Application - MoM

[schwanengesang]

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Rachel Duncan
CHARACTER AGE: 30
SERIES: Orphan Black
CHRONOLOGY: After episode 7 season 4.
CLASS: Hero, but only acts like it for her own benefit and will probably be doing very heroic things.
HOUSING: Housed alone. I’m open to her being anywhere.

BACKGROUND:

Orphan Black is set mostly in the modern world, albeit science and technology far more. Most prominent of these advances would be human cloning which has started since the mid 1980s. Mostly overseen and controlled by multinational corporations and/or the military. The story follows Sarah Manning, a clone that managed to slip away from the system and remain unmonitered for years, that is until she finds herself tangled up in the mess after seeing someone that looks exactly like her jump in front of a train.

“I feel like the whole thing would have been very clinical, every aspect of her life totally controlled….raised without any emotional attachments to be the perfect corporate leader.”

Rachel Duncan is the the only female clone we know of that was self aware since childhood. Her parents were both scientists, which she later discovers were behind creating her, and her fellow “sisters”. She grew up with a normal childhood, unaware for most of her formative years, living in Cambridge with loving parents. That is until one day her father decided to take her down to the lab with him, due to no available nannies. It didn’t last very long before she was kicked out due to her mother’s and Leekie’s (another fellow scientist) disapproval. It would ruin the experiment, if she was aware, after all. That was when she encountered the first of many clones she’ll come face to face with, a girl that looked exactly like her, her name was Veera Suominen. But their encounter was cut short when a fire started in the lab that supposedly killed of both of her parents, and she was pulled away from the flames by Leekie.

“You know, she would’ve been raised totally self-aware and that sense of being the only self-aware clone might’ve created a very profound sense of narcissism. She probably thinks that she’s elite.”

She was then taken in by Leekie, was told of the truth of her creation, told that she was the “lucky” one, that she wasn’t just a lab rat, she had power and knowledge. Although she later discovered that Veera was alive, although heavily burnt, she held great resentment towards her, hating her for being alive instead of her parents. Leekie was quick to notice and drill in the thought of her being superior to the rest, that she should pity the rest for not knowing anything about their existence. He did a good job.

She knew of her infertility from a young age, and it was yet another thing pulled away from her. Leekie consoled her, telling her that there were other options for her. She was told of the other clones families, that they adopted and had loving families.

“A child raised by Neolution”.

Flash forward several years later, she’s been molded into the perfect corporate pawn for Dyad, and most importantly, Neolution. That’s when she hears a familiar name in a board meeting, Veera. There was an uproar of the clones in Europe, and Rachel being completely blinded by hate wanted to burn it all down. Erase them completely. It didn’t take long before she orchestrated her perfect plan, Helsinki, using Ferdinand as her perfect pawn to get what she wanted. She wasn’t shy of using sex as a display of dominance, a power play of sorts, easily purswaying him to do what she wants. Which was death to the clone that lived instead of her parents, and to the other lab rats that thought they could get away with disobedience.

“To new heights…. and dark depths, under my lock and key, which you've earned, Bijou.”

Although Leekie did his best to keep her away from Topside, from the inner workings of Leda and Neolution, she fought her way to power. To control. She knew they kept secrets from her, and she wasn’t going to accept it. To match her new found sense of superiority and individuality was a simple hairstyle change, dyed completely blond, far from the dark brunette her genetics forced onto her. Such lied to Ferdinand telling him that Veera was abusive towards her when she would caringly go to visit her after her parents death, emotionally manipulating the man to make sure he does what she wants. Which he does, giving her confirmation of all of their deaths, in 24 hours they managed to kill off all the clones and their close relatives and friends.

“My name is Rachel Duncan, and we are going to come to terms”.

Flash forward to modern day, Sarah Manning and her ilk are causing their own mischief. With another unknown clone on the loose killing them off one by one. It would be easy to start Helsinki again, kill them all off. But this time it’s different, Sarah has a child. One of them was fertile. She tries to negotiate with Sarah, which fails, and she settles with trying to take the child by force. Only to find them nowhere to be found. Needless to say she was enraged.

(The rest of her canon history up until season 3 episode 6 can be found here. I’ll be continuing the rest until her canon point in game.)

During a check up in the Lab with Delphine and Scott, she noticed a book “The Island of Doctor Moreau”, and shares a look with Scott, indicating she knows about it. She lies about wanting to play a board game with Scott in front of Delphine, to get time alone with him and the book. She gets time with away from Delphine, and Scott promptly starts setting up the board, as a cover up for their time together.

“My book.” “But your father didn’t leave it for you, did he? He killed himself instead.”

Cosima and the rest of “clone club” come to the realization that the book could carry the cure of their illness, but they needed Rachel’s help in decoding the book. But she uses this to her advantage, and agrees to decoding the book if they steal Krystal’s identity and bring her out of Dyad. Proclaiming she wants to live a quiet life in Taiwan.

When Rudy (of of the Castor clones) shows up looking for the book, and successfully steals it, Delphine blames Rachel, telling her she should've let her die. That’s when they start their escape mission, making it out of Dyad and to Sarah’s place to decode the book. They had a copy, which Delphine knew about but kept her knowledge a secret. But it’s cut short when Nealon and a couple of others from Dyad come to take her away, pulling the book away from her and she fakes a seizure.

Unbeknownst to all of them, she was plotting all of this with Nealon and he manages to get her out of the country, into surgery to replace her damaged eye and make her disappear completely from Dyad.

Although she wakes up in a completely unknown place, and is later met by a younger clone, Charlotte, which tells her she’s going to be her new mom. Only to discover her mother is alive, and she welcomes her home.

She’s shown getting a check up on her eye by Ira (a castor clone) and pigment treatment to make her eye look normal again. Later she’s shown going through physical therapy, to lessen the effects of her brain injury and mentions she has no access to the internet when Charlotte talks about her online courses. Only to be asked about Adams rib, but before the discussion can continue Susan walks into the room and Rachel greets her by telling her to go the hell.

She’s later forced into a dinner with her mother and Ira, and after she chastises her mother for not finding the original her mother tells her that Charlotte was cloned from her. Which brought light to Charlotte's question about Adams rib.

Although she didn’t have access to the internet, she managed to get Charlotte to send out a message to Ferdinand, asking him to help her. There were always cameras on her, but she managed to work around it. While they were painting she raised the canvas and paints “Did you get my my message out?” and Charlotte quickly paints a response back “yes”. Right after this Charlotte coughs up blood, and Rachel immediately shows concern.

Later we seen Rachel in bed and Susan consoling her, for abandoning her, letting Leekie raise her and leaving her to Topside and Dyad. Susan started to explain that she wanted to be her mother but she had to cut the cord, for the sake of Neolution and the greater good. Telling her that their greater good and purpose what to control human evolution and create a perfect human being, which brings Rachel to tears.

“Yes, perhaps I should take up carpentry. I can build us all coffins. Should I start with the smallest first?”

She is later forced to make a decision, to try and cure Charlotte or leave her with intervention to gather information from her. Susan gives her a day to decide, only to come in later that night to hear her decision. Rachel gives her the one she wants to her, let the girl stay ill as they don’t even have a definite cure and left untreated the data is more valuable than her life. Susan then confronts her about reaching to Ferdinand, holding the piece of paper she passed onto to Charlotte sometime ago.

She keeps seeing visions of a swan, although Ira blames it on neurological problems.

She manages to make it out of her room, using her crutches to make her way up the stairs only to find herself greeted by her mother telling her “welcome to the island of Doctor Moreau”, then proceeds to tell her the truth about Neolution and tells her that they lost the original. She tries to encourage her mother, telling her that she’ll get better and find a cure.

Evie starts a video conference with them, telling them that project Leda will be dropped and the clones left alone, except for the self aware ones as they won’t be let off as easily. Rachel tries to reason with her, telling her she will help and that she isn’t like her sisters. But Evie tells her that there’s no way a clone would be given such a high position of power.

And she’ll show up here with lots of rage and despair. Good luck.


PERSONALITY:

At first glance, she’s definitely a corporate uber bitch. With no possibility of having been shown any love or compassion. Although she was raised in a loving environment, that all disappeared when the fire happened. Changing her life in an instant. Having been taken in my Leekie and molded into the perfect self-aware clone they could use, she achieved everything Dyad wanted of her, but it isn’t without resentment for not having what she wanted.

In essence, everything she does is driven by a strong sense of duty. Whether it was a purpose drilled into her mind by Leekie and her mother, to strive for human perfect, or her own need for love and control. She will do anything to achieve a goal she has set for herself, regardless of the means, even if it meant lying, using sex as a weapon, and manipulating everyone around her. Which comes all too easily to her.

Of course, this means she’s highly intelligent, she can read a person's emotions, learn what makes them tick, and eventually use it all to her advantage. Although this doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any moments of weakness, for one, her temper blinds her at times, making her do rash things without thinking of the consequences. But she won’t apologize, unless it meant gaining someone’s trust, which, indefinitely will be used to further her plans.

Needless to say, she rarely sees a person as anything more than a tool, or occasionally a toy. In the end, everything and everyone are only either there as roadblocks or to help her along the way. Rarely does she let herself feel any real emotions towards a person, in fear of them being ripped away from her or getting in the way of her agenda.

As for those that unfortunately do get in her way, or even as simply as say the wrong word to her, she will remember it forever. She holds onto grudges like a lifeline, but is rarely rash enough to act upon them without calculating her every move. She knows when she’s outnumbered, but it doesn’t stop her from planning her revenge. She’s the kind of person that will remember if you looked at her wrong one time in fourth grade, and come back to get you in your thirties.

Unlike her other “sisters”, she doesn’t see them sisters, instead more like ignorant lab rats. Although she does envy their love, their families, their children, from the way she sees it they don’t deserve these things. After all, she’s the one with purpose, with actual knowledge of the truth of their existence.

Having been raised self-aware, this meant she knew everything about her was owned by someone else, there was little control in her hands after her parents died, even her biology was against her. All of which solidified her obsession with power more, to feel ownership over something, even if it meant leaving behind any sense of morality.

But all of this power slipped out of her hands when she got the pencil to her eye, losing control over her body even more. She was told her days at Dyad was over, which brought a whole other level of loss of control to her. She could barely speak, barely move and Delphine was threatening to kill her and torture her. For once, she settled into the feeling of being the victim. Reliving the past and staring at a picture of her father while writing in their secret language, all the while crying. The truth of her past taunting her, her father was alive all along, only to kill himself then spend time with her.

But she slowly raised back to power, using the book that should have been hers as her escape. With her hatred towards the clones only increasing, she left them behind with no translation of the book. She grew more cynical and resentful when she found out that her mother was behind the fire, her being put into boarding school, being left to deal with Dyad and Topside. Nothing has ever been on her side, everything was always an elaborate plan for Neolution, which she found some purpose in. Giving herself up in serving the thing that dictated everything in her life.

She can be gentle at times, especially with children. Having wanted her own for almost her whole life only to discover they were barren by design. But her care and love towards them can be pushed aside if there was something more important, albeit begrudgingly.

In short, on the outside Rachel is definitely an uber bitch, with a cynical sense of humor. She would anything to get what she wants, or in most cases, what Neolution wants. But at heart, she’s honestly just a broken child that didn’t get enough hugs as a kid. Felix was right about that.

POWER:

Writing Manifestation: whatever she writes can manifest in reality, although sometimes it can be too literal and unintentional. Until she has better control over this power, it’ll happen at random, or twist itself into something she didn’t intend. It can affect objects and people, or create things out of thin air. But if she were to write that a person would do something it would only come as a suggestion to the person’s thoughts, they have the choice to do it or not.

Power Absorption: she has the ability to completely copy someone else’s ability once, but only if they were to explain their power to her before hand. Using their ability doesn’t mean the person can’t use their power until she used it, she’s just sharing it, per say.