Allow Me To Say
Authors Note: This is Oncie's Sweethear's fault; all of it. She told me to put the skiddles on top of the ice-cream and I couldn't stop eating it! Ah ah ah, brain freeze feels so good. :3 I swear besides this and OC's onceshots I will no longer be distracted, the ice-cream... It compels me.
"Now let me get this perfectly straight. I am not a man who sits back nicely and simply allows people to put whatever words they please in my mouth." Once-ler idly fondles a fluffy Thneed in his lap, inspecting it for faulty knots before tossing it over his shoulder to his mother who catches it and quickly puts it in plastic packaging. "You've all come to a serious misunderstanding, I have not ever, in any way, implied that I no longer care about the environment!"
Standing up he sighs and removes his sunglasses to study you in a half pitying sort of way and chuckles, "I am, in fact, quite the nature lover! I even make sure to take a stroll in the park at least once a day-"
Norma bursts into the room holding a newspaper and shaking it viciously over her head, "Don't listen to a word this lying snake says!" she cries, shoving the paper into his unimpressed face, "Even as you speak hundreds of Truffulas are being cut down and harvested for their tufts, the earth is a near waist land for your profits!"
He sniffs and rolls his eyes, "Believe whatever they put in the gossip section of your local spite paper, I will have everyone else know that I donate ten percent of my profits to help transport the poor animals away from the dangers of man-"
"The dangers that you introduced them to!" Norma cuts in, shaking her head and looking at you imploringly, "People, please! I beg of you, stop buying Thneeds, don't give him any more reason to destroy the world! What kind of place do you want your children to grow up in?"
Scoffing behind a gloved hand Once-ler pulls out a cigar and cuts off the tip, "I also provide a five percent donation to the local schools and have given out several scholarships to many down-on-their luck individuals whom will no doubt improve the world almost as much as I have." he says, placing the brown tobacco stuffed leaf between his lips and casually flicking a match, "I encourage everyone to do what they can for themselves-"
"But what kind of world will they improve? One so barren and diseased that they'll have to cover their noses as they go to work to prevent your pollution from damaging their lungs?" she shakes her head and throws the paper to the ground in her rage, "I miss the trees-"
"The trees still stand, all you need to do is look and see for yourself." He gestures out his window to show a partially full forest and smiles, "As for the ones I took... So what? Trees grow back, it's what they do. They seed, they grow, they get chopped down to make Thneeds and the cycle continues."
She shakes her head stupidly at him before looking to you urgently, "Stop this madness, trees can not seed if they've been cut down-"
Once-ler sighs and removes his top hat to look deeply into your eyes, bowing so you can see the earnest pools of gray-blue, "I give you my word, and I am a man of my word, that I would never intentionally harm our beloved mother nature, why just ask anyone who knows me!" he gestures to his family, lined up to the side of his office who each smile pleasantly at you. "People wouldn't like me if I was a danger to them, would they?"
"You're so ignorant and conceded that you make me ill." Norma seethes, turning away from him to walk across the office, stopping before you and sighing, "I know you will make the right choice, just because he won't listen doesn't mean that you won't... Save the trees. Save yourself. Save the children who will one day walk in our foot steps." she sighs, placing a warm hand on your shoulder.
She leaves with a final glare to Once-ler, who shakes his head in sad amusement, "I do hope she wakes from the delusion she's placed herself in; possibly simple envy. I do hear it makes one do crazy things." He shrugs and goes back to his tall red velvet chair and sits, offering you a chair at his side, "Do stay, I really feel that you could become a valued member to our team; to our family... Won't you stay by my side?"