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[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: His name when he was alive was Jackson Overland, but he doesn't know that, so he's just going by Jack Frost.
SERIES: Rise of the Guardiians
CHRONOLOGY: [SPOILER!] After Pitch breaks his staff and throws him into the ice fissure in Antarctica. [/SPOILER!]
CLASS: Antagonistic Jerkface With His Heart In The Right Place? I guess he leans closest to antihero at this point; he's definitely not a villain and definitely doesn't want to hurt anybody, but he doesn't believe he's cut out to be a hero or a Guardian at all, and his main motivation is having a good time.
[Jump Past Spoilery History Section!]
BACKGROUND:
[RotG SPOILERS, OBVS]
The world of RotG is essentially our Earth, though the town a good chunk of it takes place in is fictional. About three centuries ago, somewhere in north-central Pennsylvania, there was a tiny village, where a boy named Jack lived with his sister and mother (and probably father, though it's never confirmed). One day, Jack and his sister decided to go ice skating on the pond near their house. When they found themselves trapped on thin ice--literally--Jack used a branch he found on the ice to pull his sister to safety, but fell through the ice himself instead. Jackson Overland did not survive his fall through the ice.
Jack Frost, however, came about because of it. Awakened as an elemental spirit by the Man in the Moon, Jack rose from beneath the ice and discovered he had the power to control ice and ride the wind like a snowflake. Unfortunately, his elation with his new powers was short-lived. He had no memory of where he came from or even who he was, beyond the name Jack Frost, and upon stumbling into the nearby village, he discovered something far more frightening: no one could see him. His calls for information went unheeded, and to his horror he found that people could walk through him as if he were a ghost. Confused and feeling very alone, Jack headed back into the forests, suddenly wondering why he'd been put on this earth at all.
He continued to wonder for 300 years. Over the course of time he did learn a bit more about his lot in life: he discovered he wasn't completely alone, at least. There were many other spirits in the world, all of them ageless as he was, and even if he didn't really consider any of them friends, at least they could see him. He passed his days bringing snow days and cold noses to the children of the world, allowing them to indulge in the fun he was never quite allowed to be a participant in.
Meanwhile, at the North Pole, Santa Claus (whose real name is [Nicholas St.] North) receives an unexpected visit from an old nemesis: Pitch Black, better known as The Boogeyman. He quickly summons the other Guardians to his stronghold, knowing that Pitch is up to no good. Unlike other ageless spirits, Guardians' very lives are sustained by the belief of children across the globe. Whereas Jack has survived for 300 years as the invisible spirit of winter, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy (Toothiana), the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman are all Guardians, and if the children of the world stop believing in them, their powers will fade and they may even disappear forever. Fearing what Pitch has in store, the Guardians await instructions from the Man in the Moon, who informs them that he has chosen a (surprising) new Guardian: Jack Frost. North sendsHugh Jackman the Easter Bunny (henceforth referred to as Bunnymund) to retrieve him.
That night, as Jack meanders through the town, watching as the Sandman delivers his dreams to the children, he notices a dark shadow go streaking past. Curious, he pursues it, winding up in an alley, where he encounters Bunnymund and two of North's yetis instead. They toss him in a sack and he's dragged off to the North Pole, where he is told he's being upgraded to Guardian status! Jack is dubious at best, both about Pitch's plan and even more so about his qualifications as a Guardian. Especially considering the Man in the Moon has never told him anything beyond his own name. He isn't interested in being a Guardian or helping their cause, because what have they ever done for him? What has anyone ever done for him? For that matter, what makes them think he's cut out for that sort of thing anyway? North pulls him aside and asks him what his center is--that is, his core motivation. Jack admits he's really not sure, and North tells him that only when he discovers that center will Jack truly know his purpose, but before the conversation can get too feelsy they're interrupted with bad news: there's a situation at the Tooth Fairy's palace.
They take the sleigh to the Tooth Palace and are met with a grim scene: Pitch's nightmare minions have overrun the whole area and are making off with all of the teeth that have been collected, as well as the Tooth Fairy's tiny helpers. Jack manages to save one of them from being taken away, dubbing her Baby Tooth. The five of them confront Pitch in the palace, where he villain monologues about his grand scheme: he finally perfected the ability to turn the Sandman's dreams into nightmares, and plans to systematically destroy children's belief in the Guardians. Once that is accomplished he will reaffirm his own existence by filling the world with darkness and fear. The Guardians of course denounce this very idea--no one's believed in the Boogeyman since the Dark Ages, after all--but when they see the Tooth Palace is slowly beginning to deteriorate, they realize Pitch means business. Her tiny fairies all captured, no one was able to go and retrieve the teeth of the children around the world that night, and with each child that loses their belief in the Tooth Fairy, her powers and realm grow weaker.
Pitch departs, knowing his message has sunk in, and Jack asks why he would bother stealing the teeth. Toothiana explains that the whole reason she and her fairies collect the teeth is because they hold the most precious memories of childhood. She and her fairies guard the memories, and when someone needs to remember something, they help them. She tells Jack that she had the memories of every single person in the world in her palace--even his. Jack is astonished! That changes everything! He never realized that he had even been alive once! Suddenly helping the Guardians doesn't seem like such a bad deal after all. If he can get his baby teeth back from Pitch, he can find out who he used to be. Maybe then he can figure out why the Man in the Moon wants him to be a Guardian in the first place.
All of the answers to his questions are in those memories, and so he agrees to help the Guardians retrieve the teeth and take care of Pitch... even if it's mostly for selfish reasons. The problem is that Toothiana seems to be suffering fiercely for the night of lost work: the children are losing their faith in her, and her powers are diminishing by the minute. North decides that if she can't collect the teeth herself, they'll just have to collect them for her, and so the Guardians spend the rest of the night collecting teeth. It turns into a big competition and is a bit ridiculous, but it gets the job done: crisis averted for the time being.
During the night, they visit a boy that Jack knows fairly well: Jamie Bennett, who lost a tooth that morning in a "freak sledding accident", courtesy of Jack, of course. Unfortunately, things get a little sticky when Jamie wakes up to find all of these legendary figures in his bedroom. Jack is the only one he can't see, though, and so perhaps out of spite, Jack goads Jamie's dog into chasing Bunnymund, creating a bit of a kerfluffle. The Sandman attempts to put Jamie back to sleep, but in the chaos of the chase he winds up hitting everyone else instead. After finally putting Jamie back to bed, Sandman is left with Jack as the only one awake. Well, that was fun.
No time to take incriminating photos, though; Jack and Sandy hoof it after Pitch's nightmares to try and stop the villain from achieving his goals. Unfortunately things don't go as planned, and though the other Guardians wake up and join the fight, Sandman falls to Pitch's nightmares. Enraged, Jack unleashes a massive attack of ice and light that pushes Pitch's darkness back, sending the villain flying. Drained from the attack, Jack falls, and Toothiana catches him to drag him back to the sled. Everyone wants to know how he did that... but the truth is Jack didn't even know he could.
Back at the North Pole, the remaining three Guardians hold a vigil for Sandman, and then North goes to check on Jack, who's feeling pretty down on himself for the whole situation. North assures him that Sandy would have been proud of him for saving the rest of them, but Jack isn't convinced he did enough. Meanwhile, it seems Pitch has tipped the balance, and as the children of the world find their dreams are filled with fear, their belief in things like hope and wonder--the things the Guardians stand for--dwindles. Time is running out, but Bunnymund assures the rest that they can still bounce back. Tomorrow is Easter, the holiday of new beginnings, and so long as they make sure everyone has the best Easter ever, they can still beat Pitch.
Everyone heads to Bunnymund's warren down under, but something is amiss. Has Pitch somehow gotten to Easter already? On the defensive, the Guardians take up their weapons... only to discover that Jamie's little sister Sophie has somehow managed to wander her way into the warren (one of North's magic teleportation snowglobes fell into her hands while they were all sleeping!). They decide to let her stay and watch while they paint all the eggs for Easter, and then when she falls asleep after the long night Jack volunteers to take her home. North voices apprehension, since it's been made fairly clear that Jack is their best weapon against Pitch at this point, but Jack assures them he'll be "quick as a bunny", and rushes Sophie home.
After tucking Sophie safely back into her bed (which she promptly rolls out of), Jack makes to head back to the warren, but is stopped by the sound of a familiar voice calling his name. Whose voice is that? It's a little girl, and he's sure he recognizes it, but... he just can't place it. Much to Baby Tooth's chagrin, Jack pursues the sound of the voice through the woods, following it until he finds an old rotted bed frame over a deep, dark hole in the ground. Of course he does what any sane intelligent protagonist would do: he goes down the hole.
It's Pitch's lair. He finds all of Toothiana's little fairies trapped in cages, and tries to figure out how to set them free, then spies the pile of boxes of teeth. He quickly starts pawing through the boxes, looking for his own box, desperate to find the memories that will tell him who he really is and why he's here, but before he can find it the sound of Pitch's voice breaks through the silence. As the spirit of fear itself, Pitch always knows what everyone is most afraid of, and he knows that Jack's greatest fear is that he'll never figure out who he really is... and most of all, he's afraid of being a disappointment. He doesn't want to let the other Guardians down. He holds up the box with Jack's teeth tauntingly.
Jack chases after him, desperate to get a hold of the teeth and those precious memories, but he doesn't realize Pitch is just stalling him for time. After giving him enough of a runaround, Pitch just hands the teeth over and vanishes into the shadows, assuring Jack that as usual he's messed everything up again. Jack realizes he's been had, but not before he's locked out of the lair, and has lost Baby Tooth!
Rushing back to the warren, the gravity of the situation hits Jack hard: while he was distracted, Pitch sent his nightmares to destroy all of Bunnymund's eggs before they could reach the surface. It seems that there won't be any Easter this year. As the children of the world lose their faith in the Easter Bunny as well, the Guardians confront Jack, demanding to know what took him so long. That's when Toothiana spies the box of teeth in Jack's hand. She gasps and asks where he got that, then notices Baby Tooth is missing. They realize he must have gone to Pitch to get the teeth, and Jack suddenly understands just how bad this must look. Bunnymund says that Jack has to go, that he was never cut out to be a Guardian in the first place, and now he's completely broken their trust.
Jack leaves, knowing there's no way to convince the others he didn't mean for any of this to happen. He heads to the South Pole to surround himself with the familiarity of the ice and snow he was born from. Standing atop a cliff, he glares at the box of teeth, then makes to hurl it away into the frozen wastes... but just can't do it. He threw everything away to get those teeth and now he's too scared to even look at them... but he can't just get rid of them either.
When he realizes he's not alone, though, he lashes out, whirling to attack when Pitch calls out to him. Pitch has a plan, of course: why not join him? After all, "What goes together better than cold and dark?" Pitch has spent so much time not being believed in--he really does understand how it feels to be invisible, to know that no child will ever truly see you. If they worked together, the world would believe in both of them!
Jack considers this, but knows that the only thing Pitch wants is for the world to be afraid of him, and even if Jack would give nigh anything to be seen by even one child, he's not willing to be a monster to get what he wants. Undaunted, Pitch pulls out his final bargaining chip: Baby Tooth. He says he'll trade the little fairy for Jack's staff, which Jack reluctantly relinquishes. In true villain form, however, Pitch then spitefully says he's not going to release Baby Tooth after all. The little fairy stabs him in the hand with her sharp beak and he angrily flings her away, slamming her into the ice where she falls into a crevice. He then snaps Jack's staff in two. Jack groans in pain, obviously somehow injured by the damage to his staff, and Pitch hurls him into an icy crevice with Baby Tooth.
Making sure the little fairy is all right and allowing her to burrow into his hoodie, Jack curls himself into the ice. He knows that Pitch is stronger than the Guardians now that the children have lost their faith in them, but what can he do? They don't trust him, they don't believe him when he says he never meant for anything bad to happen. With no staff, no allies, and no hope, Jack finds himself wondering if it's even worth it to try any more.
Aaaaand that's where I'm pulling him into the game because I'm a horrible human being. 8D
PERSONALITY:
Jack is sort of your typical lone wolf edgy antisocial teenager. He's spent 300 years sulking about his lot in life, being invisible because nobody believes Jack Frost really exists, and he's a little bitter about it. Okay a lot bitter about it. Being summoned by the Guardians and told he's being inducted into their ranks kind of throws oil on the fire, too; it's basically insult to injury to think that after all this time the Man in the Moon is going to just hand him some superficial destiny to look after all the children who haven't even believed in him all this time. It's a death sentence, in a way, as a Guardian is dependent on the belief of children to survive, and so he really wants nothing to do with it.
That said, most of Jack's general devil-may-care attitude is rooted in his frustration with the Man in the Moon. Especially after learning that the Man in the Moon actually talks to the Guardians, he's angry and resentful that he's been given the cold shoulder all this time. He might be over 300 years old, but he was 'born' as a 17-year-old boy and in many ways that age is still very apparent in his demeanor. He's mischievous and prioritizes having a good time, and doesn't seem to have any issues causing disturbances or making things really inconvenient for people (see: freezing an elf solid and using the wind to scatter peoples' paperwork everywhere). He hides his loneliness and general dissatisfaction with himself and his life behind this sheen of irreverence and irresponsibility, but it becomes apparent that he gives a lot more of a damn than he wants anyone to think.
Jack has a bit of an inferiority complex due to his extended invisibility. He often feels as though he's doing something wrong, or that maybe he's just not doing enough, and that's why the kids never see him and the Man in the Moon won't talk to him. After the Sandman's demise at Pitch's hand, Jack blames himself for not being able to save him, as though perhaps he could have done more if he'd only been faster or stronger. He takes the Guardians' rejection after the destruction of Easter very personally and very hard; though he knows he did nothing wrong, he blames himself for what happened because he was gullible and fell into Pitch's trap. He doesn't even bother to try and make an excuse for his absence and instead just accepts that he blew it. He does a good job of pretending like the acceptance of others means nothing to him, but Pitch hit the nail on the head when he said that Jack's greatest fear is being a disappointment. He wants do do things right and wants to be the kind of spirit the kids of the world can believe in, and having failed to do so for 300 years has become his greatest source of self-doubt.
If there's one thing it's clear Jack loves, though, it's making kids happy. There's a look of unadulterated joy on his face when he's soaring through the air with Jamie's sled in tow, whipping the boy around corners and sending him skidding along the road, but always making certain he's not in danger. Jack has an easy confidence with his powers and even when Jamie's sled slides out into traffic he never loses his... cool, as it were, and quickly reroutes the ice to push the boy out of harm's way. He's definitely a bit irresponsible, but seems to genuinely love children and wants nothing more than to have them believe in him so he can join in the fun he brings them.
Jack is also very creative, and I'm not just talking about fancy snowflakes and this crazy stuff. When faced with opposition, Jack never hesitates to think outside the box. When the last child was losing his faith in the Guardians, Jack was the only one there to restore it, but since he was invisible to the child, he had to get creative. He frosted the boy's window and drew pictures in the ice, even going so far as to make an animated rabbit out of snow: the 'sign' the boy had asked for and was hinging his belief on.
Even before he accepts that he might be Guardian material, his protective nature is there: he keeps Jamie safe when the boy's sled is under his control and is quick to cover the Guardians' backs during altercations with Pitch. He even turns over his staff--the source of his power--in an effort to try and save Baby Tooth. It just isn't until he opens the box with his teeth in it and watches the memory of rescuing his sister and paying for it with his life that he realizes he's been a Guardian all along.
On a tangent, despite being a legendary being, as it were, Jack is fairly up to date with how the world works. Unlike the Tooth Fairy, who hasn't been in the field for a long time, or North, who is usually holed up at the North Pole for most of the year, Jack spends most of his time just mingling with humanity. Even though they don't see him, he seems to enjoy just being around other people, and frequently talks to kids he knows can't even hear him. He appears to have a grasp on how most everyday items work (alarm clocks, traffic lights, automobiles), and has at some point traded in his oldschool cloak for a more modern hoodie.
POWER:
• Jack is the spirit of winter, essentially. You know, chestnuts, open fire, nose-nipping, and all that. I'm presuming (hoping?) that all of his weather-manipulating powers can be classified under one umbrella, since they're all along the same general vein. He can create frost, ice, and snow, on an object's surface or just out of thin air. This ability appears to be linked to his staff, as touching the tip of the staff to an object seems to be his preferred method, but the staff is mainly a conduit and isn't directly necessary for the powers to work. He can freeze objects and people solid if he is so inclined, but certainly isn't generally a malicious type.
• He also has control over the wind, at least to some extent, and uses it as his main mode of transportation, though he also seems capable of flight when the air is still, so I guess he's kind of like an Airbender that way and can gather the wind beneath him? It's never really specified.
• Circumstantial visibility. This one is actually the biggest reason I wanted to app Jack to this game specifically: I want his invisibility to remain an issue, but I didn't want to foist that onto anyone else who might apply from this canon. Ergo, making it one of his three powers seemed the way to go! I say circumstantial because spirits are visible to one another (and to animals), but for a human (or presumably another mortal that isn't an animal) to see them that human must believe in them. Given the nature of a panfandom game there's bound to be folks with extrasensory capabilities who could also theoretically see him, perhaps, but otherwise I do want him to be invisible to most of the population until such time as he can actually make enough of a name for himself that people would believe in him. Ultimately I'd like for him to gain control over this, taking it beyond the belief-based requirements stated in canon so that he can be visible or invisible at will eventually. I think he just needs to earn the belief of the children in the city before he'll have enough faith in himself to ever discover that he could have more control over who can see him and when. Until that time, I'd put up a permissions post of sorts so that people who feel their characters should be able to see him in his standard default invisible state can say so and why. For example, their character may be a powerful psychic (Charles Xavier) or a child with an overactive imagination that could potentially actually believe in Jack Frost (Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes) and would be able to see him, until such time as he gained greater control over the ability and could possibly make himself invisible to anyone.
CHARACTER NAME: His name when he was alive was Jackson Overland, but he doesn't know that, so he's just going by Jack Frost.
SERIES: Rise of the Guardiians
CHRONOLOGY: [SPOILER!] After Pitch breaks his staff and throws him into the ice fissure in Antarctica. [/SPOILER!]
CLASS: Antagonistic Jerkface With His Heart In The Right Place? I guess he leans closest to antihero at this point; he's definitely not a villain and definitely doesn't want to hurt anybody, but he doesn't believe he's cut out to be a hero or a Guardian at all, and his main motivation is having a good time.
[Jump Past Spoilery History Section!]
BACKGROUND:
[RotG SPOILERS, OBVS]
The world of RotG is essentially our Earth, though the town a good chunk of it takes place in is fictional. About three centuries ago, somewhere in north-central Pennsylvania, there was a tiny village, where a boy named Jack lived with his sister and mother (and probably father, though it's never confirmed). One day, Jack and his sister decided to go ice skating on the pond near their house. When they found themselves trapped on thin ice--literally--Jack used a branch he found on the ice to pull his sister to safety, but fell through the ice himself instead. Jackson Overland did not survive his fall through the ice.
Jack Frost, however, came about because of it. Awakened as an elemental spirit by the Man in the Moon, Jack rose from beneath the ice and discovered he had the power to control ice and ride the wind like a snowflake. Unfortunately, his elation with his new powers was short-lived. He had no memory of where he came from or even who he was, beyond the name Jack Frost, and upon stumbling into the nearby village, he discovered something far more frightening: no one could see him. His calls for information went unheeded, and to his horror he found that people could walk through him as if he were a ghost. Confused and feeling very alone, Jack headed back into the forests, suddenly wondering why he'd been put on this earth at all.
He continued to wonder for 300 years. Over the course of time he did learn a bit more about his lot in life: he discovered he wasn't completely alone, at least. There were many other spirits in the world, all of them ageless as he was, and even if he didn't really consider any of them friends, at least they could see him. He passed his days bringing snow days and cold noses to the children of the world, allowing them to indulge in the fun he was never quite allowed to be a participant in.
Meanwhile, at the North Pole, Santa Claus (whose real name is [Nicholas St.] North) receives an unexpected visit from an old nemesis: Pitch Black, better known as The Boogeyman. He quickly summons the other Guardians to his stronghold, knowing that Pitch is up to no good. Unlike other ageless spirits, Guardians' very lives are sustained by the belief of children across the globe. Whereas Jack has survived for 300 years as the invisible spirit of winter, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy (Toothiana), the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman are all Guardians, and if the children of the world stop believing in them, their powers will fade and they may even disappear forever. Fearing what Pitch has in store, the Guardians await instructions from the Man in the Moon, who informs them that he has chosen a (surprising) new Guardian: Jack Frost. North sends
That night, as Jack meanders through the town, watching as the Sandman delivers his dreams to the children, he notices a dark shadow go streaking past. Curious, he pursues it, winding up in an alley, where he encounters Bunnymund and two of North's yetis instead. They toss him in a sack and he's dragged off to the North Pole, where he is told he's being upgraded to Guardian status! Jack is dubious at best, both about Pitch's plan and even more so about his qualifications as a Guardian. Especially considering the Man in the Moon has never told him anything beyond his own name. He isn't interested in being a Guardian or helping their cause, because what have they ever done for him? What has anyone ever done for him? For that matter, what makes them think he's cut out for that sort of thing anyway? North pulls him aside and asks him what his center is--that is, his core motivation. Jack admits he's really not sure, and North tells him that only when he discovers that center will Jack truly know his purpose, but before the conversation can get too feelsy they're interrupted with bad news: there's a situation at the Tooth Fairy's palace.
They take the sleigh to the Tooth Palace and are met with a grim scene: Pitch's nightmare minions have overrun the whole area and are making off with all of the teeth that have been collected, as well as the Tooth Fairy's tiny helpers. Jack manages to save one of them from being taken away, dubbing her Baby Tooth. The five of them confront Pitch in the palace, where he villain monologues about his grand scheme: he finally perfected the ability to turn the Sandman's dreams into nightmares, and plans to systematically destroy children's belief in the Guardians. Once that is accomplished he will reaffirm his own existence by filling the world with darkness and fear. The Guardians of course denounce this very idea--no one's believed in the Boogeyman since the Dark Ages, after all--but when they see the Tooth Palace is slowly beginning to deteriorate, they realize Pitch means business. Her tiny fairies all captured, no one was able to go and retrieve the teeth of the children around the world that night, and with each child that loses their belief in the Tooth Fairy, her powers and realm grow weaker.
Pitch departs, knowing his message has sunk in, and Jack asks why he would bother stealing the teeth. Toothiana explains that the whole reason she and her fairies collect the teeth is because they hold the most precious memories of childhood. She and her fairies guard the memories, and when someone needs to remember something, they help them. She tells Jack that she had the memories of every single person in the world in her palace--even his. Jack is astonished! That changes everything! He never realized that he had even been alive once! Suddenly helping the Guardians doesn't seem like such a bad deal after all. If he can get his baby teeth back from Pitch, he can find out who he used to be. Maybe then he can figure out why the Man in the Moon wants him to be a Guardian in the first place.
All of the answers to his questions are in those memories, and so he agrees to help the Guardians retrieve the teeth and take care of Pitch... even if it's mostly for selfish reasons. The problem is that Toothiana seems to be suffering fiercely for the night of lost work: the children are losing their faith in her, and her powers are diminishing by the minute. North decides that if she can't collect the teeth herself, they'll just have to collect them for her, and so the Guardians spend the rest of the night collecting teeth. It turns into a big competition and is a bit ridiculous, but it gets the job done: crisis averted for the time being.
During the night, they visit a boy that Jack knows fairly well: Jamie Bennett, who lost a tooth that morning in a "freak sledding accident", courtesy of Jack, of course. Unfortunately, things get a little sticky when Jamie wakes up to find all of these legendary figures in his bedroom. Jack is the only one he can't see, though, and so perhaps out of spite, Jack goads Jamie's dog into chasing Bunnymund, creating a bit of a kerfluffle. The Sandman attempts to put Jamie back to sleep, but in the chaos of the chase he winds up hitting everyone else instead. After finally putting Jamie back to bed, Sandman is left with Jack as the only one awake. Well, that was fun.
No time to take incriminating photos, though; Jack and Sandy hoof it after Pitch's nightmares to try and stop the villain from achieving his goals. Unfortunately things don't go as planned, and though the other Guardians wake up and join the fight, Sandman falls to Pitch's nightmares. Enraged, Jack unleashes a massive attack of ice and light that pushes Pitch's darkness back, sending the villain flying. Drained from the attack, Jack falls, and Toothiana catches him to drag him back to the sled. Everyone wants to know how he did that... but the truth is Jack didn't even know he could.
Back at the North Pole, the remaining three Guardians hold a vigil for Sandman, and then North goes to check on Jack, who's feeling pretty down on himself for the whole situation. North assures him that Sandy would have been proud of him for saving the rest of them, but Jack isn't convinced he did enough. Meanwhile, it seems Pitch has tipped the balance, and as the children of the world find their dreams are filled with fear, their belief in things like hope and wonder--the things the Guardians stand for--dwindles. Time is running out, but Bunnymund assures the rest that they can still bounce back. Tomorrow is Easter, the holiday of new beginnings, and so long as they make sure everyone has the best Easter ever, they can still beat Pitch.
Everyone heads to Bunnymund's warren down under, but something is amiss. Has Pitch somehow gotten to Easter already? On the defensive, the Guardians take up their weapons... only to discover that Jamie's little sister Sophie has somehow managed to wander her way into the warren (one of North's magic teleportation snowglobes fell into her hands while they were all sleeping!). They decide to let her stay and watch while they paint all the eggs for Easter, and then when she falls asleep after the long night Jack volunteers to take her home. North voices apprehension, since it's been made fairly clear that Jack is their best weapon against Pitch at this point, but Jack assures them he'll be "quick as a bunny", and rushes Sophie home.
After tucking Sophie safely back into her bed (which she promptly rolls out of), Jack makes to head back to the warren, but is stopped by the sound of a familiar voice calling his name. Whose voice is that? It's a little girl, and he's sure he recognizes it, but... he just can't place it. Much to Baby Tooth's chagrin, Jack pursues the sound of the voice through the woods, following it until he finds an old rotted bed frame over a deep, dark hole in the ground. Of course he does what any sane intelligent protagonist would do: he goes down the hole.
It's Pitch's lair. He finds all of Toothiana's little fairies trapped in cages, and tries to figure out how to set them free, then spies the pile of boxes of teeth. He quickly starts pawing through the boxes, looking for his own box, desperate to find the memories that will tell him who he really is and why he's here, but before he can find it the sound of Pitch's voice breaks through the silence. As the spirit of fear itself, Pitch always knows what everyone is most afraid of, and he knows that Jack's greatest fear is that he'll never figure out who he really is... and most of all, he's afraid of being a disappointment. He doesn't want to let the other Guardians down. He holds up the box with Jack's teeth tauntingly.
Jack chases after him, desperate to get a hold of the teeth and those precious memories, but he doesn't realize Pitch is just stalling him for time. After giving him enough of a runaround, Pitch just hands the teeth over and vanishes into the shadows, assuring Jack that as usual he's messed everything up again. Jack realizes he's been had, but not before he's locked out of the lair, and has lost Baby Tooth!
Rushing back to the warren, the gravity of the situation hits Jack hard: while he was distracted, Pitch sent his nightmares to destroy all of Bunnymund's eggs before they could reach the surface. It seems that there won't be any Easter this year. As the children of the world lose their faith in the Easter Bunny as well, the Guardians confront Jack, demanding to know what took him so long. That's when Toothiana spies the box of teeth in Jack's hand. She gasps and asks where he got that, then notices Baby Tooth is missing. They realize he must have gone to Pitch to get the teeth, and Jack suddenly understands just how bad this must look. Bunnymund says that Jack has to go, that he was never cut out to be a Guardian in the first place, and now he's completely broken their trust.
Jack leaves, knowing there's no way to convince the others he didn't mean for any of this to happen. He heads to the South Pole to surround himself with the familiarity of the ice and snow he was born from. Standing atop a cliff, he glares at the box of teeth, then makes to hurl it away into the frozen wastes... but just can't do it. He threw everything away to get those teeth and now he's too scared to even look at them... but he can't just get rid of them either.
When he realizes he's not alone, though, he lashes out, whirling to attack when Pitch calls out to him. Pitch has a plan, of course: why not join him? After all, "What goes together better than cold and dark?" Pitch has spent so much time not being believed in--he really does understand how it feels to be invisible, to know that no child will ever truly see you. If they worked together, the world would believe in both of them!
Jack considers this, but knows that the only thing Pitch wants is for the world to be afraid of him, and even if Jack would give nigh anything to be seen by even one child, he's not willing to be a monster to get what he wants. Undaunted, Pitch pulls out his final bargaining chip: Baby Tooth. He says he'll trade the little fairy for Jack's staff, which Jack reluctantly relinquishes. In true villain form, however, Pitch then spitefully says he's not going to release Baby Tooth after all. The little fairy stabs him in the hand with her sharp beak and he angrily flings her away, slamming her into the ice where she falls into a crevice. He then snaps Jack's staff in two. Jack groans in pain, obviously somehow injured by the damage to his staff, and Pitch hurls him into an icy crevice with Baby Tooth.
Making sure the little fairy is all right and allowing her to burrow into his hoodie, Jack curls himself into the ice. He knows that Pitch is stronger than the Guardians now that the children have lost their faith in them, but what can he do? They don't trust him, they don't believe him when he says he never meant for anything bad to happen. With no staff, no allies, and no hope, Jack finds himself wondering if it's even worth it to try any more.
Aaaaand that's where I'm pulling him into the game because I'm a horrible human being. 8D
PERSONALITY:
Jack is sort of your typical lone wolf edgy antisocial teenager. He's spent 300 years sulking about his lot in life, being invisible because nobody believes Jack Frost really exists, and he's a little bitter about it. Okay a lot bitter about it. Being summoned by the Guardians and told he's being inducted into their ranks kind of throws oil on the fire, too; it's basically insult to injury to think that after all this time the Man in the Moon is going to just hand him some superficial destiny to look after all the children who haven't even believed in him all this time. It's a death sentence, in a way, as a Guardian is dependent on the belief of children to survive, and so he really wants nothing to do with it.
That said, most of Jack's general devil-may-care attitude is rooted in his frustration with the Man in the Moon. Especially after learning that the Man in the Moon actually talks to the Guardians, he's angry and resentful that he's been given the cold shoulder all this time. He might be over 300 years old, but he was 'born' as a 17-year-old boy and in many ways that age is still very apparent in his demeanor. He's mischievous and prioritizes having a good time, and doesn't seem to have any issues causing disturbances or making things really inconvenient for people (see: freezing an elf solid and using the wind to scatter peoples' paperwork everywhere). He hides his loneliness and general dissatisfaction with himself and his life behind this sheen of irreverence and irresponsibility, but it becomes apparent that he gives a lot more of a damn than he wants anyone to think.
Jack has a bit of an inferiority complex due to his extended invisibility. He often feels as though he's doing something wrong, or that maybe he's just not doing enough, and that's why the kids never see him and the Man in the Moon won't talk to him. After the Sandman's demise at Pitch's hand, Jack blames himself for not being able to save him, as though perhaps he could have done more if he'd only been faster or stronger. He takes the Guardians' rejection after the destruction of Easter very personally and very hard; though he knows he did nothing wrong, he blames himself for what happened because he was gullible and fell into Pitch's trap. He doesn't even bother to try and make an excuse for his absence and instead just accepts that he blew it. He does a good job of pretending like the acceptance of others means nothing to him, but Pitch hit the nail on the head when he said that Jack's greatest fear is being a disappointment. He wants do do things right and wants to be the kind of spirit the kids of the world can believe in, and having failed to do so for 300 years has become his greatest source of self-doubt.
If there's one thing it's clear Jack loves, though, it's making kids happy. There's a look of unadulterated joy on his face when he's soaring through the air with Jamie's sled in tow, whipping the boy around corners and sending him skidding along the road, but always making certain he's not in danger. Jack has an easy confidence with his powers and even when Jamie's sled slides out into traffic he never loses his... cool, as it were, and quickly reroutes the ice to push the boy out of harm's way. He's definitely a bit irresponsible, but seems to genuinely love children and wants nothing more than to have them believe in him so he can join in the fun he brings them.
Jack is also very creative, and I'm not just talking about fancy snowflakes and this crazy stuff. When faced with opposition, Jack never hesitates to think outside the box. When the last child was losing his faith in the Guardians, Jack was the only one there to restore it, but since he was invisible to the child, he had to get creative. He frosted the boy's window and drew pictures in the ice, even going so far as to make an animated rabbit out of snow: the 'sign' the boy had asked for and was hinging his belief on.
Even before he accepts that he might be Guardian material, his protective nature is there: he keeps Jamie safe when the boy's sled is under his control and is quick to cover the Guardians' backs during altercations with Pitch. He even turns over his staff--the source of his power--in an effort to try and save Baby Tooth. It just isn't until he opens the box with his teeth in it and watches the memory of rescuing his sister and paying for it with his life that he realizes he's been a Guardian all along.
On a tangent, despite being a legendary being, as it were, Jack is fairly up to date with how the world works. Unlike the Tooth Fairy, who hasn't been in the field for a long time, or North, who is usually holed up at the North Pole for most of the year, Jack spends most of his time just mingling with humanity. Even though they don't see him, he seems to enjoy just being around other people, and frequently talks to kids he knows can't even hear him. He appears to have a grasp on how most everyday items work (alarm clocks, traffic lights, automobiles), and has at some point traded in his oldschool cloak for a more modern hoodie.
POWER:
• Jack is the spirit of winter, essentially. You know, chestnuts, open fire, nose-nipping, and all that. I'm presuming (hoping?) that all of his weather-manipulating powers can be classified under one umbrella, since they're all along the same general vein. He can create frost, ice, and snow, on an object's surface or just out of thin air. This ability appears to be linked to his staff, as touching the tip of the staff to an object seems to be his preferred method, but the staff is mainly a conduit and isn't directly necessary for the powers to work. He can freeze objects and people solid if he is so inclined, but certainly isn't generally a malicious type.
• He also has control over the wind, at least to some extent, and uses it as his main mode of transportation, though he also seems capable of flight when the air is still, so I guess he's kind of like an Airbender that way and can gather the wind beneath him? It's never really specified.
• Circumstantial visibility. This one is actually the biggest reason I wanted to app Jack to this game specifically: I want his invisibility to remain an issue, but I didn't want to foist that onto anyone else who might apply from this canon. Ergo, making it one of his three powers seemed the way to go! I say circumstantial because spirits are visible to one another (and to animals), but for a human (or presumably another mortal that isn't an animal) to see them that human must believe in them. Given the nature of a panfandom game there's bound to be folks with extrasensory capabilities who could also theoretically see him, perhaps, but otherwise I do want him to be invisible to most of the population until such time as he can actually make enough of a name for himself that people would believe in him. Ultimately I'd like for him to gain control over this, taking it beyond the belief-based requirements stated in canon so that he can be visible or invisible at will eventually. I think he just needs to earn the belief of the children in the city before he'll have enough faith in himself to ever discover that he could have more control over who can see him and when. Until that time, I'd put up a permissions post of sorts so that people who feel their characters should be able to see him in his standard default invisible state can say so and why. For example, their character may be a powerful psychic (Charles Xavier) or a child with an overactive imagination that could potentially actually believe in Jack Frost (Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes) and would be able to see him, until such time as he gained greater control over the ability and could possibly make himself invisible to anyone.