Conquest

Six Months Later

The VJ is right on time, and Brie sits down to talk to him about her ideas for the projections. She turns to the large white wall in question. "I've got a whole circle-of-life, dawn-of-time, primordial-ooze-evolving-into-beauty, quickly-tarnished-but-soon-restored-by-Earth's-organic-medicine thing in mind," she tells the half-Japanese, half-Latino kid in yellow eyeglasses. "I want it to be triumphant while still paying homage to our plight in returning to nature. Does that make sense?"

He whips out his MacBook. "Completely. Give me an hour."

She checks in with the Juice Pagoda staff on how their blends celebrating the eight most endangered ecosystems are coming. "Borneo and Micronesia were easy," says the weird juicing intern, whose title these days is Junior Juicing Consultant. "But Antarctica is sort of gnarst. What do you think?" she says, holding out a taste for Brie. "Too fishy?"

Brie pinches her nose. "I'm a little extra sensitive to gnarst these days. I'm going to leave this for you to decide. Trust your instincts."

The ice blocks chiseled into letters that spell NATEEVE are being carted in. Frozen inside each letter is the raw ingredient harvested sustainably from every red zone. The native dancers are arriving, along with the partners they've flown in from their flagship regions. Word around The Center is that a woman from Madagascar and a man from the Tropical Andes blended ethnicities last night following the lavish dinner they were treated to. And why shouldn't they? Love and a nice healthy planet, that's all we need.

The keystone guests are arriving—Rhonda Rousey, Kim, Kanye, and Caitlyn, Daryl Hannah, not to mention Ladie Tomboi, who has abandoned her Geisha persona for a new spicy Latina/rural Chinese farmer vibe she calls ¡Chairwoman Wow!

The evening's entertainment also just walked in. "Eddie!" Brie shouts, running to hug him. "Congratulations! I heard about your HBO special. You must be on cloud ten!"

Eddie Orpa smiles, looking dapper in his newfound confidence and nice new clothes. "I gotta tell you, our night in the Cathedral of Bird Shit was transformative." Eddie squeezes her hand. "Not to mention the morning after."

Brie winks at him.

Bern, Peyton, and Gretchen are here to show their support. Brie introduces them to Eddie. "You're Eddie Orpa?" Gretchen gushes. "Oh my God, your whole bit about sleeping with the cantaloupe on your ex-wife's pillow and then eating it for breakfast everyday was hysterical! Your humor helped me get me through my divorce."

"Divorce, eh?" Eddie says, putting his arm around Gretchen.

Brie shimmies her shoulders with excitement at Bern and Peyton. "Want to help me get into my dress?"

The flashbulbs are blinding, but they set the crystals in her dress on white-hot fire, transforming Brie into an electric angel up there on stage. The native dancers squat and leap around her as she steps up to the microphone.

"Welcome," she says, her voice sizzling through the Waitrium. "Thank you for joining us for the official launch of Nateeve, our smash success organic line of personal beauty, empowerment, and wellness products harvested sustainably from the most endangered ecosystems on the Earth. In partnership with Native Hand, the dramatic and positive fiscal impact Nateeve is making in these critical ecology zones is replacing harmful fishing, farming, and mining practices with environmentally responsible new forms of work for those who call these regions home. In six short months, cooperative harvesting of Cupuaçu butter in select areas of the Amazon rainforest has reduced clear-cutting in the region by 25%, and we are just getting started."

Applause fills the Waitrium.

"Through well-timed interventional online education and on-the-ground training, Native Hand is seeing similar results with Ximenia fruit in Kenya and Ba Kelalan salt in Borneo. Livelihoods are being born and new generations are learning how to live in harmony with the Earth while improving the quality of life for their families."