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Introduction
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Jack is a changeling and the protagonist of The Ancient Magus' Bride: Jack Flash and the Faerie Case Files and Jack the Flash and the Rainbow Egg, who takes on a case from Lindel to retrieve a dragon's egg that found its way to New York.
Appearance[]
Jack describes herself as scrawy, freckled, and boring to look at, with dark hair.
Personality[]
A self-described otaku, Jack has an upbeat personality while she works towards her goal of earning enough money to be able to afford a vacation to Japan to indulge in her habits, stemming from her early childhood where she felt that she wasn't the best version of herself and was often isolated, so she turned to escaping to another world in order to get away from things.
Learning that she was actually a fae did little for her as she had been raised as a human and only knew what it was to be human, instead leaving her feeling as though she was trapped between the two worlds since she stood out in them both. Any hopes she had of going to college, having a normal family and living a normal life was beyond her the moment she found out she was a changeling, so she turned to her other fondness, detective stories and decided to become one in order to help people as a cool, lady detective.
History[]
Jack was swapped with Larry shortly after they were born, so she was raised by two human parents who were in her own words "politically correct" and respected her uniqueness. However, she constantly felt lonely as other kids ignored her and kept contact to a minimum, which added to her constant feeling of there being a perfect version of herself and she wished she could become that person so her life would matter.
However, one day Larry came to visit her and she realized that she was a Changeling, so she went to the land of the fae only to find it to be different than she imagined. Her actual parents didn't even show up and the only person she knew was Larry, so she felt isolated there as well and decided she needed to become something as she was between the lines.
She settled on becoming a detective, moving to a corner building in Manhattan and putting out ads for both the humans and non-human communities. As she did more work, her reputation built up until the present day.
Plot[]
The Golden Yarn[]
The short story, Jack the Flash and the Rainbow Egg (Part 1), follows Jack as she and Larry finish one case and are given a new one from their business partner, an alchemist named Evan Dean, with the client being Lindel. He asks that they retrieve a Dragon's Egg that had been stolen and the last known location was in New York, where they were stationed. Jack uses Taxi Rats and her contacts through Vince, a centaur, Baron Zamedi, an Electric Loa, to find out that it had entered into the possession of Richard Diefenbaker, a CEO of Spectrum Industrial Corp, and was to be a gift to Laura Winfrey, a Broadway star.
She and Larry then head to what appears to be a derelict theater, getting past the guard there to find it haunted by the ghost of Roderick Byne. He directs them to where Laura is actually being held hostage, with one of the men who worked for Richard, Jeffrey Chandler, having stolen the egg to sell so that the two could run away together under the help of a new boss.
The unveiling of the egg attracts the attention of the other men, which forces Jack and Larry to take the two of them and escape while questioning who it was that Jeffrey worked for as only an alchemist or mage could have created the item he used to house the egg.
Abilities[]
- Magic : As a fae, Jack possesses innate magical abilities that most other possesses, as well as some unique spells in particular:
- Invisibility: She can make herself invisible to those without something akin to the Sight.
- Memory Manipulation: She can manipulate the memories of those who aren't familiar with magic.
- Plant Manipulation: She can cause tree roots to sprout by tapping into the unseen part of herself, which can be controlled well enough to entrap someone.
- Taxi Rats: By using the ashes of mouse whiskers and tire scrapings that were stored into a medicine bottle, along with an incantation, the dust cloud could scour the streets of New York to find information and relay it back to her in the form of writing.
Relationships[]
Larry[]
Jack sees Larry as something like her brother, or a twin that was born separate from her due to their roles in being a changeling and the human who she was swapped with. Since she is older due to the flow of time, she treats him as a younger sibling.
Mother[]
While she finds her mother somewhat frustrating due to her calls, Jack is rather fond of her human mother as she was supportive and open enough that she believed that even if they knew she was a changeling they would support her. In contrast, her fae parents didn't even bother to show up when she arrived in their world and she knew nothing about her, as if they'd abandoned her.
Quotes[]
- Be careful what you wish for. Truer words were never spoken. All this time I'd wanted to be a different version of myself, not this scrawny, freckled, boring girl too scared to talk. My deep dive into Japanese anime and manga was fueled by a desire to be part of some world I had nothing to do with.[1]
References[]
- ↑ The Golden Yarn, 'Jack the Flash and the Rainbow Egg, page 319