#dont know what to call this au yet. maybe ‘colors restored au’?? idk open to ideas

[luckycharmer]

hmm the last few days I was thinking of a new au thats kinda inspired by the classic “soulmates see in black and white until they see each other for the first time” type au, but trolls 🤔 Granted I’m using the term “soulmate” kinda loosely here, more like “destined relationship”, but soulmate has that extra oomph to it yea?

I don’t have time to draw anything for it right now but here’s the gist:

all trolls are born/hatched grey (very low saturation of color), each time they sing and their voice harmonizes with their soulmate they gain saturation, a little at a time

some trolls can gain color when they sing solo; most, if not all trolls will have multiple soulmates they can harmonize with to gain color (romantic and/or platonic)

strong family bonds can also work (the perfect family harmony is particularly powerful) so dont worry about trollings, they babble along to their parent’s songs and theyre set until they learn to sing properly

the “morning song” in pop village is a tradition to help keep all trolls as vibrant as possible, since many will harmonize at once

in general, the brighter the saturation, the better the overall health and vigor of the troll

if a troll has yet to harmonize with all their soulmates, there will always be a certain degree of desaturation and they can tell they’re not 100%. The norm for saturation is about 75-95%, either the unknown soulmates are assumed to be from an estranged pop village or lost from the time in the Troll Tree (they don’t know about the other troll tribes yet)

“going grey” can still happen, and if it happens to an already grey troll (one that never or hardly harmonized), they can start to lose even the grey hue and turn pale/white and sickly

other troll tribes like the rock trolls can have a naturally low saturation even at 100%, the gradient is just more subtle

Anyway, for many years Poppy tried her best to harmonize with as many trolls as she could but never quite reached full saturation. Even harmonizing with her best friends could only do so much. After some time she started to come to terms with the fact she may never find her missing soulmate, however some part of her always held on to that hope. Branch has been grey for many years at this point, so long now he’s starting to fade to white. Going so long without singing, let alone harmonizing with anyone, on top of his mission to build and maintain the bunker took a lot out of him and left him grumpy, short-tempered, and tired, so so tired. Most of the first movie’s events happen in parallel to the og.

Fast forward to the True Colors scene, all of the trolls have turned grey, including Poppy. She and Branch harmonize during the song and not only does Poppy regain the color she just lost, but she’s brighter overall. Along with Branch, who is now the loveliest shades of light blue and indigo (he doesn’t regain his full saturation right away, that will take time and a couple more harmonies to restore).

I like to think that Poppy and Bridget’s friendship also gained Poppy some color since they’re practically sisters, but bergans aren’t affected the same way so even though there’s no difference to her, she’s still honored.

will try to draw some for this later but had to get the details down so I don’t forget