Work Text:
Her hair was matted, her paint chipped and sunbleached. Her cape was gone, her sword found nearby, one of the holographic stickers gone from her headpiece. She couldn’t tell how much time had passed since she felt a human’s touch when the clumsy soft fingers of a child curled around her legs and yanked. The soil she’d lay in for years gave way and she saw light when the little girl who had seen her legs poking from the mud in the crawl space under the house pulled the lost toy free. If she hadn’t been reflexively still she would have squinted in the light. She felt the child press the sword into her grip.
“You’re a princess, aren’t you?” the little girl excitedly spoke, smiling brightly- she had been facedown, so her face was intact and bright, smiling back at the girl.. This was not her kid- her kid, who had religiously watched She-Ra, Princess of Power on the local stations and then later on USA Network. But the girl’s smile was as warm and caring, as the girl took her to the hose, and looked both ways before turning it on. Cold fresh water rushed over her skin and through her hair. She closed her eyes, just for a moment, when the little girl wasn’t looking. She looked at the other toys in the yard- a ragdoll, a cowgirl, a spaceman, a dinosaur, a spork, a horse. She exhaled internally. This was a fertile ground, a child young enough to not need to know the show to watch play with her.
“Look; a Princess! She needs to be protected!”
“I have a sword for a reason.”
It was a golden afternoon, Bonnie taking to the old ‘new’ toy, integrating her into the strange adventures she seemed to continually effortlessly make. But soon dinner came and the toys were deposited in Bonnie’s room. It was warm, inviting. She stood slowly, her joints still a bit tight from being half-buried.
“She may be vintage but she ain’t rusty!” Jessie spoke with exuberance, the toys of Bonnie’s room approaching the new toy in curiosity. “I’m Jessie, I’m in charge ‘round these parts nowadays.”
She-ra turned her head to see the cowgirl approaching, “I don’t know I’d go that far.” None of the room or toys were familiar. “I’m She-ra, I- used to live here.
What- year is it?” She-ra asked.
“Oh, sweet child of Rip Van Winkle. You were a lost toy a while, huh? It’s 2009.”
“Two thousand and…” it made sense, intellectually, it did. “But that would mean… my kid- adventurous little Alex- is…”
She would be nearing thirty, and that was a lot for the action doll to take in.
“When were you lost under there, huh?” The cowgirl knelt to meet her at eye level.
“Eighty-eight.”
Jessie exhaled. “I know, it’s a lot. I lost my first kid in the sixties.” She touched her shoulder, her hand was so big in comparison to the small action doll. She-ra pulled down her mask, “it- it was nice getting played with. After so long. Just a new normal to get used to.” She gave a little smile.
“Your Alex was special. All kids are.” Jessie nodded.
She-ra looked up. “You know how- when you’re being played with, sometimes- it all feels real? Like you’re there even though your kid’s holding you and guiding you through this version of things that is- so much clumsier than how they see it in their head?”
Jessie blinked, but nodded. “Yeah?”
“When Alex played with me… she seemed more real too. More like a girl. She talked to me about it all the time. About why He-Man lived in her Castle Grayskull but I got carried around with her.”
Jessie looked to Buzz. It was something they were unfamiliar with, but signaled some of the other toys to give the newcomer space.
“Alex wasn’t a girl to other people. But she was always a girl to us. I just- I hope she’s being herself out there,” She-ra spoke.
Buzz had a thought dawn. “You have a last name to go with that first name?”
She-ra blinked. “Uh… Davison?”
Buzz turned to Trixie. “Could you search a name in the Tri-County using the computer?”
The triceratops caught what he was getting at. “Yeah, if her Alex is still going by Alex, I bet I can find her online!”
“I mean. Searching someone means logging onto socials. But luckily Bonnie’s mom never logs out of Facebook. I can check later tonight!”
The hours flew by as She-ra was introduced to the other toys during Bonnie’s supper, and got to watch Bonnie’s parents put her through bedtime routine- and the evident fact that the spork was for some reason the comfort toy for bedtime. It took all kinds, she supposed.
She watched the girl sleep, pensively.
“That’s why we do what we do,” Buzz mused, “what it’s all about.”
She-ra nodded thoughtfully. She felt a slight nudge at her back. “We have a date with an iMac!”
The triceratops led the way. Jessie followed, curious.
“That’s a computer?” She-ra stared up at the flat screened device as Trixie helped her onto the desk.
“Oh- yeah, they have gotten small, haven’t they?” The triceratops commented with a little laugh.
“The world has changed a lot since nineteen eighty-eight.”
Trixie casually stretched, typing into the keyboard. She got onto Bonnie’s mom’s Facebook, searching the name locally and. “…well, it definitely looks like others see Alex as a girl now.”
The face took She-ra a moment to recognize but there she was- with her brown hair and those green eyes. She touched the photo on the screen.
“Thats her, isn’t it?” Trixie asked.
She-ra nodded.
“Wanna see more?”
“Yes.”
Trixie clicked through.
Alex… was an artist. And her latest post… was advertising a ‘zine.
“I just drew this cover for ‘For the Honor- A She-ra and the Princesses of Power Fanzine!” Read the post. The illustration pictured She-ra in battle.
“...I wouldn’t blame you if you wanna go find her now,” Jessie commented, “You clearly still mean something to her.”
She-ra chuckled. “I meant something then.” She pointed to a shelf in the background of the photo of Alex with her zine, where there were a number of Princess of Power dolls on the shelf, including a She-ra in much better shape. “And I'm proud of it, proud of her. But I’ve been out of the game 20 years… and I still have some playtime in me.”
Jessie chuckled. “Then we’re mighty glad to have you here in Bonnie’s Room, princess.”
She-ra gave a little smile.
“Princess of Power,” She-ra corrected, before a pause. “But uh. It’d be nice if one of y’all that has more arm mobility could give my rooted hair a once over. Bonnie hosed out the dirt but it could still use a brush.”
Jessie chuckled. “I got you.”