#i am doing cartwheels like a little plastic wind up toy at the prospect of fresh cs for y'all like. SO FUCKING SOON 🤩🤩🤩

[safyresky]

Crystal Springs Chapter 22: now up on ao3!

Read it HERE on ao3 :3

Chapter 22: Deck the Halls

The Frosts have a fun, festive day decorating the house. Santa and Carol pick up the family. Curtis and Lucy make a rather troubling discovery...

This is such a fun festive chapter with some top tier Frost family shenanigans, Blinter sauce, AND plot movement, woo! Have a sneak peek!

"You know what you need?" "I swear to the springs if you say Christmas cheer, I'll—" "Christmas cheer!" Blaise boomed, with a large grin. "Of all the people in the world who'd be down for a little festive fun, you think I—" "I know, I know. Hear me out! It's a nice distraction. It'll be fun!" "Will it?!" "Of course! Look, start small, alright? Just hold the ladder for your old man, will you? I'm too young to go to Rosehaven and this is not how I planned to go out." Jack sighed, grabbing onto the ladder nonetheless. Deciding to ignore the all too easy too young comment as his Dad finished clambering up the ladder, he chose a safer route instead. "How did you plan on going out then?" "No idea! I do know that there will be explosions involved." "Multiple little ones or one huge one?" "Haven't decided just yet. Either or is good enough for me, really." "Ou, fireworks?" "Maybe!" Blaise stopped suddenly, frowning in confusion. He looked all around, scratching his head. He glanced back down at the ground below him and sighed, his hair falling into a simmer. Perplexed as well, Jack looked around the floor. He snickered when he saw it: stacked neatly beside the ladder were the boxes of lights, still sealed tight. "Forget something, old man?" "Apparently! Mind tossing up a string?" "Sure, sure. Don't move!" Jack shouted up, letting go of the ladder. "I can't make explosions for you if you do fall off the ladder! It's not my forte." He opened the topmost box, grabbing two of the neatly coiled strings. He wrinkled his nose, thinking for a moment before grabbing a third string and sizing up the façade of the house. Picking a pillar, Jack placed a foot on it, and began walking up. He stepped off onto the veranda roof, continuing his walk unabashedly up the second-floor wall, and up the third one, stopping beside his Dad with a smug little smile. Blaise looked at Jack. He looked at the lights on Jack's arm. He glanced down at the boxes. Back at Jack. The corners of his mouth twitched. "Here you go," Jack said, passing him the first string of lights. Blaise laughed; it echoed around them, and though Jack was loathe to admit it, he found himself smiling too, his mood definitely starting to lift. "Thanks son." Blaise grabbed the string from Jack and stepped off the ladder and onto the wall himself, shaking his head with a tired smile. "That's one way of doing things." "Did you mean to tell me that you forgot we could do that?!" "I don't make a habit of it," Blaise defended, unplugging the string from itself and gently rolling it out. "So do you just, use a ladder every year?" Jack laughed. "That's hilarious. You're like, an eight-thousand-year-old sprite with a good amount of warlock training under your belt, and you use a ladder?! Why not enchant the lights to go up by themselves? Or just make your own, you know, what with the fire that you can summon at will?" "Hey! I'm not eight thousand yet." "Sure you aren't." "I'm not even seventy thousand yet!" "If you say so," Jack shrugged. "I mean I'm close but not that close!" Jack pulled a face, sticking his hands up in surrender. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Dad." Blaise clipped the first bulb onto the gutter as a smirk crept onto his face. "Ah, now for me—" he side-eyed Jack, satisfied when the smug look began to drop, the colour leaving his face. "—that would be your mom." "Oh come ON Dad!" Jack protested loudly, nearly rivalled by Blaise's howling laughter. "I DON'T NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS!"

I live to see Blinter embarrass Jack, and Winter's got the lead on Blaise so now, he gets a turn, lmao. See how the Frost Family's Festive Funtime goes right HERE on ao3 and HERE on ff.net!

Wanna read from the top? Check out the Prologue: An Encounter HERE on ao3 and HERE on ff.net. Summary below the cut! AND some author rambles!

It's been almost a year since Jack Frost thawed and things are looking...well, not so great. Jack's powers are seemingly gone. Without them, the Dome that keeps the North Pole safe from the cold and its magic controlled is melting, putting everything and everyone magical at risk. Unable to hide his power shortage any longer, Jack is forced to admit the truth. Thankfully, there is a solution: enacting the Legate Law, bringing Jack and the sister that he hurt so many centuries ago back together again. But when Jacqueline starts experiencing destructive blackouts, the pair are forced to head back home to Crystal Springs, bringing Jack face to face with the rest of the family. Needless to say, between getting his powers back, helping his sister figure out what in the FROST those blackouts even were, reconciling with his parents, meeting the two even younger siblings he didn't even KNOW he had, NOT TO MENTION the ancient threat that's had it out for the ENTIRE Frost family finally making a move? Saving Christmas (regrettably) is looking to be a little bit...complicated.

And with that, one more chapter until fresh CS content you guys! AHHH I AM SO EXCITED! Then two more chapters to go!

I've already got fun plans for 2024. Frostmas is next to be crossposted (but I make no guarantees it'll get the CS treatment, by which I mean, I won't have it done to give u the last two years and the epilogue come late 2024 lol. Or maybe I will! Who's to say! I'm at least hopeful to have Y11 for you some time next year :), and I've already picked a BANGER of an update date for each year (hehehe, the 13th of each month >:), and ff dot net continues to be a pain (guess what broke again. EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS D:<), so the sooner the BETTER.

And we'll see when Into the Shadows makes it up! It's got a lot of tricky parts and I've drafted (in note form) up to chapter 7 I believe? I've gotta figure a few more things out (villain motivations, order of disappearances) but then who knows! Maybe 2025 will be the year of ITS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. At that point I won't even NEED to shift things to make it more original with the big stuff from TSCS universe, as I imagine they'll keep on taking the series so far from the movies that they'll be unidentifiable as the same franchise (I am already salty about s2 and 100% convinced s3 will be a thing and it SHOWS)

ANYWAY. Stay tuned for Chapter 23: Fae Brand next week, and Chapter 24: Whiteout (🆕 NEW CONTENT 🆕) THE FOLLOWING WEEK! (Nov 16th ish most likely since Thursdays seem to be when the chapter gets up)

I've tried to be super good with descriptions and visuals so that artist friends can go absolutely feral >:) ahhhh I can't WAIT for you all to read it!! 🥰🥰🥰