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vacationcalendar · 3 years

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8/10/21

Wait, I missed 2 days? Ah fuck. You know what, let’s not focus on it. I don’t really feel like going full journal-mode today. Suffice it to say the winddown from doing WEED (and the socializing from that 5k most likely...) was much bigger than I was hoping it would be. And I might just be in the middle of an existential crisis! Moving on!

Hmm, so what to go over today. I think it’s high time we put some effort into something we care about. Writing good. Writing goodly. I was gonna say the novel, which I have to commit to calling something. I keep forgetting I was going to settle on The Franz Lion like almost a month ago. I do want to do that. So let’s. Ok, I wanted to write like a poem or something today as well. Or rather, I wanted to write a poem like 3 days ago and then fell into a K-hole. I know that’s not the proper usage of the term K-hole, but it’s such a great phrase, and who the hell is using ketamine these days? We’re wasting K-hole as a culture. So I’m gonna do my part to fix that. I remember some indie artist was being interviewed (if memory serves, she was being interviewed by Matt Besser for an Improv4humans episode. This is the exact reason I like podcasts by the way. Matt Besser is a fundamentally interesting person and was given, through the medium of podcasting, free reign over what to talk about. And he chose to dig into an indie artist’s catalog that largely covered depression, so he could turn around and do improv comedy about it. The end. That idea was completely solipsistic, if I’m using that word correctly. Ok I checked, I did not. I just meant that this creative endeavor existed entirely for its own sake, which as far as I can tell does not have its own word), and she calls the feeling I’m describing as going on a journey to the center of the earth. I always liked that, but like, we can get that down to one word for sure. K-hole. I admit I can see problems with that; maybe we call it like a natural K-hole or something like that. Put a pin in this.

So a poem and maybe some free writing centered around TFL (handy!). Maybe we can do both at once here.

We all die once. We are born as many times as we need.

Not a poem, but this is the critical thesis of The Franz Lion. My instincts tell me this is more attached to the ship in the novel itself, but that theme should be present throughout the whole story if I can manage it. What other themes do I need to keep with me?

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Ok I left for over an hour, what’d I miss? Oh, wait! Let’s make it an hour and five minutes. lemme do laundry........ Ok. Fuck that is so easy, I should have the cleanest clothes, it’s too easy not too, man. I mean, the bedsheet is its own thing, that doesn’t count. Clothes and pillow cases and towels, forget it. Ok, let’s jam dude.

Theming attached to the Franz Lion. Birth, or rather rebirth by means of leaving an old life behind in search of a new one. I think an interesting topic I can go into will definitely be my personal style of leaving behind old things/relationships to discover new ones; even when the old ones were nice. I think that personality is currently underrepresented in culture. Moving on from a close friend, because you are a rolling stone, and that isn’t a bad thing. To never stop exploring the world is to never stop learning, and that might be the fundamental goal of the human experience. Never stop learning. This is what to me makes Weaver a compelling main character. At his core he is a learner. That’s the center bubble of the web flow chart. He wants to learn about everything. He devours the lore of this world voraciously enough to satisfy the equally curious readers, and hopefully in a way that helps move the less interested readers along with him. This is what can keep him on the ship longer than a standard “hero” type would want to. He isn’t forced into taking any political position on the ship, and while he suspects he will choose to change things soon, he’s more interested in understanding it more than he is impacting it. Like, Luke Skywalker joins the rebellion second one of the Star Wars because that’s the point; the empire is pure evil. They are just big strong bad guys that need to be risen up against, despite the odds. This is a different story. It may be hinted at from time to time that there will be a powerful act of “darkness” (destruction?) that may come into the foray of every day life, but it’s not so clear what the likelihood of that is or even if it’s that bad at all. Weaver will see as many wretched people as he will compelling characters. There will be no uber-worthy side to take up arms with and help. He’ll have to decide for himself how much conflict he’s willing to endure.

And I think Weaver’s curiosity should be the ultimate reason he stays with Kat like he does. Kat is an enigma. Kat holds so many answers that Weaver so desperately wants to uncover, and reveals nothing. Kat’s existence on the ship means so many things: What does a champion do? What exactly are the makings of a champion, could I be one? What is your responsibility when you have the power to make a difference? And then Kat’s inner darkness keeps Weaver around: What is so hard about living life? What does failure really mean? Who is this person I’m looking at right now? Weaver knows that knowledge can conquer fear, and he’s naturally drawn to trying to best understand the world around him, so why can’t he help Kat? What piece of information is he trying to find out to help fix this problem? It seems by all accounts that Kat doesn’t WANT to get better, but then why doesn’t she leave. It’s like the act of trying to help is the main source of the pain she’s feeling, but she doesn’t have the strength to abandon him/the ship. Is he torturing her? But he’s seen her come alive before. Like she’s escaped her mind and is running around like a refugee.

Now I’m thinking Weaver should have a stronger reason to stay attached to Kat. Looking at it now, I think I’d wander down a path that more resembles real life, where Kat runs out of good will and gets left behind, left to her own devices as a last ditch attempt to bring her into the working world. I don’t want to do that in the book, necessarily. I don’t have Kat as the POV character, and I don’t have Kat as the fundamentally curious one constantly asking what the fuck is wrong with her. That book would just be too hard to write. And I wouldn’t want to read it anyway. So Weaver should stick with it as long as he can, hopefully til the end of the story or whatever. So currently, he stays with her because he at first is mezmerized by her. She’s a champion! A legendary warrior, and in this world, fighting is an art. Watching a master etherist(? gotta pick out some more vocab...) is like watching a sunset. It’s the closest you can get to objective beauty. And as someone who just found out he’s an etherist as well, this is his only source of ethereal knowledge. It’s understood relatively quickly in the book that the way champions work makes it more than likely that Weaver will become the Wind Champion at some point in his ethery journey-

NOTE: elements attune to people, not the other way around, so as long as people can muster ethereal attunement to an element, that element will have a champion that sort of represents the element. It’s like the queen on a chess board. Nations will have a King, but the champion is the one with the agency. Since for all the crew knows, Weaver is an ethereal breed of one, he will become the champion of Wind by default, once he possesses the power to channel the element properly. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s not SO MUCH a random process that decides the champion; like Nature selects the champion and then nation’s send out “oracles” or something to find it. Nature more or less identifies the champion by flowing through the worthiest candidate when the time to select a champion occurs. Like our champions in the book weren’t decided by some ironic fate that will weave them together in a compelling way. They are literally the most innately talented at the time of selection. It would be like the universe selecting the most talented violinist one day. We’d have a couple guesses and they’d probably all be wrong, but the universe wouldn’t pick someone surprising; it would pick someone who has found the violin as an artform and plays well. But displaying talent is external and having talent is internal. Maybe it’s a bit like lightning picking the best path from the clouds to the earth. It moves everywhere seemingly randomly but eventually it decides where to strike and it’s through the best conduit in the area. And that’s guaranteed. It starts from a place that we can’t know where it will strike, but it never strikes somewhere surprising. So the crew deduces quickly on that having the one and only Windy-billy on the planet means the angry winds (I kinda want a fun word for Earth in this story, put a pin in that) of this planet will flow through him the moment he could allow it.

It’s why Captain Ettis would move heaven and earth to teach Weaver in the first place. But it’s also the exact reason Weaver is magnetized to Kat. She is the worthiest Light etherist, objectively; but she seemingly has no ambition. Kat frustrates Weaver and the Captain and everyone almost by design, and they can’t wrap their heads around it. So it seems to me like the frustration that *depression* will lay onto the cast should factor into the progression of the plot. Like the amazing promise that is the company of Kat (last name here ;P) is never ever delivered upon and that should bring them to a crossroads. My the crew of the Franz Lion abandons her and looks for a new way to get Weaver attuned to the Wind in some way. I know the first thing they should want to try is to look for old books about Wind Ethery (I don’t know how hard to make this yet. It could be relatively simple, but it doesn’t do the trick for Weaver, because that’s not what Wind books were meant for. Or it could be like highly illegal to possess Wind paraphernalia, and the book would be super helpful, it’s just the act of procuring a book would be the struggle. That honestly does not sound as interesting to me, but I can see how that would help center the narrative a bit. The reader knows what to be looking for. hmmm...), but once Kat comes along, they see a real chance to achieve their original goal, even if they are keeping Kat on board at their own peril. That’s honestly a perfect reason to want to leave Kat behind once she proves unreliable as a resource for Weaver. But when the Franz Lion sails off, this is where I want Weaver to stay with Kat. So why would he do that? Does he feel like he’d rather be with her, he’s rather help her, than help get himself to champion status? Maybe seeing her suffer shows him that being a champion is not some end-all be-all reward like he once thought. I think it would be really helpful for the story is there was some external force that coincided with Weaver’s choice to stay. So if Weaver leaving the ship= choosing Kat’s longterm success over his shortterm success (he can always become the champion later, it’s a destiny). Ok, here’s my first thought. War has been declared between the Light Kingdom and someone else (multiple kingdom’s maybe?). Word has gotten out that the champion of Light has disappeared, and -

NOTE: Couple things for world building. I think the kingdom’s should be pretty straightforward. There is the main city where the capital is. Then there is the Nation’s territory. Everyone operates more like a confederacy. Each city has its own shit under control. But the kingdom collects taxes and shit (look into this maybe O_O) and they can conscript soldiers in times of war. Also in the book, the seven (six, plus Weaver) champions have all been chosen within the same year; an unheard of event. New champions are only chosen when the former champion passes away. So for the first time in history (documented history), the champions are all green and untested. So some of the more ambitious champions have taken this as a major opportunity to further establish their empires, I guess. I think battle and territory expansion is a little easier to come upon in this world than my instincts tell me should be happening. The geo-political culture is far from solved in this world, as would be any world at this technological stage (check out a game of Civ VI or something).

The light champion is AWOL and the Aqua Nation and Erd Nation have champions that are poised to demonstrate their strength. This is a surprise to few; 7 new champions in one year has made the world very volatile. I think there might be room for some more dramatic tension by revealing just how Machiavellian the Aqua Champion is. Like he isn’t just going to war on the Light/Aqua border, he wants to perform a second Abandonment.

NOTE: “The Abandonment” (name subject to change) is what the world says to refer to the infamous moment in history where the world lost the ability to commune with the wind. A lot of people mourn the abandonment, like one would mourn losing their sense of smell. We have moved away from our oldest home. Our place in nature is turning grayer before our very eyes. But unsurprisingly, The (great?) Abandonment (of the Wind?) had many proponents. That’s why it happened in the first place. 7 different nations were left to share the resources and land of the world and champions would always defend their homes well enough to keep every kingdom relatively large and unmoored. The abandonment was only possible in the first place because a terrifying regime powered by an unprecedentedly strong champion and a seemingly psychotic king challenged the entire world for supremacy. The other 6 nations for the first and only time rose up together to push back and defeat the armies of the Wind nation. The king and his champion had many opportunities to surrender and end the war peacefully, but they fought tooth and nail until the very last moment, which led to their complete obliteration. Once the forces of wind were completed eradicated, the 6 nations found themselves looking at an interesting choice. The number of Wind etherists were so few, and the land they occupied was so small, the other nations would be able to enact a complete takeover of their nation. There were talks of genocide, and as unthinkable as it sounded, executing this process would kill less than a 50th of the people that had already died in this war. The crimes of the Wind Nation were heinous enough to deserve a punishment like this one, and in reality a lot of people were scared that a second champion would emerge from the remnant of the nation soon, and they might try to squirm out of the checkmate they’d been placed in. This urgency to act and the outrage from the rest of the world let the power-hungry leaders fall to their worst instincts: splitting the earth 6 ways was a hell of a lot better than 7 ways. So the elemental coalition army executed its prisoners and put all the women and children in prison camps. They marked them all a Wind children and moved them all around the world in camps overseen by each Nation. They lived out the remainder of their lives as second class citizens, unable to practice or even mention ethery, and unable to have children. The final act of eradication lasted one lifetime and needed only a fleeting apathy to execute.

Hmm, now I’m realizing I already have the ivories. People with no ethery, no communion with nature. They either could be the product of the eradicated Windys, or they could merge with the Windys. That makes more sense; to go from no Ivories to lots of Ivories, just because of the cleansing of Windys, doesn’t really work. You can’t strip a people of their natural connection to the elements like that. I think I should leave any Windys left after the war to be branded Windys (although I don’t like the brand idea that much, brands are so automatically associated with Jews, and the Windys already started out like a pseudo Nazi party. I do think their motivations will be a lot more “world domination”-y than the Facism/genocide stuff)

How bout this? The world coalition captured every Windy, then once the next champion emerged they picked an agreed upon location to jail him for life. So they’d always know where the wind champion was. And he wasn’t as strong or as crazy as the last one, so he went away without incident. Then all the remaining Windy citizens were broken up into little groups and carted off to ivory settlements all over the world. They could live their lives normally like the ivory folk under the promise to never perform or teach wind ethery ever, under penalty of death. The land that belonged to the Wind Nation was divided up among the other nations. Since it wasn’t right in the middle of everything, compromises were made. Certain Nations got bigger shares of the land by giving up land that already belonged to their kingdom. Like the Light kingdom got a big piece of the Wind nation in exchange for giving up part of their border to the Fire Kingdom, since the Fire Kingdom was so far away from the Wind Kingdom. This part was very complicated and took a long time, and ensured that no Kingdom was particularly satisfied or allied with anyone anymore. Think world war 1 leading to world war 2 MINUS THE FACISM.

A bunch of survivors obviously saw it to be very important to keep Wind ethery alive and tried to teach it to their children in secret. All the books and libraries etc. in the Wind Kingdom were destroyed. Some people tried to recreate ethery books on their own; they’d hide them in their homes. But Soldiers of each kingdom were obviously tasked with the finding and destroying of these sorts of practices. And you were instantly executed and made an example of in your town. And you can imagine certain kingdoms were less tolerant than others. Taking part in this time in history would place your sympathies with the wind people. Dragged into global conflict by their mad king and his calamitous champion. And now your very essence is being scrubbed from history before your eyes. It’s an exceedingly wretched time to bear witness to. But this was maybe 3 entire generations removed from our current setting.

So yeah, The Abandonment was a huge deal. Many people still mourn this time in the world’s history. But so many more feel an unearned sense of freedom from it. Freedom from the scourge of tyranny. Freedom to live out their wonderful lives as the true ethereal race. If only we could abandon the other 5 natural abominations. People like them rather enjoyed how “honest” and “friendly” the wind felt without a ugly face hiding behind it. Surely if the world were to do without humans unnatural handling of nature, it would be a better place to live. Their element notwithstanding of course. People are fucking idiots. This viewpoint is meant to be instantly hated by the reader, and at the same time being instantly understood, and the reader feels no compulsion to reason with this viewpoint. It’s all too familiar.

At the same time, it leaves a lot of room to explore an actual thought. If humans could bend nature to our whim, should we? Isn’t that what we’re doing right now in the real world? Stealing water and wind and rock to make electricity and heat? Moving everything around for the sake of conveniencing ourselves? Surely the goal of a humanity that could move the world around as it wanted would be to find it’s natural equilibrium. People in the book say the wind is sad now that it was no way to talk to us. But is it actually sad? Or are we just deciding what we want the world to look like? If the wind could really talk, it should incumbent on us to listen. I think that should come into play when you see how industrious the ivories are. They have no communal channel with the elements, and they’re begun to take off down the path of industry. It’s early but we get some hints that they seem to be on the path towards the modern day humans of Earth. And modern humanity is nothing if not a cautionary tale of find your own balance with nature. Someone, maybe Weaver should come to understand that we need to wield our ethereal power as SERVANTS not MASTERS. Like how Jesus said to love thy neighbor, as a servant. you get it. That seems like it’s a big enough hook to hang a bit of the plot onto at some point down the road.

Where was I? Oh my god, the plot. Like 2 thousand words later. Jesus.

So once word breaks out that the Light Kingdom is going to war, and it look sbad for them, Kat let’s slip that her new plan is to kill herself. She would be doing a great service to her country, giving them a new champion in her stead, and she can’t handle being around anymore anyway. The weight of her responsibility to be great has crushed her beyond her capacity. So once she’s been kicked off TFL, Weaver follows her. (again, WHY does he follow her? I don’t *love* the idea that he follows her as a way of being there to stop her from killing herself, but that checks out logistically) Weaver can tell something is wrong and he doesn’t want to lose her. He’s like 17 so it feels extremely natural that he has worked himself up to a point of loving Kat, as a teenager is able to do. So when she turns to this dark point, she has exhausted almost all of the good will around her, and Weaver is thoroughly perplexed by her. She bears an enigmatic quality (I wanted to say that sentence like 3 hours ago... lol). He clearly has found it difficult to like her, but he just can’t help himself. And when he finds out she’s planning to kill herself (this is honestly a perfect story beat. It works for the plot and the theme and it is the biggest part of a story about depression you can add), he stops her.

I think naturally because this is me writing this, I’m not going to let Weaver stick to his guns to fervently about preventing a suicide. There are a lot of questions that are raised by this. How much damage has this act done to the light kingdom? Does Weaver have a duty to bring Kat to “fighting shape”? Is it ok that Kat has failed to protect her kingdom? Suicide was the easy way out, can Weaver do the hard work for Kat? He doesn’t have control here.

Wow, this is a heavy scene. I’m letting it wash over me right now and it’s making me get a little teary. This will be a huge part of this book, I’m just realizing. And mechanically it fits perfectly. What part of the book would this be? I can literally see this as a part of the book people would try and skip over as they read it again. Like, they’d look it up and people online would say go to page 347 to pick back up after this scene had subsided. Now that we’re talking about this I know another part I have to include if I want to do this right, is I have to include the death of the King in the Light Kingdom (I’ll give him a name obviously). It’s one of the biggest emotional arcs I can possibly imagine for Kat, and it needs to happen early enough to let her deal with it throughout her story. The initial spiral. The DABDA, I suppose. Whenever I imagine myself going through grieving, especially 10 years ago, I’d jump to Depression and rot there for the rest of my life. But I know that’s impossible. But I also know that DABDA is natural and healthy, and Kat is not healthy. It will look different for her and it will not be fast.

This is interesting. The more I dream up stuff to include in the book, the more I had interesting philosophical quandries, and the less I think of compelling action sequences. The longer I live, the further the balance shifts it seems. I need to make sure I’m keeping in mind a reason why you’d pick up this book in the first place. Something cool has to happen right?

I do think the first sequence in the book is cool. A terrorist attack where Weaver ends up stowing away on a pirate ship, then being captured and nearly executed; only to be saved by the possibility that he might be someone very special, if he works hard. That’s a fine start. Then there’s the tale of the White Witch. That’s also cool. What else? Kat’s entrance aboard TFL, and Kat sinks those two ships. I don’t see why any of that cool action needs to be cut. And every moment in between can be getting to know the crew and this world. Certainly green seas and the overwhelming force of the “navy” (The Aqua military should have a name like that) is compelling. I’m starting to think also that Weaver is kept at arm’s length of the specific plans of Captain Ettis. One, he doesn’t know anything anyways. Why would going to Landwing matter to him or not? And if we just keep ourselves concerned about the story through Weaver’s eyes, we don’t have to sweat ALL the details right away. JK Rowling didn’t worry about the Deathly Hallows in the sorcerer’s stone. I don’t think she worried about shit. Now I’m thinking again about the suicide scene. I have to be very careful about that thing. That’s what can make my book go from fun YA action adventure, to ADULT action adventure. I think I need to make sure that the leading idea to kill herself has to come from the selfless place of trying to be helpful to her people. She doesn’t know how to be a champion to her people. She doesn’t know how to help; but she can think of one way. To be honest, she’d thought about it for a long time now. If she were to die, the light would find a new champion. One who didn’t run away. One who wasn’t too cowardly to fight for something greater than herself.

It can’t go the other way, where she’s like I can’t endure the pain that comes with living anymore, and actually I’ll be helping out along the way. I’m a coward, a wretched monster that doesn’t belong here. I need to go home, and when I do my family will be able to go on without me and be ok. They don’t realize that keeping me around is only hurting them.

Do you get it? This is going to take some serious effort to get right. I think we need to leave it up to the reader to place the connection of depression and suicide on their own. Like, Kat found a noble reason to try and tap out of life, but here on Earth, people will feel like Kat sometimes even without the plot demanding it. You get it. I think we should save it for when we know a lot more about this book to write this scene though. For the sake of nuance, and I’d like to be a better writer by that point as well, haha.

Ok, I want to call it here. I’m losing track of where I am and tumblr gets super laggy when my WC gets this high. Goals for next time:

1. More vocabulary. Lock down some actual words. We can always replace them later. 2. Try to write the boat scene between Ettis and Weaver. 3. Get some details about crewmen down. It has to happen at some point.

Ok, let’s call it here. Love you, bysies <3

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ashen-star-mage · 5 years

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Frozen Black Ice (A speculative dark fanfic)

Chapter 1: A voyage and a meeting

With great power comes great responsibility. Truer words had never been spoken to Alexandra of Stormhelm by her mother, the sovereign of the realm. Alexandra knew from a young age that she was born into nobility and that some day she would have to take up the mantle from her mother. The thought frightened her. She felt she was not and would not ever be ready to hold that much power. Even so, she studied diligently in many areas from her early childhood. She practiced swordplay, studied politics, practiced the fine arts, though admittedly she was a terrible artist. She sometimes wished she had been born to a common family so she would not have such responsibility looming in her future, but she was not the type to run. She had a stubborn streak and a dash of pride that made it hard for her to run from her problems, even if it were the best thing for her. She occasionally left the castle disguised as a commoner, to learn about the lives of the people she would once preside over, wishing to understand them better, know what they needed, their hopes and dreams.

Stormhelm was a smaller realm, though it was known for its impressive navy and oversea mercantile fleets. Some considered it a nexus of trade that bound the whole world together. A small fish in a very big pond, to say the least.

Soon after Alexandra came of age, her mother approached her and spoke of a kingdom far to the north called Arendelle which, though isolated from foreign politics at the moment, was open to establishing mercantile relationships with the rest of the world. Her mother asked her to take a fleet north to meet with the rulers of the land, a task which Alexandra accepted, more out of loyalty to her people and kingdom than anything else.

The fleet set out at once and sailed north to the kingdom of Arendelle. Alexandra felt quite free at sea as she breathed in the fresh salty air. It was as if her problems didn’t exist out here. Luckily for her, her mother had her take lessons in sailing and captaining a ship, things which she did quite well at, so she was able to command the fleet herself. She appreciated the fact that at sea, nobility was not such an isolating title. Every sailor was equal, and captains sailed with the consent and respect of the sailors.

Soon, the fleet reached Arendelle. Alexandra was not particularly fond of dresses, but chose one of her finest for the ball held at Castle Arendelle. She decided on a nice coat to wear over her dress, something reminiscent of sea captains, as she had been sailing most of her life. She exited the ship, and saw a girl skipping through town. The girl bumped into a man who was most likely another noble, and the girl fell into the water. Alexandra had no idea who the girl or the man were, and continued on her way to the castle. There, she waited for the reception to start. She met several other prominent figures from around the world including the Duke of Weselton, Prince Hans, and the princess of Arendelle, Anna. She tried to bring up trade relations with Anna, but the princess seemed more interested in chocolate and staring at Hans than anything else.

Anna and Hans left the hall at some point, while Alexandra stayed, hoping to get to know the rulers of other lands better. It was then she met Elsa, queen reagent of Arendelle. The queen seemed, at least to Alexandra, to be the type who was not good with people. For one thing, she did not seem to pick up on social cues and did not speak unless she had to. At some point later, Anna and Hans returned and Anna asked Elsa for her blessing because they were getting married.

Elsa responded with, “You can’t marry a man you just met.”

Anna began to beg Elsa for her blessing, to which Elsa refused. Even though Alexandra did not know the first thing about Elsa, she agreed with her on the issue. Marrying a man you literally just met was a bad idea. In the end, Anna pulled Elsa’s glove off and Elsa lashed out, sending sharpened spikes of ice up around her. Alexandra instinctively yanked a noblewoman away from the spikes to protect her.

“What in the name of…” Alexandra began, staring at the ice then at Elsa.

Just then, Elsa ran through the doors in the back of the hall, followed by Anna and Hans. Alexandra decided to follow as well, still in shock that the queen of Arendelle possessed sorcerous powers. Alexandra watched in shock as Elsa froze a fountain’s water solid with a single touch, then began running across water using her ice powers. She caught up with Anna and Hans. Alexandra felt the air growing colder, and wondered if Elsa was the one responsible. She looked out at the harbor and saw all the water frozen, the ships locked in by ice.

“She’s doomed us all!” someone wailed.

“Running away from her kingdom, her people, her responsibility… I… I cannot abide by this, even if it’s not my place to say,” Alexandra said under her breath.

Soon, Anna came up with a plan to find her sister, while Hans stayed to watch over the kingdom. Alexandra decided to respect the princess’s decision, even if she was the type to marry a man she just met. After all, it was her kingdom after all. Anna set off on a horse and vanished into the snow.

Chapter 2: Eternal winter

Hardships grew for the kingdom in the absence of its princess and queen. The people were uneasy and began to squabble over food. A fight broke out in front of a local bakery over people hoarding bread supplies to survive the cold. Alexandra, with Hans’s help managed to break up the fight, though not without being punched in the face once. Even if these weren’t her people, she reassured herself, she vowed not to draw her blade against them. The people constantly asked Hans about the state of Anna’s voyage and the fate of the kingdom, questions he was unable to answer.

Then, several days after Anna’s departure, Hans and the Duke of Weselton, and several other nobles including Alexandra gathered to discuss their role in the situation. Hans decided to leave in search of Anna and Elsa. Alexandra decided she would stay to watch over the people. That was, at least, until she overheard the Duke of Weselton telling his men who were to accompany Hans that they were to kill Elsa on sight. Alexandra then casually asked Hans if she could come along, to which he agreed.

Hans, Alexandra, and several of the Duke of Weselton’s men departed and they trudged through snow. They eventually came upon a giant castle made of ice, but before they could climb the staircase that led to it, a giant snow monster rose from the snow and roared at them, claws bared. The monster charged at them and almost knocked Hans off a cliff. Alexandra distracted the monster, while Hans climbed back up and then sliced off the snow monster’s leg. In the confusion, Duke Weselton’s men slipped into the castle. Alexandra and Hans followed when the snow monster was down for good and they found a horrifying sight. Duke Weselton’s men were fighting Elsa, trying to fire arrows at her, while she tried to freeze them in ice. She even tried to shove one off a ledge with ice as well.

Alexandra did not know what to think. Who was at fault? Had the men provoked Elsa or had she attacked them without provocation. Just then one of Duke Weselton’s men aimed his crossbow at Elsa. Hans intervened, causing the bolt to shoot down an icy chandelier which fell on Elsa, knocking her out.

They decided in the end to take Elsa back as a prisoner, a decision Alexandra wholly agreed with, as Elsa had abandoned her people and brought eternal winter upon them. Elsa was thrown in a dungeon and chained so she could not escape. Alexandra found it strange that Anna had not been around during the confrontation and that she still was absent. However, some time later, Anna returned in the company of a mountaineer, a talking snowman, and a reindeer. The mountaineer approached Alexandra and demanded they take Anna to see Hans as he was the only one who could save her.

She agreed and showed them to where Hans was. Hans and Anna went into a private room, probably to discuss something. Soon after, Hans emerged from the room, and told Alexandra that Anna had died despite his best efforts. However, both Hans and Alexandra had bigger issues to attend to when they heard Elsa had broken her chains and escaped the dungeon.

Alexandra put on her heaviest coat and set out across the frozen seas to find Elsa, shortly after Hans departed to do the same. It was then she came upon a terrifying scene. Hans was advancing on a sitting Elsa, sword drawn. Just then, Anna staggered out from nowhere and threw herself between Elsa and Hans, and turned to ice. Completely to ice. Hans’s sword struck her and she shattered into many icy shards.

“No… no… Anna… how did this happen…” said Elsa. She stood up, shaking, and advanced on Hans. She blasted him with ice, freezing him solid. Then she dropped a massive ice block on Hans, shattering the ice and instantly killing Hans.

“This is just too much,” said Alexandra. “Hans trying to kill Elsa, Elsa abandoning her kingdom and people, and killing Hans. Anna’s death at Hans’s hands. I… I cannot sit idly.”

“Are you going to threaten me too?” said Elsa.

“I… I won’t back down,” said Alexandra. She dodged several ice blasts, and took a swing at Elsa with her sword, but Elsa blasted the sword from her hands with ice. She rolled under an ice blast, and swept Elsa’s leg with her own knocking her down. She drew a knife and pointed it at Elsa.

“Surrender now, Elsa. It’s over!” said Alexandra.

“You will never take away my freedom ever again!” Elsa screamed maniacally. She blasted Alexandra away with ice magic.

“Freedom?!” said Alexandra. “You abandoned your people and your kingdom. Have you no sense of duty and loyalty?”

“The people wanted me to hide. They wanted me to suppress my powers, but no longer. I will do as I please and no force in this world can stop me!” said Elsa.

“Sometimes we must make sacrifices to serve those who we are responsible too. I too thought about running away but I realized I was born into my position for a greater purpose than just myself,” said Alexandra. “I will do what I must to stop you and bring an end to this winter!”

“You will try!” said Elsa.

They ran at each other, Alexandra grabbing her sword. She avoided several ice blasts and then plunged her blade into Elsa’s chest.

“Hah… to think… I was bested… by you…” said Elsa. “My freedom… is gone… I…”

And then Elsa fell silent.

Alexandra looked around and saw that a number of nobles from other kingdoms had been watching their fight.

“I-I can explain,” said Alexandra, dropping her sword in horror.

“You did right,” said a nobleman. “That terrifying ice queen doomed us all, and you set things straight. You’re a hero to us all.”

“But… I killed her,” said Alexandra.

“Good riddance,” said the Duke of Weselton.

“Anna?” said the mountaineer, joining them. “Where’s Anna?”

“Killed, by Hans’s hand,” said Alexandra.

“No…” said the mountaineer. He collapsed to his knees.

“Elsa?” said the talking snowman, joining them as well.

Without warning, a shark broke through the ice, and ate the snowman in one bite, then dove back under just as quickly as it had come.

“I don’t know why, but I’m sure many voiced just cried out in relief,” said Alexandra.

Crack! The ice began to melt, as the skies slowly turned sunny again. Everyone quickly retreated from the sea ice.

In the end, the eternal winter ended, apparently dissipated by the death of the one who had caused it. Arendelle was left without an heir to the throne, so many of the nobles, the Duke of Weselton included tried to take power. However, the people yearned for Alexandra to take the throne instead, as she had slain the ice queen who had betrayed and abandoned them. Alexandra, with some reluctance agreed, becoming the joint ruler of Arendelle and Stormhelm. Although she still had trepidations about her ability to rule, she vowed to be a fair, just, and honorable leader who put both kingdoms and their people before her own needs.

#speculative fiction #fanfic #fanfiction #Disney #frozen #anti frozen

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