corruption/shifting post

[megatheorem]

CURRENT WILD SOUL: CNIDARIA
Due to Palamedes obtaining a secondary soul that is going to usurp the first, this will encompass both the disappearance of his cephalopoda traits over time and the emergence of the big cnid. Here we go:

December 2025

-his tentacle arms fall off extremely abruptly one morning; thus follows an incredibly weird and painful week where his left arm grows back as one humanoid-shaped arm, but made of rocky coral
-the coral arm is a bone-white in color and not one solid piece; it looks more like a hollow "tube" of coral one could stick something through if the gaps lined up, as if an arm was "caged" within and then disappeared
-the hand is the most solid, but still has a mesh-like quality to it, with gaps
-it isn't very dextrous at first but it gets the job done
-all of his squid-ish skin changes (color and texture, mild bioluminescence) flake off; he needs to exfoliate; it is wildly burny and painful
-he emerges from his rapid skincare routine with skin that is closer to his original skin color but more translucent than before, in some places more than others, like around his Katalyth eyes
-Katalyth eyes start to gain the appearance of this jellyfish, the Halitrephes maasi/firework jellyfish; he can still only kind of see out of them
-soul interfacing begins

January 2026

-head shells start chipping off, replaced by translucent skin; hair grows back in, but unevenly, and there are a few odd stingers in the mix, like an anemone
-eventually, the back and sides of his head, where the shells were, is covered by coral in a sort of reverse crown shape; think minbari with hair on top, but coral; same color as his arm
-development of cnidocytes; sticky-type, because he's more coral-based
-coral from his arm spreads down his left side to approx. his hip; the color varies
-more Katalyth eyes as a fun callback to when he necromancy'd too hard back in like month 1-2, this time because of soul interfacing; varied between the jelly eye and human eyes and also in size, spreading from the weird collection on his neck/chest/shoulder

February 2026

-skin around/under the coral growths becomes even more translucent and what is visible of his inner workings seems to be... vague... gelatinous and mobile; probably his organs are still working like they should; don't worry about it
-bioluminescence, somehow, somewhere. working on it

Mental changes

-uh oh, he's getting the callousness this time! but let's pretend it's mostly patho-gen's fault, because it is
-in general, is going to be fucked up over the apparent sudden death of his squiddy soul, going back and forth between theorizing the cnidaria actively did it or who/whatever put this thing in him did it without regard for the squid; he is not happy about this. RIP squiddy soul.

Shift

-think lion's mane jellyfish, but worse
-just like the big nauti, the big cnid's defining features that are not just the animal are too many human arms and too many human eyes; among the tentacles are fully-grown human arms that don't sting, but can Grip
-the eyes, meanwhile, are seemingly scattered all over the thing, illogically for a jellyfish but always wildly spinning and looking for something
-on land it cannot float, and so must drag itself around by its human arms; this means the great train of stinging tentacles will drag behind it like the worst wedding dress in history, do not touch
-fundamentally on land it's an angry blob full of arms and it's coming slowly closer

OLD CEPHALOPODA STUFF:

corruption

month one:
🦑 headshells: replacing seemingly the sides of his skull, spiraling nautilus shell of white, brown, some speckled gray-blue. bonus feature of giving him a cool undercut. sick ASMR vibes when tapped on.
🦑 his eyes, which are already a Very Pretty Clear Grey, take on a silvery sheen and differently-shaped pupils. his vision is better, but only underwater.
🦑 suckers: on the backs/undersides of all four limbs, an assortment of suckers in an uneven line. squid version, bluish-grayish per the image, With Teeth. they are also bioluminescent! as they've first appeared (~3 weeks) they aren't fully "emerged" but are visible/glow appropriately. once fully emerged, can be closed so he doesn't teethe on every shirtsleeve.
🦑 blood is blue. necromancy nightmare.

month two:
🦑 the basic powers develop: water control magic and skin-altering camouflage. *as of end of May he hasn't noticed he can do these things, oops
🦑 even more buddy system thanks to even more social behavior. buddy system or else!! developing a strong aversion to being alone for long periods of time.
🦑 his left arm has just Gone, replaced by a series of tentacles that grow out of what was once his shoulder. they're a deep rusty ochre color with the same blue-gray suckers as previously, maybe a little more blue than gray at a glance. there are six tentacles in total and he mostly keeps them entwined in the vague shape of a human arm, for both convenience/being able to wear his shirts and so people don't stare at them too much. colors based on this thing.
🦑 sleek n' smooth skin that varies between his standard human skin tone to a more reddish toned brown, maroon, and the sickly blue-gray of the suckers (when not glowing). why would he turn gray you ask..... maybe because he keeps fucking touching katalyth....... he's fine.

month three:
🦑 hexes/enchantments develop: unfortunately the reagent to activate all of his enchantments is, in fact, his own body! necromancers! he can spill a bit of blood or pull off a fingernail or similar in order to place a hex/enchantment on himself or someone else. his enchantments will focus on buffs: enhanced strength, increased stamina, enhanced senses, etc. his primary hex will be inflicting immobility, a thing he could already do with necromancy in a much worse way, so honestly, this is better— he will also be able to apply silence. essentially his hexes will focus around stopping someone from acting so he can skedaddle rather than more "offensive" hexes.
🦑 neck tentacles: small, slim tendrils that can emerge/retract from his head shells on command. same coloration as the rest, don't extend much further than a few inches away from his actual face... glasses-adjustment length, face hugging for kissing length. wiggly.
🦑 increased flexibility. bendy bones. pretzel pal.
🦑 maybe he'll learn to swim finally

month four:
🦑 underwater breathing, and also just this in its entirety: "Cephalopod-types can extend the ability to breathe underwater to others with a kiss. This ability can grant about a half hour of the ability to breathe water to those who normally cannot, but be warned: the moment these land-dwellers get a gulp of fresh air again, they'll be coughing and sputtering for quite some time to adjust." thanks mods we love to see it
🦑 tba
🦑 tba
🦑 tba

shifted form

🦑 the big nauti, or: a man-sized nautilus, about a foot or two taller than Palamedes is un-shifted (7'-8')
🦑 similar colorings to Pal's corruption
🦑 mostly just a big nautilus, with the very notable exceptions of human arms mixed in with the tentacles, as well as too many eyes (Pal's eyes, specifically, not the pinhole kind); residual problematic consequences of fucking around and finding out with katalyth/mutation samples
🦑 because he is unlikely to only ever shift in water, he will have to scuttle on tentacles/many arms; sorry about how this will look to the viewers

Comments

treats

[megatheorem]

4/18/25

A collection of kitschy, personalized mugs. There's like twenty of them. They all have some stranger's blurry face (different people, probably human), along with varying incomprehensible text printed in a somehow obnoxious font. They are completely harmless.

5/21/25

luxury money x3 for like 18 months of rent.

7/24/25

bike and statuette of squid on a bike.