Here's my submission for @n0rtist 's FT500 fakemon design challenge! Meet Ceparrypod, the fencing Ultra Beast who comes at you dancing with a vengeance.
I'm gonna explain my design process since that was a cool format for my ability forms last time n0rtist did a challenge (if you remember my Escavalier ability forms or saw them show up in n0rtist's video, you're a real one!).
So for this challenge I wanted to be self indulgent. I wanted to make a Pokemon I'd personally be a big fan of. Whilst the challenge is sort of geared for you to come up with a competitive gimmick and then make a design around it, I actually did the opposite. I thought, "what do I like?". Immediately, I thought: the color yellow, squids and "dexterity duelist" weapons (rapiers, parrying daggers, bucklers). So I had an idea to make a cuttlefish who was, at the same time, a parrying dagger with a buckler. But when I started thinking about the design, it started to become weirder.
It started to make sense that it'd be an Ultra Beast. And this fit into my idea of being self indulgent - I love Ultra Beasts! So I decided to go weird with it. Around this time was when the competitive gimmick started forming in my mind: a Pokemon geared towards defense being the best offense, like how DnD Swashbuckler rogues can make an enemy focus them to keep attention off their allies (oh hey, that's why Ceparrypod gets Follow Me!).
Then the final design piece clicked into place: it had to be a dancer. One thing I love in videogames is when swordfights feel like a dance. So why not make the swordfighter a dancer? Ceparrypod positions its tentacles in such a way that it looks like a coiled sword or a flamberge, but also a dancer striking a pose and spinning around.
Here's the original sketch for its concept:
So, with the final design, the idea is that it is a vengeful spiritual entity from a ruined Ultra Space that lives inside a metal body (although it doesn't possess it - it's not that exactly the kind of ghost type that's the ghost of a dead thing). It heats up the metal from inside with its anger to move it around like tentacles. Its dance-like way of moving is a way of keeping up movement even when cold. It seeks enemies and seeks to cut them down to make itself stronger, and is one of the Ultra Beast that becomes most aggressive upon falling through a wormhole. Its body resembles a rapier with a buckler and a parrying dagger attached to it, capable of moving around to suit its mobility needs.
Kit wise, it gets Follow Me (already explained), Shell Smash (a classic for a being with a "cuttle", especially with the whole gimmick of it heating itself up), Bitter Blade (a classic vengeful spirit move) and Poltergeist (the idea here is that, since it is made up of 3 weapons made for parrying, it can use the enemy's own weapons against them - Poltergeist can be seen as a sort of parry). Its ability is Beast Boost, of course, since it's an Ultra Beast. Its stats are also all prime numbers, because that's how Ultra Beasts handle stats.
The gameplay idea for it is also meant to tie into the self-indulgence. I like both bulky defensive stall Pokemon and fast physical sweepers. I decided to have the best of both worlds: Ceparrypod can choose to Shell Smash and use its White Herb item to compensate for the defenses lost, to then try to sweep with Poltergeist and stay alive with Bitter Blade. However, it can also go defensive and use Bitter Blade for survivability whilst also using Follow Me to take hits instead of its partner. White Herb Shell Smash can also help in the defensive mode to make Bitter Blade stronger.
Very gimmicky, I know, and far from OP, but I decided to lean into the "get creative with how the kit fits the Pokemon" part of the contest than with the "make a winning OP Pokemon" part of it. It was fun! I'm glad I chose to do it this way.
This hybrid approach makes the submission form a bit awkward though. Is it a support or not...? If you're reading this n0rtist, maybe it's not the best place to ask, but would you classify it as a support?
On a more technical note, I've been learning to properly shade lately, and I took Ceparrypod as an opportunity to try to render the spike on its buckler shield as a front-facing spike. Hopefully it looks good.
That's all. Excited to see how the FT500 tournament goes!