Death in Sindome PART DEUX
It's not about one person.

There is an epidemic lately of players deciding that their characters would suicide, for some benefit to their next clone.

Are you really RPing like your character has this kind of brass and disregard for the self preservation instinct? Guess what, they don't.

Are you really RPing like your character is motivated by the kind of heroism which motivates people to go on suicide missions for the good of others? Guess what, they don't.

Are you really RPing like clone-suicide is actually likely to benefit your character's next clone and change the IC situation? Guess what, if I see this, and I don't feel like the motivation and courage is plausible, it will make the IC situation worse, not better.

The human instinct for self preservation and avoiding self harm is the strongest one there is. If I don't think your character has the force of will to do what you're making them do, it's an IC and an OOC issue which will be addressed ICly. Have fun with that.

When I was maybe 19 or 20, I was motivated to rip off my roommate who had fronted me some drugs and I was supposed to sell them and give him the money. I didn't want to pay back, and I had actually already spent the money, so I decided I'd fake a robbery. I wrapped half a brick in a towel and tried to beat myself about the eye with it to look like my story was legit.

I couldn't do it.

I just *could not make myself* hit myself in the eye with a brick. Not for a stupid shitty reason like this, anyway. Not even considering what was likely to happen when my drug dealer roommate found out I had ripped him off. If someone else brings it, that's one thing, but willing oneself to self harm can't happen without some pretty extreme motivation, and "beating someone else to it" isn't a strong motivator.

I know what's likely to come up. We're likely to hear about how there are people who manage to self harm IRL all the time. There are people who manage to suicide IRL all the time.

These are not arguments to support the IC decision to deliberately die and walk off happy in a new clone. People who achieve those things IRL are motivated by much more than... [[the IC reasons I've been seeing]] and the people who achieve this IRL are not capable of acting on some of the IC reasons I've been seeing.

If you RP sending your character into certain death, and it looks like they're doing it for convenience, or if they don't have a RP track record which makes it look like they're capable of world-saving heroism, or if they aren't ICly suicidal from depression, or if they aren't ICly neurotic from ongoing suffering, I just don't see the themeliness or the realism in a RP decision like this.

If the cloning 'safety net' existed IRL, I don't believe it would positively impact the will to overcome visceral gut instinct against acting against one's own health and very life, because the instinct is (as I said elsewhere) is 3d6 orders of magnitude stronger than any intellectual consideration.

If anyone wants to hear how the RL drugdeal story went, I'll tell it.

Even with clones and knowing you'll likely come back, one might be upset and in a way, joke about it, but not really honestly consider it.

Also, as a player, I abhor that some people are so flippant with suicide in game. It's upsetting, especially if it gets splattered all over sic. Would you be so flippant in real life? A very good majority of people wouldn't.

I do understand it happens, but do consider RP-wise, how the character you're playing would actually handle the situation. The character has a life of it's own and goals as well as ideals and how they conduct themselves in life.

On another note, if you haven't read up on part one, here you go:

http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/theme/killing-off-your-character-127/

https://web.archive.org/web/20090523055101/http://www.sindome.org/thescroll/

The archive link has a few posts. Scroll down to Three Ways to Die.

Furthermore, people have their ass kicked and act like they still can argue with their assailant... To the point they need to be killed to 'get' the lesson...

"When I was maybe 19 or 20, I was motivated to rip off my roommate who had fronted me some drugs and I was supposed to sell them and give him the money. I didn't want to pay back, and I had actually already spent the money, so I decided I'd fake a robbery. I wrapped half a brick in a towel and tried to beat myself about the eye with it to look like my story was legit."

"I couldn't do it. I just *could not make myself* hit myself in the eye with a brick."

"If anyone wants to hear how the RL drugdeal story went, I'll tell it."

So what happened?

Many (like 20) attempts to get my arm swinging toward my own face, only resulted in me managing to tap myself on the upper edge of my cheekbone near the corner of my eye. Completely painless because I just couldn't will myself to bash it any harder. But 20 light bonks on the cheekbone near the corner of my eye must have mashed a whole bunch of capillaries, accumulatively, because three hours later someone asked me what the HOLY SHIT FUCK had happened to my FACE. I had the most incredible black eye I've ever had in my life, before or since, and one of the top three most intense ones I've ever seen on anyone, ever.

I wasn't aware I had it, even when my friend told me I had a shiner, so I protested and denied it, he thought I was just playing dumb and actually backed up my story to my drugdealer roommate later: "Dude, he totally didn't want to admit to getting beat up and ripped off." So I fooled him long enough to get myself out of town.

What happened after that was, I tried hitchhiking somewhere else, had no money, got arrested trying to sell even more drugs in a city I had never been in before, and wound up spending three weeks in jail (couldn't afford any bail) in a state I had never been in before, and this was the result of my brilliant idea.

All's well that ends well: I don't do stuff like that anymore :)

Hope you enjoyed the story.

Why does Genetek let DCD happen if they won't let mistakes happen in cloning? If things like DCD are able to slip past their QA processes, why would much more trivial mistakes on clones like a small difference in height somehow be not possible?

Now I'm not attempting to start any argument or anything like that but look at plausibility. If your DNA can get so degraded to the point that it literally begins to unravel in a way that is not repairable by Genetek, would it not make sense that before you get to the stage of such unstable DNA small weird quirks might pop up? Freckle on the wrong side, middle finger slightly shorter than pinky finger, lost a half an inch. Splash of grey through otherwise normal brown hair? These would be "early warning signs" of degraded DNA, as the imperfect DNA would not be repairable that has caused the change. If it was, why wouldn't they just keep your DNA at tip top shape so it could never slip into DCD?

"Degenerative disease is the result of a continous process based on degenerative cell changes, affecting tissues or organs will increasingly deteriorate over time, whether due to normal bodily wear or lifestyle choices such as exercise or eating habits"

It is something that takes time and while it can be seen on a number of cells on your body, so do cancer cells sprout every once in a while. While this doesn't mean you have cancer, it also doesn't mean you have DCD. Those cells usually get destroyed by the body's own immune system. Only when something goes out of control it gets serious.

Since ICly the rate is under 0.01% of activated clones this isn't a real issue for Genetek and is under its error margin. It also is considered a degenerative disease (see above) that is triggered by different issues during the cloning process. Since there is also a treatment they scan you for a high number of mutated cells and give a report on every cloning.

But cases of wrong height, becoming mute/deaf/blind aren't in the error margin and shouldn't be roleplayed. The clone is a healthy copy of your scanned data with optional scar and tattoo permanence. The only point where it fails today is the 0.01% of cases where DCD is developed by the host and the next clone activation brings the illness full strength.