living with a friend who transcended humanity

Source: living with a friend who transcended humanity, Nobey One, 1:33, uploaded 2024-06-26.

A roommate comes home from work expecting the other person to be out looking for a job. The friend is still on the couch, with his eyes closed, because he has become a restful Cube.

A new phase of reality

The roommate explains that he allowed the friend to stay because the mutation seemed temporary. Once the friend had shed his corporeal form and entered a new phase of reality, he was supposed to leave the house. The Cube has a different view of the arrangement: restful cubes rest, and resting is what they do.

The joke keeps the conversation inside the language of an ordinary shared flat. A radical change in the friend’s form produces the same complaint about an unwanted person occupying the couch. The new ontology changes the roommate, yet the household rules remain familiar.

The shower as the final human obligation

The Cube’s smell brings the conversation back to the body. Even in its new form, it still has to shower. The Cube refuses several times, while the roommate insists that it go to the bathroom and wash.

The compromise is practical and humiliating. The roommate will hose the Cube down in the backyard, then buy it a Happy Meal and keep quiet about its condition. The threat to tell Ronald McDonald that the friend has been a stinky boy finally works. When the Cube agrees, the roommate points out that he is enjoying the arrangement. The answer is a mild admission: “yeah, kind of.”