Ditto the Ditto

[CompuCat]

Name: Ditto (See the history for more details.)


Species: Ditto


Gender: Male (if you want to nitpick, all Dittos are genderless, but for the sake of making narrative a bit easier, Ditto's a guy.)


Faction: Rogue (Arceus)


Island: Quartzir


Moves: Transform (and, by extension, the moves of the Pokemon that Ditto is currently Transformed as)

• 
  Personality
  
  
  Ditto is a fun-loving, foxy prankster with quite a bit of, shall we say, experience as a con artist. He has no permanent home or presence no matter where he goes, preferring to remain an anonymous traveler constantly looking for Pokemon to trick and money for the taking. Though he can (and will) fight, he's never seen any purpose to continuing a war that started centuries ago. He's had a hobby for years of trying to understand people better, partly out of curiosity and partly to know how to better impersonate them. As such, he's become fond of joining crowds and Transforming into random passers-by, living their lives for a few minutes at a time. It's always been fun to see things from a different perspective; to be the Diglett and appreciate good soil, to fly as a Wingull and watch the entire village at once, to blow around as a Hoppip and catch a glance of a green swordsman on a dragon boat...in short, to see more of life was what Ditto most enjoyed. While he's not super-religious, even he knows that there must be some higher power out there governing the world and its workings. Though his childhood memories are quite fuzzy, the one that has stuck through all of his confusion was that of his mother teaching him what little she knew of Arceus, the great being who created the universe. If only to see the world from one more perspective, Ditto remains a fervent believer in Arceus, praying that someday, he might know a bit more about how they shaped the world.
  
• 
  History
  
  
  The only way to describe Ditto's early memory is fuzziness. After Transforming into a Hypno and accidentally Confusing himself, Ditto has been stuck attempting to retrieve even the most basic pieces of knowledge of his old life. With nowhere to go and nothing to his name, Ditto turned to the greatest artform of all to save his life: con artistry. After many failed attempts at begging for money, he found that his confusion had hidden all memories of moral boundaries. Sure, he still had an inkling of what might have been right and wrong, but with a fresh start in what appeared to be some village in Destirae, morals meant nothing to him. Since then, he has used his ability to Transform as an enormous asset to scam anybody and everybody out of absolutely anything. At one point, he devised what he called the "bag scheme", in which he proceeded to wait for an unsuspecting Pokemon to set down a bag and look away. After hiding the bag, he would then Transform into it and slowly shuffle back into place. Needless to say, the disguise was only skin-deep, as he couldn't exactly open himself like a bag or really contain anything, but with a little practice, he was convincing enough to fool all but the most observant of Pokemon. The wait would then begin: acting as a handbag until the victim went home for the day, upon which the Ditto-turned-bag would reTransform into himself and make off with anything of value. (He'd still find and return the bag-though he was cunning, he refused to be cruel.) Many years of performing similar scams eventually caught Ditto having to act as other Pokemon while Transformed for long stretches at a time. (His record was 42 days-set when he accidentally Transformed into a Slowbro running a restaurant open 24/7.) He became quite good at staying in character throughout all of this-so good, in fact, that he ended up forgetting his own name. He took it as a helpful addition to his schemes; after all, that's one less way to accidentally break character! Even so, he was once (and only once) found out after attempting a less-devious scam involving the popular "carrier Pokemon" of Destirae. While not stealing anything of value, he thought about knocking out one of the carriers and stealing their job for a bit. (Running the same scam all the time does get boring, you know.) Many a day was spent as a Pidgeot or a Fearow, earning another Pokemon's wages, until the day an off-duty soldier asked for a lift. He began to tell a few jokes in-flight, which (although corny) were enough to make even the most stoic of Pokemon laugh. (He was well known among the barracks for doing this, and thus had been consigned to defense duty only to prevent bursts of laughter giving them away during an attack.) As anybody knows, a Ditto cannot hold a Transform well while laughing, and the soldier's jokes were more than enough to leave him falling to the ground aboard a wingless blob of pink plasma. Of course, after the scam was revealed, Ditto was permanently banned from setting foot on the island again. With only a small rowboat and a little bag of food, he soon found himself on the shores of Quartzir. As he stepped forth beneath the massive dome surrounding Spiracle City, he found himself as yet another nobody...perfect to start another scam...
  
• 
  Other
  
  
  Like all Dittos, this Ditto has trouble holding a Transform while laughing.
  
• 
  Writing Sample
  
  
  Technically, the rest of this sign-up is a writing sample. However, here's a more contemplative piece I've written. It *was* written a little while back, but I think it's still good enough for a sample. It's attached as a PDF. Enjoy!
  

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