Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 24 – Feeling the Synergy

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Dear. Ms Jessica.

I’m interested in the kind of mutation that fused people together. Specifically the kind of fusion that results in a complete, almost normal body made up of half one person, and half the other. The one that results in a complete if slightly asymmetrical face with two eyes, one nose, and one mouth. 

I have three questions regarding this. 

1: What determines whether their minds fuse or not.

2: If their minds don’t fuse, Do both sides control the entire body, or do they only control their respective halves?

3: Adding to the previous question. How does speech work when two individuals share one mouth? Do they both control the entire mouth? And what happens when both try to say different things at the same time?

Sorry for the long question.

Ah yes, I had expected this line of questioning eventually. A lot of people are curious about this ever since Synergy struck pop idol status. It’s OK. I love her recent album too, and I may or may not have a few of her t-shirts. What? Don’t think an old teacher like me can go to concerts? I’ll have you know I was quite the fan back in the day. Hitting the road, chasing bands from festival to festival… but enough about me. On to the question!

First, if we were able to accurately predict mutations, then mutation science and medicine would be much more advanced than it currently is. Unfortunately, we don’t know what determines whether minds fuse or stay separate. There are patterns though.

For example, if the brains stay separate, their minds stay separate. If the brains fuse, more often than not their minds will fuse as well. Sometimes if the brains fuse the minds won’t fuse, but will occupy the same brain. At this point, the vestiges of the two separate minds are essentially analogous to someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and, with time, may integrate.

Whether or not a personality controls a different side of the body is really a matter of how the nervous system is wired. If, for example, the individual has two brains and one is only wired to one side of the body, one wired to the other, then of course one would control one side and one would control the other. This is very, very rare however. Remember, fusion mutations happen because the two bodies essentially feel that they work better genetically together than separate, and this usually means a fusion of nervous systems. The body you describe usually has one brain, in which case the same brain controls the whole body. If there are still two personalities, which once again is rare, then they would body have control of the entire body.

And what happens if two personalities try to control a body part at the same time? The same thing that happens when a non-mutant human with Dissociative Identity Disorder has two personalities that try to control the same body part at one time. Twitching, mumbling, mixed and distorted signals. If a mutant were to have two personalities but one body with one set of limbs, they would have to learn to work together to have a chance of being functional. However, once again this is rare. Almost all mutants that fuse into one body this way have one personality, and even those that don’t eventually integrate into one later in life.

Hope that answered your question. See you at the next Synergy concert! I love her new single “We all are one!”

We’re all in this together

We all are one

We need to live in har-mon-yyyyy

WOOO!

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What? 

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Don’t judge me. It’s a bop!

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com