Queen Essences hummed along to a song as she walked through the halls of the Vibe city palace, making her way to one of the guest rooms she was having converted. She was a little surprised though when she stepped into the room and found King Quincy helping with the construction, showing his fellow Funk trolls certain tricks to make the tasks go by a little quicker.
She stood, watching her husband work for a few minutes, before she cleared her throat, catching his attention.
He stood and glanced at the door, a smile pulling at him as he walked towards Essence. "Why hello, Queen-E, how is my one woman show doing?"
She laughed softly, giving him a gentle peck on the cheek. "I'm doing fine, dear. I see you're helping with the changes?"
With a nod, Quincy looked back at the room behind him. "Yeah, I even talked to Beat to get some help with the design."
The room, while rather a mess thanks to the equipment scattered about and trolls doing their work were looking rather close to completion. The large central bed had been replaced with a slightly smaller, water one with blankets that had a rainbow pattern similar to an audio visualizer along the bottom edge. The walls were in the process of receiving a fresh coat of paint while some trolls put the finishing touches on a central pool with a small, lit waterfall.
They just knew Trollex would love it!
Meanwhile, Trollex sat awkwardly in the reception area, twiddling his thumbs and glancing ahead where the bubble system deposited those that came to Vibe city. That morning, Essence had told Trollex that she'd gotten in touch with Poppy and Branch at Cooper's request.
Despite his pushing, Essence never told him about their conversation, just that Poppy and Branch would be in later today.
The moment he heard that, Essence had to keep him from running and hiding.
He knew he left the Pop village suddenly, and he felt terrible for having not told the two trolls that had already helped him so much. He let out a groan and sank deeper into his chosen seat. "Beat, they're going to kill me..."
Beat sighed, rolling his eyes. "For the hundredth time, Trollex, they won't kill you. Now would you sit still? And please for the love of LED, would you PLEASE STOP FIDGETING!"
Trollex shrunk, dropping the hem of his cloak he had been playing with. "S-Sorry..." He watched as Beat slowly sank down onto a seat near Trollex. It was then that Trollex finally spoke up about his concerns. "Beat, are you alright? You seem as off as me..."
The little fish looked up at his friend, and then heaved a sigh. "No, not really man. I'm absolutely terrified..." He looked away, staring at the squishy golden orbs fastened to the floor, used for seating for arriving guests. "I'm terrified that you won't come back to us."
The king didn't respond right away, looking towards the golden orbs as well. "I... I want to, it's what I'm doing all this for, of course... Why wouldn't I go back...?" He was shocked to find that his voice sounded hollow and unsure.
Beat was silent for a long while, giving Trollex time to be with his thoughts.
Of course he wanted to go back to his trolls, he needed to... Unless... Could he find a successor? Someone smarter, stronger, and older than he was? A king his trolls really deserved...?
"You're our king, Trollex; weather you believe it or not... You're who we want. All the other Techno trolls agree..."
That got Trollex's attention. "Really...? How do you know that...?"
Beat bit his lip and turned away entirely. "I asked... Um.... Yeah..."
He didn't trust the way the fish refused to look at him now. "Beat, when did you ask...?"
"Just uh... Just before I left...?"
"And you didn't tell anyone what happened... right?"
The silence was telling. Trollex's eyes widened and he looked down at his black body. His trolls knew... That's why the ones in the fountain didn't panic...
He felt something snap inside of him,
"Leave."
"W-What? Troll—"
Trollex slowly pushed himself out of the chair, his posture tense, shoulders hunched and cloak making him look thrice his usual size. "Leave." He kept his back to Beat.
The fish stared up at Trollex, feeling something he hadn't felt so strongly since he lived outside of the barrier reef.
Fear for his own life.
For a few beats, the only sound in the room was the heavy thudding of Trollex's racing heart.
"Trollex, please, listen to m-"
The young king whipped around, bearing down on the small fish with a fury none could match. "YOU TOLD EVERYONE. You broke my trust and you expect me to just, what, say 'Oh thank you Beat! I feel so much better now knowing that my tribe knows I messed up!'"
Beat glared, though it was hardly much. "Broken trust? You want to talk about broken trust? What about you, huh? King Trollex of the Techno trolls, youngest king in possibly forever, and what do you do when your friends are worried about you? LIE TO THEIR FACES?!"
"Beat, Leave! Before we say something we regret!"
"What kind of king... no, what kind of friend lies to those around them...? We could have helped you sooner..." Beat turned away from Trollex. "How could anyone trust a king like that...?" And with that, and a fin flip, he was out of the room.
Leaving Trollex alone with those final words.
All anger seemed to leave his body at once, and he slumped down onto a chair, feeling like a de-boned fish, or perhaps a wet rag. "Beat..." He couldn't cry... kings weren't supposed to cry... He hid his face in the cloak king Quincy had given him. And he didn't cry into it.
Beat glared at anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path, his temper on an absolute hair trigger. At one point, he realized that he'd been glaring at a distorted reflection of himself in a silver record. That seemed to make him realize something, and his eyes widened at the reflection.
He felt distorted. He had never fought with Trollex before, at least not to this extent. He built a connection with him the day they agreed to be friends. Since then, Beat took it upon himself to be the happy voice on Trollex's shoulder, and in exchange, he got a friend.
And he'd just told that friend he was a terrible king and a terrible friend.
"Sugar honey iced tea... I have to say sorry..." He glanced back the way he came, and then back down the hall he had been heading down. "Um..." He looked around again. "Um, I think I'm lost..." He let out a soft whimper, hiding behind one of the silver records in the wall. "Trollex..."
King Quincy, having at last finished with the renovations, decided he would wait to greet Poppy and Branch with Trollex in the reception. He decided to try a new entrance he'd been working on, so when he reached the doorway to the reception, he prepared himself.
He upped his pace as he stepped through, then turned to his side and struck a pose he thought looked rather dashing. "Hello, Trollex, how are y-"He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Trollex sobbing into his cloak.
He ran forward, remembering at the last moment how large he was, and knelt down in front of Trollex, reaching a hand forward and gently shaking his shoulder.
Trollex stiffened for a moment, and then lifted his head. Even without the Aquatic trolls natural colors gone, it was easy to tell that the young king had been crying hard for some time, his ear fins pressed down against his head. He looked absolutely miserable.
Papa mode, activate.
Quincy gently pulled Trollex into a hug; using his own cloak to wrap them both as he soothingly rubbed Trollex's back. He'd send Prince D. to greet the coming Pop trolls, for now; he needed to get mama bear on the case. He smiled softly down at Trollex. "Hey, bud, do you wanna huddle up under my cloak? It's nice and warm and dark..."
A nod was the only response, so using careful movements, familiar to him from when he would do the same with Prince D., and tucked Trollex gently under the cloak. With a moment of adjustment, it hardly looked like there was another troll under there at all.
And so Quincy began to move as quickly as he could through the castle, careful not to jostle his young charge. His ears pricked upwards, listening for his wife's Heart song.
The Heart song was the reason Funk trolls loved their music. Every troll had it, but Funk trolls had the unique ability to hear it when they focused. It was how Quincy had known that the Pop trolls were willing to learn and change, rather than just shutting them out as he had originally thought to do.
He slowed to a stop, hearing a very unfamiliar and very strange Heart song. He glanced around, searching for the source. It was then he realized it was coming from... himself? Or more accurately, from his cloak. He closed his eyes, listening to the rhythm he heard in an attempt to figure it out.
The song was slow and melancholic at its base, bringing to mind the ocean depths. That was most likely feedback from Trollex's experiences. He was surprised to not hear the tones of Techno he always heard before. When he had first joined Trollex and the other royals in song, he had heard all of their Heart songs and committed them to memory.
Trollex always had that base line, but never as dominant. He used to have chipper, upbeat sharp tunes that represented his Techno music, which Quincy found admirable. His love for his music used to be absolute, but right now, it was completely absent.
In its place now, he heard a similar tune to what Poppy had, the cheery and upbeat Pop music. He also heard, slightly stronger at the moment than the pop, an echo of his own unmistakable Funk.
That got him to hurry. He tried his best to drown out the odd medley, focusing instead on his wife's familiar Heart song. He found it eventually, along with Prince D.'s and Coopers, down in the garden. He opened his eyes and let his ears down, no longer listening for the inner music.
He made his way down to the gardens, thinking on the medley that was Trollex right now. It was similar to their children's story about a rainbow troll, which would fit Trollex rather well. "What an interesting nephew I have now..." Quincy smiled to himself. "He fits right in."
As he stepped out onto the gardens at last, he spotted Cooper running towards him. He saw that Cooper had his ears up again, as he usually did. He had to remember to tell Cooper about that, he must have a hard time focusing with the constant music.
"Dad! Why is Trollex in your cape?"
Well, at least Cooper could filter the information he heard. "Because he's not doing too well, Coop." He looked up as Essence and Prince D approached their ears up and listening as well. "I found him in the reception room, and he was crying his little heart out..."
Essence's eyes widened and she looked at Quincy's cape as she approached. "What happened? Do you know?" When the other shook his head, she took it upon herself to find out. She gently lifted the cape, spotting Trollex asleep on the kings back, clear tear tracks down his cheeks. The glow from the returned pink and purple making him look even more miserable. She reached in and gently scooped him up, which had the little troll blinking tiredly.
He looked around, not focusing on anything right away. "Mmmm....mrrnnn...." He was trying to wish them good morning, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to talk much. Once the world came into slow focus, he realized he was surrounded by the Funky family. He let out a squeak, zipping up into the air in surprise.
Cooper laughed a bit, waving to Trollex. "Morning, sleepy head!"
Trollex looked between the assembled trolls, spotting looks of concern on all but Cooper, who just seemed like a ball of ever present sunshine. Somehow, that calmed him, and he floated back down to eye level with the family, rubbing at his eyes. "S-Sorry about that, it was just a little startling..."
Essence shook her head, leaning down and giving her adopted nephew a kiss on the cheek, which left a little spot of deep blue glitter. "It's alright, hon, you're safe here. Can you tell us why Quincy found you crying...?"
He looked down, fiddling with the hem of his cloak as he had been earlier. "Well... Beat and I had a fight. We've never snapped at each other like that...Though, he had a good point... I'm not much of a king—ow! Again, why again?" He turned to Prince D, who was chuckling with a foot held up in the air, curled into a loose fist.
Prince D set his foot back down, shaking his head. "Worked again, didn't it? I'll do it every time man." He smiled. "It's what family does."
Trollex bit his lip a bit, and then sighed. "OK, fine, fine..." He shook his head, slumping a bit. "Any number of hits to the head doesn't seem to get it through my thick skull though... YOUCH!" He fell down through the air, hitting the ground with a light thump. When he looked up, he found that all four of the Funk trolls had a foot up like Prince D had earlier. "You ALL hit me?!"
Essence puffed her chest a bit. "Did that get it into your thick skull? We won't let you talk badly of yourself, Trollex. It's a family rule."
He rubbed his head, which was no sorer than before. "Yeah, but still... is violence really necessary?"
Quincy smiled, back to looking intimidating. "Sometimes."
The illusion was lost almost immediately when Essence gave him a light punch on the shoulder, causing Quincy to fall over dramatically, his cape helping immensely with the drama factor. "Oh, my dear wife, you would attack me! The love of your life!" He reached out to his sons, who shared a mischievous grin. "Oh no."
"Oh, yes!" The two boys suddenly pounced on their father, wrestling him into a pinned position, which the king clearly wasn't fighting very hard.
Trollex watched, laughing as the two Princes seemed to come to a wordless solution. They plucked their dad's glasses off his nose, and tossed them to Trollex. "Try these on!"
He fumbled for a moment, but managed to catch the glasses. Caught up in the fun, he put them on with no hesitance, setting his hands on his hips and puffing his chest. "I'm King Quincy, and I try to be intimidating, even though I'm a sweet cinnamon roll!" As though to finish his little gag, the glasses he wore fell askew. Curse his lack of a nose!
All four members of the Funk family were now howling with laughter, even Quincy was having trouble breathing through bouts of laughter.
He tried to keep his composure, but when he heard a snort laugh from Essence, all bets were off. He laughed, clutching his stomach as he tried to keep himself in the air.
At some point, it became an acting contest, trying to see who could do the best Quincy impression. Despite Quincy himself participating, he still lost to Cooper when he put on the cape and glasses. As a prize, Cooper was allowed to wear them until the end of the day.
Once the contest concluded, Trollex sighed, finally feeling back to normal. "Thanks guys, I gotta go apologize to Beat now." He zipped up into the sky, waving to the Funk family before darting off.
Quincy smiled, then paused a moment. "Um, should one of us have told him where Beat was?"
"BEAT WHERE ARE YOU!" Trollex moved through a hallway that seemed very familiar. Honestly, every turn seemed to take him down a hall he had just been in. He felt like he was starting to go insane. He began to fear he'd ever find his way back out, when he heard a soft call from behind him.
"Trollex? Is that really you...?"
He spun around in the air, spotting Beat floating just a few feet away. "Beat...!"
They rushed for each other, hugging each other as best as they could as they spoke at once. "I'm so sorry!"
The sync caused them both to pause, looking at one another with confusion. "Um, what?"
Trollex shook his head, holding the Beat button fish at arms legs. "I'm sorry for how I've been lately, Beat. I've been mopey and upset, and you've been trying so hard to help..."
Beat shook his head, smiling through the tears in his eyes. "No, man, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have snapped at you, I know you're going through a hard time, and I just made it worse...!"
After a moment of silence, they both smiled softly. "Forgiven?"
"Always." Beat squirmed out of Trollex's hands and moved forward; pressing himself to Trollex's chest and giving the best hug he could manage. "I don't want to fight like that again, man... You're scary when you're mad!"
Trollex was shocked to hear that. "Wait, really? I was scary...?" He chuckled softly, rubbing the fishes back. "Cool, I pulled of scary...!"
Beat huffed, looking up at the now smug young king. "You're still a cinnamon roll though."
He puffed his cheeps indignantly before sticking his tongue out. "Am not. I'm scary! You just said so!"
"Even a cinnamon roll can be scary sometimes. I mean, all that icing sticking to your stuff?" Beat pretended to shudder. "Absolutely terrifying."
"You're making fun of me, I know you are!" Trollex huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"What me? Noooo~ I would neeeeever~" Beat hummed, looking about as innocent as if he had horns and a tail.
Trollex grinned, giving the button fish an affectionate head rub before moving away. "Race you outside!" And with that, he was off like a shot! He had to work on his speed, since he couldn't use Track skip. He did notice that he was getting faster, even without it.
Rather quickly the two boys got lost, but not for a lack of fun. He zipped happily though the halls, keeping high to avoid running into any other trolls in the halls.
What he hadn't expected was to fly right over a pink and blue grey Pop troll. He practically screeched to a halt, flipping in the air to stare at the two. "Poppy, Branch? When did you guys get in?"
Poppy let out a happy squeal when she realized it was Trollex that had just flown past her. "Trollex, there you are! We were so worried when Smidge said that the snack pack lost you! When I got the message from Queen Essence, we came over quick as we could!"
Branch nodded, but had a curious look trained on the aquatic king. "Yeah, what happened anyway? Everyone said Cooper suddenly took off with you."
"Oh, that's cause he sounded all scared and stuff!" Poppy and Branch spun around to see a cheery Cooper standing behind them. He looked up and waved at Trollex. "Hey again, cuz!"
Branch was about to question something, when Poppy interrupted him. "Wait, why'd you call Trollex cuz?"
Cooper laughed at that. "Well, that's cause he is! He's my cousin!"
The two pop trolls darted between looking at Trollex, who was blushing a bit and rubbing the back of his head, and then to Cooper, who was grinning in his usual manner. "Wait, WHAT?"
Trollex floated down to be more eye level with the Pop trolls. "Well, when I got here, I was in rough shape. Essence and Quincy apparently decided they wanted to adopt me, cause they wanted me to have family again." He smiled, running a hand along the purple stripe lit up on his arm. "It's been really nice..."
Branch spotted the purple, stepping forward to get a closer look. "So you got your purple back? I'm glad! It's just like I thought, you really do have to get a color from each Tribe..."
Trollex nodded. "Seems so. I don't know where to go next though... I think there are only three left; Classical, Country and Rock."
Poppy hummed softly, tapping her foot on the floor. "Hmm... Ooh, maybe you should go see Delta Dawn! She seems like a nice lady!"
Branch gave her a confused glance. "Poppy, she locked us in jail."
"Yeah, but that was then and this is now!" Poppy cheered joyously. "So let's go visit Lonesome flats, and the Country trolls!"