Shredded Report

Taori's evening had lasted a bit longer than he'd originally anticipated, but he was able to free himself from his work before too long. Alpinia was already sound asleep in her bed by the time he'd finished dotting the last i's and crossing the last t's of the day's work. Slowly but surely, the fresh paperwork he was having to look over and sign was becoming less frequent as the war began to fade, slowly, off in the rear view mirror. No one had actually warned him being King meant doing so much signing your name on everything, and if they had, he might have reconsidered actually trying to snatch up the title.

But, luckily, there was something he had arranged for the night that didn't involve paperwork, and that was a meeting with a good friend. He hadn't taken the time to see Vocado since the unexpected assault on Sadala, and from what he'd heard, his old squad mate had been heavily injured in the attack. Taori supposed he ought to be thanking the higher powers that Vocado hadn't lost his life in the battle, but it was still a grim reminder that no man was immortal.

With those thoughts on his mind, Taori pushed open the doors to the war room, where he found Vocado sitting by his lonesome at the table, and a brief smile of relief crossed Taori's face as he saw his old friend in one piece. "There you are," he said as he walked in. "Sorry for the wait - I always overestimate how quickly I can sign my own name to a bunch of pre-written documents."

Granted, he did have to read those documents first to ensure he wasn't authorizing something completely insane, and it wasn't as if the schools he'd grown up with had prioritized teaching their young how to read. Alpinia had been helping him learn, for the most part, and he liked to think he was getting decent at reading at a faster pace lately. "First, I suppose I ought to ask... How are you fairing? I don't think I've seen much of you since I took up the crown, and from what I hear, you've taken quite the beatings in your last few battles. Though, I can't say you look too much worse the wear for it."

Vocado looked a bit tired, maybe a bit on edge, though he didn't look like the mangled, crippled mess that Taori had heard some describe him as. Saiyans were quite good at recovering from bad hits, though.