thehometree | Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

One by one, new adventurers now arrive in the Tree. As one gain wings and rises to the second floor, another light brings in the next person. Soon, a steady stream of people from all kinds of worlds, times and realities come to join the others. Whether confused, angry, excited or scared, your arrival is welcomed with nothing but joy as the fireflies and glow worms descend to greet their new friends.

The Tree offers no explanation and no reason, but the truth is undeniable.

As you will soon realize, it isn't easy to be tiny.

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This wasn't the first time Gohan had been taken somewhere completely foreign to him, and he doubted it would've been the last. However, if there was anything about this situation that truly worried him, it was the amount of people that were seemingly in the same situation as him. He could handle being stuck in a strange new location, even if his powers had been tampered with in some way. But given how many people were here... he had to wonder just what the point of it all was supposed to be.

Because it certainly wasn't clear, that was for sure.

Rather than stick around and try and be social, Gohan decided to go somewhere a little less crowded. Before he could even think about helping anyone, he needed to know the current extent of his abilities. Slipping into one of the empty rooms, Gohan flew out the balcony, buzzing around the outside of the tree. The area was spacious, less crowded...

In other words, it was perfect.

Should anyone make their way outside the tree, they'll find Gohan wearing the business casual clothes he came in with. Showing an astounding level of mastery over his wings, as he alternated between different ways to test his ki for abnormalities. He could either be powering up, firing ki blasts into the fog, or practicing his martial arts with dizzying speeds. Either way, it was obvious that he was focused, because there was definitely something different about his ki, and he was determined to find out what it was.

When Korra finally managed to escape the first floor and find her way outside for some space, she wasn't completely surprised to find the area already occupied by someone else. The room had been a little too crowded for her, and for many others, she suspected.

Had this been three years ago, when Korra was in top form, she might have felt inclined to join him in his practice, but now, she simply kept out of his way. Korra flew over to another branch with more determination than skill, and sat down to watch him, taking note of his form and power.

After a while, Gohan might notice her studying him closely.

Powering up still felt the same, barring an obvious limitation on how much power he could access. The way his energy blasts behaved... looked the same, as far as he could tell, but something still felt off. His speed and power with his punches and kicks weren't affected though, barring the obvious power cap. So what the heck was it? Why did his ki feel so strange?

Gohan didn't get to think about it much further, once he sensed that there was someone out here with him. His serious expression dropping, as he blinked owlishly and turned to look at Korra. Had she been there the whole time? Or did she show up just now?

Just how distracted was he if he wasn't even paying attention to his senses?

"Um... h-hi there!" Gohan said with a somewhat awkward smile, before taking note of something. "You uh... don't seem to be freaking out."

Edited 2015-03-16 22:17 (UTC)

Korra started when he caught her staring, but she felt a little foolish for not realizing he might. He looked like a skilled fighter, and she knew how good people's senses could get. She just offered him a shrug, before jumping over--not flying--to join him.

"I'm used to seeing people do some really incredible things," she offered as an explanation. "The thing you were doing right now looks different, though. What was that?"

... Well, she was certainly more accepting of ki than Videl had been at first. Although it sounded like she didn't know what it was, which might also explain some things. It was possible that she was just a normal human who was another one of his father-in-law's many fans, hence the 'incredible' things she's seen. Either that, or... well... she was from a parallel world maybe.

But that was kind of a silly conclusion to jump to right off the bat.

"Oh uh, it's..." Gohan paused, trying to find the words. Ultimately though, it was just easier to show her, like Goten had shown Videl. So he held his palm perpendicular to himself, and formed a ball of ki over his palm. "I guess the best description I can offer is that it's the life inside every living being."

That hadn't been the answer she was expecting. She'd wondered if those blasts were some form of firebending she hadn't seen before at first, but now her mind drifted to the other conversations she'd had since she got here. The topic of other worlds had come up more than a couple times.

"The life inside every being," Korra repeated, then added, hopefully, just to see his reaction, "So it's like energybending?"

"... Energy what?"

He'd blurted it out without even realizing it, his mind immediately trying to picture energy actually being bent. But of course, that sort of thing wasn't really possible, so he wasn't sure what to think from there. The fact that she at least refereed to it as energy was a good sign, if nothing else. After all, it meant she must've had some kind of experience with something similar.

"W-Well, it's energy, yes..." Gohan muttered with a sheepish chuckle, letting the ki in his hand dissolve. "But uh, I'm not sure how you're supposed to bend energy..."

"Energy...bending..." Korra trailed off, bottom lip sticking out slightly. His reaction told her exactly what she needed to know: that bending wasn't a term he was familiar with at all.

Great.

"It's just a term that people in my world use. 'Bending' means you can control the elements."

Gohan's first thought at her explanation was how much of a misnomer the term 'energybending' was. Energy wasn't an element, so he wasn't quite sure why the term 'bending' was being associated with it. Of course, he wasn't going to say that out loud, given that was just some phonetic nitpicking on his part. However, her explanation had brought a couple of questions to mind...

"... Is that common in your world?" Gohan couldn't help but ask, a part of him curious about the idea of a world where uncommon abilities might've been more widely accepted. "Bending, I mean."

"Yeah, a lot of people have it," Korra said, looking oddly cheered as she began to explain. "There's four basic elements--water, earth, fire, air, and some of them have have other special types of bending. Oh, but there's a lot of non-benders, too."

With that introduction to bending out of the way, Korra latched onto something she'd noticed earlier. "So...I'm guessing the energy thing you did just now isn't really common in yours." It was just a hunch, formed from the way he'd asked about bending.

Well, she wasn't necessarily wrong.

"It's... kind of confusing to explain, really," Gohan started, finally deciding to give his wings a break as he landed on the ground next to her. "Everyone has the capacity to do what I do, no matter who they are... it's just not common knowledge, and the people who have seen it just think it's a trick."

Of course, there were extenuating circumstances when it came to him. Not only had he been training to use ki from an incredibly young age, but he also sort of had a genetic advantage on that front. If people weren't ready for the concept of ki, they definitely weren't ready for the concept of aliens living among them. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but wonder what it would've been like if there were enough ki users in the world for the concept to be seen as normal.

"So yeah..." Gohan held his palm out toward the mist, firing another ki blast at it. "It's not really common."

It made sense, in a way. If things were different in her world, Korra guessed people would think bending were some kind of trick, too. As it was, she knew it was considered something sacred and rare 10,000 years ago, when the lionturtles were the ones who bestowed the power of the elements to humans.

Korra turned her head, eyes following the progress of his ki blast through the air. "What were you trying to do earlier? You kept sending the energy blasts off into the mists," she said curiously. "I don't think it's going to budge, if that's what you were thinking."

"I know," Gohan sighed, letting his hand drop as he frowned slightly. "It's difficult to describe, but... something about my energy just feels... wrong right now."

He was trying his best to try and pin down what this oddity was, hence why he was jumping through so many self-induced hoops. But even after all of that, nothing was functionally wrong, so he wasn't sure just what this feeling was. "I'm trying to use my energy in different ways to see if I can figure out what's wrong. But so far... nothing. I mean, it doesn't feel as hot, but that's probably just the weather..."

... Wait a second.

Having your energy feel off was a feeling that Korra knew all too well, though she didn't think Gohan's situation was like hers. She glanced at him, eyebrows raised.

"You mean your energy's supposed to feel hot?"

While she wasn't able to help him figure out what the problem was, she could keep asking questions.

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superduperscholar - 2015-03-20 00:04 (UTC) - Expand

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braavado - 2015-03-23 13:45 (UTC) - Expand

Maybe it was the noise of the ki blasts. Or maybe it was the accompanying yelling (because let's face it, there's always yelling involved in these sorts of things). But something caught Kit's curiosity and drew her out to the balcony. When she got there, however, she saw the look of focus on the young man's face and decided that it probably would be best not to interrupt him.

Besides, what he was doing was really cool. So instead of speaking up, she sat down against the wall with her glowworm companion to much on her blackberry and enjoy the show.

Gohan might not realize he's acquired an audience right away, but if he doesn't, the next time he pauses he'll be alerted to Kit's presence by the sound of enthusiastic clapping.

Her clapping certainly alerted him, alright. To the point where he couldn't help but tense when he heard it, having been caught completely by surprise. Normally, his senses were a lot more alert than that, and he would've been able to sense anyone within his immediate vicinity. So either he had been really focused... or he was slipping up thanks to whatever was messing with his ki.

Neither option really thrilled him.

He simply floated there for a moment as Kit clapped, a part of him embarrassed that she'd been impressed by his tests. She looked young though, so he supposed it was to be expected. Nonetheless, Gohan had always been the humble type, even now. "Um... thanks?"

Kit smiled sheepishly at the way he tensed. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to startle you; you just looked like you were really focused and I didn't want to interrupt." Plus it had occurred to her that getting too close to someone shooting energy blasts probably wasn't the best of ideas.

"It was really cool, though," Kit said, sheepish smile turning back into a grin. "I've never seen magic quite like that before. And I've never seen anybody but Cheetara move that fast! Are you a Cleric where you're from?"

This wasn't the first time Videl had been taken somewhere weird either, but it was just as jarring now as any other time. She was in a strange place, no daughter in sight, ruined dinner all over her clothes, and furry wings coming out of her shoulders. One or two of these things, maybe Videl could've handled them. But no, this was too much. This would not stand.

Somehow, Videl managed to fly up to the first floor, where she found a large group of people with all different types of wings. She was just about to accost the nearest person and demand some answers, but somehow caught sight of a familiar figure leaving the room. A wife would know her husband anywhere, no matter how his appearance had changed, whether blonde haired or blonde winged; Videl was certain.

She weaved her way through the crowd, reaching the room just in time to see Gohan fly off the balcony. She hurried over, but didn't fly after. Leave it to Gohan to master flying in any form with no struggle. Videl, on the other hand, couldn't reliably unfold her wings. If she couldn't go to him, she'd make him come to her.

"Gohan!"

The yell had taken him by such surprise, he couldn't help but almost fall out of the sky. Not just because of how sudden the yell was, but because of how familiar the voice was. He figured he was the only one taken from their home, which was part of why he hadn't worried too much about his daughter. But if Videl was here...

"V-Videl?!" Gohan called back, eyes wide as he stared down at his wife. His wings fluttering a bit more erratically, as he finally began to move down to her. He should've been asking why she was here, if she was okay, if anything had happened to her. But there was a more pressing concern in his mind.

Who was taking care of their daughter?!

"W-Where's... Pan...??"

Videl was undergoing much the same thought process as Gohan and working her tiny body into a state of distress. Not being home with her daughter was plenty distressing on its own, but knowing that Gohan wasn't home with her was just not acceptable. Concern for Gohan's wellbeing didn't even rank on the spectrum of things Videl was worried about right then; Gohan could handle much stranger circumstances than this without even raising an eyebrow.

But their four year old daughter was an entirely different story.

"I don't know!" Videl cried, clenching her hands into fists. "I thought she'd be at home, but if you're here too...."

Gohan couldn't have been on the balcony any faster if he tried. His protective instincts practically on overdrive, as his mind ran a mile a minute in an attempt to think of something to say. They weren't with their daughter, that much was a fact. But... maybe that didn't exactly mean the end of the world

"O-Okay, let's just... slow down and think for a moment," He placed his hands on Videl's shoulders, his grip a bit firmer than usual, if only because of how much he was panicking on the inside. "Pan's all alone... but..." Goten could take care of her? No, he wasn't very good at childcare. His father could? No, he wasn't even around. His mother?

... Of course, his mother!

"W-We live next to my mom, so... she'll take care of our daughter while we're missing, right?" Gohan couldn't help but crack a smile then, that thought as much an attempt to calm him down as it was for her. "And it's not like mother won't come to investigate either, given Goten would know if we suddenly disappeared! So Pan should be fine... right?"

Videl drew in a deep (albeit shaky) breath, trying to process what he was saying amidst the growing chaotic panic in her mind.

Gohan was right. Chichi was there. Chichi was always around, whether barging into Videl's home without invitation, lecturing Videl on being a proper housewife, or just being an overly-attentive nuisance altogether. Videl loved her mother-in-law, she really did, but Chichi had made 'overbearing' into an art.

"You're right..." Videl rationalized aloud. "Chichi'll be over to check on Pan any minute now... Or Pan will go over there when she gets hungry." Which would be soon, considering that it was nearly dinnertime and Pan had been complaining about being hungry while Videl was cooking the now-ruined dinner. "She'll be fine..."

Videl winced and bit her lower lip, only then realizing that Gohan was squeezing her shoulders way too hard. "Gohan, that hurts!"

Gohan certainly looked very focused and preoccupied with what he was doing. Like it took a lot of concentration and shouldn't be interrupted or something. There were plenty of times when Steven could appreciate and respect that sort of thing, quietly stand back to observe, and wait to comment.

But ki-blasting and successful first-day flying was a really new phenomenon for him, so that all pretty much went right out the window, in favor of some excited cheering.

"That's so cool the way you're shooting and stuff!" Whatever he was shooting, and completely disregarding whether it might be hitting something out in the distance in the forest. Because it was awesome. "How do you do it?"

... Gohan really needed to start paying attention to his surroundings while he did this. Even if he usually had problems sensing regular power levels, this was starting to get kind of ridiculous. He wasn't that rusty with his senses, was he? He hoped not...

"Um..." Gohan just kind of... stared at the kid for a moment. He wasn't used to people cheering him on like this, and he didn't really know how to take a compliment. All he managed to do was stare somewhat sheepishly, and scratch the back of his neck. At least, before finally muttering something. "T-Thanks...?"

Of course, there was also the question. Which, he wasn't sure how to answer. "It's uh... it's just something I've always been able to do. I wanted to make sure I could still do it."

"Ohh, I see. Just making sure everything's still okay now that you're really tiny and sometimes have wings. That's a pretty good idea!" He hadn't even thought about seeing which of his powers still worked. Could being smaller really mess with them? Steven readjusted the strap of his leaf-backpack. "I didn't mean to mess up your funky flow, though. Sorry about that."

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