Ginger Town Encounters [Kaula]

Articho dejectedly walked into a small fast food restaurant that had a help wanted sign. He stayed back near the entrance to the store and watched people as they ordered food and the clerks giving it to them. He awkwardly stood with his hands in his pockets and shifted his weight back and forth between each foot. He was hesitant to ask for an application. One of the clerks noticed and him and smiled in his direction.

"Hi! Can I help you?" she asked.

"Uh..." Articho said as he approached the counter. He paused, unsure whether to ask for an application or not. The clerk's eyes quickly grew impatient with him and he swallowed nervously. "I'll have a club sandwich," he blurted out. Great, wrong thing to ask for.

"Alrighty, it'll be out in a few minutes," she replied cheerily. He smiled weakly, mentally berating himself for the sudden moment of doubtful panic. Articho stood by waiting, his hands in his pockets. As he did, a scream tore through the store and the young hybrid looked up towards the outside. The scream was followed by another incredible loud yell. Articho became aware of the high power level that had come nearby and he had ignored while he was distracted by his thoughts. He dashed from the store, intrigued and suddenly worried for the safety of Ginger Town. He looked in the direction of the power flare and saw a young woman with a monkey tail, much like he did. A man lay on the ground near by, passed out. The woman looked angry and he cautiously approached her.

"I think you won," Articho said, his tone light and joking. He hoped to ease her before she tried to do whatever she did to the man on the ground on him.

Articho watched the woman retrieve her purse from the Saiyan girl in front of him. The would-be purse snatchee quickly bolted away from the scene, fearful of what she had witnessed. Clearly, seeing a short girl with a monkey tail headbutt the living daylights out of a grown man was too much for her to normally handle. Articho glanced around at the gathered crowd. He honestly wanted them to disperse. He could tell the Saiyan girl is not too keen on anyone else really interacting with her.

"No need for such hostility. It was a joke," he said. Articho ran ideas around his mind to try and find something that would calm her in some way. Her look told him that she thought he was an complete idiot. He took another glance at her tail and an idea ran through his mind, or more specifically, his tail. He willed his tail to slowly slide out from his pants leg and out from under the back of his shirt. The brown, furry appendage lifted itself up, showing itself to the Saiyan girl. The crowd began to murmur in surprise.

"I would hope I know how fights went," Articho replied. "Otherwise, this," he pointed to his tail, "wouldn't be very fitting on my back. The whole 'Saiyan' half would be kind of a waste then, yes?"

Articho grinned as he let his tail fall down behind him, "What's say we get lunch and talk for a bit? Not to often I meet others similar to me and I got a club sandwich waiting for me a few stores over."

((It's quite alright (: ))

Not much of a sense of humor with this one. Articho's grin fell and stood watching her kick the fallen man in the stomach. "Seems that way," he said. He studied the man for a moment more. He looked really pitiful curled up on the ground like that. "I've been told my jokes are so bad that they can raise the dead just so they can tell me to stop," Articho continued. He gave a breathy chuckle before stopping again. "Sorry."

Articho blinked in surprise at the girl's disgust. She seemed appalled by his admittance to being a hybrid, which confused him. "I didn't know there was a problem," he said. "Impure's a little bit strong a word to describe half Saiyans, right? It's not like we're unclean." Articho found her reaction very odd. They didn't even know each other and it seemed her judgement was passed. He had hoped that his admittance would lessen her courseness towards him even a little bit, though it appeared to do nothing. Her next statement confirmed her harsh manner. He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes when she said he was probably low class. He could have made a snippy comment, but he held his tongue and shrugged instead before replying, "So what? I was raised on Earth by my human mother. What 'class' I am has never applied to me. I don't even know, to be honest. My father was gone before I was born and I never learned."

He grinned as she agreed to have lunch. "I'm inviting you. Of course I pay," he responded as he turned and walked next to her. His tail began to move back to its hiding spot in his pants leg, but he stopped it and decided to let it stay hanging down his back. It was an strange feeling for him, it being one of the first times he has walked around public without his tail hidden. Plus, he really didn't want to sit on it at lunch. "Never had a nickname before," he commented. He extended his hand towards her for a handshake. "Name's Articho. Pleasure to meet you."

Still no laughter. Clearly comedy was not his strong suit. Articho cocked his head slightly in confusion. Hybrids were killed on Vegeta? That seemed odd to him. Would Saiyans really kill those like them? He knew they were a pretty strong, warrior race, but killing their own half kind that they could use or held some form of relationship with. Then again, his father had left him, so relationships didn't seem important to them. But he also had held a relationship with his mother and told her that mission for him. Did Turrip love Articho's mother? Did he hold some sort of fatherly pride for Articho? It was hard to tell and it ultimately didn't matter. His father had still left them and Articho would get his revenge.

"Harsh planet," he commented. He gave her a questioning sideways glance. "Not so bad being human raised. I've got the Saiyan potential for strength without the stubborn, warlike nature they have. Plus, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted to be raised by Saiyans."

"Nice name," Articho said as he let her hand go. His stomach rumbled. He would need to order more than just a club sandwich. He was lucky his mother gave him a lunch allowance of a good deal of zeni. He figured the time she spent with his father taught her the nature of Saiyan appetites.

Articho felt a flare of anger in his chest. The way he was raised made him weak? Yamado certainly hadn't been easy with him and he had spent eight years of his life training with the old man. From what she was saying and what he learned about his father, it seemed that Saiyan parenting was more hands off and brutal. Yamado had been hard during their training, but he was also encouraging and friendly during their down times. "One can't be too sure," he simply said. Articho looked up at the sky for a moment. "Human nature can surprise you."

"Was she a Saiyan?" he asked as he walked in after her. He glanced sts the counter and spotted his sandwich sitting there. He approached the counter and picked it up as Kaula ordered her own food. Articho glanced up at the food she ordered, then back to his own sandwich. "May I get..." the hybrid paused, tapping his chin as he thought about how much he wanted, trying to determine how hungry he was, "seven more of these?" The cashier nodded, a look of amazement on her face. Articho handed her the money and turned back to Kaula as the rest of the food was being prepared. He took a bite of his sandwich as she asked him a question.

"My mother sent me out to look for a job," Articho answered as he swallowed his bite. "Not that I really want one. It would take away time from training. What about you?"

"Human nature keeps me from killing everyone I come across," Articho retorted. Of course, he did have the random violent urge every now and again. Sometimes he wanted to punch the nearest person straight through a wall for the hell of it, but the hybrid controlled his Saiyan half by reminding himself to save such urges for his father when he finally confronted him. A big deterrent was also the backlash his mother would have for him if he did something that stupid and got sent to jail.

Articho raised his hands defensively. "Hey, no need for the hostility," he said. "Not like I was raised on Vegeta or anything. All I know is my father picked my name and I have no idea why my mother agreed." He always thought his name was strange, but given other Saiyan names, it made sense. "That's pretty cool, actually. Your parents must be pretty fond of her, then. I didn't think Saiyans actually held familial ties in high regard."

"Seem to? I do train," Articho scoffed. "It's mostly by myself and by my own guidance and not with actual equipment, though. Just boulders and trees." It sounded like he really didn't since he used what he could rather than buy training gear, but he made sure to keep it high intensity that strained him. He nodded in response to what her job was. "Probably better than working a fast food joint. What's the city you protect? I'll have to stop by and visit sometime." Articho smiled as he said it, meaning it as a joke, but he wasn't sure if she would take it seriously or not.