Chapter Text
Octavia was “officially” handed off to Selene that evening, after a full round of “are you sures” from everyone involved, a few hugs, goodbys from Taylor’s other pokemon, and a private “pep talk” for Tavi from Kirk. Selene couldn’t figure out what the guy’s deal was, but he and Tavi had apparently been best friends back when everyone thought she was human. Knowing that, the protectiveness and emotional support made a bit more sense.
She couldn’t help but imagine how things would go if she herself were to suddenly become a pokemon. Hau and Lillie would absolutely drop everything to help her in much the same way Kirk was, that much was certain.
Officer Anabel would also be shadowing Selene, since her mission was still to monitor and guard Octavia, even if she was in a Champion’s custody. But that didn’t necessarily mean that Krik and Taylor would be without supervision or protection, as Anabel was quick to explain.
“My partner, Agent Looker, will be checking in with you. His specialty is investigation and surveillance though, so you probably won’t see him unless he needs to talk to you directly. He’s… eccentric, but exceptional at what he does.” The officer smiled. “You’re in good hands.”
Taylor nodded. Kirk rolled his eyes.
For tonight Anabel would go back to her “fallback” cabin (“just a phone call away”), Kirk and Taylor would crash in Lillie’s old loft at the lab, and Selene would take Octavia home with her. Selene had been insistent about that last part. Tonight and tomorrow were for relaxation and recuperation. No battles, no medical exams, no discussions deciding anyone’s future. Those were all important, but the poor thing hadn’t had a day without those since her life got upended. So Selene made the call and rescheduled her official matches tomorrow for Saturday instead, moving her usual day off up a bit.
It wasn’t until she walked out of the lab that the Interpol officer made her displeasure with the situation known.
“I shouldn’t have to be the one to tell you to be careful, Selene,” Anabel said, having been leaning against the wall around the corner of the building, “but apparently no one else is going to. Don’t let the Ditto out of your sight.”
“She can hear you, you know,” the champion replied, holding up Octavia’s ball. She didn’t have any room on her belt for it, so she was carrying it home in her hand.
“Having spent some time with her, I think Octavia would be the first to agree with me on the potential danger she poses.” She crossed her arms, matching Selene’s gaze with one of equal intensity.
Selene felt the Ditto tremble, and Nebby flashed an image of two humans shaking hands across her mind. Seems she really did agree.
“Everything will be fine, you can trust me. Both of you.” She gave the pokeball in her hand a gentle shake. Even if you can’t trust yourself just yet.
“I do. Just… stay vigilant. Even if Octavia herself doesn’t cause problems, people are eventually going to start putting two and two together with that ‘Rogue Dynamax’ footage floating around online. There’s only so much information suppression we can do without making it even more obvious that something is being covered up.”
“Thanks for the heads up,” Selene said, finally cracking a smile. “Also, if we’re going to be working together on this, make sure you actually get some sleep this time.”
“I will, Looker will have my head if I don’t.” Anabel smiled back, pausing briefly before turning to walk away.
The champion sighed and started down Route 1, releasing a tension in her shoulders that had been building that entire conversation. She trusted Anabel and the International Police, she really did, but the last time she worked this closely with them, people almost died. Dealing with them would never be stress-free. Taking tomorrow off was probably a good call for everyone.
“It’s a beautiful evening, and we’re finally somewhere quiet. Any objection to getting some fresh air?” Selene tapped Octavia’s pokeball, and not getting a response, she released the Ditto into her arms. Octavia squirmed a bit, trying to find a comfortable position, something Selene had also seen her doing when Taylor was carrying her, or even sometimes when sitting still. There might be something she could do about that, though. The champion ran mentally ran through the members of her current team, trying to decide who it would be best to try this with…
Tavi sat in silence as the Champion carried her down the dirt road, not really thinking about much of anything. There had been entirely too much thinking today, and even if she couldn’t get her amorphous body to settle into place just right, zoning out listening to the evening wind, cries of distant pokemon, and the crunch of pebbles under Selene’s shoes was better than letting her mind wander back to Taylor and the others.
Eventually, they reached the crest of a hill, a lone house visible a ways ahead, presumably their destination. The warm glow of the lights in the windows stood out as a welcoming beacon against the cool purples the world was cast in as the sun finished setting.
“Before we get home, there’s something I want to ask you, Octavia.” Moving to the side of the road, Selene set her charge on the ground and sat next to her, the Ditto eyeing her warily the entire time. “You’re not remotely comfortable like that, are you? Comfortable with your body, I mean.”
“...No. I’m not.” Tavi looked away, staring at the ground. She hated not having limbs. She hated having to be mindful of where she touched the ground. She hated feeling every little shift and slide her body performed reflexively to keep her “standing” upright.
“What if we tried an alternative, then?” Selene grabbed a plain pokeball from the middle of her belt. “There’s nothing stopping you from spending the evening in a different body, is there? I know you don’t have any sort of time limit in a form.”
The Ditto opened her mouth to object, only to slowly close it without saying anything. That… wasn’t the worst idea. She hadn’t really been a fan of any of the other forms she’d taken… even Decidueye felt off in weird ways. Just vaguely human-shaped enough that the differences stuck out even more in her mind. But with a few exceptions, she’d take any of them over… this. There was one big problem, though. Something other than bodily comfort she need to consider for her own peace of mind. Lacking a way to easily communicate it without words, she reached forward with a pseudopod and began painstakingly writing out a simple message in the dirt.
“Permission”
“You need permission? You certainly have mine, or do you mean Taylor’s?”
Octavia sighed. She needed to elaborate, and that was going to be a pain. She moved to write some more, only for Selene to hold out a hand and stop her.
“Hold on. I have something better for this.” She reached behind her and undid a zipper on her bag. “Hey, Dex, wanna meet our guest?”
From inside the champion’s bag, a strange, static-y voice crackled to life.
“Izzz it safe? You said it could be dangerouzzz…” An excess of buzzing “zs” aside, the electronic voice spoke in clear and precise Galarian, causing Octavia to do a double take and stare with her mouth agape.
“Perfectly safe! I just couldn’t be sure until I met her. She’ll probably transform to copy you on sight, which should help with the language barrier.” Turning to look at Tavi, she continued. “Is that okay?”
“Sure, why not.” Tavi shrugged, then nodded. She had no idea what to expect here, but turning into a non-psychic talking pokemon would at least help her get her point across.
A bright red square zipped out of the open pocket and—
Tavi promptly went blind. Her entire body had become simultaneously stiff and flimsy, difficult to move and yet light enough that the evening breeze threatened to push her over. If it weren’t for the faint sensation of limbs and her sense of hearing only being slightly dampened, she’d have assumed she’d transformed into a completely inanimate object, rather than a pokemon.
“Hello?” Tavi tried to call out, her voice a coming out as a muffled, robotic. “Roto?”
“I don’t think itzzz able to copy the software! It can’t see out of the camerazzz or use the speakerzzz without proper firmware or an operating system. Sorry, kiddo!”
“It’s okay. Worth a shot, at least.”
Finally gathering her wits, Tavi changed back, gasping for breath even though she wasn’t actually suffocating. Ceasing to breathe entirely was still incredibly disconcerting when you weren’t prepared for it.
Upon properly looking at the pokemon floating in front of her, things made a lot more sense. It was almost certainly a Rotom, though not a form that she had ever seen before. The device it was inhabiting had a large, tablet-like screen, two physical camera “eyes” with shutters that could mimic eyelids, a pair of flat, paddle-like arms that unfolded from its back, and round feet that it almost certainly didn’t need given its ability to float.
“Are you okay, bud?” The Rotom drifted down to Tavi’s eye level, looking genuinely concerned. “I should have realizzzed the issue before we tried that.”
“I’m… fine,” Tavi lied. “Like she said, it was worth a shot.”
“This is Dex, a Rotom Pokedex,” Selene explained, answering Tavi’s first question before she could think to ask it. “It’s a one-of-a-kind prototype model with specialized cameras, sensors, and a speech synthesis module. I got to beta-test a lot of the tech that was eventually used in the first generation of Rotom Phones on my journey, and Dex has decided to stick with me since.”
“Huh. I met a Porygon in Galar that was using a similar speech synthesizer, but it claimed that being able to emote like you are was a ‘work in progress.’”
“Soundzzz like a skill issue.”
In the end, while allowing her to speak directly through the form of the Rotom Dex was a bust, Dex itself was more than happy to provide a translation, displaying text to... approximate Tavi’s speech. It got the meaning of everything she said more or less correct, but it was often worded differently. As it turns out, pokemon speech was less a proper language and more a sort of projected intent supplemented by vocal intonation, so the fact that Tavi’s still thought in Galarian, having grown up speaking it and nothing else, meant that her speech was going through a whole extra layer of translation.
It was still more than enough for her to get her point across.
“I want permission from your pokemon,” Tavi explained. Selene frowned and furrowed her brow as she read the translation.
“Okay? That shouldn’t be a problem. But why?”
“It’s their body, not mine. I don’t want to use it without their permission.”
“I’m… not sure I follow. You’re not taking their bodies, just mimicking their forms. And you didn’t have any issues transforming earlier.”
“Short transformations or battles are one thing, but prolonged transformations are different. If I stay in someone else’s form long enough, I can pass for them. Deceive people. Create misunderstandings. It’s not fair to them, so I won’t do it unless they allow me to.”
Selene opened her mouth to respond, but shut it again after a moment, too puzzled to think of anything to say. And then her eyes widened as realization dawned on her.
“This is because of Taylor, isn’t it?” Selene’s frown only deepened. “Because you think you deceived people by looking like her?”
“No, but... discovering the truth completely derailed our lives. I don’t want anyone to be mistaken about what I am ever again.”
“I see.” Selene drummed her fingers on her knees. She had something she wanted to say, but was debating whether or not to say it. “Then it’s not because of Taylor. It’s because of you. Because you were unaware of what you are. Because you want to be a trainer, and she doesn’t.”
Tavi whipped her face around to stare at the girl next to her, eyes wide with surprise that quickly fell to shame.
“It was obvious once I learned what happened to you, having seen you battle,” Selene explained, “but I don’t think that’s anything to be ashamed of. You can’t just flip a switch and magically stop caring about your dreams, even if they turn out to be impossible. Human or pokemon, who you are deep down doesn’t just change like that.”
“I can’t afford to let myself get attached to being any else. This is my actual body,” Tavi said, gesturing at herself for emphasis. “I don’t get to deny reality and pretend it’s not!” She stared at Selene, trying to convey just how serious she was.
But then the Champion started laughing.
“Says who?” Selene grinned, standing up and stretching. “You’ve never actually met another Ditto, have you? Do you think they just sit around in their base forms all day, worrying about what others think and only transforming when absolutely necessary? They play around! Try out different forms! Find their favorites! Being a Ditto means you get to choose your reality! I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the species spends more time transformed than not!”
“But…”
“Selene is correct!” Dex chimed in, swapping its display to the Pokedex entry on Ditto and turning to face her. “Ditto are known to transform into anything they can see, and they’re alwayzzz seeing new thingzzz! Additionally, only a Ditto with the Imposter ability like you is reflexively compelled to transform. It’zzz completely voluntary!”
Tavi blinked, struggling to properly process everything she was being told. Had she really just been… over-complicating things in her own head? It couldn’t actually be that simple, could it? After all, Ditto could only copy things right in front of them, and her copies were way more accurate than average. Every single pokemon she’d ever copied outside of a battle had commented on how strange or creepy it was, and it was probably why pokemon hated her in Taylor’s form, too. Maybe for an ordinary Ditto things were that simple, but…
She looked over the entry on Dex’s screen, certain they were missing something, only to find something weird.
“Dex, it says here that Ditto will sometimes transform into things from memory, often messing up the details a bit. That’s… wrong.”
“My data is certified accurate! Wanna see the citationzzz?” A video began playing on the Rotom’s screen, showing a Ditto in an empty room transforming into a Charmander, only to fail to recreate the lizard’s eyes, leaving the Ditto’s simplistic dots on an otherwise correct face. The video was followed by an excerpt from a published paper detailing the recorded data from a multitude of examples, but Tavi had already seen enough.
Taylor told me that I wouldn’t be able to transform from memory, and she’d been right, hadn’t she? I wasn’t able to transform at will until we met Nickit. Tavi ran through every other transformation she’d performed, and they were all pokemon she was looking at… Except for the rock. She’d transformed into a rock from memory, having focused on the weight and texture of ones she’d held in her hands, certain that it was possible because she’d read about it. So Taylor had been wrong. Then why did she…
Tavi shook herself. There was an easy way to test this, right here, right now. There was a pokemon she’d seen and very deliberately not transformed into, having struggled to suppress her reflexes to do so. The Taxi Corviknight that had landed in front of their house carrying Oleana. If she could turn into even a poor facsimile of one, then that was proof that she didn’t need to see her target, nor did she need to have already transformed into it.
The Ditto closed her eyes and focused, recalling the shape, the sheen of its feathers, the light scraping of metal on metal it made when moving it’s wings. She felt the ground shift beneath her feet.
She had feet? Tavi opened her eyes to find herself looking down at Selene, with a black, metallic beak taking up a chunk of her vision.
“I… did it?” She said, only to immediately burst out laughing. She’d failed to change her voice, still making her usual high-pitched “dits” and “tos,” but now with metallic reverb. It was ridiculous.
“Nice job!” Selene beamed, failing to stifle her own laughter. Even Dex joined in with an amused electronic buzz. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Tavi shook her head. It… really wasn’t. She could just do this whenever she wanted. If a form annoyed her, she could just turn into something that annoyed her less. It felt like cheating, but it was only natural. She was a Ditto, and Ditto were made to cheat.
“I think we’ll need to get you a more… compact form before I bring you home, though. Mom will kill me if I let another pokemon scuff up the floor with their claws,” Selene said, holding up the same pokeball she’d had earlier. “How do you feel about Ribombee?”
Tavi had only vaguely heard of that particular pokemon before, but something deep inside her sparked at the idea of trying something new. She returned to her natural form, bolstered by the fact that she would only be in that awful body for a few fleeting moments this time.
“No idea, but let’s do it anyway!”