I do hope you'll all bear with me here, as I embark upon what may just be one of the most tired, overused cliches in known fantropes to ask this question-

If you were given the option, would you rather become a medium, or a toolwielder?

And further;

In either case, what sort of spirit would you be interested in pairing with, and how would you use their powers?

It goes without saying that I'm also asking what color you think your spectral energy would be.

Personally, I think I'd prefer to become a Medium. Mind you, this is a rather thin line between my pro/con weights to either choice- and effectively boils down to one point of significance over the prospects of wielding a tool; convenience.

Convenience, in the fashion that as a Medium I would never be separated from my spirit partner, or my ability to call upon their powers. Certainly, it would be a tradeoff of privacy for myself and anyone who may wish to speak with me in strict confidence, but that's a sacrifice I'd be willing to make and explain time and time again.

As a Medium, I'd likely prefer to be possessed by a spirit with some form of relation to knowledge, of either the Air or Water elemental archetypes, and at least mildly feminine in appearance that I may shift to resemble them. This, perhaps, is among the largest influencing factors in my preference- that I would in essence be succumbing to as well as running from my own flaws. Insecurity, vanity, fear of being alone...

Some form of harpy, mermaid or nymph would be among the first things to come to mind. While it may be critical of me towards myself, I feel that their vicious natures would compliment my own personality rather well, as I am often critical, negative and pessimistic. Seeing (and feeling) those traits embodied by something so closely tied to my own being would be an excellent motivator for my own self improvement, something which I've come to believe about myself through past and present experiences. Reading Paranatural and seeing the complimentary, if confrontational relationships between Mediums and their Spirits has only served to strengthen that notion in me. The powers I could potentially wield from such a partnership are almost inconsequential- though extended lung capacity or affinity for water, and/or the ability to defy gravity through flight or levitation would be quite interesting indeed.

I ultimately have to wonder, though, what sort of spirit would make for a better dialogic partner; There wouldn't be much point in becoming the medium for a spirit I couldn't hold a conversation with, however intimidating or provocative the nature of such speech.

Were I to become a tool-wielder, I would be most interested in linking up with a spirit that I will call Iccleus. He's a spirit type that I've used for prior roleplays, one I'm intimately familiar with and feel would fit well into the bounds of the Paranatural universe- a spirit of Blood and Ice, a tragic figure whose presence chills the air and commands influence over fear and unease- but not control.

I'd knock him down until he wisped out then coax the fellow into an icepick- wielding his chilly winds to blow snow and hail at my foes.

Just to be clear, my response isn't gonna have much thought about practicability.

For color, Max already has black, so I'd like to have a purple/lavender-ish spectral energy color.

I'd rather be a toolwielder than a medium. I'm not entirely certain why, I just think it would be a little easier on me. Like if I want to take a break and feel like a normal kid without responsibilities, I can just leave my tool by my bedside or something. If I do have a tool though, I'd rather it be kinda small, and to be honest, I don't know what kinda of tool I'd like to have.

When it comes to spirits, this is kinda where I'd just insert some ocs or something haha. However, a power I always wanted was to be able to control plants, so the spirit would most likely look plant-like. Maybe a plant-spider. A plant jumping spider would be cute, but I feel would kinda resemble Eightfold a little too much, so maybe not a jumping spider. ;w;

Oh wow. That was really thought out! My reasons won't be nearly as deep, I think...

For the color of spectral energy, well, I would like to be some form of blue or red, though any color would be fine as long as it isn't pink or orange or yellow or something. Bleh.

About what color I think I'd be, well, I might be a red, since I have a bit of a temper? I dunno. I'll just run with blue.

As for medium vs. tool-wielder, well... On the one hand, you can never be separated from your spirit and their abilities if you're a medium, while on the other hand, you may need the separation available to a tool-wielder for various reasons. At the same time, you, personally, start to change in appearance in accordance with whatever your spirit is while a medium, and as a tool-user, you can avoid that. All in all though... I think I'd prefer being a medium unless the tool isn't too difficult to carry with you all the time. Like, if the tool is a baseball bat, it would be too inconvenient for me to carry around all the time, and I'd rather be a medium. Perhaps if it was something like a hairpin or some kind of bracelet or clip or other accessory. Maybe a necklace? If it was something like that, then I wouldn't mind being a tool-wielder. Though, if I'm attacked by a spirit at night, I might not reach the tool in time, so medium, I'd say.

And then there's the topic of what kind of spirit I'd like. You guys are looking at how you'd fit in with the band of protagonists, and I think that's really cool! But, I'm going to ignore them and pretend that if I was a spectral I'd never show up at their school or need to conform to their "protagonist group expectations on spirit compatibility and/or matchiness" thing they have going on here. Personally, I think it'd be convenient for me to have some sort of weaker spirit, like Eightfold,  so that I could fully heal them whenever the need would arise. I'm guessing that if a medium has a weaker spirit, they don't change too much in appearance. However, I guess it would depend on the kind of spirit this weak spirit is, and what abilities it would give me. If it was weak and gave me useless abilities (like summoning butterflies, perhaps?) then I think I'd prefer something a bit more useful. My preferred ability would most likely be something along the lines of creation? Because, if I can create things, then if I need something (say I'm running late to school) I can just create something to fill that need. (Such as a jetpack or a pair of wings or some sort of teleportation device or something.) Though, if the spirit's abilities has to match the color of the energy somewhat, I'd be happy with something like Eightfold's paper control, but with water. That'd be cool. It doesn't really matter what the spirit looks like, since I'd get used to it eventually, though it would be nice if the spirit had a personality I could get along with.

UniversalMonster wrote:

When it comes to spirits, this is kinda where I'd just insert some ocs or something haha. However, a power I always wanted was to be able to control plants, so the spirit would most likely look plant-like. Maybe a plant-spider. A plant jumping spider would be cute, but I feel would kinda resemble Eightfold a little too much, so maybe not a jumping spider. ;w;

I'm imagining how adorable a nice, friendly forest spider could be and it's giving me fits.

NinjaKitten wrote:

As for medium vs. tool-wielder, well... On the one hand, you can never be separated from your spirit and their abilities if you're a medium, while on the other hand, you may need the separation available to a tool-wielder for various reasons. At the same time, you, personally, start to change in appearance in accordance with whatever your spirit is while a medium, and as a tool-user, you can avoid that. All in all though... I think I'd prefer being a medium unless the tool isn't too difficult to carry with you all the time. Like, if the tool is a baseball bat, it would be too inconvenient for me to carry around all the time, and I'd rather be a medium. Perhaps if it was something like a hairpin or some kind of bracelet or clip or other accessory. Maybe a necklace? If it was something like that, then I wouldn't mind being a tool-wielder. Though, if I'm attacked by a spirit at night, I might not reach the tool in time, so medium, I'd say.

I know, right? Imagine if your spirit was inhabiting something especially unwieldy, like a surfboard. Good luck finding an excuse to carry /that/ around all the time!

Luckily, it seems spirits have a preference for things that are either wearable (Mina and Spenders' glasses), or have handles (Baseball bat, umbrella, plunger, paintbrush, Days' bouquet, the dino clapper, lantern). Of course, Eightfold wound up in a book, and the eraser spirit wound up in a pencil, which don't come off as /too/ inconvenient to keep on your person.

NinjaKitten wrote:

If it was weak and gave me useless abilities (like summoning butterflies, perhaps?) then I think I'd prefer something a bit more useful. My preferred ability would most likely be something along the lines of creation? Because, if I can create things, then if I need something (say I'm running late to school) I can just create something to fill that need.

Butterfly creation... It's obviously the best power. If you're late to school, just create a billion butterflies and tie them to little strings and fly to school like that >_>




I would like green spectral energy... Maybe tealish...

Pretty sure I'd prefer a tool over being a medium. Even if lugging a tool around isn't always practical, I don't like the idea of my body changing and not being able to distance myself from the spirit. It'd be handy if my glasses could be the tool, since I'm basically wearing them all the time anyway. As for the risk of not having your tool with you, I'd rather avoid fights and if it can't be avoided maybe just use spectral energy constructs...

I don't really have a preference for any particular power. As for personality, it'd be nice to have a calm, easygoing spirit I could get along with.

(Oooh, rainbow!)

Hah, yeah, having your glasses be the tool could be pretty convenient. Though, the only thing that I wear almost all the time is my sunglasses, and I'm personally not really that fond of light-based powers? Though the object doesn't necessarily have to reflect the powers when it's possessed, since the object changes, right?

Ugh my fingers are so cold typing is difficult. Blaaaaah. That's what I get for sitting on top of the vents, I guess.

Spirits do seem kinda attracked to objects that are thematically fitting to their powers... Like that one spirit in that dinosaur grabby having abilities to be able to crush stuff depending on your perspective. That's a really convenient tool for a spirit with those abilities. Like, if that spirit was stuck in a paintbrush, how would it's powers even work? Maybe they still would somehow but still...

Though I guess Dr Zarei's tool sorta breaks that trend. Glasses and skin swapping don't really seem like they would work well together. Then again given Dr Zarei's friendly relationship with Patchworm, maybe she could convince it to posses the glasses instead after healing up, for convenience... If a spirit can really posses any object it chooses and the spirit is co-operative and nice enough, one could probably handle the tool problem that way. If the spirit is in an unwieldy tool, heal it up and if it wants to stay with you, convince it to posses something easier to carry around... Probably wouldn't work on really powerfull spirits that take a long time to heal or spirits that just aren't willing to poof themselves for your convenience.

Your dedication to coloring the word "preference" is worthy of applause .

With as much as we know about thematic bias, or the "fate principle" for spirits and tools, I'm left wondering whether the spirit itself has any modicum of choice in how they affect the object they're possessing. It's not unreasonable to think that they could morph an object into a different object, given enough time and compatibility with a spectral- not likely, honestly, but not unreasonable.

It'd be interesting to see the effects of a spirit possessing an object not thematically consistent (even marginally so) with its' tool- and, seeing as we haven't seen the spirit in the Umbrella yet, we could be finding out sooner than I'd hope.


Back onto the topic proper, though- between the four of us we've got Cyan, Purple, Blue and Green/Teal. We're assembling our pallet!

Hurray! Perhaps we can build a pallet...town?

But it certainly seems like we have a lot of darker colors here. I wonder if there's anyone who'd prefer a brighter one, to make this corner a little less dreary.

Wait, that makes it sound like I want someone to change their color.
What I meant was if there's anyone who hasn't responded yet who would think a brighter color suits them or something.

Green can be pretty bright. Cyan isn't all that dark. Lavender is also a pretty bright purple...
We're just missing the warmer side of the colour spectrum...
(I think I'm just still posting here to have an excuse to go overboard with the text colours ;_; )

That's as good an excuse to keep posting as any!

I admit, we could use some dulcet earth tones. As much as I wish I could be a warm brown, or even one of the duller, rustier reds- Cyan really is a much better fit for me.

It does leave me envious of Ed and Spender, with their cheerful yellows.

::Edit:: My most recent wiki dive has informed me that Eds' spectral energy is actually green. A super yellowed bright kind of chickpea green, but still green.

Maybe if you got possessed by a spirit with brown/red spectral energy it wouldn't matter what fits you best >_>

Also seventh panel here is what I'd like for spectral energy colour... So pretty *-*

Yeah Ed's is green... Which means that if Dimitri was part of the activity club at one point and his colour is orange, as seen here that means... With Isabel, Dimitri, Spender, Ed and Isaac... Almost full rainbowwww
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
(I like rainbows...)

... I guess since I like rainbows and also kinda really like butterflies, a rainbow butterfly spirit like the one in my sig would be the perfect spirit buddy for me... (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ rainbow butterfly creation powers yeah!
(rainbow butterfly spirits also seen here)
Though I wonder what it'd be like to have a spirit with insect like intelligence... Can't really communicate with it or anything... Maybe they can't even posses tools or people? Since the explanation does mention resilient spirits (also a very nice green there)... :0 maybe not all spirits have the ability to posses things when wounded... They just die... Because they're too weak to exist long enough as wisps...
Man, this post started as just another excuse to make fancy colour words and now I have new thoughts on the comic's spirit world...