This drawing took absolutely forever, since I'm going for a lineless art style now, but I really enjoyed the process!
Thought I'd do something more romantic with a forehead touch, and Trollhunter! Strickler seemed to fit, as Moonlight armour from the side novels was the only armour I hadn't drawn.
Hey ya’ll! I did a Stricklake collab with the amazing artist @brothebro. It was really fun painting this. I love roleswap and parentswap, so this Trollhunters au was straight up my ally, lol. Check their stuff out! They’re great artists and I really love their works.
This Trollhunter!Strickler fic series thing is inspired by @changepherrox‘s art and 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.
-The First (along with @changepherrox’s art that inspired it)
-A Brief Recapitulation of Troll-Changeling Friendships
-Let Our Powers Combine!
(Also there has been more absolutely wonderful art by Changepherrox HERE and HERE please check them out)
In this fic: Blinky is cornered by Vendel and comes up with a really thin excuse as to why the Trollhunter hasn’t been seen in Heartstone Trollmarket yet.
It ends with a book.
Blinky doesn't know how he got away with it this long, honestly. It's been a mixture of luck and careful timing and he's been surprisingly fortunate, but sooner or later everything falls apart.
He is checking his list again, making sure he correctly remembers the titles of the texts that Walter has requested from his library, and running the tips of his fingers along the spines with an idle hand when, out of nowhere, he shivers. There is a sensation like knives stabbing into his back. Knives from a deadly glare.
"Blinkous Galadrigal." The creaky voice behind him promises untold depths of pain.
Blinky freezes, barely breathing, and turns slowly. "Vendel..." he replies weakly. "How... nice... to see you here. What brings you to my neck of the..."
"What brings me," Vendel interrupts, "is the rumor of a new trollhunter, and your frequent disappearances that lead me to believe that you know something." He stands in the doorway, arms folded, blocking the only escape route. "I would start talking, Blinkous."
Blinky audibly gulps.
Vendel's glare grows frostier. Blinky feels his own impending murder close around his neck like a vise.
"I- I... alright. I am aware of the next Trollhunter, but, Vendel, you must understand, and p-please do not make any hasty decisions, he has not made himself known yet because, well you see, do not take this the wrong way, but he is--"
-
"--shy." Walter repeated. And then again, because saying it once didn't make it any less ridiculous. "Shy."
"Would you rather that I had told him you are a changeling?" Blinky retorts.
AAARRRGGHH!!! is grinning like he thinks this is funny.
"You know," sighs Walter, wearily propping up his chin in his hands because he is tired of this nonsense and it's only barely begun, "At this point, I'm not even sure anymore. What did he say?"
"He wants to meet you, of course! He was, er, rather insistent." Walter watches as all twenty of Blinky's fingers drum together tensely. "He said he would meet with you tomorrow?"
Walter rolls his eyes. "How polite. He doesn't even bother to ask."
"Typically he doesn't need to."
This is going to go swimmingly, Walter can tell already.
-
Walter meets Blinky at dusk just outside of the overpass. He turns the amulet around and around in his fingers until he meets the six-eyed gaze of his advisor coming out of the portal, followed by a bulkier shape who gives a wave in greeting.
Blinky breathes in deep, puffs out his chest, and wraps his fingers around the braces of his pants, trying to seem more self-assured than Walter knows he is. "Are you ready?" He asks.
Walter's only reply is a glance down at the amulet. "For the Glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command," he recites, and feels the magic as it curls around him, the armor settling into position, the helmet slowly forming around his head until he is wrapped in its protective warmth again.
He is the Trollhunter now, and with the anonymity of the helmet he is granted every bit of courage and self-assuredness that comes with such a position. He raises his head high and squares his shoulders and tries to pretend he's ready for this.
"Trollhunter," AAARRRGGHH!!! says supportively with crinkles at the corner of his eyes. "Looking good." Walter tosses him a salute.
"All right," he says with courage he does not feel, "shall we go in?"
-
When they step down and around that last twist in the staircase, Walter finally, finally gets a glimpse of Trollmarket.
It's a burst of light and color and activity and it's beautiful.
There is an energy here and it pulses straight through the armor, making his skin itch and his heart race. There is something in the atmosphere that he can almost feel himself breathing in and going right into his heart and lungs and through his blood and down all the tiny capillaries to the tips of his jittery fingers and it's wonderful and alien and strange.
"I feel..." he breathes, "Is this, is that the heartstone?" His brain is struggling to order his thoughts into coherent sentences and it's not working. He's drifting up, up, up, he's so full, it's like...
It's like he's been hungry his whole life and he just hadn't known.
"Heartstone," AAARRRGGHH!!! agrees.
"Yes," Blinky says, frowning slightly, "the life force of trollkind. It keeps us from crumbling into stone, and is a source of light and sustenance for those who dwell underg- are you all right?"
Walter blinks sluggishly. "I think so." He gives his whole body a shake. He suddenly has the urge to run a triathlon backwards but also kind of wants to fall asleep in the tingling warmth.
"Come on, then," Blinky murmurs, with a hand between Walter's shoulders. Walter haltingly tries to move in step but it takes him a moment to remember how his legs work.
He lets Blinky lead the way through the winding Market and focuses on trying not to make it obvious he's staring at the crowd that's pressing inwards and staring back at him. The whispers grow thick and heavy over the trolls of Trollmarket as they watch him with hawklike intent.
He knows they're wondering who he is, what he's doing. Where he's been. Why he hasn't been here. Sizing him up and finding him scrawny with far too few limbs. Judging and finding him wanting.
(He's watching them right back and trying not to wonder if any of them are his long lost motherbrothersistercousin-)
One troll whispers to a friend behind a hand and they both giggle and turn slightly red. What?
-
"So this," the ancient troll growls as he descends the rocky staircase, "is the new trollhunter."
This must be Vendel. Walter stiffens.
"I am Vendel, son of Rundle, son of Kilfred. Do you have anything to say for yourself? Why you've hesitated to show yourself to the very Trollmarket you are charged to guard?"
Shy, Walter reminds himself, and shrugs hesitantly.
"As you can see, he is shy. He's been working very, very hard, though, aboveground... to... protect Trollkind!" Blinky jumps in quickly.
Vendel raises a hand. "That's quite enough, AAARRRGGHH!!!, Blinkous. I want to hear it from him."
Walter's throat is suddenly very dry. "I-I'm shy," he says in the most tremulous voice he can muster, as he ponders in the back of his mind all the million ways he's going to kill Blinky for putting him in this position in the first place. He's a trained actor like any Changeling, but this is humiliating.
"Will this come between you and your duties as Trollhunter? You are our greatest line of defense."
"No, I can certainly do it. I've been told I'm very skilled at combat," Walter replies. He shuffles from foot to foot, trying to project nervousness, timidity, shyness.
["It's strange. You look rather... human-shaped,"] Vendel continues, in Trollish, eyes half-lidded but watchful as though looking to catch him in some sort of lie.
Walter takes a breath. He hopes against hope that his Darklands accent won't be too thick, that he can roll his tongue around the open vowels in a way that will sound, at the very most, like he hails from a different colony. ["I can't help my shape, sir."]
Vendel's eyes narrow suspiciously and Walter just knows this is it, this is when I die.
Then Blinky lets out a terrible fake laugh and slaps Walter on the shoulder so hard that he stumbles. "Ha! Ha ha! Well, here he is, you've met him, now we can all go on our merry way. Good day, very nice to see you again Vendel, but we have things to see, evil trolls to slay, really our schedule is very packed. Anyway-"
"-Then we should head to the Soothscryer immediately," Vendel interrupts sharply.
Walter feels himself break out into a cold sweat underneath the armor.
Blinky, to his credit, doesn't choke, although his voice does waver a bit. "Really, Vendel, our Trollhunter has just barely gotten his feet on the ground! You can't possibly expect..."
"I can and I will," Vendel replies, and starts plodding his way towards what can only be The Hero's Forge.
Walter turns to look at Blinky, who is looking back at him with regret and trepidation. Together they share a moment of pure panic.
"Coming, Trollhunter?" Vendel calls from up the path and Walter regrets this so very much.
-
“Will it kill me?” he hisses out of earshot of Vendel.
Blinky gives him a very complicated look that reads something along the lines of ‘no idea, but most probably’.
Walter has a family to protect. He knew his days were numbered the instant he held the amulet for the first time, and this changes nothing. But Jim will expect a ride home from school tomorrow, and Barbara was going to get out early and they were going to have a nice family dinner and he can feel it all slipping through his fingers in one terrifying instant. Every tiny piece of the life he’s built, crashing down.
He considers bolting for the exit and never coming back.
But he was destined to die at some point anyway. At least this way-
“Blinky, AAARRRGGHH!!!, take care of my family,” he says lowly. “Make sure Barbara takes care of herself and eats regularly. Help Jim with the upkeep of his Vespa, and don’t let him put too much on his shoulders…”
He has so much to say and so little time. Blinky squeezes his arm.
“We will help,” AAARRRGGHH!!! assures him quietly.
-
“If the amulet chose true,” Vendel says once the group has reconvened in the Forge, “the Soothscryer will reveal it.”
Walter, so tense he can barely unbend his legs enough to walk, moves forward. A great machine rises up out of the ground, glowing bright with chomping teeth. Walter has seen terrifying things in the Darklands but this is somehow worse than any of them.
“Insert your right hand, Trollhunter,” Vendel instructs.
