#accommodated to humans) are generally going to be cautious and may avoid confrontations they absolutely COULD win because

[prolibytherium]

Would kill to read animal POV fiction that has the animal POV’s interaction with humans be like, semi realistic to the level of caution most predators take with large prey and/or competitors (including humans).

Like instead of the usual - “the human is such a weak, pathetic creature... so slow, no claws, blunt teeth… completely helpless without its 'Fire Sticks'. how is it the master of the earth?” type crap it’s like, the bear protagonist or whatever approaches some dude who spreads their arms and yells and the bear is like “FUUUUUUUUCK THAT THING JUST GOT HUGE. IT'S LARGE AND MAKING NOISES. HOLY FUCK.”

[obscuraxrp]

The smoke settles to reveal AKIMOTO YUKI, a 33 year old raijuu-blooded of Sunseong. He is a songwriter, composer, and videographer who appears to be adept in shapeshifting and electricity manipulation --- but like most things in Sunseong, there must be more to him than meets the eye.

FACECLAIM: Taichi Mukai, soloist

APPEARANCE:

Human: nothing too unusual to see here; he looks like your typical homo-sapiens specimen, albeit one with unusual coloration. His eyes remain their natural pale blue-gray shade, uncommon for someone of East Asian descent, so those may warrant a few double-takes in passing on the streets. His hair is dyed on a regular basis to maintain its dark color, but if you catch him a few days after his last dye job, you’ll see the white starting to show through again under the black. He has baby fangs that are only slightly longer than regular human canines would be.

Natural: and now, his looks are definitely verging on bizarre. His eyes have paled to the point where his irises are almost the same color as the white surrounding them, and they appear to be filled with sparks which increase or decrease depending on his emotions. His hair has grown to resemble a mane, and no longer lies flat, taking on a life of its own as it is constantly crackling with electrical energy. His teeth have elongated into proper fangs, similar to a dog’s in their structure, and he’s grown claws as well.

Raijū: no longer humanoid in appearance, this form is actually not a concrete one. It can change depending on how much he concentrates on one particular variation: wolf, cat, fox, even a weasel. Usually, he doesn’t bother picking just one and will appear as a vaguely mammalian-shaped creature, white, and wrapped round with visible bolts of electricity.

Lightning: there is an additional form that Yuki does not have access to yet, in which he will lose a physical body entirely, and become something like ball lightning. It allows for better mobility, but has the downside that he is otherwise unable to do anything while trapped in the spherical form. What’s more, when returning to his Raijū or natural form, the energy released will cause a small explosion. It’s really more of a defensive maneuver than anything else.

BIOGRAPHY:

Theirs is not a small household, nor a quiet one. In a long line of children, Yuki stands somewhere in the middle, between his older brother, and the twins who are 3 years younger than himself. Fortunately, of their stupidly large brood, only Yuki and his oldest sister, Hanae, are afflicted with their father’s Raijū blood.

You two have to be careful, their father tells them when they’re old enough to understand their abilities. Don’t touch anyone, or let them touch you. Disguise your features. Do not venture out in public during storms. Keep your heads down and try not to stand out.

Of course, this just prompts Yuki and Hanae to do exactly the opposite. What’s the point of being magic if they can’t have fun with it from time to time? And surely it’s harmless to show off a little, at least to their friends and classmates. It’s not like a little shock here and there will kill anyone, not at their level. The only warning of their father’s they take seriously is the one regarding storms.

As descendants of a creature of lightning, they become easily agitated during thunderstorms, and their powers run rampant. They’ve seen what it does to their father, and even as children, the pair are quick to realize this is not something to mess with, especially when in the presence of normal humans.

Still, word spreads quickly in their small community this way, about the Akimoto family’s strange children. Abominations, their neighbors call them, citing the stories their own kids bring home as proof of their accusations. Unnatural creatures. “We don’t need things like you around here.”

To avoid incurring further anger, and possible violence, from the townsfolk, his parents are forced to pack their family up in a hurry, and almost overnight, the Akimotos disappear from their home. They’ve settled in Sunseong now, and have slowly regained a normal rhythm to their day-to-day lives.

Since then, Hanae and Yuki have become much more careful about heeding their father’s earlier warnings, and do their best to give off the illusion that they are human. The rest of their years in Korea are spent in relative peace, with only the occasional slip-up in front of some local farm boy to cause alarm.

Yuki never goes on to college, opting to pursue his childhood interest instead. He moves to the central district with his sister as soon as he graduates high school, and has slowly built up a niche of his own there as a freelancer. His flat is more studio than an actual space for living in, but he doesn’t mind. It allows him to write his music and share it with the those of like mind, and that is all he can ask for now.

CHARACTERIZATION:

- Yuki has always been an obliging person. Too much so, if you ask his family and close friends. He doesn’t mind bending to other people’s whims, sometimes at the expense of discarding his own thoughts and opinions to go along with their viewpoints. This is mainly because Yuki is also a bit of a lazy child; he finds that it’s less effort and drama to simply comply, than to butt heads with someone over differences.

- He’s close with his entire family, especially so with Hanae. They initially shared an apartment when they moved to the city together. Now, they live separately, but maintain a constant correspondence, and are known to frequent each other’s homes on a near daily basis.

- Because he comes naturally charged up like a battery, Yuki has a hard time with electrical devices. The upside is that his electricity bill is lower than his neighbors, since he can just generate his own power if he wants to. The downside is that things like cellphones and laptops are easily destroyed in his possession, since one small spike in energy outburst can fry the chips inside them.

- Since he grew up in such a large family, surrounded by siblings on all sides, he’s become quite adept at taking care of others, both younger and older than himself. He’s prone to taking in strays - this applies to the typical small, furry, four-legged kind that most people think of when they hear that word, as well as the kind who are more humanoid in form and come with more complex problems attached - grooming them and helping them get back on their feet, before releasing them again if they want to leave.

- During storms, he becomes much more easily agitated than usual. He prefers being in his natural form during these times, and he hates being cooped up indoors. Since there are no open spaces here in the city like there are back home, he makes do with the next best thing. You can generally find him at the top of the nearest telephone tower, or similar structure. Anywhere high, and relatively far from people, will do.

- The cats and dogs he takes home because of the above impulse usually don’t want to go once they’ve settled in, so the number of pets he has keeps increasing. Occasionally, he can find a neighbor, a friend, or just some random stranger he’s met while window shopping downtown, who happens to be in want of a furry companion, and he’ll pass on one of his ‘children’ to them.

- For all his passivity and attempts to be accommodating with everyone he meets, there is one matter which he remains absolutely firm about. Yuki is, in fact, very unapologetic and proud of his beast-blood. He is cautious about who he reveals this fact to, but he will not deny his heritage if confronted about it. Should you take issue with what he is, then that is your problem, not his, and he will gladly show you the door out of his life.

- He has a very bad habit of playing ostrich when it comes to his personal problems. Issues he refuses to acknowledge do not exist in his mind, and he would rather turn a blind eye to the ceiling that’s collapsing atop of him than face the cause behind its wearing down.

SPECIALTIES:

Shape-Shifting ( Rank II: 60pts ): he’s been practicing since he could first begin wearing his human disguise. At first, it was just for fun, because he could do it, and he wanted to see how his friends would react when he switched between the two forms in front of them. His father started teaching him how to shift into his Raijū form after they moved to Korea, and he continued to practice until he gained full control over the ability. The only form he still cannot access is the ball lightning one.

Electricity Manipulation ( Rank I: 20pts ): he can naturally generate his own electrical energy, but learning how to control it and make it do his bidding has taken some time. So far, he’s only got the basic applications down. While he can somewhat manipulate how much energy he puts out at a time, it is still not advisable for people to make skin contact with him, especially normal humans who have no wards or spells to protect them from electric shock. In his human form, it is a minor jolt and feels like being hit with static electricity; in his natural form, it varies from something as brief as a shock from faulty wiring, to something more prolonged like getting tasered. Touching his Raijū form will usually cause immediate unconsciousness and possible permanent damage to your nerves.

INNATE ABILITIES:

Enhanced Senses: in particular, he has better vision, hearing, and sense of smell than most. This comes with night vision included in the package deal. As is the case with nearly all his innate abilities, the effectiveness of his senses increases the further he gets from human.

Enhanced Mobility: he may not have inherited their full grace, but as the descendant of a creature used to traveling with the fluidity and speed of actual lightning, his ability to move is at least a few bars above your average person’s. He has the benefit of having the improved agility, balance, and speed of a professional athlete without the physical training they go through.

Electrical Immunity: he’s not immune in all his forms. The amount he’s able to withstand increases the further he gets from being human: his Raijū form is the closest to full immunity; his natural form can take about the equivalent of an electric fence running on a constant current with only minor burns and numbness to show for it; his human form is the most fragile, but even then, you would need a strong, continual output of power to compromise him.

Storm Detection: before you go thinking you can use him as your personal live-read-weather-vane, know that he is only reliable at predicting thunderstorms, and only a few hours before the storm hits. Any other type of weather, he is useless for, so don’t delete your weather app just because you have him in your contacts now.