17, lesbian/aromantic. Any pronouns. Intrests: Sinners, TADC, iron lung, Shadow and bone, arcane, Predator movies, Zelda, Music, cinematography, architecture. Artist! (Mostly traditional)
Working on a project.
YAYYY WORLDBUILDING!!! (And random character info I feel like sharing)
first off: what is the rest of the USA doing?
most of the west coast is considered dangerous, though really the entire US and North America is. Most of its residents are either on the east coast or migrated to Mexico and Canada, or even overseas. There’s many evacuations happening at once and it’s chaos for government activity. Most military is focused on evacuation and control of keeping gumm-gumms out of the rest of the country but..well that doesn’t exactly work. They stopped the spread for the time being during the story. Not permanently. A lot of military is still in the west coast area to try fighting, or they just got straight up abandoned there. Most people do not trust military anymore if they are in California, mainly because they are known to try gathering up survivors (women, children) and traffic or just straight up make horrible encampments. It’s such an issue even country wide that a lot of whoever is left in the US avoids military areas out of fear.
why has the states not just been nuked?
Changelings in world government disabled the codes long before anything was public and widespread. There were also so many changelings in high ranking positions that many world governments are in shambles.
are there any safe spaces?
island countries like Ireland/Britain, Australia, Japan, etc are for the most part isolated and not a target of Morgana or Gunmar for the time being. So kind of. But those places are also very overpopulated after everything happened.
how does WiFi and power work?
States neighboring California keep the state’s power on and WiFi connected to help survivors escape. Hydroelectric dams also play a big part, with some people staying at facilities just to maintain them so nothing goes out.
What about tanks and military force?
morgana took care of most of the immediate threats like tanks and artillery. The spell caused a temporary disabling of most vehicles/electronics. By the time they came back online evacuation was a more viable option than brute force. And again, changelings in government. Personally I think high ranking changelings would be multi-changers like Hans so only a few would be revealed, Usually ones non important to controlling the government. This would divert attention away from any changelings left.
where is Merlin?
Still fucking asleep. That might change later. Or Morgan’s just straight up kills him once she finds where he’s sleeping. Either way his ass is not important to anyone but Morgana and Douxie.
EXTRA CHARACTER THINGS!!!
Gunmar first:
His left side (where his eye was torn out) is mainly numb and he cannot hear well from that side. The scar also pulls up his lip slightly and makes one side look permanently slightly ‘grinning’. He gets migraines a lot aswell from badly healed fractures in his skull from his fight with Deya.
Remember how I said he can mimic voices? Well once he’s not malnourished from the Darklands he can also create illusions. Usually of a few set specific humans he’s killed prior, and he only uses those illusions to hunt and deceive. If he’s trying to blend in with a group he just uses a human he controls with the Decimarr blade.
In the Toby post I mentioned how troll skin type depends on minerals in the skin structure that can mimic stone or gem appearances. This is true for every troll but Gunmar and any trolls he has full control over long term (more than a year). The soldiers will take on the appearance of a very very saturated smokey quartz no matter what they eat. This is also considered to be why one of the names his army has is ‘Death walking’. Those soldiers are not alive in any meaningful way.
Blinky and Arrgh:
The pair is safe with Jim in his settlement. Arrgh recognized what Gunmar would plan to do, aka take over trollmarket, and had already told Blinky to begin moving things before it happened. Blinky has a very large space for his books in the form of a human library repurposed for him and Arrgh to live in. They are gay in this btw. Anyways Blinky is busy day and night helping Douxie with finding Merlin’s tomb and getting other things sorted, but he also has time to tutor humans who want to know troll history or learn the language. Claire especially. Arrgh helps Jim train a lot, and during the first weeks was Jim’s main guard against further attacks from Bular. Bular doesn’t fight Arrgh without someone else present because Arrgh knows exactly how Bular fights and can take him down. Taking inspiration from mildeleef (not directly tagging them bc I don’t wanna bother them. Pls do go check them out though their art is AMAZING), I have decided Arrgh and Bular used to have a brotherly bond and were raised together. Gunmar seems like the type to adopt in other whelps and Arrgh happened to be the lucky one, and is only a bit older than Bular. So they grew up and trained the same way. Does this past really affect arrghs perception of Bular? Yes. Arrgh knows he is dangerous but hopes he can one day get bular to see it wasn’t worth it.
dictacious:
He isn’t blind until a few weeks after the eternal night began, when Blinky found him and confronted him in a way that ended up with Dictacious fully blind and Blinky blind in two eyes. Yes it was because of explosives. Despite the blindness Dictacious is still with Gunmar as an advisor, since he is a source of wisdom.
Drall:
I bet you’re wondering why Drall is mentioned. Well he still helps Jim by being a helpful amulet spirit. He wants to protect Jim and make sure he can do what he failed at.
Strickler:
he is not in Jim’s settlement but is in Ellie’s. He wants to stay close to monitor Jim and Barbara after realizing what Jim inherited. I haven’t fleshed him out to much though.
Bular:
my favorite evil man. He’s very happy his father is back but he is having his doubts. Gunmar is not the same as he once was- being away from him for centuries let Bular see what other trolls did: that his father was unsettling. At first he played it off but as the months pass he is finding it harder to feel accomplished in the eye of his father. He made a new den at the museum once he realized he wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore. And sometimes stares at Dralls statue, wondering if he felt the same about Kanjigar. He thinks no one notices it, but Ellie does, and then Jim. (Daddy issues times four)
angor:
he wants his soul back. He doesn’t know who has it: Morgana does not. Strickler doesn’t, but claimed to know Hans may have the location of the ring. He’s playing the long game at getting it back. At the same time he’s keeping an eye on Claire and her sick state. He knows what the signs are of Morganas power at work.
Ellie (this is just a fun fact):
Ellie uses a flare gun when she’s patrolling as a weapon and a threat to any humans who threaten her. Shooting a flare off where she normally roams (aka very close to gumm-gumm territory) is a death sentence if you don’t know how to get away fast. She does usually. But one time she was being chased and almost killed by a lone survivor and survived by shooting a flare into their head. She will never erase that memory.
Ellie is the only one in the group besides Claire to almost be mind controlled. Her and Claire got captured once and while Claire was being interrogated by Morgana and fighting her off, Gunmar almost got Ellie under control. The after effects of partial linking to his power are memories she never had, changed behavior, and a very weak emotional link that usually only becomes an issue if he is angry.
Claire:
Claire is the second victim of partial mind linking- but it was to Morgana like in the show. It’s the same gist as the show but the after effects are worse. She gets nightmares, visions, and occasionally Morgana can speak with her in her head or move her body for a moment at a time.
Me, rereading Project Hail Mary: Oh god, the scene where Grace and Rocky say goodbye to each other is so sad. Good thing we’ll have some space shenanigans for me to calm down before the next sad thing happens.
giving simon wormhole-opening powers so grace can send an instant probe once they're on erid and inflict more psychic damage on the og petrova task force
as promised the obligatory oc: Ellie! To date my only oc that does not have a name with V in it.
story wise she isn’t near the group at all until a few weeks after the eternal night begins. She was in the area visiting her aunt and once everything went to shit she was stuck in the state. She managed to get out of Arcadia and to a small road-strip with shops and gas stations heading north about an hour from the town. That’s where she mainly dwells and runs a rest stop for humans and trolls escaping the state on foot. But she also has access to internet and wifi since she is closer to still functional civilization and posts on how stuff is doing near the epicenter. But she mainly uses the internet access for weather reports to make sure there isn’t any severe storms on the way.
She goes to Arcadia for three reasons: to trade with Jim’s settlement, to post severe weather warnings on a sign in the middle of town, or to steal. The only reason she knew about Jim and Claire and Toby at all was she was stealing from a store they were also stealing from. Then they started trading and now it’s a friendship of sorts.
She’s becoming more involved with things as time passes, but she tries to remain as neutral as possible since she is in a position of hospitality. That being said she turns away any active human military on sight unless it is a small group.
her main weapons are a flare gun and a pipe. Later she also gets a battle axe!
Extra stuff (some of her background and worldbuilding):
Ellie is very adverse to human military for a specific reason. During the first week or two of the eternal night there was mass casualty in California (panic, trolls, ect) and evacuations by land and sea were being carried out by the army and police. She was in a group led by a military patrol to get further north. But the patrol was told to only bring a certain amount due to space and to get rid of any others (like Last of us). Ellie was one of the ones that didn’t get picked to go because she was one of the physically weaker of the group. she was almost killed after being shot in the shoulder, but she managed to get away and get help from a camp of other survivors. Her left arm and shoulder are still healing even months later. She’s also had encounters in Arcadia with military who got left behind or were patrolling the ‘safer’ parts of the town (aka not gumm-gumm occupied). One encounter led to an argument between two military personnel over her giving up what she’d taken from a store. The noise attracted a gumm-gumm patrol and she got to escape by sheer luck that the gumm-gumms didn’t go for her first instead of the military personnel.
Why does weather matter?:
Post eternal night storms range from mild thunderstorms to supercells. She pays attention to if any storm is happening and if any is, how severe it ends up. she will usually inform anyone staying at her settlement first and then bike to Jim’s group to tell them, and then update a sign she had in the center of Arcadia. She made the sign after finding a body after a bad storm for any remaining people and trolls in Arcadia. There is a few different things her warning sign covers like wind speed, precipitation type and other common hazards like creatures that come out during rain. The sign is written in English, Spanish, and Troll common. The more severe storms are high wind thunderstorms that break glass or even fling metal, and even sometimes debris or metal shards mix with rain causing a very dangerous storm that can shred anything not sheltered.
her sign looks something like this:
just an example though.
extras about her:
She hosts movie nights in her settlement that are optional. She hooked up tvs from Walmart with someone’s help and can stream her laptop on them. usually it’s whatever movie she wants to watch and anyone staying in the area can join. The movies most frequently shown are sinners, project Hail Mary, annihilation, and iron lung, along with some shows like scavengers reign (Yes these are all my favorites). To her credit if there’s kids and the plan was iron lung she warns the parents. Otherwise she doesn’t care.
the inn she has is just a cleared out store with a fuck ton of sleeping bags. It’s got a max capacity of about 30 people but not that many usually pass through. There is also a bar that she serves drinks, which is more popular.
Her opinion on gumm-gumms are neutral. They generally don’t bug her since she’s alone most of the time. The only time she has genuinely feared a gumm-gumm was when she was getting chased by a male survivor who she had rejected. She had run through the streets until getting hit against a window by something she at first could not see but quickly found was in fact a very large gumm-gumm who grabbed her pursuer and killed him by ripping off his head. She was then grabbed but managed to wriggle away before anything happened and hid for three hours in a store. (Side note she does not know but it was in fact bular. Only reason she didn’t die was because he thought it was funnier if she ran)
She has seen gunmar before! From a rooftop she watched him and Dictacious talking. While she doesn’t have a gut reaction to him she doesn’t like how similar to her dad he sounds and tries to avoid him aside for sketches.
she loves sketching trolls. To her they have really cool body types and they interest her aesthetically. Her favorite to sketch is oddly enough Gunmar and Arrgh. Though she has more sketches of Arrgh because Arrgh likes modeling for her as long as she lets him keep some.
Ellie is not her real name. She does not like her real name because of her past.
Thats all :] I’ll have an updated Jim + world building in next posts!
note: auto cannibalism means eating your own flesh. like if you cut off your finger and eat it thats auto cannibalism. for anyone who doesnt know what that means. now you know
you are a clone. you have all the memories of the original, and think the same way as they do. you are, essentially, a perfect copy of them. now then, if you were to murder the original…
Among The Hail Mary [Part 6] - Start | Prev | Next
Not alone
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If you would like notification updates on Among The Hail Mary, you can follow the [ATHM Masterpost] over on the new Update Blog! People who have been tagged on this post will no longer be tagged for future posts
Toby! Finally finished his drawing. Some info on his role in everything so far aswell!
Toby, as said previously, was with Jim and Eli during the museum incident. Before they got noticed and Jim lost his eye Toby was having an awesome time observing the fight between Drall and Bular and the changelings (stickler was absent from said fight because he knew in advanced what was planned). Of course after Jim was attacked he was the one who carried him into the main town and made up the story of a bike crash into a construction zone to 911 to half explain what happened. Of course Barbara was suspicious but Jim went along with it so she didn’t press.
Of course Bular and his father were not the only two trolls who saw what happened. Despite Blinkys fear he had wanted to make sure Drall was safe, so Arrgh volunteered to follow Drall in the sewers and watch from a vent in the museum floor. Which meant he also saw the three humans who took the amulet. So after telling Blinky what happened he also told him humans had the amulet. So after Jim was out of the hospital Arrgh and Blinky paid Toby and Jim a visit in Toby’s house, which meant the trolls got to Jim much later than in the show (like, a week or two later). Jim had been staying over at Tobys at his mother’s request for recovery reasons.
After He and Jim were given a basic rundown and Jim was further checked by Blinky to make sure Bular hadn’t somehow put a curse on him somehow (aka overreaction), they told Blinky and Arrgh who had somewhat of an idea about things (which for anyone wondering was Jim, Toby, Eli, Claire (though she was very recently informed)). At that point the trolls did not care as much about who was aware because there was little chance Jim could stop Gunmar before the eternal night.
Toby is still Jim’s wingman! He’s present for all important meetings, including Jim’s first Time in trollmarket where he has to talk to the entirety of the market about what happened and that he now has the amulet. He was also there for trainings and any other like major informational things. But if he had free time he learned as much as possible about troll biology and geology. He’s the most informed of the group about troll clans, behavior, and culture. and he LOVES to yap about it.
Post eternal night he trains with his war hammer and is often on patrol with either Jim or Claire. Or he goes out with Ellie to observe the town and gumm-gumm patrols. Since he wears a helmet majority of the time he patrols he isn’t recognized by any soilders that get close enough to actually see him, and most patrols ignore lone humans or pairs unless they are with Jim or Claire (simply because if they aren’t really being messed with there’s little reason to waste effort on hunting or fighting what they consider two young humans.).
Other fun facts:
After the eternal night started (like, two months after) he decides he does not want the braces on and Darcy gets them off after watching exactly two videos about it. This is in no way at all done professionally and results in pain for weeks but Toby is just happy they are gone.
Toby is one of the younger of the group being a few months younger than Jim.
He’s still best friends with Arrgh and really likes hearing Arrghs story’s, which there is a lot.
additional notes:
Im gonna make a long form explanation of stuff at some point I’m deciding on what to do first though.
Ellie is the oc from my first post (there will be more on them at some
point).
Forgot if I said this but I changed the time this stuff happens. It’s summer 2026, probably in July. This change was ONLY made so I can mention Project Hail Mary in future stuff.
Toby’s rant (WHICH I MADE UP ENTIRELY DISCLAIMER):
“Another fun thing about trolls is they only look like they are made of stone. Technically speaking they are! But also they are very much not. Actually trolls are not entirely the stones they appear to be but that appearance comes from minerals in the outer layers of their skin that harden as they age. These minerals are absorbed from their diets and requirements vary on clan and heritage. So take Blinky for example, who has a blue tint to his skin. That is because he has minerals very similar to jade composites, though his presents more like blue jade While Dictacious presents more like green jade, based on Blinkys description. This also means most pigmentation for whelps comes from parental genes and fades as their diets affect it. While the colors can be the same as a parent even into maturity there’s chances they change pallets and material entirely. Though it’s mostly consistent in families and clans. This is also why trolls require such high mineral diets. Some skin types are also more prone to breakage, like dry skin cracking on humans, but again it is a mix of minerals and biological skin so it is also flexible.”
Additional notes to add to this idea:
Trolls can also change skin types late into life. Dictacious after centuries in the dark lands also now has a darker appearance and has a higher concentration of minerals that makeup quartz. His skin is also tougher because of it.
Random headcanons about what stones the main trolls are similar to and what that affects:
Blinky: blue jade. Just makes him a little less durable than most trolls.
Arrgh: Basalt and granite. He’s extremely durable because of this. Kubaras are usually just basalt-similar but Arrghs time near the surface and his diet made it a mix of granite and basalt.
Angor rot: Quartz and marble. While his skin composition is durable he is not due to malnutrition.
Bular: Obsidian and quartz. His claws, ridges, and horns have very sharp edges due to the obsidian composite. But that also means they are fragile and are worn down after years of combat.
Gunmar: obsidian. He also has sharp claws and horns, but unlike other trolls he cannot have a secondary type of composite because of the unique circumstances of his birth. Weirdly enough he is not as fragile as bular and is not as worn even being much older.
Drall: tanzanite and blue topaz. He’s considered very attractive because of the rarity of the composites. His spikes are very durable.
strickler: quartz. Most changelings are some variation of quartz, though color varies.
numora: quartz. Her skin has a unique pink tint not common in changelings, which she is very proud of.
