Chapter Text
It took about an hour of negotiation and debate for the group to leave Vaycay Island. There was a lot of pushback from Brandy and the kids, not wanting their old man to leave while it was still dark out. The rest of the hurdle was Poppy having to convince everyone she was alright and good to travel. She had scared every troll half to death on their journey so far.
The hour had given Poppy plenty of time to come up with the next course of action. The band of rescuers had just finished packing up Rhonda, hoping the few hours of peace would have been enough to let the beast rest. John Dory shuffled through his closet of various tools and boxes, looking for anything that might help in their search for Clay.
“You haven't heard from him?” Bruce called out from his seat next to Poppy. They stared at John Dory’s tail poking out of the closet, swaying back and forth as he rummaged around in it's contents.
Poppy was wrapped up in a blanket, sitting on a chair with her legs tucked under the fabric. They were absent of a lead, unsure of where to turn next. “Uh, No. Not since the band broke up.” John Dory announced from the closet.
“... Band?” Poppy spoke up, her ears turning upright.
Bruce turned to her as John Dory leaned out of the closet. “What do you mean band?” Poppy asked, turning to Bruce with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, um…” Bruce seethed through his teeth, clenching his jaw as his eyes shot back over to John Dory. “You don't know?” John Dory asked, blinking in surprise.
“Know what?” Poppy’s nose twitched, only becoming more confused. “That we-” John Dory’s eyes shot back over to Bruce, who only shrugged in response. “Well, dang.” John Dory exhaled before turning heel back into the closet. “Here! I’ll show you!”
“Oh John, I don't think-” Bruce started, watching as John Dory yanked a large grass-weaved box out of the closet. Poppy ears stood up at attention, her tail perking in interest at the colorful box.
Bruce exhaled heavily, placing a hand on his temple. John stumbled under the weight of the large box before heaving it onto the ground in front of the two trolls.
“Whoa!” Poppy discarded her blanket, slipping out of the chair and onto the floor in front of the box. “Wait a minute.” Her eyes widened, recognizing some of the branding on a few of the colorful photos and products.
John Dory stood with a smile, his hands on his hips as he watched her reaction. “Ah, told ya she’d know.” John Dory clicked his tongue, looking back to Bruce with a grin. Bruce rolled his eyes, shaking his head back and forth as he gazed over Poppy’s shoulder into the box. An acute framed photo sat complacent on top of the box, covered in dust. Poppy picked up the photograph and dusted it off with her arm.
Poppy didn't notice as John Dory’s ears folded back, recalling what was in the photo before she had finished cleaning it off. “I wonder…” He dismissed himself, pacing away from the two trolls and back into the closet. Bruce raised an eyebrow, noticing his ears were folded before returning to look at the poignant photograph.
“Oh my stars! Look!” Poppy gasped with a smile, holding it up to Bruce’s face. “Ah! Look at that.” A smile quickly appeared on Bruce’s face, picking up the framed photo from her hands. It was a family photo of theirs, showing five vibrantly blue young boys and a sweet old lady together posed neatly. They each dawned jackets and bowties, looking to be their best attempt at a family photo.
“This is us, that's for sure.” Bruce chuckled, wiping off more of the dust away from the frame. “Who’s who?” Poppy asked, leaning over Bruce’s shoulder while her tail whipped. Bruce grinned, pointing to himself in the photo. “Me, obviously.” He chuckled, admiring his young statue and body. “Ah, what 13 kids does to you.” He laughed to himself before his thumb moved to the oldest looking of the group.
“That's John. He yelled at Clay right after because he stepped on his tail.” The eldest brother’s face was contorted in anger, but looked his best to be professionally posed. Poppy giggled softly, admiring the dashing young trolls in their suits before glancing back towards where John Dory had darted off to. His tail was no longer visible, having ducked away into the closet.
“There’s Clay.” Bruce pointed to their exuberant little brother, unable to contain his excitement and smiling wide for the photograph. He donned sharp scraggly yellow hair, complimenting his excitable nature. “Aw,” Poppy smiled, her tail whipping as she learned about Branch’s family.
“Little Floyd, aw.” Bruce cleaned off the frame more, revealing each brother as he smeared away the dust with his thumb. “He was the cutest. He’s trying not to cry.” Bruce chuckled, tilting the photograph to show Poppy. He used his fist to smear the dust away the rest of the photograph, revealing the sweet old woman and a small toddler.
“Grandma and Baby Branch.” Bruce smiled as his ears folded back partially. “What!?” Poppy gasped, picking up the photo from his hands. “T-That's Branch!? Oh my stars! He’s so cute, aww!” Poppy’s tail whipped, admiring the adorable little baby in a bowtie, obviously too wiggly for their grandmother to keep still.
“You are so adorable together!” Poppy’s tail whipped excitedly, setting down the photo before turning back to the box.
“You all were BroZone!?” She covered her mouth as the reveal hit her over the head. She picked up a small stack of photos, all consisting of different photographs from their performances. “Yup… That’s us.” Bruce chuckled solemnly, picking up the framed photo from where Poppy had set it down.
“Look at you all! Your outfits! Aw!” Poppy looked back up towards the closet. “John! Why didn't you say anything!?” She smiled, but faltered upon noticing the troll still wasn't present. “That's… very unlike you John.” Bruce mumbled, glancing at Poppy. “He always bragged about it.”
“Well, that was a while ago.” John spoke up, pulling out of the closet with another box. “It was never really- relevant.” John shrugged, setting the new box next to the old one.
Bruce’s face contorted in a puzzled look, sensing something off about the older troll but couldn't identify what it was. “Relevant!? You’re BroZone! That means-” Poppy gasped.
“You were the original ones to try the Perfect Family Harmony!” She put her hands on her cheeks. Her plan wasn’t so off the walls after all.
“Keyword pipsqueak. Try.” John Dory gestured with air quotes. “We couldn't do it. We probably still can't. We're more out of harmony than ever before.” John admitted, echoing Bruce’s words from earlier. “W-Well, yea! Try! That's the whole point!” Poppy frowned.
John exhaled heavily, dismissing himself again with a shake of his head before pacing away back towards the closet. “Hey, John.” Bruce spoke up, looking up from the picture frame in his hands.
“How did you get this photo?”
John Dory stopped in his tracks, halfway back to the closet with his back turned to the group. Bruce’s ears pressed back as he noticed John Dory’s tail tuck slightly at the question.
“I uh… from the Troll Tree.” John Dory mumbled quietly, refusing to turn around.
“You went back?” Bruce stood up. “Y-You went back to the tree?” He repeated, a sudden tension falling over the two trolls. “Of course I went back to the tree, Spruce.” John Dory huffed under his breath before continuing back into the closet.
Bruce paced after him, standing behind the doorway as John Dory continued to dig in his boxes. “When? When I went back, it was-”
“Destroyed. Yep.” John Dory said flatly, his ears folding back. Bruce bit his lip, letting out a slight huff. “John, Did you find anyone else?” Bruce frowned.
“Of course not. As far as I knew everyone was dead.” A sharper tone came out of John Dory, causing him to glare over his shoulder at Bruce. “Dead? Why would you gloss that conclusion?” Bruce shook his head in disbelief. “Even me?”
“YES!” John Dory turned around to face him, throwing his hands in the air. “What does it matter!?” His tail shifted across the ground, swaying as he stared up at Bruce from the floor, his ears pinned completely back.
Bruce silently stared at him, seeing John Dory’s fur ruffled around his neck. This was difficult for him after being convinced for years everyone he loved was gone.
Regardless of what he knew now, the rest of them were guaranteed to hate him for leaving. It left John frustrated on top of still being intoxicated.
“Are you okay, John?” Bruce’s voice fell, his tone softening up. John Dory’s ears flicked upright before folding right back down, pressing against his skull before looking away. “Yes. I'm fine.” He grumbled quietly.
Poppy quietly observed the two, having stopped digging through the box once tension entered the room. “Well,” Bruce exhaled softly. “I am glad you're not dead.” He said softly, offering his hand to John Dory. He paused, momentarily staring at it before accepting it. Bruce helped pull John to his feet and out of the closet.
“Me too.” John Dry sighed lightly, squeezing Bruce’s hand momentarily. Bruce grinned at him before yanking his arm and pulling him into a forced hug. “H-Hey!” John Dory yelped. “I know you're not a hugger but I don’t care!” Bruce laughed, picking up his older brother.
Poppy grinned as the two embraced with shared laughter, the tension dissolving with the pleasant sound. She softly exhaled and glanced down at the small polaroid photos in her hands.
It was a variety of different performance-based photography, capturing quintessential moments in time of their youths. An idea popped into her head, a cheeky grin appearing as she began to sort through the memorabilia in the box.
…
“Well!” Poppy announced as she hopped up from her spot on the floor. The cap of a glue stick twirled in her fingers before it sealed away the glue.
She firmly planted her fists against her hips, staring proudly at her work. A large piece of paper was taped up against Rhonda's interior side. Glitter and scraps of paper were stuck to her fur from her messy craftsmanship.
“I have a plan! Tada!” Poppy held out her hands in an exasperated stance as she showed off her poster to the other trolls in the cabin. Her tail wagged rapidly, spreading the glitter worse around the cabin.
Both brothers stared blankly at the elaborately decorated board in front of them. They both appeared utterly confused, glancing at each other in worry before returning their attention to Poppy. “Okay, so!” Poppy whipped around, her tail continuing to wag as she started to explain her ‘genius’ plan.
“There’s about thirty five miles worth of dense forest surrounding Bergen Town before we hit the coast. A Troll can only walk so far before they get exhausted. Now, to be cautious, My dad made sure we took an entire day to venture away from the town before finding our new home.”
“If we calculate how long a Troll can walk before getting exhausted, and add about a three mile buffer, we should find Clay in this area!” She jumped up, throwing more glitter onto her poster board. John Dory internally cringed, knowing he was never going to get all of the glitter out of there. She turned around to face the other two members of her party. “Does it make sense?”
“Uhh…” John Dory stalled, looking over Poppy’s elaborate but not well thought out plan. “So… we’re supposed to search thirty miles of dense forest?” Bruce asked. Poppy blinked, realizing they didn't exactly have the time for such a task. “O-Okay. Hold on.” Her face scrunched as she turned back to her poster board, staring blankly while she tapped her chin.
“We should’ve put a tracker on that kid.” Bruce attempted to humor the situation, thankfully emitting a light chuckle from John, who also sensed the tension. John Dory picked up a framed picture of their young family from the memoriabellia box.
“Clay was way more feral then Branch. It took everything to control those two.” John Dory laughed, staring solemly at the picture in his hand.
“Floyd would just always beg them to stop fighting! Then cry when they wouldn't listen.” Bruce laughed from next to him, patting his eldest brother on the shoulder. John Dory grinned with a nod. “Yea Yea. Floyd…” He exhaled slowly before turning to look back at Poppy.
“A tracker…” Poppy repeated, delayed to the conversation. “Put a tracker on Clay?” She turned around to look at John Dory for conformation. “No Poppy, Bruce was just making a joke,” John Dory clarified before Poppy hopped up again. “A tracker! JD, do you have anything that smells like Clay?” Poppy started digging in the box.
“Um… no? Well uh,” John Dory pondered before a thought came into his head. He snickered slightly. “Oh my stars! I do. I totally do!” John excitedly hopped up, walking into the back storage area of Rhonda. He came out with a picture frame that held a strange pair of underpants.
“Ew!” Poppy gasped, covering her mouth. John Dory and Bruce started laughing. “You still have those!? Ew!” Bruce laughed. “Who’s the crazy hoarder now!? Woohoo!” John cheered, holding the frame over his head triumphantly. “Why do you even have that?!” Poppy kept her hands over her mouth, offput as to why John could possibly have a reasonable explanation to keeping his brothers underpants.
“I really don't know.” John chuckled dismissivly, breaking open the frame on the side. Poppy huffed before shaking her head, moving onto the task at hand. “Do you think Rhonda can catch a scent with those?” Poppy suggested, her tail starting to whip excitedly.
“Of course! I absolutely bet she can.” John Dory’s ears perked up, intrigued by Poppy’s idea. He popped open the hatch, running out of Rhonda to test her theory. “Yes!” Poppy happily spun around in a circle.
“We got a lead! We’re going to be able to save the boys!” Happy drunk Poppy was definitely a shocker to Bruce, watching the Pop Queen spin around happily on her heels. “Ugh! I feel so much better than earlier.” She exhaled, relieved at the rush of positive feeling.
“Not to keep your hopes down Poppy, but we should probably have a plan just in case we can't hit the Perfect Family Harmony.” Bruce's voice fell to a whisper. Poppy turned her attention to him, pausing her celebration.
“Oh, um… no, you're probably right.” She nodded, realizing they still needed a pretty large chunk of their plan to be figured out before a celebration was in order. “What do you need to hit the Perfect Family Harmony?”
“To be perfect!” John Dory stepped back into the armadillo bus, dumping the broken glass he held into the nearby garbage can. “That's what it needs.” John pointed towards the ceiling before spinning around to the head of the cabin.
“Rhondas got the scent! Buckle up broskis!” John Dory slid over to the driver’s seat, the cab rumbling as Rhonda took off barrelling towards the tracked scent from Clay’s old underpants.
Bruce sighed heavily. “No, it doesn't need to be Perfect. We just have to be in Harmony. You're focusing on the wrong part John.” Bruce spoke up. “We’re both rusty Bruce, it's alright to admit it.” John Dory snickered, watching the road as Rhonda bounded excitedly through the forest.
“Ooo! Sounds like you guys need a little bit of practice!” Poppy excitedly hopped up, grabbing her backpack from the floor. Both brothers shared an uncomfortable glance at each other.
“Er… Poppy, maybe we should wait till we have Clay,” Bruce suggested lightly. John Dory nodded only to have Poppy promptly shake her head.
“We have a few hours to kill! Come on. Let's keep going. Just a little practice, please?” Poppy pouted, her tail still whipping between her legs. She was excitable and intoxicated. Both boys sighed, knowing they were just going to have to indulge the young troll for the time being.
