[OPEN LOG--Bring in the clones!]

[npc_kun]

Characters: Everyone! Anyone! And their little clones, too.
Date/Time: March 26 - April 4
Location: Anywhere in the Sphere!
Rating: PG 13 for possible clone killing (and subject to change).
Summary: Strange, docile, oddly helpful versions of the people you know are wandering around the Sphere. Hey, doesn't that one look like your friend? Your

Comments

March 28th? Sometime.

[grab_my_bells]

Deciding it was safer to not bother it, Bell had casually and cautiously trailed the clone around the house. (Clone, right. Aside from his clothing and a general assumption of what he looked like (and it was easy to generalize Bell’s looks since not much showed), the being acted nothing like him. It was an extremely unskilled replica and someone needed to research their target better).

At first the creature had proved harmless enough, even if it did have mysterious access to the house. It washed the windows, cleaned the counters in the kitchen, reorganized the fridge…it even cleaned the toilet. If Bell wasn’t so suspicious of the thing’s purpose, he might have welcomed his clone-maid, dressed it up in something kinky, and set it loose in the house. It was almost fun to watch robotic-him do menial tasks.

Almost. This version was more robotic than the true Bell. Talking to it proved fruitless. It would say what it was doing, ask if it was being useful, but little else. Bell wondered if the maid was sent to spy on them, but figured the Tree did well enough with that on its own. Its purpose, it seemed, was only to clean and be helpful.

It stopped being helpful after a while.

The clone rearranged Bell’s bookshelf, much to his annoyance, but books could always be arranged back where they belong later. When it made the bed, it put Bell’s pillow on Gai’s side and vice versa. Though the clone re-stacked some notebooks, it didn’t appear to remove or destroy anything. It seemed not to care what it was cleaning, just so things were clean.

Then it noticed the dogs.

Tenzou had been following Clone-Bell around for over an hour now, sniffing and inspecting the clone and the things the clone touched. Kirameku had hidden herself under the couch, while Leaf watched from a more moderate distance, as per his nature. The dogs knew something was amiss and that the clone might be a threat, but showed surprising restraint by not barking or attacking it while it went about its business.

But the boys changed their policy when the clone tried to corral Kirameku into the bathroom for a bath and picked her up by the scruff of her neck to carry her when she refused to budge. Pack instinct took over, and the two boys barked dangerously at the man who was threatening their pack-mate. Kirameku yowled. Bell, torn over letting his pampered and soft housedogs lunge at an unknown enemy…or lunging at the clone himself, held tightly to Tenzou’s collar.

With a blank and almost plastic smile, one that reminded Bell all too well of someone he couldn't even remember, the clone calmly looked down at the noisy dogs. It was unshaken by the cacophony around it. A strange dust filled the air.

The last thing Bell heard from his dogs was more of Tenzou’s alarmed barking and a whimper from Kirameku as Leaf crouched down beside him.

By the time Gai returned home from work, Bell was asleep in a cocoon somewhere up in the Tree, the dogs were tied up and locked out in the front yard, and a clone of his partner was busy at work in the house.