Song for the day: Cut Off Their Thumbs #1 by The Mountain Goats

We've come back to Sunday, and you know what that means... it means more dogs. OR DOES IT? WHO SAYS THAT EVERYONE ON OMNIA *IS* A DOG?

That's a little Canis-centric of you, isn't it...?

It so happens that, as judging by the horns, Vidant Benn is indeed a Canis. Sort of. Benn, (affectionately, or not so affectionately) better known at Benny, is actually half Lapnin, meaning that half of her genes come from something more akin to a rabbit, albeit a rabbit with super-intelligence, as is the fortitude of Lapnin-- every Omnian Sentient species has a unique set of powers. Since all Omnian species are more magic than they are physical form, all of them can technically breed... in the same way that you can take about any color of play-doh and mush them into each other without much of a problem. However, the issue with cross-breeds ends up being magical, as the magical "instructions" for each species are completely different and are not cross-compatible at all. The chances that the resulting offspring from any given inter-Sentience conception will be viable is about 50/50, with a 5% chance that you'll get offspring with both power sets (remarkably viable and powerful) and 10-20% that the offspring has no powers at all. Those percentages peak one way or another depending on the species, with inter-canid matings usually being safe and extreme pairings getting the worst shaft.

It would probably be easier to engineer some kind of magical countermeasure to this if it wasn't a socially divisive issue.

Benn is one of those lucky dual-powered Sentients, but she tends to apply her superintelligence in an unorthodox way... her mind works fast enough that she can calculate the velocity of kicks as she makes them and the like, allowing her to strike with unprecedented power and accuracy. In fact, she calculates just about anything that happens on the battlefield, but any results to try to get her to divulge her secrets are met with a haughty "keep up" rather than any real assistance. Benn is half the size of a normal Canis, with ears that drag across the ground, but years of teasing have taught her to punch up and years of winning have taught her how to punch down. Her position as Vidant is just below Viviante, or a truly gifted singular member of the Defender forces, and she's convinced that the lack of a promotion comes less from alleged "character issues" and more from the fact that the one thing most species can agree on is that no one wants a Lapnin in charge of anything. 

She joined the mission because she was assigned to it, and it's her first interdimensional voyage. Her lack of faith in the crew is only trumped by her itch to make it go well so that she can show everyone at home up. They seemed impressed when they looked at the line up, so clearly competent Sentients are on board... 

well. They might have been silent because otherwise she would've punched their faces in.

(Reminder that this is still a Q and A... I will be taking questions for crew members through November 1st, as the characters are revealed. I will be keeping the Q and A spoiler-free, so consider this their first transmission as they board the ship together!)