Doppelgänger

Doppelgänger is a Fae double that mimics a living person's appearance and manner with uncanny precision. Field notes record it as neither wholly flesh nor wholly phantom: features are too-perfect, movements fractionally out of time. Smell: a sharp tang of ozone and old copper, like metal left in rain. Sound: a faint, delayed echo of the subject's own voice and the impression of an extra, syncopated footfall beside the true step. Temperature: a localized chill — the air around the double feels thinner and colder, as if the body shutters heat away. Observers describe a mounting unease rather than overt violence; the threat is social and psychological, a theft of identity rather than a torn limb. Close study suggests pattern and constraint rather than random malice.