Hello, how are you all doing? Just as the title says, it has indeed been a while. A long, long, while...much longer than initially planned. So much for being "officially back."

And I always hate it when things get like this. Even when the situation is completely out of my hands, like it was earlier in the year and these past few months, I always feel terrible. I especially feel bad because this isn't OCAK. It's frustrating, to say the least. Anyway, quite a bit is going to be discussed in this show, so let's get on with it.

Without any further ado, enjoy!

It's Been a While

Lord Beerus: "You shouldn't be too hard on yourself. Sometimes you just can't help these things."

Bulma: "He's right. You don't have to beat yourself up over it. And Lord Beerus, you're being supportive. I'm honestly a little surprised." I shook my head at her.

Lord Beerus: "Don't be. I'm not heartless."

Lord Liquiir: "Him saving me is proof of that," Liquiir reminded.

Lord Beerus: "Exactly. Now then, before we forget what we're doing here, hello. Welcome, everyone, to Talks of Destruction. I would like to say that it feels wonderful to be back after a very, very long hiatus and we will explain what caused it momentarily. Until then, I am your host, Beerus. With me as always is my co-host and life mate to be, Liquiir."

Lord Liquiir: "It is indeed I...but I feel like we could have transitioned a little better from being supportive to the author to our actual show."

Bulma: "Well, as they say, 'the show must go on.' We can't stop the show, even for the author."

Lord Liquiir: "I suppose. In that case, I shall do this." Ooh! Liquiir practically just jumped from where he was sitting and into my lap. I smiled. Perhaps I should try to convince him to bounce on me a little more...no, on second thought, I shouldn't. It's not because I care about keeping this show teen-friendly, I just know that we wouldn't get anywhere.

Lord Beerus: "Well...this works."

Lord Liquiir: "I think so." He quickly moved back, wrapped his tails around my waist, and positioned his head under my muzzle. He completed the picture by placing his paws on his stomach, to which I followed suit and settled my own on his

Lord Beerus: "Not the best, but this was a good enough transition," I mused aloud. "Speaking of transitioning, we're going to officially become life mates soon. Why not showcase this level of intimacy on the show?"

Bulma: "Why not?" Bulma chorused. "Well, aside from the obvious. You two look so cute, by the way.

Lord Beerus: "Trust us, we are aware. So, without going into extreme detail, let's talk about why the author had to go on a hiatus. Liquiir?"

Lord Liquiir: "If you remember, Beerus and I mentioned that a situation came up that affected the author and his father. The situation was that they were unjustly kicked out of their house by their homeowner's association."

Lord Beerus: "A drastic change and the reason for them getting kicked out is honestly ridiculous. It was over a parking space. They lost their entire home over a parking space."

Lord Liquiir: "The author's family had been parking in that one spot for twenty years. However, he lived in a community and their somewhat new neighbors happened to be related to one of the board members. One day they said, 'Hey, we don't like you parking in a spot you've been parking for the past twenty years because it supposedly obstructs our parking place.' It didn't. The homeowner's association was taken to court and, unfortunately, the judge sided with them." I nodded

Lord Beerus: "Well, there you have the short of it. Apparently a single parking space equals an entire house and nepotism, which is partly what this boils down to, equals screwing over the author and his father. Earth is such a fair planet to live on, isn't it?"

Bulma: "It's so fair. Where else can a man get beat up just for walking around with a purse? If that isn't gender equality, I don't know what is," Bulma said sarcastically.

Lord Liquiir: "That's very true, sadly. However, don't think that everything is gloom and doom. There is a silver lining. For one, the author's father has the help of his extremely rich boss and that very kind man is helping with getting a new house. A better house. So, in the end, they are going to be better off than before they were kicked out."

Lord Beerus: "Not only that but a newspaper article - yes, those still exist - and a Facebook post were made talking about the terrible situation. That must have damaged that shitty community's reputation and hopefully, no one else will ever go through that over there." Liquiir nodded in agreement.

Lord Liquiir: "Hopefully, although I'm certain that they will not be so unfair in the future. I would be surprised if a similar situation happened later on down the road. In lighter news, but this is not necessarily happy news, do you all remember in the author's note at the end of chapter seven where it said that uploads will take even longer? Well, he will occasionally work with his mother and go over to her house for the duration. The issue is she lives in the middle of nowhere with no reliable access to the internet. There's also the fact that work is extremely draining. So draining that he doesn't have any energy left to even write a paragraph. If the updates are slower than usual, this is most likely the main culprit."

Bulma: "Those long periods will cause the updates to take even longer than before. It's money, though, something everyone needs to survive."

Lord Beerus: "Needless to say, work is a requirement. And yes, that is why it took so long to upload this particular chapter and he used a library to help with uploading this. If you're wondering why he doesn't just go back to the place where he was staying with his father, who would love to have him back home...it's another situation where he doesn't want to share. This, however, is much more personal, if you can believe that. As such, don't expect any details."

Bulma: "Any details ever really. It's that personal. With all of that out of the way, I would like to put something into perspective. This is Talks of Destruction, a series that practically writes itself. Just think how hard OCAK is to write under those conditions."

Lord Beerus: "Annoyingly difficult. Let's leave it at that." I moved my head back slightly. Immediately afterward, I brought my right paw over to his ears and started to gently poke them. I smiled. They're flickering, just as I thought they would. "In other news-"

Lord Liquiir: "Beerus?"

Lord Beerus: "Yes, Liquiir?"

Lord Liquiir: "Why are you poking my ears?" I shrugged.

Lord Beerus: "Because I like seeing them flicker. I have no idea why. I just do. Do you want me to stop?"

Lord Liquiir: "No, you can keep going. You're giving in to your nature as a cat. Cats are easily entertained, and that's a fact." My grin widened.

Lord Beerus: "Is that so? Well, here's a fact for you. It's a fact that foxes are mischievous creatures." I stopped poking his ears and moved my mouth close to his right one. "It's also a fact that playful side can land you in...trouble," I whispered sultrily, making him shudder a little. "But that plays well into my nature because cats can also be quite...naughty." Another shudder.

Lord Liquiir: "And what exactly is it you are implying?" Like he doesn't know. I placed my paw against his inner thigh and began caressing it. He's fidgeting now.

Lord Beerus: "You know me so well...why don't you tell me?" He let out a quiet groan and took my invading paw into his. He then scooted forward, putting some distance between us. Which isn't much at all. He's still sitting in my lap, it's just that his back is no longer pressed snugly against my body.

Lord Liquiir: "Beerus...torturing me is not very nice of you."

Bulma: "Torture? I wish Vegeta tortured me like that..." Liquiir and I looked over at her in unison. "Stop looking at me like that! You two know that's not what I meant."

Lord Liquiir: "Do we?"

Bulma: "If you're going to be that way, let me clarify. That had nothing to do with BDSM. I'm just saying he's not into spontaneity like that."

Lord Beerus: "Is that right? You don't have any secret fantasies you wish to share?" I teased.

Bulma: "No! Look, just forget about what I said. And let's keep this safe to read for teenagers, please." I softly sighed. Someone always has to spoil the fun.

Lord Beerus: "Yes, yes, fine." I kissed between Liquiir's ears. "I wasn't actually going to do anything. All I wanted was to teach him a lesson about nature." He chuckled.

Lord Liquiir: "First of all, I'm sorry if Beerus and I gave you a hard time just now, Bulma."

Bulma: "Apology accepted," she replied while resting her cheek against her fist. It looks like she's going to need a minute or two to cool off. As for Liquiir, he's now facing me. "Secondly, regarding your masterful lesson...lesson not learned. I never learn!" He gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I warmly smiled.

Lord Beerus: "That just makes me want to try harder to teach you." He smiled back.

Lord Liquiir: "I'm sure it does. I'm looking forward to it." He turned his head to face forward and nestled against me once again.

Lord Beerus: "I'm looking forward to that moment, too." I deeply inhaled and exhaled. "Forgive the delay, audience. Moving on to the next news segment, I think that some of you would like to know that quite a few errors have been fixed in OCAK. Additionally, some scenes have been revised so that they flow better and or have additional information. Like Liquiir's conversation with me about his tails in chapter three."

Lord Liquiir: "That's right. Another change in the story is that the author fixed their name-drop of a rather important OC in chapter seven. Before uploading the chapter, he mulled it over and considered if mentioning that OC by name would be a good idea. In the end, he believed that it was fine." Sighing disappointedly, I covered my eyes and shook my head.

Lord Beerus: "That is until a couple of weeks later did he decide that it would have been better storytelling if he just kept the name a secret and alluded to the idea that I had a teacher besides Whis. He thought that it would have kept a certain air of mystery around this person and it would have been a big reveal later on. To him, it's the biggest error he's done in this story and he doesn't think he'll ever live it down." I slowly uncovered my eyes and gave a single poke to his right ear, causing it to flicker once again. I'll never get tired of that. Still, that's enough for now. I took his paw back into mine and placed them back to his stomach.

Lord Liquiir: "Biggest error or not, there's still an air of mystery regarding this figure...but it has been lessened since people already know his name much sooner than the author is comfortable with. The people who haven't read that chapter yet have no idea what we're talking about. The people who do know what we're talking about and have re-read the chapter with that change probably thought 'Hey, what happened? Now it's only an italicized him?' Well, now you all know why that change happened."

Lord Beerus: "It's extremely wishful thinking on the author's part, but he hopes that the readers forget about that OC's name. That probably won't happen, but do you know what will happen? We're going to finally answer some questions. No, we didn't forget about those of you who had questions for us. Liquiir, could you get the cards for me?"

Lord Liquiir: "Very well, but I'm really comfortable like this. I'm just going to use telekinesis to get the card over here."

Lord Beerus: "I would do the same. Frankly, the use of telekinesis is criminally underrated in Dragon Ball. In a similar vein, can we get an extremely powerful psychic main villain or antagonist that just mind-fucks the protagonists? That would be interesting, just having Goku and Vegeta mentally break like Jiren. Is that too dark?"

Bulma: "I don't think so, but in any case, Dragon Ball isn't afraid to go dark. For example, Goku Black obliterated me. Future me, of course."

Lord Beerus: "Does that bother you?" I asked Bulma as I grabbed ahold of the card floating enticingly in my face.

Bulma: "No. Well...kind of, but I know that we're just characters in an anime. If the author wanted to, he could write that Future Bulma is sitting on the couch opposite to you two, completely fine. He could even write that she's become Future Bulma Black and is on a revenge quest to destroy all timelines where Goku is alive!" She laughed at the thought. "Based on that, I don't think it's worth to fixate on it." Future Bulma Black...it's just such a ridiculous and yet oddly plausible idea and I enjoy it for that fact alone.

Lord Beerus: "Well said. Maybe some brave writer will become inspired and write that story someday. Will it be this writer? Probably not, but it's entertaining to think about. Anyway, back to business. Demon Lucario asks me specifically: 'For Beerus, has a woman ever faked a pregnancy to try and blackmail him?' The answer to that is, unfortunately, yes." Liquiir sat up straight and looked at me.

Lord Liquiir: "It was to guarantee the safety of her planet, wasn't it?"

Lord Beerus: "You sound angry. And you look angry."

Lord Liquiir: "Of course I am. I understand the reason, but the use of such an underhanded tactic is still horrible."

Lord Beerus: "Yes, I completely agree. Young Beerus had the same thought process."

Bulma: "What did you do when you found out the truth?" I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh through my nose.

Lord Beerus: "What did I do? I destroyed her. And the planet. I just couldn't stand the idea that she'd do something like that. It was absolutely despicable and...and that's all I'm going to speak about this. It's all that needs to be said." I opened my eyes once Liquiir put his paw against my cheek.

Lord Liquiir: "Beerus, are you okay?"

Lord Beerus: "Thank you for asking, but I'm fine." He took his paw back and then kissed my cheek.

Lord Liquiir: "All right. If you say you're fine, I believe you. Just tell me if anything is wrong and you need to talk to someone."

Lord Beerus: "I will, I promise." I handed Liquiir the card and he returned to his original position. Afterward, he looked over at Bulma. "Bulma, this next question is for you and Vegeta."

Bulma: "For both of us? Okay...what is it?" she asked suspiciously.

Lord Liquiir: "Demon Lucario here again. This time they have this gem of a question: 'For Bulma and Vegeta, have they ever tried BDSM?'" Crossing her arms, Bulma scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Bulma: "What is this, 'Pick on Bulma Day'? It's like they knew I was going to mention BDSM in this show months ahead of time." She's shaking her head disapprovingly. "And I don't know, has Demon Lucario? I refuse to answer." I smiled.

Lord Beerus: "With a question like that, and with what happened earlier, I'm not surprised. Now, before we move on, I would like to say that we will answer Demon Lucario's third question in our next show. We prefer to stick with two questions per person."

Lord Liquiir: "We have that little rule so that the show doesn't become too long. Talks of Destruction should be a relatively light read, after all."

Lord Beerus: "Since we have that out of the way, we can get to the final two questions. This person, like Demon Lucario, has been waiting a long time. Kurosaga Kurugi asks me: 'If you would be accidentally get sent in time during the Cell Games, would you think of training Gohan since he had the most potențial when he was 11?' I'm not certain if he had the most potential when he was eleven. That's a difficult thing to measure. Even if he did, I would not train him. I don't wish to be responsible for creating yet another alternate timeline. That and, knowing Gohan, I highly doubt he would want to train to be a God of Destruction."

Bulma: "I imagine he wouldn't want that, either. Also, at that point, Gohan was physically eleven because of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. His true age was technically ten when he fought Cell." I gave a small smile.

Lord Beerus: "Technicalities. You have to appreciate them. Now, this is the very last question we'll be answering today. Kurosaga Kurugi asks you, Liquiir: 'Would Liquiir be willing to teach Goku how to use UI?'"

Lord Liquiir: "Well, clearly, I'm not an Angel. I'm still learning how to utilize Ultra Instinct myself. I can't teach him, but I believe Korn wouldn't mind teaching Goku. And, as always, have a good day to you, as well."

Lord Beerus: "Also, don't worry. We know that you have a third question. Just like Demon Lucario, we will wait to answer it in our next show. With that, we've answered some questions, talked about the hiatus, and gave a little insight into OCAK. But...we are not done yet. No. We are going to do something different this time around. Realistically, the eighth chapter of OCAK won't be out anytime soon. Even so, that doesn't mean you can't have a little peek of what's to come."

Lord Liquiir: "That's right. A little peek never hurt anyone. Bulma? Let's show the one readers what's coming." Bulma smiled.

Bulma: "Right away!" She pressed a few keys on the computer and a paused video showed up on the big screen to our left. "Okay. Playing the video in five...four...three...two..."

I fired my Sphere of Destruction and it soon collided with the powerful beam. The point where the two opposing energies meet is causing the ground to fracture, shake, and break off into chunks of rock. Strong gusts of wind are violently swirling around us, blowing dust and debris every which way. Crackling loudly, electricity-like ki is also forming around the intersection of our respective attacks. It's wildly lashing out and ravaging the battlefield, like strokes of lightning.

Lord Beerus: "Not bad! You've far exceeded my expectations!" I called out loud enough for him to hear. I thrust my right paw forward, pushing the large energy sphere forward. I'm still meeting resistance, but it won't be long until I win this struggle. I continued pushing as I slowly walked toward our clashing attacks. "However...you still have a long way to go before you're a match for me. Before you're even close." Ten feet...I think this is close enough. As I stopped moving closer and calmly stood in place, I raised my left index finger in preparation to shoot a small beam that will cause my Sphere of Destruction to explode as soon as they connect. "I've had a lot of fun, but it's time I-"

Lord Beerus: "It's time I cut the fun short. I don't mean to cheat all of the readers just as it was getting good, but we can't reveal everything, can we?" I laughed gleefully; I almost feel bad. Liquiir moved onto his back - during that short clip, he decided to rest his head in my lap - and showed me a small smile. He's also shaking his head at my antics, too.

Lord Liquiir: "I would have said that you shouldn't feel bad. You're revealing a significant plot point that occurs in chapter eight, but as you have already explained you can't show everything. Then you started laughing considerably harder than necessary."

Lord Beerus: "I'm just having fun. I don't mean any harm."

Bulma: "There's a difference between 'having fun' and being obnoxious," Bulma chimed in.

Lord Beerus: "Don't be such a drama queen. Anyway, does anyone have a QOTD?"

Lord Liquiir: "Actually, in lieu of QOTDs at the end of the show, I think we're just going to have a scene from the next chapter of our OCAK series."

Lord Beerus: "That sounds fair. And if that's it, this marks the end of our show. Have a good day, everyone."

Lord Liquiir: "Goodbye, everyone."

Bulma: "Have a great day!" Smiling, we all waved goodbye. It is good to be back.

Ah, there we go! I hope that you all enjoyed, including our little teaser for chapter eight. Thank you for the questions (which we got months ago but just couldn't answer until now, oof). I also hope that we answered all of them in a satisfactory manner. Keep them coming!

As always, until the next show, D.F.T.B.A. (Don't Forget To Be Awesome!) Have an awesome day!