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gwenore · 4 years

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The Trollslayer. Chapter 9

Chapter 26: Strickler and Barbara finally talk about the situation and have plenty of drinks, which has never ended well for them.

Note: I have really appreciated all the comments on this so I decided to add another chapter. I doubt I will come back to this regularly, but I might to a chapter here and there.

“So… how is drinking as a troll?” Strickler questioned as Barbara was slamming back another shot of the bourbon which they had found buried back in a cabinet.

“Makes me wonder how you got so stupidly drunk back in university,” she said as she wiped her lips. Strickler chuckled softly before he nodded his head slowly.

Strickler cocked his head slowly before he made a slow nod.

“They snuck up on me,” he said with a soft laugh in his voice. Barbara raised a brow towards him before she shook her head.

“If you say so…” she said before her head slammed into the kitchen counter that they were seated around. Despite himself, Stickler had to wince ever so slightly.

“You alright?” he had to ask. Barbara simply let out a groan.

“Horns are heavy…” she simply muttered.

“Mhm… they are indeed…” Strickler simply agreed with her as he poured himself another drink. Barbara lifted her head slightly.

“I want to fight…” she then stated with a furrowed brow.

“That is a very common troll emotion… it happens often,” he said with a soft laugh in his voice.

“Never seen you be like that…” she muttered.

“Well… I am old… and I have learned to repress that side of me. If you want to pass as a human you cannot make such outbursts. In fact… it takes a changeling long to learn how to balance their two opposing natures. It has cost many their lives,” he sipped his drink deeply.

Barbara looked at him for a long time.

“I am sorry…” she swallowed.

“That was what the Janus order was supposed to prevent to some degree. But as changelings first and foremost look after themselves… you can imagine that there is limited success with this…” he shrugged his shoulders. “Still… something that a changeling has to learn.”

Barbara ran her hand through her hair, twitching a bit at the feeling of horns under her fingers.

“I… I can see how that has been a challenge… how about Jim then… since he is part changeling…?” she had to ask.

“I do not know… but I think that boy has far greater worry about besides his bloodline,” Strickler sighed as he poured himself another drink.

“Yes… the whole trollhunter thing… I have to confess… I really do not like it, but…” Barbara’s voice faded out.

“No… it is good reason for that. At least Bular is gone, but Gunmar is always going to be a threat. There will also always be other dangers…” Strickler glanced over towards her.

Barbara swallowed, looking down rather nervously, clenching her hand.

“You could have lied to me to make me feel better,” she took another swig of her drink.

“I have done that too much already… and it ruined everything good in my life…” he let out a defeated sigh. “Suppose lies always do catch up with you in the end…”

Barbara swallowed… brushing a bit of her hair behind her horn… which was odd in itself as she sipped her drink.

“Suppose you have plenty to regret…” she whispered. Strickler let out an amused chuckle.

“Suppose so…” he murmured, but he then cocked his head. “Or… well… there is not much I actually regret believe it or not… I always just… did what I felt I had to in order to survive… what changelings do I suppose… but hurting you. Lying to you… that I do truly regret.”

Barbara swallowed, before she nodded her head.

“So… James… what are we going to do with him…?” she then asked. Strickler simply pounded back another drink, as he let out a soft hum…

“James…” he shrugged his shoulders. “I doubt nothing good is going to come of it. Hate to say it… but… he is who he has always been…”

That was everything which needed to be said really.

“I just worry what well… what if Jim finds out that I have been lying to him… I don’t think that he could handle that I have been lying to him… and… doesn’t he deserve to know that his father is back… I mean, he must have so many questions! Fuck! I have so many questions!” she growled slightly.

Strickler sighed.

“That is something you have to decide about what is best for your son… and you. I already can tell you that he left you two… and he didn’t look back. I do not know if that is something Jim needs to hear… or you need to hear from him…” Strickler then said, keeping his voice low.

Barbara swallowed.

“It just… feels so strange… that he could walk away from everything… and never once look back…” Barbara furrowed her brows. “Have you done that?”

“I have left several lives behind… what you have to do when you are as long lived as we are… we really have no other choice in the matter…” he then let out a soft sigh. “But… before… I kept my distance really. Put myself in situations where the humans might wonder what had happen to me, but only as a passing thought. I always said that, we shouldn’t get involved. Get too close…” he let out a soft chuckle. “Before you… I was good at sticking to it too. Suppose I figured that the changeling bit was so difficult to get over… but… ignored all the awful things that I did…”

“That sounds lonely…” Barbara was now leaning on her chin, feeling that her horns made it a bit too hard to keep her head up. However… she feared that if her head hit the kitchen counter it would crack the tiles with how heavy it felt.

“I suppose…” Strickler muttered. “But… I am used to it… and it is nothing more than what I deserve…”

Barbara looked at him again, narrowing her eyes, before reaching out her hand and delivering a punch directly into his arm.

“BARBARA!” Strickler exclaimed as he rubbed his arm.

“You piss me off…” Barbara grumbled.

“Well, that still hurt!” he grumbled as he moved a bit away from her.

“You just… annoy me endlessly,” she grumbled.

“From what I have heard that is not an uncommon reaction regarding me,” he muttered.

“I should do far more than just hit you,” Barbara’s stare was enough to make the changeling move slightly away.

“Again… a very troll like emotion, but I would rather you take it out on the punching bag in the basement,” not that he particularly minded a spirited fight with Barbara now that she was able too… but between trolls, friendly… or even not so friendly fighting had a… connotation which he was certain she was not intending at all.

Besides… he was not certain how happy Jim would be to find the house entirely trashed.

“Sounds boring,” Barbara grumbled as she looked at the shot glass. “Why do I want to eat this?”

“As you saw when Jim ate his phone… trolls have a… different appetite from humans. I would advise against eating it though… especially as we don’t know how long this will last-”

Strickler was interrupted by the sound of crunching glass. He could not keep from letting out a slightly exhausted sigh.

“Were you even listening?” he had to sigh.

“I… I meant to…” she simply said.

“Well, let us hope that your troll form lasts long enough for you to actually digest that!” Strickler huffed himself up a bit. “Or else you might have to go to your own hospital!”

Barbara simply stared at him. “I mean… that would be bad…”

“Lucky for you troll digestion is quite efficient, just… next time stick to things that won’t destroy your human stomach when you get it back,” he rolled his eyes.

His tone was making it very tempting to punch him again.

“I understand why Jim would get so annoyed with you, you are not the best teacher when it comes to these things!” Barbara crossed her arms.

“As I told him, this is not exactly my subject!” Strickler retorted. “Which… he really needs to learn how to control his changing… It will be a disaster waiting to happen if he doesn’t.”

“From my recollection, you weren’t that eager about changing your form either,” Barbara stated. Strickler simply shrugged.

“Suppose it was part of me who still was not ready for you to see me like that…” he then murmured.

“I never cared…”

“I know… I know…” he simply said. “It was me who… it was just…”

He was struggling to find the words.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter. This is ending… I am leaving which… is for the best. But… I did love you, Barbara. For the first time in my life… I loved someone. But… I knew I didn’t deserve it… didn’t deserve any of it… so that was why I still felt the need to hide. I am better at lying with this face,” he mentioned towards his own face. “As well… it is nothing more than a lie.”

“Walt…”

“No need to say anything… I…”

Before he could say anything he was pulled practically over the kitchen counter and he felt those protruding tusks press against his lips as Barbara had dragged him into a kiss.

“Barbara…” he gasped softly. “What…?”

“I don’t care, just…” she grasped before she kissed him again, his large hands wrapping around her now stone form as she pulled him closer.

This was a mistake.

They both knew it.

And neither cared.

#the trollslayer #trollhunters fic #stricklake fic #walter strickler #Barbara Lake

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magic-and-moonlit-wings · 5 years

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Chapter 42: The Show Must Go On

Becoming The Mask

It felt so good to jump back into his usual routine on Monday morning. Jim hummed as he diced vegetables for omelettes. He'd need to go grocery shopping after school, or maybe shop tomorrow and do coupon clipping today. How much leftover pizza did they have? Enough for dinner?

Maybe dinner for one, he confirmed, checking the fridge, so he really should pick up something more substantial. Unless …

Yes, there were cans of mushroom soup in the cupboards, so if they had that for dinner tonight, Jim could put off grocery shopping for one more day.

He brought Barbara's breakfast upstairs. She'd remembered to take off her own glasses last night. Jim kissed her forehead on reflex, and then froze.

Barbara didn't stir. He let out a whisper-soft sigh.

For the past week, Jim and Toby had been brushing their teeth side-by-side, since the Domzalskis only had one bathroom and there was only so much time in the morning before school. Jim had started checking on Jay-Jay using his cellphone instead, even after Toby learned he was a Changeling. Today, brushing his teeth alone, he spat on the mirror again.

Toby deserved something special for lunch, Jim thought, considering how well he had been handling all the strangeness and stress that Jim dragged into his life. Let's see, there were still more eggs …

Jim went through the first few steps of making French toast, but as soon as one side of the bread was finished and flipped, he put cheese on top to melt. He was frying thin slices of onion and tomato and some diced red peppers as well.

Toby loved Chef Jim's Famous Ultimate Grilled Cheese.

Jim left Barbara's lunch in the fridge, like usual, and left to bike to school with Toby, like usual.

It felt wonderful to cook in his own kitchen again.

+=+

Jim seemed chipper, Walt noticed. He hoped that meant the boy was in positive contact with his Familiar's mother again, not that Jim was putting up a façade.

Of course he wanted Jim to be able to hide his feelings well, especially vulnerability. Such thespianism was a vital life skill for any Changeling. But he could hope for Jim to genuinely experience whatever positive emotions the young Changeling expressed as well.

"I've got some worrying news," Jim announced, popping into Walter's office after school. The words were at odds with his tone, grin, and bouncing step. "We have a ticking clock, of sorts? The kids want to tell their families trolls are real. Mom hasn't met them but she knows they exist and she's given us a month to do it before she starts trying. So, they're trying to persuade Vendel it's a good idea. Thoughts?"

Walter just gaped. Jim had barely gotten the door closed before he started bubbling out this very disconcerting information. He was still adjusting the piano stool.

"I suppose the possibility of a troll being photographed or filmed and spread by social media could make it worth attaining human allies who are beyond adolescence."

Mrs Nuñez was a local politician, and Mr Scott was a police officer. The scope of damage control they could truly offer in the event of a secrecy breech was limited but existent. Truly, Dr Lake would probably be the best 'respectable figure' to calm the public, if it came to that, since many humans assumed their politicians and law enforcement were corrupt in any case, but first it would be best to try discrediting the evidence and minimizing its exposure.

"Yeah, Mary pointed out basically every human has a camera at all times now." Jim turned idly side-to-side on the rotating stool. "I'm worried about Enrique, though. If Claire exposes him to their parents … He can't 'stay with a friend' like I did while they cool down. But if they're only letting him stay for appearances and don't get a chance to calm down –" He spun all the way around. "D'you think we can talk her out of it?"

"You know Ms Nuñez better than I. Do you?"

Jim made a whining noise high in his throat and spun the stool again, in the opposite direction this time.

"If it's any comfort," Walter offered, "I've seen Ms Janeth's rehearsal and performance schedule for this week, and I imagine Ms Nuñez will be too thoroughly occupied with the Montague-Capulet feud to want to create additional family strife off-stage."

There was a rehearsal for the first three afternoons that week, with the full dress rehearsal Wednesday, opening night on Thursday, and with Friday and Saturday performances to follow.

He should tell Jim about his own worrying news, his plans to leave Arcadia once he found a deputy who wouldn't be subverted or murdered, but Walter hesitated. Face to face with Jim, he found himself wondering if he ought to leave at all. His presence offered some token protection; Otto knew, even if the Polymorph survived a fight with the Trollhunter, Walter would bring about consequences. But if Walter were gone, Otto would have time to disappear.

But Jim was an excellent fighter in his own right, Walter chided himself. The boy had successfully stabbed Bular and lived to tell the tale! And he'd be safer still if – when – Walter's plan succeeded.

Still, he hadn't found a deputy, so perhaps he needn't add to the boy's worries yet.

+=+

"There's a school play," said Jim, apropos of nothing, at dinner on Tuesday night. "Later this week. I'm not in it, but, do you want to go anyway?"

"That sounds nice," said Barbara. "I'll try to clear my schedule."

"It's three nights. I could get tickets for all three. You know, school fundraisers, they're not going to turn down extra money."

"What's the troll school system like?" Barbara had decided to try to ask this sort of thing casually whenever a conversation seemed like it could flow in that direction, to get Jim used to telling her things about trolls and get herself used to hearing it.

"I have no idea. I've never seen a school in Trollmarket, though, so they might do an apprenticeship instead of general education? I'll ask Blinky. Or you could ask Blinky."

Barbara hesitated. She wasn't sure she had the nerve to go back underground yet. "You should invite him to dinner some time."

Jim laughed. "I don't know if you'd want that if you knew what trolls ate." He gasped at his own words. "I meant garbage! The stuff trolls eat is usually really unappetizing to a human. Smelly socks are tasty snacks. I mean, we've – Changelings – we've found some stuff that tastes good in both forms, but I don't know how good they'd be to an unaltered troll."

+=+

"Where have you been, young lady?"

"Dress rehearsal?" Claire frowned at her parents. "The school play, remember?"

Enrique made a happy noise from his doorway-mounted baby-bouncer. Sometimes that dispelled the tension. Tonight it didn't.

"We're very proud you're keeping your commitment to the school," said Javier. "But you have to call us when you're going to be out late. We were worried."

"I told you when you dropped me off this morning!"

She had. Enrique had been in his car seat right behind her. He hated that thing. It was cushioned, and his Familiar's parents had been very fussy about making sure the straps weren't too tight when they noticed he always cried when they put him in it, but that wasn't the point. He hated not being able to move. He couldn't wait until he got big enough not to need it anymore.

"You at least remembered you promised to come tomorrow, right?" Claire continued, narrowing her eyes.

Ophelia checked her phone. Behind the parents' backs, Enrique winced.

"Of course. For opening night."

+=+

"Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance," said Logan – Mercutio – to Steve.

"Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes, with nimble soles. I have a soul of lead, so stakes me to the ground I cannot move."

"Steve's a better actor than I thought," Toby whispered to Darci. He and Nana had ended up beside her and her parents. Darci's dad was a huge, muscle-y guy who had given Toby a suspicious look when the teens greeted one another by name, but hadn't tried to stop them from sitting next to each other.

Steve seemed utterly woebegone, being dragged by his friends to a party to make him forget the girl Romeo liked before meeting Juliet. Toby hadn't known Romeo had a past love – he'd never actually seen the play, but he'd thought part of the point of it was that first love made the characters reckless?

Mercutio launched into a speech about some fairy queen creating nightmares until Romeo interrupted him – "Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing!" – and Benevolio pointed out they were missing the party they'd planned to crash – "This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves. Supper is done, and we shall come too late."

Toby had to choke back a laugh, midway through the next act, when Romeo approached his priest friend and Friar Laurence fretted that young people didn't tend to be awake so early, and so Romeo must not have slept.

"The last is true. The sweeter rest was mine."

"God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?!"

Who knew Shakespeare had snuck so many raunchy and risqué stuff into his work? When Mary, as the Nurse, thought Juliet was simply sleeping in as opposed to faking her death, she teased that Juliet's arranged marriage would be keeping her up late soon and so it was best Juliet got as much sleep as she could before.

"Why, lamb! Why, lady! Fie, you slug-a-bed! Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweet-heart! Why, bride! … What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now. Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant, the County Paris hath set up his rest, that you shall rest but little. God forgive me," she added idly, in that way that meant she was only apologizing because it was expected, not because she was truly sorry.

There was a curtain across the stage, dividing Nurse from Juliet's 'bed' while the audience could see both of them.

"Marry and amen, how sound is she asleep! I must needs wake her. Madam, madam, madam!" Mary pulled the curtain back. "What, dressed and in your clothes, and down again? I must needs wake you." She started to shake Juliet, growing increasingly frantic as Claire appeared limp and unresponsive. "Lady? Lady! Lady!"

Mary's last cry was a full-on scream that made everyone jump.

It wasn't really all that different from a soap opera. Even with all the death and tragedy, Toby was quite enjoying the play.

At least, he was, up until the last scene.

"What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. Oh, churl – drunk all, and left no friendly drop, to help me after? I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, to make die with a restorative."

Juliet leaned over Romeo. Toby had heard, once, somewhere, that the hardest role in theatre was a dead body, because the actor would feel the urge to move or laugh. Steve let out a brief little "ha!" at the kiss, and then went back to being dead.

"Thy lips are warm … Then I'll be brief. Oh, happy dagger," drawing it from Romeo's scabbard, "this is thy sheath!"

Toby, and several others in the audience, gasped as Claire pressed the prop weapon to her stomach.

"There, rust … and let me die."

"What?" Toby whispered. "Juliet dies in this? No!"

The curtain closed, and Eli came out to deliver the epilogue. "A gloomy peace, this morning with it brings. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; for never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo!"

The audience applauded, and cheered, and whistled, and Claire and Steve got up and started bowing. But all Toby could see was his friend collapsing from a stab wound.

"Toby?" said Darci, putting her hand on his. "You okay?"

"I can't believe Juliet died …"

Jim kept warning them that troll stuff could get them killed. Toby had tried to take the warnings seriously, he really had. This, though, actually seeing Claire die – even a staged death she got right back up from, like Juliet's first, fake death with sleeping potion – this hit Toby harder than all of those warnings all at once.

He forced himself to his feet, forced a congratulatory smile onto his face, and forced his hands into applause.

+=+

Previous Chapter (Vendel is reluctant to let more humans learn trolls exist)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Toby has an emotional breakdown)

Whee, I figured out a way to make Romeo and Juliet plot relevant!

I actually read a transcript of 'Romeo and Juliet' to prepare this chapter. I really wanted Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, but couldn't justify quoting the whole thing, so I just referenced it happening on stage. (No, I didn't study this play in school. The Shakespeare plays we studied were Twelfth Night, Julius Ceaser, Hamlet, and the Scottish play with the cursed name. You know the one.)

Logan is the guy partnered with Mary in the flour babies episode. Darci mentions, "Logan and Mary already killed theirs. They gave Dwight D. Eisen-flour a bath and he turned into mush." Based on screenshots of the classroom, I think Logan is also the unnamed boy seen in the seats at play tryouts.

My high school typically did three performances of the school play, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Arcadia Oaks High School seems to do only one performance, but I think that's because the first half of the first season ends on opening night and the writers were done with that plotline. The next episode starts a month later, according to Toby's dialogue. That's plenty of time for more performances.

In other news, I’m thinking of doing a podfic for this story. My computer has a decent microphone, but I can’t seem to convert M4A files into MP3s, except by using external websites. I’ve followed the tutorial for doing the conversion with Windows Media Player exactly and it doesn’t work. I need MP3s if I’m going to post podfic on tumblr because tumblr can’t accept M4A uploads.

Apparently I’ll need to have the files hosted on another website, because AO3 can’t accept audio files downloaded directly or works imported from tumblr. SoundCloud sounds like it would work? Do people have recommendations or suggestions?

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suzie-guru · 7 years

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The prime numbers of the otps questions for stricklake?

2) Who is always horny and will have sex at any time, at any place and at any time?

Oooooh, both of them find that they each have some seriously missed time they need to make up for, but Barbara is the one who plans things, so to say gonna get a fanfic of just that. It’s been her and Jim for so long, and she’s never met anyone who has made her want to turn away from that safety path, but there was no way she could have predicted Walter Strickler...

Stricklander hasn’t been exactly celibate during his existence, and sex is such a wonderful way to barter and charm and seduce others, but Barbara awakens something in him he long thought dead – hells, something he never thought he truly possessed. And now he can’t get enough of it, her...

Long story short, they’re randy as teens and many an unconventional place has born witness to this fact.

3) Who is more into taking showers/baths together? Who tries to make it relaxing and who tries to make it sexy time?

Barbara is the one who invites him into her shower, for sheer practicality - they both need to get ready for work, Jim will definitely notice if there’s two showers taking place upstairs...

Barbara treasures her showers as her brief bit of time to relax before she goes into work, her haven of hot water and steam. Walter absolutely understands this, he does, but there is also the fact that with the steam making her skin flush so deliciously and her hair stream wetly down her back in a waterfall of red like some siren from the sea––

...well. Could he truly be blamed for wanting to see if he could make stain those cheeks a deeper shade of pink?

Barbara, in the midst of her moaning and cursing of him and her frantic pleas of Walt, we’ll both be late, finds that in her heart of hearts, she can’t.

5) Who sleeps on the couch when they get into a fight?

Walter. It is Barbara’s bed, after all. Doesn’t make his night any more comfortable nor his lingering irritation any less guilty.

7) Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?

Barbara, because Walter felt he didn’t deserve to say such a thing to her after what he did.

Walter, because he will NOT be shamed for protecting her, and it damn well isn’t patronizing Barbara, there are some monsters Krav Maga doesn’t prepare you for!

11) Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?

Barbara. Walter is befuddled but also charmed.

13) Who initiates duets? and who is the better singer?

Barbara sings in the kitchen and while she’s studying/going over work, old pop and rock songs from her youth. Walter favors more classical tunes, and sometimes he’ll find himself singing an old sea shanty or drinking song from one of the many ports he traveled around in his youth.

Walter’s voice had Barbara dropping a whole sheaf of papers when she first heard him singing, and she tries to get him to sing as much as she can afterwards. It’s gorgeous.

17) Who is more protective?

I mean, we’ve all seen them face off against Angor. Both of them are fiercely, fiercely protective.

19) Who drives and who has the window seat?

Walter likes to drive his lady love around - he’s old fashioned that way. Barbara doesn’t mind too much, unless she needs to get to the hospital.

23) Who thinks they are not good enough for the others love? and who’s more afraid of loosing the other? Who thinks they keep messing up, only for the other to tell them they don’t need to worry?

Oh, GODS. So, WALTER, for obvious, obvious reasons. He’s even more afraid about losing Barbara since it almost happened, and that was all his fault as well––

But I also headcanon Barbara being very insecure about romantic relationships, what with how badly Jim’s father hurt her and her own admissions (“I really don’t know how to do these things”). I could see her getting very down on herself for all three of these things given her past heartache, but especially the last one, since Dr. Barbara Lake is a klutz and it’s one thing to love a klutz but it’s another thing to be one.

29) Who does some crazy stunt to try and impress the other and who ends up driving them to the emergency room after it backfires?

...Okay, so just imagine Walter doing some crazy Changeling stunt to keep Jim safe and Barbara is the ER doctor who takes care of him. Just, PLEASE, imagine this with me.

#suzie's replies #important OTP questions #stricklake #mortifying-mischief

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