Song: Let it Go (Movie and Male version)
From/By: Frozen/Daniele Carta Mantiglia
Song suggested by Shea777 and snowflake idea by Randomly Talented. Thank you so much for the ideas!
When Jack returned to the house it was to a very upset aunt Greta. The kids had done their best to pacify her, he could tell that from there uncomfortable shuffling, but it seemed obvious that their efforts may have only made her patients shorter.
"And just where have you been?"
"I had to take some sheets back to their pastor." Jack said so matter-of-factly with the swirl of his shepherd's staff that it actually made on Greta pause.
With a shake of her head her arms uncrossed from her chest and her hands went onto her hips. "Sheep? That is either the lamest excuse I've ever heard, or you would have even more explaining to do than I thought!"
So Jack explained what he had been doing with the Kulning and how it had called all the animals including a herd of sheep from a farm outside of town.
Aunt Greta's stared at him for a moment and then heaved a huge sigh. "I know it was an accident, but next time curve your volume perhaps?"
Jack promised he would and aunt Greta side again and went back inside. All the kids stared after her until she was well into the kitchen and then a chorus of laughter burst from them. They couldn't control themselves and this time Jack just let them go, not necessarily joining in but taking pleasure in the humor of it as well.
From the smells and the kitchen food was almost ready but Jack figured they had time for one more game so he started blowing the leaves around virtually 'splashing' the kids in the face with them. That in turn started the kids in Unlike fun, and soon leaves were flying all over the place.
Jack went off to the side and hopped atop his staff, surveying the mischief and fun he had created. As he sat there he started whirling his fingers around creating individual snowflakes as he went, each one was intricate and unique. Jack smiled as he examined each in turn. He liked to store images of his memories in these snowflakes. He found that if a flake had a design that reminded him of something fun, his fun inducing magic wove into them a lot better. As he completed each he Gently set it in his hair for safekeeping.
Sophie was the one to notice this first. Having grown much over the last couple years she now could better communicate what she wanted to say and as such bluntly said: "why do you have snowflakes in your hair Jack?"
Startled from his musings the Snowflake Jack had been creating fell to the ground. Sophie looked down and furled her brows. "Is that Jamie and your Snowflake?"
Hearing his name Jamie came over to look at what his sister was staring at. "What did you say Soph?"
The girl pointed at the flake that was starting to melt on the leaf strewn ground. "I thought I saw your face and that Snowflake!"
Jamie looked harder but the flake had melted completely by now. "You sure? I've never seen pictures in snowflakes before!"
Sophie made a pouting face, then turned to look at Jack and saw the flakes that were sitting his hair again. She pointed at them, "look closer!"
Jamie did so but couldn't see the flakes properly because of the white of the flakes on the white of Jack's hair.
Jack, not wanting to fight to break out, decided to intervene in the conversation. "Actually, Sophie is right! She did see you in my Snowflake, Jamie."
Jack swirled his hand and started to recreate the flake he had let fall to the ground. The outer shell of it was pretty simple, like most flakes it was a multi-star-shaped, inside he started to craft the lines like a spiderweb but instead of ovals squares and diamonds, like you to see in a kaleidoscope, he swirled the lines to create the outline of Jamie's silhouette and then the specific features of his face. Once it was complete he gently put it among the other snowflakes in his hair.
"I make them like that to help my fun magic hold better, and I store them in my hair so they won't melt and I have them at easy reach."
"When did you start doing that?" Timmy interjected. All three turned to see that their conversation had caught the rest of the groups attention. Once again Jack found himself the center of attention.
As he thought about the question memories of his early years as Jack Frost came back to mind. His clumsiness, his mishaps, and of course his breakdowns. One night in particular struck hard in his mind and how he had fled to that mountain..."
"Jack?! Are you okay?"
Sophie's question brought him back to the present and he noticed the many worried looks he was getting.
We smiled at them. "Yeah I'm all right, just got lost in memory."
He realized too late that that was the wrong words to say, especially on this day, when around so many Bennett's. Eagerness lit up their eyes as they anticipated a story.
"You're not going to let me go until I tell you, are you?"
Every single head shook no in confirmation.
Jack hopped down from his staff and sat cross legged in front of the kids. "The first couple times I tried to use my powers was haphazard at best. I was really clumsy and to say least usually ended up with more bursts of power than actual planned use of it." He started to fall back into his memories as he described the year he flown to the top of a mountain.
"I was unable to keep the power inside and it came out at the most inopportune times. I had a lot of accidental frezzings of other immortals I ran into. I started to think I had to conceal my power and the only way I could do that was becoming unfeeling. At Least that's what I thought and that thought led to me being vary, shall we say pent up."
The kids murmured in concern, they had a hard time imagining Jack as unfeeling, which meant that if he had tried to become that it would not have been a pretty sight.
"It worked for a while, but really all I was doing was building up pressure that was just itching to find a small crack in my defences. And that is just what happend. There was a few times, mostly during the dead of winter, that the figurative dam I built broke but the worst- and last- was on the easter of 68. After that terrible blizzard, and a furm talking to by the Easter Bunny, I bolted to a far off mountain top."
(Start movie version here.)
"There I cried at the lack of control I had on my powers and the loneliness I suffered because of my forced attempts to not feel anything. And there - on that snow covered rock - I realized that the worst had happened, my attempts had only made things harder to control, so I decided to do the exact opposite. I Let myself go, I used my powers like I had the first time I had discovered them. It was time to see what I could do! In wonder I created swirls of snow, frost patterns, ice creations, and so much more. I let myself be me! And with that realization came the comfort of the chill, the cold that had plagued me became a part of me."
"Is that when you started making snowflakes like the ones you have now?" Sophie asked.
"Not right away, I decided to stay on that mountain top for a while. I figured I could do any jobs I may have, of which I had no idea what they were at the time, from there. I was secure up on that rock, I could be myself all the time with no worry about what I may do to others. And that is exactly what happened, I completely isolated myself. The thrill of my new freedom of bottling my emotions fell away rather quickly."
(Start male version here)
"Once again I was miserable and spent more and more time reminiscing my past mistakes. That's when I made another realization, up in the cold thin air I could breath the truth of my relief. I had only took the first step by opening myself up. So for the next few weeks, or was it months, I practiced and played with my powers and just what kind of beauty and fun I could make with them. Intent on returning to the world below the snowy mountain peak. To help remember the good moments -instead of focusing on the bad - I started to try and immortalize them with ice, but that proved too cumbersome to carry all of the sculptors. Snow on the other hand was almost lighter than a feather so I put my good memories into the flacks.
It was after I left the mountain that I found out my good memory flakes could help me spread fun to others. You would not believe the hysterics I induced before I learned portion control. I once put a stern faced captain on the Guard into an hour long laughing fit, in front of the lutenists he was scolding. Of course I made it up to him latter. His superiors never found out about his loss of composure, thanks to the report in-explicitly going missing."
"Oh, Jack!" Marry stood on the back porch shaking her head at his story.
I have a songfic for this idea of the Blizzard of 68. It will be up soon in my "Blizzared of 68, what happened" story.