@GodOfWarStill curious in hearing more from you and your thoughts on Kazuo and Ume and how they might interact.
I can see Kazuo becoming somewhat akin to a close, also insecure friend to Ume. Once both of them acknowledge each-other's gaps in confidence, they'll find that their worries about themselves are a bit alike; both fear their quirks for what they can do to themselves and others, and both are trying to tame such a force over time. Though Ume will be rather annoyed by Kaz's snarkiness at first, she'll be extremely happy to find another person that shares her kind of fear.
Furthermore, Ume could refer to Kazuo for a lot of her combat training; Ume, at the start, will be much more of a support hero rather than someone who can engage in up-front confrontations. Kaz helping her develop some sort of fighting style would be a great way for Ume to start off her hero career.
Totally. I actually see Namie making Ume her first friend in class. Their Quirks are both fairly similar in the biological control department which is their ice-breaker. Ume is also (I believe) not very confrontational so it'll be easy for Namie to feel comfortable in the relationship as Namie won't feel aggressively competitive towards Ume. In fact going back to the Quirk thing, Namie could definitely inspire confidence Ume as Namie is secreting a gross syrup-y fiber from her body but doesn't even phase her when her arms are drenched with that stuff. So naturally, Namie would not be concerned or grossed out with Ume's Quirk and would definitely step in to tell her first friend that she shouldn't worry about it.
I imagine Namie being fairly responsive to any questions or doubt Ume voices but will likely not pry until later in their relationship once they understand each other a bit better.
I personally really like the idea of Namie exhibiting her quirk and thus leading to Ume realizing her's is not exclusively gross. It's a great scenario to sort of break into the stride of developing Ume's matured self and abilities early on.
Also, Namie would definitely be the dominant partner in the friendship; Ume could be able to admire her confidence and gradually mimic it, building her's in turn. As well, I think Ume would be a good resource for introducing some creative ways on how Namie could use her quirk. Since Ume, as I said, is more of an outside support specializing hero, she'd be able to introduce some techniques that could help Namie spread out her expertise from just combat.
Ume: I believe Ume is at a disadvantage here. Namie's bodily sap acts as a pretty effective counter to dead skin attachments simply because the sap covers her skin when excreted. With Namie having the edge in close quarters fighting, Namie just has to close the distant putting Ume on the defense. Ume can make all the walls and shields but her hesitation might make her miss an opportunity to turn a fight around. As of right now, I have no idea what tricks Ume can do to counter Namie and if you have any in mind, don't tell me because that'll be fun to be surprised alongside my character. I give Namie 7/10 victories in this one.
You're right; when push comes to shove, Ume is almost always going to lose in a 1-on-1 physical confrontation. Specifically, with Namie's attributes, I'd put the ratio more at 8/10. However, I feel like an upper-hand could be given to Ume based on the parameters of a fight, if there are any. I'm mostly thinking along the lines of the bomb-defusal training at UA, or other encounters that require an objective other than making the enemy physically submit to win. Ume's quirk is almost if not as versatile as Namie's, but is geared more to cover a larger area rather than show condensed, effective strength. When put into a situation like that, where a kind of large-scale versatility is needed, I would think the ball would be in Ume's court. Of course, she'd be double-dribbling it half the time.
However, I've been concocting some tricky applications of Ume's quirk like you anticipated, so we'll see how those work out in the long run. ;)
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Hmm, I could probably have a similar power like the Cryptozoic Man, the ability to have several or change into different cryptids: Big Foot, Nessie, Wendigo, Jersey Devil...etcetera.
oooo, like the Bohemian Rhapsody stand? I like the idea.
Another neat transformation quirk would be the ability to shapeshift parts of one's body into the that of other animals; for example, turning your hands into a bear's claws, or teeth into the fangs of snake. You could do a lot with that power, and it'd be interesting to see the limitations that a quirk like that could bring along with it.