Pitch Black

Player Information
Player name: Justine
Contact: Plurk: Onetruesikorsky
Are you over 18: Yep!
Characters in The Box Already: N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Pitch Black (The Boogeyman)
Canon: Rise of the Guardians (Original Canon is the Guardians of Childhood Series)
Canon Point: Post-Movie
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Undead, kinda sorta? He's technically a spirit.

History:

(I'll be mixing the novels with the movie itself to help expand on his past, both are described here.)

Pitch Black was not always known as the Boogeyman, or the Nightmare King. In fact, he was a war hero general known as Kozmotis Pitchiner, all the way back in the Golden Ages. Courageous, determined, and brave, Kozmotis lead the Lunanoff Armies against the Fearlings, Nightmare Men, and Dream Pirates that threatened to overwhelm the peace. The Constellations all came together to build an entire prison out of lead to contain them, and Kozmotis volunteered to guard the prison cells himself. But even the most courageous and strong warriors can be worn down, and the Fearlings knew Pitchiner's weakness: his daughter.

His daughter, Seraphina, was his pride and joy. He loved her dearly and fought for her against the Fearlings, and even had a little locket around his neck with her picture inside. After so long being worn down with the Fearlings calling to him, egging him on, they changed tactics and took on the voice of Seraphina begging for her daddy's help. He knew deep down that it was a trick, but he went to the cells and opened them to save his 'daughter' from their evil and instead was consumed by them and taken over. General Kozmotis Pitchiner was no more, and the evil Nightmare King Pitch Black took his place to turn all good dreams into nightmares, and swear his vengeance against the Lunanoffs.

He destroyed planets and airships, took out entire races, and even turned children into Fearlings to command. Eventually, in a battle against the Sandman aboard his ship, he crash-landed on Earth and was abandoned there during the time Atlantis still existed, imprisoned by a strong spirit called Nightlight. It wasn't until a moonbeam shot down and found the cave the Nightmare King was imprisoned in that he was released again to spread nightmares and Fearlings throughout Earth and resume his vengeance.

Those he sought out first were an old, old wizard named Ombric and his group of children and adults within Santoff Claussen, a place full of magic and mystical happenings that would seem impossible were it not for the words 'I believe'. Thirsty for the innocent, pure dreams of children to twist into nightmares, Pitch wasted no time in making himself known, possessing the great black bear that protected their home and attacking them. Nicholas St. North, a young Russian bandit, came to their rescue and dispatched the bear, where Pitch seeped out of its mouth in a big black mass. The light of the coming sun forced him to retreat, but thereafter was a long journey that took North, Ombric, and a young girl named Katherine all over the world in the fight against Pitch Black.

Ombric found a possible way to take Pitch down once and for all, a collection of five relics from the ship the Moon Clipper that crashed, causing the relics to be spread all over the planet. North created a mechanical man called a djinni, which Pitch possessed by slipping inside its ear in the shape of a black spider. Before they departed on their quest, Pitch used the djinni to learn all the Spells of Enslavement within Ombric's library. They flew the djinni over to the Himalayans, but Ombric and North found out the robot was possessed and attacked it, to no avail. Pitch used one of the spells he'd learned to turn them into porcelain dolls, unable to move or speak.

Katherine and Nightlight came to their rescue, forcing back Pitch long enough to scoop up North and Ombric and retreat again. Pitch found Katherine not long after, hiding away in a cave with the dolls Ombric and North curled up in her coat to keep warm. But he was thwarted by belief and Ombric's magic calling upon Yetis and light, and the djinni's inability to harm North (turned back into a man thanks to Katherine's belief) because of the drawing in his chest.

Much later, Ombric found a way to travel through time, all the way back to watch as Kozmotis was overcome by the Fearlings back in the prison. He ended up catching the locket that fell from his neck as he was possessed, and went back to the present with the locket of Seraphina's image still in hand.

During that time, Pitch had returned to Santoff Claussen while the group was in the Himalayas and turned all of the children's parents and all of the animals in the forest into the same dolls he had of North and Ombric. He stole away Nightlight, Ombric's library of books (for he thought the power to become invincible lie in the spells in those books), and the children and took them to the center of the Earth, where he was busy forging armor out of lead for his Nightmare Men as well as a light-absorbing lead sword for himself.

North, Ombric, and Katherine arrived at the Earth's core with the help of Bunnymund, the last Pooka (thanks to Pitch). Ombric had given Katherine Pitch's necklace with the locket of Seraphina on it, and at the height of the battle against him she showed it to him. He gazed at it with horror and sorrow, grabbed it from her hand, and vanished along with his army of Fearlings.

Much, much later, Pitch began to brew another plan. This one involved Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy, or at least someone from her past. He gathered an army of monkeys and baboons up in the Himalayas, led by a man turned monkey because of his greed. They stole away Katherine from her bed just as Tooth was about to grant her her memory of her mother and father, and took her straight to Pitch.

Using Katherine's weakness against her, Pitch turned on the charm, manipulating her into believing that her best option was to be at his side, as his daughter, because he could be the father she never had.

What he really wanted, however, was the Flying Elephant at Punjam Hy Loo (Toothiana's birth place) to take away his only weakness.

"It's my only imperfection. I can feel things. Human things."
Another battle ensued as a trap was sprung against Pitch, but just as they were about to make the kill shot, Katherine stood in the way, gazing on at Pitch with pity, for in his flesh-colored hand was the locket holding the picture of his daughter.

He doesn't deserve to die, she thought. Even the worst villain needs pity. He was a father and a hero once. He did not chart his past or present.
Pitch grabbed at her wrist with his other hand, unexpectedly gentle, but just as Nightlight attempted to free her from Pitch's grasp a strong wind arose and dark clouds surrounded them. A woman rose up in the sky, engulfed Pitch and Katherine, and disappeared.

Mother Nature was Pitch's daughter.

Just what happens between then and the present is, for the moment, a mystery.

In present day, Pitch is still a force to be reckoned with but not nearly as strong as his menacing days against Katherine, Ombric, and North. Weaker but not defeated, Pitch formed a plan to take down the Guardians and engulf all of Earth in darkness.

"There will be nothing but fear, and darkness. And me. It's your turn not to be believed in."
Decades prior, he discovered a unique ability to turn the Sandman's dream sand into nightmare sand. He found that if he changed a small amount of sand per night, the Sandman didn't notice the minor loss and Pitch could begin to regain power little by little. Although it took decades, he finally found a way to take them down once and for all.

First, he planned to distract the Guardians with a little show on North's globe, making him suspicious enough to call all four of them together. With their suspicions aroused and Tooth away from her palace, he sent his growing army of Nightmares to steal the teeth she'd spent centuries collecting, along with her Baby Teeth. With the memories collected in the teeth stolen away and in his lair (with Tooth unable to show children their happy childhood memories), children have more and more nightmares and begin to not believe.

Even with the other Guardians helping to collect the teeth to return the balance, Pitch laid his next plan in motion, to take care of the Sandman, his most powerful enemy. He caught Sandy on his own high in the clouds, his Nightmares cornering the Sandman long enough for Pitch to land an arrow right in his back, engulfing him within the black sand.

What Pitch didn't account for, however, was Jack Frost aligning himself, however briefly, with the Guardians. Jack became the wild card that Pitch could potentially use against them, and Jack gave him all the information he needed to manipulate him to his cause: Jack's memories locked away in his baby teeth. All Pitch had to do was find them, and offer them to Jack himself, and show him just how corrupt the Guardians were, that they would never accept him.

He used Jack as a tool to destroy Easter, the Guardians' last ditch effort to save the kids' belief in them. Jack's assumed betrayal forced him to Antarctica, where Pitch attempted, once more, to sway him to his side. It almost worked, too, but despite the similarities between them - the loneliness, the emptiness of no one believing in them and how it hurts to feel children walk through them like they just don't exist - Jack didn't rise to the bait, leaving Pitch to stand alone.

Embittered, Pitch retaliated by cracking Jack's staff over his knee and leaving him in a crevasse in Antarctica. What he didn't account for (and this is entirely his fault, because he gave Jack his staff back, even if it was broken) was Jack returning to help the last believer once more believe in the Guardians, and help his friends believe as well. And perhaps the most crippling thing the Nightmare King could hear from a child, is exactly what Jamie said.

"I do believe in you, I'm just not afraid of you."
The power of the group of children together helped to give the Guardians some of their powers back in the form of dreamsand, and after a fight between all the Guardians, Pitch was backed into a corner long enough for the Sandman to return and literally knock Pitch Black unconscious in the snow.

Defeated, humiliated, Pitch attempted one more time to strike fear in the children's hearts... to find they walked right through him, unseen. Invisible once more. Shaken, scared, he attempted to flee, only to have the Guardians corner him and banish him back to his lair with his own Nightmares, feeding on his fears.

And that is how the Box will find him.

Personality: Pitch Black is a creature of simple outward appearance - he is the Nightmare King, or as children more often call him: the Boogeyman. He thrives on spreading fear and belief to children through the use of darkness and shadow and his personal favorite: nightmares. As a spirit in the world of Rise of the Guardians, this is his purpose for existence, and it is thus what drives him the most.

But that is not the only side of the Nightmare King. After all, spreading fear and darkness is his job, but not what rules his every thought. There are other facets of him as well, including a lonely bitterness at being shunned for his need for fear, born from the Guardians' existence in driving back the Dark Ages, because why should he be hated for what he was brought into existence to do? It is a part of who he is, why can't anyone accept that? Shouldn't he be allowed a family just as much as anyone else?

Because of this loneliness and centuries of rejection, Pitch has grown to be incredibly cynical and bitter. He's tired and weary of being forced into the shadows of belief for so long, and he'll let you know it, too. And even right to the other Guardians when they ask why he's making a fuss. He even says, "Maybe I want what you have. To be believed in! Maybe I'm tired of hiding under beds!" And when Bunnymund tells him that's exactly where he belongs, Pitch responds with a flat 'Go suck an egg, rabbit'. He's not willing to take any more crap from the Guardians.

He can recognize a person's greatest fears with nothing more than a glance - reading them like an open book. How else would he know how to strike fear into so many children if he didn't know the greatest, easiest way to scare them? He knows the fears of all the Guardians as well as anyone else he meets. He'll exploit a person's fears to his benefit, manipulating them to his whims. The one in particular that receives the brunt of this manipulation is Jack Frost. He immediately touches upon the fact that Jack has been ignored for centuries, and when he meets up with him down in Pitch's lair he only cuts deeper, luring him in with the draw for his memories, locked away in the teeth Pitch had stolen. Driving home that he'll never be accepted by the other Guardians, they'll never understand, that Jack only makes a mess wherever he goes. He knows exactly what makes Jack tick, what will make him break, what will make him upset and defensive. He knows, and he plans accordingly. He's not entirely heartless in his manipulation, however. The urge, the longing to have a family or to be cared about is still with him, and his attempts to sway Jack to his side are earnest and sincere. It's the rejection for his earned sincerity that causes trouble and makes those walls slam right back closed again.

Surround him in fear and power and Pitch turns near joyous, dancing about and hopping around with such glee and carefree thought that it's almost like seeing an entirely different spirit. He's manipulative and not above lying to get his way, including tricking Jack into handing over his staff - the object that gives him his powers - in trade for Baby Tooth's return and then not holding up his end of the bargain, instead literally chucking Baby Tooth against a far cliff face then breaking the staff over his knee.

Take away his power and control and he becomes defensive and quick to strike, using all of his tricks of the light and shadows to his advantage. And when even those fail, all that's left is the same fear he aimed to give the Guardians - the fear of not being believed in. Of being invisible. And when that fear strikes, even the Nightmare King will run from the nightmares.

Although it is not expressed in the movie, much of Pitch Black's past is clouded. It could be seen, if one cared to look hard enough, that the man called 'Pitch Black' is simply a being, a personality of evil that has possessed the body of Kozmotis Pitchiner - the war general back in the Golden Age - and uses him as a vessel.

If Kozmotis Pitchiner were to ever make an appearance - if the Fearlings and Nightmare Men that consumed him and took control of him were drawn back somehow - the difference would be incredible. Kozmotis would be weak, barely alive, and despondent for his long-lost daughter. A shell of who he once was after being possessed by the Fearlings for so long.

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:

The Boogeyman is the Lord of Shadow, the King of Darkness, and as such can use shadows in any way he chooses. He can teleport from shadow to shadow, use his own shadow as a shadow to teleport, and also manipulate shadows and darkness to suit his needs. Not only that, but he recently acquired the ability to create his Nightmare Sand, a manipulatable power that can be used to create just about anything. In the movie he's seen creating a long bladed scythe out of the sand as well as an arrow, so it's assumed he can make any simple-bodied weapon like knives and clubs if required.

As well as weapons, the Nightmare Sand can create just that: Nightmares. The physical embodiment of a child's bad dreams, Nightmares are skeleton-like versions of mares that are semi-sentient and follow Pitch's commands (so long as he himself is not ruled by fear). They feed on children's nightmares and grow stronger the longer they feed, starting small and growing into what would be a full size horse that Pitch can ride (and fly). They evoke fear when touched, and when attacked they disassemble and return to a sandy state.

At his strongest he can turn children into Fearlings - moving embodiments of shadow and evil - for his own cause. With one touch he can give a child endless nightmares for the rest of their lives, and alter his state into something as tiny as a spider, or a flea, or even possess animals and take over their bodies. But that strength, those abilities, are long gone with the Dark Ages.

He can read a person's fears just by proximity and exploit them however he sees fit. If the fear is strong, to him it's as if seeing a page in a book in perfect clarity. He knows battle tactics and strategy as well as hand to hand combat.

His strengths lie in manipulation and an almost seductive charm. Altering one's mindset to suit his own needs, turn them down the path of fear and the unknown. He will sit and brood over how to move forward (for centuries, if he has to), and even when he's the lowest he'll ever be, all he needs is time.

Pitch Black's greatest weakness lies in the lack of fear surrounding him. If there is no fear he has no purpose, and that in turn is his own worst nightmare. It saps his powers, leaving him with only a fraction of what he was. When he's weak the presence of light stings and he will recede into the darkness. He's a lonely being who has no friends or true allies, and that is also construed as a heavy weakness.

Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample:

D_M post is here!

Prose Log Sample:

Looks like it's your fear they smell.

The frost spirit's words sting as they sink into the back of his mind, festering down in the pits of his own thoughts. His prison. They're the only words he's thought for days, with his nails scraping the darkness of his scalp as he fights away his own Nightmares, screaming at them at the top of his old lungs to stay back, don't touch him or he'll - he'll -

He'll what? Scare them away? Force them back with all the power he's lost, thanks to the Guardians? No, even the meager lights twinkling on his makeshift globe make him wince and flinch away as if struck. The Nightmares keep their distance, snorting out black sand and stomping their hooves on the cracked and broken concrete, testing the boundaries of his fears. They want a taste, they crave it like a sweet wine to their primitive senses, but his very center is fear, he cannot be controlled by it, he won't.

Jack Frost. Jack Frost did this.

His fear is crested and overcome by anger, rippling ire that draws his face down in a nasty snarl.

Jack Frost is the reason for my failure.

The Nightmares rear back and come no closer, uncertain. Raising up, his eyes darken and glint with lines of gold caught from the shattered cages littering the floor. He tears down his nightmares with his scythe, one by one with inhuman howls, until all that's left is Pitch Black, panting for air he doesn't need with shoulders hunched in over-exertion. The scythe disintegrates into nothingness, and he collapses to his knees on the floor of his own lair.

Alone. Weak. Angry.

When he screams, the anguished sound reverberating off dead walls with silent shadows that do not answer to him, no one hears. And no one comes to his aid.