Day 19 - Japanese curry

M. Troll felt each minute before he could see the salad was too long. He also felt it was too short, since he was afraid she would say something at some point that would make her less perfect (which he doubted); or that he would say something that would make her run away (he found it more likely).

Before he had met her, he found giggling silly and useless. He still thought it a bit silly, but mostly cute.

He decided to give her a gift that would make her think of him.
He bought a nice pink gaming headset for her.

When they met after his work, he gave it to her right away. Of course, she squeaked then giggled.
He explained to her very seriously he wanted to keep talking to her when she'd be back to France. He also said that he thought they were meant to be.
"Well, it's happening a bit fast, to be honest," she answered. "But I agree with you, there's something special going on between us, and we are so lucky to have this it would be sad to ignore it."

Agreeing to not talk about it anymore for this day, they went to take a nice walk in M. Troll's nice little town. They walked past his favourite japanese restaurant and he pointed at it.
"That's my favourite japanese restaurant!"

She went to the window to read the menu.
"Ah, fish, fish, fish. I'm a vegetarian," she said. "Ooooh! They have curry!"
"Curry?" he asked, confused.
"You never tried it? We must have it for dinner!"

And curry they had. Indeed, M. Troll had never tried it before, and he wondered why. Japanese curry was one of the best food he had ever tasted. Plus, now it would be forever associated to the French salad.
"I'll bring you some from Paris!" she squeaked excitedly. "I know where to find it cheap and good! I'll teach you how to cook it!"
"But, what if I want to come visit Paris?" he dared to ask, reddening. "Will you cook for me there?"

The French salad was speechless at first, but then she hugged him (awkwardly, with the three heads).
"Of course, I'll cook for you!"

Will he go to Paris before she comes back to his nice little town?
Stay tuned! :D

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 17 - French Christmas market

M. Troll surprised himself by waking up eagerly. He wasn't hungry, just excited at the idea of going to the Frech Christmas market. Since he wasn't stupid, he had concluded the salad, who had an accent, must be French.
"A singing French salad," he thought. "How silly is that?"

The market was really pretty, he had never seen one like that. Small hytte full of colored things.

He was quickly caught in the magic of it. He even bought some candies for his toothless head, that squeaked happily.

M. Troll was curious to see what the salad was selling, but he took his time inspecting each hytte carefully, because he was a bit shy at seeing her again.
Finally, he got anxious to see her and wondered which little shop was hers. He heard a giggling sound and decided to follow it.

"Hei! You're here!" exclaimed the salad with a happy smile when she saw him.
"Hum. Yes. Hi," he answered.

The salad giggled at his shy reaction.
"In France, we pretty girls are mostly harassed by creeps! It's so cool to be able to just be myself happily!" She waited for his reaction. "Bah," she said, "I don't want to be the only one saying I'm pretty, that's weird."

While he tried to answer at the best of his capacity, M. Troll saw what she was selling.
"You wrote those?" said he, pointing at the books in front of the salad.
"Yes!"

And she became all red with what looked like shyness.
"I came here to promote them, but I'm not sure I'm writing things exactly how I have them in mind. I'm trying to romance what happened and to infuse it with all my emotions."
"What is it about?" he asked, curious.
"A troll, video games and a salad," she answered, giggling.

The earth opened under M. Troll.

"You said video games? Do you like those?" he asked, nearly trembling.
"I loooove them," she answered, giggling. "It's a torture to not be able to play when I'm away, like I am now."
"Do you like MMOs?"
"I 've only tried TSW, but I like it so much I don't want to try anything else. Except ESO maybe..."

And she like ESO's universe too. M. Troll could have cried. He heard angels singing in his ears. It was, in fact, too much emotions for him, but he fought to stay exactly where he was and not run away once again.
The giggling silly salad and him talked for a long time, until it was time for her to sign books at least.

M. Troll surprised everyone, including each of his three heads.

He invited the giggling salad to dinner the following day.
He was also surprised when she accepted.

This Sunday, he went home happier than he had been in a long time.

What will they eat? Hopefully no one will try to eat the salad!
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

Day 15 - Deception

M. Troll was devastated. He had put so much hope in this date. This Friday morning, when he woke up, he started to think love wasn't for him.
"Well, he thought, I've been alone forever after all, maybe I'm made to spend my life alone? Maybe if I wasn't alone, I would end up hurting the special person I would love and myself too."

It was a gloomy Friday. M. Troll was constantly on the verge of tears.

After work, to please his new guildmates, he went to the shop and chose a nice pink headset.
At the shop, he heard singing coming from the karaoke area (an area he looked at longingly, but with three heads...). The voice seemed vaguely familiar, even if he could not replace. He took a look and saw the singing salad.

The same singing salad as the day before. She was with her friends again, trying of the karaoke machine. M. Troll watched for a few minutes, fascinated. How could someone sing like that in a public place that wasn't designed for it and not feel ashamed?
He took one step closer.
"Haha! I'll sing the Sugababes next if you keep trolling me!" squeaked the salad happily at something one of her friends said.

M. Troll had no idea what the Sugababes were, but he suddenly really wanted to know.
He took two steps closer.

The salad turned and looked directly at him.
"Hi! Do you want to join us?" she asked with a big happy smile.

M. Troll ran away from the shop, throwing the unpaid headset in the salad's direction in his haste.

Did the headset hit the salad? Did it hurt if yes?
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

Day 12 - Back to work!

M. Troll fell asleep on his desk, still happy to have started everything he could to meet the special person he was dreaming of.

When he awoke, full of hope for the day to come, he prepared some brown cheese toasts. These days were celebration days.

  

He arrived at work with a big smile plastered on each of his heads and said hello to everyone.

His colleagues started to wonder what had happened in this troll life to make him so happy. They organized lot of meetings to see if he would talk about his private life at some point, and they even all lunched together.

For his lunch, he has brought two brown cheese sandwiches. The toothless head had a lollipop. It squeaked happily when it saw the candy, since it really was addicted to sugar, something M. Troll knew, but was ignoring as well as he could.

M. Troll's boss gave him more work and projects than usual, but he was still full of hope and happy. He answered some messages from girls that seemed nice enough, but didn't really play video games. And he got accepted in the guild he wanted to join.

Life was full of opportunities!

When he got home, later that day, he went to meet all his new guildmates.

Will the perfect girl be in that guild? Will she be somewhere else? Will he settle for a non-playing girl?

Stay tuned! :D