#shandaraja

[yellowmagicalgirl]

Trollhunter Mary Au

If you were in the THCC in early April 2019, then you will recognize this AU.

Optional theme song of the AU

Claire first fell for Mary when they were in sixth grade. She's never said anything, because by the time she figured out it was a crush, Mary was already very boy-crazy. Claire's tried to make said crush go away, and it has, but never fully. By the time Mary finds the amulet, Claire is crushing on Jim, but that crush on Mary is still in the background. Because Jim doesn’t get the amulet, he never gains the confidence boost he needs to talk to and woo Claire, and her feelings for him fade.

Mary tells Darci about the amulet, but doesn't get the chance to tell Claire until Strickler spies Mary awkwardly walking around in full armor. She claims she's going to be trying out for the play, and when she gets there she realizes something: none of the female roles would work with armor, and the only male role she knows is that of Romeo.

Claire, of course, has been practicing at being Juliet for weeks, and when she realizes that Mary is trying out as Romeo, it's a bit of a dream come true as well as her old crush coming back in full force. After all, Mary had considered playing the part of the Nurse, but she knows Claire is trying out for Juliet, and would that mean she wants to kiss Claire?

Naturally, she's a bit sad when Mary and Darci reveal that no, this is magic armor and they had to keep the cover, sorry, they were going to tell her sooner if they could, but Claire hides her sadness behind the giant troll chasing them and the fact that Trollmarket is beautiful.

Outside of trollhunting and the play, Claire begins to distance herself from Mary. Not from Darci, though. History will call her Darci the Diplomatic, and this is where those legends start.

Mary doesn’t use the Grit-Shaka. After all, it’s just kissing, something you do as a contractual thing with guys or the person you were cast opposite of in a play. Claire is tempted to. It’s kissing her best friend, the crush she’ll never get away from. But she doesn’t. After all, it’s just stage kissing, nothing meaningful. Nothing like what Claire wants even though it’d ruin the friendship if she tried.

NotEnrique knocks down the photo of Claire, and the goblins go after her. Mary tries to save her, only to find that her amulet was stolen. And so the two of them fight the goblins with makeshift weapons. Mary decides to finally confront Claire about how weird she’s being.    “Look, I get it, you’re stressed about Enrique and the play. We’ll get him back, and yeah, sorry for making things weird. I’ve gotta keep my cover as the trollhunter,” Mary says, looking for any goblins. “And yeah, I know you don’t want to pretend to like me romantically and -”    “Pretend?” Claire asks. She puts a hand on her chest, tears in her eyes. “I’ve been in love with you for a third of my life!” She turns away, unable to look at her friend after admitting the secret she's kept for the past five years. “I’m just tired of always getting my hopes up.”

The two of them are quiet when Darci and AAARRGGHH!!! find them, Mary from shock and Claire from shame.

The play goes off well, though the two leads seem a bit stilted.

Mary has a lot to think about afterwards. She throws herself into trollhunting, but not even that blocks out her thoughts about the idea of a life where she were to date Claire.

In this AU, the Akiridions land early. Darci ends up befriending Shannon and Aja because she wants a sense of normalcy when her two best friends are being weird (neither will mention Claire’s crush). Normalcy is not something she gets. This leads to the Akiridion-troll secrets coming out early. (Note: Aside from Clairy, the next major ship would be either Shanaja, Daraja, or Shandaraja. No matter what, it would contain a lot less drama than our two favorite theater sapphics.)

Alone in the Darklands, Mary is forced to finally confront those thoughts. A life with Claire seems nice, as opposed to the contractual feelings Mary gets whenever she thinks of a future husband. And yet, the idea of living a life with Claire, or any girl, seems terrifying, while a future husband is at least security. But could Mary ever have security as the trollhunter?

In her heartbreak over accidentally pushing away the girl she loves, Claire accidentally turns to Morgana.

Darci frees Mary from the Darklands. Claire can’t bring herself to be happy. She wants to be happy. Mary is back, and so is Enrique. And yet, a darkness grips her heart.

Darci is the one who finds out how to find Merlin, as well as an alternative way to defeat Gunmar. It helps that she has Akiridion allies.

By the time Mary is able to get over herself and confess her feelings to Claire, Mary has a troll form and Claire has become Morgana’s champion.

Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you a minimum of five fun facts (anon is off)