paradisa | Twenty One Truffula Trees

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the once-ler

Twenty One Truffula Trees

[The Once-ler had woken up, loss free, and decided to focus on making his tower home as inhospitable as possible again before dealing with the rest of the disaster that had been the last two weeks. Take it slow. Baby steps.

Unfortunately, after he re-boarded up his windows and re-set all his traps, there's little left to do other than face the music. And so, he moves to sit on the floor for a while, watching an 'unless' scrawl itself beside his foot.

Deep breath. In. Out.

There's the pile of Truffula tufts, for a start, sitting in the corner of the room, looking deceptively unobtrusive. He doesn't even know what he's going to do with them. The horrible concept that they probably came from the Valley as he wished them up had dawned on him earlier and has stayed lodged in his mind. He'd just taken from the Valley that little bit more faster. As if he hadn't done the place damage enough already. Great.

And then there are the Thneeds now circulating the castle. He honestly wants nothing to do with them. But people still have them. Little wearable symbols of everything he's done wrong in the world. To the world. He pulls his own Thneed a little closer around him. Deep breath. In. Out. And then, finally, he pulls down his journal to speak]

If you can all forget what happened while I was on my loss, that'd be great. Okay? Okay.

[He closes the journal and leans back on the wall, closing his eyes. Maybe he'll respond to the book again. Eventually]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ino, he was watching those while brooding. That's blocking his brooding space. It does force him to pay proper attention to her, though.

He really does look miserable. All the joy the castle had given him with his loss drained right out of him]

I wish I could be as sure about that as you are.

[she just gives him a reassuring smile right back]

That's okay. I can be sure enough for the both of us.

[He attempts to return the smile, but he doesn't quite manage past a small quirk of his lips]

Some people might call that a waste of energy, y'know.

Some people are dumb.

[she'll reach up to straighten his hat]

And moping is the real energy waster.

[He glances up at that handiwork, before rolling his eyes a little]

Right, sorry. I'll start dance aerobics or something instead.

[Well, at least he's still being sarcastic]

[she laughs]

Sounds good. Yoga or tai chi could work, too.

[That, at least, gets something of a chuckle from him]

I think if I tried Yoga I'd take out half of my furniture.

[The little furniture he has, anyway]

Not anymore than dance aerobics would. At least with yoga you generally stay in one spot.

I don't know, Ino. I have a lot of limb to be flailing around, even in one spot.

Well, tai chi doesn't have a whole lot of movement. It's mostly breathing exercises.

I always thought that was a kind of fighting thing. [Martial art. Fighting thing. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to]

Well, yes. But by the time you learned the basic breathing and meditation stuff you'd be doing a lot less "flailing" and a lot more careful movement.

I think I'll stick to Kalinda teaching me basic firearms. At least then I've got some distance between me and whatever it is that's probably attacking me at the time.