A Friendly Visit
Beautiful cabbages. Yummy carrots. Branch proudly stared at his garden after harvesting the finest vegetables for a hot soup. The breeze that afternoon indicated they were going to have a cold night so nothing like something full of nutrients and spices to warm another night when Poppy wasn't going to show up.
He wasn't sad, really. After the Perfection Cake had been eaten, she told him she was going to spend an entire day chilling with her dad, after all it was a Dad-turday. The only thing that bothered him was that she didn't show up the day after… or the next day.
Branch was just about to close the trapdoor on top of him when a loud guitar almost blew the hinges away, making the door crack and caused him to fall back on his butt.
"Thundershock!" He growled in frustration, already knowing it was her way to get anybody's attention. Specially Poppy's… in the middle of the night. "You could just say hello like a normal troll!"
"Don't get your briefs in a twist, paranoid boy." She teased him, putting her guitar away and crossing her arms with her usual unimpressed attitude. "I need your assistance."
"Well… breaking my door isn't a good way to ask for a favor." Branch adjusted the hinge in place, but he realized he'd have to fix it properly the next morning.
"Whatever. I want to talk about Poppy." Val said his girlfriend's name at once to stop him from complaining. Yeah… she could be manipulative sometimes.
"Did something happen?" Alarmed, Branch raised to his feet, "Is she okay?"
"She's probably getting ready for bed." Val shrugged. "But I want your help to understand Popsqueak a little better."
An effort to understand Poppy was surprising coming from Val. Branch stared at the Rock Troll for a couple of seconds taking in how conflicted she looked and - boy - he could relate to that. Maybe she actually cared about their friendship.
"Look, I'm about to cook some soup, do you want to talk about it while I chop things up?" Branch offered, stepping aside and allowing the tough girl to join him. He didn't want to miss his dinner time and conversation about Poppy tended to be long.
Val wasn't the most patient troll in the world. Branch had barely put the carrots, cabbages and a couple of potatoes in the sink to be washed clean when she pulled out a chair and dropped heavily on it. She didn't offer any help, but started talking, watching as the teal troll sorted out the best items to cook.
"So, sometimes I think Poppy plays me." Val said and Branch mentally chucked, almost saying 'welcome to the team'. She crossed her arms and continued, "I think I have taken her granted from the start." Branch poured some juice on a glass and placed it in front of the confused girl and waited for her to continue. She was taken aback by his hospitality for a few seconds. "Anyway, today we had to deal with Jazz Boy and while I thought I was the only one suspicious of him…"
"Hold on, Jazz Boy?" Branch turned from the sink, peeling the potatoes while staring at Val with a frown.
"Yeah, Biggie said you've met him." Val explained, "You've been hypnotized and everything."
By all that is Troll-y, Chaz had showed up in Trollstopia?
Branch nearly cut his finger. He clearly remembered the hallucination he had with Poppy. A marvelous beach... a glorious honeymoon. Feeding each other sushi…
"From the blush and the drool, I take it you've been under some sort of dirty hypnotism?" Val asked in a teasing tone.
"I… Huh… I don't want to talk about it." Branch turned around with the excuse to focus on his dinner preparations.
"Boy, you guys are pathetic." Once again, Val didn't consider how her words could sound hurtfully true. "Anyway, Poppy acted all friendly, welcomed him, made a grotto and all, but I knew he was bad news."
Potatoes were chopped, next were the carrots.
"So, Chaz revealed his evil plan and we got hypnotized. The next thing I know I'm breaking free because that Keith boy destroyed the saxophone." Branch didn't see any conflict that he could help so far, "Then Poppy apologized! She said she should have been more suspicious from the start."
'Classical Poppy,' Branch thought without interrupting Val's outburst.
"Then I actually said I like how she thinks the best of every troll. I was above myself with pride that I had been the one to unmask Chaz, but…" -uh-oh… here it comes, Branch prepared himself for Val's sour realization, "she was the one who unmasked him! She was the one to sneak Keith into that gift box! She made me think she was optimistic, but she was as suspicious as I was!"
"I think I know where you're coming from…" Branch replied, adding the cut carrots to the boiling water. Cabbages were next. "Poppy is sort of like that…"
"Sort of like that?" Val pushed herself up to pace around the kitchen. "Poppy is confusing me! I think she's all cupcakes and rainbows and then - bang - she does something that contradicts her sweet nature." Growling, the purple rock girl almost smashed the juice glass on the ground, stopping her anger at the last second. "Poppy isn't sincere!"
Branch put the lid over the pan after adding the spices. All he had to do now was to wait for it to cook and, in the meanwhile, he could - indeed - offer some help to clear things up about Poppy.
He never wanted Val to think Poppy wasn't sincere. Ever. Again.
"Poppy is sweet and caring by nature," Branch leaned against the sink and crossed his arms with a heavy sigh. Val's anger diminished considerably when she saw his calm attitude and she paid close attention to what he was about to say. "Before we were friends, I had a feeling she was almost recklessly optimistic. No, scratch that. She was recklessly optimistic." Not that he was going to mention it to Val, but it had been Poppy's fault Chef had found them. "I was the one to plant the seed of suspicion in her."
He could recall like it was yesterday. Bad things happen and there's nothing you can do about it. The best thing was to be crazy prepared for everything.
"She's the Queen of the happiest creatures in the world." Branch explained, "Her people expect her to be sweet and caring," actually, he was thinking that he might have been the one to kill her innocence. "So, she gives them what they want. I think when her intuition sparks negatively, she keeps it to herself… not to taint the tribe, to prevent freak outs and to do all things a leader should do."
"That's…" Val started saying, but stopped herself to reformulate. "I didn't think it was like that."
"Poppy is the greatest, the most loyal friend you'll ever have." Branch explained, "But keep in your mind that she's the Queen."
The sound of the boiling soup was the only thing that could be heard in the bunker's kitchen. Val was silent and Branch was quietly pondering about everything he had just said. He had a feeling he had played a major part in making Poppy 'crazy prepared' about people. First it was Creek… then Barb… and he was the one to point out the signals that they were trouble.
The same worked for Poppy. She had helped him open up to optimism. She helped him out of his antisocial shell. Only... while she brightened up his world… he had darkened hers a little bit.
"Is it hard for you to date her?" Val asked out of the blue, taking Branch by surprise. "If she keeps the queen stuff to herself then she's never really fully there."
They weren't talking about Poppy keeping the suspicion to herself anymore. Val was wondering about Poppy's constant need of approval. How she wanted to be viewed as a good queen. Branch had never really thought about it. If Poppy was always auto-analyzing herself, thinking about how she sounded, if her smile was perfect, if she made people happy… then she wasn't as spontaneous as she looked like.
"She's obsessed with being perfect." The pan whistled and Branch turned around to check on his dinner. It looked creamy and it smelled like heaven. He turned off the stove and opened the cupboard to take two bowls. "It's easy to understand her and to offer real help when she needs it. If you can deal with that side of Poppy, then you can build a good relational foundation of trust and mutual respect."
"Oh…" Val blinked in surprise. "I've heard you're good with your words, dude, but that was meaningful."
"Are you staying for dinner?" Branch asked her just before pouring some soup for her as well.
Val actually enjoyed the cooking. They ate in a much lighter atmosphere, with Branch telling Val how Poppy went to the ends of the Troll Forest to seek a Rainbow Maker after she accidentally killed the Bellow Bug.
By the end of that enjoyable evening, both Branch and Val realized that they could always team up to help Poppy through tough times… even if she didn't want them to.