Day 42, Noon: Mystic Healing Spa and Acupuncture
[He's still here.]
Glancing over his shoulder as he tried to sort out his thoughts, the former king noticed the sun had emerged, causing the crystals in the window to shimmer. The dancing light was beautiful, but hurt his eyes- or maybe they already hurt from the somewhat overpowering smell. He rubbed his eyes again. What was he thinking about?
Oh right, what was troubling him. Hm.
He was far away from home, so far that he had absolutely no way to conceptualize the distance. He'd not yet found a way away from this place to return to Oz.
Speaking of home, he'd left all those folks in the Emerald City without a leader. They were pretty much useless without one, it seemed. He had no way of telling if his closest friends were okay.
He'd lost his diploma- his tangible proof of his wisdom- somehow. It seemed he'd not been thinking right since.
He was afraid he was starting to like it here, in some sort of twisted way. He'd met wonderful people here who were so different than those in Oz. He'd learned a lot of things, possibly things he did not know even with his brains. He had human senses: touch, taste, smell, all aspects he had never known before. Even the dangers of the night granted him a sort of adventurous thrill he couldn't find in the throne room of the Emerald City. He both reveled and was repulsed by his conflicting feelings about his experiences at the institute. He should want to go home without question- after all, he had a lot of responsibilities.
On top of all of that was that he was beginning to question what he had before known to be true. This robot man on the bus had told him scarecrows have no possible way of being alive, and yet, here he was. He remembered his creation, had memories and a voice- did that not make him alive? His straw-and-rags body hadn't made complete logical sense, but it still worked. Perhaps the farmers who had constructed him had somehow been wizards as well, and he'd been enchanted all along.
Or maybe he wasn't enchanted into this body, but had been disenchanted from his old one and simply- no, that wasn't something he wanted to think about right now. He'd already spent a lot of time thinking and leaving this kind lady without an answer to her question.
"I'm having a lot of doubts about myself lately," he said quietly. He numbly put his hands into his pockets, feeling those slips of paper the nurse had handed him as he stepped off the bus. He pulled them into view, reading the names on them: one of them was for this establishment.
"I'm not sure what either of these services involves," he said as he handed the coupon to the receptionist, "But will either of them help take my mind off... well, everything? I have a lot going on up there, and frankly Miss, I'd rather not think about any of it."
Glancing over his shoulder as he tried to sort out his thoughts, the former king noticed the sun had emerged, causing the crystals in the window to shimmer. The dancing light was beautiful, but hurt his eyes- or maybe they already hurt from the somewhat overpowering smell. He rubbed his eyes again. What was he thinking about?
Oh right, what was troubling him. Hm.
He was far away from home, so far that he had absolutely no way to conceptualize the distance. He'd not yet found a way away from this place to return to Oz.
Speaking of home, he'd left all those folks in the Emerald City without a leader. They were pretty much useless without one, it seemed. He had no way of telling if his closest friends were okay.
He'd lost his diploma- his tangible proof of his wisdom- somehow. It seemed he'd not been thinking right since.
He was afraid he was starting to like it here, in some sort of twisted way. He'd met wonderful people here who were so different than those in Oz. He'd learned a lot of things, possibly things he did not know even with his brains. He had human senses: touch, taste, smell, all aspects he had never known before. Even the dangers of the night granted him a sort of adventurous thrill he couldn't find in the throne room of the Emerald City. He both reveled and was repulsed by his conflicting feelings about his experiences at the institute. He should want to go home without question- after all, he had a lot of responsibilities.
On top of all of that was that he was beginning to question what he had before known to be true. This robot man on the bus had told him scarecrows have no possible way of being alive, and yet, here he was. He remembered his creation, had memories and a voice- did that not make him alive? His straw-and-rags body hadn't made complete logical sense, but it still worked. Perhaps the farmers who had constructed him had somehow been wizards as well, and he'd been enchanted all along.
Or maybe he wasn't enchanted into this body, but had been disenchanted from his old one and simply- no, that wasn't something he wanted to think about right now. He'd already spent a lot of time thinking and leaving this kind lady without an answer to her question.
"I'm having a lot of doubts about myself lately," he said quietly. He numbly put his hands into his pockets, feeling those slips of paper the nurse had handed him as he stepped off the bus. He pulled them into view, reading the names on them: one of them was for this establishment.
"I'm not sure what either of these services involves," he said as he handed the coupon to the receptionist, "But will either of them help take my mind off... well, everything? I have a lot going on up there, and frankly Miss, I'd rather not think about any of it."