WORLD: Jack Skellington (HalloweenTown)

[rt]

Name: Jack Skellington
Nickname(optional): He’s known as “Jack” to the residents of Halloween Town, along with those who’ve traveled to Halloween Town and have met him. However, he also has an epitaph as “The Pumpkin King,” and a few of the townsfolk have been known to call him “Bone Daddy” from time to time.

Age: It’s near impossible to determine how old he is, as no exact age is given. Plus, he’s deceased, so that doesn’t help matters. Given his personality and gusto, I’d assume he’s in his early thirties at least, a more specific number being thirty-two, possibly.

Gender: Jack is male.

Species: Although normally not a species, Jack is a skeleton. Halloween Town seems to break the fourth wall when it comes to solid fact.

Position: He’s one of the “heroes,” so to speak, making him good, for lack of a better word. In his world, his "position" is Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. He’s in charge of making Halloween scary every year while keeping it safe and harmless.

Powers: As a denizen of Halloween Town – and as its de-facto leader, no less – Jack has an amazing array of frightful natural talents he can use to gain the upper hand in battle. Ability-wise, he’s exceedingly fast, flexible, and agile, which most likely derives from his height and lack of constricting muscle. Magically, however, he’s a decent mage, able to use flashy spells in the varying elements – fire, ice, and thunder, respectively - with relative ease. Being the actor he is, he has little problem combining his natural talents with his magical skills, creating quite the show. For example, he can surround himself with balls of fire and charge the enemy (a move called "Blazing Fury"), or he can create ice crystal and send them toward the enemy (called "Icy Terror). A final move, called "Bolts of Sorrow," is much like a regular thunder attack, which calls lightning bolts to target and strike around the enemy.

Weapon: Jack has no physical weapon to speak of, unless you count his ability to scare the enemy senseless as a sort of weapon.

Picture(optional): Click here. It's a bit big. Putting it directly on the page might have stretched it too much vertically.

Appearance: Standing at an impressive, almost bizarre height, Jack strikes an intimidating figure, made even more frightening by the fact that he is, in fact, undead, and is quite literally nothing but a skeleton. There isn’t a bit of flesh or organ on him. He’s impossibly thin, but that, in turn, is to be expected, as it relates once again to his skeletal state. He has no eyes, but he seems to be able to see through the blackened sockets of his skull. The bones of his face move much like skin, allowing him to make facial expressions and physically display his emotions as well as the next fleshy corpse. His chest is broad in comparison to the rest of his body. Bony hands, ending in three fingers and a thumb on each, are larger than his feet, instead of the reverse, and his legs are more than twice the length of his body, including his head, which is what most likely makes him so fast. His mouth seems to have been sewn shut at one time, given the uneven, lopsided indications running along both top and bottom lips. Inside his mouth, his teeth are uneven, missing a hefty portion of them, most noticeably towards the back at the top.

All body parts are detachable, which he uses to his advantage, whether it be by taking off his head to perform scenes from Shakespeare or to play fetch with Zero.

Jack dresses well for someone who lives in such a gothic world, clad in a pinstriped black suit, with the tattered coattails hanging halfway down to the backs of his knees. His suit jacket ends high on his waist, unbuttoned at the chest, showing a white undershirt that’s fastened at the neck by a large bow-tie that resembles a bat, which reaches several inches past his shoulders on either side. On almost dainty feet, he wears plain black shoes, darker than the fabric of his clothing.

Personality: Unexpectedly, Jack is hardly a colorless, dark-minded fellow in matters of speech, reactions, or other such things. As his attire suggests, he’s a casual gentleman, speaking with a flashy, theatrical vocabulary, accompanied by a friendly, loud voice that belies his friendly, kind-hearted nature. He’s almost childishly enthusiastic and filled with energy, loving what he does and doing what he loves. To add to that, he’s also very inquisitive, often going to Dr. Finkelstein to ask about questions and even going so far as to borrow laboratory equipment from him if he truly needs to know something. He’s quick to make friends, mistakenly assuming just about everyone is the same way until proven different, as proven by how innocently naïve he was towards the Heartless on all occasions he came across them. He also has the respect of all of the regular denizens of Halloween Town (ignoring, of course, the few that break the mold, such as Oogie Boogie or the three trick-or-treaters). The skeleton is also very fond of scaring people and utilizing grand theatrics, as witnessed in Chain of Memories, where he scared Donald repeatedly simply because he liked the way Donald screamed in fright. Like most who are placed in a certain position, Jack has a terrible tendency to want something more from time to time, such as playing the main idol in another’s holiday, for example. Once he gets in such a state, it’s difficult to shake him out of the depressed state he’ll fall into.

The same holds true in reverse. If something’s on his mind, one would be hard-pressed to get him off of that train of thought for any length of time. One can almost call him obsessive. Jack can also, unfortunately, be more than a little self-absorbed, especially during one of those obsessive states-of-mind, and painfully oblivious in similar situations, rarely taking notice of what others think of his plans, ideas, and even himself, not noticing Sally’s obvious affection for him (which he returns) and Santa’s dislike of him.

However, there’s not a mean bone in his body. Jack has a very high sense of honor. He’d do most anything for his friends, especially if they’re in any sort of danger or suffering from anything. Also related to that fact, he seems to dislike fighting, appearing to only use it when he truly needs to. He relies more on his natural talents to either scare his enemies away or to stay out of the worst of the fight, as proven in his conflicts with Oogie Boogie. When forced to fight or on the rare occasions when he will get upset, Jack will become stern and lose all sense of humor until everything is cleared up.

History/Background: Jack is and will continue to be the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, a village where every creature associated with the “bumps” in the night live and scare, but they do not hurt or do any damage. Halloween should be a fun, harmless holiday, and they do their best to enforce that. As the King, Jack was involved with most all of the planning of the town, from the Mayor’s ideas for next Halloween to the discussions in Town Hall that relate to the more objective matters.

He held this position for several years before the Heartless arrived. He became excited, more than eager to utilize their horrific appearances in the festivities for the next Halloween, and the Mayor approved. Dr. Finkelstein was assigned to control the Heartless, and to do that, he created a heart, but it wasn’t quite right. The Heartless went berserk, and Oogie stole it soon after. With help from the Keyblade master and his accomplices, everything was righted and things progressed as normal, without the Heartless. It was for the best, but Jack still regretted the loss.

A short time later, his memories of Sora were lost, as were everyone’s who were connected to the boy. He was unaware of the change, his memories convinced that it was just the duck and the dog who assisted him in recovering the heart and defeating Oogie Boogie.

A year passed in much the same way they always did: preparing for the holiday, playing with the kids in town, taking care of Zero, repeating an endless schedule that never cleared. This caused him to become wistful and want something different, something unexpected. He went so far as to state that he would surrender his title of Pumpkin King if something different would happen to him. After declaring that saddening idea, he walked off into the Hinterlands, walking all night with only his ghost-dog, Zero, for company, ending up in a grove of trees that had strange doors on their trunks. They all caught his attention, but the one made all the difference.

It was so brightly colored, and so pretty, and so fantastic! A Christmas tree, with two different-sized presents forming steps to the door. He had opened the door, and after seeing nothing but a hollow tree that almost seemed like an endless drop into the ground, he turned with slightly shattered spirits and went to leave with Zero behind him. Then and chilly wind came from the tree and Jack was pulled back into the endless depths of the trunk, the door shutting behind him, leaving Zero trapped outside.

In Christmas Town, which was where he was dumped unceremoniously, he found what he had been searching for: something impossibly different, with all the splendor he wanted. And he wanted to have it.

He reported back to Halloween Town with examples of everything he experienced, and after fibbing just a bit – white lies, no more – the town was more than ready to support his ideas, but Sally was worried about it. Everyone had their part, and they began to create their own Christmas, complete with haunted toys, skeletal reindeer, and a Santa suit for the Pumpkin King.

Sora and company arrived in time to help set his views straight to everything. He learned the meaning of Christmas, he noticed Sally’s feelings for him, and as a reward, he was given a ride in Santa’s sleigh.

Role Playing Sample: The undead rooster from atop his crooked house started the day as it always did, but he had been awake long before the featherless creature had started its duties, scanning his library for the one book he knew he needed. There had been something about a Kraken mentioned in that lovely little novel.

It would be a wonderful thing, he reasoned, if they could somehow locate one of those fantastic creatures and bring it to their quaint little Halloween Town and give it a place in their holiday celebrations. It would be fantastic! What was more feared than a Kraken in terms of water-beasts? Nothing, as far as Jack knew. Granted, he wasn’t well-versed in the ways of the sea, but that didn’t mean much. He was more than knowledgeable in all things scary and bone-chilling, and this Kraken was one of the creatures that ranked highly on his list.

Well, it was now. He hadn’t even heard of such a thing until yesterday afternoon, when the newly moved-in undead pirate had told him the spine-tingling tale of the Kraken and the Flying Dutchman. Jack had spent at least two hours listening to the weathered sailor, enraptured by the tale.

And he had barely been able to contain his excitement as he hurried home that night, sleeping restlessly for the short hours he had allowed himself. Sleep was much less important when compared to the greatness that could come from this!

The slender skeleton trailed a bony finger along the titles of several thick books, mumbling the titles to himself. “War and Peace, Rudolph, Scientific Method… No, that’s not it. That’s not it, either. That’s certainly not it. Now, I know I had it,” he mused, stepping back for a moment to fold a contemplative hand to his rounded chin, hollow eyes scanning the various shelves of his small library like the eyes of a hungry raven. “Did I lend it out, maybe?” Jack asked himself, blinking in mild surprise at the thought. “I gave at least five books to Behemoth, but did I give him that one?”

Rapping his fingers against the top of his skull, the skeleton hummed thoughtfully in the back of his thin throat, just trying to remember. ”I suppose I must have,” he concluded. “Why else wouldn’t it be here?”

Much calmer, Jack allowed a smile to cross his face for the first time since he started this search, turning on his heel and heading for the twisted stairway that eventually led to the bottom level of his house and the stairwell beyond it, intending to find Behemoth, just to see if he had it. It was for the good of the holiday that he find that book, after all! He’d understand.

“Zero! I’m heading out. I’ll be back soon!” he called upstairs cheerfully, moving his hand in a wave even though the playful pup surely couldn’t see him from this level. Old habits died hard, they said. And with Jack, they wouldn’t die at all. Not at this pace.

And that was more than fine with him, he decided, whistling a catchy little tune that the band had played that day as he walked towards the iron gate that opened out into the rest of town.

Questions? I’m unsure if his battle skills in the games count in this forum. I mentioned them, of course, but since he originates from a movie where magic is only witnessed in the form of Santa Claus or the two town witches, I don’t know which counts. Could someone point me in the right direction with that? And the history’s a bit forced, I’m afraid. It was harder to mix the two contrasting histories and if it comes across as too unsatisfactory, please let me know. I’d hate to leave a gaping mess in the middle of a profile. Forgive me for pestering, but if any of these cause a problem, could someone let me know?