Chapter 13: Merger Proposal

“Oh my Gosh! Penny and Max are even cooler in person!” Amy said when they were back in Eric’s room. She was practically bouncing off the walls. It would be endearing to Eric if she wasn’t using his body to do it. Even so, she was hard to dislike. “Thanks!” She said as she fell backwards onto the bed and kicked her feet up. 

“I’m going to have to get used to you being able to hear my thoughts,” he said as he sat his body back up. “How do we decide who has control? Like, if I want to go left and you want to go right, where do we go?”

“Well,” Amy said, “right now, we’d go left. This is your body and I’m just visiting. Like, stop me from raising your arm.” He felt his left arm being brought to his face, and he willed it down. It was a little bit like a helium balloon. Not so much a strain as the vague awareness of pressure. “If I do merge with your nervous system, it would be a little bit more complicated than that. I think the short answer is that, if we don’t agree, we would probably fall flat on our face.” She laughed. 

“Okay, so, that merging thing,” Eric asked as he stood up and paced his room. “Would it be like with Penny and Max? Or do we become one person?” He shivered. “That sounds weird, like I wouldn’t be me anymore.”

“Oh, absolutely not the latter,” Amy said. “No, that’s kind of like dying, you know? Yeah, ew, no thanks. Much more a former kind of scenario. But we’d be closer. You’d remember some of Penny’s memories and I’d remember anything you can remember. Heck, I might even remember some things you don’t!”

“Wait,” Eric said, looking out the window. “Things I don’t?”

“Yeah! If you give me permission to root around in there, I have a much more up-close-and-personal view of your brain, you know. Squishy. Bit wet. When was the last time you took a rag to this place?” Amy laughed again, and Eric felt himself bounce a little bit. Amy was excited just to be alive, and it was infectious. “I really am! But yeah, I can just kind of go through your brain and pull up whatever we need. The problem is that this stuff isn’t exactly archived perfectly, so if you’ve got a thing on the tip of your tongue but you don’t know what that thing is, I can’t help you. But like—“

“Like the name of my first teacher in kindergarten?” 

“Can I?” Amy asked. Eric shrugged. Might as well. Immediately he felt a very strange feeling of vertigo, the floor wobbling a little bit, and the feeling of being squeezed gently. “Sorry,” the symbiote mumbled, “this stuff is complicated. But hey, at least it’s not brain surgery eh, nudge nudge, wink wink. Oh, here we go. Miss… Desouza! She was really nice, gave sweets to the kids when their parents were late to pick them up. Oh, huh. I think she was divorced.”

“What makes you say that?!” Eric asked as flashes of ancient memories bubbled to the surface. Then, Amy just flat slapped him in the face with the image of a woman he ever so vaguely remembered. She was smiling down at him. He felt a hand on his head, then saw that hand retreat. There wasn’t a ring on her finger, but there was a mark. The image slowed down and came into focus a little more. She looked more tired than he’d remembered her. Smiles were easy to remember, but as a toddler Eric hadn’t paid attention to the worry lines on her forehead, the exhaustion visible in her eyes. “Woah,” he said as he pulled himself out of what had been a full blown daydream. “That was wild.”

“Yeah!” Amy said. “Pretty cool, right! Fun fact, apparently people think some people only use a small percentage of their brain, but that’s not true. You use all of it, but most of it goes to playing the same six seconds of Ra Ra Rasputin on repeat.” She laughed again. “Sorry, little joke. But yeah, a lot of your brain is storage and inefficient data retrieval. It’d be easier to do that if we’re bonded.”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool.” He paused. “Wait, would that make studying trivial? Like, memorizing, I mean?” A devilish grin spread on their face. 

“Sure would,” Amy said smugly. “I can’t make you smarter though! I’m no good at, like, calculations or anything! I don’t know how your brain actually works, just where you keep your stuff. And besides, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Amy said, “you already saw what happened to your mom. I make you stronger and faster. You’d be able to climb walls, jump really high and run really fast. Wanna see?” Well, that was more than a little tempting, and he felt his body move as soon as he gave her ‘access’, a weird feeling that was lot like trying not to focus on breathing or blinking manually. “Okay. Here we g—“ She had already put her foot forward to do Something when there was a knock on the door. 

“Eric? Sweetie?” His mom’s voice carried through the door. He went over and opened. 

“Hey Mom, what’s up?” She was still in her getting-stuff-done outfit, this time to put a piece of plywood in the hole Penumbra had left where the bathroom window had been. She wiped some sweat off her forehead as she looked past him into the room. 

“Is there someone in here with you?” She asked. “I thought I heard you talking and then someone else’s voice.” She paused for a second, then lowered her voice to a whisper. “If you have a girl in here, Eric, you don’t have to hide her from me. You’re an adult, and while you might be in my house, your room is your kingd—“

“Mom, I was just talking to Serena with my phone on speaker,” Eric said. “There’s no-one here but me.” 

Well, that’s not really true, but I don’t think you and I are in a place yet where you can introduce me to your mom, you know? Amy joked. 

“Oh,” Lauren said. “I… Yeah, sorry. Of course. I’m sorry, sweetie, I’ve had a lot on my mind today.” She shook her head. “But if you did want to invite someone over… like Serena…” she raised a suggestive eyebrow. 

“Mom,” Eric said, dying a little bit inside, “I appreciate that a lot.” He stretched. “I know what you mean though. You know, about there being a lot on my mind. Would it be okay if I went for a walk? Promise I’ll just go to the park. Clear my head, get some fresh air. Promise I won’t do anything superhero-y.” 

His mom crossed her arms and looked at him, then smiled. “Of course, honey. Thank you for asking. Oh, try to be home before dark, though. I’m having Chinese delivered. Is that alright?” He could tell she always felt a little guilty when she ordered food. 

Why is that? Amy asked, though Eric didn’t really have an answer for her. He just grinned. “Hell yeah. Can I get dumplings?” He saw his mom grimace for a split second, then nod, so he shook his head. “Never mind. Just chicken fried rice.” 

“Honey, it’s fine. I think we can af—“

“Mom, it’s fine,” he said. “When I’m fully recovered, I’m gonna be looking at colleges right? So when I’m out, I might as well go into town and look into a temp summer job. Then I can get my own dumplings.” 

Lauren’s face softened. She swept his hair back, then ruffled it. He endured it. At least she wasn’t making him cut it. When he was younger he’d cried when she’d taken the trimmer to it, and even now his mom knew he didn’t like haircuts. It’s a good thing I grew it back the way it was, then, Amaranth said, and Eric tried not to think of the fact that all of it had been burned off just days ago, and smiled at his mom. “I’m glad I raised you right,” Lauren said. 

“You and dad,” Eric said, and then paused. “When he was home.”

“His work was important,” Lauren conceded. “Anyway, yes, go, walk. Be home in an hour or two though, I’m starving and I don’t think the pantry crackers are going to sustain me for very long. Shoo!” He scurried past her, just too late to avoid a kiss on the head, and grabbed his coat and shoes on the way out. 

The park wasn’t too far. Though the suburbs were a sprawling mess outside the city, their house was fairly close to a nature reserve. Once upon a time, industry had been core to this part of Lockridge Bay, but something something government something something had caused most of the companies responsible for putting their concrete cubes at the edge of the bay to move elsewhere in search of greener pastures and lower taxes.

What was left Lockridge Bay administration had tried to slowly rehabilitate as a state park. It wasn’t pretty, by any means, and several of the old factories still stood tall as monuments to capitalist glory days though nowadays mostly to tetanus. The outskirts, however, now had several basketball and baseball fields, and more than one play area for kids. 

So what was all that about? Amy asked. When Eric didn’t answer right away, she pressed a little more. About the dumplings. I thought you wanted dumplings?

“I do,” he said as he walked past the ugliest, most uncomfortable looking bench he’d ever seen. “But dumplings are expensive. I forget, sometimes. Uh, money,” he said, realizing he was talking to an alien who might not know what he was talking about, “can be exchanged for goods and services. Like food.”

So if you don’t have money you don’t get food? That seems like a raw deal. No pun intended. Heheh. What are dumplings?

“They’re like little balls of dough that have more food inside of them and they taste amazing,” Eric said, salivating at the thought of it. “It’s the best thing ever. Have you ev— wait, what do you eat?” He kept walking down a little path that led deeper into the forest. There was an abandoned warehouse close by that he had once explored top to bottom with Tony and Serena. They’d spent a whole summer sharing their discoveries with each other. 

Oh! This is because Penny brought up feeding, right? Well, I eat two things. The first is that, when I’m bonded with someone, I can just sort of… nibble up spare nutrition. Apparently you humans don’t digest everything that’s in your food, so I take your table scraps. Also when you eat too much.

”Oh,” Eric said. “That’s kind of cool. So you’re saying I could never eat so much it would make me nauseous?” 

No, you can still get nauseous, but I do want you to try at least once because it sounds very funny. No, what I mean is that, if you eat so much your body would be harmed by, say, the excess salt and stuff, I’d be eating that.

“How do you know all this stuff?”

Max and Penny did a lot of research, and Maxine especially likes watching nature documentaries to fall asleep. 

“Oh,” Eric said. “What’s the other thing?”

What other thing? Amy said happily. It was like mentally walking a dog with ADHD. Thank you! They arrived at the warehouse. Even more decrepit than he remembered it.

“You said you eat two things,” Eric helped. “What’s the other thing? I vaguely remember Penumbra telling me something about ‘feelings’ but I was literally recovering from a concussion and almost dying so…”

Oh! Emotions! Eric stopped, slightly horrified. Oh, I don’t mean like, off of you. More like… like a plant “eats” sunlight. Like, the more emotions you have, the more they kind of come off of you in waves. It’s enough to sustain me for now but, like Penny said, not indefinitely. Right now I’m like a houseplant with its face to the window. When I’m bonded, it’s more like a healthy sunflower in a field. And who that’s with is up to you, I think.

“Well…” Eric said, looking at the building. “You said you could make me stronger and stuff. Can you give me an example?”

“Sure can!” Amaranth said as she took over his body, placing his hand on the wall. He felt something shift, a slight tingling in the palm of his hand. She pulled it away again. “Hmm. I’ll have to ask how Penny does the sticky thing. I’m having trouble getting the hang of it. Oh well!” There was that tingling sensation again, this time all over his body. Amy crouched down and jumped up, catapulting both of them to the top of the three-story warehouse, and flew right past it. The roof of the building was now more than a dozen feet below them, but Amy didn’t even seem to mind. 

Eric’s body had never moved like this. It wasn’t graceful, not really, but it was deliberate. He was trying not to panic, because he knew that if he was ‘in charge’ he’d be cartwheeling his arms and legs until he landed face first on the concrete below. 

But Amy landed perfectly. There was barely any bounce in the landing, either. He’d expected her to roll or slide, but she just… stopped.

“Woah,” he said as they stood up and looked out at the park. The sun was setting in the distance. He looked down at his hands. He was slightly out of breath, more out of shock than anything. “That was amazing.”

“Thank you! So, what do you think so far?”

“Well, I mean, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tempting.“ He sat down on the edge of the building and kicked his legs. “So… other than food, what do you get out of this, Amaranth?”

“Well,” Amy said, “I get to help you become the person you’re supposed to be. That’s what Penny did — is doing — with Maxine. I mean I’m not going to air anyone’s dirty laundry but that girl had issues when she met Penny.” She paused. “Not that you have issues, of course. But think of me as like a… personal coach!”

“Huh. Help me be who I’m supposed to be.” He looked at the city in the distance, lit up brightly by the evening light. Thought back to how he even got into this position in the first place. The thought of not honoring his father by using this power felt… irresponsible, somehow. “Yeah,” he said. “I… I think I might like that.”

Elamimax Don't worry, things are going to take a turn for the weird soon.

Chapter 13: Merger Proposal Oh my Gosh! Penny and Max are even cooler in person! Amy said when they were back in Eric's room. She was practically bouncing off the walls. It would be endearing to Eric if she wasn't using his body to do it. Even so, she was hard to dislike. Thanks! She said as she fell backwards onto the bed and kicked her feet up. I'm going to have to get used to you being able to hear my thoughts, he said as he sat his body back up. How do we decide who has control? Like, if I want to go left and you want to go right, where do we go? Well, Amy said, right now, we'd go left. This is your body and I'm just visiting. Like, stop me from raising your arm. He felt his left arm being brought to his face, and he willed it down. It was a little bit like a helium balloon. Not so much a strain as the vague awareness of pressure. If I do merge with your nervous system, it would be a little bit more complicated than that. I think the short answer is that, if we don't agree, we would probably fall flat on our face. She laughed. Okay, so, that merging thing, Eric asked as he stood up and paced his room. Would it be like with Penny and Max? Or do we become one person? He shivered. That sounds weird, like I wouldn't be me anymore. Oh, absolutely not the latter, Amy said. No, that's kind of like dying, you know? Yeah, ew, no thanks. Much more a former kind of scenario. But we'd be closer. You'd remember some of Penny's memories and I'd remember anything you can remember. Heck, I might even remember some things you don't! Wait, Eric said, looking out the window. Things I don't? Yeah! If you give me permission to root around in there, I have a much more up-close-and-personal view of your brain, you know. Squishy. Bit wet. When was the last time you took a rag to this place? Amy laughed again, and Eric felt himself bounce a little bit. Amy was excited just to be alive, and it was infectious. I really am! But yeah, I can just kind of go through your brain and pull up whatever we need. The problem is that this stuff isn't exactly archived perfectly, so if you've got a thing on the tip of your tongue but you don't know what that thing is, I can't help you. But like Like the name of my first teacher in kindergarten? Can I? Amy asked. Eric shrugged. Might as well. Immediately he felt a very strange feeling of vertigo, the floor wobbling a little bit, and the feeling of being squeezed gently. Sorry, the symbiote mumbled, this stuff is complicated. But hey, at least it's not brain surgery eh, nudge nudge, wink wink. Oh, here we go. Miss Desouza! She was really nice, gave sweets to the kids when their parents were late to pick them up. Oh, huh. I think she was divorced. What makes you say that?! Eric asked as flashes of ancient memories bubbled to the surface. Then, Amy just flat slapped him in the face with the image of a woman he ever so vaguely remembered. She was smiling down at him. He felt a hand on his head, then saw that hand retreat. There wasn't a ring on her finger, but there was a mark. The image slowed down and came into focus a little more. She looked more tired than he'd remembered her. Smiles were easy to remember, but as a toddler Eric hadn't paid attention to the worry lines on her forehead, the exhaustion visible in her eyes. Woah, he said as he pulled himself out of what had been a full blown daydream. That was wild. Yeah! Amy said. Pretty cool, right! Fun fact, apparently people think some people only use a small percentage of their brain, but that's not true. You use all of it, but most of it goes to playing the same six seconds of Ra Ra Rasputin on repeat. She laughed again. Sorry, little joke. But yeah, a lot of your brain is storage and inefficient data retrieval. It'd be easier to do that if we're bonded. Oh, that's pretty cool. He paused. Wait, would that make studying trivial? Like, memorizing, I mean? A devilish grin spread on their face. Sure would, Amy said smugly. I can't make you smarter though! I'm no good at, like, calculations or anything! I don't know how your brain actually works, just where you keep your stuff. And besides, that's just the tip of the iceberg. What do you mean? Well, Amy said, you already saw what happened to your mom. I make you stronger and faster. You'd be able to climb walls, jump really high and run really fast. Wanna see? Well, that was more than a little tempting, and he felt his body move as soon as he gave her access', a weird feeling that was lot like trying not to focus on breathing or blinking manually. Okay. Here we g She had already put her foot forward to do Something when there was a knock on the door. Eric? Sweetie? His mom's voice carried through the door. He went over and opened. Hey Mom, what's up? She was still in her getting-stuff-done outfit, this time to put a piece of plywood in the hole Penumbra had left where the bathroom window had been. She wiped some sweat off her forehead as she looked past him into the room. Is there someone in here with you? She asked. I thought I heard you talking and then someone else's voice. She paused for a second, then lowered her voice to a whisper. If you have a girl in here, Eric, you don't have to hide her from me. You're an adult, and while you might be in my house, your room is your kingd Mom, I was just talking to Serena with my phone on speaker, Eric said. There's no-one here but me. Well, that's not really true, but I don't think you and I are in a place yet where you can introduce me to your mom, you know? Amy joked. Oh, Lauren said. I Yeah, sorry. Of course. I'm sorry, sweetie, I've had a lot on my mind today. She shook her head. But if you did want to invite someone over like Serena she raised a suggestive eyebrow. Mom, Eric said, dying a little bit inside, I appreciate that a lot. He stretched. I know what you mean though. You know, about there being a lot on my mind. Would it be okay if I went for a walk? Promise I'll just go to the park. Clear my head, get some fresh air. Promise I won't do anything superhero-y. His mom crossed her arms and looked at him, then smiled. Of course, honey. Thank you for asking. Oh, try to be home before dark, though. I'm having Chinese delivered. Is that alright? He could tell she always felt a little guilty when she ordered food. Why is that? Amy asked, though Eric didn't really have an answer for her. He just grinned. Hell yeah. Can I get dumplings? He saw his mom grimace for a split second, then nod, so he shook his head. Never mind. Just chicken fried rice. Honey, it's fine. I think we can af Mom, it's fine, he said. When I'm fully recovered, I'm gonna be looking at colleges right? So when I'm out, I might as well go into town and look into a temp summer job. Then I can get my own dumplings. Lauren's face softened. She swept his hair back, then ruffled it. He endured it. At least she wasn't making him cut it. When he was younger he'd cried when she'd taken the trimmer to it, and even now his mom knew he didn't like haircuts. It's a good thing I grew it back the way it was, then, Amaranth said, and Eric tried not to think of the fact that all of it had been burned off just days ago, and smiled at his mom. I'm glad I raised you right, Lauren said. You and dad, Eric said, and then paused. When he was home. His work was important, Lauren conceded. Anyway, yes, go, walk. Be home in an hour or two though, I'm starving and I don't think the pantry crackers are going to sustain me for very long. Shoo! He scurried past her, just too late to avoid a kiss on the head, and grabbed his coat and shoes on the way out. The park wasn't too far. Though the suburbs were a sprawling mess outside the city, their house was fairly close to a nature reserve. Once upon a time, industry had been core to this part of Lockridge Bay, but something something government something something had caused most of the companies responsible for putting their concrete cubes at the edge of the bay to move elsewhere in search of greener pastures and lower taxes. What was left Lockridge Bay administration had tried to slowly rehabilitate as a state park. It wasn't pretty, by any means, and several of the old factories still stood tall as monuments to capitalist glory days though nowadays mostly to tetanus. The outskirts, however, now had several basketball and baseball fields, and more than one play area for kids. So what was all that about? Amy asked. When Eric didn't answer right away, she pressed a little more. About the dumplings. I thought you wanted dumplings? I do, he said as he walked past the ugliest, most uncomfortable looking bench he'd ever seen. But dumplings are expensive. I forget, sometimes. Uh, money, he said, realizing he was talking to an alien who might not know what he was talking about, can be exchanged for goods and services. Like food. So if you don't have money you don't get food? That seems like a raw deal. No pun intended. Heheh. What are dumplings? They're like little balls of dough that have more food inside of them and they taste amazing, Eric said, salivating at the thought of it. It's the best thing ever. Have you ev wait, what do you eat? He kept walking down a little path that led deeper into the forest. There was an abandoned warehouse close by that he had once explored top to bottom with Tony and Serena. They'd spent a whole summer sharing their discoveries with each other. Oh! This is because Penny brought up feeding, right? Well, I eat two things. The first is that, when I'm bonded with someone, I can just sort of nibble up spare nutrition. Apparently you humans don't digest everything that's in your food, so I take your table scraps. Also when you eat too much. Oh, Eric said. That's kind of cool. So you're saying I could never eat so much it would make me nauseous? No, you can still get nauseous, but I do want you to try at least once because it sounds very funny. No, what I mean is that, if you eat so much your body would be harmed by, say, the excess salt and stuff, I'd be eating that. How do you know all this stuff? Max and Penny did a lot of research, and Maxine especially likes watching nature documentaries to fall asleep. Oh, Eric said. What's the other thing? What other thing? Amy said happily. It was like mentally walking a dog with ADHD. Thank you! They arrived at the warehouse. Even more decrepit than he remembered it. You said you eat two things, Eric helped. What's the other thing? I vaguely remember Penumbra telling me something about feelings' but I was literally recovering from a concussion and almost dying so Oh! Emotions! Eric stopped, slightly horrified. Oh, I don't mean like, off of you. More like like a plant eats sunlight. Like, the more emotions you have, the more they kind of come off of you in waves. It's enough to sustain me for now but, like Penny said, not indefinitely. Right now I'm like a houseplant with its face to the window. When I'm bonded, it's more like a healthy sunflower in a field. And who that's with is up to you, I think. Well Eric said, looking at the building. You said you could make me stronger and stuff. Can you give me an example? Sure can! Amaranth said as she took over his body, placing his hand on the wall. He felt something shift, a slight tingling in the palm of his hand. She pulled it away again. Hmm. I'll have to ask how Penny does the sticky thing. I'm having trouble getting the hang of it. Oh well! There was that tingling sensation again, this time all over his body. Amy crouched down and jumped up, catapulting both of them to the top of the three-story warehouse, and flew right past it. The roof of the building was now more than a dozen feet below them, but Amy didn't even seem to mind. Eric's body had never moved like this. It wasn't graceful, not really, but it was deliberate. He was trying not to panic, because he knew that if he was in charge' he'd be cartwheeling his arms and legs until he landed face first on the concrete below. But Amy landed perfectly. There was barely any bounce in the landing, either. He'd expected her to roll or slide, but she just stopped. Woah, he said as they stood up and looked out at the park. The sun was setting in the distance. He looked down at his hands. He was slightly out of breath, more out of shock than anything. That was amazing. Thank you! So, what do you think so far? Well, I mean, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tempting. He sat down on the edge of the building and kicked his legs. So other than food, what do you get out of this, Amaranth? Well, Amy said, I get to help you become the person you're supposed to be. That's what Penny did is doing with Maxine. I mean I'm not going to air anyone's dirty laundry but that girl had issues when she met Penny. She paused. Not that you have issues, of course. But think of me as like a personal coach! Huh. Help me be who I'm supposed to be. He looked at the city in the distance, lit up brightly by the evening light. Thought back to how he even got into this position in the first place. The thought of not honoring his father by using this power felt irresponsible, somehow. Yeah, he said. I I think I might like that. Elamimax Don't worry, things are going to take a turn for the weird soon.