Disclaimer:
DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama
the others are mine ;p
This story is a "prequel" toYELL. Some points about the meeting beyween Katrina and Trunks and Goten, as wel, as events they had to face a few months before the beginning of YELL will be explained here; these poitns are useful for the good understanding of YELL :)
NOTHING HURTS LIKE YOUR MOUTH
Chapter 1 - Influence of the Media
"... and don't forget that this work will count for most of your score for the year". Those words, heavy with consequences were the first Trunks and Goten ever heard that day as they entered the Sociology classroom which was gathering the students of first and second year of Satan City University. The only course Trunks, 2nd year student, and Goten, freshly arrived in first year, had in common. This course wasn't exactely the students' favorite. Most of them were so used to get syllabi as thick as their forearm, and so reassured by this masochist side of the materialist representation of the course, that they were disoriented as soon as they arrived in a course where the teacher had decided not to measure the quality of his course to the paper-weight of this documents, but rather on the dialogs and the debates installed with his students.
The sociology course, give by Prof Sean Harket, was actually getting to the problems linked to the influence of the media. Trunks had just come out a few month ago from the fiming of a big production that had brought to him celebrity as well as media-gossips. Kirsten Creed, the girl he had madly falen in love with, when he was in highschool, and to who he had admitted his feelings after years of "preparation", had to face the pressures, the gossips and insinuation of the media that were making Trunks look like the new Don Juan.
Trunks had planned to explain everything to her about the dragon team, as well as the time-travells of his future counterpart. He was afraid she would think him mad, and was always delaying the moment he would make her realize that her world wasn't as simple as it seemed, but was ruled by laws she couldn't fanthom. He had waited too long, and when he finally decided to reveal everything to her, it was too late: Kirsten had just seen Lynn (his movie partner) and Mirai-Trunks together. Ignoring the existence of a second Trunks and remembering the gossips of media (classical gossip created all the time between "movie partners" each time a big production movie was coming out on theater), Kirsten had thought her boy-friend had cheated her.
As time passed, Trunks tried to make her understand it was another Trunks from the future. She had considered him as mad, trying to escape his fault by silly lies. The accumulation of stress of the past few months and the suspicion born from the gossips, had ran her patience and made her break. Had Trunks been a little bit older, he would have understood that patience and perseverance could allow dialog between Kirsten and he, and that slowly, it would have been possible to make her realised what had truely happened. But he was just a teenager, himself under the pressure of the media, and psychology wasn't his strong point. They had finally tossed strong words to each others and had never talked to eachother afterwards.
Trunks still regretted what he had told her, and especially the stupidity of the situation, but he didn't know how to repair what had been broken. And especially, he hated Mirai-Trunks, thinking that everything had been his fault. If he hadn't been with Lynn that day...
Trunks shook his head to chase those thoughts away and sought for a row in the auditorium where Goten and he could sit. Goten made a discreet sign to indicate some available seats near a girl with short black hair, four rows from the end of the auditorium.
Was it by rebellion? By revenge to have been wrongly accused? Anyway, since his break with Kirsten, he had actually endorsed the role the media wanted him to play: the very Don Juan, collecting one-time adventures as some people collect stamps or butterflies.
The problems created by the influence of the media... Trunks was feeling like a fire of hatred flowing in his veins, as if this section of the course had been made especially for him. No one else in the classroom would have been better placed than him to talk about it. At least, a course he would suceed without studying!
Trunks and Goten sat at the end orf the row, near the raven haired girl as the teacher was continuing his course with diapositives showing news sections coming from tabloids and comparing them to information found in so-called respectable newspapers. Trunks took his notebook and turned to the girl on his right: "What did he already talked about today?". The girl turned to him big clear-blue eyes and whispered: "He is at OJ Osbourne's case and compares what the Times and the tabloids had in common.". Trunks nodded: Goten and he hadn't missed a lot of the course. He forwarded the info to his childhood friend.
"You see then in this case, the Times, yet newspaper known for his sobriety and the truth of his revelations, recognized without any shame to have used information found in some tabloid", Harket went on, "What kind of observation can you make about this..", he scanned his audience, "Goten Son!".
Goten, obviously not yet awaken, startled at the mention of his name and almost stood up like for the presence nomination in high-school. Trunks had to fight from guffawing. Goten blinked several times, trying to gather in his memory the lastest thing the teacher had said and what Trunks had explained him about what they had missed. He thought that if he vould at least say ONE sentence, even a small one, his honour would be safe, and Harket would seek for another prey. He decided to 'jump', but his trembling voice was betraying his anxiety.
"Uh... it's... uh... It's because media present information as a show...", his sentence sounded more like a question. Passed the first effect, he gained in cnfidence and went on: "No one knows anymore if a piece of information is true or made up...". As far as he was concerned, his sentece made sense, but apparently not for the teacher who retorted: "it's blurred, badly built, bring more arguments. There's no point in using made-up sentences, expose your own point of view!".
'Your own point of view'. Trunks felt more than inspired. Considering the paniqued look on Goten's face - Goten who had no idea about how to argument a subject he couldn't master, more busy as he was about martial arts and training with his father - Trunks decided to enter the speech and to give his own argumentation.
"I think media work more on gossip and sensation than on pure truth."
The unexpected intervvention of Trunks Connor provoqued whisperings in the auditorium, and all heads turned to observe their local celebrity. Harket seemed surprised, but not displeased of the occasion to see a true development of the subject. A student who was motivated and volontary to throw himself in the arena of debate, it was rare, it was precious...
Trunks breathed deeply, gathering his ideas. If what he was about to say today, could be repeated to Kirsten, perhaps this would be the first step in the restore of the dialog between them later, if she could understand his point of view. He needed something to go on, his hatred for the way the media had "destroy his life" could as well motivate him.
"In every era, it has been the case", he started. "Humans love to tell unusual or surprising stories".
"Develop your point, Connor, argument", Harket went on, he was eager to take the maximum out of Trunks' mind, even if he had to push him a little in the beginning. He had the feeling that once launched, this student wouldn't be able to stop.
"Men - even in the prehistoric era - had always transmit stories from mouth to ear. Then one of them starts writing them and they make a religion."
Sean Harket frowned. Where did Trunks wanted to go? With his hand, he made him the sign to continue.
Trunks had lost himself a little in his argumentation, but decided to improvise on the subject: "Religion based itself mainly on small events someone talks about and can't explain. Then when it is repeated to others, the event gets bigger abd bigger to finally become something too big for our perception of reality. Thus is created the divine."
Harket wasn't sure where the conversation was leading. He could see a possibility to get back to the subject of the course, but would Trunks be about to notice the "bridge" and to use it correctly? Or would he loose himself in the personal delirium so similar to a bad trip? "Build around your points, Connor, dig out a theory!"
Trunks marked a pause, more to create an atmosphere of slight tension than to find his words, then went on with a voice that sounded confident. He had built the personality of a guy sure of himself and was now performing the part. A technique he had learnt while acting in "Titanic".
"People are people, they like to hear and tell extraordinary stories; they like to leave their boring or uninterresting daily life. Nowadays, newspapers give more importance to the sensational than to the real information. Everything is a question of audimat. The bigger the story, the bigger the audimat. Tabloids are speacialized in the creation and growth of gossips". He made a pause, letting now his voice sound bitter, "people find that gossips are good, that they are funny. And nowadays, no one think about the consequences for the target of those gossips..."
Let someone repeat that to Kirsten, he tought, plan A.
He decided to finish his argumentation by a shock sentence. "Gossips could spread happy or humoristic news. It would be great if those words were noble... But the human nature is attracted by darkness. The more a person will be dirtied and thrown in the mud, the more the people will gather. And they'll ask more, and more... For none of them ever suspect what it's like to be the target of gossips."
[ to be continued ;-)]
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This is it, first chapter of a thriller occuring a few months before YELL :-)
I have no idea of the number of chapters for this story - less than YELL normally - all I have so far is the global action line and the different protagonists' key actions :-P
Reviews and spelling-checking, puleeeeeeze? *_____*
*puppy eyes*