If You Also Consider The Fact That They're Both Veiled Dolls In The Story, And He's Talked To Her But

If you also consider the fact that they're both veiled dolls in the story, and he's talked to her but doesn't realize that her Shadow mistress is still alive just like how no one realized his shadow master was still alive the parallels are even more convincing.

(if the story does a 180 and say that these two were somehow siblings and she just forgot about him at one point, or that they knew each other before he went to the manor back when they were in the village I'm going to flip my lid mainly because of the reason below)

every time these two are in the same vicinity as each other I'm terrified he might hurt her, considering it is confirmed he's killed a child (Maggie) before so anytime I see him with her all I can think is

"stay away from her you monster"

not sure what the point of this post is BUT christopher and anthony's hair really reminds me of shirley and rum

the parallels

We will stand together

Shadow house fanfiction

Rum pov

I woke up to the bell ringing apparently there was a special announcement that was going on for the living dolls and shadows so everyone had to wake up a bit earlier than expected but rather than leaving at the posting normally do and I mistress asked me to leave with her by this point I knew she didn't like talking to other people and so I was given permission to speak for her if she still couldn't

"everyone you need to listen up, a mysterious figure was spotted roaming the Halls last night if any of you know what this matters about report to the star bearers immediately" mistress Barbara proclaimed was shocked, I got nervous and clung to my Mistresses arm I can tell the way she held on to me that she was a little worried

as all the shadows were leaving Barbie told the living dolls to stay so we can get cleaning and as everyone was cleaning up I overheard something I probably shouldn't have

"hey Miss Sunshine you wouldn't happen to know about this new incident would you"

*Sunshine… wait she's talking to Emilico*

"If I find out you're a part of this new problem it will not end well" Barbie told her before walking away to go join the other star bearers

Emilico looks nervous as she walked my direction I tried to get away only to bump into one of the Bell twins… the one who's supposed to be mistress Isabel's twin sister

"what do you think you're doing you're supposed to be helping me clean come on" she said quite rudely and she tried to drag me back to our team

"sorry Isa" I said under my breath Emilico heard me and so did she

"what did you say" she once again said but this time pretty loudly as everyone looked closer at me I was getting nervous

"Isa it's a nickname short for Isabel right that's your mistress isn't she" Emilico said standing up for me

"my name is Belle and besides how can you tell which one of us is our Mistresses doll" she said as her other twin came over to her and that's when I noticed a difference

"well you two might be twins but it's the older one who stands up for the younger one right, the younger ones always clinging on to the other one, plus the way you guys look at us… Isa looks at us with a lot of disdain kind of cold while, Mira tends to look at us with more gentle distracted eyes" I described using rummy to speak like I normally do and everyone looked at me surprised

"you can identify as by just the way we're looking at you"

"yeah I mean I remember that you both look at us differently you act cold but you're nice at least that's what I hope" I said before anyone can make more commotion Emilico grab my hand and drag me over to her team

"are you okay we heard everything" another living doll called out to us Rosemary

"I'm okay how about you Rum"

I wanted to answer but I was too nervous after all that commotion so I just stood behind her telling her how I felt

"she said she's okay she's just nervous"

"honestly that's really cute that you're willing to speak for her Emilico" Lou said as she looked at us with such kind eyes

"well yes it is cute you still need to learn to be more confident and speak out loud more after all you're mistress doesn't talk all that much correct if you're going to be her face and her voice you need to speak up if she doesn't talk that much that's fine but if there's a time where you know she needs to be confident then be confident otherwise you're not doing your job correctly" Mia said with a kind of stern cold voice honestly she's a little scary

"I'll try my best to be honest I wish I was a little more like you and Sarah you too are able to mimic each other so well" I said looking down as I tried to help with cleaning my own team didn't even try to come back for me after all

"yeah but you're good too Rum you might not mimic mistress Shirley but you mirror her or more accurately she mirrors you right" Emilico said with the same smile on her face as she tried to encourage me

"that's true no other Shadow master living doll pair does that it might help you stand out a little more" Lou said that she was helping me rearrange the books

"even mistress MaryRose thinks that's impressive and we support you no matter what rum" Rosemary said smiling the only one who didn't seem like they were having a good time was mia

"mirroring each other is fine but please be careful when it comes to the rules I don't want the star bearers hurting you like they did before, you're lucky they're allowing you to speak for your mistress but maybe you should talk to her about this mirroring thing that's already bad that you two are breaking the rules by switching accessories" she told me still sounding a little annoyed

"but to be honest I'd much prefer to have you on our team than you being stuck with the Bell twins" she said that she gave me a head Pat smiling being so kind to me

We continued chatting while we were cleaning and I noticed someone was watching us but I couldn't figure out who it was. Soon we were done with cleaning and I decided to go back to my room a bit early only to run into someone

"oh rum are you okay after everything that happened with the Bell twins" I recognize that voice it was Shawn

"yeah I'm fine… just a little nervous after everything that happened I can only imagine how angry Barbie must be" I said looking down scared

"don't worry about her if she says anything I'll protect you" he said was such a confident smile that I am envied a little

"thank you, tell Ricky I said hi" I said as I walked away smiling

I finally made it back to my room and collapsed into bed I was flustered out of my mind from everything that happened it was only when I removed my hands they notice a black bow tied around my finger

"what the mistress Shirley is that you" I asked as I looked at the bow and she retransformed mind you she wasn't wearing her normal clothes but she didn't seem to care

"you have some good friends I'm so happy I got to see them and hear what you thought of them with my own heart" she said giggling as she brought me up to her room

ever since the debut I learned what her real personality was like, she's very lively and mischievous one of the ways she shows this mischievousness is by pretending to be just as shy as me that way I'm the one speaking for her it's one of her ways of breaking the rules of the shadows house without making it obvious

"I got to say Shirley you're the best living doll I've ever had" she said that she spun me around hugging me using my real name

"mistress I know that's my name at least the name I had before entering the house but you can't call me that outside our rooms" I said worried ever since she broke my brainwashing she's been treating me more like an actual person than a doll and I'm fine with that but I know it will cause trouble

"I know I know but maybe we should start focusing on something really important like my name if we ever managed to get out of here I'm going to meet my own name right something that's similar to yours but it's my own identity" she said walking across the room her spewing out of her like crazy

"careful you're making more so than what the house thinks you're making" I warned her pointing up to her ceiling

"oops you're right my bad" she said smiling well I think she was smiling her tone definitely sounded gitty

She continued to just be a source of energy she was just as silly as emilico she was just having a lot of fun spinning practicing dancing helping me clean and making sure all of her soot has put in a special bag that no one besides myself could get access to

"you're so shy and timid yet you're so cute that's the personality I need to adopt when we're outside my room" she said switching from one topic to another she really likes to talk but at the same time doesn't like to talk to strangers

"I was thinking about something" I tried to get her attention back on focus

"about the whole mirroring thing about how we should mirror each other instead of acting like a shadow and an actual living doll right" she said finishing my sentence

I smiled at her knowing that she knew what I was going to say

Her soot power not only allows her to communicate with me through our hearts but for her to read my mind and hear things that I can hear she can see anything I see and hear anything I heard I really did act like her face because of this power and when she uses it on me my hand goes completely black allowing me to do essentially everything she can as a shadow

"do you think it's a good idea" I asked nervously has she pats my head and holds me close

"it was an idea that came from your dear friend Emilico right, I say let's give it a try" she said was such a gentle tone is she cupped my cheek I noticed that whenever she touches my face no soot ever comes off her fingers which is interesting considering everything else another Shadow touches they expel soot so it's weird that she doesn't do that

"Let's do our best" she said as she looked at me I still couldn't figure out how she felt so all I could do a smile as I agreed we swapped our bows right before we reached for the door handle and all I could think about was how to make her smile

Afterwards we finally left our room and we met up with rosemary and Mary Rose they went on and on about how a shadow needs to develop a hobby to improve their life and just based off of my mistress was saying in her head she was not keen on this

*man they're trying to force us to do more stuff by developing a stupid hobby whatever* she said as I acted the way she did because of how shy she acted we grabbed on to Emily Co and Kate's hands whatever hand didn't have our bow on our finger we grabbed with and we would always talk with the finger that had our bow tied to it something she picked up after watching me talk with my finger

"Shirley wishes to know if we have our own independent hobbies can we teach them to the other children" I said it loud speaking in third person to let them know that this is what my mistress was thinking when in reality I was actually thinking it

"I'm not sure no one's ever asked a question like that"

"No one's ever proposed an idea like that"

Sarah and Mary Rose said at the same time

They decided to ask the star bearers later and for now me and Ricky I mean Patrick were allowed to go developing our hobbies because the other three members of our class had a special lesson with Susanna

*now that's something I'm curious about what's the special lesson maybe Emilico can tell us later for now let's see what these silly hobbies have in store*

"if I remember correctly there's the library, the music room the conservatory in the dance room how about we go to the conservatory first" I said kind of excited to see other types of flowers

*that's my darling Rum, you and that amazing memory of yours* she said with a kind of teasing tone in her head

We saw that Patrick had also gone there and I couldn't hold back how excited I was to see so many pretty flowers

"you're right Patrick these do smell quite lovely" I said out loud speaking my own thoughts

"you two like flowers" a shy voice came from the shadows as I turned to her I realized I knew her

"I know you, you're Maggie you're part of Shirley's team" I said once again speaking in third person as mistress Shirley mirrored exactly what I was doing

"yes that's true Margaret is a part of Shirley's team. Shirley's and Patrick's living dolls is honestly so lucky your friends with Kate's doll right" she said looking at us was such a tender face

"we are but why would Margaret say we're lucky" Patrick piped up Ricky doing exactly what his master was doing

"because Margaret was thinking you are on the same Tina as John and Shirley's living doll because of how close you are with Kate's living doll might get transferred over to her team to be honest those twins have such cruel hearts I hope they just disappear" Margaret said with a coldness to her voice

Mistress noticed how nervous I was getting, I felt her squeeze my hand a bit tighter

"what kind of flowers can we grow here" I asked still quite curious

"I heard that children who like flowers grow up with pure hearts" I heard Margaret say under her breath and she guided us to a place where shadows can grow flowers

"thank you but I want you to know rum is the one who likes flowers I'm interested but not in the same way she is so please if anyone's going to grow any flowers here it'll be her please teach her well Margaret" I said out loud without even realizing it

"was that you talking or surely" Patrick asked me only for my mistress to put up her finger with the blue bow showing how even though she was the one thinking it she wanted to let them know that I wanted this not her but she didn't want to come off as mean so she said it in a way that I would say it

"oh I didn't know living dolls could enjoy things like this that makes Margaret happy please teach your mistress all you know and I'll help you myself" Margaret said and she kept my hands and I could tell just by the way Maggie's reacting that she's happy

"Patrick agrees let's work together to grow beautiful flowers" he said smiling at us

Just before we walked away Margaret handed us a gift

"the flowers you both liked were peonies and Margaret noticed that surely was also looking at lavender so please take them the peonies Margaret grew them herself" she said so shyly we thanked her and left walking with Patrick before Mr Shirley stopped me

*Rum, please look at me* I heard her say but the somber tone in her voice

*please don't push yourself too hard I know you're doing this because we have to follow the rules without making it obvious we're breaking them as much as we can but if you want these hobbies you can have them please just tell me I don't want you to think that I'm using you as my living doll you're my best friend and I don't want to hurt you okay* she said in her head and I could sense that she was a little sad

And that's when I realized the doting dressing me up in her clothes breaking my brainwashing it's not just because she knows that I'm human but because she genuinely wants me to live a good life here even if it's as a living doll

I couldn't say anything back all I could do was smile as we continue to walk but she knew what I was thinking

*I'll try as long as you promise me to tell me when you're tired and you don't want to do something I'm always going to be here for you, you're like the pretty lily flowers that I saw in the garden with Emilico during the debut* those were my truthful thoughts

As we continue to walk an image in my head appeared as I realized it was the first time I finally figured out how my mistress was feeling this whole time she had been smiling for me but it wasn't her smile

But this time it was for the first time ever I saw her smile

A smile that made me realize that no matter what happens in our lives she'll stand by me we'll stand together or a great pair but we're more than that we're a team and no one's going to break us apart

To Anybody who needs encouragement

I have no words it's like they went to Mount Raging with Floyd and became this… it's awesome don't get me wrong but it's still shocking (so who made Floyd the boss)

Obviamente... I need to make this! ENJOY!

Can't say he doesn't deserve it but man does this hurt should my heart be breaking or not that's the question

I had a small idea while listening to a Sofia the first song- this au has Big Sister Barb and Adopted Rock troll Branch!

These kinds of aus have so much angst potential :)

God I love this breakdown I didn't even know about the holiday special until I saw this post I didn't know that happened in the holiday special where he thought poppy was going to say something like that this explains way too much

So, I experienced some deju vu during this scene in Trolls Band Together:

John Dory grabs his backpack, says he's leaving (I'm done, YOLO, etc.), and then the last thing he says is "Goodbye Forever!", followed by Branch's distraught face, and the next thing Branch knows, all his brothers have left him and he never sees them again.

I was trying to figure out why that little snippet stuck with me, then it hit me:

Trolls Holiday in Harmony, when Branch is trying to figure out a gift for Poppy. He's worried about doing the wrong thing, disappointing her or freaking her out, and says "I CAN'T let that happen". He illustrates his point with Poppy packing a suitcase, and what does she say right before she runs off?

Really brings his abandonment issues into the light😢

I've seen a few comments of people being annoyed when Branch said to Poppy "aren't you going to leave me anyway", but they clearly don't understand how trauma affects people's mental and emotional state.

He knows Poppy loves him and doesn't actually believe she'd leave, but after a lifetime of being alone, even though he's happy and loved now, there's still that subconscious fear that he'll end up alone again. Poppy means everything to him, and he can't bear the thought of losing her too, especially as a result of something he's done (his grandma died to save him, and he believed his brothers leaving was his fault because he 'ruined everything' at the concert).

Sometimes this results in Branch trying to push Poppy away, which seems conflicting, yes, but again: trauma messes with your mind. He was already heartbroken and angry at his brothers, so he wasn't thinking clearly and blurted out his hidden main fear.

And when he says "everyone else [leaves me]" I hear "everyone in my life has left me so I must deserve to be alone, so you might as well leave me too."

And that's probably why Branch was so hesitant to be open with Poppy - 1. I might scare her away, and 2. why bother expressing my feelings to someone when I'll likely just lose them anyway. Plus he's still getting used to having someone to confide to in his life. Keeping emotions bottled up for years is a hard habit to get out of.