*Blinks* Wow, How The Hell Did That Happen?

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, I've been busy trying to write out how Zeke and Lum's first meeting goes and the most interesting thing happens...

Zeke pisses her off and Mr. Invader couldn't be more pleased about it - something about a guy having the guts to throw something other than flowers at her
feet.

Not according to plan, but it just jumped out at me that way. I'll find a way to get her to fall for him, I just need to take my time with this. Oh, and
before anyone calls me on the fact that Zeke is usually respectful towards women... Well, like anyone else with him, they gotta earn his respect, too.

I know that this has been taking a while, but it couldn't be helped. Our InSurv is coming up and
we're all busy getting ready for it. Just wish it could be done and over with already.

[robkelk]

Hmmmmm...

Lum is an Oni. (It even says so in her passport.)

Rei has anti-oni charms.

What happens when the senshi puts a charm on the alien's forehead?

(The charm affected Usagi when one was slapped on her head during Rei's first appearance in Sailor Moon, so they have to have some effect on beings that aren't actually demons...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Necratoid]

What you have to remember is that Lum took Ataru's comment, which was basically him making a short monologue to himself, and decided to except his
'proposal' to her out of spite. Really, it was Ataru celebrating that because he won Shinbu would now honor her win conditional proposal. So if Lum
had just gone away, he would have been married shortly afterwards. What happened was that Ataru managed to swipe her top on the last day and then tagged her
horns when she tried to get it back... a legit tactic... but this happened on international and interplanetary tv. She just took his aside as a
chance to actively make his life hell. Calling him 'Darling' was basically sarcastic for the some months, right up til he grew on her.

As long as she has a reason to be vindictive its perfectly incharacter to have her latch on while fuming at him. Perhaps, because she had to run around for
days in the wilds without flying around and by choice wearing her traditional bikini. The harder part is handling Zeke getting electricuted the first few
times... I mean he can have prepwork done on an lightning proofing on some item he carrys or wears... he has been burned by electricity in the past on screen.
He just shouldn't be have it ready yet or with him in Texas.

Lum race are known to get obsessed with stuff... for instance Mr. Invader once took someone on a months, not a typo, long drinking binge ignoring their
requests to go home.

The answer is super effective rob. You have to remember that in Lum the oni of eastern legend are the oni of Lum's race. They've been hanging out in
Japan on vacation for centurines... Japan is so popular that the made an extra dimension on Earth to house visiting and recident aliens.... come to think of
it... all the messing around with dimensional walls is likely what damaged Beryl's prison enough that she could get forces out in the first place. Anyway,
from the above mentioned tagging of Usagi, we know that Rei tagged her because she sensed a lot of unusual energy in her. We also have the 'I can't
move... I can't do anything' thought of that princess doll youma from the carnival. So I suspect that what that ward does is snarl up your ability to
process energy... So it should hit her like having her horns fall off, reduced to human normal... she'll also have a piece of paper stuck to her head.

However, this will also contain Ranma... which means that possession oni exist. Maybe another alien race, maybe a local spirit/demon with the same fashion
sense.

[robkelk]

We already know that possession oni exist in Ranma's world - after all, there's a manga chapter / OAV episode where Kasumi was possessed by one. It's part of the "fun" of writing crossover stories to figure out how one story's elements affect another story's characters...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

Necratoid wrote:

---

What you have to remember is that Lum took Ataru's comment, which was basically him making a short monologue to himself, and decided to except his 'proposal' to her out of spite. Really, it was Ataru celebrating that because he won Shinbu would now honor her win conditional proposal. So if Lum had just gone away, he would have been married shortly afterwards. What happened was that Ataru managed to swipe her top on the last day and then tagged her horns when she tried to get it back... a legit tactic... but this happened on international and interplanetary tv. She just took his aside as a chance to actively make his life hell. Calling him 'Darling' was basically sarcastic for the some months, right up til he grew on her.  

O_O  Huh!  Never really thought of it like that - I always just took it at face value.  It really does add a bit more dimension and depth to Lum's character.
With that in mind, I'll try and swing it like this: The Great Chase goes down, and in addition to the 'no flying' handicap, the Government of Texas has asked that the two not cast any fire or lightning - they've been having fire issues due to a drought.  From there, it goes as planned: Lum severely underestimates the environment and not being able to fly just means that it takes a heavy toll on her, while Zeke is more or less at home.  (Seriously, the friggin' hot weather freak is like the polar opposite of Gryphon's Corwin Ravenhair in this regard!)  She goes delerious towards the end and once she recovers, in return for knowingly making her life hell, she decides to return the favor.
Mr. Invader sees it for what it is.  Delusional visions are a pretty shabby cover, so he decides to lay out the rules as so: Lum is the only one that can break the engagement, HOWEVER, Zeke is the one who decides if and when they'll actually be wed!  Mr. Invader, the crafty old bastard, has constructed a win-win scenario.  If Lum breaks the engagement it's because Zeke's humbled her a bit - something she's been in desperate need of.  And if Zeke winds up marrying her, well that just means that the Family gains a very interesting and useful new member.

Necratoid wrote:

---

The answer is super effective rob. You have to remember that in Lum the oni of eastern legend are the oni of Lum's race. Anyway, from the above mentioned tagging of Usagi, we know that Rei tagged her because she sensed a lot of unusual energy in her. We also have the 'I can't move... I can't do anything' thought of that princess doll youma from the carnival. So I suspect that what that ward does is snarl up your ability to process energy... So it should hit her like having her horns fall off, reduced to human normal... she'll also have a piece of paper stuck to her head.

There's a thought indeed.  Lum is not gonna be happy when she's on the recieving end of one of those tags, especially if Rei does it when she's in her Senshi form.  I think Zeke's gonna wind up sleeping with a fire extinguisher in his room; poor Ami-chan can't stay over every night to help fight the fires those two will spark.
Also...

Necratoid wrote:

---

Japan is so popular that the [The Oni] made an extra dimension on Earth to house visiting and recident aliens.... come to think of it... all the messing around with dimensional walls is likely what damaged Beryl's prison enough that she could get forces out in the first place.

That's very plausible, and can lead to Earth people leveraging something for the damages releasing Queen Beryl has caused.  It will certainly make any other would-be invaders think twice about messing with Earth - they'll just beat you back and then lawyer you into paying for the damages.  Of course, I think a few more examples will need to be made...

[Black Aeronaut]

So, just in case there is anyone curious, here's the nitty-gritty details...

---

"Ezekiel!"

My head shot up at that and turned to the source. To my surprise, a mountain of a man stood at the entrance of the
Shrine, and he was dressed in the uniform of a US Naval Officer.

"Dad?" said Zeke in surprise. "I thought you were out with the Fleet."

This is his Father? I thought to myself. The fearsome Matheiu Darkwood that I had heard so much about? Zeke looks
nothing at all like the man. But then, he did say something about taking after his Mother. They were speaking in English, but mine was good enough to follow
along - I was glad that Zeke had been tutoring the others and myself.

"Something has come up, son," said the huge man, his hazel eyes filled with worry. "I need you to
come back to the base with me immediately."

Zeke was confused and it showed in his eyes. "Dad, what's going on?"

"There's no time to explain just yet, son. Now come along."

Zeke looked at me with an expression on his face that clearly said, shikata nai - it cannot be help and I was sudenly
filled with the strangest compulsion; I did the last thing I would have expected myself to do.

"Excuse me, but may I come with you?"

The Elder Darkwood fixed me with a piercing gaze. I could tell that it was the same one that Zeke would use on me
when he was seriously considering something, but somehow the Elder's lacked the same sort of impact. It did, however, make me seriously reconsider my
request.

"You're Hino Rei, yes?" I nodded. Matheiu then sighed and said, "I wish I could, but I have my
instructions. An Officer of my rank can only bend the rules so much. Just keep your eyes on the news channels. All of Japan is going to know by the end of
the day, anyways." It stung, but I saw that he would not bend - it was as though the man exuded the very essence of stone. Small wonder where Zeke got
his steel influence. I bowed briefly to him and Zeke and I went to pack away the materials for the fuuins we'd been working on, but Zeke's father
stopped us. "We have no time, we must go now. The JR Line has a special train waiting for us at the station. We must hurry."

NANI!? What on Earth could be so important that JR would set aside a train for them?

After that, all I could do was simply watch, feeling an odd sense of powerlessness settle over me as they left, Zeke
casting one last look and a wave before he disappeared from view. I at least took comfort in the fact that he seemed to feel as powerless as I did.

Feeling the need for some comfort, I went to make some tea. At first, I reached for the green tea I usually use, but
then noticed that Zeke had left his mint blend behind. Knowing that he wouldn't mind at all, I reached for that instead.

***

I followed my Father as he set a brisk pace going down the steps and I nearly had to scramble to catch up. A black sedan,
the sort used by high-ranking members of the Diet was waiting at the bottom of the hill. There were motorcycle-mounted police as well. Two in front and two
behind.

Not even before the doors had shut did the police escorts in the front take off to clear the way. I was forced into the back of my seat by the acceleration. I
looked to my Father and the expression on his face was taught - nervous even.

He noticed and said, "Wait until we are on the train. Then we'll talk." The rest of the ride passed in tense silence, punctuated by small squeals
from the tires as we took the harder corners.

Once we got to the station, I noticed something was disturbingly different right away.

It was too quiet.

The reason was readily apparent, though. Black-suited men lurked in the shadows and wore strange armbands. Four of them formed a guard around us and guided us
through the eerily silent station. Only a token number of conductors were at the platform and they bowed deeply as we entered the train.

Once we took our seats, the train began moving.

"Okay, Dad, what's going on?" I said, confusion underlying my calm tone.

Father sighed. "Zeke, my son, first of all I need you to understand this - under other circumstances this would be classifed at such a high level that you
would probably wind up getting relocated to some remote island for the rest of your life just to ensure that nothing ever got out. As it is, though, this thing
is going to get blown up into a media circus."

I swallowed hard at that. I'd heard stories about this sort of thing before. Fictional, of course, but that wouldn't keep the US Government from
dealing with such a potential leak in a manner similar to Typhoid Mary's banishment.

"I understand, sir," I said.

"Good. Earlier this morning, NASA tracked several objects entering controlled orbits around the planet."

"Controlled orbits?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought so too," said Father, shaking his head. "It seems like once and for all the science fiction fans are getting their wish. The problem
is that while they seem friendly, their motivations are anything but. They contacted us and told us, quite politely, that they were here to conquer our world.
However, they left us with a sporting chance. They want someone to participate in a competition for our sovereign rights."

"Okay, so why all this then unless..." Right then, the neurons in my head fired off in the right sequence and I put two-and-two together. "Oh
HELL no!"

"That's what I said, too. Apparently they use some sort of random lottery to pick out the competition, but this time they decided to limit the choices
to people that would give them a more interesting challenge. And so your name came up."

I just sat there in silence for a moment, just letting it sink in.

I didn't ask for this. I didn't want this. Not one bit. None of the fame, none of the recognition. Rescuing an old man from sudden death is one thing.
Saving the whole damn world is not the kind of attention I want.

"Are you alright, son?" said my Father.

I looked up to him and saw open concern on his face. "Yeah, I'll be okay, Dad."

"I guess it's a little much."

"Understatement of the millennium, Dad."

Suddenly the lights on the train flickered and the motor under our feet shuddered. Right away the train began to slow to a halt and the guards looked around
nervously, some putting their hands to their concealed shoulder-holsters. The leader was discreetly murmuring something into his radio pickup.

The train shuddered again and sidearms were drawn.

"Earthquake?" I asked.

"I don't think so," my Father murmured slowly. "I've seen this before."

The train shuddered once more and this time there was a deafening squeal of arcing electricity as something intolerably bright, punching straight through the
ceiling of the train, blinded us.

Slowly, vision came back and I had to scrub at my eyes to believe what I was seeing.

Under a charred, smoking hole in the ceiling was a girl about my age with billowing green hair and baby-blue eyes. I could tell that she was a very healthy
girl since she wore so little to obstruct my view - something that looked like a tiger-skin bikini and knee-high boots. Her build was what my Grandma Charlotte
might call 'Birthing Proportions.'

Oh. And she had horns.

Two, smallish horns poking through the top of her hair.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully. "My name Lum. You Ezekiel?"

The guards relaxed and I blinked. She was speaking English. It was accented, and a bit pidgined, but it was English.

"Yes, I'm Ezekiel," I said a bit uncertainly.

"Great!" she said excitedly. "You be my opponent!"

I exchanged looks with my Dad.

Is this chick for real!?

You got me, son.

"Uhm, nice to meet you," I said. "No offense, but why would you come here right now?"

Lum shrugged and sat down in the seat across from my father and me. "I bored. You interesting. Have complete dossier!" And from what could have only
been Hammer-Space, she whipped out a massively thick file folder.

"How the hell did you get that!?" said my Father, his eyes bugging out at the sight.

Lum shrugged once more. "Hacked it."

I blinked. "Damn. They're good."

My Father sighed heavily at that. "The Pentagon is not gonna be happy about that."

"Dad, to hear you talk sometimes, they're hardly happy about anything."

Dad grudged a grunt of a laugh.

Suddenly, the Engineer came out of the control cab and began screaming at Lum in barely understandable Japanese.

"Ah, son," said my Father. "You're a bit better at this than I am."

"He says we lost power because of Lum's light-show. Thinks we blew the fuses on the transformers."

"You need electricity?" said Lum to the engineer in perfect Japanese. She then held up her arms and an crackling arc appeared, dancing between her
palms. "Where do you need it?"

"It's not as simple as that," I said, switching back to the Japanese that I had been getting better with.

"Nani?" asked Lum, giving me a curious look.

"I don't know how dated your knowledge is, but these modern electrical trains won't operate off of raw power like that. We need the refined stuff.
So we either wait for another train, which I'm sure that the guard speaking into his radio is arranging for now, or we start walking."

"Hmph! I take it back, you're no fun at all."

"Hah! Stick around. My life has a tendency to get interesting, in the ancient Chinese sense of the word."

***

Another train did come, pulling right up next to us. Lum, in a fit of pique, decided not to talk to us for the rest of
the trip.

What awaited us at the Base was more empty streets with armed guards at every corner. We were brought to one of the emptier shops in the Ship Repair Facility.
At first, I wondered why they would use such a dumpy place, but when I finally saw Mr. Invader, I figured it out pretty quickly.

Mr. Invader is sprockin' huge.

Not just huge as in 'I'm a little over two-meters' huge, but huge as in 'I just ate a cow and I think I can squeeze some dessert in' huge.
I looked up and up at him as as we approached. Since no one else spoke and Mr. Invader just eyed me from where he sat, I went ahead and broke the ice.

"Howdy there. You folks certainly don't like to do anything by
halves, do you?"

A smile split the Oni's face. "You got that right, kid! I'm Mr. Invader. I guess that my wayward little girl already filled you in on the
rest."

Somewhere in my head, I could hear myself going Heeeeeeeehhhh?

"She did, and wow, she's you're daughter?"

"Oh yes, my pride and joy."

"Indeed, she's very lovely, though I bet she's a handful."

Mr. Invader's grin faltered as he read between the lines there. "Did she cause you trouble?"

"A bit," I admited, "but I imagine the one most offended party would be the Japan Rail company - she fried the train we were on when she beamed
in."

"You snitch!" I heard Lum cry out and I felt my hair stand on end. Without really thinking I ducked and rolled (slipping off my backpack as I did),
and not a moment too soon as a crackling bolt of electricity leaped from Lum's fingers and scorched the pavement where I had been standing. Seeing the
hundred-watt glare on her face as she cast that bolt, I had to wonder if she was somehow related to Emperor Palpatine.

As I came up my hand dove into my backpack and came back out sheathed in my fire gauntlet, already in flames.

"Let's just see you try that again," I said, a savage grin on my face.

"What you do with it? No get close me."

My grin got a bit bigger as I pulled a wind-fuuin that I had meant to experiment with later and slapped it onto my forearm with the fire-gauntlet.

"This," I said as I blew over the fuuin and grabbed ahold of the elements within me, this time both fire and wind. The result was like as if someone
had built a flamethrower into my arm.

Lum yelped in surprise and jumped clear of the stream acrobatically.

The sound of a gunshot pierced our ears, leaving them ringing.

"That's enough, the both of you!" snapped my Father, handing a surprised Marine his smoking M-14. "Mr. Invader, would you kindly do
something with your daughter? Zeke, you and I are going to have words later, son."

Hoo boy, I thought to myself. I am dead meat.

And then a seismic chuckle filled the air. "Kid, I like you," said Mr. Invader. "You got guts pulling a move like that on my
daughter."

"You mean this doesn't happen very often?" I wondered out loud. Lum glared daggers at me.

"Hah!" scoffed Mr. Invader. "I wish! Everyone is too busy worshipping the ground she walks on!"

"Daddy!" cried out Lum, scandalized.

"It's true," he told her mildly. "Between your beauty and your position in our family, everyone with a Y-chromosome practically grovels at
your feet and you, my daughter, have grown too soft and complacent! It's about time someone threw something other than flowers at your feet."

[Bob Schroeck]

Looking good, BA! And it left me wishing for more again.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Sweno]

Liking it at well!

The only question I have (and it may be answered later): Is the selection really random from a small set, or was Zeke chosen specificaly?
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Foxboy]

Depends on what's funnier. OR Mister Invader could have taken a longer view of the candidates and realized he didn't want a tenaciously lecherous loser
like Ataru Moroboshi as a son-in-law. So, instead of an "easy win," he went for "It won't kill me if my daughter loses."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Black Aeronaut]

Glad to hear that Bob! It's great motivation. (^_^)

sweno, the selection really was random... at least as much as Lum's parameters would allow. And who's to say that a bit of divine intervention
wasn't involved?

Foxboy, as for Mr. Invader, like any good business man he's siezing an opportunity when he sees it. (^_^)

[Necratoid]

Is the selection really random from a small set, or was Zeke chosen specificaly?

Ataru was massively unlucky and basically indestructable. Zeke is the choosen from birth avatar of the protogod of blind folding Statis Quo and
making it play dizzy bat, while randomly teleporting around the planet. So Zeke was on the short list, even if it was a completely random choice on the
oni's part.

[Black Aeronaut]

Necratoid wrote:

---

Ataru was massively unlucky and basically indestructable. Zeke is the choosen from birth avatar of the protogod of blind folding Statis Quo and making it
play dizzy bat, while randomly teleporting around the planet.

HAH!!! I don't know whether to sig that or have one of the characters fire that off as in-story snarkage.

[deadpan29]

Are competed chapters of this posted anywhere, or is this the only place to find this fic?
----------
No, I don't believe the world has gone mad.  In order for it to go mad it would need to have been sane at some point.

[Black Aeronaut]

So far, this is the only spot as it's still a bit of a work in progress - two chapters in slight need of mark-up (DH Birr: I still have your editorial on
Chapter 1 - still need to implement that sucker!) but otherwise complete, and a third in the works (part of which I posted here in this thread).

As I mentioned before, I haven't been getting much done between my work in the US Navy and hitting a wall with Lum's character. At least the latter is
no longer an issue, but my regular job tends to take precedence, so don't expect a whole lot at once. (>.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

A thought on Lum's dialogue.

With most verbal-tic characters, using the "-aru" or "-desu" or whatever in English just sounds weird. But there may be a way to give Lum
her distinctive tic without sounding too weird, don'tcha think?

(Or would constant use of don'tcha, won'tcha, can'tcha, and such just make her sound Minnesotan?)

--Sam

"SPOON!"

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh no, I agree completely. If I recall correctly, is that not what they did in the English dub? Not too shabby of an idea, I think.

Anywho, I think that the pidgin English suits her wonderfully, much like Shampoo's pidgin Japanese. However, anything in Japanese that has her specific
ticks applied to it I'll just use the romanized Japanese. That's a lot better than adding Japanese honorifics to English words. And if anyone complains
about being too lazy to look it up, I'll post a Glossary chapter.

Next up, familiarizing myself with said 'ticks'... Hoo boy... anyone got a character bible?

[Foxboy]

Simplest way to handle Lum's verbal tic is to realize that, in Japanese, she applies the suffix -tcha to every verb, which is effectively the end of every sentence.

The English translation by Viz handled it by such expedients as "Darling, I'm very mad at you-tcha!" but they did it haphazardly at best. The tic may, in fact, be an affectation she puts on to sound cute, much like some fanon states that Shampoo's "bubblehead" accent is something to throw people off.

Another point to consider, since you're crossing over with Ranma 1/2... Rumiko Takahashi has stated in interviews a couple interesting things about Lum:

Her hair is iridescent, like the back of a CD/DVD or a peacock's feathers.

She was originally intended as a romantic "foil" for the Ataru-Shinobu pairing [as you can tell from the original story] but the fans made Lum the romantic lead.

Shampoo in Ranma 1/2 was an effort to succeed at what Takahashi intended for Lum to be. Her success at this is open to debate.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Black Aeronaut]

... Okay, that complicates matters a bit. I'll think of something.

Interesting! I'd love to see a picture of her hair iridescing like that.

Ah, so that explains why Shampoo was so over-the-top.

[Foxboy]

Interesting! I'd love to see a picture of her hair iridescing like that.

A lot of the early color work by Takahashi herself has "rainbow-like" green-yellow-blue ink washes on Lum's hair to try to pull it off with materials available at the time. It's why her hair highlights are so strange in the Anime as well. Pay particular attention to her hair in this clip (if you can access youtube.)

I think the animation studio that did Ranma 1/2 did the same thing to Shampoo's hair because "That's how Takahashi-sensei does exotic hair colors!"
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Necratoid]

Okay... now I'm picturing Lum doing adds for a specific fancy paint shimmering, color changing shade of car paint. I'm also wondering if
Inuyasha's sword had any effect whatsoever on Ataru... also if Kagome saved Lum from great harm or death there. That is going to bug me for days.

[Black Aeronaut]

Foxboy wrote:

---

Pay particular attention to her hair in this clip (if you can
access youtube.)




I think the animation studio that did Ranma 1/2 did the same thing to Shampoo's hair because "That's how Takahashi-sensei does exotic hair
colors!"

... Damn. The Military has a certain degree of disdain towards streaming video. We won't be out for long on this jaunt, so I'll get to
see it in a few days.

So Shampoo's hair is like that as well? Hrm... Wouldn't it be interesting if Shampoo's tribe of Amazons were actually Oni/Human descendants?

[Foxboy]

Okay, let's try this:

[img]www.furinkan.com/uymanga/umbrelum.jpg[/img]
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Necratoid]

Trying my hand at a text example of how this looks... Ever see those fiber optic Christmas trees? The ones that randomly change color and have those bouncy
'needles' on them? Think of that, only green instead of clear. Thinking about it that would mean Lum's hair is hollow and therefore each strand
is thicker that the human equivalent. So easier to manage... but likely harder to recover from damage than human hair. Granted centries of tech advantage
would likely make that unnoticable, unless she gets cut off from her supply chain and has to try local hair care products. So basically, Lum's hair has
more in common with a polar bear's hair then human hair. I'm also betting the hair is that way to act a an insulator to her own electrical powers.
The lightning comes from the horns on her head... which are strangely easy to snap off... which negates their powers, until the horns recover in two weeks or
so. Basically, the hair deflects the current around it so the shortest route is around the hair to the charge holding, insulating skin... rather than directly
through the liquid cover brain.

Flight probably works through the same method as the amazing antigravity frog trick, which I'm not going to look up at this point in time to explain the
specifics of. That means a Oni horns are some random mineral composition... also I'm guessing that instead of bone marrow as we humans have, Onis have some
sort of electrical producing brain like matter in their bones... this would explain why Ten can be so cognitive and so immature at two years old or partially
explain why Lum had such a grasp of tech earlier than the other members of her class. Though wether this means that all the brain maroow and cranial brain are
linked or marrow brains take over lower brain functions throughout the body I can't say.

I'm also hampered by a small sample size... just Ten, Lum, and Rei (I think) really use there powers. All are different and I can't remember if Rei
can fly as well as shapeshift. I'm a bit off topic anyway so, I've got a theory that the reason a fur bikini is 'tradition' Oni dress is that
the fur share the same properties as her skin and hair. Any other cloths, historically anyway, would damage or burn off when they manifest their powers. So
its entirely practical... Especially on a hot planet. That Lum tends to go airborne when she is serious, I'm guess that its just an extension of applied
resistor and insulator theory.

[Black Aeronaut]

Foxboy, the image on the left works, but not the one on the right... *looks at image properties* ... weird. Oh well, they're both the same image anyways.

I got a good idea of what her hair may look like, as I'm familiar with the beatles with iridescent green carapaces. I have to admit, the mental imagery is
quit lovely and I'll have to edit it into my current WIP. Zeke will have to admit to himself that it is quite fetching.

Necratoid; sounds interesting. I'll have to look up that antigravity frog thing, but gotta save it for later. I will say this much about powers: females
seem to be electrokinetics while males are pyrokinetics. As far as I could remember, I've seen Jariten and Rei both use fire.

[Black Aeronaut]

Good news, everybody! I just finished the rough draft on Chapter 3 (It's Not The One Round With Your Name On It That You Need to Worry About...) and I will post it as soon as we pull back in and I can get at a public internet connection.
Next up! Chapter 4 (...It's the 10,000 Other Odd Rounds Labeled 'Ocupant'!) in which Zeke and Rei take down a monster together, Zeke bags an Oni-girl and Lum bags a human... and possibly more trouble than she bargained for! (^_^)