THE WEAVE:
Vesta tosses 'Hivemind' into the whirlpool as the Nymphs go diving, One by One, after Queen Bee Lilitu. "Vesta, WTF?" Persephone asks, "I've never known you to throw books a Way before." "I'm frustrated," V furrows, watching it fall into Eternity. "Why?" Persephone inquires sweetly, at her shoulder. "Because everyone is alWays telling me what I am already doing," Vesta says, still watching the book drop. "Like what?" Persephone wonders at her. "Like, 'Cognitive Reappraisal,'" Vesta mocks, in a nasal tone. "You, 'Take your original and reflexive appraisals, and intentionally shift them to a more productive set of interpretations,' p. 174. It's a strategy, for self regulation. 'Step outside your tribe, to build relationships with people different from you,' p. 248. Pudding and I do that, All the Time," Persephone stands, shocked, as Vesta begins to rave, "Be like the Bees! Make fucking honey! Use fiction, to nudge norms! 'Stories we choose, shape our realities, and we can choose narratives that yield the most prosocial, productive, humane emotions and outcomes,' p. 189," Vesta fumes. "So why are you mad, V? Can't you just give yourSelves a pat on the back? Or a piece of cheese?" Persephone asks. "Because it's annoying to be a lab rat," Vesta broods. Persephone shrugs, "You change Pudding. He changes you. It's quantum entanglement. You chose that, when you took him as a part of yourSelves." "But WHY do I alWays have to wander around in the Dark?!" Vesta shouts to the Sky like the Selkie-Penguin she is. "Because you are the Light, V. Deal with it." Persephone hugs her around the waist, and whispers softly in her ear, "Did you read page 239?" "Yes," Vesta crosses her arms, "Why?" Persephone smiles, "Lesson V: Remember that you're not the DaVinci Code guy." Vesta resists Persephone's embrace, "Just because I read a rule, does not mean I have to obey it, Sephy. I'm maintaining that part of my individuality, from the Sea of the collective hivemind." "Good," Persephone squeezes V tighter, beaming, "I was just testing you, my little code-breaker."
Planetary Signatures 