Chapter 3

Disgustingly Optimistic

“So, you all thought I was a little controlling?” Asked Hate, looking around the room. The clean, crisp, board room was largely taker up by a giant table, the small amount of light that came from the overhead lamps shone down directly on the table, but aside from its harsh direct light reflecting off the green tables, the room was mostly dark.

Sloth’s headquarters wasn’t the closest to the ziggurat, but she was the most ready to host. Greed didn’t like the place, it felt soulless. There were soldiers matching through the hallways, the place was clean to the point of sterility. She pulled her fur coat closet around her and felt her snake underneath it, sliding across her bare skin.

“I wouldn’t say controlling,” said Greed, “in fact, one thing I always appreciated was that you always left us to our own devices as long as we didn’t get in your way.”

“That’s not true, you’d guilt us constantly,” said Pride, as she popped the lid off her fountain drink and started chatting in the ice.

“Guilt us yes,” said Greed, “but guilt is easy to ignore.”

“Who is?” Sloth looked up from her tablet, “sorry I was rescheduling some things, I had another meeting that I had to cancel for this.”

“No one, we weren’t talking about anyone,” said Pride.

“Okay well then let’s get started, I can’t do this all day,” said Sloth. She tapped something ion her tablet and almost instantly a green-eyed, green-haired, soldier stepped in and saluted.

“You called my queen?”

“Yes,” said Sloth, handing him the tablet, “take the minutes.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“So, ideas for a representative?” said Pride between mouthfuls of ice, “I think this person should be someone with a strong eye for the details, someone who knows the actual weight of their actions.”

“It should be someone who puts their sense of duty first,” said Sloth.

“Our resource shortage is the biggest threat right now,” said Greed, “we need someone who can take one memory and stretch it for miles. Someone who plans for the future, with a sustainability mindset. Someone who can take what we have and grow it, not just divide it up slightly differently.”

“Well said,” Hate steepled her fingers and her protecting blue eyers slowly made their away around the table. Greed instinctively looked away before she could catch herself.

“The frontier is dark and full of terrors, but it’s also full of what we need,” Hate said, “we need someone fearless enough to face the dark.”

Greed said nothing. Of course they needed to move forward, to face the frontier and expand further into the unknown, that was just the nature of a Lifetime, but they could stand to better manage what they already had.

“Sustainability, attention to detail, sense of duty, and fearlessness,” Sloth’s scribe recapped.

“But how much of each?” Pride asked.

“The duty should be the strongest attribute of course,” said Sloth, as though it were obvious.

“Don’t be ridiculous, the cities on the frontier aren’t running out of duty they’re running out of resources. We need meaning, and lessons, Hope’s stupid farmers haven’t been able to grow anything for years now, that wasn’t because of a lack of duty.”

“What do you care about Hope’s people?” Snapped Pride, “your own citizens hole up in the wilderness living like goats, she’s not even here.”

“At least my people aren’t known for being addicted to their phones, don’t you have a video game to stream or something? Back in your studio apartment?” Greed didn’t mean to too that far, but Pride had no right to go after her citizens.

Pride opened her mouth and Greed worried she was about to declare war right there. She knew her tribes could obliterate Pride’s minimum wage, media addicted, subscribers in a minute, but that got no one any closer to getting a representative, and it was just another notch on the endless wears they had been having for decades now.

“Enough!” Hate snapped, and the room shook for a second. Greed saw Pride flinch, which would have been a bit more gratifying if she hadn’t also flinched as well. There was more than one reason that everyone ion this room had let Hate have her way all these years. Sloth had the largest and most well-equipped army of any of them, and she still never challenged or contradicted Hate.

“Equal parts,” Hate snarled, “if we’re doing this in the spirit of fairness than God help me it’s going to fair.”

“Even if that gets us a weaker representative?” Sloth asked over her steepled fingers. She was probably the one person Greed knew who didn’t fear Hate, or at the very least get visibly guarded around her.

“If we get a weak representative we can always make another one,” said Hate, “that’s the thing about representatives, their usually at the mercy of the people they’re representing, and you all know how I feel about mercy.”

“So if they can’t hack it your plan is just to kill them and get another one,” sighed Pride, though she seemed to be trying to hide behind her fountain drink.

“It’s a big job,” said Hate, “it should have high stakes. Do you think they won’t do the same for their representative? Lust is a sweetie but I know she’s just as ruthless as me on the inside. Let me get out ahead of something right now: I can see a future where me and Lust end up being the representatives. If that happens, we’re right back where we started with one crucial difference: No one is pretending they don’t know anymore. No one is trying to hide anything.”

“It would be a never-ending open war” said Sloth.

“Exactly,” said Hate, folding her arms, “I won’t pretend I can see eye to eye with Lust. She has no sense of honor or shame, and she doesn’t care about making a better tomorrow. She’s stuck in the past, worrying about the memories that are collapsing and the damage that’s already been done instead of driving ahead towards the future.”

“Then why are you even entertaining the idea of a representative?” asked Greed, “It doesn’t seem like you believe any of this is going to work.”

“I didn’t say that,” said Hate, “but It won’t be an easy process, and it won’t be a peaceful change of power. If the representative we bring to the next summit can’t keep our best interests in mind then we’re obligated to come up with a better one. Our jobs do not stop just because we’re creating a new representative, and they don’t get easier either. Our Thoughts are counting on us to keep them safe and let them come to their fullest fruition, whatever that may be.”

“You and Lust becoming the representatives should be treated as a worst-case scenario,” said Sloth, “but if it does come to that, I’m with you.”

“If we work hard, it might not come to that,” said Hate, “in the most disgustingly optimistic scenario, this could be the start of a new era of pure abundance.”

She cackled and slapped the table.