Superpowers logistics question — body duplication / multiplication

grey228

#TeamSneed
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I'm sure someone will post a chatbot answer, but I'm looking for human input and human opinion on this ability / power:

BODY DUPLICATION / MULTIPLE MAN

Basically, you can make a duplicate of yourself. Sometimes you're mindlinked (Paratwa series) and sometimes you can make multiple bodies (Jamie Maddrox the Multiple Man from Marvel's X-Men).

I'm looking to write one up -- but I'm hung up on the logistics of duplication. I do not want to make a ton of naked clones (so I would need to feed/clothe/equip them individually); however, being able to duplicate clothing, and not other items held or worn (i.e., weapons, McGuffin, key plot items, etc.) does not make sense in the broader scheme of things.

It makes sense in a videogame or an RPG setting (magic; non-HERO point foci and items, etc.) but not "realistically" or even "quasi-realistically".

So far, I've a few ideas I'd like opinions on:

(1) Mirror Reflection - Duplicates what's seen in the reflection. This means once the outer garments or armor is removed, what's underneath is a non-skinned mesh model of nothingness (i.e., original reflection has sunglasses; the clone removing the glasses will not have eyes, but exhibit nothing since it was not reflected in the mirror during the duping process)

(2) 4th Dimensional Dupliction - Duplication occurs from the 4th dimension whereby the dulicate steps out from the original due to a different spatio-temporal outcome, choice, or event. This duplicates not only the individual, but everything he is in physical contact with at the time. Similar to Nicholas Cage's SFX heavy scene from the movie, Knowing.

(3) Psychic Duplication (options include body horror) - mentalist capable of we-writing other mundane people's minds, effectively, mentally cloning himself, but with a different body, but same mind (perhaps even a shared mind, like The Eight, from the Rob Lowe movie, The Specials). Optional body horror involves the possessed duplicate to break apart his skin and change into a clone of the original, like a Lovecraft movie with money for body horror SFX.

(4) Asexual budding, similar to The Substance (without a substance), and where there is no original per se to be destroyed. I'm taking a page from the Body Shifters series on Literotica for this one.

(5) Other means ???

If anyone has other means or comments for duplication, I'd like to hear it. This may be my magnum opus, if I decide to commit to it.

Thanks
 
I've always preferred the magical duplicates. Where everything on the body gets duplicated (But their magical effects cannot, and if items leave the body they evaporate.) and the duplicate only lasts for a set amount of time.
 
I've always preferred the magical duplicates. Where everything on the body gets duplicated (But their magical effects cannot, and if items leave the body they evaporate.) and the duplicate only lasts for a set amount of time.
Magic is an easy way out. I'm trying to merge this potential story into the Fade/Jumper crossover story I've written.

Oh, it's also the only crossover of those two franchises in existence as of this writing (and since 2011, when I first wrote it).
 
I saw your post and the movie Multiplicity came to mind. Don’t know if you’ve heard of it or not. Here’s the trailer
 
Magic is an easy way out. I'm trying to merge this potential story into the Fade/Jumper crossover story I've written.

Oh, it's also the only crossover of those two franchises in existence as of this writing (and since 2011, when I first wrote it).
Oh, well for sci-fy duplication I prefer for them to be formed naked, or with a set always the same outfit.
 
I saw your post and the movie Multiplicity came to mind. Don’t know if you’ve heard of it or not. Here’s the trailer
Multiplicity keeps the dupes from a science experiment, IIRC.

Not exactly what I'm shooting for (disposing of dead dupes is like acid bathing a body ....) since I'm going to have the guy so some illegal activities.

You are already dealing with magic...
Yeah. But I want Silver Age pseudo-science, instead of just outright destroying Newton's Laws of Thermodynamics outright.

I'm wondering if I should read over the STALKER RPG setting book for another go at this.
 
The science-fictional way to do it is with a really good scanner, that can scan your person at the level of individual molecules, and their clothing, too.

Then you have a really, really good 3D printer that can quickly assemble an exact molecule-by-molecule duplicate of both.

(Annie once pointed out to me that scanning like that would involve a huge amount of energy, vaporizing the original, but then you could run off as many copies as you wanted.)

-Rocco
 
The science-fictional way to do it is with a really good scanner, that can scan your person at the level of individual molecules, and their clothing, too.

Then you have a really, really good 3D printer that can quickly assemble an exact molecule-by-molecule duplicate of both.

(Annie once pointed out to me that scanning like that would involve a huge amount of energy, vaporizing the original, but then you could run off as many copies as you wanted.)

-Rocco
Need to dupe quickly, instead of waiting next to a Warframe Orbiter forge for 3 days or a CNC machine.

Thanks for the ideas Rocco, but I'm leaning towards the 4th dimensional approach. The problem for me is describing it. Might have to have the guy not be the narrator, since it complicates things.
 
For a scifi answer, what about a multiverse/quantum mechanics kinda deal, sort of like Everything Everywhere All At Once?

Your MM isn't creating duplicates of himself, rather he's briefly bringing other versions himself from another almost-but-not-quite-identical quantum universe into his universe. That's why they have the same clothes, same personality, same memories.

What happens to the other universe where the alt-version existed? And what happens to the alt-version after they "go away?" Maybe he just blinks back into existence in his home universe. Maybe he ceases to exist. Maybe his whole universe ceases to exist! It could either be harmless or kind of horrific :oops:

As an added twist, maybe he sometimes pulls an alt-version that is farther apart on the "multiverse-network," so the alt could be a little bit different (just a different outfit), or a lot different (very different life experiences, memory, personality, skills, etc.)
 
For a scifi answer, what about a multiverse/quantum mechanics kinda deal, sort of like Everything Everywhere All At Once?

Your MM isn't creating duplicates of himself, rather he's briefly bringing other versions himself from another almost-but-not-quite-identical quantum universe into his universe. That's why they have the same clothes, same personality, same memories.

What happens to the other universe where the alt-version existed? And what happens to the alt-version after they "go away?" Maybe he just blinks back into existence in his home universe. Maybe he ceases to exist. Maybe his whole universe ceases to exist! It could either be harmless or kind of horrific :oops:

As an added twist, maybe he sometimes pulls an alt-version that is farther apart on the "multiverse-network," so the alt could be a little bit different (just a different outfit), or a lot different (very different life experiences, memory, personality, skills, etc.)
I thought about that approach as well — Champions Superpowers, in fact touched briefly on having clones from the past/future come and help, which has me touching on another issue of instance of existence.

I'm not terribly keen on multiple dimensions or alternate realities (except the one I'm writing about) intruding on the primary universe where the story takes place.

Also, I have another character (based off of Roger Price's priceless Tomorrow People) who is essentially a character with "god mode" (or at least a fat ton of cheat codes) in life; however, in contrast with the multiple man, he can only be in one place at any one time whereas the multiple man can coordinate his many instances across the gulf of space (and maybe time, but that's only in regard to Einsteinian spacetime ... which is difficult to describe in layman's terms).

I see your point (I'm looking for a reliable 'power origin'). Maybe I should shelve this project for a while and work on another draft for a while, LOL.
 
Echo round his bones, Thomas M Disch. Published in 1967. I think I read a library copy.
The duplication takes place, but there is a side effect, a ghost if you like, left behind that is also alive.
 
The power could be limited to duplication of organic materials: the character's body, plus certain things he is wearing or carrying. A simple cotton robe or leather jacket would be replicable, but perhaps not any fasteners if it has zippers or the like, and maybe not the same color if it was dyed with minerals. A wooden cudgel could be copied, but not a knife or a gun. Heavily processed organic materials like plastics would probably also be off the table, although perhaps something that could be learned with practice.
 
The power could be limited to duplication of organic materials: the character's body, plus certain things he is wearing or carrying. A simple cotton robe or leather jacket would be replicable, but perhaps not any fasteners if it has zippers or the like, and maybe not the same color if it was dyed with minerals. A wooden cudgel could be copied, but not a knife or a gun. Heavily processed organic materials like plastics would probably also be off the table, although perhaps something that could be learned with practice.
Didn't think of that before, but polyester clothing an denim are a thing these days, so ...

That's a neat seed of an idea for duping though. I'll work on it some more.
 
The power could be limited to duplication of organic materials: the character's body, plus certain things he is wearing or carrying. A simple cotton robe or leather jacket would be replicable, but perhaps not any fasteners if it has zippers or the like, and maybe not the same color if it was dyed with minerals. A wooden cudgel could be copied, but not a knife or a gun. Heavily processed organic materials like plastics would probably also be off the table, although perhaps something that could be learned with practice.
Limiting to organic materials is a non-starter. Organic means that the molecule contains carbon. The same minerals that would be stripped out of clothing would be stripped out of the body. You are going to have a tough time with all the phosphorus and calcium removed from your body, among others.

This is why getting too detailed is a trap. It's magic and it works the way the plot needs it to work. Set some rules that don't depend on real-world physics or chemistry.
 
It's magic and it works the way the plot needs it to work. Set some rules that don't depend on real-world physics or chemistry.
Look, the dude was supposed to be in a setting with quasi-superpowers (Fade and Jumper books). I was thinking of adding Jean Lafayette (from Appointment with F.E.A.R.) but allowing s/he to use all four powers (super strength & flight, energy blasts, enhanced technical skill (Batman gadgeteering), and mental powers (chiefly telepathy), modeling the physical appearance after Ella/Jean Hollywood, and having sex with him/her.
 
Limiting to organic materials is a non-starter. Organic means that the molecule contains carbon. The same minerals that would be stripped out of clothing would be stripped out of the body. You are going to have a tough time with all the phosphorus and calcium removed from your body, among others.

This is why getting too detailed is a trap. It's magic and it works the way the plot needs it to work. Set some rules that don't depend on real-world physics or chemistry.
The definition is not limited to only carbon compounds. Perhaps certain chemists use it so narrowly, but it also refers to compounds produced biologically, such as bones or hair or luciferin, etc. In the context of the story, the character could duplicate anything his body produces, plus things that other animals and plants could produce (although perhaps only after practice). For a superpower story where it's desirable to have duplication powers without making naked clones, infinite ammo, extra phones, et cetera, I think it's a reasonably serviceable limitation.
There's a certain irony to suggesting that any rules for superpowers shouldn't rely on real science while also criticizing the one rule that was offered as being not-real science (and too detailed on top of that).
 
In the context of the story, the character could duplicate anything his body produces, plus things that other animals and plants could produce (although perhaps only after practice). For a superpower story where it's desirable to have duplication powers without making naked clones, infinite ammo, extra phones, et cetera, I think it's a reasonably serviceable limitation.
∞ poop. You were thinking it. I was thinking it. We all were thinking about it at one point.

Thanks man. That might be something workable ... but I have to go back and bash some skulls in over on another forum. BRB
 
There's a certain irony to suggesting that any rules for superpowers shouldn't rely on real science while also criticizing the one rule that was offered as being not-real science (and too detailed on top of that).
That's why I said not to get bogged down in the physics and chemistry of how it works. It works because the plot says it does, and because that's what kind of story it is.

You don't explain how your transformations work in your stories other than it's a device that does it. It's not important to the story to have super detailed technical explanations.
 
It's not important to the story to have super detailed technical explanations.
It's important to me (the author).

I'll evenly accept Compound V and Wotan's Blood (catalyst, from Über by Kieron Gillen), but it's in the process of the power activating where the issue of duplication (and my guy preferably clothed and/or equipped) that's the problem.


I'm guessing that's why there are so few stories with this underrepresented power in the mainstream comics.
 
The Faceless shapeshifters in my sci-fi/urban fantasy/superhero settings have the ability to alter their cellular structure on a layer-by-layer basis, so they can "shape" clothing or organic (chitinous/bone) armor out of their outermost layer. If the actual superpower is the duplication of the body, then you have two shapeshifters which can form clothing around themselves.
 
From one anime I liked but somehow can't remember the name of: one character duplicates herself by taking slivers of moments and bringing them all into synchronicity, comes with the added benefit of every clone acting with the same objectives right off the bat. As a time-based ability, works fairly well for a psychic/tech setting.
 
The only "realistic" way to have the duplicates is to ignore reality, I think.

It turns out your protagonist is a simulation, living in a simulated reality, like the Simulation Hypothesis.

In that case, the "one level of reality higher" people can just pause the sim and modify it to include copies of
Duplication Man.

-Annie
 
It's important to me (the author).

I'll evenly accept Compound V and Wotan's Blood (catalyst, from Über by Kieron Gillen), but it's in the process of the power activating where the issue of duplication (and my guy preferably clothed and/or equipped) that's the problem.


I'm guessing that's why there are so few stories with this underrepresented power in the mainstream comics.
I get you. In my sci-fi series, I created a method of amplifying faster than light travel. It assumes that FTL is possible and then goes from there. My point is, once you broach the basic idea that duplication is possible, the how doesn't have to be possible, it just has to be consistently explainable, and you get to decide what that means.
 
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