasingly precious supply of warriors in the middle of a very hot war, and you think telling the Queen that I bolstered our forces will somehow come back to bite me?" It was a leap of logic if there ever was one, in Taori's eyes.

"Anyway, piss off. I've gotta get these groceries home soon or my wife is gonna get annoyed with me." He didn't spare the strange man another moment as he turned to leave, shaking his head and still chuckling to himself.

And that was that. Taori kept on walking, and didn't so much as glance back when the strangely dressed stranger said his goodbyes. What a weird guy. Taori wasn't exactly sure how he'd known about the whole Vocado situation, nor why he'd want to try and leverage that over him, but, well... That was not particularly something Taori was all too concerned with at the moment.

What he was concerned with was getting all of the food he was holding back home to Alpinia before it was too late. Whenever he got home too late, she was either too tired to cook or already asleep, in which case Taori would regretfully warm up some frozen meat in the microwave, then sit down alone in front of the TV and try to enjoy the stale food.

For all he did know how to do, one thing he'd never learned was how to cook.

As he mulled over in his head which last few things he was supposed to pick up, Taori heard a loud clang from behind him. Out of reflex, he turned to look back and see what it was, only to find the man he'd just told off was... Crying? He was crouched down on the curb with his face in his hands in a sad, defeated slump. Well, then. Taori had half a mind to, well, just keep walking and pretend he hadn't seen a thing. That'd have been much easier. And he was pressed for time.

So, why he let out a sigh, and then walked back towards the man who'd just tried to blackmail him was beyond Taori's ability to explain. Maybe Alpinia was rubbing off on him a little bit too much. "Look, I don't know what it's like wherever you're from," he told the despondent man, who he figured was most likely not a Plant native, "But around here, people don't really take kindly to someone trying to blackmail them." Was there anything else left to say? ...Something to get him to stop burying his face in his hands, Taori supposed. Probably, anyway. 

"Just, uh... Chin up. If you need help with something, you should, uh... Just ask. Normally. In a non-threatening manner. Saiyans don't mind helping each other out. You got that?"

And, after all the effort Taori had just put into being nice to a stranger of all things, the immediate response was that he was being patronizing. A slight huff of air came out the nostrils of Taori's nose, his expression rather unamused with the tomfoolery he was currently being forced to endure. Alpinia was a hell of a lot better suited for dealing with difficult people than he was, and he was also a lot better suited for that when she was around. Her presence tended to keep him from getting too pissed off. Not to say he couldn't reign himself him on his own, but it was a hell of a lot easier with her around.

Taori managed to keep himself at least looking like he was unbothered by the stranger's odd manner of speaking and inability to beat around the bush. Eventually, he circled back around to asking what he had before, though in a less vaguely threatening manner this time. It was also a little bit more clear what he was getting at, so that made things easier, as well. "Why, you interested?" Taori half-jokingly asked. But he shook his head. "No, I don't have any sort of delusions of grandeur on that front. Not yet, anyway."

He wasn't too sure about opening up to why he really had awakened Vocado ahead of schedule, but he supposed it was better to be honest than have an unstable man left wondering if there were details that had been left out. "Truthfully, for a while back in the day, I was cream of the crop when it came to some of our strongest fighters. Frontline missions, covert ops in Tuffle territory, suicide missions, I got tossed into plenty. And I held my own just fine." He paused, then continued. "But then I retired, and I lost my edge. Suddenly, I'm looking around and seeing power levels far beyond what I faced back in the day. And far beyond what I can do. So, I wanted a training partner to help me catch up."

That was the long and short of it, at least. Taori did not know if it was an answer that would be completely satisfactory for the stranger, but it was just about the only one he had, save for a few of the more minute details. "What's it to you, anyway? Vocado and I are fairly normal Saiyans, all things considered. Neither of us are the type to go starting rebellions."

What, this guy actually thought Taori was in some kind of position to take the throne? He sure seemed to. Kind of a laughable thought, really. Taori furrowed his brows as he listened, though. Vocado did have some kind of pull around Saiyans, with his vaguely noble blood and all. Alpinia was of noble birth too, in fact - Taori was one of the few people he knew that wasn't linked to any sort of prestigious family. He supposed it made sense, though. Most low-class Saiyans like him hardly lived long or got far in their military careers.

"Hm. So, you think we'd have a shot, huh?" Taori asked, electing to humor the man for a hot minute. He couldn't say there were absolutely no parts of him that were interested, but... No, no, it was better not to try and head down that path. He knew what lust for power could do to people. Hell, he'd seen it firsthand his fair share of times. And yet... Something about the idea still allured him. Was he really this foolish? "And you want a part in that shot?" Taori wasn't wearing his scouter to detect the other man's power level - not that it would've helped anyway, but Taori didn't know that - but the other Saiyan carried himself with a confidence that allowed Taori to assume he was at least of fairly considerable strength.

Likely not on Rosemary's level, but also likely above his own.

Taori waved him off as the other man apologized for his initial approach - it was no big deal. Although, what he said next surprised Taori. "I guess you don't know everything after all, huh?" Taori replied. "Pitt's, uh... Well, Pitt's dead." He paused for a moment to let the information sink in, then continued, "He died in the attack Yangcong orchestrated a while back. Sorry if you two were close." He wasn't much of one for words of consolation. 

"So, you know... I think Vocado could use a new training partner as much as I do, given the circumstances." He knew Vocado well enough to tell that Pitt's loss was a crushing blow. And while Taori wasn't one who was excellent with his words, he could, at the very least, help Vocado blow off steam through the ancient Saiyan art of punching and blowing things up. Those were things he was decent at.

Well, that sure seemed to have shaken the guy up. Taori was almost a bit taken aback by how much the news of Pitt's death had thrown off this stranger's rhythm - and Taori had to wonder, as well, how he had never heard of the man's passing in spite of all this other information he seemed to have picked up here and there. If he cared that much about the guy, how did he manage not to hear about that? Taori was about to ask him that himself, when, without too much warning, the guy blasted off into the sky.

"Hey-" Taori called after him, although only a few seconds later, the stranger had gone so high in the sky that Taori's eyes couldn't even make him out. Well, that was... Something.

Taori blinked up after the smoke trail that had been left behind by that abrupt exit, his brain still attempting to process the encounter he'd just had. It had been brief, but it'd contained so many twists and turns that it may as well have lasted hours. And yet, he had been left with so many questions. Such as, who the hell was that? He hadn't gotten so much as a name out of the guy. And what was up with his outfit? He'd never seen a Saiyan quite dressed like that. 

He also had to wonder what exactly the man's goal had been. Was he trying to spark some sort of revolution? Taori knew that Rosemary had her naysayers, but he didn't think anyone was trying to go and spark up any sort of revolt against her. Not yet, anyway. Especially with how contentious and tumultuous things still were with the war against the Tuffles. ...Could she be overthrown? And by him, of all people? Taori hadn't so much as considered it a possibility before, but...

The Saiyan shook his head and scoffed. "What am I thinking...?" he asked himself with a chuckle as he turned back around, grocery bags still in hand, then headed off towards the last store on his list. His delusions of grandeur could wait for some other time - he had a hot dinner with his wife to get to for the night.