Beautiful story! So happy someone got this mess fixed! 3

On Gronk nuts I think trolls have a cloaca like organ that has the same name for males and females.

A very creative and well written story. I liked the whole King Arthur being Jim's father idea and I really liked the arc of Jim doing a little bit of bonding with his father and creating a stone that allows him to take on human form. It gives Jim a happy ending and allows him to get his life back.

Merlin was also really good in this story. I didn't like him in the tv series, but in this story you really fixed him up a bit. Merlin has to face some of the consequences of both his past and present as well as deal with the hurt he caused other people. He admits to doing wrong and actually feels guilty about what he has done as well as try to make things right. It makes him more likable and humble.

Everyone felt in character and the story had a great ending.

Fantastic job! :)

I'm rereading these stories and a thought had occurred to me after you finish making your five story arc do a remake that is based off of all three series because now that they're being released the story has changed there so why not do it here too. You can still keep these stories up too just make new ones is what I'm saying.

o SHIT what

Gahhhhhhhhh Just

I'm dyslexic and I've hated reading most of my life. But this has taught me to enjoy reading. Even though I have to read some lines a few times I'm able to enjoy the story. Thanks

I know you couldn't have put 3Below in this, but with the exception of no aliens (sad day) HEADCANON ACCEPTED! :D This was great. Thank you for the story!

Jim'll like getting his GED. Another thing to let him feel more anchored in the human world.

Toby and Darci's date nearly turning into an impromptu going-away party was fun. Nomura and Aaarrrgghh had an interesting philosophical discussion. Blinky versus the Chinese finger-trap is a scene I wish could've happened in the show; it's funny in text but could've been comedy gold as an animated snippet.

That scene with the dark magic 'discovering' the locked-away Fetch would also be so cool to see animated. It would need quiet but eerie background music, with some increasingly louder chords when the Fetch crackles and disappears, and then a sustained minor note as the camera holds on where it used to be.

Jim and James' goodbye, and Merlin and Mordred's goodbye, were both touching. Blinky teaching Jim to drive the gyre was a fun note to end the story on!

Draig slumping in Mordred's embrace all woe-begone, "if I must", is funny.

Merlin and Strickler discussing the possibility Mordred's memories are just temporarily suppressed, not gone entirely, is intriguing. Poor kid, hope he doesn't actually remember centuries of chasing down his father and getting stabbed into the Shadow Realm. Either way, it's smart of Merlin to explain what he can now, so there can be an informed response in how Mordred reacts to Merlin, and Mordred won't be totally blindsided when/if he does get his memories back.

Mordred's reactions to modern food, tech, and attitudes towards vegetarianism are cute to read. Undead or alive, he can't resist a cat video!

It's cool how Daylight and Moonlight seem to have customized themselves for Jim's human and troll forms, respectively.

Nana's summary of recent events cracks me up.

Things seem to be settling in an overall mostly-satisfying way as to who lives where. There's no perfect solution for everything but communication, as always, is the key. Jim and James got to talk out their feelings regarding James moving away again instead of staying like James had hoped. Toby and Darci seem to have reached a decision that works for them for now with the awareness that they can revisit and rework the issue if dating while living it different towns ever feels like its stopped working.

I get the benefit of Barbara staying back, where she can provide medical aid but not be easily taken out - but with how 'cold' Mordred's magic was, I think Strickler might've regretted asking Draig to stay with her.

Ah, so Claire was right and the new armour is Moonlight.

When Mordred snarls at Merlin, "You. Don't. Save. Me," it's clearly partly the Shadow Magic influence resisting Merlin's help, but it's also so easy to see the hurt kid, whose Uncle Merlin never came while he was being kept by Morgana, screaming, "You didn't save me!" It sets up the later lines to that effect very well.

Excellent, Draig did come to help. Cell phones are so useful for quick communication and texting lets a rescue get set up without distracting the audience in the middle of a dramatic scene but also without making the rescue feel out of nowhere.

Wow, Jim's speech was the sweetest take on "you're useless now." I mean, I get what he actually met, it's just his phrasing set up an intriguing bit of cognitive dissonance.

Ooooh, phoenix magic! If/when Aaarrrgghh goes back to visit her, I suspect the phoenix will be quite interested in this adventure story and the unexpected role she played in the end there.

I got such a kick out of the 'Holy Grail' being a lost-in-translation story of magical mischief! And I'm glad more adult characters are taking turns to look after Milagro so Carina can be a child instead of a caretaker. Nana fussing over whether Toby and Aaarrrgghh and Jim are wearing mittens is adorable. Blinky keeps noticing and admiring Nomura, but respectfully not pushing the issue of 'so what did that mean, the other day?'

Grenus' bitterness has some reasoning behind it, now that we know Nomura killed his daughter, but I still disapprove in particular of his implications that, without a threat like Gunmar to push trolls into joining forces, their society will start falling apart.

Toby trying to engage Mordred non-violently and showing him cat pictures was clever!

James advising Jim to use bones against his opponent reminds me of something I've heard about laser hair removal - that the areas of skin with bones close under them, like the face or upper chest or front of the leg, are going to hurt more because there's less flesh for any kind of numbing agent to sink into.

If Barbara's apple pie really does taste like battery acid, she /should/ make it for Thanksgiving, for the trolls to enjoy!

James is right, a doctor can easily relocate anywhere willing to recognize their medical license. And there's a certain convenience to having a rich immortal friend whenever you want to sell your house!

Aw, Nomura found out about Blinky trying to fix the ballerina statuette! And Blinky remembered about the ballet tickets! Her impulsively affectionate response may have embarrassed her but it was sweet to read.

I think it's more likely the armour is 'Starlight' than 'Moonlight'. 'Obscured' could refer to eclipse, as Claire concludes, but consider: stars are obscured by the sun (Daylight) and visible at night, whereas the moon can be visible during the day. The moon may be a brighter source of light at night than the stars, when it's full, but the stars are still present even on nights when the moon is dark. In fact, they appear brightest then, because the reflected sunlight of the moon isn't washing them out.

Since Daylight is still accessible, if altered, and it's the Eclipse armour that's gone, the riddle /could/ refer to how the moon is dark during a solar eclipse (backlit by the sun) but becomes visible again when the two celestial bodies move apart. However, the second line hints more heavily at stars. The moon 'shines' or 'glows' - its light is reflective - while stars 'burn'.

... Although, in a /lunar/ eclipse, the moon turns red, so I suppose it could be 'Moonlight' and refer to the armour not having red highlights anymore?

In conclusion, at this juncture of the story, it feels equally plausible for Claire's guess to be foreshadowing or a red herring. (Heh. /Red/ herring. Like the /red/ moon.)

Clear communication between friends! Also, taco time! Huzzah!

Aw, Walter's proposal was well-constructed. I appreciate what he meant, about feeling like it would be unfair to ask Barbara to tether their lives together back when he couldn't actually, safely, be out in public with her.

Alberto is so chill. Toby learning Gnomish from Chompsky is a fun detail to make note of.

Aaarrrgghh guarding and sheltering Toby warms my heart.

From how Merlin reacted when Jim hugged him, it got me wondering if (among other things) the wizard is touch-starved. Even if he was asleep for most of it, he went centuries without physical contact, and before that, how long's it been since he's touched anyone? And with armour on most of the time, how can the skin-hunger most social organisms have be satisfied even when he /is/ touching people? Okay, the lack of gauntlets on his armour means there's been some opportunity, but /still/. I can't recall offhand if he's made skin-to-skin contact with anyone in this story other than when Barbara gave him a checkup.

Also, I did a quick calculation based on the number of days in the journal. It took Morgana eight and a half years to break Mordred to her satisfaction. Small wonder everyone went so quiet, not only from her methods and her plans but from the idea of someone going through psychological torture for that long.

The fact Jim and Aaarrrgghh have both found the little ballerina statuette Blinky's trying to repair for Nomura is touching both for the gesture of trying to fix it and for the evidence Blinky isn't hiding it or embarrassed to be 'caught' doing something nice.

"Let me speak as if I were your father." "You are." I LOVE JIM AND BLINKY'S RELATIONSHIP SO MUCH!

Jim comparing sparring with James to sparring with Draal was both sweet and sad. As for the hands-restrianed-behind-him thing, of course Jim would have lingering trauma about being attacked by someone meant to be an ally and emotionally manipulated into what he thought would be a permanently-altered state.

Obviously things between Jim and James can never go back to how they were when Jim was five, but it sounds like they're both willing to try to forge a new emotional bond.

Phew! I am so relieved Toby is talking out his thoughts and feelings with his grandmother about possibly moving to New Jersey, rather than trying to sort it all out in his own head without any guidance from someone he knows and trusts who has more life-experience than he does.

I love all the little details of Jim and Claire in her apartment, like the pictures of Enrique, and Claire mentioning her difficulties breaking into theatre, and Jim noticing the scents of Claire's air freshener and towels, and the joking about makeup, and the haircut and hot chocolate - it's such a calm, domestic scene, a nice breather after all the drama the characters have been through. Smidge of drama, with Jim's relief it's a shower and not a tub, but that doesn't overwhelm the entire sequence.

I'm glad Aaarrrgghh went to Blinky to talk out his reluctance to go back to Arcadia and his concerns about upsetting Toby. I'm also glad James decided to approach Blinky and Aaarrrgghh for advice on whether he'd be able stick around and try to rebuild an emotional bond without distressing Jim.

Vali recognizing Jim so quickly is adorable. These kids are so sweet; I'm glad they got to move into Trollmarket. Them lining up for Barbara to give them all good-night kisses reminds me of Snow White kissing the dwarfs good-bye as they left for work in the Disney movie. Nice Dreamworks tie-in with them watching some of the 'How To Train Your Dragon'-derived series.

The change in how trolls are reacting to Jim now that he has access to human form again, and their suspicion regarding how well he treats Changelings, is believable. The show kind of dropped the ball on Changeling-troll tensions when Gunmar killed of the Janus Order's Arcadia base, so it's good to see fanfiction picking up the slack of exploring that dynamic.

Jim's mixed feelings about James are in-character, as is the 'diplomatic' route he ended up going.