Too Much Of A Good Thing...

Hey Everyone!! :-)

Here's a little bit more of the third installment in the Petri Dish Chronicles! As always, the disclaimer is that this is a draft and, as such, it's unedited and likely full of errors and is subject to revision, revamping, and being completely scrapped and rewritten. But, with that in mind, I'm reasonably satisfied with the basics of it, at least at the moment, or I wouldn't have bothered posting it. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from the third Petri Dish book:
Rolling her eyes with affectionate exasperation at her friend, Petri again reflected on how happy Chessie had seemed since they arrived on Zanzibar. Though, she supposed that shouldn’t surprise her, since just about everyone on this planet seemed to be happy most of the time. It was something she had noticed almost immediately. Since her need to feed on the energy of others had been tied to their emotions for so long, Petri tended to be acutely aware of how the people around her were feeling. And on Zanzibar, most of the people seemed to experience pleasant emotions most of the time.

In all the places she, Chessie, and Sadaka had visited with Daji, Petri had never experienced such a widespread sense of peace and happiness as she found here. Most of the planets they had been to lacked the desperation and all-encompassing avarice of Upworld, but Zanzibar had somehow cracked the code to move past making the majority of the population simply not unhappy to ensuring sufficient support and opportunities for the citizenry that people were able to enjoy their existence instead of merely enduring it.

Being surrounded by so much positive emotion was almost like a drug for Petri, at times. Even though she no longer had to take in the emotions of those she fed upon, if she opened herself up too much, she could still be swept away by what others felt. It was a strange problem to have, the temptation to experience vicarious pleasure just because she lived in such a happy city, but it was a problem all the same. Allowing her consciousness to expand that far beyond her own senses risked her not being aware enough of her immediate situation to respond to danger if necessary. So, ironically, it was Petri’s own sense of paranoia that she found most helpful in warding off the desire to wallow in the happiness she found herself surrounded by.