#stricklake kinda mentioned

[pinkytoothlesso11]

Ghost in the Machine: Halloween special fic

Chapter two is here! For those unaware, this is a crossover between Trollhunters x Five Nights at Freddy's.

Jim POV: Seven years have passed since Jim's dad was brutally murdered in a backroom at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, seven years and no closer to closure. After bully Steve pushes too far, Jim takes matters into his own hands by breaking into the now abandoned Pizzeria.

What he finds is possessed animatronics.

And his dad is one of them.

[inhonoredglory]

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

[gold-kobold]

I was literally JUST about to say "Hey, that post reminds me of the Barbara/Angor scene in your fanfi--" and then I saw you beat me to it in your tags haha

OP is right, it's an intriguing part of their relationship that doesn't get explored enough. I think your fic is the only one I've actually seen where Barbara specifically talks about Strickler through that kind of a lens... Anyways, yeah, it really is an interesting Stricklake take for sure. Canon sort of glossed over Strickler's atrocities and resulting traumas after he got redeemed, which is a shame. Makes for some compelling angst.

dhyjfhfhxjfjv same brain cell lol--

i don't read a lot of fanfiction, sadly, (curse you, dyslexia frustrations!!!) but i highly doubt that i'm the first to at least mention that sorta perspective on it through fic lolol, but hella agreed, it's a cool aspect of their relationship to focus on! i am definitely of the "they-DEFINITELY-must've-had-some-kinda-talk-about-it-once-war-stuff-cooled-down" side of things lmao, it's so much baggage to unpack bcgdjvkvk

[yavannah]

I posted 227 times in 2021

146 posts created (64%)

81 posts reblogged (36%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.6 posts.

I added 457 tags in 2021

#the sims 4 - 119 posts

#random - 71 posts

#trollhunters - 71 posts

#stricklake - 61 posts

#walter and barbara - 37 posts

#romantic - 30 posts

#reblog - 29 posts

#my story - 14 posts

#jonathan hyde - 13 posts

#jlaire - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 68 characters

#though barbara seemed gleeful when agnes hit walter with the handbag

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Hi! I decided to take on the challenge, so here comes my minor sim challenge participant, Lady Chloris. After all, there is nothing else of her than a statue and some other garden decoration that came with the TS4 Romantic Garden Stuff, so this is made with my imagination. 

Chloris, Lady - Lady Chloris is a Sim mentioned in the object descriptions for "The Folly of Lady Chloris" and "Where The Green Fern Grows" from The Sims 4: Romantic Garden Stuff. According to the items' description, she was a lover and protector of nature, and starved to death when she failed to find an escape after her husband Zephyrus encircled her with follies as a loving tribute while she slept.

And I didn’t really know what outfit I would put on Lady Chloris, but then I ended up with the same type as what that statue has that I intentionally put behind her. Thanks for this challenge go to @someone-elsa.

The bracelet, or rather the arm ring, is someone's (unfortunately I don't remember the factor, but I can try to inspect it the next time I go to cas mode to edit the sims) modified version of the arm jewelry that came with The Sims 4 Realm of Magic.

Dress is from @sifix and hair is @natalia-auditorets4 and necklace is @blahberry-pancake and pose (if my memory serves me right) is @atashi77

And objects are TS4 basegame and romantic stuff pack. :)

43 notes • Posted 2021-06-11 10:49:30 GMT

#4

This is for you @stix-n-bread, I hope you like Stricklers High heels. :D

I kinda wanted to do this when I saw that awesome funny drawing. :D

44 notes • Posted 2021-06-17 19:44:57 GMT

#3

See the full post

48 notes • Posted 2021-05-15 23:03:46 GMT

#2

See the full post

66 notes • Posted 2021-07-24 09:39:22 GMT

#1

See the full post

89 notes • Posted 2021-10-20 17:58:35 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[feather-dancer]

“I know there is still a lot both of you have and are still are keeping from me, leaving me with little more than the scraps like you think I'm so fragile that I would break if I went and anything found out. You know like the incidents you turned into innocent dinner conversation while he went and waved me off or straight up lied with talk of camping while really he was out there fighting for his very life."

The sheer discomfort of being so ceremoniously outted must be rather blatantly on show along with the crushing realisation of exactly where this is going now even before a finger is pointed at his chest all judgment and fire. Her gaze only hardens further when it meets his own widening green.

"So I need to know: was it you, Walter. Were you the reason he wrote that letter?"

The implication is clear: Honesty as had been promised or else.

Ok, I adore all of the Stricklake interaction in chapter 2 of the Ghost AU, but this part always gets me. She’s just like - tell me the truth or that’s it. No more excuses, no more bullshit.

And internally he’s like,

Aaaaah

The letter originally was just a what if scenario I tossed in as the potential to do it was right there because as far we know, it was never brought up again after Barbara challenged Jim in the hospital (Where she said she never read it) and given everything that had happened since then it’d be... Well if he wrote it THEN before she knew either time how dangerous things were for her son and essentially shut off since, what kinda things was he facing at the time that led him to genuinely fear he was going to die? Strickler was always gonna be the first person her mind would jump to on reading it even though hilariously in this is that rare case he is both completely innocent and oblivious to the actual cause.

Which is very :D Oh no for us.

This was actually one of the parts of the entire Stricklake scene that got shuffled around a lot because of the flow not working right, the original version of this being very different in how it happened too. Barbara still was very upfront on her thoughts though, I remember sending an early version to a friend which might still be blowing around my DMs though bits and pieces of it survived intact? I know they suggested (Having not seen Trollhunters, they’re incredibly indulgent of me) throwing in a mention of exactly what those two were doing behind her back which later became that first paragraph! Really glad they did as it gave more of a focus for her to collect her thoughts together before the accusation happens..

The line “The implication is clear: Honesty as had been promised or else.” actually kept haunting me as it sat at the top of a page staring at me anytime I was doing edits around there, clearly I needed reminding too.

I’m so glad it paid off tho given how damn self indulgent the entire Stricklake section was! The second one I at least had a genuine excuse to happen but that one? Noooot so much. The one I’m writing atm is a tad self indulgent too I will admit but it’s needed for those who might not read the oneshot.

Ty <3 My morning has been made.

[fika-forever]

A Brief Recapitulation of Troll-Changeling Friendships

This takes place during and after this fic thing, which was inspired by @changepherrox‘s art and the written scenario of Walter meeting Barbara, pre-show, and becoming part of the Lake family. After finding his place in the human world, he comes upon the Trollhunter amulet and struggles between protecting his family, being a double agent... and secretly defending a Trollmarket that doesn’t particularly want a changeling for a Trollhunter. 

You probably want to read the first fic thing before checking this out. Again, I haven’t seen Trollhunters in a month or so, so inaccuracies probably occur. Thank you so much for the ideas and conversation, @changepherrox! I’ve been really inspired. I hope this lives up to what you were imagining. Here we go!

-----

"A changeling?" Blinky hisses, dragging his hands across his many aching eyes. It's surprising that his heavy-footed pacing hasn't worn a hole in the carpet yet.

Walter, the changeling in question, sits stiffly on the couch with his arms folded. He won't bother pretending it doesn't sting a little.

"A changeling? The Trollhunter, the troll tasked with protecting Trollmarket and fighting the Gumm-Gumms, the troll that is supposed to defend the innocent, a-"

"-so you've said," Walter tersely interrupts. "If it's that unthinkable, perhaps you should find someone else for the responsibility." He reaches inside his pocket and pulls the amulet out. It pulses as if in greeting.

Blinky sighs long and hard. He glances sideways at Walter and the amulet with a heavy mixture of fear, exasperation, and longing. "If I could do it, it would be done! But you know as well as I that the amulet cannot be so easily cast aside once it has chosen its bearer."

"I do?" Murmurs Walter.

AAARRRGGHH!!!, from the doorway, warily glances between the two.

As Blinky continues ranting, Walter turns to his second guest and smiles tiredly.  "Would you like some of Barbara's cooking? It isn't particularly palatable for humans, but I hear your tastes are a little different."

Blinky gets nothing from that night but an ominous fear for the future and a confirmation of a meeting time the following night, sure to be filled with more disbelief and horror. AAARRRGGHH!!!, however, gets a full stomach and a new friend.

-

"So what did your people think when you told them a changeling was the new Trollhunter?" Walter asks as soon as Blinky steps through the door.

Blinky tenses, back arching, looking almost like a distressed cat before contorting himself back into something resembling relaxed, cheerful even. It's completely fake, but it's clear that Blinky is trying his best to meet Walter halfway. "I did not tell them, actually." There is a hint of well-hidden smugness that turns sour in the next breath. "What about you? Have you revealed to any of your compatrio-"

"Of course not," Walter interrupts. They would kill him. Kill him and take the amulet, because changelings are not to be trusted, changelings should not be put in charge of power. It is in their nature to misuse it.

(He swears to himself he will not do that. There is a picture of his family in his breast pocket, close to his heart, and he promises himself he will bear this burden with dignity and respect.)

AAARRRGGHH!!! sidles up to him and grins, wide and friendly and open, despite Blinky's hissed warnings. "Hi, Walter!" He says, deep voice booming.

"Hello, AAARRRGGHH!!!," Walter replies, smiling despite himself.  "How are you?"

They chat amiably while Blinky digs around in his bag. "Here," he says shortly, handing over three thick tomes which Walter takes with only a small oooomph. "Necessary knowledge for any Trollhunter. A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore, parts one, two, and three of forty-seven. I don't know how much changelings can actually read, but..."

"I can most certainly read!" Walter retorts, and once he realizes what he's holding, his mouth goes dry. He clutches them to his chest tightly and tries not to let a hungry look enter his eyes.

Blinky frowns as he watches Walter's knuckles tighten on the books. "Regardless, there is no use in passing on this knowledge to the Gumm-Gumms. Most of it is from a time long past."

Walter swallows and nods. "Are we done?"

-

"Hello Blinky, Hello AAARRRGGHH!!!. Do you happen to have the next books?" Walter asks as soon as Blinky slips through the doorway. They are meeting in the school this night so Jim and Toby can watch movies.

Blinky blinks all six of his eyes. "It has been less than a day! Have you made it through the first three volumes already?"

Walter's grin is small and guarded. "I even bookmarked a few important sections. I wanted to ask you about some inconsistencies I've noticed-"

And for once it looks like they have something to talk about. AAARRRGGHH!!! naps quietly in the corner while Blinky takes a deep breath and starts lecturing, and he's halfway through a speech on why a historical figure made some extremely costly mistakes, when his gaze suddenly sharpens on the pen in Walter's hand, scribbling onto an open notebook. "Are you taking notes?"

Walter looks up as if he's been broken out of some sort of trance. "...yes?"

Blinky worries his suspenders between his fingers. "The pursuit of knowledge is admirable, but I must ask, what is it about this subject that has you so interested?"

"Because Trungar certainly d-"

"Troll lore, Walter. What interests you so much about troll lore. If it is an attempt to foster a connection with me in hopes that I will be able to ignore how... wrong this all is..."

Walter feels anger and frustration fire-hot in his chest. "Not everything is about you."

"No, but it is about you, and-"

They are bickering like schoolchildren but Walter can't be bothered to care. He's despised and patronized by the Gumm-Gumms, disliked by his own kind, and looked down on by the trolls and he is tired. And he raises his voice in return, clamoring to be heard, when suddenly a large palm falls between them, smacking the desk with a resounding clatter of stone on wood.

Both he and Blinky jump backwards in alarm. "No fighting," the sleepy AAARRRGGHH!!! demands, and then he rolls over and apparently goes back to his nap.

Walter breathes in a shallow breath and looks guiltily at Blinky, whose lips are pressed together in a thin line.

"It's my lore too," Walter says, hating how it makes him sound like a lost little child. "I- I'm not a troll. But at some point, I was. I had a family. I had a past. Bedehilde writes of songs, and traditions, and folktales, and a shared history, and they were once mine. The trolls that you talk about could be my ancestors and I can never know."

He watches under furrowed brows as Blinky pales.

And now that he's completely humiliated himself, he slides back into his chair and closes the notebook, preparing to slip it into his briefcase, because surely no one would care to teach a changeling Trollhunter so ridiculously desperate, and he begins to reconsider ever using the amulet at all.  But a firm hand, so large on his skinny wrist, stops him before he can move.

"How old are you? Did you have a name? What shape were you?" Blinky asks softly.

Walter stares at the hand. "I don't remember. The first thing I remember is-" pain. Poison seeping into his veins, skin turning a gastly green, growing razor-sharp featherknives out of his skin that hurthurthurt. Yelling and chanting and brainwashing. He can't quite vocalize it but his face seems to do enough, because Blinky lets go.

The previous suspicion is suddenly gone, and in its place is a sort of sympathy that Walter hates almost as much.

"...Right! Trungar was certainly in a spot, and he turned to his advisor, who as you remember is---"

-

Blinky piles on book after book, and when Walter asks him for the referenced literatures he gets them. They are slowly drawing a picture in his head, a staticky, distant image of a people long past, journeys long concluded. He hums the songs of those people as he dries dishes, kisses Barbara, walks across the parking lot on his way to school. He reads the stories of those people, dreams about them sometimes.

A people that he can't quite feel are his, has no rightful claim to anymore, but he wants to with an illogical, melancholy yearning.

Once Blinky seems to have gotten over his initial hesitations, he starts teaching Walter other aspects of being a Trollhunter. He brings a rather ridiculous construction onto one of the sports fields and chases Walter around with it, shooting things at him with a suspiciously manic glee while Walter, fully armored, slowly learns how to leap and dodge.

He makes Walter practice repeating the mantras and rules of being a Trollhunter until Walter can recite them in his sleep.

It's not a complete education, by far, but every time Walter asks about the missing pieces he is pushed aside.

"Have you even told them their new Trollhunter is a changeling?" He asks one day, exasperated, half-asleep because he spent all of last night dodging magic arrows and grading midterms.

"No, and you should be thankful we haven't," Blinky frowns, and there is that hint of pity again that Walter hatehatehates. "If Vendel knew, I have no doubt he'd have you killed so the position would move to a troll."

If Walter was less tired, he would be much less whiny. "It just feels unfair," he murmurs. "I didn't choose to be made like this. I need to practice at the Forge. I want to see your library. I want to see Trollmarket."

There is nothing but silence, but it feels thick and smothering.

Walter closes his eyes. "I've been called to a meeting. Two days from now. Bular seems eager for something. I believe it has to do with Killahead Bridge. Nomura plays a large part, I am sure, because she works at the museum where they are planning on constructing it."

He opens his eyes when he hears a choking noise. Blinky seems to be having some sort of breakdown.

"You are in contact with Bular?"

Walter can't do anything but laugh.

-

It takes several minutes for Blinky to collect himself enough to start listening, but everything he hears seems to threaten to send him back into hysterics. There is a reason Walter avoided talking about this in the first place.

Yes, Walter is very high on the food chain of Gunmar's command. Yes, he goes to regular meetings, and is in on their plans. He isn't just some sort of changeling minion, he's a changeling minion with some form of status that he's fought long and hard for. And now painfully regrets.

Blinky paces. And paces. And paces. And then shoves a half-empty notebook into Walter's hands.

"Write," he demands. "Everything you can think of. Personnel, locations, tools, strategies, weaknesses, movements, shoe sizes!"

Walter very deliberately starts out with shoe sizes.

Blinky paces again. Then he stops, turns, and shares a wicked grin. "You know, this is something that a troll Trollhunter couldn't do."

The thought makes something warmbrightproud kindle in Walter's chest.

-

They make plans, junk those plans, make new ones. Cover an entire wall of Walter's hidden office in string, thumbtacks, and hastily scribbled ideas and profiles. Walter feels more and more like a spy every day.

But it's strangely exciting.

And even though he feels more torn than ever between worlds, between Gumm-Gumms and humans and trolls, now, too, how ridiculously complex...

...he isn't Atlas, shouldering his burden alone. AAARRRGGHH!!! shares hugs without reserve, and glances at him with a deeply knowing look sometimes, and Blinky no longer hesitates to reach over and ruffle his hair or poke him in the forehead if he drifts off. He has friends, real friends, who know the whole of him and aren't cringing in disgust (anymore).

(He takes a secret photo one day, and slips his phone into his pocket before either of the trolls can notice. He prints out a small copy and keeps it in his breast pocket next to the rest of his family.

He has a few more people he's determined to protect, which makes his mission simultaneously more difficult and a whole lot easier.)