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[Overcast]

One of Teeth's later abilities was sticking a mouth on other people. I so want to stick one on morphy and use him like a ventriloquist dummy.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Well last time around most of the paradoxes started off unable to talk, because they were essentially newborns and were pretty feral. After a while the human side gained more control and allowed for more communication and rational thinking. I always kept Ifrit mute though, I figured he was so utterly enraged he simply couldn't manage a simple conversation.

[Arcanum]

EDIT 2 -- Changed my mind about some stuff. Refer to my latest post for the new proposal. It makes a lot of the stuff I said here irrelevant.

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.

I could narrow down the insanity to severe split personalities. Basically the more damage done to him while he's Swarm splits his mind more and more, depending on the severity of the damage. Essentially he would start arguing with himself, distracting himself, even have personalities take control of groups of Swarms, which could cause even more mental trauma. The number of personalities and the amount he argues with and distracts himself would be directly proportionate to how debilitating the damage would be on a regular physical creature.

The personalities would eventually fade or be repressed with time, but it would take longer than a normal wound to heal, making the damage slightly more long term too.

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?

Yes and yes. When Swarms are physically interlinked their minds are interlinked as well. As soon as that physical link is broken so is the mental one. That's why breaking apart Swarm can be devastating to both parties involved. For example if someone cuts Swarm in half, he could easily recover from the sudden mental split and counter attack as two creatures.

However on the other side, a single attack could briefly remove him from battle if it shatters him into enough pieces. I say briefly because every living creature has a primal subconscious mind (dubbed the Id by Sigmund Freud). When Swarm is broken apart into so many pieces that he can't sanely control all of them, his mind defends itself and tries to sever the links. This would result in a state of almost catatonic shock, letting the primal minds of the individual Swarms take over, which would then try to group back together so that when Swarm comes out of the shock he won't be a fragmented psychopath.

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?

I knew I was forgetting to add something in the extra notes. When Eric changes back into a human, he does so with all of the Swarm, whether they are present or not. Preferably he is in the shape of a human when he changes back, returning him to his original form. If some Swarms were killed, or isolated from the rest, they would turn into small pieces of flesh, and Eric in return would have pieces missing from him (which would then heal at a regular human/Paradox rate).

Like I said, Swarm is difficult to wound or kill, but it's not impossible. Kill enough Swarms and Eric might be missing an arm when he reverts.

EDIT! MORE STUFF!

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.

Nah I wanted a character who was flipped on his ass because of facing an impossible situation. Eric was smart and successful, now he's half-crazed (and it will only get worse) and too afraid to contact anyone he knows out of fear that the police are trying to find him. He's homeless because he turned into a paradox, not because he is a paradox, if you get what I mean.

Side notes: You people and sanity. WTF?

Personally I really enjoy writing mentally unstable individuals. They are fun.

Also, AB, Swarm can't fly. They either take the shape of something mobile or skitter across the ground as an amorphous insect blob.

[Overcast]

Hmm, that does toss a wrench in my characterization of Teeth. He was supposed to be the pent up representation of his sacrificed desires gone sour. I had him this intelligent corrupting influence that was systematically trying to ruin the life he sold his dreams for.

[Inbred Chocobo]

Ah crap, now Lazy has made me want to redo my monster and make it like Rajang, or maybe Nargacuga. Man that would be fun to play. You suck lazy.

[Aerozord]

Ok think I've got one
Name: Eibon Harden
Age: 15
Gender: male
Physical Description: Eibon is a lanky young man and fairly short at only 5'5. Short jet black hair and deep set blue eyes.
Bio/Background/Etc: Awkward would be the simplest word to describe Eibon. Always the runt of the litter and little sign of growing much taller. An only child, and painfully average he slipped into the background of the world around him, perhaps this was foreshadowing to his true nature.

When transformation first took over he was walking home at dusk, one of his classmates was reported missing. Slowly the memories of what he had done surfaced, but what scared him most wasn't what he'd had done, but remembering that he enjoyed it.

Monster Name: Incognito
Appearance:
Incognito is a living shadow and thus his form is often shifting but currently is still restricted to a humanoid form of between 7-8ft tall
Abilities/Powers:
Two-Dimensional Movement: Incognito can become truly flat and move along surfaces such as walls and floors. Only works where shadows are already present
Shadow Puppet: While two-dimensional Incognito may interact with an objects shadow and result affects the actual physical object. His preferred method of attacking

[Girasol of Chaos]

Rift can talk, her voice is a little different but everything is fine. I imagine she has a hard time with "o' and 'u' sounds though. She's been playing in her monster form for at least a week, so I figured she is okay there.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Is it wrong that I'm plotting how to beat everyones monsters so that if need be I can fight you all off? I mean Ice-demoness is easily countered with fire, Swarmy is easily countered with lots of fire, shadow monster is countered by removing shadows... by making lots of fire.

Ok so "plotting" is maybe too far when my only answer to stuff is "make more FIIIIIRRE!", but still, good to keep these things in mind. I guess I'm paranoid I'll get thrown around like a weapon again by someone.

[Aerozord]

fire solves everything, if fire ever fails to solve something, you clearly did not use enough of it

[Girasol of Chaos]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

fire solves everything, if fire ever fails to solve something, you clearly did not use enough of it

With your avatar, I am not shocked by that statement at all.