Chapter Text
"Listen... Zosia, right?"
"That is the name of the individual, yes."
"Ugh... Right." Carol rubbed her forehead. She was feeling exhausted, and with a little alcohol in her system, her thoughts were all over the place.
"Can you... tell me what kind of person Zosia was? Did she have a family?"
Zosia (or the hivemind member previously known as Zosia?) smiled politely.
"She is still here. With us. There is no need to talk about her as if she died."
Carol groaned. For a hivemind, this being surely would know how to be less annoying.
"Just answer my question."
"Of course, Carol. If you are wondering about Zosia having a spouse-"
"Not what I asked."
"Regardless, rest assured that in the moment of her integration she wasn't in a romantic relationship with anyone and she doesn't have children. However, she does have some relatives in the United States as well as Poland. In fact, her mother lives in Kraków currently."
"O-kayyy..." Carol took a sip of her quickly warming beer. "What about her personality? Her... hobbies?"
"Can we ask a question?"
"Yeah?"
"Why is that information important to you?" The hivemind in the form of Zosia tipped her head to the side, like a curious dog.
"I... just... I'm curious if she and I met before... What would she think of me? Would she hate me? Would I hate her?" Carol stared at the beer bottle in her hands.
“Carol.” The hivemind started carefully. “We're sure you would get along great. Zosia is a big fan of literature.”
Carol chuckled humorlessly.
“Well, if she ever read my books and actually liked them, I don't think we'd get along.” She downed the rest of her beer and winced a little. Too warm.
“We cannot say if she would like them for certain...” Zosia's brows furrowed a bit. She seemed to be deep in thought, if only for a moment. God damn it. Carol thought. She is weirdly cute like this… Ugh. I shouldn't be thinking about an alien hivemind thing this way!
“Wait… You have all her memories, and memories of all the dumb people who read my books - why can't you say exactly how she would feel about them?”
“This is not how we operate.” Again with the polite smile! Pisses me off!!! “The only way we can experience things is as a collective. Collective thought is all we know. But please, don't think of it as a loss. In fact, we can reexperience things in a much more elevated manner. All of humanity's culture - be it literature, art, cinema, music - is processed through all of humanity's wonderful minds, which gives it an endlessly beautiful quality.”
“But isn't it kind of the point of art, that different people can have different opinions on it? Different interpretations?”
“And we are experiencing every single view and interpretation at the same time. You'll understand how wonderful it is, once you join us.”
“Feels like the whole world is just one big fucking cult now. Joooin uuusss!” Carol tried to make an impression of something between a zombie and a goblin. “What if I don't want to become one of you? Are you gonna make me?”
“We won't, of course. If that makes you happy. But we're sure you will come around to this idea.”
“What if the thing that will make me truly happy, is if you will let Zosia go? Hm? It's just one person, right? Wouldn't be a big deal.”
“Why?”
“Well. I could just yell at you and wipe out half the human race again, no?”
There was a pause. Zosia's expression was unreadable.
“You wouldn't do that.”
“You think? If there's no way of bringing those people back, they're as good as dead, no? Why would I care?”
Zosia's head tipped to the side again.
“We are sure that Zosia would suffer greatly if she were to part ways with us. Are you sure you want to inflict pain on her?”
“I think if she can become herself again, she wouldn't want to come back.”
“Self…” The hivemind replied slowly. ”Very well. This could be a valuable experiment for us all”
Zosia's body carefully laid down on the floor. “This could take a little time.” One last neutral smile. Then, as the smile faded, the body of a human known as Zosia began convulsing.