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rosemaidenvixen · 24 days

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Between Daylight and Darkness

Chapter 1

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Ao3

“You have any idea what this is about?”

“Nope, Toby just said that Jim found something unusual and wants to meet up at his house to check it out,” Mary glanced down at her phone, rereading the text message that said as much.

First Jim ran out during the middle of history class, acting cagey the rest of the day, and now this. With the events of the past year fresh in her mind, she’d done her best not to push beyond asking if he was ok. Which Jim had brushed off with ‘I’ll tell you later’.

An honest answer for sure, but not a particularly reassuring one. Toby had promised to talk to him one on one later, which brought them all here. Obviously they weren’t going to push Jim if it was something private. But Mary would be lying if she said she wasn’t dying for some answers.

The three of them headed up the front steps of Jim’s house, Claire stepping forward to knock on the door. And after hearing Toby call ‘It’s unlocked’, let themselves inside.

Heading into the house, Mary saw Jim and Toby sitting in the living room, Jim clutching something shiny in his hands.

“Hey guys,” Darci tossed her bag aside and took a seat on the couch, Mary and Claire doing the same “What’s up?”

Jim hung his head and let out a shaky breath “So this morning, I overheard Eli saying something,”

“He better not be trying to get into the school’s basement again,” Mary mumbled.

The last time Eli’d tried to uncover the secret mafia treasure stash buried underneath the school, which by the way, didn’t exist, he’d busted a pipe and the entire school had to be evacuated and classes had been canceled for a week and a half while they mopped up the water and fixed everything.

She was honestly surprised he hadn’t gotten suspended for that.

“No not that, Eli was saying…he said on his way to school he saw monsters fighting under the canal bridge. Monsters with stone for skin.”

Just like that the atmosphere of the room shifted from casual to tense. All four of them sitting up at attention, eyes locked on Jim.

Claire ever so slightly eased herself forward “So were you…”

“That’s just the thing,” Jim propped himself up with his hands on his knees, looking around and meeting each of their gazes in turn “I was nowhere near the canals this morning. I stayed inside until I changed, then headed to Main Street to stop at the bakery and took the long way to school,”

Mary let out a small breath, tension she hadn’t even realized was building between her shoulders uncoiling. No one had spotted him, Jim was in the clear and his secret was safe. But this particular coincidence still cut far too close for comfort.

“Then later, during history class I heard something…someone calling my name. It kept getting louder and no one else could hear it but me so I ran out and followed it–”

Jim cut himself off and pulled in a deep breath “I followed it to the canal bridge, and I found this,”

He reached out and dropped something on the coffee table with a clang.

“This was the thing calling my name, I pulled it out of a pile of rubble underneath the bridge, it hasn’t said anything since,”

Jim sat back as the rest of them leaned in, staring down at the object on the table.

If she’d heard this story from anyone besides this specific friend group Mary would have laughed in their face and told them to come up with a more believable prank. Mary wasn’t laughing now.

Jim would never joke about something like this. And all five of them had seen far stranger things than talking inanimate objects.

Claire reached an arm out then hesitated “Can I…”

“Sure go ahead,”

Permission granted, Claire plucked the object up and held it up close to her face to examine it. Darci and Mary leaned in over her shoulders, watching with keen interest as Claire turned the object over in her hands.

“It kind of looks like…a pocket watch, or some kind of clock,”

Mary was inclined to agree, the object was a circle about the size of a phone, silvery metal framework and hands around a shimmering blue face with writing around the edge. But that was where the similarities ended. The language written on it wasn’t any Mary recognized, looking more like fantasy runes than anything else, the gears and hands inside enmeshed together in a jumbled mess unlike any clock Mary had ever seen.

Claire glanced up from the object back towards Jim “Can I try something?”

“Go ahead,”

She turned her gaze back down, raising a single finger to push at the largest hand “If I can just–”

Without warning the object shot straight out of Claire’s hands, making all of them jump, slamming into Jim’s chest and knocking him back against the couch with a grunt.

Before any of them even had a chance to react the object started whiring where it was pressed up against Jim’s shirt. Gears spinning and hangs ticking faster than Mary’s eyes could track, blue face flashing behind them, faster and faster and faster–

Abruptly the object froze with a resounding click.

A glowing ball of light drifted out of the object, all of them watching frozen in shock as the ball drifted up and vanished into Jim’s chest. Before she could even process what she’d just seen another ball of light floated out and drifted into Jim, then another, then two more–

Mary felt a scream building in the back of her throat, only to be cut off in a strangled gulp as the entire room lurched.

Her fingers dug into the couch cushings, desperately trying to steady herself as a wave of dizziness rocked into her. And when she saw strands of her hair drifting up and around her face, swaying in the completely still room, she knew that the sensation wasn’t just in her head. Pens, coasters, and various other small objects drifting up into the air around her.

Claire was able to anchor herself to, but Toby, Darci, and Jim weren’t so lucky, floating up into off the ground with shouts and yelps. Floundering in the air along with lighter pieces of furniture.

Mary’s heart was in her throat, stomach doing flip flops, if she looked in the wrong direction or even thought about what was actually happening she was going to throw up. From out of nowhere there was a sudden burst of light in the air around Jim. And when Mary looked again a piece of metal, the same silver as the object, materialized in the air in front of him, then another flash, then another, light and metal filling the air around him.

Seeing the shape of the metal surrounding him Mary’s brain started to connect several sets of dots, but before the picture could take shape in her mind all the metal flew towards Jim in a blinding flash, knocking them all back and returning gravity to the room in an instant.

Mary sagged back onto the couch with a gasp of releif. Breath coming in sharp pants and trembling all over, fingers still in a death grip on the cushions. She shook her head to try and clear her vision only to freeze.

Jim was now standing there in the wrecked living room in a shining silver suit of armor, a large sword strapped to his back and the round object embedded in his chest plate. Staring at his gauntleted arms with eyes blown wide and jaw hanging open.

For a few seconds no one spoke. All of them, Jim included, standing there completely stupefied.

The silence was broken when Toby let out a low whistle.

“Now that’s what I call magic,”

Mary’s heart was still hammering, brain still reeling, dizziness from earlier not yet fully dissipated, but curiosity overpowered the shock and she pried her fingers off the couch and stood up.

This wasn’t any kind of costume or cardboard imitation, this was full on real deal metal plate armor. Enough to make Jim the envy of every history and ren fair nerd in the state. And that sword didn’t look like it was for show either.

Toby rapped his knuckles against his chest, producing a metallic ringing sound “Ok did any of the things you saw or heard this morning imply ‘magical suit of armor’?”

“...no I can confidently say that this came out of nowhere,”

“I’m kind of surprised you’re being so chill about this,” Mary walked up and leaned in to examine the object embedded in his chestplate, now softly ticking.

Jim let out an awkward chuckle “Oh I’m doing all my freaking out internally,”

“How do we know for sure that the armor itself is magic?” Claire joined them “For all we know it’s just a regular suit of armor,”

One of Darci’s eyebrows arced up “Claire I’m pretty sure that regular suits of armor don’t appear out of thin air,”

“But maybe it’s just the watch that’s magical and it summons a regular suit of armor?”

“Hang on I think I know a way to test that,” Toby rushed out of the room “Be right back,”

“Ok let’s just table the armor and its potential magical properties for the moment and go back to this,” Jim pointed at the object now embedded in his chestplate “What is it? Where did it come from? Why does it summon a suit of armor of all things!?”

Mary stepped in closer then froze once she spotted something on the watch, leaning her face right up towards Jim’s chest to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

“Uh Mary what–”

“The writing, on the watch, it’s in english now,”

“What!? What does it say?”

Mary squinted, craning her neck to read the circular script.

“For the glory of…Merlin…Daylight…is…mine…to…command…”

“Merlin!?” Darci started “Like ye olden times Camelot Merlin? I thought he was just a myth,”

“Most historians agree that Merlin existed as some kind of advisor to Arthur,” Claire sided up to Mary to stare at the object herself “But all the stories about him having magical powers were supposed to be exaggera–”

“I’m back!” Toby rushed into the room “With the proper equipment for scientific analysis,”

Toby came up to Jim and placed something against his armored shoulder. As soon as he took his hand away the object fell to the ground. Expression scrunched in concentration, Toby repeated the action twice with the same effect.

Mary glanced down at the objects gathering in a pile at Jim’s feet, it took a few seconds for her to recognize them as fridge magnets.

“Uh…Tobes what exactly are magnets supposed to tell us?”

“Traditional plate armor is steel based,” Toby said, placing another magnet on Jim’s chest only to have it immediately slide to the ground “Which means that these should at least stick a little, so the only explanation is this armor doesn’t have any steel in it at all,”

“So what would it be made of?” Darci stepped closer “Silver?”

“It’d be pretty crappy armor if it was made of silver,” Claire said “Platinum or titanium maybe?”

Toby grabbed Jim’s arm and lifted it up, bending the elbow back and forth “I’d have to do more testing to be sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s not any of those three. If it was silver I’d expect at least a little tarnish, and it feels way too light to be platinum or titanium,”

Jim huffed out a breath “Ok guys as fun as this all is I gotta take a break to–”

Abruptly he went ramrod straight, face going chalky.

“Jim?” Mary took half a step away from him “Jim what’s wrong?”

“I change in five minutes,”

“Oh….kay….”

“Guys there’s a reason I get undressed when I change. If just growing while wearing jeans sucks a suit of armor’s going to be….”

Mary could pinpoint the exact second everyone’s expressions changed from confusion to pure horror, hers included.

Oh shit.

“Ok we’ll get it off we gotta get it off,” Toby reached up, grabbed Jim’s chestplate and started tugging at it, Darci scrambled around and did the same at his back. But despite the two of them pulling with all of their might the armor wasn’t budging.

“Hang on I think I have an idea,” Claire dashed out of the room, the two of them still frantically pulling and straining at the armor while Jim stood awkwardly between them

Mary hung back, if Toby and Darci’s yanking wasn’t doing the trick hers wouldn’t make a difference. She kept trying to think around this, how was the armor attached, what was holding it in place–

“Step back!” Claire rushed back into the room, a metal spatula grasped tight in her hand. Toby barely had enough time to scramble out of the way as Claire charged at Jim, wedging the spatula underneath the object.

“Hang on,” Claire pressed the handle down further “Almost–”

Blue light erupted from the object, rocking the room with a wave of concussive energy, much stronger than the earlier one. Throwing couches and tables aside and slamming all four of them back.

Mary’s back hit the wall with bruising force, the air knocked from her lungs and vision flickering, a pained wheeze escaping her as she crumpled to the ground.

“Guys!” Jim raced around, whipping his head around the room towards each of them “Are you ok!?”

“Fine,” Mary’s voice came out coarser than she would have liked, gripping the side of an upturned bookshelf and pulling herself to her feet “Just a little bruised,”

The tension didn’t leave Jim’s face, glancing around at all of them and the scattered furniture “What the heck was– hrk,”

Mary knew Jim more or less shapeshifted from human to his blue horned form every sunset, even if she’d never personally seen it happen. But she’d been around Jim enough that she knew the process had to be quick, even if it involved growing horns.

The reality was even faster than she expected.

It reminded her of the time lapse edits in documentaries, showing tectonic plates pushing flat land into towering mountains over millions of years in a matter of seconds.

Pale skin darkened into blue, limbs lengthening and thickening, facial features shifting, fangs and horns appearing as rapidly and gently as frost disappearing. If she’d blinked at the wrong time she would have missed it.

She was so dazzled by Jim’s transformation it took her a few seconds to notice something equally shocking.

“Dude…” Toby whispered “The armor…”

Jim didn’t look up, busy staring down at his hands and arms, or more likely the armor that now fit them perfectly.

Somehow the armor had grown along with the rest of him.

“Ok, wow…” Darci whispered “That armor is definitely magic,”

Jim glanced up “Yeah I…I guess it is,”

Mary didn’t say anything but her mind was going a mile a minute. She didn’t have all the pieces yet, none of them did. But between the armor being able to ‘magically’ accommodate both of his forms and Eli’s claims of creatures of stone skin near where Jim found it, she had a gut feeling that whatever this object and armor were, they were connected to the magic that made Jim change every sunset and sunrise.

Now they just had to figure out how.

#tales of arcadia #trollhunters #sunshine au #rmwrites #jim lake jr #toby domzalski #claire nuñez #darci scott #mary wang #between daylight and darkness #arcadia quintet

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thegurlwhoisntthere · 3 months

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Trollhunters au where everyone in Arcadia who’s grown up there has some kind of inherent magic about them, although some have more than others.

This is kinda inspired by Your Future Hasn’t Been Written Yet by Sakon76 on ao3, in the sense that people generally have a type of magic that they’re drawn to and can become really good at, but some people can learn other types and become a Jack of all trade master wizard type thing.

Some types of magic in the fic are smith magic, techno magic, shadow magic, and winter magic. There’s more but some get into spoiler territory if u haven’t read it and are going to so…

Anyway, in this au any kind of magic you can think of probably exists here and in Arcadia, everyone is capable of at least one of them, with varying levels of power and breadth (amount of magicks they’re capable of), although most of them don’t know it.

For example, Toby is good at troll types of magic, geomancy mostly, with a hint of smith magic. Before he knows about magic he’s drawn to rocks as we can see in the show. He would probably be really talented at geomancy, but struggle to do anything or than lower level smith magic

Claire would be an example of someone more powerful. Even before she ever knows about magic, she’s weirdly aware of her surroundings, almost like she has a six sense. She’s always been able to see better in the dark. When she does learn about magic she picks it up surprisingly fast and the only reason she doesn’t branch out beyond shadow magic right away is because she doesn’t know she can, but she always wants to know more.

Everyone else would fall into similar types:

Jim would be really good at potions (cooking), but have a hard time with literally anything else. This makes be Trollhunter, needing to cleave stones, kinda suck and super stressful.

Mary, would be really good at the software portions of techno magic. She’s also good at weaving and energy, but she’s less powerful with them because she’s not as interested in them. She could probably have a similar breadth to Claire (maybe smaller), but less power because unlike Claire, she’s not interested in much more.

Eli would also be good at Techno magic, both the software and hardware and a few other things, but he’s not that powerful. Most of his abilities come from the fact that he’s genuinely just skilled with tech.

Steve and Darci are harder to figure out, but I think it would hilariously if Steve was really good with plants, but has no idea.

Like, he doesn’t even have to try to get plants to like him, and he has no idea because he’s never thought about it. His parents were not plant people and he’s not friends with plant people, before and after he learns about magic, so he’s just going around with some powerful plant magic and no knowledge about it. They land in Camelot and suddenly plants are sprouting where he walks??? There’s higher magic levels 900 years in the past, which is messing with his uncontrolled magic, but they don’t know that. I just want copious amounts of confusion.

And finally, Darci. I have no idea what kind of magic she would have. Is there such a thing as Dance magic??? Chill vibes? Wind? Who knows? Whatever it is, it’s cool and she’s good at it. Ooo maybe, like Empathy and aura reading? And wind could work with dance? Maybe? Idk, but I think her powers would be more subtle than the others.

These are only, like, the main teenagers in Tales of Arcadia that I’m pretty sure grew up in Arcadia, but this would apply to all the other kids and the adults that grew up here.

Btw, I don’t think I mentioned, the reason it’s only people who grew up in Arcadia is because of the Heartstone. It’s literally huge and radiates magic so powerful it actually affects the humans living above it.

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