Paradox: Sign-Up - Page 5

Arcanum · 03-31-2011, 01:59 AM

Ninja stealth sign-up post is a go! Yep without word or warning here's a fully completed character sheet. I just know you're gonna have questions/concerns, but once the idea popped into my head I couldn't help myself.

-----------------------

Name: Eric Stenson
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Physical Description: Eric used to look great. Key words: used to. He was tall, handsome, and always wearing a nice looking suit. He had perfectly trimmed brown hair and a cleanly shaved face complementing his shining blue eyes. But now his suit is tattered and dirty, his hair desperately in need of a cut and his stubble crying out to be shaved. Even his once-bright eyes seem dull and lifeless now.

Bio/Background/Etc: Eric was well on his way to becoming a successful entrepreneur. He had his own business set up in New York that he spent ten years building up. He had all the right contacts in all the right places. Eric was smart, clever, funny, the whole package. He was living his dream. And yet that all changed when he came to Hampington to negotiate a merger. The merger itself was a success, and afterward Eric and his new business partners went out on the town to celebrate.

The next morning Eric awoke in a club, surrounded by skeletons and half-eaten bodies. There were no pools of blood, just dark stains on the floor as if something had drank it up as well. And on top of everything Eric's mind had snapped. He could remember who he was, and why he was here. But he also heard voices whispering in his mind. They told him who were the former owners of each and every skeleton there. Two were his new business partners, one belonged to one of the dancers, and the other was the bouncer. The half-eaten corpses were either dancers or patrons. The worst part was that he knew the voices were telling the truth.

He was also racked by the hunger, with a part of him wanting to feed on the remaining corpses. Another part of him tried to cling to sanity. The police would find out what happened soon; some people had escaped. Eric didn't have an alibi and he knew deep down that somehow he was responsible. So he ran. He was in a strange city, half insane, on the run from the police, and suddenly aware that he didn't have his wallet.

That was a week ago, and he's been living on the streets ever since, barely surviving, barely coping with the hunger. With every passing day the hunger grew worse and the voices grew louder. Only a week and he's already an empty shell of his former self.

Monster Name: Swarm
Appearance: Swarm is actually a hive mind of thousands of small, black, insect-like creatures. An individual Swarm looks like a teardrop-shaped scale with eight needle-like legs, a small mouth on the rounded end filled with razor sharp teeth, four minuscule black eyes above the mouth, and is no bigger than the nail on a man's little finger. There is also a central "brain bug" which is a larger version of a regular Swarm (about the size of two thumbs side-by side)

The thousands of Swarms can interlock with each other in a variety of ways, effectively allowing it to change shape. The only similarity between each shape is the black color, and that it is completely featureless save for a diamond shaped scale pattern, which is a result of how the Swarms interlock with each other.

Abilities/Powers:
Living Armor: The way the Swarms interlink on the surface creates a layer of living scale armor, making him more resistant to 'unwanted' separations.
A Thousand Pieces, A Thousand Shapes: Swarm can assume the shape of almost anything it can think of, from creatures to inanimate objects.

Extra Notes:
- The thousands of Swarms are connected by a hive mind, which is controlled by the central brain bug. Killing the brain means the death of the hive.

- Due to it being composed of thousands of small creatures, Swarm is extremely difficult to wound or kill. If an arm is blown off then the surviving Swarms will rejoin the main body and re-form the arm. This would technically result in transformations healing Eric of any severe body wounds (such as an amputated arm or leg).

- While able to willingly separate into pieces, forceful separation would cause extreme pain, and kill several Swarms in the progress (since they are being torn from each other). They would still be able to re-form any lost limbs but it would be like a brand new arm and Swarm would be rather clumsy controlling it at first (on top of the pain and dead Swarms). Controlled separation would take some time for all of the Swarms to disconnect from each other, so he wouldn't be able to just split in half to dodge an attack (unless it is a slow attack or he has time to prepare the split before the attack hits).

Astral Harmony · 03-31-2011, 01:59 AM

I shrunk down the range of Devouring Void to pretty much just out of Mawface's melee range and made her first and only transformation much more recent.

I had two other ideas, one being a sand monster and the other being a hovering collection of basketball-sized organic spheres, but I had a feeling that you wanted the monsters to be more realistic and tanglible.

And Digital Devil Saga is fucking awesome. Especially the music. I like Shoji Meguro's work on Persona, but I prefer the DDS stuff so much more.

The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk · 03-31-2011, 02:26 AM

batgirl how dare you have more impressive horns than me. This will not stand! Battle of fire and ice GO!

Nice to see some more elementals this time round, we had a crippling lack of them last time.

And Swarm reminds me of Legion from the last RP. Beware Arcanum; fire is not your friend.

Astral Harmony · 03-31-2011, 02:35 AM

Explosions are also pretty devasting to hordes of miniature monsters like a Swarm (Dead Space 2 sets a great example of that). I bet my own character's Gastric Purge could do some serious damage if the swarm flies into the stream of acid.

...Actually, there's an idea. If Swarm gets into trouble, he could fly inside my maw and be somewhat protected so long as he steers clear of the acid. Failing that, he could escape through any small hole given time.

Toastburner B · 03-31-2011, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riin Whitewind

A more normal monster-thing!

Huzzah for normal!

Anyways, looks good.

lazy guy

Your character�s an electrical engineer that get�s turned into a lightning monster?

That�s�

...shocking!

�I had to do it. I had to do it. Seriously, someone came into my room, put a gun up to my head, and said I had to do it. I�m sorry, it�s not my fault.

Anyways, looks good. Just don�t go too overboard with the electrical stuff to start with, okay? You�ll grow into that much like Hawk�s character will grow into fire control.

(and before anyone asks, yes, I did notice this in the related videos)

batgirl:
Looks good, approved.

�Just a few more elementals and we�ll be able to summon Captain Planet. Who wants to be heart?!

Girasol Everything looks alright approved.

�Your character�s a vet? Mines a vet tech! Can he have a job?!

I�m just kidding.

Arcanum While I am not fully against the idea (other than the fact I was totally going to use Legion again), but you are right, I do have concerns with it.

The biggest one for me is �lose my mind instead of getting hurt.� Like is said when I was talking to aerozord, it�s hard to do give a number to something like sanity. How do you measure it out? Do you start to hear voices if you lose X amount of bugs, start to see hallucinations if you lose Y amount, or go completely bonkers if you lose Z amount? With physical hurt I can pretty much spell out what that implies (in that last battle your broke your arm, so you can�t run as fast as a monster, etc). What am I supposed to do with �sanity� (you�er�see little pixies flying around in your vision. Yes I said pixies!). It would be easier all around if it came down to physical hurt like everyone else, really. It would save both of us a lot of headaches.

All that isn�t even taking into account the entire �the most bodies I have, the more minds I have� thing. I get the idea in general, but it seems�gah, I don�t know how to phrase it. For example, what if someone walks up to you with a high-pressure water hose and starts to squirt off bugs? Do all those count as separate minds? If someone cuts off your arm, does that count as a separate �body� until it can form back into the main form? If someone suck some of the swarm into a vacuum, what happens to the bugs trapped in there when you turn back into a human, or can you not turn back into a human unless all your bugs are accounted for?

Just a lot of questions. Many questions. If you can give me good answers, I�ll let you stick with it, but I�m uneasy about it. Sure, Legion was basically the same thing, but we also basically the boss for the first chapter, and even he had a central body, and wasn�t just bugs.

And just a note, you character doesn�t have to go vagabond just because he�s a paradox. Characters are able to function in society, they just have to be really careful about controlling themselves.

So�um�yeah.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawk

And Swarm reminds me of Legion from the last RP. Beware Arcanum; fire is not your friend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armored Bishoujo

Explosions are also pretty devasting to hordes of miniature monsters like a Swarm (Dead Space 2 sets a great example of that). I bet my own character's Gastric Purge could do some serious damage if the swarm flies into the stream of acid.

Meh, could be worst. I believe the primary tactic for beating Legion in the last game was to have lazy�s character pick up Ifrit and swing him around in a circle.

Side notes: You people and sanity. WTF? Do I need to get the Lovecraft out of my sig or something?

The more monsters I see, the less happy I am with Wirehair. I guess that�s one of the benefits of being the GM is that I can change my monster and approve it all at the same time!

Astral Harmony · 03-31-2011, 04:20 AM

Damn it, Swarm is so cool.

I can just see it now. Swarm sends in a handful of bugs who start expertly stealth-killing enemies while the rest of the swarm flies in and yanks the corpses into dark corners and shit.

It looks like that would really...

*puts on sunglasses*

...bug the enemy.

Be careful, the guy who threatened Toasty has a teleporter and is probably already at your house.

lazy man · 03-31-2011, 06:57 AM

Yay, approval! And sunglasses!

But yeah, don't worry about the electrical thing, it'll just be a field about, say, 10 feet around him? Maybe I'll tweak how far it goes, but it won't go too far, it'll just have an obscenely high current and voltage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toastburner B

Meh, could be worst. I believe the primary tactic for beating Legion in the last game was to have lazy�s character pick up Ifrit and swing him around in a circle.

This is the main reason why I'll miss my other guy. So many possibilities for shenanigans. And angry fire-bombs.

batgirl · 03-31-2011, 07:01 AM

Ooh! Ooh! I have a question! *waves frantically*

"Yes you in the back?"

So are we all able to communicate at all? I mean we have people who are going to be fairly humanoid monsters, but what about the dog things, the giant mouth? Can they talk? Telepathy? Speakey de Anglais?

Overcast · 03-31-2011, 07:24 AM

Teeth can talk, it is just a voice that comes out out of the Maw, and later on I was planning on him, even when he is suppressed, being able to whisper out of any mouth in the vacinity even if it is in a picture or a deer trophy or anything. Mostly to fuck with Earnest, he'll be doing a lot of esoteric shit just for that purpose.

Steel Shadow · 03-31-2011, 08:03 AM

I actually figured Amorphia couldn't talk. Understand people speaking, sure, no problems. I imagine it'll go like this!

"What's that Morphy?"
*Impassive stare*
"Lil' Timmy fell down the old well?!"
*Impassive stare*
"And the ranch is on fire?! I'd better get the gang together and sort this out!"
*Impassive stare*
"Good job Morphy!"

And then the Blob theme would play!

03-31-2011, 01:59 AM	#41
Arcanum Strike the Earth! Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 3,185	Ninja stealth sign-up post is a go! Yep without word or warning here's a fully completed character sheet. I just know you're gonna have questions/concerns, but once the idea popped into my head I couldn't help myself. ----------------------- Name: Eric Stenson Age: 32 Gender: Male Physical Description: Eric used to look great. Key words: used to. He was tall, handsome, and always wearing a nice looking suit. He had perfectly trimmed brown hair and a cleanly shaved face complementing his shining blue eyes. But now his suit is tattered and dirty, his hair desperately in need of a cut and his stubble crying out to be shaved. Even his once-bright eyes seem dull and lifeless now. Bio/Background/Etc: Eric was well on his way to becoming a successful entrepreneur. He had his own business set up in New York that he spent ten years building up. He had all the right contacts in all the right places. Eric was smart, clever, funny, the whole package. He was living his dream. And yet that all changed when he came to Hampington to negotiate a merger. The merger itself was a success, and afterward Eric and his new business partners went out on the town to celebrate. The next morning Eric awoke in a club, surrounded by skeletons and half-eaten bodies. There were no pools of blood, just dark stains on the floor as if something had drank it up as well. And on top of everything Eric's mind had snapped. He could remember who he was, and why he was here. But he also heard voices whispering in his mind. They told him who were the former owners of each and every skeleton there. Two were his new business partners, one belonged to one of the dancers, and the other was the bouncer. The half-eaten corpses were either dancers or patrons. The worst part was that he knew the voices were telling the truth. He was also racked by the hunger, with a part of him wanting to feed on the remaining corpses. Another part of him tried to cling to sanity. The police would find out what happened soon; some people had escaped. Eric didn't have an alibi and he knew deep down that somehow he was responsible. So he ran. He was in a strange city, half insane, on the run from the police, and suddenly aware that he didn't have his wallet. That was a week ago, and he's been living on the streets ever since, barely surviving, barely coping with the hunger. With every passing day the hunger grew worse and the voices grew louder. Only a week and he's already an empty shell of his former self. Monster Name: Swarm Appearance: Swarm is actually a hive mind of thousands of small, black, insect-like creatures. An individual Swarm looks like a teardrop-shaped scale with eight needle-like legs, a small mouth on the rounded end filled with razor sharp teeth, four minuscule black eyes above the mouth, and is no bigger than the nail on a man's little finger. There is also a central "brain bug" which is a larger version of a regular Swarm (about the size of two thumbs side-by side) The thousands of Swarms can interlock with each other in a variety of ways, effectively allowing it to change shape. The only similarity between each shape is the black color, and that it is completely featureless save for a diamond shaped scale pattern, which is a result of how the Swarms interlock with each other. Abilities/Powers: Living Armor: The way the Swarms interlink on the surface creates a layer of living scale armor, making him more resistant to 'unwanted' separations. A Thousand Pieces, A Thousand Shapes: Swarm can assume the shape of almost anything it can think of, from creatures to inanimate objects. Extra Notes: - The thousands of Swarms are connected by a hive mind, which is controlled by the central brain bug. Killing the brain means the death of the hive. - Due to it being composed of thousands of small creatures, Swarm is extremely difficult to wound or kill. If an arm is blown off then the surviving Swarms will rejoin the main body and re-form the arm. This would technically result in transformations healing Eric of any severe body wounds (such as an amputated arm or leg). - While able to willingly separate into pieces, forceful separation would cause extreme pain, and kill several Swarms in the progress (since they are being torn from each other). They would still be able to re-form any lost limbs but it would be like a brand new arm and Swarm would be rather clumsy controlling it at first (on top of the pain and dead Swarms). Controlled separation would take some time for all of the Swarms to disconnect from each other, so he wouldn't be able to just split in half to dodge an attack (unless it is a slow attack or he has time to prepare the split before the attack hits). Last edited by Arcanum; 03-31-2011 at 10:46 PM.

03-31-2011, 01:59 AM	#42
Astral Harmony Don't Hate Me 'Cause I'm Moe Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Harmonial Sanctum Posts: 6,798	I shrunk down the range of Devouring Void to pretty much just out of Mawface's melee range and made her first and only transformation much more recent. I had two other ideas, one being a sand monster and the other being a hovering collection of basketball-sized organic spheres, but I had a feeling that you wanted the monsters to be more realistic and tanglible. And Digital Devil Saga is fucking awesome. Especially the music. I like Shoji Meguro's work on Persona, but I prefer the DDS stuff so much more. Last edited by Astral Harmony; 03-31-2011 at 02:04 AM.

03-31-2011, 04:20 AM	#46
Astral Harmony Don't Hate Me 'Cause I'm Moe Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Harmonial Sanctum Posts: 6,798	Damn it, Swarm is so cool. I can just see it now. Swarm sends in a handful of bugs who start expertly stealth-killing enemies while the rest of the swarm flies in and yanks the corpses into dark corners and shit. It looks like that would really... puts on sunglasses ...bug the enemy. Be careful, the guy who threatened Toasty has a teleporter and is probably already at your house. Last edited by Astral Harmony; 03-31-2011 at 04:27 AM.

03-31-2011, 07:24 AM	#49
Overcast Cinderella Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Trespassing in the graveyard Posts: 3,076	Teeth can talk, it is just a voice that comes out out of the Maw, and later on I was planning on him, even when he is suppressed, being able to whisper out of any mouth in the vacinity even if it is in a picture or a deer trophy or anything. Mostly to fuck with Earnest, he'll be doing a lot of esoteric shit just for that purpose. __________________ Time to bust out the glow sticks!

03-31-2011, 08:03 AM	#50
Steel Shadow Mild Psychosis Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Aroundabouts thereish. Posts: 1,246	I actually figured Amorphia couldn't talk. Understand people speaking, sure, no problems. I imagine it'll go like this! "What's that Morphy?" Impassive stare "Lil' Timmy fell down the old well?!" Impassive stare "And the ranch is on fire?! I'd better get the gang together and sort this out!" Impassive stare "Good job Morphy!" And then the Blob theme would play! __________________ Yeah, I'm understating. I do that sometimes.

03-31-2011, 02:35 AM	#44
Astral Harmony Don't Hate Me 'Cause I'm Moe Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Harmonial Sanctum Posts: 6,798	Explosions are also pretty devasting to hordes of miniature monsters like a Swarm (Dead Space 2 sets a great example of that). I bet my own character's Gastric Purge could do some serious damage if the swarm flies into the stream of acid. ...Actually, there's an idea. If Swarm gets into trouble, he could fly inside my maw and be somewhat protected so long as he steers clear of the acid. Failing that, he could escape through any small hole given time.

03-31-2011, 07:01 AM	#48
batgirl Aim for the top! Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: The Infield Posts: 2,583	Ooh! Ooh! I have a question! waves frantically "Yes you in the back?" So are we all able to communicate at all? I mean we have people who are going to be fairly humanoid monsters, but what about the dog things, the giant mouth? Can they talk? Telepathy? Speakey de Anglais?