#i wish this game had a better speech check system this is just irritating

[nesonkin]

I hate this fucking game

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 272

Last time, Majin Buu turned Vegito into candy, which means there’s no one left to fight him..... except Krillin and Yamcha.  See, King Kai had the same idea as King Yemma with Vegeta, and the Elder Kai had with Goku.  Except all King Kai has is Krillin and Yamcha, and no magic power-up items to let them use.  You’d think he would at least try to contact the Elder Kai and score some more Potara earrings. 

Failing that, what is Krillin supposed to do that he didn’t already try the first time he fought Buu?   That fight lasted like two seconds.

Hell, Yamcha didn’t even get to fight.  He got hit with the candy beam while trying to find cover.  Now that he’s dead, he just wants to chill out and train, and take a relaxing shower after his workout.  

As far as he’s concerned, life on the Grand Kai Planet is better than Earth anyway, so why bother fighting Buu?   His only complaint is that there’s no hot chicks on this planet, which irritates me.   There’s no girl warriors who got the honor of keeping their body to train on the Grand Kai Planet?  That’s not even true, because we saw a few in the crowd at the Otherworld Tournament.    Maybe none of them are Yamcha’s type.

Anyway, don’t count Vegito out just yet, because Buu seems to be having a little trouble following through on his plan to eat the guy.

Yeah, turns out VEGITO CAN STILL FIGHT IN CANDY FORM.    He can talk too, which is pretty messed up.

Everyone watching is like “Whaaaaa?“

Buu isn’t convinced that this is a problem.   Even if Vegito has all his original power, he can still eat the guy.  

Only, no, he can’t.   Turns out fighting Candy Vegito is like trying to swat a fly with all the powers of Vegito.   Buu can’t even catch the guy, while Vegito can zip around in any direction and slam into him like a bullet.

When Buu can’t grab hold of the thing, he can’t actually do anything to him, because Vegito’s strong enough to keep moving in spite of being in Buu’s grip.   You know, he should have just lured Vegito underwater, and hoped that the sea would dissolve him.   Then again, maybe that would turn Vegito into an ocean, and he’d be able to kick Buu’s ass even harder that way.

At one point, Vegito even flies straight into Buu’s mouth and shoots out the other side, shearing off his head tentacle again.  So even if Buu could get the thing in his mouth, how could he possibly swallow him?

So Buu does the only sensible thing and changes Vegito back to normal.   But it’s not like Vegito was any easier to beat this way.

This is the thing that always bugged me about the Candy Beam in the video games.   First, it’s only temporary, which I guess is a concession to the game mechanics, but okay.   But it seems to me that there should be a thing where if you use it on Vegito, he should damage the user instead.   I guess the same should apply to anyone as strong or stronger than Vegito. 

Anyway, Vegito does his Happy Dance, while the Elder Kai reaaaaaalllllly wishes Vegito would just hurry up and finish this fight.

Then we get this flashback to when King Yemma got Vegeta to agree to return to Earth to fight Buu.   The first time I saw this scene, I was grateful, because they kept talking about it for several episodes, but it seemed kind of convenient.  There’s some plot holes to some of these King Yemma scenes we’ve seen, because he probably would have been busy preparing Vegeta for this, but instead he was stressing out over all the paperwork for Buu’s victims.    

Anyway, the story isn’t all that complicated, and now that I know what happened, this scene seems a bit gratuitous, but no more so than any other filler.

In a nutshell, King Yemma isn’t supposed to give shady characters like Vegeta their bodies back, but he did it this time because he needs him to go down and help fight Buu.  Furthermore, he informs Vegeta that his self-destruct attack on Majin Buu failed, which means his death was meaningless, “no more than a dog’s death”. 

Then we have a flashback within a flashback, which is weird, but we probably needed this, since Episode 237 was a while ago. 

So this upsets Vegeta and he powers up-- I can’t tell if he’s Super Saiyan with this weird color palette-- but he wrecks the decor in Yemma’s room.   Nevertheless, he agrees to cooperate, but Vegeta probably would have done that anyway, so that crack about the “dog’s death” was probably overdoing it.

So this is another plot hole.  We’ve seen Yemma’s place a few times during the last thirty episodes, but this is the first time we’ve seen all this damage to the walls.  Yemma hopes that King Kai will help him out with the repair bills.   Wait, King Kai has money?   I doubt he’d share any, since he’s homeless and all.

Back on Earth, Buu still won’t admit he’s outclassed, so Vegito starts really laying into him.   Only now, Buu can’t pull himself back together as easily.

And he just keeps hitting him.   That really scary music from the OST plays.   Let me see if I can find it...

Okay, so turns out it’s from the Movie 11 score, which you can find on this track from the DBZ Complete BGM album, about 5:03 in. 

Anyway, Buu gets totalled here, and when he puts himself back together, he insists that it didn’t hurt....

Except he failed to regenerate the hole in his stomach on the first try. 

Vegito is satisfied that Buu’s regeneration powers have reached their limit.   From here, even if Buu continues fighting, he’ll just get weaker and weaker until he gives out completely.  So he declares that he’ll now put Buu out of his misery.

Buu objects, but Vegito shoves a Spirit Sword through his face.   Oh, okay, so that’s why this is his finisher in the video games.

Vegito announces that he’ll give Buu a ten-count before killing him.   That’ll give him time to pray or make peace with his demise or whatever.   If he wants to die sooner, Vegito invites him to attack him one more time.

So, to follow up on a reply from @mach13elephantexplosion back in Episode 268, I went back and checked, and Buu was indeed counting to five using the “hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu“ Japanese counting system.   Vegito, on the other hand, is using “ichi, ni, san...”  

In particular, Vegito’s  using the word “shi” for 4 and “shichi” for 7.   Those were the words I learned a long time ago whenever I learned to count to ten in Japanese, and it always frustrates me whenever I hear actual Japanese speakers use “yon” and “nanna” instead.  I mean, it’s their language, they can use it as they please, of course.   Really, what annoys me is that wherever I learned the words for Japanese numbers neglected to consider which words are actually used in regular speech.   The Japanese avoid “shi” because it’s a homonym for their word for “death”.    Same deal with “shichi” for 7, because it has “shi” in it.   Apparently “ku” for 9 is a similar issue, because it’s a homonym for “agony”, which I guess is how “kyu” became a thing.    But ku and kyu sound similar enough that I can’t pick up the difference.

The point I’m making here is that Vegito ain’t fuckin’ around.     “One!   Two!  Three!  DEATH!  Five!   Six!  DEATH-chi!  Eight!   AGONY!   Ten!”   This is CZW.

As Vegito counts, Buu realizes that his only chance is to absorb Vegito like he did with the others, but how can he do it without being noticed?   

Then he notices the head tentacle, which Vegito lopped off a few minutes ago.  

And as he mentally summons it to sneak up on Vegito, we see that this is exactly what Vegito was waiting for.   I think it’s safe to say that most of Vegito’s hot-dogging in this fight was for the sole purpose of forcing Buu to use up all of his other options until he had no choice but to try this.  

Even so, Vegito seems a bit nervous that his plan may not work.   

But the die is cast.  As Vegito reaches ten, Buu springs his trap...

And Vegito uses a ki force field to protect himself.

And that’s it.   Buu merges with the piece of himself, just like every other absorption, although he never actually changes appearance, like he did with the others.   But he’s so happy to be rid of Vegito that he doesn’t notice.

Mr. Satan barely understands what’s happened, while Dende is horrified.  With Goku and Vegeta gone, there’s no one left to save the Earth.

An observation shared by the Supreme Kais.

Meanwhile, Buu let’s Vegito know that he’s number one.

[ellanainthetardis]

Could you please do something during the games where haymitch and Effie sleep in the same bed but don't have sex because Effie is on her period and they realise how domestic it is?

Here you go! [X]

A Trial Run In Domesticity

There were papers everywhere. Schedules,speeches, to-do lists, piles of notes concerning mayors’ names, possible safetopics of conversations for the children to start during the various dinners…Effie’s bed was covered with them, so were the floor around it and both hernightstands. She and Haymitch were sitting with their backs to the headboard,trying to make sure the next District stop would run smoothly.

It was late, Effie’s eyes were burning and thelight rocking of the train, as it rushed into the night to District Eight,wasn’t helping her sudden bout of sleepiness. She shifted for the third time inas many minutes, trying to relieve the latent pain in her lower back. She couldhave taken a pill but the bottle was on her dressing table, too far away forher to reach – besides, moving would disrupt the system they had going and shewasn’t about to do that until they were ready to tidy up and go to bed. It wasa pain to organize.

“What’s wrong?” Haymitch grumbled, not lookingup from the speech she had prepared for Peeta. He was adding notes in themargins here and there. She would need to rewrite it. And then copy it oncards. In the morning, she decided. After a few hours of sleep.

“Nothing, why?” she hummed, snatching herpersonal schedule from the nightstand to add writing cards on it. She would need to get up earlier but she couldsqueeze it before breakfast.

“You’re squirming.” he replied, distracted.“It’s annoying.”

She rolled her eyes but didn’t rise to thebait. Annoying was the now emptyglass of whiskey that he had placed on her nightstand despite her rule about him never bringing liquor into her bedroom.She could smell it from where she was sitting. The only reason she hadn’treally argued was because he had brought her some of her favorite tea alongwith it.

The tea was long gone too now…

She shifted again, wishing she could haveanother mug of it. Or perhaps coffee. If they were going to continue workingthrough the night, she would need coffee.

He shot her an irritated glance, probablybecause she had moved once more.

“My apologies but I am tired anduncomfortable.” she snapped. “We should have stuck to the living-room car.”

The living-room car had couches that would havebeen easier on her back than the wooden headboard. Better yet, they could haveremained in the dining-room car where there were chairs, a table and beverages easily accessible.

“It’s youwho claimed the kids keep wandering at night and that they would walk in andmess with everything.” he pointed out. “So calm your tits, sweetheart.”

“Language.”she huffed, slamming her schedule back on her nightstand.

“Nobody said you couldn’t get comfortable.” hescowled. “It’s two a.m. Who fuckingcares if you get in your pajamas.”

She pursed her lips at him because he certainly had no problem making himself at home in her room. He had toed off hisshoes long ago, his waistcoat and his jacket had been tossed on her dressingtable’s stool, his shirt was half unbuttoned, and his sleeves were rolled upalmost to his elbows – which she actually quite enjoyed because there wereworse sights than his muscular forearms.

“How long does it take to read a speech?” shesighed. “And honestly couldn’t you beneater? How do you expect me to read those scribbles of yours?”

His handwriting was atrocious. She had painfully grown used to it with the years andshe could decipher it easily enough nowadays but it still took efforts. Sheusually didn’t comment on it because it was a sensitive subject. He had quittedschool at sixteen and his attendance before that hadn’t been stellar from whatshe had gathered – feeding his family had been a more pressing concern thangoing to school. He wasn’t really proud of his butchered education. He had acurious mind and he might have been the smartest person she knew though, he hadcompensated for it by himself through books – and he had done an impressive jobof it, in her opinion, he was more well-learned than a lot of Capitols sheknew. But there were things that betrayed him and the handwriting he rarely haduse for was one of them.

She regretted the gibe as soon as it hadslipped past her lips.

“Sorry.” she offered immediately, before hecould retaliate. “I am tired.”

His offended scowl slowly turned into a sulk.“You’re cranky.”

“I suppose I am, yes.” she admitted, pattingher orange wig. Her scalp was starting to itch and she threw caution to thewind and started removing pins.

The look he tossed her probably meant she shouldhave done that earlier – and he mighthave had a point. After all, it wasn’t like he had never seen her without a wigon. But it wasn’t natural to her to workwith someone – even him – without a wig or proper clothes. They worked togetherand they had sex together, those were two very separate things in her mind.

“I’m almost done with this one.” he said. “Iwanna check Katniss’ again but you can start packing that up if you want. We’redone with schedules and notes.”

Schedules and notes were more her specialty anyway. He only listenedto what she had to say because the Tour was going to hell. He had neverbothered before.

She slipped her wig off and tousled her blondcrumpled hair, then she gathered everything in the right order. Once thereweren’t papers everywhere – saved from the speeches he was still reviewing –she got off the bed and to her dressing table. She took her make-up off,noticing his grey eyes were tracking her every move instead of focusing on thenotepad in his hand.

“Haymitch.” she reminded him, pursing her lipsat him in the mirror.

He smirked and gave her a small shrug. “Allwork and no play…”

“Nothing is happening tonight.” she said veryfirmly. “Do not give yourself any idea.”

She stood up and walked to the wardrobe,rummaging inside until she found the blue dress she was planning on wearing inEight the following day. She carefully hung it at the front of the rack,pulling out the matching heels and placing them in easy reach. It would be again of time.

“Always helps you to sleep when you’re tired…”he insisted, his gaze roaming over her body.

“Even so.” she retorted, fishing silky greenshorts and their matching lacy top from a drawer. “Tonight is not a good time.”

He grabbed her wrist when she passed by the bedin the direction of the bathroom, tugging a little. “You’re angry at me,sweetheart?”

He was actually pouting, as if she would withdraw sex as a punishment for whatevercrime he had committed – well… she hadbeen known to do just that but it made her wonder what he had been up to behindher back that he felt she might have punished him for.

“Take a hint, Haymitch.” she muttered. “It is not a good time.”

It took a few seconds for understanding to dawnon his face. He let go of her wrist as if he had been burned, with a quiet ah.

“Explains why you’re cranky, I guess.” heshrugged.

She wasn’t sure that particular situation hadever occurred before. Usually, she simply avoided his attentions for a few dayswhen it was that time of the month, but living together in a penthouse duringthe Games and living together on a train were two different things. The Tourwas a lot more close quarters than she would have liked. It had been less spontaneous sex lately and more sex at night behind closed doors. Itfelt like a shift in their – non-acknowledged – relationship.

They worked late and they didn’t get a lot ofrest, if they slept together after a work session, he tended to remain in herbed because it was only for a couple of hours and it seemed stupid for him tostroll the train’s corridors in the middle of the night. He had been anxiousabout his night terrors at first but… She was used to them, she knew what tonever do – touch him or remain close enough that he could hurt her – and whatto actually do – call his name andtoss things at him from a safe distance until he woke up. She had noticed hehad less nightmares when he slept with her. It was Katniss’ screams that wereechoing through the night nowadays, not his.

Nevertheless, the situation felt awkward. Shehad never ever discussed this sort ofthings with a man before. Propriety made it almost a taboo subject. There werethings you never talked about if youhad the correct upbringing.

A Capitol man would never have made a joke likethat. They would have perhaps acknowledged the hint with a discreet nod andswitched topic because that was theproper thing to do. Not that Effie would have admitted as much to a Capitol manin the first place. Men tended to be disgusted by it and perfection was key inthe city.

Haymitch didn’t really look disgusted. Just abit uncomfortable.

She ducked into the bathroom, choosing to fleerather than to face the oddness. She decided it was another example of thecultural differences that existed between the Districts and the Capitol.

She took her sweet time in the bathroom, hopinghe would have been done with the speeches and, thus, would be gone by the timeshe walked out.

What she didn’texpect was to find the speeches neatly piled on the nightstand, his pants,underwear and socks abandoned on the floor, and Haymitch himself in her bed,sprawled on his stomach, the sheets and blankets kicked to his knees.

She didtake a few seconds to admire the glorious view – it was a masterpiece, as far as she was concerned: the lines of hisback, the few faded scars, the butt that begged to be bitten, the strongthighs, the slightly hairy calves… Even the soles of his feet… She knew she wasin too deep because there was nothingabout his body she didn’t find attractive.

She could definitely understand why the Capitolhad gone crazy for the Quell’s victor twenty-five years earlier. He was handsome still.

And he was hers.

All hers.

“You’re staring.” he mumbled, eyes closed, hisface half buried in the pillow he had commandeered. “Get your pretty ass inbed, Effie.”

She licked her lips, not quite sure he hadunderstood her after all.

“Haymitch, I have my period.” she clarified,too tired to beat around the bush.

He opened an eyelid to study her. “Yeah, gotthat.”

“I am nothaving sex with you.” she clarified.

“Also got that.” he scoffed. “I ain’t totally clueless, sweetheart.”

“You are naked.In my bed.” she deadpanned. “Excuse me for expressing some doubts.”

She switched the lights off and climbed overhim to get to what was quickly becoming herside.

“I like sleeping naked.” he grumbled. “You knowthat.”

Sleeping naked in the privacy of his own roomwas one thing. Sleeping naked in her room after they had sex was another thing.Stripping down and climbing in her bed when they weren’t about to have sex was entirely something else.

“You are sleeping here.” she stated out loud,for her benefit as well as his.

She was thankful for the semi-darkness becausehe suddenly tensed and turned his head so he could look at her.

“That’s okay?” he asked, not sounding asconfident as usual.

He liked to call her arrogant but he had hisown particular brand of egotism. He rarely, if ever, asked for permission before doing things that concerned herand he tended to assume she would either agree or cave – like, apparently,deciding he could sleep in her bed without being invited to as if they were ina habit of doing so.

“I suppose.” she answered carefully, not quitesure what it meant.

He rolled on his side and reached out for herjust as carefully – if not awkwardly.They had never really done that. When they cuddled in bed it was because theyhad ended up tangled in the throes of passion. They never really purposefully reached out – it had happened before when he had been toodrunk to care, but sober?

She let him spoon her, sighing in relief whenhis warm body plastered itself to her back. There was one good thing to havingHaymitch Abernathy in her bed – well, there were several good things but that one was a nice bonus – he was a sourceof warmth. She loved that. And rightthen it was all her body needed.

His arm sneaked around her waist, squeezing abit too tight for her comfort. She nudged it higher and he grumbled butadjusted as she saw fit.

It was comfortable.

And nice.

And, perhaps, a bit frightening in itscasualty.

“Does this feel domestic to you?” she whisperedafter a few minutes spent staring at the wall, despite the fact that she wasready to drop of exhaustion.

“Please.” he scoffed “We couldn’t be domesticif we tried.”

He didn’t sound as convinced as he ought to be.

She had never let herself picture it, what alife together might be like. It was impossible and dangerous. Only pain liedthat way.

“You are right.” she lied.

“Sweetheart, I’m always right.” he snorted, pressing a kiss against her nape.“Sleep.”

She relaxed in his embrace, happy in theknowledge that she was as safe as could possibly be.

It was the best night she had on that train sofar.