Accidental Squip

Chapter Seven

    "Oh my god, again?"
    A couple weeks after Madison came out as a male, he woke up at 7:18 in the morning with sore legs, arms, neck, and basically everything else.
    "Apologies," the Squip said, appearing at the foot of Madison's bed.
    Madison lifted himself up and leaned against his pillows. "Why do you always say 'apologies'? Why not just sorry?"
    The Squip looked at Madison. "I am a supercomputer, if you haven't forgotten. My programmers have me speak with a more advanced-sounding speech. If it makes you uncomfortable, I can switch to a different speech style."
    "You can do that?" Madison asked.
    "Yes, Madison, I can. It will sound more like how you teenagers speak."
    Madison immediately thought of the Squip speaking like Rich or Jake, with terrible slang and wearing muscle tees with cringey slogans on them.
    "You know, you're fine the way you are," Madison said, putting his head in his hands.
    "You have a strange imagination."
    "Oh god, you saw that?"
    The Squip chuckled. "Yes, I did. Though I'm glad you didn't have me switch because that's a very accurate representation of that style of speech."
    Madison laughed with the Squip. He then remembered about the Squip's new update. He wanted to know if the sore legs was worth the update.
    "It seems that my new update is a more advanced version of the last update," the Squip replied to Madison's silent question. Madison groaned.
    "But-" the Squip continued. "I can also speak to you in your mind while in physical form, which I can now hold for as long as I wish it to. My human emotions have been updated as well, so I can empathize whenever you feel unhappy or enthusiastic or any other emotion you may be feeling at the time, thought they are still artificial. But who knows, maybe these emotions will take a different turn at some point."
    The Squip gave Madison a lopsided grin. Madison wasn't sure what the Squip was implying, but it kind of scared him. He distracted himself with the new features. Maybe they weren't that bad after all. If the Squip could hold a physical form for as long as he wanted, then maybe Madison could introduce him to Michael and Jeremy. They hadn't left Madison alone about the mysterious friend Madison had been running with.
    Madison threw his covers off, jumped off his bed and fell. The Squip laughed until he started glitching and had to lean against the wall to support himself. Madison glared at him. The Squip saw Madison's glare (and probably felt it too) and immediately shut up.
    "Apolog- ah...sorry," he said, straightening up again.
    Madison raised an eyebrow at him. He asked the Squip to help him up in his mind, his arms too sore to gesture at his request. The Squip's glow faded and he crouched down, picking Madison up from the floor.
    "You didn't have to pick me up like I'm your new husband," Madison mumbled.
    The Squip gave him the same lopsided grin, holding Madison to his chest and carrying him to the desk, setting him down on the chair. Madison stayed in a curled up position, staring at the Squip. He had almost felt like a real person...
    "You wanted to go to your desk, correct?" the Squip asked, ignoring Madison's red face.
    Madison swallowed and nodded. He uncurled himself (much to his legs protests) and reached for a pencil and paper. He had had an idea when the Squip told him about his updates. He began sketching a human-like figure. Now, Madison wasn't the best at drawing, but he tried to put a lot of effort into it.
    "What's that for?" the Squip asked, leaning over Madison's shoulder.
    "I got this idea," Madison began, drawing some curls on the figure's head, "that since you can turn into basically a normal human being, you should have your own look. We can't have Eric William Morris walking around in New Jersey while the real Eric William Morris is in New York or something."
    The Squip nodded. "That's smart. Make my hair black."
Madison grinned and colored in the curls. The Squip helped Madison with drawing out
different looks, outfits, and body types. They finally agreed on the character with black curly hair and blue highlights, thin but strong arms, a broad chest and thin hips. Madison was particularly proud of the calves he had drawn on that one.
"Alright." Madison exhaled, cracked his knuckles and held the paper out to the Squip. He took the drawing and looked it over several times. Concentrating, he started glitching out until he had disappeared. Madison looked around.
"Um...Squip? Where did you go?" Madison asked out loud to nothing. He hoped he hadn't stressed out the Squip so much that it dissolved the pill in his brain.
"No such thing could happen, Madison."
Madison jumped. The voice was different, kind of smooth, kind of deep. It wasn't Andy Biersack deep, it was like if Andy and Ashley Purdy had a kid. Madison turned in his chair. He was greeted by the realistic version of his drawing, which obviously looked a lot better than the light sketch. The drawing itself was in the Squip's hand.
"W-wow," Madison stammered.
The Squip grinned. He walked over to Madison and handed him the paper. Madison took the paper and crumpled it up.
"I don't need this anymore," he said, throwing it in the trash. "I have a better version of it."
The Squip crossed his arms. "Are you trying to flirt with me?"
Madison laughed. "I probably would be if you were real."
The Squip shook his head. There was a knock on the door, and a blue glow appeared around the Squip. The door opened.
"Maddie? You're already awake?"
It was his mother. Madison smiled from his chair.
"Yeah. I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. Decided to get up," Madison replied, spinning in the chair.
"I heard you laughing, what was that about?" Madison's mother asked.
"Umm..."
"You were laughing at something you're friend sent you."
Madison glanced at where the Squip was, but he had disappeared.
"I...was laughing at something my friend sent me," Madison repeated the Squip's words.
Madison's mother walked into the room and sat on his messed up bed.
"Jeremy? He doesn't usually wake up this early."
"No...no. Not Jeremy," Madison said. "It's a new friend. His name is...ah...Eric."
"Are you kidding me?"
Be quiet. You're just mad that I like Eric William Morris better than you.
"Not true."
Madison ignored the Squip's last comment.
"A new 'friend'? You should introduce him to me sometime," Madison's mother said.
Madison nodded and grinned. "Absolutely. I'll invite him over today."
His mother clapped her hands excitedly. "Oh, I can't wait! Tell him to stay for dinner, I'll tell your father to make spaghetti with extra oregano."
With that, his mother left the room to wake up her husband and tell him about Madison's new friend. Madison chuckled at his mother (especially since she had made a Heathers reference). He spun around in his chair again. The Squip had reappeared when his chair spun around several times and had come to a stop.
"Why did you pick Eric?" he complained.
Madison shrugged. "It was the first name that popped into my head."
"Couldn't you have chosen something like Benedict? Or maybe Magnus?" the Squip said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Ok, first of all, those are both fandom related names, which I appreciate," Madison chuckled, carefully stretching out his sore legs on his desk. "And second, it's already too late. I can't randomly go up to my mother and say 'oh remember my friend Eric? Yeah, actually his name is Benedict and I messed up.'"
The Squip sighed and sat on the bed, running a hand through his new curls. Finally, he looked up.
"Fine. I'll be Eric. Just...just so we're clear, you didn't named me after the other Eric, okay?" he asked.
Madison saluted the Squip with two fingers. "You got it."