A BASHful Party (Zuqetta/Ise)

Mid day, with the sun high raised into the sky; Zuqetta shirked her training for the day and simply lounged about within the apartment. Having abandoned the mission with Vennel and Onnio, she knew it was only a matter of time before that choice came back to haunt her; but she simply couldn't do it, she couldn't kill those people. Ever since returning, she had lamented ever choosing to go and realize the truth; the people of Planet Fruti were innocent, and had simply been enjoying their lives in peace. Yet...

Dressed in her casual attire consisting of a white oversized sweater and her black stockings, Zuqetta hadn't made much of a move from the couch all day; having dedicated so much of her time to training, it was actually surprisingly difficult to do nothing for once. She'd cleaned the apartment twice over, and even cleaned a bit of the area outside the apartment; but other than that, she had no drive. Her armor remained scuffed and unpolished, simply strewn about beside the television. She hardly wanted to look at it, let alone touch it; but what was she to do? There were none she could talk to about how she felt; the Saiyans were largely warriors, invaders, and murderers...

How long would it be before Vennel returned from the mission? And how long would Zuqetta be allowed to remain living in this apartment? She was a failure, or at least felt as such; she didn't have the mindset of a true Saiyan, and didn't understand why. She wanted to be like Vennel, she wanted to be able to deliver the finishing blow without remorse; but she simply couldn't...

As the feelings accumulated, Zuqetta would suddenly be snapped out of her funk as she heard a banging at the door. She would leap up, her tail puffing up into a ball of frizz as her heart raced. "Ven...?" She questioned lowly, before hearing the voice from the other side call out, "What the?" Patting down her tails frizz, Zuqetta would make her way to the door to answer; unlatching the locks before opening it to greet the girl, "Zerori?" She questioned, her eyes closing slightly as the first light in hours finally met them, "The heck are you doing here... did... did you break the security gate!?" She asked, looking around to see if anyone else had shown up with her.

With hardly a moment for Zerori to lose however, Zuqetta's questions would go pretty much unanswered as she was taken by the wrist and quickly led away from the area without even the chance to lock the place back up properly; she only barely had time to grab up her red boots with her tail before being led away. All she could do now was simply hope no one tried to break in while she was away; as well as hope Vennel didn't return home, or else that would have been two scoldings she was NOT looking forward too...

---

Having made their way to the park, Zuqetta was met with an incredibly distracting sight; the so called 'party decorations' Zerori had set up. "...what the heck did you do...?" Zuqetta questioned with a blank expression, "Why are we here!? Whose party is this supposed ta be for!? And why did you destroy the park!?!" She continued, looking about frantically to see if any guards were in the area, "We are so getting in trouble for this..." She muttered, giving a heavy sigh before cracking the slightest smile; at the very least she had a momentary distraction from what weighted on her mind.

To be fair, Zerori did break the security gate but it really wasn’t very effective security anyway, so she figured it was a favor done Still, it was hardly something to worry about when the main emergency was THE PARTY - which they had arrived at with everything thankfully untouched and still in place. Zerori was extremely proud of the skulls and the fire circles, so when Zuqetta verbally attacked those first and claimed she destroyed the park-... okay, she wasn’t wrong about her destroying it. “Whoa, okay - first. This is an improvement. It was boring and all there was… was dirt. What can you do with DIRT?! Second of all-”

The sudden voice of the person the was for made Zerori freeze, tail fritzing up suddenly, before she swallowed and turned around. Why am I so nervous?! Damn, calm down! Clearing her throat, Zerori opened her mouth to greet Ise before she realized that Ise also made a comment about the park - thankfully not pairing the decoration with Zerori yet.

“I-!” She paused, thinking quickly before she laughed, “I know, they’re crazy. Skulls? If that doesn’t murder machine, I don’t know what does, hahaha,” She turned to Zuqetta as she laughed, gesturing wildly with her eyes toward Lady Ise to hopefully get across that THIS was whom the party was for and to please play along. She gestured to Zuqetta, “This is my hotdog, we fought over a friend! … wait, shit, I mean-!” She slapped a hand over her face, blushing furiously. “I… I - This is Zuqetta.” She shook her head.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Removing her hand from her face, Zerori threw her hand out to present the huge feast on the table, “I made food! Well, like, materialized it but it’s still good, I swear!” She hoped.

| Ise | 25,000PL (29,400 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

Ise let put a short chuckle as Zerori seemed surprisingly out of sorts getting her words all jumbled up as she attempted to introduce the new person, Zuqetta to Ise, if nothing else the way in which she had jumbled things has managed to be absolutely perfect, Ise WAS rather intrigued on what seemed to be so thoroughly flustering the Demon.

Ise HAD caught the scent of the food and now that Zerori explained that it was conjured that certainly explained a bit on why it had felt a bit strange, it certainly smelled good and all but it all radiated a strange energy that Ise could not quite understand as it was certainly not what she usually detected from food. That it was apparently created by Zerori’s magic explained it though. Magic was quite strange.

It seemed though that Zerori was not the only one a bit out of sorts, Zuqetta seemed very generally confused by what was going on as she introduced herself “Nice to meet you, I am Ise Wintergreen” Ise said giving the Saiyan a smile and a nod, she was quite powerful which impressed Ise, not quite as strong as herself but actually a bit stronger than Zerori which was no small feat.

“Ah yes, the food smells quite good Zerori, I did not realize you could use your magic to create food. Your skills never cease to amaze me” Ise said with a grin, conjuration of food and presumably other things, teleportation between plants and presumably even dimensions based on what Zerori had said of the ‘Demon Realm’.

“What actually is this party for? A celebration is always fun but it would be good to know the occasion.” Ise finally asked the question that seemed to be on everyone's mind except for Zerori herself, as far as she knew there were no recent holidays, the only Demon holiday Ise knew of was Samhain but that was from what Zerori had said, quite a ways off.

---

WC: 331
TWC: 673

Zuqetta gave a light sigh of relief as Ise introduced herself, it seemed that the girl wasn't any more privy to the situation that she was; prompting Zuqetta to shoot Zerori an annoyed glare for making her act like a fool. Still, it was a party so there was no reason to let it bother her. She'd take a seat by the table as Zerori, still in a flustered manner, explained the situation properly. "Birth day party, huh?" Zuqetta questioned, grabbing one of the chicken wings, "I see, well, congratulations I having a day of birth!" She said to Ise with a wide grin before taking a bite of the piece of chicken, only to immediately spit out the inedible, charred substance; tossing it aside as she took notice of the unnatural display of colors the chicken created when thrown into fire.

Zuqetta had no idea why a day of birth was being celebrated, considering she'd never once had or been to a 'birthday party'; but clearly Zerori was excited by the idea, so she felt no reason to question the party further. "Gotta say though, that's a weird name ya got their, Ise... Wintergreen?" Zuqetta said curiously, "Why d'ya got two names? Two weird sounding names?" She asked casually, before proceeded to grab what she could only presume was once a set of ribs; it seemed like in spite of the delicious scent, she wouldn't be enjoying any food at this party.

As Zuqetta tried to enjoy the food she’d made, eventually throwing away some of it into the fire she’d made, Zerori was able to give a smile at the girl for at least playing along. Zerori had to admit that even she was curious about Ise’s two names but didn’t think much of it at the time. Demons and Saiyans were so similar that it felt like most species should just have one and leave it at that. With her face reddening once more, Zerori just held the pie in one hand and flicked her nose with her thumb bashfully with the other, “Yeah-it’snothing.” She humbly mumbled, glad that it was a big deal for Ise but, like… not wanted to get a big head over it.

Her explanation of her name was pretty cool, though - giving Zerori a sort of ‘mind blown’ moment as she stared at Ise and then back at Zuqetta, before looking back at Ise again and giving a laugh, “Ohhhh! So THAT’S why my Mom says ‘-of Chakkapak’. Tch, I thought was kind of lame but… eh, I dunno,” She didn’t really think it suited her. Zerori Chakkapak? Za’tar, maybe but she didn’t choose that name. She looked back at Zuqetta, “I think I like one name better, though,” She said, grinning.

That was when Ise hit her with some… awkward knowledge. While Zerori hadn’t known for sure, she always wondered why Ise already wore a visor. The first assumption was because it was just really cool! But now-

She let out a sharp gasp as Ise removed the visor, staring into her unseeing eyes in a combination of surprise and sorrow. All those times she’d basically assumed Ise could see just fine had suddenly ambushed her, shame swelling up, “Uh… I’m-” The words caught in her throat, uncertain if Ise even really wanted to hear an apology. When she finally found something to say, clearing her throat before saying it, Zerori grumbled, “Sorry… for not noticin’ earlier.” As flattered as she was that it was her demonic energy that caught Ise’s attention, Zerori was more or less bothered by having not realized this about Ise.

Giving a glance toward Zuqetta, Zerori brought a hand up to scratch at the back of her head aggressively. She wanted Zuqetta here because she didn’t want this to come off as something weird but as she thought about the gift she wanted to give Ise, Zerori realized that it was a bit more… personal than she realized at first. “Uhh… -hey, Zuq?” Zerori stuttered, clearing her throat again as her tail twitched and lashed about anxiously. “I’d hate to ask this of ya, but… can you give Ise and me a minute?” Zerori kicked at the ground, frowning deeply with her face only getting redder by the second, “I can, like, save you a slice of cake or somethin’,” Trying to hint as best as she could with her eyes how hard this was to ask after inviting her and everything.

| Ise | 25,000PL (29,400 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

It was a curious thing to hear the reactions of the two on her explanation, Zuqetta remained effectively silent on the manner but the bits that Ise could pick up on her body language seemed to indicate to Ise that she had perhaps not quite understood or perhaps the explanation was one that she did not care for? Such things were hard to discern, Zerori however had a predictably amusing reaction, piecing together that based on how Ise described things that she might also have a family name.

Ise was not QUITE sure if that fit quite the way Zerori thought it did but without knowing more about where Zerori was from she had no real way to say one way or the other, Ise did however nod along with Zuqetta’s agreement with Zerori that just being ‘Zerori’ seemed better.

The reactions to her reveal about her sight were decidedly less amusing, she felt a bit bad laying that on Zuqetta without much warning and she could tell the other member of the group was likely confused or curious as she was not actively averting her gaze which had Ise guessing that she had become aware that she was staring at her.

“It’s fine, I have abilities that make it easy enough for me to appear sighted to most. I just wanted to make sure you knew, I had originally intended on telling you earlier but all of our little adventures tended to distract me from that” Ise said with a smile hoping to smooth over any issues Zerori might have with not having noticed herself.

Ise would then put her visor back on as Zerori spoke to Zuqetta, to her surprise she asked the other Saiyan to give them a few moments alone and she could tell it was quite awkward for Zerori to do so but Zuqetta seemed quite understanding and either made up or genuinely had actual reason to depart.

Her rather terrible pun DID manage to elicit a genuine chuckle from Ise “It was nice meet you Zuqetta” Ise said giving a wave as the Saiyan took off into the sky, perhaps she ought to work on flying, her Jet Squirrel was wonderful but not exactly ideal for a fight.

“She was rather interesting” Ise said after a few moments curious what it was that Zerori needed them alone for, it was unfortunate for Zuqetta to leave entirely but Ise certainly did not mind spending time with just Zerori, the demon had quickly and with little realization from Ise become her closest friend.

---

WC: 427
TWC: 1,691

| Ise | 25,000PL (29,400 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

Ise raised an eyebrow in surprise as Zerori mentioned that Zuqetta had ‘kicked her ass’ presumably in a spar of some sort but it felt… surprising, Ise had certainly read the other Saiyan as being STRONG but not particularly moreso than Zerori, perhaps that was simply a matter of Zerori exaggerating? “I’m sure you’ll take her down next time” Ise said with a grin, perhaps a few spars between them would push Zerori past Zuqetta’s level and allow the Demon a better opportunity to reclaim victory? Of course that would likely mean Zerori losing to HER as much as Ise liked Zerori, she was not exactly the type to just LET someone win.

Plus it would not be nearly as good for either of them!

Ise was drawn out of her thoughts of training by Zerori seemingly getting to the reason for her request for a bit of privacy, she had Ise’s full attention at that and as she began speaking it was clear WHY she had requested it and it made Ise happy to know her friend had taken her request to keep the information about her father’s condition secret.

She nodded as Zerori asked the question not quite wanting to respond verbally out of fear she might say something wrong as she was not particularly fond of the subject. But for Zerori to bring it up… perhaps she had figured out an avenue they could begin pursuing?

Ise tilted her head to one side as Zerori went on and the impact of her words slowly hit Ise as she was handed a glass with a liquid that radiated a strange sort of power Ise was unfamiliar with but entirely incapable of processing at the moment as she was still busy taking in what Zerori was saying.

“Y--you” she had feared that perhaps even magic lacked a means to help her Father from how Zerori had initially reacted, thought that it might be some years long endeavor that may not even help due to the fact her Father was CURRENTLY embroiled in Arcosian politics.

But this… this changed EVERYTHING.

Ise wasn’t sure exactly how to respond to such a gift and so she acted on instinct and grabbed Zerori into a powerful hug as she allowed herself to cry a bit “Thank you Zerori, thank you so much.. This I cant even put into words how much this means to me.”

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WC: 402
TWC: 2,093