Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

[havesomefun]

Jack is a well-traveled sort. Winter goes everywhere, and so does he. Fun happens in most places, and therefore so does he. And while occasionally the various towns and cities of the world can blur together a bit, he's pretty sure he'd remember somewhere like this. Didn't castles like this go out of fashion not long after he came into being?

...in fact, as Jack stares up thoughtfully at the castle, he realizes that he doesn't remember arriving here at all. He doesn't remember arriving, setting out, or even deciding to set out. To someone who had only just gotten used to having all his memories where they belonged, it's not exactly a pleasant feeling. Maybe a yeti tossed him through another portal and he hit his head. Hopefully that means North is around here somewhere. Hell, he'd accept Bunnymund finally getting some payback for '68, just for the sake of having an explanation for all of this. 

Either way, he's not getting anywhere just standing around. 

Jack can be seen perched up on the beak of a stone swan in the middle of one of the fountains while he gathers his thoughts. But at last, he nods decisively and gives his staff a twirl. All at once, the water in the fountain freezes fast. Jack leaps down onto it, skates in a circle on his bare feet just for the hell of it, and then hops down onto the grass without missing a beat. He takes a few steps, and then frowns down at the ground. Jack jabs his staff down at it, and a cold wind blows. It brings with it a flurry of snow and a rush of ice that freezes the grass all around him into easily crunchable shards. He nods in satisfaction - summer days are boring and endless. Winter's where the fun is.

And so he amuses himself giving the landscape his own personal touch as he heads towards the castle. He freezes flowers into jewel-bright statues of themselves, makes the trees jingle by coating their leaves in ice, and freezes any other fountains he passes into tiny, temporary ice rinks. Snow forms beneath his feet as he goes, only to melt away behind him. He just finds it more comfortable to walk on than the warm, dry grass.

Once inside the castle, Jack abandons any pretense at subtlety. He zips through the hallways and flies up the stairs, or else makes ramps of ice to slide down them whenever his path takes him back down a floor. And all the while, he calls out for his friends and teammates: "North?! Toothiana?! Sandy?! Come on, guys, this isn't funny anymore!"

But only his own voice echoes back to him through the vast hallways of the strange castle. 

((ooc: Encounter Jack outside the castle messing around with the landscape, or else inside making a noisy nuisance of himself. Replies are likely to be slow from this dude for a bit while I sort out other tags, but I didn't want to wait too much longer to bring him in. Also, just in case it comes up, I posted a permissions post for Jack that y'all might want to check out.))

Comments

Fiiiirst

[boogerman]

Frost? Frost?! In his new 'home' and feeding grounds? Say it isn't so. And he'd been having such a good time until now. A month and a half free of the Guardians, no need to hide, being seen! Why did Jack Frost have to pop up?

Unless he's mistaken the voice and it's someone else--see, he's still in his darkened bedroom, where he had been quietly reading a book while the sun is out. He leaps out of the chair, creaking open the door just as Frost passes, giving the little idiot about half a second to see Pitch's shocked face before slamming the door shut and locking it. Loudly.

Not that it'll stop a really determined teen Guardian from busting in, or banging on the door and driving Pitch mad(der), naturally. He's doomed. Fun and games are over, Jack Frost is here.

[havesomefun]

Half a second is more than enough. It's not as though there's anything else that's terribly interesting to see in this hallway. And it's not as though Jack otherwise needs to spend a lot of attention on flying.

What mostly slows him down is shock - shock because the last time he saw that face, it was being dragged kicking and screaming and terrified down into the dark beneath the world. This castle is strange, but it's so obviously different from Pitch's domain that this had been one of the last faces Jack had expected to see. More the fool him.

So Pitch at least will have about half a second to see Jack staring dumbfounded back at him before the door is shut.

Either way, he reverses quite quickly in midair, but not quickly enough. His fingers close around the doorknob just as the sound of a lock reverberates. Jack grits his teeth, considers his options, and settles for banging on the door with his other fist. "Hey! I know you're in there!"

[boogerman]

On the other side of the door, he's summoned up a shadow-sand bow and arrow, ready to let it fly at whatever comes through at him. If he needs to. If.

He already knows damn well nothing that dies here stays dead, and it would only buy him a day or two free of Frost if it comes to 'killing'. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

"Don't you dare! You stay out there, Frost!"

[havesomefun]

Jack isn't thinking about any of that. When he thinks of Sandy, all he feels is a fresh surge of rage at Pitch for killing him even for a while, not that he might be at immediate risk of sharing his friend's fate. And indeed, when rattling the locked door predictably yields no results, he sets to work trying to get through the lock.

Had it been something simple, like iron or steel, he could simply have frozen it until it was brittle to the point of uselessness. But he only has to touch it to recognize shadow sand, and remember that it's infinitely more resilient.

He sets to work trying to freeze his way through anyway. And as he does, he snaps back in reply: "What did you to do me?! Where are my friends?!"

Again, he thinks of Sandy, and it's like there's a fist squeezing tight around his heart.

second but slow af b/c of the kiddo's freakout threads :V

[dustless]

There's a rather miserable-looking child hunched up under one of those trees, and they hastily cover their head when it freezes.

Frisk gives the white-haired interloper a blank look. Being outright unfriendly would be rude, 'cause it's not this person's fault they feel like garbage mood-wise and that they can't speak at all, but they're also not really up to dealing with new people.

After a moment, they get up and glance around, considering where would be better to hide again. And warmer. Both. Though just being hidden would probably be worth staying cold, so they decide to try keeping to the gardens for now.

Slow af because of work. >_<

[havesomefun]

"Whoops!" Jack swipes his staff through the air to banish the frost from the tree, but by the time he does so, the kid is already retreating. He hadn't seen them at first, lost as he had been in everything else about his new surroundings. Something as normal as a kid is...surprisingly unexpected. "Sorry!"

He's tempted to just let them go - they're obviously having a bad day, and he doesn't want to press them for answers. But he does need answers, and he doesn't like seeing kids upset. So he hastens over to catch up with them, instead. Maybe they can help each other.

"Wasn't paying attention. I'm kind of new in town. Wherever 'town' is, I guess."

/pats

[dustless]

...very new person, looks like. Not his fault he's new, either.

Frisk slows down for him to catch up.

They try to answer at least with 'sky', but even that's too much after all the screaming they'd done--their voice sounds like sandpaper grinding itself to pieces in their throat. So they let loose a growly sigh and point up.

20th

[trombones]

Freshly up from a nap, Sans steps outside of the castle to catch a pretty familiar sight. Snow. He stands and watches it for what feels like forever, with his hands still in his pockets and expression unchanging. Being a skeleton, cold and heat didn't bother him. He could somehow feel it, but the sensation was like a light touch. Not necessarily extreme, and any comfort or discomfort was completely up to context.

For Sans, it was a good thing. The snow and ice reminded him of home, something he'd been nostalgic for for a while now. It was nice to see again. A faintly pleasant smile crosses his usually nonchalant expression. Finally, he looks down and sees the culprit doing his thing, messing with the landscape.

Huh. He LOOKED human, but he was using... magic? Ice magic, to boot. Coming from Snowdin, that was familiar too. Snowdrake would probably be impressed.

"Snow kidding," He says to himself, chuckling at his own pun as he steps forward to make himself known. "Hey there. Icy you're doing some redecorating."

[havesomefun]

By that point, Jack is skating around and around on another fountain nearer to the castle's double doors, twirling his staff aimlessly this way and that as he circles. He conjures a flurry of snowflakes here, a fresh snowdrift full of crunchy snow there, or just paints elaborate swirls of frost ferns along the base of the fountain and the stone lions at the center.

He senses Sans approach, but doesn't look around immediately. He does, however, give a heartfelt groan and slap his forehead with his free hand. "Oh, come on. Puns? Is that any way to make a guy feel welcome?" Talk about lame. They're not bad puns, but still. Lame.

Then he circles around again, enough to actually see Sans standing there. And then Jack has to circle around again before he properly processes who (what?) he's seen. And when he does, he simply executes a neat little hop off of his ice rink and into the snow below, still staring all the while.

"Uh..."

That is...that is a skeleton.

"...hi? Did I show up just in time for Halloween, or something?" Except the stranger certainly doesn't sound like a kid.

[trombones]

It's pretty damn impressive. Among monsters, using magic was an expressive thing. Dancing, skating, twirling - anything counted. It was always a treat to watch somebody get creative, even though they were apparently... human??

"Sure it is. Always makes me feel welcome."

And now the 'human' finally turns around... a couple of times, apparently. Sans stays as nonchalant as ever each time, until Jack finally steps off the fountain.

"Hah hah. Good one. I've only heard that one a couple dozen times," He says good-naturedly, throwing Jack a wink. "Trust me, you're not the first human to ask."

sorry, Jack. the teacher has arrived. >>

[parttime_reaper]

For a strictly logical person such as Susan, the antics of the castle are nothing short of a test of patience on most days. While she's settled in as much as someone like herself can, she's restless, and some part of her is still sincerely hoping she gets a chance to just hit something one of these days.

For today, though, she's settled for a walk around the gardens. It's vaguely soothing. That is, until everything is suddenly starting to freeze.

Susan has met Jack Frost on the Discworld. She's expecting to see his face when she rounds into a fountain plaza covered in ice and frost. But it's a much younger face than she's used to, and she stops, folding her arms against the sudden chill.

"I do hope you haven't decided to ice the stairs as well," she says by way of greeting, her tone flat.

Snow days forever! >:(

[havesomefun]

Jack glances up at Susan, and then does a double take when it sinks in that she's looking directly back at him. He's still adjusting a little to the idea of being seen by children. To have an adult looking at him quite so sternly is a definite shock. Still, he recovers his wits quickly enough, and offers her a lazy salute and a mischievous grin. With his other arm, he tucks his staff behind his back where it is not concealed from sight in the slightest. He's certainly not about to turn down the chance for any conversation, after the last three hundred years.

"You'll have to be more specific. Which stairs are you talking about, lady?" The frozen flowers around his feet rattle and chime gently in the cold breeze. His feet crunch in the faint dusting of snow as he shifts from foot-to-foot.

He doesn't think he's frozen any stairs, at least. When he finally gets around to making it inside, though...well, that might be another story. But only because sliding down stairs is so much more fun than walking, and occasionally even a nice change of pace from flying.

then you gotta make 'em up in the summer! D<

[parttime_reaper]

"Any of them, really." Oh, she can tell this is going to be interesting already. Some other world's Jack Frost, evidently -- she can tell that much already, although he might go by "Winter" or something else -- and he also seems to come with the added benefit of having a very childlike, fun-loving personality.

She sighs inwardly. Something tells her this will be something like talking with Jason.

"I'm sure you're about to tell me that winter is a magical time full of fun and snowmen and such, but nobody has any fun with a broken neck."

[lostinmyway]

Grune had just been planning on doing a little pruning with a pair of scissors she found in the kitchen when she's brought up short by a strange sight. Some of the flowers have been covered in ice...but the ones next to them are just fine?

She frowns a little as she touches a frosted leaf.

"Oh dear," she says to herself.

[havesomefun]

Jack doesn't notice Grune kneeling there in the gardens until he's wandering through them a second time. He almost doesn't notice her, but the hair kind of sticks out. He should know.

So he stops and he stares for a moment, leaning on his staff. And as he watches her examining the flowers, he frowns a little. It shouldn't matter to him, maybe. Flowers just aren't meant to survive, when he's around. But he did just kind of blow into town all of a sudden. She didn't get a lot of warning. He doesn't care about flowers, but neither does he like upsetting people.

"Sorry about that." He waves his staff over the flowers, and the ice dissipates into nothing. Whether that leaves the flowers themselves damaged or not...well, he doesn't know. "I, ah...I don't see a lot of flowers where I come from."

[lostinmyway]

She turns at the sound of a young man's voice, and is just in time to see him make the ice go away. With a little time in the sunshine, most of the flowers should be just fine. She's glad.

"It's all right," she says to him with a smile. "Thank you for saying 'sorry.'"

She doesn't remember seeing him around, and so she adds, "My name is Grune. It's very nice to meet you."

[mercybutton]

Jack might find a small, curious 12-year-old following his trail of ice; and if he's paying particular attention, they're following by how cold it so happens to be, by sound of his travel and of his magic. Not with the precision that sight offers. They've seen fire magic--hit them right in the face, actually, ha ha. Ow. They've seen ice magic, too, but never used... quite like this, frozen leaves tinkling together like chimes, snow developing on the ground. As far as they're concerned, it's mostly only ever been used to kill them.

Flowey is by their side in his pot, shuddering as the cold grows. He hates this. Why's this guy gotta get up in here, freezing things as he so pleases? He feels that Frisk shivers a little, too. They're much more accustomed to warmth, laying down in the grasses to sunbathe for hours at a time. He's no idea why they care to follow in his icy wake. It's not like he can stop them--well, he can, but it's more effort than he's willing to expend. So instead he begrudgingly watches out for them, mumbling complaints under his breath.

[havesomefun]

Of course, he notices Frisk following him. It takes him a little while, but he even notices that they're not following him by sight. And that makes a hint of concern tug at his heart - of course, he's seen blind children before. But for predictable reasons, he's never had too much cause to interact with them.

So while Frisk finds their way and Jack gathers his thoughts, he mostly focuses on making sure that his changes to the terrain aren't so treacherous that they slip and fall or hurt themselves. Focusing more on the snow and less on the ice. Everyone likes the crunch snow makes when you step through it, right? Right.

But at last, he executes a backflip through the air that turns into a short burst of flight, ending with him landing lightly at Frisk's side. They might feel another particularly chill gust of wind before Jack's feet touch down in the snow next to them.

"Hey. Don't worry, I don't bite."

[mercybutton]

Luckily they've had experience with slipping across ice while blind, so as not to fall. Not to say they can skate. They're not unfamiliar with cold and ice and snow, though never quite this fresh. It's odd how it crunches so crisply under their boots, as they go romping through and kicking it up. Not too much, though. They don't wanna toss it on any of the flowers.

Flowey looks upon the snow with distaste. He can stand it, for sure. It won't make him wilt or weaken it anything. But it sure if really uncomfortable, and this guy gallivanting around the garden tossing cold wherever he so pleases is kinda grating. He hasn't any idea what a human is doing with magic, but strange people come and go all the time.

Frisk hears the movement of air and its cold echo drifts across them, before they feel Jack's presence landing beside them, light and graceful. Frisk looks to their side; they do their best to face them, but as always, their gaze is offset. "Oh--I, uh, hi." Hello, they meant to say hello, but the difference is too insignificant for them to bother changing it.

[justletmewin]

Asriel is curled beneath a tree while Jack does his thing. If he'd been in a better mood, he'd wonder why everything's crystallizing and look for the person creating the ice. He cringes and hugs his knees tighter. He's too wrapped up in what happened between him and Frisk at the castle not long ago... namely the horrible aching feeling he made things a lot worse. He's no longer affected by the cold as he used to be, and his fur and sweater helps... he just can't bring himself to care.

[havesomefun]

Jack does another double-take when he sees Asriel huddled beneath the tree he's freezing over, tearing his gaze away from the freezing leaves to the ground beneath them. His first thought is "baby yeti", but even North's most fastidious yetis don't normally wear striped sweaters. Fortunately, having already met Sans, seeing other non-human beings around the place doesn't otherwise phase him too much. And so Jack is able to focus on the important point - namely, that this particular child, whatever he is otherwise, looks pretty miserable.

He's quiet as he approaches, quiet but not entirely silent. He lets a few frozen twigs snap under his feet to let Asriel know that he's coming. Until at last, he can lean against the bark a little bit around the tree from the child, and speak up carefully.

"Hey there. Why the long face?"

[justletmewin]

Asriel looks dully up at Jack. His eyes are red and there's a sign he hasn't slept well last night. He turns away and he's hugging his knees again.

"I don't want to talk about it." He mumbles.

[croppedout]

“What’s not funny?”

An enthusiastic voice pipes up next to Jack, as a short boy wanders out of a doorway. He has a half-eaten cupcake in one hand and a pearl choker in the other, but both are ignored to stare up at the strange person before him. Wow, his hair’s really white.

[havesomefun]

Jack does a prompt about-face in midair as he hears someone speak. He smiles happily upon seeing that it's a kid, then zips back across the distance between them to stand beside Satoru instead.

"Nothing to worry about." He pulls a face, and leans towards the boy a little for the sake of adding conspiratorially: "Just my friends playing a really stupid trick on me, probably."

Or at least, that's what he's still hoping valiantly. Despite being told otherwise by the castle's various inhabitants so far. "You seen them around, maybe? Big Russian guy with tattoos, giant bunny, sparkly fairy, little guy who trails sand all over the place?" He mimes out the general shape of the other Guardians with his hands as he talks. "You can't miss 'em."

[croppedout]

Well, at least the guy is cheerful. Satoru can definitely appreciate that. A hero doesn’t let himself mope, no matter what may happen. Satoru tries to do the same.

He giggles gently and whispers back to him.

“It’s okay! My friends like to tease me too.”

He tries not to blush at remembering Kazu’s stupid insistence that he set Satoru up with Kayo.

“But um… none of them sound familiar. I think I would have seen them…” And then, in an attempt to stay optimistic: “But this is a really big castle! They could be anywhere around here and you just haven’t run into them.”