#i dont think ed's a medium like max or isaac but it would be really interesting if it was related

[animusbell]

Paranatural masterpost re:

The Sphinxes

Sphinxes 1-3

We have 3 explicitly confirmed sphinxes: the Sphinx of Rules/Games, the Sphinx of Truth, and the unnamed Golden Sphinx. All 3 have passive powers that work whether they want it or not, on themselves as well as others.

Of the two we know the powers of, both are related to words: for Rules, written or spoken rules become reality. For Truth, all words spoken in her presence become the truth, and although the wording can be misleading, this can even predict the future. Golden's powers interfere with (at least) Truth's powers.

Sphinx #4: The BERG

The fandom-named "Broken Evil Riddle God," the spirit that Max is a medium for, is likely a Sphinx! First of all, its namesake, Doorman's dialogue with it, refers to its powers as "riddles and word games," which is in theme with the other known Sphinxes.

Secondly, both Max's spirit trance and dreamscape contain sphinx-related imagery alongside Scrapdragon's theming. His spirit trance has distant pyramids. The dreamscape around him features, as this post points out, pyramid-shaped lights, magnet-like hieroglyphs, and a cat-eared sofa.

This may or may not be relevant, but keep it in mind for later: In addition to the purple furniture surrounding Max's dreamscape, Max features a purple aura around his black spectral energy on two occasions: Once, when being possessed by BERG to save his life, and once back in Chapter 3 --

starting when he doesn't have his bat in hand, but is trying to get it back. We know at this point he can't consciously control his spectral energy very well, but whether by instinct or by something else helping to shape it, it takes on the form of tendrils reaching for the bat.

Additionally, Doorman comes pretty close to probably saying the word "sphinxes" when discussing Max and Isaac:

The other boy, Max... I sensed he, too, was unaware that he carries one of the s-

"Wait a minute," I hear you say, "TOO"?!

Sphinx #5: King Catnine

Like all other sphinxes we've seen, King Catnine appears in a catlike form, with small wings which are usually wrapped around the front of his waist. (They are present in this flashback too, but obscured in the above image.)

Interestingly, his back legs appear to be shaped spectral energy, and he may only be able to form them when at full power like this. Though we do see the Sphinx of Truth make a similar manifestation, using spectral energy to extend her body parts:

"But what do storm powers have to do with words/riddles" I dunno yet! Moving on--

The Great Sphinx

There has been reference to a "Great Sphinx" which was split into pieces. As this post notes, Doorman brings up wights, plural, in the same paragraph -- as if he means that was one of the "defeated" wights.

And we know that destroying a wight is both nigh-impossible and incredibly dangerous... but perhaps breaking one into pieces is a safer option?

King Catnine is seeking the power of a Wight. (Seeking to return to their former glory?) Notably, Wights are the exclusive keepers of White spectral energy, which functions like "each color simultaneously." In real life, white light is a combination of all other light colors.

As this post points out, most of the sphinxes so far have spectral energy colors matching with one of the primary (red/blue/green) or secondary (yellow/cyan/magenta) colors of light. And as this reminded me, Doorman refers to Truth as "the blue one."

Maybe the BERG has black energy like Max, or it's even colorless.

But if you're willing to stretch a little, remember the purple associations with the BERG? It might fill in that magenta slot...

Meaning we're only missing green.

[nastyburger]

dp paranatural au! inspired by @browniefox‘s own version of their au (but no relation lol) i went a little crazy with this idea but yeah, more info under cut! beware of mild pnat spoilers

the fentons move into amity park from elmerton about halfway into the school year and danny enrolls in casper high. the first few weeks are rather uneventful, but things get interesting when danny suddenly becomes a spectral

danny has his portal accident and becomes a spectral with white energy from the near death experience, but before he could fully form his abilities to even know this, the wisp of a grudge quickly possesses him and turns danny into a medium. since the grudge dyes danny’s energy black, he is wholly unaware his color is white or what that would mean. danny is under the impression that he became a spectral via possession (as explained to him by others) and eventually names his spirit phantom since the grudge cannot speak to him. the possession also gave danny white streaks in his hair.

sam and tucker are part of the casper high activity club along with mr lancer as the admin. sam and tuck reflect isabel and ed respectively in the group and welcome danny to the club when they realize he developed into a spectral. (i dont really have a character to reflect isaac here since i cant really think of a character that would fit, i kinda imagine danny being a combination of him and max though)

wes and paulina are part of the journalism club. wes basically takes the role of suzy but less nutty and pink and paulina basically takes the role of collin but less of a servant/doormat (they essentially draw traits from the other’s counterparts). wes is determined to find out what the heck the activity club does and paulina backseats to the madness because she thinks its fun. she also provides gossip to keep the paper interesting beyond wes’ conspiracy theories.

star is a former member of the activity club, but left after a traumatic incident within it (since theres no isaac parallel here im unsure what i want to say this event is so uhhh for now lets just say she left for reasons). she eventually joins the journalism club at paulina’s request and avoids using her spirit and abilities as much as possible. she does, however, quietly interfere with wes’ investigation on the activity club to the best of her abilities

POWERS AND ABILITIES:

danny: he can create an entry and an exit portal to warp objects and people with blue being enter and green being exit. think portal the game rules essentially! danny cant really do long distance teleporting with the portals unless phantom became something mega powerful like a wight, he can theoretically only create the portals within his line of sight. however, since danny is rather new, his range on portals is very limited and he cant angle the exit portal in anyway (it just instinctively pops out on the opposite side of wherever the blue one is). so while theres great potential for his ability, as of now his use is very limited

sam: important distinction is king undergrowth’s ability is actually to make plants, not control pre-existing ones. only plants that pop out of her knitting needle will bend to her will, so a common strategy for sam is to “sow” seeds for later basically. king undergrowth is actually only possessing one of the knitting needles, but sam carries around the other one so it doesnt look as weird. the needles were given to her by her grandma who is also a spectral, but her parents have no idea about either of them

tucker: technus 3.0′s ability is basically the inverse of king undergrowth’s. tucker can draw/steal/pull energy from anything that uses electricity but he cannot generate it himself. his pack rat tendencies is actually born out of the need to always have a battery for himself on him at all times. this does result in him hovering in every seat with an outlet in class though to charge his stuff.

mr lancer: ghost author possesses lancer’s tie and is able to form and bend it to whatever shape they want. the tie can also harden like steel and turn itself into a really bendy blade basically. i considered giving mr lancer a pen that turns into a sword but uh you know anyway lancer usually shapes and uses the tie as a sword, but theres a multitude of other creative things he can shape and do with his ability

star: with the closest ability to the canon pnat character she reflects, star has body manipulation. much like dimitri, she can distort her body to whatever she needs. with more development/use, she can also shift her body enough to take on entirely new appearances and identities like amorpho morphie but with her avoidance she clearly cannot do this.