VELVETEEN vs. The Thaw #3
“They went to the ground,” said Persephone, who had been an animus herself once, centuries ago, before the earth had split open below her feet and the God of Death had offered her a place in the Seasonal Lands, where she would never need to grow old, or tire, or die.
She would have other duties, and be cut off—as all animus who chose to serve a season were—from the life of the world.
It had seemed like the greatest gift she would ever be offered, and she had taken it, and never looked back.
She still wasn’t sorry. “She’ll go to the ground too, one day, unless she chooses us.
Now go, all of you. She’ll wake soon. I need to explain what’s been done to her. ”
“I don’t envy you that, sugar,” said Lady Moon, and sauntered off, the green vine wall opening to let her pass. Jack and the Easter Bunny followed her, leaving Persephone alone with the sleeping Velveteen. And with the geese, of course.
Persephone looked at the geese. The geese looked at Persephone. Persephone sighed. The largest and meanest-looking of the geese honked at her.
“Look, I don’t care if you feel like you should supervise, you’re not going to,” she said.
“No one likes geese. You’re basically giant, evil ducks, and if you’re here when she wakes up, she’s going to be understandably distressed.
Go back to whatever it is you do when you’re not being a pain in my ass, and I’ll make sure someone tells you when she’s awake. ”
The geese honked again. Persephone made a small shooing gesture with her hands, and was relieved when the large waterfowl turned and waddled away. She was a goddess of life and death and springtime. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like anything when geese attacked her calves.
With a wave of her hand she closed the opening in the wall, and settled down on the moss, watching Velveteen as she slept. Soon, it would be time to start explaining herself. She wasn’t looking forward to that part, but some things couldn’t be helped.
If you wanted to win the prize, you had to be willing to at least attempt to play the game.
* * *
Velveteen opened her eyes and found herself looking at the face of a goddess.
Persephone’s skin was several shades darker than Velveteen’s own, and her hair was a purple-black riot of curls, shot through with veins of white and pink and red, like she was her own field of flowers on the verge of bursting into bloom.
Her eyes were green, until she blinked; then they were brown, and when she blinked again, they were blue, ever-changing as the season she stood for.
Velveteen thought that Persephone might just be the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
Persephone smiled. “Hello, Velveteen,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“Naked,” said Velveteen, without thinking.
Then she froze, her cheeks darkening to a deep, cherry red.
“Oh fuck I’m naked in front of a goddess.
Oh fuck, I just said fuck in front of a goddess.
Uh. Please don’t smite me, or whatever it is you people do here in the springtime.
I’m much happier when I’m not getting smote.
Smited? What the hell is the past tense of ‘smite’? ”
Persephone blinked at her for a moment before she threw her head back and laughed.
“Oh, I am going to enjoy having you here. My name is Persephone. I’m a goddess, yes, but that doesn’t mean much in a world where men can fly and women can shoot rainbows from their hands.
I was just a superheroine a few centuries before it was fashionable, so I got a better title and more worshippers than most people do these days.
I got tired of it, eventually, and I moved into the Seasonal Lands.
There’s less outright worship here. More geese, but less worship. ”
“Geese?” said Velveteen blankly. She sat up, trying to cover herself with her hands. “I really appreciate the warm welcome, and I’m sure I’ll get over the part where I used to read about you in books soon, but right now, still naked, still not really thrilled about that. Help?”
“Help yourself,” said Persephone, rising and taking a step back. “Everything you need is here.”
For a moment, Velveteen could only gape at her.
Then she groaned. “Oh, seriously? This is a test? Look, your, uh, goddess-ship, I don’t know if you know this, but I have spent the last however long being treated like a dancing bear by people I thought were my friends.
I am done with tests. I’ll sweep your floors, I’ll do your dishes, whatever, I don’t give a shit.
All my shits have been given. What I won’t do is take any more pointless, painful tests just to show that I deserve a job I never asked for in the first place. ”
“Spring doesn’t want you,” said Persephone.
Velveteen blinked. “Uh, hate to break it to you, lady, but if Spring didn’t want me, I’d be in Autumn right now. I’m sort of glad not to be—those people are assholes—and at the same time, I can’t really believe you when you say that I’m not wanted.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t wanted, Velveteen,” said Persephone. “Spring doesn’t want you. I want you.”
Velveteen blinked again, more slowly this time. Then she narrowed her eyes, squinting at Persephone for a moment before she said, almost accusingly, “You’re an animus.”
“Yes, I am,” said Persephone. “That’s why I was called to Spring.
I don’t share your specialization. I don’t animate things that aren’t alive.
I channel small amounts of ambient life force into the world around me.
So mosquitoes die while flowers bloom—or sometimes, vice versa.
Everything has to balance, after all. We’re not meant to be swords, cleaving reality from itself.
We’re meant to be scalpels, nudging things to where they’re intended to be.
What Supermodel did when she killed all the other animus of your generation… it wasn’t fair.”
“Oddly enough, I’m pretty sure they’d agree with you,” said Velveteen. The fact that she was having this conversation while bare-ass naked was becoming less pressing as the urge to slap a goddess rose. “You know, what with them winding up dead and everything.”
“Death is a transition, not an ending,” said Persephone. “I can’t sorrow for them embarking on a new adventure. I can be angry at the woman who set them on that path too soon. I can be angrier still at what their passing did to you. The power you wield should never have been yours to bear.”
“Yeah, poor me,” said Velveteen. “It’s all fucked up and awful. You know what would make it better? If I had some pants on. Pants improve my quality of life amazingly.”
The corner of Persephone’s mouth quirked upward. “Is that so? I was unaware of the restorative qualities of trousers before you mentioned them.”
“Give me a pair and find out.”
“I’m afraid I can’t. If you want to be clothed here, you must clothe yourself. If you want to be fed, you must convince the season to feed you. This is part of how you earn your place.” Persephone shrugged. “I had to undergo the same trials, if it helps at all.”
“Not really sure it does,” said Velveteen. She started to spread her hands and stopped, the memory of pain haunting her. “When I tried to use my powers before…it hurt.”
“Of course it did,” said Persephone. “In the Calendar Country people like you and I walk in flesh, not in flower. We are the living, and as such, we have a small pool of life to draw upon. Enough for simple tasks, like waking a teddy bear or growing a sapling. Here, we have to use other methods of getting things done. It hurt because you were empty. You filled yourself, and the pain stopped.”
Velveteen stared at her. Then, in a slow, careful tone, she asked, “Are you telling me that I sucked the life out of something to make myself feel better?”
“A large bromeliad, of a type which blossoms once every twenty years. They store up a remarkable amount of potency as they grow. You found the nearest of them and you drank it dry. Don’t look so appalled, Velveteen; this is what I plant them for.
” Persephone shook her head. “I told you Spring didn’t want you and that I did; that wasn’t a lie.
I want you because there’s been no one to teach you, and you’re too strong.
The threat of you echoes across realities and into worlds that should never have been born.
It’s not normal, for two seasons to compete over a single soul, while a third stands willingly by.
It’s not normal for reality to dance at an anima’s command.
You have to be taught, Velveteen, because Supermodel did you no favors when she made you the conduit for the powers of a generation.
You’re more of a danger than you know. Now clothe yourself, and come to me.
You need me more than I need you. Believe that, if you believe nothing else I say. ”
Persephone rose, leaving Velveteen gaping after her, and calmly walked toward the wall of green vines and leaves. It opened at her approach, allowing her to step through, and slid closed again behind her. The leaves rustled as they slid back into position. Silence followed.
“Okay, wow,” said Velveteen, after a minute had ticked past with no sign that Persephone was planning to return. “I mean, wow. I was not expecting Spring to be even more fucked-up than Winter, you know. Brava to you for exceeding all previous standards.”