Post by Zerori and Zriracha on Jun 5, 2022 15:43:50 GMT -5
Planet Plant
Age 1023
Approximately 24 hours after having departed from Zuqetta after receiving the encoded scouter
Zerori wasn’t usually patient; she just wasn’t built that way. To ask her to wait even an hour for something was unheard of - much less 24 hours! Still, doing her best to make herself go to sleep through various methods (tickering around, training with her magic, listening to the raddest music that she could get access to) Zerori was able to successfully fall asleep long enough that waiting the rest of the time wasn’t so difficult. In fact, due to her excitement, Zerori had even managed to repair her gauntlet to last even longer during the transitory period of her materialization!
With hardly an hour left before the scouter’s encoded lock would release, Zerori had left her home early to try and wake Zuqetta up and show off a little before they’d finally get the answers they’d been looking for. Recalling where Zuqetta had explained where her old manor was, even in the terrible shape she’d remembered it being, it was hardly ten or fifteen minutes before she touched down from the short flight from the Saiba Wastes. As close as it was to more houses, it was… eerily silent.
“...Zuq-?” Zerori called out, a little creeped out in spite of being a denizen of darkness herself. Hey, even Demons could get scared, okay?! Still, stereotypical biases aside, Zerori sauntered carefully inside the manor with the thought that if Zuqetta had asked her to come here then she might have still lived here or something or… frequented the place?
After about ten minutes of looking around and finding absolutely nothing, the Demon girl was starting to get anxious. “Where is she?” Zerori muttered, walking the halls with hardly a direction in mind. She didn’t know where anything was or where to go to get even an IDEA as to where Zuqetta was.
And with her nifty little ability to just… not exist, Zerori was starting to think that Zuqetta had actually flaked on her. “Fuckin’ stupid is what I am right now! Stupid and angry,” Zerori snarled, childishly stomping her way down the hall into what looked like some kind of foyer - also in deep disrepair.
It was at that moment, tucked away in her clothes, that a ping would go off. The scouter had unlocked just as Zuqetta had said it would, giving a soft ping repeatedly to indicate that a message was ready to be read.
So, alone, Zerori pulled out the scouter and chose a barely stable bench to sit on. For a few disappointing moments, Zerori just stared at the stupid device in her hand before she finally relented with a sigh and brought the device to her face - nestling it there so it would be stable before (hesitatingly) pressing the button.
The first thing Zerori noticed is that there was no video. The second was that the audio was pre-recorded… by Zuqetta.
Heeeeey, Came the familiar but nervous drawl of her best friend. So, if you’re listening ta this message, you’ve probably realized by now that I’m… not there. I know you were expecting that I was going to be with you as you listened to this message, but I’m - I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry.
Zerori’s jaw would tighten, the pain of her worry become reality finally hitting her and the message had only just started. She wanted so badly to rip the machine from her face and just throw it as hard she could but the message continued and so she resisted - hands fisting aggressively into her clothed thighs.
I know that… that sorry really doesn’t cut it, but at least I can be honest now. There’s a lot I never told you, Zee and for good reason but it doesn’t mean it was for the best, The sound of a deep breath being taken could be heard before Zuqetta’s voice continued. She explained what growing up in the manor Zerori sat in was really like. The isolation, the lack of any caring father figure that treated her less like a daughter and more like a weapon to be hidden away until he needed her. She explained how she never had a mother - a fact that Zerori would later lament with guilt at all the times it felt like her own mother was favoring Zuqetta more.
The ironic ‘nail in the coffin’, however, was the admittance that Zuqetta was indirectly responsible for her Father’s death. Zerori looked around, taking in with a disturbed expression that this place had burned down because Zuqetta had made it possible.
... When the place burned but didn’t get razed to the ground, the memory of it - even after I’d… heh, run away… it felt like I could never really run away from what I did. I guess that didn’t stop me, though. Zerori closed her eyes, imagining the pained expression on Zuq’s face even as she strained to smile.
That’s not all. I’ve got… a LOT more to say. Remember back in Hachi City when we were sneaking around and trying to find information on your Dad, yeah? Well. I lied to you - surprise surprise - when I told you that data was lost.
Zerori’s eyes widened just before the scouter’s screen in front of her eye would light up - displaying information suddenly. She winced before squinting, her pupils scanning what was in front of her as quickly as she could, catching sight of images, transcripts and voice files that Zerori had NEVER seen before but was everything that she’d BEEN looking for.
Snippets of headlines, subject titles and marked up text were all Zerori was able to catch but the message that Zuqetta was trying to tell her was beyond clear.
[Zerori squinted her eyes, seeing the barely there security footage of a male Saiyan meeting with the Tuffle lady Zuqetta and her had seen back at that super secret and scary room]
TUFFLE UNDERGROUND ALLEGIANCE UNDER INVESTIGATION - POTENTIAL DOUBLE AGENT?…
[The picture of a young male Saiyan could be seen again, only with a painfully familiar but different looking face of a woman that looked disturbingly similar to her own mother.]
RUMORED MISSING DAUGHTER STILL NEVER FOUND…
“...What?”
HIGH CLASS SAIYAN SAYORI, LOST IN THE FIELD - NOBLE POTATE WIDOWER FOR THE SECOND TIME?
[An unfamiliar face of a very tall, stout and happy woman could be seen in a picture, decked out in very regal saiyan armor - the royal sigil in plain sight. Zerori could feel her heart picking up in speed as the headlines continued, even as the pictures painted a clear timeline.]
SUBJECT: RUMORS OF UNREST SURROUND HOUSE POTATE AND POTENTIAL KIN
Zerori recalled Zuqetta’s words just yesterday, the grip of realization making her sweat in spite of how cold she felt.
NOBLE POTATE LOST IN MYSTERIOUS FIRE - NO BODY FOUND. NO RECORD OF KIN CONFIRMED
Her breath came in panicked pants now, hand shaking as she fought against the need to stop the recording right then and there or let it continue - as if she needed more confirmation than what she had.
The view on the scouter changed from the ever constant scroll of information to a video - recorded as if it were placed on something so that the one recording to be seen with ease. To no surprise, it would be Zuqetta but that wasn’t what elicited the tears that Zerori had held back until this very moment. Dressed in her white sweater from nearly a year ago, Zuqetta would open her arms wide and announce -
“Surprise! We’re sisters! Hehe…” Her voice would sound happy and sad at the same time, Zerori would have even gone as far to say that she sounded regretful. It made no difference to the stunned and shell-shocked Demon girl that just stared at Zuqetta’s form as she continued. “You’re probably wondering for how long I knew and it was… the very day we were in Hachi City. When I found out, it was really tough ta swallow, y’know?” Zuqetta physically swallowed as if remembering the moment in real time. “I wanted to tell you, but then you’d… know that we weren’t going to find your Dad, Zee…”
Finally, after holding it all in with her face wet with tears Zerori didn’t realize had fallen down her cheek in rivers, a choked sob escaped followed by a sharp gasp as if she’d been holding her breath for several minutes. She choked in air, a hand wildly tangling into her hair on the opposite side of the scouter, “Y-You gotta be fuckin’ ki-[hic]-kidding me…”
The video cut but remained on a still image of Zuqetta sadly smiling, the barely there shine of unshed tears in her eyes. Her voice continued on, however.
”Between just trying to spend time with you on our adventures-”
Zerori remembered meeting back up with Zuqetta on the Frozen Horizon, the awkward moment in the bath but the decision to keep looking - followed by the announcement of Rosemary’s fall and Taori’s ascent.
“-The war that amounted to just absolutely… nothing.”
She recalled how morose Zuqetta was after Zerori had stayed in between her and Ise, a promise thrown like a gauntlet on the ground when they realized just how useless their efforts had been to protect the Tuffles. Amara’s words, weeks afterwards, would have given Zerori nightmares of the secret she kept from Zuqetta. But now? With this?!
“Even when we learned who was really responsible for the attack on the capital from Ward. The longer we stayed together, the harder it became to tell you the truth… and then you finally FINALLY confessed to Ise. That… That was when I realized that everything I did - everything I wanted and hoped and dreamed about having since escaped my… father... I didn’t deserve it. Ironically enough, I didn’t lie to you when I said that you were the only one that cared about me, Zee.
The sudden slam of the knuckles of Zerori’s fist hitting the bench echoed through the desolate manor, her shoulders shuddering with raw betrayal and emotion as she was forced to stare into Zuqetta’s fake smile. The same fake smile that duped her only 24 hours ago… a smile she trusted like a stupid FOOL.
The video would finally cut to a blank screen, apparently finally reaching it’s conclusion. As if to taunt her, however, Zuqetta’s voice echoed in the machine one last time. “I thought talking to your mom would have made it easier… Y’know, cuz SHE made things easier. I-... I never knew what having a mom was like before I met you, Zee. She told me to keep this secret. That it was for the best…”
Zuqetta’s voice started to gradually fade away at that revelation, echoing in the background as Zerori tried and failed to digest the fact that Zuqetta didn’t just lie to her… but her own mother did as well. She knew. She KNEW! SHE KNEW and suddenly all the affection Zerori despised between her mother and Zuqetta made SENSE! All the cuddling and praise and moments that Zerori thought she didn’t NEED that all went to Zuqetta were all because her mother and Zuqetta knew that her father was dead, that Zuqetta was her sister and ONCE AGAIN her mother did what she thought was ‘right’ to ‘protect her’.
By this point, Zerori held her head in both hands as she hissed between her teeth, “-fuck, fuck, Fuck, FUCK FUCK!!!”
The very last thing that played in her ear, the words wrenching her heart from within her chest as the culmination of everything revealed left Zerori raw and vulnerable… was Zuqetta’s voice as she openly cried.
“I-I’m sorry, Zee.”
Charged silence followed after the sound of the scouter powering down, the message having reached it’s end. Slowly, Zerori reached for the scouter on her face to take it off - her arms tense and hand shaking as she kept herself from crushing the machine long enough to let it fall harmlessly against the floor and roll a few feet away
Standing from the bench, fists shaking with barely repressed rage, the last paper thin line of control Zerori had would finally snap. She threw her head back before a positively unhinged yell would escape, warped and ungodly as the wild demonic aspect of her magic would translate the uncontrolled power into a destructive and concussive wave of red energy. What remained of the roof would be blown completely away into barely discernible pieces, the ground shaking with the force of the dark energy Zerori released.
For what felt like hours, the manor would take the punishment of the demon woman’s ire - walls completely shattered, burning rows scored into the ground - be it grass or foundation until by the end of it all… the manor would look as though it were truly razed to the ground.
In the span of what could only have been mere minutes of her uncontrolled rage and unhinged rampage, Zerori would finally sit on the ground - her head held in her hands as the scouter was kept markedly clean and without blemish. Even in the midst of the near black out event, no doubt soon to catch the attention of anyone willing to investigate… Zerori’s mind was clear enough to know that she would need this scouter in particular.
She would need it if she was ever going to find Zuqetta.
In her eyes, what was once a playful and mischievous gleam of impish excitement… now stared ahead in cold, determined fixation.
It was time to move on with the search. Only this time…
- it wasn’t her father she was searching for anymore.
Age 1023
Approximately 24 hours after having departed from Zuqetta after receiving the encoded scouter
Zerori wasn’t usually patient; she just wasn’t built that way. To ask her to wait even an hour for something was unheard of - much less 24 hours! Still, doing her best to make herself go to sleep through various methods (tickering around, training with her magic, listening to the raddest music that she could get access to) Zerori was able to successfully fall asleep long enough that waiting the rest of the time wasn’t so difficult. In fact, due to her excitement, Zerori had even managed to repair her gauntlet to last even longer during the transitory period of her materialization!
With hardly an hour left before the scouter’s encoded lock would release, Zerori had left her home early to try and wake Zuqetta up and show off a little before they’d finally get the answers they’d been looking for. Recalling where Zuqetta had explained where her old manor was, even in the terrible shape she’d remembered it being, it was hardly ten or fifteen minutes before she touched down from the short flight from the Saiba Wastes. As close as it was to more houses, it was… eerily silent.
“...Zuq-?” Zerori called out, a little creeped out in spite of being a denizen of darkness herself. Hey, even Demons could get scared, okay?! Still, stereotypical biases aside, Zerori sauntered carefully inside the manor with the thought that if Zuqetta had asked her to come here then she might have still lived here or something or… frequented the place?
After about ten minutes of looking around and finding absolutely nothing, the Demon girl was starting to get anxious. “Where is she?” Zerori muttered, walking the halls with hardly a direction in mind. She didn’t know where anything was or where to go to get even an IDEA as to where Zuqetta was.
And with her nifty little ability to just… not exist, Zerori was starting to think that Zuqetta had actually flaked on her. “Fuckin’ stupid is what I am right now! Stupid and angry,” Zerori snarled, childishly stomping her way down the hall into what looked like some kind of foyer - also in deep disrepair.
It was at that moment, tucked away in her clothes, that a ping would go off. The scouter had unlocked just as Zuqetta had said it would, giving a soft ping repeatedly to indicate that a message was ready to be read.
So, alone, Zerori pulled out the scouter and chose a barely stable bench to sit on. For a few disappointing moments, Zerori just stared at the stupid device in her hand before she finally relented with a sigh and brought the device to her face - nestling it there so it would be stable before (hesitatingly) pressing the button.
The first thing Zerori noticed is that there was no video. The second was that the audio was pre-recorded… by Zuqetta.
Heeeeey, Came the familiar but nervous drawl of her best friend. So, if you’re listening ta this message, you’ve probably realized by now that I’m… not there. I know you were expecting that I was going to be with you as you listened to this message, but I’m - I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry.
Zerori’s jaw would tighten, the pain of her worry become reality finally hitting her and the message had only just started. She wanted so badly to rip the machine from her face and just throw it as hard she could but the message continued and so she resisted - hands fisting aggressively into her clothed thighs.
I know that… that sorry really doesn’t cut it, but at least I can be honest now. There’s a lot I never told you, Zee and for good reason but it doesn’t mean it was for the best, The sound of a deep breath being taken could be heard before Zuqetta’s voice continued. She explained what growing up in the manor Zerori sat in was really like. The isolation, the lack of any caring father figure that treated her less like a daughter and more like a weapon to be hidden away until he needed her. She explained how she never had a mother - a fact that Zerori would later lament with guilt at all the times it felt like her own mother was favoring Zuqetta more.
The ironic ‘nail in the coffin’, however, was the admittance that Zuqetta was indirectly responsible for her Father’s death. Zerori looked around, taking in with a disturbed expression that this place had burned down because Zuqetta had made it possible.
... When the place burned but didn’t get razed to the ground, the memory of it - even after I’d… heh, run away… it felt like I could never really run away from what I did. I guess that didn’t stop me, though. Zerori closed her eyes, imagining the pained expression on Zuq’s face even as she strained to smile.
That’s not all. I’ve got… a LOT more to say. Remember back in Hachi City when we were sneaking around and trying to find information on your Dad, yeah? Well. I lied to you - surprise surprise - when I told you that data was lost.
Zerori’s eyes widened just before the scouter’s screen in front of her eye would light up - displaying information suddenly. She winced before squinting, her pupils scanning what was in front of her as quickly as she could, catching sight of images, transcripts and voice files that Zerori had NEVER seen before but was everything that she’d BEEN looking for.
Snippets of headlines, subject titles and marked up text were all Zerori was able to catch but the message that Zuqetta was trying to tell her was beyond clear.
[Zerori squinted her eyes, seeing the barely there security footage of a male Saiyan meeting with the Tuffle lady Zuqetta and her had seen back at that super secret and scary room]
TUFFLE UNDERGROUND ALLEGIANCE UNDER INVESTIGATION - POTENTIAL DOUBLE AGENT?…
[The picture of a young male Saiyan could be seen again, only with a painfully familiar but different looking face of a woman that looked disturbingly similar to her own mother.]
RUMORED MISSING DAUGHTER STILL NEVER FOUND…
“...What?”
HIGH CLASS SAIYAN SAYORI, LOST IN THE FIELD - NOBLE POTATE WIDOWER FOR THE SECOND TIME?
[An unfamiliar face of a very tall, stout and happy woman could be seen in a picture, decked out in very regal saiyan armor - the royal sigil in plain sight. Zerori could feel her heart picking up in speed as the headlines continued, even as the pictures painted a clear timeline.]
SUBJECT: RUMORS OF UNREST SURROUND HOUSE POTATE AND POTENTIAL KIN
Zerori recalled Zuqetta’s words just yesterday, the grip of realization making her sweat in spite of how cold she felt.
"Heh, guess it's easy to be caught off guard when you're betrayed by someone you trust I suppose... He flaunted a false strength, bullied those weaker than him, and made no attempt to build any close relations."
NOBLE POTATE LOST IN MYSTERIOUS FIRE - NO BODY FOUND. NO RECORD OF KIN CONFIRMED
"With the manor void of servants and guards, even a lowly mob armed with nothing more than torches and information could do in someone like him."
Her breath came in panicked pants now, hand shaking as she fought against the need to stop the recording right then and there or let it continue - as if she needed more confirmation than what she had.
The view on the scouter changed from the ever constant scroll of information to a video - recorded as if it were placed on something so that the one recording to be seen with ease. To no surprise, it would be Zuqetta but that wasn’t what elicited the tears that Zerori had held back until this very moment. Dressed in her white sweater from nearly a year ago, Zuqetta would open her arms wide and announce -
“Surprise! We’re sisters! Hehe…” Her voice would sound happy and sad at the same time, Zerori would have even gone as far to say that she sounded regretful. It made no difference to the stunned and shell-shocked Demon girl that just stared at Zuqetta’s form as she continued. “You’re probably wondering for how long I knew and it was… the very day we were in Hachi City. When I found out, it was really tough ta swallow, y’know?” Zuqetta physically swallowed as if remembering the moment in real time. “I wanted to tell you, but then you’d… know that we weren’t going to find your Dad, Zee…”
Finally, after holding it all in with her face wet with tears Zerori didn’t realize had fallen down her cheek in rivers, a choked sob escaped followed by a sharp gasp as if she’d been holding her breath for several minutes. She choked in air, a hand wildly tangling into her hair on the opposite side of the scouter, “Y-You gotta be fuckin’ ki-[hic]-kidding me…”
The video cut but remained on a still image of Zuqetta sadly smiling, the barely there shine of unshed tears in her eyes. Her voice continued on, however.
”Between just trying to spend time with you on our adventures-”
Zerori remembered meeting back up with Zuqetta on the Frozen Horizon, the awkward moment in the bath but the decision to keep looking - followed by the announcement of Rosemary’s fall and Taori’s ascent.
“-The war that amounted to just absolutely… nothing.”
She recalled how morose Zuqetta was after Zerori had stayed in between her and Ise, a promise thrown like a gauntlet on the ground when they realized just how useless their efforts had been to protect the Tuffles. Amara’s words, weeks afterwards, would have given Zerori nightmares of the secret she kept from Zuqetta. But now? With this?!
“Even when we learned who was really responsible for the attack on the capital from Ward. The longer we stayed together, the harder it became to tell you the truth… and then you finally FINALLY confessed to Ise. That… That was when I realized that everything I did - everything I wanted and hoped and dreamed about having since escaped my… father... I didn’t deserve it. Ironically enough, I didn’t lie to you when I said that you were the only one that cared about me, Zee.
The sudden slam of the knuckles of Zerori’s fist hitting the bench echoed through the desolate manor, her shoulders shuddering with raw betrayal and emotion as she was forced to stare into Zuqetta’s fake smile. The same fake smile that duped her only 24 hours ago… a smile she trusted like a stupid FOOL.
The video would finally cut to a blank screen, apparently finally reaching it’s conclusion. As if to taunt her, however, Zuqetta’s voice echoed in the machine one last time. “I thought talking to your mom would have made it easier… Y’know, cuz SHE made things easier. I-... I never knew what having a mom was like before I met you, Zee. She told me to keep this secret. That it was for the best…”
Zuqetta’s voice started to gradually fade away at that revelation, echoing in the background as Zerori tried and failed to digest the fact that Zuqetta didn’t just lie to her… but her own mother did as well. She knew. She KNEW! SHE KNEW and suddenly all the affection Zerori despised between her mother and Zuqetta made SENSE! All the cuddling and praise and moments that Zerori thought she didn’t NEED that all went to Zuqetta were all because her mother and Zuqetta knew that her father was dead, that Zuqetta was her sister and ONCE AGAIN her mother did what she thought was ‘right’ to ‘protect her’.
By this point, Zerori held her head in both hands as she hissed between her teeth, “-fuck, fuck, Fuck, FUCK FUCK!!!”
The very last thing that played in her ear, the words wrenching her heart from within her chest as the culmination of everything revealed left Zerori raw and vulnerable… was Zuqetta’s voice as she openly cried.
“I-I’m sorry, Zee.”
Charged silence followed after the sound of the scouter powering down, the message having reached it’s end. Slowly, Zerori reached for the scouter on her face to take it off - her arms tense and hand shaking as she kept herself from crushing the machine long enough to let it fall harmlessly against the floor and roll a few feet away
Standing from the bench, fists shaking with barely repressed rage, the last paper thin line of control Zerori had would finally snap. She threw her head back before a positively unhinged yell would escape, warped and ungodly as the wild demonic aspect of her magic would translate the uncontrolled power into a destructive and concussive wave of red energy. What remained of the roof would be blown completely away into barely discernible pieces, the ground shaking with the force of the dark energy Zerori released.
For what felt like hours, the manor would take the punishment of the demon woman’s ire - walls completely shattered, burning rows scored into the ground - be it grass or foundation until by the end of it all… the manor would look as though it were truly razed to the ground.
In the span of what could only have been mere minutes of her uncontrolled rage and unhinged rampage, Zerori would finally sit on the ground - her head held in her hands as the scouter was kept markedly clean and without blemish. Even in the midst of the near black out event, no doubt soon to catch the attention of anyone willing to investigate… Zerori’s mind was clear enough to know that she would need this scouter in particular.
She would need it if she was ever going to find Zuqetta.
In her eyes, what was once a playful and mischievous gleam of impish excitement… now stared ahead in cold, determined fixation.
It was time to move on with the search. Only this time…
- it wasn’t her father she was searching for anymore.