“Huh.” Orlen remarks, as I present to him my new pal Goopy. Thumb to his chin, he can’t quite figure out what to make of the creature. Down below him crawling along our living room’s wooden floor is Goopy sloshing and slithering.
“And… it’s supposed to talk?” he questions. Goopy -merely a puddle of black and gray sludge- wraps around to the front of him. In a way I imagine as emoting, it sloshes in a circle, presenting itself to be inspected.
“Yes! I talk! Talk talk talk friend!” it shouts. Goopy, the loveable bastard, hasn’t really said much since Lin started researching whatever it is. Aside from vague phrases and allusions to helping, he’s mostly been something of a cute-ish pet. Though after hours of research into the afternoon and one call to Orlen, Lin seems ready to elucidate on the Goop’s purpose.
“It is probably an artifact,” Lin states from her chair next to the computer. Crossing her legs, she looks at the two of us -three of us- to make sure we’re paying attention.
“Unlike the artifacts that have attacked the camp in the past, this one is… Docile. The outside world has a name for them. Familiars. Companions.” she lectures. Struggling to pay attention, I shift my weight back and forth between my feet. Glancing at Orlen I can see him getting into nerd mode.
“So they’re just weird animals? Or is there more? Anything on their biology? Something to help us?” he asks hopefully while leaning into the conversation. Tilting her head forward in the affirmative, she cusps her hands together in her lap.
“There’s more. Mostly vague descriptions though. They’re supposed to help you do -well- magic.” she finishes the sentence with a sigh. Dissatisfied, Orlen crosses his arms. Putting my hands in my pockets, I decide to let the two sort out the topic, and Goop begins to orbit my feet slowly.
“Magic? C’moooon. You’ve been at the computer for hours. I know you can do better than that,” he grumbles at Lin. Slightly embarrassed at having failed her fellow geek, she purses her lips and then suggests,
“Auracen-” stopping after the word, she turns to me and says.
“The government outside the camp.” she finishes. Honestly I wasn’t going to ask, since she could take care of it just fine. Regardless, it was nice to know she thought of me during this.
”They do have more info on it. Since they keep that secure, all I have from outside the camp is public knowledge. Maybe if I had a few more days to work on it then I’m sure I could get you more data.” Orlen nods, then walks over to where me and Goop are standing. Rather - where I am standing and Goop is sloshing.
“In the mean time… me and Lia here can figure out what we know here!” he says with an investigator’s grin. Clapping my hands once together, I figure this means something exciting will happen with Goop. Magic!
“Sounds good.” Lin agrees, before turning her attention back to her computer. Watching for a few moments, I smile as I see her legs awkwardly crossed together once more and the edge of her mouth contorted in concentration. How many mannerisms of hers had I gotten so fond of? Soon Orlen snaps me back to reality by talking to our new friend.
“So… Buddy. Can you do magic?” he interrogates cautiously. Happily swishing around, it runs back and forth between me and Orlen while it answers,
“Yes… Many magic! Many magics can be done!” Orlen looks at me with a dorky grin that shows just how into this he is. Finally taking the initiative, I add my own question.
“Alright, buddy. How do we do the magic?” My tone sounds like I’m addressing a puppy. Though it seems to enjoy that as it sloshes back and forth creating little waves of black tar.
“Must bond with Pylia! Touch touch! Didn’t want to earlier. So scared! Angry scary lady!” as the slop quickly bubbles, Lin’s eyes widen, before a thoughtful frown crosses her lips. Nevertheless, she chooses to stay silent.
“Why me? Am I some sort of chosen one?” This idea got me relatively excited.
“Must be you! Must be must be! Like you the most!” is all Goop replies. Looking at me - rather bubbling towards me- it finally decides to sit still.
“Sounds like I am the chosen one.” I say smirking while Orlen and I look at each other for a moment. An unspoken question crosses our minds. Should we let this unknown creature that shares similarities with deadly monsters have access to my body? My eyes then drift to the scattered remains of white powder that marr the living room table. I’ve put worse in there.
“Suuuure.” I start while kneeling to Goop’s level.
“You can bond, lil friend!” I say while putting my hand out towards it. A few tentative tendrils form from its surface as it reaches out to my hand once more. Then, all at once like before it jumps onto my hand and its surface writhes around. Lin’s vague attention immediately snaps fully on me and she looks like she’s about to attack again.
“Nono. It’s fine. It’s allllllll fine. Totally okay” I struggle to get out as much to myself as to anyone else in the room. Lin rests her hand on the pistol laying beside her laptop, but otherwise doesn’t move. As the creature writhes along my arm, it inches closer to my face. That’s terrifying, but I manage to stay still. If it wanted to kill me, it could’ve done so earlier. Trying desperately not to reason any further than that, I close my eyes and hope it’ll be over soon.
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“What in the world is it doing…?” Orlen ponders. Opposing the concerned Lin, I can open my eyes to see him leaned curiously forward. When it inches closer to my neck, I feel its presence. Sure I literally feel it on my skin, but also I feel the being itself. Like a separate presence altogether. Reassurigly, the presence isn’t aggressive nor pushy. Rather, it waits for me to reach out the rest of the way. With a simple thought, I extend my own sense of self to it, and we join together.
No longer speaking, it seems to be communicating directly with my body. It’s not just Goop, though. I can also feel a vague pull towards the others. Lin and Orlen’s bodies, their minds. At the end of what feels like a spiritual experience, it rests along my neck, wrapping tightly around it without squeezing it. Resting. Waiting to be called upon.
“Holy shit.” leaves my throat raspily. Eyes wide open, I stare with what feels like new eyes at Orlen and a now thoroughly concerned Lin.
“Um, your neck…I think it’s inside your neck.” Orlen says, and Lin slowly nods in agreement. Bringing my hands to my throat, it doesn’t particularly feel any different to the touch. Inside though, I feel its presence. Writhing and turning underneath my skin.
Pulling out my phone, I turn my camera on to ‘selfie’ mode. As he said, there’s black and gray marring below my head. It completely covers my neck and reaches up towards my chin with hazy shifting tendrils.
“So… Can you do magic?” Orlen interrupts my viewing. Lin gives him a sharp glare, and then adds to his question,
“And are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, Lin. I dunno. I can sure try. It feels like I can reach out to your bodies. Maybe if I had a volunteer…?” I poll the room with a blatant grin along my expression. Orlen immediately waves his hand, then lowers it slightly before requesting clarification with,
“Wait. What’s it do?”
“No idea! I just… Feel connected to your guys’ bodies I guess.” I answer honestly. I feel like I’d have to experiment to know.
“Gross. But cool! I think. Um, go ahead I guess?” Orlen says nervously while rubbing his hand on his arm. Taking this as my sign of consent, I connect with the creature writhing beneath my skin. Standing up now, my arms seem to want to move of their own accord. Reflexive motions that I can guide and move as I choose.
“Your eyes. They’re green now” he whispers disbelievingly. I’m too focused on the feeling to properly process what he’s saying though. As I wrap my fingers around what feels a dozen little invisible strands in the air, I can feel his body talking to his mind. Though I’m hesitant, I feel I hardly have the influence to kill him or anything. Instead, I reach gently towards his muscle’s strings and pluck gently.
Orlen drops limply to the floor, his legs springing slightly as he falls and then slumps forward. I’m snapped out instantly as Lin rushes over to his side, heaving him on to his back.
“Oh my god. Orlen!” I scream, afraid that I’d just killed my best friend. Kneeling beside him, I see a dazed expression in his eyes. Relief floods my body though as he hesitantly begins moving his muscles again.
“You… I… I couldn’t move! You did that? You did that!” At first, his words are frightened, but as he speaks he gets more and more excited.
“We shouldn’t be messing with this anymore,” Lin says in a low voice. She’s right. We have no idea what we’re messing with. Feeling stupid, I contemplate that I had no idea whether I was right to play around with this or not.
“You’re right. Fucking hell, I’m sorry.” i exhale and sit down on the ground next to Orlen. Lin does the same across from me, resting on her legs while shaking her head. Propped up on his elbows, he looks between the two of us with a frown.
“But…” he starts but doesn’t finish. Guess he sees the sense in not using his own body as a test subject for something like this. It’s a wonder we’d agreed to just test it like that in the first place.
“I’ll look into it some more. For now, we don’t speak of this to anyone at all. Nothing good will come of it.” she states while holding up a hand to accentuate her command. We both silently nod, and all begin the process of getting back to our feet. When I do finally rise, I feel a dizzy rush in my head. Though I can’t tell if it comes from the coke in my blood or the magic I just cast, it seems to go away relatively quickly.
“So much… To learn.” Goop says. When he talks in my neck, it comes out like a raspy half mixture of my voice and his. Air pushes itself out of my mouth to let his voice come out. Softly, I tap the skin over my vocal cords to find that nothing noticeable has changed.
“Yeah, buddy. Maybe later.” at this, I’m comforted to find that his presence retreats further into myself. It’s one thing to have an Artifact from a foreign world in your neck. It’s another thing entirely when it goes rogue and mind controls you or something.
“I don’t like this.” Lin says firmly. Her fingers twitch slightly in place while she looks at Goop.
“It’s okay, we’ll get more info and we’ll tackle it from there. I don’t think we can just forget about it.” Orlen replies while looking at Lin. Sighing -and perhaps knowing he’s right- she nods and returns to her seat.
“So… what now?” I throw out, and Orlen shrugs his hands, before his eyes widen like he remembers something.
“Oh - shoot. I should probably get back to the lab.” he refers to the lab. Remembering the few occasions I visited, it’s a simple concrete structure -much like town hall- with hydroponics plant things packed as much as the limited walking space will allow. It also has a lovely little chemistry set thingy in the corner of it.
“I’ll try getting into Auracen’s database.” Lin mentions. Awkwardly looking at the two of them, I feel pressured to think of something to do.
“I’ll… Finally handle the kitchen.” eventually tumbles out of my mouth. Giving me a half smirk, Lin replies.
“Maybe think about dinner, too.” which reminds me that it’s getting to be late afternoon. We all say our goodbyes, and Orlen puts on his things before heading out into the winter wonderland of Kirsten. Personally, I set to work being the world''s best platonic housewife.