Controlled Chaos

The Attack

Poppy tried to focus during the meeting, but she couldn't. The stress was getting to her, pushing her buttons and pulling on her strings until she was sitting on the edge, about to burst.
She tried not to show it, though. She remained somewhat calm and collected, but there was no denying that she was stressed to the max.
Her eyes betrayed her, showing a small glimpse of the panic and worry raging inside her.
And the worse part was that all the leaders noticed it. Even Val, who was half-asleep. But nobody interrupted. She tried harder and harder to hide it, feeling ashamed.
It only became more obvious; she forgot her words, and whenever she would remember, she'd stammered and stuttered.
Her lip was shaking, quivering, no matter how hard she bit down upon it. All she wanted right then, was to be with Branch. He was the only one who knew. About the anxiety. He always helped her with the stress, and helped her breathe and work thru her panic attacks.
But right now, she was here. She sat infront of some of her best friends and partners, the weight of reality nearly crushing her.
Panic, worry, stress, fear... they all seemed to be there with her, lurking around in the shadows of her mind. Ready to pounce.
But silently, she hoped, she prayed they didn't. And then, her savior and her doom came to her ears.
"Um, Poppy? Are you okay?"
It was Holly, her best friend that she was so thankful for yet so mad at.
"Oh, yes, you seem a bit... out of sorts?" Dante added.
Poppy took a breath; no, maybe like a gasp for air. She faked a smile, and it was quite apparent she was doing so.
"I'm fine, guys!" she mumbled. And then she continued on with her speech. As she finished, she realized that the leaders had already quietly shuffled out the door.
"Oh. O-okay! B...bye..?" she called out to them, her voice cracking in the middle.
Poppy then was alone, standing there. She took another deep breath, pleading her body to breath. She took a seat. Her head was spinning and her thoughts were swirling and twisting around in her brain.
Like a hurricane, or a tornado destroying and overuling her every thought with a relentless appetite.
Suddenly, they pounced. The fear, the worry, the panic, the stress, *everything* poured down atop of her.
They were no longer threats creeping in the shadows. No. This was real, pounding down on Poppy's shoulders, like a heavy burden she couldn't remove.
And, before she knew it, she was on the floor. Sobbing, crying, whimpering, gasping. She had cracked. Her tears flew from her eyes, down her cheeks and into a puddle on the ground.
Poppy's shoulders heaved, as the weight was too much for the poor girl to even bear. She couldn't take it.
The weight fell from her shoulders and crept down towards her chest. It was tightening, like it was grabbing her heart and squeezing all the blood away.
She could barely breathe, she was drowning. All she wanted was to scream "Help! Somebody, please help!" but she couldn't.
The world was ending, falling, crushing her. She wanted to scream, she wanted to laugh. She wanted to runaway, forget about everything.
But that was impossible. She knew that. Poppy hugged her knees and tried to quiet her sobs, but she failed. After a while, she stopped trying. She didn't care, she needed to cry.
Her eyesight was blurry and her eyes stung. Her ears rung and her chest was still tight.
Poppy needed help, and she knew it. She needed Branch. And as soon as that thought crosses her mind, she felt a warm hand clamp down on her shoulder. She nearly jumped. She slowly twisted around, terrified that someone had caught her.

▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓸𝓼 █ ▇ ▆ ▅ ▄ ▂ ▁

Branch knew something was wrong from the moment she had walked out of the bunker.
Something just... didn't feel right with her.
He laid in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He covered himself with the blanket, snuggling up with it.
Branch the blanket tightly, as it were actually Poppy.
It smells like her.. he thought, as he inhaled her scent.
He gripped onto his ears and tugged down on them. Hard.
C'mon, Branch, knock it off! he scolded himself, She's been gone for, what, 15 minutes?
He got up and trudged towards the kitchen. He ate an apple and tried to read a manual.
But, he just couldn't shake the feeling of something wrong. So, he did the only reasonable thing that he should do. He ran to find Poppy.
When he arrived at her Pod, she wasn't there. But just to make sure, he stepped inside and looked around.
"Pops?" he asked the cold house. No answer.
He flicked on the light switch and peered under the bed.
Nope...
He went over to the closet and carefully opened the door.
Nope...
He finally decided to give up, and he left her pod. He roamed around TrollsTopia, and he saw the delegates sitting on a bench, happily eating ice cream.
"Hey guys!" he greeted, to which everyone greeted back at the same time.
"Have you seen Poppy anywhere?" he asked, and he noticed their expressions darkened.
"We have. During the meeting. We just finished. But Poppy was acting...strange, to say the least," Dante said, licking at his ice cream.
"Yeah," Val added, "She seemed worried about something. Not sure what, though." Branch nodded. "Well, is there any chance you know where she is?"
"Hmm, maybe try the meetin' pod?" Holly suggested. "She was there when we left!"
He thanked her and walked off to the meeting pod. The closer he got, he could swear he heard sobbing and whimpering.
His heart raced. "Poppy!" he gasped and started running towards the pod.
He entered and saw Poppy sitting on the floor, crying. It looked like she was having a panic attack.
Branch went up behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder. She jumped a little bit and timidly turned around.
"Br-ranch..?" she sniffled. He sat down beside her and hugged her. Tightly. "Hey, sweetheart... It's okay, everything will be okay..," Branch rubbed her back in comforting swirls.
Poppy wanted it to be okay. She wanted all of it to stop. But it wasn't. She wasn't.
Poppy cried for a long time after that, struggling to breathe. Branch continued to repeat soothing phrases and words in her ear, sometimes bending down to give her light neck kisses, but it barely helped.
It was like she enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The smoke was thick and black. It was sulphurous, toxic
After an eternity of tears, the smoke grew thinner and thinner, until it was only Branch and Poppy in the pod.
The weight was gone, too. Off or her shoulders and away from her chest. And so was the dominating tornado and hurricane of thoughts.
Branch still held her, cradling her in his arms.
"Are you okay now?" he asked, rocking from side to side. Poppy didn't reply. Am I okay? she wondered. She sighed
"For now, I guess," she said. "And I'm sorry you had to see me like this..," she shook her head shamefully, "You didn't have to help me."
He brushed hair out of the way of her eyes, tickling her nose. "It's okay. I wanted to help, I can't stand seeing you so upset," he replied, and she stood up.
"Poppy," Branch said, gently, yet firmly at the same time, "You need some rest." She shook her head.
"I'd love to, Branch, but I have things to do. Like the party details, reading to the Trollings, probably some unplanned adventure, and-" she was cut off by Branch slamming his lips against hers. She was suprised at first, but she soon slipped into the pleasure.
"Branch..?" she asked, still against his lips. He just continued to kiss her, however. After a minute or so, he pulled away.
"No, Pops, stop. It's okay! I can take care of all of that for the day," he put both his hands on her shoulders, massaging them a bit. Poppy trembled, but she stopped when she felt him plant a small kiss on her nose.
"You- You'd do that? For me?" she asked, sort of suprised.
"Of course! Especially when you need some time off," Branch nudged her and smiled. She smiled weakly back at him.
With him, she felt safe. She felt loved for and cared for. She felt like she was in a car, driving away from a storm, looking back in the rearview mirror to the clouds that had poured rain down at her.
"Alright, my queen, now let's go get some sleep."