#let it 'tune in' to the actual frequency shown in-game with just a loop of the music for forever.

[roseverdict]

when you've been rotating the Perfect birthday gift for somebody in your mind for Literal Years but you can't bring yourself to make it bc you know that this person's temper will end up making them break it if it doesn't act perfectly 100% of the time, then blame it for not being sturdy enough to take it. regardless of how much heart and soul you put into it.

[shxdowoforre]

SHADOW POKEMON AND AURA

Since Shadow Pokemon were made one Gen before Aura really got expanded, there’s a lot of gaps in how exactly Shadow Pokemon works regarding Aura. ‘Cause no doubt it fucks it up--their Auras turn BLACK. But other than that we dunno much. SO, first, let’s do a quick brush up on some factors we know regarding Shadow Pokemon and Aura:

Shadow Pokemon’s Auras turn black.

They lose their memories as a result of having their hearts (which I suspect to be the core of their Auras) sealed.

As a by-product of losing their memories, that includes their moves. Instead, they ‘learn’ distorted variations of them called Shadow Moves. These all use their distorted Aura.

As Pokemon get their hearts opened, they begin to recover their memories, including relearning their moves.

Hyper Mode aka Reverse Mode turns a Shadow Pokemon’s Aura red and sends them into frenzy.

Lovrina’s batch of Shadow Pokemon have the potential to, if ‘perfectly’ Shadowfied, change physical appearance.

Celebi has the power to instantly purify a Shadow Pokemon.

The Purification Chamber purifies Shadow Pokemon using a tempo and flow system, which is based on type synergy.

There are more than this, which you can find easily on Bulbapedia, but that is the main points. Now, onto the hc’s that I have drawn from this.

>>WHAT IS IT

It is my belief that Aura makes up the essence of the person. Aura is known to change color based on personality and emotion based on various sources in the Pokemon canon. In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, your type of Aura affects what Pokemon you become. So, it seems Aura is not just closely connected to the overall ‘status’ of a person, but also the basic blueprints of who they are. Changing anything about the person would thus affect the Aura and vice versa. They’re connected, ‘cause they’re all part of the person y’know?

>>HOW AURA IS USED TO MAKE SHADOW POKEMON

For Shadow Pokemon, their Aura is a unique color, black. In addition, they lack any memories or mental traits of their real selves. Even their Nature is suppressed until their heart is opened a little. They are blank, a machine. How does Cipher accomplish this?

Well, it is clear that however it is done, it requires very advanced technology. Personally, as Aura acts like the key parts to a person, it would require a precise machine that could surgically go in and ‘rewrite’ the Aura. You wanna change the essence of who someone is, you gotta go to the Aura, the center. This machine would probably emit its own artificial ‘Aura’ signature--allowing it to interact with Aura and bend it based on adjusting the output. Once you have that sorted out, it’s just like rewriting code. Tune the Aura frequency to have it interact with the Aura to change one part you don’t like, adjust, change another part, and so on. Once you rewrite all of a person’s Aura, you have a new ‘program’. Now, you didn’t do this naturally. You forced the Aura to change in ways it shouldn’t, essentially damaging and warping it. The Aura being black is a color of distress, like damaged tissue. However, a key part is that, say, a liver can be damaged, but it doesn’t change into something other than a liver. A Pokemon can be corrupted and warped as much as they want, but they don’t change from, say, a Shadow Sentret into a Shadow Froakie. The Aura was warped, but you can just as easily heal it back. You can’t just delete a Pokemon’s essence, no matter how hard Cipher tried to.

The precision required to overwrite each and every part of their Aura helps explain why the proces was so tedious for Ein. He invented Shadow Pokemon, but just like any invention, it starts off rather crude. As a result, Ein wasn’t able to pump Shadow Pokemon out too fast. Lovrina took Ein’s work and built on it, streamlining the process to the point Shadow Pokemon can be pumped out on a conveyor belt. How? Well, it could be many possibilities, but what I theorize is that she found a set of central weak points that all Aura shared or could have. Put this info into a machine and it can just scan and automatically apply the alterations based on the weak points that particular Aura had. Lovrina could spit Shadows out like cheap shoes, so she focused on the next step, making a Pokemon immune to purification.

Now, while she did fail to accomplish this, she came damn close.

>>THE CASE OF XD001

Shadow Lugia is a unique case in the Colosseum games, hence why it gets its own section. It is the only case of a Pokemon:

1. Changing appearance upon having its heart sealed

2. Being unaffected by every method of purification accessible to Michael in Gale of Darkness except for one.

So, starting with the first point, remember how I said Aura is the essence of a person? That affecting the Aura has the possibility of affecting the person and vice versa? What do we have here? A case where Lugia’s Aura has been so thoroughly mangled that it actually affected his physical appearance. This implies complete and utter corruption, a full change, no?

Well, Lugia had a small hitch. At the start of Gale of Darkness, it had a lapse in its Shadow state and had the wherewithal to drop the cargo ship it stole before delivering it to Cipher. This was regarded by Lovrina as a small hiccup in her process and that she had now perfected it by the time Michael fights Greevil.

But was it really?

To answer that, let’s look at the second point. Shadow Lugia can only be purified when the Purify Chamber is set to MAX tempo. This is done by perfectly synergizing the Pokemon in the Chamber so that their types create a constant loop of Super-Effective advantages. When it is, Shadow Lugia is instantly freed. Now, they say it’s based on Types in the game, but gee, what determines a Pokemon’s blueprints, including its type? Once again, it’s all about the Aura. You’re not merely synergizing types, you’re synergizing Aura. You create a loop of Aura so potent that it snaps the damaged Aura back to its natural state, and that makes a lot of sense. Aura has already been shown to be able to be weaponized to harm or to heal in battle. Who’s to say merely being around other Aura doesn’t affect yours? On top of that, Shadow Pokemon Aura is artificial and unnatural. The Aura doesn’t want to be that way, it wasn’t meant to. Being around a natural, potent force of Aura like the Purification Chamber affects the Shadow Pokemon just like the artificial force of Aura warped it in the first instance. Instead, it encourages the Pokemon’s Aura to return to what it was.

So, taking all this in as fact for a moment, why did Lugia snap when it grabbed the cargo ship?

IT WAS FULL OF POKEMON.

It was a jumbled mess and not at all a max tempo, but it was an overwhelming force to be sure, just enough so that it could give it a moment of clarity to resist its forced programming.

>>THE COMMON LINK WITH PURIFICATION METHODS

All purification methods, one way or another, invoke or touch the Aura in some way. And I mean that’s not hard to do, since Aura is meant to change so much with the person, react with them, move with them etc. Don’t believe me? Let’s review:

1. Walking with the Shadow Pokemon is easy. The Trainer’s Aura is interacting with the Pokemon’s. Just like with the tempo idea, but on a small scale, thus why it only lowers it a little.

2. Same with sending it into battle. You’re battling with it, how much different is that from having a walk with it? The Aura is still there.

3. Using scents is slightly different. Scents invoke memories, which a Shadow Pokemon have locked away. You are forcing those memories to stir, awakening their real Aura hidden underneath all that damage.

4. Calling them out does the same thing, you’re reminding them of who they are.

5. Celebi has prominent healing powers, able to revive forests. Of course it would be able to heal a damaged Aura.

6. We already covered the Purification Chamber.

So, now that we’ve just about covered all the real nitty gritty of how I hc Aura works with Shadow Pokemon, here’s some miscellaneous stuff.

Getting hit by a Shadow Move probably makes you wanna throw up. It’s like getting garbage thrown in your face. It’s artificial, it’s not right, and it would probably not jive well with a natural Aura. Thus why Shadow Moves are Super-Effective against every type. I imagine Aura users would get especially sick being near Shadow Pokemon.

Hyper Mode is a result of the instability of being a Shadow Pokemon yes, but it is a manifestation of the real Aura trying to fight back and the artificial programming trying to maintain its warped state. Thus the huge increase in emotion in a usually emotionless thing.