#what if rotg but horse

[lunanofflibrary]

so uh. i did it sorry i hyperfocused for a little bit on guardians of childhood but HORSE please enjoy a small horse nightlight. yes he is an alicorn YES the dagger is now his horn YES his hair is constantly moving YES i love him so much please enjoy

[secretsivekept]

So when I said i was working on something Big Four related.... this was what i was talking about. I'm aware it's super sketchy, I'm gonna revisit it later and make it much cleaner, this is just my very first pass of this animatic. (((i got a toonboom harmony licence for my part time job but it was expiring TONIGHT so I just really rushed to get the ending done before it expired, so if the quality of the boards goes down hill near the end, that's why x___x )))

I've had this action sequence in my head for MONTHS and I finally decided to hell with it and try to get it down in my free time. And I had a lot of fun!! However, if you've never done an action sequence before, I HIGHLY recommend you don't start with a car chase.

My hands. My poor hands.

A few things to understand for this Modern AU:

Jack is a ghost whose life source is tied to a mysterious pendant

They were in the process of transcribing a historical monument that might have a clue as to the history of said pendant

The fearlings are there to both kidnap rapunzel and inspire fear into them, to keep them from looking into the matter further

The fearlings are supposed to look like this:

Which in my opinion is a much stronger and scarier design than the horses in the ROTG movie, however it has the unwanted side effect in my boards of looking like black sperm.

BUT other than that, I hope you guys like it, god knows how long I spent on this. ;;w;; but man was this fun

[rotgsecretsanta]

2022 Secret Santa Masterlist

Here are all of the works posted for RotG Secret Santa 2022!

Prompt 1: A day in the life of the Man in the Moon Fic by fanarchoslashivist

Prompt 4: Arrietty/The Borrowers AU where small fairy sized Jack is secretly living at the north pole; plays amongst all the model toys, enjoying snacks left out by Phil.  Art by Tenchikotheartist 

Prompt 5: Based on the prologue comic: What if North had made Pitch agree to become a Guardian? Era Of New Ideas by Sylphidine

Prompt 6: Bunny & Jack brotherly bonding Collector’s Edition by storminfrost

Prompt 9: Forgotten memories Pitch and anyone Echoes of The Past by frosted-night

Prompt 12: Jack, Bunny, and the Groundhog arguing over the weather Seasonal Dispute by Sarsfe

Prompt 13: Jack's Christmas gifts to Pitch Keepr of Fear: The King of Nightmares by jaimistoryteller

Prompt 14: Jack and Bunny investigating a crashed spaceship Art and Hollow Spaces fic by ave-aria

Prompt 15: Jack and Katherine in ugly matching sweaters. More chaotic the better Fic by fosermi

Prompt 17: Jack Frost and his army of penguins and polarbears Art by nimohtar

Prompt 18: Jack Frost meeting Jack Skellington Jack’s Halloween by jaimistoryteller

Prompt 21: Jack is like a stray cat who has multiple homes that are unaware of each other. Often found sleeping in a pile of nightmares, tooth fairies, easter eggs AND christmas elves because it's warmer and he can get free snacks. He is a repeat offender and isn't sorry, will pretend he hasn't been fed in forever to dupe people into doting on him. Only Sandy knows that Jack is playing them all. Is It A Con If It'd Been Freely Offered Anyway by LinesAndColors

Prompt 22: Jack or Pitch or both! Techwear aesthetic Art by mrsketchy Art by ksclaw

Prompt 23: Kozmotis teaching Emily Jane to sail A Wild Ride with Papa by Jamie_Aizen

Prompt 24: Man In The Moon and Jack Frost doing dumb sibling stuff Art by fanarchoslashivist

Prompt 26: Pitch, having turned from his evil path, reconciles with North about all he's done to the Guardians. I was wrong (and I’m so, so sorry) by storminfrost

Prompt 27: Pitch being a fashion icon (optional Sandy or Jack posing in the background like a model). Art by ave-aria Art by thyphrog

Prompt 28: Pitch Black as a nightmare centaur (bonus if he has way too many legs like Sleipnir) BONUS bonus if he is like a real horse that gets startled by dumb things (a plastic bag or sudden noise). BONUS BONUS bonus if Jack likes to sneak ribbons onto his tail despite getting kicked (pin the tail on the Pitch anyone?) Art by bunnimew

Prompt 29: Pitch playing the lyre with fireflies around him on a starry night. Art by mrsketchy

Prompt 33: Pitch with a fancy gothic outfit Art by aroace-ghostface

Prompt 38: Sandy's Christmas eve rounds Help Me To Dream by Sylphidine Dreams of Christmas Night by Sarsfe

Prompt 40: Sandy having a nightmare either being caused or being consoled by Pitch Bitter by LinesAndColors

Prompt 41: Sandy just chilling on a dreamsand cloud and looking up at the night sky Fic by fosermi

Prompt 44: Sophie and bunny arts and crafts fun Art by fanarchoslashivist

Prompt 45: The Guardians and/or Pitch have Wanted posters! Art by purblzart

Prompt 46: The Guardians reluctantly accepting Pitch as a part of their "family" after Jack convinces them to Game Night by Eastofthemoon

Prompt 49: [No Ship] Jack has gained the power to shape shift into winter animals. Chaos quickly follows much to Jack's amusement.  Sprinting through a Winter Wonderland by BirdBrainedInsomnia

Prompt 50: [No Ship] Jack with pink hair :D Easter Herald by jaimistoryteller Art by ave-aria

Prompt 53: [No Ship] Pitch tracks down one of his missing Nightmares in a barn with a mother cat and a newborn litter of kittens Art by ksclaw

Prompt 55: [No Ship] Sandy falling asleep at inopportune times. Plan Your Naps by bunnimew

Prompt 56: [No Ship] The Burgess kids make holiday presents for the elves and the Yetis, and leave them for Santa / North to pick up Operation Christmas Helpers by jaimistoryteller

Prompt 61: [Jack/Bunny] Soulmate AU Fic by fanarchoslashivist

Prompt 68: [Jack/Katherine or No Ship] A wholesome gathering of friends and family by the fireplace ☺️ (DEFINITELY platonic relationships prioritized, though Jack x Katherine can be added if the author/artist wants) Twelfth Night On Guardian Street by sylphidine

Prompt 71: [Jack/Pitch] Blackice, android!pitch and mechanic!jack au Soul Survivor by bunnimew

Prompt 75: [Jack/Pitch] Ice skating date! Canon or AU. A Date at Moonset by jaimistoryteller Tales of Burgess III: On Friends and First Dates by nimohtar

Prompt 80: [Jack/Pitch] One or both as royalty Neon Escape by bunnimew

Prompt 82: [Jack/Pitch] Request: fluff, Jack/Pitch, family. Nopes: dub/non con, hurt no comfort, MCD that sticks, Tooth/Jack unless part of polyam6.  Art by bunnimew

Prompt 85: [Jack/Pitch and No Jack/Jamie] Jack discovers one of Pitch's favourite places to be is an amusement park, and he wants to go with Jack (can be themed/halloween, up to you). All that FEAR. No genderswap. No mpreg. No MCD. Thrills, Chills, and Skills by bunnimew

Prompt 89: [Jack/Sandy] Sleeping together Art by ave-aria

Prompt 91: [North/Bunny] The Guardians are celebrating Christmas together. Ending of Christmas Eve's Rounds by Sarsfe

Prompt 94: [Pitch/North] Anything Pitch/North Art by ksclaw

Prompt 96: [Pitch/Pitchiner] [NDU] Memory Retrieval by sylphidine

Prompt 98: [Pitch/Sandy] Vampire!sandy and priest!pitch au. OTP Art by winterswrathe

Prompt 99: [Pitch/Tooth] Pitch and Tooth as a duo of glamorous jewel thieves. Art by fangirl530

[mybonesaremadeofstone]

I need to find a ROTG story. I read it ages ago and cant remember/ didnt bookmark it.

Summary of what i remember:

Jack is a winter spirit. Man in Moon is a king of some sort. The Guardians are bounty hunters after Jack. Man in Moon put out a bounty on all the winter sprites so he could find Jack who was suppose to be another Guardian. The Guardians catch Jack and his horse in a forest after shooting him with a laced arrow. He ends up a prisoner in their camp and is forced into the castle.

Kind of all over the place but if anyone knows the story and can point me towards it, Id really appreciate it. :)

[icy-writes]

The Bird House

Day 6 - Burning

“Are you sure this is the place?” Katherine said, tightening her grip on the strap of her bag. Beside her, Nightlight nodded.

Hesitantly, she took a few faltering steps towards the peculiar house. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it — a small thing that could move around by a pair of skinny, scaly chicken legs. There was something of a fenced in yard, with a few horses grazing in a pasture near their rickety stable. 

A hand on her shoulder stopped her from getting closer. She turned to see what Nightlight wanted, when he pulled her behind a tree. He pressed them into the shadows, hoping they would keep his ethereal glow from being noticed by the approaching figure.

It hopped — hopped — into view. The being was using a mortar to move around, though how they could do that, she hadn’t any idea.

She opened her mouth to say something, when the figure was suddenly there.

Continue reading on AO3.

@rotg-halloween

[bunnimew]

What abilities/powers/talents would you want from any of the characters in the rotg film? Which do you think is the most useful? Which do you think is the most powerful?

Hello Anon!!

Kam doesn't have an answer for this one, so it's all me! I'd love to claim it would be amazing to fly, but I have a fear of falling so actually no, I would hate flying.

Pitch's instant transmission would be pretty bomb though, and I do love riding horses, so I'm gonna go with that. I'd like Pitch's abilities. I'll even take the fear thing with it, because cautionary tales could totally be my jam. I'd try to be slightly less of an asshole about it, but I think even my friends would agree that I'm fine boogeyman material.

Altho ngl Jack's ability to nail people in the face with snowballs is very tempting.

The most useful ability in the film is probably either North's ability to build anything or Tooth's ability to multi-task. I think North only wins out because Tooth gets the inability to focus for very long in exchange and from experience, I can tell you that kinda sucks. Close runner-up is Sandy's ability to knock out entire audiences. Just imagine.

Theater personnel: Enjoy your movie! You: You, too! *Instantly realize your mistake* *Immediately knock out everyone within ear-shot* *Profit*

It's flawless.

Most powerful is hard, but if it isn't the surprise naptime power of Sandy, then it's either Jack, with his deus ex machina ice lightning atomic bomb, or Pitch, with the ability to strike at the fear of his opponent and manipulate them into responding how he wants them to. Both can shut down a confrontation quickly, but in terms of how we see them operate on screen, Jack takes the trophy. His emotional manipulation power is also resistant against Pitch's, so he is uniquely qualified to hand that man his ass in a battle.

This was very fun to answer, Anon ❤ Thank you!

[freecollectionglitter]

Character Info DisWorks Wizarding World AU

Characters that are not just witch/wizard or are another sentient magic user. As well as the witches/wizards that are animagi.

Adam Dufort (Beauty and the Beast) - is a Wizard that was bitten by a werewolf as a child. Since Adam, is the beast from beauty in the beast I thought making him a werewolf would pay good homage to that.

Ptichner Black (Rise of the Guardians) - is half-vampire. His father is a vampire and his mother was a witch. Making Pitch at least half-vampire was two fold, vampires are beings of the night and Pitch is the boogeyman, the other reason is the author of the HP series mentions the existence of vampires in the first two books, but to my recollection we never meet any in the series itself, so this was my way of actually putting one in existence.

Meilin Lee (Turning Red) - is a maledictus, her families blood curse is a red panda. Her father is a wizard, which is why she's able to go to a wizarding school.

Sanderson "Sandy" Mansnoozie (RotG)- Is a Goblin, I could've made him just a person, but I also wanted to add more diversity amongst the sentient magic users. Besides this isn't the first time a wizarding school has had a nonhuman as headmaster. If I remember correctly Beauxbatons headmistress was at the very least half-giant like Hagrid, but it has been a while since I've read book 4.

Tatiana "Tooth" Plume (RotG)- is a fairy. She's the leader of her type of fairies. (Though I do not describe how she looks completely. I picture her to be Indian instead of white. A thing that bothers me as an adult when rewatching ROTG is that they clearly lean into Russian inspiration for Santa and have an American actor due a Russian accent. the easter bunny is a Australian inspired and have an Aussie actor portray him. From what I recall from the special features they tooth fairy's palace was sort of Indian inspired, maybe it was Tibetan, I can't recall exactly, but the point is she is voiced by a white American actress doing an American accent, that just doesn't make sense to me. (that's all I'll say for now)).

"Baby Tooth" Anura (RotG)- Is one of Tatian's people. From what I could find when trying to find a name for her. Anura is an Indian name meaning wisdom, though I know it meant wise or knowledgeable I also connected it to Wisdom teeth.

The Animagi

Spirit Cimarron and Raine (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron) - Horses

Kenai (Brother Bear) - Bear

Kuzco (The Emperor's New Grove) -Llama

E. Aster Bunnymund (RotG) - Rabbit/Bunny

Simba and Nala (The Lion King) - Lions

Terk (Tarzan) - Gorilla

The Part Sprites

Jackson "Jack" Overland (RotG), and Anna and Elsa Dellemier (Frozen) - are half-winter sprites.

and the list Manfred Rockford made in the last chapter is not a mislead so...

Merlin's Lost Apprentice (???) - ??

Mystery Siblings (??) - ?

Other Sentient magic users will be come in later, we'll have more fairies, trolls and centaurs to introduce, as well as full nature sprites (more on that later).

In a couple of weeks I'll give some more extra tidbits.

~Htims

[ask-jaq-and-chell]

A beast of remnants long since ‘dead’; its mind a mere hive, craving for direction. In its claws, it has stolen all that is precious to you. In its teeth, you see your death. But in its eyes, you see something truly terrifying...Deep down in all our souls, we know there’s something that scares us. Something that makes us feel hopeless to fight or flee; something that makes us freeze. 

And freeze you shall, for becoming a Night Terror’s pray...

is a fate worse than death. 

[stormingfrost]

More RotG headcanons

Jack was able to access his memories right before he died because he never got his wisdom teeth out

The teeth show you the most important memories at the moment, and what’s important will change with you.

With the help of Tooth, you could view all your childhood memories.

Both Jack and Tooth are confused at small gap in Jack’s memories.

Sometimes Jack gets flashes of the missing memories in his dreams. A boy is always in them. He was very hard to look at, because he almost glowed.

There is a huge conspiracy theory about the guardians. There are ghost hunters and alien believers and people who think that it’s a cover up for the government brainwashing kids. They have a lot of discourse.

The dog walker that saw Jamie sledding twice made a Reddit post on the conspiracists’ subreddit.

The kids who have internet access get on the pages a lot. Sometimes they post pictures of what looks like blurry human-like figures, horses that don’t look quite right that send a shiver down the spine of the viewer, glowing ribbons of gold in the sky, and a frozen over pond in the summer. Kids are the only ones who can get close enough to do that.

Most adults don’t believe and think it’s silly, despise what conspiracy theorists say.

Pitch got (unsuccessfully) exorcised a few times.

Bunny hates the little plastic eggs parents sometimes put out. He thinks it’s bad for the environment and steals them before they become litter.

Emily Jane usually makes things out of the litter she finds, if it can’t be composted.

Kathrine temporarily retired from guardian duties to search for Nightlight. She comes back occasionally, but leaves again to look for her friend.

Durning the Easter of 2012, she got herself in trouble with a giant, following a trail up a beanstalk. She would’ve helped if she was able to.

North got married shortly before becoming a spirit.

[sylphidine]

[ROTG] Fleecy Shining Gleaming Streaming - Chapter 3

Jack was so startled at being spoken to that he overbalanced from his bow to the shadow horse and fell flat on his butt.

Trying to regain some dignity, he scrambled around quickly to face the newcomer from his awkward sitting position in the snow.

Then he looked up... and up... and up some more.

A long black robe covered the very tall and very thin person who had come up behind him. It wavered in Jack's vision as though rumpled by the wind, although the night was currently still. If he looked at the robe's hem long enough, it seemed to ripple with a life all its own.

Not a human person, then. A spirit who dressed in night and shadows.

The newcomer's face was all sharp planes and angles in the wintry starlight. In repose it probably was a stern, proud face, but at the moment it looked as though he was suppressing a smirk at Jack's lack of grace and poise.  He had one long-fingered hand resting gracefully on the back of a very tall black horse with the same flaming eyes as Jack's playmate, and behind him Jack could see a dozen or more of the... Nightmares?  They stamped and snorted, but no trail of breath from their nostrils showed in the cold night air.

All spirits then. Were they friends or foes?  Jack wouldn't exactly count on friendliness, considering his track record of previous encounters with other spirits.  But it would be nice to not have more foes. 

"I'm Jack Frost. And Ch'elema is a beautiful name and she's a beautiful horse and you are just so lucky to have so many beautiful horses and she found me first..."

To Jack's horror, he realized he was babbling, and he trailed off. Ch'elema moved behind him and laid her head on his shoulder in silent reassurance.

The tall spirit's eyes widened at this. Pursing his lips, he said, "Well, well. Jack Frost, indeed."

"You know my name? I mean, you've heard of me?" 

"I make it my business to know many things. I am Pitch Black." The shadow-clad man stroked long fingers through the mane of the Nightmare by his side and added, "Once everyone knew my name."

Jack winced at the bitterness he heard in the other's voice, and rushed yet again into the verbal breach to stave off any awkward silence.  Someone talking to him, someone who didn't greet him with a fist or toss him out on his ear... Jack was going to keep this conversation going as long as he could!

He stuck out a hand, oblivious to the fact that he was still sitting on frozen ground and that Pitch was standing more than five feet from him. "It's great to meet you! What are you a spirit of? I mean, I seem to be wintery, and I ran into another winter spirit about twenty years ago, but they didn't really have time to hang out, but you... you have all these wonderful horses... you must be some kind of spirit bigwig!"

Pitch ignored Jack's hand and snorted at the word "bigwig", a sound not much different than the snorts of his horses, who were milling restlessly in the snow that had started falling again.  He looked up at the waning Moon in the sky with an unreadable expression on his face and snarled, "Is this your idea of a joke, old friend? It's not enough to diminish me, you have to send some half-formed SPRITE to mock me?"

Jack felt his heart cracking in half at the venomous tone, even though his head knew the words were not really directed at him.

It still hurt. 

He shuddered with the same intensity that he did any time he got walked through.  His eyesight blurred with tears for the second time that night.  Jack slowly got to his feet, causing Ch'elema to rear backwards and whinny affrontedly. But before he could call the Wind to whisk him away from his shame and embarrassment, he felt the Nightmare nudging his side with her nose. That released the floodgates; the sobs burst out of him, and he turned away from Pitch to hug Ch'elema for dear life, burying his face in her flank.

It was probably less than five minutes later, but felt to Jack like he had been crying for a hundred years, before he noticed that someone was rubbing his back with clumsy and almost tentative strokes.  It was such a novel feeling that he didn't know how to process it.  After another few minutes he heard Pitch sigh and say, "I am sorry, Jack.  I didn't realize."

Jack lifted his head, but didn't turn around. He didn't want the contact to stop.  He muttered, "Didn't realize what?"

"i didn't realize that you were as alone as I am.  I didn't realize that the Man in the Moon had let you down just as much as he has let me down."  Pitch's hand moved from Jack's back to Jack's shoulder. The warmth of his clasp was much more comfortable than the awkward backrub, and Jack felt himself start to calm down.  He finally trusted his voice not to waver and asked Pitch, "Oh? How do you know that?"

Another sigh from Pitch, his warm breath tickling Jack's ear and ruffling his hair, preceded his reply. "I am a spirit of fear, Jack.  I batten my hunger on fears, I read fears, and I *know* fear. Your fears of being rejected, of making a mess wherever you go... they're as loud to me as a shout from a human throat to another human.  I should have listened to your fears before upbraiding you for something that's not your fault, but my anger at HIM got in my way."  

Jack felt rather than heard Pitch step away from him, and there was no longer a hand on his shoulder.  He tensed up again until he heard Pitch say, "Shall we try that introduction again?"  

He let go of Ch'elema and slowly turned around.

The tall and elegant spirit reached out a graceful hand to him and said, "Greetings, Jack Frost, very pleased to meet you. Pitch Black, frequently referred to as the Boogeyman and occasionally referred to as a thoughtless boor."

Jack took the proffered hand and shook it firmly. "Hey there, Pitch Black, pleased and all that stuff. Jack Frost, frequent jumper to conclusions."

[sexycraisinthanos]

I’m gonna infodump about my favorite movie

Rise of the Guardians

It’ll be under the readmore, but TL;DR: Watch Rise of the Guardians and read the books

Rise of the Guardians is a 2012 animated film released by Dreamworks. The story is childhood figures (Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and Jack Frost) trying to defend the children of earth against Pitch Black, (The Boogeyman) 

It’s based on a book series called Guardians of Childhood, written by William Joyce. Who, if you don’t know, writes children’s book. Guardians of Childhood is more of a “Young Adult” series compared to his other Guardians books (The Man in the Moon, Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie, and Jack Frost are all part of the series, but they are picture books.)

He’s also written other books you may be familiar with.

The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs and A Day with Wilbur Robinson 

Sound familiar?

Maybe you’d recognize them as their movie counterparts, Epic (animated by Blue Sky Studios) and Meet the Robinsons (animated of course by Disney)

Also Rolie Polie Olie, which was a favorite Disney Jr cartoon growing up for me, and was also a book series. 

I could honestly go on and on about William Joyce, his work was a part of my childhood a LOT (even credited for working on some of my favorite films like Buddy, Robots, Toy Story, and A Bug’s Life) and that’s probably why I love ROTG so much.

I read all of the Guardians books and own all of them save for Jack Frost and The Art of Rise of the Guardians and the books are not cheap, but what books are? I have HARD COVER BITCHES. Half of them were gifts and I also own the ROTG DVD.

The art in the books (all drawn by William Joyce himself) is really good (this is my favorite art from the books)

And the animation in the movie, as expected from Dreamworks, is beautiful. 

You get to see all their unique homes and they’re such varying types of environments. Of course, you have the North Pole, where it’s chaotic and wonderful. Just look at this concept art 

And then you have the Tooth Palace, where the Tooth Fairy does her work

It’s very obvious that there are some Indian inspirations in the design because Tooth herself is actually Middle-Eastern (in the books it’s explained in depth more and one of my complaints about the movie is that they whitewashed her even though her concept art in the ending credits shows her with brown skin)

The Warren, where the Easter Bunny paints his eggs

Which is something you never really think about because people only focus on the North pole so seeing so much thought put into it is really nice

We never see where Sandy works/lives (in the MOVIE. But the GAME on the other hand lets you explore EVERYONE’S homes and that’s a whole nother story)

We DO however see Pitch’s lair and

it’s rightfully spooky. When you actually see the scene play out in the lair, you get all confused and don’t know which way is which and it always unsettles me which is GOOD because that’s what it’s SUPPOSED to do

What’s really unique about ROTG is that there’s a source material (and as of now there are eight books (five novels, three picture books) and the series isn’t DONE yet) and instead of turning the books into a movie even though the plot is literally RIGHT THERE, they took the source material and turned it into a prologue. The movie takes place about 300 years after the books do and since the books are supposedly still ongoing, and William Joyce was CONTINUING to write the series while the movie was in production. (Three books have come out since the movie came out.)

I love how challenging that must have been for William to try to include stuff from his previous books in the movie AND to try and link the movie to his newer books despite some continuity errors (also worth noting that he has written a book about Santa and his wife, but Mrs. Claus is YET to be seen or even mentioned in the movie) but I appreciate the effort he put into it and I can’t wait to see what else he’ll come up with.

The characters look a BIT different from their book counterparts

Jack is voiced by Chris Pine and his voice is WAY TOO DEEP and the creators can’t agree on an age for him (book age is 14, but he can age himself up and down to a certain point and some producers said they imagined him 17 or 18) and (imo) I think Jack’s design was pretty lazy (a blue jacket with brown pants) compared to everyone else’s. I mean you have North, who is 

BIG

His design is based more on the worldly Father Christmas than the Saint Nick/Santa that we know. 

When he’s not in the Pole he’s wearing his big red fur coat and a cossack hat

Because he’s Russian

I’m pretty sure he canonically was raised by bears but that may have just been me imagining it. His book appearance is way different because when we meet him, he’s not Santa yet. So he’s still young

Of course, as the books go on, he looks like Santa

Bunny has the most drastic character change from his book design, as depicted by this fanart (which i couldn’t find a credit for that wasn’t pinterest so if anyone knows please tell me)

And there’s a CANONICAL reason why he looks so different (two actually)

Once they put Hugh Jackman in the role, they wanted a more dry Australian ranger-type design for him, and then the robes got in the way because of how he was moving, even when they changed him to just a lab coat, so they decided to forgo clothes altogether

Fun fact about Bunny. He’s a Pooka, a shapeshifting folklore creature that can turn into either a rabbit, goat, cat, dog, or horse. (or even a human with animal like features) Which actually gives a lot of people the headcanon that Pitch uses the souls of all Bunny’s dead people (yep he’s a sole survivor) as Nightmares

But he’s a different kind of Pooka. He’s an alien technically. And this breed of Pooka CANNOT eat chocolate because it does things to their body. Like giving him six arms. Or making his ears into helicopter propellers. 

This is relevant because he uses chocolate in battle multiple times. So the canonical explanation for why Bunny looks so different is that he ate too much chocolate and it permanently changed his body.

Which I love. I could go on about him but all the characters are interesting

Tooth has probably the second most confusing design

She’s based off a hummingbird with dragonfly wings, which aesthetically makes so much sense, but in the books she has regular feather wings. I also don’t like how weird her proportions are. Her feet are tiny nubs, her head is too big for her body (her body is actually pretty nicely designed it’s just every other part of it that bothers me) and I already mentioned the whitewashing

PITCH on the other hand had the biggest glow down compared to the books

He’s just wearing a black robe and, apparently, he doesn’t even have sleeves, which you can’t even really tell because it’s just all smudgy and shit

I mean I guess that’s the point, that he looks like he’s clothed in shadow, but it’s frustrating to look at especially compared to his book design where he’s wearing a FABULOUS coat

Meanwhile Sandy has the PERFECT character design

He’s just ROUND and wears a bathrobe made of sand. Like it’s not even that different from his book design (his hair has more frills than the book version) because it’s such a perfect design and I love how he’s animated. You can’t see it that well because the gif quality, but the sand also sparkles and it just makes it so fun to watch on screen 

The movie itself has its share of flaws. (the movie likes to pick and choose the rules it wants to follow about its universe, a huge plothole, and some cheaply constructed arguments between characters that really just make me annoyed because I don’t want to see the easter bunny making a child cry I want to see him get into a fist fight with Santa it’s like you don’t even KNOW your demographic) But I love it and there’s SO MUCH I could talk about. There are characters in the books that weren’t in the movie and there were characters in the movie that weren’t in the books (because they weren’t born yet but IRRELEVANT) 

It was a HUGE flop despite critics praising it. Like 8,000 people lost their jobs over it that’s how big a flop it was. But it’s such a dear movie to me and it’s clear that William Joyce holds this series close to his heart (dedicating it and the movie to his late daughter) which makes sense because it’s based on stories he told her when she was young and I’m so honored that he chose to share these stories with us. I just love the series and I should do a re-read at some point

[princebete]

What characters have you cosplayed or plan to cosplay soon? :)

awww--Thank you for asking!  I’m gonna put this here just so I don’t take up the dash-- cuz I get reallllly excited talking about this stuff

So for this cosplay that I am actively working on. It is for an online competition of sorts.  I am working on the Anastasia ball gown from when she sings  Once Upon A December-- except it is going to be a transformation gown ( that’s if I have enough time to get it the ballgown done first, and then work on the pre-transform outfit and figure out the rigging, otherwise it’ll just be the gown). 

But, if I get it fast enough-- this is ideally what I am planning. And the way I plan it will be similar to the cinderella onstage transformation in the Cinderella R&H revival back in 2013 

I am making a few creative changes to the gown as well( nothing major,) to flatter my shape a bit more. The swatches -- hopefully that yellow isn’t too yellow. I uh just bought like 7 yds of it on Etsy. sooooooo... well I guess it could do well for a Belle gown-- but that’d be a big oopsy. Anyways, the velvet and satin dark blue are for the sash/bow. The velvet is the outside while the satin is the “ lining” but when tied in the back, I am hoping it flips around so that you see the beautiful satin. The same goes for the bow-- it’s just gonna look extra. And then for the gown itself, I went with a bridal satin... I have not gotten the organza/tulle yet that I am thinking of using as an overlay on the satin??? That’s still in the works-- but my thought was to create a sweetheart neckline bodice, and then put an overlay on top of it to give it the illusion that it has straps-- still working that out. 

Won’t know until I have all the fabric in one place-- things change as you go. But the idea is to make it similar to how I had my wedding dress bodice-- which is the lower middle there. I have some Preciosa flatback rose Chaton ab crystals on the way-- and some in yellowish gold which ill adorn the gown arbitrarily just to make it blingy and extra and because sparkle. I am at a loss whether to add any kind of trims-- as in piping/lacey bits. I really like the simplicity in this, and that it just sparkles and the textures of the velvet, satin and tulle/organza/net[whichever one works out] all come together. OH! and the sleeves are going to be like these wispy things. and that is in chiffon to compliment the other blues. I am SO scared that it’ll come out looking more purply lavender blue and not really blue. But that’s what dye is for!

I am so sorry I talked into a novel there. But yeah that is the most active thing. I have some other designs but who knows if the will make it into 2021? But here are a bunch I got on the face of my cosplay binder ( this also include Mark, my husband’s characters) 

Tinkerbell and Terence 

Zelda (ceremonial dress) & Link BOTW although I am debating Mipha over Zelda-- it’s just that this looks like an easy build.

Rydia of the Mist from the After Years & Edge  ~ FF IV the after years

Porom & Caine ~ FF IV the after years 

This Chibiusa-esque Sailor Moon Design I found by Azure & Copper ( I call her Sailor Neo Eternal Moon or something also it has WINGS like 4 of them! ) 

Anastasia ** & Dimitri

Kiki & Tombo ( I have a closet cosplay of Kiki)

Megman & Rolle(megaman would be of my own design that I combine with multiple versions. I have the idea to get my husband to program a rapsberry pi to make some moving equipment and lights etc.) 

Elsa 5th Spirit  & Jack Frost from rotg /// or Elsa with the Nokk ( i have this in like.... pieces right now... since a year ago?-- she was supposed to go to Katsu last year for my honeymoon but didn’t make it. However, it’s all there..... in pieces TT^TT) & A Jack Frost Design ( I combined his outfit with Kristoff’s? So like boots and fur lining etc.)  I’ve also considered making Mark into The Nokk-- but  that would be a crazy interpretation. Like ... think Centaur costume with a horse head or idk-- i never got into the design ideas. i would have to take a poll on cosplay amino

Nausicaaaaa & Asbel 

Haru & Baron from the Cast Returns ( in their ball attire) 

Helios & Princess Chibiusa (grown-up style-- so think like Dark Lady hair with the princess dress) 

Groose & Zelda ~ Legend of the Skyward Sword 

Thumbelina & Cornelius ( i have parts of corny somewhere and then bits of thumbelina scattered across stuff) 

Lvl 10 Jester and Caleb 

PHANTOM ACE ( he is in the manga and is a love interest that just wreckkkks & Codename Sailor V I have her on my dressform as we speak--- but ever since going to this Sailor moon cosplay help panel at Katsu, I have recognized the error in my ways, specifically towards the fabric!! So I would like to fix this--- 

I also have this design for a historically inspired version of Princess Aurora 

Sailor She-ra as well ( it’s got armour for dayyyys) 

Regency Inspired Rapunzel-- I tried this before and it failed. Also I HATED the gown. So I am doing it again! <3 And Eugene too 

I am also making stays/corsets to help with the overall silhouette shapes of some of these -- 

But yeah-- I really don’t believe I’ll get to all of this. That would be insane, however, I’d like to make a YT channel that follows the making of all of this and other stuff! But phew! Thanks for asking, that was a lovely question and I enjoyed responding to it. 

(o^^)o  o(^^o)

[anyu-blue]

*snorts* okay okay okay... One more thing before bed.

So I woke up pretty groggy and not entirely ready to be up and about... Stayed in bed for about 2 hours and then went upstairs to eat and do stuff... Only to find that I didn't want to do the things!! I was planning on playing WoW... But it just... Didn't sound good. I like Maldraxxus just fine... But it's not where I wanted to be and I didn't want to start another new character or pop somewhere I didn't remember what I was doing... So after thinking, starting a few chores, and milling around a little... I realized I could try playing the sims 3 again!! Oo!

Deleted PSO2 from my computer (was a game I primarily played with the bad friend anyway and haven't had the time to dedicate to it in months) and reinstalled the sims... Aaaaand started dinking around and ended up with alt versions of Jack and Pitch from ROTG 🤐 ... They have a horse called Dream.

😂 it's so stupid silly... But it was... Fun. And sweet. Not my original intention at ALL... But I'm happy I did that. Game crashed shortly after I started trying to play, but it saved the family!!

Aaaand now I want to make twilis in the game... Because I stumbled into excellent features to do that!! Lol

Just letting myself dink and do whatever.. it was fun!! And may be why my inspiration shot through the roof. Just relaxing into whatever my brain is after is... Calming..

Been having anxious thoughts but... I've been doing the things... And no one is hurting me. Watching Blue's Clues.. watching MLP... Kung Fu Panda stories a million times (I go to sleep to it)...

I've been doing stuff I don't want to do either... Like had my phone interview for food stamps this morning... Calling peeps... Paying bills.. you know, adulting lol and I'm not really less anxious... But I am? It's... Annoying and unpleasant to the same level and yet... Just doing the things doot doot doo...

Lol anyway. Time for bed now 😅 I've rambled Enough and really just wanted to share my silly this morning. Totally harmless fun.

I have hope for me. I think my therapy is helping me immensely. And I sincerely appreciate it and my Therapist so much.

Maybe, just maybe, we're getting there... 😊💙

[spirit-of-vengeance]

ROTG roleplay crack starters (original & open)

"Slow down, there's a dead horse on the road! Wait... Oh fuck. "

"Can't help right now I'm too high on dreamsand"

"You furry. "

"Well both of us are dead... Is this counts as necrophilia? "

"Thanks Tooth for accompanying me to the mission but how will you sign if someone is nearing? Bird sounds? "

"If I'm centuries younger than you, does that make you a sugar daddy? "

"I combined Bunny's eggnog and North's vodka. I can hear colors and see noises. "

"So if you have no believers, you can't get an erection?"

" Do you want to prank Bunny/Pitch? "

"How will we tell Bunny that the Groundhog declared it's not springtime yet?"

"Spirit A: In my time youngsters were respectful towards elders.

Spirit B: In your time dinosaurs roamed the Earth. "

"I have been stalking you since the 17th century. "

"Help!! I have been shot by Cupid's arrow! Literally... "

"Is that... Ghost Rider's motorbike? "

"There's a party at the Pole and Nightlight is strapped to the ceiling as a disco ball. "

"Pitch: Well, well, well-

Spirit A: Cut the crap, I don't have time nor mood for your evil monolouge. "

"Spirit A: It's just me, you and the moon-

Moon: Hey! You two should kiss! "

"Whoa, I thought it was a nightmare- wait I see your face so it is."

"Spirit A: Why are you shirtless/robeless?

Spirit B: BECAUSE THE MOON TOLD ME SO. "

"Spirit A: I know this might sound crazy but I think Pitch is after me and he's -

All Guardians: Bogeyman!! You lock the doors we will get the swords. "

"Do you think I could make it snow in Sahara? "

" I have demons in me. "

"I speak English, the language of the ancient demons of darkness and occasional sarcasm sprinkled with pure bullshit. "

"AC/DC's Bogeyman song suddenly gained way too much meaning... "

"One more word and I will headkick you into the next century. "

"You almost beheaded me with your scythe. What the fuck is wrong with you, I baked you muffins you ungrateful asshole. "

"Seems like a gruesome death is a must-have in order to become a Spirit."

[zhe-lazy-fox]

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people.

I was tagged by @voltronpals

LAST:

1. Drink: 7up 2. Phone call: with mom about a week ago 3. Text message: Sms of the phonebill…. 4. Song you listen to:  Chase and Status Feat Plan B - End Credits 5. Time you cried: Uhhhh.... When Keith was about to sacrefice himself

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: Nooo 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: I can’t even remember if i kissed anyone, EVER 8. Been cheated on: no 9. Lost someone special: Not that I know of 10. Been depressed: *insert gif of Kermit and that guy nodding at eachother* 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Alcohol tastes like crap so no.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12. Green 13. Purple 14. Blue

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: I think so 16. Fallen out of love: I wasn’t even in love to begin with.. 17. Laughed until you cried: Yes 18. Found out someone was talking about you: no 20. Found out who your friends are: *shruggs* eh 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Why???

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Uh pretty much all of them... most are friends, classmates and relatives... then that random person i can’t remember how they got there

23. Do you have any pets: I have two bunnies and fishes... but they’re home with my family, i miss them :<

24. Do you want to change your name: Sometimes, but i like my name

25. What did you do for your last birthday: You expect me to remember what i did a year ago???????

26. What time do you wake up: It depends on when school starts, right now it’s about 07:35 on weekends it’s around 12...

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP! 

28. Name something you can’t wait for: Season 5 of Voltron. When i move to a new place so i can get one or three cats :D, and what I think is the last book of the Guardians of Childhood

29. When was the last time you saw your mom: a week ago :(

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: Stop being a procrastinator... but man I can dream.

31. What are you listening to right now: the last people that are in school talking among themselves as they stand waiting for a friend or are walking out the door to go home or idk...

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: I might have, I’m bad with names and my memory is shit

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: The Voltron Fandom has it’s fair chare of rotten nuts

34. Most visited website: YouTube, Tumblr, DeviantART, AO3... facebook

35. Mole/s: I might have some... i don’t really care...

36. Mark/s: I have a scar under my right arm that goes from my armpit to about halfway up the rest of my arm... Fell out from a tree when i was little and got a broken branch stabbed into me there, did it stope me from climbing trees? no. XD Have some scars on my fingers and knees aswell from life.

37. Childhood dream: I wanted to be a Veterinerian but then i realized i would haev to put down animals and i will cry so no, i will become an Ilustrating Writer instead i decided... and that is still my dream.

38. Hair color: dark blond

39. Long or short hair: Short, but it’s to long now, i need to cut it... BUT MALMÖ HAVE TO MANY PLACES SO I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO GOOO DX

40. Do you have a crush on someone: .... what the hell is a crush?

41. What do you like about yourself: My eyes :D

42. Piercings: Nope

43. Blood type: Uh... idk

44. Nicknames: Foxy, Moon Moon, they are the most used then there’s Al and Sanji...

45. Relationship status: Single and not looking

46. Zodiac: Scorpio

47. Pronouns: she/her I��m fine with anything to be honest

48. Favorite TV Show: Voltron! Midsumer Murders, there are probbably more... but i watch Tv so rarely...

50. Right or left hand: Right

51. Surgery: Got a branch stabbed in my arm so yeah...

52. Hair dyed in different color: I did bleach my hair a while ago... I want it white... but man i am lazy...

53. Sport: I did do horse Riding and Tennis for a while before i started High School

55. Vacation: SCOTLAND OR IRELAND! Japan, Hawaii.... idk

56. Pair of trainers: ???????????? what????

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Last thing i ate was a clementine...

58. Drinking: Uhhh... didn’t i already aswer this? but uh Milk?

59. I’m about to: Answer this, then fix my Pathfinder character, but i need help and the DM’s class doesn’t end until 17

62. Want: Money, CATS! To find a house or apartment so me and my bff can live togheter because man, she lives to far away DX

63. Get married: No, maybe idk... don’t think so

64. Career: Ilustrating Writer... hopefully, or animator of some kind... idk... I will probbalby end up in Ica or Ikea or something...

65. Hugs or kisses: HUGS! I love HUGS! 

66. Lips or eyes: EYES ARE BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE THEM!

67. Shorter or taller: Ehhhhh... *Shruggs* don’t care...

68. Older or younger: *shrugs*

70. Nice arms or nice stomach: I.... don’t know...

71. Sensitive or loud: a bit of both?

72. Hook up or relationship: NONE OF THAT!

73. Troublemaker or hesitant: Bit of both???

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: No

75. Drank hard liquor: I might have tasted it once... but it tasted probbalby horrible so i repressed that memory

76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: Who me? nooo, i don’t have ANy idea of what you’re talking about... Yes...

77. Turned someone down: Yes... i think??? Look I am not good wiht this romantic shit

78. Sex on the first date: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

79. Broken someone’s heart: I don’t know... maybe????

80. Had your heart broken: No

81. Been arrested: noo

82. Cried when someone died: Does bunnies count? because i cry everytime a bunny dies, may it be wind bunnie babies or my own.

83. Fallen for a friend: uhhhh????????? i don’t think i have... but like i said i don’t know squat about this romance shit

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84: Yourself: ehe.he...he..hh.e.he..eheh... ehe.... sometimes

85. Miracles: Maybe....

86. Love at first sight: *gestures to my asexual and aromantic self* WHAT?!

87. Santa Claus: Nah

88. Kiss on the first date: ........... Look at answer on 86

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: VENESA! I LOVE HER!

91. Eye color: Mine? they are greybluegreen-ish... they’re a stormy ocean idk...

92. Favorite movie: ROTG

I tag @monpetitange and anyone who sees this and wants to do this.

[pitviperofdoom]

BH6/ROTG: A Friend in the Dark, 23/23

Title: A Friend in the Dark

Summary: Callaghan is behind bars, but Tadashi’s work is far from over. The Man in the Moon thrust him into this position for a reason but failed to let him know what that reason was, and once again he finds himself muddling along for answers as Nightmares run rampant through the streets. But it takes more than fire and magic to make a Guardian, and when a new (yet old) threat threatens those that Tadashi holds dear, he comes to understand just what he is capable of, and what it means for everyone he loves. (Sequel to Lighting Candles)

This fic now has a tv tropes page!

(AN: And that’s all she wrote.)

Chapter 23: Second Chances

AO3

“So,” Bunnymund said grimly. “You said you’d explain everything later.” He flipped a boomerang over one paw. “It’s later. So maybe you can explain why we aren’t tearing this one a new arsehole before he gets the drop on us?”

For a moment Tadashi stared blearily at him, still weighed down by his half-conscious professor. “Give me a second.”

“No I won’t give you a bloody second,” the rabbit said sharply. “You breezed in here with that tosser trotting behind you and you expect us to—”

“Give me a second, please,” Tadashi snapped. “Look, I just relived my own death for the… wow, you know what? I can’t actually remember how many times I’ve relived my own death, but I promise you it’s too many, so give me a second.”

“Tadashi!”

He almost sagged with relief as his friends—his original friends—came running, with Hiro not far behind. Callaghan was nearly half conscious, but Tadashi managed to heave him upright. “Hey guys—can you take him real quick? He’s kinda heavy.”

Willing hands lifted Callaghan away from him and helped the old man to the nearest bench to sit. No longer burdened, Tadashi stood up straight and tried to pull his brain back together into something resembling organization.

Things looked… tense. The entire area was crowded, with both nightmares and Sandman’s golden dream horses. Pitch had dismounted from his horse and was pointedly ignoring the others while he patted its dark muzzle. North looked every bit as thunderous as Bunnymund. Toothiana seemed nervous as she glanced from one face to the next. The Sandman was watching Pitch with just as much curiosity as hostility. And Jack was leaning on his staff and looking expectantly to Tadashi.

Tadashi was tired. He was not quite as tired as he had been the day he’d crawled out of a collapsing portal. Or the day he’d crawled out of the wreckage of the SFIT auditorium. But he was far too tired for it to be reasonable to demand things of him.

But he had a job to do, and he’d promised to do it. In a moment of whimsy, he tilted his head back to the silver disc high above. “I’m gonna trust you to back me up on this, all right?” he said.

When he looked down again, he saw that North had followed his gaze to the moon. “This involves the Man in the Moon?” he said, with a glance to Tadashi. His bushy eyebrows came together in a suspicious frown at Pitch. “What sort of plan is this?”

“The sort of plan that involves not flinging swords around,” Tadashi replied. “Or boomerangs. Or… what have you.”

The rabbit scowled. “Sounds like a rubbish plan to me.”

“Honestly, I think she explained it better than I can, but I’ll do my best.” He took a deep breath. “The, eh, Man in the Moon asked me to set Pitch free and help him take the Nightmares back.”

“What?!” Bunnymund barked.

There was a snort of disgust from Pitch. “Oh can we dispense with that ridiculous moniker? Three of us here already know she’s a woman.”

“Come again?” Jack broke in.

“Look, okay,” Tadashi went on. “That’s—okay, fine. I had a talk with her while I was unconscious, and she asked me to do this.”

“Why just you?” Bunnymund demanded. “Something this bloody important, why’d she ask the newbie?”

“Because I’m the only one who didn’t know Pitch that well, so I don’t have a grudge against him,” Tadashi answered. He shot a pointed look at the bogeyman. “Yet.”

Pitch rolled his eyes, but the look on his face was a wary one.

“They used to be friends,” Tadashi went on. “But she… did something selfish. Something that hurt him. And this whole thing, this whole conflict—it’s basically just built off that one grudge. So she figured the best way to get started on solving the fighting was to try to mend fences.” He placed his hands on his hips. “And lucky me, I got appointed to make sure you all don’t kill each other in the process.” He raised his head, looking each one of them in the eye. “Look. I know you guys have been fighting for a long, long time. I know you all have your own grudges. I know he’s hurt you all of you, and you’re not gonna forgive him easily—and at this point in time he doesn’t really deserve it yet.” Pitch snorted contemptuously again. “But I know we’re all in it for the kids—except Pitch, I don’t really know what he’s in it for—and the best way we can help kids is by coexisting.” He paused. “I keep hearing that there are way worse things than nightmares out there, and frankly I’d rather not waste time with shadowy sand horses if we have bigger things to worry about.”

“You are asking an awful lot, Tadashi,” North said severely. He towered over Tadashi, making full use of his height.

“That’s the beauty of it, though,” Tadashi said. “I’m not the only one asking. Look, I hate to name-drop, but at this point I think your best bet is to take it up with the lady upstairs. I’m just here to grease the wheels.” He pointed to Pitch. “And also set him on fire if he acts up.”

North looked as if he wanted to say more, but stopped. He glanced down to find the Sandman placing a placating hand over his. The Guardian of Wonder fell silent with a thoughtful frown.

“What’s this grudge?’ Toothiana spoke up, hovering closer. “What did he—er, she—do to him?” She shot a nervous glance at Pitch, who scowled back.

“She told me that my domain was not important,” the Nightmare King growled. Overhead, the light of the moon seemed to dim. “And she convinced the rest of you that fear has no place in the world.”

“Yeah, ‘cos it doesn’t,” Bunnymund snarled.

“It does, though,” Tadashi said. “It does have a place.”

The Guardians stared at him. Bunnymund looked furious. The Sandman and Tooth Fairy looked confused. Jack and North were… hard to read.

“Like it or not, fear’s just as important to childhood as the rest of us,” he said. “Every child gets scared. That’s what keeps them safe from the things that might hurt them.”

“He’s the one creating the things that frighten them,” Jack said flatly.

“But they’re harmless, by themselves,” Tadashi pointed out. “Nightmares. Bad dreams. Being scared of the dark. Everyone’s been there. I know I have. And as long as there isn’t too much fear, and it isn’t used the wrong way… there’s value to that.”

One of North’s thick eyebrows rose dubiously. “There is value to creating fear?”

“There can be,” Pitch broke in. “If you do it right.” The others turned to stare at him, all with varying levels of suspicion. “My terms are simple: let me have my piece of the world, and I’ll do it right. Simple as that.”

“I don’t see how there’s a right way to give children bad dreams,” Toothiana challenged him. “You’re talking like children need fear to be happy.”

Pitch smiled thinly. “No. Children need fear to be children, and then to be more.”

“With bad dreams?” Toothiana demanded. “Things that go bump in the night? Monsters in closets?”

“It’s practice, you see,” said Pitch. “I understand that now. They start out learning to be afraid of the little horrors.”

“Oh, what, so they can be afraid of the big ones later on?” Bunnymund growled.

“Of course,” the Nightmare King replied. “Loneliness. Failure. Death. Loss. That sort of thing.”

“They’re not the same, Pitch!” Toothiana burst out.

“You think so? Perhaps.” Pitch stroked the nightmare’s nose. “The fears change when they aren’t children anymore. But the fear itself? That remains. Children are smart little things, and they remember. So they learn young—when fear comes, what do you do? Cower and run? Perhaps at first. So isn’t it good that the first things to frighten them are nothing more than bad dreams?”

Toothiana went still, and her bristling feathers began to lie flat again as her eyes widened. “You’re saying…”

“It’s good to be afraid of things that aren’t real,” said Pitch. “How else do you learn to face the things that are?”

Silence fell in the dark garden, broken only by the odd nicker from a spectral horse. A breeze ran through, cool but not chilly. High overhead, the glow of the moon brightened.

“See,” said Jack, breaking the silence. “If you’d pitched that to me, instead of the whole ‘hey-let’s-rule-together-in-an-empire-of-fear’ thing, I might’ve considered it.”

Pitch gave him a baleful stare. “I’ve had a lot of time alone to think recently. Haven’t been able to do much else.” For the briefest instant, his eyes flickered toward Tadashi, and he tipped an almost imperceptible nod.

From off to the side, there came a cough.

All eyes turned to Hiro, who stood battered and dirty not far from where a shell-shocked Callaghan still sat, guarded by the rest of the heroes. He jumped at the sudden attention, fidgeting awkwardly. “Um. Sorry, were you still—? I mean you looked like you sort of reached an agreement, so I thought…”

North gave a sigh. Not a tired one, or an irritated one. Mostly he just sounded amused. “What is it, little Hiro?”

“Is it… is it over?” Hiro glanced around cautiously, mindful of all the shadowy horses gathered around the shrine. “I mean, the whole… nightmare crisis.”

“Hm.” North turned to give Pitch a long, considering look. “Is hard to say. Things like these, can we say they are ever truly ‘over’? But… for now, the danger is past. The children are safe once more.” He turned to Hiro again with a nod and a smile. “You are safe once more. And we thank you for your help.”

Hiro nodded back. “What about Callaghan?”

North sighed again.

“Physically he should be fine,” Pitch spoke up. “A little dehydrated, I’ll wager. Mentally, that’s another story. He’s spent weeks with a supernatural hurricane in his head.”

“Can you help him?” Hiro pressed.

Honey moved forward to stand with him. “Whatever he’s done—” She shot a look at Tadashi. “Whatever he’s done in the past, he didn’t deserve all this. And everything that’s happened… it was the Nightmares that did it, wasn’t it? He’ll be punished for all the things they made him do, like breaking out and attacking all those people and…” She wrung her hands.

“It just doesn’t seem fair,” Hiro finished.

Tadashi saw the Guardians exchange glances.

“Kids have a point,” Bunnymund muttered.

“We don’t usually step in when adults are involved,” Toothiana said.

“Because adults usually aren’t involved,” Jack pointed out.

“I doubt he can return to human society anyway,” Pitch drawled. “After what he’s seen? Adult minds aren’t pliable like the little ones. Children have a way of snapping back—not so much for people like him.” His horse tossed its head. “And besides, the Nightmares probably left his head a mess. He’ll have horrors from all over the realms crawling over him to get an in.”

Tadashi tried not to shudder. It was a valiant effort.

It was North who stepped forward, past Hiro and Honey until he stood before the hunched form of Professor Callaghan. For a long while, he simply stood over the broken man and watched him with a severe look on his face.

Callaghan broke the silence first. “Whatever you see fit,” he said, nearly too quietly to hear.

“Hm.” North gave a thoughtful noise. “You are a maker.”

The old man raised his head to look at him, confused.

“You build. Invent. Create. Mind like sketchbook never runs out of pages. Yes?”

Hesitantly, Callaghan nodded.

The moment he did, North looked up and met Tadashi’s eyes. Tadashi blinked back at him, perplexed, until he realized what the other Guardian was doing. The question was clear on Santa Claus’s face—he was looking to Tadashi for approval. He was looking for permission to deal with Callaghan as he saw fit.

Tadashi gave a nod, and a welcoming motion with one hand.

North turned back to Callaghan with a rumble of laughter. “Good! I have use for you, then. Mind is terrible to waste.” He gave Callaghan a clap on the shoulder—a gentle one, judging by the fact that it didn’t knock Callaghan out of his seat. “You come with me, Callaghan.”

Callaghan bowed his head.

“This is not punishment,” North told him. “You do not need punishment, but healing. This, I can do. Or at least keep you busy.” Reaching down, he helped the old man to his feet. “Come. Where I take you, I think you will like.”

“So… what happens now?” Hiro had moved closer to Tadashi and caught hold of his sleeve. “Are you… I mean…”

“I’m sticking around,” Tadashi assured him. “I meant what I said. I won’t leave you. But…” He looked around at the other Guardians, and Pitch, and the nightmares. “Looks like I’ll be keeping busy, too. But no matter what, I’ll always come back, because this? This is home.” He squeezed his little brother’s shoulder. “My place is near you, buddy.”

“Okay.” Hiro seemed to steel himself. “Okay. I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“Good. Keep me honest.”

“We should be going,” Toothiana said at last. “I think… we all have a lot to talk about.”

“R-right.” Tadashi hesitated. “Um. Could you guys… go on ahead?” He motioned vaguely to his friends. “I just gotta…”

North laughed again, startling everyone. “Very well. You say your hellos. But catch up soon, yes? Help us deal with… your new friend.”

“We aren’t friends,” Pitch said waspishly. He turned away. “I’ll be rebuilding my home. When you’re ready to talk—” He stopped, and cast a glance upward at the shining moon. “Or when she’s ready to talk. Well. You know where to find me.” With that, he swung up onto his horse once more. The dark beast reared, the other horses rallied around it, and Pitch rode off into the night. He was gone in a gust of wind.

“We’ll meet you back at the North Pole?” Toothiana said, looking at Tadashi.

“Yeah, definitely.”

The sleigh coasted down to the ground, and the other Guardians, plus a dazed Robert Callaghan, climbed in. Jack was the last to follow.

“I was worried for a second there,” he said, locking eyes with Tadashi. “Pitch tried to cozy up to me, once. I was wondering if you’d gotten taken in or something.”

“God no, he’s an asshole,” Tadashi said. “I’m doing this because she finally cut the crap and started giving me straight answers.” He pointed upwards. “And she asked nicely.”

“O-oh. Right. Him—I mean, her.” Jack’s face twitched as he fought to suppress a powerful emotion. It looked like many things at once—envy, regret, sorrow. “Good talk, I take it?”

“You can have one too,” Tadashi said.

Jack blinked. “W-what?”

“That was one of my terms, when I agreed to what she said,” Tadashi told him. “I told her it wasn’t fair that she left you alone for three hundred years, so at the very least she owed you a conversation. So… that’s an offer open, if you want it.”

For a moment, Jack stared at him, dumbfounded. His jaw moved, but his mouth failed to form words. At last, he shook his head and punched Tadashi lightly in the shoulder. “God, you’re such a mother hen. I’ll see you at the North Pole, fluff.”

Tadashi grinned. “It was no problem, Jack.”

The sleigh lifted off, leaving the rest of them alone in the Tea Garden.

Tadashi took a deep breath. He turned on his heel. Tears were already gathering in his eyes as he caught Hiro’s shoulder and pulled him along into the waiting arms of his friends.

---

“So how’re things?” Hiro asked.

Tadashi stepped in through the window and landed lightly on the floor of their attic bedroom. “Busy, like I said. I’m spending most of my time keeping Pitch and Bunny from going for each other’s throats.”

Hiro laughed. “I still can’t believe that a rabbit that goes around handing out chocolate eggs in the springtime is, like, Conan the Barbarian.”

“It surprised me at first, too,” Tadashi admitted. “He didn’t like me much, back then. I guess rabbits just aren’t meant to get along with foxes.”

Hiro nodded, humming thoughtfully. “Hey, Tadashi…” He looked over his shoulder at Baymax’s charging station and case, which lay deactivated in the corner of the room.. “You’re sure you don’t need your… your soul? I mean, we would’ve been in a lot of trouble if Baymax hadn’t yanked it out and given it to you back then.”

“I might, someday,” Tadashi said. “If we ever see something that big and dangerous again. But until then…” He shot Baymax a grin. “It’s like I can be in two places at once, you know?”

“Guess so. Double the mother-hen. Lucky me.” Hiro’s voice was dry, but there was a smirk on his face. Tadashi reached up to mess up his hair. “And how’s… uh… how’s Callaghan?”

Tadashi grinned wryly. “North’s been putting him to work at the workshop. The elves keep pranking him, but I think he gets along okay with the Yetis. And… man, if he was something when he just had science, adding magic into the mix has turned out some wild stuff.”

Hiro hummed softly. “Is he… okay, then?”

“…Yeah. He’s okay.” Tadashi stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I think that’s about the best he can be, after everything that’s happened. He’s somewhere he can do things, and make things, instead of just… languish. He’s still getting used to the magic, though.”

“I don’t blame him.”

For a moment, they lapsed into a thoughtful silence, before Tadashi perked up again. “Oh, speaking of magic. I found out something cool.” Reaching beneath his jacket, he dug out a small folded stack of papers. “So, it turns out Nozomi and her friends have been spreading stories around the schoolyard, and look what I’ve found.” He unfolded the pages, revealing children’s crayon drawings, most of them colorfully simple depictions of foxes. Scrawled beneath the drawings, or on the back, were little notes.

“Are you getting fan mail?” Hiro’s smirk widened. “Like Santa?”

“Not quite. These are more like… ema, almost.” Tadashi shuffled through the pages, admiring them. “The kids who made these wrote wishes and hung them in their windows. So far it’s been stuff like being scared of the dark, or having bad dreams. And when they put them up, I felt it. It was like a string pulling me there. I think they’ve found a way to call me.”

“Cool!” Hiro laughed. “Looks like they’re already making legends about you, bro.”

“Heh, maybe.”

“I gotta ask, though—bad dreams? Doesn’t that kinda pit you against Pitch?”

“Not yet. Mostly it’s been scraps of nightmares that haven’t figured out Pitch is King again.” Tadashi folded up the notes and put them away again. “Maybe it will, someday. I’m okay with a rivalry, though. Doesn’t mean we can’t still get along.”

“You get along with the bogeyman?”

“Sort of.” Tadashi paused. “Well. We don’t not get along. That’s really all I ask at this point. But enough about me—how’s the hero work?”

“Same old, same old, I guess,” Hiro replied. “No archenemies yet. Maybe when I’m older.” He paused. “It’s just… weird, though.”

“What’s weird?”

“What isn’t weird?” Hiro laughed, a little humorlessly. “We both ended up in just… the wildest positions. You know? We’re both heroes. Just… different kinds. You do the magic stuff, I do the science stuff.”

“Not where I thought my life was going, that’s for sure,” Tadashi said softly.

“And… Aunt Cass is still mourning you,” Hiro murmured. “And I wish… I just wish there was a way to tell her, that you’re still here. And not just still-in-her-memory still here, I mean…”

“I know.” Tadashi slung an arm around his shoulders. “I know, and maybe… maybe someday.”

“That’s a pretty big maybe.”

“I know. But it’s not impossible. She could find a way to believe in me, and see me. Maybe we just need to have a little faith.”

“Hm.” Hiro raised an eyebrow. “And trust?”

“Sure. And if I find some pixie dust, I’ll let you know.” Tadashi ruffled his little brother’s hair again. “But for now, I… I’m just really glad you can see me.”

Hiro grinned. “Me too, bro. Oh hey, before you have to fly off again—” He darted toward the corner of the room nearest the stairs. “Sorry, it’s just—you look weird, running around without it.” Reaching up, he plucked the baseball cap from the hat rack and ran back. It was a bit of a stretch to plop it on Tadashi’s head, but he managed it. “I dunno if it fits your whole kitsune ghost mystique thing you have going, but…”

“Heh.” Tadashi reached up and straightened it. “I’ll admit, I have missed this old… thing…” His voice trailed off, and he looked over his shoulder. “Huh. Think I’m feeling it again.”

“Another kid having bad dreams?”

“Something like that.” Tadashi looked back, opening his mouth to say something.

Hiro stepped closer and wrapped him in a hug before he had the chance. Without a word, Tadashi returned it.

There didn’t need to be words. I missed you went without saying, and so did I love you and I’m glad you’re here.

“Well,” Hiro said at last, his voice muffled into his brother’s chest. “Don’t let me hold you up. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Sure thing, little bro.”

Hiro followed him to the window and watched him leap out of it. With his hands braced against the sill, he leaned forward and followed his brother’s path. As he stayed by the window, he watched the little form of a swiftly running fox as it darted out into the night, over and under the golden trails of dream sand beneath a dark, jeweled sky and a steadfast, ever-watchful Moon.