"So," Trunks watched expectantly from his desk as Goten settled down on Trunks' bed, "What have you learned so far?"

It had been a week since the incident with the painting, and the two hybrids had decided, in an unusual turn of events, to do a little reconnaissance before they made their move. Partially because Trunks said rushing in blindly was for kids. Mostly because, while he had mellowed a huge amount over the past decade, Trunks' dad was still a terrifying force of nature, and telling him 'false alarm' in regards to a fight was incredibly low on their 'to do' lists.

"Well," Goten flopped on the bed unceremoniously, "He's got some really good ideas about negative space and rubber cement."

Trunks stared blankly into space for a moment. "Okay, this doesn't happen often, but you lost me on that one. Rubber cement?"

"You put it on the paper before you wet it down to paint, and once the paint is dry you peel it off. You get really clean, white lines and shapes that way, and can add some cool effects. It's been awhile since I worked in water colour, and I'd forgotten-"

"Not about the art, chibi," Trunks threw a pencil at him, "About the guy!"

The younger teen caught the pencil and began twirling it between his fingers. "It's art class, Trunks, what did you think we'd talk about? Besides, we're looking at my work this week – I'll be able to ask more questions next week, when we look at his stuff."

Trunks sighed. "So you haven't found out anything useful?"

Goten shrugged. "He used to do competitive martial arts."

"Oh? That could be-"

"Nope," the younger boy shook his head, "He quit a few years ago. Something about that not being the path he was supposed to follow. Honestly, other than that and the fact that he needs those glasses for reading and stuff, I haven't found out much. If it weren't for the super-low ki, I'd say he was just a regular guy who wants to be left alone."

"Ah, but he does have that super-low ki," Trunks smirked, "And until we find out why, we keep going."

"You mean I keep going," Goten grumbled.

Trunks leaned back in his chair and grinned. "Same thing. So, have you put any consideration into my order for you doing a painting of the two of us together?"

"Dammit, Trunks!"

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"Before we start, do you know anything about tarot?"

"…no," Goten looked at Daikon warily, "But I get the feeling I'm about to."

The taller teen grinned and pulled his glasses on. He'd been friendly enough while going over Goten's project and plans, and had made a few good points, but there had been a reserved quality to him throughout. Now, though, he was practically buzzing with excitement and had pulled out a thick sketchbook.

"It's my theme," Daikon set the sketchbook reverently on the table, "Tarot's an old means of predicting the future through a special set of cards, divided into twenty-two major arcana and fifty-six minor arcana. I'm doing twelve of the classical major arcana for my project, but I intend to continue on my own and make an entire deck!"

"That… sounds like a lot of work." Goten watched as Daikon opened the book, "And if tarot's old, why bother making a new deck? Won't you lose points for just re-doing old pictures?"

"Nah, there's lots of decks out there, sorta like you see lots of variations on things like the zodiac or fairy tales. My deck's going to be the Monkey King Tarot. If I do a good enough job, I might even be able to publish it. If not, well, it can always be a private deck. This is the first card I did – the Hanged Man. It felt like a good place to start."

Goten looked at the picture curiously. In it, a man hung upside down from a wall by one leg. Below him was a peach tree, and the man had one arm extended to pluck a peach from the highest branch. He was dressed in old-fashioned shirt, sash, and pants and, curiously, a tail swung behind him, curling up into a question-mark shape. The legs of another man dangled from where he sat perched mostly out of sight on the wall above the hanging man, his own tail snaking down to wrap around the other man's ankle and hold him up. The hanged man had a slight smile of satisfaction, and his hair hung below him in a black curtain.

"The Hanged Man represents epiphany through upheaval," Daikon explained as Goten examined the sketch, "See the two ogres at the base of the tree and the pile of armor? A traditional approach won't work, so the Hanged Man sacrifices his armor and approaches the challenge from a new direction, attaining his goal and, in the process, gaining a new perspective – he reaches for the peach, but his eyes look over the viewer's head at an unseen horizon-"

"And he's you." Goten interrupted.

"Oh, I wouldn't say-"

"He's wearing your bandana, Daikon, he has your face and hair – it's you with a tail in different clothes as an adult."

Daikon laughed, "Okay, okay, guilty- I've always identified with the Hanged Man, so I figured, why not?"

Goten snorted, "These aren't all going to be self-portraits, are they?"

Daikon grinned and waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, just this one. I made up everyone else."

"Good. I didn't think you were that vain, but…" Goten let his words trail off and looked at the sketch again. "It'll be neat to see this in colour – you'll bring in the canvases tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I keep them at home so they can dry properly. I love working in oil paint, but it can be a little nerve-wracking waiting for it to dry, for reasons demonstrated last Monday." Daikon raised a pointed eyebrow.

Goten put one hand behind his head in embarrassment and quickly changed the subject. "So, who's the guy holding you up?"

His tactic worked like a charm, as the other teen happily went back to his explanation. "Oh, that's one of the bits that's specific to my deck – usually the Hanged Man is held up by a rope or a vine or something. He's obscured in this card, but that's actually the Magician – he's another card, one of the ones I'm doing for my project. Actually, I just finished him the week before last; I'll bring him in tomorrow. He turned out way better than his sketch. He technically comes before the Hanged Man, but I did these out of order. And, continuing in that out-of-order vein, next up is the Tower."

'The Tower' was a picture of a grand, if slightly alien, castle at night being struck by an enormous bolt of lightning and crumbling. In the foreground, his back to the viewer, stood a young child in royal robes, his dark hair a flame against the lighter castle. His tail dragged on the ground behind him, and a simple crown was in the process of falling from limp fingers. Two large figures knelt in the corners, also facing the castle, one bald, the other with a mass of hair, despair reflected in their postures.

"The Tower is destruction of something you have worked for and treasured. This thing you treasured no longer serves you as it once did, and though through its loss may come your own salvation, its loss will still be painful and cut deep."

Next was 'the Devil," represented by a short but evil-looking creature in strange armor with wicked-looking horns, a fleshy tail, and lips that curved into a cruel smile as it stared straight at the viewer. In one hand it clenched the Hanged Man's tail, in the other the tail of the child from the Tower, if his hair was anything to go by, though he was older in this picture and his face was still obscured, and finally in one strange, three-toed foot was the tail of a large, bald man with a thin mustache framing his mouth. All three figures wore old-fashioned armor and were writhing on the ground in obvious agony.

"The Devil represents a project or endeavor that consumes all you have, giving nothing but enslavement and ruin in return. It warns that if you continue on your current path, you will be consumed by it."

"I thought you weren't in any more cards," Goten shifted in his seat. He didn't remember ever having a tail, but the scene made him uncomfortable nevertheless.

"I said only the Hanged Man was a self-portrait," Daikon corrected, "One of the things I wanted to do was tell stories with the cards. The Hanged Man's story begins at the Tower and leads to the Devil before he ultimately sheds his armor and old life to take a new perspective and become the Hanged Man. He," he pointed at the bald man, "Finishes his journey in the Moon card, and the Prince has another three before he's done."

"The prince?" Goten gave the final figure a closer look, "Is that another card?"

"No," Daikon shook his head, "There's an Emperor card, it's one of the ones I'm doing, but it doesn't suit his temperament. Besides, he'll never be king, let alone an emperor."

"Huh?" Goten glanced at his partner. To his surprised, Daikon blushed and, for a brief moment, his ki rose slightly, though it lowered just as quickly.

"Nothing. The prince is just a character I've had in my head for a long time, ignore me."

Shrugging, Goten turned the page and froze.

"That's 'Strength,'" Daikon explained, going on about something to do with darker aspects of the self and healing and accepting them, turning weakness into strength, but Goten was only half-listening. He was focused on the sketch.

In a field stood two figures. On the left, a woman in a cheongsam reached out to the other with a confident smile, her stance sure and steady, offering a new robe. In the other hand she held a bottle of medicine, and an abacus hung from the sash at her waist. The other figure was the 'prince' from the previous two cards, standing so he had his back three-quarters towards the viewer, but you could finally see his face. He was older again, and his armor was battered and broken, his clothing torn and dirty, and he was scowling. Yet the hand reaching for the robe seemed cautious, almost hesitant, and the sword that should have been in the sheath at his hip was instead stuck in the ground some distance away. All in all it was a strong piece, successfully capturing the instant trust was first earned, but the thing that captured Goten's attention most firmly was that it was obviously a picture of Bulma and Vegeta. He couldn't believe he hadn't made the connection in the previous pictures – Vegeta's hair was rather distinctive. The thing was, though, that Bulma was a fairly prominent figure in the media, so such as accurate picture of her wasn't hugely surprising. Vegeta, however… wasn't. The paparazzi had tried to get to him early on in the game, but it had been awhile since a reporter or photographer had barged in on the Briefs family uninvited.

They had learned.

"Didn't you say you made these people up?" Goten asked casually. Daikon looked at what Goten was staring at and groaned.

"I know, I know, she looks like the head of Capsule Corp. I tried drawing her differently, but it didn't feel right, and tarot's as much about the feel of an image as what's actually depicted. So I made her a monkey, gave her lavender hair in the final painting, and called it good. She's in a few other cards as well – she actually fills the role of the Empress in this deck, which kinda suits Mrs. Briefs from what I've heard. I definitely made up the prince, though – I know I'd remember having seen hair like that before!"

"…she's a monkey? She looks human to me."

Daikon pointed to where a tail curled inquisitively up behind Bulma. "I wanted to do the Monkey King theme, but I like drawing humans more than animals, so I gave them tails and am saying they're anthropomorphized and some other fancy crap if Miss Canvaas inquires further." He winked. "Besides, we supposedly all evolved from apes, anyway – it's not too far a stretch."

"Sure, I guess." Goten turned the page.

At that moment, the bell rang and Daikon flipped his book shut. "I'll show you the rest tomorrow and bring in some of my canvases – think about how I can make it better, 'kay?"

" 'kay," Goten mumbled as he stared at the retreating student. He'd only had a moment to look at the sketch, but it felt like it had been burned into his mind in that instant. It had been of a single figure on a rocky mountain, dressed as a warrior monk, who held a staff in one hand and a ball of ki in the other, his expression open and inviting. And, although the sketch was in shades of grey, Goten knew without being told that the figure's clothes would be mostly orange and his spikey hair would be golden, because it was a picture of his father in super saiyan, something no one outside the Z warriors and their families remembered ever seeing.

Trunks wasn't going to believe this…

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"I don't believe you."

'Called it.' "Seriously, Trunks! It looked just like them – if I didn't know better, I'd say he'd either known us all for years or asked our parents to pose for him! And he can't have done either!"

Trunks dodged an elbow jab and aimed a kick at Goten's chest. "Maybe he's seen pictures. There's a few of my dad floating around out there, and everyone was on camera at the Cell Games, and in super saiyan form."

Goten grabbed Trunks' ankle before his foot could connect and twisted. "As if – we've both seen those clips – the camera's focused on Hercule, everyone else is in the background or moving way too fast to be clearly seen. All you can really see is that there're some blonde people doing something back there. That clown wouldn't have gotten away with his stories if you could really see what our families were doing."

"I guess." Trunks spun in the air and snapped his leg in, trying to get inside Goten's guard, but the other semi-saiyan released his grip and leapt backwards instead. "It's just… weird. Something's going on, obviously, but this doesn't sound like how any of the other adventures started. The Budokai isn't even for another few years! And what's the point of all this?! I mean, paintings and fortune-telling? Give me a break!"

The two continued sparring for a few more minutes, thinking.

"Invite him to sit with us at lunch tomorrow," Trunks finally announced, "Tell him I'm interested in his project, and wanna see his sketchbook. We'll sit outside, so other people can't overhear us. You guys can talk about your projects and we'll see if we can't find out more about him, and where he gets his inspiration from."

"What if he says no?" Goten went in for a headlock.

"Be persuasive." Trunks caught his arm and shoulder and flipped him onto the mat, pinning him. "And I believe that's match to me. Now, where's my victory kiss?"

"Pervert," Goten grumbled, but he responded willingly enough when Trunks leaned in for a quick smooch before they got up to start their next round.

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Hey all! First off, thanks for reading! Second off, yeah, there's a little Truten in this one, however this is about the as heavy as it's going to get – a little reference here and there, maybe another kiss, that's it. They're also the only ship in this fic that is non-canon – Bulma's married to Vegeta, Goku's married to Chichi, Krillin's married to 18, and none of these facts are going to change. Also, I should have mentioned last chapter, but my Goten and Trunks were heavily inspired by the versions seen in Liquor, Lingerie, and Leather Bound Musings by Nameless Musings, especially the bit about Goten being in an art class, a tidbit I adored. Goten being interested in art in this story is meant as a tribute and 'hey, that was a really cool idea' sort of thing.

On the tarot cards: I don't actually do tarot readings myself. I do find it an intriguing subject, however, and I adore the potential for symbolism it has. I did a fair bit of research for each card, and put a lot of thought into who would be appearing on each one. The main reference I used was the handbook that goes with The Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell, which I borrowed from a friend. While I have summarized the meaning of each card mentioned, the baseline definition is accurate.

On the Monkey King Tarot, specifically: I have all 22 major arcana mapped out as to who appears on what, and they are all carefully selected cast members from DBZ. A surprising number of them matched up to various cards very neatly. Sadly, I was unable to fit them all into this fic without making it feel overly contrived, so you won't be seeing them all. I may mention a few more that didn't make it into the fic proper at the end of the last chapter, or in a sequel, should I ever write one.

Evolution: Daikon apparently believes in it, or at least is comfortable enough with the concept to joke about it. Your opinions on the matter are up to you.

Next chapter? Up next Friday! Thanks so much for reading! ^U^