#Jim does NOT let them live this down and Strickler knows this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

albentelisa · 8 months

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Hi! So what do you think would happen if Jlaire switched roles? And by that, I mean, what if Jim was born as Ophelia and Javier son while Claire was born as Barabra daughter? Their personality can be the same as canon, though.

Oh, I adore what if asks! It gives a lot of thought.

Let's start with Jim. I feel he'll be closer to Javier, who will be more lenient when it comes to breaking rules. Ophelia is a strict and demanding mother, not to mention a workaholic, however, I believe that Jim will be taking care of her lunches much like he does for Barbara. However, unlike the canon, Jim won't be the only one responsible for chores and cooking in this kind of AU. I feel they will split the responsibilities with Javier 50/50. I also feel that Jim will 100 % percent baking cookies for Ophelia's charity events (and he'll enjoy that, unlike some other activities!)

I feel that Jim will be a responsible brother to Enrique and will be as devastated as Claire in canon when his brother is kidnapped.

Jim will still like Vespas, but even though his family will be able to afford it, Ophelia will be against it as 'it is dangerous and will create a negative image'. Javier will try to convince her though.

Unlike Claire, Jim isn't a fast learner, but with enough effort, he can keep up with all his studies while getting good marks. He isn't as busy with chores here and unlike Claire, he has no theatre to care about, so... We all know that it won't last forever, though.

Obviously, we won't get bad!Spanish Jim here, but imagine this - Jim switching to Español each time he's over-emotional (nervous, scared, or angry).

And unfortunately, Jim will have no reason to see Strickler as a father figure. He will still respect him a lot and Walter will be his favorite teacher though.

And now to Claire. She'll obviously have a wonderful relationship with Barbara and absolutely despise her absent father. She'll get way more freedom here as Barbara will never limit her daughter when it comes to hobbies or fashion preferences.

Claire doesn't seem like a cooking person. She won't be as bad in it as Barbara, but still way below to be called a good cook. Those two will survive on takeaways (well, at least until Jim and Strickler interfere).

Claire will try to make things easier for Barbara, but she'll pick a different approach. That will be good studies (to be able to get a grant in college) and picking up some part-time jobs (one of which will be babysitting Enrique).

Claire is still a true theatre lover, but she's free to participate.

And here Claire is the one who's closer to Strickler. Not to the same extent as canon Jim as I feel it takes more time for her to open to people (and somehow I can imagine in this specific AU Claire might have some bad experience with one of past Barbara's boyfriends, not to mention her absentee dad, so she is suspicious towards any adult man at the start.) Still she likes Strickler enough to root for her mom dating him and thinking he could be a good father for her (well, until the reveal).

So what about Toby then? In this AU, he is living next door to Claire, so he's best friends with her since kindergarten. However, in elementary Toby also befriends Jim, quickly becoming best friends with him too. Jim and Claire meet through Toby here, and by the beginning of the canon events, those three have been best friends for some years.

Mary and Darci? Claire befriends them after joining the school theatre. At the beginning of the canon events, those two groups of Claire's friends are rather awkward with each other, but later they become way closer.

Jlaire will have a bit different dynamics here. Jim has had a crush on Claire since the very first meeting but has no courage to confess (because if she turns him down, it'll be really awkward in their friend group, and Jim also cherishes Claire as a friend). On the other hand, Claire has considered Jim a good friend only for years and only started to get some romantic feelings towards him recently (let's throw in some friends-to-lovers while we can). Those make her conflicted as she isn't sure how Jim feels and if her confession may ruin everything. Toby knows about Jim's crush and suspects Claire's (even though she denied it when he asked her).

I have two scenarios of how the canon will play.

The first one is where the role switch is complete (Claire is the Trollhunter, while Jim gets shadow staff eventually). In this one, Toby and Claire get a shortcut through the canals because Claire has overslept after forgetting to set her alarm. Claire finds the amulet.

Meanwhile, after countless encouragement words from both Strickler and Toby, Jim decides to go to the tryouts (even if Ophelia calls it a bad idea). Here he actually learns words for Romeo's role as he knows that Claire will be Juliet for sure. Jim believes it'll give him a chance to confess properly. He gets the role with ease (he's motivated!).

Claire gets a visit from trolls, but unlike Jim, she tells no one. There's no attempt to talk with Strickler, neither she shares it with her friends (as she believes it's her problem only). Nevertheless, both Toby and Jim feel something is fishy and barge in, demanding answers right when Blinky and Aaarrrgghh come for the second time. So they both become members of the team right away.

Claire gets more time without enemies knowing as Strickler has no chance to learn about her new role. Still, the amulet acts up some days later, summoning the armor - and Strickler, who has been racking his brains for some days, trying to think who is a new Trollhunter gets a major surprise.

Another difference will be the reason for Claire's initial reluctance to take up her role. Unlike Jim, who hasn't been in fights, Claire believes that she cannot be the best for the role (and she hates to half-ass stuff).

Draal will still move to the Lake's household and Claire will also use grit-shaka, getting some of huge embarrassement moments (including forcefully kissing Jim). She won't remember it afterward, and poor Jim is never sure what that meant (like it could be only because of grit-shaka).

Enrique's kidnapping is a low blow for both Jim (who fails as his brother) and Claire (who is a regular babysitter and is supposed to be a protector). Not to mention that in this AU the kidnapping itself will happen when Jim and Claire visit Papa Skull concert together (initially, Toby was supposed to go too, but he suddenly 'remembers about an important task'). Obviously, the outcome will make both question if there can be any romance in their situation.

Mary and Darci join a team as they accidentally discover Not!Enrique identity when Jim's parents employ Mary as a babysitter (as at that point, their opinion of Claire has reached some new lows).

Eventually, Jim will get a shadow stuff and as there's more than enough negativity in his life, including growing rift with his parents as his night activities influence his performance at school and his parents are not big fans of Claire who is more punk in this AU. Besides, at some point Jim is on a verge of going to the Darklands alone, but is caught. That is one of the triggers that forces Claire to go there alone herself.

The second scenario is closer to canon where, despite living in a different house, Jim is still the Trollhunter. Here he founds the amulet when he goes to meet with Toby and Claire to go to school together. So both his friends learn about the amulet. After Blinky and Aaarrrgghh visit, Jim isn't able to contact Toby, but he tells Claire about it (remember, in this setting he isn't that close to Strickler).

In this scenario Jim will have way more trouble sneaking out than in the canon, not to mention slipping studies. But either than that I think the differences will be pretty minor.

And a bonus scenario, which I throw in, because it's the only way to keep Jim's relationship with Strickler and make it even closer. It involves Jim being a changeling implanted in Nunez household, with Strickler being his mentor and kind of a father figure. Claire is the Trollhunter in this one, meaning some Romeo & Juliet parallels. Jim learns about the amulet before Strickler, but keeps silent because he genuinely loves Claire (and he is young and not as jaded as other changelings, so betraying the Order comes easy to him). Strickler learns about his protegee's betrayal and exposes Jim after being exposed himself. Claire is angry and refuses to talk to Jim. I think Jim is able to clear his name only after coming to Claire's help during the battle of two bridges.

#phew #that's taken some time to write #what if scenario #tales of arcadia #toa fanfic #toa au #role swap au #jim lake jr #claire nunez #barbara lake #toby domzalski #walter strickler #ask box #extremely long post #text post #anon ask

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megan0013 · 1 year

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From Variables, for the writing meme:

“He did.” He lets out a mirthless chuckle, wishing with all his heart that he didn’t have to be the one to tell her about her child’s newfound ability to finish a fight. “Your son has become quite the warrior, Barbara. He had a sword to my back and would not have hesitated to run me through, if not for the bond. Does that justify bringing you into this mess? Absolutely not. And if I had known the true intention of the enchantment…” He shakes his head. “Well, I never would have used it.”

Barbara’s fists unclench, and her shoulders sag as she pinches the bridge of her nose. “Okay, fine. But none of that changes the fact that you wanted my son dead.”

“Darling…” Walter takes a deep breath. “If I truly wanted Jim dead, he would be.”

She believes him – she really does. And it scares her how easily she can accept that this man, this dangerous creature she’s somehow managed to fall in love with, is not a physical threat to her family. “So what do we do now?”

“Now?” He frowns, unfamiliar with this new level of uncertainty.”I guess that all depends on you.”

“Me?”

“I know I don’t deserve another chance, but I’m stupid enough to hope for one because…” The changeling’s toe taps anxiously and his gaze veers off to the left, too nervous to look at her. “I love you, Barbara.”

There may be an underlying tremor in her voice, but Barbara’s response is still hard as flint when she responds, “No. No, you don’t. Not really. The things you did… You don’t do that to the people you love. And I get that I can’t really hold you to normal human standards, but we both know you’re intelligent enough to understand how your actions were solely self-serving. When you love someone, Walt, you do everything in your power to put their needs above yours. You… You did the exact opposite.”

ah, yes. variables. my love, my heart, my favorite way to torture strickler… honestly, i wish i could find the inspiration to add more to this fic because it’s an absolute delight to write. like, seriously. so much fun. and when the words start to flow for this one, they don’t stop. which is always such an AMAZING feeling

and the chapter that this excerpt is taken from? one i’m particularly proud of, so i’m insanely happy that it stuck out to you. very validating, lol

anyway, onto the “dvd commentary”:

i’ve always subscribed to the headcanon (as i think most people in the trollhunters fandom have) that if strickler had ever really wanted jim dead, he would be. there’s probably some crazy awesome meta post out there about it, too - but this was my way of getting that point across. and i really do think barbara would take strickler’s words at face value when it comes to this. at least, in this fic. he’s got nothing left to lose, right? so there’s really no sense in lying. and as much as she says she doesn’t believe she knows him, she knows deep down she knows his heart. he could have skipped town, right? could have turned his back on them all the second his schemes came to light? or when he realizes exactly how much he screwed up with the whole soul bond? but he doesn’t. instead, he goes to the obgyn with her (which is more than jls ever did) and cleans up the kitchen for her. it’s not that difficult for her to believe he never meant to truly hurt her son, not when she now knows who he is and what he’s capable of. dude does not live for hundreds of years under the thumb of an evil troll hellbent on the destruction of humankind by resting on his laurels

(there’s also a little unwritten scene between the first and second chapters wherein strickler gives a very brief, abridged version of the history of changelings and their general role while the two of them are sitting in the car outside of the hospital)

but that does not mean she trusts him

because she knows that he knows what he did is wrong. it doesn’t matter that he’s not human. he’s been in the human world long enough to know. he’s been in the human world long enough to understand. he’s around people every day. good people. people she - he - cares about. what he’s been through matters (and would most definitely be analyzed in future chapters if they’re ever to be written) but at this point, she can’t really care. he lied to her. he used her. he attacked her son

he didn’t trust her

she’s in shock

and despite it all, she’s still in love with him

dvd commentary meme

#writer games #meg answers #hopefully this fulfills your ask #and makes sense #cause i know it’s just a bunch of verbal diarrhea #anyway #thank you so much for sending this ask to me #it feels amazing to get a response to this particular meme #especially something variables related

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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How the Arcadia Gang Reacts When You’re Feeling Down

| 1 | 2 | ? |

Strickler gives some of the best advice around. So when you show up at his office, it feels less like you’re going in to see the school principal and more like you’re visiting a therapist, maybe even a close friend. He turns off the bright fluorescent lights and turns on his lamp, the warm glow softening the edges of the room, like a vignette. He plays on a vinyl record that you pick from his collection (they’re mostly impressionist piano), and you two play a game of chess by the window. He doesn’t make it easy and plays an honest match, but he occasionally points out ways to improve your strategy. Afterwards, regardless of whether or not you win or lose, he offers you a seat on the couch and a to-go cup of warm tea from the teacher’s lounge before joining you. He listens to what you have to say and gives you thoughtful words and reassurances in return. After your talk, he asks you what era of history you find most interesting, and he grabs a book off his shelf to read to you. Before he begins, he reminds you that there are people out there who love you for all parts of you, and that you always have the chance to grow and change throughout your life. It’s part of being human.

Barbara will patch up any wounds you have, be it emotional or physical. She has lovely bedside manner and can patch you up good as new in seconds flat. If you want, she’ll let you sit in for an abstract portrait while you tell her about what’s bothering you. And while she’s not the best cook, when the mom senses are a tingling, she’ll whip you up one of Jim’s recipes (or try her best to, anyways). She means well, and it’s with a mother’s love she treats you with. She tells you that no matter what there are people you can turn to who will help and support you unconditionally.

Nomura isn’t exactly the best with people, per se. But she does make a lovely cup of tea. If you visit her during museum hours, she’ll give you a cup of tea and walk you around the museum. She’ll show you her favorite exhibits (and maybe tell you a few interesting things about them if she was alive during those times). She’ll show you behind the scenes and show you how to safely handle ancient artifacts. She might even give you a sneak peek to upcoming exhibits! She’s especially drawn towards images and artifacts of hope, and points out the stories of the people who created them, the stories of the times these artifacts came from, and so on. She tells you that living beings have persevered throughout all time, and in the end, your true colors will shine through. When that time comes, you must learn to love yourself who all that you are and will be.

Blinky will offer words of sage advice. He has many books and many grandiose words to say, but he speaks with you softly. He picks an old storybook for young trolls and sits you down for a little story time. His voice carries well and is perfect for storytelling, and you get caught up in a fantastical (and sometimes mildly violent) tale of adventure, wit, and love. When he’s done, he takes you on a walk around Trollmarket. He tells you about troll history and lore, and recounts the tales of many brave Hunters of the past. He tells you that your passions and your determination to finish a task will see you through the end. In the face of fear and strife, you must continue on and see your dreams to the end. He believe in you, and knows that with enough hard work and learning, you will overcome anything.

Aaarrrgghh is moss dad and wingman. He’s a troll of few words, but when he sees you, he’ll give you a gentle pat on the head. “You okay?” If you’re up for it, he’ll give you a hug. His hugs are warm and soft, like he’s protecting you from the world beyond. At night, he’ll take you out for a walk through the woods of Arcadia, maybe go snack hunting. His mere presence warms the room with a gentle warmth and calm. One can’t help but feel safe around him. He tells you that who you were in the past is a part of you yes, but it’s who you are now that matters most. It's your actions now that define who you are and where you go from here.

Varvatos is trying his best. He really is! While most of his knowledge of humans comes from watching murder mysteries with Nancy and game shows, he will listen and try to understand what you’re going through. Like Aja, one of the best ways to get your emotions out in his book is by fighting. He’ll spar you and train you in the art of being a warrior. You two grab serrators and throughout the combat, over the sparks and flashes, he looks on at you with pride. Afterwards, he tells you don’t need fame, power, or even glory to live a happy life. What you need is honor, and faith in yourself and your values.

Merlin beckons you inside his workshop and waves over a comfortable chair for you to sit down in by the furnace. Its heat is blazing, and as you begin to sweat, he hands you a mysterious fiery liquid in a clear bottle. You uncork it hesitantly, but at his insistence, you drink and find your nerves much more calm. Depending on the energy you bring into the workshop, Merlin will hand you a different vial to help you with your feelings. Its effects are temporary, but it gives him enough time to speak to you about what’s troubling you. It may not seem like it and he may not even admit it, but the greatest wizard in the world does have feelings, you know? And he is willing to listen and will try to help you see the bigger picture. His words may not be exactly what you want to hear, but he will tell you as it is. He reminds you that your place in the world is small yes, but it is. You are here existing and you can create a bigger change than you could possible imagine.

Taglist: @seekerofblades

Requests for characters open. Comment or send in an ask.

#tales of arcadia #trollhunters #3below #wizards toa #strickler #walter strickler #barbara lake #nomura #nomura toa #blinkous galadrigal #blinky toa #aaarrrgh toa #Aaarrrgghh #varvatos vex #merlin toa

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ssiggss · 3 years

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I made a whole AU in my head yesterday and I'm debating whether or not to invest in it but chances are, knowing me, I'm gonna do it anyway-

Please ignore the absolute MESS that this is- it is completely disorganized 😭🖐

So basically I replaced the Arcane Order with my own OC I literally just made for this specific reason as the villain.

His name is Pyelan, (pronounced PIE-LAN) and he's an old god of peace- very powerful and ancient. However, he's grown corrupted and angry at humanity for the amount of needless war and death in their history.

He sees the pollution of Earth and the sickness, and takes it upon himself to fix it, having gone mad after the eons he spent alone.

The humans stopped worshipping him, that is why they have no peace, they've destroyed everything, in his mind the only option is to create a whole new Earth with a new species that would do better.

He seeks The Arcane Order, knowing who they are (having once been friends in ancient times) and means to have them open the genesis seals and wipe out humanity forever.

(I'm taking what Tobias said in the interrogation scene in ROTT and running- the bit abt The Arcane Order being the creators of everything.)

(Also, I like to think each of them had a hand in different species, Bellroc creating trolls and changelings, Skrael creating humans and goblins and Nari creating the animals of the Earth- with input from eachother of course. Though I'm still hammering out the details)

In this AU, The Arcane Order do not hate humanity, are more so disappointed and eager to fix the imbalance so humanity and all beings could return to their lives.

They understood his plight, but told him that because they created humans, they would find a way to restore balance without killing them off.

This throws him into a vengeful rage- could they not see that their humans have failed them? Could they not see the damage humanity has done to their planet?

If the gods who created this world were too stupid to see the truth and fix it themselves, then he would do it.

During an opportune moment, Pyelan steals Nari away and holds her hostage- this is where The Arcane Order enlists the help of their old friend's apprentice, Hisirdoux Casperan.

Douxie involves the Trollhunter and his merry band of armored children and various peoples, and there ensues many scenes of Bellroc and Skrael interacting with everyone.

So Pyelan pretends to be remorseful, tells them to meet them at the roundhouse to return Nari to them.

Obviously its a trick, but he still manages to gain control over all three of them and releases the titans- now its up to Jim and everyone else to save creation, and the creators.

Steve does NOT get pregnant but instead, the 'seventh kiss' is an engagement, meaning he would become king- a huge responsibility he's not sure he can fulfill. (Possible subplot about Steve gaining true confidence in himself and a tear-jerking scene where he looks up at the sky and hopes his mentor is proud of him after the final battle.)

Claire, Douxie, Archie, his father and Blinky still go to find the Khronosphere- it was Bellroc who told them to find it this time, their last words before they succumbed to Pyelan's mind control.

Archie chooses to stay with Douxie, there would be a heart wrenching scene where he and his father says quick goodbyes as the wall seals.

"Take care of eachother," he says, "I love you, son."

Varvatos still comes down in the bigass robot, but this time he has a co-pilot and its Zadra.

They actually manage to take Bellroc down, and Jim insists on going up and talking to Bellroc in hopes of breaking Pyelan's control.

"Is this what you truly want? C'mon!" he says as he battles against them upon crumbling molten rock. "You are who you make yourself, don't let him think for you!"

Bellroc is freed from Pyelan's control, discovers that they had been tricked by Pyelan and that Skrael and Nari were still in danger- they go ballistic.

Zoe's called in by Douxie to aid them, and she and Krel pair up as the designated tech nerds and they get a whole scene with some crazy cool akiridion tech/mechromancer wizard shit that frees Skrael from Pyelan's control- two down, one to go.

Claire is ofc a badass, portals Bellroc's titan to Arcadia and then shit really hits the fan.

In this AU, Toby and Steve fight alongside Jim against Pyelan, Strickler doesn't die but instead tends to a severely wounded Nomura with Barbara.

Pyelan uses Nari and her titan against the other two, Bellroc and Skrael are trying desperately to not hurt her too badly, but its not going so well.

Varvatos and Zadra's robot goes down against Pyelan, who ends up fighting Jim, Toby and Steve directly.

Instead of Toby dying, Jim sacrifices himself one last time as the Trollhunter, defeating Pyelan but taking himself along in the process.

This prompts everyone else to make a unanimous decision to use the Khronoshpere to save Jim.

The Trollhunter has saved countless lives, and now its their turn to save the Trollhunter.

Rewinding back to when Pyelan first set the trap for Bellroc and Skrael, they defeat him much much quicker this time.

Everyone knows what his next move will be as they all retained their memories, and Jim is safe.

The balance is slowly but surely fixing itself as time goes on, The Arcane Order are dedicated and often visit Arcadia to take breaks or to enlist help for certain missions.

Steve becomes king, ruling alongside Aja and later in their adulthood, they have children. (with much better designs)

Barbara and Strickler get married, and later so do Claire and Jim, and when I tell you that wedding was a sight to behold.

Toby is much more confident in himself, and is known all throughout Arcadia as a hero, The Trollhunters partner- Keeper of Peace.

"I'll do a much better job than the last guy, trust me."

All in all theres lots of things I gotta figure out for this AU, but its purely for self-indulgence because I can't stand the ending of ROTT. And also I was told all headcanons are canon now so I am doing what I must

#tales of arcadia #trollhunters #krel tarron #aja tarron #varvatos vex #steve palchuk #toby domzalski #jim lake junior #claire nuñez #Barbara Lake #walter strickler #skrael of the north wind #bellroc keeper of the flame #nari of the eternal forest #hisirdoux casperan #toa zoe #toa wizards #toa au #rott rewrite -kinda

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inhonoredglory · 3 years

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ROTT: hot takes 🔥 (spoilers)

I wrote the following last Thursday, before my fandom life was waylaid by birthday shindigs for my sister and a weekend of migraines and nausea/fainting because of the COVID vaccine. I feel so out of touch w/ fandom but here’s my late but initial thoughts to ROTT if anyone’s interested LOL

––––––

DAMN SON.

DAMN.

I saw Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans last night. Before I launch into the fandom again, I’mma share my unfiltered thoughts.

ThAT oPEnING. HOLY SHIT. It was exhilarating. Seeing all of Tales of Arcadia rush past me in 3 minutes was awesomesauuuuuce.

but guYS GUYS lemme tell you the

✨✨ABSOLUTE✨✨

✨✨✨UTTER✨✨✨

✨✨✨✨✨HIGHLIGHT✨✨✨✨✨

✨✨✨✨✨✨of MY LIFE✨✨✨✨

////oh gODS////

hearing Douxie say in that deep, grave, convicted, voice:

❝ ｂｕｔ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｃａｎ　ｔａｋｅ　ｍｅ ❞

DOUXIE MY SELFLESS WIZARD BEAN. LIGHT OF MY LIFE. I’M DECEASED.

Because it’s scenes like this which convince me they KNOW that Selflessness Is His Thing. And that means so freaking much to me OH MY LORD.

Act 1 of ROTT was an absolute delight, let’s just say.

Men in Black!Krel

Nari!Douxie (i cANNot beLIEve THIs is a THING im in tears)

THE BARBARA/JIM REUNION!!!!!

A FREAKING STRICKLAKE ENGAGEMENT!!!!! Jim/Strickler relationship growth arc 😭😭😭

Y’ALL WE GOT JLAIRE SITTING ON A FLIPPIN’ RED ASS BED. This is the closest we’re gonna get to sex in a kid’s show.

NOT COUNTING OFC THE INSTA-STAJA-FAM CONCEPTION

should I be scared that GDT is reading the totally wack corners of mpreg AO3??!! 👀👀👀dude, like DUDE. that happened.

ELI GLOWUP !!!!! damn son u hot

also aja is such a Queen in this whole thing omg

I obvs can’t go scene by scene through this thing but––

Douxie and Nari in P A I N during the spellbreaking scene. that hurt my soul oh lordy. there must be art made

OK but then after this SHIT GETS VERY REAL. There’s a lot of Character Thematics/Arcs and Real Narrative shit I can get down into and stuff I want to think about because yEAH... wow, this movie Went There. And Back Again. (lOLJSKGSg)

I appreciate the deaths. I really do. But Strickler was a shock. Jim holding onto his mom and crying, overwhelmed with guilt, was the most Jim thing. The boy puts so much agony on himself. It’s his undoing. gAH POOR JIM.

CAN WE MAKE A NOTE THAT JIM’S RIBS WERE BROKEN/HURT throughout this entire thing??? 😭😭😭 HMmm? HMMMM!!! LOOK AT THE ANGST

Claire shadow-porting an eNTiRE TITAN. This girl is OFF THE CHARTS SJGHSBKGJMNFSBG

Nari’s death was emotional. Wow. She was being a Hero. Not running, like she said. That was a Power Growth and beautifully scored. Not to mention archie trapped forever?!!! Nooooo?!!!

They really want to take everything away from Douxie don’t they.

Jim getting Excalibur and leveling up with Akiridian armor was pRETTY SWEET. Especially ✨together✨. And everyone saying the Destiny speech. *tissues*

Act 3 finale babbaaayyyy.

CHILDREN OF THE SUN REDUX OMSKGJSGGMN HELL YEAHHHH

Jim realizing the amulet didn’t make. him a hero, HE DID. And that’s why the amulet chose him.

y’all I sobbed for tobes. that was powerful, painful, and moving. and y’know it was almost like this whole movie was an apology for treating toby like a comedic sidekick––and giving him the trollhunter mantle in the end.

like THEY VALIDATED JIM AND TOBY’s FRIENDSHIP and that cANnNOt be underestimated. Because friendship is almost ALWAYS knocked down the ladder of importance in the pantheon of human relationships, and ROTT said NO. Jim loves Toby so much that he’d change his own history and the history of the ENTIRE WORLD in order to get him back.

like, Jim, our sacrificial Hero. Deciding to truly be Atlas and take all the weight of What Could Have Been on his shoulders, because he cannot stand the losses that happened under his leadership.

this kiss tho. the absolute ANGUISH in the way jim presses himself to her face. gOD. THE PAIN. THE LOVE. THE “I LOVE YOU”

––––

The whole time travel twist tho. I’m kinda... not here for it?? Time travel is tricky to pull off and yeah, I think I’m in the camp that everyone’s character arcs (except Jim’s) have been retconned. It’s sad because people get connected to one another by the shared pains, joy, and experiences that brought them together, and now they’ve lost that.

But thematically and more importantly, why can’t the acceptance of death be validated? Sure, so many people dying was painful, but Let. It. Be. Painful. That’s life. TOA hasn’t shied away from dark things before. Toby and Strickler and Nomura and Nari (even Archie and Charlemagne) gave their lives; Toby became a Hero in the truest sense of the word. Let him do that, let that choice be his. In fact, it says a lot thematically about Jim’s hero complex that he cannot accept other people making heroic choices with tragic consequences. That it’s all on him. But with this ending, they do make it clear Jim’s need to be a hero is a driving obsession, and I appreciate the strength of his conviction on that identity for himself.

But the thing about retconning the anguish is that it’s telling us that bad consequences, tragedy, and loss are unacceptable in life. That just because Jim and his friends need 10 years of therapy, he should try to erase all that pain and give himself and his friends a “normal” life. No. Depression, loss, hurt... these help make us who we are; growth is about accepting them and using that pain to become better people, not invalidating them from our past.

*grumbles*

let’s be real tho: that ending was meta. it was like they were telling us fans that now WE can go create the Trollhunters we wanted to see, and fix all the things we thought went wrong. I think someone’s been reading a bunch of Trollhunter AU fics, no?

tl;dr ROTT creates more questions than it does answers and we need another show LMAO

#trollhunters #trollhunters rise of titans #rott #rott spoilers #toa #tales of arcadia #jim lake jr #douxie #claire nunez #*mymeta #*mythoughts

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childofaura · 3 years

Text

I know I’m late making a Trollhunters movie post but (SPOILERS)

I wanna talk about the elephant in the room with the movie’s ending. And how much it left a wrong taste in my mouth (like the ending of the Trollhunters show did).

So in my overall post about the movie, I mentioned how the ending where Jim rewrites the past events so that Toby is the Trollhunter REALLY bugged me. Because that meant that every relationship that Jim built up has now collapsed, but also diminishes his relationships with other characters while... you guessed it, pretending like his relationship with Claire is the MOSTEST IMPORTANTEST RELATIONSHIP YOU GAIZ so he takes great care to make sure he sets all that garbage properly in motion while disregarding his other important friends and family. I need to say that when you have a series that spends so long developing dynamics, story points, and relationships that are apparently as fragile as a gossamer thread, then you introduce time travel at the last minute to rewrite history, it feels like you’re devaluing all the work that previous writers had to do to create these stories and relationships. Like yes, you can do time-travel rewrites the RIGHT way, but this just made me mad.

So here’s all of the things that I felt were wrong about Jim rewriting the past like that, and all of his relationships with other characters that will now not happen or not be the same:

1. Blinky.

Despite Blinky’s heartfelt emotions about seeing Jim as his son, despite the fact that the moment Blinky heard that Jim’s father left him he decided, “Is nobody going to raise this boy properly? Well I think I will!”, despite how much time and effort and love Blinky put into properly training Jim and spending time with him... Now that Toby’s going to be the Trollhunter, that’s all not gonna happen. Blinky will have no reason to invest any time into a mentor/father relationship with Jim because he’s not the one who needs to be trained. Someone might argue, “Well I’m sure Blinky would still feel the same and fall into the father figure role if Jim’s the sidekick!” Let me ask you: Did Blinky ever establish the same type of relationship with Toby when he was a sidekick, the literal orphan Toby with no parents and no father figure in his life either?

No. The most they have is a friendly relationship.

And the same thing will happen to Jim, because there will be nothing special to see in him when he’s not the Trollhunter.

And the thing that pisses me off about this is that Jim still makes the effort to get back into a relationship with Claire over becoming the Trollhunter again so that Blinky will not lose him as a son.

2. Strickler

You can argue that Strickler did not have as much of an influence like Blinky did, but Strickler still became an important figure in Jim’s life as a guiding figure. Them showing Jim inviting Strickler to have dinner with his mom doesn’t feel plausible because the whole point of Strickler’s conflict with his feelings for Barbara was that he develops feelings for her, and feels guilty that he lies about who he is and putting her in danger; this isn’t gonna happen with Jim not being the Trollhunter because Strickler will have no reason to spend so much time around Barbara and Jim. Plus, that scene of him and Barbara having dinner feels... insincere, I guess? Because at that point there’s no feelings for her established and he’s still at the point of plotting the Killahead Bridge project. The part in the first season of Trollhunters where he tells Jim to pass his number to Jim’s mom didn’t have any romantic connotations, he was just playing the part of the teacher concerned with his student’s wellbeing and checking in on his home situation. Then Barbara hints at being interested in him after he bails Jim and Toby out of the museum situation where she flirts with him; at that point he uses that to his advantage to be invited to dinner. It’s GRADUAL BUILDUP THROUGH CONSTANT INTERACTION. One dinner date isn’t gonna re-establish all that.

Oh, and also Strickler will have no reason to care for Jim’s safety as much because Jim won’t be the one in constant danger like he was in the show.

3. Draal

THIS ONE BOTHERS ME THE MOST. OR AT LEAST IS ONE OF THE ONES THAT BOTHERS ME THE MOST. BESIDES BLINKY AT LEAST.

With Toby as the Trollhunter, Draal is now going to direct all his anger at HIM. Who is Toby going to face in the arena (granted provided that he does the same thing as Jim in standing up against Steve which... I would highly doubt that he would given that he was the first to say, “Ignore Steve and let him bully Eli so we don’t get targeted)? Draal. Who is going to be living in his house after losing the fight (Which we can agree that, as much as I love Toby and think he needs his moments to shine, he doesn’t have any pre-existing skills like Jim to be able to fight)? Draal. Who will be constantly spending time training him and talking to him about his human problems? DRAAL.

Draal has basically ignored Toby in the show because all his time lies in training the boy who inherited his father’s mantle. Can you honestly tell me that Jim will still have his brothers-in-arms relationship with Draal if he’s the sidekick?

4. Steve and Eli

Did you guys notice that in the scene where Toby and Jim are walking by Steve and Eli, neither one of them stopped Steve from shoving Eli in a locker? That “One hit and you will be changed forever” moment isn’t gonna happen now! That was supposed to be the pivotal character moment where Jim finds the strength to fight instead of passively laying down! And neither one of them stopped it!

Again, Jim has essentially forsaken all of these (and more!) relationships with other characters, but at the same time decides to treat his relationship with Claire like it’s top priority. It’s an insult to the previous work done in the show.

#Trollhunters #trollhunters spoilers #Tales of Arcadia #The writers REALLY didn't think this through did they #And honestly I have no idea if they have any plans for a further installment or if the series is supposed to end on that cliffhanger #But if it IS supposed to end with the movie then they made a bad choice erasing the past like that #Especially because that is NOT a happy ending #Nomura dead? Strickler dead? Toby dead? I don't care that Jim goes back in time because that doesn't change what we've seen!

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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!

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wizardouxie · 4 years

Text

Trollhunters but it’s a figure skating au

So Jim used to skate when he was younger

But he left the rink to take care of his mom after his dad abandoned them

Weirdly enough it was his dad who originally got him into ice skating

But it was for hockey and not actual figure skating whoops

Steve constantly tries to bully Jim about it

Apparently it’s a “girl” thing

Toby on the other hand tries constantly to get Jim back into the game

“Come on dude, you used to fly across the ice! It’s super cool,”

“You know I left that behind Tobes,”

When they find out Claire is a skater Jim is Interested™

Toby notices LMAO

“DUDE DUDE DUDE YOU CAN IMPRESS HER!”

“TOBY NO –”

Jim kinda wants to but at the same time he doesn’t really have the motivation for it

Or a coach…

OH BUT HE DOES

Because it’s Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!

They’re really good coaches

Well Unkar begs to differ but THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT

Aaarrrgghh actually teaches Toby to skate as well

“Jim look I’m doing it!”

“That’s great Tobes! A couple of years and maybe you’ll reach my level!”

“Haha nice joke!”

“I was being serious –”

Draal gets lowkey pissed that Jim is trying out for nationals cuz he’s been working up to this to prove to his father Kanjigar

Who by the way, was the one who always faced off Gunmar in the finals

However Bular beat Kanjigar one competition and ever since then the pro skater has given up his claim to glory

Anyways there’s a regionals competition that Jim and Draal are competing to win because after that they can move onto state

Toby somehow lands himself as a commentator for the ice skating competition so you can bet your money he’d yell into the mic over Jim

Eli is the other commentator

Jim beats Draal fair and square

Draal grudgingly accepts defeat and decides to help Jim on his journey to winning gold

Trollhunter amulet? Nah. Ice skates that make Jim feel confident? YAH.

No they are not enchanted nothing is enchanted in this AU

They’re his lucky skates leave him be ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

Meanwhile Strickler is Bular’s coach

…They really don’t get along

Strickler and Nomura try to spy on Blinky and Jim to see what routine and music they’re planning to use

They also steal Jim’s skates cuz they notice how he some gets better with them in comparison to his practice skates

Blinky and Jim find the skates in their bag and exposes them

SCANDALOUS

Lmao doesn’t stop them from sending Angor Rot to do their dirty work

Angor also steals Jim’s skates and Jim’s like bruh

Jim breaks something of Angor’s and Angor freaks but the adult is quickly taken away by security and now banned from all local skating rinks

Jim breezes through state competition thankfully

Unfortunately so do others

Here comes the Return of Gunmar and Morgana

Aka the two of them getting back in the competition because Bular repeatedly FAILS to demolish Jim and Morgana wants to claim the win she was denied before

They both “need” a coach so Usurna backs Gunmar while Morgana has Dictatious

Blinky is appalled to see his brother fraternizing with the enemy

The Tribunal (without Usurna) are the judges of the competition

Meanwhile Jim really wants to impress Claire

He hopes she’s watching him from home

But get this, she’s going to nationals for the women’s division

Small world we live in, huh?

NotEnrique is her coach but they have a hard time getting along with each other

For the most part she’s been studying Morgana’s routines from past competitions and borrowed some sequences while putting her own spin on it (literally)

Jim loves to see her practice and the feeling is mutual from Claire’s side!

Even if it meant seeing Jim always tripping on his feet

And getting his skates stuck rip

She finds it cute lmao

They begin to fall in love yada yada yada PAIR SKATE

They do a pair skate to Eres Tú for fun

At one point Merlin pops in to give Jim advice and everyone freaks

He’s an ex Olympics gold medalist what’s he doing here???? OMG???

He takes Jim to another room… and tells Jim to switch his entire routine

“Gunmar will easily defeat you with that mediocre performance,”

Jim is Offended

But after some consideration he takes Merlin’s new routine, shuts out everyone from the rink to practice on his own

Quickly reaches brink of exhaustion, like he’s caked in sweat

Still keeps going at it despite the shouts from the other side

Blinky is yelling at Merlin and Claire is trying to break through and it’s BAD

Meanwhile Jim is tearing up because he’s gotten this far and he’s trying his best and everyone is rooting for him

He can’t let them down, he just can’t

He collapses on the ice the same time the door is broken down

The press learns about this and the headlines are raging about whether Jim will participate in the finals or not

“I’m going to win,”

“No, you’re going to hurt yourself,”

“I don’t care,”

“But we do!”

Unfortunately his mind is set

Blinky and Aaarrrgghh can only watch him push himself

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The Grand Prix Nationals

Jim goes up against Gunmar and Claire goes up against Morgana

Jim takes his chances before getting into the rink

“No lucky kiss for me?”

Claire raises an eyebrow and then kisses him on the cheek

“Go get em tiger.”

After that Jim is absolutely feral on the ice

Homie is out for blood

The commentator remarks that he’s not even human at this point with his new routine

Merlin watches with approval, stroking his beard

Blinky has a strong urge to pull it but Aaarrrgghh holds him back

Jim finishes his routine while looking at Claire and Toby and they give him a thumbs up

Gunmar does his performance and it is definitely professional, after all he’s been doing this for a long time

He ends by smirking at Jim

But let the results speak for themselves

Drum roll please!

…

JIM BEATS GUNMAR BY A LARGE MARGIN LETS GOOOOOO

And so Gunmar dies figuratively (HA get it figure skating fig- okay nvm)

Press goes nuts that the rookie beat a pro

Suddenly cameras and mics are shoved towards Jim and Toby is loving it

Toby, certified public relationship agent

Blinky is so proud of Jim

“I knew you had it in you.”

Now we move onto the women’s division

So Claire definitely has a few tricks up her sleeve

She pulls off a costume change and her outfit goes from white/gold to black/purple

Then she pulls off a move that Morgana attempted in a previous comp but failed to perform which leaves the crowd shocked

Morgana is utterly stunned to the point it affects her performance

She over rotates, trips, slips, every ice skating nightmare, you name it

Everyone watched the Grand Prix thinking Morgana would win and came out just knowing Claire would seize the gold this time

Morgana is humiliated with a bronze… again

Afterwards Jim and Claire are yelling at each other because they won nationals together

Merlin walks up to them and offers to coach them for Olympics if they’d like

Blinky and Aaarrrgghh definitely tag along

Merlin isn’t about to get all the credit

Toby unfortunately has to fly back to Arcadia while they train :((

But no worries, he can always commentate on the ice skating performances at home!

*sigh* They’re not as fun though, mostly showcases rather than competitions

But one day a new rising skater from Cantaloupia shows up to the rink and changes everything

105 notes · View notes

middle-class-trash · 3 years

Text

Rise of the Titans liveblog!!!

that intro made me unexpectedly emotional

So if Blinky is narrating, he can't die, right? Right????

BRO THE SUBWAY SCENE!!!! We're getting right fuckin into it!!!

Steve, my son!!!

I wish Toby wasn't a constant punchline 🙃 it just makes me not take his character seriously

CLAIRE!!!!!!

Something about Douxie decking Skrael at the first opportunity is just so sexy of him

Jim is incredibly brave but it's really reckless to go hand-to-hand with a demigod without proper armor

My heart goes BUMBUMBUMBUM when Douxie looks out the traincar window

Sexy traincar tracks spell WHO

THE WRECKAGE AWWWW

Oh my gosh the people stuck in the magic circle because they wouldnt get out of the way

NO NO NO DOUXIE NO

So they were arrested that early?? Jeez

Nari's such a cutie

"None of us will be talking to you" *cut to Toby spilling every bean*

TOBY'S FACE AT THE END HAHHAHAHA

Something about Nari's voice coming out of Douxie's body is so deeply odd

Oh hey, Krel to the rescue

AREA 49 HAKSHDKSKD

"And your mom."

Oh my gosh he's still broken from Wizards 😂

The Guardians are just dead set on pissing off local authorities huh

JIM!!!

STRICKLER?????

BARBARAAAAA

Stricklake supremacy 😌 they both look so good

Claire listening in 😭😭😭 she's so cute

AWWWWW ENGAGED ENGAGED ENGAGED

......does that give them death flags? Fuck. Fuuuuck fuck fuck fuck. It totally does.

AWWW DOUXIE!NARI HUGGING ARCHIE

Aja!!!!

Your majesty!!

Oh yikes, here's that running gag everyone was talking about.. pregnant Steve

Oh hey, Eli's hot now. We been knew 😂

"Mazel tov!" HAHA

Poor Jim needing a bunch of support to walk 🥺 he's such a trooper

I will simply pass away if Blinky dies

I hope Douxie is okay, we haven't seen him in Nari's body and that makes me ✨nervous✨

OH JKJK

Nari is so goddamn pretty

"Only your presence, not your commitment" is such a rapey saying

"Abra-cadabra, buttsnacks" I love that he still says that 🥺🥺 he loves his friends so much

"Do your worst" *cue both Douxie and Nari absolutely screaming in pain*

Krohnisfere? Alrighty then, that's the first mission

"I wouldn't be so sure of that" AWWW

They fixed the amulet???? DUUUUDE

"For the good of all..." 😭😭😭😭

"Or I could lock onto Nari and portal us there" *dead fucking silence*

I hate how Toby's used as a constant punchline.. a penny? Really?

TRAINTRACK MAGIC CIRCLE GO BRRRR

Poor Nari 🥺 Douxie's in so much distress

Oh no, the new amulet isn't working?? Fuckk

That absolutely gorgeous screencap of pissed Aja

Part of me is glad Nari was forced to do this and wasn't actually a traitor

Ice titan awakening sequence? Ice titan awakening sequence.

Oh Nari. Oh sweetie

Oh my gosh she's fucking tied to her titan

Boiling water!!! Or underwater explosion, that works too. Much more dramatic but that's Bellroc's style

Oh wow Steve actually has a bump?? What the fuck???

Oooh, TrollDragons?

Charlie!!!

"We still don't have a trollhunter" Aja, honey, not helpful

"Does he even trust himself? AJA, HONEY, NOT HELPFUL

Barbara being proud of her son 😭😭

OOH fusing excalibur with the armor?

Aja is so full of confidence, it's a good look for her

Steve being preggo is..really fucking weird. When they said

AWWW BLINKY AND AARRRGHHH

Your honor, I love them

OOH IS IT SOFT JLAIRE TIME

Ohhhh it's soft Jlaire time

He's always looking out for his mom 🥺

"I will always be here (head), and here (heart)" just fuck me up fam

Charlie!!!

Zong-Shi?

"Only death will come to those who go looking for it" oh dear

"The troll with many eyes" how does Charlie know Blinky? 😂

AYYY this where the banner that I found first is from!!! it was so cool seeing my screenshot circulate when we were starved for content 😂😂 everyone was posting various rott icons and banners that they got hoping they'd find a new one

Oh dear.. government

Blinky dear they can't understand you

"Holy frijole" Claire I simply adore you

WOW THAT'S PRETTYYYYY

Troll slaves???

So is Zong-Shi this ugly ass pear-lookin ass

Aja chilling with Jim even though she has doubts is an interesting strategic choice

Douxie, AARRRGHHH, and Nomura? Talk about rarepare

NOMURA CATCHING HIM 😭😭 SEXYYYY

DOUXIE RESCUING NOMURA 😭😭😭😭 SEXXYYYYY

If I havent said it yet, the animation is breathtaking

OH SHIT JIM

aaaaand here come those frozen wings

Nari cant be in control of herself, there's no way. She's still tied to the titan for Pete's sake

NOMURA????

Please dont let this be a sacrifice

PLEASE NO

BOTH CHANGELINGS????

STRICKLANDER??????

No on-screen death, so it's not real. No on-screen death, do it"# notbsmejelreal

NO ON-SCREEN DEATH BUT IT'S NOT REAL

THEYRE TALKING AHOUT HIM PAST-TENSE NOOOO

THEY RBOGUHT UP HIS DADDDDDD

"There's no revelation I can give you" is a great way of saying he's not relevant, genuinely

Oh wow this guy's freaky

Ohhhh so the green thing from the trailers and promo photos is the Krohnisfere

Archie to the rescue!!!

"That's my boy!" AWWE

"Claire nooo, no no no no YESSS, I'm free!!!" Blinky, never change 😂

Oh wow, they're already in contact with Bellroc's titan??

Different note, but the titan's designs are just different enough to make them interestun

VARVATOS??? Okay jk somehow it's gun robot lmfao

WAIT NEVER MIND HAHAHAH HI BUD

....if the bridge falls, can't Charlie just fly them across

LMAO he just saw his death?? That is what he wanted to see 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's too early to celebrate, there's no way Bellroc is down after just a few pinches

Yeahhh

Oh dear... is Varvatos in danger?

Claire being the warrior of the group is incredible and sexy and hhnnngggg

Toby is a Hufflepuff. I will not be answering questions

OH WOW THAT'S HOW HE BURNED HIS HAND??? THE HONRGAZEL?????

ARCHIE SAID GOODBYE??? NO NO NO NO NO

Douxie's gonna be a flat mess!!!

God, plus Nomura and Stricklander

NOOOO DOUXIE YOU BIG SWEETIE

Oh my gosh this is the scene with Douxie trying to connect with Nari, it has to be

"I need to try again" AWWW HONEY

That shot of Mexico was incredibly stereotypical

DOUXIE SWEETHEART 🥺🥺

He's trying to hold her hand???? AWWWW

Oh my gosh he's being choked 😳

NARI BABY!!!!

The huggos 🥺🥺

Jim being frustrated is totally realistic

Wait wait wait waittt do they have the entire titan at their disposal?

"There's absolutely nothing all the way out here" cue a titan. Any of them.

And there it is.

CLAIRE SUPREMACY!!!!!!!

White haired Claire? White haired Claire???

Oh dear it's like.. a little over halfway and there's so much left that could happen

COACH. COOOOACH

OH THANK GOD!!! Steve doesn't need another paternal figure dying on him

Time for Skrael to fuck shit up 😬

I find it interesting how Bellroc and Skrael's titans are both bipedal but Nari's is on four legs, much more animalistic

NARI, NOOOOO PLEASE NO

At least Skrael's done????

We kinds knew Bellroc was the final boss but NOT LIKE THIS

DOUXIE SCREAMING FOR HER

NOOOOOOO

No more running. GODDAMNIT

The three can no longer unite but Bellroc can still fcuk shit up

A HIDDEN PAGE??? FUCK THE WORLD IS TO BE REFORGED WITH FIRE

THE HEARTSTONE??????

Oh shit, the explanation for why Arcadia's the center of everything!!

The only heartstone?? Really???? That's scary as shit, trolls could go instinct without a reliable hearthstone!!

EXCALIBUR TIMEEE

JIMMMMMM

Come on honey, you can do it!!

Aja, honey, I love you so much but now's not the time

THE HEARTSTONE???? FUCK DUDE

.......Steve

Eli the midwife?? ...gross

Jim, my love, my baby boy!!!

The nine of them!!!

AWW BLINKY BEING THE BEST DAD

THEY WORK TOGETHER 😭😭😭😭

FUCK YEAH!!!!!!

"Quiet desperation" is a great word for it

Are we coming on to the big final battle?

Ohnoohnoohno they all said the thing 😭😭😭 someone's gonna die. At least one more is gonna die.

HE'S DRIVINGGGG. LOVE THAT FOR HIM

STICKY SPELL TIME!!!!!!

"Some sort of stickum!" Bro 😂😂

I love how he calls them all Trollhunters 😭 throwback to the OG show where the three of them were all called that

Aja Terron supremacy

Oh it's weird.. it's very weird. Why did Steve have to be pregnant again

Oh dear, there's half an hour left.. this has to be the final battle

JIM

Varvatos shielding Claire and Krel 🥺

Fuck, man, people are getting thrown left and right

DOUXIE MY LOVE

Oh here we fucking go, rematch

NEW AMULET???

Jim's about to get royally fucked up

LIKE THAT

FUCK

WHY IS SHE TAKING HIM??? GOD NO

Anti-magic beacon??

Helloooo that's smart asf

This gives Mount Doom vibes

"Embrace your loved ones for the final time" FUCK MAN STOP IT

"I already was" DAMN RIGHT BUD

NEW AMULETTTT

GO GET JIM GO GET 'IM

DAYLIGHT ARMOR!!!!!!

He was ready to just sacrifice himself like THAT

DAYLIGHT ARMORRRRR WITH EXCALIBUR??????? FUUUUCK

Jim being great at combat is just the best fucking thing

Oh fuck. OH FUCK.

STABBED??????

PLEASE NO, GOD NO

FUUUUCK

"I'm powerless" "You get used to it" WE DONT HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT

JIM HONEY PLEASE DONT DIE

Is that....is that it?? Oh dear god, is that it????

JIM WHERE ARE YOU

I'm calling it now it's too early to be celebrating

Oh god the weird babies

WHERE IS TOBY

WHERE

MY JAW FUCKING DROPPED

NO WAY, NO FUCKING WAY

HE'S GETTING A DYING MONOLOGUE??????

ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE

"Itll be the two of us at the end" WHY DOES THAG SEEM LIKE JIM WILL GO OUT TIO

THERE'S NO WAY TOBY JUST DIED

THHERE'S NO WAY

That was sad as fuck but in a narrative way I hope it's permanent

Oh dear, Jim's going back????

Oh shit

WWHAT IS HE DOING

NOOOOO

"I have cherished every moment with you" STOP IT HE'S HIS FATHER

"I FYOU WERE MY OWN SON" STOPPPPPP

WHAT'S HAPONEINGGGGG

CLAIRE

NOOOO

THIS IS WHERE IM SOBBING

THIS IS WHERE IM LOSUNG IT

"Dont give up on me" FUCK STOPPPP

"I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE AND HERE" FUCK IT STOPPPPP

"I would date you for a hundred lifetimes" IS REALLY BEING TESTED HUH

THERE ARE 10 MINUTES ELFT WHAT THEBFUCK

AND WE'RE BACK TO TROLLHUNTERS?.????

HUHHHH

Fuck, man. FUCK, MAN.

Oh, Toby. Ohhhh Toby

CLAIRE 🥺

ROMEO AND JULIET!!!!

Oh my fucking god

"IF YOUD COME OVER TO DINNER" AYYYYY

His smile at Steve 🥺

HE'S HAVING TOBY TAKE THE CANAL???? But wouldnt the amulet still call for Jim?????

"Nothing interesting ever happens in Arcadia" VERY FUCKING FUNNY

Destiny is a gift. Some go their entire lives living in an existence of quiet desperation, never learning the truth- that what feels as though a burden pushing down upon our shoulders is actually the sense of purpose that lifts us to greater heights. Never forget that fear is but the precursor to valor. That to strive and triumph in the face of fear is what it means to be a hero. Don't think. Become.

.......it actually called his name. I can't believe it actually called his name.

The fuck is that ending??? Let Jim REST

#rise of the titans #toa #shut up charity #tales of arcadia

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writings-of-a-daphodil · 4 years

Text

Fire Keeper: Chapter 15.5

Douxie x fem reader

Chapter 1

Masterlist in bio!

Series Summary: You are Jim’s older sister who is taking a break from college and has moved back home to Arcadia. You end up joining Jim and his friends on their adventures.

Chapter 15.5 summary: You take your kitten over to meet Archie and Douxie gets a little jealous. Fluffy!!

A/n: I don’t know why, but I always picture Douxie living at the bookstore??? My sister does too and that's just how I wrote it. Also for the name I went with Mao because I fell in love with it, but thank you so much for the other names y'all suggested. They were lovely.

Through your tireless search for a name for your kitten you had come across the name Mao. It had been around midnight a few days after Jim and everyone had left. You had been searching through the obscure baby name websites when you saw it. It had come up as a similar name to Mai and you had imidietly fallen in love with it. The name just seemed so fitting for your little kitten.

The two of you had really bonded over the past few days and it was nice to have her around. She was very comforting and today she was giving you an excuse to leave your baby ridden house.

After NotEnrique had given the cradle stone to your mom and Strickler they had decided to adopt the kids. Now there were cradles all over your house and you were a little tired of all the crying. However, you did love to see your mom so happy and the babies were very cute.

You placed Mao on a pillow in the passenger seat of your car and you pulled out of your driveway. Today you were taking her to meet Archie. You really hoped they would get along.

You were able to find a parking spot close to the bookstore and you gently placed Mao in your arms. The bell to the bookstore rang your arrival and you heard Douxie call that he would be with you in a minute.

You immediately located Archie sunbathing on a chair. “Hey Arch, I want you to meet someone.”

Archie sat up and looked at the fluff ball sleeping in your arms. “Who’s that?” Archie asked, sniffing Mao.

“This is Mao, she’s a stray that I rescued from the Nyarlagroth. I wanted you to meet her.” You gently woke your kitten up, and she looked around confused. Eventually her eyes settled on Archie. She leaned towards him and sniffed a bit before burying herself back into your arms.

“Looks like someone is being shy,” you hummed. Slowly and carefully you turned her so she was facing Archie again.

“Hi little one,” Ariche said, stepping closer to you.

“It’s alright,” you soothed when Mao hesitated to step on the table. She began to slowly but surely gain her confidence though and she put one tiny little paw on the table. Then she put another one on. Now it was just her back paws on you.

You gently stroked her with your other hand and she finally stepped onto the table and hesitantly walked towards Archie, who was standing still so not to scare the kitten.

Mao began to get braver and braver. After she had investigated Archie and deemed him safe, she began to sniff at the rest of the table.

“She’s precious,” Archie mumbled.

“Aww, I’m glad you like her.” You took a seat at one of the chairs and watched as Mao came back to Archie. He nuzzled the kitten and it was so wholesome to watch them interact.

“Oh hey, Y/n,” you heard DOuxie say as he came up behind you.

“Hey Douxie,” you responded, keeping your focus on Mao.

“So, um, did you need anything?” He asked.

“Nope, I just came here to introduce Archie to Mao,” you explained, completely unaware of the jealousy Douxie was beginning to feel.

“Oh, you, uh, picked a name for her?”

“Yep, it took a lot of searching, but I found ‘Mao.’ I just like how soft and smooth the name sounds. I feel like it fits her perfectly!”

“Nuclear,” Douxie said, taking a seat across from you. You kept your focus on the two cats. Mao was gently batting at Archie’s tail while the elder cat just watched. You giggled when she swatted at Archie’s tail a little harsher than before.

“Here, maybe you shouldn’t play with his tail, dear.” You pictured butterfly’s they same way Douxie had taught you in Bulgaria and you waved your hand.

Orange butterflies flew around Mao and she began to play with them, Archie occasionally helping her. You were over the moon with joy at seeing them together. You hadn’t been this happy since Jim had left.

Douxie reached his hand out, hesitantly towards Mao and you nodded, giving him the go ahead. His hand was inches away from Mao when she turned and hissed at him, quickly jumping to hide behind Archie.

“Oh,” Douxie pulled his hand away in shock.

“She’s probably just nervous,” you explained.

Douxie was about to say something, but the bell tolled, signaling the arrival of a customer. Douxie sighed and got up. This struck you as odd and you noticed something different in Douxie’s aura.

You didn’t have much time to ponder on it before you were back to focusing on Mao. She almost rolled off the table after a butterfly. You caught her with magic and she glowed orange. She seemed more curious than scared to be floating. She gently kicked her paws as if testing the air. You moved her to the floor and Archie hopped down with her.

“Can I show her around?” Archie asked and you couldn’t remember when you had last seen him this excited.

You nodded. “Of course.”

You gave them their space as they roamed the store. As more people came in you began to get a little nervous, but Archie took her upstairs and you relaxed. Time passed and you just relaxed. You had been really busy of late with all the babies and with Mao, it was nice to just chill. You picked out a book off a shelf and began to browse through it. You had gotten pretty far in the book by the time you felt Mao nuzzle your leg.

“How was your day?” You cooed, picking her up.

“I’m sure she enjoyed it. It was so much fun to meet her,” Archie said, hopping back up onto the table.

“Good.” Mao yawned and you mimicked her. “I think it’s time to be getting home.”

Standing up, you held Mao in one arm while you put the book away with the other. Douxie was helping out the last customer and you were about to follow the young girl out when Douxie called your name.

“Wait!” He called, jumping out from behind the cash register.

“What?” You asked, yawning again, you hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately. “I need to get Mao home.”

Douxie winced. “Er, can’t you stay just a little longer. I haven’t seen you since the Eternal Night.”

“I don’t know Doux, I’m really tired. My mom and Walt-sorry-Strickler, adopted all the changeling babies from the darklands. I haven’t gotten much sleep lately,” you explained.

“Then stay here,” he blurted and you coughed.

“What?”

“I-I mean on the couch,” he clarified, blushing a brilliant shade of pink.

You hesitated, but you realized staying here meant a full night of sleep and you wouldn’t have to drive home while you were so tired.

Douxie seemed to take your hesitation as a no. “I know that you’re busy and I understand that your brother just left, but I...I’ve missed you at the bookstore. You’ve been spending so much time with Mao that I haven’t gotten to see you in a while.”

A realization hit you. “You’re jealous,” you accused, grinning. It was hilarious to your tired mind that he was jealous of a tiny little kitten. You were also very flattered that he cared enough to be jealous.

Douxie looked ready to defend himself, but he decided against it and mumbled, “Maybe.”

“Aww, Douxie’s, I was gonna say yes before your little speech. There’s no way I would pass up an opportunity to sleep through the night.”

“Oh, well then I’ll get you some blankets. I don’t have much food, I have pasta though.”

“I can do something with pasta,” you mumbled, walking up the stairs after Douxie. You went into the apartment and set Mao on the couch and Archie jumped up after her. He cuddled up next to her and you smiled.

You walked into the kitchen and got to work on the pasta. Douxie had some tomatoes and onions so you decided to make some sauce as well.

While you were letting that simmer and boil you helped Douxie make the couch. He went to move Mao, but had woken up. She backed away from him, and you noticed that Douxie looked sad.

“She’ll warm up to you,” you consoled. Exhausted, you plopped down onto it, sitting in the middle. Douxie sat down next to you.

Getting an idea you picked up Moa and scooted closer to Douxie till you were pressed up against him. You carefully set Mao into his lap and for a second she stood there stiffly, but she calmed down as you gently patted her head. Slowly you removed your hand and you had Douxie replace it.

“She’s really cute,” he said, petting her.

“Thanks I’m glad I was there to save her. Though, neither of us would be there if it wasn’t for you.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here.”

You leaned into Douxie. “Me too.”

****

So this was a very fun and fully little thing to write!!! I hope y'all enjoyed it and are excited for more. Also seriously thank you so much for all the support y'all have given this!! Stay safe and have a fantastic day!!!

Also, this chapter was based off of two wonderful requests:

@almachroma's Yet another great chapter! Might I suggest Mao as the kitten's name? And perhaps a fluff chapter of the kitten and Archie? @demon-trees's Maybe for the half chapter douxie getting a bit jealous of the kitten because they getting along with everyone else but him but the kitten slowly starts to warm up to him but its baby steps. For the name maybe ember, Venus or Mars as a tribute to Aja and Krel? Cause you know space theme

P.S. if you want to be on the taglist feel free to ask. I hope it works and please message me if it doesn’t.P.S. if you want to be on the taglist feel free to ask. I hope it works and please message me if it doesn’t.

P.P.S. I'm totally open for requests on fluffy half chapters! If you have any ideas for the half chapters send them in and I'll do my best to include them.

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dawna-the-daring · 3 years

Text

Dawna the Daring

Information

Name: Dawna Annabelle Walthomew Nobel

Tilte: Dawna the Daring

Rank: High Noble

Species: Shapeshifter/Faye Mage

Nicknames: Dawn, D, StarLight, Favorite, Silver Knight, Morning Light, Moonchild/Moonbeam, Hope

Aliases: Diana, Dee, Delilah, Debra, Dot, Donnie, Deeadra. Depending on the time period or mission depends on the alias used. All names start with D to acknowledge the first name she was ever given

Multiple possible ships: Hisirdoux Casperan, Bular the Butcher, James the Changeling (o.c), Delilah the Deadly (o.c), Kelpy the Kindred (o.c), Noble the Nifty (o.c), Steve Palchuck, Claire Nuñez, and Jim Lake Jr.

[Can also be shipped with one of your o.c's if discussed and agreed with]

Stats

Intelligence: Very High

Fighting Skills: High

Magic Level: High

Strength: Above Average

Speed: High

Durability: Above Average

Profile

Age: 916 years

Gender: Female (Fluctuates)

Sexuality: Pansexual genderfluid

Weight: 210 lbs

Heigth: 5'8"

Skin Color: White

Ethnity: Camelot (European)

Hair color: Hazelnut Brown (Can change)

Eye color: Green (Can change)

Background

Weapons training: Dawn typically uses her magic in a fight but in cases where magic isn't practical she has extensive battle training from the Order, the Gum Gums, and the Trollhunters/Gunmars Resistance. She can use just about any weapon but her magic split blades are her favorite and what she's most comfortable with. One is named after herself and the other her sister (Dawn and Dusk) as they are twin blades that are split.

Dawn watched the Round Table train and learned how to weild a sword that way. She is also proficient in knife/dagger throwing. Can weild an axe and throw a spear with great aim. She can also use a bow and arrow though she doesn't like them as much. Anything around her can be technically be used as a weapon but that doesn't mean it's an effective one.

Abilities

- Dawn is a powerful mage who learned magic during Camelots golden age. Merlins books and teachings helped her but sneaking out from the castle and exploring the woods around Camelots walls allowed her to truly learn magic for herself and what it means too her as a mage. She is most powerful with elemental spells as she learned from the woods and not a proper teacher. She has trouble with things like teleportation, telekinesis, and transmutation spells/hexes unless the spell she uses is connected to elemental magic.

- Her elemental magic attracts animals. She is good at calming stressed/angry animals as they can sense her magic and trust her. She can not speak directly to animals but she has an understanding of what their saying/feeling when they talk to her. If she listens closey enough plants also emit feelings and tell stories.

- Knows many different languages as after Camelots fall she took the time to explore the world. Has a slight accent but does a good job in sounding like a local. Strickler also taught her several codes like morse and tap that they use to have conversations during boring meetings.

- She is very knowledgeable on subjects like math, science, history, psychology, philosophy, biology, art history, anthropology, sociology, and many other subjects. She loves learning and often reads for hours at a time in her freetime. She absorbs knowledge like a sponge and one of her favorite past times is to listen to someone tell stories of their culture/past. Listening to others inspires her own creativity. She could sit and listen to Nomura, Strickler, and Otto's stories all day.

- Very empathetic and kind she just wants everyone to win. Whether she's a GumGum, an Order Spy, a freelance agent, or part of the Trollhunters she knows everyone and has seen their better side. She wants to believe everyone can be redeamed. Dawn wants to bring peace and when peace isn't an option she's hesitant to kill and perfers to injure or incapacitate instead. By nature she is a loving person and this has been used against her but she refuses to let herself see kindess as a weakness even if it has hurt her.

- Dawn is very adaptable when it comes to her environment or status. It's why when she's taken into the Order she rises quickly in the Changeling ranks and becomes a spy. Throughout her long life she has lived as a princess, a noble, a hand maiden, a pauper, and for a time a servant. Going through these various statuses she has learned a lot about herself and the world. She tries to treat everyone with respect and decency depsite status.

- During the GumGum war she became an amazing strategist and spy. Her skills to shift into any form allow her easy infiltration into an enimies camp. She uses her spy skills to watch how someone fights before devising a plan to counter their style and bring them down. She's best at making her enimies fall by finding their weaknesses and using it against them.

- Borne before electronics were around, Dawn often turned to the arts for entertainment. Hundreds of years of practice makes her a talented artist and story teller/song writer. She loves drawing and writing and has made hundreds of journals over the centuries. She has met great artists who have changed history over her life. Some being William Shakespeare, Leonardo Di Vinci, Michelangelo, Donetello, Raphael, Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Dickens, Virgina Wolfe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Frida.

Weaknesses

- Dawn usually thinks things out and takes a calculated graceful approach to her fighting but when it comes to her close friends or family she can be very impulsive. She sometimes rushes into dangerous situations head first. She's also very stubborn and often gets in trouble for her sharp tongue.

- She is very protective of her friends and family. Dawn will do anything to keep them safe and has struggled with a savior complex ever since the fall of Camelot. She deals with severe self worth problems from unaddressed feelings and this causes her to think everyone is above her and their life is worth more than hers. Dawn has gotten hurt many times because she fears loosing those closest to her.

- Dawn has severe memory probelms from trauma and magical accidents/incidents. This leaves her vunerable to manipulation and can make her gullible at times. She is not naive and is often able to figure out who is her true ally and who is not but it can be hard to realise what's happening if she feels she's surrounded by friends/family. The Order especially her designated guardian or mentor Strickler have made it hard for her know what's right and what's wrong.

- Since she has been hurt and manipulated most of her life Dawna struggles with sharing things. Secrets are a common occurence and this can cause tension in a group setting. She keeps much of her past hidden and feels guilty about the secrets she hides but feels her friends/family would abandon her if they knew how she really felt and what she's been through.

- When she's hurt she often ignores it and lets the problem get worse because she doesn't want to address it. Her friends often have to drag her to a healer for treatment. This causes a lot of problems. She struggles with opening up so if she admits she's hurt or lets you bandage/heal her it means she trusts you far more than she'll admit.

- As a shapeshifter Dawn can shapeshift into anyone. After joining the Order her powers are put to use for infiltration/spying. Wanting to impress her higher ups Dawn often took her assignments too seriously and forgets who she is. She has identity problems and this can cause her great distress. However she has found ways to cope with this and Otto helped her master her powers so she'd control them and they wouldn't control her.

- After the Fall of Camelot, growing up in the Order Dawn has suffered many punishments for messing up an assignment/job. Strickler and Otto shielded her from the worst of it and sometimes Nomura would take the blame for Dawn but she has a lot of unresolved trauma that is buried deep within her. She will always feel indebted to Strickler and the other changelings but she also knows the Order is not a good place for her. The only good thing that came from all the punishments she's endured is she now has a high pain tolerance and she knows how the Order works.

- Dawn's maturity often fluctuates. She goes from being a young teen to an older adult yet she's always in the body of someone inbetween. Dawn could change her shape but mentally she's still that teenager who watched Camelot fall and wasn't able to save her family before they destroyed eachother.

#trollhunters o.c #o.c #dawna the daring #dawn #trollhunters #trollhunters r.p #please interact!!!

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rosemaidenvixen · 3 years

Text

A Secret’s Worth

Chapter 12: Walter and Louis

Ao3

“Are you absolutely certain?”

“Ja,” Otto’s blue eyes sparkled from behind his glasses, telltale golden glimmer flickering just below the surface “I would not waste your time for anything less, Grand Commandant,”

Strickler detected the hint of a tease in Otto’s voice but chose to let it go, the square of vellum laid out on his desk occupying far more of his attention. Had he been a few centuries younger his hand might have shook as he traced the half faded lines of ink.

With this final piece; everything they’d been working for, himself, Otto, the entire order, was now within reach.

“Excellent,” he slid the vellum back towards Otto “I’ll need you on a plane to Mongolia immediately,”

Otto’s face fell, mouth shifting to form a protest.

“The eyestone is perhaps the most crucial piece of the bridge, I need someone I know is not only competent, but highly capable, to retrieve it. And you will have the full resources of the Janus order at your disposal,”

A touch thick with the flattery, and more than a little extravagant; but the order could afford it. Especially since if Otto’s information was true Kilahead would be complete in less than a year. And Strickler felt reasonably confident that there would be little use for company shares and bond holdings once Gunmar reclaimed the surface.

Otto sat back, mollified for now “I will fly out tonight, with any luck I should be able to rendezvous with the Ulaanbaatar branch tomorrow evening, of course planning the expedition will take time. We are certain of the eyestone’s presence, but narrowing down its precise location won’t be--”

“Mr. Strickler?”

Neither of them flinched, far too experienced in the game for that, merely turned and sculpted their features to show appropriate levels of surprise and curiosity while Otto discreetly slid the vellum off the desk and back into his bag.

Tobias Domzalski hesitantly peeked in through the office door “Sorry, am I interrupting? I can come back later,”

“Nein,” Otto got to his feet “I was just leaving,”

“Oh, uh...ok,”

Toby stepped aside and let Otto pass, turning to watch him retreat down the hall with a look of piqued interest on his face.

“Mr. Domzalski?”

The boy snapped back to attention “Oh, uh sorry…..was that a friend of yours?”

“Oh yes, Otto and I go way back,” Strickler gestured for Toby to take a seat at the piano stool across from his desk that Otto had been occupying until just recently “He was just dropping by before heading off to a dig overseas, now what was it you needed?”

Toby sunk onto the stool, face flushed crimson “...am I that obvious?”

Strickler made sure the smile he gave him was only slightly patronizing “When you’ve been doing this as long as I have you get good at spotting these things, but it does look like you have something on your mind. Now what can I do for you?”

“It’s not for me-- and I don’t mean it’s about a friend of a friend that’s secretly me, I mean--” he cut off his babbling with a sharp intake of breath “It’s about Jim,”

Strickler raised an eyebrow “I applaud you for looking out for your friend’s grade point average, but if Jim is struggling in class it would be better if he comes and sees me himself,”

“Not...not help like that,”

His curiosity about Toby’s presence deepened into concern as he saw him shrink further in on himself, a shadow of the outgoing, slightly foolhardy boy he was used to “Jim’s having problems at home,”

The tightening of his fingers around his fountain pen was the only outward sign of the profound shock Strickler felt at that moment.

Problems at home.

The words every teacher dreads hearing.

Strickler pulled himself up straighter and leaned forward ever so slightly, filing all thoughts of Kilahead into the back of his mind to focus entirely on the matter at hand “What sort of problems at home?”

“His mom-- his mom…” he choked, the words almost seeming to physically pain him.

Strickler sat at attention and said nothing, waiting patiently. It might be difficult for him to voice this knowledge, but Toby would unburden himself in his own time.

“His mom locks him in the basement,” Toby said at last, voice cracking towards the end.

For the first time this afternoon the surprise on Strickler’s face was more genuine than not “What?”

He’d been occupying his cover as an educator for a few centuries now, and was fully cognizant of the things that could happen to his students behind closed doors, but rarely was it brought up so bluntly.

“Throws him in the basement and ties the door shut,” his tone took on a heavy darkness “I know because Jim basically admitted it, plus there are the photos,”

“Photos?”

Wordlessly, Toby took out his phone and taped the screen a few times before holding it out towards Strickler. He took the offered device and started thumbing through the gallery.

What he saw painted a very grim picture indeed.

And being experienced as he was, Strickler had a good feeling that he already knew the answer to his next question, but he had to ask it all the same “I agree that these photos are rather...damning, but you also said Jim also admitted this was taking place, may I ask why you’re here and he is not?”

If Toby had been punched in the stomach at that exact moment his expression would have been identical “Because ten seconds after admitting it he started denying it,”

He suspected something like this might be the case, but that didn’t mean he was happy about being right.

Strickler netted his fingers and let out a measured sigh “I can see why this would be difficult for you,”

“I-- it’s just…we said we’d help him, and he has to know this isn’t ok, so why would he…” Toby trailed off, voice thick with emotion and the beginnings of tears.

He could quite keep the tired look off his face as he watched Toby hunch over and start to tremble, pondering the best way to respond.

There were dozens of potential answers to that question, none of them good. Fear of retaliation, misguided loyalty, twisted sense of familial obligation. Strickler settled on the one that would make the most sense given what he knew about the situation.

“Because it’s all he’s ever known,”

Toby looked up at him, eyes brimming.

Strickler leaned forward, voice as gentle as gauze “I don’t want to comment on something I know so little about, but when a person spends their whole life believing certain behaviors are normal, it can be difficult for them to recognize when they truly need help,”

“Yeah,” Toby said darkly “I can get that,”

It was at that moment Strickler remembered precisely how long Jim and Toby had known each other.

“Tobias, Jim’s situation is not your fault,”

“Oh yes it is!” Toby snapped at him with a surprising amount of force “I’ve known Jim for over a decade-- we’ve been in every class together since kindergarten! How could I not…”

He trailed off, last few words closer to sobs.

Strickler stood up from his desk and walked over to kneel down and look Toby in the eye “Because you were just a child yourself, because your friend’s safety should never have been your responsibility,”

“But it-- it--,” he hiccupped out the words, clearly trying desperately not to cry “It shouldn’t have taken me this long to notice!”

Tense silence filled Strickler’s office. He remained steadfast and unflinching from his position besides Toby for a few moments before speaking up again.

“Maybe the best time to come forward was ten years ago, but the second best time is now,”

Toby sniffled and raised his head to look him in the eye.

“It might have taken you a while to see these things, but the instant you realized what was going on with Jim you went to get him help. That’s all anyone can do, and is considerably more than what most chose to do,”

Strickler had been through this particular song and dance before, and he wasn’t so naive to believe that his words alone had the power to cure Toby of the raging storm of conflicted, contradictory emotions inside him, but seeing the boy wipe away his tears and hold himself just a little straighter, he knew that they’d helped somewhat.

Situation better in hand now, Strickler walked back around to sit at his desk “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, if you can email me those photos I will pass them, along with everything you’ve told me, down to the right people and make sure Jim’s situation is thoroughly investigated,”

He paused, debating whether this last inclusion would be welcome or not “If you want to help Jim in the meantime, the best way is to try to stay close to him. I know it might be hard, but he’s going to need a friend more than anything in the coming weeks,”

“Ok...I’ll try,”

“Now, are you alright to go to your next class or do you need a moment?”

“I’ll-- I’ll email you the pictures, then I think I’m gonna….take five...for a little bit,” Toby said while pulling up his phone and not so discreetly rubbing his eyes.

Strickler nodded at him in acknowledgement while pulling out his laptop and searching his contacts for an email address he only used in the most dire of circumstances.

This situation should be followed up to the letter. It would take up more of his time than he’d prefer while also supervising the acquisition of the last few bridge pieces, but he couldn’t afford to do anything less. Kilahead may be nearing completion, but that was no reason to let his cover slack. If anything now more than ever it was important to maintain the facade. This close to the end any slip ups could undo centuries of hard work.

When he heard Toby sniffle again, Strickler very deliberately did not look up.

And although he would never admit as much, Strickler did feel somewhat sentimental towards his students. He prefered that they be allowed to enjoy the last few months of the world as they knew it in as much safety and comfort as possible.

Once Gunmar returned, any semblance of safety and comfort would vanish from their lives.

Still...these types of investigation proved to be tedious and lengthy even at the best of times. Extending from now to the bridge’s completion was certainly a possibility

Perhaps if the situation was severe enough to warrant it he could arrange a late parent teacher conference on one of the nights Bular was due to pay him a visit….

Strickler had to stop a small chuckle from escaping his lips.

Pale lady forgive him, he really was going soft.

Louis muttered an ugly curse as his keys fell to the floor with a clatter. Dammit that was the third time this week he’d dropped his keychain while trying to hang it up. Were his reflexes starting to go or were the ten hour shifts just that draining?

Biting back a blue streak, he picked up and rehung his keys before slipping his shoes off and stepping into the front hall.

“Darci, you home?” he called out while continuing on to the living room “Dinner’s in the crockpot,”

Glancing around, Louis stopped in his tracks when he saw that Darci was indeed at home and sitting on the couch, her friends Mary and Claire sitting on either side of her. Normally this wouldn’t be any cause for concern, the three were practically joined at the hip, but their tensed shoulders and worried frowns told a different story.

“What happened, is everything ok?”

Darci briefly looked up and met his eyes, before tearing her gaze away with a grimace “No...not really,”

His hands tightened into fists “Who was it, who’s bothering you?” whatever punk out there that had dared upset his little girl was going to have Detective Louis Scott bring the wrath of god down on his scrawny--

“But not with me,” she looked from side to side “Or any of us,”

Just like that the wind was out of his sails “Oh,” calmer now, he stepped over and sank onto the easy chair across from them “Ok, then who?”

Her face twisted into a deep wince, Claire reaching up to put a comforting arm around her and picking up where she left off “You remember Jim, right Mr. Scott?”

Louis raised an eyebrow “Yes?”

He certainly remembered Darci and her friends spending a lot of time with two new boys almost immediately after starting high school. To say the least, he hadn’t exactly been thrilled, but didn’t try to interfere. Boys were a fact of life, and Darci was going to spend time with them whether he liked it or not. And he’d heard plenty of cautionary tales from other fathers about what happened when they hung on to their daughters too tightly. Besides, Darci had never given him any reason not to trust her judgement so Louis saw no reason to start now. So he made it his policy to let Darci spend her time how she wanted and with who she wanted, within reason of course. And on more than one occasion he had sat her down to discuss what kind of behaviors in other people were red flags and made it crystal clear that she could always go to him for advice and help. But for the most part he left her to her own devices, even when it set his nerves on edge to do so. After all, he very well couldn’t spend her whole life chasing away boys with a baseball bat.

But he’d be lying if he said the idea didn’t tempt him from time to time.

“Ok…What about Jim?”

Claire went gaunt and silent, Darci worked her jaw, struggling to get the words out “I-- it’s…”

“His mom locks him in the basement,” Mary blurted out for her.

For a moment Louis didn’t know how to react, as a member of law enforcement and a mandated reporter, he consciously knew that if any of his friends or acquaintances wanted to report abuse of any kind he’d be the first person they’d go to. Better to talk to someone they already knew and trusted than a faceless government entity that may or may not actually take them seriously.

But knowing didn’t prepare him for when it actually happened. When his daughter came to him and said one of her friends was in trouble. He’d met Jim on a few occasions, seen Dr. Lake in passing and spoken on the phone with her frequently. He seemed like an ok kid, she seemed like a nice enough woman, neither of them ever gave off any signs that something sinister was lurking beneath the surface.

Of course if this kind of thing was easy to spot there wouldn’t be a need for detectives in the world.

He started mentally filing through the policies and procedures drilled into his skull “Did Jim tell you this himself or did you see something?”

They all shared an uncertain look, the silence continuing on for a few seconds before Mary spoke up again.

“We...saw something,”

“What kind of something?”

Darci shook off her discomfort first and pulled out her phone “Here,” she tapped at the screen a few times and held it out to him “We took these at Jim’s house, it’s his basement door,”

Louis took the offered device and examined the screen. Going by the fact that they claimed Jim’s mother was locking him in the basement, and that Darci said these were pictures of his basement door...even before he’d looked at the photos, Louis already had a good idea of what he would see.

Unfortunately he was right.

He shut his eyes and pulled in a deep breath, using years of practice to compartmentalize the mental image of daughter’s friend and the pictures he’d just seen “You did the right thing by coming to me,” he opened his eyes and looked back towards her “Now do you have any reason to believe that Jim is in immediate danger?”

She shook her head “No,”

“Can you describe how Jim and his mother interact?”

The girls took a second to ponder over the question “We don’t really see much of Dr. Lake,” Claire admitted “She’s at work a lot, and we don’t really hang out at his house much,”

“They always seemed...normal,” Darci said slowly “But...there was that one time we were late coming back from the movies she was acting weird,”

He leaned forward ever so slightly “Weird how?”

“It was past Jim’s curfew and he panicked and rushed home really quick, when he got inside his mom wouldn’t let us come in and see him,”

Realization dawned on Mary’s face even before she spoke up “Wait a second, doesn’t she always chase us out the door pretty early on?”

“Yeah that’s right,” Claire said, Mary’s epiphany catching “She doesn’t like us hanging out there past his curfew,”

“Plus his curfew is crazy early,” Darci added “Like four o clock or something,”

“And he doesn’t do sleepovers, either going or having,” Mary added.

Sounds like Dr. Lake didn’t like Jim staying out and didn’t like his friends staying over. Could be run of the mill controlling or something worse. Too soon to tell.

“Aside from locking him in the basement, have any of you noticed any indication that his mother might be violent with him?”

“No,”

“Have any of you confirmed with Jim that he made these marks when he was locked in the basement and that they weren’t caused by something else?“

He saw the mixture of shock, hurt, and indignation fly across their faces and held up a hand “Not that I don’t believe you, I believe you girls one hundred percent, but when going forward into an investigation like this it’s important that all evidence is corroborated and accounted for,”

None of them responded right away. Darci and Claire looking flustered while Mary blushed scarlet before looking down and away.

Thanks to his experience in interrogations Louis had a pretty good idea why the three of them looked so guilty. They’d already tried confronting him and it had gone badly. Well nothing to do about that now.

“We...asked him,” Darci said at last “He didn’t say anything at first, but we could tell by the way he reacted that it was true,”

Louis nodded at that “Ok,”

“And then….” she swallowed deeply “I don’t think he meant to, but he said that his mom hasn’t put him down there since he was seven, and then he started saying that if we told anyone he would deny it,”

By the time she finished speaking her voice was tight and small.

Louis gripped the armrests to anchor himself, the fact that their friend was backpedalling to cover his mother and that he’d allegedly been locked in the basement since before he was seven years old weren’t the worst things he’d seen in his career, didn’t even make the top ten. But it was hard knowing that it had been his daughter’s friend, a boy he’d seen and spoken with on more than a few occasions, that stung.

And seven years old….Jesus, no kid deserved that.

“Thank you for coming to me with this girls, I’m going to pass this information along and make sure an investigation is started with CPS,”

Darci nodded “Thanks dad,”

He pushed himself up straighter “Now I know the way your friend acted must have seemed very confusing,”

The trio nodded.

“I don’t want to make any assumptions about his home life, but I do know that when someone grows up in an abusive household, it really skews what they consider normal. I’ve known a lot of people that grew up with in dysfunctional families but didn’t even realize it until they were in their forties,”

He had to be really careful not to put his foot in his mouth for this next part “And the relationship between a child an abusive family member can be...complicated,” he raised a hand to rub the bridge of his nose, trying to prevent the tension headache he felt coming on “Things with them are rarely all bad all the time, most often there’s just enough good to keep the victim coming back,”

Too close to assumption territory, needed to bring this back on track.

“Regardless of what’s going on at home, Jim might try to do everything he can to protect his mother, even when he shouldn’t,”

Now for the tricky part.

He leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees “But in the meantime, you’re still going to be seeing Jim at school, right?”

The trio shared uncertain looks before Darci turned back towards him “Yeah?”

“If you can it would be good to try and apologise for trying to force him to come forward so you can keep in communication,”

The three of them were stunned, as he’d expected, but this was something it looked like they’d have to learn sooner rather than later.

Darci was particularly taken aback “But we didn’t….”

Louis crossed his arms, raised an eyebrow, and gave her a look that he’d honed to perfection over fourteen years of parenting.

She trailed off, all of them fidgeting uncomfortably.

“I guess we were kind of...pushy,” Claire said while nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“It’s ok, you didn’t know any better,” he let out a deep breath “Once I make the call and get the ball rolling things are going to get pretty hectic for him,”

He slowly turned his head looking at each of them in turn “Going forward keeping the lines of communication open is important, especially if things start going south for him at home. The best way to help is to just continue being his friends and to stop trying to get him to turn on his mother,”

“So wait…” Mary sounded confused “You want us to just ignore the fact his mom locks him in the basement and pretend like everything’s normal?”

“Not….quite,” Louis sat back with a grimace “For whatever reason your friend clearly isn’t ready to come forward with this, so the best thing to do is be supportive in any other way you can,”

“Now,” he netted his hands together “You girls should not ignore any signs that further abuse is taking place, whether it’s something you see or something Jim says. But if he’s made it clear that he’s willing to outright lie, pushing him would do more harm than good. So if you ever do suspect anything else is happening, don’t confront him, but try and document it in any way you can and bring it to me,”

Louis let out a deep breath, knowing the worst part of this converstaion was about to come “In child abuse investigations not a lot happens right away. It often involves observing behavior patterns over a long period of time,” he steeled himself before he said the part he knew was going to break their hearts “And it’s more common than anyone would like to admit that not much comes of them,”

His chest tightened looking at their stricken faces, but he pushed forward.

“Which is why it’s so crucial to try and maintain your relationship with him, even if whatever investigation we start now doesn’t pan out to anything, if you stay on friendly terms, then you can still help him months, maybe even years down the line, do you understand all that?”

Darci’s looked crushed, expression barely concealing the horror he knew she must be feeling, and mirrored by both of her friends, but she responded all the same “Ok Dad,”

The other two girls forced themselves to reply as well.

“Got it,”

“Will do Mr. Scott,”

He looked over them carefully “So are you girls all doing ok?”

“Yep,”

“Yes,”

“Uh huh,”

“Good, and I promise I’m going to file all this first thing tomorrow,” he glanced at his watch “It’s getting late; Claire, Mary, we’re going to eat pretty soon, care to join us?”

Both girls shook their heads “No thanks,” Claire said “My mom’s expecting me back for dinner,”

“Do either of you need a ride?”

“It’s ok,” Mary added “We came here on our bikes so we can get home in plenty of time,”

“Alright, but don’t feel rushed, you two can stay here as long as you like,”

The two glanced at Darci, who gave her head a single shake.

“Actually we should really get going,” Claire stood up, pulling Mary up alongside her “Thanks again Mr. Scott,”

“Anytime girls, and I mean it,”

They turned back just long enough to wave and headed out the door, leaving just the two Scotts inside.

“You sure you’re doing ok pumpkin?”

“Dad I’m fine,” she forced the words out through one of the fakest smiled he’d ever seen “I’m just glad that Jim is going to get some help,”

“Well just remember, I’m always available whenever you aren’t fine. Even if you do something stupid like breaking and entering, I promise I’ll be more supportive than mad,”

She rolled her eyes “Da-ad! Just because you broke into the old vespa factory when you were in high school doesn’t mean everyone does!”

He chuckled “I know, but humor your old man, and go set the table while you’re at it, I’m getting hungry,”

Darci let out an impressively loud groan before getting up and obediently heading to the kitchen.

Louis watched her go, smile dropping off his face as she vanished from sight.

Part of him wanted to leap on what was clearly Darci pretending to be better than she felt, but he stopped himself. He had made it clear that he was available, now it was on her to reach out when she was ready.

He’d done his best to prepare her and her friends for some of the hard realities of this situation, but there were some things he hoped they never had to learn.

Louis had seen more than a few domestic abuse cases cross his desk. And on two occasions he had seen with his own two eyes just how ugly the endings to these cases could be.

He hoped to god this wasn’t going to turn into number three.

#tales of arcadia #Trollhunters #fanfic #A Secret's Worth #walter strickler #otto scaarbach #toby domzalski #detective scott #darci scott #claire nuñez #mary wang #rmvwrites

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megan0013 · 3 years

Note

Chuckin’ a ⭐️ your way.

Sorry this took so long to answer! I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share or not, but then I realized VARIABLES is never going to get to this point anyway (though I’m halfway done with chapter six) so I might as well write out my thoughts and send them off into the universe.

That being said - this is more of a 1,350 word abridged and super self-indulgent ending than a “Director’s Cut”.

Jim goes into the Darklands months after he does in canon; thus, Gunmar doesn’t take over Trollmarket until Barbara is near the end of her pregnancy. And, unfortunately, she happens to be in the middle of an appointment with Vendel (who does not die) when the coup takes place. She’s recognized immediately as the Trollhunter’s mother and is taken captive after Otto tells Gunmar that Morgana would be most interested in a human/changeling hybrid. Gunmar considers it for a moment, and then appoints the poor polymorph as Barbara’s keeper. Which is how she’s able to stay healthy(-ish) throughout her imprisonment.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and Morgana is finally freed. One of her first orders of business is to go goad the Trollhunter’s incarcerated mother. She walks into the medical dwelling (where Barbara has been kept), monologuing, and then freezes.

“Gwen?”

“Uhhh… No. My name is Barbara Lake.”

But Morgana is convinced Barbara is the reincarnation of her long-lost love (I think they used the same character model, so that’s what this is based on) and decides that, as the mother of all changelings and Gwen’s lover, she’s entitled to keep/raise this baby.

Meanwhile…

Team Trollhunter is freaking the fuck out.

Especially when they’re in the middle of planning a rescue and Strickler’s face suddenly scrunches, and - oh, holy shit - the baby’s coming. There’s a fun scene in which Strickler is in absolute agony and, somehow, Toby winds up holding his hand.

“Omigosh! Breathe, Strickler! Breathe! You’re having a baby!”

“Do I look like I have the equipment to give birth, Domzalski? Fuck off!”

“I’m hurt, Strickler. Wounded.”

Abruptly, all the pain stops.

But then a feeling of fear, and exhaustion, and unparalleled love overwhelms him as the bond moves from a physical connection to an emotional one.

“It’s too late,” he says. “We’re too late.”

They’re not too late, and within twenty-four hours they (Strickler, Claire, and Aaarrrgghh) manage to infiltrate Trollmarket. Strickler finds Barbara. They have a very panicked reunion - “Oh my. That’s my daughter, and I’m so happy but we must get you out of here right fucking now.” - before Claire portals them to the hospital, where Nik and a very specifically picked team are not-so-patiently waiting.

Morgana is pissed.

Anyway. There are a few complications but, ultimately, both mom and baby are okay. Barbara is sedated to help her heal (which is probably not something that happens irl, but let’s pretend - ok?), so Strickler is able to get some good bonding time in with his daughter while trying to keep up with Jim’s persistent, panicked texts.

At one point, Nik tells Strickler to go home for a few hours. He does, but only stays long enough to shower and pack a bag before heading back to the hospital - with Jim in tow. There’s a lovely brother/sister moment, and then Barbara wakes up and there’s an even lovelier brother/sister/mom/dad moment.

Jim goes home and instantly agrees to Merlin’s terms, while Strickler tries to talk Barbara into leaving town with the baby. She’s not having it. At all.

“Have you forgotten I’m the one person Morgana wants alive?”

Toby texts later that evening to see if they’ve heard from Jim. Barbara freaks and Strickler goes to join in the search for him. It’s a very tense day, followed by a very tense evening and a super awkward conversation in Barbara’s hospital room at 3 am wherein Jim starts gnawing absently on a stethoscope.

All this happens while Morgana is plotting out how best to bring forth the Eternal Night, betray Gunmar, and get her little ‘family’ back. She summons Otto (the changelings aren’t slaughtered, btw, and some of them are pretty sympathetic toward Strickler after seeing him around town actually living what they thought was only a fantasy life) and instructs him to kidnap the baby.

“You want me to… to steal Stricklander’s daughter?”

“Were you not listening? No, I want you to bring me the child that is rightfully mine. Her mother will surely follow.”

He’s hesitant but goes to do as he’s told.

Only, he doesn’t get a very good look at Nik when they pass in the hallway and winds up getting a few of his features wrong. Which probably wouldn’t matter if he were trying to trick anyone else, but Barbara and Nik have known each other since 8th grade and she calls him out almost immediately.

“You’re the polymorph. Otto, right? Walt’s told me so much about you.”

“He has?”

“Of course. He said you two used to be close - like brothers. In my book, that makes you family. Would you like to meet your niece?”

And, just like that, the Lake’s adopt another changeling.

Something Strickler is most skeptical of when he returns to the hospital a few hours later to find them chatting about some dumb stunt he’d pulled back in the early 1600’s. Nomura meets up with them, too, and the four manage to hash out a stupid, harebrained scheme to keep Morgana distracted up to, and during, the final showdown with Jim.

(I haven’t quite thought out all the specifics yet, but the plan includes Nomura in a glamour mask and Otto squeezing into a teeny, tiny little shape - so, you can guess where that’s going)

Anyway.

Barbara and baby are released from the hospital after three nights (might be two, idk, we’re playing fast and loose with the timeline here). They get home, entertain a few unexpected guests, host some impromptu strategy sessions, and then settle in for a small family meal that Strickler prepares in the hopes of bridging the gap from Jim’s old human palette to his new troll one. It goes over way better than canon, that’s for sure.

Later, after Jim has left to prepare for battle and the baby is finally down, a teary-eyed Barbara asks Strickler if he’s willing to stay with her that night. He jumps at the chance, because…

They still aren’t together.

They’ve ‘shared a bed’ once or twice since he moved in, but those were moments of passion and need that had only ever manifested into miscommunication and more. mcfreaking. yearning.

(They were roommates, anyone?)

And now? Well, this is definitely one of those moments. But with sex off the table, and a newborn two feet away, and the end of the world looming - maybe he should just tell Barbara how he feels about her?

“If something happens and I don’t come home tomorrow, I need you to know… My feelings for you haven’t changed. I’m still hopelessly in love with you.”

Of course, she feels the same.

Vows are made, kisses are exchanged, and they manage to get a few hours of rest before their daughter starts grumbling in her sleep.

The next day dawns bright and beautiful, and before Strickler leaves for battle Barbara wishes him good luck. He kisses her, then the baby, and says:

“This is all the luck I need.”

Or something like that.

(Because I think this kid’s name is Felicity [meaning ‘happiness’, and derived from felicitas meaning ‘luck, good fortune’]? Though, I might have just left it as Rory for consistency’s sake. Fun Fact: Rory is short for Aurora [Goddess of the Dawn], which I thought was a fitting name for a changeling to give their daughter.)

Ok, back to the story.

Everything, surprisingly, goes according to plan. Morgana is sufficiently distracted by Merlin and Aaarrrgghh, then by Otto and Nomura long enough for Jim to vanquish the Skullcrusher once and for all. But then she catches a whiff of the changeling magic surrounding Otto and Nomura. Everything sorta goes to hell after that.

True to canon, however, Team Trollhunter wins in the end by trapping Morgana in the Shadow Realm.

But only after Strickler sacrifices himself to save Jim’s life.

…

Joking.

They all live happily ever after.

(Until, ignoring Wizards altogether, Morgana breaks free a few years later and kidnaps the one changeling who isn’t a product of her magic, and is thus impervious to her mind control. Hijinks ensue. Morgana is rather pleased when the kid’s parents show up to rescue her.)

#trollhunters #stricklake #variables fic

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misssilencewritewell · 4 years

Text

Overall review of wizards. Spoiler warning. This is just my opinion. If you enjoyed it, I’m happy for you. I think it was far too rushed.

Five episodes in we finally started to get introduced to interesting characters. But the pace never slowed down long enough to understand their role, their personalities, purpose, etc. It was a quick flash of ‘Oh that’s cool-and they’re gone...but I wanted to see more and understand...’ The quick glimpse of Angor Rot (my boy 😭) Why did he fish Morgana from the river? He hates humans...I’m confused??? He has magic. Did he learn from the evil magic squad?

The graphics are incredible. It looks amazing but I feel like for me to have a connection to this part of the story it had to have been longer. Another ten episodes of us getting to know Douxie in Arcadia would’ve been nice. When you dump as much information and new things on viewers it’s just too much for us to handle. I was so distracted by going “the heck is happening” to ever bond with Douxie. This makes me sad because I was enamored with him in Trollhunters. Also, he went from super suave bad boy to derpy bard boy. Not necessarily bad...but personally, I enjoyed his confidence in Trollhunters. Straight up hit a gum gum with a guitar. Not a magic one...just a regular guitar. Chad move. But this...felt weird. I personally think it would’ve been a much better plot twist had he been Mordred. Would’ve given him a darker edge, a vendetta, an interesting character arc. His goal to be to avenge his mother Morgana and kill Merlin/Trollhunters. Instead we find out that he’s basically a edgy, awkward bard. Which isn’t bad but not enough character development for me to be excited about any apparent growth or newly discovered powers.

Steve Palchuk (while I love his character) was unnecessary to this plot. I would’ve preferred Eli. His brains would have been helpful and I think his comedic relief would’ve fit better than Steves. Steve’s jokes just didn’t seem to land. The comedy relief was not timed right. Again, I absolutely loved Trollhunters and 3 Below...but there was never a moment to stop and catch your breath to know the world and characters which made it difficult to enjoy.

I still don’t fully understand how magic works. Douxie taught Claire for a minute and that was it and now he’s her teacher? Morgana and Merlin walk to the other side and say that sorcery dies with them but Claire and Douxie are left. Magic is...emotion? Kinda? Idk they never explained. 🤷‍♀️

Arthur’s character was...confusing to say the least. He misses his love and hates “dark” creatures because they killed her. But he comes back from the dead...to atone for his sins...by being evil? That didn’t make sense to me. Same with Morgana coming back and him being like sup sis! Know I tried to kill you but we are blood family! His super quick switch to asking for trolls help and loving his sister again was unexplained and made 0 sense. Just make him a dislikeable character and leave it at that. Sometimes it’s better to keep things simple. Over complicated plots can be messy and unenjoyable.

Morgana going from villain to hero was expected but executed poorly. She would flip like a switch and I just couldn’t sympathize with her as much as I did when she was a villain. I enjoyed her passion while being dark. Her redemption arc could’ve been handled so much better. Her having a romantic thing with Merlin and Merlin betraying her becoming the true villain while she is thirsty for revenge would’ve been top tier world building. We got butt jokes from Steve instead.

Strickler and Nomura. I want to see them. Especially back then? Oh they would be so evil and dark and I LIVE FOR IT. Especially since we love them now. It’d be cool to be reminded of their past. Back to the Jim smelling of human without being a changeling. Could’ve seen more on that and an interaction with him. They’d be fascinated I’m sure. Morgana created changelings but that could’ve easily been explained that she was working behind Arthur’s back the whole time. Working with Gunmar and creating changelings to infiltrate the castle while pretending to be submissive in court to Arthur and Merlin. It would explain why Changelings value cunning even more so and it would’ve been more believable than her talking to Claire one time and saying “yes! I’ll just tell my bro he crazy and needs to stop! Thank you kindly foreign hand maiden with dark magic!” Like there’s no reason for Morgana to trust her. Use her...sure. She would want Claire power, but Morgana’s character was far too rushed to make sense. I miss it when she was just a villain.

Also...Jim gets stabbed by a blade and they don’t call his mom? They don’t let her know her son could be dying? She’s a doctor. She doesn’t know much about the dark Magicks but she’s so smart and Strickler is her boyfriend. She should’ve been told. She should’ve shown up. I love her character and she adds a lot to the dynamic. Steve was the focal point far too often.

Bular. (Inhaled deeply). I missed him so much. It was cool to see Gunmar and Bular again. Bular I feel could’ve been interesting to build more too and I’m grateful for what we received. He obviously was more impressionable than his father. Morgana saved him and he immediately vouched for her while touching his fathers shoulder saying softly “she spared my life.” Like...Bular is an excellent character because even when fighting Jim in his final moments, Jim talks to him about dad issues and you can see Bular think about it and ultimately decide his fate. Just...ugh yes I missed the angry tall charcoal man.

Confusing part though...Gunmar and Bular declare that forest their own. Jim and Deya are there and watch as they scare off Arthur. You’re telling me they just let them go??? When they’re trying to recruit trolls for the war? They just go welp...see ya. Nah. There should’ve been dialogue there. The strange troll that smells of human but isn’t an impure. Cue the changelings. Could’ve been an awesome Segway into the life of the gum gums because honestly...Arthur was a douche and I sided with the Gum gums. Like yeah they eat people but Arthur was so...weird and uncomfortable to watch that I’d rather see the Gum gums who make no qualms over what they want or who they are.

The...giant dragon that’s the familiars dad. No reason for him at all. An attempt at a quirky dad character that landed flat. He went from oh lemme get you a cup of tea to DONT ChALlenge Me BoY I KnOw KaRAte!!! And I was like...ummmmm excuse me??? And then he went on to give a lesson on grief and show pictures of his son and I was like Soooooo we aren’t burning Douxie to a crisp? We are just going to throw in a quick ill timed lesson on grief?

The fight between Krel, Claire and the gang vs evil Jack Frost, eye ball raven, and evil Arthur electric boogaloo. Instead of showing the fight they did a recap. That fight would’ve been so awesome to watch and instead we got a recap of them getting their booties kicked. It’s an effective time saver but lazy story telling.

The fawn earth bender woman is important because she was part of the secret magic club and decided she didn’t want to kill people anymore...or something. As if her club ever lied to her about what they were about to do. Like Oh we are killing people? I thought you were joking for millions of years.

They all need her back to do...something evil that I can’t remember which I assume the movie will be about. I want more lore on evil Jack Frost and eyeball raven. They just were like “Congrats Morgana! We are the cool super old magic squad. We are the dopest thing in this show and we won’t say anything about ourselves besides a vague description in under 3 secs that leave our viewers confused and disappointed because they want more.”

Like seriously. They were the best part. Their intro was on a flying castle and I kinda hate that their intro was Merlin yelling “Oh no! Them!” Like we are supposed to know what and who they are. Build up is so important for an aundieces understanding. Like who they are? What they want? What they are? I spent the first half of the show mostly confused and the last half moderately confused and bewildered.

In conclusion, not my fave. It lacked the charm and quirkiness of 3 below and the depth and character development of Trollhunters to deliver a mediocre segway to a film. I really want this film to do well...but they will be on a time crunch and I was not impressed with how they handled this one in ten episodes. Fingers crossed the movie does better.

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p-artsypants · 4 years

Text

Arcadia or Bust (15) Area 49-B

(Ao3) (FF.net)

Well...it’s been a minute (over a year). How y’all doin?

So, I finally got down to watching Wizards and it was just as amazing as I thought it would be! And I got to see my boy!!! My Jim!! And Claire!! Ahhh!!!

For the purpose of this fanfic, I won’t be changing the background I gave Morgana. In this story, the events of Wizards never happened. Nor the events of the end of 3 Below. I already wrote the start of the new school year, jumping passed the timeline of both of those seasons. Though, I might be cherry picking information from both (like Douxie and how much Toby and Eli know about Krel and Aja.)

I hope that makes sense, and thank you!

I’m dedicating this chapter to @nattikay, because she said she wanted some positive Troll Jim content, and I wanted to get this to you sooner for it!

Previously on Arcadia or Bust:

Jim, Claire, Blinky, and Merlin came back to Arcadia, only to find that James Lake Sr. had turned up. Merlin gained favor with the party by turning the man into a pig temporarily. Jim went back to school in a glamour mask, only to be exposed as a troll by Steve, who punched him in the face. Now that everyone knows what he looks like and who he is, Jim continues school as a Troll. He’s been recruited for the football team too.

Everything would have been great...except James Lake Sr. left a bag of cocaine on top of a trash can, as a drop zone, only for Jim to find it and go on a drug fueled rage across town. Now unconscious, Jim must face the consequences...

—

When Jim awoke, he was bouncing slightly in the back of a van. Not an ambulance, a van. He groaned to wakefulness.

“Oh, you’re finally awake.” Spoke a voice.

Peeling his dry eyes open, he looked around the plain, armored vehicle to find himself surrounded by men in uniform with thick helmets and guns.

He wanted to ask what was going on, only he was muzzled, and strapped to some kind of plank. If he tried really hard, he could probably break free, but he was still exhausted.

And he wasn’t sure how trolls fared against gunshots.

“You’re being escorted to a secure facility where you can’t hurt anyone ever again, you disgusting beast.”

Oh, that wasn’t good. He’d hurt someone?

So that dream was real?

Where was he? Where was mom? Claire? Toby? Did they know where he was?

“...mmm...”

“I’ll unlock your muzzle for one minute. Make it quick.”

A switch clicked and Jim felt his jaw relax ever so slightly. Just enough to talk.

“Does my mom know where I am? What happened?”

“Do you think we care about some mother of a beast?”

Jim swallowed, feeling heat rising to his cheeks from anger and embarrassment. “Dr. Barbara Lake. At the Arcadia Oaks hospital. Please...she’ll worry about me.”

Someone else spoke. “She was there when we took you. You were unconscious. She knows.”

Well. She knew. She’d tell Claire, and Toby, and Blinky...but now what? Behave?

Was he under arrest then? Was he going to have a trial?

What the hell happened??

—

24 hours previously.

They did everything they could. Now it was just up to Jim to pull through. His heart rate was down, and his stomach had been pumped of the excess cocaine he hadn’t already thrown up.

Barbara was on the clock, so she couldn’t just sit and wait. Though, that might have been a blessing. It was agony just waiting. Watching his chest rise and fall with great effort.

It was supposed to be a tense, quiet waiting game.

But that all changed with the soldiers that stormed in in full riot gear.

“Hands in the air!”

Several men entered the room, and immediately secured Claire, Toby, and Strickler.

“What’s going on?!” Demanded Claire.

An African American woman, only in uniform and not full gear, strolled into the room, head held high.

She stopped right at the end of Jim’s bed, raking her eyes over his prone form. “So this is the menace. I didn’t think they hospitalized beasts.”

Barbara stormed into the room. “What are you doing?! Who are you?! Get away from my son!”

The woman just turned and held her gaze. “Colonel Kublitz. I’ll be taking your patient into my custody.”

“No!” Barbara argued, shouldering passed her. “We’ve been talking to the police! This is all a big misunderstanding! Jim was poisoned! And he can’t be moved! He’s unstable!”

The woman was not dissuaded. “Amazing that you’d be so protective of something that tore up your town, terrorized your neighbors, virtually held your city hostage. Why would you try to save that?”

Barbara snarled at her. “He’s my son!”

“I suppose he gets the blue skin and horns from his father? I know a troll when I see one. Last time, I missed them all. I’m not missing this one. He’s coming with me.”

“And I’m telling you, I will not discharge him!”

“I don’t need you to.” She snapped her fingers. “Bring in the board.”

“You don’t have the authority!”

“You’ll find that I do.”

“You can’t take him! He’s not a monster!” Claire shouted.

“This doesn’t concern you, little girl.”

“It actually does! That’s my boyfriend! And I’m not going to let you take him!”

The woman shook her head. “Please people, I can only be so disgusted.” She nodded to the men standing by Claire, Toby, and Walter. “Escort them out.”

“You can’t do this!” Toby shouted as he was shoved forward.

Out in the hall, they watched in horror as the soldiers wheeled in what looked like a dolly with a flat metal back, with thick straps that wrapped around.

Barbara was pushed out of the room a moment later.

“You can’t do this! Stop! Stop! You’ll kill him!”

“All the better.” Said Colonel Kublitz. “Then we can stop having these apocalypses.”

“Jim stopped Gunmar! He’s a hero!” Claire cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. “He’s our protector!”

The Colonel ignored them, and put her focus back on the room.

A few moments later, Jim was wheeled out, strapped down by the arms, legs, pelvis, chest, and neck. A horrible muzzle, like the kind Hannibal Lector was forced to wear, covered his face.

“No!!” Claire shrieked. “You’re killing him! Let him go! Let him go!”

But the Colonel had enough talking and directed her men, and Jim, out.

“We can’t let them leave!” Cried Toby, “we have to help him!”

“There’s nothing we can do right now,” said Walter. “They have guns and authority. We’ll find a way to help Jim. Somehow.”

“Do you think my mom could do anything?” Asked Claire.

“Local government rarely has anything to do with the federal, let alone the army. But it’s worth a try.”

“I’ll call Ophelia.” Said Barbara.

“No, Mrs. Lake,” interrupted Claire. “I’ll handle it. You’re still on the clock.”

Barbara sighed, and brushed her hair back. “I suppose I am. Thank you, Claire.”

—

The next day at school, the student body was slightly shaken. Rumors had spread, and evidence of Jim’s rage still remained, like the doors ripped off the hinges.

Most students gave Toby and Claire a wide berth.

Darci came running the second she spotted them. “So what happened? Where’s Jim? Dad said they weren’t going to arrest him. Is he still in the hospital?”

Claire frowned hard, lines pulling at the corners of her lips. “They took him. Some soldiers from the army or CIA or FBI. I don’t know. They muzzled him and...” she started crying.

Darci and Toby were there to comfort her immediately.

“I don’t know where they took him! I don’t even know where to start! It’s like...Area 51 stuff. I might—we might never see him again!”

“Excuse me?” A voice cut in. “I’m very sorry, but I couldn’t help but hearing your distressed cries. You said the Troll Jim has been taken to a secret government facility?”

Claire looked up to the newcomers, sibling students she had shared plenty of classes with, but she blanked on the names. “I’m sorry, what’s your name again?”

“My name is Krel.” Said the boy.

“And I’m Aja,” the girl answered. “It’s okay, in all the end of the world craziness, my name slipped your mind. It happens! But, anyways, if I’m correct, I believe Jim may have been taken to Area 49-B. My brother and I have experience breaking in. Of course, we’ll need a different plan from last time...”

“Wait wait wait...you know where Jim is?”

“Most likely,” Krel corrected. “It’s the closest government facility that specializes in the paranormal and extraterrestrial.”

“And...you and your sister have broken out of it?”

“Into it...and then back out.”

“Why?”

Krel scratched the back of his head. “We Uh...needed something.”

Toby patted Claire’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Claire, they’re cool. They’ve got secret underground knowledge, like Jim. You know?”

Claire, quick as she was, made a little nod of understanding.

These two siblings weren’t what they seemed.

“The lightning in a bottle!” Claire snapped her fingers. “I’m sorry, I totally forgot about that.”

“Like I said, end of the world stuff.” Aja shrugged. “We had our own problems to take care of.”

“Of course, we still do,” shrugged Krel. “But we understand the importance of helping friends when we can.”

“Well, I appreciate it. And I’m sure Jim will too. Why don’t you guys come with us after school? My mom works in local government and she said she was coming up with a plan. We could use someone with insider knowledge.”

“Lively!”

“How dangerous is this place?” Asked Darci. “What kind of stuff are they going to do to Jim?”

“If he’s lucky, they’ll cage him and observe him.” Said Aja.

“But, they did try to dissect me, so that’s on the table too.”

“Oh Jim...” Claire got misty-eyed again.

“Now, now, no reason to cry!” Krel interrupted. “Area 49-B is mostly about extraterrestrial research. Jim might just be held there...for safety. Yes, for safety. That’s what we can hope for.”

The way he said it didn’t instill Claire with confidence.

—

Jim remained in and out of consciousness for several hours, fighting nausea, and confusion. When he was conscious, it was all a blur of technology and bright lights. Needles poked at his skin, and he felt the coldness of metal under him.

Several hours later, when he was coherent, he awoke to find himself strapped to a table, naked, and surrounded by several specimens floating in jars and canisters. Slowly, he became aware of the researchers around the room, in yellow hazmat suits. They looked foreign and alien. All of this was drowned out by the bright light shining down on him from above.

It was like a strange nightmare.

“Jim Lake Jr.” Said a woman’s voice.

“That’s me.” He croaked.

“Who’s Jim Lake Sr.? Another monster?”

Jim scoffed. “In a way, but he’s entirely human, if you were wondering.” He flexed his cold hands, willing circulation back into them. “What happened?”

“According to our reports, you decided it was perfectly acceptable to ingest a kilogram of cocaine, and go on a rampage through your town.”

Jim’s throat felt dry, and his nausea came back in full force. “I did what?”

The woman held up a tablet, and showed him a video. It was a compilation of security footage from around the city. In each one, his rampaging form tore through the area, upheaving cars, sidewalks, and light posts. Anything in his way. Then towards the end, he saw himself carrying Claire over his shoulder roughly. She screamed out in pain.

“I…I didn’t…that’s not me.”

“It is you.” The woman snarled. “You hurt all those people, terrorized a whole city. And they tried to protect you, acting like you were one of them. But you’re not. You’re a beast. And that’s all you’ll ever be. No matter what you think.”

Jim stared at the tablet as the footage started over. It was him, but it…wasn’t. This Jim was erratic, chaotic, and cruel. It made sense why this woman and her team would believe he was a beast if this is what they saw. So now what? He had to convince them that he wasn’t actually that bad? They had video evidence.

This was all his father’s fault. That had to have been his cocaine on the trash can.

There had to be a way to convince them that this was a horrible misunderstanding and that he was a victim of circumstance.

That could take a while.

—

After school, Aja and Krel went with Claire and Toby back to her house to share their knowledge of the government base with Ophelia.

But what they found there instead was startling, to say the least.

It was all hands on deck. Blinky, Barbara, Ophelia, Xavier, and even NotEnrique were hard at work making signs and banners.

“Um, mom?” Claire asked upon entry.

“Oh Claire! I didn’t even hear you walk in!”

“What’s going on?”

“We’re campaigning!” Barbara said with gusto.

“Campaigning?”

Ophelia held up a sign that said ‘Free Jim Lake Jr.’ on it. “For Jim’s release!”

“What?”

“If there’s one thing the government hates, it’s attention and protests! So we’re going to get the whole town in on it. I have some contacts at the news station too! It’s going to blow up!”

Claire frowned. “Wait, I thought you went through all that effort to hide the trolls, why would we risk exposing them now?”

“Oh Claire, we’re not exposing the trolls, we’re campaigning the release of a boy that looks different.”

Claire crossed her arms, skeptical, but not in denial. “Go on…”

“Think about it. Jim’s not a prisoner that’s in jail. There was no trial. No arrest. He was given no rights and kidnapped by the government. This kind of stuff shouldn’t happen in the US.”

“But how do we convince the town that Jim really isn’t a monster? He did do a lot of damage. I know we convinced the city not to press charges as long as Jim helps clean up…but what about all the cars he flipped?”

“That’s where you come in!”

“Me?!”

“My apologies, Lady Claire,” Said Blinky. “That would be my doing.”

“What did you do?”

“I simply explained to your mother that your skills in magic have improved to the point where you were able to restore our truck to a near perfect condition after that accident we had.”

Ophelia continued. “And I’m going to pretend to not be angry that you didn't tell us you were in a serious car accident on your way back from New Jersey. Blinky said you almost died!”

“But I didn’t!” Claire held up her hands in defense. “See? All good! Magic and all that…”

“So, you can restore the cars that were totaled?” Asked her father.

“Well, maybe…? It might take a little time. Using that much magic is exhausting.”

Barbara rested a hand on her arm. “Anything you can do to sway the town that Jim isn’t a monster will help. If we have to do a fundraiser to pay for damages, we can do that too. Anything to get the town on our side.”

“I’m willing to try!” Claire assured.

“So I guess we’re not needed?” Asked Aja.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Ophelia, approaching them. “As you can see, we’re in a state of chaos here. Are you friends of Jim and Claire’s?”

“Naturally!” Said Aja. “I’m Aja, and this is my little brother Krel.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, I’m councilwoman Nuñez. Please, if you’re willing to help, we’ll certainly take it.”

“Well,” said Krel. “We were here to offer a different sort of help…”

Ophelia raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“What my little brother means,” Aja stated, elbowing him out of the way. “We have some information on the government facility that Jim was taken too. Area 49-B. Mostly used for research into the extraterrestrial and paranormal, but I suppose that could extend to Jim and the trolls.” She rubbed her hands together nervously. “We…had to recover some equipment from the facility. Which required breaking and entering…”

Ophelia leveled a look at them both. “Is any of this so-called equipment dangerous to the city? Do I need to be concerned?”

“No no no!” Krel waved his hands around. “Well, it’s mostly safe. Unless there’s a malfunction. But even then, that’s a small possibility…”

“Krel…” Aja bit.

“What? I’m just being honest with the woman!”

“It’s okay guys, you can trust Mrs. Nuñez.” Said Toby. “She knows all about Jim and the Trollmarket.”

“I mean, next thing you know, you’re going to tell us to trust everyone in Arcadia.” Joked Krel.

“I’m working my way there.”

“Fine,” said Aja. “We’re not...from earth. We're in hiding from our home planet. We’ve come to take sanctuary here.”

“And we need to repair our ship before we can leave.” Added Krel.

“Aliens.” Said Ophelia, with the blankest expression and tone.

“Uh, we prefer the term extraterrestrials.”

Ophelia just sighed. “Trolls. Wizards. Aliens. What’s next? Gnomes?”

“Oh, there’s been gnomes,” answered Toby.

“Goblins?”

“So many goblins.”

“Okay, so space invaders.” Ophelia threw up her hands. “I guess we’re just that town now, huh? Great. Wonderful.”

Barbara smoothly took over the situation. “What can you tell us about the facility?”

“Well, for starters, it’s very hard to get into. 10 foot cement walls, blast doors, motion sensor laser guns, the last time we broke in, we had to fake an alien sighting to lure out some guards, stole their uniforms, and snuck in disguised. And we had our AIs monitoring our every move through security cameras and luring personal outside with tacos.”

“Hmm…sounds dangerous. How did you sneak out?”

“We…didn’t.” Aja laughed awkwardly. “We kind of busted a giant extraterrestrial arthropod out to cover our escape. We were only lucky that that woman saw us in our real forms and not these human projections. No doubt, she’s hunting for us anyways.”

“A jailbreak won’t work anyways,” stated Claire. “They took Jim from Arcadia. If we broke him out, he wouldn’t be able to return here, cause they’ll just take him again.”

“The woman in charge is Colonel Kublitz, and she’s really mean.”

“So I gathered from her visit in the hospital.” Said Barbara with a scowl.

“Then the campaign is our only hope,” confirmed Ophelia. “If we can’t break him out, and we can’t appeal to the Colonel’s heart, then we put pressure on her superiors to let him out.”

“But first, we need to get the town on our side. Which means clean up duty.”

—

“Has anyone seen Jim? I need a library card, and I was hoping to borrow his.” This was said by Merlin, who waltzed into the Lake house as soon as they returned from the campaign meeting.

“What?” Asked Claire. “You mean you didn’t hear?”

“If I had heard any news about Jim, do you think I’d be asking?” He put his arms on his hips. “I don’t have one of your cellphones, I’m not ‘in the loop’ as you like to say.”

Toby answered, “Jim’s been kidnapped by the government and taken to a secret facility to be experimented on!”

Merlin blinked once, twice, and scratched his chin. “Well, that’s not good.”

“No, it’s really not!”

“So are you going to help us save him?” Asked Claire. “It’s your magic that got him into this mess in the first place!”

“Oh, so sorry for trying to make sure your boyfriend stayed alive. I won’t do it again,” he rolled his eyes. “But yes, I’ll help rescue Jim. What is it that you need? Dimension door? A portal to get him out? Or perhaps some fire power down the front door?”

“No, we need you to help fix the damage Jim did to the town.”

“You want me to what?! Do I look like a janitor to you?!”

“Come on man, it’s all part of the plan!” Said Toby, “We’re going to get the whole town on our side, and then we’re going to campaign and make a big stink about him being taken! It’ll give them a bunch of unwanted attention, and they’ll have to listen to us!”

“Oh yes, I’m certain that’s exactly what’s going to happen…and not mass execution.”

“This is the 21st century, the government isn’t going to execute an entire town.”

“Oh, they don’t do that anymore? Pity. Anyways, I suppose I can help reverse the damage Jim caused…what damage would that be, exactly?”

“James Butthead Sr. left a bag of cocaine out where Jim could find it and he ate it and went into a drug fueled rage, where he flipped over cars and light poles and scared the bejebus out of everyone.” Toby stated. “The police agreed not to arrest him, because of the circumstances, as long as he agrees to clean up the town…but then the army came in and yada yada yada, Bob’s your uncle.”

“What? When did this happen?”

“Just yesterday.”

“How did I miss it?”

“You were probably at McDonalds.”

The man frowned, “I hate that I’ve become predictable. Alright, I’ll get to work doing street repairs first thing in the morning. Until then…does anyone have a library card I could use?”

—

Maybe they’d let him go on good behavior, he wondered. Jim followed every direction to a T, and regarded every scientist or personnel politely. Yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am. Please and thank you. Every ounce of humanity he could muster, he demonstrated.

In return, he’d been poked and prodded. Blood, urine, sweat, spit and all manner of bodily fluids had been extracted and examined. He had run on a treadmill for hours until he collapsed. He had gone without food and water for the last two days.

They were treating him like anything but human.

He was just happy they weren’t using UV lights yet.

“How are you feeling?” One of the researchers asked.

“Hungry, tired.” He panted from his table.

“What do you eat?”

“Anything…do you have any socks?”

“You’ll have to wait a bit longer for food. Until the Colonel gives the okay.”

“And how much longer will that be?”

“She’ll be here soon, why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Jim really hated interacting with the Colonel. Most of the personnel were indifferent to him. Some of the researchers actually spoke to him, but most just treated him like he wasn’t even there. The Colonel though, she was cruel. She belittled him, humiliated him, reminded him of the actions that had put him in here.

She made him feel like an animal, more than anything else after his transformation had.

“Why is she so much meaner than everyone else on this base?” He asked rhetorically.

“She’s scared of you.” Said the researcher, not looking at him. “And you’ll never be free as long as she is.”

Great. Awesome. Just what he wanted to hear. Oh well. He’d just have to up his politeness. Maybe he could convince them to let him cook or something. That could work.

Soon enough, the Colonel arrived, tablet under her arm and a sneer on her lips. “James Lake Jr.”

“That’s me,” he rolled his eyes. He’d been through this every time she’d come to see him.

“Junior at Arcadia Oaks High School. Nearly perfect GPA up until last year where you got a large stint of absences. Starred in the drama production of Romeo and Juliet. This is you?”

“Yes! I’ve gone to the Arcadia Oaks school district since Kindergarten!”

“Except Jim Lake Jr. looks like this,” she held up last year’s school photo, with the old him. The human him. The him that didn’t flip cars and trash towns.

“That was me a few months ago.”

“This doesn’t look anything like you.”

“It doesn’t? Not the eyes? Face shape?”

“What I don’t understand is that your DNA samples came back, and they had some commonality to Jim Lake Jr.’s DNA, about half. So, what happened?”

Jim kept a wary eye on her, thinking his answer through. He had been asked something similar by a police chief several states away. Then, the truth hasn’t been too hard to confess, they were far from home and they had treated him like a person.

A criminal, but a person. And they apologized afterwards.

But this woman...there was no mercy in her eyes.

“Well? Are you going to give me answers? Or am I going to have to force them out of you?”

Would she even believe the truth?

“Magic.” Jim provided, as a start.

The Colonel was unimpressed, and growing impatient.

So he elaborated, carefully, “this amulet,” he gestured to the stone embedded into his chest. “Was created by Merlin the wizard of Arthurian legend. It chose me to be the protector of man and troll.”

All of the Colonel’s attention was quickly on the amulet, as she studied it. “Protect from what?”

“Gunmar, mostly...how much do you know about the tornado in Arcadia?”

“I know that it wasn’t a natural tornado. I know that your town was upheaved by trolls from deep underground, and that when it all went away, the town shut it down tight. There’s only a few amateur videos of the incident.”

“That was Gunmar. He led an army of evil trolls that wanted to blot out the sun. It was my job to stop him...but I wasn’t exactly a star athlete...so, Merlin turned me into a half troll.”

Turning this entire exchange, the Colonel never once looked away from the amulet. “I see...and what happened to Gunmar?”

“I stopped him. I killed him. And killing him destroyed his army. Everything is safe now.” He managed to smile. “Now that you know I’m not all that bad, would you ease up a bit? That last incident was an accident...I didn’t know it was cocaine, I just thought it was trash!”

“Silence.”

Jim bit his lip, waiting for the Colonel to make up her mind.

“I want to study this amulet in more detail.”

“Well, you can look all you like, but it’s embedded in my chest.”

“That’s never stopped me before.” She turned to the researcher nearby. “Get me some gloves and some forceps.”

Immediately, Jim started to squirm and pull at his restraints. Forget politeness, she wasn’t getting anywhere near him with forceps! The restraints groaned as he pulled on them, tearing the welding apart.

“Sedate him!” The Colonel ordered.

He tried to resist, he really did, but the mask held over his face made him weak. It didn’t completely put him under, but it did make his head a little foggy and his limbs not cooperate.

“Just sit still, it’ll all be over soon.” The woman’s voice could have been soothing, if it didn’t hold such malicious intent.

Jim felt the pull on his chest as the cold metal forceps tried to pry the amulet free.

Of course, Jim had a stroke of genius. “For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!”

It didn’t release him from his binding, but the armor forced the woman away from him, and added extra support over the amulet’s edges.

And as an added bonus, he summoned his helmet and visor, which pushed the anesthesia mask away from his face.

Now to just get free!

The researchers had all gone from the room when he started to glow, but the Colonel stayed behind, unable to tear her gaze away.

“Fascinating...”

Hopped up on adrenaline and rage, Jim gave a final heave to his bindings and broke free.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Said Colonel Kublitz.

“Leaving, preferably. Look, I told you what you wanted to know, I let you poke and prod me for days without water. But I’m done. I’m going home.”

“And then what?” She asked. “You think we won’t come after you again? Hell, you think you can break out of here?”

“I can try.” He rolled his shoulders and summoned daylight. “And maybe if I make a good enough of an impression, you’ll find it not worth it to try to get me back.”

“Try if you can, but now that I know exactly what that amulet is capable of, I’m not letting you leave with it!”

Thankfully, Jim had a spectacular response time, and darted out of the way at the first sign of the gun, or laser. Whatever that thing was.

She fired beam after beam, only for Jim to dance out of the way, swiftly and gracefully. He dove behind other specimens and lab equipment, but the Colonel seemed to have little regard for them. Glass tanks exploded, making the floor slippery and sending glass everywhere.

Before Jim could even reach the door, the room was already surrounded with armed men, all armed with lasers.

“Give up, Beast! There’s nowhere to run!”

“I’m not a beast!” Jim shouted back, with a roar. Looking up, he found a large vent in the ceiling. That very well could be his way out.

But as he jumped to grab for his hold, a beam connected. Bolts of electricity crashed into him over and over in waves, flowing from his horns to his toes, making him convulse violently and unwillingly. He collapsed on the floor in a writhing mess.

“Don’t touch him yet, the current is still in his armor.”

Jim felt it too, passing through his very body like he was made of metal.

Then it all stopped, and he laid exhausted on the floor. He blamed it on his hunger, his thirst, his restlessness. This was a battle not won.

“Now then, where were we?”

The electrocution left him too tired to fight, and just awake enough to feel all the pain.

“You know, a blast at that voltage would have killed a normal human.” She said. “Guess you can be thankful for that, huh?”

Jim could only let out a weak groan, before his armor faded away. The hands that grabbed him hurt, even just from the residual shock. He was placed back onto a table, and strapped in again. He had no strength to fight.

“Alright, let’s try this again.”

They didn’t even sedate him, just tore into the flesh of his chest to remove the amulet.

“Scalpel isn’t going to work, I need a chisel.”

He could feel the tool cracking into his chest, one knock at a time, carving away. It hurt, oh it hurt, and he cried out in pain.

And then it was over, and he felt so hollow inside, so empty.

The Colonel held up the amulet in the light, bits of him still clinging to it. “There now, that wasn’t too bad was it?”

Jim was unable to answer, his body trembling in pain and shock. His breaths were erratic and shuttering.

“Clean this up, and then find out what the secret is. I want that armor for myself!”

#arcadia or bust #Trollhunters #troll jim #jim lake junior #claire nunez #jlaire #fanfiction #tales of arcadia

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