[Contains MBM, modular elements, as well as some (handbags). This is part of a series of stories go read them if you don't like being confused.]

I don't know about you, but you'd think that walking around with someone's head under your arm would at least feel weird, never mind look it. Yet, after spending the better part of a week with Em, this little modular stunt seemed too good not to try myself, even if I hadn't gone ahead with the treatment. No, I wasn't chomping at the bit to be turned into human silly-putty, that was still a step too far for me. Using someone else's head made of human silly-putty though?

No else seemed to think so. I thought I'd take a longer route into the city by walking, since it was such a nice day: It wasn't hot, a bit overcast, dry with a little breeze when you needed it; pretty much perfect for strolling through the local collage campus, which was basically a public park with some fancy sounding buildings scattered across it, stretching far enough into the urban sprawl to get into downtown and avoiding the less desirable outer areas. It was going to take over an hour, but I wasn't in any hurry. You learn to appreciate downtime when you live on your own, the commute to work, the time it takes for your dinner to cook in the microwave, it gives me a moment to settle what's stirring in my mind.

"Why's that car so small?" Em's question reverberated through my body, her left cheek squished up against my right flank.

"That's a bike. It's very different to a car." The bike in question whizzed past us on this wide dirt path grooved from, well, must be decades of students staggering between lectures and stuff hungover or drunk. I definitely was most of the time I was there.

"Of course, sorry, no brain."

"You don't have to be sorry, it's not like you took it out yourself, is it?"

"I guess not. Emily does it to make using us easier."

A little sigh came out of her as came up to the lake near the middle of the campus, a fairly typical one if I had to describe it - water, reeds, trees surrounding the bank, a few jetties for fishing and jumping off for a bet, it's all there. There were a lot more people around, too, mostly sitting on the various benches and tables making the most out of the whether, or making their way between the neo-classical building overlooking it and the less aesthetic department buildings over the other side, their industrial gray walls and flat roof sprouting metal stacks, some kind of science department with circulatory vents or an incinerator. They made great contrast to the pristine example of nature beneath them, along with the buzz and hum of students around it, I really felt it there; I guess those credits I got in English lit weren't a total waste after all.

The other thing about students is that they're not known for being judgmental, so I was much happier about carrying Em's head around here than on the bus. Surely the whole modular thing would be right up their alley, no?

"I like this." Said the head in question.

"Do you?"

"Yeah. It's just... nice." I waited on her pause as I watched the world go by during it, "It's like the shop, only more, uh, what's the word... oh!"

For the first time, she got a little frustrated, which I didn't think she had in her. I felt her eyes screw tight, her tutting through her teeth as she tried to think, even though she couldn't. "Em, it's ok. I know what you mean. It's nice to be around people with nothing to worry about, isn't it?"

"Yes... yes, that's exactly it! It feels so good to have the sun on my face and see how beautiful outside is. I love watching people do things, be with people they love. It's like being in the shop again, only better!" That tension had gone now, leaving her warm, wide smile brushing against me. I could feel it through my hand on the underside of her neck. It was infectious. "And it's even more better being with you."

"Ahh, that's sweet," I stroked her soft and supple cheek with my thumb, "what makes you say that?"

"Well, you're just... uh..." She tutted and clenched her eyes shut again, "sorry, can you tell me the word?"

"Uhh... what word?"

"The one I was going to say."

"I can't mind read, Em."

"You couldn't anyway, I don't have a brain."

I didn't have being outwitted by a complete lobotomite on my list today, but there you go. "I guess you were going to say that I am... also nice?"

"Yeah! Not everyone would carry my head around like you are, but... you are!"

"Well, I am using you as my handbag... don't you want to, you know, have a body to walk with? Must be kinda annoying being stuck with me, no?"

"Annoying? No! I'd probably loose my arm or something if I had my body. I love being a handbag - I can feel all your things inside me jiggling about like a... a... you know..."

"Handbag?"

"Yeah! A handbag! And, I feel so happy that I can be with you."

I nearly choked when she said that. Her cute little eyes and her satisfied grin gave me that comforting tingle across my whole being that only happens when you're really, really surprised, but in a good way. Why would I ever get mad at this head I'm holding when she thinks (not literally) so highly of me. I'm kind of exploiting her right now, and she's fine with it. She isn't even here by choice, I suppose. We continued along, me giving Em a standard chortled response to her sincerity to cover up my genuine uncertainty over it. I kept walking, she kept watching, silently by this point, with a few people having a quick glance if they were walking past, with none of them particularly bothered by us, and my mind began to settle again.

I started thinking about Bella, having not messaged her for a few days. We had some conversation about Em, how I was coping, how she does similar things (with a brain, though), and left it at that. I hadn't opened her most recent reply, but having seen the notification I knew she was hinting at me getting the therapy. I've never been one for this kind of thing, I haven't got any body piercings, no desire to get a tattoo... heck, it's hard enough to get me in a dentist's office! Or, perhaps not... it isn't the procedure itself I'm worried about, even if I don't like needles or the concept of being put to sleep and not feeling anything, it's the difference it makes that gets too me. I know I'm not like most people, and I'm fine with that. Why would I get a permanent reminder of some passion of mine or an exotic philosophy I adhere to in the form of ink in my skin? Do I really need metal sticking out my nose to bolster my personality? I don't need to do anything for anyone to make me feel like I'm closer to myself, and I'm content with it. I've never had 'a phase'. My job and my life doesn't look great on the surface, but I've got like 50 years before I really need someone to lookout for me. I don't really get pushing myself for anything other than material gain. I'm happy with who I am, who I hang out with, how I live - I don't want to change. Going from a normal human to a silly-putty human is a change. A big change. That's why I feel so adverse to doing it. But, why do I even entertain Em? It can't be just to keep Bella happy? She'd be happy if I changed, but she's also fine with me not being modular. Yeah, it would be nice for her, yet it wouldn't end our friendship. She's always been more outgoing and curious than me, perhaps that's why we're friends. Opposites attract, after all? And she does bring my better side out. She makes me more amenable, less closed, see the brighter side of life, feel things more. Thinking about it, Em makes me feel that way too, sometimes. Perhaps doing this would bring a better side of me out? Would being modular really make my life...

*OOOF*

Thump

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!"

"It's ok, I'm fine. Are you ok?" Said a woman's gentle voice to the right of me. She sounded more concerned for me than I felt for her.

"Yeah, I was totally in a world of my own there..." I looked down to check Em first, making sure she hadn't broken anything, or something like that, but she seemed fine. But by my feet was an arm, broken just below the elbow with a dainty bracelet around its wrist. The woman, clearly a student in a graphic t-shirt, very casually bent over to pick it up and held it like a bunch of flowers, taking hold of her bicep and letting the arm move as daintily as she moved herself. I was in total shock that someone that wasn't in the shop, or Em, was modular.

"Oh, tell me about it! I'm terrible with my heads, never know where I am or which is which." This girl continued making conversation, her severed arm gesticulating as she spoke. "It's a lovely head, I must say. I've got one similar that I share with my friend."

"Share?"

"Yeah, makes attendance easy when people think we're both the same person. We alternate..." She paused as she took a closer look at the head tucked under my arm, "It has eyes very similar to yours." Em was practically purring as she was being petted by the detached arm. My silence was deafening. "Sorry, I'm treating you like a lap dog, aren't I? I'm Chole."

"Em. This is Janet. I'm her free trial."

"Free trial?" She gave out a gimmicky shocked expression, "someone's been getting pally with Emily..."

The conversation, no matter how bizarre it was, distracted me from the awkwardness. Chole wasn't interrogative, but intrigued, genuinely interested with her one hand on her hip, and the other now slung over her shoulder.

"Well, I guess you could put it that way. I was thinking about getting the modular therapy done since my friend has been begging me to do it, but I was apprehensive, so Emily gave me one of her display bodies to 'experience' it, if you will, so now I have Em."

"I don't have a brain!" She delightfully revealed to Chole, as if this whole thing wasn't crazy enough.

"Hehe, neither do I, Em"

I gave a chuckle out of etiquette at her obvious joke as she tickled Em's chin with her left hand as I tried to explain. "Apparently display heads don't have brains."

"It makes Emily's life easier..."

"...What she said. I'm also making my life easier by using her as a handbag. It's surprising how much room she has."

"Oh, tell me about it," chirped Chole, now realigning her arm and pushing it back into her shoulder with a wet smack and a rubbery eh-er-eh-er as she went on, "my Mom got me a nice one for Christmas, but I haven't used it at all since I started using my head."

I stammered a little, "oh, you're using your head, too?"

Chole gave me a look telling me that her silly joke moments before wasn't a joke at all. Using her newly attached right arm, her dainty (and surprisingly well manicured) finger and thumb proceeded to enter her ear, stretching it slightly, then far more than I though it should, and reached about 2 inches deep into her head before her look of concentration snapped free, her fingers revealing a stick of lip gloss.

"Ta da!" I now had a look of concentration, but I wasn't snapping out of it anytime soon. Her macabre magic trick really threw me. Em could make more sense of this, and I was the only one there that wasn't part handbag.

"Wow! That's so ama... oh, where's the clapping?"

I snapped out of my bemused stupor to help Em out. "You left them at home, silly!"

"Ah, of course... I wish I could do that."

Chole giggled some more as she applied the lip gloss. "Oh, it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it," she pushed it back in through her other ear, making another wet sound as it resisted her hand pressing against it, "you have to think of it like picking a coin out of a small pocket, just side ways. It's a party piece really, I prefer taking my head off and flipping my top."

"Really? Me too! You just flick your ears, right?"

"Easy as that!" She chirped as she demonstrated, her forehead splitting and the curled, colored strands of her red hair fluttered behind her. The empty space was much more packed than Em's with all sorts of random stuff and girlie trinkets - definitely closer to a handbag than a head.

After a bit too long watching her rummaging around her open cranium for something else and fiddling with Em's earlobe, I got round to asking a particularly pertinent (and obvious) question.

"So... are you really brainless or what? You seem..."

"Normal? No need to be so coy about it, everyone asks me!" A phone in a faux-chic rose gold case emerged out of her as she closed her head shut. "Apparently modular people don't have 'insides' as such, but we can chose to manifest, like, fake versions? It makes it way easier to hollow yourself out and do this." She gestured to her head with her well manicured nails.

"But why is Em... uh, are you not, how do I say this?"

"Stupid? Well, Emily explained it to me, but it was a while back now," she tapped the top edge of her phone against her chin in thought, "it has something to do with my cells doing everything themselves, and making a brain draws all the thinking parts of my cells to it, but since it's a fake one, my cells get their thinking function back once it's made."

"Then why is Em dumb?" I felt her pout when I said that.

"She said something about taking the brain out too soon after making it. Must be something to do with all the thinking parts of you being in it, so taking it out removes them from your body, pretty much like in a typical person... but not as bad, of course."

I gave a few enlightened nods and gave a nasal '*hmm*' in acknowledgement, "so Emily must have made you as usual for display, and took your brain out a little too quickly," I said to Em, jiggling her with my hand through her neck.

"There's a lot of us, I wouldn't be surprised she made a mistake with me."

Suddenly Chole's phone lit up and buzzed with several messages, alarming all of us in some way or another.

"Talking of being stupid, turns out I'm about to miss a deadline for my coursework." Chole started typing hastily, scrolled, typed again, and sighed. "I'll have to go. I'm sure Emily will be more than happy to talk to you about this if your interested."

I, too, lit up and buzzed, "Oh yeah, very interested. We'll go and see her now, shall we, Em?"

"See who?"

"Emily."

"Oooh, sure! When?"

"Um, now... We haven't got you into trouble have we, Chole?"

The red head fluttered her eyes at us before she turned towards to the cluster of neo-classical buildings not too far from us. "Nah! My professor hands out extensions like they're going out of fashion." She checked another notification on her phone before putting in her back pocket, "I will swing by my place and find my brain, though. I'm gonna need it to get 3 months worth of essay done in a week."

"I thought it didn't effect you?"

"It doesn't, mostly, but I think I do get a little forgetful, my deadline being case-in-point."

"Well, good luck with it!"

"Thanks!" Three other students seemed to wander and hover near us, waiting for Chole, who glanced and smiled back at them in acknowledgment. "I just hope my roommate remembers where I put my brain last..."

"And you don't?"

She chuckled and winked as she followed and joined her friends.