Sam Owen - Spirit of Halloween

Full Name: Samuel Hal Owen

Other Names: Sam, Halloween, Samhain, (original) Samuel Wardwell.

Mortality: Immortal

Race: Immortal, once human

Legend: Halloween

Friends/allies: Ombric, Katherine, Nighlight, Jack, humans who believe in him

Enemies/rivals: Jack, Bunny, Fearlings, Pitch

Likes: Candy and sweets of any kind, Cosplay, cats, Orange, Fall, Tricks, Rock music

Dislikes: Sunrises, rain, stereotypes about witches, clichés especially about Halloween, E. Aster Bunnymund and snow on Halloween

Age: (looks) 26, (actually) 303

Nationality: Old English, colonial American

Birthplace: Andover, Massachusetts

Places Lived: Andover, Salem, New York, random spots in Europe, and many places where Halloween is truly appreciated

Currently Lives: Salem, Massachusetts

Height: 5'10"

Powers: Sparking pranks(trick) and inspiring creativity(normally for costumes)

Personality: Sam is similar to Jack in the sense that he loves to prank people, but what do you expect from the spirit of Halloween? He's got an enormous sweet tooth. He really doesn't like the girls who dress up as generic princesses on Halloween, he much prefers imagination to be put into costumes. He'll even reward homemade costumes with extra prizes on Halloween. He truly does like kids, and goes out of his way to protect them while they're out candy collecting. He'd rather hang out with them than go to a costume party. He doesn't like it when the weather dampers his holiday which is most of what him and Jack fight about, and he's not always on the best terms with Mother Nature. Sunrises make him mad because they bring back memories he'd rather not remember. Bunny is not his friend. You'd think that, both doling out candy and both caring about kids (as well as arguing with Jack about weather problems on their holiday) they'd be friends... no. Sam hates Bunny, way more than Jack and Bunny dislike each other. Sam, believing that interacting with those who believe in him is his greatest gift to them, feels that Bunny's way of hiding whenever his believers are around is a huge insult. As far as Sam's concerned, Bunny and him have more differences than they have similarities. He loves going to conventions and checking out the cosplay. At his home, he's got an arsenal of candy and treats; from donuts to twinkies, from chocolate to jelly beans, from sour patch kids to warheads, he's got it all. And he eats it obsessively.

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Bio:

Sam was born in Andover, Massachusetts to Thomas Wardwell and his wife. Thomas was the son of the famous Samuel Wardwell who perished in the false witch trials only a few decades prior. Sam was named after his grandfather who had been wrongly accused and who had, in reality, been a nice, honest man. His only crime had been thinking freely and creatively. Sam took after his grandfather in nearly every way: strong opinions, bold ideas, and a tendency to announce them to anyone willing to listen. A few years before Sam was born, his dad had sued for all the trouble his family had gone through and had been given money to compensate for their ordeals. Sam's family lived more or less in comfort. Superstition followed his family, many thinking them to be witches even now. Sam was home schooled, with a private tutor so that he not be around kids who may have bullied him in some way or another for his heritage. This made Sam yearn for contact with other kids. He had four siblings, all older. Three of them girls, the two eldest of whom had married by the time he was ten. His only brother, who'd also been named Samuel, had died as a small child before he'd been born, and so the name had been passed to him. As he grew older, he found that his favorite time of year was the fall, when the trees flamed and the air gained a bite. All Hallows' Eve being his favorite night. In the colonies, however, there were many religious persons who'd rather ignore the night entirely. Sam was not one of these people. His father, after the ordeal of the trials, openly shunned the church, which he held responsible and so did not raise Sam to be religious either. Thomas was less afraid of the church as he was angry with it. And so Sam never had fear of the one thing all others were terrified of, demons and witches and the devil himself, right next door in the wilderness outside of their cozy and quaint little villages. Sam was adventurous and spirited and paid no attention to warnings of the devil or demons. When he was twenty he set sail for Europe, thinking that people would be less afraid of "fairy tales" as he put it. There he discovered the real traditions of what would become known as Halloween. After six years of learning and traveling and being free of his haunting name, Sam felt at peace. The Hallows' Eve of his 26th year, he was walking home from a party through a path in the woods. He'd never feared the woods, never saw reason to. This night, was different. He was attacked by a highway man who took everything from him, and left him for dead.

The Man in the Moon, seeing this, brought Sam back as Sam Hal Owen, the spirit of All Hallows' Eve. After being born again, Sam went to the Celtic lands, where he knew the origin of his holiday came from. There he learned that, on both Samhain and Beltane, mortals can see immortals and legendary creatures more easily than any other day of the year. The old legends said that the veil between worlds grows thin, that on those nights creatures from myth could come to our world. Sam discovered that those creatures already lived here, and our eyes were opened on these nights. He decided that he was going to protect that more than anything else. The ability to see what is normally hidden. The following Halloween he spent much of the day trailing the children and keeping them out of harm. When one home refused to give the children any sweets, Sam was reminded of his neighbors back home, who ignored the night completely. He unknowingly spurned the group of treat seekers to prank the house, letting out the livestock the owners kept. He realized this to be one of his powers. For the next decade or so, he continued to prank the houses stingy with candy. Eventually, the children began calling treat collecting "trick-or-treating". Almost thirty years after becoming Sam Owen, he traveled back to the Americas, which had gone to war with England. He found his former home in the midst of a battle for independence, and decided to help whoever he could, regardless of the side. When Halloween rolled around he spent the day trying to make the kids as happy as he could. That winter he met Jack Frost.

Sam was feeling down, yelling at the air how he couldn't help anyone the way he was. All he can do is make people want to play pranks or make a costume. Nothing useful. No one could even see him! In the middle of his rant he noticed a head of white hair off to the side and stopped mid sentence. He noticed the boy, who albeit looked odd with silvery white hair, and sighed. Aloud, he said, just another person who can't see me. Upon hearing this Jack snapped his head towards Sam, and said "What did you just say?" The boys stared at each other for a moment before both said, almost simultaneously, "Can you see me?", rendering both of them dumbstruck. Sam bounced back first, asking who the boy was. After answering, Sam made the mistake of saying "I've never heard of you." Jack then froze him.

By the summer when he'd finally thawed, Sam had a grudge against Jack. He waited until the next winter, planning his ultimate prank. This started a long prank war between the two of them, through which they became friends of some sort. About a hundred years after becoming an immortal, Sam met Bunny. He'd recently gained a few believers and was hanging out with them that spring (having spent the winder in a prank battle with Jack). He accompanied them to the town's egghunt, and noticed the bushes rustling. Slyly making his way over, he caught a glimpse of Bunny, who hadn't hid himself from Sam, thinking him a mortal human who wouldn't have been able to see him regardless. Sam, knowing exactly who he was through reputation and myths, asked him why he was hiding. Bunny jumped back in surprise, not having realized he'd been spotted. "I'm hidin' from the kids. So shut up or they'll find me."

Upon hearing that, Sam became very insulted. He asked why he was hiding from the kids. Bunny replied that he doesn't let kids see him. This, was the last straw. Sam let into him. His believers saw him yelling and ran over to see what was wrong, as the kids neared, Bunny disappeared into one of his tunnels. His believers asked him what was wrong, who had he been yelling at? "The Easter Bunny." was all he said. He had half a mind to tell them he hid from them on purpose, but knew how much he valued his own believers, and wouldn't risk costing Bunny any of his. From that day on, he detested Bunny in great depth.

For the next two hundred or so years his number of believers steadily grew, as people began believing in Halloween the night. However, just as many were lost as the holiday corrupted itself, becoming just a night for getting candy, instead of what it originally was. Sam found himself bobbing about in limbo, so to speak.

As dressing up became more and more of a staple for Halloween, Sam found himself liking it more and more. And then when cosplay popped up out of the woodwork, he jumped into the throng with a smile on his face. He now spends most of the year going to as many conventions as possible, and returning to Salem for Halloween, where he spends the day with the majority of his believers. Often during the winter he and Jack have their prank wars, but they're still good friends. Every Easter, he ends up spending with the kids who believe in him, making sure they see him on that day, every year. It's his way of retaliating Bunny's tendency to hide.

He doesn't like a lot of the other immortals, as he's found them stuck-up and a bit selfish. The few he does aren't in any way like that. Jack, for example. A few years back, when the Guardians defeated Pitch and Jack was sworn in, he was happy for his friend, but a bit jealous, especially once the movie came out. Jack's believers skyrocketed, and the other immortals started treating him with respect, albeit most of it grudgingly. Sam was still Sam, nothing had changed, but everything had. Jack was easily his best friend... now he was always busy, now he had believers... Sam now feels almost as alone as he did the night he'd first met Jack.


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I've been working on Sam's bio for almost a month. I made him for this contest fav.me/d6oigaz. As soon as I saw the contest, I started searching Halloween ocs... nearly all of them had names some variation of "Sam/Samantha Hain" or "Eve Hollow/Hollows / Hollow Eve", they were all dressed as witches, ghosts or jack-o-lanterns, had colors similar to bright orange and black, maybe some purple and most of them were girls. I decided to do the exact opposite. I have a normal looking dude, who's info, when you think about it, is what you'd think of for a Halloween spirit, but not what you usually get. Basically, I see him being one of those cool nerds.