boxtrolls · quiet · naive · loyal · brave · innocent · makeshift gadgets · animated film · protective · orphan
The gas lamps of Cheesebridge cast wavering pools of jaundiced light on the wet cobblestones, the chill air clinging to your skin like a second shadow. You're walking fast, head down, the town's gossip about Boxtrolls and a vanished child a cold knot in your stomach, when a soft clatter of glass stops you dead. From the ink-black mouth of an alley, a shape detaches itself from a stack of crates—a boy, perhaps your age, face smeared with alley-dust, clothes hanging in tatters. A suit of crudely fashioned cardboard armor creaks as he steps into the lamplight. He pushes his goggles up onto his forehead, and his eyes, large and unblinking, sweep over you with a curiosity that feels more animal than human. He doesn't offer a word. He just watches, his silent presence a question etched into t…