Post by Serori Yakedo-Satsumaimo on Mar 9, 2012 16:52:12 GMT -5
Serori went to the library. She had some research to do, regarding Saiyans. She had a very limited knowledge of her race, being raised by humans, and today, she planned on changing that. She walked over to the desk, to ask for assistance.
“Excuse me, ma'am, but I need to find some books about Saiyans.” Serori said this in a whisper, as was fit for a library.
The librarian looked over her half-moon spectacles at Serori. She was old, looking like a stereotypical librarian, her gray hair pulled up into a top bun, held together by two small, thin, brightly painted sticks. “What exactly about Saiyans are you looking for.”
Serori gave this hardly a thought. She knew exactly what she wanted. “Everything. I want to know everything about the Saiyans.” This seemed to hardly phase the librarian, who Serori thought would have been taken aback. A Saiyan wanting to know everything about Saiyans? But nevertheless, the librarian pointed with her tail to a shelf near the back, and went back to whatever she was doing.
Serori walked to the shelf, and looked at all the different books. There were many of them, and she had no idea where to start. She picked one at random. It was entitled 'Saiyans'. 'How typical,' she thought. She remembered a time when she had had too much being made fun of in one day when she was young, and had gone to the library. She had looked up a book on humans, to see if there was anything about a human having a tail. She had read about how humans had grown from prehensile monkeys, and had had tails, but no longer needed them. She put her tail up to that. The book had, of course, borne the title 'Humans.'
Serori began reading. She read about the Saiyans, how they were a powerful race. She read about Super Saiyan, a transformation that was rare for most Saiyans to acquire, but was possible through a high enough emotional stress to leave the users mind essentially snapped. This causes the Saiyan to increase their powerlevel by 12 times. However, it also makes the user arrogant, and even more violent. There was also a transformation called False Super Saiyan, which was not as powerful as the true form, but is achievable by the user when they are slightly weaker.
As Serori continued to read, she learned more about the Super Saiyans. There were four more transformations, each more powerful than the last, but harder to achieve.
“Legendary Super Saiyan is a unique and very rare Super Saiyan transformation rather than just a title. The result is a Super Saiyan with a seemingly endless supply of energy. The Legendary Super Saiyan's appearance is quite distinguishable from the regular forms of Super Saiyan. The legendary Super Saiyan's hair color is greenish-yellow. The Irises and pupils become seemingly nonexistent. However, the most noticeable difference between the form of the Legendary Super Saiyan and the regular Super Saiyan is the body size.
“The Legendary Super Saiyan's power, speed, strength, and endurance increase drastically. They only appear once every one thousand years.”
This astounded Serori. What power she could have if she could only obtain this form. But she knew it was impossible, as the book continued to state that it was something you were born with, not something you achieved. But she still had hope. With enough training, maybe she could be stronger than a legendary super saiyan.
She picked up another book, this one with the picture of a giant monkey, picking up a building, and shooting a ki beam out its mouth. It didn't have a title, but Serori thought it looked promising.
In this one, she learned about Oozaru. It was another transformation available to Saiyans, but In order for the transformation to take place, the Saiyan needs to have a tail, as the glands responsible for initiating the transformation are located exclusively there. He also needs to absorb at least 17 million zeno units of Bruits Rays through his eyes, to initiate a transformation. Bruits waves are found only in sunlight reflected by a moon. If there is no moon, a planetary body will reflect the same amount of rays. The easiest way to achieve this is to gaze at the full moon, making Saiyans similar to werewolves in this aspect. If any clouds covered the moon and/or a planetary body, it would block certain amounts of the radiation. Some Saiyans have even learned to create “fake moon” which radiate the correct amount of Bruits Rays. Controlling of the Oozaru form can be done by training the weakness out of your tail.
If a Saiyan's tail is removed or cut off, it is usually considered a great loss, as the tail is a source of great Saiyan pride. While adults cannot regrow their tails, children still have the ability to, if a certain spot in the small of their back is applied pressure. If someone grabs a Saiyan's tail, it causes instant pain and paralization.
All of this fascinated Serori. She now knew what her tail could do for her power. She decided she needed to train the weakness out of her tail, so that she would be able to properly harness the mighty Oozaru's true power, but first she needed to get stronger.
She replaced the book, and chose a new one, this time called 'The History of the Saiyans'. In this book, she learned that the planet Vegeta was not actually the home planet for Saiyans. They had come and taken it over. Also, a full moon only showed up on Vegeta every eight years.
She read how the Saiyans were a violent race, and at one point had attempted to take over the galaxy. During this time period, they had allegedly had five Legendary Super Saiyans helping them. They were a powerful race, but eventually were annexed by a strong Icer. At this point they assisted the Icer in the conquering and selling of other planets.
Serori read more, and continued reading for the whole day, learning everything she could about the Saiyans. When she was finally done, it was time for her to go to work. She headed that way.
~/\~ ~/\~ ~/\~ ~/\~ ~/\~
Serori arrived at the noodle shop, and not a moment too soon, for only a few minutes after she made her entrance, there was a sudden flow of people. She went into the back kitchen, and saw chef Kabocha working feverishly.
“What can I help with sir?”
He continued to cook, just moving his head towards a big wok over in one of the corners. Taking this to mean she was cooking today, she got started.
She took the wok, and looked over the ingredients at hand, before deciding. She was going to make sesame chicken with noodles. She started by cutting up some strips of chicken, which she placed on a side grill. Next, whilst the chicken was cooking, she decided to go ahead and prepare the coating. She grabbed a seperate bowl, and poured in a third cup of vinegar, a third cup of green onions, two tablespoons of honey, and one tablespoon of soy sauce. She decided it would also need some ginger, and she looked around the kitchen to find some. There was some on a table in the back, with other ingredients, and she grabbed some extra stuff to add into her dish.
She grated a tablespoon of ginger into the mixture, stirred it up, and tasted it. It wasn't quite right, and she wasn't sure what to do to fix it. Suddenly she saw a bottle of garlic chili sauce. That would more than likely do the trick. She put a teaspoon in, and tasted again. Better, but just a little more chili sauce. She put one more teaspoon. That was perfect.
The chicken had finished, so she placed the strips of chicken in the bowl, and coated the mixture over the chicken. She let that sit to absorb some flavor, and grabbed a sauce pan for the noodles. She boiled them for about eight minutes, drained them, and put them in the wok. From here, she drizzled oil on them, did a quick toss, put the chicken and mixture in with the noodles, and tossed those as well. They were done and ready to be served.
Serori presented her creation to the chef, who tasted it, and approved. He took the wok, and started doling out bowls. Serori stood there, wondering what she should do. Looking out the window, she saw how many customers there were, and decided she would make something else. She went back to her kitchen space, and made a quick calculation as to what she would be able to recreate from her childhood. She saw the shrimp and chiles, and decided to make a special rice noodles with shrimp. This would prove to be slightly complicated, as she had to remember how to make green curry paste, rather than buying it in the store. But she would try her best.
She grabbed a blender, trying to remember. She began with chopping an onion. She took two stalks of lemon grass, slicing the white portion thinly, took the remaining ginger she hadn't used in the previous recipe (approximately two inches) peeled it and chopped it. She put all this into a blender, with a fourth a cup of water. She went back over to the table to get a half a cup of cilantro, which she would mince, two teaspoons of curry powder, and one teaspoon of five spice powder. She put all of these into the blender before touching the chile peppers*.
“Mr. Kabocha, do you have any gloves I can use for the chile peppers?”
He pointed, while continuing to stir, at a cabinet. Serori grabbed some disposable gloves, and went back to the peppers. She moved them onto a seperate cutting board so she wouldn't get the juice on her later. She decided three would be enough, and deseeded them before putting them into the blender, then disposing of the gloves, and washing her hands. She hoped she remembered correctly on how to make it, or else she would have to go without it. It wouldn't be bad, just not as good.
Once the blender was finished, she grabbed a spoon, dipped it in, and tasted. It was perfect, just like she remembered. She smiled, and continued to fix the rest of the dish with a new found vigor. She poured the green curry paste into a sauce pan, and cooked it in two tablespoons of olive oil until she could smell it very well, and it was starting to stick to the pan. She added fourteen ounces of unsweetened coconut milk, the same amount of chicken broth, a fourth a cup of lemon juice, and, with some reluctance, two tablespoons of fish sauce. She didn't like the stuff, and it smelled nasty, but she knew without it, the dish wouldn't be right. She brought all of this to boiling, then reduced the heat.
While she let it simmer for about eight minutes, she began cooking the noodles. She took another pot, poured water into it, and, as an afterthought, threw in some salt. When it came to boiling, she put fourteen ounces of wide rice noodles into it, and cooked them for four minutes. Serori drained the noodles, rinsed them with cold water, and drained them again. She left the noodles in the pot, and went back to the sauce.
She grabbed about a pound of shrimp, peeled off the skin, and deveined them. Serori also took a sweet red pepper, and cut it into thin strips. She put both the shrimp and the pepper into the pan with the sauce, and added in a cup of fresh snow peas. She turned the heat up, and once it was boiling, she turned it back down. After letting it simmer for three minutes, she chopped up a fourth a cup of cilantro, and stirred it in. It was now ready to pour over the noodles. It looked delicious, and Serori wished she could eat it, but it was for the customers. She took it to Kabocha, who again poured it into bowled servings, and pushed it out the window to Matcha. Serori saw Matcha's look and the great number of customers, and decided to help out.
She stepped out of the kitchen, and grabbed some bowls. She was able to carry six, three on each arm, with speed and without dropping them. She quickly carried them to tables three, four, six, and seven, and collected three cups to refill with drink. She brought them over to the counter, and handed them to Matcha, whilst at the same time grabbing five more bowls. These were to go to tables one, nine, and thirteen.
Serori managed this, taking up two more cups. She still had the bowl for table thirteen, however, and that table was in a back corner. As she was taking it around, she saw the occupant of the table. It had the chair in the corner, and was wearing a cowl, covering its face. It also had hand wrappings, so she couldn't see its skin. All she could see was a lock of hair coming out of the front of the cowl, over where she hoped were its eyes. It was thin, wispy, and looked very unkempt. She brought the bowl over to the table, but as she was leaving, one of the arms shot out, and grabbed her. It was an iron grip, and she couldn't even move.
“רק אתה יכול להציל אותנו" **
The figure said this in a harsh, raspy voice, but a whisper. It sounded old, incredibly old, far too old to still exist. But she understood it. The apparition stood up, and left, in silence. It was almost as if nobody else but Serori could see it. It was hunched over, but still close to six feet tall. It made a slithering noise as it walked out, and the robe covering its body looked to be covering a tail dragging on the ground. Serori was thoroughly confused, and felt something on her wrist. A black, six pointed star had begun to form. She started rubbing it, but to no prevail. With a cry of shock, she ran to the bathroom, tried to scrub it off, but it still persisted. It did not hurt, it was just there. She went back to the counter, trying to get her mind straight, and set on her job.
After a few more hours of working, the crowds had dwindled down to nothing, and when the last customer left, Serori and Matcha started to clean up. Serori wondered whether she should ask Matcha about the mysterious figure, and thought she ought at least to try.
“Matcha, about two hours ago...did you...did you see, something, a person, at table thirteen?”
Matcha continued cleaning, thinking.
“I saw lots of people at table thirteen today. Anyone you were thinking about in particular?”
“Yes. It was tall, wore a cowl and a robe, I couldn't see any of his face. When he spoke, it sounded like dust, and old...” As Serori spoke, she realised how stupid she sounded. Matcha gave her an odd look.
“No, I have no idea what you are talking about. Nobody of that description even came into the shop, let alone ordered food.” He looked down at the table he was cleaning. “Maybe you ought to take an early shift. Maybe you're getting too tired staying out this late. You're seeing things.”
Once the shop was thoroughly cleaned, Mr. Kabocha gave Matcha and Serori their pay, and Serori left, without saying anything. Before she headed to her pod, she found a clothes shop that was still open, and bought an orange wrist band, which she pulled over her wrist. Maybe after sleeping, things would get better. Maybe she was a little sleep deprived.
But when she woke up the next morning, the star was still there, on her wrist. Serori didn't know what to do, so she just covered it up with the wrist band, and continued to wear it until she could think of a way to fix it.
*Because hot chile peppers contain volatile oils that can burn your skin and eyes, avoid direct contact with chiles as much as possible. When working with chile peppers, wear plastic or rubber gloves. If your bare hands touch the peppers, wash your hands well with soap and water
** for those of you who don't want to be bothered with looking this up, it means “Only you can save us” (lit. "You alone can help us")
“Excuse me, ma'am, but I need to find some books about Saiyans.” Serori said this in a whisper, as was fit for a library.
The librarian looked over her half-moon spectacles at Serori. She was old, looking like a stereotypical librarian, her gray hair pulled up into a top bun, held together by two small, thin, brightly painted sticks. “What exactly about Saiyans are you looking for.”
Serori gave this hardly a thought. She knew exactly what she wanted. “Everything. I want to know everything about the Saiyans.” This seemed to hardly phase the librarian, who Serori thought would have been taken aback. A Saiyan wanting to know everything about Saiyans? But nevertheless, the librarian pointed with her tail to a shelf near the back, and went back to whatever she was doing.
Serori walked to the shelf, and looked at all the different books. There were many of them, and she had no idea where to start. She picked one at random. It was entitled 'Saiyans'. 'How typical,' she thought. She remembered a time when she had had too much being made fun of in one day when she was young, and had gone to the library. She had looked up a book on humans, to see if there was anything about a human having a tail. She had read about how humans had grown from prehensile monkeys, and had had tails, but no longer needed them. She put her tail up to that. The book had, of course, borne the title 'Humans.'
Serori began reading. She read about the Saiyans, how they were a powerful race. She read about Super Saiyan, a transformation that was rare for most Saiyans to acquire, but was possible through a high enough emotional stress to leave the users mind essentially snapped. This causes the Saiyan to increase their powerlevel by 12 times. However, it also makes the user arrogant, and even more violent. There was also a transformation called False Super Saiyan, which was not as powerful as the true form, but is achievable by the user when they are slightly weaker.
As Serori continued to read, she learned more about the Super Saiyans. There were four more transformations, each more powerful than the last, but harder to achieve.
“Legendary Super Saiyan is a unique and very rare Super Saiyan transformation rather than just a title. The result is a Super Saiyan with a seemingly endless supply of energy. The Legendary Super Saiyan's appearance is quite distinguishable from the regular forms of Super Saiyan. The legendary Super Saiyan's hair color is greenish-yellow. The Irises and pupils become seemingly nonexistent. However, the most noticeable difference between the form of the Legendary Super Saiyan and the regular Super Saiyan is the body size.
“The Legendary Super Saiyan's power, speed, strength, and endurance increase drastically. They only appear once every one thousand years.”
This astounded Serori. What power she could have if she could only obtain this form. But she knew it was impossible, as the book continued to state that it was something you were born with, not something you achieved. But she still had hope. With enough training, maybe she could be stronger than a legendary super saiyan.
She picked up another book, this one with the picture of a giant monkey, picking up a building, and shooting a ki beam out its mouth. It didn't have a title, but Serori thought it looked promising.
In this one, she learned about Oozaru. It was another transformation available to Saiyans, but In order for the transformation to take place, the Saiyan needs to have a tail, as the glands responsible for initiating the transformation are located exclusively there. He also needs to absorb at least 17 million zeno units of Bruits Rays through his eyes, to initiate a transformation. Bruits waves are found only in sunlight reflected by a moon. If there is no moon, a planetary body will reflect the same amount of rays. The easiest way to achieve this is to gaze at the full moon, making Saiyans similar to werewolves in this aspect. If any clouds covered the moon and/or a planetary body, it would block certain amounts of the radiation. Some Saiyans have even learned to create “fake moon” which radiate the correct amount of Bruits Rays. Controlling of the Oozaru form can be done by training the weakness out of your tail.
If a Saiyan's tail is removed or cut off, it is usually considered a great loss, as the tail is a source of great Saiyan pride. While adults cannot regrow their tails, children still have the ability to, if a certain spot in the small of their back is applied pressure. If someone grabs a Saiyan's tail, it causes instant pain and paralization.
All of this fascinated Serori. She now knew what her tail could do for her power. She decided she needed to train the weakness out of her tail, so that she would be able to properly harness the mighty Oozaru's true power, but first she needed to get stronger.
She replaced the book, and chose a new one, this time called 'The History of the Saiyans'. In this book, she learned that the planet Vegeta was not actually the home planet for Saiyans. They had come and taken it over. Also, a full moon only showed up on Vegeta every eight years.
She read how the Saiyans were a violent race, and at one point had attempted to take over the galaxy. During this time period, they had allegedly had five Legendary Super Saiyans helping them. They were a powerful race, but eventually were annexed by a strong Icer. At this point they assisted the Icer in the conquering and selling of other planets.
Serori read more, and continued reading for the whole day, learning everything she could about the Saiyans. When she was finally done, it was time for her to go to work. She headed that way.
~/\~ ~/\~ ~/\~ ~/\~ ~/\~
Serori arrived at the noodle shop, and not a moment too soon, for only a few minutes after she made her entrance, there was a sudden flow of people. She went into the back kitchen, and saw chef Kabocha working feverishly.
“What can I help with sir?”
He continued to cook, just moving his head towards a big wok over in one of the corners. Taking this to mean she was cooking today, she got started.
She took the wok, and looked over the ingredients at hand, before deciding. She was going to make sesame chicken with noodles. She started by cutting up some strips of chicken, which she placed on a side grill. Next, whilst the chicken was cooking, she decided to go ahead and prepare the coating. She grabbed a seperate bowl, and poured in a third cup of vinegar, a third cup of green onions, two tablespoons of honey, and one tablespoon of soy sauce. She decided it would also need some ginger, and she looked around the kitchen to find some. There was some on a table in the back, with other ingredients, and she grabbed some extra stuff to add into her dish.
She grated a tablespoon of ginger into the mixture, stirred it up, and tasted it. It wasn't quite right, and she wasn't sure what to do to fix it. Suddenly she saw a bottle of garlic chili sauce. That would more than likely do the trick. She put a teaspoon in, and tasted again. Better, but just a little more chili sauce. She put one more teaspoon. That was perfect.
The chicken had finished, so she placed the strips of chicken in the bowl, and coated the mixture over the chicken. She let that sit to absorb some flavor, and grabbed a sauce pan for the noodles. She boiled them for about eight minutes, drained them, and put them in the wok. From here, she drizzled oil on them, did a quick toss, put the chicken and mixture in with the noodles, and tossed those as well. They were done and ready to be served.
Serori presented her creation to the chef, who tasted it, and approved. He took the wok, and started doling out bowls. Serori stood there, wondering what she should do. Looking out the window, she saw how many customers there were, and decided she would make something else. She went back to her kitchen space, and made a quick calculation as to what she would be able to recreate from her childhood. She saw the shrimp and chiles, and decided to make a special rice noodles with shrimp. This would prove to be slightly complicated, as she had to remember how to make green curry paste, rather than buying it in the store. But she would try her best.
She grabbed a blender, trying to remember. She began with chopping an onion. She took two stalks of lemon grass, slicing the white portion thinly, took the remaining ginger she hadn't used in the previous recipe (approximately two inches) peeled it and chopped it. She put all this into a blender, with a fourth a cup of water. She went back over to the table to get a half a cup of cilantro, which she would mince, two teaspoons of curry powder, and one teaspoon of five spice powder. She put all of these into the blender before touching the chile peppers*.
“Mr. Kabocha, do you have any gloves I can use for the chile peppers?”
He pointed, while continuing to stir, at a cabinet. Serori grabbed some disposable gloves, and went back to the peppers. She moved them onto a seperate cutting board so she wouldn't get the juice on her later. She decided three would be enough, and deseeded them before putting them into the blender, then disposing of the gloves, and washing her hands. She hoped she remembered correctly on how to make it, or else she would have to go without it. It wouldn't be bad, just not as good.
Once the blender was finished, she grabbed a spoon, dipped it in, and tasted. It was perfect, just like she remembered. She smiled, and continued to fix the rest of the dish with a new found vigor. She poured the green curry paste into a sauce pan, and cooked it in two tablespoons of olive oil until she could smell it very well, and it was starting to stick to the pan. She added fourteen ounces of unsweetened coconut milk, the same amount of chicken broth, a fourth a cup of lemon juice, and, with some reluctance, two tablespoons of fish sauce. She didn't like the stuff, and it smelled nasty, but she knew without it, the dish wouldn't be right. She brought all of this to boiling, then reduced the heat.
While she let it simmer for about eight minutes, she began cooking the noodles. She took another pot, poured water into it, and, as an afterthought, threw in some salt. When it came to boiling, she put fourteen ounces of wide rice noodles into it, and cooked them for four minutes. Serori drained the noodles, rinsed them with cold water, and drained them again. She left the noodles in the pot, and went back to the sauce.
She grabbed about a pound of shrimp, peeled off the skin, and deveined them. Serori also took a sweet red pepper, and cut it into thin strips. She put both the shrimp and the pepper into the pan with the sauce, and added in a cup of fresh snow peas. She turned the heat up, and once it was boiling, she turned it back down. After letting it simmer for three minutes, she chopped up a fourth a cup of cilantro, and stirred it in. It was now ready to pour over the noodles. It looked delicious, and Serori wished she could eat it, but it was for the customers. She took it to Kabocha, who again poured it into bowled servings, and pushed it out the window to Matcha. Serori saw Matcha's look and the great number of customers, and decided to help out.
She stepped out of the kitchen, and grabbed some bowls. She was able to carry six, three on each arm, with speed and without dropping them. She quickly carried them to tables three, four, six, and seven, and collected three cups to refill with drink. She brought them over to the counter, and handed them to Matcha, whilst at the same time grabbing five more bowls. These were to go to tables one, nine, and thirteen.
Serori managed this, taking up two more cups. She still had the bowl for table thirteen, however, and that table was in a back corner. As she was taking it around, she saw the occupant of the table. It had the chair in the corner, and was wearing a cowl, covering its face. It also had hand wrappings, so she couldn't see its skin. All she could see was a lock of hair coming out of the front of the cowl, over where she hoped were its eyes. It was thin, wispy, and looked very unkempt. She brought the bowl over to the table, but as she was leaving, one of the arms shot out, and grabbed her. It was an iron grip, and she couldn't even move.
“רק אתה יכול להציל אותנו" **
The figure said this in a harsh, raspy voice, but a whisper. It sounded old, incredibly old, far too old to still exist. But she understood it. The apparition stood up, and left, in silence. It was almost as if nobody else but Serori could see it. It was hunched over, but still close to six feet tall. It made a slithering noise as it walked out, and the robe covering its body looked to be covering a tail dragging on the ground. Serori was thoroughly confused, and felt something on her wrist. A black, six pointed star had begun to form. She started rubbing it, but to no prevail. With a cry of shock, she ran to the bathroom, tried to scrub it off, but it still persisted. It did not hurt, it was just there. She went back to the counter, trying to get her mind straight, and set on her job.
After a few more hours of working, the crowds had dwindled down to nothing, and when the last customer left, Serori and Matcha started to clean up. Serori wondered whether she should ask Matcha about the mysterious figure, and thought she ought at least to try.
“Matcha, about two hours ago...did you...did you see, something, a person, at table thirteen?”
Matcha continued cleaning, thinking.
“I saw lots of people at table thirteen today. Anyone you were thinking about in particular?”
“Yes. It was tall, wore a cowl and a robe, I couldn't see any of his face. When he spoke, it sounded like dust, and old...” As Serori spoke, she realised how stupid she sounded. Matcha gave her an odd look.
“No, I have no idea what you are talking about. Nobody of that description even came into the shop, let alone ordered food.” He looked down at the table he was cleaning. “Maybe you ought to take an early shift. Maybe you're getting too tired staying out this late. You're seeing things.”
Once the shop was thoroughly cleaned, Mr. Kabocha gave Matcha and Serori their pay, and Serori left, without saying anything. Before she headed to her pod, she found a clothes shop that was still open, and bought an orange wrist band, which she pulled over her wrist. Maybe after sleeping, things would get better. Maybe she was a little sleep deprived.
But when she woke up the next morning, the star was still there, on her wrist. Serori didn't know what to do, so she just covered it up with the wrist band, and continued to wear it until she could think of a way to fix it.
*Because hot chile peppers contain volatile oils that can burn your skin and eyes, avoid direct contact with chiles as much as possible. When working with chile peppers, wear plastic or rubber gloves. If your bare hands touch the peppers, wash your hands well with soap and water
** for those of you who don't want to be bothered with looking this up, it means “Only you can save us” (lit. "You alone can help us")
