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Description
“So, uh, what happened is I saw a flyer in the hallway after class. It was asking for volunteers for an experiment, with the reward being fully paid tuition for two years.”
“For reference, at the time we were one person. Hence 'I'."
“Yeah. Anyway, of course I said ‘hell yeah’ and went to the address on the flyer. Which was the school basement.”

“As it turns out, there’s a dorky guy with a cloning machine in the basement. It’s this big cylindrical glass chamber that makes whatever goes into it split in half.”

“More like, split in two.”

“Split into two identical copies, yeah. I guess it’s limited to living things.”

“Guy demonstrated with a mouse. Sure enough, it split into two identical mice.”

“And then he told me to get in. I told him I didn’t need two of me, my parents already had enough trouble paying tuition.”

“Then he shows me another machine. This one’s for merging clones together.”

“He says this one is what he’s actually testing. Then he sticks both mice into the thing and fuses them back into one mouse.”

“He tells me that his intent is to use it on human twins and triplets to help with population control. But he hasn’t tested it on humans yet.”

“I’m pretty nervous about this, so he tells me that he’ll give me a bonus if I do it. I suppose he’s pretty desperate for a test subject.”

“So I agree and sign a contract.”

“I strip, step into the machine, and shut my eyes. He throws a switch and before I know it, there’s another me next to me.”

“The other him is me. And he’s the other me.”
"It felt really weird at the time, though in hindsight..."

“So the guy tells us to go home for the day and he’ll merge us back together tomorrow. He says he wants us to mentally diverge a bit for the sake of the test.”

“Of course, he could have told us that before he split us up.”

“And on a Friday, too! He wanted us to come back on a Saturday!”

“Yeah, he’s an asshole.”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, we go back to our flat. I take the couch and we get a good night’s sleep.”

“We go back the next day and tell the jackass to merge us back into one person, which he agrees to do.”

“So we get into the machine…”

“…he throws a switch…”

“…the process gets going…”

“…and the machine blows a fuse.”

“Next thing we know, we’re like this.”

“And it’s permanent too. The merging machine doesn’t see us as separate organisms.”

“And the cloning machine doesn’t split us apart, it just makes two two-headed guys.”

“Though fortunately he could merge us back into one two-headed guy.”

“So we’re pissed and the guy is screwed if we tell anyone, so he gives us tuition money for the next two years, plus three hundred grand to shut up long enough for him to skip town.”

“So yeah, we’re stuck like this for good.”
"..."
"Thankfully we're still legally considered one person. Which was a hell of a lot of paperwork to figure out."

“Our body is mostly normal below our collarbone. We’ve each got control of our own side.”

“But if he lets me, I can take control of his arm or leg.”

“And vice versa.”

“It’s been about six months and we’re still not used to it yet.”

“I mean, we don’t mind each other too much. It’s kinda cool to have a twin brother after growing up as an only child.”

“We’d just rather not share our junk.”

“…yeah.”

Dec 2022 - Upscaled with GFPGAN.

Description
“So, uh, what happened is I saw a flyer in the hallway after class. It was asking for volunteers for an experiment, with the reward being fully paid tuition for two years.”
“For reference, at the time we were one person. Hence 'I'."
“Yeah. Anyway, of course I said ‘hell yeah’ and went to the address on the flyer. Which was the school basement.”

“As it turns out, there’s a dorky guy with a cloning machine in the basement. It’s this big cylindrical glass chamber that makes whatever goes into it split in half.”

“More like, split in two.”

“Split into two identical copies, yeah. I guess it’s limited to living things.”

“Guy demonstrated with a mouse. Sure enough, it split into two identical mice.”

“And then he told me to get in. I told him I didn’t need two of me, my parents already had enough trouble paying tuition.”

“Then he shows me another machine. This one’s for merging clones together.”

“He says this one is what he’s actually testing. Then he sticks both mice into the thing and fuses them back into one mouse.”

“He tells me that his intent is to use it on human twins and triplets to help with population control. But he hasn’t tested it on humans yet.”

“I’m pretty nervous about this, so he tells me that he’ll give me a bonus if I do it. I suppose he’s pretty desperate for a test subject.”

“So I agree and sign a contract.”

“I strip, step into the machine, and shut my eyes. He throws a switch and before I know it, there’s another me next to me.”

“The other him is me. And he’s the other me.”
"It felt really weird at the time, though in hindsight..."

“So the guy tells us to go home for the day and he’ll merge us back together tomorrow. He says he wants us to mentally diverge a bit for the sake of the test.”

“Of course, he could have told us that before he split us up.”

“And on a Friday, too! He wanted us to come back on a Saturday!”

“Yeah, he’s an asshole.”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, we go back to our flat. I take the couch and we get a good night’s sleep.”

“We go back the next day and tell the jackass to merge us back into one person, which he agrees to do.”

“So we get into the machine…”

“…he throws a switch…”

“…the process gets going…”

“…and the machine blows a fuse.”

“Next thing we know, we’re like this.”

“And it’s permanent too. The merging machine doesn’t see us as separate organisms.”

“And the cloning machine doesn’t split us apart, it just makes two two-headed guys.”

“Though fortunately he could merge us back into one two-headed guy.”

“So we’re pissed and the guy is screwed if we tell anyone, so he gives us tuition money for the next two years, plus three hundred grand to shut up long enough for him to skip town.”

“So yeah, we’re stuck like this for good.”
"..."
"Thankfully we're still legally considered one person. Which was a hell of a lot of paperwork to figure out."

“Our body is mostly normal below our collarbone. We’ve each got control of our own side.”

“But if he lets me, I can take control of his arm or leg.”

“And vice versa.”

“It’s been about six months and we’re still not used to it yet.”

“I mean, we don’t mind each other too much. It’s kinda cool to have a twin brother after growing up as an only child.”

“We’d just rather not share our junk.”

“…yeah.”

Dec 2022 - Upscaled with GFPGAN.