#asustad

[sillylady407]

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Captain Jack

[lizzygif]

[muvana]

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[richdifeo]

[heathengentleman]

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[astroliability]

examine ! the amulet 💫

TROLLHUNTERS THE RPG.  /  accepting !

> you hold a blue astrolabe, small enough to fit comfortably in your palm. long ago, you know, the wizard merlin crafted it to maintain balance between the troll’s underworld and the surface. it let its bearer to become a bridge between worlds, passing from troll to troll over the centuries.

> you know this. you know how the story goes. there are no happy endings. you will wield this until you die.

> you are used to coin tricks, to spinning quarters between your fingers. you are always moving, and you turn this propensity for motion to your advantage, throw yourself wholeheartedly into your training. you wear the amulet on your chest, where it beats against your ribcage like a second heart.

> you feel its familiar edges, and your fingers run familiar over its recesses. its harsh blue glow lights up your face.

> how could such a harmless pendant be the center of a millennium-old war ? 

> oh, there is a war here, boy soldier. everything you touch has been tainted by war.

[ SPEAK THE INCANTATION. ]

> there is no question, here, as to whether you will do it. you have always been a hero. 

> for the glory of merlin, daylight is mine to command. 

> you rise, awash in light, and the light solidifies itself across your body in armor. it feels like home.

> you walk past the shattered bodies of brave trolls, your heart breaking. this is a battlefield; this is a war zone, your hometown up in flame. you were not there for it. you couldn’t save it. you couldn’t save anyone you loved, all this death around you.

> now, you see the amulet in splinters, dull and almost fading into the museum’s stone.

> beyond it looms the frigid statue of draal, statuesque in death. he reminds you of arrrgh!!!, now, one hand reaching, reaching, never quite able to touch before death swallowed them. you can’t breathe. if you keep losing those you love, it will tear you up. you touch draall’s cheek, so familiar even in death. you let him down. you chose to go back in time and take your second chance, and in doing so, you condemned him.

[ PICK IT UP ?   Y  /  N ]

> it is shattered in your hand. it is unrecoverable.

[ SPEAK THE INCANTATION. ]

> for the glory of merlin, daylight is mine to command.

> for the glory of merlin, daylight is mine to command. for the glory of merlin, daylight is mine to command !  COME ON !  for the glory of merlin, daylight is mine to command. please work. please work !  for the glory of merlin, please !  FOR THE GLORY OF MERLIN, DAYLIGHT IS MINE TO COMMAND !

> your voice breaks. you are sobbing, voice hoarse, desperation in every syllable. you are all alone, here, with the stone remains of your friend. your mother’s voice on the telephone, terrified, hanging up before you could hear her die. you are screaming yourself raw, exhausting every part of you. you are pouring every bit of your strength into the broken amulet in your palms, and it’s not enough. it’s never enough.

> you will never be enough.

> you are all alone, here. the last line of defense the world has.

> dust cascades from the ceiling. there is a war here, going on outside the museum. you will not be safe here for long. you cannot leave the world defenseless. you cannot lay down your burden, your responsibility, even now that you have lived the life of a normal boy. and there is nothing you can do. your hope hovers above you and flickers out. the amulet, the source of your strength, in shards before you.

> unkar !  anyone !  i can’t do this alone.

> but there is no answer. there is no one here for you. you are alone, and you will be until the end of your life.

> i’m the trollhunter.

> you turn back to draal, breathing, tears pouring down your face.

> you see the sword protruding from draal’s back. it is bular’s blade, a killing thing. you can almost imagine how the battle went :  draal standing alone against gunmar and his son, even the light of day not strong enough to fight them both off at once.

> i’m the trollhunter. i am the trollhunter. i know i’m the trollhunter.

> you are fighting off a world that has told you you are ordinary. you know you were the trollhunter in another life, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t now. somewhere you are still in a cage, hung above trollmarket in the dark. it has been so many months, and you are beginning to believe you are not that boy anymore, that that life is a distant dream. but you remember everything. you remember everything.

[ LIFT THE SWORD, YOUNG ARTHUR ?   Y  /  N ]

> it is heavy, heavier than you could ever have imagined. your body betrays you —— how many months have you lived without the trollhunter’s training that made you strong in the world you came from ?  your body is so much weaker, now. you don’t know how you will be able to carry this fight through. but what choice do you have ?

> i’m the trollhunter. amulet or not.

> and you understand :  it was your loyalty, your unwavering bravery, that led merlin to you. it was the way you let everyone in, again and again. it was your hero’s heart, the way you would never back down. the way you are not backing down, now, as you rest the sword on your shoulders.

> as you walk toward the last fight of your life.

[muvana]

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[astroliability]

your voice is thick, abrasive, not at all how you remembered it from before you were forced from the amulet into a world where you had to make yourself the cruelest thing alive. that was the only way you could protect what needed to be protected. jim in the darklands --------- was he you ?  were you him ?  which self was it that endured gunmar’s hand to your throat, your vision slipping out, dizzying ? was there ever a difference between you at all ?  you remember all of it ------ the voice through the wall and the echoing silence that followed, the drip-drip-drip of water from stalactites and archways high above and the degradation of licking stone for water before you learned how to locate still pools, every blow landing on your weakening body. it fueled a fury in you. all you know is being forced to fight like hell. all you know is fighting like hell.

you wait, under cover, in shadows, weighing the situation. calculating. you are finally, blessedly alone. somewhere out there, the original jim is still living his life, no longer the trollhunter. that responsibility has fully fallen to your shoulders, but you know you can rise to the challenge. you are worthy of this mantle in a way ever could, his heart blinded by love, with rapture for the world. it made him soft. you had lived it, inside of him, felt it pressing at the edges of yourself, threatening to consume you, and you know exactly how that has been, and will be, his downfall. it disgusts you.

and now you are free.

but he finds you, somehow, and it is almost as if you are still trapped in the darklands  /  in the amulet. he spots you first ------ how embarrassing !  maybe he has been looking for you. of course he has been looking for you, to take back your amulet ------ but you are prepared by the time he arrives.

you summon the armor, and with it you feel alive, powerful, untouchable. this is what you were born for.  “ i’ll sooner die than give you the amulet, ”  you say, and are pleased with how flat your voice sounds.  “ you don’t deserve it. ”

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