Normalcy, or Lack Thereof [Open]

Sadly, Orihime's good intentions were largely wasted.

An uncannily tall, whip-slender man simply materialized behind her with a brief flash and a faint crackling noise. A wild mane of dark hair twitched in sympathy with his motions, sticking out in all directions as if electrified and half-shading eyes that were literally blazing with a fierce white light. Sharp features and high cheekbones surrounded those brilliant eyes, and above thin lips, an incongruously natty moustache completed the picture.

One long-fingered hand flashed out in an absent-minded grab for Orihime's upper arm; the other was firmly clasped around a long, oddly- contoured staff that the man appeared to be... arguing with?

"The power to defy fate... intriguing."

"There is no such thing as fate, you preening, electrified fool. There is only SCIENCE!"

"Even you must admit that the ability to reweave the strands of fate is intriguing..."

"Hmm... yes, temporal manipulation, by your superstition-laden description, is an interesting puzzle... you may wish to glance behind you, 'master'."

The hissing, crackling voice that seemed to be coming partially from the staff and partially from somewhere within the tall, thin man's chest oozed sarcasm with the word 'master', but the warning had a spark of genuineness to it. Apparently, much as whatever was bound within the staff disliked its current 'master', it disliked the idea of dying with him even more.

Fulmen glanced around, raising a bushy eyebrow. "Ah. One of those Vizard pests. Really, what was the Gotei thinking when they allowed the creation of those nuisances?" he mused, not really acknowledging Haishiro beyond noting his presence.

((Ooc- Apologies for the wait, life has been busy and distracting >.< -ooC))

The tall stranger didn't even appear to hear Orihime's question, staring abstractedly into the distance as clouds on the horizon, fluffy and white until moments ago, darkened and began to emit ominous rolls of thunder. Unexpectedly, though, the staff responded.

"Ignore that posturing fool- he is occupied trying to set up an appropriately dramatic backdrop for the revelation of his identity, if you can believe that. As to myself, I am, preposterous though it may seem, the Scientific Man, Nikolai Tesla. How I, or at least my energies, came to be entrapped in this metallic shaft is something that is not known even to myself, and the witless beanpole who 'wields' this form has yet to give anything resembling a satisfactory explanation."

As the staff (Tesla?) spoke, the sky rapidly darkened, the clouds that the stranger had been manipulating growing and spreading across the sky. Tesla's crackling voice was abruptly cut off when his 'master' slammed the butt of the staff on the pavement with a shockingly loud *CRACK*, ripples of force emanating from the impact point to fling every metallic object in the area away from him. A thin tendril of electricity shot upwards, to be answered by a roaring torrent of blue-white electric flame that split the sky, briefly turning the scene into a negative image of itself. Thankfully for Orihime, though, whatever prevented the man himself from being fried also protected her, courtesy of his hand still grasping her arm. Haishiro, however, enjoyed no such protection.

"I... am FULMEN!" the lightning-wielder declaimed as thunder broke windows for three blocks around, apparently ignorant of the fact that wandering onto the scene mumbling to himself, then arguing with an inanimate object, for a good five minutes before doing a dramatic entrance... tended to lessen the impact of said dramatic entrance. The drama was also not helped by Tesla's hissing sigh of "Here we go again..."