Shadgirl2: I'm not giving up on my other stories, but this one takes priority right now. It's a re-write of part of season 1 of TTBGO, going up to Creek Week. The way Poppy was acting in that situation wasn't demonstrating true forgiveness, either, so I decided to write an alternate version of what could have happened if Branch had stopped to think about what Poppy was doing.
Midna Azusa: And, as usual, I'm along for the ride! The events in the cartoon up to Creek Week are all canon to this story.
Shadgirl2: The events of this chapter are inspired by the various reactions everyone gives Branch when he's being paranoid (or, basically, acting like himself). In this story, he was inspired to try "fitting in" his own way after the Fun Branch episode.
Disclaimer: We don't own Trolls.
It was just another day in Troll Village. The sun was shining, trolls were out enjoying the day, and the village grump was trying to become a better troll. Ever since the last Trollstice, Branch had been trying to integrate back into society, having found his happiness with the help of Princess Poppy, who was now queen.
However, it isn't easy to rejoin society when one has done such a tremendous job of isolating oneself, and Branch was no exception. There were things that the rest of the trolls did that he found dangerous, and socializing for extended periods of time was still taxing for him. With all of this in mind, he supposed, it was understandable that his friends had thought he didn't like to have fun. Trying to act like someone he wasn't, however, hadn't helped him in that situation. Being himself, as Poppy had suggested, was the better answer.
Since the other trolls had liked his safe area for squish-ball, he figured that they might be okay with trying similar types of safety precautions...like a safer party zone so there weren't scares like those that often happened when the twins started throwing things with their hair.
That's why this day found Branch at the most frequented party site, trying to make it safer.
"Okay, I've got a safety net set up so nobody gets launched too far by the twins, and it turns into a slide and lands them safely off the dance floor. Dance floor clearly marked so nobody needs to worry about walking on it by accident. Hmm..." He tapped his finger against his chin, thinking. "What should I do about the inevitable food throwing trolls tend to do?"
As he was thinking about that, a couple of trolls stopped as they were walking by. Seeing Branch making changes to their favorite party spot, they approached, curious and concerned.
"Hey, Branch?" a green troll asked. "What are you up to now?"
"Oh, just making sure the next party's a great one," Branch answered with confidence, turning to the curious trolls.
"Really?" asked a purple troll with blue hair. "Because it looks like you're ruining my favorite party spot."
"No, no! I'm not ruining it! Trust me, by the time I'm done, you'll love it!"
The two trolls looked at each other, concerned. The green one asked, "How's setting up net traps and security fences making it better?"
"These aren't traps, you guys!" Branch answered, gesturing at them in irritation. He put a hand to his forehead, forcing himself to calm down. Acting like a grump wasn't going to convince them he was trying to help. "Look, just trust me. I know what I'm doing."
"Okay..." The purple troll whispered to her friend, "Think we should go find queen Poppy?"
"I think he's acting weirder than ever. What do you think?" her friend answered behind his hand.
She nodded, and the two of them left the area.
Meanwhile, Poppy was anxiously awaiting the result of the Royal Review preliminary vote she had requested. It wasn't time to meet Smidge yet, so she still didn't know if she was going to be a letdown. For this reason, she was in her pod, stress-booking, as her father put it.
"Ooh... What if someone thinks I caused last week's flood!? Then I'll get a frowny face for sure, and I didn't even do it!"
The flood she was referring to was, in fact, caused by one of her friends—a friend she had tried to calm down about the drought, but he just wasn't having any of it that day. Instead, he'd shown his usual grumpy and crazy self, trying so hard to get Cloud Guy to help and only succeeding in making the talking cloud pretend to be scared to get Branch to smile.
Interactions with Branch were often stressful for everyone, but Poppy didn't want to take the blame for his actions. Yet she couldn't tell them who really caused it because it was her fault that he even came out of his bunker in recent days. She saw no way out of this—one way or another, she was running the risk of being a letdown over that flood.
Her scrapbook had an image of her being attacked by an angry mob of trolls because she had nearly destroyed all of their homes. She was about to start on a page ridiculing her for bringing out the paranoid hermit who actually caused the flood when a purple troll with blue hair came running in, looking frantic.
"Queen Poppy! Queen Poppy! You gotta come quick!"
When her closest friends came randomly running into her pod saying that, it could be something simple. When one of her other people did it, it could be urgent.
Poppy put the stress-book away before the other troll saw the image. "Huh? What is it, Lilac?"
Lilac pointed out the door, frantic. "Branch is being Branch again!"
Poppy blinked, confused.
Soon Poppy and Lilac arrived at the party site to find it completely redone, the culprit nowhere in sight. Nets were hanging on each side, sloping down like slides as they made their way back to the ground; several tables had been set up on one side, seemingly mounted there; the dance floor was slightly lower than the rest of the area and had low walls around it, with gaps on all four sides to allow entry (presumably to prevent anyone from accidentally stepping onto it or falling off it in distracted dancing); and there was some safety gear left for use, including helmets, elbow and knee pads, and goggles. (Well, the twins did once almost knock Smidge out with a glitter ball, didn't they?)
Either way, this was not okay, especially since, unlike his squish-ball field, Poppy had no idea Branch had been doing this! She stared for a moment, speechless.
When she finally found her voice, she said, "Uuuhh... Okay...wow... Uh, listen, Lilac, why don't you run over to the party factory and ask them if they can't come over here and make this right? I'm going to find Branch and see if I can't talk some sense into him."
She started storming off to find him, somewhat annoyed.
"Okay!" Lilac answered as she hurried off to do that.
Poppy found Branch setting up rails around the lagoon, which made her stop and stare at him wide-eyed.
What? Now what is he— She cut her own thought off, walking over to him, her annoyance plain on her face. "Branch, what are you doing?" she demanded. "Lilac just told me you messed up the hottest party spot in town, and now you're doing...what, exactly? 'Cause it looks like you're trying to make the trolls stop fishing."
Branch turned to her, raising an eyebrow in apparent confusion. "Uh, no, I'm not. I'm just making sure nobody falls in while they're fishing."
"Branch, I highly doubt that's necessary. Fishing's not dangerous! And neither's throwing parties, for that matter! What in Troll Village were you thinking?" she lectured, managing to keep most of her irritation out of her voice.
Ever the paranoid one, Branch responded, "On the contrary, Poppy. I've seen trolls fall in the water before, and I know everyone likes using the twins' hair as a slingshot for a lot of different things, including themselves." In fact, he knew that part from personal experience. "I just want to make sure nobody gets hurt, that's all."
If he wasn't driving Poppy crazy right now, she'd have found that sweet. "Arh!" She threw her head back in frustration. "But, Branch! That's ridiculous! No one's ever gotten hurt at a party before, and no one ever will! We don't need all this security messing up everything we do and taking the fun out of it. It's one thing to want everyone to be safe, but this is just too much!"
"You didn't seem to mind when it was squish-ball!" he retorted.
"That was different! Squish-ball can be dangerous at times. I mean, look at Cooper! He went through several people's pods while playing! Of course, I'd want to do something to prevent that from happening again! But nothing like that's ever happened anywhere else, so we don't need more safety gear for it! Now take that rail down right now, mister," she commanded sternly as she pointed at it. She looked very displeased. "It's blocking the way for other trolls to swim."
Branch groaned, frustrated with his friend and queen. "Fine!"
Then, with his idea shot down, he started taking down the rails around the lagoon.
Yes, interactions with Branch were highly stressful at times. Poppy didn't understand why he had to be so difficult.