#spell tags

a type gem is, quite literally, crystalized type energy. that means that it is the most amount of type energy that can physically fit into any given space. with that in mind, it is wonderful at some tasks and, ah, not so great with others.

(a task, in this sense of the word, are the directions that you scribe onto it, using the symbols you utilize when writing Tags. i've found the best success in etching out the lines with a glass shard and then filling them in with a dip-pen. just be careful not to let the blood and ink mix, or it'll get confused.)

predictably, the tasks it is good at require an output of energy. chief among these are spell tags, which use energy they have stored to bolster the power of ghost attacks. instead of one strong use on a move, after a small sacrifice they're able to output their power slowly and consistently. this works with other types of bolstering tags as well, but ghost and the other four magic types are the best at channeling it.

they also work, though maybe not as effectively, with any other tags that require energy output in some fashion. a tag which blocks one move type by countering with itself, for example, could work... as would any tag which brings an attribute like luck, fortitude, dreams, et cetera.

... the tasks, however, that it is bad at... make themselves obvious.

[An image is attached! It's Basil's kitchen table. The poor thing has been absolutely littered with shards of a Ghost type gem. The blast center even has a couple shards lodged into the wood... Skorna the Runeirigus stands stunned at the end of the table, eyes wide, with a couple of shards floating around in her ghostly noggin. Various Shuppet bob around the table, though they seem unhurt. A dip pen with a tip wet with something dark red sits on the table close to the camera.]

Pokecember Day 11: Ghost

So it’s no secret that ghosts are my favourite so I wanted to do something special with them. I’ve been craving good, old RPG games lately so I figured I’d try a combination of the two. 

This was also my first attempt at a paint over of a 3D model(just for the background, not the pokemon or the crap on the table). I’d say it went pretty well. I wish I had, had a little more time to work on this one. Oh well. There’s always next time.

.... this isn't my original sheet, ah. i asked my editor to clean it up and make it.. legible. the original is under the cut for all the basil fans out there. grazie to her

the way i learned, you need to let paper the 'charge' for a night or two (basically let it sit somewhere with a lot of type energy, or even just tape it to a type gem if you're in a pinch), tear or cut it into shape, and then draw the symbol on with something red.

they're more effective depending on the type energy it's imbued with and how personal the making was. the ideal cleanse tag with this method would involve having made the paper, tearing it into shape, and drawing the symbol in blood, but very obviously aunt rosie wasn't gonna have us do all that so we would usually just tear it into shape and use a red pen.

charging it with dark or ghost energy is obviously the most effective and arguably the easiest, but i've seen it done with other types. it's just more effective at warding off the types that're weak to it and less effective with other types. for some reason, dark- and ghost- charged tags don't have that, they just ward things off equally.

well yeah nothing's stopping you from making a cleanse tag out of your scrap metal or a tissue or tree bark or your neighbor's kid or whatever but not all cleanse tags are made equally. the more personal time and energy you seep into it along with how much and what type of Type energy is charged into it drastically changes the effect. I'd be willing to bet even a Ghost charged piece of metal (which would probably take such a long time to charge??) would ward off ice rock and fairy types just because metal is a very Steel thing. that's the dumbest sentence I've typed all day.

fun fact, but despite how similar they look, spell tags are almost completely different in production to cleanse tags. specifically in the sense that most spell tags come from the body of a deceased ghost-type, specifically ghosts like banette and mismagius and other ghosts with a clothlike skin.

when some ghost pokemon reach the end of their life cycle, they'll leave behind the "shell" of the spirit they were. this "shell" is still charged with an immense amount of ghost energy, so you can use a variant of the sealing symbol to lock it inside and cut it into a tag shape.