A/N: 'Ello FanFiction world! Happy New Year! Can I just say I'm super psyched about some stories that I have in works? I really just want to post 'em now, but Inqueling is like "What if we mess up? What if it fails? What if you run out of creativity?! And then it will sit on the site. Gathering dust and angry followers and you'll regret it for your whole life and-" Okay so maybe Inqueling only said some of that and the rest is my overactive imagination.
Song: Who We Are by Imagine Dragons
OH MY GOSH. I love this song, okay guys? It has inspired so many of my fanfics and more.
Quick notes, every time I looked up the lyrics for this song, it was different. So, I have taken some liberties. "Picking down talks when the birds get back to me"? "Picking down clocks When the birds come out to eat"? It doesn't even sound like that! So I have kindly interpreted it as "Taking down crops 'fore the birds come down to eat."Umm... it is also slightly depressing. Like, I kinda hit the Guardians upside the head with the whole "300 years" thing (They are way too oblivious sometimes).
Anyways, warnings aside, I really recommend listening to this song. It's so good.
Let's play!
Jack's eager eyes looked up at them, "Do you think you could help them too?"
Tooth, North, Sandy, and Bunny looked out at the listless spirits in front of them.
Father Time, Eros, Aolus, Eris, some seasonals, some mythological creatures, they all stood before the Guardians.
An Autumn spirit with wide brown eyes looked at Tooth, "What's it like to work only during the night?"
Her brother shushed her, but Tooth tilted her head, "What do you mean?"
The brown eyes blinked, "We're up in the morning, up in the evening. Our job never stops, until our season is over."
"We have to save the crops before the birds come down to eat," The other Autumn spirit crossed his arms.
His sister's head fell, "And all the people starve."
Meanwhile, North looked concerned at Father Time, "Ombric, vhat are you doing here?"
Ombric smiled, "Do I need a reason to visit my favorite student?"
"I thought you were-"
"Hiding up on a mountain?"
North nodded, "Experimenting."
Ombric's smile suddenly looked very fragile, "North, I haven't been on that mountain for years. You never check up on me. You never come to visit." Ombric suddenly looked confused, "Or maybe you haven't come to visit me yet. Or maybe you did and I just forgot. Did you visit me in a different time perhaps?"
North tried to keep his horrified look off his face, "Ombric, I visited you last week."
Ombric's smile fell, a very lucid look coming over his face, "North. Time is not to messed with. Hey, did you bring me cookies?" The old senile man was back.
Bunny was talking to Eros, if that's what it could be called, "Shouldn't you be preparing for your holiday, mate?"
Eros frowned, "So people can keep pretending I'm a baby in diapers? Write me off as Cupid? Make fun of me and break up and mock real love?" He gasped pretending to look ashamed, "Oh I'm sorry. Does my honesty offend you?" He bowed, "Well I'm sorry, 'your majesty'. But some of us don't like our holidays. So we go out into the real world to do real stuff while you're stuck down in your king's lair."
Sandy was signing to Jack, a question mark and a arrow at the people in front of them. Jack smiled as he looked out at the crowd, "These guys are all like me." He leaned on his staff, "They don't know what they are, nobody really believes in them, they're alone."
"Ya mean they were like you," Bunny tried to keep the tone of concern from his voice as he turned away from an angry Eros.
Tooth also turned away from her conversation, "You're not alone anymore, Jack."
"But they are," Jack pointed out at the crowd.
Eris straightened out her chaotic raven black hair, "Come now, Jackie, none of us are like you. The only reason we're here is to see if we can also get a handout from the Guardians. "
Jack's eyes got glassy, "Eris is the personification of chaos. She always says things like that." He regained his calm, "Is my name in your book of jealousy, Eris?"
Eris smiled, a slight uplift of her lips, "Out with reason and in with the season, I say." Her voice taking on a sing-songy tone, "Jackie is the season of winter. The season of winter is chaos." She paused her voice returning to normal, "Maybe we are more alike, aren't we?" Jack was holding his staff, his knuckles white and Eris chuckled, "Not everything is right up in Jackie's attic, now is it?" Her voice returning to a sing-songy voice, "Nor in any of ours."
Aolus was busy directing all the different winds, "No! Not tornado! Augh, you're needed in Chicago! Shut your trap and let me tell you what to do!"
Jack licked his lips, "So you think you can help them?"
"Help them with what?!"
"These guys have been stuck in the cellar for years, decades, centuries. No one cares about them... Except us, right?"
The Guardians looked out at the group of the restless spirits in front of them. Both sides silent, just looking at the other.
Chaos, Love, Time, Seasons, Wind, all looking battered, tired, scarred. And Jack had called himself one of them.
The Guardians realized that by shutting themselves in, they hadn't only ignored the children.
Bunny's ears fell back and Tooth's hands rose slowly to her mouth, "What can we do?"
Eros broke the silence that fell afterwards with a laugh, "What can you do, princess? Huh? We've been ignored. Written off. We've been lost in the static."
Ombric smiled, it was hard to tell if he was lucid or not, "We keep doing our job. We're good boys."
Aolus scoffed, "East head to Paris! You never spared a shred of sympathy for us. The only reason I'm here is for Wind." He went back to his work trying to make up for the few seconds he had lost.
The Autumn spirit looked out at them, "We keep being pushed around, kicked, uncared for, ignored."
Her brother shook his head, "But we keep coming back for more."
Jack's smile fell, "We were never welcome here. We were never welcome here at all."
Eris shrieked, a terrifying sound coming from the spirit of Chaos, "It's who we are."
Jack looked down at his hands, hands that had caused too many blizzards, "It doesn't matter if we've gone too far."
"It doesn't matter if it's all okay," Ombric's smile still plastered on his face.
Eros crossed his arms, "It doesn't matter if it's not our day."
"It's who we are," their voices echoed off into the night.
Jack grinned and laughed a hysterical laugh that barely sounded like him at all, "They say we're crazy you know."
Eris grinned, "They say we're crazy."
Eros echoed her, "They say we're crazy."
Ombric's senile smiling face repeated, "They say we're crazy."
"They say we're crazy." It echoed across the empty field.
"They say we're crazy." It filled the Guardians' heads.
"They say we're crazy." It was loud, quiet. Pleading, mocking. Honest and a lie.
"They say we're crazy," And Jack's laugh echoed above it all.
And they saw what 300 years could do. It could shatter you. Leave you wondering what was you and what wasn't. And Jack just didn't know how to pick it apart. None of these spirits did.
Jack looked at them pleading, "So won't you, save us?" His shattered blue eyes speaking things he never could. Breaking through his mask. "Save us from what we are," He shut his eyes tight, "Because of what we are," he looked down at his hands, "A spirit of death."
Ombric's eyes shined, "Of confusion."
"Of lust," Eros looked disgusted.
Eris smiled, "What we are? It just doesn't look clear. It's pure chaos!" She giggled.
Jack's hopeful look never left his face, "But you guys can fix it! It's all uphill from here." His trusting, innocent face pleaded with them.
And the Moon shone down brightly upon them all. As silent as ever.
