Hi. Thinking about denial ending.
Just imagine, in less than fifteen days the world ends, but then the immediate threat is gone and the world, though recoverable, is irreversibly changed. Not just by the fact that a significant portion of the population doesn't look human anymore, but in that there's now an ever-growing, planet-spanning mycelium who's also sapient and loves you.
What would a healed society even look like in a world like that. I imagine missing persons cases would become more rare, seeing as there's an omnipresent behemoth with eyes everywhere and a strong desire to keep everyone safe. Same for violent crimes, or people succumbing to the elements, and Sam wouldn't let someone starve when there's perfectly steal-able food that no one's eating. What are they gonna do? Lock him up?
Speaking of food, plants grow on Denial Sam's body. If the landscapes were damaged by the visitor, could people have used him as farmland? They already build houses on him, and he does take up a lot of space.
Or, what about earlier, when humanity's just getting back on its feet? Sam would be able to relay information from across the world. If you were away from home when the disaster struck and got trapped with no way of communicating with your loved ones, he could have been the earliest way of finding out what state your family and friends are in, maybe he'd even ferry messages. He can't talk anymore, but seems dextrous enough to hold a pen
plus with the variety of mutated forms people were thrust into, specialized mobility aids would be in high demand. In the early days after the apocalypse though, all you had would be the extended limb of your new protector supporting you as you move, or just straight up carrying you if you can't.
And that's not even mentioning Sam himself! He'll witness and experience more than any person has before. Every biome, every weather, every animal and every culture, simultaneously and for the rest of his days. He'll perpetually watch the sunset while at the same time never be able to experience one again. Hopefully he's a quick learner, because he'll need to communicate with people from all over the world speaking all sorts of language. He's "common as trees" now, people have Sam limbs decorating their backyards. He knows every single person personally. Knows what their laugh sounds like, their speech quirks, their favorite perfume, who's hiding a smoking problem and who's baking pancakes at 2am. He'll watch babies go from crawling to playing to graduating to their deathbeds. He'll welcome hundreds into the world at the same time as he bids farewell to the hundreds he watched grow and wither.
And Sam's very happy like this, but how do his friends, the ones that knew him before, feel about it? His family? We know he has siblings. Imagine trying to figure out what became of your relatives after the apocalypse and discovering your bum brother/uncle is now a giant tree helping the entire planet. What kind of relationship could you have with something like that, knowing that every interaction you have with him only occupies a miniscule fraction of his attention as the rest carries out thousands of tasks for more people than you could ever hope to know? How do you maintain a relationship when your friend/brother/crush/dad is no longer a person in the same way you are? At what point does grief start to creep in?
