Son Gohan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
neededahand) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
caughtinanetwork2012-03-28 12:04 am
neededahand) wrote in caughtinanetwork2012-03-28 12:04 am
Entry tags:
Gohan // video // 001
[Communicator clicks on when Gohan, face down and groaning, grabs it and tosses it gently into a post. Except 'gently' for a half-Saiyan is pretty forceful for a communicator, so it snaps on without him realizing what it was.
He rolls his weight to his right side, using his remaining arm to force himself to his knees, unsteady. He looks around, this way and that, confusion plain to read, before he starts thinking out loud.]
I don't remember... I'm pretty sure Dad and the others said you were supposed to go straight to Judgment when you die. There shouldn't be so much... city around here, should there?
[He gets up, and catches sight of the coral. He frowns at it.]
They said there were clouds everywhere, not... Shouldn't that be underwater? [He glances up and winces.] That answers that. I don't recognize the species at all, but it's been a while since I really read up on it.
[Wait. He glances up again, but this time like he's looking for something specific. And frowns, deeply this time, eyebrows very accustomed to this wrinkling. He glances to his left, notices the arm still missing.]
That's even stranger. Tien said that his arm came back after he died, and I should at least have a halo... Where am I?
He rolls his weight to his right side, using his remaining arm to force himself to his knees, unsteady. He looks around, this way and that, confusion plain to read, before he starts thinking out loud.]
I don't remember... I'm pretty sure Dad and the others said you were supposed to go straight to Judgment when you die. There shouldn't be so much... city around here, should there?
[He gets up, and catches sight of the coral. He frowns at it.]
They said there were clouds everywhere, not... Shouldn't that be underwater? [He glances up and winces.] That answers that. I don't recognize the species at all, but it's been a while since I really read up on it.
[Wait. He glances up again, but this time like he's looking for something specific. And frowns, deeply this time, eyebrows very accustomed to this wrinkling. He glances to his left, notices the arm still missing.]
That's even stranger. Tien said that his arm came back after he died, and I should at least have a halo... Where am I?
action
As palpable as Trunks' pain is (as familiar as it is), it's still on the tip of Gohan's tongue to tell him to shut up and drop it. He's not sure if that's the pseudo-parent in him, or the Piccolo-influenced martial arts master. Probably the latter. It is exactly how Piccolo would have responded to these kinds of questions, but it wouldn't do any good. Trunks isn't a child anymore, and even if he was, Bulma's and Vegeta's son was never going to be the sort to keep his mouth shut if he didn't actually want to.
Gohan can't help but feel Trunks has every right to be upset with him.
Which... If, as Trunks says, his choice wasn't the correct one, further justifying his anger, how much more wrong was Piccolo not saving himself? With Piccolo went Kami and the Dragonballs, and everyone's chances of being wished back. It's a bit of a mindscrew for Gohan to imagine himself having the right to be just this upset with his own teacher and friend. His plan for seeing Piccolo again in the afterlife was to latch on to him and apologize for not being able to save him. Laying out his grievances like Trunks has is... alien.
He sighs and squeezes the kid's shoulder.]
You don't know what your father did, or how. You can't, and neither can I. All I know is that you're ten times the warrior I am. You always have been. You want it too much. You've never looked back. Even now, you still haven't.
[Gohan is still somewhat haunted by his early cowardice.]
I have every confidence in you. I always have.
action
I met him, Gohan. Mother finished her time machine and sent me back to try and stop it there, find a different way to defeat them. I saw his power, and he was bragging enough about how he got it.
[Yeah he's started to realize that his dad wasn't the easiest to deal with.]
I don't understand why. I'm not strong enough. I'm not. I fight and I lose, every time. There's so many more people that have died...the rest of us all are living underground, it got so much worse...
[His fists clench. It's an endless source of frustration for him--Gohan's obviously confident in his power, but Trunks isn't. Not at all. And it makes him feel like Gohan died for nothing.]
action
[Or into a mirror. Same thing, really.]
You think I ever did any better? It was inevitable. All of it. Thirteen years and I never did anything more than annoy them.
[He grimaces, teeth grinding together on the last words.]
Every inch I ever gained was taken right back from me, but I hit my peak. There was nothing more I could do. No matter how much I tried, nothing's changed. Once I lost my arm, I knew that the best I could do for you was hope I could take one with me, and even that was a pipe dream.
action
[It's the same for him--he might be able to get the upper hand against one android for a time, but...they were never alone.]
They hunt me, like it's some kind of game! They kill people to bait me out!
[Someone's getting hysterical.]
action
[Ox King was probably Master Roshi's fifth-best student, after all, and he'd trained Chichi himself.]
Like at the theme park? Trunks. That wasn't going to work. You weren't listening to me when I told you to stay back, and you were going to get yourself killed if I didn't give you a reason not to.
[Just. Pause, as he catches his breath, and hating himself for resorting to that.]
You weren't going to wait for me, so I had to make sure you wouldn't need me. And when you're ready, you won't.
action
I told you I wanted to fight, I understood what that meant, what could happen!
[It's sad that he grew up in a world that a 13 year old could understand the concept of fighting and dying. Biting out:]
And how many people will be left by then?
action
You're missing the point.
[He said, missing the point.]
It was never going to be a perfect victory. Even with the Dragonballs, we can't always save everyone. Everyone killed by the Saiyans, everyone that your father killed on Namek-- we can't always win. The most I ever hoped for was an end, and if you'd died when I did, even that much would have been out of reach. You might have been prepared to die at fourteen, but I couldn't let that happen, not when I knew you'd be the one.
action
I know that. But by the time it ends, there might not be anyone left to save.
[Throwing your words from earlier in this angstfest back at you, yes he is.]
You don't know that. You can't know that.
[Fortuneteller Baba, you are not.]
Two is always, always better than one.
[THAT IS NOT A JAB AT YOUR ARM I SWEAR.]
If something happens, whether it's just the androids deciding they're done playing with me or landing wrong after getting kicked through yet another building and breaking my neck, what then?!
action
The same thing that would have happened if I'd landed wrong when I was ten. The same thing that's happening even though I didn't! There was nothing more I could do. I've exhausted every option, I've hit my limit, I'm not my father and I never will be, but my father's son would have disregarded whatever handicap he had and made sure that his final fight was a victory of some kind.
[Trunks is not the only one losing his cool here.]
When we fought the Saiyans, the plan was to stall until my father arrived. The androids are the same way. I was never meant to beat them.
[Gohan's head bows.]
I'm sorry, for everything. I wish I could have been there for you.
action KEYWORDS, GOHAN. KEYWORDS.
No, you're not your father.
['cause Trunks has met him too, now.]
Your father wouldn't have given up, no matter what. He wouldn't have believed in a limit.
[He's pretty sure of that, anyway. Yes, he's gotten to the point of hero-worshipping Goku too, between Bulma and Gohan's stories of him and actually meeting the guy. And he kinda regrets saying that--it's obvious in his expression that he thinks he might've fucked up--but he's gonna roll with it.]
And you say that, but it wasn't just Goku that beat my father. You told me the story, remember?
action NO U
Gohan visibly recoils, dropping the hand from Trunks's shoulder. He takes an involuntary step back.
But his voice is forceful. If Trunks was six, this would be a 'time-out' voice.]
I think you need to calm down.
action I'M NOT A KID ANYMORE STOP TREATING ME LIKE ONE /HUFF
...I'm sorry.
[He does genuinely sound sorry, even if at the same time he still looks angry. And he still thinks it's a valid point, just that he probably could've worded it better.]
[He's feeling a need to be alone right now, it's become the easiest way to deal with things--avoidance.
And here a couple weeks ago he was getting frustrated at Vegeta for doing the same thing.]...There's a house south of here, Phanga Neighborhood, house 13. Make yourself at home, the neighbors are nice if you need help with anything.
[He's pretty sure Aya wouldn't mind, anyway.]
I need to go.
[And he's going to, unless you stop him--he's already lifting off the ground.]
action STOP ACTING LIKE ONE AND MAYBE I WON'T
[Gohan's managed to regain and maintain neutrality. He isn't going to stop you. He'll be at the house. A cooling off period will be good for both of them; his own power level has done a few dances in this time.
He almost tells Trunks not to be out too late-- but this isn't home and Trunks, very suddenly, isn't a child. The knowledge is suddenly a very heavy burden to heart, but he chooses not to dwell on it. He lifts off himself and begins floating southward.]
action YOU'RE NOT MY REAL DAD :l
He's very rarely felt more terrible than he does now. Even when he'd...found Gohan's body, he'd felt more...angry, then numb. This is just a sick feeling, like his stomach is twisting in on itself.]
action YEAH HOW IS THAT GUY WORKIN' OUT FOR YOU
For now, best to just... nothing.]