Daemons and doppelgangers: How do you talk about it?

[newredshoes]

One thing we know in a rock-solid way about daemons is their singularity. Every daemon is unique to its joined person, every one settled in a form uniquely suited to that person's metaphysical makeup. In the HDM universe and in other canons with singly-occurring characters, this makes for crossover potential virtually without a hitch

Comments

Unsettled daemons

[lienne]

This would mesh nicely with the whole "no sex" bit, and also to some extent allow for the impersonation (the daemon would be able to mimic the original's). I think it's pretty clear that daemons settle at or near sexual maturity, and since it's also pretty clear that The Island clones are kept artificially sexually immature, it's not much of a leap to go with unsettled. This is fun because now you get to decide whether the daemon will eventually settle into the same form as the original, a different one, or whether it depends on other factors. Say, if you clone someone and immediately let them go out into the world and mature, the settled daemon will probably be the same as the original's; if you clone someone and keep them unsettled for ten years, but let them develop and have their own experiences normally other than forced sexual immaturity, perhaps they have a greater chance of settling into something other than the original's daemon species. Or you could even call it the opposite way around, and say that the daemon will settle into a form representing the basic unformedness and blank-slate-itude**** of the clone if they're released immediately, whereas if you give them time to grow they'll grow into a person with the same daemon type as the original^.

Really, though, the unsettled-daemon option is more or less an intriguingly flavoured waypoint on the road to the same daemon/different daemon discussion. Yes, it betokens the idea that the clone is free to develop into someone like or unlike the original... but you can just as easily turn that around and say that they won't, that the basic sketch of a personality isn't as limiting as it looks, and the clone's daemon is going to settle into the same species as the original's despite the fact that the clone has the potential to end up a very different person from the original. Again, much like The Island says that genes don't make you who you are, I say that a rudimentary impression of your personality traits doesn't make you who you are. For every McGonagall there is a Pettigrew, sort of thing. Or on the other side of the coin you could say the clone has complete freedom of personality and their daemon will settle into whatever animal reflects that personality best. I'm going to say that this is actually much likelier than having the daemon settle right off into an animal not that of the original, but I do think both are potentially valuable paths to travel.