Pokemon #351, Castform, Normal type, Weather pokemon.
Intro: Castform is a man-made pokemon that reacts to and changes with the weather. In its natural form, it looks like a grey head with a single upstanding tuft of hair on its head. It has two eyes encircled by a white sunglasses-shaped patch. It has a small tail and two, uhm, spherical appendages resembling, uhm, clouds.
Habitat: Castform is not naturally seen in most environment, due to its synthetic nature. However, since several trainers have released Castform into the wild after breeding for natures, small packs of Castform may be seen roaming around in random places.
Food: Castform was designed not to need food. It sustains its own molecular structure by generating ATP between form changes. It is able to metabolize food such as poffins, pokeblocks and rare candies for added characteristics and properties, but it is not necessary.
Biology: Castform is able to change into three forms depending on the weather. The Sunny form is a fire-type and exists during sunny weather. The Rainy form is a water type and exists during rain. The Snowy form exists during hail or snow and is an ice type. The Sunny form transforms Castform’s head into a bright orange sun shape and turns the body white. The Rainy form transforms the head into a blue raindrop and turns the body dark grey slightly reminiscent of a storm cloud. The Snowy form turns Castform’s head purplish and transforms the body into a grey/green cumulunimbus cloud, surrounding the head in its entirety. The different forms have different moods and personalities, which are a reflection of the weather.
The creation of Castform was an arduous task, that started with a temperature-dependent polymer-lipid multilayer that varied in density as temperature changed. This multilayer compound was grafted onto pokemon-cells using genetic modification, that allowed the cells to create the compound by itself. Additionally, several experimental phases were passed in order to give Castform definite forms during different weather conditions. Initial prototypes had a gradient progression between weather forms, which allowed the existence of a multi-weather form Castform. This form was however found to be unstable, and the research team moved on from this design. After several months of investigation, the team was at a breakthrough after the idea was had to have the cells behave as water. The natural behavior of the bilayer compound was supported by several multi-active proteins and enzymes, and the prototype for Castform’s cellular makeup was generated. After another half a year the final, genetically stable Castform was generated and was granted the title of pokemon.
Additional promising metabolic grafts were designed to allow Castform to generate energy from changing forms in order to sustain itself, as well as create a proof-of-concept for energy-generating tissue that is more efficient than solar cells.
A sandstorm-sensitive genetic addition was omitted from the design after initial experiments, as the rock-like structure the cells took was fundamentally incompatible with the cloud-like composition of Castform’s tissue. The increased density obtained by the rock-type Castform would ultimately become heavier than air and lose altitude rapidly, until it was immobilized by its own weight, often leaving a small crater upon impact.
Thanks to its specific design, Castform is able to learn the most powerful moves (omitting legendary-only moves such as V-create) of its three types, Fire Blast, Blizzard and Hydro Pump. In the specific weather types, Castform is able to use these moves to great effect thanks to added power from its own type and the weather. It is also able to learn other weather related moves such as Solar Beam and its signature move Weather Ball, whose type changes with the weather. Since the creation of Castform, other pokemon such as Raikou and Roserade have shown aptitude with the move Weather Ball and have added it to their arsenal. Traces from Castform's original design are still visible in the move Weather Ball, as the move turns into a Rock-type move during Sandstorms.
Pokemon League Commision notes:
Class F: Castform is typically only obtainable through contact with the Weather Institute that distributes them, and grants trainers a licence to use them. Exceptional trainers may obtain breeding permits. The institute claims all ownership for any newly bred Castform or those caught in the wild. The institute must be notified of any new Castform obtained by trainers in any way in order to register them and check for genetic instabilities, as that specific aspect has not been covered by multi-generation investigations yet.
