Some more thoughts about Branch and Brozone
I love all the recovery fics on AO3, can't get enough of them, but a lot of them seem to have something in common: Branch is the most messed up of his brothers.
Which fair enough, we know Branch's story, lots of terrible things happened to him, but he's in recovery, he has a supportive girlfriend, is a pillar of the community, a surprising number of friends, so Branch basically has his life together
Branch is happy with his life, he's settled. Sure he has some grief and regrets he's not quite ready to talk about, but that's normal.
Bruce seems to be basically in the same place, he has some grief and regrets, but he has a loving and supportive family, is a member of his community, and has a few friends.
Except has Bruce actually dealt with anything? Or just pushed it aside because he has to be strong and responsible for his kids?
Then we have Clay, while he is a valued member of the community, he's trapped, there's no option to leave, no freedom, surrounded by a group of traumatised trolls who are terrified of the outside word to the point they're censoring themselves?
Clay's willingness to just throw Poppy to Viva as a distraction so he and his brothers can escape?
Yeah, no way Clay isn't hiding piles of trauma and his insistence of still playing a role, even if that role is completely different from his previous role
We have John Dory, who's living in the past, refusing to see that his brothers have changed. Who returned to the tree and found everyone gone, and was convinced everyone was dead for years? Who put so much pressure on himself and his brothers, he broke?
And Floyd is going to be extremely traumatised by his near death experience, months of captivity. Althrough lots of stories are already covering his recovery, what happened before then?
But the brothers are safe now.
And the funny thing about Trauma? It's easier to break down when you are finally safe, bringing up all the terrible memories again.
I really want to see a fic where Branch is actually the least messed up of his brothers, because he's dealt with his trauma and knows what is likely to trigger him, has strategies in place when things get harder.
Now the adventure is over, do the brothers attempt to be a family again? Can they meet in the middle without setting each other off? Can they learn to be kind to each other? Can they be kind to themselves?
Or is everything swept under the carpet until it explodes?
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Trolls - Amnesia-Rock-Prince!Branch in an Arranged marriage AU Idea
Or alternate title, I have now been sucked down the sudden black hole that is this fandom and now the troll plot bunnies are running ramped around my Fanfic farm, because the creators of this franchise has added my weakness...Sibling relationships... Now I have plans for a two story saga in this fandom of which I wouldn't have glanced at with interest at all a month ago.
Well, that's enough rambling, Time to get into the meat of the fic plot.
So, while browsing on Ao3 I noticed that there was this Rock!Branch au, where Branch is separated from the pop-trolls as a kid and ends up being raised by Barb and Thrash of the Rock Trolls. I love this concept, more then some relatives of mine. But I want to put a little spin on it. I've been a big fan of amnesia/memory loss fics, and I noticed there was a lack of them in this fandom.
Brozone breaks up and Grandma dies like in canon, same old same old. However, in this AU Branch is forced to leave the Troll Tree as a kid, because there is a larger sigmatism about trolls who went grey. The Trolls are very clear that they want nothing to do with Branch. They are all already living with death at their door step and they don't need a grey child to constantly break the false image of happy paradise that the adults try to maintain in the Tree to keep themselves sane. Branch, with nothing else left for him in the tree, packs up and tries to leave to find his brothers, though he does worry if they would even want him now that he was grey.
After successfully escaping the town, (the bergens don't notice if a small troll vanishes in the middle of the night, they didn't notice the whole village packing up), Branch spends a terrifying night in the woods. Running away from what are "predator's" in the eyes of a small child. Until he accidentally, stumbles in the a wormhole. The wormhole sucks Branch away from, Pop territory to the outskirts of the Rock badlands. But in this new hot volcanic he is still far from safe. (I'm adding that their are harsh powerful dragons that roam around the Rock trolls territory, as there has to be some type of reason behind they turned their own music and instruments in the to energy weapons while the other tribes didn't. Not to mention the active volcanic activity everywhere!) While running away from some of these actual predators and dangerous lava pools, Branch gets shoved over a cliffside, and falls into one of the few rivers nearby. In the raging rapids, the little troll strikes his head against the rocky river bed. Knocking him out.
Meanwhile, Still-King Thrash is leading an expedition to the river to fetch water for the people of Volcano Rock City. Being the very soft and caring Father he is, once he sees a small child floating in the river he jumps in without a second thought, and pulls the child to the shore. He leaves the expedition in the hands of another Troll and brings the some how still alive child back to the City and into the care of a capable doctor. While waiting to hear if Branch will live, Thrash goes through the little sack the kid had with him. There's enough evidence for the king of rock to come to the conclusion that Branch was running away, and needless to say Thrash is furious. Who would be so cruel that dared to make a child in his kingdom feel so scared and unwelcomed that they would run away! (at this point due to Branch's greyness and the high emotions of the situation Thrash hasn't realized Branch is from Pop yet, not that it would matter in the long run he's still ticked off).
Eventually, the doctor (an old friend of Thrash's whom they have a deep trust between, I haven't named them yet), calls Thrash in. Thrash finds Branch unconscious on the medical bed with his head bandaged. The doctor tells Thrash that's its a miracle that Branch is even alive, but it would take a bigger one for the child to wake up. The underneath the blood of the wound was a skull fracture and possible brain damage. Then he mentions it would probably be better if Branch never woke up, and further explains Branch's nature as a pop troll, and his greyness. Thrash takes this information in with a sad heart. Stigma against pop was still running high in the Rock kingdom, despite Thrash wanting to believe his people could spare their bias to care for a wounded child, he knows that no foster family would take a pop troll in. He asks the Doctor to keep quiet about Branch, and that if the boy would wake up Thrash would take him in himself. He goes home and hugs Barb after an exhausting day, and asks her if she was open to having a little brother.
After a few weeks, Branch wakes up, but he has no memory of anything. Not his name. Not where he's from. Not how he got there. At this point the medical staff that were allowed to know about him, have taken to calling him Charcoal, or Char, after his perfectly black and shiny hair, and it just kind of stuck after that. Thrash has taken to visiting Branch, even before the boy was conscious, quickly growing fond over the boy and until he'd recovered enough to be taken to the royal cavern. Barb takes to having Char around very well. Having a younger sibling, gives her something to put her protectiveness towards. Thrash makes and announcement, claiming Char as his own to Rock, and putting the boy as second in-line for the throne.
Still it isn't all cupcakes and rainbows with Char in his new home. He has lasting effected form his head injury in the form of migraines and fainting spells. The child is plagued by nightmares, of Giants coming to eat him and old ladies. They frighten him so much he draws and designs traps and bunkers to keep himself safe. Some of the designs Thrash actually considers building in case of emergency. Music brings him to tears if it's too loud or sudden, or if Barb asked him to sing-along. His room is sound proofed, and he has a pair of headphones to block things out if needed. Thrash also finds that his new adoptive son, is far more book-smart then him or Barb, the rarely used Rock library becomes Char's second home. The child become well educated in History, engineering, math, sciences and politics.
It would take two years before, Barb managed to talk Char into coming to her music practice, where the kid learns that music is more then just noise that makes him feel scared/unsafe. Seeing the weapon music can be, something he can learn to protect himself with, Char becomes hooked on the idea of learning it. Too everyone's surprise, it comes to boy like second nature, and his voice is like that of an angel's.
Eighteen years pass, and Branch grows up to be, Prince Char, second born son to Thrash King of Rock. He's a known expert with a guitar, both as an instrument and a weapon, his reputation is that of a eerily smart and organized strategist, who is loyal to his family and people to a fault and ruthlessly protective. With Thrash's health, both physical and mental, in rapid decline, Barb is forced to take on the mantel of Queen earlier then she wanted, but this time she has a brother to lean on as an advisor. Which is a good thing, because between the two of them Char is a much better planner.
Pressure is turned up on the royal rock siblings, when an unexpected earthquake destroys the farmlands that feeds the city. Sure, volcanic soil can been great for growing plants, but rivers of lava and giant fresh trenches don't help at all. Barb flies off the handle, and begins to panic in quiet about what she needs to do to protect the people of Rock, while Char looks into historical records to see if the past king ever had to deal with issues like this. Eventually he stumbles on the knowledge that during ancient times if one of the tribes was in trouble they would call upon their sister tribes for aid.
"Oh that's great advise your books have, let's ask for help from our sworn enemies!" Barb would exclaim, "Wait...the other tribes! If they lasted as long as we did, then they must have resources! But they wouldn't help us...not unless they were just like us. We could use our string to convert..."
"Barb! I'm going to stop you right now. First one our string isn't powerful enough to over-write someone's genre, believe me I looked into it-"
"But if we get all the strings..."
"You mean steal them?"
"Yah!"
"No, if we were to fail that would only sour relations between genres further and our people would still be starving. We'd be better off forging an alliance with a tribe, rather then wasting already limited resources conquering one."
"URGH! Why are you always right....So, alliance...that's our best plan?"
"Currently yes."
"With people that hate us! Are we sure we can't conquer them?"
"Barb, were trying to make a harmony. You can't make harmony with everyone using the same voice. They all need to be different, and they all can't be forced into something they they aren't or it all falls apart."
"Whoa, that's deep. Where'd ya learn that?"
"I-I don't know...but the point still stands we need to befriend another tribe not conquer one!"
"Okay, so how do we do that?"
"Well, apparently theirs more ways then one, all of them include paper work, so leave that to me, but one of them we actually have a unique opportunity to ally with."
"Oh? And how do we take advantage of this unique opportunity?"
"You're not going to like this...but we use me..."
Branch would go on to explain his plan to ally the Rock kingdom with the Pop trolls...through an Arranged Marriage between him and the Pop princess. Barb hates it, especially after all the pop trolls did to her brother when he was young, but she can't argue the logic. The pop trolls live in a forest rich with food and plant life, and water sources. However, they have zero defenses other then how deep they live in the forest. (how he knows all of this Branch has no idea) If the alliance managed to go through, the Rock trolls could get the needed food supplies, and the Pop trolls could gain the knowledge of how to use musical weaponry.
Barb still hates it, it feels like her little brother is throwing away his future. But Char assures her that he's okay with it, and that it's his turn to take on the burden of the crown he supposed to wear. As a bio-pop troll the possibility of an heir from the alliance marriage is higher then if they use a random Rock citizen, and as Rock Prince that will give more creditably to the pleads of their people to Pop. He tells Barb to just take care of Dad when he's gone and that they always have debbie to talk to each other through letters.
So they send a message to Pop Village...requesting to consider the marriage.
At Pop village, Poppy is busy with her new duties as a fresh coronated Queen, caring for the village needs and further establishing peaceful relations with the Bergens after the fall of Chef. When the message reaches her, delivered Via Debbie and Biggie, Peppy tries to take it from her before she cane read it. And then she demands that he Explain why she just got a proposal in a letter from a Rock Prince?
Peppy reluctantly explains the history of the Tribes, and how some times they would form alliances between the genres by wedding members of the royal families together to ensure peace. He makes it very clear that He doesn't want Poppy to even think of answering the Rock trolls even if to decline the proposal, but she fights back saying hat this might be their only chance for peace between the genres for years to come if its taken this long for them to reach out this time. Peppy then tries to argue that if Poppy were to accept the proposal that she would have to marry this prince, this stranger, and he never wanted that to happen to her. He knows Poppy is queen now and he can't order her to do anything, but he asks her to think about this before making any kind of decision.
Poppy needless to say, deeply contemplates the proposal. She wants to help reunite the tribes, but bonding herself to a stranger she never met was a daunting thing. She talks with Cooper and Bridget who are surprisingly helpful with everything, and decides that she'll accept the proposal with the condition that she and her future groom have the chance to meet and get to know each other before the wedding.
Barb and Char readily accept the condition, and calculate that they can give one month of courtship before the Rock kingdom is without food. They respond back to Poppy, and tell them that Char and a few others would arrive in Pop Village a few days after she would receive the letter that confirmed the betrothal.
Char arrives at Pop Village with much fanfare from his travel companions, but shushes them quickly and addresses Poppy and Peppy in a polite manner. Poppy is kind of thrown off by how grey her future husband is, not that she shows it. Char is just as shocked about how bright and colorful she is.
The romance is awkward at first. The cultural differences get in the way sometimes. But eventually a connection is formed. Char learns to feed off of Poppy's energy and Poppy learns that there's more to this grey prince then gloom. With the wedding scheduled for the end of the month, Poppy decides to introduce Char to her BFF Bridget.
Needless to say, it doesn't go well.
Char's underlaying trauma comes back in a panic attack and flashback upon seeing the Troll Tree and bergens. The memory of his Grandmother's demise suddenly becoming clear as day in his mind. In the panic he accidently fires his guitar at Grisle and Bridget, with makes Poppy panic and angry at him. So he runs off into the woods.
Bridget and Poppy end up having a heart to heart where Bridget says that Char looked scared. Having heard about how Char was acutualy a pop-troll and was adopted into the royal family, Poppy connects the dots rather quickly. Realizing that Char used to live in the Troll Tree but didn't escape with the others. the whole visit was triggering for him.
She runs back to Pop Village looking forh im, only to find that Queen Barb had arrived to help set up the wedding, and she wants to know where her Brother is. Poppy blurts out what happened while trying to defuse the situation, and that only serves to rile Barb up further. Until Poppy snaps, yellling at Barb that they need to go looking for Char not fight here! This impresses Barb into agreeing.
Poppy finds him and they end up having a heart to heart, and confessing...
The wedding goes on as planned. On the neutral ground of the Troll Tree, allowing Char to visit his late Grandmother's home for the first time in twenty years.
All seems well...Until one John Dory screams, "Stop the Wedding!"
...
I will post part two in a separate post because this is long!
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I'm having feelings over Trolls Band Together.
That movie has taken up refuge in my brain and I can't help but plotting, because I've already read all the sad brotherly feelings fics on AO3 and I have ideas, that I have no idea how to write
So plot bunny:
Branch gets hit by the Sap/pollen of a Forget-me-lots, takes one confused look at the Snack Pack, and runs off into the forest
Poppy panicks because oh no! Her boyfriend is going to lose all his memories if they don't fix this fast
Poppy and pack spends the morning trying to catch Branch, who keeps running away from them, and starts setting traps
Poppy gets the bright idea to use Floyd as Branch-bait... which works... until Branch escapes and troll-naps Floyd
Floyd gets carted around the forest by Branch, who keeps acting surprised that his brother is there, and won't let Floyd go or even shout or help because Branch knows he's being hunted and he's convinced the Burgens are going to get them.
Floyd is more worried that his baby bro is currently grey than the fact he's being carried around Pop forest by a paranoid brother.
Branch keeps referring to his notebook, gathering items, and muttering to himself
Branch tricks the Snack Pack so he can get back into his Bunker with Floyd, and after a little bit Branch goes Blue again and decides to eject Floyd from the bunker with the words he's sure Poppy will take care of him.
By this time, the rest of Branch's brothers have clued in something is wrong, even if Poppy is trying not to worry them.
So 2nd day and they're all trying to catch Branch. No luck catching him, but Branch's traps catch them out a few times and Branch always comes to check before wandering off again.
The brothers work out that Branch isn't losing his memory over time, he's switching between different points in his personal history, so one moment they might have 5yo Branch, then 25yo, then 12yo etc, because he keeps reacting to them differently: sometimes he is gushing because he's so excited they're back, sometimes he just so angry he's yelling at them, and usually it involves some form of "I haven't seen you for x years"
Branch also completely confuses anyone he talks to, because he doesn't know them but he seems to know too much.
3rd day, and Poppy's got the entire village involved. Massive campaign to catch Branch somehow, it's not like he can escape the whole village is it?
Branch turns up around sunset, streaming hot mug in hand, back to normal.
"What? You think I haven't been hit by Forget-me-lots before?"
All the different versions of Branch has been gathering, preparing and cooking the ingredients for the cure, and he's been avoiding them because he didn't trust anyone else to make it, with his trusty notebook telling him what stage he's at, and what's happened.
Cue a wtf
XD
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