Poppy hummed happily as she dashed about her pod, throwing things here and there as she tried to decide the best things to pack for operation "Rainbow fish", at least that's what she was calling it. Among what she considered essential was: Gumdrops, candyfloss, candy canes, Chocolates, A change of clothes, and enough glitter to make a glitter troll jealous, as well as a few other items.
Despite all she packed, she still managed to get her bag closed, swinging it around to wear on her back. She was practically skipping as she left her pod, singing a song softly to herself. She was confident that with the four of them working together, they would get Trollex's colors back in no time! After all, who doesn't like music and parties and fun, right?
When glanced up, spotting a branch hanging overhead, and decided she'd have a little fun getting down to the plaza. She drew her head back, and swung it forward again, her hair responding to her will and stretching forward. It reached the branch she had spotted and wrapped around it, allowing Poppy to leap off of the step she was on and swing forward.
With a mid-air flip and a landing with a flourish, she earned the applause of the trolls that had stopped to watch her. She offered a few humble bows to her audience, but paused when she saw Branch stepping forward through the crowd, clapping as well.
Poppy felt her cheeks grow hot as she stood straight again, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. "Oh, Branch! I didn't realize you were done getting ready for our big adventure!"
He let out a huff, crossing his arms. "It's not an adventure, Poppy; it's just helping King Trollex get his color back. It'll help Tribal relationships to." He glanced over her shoulder at the backpack. "...That bag is surprisingly...small, Poppy. What do you actually have in there?"
She grinned, giggling softly. "Only the essentials, Branch! Don't worry about it. I even packed a life raft!"
Branch blinked slowly, staring at Poppy. The idea of her packing a raft for any sensible reason seemed unlikely, so he had to wonder just what she had packed it for.
It turned out that she was using it as a replacement for her portable glitter pool. You know, for whenever you want to jump in a pool of glitter, obviously.
Without allowing Branch to question her further, Poppy bounced on her heels a bit. "So, where's Trollex anyway?"
Branch glanced around. "I told him if he wanted he could explore a bit, but now that I think about it, the other trolls are to calm. If Trollex was somewhere in the village, they'd be going crazy..."
Poppy hummed, thinking it over. "Maybe the snack pack heard something? Wait, I think I see Smidge! SMIDGE OVER HERE!"
The diminutive troll turned to Poppy, which was when Branch noticed how stressed she looked. "Um, Poppy, does Smidge look worried about something to you?"
Poppy nodded a bit, watching as Smidge used her hair to swing down to them. Neither the king nor queen got a word out before Smidge spoke in a panic. "Guys we lost Trollex!"
The two looked at each other, sharing a moment of stunned clarity before shouting in unison. "YOU GUYS LOST THE KING OF THE TECHNO TROLLS?!"
-Meanwhile, elsewhere-
Trollex grumbled softly, his ear fin twitching before he scratched at it.
"You alright, man?" Cooper asked from his bubble, floating near enough to Trollex's to talk without much trouble.
The young king sighed, nodding. "Yeah, just an itchy fin." He chuckled a bit. "Must be someone talking about me."
Cooper let out a sudden laugh. "You guys have something like that to? For Pop trolls it's their ears!" He scratched at his own ear, as though to demonstrate.
Trollex looked ahead, watching the puffy clouds pass them by at a rather significant speed. Truth be told, he had no idea just how fast these bubbles traveled. He thought back to the Pop troll village they had just left, and realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "POPPY AND BRANCH! I was supposed to wait for them! Oh, they're going to hang me out to dry when they find out I've gone..."
Beat poked his head out of Trollex's hair, giving a peeved look to his friend. "You have a habit of leaving villages unannounced, Trollex."
His ear fins drooped and he looked up at Beat with his best puppy-dog eyes. "Are you still mad at me?"
He got a smack from a fin and a huff as his response, before beat returned to nestling in his hair.
Trollex flopped backwards in his bubble, staring at the pink pixels lit up on his tail. "Cooper, how did you do it?"
Cooper glanced over at Trollex, tilting his head. "Do what?" With a few nudges, Coopers bubble drifted a little closer to the others.
"Get your color back... after the strings were destroyed, you were the first one... the one who reminded everyone the music was inside us..." He looked over at Cooper. "How'd you do that?"
He watched as the other hummed softly, tapping in a steady rhythm over his heart. "I dunno, I could hear my heart beating, and thought 'Hey, if we lost our old music... why not make new music?'"
That got Trollex thinking. He looked down at his own pulsing heart, and thought back to the song and dance number he had joined the Pop troll's in. "And you did just that. You made music when everyone else was ready to give up..." He looked up towards the wide, blue sky around them. "But I went and gave up anyway..."
A few moments of silence passed before he heard a soft squeaking sound. He glanced over just in time to see the two bubbles touch, quickly absorbing each other and tossing the occupants together. He let out gasp when he was suddenly tugged into a hug once the spinning stopped.
Cooper hugged Trollex tight, and gave no sign of letting go. Trollex laughed nervously, tapping lightly on one of Coopers legs. "U-Um, Cooper, are you ok?"
Cooper set his head on top of Trollex's. "No, you can't ask that, that's my question!"
That got him a bit confused. He glanced up, only able to see Cooper's fluff over his own brow. "Um, you mean you want to ask me if... I'm ok?"
A nod was the response, but Trollex wasn't sure he could answer. He looked forward again, resting his hands gently on Cooper's legs, which were still wrapped around his chest. It was kind of nice like this; it reminded him of the times he would sit in one of his parents' laps. He felt safe.
He let his eyes slide shut to enjoy the peace, but it was short lived. He blinked them open again and glanced around, trying to pinpoint an odd humming sound that he heard. Cooper seemed to know what was coming though, as he released Trollex and stood within the bubble. "They're here!"
As though on que, a very large, very SHINY UFO parted the clouds ahead, flying towards them. He watched in awe as the bubble they were in floated down below the saucer, before zipping up into a now opened hatch.
Trollex enjoyed the lights and colors of the trip through the tubing system, but was stunned into silence when he saw how colorful the city was within. He watched trolls milling about, chatting happily to each other, while others played music on floating record platforms.
As soon as they entered another tube system, he missed the colorful view of the city. He turned to Cooper, who was looking rather proud of himself. "Cool, isn't it?"
All he could offer was a stunned nod of approval, which was more than enough for Cooper. When the bubble finally made it to the reception room, it set them both down gently on the floor, and then popped.
Trollex was immediately in the air, flicking his fins to move about quickly as he looked all over the shiny room.
He paused when he heard a sweet laugh from behind, and turned to see Cooper running to greet his twin brother, Prince D. Trollex cleared his throat, and reminding himself he was visiting active royalty. "U-Um, hello Prince D. How have you and your parents been holding out?"
Prince D laughed again, shaking his head. "You don't got to be formal here, Trollex. Just chill!"
He gave the other a slight skeptical look, before nodding. "Um, right. Well..." He glanced over at Cooper, who gave the signal for him to continue. "Uhhh....nice um.... Nice city, very shiny, I'll be out ofyourhairnowBYE!" And with that he darted up towards the hatch that brought him in, only for Cooper to leap up and grab him by the tail, just short of escape.
Cooper shook his head, pinning Trollex's fins under his front feet. "Nope! That's not what we came here for." He turned to his brother, nodding his head back towards a still struggling Trollex. "He lost his color, and his parents, and now he's kinda freaking out and needs his color back. I figured you and mom and dad could help!"
Trollex flopped, finally going still. No reason to struggle if it had all been spilled anyway, right? Prince D looked down at Trollex, then back at Cooper. "I gotcha. You go get mom and dad; I'll show him to a room!"
With the plan decided upon, Cooper released Trollex's fins and bounded off to get the king and queen, leaving a rather embarrassed Trollex with the other Prince of Funk.
Prince D stepped forward, lowering his head to talk level with Trollex, who was still flopped on the floor. "So, there a reason you didn't wanna tell me that on your own?"
He let out a whine, covering his head with his arms before he spoke. "Mph... It's cause the Funky family..." He sighed. "You guys seem so happy, I didn't wanna ask you guys for help with my people, or my problems..." He looked at Prince D. "I'm really not a very good king—ow!"
Trollex curled up a bit, rubbing the top of his head as he pushed himself off of the floor. "Why'd you hit me?"
The Prince tilted his head. "To get you to stop thinking like that. Worked, didn't it? Now you're just thinking of a little bit of a bump on your head."
It was true, Trollex had stopped thinking about it in that moment, and his head didn't even hurt when he thought about it. "You didn't even hit me that hard, did you."
With a grin and a snicker, Prince D shook his head. "Nope, just a lil love tap."
The two shared a laugh, but it was cut off when they heard several sets of footsteps coming up the hall towards them. Prince D stood up fully, trotting towards the entrance. "That ought to be them!" He poked his head into the hall, and then suddenly vanished.
Trollex jumped a bit, staring at the place that Prince D had just been standing. Who he saw next had him actually landing on the floor, standing on his fins as he looked up at the king of Funk. He gulped a bit. Sure, Prince D and Cooper had assured him that there was no need to be formal, or scared, but he found himself shaking a bit.
King Quincy was a tall, imposing figure, the cape adding to his perceived size. The kings found themselves standing face to face, though for Trollex he felt more like a child next to the king. A rather scared child at that.
As Quincy was about to speak, a shout was heard from down the hall. "KING QUINCY FUNKY YOU BETTER NOT BE IN THERE TERRORIZING OUR GUESTS AGAIN!"
The king turned around to face his rather angry looking wife as she came into the room, speaking in his soft, deep voice. "Oh come now dear, if I can't have a little fun with the odd guest, what's the point of being a king?"
Queen essence glared at Quincy, but her expression quickly melted into that of confusion. "Um, well, were IS our guest?"
"Why, right here my—Oh." As Quincy turned around to show Trollex, he found that the aquatic troll was nowhere to be seen. "Well, he was right there..."
Essence rolled her eyes, turning to Cooper and Prince D in the hall behind her. "King Trollex seems to have vanished, thanks to your lovely father. Would you boys mind helping us look for him?"
And so the funk family set about trying to find the missing King, who had managed to slip out of the reception room entirely, and had made it into the main portion of the city itself. He found himself attracted to nearly every glowing light fixture and sparkly object that caught his attention.
Which was literally everything.
At some point, Trollex had made it to the center fixture of the city, and found himself at a rather new looking fountain. And wouldn't you know it, splashing around in the fountain was a group of children. Some of which were Techno trolls.
Trollex's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He couldn't let his people see him like this. No one knew he had lost his color in his own tribe yet, and he hoped to keep it that way. He tried to sneak back off into the crowd, but found himself bumping head first into a Funk trolls soft fur.
He pulled back and shook his head, looking up at the curious Funk troll. "Sorry, little buddy. Are you ok? You're looking a little grey there."
Trollex offered a nervous laugh, waving off the others concern. "I'm f-fine! Just kinda..." He glanced back at the fountain. "Um, just a little under the weather is all, yeah! Ha ha... well, bye!" And with a flick of his tail, he zipped off into the air.
Trollex was used to being the tallest in his tribe, but only by a little. Here in Vibe city all the trolls were nearly twice his height when he stood on his fins.
He wasn't a big fan of things bigger than him.
He needed to find somewhere quiet for now... He came to a stop when he heard a little melody play over a sound system. "Attention all trolls currently in Vibe city, this is Queen Essence speaking. We are looking for a... royal guest, which we think may be lost in the city. Please help us find him, and if he can hear this, I apologize for my husband startling you, don't worry, we don't bite."
Trollex whined softly, looking back towards the direction he had originally come from. He should go back... But King Quincy was huge and intimidating, he wasn't sure he could face the king of Funk after last time.
It was then he heard a murmur from the crowd below. His eyes widened when he heard his name.
"Hey, isn't that the king of Techno up there?"
"Yeah, it's king Trollex!"
He looked around the crowd below, then at himself. In the bright, neon lights from the signs all around him, he almost looked as colorful as usual. "No wonder they recognize me... I have to get out of here...!"
"King Trollex, wait!"
He was about to dart off when he spotted who called him. It was one of the Techno troll children that had been playing in the fountain. The little tyke flicked the water off of his tail fin as he pulled himself up onto the ledge of the fountain, waving at Trollex excitedly.
The young king gave a nervous wave, spotting more of his people starting to look up at him. He couldn't handle this right now, looking at their hopeful faces...
He screwed his eyes shut and darted off, not caring where he ended up.
He didn't stop until his fins grew tired, and he was eventually forced to make a landing to rest. He nearly collapsed onto a bench he found in a quiet park area, panting heavily as he tried to calm his racing heart.
He couldn't believe that his people knew where he was now... how could they trust him to lead if they find him in the Funk kingdom after vanishing from his own without a word? Right in the middle of their recovery, no less! He hung his head, internally berating himself.
He curled up on the bench, wrapping his tail fins around his body as weariness overtook him. He let his eyes slip shut, and welcomed the darkness.
-A short time later-
After numerous reports of king Trollex having run off to the Vibe city park, Queen Essence had opted to approach the king of Techno alone. She stepped off the hover board she borrowed from Prince D, taking a look around the park where she landed. It was quiet as usual, with nothing out of the ordinary that she could see.
But she knew he was here somewhere. She began to walk through the park, making sure to look in every tree and bush she passed. After a half hour, she let out a defeated sigh. She needed a break; her feet were starting to hurt... She moved to sit at a nearby bench, but paused when she saw what looked like a little black ball with pink squares on it.
She grinned, stepping closer to listen. When she heard soft snores, she nearly laughed. The poor troll had fallen asleep! She stepped a little closer, kneeling in front of the bench and gently nudging Trollex onto her back.
He only shifted slightly, snuggling into the queen's soft fur at the base of her neck. She held back a tickled giggle, carefully returning to the hover board.
She managed to get Trollex all the way to the royal suit, and she tucked him into the bed. When he was on the soft surface, she watched as he slowly uncurled, snuggling into the squishy bedding. "Wow, he looks like a blooming flower... heh, cute...!" She pulled the covers over him, making sure he was comfortable before she left the room. There would be plenty of time to talk in the morning.