White box

Common sense

"Ti-Marcus?"

White steam left Stephanie's lips when he saw her, just a little ahead. As her eyes settled on him, they filled with worry. That's how Marcus knew his expression was no good.

He let out a breath and put on a light smile. "Yes?" He could tell she had come downstairs to talk to him. Perhaps take a walk. Maybe something had happened. Hadn't seemed so at the dinner, but he hadn't been himself, so he wouldn't be too surprised if he had failed to notice it all.

"Did something happen?" She asked.

His expression had probably been awful then. But what could he say? That he wanted out? That he was feeling frightened about starting to turn into her brother?

"Is Bill fine?" She asked then — the most obvious worry.

"He was fine when we just parted," Marcus said and chose to tell what was up. He had already told Stephanie about his identity and situation and if this damn body wanted him to rely on her, despite original owner not relying on her one bit, then--

Right. The original owner had not counted on her one bit. So this choice was his own. A good realization to have.

"I'm just getting scared about this body influencing my mind too much. I feel like Timoty's memories are merging into me, and like I don't have any control of myself at times," when he voiced the last line, it settled into him - it was the problem of being a human, wasn't it?

These biological bodies made humans act like humans and while the sensations he felt were amazing at times, and horrid at other times, there were reasons for those sensations - nerves and brain chemistry - and those messed with him in ways he did not recognize, so he felt out of place.

It had been naive to assume, even if not too consciously, that a biological body was just a suit or a shell, an additional layer to protect the core. There was a straightforward and intense feedback link between them.

This might be challenging. 

To make decisions while taking into consideration that this body was doing its own thing as well.

Marcus had thought of Timothy as very foolish, and he still felt he was, but he now realized in better clarity that a huge part of the problem was the failure to understand just how much a biological body influenced the mind.

"You know, Marcus, humans, too, consider that to be a problem," Stephanie said with a smile. "So, we have ways to tackle it."

She said something Timothy had not known, so of course, Marcus felt surprised. Even more so, because it was a big deal.

Timothy felt and 'knew' that emotions were a part of being human, but controlling them... The most even mom's romance books showed control was 'Hugo refrained from taking her then and there," or "Johan dulled the hot feeling in his chest to not rip the man apart." Nothing about not feeling one thing or another, just suppressing it somewhat - that one way.

Stephanie said, 'ways.'

"Meditation is the most popular one," Stephanie added. "But, I take long walks if I need to clear my mind and think."

Timothy knew the word 'meditation' as something Buddhist monks and hipsters did, but what did Timothy know about life if he had chosen to quit it? And if there were many ways, then he could look it up. Stephanie had also offered a simple solution to try. Maybe he could even ask Bill if running did the same.

Timothy was abysmal in all things called sports, but even Marcus, as an astral being, could imagine that there must be some problem with an organism that completely disregarded the way natural selection had built it and the purposes for it.