piper90 | [Video] [locked to the New Hires]

[While Woody needed some time to come to terms with speaking to big people, and more time to test the waters as to how they'd receive him, Buzz has already overcome the hurdle of making first contact, and has longer term plans to set in motion. Woody's comfort keeps him from introducing himself right away, but once his pal has calmed down a little, Buzz doesn't wait around.

His introduction video arrives as encrypted as possible and labeled "for New Hire eyes only," in case anyone was in danger of opening it in front of an employee.

The video is being shot from the communicator installed in Buzz's forearm, and the Uncanny Valley of seeing an action figure speak is unavoidable, well, that's a shame.]

Greetings. I am Buzz Lightyear. I come in peace.

That's a space toy joke.

[He's trying his best to maintain good Space Ranger bearing, but though he's not consumed with anxiety at breaking the non-contact rules the way Woody is, he's still a little nervous.]

As you may have gathered, I am an action figure. [sure it's obvious, but it is the tiny plastic elephant in the room he has to acknowledge.] Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have made myself known but . . . Jorgmund didn't leave me much of a choice. Therefore I've decided to introduce myself and clarify my, uh. Unusual circumstances.

[Gosh he's already embarassed by the masquerade he's going to have to keep up.]

Due to a nonfunctional feature of my model, Jorgmund currently believes I am under the delusion I'm a real Space Ranger. I'm not. They also believe I am loyal to their agenda. I'm not.

[He has to be vague. Brainy would be implicated immediately if it were known that his demo switch no longer worked. This channel may be secure, but not secure enough for him to risk someone else's secret. He can pretend the switch never worked in the first place, and that the drama surrounding it during his interview has been a clever lie of his own all this time.]

If I'm right, this deception may be useful in covert operations against our captors. Therefore I am apologizing in advance for anything . . . mind blowingly stupid I say or do in front of everyone to keep Jorgmund convinced I'm too deluded to question even their substandard ethics.

[If he sounds formal, well, he's being formal. He thought for quite a while about how to make this speech, and longest about how to end it.]

I understand it may be . . . unsettling for some of you to think of a toy as alive. I will do my best to be considerate. I don't know how it feels to be a person. [He thinks he does, because he thought he was one once, but since he never has been, he must not actually know.] But I think I want to see this world saved and all of us safely home again as much as anyone else here could.

[Even with all this planning he still looks a little awkward and uncertain as he picks his closing statement.] This is Buzz Lightyear, out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That's such an enormous bombshell to drop on a toy that Buzz HAS to switch to video.]

He what?

[Her father denied her playtime and made her feel like she wasn't a person? What kind of horrifying monster raised this poor girl?]

He had no right to do that! Children need to play, it's how they learn to navigate the world! It's how they learn who they are, who they want to be, what brings them joy!

[Unless he's wrong, and she didn't need those things at all? Something tells him he's not wrong, but he's felt things very strongly and been wrong about them before.]

Unless - unless you figured all that out anyway.

[But she's still said that she was created to be something, and that simply cannot possibly be true, categorically, because she is, in fact, a person.]

Listen, I don't know much about parenting. [He's only seen how three parents do things, between Mrs. Davis and Bonnie's Mom and Dad, but they all fall on the side of 'let kids play' and that worked out well for Andy, and is working out well for Bonnie.] But I do know that you - [he is categorically right about this, he has to be, because that is the whole reason not being a person can be terrible, if you don't like what you're made to do, why it's so fortunate that he DOES like what he was made to be -] are nobody's tool. You're your own person, no matter what your father taught you. He was wrong about not letting you play as a child, and he's wrong to tell you anything else.

[Vanya freezes, eyes big and wide and white irises turning to brown abruptly. The force of Buzz's and Woody's anger catches her completely off guard, and their outrage and compassion on her behalf kicks her in a soft spot that makes her eyes well up and her throat close. It almost reminds her of Diego screaming at the sky about the cruelty of their father, but Diego had screamed for his own pain and he hurt her as much as anyone did. These little people meant for children who insist they aren't people at all feel more for her than anyone ever has.

She tries to speak, but she's a bit choked up. She has to clear her throat quickly to actually respond.]

Wow, uh, you guys really like your impassioned speeches, don't you? [It's an attempt at playing off how touched she is by it, but it falls flat. She is very touched and there is no denying it, even if she doesn't know how to deal with her feelings. They're stronger than she's used to without her medication, and vulnerability was always punished in her family even without her father around, so it's hard for her to compose a response.]

Yeah, I... our dad wasn't really any good with kids. [Understatement of the fucking year.] Your child is really lucky to have you.

Thank you. I hope it's all right with you, but I had to share your message with Woody.

[Both so they could share outrage over Vanya's injustice, but also so Woody could share in the compliment about Andy and Bonnie being lucky to have them, which is making Buzz feel all sorts of warm fuzzies.]

I just hope you know you deserved better, even if you didn't get it in the past. But your future is always open to change.

[That's the thing about being a person. Vanya isn't fated for a dump, or a thrift store shelf, or indefinite storage. There are a thousand different good paths she could follow, a thousand she should already be on.]

I... hope it is. [There's something in her voice that says she doesn't think it is. Between her siblings wanting to kill her, her ex opening Pandora's box, the power humming furiously in her body, the violence and murder and the promise of the end of the world... she's not so sure that her future can change. If it can, she's worried that there's no good change to be had.]

Yeah, uh... yeah, feel free to share whatever with Woody. It's fine. [These toys apparently work as a unit to tackle her childhood trauma, and while she doesn't know how to respond, she still appreciates the effort. She wants to welcome this, welcome all this positivity and warmth and optimism, but she's been so bereft of it that she doesn't know how to. She's worried that maybe her awkwardness will be taken as disinterest, but she doesn't know how to make it better.]

[She sounds so hopeless even as she says she hopes for it. No wonder this poor young lady had to ask him to define a person to her - she's been so stripped of her own personhood that she needs an outsider's perspective to define it!]

That's the beauty of what you are. Whatever you have been, you can be something else! Nobody can tell you what you are.

[Woody's already made sure to invite her to board game nights (once they find out if there even ARE any board games or decks of cards on this rig), and that's about the best a pair of toys can do for a big person who's gotten this far into her adult life with what sounds like a terribly deprived childhood, but Buzz still fishes around for something else comforting to say.]

What do you like to do? I don't really know anything about how adults occupy their time but you, uh - you must still do something like playing, when you aren't . . . paying bills or crunching numbers?

[Those are things adult people do, right?]

[Paying bills or crunching numbers? Vanya almost gets whiplash from the laugh that surprises out of her. It's small, but it's a genuine laugh, one that lightens her spirits a bit.]

When I'm not paying bills or doing other adult stuff? [It makes sense that children's toys wouldn't know much about adult life, but the way he shrinks it down to bills and math is just funny. Maybe that's really how kids see adults.]

I play the violin. Sometimes I write music or dabble with piano or guitar, but I'm a violinist. [She smiles when she says it. It's a wan smile, the kind of smile you have after a very long day, but it's a smile.] I write too, sometimes.

[He nods along blithely. Really, what else do adults even do, when they're not playing with their kids? Which they could stand to do more.]

Writing sounds like Playing, just written down. Boy, the stories my kid Andy could have written!

[Aww. Now he's thinking of Andy, and when he thinks of Andy, Buzz misses Andy.]

I bet you're a great violiner. Ist? I've, uh, never actually heard anyone play the violin, but I'd certainly come to a concert if you had one.

Yeah, I guess that's a way of looking at it. [She's sure her siblings wouldn't agree, but oh well, they're not here. Which is probably for the best because their family drama would probably end up with all of them shocked to death or in some holding cell.

'My kid Andy'. She doesn't know what it is about it, but hearing him talk about the child who played with him as though he were his own makes her smile.]

You've never heard the violin before? I should fix that as a matter of professional pride. [Here's something that she's more comfortable with. The confidence of showing off her skill is new, but the violin is her life. She can talk about the violin.] What kind of music do you like?