Child's Play |OPEN|

     It almost went without saying that Morgan was intrigued by the way Lon's power was described. He was so easily interested in how other people's powers worked, especially since he'd had hardly any exposure to powers other than his own before coming to Foresta. "I really hope you don't decide to kill yourselves," Morgan said, trying to keep the worry out of his voice. He was sure that his powers didn't extend to healing mortal wounds, at least not without proper training. "I'm not sure if it works the same way for you as it does for everyone else, but I'd still be pretty upset if you went all kamikaze on me."

    He frowned again, getting sidetracked. "How does being a clone work anyways? Do you just look like the original or do you all think in the same way? Or do you just appear to be physically the same? Are you minds actually different?"

The three’s attention went back to Morgan as he displayed his objection toward the idea of killing themselves. The Lon clones agreed with that and only mentioned it earlier as an option, but still death was not something Lon’s clones were too particularly afraid of since there was basically no consequence for them to do so. “Well, when the clones die nothing is lost but memory. So it doesn’t really matter, we all still technically live if Lon lives” one of them tried to explain to her. “It’s a bit complicated to understand.”

They all gazed at each other curiously as Morgan continued to ask questions on him their cloning power worked. “ We are all the exact same as the original Lon, same way of thinking, speaking, and looks. It sometimes seems like we all think differently because sometimes certain clones have a better mindset and clearer way of thinking. Other times it can be the opposite. It’s sorta like when normal people have their off days and good days, like one day a person can feel like they can do anything and another day it takes them a minute to figure out what two plus two equals.” After his long winded explanation, the Lon clone began to wonder whether or not everything he had said made any sense to Morgan. Even when he glanced back at his cloned brethren he noticed they weren’t paying attention and instead playing rock paper scissors.

    Morgan nodded along as Lon tried to explain to him how his power worked, although it sounded a little like the clones had slightly differing personalities than the original, which made sense when you thought about it. People had shifting moods and different tendencies form day to day, so why couldn't clones. Although Morgan had to admit that the two other two clones playing what he assumed was rock paper scissors was a little bit distracting.

    But, as always, he still had questions. "So, are you al technically different people while you're separated then? And if all of the memories you have go back to the original do your injuries go back to him as well?" Morgan couldn't help but slide the injuries thing in there, healing was his specialty after all.

Again, the one clone paid close attention to what Morgan was asking. He obviously had more patience to stop and talk than the other two did considering that they were trying to occupy themselves as best as they could. At least it allowed for the one clone to clearly explain everything without being cut off by another one of them trying to chime in and make their answers more jumbled and more difficult to understand.

“Slightly different people, we still share the same interests, personality, and memories, just different moods” he corrected Morgan. “And we only give the original Lon the memories, anything physical doesn’t transfer over. Although, he would be able to remember the pain of it, almost feeling like he experienced it. The only pain that we could ever cause him is if we don’t return to him before he’s asleep. The next morning he’ll have a bad headache, which I think transfers towards all the clones as well. Depending on how many don’t return to him he’ll have a worse headache, the worst we’ve ever experienced was when three of us didn’t return. The next day was the worst we’ve ever felt, we couldn’t even imagine how bad losing five of us would be.”

    "That sounds...dangerous." Morgan said, a crease appearing between his eyebrows as they scrunched together. "You'd have to be really sure that an area was safe or that you're clones you be capable of handling themselves before cloning." He shrugged then.

    "But I guess I can't really say much about that. It's not like my power is anything like that. All I do is heal people. That's it." He frowned, wondering what it would be like to have a more noticeable power, or even one that would be useful in battle. He wasn't sure he could handle it, but it would be pretty neat to feel useful even when people weren't hurt. He sighed wistfully. "So what were you guys doing out here anyways? It's pretty far from the school."

“There’s never really been an occasion where we’ve felt it was too dangerous for us. Lon makes us every morning, almost like an early morning routine, so there’s no danger during that time. We also always stay in groups so we’re able to handle ourselves pretty well.” The other two Lon clones took a break from their game and glanced over at the two surprised that they were still just talking. They began to eye the crowded streets again planning out something to do to entertain themselves.

“Yeah that’s a pretty boring power” one of them butted in to the conversation. “It still saves lives” the other one defended. “It does, but without any fancy flare, there’s no super hero that just heals people” the other one rebutted. “Yeah, but not every person with powers has to be a super hero” the clone defended once more.

The Lon that Morgan had been talking to glared at the other two as they began their argument. He shook his head and returned his attention to the older boy. “As we said before, the real Lon is back at the school learning the layout of it right now, we’re here to get a reference for what the town looks like, you know, like multi-tasking so that we can explore the port and the school on the same day.”

    Morgan had a terrible time trying to hide his bemused expression as he watched the other two clones argue about his power. He only wished he was actually capable of saving lives, that would make him feel a little better about having such a dull power. He returned his attention to the Lon clone he was originally talking to.

    "Huh, that's such a useful, ah, application of your power." Morgan admitted. "How long have you actually been at the school, anyways?" He looked around at the area again, hoping that the vendors from earlier wouldn't try to harass him with sale offers again if he tried to go to the Marketplace.

“Really, we don’t even know how people can live their lives differently. We probably wouldn’t even know half of the things we do now without our ability” the clone explained simply. He hadn’t really considered how life would be like without his powers before, it was a thought that would’ve never really crossed his mind or any other of the Lons’ minds until now. It did seem like a very surreal thought in his mind since he was so accustomed to living with five other versions of himself.

“We’ve been here for a couple of days now, in fact we haven’t even finished unpacking our stuff just yet” he answered as he just remembered that unpacking was still a task they had to finish. “We’ll probably get to that soon I think.”

Once the other two clones had finished their bickering amongst each other, they once again returned their vision back to the village square. Eventually they both spotted an ice cream vendor wheeling his cart around. They both looked at each other wide-eyed as they began to shuffle through their pockets. They had nothing and at that moment they both clung to the sides of the other clone. They both knew that if they didn’t have money then the third clone wouldn’t have any money, so instead they both quietly asked him at the same time. “Can you ask Morgan if he has any money for ice cream?”

The third Lon sighed as he looked alternated his head to look at the both of them. “You guys don’t even need to eat” he explained to them as though they should know that already. “We know, but we can still taste…”

    It was amusing to watch the clones, Morgan had to admit. He had almost forgotten that they were just kids, despite the whole thing with their powers. It was refreshing to see them, especially since Morgan knew he'd never really had a chance to be as childish as that. Having powers usually matured a kid fast, what with all of the persecution and dangers that it brought along. Pushing away his thoughts, Morgan grinned at them, fishing a gleaming piece of plastic from his pockets and one thin leather wallet. "Well, does the ice cream guy have to take cash? Because I did happen to swipe a credit card from my mom before I left. There's cash in the wallet if you need it." He decided not to mention that the wallet wasn't exactly his either, but it only had twenty dollars in it anyways. It had been given to him by a trucker in Georgia, which was quite a long story in and of itself.

    He tossed the wallet and the card to one of the clones, turning back to the one he'd originally been talking to. "I don't mind. It's not really mine anyways."

The three of them watched in awe as Morgan pulled out a credit card. It was like he had pulled a block of gold out of his pocket. Credit cards were like an endless supply of money, which by all means was more than they had themselves. As though they had a hive mind, they all began to day-dream of how many comic books that would buy them, it was more than they could ever comprehend. “Whoa, you got a credit card?” one of them asked in astonishment.

The clone that caught the treasures held them with pride, like he caught the ball that won their favourite team the game at a Baseball event. His eyes glowed as his jaw fell out of its place. He quickly searched the wallet only finding twenty dollars resting in it. He looked back up to the older boy with a very humble look to his face. “You sure about this? That’s a lot of money” the boy questioned.

The other clone was gazing over the shoulder of the one who caught the credit card, he shared the same bewilderment as the other one had. Though, his shifted upwards with a quizzical look on his face. “Wait, don’t we need some kind of password or something to use this thing?” he quizzed the older boy.

The other clone was questioning in his head what Morgan meant by it wasn’t his. He didn’t say anything just yet since his clones had already bombarded him with their inquiries, but he had some suspicions of his own.

    The look on their faces made it totally worth it, Morgan mused. It was nice to see them happy rather than, well, aggressively attacking someone. He smiled at them. "I'm sure. It's fine." And then he frowned, trying to remember the pin code for the credit card. It wasn't too hard...He was sure he knew it. "As for the pin number for the card, uh, hang on. I think it starts with a five?"

    After about a minute of trying to recall the password, Morgan remembered that he'd actually written it down. "Oh! I wrote it down on the inside of the wallet!" He pointed to the corner where he'd written the numbers 5604 in black marker. It was kind of hard to see the numbers on the dark leather of the wallet, but now that he knew they were there they were pretty hard to miss. 

    

The clone with the wallet began to search all over the leather fabric in an attempt to find the pin number. The one next to him tried to help by pointing at the wallet and asking “did you check there?” constantly to where Lon’s face began to express how annoyed he was with the other one. When he finally spotted it he pointed to it with his finger “I found it, so stop trying to help me!” he finished with a tad bit of flustered tone. “Thanks Morgan” the other clone said as they readied themselves to chase after the vendor before he wheeled off with his cart.

Before either one of them could take more than a step the last of the clones stopped them. “Wait, that’s not his money to lend” Lon alerted them “he even said himself that it wasn’t his money, nor is that his credit card.” The two clones looked at each other with befuddlement. “So?” they both questioned simultaneously. “He stole those, stealing is wrong” he informed, sounding a bit like an after school special. “Which means Morgan’s a thief!” one of them deduced as he hid the wallet and the credit card from the older boy’s sight.

The three clones were quick to turn against their comrade, but he admitted to being a criminal and none of the Lons liked criminals. They all glared at the boy as they quickly thought up a strategy of what they should do with their new knowledge. “Lon, you go turn in the wallet to the authorities, me and other Lon with keep Morgan off your tail” the ringleader of the Lons ordered. Soon afterwards, the Lon with the wallet scurried back into the crowds of the square while the other two prepared a stance to take action if Morgan were to make a sudden movement.