Relationships (Luna 3, Part 5)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

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Sunday. It took till Sunday for her to recover from the encounter. The communication device that had belonged to her host and now to her had been making noises most of the time, but Nora-Ceph had ignored it.

Now, she picked it up and checked the messages. Five were from the suitor. Ten from … Nora’s mother. One from an unknown number. Nora-Ceph touched the surface of the device and a hologram lit up, playing the message of the unknown number.

”I’m confirming your appointment for a psychological exam on Monday, 9 am. Please be on time.”

The hologram vanished again. How rude, they hadn’t even bothered to send her a personalized message. Nora-Ceph sighed, stopped walking around the room like a caged animal and sat down on the bed.

What now? She knew she couldn’t spend another whole day in this room, alone, doing nothing. But calling back her host’s … her mom? Or even the suitor ? No, that was out of the question. She couldn’t handle that kind of emotions at this moment.

But she needed to get out.

The decision started burning in her head, strong enough to force her to move. First to the shower, then to the wardrobe. Clothes, humans needed clothes. Such a weird concept, needing to maintain a constant body temperature but losing all protective fur during evolution …

Cephalopods didn’t have that problem, they were coldblooded and could adapt to even the coldest waters. Why develop clothes?

She chose some dark pants and a, hopefully matching, shirt. Black and red, her host’s memories helpfully informed her. Nora-Ceph didn’t have much of a concept of color, as Cephs were technically colorblind. They could differentiate between them, in most cases, but they were missing crucial visual pigments in their eyes. _@suesa

After she finished dressing herself, she grabbed her keys, a coat, and her wallet and left the apartment. Her heart was beating quickly, too quickly, when she stepped out into the dim sunlight.

People were strolling along the streets, looking happy, chatting with each other. Open, friendly faces. Nora-Ceph stopped at a street corner to watch them pass by. Never had she been able to read so many emotions on a human’s face!

It had been a problem during the first experiments, they had not anticipated how complex a human’s brain really was - and how much several parts would be needed to not be revealed as a fraud. The amygdala was one such a part.

Facial recognition and the reading of emotions was incredibly different in humans and Cephs and in humans, a tiny portion of the brain was responsible to do that. The Cephs had been forced to carefully cut that portion out and fuse it with the newly implemented neurons, to guarantee a smooth adaption.

There had been several failures before they had finally perfected the method.

”Mam? Are you alright? You look a bit dazed.” A young woman had stopped next to Nora-Ceph, worry in her eyes.

”I’m … ”, Nora-Ceph cleared her throat, ”I’m fine. Just have been … a little sick the past few days. Now a little bit dizzy from going out again.”

”Oh, I see. I know that feeling.” The woman smiled. ”Can you manage or do you need any help?”

”I think I will manage, thank you.”

The woman left Nora-Ceph alone. Alone with her uncertainty of how to continue.

”I have a mission”, she whispered to herself. ”Adapt. Infiltrate. Overpower. Adapt. Infiltrate. Overpower. For the future generations.”

But to adapt, you need to know the territory you’re adapting to. All the little quirks and tripwires. The traps of social interactions. The men that suddenly pop up at your home uninvited …

Nora-Ceph didn’t want to repeat the Michael incident, but her host’s memories were not as reliably available as she had hoped. She couldn’t just try to open all memories at once, she needed to go through them bit by bit.

So she walked through the neighborhood, hoping to see something familiar.

”Morning Nora”, a man selling coffee out of a window called out in her direction. No, not just “a man”, Francis.

”Morning Francis!”, Nora-Ceph greeted back. ”How are … the kids? Did … Erica … win the dance competition?” The pauses were tiny, just enough to allow the memories to flood back. Francis and Nora had been something like friends. Erica was his daughter …

”She placed second and is very proud, you should come over next week, she’s eager to tell you all about it. Why are you here though? Don’t you usually go back to your family on the weekends?”

”Oh, I had some things to do on Luna 3 so I decided to stay this time.”

”Work stuff?”

”Work stuff.”

Francis shook his head.

”You’re working too much, Nora. They’re not paying you enough for this. Here, have a coffee on the house, you look like you need it.”

”Wow, Francis, what a compliment.”

Francis just laughed and handed her the hot drink. Nora-Ceph thanked him and kept on walking. One more memory. One more human relationship.

One step closer to taking over her host’s life.

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Sources:

Octopus Cold Adaptation Surprises Scientists

Introduction to: Cephalopod Vision

The role of the amygdala in face perception and evaluation

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Picture taken from pixabay.com

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