legionworld | A new arrival

Entry tags:

A new arrival

Who| Jack Frost and OPEN
What| Jack is awake and briefed and kind of not sure how to take it all.
Where| Medbay and elsewhere
Warnings/Notes| None

Jack Frost couldn't fly.

It had taken a panic attack and an escape attempt to realize that he couldn't fly and this was not a nightmare conjured up by Pitch. This was very real and very terrifying. He couldn't feel the Earth, he couldn't find Baby Tooth, nor could he find his staff.

It had taken the staff to realize this and after several moments of tracking it down, he was given his staff and given the explanation that he sorely needed but he also wasn't sure he wanted. They gave him his space soon enough to think over the proposition of what they were asking. He held his staff tightly, backing up against the wall and sliding down. There was no question about whether or not he would help. What had him so frightened was just where and when he was. Would North and the others still be around? What about the kids? And what about him? He couldn't fly!

His hands shook as he fought off another attack of anxiety and panic, could he even speak with Manny?

Jack was on his feet and racing out of the room before he knew it, barefeet slapping against the floor. He dodged other nurses and personnel with ease, jumping off the walls and probably scaring everyone in his path with his frantic running. If it wasn't flying, it was running that sometimes helped Jack calm down and think. Even if he would end up getting hopelessly lost in the process.

Like now, he was out of breath and exhausted and he was in a place he didn't recognize but, despite all that, he felt better and his thoughts slowed down so he could better think all this through. He fell back against the wall, sitting down and closing his eyes. Just calm down, Jack, and take it slow...

[ooc: Feel free to tag while he's in the room or on the run or for wherever he ends up when he finally stops running!]

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Trunks remembered the fright he'd felt when he woke up. He hadn't panicked, but that was only because they'd explained things to him fairly quickly, and...frankly, weird things happened around his family, he was almost used to it.

But he knew how it felt to be afraid and the overwhelming urge to run that came with it.

So when someone blasted by him in the hallways near the medical wing, he could guess what happened. The kid had woken up, and it had gone badly.

Trunks prided himself on many things, but probably chief among them was his ability and desire to help others, so he followed. He didn't try to stop the kid, because yeah, he knew how being panicked felt and trying to stop him would probably just be pointless.

Instead, Trunks finds him when he's stopped running, and had slipped down to sit on the floor. He quietly folds in on himself, sitting cross-legged across the hall from him.

"Hey. You okay?"

Jack opened his eyes with a slight jump, staff held to his chest as he regarded the individual before him. He had silver hair, was the first thing Jack noticed. Only old people had that but this guy didn't look old.

Finally, he found his voice. "Not really. But I'll manage."

He wasn't used to eyes on him. The fact that he had to get out of the way of personnel, that they all saw him and could touch him, that this guy in front of him could see him as well. It made him so happy but he wasn't home. He wasn't even on the planet anymore and that was his home base, his turf.

Was he even a spirit anymore? He pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt, something that had also been returned to him after all the radiation poisoning and whatnot had been removed while he was unconscious. He stared at his knees.

"Believe me, I know that feeling." Trunks doesn't reach out to offer any sort of touch, just staying on his own side of the hallway. He seems perfectly content to just sit there quietly until Jack is ready to talk--if he ever wants to talk. Though he does look at him once he's staring at his kneecaps like they're the most fascinating things in the world.

He's small--slight, even, but that doesn't mean much. The white hair is interesting, but not shocking--his hair is naturally lavender purple, his mother's blue, his father's sticks straight up like he stuck his finger in an electrical socket, strange hair colors and shapes are nothing to him.

So, initial impressions aside, Trunks still knows nothing about the boy aside from he looks young and has interesting hair. It's a place to start anyway.

Jack shook his head. "Not all of it. I know I wasn't the only one displaced but you don't know what I'm feeling right now."

Aside from the obvious, anyway. Anyone can identify with feeling scared and alone but Jack felt like it was different for him. He wasn't a human that was taken from his family or something. His brows furrowed, which were actually brunet in color, as he thought and tried not to lash out.

"I went from being invisible to like, 99% of the human population to being visible to all of them. I can't fly, I can't feel the Earth, I don't feel displaced. I feel disconnected. I feel... I-I don't even really know. Scared, cold? I don't even know if the people here believe in things like me or the Tooth Fairy."

He stopped and rested his forehead on his knees, tightening his grasp on his staff and causing it to frost a little more. In fact, the area around him seemingly had a fern-like frost grow from all around him, clinging to the walls and floor but it didn't spread too far. It mostly remained around Jack.

"Well, no. Not all of it." He can't, really. But he knows the helpless feeling, the fear, and being not really okay but managing. His entire life has been a long string of being 'not really okay but managing.'

He was also from a culture that didn't really have stories of the Tooth Fairy, or whoever...this was. That's going to be an interesting conversation.

"It feels like one of your senses is cut off. Or like your head is wrapped in cotton. To me, anyway. I didn't realize how much I depended on feeling the presence of people around me until I couldn't."

It was...lonely. He couldn't reach out with his ki-sense and feel Gohan, or Videl, or any of the people he was coming to know here. It was like looking into a void. Not even really that, because his 'eyes' didn't work.

"And not being able to fly. I get that. It sucks." They had the rings, but it wasn't the same thing.

Okay, so maybe he did know. Jack shook his head anyway against his knees, hugging himself. This place was so...clean. Worse than a hospital. There was no life around him, not like when at home amongst the trees and nature. He could feel the people, sure, but that was probably the only normal thing he could still feel.

"The Wind carried me," He murmured. "I can't fly without it. Wind is a friend and was always there but I'm not even home to see if I can even still talk to it."

The frost continued to spread.

"I doubt you know who I am, but I'm Jack Frost. The Spirit of Winter and a Guardian of Childhood," He uncurled himself and pulled his hood back. He rested against the frosty wall, sighing at the familiar chill that, to him, was not unpleasant and not at all like other cold feeling he felt in his heart. Talking about this was helping, though. "You said you could fly before, so who are you?"

Trunks tilts his head--Jack is right, he has no idea. The stories of winter spirits he knew were of Yuki-onna, and...well, you don't look like a young frostbitten woman, Jack.

"My name's Trunks Briefs." No titles, or anything else--he technically had one, not that he'd ever use it, it meant nothing to him.

What kind of parents named their kids after pants? Jack wasn't sure if he should laugh at the guy or not.

He ultimately decided not to. "Uh, nice to meet you, I guess."

He sighed softly and looked down again, using his finger on the floor to add to the beautiful swirls on the ground. "So what am I supposed to do? Join these guys and hope I'll one day get sent home? Or stay here and do the same?"

His alternate universe little sister is named Bra, it could get worse.

Trunks shrugs lightly. "That's up to you. It's why they gave us a choice in the first place. But...yeah, those are basically your options."

He looks at his shoulder, where the Capsule Corp patch on his jacket used to be, and where the Legion one is now--the choice he made was fairly obvious.

"Guess that depends on whether you can sit around waiting or not."

He decided to join, Jack thought. He supposed the answer was easy then, even if he didn't join, he couldn't just stick around. Jack was rarely one to sit still, after all.

Jack sighed and nodded. He more or less made his choice even before his panic attack, but sitting down and speaking with someone about it helped nonetheless. This guy wasn't North or Bunny, but he was nice enough to sit with him.

"Do...I have to go back to my room?" He had his clothes and his staff, he didn't really need anything otherwise. Did he?

"I guess the medical staff might appreciate knowing where you got off to. But that's not where you have to stay long term."

It would be really depressing if so. Medical wards are always the worst, no matter where they're at.

"Want me to walk with you?"

Jack started to shake his head no, but then he got a good look at his surroundings and realized that he had no idea where he was. He sighed again and pushed himself to his feet and reluctantly nodded.

"I don't really know my way around yet."

Hopefully, no one will slip on the frost that would begin to melt once he left the area.

"Yeah, this place is pretty big. It gets confusing for sure--took me a while to learn my way around too."

Trunks gets up as well, and starts heading for the medical bay at a sedate pace. He figures neither of them are in a particularly big rush.

"So, they gave you the rundown I'm guessing, but did you have any other questions that they didn't answer?"

Jack followed behind, catching up and keeping the slow pace. He was certainly not in any rush. He shrugged as he thought about it.

"Doesn't seem like I have a way out of this, I don't know what else to ask just yet. The fact that this is even happening is a tough pill to swallow already."

The other questions would come up eventually, but right now, he just needed time to settle.

Sometimes just walking can help guide your thoughts--Trunks wasn't about to rush him around, after all, he really had nowhere to be.

"Little bit. I guess all the stories Mom told me kind of prepared me a little bit for the whole being in space thing." And he's always had a bad habit of being the hero.

"It's honestly not a bad place to be. I think, anyway."

Trunks shrugs.

"You really don't have to take them up on it, but I don't think we have a way back quite yet either."

The various patches of frost Jack left behind as he raced around created something of a slip hazard. Not much of one, if you were prepared for it, but it was there all the same. Hiccup, for instance, was not expecting it, and missing a foot didn't help matters.

Hiccup slipped, yelped, and fell, landing straight on his back.

"Where did all this ice come from?" he griped as a mildly concerned Toothless helped him back to feet.

The frost went in a trail, fern-like and in no real pattern. But a pathway was there and it would lead to the person unintentionally creating it all as he sped through the hallways, until he was exhausted enough to slow down and hunker down in some corner that he could find.

The frost bloomed around him, but it was thin like the rest. No real puddle would form, but it could still cause some slippage. He had his hood up and face pressed against his knees, his staff lay between his chest and legs, his arms tucked in to indicate he was clutching it as he tried to fend off the panic still trying to form as he let the new information sunk in.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kind of leaking." Hiccup said, still a little irritated by his fall, before he'd fully noticed the state Jack was in.

"You alright there?" He asked, crouching down, Toothless's head poking around him curiously.

Jack heard the voice and scoffed lightly. He wasn't leaking. Frost doesn't leak! Although, perhaps getting a handle on his powers would be beneficial now that he thought about it. It took his mind off what was going on around him at least for a little bit.

He shook his head against his knees and finally lifted his head. "No, not really."

Then, he blinked and his brows furrowed as he took in Toothless behind Hiccup and tilted his head. "...is that a dragon behind you?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yes he is. That's my pal Toothless, and I'm Hiccup. Yes, I'm named after a bodily function, and yes I have heard every possible joke there is about it."

He put out a hand his shake. "What should I call you? Other than 'That jerk who keeps leaving ice patches on the floor for me to slip on'."

Jack smirked lightly with a small huff of a laugh through his nose. "I wasn't going to say anything. I'm Jack Frost and it's not a habit of mine. Well, aside from windows. I'm just... out of balance right now."

It's not like he made them on purpose!

"Your name is Jack Frost, and you have ice powers. Any relation to Jokul Frosti?" Hiccup said, mostly joking. Sure, the names sounded similar, and sure, Rich had told him that Thor very definitely existed and fought crime in his universe, but Hiccup didn't have any real reason to expect an actual mythical figure to show up here.

That was definitely a scared and upset-looking new Legionnaire. The Legion staff members were usually older, with a lot of work experience, so a new teenager usually meant a new displacee. A lot of the rookies were teenagers, something Rich didn't entirely approve of but would've been hypocritical to speak out against, given how young he'd started out as a hero.

Kid sure had gone grey awful early, though. Rich wondered if that was a hair dye thing or what. He guessed maybe it wasn't. There was something pale and ethereal about him, something almost otherworldly.

"Hey, kiddo, you okay?"

Jack was greeted by the sight of an very tall and very muscular man with a robotic, prosthetic right arm, and a long, faded scar on the right side of his face.

Edited 2016-07-14 03:39 (UTC)

Rich would be forgiven if he thought as much. Jack's eyebrows were also brown and there were a few flyaway brown strands of brown if one looked close enough.

He opened his eyes and looked up, blue eyes widening a bit at the side of Rich. Big guy, robotic arm, and a pretty nasty scar on his face. Jack wasn't really intimidated so much as just a little wary. He was used to North and his cutlasses and tattoos, after all. Or the giant rabbit that was Bunnymund with his boomerangs.

"I... dunno," He replied, looking away. "Either I stay here until an answer is found or I help out until an answer is found. I'm a Guardian, I want to help but... all this? A space ship? I didn't even know I could leave the planet."

"If it's any consolation, I was dead before I wound up here. Now I'm not. That hasn't happened to other people, but winding up here been varying states of confusing for a lot of us."

So he at least wasn't alone in being confused or wondering what the hell he was now.

Rich settled down to sit next to him, putting himself on Jack's level instead of looming over him. He held out his flesh and blood hand for a handshake.

"I'm Rich. Rich Rider. I also go by 'Nova Prime.'"

Edited 2016-07-15 11:43 (UTC)

Jack nodded a bit, it was kind of was a consolation. He hadn't told anyone what he remembered when he finally had his memories returned, but Jack had died as well. Granted, he didn't come back on a space ship but he did return as a winter spirit instead. That's similar enough, right?

He shook Rich's hand, although the man would probably notice that he felt cold. His name would give away why. "I'm Jack Frost. And... I kinda know that feeling. Being dead and waking up afterwards, I mean. What does Nova Prime mean?"

And he was also incredibly casual about said death.

Rich simply nodded in response to Jack's casual discussion of death, because well, he was a superhero. Aside from him doing it, he knew of a couple people that had died and come back to life. Hell, his girlfriend was a quantum anomaly. Shit happened. 'I died and came back' was a surprisingly uncommon thing to hear from people where he came from, enough that it wasn't even worth a twitch of an eyebrow anymore.

The name totally blew his mind, though.

"Wait wait, hold on, like...the Jack Frost? Spirit of winter? Nipping at your nose, stop motion Christmas specials, that Jack Frost?"

He could get to the Nova Prime thing later, his brain was caught up on Christmas specials now.

Did they make more of those specials even in this century? And why did people like them? They were awful!

"uh, no to the Christmas specials but yes to the Spirit of Winter. I'm that Jack Frost."

Well, hey, someone who actually heard of him! Most people chalked him off as an expression these days, so maybe in the future he does more than nip at noses. "Also it's my snowflakes that nip at your nose. I don't actually bite anyone. I think it was a previous Winter spirit that did it. Probably Jokul Frosti."

Before he came around, the Winter spirits before him were not always real nice. It generally explained why hardly any other spirit wanted to be around him. Not that Jack actually liked that notion! He just wanted to have fun and play games, but somehow he inherited a name with a lot of bad karma attached to it. He scowled slightly, briefly, before regarding Rich. "So anyway, what's with Nova Prime?"

"...huh."

Rich still needed a second to process all that. Jack Frost, Actual Winter Spirit. Wow.

"Wait wait wait, I'll get to the Nova Prime thing in a sec, but I gotta know: does that mean Santa is real where you're from? 'Cause if you're real..."

He'd get to the Nova Prime thing in a minute, really, but he needed to know if there was Santa somewhere. He'd seen enough horrible things in his life and learned about enough horrible supernatural things. Like the Spectre, for instance -- that was one he wished he'd never had to find out about. What kind of God made a spirit just to act out His vengeance?

If there was a universe where it wasn't all horribleness and there was honest-to-God whimsy...

Jack couldn't help but grin at this guy's eagerness. He was like a kid in a candy shop! Or maybe a kid on Christmas given what he was asking. He laughed and nodded. "Yeah, he's real alright. Although we call him North, short for Nicholas St. North. He's one of the Guardians where I'm from, we keep children safe. The Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Sandman are all Guardians too, myself included."

They all had their real names but Rich wouldn't know about that, really. "We were all chosen by the Man in the Moon."

Which brought back his earlier question when he was alone. Was Manny even here? This was some alternate universe, after all. But it would be nice to have someone he knew here, even if Manny was not his favorite person sometimes. Why did it take 300 years to even make him a Guardian? Why didn't he at least have a conversation with him like he did the others? Jack was happy where he was, but there were still so many questions.

"I'd think you were making that all up except I've probably heard stranger."

It wasn't as strange as the duckman. Everyone had heard stories about the duckman.

"Also, Santa miiight be real in my world, but only a few heroes said they've seen him and it's just nobody's sure if they're just pulling everyone's legs about it or not."

But wow, actual Santa. The kid didn't really have any reason to lie about it, and he did look Jack Frost-like, and his hand was cold even. No pointy shoes but hey, he wouldn't be caught dead in the getup in those stop motion specials either.

"Blue Blazes, so you're all real? Wow. You're the Guardians? That's your superhero team name?"

Of course they were a superhero team. That was how these things worked. If they were a group of supernatural people, protecting kids, they were superheroes.

(Really, he would get to that Nova Prime thing eventually.)

Edited 2016-07-15 17:42 (UTC)

Jack didn't really mind the "might" part because adults from his world had a hard time too. He shook his head. "Only people who believe in him can see him and that tends to be children. Besides, he has ways of getting in and out of places so of course he wouldn't be seen by everyone."

Shoes were the devil, okay? He hadn't worn shoes in 300 years and he wasn't starting any time soon! Besides, even when he was just Jackson Overland, he had a strange aversion to shoes. His brain stopped at "superhero team name."

"Wait, what? Superhero team? I mean, we're a team but we're no superheroes." Sounds like something out of one of Jamie's comics or video games. "I'm not sure who came up with the term, to be honest. Just that only a few people get to be Guardians. And Manny is the one who chooses you. Don't asked about the criteria behind it though, it's not consistent."

Aside from wanting to protect children, anyway. If only Rich knew Santa was a former corsair-!

"Well, you're supernatural people. If Santa can get in and out everywhere, it sounds like he has powers. You protect people -- that it's a particular demographic of the population don't really make a difference. And you have a heroic-sounding team name." He ticked off each item on his fingers as he said them. "Hate you break it to you, kid, but you're a superhero. And I don't just mean by being here with the Legion."

It was pretty cut and dried. In his world, anyway.

"More like the yetis help him out a lot, also magic snow globes," Jack chuckled. Alright, he supposed he could concede to apparently being a superhero. The kids certainly likened them to heroes sometimes, especially after the latest fiasco with Pitch. Although Jack would argue the kids were the real heroes that time. "So how's a Winter Spirit like me supposed to be helpful to you guys? I was invisible before I arrived here. I'm not sure I can handle all the attention at once, y'know? I don't think I ever shook anyone's hand before until now."

How do you handle no one seeing you and suddenly everyone can? He almost had an anxiety attack when Jamie hugged him! He wasn't just invisible, he had been intangible too.

That made Rich's eyebrow twitch a bit in concern, but sometimes it was hard to tell if it was okay to dig into something to ask why. 'No one could see me before now' sounded like a possibly touchy subject.

So Rich tried instead to just reassure him.

"Everyone's got powers. Either what they had at home -- if they even had any at home -- or they get new ones. And it's the same gig as you and your friends protecting kids back home. The Legion protects people. There are a lot of nasty supervillains and criminals out there that try to hurt people and the Legion stops 'em and gets 'em tossed in the clink. It's your standard superhero gig."

He shrugged.

"But if there's other things you're dealing with beyond 'hey I'm a superhero now and people need help saving all of existence' that are throwing you off, the Legionnaires -- like the ones native to this universe that guide us -- they'll understand. Kid Quantum, the Legion Leader, you just let her know and she'll make sure you're not overwhelmed by anything. There's also a staff psychiatrist, if you need to talk to somebody. You know, like a professional."

Not that Rich ever used her but well, he was pretty much king of not listening to his own advice.

"The doc, she's used to these crazy stories. 'I died and came back to life.' Stuff like that. It happens in this line of work more than you'd think. The extremes."

A pause.

"And the rest of us, you can talk to us, too. There's a lot of good people on the team, and lots of us were already superheroes back home or come from crazy lives." He gave him a gentle smile. "You're gonna find that maybe things are confusing now, but you're at least going to be around a lot of people used to being confused, too."

Edited 2016-07-15 22:24 (UTC)

Jack held his staff close as he listened to Rich. He supposed having someone to talk to would be nice. Would have been nice for 300 years too but that was neither here nor there. He also should have realized that he wasn't the only one in this boat, he wasn't the only one pulled here so there were others who probably all had some of the same feelings he had. He wasn't the only one confused.

"Uh... Death is pretty permanent where I'm from, myself excluded. That might take a little getting used to," His grip tightened on his staff, adjusting the position to rest a bit more comfortably on his shoulder. He tapped it on the ground, watching the frost grow as he thought over everything. "But, I guess aside from that, it shouldn't be too bad. Bunny'd never believe me, though. Sandman would though, I think."

He frowned a little though, raising his hand to wave and craft a small snowflake. He sent it toward Rich, did his magic still work?. "I'm in a spacr station so that explains why I can't fly, but I'm also somewhere else entirely. How do I know if I can still do all the things I could before?"

Rich smiled at the snowflake, delighted. He held up his robotic hand, letting it land on his fingertip without getting damaged with the kind of precision that only came with having a robotic hand. The cool metal made it so it melted slower than it would've if it'd landed on his flesh and blood hand.

Slow enough that he could out make the intricate pattern before it melted.

"The Medbay probably has some scans of your powers, to help you figure out what ones you have in this universe, but there are also trainers here that help out with teaching you how to use them."

Jack couldn't tell if it was the mechanical hand or if his magic was different that, aside from the general reaction to what most people had with snowflakes, that Rich didn't react like most did with his snowflakes. It didn't worry him too much as he generally didn't rely too heavily on it. It didn't necessarily make people see him any faster after all.

"I don't really need training, I think it's almost all there. I just... Feel like I'm missing something. I'm not on the Earth, so it's like a void almost. I'm used to hearing Wind too." He probably had something limited since coming here, otherwise his emotions would have already caused a blizzard by now. If he tried, he probably could, but as of now, it was just frost. "I wonder if I could make frost bunnies again, or something like that..."

He was sure he didn't need training, but he didn't know the extent of his powers until the battle with Pitch. Maybe he should take up training, after all. At least test out what he could still do.

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A new arrival

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