Hatsu Yukiya: Me being petty and nitpicky again. I did say it was good for my mental health.

Right, so this story is called Stripped and it takes obvious cues from my story about humanized Jack, To Have a Home, and Boba Addict's story, Powerless Guardian. I'm going through and pointing out the uncredited similarities, just for the lulz and I honestly have nothing better to do with my time. Im not judging this story based on premise, oh no. There are tons of humanized!Jack stories running around, it's nothing new, and mine was certainly not the first. Humanity by Rand0m Smil3z was, and the next one I ever saw was Powerless Guardian, before I started my THaH. As long as you can be original with the premise, that's fine. This person is not. Excerpts from Stripped will be in Bold. Excerpts from To Have a Home with are Italicized. Excerpts from Powerless Guardian will be Underlined. Normal writing (my thoughts, comments, etc.) will be in normal text, just like this. Lets begin. "He jumped, and, as his feet left the ledge they were resting on, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He literally did a double take, and had to check what he saw again in a different window. Jack couldn't believe what he saw. And neither could the brown haired, brown eyed reflection staring back at him." "With a sigh of relief, he retrieved his staff and leaned on it, using it to support his weight. His head dropped down, and in the moonlight, Jack hazily got a look at his reflection in the ice. When he saw it, he gasped sharply and nearly collapsed, shock coursing through his body as he stared down at the image. A boy with brown hair and brown eyes stared back at him." Alright, this one isn't so bad. Naturally with humanized Jack stories he has to look at his reflection at some point, no biggie. No big concerns here, aside from choice of words. "Jack didn't know what to do. He just sat on the floor outside Jamie's

house. It was then that he realised the piercing of the cold. He hadn't noticed it up until then, having been immortal, and then it was over powered by adrenaline or pain or shock. But now that had all worn off, and the full effects of a dreadful cold had fully seeped in. He started shivering uncontrollably, and sneezing every so often." "For the first time, he really felt the cold, and was surprised at the discomfort." Alright, okay, feeling the cold. That is also fine, makes sense... It's a similarity, but not a bad one. "For Jack, the next few hours were just a painful blur. He vaguely remember some things, like being covered with a blanket, but the rest was just a dark haze. When he came to, he was lying in Jamie's bed. He noticed the mirror across the room, and bolted over to check wheatear or not the whole thing had just been a horrific dream. When he got there he found that brown haired boy starring back at him again. He looked into his deep brown eyes, trying to find some shade of the ice blue they had previously been. But he found no trace of ice, just that warm chocolate brown that he sometimes missed so much. (...) It was then that he noticed his horrible headache. He lay back down in bed, willing for him to wake up back at his lake or at North's workshop and for the whole thing to have just been one big horrid nightmare. But, that wasn't going to happen, and Jack knew it." "The first thing Jack noticed when he began to come to was that it was hot. Almost unbearably so, but not quite, which made no sense because normally he was very uncomfortable with any type of heat. Besides how hot it was, there was soreness in his throat, a pounding in his head, and his entire body ached. Definitely the way he wanted to wake up. He was laying in something soft, something that was too warm to be a snowbank. Where was he? What had happened to make him feel this way? His eyelids were heavy and felt like sandpaper, but he forced them open to get a good look at his surroundings. It was a bedroom that seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember when he had been there or where exactly it was. He noted with relief that his staff was leaning against the wall next to the bed he was in. Across from the bed was a bureau with a mirror, and Jack bit back a yell of shock when he caught sight of his reflection. The memories of the previous night came rushing back and he dropped his head into his hands. "Agh" he groaned. "I was hoping it had just been a bad dream" No such luck, apparently. Jack eased his aching body out of bed and

made his way over to the mirror for a better look. The reflection staring back at him made his breath stutter in his throat. How long had it been since he had seen himself with tanned skin, chocolate brown hair and matching eyes? Over three hundred years. He didn't include when he had seen himself in his memories, that didn't count. Jack was so used to his ethereal appearance that this was something completely alien. The person in the mirror didn't look like him. Fever, waking up in the Bennett house, similar symptoms, thought process, the mirror...Gosh, we're on a roll. "Um..." Jack searched his mind for some form of an answer. "My parents just died. And I have no relatives, so I have no where to go..." He glanced up to see if she was buying his story. She looked convinced enough, so Jack decided not to say any more, in case he said something suspicious. "Oh, it's ok. You can stay with us, if you want..." She paused. "How old are you?" Jack flinched. Don't say 316, don't say 316... "I'm 16." Jack said. Not too bad, he thought, only 300 years off. "Oh, I'm sure you could stay here. We have a spare bed room which you can sleep in, and I'm sure we can spare enough... Moneys not an issue." "Thank you. But, are you sure? I feel like I'm intruding..." "No, it's fine!" Miss Bennett insisted. "Really! I can't send you back into the cold." "Thank you, Miss Bennett." "Really Jack, it's no problem. Now you get some sleep." Susan eyed him with concern, taking in his thinness, bare feet, and tattered clothes. "Jack, may I ask how old you are?" He coughed awkwardly. This was usually a question he tried to avoid answering when humans asked. In the end, Jack just decided to be as honest as he could. "Seventeen. Almost eighteen." Plus three hundred years, give or take, but she didn't need to know that. Susan frowned to herself. He was so young, what was he doing on his own? Sophie sure wasn't kidding when she said the boy looked homeless, and Susan was really starting to suspect that was the case. Time to get into the awkward questions, then. "I'm sorry to bring this up so soon, but I have to ask what you were doing out there on your own. You're a minor, so why weren't you at home where you should have been?" (...) Jack took a deep breath and carefully thought out his answer before replying, "My parents, they...died a while ago." Alright, so we're good on

telling the truth so far. "I figured I could take care of myself so I've been on my own for the past year or two." That was stretching it a little more. (...) "Jack," she said, "Would you be interested in staying here for a while?" His mouth fell open and he raised his hands defensively. "Whoa, hold on, I can't say yes to that. I'm sure there's a money thing to consider and I don't have a job or anything and it'd just be some serious imposing on my part " "I'm the one who offered," Susan cut in smoothly. "My ex-husband and I divorced five years ago so it isn't as though I have to get his approval." She smiled gently. "I don't want you to be on your own. You're just a kid. And you don't have to worry about money. I work as a nurse and get child support from George, so it isn't a problem." Jack gaped at her with a bewildered expression. "You don't even know me." "That's true." Susan stood and smoothed a few wrinkles out of her blouse. She went to the door and opened it, then turned around and said, "But my children seem to like you. They were really worried when they found you and practically begged me to let you stay here when we got home. Honestly, that's good enough for me." She began to walk out of the room, closing the door behind her. "I'll let you rest a little more." Mom takes him in without a word of concern. Conversations go similarly, similar cover stories for the kid... He's staying in the guest room... (Wow I really am nitpicky. And we haven't even gotten to Powerless Guardian yet!) (April: You think youre nitpicky when you should be looking at me instead?) At that moment, Miss Bennett opened the front door, loaded with Tesco bags. Jamie and Jack rushed to help her, and Sophie stayed behind to watch the end of the program. "Oh, Jack, I've bought you some clothes, since I assumed that was your only outfit..." "What's wrong with my outfit?" Jack asked. "Nothing, it's just you can't wear that one outfit for the rest of your life." Huh, worked for the last 316 years... They all turned at the sound of the front door opening and Susan stepped in, laden down with bags from her shopping. "I'm home!" she called out. "Anyone want to come help me with these?" Jack and Jamie jumped to help the woman carry in her bags, and it took several trips out to the car to finally retrieve them all. Once they had

brought all the bags in, Susan shoved two into Jack's arms and said, "These are for you. Go upstairs and try some of it on, alright?" (...) "She had bought him enough clothes to last a week without need for laundry, which Jack was grateful for. If he was going to be here for a while then he ought to try and blend in. As uncomfortable as it was being out of his normal clothes (he had been wearing those trousers his entire immortal life, and the hoodie for the past fifty years or so) Jack knew it was the necessary thing to do." Speaks for itself. Only in Stripped, Jack cares about clothes a lot more than he usually would and Jamie turns into Tyra Banks. Could be a Powerless Guardian thing, where Jack does take care in his appearance (though good on April for making it work agh I love her) (April: Pssst I love you too) Jamie stopped and smiled at Jack. Jack smiled back, and gave Jamie a hug. (...) "It's true, Jack. Now come on, they're waiting for us." Jamie pulled away, motioning for Jack to follow him. He did, and they walked towards the living room. "I really do like having you around, Jack. Like the brother I never had." "Jack stared at him for a moment, then returned his smile. "You know what? I couldn't be happier about this either. Come here." Jackson Overland Frost, who never initiated physical contact if he could help it, reached out and pulled his great-something nephew into a tight embrace." Familial bromance. Though to be fair, that does pop up in a lot of RotG stories. Oh, but I should also mention that Jamie is twelve in THaH, and here in Stripped. Canonically he's eight, but again, to be fair, he's aged up in a lot of other stories. (April: I made Jamie eleven in my story. And I had originally planned for it to take place the following year after the movie events. Wtf what was I thinking Jamies not that old yet) It was dark. Really dark. Suddenly, a stream of light pieced the darkness, pointing directly to Jack. He looked around frantically, trying to see something, anything, but it was just too... Black. He could here a quiet hissing in the back of his head, slowly getting louder, amplifying until it was almost unbearably dynamic. Jacks

hands smacked down over his ears, trying to keep out the sound, and eventually, it faded away. That's when he heard Toothsome voice, screaming at him in the distance. Getting louder and louder, and Jack tried to move, tried to run, but his feet were stuck to the ground, leaving him struggling with all his might. The voice was really close now, and, suddenly, Jack felt a sharp poke in his side... "Ahhh!" Jack screamed. His eyes shot open and he darted up, so he was sat up. He looked around, just to realise that he was in his room, in his bed. He crossed his legs, put his elbows on his knees and rested his forehead on his fists. "It was just a dream, it was just a dream..." He whispered to himself, over and over, reassuring himself. "Jack?" His head bolted around, just to see Tooth stood by the corner of his headboard, looking concerned. Jacks face brightened. "Tooth!" Jack jumped out of bed, picked her up and swung her around, smiling insanely. "Gosh, you have no idea how much I missed you!" Jack said, finally putting her down. "What happened? Why are you here? Where are the other Guardians? What happened to Pitch? How did you..." Something was prodding him in the side again. Jack was somewhat reluctant to open his eyes to see what it was, considering what had happened the last time it had happened. But the poking continued, gaining intensity, and eventually he was too irritated to ignore it any longer. Jack felt a rush of relief when he found himself staring straight into Tooth's amethyst eyes. He sat up and rubbed his own. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you." The fairy was staring at him with an expression crossed between worry and disbelief. She covered her mouth with her hand. "It's just as Baby Tooth said," she said softly, blinking back tears. Jack hurried to comfort her; he really did not like seeing Tooth upset. Oh, look at that. Tooth pops up and wakes him up out of a nightmare, then comforts him with her natural mom-ness? Where have I seen that? The nightmares in general could be a reference. And THEN, Tooth talks about how the process the villain used was a complex spell that the Guardians have never seen before. Hmm, now whose story featured a witch who used a spell that the Guardians had never seen before and also is too confusing to reverse? (April: To answer that very rhetorical question, its To Have a Home.) If Jack dies at any point in Stripped I'm going to be pissed as fuck, and I'm

sure April will too. (April: Aint that the truth.) "Oh, mans I almost forgot..." Tooth pulled an iPhone out of her bag of teeth. "You can use this to get in touch with the Guardians, okay?" Jack rotated the devise in his hands. He pressed the power button, but nothing happened. He looked at Tooth, quizzically. She smiled. "You have to charge it up!" She smiled. Jack smiled. Something in Tooth's bag started beeping. She pulled out a Blackberry Curve, glanced at the screen and frowned. "Sorry, I've got to go. Have a nice Christmas! We'll come see you on Christmas Eve!" She flew in and gave him a hug, before flying straight out the window. Jack glanced down at his new phone, impressed by the large screen. OH HEY, WE'VE GOTTEN TO POWERLESS GUARDIAN. OKAY GUYS, QUIZ TIME. WHO IS THE ONLY PERSON TO WRITE A HUMANIZED!JACK STORY EVER TO GIVE THE GUARDIANS PHONES? (Even if she thinks it was a dumb idea? (April: It is!)) That's right, Boba Addict! Jack, once he recognized North's "present" for him, just said, "You know, you could've at least put a bow on it." "I could have not given you anything at all," North replied, giving Jack a knowing glance, and he left. Jamie looked at what North had given Jack and remarked, "I didn't know Santa made phones to give out." Jack shrugged and inspected his iPhone 5. "There's probably that occasional teen who still believes in Santa and yet has outgrown toy trains and stuffed animals. Maybe the old man knows more about children than he lets on." Okay, I know I said Stripped shares similarities with both THaH and Powerless Guardian, but the phone thing was the only blatant on I saw in reference to PG. April's story is a creative wonder in and of itself, not many things have similarities with it. I'm just here giving credit where credit's due. Though Stripped does share a similarity with PG, in that Jack interacts more with other humans and there was a party with lots of people and shit. Jack woke up the next morning from a restless sleep. He grabbed his phone from under his pillow and checked the time. He pressed the home button, and the glare burnt his eyes. He squinted, and looked at the time. 1:25pm. Not just that, there was also something flashing on

the screen. NEW MESSAGE, NORTH. He unlocked his phone. he stared at the phone screen, reading the words in his head. Hi Jack. How are you? We are fine! Hope you are enjoying your stay at Jamie's house. Do you like your vacation? Ho Ho Ho! LOL North xx Jack rolled his eyes at Norths attempt to be funny, and started typing in the reply box, sending North a message back. "Wait..." Jack opened the message, and this was what it said: Hello, Jack! Do you like your new phone? :D -North "..." (...) Jack ignored him, and called North back. Several rings were heard before St. Nick finally answered in his heavy Russian accent. I'm on a roll with the phone thing. April, I'm so sorry. (April: Well naturally you would be talking about this phone thing a lot because its a really original idea from me and nobody else did this except for her and its just plain obvious that she got this from me.) Okay, well, I've reached the current end of the Stripped chapters (nine). I might keep going if and when it updates, and I see more. Me (Boba Addict): Okay, cool. Hatsus pretty much covered most of it, but Im adding on a couple more stuff because Im a little bitch who likes pointing out every similarity there is. First things first:
Jack and Jamie got home about 8pm, not realising they had been out shopping for ten hours. When they arrived home, they were surprised to find that practically the whole neighbourhood were in their house. They rushed to the kitchen, where they found Miss Bennett talking to some ladies from around the corner. They were talking about politics, and the weather, and other really dull pointless stuff. At one point Jack was really close to giving them some real weather to talk about, but Jamie must've noticed, and sent Jack upstairs to put on one of his new outfits for the party. Jack huffed, but agreed, trudging off to his room to put on one of his new outfits. He put the bags on

his bed, and rummaged though them until he found something he deemed party-worthy. He picked up some dark black jeans, and pulled them on, admiring them in the mirror. He then rummaged through some more bags, after a while finding a cool, dark grey Ed Hardy T-shirt with 'New York City' written around a skull with wings. "Fashion is so weird." Jack said to himself, while tossing the shirt on his bed and pulling off his ice blue hoodie. He reached for the grey shirt, when, suddenly, the door burst open, and a girl Jack didn't know walked into the door way. "Are you Jack?" She said quickly, and angrily. "Yeah, why?" It was then that the girl realised that Jack wasn't wearing a shirt. And he looked like something off the cover off one of her gossip magazines. "Oh, um... Your mom was looking for you. She told me to tell you to have some dinner, hehe!" The girl was staring at Jacks abbs, and Jack looked down self consciously, only just realising for himself that he wasn't wearing a shirt. He quickly pulled on his brand new dark grey tee. The girl watched him, making Jack uncomfortable, but Jack finished changing and grabbed a black, zip up hoodie from the to of one of the bags. Pulling it on, he waked towards the door and headed down to the kitchen. The girl had stopped staring at him to go mope about with her mates, and Jack let out a sigh of relief. That was really awkward. He shook his head, as if to wipe it from his thoughts, and headed downstairs.

Christine scowled. She had just arrived at her doorstep when her mom texted her and said that Melissa was staying over at Mrs. Bennett's house and needed to be picked up. Honestly, Christine didn't get why her mother had yet to learn the lesson about babysitters, because all the babysitters that were previously hired to watch over Melissa were either creepy, idiotic, or just downright annoying. Christine especially remembered one particular babysitter who, for some reason, had no idea that babies' diapers needed to be changed regularly, which had resulted in a very stinky mess by the time Christine picked her sister up. And there was that other one who kept on babbling to her about how Melissa was such a beautiful baby (Christine swore that he sounded like he wanted to rape the poor toddler). And there was that one time when Mrs. Lee

dropped Melissa off with an unmarried 40-year-old man who had no children of his own. Christine shuddered at the memory. She didnt even want to know what that one was all about... But she had met both Jane and Jamie Bennett at least once before, and they weren't bad people. So Christine just kept her fingers crossed that they would be at least mildly decent when it came to babysitting. She arrived at the Bennett doorstep and rang the doorbell. She had expected the mother or son to answer; heck, maybe even Jamie's little sister she had been hearing so much about from her mom. But she was not expecting this sexy-looking (She pushed all dirty thoughts out of her mind at that moment) teenager, presumably around 17 or 18, to open the door. His eyes seemed to be one of the richest, most chocolatey brown eyes Christine had ever seen in her life. He was clad in a casual hoodie and these really weirdlooking pants that had some kind of rope tied around the bottom, and his brown hair was messy and tussled. In other words, he looked as if he had just gotten out of bed, yet he managed to still look attractive. Christine would have been lying if she said her eyes didn't widen at the sight. The boy gave her a small smile. "Hey. Are you Christine?" Christine nodded slowly, feeling like his eyes were boring through her, but soon realized that she was staring at him. Christine, get your head together! Seriously! she mentally scolded herself furiously. "Chwissy!" Melissa gurgled happily from inside the house and tried to stumble her way out; the boy almost immediately went over to her and scooped her up before going back to Christine. Christine took her from him, mumbled a quick thanks, and took off down the front steps.

Okay. I might just be really nitpicky or something, but I swear I see so many similarities between these two scenes. First off, both girls are pissed, though for different reasons. Two, both of them were shocked at what they saw. Sure, Charlene kinda knew that she was going to see Jack, but she didnt expect to see him shirtless. Christine, on the other hand, had no knowledge of Jacks existence until that point. And then they both go into a mesmerized daze. And then awkward silence ensues. And then they both leave Jack be. And Im probably just being silly, but Charlene and Christine are suspiciously similar names. Oh yeah, and one more thing: JACK DOES NOT HAVE ABS GODDAMMIT I SAID IT BEFORE AND ILL SAY IT AGAIN HIS MUSCLES DO NOT JUST MIRACULOUSLY DISAPPEAR UNDER THAT THREADBARE HOODIE HE ALWAYS WEARS YOU FANGIRLS ARE JUST FANTASIZING THAT HE HAS ABS

Yeah, Im sorry for that unnecessary rant, but Im tired.

Suddenly, the black shadow engulfed him, and Jack was restrained, finding himself unable to move. He felt things wrapping around his wrists, then his legs, and slowly swallowing the rest of his body. Jack could see nothing but black, to the point where he wasn't sure if his eyes were open or closed. He could feel himself moving, spinning, turning, the shadows retching him into different positions. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, and he hated that. He needed to be in control, he needed to be on top of the situation. He struggled as much as he could, be he knew that he couldn't escape. "This is it," he thought, "This is the end." Suddenly, he dropped to the ground, and the darkness disappeared from around him. "Good luck..." Was the last thing he heard before he passed out.

The monster's gooey hand stretched out slowly, and wrapped it around the boy's throat. The boy fought the urge

to thrash and kick, choosing to accept his bitter end. He felt his immortal power leaving him, and closed his eyes, unwilling to see those deadly black spots dot his vision. He could feel himself growing dizzy from lack of air, but he didn't really care anymore. All he cared about that instant was that his friends were safe, and he was fiercely glad that he was the one who was about to die. To him, dying didn't seem so bad as long as he did his best. () He knew that they weren't going to listen though, and he was right. He doubted if they could even hear his mumbling. His savior(s) must have realized that he wasn't giving into sleep just yet, because the next thing he knew, golden sand drifted itself on to his face and he fell into a deep slumber...

So in both excerpts, Jack is fully convinced that hes going to die at that moment. And then they both pass out (Though in PG, Sandy sort of helped with that). Again, Im probably being real nitpicky right now. But like I said, I like pointing out every little thing. So even though this is likely justified since in humanized!Jack stories Jack tends to pass out during his transition into mortality, Im adding this onto the list of similarities, as you can see.

"What about this?" Jamie looked up at the former spirit of winter. He was wearing a low cut white shirt, with navy blue stripes. He wore red jeans with white pumps, and braces. "Um, it's all right, I guess. You kinda look like Louis Tomlinson, though." "Who's that?" Jack asked. "You know, the guy from One Direction. Although, that's probably where mom gets most of her style tips from." Jamie smirked at the thought of his mom

scrolling through the Internet, looking at pictures of One Direction. "Is it good to look like One Direction?" Jack asked, again. "Well, a lot of girls like them, but most guys don't. So go to school dressed like that and you'll most likely get beat up." Jack thought about this for a second. "I can fend for myself." He answered, after a long pause. "Yeah, but do you want to risk it? I say try something else." Jamie replied. "Ok, I'll go change then." Jack replied, clearly deflated by his lack of style.

She had bought him enough clothes to last a week without need for laundry, which Jack was grateful for. If he was going to be here for a while then he ought to try and blend in. As uncomfortable as it was being out of his normal clothes (he had been wearing those trousers his entire immortal life, and the hoodie for the past fifty years or so) Jack knew it was the necessary thing to do. The clothes he now possessed were fairly plain, but then again, Jack liked them that way. He dressed in a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. After a moment's debate, he pulled his regular blue hoodie on as well. It seemed older and more worn than usual, likely due to the absence of the frost patterns usually woven into the fabric. There were socks and shoes as well and Jack hesitated before them, not having actually worn anything like them before. Jack swallowed his uncertainly and laced the sneakers up, ignoring the discomfort that came with being unable to

move his toes freely.

Mrs. Bennett just sighed. "I knew I was right when I bought you clothes. Let's go in the house, shall we? I'll have you try on everything I bought for you." Her cell phone rang at that moment, and she picked up. "Yes? ... Oh, Jamie! Right, I'll be right over." She hung up, and said, "I completely forgot that I have to pick Jamie up from detention. Change of plans. Zander, Spencer, the clothes I bought for Jack are in the storage closet, and you know where that is. Get Jack to try on some of the outfits I bought for him. As fellow teenage boys, I trust you to have a good fashion sense when it comes to this." She eyed them knowingly before heading off. Zander and Spencer both looked at Jack with smug and slightly evil expressions on their faces. Before Jack knew it, there was one brother on each side hooking arms with him, and they swiftly carried him inside the house, much to his protests. Sophie, wondering what the three boys were doing, simply followed suit, dragging Jack's staff behind her.

Jack definitely didn't feel used to being out of his hoodie and actually having shoes on for the first time in his life. He tugged at his new, red, short-sleeved, unbuttoned flannel shirt that he wore over a long-sleeved, black V-neck, which he had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. He wore dark blue jeans and black combat boots. On top of his head was baseball cap, with the bill pointed forward. He had to admit the clothes themselves were comfortable, but the sensation of wearing something so different from what he wore for the past 300 years was not.

Ooh look here. Three-way similarity. Completely justified though. Its only here because I want to make this list longer. Yup, Im a little shit. However I must point out that this clothes thing in Stripped is much more tied in with PG since Jack doesnt just don on a white T-shirt and jeans unlike in THaH. Although Jack really does seem to care about the current styles in Stripped like Julia said above.

So thats all I got so far. Im only following Stripped in hopes of adding more similarities onto this list, so. Bye.