#if someone guesses it right I'll straight up drop it on tumblr. assuming it's written. bc i haven't gotten there just quite yet lol

[safyresky]

Crystal Springs: The Call

Mother Gaia's intervention had been the last straw for the Goddess. When the other deities had agreed to help her make this world for all their people, they agreed on one thing: minimal interference once their people had established themselves. The Goddess's people had adapted very fast; she'd been hands-off for centuries. So of course that's when the Fae War had started. She had given her people this fresh, new world; away from the darkness that had claimed all their planets, away from the death and destruction, and it had followed them here. With the darkness at risk of returning, encroaching upon them all again, and her dear Gaia a sobbing mess below the source of all the magic she had gifted to her people, The Goddess decides that enough is enough. For too long her people had lived and lived and lived. It was time they knew what that meant. It was time they knew death.

Part I: Lost (read it on ao3 | tumblr)

After months of planning, Mother Gaia brings Tara to Roseterra to trigger The Call. Magibeans scramble to say their final goodbyes before being forcibly removed from this plane of existence. Life is about to take a startling, powerful turn for four very young sprites...

Preview and musings below the cut!

"Tara, come here dear. This is the place." With a sigh, Tara picked herself up and made her way to what looked to be the centre of the valley. A pile of stones that looked remarkably plinth like for something that purported to be natural stood in front of Gaia. The space on the top of which was shaped exactly like the stone she had tucked away in the boughs of her skirt. Gaia had refused to carry it; she didn’t want to tarnish it. Tara didn’t think she would. She hadn’t argued, though, and had grown a little alcove in her skirts to hold the stone. Gently, she lifted her hand; the branches around her legs creaked. One bough slowly poked out between the branches. In it, the stone sat. “It’s glowing,” Tara realized. “Then it is finally time. Place it on the plinth please, dear.” The branch didn’t move. Deep in her chest, Tara felt a horrible warmth. Her hands seemed to drift up of their own accord to cover her mouth; her vision blurred. “Tara?” Gaia turned away from the plinth. “Oh. Dearest." She was trembling. Her cheeks were wet. She choked down a sob. Gaia reached up to cradle her daughter’s face. She wiped the tears off of her dark, sparkling cheeks, rubbing her thumb against her warm skin gently. Tenderly. “It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” “How do you know?” she managed to choke out, her voice heavy. “What if it doesn’t—what if I don’t—I’m not ready!” “You’ve had my mantle for centuries now, Tara. You’re ready.” “I’m not ready to lose you!” she yelled through her tears, inhaling heavily through her nose. “I know I’m ready to take over for you. Please. I’m gonna rock being Mother Gaia. I just. I don’t want to lose my mom. I don’t want to lose you,” she admitted, wrapping her arms around the frail woman who had been there from the moment the elements that made her began to stick together. The woman who had made sure everything was in tip top shape before she gifted her a life light, giving her humanoid form. Who had shown her the ropes; helped her master all of the elements, all of the parts of every season. Had slowly given her the reins, guiding her through her first few judgment calls before she became an expert at it herself, mastering balance alongside her as they tried their best to keep their home safe. “I will always be with you, dear. I won’t be very far. I’ll be here,” she said, gesturing to the rocky, dead, expanse around them. “What terrible curb appeal,” Tara choked out. Gaia looked stunned for the briefest of seconds. Then she laughed. Then she snorted, which only made her laugh harder through the tears that had started to slip out. She snorted again; now Tara found herself laughing, too. The two women stood at the end of the world and laughed their guts out.

The preview was longer, but for some odd reason, tumblr was very mad about saving the longer version? So we went with the first half after a VERY HARD decision!

You can check it out HERE on ao3 and HERE on our lovely HELLSITE (tm)

Some musings for you:

I tagged it as original work instead of The Santa Clause bc let's be real here. The only character from the franchise here is Mother Nature and even then, she is fairly far removed from movie events/how we see her in the series.

SHE IS. BUT A BABY. DURING THE CALL. (not actually a baby. metaphorically)

I posted it on hellsite as a private post because this settled my internal AI trawling distrust vs want to post on tumblr

I've opted out, obvi. But who says that corporations are actually going to listen and take that into consideration?

And sure, maybe a private post can still be read by an AI trawler. But given that only I can see it and share links for people to see it?

IT GIVES ME SOME MEASURE OF PEACE, OK!

Okay so PROPER musings now:

AGES!

While all four Season Sisters came to being around the same time, they were given different forms when they got leggies, as Summer says.

The only age I know for certain is Winter. She's about ~400ish when The Call happens. She's LITTLE. So we can assume all the seasons have existed for around the same time. That is, these personifications of them, lol.

Winter is toddler sized

Summer is pre-teen sized

Spring is child-sized

Autumn is awkward child-to-pre-teen sized

The Twin Princes are about ~700ish when The Call happens

So Blinter age difference, for those interested, is about 300 years (equating to about 3 years for ordibeings/magibeans who DON'T age at the exceptionally slow rate sprites do!)

PARENTAGE! I think it's fairly clear what magibeans helped create each season, but for what it's worth (and also reference):

Mother Gaia created Mother Nature/Tara; that's her MOMMY.

Winter's parents are the Snow Queen (Bianca) and the Winter Warlock (Winter sr.).

(He's actually based on a LOT of wintry beings I have seen, lol. Primarily the Winter Warlock from Rankin Bass's Santa Claus is Coming to Town. He also gives Merlin from Sword in the Stone vibes, generic wizard posting vibes, and sometimes ice king adventure time vibes, lol)

Summer's parent was Sol, the sprite in charge of the sun/sunshine/sunlight. THAT'S HER DAD!

Autumn's parents were Harvest, the personification of the harvest, and Hollow Eve.

Hollow's are charged with ferrying souls; they can traverse planes very easily and this is why the goddess enlists their help when she creates Rosehaven. "Hollow" is their title; they place it in front of their names always.

Hollow Eve is how Autumn named Halloween >:)

Spring doesn't have a parent or two parents. She has multiple sprites who helped to create her. She's collecting parents the way Steven Universe collects Moms, lol. Her parents include: Gaia, Tara, the sprites in charge of flowers, the sprites who did rain, and the winds.

All of these sprites, and probably more actually! Frequented the Garden and offered wisdom and advice to Spring, some of them without even knowing!

She ✨🌞 PHOTOSYNTHESIZED 🌞✨ to gather all the bits that made her spritely self, and sealed the deal when Mother Nature finds her and gives her the light life Gaia gave her at the end of part 1 :)

UPON REREADING BEFORE POSTING IT: Winter obvi freezes. We be knowing that for forever thanks to Meet the Frosts, I think.

But did you know that Summer also freezes? Well, her heart hardens, and for summer sprites that means it's stony. Or maybe ashy? and stony would be if a spring sprite's heart was hardened? I've yet to pick a term for spring sprites, lol.

I THINK that covers all my musings that AREN'T covered in Part 2. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this piece! It's not, per se, a DETOUR from my usual stuff? It's just. You know. Pretty much original work? It feels different--which I suppose checks out, given that it's a whole other era in CS History that is about 2 eras removed from where they are now :)