paradisa | Nine Truffula Trees

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the once-ler

Nine Truffula Trees

[The journal can pick up a lot of clanging and banging today, why? Because the Once-ler’s got his inventing groove on. York asked for a duplicate of his wagon-cottage-mahome and well, he’s happy to deliver. After all, it’s something he can do inside the safe confines of his room...with the the ‘mahome’ part at least. The rest? Well that may require leaving his safe haven, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for science. He also appears to be singing while he works]

♫ We could while away the hours
Da da de da le da dedo
There would be lots and lots of flowers
And you could sit on a gazebo ♫

...It still doesn’t sound right.

[Not noticing his journal was open for that, he wanders over to his drawing board where it’s popped up to dictate into it]

Okay. Opinion time. When you're camping out, what's more important to you:
A: Having a working shower
or
B: Having a skylight

Send your answers via journal to 'Gosh what is that handsome devil making now?' Reply within five hours and get a free Whatsamahoozit.

[The Doctor]
...This filter could go wrong in about ten million ways but that’s what you get for having an un-unique name.

Someone mentioned you had some scrap metal laying around your TARDIS. You using it for anything?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Usually forests have a lot of trees, yeah. [a little amused] There isn't a whole lot of variety in the wild in Konoha, either, but we can import seeds and stuff like that.

Before I came, no one really bothered with the forest, so I guess it was just left to grow as it was. But that was just fine, it was paradise just the way it was.

Paradise? Really? [what happened to wanting to be inside, oncie]

Oh yeah. [And though there's that underlying sadness, creeping around like a shadow, his tone is animated, as if describing the most wonderful sight there ever was, perhaps even the dearest thing to his heart. Which to him is very much the case]

The grass was a beautiful shade of green, the sky perfectly blue. There were huge ponds full of Hummingfish. And in the middle of it all were the Truffula trees. They stretched for miles and miles and miles. Farther than the eye can see.

[He even doodles one in the journal for her]

Their tufts were softer than silk, and they smelled of butterfly milk. They were the most beautiful trees in the whole world.

[... that sounds nice and all, but ...]

Wait, butterflies make milk?

They do in my world. It's a pretty unique smell.

Huh. [a little amused] I didn't take you for the type of guy to get all sentimental about nature.

[And just like that, the joy deflates from his voice]

Someone has to remember it. No one else will.

... Why not?

Because the forest doesn't exist any more.

A monster came and destroyed it all.

... A monster? [well, that's not too unfamiliar, since monsters and jerks blow up konoha like every couple of years] That's too bad. I guess it's harder to rebuild a forest than a town ...

He did worse than that. He polluted the air and the water, turned the ground to a filthy ash. The sun can't even shine through the smog in the sky any more. Nothing can live there, and nothing can be regrown.

[Gosh but he sounds angry and bitter]

All because he was too greedy and blind and stupid to see what he was doing.

[ ... okay, now she's adding this up. because, especially with that last line ... that sounds waaay too much like a person to be a monster, and well, with all he's said about him doing horrible things ...

softly:]

It was you?

[He falls silent for a while, because this isn't the easiest thing to admit to, and this is INO. In the same way he trusts her with this information, a part of him doesn't want her to see him for what he really is. But he knows, deep down, he likes the idea of lying to her even less]

Yes. I destroyed every inch of the valley and got rich doing it. I needed the tufts of the trees to make my Thneeds. [You know, that thing he sold you. That thing he gave you the money back for] I swore to the guardian of the forest that I'd find a way to do it without chopping down the trees... but supply couldn't meet demand, so I broke my word.

[A pause] And hurt the only beings who ever really cared about me in the process.

[yikes ..... yikes. well. no wonder he was so upset ... because he really DID fuck up, big time. and she feels kind of bad for thinking that he was being overdramatic about something dumb ...]

... That explains a lot. [she's quiet, but she doesn't sound mad, or disgusted, or anything like that. and she's still talking to him! gasp.]

[Oh good. Her still talking to him is a good sign. He heaves a sigh welp, at least he doesn't have to keep that from her now]

Yeah?

...Anyway, that's why I try to remember the trees. No one cares about where they've gone, and even if I can't bring them back, I can't just forget them, either. That'd be like pretending everything I did never happened.

That's a good attitude to take.

[a pause, as she looks back at what he's just said ...] But you know what? I've met -- and fought -- a lot of monsters, both at home and here. That kind of attitude is what makes me think you aren't a monster at all.

[That gets a small scoff]

Tell that to the Bar-ba-loots, Swomee Swans and Hummingfish who had to leave the only home they ever knew because I destroyed everything they needed to survive. Tell it to the townspeople who are forever coughing now, because the air quality is messing up their lungs.

But you care that that happened.

[a pause]

Not long before I came here, something awful happened. My teacher, who was like a dad to me, was murdered by a horrible man. He was just about to have a baby with his girlfriend, and this man came and murdered him, for no other reason than because he thought it was fun to watch someone die. And when we went after him to find him, he laughed and taunted us. He actually thought it was funny that he'd killed so many people, including my teacher, and had gotten away with it. Up until we got rid of him, he didn't care. He didn't care at all.

You aren't like that, Once-ler.

[He's quiet for a moment. So many of the friends he's made here have had such terrible, horrible lives, where the people they love dearly have suffered or died. His own troubles pale in comparison, really] I'm sorry you had to go through that.

...But I'm the only person left who does care, and so long as that's the case, I can never fix the damage I've done.

[LOL. she's not really trying to get sympathy, more like illustrate a point, but!] Thanks, but it's not that uncommon in my line of work, to be honest. [it's still sad! but right now it's not about her, it's about him]

So other people are happy to live in that place after it's been polluted?

Edited 2012-08-12 00:28 (UTC)

[Oh Ino, his awkward inappropriate feelings for you means you always win his sympathy] It still hurts though, losing people you care about.

I don't think they're happy about it, but they sure don't care enough to change it. Thneedville is just walled off from everyone and everything now. It's all by itself.

It does. But -- he wouldn't want me to be miserable about it.

Hm. [a pause, as she thinks ... but when she speaks again, she sounds confident, almost excited, even] Alright, I've got an idea!

That's a healthy way of looking at it.

[Uh oh. He sounds almost scared, after all most 'ideas' involving him also involve kidnapping] ...You...do?

I like to think so.

Yep! I'm going to teach you how to plant things. No refusals allowed!

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[Ino]

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