an~ Completely revamped. New character, new theme, same word. If you're looking for Daphne/Mustardseed from me, go to Daphne's Dates.
It's the eighth time through the Pinocchio story when the boy discovers popcorn.
Well, that's not really true. None of it's true. It's only the eighth time since the Editor came to the Book (which is all that really counts, because the times before were easier). It's maybe the twentieth time through the story since She came through and changed things, made them affect the world outside. Before that, nobody counted how many times they had to relive the same story, because they were allowed to do whatever they wanted as long as they stuck to their roles when someone came through. The boy, who doesn't know what his character's name is, has always known about popcorn, too. He sold it, before he got kidnapped.
But the eighth time through since the Editor, he gets up the courage to eat some.
He looks around furtively (he can afford to do that because his character isn't supposed to eat the popcorn) and slips a few into his mouth once he's certain that nobody's watching.
As the light buttery things melt on his tongue, his eyes close involuntarily. It's delicious.
From then on, he eats a few every time he gets a chance. The Pinocchio story is long enough that he spends a significant portion of time in the margins (he's lucky. Not as lucky as the King Arthur extras, who have years to themselves, but he could be in Cinderella, living the same three days over and over again), and he can eat so much infinite popcorn.
So much.
He doesn't know why he never did this before, because it's amazing. All he knows is that he's never going to stop. Sure, he's still cautious (has to be), but nobody will take his popcorn away from him forever. He'll always come back to it.
And, after all, it's not like making one person who probably died hundreds of years ago love popcorn can be that important, right?
(He'll never know that before he tried popcorn, a company named Jiffy Pop didn't exist. He'll never know how much he changed the world.)
(He'll never want to.)