Death in the Air

It didn't take quite as long for Taori's scouter to detect activity as he'd thought. At first, he wasn't so sure it'd actually be Korado, as his scouter alerted him to two power signatures, not one like he'd been expecting. He stood up straight as the man arrived, not nearly as short in stature as Taori had come to expect from Tuffles - in fact, he looked to be almost the exact same height as Taori. Korado could very easily have passed for a Saiyan, just like Amara always had, Taori thought to himself.

"Korado, right?" Taori asked, "If that's you, then, yeah, I'm the one who asked you out here." He wasn't so sure how to play this one. If he laid everything out right off the bat, Korado may grow suspicious, though he'd likely also arouse suspicion from the Tuffle if he was too withholding of the information he had. What might be the right balance to strike, here? "I wanted to talk to you about your father," he said, "Garrick, right?"

Taori had to assume that information was privy to only a select few, from what Amara had told him, so leading with that would probably give Korado a good idea of what Taori knew. Oh, right. He should probably mention his connection to Amara. And Korado, apparently. "I'm Alpinia's husband - she's your cousin, right? Amara's too. She's never mentioned you, for some reason. Anyway... I spoke with Amara recently, and she filled me in on your 'interesting' heritage."

Now that Korado was actually here, Taori wasn't super sure where to start with things, now that he thought about it. Oh, well - just pick a thread and follow it wherever it leads. "You wouldn't happen to have any information on Garrick's whereabouts, would you?"

It seemed like Taori had managed to hit a decent middle ground when it came to explaining what was going on to Korado. The hybrid had seemed concerned, almost standoffish when Taori first mentioned he was aware of his heritage, but as he explained more and more, Korado visibly began to relax, though not completely. Which was fair enough, Taori supposed - living his life on the Tuffle side of things, Korado had probably seen his fair share of Saiyans who were his enemies. Maybe the Saiyans had even killed some of his friends.

Hell, maybe even Taori had.

Though that wasn't important, not for the moment. Unfortunately, Korado didn't seem to have any additional information on Garrick, though Taori couldn't say he'd particularly been expecting him to at this point. "That's alright," Taori replied, "I didn't think you would. Though, the reason I ask is when I came to visit Amara and asked her about him, she said she'd seen no sight or sound of him anywhere in the afterlife. She doubted his soul had been recycled away yet, so that only leaves one possibility..." Taori figured he'd let Korado connect the dots on his own, there.

It wasn't really what he'd been after, anyway. "Anyway... That also means Cheri is your mother, right?" Taori asked, his posture loosening slightly. "I've met her, before. She's nice." Taori paused again, then asked, "I might need to meet with her soon. I think I know how to end the war, and I'd need her help to do it. Know how I might set that up?"

Whoops. Taori really hadn't meant to drop any sorts of bombshells on Korado, but apparently, the Tuffle hadn't a clue that Cheri was Amara's mother. "Er, I uh, thought you'd have known that," he stammered after Korado expressed his shock at Amara's full heritage. "Sorry." Amara had certainly spoken about that secret as if Korado had been in on it, but apparently not. Oh, well. It wasn't like it was that big of a deal for Amara's own brother to know who her mother was, right? He seemed trustworthy enough. Taori wouldn't have bothered meeting with him if he didn't. 

As for Garrick's whereabouts, Taori didn't have a whole lot more to say. He'd spent long enough searching for the man to the point where he was just... Ready to move on. Garrick was gone, and it was clear there'd be no more helping that. He did have a bit more to say for Korado's last inquiry, though. He nodded. "That's the long and short of it, I guess. I don't think anyone's been all too happy with how Rosemary is handling the war effort, or the situation of our people in general, so..."

"And, trust me, I'm well aware of how powerful she is," he added in response to Korado's concerns. "But I've just about caught up to her in strength, so as long as I play it smart, well, I think I can win." There were no guarantees, but his odds were better than they ever had been. 

"And yeah," he added about his meeting with Cheri, "I'd be fine to meet with her wherever she's comfortable with it. Obviously, having her come all the way to the Saiyan Capital would be suspicious for everyone involved." It was probably for the best that most civilians on either side didn't learn about this meeting, either. Frankly, the less people that knew about it, the better.

"So, you think it's doable?"

Well, it seemed Taori was good at dropping bombshells on people, lately. He hadn't exactly been intending on all that new information for Korado coming from him - he'd assumed the half Tuffle had already known all of that - but he may as well have learned eventually. He probably deserved to know, at least. Either way, it sounded like Korado might be just the man to help Taori get things done. And he had similar words of warning about Rosemary as everyone else he'd spoken to had. "Yeah, I know," Taori replied. "Everyone always said I had a thick skull, though," he added, knocking on the side of his head with a grin, "So that might finally come in handy for once, eh?"

He was joking, of course, but Amara had given him some actual advice. Namely that her magicks seemed to only work particularly well against Oozaru. So... He'd just have to beat her without going into his Oozaru form! Easier said than done, really, but he had a few tricks of his own up his sleeve to employ. "Anyway... Don't worry about me. The important thing is we get that meeting with Cheri set up. Don't let me down." That was it, really.

Taori looked around, frowned, slightly, then glanced back at Korado. "...I should head back now. It was good to meet you though, Korado." He smiled at the man and offered him a friendly handshake. "I hope our next encounter can be one on better terms." With that, he turned around, waved back at Korado, then took off back for Sadala. It was almost time to start putting his money where his mouth was.