[OPEN] All a settlement of snow...

[wintershepherd]

Characters: Jack Frost & OPEN
Date: Catch-all for December threads
Location: Keeliai and Landfall at Bresilyk
Situation: General prompts are in the post, prior discussed starters to be set up shortly! Message me if you want me to add a specific starter for your character or just tag in with any scene.
Special Note: Jack will have Baby Tooth with him unless noted otherwise and her visibility follows the UPDATED!! belief guidelines as Jack's do.
Warnings/Rating: TBA in threads if needed.


[ A. LANDFALL LINKS ]
→ Snow Glitter Shenanigans
→ Chilling on the pier with bitty at Aihsohlow

[ B. WELCOME CENTER ]
As officially announced at the beginning of the month, Jack's commenced running a small welcome center located in central Keeliai for Foreigners arriving into the city. Today he can be found sitting cross-legged on the floor, sorting a pile of donated books from various vendors around the city. They're in various languages and the ones that are in kedanese are of a beginner level so that the basics of the language can be attempted. Baby Tooth is flitting nearby, checking a list of supplies that they'd compiled, thinking they'd need.

"I'm glad we got so many volunteers," Jack was in the middle of saying to the faerie. "Between here and the fishing store, it's going to be really busy." Baby Tooth fixed him with a dry, droll look as though to remind him which of the two of them was used to working 24/7 and he laughed. "Right, right... can you imagine if Tooth were here?"

[ C. DOWNTIME ]
When he does manage to find some free time, he surprisingly spends it... doing nothing. Or rather, soundly sleeping in a snowy bough of a park tree, feet propped up against the trunk, staff balanced lightly across his stomach, seemingly without a care in the world and utterly unbothered by the cold.

Comments

[alphatar]

Now that made her curious. Jack's whole center was fun, and by proxy happiness. Korra placed her head comfortably against the dark wood of her headboard and brought up one knee to put her hands around.

"I've seen you tell a couple of those stories to kids." Those were free. "And they're happy, but they're not you."

[wintershepherd]

Jack pursed his lips momentarily, then shrugged and leaned back on the bed. "Okay," he said. "How about the one where I ran into the Spirit of Summer for the first time? It's a pretty funny one."

[alphatar]

"Hey, there's only ten of those." A pointed finger from her knee pointed to the coupon in his hand. "I want the whole story." Bring hand back so she can out her elbow on her knee instead, Korra leaned forward.

"I can get some snacks from the kitchen if you want some."

[wintershepherd]

"I don't want any snacks," Jack said stiffly. "And I don't want to talk about my past, okay? Just pick something else, or I can pick a story for you."

[alphatar]

Giving herself a second to lean back ever so slightly, Korra gently said "Okay." She had that the Winter Spirit was being coy, as he sometimes was, but the change tone let her know that she was pressing on something else entirely.

Completely different from the only thing she knew that bothered Jack, what she had seen in Death at Sinbrilee.

"How about this one instead."

Rolling onto her stomach, Korra pulled out an open box from underneath the bed and she carefully took out some large pages.

"It's a bit early, but here. I haven't read it yet, sorry it's not bound. I haven't gotten around to finding someone to do it."

[wintershepherd]

Jack took the pages carefully and when he caught the first few words on one sheet, his smile was back-- a little thinner than before, but genuine.

"I think this is perfect," he answered. "And I can definitely make some icy pictures to go along with this one. Don't even need the book, I know it by heart." Though he made a mental note to tell Korra about Corele's parents, who ran a stationary shop in the Earth sector and could probably do the book binding if asked.

[alphatar]

Glad to see that smile return, Korra stayed laying on her stomach and held her head up with her hands on her cheeks. "I kind of figured you might. Dick made it for after I talked to him while he was dressed as Santa Claus."

[wintershepherd]

"That was nice of him," Jack replied. "He's a really good guy. It really meant a lot to me to see he and Zatanna doing something like that for the people here."

His hands wove through the air a little, calling up ice and mist to begin shaping the illustrations for the story. The first was a small crystalline mouse that began sniffing at his hands, then scurried up one arm, behind his neck and down the other.

"'Twas the night before Christmas," he began. "And all through the house, not a creature was stirring... not even a mouse."

[alphatar]

It wasn’t too often Korra got to see Jack use ice this intricately, only in those rare moments when she caught glimpses of him telling stories to children. Enraptured by the level control he used and how it played perfectly to the words, Korra forgot to blink more often than not.

She giggled when the mouse moved completely on its own on Jack and was reminded of how she would bend the snow to entertain the airbending children. Korra brought her feet into the air and moved them back and forth slowly as she listened.

[wintershepherd]

The ice mouse curled into a snoozing ball and then spread apart into individual snowflakes, caught round in tiny eddies of air where Jack's hands wove through them, shaping them again.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care," he continued, and little frosted socks hung down from a clear-ice blocked fireplace. "In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there."

[alphatar]

Having Jack tell a story just for her was very different from watching Jack tell his stories to kids. There was an audience, a boisterous one that could draw jack's eye; even if briefly.

Right now, she had nothing to interrupt the story and it's a completely new one.

But would this Saint Nicholas show to put gifts in those small stockings that gently shed wisps of ice that faded into the air, sometimes carried by the subtle breeze that came through the open window.

Korra leaned in at an angle to try and look up the chimney.

mini handwave of the whole story lol.

[wintershepherd]

The story continued from there, with Jack taking time and care to illustrate each major point of the rhyme. Santa in his illustrations of course looked like North right down to the way he would hold his stomach when he laughed and there was open fondness in Jack's expression as he animated the ice to show exactly that.

"He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle and away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight, Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

That works too! o/

[alphatar]

Seeing Jack light up like he did when speaking of Saint Nicholas, or North since he fit Jack's description perfectly, made Korra smile. Rarely did she the Winter Spirit give that look of affection that she'd seen.

No wonder children seemed to enjoy Christmas more than the adults. Catching sight of Santa while he worked was a rare treat. Satisfied with the story, Korra fluffed the pillow under her chin she had gotten while the miniature ice reindeer were flying the air.

"Yours is a lot longer than these." Her fingers gently touched the papers in front of them. "And better..."

[wintershepherd]

"Mine is still a work in progress," Jack replied, a gentle correction. "And a lot of it's missing. Even I don't know what kind of story it is yet."

[alphatar]

"I'd like to hear it when you think you can tell me." If she ever used more, Korra would hang on to the last coupon for that bedtime story.

"But this one was good." She grinned as she put the papers back in the box and slid it back under the bed. "...I don't really know if I'll be dreaming about sugar plums though. Not too sure what those would even taste like."

[wintershepherd]

Jack nodded, though it still held traces of reluctance and gladly latched onto the distraction.

"They're... okay, I guess? They're not my favourite thing. People don't really have them as much as they did a hundred years or so ago."

[alphatar]

"What is your favorite thing?" She asked curiously and propped her elbow so she could put her head in her hand, the other still curled around her pillow. "You already know what mine is."

[wintershepherd]

"For treats?" Jack smiled, stretching out a little. "Well, I'm pretty partial to peppermint. But for a special treat, there's-- hm, I think the name will get messed up if I try to say it in Russian. But it translates to Birds’ Milk Cake and it's amazing, especially if you can get the high end ones."

[alphatar]

She was hardly surprised at the peppermint, the candy always left a cold feeling in her mouth.

"Bird' Milk Cake? Do they have any of that here?" If it could get that high end, then maybe the Fire Sector. But really, the kedan were just catching on to foreigner foods.

[wintershepherd]

That was precisely why Jack loved it-- and also because it traveled well. Nothing beat a snack you could be flying around the globe and enjoying without worrying about it crumbling or melting.

"I haven't seen anything like it in Keeliai," the spirit replied. "And I'm not sure how to make it. I know it has marshmallow and a cake base, but..."

[alphatar]

"Oh, so it's actually a cake-cake?.

She had been thinking of a Varricake, one of the small desserts back in Republic City. "You said it's from Russia, right?"

[wintershepherd]

"They're little," Jack said, holding up his hands to show something in a small square. "But they're super rich tasting, you wouldn't want too many of them at once."

[alphatar]

"So it is kind of like a Varricake. They’re about the same size, but I don’t like them too much. They taste so manufactured." And now she knew why.

"Maybe someone who knows Russian food will show up, you never know."

[wintershepherd]

"A Varricake?" Jack echoed. "What goes into that?"

He smiled, thinking that Korra would probably adore North if she ever had the chance to meet him. But until then... "Pavel Chekov's from Russia," he said.

[alphatar]

"Egg custard. They’re popular in Republic City."

It took Korra a moment after Jack said it and then she broke out into a grin. "He is! I totally forgot, he was telling me about Russia and how cold it is. I’ll ask, it couldn’t hurt." The relied on replicators, but just maybe Pavel knew. He seemed ridiculously smart.