How might Nerima change?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Hmm... I'm not a Japanese speaker, but I think Marumaru makes a good name- definately a typical bit of Ranma 1/2 humor. And nice idea for the intellect; any further ideas for him, perhaps on the specifics of his appearance or his relationships with the other martial artists of Nerima 2014?

[Heaven's Deamon]

For specifics, does he intentionally antagonize his father? if so he might take some extra steps in "girlfying" his appearance just to annoy his father further. Perhaps after he starts fighting, he could also invest in devices for healing and cleaning up just so he won't get scars or be seen by Tatewaki in a less than imaculate appearance. It could also be used to add character if one of the others later meet him in a time when he's just being himself (IE in street clothes and the like)

For interactions with the others, he could at first treat them like his father thinking they're simalarly unbalanced, as he sees examples of what they can do and starts to join in though, perhaps he could start to try and figure out a scientific basis for the various energies and abilities they employ...... if Ryouga's daughter emphasizes the "Art" side of Martial Arts, him having/developing a scientific view on it could be a decent contrast.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Hmm... nice ideas both of them. Anything more we need for this guy, or shall we move on to someone else?

Speaking of which, who else is there left to do? We've got Yemon, Okkuu, Michiko, we've sort of got Lifen and Marumaru... so, off the top of my head, we have left:
(Major characters)
Ukyo & Mousse's kid
Gosunkugi & Miyo's daughter
(Minor characters)
Michiko's siblings
Possibly the Trio

Hmm... maybe we should consider adding some "newcomers" to the role of major characters? To better expand to more Ranma 1/2 dimensions? By newcomers I mean teen martial artists who aren't related to the old guard, but get involved with the Neo-Crew for whatever reasons, by the by.

[Heaven's Deamon]

I'd say do the other majors, see if they bring about any more minors, then look to see if we can think of any "unfilled" positions to use for newcomers.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Alright then, which shall we do now? Neo-Kuonji, or Gosunkugi's daughter? Also, could you gather together the data we've come up with for Lifen and Marumaru into rudimentary profiles, so we can show them to Jupiah when he finally comes back?

[Heaven's Deamon]

*grimaces* Profiling = something that should not be asked of me.

As for who next, I think Gosunkugi's kid would be good.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Oh, you don't need to make a real profile- just build a Word document or something where you can keep all the stuff we've worked out for Lifen and Marumaru so that, when Jupiah finally comes back, when can present it to him to sort through and make comments on. I'd normally do it myself, but without a computer of my own... well...

And Neo-Hikaru it is. Alright then... what can we make out of this girl? I belive we were originally intending to have her run the family business, which is basically the dominant "cursed antiques" shop in Nerima (having acquired all of the magical merchandise in the others) and thus allowing her to serve as a source of havoc by providing or using some newly acquired trinket or talisman, yes?

Hmm... Miyo was a pretty potent spiritualist, and Gosunkugi was incompetent but knowledable about the occult and full of spite. So what stance on actual magical power should we take for Neo-Hikaru? Good at it but disinterested, interested but devoid of power, has power and wants to use it for good but is only proficient at black (or, at best, grey) magic, or something I haven't thought of?

[Heaven's Deamon]

I think the "good but disinterested" works. The kind of character that is good at what they do, but often bored so they stir up trouble for the entertainment value.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Yeah, makes a nice change from both her parent's fascination with the occult and the paranormal. The name-links are on page 14; can you take a look and see if you can figure out a name for this daughter of the Hikaru family?

Next step, appearance. Miyo appears in the anime, the episode "The Last Days of Happosai...?", season 3's 17th episode. I can't describe how she looks, so you may need to check it out for ideas on what Neo-Hikaru looks like. Gosunkugi shows in the 2nd episode of the 6th season- I don't think he changes in appearance from the manga, but you might want to check it out as well. Beyond that, I've no ideas off the top of my head what this girl might look like.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

No luck with her looks? Alright, we'll leave that until later. So what other details do we need to work out for her? Hmm... let's see... possible topics for her I can think of are:
-Her relationship with the other Neo-Crew members
-What precisely she does in the story
-Her "paranormal abilities" (aka the stuff she can do that makes her more than human, ala the martial arts Yemon & Michiko use, Lifen's transformation or Marumaru (and why does that name remind me of Sailor Moon?) and his hyper-tech)

Can you think of anything else? If not, or if these are all, then which topic shall we tackle first?

Man, Jupiah, if you're still alive, can you please post a note here? Even if you're no longer interested, can you at least say so? I even sent you a PM about this...

[Heaven's Deamon]

(I think Marumaru is making you think of Mamoru)

When I suggested her personality, I was thinking of a somewhat more active "Nabiki" type, but she does things for entertainment rather than money. Neo-crew members will go to her for things dealing with the supernatural, but most will take her "advice" with a grain of salt due to her mischeviousness. I could also see Marurmaru having a highly antagonistic relationship with her because of the "traditional rivalry" that is so often made between science and magic. As things progress he could actually cool down his dislike for her as he sees things he thought impossible done before his eyes.

For role, I can see her working heavily as a plot device, used to start new situations or provide information that others wouldn't know.

For powers, he know she uses magic, which can get pretty broad, it might be better to keep things down to flessing out a few things that she would do on a regular basis, while still leaving room for her to have other abilities revealed later on.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Some very nice ideas. Hmm... you know, one vague idea that came to me before was that we might use her as the base for a romantic rivalry. You know how Gosunkugi hates Ranma because he is obsessed with Akane (who barely knows he's alive)? I was originally thinking we might give her a crush on Yemon and thus an antipathy for Michiko, then thought it'd probably be better/more original/funnier to have her consider herself a rival of Michiko for a guy and be completely indifferent to Yemon. In fact, some extra 'quirks' that came to me for that idea were...
-Michiko actually isn't interested in the target of Neo-Hikaru's affections at all.
-The guy NH likes actually does like her back, but circumstances lead her to believe otherwise.

Now, I don't think that's of any use. Ah well. Though part of me now wonders if there might be a possibility in having one or the other of Hikaru and Marumaru start falling for the other. Or at least the two getting zapped with some kind of love magic which others need to break.

Do we want to keep the idea of having her unwittingly "pass on" cursed magical items supplied by the yokai assassin chasing Okkuu? Speaking of which, that's another character we'll need to do up.

Okay then, to work out her "basic" spells, how about we figure out what sort of things she'd generally use them for or need to have? My own personal inklings include a scrying method of some type, perhaps a basic "mana bolt" (low-level offensive type spell) for self-defence, and that's all I can think of.

Oh, here's the link to the Girls Names site- can you take a look and see if you can concoct a name for her? I can't think of anything.
http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-girls-names.shtml

[Heaven's Deamon]

Actually, the idea of Marumaru liking her, but disliking her reffrences/association to/with magic (which, as a "man of science", he claims can not be real) And thus tries constantly to covince her that it's fake, making her think he doesn't like her...... I think it could work. and as said before, as he sees more "impossible" things done and starts trying to figure out how, he shifts from the "can't happen" view to the "Hasn't been explained yet" view and is less antagonistic to her allowing more of a relationship to grow......

For the assassin thing, maybe she could instead pass things on knowingly, but only after tampering with them so they'll be less deadly, but more entertaining. when that's not an option, she could just switch them for something else......

For spells, I was thinking that a good way to do it would be for her to use ones that let her avoid fights, since this kind of background raises the possibility that she could actually be too powerful for the others to fight head on early in the story, using the scrying spell, a spell to redirect any attempts to harm her to make them miss, and maybe some form of teleportation (such as magic sigils she placed in "safe" locations that she can "summon" herself to) as a way to get off the battlefield, allowing her to be held back until the others get to a point where they are at a similar level to her......

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

You know, I think we may be overpowering her here. Magic is at least as difficult as martial arts, and possibly even more so- and she's only 16, 18 at most; she's not going to be super-powered compared to the others.

In fact, what do you think of this as her base concept?
Hikaru has magic in her blood, a natural talent and aptitude that would blossom, if she worked hard at it, into perhaps the greatest magi of her generation. A pity then that she has absolutely no interest whatsoever in such a fate. Much to the costernation of her parents, who simply cannot understand it, Hikaru would as soon be an ordinary girl as have untapped magical potential and gladly skives off her sorcery studies- in fact, if it weren't for the Peking Homunculus* (a diminutive and rather intelligent Construct her folks left behind to keep an eye on her), she wouldn't study magic at all. She finds it quaint and old-fashioned, but mostly boring, and would much rather be chatting with her friends or even doing sports.

Unfortunately for her, her folks refuse to let her be normal- not only is her "guardian" committed to seeing she does at least some studying, she's also in charge of the family antique store... which she considers perhaps the greatest indignity she has to suffer. Beyond this, mana can have something of a mind of its own, and thus it has a tendency to 'leak' or 'act up' despite her best efforts.

*I believe the tradition is 'cookie for you if you get/recognize this'.

This leaves her well in the same "weight category" as her fellows, perhaps even on the weaker end of things, and still lets her cause trouble; because her folks tend to subdue and investigate the magical finds before shipping them to her, she tends to limit her own "research" into a basic check of whether or not the item radiates magic. Couple this with her lack of interest-induced deficiency in care, and she can be a disaster waiting to happen due to not paying full attention to whatever Magic Item of the Week pops up. This carelessness is also why she lets the assassin's items slip through the net. To this, we can add the potential for chaos due to uncontrolled/unwanted 'mana flares' and miscast spells.

Don't get me wrong, she's still good at magic- when she seriously applies herself to it. When she's lacksadasial about it though, things tend to foul up.

[Heaven's Deamon]

*grins* OK, THAT sounds like a good setup. And it looks like there will be no cookie for me because Clue, I have none.

I wonder if the forced study could be used in such a way that she actually can rattle off details about magic and items if someone asks, but keeps it subconcious, meaning that someone could mention something that they are having trouble with, she rambles out it while doing something else entirely, not paying any attention to the words coming out of her mouth, and inadvertently giving the person a possible solution, they try to thank her, and she doesn't have a clue why......