Mystery's Book of Awoken Bullshit

(Art+Facts) Atmosphere's PDVII Clones

I did a redraw of an old drawing of Hide's Mystery clones.

Media other that the cover picture hasn't been showing up for me lately, but here's the original:

(Please tell me if it shows up properly)

One thing I realized after I drew it, was that I forgot that these clones actually have paws instead of hooves, but the original picture was drawn before I decided on that detail and I used it for a reference, so I guess I have an excuse??

Anyways, I thought I'd give some facts about these guys, since they weren't really explored in the book too much.

Let's start with how the PDVII works.

You input DNA, and the DNA is injected into stem cells that are grown into new creatures. If you put in one straight sample of DNA, you get the same thing out (for example, 021 was an exact copy of Mystery's DNA). If you put in multiple samples of DNA, the output is a hybrid. This is how Hide was able to create the pony-dog mixes. However, depending on what animals you breed together, in this case, ponies and dogs, the output can be unstable, causing the extra aggression. A species like this would not be able to survive for long if let out into the wild, but within the confined walls of the train station base, they did alright.

I suppose I should also explain how the shoulder numbers work too. 021 was the 021st clone in her batch, as you can probably guess. Each clone is labeled with the number to make identification easier (because every single output is genetically the same, and there's literally no other way to tell them apart).

Every time you put in a new DNA sample, you start a new 'batch' of clones. That being said, 021 was the 021st clone of Mystery's ordinary DNA batch. When Hide created the hybrids, a new one was started, meaning that there's also a 021 hybrid clone. When Hide cloned himself as a decoy, it was most likely labeled 001.

Since each clone is born from scratch, none of them have memories. They haven't lived the same life as the ponies that they got their DNA from, and therefore they have the ability to gain a different personality. Mystery has plenty of life experience, and she's fed up with all of it, making her standoffish and untrusting. 021 only lived for a week before she was found by Mystery, and during that time, she was tortured and chained up. She never really knew what was going on, which was why she shied away from everyone else and was a little jumpy when it came to violence. Likewise, Hide was a genius, but Hide's clone didn't have any of his knowledge. Hide was pretty disgusted by this.

The clones are even worse on that front. Since their DNA is unstable, they don't have much of a brain. They don't have the ability to speak or listen to what anyone else has to say. They are, however, very, very aggressive, and this is where they get their appearance from.  They're so vicious that they feel the need to attack anything in their path, including eachother. Hide kept them all locked in the same small space, and because these things are pretty territorial, they ended up ripping eachother apart trying to find a space of their own. He also didn't bother feeding them, which didn't help any. That's why they have the zombie-like appearance.

They also don't have the capability to feel pain or fear, which is why their injuries don't slow them down. They'll keep going until they physically can't live anymore (they'd have to bleed out, or have fatally damaged organs such as the heart, lungs, or brain).

They also have wings, but are flightless. Most of them were actually damaged or torn off by the time they got released into the train station, but either way, their wings wouldn't have been functional even if they attempted to fly.

They can't see very well either (which is to be expected considering the look of their eyes) and rely more on hearing and sense of smell to find their way around. They can see a little bit of light and shadow, so movement is easier for them to follow than something standing still.

I think that's basically it, and I really hope I haven't forgotten anything?? But anyways if you enjoyed this type of thing, tell me in the comments and I can do one for the Prototypes too. My science-nerd side has fun with it.