realityshifted | (no subject)

Entry tags:

*the twins

(no subject)

[Everyone will no doubt notice a new addition to the Plane: a giant Christmas tree. Yes, it’s decorated. Lights, ornaments, candy canes, the works. EVEN TINSEL. Tinsel rocks. Lots of tinsel, really.

There are also quite a few presents stacked under the tree. Each is addressed to a person on the Plane with hilariously appropriate - or possibly inappropriate - wrapping paper.

There is a sign near the tree which reads, “Thank you very much for helping us. Please accept a gift, completely and utterly free. It is our payment. We feel you’ve earned it! Did you know some trees stay green in the winter? But they‘re so prickly.”

At the bottom of the sign a small scribbled note reads, “We tried to bake cookies but even we wouldn’t eat those.”]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, it really isn't so much what you choose as the fact you can, wouldn't you say? If I've been withheld from making any choice, then whether I choose an apple or orange to eat doesn't matter so much as I got to choose it in the first place.

But why do you choose the apple over the orange?

One is the act, the other is the reason.

Perhaps because I've lost the taste for oranges lately. Or maybe I just want to try something different for once. Need it be so complicated?

[someone else has accused her of this of late, and Reinette stiffens slight. She still believes that things are rarely so simple]

But why?

[smiles tightly] There was a worm in the last apple.

Nothing is ever perfect.

There is always a worm.

I'm well aware of that. It doesn't make the idea any less appetising, at least not at the moment. It doesn't change the fact the orange is a bit too tempting not to try.

[her eyes are bright]

You are aware, then, you just named your reason.

The choice is not so arbitrary after all.

[her smile remains very tight and very closed] But it isn't necessarily the correct one. Nor the only. The more important thing is the choice itself, not the apple or orange.

Then you are only responsible for your actions, and not what results from them?

Whether I choose the apple or orange, the outcome is the same either way. Both are meant to be eaten. I don't see how the result should make much of a difference outside how appealing it is to me.

Do you eat an apple as you would an orange?

They seem to requite different technique.

The technique might differ, but you still savour the taste. They still satiate a need.

[this is something Reinette has struggled to embrace, not that she would say]

I prefer to need nothing, and do as i would. Need is merely another compromise.

A desire, then. I would have both if I could, but it would seem circumstance dictates I am allowed only one.

[she laughs then]

But Lucy, we are merely speaking of fruit. Why not have on today, and another tomorrow,

My doctors always lecture me if my diet grew too restrictive. Louis grows quite cross as well.

[smiles tightly] I'm on something of a strict diet recently. But you're right: perhaps I should consider branching out.

[honestly now]

I did that once, restricted myself to nearly the point of collapse. All in the hope of maintaining Louis' favor when my body chose to disagree with the notion.

It did not end well.

Denying yourself anything tends to end badly. [laughs quietly, ironically] Particularly food. [quietly] It still doesn't make the choice any easier.

But surely you are capable of the choice.

Capable? Of course. It's living with the choice afterward. [considers Reinette as if she might say more, then laughs and waves a hand] But as you've said: it's only fruit. Nothing more than that.

Living with it afterwards?

As we have agreed, it is only fruit. Merely the aftertaste of the apple, or the orange.

It's nothing, my dear. Just some heavy thoughts.

I do so enjoy the taste of both, that's true. I don't see why I can't just have both, at least for a little while. A strict diet is, after all, counter-productive to health.

Then we return again.

Your choice is to not chose at all.

Perhaps it is. But it's still a choice.