oh misty eye of the mountain below

[fractalize]

Who: Lea and Elsa
When: A while after their big argument and the small blizzard on the sides of the mountain.
Where: Up the tallest mountain in the range; snowcapped and +1 ice queen palace.
What: Elsa's hermitted for long enough, Lea finds out what she's been doing this whole time. Cute and conflict resolution ensues.
Warnings: FEELINGS. Also stupidly imagelink heavy.

Days and days and days passed. Elsa hid alone in the mountain range with the most eerie feeling in her chest, as though the ice she felt still lingered there.



Taking a note out of the books of architecture here on the new Cybertron, she built herself a new home; a home she full well intended on staying in, and keeping people out of. Marshmallow the mini stands guard at the front door, still as fearsome and menacing as he was the first time he drove away Anna and Kristoff. Elsa has visited him often, if not only to keep the poor giant company. Ice gates lead into intricate walkways as well as long corridors, the foyer open spaced, though twice as daunting as it's last incarnation. Long long hallways that feature detailed walls and entryways lead the way into her throne room, a room she made to be entirely useless, and yet, she still made it. Why not? No one was to come in, not now, not ever again. She made all sorts of rooms; mockups of the old gallery in Arendelle. Another room looked just like hers and Anna's when they were children. She made all kinds of rooms she never intended on making, but still did anyways.

The permafrost still sat on the side of the mountain where Galos was defeated, and it made the nightly winds cold and the afternoons brisk. Elsa never thought twice about it, thought that maybe it would melt on it's own. The areas surrounding the castle dusted the tops of the rocks with snow, but as far as she could tell, she avoided the worst. No cities were frozen over. Nothing was going to die of cold. She was just going to stay here, be alone, and wait for the time to come that she went home, and watched Anna get married.

She thought of Anna and Lea often, and it hurt her heart to do so. The cold cold feeling that rose from her stomach and into her chest always returned, and felt like it was going to turn her chest cavity to solid ice. At times it made her sleepy, and made her heart feel heavy. She almost always distracted herself from it, whether it was making icy butterflies to decorate the foyer, or living icy butterflies, to keep the air in the hallways light and feeling like she liked living alone.

Really, only Marshmallow and the butterflies could keep her company, and she was okay with it.

She'd make dresses, capes, all manners of new fashions she was too shy to wear herself, and ones she wasn't. All kinds of things to decorate the castle with, making it a positively wonderful winter wonderland of her very own. Some caught the light and put beautiful facets prisms on the walls.
But with all the ice, all the beauty, all the solitude?

Her heart still felt heavy, like every time she created something more and more intricate, that some of the cold would weigh down on her chest.

Comments

[fractalize]

"That's----that's not what I meant." in regards to magic. She's listened, cautiously up to this point. Each step now makes little ferns of ice scallop over the floor, etching into the glass-like layer underneath.

"Not that it's---it's just...it's not so black and white. Ice can burn. Cold can burn, all magic can be destructive. Once you burn something, yes, it's gone. But once you freeze it...it stays. Dead, but still there, reminding you that you did it." Anna's sacrifice wrenched at her gut.

His next sentence catches her off guard though, the ferns flying across the floors and into the next room.

"Yes. Sort of...?" Her lips purse though, at his mention of her world being one of the ones on the planes of his dimension.

"Lea, I---" she starts, her hands suddenly dropping to busy themselves.

"You'll have to explain, I don't...what's the theory?" She didn't want to get her hopes up. She didn't. But it was so hard not to, especially with the flutter in her chest still ever present.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea blinked, understanding dawning. "Oh!", he said. "I thought... well yeah." He'd already told her what he thought she'd been talking about, hadn't he?

"Yeah, I know that too," he said looking thoughtful. "Fire consumes, ice preserves; every element is going to act according to its nature. They've been doing it since long before we were ever born, they'll be doing it long after we're gone."

"Our kind of magic is... wilder than the kind that's learned from spellbooks and things," he said. "We can tap into a force of nature, and it'll obey us... but when push comes to shove, it doesn't belong to us. It's a wild thing, and it belongs to itself. And like any other wild thing, it's never going to be completely safe. No matter how perfect our control is."

"Really comes down to how its used, and if the one using it knows what they're doing," he said. "A lot like any other power or tool, really. Though you're right in thinking that any magic- by either malice or accident- can be destructive. Hell, even Cure spells- healing magic- have a creepy cousin in the form of spells that drain the life energy out of a target to heal the caster. Not a lot of people use those draining spells though, thankfully; apparently overuse has some rather unpleasant side effects."

He noticed the little ice ferns on the floor, and how they shot across the floor into the next room at his pronouncement. She was right though. A bit more of an explanation was needed.

"See," he said, "I noticed early on that our powers seem to work along similar lines. Didn't think too much of it though at first, and figured it was just a coincidence. But then I started noticing other things that were similar. Like the significance of hearts, and negative emotions causing problems. So I started wondering if it might be more than a coincidence."

"There were hundreds of worlds completely consumed by Darkness before Sora restored them," he said. "And if a world was restored from Darkness like that, no one on that would would even be aware that anything strange had happened. Not sure why that is; maybe the Darkness messes with their memory, or something. But the point is, your world could have easily been one of those restored worlds."

"That still wasn't quite enough evidence for me to say anything though," he said. "Not until I saw in our argument that my magic reacts to my emotions too. When I first got my magic, I didn't have any emotions, and by the time I got my heart back, control was so much second nature that it took a lot to provoke a reaction."

"But it happened," he said. "And there's too many similarities for me to call it 'coincidence' any more. It's not 100% certain or anything, but... it fits. Your world could easily be a part of mine."

[fractalize]

Her face scrunches in half understanding at his explanation; her world could easily be a part of his...Swallowing hard, she fought to keep the excitement from bubbling up and out of her. It would be a wonderful happy ending, she was sure...but it sounded much too good to be true.

Silent, for a long moment, she lets the topic of magic die, her thoughts only focusing on the possibility of them being...well. Reachable, outside of this state.

"...You think if we hope hard enough, that it could happen?" she murmurs. Elsa would refuse to believe it until she'd seen it, but not because she was skeptical. Just because she didn't want to be heartbroken.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea chuckled at the question. "Elsa," he said, "I got my heart back. You unfroze your kingdom. We're on a planet populated by giant robots who turn into cars and things. And let's not forget the fact that we helped kick the ass of an evil chaos deity twice now. I think we left 'impossible' in the dust a few dozen miles back."

"So yes," he said, smiling softly and reaching a hand up to rest against her cheek, "I think it can happen. And though it'll take more than just hope, hoping'll certainly help."

His expression turned thoughtful after that though. "Quite frankly, when I get back home again, my friends and I are probly gonna need all the hope we can get," he said. "If we can't stop Master Xehanort, well then... let's just say we'll both have much bigger problems than being lonely, as will everyone else."

"But," he said, smiling a bit once more, "once we've taken care of him, I think all of us will be owed some time off. Which means I'll be free to borrow the Gummi Ship and take a little vacation. And assuming I can find it, I hear Arrandelle is lovely this time of year."

And there was that slightly cheeky grin of his. Talking as if their victory over Master Xehanort was a foregone conclusion. Because the alternative? Was unthinkable.

[fractalize]

She can't help it, the idea of it all---getting to go home, be home, and have him there with her...it's hard to fight hope. It warms her up to think about it, a big smile hiding underneath her faltering restraint.

"Well. When it's not frozen over---it is! It really, really is." She doesn't comment on his pending victory. Of course, it was too difficult to think about another battle, another fight, another obstacle. It was easier, and just nicer overall, to think about the conclusion.

She envelops him in another hug, still quite enthralled by the mere idea.

"I'll have to find you a room to stay in, the doors being open now, and all."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Heh, I bet it's beautiful even then," Lea said, gladly returning the hug. "I always did kinda like snow; we didn't see a lot of it when I was a kid back in Radiant Garden, so when we did get a decent amount of snow it was a real treat."

"And yeah, I'd appreciate it," he said. "Though... I might need it for a bit longer than just a vacation. That is, if you wouldn't have any objections to me moving in there? Eventually, I mean."

His smile turned a bit wistful. "Radiant Garden might be my hometown, but... well there's not really anything for me there now. Not after everything that's happened."