#dark!toby

Snuff film!director Toby: He charms you in a Spanish tavern and lures you back to his apartment. You wake up tied up and gagged in front of a camera and he orchestrates your perfect murder to create a work of cinematic art. He just thinks you’re so poetically beautiful when you’re begging for help. Even once he’s disposed of your body in some forgotten ditch, he still keeps you with him in the form of an inconspicuous little VHS tape that sits on his shelf for him to watch over and over and over.

Vampire!Toby: Most people only ever spot him out of the corner of their eye. Nothing more than a passing shadow. He lurks under dim streetlights on cobblestoned paths, watching silently with tiger’s eyes to find his next victim. One night when you’re walking home late, you cross a dark alleyway and before your next footstep meets the ground, you’re pulled inside and pushed up against the wall. It all happens so fast- his teeth at your neck, his raven hair brushing your jaw, his hands holding you in place so tight. You barely realize what’s happening- all you know are the deep pulses of pleasure that throb through you as he drains your life force. As you drop to the ground and your vision dims, you catch one glimpse of him smirking down at you and wiping your crimson blood off his lips.

Ghost!Toby: He only shows up in the castle halls when you’re wandering alone, candle in hand. The first time, you met him by mistake and he nearly frightened you to death- standing there, nobleman garb and all, looking at you like you were the one worth marveling at. You meet him every night, whisper secrets to each other in the darkest corridor until dawn, when he disappears. One night he kisses you and it’s so, so cold, but you can feel it. Eventually a war breaks out in the kingdom and you have to flee, leaving the castle and Toby abandoned without warning. Years later you return alone one night. The castle’s in shambles, but there, in the wreckage, stands Toby, smiling as if he always knew you’d come back.

“Mary.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

Jim shrugged. Mary tip-toed the edge of what could be considered a security risk, but she had picked up some hacking skills in the past five years, so she could cover her tracks. “So, why did you not tell me about the fact that you found Claire but ‘not exactly’?” Before Toby could answer, Jim took a deep breath. “You found her body, didn’t you?”

“Well... kind of.”

“Tobes, there is no ‘kind of’ when it comes to dead bodies.”

“She’s essentially possessed.”

“Well, how do we un-possess her? If she got out of the Shadow Realm, that means there’s a way for us to get back in to save her.”

“That’s the problem; we tried. Merlin gave us a talisman.”

“You told him but not me?”

Toby heaved an annoyed sigh. “Merlin told us. Two days ago, and you were away on a different mission. He gave me a talisman that would completely neutralize Morgana’s magic, and also a way to track it.  I’m hoping that maybe continued exposure to iron and the talisman will either drive Morgana out, or kill her.”

“Repeat those last two words for me? I think I misheard you.”

“Kill her.” Tobias Domzalski’s expression was more stony than Jim’s own.

“What? No, that can’t be an option. We can’t kill Claire.”

“For all intents and purposes, Claire died five years ago. We can’t let her become a threat.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“You’re the one who isn’t being serious. Look, I miss Claire too, but she’s dangerous. More importantly, Claire isn’t Claire anymore, she’s Morgana’s vessel and we need to stop her. She’s in one of the holding cells. Take one look at her, and between her wings and her attitude you’ll understand.”

Jim gave the man next to him a long look, one last time trying to make sure this wasn’t some badly-executed joke.

“Really?” Jim asked. “So you think that if someone comes out of some dark place as a new species and a different psyche, they can’t be trusted?”

The man who had been Jim’s best friend for most of their lives merely stared back, as if there was nothing wrong with that statement. As if that wasn’t what happened to Jim, mere days before they had lost Claire.

How long would it be before no one trusted Jim? He wouldn’t stick around long enough to find out.

He wouldn’t stick around long enough for them to kill Claire, either.

“Next time you should watch how you act around your allies so you don’t lose them, Domzalski.”  Jim pushed past him, trying to ignore the sting. He ran until he found an occupied holding cell.

Jim unlocked and opened the door, revealing a young woman staring at the him. Her eyes widened as she realized who he was. She was chained to a chair, just like she had been when Morgana was exorcised from Claire’s body.

Claire was alive.

As Jim vaulted over the table to be closer to her, he felt all the anger at his old friends leave his body. He wrapped his arms around her, breathing in her scent. She was here, she was alive. She must have been near a fire recently, because he smelled something akin to smoke.

Some calculating part of his brain that probably wore a green cardigan and talked to a man with a warhammer was trying to tell him to be careful, since Morgana had tried to kill him once from Claire’s body before. As Jim pressed his forehead against hers, he told that part of himself to fuck off.

"I'm so sorry, we should have tried to find a way to get to you. I, we thought you were dead," Jim said as he hugged her. She inhaled quickly as if she was in pain, and he pulled away. “Are you okay?”

Claire gave him a small smile. It was an awkward one, but it was one of hers, not the creepy attempt that Morgana had made on the date.  "I'll be fine. Long story short, I got a pretty severe metal allergy at the same time I got my wings."

Jim looked around her, seeing the iridescent black-and-purple wings that Toby had talked about. The chains dug into them, and a faint light similar to when trollskin hit the sun emanated from them.

That was how they were going to try to kill her, wasn’t it?

"Just because I have the whole Morgana situation under control doesn't mean that anyone else thinks so, so more security would be a good thing in the long run, right?" Claire said. Jim almost couldn’t believe that she agreed with their childhood friends, though she probably didn’t realize just what their intents for her were.

Almost, because Jim remembered her crying into his chest a couple nights after her exorcism because she had had a nightmare where she had been possessed again. And now she had to live that nightmare every day.

"I missed you so much,” Claire said. “I didn't even let myself hope that you were alive all this time." He had let himself wonder if she was alive, but that had been a moment of despair, not hope, for him. Morgana had likely been furious for being locked into the Shadow Realm. Given how creative her threats were, Jim had thought death would have been a mercy for Claire. He was probably wrong.

"It's not fine, and I trust you. You don't deserve to be treated like this. Hold still for a moment, please? I don't want to hurt you." He then summoned a dagger and sliced through the chains. Claire practically leaped out of her chair and wrapped her arms and wings around Him. He slowly wrapped his left arm around her, careful to avoid her wings. He wasn’t an expert in medicine for either of the two species that he was, much for fairy wings, but the burns looked like they’d be painful if touched. The four fingers of his other hand carded through her hair in a soothing motion.

"Let's get out of here," he said. "Let's go home."

I'm done. Done with the lies And trying to save you. Done with playing hero Because all you do is destroy now.

We were so similar Three bright lights Standing strong against Everything and everyone who threatened us. What happened to you To us?

Tobes, they don't deserve you. You told me that when my dad left So why is your mom any different? She abandoned you when you were two And doesn’t deserve your loyalty. She's a dictator And you exude that same pull. Does anything escape your gravity?

It is the East, And Claire, you were the Sun. But that isn't one of your names anymore, Is it? You traded away the actress, And welcomed the banished sorceress Burning a gold accretion disk. You are no longer the Sun Because the Sun didn't have enough To become what you are now.

I am the last star in our trio. I would have accepted the slow heat death of the three of us And dying as ourselves. Was I too much of a hypocrite? Is that why you turned to Black holes when it’s unnatural for you to become such? It was supposed to be Trollhunters and not Trollhunter, Who always fights alone.

But we’re done. I’m no longer a member Of this trinary star system. No matter how hard it is I’m breaking orbit And breaking free.

Goodbye.