The Genius in the Slave Quarters is a Dragon Ball fanfic written by MovieFan92, and can be read here
and here.
Bulma Brief is an astronaut, engaged to the handsome Yamcha. While on a mission out in space, Bulma is forced to answer a distress signal that takes her to Planet Vegeta. Once there, she is taken as a kitchen slave and made to work serving food to the Saiyan nobility. After she insults Frieza during one of his visits, Prince Tarble gets her out of being punished and in the process discovers her skill with machines. After telling his father about how she could help them defeat Frieza, Bulma is put to work as Prince Vegeta’s personal slave, creating tools and equipment to help him grow stronger. Meanwhile, an enemy with a grudge against the Saiyan race sets their sights on ridding Planet Vegeta of the Saiyans once and for all.
The Genius in the Slave Quarters provides the following tropes:
- Adaptation Species Change:
- Gohan's mother and maternal grandparents are Saiyans in this fic. In canon, they were all humans.
- Consequently, Gohan and Goten are full-blooded Saiyans in this story rather than being half-Saiyans.
- Adaptational Badass: Downplayed with Vegeta, who is slightly stronger than he was in canon due to having access to Bulma’s machines earlier.
- Adaptational Job Change: In Dragon Ball, Bulma was an adventurer/Heiress/CEO of Capsule Corp. Here, she's an astronaut.
- Adaptational Wimp: Frieza and Cooler's power levels go from being 120,000,000 and 470,000,00 to being 12,000,000 and 47,000,000 respectively.
- Adapted Out: All of the Z fighters aside from Yamcha are absent from this story.
- All Periods Are Pms: Bulma's period makes her irritable.
- Alternate Universe: Though certain events happen more or less the same the way they did in canon, the universe itself is fundamentally different. For starters, the Earth doesn't have Dragon Balls, and Planet Vegeta isn’t destroyed until Vegeta is an adult.
- Anger Born of Worry: Bulma angrily slaps Vegeta in the face out of worry from nearly losing to Frieza.
- Attempted Rape: Nappa nearly forces himself on Bulma twice and Gure once, only to be stopped in all three instances by members of the Saiyan royal family.
- Back from the Dead: The Saiyans who were killed with the destruction of Planet Vegeta are wished back to life (along with the planet) via the Namekian Dragon Balls.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Tarble attacks Nappa for attempting to rape Gure.
- Bewildering Punishment: Bulma thinks that serving food to the Saiyans is God punishing her for something she did without knowing.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Frieza and Baby.
- Bound and Gagged: Cui does this to Tarble and Gure before Vegeta kills him.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Tarble is so intimidated by Porunga that he thinks he soiled himself.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Vegeta is baffled as to why Bulma refers to her "monthly bleed" as a "Period", which to him comes at the end of a sentence.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The reason why Vegeta doesn’t kill Bulma for defying him is because he needs her for her skills in order to get stronger.
- Chekhov's Gift: The Namekians give Bulma The Sacred Water out of gratitude for helping them defeat Frieza. It’s later used to rid the Saiyans of Baby’s influence.
- Death by Adaptation: Jeyice dies sooner than he does in canon.
- Demoted to Extra: In Dragon Ball, Goku was the main protagonist for the majority of the story. Here he spends most of the story either dead (due to Planet Vegeta's destruction) or brainwashed (due to Baby).
- Denied Food as Punishment: When Bulma admits to trying to escape, Goku decides that her punishment should be sending her to bed without dinner.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- In the source material, Dodoria is killed when he gets caught in an energy blast from Vegeta. Here, he’s killed when Vegeta kicks his head, causing his neck to snap.
- In canon, King Vegeta was killed by Frieza. Here, he's killed by Baby.
- Rather than being hacked to pieces by Future Trunks's sword, Frieza is instead blown up by Vegeta.
- Distant Finale: The epilogue takes place at least fourteen years after the main events of the story.
- Distress Call: Bulma being required to answer one is how she ends up on Planet Vegeta.
- Ditto Aliens: Bulma accidentally says that all Namekians look the same to her. When she apologizes, Dende admits that Bulma and the Saiyans all look the same to him.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Inverted with Baby who hates the name that was given to him.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Guru expresses sympathy after reading Vegeta's mind in order to better judge his character, Vegeta rejects it as he hates it when people pity him.
- Doomed Defeatist: Subverted with Raditz, who, despite lamenting that everyone is going to die when a Not Quite Dead Frieza lands on the planet, nevertheless survives the encounter.
- Dramatic Drop: Shamo drops the stack of dishes he’s carrying when she sees Bulma walking around with Bio-Broly.
- Ear Ache: When Vegeta attempts to beat Guru until he gives him a powerup, Bulma drags Vegeta away by the ear.
- Family Theme Naming: Lampshaded by Bulma, who wonders what the deal is with Frieza, Cooler, and King Cold being named for low temperatures.
- Fate Worse than Death: Raditz and Nappa react to Goku's decision to punish Bulma by sending her to bed without dinner as though such would be suffering one.
- Final Boss: Baby (from Dragon Ball GT) is the last antagonist faced by the heroes.
- Forced to Watch: Baby threatens to take Bulma as his queen and have sex with her while Vegeta looks on, unable to do anything.
- Groin Attack: When Vegeta tries to take advantage of Bulma, she knees him in the groin.
- Hot Consort: Bulma becomes one after Vegeta ascends the throne.
- I Come in Peace: Spoken verbatim by Bulma as part of her greeting when she initially lands on Planet Vegeta.
- I Just Want to Be Free: Bulma's motivation for the first part of the story.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite having been raised on planet Vegeta and having never hit his head as a baby, Goku is still his cheerful and friendly self. This is explained as him having been sent away to train on another planet as a child, and returning with a new attitude.
- Intimate Healing: After Bulma is nearly killed by Frieza, Tarble begs Vegeta to forgive him before chewing up a Senzu bean and feeding it to her mouth-to-mouth.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Bulma resolves to refer to Bio-Broly as "Him" since referring to him as “it” would be mean.
- Jabba Table Manners: The appetites of the Saiyans are described as being both insatiable and disgusting.
- Kid with the Leash: Bulma creates a device to control Bio-Broly, who is extremely powerful and would otherwise go berserk.
- Like an Old Married Couple: Bulma and Vegeta's arguing is compared twice to that of an old married couple.
- Little Stowaway: Gohan survives the destruction of Planet Vegeta by hiding in one of Bulma’s capsules that she brings with her when she and Vegeta go to investigate Tarble's call for help.
- Made a Slave: Bulma becomes a slave after landing on Planet Vegeta.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: The shower, The floor, against the wall, and in the air are amongst the places that Bulma and Vegeta have sex.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage:
- Tarble’s marriage to Gure (a slave and an alien of an unnamed race) is looked down upon by the planet’s Saiyan population to the point where the only Saiyans who attend their wedding are Goku and Gohan.
- King Vegeta insists that Vegeta cannot have sex with Bulma after a certain point because the heir to the throne must be a purebred Saiyan.
- Neck Lift:
- After Bulma makes the mistake of grabbing his tail, an enraged Raditz grabs her by the neck and pins her against a wall.
- After Bulma criticizes Vegeta for treating her like a slave after he saves her from Nappa, Vegeta grabs her by the throat and pins her against a wall.
- Neck Snap: Vegeta delivers a kick to Dodoria's head, turning it 180 degrees and killing him.
- Oh, Crap!: Frieza has this reaction when Vegeta transforms into his Great Ape form.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: In addition to being an astronaut, Bulma also builds a dragon radar and conducts various biological tests on Vegeta as part of an investigation of his Super Saiyan abilities.
- Once for Yes, Twice for No: While testing her mind-control device on Bio-Broly, Bulma instructs the creature to blink once for yes and twice for no as an indication of whether or not it can understand her.
- Rage Breaking Point: Bulma reaches one when a combination of being on her period, feeling tired, and a lack of respect from most of the Saiyans culminates in her having to explain that she’s on her period to Vegeta.
- Reactive Continuous Scream: When Bulma first meets Gure, she screams. This causes Gure to start screaming, having been startled by Bulma’s screaming.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bulma delivers one to Frieza and his men for being sociopaths and delivers one to the Saiyans for not standing up to the former group.
- Related in the Adaptation:
- In this story, Fasha is Bardock's sister and Tora's mate. In canon, the extent of their relationship was that they were squad mates.
- Kami is Guru’s brother as well as the father of Piccolo. In canon the former two were unrelated to one another, while Piccolo was the child/reincarnation of Kami's evil half.
- In story, it's rumored that King Cold is the son of the Supreme Kai of the West. They weren't related in the source material.
- Rule of Three: After Frieza destroys Planet Vegeta, Tarble, Gohan, and Vegeta are the only surviving Saiyans.
- Shout-Out: When Vegeta transforms into his Great Ape form, Bulma compares her situation to Beauty and the Beast and King Kong (1933).
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Vegeta gives Bulma one while interrupting Bulma's declaration that she isn't going to feed his ego.
- Snooping Little Kid: Gohan listens in on a conversation between King and Prince Vegeta about the latter having Bulma as his mate.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Played with; although they're dead for a good chunk of the story, the Saiyans are alive both before and after the destruction and subsequent reformation of their planet, when Vegeta is an adult. In canon, the majority of the Saiyan race is killed permanently when Vegeta is a child.
- Take Me to Your Leader: Spoken verbatim by Bulma to two Saiyans when she first lands on Planet Vegeta. The two Saiyans proceed to laugh at her, since they plan on taking her to King Vegeta anyway.
- This Cannot Be!: Vegeta's reaction to Bio-Broly surviving an energy blast is "Impossible!"
- Token Human: Bulma is the sole human in a cast of aliens.
- Uriah Gambit: Raditz tries to get Bulma killed by sending her to clean the dungeons where Bio-Broly is held.
- Virtue Is Weakness: Tarble is looked down upon by the other Saiyans because of his compassion. It doesn’t help that he’s physically weaker than most Saiyans.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Bardock's vision regarding Bulma is never elaborated upon nor is it brought up again afterward.
