longestnight | Fandom's Come Knocking

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Fandom's Come Knocking

Okay, did you guys know people in this world make stuff of some of us? Apparently the yetis make toys of us on their own if none exist but also imitate ones that do exist if kids want them.

[Branch is hopping along a table of merch that is meant to mimic exactly the merch of him in stores. A lot of it is actually bigger than he is. He shows off the dolls with his tiny little wrist comm. They look even weirder at that perspective.]

Now that I know they're not ritual effigies, the toy thing is kind of funny. Weird, but funny.

Look at this. Look.

[He holds up his comm so the camera picks up some absolutely hideous toys.]

Like, who is this guy? I wouldn't even know who this was if it wasn't labeled with my name. Like, some random guy from the village maybe. I've never dressed like that in my life.

[He points the camera at another.]

This one is the closest to actually looking like me and it still has the random skull symbol hair thing. What's up with that? [A pause as his face comes back in view. It screws up in thought.] ...Okay, actually I don't hate it.

[Because even though he's a much happier person than he once was, he's still slightly an edgelord. Just slightly.]

[He looks upward and similar skull designs suddenly appear in his own hair, thanks to his ability to change its color. Maybe that explains why some of the dolls have black hair and some have blue (if manufacturing inconsistencies aren't to blame).]

[(It's actually not but he's not about to explain the subtleties of troll coloration when it comes to emotional state.)]

Seriously, you should check it out, and see if the yetis made stuff based on you. It's hilarious.

[ooc: If none exists IRL, people can make up imaginary merch, though all merch at the Pole would be for kids or teens. The stuff made purely by the yetis would largely be decent-looking and accurate, uglier stuff would be based on designs existing in the game world because well, that's what the kid pointed at in the store. Googling themselves would produce other merch for other demographics, as well as let people find out about any internet fandom. People can feel free to thread hop a lot because the point of this is probably going to be a lot of pointing and laughing.]

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There's a shocking amount, really. I don't know how to feel about most of them, but I'll share a few of the more inexplicable because if people are looking through what's available, they'll find it anyway. Might as well rip off the band-aid.

[ Tim holds up a few folded t-shirts, with a slogan or a chibi. ]

A lot of stickers, apparently, and pins. Action figures, but that makes more sense. Then there's the plushies like this.

[ He holds up the bearand looks at it like it might explode. ]

I can't tell you how unnerved this makes me by its very existence and how much I want to rip it apart for a bomb.

Okay, what is with your life?

[He says after asking Miguel the same question.]

Why would you think a doll would have a bomb in it?

[Does he have more reasons to be concerned beyond Tim's nonchalance about kidnapping and how nice Branch's was?]

I’m beginning to appreciate that my life is inexplicable to people who aren’t used to a world of vigilantes and supervillains.

[ He squeezes the belly of the bear and turns it over in his hands. ]

I can think of six people who would preferentially put a bomb in a stuffed animal, and at least 3 more who would do it at an opportunity. And a plushie that looks like Robin? Even worse. I don't even know if I'd approach it at home. I'd just blow it up.

Edited 2023-10-07 16:25 (UTC)

[There has to be some kind of insane context he's missing here.]

What's a vigilante? And a supervillain?

[He searches those.]

Oh, that all has to do with crime stuff, doesn't it? My people don't have that. The Bergens do, but we don't.

You don’t have crime?

[ Really straining to contain the incredulity. He’s not saying it’s impossible; it’s just impossible. ]

I know every universe doesn’t have the sort of chronic large scale crime with a heavy dependence on a stylized M.O. crime doesn’t have to mean supervillains. Mugging, embezzling, assault. Normal people are capable of terrible things.

I know assault as a word because you know, gotta have words for bodily harm when outside people do that. To you.

But I don't know what an embezzling is. Or mugging? I'm looking those up.

[He googles those.]

Oh, that has to do with stuff ownership and this...money thing? We don't have money - which I don't don't really get? To be honest? Like pieces of paper in exchange for things? What?

My village just has communal stuff. People know not to touch each other's sentimental things in their pods, like photos, but for less obvious stuff, we store the stuff we really don't want anyone else to take in our hair. Everyone knows everything else is shareable. If someone takes too much and isn't fair about it, everyone will tell them they're not being nice and they'll feel bad and replace some of it.

We learned about "stealing" from the Bergens, after we stopped being enemies. A friend of mine took food and didn't realize they don't also have communal stuff. They apparently shove people in cages over it? Su-per weird, if you ask me, but hey, shoving people in cages is kind of their thing.

People know they’re not supposed to take other people’s things in my world, too. A minority just don’t care. They want more, or they want other people to have less. Or worse rationale that this isn’t really the place to discuss.

[ He has a sense of place, and Santa’s workshop seems so inappropriate to delve into a Ted Talk about how some people want to hurt others. Branch isn’t the audience for it. ]

You’re from a functioning socialist society?

[ Color him interested. He might be the son and adopted son of capitalists, no matter how philanthropic they were, but he does think that capitalism is borked and that socialism has advantages. Tim has a dim view of human nature, though, and so he doesn’t think it could work in practice without a radical shift in societal norms. ]

What do they do if they can’t replace it? How do you handle when they don’t respect the rules if there’s no jail?

[ Because it can’t be possible that no one’s committed a heinous crime. Statistical wonder. Branch is naive if he does. ]

I don't know what "socialism" is but it helps that it's a really small village and we don't value stuff that much, so it's not hard to replace some stuff with something just as good. If you can't, usually the other troll will forgive you if you're genuinely sorry. So we don't need some special...punishment place.

Also, if you did something really bad, the whole village would be mad at you. I'm probably the only one in the village that could deal with that kind of rejection but I used to be the town crank. I'm the weird one.

[Social pressure is a pressure. Nobody wants the entire village to be mad at them.]

Everyone shares because we have to take care of each other to get by. I didn't for years but...again, town crank. Resources are pretty good where we are, but we're small, everything else is still out to get us.

I don't know what else to tell you. My people are extremely trusting. Too trusting, honestly. [Which absolutely is clearly not the case for him, given his reaction upon showing up.] We mostly tell the truth, we don't hurt each other, everyone hugs once an hour, and hurting someone else's feelings is something everyone freaks out if they realize they've done.

Well, everyone else. Yet again. [He points to himself.] Town crank.

[He sits down on a wooden block and shrugs a shoulder.]

But it kind of makes sense that they're the way they are. I don't think we could've survived everything if hurting each other wasn't the most awful thing we could think of. You don't tunnel your way through a tree, go on the run, and rebuild a society if that's not the case.

Really hurting each other in a way we can't take back would be a pretty Bergen thing to do.

[It's a combination of being a small community where social pressure has power, being an inherently naive, kind, community-oriented, frolicking woodland critter people...]

[And, well, the fact they're ostensibly refugees from a bad situation that only survived mentally, socially, and physically intact by valuing each other aggressively to counterbalance how disposable they were.]

Edited 2023-10-07 18:12 (UTC)

If you are a misfit in your own place, then you are in good company. I would not be surprised if we are overall more misfits than model members of our societies.

The solidarity is nice. I can tell some people here, I don't know, come from similar places? [He thinks of Dan and Stacia and how they were able to easily understand why he was freaking out and what he needed to calm down.]

[He does like that it's a group of people where maybe a lot of them can understand each other.]

Buuut I'm also the only troll that'd show up in a place like this, freak out, and take a hostage. And it's not like I wound up this way for good reasons.

I'm trying to work my way out of this eventually.

[He's self-aware enough to realize his "misfit"ness isn't a situation where he's odd because the village is rejecting him or something. They've welcomed him back with open arms and while they don't always understand his neuroses and idiosyncrasies they understand they're just a part of their friend. They even try their best to work around them or help him feel safe when he's freaking out over something.]

[No, he knows that in a lot of ways he's different because he's not exactly mentally healthy and he wants to be.]

[Being healthy may never make him as happy-go-lucky and carefree as the others but he can still get in his own version of a better place.]

Many of us have our traumas. Some have done things we regret over them.

If you are truly the only troll who would have reacted as you did, then they must have no tools for dealing with your trauma. Such a situation is only harmful to everyone. Groups with more experience with trauma may not be able to fix you, but... someone here might have what you need.

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