Breaking Bread (Taori)

Taori didn't really know what to make of the message one of the guards had just sent him, claiming that a "tall, dark-skinned Tuffle with bright red hair and high battle power" was trying to reach him. While he didn't always oblige visitation requests from just anyone who marched up to the castle with a high power level, he'd actually received the message while in the middle of a bout of paperwork, so he graciously welcomed the excuse to get up and leave it alone for a while. Besides... He didn't think he had actually ever met with anyone who could reasonably be described as "dark-skinned with bright red hair," so he was admittedly curious who this could be. 

It didn't take him very long to get down to the entrance of the castle, where both a guard and the person he had to assume had summoned him were awaiting him. "At ease," he ordered the soldier, who let go of the woman's arm and returned to his usual uptight posture. He then sized up the woman. This wasn't a Tuffle, this was an... "Earthling, right?" Taori asked. He hadn't met very many of those, but every now and then one popped up.

"We don't get a lot of people from Earth on Plant," Taori continued. His scouter pegged the woman at 10,000 battle power which was impressive for a planet that, if he was remembering correctly, had its usual denizens average around 5. "My cousin-in-law went to your planet. Don't know if you've met her - Amara's her name. If you're looking for her, she was just uh, recently dethroned." Taori had had a few people come by looking for Amara who hadn't heard the news yet, though it seemed most people on Plant were up to speed by now. "Unless you were looking for me, in which case... What can I do for you?"

Jackie Jeans? That was... An unusual name to Taori, though perhaps it was more common around Earth. Now that he thought about it, had he ever actually met an Earthling? He felt like he must have, but he couldn't place any specific ones. They looked a lot like Saiyans, huh? Minus the tails, of course - and Jackie's hair was quite a bit brighter than most pureblooded Saiyans' hair, but Taori knew of some mixed race Saiyans who had brighter colors atop their head. Amara's could turn bright blue, apparently, but that seemed to have to do more with enhancements she'd made to her own body, rather than her genetics.

"Taori Cliffedge," Taori replied to Jackie. He had started to hold out his hand for a handshake, but then the Earthling bowed at him, and he awkwardly pulled his hand back at his side and returned her bow with a hesitant one of his own. "I'm uh, not too familiar with Earth customs, so you'll have to forgive me," he explained, in case Jackie had noticed that. 

Jackie wasn't here to just exchange pleasantries, though. She quickly explained that she was Earth's 'guardian,' and that she had some dire news to share with Taori on Earth's behalf. Guardian... Was that like their version of King or Queen? Taori glanced at the two guards who were now standing at attention on either side of them, and nodded his head back towards the castle. "Well, let's not stay out here and talk about it. There's plenty of room in the castle to sit down and have a chat."

Unless Jackie objected to this, he'd lead her back inside to a more suitable location for them to speak, away from any prying eyes or ears that Jackie may not want to be privy to whatever it was she had to unveil.

"You meet a lot of kings and queens?" Taori idly asked as they walked through the castle. If Jackie was some sort of prestigious leader on Earth, he supposed it made sense for her to be familiar with other planetary rulers around the galaxy. Plant was somewhat isolationist in that regard, as for as far as Taori knew, they had little, if any relations with other planets at the moment. Not in any official capacity, at least. It didn't take very long to get inside the massive building, and Taori could tell Jackie was impressed by its grand architecture and prestigious appearance. It still impressed him, too.

As they neared a more private meeting room in one of the Western wings of the castle, Jackie made mention of her previous visit to Plant not being all too enjoyable. "Yeah? What happened last time you were around?" he asked. "If it was over a year ago, then everyone would still have been pretty on edge with the war going on. I would try not to hold any negative encounters against anyone back then too harshly." It was hard to be cheerful and welcoming to others when you were never quite sure if another psycho was going to lead a surprise attack on your city. It had been some time since the last one now, though, so folks were starting to calm down a little bit more.

Before long, Taori stopped in front of a door and pushed it open for Jackie, revealing a moderately sized room with a table and several chairs placed around it. "One of our meeting rooms," he explained as he let her in, closing the door behind her once she had done so. Taori stayed standing despite the chairs, though, instead crossing his arms in front of him. "So... A disturbing message, you said? Some kind of warning of trouble I should be looking out for?"

"Vocado, huh?" Why was Taori not surprised to learn that he had been the one giving Jackie a hard time when she'd previously come to Plant? Truth be told, he hadn't seen the man in quite some time, now. He'd certainly have to reach out sometime soon. "He's always been a hothead," Taori replied, "I wouldn't take it too personally. And, just between you and me, at the time, he'd very recently lost his brother in a Tuffle attack on Sadala, so... Don't be too hard on him." No one had any reason to believe Pitt was alive, anyway. He hadn't been seen since the attack, and while no body was ever found, it wasn't difficult to draw conclusions. "As for Kabe... Never heard of him. But I can look into it if he bugs you again."

That wasn't what Jackie was here to discuss, though, and it didn't seem to Taori she was holding a grudge over the occasion anyway. Almost as soon as the doors were shut behind them, the Earthling got to talking. And the Saiyan got to listening. 

Apparently, Earth had been growing restless over the last few years as a result of multiple attacks from alien forces against their cities that they had only barely been able to repel. And, as a result, the planet was growing restless, and looking for a place to turn their ire - mostly towards their galactic neighbors they felt were responsible for these attacks, and apparently Plant was one of such neighbors.

"Has some mad Saiyan attacked your planet, too?" Taori asked, frowning. With his arms crossed, he continued, "I can at least assure you that no attack on your planet has been condoned by any body of the Saiyan Kingdom. If one of our people struck you, they were acting alone." Taori's tone was concerned, but firm. The last thing he wanted right now was for the Kingdom to be dragged into another war so soon after such a protracted one had come to a close, but he also wasn't going to take any actions Earth might take against them lying down. Besides... Earth was a weak planet, wasn't it? Its people's power levels averaged in the single digits. 

Jackie seemed keen to avoid potential conflict as well, as she expressed her willingness to be an ally of Vegeta's as well as her desire to form a defensive pact of sorts between the two governments. "Well," Taori began, uncrossing his arms and dropping them to his sides while his head tilted slightly to the side. "I'd love to have more allies, of course... But this President of yours is essentially your version of a King, correct? If I were to be forming any sort of official pact, it'd have to be with him." As far as Taori could tell, Jackie was just an especially strong fighter from Earth. "And, not to be rude, but Plant and Earth do not seem to be very connected, either. I've only ever heard of your planet a few times before today - you'd really not gain anything in the way of us being able to warn you about danger if you were to have us as your allies.

So, the 'appointed King' of Earth was a man named Derrick? Taori hadn't yet heard of the man, but if he was appointed by the planet's people, he must have been a good leader. Taori wasn't sure who would currently be leading the Saiyans if their King was democratically elected, though it likely wouldn't have been him. There'd have to have been a lot different about Saiyan society for that sort of thing to have happened in the first place, though, so in that sort of climate, he had his doubts he'd even want to try for the position.

Jackie also explained that, when she had called herself Earth's guardian, she hadn't meant it in the sense that she was just a strong fighter who had a vested interest in keeping Earth safe. She'd meant it as an official title in its own right. Though hers was more of a spiritual position than an elected one. "I see," Taori replied, his arms still crossed. In spite of Jackie's reassurances, he still was on the fence about this sort of thing. If her word was only just as good as Derrick's, and not better than Derrick's, and Derrick wanted to wage war on Plant, where would that put things?

"Fukushu? Yeah, I think he was here on Plant recently, actually," Taori replied when the Heran mercenary's name was brought up. "And you're right. He and another fella tried destroying the Tuffle capital. From what I heard, he was beaten to within an inch of his life, then his legs were severed from his body and he was left to die. I think he is dead, actually. No one's seen him since. The other attacker is also dead." 

There was a brief pause until Taori continued his point. "You see, on Plant, we're not in the habit of letting people who mean to harm us get away with it. A threat shows itself to us? It's eliminated." He paused again to see if Jackie understood what it was he was getting at, but he then figured he may as well elaborate so as to be clear, as this was something important. "If Earth does raise a hand against us, it won't long have a hand left to be raised. That's not my decree specifically, but it is what's going to happen. I'm not going to pretend I'm capable of putting a leash on every single warrior in my kingdom. Frankly, I think it's this Derrick fellow you should be warning if this is something he's considering, not me."

"Don't worry," Taori replied as Jackie seemed to have been slightly dejected by his earlier response. "We can recognize rogue actors from an invading force. There was an, um, incident about a year ago wherein an Arcosian named Blizzard attacked Hatchi under orders from Azoth, its Emperor at the time. He and Azoth were both dealt with, and while initially there was going to be a counterstrike on Arcose, the new leadership apologized pretty quickly and assured us Azoth was acting alone." Not that relations with Arcose were great after that still, but they at least didn't devolve into a full-blown war between the two planets. And if some Earthling came to attack Plant, Taori didn't imagine that would start any wars either, unless they were acting directly under Earth's leadership.

"It might be a good idea for me to head to Earth myself and meet with this Derrick fellow, just in case," he offered, "If there is potential for misunderstanding in the future, clearing the air between the two of our planets ahead of time should serve to prevent any of that." Besides, Taori felt it might not be a bad idea to personally size up some of the other major planets' leaders, Earth included. The only other planet whose leaders he was familiar with was Arcose, and even then, he had only met two out of the three of them.

Jackie still offered there to be some personal line of communication between the two, at the very least. Taori couldn't see any reason to refuse that offer. "Sure, I don't see why not," Taori replied as he tapped on his scouter. "I'll need your scouter number of course. And if we're going to be having sensitive conversations like this every now and then, there's a secure Kingdom channel we can use..."

As Taori was speaking, the door creaked open, and in walked another Saiyan much shorter than Taori, with longer hair and armor that was similar to his, but with purple where his was red. "Um, am I interrupting something important here?" Alpinia asked with furrowed brows and hands placed on her hips. She was eyeing Jackie suspiciously, to say the least.

"Oh, uh, no, nothing like that," Taori quickly corrected her as he lowered his hand from his scouter. He glanced back and forth between Jackie and Alpinia for a moment, then gestured towards Alpinia while looking at Jackie as he stated, "Er, Jackie, this is Alpinia, my wife, and the Saiyan Queen. And Alpinia, this is Jackie, the Guardian of Earth."

"Guardian?" Alpinia asked, puzzled. "Is that an official title, or are you just protective of your planet?"

It didn't take too much insight to notice that Jackie's demeanor shifted pretty suddenly upon Alpinia's entrance. While this confused Taori, it only made Alpinia more suspicious of the Earth woman, and what exactly she might have been talking about with her husband. Alpinia didn't even get defensive of Taori - usually it was him coming to her defense as some maniac with a high power level tried to gut her - but this time, she stepped defensively in front of her husband as if Jackie was some sort of threat to him. 

"Probably longer than you've been alive, young lady," Alpinia replied to Jackie's last question with her hands on her hips, her tone quite obviously an accusatory one. 

Taori, on the other hand, could see there must have been some sort of misunderstanding going on, and it was one that he did not want spiraling out of control, so he quickly interjected, "Jackie is just here to warn us on Earth's behalf that their other leader - their King, basically - has suggested some mildly threatening things towards the other planets of the galaxy, Plant included. She wanted to make sure there'd be no misunderstandings going forward about that sort of thing."

Still, Alpinia was slightly suspicious of the orange-haired woman standing across from her. But she didn't get the sense Taori was lying, either, so she relaxed, slightly. "Well, we don't have any sort of spiritual leaders like that here on Plant," she stated after a beat. "Plant doesn't 'choose' anyone to take care of it, as far as I know."

"Well, we haven't exactly taken good care of Plant in general," Taori added, with images of the ruined wastelands that had been ravaged by Destron coming to mind. Hopefully, now that the war was over, things could begin to heal, but it was going to be something of a long and difficult road to walk. "That aside, was there anything else important you needed to talk about?" Taori asked Jackie. It seemed to him their discussion was mostly finished, but if she had anything more to tell him, now was the time.