#frostmas bts y4

[safyresky]

Frostmas Year 4: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9 | Y10 | Y11 | Y12

[To Read Frostmas: From the TOP on ao3 | ff dot net]

This'll be an interesting one to cover, given that I'm doing it while prepping for a cross-post which ultimately led to a full on rewrite 🤪🤪

So let's get into it! Year 4: Behind the Scenes, twenty twenty four edition >:)

Intro: OLD VERSION

My first thought that has me CACKLING I actually posted about IMMEDIATELY upon opening it for a reread lmao. An AN apologizing for a 7k word chapter lmao. I think these days that's a SMALL chapter by Dani standards!

It is now a whopping 12k. Pre second read through. Which is occurring as I edit this draft.

Here at safyresky industries, we are nothing but verbose✨

RIGHT SO. OLD VERSION

The old version is very fresh post-OG CS, tbh. Jacqueline mentions how she and B-Man became friends BECAUSE of this universe, right? Okay, well, they got on so well I was like "there's no WAY they've JUST become friends. They act like they've known each other forEVER"

So I changed that halfway through Frostmas, went back to edit a couple bits, and when I rewrote CS again, had it become more evident--especially with posting "When Bernard Met Jacqueline" halfway through this process, which was very much me just trying to figure out how friendship they are

The answer, it turns out, is yes. Very friendship

SO while cross-posting to ao3 we WILL be tweaking the "baby's first friend" thing

Can you believe when I initially created Jacqueline, she had no friends? fucking WILDIN. She's the friendliest bitch ALIVE. She gets along with the god damn BOOGEYMAN (in my head that is, lol, but given that I am fully referring to lmelodie's OC here, they obvi would be the boss there!)

(but Jacqueline in my head is like "I am making friends with this scraggily ass mother fucker)

ANYWAY.

Another old bit that I'm thinking of yeeting involves Jacqueline's comment on humans? It was a bit of foreshadowing for another story I was thinking of that'd've come after Into the Shadows, in which a chaotic entity of some sort manages to move ACTUAL LIVE HUMANS into Crystal Springs, the magical continent. BUT given that now it's not humans vs magical creatures but magibeans, magihumans, and ordibeings, this bit is super outdated and ALSO, given the collaborative nature round these parts, I...actually don't think I'll be WRITING this idea EVER, lmao

It was a Jack love interest story 100% but now I'm like "...nah" about it, lol

Tho the original idea of a human that knows of and teaches about magibeans moving to CS/finding themselves there is still very intriguing and gd funny

All the magibeans are perplexed. The Assembly is like "well,,,,it's not not allowed?? We never banned it? HOW did they even GET HERE"

So YEAH, there's your two interesting facts for the OLD INTRO

Intro: NEW VERSION

Blaise, Jacqueline, and Fiera have gnarly tempers. Jacqueline is ever so jealous they can literally explode things.

I have been heavily vibing the little brief peeks into when Jacqueline was asking Jack all about his take on Frostmas and I thought the one in Y3 would be the last one

But then I re-read the intro

And. Well. HERE WE ARE.

I actually really liked this one! It's been lots of fun picturing the Frostmas Asides part of Frostmas so far--hence the increase in these little blips and the Blinter aside I have in drafts that I will unleash. At some point. It takes place during Frostmas Y3, lol.

Idk I just really like examining how these mofos function, given the past and reformed villainy and such. WRITING IS FUN.

I may need to scrimbly this because it is the funniest fucking mental image I have given myself in a hot minute:

That had made him laugh, which was nice to see. I’d been grilling him for like, six days at this point—on the job, at home, as he was trying to enjoy a morning coffee in the silence of his condo, watching the lovely flurry outside when the little flurry herself barged in with more questions at eight in the goddess-damned morning.

I am absolutely WHEEZING about it, it's giving HOLY FROST MOM vibes lol

"You are the goddess's biggest idiot" another absolute banger of a line

BERNARD! :D. Idk why but I'm just really here for soft and no nonsense B-Man. I just LOVE writing him actually caring about the other elves it just. It SLAPS. It FEELS RIGHT. Yes he snaps sometimes and seems a lil' grumpy in tsc 1 (I mean, I would be too dealing with Scott), BUT HE IS A BIG OLD SOFTY IN MY BOOKS WHO LOVES THE ELVES AND LOVES HIS JOB AND SHOULD LEGALLY BE GIVEN A WEAPON AND ALLOWED TO DO A MURDER I THINK

ANYWAY. HOW DOES JACQUELINE DO BE KNOWING.

I have explanations for all of it in place, but those won't be revealed until Y12. SO, in the meantime, I had Jacqueline explain our logic so far in the LEAST spoilery way possible, and that is why this whole passage exists, lol.

Jacqueline hating on Santa Scott is 100% my bad, post-series

It is also me projecting! I am in the same camp as Jacqueline when it comes to "people who have wronged friends". My love language is VIOLENT THREAT aka, IT'S THE THREAT THAT COUNTS 💖

It was also my way of keeping Jacqueline's comment on ordibeings being in CS in without it coming off as like, anti-human propaganda or smth lol (see the foreshadowing an ex-story comment above!)

"And considering what happened to him [B-Man]…well, I think it's better that way."

So THAT was my first stab at foreshadowing what happens to B-Man in (checks calendar) Year Eight! I made them as vague as possible bc we don't know what happened to Bernard between tsc2 and tsc3--that is, we DIDN'T.

BUT I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THE SERIES IS CANON!

Anyway, I tried to make it as vague as possible on purpose bc I wanted to keep everyone guessing >:) and MAYBE make them think I killed off B-Man 🤭🤭🤭

GUESS WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT FOR YEAR 8 TO FIND OUT! ;D

Also. I should REALLY crosspost "When Bernard Met Jacqueline" like. STAT

Scene 1: MN's visit

I have SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS ONE. A lot on the subject of old vs new, tbh!

Right, so, in the OG. MN felt SO MEAN.

And I have this thing. this very particular thing about MN's character and characterization, specifically.

I get SO MAD when people make her SO MEAN FOR NO REASON. I have seen so many bad takes where she's just the worst, an absolute bitch, super rude and unfriendly and I'm like? Mother Nature? Mother Freakin Nature???

Like SURE OKAY. FUCK WEATHER. THAT SHIT SOMETIMES DOES NOT SLAP!! But come ON. She's Mother Nature! Yeah she's scary and THE literal force of nature, but why just that? Why shouldn't she be kind and caring? PLENTY OF MOMENTS IN THE MOVIES WHERE SHE APPEARED SHE WAS GENTLE AND SOFT SPOKEN. COME ON!

AH.

Needless to say. As I was prepping this for crosspoting, I reread MN asking Jacqueline to use her connection and went "SHE WOULD NOT FUCKING SAY OR DO THAT"

She would RESPECT BOUNDARIES! AS WE ALL SHOULD!

And I've just come out of like 5 years worth of boundaries being trampled ALL OVER so I was very not here for it so, naturally, I changed that shit RIGHT UP. RIGHT UP. AH!

I thought it'd be hard to restructure Jacqueline's reaction, but it TURNS OUT after the YEAR I'VE HAD it was quite was and made sense for her to immediately jump the gun, as it were, and get herself all worked up bc I have been doing this for a solid year and a half at this point so. y'know. FELT.

Poor girl's been in Fight mode for a solid 4 years at this point! She's just trying to survive! It's no WONDER she explodes that easily

Jacqueline: I can't explode :(

Also Jacqueline: explodes ~✨emotionally✨~

I've also found, revisiting Frostmas post CS rewrite and MtF clean up and 10 years of development on the cast of characters here had me looking at how I characterized WINTER and going WELL THIS IS WRONG

So she's...not as sad and despondent and holding Jacqueline at arms length

Instead, she is doing her best to be there for Jacqueline while also not being overbearing bc she very much does NOT want a repeat of number 1 with number 2!! ah!

They're all trying not to step on each other's toes and they aren't even in the SAME ROOM

THE BELL THING! It's how I hc they call meetings! Slash how the CS versions do it :)

They all have a tiny little bell that works as an e-mail, lol. You pick it up, which activated it, give it your message/meeting deets, and then give it a little ring! It sends the message to the other bells, and the other Legendaries get it, and they meet up at the place of the person who called it--unless otherwise specified.

I imagine they have specific yearly meetings that take place on or around the same time, and the bells are used to update meetings or call emergency ones! :)

I've no idea where I got the idea from but it's giving Polar Express, isn't it? 🤔🤔🤔

I'm getting the sense I may have to make a list of aliases for Blaise a la the one I have for Jacqueline. So far we've got about 70 variations of the phrase "hottie hot hottie" courtesy of Winter, fiery dilf courtesy of my husbando, baby cleaner extraordinaire, and now, apparently carpet steamer, too!

I quite enjoy picturing the Frosts using their elemental proficiency for mundane things. Like starting fires (IN THE FIREPLACE/HEARTH!), Dishes. Cleaning carpets, apparently 🤣

"I've half a mind to lightning bolt the next person who brings it up" YES MN. MUCH BETTER. GO OFF! I wrote this then pictured EB becoming a giant poof ball and wheezed, so it stayed 😎

"And you should hear this too, mom" is deffs a reference to that meme lol. It's been in my head as of late :p. Pedro Pascal is an enjoyable human being tbh!

God. Having Jacqueline be allowed to swear in the narration was like. My BEST idea. FEELS GOOD. FEELS RIGHT. SHE'S A POTTY MOUTH. Probably the worst of her siblings. Yes, even Fiera!

Mmmmm well maybe not QUITE. I think Fiera comes close but Jacqueline takes the damn cake lol

Scene 2: "You Look Like Sleet, B-Man"

They both do tbh, lmao, who're you fooling, Jacqueline 😏😏

Have you guys ever read Just An Elf by Locrain-Mode over on fanfiction dot net? I strongly recommend you do. The BEST Bernard characterization I EVER did see exists in the series of oneshots and it is 100% how I inform my characterization of B-Man.

ESPECIALLY in Frostmas tbh!!

Crystal Springs FACT: Jacqueline dislikes puns. A lot. There is one (1) exception she'll make and I'll keep that close to my chest for a rainy day ;)

Anyway, focusing on the behind the scenes stuff now: Bernard calling Jacqueline "Jacquie" is 100% me inflicting pain on shittyelfwriter on purpose bc we're friends and i love her, lol

I ALSO love angst! And what, indeed, is up with Elle during Frostmas? where's she at?

We'll find out year 12 ;)

But you can see WHY it gave Jacqueline hope--for a brief moment she lived in a world where maybe Bernard remembered--which would make this whole situation like, wayyyyy smoother and easier to take care of for the both of them tbh!

So of course, we CAN'T have that!

Anyway I really love Jacqueline and B-Man's friendship. And they both deserve some floor time. And yes, I 100% meant to end this scene with Jacqueline giving these vibes:

huehuehuehuehue >:3

Scene 3: MEETING TIME

Oh, Council meetings. I'm sure they made the ribbing in the movie as a one off joke, espesh since it is. y'know. a very old person kinda joke, but I quite enjoy it!

Anyway, throwing Jacqueline into the Council Meeting gave me the utmost glee bc I got to dial up her frosty-ness, bordering her on Jack territory and given everything she'd JUST told Bernard, I was CACKLING as I put this blorbo through the ringer >:)

It does foreshadow how things go later what with her frosty attitude! ehehe >:)

I'm actually applauding myself as I reread/edit/tweak/rewrite. I really was laying it in for Year 10's big reveal, eh? >:D

"If Two-ie over here would just look into his mind..." <- A fun lil' nickname for Jacqueline given that she is the Second Jack Frost. Two-ie? Two-y? You get it lol

SUBLIME. Barbie movie is, apparently, still on the brain lol.

And Jacqueline is once again ruining furniture by way of losing control of powers slightly! I love when she does that >:)

AND JACK'S GRAND ENTRANCE! The bit about him moving the frost instead of Jacqueline is a new edition and I love it.

YEAH! MAKE EACH OTHER SUFFER! REMIND HIM AGAIN THAT HE CAN'T DO HIS USUAL SLEET, MWAHAHAHA

And VOILA! The Resort...BEGINS. Well, almost!!! I mean, in the movie Jack himself says he started out doing the job as is but found it to be too much work--and making a theme park like THAT? I think it'd take a little bit more time, especially with such a huge operations shift. so! Year Four the idea is revealed!

FRANCHISING. IDK WHY I DIDN'T THINK OF IT UNTIL NOW, TEN ISH YEARS LATER!!! Imagine an AU where they DID franchise and all of the Council Members now had their realms open as theme parks slash resorts?? like. WHAT would make them AGREE TO THAT

I feel like at this point my Frostmas mantra is "how can I make this WORSE"

"COOKIES are DELICIOUS!" Crystal Springs FACT: Jacqueline has a MAHOOSIVE sweet tooth. She's more partial to cakes and cupcakes, but a good cookie is a good cookie, y'know?

AND THEN SHE GETS KICKED OUT OF THE MEETING. ICONIC.

“You’ve got a kill count?” “Bernard, I was a pirate. But shenanigans aside, I’m a whole entire season. I’m sure that thousands of people have died from like, hypothermia or exposure during a storm I ushered in.” “Pretty sure that that’s not on you.” I pouted. “Well maybe I want to have a kill count!” “Oh, well, in that case, don’t let me ruin your fun.”

Please, they're so FUNNY. I think I added about 3k words to this chapter upon crossposting? And it was all added dialogue, like this

I am but the vessel. These fuckers stole the wheel a long, long time ago

"...and a whole lot of aggression to misplace" fun fact: this is 100% a Danny Phantom reference that has lived rent free in my head since I was TEN, PROBABLY. He's pissed about something then the box ghost is all BEWARE and Danny's like "😏😏 heLLO MISPLACED AGGRESSION!"

Idk why it stuck with me, but it did! We're not going to read into/psychoanalyze that! :D

AND BOOM, I HIT YOU WITH THE ENDING LINE!

I think it hit better before, but tbh it needed a bit of finagling given how the story has progressed since I originally wrote this chapter. I deffs think it plays into the bigger picture better like this! And tbh, that's good enough for me :3

Not as many memes or references to real world shit in this one. I guess I was having a chill time when I originally posted it? It was very fun to rewrite it! I've forgotten how fun it is to pit the cold front against one another in this timeline~

Enjoy the BTS! And enjoy the FRESHLY UPDATED Frostmas: Year Four here on ao3 and on ff dot net like, tomorrow ish! 💖

[safyresky]

Frostmas Year Ten: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9 | Y10 | Y11 | Y12

[To Read Frostmas: From the TOP | Year Ten]

---

Boy howdy! It was two years in the making but, at about 30k ish words, year ten is FINALLY finished and I can FINALLY say, out loud, that Jacqueline got fuckin FROZEN!

Lots I wanna share because Year Ten had the MOST edits out of all the years I’ve written so far. I do NOT want to know what Year Eleven will be like. Y10 was like, the HARDEST year to write so far! Let's get GROOVING

The Intro

I actually rewrote the intro after finishing the entire year. It was a weak start, originally, I realized after writing those three BANGERS of final scenes!

the version you SHOULD have read was only completed on the 13th, after being rewritten once the day before.

I almost didn’t write an intro for Year Ten. I actually think, when I started writing it, on Easter Day two and a half years ago lmao, I went right into the beginning of the year.

If I’m remembering correctly, I actually didn’t write the intro until after the All-Staff scene!

Scene 1: Bernard Machine BROKE

what the elf is elf version of what the fuck. v. important note

“We’re really in it now Jacqueline” is absolutely, 100%, the Frostmas version of this meme from The Good Place:

And oh boy, with Y10 of Frostmas? WE ARE REALLY IN IT NOW, JACQUELINE

OKAY SO one of the reasons I decided to do these BTS things was for all of the memes/references bc I find it FASCINATING that I can read these chapters and recall DISTINCTLY what I was doing/hyper fixating on at the time. Year Ten edition: Quarantine 2020!

First reference: Jacqueline deciding to go to Timmies

I was 100% projecting, a month into quarantine and I had NO IDEA if Tim’s was open and I was craving timbits and my iced capp of choice (which is also Jacqueline’s)

SO I WROTE IT IN

Two months in I saw they were open via drive thrus and I have a car so I got me that ding dang iced capp

HONESTLY, a lot of Canadians don’t actually like Timmies these days. Apparently, they’ve gone down hill. But Imma be real with you folks, ice capps HIT and I have yet to find a place with a similar drink that hides caffeine well enough for me to enjoy!

Stir-Fry: Best way to make a quick dins and get rid of leftovers

Okay, srs note now: thinking about what would drive Bernard to leave, without knowing what the canon relationship between Jack and B-Man is (tho most people HC that they HATE each other and B wouldn’t take Jack’s BS, and I support this) one of the hardest things I’ve done, to date.

like Jacqueline said in the intro, this is Bernard’s home! He takes care of the elves, they’re his fam! Like, everything considering Bernard’s decision is HEARTBREAKING and the only way I could think of that would allow Bernard to fully leave the picture is, well, him basically trading his “exile” for their freedom.

The conversation they have once B-Man has semi-processed grief is once again, me trying to work it all out

apparently a running frostmas theme for things I can’t figure out is to get Berline some food and watch them scheme. Hey, if it works it works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Scene 2: Jack gets SERVED

fun fact: I added this scene in after writing about half of the chapter! It was reading very bad prior, since I had just summarized what Bernard did.

“you’re not you when you’re hungry” I think about that commercial a lot. Specifically the Betty White version

it’s also a gr8 Jack line, 100%

so thanks to snickers, i guess, for giving me free dialogue (🤫)

I actually really like this scene! I think it’s a v good villainy Jack scene!

Scene 3: All Staff Meeting

I hate all staff meetings. We had one MONTHLY in quarantine and by the time May rolled around, I never wanted to go to one ever again

SO LET’S MAKE THE ELVES GO INTO ONE! at least they got to go in person 😢😢

Idk why I had B-man give a spare set of keys to Quintin? It’s been so long since I wrote that part, and Quintin makes his way to the Valley in the later half of the year ANYWAY. I actually went back and edited the final few scenes to hint that Quintin splits his time

like some kind of divorce settlement

he and elfsburg divorced. he gets the shop every other week 😂😂😂

ALTHOUGH it IS before B-Man knows he’ll be able to relocate everyone, so maybe that was part of the reasoning?? See, this is what happens when you wip something for TWO YEARS. 30k later ur a mess

Also, hate that Quintin is spelt Quintin. Mostly bc spell check hates it. Sorry spell check, BUT THAT’S HOW IT’S SPELT IN TSC1 END CREDITS

Anyway I think Curtis deserves a little credit, as a treat, and I’m SOFT for B-Man being soft with the elves 🥺

especially since he gets really, really, really into the Resort stuff (that’s canon, you saw him in the last movie!)

Quarantine 2020 Reference: “And for now, it’s the new normal”

we’ve all heard it at this point, even B-Man apparently

also, totally forgot that I had established a LOCKDOWN before covid19 did lmao, almost thought it was another quarantine reference

Scene 4: Frost Mansion/Manor

was two scenes, fixed it to be one scene! one of the many, many, many, MANY edits I was doing up until I finally posted the chapter. This year took SOO MUCH EDITING

the Blaise making a room scene was literally just so I could show off that I finally figured out how warlocks worked in CS :D

AND I FINALLY GOT TO MAKE THE SALARIED/HOURLIED JOKE I’VE BEEN DYING TO MAKE FOR YEARS!!

Legates are salaried! That’s a Crystal Springs FACT

anyway I think about how jelly like the magic in tsc series is. do you? i think about it a lot. like, you could chose any kinds of sounds, and you go for slurping? icky

Scene 5: City Square; Scene 6: Meeting with Governor Blaise

This scene. was another one. that got rewritten way too many times. Idk what it is about Y10, but I could NOT get things sounding decent on the first try for like, MOST of the scenes! Except for the last one, lmao. I’ve had that written for a year :)

it was another opportunity for lore drop tbh, i’m shameless

on that note, I’d like to thank Assasin’s Creed: Valhalla for teaching me what a MOOT is, historically speaking! I read it and was like so THAT’S what CS does! Aight, neat!

“Blaise said with a grin, opening his arms” similar to how Jack said. three or four scenes back 🙃🙃 I didn’t even realize the parallel until the third in process read through!

(Scene 7 is the Council Meeting, and not much BTS info exists for it so we skip!)

Scene 8: Ley Lines

MY BIGGEST MOST GINORMOUS THANKS EVER TO @shittyelfwriter​ BECAUSE I WOULD NOT! HAVE COME TO THIS CONCLUSION WITHOUT HER HELP!

She had the brilliant idea of Christmas trees being like beacons? And chatted with me for a good two or three hours one winter evening in 2020 to help me workshop this idea!

there was another idea of the stockings delivering the gifts but it was knocked down lol, if the trees are calling in the gifts then why on earth would they come shooting through the stockings?

besides, stockings are their own spawn points!!! they gotta be filled with STUFFERS like FUZZY SOCKS, AND CANDY, AND CHOCOLATE!!

no idea how I connected everything together afterwards, tho. Maybe that’s why this year took two whole years to write 😲😲

anyway, yeah, no, thank you SO much as usual ana for being your amazing self FILLED with BRILLIANT ideas and letting me pick from your genius!! something something we stan??? is that meme dead yet?

(oh! and if u squint...u can see Winter watching for frozie Jacquie)

Scene 9: The First Check In

Once again, i have Jacqueline noticing that someone looks slightly different to acknowledge changes in the movies! This edition: Curtis’s growth spurt and slightly deeper voice 👀

(the voice bit was shoehorned in very last minute 🤫)

I ALSO started dropping hints about how Curtis gets very into the Resort later on. I mean, I thought he was way too invested when Scott finds him at the Resort! He was not as disgruntled as any of the other elves were. I’m running with the subtext >:)

FUN FACT: this is where I left off when I initially started doing this Frostmas BTS. I had not made it very far. ONWARDS

Scene 10: Everything Moves Fast

My one regret with this chapter is settling on "New Elfsburg" before placing it in a valley. "Elfsburg Valley" is just so...chef's kiss

BOOM! ELLE DROP! I've got plans for Ms Elle come next chapter. You guys probably won't like it, but uh, I will enjoy the reveal immensely >:)

"saying you were part of Health and Safety went a long way with ordinary beings" -> I'd like to thank Doctor Who episode "Partners in Crime" for this one! I watched it a LOT during the two years of writing this chapter took. It was a rough two years and I was taking all the comfort I could get while isolated from my fiance and my family and LITERALLY EVERYONE

Scene 11: Bag Heist

oh my god this scene. this scene is so good for so many reasons

Jacqueline being an ass

Jack being an ass

God tier frozie sibling banter

Jacqueline acting almost EXACTLY like Jack would just to bug him--hammering home the theme of "becoming what you fear most >:)"

Also, it was so much fun to write! It was goddamn hilarious!

"Do your kids really want the flu?" I asked, hands on my hips. "Because a kid sneezed all over the place a few photos ago, and we need to sanitize this asap. Maybe even close it off for the day."

-> More Covid Nuggets lol

"Barry, right? You chased me out of storage the other day! I remember that, that was fun! How's your arm?"

-> Jacqueline is very much causing trouble and I am trying to really really reinforce that lmao. She's on a first name basis with some of the guards!

"Sorry Barry, but I have the high ground now" -> for some reason, my friend sir eng and my fiance got really into quoting that specific phrase re: Star Wars:

just before my household shifted and we went FULL lockdown, my (now) fiance (then boyfriend) came up for a visit and marathoned Star Wars with our friend Sir Eng while I was working

(I think that's how it went! May have been my other housemate, and then Sir Eng said it to Fiance and it went downhill from there. Idk man. April-Oct 2021 was kind of a blur)

it went downhill from there, haha. It was a popular turn of phrase up until Sir Eng moved out!

FUN FACT: Jacqueline has never seen a Star Wars :)

"That wasn't rhetorical, Jacqueline. Why is it you're holding Santa's bag? Don't you have citrus to freeze? Noses to get all runny?"

"Not until 3," I said, to more laughter.

Thank you based Spongebob for the ABOVE reference :)

Scene 12-14: It's DORMANT

So, my running gag for this year of Frostmas is basically this:

And it SHOWS in this scene, especially! More on that in a mo!

"The Workshop itself had been designed to be a bit smaller, to be ready in time for toy making. It felt a lot bigger on the inside thanks to some brilliant engineering on Quintin's end"

->this is 100% a dr who/British joke, a la this scene from Phineas and Ferb's Avengers crossover. It lives rent free in my head for whatEVER reason, especially since I never saw the entire episode!

but also, like, why WOULDN'T they have it be bigger on the inside? They're MAGICAL. SUSPEND THE DISBELIEF! anyway.

""At this point, I don't care how you got it. I'm just glad you got it." Bernard said, gently taking the bag off of my arm."

->and so it begins! B-Man literally does not care, he just wants to get this moving and try his bestest to save cribmas 🥺🥺

"Everything dies eventually. Even us," Bernard pointed out.

"You must be fun at parties," I said, thrown off guard.

they are at their WORST! BMAN IS DEPRESSED AF! JACQUELINE IS FROZEN AF! I AM THRIVING!

And Winter is in her element! She's got very mom energy. I'm hoping to explain why she's quietly lurking in the next chapter, but basically she has the BIG WORRY for both Jacqueline AND Bernard! She knows Jacquie's frozen, as we see in the final scene. she's doing her best to be there but NOT be overbearing

And Bernard is doing her a real big worry, too! Her mom senses are going crazy

(Winter would've been gr8 at being the next Mother Nature. She declined when approached by MN when the Legate Law was put into place. More on that in Into the Shadows!)

"If you keep clenching your jaw like that, you're going to need a night guard" -> You'll never guess who did, in fact, get a night guard around this time (last March)

if you guessed me, you are so correct lmao. again, one of those oh hey! I recall why this went in! What a crazy thing to look back at! anyway it's done wonders for stress headaches, and I'm positive Bernard would benefit from having one lmao

Ah yes. A bit of sillies before we head into the BERNARD DOES DUMB SHIT portion! Little Shop of Horrors was the first production I saw "post" covid. I quite liked it. The puppet for Audrey 2? AMAZING.

Jacqueline's Interlude

I just had to edit the Jacqueline interlude because holy guacamole, were there EVER spelling mistakes GALORE. It's like, did I miss that section ENTIRELY?! DAMN.

Anyway, it's kinda funny, I remember getting to that part and having to take a step back with all of the shit I was about to do--those three BANGERS of end scenes 😍😍--and straight up needing a moment to process it ebcause I couldn;t figure out how it all started

Mostly because Jacqueline was mum on the subject, if you can believe it. Can't blame her in the slightest, lol, but when ur characters get suddenly quiet while you're trying to tell their story? YEAH. IT'S A PROBLEM

SO. TAKE THE STEP BACK, SEE WHERE JACQUIE'S AT, AND THEN FIND A GOOD WAY TO GET ON WITH THE NEXT THREE BANGERS!

This was ALSO a fun spot to shoehorn in some ah, CS government lore >:) Do I know how their system works? YES! Do I know wtf it is? NO! But it seems to work for them so YEAH, ENJOY THE LORE

THE LAST THREE SCENES (14-16)

Looking back at these now have me cackling, I really went BAM! BAM! BAM! with a bat to everyone's knees, huh? Anyway

YEAH. WOW. you know, this whole section was unplanned. Like, the bag failing? Unplanned--kinda just happened as I wrote! Bernard doing the dumb shit? Not planned, but the moment I had the bag low on magic, I went ah. yes. Bernard would 100% do his best to help save it, given everything he's sacrificed and lost so far

And Jacqueline would be MAD about it, given the ENTIRE situation that Frostmas is/has caused and also, the FROZEN THING

My god, tho. I really feel for Bernard, you know? It's just. WOW. after all of that everything, you just really, really, really want, need something to go right. I feel like we've all probably been there before!

But yeah, everyone's really at their lowest low here

And even with their sibling-esque banter, Berline is still not doing so HOT

AND THEN THE KICKER! THE FROZEN-NESS! AH!

I had that final scene written for YEARS. I think since year 8 went up? My GOD. Been biting my tongue for WAY TOO LONG to try and avoid spoilers but boy am I GLAD it's OUT NOW! AH!

This year of Frostmas decked me lmao. WOWIE. Anyway, plz enjoy the Y10 bts! and the MEMES! I'm HOPING this kick starts my ass into figuring out why Y11 isn't quite VIBING rn 🤔🤔🤔

[safyresky]

Frostmas Year 7: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9 | Y10 | Y11 | Y12

Lmao I JUST posted Y6 and the BTS for it like, YESTERDAY as of starting this post, and I'm ALREADY HITTING UP YEAR 7 LMAO LET'S GOOOOoOOOOoooooOOo

Year Seven was a fun one! My notes were small and it ended up being one of the longer chapters which was genuinely shocking to me. Year 9 also did the SAME THING. Check out the OG notes below the cut! :)

[ID in ALT]

Short enough it fits in a screenshot. WILD. ALTHOUGH! It is SURROUNDED with little snippets from the year (hence the "see right side" note up top)—I imagine they were written while I was struggling with Year 6.

Anyway! Let's hecking get into this, yeah?

Jacqueline's Intro

Guess who scrapped it!

THIS GAL

Fun fact: I actually never liked the intro. I felt it really deterred from where I left off in Y6, so when I went back to read it and still felt this feeling, I scrapped it

As of writing this, I THINK I'm going to add it post-the tree and fast freeze hair scene? But we'll see if it works with the funky flow of things~

OKAY REGROUPING A WEEK LATER BC YOU GUYS. AS I READ THROUGH IT TO FILL THIS THING OUT I REALIZED SOMETHING. THE EVENTS OF YEAR SEVEN? THE WAY I WROTE IT, ALL HAPPEN WITHIN A DAY:

Jacqueline heads back to the Pole January 3rd

She has the convo about the Final Form Resort with B on January 3rd

They come up with the arson idea on January 3rd

She gets the twins clearance from Santa Jack during his wee lil interview on January 3rd

SHE GOES HOME AND GETS BLINTER APPROVAL AND THE TWINS TO AGREE ON J A N U A R Y 3RD

THEY THEN. IMMEDIATELY GO UP TO THE NORTH POLE AND JACQUELINE DOES THE WHOLE AIRPORT SHENANIGANS WITH JACK ON JANUARY THIRD

WHILE BELOW THEM. THE TWINS WING IT UNDER BERNARD'S WATCHFUL EYE. AND BURN THE NORTH POLE RESORT STUFF TO THE GROUND.

ON

JANUARY

THIRD

Now when I originally wrote this, I had not picked up on that at ALL. I thought that there'd been some time in between, but alas! I did it all on the SAME DAY. It only FELT LIKE IN BETWEEN TIME BECAUSE I KEPT TAKING LONG BREAKS BETWEEN WRITING SESSIONS!

AH!

SO I HAD TO OVERHAUL THAT WHICH DRASTICALLY CHANGED THE WHOLE CHAPTER FROM HOW IT ORIGINALLY WAS, ESPECIALLY SINCE THE TWINS ARE 12, NOT 8 (hundred) LIKE I ORIGINALLY HAD THEM IN LIKE. 2012! FUCKIN EH!

So NOW, without FURTHER ado. The Behind the Scenes of Year 7 Mark 2 because ah-fuck-i-can't-believe-i've-done-this dot vine.

Scene 1: Freedom

As per the crossed out original opening of this BTS, I decided to move the intro somewhere else, and found a good place for it, I think. I didn't want to break up the flow from Y6 into Y7, and I kind of like it a LOT better like this! :)

"Right now immediately" is tumblr vernacular/maybe a reference to the breadsticks meme?

Don't worry, she DOES find her left shoe again! Snow likes her a lot so when she went back up north she was like "HEY SNOW. YOU SEEN MY SHOE." and the snow yeeted it right out of a huge drift and slid it her way :)

And FINALLY she decides to come CLEAN to Blinter

I gotta tell you guys. Writing Blinter has been a STRUGGLE in these old parts. I have to keep remembering that CS has not happened, nor has MtF, so Winter's frozey and Blaise needs a Fucking Nap. I ALSO have to remember that they are decent parents. Like, they are trying their best. And as I read through these old chapters, some things they said were phrased in such a way that I was like "Hmm. My parents would say that. Let's change that!"

The other thing too is that a lot of lines in Frostmas were peer reviewed and quite well liked in the reviews, so trying to keep those in (because I liked them too!) while updating the vernacular and making sure everyone is in character has been a CHALLENGE. But I think I did well enough! HOPEFULLY.

My apologies if there was a line you liked that's GONZO now 🫠

Scene 2: Coming Clean to Blinter

This scene actually held up pretty well!

One major change was Blaise's anger. It was directed at her, so this time around I tweaked his vocab to make sure it was directed at her disappearance, and to hopefully show that it's coming from a place of concern and fear and that's why he's angry about it lmao

Winter too! Though she deffs didn't appreciate Jacqueline's sass levels, which are 100% hints I've dropped about what happens to her at the end of Year 10 >:)

"...they had grown into a sentient enchantment"

^So the gates at Frost Manor were NOT enchanted by Blaise to open on their own, funnily enough! They grew into sentience on their own. It happens sometimes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But the gates are one of my fave characters and they really love the family which is a good thing given they've been standing on that lot for like, four thousand or so years

RIGHT INTO THE FUN BITS

"Mom’s thumb rubbed my cheeks, her lips pursed. “Jacqueline darling…what have you done to yourself.” She chipped away at the ice on my face, head tilted, looking…perplexed."

The MOMENT she sees Jacqueline she's like "this is fake as fuck. why have you put all this ice on your face. what in the actual fuck, Jacqueline"

She's gd Winter ffs!!! And Jacqueline ain't SLICK! She thinks she is but she's really not :) But she tries and we gotta give her credit where it's due!

"I know it's convincing" says Jacqueline, meanwhile Winter's thinking "it's a mess, actually, and close up not convincing in the slightest but you've had a long day so I'm not going to roast you about that this time :)"

"Your FATHER trying to reach out" is a new line! Since I decided how Blaise's connections with the kids worked I figured I'd mention in in Y7 lmao. He's like "I'll leave you be but I am there if you need me" meanwhile Winter's like "I am a constant threat presence"

It's an interesting view into how they both grew up, actually, how they approach parenting and how their connections work!

Winter was surrounded by loud, loving sisters and a lovely mum. They were/are very tight knit and it shows with how active her connections with the kids are

Blaise didn't have a lot of freedom growing up, CONSTANTLY under the watchful eye of his parents AND brother AND the entire nobility AND the entire gd continent so he, of course, is very much like. Give them the freedom they need but support where you can kind of thing

sups off topic. Getting back ON topic. AH.

the line about the spiked warm drink was one of MY faves and I did my best to make sure I could keep it in there >:)

Scene 2.5: The Actual Chat

Blaise's hair is his worst tell. And the truth of the matter is, he can 100% keep it temperate if he wants too but he doesn't—he is the reason Winter always beats him at poker or any card game involving bluffing, really :P

Blinter deffs were unsure she'd be back by Christmas, given how everything went with the first child. They tried very hard to be hopeful and they were, doubt just creeps in REAL EASY especially when you're THAT old and have SEEN SOME SHIT

And the thing is, they DO understand! They've both been there. Dealing with some gnarly extenuating circumstance, that may or may not have been caused by family members or at least, contributed to by them, and they have fought through it and clawed their way out of the ground time and time again and are reminding Jacqueline about that in this whole scene. And also me. Because I frequently forget the shit I put these two through when they were younger (see: civil war, the call, day of darkness)

Blaise's speech about how many times can you keep doing it is loosely inspired by this post which whenever I see it I go hope IS messy, and also, BLAISE VIBES bc that's his core lmao

And it makes me feel better for constantly trying again and again even when things seem hopeless

hope really is messy business, isn't it? ANYWAY

"I am a simple woman. I just like to watch people flail on ice until they fall over.” “A worthy pursuit.” “Thank you, dear.” Dad nodded over the rim of his cup.

this was newly added, i fucking LOVE Winter she's so funny and Blaise is just like "you're valid hun" like. I love them? 🥰🥰🥰

And WHAMMO! WE INTRODUCE THE ACCIDENTAL FREEZE!

Which was HUGE foreshadowing, lol, as that's LITERALLY what HAPPENS as we know by now in Year 10!

You've heard of sad. You've heard of bad. Get ready for ANGRY. REALLY, REALLY FUCKING ANGRY! That's Jacqueline's nature as a frozen sprite, if you haven't noticed lmao

Reading this now post writing it, I'm like, DAMN, I could go for a Blinter sammy hug. That sounds delectable!

Scene 3

I have I ever told you all how I can pinpoint the exact moment Jacqueline's heart freezes? No? Well, I can, and if you're curious to know, it's in this scene 🤫

Scene 4: Visiting Gran

Yet ANOTHER instance of fixing shady character shit, oy VEY.

One of my pet peeves is Mother Nature being characterized as the BIGGEST bitch, derogatory, completely uncaring and cold. Like, yeah, Nature do be like that but also, it do be warm and comforting and nurturing, you know?

And she always seems very nice in her scenes in the movies so, you know, the MOMENT someone is like "she doesn't CARE" or ANYTHING like that I'm OUT.

So when I catch it happening in MY work I'm like, oh HELL NOOO

And I think this scene had a few instances of it that have since been refreshed and cleared out :)

CS HEADCANON ALERT: Fairies can shrink their size to get into small places! So can Pixies.

CS HEADCANON ALERT: The Legendary Figures all guard a specific type of magic that was used to create the World. Oh, there's all sorts of magic involved there. But the big ones, the ones that are easy to pick up on and most common? The Legendary Figures guard it, and make sure it keeps flowing and that the world keeps turning

This is why MN says that she felt a shift and things felt righted—Jacqueline, being a Legendary Figure atm, coming back out into the world proper, tips the magic balance back to where it should be.

Hence the comment of "having the legendary magics back in the fold, and all that" and the meaning behind it! Which maybe you didn't need to know. But hey! You know now! :)

Scene 5: VINDICATION

Because that's Jacqueline's thought the ENTIRE time the council is meeting. I WAS RIGHT THE ENTIRE TIME and she is READY to gloat about it and WILL gloat about it FOREVER

And now we're getting into the messy business of "how come the Council didn't know Jack wasn't supposed to be Santa" and the obvious plot hole in tsc3 of "How did FT NOT pick up on Jack doing that?" which are smaller facets of the whole HOW DID THEY LET THE THEME PARK HAPPEN ANYWAY?! Argument

They didn't! Jack just did it. And as for timelines, well, FT coming in CLUTCH with an explanation! Of sorts.

I mean, they gave us the answer in tsc3—their powers don't work on other Legendary Figures! So if a Clause is used, Christmas magic, in conjunction with Time magic, BY the guy who uses the WINTER MAGIC, well. It's going to get messy and the timeline's gonna be all sorts of fucked up and FT is popping up now to start tackling that problem

And because we are more than halfway through, and we all know how the movie ends, so...time to start having FT figure out the shit going on!

Especially with Y8 being right around the corner, lol.

"Picture of poise and grace and such" was I think, "Picture of sophisticated grace" originally and yes, it was a Frozen reference.

Scene 6: Jacqueline's Intro

Tada! This is where I moved it! When the New Year starts proper! I thought that was rather brilliant on my end :3

Apparently, this opening was one of the heavily enjoyed ones? Idk. But I'm happy with where it is and glad I didn't have to scrap it entirely! I kind of like them, you know? I like that Jacqueline essentially TW's us for what shenanigans are gonna happen NEXT before telling us about said shenanigans.

Also. Sometimes. the Canadian just SLIPS OUT. And it sure fucking did with the last line of the intro lol

Fun fact! Jacqueline's a dual citizen. Her other citizenship is Canadian 🤭🤭

Scene 7: Breaking into B-Man's. Again

Idk WHY. When I was writing this. Jacqueline was like. I commit breaking and entering as a hobby into Bernard's house, specifically. But! Here we are!~

We can also see the uh. Friction getting to Bernard, with him being snappish @ Jacqueline

tho admittedly it's ah. well deserved given that ah. She did break into his house and deliver bad on bad on badder news!

Scene 8: LOTS of BAD Ideas

Like. SOO many bad ideas.

Okay. So we got like. The final version of the Resort, right? Then we have Jacqueline's big plan: FIRE.

And Jack calling in actual reporters from the ordibeing world

So you'll NOTICE that THAT detail wasn't on the notes! That'd be because I added it as I was writing! I realized that like, if he'd dropped off all these tickets and people were calling it a scam and y'know, social media circa 2001 was going OFF about it, it'd be ideal for Jack to fess up asap before other people took the credit for it OR everyone deemed it a scam with fruitless investigations and whatnot (if that makes sense)

BASICALLY it was to give the Resort a sense of legitimacy given that it was this close || to being brushed off as a scam or silly marketing scheme (which aren't totally untrue statements)

Do I know where Jeff works? NO! All I know is he's the only reporter (him and his team) to come up and the interview is gonna be SO exclusive lmao

Bernard probably had to talk Jack down from hosting a whole ass PRESS CONFERENCE lol, bc he absolutely would. 100%.

An aside: I bet the pieces on news stations when reporters who have kids go to the Resort are interesting pieces lmao. The whole world is probably like "wow! crazy!" and the news casters are probably like "A fun activity to do with your kids this Christmas!" and the Council is probably like "Woahg. They're?? Not thinking it's the real deal? Crazy"

This got off topic, but YEAH! The reporter bit was added in as I was originally writing! Neat facts!

"Your fascination with arson concerns me, Jacqueline. Especially considering your alignment and all."

^Okokok this is one of my fave lines. It's a call back to her suggesting they burn his satchel the year before. It's also very true: she quite enjoys starting fires. Loves her a good fire, that Jacqueline. DEFFS the summer sprite blood there. The Twins also have more winter sprite tendencies! Fiera constantly overheats and LOVES being cold. Fino always has a window open when it's nice and cold outside. That sorta thing!

Jacqueline: suggests the TWINS join their efforts

Literally Everyone: are you insane

Jacqueline: >:O. YES! OBVIOUSLY!

"...I know listening is hard for them, but I would rather have a controlled fire than something akin to the Great Fire of London." “Hey! They were young! It was an accident.” “They started that?!” “Oh! I assumed you knew? I thought that’s why you brought it up.”

The Twins did, in fact, start the Great Fire of London. In 1666 specifically. That one.

They didn't mean too! They were quite young and missed Jacqueline so they took the long maiden voyage out of Crystal springs, all the way across the world to Europe and met up with her in London, promptly SETTING IT ON FIRE.

I think they're both complicit. Fiera was sparky and Fino wanted to pet the animals in the barn. It is what it is, I suppose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Scene 9: Crashing the Interview

Making Jacqueline channel Jack brings me great joy for reasons I cannot express but could probably be easily summed up as ANGST

“And his name is Jeff, which I think is very funny for a bigshot journalist doing a travel piece. On Santa Claus.”

->She's calling me out :( I didn't have a name for Jeff so I went with Jeff bc I had just watched WWDITS and Jesk existed and was a thing 🙃🙃🙃

(In Nadja voice: It's like a weak ejaculation!)

“On the biggest news story this year!” “The year is still young, y’know."

I wrote this bit. Remembered that Y7 takes place in 2001. And my face was immediately like

"Since this is an off-school year" Jacqueline says, surprising even ME as I didn't know that's how they did school in CS

But I'm getting the vibe for magibeans, they take decent breaks between schooling years just bc of longevity or something. Idk. I'm working on it? I guess?

Like when people take gap years to travel or whatever, lol. Would NOT be surprised if Magibeans did something similar but the students would go travel into the ordibeing world or do magical research or projects or SOMETHING like that, lol

"I winked at Jeff, which seemed to do the trick as he laughed heartily, thinking it was some sort of joke amongst us magibeans"

I spent this whole passage thinking of the culture shock Jeff must be dealing with and cackling

Also. Love having Jacqueline throw her title in Jack's face, makes me cackle >:)

Scene 10: Best Laid Plans Start. A MONTH OR SO LATER! NOT ON THE SAME DAY!

I am so mad about this same day thing, honestly

SO HERE WE SEE THE FIX! THE PLAN HAS BEEN SET UP AND N O W JACQUELINE IS BROACHING IT WITH THE PARENTS AND IT IS NOT A ONE DAY THING, IT IS AN OVER TIME THING

Imagine being Jack. And dealing with THESE THREE GREMLINS on the most STRESSFUL year of your REIGN AS SANTA SO FAR.

It's also been very fun writing Bernard, especially when he gets a little win—like ruining everything on airport day specifically >:)

Jacqueline references this CS fact when she talks about how Fiera and Fino may have invented the fire hazard/fire safety

Hot girl soot is just a play on hot girl shit. So it's. You know. hot girl shit. Eating hot chips. Girlbossing. Starting fires. Practising elemental control. That sort of thing!

And this is immediately followed up with ANGST. I surprised myself with it too, tbh!

"And thinking of the amounts of paperwork the Resort will result in? Arson just seems more and more promising" Blaise is not here for the paperwork at ALL. I am thoroughly convinced that if he remembered Frostmas, he'd throw Jack into a lake and yell THE PAPER WORK I HAD TO DEAL WITH! And Jack would resurface and be like "gee dad. you really need to cool off" and push him into the lake with a snowy assist

The news the next day: Old Man is thrown Into Lake By Even Older Man.

Byline: IT'S ABOUT THE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PAPERWORK!

So that's why he's all "hell yeah" for arson, lol. He really really isn't looking forward to the bureaucratic NIGHTMARE the Resort will be—between the secrecy laws being broken, preventing the other secret magibean places from being exposed, and lady only KNOWS how much witness damage control? YEAH. BURN IT BEFORE HE DOES WHEN IT ALL CROSSES HIS DESK

Scene 11: Actually LAYING the PLAN

One day. What is WRONG WITH ME

Anyway! This scene is all new! To explain how the twins get up there and make a lil name for themselves BEING up there so that when the fire ACTUALLY HAPPENS it's not as sus as could be. even tho. y'know. it's DAMN OBVIOUS LOL

It turned into another one of those back into the present scenes where the cold front is recounting the tale with one another and this one was SO FUN and made me weak

the implication is that the twins somehow managed to weasel themselves into the cold front's day off plans? I think that comes across

Not that Jacqueline minds, of course! She sees Jack too often at this point and is more than happy to have her other siblings hanging out too, let someone else bother the man while she takes a beach nap

She just likes to tease him bc yes, the twins absolutely DO have Jack right in the palm of their hands, the sneaky lil hotheads

Scene 12 & 13 & 14: Fire Time

12 is deffs my favourite scene! Well, one of them, lol. Just. The image of disgruntled Santa Cosplay Jack watching two fiery beings try to shove themselves into a backpack while the other sibling loses it laughing beside them and just being like. I GUESS THIS IS MY LIFE NOW. Just SENDS me.

"He stopped beside Fiera; they stared at each other quietly for a moment before Fino nodded" <- this is twin telepathy at play right here

"Bermuda?" "Neutral Territory" <- don't quote me on this. to my understanding Summer mostly deals with Bermuda so she's HAPPY to host fight dates for Spring and Winter, helps ease their squabbling and also makes it easier for Summer when she hands off with Spring.

This could be why the Bermuda Triangle is Like That, lol.

(I know there's science in that shit. Let me suspend my disbelief for one goddamn moment, where is the WHIMSY)

Yes I named the Fire Marshal Marshal. A silly thing that was unappreciated when originally revealed so now I am making it VERY OBVIOUS

But also, he's more of a character in Y7 PROPER now, given the whole. FIRE thing we have going on here, so now his name has to be in your face instead of one off wordplay joke.

RIGHT! SO! FIRE TIME

You guys would not BELIEVE the pause this scene caused me. I got right up to go time and then paused like "huh. how do you start fires".

Did I google it? Yes! Needless to say, reddit has a sub for EVERYTHING and I learnt about a very prolific serial arsonist and now may have to take out another book from the library, but that's neither here NOR there

I also googled "is varnish flammable" and it is, more so than paint so, here we are lmao!

Would NOT be surprised if I was on some kind of list, especially since half this research was. In fact. Done at work 😬

Scene 15: Cold Front Time

I went on a whole ass OTHER research rabbit hole involving PLANES and POLAR TRAVEL for this one lmao

Boeings don't GO into polar regions! I know this now! And more! The wikipedia page on the Lockheed planes was very very very long and informative, wow.

when Jacqueline says "terrible new paint job" please know it is the exact design it had on it in the movie. The Santa flying on top of the plane design. That one lmao

As for the crew, I was thinking about this and I wasn't sure they'd be human/ordinary, non-magical people, y'know? But I FIGURED that Jack would know some seedy mofos/have people who owe him or vice versa and he'd be able to cash in on that for a situation like THIS.

I know nothing about the crew, other than the pilot is very tiny, dressed like an old timey pilot, and you cannot see their defining features so all you know is that they are a creature of some sort but that's it!!!

"Have you ever waded through molasses, let alone cold, non-magical molasses? It’s exhausting.” “I wouldn’t know. I was in Chicago at the time, not Boston.

You guys. I have been resisting the urge to reference the molasses flood of Boston MA the ENTIRE TIME Jack has compared the Christmas magic to Molasses. I finally caved. Hashtag worth it.

Trying to figure out how the people got into the pole, given the itty bitty hole and GIANT plane and lack of any environmental storytelling was a CHALLENGE, but I'm quite happy with it!

I originally wanted to have Jack talk about putting in a historic display that leads UP to the Resort and say some BS like "It's the FINEST iteration YET" but I was like "woah there, dani, you need to calm DOWN" and so I canned it at the uh, Disney pre-show mentions lol

Anyway. Jack never says the I told you so as they head down and see the FIRE, but I think it speaks for itself 🤭🤭

Scene 16: Twinsplinations

When I tell you. Fino and Fiera have been practising this bit ALL YEAR. I mean it

They are giant hams. This whole family is tbh (and we love them for it? I think?)

They're so good that even Jacqueline was like HEY LIVE THEM ALONE >:( despite knowing they were playing it up--but this is also a side effect of her own predicament lol. She's entering her angry era ;)

I deffs modelled the "what's salvageable" bit after the exact same scene in tsc3! I love me a bit of mirroring here and there >:)

I am pretty sure they would've gotten away with it if Jacqueline hadn't ended the scene the way she did. Absolute banger, of course, but my GOD she's causing problems on purpose, isn't she? heh.

REGARDLESS. These two continue to vex one another and quite frankly, exhaust me. Remember when I wanted to update every thirteenth? And this was updated late July? And the BTS is now being posted in (checks watch) AUGUST?!!? AND YEAR EIGHT HASN'T GONE UP YET???

AHHHH

Scene 17: Home Safe

So I reworked this scene quite a bit! Blinter is now included, and Jacqueline's mood post-arson can only be described as:

So. Let's see what notes and references I snuck in here!

None, apparently! But I am a big fan of this whole scene and interaction. Hitting us with the Winter angst when she asks Jacqueline to stick around! Whatever the heck Blaise and Winter are saying with their facial expression! I sure as shit don't know, but they sure do!

Scene 18 and 19: The Finale

When Jacqueline finally goes back up North to spy/scout/antagonize Jack for the most part, and she talks to Jack about everything, and he mentions the security footage and how the missing bits and how security was just like WHOOPS, I 100% pictured Gary(?) from the series. Heard it in his voice and everything!

I have to keep reminding myself that Jacqueline and Bernard are on the same team here, lol. And that the elves are HAPPY to help make things messy for Santa! So the erasure of the bits of security footage that showed the twins causing the fires was added to aide that bit

And I feel deep in my bones that they pulled a Speed and looped old footage of the twins eating with Bernard in case Jack was a wee bit too clever lol

And then we have the reveal as to why the security officers in the movie were human, and not elves! Jack time out'd them, which means Jacqueline made cute little ice statues of them and sent them off to help the others with the TUNNEL lol

The permanency of the PEN. me @ me:

Um, the carbon monoxide thing is new! I think about that story of the guy who was leaving notes for himself he couldn't remember, and how it ended up being carbon monoxide and a broken detector, quite frequently.

This year had like a LOT of explanatory semantics re: how the Resort was received/took off in the mortal world. That was one HECK of a summary passage to write in this last scene!

And I SOMEHOW managed to preserve the same end sentence. FUNK YEAH!!!

GOD this year was a MESS of a year. Glad to have fixed it up though! It's still holding up a month later (I started this BTS July 7th, and a week later ran into my IT WAS ONE DAY?!?!? problem, and FINALLY got around to posting it after finishing Year EIGHT) which is GREAT and now I can take a break from these bad boys since Y8 and Y9 already have a BTS! That'll make things MUCH easier! RIGHTO. Enjoy this raging dumpster fire of me RAMBLING. Prommy I'll get last week's scrimble done and this week's too at some point, and HOPEFULLY will throw Y8 onto ao3 BEFORE September (she says, on August 28th 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

[safyresky]

Frostmas Year 6: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9 | Y10 | Y11 | Y12

[To Read Frostmas: From the TOP on ao3 | ff dot net]

Holy shit. Year SIX. This one was a DOOZY and NOT for the reasons you think. For those who don't know, the year it was published (2016) was deffs one of if not THE worst year I'd had. 2023 was brutal too but 2016 was fifty shades of FUCKED UP.

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one with a whole ass diary entry before we even GET to the proper BTS notes!

I was having a bad go of it in general because:

I was forced, after a year out of my parent's house and half a summer away, to move back for the next summer and that was a terrible environment at the time

(it still is but I have had THERAPY and have COPING MECHANISMS and RESOURCES and I know HOW to take myself OUT of the pattern and that walking away ISN'T a bad thing)

(still have ways to go, espesh after last year, BUT WE WILL GET THERE)

My mom essentially strong armed me into working with her for the summer and I fucking HATED IT

I wanted to find a job here in KTown and stay away but she managed to set me up with a job and I couldn't take no for an answer because I had just gotten back from the UK and I had SO MUCH TRIP RELATED DEBT TO PAY OFF, AND NOBODY IN KTOWN HAD CALLED ME BACK!

Richard was away in Europe for half the summer and we had our first really big test of the relationship (AND WE DID IT WE MADE IT THRU)

I finally had had eNOUGH of cramps that were almost killing me dead and decided to go on the pill, but getting the right dosage/brand was a TIME and it seemed every one I tried made me want to straight up DIE

If ANYONE is ever like "oh, Birth Control Pills don't make you depressed" THEY ARE. LYING. Some do!

All of this was one thing, but the pièce de résistance was this: my laptop fucking DIED. It FELL off a KITCHEN PENINSULA, ONTO A STONE FLOOR HARD DRIVE SIDE DOWN.

It blue screened. Then black screened. And would not boot up. And my writing wasn't saved to the cloud bc the cloud kept draining my laptop battery (she was old), so I was saving locally.

I lost everything.

All of Crystal Springs, all of my notes, old WIPS, and all of the progress I had made on Frostmas Y6 at the time (and I had just cracked out like 3k the week before!) and the Winter's Birthday oneshots. Not to mention, my photos from the last 5 years up to that point! And while I did manage to recover Frostmas and make it BETTER than it was before, Winter's Birthday is still hanging by the wayside and this was almost a DECADE ago! There are STILL photos I lost that I will NEVER get back bc the hard drive itself is FUCKED!

So the wait between Y5 and Y6 was nearly 3 years. Almost as long as the wait for Y11 is shaping up to be, though that's for whole other reasons! My laptop did NOT fall and I save everything to the cloud now, I'VE LEARNED.

Anyway, I managed to recoup most of my loses but I did lose: a soulmate au wip, a baby Dite wip before she was developed more as a character and became Hedone, Winter's bday outline, a rewrite of an old fic I thought had potential (so I decided to rewrite it for my me to enjoy), old Jacqueline and CHARLIE shipping oneshots if you can BELIEVE it (one of which was HELLA ANGSTY and involved him DYING of old age and her trying to avoid him about it) and I think Into the Shadows? It was still up at the time tho so I was able to download it and my other stories from fanfiction dot net and I sorta. Started back up from where I left off.

And I HATE to say this bc it SUCKED so much (I was a mess, I couldn't even explain to my parents why I was so upset—I mean, how do you? How do you explain to your emotionally immature parents that you had built this entire little world that ended up being your way of healing your traumas, made so many amazing friends from it, and had just lost all of that because THEY were FIGHTING? How do you cope when your own Mother says "I can't deal with you when you're like this" as you are BAWLING your EYES OUT at this loss, and she straight up WALKS OUTSIDE TO SIT IN A LAWN CHAIR AND AVOID YOU INSTEAD OF COMFORT YOU AND TRY TO HELP YOU EXPLAIN THINGS? AND YOU'RE NOT QUITE 21 YET? AND YOU'RE ALREADY HAVING SUCH A SHIT TIME?), but it's true: after the laptop fell, my writing took an ASTOUNDING upswing! It improved SO MUCH! And Dite became Hedone and had a more developed back story that made SENSE and Frostmas Y6 turned out WAY BETTER THAN IT WAS and I managed to plot out the rest of the Years (I had not written down notes for what would happen until halfway through Y6! By June 2016, about 3 months post-harddrive gate, Y12 notes were DONE) and I only went UP FROM THERE

But it still SUCKED to deal with all of that.

I felt so bad that Y6 took so long to go up, and when I did post it and it was (checks notes) 14,206 words (we'll see if that changes as I read through it and prep it for cross posting next week) I decided to put the AN in my profile and wrote this at the very top of Year 6:

A/N-14,206 words sans these blurbs. Sorry for the length, and for the delay! I have the explanation on my profile page, under the PSA and Frostmas Year Six AN. Please enjoy this mess of a year! Here is a previously on Frostmas for your convenience: Previously: Jacqueline revealed her decision to freeze as a farce. She showed Bernard and they decided to test it on Jack, who seemingly accepted it. Jack made a deal with Jacqueline for bygones to be bygones, so she could stay at the Pole and help him instill some order. Instead she, aided by the Elves, sabotages the Pole, deciding to be Jack Frost in all ways—including the pain-in-Santa's-neck way. Jacqueline takes to exploring the Workshop when she's not following Santa around, and discovers an old area, stumbling upon Jack's secret rooms…and making a shocking discovery.

I EVEN INCLUDED A PREVIOUSLY! BC I THOUGHT IT HAD BEEN THAT LONG! I think a few reviewers mentioned having to go back to reread so I figured this'd be way more convenient for them! :) (And me too, tbh)

The A/N in the chapter was as follows:

A/N-You can see my full author's note on my profile, I think this chapter was long enough. Thank you for reading it! Please please PLEASE do review! I cannot begin to tell you how much going back to these reviews helped me keep writing Year Six and getting over the hump. I look very forward to your thoughts! And thank you all for your patience :D PS-The breathing trick is legit. Try it, it works wonders.

And the long one I put on my profile RIGHT AT THE TOP for people to see and read it (bc I really didn't wanna bog people down with what was going on in my life. FUNNY bc nowadays I get on hellsite dot faesite and I'm like BUCKLE UP COWPOLKS BECAUSE YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT BULLSHIT HAPPENED TO ME TODAY) was as follows:

Frostmas Year Six AN: My heart is racing, I finished year six like 10 minutes ago (1:48 AM December 16th, 2016) and it is 14188 words. I am honestly so sorry about the length and hope that if anything, it is at least a decent apology for the long break in updates. Year Six took me much longer than I should've to write, because I had to rewrite the bit of Year Six that I already had written prior to the death of my laptop. I started rewriting it when I got mad at myself for being so sad in August, but then ran out of steam and just couldn't do it because I kept comparing it to what I remembered having already written, and thought that it was not as good as it originally was and never would be. It wasn't until I got back to my home (i was staying at my parents house which is never a Fun Time), fixed my prescription and began taking the time I needed to help myself feel better (seriously my Summer was a train wreck) that I was able to slowly trudge through what I began to call the hump—everything I had already written and had to rewrite. After getting through the semester, in November I began planning the Years again. And I was determined to get through the hump. I had already written stuff for Year SEVEN and had Year Eight basically written in full in note form. I just had to get through the hump. And so by the first week of December, I did it! And then just had all the new content to write...which was a LOT especially because Jacqueline decided to break into Bernard's house! I promise, Year Seven won't be as delayed as Year Six. And I really hope you enjoyed all 14k of that Chapter! And most importantly thank you for sticking around this long, it really means a lot to me :D

And my heart WAS racing. I cannot begin to describe to you guys how it felt, after ALL OF THAT BULLSHIT IN THE SPRING/SUMMER, finally seeing Y6 go up after ALL the struggle. My god. I was flying high. I may have cried. I was so, so relieved and so, SO proud of it and let's get into this behind the scenes now to see if I still am proud of it—survey says yes, I think I will be!

And thank you for reading this lengthy prelude to the Y6 BTS. NOW, without FURTHER ado, THE BTS FOR THE INTRO AND ON!

--

Intro

Okay so the decision to have, not only Jack almost discover her, but her parents also discover her dumbass plan, was brilliant on my part

The DRAMA this 900 word intro has! AH!

It didn't even need much work—just a bit of sentence spacing and some awkward turns of phrase fixed and that's that on that!

I can definitely tell I was marathoning Doctor Who for the first time at this point, given Jacqueline's repetitive "I'm so, so sorry"'s as she is RUNNING AWAY from very confused Blinter

Who promptly give her space after THAT

I'm not sure how she managed to avoid them through to FEBRUARY tbh

ALSO it just occurred to me. Upon rereading. Jacqueline being like AM TRAPPED! Oh wait. I'm MAGICAL is a clever bit of foreshadowing on my end for the REST of Y6 lol

It's funny, reading this a wee bit older I'm like. WOW. I feel so bad for blinter—they're trying so, SO hard and poor Jacqueline! She knows she could go to them but she is so, so afraid

I'm a WORDSMITH

Anyway. Onto scene 1!

Scene 1: You won't be in trouble, I swear! Jack lied.

Because he totally did. He is a liar. (smacks head of Santa Jack) this baby can fit SO much malice in him

I wonder if he waited for Jacqueline to be around just to try and catch her up. I'm gonna say he deffs did. And that I totally planned that (I did not)

In terms of references, there isn't a lot! this whole scene is msotly me being a Bernard stan in the "I love the way he acts with the elves and how he cares about them all and how he is able to placate a huge crowd every god damned time", not the usual "I want this elf" kind of way

I do not want him. I want to see him grow strong and be safe and that's that on that

And I also want to see him bug Jacqueline. And be bothered back in return lol

BUT YEAH I really love Bernard as a character, espesh the leadership bits. the scene in tsc2 where he talks to the elves? the smooth, nervous cadence and silly "and do not use the word "plastic" bit? This blorbo has EVERYTHING—anxiety, sass, jokes, AND great public speaking/charisma skills!

So this whole like. Getting into gear bit? SUPER fun to do.

Especially with him consistently not letting Jacqueline say HEY MAN HE'S BRINGING BACK THE FUCKING THEME PARK IDEA! Writing her get consistently more and more irritaited and frustrated was delightful >:)

The BIG bit here is CURTIS!

So like. He gets all. Manager-y and very into his role when we see him at the Theme Park in the Frostmas bit in the movie, right? So the whole time I wrote this I was like, okay. How does Curtis get from wanting to help and be progressive to capitalist hellscape master? How?

And that's where this bit came in—along with the list reading bit back in Year 2? 3?

Which is why, when Jack is like "hmm I need to keep track of theme park related things without giving it away—ah yes! Curtis!" is what comes to mind

And why he's so ACTIVE in the Resort, you know? If that makes sense. Idk, I wrote this bit at 3am.

BUT YEAH. CURTIS IS A LIL GUY. JUST A LIL GUY. TRYING TO DO HIS BEST! AND NOT EXPLODING!

Scene 2: A cold front heart-to-heart

Jacqueline and privacy. Hehe. I loved carrying that bit over from CS.

She's awful, just. BARGING in places with little to no warning!

I'm sure she'll mellow out with age

Unless you are Jack

She'll probably bug him forever.

ANYWAY.

This scene DID need a little reworking! Jack read as slightly OOC and there was some weird repetitiveness. Which checks out—this scene was the scene I wrote days before the laptop ko'd

This scene also felt like what I imagine an elaborate game of chess feels like. Trying to think of what Jack does and doesn't know, and what Jacqueline does and doesn't know, and both their motives, ALL WHILE WRITING FROM JACQUELINE'S POV? My god. Brain exploded

But it reads much better now! Their motivations are way more clear!

Poor Mason. He's a good kid! Unfortunately for the plot to continue on I needed SOMEONE to come forward to get their ass FROZEN

It's funny bc like, reading it again (and I don't think I ever reread this chapter after posting it! I think this is my first time since it originally was written reading it again!) the ideas were THERE! Just…not fully formed. And given everything I was going through slash dealing with at the time, that checks out.

Scene 3: NO RUNNING IN THE WORKSHOP

I briefly had this whole dilemma about if Jack freezing the elves was Too Much. Then I remembered a number of things: he canonically freezes two whole ass people. He tells Lucy he's had people beg him to freeze people for them. The whole POINT of putting him post-Frostmas and post-tsc3 in a redemption arc is to show CHANGE so YES, mans could, would, and has frozen people before and will do it again

or in this case, make Jacqueline do it

and of course she'd agree to it bc. y'know. she's trying to keep her cover going and what happens if she says no? and gets banished? then what? what will Jack do?!?!

she's caught in quite the conundrum, isn't she?

anyway I remember when I wrote this scene I wasn't expecting Judy to pop into the scene but she did and I kinda like that that's how it went

Jacqueline ending the section saying "B-Man location secured" I think is also me reminding myself what the purpose of this scene was, lol

Scene 4: Bernard's Office

not me doing the bts read-through and realizing that Jacqueline acts like she had 0 idea Mason was there, when Judy JUST TOLD HER he was heading that way. FIXED, LOL.

I am referring to the carnival in Quebec when Jacqueline says LIKE QUEBEC. I've been a handful of times and the ice/snow sculptures ALWAYS got me. They're gorgeous.

The breathing trick was the very first one I learnt that year (for obvious reasons lol) and it worked every time! I was excited to use it and share it as it'd been helping me quite a bit. Twas one of the ah, early tumblr mental health posts I had seen AGES ago!

“It’s too bad we can’t take Mason and push him somewhere else,” Curtis mused.

^This is a meme reference, yes indeed!

"I’m not great at clandestine operations," Jacqueline says, as I yell through the screen, "YOU AIN'T SLICK GIRLIE! YOU! AIN'T! SLICK!"

(she's really not)

"An airline? Like planes? Air planes? In the frostbitten sky? He bought an airline?!”

This is a NEWLY ADDED reference! From this post :)

Believe it or not, Bernard saying "wait and see" was NOT a reference to Mr. Gaiman's famous refrain regarding Good Omens spoilers—but I thought it was hella funny with that context rereading it in 2024 now lol. (It originally went up late 2016!)

The evidence bit is new too—makes much more sense now, why they lollygag enough for Jack to initiate Lockdown lol.

I GOTTA BE THREE STEPS AHEAD OF TEAM JACQUELINE AND FOUR STEPS AHEAD OF SANTA JACK

IT'S A STRUGGLE

Hence the long gaps between years, too, it's a LOT of info to churn through and back referencing and such

but damn if it isn't a fun project >:)

Scene 5: Time Out/Lockdown

So this is where I picked up POST laptop falling. I could only recover Year 6 up to the office scene, I believe

What I lost? A whole scene after it where I had written nearly 1400 words about this whole subplot I had in mind involving how Jacqueline's frozen elves would look more sculpture like than Neil and Laura did when Jack frosted them up

There was this whole bit about her lamenting on how it looked different, more opaque, and Jack would be able to see right through it (pun intended on my part) because he'd KNOW it wasn't done properly, the way he did it? I think it involved a story about a frozen squirrel?

I had started writing it, went back and read it, went "huh this makes no sense"

Moved on the plotting out Winter's bday before bed

The next day I stationed myself in my parent's kitchen, and before I could even LOOK at the document and what I'd done before, my laptop crash landed on the stone floor

yeah

ANYWAY I obvi AXED that scene, it wasn't making sense then and when I finally got back into it, I didn't even BOTHER attempting to recreate it, just skipped it and went right into the freeze day

anyway, I'd like to take this moment to recognize Mason. He is taking this like a CHAMP!

I'd always pictured him as one of the elves in Porkchop's squad, lol

"Get my nose right" is a Tangled reference, lol. Fun fact! It's one of my top 3 disney princess movies (the other two are Moana and Princess and the Frog :)

I just strongly relate to Rapunzel (given the mom-nanigans I mentioned in the diary entry before this you can see why) and Eugene makes me laugh and the soundtrack SLAPS

Kingdom Dance? HELLO?!?!?!? THE MUSIC AND THE ENTIRE STORY TOLD IN THE SCENE IN THE SCORE? AH

okayokay. frostmas time

Perhaps one day I will write the little silly thing that explains why Jacqueline insists Jack taught her everything despite not being around for most of her formative years! Maybe one day :)

Lockdown is also NOT a reference to OS CORONAS. This predates that, too, lol. It was an idea I'd been sitting on for Into the Shadows (Dark Shadows at the time), and I was excited to use it (and have Jack abuse it) in Frostmas!

I had to keep Jacqueline from going to the Council, after all!

“Because it’s exactly what I would’ve done.” The full impact of what he said hit as he turned around, surveying me with an unreadable look. “And you did it.” I came to a grounding stop, my heart falling in my chest. Jack chuckled quietly to himself. “Exactly. Now, I’ve got tons to do! We will chit chat later, Jacqueline—I’ll make sure your rooms are done up for your stay. Ciao!” And, shooting me a smile and double finger guns he disappeared, leaving me alone in the corridor as the crushing weight of what I had just done—and what I had agreed to do—came falling down on me. I stood in the hallway, motionless. The sounds of the chaos of the Workshop dulled before disappearing completely, nothing but a white noise as the world faded out from me and I realized that yes, Jack would've done it. And I had done it. I was turning into Jack.

NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH GAS! THIS IS THE GOOD SHIT! THIS IS WHAT FROSTMAS IS ALL ABOUT BABY! WOO!

Writing this scene was so fun. Jack's little villain monologue after he figured he'd one? EXCELLENT. I'll take two, please.

Scene 6 (5.5 really): BREAKING INTO B-MAN'S HOUSE

I couldn't believe Jacqueline did this, lmao. But I absolutely LOVED it

What's breaking and entering to a sprite who does not give a shit about privacy on a good day? 🤭🤭🤭

This whole brandy bit is once again brought to you in part by how much I love love love Just An Elf, and am once again STRONGLY ENCOURAGING YOU GO AND READ IT. They're such good oneshots, my GOD! PRIME B-Man characterization and I will shout it to the moon and BACK

"Point being, you wouldn't have frozen them. See? That's the thing. You're not Jack. You're Jacqueline. You think and act differently from Jack, and that's what makes you you"

Bernard is out here spitting facts that take Jacqueline a whopping 12 plus years to learn 🫠🫠🫠

"It's what friends are for"

Oh my god I have some fun BTS for this. Okay, so, I NEVER planned for Jacqueline and BMan to be buds. In earliest drafts of CS (and I'm talking EARLY, the notes I made while posting MtF early) the MOMENT Bernard clocked Jacqueline he'd march her to Santa like LOOK WHAT THE POLAR BEAR DRAGGED IN

But THEN Jacqueline managed to invade shittyelfwriter's brain and made her way into Rules of Engagement (The Emissary Clause, at the time) and she and BMan like, vibed in that fic

So THEN I assumed they became pals after all THIS in Frostmass, right? And had this whole passage initially showing that yeah they had become friends because of this, and it came over into Crystal springs and that's why they were so buddy buddy

But man. The more I wrote them, the more I went "B-Man wouldn't look at Jacqueline and judge her because of Jack. He just WOULDN'T."

And then When Bernard Met Jacqueline happened (I really oughta post that to ao3!) and I realized okay, they've. They've been friends for a hot minute

SO upon crossposting to ao3, I have properly edited this WHOLE PART to just further underline how much of a TIME Jacqueline is having

Forgets she has a whole ass friend

Also has had a rough go of it with friends growing up, but that's neither here nor there right now lol. She explains it well enough in the next bit and of course, I myself had to tease her about the Dite thing :)

I am once again mentioning Elle and her status as ??? purposely to hurt shittyelfrwriter >:) it's okay tho it's a friendship stab, don't worry about it! :D

Sleepy Jacqueline just happened this edit. I don't know why, but I love it. It had me wheezing. "hot diggity dog" lmao

Newfies comment: fun Canada fact for you: most of the stereotypical accent, the HEAVY one, is because in Newfoundland and the Maritimes they sound like that, lol.

We sound sorta like that here too the farther away you get from Toronto! A lot of my friends in uni were from small Letterkenny towns so they have that Canadian lilt going on and now I find myself sounding more like that some days too 😅

Scene 6 (for real): Plan Time

"My hair a half frozen, half thawed mess": FUN FACT! This is the first in your face hint I've dropped at the freeze becoming real! Were she fully thawed, her hair would be the next day too...but it's not 👀👀👀

The TUNNELS! I've always thought they had tunnels under the Pole, and I've read a few fics where they do, and it's one of my favourite tropes in this fandom so I used it for Frostmas! :D

Also a gr8 excuse to drop CS lore re: Kringle Elves >:)

Scene 7: Dig a tunna, dig dig a tunna~

I started condensing things when I got to this point bc it was at the time approaching 15k and that was way too long by my books at the time

Now, post refinements for ao3/2024 glow up, it's a solid 21.6k words

WHOOPS!

I didn't even add anything crazy new! Just dialogue!

The mental image of Jacqueline, Bernard, Curtis, Quinitin, and Mason tossing pencils and shit into the ring and nothing happening is hilarious

The mental image of Jacqueline conjuring a little snowy guy, and gesturing to the elf ring, and it standing there like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ is somehow funnier (and new!). I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did :)

For all you non-metric system users: 5km is equal to about 3 miles, I believe.

Scene 8: in which Bernard comes up with a brilliant idea that Jacqueline simply cannot resist acting on >:)

On that note, I vaguely recall doing a HECK of a lot of research to see how feasible it was for 5 magibeans to be able to dig one kilometre with just shovels mostly

I don't remember my results at all. I remember chatting with my housemates and with the husbando about it and the conclusion I came to was "yeah. makes sense" or "SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF" if it was my friend near!

Which is a good lesson we should all keep in mind when reading fantasy/sci-fi and fiction and the like in general. Anyway

Jacqueline is losing her mind digging, I'm losing mine writing this whole thing, we are ONE

Scenes 9-whatever: In which Jacqueline does her own version of Super Giant's hit rogue like dungeon crawl Hades

Oh this was the BEST montage I ever got to write. EVER. I genuinely don't think I could top this!

I did tidy it up/refine it! I added more dialogue so Jack was in character and increased Jacqueline's annoying Jack stat tenfold! VERY fun to write!

Needed to do some slapstick bc it's fun to slapstick Jack

Jacqueline HAD to extract revenge bc her snow cloud ideas was GREAT (I concur)

This whole myriad of scenes had me thinking of what ways my siblings really annoyed me and turning the dial UP on them as I wrote Jacqueline's bits, lol.

YER A BLIZZARD, SANTA is an outdated reference to YER A LIZERD, HARRY. I really should like, axe it, but it makes me giggle. Anyway, jay kay arr sucks and Jacqueline Winter Frost HERSELF said TRANS RIGHTS, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

Candyland, I am proud of myself for THAT reference

Half of writing Frozen?Jacquie is me trying to think of the most JACK LIKE THING she could say, and then having her say it

Foolproof formula, 10/10 would recommend.

"The physical appearance of the please makes no difference, Jacqueline.”

Despicable Me reference, It's one of the husbando's fave movies and that is my fave line in it I think, and there are a lot of bangers tbh

Jacqueline would think stopping snow was an actual crime

Her least favourite movie is probably Frosty Returns bc of the asshole adults who make the snow-be-gone spray and try to murder frosty with it and also, all the lovely SNOW

also, did not mean to indirectly quote frozen in this last bit? But the "it's a green christmas everywhere. EVERYWHERE?!" bit is really giving "You kinda made it Winter everywhere. Everywhere?!?!"

Hallmarkian isn't a word but I will damn well MAKE IT a word

And finally! She escapes!

And I leave you with this fact: Jack only lets her go because in his heart of hearts he knows it's too late. She can come and go, but nobody else can—she can tell everyone what happened, what's going on, but only she can go in and out. So what can they do? Nothing, tbh

I explained this bit to the husbando and he was like >=O that SUCKS. That's SO frustrating

That's the point >:)

Oh how fast a glimmer of hope can be snuffed out.

ANYWAY! If you read all the way to the bottom, thank you! It means a lot. Enjoy the BTS, the Dani lore, and enjoy the freshly swept Frostmas! I'm gonna try to actually have Y7 up on the 13th of July, lol, but we'll see how that goes. Trying not to rush but I just. THE AESTHETIC, YOU KNOW? I MISS POSTING ON THE 13TH!

[safyresky]

Cracking open Frostmas Y4 to start with the crossposting process/the BTS for it only to be hit with this first thing:

oh Dani. You were so young; so naive 🥴🥴🥴

[safyresky]

Frostmas Year Three: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9 | Y10 | Y11 | Y12

---

oh my god this is the I'M TELLING MOM AND DAD chapter! I did not realize this until I decided "Man, you know what'd be a great distraction from work? A Frostms BTS!" and I am DELIGHTED to dig into this one, and HOPEFULLY resist the urge to throw it back in the doc manager and rewrite it.

Before I yell ONWARDS a quick note: I can't for the life of me figure out how tf to do levelled bulleted lists with the new post editor. I managed to conjure them the other day but when I previewed the post, it was just a bulleted list. So we'll have a bit of a new format for these next Frostms BTS posts! :)

Alrighty. ONWARDS

Jacquie's Intro

"This strange tingling feeling deep within my core…" that's magibean for ROSEHAVEN MAGIC SUSSING HER OUT :)

"are we really starting with PAIN Dani?" yes, shut up and enjoy the angst 😘

"spoilers, you know!" I am still marathoning Doctor Who at this point. We've reached River territory, 100% :)

SO YEAH, Meet the Frosts never happened in Frostmas, so now we're seeing WHY Mother Nature visiting was so important and laid the groundwork for reunions in Crystal Springs!

I guess Y3 is kinda like, the upside-down version of Meet the Frosts, lmao.

Okay. MEAT TIME.

Scene 1 &2: I'M TELLING

We're one scene in and I'm already itching to go back and adjust the third person perspective so you can still clearly hear Jacqueline

initially when I started Frostmas, I was going to switch between first person and third omnipresent

but then i was like, wow, jacqueline's really fun to write as (she's a whole lot of me tbh, just with an amped up chaos meter and a shittier filter than I have)

so when you read through frostmas now, in recent chapters, if she's not there she's still narrating--this chapter desperately needs a touch up to reflect that 😅

"Grinning, Jack got an idea. A terrible, awful idea" yes this is a Grinch reference, 100% :)

"Bernard considered all of Jack's recent "brilliant" ideas: the preordered parts (ended in catastrophic toy malfunctions with several elves sustaining crazy injuries in overnight at the Elfirmiry), ordering things online (secret of Santa was apparently not a thing for Jack), and not to mention the theme music thing. They had all ended in disaster" not me dropping more hints about how this whole shebang goes :o

my GOD i need to tidy this year up. ANYWAY.

Scene 3: the twins answer the door

and CHAOS REIGNS

ha, not yet

but gosh, the TWINS, who do NOT know Jack, answering the door like "the fuck?"

we're off to a great start, huh, Jack? >:)

AND THE SHOE DROPS! STRIKE ON DURING THIS VISIT FOR JACK--FRESH SIBLINGS WHO DON'T KNOW HIM BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS NEVER TOLD THEM

AND FROSTMAS ERASED THEM FINDING OUT ON THEIR OWN :O

originally the anti-concious thing was supposed top be Pyros's cursed influence, LITERALLY PMAN, but I'm not so sure it's Pyros HIMSELF now. I think it's just like, the effect of his curse--doing everything in it's power to keep the sprite extra-frozen

my god i'm diabolical.

maybe the real villain was the writer the entire time :o

ANWYAY

Goddess of the Springs bless Blaise. The man's patience knows no bounds. He sees his estranged son at the door, his eldest daughter ready to throw down, and his two youngest absolutely unaffected and he's like "we should talk this out I think". Love him for it.

FOCUS MODE! THIS IS BTS, NOT A SELF-REVIEW

I do love this tho bc I only recently realized that Blaise's core is HOPE. Man's so full of hope, it's no WONDER that when Jack pops in in this wonky illegal timeline, his first instinct is "okay let's chat and explain things and see if maybe we can make this work" and also "holy fuck where's my wife at this is a LOT" (not pictured)

Blaise's tell, 9/10 times, is his hair. He plays poker extinguished, as a fun fact :)

GOD. I CAN'T READ THIS NOW IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2022 CAUSE ALL I CAN THINK IS THAT SCOTT SANTA IN THE SANTA CLAUSES LOOKS SCARIER! GOD! FUCKING! DAMN! SHIT! FUCK!

ANYWAY, enter Winter!

I was always like, hmm, maybe she wouldn't have fainted, and I've lost count of how many times I've been like "oh no. fainting isn't what would happen. can people faint bc of shock? (googles fainting) (reads up on shocks) OKAY I SUPPOSE IT WORKS.

it was a combo of humour but also a devastating blow, or it was SUPPOSED to be, bc you'd be like "wholly shit. she FAINTED? good lord, upside down meet the frosts inDEED"

Scene 4: SNITCHES GET STITCHES

Wow holy SHIT this is so short?

this chapter, that is

nothing else big was planned for this year, though, admittedly. Jack tries to reunite with the family, fails!

at least, I don't THINK anything else was planned

but Everything up to the first half of Y6 was lost in 2016 when my computer took a steep dive about. 3ish feet off of a counter top and onto the stone floor bc I tripped on the cord while grabbing the phone

🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

ANYWAY yeah, short chapter! but now's the fun part.

If the twins was the first strike, then Blaise being a bit cold perhaps would be the second strike--leaving Winter, who is now across from Jack at the head of the table

(something something symbolism for head of house and power and such)

leaving Winter as strike three >:)

Blaise trying to reign in Jacqueline for this entire discussion is giving him greys as we read, tbh

Jacqueline: I'll spare you the long winded details, reader

Jacqueline, two years later: Here are all the long winded details, get fucked I am processing Trauma

Dani, IRL looking at the staunch difference in word count between the first half and the second half: what hell have I wrought

Jack: I've been reflecting and such!

Blaise:

Writing Winter's no was so cathartic.

She is a very scary lady and we don't really see it bc she's also a Mom, and very warm and about being together and such

But she is VERY scary. Her season, her EVERYTHING can be TERRIFYING.

And to have that be turned on Jack, especially after the DoD and how she played the mediator then?

CATHARTIC I TELL YOU

AND THIS NEXT BIT

I almost flubbed up, let me tell you guys. I almost froze Jacqueline right here on the spot and then went wait, wait hold up. This is too early, let me double check my notes

do I remember what they said? no!

but the jist (gist??) of it was that this is where she gets the idea, but doesn't do it

now, older and wiser than 2015 Dani, I can tell you with certainty that this is most definitely where it starts happening. I mean, how could it not? She's tired, she's frustrated, she's been in this shitty timeline for tHREE YEARS and nobody else seems to be like 'well this seems wrong and bad'. Her brother is back but not at all like she had ever HOPED he'd be, and he's being an ASS and she's really, REALLY angry and what sprite wouldn't, when face with all of that, freeze their lil hearts?

Jacqueline, apparently, and this is b/c, SEMI SPOILER ALERT FOR Y11, Winter staves it off

YOU READ IT HERE BOYS!

Winter coming up and supporting Jacqueline, even that simple little act of saying "i love you" and hugging her, staves off (but doesn't stop) her eminent freeze.

Anyway. If your friends and loved ones are having a rough time, a little love goes a long way is all we here at SafyreSky industries have to say

Even if it is through the allegorical concept of sprites freezing (hardening) their hearts :3

Anyway, got ahead of myself bc of this flub lmao, which is obvious when you actually read the last bit KNOWING I beefed it haha

Jacqueline being like "This was only strike one" is Dani being like "SHIT I FUCKED UP AND NEED TO RESET, AH!"

But it's safe enough to say from this point on, Jacqueline's starting to freeze :o

oh and also

"Jacqueline Frost never cries" is BULLSHIT. She cries, alright. She just pretends she doesn't so she can keep up her "cool" appearance/reputation :)

but she does cry!

you heard it here folks, crying is cool 😎

Anyway. This was a FUN ONE to distract me from work! And quick! I'm going to have to tidy up Y3 at some point, it's slightly off. but it still holds up alright :)

[safyresky]

Frostmas Year Nine: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9 | Y10 | Y11 | Y12

(in Kermit the Frog voice) Let's begin!

I straight up thought this chapter would be fairly short, because when I wrote it out in point form the events didn’t seem like they’d have a lot of action. Then I began writing it, and I was DEAD wrong

I listened to the opening scene of the North Pole Resort SOO MANY TIMES to hear the lyrics to the song perfectly. I had to ask my wonderful housemate to take a listen to try and figure out the “santa t-shirts, santa ties” line and WHEN I FINALLY WATCHED IT ON DISNEY WITH SUBTITLES, HEARD THAT I GOT IT W R O N G! It's Santa SIZE. I'll have to change that up lol

FUN FACT! “at this point I’ve adopted a stance of the less I know, the better” is my family’s motto up until recently

“I like the cut of your berg” is one of my FAVOURITE frosty-fying slang lines I’ve ever done! It’s a frosty version of “I like the cut of your jib” which was used in sailing in the 1700s ish to describe if an incoming ship was frens or not frens

-> I originally thought it was just some funky 20s slang, then googled it to make sure I was right and learnt the above!

-> the berg is short for iceberg--B likes the cut of Jacqueline’s iceberg, being the idea to maybe get rid of the awful recordings :)

Sometimes I’m like ‘these things don’t really need explaining’ but I get excited about my own work and then have to share how I got the ideas with everyone so ONWARDS I SUPPOSE

Man I miss multi-level lists! this Frostmas BTS has been in my drafts for FOREVER, and was the last one I did before tumblr switched to the new post editor

WHICH DOESN'T LIKE MULTI LEVEL BULLETED LISTS!

So it's kinda all over the place. My bad lmao.

LET'S KEEP ON KEEPING ON

Jacqueline realizing that she hadn’t updated everyone on what the elves thought of her nonsense was a BLESSING because I realized that I hadn’t addressed it, so thank you for that opportunity, Jacqueline

Archie's Guide to Important People in the North Pole: Big Man->Santa. Boss Man->Bernard.

I would like to take this moment to credit @shittyelfwriter with Archie’s existence in those few chapters of ROE, because I love him and always picture him as the elf playing the piano and going UGH and facepalming during Jack’s rendition of North Pole, North Pole (pictured below). THANK YOU FOR NAMING THE BOY, ANA!

The conversation between Jacqueline and Archie, that dripped sarcasm, was my favourite thing to write this chapter :D

The scene with Chrys give you weird vibes of all manner? Yeah, that was intentional. "Perfection" can be unsettling, after all

Bernard is definitely so DONE this year and it SHOWS -> That is exactly what I was going for, especially since I know that he's not normally

Okay so. Let's Talk About Chrys. TW: Sexual Themes

very embarrassing, but I got the concept from a series of fantasy erotica novels and I wish I was joking

(they’re called the World of Hetar series, very good, very very VERY smutty. I’d say it’s 60% SEX, 30% PLOT, and 10% SEX DRIVEN PLOT)

(I know people who know me are like YOU READ SMUT? YOU?? AN ACE??? and yes, I did, I read exclusively smut from the ages of 12-17 because my Dad worked for "Trash Romance Novel Company" and brought home books for free every month, and the books were, in fact, mostly if not totally smut)

Erotica aside, I quite liked how the author had built up the magical world, the beings, and how magic works in it

In the third or fourth book, called “The Twilight Lord”, the fairies ally with the desert princes who are some kind of magical fae themselves, and they create the Perfect Wife for the corrupt leader of the neighbouring continent to distract him from starting a war

She was a mix of his current 2 wives and the things he liked about them, and looked like the protagonist, Lara, who cursed him to not be able to fuck I shit you not and who he ALSO had a big huge thirst for which was GROSS because he was old as fuck and even though she’s half fairy, she was like. 12 or 13

And this new wife is able to GET IT UP with him, hence how he’d be distracted--he really liked sex (reminder: this is an erotica series)

So he’s too busy fucking her and then on top of that, she would divide the other two wives and basically bring the house down from the inside, neutralizing the threat of this corrupt sex loving mofo

And that’s where the idea of Chrys came from!

So basically tl;dr: Chrys was inspired by a spell a sexy bunch of desert princes in an erotica series did to make the perfect wife for their enemy and knock him right tf down :)

How this works with Cheri’s magic: same concept, less sex

Chrysanthemum is a Perfect Being, who is bound to a specific magibean. Chrys’s purpose is to be Jack’s Mrs Claus, and because she was made with dark magic she drains energy of those around her (except for jack’s energy bc he’s the person she’s bound to) and magnifies bad ideas

spoiler alert: in the long run, Chrys will be TOO perfect and TOO agreeable for Jack and he’ll grow tired and it adds to the whole “I thought this would get me everything I’ve ever wanted but it didn’t” long term theme I have going for Jack as Santa

but yeah

end tw for sexual themes. away from chrys we go!

battled with the “cultural appropriation” bit because I felt as though it may be insensitive but then I wrote it anyway because that’s what it is at it’s base :\

it was supposed to be a stand in? I'd go back and change later? then I didn't. We're rolling with it now lol

Have you ever heard Elf’s Lament by the Barenaked Ladies?

Because it’s where I got the Union Comment from

Then I was like “but DO THEY HAVE UNION???!?!” and remembered the “accident or design” thing and realized “OH they ARE their own union” and figured that in terms of a Santa like JACK, The council would step in (which they’ve done. and tried to do stuff. but haven’t had luck bc PLOT)

god Frostmas is exhausting. Villains are underappreciated for all the effort they put into for being on TOP of things

(in Korvo Solar opposites Voice) what fucking scene are we on. why are these so long. why did i do this to myself. FUCK

ANYWAY CIRCLING BACK TO THIS MESS OF A BTS!

This uniform thing was unplanned/meant to be just a footnote. Then. Well. THIS.

It is a decent feature of the Resort in the movie so, I guess it works out :)

FUN FACT: I was playing a very good dnd campaign at the time! And that's how Davian got her name, lol. One of the amazing NPCs was named Davian, and we had a really good session with them and the name stuck and boom! Into Frostmas it goes. Once again, Frostmas is proving to be a time capsule reminding me of wtf I was doing while writing these bad boys :)

I miss my friend's campaign ):

And yeah, this fight is one Jacqueline cannot win. this is on the elves. So what does she do? Goes back to her hyperfocus of destorying SantaJack

How? By figuring out wtf Chrys is >:)

STUPID DUMB CHRYS

Alright. Scene subheadings are back! Right on.

"Myles would be proud AND would probably have been able to connect the dots and figure out what was up, and then place it on a neat presentation board, to boot."

LEGATE DROP! Myles is Tooth Fairy's Legate! He's v sweet, a lil bit clumsy, SUPER into conspiracies--hence Jacqueline being like "MAN I WISH THAT KIDS WAS HERE, HE'D KNOW WTF IS UP"

So let's talk about BLINTER. Just to clarify: THEY WERE NOT ABOUT TO GET IT ON IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DEN. This is just a typical post work day for them: start a fire, make a blanket nest, be cozy until kid 2, 3, or 4 come to harass them

Blaise is pouty bc they didn't even get a single cuddle in before Kid 2 came in like

And I was 100% referencing the meme lmao.

god tumblr killed the quality. I'll post it separately. ANYWAY

the Blinter and Jacquie scene was fun to write! This is one of the scenes where I was dropping very strong hints that Jacqueline was freezing--and Winter AND Blaise were noticing. Winter'll explain it all in Y11 ;)

FINAL RESORT

"You could really tell that graphic design was Chrys's passion"

another meme reference:

I think we, as a collective people using slang, should bring back "gag me with a spoon". Also some older slang! I try to sneak those in when I know of some to show. Y'know. AGE.

This whole scene with Jack and Chrys actually was me laying the ground work for FINAL RESORT. Trying to get in all of the booths we see, the petting zoo, and the different announcements about various activities set up before the double digit years! That was my goal :)

THE ELVES UNION AT WORK

Ah yes. the walk out. God, this uniform thing was meant to be small, but lord did it EVER go big. I'm actually okay with it--my y9 notes were so lacklustre, I was concerned it would be (you'll laugh I know) TOO SHORT lmao

No. Fr. Look at them.

"Because those outfits are a joke, and you wouldn't catch me dead wearing those."

Sassnard. We Stan.

"I'm so proud of all of my crew," said Davian. "Crimes against fashion should NEVER be tolerated!"

"And the break from the constant ruined showtunes, what a relief!" said Archie, leaning very far back in his stool."

The elves have their priorities lol. I Bet Archie and Davian are biffers.

Curtis on damage control was A) a stroke of genius on my part and B) the way I decided to start laying the groundwork for Customer Service Sales Person Curtis we see when Scott gets to the Resort! God, there is SO MUCH GROUND WORK FOR VARIOUS ITTY BITTY BITS WE SEE IN THE MOVIE, IT'S ACTUALLY INSANE. No wonder you all dig Frostmas so much. good lord

And then, we have it! Final Resort. Wholly heckeros! And yes, I did indeed name the Fire Marshall. Marshal. I'm a genius 🙃🙃🙃

""Course! It's lunch. I doubt anything will happen during lunch."

Famous last words, B-Man. And yes, I did that on purpose >:)

CHRYS UNMASKED. AND ALSO, IT'S CHERI!

Cheri's...interesting

While she is master of the dark witch arts, she isn't evil? Very chaotic. Kind of lets it slide a lot of the time when Witches use "dark" magic. Everything has a price, blah blah blah, it's not her place to tell people off about it--that's the other Grand Witch's place, Gwen, aka, Glenda, master of the light witch arts

And also, dark magic will take what it needs in response. She just makes sure people don't use it SUPER illegally. Otherwise she kills em. It's her favourite part of the job :)

Lawful Evil?? Idk.

FUN FACT: She gave Gwen the nickname Glenda, like the good witch in The Wizard of Oz (derogatory), and Gwen went, "oh! Glenda, like the good witch in The Wizard of Oz (affectionate)? you're such a sweet sister I'll take it :)" and now everyone calls her Glenda much to Cheri's (dis)satisfaction.

Cheri is very not serious and hates being called in for business unless murder is involved. She does NOT ignore any summons, ESPECIALLY from Mother Nature.

Hence why Tara had a easy enough time getting her in

But Cheri does NOT make things easy for people, nope!

"Hay, Jacquie" a la Catra going "Hay, Adora". I was watching SPOP at the time. It's a DAMN good show, Catra/Adora my BELOVEDS

FUN FACT: Only recently decided how Warlocks worked in my universe! They know everything and can guide ANY castor. It's like a reverse of Warlocks in DnD. They don't need a patron; they ARE patrons!

By RETIRING Cheri means that a lot of Warlocks went into Rosehaven with the Call. They were making BANK on the feuding fae factions.

Petty vengeance->one night stand with Jack where he said he'd call back, and didn't, which Cheri expected but any excuse for petty revenge is a good one! Good karma->Cheri explains it herself: if it helps the "good" forces, and she contributed to it, she gets a bit of a pass on being The Worst :)

OH SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT THE SNAP BACK INTO THE PRESENT

this was an idea I had had since like, the BEGINNING. Halfway through or so, Jack would bug Jacqueline in the proper timeline, to check in and also let her know that he'd like a turn and also, as a plot device so I could remind everyone it's a story of the past being told from the future, and plant the seed of "wait, is Jacqueline going to forget it? Or is she going to remember it?"

Is she? Well, you're not finding out until the Epilogue :)

It is just as jarring as I had hoped it'd be, especially since I forgot all about it! I was ready to title this section THE END and talk about Bernard's amazing exit.

But yeah, it was a fun reminder that this takes place POST redemption, TECHNICALLY, which is a lot of fun! And that was so pleasantly jarring. I'm pleased >:)

anyway

THE END: BERNARD'S STELLAR EXIT

if you listen to this version of the halo theme song on loop, you may enter the space I entered when I wrote this bit

anyway. i love Jack. He is. the Blorboest Blorbo EVER. But he did, in fact, steal Christmas for his own holiday and turned the park into a Resort. Implying that there is an overnight stay. Especially with a pamphlet THAT THICK. It;s not even a pamphlet. It's a fucking guide book. FUCK.

And like, there were no hotels that we saw. Maybe there are inns! I mean, the Winter Wonderland has rooms. But I digress.

REGARDLESS, something needed to happen to really get B-Man, well, GONE. And this was the final straw: Elf's houses for you to stay at, with your own personal elfsisstant!

It HURT to SUGGEST Jack would make the elves like. SERVANTS so I tried really hard to avoid that sort of thing--but yeah, they'd be like hotel staff but live in. Imagine being an elf and having to NANNY HUMANS?! FUCK

"That's what your emotional support sprite is for," I said.->Meme alert! "sir this is my emotional support x" meme lol.

Jacqueline gets to kick down doors, once again. Idk why she slams doors open so much? She just does lol

"...It's perfect," Jack said. "It's everything I've ever wanted." I tilted my head. There had been something about the way he said that that made me think that he did not believe that anymore"

I'M LIKE, DROPPING HINTS NOW AT JACK'S ENDGAME FOR FROSTMAS (since we already know Jacqueline's)

AND JACQUIE IS PICKING THEM UP!

I wanted to avoid "servant" related words, but B-Man is way more blunt than I am and we thank him for it tbh

"Really? Cause this is me, walking away."

SO THIS RAW ASS LINE WAS GIVEN TO US BY @shittyelfwriter YET AGAIN! WOMAN'S A GENIUS! We were chatting about BMan's exit and she sent a snippet with that line and I went "Ou. Yeah. That's GOOD" and did a bit of "do it different so they can't tell it's copied"

but credit is given where credit is due lmao! Ana's mind is like, BIG BRAIN when it comes to writing and connecting dots n shit :)

and there we have it! Frostmas BTS: Y9. Y10 coming to you SOON I hope! I'm clearing out my drafts. They're all just. Frostmas BTS and wips that have yet to see the light of day :3

[safyresky]

Frostmas Year Two: Behind the Scenes

Prologue | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Y6 | Y7 | Y8 | Y9

---

Got my booster today! Arm hurty. TIME FOR A FROSTMAS BTS! Bonne apple teeth, and such. No idea how to indent a bulleted list on tumblr anymore I switched to the old editor lmao, but still, y'all are going to need to bear with me, please, since this was written withOUT the levelled list! :-)

Apparently, I recently edited this one and forgot about it! this will be a fun experience for all of us :)

INTRO NOTES

In the movie, during his "I won" speech to Scott once he finally arrived at the Resort, he mentioned that the job was thankless, implying that Jack started out doing the job properly

Which checks out, I mean, could you imagine if he arrived and was just like BOOM! RESORT TIME BAYBE! Even if that was his intent from the start, they'd need some time to throw it together--so in TTYoF, that's how we begin :)

And Jacqueline explains Jack's transformation for me so that I don't have to write it out lmao.

If you want to know more about sentient storms, check out my most recent Smile Shot here! They're my fave little headcanon, lol.

Jacqueline moved back home on a semi-permanent basis a little later than 1800. You could only pretend to be your great-great-grandmother so many times in a row before people started getting SUS after all.

You can tell I originally wrote this during my very first Doctor Who watch through, back when it was on netflix. Jacqueline remarking on humans is very Ten!

AND LORE DROP FOR THE DOME! To clarify: if the Dome is fissuring, magic spills out, leaving the Pole very warm. Logically if the Dome keeps it temperate, you'd automatically assume that once Deliquesce starts up, it'd get cold bc NP is cold, right? WRONG! Melting=Warm, so it warms up. which is why in Crystal springs, everyone's dressed warmly! Magic runs HOT.

In the long run, if Jacqueline hadn't bottled things up for a bit and just went ham on Jack upon meeting him again for the first time in fourteen hundred years under FROSTMAS circumstances, it probably would've been a LOT worse, and would NOT have made a difference. He's still frozen, she's still angry, the groundwork has NOT been laid for their reunion to go well, nope!

ONTO THE MAIN CHAPTER BTS

Bringing in Curtis ASAP! I figured it'd be ideal to introduce him early on so it isn't weird when he becomes #2. He's an eager beaver, trying very hard to get Santa's attention in the hopes of good job prospects! :-)

Also a good way to show Jack slacking, and not taking the Job seriously/not being meant for it when we see him getting the suit tailored IN.

Plus Curtis doing the list would do it, too

"Bernard's deepening frown was audible from down the hall" is one of my favourite lines I've ever written!

Jack knowing that Jacqueline was coming was to show that the Legate/Legend Link is still there, furthering the whole "this is wrong" part of Frostmas imo

"Ah yes, the beans" is another good line that shows what I was doing IRL at the time. Watching Gravity Falls, bc this is straight from the scene in the pilot where Mabel is like "guess I gotta spill the beans" and literally spills the can of beans before telling everyone she has a bf hahaha.

Idk how Jacqueline figured out even remotely how Jack may have done it. Don't ask me. I straight up got nothing. She hyper fixated. She was so angy she threw all her energy into trying to figure it out when she wasn't working. Idk. She's Jacqueline, are any of us surprised? I'm not.

THE FIRST OFFICIAL JACQUELINE AND BMAN SCENE. Good ol' Berline! I love these two, they're such interesting friends. Funnily enough, I had never written them as friends before this! I had always thought Frostmas is where they became friends. But then the more I thought about it, the more I was like nah, this doesn't check out. and with how easily she fit into Rules of Engagement and how chumy she and B-Man were? I was like, yeah, no, they've been friends well before this.

So then I wrote how they met and then came over and edited their scenes in Frostmas!

The first draft of this scene was very, very different. I cringe now just thinking back to it! some of the reviews still make mention to it, if you ever wanna try and figure out how it was

But I guess that’s kinda what happens when you write a fic for eight years--there’s bound to be some improvements or HC developments or w/e

And now, we see how Jack's starting to take shortcuts! SO IT BEGINS!

I was particularly proud of these little bits I was able to put in while I established the emotional dominoes, if that makes sense. He's not immediately going into Resort mode because he has other motives/drives right now, which will be revealed...in Year 12 >:)

And here we see Jacqueline really exploding. If Jealousy is the negative emotion that drives Jack, anger is definitely Jacqueline's, as a fun fact!

AND HERE IT IS! THE FIRST BIG REVEAL! Jack is Santa, and is no longer Jack Frost--Jacqueline is. So now, Jack's first strike has happened: he doesn't have his powers.

And it's closely followed by his second strike: Jacqueline doesn't want to make up and be on good terms. She's angry and only doing this because she has to; Jack won’t be getting his sister back by his side, not like this.

(the above is part of his ulterior motives that will be revealed...in Y12 >:) )

And Jack has snapped! No more mister nice guy--now it's mister ice guy, lmao.

Mother Nature has dealt with many angy winter sprites--this isn't her first time and most certainly won't be her last. She had to deal with Jack once like this, too! In this Smile Shot here!

wow Dani, you sure are pushing a lot of smile shots at us!

Yep! I sure am! I am out of control and want everyone to know it and enjoy it!

The scene with Mother Nature reads a lot better now, too. It made her seem very like. MEAN and honestly? I HATE when people write her as this mean hardass who does not give a shit about what anyone else thinks and will bring down justice on you.

Yeah, she could do that, and probably has, but she's not called Mother Nature for nothing! I like to think she's more of a softer stern, and a bit of a stickler about doing things properly--does not mix well with a hotheaded young adult sprite, lol. It was SO MUCH WORSE pre-edit, I gotta say.

And finally, don't listen to the part of my A/N about the strikes! What I said in this note is the actual factual thing with the strikes. Jack becoming Santa and Jacqueline becoming Jack Frost is the trigger--not quite strike one. It's the toss before the strike!

Another short one, but again, the first few chapters are much shorter. I just like pointing out the references and expanding on lore and also, to talk, and I'm a HUGE fan of behind the scenes. Concepts, thoughts, etc? I LIVE for reading the wip stuff so I'm having a lot of fun with these (even though they come out so, so slow, haha).

also as a disclaimer--which I should really add to the top--I d write these as I read! I’ll try to organize them by scene as we get into the longer chapters :)