WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

[nexus]

After defeating another convoluted “experiment” run by the master of genetics Teleios, your character and their team (if applicable) are cleaning out the mad scientist’s base and come across a pod containing a most unusual item.

 

Your PC, or at least an exact duplicate of them. They are currently in an induced coma but can be easily awakened. If they are or they’re mentally scanned that have the exact memories of the PC, including intimate details of their lives in precise detail up until 4 months ago. At that time the duplicate remembers being attacked while alone then nothing at all.

 

The character doppelganger is physically identical the PC, including all scars, birthmarks, fingerprints, etc and their mind shows no obvious evidence of telepathic scanning. In fact, it seems impossible to tell the clone from the original…

 

What does your character do?

 

(Of course if the nature of your PC makes this set up impossible, please ignore or make whatever changes that are required to make it applicable).

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Reinard the Fox would certainly be shocked at first. How would this be possible? Wait... This guy must have somehow acquired a fur sample. Whatever, it'd be next to impossible to eliminate the clone. Hmmm... (I may have to get back to you on this one)

[David Johnston]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Riptide decides to use the clone as a backup, secretly leaving him in suspended animation until the moment Bob is killed.

 

T.N. Lung wakes the clone up and the two of them agree that one will stay on Earth and the other will return to his home planet.

 

Lacking another choice that occurs to her Hellfire will also wake the clone up, and the two girls will immediately start quarreling about which of them was really the clone.

 

The Wizard of Oz Incorporated would never be in the situation. Teleios would have no use for a clone of him.

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Microman II: Is an android, so no clones, per se. However, a tech villain could conceivably do the equivalent. Microman would definitely favor waking 'himself' up, after checking the make sure 'he' has no booby traps, or a personality that is psycho. From there, things get really interesting. It could end in anything from "acting like a big brother" to "they establish a mindlink so that the subdivided portion can reintegrate, with the combined experiences forming one entity in two bodies."

 

Diomedes: Would be vaguely wondering how Aegis managed to actually beat Teleios. Aside from that, he'd wake the clone up, and then they'd have to somehow come to terms over who gets what element of their life. Hopefully his parents will be helpful.

 

Jack Frost: ". . .I have a sudden chill run down my spine, like someone walked on my grave. . . and I've never really been dead much before. . ." Jack Frost is very much inspired by Spider-man, so this hits perhaps a little close to home. ;-) Aside from that, again, wakes the clone up and tries to come up with a way to get along.

 

Hermes: Wouldn't be Teleios, but there are types who could do this in his home universe somewhere. Also, memory of the attack would have to be *totally* wiped, or else it would have already been investigated thoroughly. That said, this could happen, and its new territory for Hermes. The idea of cloning, as such, doesn't really exist yet in his home time, so the ethical dilemmas involved would be new. Ignoring the vague chance Aral might try and circumvent the problem with a sword through the neck before the clone is woke up, this would most likely end in another visit to Minos, and another one of those lessons on life. Still, assuming Hermes-clone is anything like Hermes, he'd adjust and get on with his life. Admittedly, the idea of having two Hermes' running around Thera might be vaguely disconcerting for a number of people. . . ;-)

[Great Beyond]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Natasha would roll her eyes and go "Great, another one!"

She's an old hand at having duplicates around. The time that her home dimension was acting as a "magnet" for all the other world's Natasha's, bringing them over whenever they made a time/space hop. By the end of the day, when they sorted out what the hell was going on, there were several hundred of her running around town. It took about a week to get everyone home (and some didn't want to or couldn't go home). Of course there's been many a time where Future Natasha dropped in unexpectedly on Present Natasha for one reason or another.

So no, it'd be just one more her running around town.

Great Beyond would probably be more freaked out - she's not run into this sort of thing before. Since she's not a killer, she cant "whoops - tripped on the life support plug", and she'd feel bad about leaving v2.0 locked up in a tube for the rest of her life. She'd probably defrost her, and since GB's natural inclination, free of superheroing and responsibility, would be to travel and see the world - she could wander away, enjoy the big wide world and stay out of 1.0's way.

[Spidey88]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Phidippus is a very obvious Spider-Man homage (I wear my loyalties on my sleeve, I'm afraid), so the whole clone situation would be extremely groan-inducing...

 

Getting past that, he'd take the clone to a secure, publicly-known location to give him a once over (eg. Homestead or Dr. Silverback's lab). Suspecting subliminal commands implanted in the clone, cybernetic bugging devices, or something similar, he'd want to be as thorough as possible ensuring the clone didn't have any ulterior motive. Terse at first, Phidippus would be willing to accept that whatever is going on isn't the clone's fault, and try and keep his very serious fears to himself - fears of what Telios is up to, primarily. There's also be a lot of apprehension as to the status of his own identity, of course - but seeing as how four months has gone by since the blackout incident, he'd assume it was unlikely he was the copy, under the assumption Telios would have sprung the trap by now if he was the clone.

 

Phidippus would then try to figure out what the clone knew. Location of base, secret I.D.'s of teammates, etc. with as little prompting as possible to ensure honest answers, and some false question designed to test his knowledge (names of people he doesn't know, etc.). After the Q&A period, he'd probably be stuck with what to do. Bringing him back to the (secret) base would probably be the only thing he'd settle for in the end - leaving him at Homestead or Dr. Silverback's lab would be too risky (in his eyes, anyway, since he wouldn't settle for anything less than his own surveillance on this particular individual). His own base, secret though it may be, would not exactly be a high-profile target - but he might suspect Telios was on VIPER's payroll (they've got a serious bone to pick with him, and he's never even met Telios).

 

The moment of truth would be the hidden entrance. Hopefully the (apparent) clone would lead the way, assauging some fears Phidippus might have about a nasty plot. With any luck, the old Danger Sense would start to buzz if bringing cloney here was a bad idea...

 

After that, he'd sit down with his own equipment to run tests on who was who for a while. He'd be fairly certain he was the real deal, but he'd try to give the clone the benefit of the doubt - he is a real person, after all. That first night would be very nerve-wracking, but thankfully he only needs an hour's sleep a night, and his primary teammate also has Danger Sense.

 

The real sticky business would be: what to do with cloney? If his motives are on the up-and-up, he'd be a huge asset to crimefighting. What to do next would depend on cloney. The obvious options would be these:

 

1) develop a new super ID and costume for cloney (George?)- at least different enough to tell Phidippus and cloney apart. Hmmm... Perhaps some sort of tracers in the costumes, only detectable by our danger senses are in order...Maybe set cloney up in another city if tensions between them are high.

 

2) keep the knowledge of cloney relatively secret, and use that to their advantage - it could seem like he was in two places at once. If anyone else (eg. VIPER) ever tried to kidnap Phidippus, they probably wouldn't think to do it twice, leaving a spare to bust the other out!

 

All of this assumes cloney doesn't have any specific input of his own that differs greatly. I'd have to assume that cloney thinks in similar ways, but Phidippus wouldn't be the sort to railroad him (save for the initail security measures) if he had different ideas. He'd be free to make his own choices. If cloney was adamant he was the original, Phidippus would try to take it in stride and remain objective.

[Robyn]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

T.N. Lung wakes the clone up and the two of them agree that one will stay on Earth and the other will return to his home planet.

 

Do they then fight to the death over which of them gets to stay/go?

[Robyn]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

(Of course if the nature of your PC makes this set up impossible' date=' please ignore or make whatever changes that are required to make it applicable).[/quote']

 

Ignoring, by virtue of an Internal Decision Box.

[David Johnston]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Do they then fight to the death over which of them gets to stay/go?

 

Oh no. The clone goes. After all, he has to introduce himself to the village.

[Arkham]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

And what makes everyone think the one in the tank is the Clone?

 

What if you have implanted commands that haven't been triggered yet? Telios is a rather patient man, is he not?

[David Johnston]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

And what makes everyone think the one in the tank is the Clone?

 

What if you have implanted commands that haven't been triggered yet? Telios is a rather patient man, is he not?

 

Well, that's what the Hellfires are fighting about. In the case of T.N. Lung however, if the discoverer isn't the original, he'll know it. He knows his way around his own mind. It occurs to Riptide, but even if he's the clone he's not giving up the life to the original. That would just be dumb.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

I noticed not many of the responders were considering the possibility the being that was in the tank was the original...

[Sundog]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Well, Terminus is a genetically engineered supersoldier, so he came out of a tank himself. Further, he was part of an entire corps of Terminus Soldiers in his home dimension. So, as far as he's concerned, his clone is just a brother in the service. Yay, double the firepower!

Mind you, they just might have a few problems re: his girlfriend...

[Spidey88]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

And what makes everyone think the one in the tank is the Clone?

 

What if you have implanted commands that haven't been triggered yet? Telios is a rather patient man, is he not?

 

While Phidippus would consider that unlikely, he's just paranoid enough to consider the possibility - all the more reason to keep the "good" version close by!

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

The character doppelganger is physically identical the PC, including all scars, birthmarks, fingerprints, etc and their mind shows no obvious evidence of telepathic scanning. In fact, it seems impossible to tell the clone from the original…

 

Sorry to be a pain, but it's unlikely that a clone would have the same scars or for that matter dental work (for the latter, see an old Tom Strong comic) since those are not in DNA. I *guess* that Telios could fake it but still...

[Marketeer]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Blackberry S. Firr would find a nice safe place, get a whole bunch of friends, then wake the clone up.

 

Then the two would start talking; both would most likely be seriously worried about the emotional well-being of the other.

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Jake the Troll - not likely: he's unique across the multiverse.

 

Icon - How the frick did the Argus High team take on Teleios?!? She's a low-level cosmic energy manipulator though, so it's likely he was doing some collecting and experimentation on people with her particular powerset. She would likely have been found in a clutch of pods, each one having a different uber in them. That's the only thing I can think of, aside from some sort of insanely long-term plan to infiltrate a clone into someone's supergroup some 10-15 years down the road.

 

With that in mind, she'd probably bring her father in and have him help her deal with it. Legally speaking, the clone would likely be her twin sister and/or her daughter, so he'd have custody of both of them.

 

I think the Hoffman family psychologist would have a field day, to be honest - Emma has, like many only children, had idealized desires for a sibling. Well, now she's got one. Regardless, there'd be some sort of "which one is the clone?" agnst, and (both) Emmas would suffer some issues about htat one. However, in the end her dad would treat them both like his daughters, so it wouldn't be that much of the issue. There would probably be some point at which he'd say "I don't want to know which one is the clone - I don't care". (They'd still get yearly checkups though, to ensure no cellular degredation was occuring.)In all it would probably be worth it, actually.

 

The main issue is how to hide it: there's a good chance that they simply wouldn't. At that point Emma's HID would be blown, but them's the breaks - she wasn't planning on keeping it after college, anyway. One of them would go by Emma, and other by Alexandra.

 

Shinji Miromoto - as with Icon, only more along the lines of "what were we THINKING!?" Again, probably Teleios experimenting with his powerset. (Which would also be odd, as the Dark Congress is a mercenary organization explicitly devoted to studying Dark Energy, and would likely to have simply sold him the information.)

 

Anyway - he'd probably mumble something about being able to resolve his kharms twice as fast, and then try to deal with it. Even if one of them is a plant/spy, it's not like the Outsiders have got anything worth stealing. 2x Shinji's means 2x martial arts psychics on the streets of seattle, making the city safer for harmonious enlightnment through the application of pugilation! (Besides, he comes from anime conventions - having one of them die dramatically from an incurable disease is par for the course.)

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Zl'f would insist on freeing and awakening the copy(?). As a devout Christian, she'd assume the being in question is human, has a soul, and hence has as much right to life as she does. And having two of her would make maintaining that Secret ID a lot easier. Maybe they'll just swap places weekly:

 

"OK, this week I'm Zl'f and you're Pavla Sergetov. Next week I'll be Pavla and you can be Zl'f."

 

"Why do I have to do the office paperwork? I'd rather beat up bad guys first."

 

 

(I did consider the obvious possibilty that the one outside is the copy. It wouldn't matter to Zl'f. Even if one of them has implanted commands, that possibility would exist even without this particular situation. After all, there are already powerful magical and/or telepathic bad guys out there. So there's no guarantee such a thing isn't already in place.)

[Vondy]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Anthem, a devout Jew, would make many of the same assumptions as Zlf above, though (probably) with variant rationales and emphasis. He would remove the "clone" to the base, bring them to a wakeful state, and then debrief them. Debriefing would include the following:

 

1) running more tests. Who is the original? Me, or him?

 

2) checking the mental conditioning of both the original and clone to ensure there isn't some weird manchurian candidate scheme going on.

 

3) helping them adjust to this reality, and helping them integrate into the world.

 

This has some problems. Anthem is the head of a black operations team of super-spooks. The clone now has some of the intel communities crown jewels in his noggin (as does Telios). The clone obviously can't stay on the team (too much friction and there can only be one team leader), but if his memories and personality are identical, he'll want to stay in the black ops/intel game if at all possible. He might end up being a solo operative. If a weird sort of harmony appeared, the clone could end up being a field operative for the team, or tactical leader (I guess). Anthem (and presumably his clone) are very rational, and have a firm moral.ethical.philosophical structure in common that might make it possible.

 

As for how, as a player, I would handle this: I would want to go on playing the original, who would presumably remain in his post.

 

Oh, and another thing, Telios just got put on the top of the "terminate with extreme prejudice" list. He simply knows too much.

[Blue]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Uncle Slam has already lived the whole cloning thing, as he fought his nazi duplicate back in the great war, and the deadlock was only broken due to interference of another allied hero. He'd insist that PRIMUS take the body and keep it frozen in some secret lab until he can deduce that this is not somehow that same duplicate.

 

Anthem couldn't harm it, but she'd resent being duplicated. The team would take it in and ask her "what do we do?" Eventually she'd relent and say they thaw her, but that before she reaches consciousness, they somehow mark her so that they can be told apart.

 

Audra Blue would find a way for the body to "accidentally" die. Not heroic, but then she thinks she's a survivor, not a hero.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

The character doppelganger is physically identical the PC' date=' including all scars, birthmarks, fingerprints, etc and their mind shows no obvious evidence of telepathic scanning. In fact, it seems impossible to tell the clone from the original… [/b']

 

Sorry to be a pain, but it's unlikely that a clone would have the same scars or for that matter dental work (for the latter, see an old Tom Strong comic) since those are not in DNA. I *guess* that Telios could fake it but still...

 

That is an oddity about the situation, isn't it? Clones wouldn't have the same fingerprints, retinal patterns, etc.

 

Remenber, the "clone" remember eveying the alleged original does, even stuff no one else could know up to a certain point then it goes blank...

 

I'm pretty sure Teleios could copy scars, dental work and all that though, particularly if he had the original for awhile...

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Soulbarb: Isn't really capable of going up against Teleios at full power, so I'll assume this is a low-priority sideline operation for him and didn't get his full attention. Teleios could create a clone of Soulbarb before she acquired her powers, and could probably cause said clone to be able to mimic some of Soulbarb's powers, but there's no way he could mimic something like Soulbarb's Soulsight. She would assume that Teleios intended to use the clone to discredit her in some fashion. What exactly happens from there depends on what the clone is actually like; a lot of Nora's personality developed as a consequence of how she acquired her powers, and this clone may have a very different outlook on life. The severity of the original Soulbarb's reaction would also depend on whether the GM was trying to run an iron-age game or a bronze-age game.

 

Sylph: Again, Teleios couldn't mimic the source of her powers, though he might be able to mimic many of the effects of her powers. Although it probably wouldn't immediately occur to her to check, when push comes to shove, only one of them is truly the champion of Dionysus. Sylph would wake the clone up and try to help her get adjusted; she's goodhearted enough that not helping the woman out would be foreign to her nature.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Darkchild: "Y'know... I'm less worried about the fact that one of us is a clone, and more about the fact that Teleios now has DNA from fey, demonic, celestial, and assorted other mystical sources."

 

Darkchild clone: "Agreed. Let's just double-check with one of the Big Guys, if they can't tell us we'll hash it out after ensuring that the next batch of Monstersaurs won't be demonic."

 

Of course, poor Heat Wave would have a very... interesting... time of it, having two girlfriends suddenly, both of whom are actually remarkably easygoing about the whole triad thing..... ;P

 

 

Huntress: If she doesn't lapse into a paranoid jag, the easiest way to solve the question is to figure out which of them has traces of amphetamines in their system longer than four months ago. I'm sure there's some way to do that, courtesy of assorted super-gadgets... heck, might even be a way today.

 

If she does lapse into a paranoid jag, she probably slags the tube, its occupant, and all Teleios' notes on the subject without thinking of the implications or consequences. This is obviously just a ploy to get a hold of her research which must be stopped at all costs.

 

Fred: "Oh dear. There's another of me." Then a Monstersaur rampages through and steps on them both, sending his consciousness spiralling once more through the afterlife to find a new nameless extra to be born as.

 

Sparky: Would probably be overjoyed that he now has another legitimate pack member around! A mental equal! Somebody he can run and play and eat kibble with! Whee!

 

He's not really Alpha material and, logically, his counterpart here wouldn't be either... why should a hyper-intelligent German Shepherd with the ability to hurl lightning bolts be worried about existential 'which came first' issues? His people have dog food enough for both of them, and it'd let one of them go play hero while the other keeps on being their owner's seeing eye dog. All in all, a pretty good deal for him... but couldn't Teleios just have bought himself a dog if he was that lonely?

[The Weapon]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

"After defeating another convoluted “experiment” run by the master of genetics Teleios, your character and their team (if applicable) are cleaning out the mad scientist’s base and and come across a pod containing a most unusual item.

 

Your PC, or at least an exact duplicate of them. They are currently in an induced coma but can be easily awakened. If they are or they’re mentally scanned that have the exact memories of the PC, including intimate details of their lives in precise detail up until 4 months ago. At that time the duplicate remembers being attacked while alone then nothing at all.

 

The character doppelganger is physically identical the PC, including all scars, birthmarks, fingerprints, etc and their mind shows no obvious evidence of telepathic scanning. In fact, it seems impossible to tell the clone from the original… "

 

 

Version One doesn't have scars, or moles or distinguising marks of any kind.

 

Version One isn't too surprised there's a copy of him, after all he's a genetically engineered lifeform and so could be replicated, with a lot of work. Of course he's also a cyborg and magically enhanced so whoever made the copy had accesss to a LOT of skills. The only person V1 can think of that would be able to pull it off is his creator. This is a lead to who that is and what that nefarious scheme he's up to now. Whatever it is it's probably not good, the creator considers not working for him a capital offence. If he's got one V1 clone maybe he has others, some with memories that don't make him such a nice guy.

Maybe Teleios just got the copy from The Creator's lab. Or maybe he is the creator, in which case there might be information on how to stop these damn headaches! That would be good. The headaches are really bad and nobody has the experience in cybernetics, thaumaturgy and genetic engineering to actually fix them. V1 has serious intergration problems you see.

 

Most of V1's memories aren't his but were implanted so that he didn't have to go through the process of learning things before being able to function. But how did the clone get the memories of after that? That the other's clones have the same memories reassures him that his brain wasn't somehow bugged by his creator at decanting. Still it's disturbing. Now there will be two people running around with all Vibroman's memories of his wife, and thus his deep, heartfelt, romantic, and yes, very sexual love for her. Three if VM is still alive. V1 decides that the best way to deal with two of him suffering unrequited love is is to get drunk. And since V1a (as he christens his new best friend) will be feeling the same way he invites him. But only after he finishes redoing all the security for the team base, etc.

[Werehawk]

Re: WWYCD: <Your character>: The Clone Saga!!

 

Whiteraven: Her clone would be defeated by her teamates once she started talking since the real Whiteraven's throat was mangled externaly and Telios would have no knowledge of that.

 

Enforcer: Since all of his powers are derived from his multi-phasic armour, the only thing Telios would get out of this clone is a skilled astronaut with no knowledge of his Octagon masters.