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[yodelling]

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Offical Woody Complaint Box
On (INSERT DATE) Woody said (INSERT COMMENT) to (ME/MY FRIEND/SOMEONE ELSE) due to (LEAD UP TO INCIDENT) and he made me feel (BRIEF DESCRIPTION). I strongly suggest that he (INSERT PUNISHMENT) until he (POSSIBLE REPARATIONS).

FROM: SUBJECT: BUZZ Jessie, I think we should talk about Peter. BUZZ I think I'm ready. LARXENE Soooooooooo... ALICE Jessie, hi. It's Alice. MAUL I am not good at this sort of thing WILL if i tell people about it, it'll freak them out CHLOE hey it's chloe BUZZ There's a deer come to visit in the garden VENKMAN Strings BUZZ Found my Fluid MAMI A gift BUZZ doggopic.jpeg FERN dude! you and Buzz are dating? that's great BUZZ So...Woody asked me about what we were hiding from him. BUZZ Sorry. I'll be okay. BUZZ --Rex would be a real dinosaur?! THE DOCTOR Hello, this is The Doctor. Is this Jesse?

TO: SUBJECT: BUZZ Hey howdy hey RUBY Oh my god I found lemonade in the toaster this morning. SANA Howdy there. I um... wanted to apologise for when you last saw me VENKMAN I gotta keep this short because... VENKMAN Hey-howdy-hey. This is your afternoon check-up call... BUZZ I still don't know why we all go so many presents anyway. WOODY Hey. You around? To talk, I mean? BUZZ Mami fucking died

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[yodelling]

[It's okay, Venkman, you take your time. Jessie's a lot freer with her emotions- slow to trust, to be sure, but everyone gets her feelings both barrels if they want to or not. She chuckles a little, leaning on his knee- she's noticed he's still peaky, and that's something to be concerned about at some point, but this is currently more important. ]

Well, glad I can still surprise someone, don't get to do that too often. [Jessie is about a subtle as a lobbed house brick.] Sure, if you want. I can get you one with the official Pride Family logo on it and everything.

[She taps her belt buckle with the weird fucking cow skull on it. It's about as edgy as a fifties toy can get, honestly. ]

[neverstudied]

[Saying Venkman is slow to trust is an understatement. He can be friendly with other people, to be sure, and back home he has plenty of acquaintances- many of whom might call him a friend. But the pool of people he considers friends is shallow, and the ones he really trusts? That's not a pool, it's a puddle- a shallow collection of rainwater on the sidewalk.

Whether Venkman likes it or not, though, that puddle is getting a bit deeper. It's migrated from the sidewalk to a pothole against his will.]

Oh, sure. You don't get to surprise anyone? New people- people who've never seen a talking toy before- they show up here, what, once a month?

... I wouldn't say no.

[Finally, the idiot gets to live his childhood (and adulthood) dream of being a cowboy. Why didn't he get adopted by a ragdoll sooner?]

[yodelling]

[That was the trick with Deerington- where it got you. Being close to others became a necessity of survival- for everyone. Before she came here, she would have never had even entertained the thought of speaking with humans. And now? She considers some of them family.

Present company included.]

Oh, well folks'll always be surprised by that. Though less than you'd think!

[HE'S GONNA GET ONE, that's it.]

Well, I reckon I'd be able to do something about that.

[neverstudied]

Really? Is there just that many people who deal with friendly sentient dolls in their day to day life?

[Oh, God, he's gonna go crazy over this belt buckle. He may actually wear it every day. This is either the best news or the worst.

Venkman kind of falls silent for a bit, first grinning to himself, then his smile fading as he mulls over... everything. The strings. The ADAM sickness. The strings. The Titanic.

The strings.

Through the blue thread tying them together, Jessie can tell that he suddenly really, really needs to talk to someone.

He exhales sharply, struggling to beat back a wave of nerves.]

If you're- if this place has decided we're family, then that means I can- trust you. And... [He thinks back to the Titanic, to Jessie calling him to check up on him. Quizzing him about stuff back home to gauge his memory. Jessie didn't have to do that, but she did.] ... I do trust you. And I hope you know how significant that is, because I don't trust- most people. So- thank you.

[His hands come together nervously, and he subconsciously rubs at the spots where the strings connect to his fingers- his fingertips never able to make direct contact with the strings themselves. Venkman doesn't open up easily. He barely opens up at all, and the act of doing so makes him viscerally uncomfortable. The other Ghostbusters, of course, see him at his most sincere, but even they have to beat down layers and layers of facade and fronts most of the time, or learn to ignore them and figure out the heart of a problem on their own. Janine is the woman he trusts the most outside of the guys, and she barely sees him open up at all.

But Deerington is a different place. Interpersonal relationships keep people alive, and he can't just fall back on Ray. He'd have probably died on the Titanic without people like Ripley; probably lost his mind faster- and more thoroughly- without Jessie.

So here he is. Letting his guard down. Admitting that he cares about another person. Someone give him a medal. Preferably one with a cowboy theme.]

[yodelling]

I don't know, I sure hope not. I think it might just be that people come from really weird worlds, so when they see a sentient doll, I don't even register for them.

[Which is... super fucking depressing if she thinks about it long enough. That people come from worlds strange enough that they don't even bat an eye at a sentient doll.

The sudden surge of emotion is an odd feeling. Jessie lives in a nigh-on constant state of high emotion. A sudden switch of emotion is nothing new to her- what is new it is being someone else's emotions. Oh, but if it doesn't make her heart wrench. Her smile fades, Peter can feel something dark and restless coming through the string- like a storm off on the horizon. Not there, but just waiting on the outskirts. ]

....Yeah. I can understand that. [Her fingers play with the edge of her braid.] Takes me a good long while to trust folk too. I understand, really, I do. It's... not an easy thing, huh? Letting your guard down.

[After all, when people build walls, they build them for damn good reasons. They're not made to be scaled by just anyone. ]

[neverstudied]

[cw: implications of 80s-typical homophobia and Concerns About Homophobia, but nothing explicit; warning may be relevant for the rest of thread but again mostly in the form of implications.]

No. It's not.

[He stares at his hands for a bit longer. At the red brand.

He's gonna have to say it eventually.

Technically, he doesn't have to. Venkman doesn't think she'll pry, and even if she did, he could always lie- this isn't the Titanic, where his mind was too messed up to lie properly when push came to shove. He's good at a bluff, usually, and he's especially good at this bluff- he's kept it up for years and years.

But the thing is, he wants to say it. He wants to make the conscious decision to trust someone with this. And sure, he doesn't trust this place at all, but it's not back home. He technically has the option to stop giving a shit about this altogether and just live his life for once. There's no paparazzi here, no one to scrutinize every detail of their private lives, let alone break into their homes with cameras at the ready. There's no peers he has to maintain a facade around, and he doesn't even have a job in this dimension yet- so who cares about what an employer might think? That barrier is now thinner than it's ever been- at least since he was a child on the carny, where no one cared about a damn thing that made you different so long as you could spot a mark a mile away.

And besides, she's a ragdoll. Why would she even care?

So, with another shaky exhale, Venkman steels himself to break said barrier.]

I don't know if it'll matter to you, [Said like it matters far, far too much to him,] and you might've already guessed at some of this, but I'm in love with Ray.

[... Venkman feels like there were slightly less blunt ways of phrasing that, but sure. It'll work.]

[yodelling]

[Eloquently phrased as always, Doctor Venkman. Jessie takes a moment to consider this. It's never really been a big deal for toys. Once you take away the whole insert tab A into slot B stuff relationships if they happen just... are. It's a lot simpler. Easier.

For the most part.

She honestly isn't that surprised. She's not blind, and there have been little clues, here and there. She hadn't worked it all out- after all, she's not as terminally nosy as some of her friends, but she'd guessed enough. Still, she can tell this is a Big Deal for him, and she won't dismiss that with how much of a non-issue this is for her. She offers him a gentle smile. ]

It matters to me if it matters to you. [Which is true, if he cares, then she does- perhaps not with the same fear and worry as him, but she cares that it MAKES him feel that way.] Honestly, I was circling that, but hadn't put all the pieces together yet. Congratulations, I'm genuinely happy for you.

[Not even a hint of judgement there. She's too old and not-a-person to judge him on something like this. ]

Does Ray know, yet?

[neverstudied]

[Some of the tension goes out of his body- not much, but enough that it's noticeable, the way his shoulders droop as he sighs, his hands briefly stopping mid-fidget as he closes his eyes and tries to remember how breathing works.]

... Thanks.

[Give him a second, he has to figure out how to make words happen again. Venkman does, after some thought, manage a nervous grin- little more than a twitch of the corners of his lips, but it's there for a moment.]

Christ, I'd really be screwed by these strings if he didn't know, wouldn't I. But no. He's... Ray can be dense, but he'd have to be real dense to have missed this.

[ray, over a decade into this relationship: wait what do you mean we're dating :0!]

[yodelling]

Any time.

[She says that in complete sincerity. She wants him to feel safe around her, and feel his trust is not misplaced. Not ever.

She chuckles, canting her head a little.]

Yeaaaaah. He's pretty oblivious, but I'd hope he'd have noticed this. That said, you'd be surprised how oblivious people can really miss the most obvious signs.

[She speaks from HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE.]

[neverstudied]

[He laughs at that, at least.]

Believe me, I know. It took a few months of real unsubtle hints for him to figure out Egon and I were together, and a whole lot longer for him to figure out we were into him.

[. . .

Oh, he didn't- he didn't explain that part yet. Venkman's eyes go wide, and he spontaneously becomes very interested in the ground.]

[yodelling]

[Oh well.

That's a thing. That. That sure is a thing. Give her a second while she processes that.]

Well. Wasn't expecting that part. [Still, she offers a reassuring smile, because, ultimately, there's more important things at play here.] So long as you're happy. That's what's important. And don't let no one tell you otherwise, and if they try, send 'em my way and I'll kick their butts.

[She's ten inches tall but she will DO IT.]

[neverstudied]

[Venkman just. Slowlyyyy sinks down to put his head in his hands, his elbows propped against his knees.]

... Winston, too. If you're wondering.

[He doesn't elaborate, but Jessie can probably put two and two together- or three and one, as the case may be.

He does, eventually, peek through his hands to look at Jessie again.]

I'll keep that in mind. Y'know, just in case I meet any assholes shorter than a ruler any time soon.

[Teasing. There's a sense of palpable relief under his words.]

[yodelling]

[She can do the math, to be sure. She'll just reach out to pat his head. There there, buddy, it's okay, it's been a day.]

Thank for trusting me with that. I hope you get to see them again.

[She really hopes they'll all get to go home, one day. God, she is so tired. She's not designed to exist in this horrorscape, she's supposed to be played with by a kid and she wants to go back to that, thanks.

She snorts softly. ]

Hey now, I'd have a darn good go at someone bigger. You ain't seen me angry.

[neverstudied]

You and me both.

[Venkman exhales hard, though it's not as shaky as earlier. He looks up from his hands and grins wryly down at Jessie.]

Well, now you know, like, a fraction of all my problems. Great therapy session. What's your going rate? Probably shoulda asked before I sat down.

[Translation: "holy shit I just dumped a lot on you, my bad, this almost never happens and I don't know how to deal with it so it's time to stop being open and go right back to the jokes".]

Yeah? I guess you could always work as a tripping hazard, send someone careening down a flight of stairs.

[yodelling]

I really ought to start charging, shouldn't I? Might be one day I'll be able to earn enough so Buzz can buy himself something pretty.

[It's kind of hard to tell if she's being sarcastic or not. Got to look after the Little Husband. She doesn't seem to be all that bothered with the amount of crap dropped on her, at least. As her group's Most Emotionally Damaged Member, she's kind of used to doing the opposite. ]

That's why I got the lasso.