#I thoroughly enjoy the trolls movies | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

raitrolling · 1 month

Text

Vignette: Upskilling

[Easy reading version on Toyhou.se]

A soft breeze rustled throughout the grounds of the Espino Mansion as Eichio cheerfully toiled away in the garden. The weather was perfect for outdoor activities: the twin moons shone brightly in the cloudless sky, and the air was cool but not too chilly. The yellowblood was dressed in his usual uniform, somewhat inappropriate for gardening but were the clothes he felt the most comfortable in.

Typically, a hedge maze only required one major trim a sweep, but Eichio enjoyed wandering through it to cut off even the slightest amount of overgrowth weekly. The maze was an exact replica of one from a movie his boss had recently watched and enjoyed, a twisting labyrinth with a minotaur statue in the centre. His boss had even gone as far as to commission a small wooden version of the maze, displayed on the third floor of the mansion, overlooking the estate grounds. The hedges were perfectly maintained, despite their inevitable impermanence.

Mister Espino was the kind of troll who hated stagnation. Deliberately allergic to any sort of routine, and considered boredom to be his biggest fear. As a result, the entire garden would be uprooted and redesigned from the ground-up a couple times of sweep, sometimes to match the theme of an upcoming event or simply because he had gotten bored of the scene outside his window.

It was a lot of work, but whenever it was time for the garden to be renovated, Eichio was never alone. There were the temporary contracted landscapers, there was Gerrel (somewhat… Unfortunately, given his penchant for showing Eichio up whenever they worked together), and a few times Akiote had also been hired to assist (much more fortunately). He felt like he could be capable of taking on most of the work, but Mister Espino would never allow that.

‘It would be quite inefficient if one of my most trustworthy employees ended up falling unwell due to excessive overwork, no?’ The indigoblood would tell him, and Eichio would have to concede that he was correct.

Tonight, Eichio’s boss was also taking advantage of the ideal weather, opting to sit outside as he performed some chores of his own. One of his pistols lay disassembled on the wrought iron table, a cloth covering the surface so that no small pieces would fall through the cracks. Sprays and bottles of cleaning oil were sorted neatly on one side of the table, alongside an assortment of cloths and medical swabs.

Just as Eichio was methodical with maintaining the hedges, Mister Espino worked through the steps with careful precision. One must always keep their primary strife weapon in its utmost condition, especially a specibus as complex as a pistol. Each piece was thoroughly sprayed and wiped down, then reassembled the same way he had done it many times before.

By the time Mister Espino had put the gun back together, Eichio was already approaching the table.

“Mister Espino, I’ve finished in the garden! Is there anything else you’d like me to do?” he asked, cheery and polite.

Mister Espino did not have any other tasks, but he also knew that Eichio still had the entire late evening to spare. If he didn’t give the yellowblood something, he would end up cleaning the already-spotless hive again.

Eichio looked expectantly at his boss. Mister Espino’s eyes glanced at the pistol in his hands.

Then there was a glint in his eye and his lip curled slightly into a smile, as a new idea had spontaneously constructed itself in his mind.

“Say, Eichio. Have you ever thought of trying out a new strife specibus? One that may perhaps become much handier than your current set of projectiles?” the indigoblood asked, his tone very even. As if he wasn’t asking his employee something so out of left field.

“Um-” Eichio stared at the gun, then back at his boss. “I haven’t, but…”

He couldn’t turn down a request from Mister Espino. They both knew that well. So why…?

“Oh, sure! I can learn that!” He replied after a brief moment of hesitation, a well-practiced smile on his face.

Mister Espino chuckled.

“Ah, good. I rarely do get the chance to teach others how to defend themselves, and mentoring others is quite the fine way to keep one’s mind sharp, no? Just as I occasionally guide Jikiro in the kitchen, teaching someone how to use a weapon may assist in refreshing myself as well. And, not to mention, it would be very helpful to me if you were capable of utilising multiple weapons, as one never knows when an extra set of hands may be required.”

He stood up, displaying a fine lack of firearm safety by spinning the pistol around his finger, then daintily handed it to his employee.

“What do you say, Eichio?”

Eichio didn’t know what to think. He was used to Mister Espino’s impulsive decision-making, whether that be having sudden urges to cook dishes or tearing down all the curtains in the mansion because he decided he now hates their colour, but learning to use a gun is… Quite a lot. He liked his noisemakers because they were perfect for throwing at trolls using his psiionics, and were more annoyances than actively harmful.

A gun cannot do anything but kill.

… But, then again, he has assisted his boss with his more… Violent hobbies before. Helping hold a troll down while Mister Espino systematically broke every single bone in their limbs, passing pliers that were used to rip off fingernails and pull out teeth, submerging body parts in formaldehyde for preservation or into acid for destruction.

And he had done it all with a smile on his face, as he was happy to assist his boss. Blood was unquestionably already on his hands, and Mister Espino said that learning how to use a firearm will help him in the future, so… What was the harm?

“Oh, okay. I’ll try it out.”

Eichio accepted the pistol, feeling the cold weight in his hands. It was uncomfortable, mechanical, almost surreal to hold. He curled his fingers around the handle, and placed one on the trigger-

“Ah, ah! First rule of gun safety, one should never point a gun at something they do not intend to shoot at. Now, where is your gun pointed?”

Eichio’s eyes followed the direction of the gun’s barrel. It was pointed directly at Mister Espino’s right leg.

“Oh-! Oh no!! Um, I’m so sorry!” He immediately moved his hands, pointing the gun firmly towards the ground, and bowed his head in apology. It has been less than a minute and already he was making silly mistakes.

Viltau waved his hand.

“Of course. You did not know, so there is no need to be so alarmed, no? However, when handling firearms, it is of utmost importance that one takes their responsibility seriously. Now, I will show you how to check to make sure that the gun is loaded.”

He takes out a second pistol for demonstration purposes, identical to the one in Eichio’s hands. Mister Espino preferred his weapons to come in pairs. Then, as practiced many times before, he unloaded the gun, showed his employee what an empty magazine looked like, and then inserted the rounds until the weapon was once again fully loaded. Eichio copied the same technique, first very slowly but then repeating the gesture multiple times until he earned an approving nod from his boss.

“It is quite impressive how such a highly complex mechanism can be so easy for anyone to pick up, in fact loading the gun is quite possibly the most difficult part of the job! All one needs to do is aim it at their desired target, place their finger on the trigger, and shoot. It is no wonder that handguns are standard issue for all fleet recruits, supposedly. Now, what would be the best object to practice on, hm…”

The indigoblood tapped his fingers against the pistol’s barrel in thought, eyes scanning the estates’ grounds. Of course, the answer was right in front of him: At the centre of the hedge maze, raised on an elevated platform so half the upper half of the body was visible no matter where one looked, was the bronze statue of a minotaur. All but the platform was movie-accurate, as Mister Espino had opted to forego making an exact replica of the garden in favour of its centrepiece taking on a much more imposing form. It looked like a demon, rising about the labyrinth that would spell doom for those who tried to enter.

Mister Espino aimed his weapon at the creature’s head, closing one eye and sticking out his tongue as he mentally judged the distance. Satisfied that one could make the shot, he nodded and looked back over at Eichio.

“Say, how about you aim for the minotaur? It would be quite an effective target, no? Close enough to the troll form that one can tell where a shot may be fatal, and yet lacking the realism and charisma that a troll’s face may evoke.”

Eichio nodded, and obediently raised the gun at the statue.

He thought of how he had seen his boss’ stance whenever he was using his strife specibus. Always so casual, as if he was simply playing with a toy. Eichio mimicked what he had seen from him, relaxing his shoulders and tilting the gun so it was aimed at more of a forty-five degree angle.

Mister Espino tutted quietly and reached over, gently guiding Eichio’s hands so that the gun was now perfectly upright. With a few other light gestures, he adjusted the yellowblood’s posture as well.

“Keep it straight, Eichio. That will provide you with the best aim and the most stability from the recoil.”

“Mister Espino, don’t you always hold your gun sideways, though?” Eichio asked, curious.

His boss chuckled.

“That is only for those who feel confident adding a bit of flair to their stance. Perhaps once you have gotten the fundamentals down, you can try more complex firearm-wielding stances.”

Eichio nodded in response, then resumed staring down the target in the distance.

The statue was a large target, the centrepiece of the hedge maze, and while not depicting a troll the creature’s form was still troll-like in stature. It was and never had been alive, but its torso was sculpted with such fine detail that Eichio could picture it as a living, breathing person. He lined up the pistol with the target, closed one eye in an attempt to steady his vision, and placed his finger on the trigger.

His hands would not stop shaking.

Why? It wasn’t a difficult task, he should be able to do it fine. Gerrel could probably pick up a gun easily, why couldn’t he?

His mind unravelled with worry. Flooded with fear of being unable to be useful to his boss, of not meeting his standards, but - most importantly, the fear that by learning this skill and putting it to use, he would be taking a life with his own hands.

Eichio lowered the weapon.

“I’m sorry Mister Espino, I… I don’t know if I can do it,” he admitted, voice low in defeat.

“Ah, that is a shame, but it does make sense. It is quite a heavy burden to be the one to pull the trigger, no?” Mister Espino nodded, surprisingly understanding. He placed a hand on his chin in thought, looking down at the gun in Eichio’s hands. Then he hummed in affirmation.

“Say, you are very skilled at operating complex instruments using nothing but your psiionics, no? It is quite awe-inspiring to watch you play multiple instruments at once using them, indeed. Perhaps, then, we should instead try a more hands-free method, then? That way it is not your own hands firing the gun.”

Eichio considered that, then nodded. That sounded like a good compromise.

-----------------------------------------------

A few weeks later, a blueblood found himself tied up in Mister Espino’s basement.

The previous night, he had struck one of the part-time employees in anger after they had accidentally spilled wine on his white suit.

In the past twenty-four hours, he had learned two things:

One, that someone with a reputation for throwing murder mystery parties can very effortlessly pass a drugged champagne flute to his target without his expression betraying him.

And two, the indigoblood pacing around the room and monologuing at him was serious when he boasted about caring for the wellbeing of his employees, no matter how low their caste may be. The noble blood that ran through his veins was worth less than the stains on his shirt caused by a mudblood.

The indigoblood ceased his ramblings (the blueblood had not been listening, still reeling from the effects of the sedative), and stared him directly in the eye.

“Now then, perhaps you may have any last words?”

The blueblood squinted. He was not fully cognisant, but he could tell there was no way the party’s host could kill him from this distance. There was no weapon in his hands.

“You’re bluffing,” he slurred.

The event organiser laughed, covering his mouth with one hand to hide a rather toothy grin. Then he held up both hands in a surrendering gesture.

“Ah, I’m afraid you have caught me! I do not have any means to kill you right here, nor do I have the intention to do so.”

His eyes narrowed, and his grin widened.

Behind him, the blueblood could see a golden glow emerge from the darkness. A psiionic aura.

Then, he felt the cold metal of the barrel of a pistol pressed against his temple - cocked sideways, gangster-style, and emanating the same golden glow as the figure behind his captor.

“But, I asked my most trustworthy employee if he could comply, and he was very eager to assist.”

The last thing he heard was the click of the unmanned gun.

#drabble #eichio maccau #viltau espino #otamatart #series: vignette #in which eichio learns a new trick :)#and yes i did watch the entirety of sal/tbur/n just for that single paragraph #good movie! fucked up and twisted but fun

2 notes · View notes

riddlerosehearts · 3 months

Text

still not gonna fully come back on tumblr yet but i just wanna say that i... finished my dreamworks tier list... i have now seen all 46 of this studio's movies--well, i guess technically not all, since i'm including the direct-to-video release joseph: king of dreams (which, despite only being at the top of the B tier on my list, i do think is pretty underrated and idk why nobody seems to give it a chance), but excluding the trollhunters movie because i've never seen the trollhunters show. maybe someday i will, but right now i'm just not interested.

so, this all just confirmed for me what i've thought for a long time already, which is that dreamworks is an incredibly weird and incredibly inconsistent studio. they've created some of the most beautiful and magical animated films of all time with releases like how to train your dragon, rise of the guardians, and prince of egypt, and some of the most absolute bottom of the barrel trash i've ever had to experience with things like antz, shark tale, and boss baby. and then they've also made a handful of very middle of the road movies, that i wouldn't really say i enjoy all that much, but which i don't think are necessarily bad either--this is the C tier on my list and i will be honest, the first shrek movie was originally in this tier for me because i'm just not that into it. i only moved it up a little because i felt like i had to admit that it is objectively a pretty good movie that was groundbreaking for its time and paved the way for shrek 2 and the puss in boots movies, all of which i love, to exist.

i guess i should share my final ranking, huh? before i do that i will also say that this ranking is absolutely not objective at all and is almost entirely based on my own personal enjoyment. like i said, i originally had shrek 1 in C tier lol. and i have trolls world tour in A tier because i just genuinely love a lot of things about it and very thoroughly have a fun time watching it. the trolls franchise as a whole is so much better than most dreamworks stuff and i will die on this hill. i also tried to rank things from best to worst within the tiers, but i'm very indecisive and some of these movies were hard to rank simply because i couldn't decide if they were closer to "okay" or "bad", or "bad" or "awful"... i could see some of my rankings maybe changing slightly if i thought about it a little more. for now i'm fine with where everything is, though.

anyway, here's my list that is sure to make at least one person want to yell at me lol:

so, to break it down, my top 5 favorite dreamworks movies are:

Prince of Egypt

Rise of the Guardians

How to Train Your Dragon

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

How To Train Your Dragon 2

(i feel so bad that spirit: stallion of the cimarron got pushed out of the top 5... puss in boots: the last wish just existing + me rewatching HTTYD 2 and remembering how much i love it made that inevitable. but hey, it's still top tier.) and my top 5 least favorite dreamworks movies, starting with the least terrible one, are:

The Boss Baby

Turbo

Shark Tale

Antz

Spirit Untamed

(i watched these movies all out of order and for the longest time i thought nothing would dethrone shark tale as the worst of the worst, but i really did hate antz and spirit untamed that much, which surprised me lmao)

again, if i called your favorite movie bad, that really just means it's not enjoyable to me personally--i'm no professional film critic. also, i feel like the tiers came out sort of weirdly even, and i ended up with 21 movies in S-B tiers and 25 movies in C-F tiers, which really speaks to the inconsistency of dreamworks as a studio. i plan to try and keep up with their releases from now on, so i do hope that kung fu panda 4 & orion and the dark turn out well... but dreamworks keeps doing shit like releasing prince of egypt right after antz or putting out ruby gillman right after puss in boots: the last wish, so i guess we'll see! i'm just glad that i can currently say i've seen basically every movie from this ridiculous studio.

#tbh right after posting this i already thought maybe i should adjust the B tier a bit #like wallace and gromit and maaaybe captain underpants could probably go above the trolls movies #and KFP 1 could possibly go above PIB 1 #but idk. i'm not messing with it anymore.#also i'm sorry about el dorado's placement. it's just really not my thing.

5 notes · View notes

damistrolls · 7 months

Note

Masumi do you have any opinions on horror movies?

"Very unglamorous movies to be in. Very fun to film, though.

I don't care to watch horror myself, and I'm a bit too big of a star these days to find myself in silly, campy horror, but I was in quite a few of them when I was just a little starlet, and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Even when I needed to be dunked in buckets of fake blood, I had a good time.

It's just something about the people involved. They're so... real. Extremely down-to-Alternia sorts of trolls. Nothing like the glitz and glamor I'm used to. It was just such a different environment, you know? The movies were so rough, though. Sometimes downright terrible. But I always had fun."

#masumi

6 notes · View notes

myscprin · 1 year

Note

2, 15 ✨️🎶🎃🎉, and 24!

2. Feel good movie: Just answered this, but have another reliable movie I thoroughly enjoy! The Terminal with Tom Hanks. Another one of my favorite actors. Not as silly as School of Rock, but something about this movie despite all the stress and helplessness at times just puts a smile on my face 😊

15. Tag and describe (sorry I probably couldn't guess you anon) @seraphjewel inspiration ✨ @oblivious-troll AWEsome 🎶 @pinkgelatin Wiiilllddd 🎃 @ultrabananapudding exciting 🎉

24. Destress? As little as I post, I doodle A LOT. Usually it's in the margins of my notes or on my scratch paper off to the side. Sometimes just drawing Salim's dopey, droopy doe-eyes and a little mouth is enough to keep me goin.

#being asked 🥺💜#thanks for the ask!#ask game #the soft ver #mysc personal

7 notes · View notes

echovilled · 6 months

Text

— the happy chemical.

→ characters: selina liu ( featuring geng nuan, ma lei and xiang lian). → genre: tw: mentions of child abuse. → word count: 963 → description: selina meets xiang lian for the first time.

The day of any performance always made Selina feel sick, not because of the event, which she thoroughly enjoyed for the festivities, but because of the moments leading up to it. The entire day would leave her feeling exposed, exhausted, and vulnerable.

The mornings always started with an ice-cold shower where her skin would be scrubbed until red and bruised. Nuan always said that these showers were beneficial. They activated something called “Endorphins,” which is called the “happy” chemical. She said she learned it when she was her age, and she said she should be able to know what all of these chemicals are by this age.

Selina thinks the word sounds too close to dolphins.

This particular moment of the day doesn't make her happy, so while she scrubs, she imagines dolphins and wonders what it would have been like to see one up close instead.

3:00 AM was always the perfect time for Nuan because it was when she was at her happiest, her most productive. The hours prior were always spent the better half of the night having her consistent meltdowns over what Selina or Stephan did. The night would play out like a movie; Nuan would find something wrong, becoming a screaming match with Stephan or another night spent without dinner for Selina. One night had gotten so bad that Stephan didn't just threaten to leave; he packed his bags and left. The remainder of the night was spent with Selina trying to talk Nuan off the ledge as she would collapse and fall into her tiny daughter's arms. She cried and whined that nobody loved her, that nobody loved her enough to stay.

”I love you.” Selina would say she didn’t need a response, and none was ever given.

But when 3:00 AM rolled around, Nuan was a different woman. She was refreshed, ready to face the day head-on. Selina would always wonder where she would get all this newfound enthusiasm. Was it the endorphins she would always talk about? She doesn’t know, but she has yet to feel them.

She could never admit that she hated getting up at 3:00 AM for these reasons. She had been too tired to fight during the showers, too tired to put up a fight when she got two to three hours of sleep at night, too tired to do anything.

Nuan loves it when she leaves the apartment and gets to school during performance days. That's when she's at her best. Selina believes it's like a troll shedding its skin to reveal an empress. When Nuan is in front of other people, everything she has been accused of hours prior melts away. She appears perfect, glowing, affectionate, and everything Nuan wants. Selina is everything Nuan wants.

She likes it when they get to school, too; everyone loves to look at her, and they love to converse. She spends so much of the weekdays trapped inside her room that she forgets how fun it is to talk to others. She likes this part because Nuan hugs her, kisses her, and tells her everything she wants to hear, and she doesn't have to do anything to deserve it. It's all for free when they're in front of a crowd.

It’s the behind-doors part that Selina hates. The troll skin comes back, and it’s vicious, scary, and hurtful. The words are slick with venom, and she wonders when she will adapt to it when it would hurt less, why it hurts so much to hear them, and why it is so confusing for her to listen to them. Nuan tells her she’s a failure, a disappointment when things don’t go her way, while the tone differs from when they’re in front of a crowd.

She desperately wishes to be in front of people again; she wants to believe that this is a facade, and she wants the Empress to come back.

But something is different about today.

While Selina and Nuan are alone, an Auntie comes in dragging their own daughter, and she sees Nuan morph back into the Empress that she wanted to see. The young girl stops crying when she sees them, and it is like a light switch turned on when they both notice each other.

“Was she wishing her own empress could come back too?” She thought as the young girl peered curiously at her. She looked away as her mother spoke.

“I’m sorry to barge in, you know how insolent they can become when they start learning about free will.” The mother joked, and Nuan laughed, a genuine laugh at that.

Who were these strange people?

“Oo, Excuse my manners. I’m Ma Lei, but everyone calls me Leila. This is my daughter, Xiang Lian.” she nudges the young girl forward with her red face still wet with tears. She sticks out her hand for a handshake. Selina takes it without thinking about the repercussions that stand behind her.

“You’re pretty,” Lian says behind the sniffles as she lets go of their handshake and digs into the little purse she had been holding. She pulls out a piece of candy, and for the first time today, Selina becomes painfully aware that she hasn’t had food since yesterday afternoon or didn’t have to do much for Lian to be kind.

She takes the piece of candy, unwraps it, and sticks it in her mouth. It’s a ginger chew, her new favorite candy.

“Thank you and you’re pretty too.” She smiles for the first time today.

This must be what endorphins feel like.

#m: writing #c: selina liu #s: catharsis

0 notes

desuper · 2 years

Text

Dum laga ke haisha actress

They doesn't care who is the personality, trollers keep on doing their job perfectly. Nikal gya lust 🍌- RAJESH KUMAR June 14, 2018 Bhumi Pednekar was believed to be casting director of the movie while she was casted to perform a demo for other actors, though. Where is the pent? bhumi ji ?- Harsh Aggarwal June 13, 2018 Bhumi Pednekar is a famous Indian actress who started her career in acting with esteemed YRF’s production ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’ in the year 2015, wherein she played her leading character of an overweight girl. Bhumi, who lost 27 kgs since last December, said that she thoroughly enjoyed her weight. Pant to pehen leti 😂😂😂 #skinshow- SANIKA PRADHAN June 14, 2018 New Delhi: >Dum Laga Ke Haisha actress Bhumi Pednekar said that she never starved herself to lose weight. Bhumi Pednekar and Ayushmann Khurrana are back again on the big screen but this time its different. Ye konse kabde h- roshan badaya June 15, 2018 I am not an organ donor, but I don’t mind giving you my heart❤️ #elegance #Classy making hearts go #dhadhak #Dhadak- Jaimin Patel June 13, 2018 Seema Pahwa, who is a popular TV actress and has made a mark in several Bollywood films as well, speaks with Komal Nahta in this exclusive interview on ETC B.

Well, her sexy look all went in vain after she got trolled by the netizens on social media for wearing a short dress.

She is looking forward to the cook-off session along with chef Varun Inamdar on February 22 in Mumbai. LUST STORIES ❣ #zoyaakhtar #love #ready #15june #premiere #sukritigrover /wf4fbfNnuO- bhumi pednekar June 13, 2018 The actress gained a lot of weight for her debut role in Dum Laga Ke Haisha, and has shed all of it to look super fit in her later films. Have you seen her new avatar? Check out here: The actress donned bright yellow pumps for a more sexy look. Her overall look was styled by celebrity stylist Sukriti Grover.

In her black striped short dress, the actress was looking super hot and stylish. Recently, she had been spotted at the screening of the film on 13th June and will be seen in her next film ‘Lust Stories, which is based on the four short film segments. She proved everyone that nothing is impossible if you have a strong will for doing something.

#Dum laga ke haisha actress

0 notes

peachcitt · 3 years

Note

I've seen a lot of people saying that rot was BAD, what is your opinion?

OH IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED

like most people (im sure) after finishing rise of the titans, after wiping up my tears i went to the rot tag to see maybe some gifs or something. you know, make myself cry a little more. instead, i found a bunch of people saying how much they hated the ending, how it was as terrible as some of the worst big finale bombs (endgame, game of thrones, etc) and uh. im not saying the ending is perfect, but it is DEFINITELY not as disastrous as what people are making it out to be, in my opinion. i thoroughly enjoyed the movie, actually, and i thought it was an effective way to end the tales of arcadia.

warning: rise of the titans spoilers, as well as general tales of arcadia spoilers

were there some things i didn't like? yeah!

the major things i didn't like align with a lot of what i see other people saying:

the weird mpreg plotline with steve. it just felt so strange and out of place, and it was used as a tactic to remove eli and steve from the major action, which i don't like.

and the 'ninth configuration' thing that, once again, excluded eli and steve. i didn't see a reason why they shouldn't have been there, seeing as they have contributed to trollhunting since nearly the start of all of the tales of arcadia. multiples of three are clean and smooth, i get it, but at the expense of two characters that were so lovingly developed in trollhunters and 3below?? yikes

with that being said, though, i don't agree with what a lot of people are saying about the time travel at the end. obviously, they bring up some good points - by changing the timeline so drastically, there's no way for jim to ensure that they'll be able to succeed or if the arcane order will even act in the same way. it's a big 'if' and it is worth thinking about

but people have been saying that the ending is out of jim's character and negates his arc, and i have to say. that's not true.

if you've been following my blog since july 1st, you'll know that ive spent the past twenty one days rewatching the entire tales of arcadia series at a steady pace, and within that time, i've paid a whole lot of attention to jim's arc as a character and how the finale of trollhunters left me feeling as if something just wasn't clicking right. his arc wasn't finished.

because all throughout trollhunters, jim is constantly having to prove his worth - and most of the time, the way he's proving his worth is by sacrificing himself. he takes all the blame when anything goes wrong, and on some level, jim never truly learns the lesson from season one of trollhunters that he's enough as a hero because he has his friends to back him up. like, yeah, he relies on them a bit more after that, but in the end, he still stands in the bathroom alone, separated from all his allies, and shoulders the burden of turning into a troll alone. and he leaves arcadia, the city he was fighting so hard to protect, and he leaves his best friend, the one that has been with him since the beginning.

then we get wizards, where jim lets himself be corrupted to save his friends. and then, because of that sacrifice, he ends up hurting all of them. i believe this fact - that he willingly corrupted himself, separated himself from his allies, and ended up hurting the people he loved - shook jim's foundation as a hero, which is why he can't believe he's the trollhunter without the amulet. the amulet was the physical manifestation of what it meant to be a hero to him, but it was destroyed when he was corrupted - it was destroyed when he hurt his friends.

that's how we see him in rise of the titans; he's still struggling with his identity as a hero because he doesn't have the amulet or the unshakable foundation he previously had of his heroism. literally everyone is looking for him to be the leader and make the huge, world-saving-or-destroying decisions, but he can't shoulder that huge burden knowing he could hurt everyone. and then, just to add fuel to the fire, it's his plan that causes people to die or be permanently separated from the group. and he can't even get the sword out of the stone! why? because he himself doesn't see himself as worthy - how can you think of yourself as worthy when you just got two of your allies killed and two more gone, presumably for forever?

but this is the moment it finally clicks for jim. he looks around at his allies, and he sees them reflected in the amulet. he's not alone, he doesn't have to be worthy just by himself, he has an entire group of people who have fought by his side time and time again that, even despite all the mistakes and missteps he's made, are still by his side.

and what makes the amulet work, in the final fight, is his firm determination to see this fight through, no matter if he has the armor or not. he's terrified, he's probably going to die - but it's that bravery despite the fear that makes him a hero, a trollhunter, amulet or not. and he knows that now - he's had to face it before, in the unbecoming episode, but it's different now. in the unbecoming episode, he was truly alone when he decided to face the fight. and he's alone here in rise of the titans - but not for long! because almost immediately after jim comes to terms with his place as a hero again, toby comes along, and he doesn't finish this fight alone!! he finishes this fight with another trollhunter, who doesn't have an amulet!!

jim deciding to rewind time to back before the events of trollhunters is a bold choice, but it tracks with a theme in wizards - merlin told douxie that what set him apart as a master wizard was his belief that every life was valuable and worthy of being saved. this theme is repeated in the new amulet in rise of the guardians; it's for the glory of all, not just for one person.

and jim deciding to have toby become the trollhunter finally marks the completion of jim's arc. instead of shouldering the burden alone, which is inevitably what would've happened if jim had rewound time, kept all of his memories, and accepted the amulet again, jim is choosing to accept allies into his life sooner. instead of being the trollhunter, jim is letting himself be a trollhunter, alongside all the other trollhunters.

of course, there's some things in this alternate timeline i don't like; mainly that no one stepped in to stop steve from bullying eli. that, to me, was the most out of character, and i can only assume jim didn't step in because he's leaving room for that fight to be toby's; competing against steve was a large jumpstart to jim feeling like he could be strong enough to bear the mantle, and maybe jim was just trying leave it up to toby to establish that on his own. still, i didn't like it.

and, of course, there are people lamenting the fact that none of the heroes of arcadia know each other or that they might not have the same relationships, but i immediately thought of the time loop episode in 3below. in that episode, the trollhunters team and the gang from 3below meet and become friends and ultimately lose the memory of that friendship from that day. however, in that episode, blinky says that true friendship would last against the test of time; if they were meant to be together, then they would be. and guess what? even though none of them remember that happening, they all still became friends. it was meant to be.

i think a lot of anxieties about the changed timeline are because people loved the events of trollhunters so much that they a) don't want to see anything changed and/or b) are trying to project the events of trollhunters onto the new timeline and are upset when they don't fit. toby won't be the same kind of hero that jim is, though - he never has been. inevitably, the story will be different, and that's scary. that was the risk jim took, though, and jim has always trusted in toby, so why shouldn't we?

to me, tales of arcadia has never been about clean endings that make you feel entirely good. they've always left me with a tang of bitter along with the sweet, and i think that's the point. tales of arcadia has always battled with hard questions and difficult endings, and i don't see rise of the titans being any different from that.

like i said before, i don't think rise of the titans is perfect. but you can hate it as much as you want; i still really think it did a good job with the story it was trying to tell. i mean, ending with the idea that all lives are important and worth saving, no matter the risk? that heroism inherently means being part of a collective that you trust and believe in? that through time and space, you will always be able to find and connect with the people you love? that's powerful.

im climbing off my soapbox now, but basically tl;dr: rise of the titans was a good finale, despite it's imperfections, and i think that's all i can ask for.

also if you don't like toby as the trollhunter just because you don't like him breaking out of the 'funny sidekick' archetype you can die by my blade

#anon #ask #rise of the titans #rot #rot spoilers #jim lake jr #rott #rott spoilers #what im trying to say is media does not have to be perfect in order for you to enjoy it #and not only did i enjoy rot i also just. thought it was good? it didn't invalidate any of the rest of toa to me at all #the story we witnessed was still valuable; that was why we were shown this version #i won't get philosophical but like. i am.#all that being said it should've been jim telling the story in the beginning #WBKEBKEWKW I JUST REALIZED THERE WAS NO DOUXIE WITH HIS SICK ASS GUITAR. so that too

34 notes · View notes

magic-and-moonlit-wings · 3 years

Text

Chapter 57: Gatto’s Keep

Becoming The Mask

Trollish and -text messages-

I hope we all enjoy the movie when it comes out this Wednesday! Remember, today’s the last day to start binge-watching and still have enough time to watch every episode of all three shows before the movie airs!

+=+

Four humans, one Changeling, and two unaltered trolls were scatted around an underground library, researching notable locations around the world.

"Whoa, listen to this," said Jim. "Surrounding the Hero's Forge of Heartstone Trollmarket is a chasm known as The Deep, which was enchanted through unknown means by the Trollhunter Kanjigar the Courageous."

They were hoping to find notable mountains, in particular, but 'caverns deep' had also been mentioned in the riddle, and hey, maybe Strickler had been wrong about where the Eye was before the Changelings got it.

"Anyone cast into The Deep will suffer death at the hands of their greatest fear. It has since been used as a means of execution for particularly heinous criminals. No troll is known to have entered The Deep and lived."

Jim frowned and traced over that last sentence with his fingertip.

"How does anybody know it works if no one has ever come back?" he said. "Maybe they just die on impact after getting dropped off a cliff. Or maybe there's, like, a little society down there now and they're just choosing not to leave."

"I saw a cartoon like that once," said Toby.

"Also," Jim continued, "I understand why, if you think somebody deserves to be tortured to death, you would use magical means to get them to come up with a customized torture for themselves to maximize their suffering; but why would you kill someone, who you definitely want executed, in a way that makes it impossible to check and confirm they're dead?"

"Isn't that how oubliettes work?" said Mary.

"Good point."

"You understand torturing people to death?" said Darci.

"I understand trying to do a thing a thoroughly as it can possibly be done."

"Maybe Kanjigar pretended to enchant the place so he could have a spot no one would bother him if he wanted to get away from his job for a while," said Toby.

"Surrounded by the bodies of executed criminals?" said Darci.

"Depending on how hard they landed, they might already be gravel," said Jim. "It's a little unsettling when you know that used to be a troll, but you get used to it. Besides, Kanjigar was only Trollhunter for … what, just under a hundred and seventy years? How many 'particularly heinous criminals' could there have been down here in that time?" He turned to Blinky. "No, really, I'm asking."

"Offhand I can only think of three cases, all involving treason. Perhaps Kanjigar can explain the enchantment next time you visit the Void. Ah!"

Blinky turned his book so everyone else could see the illustrated mountain.

"Gatto's Keep! Deep in the realm of the Volcanic Trolls, in what you humans call 'Argentina', under the volcano Ojos del Salado."

"The eye of the salty?" said Claire.

"Believed to be named for the many salt deposits found on its glaciers, forming eye-like lagoons of meltwater," said Blinky, brushing the interruption off.

"Salt gets expelled through volcanic ash," said Toby. "Or chlorine gas that fuses to nitrogen later. Underwater volcanic activity is part of why the ocean is salty."

"Fortunately, this particular site is not underwater," said Blinky. "Gatto's Keep, a vault of treasures untold – treasures deemed too powerful for the underworld to possess, and kept locked up by Gatto himself."

"Have you ever met this Gatto?" asked Jim.

"Uh … no. Truth be told, I've done everything in my power to avoid him. Very few ever return from his keep."

"I see." Jim frowned down at the book in his lap. "Then maybe you guys shouldn't come."

"What?"

"Are you kidding?"

"The last time we went on a Triumbric Stone quest, a supposedly mostly safe quest, we ended up in the middle of a violent revolution!" Jim reminded them. "I'm not leading a bunch of kids somewhere I know in advance is going to be dangerous!"

"He makes a fair point," conceded Blinky.

"But you can't just go on your own!" Toby protested.

"Of course I won't. Blinky's got to drive the Gyre, and I'll bring Draal for muscle, and –" Jim cut himself off, looking quickly around the room. "Maybe someone else, but I'll have to ask. And if she can, it'll have to work around her schedule."

"You're bringing your mom?" Darci asked.

"No!" Jim recoiled from the idea. "I – Look, there's a Changeling I know who might be able and willing to help, especially for a chance at a legendary vault of forbidden treasure, but I have to ask."

Toby got out his phone and texted Jim rather than asking out loud.

-It's the museum lady, isn't it?-

Jim just glared at him. Both boys deleted the message.

+=+

"Have you ever heard of Gatto's Keep?"

Nomura raised her eyebrow at the Trollhunter.

"Not much. It was one of the places we suspected a piece of the Bridge might be hidden, but considering it had a reputation of no one ever coming back from it, we weren't actually sure if it was real."

It was just as likely to have been an old story that got passed down until it became a figure of speech. The Janus Order’s references to it were all from before Nomura was even stationed on the surface – she'd happened upon them while on archive duty decades ago.

"Blinky says it's real." Jim shrugged. "Or at least Gatto is real, and lives in Argentina. We're planning to go see him about an artifact he might have."

"You're not looking for the Triumphant Stones, are you?" she asked. "Draal's told me that story." Years ago, back when he'd first tried to convince her to change sides. It was the closest he'd ever been to philosophical. "Building a weapon is one thing, but chasing prophecies is another."

Jim shrugged again. "If I'm going to do this, I might as well take every advantage I can. The Triumbric Stones might not be the key their reputation says, but they'll still help."

"Assuming the stones aren't just a trap that will put the Amulet under Gunmar's control."

He snorted. "Oh, come on. If they worked that way, Bular would've been the one to bring them up."

"Not if the conspiracy went deep enough." She snorted as well. "Sure, I'll help loot the place."

"If diplomacy fails," said Jim insistently. "I want to at least try cutting a deal first. When do you have time?"

"I don't work Wednesday or Thursday."

"Great. I'll text. Oh, also," he suddenly looked much more shy, "this comes with a risk of a human or several finding out about you. Still in?"

Nomura leveled a glare at Jim, letting him squirm while she thought it over. (He didn't squirm at all, the shameless wretch. Just looked at her with that stupid timid hopeful expression.)

"For a chance at a legendary treasure trove like that, I might transform in public."

Human public, where they could make up some excuse about hidden cameras and movie costumes and practical special effects, not Trollmarket public, but most Changelings wouldn't need to clarify that.

+=+

Nomura had a duffle bag slung over her shoulder and was wearing a wide-brimmed brown fedora.

"Isn't that Stricklander's hat?"

"It's traditional garb for archeological expeditions."

"You stole it, didn't you?" His inflection made it clear this was not really a question.

"I'm going to send him a selfie and see how long it takes him to realize it's his." Nomura held her phone out and snapped a picture.

"Hi, museum lady!" Toby greeted. They were meeting in the canal. "I brought tacos!"

"… Why are we bringing him?"

Jim sighed. He hadn't wanted to, but Toby made a good argument.

"Diversity of perspective. A human might notice something a troll or Changeling would miss, just like vice versa. We don't know how organized this Gatto guy's collection is. We might have to go looking for the Birthstone."

Thankfully Claire had a 'family thing', Darci had an 'extracurricular commitment', and Mary had a date, all on Wednesday, and he had been able to get that information without revealing Thursday was also an option.

Inside, Nomura shifted to her troll form, keeping the hat showing. Toby gasped.

"You're so tall …"

"Toby, Nomura," introduced Jim. They started climbing down the glowing staircase. "Officially, she's one of Draal's old sparring buddies who's agreed to come on this mission for extra muscle."

So please do not address her as 'museum lady' where anyone can hear you.

"Isn't Draal coming too?" asked Toby.

"Which is how she got invited."

"I don't get it."

"She's going to meet Draal while you and I go to the library, and then we're all meeting up at the Gyre station."

"Why didn't she just –" Toby stopped and readdressed the question to Nomura. "Why didn't you just meet up with Draal at Jim's place?"

"I'm avoiding the chance Barbara will try asking me for life advice again," said Nomura lightly.

Jim's eyebrows went up. He hadn't questioned her suggestion to meet in the canal, but now he really wanted the story there …

"When did that happen?" asked Toby.

"We're in the same krav maga class."

Which did not completely answer the question, but Toby seemed to think it did, and Jim didn't want to push when Nomura was arguably doing him a favour.

On the one hand, he could claim to be doing her a favour, taking her along on a treasure hunt where she could sneak out an artifact or two for herself, but on the other hand, she was loaning her experience in identifying and handling ancient artifacts and dealing with stuffy curators. The situation was roughly neutral and Jim didn't want to tip it.

The walk to the library, and to the Gyre station after that, were peaceful. AAARRRGGHH accompanied them as far as the station entrance.

"Good luck," he said, tapping his horns against Blinky's, rubbing the top of Jim's helmeted head like he was fluffing his hair, and giving Toby a very gentle pat on the back.

"I will look after them," Draal promised, arriving with Nomura. "We will all return from Gatto's Keep."

"Well, now that you've said that," Nomura teased.

+=+

Jim's first impression was that Ojos del Salado looked like a construction project was underway. Or, maybe a mining operation? The mountain was hollowed out, with another mountain inside, and the inner mountain was covered with ladders and scaffolding.

"Ugh, it's so hot," Toby complained. "I know it's a volcano, but still." He pulled at his sweater vest but didn't take it off.

The local trolls wore what looked like welding masks over their faces, and had faintly glowing orange lines carved into their skin. Two appeared to be standing guard near the Gyre station – but facing in, towards the complex, rather than outwards to new arrivals.

Very few ever return, rang loudly through Jim's mind.

"Excuse me," said Blinky to one of the sentries. "We would most graciously request an audience with Gatto."

The troll wordlessly pointed them to the top.

"Ah … thank you, kind friend."

Toby was groaning after the first few ladders. By the time they neared the top, he had stopped, probably to conserve energy – but he managed another when they realized the platform was empty.

"Where is he? They pointed 'up' but there's no more 'up' to go … Did he leave while we were climbing up here?"

Jim eyed the stone the scaffold was built by. It might be climbable. There was a long but narrow ledge about level with the platform, and a tall, V-shaped protrusion probably taller than AAARRRGGHH, and – the ledge split apart. It glowed inside.

"Who has awakened Gatto?"

The mountain-in-a-mountain opened two glowing yellow eyes. A chuckle made the platform shake.

"A human Trollhunter?" the mountain-in-a-mountain said. "How interesting. How … unique. To what do I owe this … pleasure?"

Jim cleared his throat and leaned back a little so he could look Gatto in the eye. "We've come to ask –"

One of the masked trolls arrived, pushing a wooden cart of rocks. The delivery-troll darted away just in time to avoid a massive tongue, and ran back off the platform into the lower scaffolding. Jim reflexively summoned his knives. It was difficult to will them away.

"You must excuse me," said Gatto. "I never talk business without something to eat. Go on."

"We've come for the Birthstone."

"Birthstone of Gunmar?" The mountain troll chuckled again. "Very powerful. Tell me … why should I give it to you?"

"Of course we don't expect you to just give it to us."

Jim ignored Draal's quiet, "We don't?" He took off his backpack, handed it to Blinky, and unzipped the top.

"We've come prepared to trade."

"We did?"

The first thing Jim got out was black and rectangular. Its cord was plugged into a crystal array which some trolls used to substitute for electrical outlets, to power the neon signs and Christmas lights and televisions down in Trollmarket. Blinky had one for his phone charger.

"This is an uncommon human device. You activate and deactivate it with this button here." Jim pushed the button twice, demonstrating. "By turning these knobs, it's possible to generate a custom frequency of audible static."

He put the white noise generator back in his bag, and got out a lumpy object wrapped in a towel. He draped the cloth over his shoulder and held the item where Gatto could see it.

"This is the head of Bular, son of Gunmar, taken as proof that he was slain. Proof that Gunmar's line is not unkillable."

Gatto looked intrigued. Jim rewrapped the head in the towel and switched it for a book. Blinky grimaced during the exchange.

"And this is a document stolen from a Janus Order base; an unfinished medical study of foods that provide nutrition to both humans and trolls."

He flipped through a few pages so the text was visible, proof he wasn't scamming Gatto with a blank notebook, and put it away.

"Seller's choice. Rare artifacts that carry entertainment, power, and knowledge. Which of those would you accept as payment for the Birthstone?"

"Hmm …" The mountain troll pondered the selection. "I think I will have all three. Along with the answer to a little riddle. Answer it correctly – the Birthstone is yours. Answer it incorrectly – I eat you all."

"WHAT?" Toby yelped. "Did I understand that right? Did he say 'eat'? He said 'eat'!"

"Breathe, Tobes." The Sword of Daylight was in Jim's hand. His first instinct was to pick Toby up and bolt for the Gyre. He should be strong enough for that if he switched to troll form, right?

But they needed the Birthstone …

"Master Jim, we must not enter into this binding agreement," Blinky hissed in English. "I'm beginning to catch on why so few trolls ever leave this domicile."

"We'll play!"

"Nomura?!"

"It's simple – either we figure out the riddle and he gives us the stone, or we refuse to answer, which is not technically answering incorrectly, and fight our way out."

"… When you're right, you're right," Jim agreed.

"You think you are clever," said Gatto. "So answer me this. What begins and has no end, and ends all that which begins?"

Blinky blinked, in full unison for once, all six eyes together. "… I have absolutely no idea. Those words mean nothing! Indecipherable!"

"Begins and has no end," Jim repeated to himself quietly, "and ends all that begins."

"I … don't think I can help," said Draal reluctantly. "Rocks for brains, remember?"

"Well, that attitude's not helping, for sure. Begins with no end, ends what begins …"

"School bus?" Toby guessed, switching back to English. "Uh, meatloaf? Hair?"

"Let's think logically," said Nomura, also in English. "In these situations, the answer is almost always one of four things: death, nothing, eternity, or a riddle itself." She counted them off on her fingers. "The answer to a riddle is its end. Eternity by definition doesn't have a beginning or an end. So it's either death or nothing."

"Ten more seconds," said Gatto ominously.

"You didn't tell us we were on the clock!" Blinky protested.

"What begins and has no end, but doesn't end when it begins –?" Jim punched his hand. "Shoot, that's not it! Could you repeat the question?"

"Kangaroo! Golf! Socks! Magic! Warhammer! Baby deer!"

"DEATH!" shouted Nomura. "The answer is death!"

"What?" Gatto gasped. "No one has ever answered that before … and lived to tell about it."

The celebration at getting the correct answer ended immediately.

"And that's the hazard of riddle games where the answer is death," said Nomura. "Most riddle-givers pick that answer because it's what they plan to give the riddle-solvers anyway."

The group was surrounded by four masked trolls, all armed with axes about twice the size of the hammer Toby carried.

"Your entire keep is a trap!" Blinky accused Gatto. "You hoard treasures as nothing but bait!"

"Oh, come now. A mountain has to eat, you know." He opened his mouth, like he expected them to just obediently walk in.

Jim summoned Daylight. The volcano trolls all flinched back from the burst of light.

Nomura lunged at the guard nearest to the ladder. She caught the axe between her swords and twisted it out of the masked troll's grip, flinging the weapon into Gatto's mouth – he yelped when it caught his tongue – and in the same spin she kicked the masked troll off the platform.

Draal punched a masked troll, then grabbed them and another one and bashed their heads together.

Blinky swung Jim's backpack like a flail at anyone who got too close to him. Jim heard a cracking noise, either from the head or the white noise generator, but that wasn't important.

Jim swiped a masked troll across the belly, leaving a shallow cut and causing them to bellow in pain. He threw a knife at another one that was going after Toby, who was doing his best to parry their axe strikes.

Nomura kicked another one off the platform, and Draal threw a third, but more were climbing up, and driving the group back towards Gatto's mouth.

"Get them!" Gatto egged the smaller trolls on. "Prepare the chimichurri!"

A masked troll landed a punch on Nomura and knocked her backwards into Toby. Gatto's tongue flicked out and tossed them both into his mouth.

"I don't want to be food!" Toby howled, before Gatto's jaws snapped shut around them and the mountain gulped.

"Toby! Nomura!" Jim screamed. "TOBY!"

"RAH!" Draal charged Gatto –

"Draal, no!" Blinky shouted.

– and Gatto simply opened his mouth again and swallowed the rolling troll.

Jim's helmet sealed as he switched to troll shape. He threw a volley of knives at their attackers, who backed off for the few seconds he needed to shove Blinky to the ladder.

"Get to the Gyre!" he roared. At one level down, below that horrid mouth, he turned and lunged at Gatto.

Swallowing wasn't instant. If he could get the throat open, he could still save them. He didn't know if he could gut a mountain but he'd find out if that was what it took to get Toby back –

Daylight was a sword, not a pickaxe. Jim slashed and stabbed, and scratched with his now-clawed gauntlets and boots, and made barely any headway.

"Jim!" Blinky was now several levels of scaffolding lower, and fending off more of the smaller volcano trolls with an axe he must have grabbed from one of them. "Were we not attempting to vacate?"

Jim let go of Gatto and slid down the mountainside, and with another roar he stabbed the troll nearest to Blinky through the eye with one of his daggers, shattering the lens on that side. The troll bellowed in pain and clutched their face, dropping their axe. The dagger vanished, leaving an open wound, and reappeared in Jim's hand. He sliced into the arm of another attacker.

The troll with the injured eye staggered and, between the pain and the sudden loss of depth perception, knocked the other masked trolls off the platform. Blinky threw the ladder after them, reducing pursuit from above.

Jim turned to start burrowing through Gatto's hide again.

"Jim!" said Blinky again. "We must leave!"

He barely heard Blinky. He certainly didn't hear his phone, chiming the alert for an incoming text.

+=+

The stomach was even hotter than the 'outside' had been. Toby had gone through both his water bottles during the climb up to meet Gatto and didn't have any left. Not that this was his primary concern at the moment, considering –

"We just got eaten!"

"I noticed," said Nomura scathingly.

"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, this isn't happening, this isn't happening –"

"Do you have an international plan?" she said, interrupting his entirely justified freak-out.

"What?" asked Toby. "What does that have to do with anything? We're in a stomach! It doesn't matter what country the stomach's in!"

"Ugh. I'll take that as a no." She got her phone out of the duffle bag she carried and shoved the device into Toby's hand. "Text Jim. We're alive, Gatto's Keep is Gatto's gut," gesturing at the gold and artefacts around them, "and we're going for the Birthstone."

Assuming the lava-acid, which was rising, didn't get them first.

Draal came down the tunnel, fast enough he shot over their heads and over pool of lava-acid, skipping once (with a roar of pain) and landing on the other side.

"Draal! Are you okay?" It was a stupid question that Toby asked without any conscious thought.

Draal uncurled and growled. He gingerly touched his right arm, which looked shinier than usual and must have been what touched the lava.

"Where are we?"

"Gatto's Keep," said Nomura. "I guess that's one way to deter theft. Find the Birthstone. And be careful what else you touch, some of this might be cursed." She put a triangular thing with green gems on it into her bag. "We'll crawl up his throat and choke him or something once we've got it."

Wow, Nomura was not a detailed texter. Toby saw the last few messages she'd exchanged with Jim while he was typing.

Jim: -Today still works to check that collection?-

Nomura: -16:30- -canal-

Jim: -Okay, see you there!-

Toby, on Nomura's phone: -still alive- -gatto's keep in stomach- -going for birthstone-

Toby put her phone in his pocket and started digging through the piles of gold.

Curses or no curses, if Nomura got to take souvenirs, Toby was totally stealing some of these gold coins.

And maybe that glowy purple rock –

Wait –

"I think I found it!"

+=+

Jim – Jim couldn't do it, he couldn't stab deep enough to cut Gatto open and protect himself and Blinky at the same time –

He kept having to abandon his spot and climb down a few levels, and start over at an even thicker part of the mountain's hide –

Blinky kept urging him to the Gyre, but they couldn't leave, not yet, they had to get Toby back, they had to get Nomura and Draal, they couldn't just leave them behind –

Jim drew one of his poisoned knives. He carried more varieties on him than just Creeper's Sun. Gatto couldn't get away with this. Jim was the Trollhunter, he wasn't going to let some troll eat a human right in front of him. He wasn't going to let some troll eat Toby and live.

He drove the knife into a cut he'd already started with his sword, and left it there while fending off the masked trolls again, then ripped it out.

If Jim didn't manage to kill Gatto today, the troll would suffer a much slower death.

+=+

Draal had been favouring his burned arm. He looked up the steep tunnel of Gatto's throat and tried to lift his burned arm, and grunted in pain.

"I … I can't climb out. You'll have to leave me behind."

"What is wrong with you today?" Nomura demanded. "You've never been this – this fatalistic before."

"Guys," Toby interrupted. "There's another way out, but you're not gonna like it. If this is his stomach, then there's a 'back door', and if we upset the stomach," he tossed a nearby crystal into the acid, where it dissolved with a flatulent sound, "then we might have a chance to be passed through."

Nomura grimaced. "We're going out that way eventually." She started tossing things into the acid as well. "I'd rather go out alive."

"What are you both –? Oh." Draal's eyes widened and he looked like he might have an upset stomach himself. "That's – ugh. The shame of being remembered for that."

"There's no shame in survival," said Nomura.

Draal grabbed an entire shelving unit of bottles and threw it into the acid, where the potions exploded with blue light. He fell back and began coughing.

"Draal?!" Toby cried.

"I'm alright, I'm – is that my voice? Is that my" – he coughed again – "voice?" The high squeak had gone back to its normal gravelly depth. Draal shook his head and helped Nomura shove a heavy crate into the acid.

Toby started coughing too. It was so hot and smoky …

The troll, the Changeling, and the human climbed onto a boulder that hadn't melted yet. The lava continued to rise. They balanced precariously. Draal and Nomura were both forced to duck as they got closer to the ceiling.

"I guess this is my last chance to eat these," Toby lamented, taking out a taco. Nomura's eyes widened. Toby had only taken a single bite when she snatched the food and the bag out of his hands and threw them into the gut-lava. "What –? No! Those were Diablo Maximus!"

"And if this doesn't work, you'll die with that taste in your mouth."

The acid level started to drop – spiraling like it was going down a drain. Draal wrapped his arms tight around his two smaller companions.

"The back door!" cried Toby. "It's open! I gotta text Jimbo!"

All three of them screamed as they surfed on the boulder through Gatto's volcanic intestines.

+=+

Blinky kept an eye on Jim as they climbed and ran and fought and climbed some more. It had taken until they were nearly halfway down Gatto's sides to convince Jim to flee instead of continuing to attack. Blinky was ready to physically pull the boy along if he tried it again.

This was awful. Horrible. And all Blinky's fault, besides. Coming to Gatto's Keep had been his suggestion, and it had cost three lives already, and if they died here as well, the Amulet would become another part of Gatto's collection, no good to anyone.

But there would be time for blame and grief and stewing over what else might have gone wrong once Jim and Blinky were out of there and no longer in mortal peril.

Gatto tried to grab them with his craggy hand. Jim roared and nearly deprived the mountain troll of a finger.

Gatto said something, but his head was too far away now for Blinky to make it out. It might have been 'nachos'?

Another taunt about how he intended to eat them, no doubt.

"No more guards?" said Jim. They were off the scaffolding now, and it looked like a straight shot to the Gyre station.

The ground started to crack and rumble ominously. There were spurts of lava, and a smell Blinky hadn't expected but regretfully recognized. They ran faster.

Someone screamed behind them.

"Start it up! Start it up! START IT UP!"

"Toby!" Jim yelled.

Tobias, Nomura, and Draal erupted out of a rock wall nearby. They all cried out when they crash landed, and then ran for the Gyre just as Blinky and Jim were doing. Draal grabbed the Gyre's outer wheel and, with a bellow, set it spinning to jumpstart the vehicle. They piled in, and zoomed away.

It was a miraculous escape. Blinky would have to record this for the history books.

"I am – so sorry," he said to them all. Even at the Gyre's speed, it would take some time to get to Arcadia from Ojos del Salado. "If I had realized the nature of Gatto's Keep, I never would have brought us there."

"He did have the Birthstone," said Nomura. Blinky turned just enough to see her with his outermost eye. She seemed unscathed, and was still wearing a hat. Her bag was now bulging with whatever else she'd … claimed as recompense for the trauma of today's experience.

Blinky turned the other way to check as best he could on Jim and Toby. Draal was in the centre of the Gyre bench and hardest to see without turning around, though Blinky could at least tell he was there.

Jim was wrapped around Toby. His helmet was open again, and his eyes were glowing. Toby was clinging to Jim as well, and breathing hard.

"I saved us," Tobias bragged. "My tacos were the key to our grand escape." Jim tightened his grip.

He didn't let go of Toby until they reached Trollmarket. AAARRRGGHH was waiting for them at the Gyre station. (And oh, that made Blinky's gut twist, to think AAARRRGGHH had been sitting there awaiting their return and they might not have come back because Blinky had led them into danger.) AAARRRGGHH reached into the basket to help Toby and Jim disembark.

Jim let go of Tobias and swiped at AAARRRGGHH with Daylight.

AAARRRGGHH recoiled, unhurt physically – Blinky had seen the distance between his hand and the sword – but wounded all the same.

"Jim?" said Toby. "Dude, calm down."

"Red eyes," said AAARRRGGHH. Jim's eyes were still glowing. "Hurt?"

Draal, who had been climbing down the other side of the Gyre, grunted and lost his balance. When he got up, Blinky finally got a proper look at him.

"Great Gronka Morka, Draal, what's happened to your arm?!"

His right arm was half grey, with pits starting to form where the dead stone had cracked, and the patches that were still blue were far glossier than was natural, like he'd spent a month buffing and polishing his hide.

"Gut-lava," said Draal. His eyes were out of focus. "And straining. And that fall, just now."

"He used his arms to shield us while we were – getting out," said Toby, giving a sideways look to Jim before finishing that sentence. "And he landed badly coming in."

"Need Vendel," AAARRRGGHH decided. He offered his open hand to Jim and Toby again. Jim growled and readied his sword.

"You two take him," Nomura said. "Jim can't go through the market with his eyes like that, and he's not going to calm down until he stops thinking he has to protect his human from another troll any second."

Blinky and AAARRRGGHH looked at each other. Blinky split his focus to look at AAARRRGGHH, Jim, and Draal at the same time. AAARRRGGHH looked from Blinky, to Jim, to Draal, then back to Blinky, and nodded.

AAARRRGGHH moved to stand on Draal's injured side. Blinky climbed out of the Gyre – Jim turned the sword towards him for the moment it took to get to the steps, moving closer to the human and Changeling than he'd been whilst at the controls – and stood at Draal's other side.

He was loath to leave, but Draal needed medical attention, and Nomura was right that proximity to larger trolls seem to be increasing Jim's distress.

Blinky turned an eye back to Nomura.

"What about you?"

"I'll stand guard and make sure no one else walks in on this." She sat on the floor and opened the bag she'd been carrying. "I can get started on cataloguing while I wait."

"And will you be alright, Tobias?" Blinky asked.

"I think so?" The boy looked at Jim uncertainly. "Dude, it's Blinky and AAARRRGGHH. They're not gonna hurt us. Shouldn't it be my turn to be freaking out right now?"

+=+

"I'm sorry," said Vendel to Draal, as gently as the brusque elder was able. "The damage is … severe. I suspect your arm cannot be saved. I advise that we amputate, to keep the cracks from spreading higher, so your shoulder can be fitted with a prosthetic."

Draal grimaced. He stared at his cracked, pitted arm and flexed his fingers with a wince. A few more chips came loose. He touched one of the worst with his uninjured hand.

For the examination, the leather strip that usually wrapped around his right wrist was removed, showing the scarred crack that extended onto his hand. Vendel remembered treating that wound – he'd been worried Draal would lose his hand then as well.

"What if we used metal packing?" asked Draal.

"You lost some mobility in your wrist last time," Vendel reminded him. "If we tried that now, with your more extensive injuries, the amount of metal necessary and immobilization while you healed would likely lock the joints in place for good. And we would need to clear out the dead stone before we begin. Depending on the depth of damage," which was already and obviously deep, "your arm might come off in any case."

"… Can I have some time to think about it?"

In a sense, no, because the longer he went without treatment (beyond the painkillers Vendel had already given him), the worse his injuries would get, and the more likely it was the decision would be made for him.

"If you can remain still while you decide, I can give you a few hours."

"Thank you."

Vendel was not a prayerful troll, but he prayed he wasn't just giving Draal false hope.

+=+

"Hey, your eyes are blue again!" Toby cheered. "That's a good sign, right?"

"Maybe."

"And you're using words!" He patted Jim on the shoulder. "Think maybe we can get off the Gyre now?"

Jim looked at Nomura, still sitting on the station floor in troll form with her stolen treasures spread around her, and shook his head.

Early on in her sorting process, she'd propped up one of her treasures next to the Gyre – a trident with a red gem set on a ring below the fork. The red gem had started glowing when she'd turned the ring and seemed to be sucking all the heat from the room, which was an incredible relief for Toby's overheated skin.

"Dude, come on. I thought she was, like, your friend?"

Nomura laughed. "Oh, we go way back."

"… I can't tell if that was sarcasm or not."

"It wasn't," said Jim.

"So why is she scary to you?"

"Excuse me, are you not intimidated by me?" she asked, casually running her finger along the length of one of her cool swords. Which seemed like kind of the opposite of helping Jim calm down.

"You helped us," Toby reminded her.

"And we're all richer for it," she agreed.

Seriously, was she being sarcastic or not? Or, maybe not sarcastic, but … teasing? Was that it?

"You got eaten," said Jim, as though Toby could possibly have forgotten this. "By a troll. You getting eaten by a troll is literally one of my worst nightmares. I can't … I can't let you be in Trollmarket right now. There's too many trolls I don't know. I probably shouldn't fight them all, but I'm going to want to."

Toby sighed and turned back to his phone. He loved Go-Go Sushi, but there were only so many times he could play it in a day.

Oh, hey, wait, phones.

"Here, you should take your phone back." He put it as far down the Gyre's foldaway steps as he could reach without getting off the boat and having Jim grab him again. Nomura waited until he was back in the boat before standing to get it.

"Why do you have Nomura's phone?"

"From when we texted you we were alive. She's got an international plan and I don't."

"I didn't notice the text come in," Jim admitted.

"That's fair. You would've been pretty distracted."

+=+

Draal didn't want to lose his arm.

He had no regrets about what he'd done – if he hadn't been there, Nomura or Tobias would have been the ones hurt, or might even have fallen off the boulder and died – but he would rather have been able to save them without ending up in this position.

Draal liked his body. He liked his arms. He liked his strength and agility, and his reach, and how easy most weapons were to use, and how easy it was to switch between going on two legs, all fours, or a roll.

Whatever happened now would change that. Patch job or prosthetic, he'd have to restart his training to compensate for the change in balance. He wouldn't have the same reach or flexibility anymore. His grip on two-handed weapons would change.

It would have been easier, in a way, if he'd been hurt badly enough for the arm to come off on its own. Then at least he wouldn't have to decide whether to have what was left of it cut off, or to try and salvage it and risk seeing it crumble away in any case.

He wished his mother still lived in Trollmarket. Ballustra was a weaponsmith, but she had done prosthetic work as well, and helped with injuries that needed metal packing. He trusted Vendel to give him good advice, but … Draal wanted his mother.

(She'd gone back to the Old World a few centuries ago, after she and Kanjigar had divorced. Draal hadn't actually seen her in person for almost twenty years now. He hadn't realized how much he missed her until he started thinking about her.)

He sighed heavily. The movement of his chest caused his arm to move on the table. A few more pieces flaked off. Had they been already broken and sitting there, or had they just broken away? Was it his imagination, or did some of the cracks just get a little bit longer?

With the depth and spread of the fissures, metal packing would noticeably increase the weight of his arm. Draal would be fit to return to the field far sooner if he accepted a prosthetic, which could be graded to a compatible weight. He'd have use of two hands again more quickly, too.

Draal's blue hide had been nearly seared off in some places, exposing the veins of purplish crystal underneath. He couldn't stop himself from rubbing some of it. So smooth; a bit itchy at the edges.

Vendel had not simply left him alone. The Elder was looking through his supplies, giving Draal an illusion of privacy while keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn't aggravate his wounds.

"Vendel. If … If we try to save it. What are the odds it'll work?"

"Very low, I'm afraid. We can keep it attached, if that's your wish, but it would likely not be functional."

"Meaning?"

"In the worst case scenario, it would be like an immobile prosthesis with bits of your living stone embedded in it. In the best case, you would recover about half the mobility you had before."

Draal grimaced. He studied what was left of his arm again. Gorgus, some of the pits were so deep they nearly went halfway through.

"Cut it off."

+=+

"Then we all reached the Gyre, and Draal worsened his injuries to start the mechanism."

They were waiting outside the Gyre station. Blinky had just finished reciting the day's events to AAARRRGGHH.

"This is my doing. I knew Gatto held a place on the Tribunal, but never even thought to ask Vendel's assessment of his character. So now Jim is terrified of us all, Tobias is probably also mentally scarred, and Draal is grievously injured for my failure as a researcher."

AAARRRGGHH, always a troll of few words, had no words that could make Blinky feel less responsible for what had happened. He tried anyway.

"Attacking was Gatto's choice, not Blinky's."

"He didn't attack us, AAARRRGGHH! He made his terms clear, and I knew better than to accept but I did anyway, and now –" He flailed his arms. "I can only be thankful Jim didn't actually hurt you, and no one actually died."

"I'm sorry about that."

They both jumped, and turned to see Jim and Toby. Jim's helmet was sealed, and he was between them and Toby, but he was unarmed.

"I shouldn't have agreed to the riddle game either," said Jim. "That was a stupid gamble. I should've just stabbed him in the face the second he started talking about eating us."

"I feel like that's not the lesson we should take from this, but at the same time I can't argue," said Toby.

"I wanted to say, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let my fears get the better of me when I – I trust you. I know you would never."

"Forgiven," AAARRRGGHH assured him at once.

Blinky looked passed the boys, into the Gyre station. It stood empty.

"Where has Nomura gone?" And how had he not noticed her leaving? She would have had to go right past them.

"She wanted to see Draal before we left," said Jim.

+=+

"Hey," said Nomura.

"Hey." Draal lifted his new prosthetic hand in greeting. It made a faint clanking sound.

"… I came to show off all the stuff I took," she claimed, rather than admit she'd been concerned and wanted to check on him. Draal leaned forward.

"Show me."

+=+

Previous Chapter (Otto keeps unintentionally sabotaging his own coup.)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (As though Draal hasn’t been through enough, he turns human.)

This was the longest chapter yet! Helped along by how I had a few hundred words already prepped from the early days of fic writing, back when I thought they would be doing to search for the Triumbric Stones in canonical order and Blinky was still going to be the troll who turned human. How far we've come, eh?

There are two non-Tales of Arcadia cartoon references in this chapter, one to a show and one to a movie. Spot them for imaginary prizes! I'll reveal them in the notes for the next chapter.

I do not know what regular lava would do to a troll, but since Gatto digests that poor unfortunate troll in his introductory episode (seen sinking into the gut-lava when Toby and Blinky arrive in the stomach), I assume that particular type of lava can mess stone-flesh up. The term 'gut-lava' was used in one of the spinoff comics.

Out of curiosity, I looked up 'Ojos del Salado', which is a real place. Some fun facts: It is the highest active volcano in the world, and the second-highest mountain in both the Western Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. It's actually on the Argentina-Chile border, and the mountain has two summits, one in each country. There is a crater lake on the eastern side that is believed to be the highest lake in the world.

Draal's mom Ballustra was named in the spinoff novels. I have not yet decided how much of the novels' depiction I will use, beyond the name and the job and the bit about her and Kanjigar being divorced. Or separated? The novel does not actually use the word 'divorced', but it does say they were married when Draal was born, and heavily implies they were not married anymore by the time Kanjigar died without providing a word for how the end of a marriage is described in troll society.

#Trollhunters #Changeling Jim #Becoming The Mask chapters #Tales of Arcadia #canon divergence #tw: loss of limb #Draal #Nomura #Tobias Domzalski #Blinkous Galadrigal #Vendel #AAARRRGGHH #Claire Nuñez #Darci Scott #Mary Wang #My Fanfiction #Monday is fanfic day!

21 notes · View notes

rings-of-power-realm · 2 years

Text

Some 5 star Rings Of Power Reviews (I chose some ones to share that sounded like they were skeptical beforehand to really prove how this show does not deserve the bombardment of hate it is subjected to by trolls)

I have read most of the objections about creative decisions taken with this series. I agree with some of them in principle. But a thing must be judged by what it is, by what the creators have shaped. So I sat down to watch the first episode of The Rings of Power with grave doubts, but as open a mind as I was capable of. Bear in mind I love Tolkien's books. I also admire Peter Jackson's movies I was able to embrace the changes his production team made to translate the stories to a filmic medium. Could I do so again? Yes, as it happens. I could. I was thoroughly immersed and enjoyed the first episode enormously. I can't wait to watch episode 2 this evening. If you have been doubting, like I was, set your doubts aside and just allow yourself to enjoy. There are some stunning visuals. Through it all, the sweeping grandeur of Tolkien's mythic themes are present. The characters and storylines that have been added are essential to this episodic visual medium. Storytelling is an art, and books and films are different media with different needs to carry a tale. No adaptation is ever going to tick all your personal boxes. No creative decisions are ever going to be the same as the ones you would have made. But you have the books for those things. Just allow yourself to unwind and enjoy what the creators have done with the decisions they made, because they have turned them into gold. I hadn't expected myself to say this, but this a masterpiece. It possesses a real majesty, and I can't wait to see how the series unfolds.7 people found this helpful

. . .

Like many, I love the hobbit and the lord of the rings films and hoped that this series would capture some of the feeling from those cherished movies. However I was concerned as there appeared to be many people who appear to have written this series off as being a complete waste of time and money. So I approached this with lowish expectations but importantly with an open mind. So having watched the first two episodes my thoughts are as follows. Firstly the scale of this series is epic, you can clearly see where the money has been spent as it feels as if you are watching a high budget movie rather than a made for tv series. The music is excellent and really captures the feel of the original movies. The story is sympathetic with the history of the films / books. The acting is on point, the script / dialogue is good and the cast all seem committed in making this project as good as it can be. I know some people are saying the pace is a little slow and yes I get that but the story is unfolding over a number of episodes (each over 60 mins long) so they can afford to take their time and we can really enjoy the story lines. Is this going to be as good as any of the films……I really don’t know but it could be and I just don’t understand why anyone who claims to enjoy the original movies would want to dismiss this series without giving it a fair chance. On IMDB it has a current rating of 6.3 which is incredibly low for such a quality production. I for one will be eagerly awaiting the next episode and I can only applaud Amazon for taking on a task of this scale and (in my opinion) pulling it off. Bravo 👏. For me it’s currently a 9 out of 10 👏

. . .

Breathtakingly beautiful, well acted an cast. Feels like Peter Jackson’s take on Tolkien’s work The show is grand, detailed, beautiful and well acted. It amazes me how movie like the production quality is (better than most movies even). It has the same atmosphere and tone as the Movies which is great and very important. All these rights and license agreements made me worry about how different it would be however one can place this series in the same continuity as the movies that Peter Jackson crafted. Talking of which i hope he is enjoying this as he talked of robbing himself of the joy of seeing these movies because he made them, now he can enjoy this like the rest of us. The length of the episodes are also very generous and the show is well paced for a TV show. Slower than the movies, which is just right as there is more time but also it means we get to see the details of Tolkiens work. The series is like an “extended edition” but with “super” added to the front.

. . .

The first two episodes of this new series blew me away. These early episodes are always challenging in a complex story spanning continents, decades, and centuries. I thought the first two episodes set out some of the key traits and characteristics of the different societies and geographies involved. Several key and long-running characters have been introduced well, and the original works' interpretations are just excellent storytelling. Just as important, the visual rendering of the world is simply astounding - this is much closer to a cinema experience than a TV series. From the start in Valinor to Khazad-Dum and everything else is brilliant, and whilst it is different from how I might have imagined these places in my mind's eye, they really do justice to the fantasy world of JRR Tolkien. I know there are detractors - but I have not seen any of them that are actually complaining about the story, the visuals, the acting, or anything actually relevant to reviewing the programme. From what I understand this is due to them not wanting non-white actors in roles in the series. Well - time to grow up people. We are the human race, and we have people of lots of colours, shapes, and sizes. Why would that be any different in any other fantasy race? It is very simple - if you do not like the fact that there is variety in life, then how about you just don't bother watching the programme rather than moan and complain all the time.

#the rings of power #long post #positivity #positive reviews #<3

17 notes · View notes

grigori77 · 3 years

Text

2020 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 2)

20. ONWARD – Disney and Pixar’s best digitally animated family feature of 2020 (beating the admittedly impressive Soul to the punch) clearly has a love of fantasy roleplay games like Dungeons & Dragons, its quirky modern-day AU take populated by fantastical races and creatures seemingly tailor-made for the geek crowd … needless to say, me and many of my friends absolutely loved it. That doesn’t mean that the classic Disney ideals of love, family and believing in yourself have been side-lined in favour of fan-service – this is as heartfelt, affecting and tearful as their previous standouts, albeit with plenty of literal magic added to the metaphorical kind. The central premise is a clever one – once upon a time, magic was commonplace, but over the years technology came along to make life easier, so that in the present day the various races (elves, centaurs, fauns, pixies, goblins and trolls among others) get along fine without it. Then timid elf Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) receives a wizard’s staff for his sixteenth birthday, a bequeathed gift from his father, who died before he was born, with instructions for a spell that could bring him back to life for one whole day. Encouraged by his brash, over-confident wannabe adventurer elder brother Barley (Chris Pratt), Ian tries it out, only for the spell to backfire, leaving them with the animated bottom half of their father and just 24 hours to find a means to restore the rest of him before time runs out. Cue an “epic quest” … needless to say, this is another top-notch offering from the original masters of the craft, a fun, affecting and thoroughly infectious family-friendly romp with a winning sense of humour and inspired, flawless world-building. Holland and Pratt are both fantastic, their instantly believable, ill-at-ease little/big brother chemistry effortlessly driving the story through its ingenious paces, and the ensuing emotional fireworks are hilarious and heart-breaking in equal measure, while there’s typically excellent support from Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine from Seinfeld) as Ian and Barley’s put-upon but supportive mum, Laurel, Octavia Spencer as once-mighty adventurer-turned-restaurateur “Corey” the Manticore and Mel Rodriguez (Getting On, The Last Man On Earth) as overbearing centaur cop (and Laurel’s new boyfriend) Colt Bronco. The film marks the sophomore feature gig for Dan Scanlon, who debuted with 2013’s sequel Monsters University, and while that was enjoyable enough I ultimately found it non-essential – no such verdict can be levelled against THIS film, the writer-director delivering magnificently in all categories, while the animation team have outdone themselves in every scene, from the exquisite environments and character/creature designs to some fantastic (and frequently delightfully bonkers) set-pieces, while there’s a veritable riot of brilliant RPG in-jokes to delight geekier viewers (gelatinous cube! XD). Massive, unadulterated fun, frequently hilarious and absolutely BURSTING with Disney’s trademark heart, this was ALMOST my animated feature of the year. More on that later …

19. THE GENTLEMEN – Guy Ritchie’s been having a rough time with his last few movies (The Man From UNCLE didn’t do too bad but it wasn’t exactly a hit and was largely overlooked or simply ignored, while intended franchise-starter King Arthur: Legend of the Sword was largely derided and suffered badly on release, dying a quick death financially – it’s a shame on both counts, because I really liked them), so it’s nice to see him having some proper success with his latest, even if he has basically reverted to type to do it. Still, when his newest London gangster flick is THIS GOOD it seems churlish to quibble – this really is what he does best, bringing together a collection of colourful geezers and shaking up their status quo, then standing back and letting us enjoy the bloody, expletive-riddled results. This particularly motley crew is another winning selection, led by Matthew McConaughey as ruthlessly successful cannabis baron Mickey Pearson, who’s looking to retire from the game by selling off his massive and highly lucrative enterprise for a most tidy sum (some $400,000,000 to be precise) to up-and-coming fellow American ex-pat Matthew Berger (Succession’s Jeremy Strong, oozing sleazy charm), only for local Chinese triad Dry Eye (Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding, chewing the scenery with enthusiasm) to start throwing spanners into the works with the intention of nabbing the deal for himself for a significant discount. Needless to say Mickey’s not about to let that happen … McConaughey is ON FIRE here, the best he’s been since Dallas Buyers Club in my opinion, clearly having great fun sinking his teeth into this rich character and Ritchie’s typically sparkling, razor-witted dialogue, and he’s ably supported by a quality ensemble cast, particularly co-star Charlie Hunnam as Mickey’s ice-cold, steel-nerved right-hand-man Raymond Smith, Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery as his classy, strong-willed wife Rosalind, Colin Farrell as a wise-cracking, quietly exasperated MMA trainer and small-time hood simply known as the Coach (who gets many of the film’s best lines), and, most notably, Hugh Grant as the film’s nominal narrator, thoroughly morally bankrupt private investigator Fletcher, who consistently steals the film. This is Guy Ritchie at his very best – a twisty rug-puller of a plot that constantly leaves you guessing, brilliantly observed and richly drawn characters you can’t help loving in spite of the fact there’s not a single hero among them, a deliciously unapologetic, politically incorrect sense of humour and a killer soundtrack. Getting the cinematic year off to a phenomenal start, it’s EASILY Ritchie’s best film since Sherlock Holmes, and a strong call-back to the heady days of Snatch (STILL my favourite) and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Here’s hoping he’s on a roll again, eh?

18. SPONTANEOUS – one of the year’s biggest under-the-radar surprise hits for me was one which I actually might not have caught if things had been a little more normal and ordered. Thankfully with all the lockdown and cinematic shutdown bollocks going on, this fantastically subversive and deeply satirical indie teen comedy horror came along at the perfect time, and I completely flipped out over it. Now those who know me know I don’t tend to gravitate towards teen cinema, but like all those other exceptions I’ve loved over the years, this one had a brilliantly compulsive hook I just couldn’t turn down – small-town high-schooler Mara (Knives Out and Netflix’ Cursed’s Katherine Langford) is your typical cool outsider kid, smart, snarky and just putting up with the scene until she can graduate and get as far away as possible … until one day in her senior year one of her classmates just inexplicably explodes. Like her peers, she’s shocked and she mourns, then starts to move on … until it happens again. As the death toll among the senior class begins to mount, it becomes clear something weird is going on, but Mara has other things on her mind because the crisis has, for her, had an unexpected benefit – without it she wouldn’t have fallen in love with like-minded oddball new kid Dylan (Lean On Pete and Words On Bathroom Walls’ Charlie Plummer). The future’s looking bright, but only if they can both live to see it … this is a wickedly intelligent film, powered by a skilfully executed script and a wonderfully likeable young cast who consistently steer their characters around the potential cliched pitfalls of this kind of cinema, while debuting writer-director Brian Duffield (already a rising star thanks to scripts for Underwater, The Babysitter and blacklist darling Jane Got a Gun among others) show he’s got as much talent and flair for crafting truly inspired cinema as he has for thinking it up in the first place, delivering some impressively offbeat set-pieces and several neat twists you frequently don’t see coming ahead of time. Langford and Plummer as a sassy, spicy pair who are easy to root for without ever getting cloying or sweet, while there’s glowing support from the likes of Hayley Law (Rioverdale, Altered Carbon, The New Romantic) as Mara’s best friend Tess, Piper Perabo and Transparent’s Rob Huebel as her increasingly concerned parents, and Insecure’s Yvonne Orji as Agent Rosetti, the beleaguered government employee sent to spearhead the investigation into exactly what’s happening to these kids. Quirky, offbeat and endlessly inventive, this is one of those interesting instances where I’m glad they pushed the horror elements into the background so we could concentrate on the comedy, but more importantly these wonderfully well-realised and vital characters – there are some skilfully executed shocks, but far more deep belly laughs, and there’s bucketloads of heart to eclipse the gore. Another winning debut from a talent I intend to watch with great interest in the future.

17. HAMILTON – arriving just as Black Lives Matter reached fever-pitch levels, this feature presentation of the runaway Broadway musical smash-hit could not have been better timed. Shot over three nights during the show’s 2016 run with the original cast and cut together with specially created “setup shots”, it’s an immersive experience that at once puts you right in amongst the audience (at times almost a character themselves, never seen but DEFINITELY heard) but also lets you experience the action up close. And what action – it’s an incredible show, a thoroughly fascinating piece of work that reads like something very staid and proper on paper (an all-encompassing biographical account of the life and times of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton) but, in execution, becomes something very different and EXTREMELY vital. The execution certainly couldn’t be further from the usual period biopic fare this kind of historical subject matter usually gets (although in the face of recent high quality revisionist takes like Marie Antoinette, The Great and Tesla it’s not SO surprising), while the cast is not at all what you’d expect – with very few notable exceptions the cast is almost entirely people of colour, despite the fact that the real life individuals they’re playing were all very white indeed. Every single one of them is also an absolute revelation – the show’s writer-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (already riding high on the success of In the Heights) carries the central role of Hamilton with effortless charm and raw star power, Leslie Odom Jr. (Smash, Murder On the Orient Express) is duplicitously complex as his constant nemesis Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson (In the Heights, Moana, Bull) oozes integrity and nobility as his mentor and friend George Washington, Phillipa Soo is sweet and classy as his wife Eliza while Renée Elise Goldsberry (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Jacks, Altered Carbon) is fiery and statuesque as her sister Angelica Schuyler (the one who got away), and Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter) consistently steals every scene he’s in as fiendish yet childish fan favourite King George III, but the show (and the film) ultimately belongs to veritable powerhouse Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting, The Good Lord Bird) in a spectacular duel role, starting subtly but gaining scene-stealing momentum as French Revolutionary Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, before EXPLODING onto the stage in the second half as indomitable third American President Thomas Jefferson. Not having seen the stage show, I was taken completely by surprise by this, revelling in its revisionist genius and offbeat, quirky hip-hop charm, spellbound by the skilful ease with which is takes the sometimes quite dull historical fact and skews it into something consistently entertaining and absorbing, transported by the catchy earworm musical numbers and thoroughly tickled by the delightfully cheeky sense of humour strung throughout (at least when I wasn’t having my heart broken by moments of raw dramatic power). Altogether it’s a pretty unique cinematic experience I wish I could have actually gotten to see on the big screen, and one I’ve consistently recommended to all my friends, even the ones who don’t usually like musicals. As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t need a proper Les Misérables style screen adaptation – this is about as perfect a presentation as the show could possibly hope for.

16. SPUTNIK – summer’s horror highlight (despite SERIOUSLY tough competition) was a guaranteed sleeper hit that I almost missed entirely, stumbling across the trailer one day on YouTube and getting bowled over by its potential, prompting me to hunt it down by any means necessary. The feature debut of Russian director Egor Abramenko, this first contact sci-fi chiller is about as far from E.T. as it’s possible to get, sharing some of the same DNA as Carpenter’s The Thing but proudly carving its own path with consummate skill and definitely signalling great things to come from its brand new helmer and relative unknown screenwriters Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev. Oksana Akinshina (probably best known in the West for her powerful climactic cameo in The Bourne Supremacy) is the beating heart of the film as neurophysiologist Tatyana Yuryevna Klimova, brought in to aid in the investigation in the Russian wilderness circa 1983 after an orbital research mission goes horribly wrong. One of the cosmonauts dies horribly, while the other, Konstantin (The Duelist’s Pyotr Fyodorov) seems unharmed, but it quickly becomes clear that he’s now the host for something decidedly extraterrestrial and potentially terrifying, and as Tatyana becomes more deeply embroiled in her assignment she comes to realise that her superiors, particularly mysterious Red Army project leader Colonel Semiradov (The PyraMMMid’s Fyodor Bondarchuk), have far more insidious plans for Konstantin and his new “friend” than she could ever imagine. This is about as dark, intense and nightmarish as this particular sub-genre gets, a magnificently icky body horror that slowly builds its tension as we’re gradually exposed to the various truths and the awful gravity of the situation slowly reveals itself, punctuated by skilfully executed shocks and some particularly horrifying moments when the evils inflicted by the humans in charge prove far worse than anything the alien can do, while the ridiculously talented writers have a field day pulling the rug out from under us again and again, never going for the obvious twist and keeping us guessing right to the devastating ending, while the beautifully crafted digital creature effects are nothing short of astonishing and thoroughly creepy. Akinshina dominates the film with her unbridled grace, vulnerability and integrity, the relationship that develops between Tatyana and Konstantin (Fyodorov delivering a beautifully understated turn belying deep inner turmoil) feeling realistically earned as it goes from tentatively wary to tragically bittersweet, while Bondarchuk invests the Colonel with a nuanced air of tarnished authority and restrained brutality that made him one of my top screen villains for the year. One of 2020’s great sleeper hits, I can’t speak of this film highly enough – it’s a genuine revelation, an instant classic for whom I’ll sing its praises for years to come, and I wish enormous future success to all the creative talents involved.

15. THE INVISIBLE MAN – looks like third time’s a charm for Leigh Whannell, writer-director of my ALMOST horror movie of the year (more on that later) – while he’s had immense success as a horror writer over the years (co-creator of both the Saw and Insidious franchises), as a director his first two features haven’t exactly set the world alight, with debut Insidious: Chapter III garnering similar takes to the rest of the series but ultimately turning out to be a bit of a damp squib quality-wise, while his second feature Upgrade was a stone-cold masterpiece that was (rightly) EXTREMELY well received critically, but ultimately snuck in under the radar and has remained a stubbornly hidden gem since. No such problems with his third feature, though – his latest collaboration with producer Jason Blum and the insanely lucrative Blumhouse Pictures has proven a massive hit both financially AND with reviewers, and deservedly so. Having given up on trying to create a shared cinematic universe inhabited by their classic monsters, Universal resolved to concentrate on standalones to showcase their elite properties, and their first try is a rousing success, Whannell bringing HG Wells’ dark and devious human monster smack into the 21st Century as only he can. The result is a surprisingly subtle piece of work, much more a lethally precise exercise in cinematic sleight of hand and extraordinary acting than flashy visual effects, strictly adhering to the Blumhouse credo of maximum returns for minimum bucks as the story is stripped down to its bare essentials and allowed to play out without any unnecessary weight. The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elizabeth Moss once again confirms what a masterful actress she is as she brings all her performing weapons to bear in the role of Cecelia “Cee” Kass, the cloistered wife of affluent but monstrously abusive optics pioneer Aidan Griffin (Netflix’ The Haunting of Hill House’s Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who escapes his clutches in the furiously tense opening sequence and goes to ground with the help of her closest childhood friend, San Francisco cop James Lanier (Leverage’s Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter Sydney (A Wrinkle in Time’s Storm Reid). Two weeks later, Aidan commits suicide, leaving Cee with a fortune to start her life over (with the proviso that she’s never ruled mentally incompetent), but as she tries to find her way in the world again little things start going wrong for her, and she begins to question if there might be something insidious going on. As her nerves start to unravel, she begins to suspect that Aidan is still alive, still very much in her life, fiendishly toying with her and her friends, but no-one can see him. Whannell plays her paranoia up for all it’s worth, skilfully teasing out the scares so that, just like her friends, we begin to wonder if it might all be in her head after all, before a spectacular mid-movie reveal throws the switch into high gear and the true threat becomes clear. The lion’s share of the film’s immense success must of course go to Moss – her performance is BEYOND a revelation, a blistering career best that totally powers the whole enterprise, and it goes without saying that she’s the best thing in this. Even so, she has sterling support from Hodge and Reid, as well as Love Child’s Harriet Dyer as Cee’s estranged big sister Emily and Wonderland’s Michael Dorman as Adrian’s slimy, spineless lawyer brother Tom, and, while he doesn’t have much actual (ahem) “screen time”, Jackson-Cohen delivers a fantastically icy, subtly malevolent turn which casts a large “shadow” over the film. This is one of my very favourite Blumhouse films, a pitch-perfect psychological chiller that keeps the tension cranked up unbearably tight and never lets go, Whannell once again displaying uncanny skill with expert jump-scares, knuckle-whitening chills and a truly astounding standout set-piece that easily goes down as one of the top action sequences of 2020. Undoubtedly the best version of Wells’ story to date, this goes a long way in repairing the damage of Universal’s abortive “Dark Universe” efforts, as well as showcasing a filmmaking master at the very height of his talents.

14. EXTRACTION – the Coronavirus certainly has threw a massive spanner in the works of the year’s cinematic calendar – among many other casualties to the blockbuster shunt, the latest (and most long-awaited) MCU movie, Black Widow, should have opened to further record-breaking box office success at the end of spring, but instead the theatres were all closed and virtually all the heavyweights were pushed back or shelved indefinitely. Thank God, then, for the streaming services, particularly Hulu, Amazon and Netflix, the latter of which provided a perfect movie for us to see through the key transition into the summer blockbuster season, an explosively flashy big budget action thriller ushered in by MCU alumni the Russo Brothers (who produced and co-wrote this adaptation of Ciudad, a graphic novel that Joe Russo co-created with Ande Parks and Fernando Leon Gonzalez) and barely able to contain the sheer star-power wattage of its lead, Thor himself. Chris Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a former Australian SAS operative who hires out his services to an extraction operation under the command of mercenary Nik Khan (The Patience Stone’s Golshifteh Farahani), brought in to liberate Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal in his first major role), the pre-teen son of incarcerated Indian crime lord Ovi Sr. (Pankaj Tripathi), who has been abducted by Bangladeshi rival Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). The rescue itself goes perfectly, but when the time comes for the hand-off the team is double-crossed and Tyler is left stranded in the middle of Dhaka with no choice but to keep Ovi alive as every corrupt cop and street gang in the city closes in around them. This is the feature debut of Sam Hargrave, the latest stuntman to try his hand at directing, so he certainly knows his way around an action set-piece, and the result is a thoroughly breathless adrenaline rush of a film, bursting at the seams with spectacular fights, gun battles and car chases, dominated by a stunning sustained sequence that plays out in one long shot, guaranteed to leave jaws lying on the floor. Not that there should be any surprise – Hargrave cut his teeth as a stunt coordinator for the Russos on Captain America: Civil War and their Avengers films. That said, he displays strong talent for the quieter disciplines of filmmaking too, delivering quality character development and drawing out consistently noteworthy performances from his cast. Of course, Hemsworth can do the action stuff in his sleep, but there’s a lot more to Tyler than just his muscle, the MCU veteran investing him with real wounded vulnerability and a tragic fatalism which colours every scene, while Jaiswal is exceptional throughout, showing plenty of promise for the future, and there’s strong support from Farahani and Painyuli, as well as Stranger Things’ David Harbour as world-weary retired merc Gaspard, and a particularly impressive, muscular turn from Randeep Hooda (Once Upon a Time in Mumbai) as Saju, a former Para and Ovi’s bodyguard, who’s determined to take possession of the boy himself, even if he has to go through Tyler to get him. This is action cinema that really deserves to be seen on the big screen – I watched it twice in a week and would happily have paid for two trips to the cinema for it if I could have. As we looked down the barrel of a summer season largely devoid of blockbuster fare, I couldn’t recommend this enough. Thank the gods for Netflix …

13. THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 – although it’s definitely a film that really benefitted enormously from releasing on Netflix during the various lockdowns, this was one of the blessed few I actually got to see during one of the UK’s frustratingly rare lulls when cinemas were actually OPEN. Rather perversely it therefore became one of my favourite cinematic experiences of 2020, but then I’m just as much a fan of well-made cerebral films as I am of the big, immersive blockbuster EXPERIENCES, so this probably still would have been a standout in a normal year. Certainly if this was a purely CRITICAL list for the year this probably would have placed high in the Top Ten … Aaron Sorkin is a writer whose work I have ardently admired ever since he went from esteemed playwright to in-demand talent for both the big screen AND the small with A Few Good Men, and TTOTC7 is just another in a long line of consistently impressive, flawlessly written works rife with addictive quickfire dialogue, beautifully observed characters and rewardingly propulsive narrative storytelling (therefore resting comfortably amongst the well-respected likes of The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War, Moneyball and The Social Network). It also marks his second feature as a director (after fascinating and incendiary debut Molly’s Game), and once again he’s gone for true story over fiction, tackling the still controversial subject of the infamous 1968 trial of the “ringleaders” of the infamous riots which marred Chicago’s Diplomatic National Convention five months earlier, in which thousands of hippies and college students protesting the Vietnam War clashed with police. Spurred on by the newly-instated Presidential Administration of Richard Nixon to make some examples, hungry up-and-coming prosecutor Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is confident in his case, while the Seven – who include respected and astute student activist Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and confrontational counterculture firebrands Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Succession’s Jeremy Strong) – are the clear underdogs. They’re a divided bunch (particularly Hayden and Hoffman, who never mince their words about what little regard they hold for each other), and they’re up against the combined might of the U.S. Government, while all they have on their side is pro-bono lawyer and civil rights activist William Kunstler (Mark Rylance), who’s sharp, driven and thoroughly committed to the cause but clearly massively outmatched … not to mention the fact that the judge presiding over the case is Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), a fierce and uncompromising conservative who’s clearly 100% on the Administration’s side, and who might in fact be stark raving mad (he also frequently goes to great lengths to make it clear to all concerned that he is NOT related to Abbie). Much as we’ve come to expect from Sorkin, this is cinema of grand ideals and strong characters, not big spectacle and hard action, and all the better for it – he’s proved time and again that he’s one of the very best creative minds in Hollywood when it comes to intelligent, thought-provoking and engrossing thinking-man’s entertainment, and this is pure par for the course, keeping us glued to the screen from the skilfully-executed whirlwind introductory montage to the powerfully cathartic climax, and every varied and brilliant scene in-between. This is heady stuff, focusing on what’s still an extremely thorny issue made all the more urgently relevant and timely given what was (and still is) going on in American politics at the time, and everyone involved here was clearly fully committed to making the film as palpable, powerful and resonant as possible for the viewer, no matter their nationality or political inclination. Also typical for a Sorkin film, the cast are exceptional, everyone clearly having the wildest time getting their teeth into their finely-drawn characters and that magnificent dialogue – Redmayne and Baron Cohen are compellingly complimentary intellectual antagonists given their radically different approaches and their roles’ polar opposite energies, while Rylance delivers another pitch-perfect, simply ASTOUNDING performance that once again marks him as one of the very best actors of his generation, and there are particularly meaty turns from Strong, Langella, Aquaman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (as besieged Black Panther Bobby Seale) and a potent late appearance from Michael Keaton that sear themselves into the memory long after viewing. Altogether then, this is a phenomenal film which deserves to be seen no matter the format, a thought-provoking and undeniably IMPORTANT masterwork from a master cinematic storyteller that says as much about the world we live in now as the decidedly turbulent times it portrays …

12. GREYHOUND – when the cinemas closed back in March, the fate of many of the major summer blockbusters we’d been looking forward to was thrown into terrible doubt. Some were pushed back to more amenable dates in the autumn or winter (which even then ultimately proved frustratingly ambitious), others knocked back a whole year to fill summer slots for 2021, but more than a few simply dropped off the radar entirely with the terrible words “postponed until further notice” stamped on them, and I lamented them all, this one in particular. It hung in there longer than some, stubbornly holding onto its June release slot for as long as possible, but eventually it gave up the ghost too … but thanks to Apple TV+, not for long, ultimately releasing less than a month later than intended. Thankfully the film itself was worth the fuss, a taut World War II suspense thriller that’s all killer, no filler – set during the infamous Battle of the Atlantic, it portrays the constant life-or-death struggle faced by the Allied warships assigned to escort the transport convoys as they crossed the ocean, defending their charges from German U-boats. Adapted from C.S. Forester’s famous 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by Tom Hanks and directed by Aaron Schneider (Get Low), the narrative focuses on the crew of the escort leader, American destroyer USS Fletcher, codenamed “Greyhound”, and in particular its captain, Commander Ernest Krause (Hanks), a career sailor serving his first command. As they cross “the Pit”, the most dangerous middle stretch of the journey where they spend days without air-cover, they find themselves shadowed by “the Wolf Pack”, a particularly cunning group of German submarines that begin to pick away at the convoy’s stragglers. Faced with daunting odds, a dwindling supply of vital depth-charges and a ruthless, persistent enemy, Krause must make hard choices to bring his ships home safe … jumping into the thick of the action within the first ten minutes and maintaining its tension for the remainder of the trim 90-minute run, this is screen suspense par excellence, a sleek textbook example of how to craft a compelling big screen knuckle-whitener with zero fat and maximum reward, delivering a series of desperate naval scraps packed with hide-and-seek intensity, heart-in-mouth near-misses and fist-in-air cathartic payoffs by the bucket-load. Hanks is subtly magnificent, the calm centre of the narrative storm as a supposed newcomer to this battle arena who could have been BORN for it, bringing to mind his similarly unflappable in Captain Phillips and certainly not suffering by comparison; by and large he’s the focus point, but other crew members make strong (if sometimes quite brief) impressions, particularly Stephen Graham as Krause’s reliably seasoned XO, Lt. Commander Charlie Cole, The Magnificent Seven’s Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Just Mercy’s Rob Morgan, while Elisabeth Shue does a lot with a very small part in brief flashbacks as Krause’s fiancée Evelyn. Relentless, exhilarating and thoroughly unforgettable, this was one of the true action highlights of the summer, and one hell of a war flick. I’m so glad it made the cut for the summer …

11. PROJECT POWER – with Marvel and DC pushing their tent-pole titles back in the face of COVID, the usual superhero antics we’ve come to expect for the summer were pretty thin on the ground in 2020, leading us to find our geeky fan thrills elsewhere. Unfortunately, pickings were frustratingly slim – Korean comic book actioner Gundala was entertaining but workmanlike, while Thor AU Mortal was underwhelming despite strong direction from Troll Hunter’s André Øvredal, and The New Mutants just got shat on by the studio and its distributors and no mistake – thank the Gods, then, for Netflix, once again riding to the rescue with this enjoyably offbeat super-thriller, which takes an intriguing central premise and really runs with it. New designer drug Power has hit the streets of New Orleans, able to give anyone who takes it a superpower for five minutes … the only problem is, until you try it, you don’t know what your own unique talent is – for some, it could mean five minutes of invisibility, or insane levels of super-strength, but other powers can be potentially lethal, the really unlucky buggers just blowing up on the spot. Robin (The Hate U Give’s Dominique Fishback) is a teenage Power-pusher with dreams of becoming a rap star, dealing the pills so she can help her diabetic mum; Frank Shaver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of her customers, a police detective who uses his power of near invulnerability to even the playing field when supercharged crims cause a disturbance. Their lives are turned upside down when Art (Jamie Foxx) arrives in town – he’s a seriously badass ex-soldier determined to hunt down the source of Power by any means necessary, and he’s not above tearing the Big Easy apart to do it. This is a fun, gleefully infectious rollercoaster that doesn’t take itself too seriously, revelling in the anarchic potential of its premise and crafting some suitably OTT effects-driven chaos brought to pleasingly visceral fruition by its skilfully inventive director, Ariel Schulman (Catfish, Nerve, Viral), while Mattson Tomlin (the screenwriter of the DCEU’s oft-delayed, incendiary headline act The Batman) takes the story in some very interesting directions and poses fascinating questions about what Power’s TRULY capable of. Gordon-Levitt and Fishback are both brilliant, the latter particularly impressing in what’s sure to be a major breakthrough role for her, and the friendship their characters share is pretty adorable, while Foxx really is a force to be reckoned with, pretty chill even when he’s in deep shit but fully capable of turning into a bona fide killing machine at the flip of a switch, and there’s strong support from Westworld’s Rodrigo Santoro as Biggie, Power’s delightfully oily kingpin, Courtney B. Vance as Frank’s by-the-book superior, Captain Crane, Amy Landecker as Gardner, the morally bankrupt CIA spook responsible for the drug’s production, and Machine Gun Kelly as Newt, a Power dealer whose pyrotechnic “gift” really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Exciting, inventive, frequently amusing and infectiously likeable, this was some of the most uncomplicated cinematic fun I had all summer. Not bad for something which I’m sure was originally destined to become one of the season’s B-list features …

#onward #onward movie #The Gentlemen #spontaneous #spontaneous movie #hamilton #hamilton movie #sputnik #sputnik movie #The Invisible Man #Extraction #extraction movie #the trial of the chicago 7 #greyhound #greyhound movie #project power #2020 in movies

25 notes · View notes

riddlerosehearts · 4 months

Text

rewatched trolls world tour to clear my mind of the torture that was shark tale lmao. i don't think the trolls movies are the greatest thing out there or anything, but i do thoroughly enjoy them and think they have a lot of charm!! they're just so colorful and fun and sweet, and i really like the unique look of the world where everything sort of looks handcrafted, like it's made from fabric and felt. the scenes in each movie where we see poppy's scrapbook animated are especially neat to see. and personally i like world tour a lot better than the first one, so i'm excited to watch band together for the first time... but, unfortunately, i will need to suffer through antz or flushed away or something before i can do that.

3 notes · View notes

ardent-musings · 3 years

Text

The Girl Who Vanished (Part 1)

Chapter 7: The Diviner’s Accusation

"Bibiana, you've got to put that book down!" Lucian laughed, as he dropped his spoon in order to judge her better and smirk at her.

It had been around a month since she had gotten the book from Snape and despite her honest intentions to use it to prank the twins, she had actually found the book interesting. Sure, she was reading way more than required which even made Calista side-eye her, but she couldn't help it. It was fascinating to learn of all the things their incompetent DADA teacher wasn't teaching. This book was something she wished she could share with the rest of the first years. Merlin knows they could use it.

"Why do I have to put it down? I like reading," she defended herself. Refusing to take her eye off the pages, she reached out for her water goblet only to knock it over in the process. Quickly she lifted the book so it wouldn't get wet and Alex swiped it right out of her hand.

"You brought it to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff match last week, Ana. Enough is enough," Alex complained.

"That game ended with a 250 to 20 score, I'm sorry but halfway through the game it was pretty obvious who was going to win!" Ana countered, holding her hand out for her book.

"You bring it to the loo!"

Ana's eyes were like daggers on Alex, given that the girl had stolen her book, but also because she didn't need the rest of the Slytherin table to know that she did, in fact, bring the book to the bathroom. Ana nearly snarled as she reached out for the book.

"No, you don't deserve it back," Alex put the book underneath her and preceded to sit on it. Calista and Lucian laughed at her, as Ana continued to pout.

"I was just getting to the Accio charm" Ana whined. "I will go over there and snatch that thing from your under your butt!"

"I'd like to watch you try that one out, blondie," Lucian chuckled into his drink.

Maybe they were right. She had been reading that book for weeks, winter break was already approaching. It wasn't like she was neglecting her other classes. Godric, she had even been able to keep up with working with Professor Sprout in the greenhouses all this time. She would just flip through the pages of her book while tending to some of the more mild mannered plants. But still she was getting done what she had to.

"Why did you want that book in the first place," Calista asked her while she was pouring Alex more pumpkin juice when her glass got empty.

"I wanted a book that maybe had more outlandish potions in it; one that I could use to prank the twins," Ana admitted. "But Professor Snape gave me that one instead, and well. You can obviously tell I like it."

All though if she were honest, since she got the book, the thought of pranking the twins had pretty much entirely disappeared from her mind. She found herself more fascinated with the charms and incantations she found as she stayed up until two in the morning, scanning through the pages. Thank god her bed had a canopy to hide her reading or else that the girls would have another thing to make fun of.

"Well it's been weeks since they pranked you last, I'm thinking your window for getting them back has expired. Why bother at this point?"

Ana sat there waiting for either the conversation to end or her getting her book back. Neither seemed to be happening. A brushing of Lucian's arm beside her startled her; he had reached over to her fruit bowl and stabbed a strawberry. He held the fruit out for her and he looked at her like a mother trying to feed their insolent baby. She bit it off but not without rolling her eyes at his overprotective gesture.

"You haven't eaten at all, Ana," Lucian rationalized. "It's been half an hour and I'm not going to let you leave here without eating an actual meal."

"No meal, no book," Calista added while Alex began to shimmy side to side on top of the book for good measure. Alex cheekily winked at Ana, while Lucian held up a fork to her. She took it reluctantly, figuring that they were right. And as if on cue her stomach began to grumble and all of them laughed at the sound.

"Okay, fine," Ana conceded with a giggle as she began placing some food on her plate. Whenever she felt like she had enough, Lucian would serve another scoop and gave her a look that told her she shouldn't complain. And the more she ate the more she realized that maybe her attention had been too involved in the book. Actually talking with her friends and hearing what happened at the Quidditch game she neglected to watch felt made her realize just how distracted she had become. But she was excited to start spending more time with them again.

After she had eaten probably the more food than all of last week, Ana was tiredly rubbing her stomach. She hadn't eaten everything Lucian gave her, but also he gave her enough to feed a troll. He began scraping at the bits left on her plate when she shook her head furiously. She couldn't eat another bite.

"Lucian, cool it. She's gonna explode if you keep force feeding her," Alex joked, while splitting a brownie with Calista, giving the other girl the bigger half.

"Piss off, Lex," he laughed, letting the fork go with a clang.

"How are you feeling now?" Calista began pulling apart her half of the brownie.

They all looked at her with prideful smiles. They had gotten what they wanted at her expense. But Ana couldn't ignore how much better she felt having eaten.

"You know, maybe the twins got bored of me," Ana laughed. "I mean the prank idea seemed good at the time, but they haven't done anything outrageous for weeks!"

"So you're going to return the book?" Alex asked, slipping the book out from under her butt. She held it beside her, flaunting it like a bag of one million galleons.

"I'm not going to return the book," Ana reached for it and Alex whipped her hand back to sit on it again. "But I will cool it with the reading."

Alex looked at Calista for confirmation and the girl nodded. Regretfully, Alex gave her the book which Alex immediately put into her bag. She wanted them to know that she was there with them in the moment. Reading before bed could be her thing instead, she compromised.

The four spent the rest of the meal talking about the upcoming Quidditch match which was going to be between Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Lucian was bouncing with excitement, probably producing enough energy to light up a small town. That was until Derrick pulled him to the side to talk about practice. Calista was telling Alex all about a muggle movie she just had to watch and Ana just enjoyed watching all of them engage in their small conversations.

Her eyes drifted over to the Gryffindor table to see the twins dangling a piece of spaghetti over Lee's head while Angelina started launching meatballs into his mouth. They were laughing and reeling when Lee started swatting the food away., which made Ana smile. They were annoying but she was content knowing that within their circle, they were happy like she was. Maybe their mutual hatred would disappear and they could just exist in the same space together. Ana imagined she could settle with that. George nudged at his brother when he noticed the girl was staring at them. She quickly replaced her smile with a pointed look, not wanting them to know that she was looking at the group admirably. She was a Slytherin after all.

Fred then pulled out a napkin and swiped a quill out of the hand of his brother Percy, who was trying to study beside them. The older boy hardly protested, and George hovered over Fred as the boy began scribbling. His twin was giggling, looking pleased with whatever his brother wrote. With a fold of the paper and a flick of his wand, the piece of paper, rocketed into her lap, nearly hitting Alex in the back of the head.

Given up, Malfoy? Make your move or we'll just have another go.

Gred & Forge

Lucian looked at the note and scoffed, looking up at the twins and playfully beckoning for them to approach him while banging on his chest. The twins laughed in response and Fred winked over at the two of them. Alex grabbed the note and asked her if she was going to prank them back.

"I don't think so," Ana sighed. "To be honest I don't think I care enough to devise a whole plan just for a prank. Sure their reaction would have been priceless, but ignoring their little pranks sounds far less exhausting."

"Good call," Calista beamed at her friend from across the table, popping the last bit of brownie into her mouth.

"Besides, I want to spend more time with everyone before Christmas break!" she admitted. "I guess I didn't realize how much I've been neglecting you guys."

"How very touching," Aeron sniggered as he zoomed past the four of them, not stopping for them to respond to his intrusion. Alex jumped to her feet ready to pounce, until Calista grabbed her by her shoulders and shoved her back down.

"One day he needs a whooping!" Alex shouted, making the three of them burst out laughing. All of them had been thoroughly annoyed with Aeron, and to a degree they all agreed with her. The sound caught the attention of Fred Weasley. The sound of Ana's laugh was something he noticed whenever it popped up. It didn't happen much, so when she laughed with the entirety of her chest, he couldn't help but notice. Maybe one day he could get her to laugh like that.

But as quickly as the sound came, it grew further and further from him as she and the rest of her friends got up and headed out of the Great Hall.

"No, Calista, I don't know what a Walkman is!" Ana giggled as her friend was going on a rampage about some muggle group called Nirvana. From what Ana could tell the songs they sang were all a bit mad. Alex and Lucian kept asking questions about the musical group when a tall, scraggly woman stumbled around a corner and into Ana. Lucian caught the girl before she could slam into the ground, and the woman used Ana to regain her balance.

"Professor Trelawney are you okay?" Lucian asked the frazzled woman, her eyes magnified by the huge lenses that sat on her pointed nose. The woman however did not care for Lucian as she grabbed Ana's shoulders in a bruising grip, and hoisted her up against the wall behind her, smacking the girl's head on the stone.

"Professor!" Lucian bellowed, coming over to Ana's side. The woman's clammy forehead pressed firmly against the Ana's as she bellowed in a demonic tone-

"The child born in fire and smoke, born under the reign of Ganymede will prove to be most helpful when her body returns to the earth!"

The woman was screaming at Ana with only an inch between them and it took all of Ana's energy to not burst into panicked tears. She tried to struggle out of the woman's grip, but the professor's bony fingers dug even deeper into her shoulder, practically splitting the muscle in half. Ana let out a cry of pain but that did nothing to help. The girl's legs had been hauled off the floor by the Professor's talons, resulting in bleeding digs at her skin.

"Coming from many, belonging to none, liar to all, loyal to some. She will cease to exist at the hands of those that lay in her very house. From once she was born, forever the parasite, she will relinquish all she has gained in order to vanquish that who tore her in two."

Ana dropped to the hard floor in a heap, her legs collapsed beneath her once she was released. Her head was spinning and she could hardly breathe. The knot in her stomach and the pounding in her head wasn't just from the roughness of the teacher, but her words made Ana break out in a cold sweat. She was shaking violently, unable to wrap her head around the vitriol the professor spat at her.

Alex and Calista helped her to her feet, noticing the blood on the back of her head and at the base of her neck. The splotch of red completely soaked through the silver of her hair. Her skin had been scratched raw at her shoulders. But Ana couldn't focus. She couldn't focus on being led to the hospital, or when Professor Trelawney came out of her trance in a snap.

But a pair of red heads watched with worried eyes as she stared out into the distance, emotionless and stiff. The only thing the girl could focus on was the blurry lights that clouded her vision and the passing of the school walls until she was placed on a soft surface. As soon as she was laid down everything went black.

The night had passed by in a whirl. She remembered leaving the Great Hall and then being scared half out of her mind by someone with the largest eyes she'd ever seen. Everything was a bit blurry, but the woman's eyes stuck out. That and the deep growling voice that felt like blades across the skin. Or maybe that was just the woman's nails that did a number on her shoulders that really felt like knives.

Ana found that a large bandage had been wrapped around her head and plaster was stuck at the base of her neck when she woke up. Her shoulders ached and the split on her head hurt, but it wasn't the most banged up she'd ever been. She began stretching, trying to loosen the stiffness in her muscles when a glimmer of glass caught her eye and she found a vial next to her bed.

Please don't get injured. It makes delivering your medicine incredibly hard on me. -S.S.

She rolled her eyes at her professor's note; of course he would make it about himself. But she did appreciate that he was able to get it to her, so she drank it without hesitation.

An echo in her head kept replaying the words that the woman said. The pieces were scattered and she knew that she would not be able to make sense of it all on her own. The room was nearly empty except for a sixth year Ravenclaw who she had learned was injured in the Quidditch game she neglected to pay attention to. He had is arm in a sling and his foot was elevated on some sort of a contraption that was connected to the ceiling. She started regretting not seeing that injury take place. It must've been gnarly if that was the aftermath.

A few hours passed and as soon as Madam Pomfrey opened up the doors to visitors, Calista, Alex, and Lucian rammed themselves into the wing. They began to bombard her with questions about her condition and they brought her strawberries and a mountain of baked goods from the Great Hall. Madam Pomfrey hollered at the group for how loud they were at so early in the morning. The Ravenclaw student stirred uncomfortably in his sleep.

Her friends were going back and forth about what could've possessed Trelawney to act that way, juggling between drinking an insanity poison and being cured. They spoke of it so lightly as if they didn't even care about what the teacher said, but her mind was reeling at the memory. Lucian was sitting at a chair to the side while the girls sat at the base of her cot. Ana found that nibbling on her chocolate chip muffin was the best use of her time.

"Hey, Malfoy," Lucian leaned in, crouching himself in half in order to get near her. "You okay?"

The girls stopped talking to pay attention to their friend, Alex took it upon herself to nibble on one of Ana's bagels. Calista smacked the girl's arm, so Alex offered her some.

"I just-" Ana kept picking at the muffin, scraping the crumbs off the wrapper, "I can't help but think about what she said."

"I know! She sounded so angry," Calista agreed softly.

"It's not about how she said it, Cal, okay?" Ana sighed, trying to make sense of her own thoughts so she wouldn't come off the wrong way. "Trelawney said some creepy stuff and I just don't know what to think about it. But you guys are only concerned about how she was acting. Why is no one but me worried about what she said?"

The girls looked at each other nervously and Lucian dragged his stool closer. He looked at her sullenly, letting out a labored sigh as he struggled to find something to say. Ana stared at him in anticipation, eagerly waiting his comment while fearing it at the same time.

"The thing is, we don't want you to worry about what she said. One time she said that a dragon was going to sweep me off my feet. And I don't think I'm going to be fancying a date with a dragon anytime soon," he chuckled lightly, trying to make the situation less heavy. Ana humored him and offered him a soft smile but she knew it wasn't going to be convincing. "I understand why you are upset though. Trelawney didn't say the most cheery things, did she?"

"No, she didn't. Merlin, what did she say? Something about 'being useful when she's dead'? What does that even mean?" Ana slumped in her cot, her feet resting on Alex's lap.

"I don't know how anyone can be useful when they're dead. Because, well, they're dead," Alex wondered.

"Thank you so much for your input, Alex," Ana mocked with a smirk which Alex responded with by sticking out tongue.

The large wooden doors creaked open and a pair of red headed boys walked in silently which was a sight to behold. Those boys were never ever silent, and yet they marched over to her with smirks on their freckled faces. Without a word, they bowed at the hip and George held out a piece of parchment to Ana which she accepted cautiously. As soon as the paper left his hands, they sprang back up and ran out the wing. They didn't even make eye contact with her; they were in and out so fast.

Ana started giggling as soon as they left the hospital wing, and she stared at the tiny piece of paper in her hand.

Considering your condition, we'll call this a cease fire. You have the holiday break to relax. But once we're back in January, it's game on.

Gred & Forge

"They are sparing me until next year," Ana laughed as she passed the parchment to Calista, who chuckled and passed it to Alex.

"They don't know that you've given up on pranking them do they?" Lucian asked her, laying his elbows on her cot. Thankfully, she was sitting crisscross or else there would be no room for her to be on her own bed. Ana shook her head at the boy and he smiled widely. "Well enjoy your month and a half of peace because that's the most you're going to get."

Ana hated it, but he was right. She grimaced at the thought and laid her head back, accidently smacking her sore head on the iron rail of the cot. Lucian jumped at her smack, looking at her with a pitiful smile as she rubbed the sore spot. Winter break couldn't come fast enough.

#fred weasley #fred weasley smut #fred weasley fanfic #fred weasley x oc #bibiana malfoy #the girl who vanished #tgwv #tgwv 1-7 #enemies to friends to lovers

2 notes · View notes

cilldaracailin · 4 years

Text

Now I’m Here

Hello my Tumblr Lovelys! And once more I am back with the start of another story in the Robyn and Taron series. Thank you for all the love, supports, comments and wonderfully positive response to Robyn and Taron. It honestly makes my heart swell with such love and makes me write and write and write some more! Hope you all enjoy the new story :)

“Saying 'I'm sorry' is saying 'I love you' with a wounded heart in one hand and your smothered pride in the other.”

If Taron thought Robyn flying to New York to confront him about his behaviour and call him out in front of the crew as he filmed for the new Kingsman movie was soul destroying, it was nothing to compared to what his mother had said to him when she had found out what happened and what he did. As humiliated as he had been by his actions as Robyn bought him to task over them, Tina has been utterly ashamed of him and made him feel like he was a little boy again as she chastised him for a full half an hour on the phone. He hadn’t been able to get a word in to explain to his mam that he and Robyn had talked through everything in person and once again on the phone as he rang her the next day, the two also speaking in a very civil manner, each taking their turns to explain how they were feeling, getting everything out in the air.

“You get on that phone to her Taron and you apologise once more.”

“Mam we have already…”

“I don’t care Taron. I couldn’t care if you have apologised to her twenty times, you will do it again. I raised you with respect and manners and you will not treat someone like that ever again. Robyn, of all people Taron. The woman who has done more for you than anyone else in this world and who had been nothing but a wonderful support for you and for you to just treat her so atrociously. I swear Taron, if you were near me, I would actually shake the stupid out of you. I am so mad at you.”

“I know mam.” Taron cringed as he took another verbal beating from a woman he loved.

“You have better think of every possible way to grovel to her.”

“I will mam.”

“And I need her address so I can send her some flowers to apologise for you on my behalf and you had better refund her the money for her flights.”

“I tried, but she wouldn’t let me and I have already sent the flowers mam.”

“Well do it again and again Taron because what you did is something that will take more than one simple bunch of flowers.”

Getting the speech from his mam in person was so much worse than on the phone and when he arrived home for Christmas, Tina actually clipped him across the back of the head, refusing to look at him for the first day he was home until she had calmed down, Taron taking refuge with his sisters for the day, the three of them sitting down to watch some Christmas movie’s together.

“And you are sure you got her work all sorted Taron.” Tina asked him the day before New Year’s Eve when she could finally sit and properly talk with him about his filming and his time so far in New York, now that most of the Christmas excitement had died down, but of course she couldn’t steer away from the subject of how he had treated Robyn.

“It was on the day she flew home mam. I got the email sent to her so she could send it out to the parents of the children in her creche, and it calmed everything down.”

“Do you realise how lucky you are Taron? She could have just walked away from you. She didn’t need to fly to New York to sort you out.”

“I know.” He replied quietly looking into his cup of tea that had gone cold. He never had the chance to drink it as his mam drilled him at the dining room table with more questions followed by another lecture.

“Never let that woman walk away from you, you understand me?”

“I do mam.”

“And you supposedly love her.”

Taron groaned, running his hands over his face. “Mam please don’t.”

“She is almost too good for you Taron.”

“Oh, I know that alright.”

Tina sighed and reached over to take his hand in hers. He could see the regret in his face and his eyes were a little watery. “What time is she getting here.”

“Tomorrow around twelve.”

“You promise me Taron Egerton, that you treat her like a princess the whole time she is with you, you hear me? Robyn asks you to jump and you answer with how high and the same when you go back to Ireland with her.”

“I will mam. I promise.”

Tina wrapped her arms around her son, giving him a long hug. “I know you love her Taron but there is only so much a woman can take, even someone as special to you as Robyn. You step out of line again and she will walk without question.”

Taron hugged his mam hard, appreciating how she rubbed his back. “I know mam.”

“You have no idea how lucky you are Taron.”

“Robyn is my lucky Irish charm.” Leaning into his mam, Taron closed his eyes, enjoying the comfort she gave to him. “I know how lucky I am.”

He had breathed such a sigh of relief when the newspaper had retracted the article two days after it was printed, apologising to him and Robyn for the printing it and was even more thankful that nothing at all had been seen on any media platform that Robyn had come to see him in New York, nobody knowing she had been there except the crew. He had been so appreciative to Lyndsey for everything she had done for him and how hard she had worked to make his mess right. It had been a hard couple of hours for him after Robyn left New York and he quickly worked with Lyndsey to get the letter composed for her for her work. He had phoned Robyn to tell her and it was a quick call as she was only off a plane and on her way to work but he had promised to call her once her shift ended.

That phone call, which became a skype call, although had ended on a cheery note, had been incredible hard for the two of them as they hashed out every disagreement and annoyance they had with one another, knowing that if they did not clear the air immediately, they would never get back to the way they were with each other. After three hours of hard-hitting conversation, tears and emotional admittance, Taron only realised more how unfair he had been with Robyn and his accusations, finally fully understanding how she was really feeling about the media and fans opinions of her and it hurt him when she was truly honest with him. His strong Robyn, suddenly became insecure about those trolls online and he was so broken inside with how she had been hiding how the comments really made her feel, realising that her reactions when he called her were to protect him so he wouldn’t be feeling so upset about the whole thing. Once they had talked and talked and talked some more, the air was well and truly clear between them and they had agreed to keep their compromise they made on the beach weeks before as well as being completely honest and open with each other, both agreeing that their friendship meant way too much to each other to give up on so easily.

Taron had found it difficult to sleep for a few nights after the phone call, his dreams haunted with scenes of him arriving at Robyn’ house begging her to forgive him but she slammed the door in his face and each night he woke in a cold sweat, his heart hammering hard in his chest but they settled down a week later when he asked Robyn a question during a happier phone call.

“So, do you have any plans for New Year’s Eve?”

“Ugh I hate New Year’s Eve Taron. I normally just order some take out, watch the count down in my pj’s and then go to bed.”

“Would you like to come to Aber and ring in the new year with me?”

He giggled like a school girl when she accepted his invite and even more so when she proposed one of her own.

“You want to fly back with me and go to a hurling game in Dublin?”

With the way the holidays fell, Robyn didn’t have to be back in work until the sixth of January and Taron didn’t fly back to New York until the tenth so between them they made a plan where each would visit the other in their respective homes and spend some time together and Taron was very much looking forward to it. With their rocky few days long past them, he was excited to just see Robyn and take out her for a few drinks with his friends, putting their best foot forward, hoping to get a few proper cuddles in too.

On the morning of the thirty-first of December, Taron was walking around like it was Christmas morning all over again. He had a wonderful few days at home and once his mam stopped looking at him like she wanted to murder him, the atmosphere at home was so light and happy and he was thoroughly enjoying his time off. Once the air was cleared with Robyn, and even though he hadn’t been sleeping great initially, he was back on his game at work and Matthew was thrilled with the progress the movie was making, delighted with how much they had filmed and how they were ahead of schedule once they wrapped up for Christmas break. Taron hadn’t planned anything at all for Robyn’s visit, except their night out with his friends and was just going to let the day plan itself. The only thing he was under orders to do was bring Robyn to his childhood home for a visit, his sisters stupidly excited to see her again but he had already explained to them, that their visit was going to be short with no sleep over. Taron selfishly wanted Robyn completely to himself at his home before they flew to hers after New Year’s Day.

Fluffing the pillows on his couch, he walked over to the Christmas tree to fix lights that were perfectly fine. He knew Robyn was due to arrive at his any minute and he was a belly of nerves and excitement. He bent down to adjust the present under the tree he had for her, fluffing the glitter bow out. He had asked if she wanted him to meet her at the train station but she had politely said no, deciding it was best if she arrived to his home by herself. He knew she was worried about being photographed together so was happy to let her get to him how she wanted. When it came down to it, he just wanted her there with him.

He needed these few days to run perfectly. He felt like he had so much to make up to her and prove to her and he wanted to see her smiling and hear her laughing with only tears of joy rolling down her face. Deep inside guilt still manifested for what he had done and he knew they were past it, and well past it as they had so many phone calls and laughs since but it still put him a little on edge and he needed to make sure Robyn felt at home and safe with him.

His head turned as the doorbell rang and he walked over to his front door, butterflies twirling in circles in his stomach. He opened the door and grinned widely when he saw her wrapped up in turquoise duffle coat, ocean blue scarf and hat to match.

“Hello chicken!” Taron’s smile immediately fell from his face when he realised what he said. It just came naturally to him to use her nickname but it had been the first time since New York that he had called her chicken and he didn’t know if he should and if he had already messed their few days together up. “Ahh shit Robyn, I mean, hi. I mean hello, I mean... Jesus Christ Taron…”

Robyn grinned and letting go of her case stepped forward and wrapped him up in a hug. “Hey rocketman. It is good to see you.” She gave his cheek a kiss. “And you can call me chicken.” Robyn enjoyed how Taron gave her a little tight squeeze before letting her go.

“Hey chicken.” He repeated, a wonderfully cute smile on his face. “Come on in. It is cold out there.” He stepped back and let her walk into his home, taking her case from her hands, thankful to see it was just a small case. “So, I guess hypnotherapy hasn’t work for cwtch then? He definitely can’t fit in here. Small case this time.”

Robyn smiled as she pulled off her hat and scarf. “You know, he just can’t be hypnotised no matter how many sessions he has.”

Taron laughed. “Rosie and Mari do not let their dinosaurs out of their sight and were really hoping cwtch was coming.”

“Like I told you last time. I bring cwtch here, I will never get him back and I need cuddles from cwtch every now and again.” Robyn rid herself of her coat and threw it over the back of Taron’s couch. “I like your tree. It’s pretty.” She walked over to his Christmas tree in corner beside the television.

“With extra lights too.” He said as he followed her.

“Love me some fairy lights.”

Taron grinned. “I know. So how was the flight?”

“Yeah it was good.” She turned to look at him, “You look tired. Why do you always look tired when I see you?”

A wide smile filled his lips. “Well I didn’t see my bed until very late Christmas Eve as you know and then I was up early with the girls and still haven’t recovered those hours of sleep and probably still trying to catch up on hours lost during filming too.”

Robyn reached up and gently traced the dark circles under his eyes. “You are back filming in a week. You need to rest and sleep. I suggest a nap before whatever antics you have planned for the evening.”

Taron inwardly groaned happily at the thought of taking a nap but shook his head. “I am not going to spend my time with you sleeping. I want to be able to enjoy your company. Watch some Christmas moves. Take a stroll on the beach.”

“Hmm a stroll on the beach?” She laughed when he winked at her. “Good thing I brought my bikini, isn’t it!” Turing away from him, she picked up her coat, hat, scarf and case. “I am going to go and put this stuff in the guest room. Why don’t you get us set up with a movie?”

She didn’t wait for an answer and made her way down the hall towards Taron’s guest room. She couldn’t help the smile that was fixed on her lips. She had been incredibly nervous coming to see Taron and it felt like it had been months since had seen him rather than weeks but once he opened the door and she was met with a smile, her nerves disappeared with the cold winter breeze that whirled past her outside. Leaving Taron in New York, with things somewhat unsaid and their conversation half-finished was hard for her as she was always one to see things through but their long and emotional skype call the next evening had definitely helped her talk through the truth of her feelings and Taron had finally been a wonderful confident and support to her and it healed some of her broken heart for him to actually listen to her properly. It also helped that Tina had been on the phone to her too, telling her that she had absolutely scolded Taron for his behaviour and apologised for her son. The many bunches of flowers with the thoughtful notes had made her smile as well, the ones that appeared at her work and home.

Taron had also completely kept his promise of getting Lyndsey’s help to sort her issue with the parents and once the email was circulated, Robyn could finally breathe easy in work and not be afraid to face the parents, most of them apologising to her for their rash words and when Taron’s publicist had assured her that nothing appeared in the media about her quick visit to New York, Robyn could finally sleep better at night.

His invite to come and spend New Year’s Eve with him was one she gladly accepted, happy to spend it somewhere else then her couch and she knew he was a little hesitant as he asked her, worried she was going to say no and but she countered his invite with one her own, glad she was able to do something for him too, getting two tickets for the hurling game she had asked him too. She knew their few days together were going to be a good time of proper healing for them.

She just had to remember not to let slip how much trouble she was in when Emma found out that her sick day wasn’t actually a sick day and the office door was closed for a while as Emma lectured her on the importance of her job and how she could not just swan off when she felt like it, no matter how pissed she was with Taron. Robyn had to make sure that any time she spent with Taron now had to be at the weekends or through a properly booked holiday day. Robyn knew Taron still held a lot of guilt about what had happened and as far as she was concerned the whole thing was sorted and didn’t want to tarnish his good mood by telling him just how much of a warning she had gotten for lying to her boss and going to see him.

“Hey you. What are you doing? I have a movie all set to go.” Taron sauntered into the room and sat on the bed.

“Just thinking.”

Taron looked at her. “About?”

“Stuff.” She didn’t like how his smile turned a little. “Just how glad I am here with you. We needed this.” She sat beside him on the bed and patted his knee. “I needed this. I can’t remember the last time I went out for New Year’s Eve.”

“Did I mention that it was a karaoke night?” Taron waited for the laugh and sure enough it came.

“Did you just walk yourself into our deal on purpose? And in front of your friends?”

“I thought you would get a kick out of it and you are not guaranteed to win. They are my friends.”

Robyn grinned. “Oh Taron, I don’t think I have ever looked forward to a night out as much as this one before. Just let me grab something from my case and we can go and chill out. What did you pick to watch?” Robyn stood up and lifted her case to the bed.

“A Muppets Christmas Carol.”

She smiled. “Such a good movie. I had it on tape as a kid and used to rewind and forward it to write down the words of the songs so I could learn them and sing them. There was no internet back then.” She explained when she saw his confused look. “Anyway, once I got it on DVD, I was so pissed that they got rid of the one of the songs.”

“They did? Which one.”

“The Love Is Gone. The one that Scrooges girlfriend sings on the bridge. It is not on the DVD. It was one of my favourites.” She turned away from him and opened her case.

“You don’t want to watch it now do you.”

“Of course I do. I still love that movie. ‘Light the lamp not the rat!’” She quoted. “Muppet Treasure Island is another of my favourites.”

Taron smiled and chuckled. “I have that one too.”

“The Great Muppet Caper is the best. Such a classic.”

“I do not have that one.”

“I have it on video. Never got the DVD version.” Finally pulling what she was looking for out of the case, she turned to Taron. “I am old school with my videos. Not that I can play any of them. So ready for a movie and chill out.”

“Yes please.” Taron stood up and tried to take a look to what Robyn was holding but she was hiding it behind her back. “What you got there?”

“Your Christmas present.” She replied. “Christmas present.” She repeated making sure she over pronounced on the word ‘Christmas’.

“Yours is under the tree.”

Robyn grinned. “Wanna do that first?”

With an agreement to exchange presents before they got comfortable on the couch for a few hours, they walked back to his sitting room, Robyn sitting down while Taron took her gift from under the Christmas tree. He sat down right beside her a beautiful giddy smile on his face.

“So, who goes first.” He asked.

“Rock, paper, scissors it?” She asked returning his grin.

After Taron lost the first game, he insisted they play two out of three and groaned when Robyn won again. “Definitely have the luck of the Irish on your side.”

She giggled and turned to sit crossed legged beside him, her knees touching his left hip and thigh. “I have something for you first though.”

Taron threw his hands up in the air. “What was the point of the game if you were going to go first anyway?”

Robyn felt so happy as she watched him protest and even more so that she had accepted his invite. It was so nice to be back in his company and hear him laugh and see him smile, even if his smile made the tiredness on his face more obvious. “It’s mainly for you but I get use from it too.” She handed him the gift wrapped in the bright Christmas paper.

“Do you know how many unmentionable thoughts are running through my head now Robyn?” He said as he took the present.

“Care to share some with me?” She winked, adoring how a flush filled his cheeks so easily.

Instead of answering, he concentrated on opening the present Robyn had given him, pulling the wrapping off. “Cookies!” He exclaimed excitedly.

“Not just any cookies. Kilcreen’s second place white chocolate chip cookies.”

Taron had already pulled the cling film from the baked goods and pulled one out taking a bite as Robyn spoke. “Oh my God, I forgot how good these taste.” He said through his chewing. He closed his eyes and lay his head back on the couch. “Hmm yum.” He ripped another bite off with his teeth, the sweet cookie melting in his mouth. “Want some?” He asked handing her the one he was eating. His stomach dropped and he knew his cheeks blushed red as Robyn dipped her head and took a bite from the cookie he was holding in his hand. Inside he was feeling so blessed that his loving playful Robyn was back with him but her teasing actions were only increasing his fizzing feelings. Watching as she brushed crumbs from her lips, Taron ate another bite trying to keep his breathing even. It was as if their time in New York had never happened and they had just picked up with each other from when she had been in his home the last time. “You made me cookies.” He smiled breaking the last bite in two and handing her half.

“Freshly baked last night. I knew you would appreciate them.”

“So good. Thank you. You know I like your baking.”

“Yes I do.”

“Now your turn.” Taron brushed the crumbs from his hands and shirt, sweeping his hands down his thighs too. He then reached to his right and picked up the present he had for Robyn. It was wrapped in Christmas tree style of Christmas wrapping, a large gold litter bow tied the whole way around. “Merry Christmas chicken.” He said handing it over her.

“This is huge.” Commented Robyn as she took the present from him. It wasn’t any particular shape but felt squishy under her hands. “Hey did cwtch come here and you wrapped him up to give him back to me?”

Taron laughed and turned a little, moving so he sat on his left leg and could face Robyn. “I tried to convince him to come but he was having none of it.”

“It is my throw?”

“No that is in New York.”

Robyn looked over the gift to look at him. “You left the throw in New York?”

“Well yeah. I still have a month of filming to get through so left it in the apartment for when I am back.”

“No wonder you look knackered. You don’t have your throw to help you sleep.”

“No but now I have you.” The words were said before he could stop himself and he took a shaky breath, holding it a little while he waited for Robyn’s reply.

“I am sure I can find a way to help you sleep.”

Taron was so glad that Robyn went to open the present because his whole body froze for a good five seconds before he was able to breathe and move again after her comment. He had no idea what was going on but since Robyn was back in his flat, every word and movement she said and made sent a current of electricity bubbling through him and his whole face felt on fire with the blush he knew was there. He had felt these feelings many times before, their spark as they had named it but never with such ferocity before. Looking down to his hands, he saw the glitter ribbon on top of them.

“You and your fucking glitter Taron.” She growled at him before she returned to the wrapping paper, opening the sellotape and then tearing the paper off. “Taron you didn’t.” Her voice pulled him from his thoughts and he looked to her, enjoying the look of disbelief on her face. “How did… Where did you… Taron.”

Her babbling made him smile. “Well I can’t tell you that, now can I?”

“Taron.” Robyn looked to the pastel rainbow coloured Care Bear in her hands, the one she had told him about when he was at her home and had routed out all of her bears from under her bed. While he had taken to cwtch, she explained how annoyed and devastated she was that the shop wouldn’t sell her the Care Bear she had wanted to buy to add to her collection and once again he had shocked her with how he listened to her, actually finding the bear she never could. “It’s a True Heart Bear.”

“It’s the True Heart Bear.” Taron placed his hand on the bears head. “It is the one you had wanted but Tesco wouldn’t sell to you right?”

Her sudden hug, made a puff of air leave his lungs, the bear was squished very uncomfortably between them but he still chuckled as she wrapped her arms around him tightly, placing lots of kisses on his right cheek over and over again, his chuckles turning to giggles. “Robyn! Robyn!” He laughed, grinning her way as she moved away from him and taking the bear with her. “I guess you like your present.”

“You got me the bear.” Robyn looked at the cuddly Care Bear in her hands and then to Taron who had the most sweetest smile on his face, his dimples on show, his eyes bright. “Thank you Taron. Thank you so much. This is amazing. I can’t believe you found it.” She ran her fingers over the colourful star on the bears stomach and then over its rainbow fur. “Thank you.” She repeated. “Cwtch is going to have to find a new place to sit.”

“Don’t you dare move cwtch from his spot. I am glad I am going back to your home with you to make sure that doesn’t happen. Poor cwtch.”

“Well then this bear can go on my bed.”

“That is a much better idea.” Agreed Taron. “Can I have the bear for a second.”

“Sure.” Robyn handed the plush over and watched on amused and confused as Taron gave the bear a big squeeze, right up against his neck, rubbing the bear against his skin before he handed it back to Robyn. “You know I like your bed and now the bear smells like me so you won’t feel the need to take cwtch from his spot in my corner and can keep this bear with you on your bed. It will be like I am there with you.”

Robyn had to laugh to hide cough that caught in her throat and hoped the hug she gave the bear didn’t show how she quickly inhaled its fur, taking in the scent Taron had just transferred to her present. “It would be easier just to give me a bottle of your aftershave.” She returned, her face still buried in the bear.

“I will look into that for your birthday.”

She looked up from the bear. “Spoiler alert on the birthday present.” Still with one arm wrapped around the bear, she reached out to take Taron’s hand. “Thank you so much for this Taron. I don’t know how you got one but thank you. It’s perfect and I love it.”

“You are very welcome.”

With the bear sitting on her lap, she pulled out another present from behind her. “This is for you. Merry Christmas.”

Taron reached over and took the gift wrapped in another ream of brightly coloured Christmas paper. “But you gave me cookies.”

“The cookies were mainly for you but for me too. This is your actual present.”

He looked down to the rectangular gift in his hands that had the shape of a small book and finding a fold of paper, ripped the wrapping off quickly. Inside was a small spiralled notebook with different shades of blue stars on the front. Taped to the front of the book in calligraphy style writing where the words ‘Taron’s Voucher Book’.

“Robyn?”

“When you open it, it will make sense.”

Doing as was suggested, Taron opened the front cover of the book and inside was a message. ‘One voucher to be used when the bearer wishes it. One voucher per transaction.’ Taron was still very confused but turned the next page and sudden realisation hit him as he read the words on the page. ‘One baking lesson of your choice.’

“You figured it out yet?” Asked Robyn grinning as she took in the faces he made as his features changed from confusion to understanding to a cheeky grin.

“Yeah I got it.” The next five pages read ‘One head massage’. The next five ‘One face massage’. “This is the massage section I take it.” He asked raising an eyebrow. ‘One shoulder massage’ covered the next five pages. “A back massage? Seriously?” He said with a little doubt in his voice when the next few pages said ‘One back massage’.

“You like my head massages. Why not up the antsy a little bit and you already have had a mini back massage from me.”

“True.” Taron turned the back massage pages over. ‘Run a bath’. “This one will have to wait until I am back at yours.” He turned the page and Robyn enjoyed the shit eating grin that filled his face “‘Wear matching outfits’. Ohh Stella is going to love this one.”

“You only get one of those.”

“Yeah I saw but I like this one better I think. ‘Wear an outfit of my choosing’. You might regret that one.”

Robyn cringed a little. “I knew I shouldn’t have put that one in.”

“‘Go to premier with me’. Really? You would do that? Even after you were so insistent on not going ever?”

“You give me the voucher, I will go with you.”

Taron flicked through the remainder of the book, grinning at some of the ones Robyn had put in, simple little ones like ‘Do a face mask together’, ‘Sing Johnny Gorilla’, ‘Free piano lesson’, ‘Free guitar lesson’, ‘Go to the movies.’, ‘Time for a Robyn cuddle’. “Robyn this is amazing. I love this idea so much.”

“I knew you would get a kick out of it but have you read the terms and conditions on the back?”

Looking a little worried, Taron flipped the notebook over. “All vouchers must be used by Taron Egerton and with Robyn Quinn and once pulled from the book a voucher cannot be replaced or re-written. There is no expiry date required for the book and can be used at Taron Egerton’s own time and choosing though for the premier, Taron Egerton must make sure Robyn Quinn has enough notice to ensure time off work if needed.” He smiled and flicked through the book, stopping when he read through the pages with the massages. “Robyn…”

“Yes,”

“When I use all of these massage pages, does that mean no more head scratches ever?”

“Did you read the fine print under the terms and conditions?”

He flicked to the back of the book again and squinting, read the small writing under the terms and conditions. “There will never be a limit to the head massages even if all the vouchers have been used.”

She enjoyed how his face lit up. “There will always be head massages Taron. I like giving them to you.”

“Thank you so much for this Robyn. It is so special and I like how they are things for me and you do to together. It means we will have to see more of each other.”

“It means we will always see each other as often as we can. I know sometimes your life can be hectic and stressful and I wanted to give you something that you can use whenever you want when you need just a second to breathe and chill out and relax without asking for it. Just tear out what you need and we will do it, together.” He moved towards her and stretched closer her way and she accepted his hug, rubbing his back. “You don’t need to use any this weekend Taron. Save them for when you really desperately need them and some of them are for me too.”

“Like singing Johnny.” He asked into her neck.

“Yes. Love a bit of Johnny Gorilla.”

“I can sing Elton out of my arse you always go for the bloody gorilla.”

Robyn laughed against him. “He’s just a sweetheart. Like you.”

Taron moved back to his place and looked at the book in his hands. It was something so thoughtful and different, the gift meaning he got to spend more time with Robyn giving him such wonderful treats when he needed them the most. “You will really go to a premier with me? In something I choose for you to wear?”

“If you pull the vouchers out? Yes of course.”

“Even if it is a black sack?” He asked with a glint in his eyes.

“You think Stella is going to put me in a black sack?”

“No probably not. Robyn this is just so thoughtful. Thank you so much and I really mean that. Thank you.”

“You are more than welcome. Thanks for my bear.”

“I have a feeling I should have waited until Sunday before I gave you that bear. It is going to take all of your attention.”

Robyn chuckled. “I am going to go and put it on the bed in the guest room. I will be back.”

Taron watched as Robyn stood up and walked around the couch and down the hallway to the bedrooms. He then looked back to the book in his hands. Robyn’s presents always had such careful thought and love behind them and were so personal. He flicked through the book, stopping when the page read ‘One back massage’. He always melted into her hands when they were on his head, he couldn’t imagine how wonderful her hands on his back would feel and closing his eyes he wondered when he would ever get the chance to use one of those vouchers, then smiling because he knew that was exactly why Robyn had added them in. It would have to be a very special occasion, weekend or few days like the ones they had now to get to use the more complicated vouchers like a back massage but he knew he was going to make use of them all.

“Right the bear is all tucked up in bed.” She sat back down on couch beside him. “Ready to watch the movie?”

“Sure.” He reached over and carefully placed his voucher book the coffee table. “We are meeting my mates around seven in the pub if that is ok? The karaoke starts at eight and there will be finger food going around too.”

“That sounds perfect.”

“We are going to have to go and see my family before we actually head to the pub though.”

“That is fine Taron. You know I adore your family.”

“So, I was thinking, if we get to my parents for six? It will give us enough time for a quick chat before we can leave.”

“Not cutting it close with an hour there Taron?”

“I have already explained to Mari and Rosie that it will be a quick visit and we will be back tomorrow. You really shouldn’t have pulled out all the stops with your visit the last time. They are expecting unicorns and mermaids this time.”

Robyn laughed as she sat close to him on the couch. “I will put my thinking cap on for the next time I come and visit but that sounds fine Taron. It’s just gone one now. It gives us some quality Christmas movie time before we have to move to get ready.”

“I like the sound of that. I am ready to just sit and chill.”

“Even though it is your break, it has still been busy for you hasn’t it?” Robyn looked to his face again, seeing the weariness in his eyes even though they were happy and bright.

Taron nodded. “Normally the way.”

“Am I being used as your escape goat?” She asked.

“Honestly? A little bit.” Taron hoped she wasn’t going to take his admittance the wrong way. “I just need a few hours sitting and doing nothing.”

“I am happy to help you with you that Taron. Why don’t you lay down and take a nap? I have a feeling tonight is going to be all kinds of hectic fun. You might as well get some rest before hand.”

“But I want to watch the Christmas movie with you.” He answered a little sadly.

“I didn’t mean for you to go to your bed. I meant here. Lay down here on the couch.”

“Really? You wouldn’t mind?”

“Why would I mind?” She questioned.

Taron hesitated with his answer and Robyn tilted her head a little before she finally understood why his little gestures of affection he was always so free with had been a little uncertain and timid. He was being extra careful with his movements because of what happened in New York even though as far as she was concerned that was behind them.

“Come here you tosspot.” Moving up so she sat right at the left side of the couch, she wrapped her right arm around his shoulders and gently pulled on him so he got the message to lay down on her lap, kicking his legs up tucking them into his chest a little, moving until he was comfortable. “Do you want a cushion for your head?” She asked him.

“No I am good.”

“You sure.”

“Perfect.” He answered. “Just perfect.” He reached out for the DVD controller and got the movie playing. Then the folded his arms into his chest, one hand resting flat on Robyn’s leg just beside his face. “Perfect.” He whispered again.

“You are not even going to make it past the opening song.” She whispered to him, watching as his whole body relaxed into the couch and her.

“Hmm.” He replied sleepily.

“And I haven’t even touched your head yet.”

“I am tired.”

“I know. I have been telling you that since I arrived. Why do you only have a decent sleep when I am around?” She asked him.

“Irish lucky chicken.” He answered her, his voice a soft coo.

“Sleep. I will wake you when we have to get ready.”

Taron never thought he would ever get near to feeling this close to Robyn after New York but here he was being held in her arms without question or fuss and a relieved happy tear rolled down his cheek. An appreciative moan left his lips when her hand slipped into his hair, her fingertips immediately scratching his scalp so satisfyingly.

“Your hair has grown.” She said to him brushing the strands through her fingers.

“It’s for Eggsy.” He replied.

“I like it like this. Easier to rake through and play with.”

Taron grinned, his eyes closing as Robyn made light circles on his head. “No voucher needed for this right?”

“No voucher needed.” She confirmed. “Now sleep.”

“Ok.”

His one-word answer made her chuckle a little and he raised his head to meet her hand when she dragged her fingers through his hair, enjoying the shivers it sent down his spine. His head settled again, snuggling into her lap and as he felt his breathing deepen and slow down, he knew he would be asleep in seconds. It was pure heaven and without a doubt he was certain that his Robyn was back and just as loving and comforting as she had always been for him.

The opening song on the screen had just finished and Robyn knew Taron was already sleeping. She had seen him sleep enough over the past few months to see the signs on his body. The deep rise and fall of his chest and shoulders, his completely relaxed body position and he head wasn’t leaning into her hand any more. She found it so hard to believe that it was only over three weeks ago that this man in her arms had caused her nothing but an agonising pain that cut her to the core but now as she gently manipulated her hand through his hair, she felt nothing but love from him and for him. As soon as he greeted her at the door and called her chicken her whole body softened to his voice and once he smiled her way, she was a goner. There was just something about Taron that had an effect on her like no other and her heart skipped beats, her words became flirty before she realised she had said them and his hugs were so wonderfully comforting and warm. It was going to be a very interesting evening with him and she was looking forward to every minute of it.

#Taron Egerton #Taron Egerton Fanfiction #Taron Egerton Fanfic #Taron Fanfic #Reunion #Love #Friendship #Christmas #Presents #Kindness #Thoughtfulness #Plans #Cuddles #Hugs #Naps #Robyn and Taron #Excitment

6 notes · View notes