Day 18 - Sugababes

M. Troll spent his night reading the stories written by the giggling salad. He found love, fun and action inside.
He was really tired on Monday morning, but it was worth it (and who isn't tired on Monday mornings, anyway?). He knew in which restaurant he and the salad would dine later this day.

The best way to describe him at work was "antsy", but his colleagues wisely ignored him, especially the one who was successful with the ladies.

After work, he bought pretty flowers to the stoic seller and put on the best clothes he had, including his glittery pink rubber boots.
He sent a message to the giggling salad to tell her where to meet him, and that he had thought of a surprise for her.

When they met, she clapsed excitedly.
"My horoscope says there'll be pleasant surprises for me today!" she exclaimed happily.

M. Troll just smiled mysteriously (an air that didn't suit the cute toothless head) and told her to close her eyes. He then guided her to a special restaurant.
She squeaked when she opened her eyes.
"Karaoke! I looooove karaoke!" she squeaked. "Can I choose a song?" she asked with the cutest face ever.

M. Troll was anxious at that, but he nodded.

He has reasons to be anxious. She pushed him towards the stage and asked for the song.

That was when he discovered the Sugababes and their most famous song, "Push the button".

Since he was willing to please the giggling salad, he sang and even looked happy to.


At the end of the song, they got a lot of applause, and everyone commented his performance.
"I'm nearly jealous!" laughed the salad.

She seemed so happy he couldn't help but smile, even if she had obviously trolled him.


After this, they dined (they had pizza) and had a lot of fun talking together and realizing they wanted the same things in life.

M. Troll was happier than happy.

At the end of the evening, he walked the giggling salad back to her hotel. She talked excitedly and seemed really happy too. M. Troll suddenly wondered when she was supposed to go back to France, but he didn't dare ask the question, because he feared the answer.

She kissed one cheek of the cute toothless head to say "goodnight".

M. Troll found himself smiling all the way back to his apartment.

When will they see each other next? Is the salad vegetarian?
Stay tuned! :D

Day 16 - Holy pizza

M. Troll had run to his house more frightened than he had ever been, on Friday afternoon.
He had to explain to his guildmates why he had not a headset, and he wasn't able to play as intended.
But he didn't blame anything or anyone but his curiosity. Why did he feel the need to get closer at all costs?

On Saturday, he went for a jog in the mountain near his apartment. A jog that was more some survival thing than a jog, to be honest.
He would have like to take his glittery pink rubber boots, but to run, it would have been foolish, so he had his orange sport shoes.

He decided to get a pizza later that day, after having taken a nice shower and played video games a lot.

On the way to his favorite pizzeria, someone gave him a flyer promoting a French Christmas market that was to happen the day after, on Sunday. M. Troll shrugged and put the flyer away in his pocket.
At the pizzeria, he took his pizza (he ordered online, as usual) and was to leave when he heard someone running behind him.
One of the heads took a look and he nearly ran away when he realized it was the salad. She looked very salady in a fancy colored dress.

"Hey!" she said. "Yesterday, you threw your headset at me! It hurt!"
She then obviously waited for an answer, without smiling.

All the three heads became as red as something can become red. The salad felt a bit guilty, because she could see this troll wasn't that used to talking to new people.

"OK! Don't worry about it!" she exclaimed, smiling happily again. "I'll forgive you if you come to the French Christmas market tomorrow!"

M. Troll remembered the flyer, weighted quickly his options, and was surprised to realize he was already nodding "yes" before the end of the weighting.

"Perfect! See you tomorrow then!" said the salad happily, before going back to her table.

The pizza M. Troll ate that day tasted like hope and happiness.

Will he buy smelly cheese at the French market? What is the salad selling?
Stay tuned! :D

Days 13 and 14 - Dating!

The girls M. Troll talked to on the Internet, the ones who didn't play video games, didn't really understand why he liked this activity so much.
Nonetheless, he invited one of them on a date on Thursday (day 14), just in case.

On Wednesday he went to see one of his colleagues, a guy who had a lot of success with the ladies.
"What should I give her on a first date?" he asked.
"Well, what does she like?" asked the colleague back.
"She doesn't like video games," answered M. Troll. "But I think she likes swimming."

The colleague was at a loss with this information, and didn't know what to answer to M. Troll. Worse, M. Troll's three heads were looking at him with such hope he felt compelled to jump through the window. But it was Winter and snow was everywhere.
He turned away from the window, sighing, and said with what he hoped was a wise face:
"Buy her flowers. Pretty colored flowers."

M. Troll ran from the office to find flowers (which made his colleague relieved, since he wouldn't have to see M. Troll again this day).

The seller was very surprised when a crazed M. Troll barged in her shop, but years of seeing strange customers kicked in, and she smiled automatically.
"Hei, can I help you?" she asked politely.

M. Troll waved in front of her nose flowers he had just taken on a shelf.
 "I want these for a date!" he exclaimed, proud at having found pretty flowers.

The seller sighed, wondering once again why she bothered learning the language of flowers if she only had customers like this one.

M. Troll, forgetting entirely about his work, went back home to play with his new guild, full of nice people, mostly guys (sic) though. The only active girl was married to another player already. But that story made him hopeful.

***

On Thursday, M. Troll was full of joy. The girl he was to meet wasn't hostile to video games.

His day at work seemed to go so slowly to him he was in a terrible mood.
His colleagues were happy to see things go back to normal with him sheltered in his office.

When the time came, he went to the date with confidence, whistling in the streets, flowers in hand. He heard singing from one of the streets he had to cross to arrive to the restaurant. Curious and in advance, he took a look and saw a strange salad singing and laughing with people who appeared to be friends of hers.
"How weird it is," he thought. "A singing salad. She must be foreign."

He then resumed in confident walk.

The girl arrived five minutes late. He didn't like late people and told her so. She didn't seem really happy about that, but she squeaked and claped excitedly when she saw the flowers.

It started well, but it didn't end so.

During the dinner, he talked about things he knew: video games, his experience in the North with the young video games player, his work and, of course, his glittery pink rubber boots. She talked about things she knew, and they were really different.
When they talked about what they wanted in life, they realized they could have lived on different planets.

They called it a night after the appetizers.

M. Troll ordered japanese on the way home.

Who was that salad?
Stay tuned! :D

Days 8 and 9 - An encounter

M. Troll spent the worst night of his life in his car. His only joy was to see his lovely boots when he woke up. But even that couldn't compare to the sadness he felt at not witnessing the apparition of northern lights.
And the cold. The toothless head was shivering on its neck.
M. Troll spotted smoke far away, but close enough so he could reach it with his car.

The smoke was coming from an hytte, a chalet in his country.

He knocked on the door, and a one-headed young guy opened it.

"Yes? I'm not interested in anything you have to sell," said the guy before his eyes widened at the sight of the sparkling M. Troll.
He wasn't used to visitors, especially not to sparkling ones.
"What the...?" he continued.
"Hi! I'm M. Troll, I wanted to see northern lights, but there wasn't any," said one of the heads. "How old are you?"
"Ah. Oh. You're lost. I'm 28. Please, come in," answered the young guy, who was very polite.

M. Troll discovered with pleasure the inside of someone else's home. He was a bit isolated and didn't have that kind of occasion often.

He saw a big computer with several screens and gaming gear in a corner of the room. A game was on.
"Oooh! I love video games! What are you playing at?" he asked.
"I'm playing a MMORPG," answered the guy. "It's called The Secret World."
"What's a MMORPG?"

The young guy was so surprised at this question he nearly broke the glass of water he had filled for M. Troll.
He spent several hours and a good part of the night explaining to M. Troll and showing him all the benefits of MMORPG, especially for people like them who weren't party animals.
M. Troll was in awe. He had to play this game.

The young gamer lent him a computer, so he could create a character. Unfortunately, the nickname he used was already taken, so he had to invent a new one from it, with an Italian sonority.

They both played for hours.

***

And then it was already the middle of the following day.

"Oh, I won't be able to group with you anymore today," said the young guy.
"Why?" asked M. Troll sadly.
"My girlfriend just logged in."

M. Troll didn't really know what a girlfriend was, even if he understood the concept of it all. The young guy took time to explain to him one of life biggest, truest and best lesson:
"A girl playing video games is the greatest treasure the world can offer. A guy has to be his best to win the heart of a girl who plays video games, and if she falls for him, he can consider himself the luckiest person ever. If everything else goes smoothly in the couple, the guy has a right to think it's the universe itself that is giving him the most perfect life anybody could dream of."

M. Troll thought a lot about it.
"Where can I meet girls who likes video games?" he asked.
"You can meet them in game. I met my girlfriend while playing The Secret World. The day we said we had a crush on each other will always be a magic day in my mind. And she says it's the same for her."

M. Troll played on his own while the young guy grouped with his girlfriend. He had a lot to think about after these discussions.

Will he go back to his life or stay in the hytte? Will he meet a girl playing video games, one of the world greatest treasures?
Stay tuned! :D

Day 7 - Luggage, finally, and a nice trip

M. Troll was oblivious to the policeman following him, and that is what saved him. The policeman understood quickly that M. Troll was innocent of a lot of things, among them harassing little girls.

M. Troll came back safely to his home, not knowing he had been close to get arrested. After eating some brown cheese with bread and jam, he packed everything he needed for his trip to the North and went to bed peacefully.

The following day was the D-day. He woke up more excited than ever and gathered all his things while whistling happily. He put everything in his blue car and drove off, singing as loudly as possible The Offspring's songs.
More than one bird wondered if it was the end of the world.

After several hours, after midnight but before dawn, M. Troll reached his destination.
He planted his tent in the middle of nowhere and got quickly into his sleeping bag, since it was so cold outside.
After a few minutes of shivering without seeing any northern lights, he gave up on the idea of sleeping outside in the tent and came back to his car, still a bit heated. There, he finally managed to sleep, wondering why he decided to do that to himself in the first place.

Will he die of cold before having seen the northern lights? What is this smoke from far away that seems to come from a nice chalet?

Stay tuned!

Days 5 and 6 - Boots, kungfu and luggage

M. Troll was happy with his pink glittery rubber boots. So happy he kept them on to sleep.

The next day as he woke up, he wondered what it was on his feet until he remembered. At seeing his boots again, he sighed happily and thanked every divinity he could think of for this marvelous gift.

He felt super swaggy going to work with his boots on and couldn't help but stop in every office of the building to say "Hi!". Some people wondered who was this person they had never seen before, until another colleague would explain it was the IT, the one who didn't like being asked things. Then, they would just all nod.

That was the biggest event of his Tuesday.

 ***

On Wednesday, however, he had his kungfu course, that he decided to attend with the boots on.

Of course, needless to say it wasn't possible for him to walk on the tatami without taking them off or being chopped by the teacher; being an intelligent troll, he complied. Nobody would talk about the smell coming from his feet, not wanting to acknowledge it in case it would become real and stay put.
He discovered that kungfu with three arms was an easy thing, somehow, but that kungfu with three heads was hell.
He managed to hit the poor toothless head, which started to cry.

At the end of the hour and half, when the teacher asked him how it went and if he would come back (and hoping the answer would be a "never again"), he fell on his side and shook for a few minutes, under the stares of the shocked teacher.
Finally, another troll, wanting to help him and to clear the space, said aloud: "Wow! I wonder who brought these super nice pink glittery rubber boots! I may try them, since they are so beautiful."
M. Troll regained his full consciousness and jumped on the poor troll to get his boots back, in full enrage mode.

Needless to say the teacher won this fight and was more than happy to blacklist M. Troll, who he had disliked on sight.

M. Troll went to buy three ice creams, deciding to treat each of his head after such a rough experience. The toothless one had a bigger ice cream since it had received a punch. It smiled happily and thought the punch was worth it.

While he was walking in the streets of his small town, a little girl waved at him: "Hey, you have three ice creams for yourself, give me one of them."
"No, that won't happen!" he answered firmly.
"Didn't you hear you have to give girls everything they want?" she asked.

M. Troll took a minute to think about it. He had indeed heard that more than once from his friends (now all married). He was pretty sure, though, that they hadn't meant little girls in the street, and that it could be a dangerous thing to do for him.

"I'm not little!" she exclaimed after he told her his doubts. "I'm already eight!"

Convinced and more than a little naive, he gave her one of his ice creams with a sight and a cuddle, and immediately caught the attention of a passing policeman.

Will he get arrested? What about the boots if yes?
Stay tuned! :)

Day 4 - Northern lights and special rubber boots

M. Troll lived in a country where it was easy to see northern lights. However, he had never been to the North, and had only seen unusual, and quickly gone, northern lights during the Autumn 2015.
"It's Monday, let's take big decisions!" He decided to take some vacations from Thursday to the following Monday, included, to go visit the North of his country and see proper northern lights.

He was very excited at this perspective and couldn't stop himself from squeaking when his boss said "ok" for the vacations. He realized he would need gear and decided to take a trip to the shop after work.

"What an exciting week!" he thought. "First a kungfu course, then a trip to the North! I wonder how my everyday life became so exciting!"

He tried to concentrate at work, even if it was harder than hard. His colleagues waved in front of his three faces, screamed, sighed and even danced to get his attention. No need to say they weren't successful. It was his less productive day in a long time.

Finally, the time to leave the office came, and he ran straight to the best shop in town selling sport equipment. He had a nice list found on the Web and he selected everything he needed: a tent, a big backpack, a thermos for his beloved coffee, some kind of coffee maker to travel, etc.

Then came the time to choose clothes. He discovered, he who was a t-shirt and jeans kind of troll, that he loved glittery things. Loved, not liked. He even bought a glittery jumpsuit for cold weather that made the shop assistant's eyebrows reach the sky.

While looking for shoes, all of a sudden, his eyes caught the most marvelous thing he had ever seen.

The. Most. Marvelous.
The. Most. Glittery.
The. Pinkiest.

Pink glittery rubber boots.

He was surprised to find tears on each of his three heads' cheeks when he touched them. The world seemed to spin and angels started to sing. He remembered the smell of his favorite cake as a child...

Pink glittery rubber boots.
The last pair.

He ran to them, even if it felt like flying toward his destiny. When he touched them and tried them, he couldn't contain a squeak of sheer happiness.

Meanwhile, the clerk waved at this colleague to come watch this weird scene, not that unusual in this busy little shop.
"I told you we would sell all of them," he said to his colleague, proud because he was the one who had bet on the success of these boots, against all odds.

M. Troll had a real epiphany. He took a picture of him in his glittery gear and posted it on Facebook. It instantly became a buzz, but he was too pink glittery rubber boots-centered to notice it.

Will he sleep with his boots? Will he see the northern lights?
Stay tuned! :D