horrible cold

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa buries herself in her friends, and the warmth of the world that Harley isn't on anymore. She doesn't understand him. She never will. But there's Corona, sun-scorching and intense; there's Amdon, her oldest and closest; there's Anneia, sweet and smiling; there's Sandre, cuddly and fun; there's Tima, pretty-kindling and empathetic; there's Pacco, bright and deferent; there's Jony, hot as a kiln; Lionara hot as molten glass. And Aelise herself, who makes so many compromises but who does love Chelsa after all.

Harley wasn't like that one cold, cold girl, who - she wasn't even technically a sociopath. Sociopaths kindle like everyone else. She was just - cold. Like an airless environment in which no fire can burn.

But Aelise had her killed, and Chelsa made sure no one would miss her, and if anything like that ever happened again, Chelsa has every confidence that Aelise would make it right. Harley's one thing. He can just be - out of sight, out of mind. Aelise would never expect Chelsa to compromise on the existence of such a terrible cold.

Comments

[salus_populi]

"It is," Aelise agrees. "But it's not the worst thing that could have happened. The way things were going, I was afraid there would be a war so big, all the people would get killed."

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel nods.

[salus_populi]

"And then I found Chelsa. Do you know what her Gift does, exactly?"

[alicornucopia]

"You said her gift was to... be likeable," says Mehitabel slowly. "So - not exactly."

[salus_populi]

"She makes people like people," says Aelise. "Herself. Each other. So one day everyone was at war with everyone else, and the next day they were pretty much friends. And nobody dropped any more nuclear bombs, and the world didn't end."

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel stares at Aelise, holding very still.

[salus_populi]

"The reason your parents are worried about you," she says, "is because Chelsa can't make you like anyone."

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel relaxes visibly, although not all the way.

[salus_populi]

"They think you might be sick," she says. "But I'm not sure that's true. I think you might be Gifted."

[alicornucopia]

"And my Gift is to be safe from that," Mehitabel surmises.

[salus_populi]

"Is 'safe' the word you'd use?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes," says Mehitabel firmly.

[salus_populi]

"Why's that?"

[alicornucopia]

"It's my brain and I live in it and I don't want anybody but me to make it do things!"

[salus_populi]

"Can you make it like everyone?" wonders Aelise. "Me and Chelsa and your parents and everyone else?"

[alicornucopia]

"If I want to," says Mehitabel, "maybe. I don't know about Chelsa. I don't think I want to like her."

[salus_populi]

"Why not?"

[alicornucopia]

"I think she's doing a bad thing." Mehitabel chews her lip a little and looks with sudden suspicion at Aelise.

[salus_populi]

"I think she did a very, very good thing once," says Aelise.

[alicornucopia]

"I'm not sure," says Mehitabel. "This thing might be worse. And it's going on for a longer time!"

[salus_populi]

"If everyone had died," says Aelise, "then everyone being dead would have gone on forever. I wouldn't be alive, and you wouldn't be alive, and your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents wouldn't be alive. There would be no more people in the world at all, ever. So in a way, the good thing Chelsa did is still going on too. And if she ever stops doing the bad thing, the good thing will still be going on. It'll be going on for as long as there are still people, and I mean for that to be a very long time."

[alicornucopia]

"Everybody dies anyway except you and Chelsa and your very best friends," Mehitabel points out.

[salus_populi]

"I'm working on that. Anyway, it's still true that there are people, isn't it?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah, people who get Chelsa'd all the time," says Mehitabel in an attempt at a disgruntled growl that mostly sounds kittenish from a six-year-old. "Nobody ever even asked me if that was okay! I'm just safe because I'm Gifted and if I hadn't been she would've done it to me too!"

[salus_populi]

"Would you rather," asks Aelise, "that everyone was dead?"