Sixth Flake [video]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa looks a lot more subdued than usual - especially compared to her last video - when she begins recording, staring out the window of the little apartment she and Anna had begun renting for their stay in Goldenrod. It's snowing, this time with no help from her, and she's just watching the flakes drift lazily past.]

I know this may sound like an odd question, but... how do you go about celebrating things you haven't really acknowledged in a very long time? Birthdays, holidays, things like that... It feels strange to just go ahead and do it and act like the lack of celebrations in years past never happened. Wrong, almost, to completely dismiss such a long amount of time like that.

It seems rather difficult to make a special event even more special. Does that make sense at all?

[She's not even thinking about her own upcoming birthday (on the 21st!) at all. But Christmas is coming up... the first Christmas in thirteen years that the sisters will be spending together. She wants Anna's first real Christmas since she was five to be perfect, or at least as perfect as Elsa can make it. She just... has no idea how to do that.]

Comments

video;

[nostabbing]

I guess maybe the first thing you have to do is figure out if the reason you're celebrating is because of you or because of somebody else.

[...]

Like, are you doing it because you think you should, or because you think somebody else thinks you should, or because you just want to?

[defyingfrigidity]

Because I want to. When I was growing up... celebrating during the holidays was one of the few things I really, really wanted. It was one of the few things I was tempted to argue about with my parents.

[The first few years, at least. As she grew up, and as she convinced herself more and more that she was a monster and didn't deserve to be around other people... the desire to fight disappeared.]

So yes, I'm doing this for me. Partially. But I'm mainly doing it for my sister.

[stitchedupbodyguard]

....Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. It feels really weird, trying to celebrate something I've never celebrated before.

[She'd never celebrated a lot before.]

[nostabbing]

Then you should do what's gonna make you happy. Right?

[She kind of tilts her head a little, but her expression is still reasonably gentle; this is the kind of topic she can understand, after all.]

I mean...you're saying "how do I celebrate" like there's a right way to do it. But why does it matter if you're doing it right if the only people who matter are you and your sister?

[...]

I guess it's kind of hard when you're different, and...feel weird about maybe not doing something the way everybody thinks you're supposed to? I used to do that. But it's like giving a present. You're not supposed to think about what everybody says makes something a good present. You're supposed to think about what the person getting it likes.

So...think about celebrating like giving you and your sister a present.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Haha wow you really... hit the nail on the head there.]

I understand that. And I understand that she's going to like whatever I do no matter what. But even so... I need to do something special. To make up for everything in the past.

[SORRY SHE GETS KIND OF... STUCK... ON THINGS LIKE THAT...]

And besides, I've never really... done anything like this before. [Now she just looks more embarrassed than upset.] Back when we still celebrated Christmas, we ah.... we had servants decorate for us, and people hired to arrange the celebrations.

[defyingfrigidity]

Oh? Do they not have Christmas where you come from, or...?

[nostabbing]

...So you want ideas? Of what to do for Christmas and stuff?

That's why you're asking?

[defyingfrigidity]

[There's a pause, then Elsa lets out a somewhat defeated sigh.] Yes, that would help. I know the typical things that should go into decorating for Christmas, like a tree and strands of garland and such, but... I don't know what else to do.

And I don't know if I should do anything else, aside from decorating and finding presents. There has to be more I can do!

[nostabbing]

[There's a pause, then, as the camera shakes a little from the Gear being set down, and when Parker eventually reappears she is wearing a pair of bright green felt reindeer antlers with bows hanging off of them, and thus considers herself now sufficiently holly and jolly to answer any and all Christmas questions.]

Oh, yeah, that's barely anything. There's tons of Christmas stuff you can do. You have to get the tree, you have to hang up lights, you have to make cookies and build gingerbread houses and write letters to Santa and make snow angels and drink hot cocoa with candy canes stuck in them and have snowball fights and make ornaments and hang up wreaths and hook up the hotline to NORAD so you can track Santa the whole night as he delivers his presents.

[defyingfrigidity]

[WHOA THAT IS A SUDDEN BARRAGE but Elsa manages to keep up and... actually perks up at a few suggestions.]

Did you say hot cocoa and candy canes? [SHE SEEMS ABSOLUTELY AWESTRUCK BY THIS IDEA.] I never would've thought to do that! That sounds amazing.

... And I'm sorry, but you completely lost me with "hook up the hotline to NORAD". What... what does that mean?

[nostabbing]

[THREE GUESSES WHAT PARKER'S FAVORITE HOLIDAY IS.

CHRISTMAS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS.]

Oh, that's just for on Christmas Eve. Every year the military tracks Santa on radar to make sure he has a safe flight all over the world and stuff. So it's important tradition to haaaaaaaaa— watch their radar broadcasts. So you know where Santa is.

[#NiceSave]

It's for watching Santa.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Spoilers: Elsa doesn't believe in Santa. She hasn't since she was eight or nine. Living in a state of MOSTLY self-imposed isolation kind of does that to you, as does the constant depression. And the whole "believes she was a monster" thing. If Santa brought coal to naughty children, why did she never get any?

So yeah. No belief in Santa. But she can still appreciate the sentiment there.]

That's certainly a nice tradition to have. I bet the children of the world are obsessed with it.

[nostabbing]

...Well, yeah. Everybody is.

[Santa is real. This is indisputable fact.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Hmm....]

Do you know if they do anything like that here?

[Because she has a feeling Anna would be ALL OVER THAT if she knew...]

[stitchedupbodyguard]

O-oh, they do! I mean... [She shrugs her shoulders.] I've just never had the chance to celebrate it. I've always been busy, working, and doing other things.

I've seen it celebrated in a lot of different places though.

[nostabbing]

...I don't know if they have NORAD here.

[Which is really disappointing, actually.]

They have it at home, though.

[VIDEO]

[diamondo]

Actually, I'd say that makes it even more special. You didn't celebrate it for a long time, so now that you've decided to, it's gonna be special no matter what.

[Mondo shrugs at that. He hasn't really experienced this, so take his advice with a grain of salt.]

I'm guessing you're celebrating the holidays for the first time in awhile. I guess it kinda depends on who else is gonna be celebrating with you. If it's just you then obviously you only need to do what'll make you happy, but if you've got other people there who also haven't celebrated in awhile, you've gotta take them into account, which gets tricky.

[defyingfrigidity]

[That perks Elsa up a little.]

Really? Are the celebrations different in other lands?

[defyingfrigidity]

[Aha, the problem though...]

Sadly, I won't be able to investigate when I return home. My land... it doesn't have all this technology. We're very far behind.

[defyingfrigidity]

Tricky indeed... [She sighs. I have a sister. One who I only recently began reconnecting with. I'm still... learning how much she's changed. [She thinks she's got it all figured out by now, but sometimes, Anna just manages to surprise her all over again.]

That's what makes it so difficult. She's still mostly the same, but we've both grown up a lot. So I just don't know what to do now.

[diamondo]

Oh wow, that sounds pretty rough. I can't imagine what that would be like.

[Mostly because he was practically attached to his brother at the hip until he died in an accident, but you know.]

Well, as much fun as it would be to surprise her, I think it might be best if you guys talked it out. That way you're both on the same page. Because maybe you like wild parties but she's the quiet type who doesn't like that sort of thing, or maybe you want to spend the whole day cooking a nice meal while she'd rather play video games. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it'll be easiest to figure things out if you guys work together and lay out what you both like. If you guys both remember celebrating the holidays together before, maybe you can bring in some old traditions, if that won't be too painful.

[stitchedupbodyguard]

[She nods.] Yeah. It's different in many places in the world. Some people don't even celebrate Christmas. There's other holidays that the celebrate, like Hanukkah.

[red_roses]

Do you mean Christmas? B-Because I'm trying to make that special for someone too....

video;

[ex_cashcow493]

Sometimes we do not celebrate these things for ourselves, but for those around us. [ Seems a suitable enough answer to give and to be honest, that's the only reason Saber herself celebrates much of anything. ]

Keeping up appearances and fitting in raises less questions than not celebrating at all.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa, being the huge nerd that she is, loves learning about new stuff like this, so she looks pretty darn interested.]

What's Hanukkah?