[Contest!] Jeremy Caster

   
   Real Name: Jeremy Caster
   Hero Name: "Kid Squid"
   Alignment: NG
   Age: 27
   Gender: Male
   Race: Human
   Hair: Black
   Eyes: Blue
   Height: 5'6"
   Weight: 133 lbs
   Blood type: AB-

   

Jeremy:

"Kid Squid":

Paris:

   
Jeremy is the most reluctant of reluctant heroes. Honestly even to call him a hero is a stretch. Had Paris never come into his life he'd be a useless lazy twenty something skating directionless through life. For the most part he still is. He's shy, awkward and apathetic, preferring spending days inside hypnotized by a computer screen over any sort of in person interaction. Unless he's surrounded by people he's comfortable with he quickly becomes agitated in public. He can hold his own and function but he's generally lacking in social skills. All of this paints him in a negative light but Jeremy isn't a bad person, just incredibly introverted.

Before Paris he daydreamed personal power fantasies like so many people not living their ideal lives do. He wanted to be the hero of his own story, it would be perfect. Some day, he'd say, he'd break into the hero scene, make a name for himself. He'd shed the anxiety and put his sense of right and wrong front and center instead of shying away from conflict. But his dreams have not played out as he planned. He's certain out and about in the world more now but the anxiety that has always plagued him is still there. The only difference is that with Paris he's forced to confront uncomfortable situations head on.
   
Life is about the choices we make. More often than not, one decision can rewrite the entire course of a life and often in the moment we don't even realize it. That was certainly the case for Jeremy. One strange and childish act years ago would set him on a course far stranger than he would have ever imagined.

Jeremy grew up in Boston close to the harbor. His mother and father had been settled in that area for their entire lives and desired to share their experiences with their son. The circumstances of Jeremy's birth and early childhood are nothing strange or unusual. He was by all accounts a normal child with a normal upbringing. He dealt with some issues of anxiety sure but his family was understanding and supportive. No, without the events of one brisk summer night there'd be no story to tell about Jeremy.

It was late August. The outdoor markets and street performers stayed out later into the evening and the city seemed somehow more alive. Jeremy was seven, out walking the pier with a few kids from school. His parents didn't mind, they had taught him well the dangers of the water and of strangers and he knew not to venture too far from home. The cool air off the water of the harbor kept the pier from getting too crowded so Jeremy and his friends were free to roam make mischief as the pleased. As they walked out onto a dock they tossed small rocks at the boats anchored in the harbor, aiming for letters on the ships. They were so caught up in their game they missed the strange object laying on the dock ahead of them. Micheal, the youngest of the boys in the group was the first to discover the thing as he slipped on a puddle of slime and lost his balance, collapsing onto his butt. A few of the boys turned back and laughed before the whole of the group set their eyes on the object. It was a transparent and sickly green, coated in a fish smelling black sludge and dark maroon veins spiderwebbed its surface.

"Ewwwwww", Jeremy exclaimed with more excitement than disgust. "What is that?".

Micheal got up from his seated position and joined the others, staring at the strange green ping pong ball of an object. They stood there for a few seconds, each waiting for the others to make a move. The Charlie, the oldest boy in the group and standing a head taller than the others spoke up.

"Five bucks to whoever eats that thing!" he exclaimed. Some of the boys laughed, some turned their noses up in disgust. But all of them started into a fierce schoolyard negotiation of just what eating the reeking thing was worth. After much deliberation and the contribution of three more of the boys to the pot, eighteen dollars and thirty eight cents was the agreed upon amount. Once more there was silence, eyes darted around the group waiting for a brave soul to take up the dare before Charlie broke the silence.

"Caster, how about you" he poked at Jeremy's chest as he said this for emphasis. All eyes fell on Jeremy and immediately he shrank into himself. Then a low chant of "Jeremy" started up in the circle. Jeremy started to sweat. He didn't want to eat the strange thing, but twenty dollars was quite a lot of money, and he could not see any good way out of the situation. His eyes darted to the gross object then back to the group in rapid succession. There was one way out. With lightening quickness he reached down to the center of the circle, snatched up the object and popped it in his mouth. The taste sent him reeling, like a fish carcass marinated in low tide. All he wanted was to get the taste out of his mouth. He screwed his eyes shut and before he could think he swallowed and gulped the thing down whole.

Immediately he doubled over, gagging on the gluey consistency of the slime, but the thing never came up. Then wiping tears from his eyes he picked his head back up and looked to the group. They all stood there mouth agape, staring at the boy before erupting into cheering. A surge of pride and euphoria rushed through Jeremy at the approval of his peers. And...that was it. They celebrated the bizarre and gross triumph and after a few minutes of excitement went back about their night's adventures. Jeremy eventually went back home, not telling his parent's about eating the slimy orb and eventually even he forgot about it. Once more his life went on like everyone else. He graduated from high school then college, got a shitty apartment and began at the hard work of wasting his life. Not until he was twenty-four did the events of that one strange night begin to affect him.

It began with a dream. He was standing on the pier, staring out at the black harbor waters. There was a sensation deep in his gut, like a magnet being pulled into the water. Slowly he inched forward on the peer until he could feel his toes at the edge. Some deep rooted animal instinct told him not to look down into the water and as e felt his body tilting forward to the inky waters he sat straight up in his bed in a cold sweat. He huffed there in the darkness of his bedroom, pondering at why the strange dream had given him such a scare before eventually settling back down in bed.

From that night the dreams continued, starting at about once a month before growing in frequency. And there were other changes. Since the night of the dream he'd began to notice a strange change in his eating habits. He was hungry constantly, quickly eating through his entire grocery supply for a week in a matter of days. And once that ran out he felt an urge to eat the cardboard and packaging from his instant meals. This went on for months, his hunger and the dreams increasing at alarming rates. It was four months before he ate his first TV dinner, packaging and all. It was no more satisfying than anything else he'd eaten but it was more, and volume seemed to be the only thing his body cared about. After five months he was having the dreams nightly. He wasn't always on the pier but always he was standing on the precipice of diving into the water, that deep magnetic pull growing more and more intense. Sometimes when he would wake up he could still feel it, urging him towards the sea.

Then one night in the sixth month he woke up from one of the dreams as normal, what wasn't normal was where he was. He was standing in his pajamas with face to the window, looking out towards the harbor. He could feel the cold sweat as normal but there was something else, a horrible rancid taste in his mouth. Reaching out he turned on the sink only to see that his hands were stained in browns, red and green and bits of detritus clung in his fingernails. He ignored that for the moment and cupped some water in his hands to take a drink. With a gulp he attempted to swallow the liquid but found that the water would not flow down his throat. It seemed that something was...stuck inside. He wiggled his tongue around in his mouth trying to find the obstruction before coming on something hard and sharp. Oh God what is it he thought, not wanting to find out as he reached into his mouth. The familiar edge of an open soup can met his fingers and he jerked on it without thinking.

The discarded can clattered into the sink as Jeremy stepped back in horror from the discovery. How did that... he began to think in a panic before feeling a sensation like vomiting erupt up from his stomach. But instead of becoming ill, he watched as a long pink slime covered appendage shot from out of his mouth and in to the sink. Jeremy gagged out of disgust as the thing snapped at the can and violently gulped it down. As he felt the metallic object slide down the slime soaked canal of the things throat he heard a voice in his head. "No waste" it seemed to hiss as it snapped back into his throat and Jeremy lost consciousness.  

The next morning he woke up to a wet slapping sound. As his mind focused and tried to parse the strange dream the night before he realized that his face was drenched, and he could feel a sensation like a wet noodle against his cheeks. Before he was even fully awake he began to gag from the sensation of some think slime covered thing occupying his throat.

"Jer...em...y?" he heard the hissing voice in his head as he rose to his feet, his body desperately trying to expel the thing in his throat. Between wretches his eyes came to focus on the slime covered worm and rows of needle teeth wagging in front of his face.

BBBBBUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLRRRRRRRRRR he gagged out a muffled scream at the sight of the thing.

"Jer...emy...calm" it spoke again without movement from it's mouth. Its words seemed to echo in Jeremy's head and his chest heaved as he attempted to catch his breath.

"Whuurg uur uo" he gurgled out in an attempt at words over the thing clogging up his throat.

"Thi...ink" the thing telepathically hissed in return. This is some sort of demon parasite he thought I"m going to die with this thi... and before he could continue the though the thing's voice rang in his head once more.

"Par...is...yes...am...Paris." At that Jeremy simply stood there in shock. The thing was intelligent, at least to a degree and it had named itself. More importantly, he began to realize that he was breathing...somehow. So at least the thing wasn't going to kill him that way. But..what did it want, why was it here. Seeming to sense his question the thing spoke into his mind again.

"Hungry" Paris said, clearer than any other thought he'd heard from the creature before snapping back down his throat. "Food" it commanded and Jeremy was too in shock to deny its request...

   
   1. Reaction
   2. Agility
   3. Endurance
   4. Strength
   

   
"Paris": Jeremy is bound to a strange aquatic parasite that has adopted the name Paris. All of his abilities are tied to and are extensions of her.

    - The Hunger: Paris is constantly hungry and seems to be capable of digesting and gaining nutrients from consuming just about anything with no negative side effects from eating normally poisonous or inedible materials. Furthering this ability is the extreme resilience that her entire digestive system possesses, being capable of distending to take in items multiple times larger than her own head and remaining unharmed when biting in to hide grade carbon steel or when subjected to temperature extremes. After absorbing her secretions for more than a decade this digestive durability has extended to Jeremy, allowing him to better satisfy his parasitic master. He can open his jaws to about three feet in diameter and has yet to find something that he can swallow that would cause his mouth or innards any sort of physical harm.

    Elasticity: Paris is stretchy and disturbingly amorphous. Jeremy has no idea what her exact size is but estimates that just from tip to tail (or whatever her back end looks like) she's likely more than 50 yards long. Despite this she fits perfectly snug inside Jeremy's body. From her intestinal home Paris can stretch out from Jeremy's mouth and is capable of supporting herself in position regardless of length or awkward angles. Because of her ability to compress and her elastic body Paris is extremely hard to damage with brute physical force. Along with her head, Paris can also extend four similarly long tentacles from Jeremy.

    Strength of the Deep: Paris is surprisingly strong for her relatively thin body. Her jaws can bite through steel and her body and tentacles have similar gripping and crushing power to an anaconda.

   
Always Hungry: Just like it sounds, Paris and by extension Jeremy are constantly hungry. They rarely stop eating and often move on to what others would consider non-edible materials. This can draw quite a bit of attention and Jeremy's hunger is rarely convenient. On top of this if Paris is not fed regularly she will exert more and more control over Jeremy. Since she has none of the moral hangups of her host, this could extend to her trying to eat domesticated pets and even people against Jeremy's wishes. This makes Jeremy essentially a hostage to his hunger.

Weak and Spongy: Jeremy is a normal, slightly out of shape human with no combat experience and no special protections other than against what he eats. So while poison won't kill him, a good ol' gunshot to the head will, and knives and punches and whatever else hurt him like normal.

Naive and Anxious: While Paris needs her host to survive she has little idea of how to keep him alive and no care for his feelings or social well being. Being an inhuman creature she has no issue coming out in public and does not understand that a slimy pink monster oozing out of a person's mouth is not something people are going to react well to on a crowded city block or similar situations. In conjunction with this, Jeremy is an incredibly nervous person person full of self-doubt. He's more likely to sit on the sidelines and hope for someone else to jump into the action than to actually attempt to do something himself.

Til Death do us Part: Paris and Jeremy's lives are inherently tied to one another. If Jeremy dies, Paris will follow soon after and the same is true for the reverse.

Drying Out: Being an aquatic creature, Paris requires a mostly liquid environment to survive. Salt water is the best, making a human body a pretty decent place to make a home. However when outside of Jeremy's body she becomes vulnerable. Intense wind or extreme heat can wipe away her protective slime coating and quickly dry her out, dehydrating her. In most cases this will cause her to immediately retreat back into Jeremy's body but if this continues for too long she will stop being able to breathe and will quickly die.

   
Telepathy?: Paris and Jeremy are mentally linked and can communicate without words. She in unable to communicate with anything else other than her own species.

Aquatic: Paris breathes water not air, but can sustain herself just fine so long as she remains coated in her protective slime or contained within Jeremy's body. She is also a perfectly capable swimmer were she not bound to Jeremy. She can extend her water breathing and swimming capabilities to Jeremy when her head and limbs are exposed from inside him.