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
🦑 ink...ing develops, coming from the left "arm," see tentacle arm above. on land, it has the additional effect of being rather sticky. he will attempt to write with it anyway.
🦑 tba
🦑 tba

🦑 headshells final form; can still see, don't question it.

jojoveller

Your character must live with only one sense for a year. They are allowed to choose. What do they pick? Why? How do they cope?
Palamedes would choose touch. He has psychometry, so touch is already more advanced to him than other people—he can read energy signatures and the age of a thing, identities of people who've handled it, and associated emotions. Touch is the obvious, slightly cheating choice. He'd still take it. Smell and taste mean little to him. He trusts Camilla absolutely to be his eyes and ears; she's already as close to him as his own limbs for how long they've been together and worked together, so he'd be confident that she could competently and precisely make up the difference. Touch is the only sense that he really depends on but can't depend on Camilla for; as a necromancer he depends on his ability to interact physically with the body.

As for coping, he'd be fine. Camilla would be there and he wouldn't have too much trouble just poking at stuff. Without Camilla around, he would be at a loss. He'd manage, he's clever and resourceful and he can manipulate necromancy to compensate, but emotionally he wouldn't be as comfortable without her. If Camilla Hect were a sense he'd choose her, but touch is a good second choice.

What does your character think about physical appearances? Are they the sort to meticulously primp themselves, or could they not care less?
The Sixth House's signature color is grey and that feels too loud for Palamedes, which should say everything. As a Sixth necromancer he's "enamored with the body," although that refers to the literal body and not its clothing or other primping. Palamedes' fashion sense is whatever grey ponchos they hand out at the Sixth and he doesn't even care for his ponchos that well; he is constantly described as dusty and dragging his hems through more, heedless of what he's picking up. He bends his glasses the wrong way constantly without caring how they'll look on his face. Camilla organizes his socks. He isn't unwashed, but he's got a scruffiness to him.

As for other people: still doesn't really care! He truly is enamored of the body, and so his interest in other people's appearances is that it's their appearance. He spends six months riding side-saddle in Camilla's body, and he is infinitely more dedicated to taking care of her body than his own. Still not a primper, but neither is Cam.

Physical appearances fascinate and delight him, usually academically. He's very into bodies. The most he asks is regular bathing.

What would your character say is their best trait? What is truly their best trait?
To Palamedes, his best trait intellect. With his intellect he perfects his necromancy and studies, which enable him to help the people he loves. Without it he would've been unable to help Dulcinea extend her dwindling life; he invented medical instruments that contributed to keeping her—and others—alive despite the odds. Intellect afforded him position as Master Warden, a leadership position to help his family. Without intellect he wouldn't be possessed of necromantic skill; he wouldn't have been able to unpack the secret of Lyctorhood (and refuse it, for being killing a cavalier to fuel the immortality of a necromancer) or crack Grand Lysis, which will allow himself and Camilla to fuse their souls properly together.

His best trait is actually his endless wellspring of empathy, which is the reason behind everything he credits to his intellect. He loves deeply and applies his intellect/skill to help people because of his empathy. His empathy stops him from thinking that intellect could be used for cruelty until he sees the results. The empathy returns: he's ready anytime to rescue family or strangers. He gives himself away constantly to protect his loved ones, even when he's told no.

What would it take to truly upset your character, enough that they would act upon their feelings? Are they the sort to forgive?
Palamedes is tolerant and forgiving, depending on the wrongdoing. If it's directed at him, he can take it and won't rise to the bait beyond quips; at his friends and loved ones, though, it's on. He tolerates the insults to his upbringing and competency when the Sixth House is challenged to a duel, until too many of the other assembled Houses insult his cavalier. Then he insists Camilla destroy the Second House cavalier, lecturing everyone assembled on their foolishness for picking fights, wasting time and getting cavaliers hurt for stupid reasons. His temper flares but he can forgive, or at least be civil.

But that's an insult. When confronted with cruelty, or the potential/actual loss of his loved ones, Palamedes dips into despair. It doesn't consume him; in fact he rises to the occasion with startling calm. When Cytherea reveals she's murdered and impersonated Dulcinea, his longtime love, Palamedes calmly keeps her talking so as to necromantically degrade her body and then explode. When the Sixth House is on the run and Camilla is injured, he calmly takes charge—he is their leader—and directs without unpacking his own feelings. While he does get upset, he can compartmentalize.

• Psychometry: using energy signatures, he can get flashes of the history of where an object has been and who has interacted with it, more like a 6th sense than a "sucked suddenly into a cutscene" in practice
• Wards: drawn with his blood and imbued with energy to ward off spirits/creatures
• Other kind of wards: this one is like an invisible wall that spends energy to produce and maintain; it makes him sweat blood out of every pore and get woozy
• Flesh magic: fundamentally healing, but also works the other way, e.g. his personal knowledge of how bodies work lets him effectively put them back together or take them apart; caveats: can't revive the dead
• Bone magic: not his specialty and so a low priority, but bone magic as he has been taught allows the user to "program" a skeleton to perform basic tasks like sweep a floor etc.
• Spirit magic: ability to talk to, summon, and speak with spirits, but sometimes spirits just don't want to play and won't come chat
• Sticky soul: honestly I don't imagine this will ever be un-nerfed because it's nutty, but since it's relevant to his canon point and half his traumas: he knows how to attach his soul to an object so that if his body dies, he can kick it as a revenant; genuinely just putting this one here to give it a nod. he's coming for you patho-gen, explain your methods!!