strange things | text

[rootinest]

[It's taken some time for him to sit down and actually try this because every instinct he has is screaming at him that it's not allowed. The rules toys follow aren't just something they choose to follow, they're instinct. Instinct they can fight, certainly - like when he and Sid's toys had scared Sid - but instinct nevertheless.]

[But this is a special circumstance and maybe Buzz has the right idea. One of the big people had been nice to him, sabotaging his back switch so it didn't actually change anything when switched to demo mode.]

[This situation is so much bigger than them, bigger than any other chaotic situation they've ever faced, bigger even than their little prison break at Sunnyside. What's an escape from a daycare compared to an otherdimensional...whatever? A place where magical shock devices have been put inside them and now they're being expected to, what, go on missions? His only job is being huggable and good for playing pretend. How that's supposed to translate to "missions" is beyond him.]

[In any case, it's so big that maybe he and Buzz need a little help from the big people. Or at least for them to know the two toys hanging around are actually alive.]

[But that doesn't mean it's easy to talk to them. He decides to do it first over text. And decides to maybe test the waters a little instead of launching right into "Hi I'm woody, I'm a talking rag doll."]

[The comm is almost as big as he is, so he has to rely on the voice-to-text to type anything because it's so much work hitting all the buttons.]

Hi. Hello. So.

How nonhuman would someone have to be for you all to think they were too weird for you to want to deal with? Asking for a friend.

Comments

[bringinghopewithme]

You don't want to know how much work it takes from my crew from the shadows to keep one in line. And I'm learning, here, how many worlds don't have crews of powerful spirits devoted to the wellbeing of kids working the metaphysical and mundane angles.

You might not have a lot of power, but I can think of a lot better work for living toys with a solid core of altruism to be doing than burning in a dump, when there's worlds full of children that don't even have toys that are alive to love and watch out for them.

Just gotta figure out how to make it happen. That'll be easier with you than by myself.

[rootinest]

[Woody starts to talk, huffs out a breath, starts to talk again, stops.]

Right now let's worry about the kids right in front of us.

[It's the only concession he can make at the moment, a willingness to cooperate on helping the kids here.]

I think some of them don't even know they're still kids, but they are.

[bringinghopewithme]

You're right about that.

Want my first impressions? Or d'you wanna go first?

gonna pretend this convo is after the network thread with Vanya in Buzz's post

[rootinest]

[Woody's got a few first impressions.]

I've only met two.

Stacia's young but seems to be weathering this in a way where she's able to give comfort to other people and ask for it herself. That's a good sign she's at least got some coping skills. She offered first, though, so it seems like a situation where people need to check in in case she's not as good at asking.

[She seems like a tough cookie, though.]

And Steven is...upbeat. [He squints.] Almost too upbeat. Stacia's a little subdued, which is what you'd expect of a kid trying to survive a bad situation like this. Not that it's bad for a kid to be cheerful, or use it as a coping mechanism, but it feels a little off. Makes me wonder if he feels comfortable expressing negative things.

[A pause.]

Then there's Vanya. She admitted she was mistreated by her father and gets choked up if you're the tiniest bit kind. She's an adult but I think she might need some kindness to make up for what she should've gotten as a child.

[A special case.]

[Video]

[bringinghopewithme]

You're on the mark. Stacia's probably the best adjusted of all of 'em. She asks for and gives help pretty evenly. She can take care of herself physically, but that could get her overlooked by the rest of the adult crew. I wouldn't forget to check in on her either.

Steven's quick to ask about everyone else's problems, and that's real sweet for his age, but he's way too quick to reassure adults that everything's fine when things might not actually be fine. I wanna know what sort of emotionally unstable adults were raising him, that he feels like that's his responsibility to do, but he's told us that he's an interplanetary diplomat between the alien side of his family and the Earth where he was raised. My best guess is he was raised by guardians who had no actual clue how to parent a human. Maybe not even a kid of any species. They probably treated him as an adult too early without a working knowledge of human development stages, and now he doesn't know how to behave otherwise.

[Bunny ticks off on his paw as he names the rest.] Besides them we got Dave, Karkat, Kevin, Jack, Setsuna, and Tenten.

Dave does not know when to stop his mouth from runnin'. I haven't talked to Karkat yet, but he might be the same. They go out of their way to be individuals in writing. They're creative as the day is long, but with bluer language than I'm gonna repeat to a toy. Probably best not to make a fuss over it, so prepare yourself if that's not what you're used to. They're tryin' to be funny, and y'know, they're mostly succeeding.

[He honestly has a chuckle over pretty much everything those two write!]

But they seem like they're trying to get genuine attention more than laughs. Not sure why they both feel the need to pull out so much creativity just to get their points across. Might be a history of neglect that they still feel they gotta overcome to get listened to. Or they're just bored and having fun. Either way, they need the attention, and they should get more of the positive kind.

Kevin is a vampire. [He has to let that one hang a bit.] Pulled outta an apocalypse. I - am - extremely worried about him. But I can't get close to him - literally - because something about what I am and what he is makes him uncomfortable in my vicinity. I don't know why that is.

[Maybe if he remembered anything earlier than 100 years ago, he'd have some clue as to why Kevin gets itchy and uncomfortable when Bunny is less than 6 feet away from him, but he doesn't. It's a problem.]

He's got the same "eager to handle everyone else's problems" that Steven does, and given he's from a vampire apocalypse, I'm guessing he's surrounded by folks with possibly centuries of arrested development and trauma that haven't developed coping skills of their own across the ages, so as the more recently parented and traumatized rookie, he feels he's gotta do that work for them. He calls himself a monster and thinks of himself as a burden on the crew for needing blood. He might get himself killed if Jorgmund gives him the opportunity on a mission, and I'm guessing they won't try to avoid it too hard.

[Is that too much for a children's toy to handle? Bunny wishes he could see Woody and Buzz's reactions in real time, because this is all going to factor in to just how honest he is with them about how bad treatment of children in worlds that don't have Guardians can be.]

Jack is always tryin' real hard to get a reaction with this Evil Genius Child Supervillain image. He likes seein' people clutch their pearls over it, but he likes attention overall, and he probably needs some. Guessin' he'll try and push anyone expressing real empathy up front away, to see if they're serious about carin', or just confirm his Evil Loner identity.

[Of course, Bunny doesn't know Woody and Buzz's history with Edgy Child Supervillain types. He's just thinking that he hasn't checked in on Jack in a while to see where his edge levels are at and it's probably about time to do so.]

Setsuna's cuter than a kitten and a big thinker, but she's from a false reality controlled by a computer fascist. I'm not pretending I understand it, but she's real social and could fall in with Stacia under "not getting checked in on enough."

Tenten's a ninja. I'm not favoring any world that trains child soldiers but it did prepare her for this environment. [Ain't gonna save that world from getting looked hard at after all this is over, after he figures out interdimensional magic nonsense to go look closer at it.] She's probably the one I'm least concerned about on the rig, but I'm not overlooking her either.

On the older end there's Saturday, Nora, Catra, and Adora. None of them would be happy if they knew I was listin' 'em as kids, but Catra's the only one I think would actually try to disembowel me over it. [He has a slightly affectionate little chuckle over that.] She and Adora seem to be from the same place, but whatever it was, it did more damage to Catra than Adora. Not to say I don't think Adora's got some damage, she's just expressing it much less angrily than Catra is.

Nora's a bruiser with good training and it seems like she's from a world where that's normal and more or less safely educated. Doesn't seem like a child soldier situation, but I could be misreading. Saturday's a sweetheart with good combat skills and she seems emotionally put together, but they're still not quite done growing and I'm keepin' an eye on 'em.

I'll have to see about Vanya. She must be from a world where I don't exist. [There are too many for comfort.]

Overall, the suits aren't providing them enough recreation time, rest time, therapy, safety, food, blankets, or, well, anything a kid needs to grow comfortable and healthy. They could give them all these things, but they won't give 'em up and they don't make ' em easy to steal.

I notice the both of you are real small and potentially sneaky. And I hear your friend's our mole.

[rootinest]

[It's a lot to take in. A lot. And it all sounds pretty wild. Quite literally out of this world. Vampires and child soldiers and alien diplomats, oh my.]

[He could be intimidated, say it's too big for them to handle. After all, they're just toys. They usually pretend not to be alive to passively be played with. Even just talking to people conversationally is new and uncomfortable.]

[Add on the complexity of what's going on with these kids and not-much-older-than-kids and some toys might back away and say there's only so much they can do.]

[Instead, Woody says:]

Sounds like we've got our work cut out for us.

[Challenge accepted.]

We should coordinate. Meet or talk on these comm things maybe once a week. Keep each other updated on how they're doing emotionally, if they've hit any new hurdles. We might want to get other adults who are trying to look out for them in on it, too.

[Their little secret. These young people might resent it if they knew, but what they don't know won't hurt them. The kids might not think they're kids but they are. And the young adults still deserve support until they're adult adults.]

Buzz and I could use some insight from people used to talking to kids on a regular basis. We understand how they think and what they need emotionally, we know lots of ways to keep them entertained and give them some attention, but until now we've never talked back. It'll take some getting used to.

[He looks to Buzz and gives him a little nod to say "We're in this." Executive decision. Without Dolly here, he's got seniority. Former room boss says they're doing it.]

[But he knows 100% he'll get a little nod back. That's why they're best friends and why he trusted Buzz at his side, effectively his second, for years. He never backs away from a challenge either. Especially when the well being of a child is at stake.]

[toinfinity_andbeyond]

[Woody's nothing less than 100% correct, and Buzz already knows he knows it. They've lead together so long there's no guessing at each other's reactions.

There's a difference between walking through life believing you've already got a history of brave deeds accomplished, and facing down a future of brave and hard things to do, but Buzz is ready to walk into that future knowing the difference.

There are kids here that need more than passive nurturing. He hasn't done it before, but that's not going to stop him.

The cowboy gets the nod he's expecting.]

[bringinghopewithme]

Glad to hear it. You'd better look for that insight from other humans before me, though. I do a lot of shadow work too. I've probably talked to teens before this as much as you have.

[It's nice not to be the only childcare expert on the rig anymore.]

Sticky Ben's a good human contact. [Who had better get used to his nickname.] We'll work on getting a few more.

[rootinest]

...Sticky Ben?

[Okay, sorry, he's going to get stuck on that for a minute.]

[Video]

[bringinghopewithme]

Yeah. Ask him about it.

[Bunny is absolutely snickering because in fact it is hilarious.]

Re: [Video]

[rootinest]

I think I'll maybe pass on that one.

[Is he curious? Yes. Is he terrified of the possible answers? Also yes.]