464 ❀

[ino]

[Wagon Filter]

[It's kind of funny, really, the difference between the travel party on the way out and now on the way back. Everyone seemed pretty excited or in a generally decent mood on the way out, but now ... it seemed like everyone was dragging. Exhausted, upset, quiet. It worries Ino to see how much what's happened seems to have taken a toll on everyone. But she's a little surprised to see that Once-ler -- even considering his usual reclusive tendencies -- had wandered far away from the group and had been very much keeping to himself.

Naturally, the best thing to do is to bother him, then! Even without her promise to Zelos that she'd keep an eye on him, she is worried about him. So she'll jog back to the wagon and hop onto the front seat casually]

Knock, knock.

[Anyone there?]

Comments

[ino]

The biggest, huh? [she looks a little baffled, but amused]

[whichwayyoulean]

Yeah. It's a start, at least. If I can grow something, anything here... even if I know Ted fixes things in the future, I know I won't be a completely hopeless cause either.

[ino]

You'll be able to grow something. [again, she sounds completely, totally, 100% sure] Different plants require different kinds of soil, and water, and sun -- but you'll learn.

[whichwayyoulean]

I really hope I'll learn anyway.

...And I'm not, you know, cursed forever or something. [Because Lorax that would have just been HARSH, bro]

[ino]

Cursed? [she looks skeptical] I thought there wasn't magic where you came from.

[whichwayyoulean]

There's isn't.

...Well. Maybe there's a teensy tiny tiny little bit.

Maybe.

[ino]

[lmfao ...] Maybe?

[whichwayyoulean]

The Lorax may or may not have been magic.

I still haven't decided.

[ino]

How can you not know? If -- he? -- did magic stuff then he's obviously magic.

[whichwayyoulean]

He didn't really do any magic. Well, except for when he left. He did this...glittery floating thing.

But otherwise he just ranted. A lot.

[ino]

["when he left" ... she's beginning to get what he means when he says everyone leaves him]

Ranted? About what?

[whichwayyoulean]

[Even his best friend and constant annoyance]

Mostly about not destroying everything. He was the guardian of the forest, after all.

[ino]

... Oh. [oops :(] You guys talked a lot?

[whichwayyoulean]

He was a pretty much constant present in my life from the time I chopped the first tree down.

...The closest thing I've ever had to a friend back home, anyway.

[ino]

[that


is


really


sad]

... Why did he leave?

[whichwayyoulean]

Well, other than the fact I pretty much treated him like dirt. [He shrugs] Without the forest to protect any more, I guess he couldn't stay. You can't really 'speak for the trees' when are the trees are dead.

[He frowns a moment] Ted says he comes back, though. Once the forest starts to regrow.

[ino]

[... she frowns]

Sorry, but he doesn't sound like a very good friend to me. You don't just leave when your friend is at their worst. That's when they need you the most!

[whichwayyoulean]

That's what Martel said.

But I did work pretty hard in pushing him away. I really don't blame him for leaving. I don't blame any of them for leaving.

[ino]

Any of them? You mean the forest animals and stuff?

[whichwayyoulean]

Well, they had nowhere to live. And my family...

[He shrugs] Well, I guess any incentive for them to stay vanished when the money did.

[ino]

[... somehow, she kind of forgot he had a family ... maybe because he never mentioned them, but--]

Whoa, whoa -- your family?! [she almost says, "are you serious", but ... she knows he wouldn't make that up. she does look legitimately mad, though] What the hell!

[whichwayyoulean]

[Oh, that's a scary look. He isn't sure what a legitimately angry Ino is capable of]

Uh...yeah. My mom, my older brothers, my aunt and uncle. They cane to help me run my business. [He decides to focus on the ground again for the next part. As much as he's slowly come to accept the cold hard fact that they simply didn't love him, it's still not easy to speak of out loud]

Mom disowned me after the company went bust. They drove off back to the farm, and that was the last I saw of them. I guess I was crazy to think I'd get anything different. Mom...she wasn't exactly my biggest fan.

If calling her youngest child 'Once-ler' wasn't already enough of a dead giveaway there.

[ino]

[yeah, her mouth is just kind of open in horror the whole time he talks .... finally, she leans back against the seat with a displeased look] You know what? I hope she comes here, just so I can punch her in the face. [THAT'LL TEACH HER ..... lmfao]

[whichwayyoulean]

[He winces a little at that] Oh man, don't say things like that or she will show up here and suck all the good out of my life again because that's just what she does.

[ino]

Nah. I'll punch her so hard she goes straight home again. [grins]