Mature Another trip to the river

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Goku
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Another trip to the river

Ashan 8 721

Goku never felt very good when he thought about his age. He was in his twenties and nearing the upper end of them as he so regularly reminded himself every time he wanted to pursue some kind of major life change. A fully grown man… hybrid was the more appropriate term. His dark hair swept over his eyebrows in indication that a comb would have done him well. His intense eyes were glazed over and his clothes showed wear from work. He had his sword on him with a rather standard handle where his right hand rested with his thumb pressed against the inside of his belt for support. Goku was leaned against his wall where his bow was. He’d never bothered to use that thing since it seemed rather worthless for someone who did not have any reason to engage in ranged combat. All forms of combat seemed unnecessary when one did not have reason to fight.

Goku glanced at the wooden weapon when he decided what he was to do today. The bow would remain unused though he longed to either sell it or learn to use it already. It was little more than an invitation for a thief to come in and sell it for a quick profit. Goku found himself on a path out of the town. A recent run in with a hunter made him wonder if he was wasting his time with civilization. “Have I gotten too caught up with what I do to get by that I stopped thinking about what would actually make me happy?” The question

Goku’s took forever to make it out of the town. He instead picked the wrong path by accident and ended up following it to an unsavory neighborhood. He knew this place to be the sort where he’d like to avoid but now that he knew where he was he could take the path back to a main road. “It’s broad daylight after all. Why worry?” Unfortunately he did not look like someone who was to be feared. While muscular to some degree he did not look so when he wore clothing that covered his body.

Goku drew looks that boded ill while he walked down the street. He did not notice any of these negative expressions because he was still thinking of the other day when he’d met that hunter that killed that deer. Goku did not pity the deer but he did recall the disgust he felt when the animal had been processed. It felt so out of his comfort zone to watch something like that while he would have been fine watching a butcher chopping meat without issue. “What makes a deer more likeable than the meat by itself?” Goku thought hard and concluded that it was the eyes. Those lifeless eyes were what spooked him the most. Just thinking about them made his stomach turn.

Unbeknownst to Goku a handful of people had trailed him and had plotted to give him some trouble. “Look who we have here,” said someone behind him just as another shoved him into a nearby wall. The impact was not exactly what the strangers were going for because Goku’s wings offered considerable cushioning. Goku didn’t even feel pain until a couple of them grabbed his wings and pressed them hard against the wall so he would not be able to move them.

Goku tried his best to look intimidating. He gave them an angry look and a large grunt when he tried to pull free but there was no escape in store for him. His hand went to the handle of his blade and he tried to draw it but there was no space to warrant drawing a weapon. By the time he pulled it a few inches from its scabbard a hand found its way to his throat to punish his lack of submission. It was hard to look tough when he was outnumbered and overpowered.

“Tell us where you keep your coin and you’ll be on your way,” said the leader of the small group of misfit criminals.

Goku sighed and then divulged “it’s in my left pocket.” He did not want to lie and cause more trouble. He just counted himself lucky for not having much to lose. He would have to skip his third meal for the day though if they did take his coin.

The thieves made off with the money which was only enough for a couple loaves of bread but Goku considered himself lucky. They could have taken his sword which would have netted a considerably larger sum. He could only speculate as to why they did not steal the sword. He guessed that it would take work to find a buyer or that he would report something valuable getting stolen. It wasn’t even worth the time to go report that such a small amount of money had been stolen. He didn’t even remember what any of them looked like because he’d been scared that they were going to hurt him some more.

Now that he had gotten back on the right path Goku was able to make his way out of the town and away from civilization to get an opportunity to train without distractions. The only noise he could hear was the rushing river and his own footsteps as he walked along until he found a suitable boulder to sit upon.

Goku thought about his mento Roshi and how he always said not to practice runes without him. Goku knew that the worry was that he would go too far. He held a finger up that held a potent amount of energy that he wished to use to scribe some runes. The temptation was difficult to resist. He was far from town so what did he have to worry about? He tried to resist the urge to scribe some runes on his body but could not resist. Never in his life had he ever felt the urge overcome him so powerfully.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” he said disappointedly when his finger made contact with his chest. “It can’t hurt to practice a little though. Three runes can’t hurt. You’ve done many more than that without causing any problems.” He started with the first rune. This one was good at amplifying his feeling of touch which went off without a hitch. It took him five minutes to scribe it and that was when he decided what he was going to work on.

“If I could just work on increasing the speed… Roshi can do this in mere moments but I take so long. I already know the shape so it should be simple.” Goku tried again and moved his finger as fast as he could manage to as his energy carved the appropriate symbol into his leg. He did not exactly have an hourglass to keep track of time but he could’ve sworn that he had scribed the rune a little bit faster.

“Just one more rune left for today,” Goku thought as he started up on the other leg. He tried to go a little faster this time and managed to cut his time down but a hawk cawing up above broke his focus. It did not stop but Goku still had to complete his training. He tried again and did his best to keep the hawk’s caws out of his mind but failed again about half way through because he could not focus on keeping his mind blank and try to do the rune quickly at the same time. He had worked hard to keep his mind free of distractions but there was only so much he could block out.

“Well that’s four runes that I’ve attempted. I should’ve only done three… okay last one for sure this time.” Goku did not see the harm in just one more attempt but knew that he was breaking his own three rune rule that he’d made up at the start of the exercise. It was incredibly difficult not to quit once he started scribing runes. The fifth one went about as well as the fourth. Distractions caused him to mess up and by that point he was ready to quit from the frustration.

By the time Goku was done with his rune training his runes had already worn all the way off so he could not test them out in any capacity. “I should at least do something while I’m out here. Wings are still sore from the other day and so is my back. Lunges it is then!” Goku put his hands at his hips and did lunges for about ten minutes until his legs started throbbing. He lunged towards the town as if it mattered when in reality it only shaved a couple minutes off of his travel time. When his legs were nice and burning he decided he’d had enough and walked back to his home. He was careful to take the appropriate paths this time so that he would avoid getting hassled by another group of robbers.

word count: 1540
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Bumblebee
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Re: Another trip to the river

Time to Bee Reviewed


Goku
🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝
Skill Knowledge
Intimidation x1
Meditation: x1
Discipline: x1
Hone: x2
Strength x1

Non-Skill Knowledge
None requested

Loot/Consequences
10xp - Can be used towards magic.

Renown
N/A

Magic
Yes. Hone was practiced.

I couldn't remember if I had read a Goku thread so I wasn't sure what to expect. As someone also entering their later 20s this year, I found his musings about his age early in the thread quite relatable. Overall, the thread was straightforward and pretty easy for me to understand.

Goku thinking about stuff > Goes on a walk > Gets robbed > Practices drawing runes on self (w/difficulty) > Does some mild exercise > the end

That seem about right?

I have no real complaints but if you're looking for a critique, I think you could benefit by adding a bit more 'umph' to certain scenes. I'll try to explain a bit better. I think the robbery was fine as is, but it didn't seem to impact the character much. Goku didn't really seem to have much an emotional response (which, that could just be his character so disregard if it is), but usually getting pinned and threatened in an alley is a big deal to most people. Goku did a good job trying to appear intimidating, but he didn't' seem scared, angry, or even *that* upset about it. If he was losing his last bit of coin for the day and had missed so many meals, I would he really be so chill? Not long after, he just goes about his day like nothing happened. I guess I at least expected silent seething or some form of disappointment to linger.

Please keep in mind that I haven't read much of Goku so I'm looking at this thread as a standalone piece. Good job and keep writing. :)
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