Goreth here, again.

With Ashwin’s suggestion, we’ve written up a contract for Phage. And apparently, Phage prefers to have a contract. And I want to show it to you. I think it’s pretty neat.

The word ‘contract’ sounds a lot like a deal with a devil, even when it’s made between two consenting human beings. Businesses themselves have given contracts a bad name for as long as anyone can remember. But, also, if you’ve done any sort of freelance work, you know how vital they are to keeping both you and your customer on track and safe from hurting each other.

But, when you’re making a contract with someone you know and love, it doesn’t have to have any of those connotations. It can simply lay out your personal boundaries and promises to each other. Which is not necessarily a bad idea for someone you’re sharing a body with.

Phage says, and I quote, “I do have my power here on Earth. All the power I’ve told you about over the years. It is just muted by the other powers that I now share this planet with. But it makes me bigger and stronger than a human being, and I need to know how to avoid hurting you. Also, when I work, when I exercise my abilities, I become less me. I need something to focus on, to come back to, as myself. And a contract with your name on it also serves those purposes.”

We did have to word this with other visitors in mind, however. And we did end up getting a little official sounding, because it’s our body on the line.

So, here it is, for the record, and maybe as inspiration for your own contracts, if you need to make one for any reason:

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We, Sarah and Goreth Ampersand, as the original hosts of this vessel, hereby officially welcome Phage, a.k.a. Mau, a.k.a. ʔefejeʔe, to our plurality and our vessel, to join with us in our life and our goals for it. We thank it for its help so far, and with this document we hereby lay out our requirements and needs and expectations for behavior. These are also to be understood and adhered to by everyone else inhabiting our system with us, including ourselves:

1. 1. 1. 1. This vessel belongs entirely to Sarah and Goreth Ampersand, the original inhabitants who were born and developed with it. As such they collectively and each retain final veto over any decisions regarding the vessel’s state of being, including who may front and control the body.
         2. All inhabitants of the vessel, in accordance with the laws exemplified by the Sunspot, a.k.a. ʔetekeyerrinwuf, whether they are temporary visitors or permanent residents, retain the rights of Consent and Personal Autonomy over their own beings as entities within a collective psyche. And while Sarah and/or Goreth may take the front from anyone else at any time without expectation of argument or resistance, this does confer at least the courtesy of a request being made for the switch, except in the case of emergencies. In the case of control of the front and only the front, a “no” may be ignored by the two original hosts.
         3. Consequences for transgressions of the first two boundaries will be decided upon collectively, so long as those consequences themselves do not violate the first two boundaries. This leaves banishment from the front the only truly enforceable consequence, empowered by Sarah and Goreth’s rights for control of their vessel. But, please let’s work as a team and avoid that situation. Most consequences should be a simple discussion about how to avoid the transgression in the future, and how to make reparations for any damage done.
         4. With these boundaries and procedures in mind, we would like to state the mission for our vessel is to live as long as we might naturally do so as a human being, to keep the vessel safe and as healthy as possible, to heal it from injuries and illness if possible, and to keep it fed and sheltered and up to date on the medications and medical treatments that Sarah and Goreth have consented to. And also, to collectively maintain and respect all outworld relationships that have been or will be forged by the system’s members, no matter the size of the system at the time of the formation of that relationship.
         5. Therefore, it will be Phage’s job to use all of its powers and abilities to help Sarah and Goreth achieve these goals and to make maintaining these boundaries and expectations possible, in the best way it sees fit, within the constraint of Consent from Sarah and Goreth and respect for their Bodily Autonomy.

We, the current inhabitants of Sarah and Goreth Ampersand’s body and collective mind, hereby agree to this document and its requirements.

Signed,

Sarah Ampersand

Goreth Ampersand

Phage

Ashwin Pember

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Note: I think it would be reasonable and OK for some systems to treat their walk-ins as complete equals to their hosts, if the system even has hosts. If you make a contract like this you should tailor it to your needs. Like, really, you’re all sharing the body, you’re all affected by whatever happens to it. You need some sort of agreement of balance and fairness over how to work with it, whatever that looks like to you. But, for us, we’re dealing with visitors with very strong exomemories and possibly nigh magical abilities we don’t fully understand, and we need a strong protection for ourselves. I’m told by Ashwin and Phage, both, that this arrangement is not unlike how the Founding Crew of the Sunspot ran things until very recently (in the far, far future, relatively speaking).

– Goreth, the Dragon