[Pride] Sableye (M) Keen Eye
Links:
Obtained
Signature Attribute: Casting Shadows
Before he was captured by the ASB League, Pride was a lonely cave-dweller who did little else but search for food and occasionally attack rocks when bored. However, he had vague memories of friends - perhaps he'd had a family, or perhaps he had once been trained - and he, unlike most wild sableye, needed a companion to avoid possible despair. There was no one around and he wouldn't search for someone for foolish reasons like friendship, or otherwise depending on anyone else, because he was better than that. Instead, he began to interact with his only constant companion - the darkness.
When he was finally brought out of the darkness, he found the light uncomfortable and unfamiliar. But he realised that he always carried a little bit of darkness with him, which others called his shadow. When he was informed of the names of the some of the attacks he knew (shadowballshadowclawshadowsneak), he realised his shadow had power, and when he looked at the shape of the darkness, his shape, he decided it must be its own creature. Because it was
his shadow, according to everyone, it must have been a creature that obeyed him, much like Pride obeyed his trainer.
It took time to coax the shadow to revealing its true self, by moving as Pride wanted it to without only obeying the light. The shadow always came from him, but it could stretch across the ground and up the walls. However, his control was crude, and the shape of any part of the shadow he dragged from the main mass was always triangular. He was not satisfied and tried to create hands, in the image of his own, which was easier when he thought of the fingers as more triangles and the arms as a thin, stretched-out triangle that ended in hands.
But Pride knew that it must have eyes and a mouth, because all creatures did (or else they were just weird, and not worth considering), and he insisted that the shadow open its eyes or accept the food he shared with it. It took a long time, and generous offering of his dark and ghost energy, but one day a part of the shadow split, revealing an eye. As Pride stared into the eye, he found that he could see himself staring at him, somehow, and knew it must be the shadow. But creatures had more than one eye, or at least Pride did, so he ordered it to open its other eye. But the shadow did more: one eye after another opened in the shadow, some small while others were larger than Pride himself, until he demanded that it stop, because it was awesome but just
weird. Creatures also had mouths, with teeth, but the shadow had already revealed that it had many more eyes than most. Pride knew that it
must have multiple mouths it could open, and ordered it to do so. Like the eye, an area of no shadow opened up, but the hole had jagged edges he knew must be teeth.
Still it was not enough. In his cave, the darkness had always been almost tangible, and all of the other pokémon he met were three-dimensional and had mass. He would not admit that he was lonely and wanted friends, even to himself, so he instead decided his shadow must rise above the ground and truly exist. This took the longest of all, and he hurled shadow balls at the shadow when it wouldn't obey, to both prove that it should be possible and to vent his frustration. Then, a lump of shadow was thrown back at him, and he knew it meant the shadow must have fully materialised for at least a moment. He practised, first creating more lumps of shadow and then stretching them. The solidified shadow looked much like the shadow had on the ground, with the triangles becoming blades and the long, thin arms becoming tendrils. The most satisfying moment was when he could stand alongside a complete creature, with its own mouths and arms and eyes and spikes, and for the first time he truly indulged in the sin after which he was named.
Effects: Pride can use his shadow to perform physical contact moves without actually physically making contact. This means he can attack through paralysis, without triggering an ability involving contact, and against pokémon he cannot physically reach. The base energy expenditure (PP-based energy cost) is doubled for every attack performed by using the shadow.
Pride cannot move while moving his shadow, meaning that any particular use of the shadow would take a full action, just as it would if Pride himself was performing the action. The shadow also can only travel at about the same speed as Pride. If, without any changes to his speed or physical impairments, Pride could travel the distance and perform attack in one action, from the part of the shadow closest to the target, the opponent is considered within range. Only the distance truly matters, and the same distance applies to all directions from Pride. The shadow uses 3% energy for every pure-travel action.
The shadow can only perform physical attacks that use teeth, blades, hands, claws, or tendrils, as well as moves with "shadow" in their name. These moves must be available to Pride, although he can use the body parts to cause damage without using a specified move, such as by biting the opponent or attempting to hold the opponent in place. However, the moves can only be charged with dark- or ghost-type energy, or they may completely lack elemental energy and thus be normal-type. Secondary effects granted by the element will not occur; this means that a dark-type poison jab will not poison the opponent, but a dark shadow claw will still have a high critical hit ratio. Shadow ball is always ghost-type and is the only move that can be used from the shadows on the surface without needing a physical presence. Attacks have a -1% damage penalty after all other calculations, unless they have "shadow" in their name and retain original typing.
Since the shadow is an extension of Pride's will, it is possible to inflict damage against him by harming the shadow (treated as special damage, so it is affected by special defence). However, shadows are not easily damaged, seeing as they are areas of darkness - or in Pride's case, a mass of dark and ghost energy. Instead, the shadow can be directly damaged by the very thing that gives it power: light.
Attacks that use pure energy generate a significant amount of light. Stronger attacks are generally brighter. Normal and electric moves generate the most light, followed by the brightness of flames and pure grass- and steel-type energy. The strengths of moves, therefore, are categorised into the following:
Damage x0.75
- Pure energy normal-type moves
- Special electric moves
- Attacks whose power is derived entirely from the light they cast
Damage x0.5
- Special attacks that generate open flames, particularly fire and dragon moves
- Special grass-type moves that cast light
- Special steel-type attacks using pure steel energy
- Damaging special moves described as exceptionally bright
Other special moves that generate light will inflict 25% of their usual damage. Flash is a special case, causing 8% typeless damage even though it usually causes none. Foresight also uses a beam of bright light, and inflicts 3% typeless damage if used against the shadow. Any move that falls into multiple categories above defaults to the category that grants it the most damage.
Dark, ghost, psychic, and most physical moves, and moves that cast no light, will not damage Pride through the shadow, but physical moves can be used to deflect the shadow or prevent it from achieving a certain goal. Physical moves that cast light are an exception, capable of inflicting a whopping 1% set damage against Pride if they strike the shadow.
Resistances and immunities have no effect. The damage percentage is calculated after all other factors are taken into account. It is impossible to score a critical hit on the shadow, and no secondary effects will occur. To cause damage, moves must directly strike a part of the shadow, whether on the ground or fully materialised.
Any part of the shadow the attack directly touches (including flash, whose light generally touches everywhere not blocked by an object) will be destroyed, and any part of the shadow completely severed from the main mass vanishes. Using his shadow for the next attack is no harder than before. However if the opponent attacks first, the chance that Pride flinches is equal to the amount of damage actually inflicted.
Pokémon with the Illuminate ability, under the effects of tail glow, with open flames, or otherwise constantly generating light that can be somewhat blinding to look into are capable of physically striking the shadow with the glowing part for 1% set damage. Although this is not overwhelmingly much, the shadow shies away from the source even as the light gives it power. Glowing body parts cannot be targeted; if the shadow tries to strike them, the move will fail and Pride will take 1% damage. The referee can determine the chance that the shadow will strike this area, based on the pokémon's body shape, location and size of the light source, and Pride's time and ability to carefully target any particular area of the body.
Moves that strike Pride will have their normal effects.
Pride can see from the shadow's eyes, which can help him target opponents, so all moves using the shadow have 100% accuracy. However, this also means the eyes can be targeted if a move requires him to see it, such as confuse ray. The shadow's eyes cannot see anyone hiding in the shade so long as the target is completely covered, but Pride himself can see as well as any sableye. Darkness weakens the shadow as well, so when attacking a pokémon completely covered by the shade, or during hail, rain, sandstorm, or other conditions where there is only dim light, the shadow's attack is decreased further by -1% damage. However, when the light is brighter than normal, such as under the effects of sunny day, the attack gains a +1% damage bonus as long as it doesn't get so close to the light source as to incur damage.
The shadow has no scent and is unaffected by odor sleuth. Foresight and miracle eye lock the shadow's size so that the solid mass cannot be shrunk or grown, except with the use of light. The shape of the mass is also locked, though the shadow is still mobile, so if for example he only has formed blades, he cannot form hands for punching moves. It becomes possible for a sufficiently strong attack to actually cut (would cause 6% damage against a pokémon with neutral type match-ups) or smash (would cause 10% damage against a pokémon with neutral type match-ups) through the shadow, instead of deflecting it; this inflicts 3% typeless damage. Furthermore, miracle eye will allow the shadow to be moved by psychic power, and even damaged if the psychic move casts light.
In addition, the shadow cannot exist in total darkness. If for some reason Pride does not cast a shadow, his signature attribute is totally neutralised so that neither benefits nor detriments come into play.
