(no subject)

[indigo_league]

On Friday the 13th, something strange seems to be happening throughout the Pokémon world. People reportedly acting strangely, wandering around with blank expressions on their faces and attempting to go about their daily business. Everything they do is wrong, though--a simple task of picking up dishes and delivering them to waiting customers results in plates crashing to the floor and the person delivering a mess of food to the table. Attempts of being helpful tend to end in injury and/or embarrassment. Within a few hours, it becomes apparent what is going--a swarm of Dittos have decided to have a day of mischief to themselves, which means they’re going around and impersonating people--and maybe even you!







Wait, so what’s going on?

Dittos are swarming throughout the Pokémon world, but with a twist--the Dittos are invading and attempting to take on people’s identities! Although their mimicry is usually good enough to fool anyone from a surface-level glance, their disguise is revealed through their inconsistent behavior. They can only observe surface-level behavior, obviously.

Why are they doing this?

Dittos do what they wanna do!

But ultimately, their shenanigans are not out of malice or to hurt other people, and they just wanna have some fun for a day. Wouldn’t you want to be a pokemon for a day? Why can’t a pokemon want to be a human for a day!

In fact, any silly nonsense is most likely to be the result of a Ditto wanting to do something helpful and screwing it up, because what is human anatomy and interpersonal human communication?

How accurately can these Ditto mimic other people?

It’s up to you!

Any observable behavior or speech that your characters normally display can be copied by a Ditto, but beyond that, their capabilities are limited. They are not psychic pokemon, after all! They have no special insight into what the people they are mimicking are actually thinking, nor would they know about things that have gone unspoken.

Though, you are also free to go in the opposite direction with this, by having your character’s Doppelditto display behaviour very much unlike their normal behaviour. Maybe Ditto thinks your character could really use some friends, so they will try and make that happen. Or maybe they really should stand up for themselves a bit more. Or maybe they are normally a bit of a jerk and Ditto is trying to show them how much nicer life could be if they were more friendly.

But again, Dittos are Dittos so even when genuinely wanting to be helpful to your character, they are not going to be the very best at understanding all the intricacies of human behavior.

Physically, you are free to have your character’s Ditto mimic be a perfect copy, or for them to have a few more, lets say... Ditto-esque features.

Can the Dittos actually speak?

Yes! They put a lot of practice into this ‘be a human for a day’ idea, so they will be capable of human speech.

However, you are also free to have your character’s Ditto imposter be unable to speak (maybe they didn’t really put in all the effort). This is entirely up to you!

Can I catch these Dittos?

You sure can! Any Ditto caught during this swarm event will be at level 13, regardless of location.

But try not to throw Pokéballs at people that you haven’t confirmed are dittos or not.

Will the caught Ditto still be capable of speech after the swarm is over?

Yes. This is a skill they put effort into learning. It isn’t related to the swarm and will continue to exist afterwards

Any other questions?

Feel free to ask below!

Comments

QUESTION

[necrodentia]

Will other Pokemon be able to tell the difference between their trainer and their Ditto-double? I'm thinking specifically of Rainer's Rotom who has been trained to operate Rainer's wheelchair. If the Ditto got in the chair and tried to get the Rotom to wheel it around, would the Rotom know it wasn't her?

[indigo_league]

That's up for you to decide! Pokemon have no special ability to detect whether this is a Ditto VS their trainer (apart from psychic pokemon who could, theoretically, read their minds), but obviously, a very observant pokemon could tell something is up based on their behavior, meanwhile a cheese for brains less observant pokemon might not realise something is happening until they see their trainer and their doppelditto standing next to them.

QUESTION PART TWO

[(Anonymous)]

if a trainer already has a Ditto, can this new swarm Ditto teach them human speech and such if they work together closely?

Re: QUESTION PART TWO

[necrodentia]

That was me, accidentally logged out...

[indigo_league]

Any pokemon is theoretically capable of learning human speech. It's just a pretty long process as outline here. So Rainer's new Ditto could teach her old Ditto to speak, but expect it to take close to a year.