Crystal Springs Chapter 16: Now on ao3!
HERE IT IS!
Chapter 16: It's Dinner Time!
Dinner time arrives and with it, a lore drop. Autumn gets to the bottom of Winter and Jack's disconnect.
This is one of my FAVOURITE chapters. I hope you all enjoy it too! It was v hard to pick a snippet to share, so I decided to go meta (this chapter has about 3 moments of self-awareness/fourth wall breaking, if you squint. It REEKS of author bias, lmao)
Jack turned back to his aunts. Summer had leaned in closer—an astonishing feat since she was already right beside him. Autumn watched, head on her linked hands, elbows on the table. Spring still sat with one leg over the other, arms crossed, glaring at Jack...but her eyebrow gave a little twitch. Interesting, Jack thought over a spoonful of mash.
"Anyway, it didn't last, of course. Santa managed to come back and reverse trick me. We got back to the proper timeline, and I was almost immediately apprehended by the Elfficers for...other things, funnily enough."
"Not the overthrowing thing?" Summer asked.
"He froze a couple of people and locked them in a closet with their not-frozen kid," Jacqueline offered.
"Shut. Up!" Summer exclaimed.
Thanks Jacqueline.
"Did you not know that, Summer?" Spring asked, a little too innocently.
Sorry, were you not going to say that bit?
"No! I didn't! Oh my gosh…then what happened?" Summer asked, shifting in her seat so that she now sat cross-legged, her chin in her hand as she leaned on the table, fully enraptured with Jack's tale.
I was going to sugar coat it.
You know Spring would've come back with the salt, Jack.
Jack had to take a quick sip of his own drink to hide his laughter. "Well," he said, "Now we get to the good part. So, there I was! Two little elf men on either side, shoving me into the Workshop, and they bring me right before Santa. Bernard's temp had discovered Lucy and her parents in the closet, the parents frozen solid courtesy of yours truly. He and Lucy tell the big guy, who already knows all about the whole stealing Christmas thing, of course, as we were SURROUNDED by the Council, so the odds were already stacked against me!"
"I can't believe I'm rooting for you right now," Autumn said.
"I get that a lot," Jack joked. Autumn and Summer laughed; Jacqueline rolled her eyes, smiling, nonetheless.
"Maybe you're rooting for him because you know how it ends, Aunt Autumn," Jacqueline mused, pulling her hair over her shoulder thoughtfully.
"REDEMPTION ARC!" Fiera shouted down the table.
Even Spring let a little smile escape, very briefly. She seemed to have loosened up a little bit, though she still sat rigid, watching Jack as intently as Winter watched her.
"Spoilers, Fiera! Please!"
"Sorry!"
"Yeah Fiera, spoilers," Fino said, flinging more mashed potatoes at her. She dodged it in time, the potatoes beelining for Blaise. Lightning fast, Blaise smacked his spoon on the table, sending it up in the air; it deflected the mash and the pile fell with a plop onto the candle in front of them, extinguishing the flame.
"You were saying?" Autumn asked, as the candle hissed.
"Yeah, keep going!" Summer added.
Want to see how Jack wins over his aunts? Check out Chapter 16: Dinner Time, right HERE on ao3!
Want to take Crystal Springs from the top? Catch the Prologue, "An Encounter", HERE on ao3 and HERE on fanfiction dot net! Summary below the cut, as per the ush:
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 yes, if you're wondering, I did name this chapter with The Emperor's New Groove in mind. So it's best you read the chapter title exactly the way Yzma delivers THIS banger of a line (beware flashy gif):
DUH DUH DUH DAHHHHH
Next chapter will be up next week! We'll finally finally FINALLY get that sweet, sweet, Jack and Winter reunion. I think. Lemme go check smth real quick.
SORRY CHAPTER AFTER THAT. But next week: Some BADASS Frosty Sibs games, AND a good Blaise and Jack moment, AND some fun Winter moments! THEN WE GO TO THE MARKET AFTER THAT! YEAH YEAH YEAH! WOOO! (explodes)
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