Ran might not look it, but she was a schemer. A plotter. She didn't carry a grudge, she employed grudges to work for her and most of them had Lum's name on them. Was this a healthy attitude? Nope. Far from it. One could call it quite destructive so far as outlooks go. Still! So long as Lum was happy, so long as Lum was content then Ran would do her utmost to destroy that happiness. And she'd do it with a smile on her pretty doll-like face.
This little event was another opportunity for her to mess things up and make Lum cry. Aha! That Mendo girl had the right idea! Let Ataru ruin everything for Lum, because if anyone knew how to get under her skin it was Darling. Without question. For now though? She'd help set things up. Because watching a row of dominoes fall over didn't happen by itself. You had to set them up first.
So right now she was helping Lum set up the Slumber party, putting up cheesy little decorations to set the mood. As she did so she came across a little wooden box, rather ornate looking. Cute but not Lum’s style.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Humans call it potpourri," Lum answered. "It's supposed to give the room a pleasant smell."
"For humans or for aliens?" Ran asked.
"Uh... It's supposed to smell like Earth flowers, I think?"
Both of them made a "yeuch" sound at that. It must be a quirk of growing up on this planet, but humans were the only intelligent species around who found that smell pleasing. Still... it did give Ran a bit of an idea. Maybe if she added a little bit of alien spice to this potpourri she could really set the humans off!
"My cooking for Rei smells much, much nicer than this," Ran remarked, opening it up and taking a big whiff for effect. A puff of smoke hit her right in the face and then... And then... And then...
Buuuugh. Why was the room so wobbly all of a sudden? Hee... that wall had pretty colours. Pretty swirling colours.
"Hmm, whatever makes you happy," Lum said. And now, we get to behold the core reason that Ran hated Lum so much. While Lum could be a pretty nice person, she was a bit easily distracted and pretty single minded when it came down to it.
"Taking... Rei... away from you made me haaaaappy!" Ran tittered. Now, a normal person would have picked up on the strange way that Ran said that. The odd rocking back and forth she was doing on her feet while staring blankly straight ahead at the wall decorations. But no. Lum was not an ordinary person. Therefore:
"I dumped Rei," Lum sighed. "He was so... boring. His obsession with food was so annoying, tcha!"
"Rei is boring..." Ran repeated. "Obsession with food, annoying tcha!"
"Now there's no need to make fun of me by copying me!"
"Need to... copy Lum!"
Even now Lum hadn't noticed anything amiss. She thought Ran was up to something. As always. Probably trying to kiss Darling again to drain his energy away. Well! Not if she had anything to say about it she wouldn't! She’d only get to kiss Darling if… if she didn’t drain him yeah!
"I know what you're up to!" Lum warned. "You're trying to kiss Darling's soft, kissable lips! Well! You won't drain Darling's life force, do you understand?"
Understand... Yes, Ran understood. She nodded her head. Wait.. wait... She was starting to come back to consciousness. What was she doing just now? Ooh. She had to shake off the cobwebs there. Right. Of course. She remembered now. She was planning to sabotage Lum's little get together by exploiting her Darling's remarkably high libido and soft kissable lips which she wouldn't drain energy from.
Turning around to look at her hated enemy, Ran looked at her. As in, really looked at her. Check her out. Hot Miss Oni babe strutting around in a tiger print bikini. As if she was the only one that could look good that way. Hah! If Ran wanted to, she'd crush that look. Except her stripes would be pink! Oh, yes. Hot pink striped bikini. She'd look way hotter than Lum ever could!
"Honestly, you should be happy with Rei and stop bothering me for 'revenge'," Lum continued. "You keep on making things worse for yourself whenever you try."
"Don't you tell me what I should be happy with!" Ran snapped, unconsciously copying Lum's gesture as she set up decorations. "If I want to be happy with Rei, then I'll be happy with Rei because I want to be!" Safe, handsome and boring, boring Rei who only ever thought about food.
“Hey Ran could you move that scent box over here? I think the AC will help spread the scent around a bit better.”
Ah, yes. That made a good amount of sense. Ran picked up the box and turned around - but then Lum just so happened to pick up a Maneki Neko statue, and all of a sudden Ran was overtaken by this strange desire to pick up a thing right in front of her. The only thing in front of her was the lid, so she picked it up... And then Lum leaned forward to look at something, which meant Ran's nose went right into the -
<i>Everybody sail on the river of pie! Red sounds like birdsong and smells just fine!</i>
Yep, Ran got herself a nice faceful of hypnotic aromatherapy. She wasn't in cloud cuckooland. She was in the place that cloud cuckoolanders go to when they get high! Yet even still, Lum was flitting about the room completely oblivious to the fact that Ran had started doing the charleston for no apparent reason in the middle of the room.
"I'm the same with Darling," Lum sighed. "He's so wonderful and attentive, even when he pretends not to be."
"Da~arling is wo~onderful and atte~entive!" Ran sang to a tune that only she could hear. Dancing Atarus flitted across her vision. Buff and handsome and complimenting how pretty she was.
"It should probably bother me that he hits on so many girls all the time," Lum said, screwing up her nose and still not paying Ran any attention at all. "But... it's strange. I think they all like his attention more than they let on, and it doesn't bother me so much as it should."
"Doesn't bo~other you as mu~uch as it shou~uld!"
"It's funny, with all the energy he burns you'd think he'd eat a lot more," Lum pondered. "Hehe! I bet if we made more food for Darling he’d just gobble it all down.”
“Make lots~of food~for Dar~ling!”
The song came to an end and Ran wobbled over to the AC to leave the box of potpourri right where Lum had pointed. Shaking her head, Ran tried to focus on what she was going to be doing. Right. Right! She was going to... play a practical joke with Lum's Darling! Her wonderful and attentive Darling who needed lots and lots of food. In other words, she needed to make sure he was well fed so he'd cause the maximum amount of mischief.
"Pardon me!" Ran skipped off outside. "Li'l Ran's gonna make some yummy food for tonight! Teehee!"
After she was gone Lum looked after her and let out a weary sigh. "Darn," she snapped her fingers. "And I didn't even get the chance to talk her into joining Darling's harem. Maybe next time."
Why does Ran hate Lum so much? It is a mystery!
<hr>
Everyone needs a hobby. It's what you do to stimulate your brain, keep yourself active. Make life worth living! And life is too short to do anything but enjoy it. Especially since Lum was distracted! Huzzah!
"Hi babe!" he schmoozed. "My name's Ataru, what's yours?"
"Get lost!"
"Hi there, Get Lost! That's an unusual name for such a cute girl! Normally I'd ask your sizes, but this time I'd like to guess!"
Oof, this one had a really good right hand. Ataru was as much a connoisseur of a good slap as he was a pretty face, and he was pretty sure this chick was some kind of athlete because that arm sent him reeling across the pavement. Ah, such were the risks of girl hunting, not every girl is going to respond positively. In fact, most girls don't tend to respond positively. But that rare one in a million always made it worth it in the end!
Which made it all the more ironic that the one girl Ataru didn't want to pursue was the one he was forced to chase after... And now wouldn't leave him alone after he caught her! Bah! He set about kicking the pavement in frustration. It wasn't that he didn't notice how cute and sexy Lum was. He had eyes! But he also had dreams. Big dreams. Of a big beautiful harem of girls. A series of babes that provided that extra bit of variety. Life needs variety, right? Spice of life they call it! Don't get him wrong. He wasn't being entirely selfish about this. He wanted a harem, but he also wanted a happy and satisfied harem and -
Babe at six o'clock!
"Hey there, my name's Ataru and I'd like to get to know you better."
"Funny. My ambition is to kick boys named Ataru square in the balls."
"... I'm wearing a cup!"
"You'll be wearing it around your neck after I've kicked you."
Ah, time to stealthily retreat. Still! You never do know how they will respond until you talk to them. That one in a million, he couldn't risk her getting away! Tenacity. That was the name of the game. If Ataru knew anything, it was that you had to work to make your dreams come true.
It wasn't as if a harem was going to magically form ready made for him without him needing to do anything at all, right?
- Ataru encounters one of Ryoko's posse, who is having trouble fighting off the idea of him being a master of satisfying women.
- Ataru arrives at the sleepover.
- Ryoko comes back with a large collection of the special hypnosis potpourri
- Ran gets to baking, and suddenly finds herself having to fend off Rei for once.
- Something else
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