[OPEN] Life's flushest feather...

[wintershepherd]

Characters: Jack Frost & various
Date: Misc January
Location: Assorted around the city
Situation: Collection of threads for the latter part of January. Ping me if you want a starter!
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.


I. WELCOME CENTER
After his announcement of the welcome center, Jack was pleased to find that visitors to it picked up considerably as did the number of volunteers who offered to help out. In fact more people than he had expected had agreed to lend their time and aid and Jack was currently sitting on the floor in front of the desk, legs folded up under him and back against the wooden front. A spreadsheet was in front of him and he chewed absently on the end of his pencil, trying to redo the schedule to give everyone some time and on a separate piece of paper was some jotted notes about finances. He was running the costs of the Welcome Center out of pocket while for the most part, the fishing shop generally broke even for paying his employees and necessary supplies.

He was all right with math but he'd been staring at this for a little while and rubbed his eyes, stretching his arms over his head. "Hey Baby Tooth," he said, twisting his head to locate the fairy. "You hungry? Seems like a good time for lunch."

II. PLAYTIME
Even with how busy things got, Jack always made time in the afternoons to stop by some of the playgrounds and hang out with the kedan children. They talked about what they were learning in school, how amazed they were to watch the turtle hatchlings trundling their happy selves all around the city. How they had learned how to shift their forms in a new way and proceed to show it off, for which Jack was always effusive with his praise and admiration. They'd practice alternations that increased their resistance to the cold so that they could romp around in the snow longer, the novelty of their first real winter having not yet worn off for them as it had for many of the adults.

Most of the time he'd just sit with them, enjoy their company and they his. When they got tired from their play, Jack would scoop them up and deliver them snugly to their homes and so it was not unusual to see the spirit carrying one of them around sundown through the various Sectors.

Comments

[unetrustworthy]

She squinted. Trying to make out something that wasn't quite there, but far more there than had been a few moments ago.

"Do you have white hair?"

[wintershepherd]

There's a moment of surprised silence and then Jack answers, his voice far warmer than his given element. "Yeah," he replied, sounding equal parts delighted and proud. "I sure do, Midii."

[unetrustworthy]

A faint laugh escaped her. Jack's delight was apparently contageous, though there was still a noticeable degree of hesitation behind it.

"You keep...flickering. I saw white. I thought it was just my imagination or the lights or something, but...I think it's you."

[wintershepherd]

"I have an idea," he said. "I don't know if it'll work. Close your eyes."

[unetrustworthy]

She nodded, doing as he said and closing her eyes. Shifting in her seat a little to maintain balance, even if she couldn't see.

[wintershepherd]

"Think about winter," he said. "Not here, not in Keeliai but at home, in France. Think about waking up in the morning and finding that it's snowed overnight, how the sun hits where it drifts and catches the snow that blows off the tops of them like the way it catches the spray from the top of an ocean wave. How the whole world seems a little bit quieter, kind of muffled and you notice the little sounds you'd forgotten were there. Think about the way it sits on the tree branches and decorates the tops of fence posts, and gives the houses snowy hats."

[unetrustworthy]

She thought about Winter.

Her mind initially went to those inconvenient snows during her travels. When they had to dig themselves out of the banks to keep the caravans moving. The chill she would wake up with in the early morning hours, without a fire or too small of a space heater.

But that wasn't the kind of Winter Jack was talking about. So she thought back farther. To a much earlier time in her life.

She was...maybe six years old, if that. Her mother was still alive, and the twins were about as annoying as ever. They'd let her sleep in that morning. It was her birthday. November 12th, in the early AC 180s. A small crack in her window let in a chilling gust of air. It blew across her face, waking her up. She blinked, not used to such a gentle alarm clock, and sat up in her bed. Sounds from downstairs drifted upward, but for a few moments, she was alone. Peaceful.

A glimpse out the window showed a thin layer of frost on the glass, and a thick layer of white on the roads beyond that.

"...I'm thinking." She told him. "What now?"

[wintershepherd]

He certainly could in no way read minds nor was he any sort of empath but he could see how her expression changed, smoothed out as she found the right kind of memory.

"Remember how it made you feel," he said. "When you've got it... open your eyes."

[unetrustworthy]

How it made her feel...?

She opened her eyes to ask him what he meant by that...and found herself staring into a pair of bright blue orbs. That just so happened to be connected to a teenaged boy, maybe five years her senior.

And she jumped. "Jack!"

[wintershepherd]

He loves that he can feel when it happens and knows nothing will ever compare to the way it infuses him (warm and solid and thrilling and humbling all at once) and it shows in his expression. "That... will never, ever get old."

He takes a moment, a breath into still lungs and smiles at her. "You did it, Midii."

[unetrustworthy]

He wasn't completely solid. More like a still-flickering ghost of his usual self. Then again, for all Midii knew, that was what a Spirit of Winter was supposed to look like.

She hesitantly reached out to touch his hand. It went through, but she could feel a strange tingle when their respective presences made contact. She felt him. He was cold. She shivered a little.

"I did. But...how?"

What had changed since the last time?

[wintershepherd]

Even the fact that she couldn't touch him didn't dampen his mood in the slightest, nor would it have if he knew she was seeing him partially. To him it was the knowing of belief (and he wondered how the other Guardians could even function on that kind of high, if this is what it felt like) that he held onto, that told him this was real.

"Does the how matter so much?" It's a gentle question, not sarcastic.

[unetrustworthy]

"It does to me. I want to know what I'm doing right so I can keep doing it."

[wintershepherd]

He nodded once, accepting her answer... far be it from him to determine what was important for people. "All right. But, just don't forget to enjoy it at the same time. I mean, if I'm not too awful to see in person," he teased.

[unetrustworthy]

"Oh! No! You're not! I mean--" Her eyes averted, and she nervously tucked some hair behind one ear. "I didn't mean it like that, Jack. You're...just fine."

[wintershepherd]

Even if he was flickering to her vision, it would have been impossible to miss the playful smirk he was wearing. He was just being a little brat and teasing her, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Not too pasty?"

[unetrustworthy]

She shook her head. Still smiling. Still not looking at him.

"No. Not too pasty."

[wintershepherd]

He relents, turning his attention back to the map that was spread out on the table. He can read the French notations without too much trouble, though he supposes he could probably ask her for some brush up lessons that wouldn't go amiss too much.

"You're pretty observant," he remarks of her note taking.

[unetrustworthy]

She was thankful for the reprieve, considering her cheeks had just started to heat up. Having somebody's undivided attention like that...especially a boy's...was still so new to her. How much of her life had she spent fighting to be noticed for more than a few seconds at a time? How much of her life had she spent hiding in plain sight?

And he was complimenting her, too. Openly and unabashedly. Different from how Damian would.

"Thank you. Habit, I suppose. Back home, it was the only way I ever had a chance of learning things."

[wintershepherd]

"I learned pretty much everything the same way," he remarked. "Watching other people, other spirits... I even learned how to fly with the Wind by watching geese."

[unetrustworthy]

Minus the flying part, she nodded in full understanding.

"It can be pretty amazing how much the world shows you when it treats you like you're invisible half the time."

[wintershepherd]

"Heh," Jack said, utterly a short and wry laugh. "Or all of the time. But you're right, it's an opportunity. It's good that you were able to recognize that... I wasn't for a long time."

[unetrustworthy]

Silence. There wasn't much she could say. Not that she knew of, right then.

So instead, Midii focused her attention on the map. Eyes glossing over the countless scribbles that made it seem more like an art project than useful tool.

"Most of what I wrote here has to do with food and supplies. Where it was easier for me to find. Food, especially--did I mention I taught Bean how to cook one afternoon?"

[wintershepherd]

"Food and supplies are pretty key needs when people get here," Jack reassured. "Honestly that's been over half of the requests I've gotten so far."

[unetrustworthy]

"In that case..."

She leaned forward, using a pencil to circle about half a dozen markings. Then, she drew a triangle around five more.

"These are the best options. The circles are restaurants that charge the least. The triangles are places you can buy food to prepare at home."