Once Upon a Time...

[morethanmyth]

They likely felt the world shift, a fragmentation of all they thought they knew. It was the way a fictional character might feel if they could feel every page turn in the book they lived in. It was the beginning of a new story and that meant an end to an old one and they would each feel that.

To some it would feel like they had just died. To others, it would feel like they had just been born. To many, it would feel like both at the same time. It all really depended on who they were and what they were leaving behind.

In any case, this world had something New appear in it. After lightning crackled in the evening sky without any storm fueling it, they would find themselves waking up in the streets of a small town called Burgess. It was a perfectly ordinary Pennsylvania town, a place where the modern mixed with the old, American suburbia at its finest, making it all the stranger that something extraordinary would happen somewhere so ordinary.

[ooc: Make a subthread for each character and those of you that would like to toss your character at someone else before Bunny and Jack show up, tag a subthread already there.]

Comments

[animalhats]

"Hey!"

Molly runs towards them - at least it's not grownups asking where her parents are and if she's lost, right? Maybe these kids have seen the Leapfrog.

"Have you guys seen a big green hopping machine?"

[morethanmyth]

"I'm so lucky my mom let me out this late. I think maybe it's because it's a Friday and I'm carrying all A's right now -"

The kids walked right along towards Molly - and then through her, something that would feel uncomfortable like having her body temporarily turn into a cold, barely coherent mist.

[animalhats]

Molly gasps when it happens, and just stands stock still, her eyes wide. And then she takes a deep breath and screams, at the top of her lungs.

"NICOOOOOOOOOO!"

If she is a ghost, she is going to find somebody who can hear her.

[letskicksomeice]

Nico didn't hear her scream but someone else did.

It didn't take very long from when she screamed for him to appear, flying in, looking at the area around her, his body language aggressive until he realized there was nothing threatening her.

He recognized her the moment he saw her, from the group Manny showed Bunny and him.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," he said gently, landing lightly near her. "You're okay."

[animalhats]

"No I'm not!" she protested, voice shaking. "I got stole outta the Leapfrog and then I was trying to ask some people if they'd seen it and they walked right through me!"

She is not doing well at the "not panicking" thing.

"I don't wanna be a ghost! I wanna go home!"

[letskicksomeice]

"You're not a ghost."

Technically. He left that off, though, because unlike some of the others (blood and gums, honestly) he was better at talking to kids.

He lowered himself into a crouch, making himself physically nonthreatening, and leaned his staff against his shoulder.

"You're something that you weren't before, but you're not a ghost, not really, and if you calm down, I can explain things. I can explain why you're here and what happened to you and how to fix it as best as we can. I came to try to help. I know all this is scary, but you don't have to deal with it alone."

[animalhats]

Molly... has not started crying. Yet. But she's getting a little sniffly 'cause she's getting really scared, so she snuffles and wipes her nose on her sleeve. He doesn't look scary, or grown-up, and until she finds Nico or somebody, she's decided to stick with this guy, whoever he is.

He looks like Tommy.

"'Kay," she says, mumbling a little. "Did I get another superpower? Like Kitty Pryde? She can walk through stuff..." She doesn't sound very certain of that, but mostly because she's pretty sure walking through walls on command and having people unable to see or touch you are two different things.

[letskicksomeice]

"Possibly. I'm only going on a little bit more information than you are. But first thing's first, what's your name?" he asked gently.

[animalhats]

Molly, thankfully, has a bit of a sense of self-preservation. Unfortunately, that's kicking in at a not-so-useful time. She shoots Jack a look. "I know Stranger Danger is kind of silly 'cause there's all sorts of people you don't know that you gotta talk to, but maybe you brought me here for your creepy magic ghost cult or something. If I tell you my name, you might eat my soul!"

She says it with just enough sincerity that she might not 100% think that's an unlikely situation...

[letskicksomeice]

Actually, given the world this was, ghosts eating people using their true names wasn't that out there.

Therefore Jack treated her fear as very understandable.

"Okay, okay," he said gently. "How about I give you my name first, and then maybe you can make up a name I can call you? Does that sound fair?"

[animalhats]

She scrutinizes him, underneath the smiling face of her bunny hat, then nods decisively. She literally can't think of anything he could do if he doesn't give him her actual name, and he's offering to give her his... it should be ok, right?

"Okay. But then you gotta help me find my friends!"

[letskicksomeice]

"If they're here, I promise I'll help you find them," he promised. "I'm Jack. Jack Frost. Though if you want a little leverage on me for any very unlikely instances of ghost cults and other creepy magic, my old name before that was Jackson Overland. What should I call you?"

[animalhats]

"Like the guy from the Christmas shows they show every year? ...Weird."

Molly screws her face up thoughtfully. "Um. You can call me Bruiser. Until I know if you're really a good guy."

She tugs on one of the ears of her hat for a moment, looking very scared and very young. "Do you think my friends are here? I mean, they gotta be, right? If I'm here?"

[letskicksomeice]

That got the slightest eye roll. He hated those specials. They weren't accurate and they'd never made anyone actually believe in him.

"Yes, like the guy from the Christmas specials. Not exactly the same, though, they never get things right. And Bruiser, I don't know if they're here. We've found a few people from other worlds now. If they are, I can take you to them. We're all meeting up not far from here."

[animalhats]

"Grownups never do," she says with a long-suffering sigh. Of course they didn't get it right in the videos, grownups made them!

She hasn't processed the "other worlds" bit, but it's coming. Three, two...

"Whaddaya mean other worlds? Like other countries? Or are they aliens?"

[letskicksomeice]

"We've been told you've all been pulled from different dimensions. Different versions of Earth, all because of the bad things going on here. That's why we've been trying to find everyone who has, to make sure you're all safe, and to work together with you to try to help you get home."

[animalhats]

That would explain a lot more than just "she's suddenly sort of not really a ghost and can't find her friends". No wonder she couldn't see the Leapfrog, it could be anywhere.

"...Oh." She takes a deep breath, reminds herself that she is Princess Powerful - even if she told Jack to call her Bruiser. It's an alias. She does the little mental push that turns her powers on and feels the flood of knowing that she could throw a car right now. She doesn't really need to, but it's nice to know that everything still works, even if it feels weird somehow.

Jack may or may not want to know why her eyes started glowing pink for a moment there.

"Okay, well I guess my friends would probably be there, so you better take me there right away."

[letskicksomeice]

Glowing eyes are, actually, fairly normal for Jack. He's a myth, living in a world of myths, some of whom have very strange appearances.

Still, he knows it's not normal for most people, but he files it under 'ask about that later.'

"We can either walk or I can carry you piggy-back and fly us there. Up to you."

[animalhats]

Molly might perk up noticeably at that offer.

"Karolina takes me flying sometimes," she says, trying to sound casual and utterly failing. Karolina doesn't take her flying nearly enough.

[letskicksomeice]

"Well then, kiddo, I guess you'll be used to this."

He knelt so she could climb on.

"Hop on."

[animalhats]

Sure, he could be taking her off to feed her to some monster or sacrificing her to a cult or something awful.

But she still has her powers (though she doesn't realize they're weaker yet), so she could totally take him.

So she clambers onto his back with the ease of a kid who still gets regular piggyback rides. "Okay, I'm ready!"

[letskicksomeice]

And up they went, on a burst of cool air. Jack was apparently from the "fly in whatever way is loopiest and funnest" school of flying.

"While we're flying, I'll explain what's going on," he said. "Basically an enemy of ours was a moron and opened a doorway to something outside our world, thinking he'd get power from it. Only, the thing behind the door wasn't an army he could control, it was basically a giant evil spirit, one that wants to creep its way into the world and destroy it. It's captured almost all the good guy myths and is feeding off the belief people have in them, and because it's messing up the fabric of the world and the way all the belief works, now the edges are a little thin."

It was starting to get dark and proof positive, the kids in the town below were more afraid than they'd been, their jovial attitudes changing as they tried to go to places where they could be inside.

"All the kids are scared and their belief is stronger than it used to be, so we think since they wanted heroes to protect them, that it was strong enough to pull people from other worlds through to ours and make them into myths like us. They don't mean to do it but everything's just that messed up right now. You're kind of like a spirit now, but hopefully it'll be reversible. Am I making any sense?"

[animalhats]

Molly screams a little when he takes off, but it's the "holy crap this is so fun!" kind of screaming. She's got a solid grip and her bunny hat's ears are streaming out behind them, and this is so fun.

But then he's talking important things and usually she would listen but not like she was gonna have to take a test on it, but this... Well, she doesn't know when she'll be able to find any of her friends, if they're here. She'd better listen extra close, just in case she can't.

"You guys don't have superheroes, but there are spirity people who keep everybody safe and now lots of them are gone and the kids are scared so they're finding people from other places to be spirity people so they don't have to be scared?" Molly offers, since that's her best summary. "I guess that's okay, if it's not their fault. And I'm kind of a superhero anyway, so I can help!"

[letskicksomeice]

Delighted squealing is pretty much his favorite thing besides kids' laughter.

"You're a little young for that. The Man in the Moon, the spirit that chose me and my team-mates to protect kids, thinks you should be a Guardian, but Bunny and I aren't really keen on the idea. You're too young to be facing what we've been facing. But since it's been going after good myths, we still wanted to make sure you were safe - at least until we can get you all home and changed back the way you were."

If they weren't created new, but he was still at a loss as to how to break that to any of them. He knew what it was like to wake up in the world and wonder who you were.

[animalhats]

"I am not!" Molly protests. "I've been a superhero for almost a whole year! And me and my friends fought tons of bad guys, and they're all teenagers, and I can totally help!"

Protest aside, however, there are some important questions to ask here. "Is there really a man in the moon? Who's Bunny? When can I go home?" Because that's the things. She can help, sure. But she'd... kind of rather go home. So if she can do that, that's what she wants.