Hands

Summary:
While training to fight the incoming Saiyans, Piccolo meets someone whose a real Gem.

(Suddenly a Steven Universe gem OC in DBZ using an experimental writing style?
How did you guess?!)

You can tell a lot about a person by their hands. Someone once told me, "The eyes are windows to the soul, but the hands are like, the car parked in the driveway or some shit, you know?" Well, honestly, there was more slurring than that, but he did expand on what he meant at length. For the rest of the evening. And Kami wonders why I ignore his telepathic messages...

What he had meant, though, was that a person's hands can show you what lives they lead and where their time is spent. Much like a car can, apparently? Nobody I know actually has one. Tangents aside, it seems to be a useful tip so far, a quick glance can assist in determining a basic family of martial arts (calloused grip of a weapon user or maybe residual expansion of ki channels) or a person's profession (motor oil stains under the nail or a cook's multiple small burns).

This hand in front of me is untouched, without even the creases palm-readers view.
Also it is glowing red.
No.
Not glowing, made of red light. And what I think this means is, you're not from around here.

The red lady pouted, "Well, I'm sure you win awards for politeness." She put her hand down, apparently realizing that I don't do handshakes. "But you're not wrong there, this isn't my home planet."

Joy. More of them. Please tell me that you are not from another race of blood-thirsty conquerors.

"Well, I wouldn't call us bloodthirsty. We just, you know, sometimes need new planets to reproduce on and occasionally someone else already lives there." So you co-exist with the natives? "Yep! Up until the core is hollowed out at least. Oh, but don't worry! They haven't found this planet yet and all it's delicious minerals!"

That's very comforting Red, but I have a "student" to train for the other alien invasion. Very busy.

"Please, call me Rubellite. Red is… ah, someone else."

I give my name in return.

"Ah, so you're Piccolo! Goku mentioned you, I think." You knew the moron, then. "It's been years, so I'm actually going to visit him now."

My expression doesn't change an inch.

"I hear he has a kid even! They are so smol, have you met it?"

Kid? I have never seen a child in my life.

A dinosaur's roar echo off the plateau around us and a faint scream of a young boy follows.

Oh wow, look at the time! Looks like you need to go, because you will be late. You wouldn't want to miss Goku. Who is, last I heard, super alive. And I got so much training here. By myself. I am doing now. By myself.

After flawlessly convincing her, she takes the bait and flies off so as to not miss lunch. Which is good, because I need to see if the kid needs to be pulled out of another dinosaur stomach.

Notes: Wrote this after reading a lot of Haruhi Suzumiya novels and I really wanted to try it's odd 1st person style.
Dunno if I really captured it, but it was fun!

My girlfriend and I have an AU where a Gem Empire exists in DBZ.
They are the ones Frieza sells planets to, in exchange for their imperfect Gems.
This keeps the Cold War with the two empires from devolving into Kaiju-sized fusions vs the Nappas & Vegetas. (heh heh Cold War with Frieza)
This means that fusions are not as big a deal for this Gem empire, so that they don't have a Civil War and so that they can survive the Frieza Force.
There's more, but I won't run on too long :P

On a side note: who, in canon, is Frieza selling his planets to and why isn't he just killing them & stealing their money?
hmm...