Nothing unmanly about knitting (Open)

[thneed_need]

The Loft didn't faze him much anymore.

The Once-ler was perfectly content to knit here, especially when his tent was full of wildlife.  It was probably his own fault for installing air conditioning.

After an hour of working though, he began to wish he had someone to talk to, at least, while he worked.     

Comments

[m_benitez]

Emil on the other hand liked stitching his own clothes, or at least embellishing them. It wasn't as if he could not ask someone else to do it; he just missed working with his hands sometimes.

He noticed the Once-ler at work. "What are you making?" he asked.

[m_benitez]

"Famous last words. I do hope there's some other way to go about it...." Emil mused. "Like what if there's some other way to farm *just* the tufts like hydroponically?" he thought aloud.

[thneed_need]

Once-ler rubbed the back of his neck. He always felt vaguely out of his element in conversations like these. "Well it's like this...you don't kill a sheep to shear it. My friends have um, suggested that I don't cut the whole tree. And I have been working on methods to do so."

[m_benitez]

"Well that's good. I was afraid you were going to go the ruthless route," Emil said with a smile. "Sustainable economics is the way to go now, I swear. I don't know what people before us were thinking."

[thneed_need]

"You'd be surprised how many people worry about me and that." Although, many times that was upon hearing his name. The other times, he wasn't sure if something about his face screamed 'hapless hayseed' or what.

[m_benitez]

"Why, have you got a reputation going on?" Emil asked.

If only the Once-ler knew how much against the establishment Emil was....

[thneed_need]

"I never thought so. Er, but this place has made me rethink that. I'm the Once-ler...the "the" being optional. No, I don't know why my mom named me that, and yes, that really is my name." he gave the other a slight smile unsure of the reaction he would get.

[m_benitez]

Emil raised an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

[thneed_need]

Do?

What do you mean?

[m_benitez]

"I mean, what did you do that you had to rethink?"

[thneed_need]

"Well, I've met a few people here who seem to know me by name, but I've never met them before. And they sort of told me I'm a sleazebag. Which, I'm not. But, um, they said I would be, eventually.

...if that makes sense."

[m_benitez]

Emil smiled, already used to the space-time continuum being screwed up. "Did they say what they meant by being a sleazebag? You don't look dishonest."

[thneed_need]

"They said I destroy an entire ecosystem and send the planet spiraling into misery and despair."

[m_benitez]

Emil winced at this. "Sounds tough....like a business plan gone wrong," he said sympathetically.

[thneed_need]

"Exactly, and that's why it couldn't be me."

[m_benitez]

"Sometimes people surprise themselves with how they change," Emil said seriously. "Did they say exactly how you wrecked that ecosystem?"