back in 2017 ! though a fairly less extreme one that the other one, heh. it was a simple "what if".. slightly to the left of canon AU. originally it came to me in a dream: there was this striking visual of an injured, bleeding poppy with torn ear. we thought.. well, what if poppy DID get injured? during her little traveling montage, what if at the end, something DID manage to take a bite out of her... branch cutting open the caccoon and seeing a bleeding, scuffede up poppy.. nearly faints. but dutifully gives her first aid.
instead of a smug "i told you so" attitude, the injury scares him silly.. he dreaded this all along - poppy just being reckless and unprepared for the outdoors. he fusses over her a lot from there on. poppy takes her new injury in stride though, really. it's annoying at first, since she keeps picking at the wound and can't hear well out of that side now. but over time she accepts it cheerily, it's just the look to own now. :p
poppy and branch have more conversation in this AU also, on the way to bergen town.. branch's snark is more neutralized by this event, and poppy is also more cooperative with branch's safety instructions.. also cloud guy. doesn't exist. so they walk through the dark root tunnels quietly, holding paws in the ambiant torch light
i crave more conversation and interaction out of any series.. it's all i want to see of my otp. so often i just think of canon but with slight adjustments. more communication.. and more time spent together. days of trekking instead of just 1, stuff like that. (though i like to think poppy and branch travel a decent amount of time together in the movie and we just see a fraction of it. trolls are so small, and bergentown is quite a ways from the village..)
