St. Bethany sits on a rooftop and she stares out at the campus and she is in despair. She is a girl for whom there is no happy ending. She is a girl for whom there cannot be hope.<\/p>\n
After Bethany\u2019s been sitting there a while Lucy flows out of the darkness.<\/p>\n
Lucy stands there in silence.<\/p>\n
She wears a pale hat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really trying to make friends,\u201d Bethany says. \u201cWhen I talked to you earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
They had spoken earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I loathe you,\u201d St. Bethany explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d Lucy says.<\/p>\n
She sits down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk to you,\u201d Bethany stresses, in case Lucy had misunderstood this. \u201cYou\u2019re not a nice person. Thing. Person-thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have anyone else that I can talk to,\u201d says Lucy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d says Bethany.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease,\u201d Lucy says.<\/p>\n
Bethany puts her head in her hands. After a while, she says, \u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know rock-paper-scissors?\u201d says Lucy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it,\u201d Bethany says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot trissors<\/em>,\u201d Lucy clarifies.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it,\u201d Bethany says.<\/p>\n \u201cNot hobbit-Spock-spider, either,\u201d Lucy explains.<\/p>\n \u201cI was old enough to know rock-paper-scissors,\u201d Bethany says, \u201cbefore the scissors fell.\u201d<\/p>\n People mostly stopped playing rock-paper-scissors, when the scissors fell.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it wasn\u2019t as weird for you,\u201d Bethany realizes, \u201cif you were living out there, in space.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOkay,\u201d Lucy says, after a while.<\/p>\n \u201cSo?\u201d Bethany says.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I used to play it,\u201d Lucy says, \u201cin space. Rock-paper-scissors. At the evil academy. I became very good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t be good<\/em> at \u2014\u201d Bethany starts.<\/p>\n \u201cI became very good at it,\u201d Lucy emphasizes. \u201cBetter than Cyber-Merlin. Better than the Luck Witch. Better\u2019n practically anyone. Like, if we were to play right now, what would you throw?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRock,\u201d says Bethany.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I\u2019d win,\u201d says Lucy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s amazing,\u201d says Bethany. \u201cTruly a victory worthy of an evil prophet of space.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut there are intimations,\u201d Lucy says. \u201cHints. Shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSid?\u201d<\/p>\n But Lucy shakes her head.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t . . . think so,\u201d says Lucy. \u201cI think \u2014 I think your stupid planet has the rock-paper-scissors player that will be the death of me. And I think he is a goat.\u201d<\/p>\n Bethany blinks.<\/p>\n She looks over.<\/p>\n \u201cOK,\u201d she says, \u201cYou\u2019re way losing me. Why would you play rock-paper-scissors with a goat?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPride,\u201d says Lucy.<\/p>\n Bethany hesitates. \u201cAnd . . .why would that kill you?\u201d<\/p>\n Lucy shrugs.<\/p>\n She points over at the chapel. \u201cChapels always throw rock,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause they\u2019re chapels. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c. . . right?\u201d Bethany guesses.<\/p>\n \u201cSo,\u201d says Lucy, \u201cone, two, three.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t do this to a chapel! People pay good money for those things.<\/p>\n \u201cWow,\u201d says Bethany, looking between the chapel and the paper that Lucy Souvante has thrown. \u201cThat never happens when I play.\u201d<\/p>\n Lucy shrugs.<\/p>\n \u201cI just get, like, Leonard Nimoy appearing out of nowhere to sing about hobbits or whatever. At most<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou are a degenerate, sub-human species,\u201d says Lucy, inaccurately. \u201cYou have lost the true game, given to you by God.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d says Bethany.<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d says Lucy, \u201cI suppose that a saint might know more than a prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n Bethany sighs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Church doesn\u2019t actually acknowledge us,\u201d she says. \u201cIt turns out that there is this whole process that doesn\u2019t rely on having somebody put a magic hat on you at all. At most we are officially cardinals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the spirit,\u201d says Lucy, who is, after all, an evil prophet. \u201cLook upon the meaninglessness of the world and despair!\u201d<\/p>\n They do this for a while as the last few bits of chapel sift slowly to the ground.<\/p>\n After a while St. Saul comes and joins them.<\/p>\n \u201cDespairing at the meaninglessness of the world?\u201d Bethany asks him.<\/p>\n \u201cStomachache,\u201d says Saul.<\/p>\n \u201cHave one or are one?\u201d Lucy asks. Sometimes she eats people.<\/p>\n Saul raises an eyebrow at her.<\/p>\n \u201cJust asking,\u201d Lucy explains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St. Bethany sits on a rooftop and she stares out at the campus and she is in despair. She is a girl for whom there is no happy ending. She is a girl for whom there cannot be hope. After Bethany\u2019s been sitting there a while Lucy flows out of the darkness. Lucy stands there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"series":[50],"class_list":["post-5540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vidars-boot-chapter-2","series-vidars-boot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Lucy_Hat-e1385458842367.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6096,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions\/6096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=5540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}