#RotGSecretSanta2022

[mrsketchy]

My fill for the rotg secret santa @rotgsecretsanta

[tenchikotheartist]

OH MY GOSH, THIS TOOK FOREVER! Please click the image because I think Tumblr crunched my image TwT

Merry Late Christmas to #4 requester for @rotgsecretsanta:

"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."

I heard Teeny Jack with The Munchies and immediately knew I had to draw it! Thank you for the prompt, and I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

[bunnimew]

RotG Secret Santa 2022- Prompt 28

For the RotG Secret Santa prompt: 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?)

This was too good not to do. xD I hope you like it~

@rotgsecretsanta​

[fanarchoslashivist]

#61 for @rotgsecretsanta

It was supposed to be longer but i had to cut a lot since i couldn’t tie it off properly and now I’m at the end of the deadline! Sorry. It’s all over the place.

That he has them isn’t what makes it strange, everyone has them, the dogs, the deer, the horses, and people too.

~*~

There are marks on Jack’s back.

Every plant had its own leaf pattern, its own flowers, every tree its own unique bark, and every fish a flash of color in its scales. Marks were a part of being alive, of growing and changing, like a river cutting through a mountain, a storm battering a coast.

The world was made of marks and patterns.

It was just that, well, sometimes the markings are… different.

There were stories, of course, of marks being strange. Jack heard the tale of the white speckled moose that had chased his uncle’s war band nearly off a cliff in his youth. He had seen a white faced raccoon scuttle away as he had shook and waved about with his tree branches at the birds in their cornrows. He knew that marks could be bigger, bolder, stranger than everyone else’s.

It was just that… why did it have to be his?

Strange marks were a sign something else had touched you, something else was paying attention. People with different marks could be powerful, medicine people or great warriors, or they could do great damage.

Jack was always careful covering it. Even among his own people he was considered odd, the adults spoke differently when he was around, more reserved, and the other kids would sometimes slip and name him aloud what their parents whispered.

They loved him, it was a small village, some still migrating to and from their summer encampments, there was little room for animosity against a child, even one who as an infant had run naked through the snow unharmed.

They didn’t know what the marks on his back meant, but they knew an Icicle when they saw one. His grandmother was Tappan after all, her mark a spiraling line around her forearm like a coiled snake. She had fled from the coast in her youth, her family caught in the Slaughter of the Innocents that had left her and his grandfather orphaned. There always seemed to be people running away from something, even back then, and his grandfather had told them stories of their journey, of seeking refuge from the violence at the Pavonia settlement and been met with a massacre.

His mother had grown weak after he was born, his grandmother confided in him when he was older that he had been shockingly cold to the touch in their hands from the very first shriek of life, and the mark had stood out bold as a spotted skunk’s across his back.

His father was a runaway indentured laborer who had carried him in a cradleboard as he worked their farms alongside the women. In the colonies farming was menswork, and he had been traded between four masters before he had fled, here he was still learning his place. He was a giant in Jack’s memories, the man who named him and cared for him through most of his childhood,he had been the one who shared his own people’s beliefs about marks. That God had marked each person for their role in life.

The Nobility and Monarchy had their marks, and the merchants and trades theirs, and the peasant folk and laborers and the slaves all had their own as well. It was proof of God’s plan.

His father’s mark was a hazy uneven mound on the back of his hand that he had always called his Ship, talking of his plans to travel to the New World the moment he had seen the very first sails in the distance his first visit to Port.

Jack always thought it looked more like mountains, he had traced them often as a child, fingers memorizing every scar on his knuckles.

Jack remembered his hands more than he remembered his face.

~*~

The Golden Age was full of romanticism.

The Pookan Brotherhood always seemed like such an outlier among all the whimsy, preferring the stability of logic and facts.

It was a fact they were all made of the components of the universe, chemicals and elements, bits of stardust, gasses, and energy to move it all. Every race was shaped slightly different, forming in their own environments, their own differing habitable zones, but they were all products of their grand cosmos.

And in all of the natural world one thing that could be assured of was that patterns repeated. Fractals, spirals, waves, stripes. The Pooka all had different color morphs, different fur types, different body sizes, they already had so many different variations just as a single species of their planet, and they still sometimes matched. Combined with the diverse array of life forms from ten thousand planets it was only to be expected that some form of patterns repeated.

They as a people loved to paint their own markings, family crests and feats of strength, celebrations of achievements, places of birth, each culture had its own history, but they all regarded the birth markings as just another natural coloration.

But the Golden Age was the age of the Romantic, and the strange Constellan custom spread far through the simple power of Belief.

That somewhere out there was one who matched you. Mirrored you.

Was meant for you.

It was all nonsense of course. Patterns repeated is all, with trillions upon trillions of people across thousands of planets of course someone was going to be born with the same mark somewhere.

But… even the Pooka were intrigued by the numbers, when they started paying attention.

There were many long lived species among them, though the Pooka boasted the Oldest (only because Star Pilots lived such harrowing lives), and naturally a person could find their match if they lived long enough. The simpler patterns could repeat more frequently, but it was worthy of note that almost every lifeform had one singular spot, just one slight color variation, that was unique to every individual even of the most identical examples, and that sometimes that irregularity would match perfectly with another from an entirely different species, an entirely different world.

Pooka had no concept of souls, a body was made up of matter powered by consciousness, and if enough magic existed in the area of that consciousness perhaps an echo of a person could be left behind as a ‘ghost’, and perhaps that ‘ghost’ could continue to build upon that and create for itself a new physical form. This was the basis of belief after all, the layering of magic into a consciousness, bringing even distant stars grouped together into a pattern called a constellation, and breathed to life.

So Pooka would never ascribe themselves to the belief in this... Soulmate fad that was growing out from the Constellans culture and fast becoming the foundational lore behind the odd discolorations everyone shared, but it was a pleasant bit of whimsy. A little bit of illogic that harmed no one to indulge in, that somewhere out there someone was made up of the same bit and pieces of star matter as you were.

So if asked Bunnymund would never have said he actually believed in it.

But there was a twinge of… something… when he noticed two Pooka showing off their identical marks, finding each other against all odds and bonding over the absurdity of it all.

It was a nice fantasy, that someone out there was his match, as a war waged all around them and their worlds burned.

~*~

Jack’s mother had struggled to give birth to him, she was too weak to even nurse him in the weeks after and through most of his infancy he fed from his Aunties. They all adored him, as much as they did any child, and fretted over his strange mark, and the fading strength of his mother.

She recovered, eventually, though she was quick to tire for the rest of his memory of her.

He would run about to help her, as soon as he was able to do so. Fetching this, holding that, entertaining the other children when she was charged with their keeping. He adored her, and she never gave him anything but her love, and a good scolding whenever he went out into the snow in bare feet.

Her mark was on her inner wrist, a beautiful vine of leaves, the most distinct mark he’d ever seen. He loved to paint flowers on them as a child, and his sister would come to do the same.

His father fretted all through her second pregnancy, lovingly bossed about by his grandmother and aunties. Jack had been mesmerized by the idea of it, of a small new baby in his mother’s body. He had seen plenty of new babies, his mother was often carrying someone else’s cradleboard as they went off for one thing or another, and he loved to make them laugh until they sicked up. Pudgy little faces swaddle in soft fur and watching him with wide amazed eyes.

But this one was going to be his, to keep! A brother or a sister.

He had carefully built a turtle rattle in anticipation, under the amused and somewhat exasperated guidance of his uncle, and the avaricious eyes of several crows in the tree who wondered if there was still meat left inside it.

Jack sometimes fed the Crows, though he wasn’t supposed to. Fish guts were for planting, or the dogs, and if he fed the crows too close to the village they often made themselves at home, and helped themselves to whatever was not carefully watched.

So Jack gutted the fish he caught at a spot near the lakeshore and left them all the unwanted bits, and they in return came down to play and keep him entertained as he worked.

When his sister was finally born it was with a diamond on her foot.

It was a good sign, marks on the feet meant ties to the earth, to the land.

Jack would tickle her there, as they grew up together, he would tease her and cherish her and pinpoint her weakness with the accuracy only a brother could have.

As they grew up together Jack never forgot that the mark on his back made him different, even in the summer when the other boys stripped down to their skins he wore his shirts, he fed the crows, he climbed the trees, and he tormented the other children with his tales and his tricks, and he hid his mark from those who passed through, and he looked to others as any other child did.

Though they sometimes still called him icicle.

They would believe it until he died.

~*~

Bunnymund hadn’t intended to find peace on this planet.

He had intended to finish his assignment and get back out there and fight.

The Constellan Houses wanted a safe heaven, someplace far far away from anything on the map, from where the fighting is, someplace to send their children.

And their rulers.

Bunnymund tried not to think less of them back then. The Lunanoffs just had a baby, a young heir to a long and powerful line, and it wasn’t like they were going to be hiding away by themselves, they were making a refuge for everyone.

It just seemed like taking a fighter, any fighter but especially one as skilled as him, out of the battle to build a habitable planet instead of just hiding their ships in the asteroid belt of the same solar system was maybe a wasted effort.

But he did as he was told, entering the time stream to step out far ahead, in both time and distance, onto a planet he had hand picked to match their specifications. He had time, just enough time, to get the planet somewhat in shape before they arrived. Not enough to be perfect, no, but that’s what they had their Moon for.

He had planned everything perfectly, careful as always not to break taboo with Pookan time travel, and ensured the coordinates he sent out would arrive at the MoonClipper precisely when it needed to, he didn’t expect a reply. Even if they were ignorant enough to send one, it wouldn’t reach him until long after they already landed. Constellans lacked the ability to travel through time to reach their destinations quickly, Pookans had tried to create Time Machines for them to use as shortcuts, but the damn idiots kept fixating on changing the course of their own history. As if that wouldn’t unravel the whole damn universe.

Emotional impulsive creatures had to be safeguarded from the tools they could use to destroy themselves. Regardless of the fits they liked to throw.

Bunny knew he was being uncharitable, but he had been frustrated back then, knowing that there was a war going on to decide the fate of the known universe and he was all but banished to a distant unused corner, tending to a planet with no possibility of knees until he had orbited the nearest star billions of times.

He rubbed at the back of his neck, where the very beginning of his birthmark was, and felt it like a warm trickle of water ripple down the whole of his back.

Pooka marks always took up almost half their bodies, unchanging even when they shapeshifted. He had developed a habit of touching it after he had learned that sometimes its twin felt the warmth. Not that he believed in all that, probably another twist in the tale created by the widespread belief, but as the planet orbited and the star wheeled overhead and the lack of anything but the feel of shifting rock under his claws pulled his pack bonded mind taunt with worry he sought the sensation of touch more and more.

Maybe if there was someone meant to match him, they would feel his touch and find comfort.

Even in a fight for their lives.

But really if all it was doing was keeping him sane, that was okay too.

~*~

Jack had marks on his back.

He wasn’t five days out of the lake before he learned about them. He had been punted, quite rudely, into the mound of horse manure steaming on the ice after trying to introduce himself to someone who could finally actually see him. Not a person, he didn’t know what it was, but it laughed at him after seeing him attempting to talk to people and getting ghosted, quite literally, again.

Then it turned around and kicked him right into the pile, and laughed some more.

Rude.

It looked something like a horse, while also being nothing like a horse, and nothing like a deer or a bison either, but it was a pretty nasty piece of work and Jack had retaliated by blasting it in ice.

Accidentally.

Honestly he hadn’t even known he could do that.

And then he had gone off to bath in the river and hopefully get the stink of horseapples out of his clothes.

It was there that he met the crows.

He heard them laughing sometimes, the way the many hooves creatures he just froze laughed, but they laughed at everyone so he hadn’t taken much notice. Assuming it was just the sound they had made.

Then they whistled as he took his shirt off, and made a whole lot more noise as they came down to land beside him.

“Jack!” One cried in a high voice. “Your mark changed!”

Jack flinched back at the feel of claws on his shoulder and got battered in the face by wings as the crow changed trajectory, trying to land in his hair, and him trying to cover his head with his arms.

“Don’t fuss, let me look at you!” It snapped firmly, but not painfully, at his skin with its beak.

“Do you know me?” He asked, stilling as the crow settled, wobbling to keep its balance.

“Rude.” It replied, nipping at him. “Can’t ever tell us apart. Typical Human.”

“What’s a human?” Jack wondered.

“Stupid too.” Someone called from the trees, and the wind shook them, insulted. They seemed to enjoy it more than anything.

“Mark’s black now.” The crow on his head spoke up again. “Winter took you back, we wondered when it would.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack demanded, shoving his arms back into his wet shirt and then up over his head, bird be damned.

“Hey, don’t get mad at me!”

First people to talk to him, and its a violent whatever-the-fuck and a bunch of wise-ass crows.

“Do you know where we are?” He asked, brushing off the freezing water as it stiffened like wood.

“Humans call it Hawthorn.” The crow replied, settling on the crook of his staff to stare at him, “Or the Upperlands, depending on who you ask.”

Okaaaay, that was something at least, even though none of it made sense.

He had kind of been hoping once he heard the name of the place he was at he’d know something about it, the way he knew what a horse or a crow was, though he hadn’t the foggiest what the thing back in town was that kicked him.

“And Winter brought me here?” Funny, he was sure he had a million questions he’d wanted to ask when he was following around the people, now they all seemed to vanish as he realized naming the town gave him nothing to go on.

“No, Winter just took you back.” The crow explained. “You came from the ice.”

He remembered coming out of the ice in the lake, so he guessed it kind of made sense. “And what you said, about a mark?”

“You didn’t know?” The crow asked.

“It’s on his back!” Someone called from the trees.

“Can’t see.” Said another. “His head doesn't turn that way.”

“We all have a mark.” The crow told him. “Yours is on your back.” Then he pecked at Jack’s shirt. “Got any food?”

~*~

Humans were late to the planet.

He hadn’t meant to create something so close to the Constellans. He honestly didn’t think it would have been possible if he HAD tried, but here they were, bipedal sapiens walking about all over the planet before he knew it.

It wasn’t exactly his fault that they took him by surprise, the planet circled the star at a much quicker pace than his home world did and after the battle he had seen from the sky that had left the moon hovering in their orbit with no response on any of the communication frequencies, and no answers to any of his many messages back to the Pookan Brotherhood, he had fallen… into lethargy.

He had slept.

A lot.

And after he slept, and woke to still more silence, he had wept.

He knew what silence meant, when the MoonClipper was there in his sky, hull a mess from cannon blasts, and none of the anticipated missives arriving behind it.

It meant that they had lost.

They had been struggling already when he had been pulled from the line of duty, or else building a refuge would not have even been entertained, and now there was silence.

Still he tried. He sent out calls, sent out coordinates, pleading, reassuring, ranting at whoever was still out there.

Until it seemed that he truely was the last sentient life form left from the Golden Age.

And then, one day as he was walking his world after a long and somehow still exhausting rest, he found the makings of a home. People, so close to resembling the long lost Constellans that his heart had tripled in rhythm at seeing them, down to the pattern of their mark.

They were made of the matter of the universe, elements and compounds and energy, pushed on by consciousness and wielding magic through belief.

Patterns repeating endlessly until somehow all the right peices fell into place to make a near perfect mirror.

It was the very first human settlement of many to come, and for all the pain and disappointment they would bring to him in the ten thousand years he would watch over them, they gave him hope.

His mark burned where he touched it, a habit he could never manage to break.

~*~

Jack hadn’t meant to cause the accident.

Which was unusual because normally Jack loved to cause problems on purpose, especially if it was the very stuck up his own ass Bunny he was dealing with, but he hadn’t actually meant it this time.

And now they were stuck in the labyrinth of a man scientist… wizard… person who was trying to build a doomsday device apparently.

Because of course he is.

It wasn’t HIS fault that the grumpy rabbit had always made himself such an eye catching target for a snowball.

How was he supposed to know that he, and his fellow Guardians, were on Jack’s turf investigating old coal mines for clues? It wasn’t like he’d talked to them, ever, aside from Bunny; and Bunny had been pretty scarce since Jack had accidentally dumped an itty bitty little storm on his oh so special holiday.

Used to be if he stirred up a little bit of snow Bunny would come chasing after him to chew him out. Which was FUN! Bunny was a riot! He never managed to Catch Jack, because of course Easter egg hunts were a bit more important than spending all day playing at and mouse, but Jack didn’t think the guy would do anything serious if he ever did get ahold of him.

So the near forty years of radio silence and catching neither ear nor tail of the rabbit even on Easter had gotten him a bit down… which made him a little sloppy, a little more prone to just… chucking a snowball without paying much attention to the surroundings.

Bunny made SUCH A GOOD TARGET!

And now they were trapped.

Woohoo! Bonding Time!

Not.

Bunny was fun from a distance, but a stuck up grump was a stuck up grump and Jack was all in favor of fucking around and finding out so long as he was well out of asskicking range.

He;d learned that trick from the crows.

~*~

He was going to murder himself a frost sprite.

Bunny clawed at his own face in frustration as they sloughed their way out of the pit, absolutely covered in the stinking gore of whatever it was they had just had to kill. Some monstrosity the wizard had magiced together using animal carcases and stuck in a corner to be unleashed upon his enemies, helpfully caged off if you had actually breached the interior of the labyrinth.

Unless some asshole pulls the lever to lose them.

And guess what?

Guess what he was stuck with in this absolute mess of a situation?

Was it exactly that kind of asshole?

Yes, yes it was.

Jack, fucking Frost everybody, clap your hands.

If this goop dried in his fur it was going to be a BITCH to get out. “I should have let it eat you.” He growled as he pulled off his bandolier and tossed it on the ground, sinking into the sparkling fountain that Jack had been so sure had been a secret passage, one opened via lever pull.

Fucker.

“I mean, on the bright side we know what ONE lever does.” Jack, lacking any remorse, wiggled his finger at the remaining six. Let’s see what’s behind Door number two!”

“If you pull anything while I’m in here I WILL kill you.” Bunny turned like a viper and snatched Jack out of the air SO FAST. “I have had as much as I can take from you, and so help me if you don’t stop to THINK.”

“Fine, fine. WHatever.” Jack raised his hands, “No button pushing. Got it. You are so severe.”

He pushed Jack under the water and held him there.

~*~

It wasn't… it wasn’t anything really.

It was years later.

Years.

Jack annoyed the FUCK out of him. Why did Jack insist on seeking him out. Why?!

But after they had, kind of, worked together to stop a magical bomb created by a madman it was kind of… tolerable.

And then maybe a little enjoyable.

And then maybe, possibly, if only out of habit, Bunny had started seeking Jack out too.

And it wasn’t that he meant anything by it, he wasn’t hanging on Jack’s every word or considering if Jack would maybe enjoy some of the places he was visiting, but every once in a while he was struck with the fact that… well.. it was getting a little harder to get through his days without thinking about him.

He’d cracked wise at some event with the guardians and nobody had laughed, and he’d felt like an idiot, nothing worse than a joke falling flat, but what really stood out was that… well, Jack would have laughed at that.

Jack would have gotten the joke.

And didn’t that just bite.

So here he was, sitting under a tree by the lake Jack liked to frequent, as Jack ran down to the water absolutely covered in mud. Why humans liked to throw themselves into knee high slop at the first opportunity he didn’t understand, but Jack had apparently had a lot of fun at the muddying event, though he had primary participated to knock people off balancing posts to the slop below.

“I’ll just be a minute,” Jack called, shucking off his hoodie and tossing it into the lake, the white blouse underneath was tan from the clay heavy mud.

“Take yer time.” He drawled, flipping through his sketchbook quickly to disguise that he had been staring. It sounded a little too suggestive out loud, and he didn’t want to know if Jack had any kind of expression on his face as he said it.

He had offered up a shower at the Warren, but Jack got all cagey when Bunny brought him around, like he was afraid he was going to break something, which was never a good look on him. He preferred it when Jack was comfortable, even if that meant not sharing such an important part of himself.

They were… well they were friends now.

Right?

Jack had to know he wasn’t going to chase him off over a moss covered bolder.

He only trusted himself to look back after the sounds of splashing assured him Jack was busy rinsing himself.

There was a ringing.

In his ears.

A sudden disorientating lightheadedness that under any other circumstances he was sure should trigger alarm bells in his brain. Someone was fucking with his head, brain magic, or a curse, or blood loss. He fel this way with blood loss.

But it wasn’t any of that.

Jack.

All these years, he’d certainly never hidden his own, for centuries hadn’t even thought about them.

But Jack…

Jack had marks on his back.

[horrorautism]

(edit lol forgot the tag @rotgsecretsanta !!)

an entry for this years rise of the guardians secret santa!! the prompt was "Pitch in a fancy gothic outfit" and I tried my best to find accurate goth outfits this really isn't my best work since i've only drawn Pitch twice, including this time, but it was really fun to draw!!

[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

[sylphidine]

[ROTG] Twelfth Night On Guardian Street

My humble offering for prompt#68 for the 2022 ROTG Stocking Stuffer event.

The request: "[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)"

@rotgsecretsanta

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“I can’t believe you’ve never been to North’s place before,” Katherine remarked as she shifted the gears of the car she lovingly called The Goose, pulling smoothly out of Jack’s driveway and onto the street.

Well, I’m kind of good at being invisible.

That was the first thing that came to Jack’s mind, but he squelched the thought before it could tumble out of his mouth.

Instead, he said, “You two have been friends a long time, I guess?”

“Mmmm-hmmmm. My stepdad Ombric kind of adopted North as a surrogate kid way back when, so he’s like the big brother I didn’t know I needed. And now that Ombric’s retired and off doing his own thing, I guess North is all I’ve got left that I can call family.”

She didn’t add, “Since Nightlight’s gone, too.” She didn’t have to add it. Everyone at work knew how close Katherine and Nightlight had been. Jack knew he couldn’t replace Nightlight in her eyes, but he was hoping that if enough time went by, she’d see him for himself.

He replied, “Well, I’m looking forward to this party… I’ve never done Twelfth Night, although some of my high school buddies did Three Kings Day. Usually the holiday gatherings end up being held at work, and I put in enough hours there, thanks.  Time for some fun.”

“Oh, yes, there will definitely be fun involved. Of course, Bunny and North will probably end up having one of their never-ending ‘playful’ arguments, and it will be a miracle if Tooth can relax long enough to light somewhere. But we can count on Sandy to keep the peace, or to smack some heads together if people misbehave.” Katherine turned her head to smile at Jack quickly before she went back to keeping an eye on the road.  

The Goose was flying across town at a brisk but completely safe clip. Jack had a momentary flash of imagining himself and Katherine flying through the sky, borne on the winds and skimming through the clouds. He smiled back at her and chuckled to let her know he agreed with her assessment of their coworkers and their habits. He leaned back in his seat, wondering if Pitch and Emily Jane would be there, but figured that he’d find out soon enough.

They both settled into a comfortable silence for the rest of the ride, listening to the voice of Katherine’s GPS giving them directions to their destination on Guardian Street in a soothing voice, as though telling them a bedtime story. 

____________________

 “Wow.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say.” Katherine squeezed Jack’s arm lightly as she led him up the stone steps. 

“Wait a minute. North’s working at the same place that we are. And it’s not like Mister Lessmore is stingy, but I’d have to be working for three hundred years to be able to afford a house like this.” Jack raised his hand to his throat dramatically and fake-gasped, “You’re not going to tell me that North is part of the Russian mafia, are you?”

The smile on Katherine’s face grew even wider and her eyes gleamed in the light cast by the lanterns hanging from the porch ceiling.  “If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” she said jokingly, and then hastened to add, “No, not really. North has patents from inventions he made AGES ago. He bankrolled them into some good investments.  He doesn’t have to work, but he LIKES to.” 

“Okay, but if somebody big and burly kidnaps me and shoves me in a sack, you’d better come rescue me.”

“That’s a promise,” she said softly and seriously.

Jack’s heart thumped. Funny, he’d forgotten he even HAD a heart.

Katherine pressed a button next to the carved front door. The chime sounded like a chorus of bells, rather than a single buzzer.  Not even twenty seconds later, the door was flung open by a short man with wild blond hair, his face wreathed with smiles. He waved a mug of eggnog at them in a jaunty salute.

“Hello Sandy!” Katherine gave their compatriot a pat on the shoulder as they both crossed the threshold. Jack noticed that Sandy was wearing a fancy gold ascot that peeked out from under his usual understated fawn-colored sweater. Jack felt a bit embarrassed that he himself had not worn anything dressier than his blue hoodie, but he regained his aplomb when Katherine shed her yellow coat and he noticed she was in a plain tunic and jeans. 

Sandy seemed to have appointed himself their usher, showing them where to hang their coats. As the three of them walked down a hallway with a timbered ceiling and dark, highly polished wainscotting, the sound of boisterous laughter and a hubbub of conversation could be heard, getting louder as they approached. Finally they turned a corner into what must have been the house’s Great Room, where the party was in full swing.

“JACK! KATHERINE! NOW IS A PARTY!” A full-throated bellow was the only warning the new arrivals got before they were each swept up in turn in a bone-cracking embrace from their host.  

“Hi North,” Jack wheezed as soon as he could breathe again. He wondered if Katherine was wearing a suit of armor under that tunic, since she seemed to have suffered no ill effects from North’s enthusiastic greeting. She was smiling so hard, though, that even if she were used to her “big brother’s” effusiveness, to Jack’s eye she still seemed to enjoy it. She seemed almost lit up from within, and he hoped someday that he’d be able to inspire that kind of joy for her.

Tooth bobbed up from her perch on the arm of an overstuffed chair and fluttered over to greet them. Bunny pushed his green glasses up on his long nose and ambled over. 

As he was shaking hands with the tall Australian, Jack noticed out of the corner of his eye that Sandy was carrying  a tray of eggnog towards a sofa facing the fireplace, its back obscuring whoever was sitting there. He would bet that’s where Pitch and his daughter Emily Jane were hiding.  Neither of them were the sociable type.

And then Jack registered the sight of the fireplace itself, and he did a double-take.

In a house this size, he had expected a massive fireplace; that wasn’t what had him flabbergasted.  Nor was it the wonderful carving over the mantelpiece… a whole forest frieze with deer and pine trees.

What caught Jack’s eye and held it there was the grate on which the hefty logs burning brightly were laid. The front end curved low, the back end curved high, making the grate look absolutely like…

A big warm hand clapped Jack’s shoulder, as North rumbled next to him, “Everybody loves the sleigh.”

[birdbrainedinsomnia]

For the prompt - 49 [No Ship] Jack has gained the power to shape shift into winter animals. Chaos quickly follows much to Jack's amusement.

[eastofthemoon]

I wrote this for the ROTG Secret Santa and the prompt for this was The Guardians having to 'accept' Pitch as part of the family. In my head, I kind of see this as a follow up/takes place in the setting setting as my fic House Calls but you don't have to read it to understand this. Please enjoy!

Title: Game Night

Rating; G

Series: Rise of the Guardians

Archive Or Our Own

---------------------------

Summary: After much persuasion, Jack has managed to convince the Guardians to give Pitch a chance in 'joining the family'. However, grudges don't go away that easily.

Bunny drummed his fingers on the table as he stared at the door waiting for it to open. “This is a mistake.”

Sandy and North glanced up from their card game as Tooth placed the vase of flowers on the table. She stepped back and frowned.

“You think the flowers are too much?” Tooth said.

Bunny rolled his eyes. “Not those,” he said and slammed the table. “Jack bringing Pitch here.”

North sighed as he turned and didn’t notice Sandy swap pieces on the chest board.

“Bunny, we have discussed this,” he started. “It is-”

Bunny rose and began to pace. “I know! I know, greater good and all but are we seriously expected ta just let Pitch waltz in here as if he never ruined Easter! Or tried to destroy us!” He narrowed his eyes. “HE KILLED SANDY!”

Sandy looked up and created an image of himself covered with bandages.

“I don’t care that ya got better,” Bunny grumbled as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Tooth sighed and flew over to touch his shoulders. “Bunny, we can’t deny that the idea of welcoming Pitch as a friend is...well.”

“Very weird,” North offered.

“Yes,” Tooth said with a nod, “but Jack made a solid argument didn’t he?”

Bunny narrowed his eyes and sighed.

Yeah, unfortunately the kid did.

A month ago, Jack had shocked them all by revealing he had been visiting Pitch every couple of months for the last year.

“Why the Bloody Hell would you do that?!” Bunny had cried as he suddenly checked Jack over for any signs of injury. “Because I know how Pitch feels,” Jack had argued back and took a breath. “I know what it’s like to be left alone for centuries, and what that desperation can lead to.” The boy had looked gently had Bunny let go of him. “I can’t help but wonder if maybe Pitch was ‘part of the group’ that would ensure he never do this again.”

North had shook his head. “But Pitch is powered by fear and we protect children fear-”

“Fear isn’t a bad thing though,” Jack replied earnestly. “Fear helps keep kids safe and have you guys never seen kids on Halloween? Some actually love being scared!”

Sandy had given a thoughtful nod to this as he shown kids in costumes laughing and running around monsters and skeletons.

“See? Sandy gets it,” Jack said with a grin. “It’s just too much of anything can be a bad thing.”

He pointed to himself. “I’m all for fun but even I know you can’t do it all the time.”

“So, what? We’re just suppose to welcome the ‘family’ and pretend he did NOTHING?!” Bunny said. “No,” Jack said firmly, “but can’t you at least try?”

To this day Bunny didn’t know what had shocked him more. That Jack had suggested this idea or that Sandy was the first to agree to it. After that, Bunny, Tooth and North found themselves willing to give the idea a try. Although, now that the day came waiting for Pitch arrive, he felt the anger and doubt rising again.

He just knew there was no way this would work.

--------------------------------------------

Jack was starting to worry this wouldn’t work. He knew how the others felt about Pitch and it was for good reason.

Although, Sandy did surprise Jack by whole heartily agreeing with the idea. He didn’t quite get the full translation, but Sandy agreed that nightmares themselves weren’t bad, but it had to be a matter of balance.

When Jack arrived with Pitch at North’s workshop, Sandy had been the first to greet them. Tooth and North gave an awkward wave from behind, while Bunny stood glaring in the far corner with his arms crossing.

Pitch himself was silent as he gazed around the room. Jack couldn’t help but wonder if he was calculating emergency exits if needed.

Jack rubbed his neck as he tried to give a laugh. “Hey, guys,” he gestured next to him. “You all remember, Pitch.”

“Hard to forget him,” Bunny grumbled.

Tooth cleared her throat as she gestured to the chairs and table behind her. “Care to take seat?”

“I suppose,” Pitch said as he gradually made his way across the room and took a seat.

Bunny across from him with North and Tooth at his side, while Jack and Sandy took the seats next from Pitch.

Silence followed and Jack swore he could cut the tension with a knife. One of the yetis placed a plate of cookies on the table.

North took one and offered it to Pitch. “Cookie?”

“No, thank you,” Pitch replied. “I’ve honestly never been one for sweets.”

“Wow, shock,” Bunny muttered. “The biggest killer of children’s joy doesn’t care for sweets.”

“Bunny,” Jack hissed.

Tooth coughed. “Yes, well, I’ve never cared for sugar either. It’s bad for your teeth.”

Sandy nodded and gestured between Pitch and Tooth that they had that in common.

Pitch raised an eyebrow. “Why does that matter?”

Tooth titled her head. “Excuse me?” “Why does it matter to you if you children don’t eat too much sugar or not? I’ve never understood that,” Pitch asked and Jack noticed he did actually sounded genuine.

Tooth straightened her posture. “Well, eating too much sugar and not brushing will cause cavities and that’s not good.”

Pitch folded his hands on the table. “So, what? Are you suggesting you wouldn’t collect teeth if they were not perfect white teeth?”

Tooth placed a hand on her teeth. “Of course, not! Each tooth is precious!”

“But you just said it’s better if they have no cavities in them,” Pitch said as he raised a hand. “So, which is it?”

Jack swallowed as Tooth looked baffled by the statement.

Bunny glared as and slammed a fist on the table. “See! Not even here or five minutes and he’s already pickin’ a fight.”

Pitch sharply narrowed his eyes. “I am not ‘picking a fight’ you giant fuzzball. I was merely asking a question. Since when is that a crime?”

“Uh, guys,” Jack started.

Bunny rose from the chair and moved around the table. “Oh, we’re discussin’ crimes now are we? Cause I can make a list!”

Pitch glared. “Believe it or not, I am trying to be civil.”

“Could have fooled me, mate!”

Pitch glared, sighed and stood up. “This was a mistake.”

“Pitch, no, wait,” Jack said.

“Give it up, Jack,” Bunny called. “This isn’t goin’ ta work.”

“Something we can actually agree on,” Pitch as he headed towards the door.

Jack’s brain scrambled for an idea. It took a lot of effort to convince Pitch to even come. He had clue if he ever be able to do it again. He glanced to Sandy in desperation but the sandman could only shrug.

Then an obvious idea struck.

Jack grinned.  “It’s too bad,” he sucked in air between his teeth. “I was curious to see who’d win?”

Pitch paused at the doorway. Slowly, like a crow he turned his neck to glanced back.

“Win, what?” he asked.

“The game I was going to have us play,” Jack said with a shrug. “I was really curious on what the results would be.”

Sandy gave a grin as he stroked his chin.

Pitch snorted. “I can’t imagine why,” he said as he turned around, “when clearly I would have been the victor.”

Bunny huffed as he crossed his arms. “Ya jokin’, right?”

Pitch narrowed his eyes. “No, why would I?”

Bunny stomped up to him. “Cause, as I recall, ya lost badly the last time ya went up against us?” “Da, that is very true,” North said.

“Not wrong,” said Tooth.

Pitch rolled his eyes. “You only ‘won’ because I didn’t calculate Jack as being a chaotic variable in my planning.” He loomed over Bunny. “I assure you, had not the Man in the Moon decided to suddenly summon Jack, I would have won easily. You four are VERY predictable.”

Bunny growled as he glared Pitch.

“Ya sound so sure of yerself.”

“Because I am,” Pitch replied.

They both continued to glare until they turned to Jack.

“WHAT GAME?!” they shouted together.

Jack repressed the chuckle he was craving to have. “We’re going to need a few things. Deck of cards, and a ball.”

“Phil,” North bellowed. “Go get cards and ball.”

Phil glanced up and yelled something.

“Then bribe elves with candy canes to get it back,” North said as he spun on his heel and pointed. “We will all gather in game room!”

The others followed while Pitch and Bunny seemed to be holding a staring contest as they walked.

Jack lagged behind with Sandy who gave him a grin as he summon an image of a baby walking.

“Baby steps,” Jack translated, and he was right.

It was at least a start.

[rotgsecretsanta]

@sarsfe <3 <3 <3

I was wrong (and I’m so, so sorry)

A fic for the secret Santa prompt: ‘Pitch, having turned from his evil path, reconciles with North about all he’s done to the Guardians.’ Hope you like it!

read it on ao3

fic under cut

“I killed him,” Pitch said quietly. North studied Pitch. He was hunched over, knees to his chest. 

“I meant it to be permanent, too.” 

North sat on the couch, staring at the dwindling fire. It was about a year after Pitch changed his ways. There had been a lot of argument between the Guardians about him, with Pitch standing off to the side and watching. He’d said nothing the whole time. 

In the end, they didn’t accept him. They didn’t get the chance to. Bunny hadn’t forgiven him for the death of his people. Tooth was still angry with Pitch, but she was more forgiving than Bunny. Sandy was quiet, thinking rather than saying anything. Jack had been the most understanding, but constantly checked in with Bunny about how he was doing. After all, the genocide of his entire species was a big thing to apologize for. But it wasn’t any of their choices. Pitch drew himself away, avoiding the Guardians. 

Until North opened up the door to his study and found Pitch observing the fireplace. At first, North had tensed, hands going for his swords. But Pitch wasn’t an enemy anymore. 

“And the Pooka,” Pitch sighed, running a hand over his face. “I murdered all of them. A genocide.” He looked over to North, a smile built with grief on his face. North raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know that Pitch remembered that. Pitch looked over at North.

North had nothing to offer, if Pitch even wanted that. 

“North,” Pitch started, then grew quiet. He seemed to want to say something, anything, but he couldn’t. 

“I was a soldier once,” North said. “I remember the man I killed. I didn’t know him. He carried a picture of a woman and a small child with him.” He closed his eyes. “I wasn’t not sure if the man’s family thought about the killer of the man. If they did, they would hate me.”

“I fought shadows when I was a general,” Pitch said, a small smile making its way onto his face. “I didn’t kill anybody until I became me.” He gestured to himself. North nodded.

“I didn’t even remember it,” Pitch continued. “I forgot about my life, before. I thought I was simply Fear until I was Pitch.”

North knew about Pitch not remembering his life, but he didn’t know that he got them back, somehow. Pitch wasn’t as evil as before, but he was slowly getting worse. Manny noticed Pitch starting to over-do his fear, bringing out the earlier days of the dark age. It had been the Moon’s idea, granting Guardianship to Pitch, to keep Pitch from worsening.

“I remembered,” Pitch murmured. “And I was terrified. My actions��every one of them…” He ran a hand over his face. “I’d fallen far.” 

“How do you do it?” Pitch asked. “Remembering what happened, and still be… a Guardian.” The fire crackled, the wind outside howled. It was dark, the sun refusing to come out until the warmer months.

“We were at war,” North said simply. “If it wasn’t him, it would’ve been anybody else. Maybe even me. Doesn’t mean I don’t hate what happened, or that I don’t see a dead man when I close my eyes. But, it’s better not to give into it.”

“It wasn’t war, what I did. It was completely one-sided.” 

Pitch stared into the fire, dull eyes carefully watching the flame. He sat up and stared at North, meeting his gaze. 

“You were fighting to survive,” North offered. Pitch chuckled darkly. His old excuse. Survival. With belief becoming more and more scarce, Pitch knew he was doing better than those without belief. He didn’t need to fight, didn’t need to maim. 

“Would Bunny say that? Sandy? The man in the Moon? Anyone that is left from the golden age?” North shrugged. 

“I do not know.”

“You offered me a place here once,” Pitch said. 

“You once refused.” Pitch laughed, shaking his head. 

“I keep thinking. About that day. I swore vengeance against you like you actually did wrong against me.” He folded his hands in his lap, avoiding North’s gaze again. “I keep wondering what I would be if I had accepted.” 

“Bunny would’ve been angry.” Pitch chuckled at that, wiping a tear away with a gray hand. 

“I wouldn’t blame him.” 

Pitch stared at the fire, and then at nothing. 

“Pitch,” North said, “You don’t have to be forgiven.” Pitch snapped his eyes over at him. It was teetering on being mean, even cruel. Maybe he deserved it. But Pitch knew that North wanted to say more. 

“You’re right, there is nothing you can do to make it up with them. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be better than before.” 

“How?” Pitch asked, “How can I be better?”

“Try,” North replied. “Trying is half the battle in the beginning.” 

“What’s the other half?” North smiled. 

“Living with yourself. Finding yourself.” Pitch sighed.  

“It’s hell,” he said. 

“A lot of things are. Jack called Moon ‘Satan’ once.” 

Pitch blinked. 

“Really?” 

“You’re not the only one Jack is cross with. Manny left Jack alone, you know. Jack said they have ‘beef,’ doesn’t make sense. There is no cattle.” Pitch stared at North. 

“You’re joking. I thought-“ Pitch paused. “What other dirty secrets are you Guardians hiding?”  

“Not secrets.” North shrugged. “Jack would gladly talk about it with you if you asked.” 

Pitch sighed, wringing his hands together. “Everyone I can interact with fears or hates me.” Pitch stared at the window. “I thought I loved it, and for a while I did. But I was alone. I had power, and I was utterly alone. I was scared.” He sighed, leaning back. “They have a right to hate me. I did terrible things.” 

“They do,” North agreed. “But it still matters if you try or not.” 

Pitch sighed, watching the fire with dark eyes. 

“If I try, they’ll still hate me.” 

“It’s better than doing nothing, no? Forgiveness isn’t owed to you because you're a better person now.” Pitch nodded. 

They sat in silence, the fire crackling with a dying flame and the wind howling like a wolf. 

“I’m sorry,” Pitch said quietly, “I almost killed you, back in Santoff Claussen. I didn’t know how you lived.” 

“If we sat here and listed everything you’ve done we’d be here for long time.” Pitch grimaced. 

“Well, I’m sorry anyway. I was wrong. I don’t have an excuse or an explanation.” 

North was quiet for a while. Pitch held his breath, listening to the fire as the silence stretched into shadows. 

“Thank you,” he said finally. “You’re trying. I appreciate you trying.” Pitch nodded, sighing in relief. 

“I’m trying.”

[mrsketchy]

An additional fill for @rotgsecretsanta

[ksclaw]

Managed to squeeze in one last piece for @rotgsecretsanta

Nr. 94 [Pitch/North] Anything Pitch/North

I decided to let North surprise Pitch under the mistletoe

[bunnimew]

RotG Secret Santa 2022- Prompt 82

For the RotG Secret Santa prompt: [Jack/Pitch] Request: fluff, Jack/Pitch, family. Nopes: dub/non con, hurt no comfort, MCD that sticks, Tooth/Jack unless part of polyam6.

Sera has two loving dads ❤️❤️

@rotgsecretsanta​

[rotgsecretsanta]

@aroace-ghostface​

<3 <3 <3

Merry Christmas yall!

I hope you're having a wonderful day! Do enjoy this short story I wrote for the secret santa!

@rotgsecretsanta

Sandy Just Chilling on a Dreamsand Cloud and Looking Up at the Night sky.

Winter nights are long and cold. The harshest time of the year for many folks. While many continents and countries experience different weathers of winter at this time of year, nothing changes the fact that winter is the time of rest for the world. 

Whether you be a human, an animal, or even a spirit, there is no denying that winter nights are the quietest time of the year. Although it is also the busiest time for certain individuals of the invisible plane. 

During these nights, certain spirits such as the winter spirits, sprites, or pixies come alive to spread their frosted blessings onto the world. Tooth fairies fluttered about in towns and cities, visiting children whose teeth have fallen, leaving gifts under their pillows. Santa’s workshop becomes a whole new world of fervent activity, even more so than during the other seasons. Even the Easter Bunny starts preparing for the upcoming spring, overseeing the planting of special seeds in his warren by hand with care. 

However, the busiest of all is the Sandman. 

The Sandman, or Sandy to the spirit realm, is an ever vigilant figure. Never seizing his work in providing dreams to every person his golden sand comes across, even if he does sometimes doze off- it is part of his job! This of course means that he not only oversees the dreams of children, but teens and adults too- though of course, not every one of them gets a dream filled night like the children do. 

Of course, the Sandman’s duty is one that is never ending, so why would it be any different during winter? Well, the nights are longer, for one, and seasonal depression is something that is unavoidable for some individuals of human society. This makes more people, especially children more susceptible to Nightmare attacks. 

Winter has always been a busy time for the Guardians, that is true and will always be true. However, thanks to their newest member, Jack Frost, the spirit of winter himself and Guardian of Fun, the strain and burden of winter night patrols have lightened for all of them significantly, allowing each Guardian to focus more on their own individual tasks of bringing joy to children.

And thanks to the efforts of their youngest member, even the Sandman has found time in his busy schedule of rounds for himself to truly rest, even if only for a couple of minutes a day. Usually, he would find himself dozing off on his cloud high above a town or conversing with the winter Guardian when they cross paths. However, this night is different. 

Instead of putting his head down to sleep himself, Sandy found himself watching the barren streets below where a certain white haired teen whizzed by, laughing joyously as he spread frost and snow all around. Seeing the boy so happy doing his job made the Sandman crack a smile, and if he could, he would have been laughing alongside him. 

With a wide smile on his bright and round face, Sandy sent out a small stream of Dreamsand from atop his cloud, watching as it circled around the boy of winter as a greeting. This prompted Jack to excitedly touch the tendril, causing it to burst into a series of moving figures- predominantly dolphins- that twirled around the frosted teen, causing another bout of joyous laughter to escape him before he looked up to the cloud on which Sandy observed him from. 

A small wave of greeting was exchanged between the two Guardians, right before Jack shot up towards the sand cloud on which Sandy sat on. “Hey, Sandy!” Jack called out, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the stout golden man. 

“Done with your rounds?” This earned another nod from the Sandman before Sandy gestured towards the teen as a snowflake appeared above his head, wondering if Jack had finished as well. 

“Ah, about that…” Jack sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, earning a concerned look from Sandy who motioned for Jack to take a seat next to him on the cloud to which Jack instantly shook his head. “It's not really that serious but another area is due for some heavy snowfall tonight so I can't really stay and chat for long. Just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to hang out.” 

This news didn't exactly surprise the Sandman, though he did want to invite Jack to talk for a while if he was able to. With an understanding nod and a smile, the two parted ways as Jack hurried off to deliver winter elsewhere, leaving Sandy all alone on his cloud.

But truly? He didn’t mind at all. In fact, he quite enjoyed the time he had for himself in the quiet stillness of the winter night. Especially during the cloudless nights such as these. 

With a silent sigh, Sandy got himself comfortable on his Dreamsand cloud and turned his gaze up to the night sky, dotted with a multitude of stars. Though not all of them were visible anymore due to light pollution, the sight of it still brought back the memories of his time in space, even though he quite liked his life as it was now, spreading joy through the Dreamsand he commanded.

Though he knows he no longer can go back to the life he once had among the sea of syars, Sandy still enjoys listening to the wind and watching the starry sky that reminds him of so long ago, bringing his mind at ease as he drifts calmly in the crisp winter night sky while many slept under his ever vigilant watch. It’s peaceful when there isn't much that occupies one's mind but the individual’s imagination. 

.

.

.

He lets out another silent sigh, finding himself missing some fresh eggnog to make this moment truly blissful though.

[fanarchoslashivist]

#24. For @rotgsecretsanta Man In The Moon and Jack Frost doing dumb sibling stuff

It should come as no suprise that every time Jack visits the moon he and MiM regress to ten year olds.

Literally, they often have to roll up their cuffs.

This time Jack convinced Manny that the moon dust made for a suitable snow substitute, and the dust cap for the telescope would make for a perfect sled. (To tragic hilarious results.)

[rotgsecretsanta]

Prompt 13: Jack's Christmas gifts to Pitch

@fosermi <3 <3 <3