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Jeremy is at home, sitting on his bed and shrugging his shoulders, faced towards the SQUIP while they practically pace around the room, their voice raised in an angry and confused manner. It reminded Jeremy of the way his mom used to yell at him. The way his dad lacked the strength to.
“Jeremy, I was instructing you on what to do and you simply weren’t listening! When did we retract our agreement that you would let me guide your actions? Don’t you realize how substantial this will be in your ability to charm women?”
As soon as Jeremy caught a tear form in his eye, he wiped it away so SQUIP wouldn’t deem him weaker than he already was. I mean, maybe they were right. When Jake Dillinger and him had their encounter that SQUIP had literally trained him for, he froze up. He didn’t even attempt to throw a punch, just took them.
Maybe, in the back of his mind, he knew that people would eventually take pity on him. Brooke called over a teacher to get Jake off of Jeremy as soon as it started (a minute after school ended), but not soon enough. his face is all busted up now. His eye is bruised, his jaw is in a crazy amount of pain, his lip is still bleeding, and, even with all of the injuries on his limbs, too, he still felt… nothing. No resentment. No anger. Not even pity for himself, like normal.
“Jeremy!” SQUIP demanded Jeremy’s attention, his eyes flicking up at SQUIP’s glowing blue ones. “Are you even listening to me?! I’m only trying to help!”
“Yeah, well, try again tomorrow. I’m sorry, but I’m just…” Jeremy started to try and explain how he was feeling in his head, but it was more a lack of feeling. How was he supposed to explain that to a supercomputer designed to analyze human emotion? As he spoke, he laid down, rolled over and covered himself with his blanket.
SQUIP paused for a moment, then sat down on the bed as well, close enough to Jeremy that SQUIP was alright with giving him the illusion of the bed being sunken down by their combined weight to give Jeremy the impression that he’s not alone. Although it was easy to manipulate Jeremy’s senses and adjust certain chemicals in his brain, SQUIP didn’t like to do it often. They knew that, if they were to, Jeremy would have a harder time distinguishing reality and his eyes simply playing games on itself. This, along with other mind games easy to justify due to the illusion of their physical presence, they didn’t mind doing.
“I do not like not knowing, Jeremy. My entire model is intended to gather data and act accordingly to your wants and needs, but you are hiding these desires.”
“I’m not hiding anything. I just really don’t care anymore.” Jeremy mumbled softly.
“Is this why you did not attempt to fight Jake Dillinger back?”
Jeremy stayed silent, his brain being too fuzzy to respond.
“…I will take your silence as a yes, as you are usually adamant when I am wrong. Your mental state is detaching you from your physical presence. If this were false, your body would have naturally began fighting Jake Dillinger back as soon as he attacked you.” SQUIP spoke to the back of Jeremy’s head. “I can sense that you do have a desire to have high status in your High School, or that you did at one point, but you are portraying signs of being depressed.”
Jeremy’s ears perked. Of course, he was more pathetic than he thought. He sighed.
“You are not pathetic, Jeremy. I didn’t realize that I was putting you through as much stress as I was. Your brain had a very unique way of hiding it.”
SQUIP acknowledged Jeremy’s continuous silence and proceeded to be more concerned while they analyzed the situation at hand, coming up with solutions that they could be directly involved in.
“…Jeremy.” SQUIP said a bit softer, inhibiting a more caring tone. This struck Jeremy as odd and made him turn around in his bed.
“Let’s take this one step at a time, alright?”
SQUIP attempted to use language that would soothe Jeremy and relieve him of any stress that they might have burdened onto him prior. They instructed Jeremy to get out of bed, undress and get into the shower. Jeremy was so out of it that he didn’t attempt to refuse SQUIP’s odd acts of care, even as they hopped into the shower along with him and grabbed ahold of Jeremy’s hands to wash him.
He could get used to this. It was a lot better than the constant, aggravated instructions and the pressure of the spotlight that SQUIP had granted him. There was always a better way to be doing things. Body language could always be adjusted, there was always another person he could be friends with, and another girl that could be kissed. Jesus, he doesn’t get how celebrities do it. If he was famou-
“Jeremy.” The SQUIP snapped Jeremy back into reality practically in a whisper, a soft touch given to his waist after dropping one of Jeremy’s hands back down to his side and replacing it with one of his own onto Jeremy’s body. Jeremy didn’t even realize that his hair was done being rinsed out, or that SQUIP was working on washing his body now.
“Do not worry about that right now. Let me worry about you. I’ve got you.”