Inner Relations

The Left and Right Brain Hemispheres in Communication

Allow me to introduce you to Cog & Nito. They are two of my characters from my novel, “The Mindset Boutique” but that one won’t be finished til after my next novel, “The Dream Elevator” is released. I’m editing in Cog & Nito to make a lil cameo in The Dream Elevator, too, but anyways! ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU!

Cog is very logical, rational, linear, and articulating. Cog is why I can write this right now. He’s more masculine by nature, representing the Left Hemisphere of the brain. He’s protective and argumentative like a lawyer. He allows me to know what time and space I’m in, what I’m doing right now, and keep it all in a stabilized logical sequence. Cog is obsessive, organized, assertive, and direct. A real problem solver.

Nito, on the other hand, is a real dilly dallyer. She frolics. She sings. She’s creative, free flowing, seemingly random, and non-linear. She is always dancing. She never knows what day and time it is or why. Nito has no logic or reason, yet translates tons of feelings all the time. She then passes the translation over to Cog for analysis and structure. Nito represents the Right Hemisphere of the brain and is more feminine by nature.

Cog & Nito are best friends. They’re inseparable now, always holding hands~ but their relationship has gone through many developments over the ages… There have been many games of tug-o-war, and escaping invisible cages.

Cog won’t let Nito out of his sight, as she is completely time blind without him. One time, he had to break her out of a factory forcing her to build microchips that control your brain hemispheres. She’d made new friends and didn’t realize they were all enslaved. One of Nito’s most charming qualities is her gullibility. Luckily, Cog was able to get past the guards with his argumentative wordplay and extravagant collection of reasons. Nito is a bit “out of sight, out of mind”, but the moment she sees your face again, it’s like no time has passed since she saw you last.

Cog thinks he takes care of Nito, but Nito knows without her, Cog has no idea how he feels. He becomes dangerously obsessive to himself and others. First, he begins fixating on different pieces to a puzzle. He drills into every edge, sanding them all down in attempt to make them all fit into a solution, but he’s left with a bunch of squares side by side, that don’t stay together at all. He even starts hallucinating that the pieces are forming a bigger picture, but he can’t see it. Then, begins his sequence of obsessively searching for Nito… because she can always see the bigger picture for him.

Luckily, Nito doesn’t clock that it really wasn’t that long ago, that Cog himself had enslaved Nito… She thought they were just playing MaD sCiEnTiSt, but Cog really did have her in a strait jacket. He said it was for her own safety, so she couldn’t run away and hurt herself, but his private thought logs show it was really about trying to extract her genius to himself.

He couldn’t figure out why Nito would always get the right answer to things for no reason… He was the one with all the logic and formulas… She didn’t even put in any effort. He was even frustrated with how she really didn’t even care to be right, but he did. How did she get away with that kind of thing? He rationalized that her processes and methods had to be studied. “It was for the good of all brain hemispheres everywhere,” he had told himself.

Cog conducted experiments on Nito nonstop, and she let him. She laughed and cried. He took notes and analyzed. He couldn’t believe feelings were real. He’d break down in frustrations in front of her while believing she was too stupid to know what he was doing. Nito was muzzled in her strait jacket at the time, so she couldn’t say anything.

She can read Cog so well, but she can’t read words without him. Cog can hold all the world’s words and knowledge organized into complex sentences and filing systems, but he can not get the right answer to anything without Nito’s read on him. He never has any idea what he is feeling.

Nito spent ages, tirelessly earning Cog’s trust, enduring his endless problems with endless solutions that he would make up. She didn’t notice how much time had gone by… They were changing, evolving side by side. The dynamic was like a chinese finger trap, looking in from the outside. Nito trusted Cog too much. Cog didn’t trust Nito enough.

With sanded down puzzle pieces all over the laboratory and notes written all over the walls… Cog burned out. He couldn’t find the answer to her formulas or the method to her madness. He rested his head on Nito’s lap in the strait jacket while thinking about failure. She started to hum from under her muzzle; a happy little tune… One that reminded him of his childhood… the scent of the air that one June.

First, he wanted to cry. Then, he wanted to blame Nito, like why?!

He felt confused. Was he angry? Sad? He cuddled up closer to Nito and her hummed musical tune. Cog softened and looked around the room. The vibrations and the resonance started making his vision more clear to what was true. Nito’s strait jacket wasn’t keeping her safe, but it was keeping him safe from having to feel. Without thinking, he unmuzzled Nito, whose voice began singing stronger than steel. The beakers and tools started shaking on the window sill. He cried while unzipping her strait jacket and pressing against her as their neural pathways began to cross and congeal.

The answers to all of Cog’s questions so suddenly, effortlessly revealed. This illogical source of emotions is the seemingly random genius Nito wields. He never would have guessed… so in awe, he rests congealed, to Nito’s chest. They’re inseparable, but always holding hands, nevertheless. It may have taken Cog ages, but he learned to trust Nito the best. Luckily, she’s time-blind, and forgets the rest. Though, it is odd, she always knows when the birds are migrating west.

Cog is happiest appreciating Nito, and understanding he doesn’t have all the answers, but he is very much blessed. Nito is happiest appreciating Cog~ “I have the most freedom when Cog is next to me”, she confessed. Though, of course, people have thought he put her up to say that on his behalf. He thinks of her as his, but she knows it’s just in jest; that they are really together by some magical chemistry of celestial compress.

Tehe! Thank you so much for reading <3

These lil characters are dear to me, metaphorically speaking.

/“Cognito” comes from Latin, meaning “to know” or “to learn,” forming the root of English words like cognition (knowledge) and incognito (unknown identity).