#nascour

[cipher-legal-and-ethics-dept]

As per request on Discord, I made this. Yes, I created a horrible situation on purpose.

But fear not - true Cipher stans know where they'll be safe!

[shadowsageingempress]

You are challenged by Cipher Nascour.

[ravinoforre]

November 2023 The second of my Pokemon Colosseum anniversary fanzine submissions. I've always found Colosseum and Star Wars have a lot in common aesthetically (and thematically to an extent), so this is based on one of the original 1977 Star Wars posters.

May the Orre by with you.

[brespawn3]

Headcanon stuff for Nascour

This one was rather difficult to put together due to me and my brain not being on the same wavelength when it came to giving Nascour negative traits.

- Family Loneliness: His biological parents are pretty rich and powerful so they're rather cold, harsh, and distant towards their son. He was sent off to Unova to live with Ein and his mother due to his grandfather's connection with Team Rocket. The only time his parents "want" him around is for his yearly Orrean education stuff during the Summer. Nascour is subconsciously aware of what this form of loneliness can do to a person, so if he's away from those he deems as his family, he'll find someone he can tolerate more than his biological parents and treat them like family.

- Psychic Powers: He comes from a bloodline of strong Orrean Psychics, who used to be known for being able to affect the minds and bodies of others. He's able to do the typical Psychic stuff like bending metal (more than just spoons), telekinesis, and teleport to a location if he knows it. His main ability allows him to read people's minds, but it takes up a lot of mental power to do so; he practiced this ability to the point where the cost decreased dramatically, so he could be as nosy as he wants (until the person he's reading starts counteracting by thinking of things he does not want to read/see.) He's unable to read the minds of those who are stronger psychics than him (an example being his mother.) He has a tell for when he's using his psychic abilities, one of his hands (usually his right hand) will involuntarily twitch like he's trying to lightly squeeze something (this is based off of one of the Colo mangas where Nascour does this to make a rock shatter Wes' shades and said rock knocks him out.) (The manga I got this from can be found here under the name: Colosseum snatchers Leo 3(Half). (Also, @cipher-legal-and-ethics-dept has a post with links to what people have found of this manga and the other Colo ones here.)

- Shadow Human: During his time working for Cipher, he opted-in for an experiment that has a chance of enhancing one's abilities. This was carried out by Ardos, who used whatever unused variants of the Shadow Powder Formula Ein had made for this (the method of getting this into his body is through injections.) Ardos' methods for speeding up the process was successful at transforming Nascour into a Shadow Human (said methods being physical and verbal attacks towards him.) Before Nascour could fight back, Eldes snaps him out of his fever by calling out his name. ~ - How Shadowification Affects Him Emotionally (And Internally): He's unable to fully express positive emotions due to Shadowification subduing the stronger version of those feelings. Whenever he experiences a strong negative emotion or recalls a traumatic event from his life, he enters Shadow Fever and needs Dakim or someone to snap him out of it (usually done by having a scent massaged into his face (Very effective) or surprise him by calling his name. (Must be unexpected for it to work.)) If his fever is set off often enough (or not treated quickly), he'll start having fever-like symptoms and experiences pain in seemly random parts of his body all at once. Needs someone to take care of him until his body is able to sort itself out. ~ - How Shadowification Affects The Outside Of His Body: Besides him having completely red eyes, his hands and feet become completely covered by a thin, dark purple crystal-like mineral, making any part of the body it covers become monster and rock-like (he has to wear clothing that covers those parts, otherwise he's not allowed outside.) Shadow Fevers will make this spread unless it's stopped manually or his body gets over it, if he experiences a significantly large amount of Shadow Fevers total it'll completely overtake the whole body; at which point he'll die, becoming a husk full of crystalized hatred hellbent on destroying everything in the region (Bad Ending scenario.) The Relic Stone is unfortunately not strong enough to expel this from his body, which is why the Purify Chamber is needed since the purification method is the same for Shadow Lugia.

- Other Traits: Nascour hates not being able to have control over himself, things like being unable to control his paranoia (when he was a kid) and when he enters Shadow Fever (as an adult.) If there's something/someone he feels he needs but can't get through normal means, he'll try to manipulate his way to his goal.

- Team Explanation: His team mostly features humanoid, bipedal Pokémon (with Walrein being the exception) to help him better deal with his loneliness. Abra is his starter mon, but he bonded rather quickly with the Ralts Ein's mother gave him. When Ralts evolved into Kirlia (and later Gardevoir), it becomes a big inspiration for Nascour and helps him discover his feminine side. Adopted a Combusken when it was abandoned by its owner due to it no longer being cute. Was given a Spheal by Es Cade as a sign of trust (and to later recruit him into Cipher.) Caught a Duskull who was scaring Ein during Halloween. A Natu randomly showed up one day and chose him as its trainer. Feels more connected with Psychic-type Pokémon due to his own telepathic abilities. The Shadow Metagross he gets was originally Dakim's Metang, and was one of the last few Pokémon Ein had worked on. During rehab, Dakim helps him find and catch a Beldum (this takes a while because Arceus thought it would be funny to give this mon a catch rate of 3 and its only move being Take Down.) Much later on, Ein sends Nascour a Pokémon Egg containing a Sprigatito.

- Born in Orre, but lived in Unova: Grew up with Ein and became very close. He sees Ein and his mother as his found family, and is grateful for their kindness and patience considering the circumstances (and for dealing with his bad behavior.) Tries to repay the favor by protecting Ein from bullies (even if that means fighting them himself), and help Ein's mother with whatever she's working on. Once he finishes his senior year of high school he's immediately brought back to Orre. During his time in Cipher, he would look for and employ people he felt would be the most beneficial to the organization (but also recruited his friends Venus and Ein, made an exception for Miror B.); he made sure to at least be a somewhat reasonable and caring boss despite the nature of the job, until he had to withdraw himself due to his Shadowification. This resulted in Ein having to take up his leadership role until the Shadow Raikou incident occurred (Ein emergency pinged Nascour with his choker, which sprung him into action and saved Ein from his screw up.) While Ein was recovering from his injuries, Nascour gave him a notebook that detailed what Ardos did to him; the rest he told Ein things that his friend wasn't aware of, including his feelings for him. During his time in prison, he would distract himself by telepathically communicating with Evice; would also forcefully put himself to sleep to help him avoid feeling like garbage due to his aforementioned loneliness. About 5 years later, he was handed over to Alder and Dakim to start rehabilitation in Unova. About a year later, he returns to Orre under special orders to be purified.

- His hobbies are watching anime and reading manga, sports (as a kid), training (as an adult), playing dress-up, and drawing. Has gotten Ein, Venus, and Dakim to try out some of his hobbies, Venus is more receptive to this, it's hit or miss with Dakim, and Ein requires some convincing if he doesn't like it (especially when Nascour wants to play dress-up with him.)

- Briefly met Colress during the science competition Ein was participating in; Nascour becomes very jealous that his close friend wants to spend time with someone other than himself, so he gets overly clingy and guilt-trips Ein every time he wants to visit him. As an adult, Nascour tries to convince himself that he's not jealous anymore (this is a lie) by implying the two are dating whenever his convos with Ein mention Colress (During the ExperimentalShipping timeline, Ein gets very defensive over this.) The two do end up on friendlier terms after he admits to Colress that he was overly jealous of them. Nascour can't properly read his mind due to him not having narrated thoughts.

- First met Venus during one of his mandatory trips back to Orre, the two quickly become friends. While unintentional, he does see her as kind of a stand-in for Ein during his time away from him. He brings her materials for outfits and tries out the clothes she makes. The two of them enjoy watching shows and movies together like romcoms, horror, and cutesy anime. Once he finishes high school, he tries to spend whatever free time he has with her, even when they join Cipher. The two tend to gossip a lot, to the point where Venus tricks Nascour into sharing secrets like him and Ein playing dress-up.

- First met Miror B. outside of the Krabby Klub; he was going through the lowest point of his life, Nascour felt bad for him so he took him in for an interview and hired him. Unfortunately, he ends up only doing the bare minimum (ordering peons to do his work for him.) Nascour learns about this after his Purification Arc and storms off to Gateon Port. Miror B. tries to weasel his way out from Nascour but is stopped via telepathy; him and his two peons beg for mercy, he obliges on the condition that Miror B. tells him why he slacked off so much. He says that he was forced to by someone who sent him a message on each of the two cards he got, threatening to turn him into a human popsicle if he disobeyed. Nascour lets him go, the next time they meet is on friendlier terms.

- First meets Dakim in a secluded place near Mt Battle; defeats him in a Pokémon battle which results in Dakim wanting to serve under him. He recruits him into Cipher as someone who will train the peons, admins, Nascour himself, and their mons. During their time in Cipher, their relationship was more one-sided with Dakim being the one who respected and cared a lot for Nascour while he gave the bare minimum back. During rehab, he warms up to Dakim and greatly appreciates the things he does for him.

- Out of the 5 flavor types, his favorites are dry/salty and sweet, and his least favorite is sour. Loves all kinds of meat, cheese, and bread; also enjoys a variety of sweets here and there. Is willing to tolerate sour foods if it's combined with his favorite flavors, otherwise he will visibly cringe trying to eat it.

- Is bisexual and open to multi-person relationships. Isn't shy about confessing his love towards another; the exception to this is Nascour has feelings for Ein, he feels incapable of admitting this to him until after the Shadow Raikou incident. If he's currently a Shadow Human he'll turn down participating in anything that isn't hand holding and hugging/cuddling, this is due to his inability to fully enjoy it and his condition being infectious via fluids/waste his body creates.

- The reason why he isn't mentioned in XD is because the Verich family has a massive amount of influence within the region, so they kept Nascour and the condition Ardos inflicted upon him a secret since he was a prototype for the XD001 project.

[yushirosblog]

Can we just talk about Nascour for a second and actually just LOOK at his design? What does he do for a waist like that??😭

Low-key jealous of him for it fr💔

[cardinalarts]

An in-depth analysis of the Colosseum Cipher Admins' teams because why not?

I was thinking about the Cipher admins lately. Since Colosseum and XD don't have gyms, the admins are the closest equivalent we have. But instead of each one specializing in a type, each admin's team is built around a particular strategy and/or theme.

Miror B. uses all Ludicolo because he's a dancing king, utilizing Rain Dance for Swift Swim and Rain Dish. Then throws a curve ball with Sudowoodo, a Pokémon which the unsuspecting trainer could mistake for another Grass-type, who will also stand still and pose like a tree. And Miror B. can appreciate a good pose. And then he throws in an Exploud at Realgam Tower because music.

Venus uses a cute or graceful Pokémon like Delcatty and Milotic, but also Vileplume and Banette, two Pokémon that look like a harmless object but are more dangerous than they appear. To top it off, they all know Attract. Then there's a Steelix symbolizing The Under (since its dex entry mentions them living deep underground). Notably, she drops the Vileplume, Banette, and Steelix when you battle her in Realgam Tower, going all in on cute Pokémon instead. It's like when she's outside of her home turf, she's more focused on keeping up appearances.

Ein uses a combination of Rain Dance/Thunder strats and various status effects. He's a cold strategist who wants to maximize his chances of winning while reducing yours as much as possible. Also worth noting that he's the only admin whose team actually has synergy with their Shadow Pokémon, as if he's the only one who actually took to that into account when putting together his team.

Then Dakim has.... Earthquakes? And then Sunny Day/Solar Beam in the post game? Yeah, sorry, I can't really think of any deeper meaning behind this. Dakim is by far the least developed member of Cipher, I don't have much to work with.

And then there's Nasour. At first glance, it just looks like a random assortment of strong Pokémon, yet he notably uses 3 Psychic-types, with Metagross even getting swapped out for Alakazam after you snag it. We have Dusclops, a Pokémon that is said to be hollow on the inside, like a Black Hole (a clear analogue for Shadow Pokémon), then Blaziken is just a strong warrior to represent Nascour's thirst for battle. Walrein and Gardevoir both have Pokédex entries saying that they will die to protect those close to them, perhaps calling to Nascour's ruthlessness in battle and viewing his subordinates as pawns to be used and discarded. This is further backed up by both Gardevoir and Dusclops having Destiny Bond. Beyond this, Nascour runs no particular strategy, using a balance of strong attacks and status moves, with a decent amount of coverage despite the lack of type variety in his team.

Xatu's a tricky one. All we know about it is that it can see the future (and also the past) and is thought to be from another world. It could just be a nod to his line at the beginning of the game predicting that he and Wes will battle one day, or it's just a mystical Pokémon representing his looming presence throughout the story.

That just leaves Metagross and Alakazam, both stated to be extremely intelligent. Cipher spent years lying in wait to begin the Shadow Pokémon Plan, which no doubt took a lot of planning and coordination, so they're both fitting for the mastermind of an evil organization... except, you know...

Evice. Most of his strategy revolves around pumping up his stats and beating you down with raw power. Even running Skill Swap to remove Truant from his Slaking. What could be more evil than that? Also, 3 of his Pokémon are trade evolutions. I could say it represents how he "traded" places with Nascour, but that feels like a reach, even for me. And of course he has to finish things with good old Godzilla Tyranitar. On top of being a massive powerhouse with the word "Tyrant" in its name, its dex entries say it doesn't care for others and will destroy mountains to make its nest. Yeah, that's the Pokémon of an aspiring dictator if I've ever heard one.

[bananacreamphi]

Someone pointed this out to me and I will never view either of them the same

[gin-tan]

This freaking room, if this doesn't scream nascour I dunno what does.