metaheroes | Our Powers | Video

[Kon is up on a roof. He props his phone up on a chimney and steps back after hitting record. He's in costume, as Guardian, his domino mask obscuring his features. No S anymore. The detachment from the S means a detachment from his face, something the Alliance has video of that can be used in facial recognition]

[Robin's paranoid about this. The least he can do is maintain that distance from his identity as Superboy, even if people from home will recognize him.]

I've spent the last few months debating talking about this, and thinking about how I'd talk about it if I did, and whether I'd only just mention it in passing sometimes, or actually call attention to it. I don't know for sure if it'll help or hurt. Or if it'll matter at all, but hey, at least if everyone just ignores it, that's better than it being a disaster, right?

[Time to stop waffling.]

I'm Guardian and I'm a clone. For a lot of people back home, and a lot of other Starfallen, that won't even matter. For a lot of people from this world, it might not either. But to some people back home, it did. Sometimes I had to fight for my right to be my own person and fight to not be controlled.

Hell, I'm pretty sure the US government still classifies me as unrecoverable [air quotes] "defective property." Their words.

Anyway, I did some digging and this world's track record with clones? Not great. Even heroes like Atomight have made mistakes - killed clones like they don't matter. I've been told he's one of the last people around the Alliance from that era - and that he realized his mistake and has tried to do right by clones since. And I won't say I don't believe it. I do think people can change.

But I've also dug around and found out there are plenty of people that see no problem with what he and the other heroes of that time did and would have no problem with anyone doing it again now. They see clones as soulless or dangerous or incapable of actually thinking and feeling. As if non-clones have a trademark on being controlled, brainwashed, or manipulated.

[He puts his hands on his hips.]

Whatever the case, I'm stuck dealing with this world as it is. That includes whether or not I want to hide what I am - which I don't - and whether or not I want to go guild - also a big fat no. There are people besides the Starfallen in the Alliance and I can't trust them to not throw me under the bus the first time it's convenient on a mission because they think I'm not alive enough to feel the treads.

[Someone shallow like Fantastic seems the type.]

But instead of just going Unaligned and being quiet about it, I wanted to make it clear I'm actually conscientiously objecting and why. This may not be my world but I'm stuck living in it and the fact some parts of it don't feel safe for me to live in needs to be called out. Because I can't be the only clone that feels that way.

As for any Starfallen who have no issues with clones, I'd really appreciate if you look out for the clones here. I'm gonna try - always have - but I can't be everywhere at once. [He looks skyward, thinking.] I think that's all I wanted to say? Um, I guess if anyone has questions about clone stuff, AMA? Anon's enabled.

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Unfortunately, sometimes they just get used as cannon fodder and then you know when you see them all at once.

Or they say they're clones, and just don't realize they're being used by someone. There were three clones I knew that were my enemies but realized they were being mistreated and were on the same side by the end of what we were dealing with. They just outright said what they were.

[He crosses his arms.]

A project with the government also cloned one of my mentors after he died. Like, the second time, because the first time they did it to someone who's my mentor now, that created me.

My mentor was a clone, so they didn't see any problems disrespecting his wishes and cloning him again, even though he'd always said he didn't want it if he died. The new clone was a baby when I found him and he aged super fast into an adult. They implanted memories he started to remember as he got older. They were trying to use him to create a whole army of clones, and I had to keep him away from them.

Some people didn't understand. They were told I stole some kind of government asset and...it was just a mess.

But he was a baby. And then a little kid.

That's how evil it gets. Sometimes people will be so evil about it, it'll just be super obvious they don't even think it's wrong enough to hide.

[That's. That's a lot. That's a lot. Why is everything here so complicated?]

[But there's a bottom line here that he's pretty sure he's nailed.]

so unless there's a bunch of them together, if no one else knows and they don't say anything, then there's no way to tell

we just need to look out for the ones who tell people

[Like this guy. He sounds like he knows what he's doing, but that's not going to stop Huvrye from keeping an eye out for him anyway.]

Yeah.

Or if we see some together at the same time that seem like they're being mistreated, try to see if we can get them to talk and accept help.

In my world, it was the government. But it sounds like in this world it was supervillains that did some shady clone stuff. A lot of the superheroes try to incapacitate instead of kill. All they'd have to do is keep doing things that way if some clones got thrown at them.

Instead of treating them like they're more disposable.

I'm just trying to make sure people don't flip the switch off on "Hey, this is a person."

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Re: anon

anon unless otherwise noted

no subject