Room 316: Wednesday After Classes

[badassprodigy]

Charles Baudelaire once said that genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.

Which is why Barry picked the lock to Elsa's room in order to switch out her bed with one he made yesterday in class.

Specifically a trampoline bed.

Hey, there's totally a method to his madness.

And while Elsa was at work he was being mad in her room. Or something.

Whatever. He was switching Elsa's bed out with a trampoline bed.

[Elsa's room modded with permission. If you wish to see what Barry is doing, ping in. Elsa's thread comes in last.]

Comments

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Fucking-A!" Barry laughed. "Now do a backflip!"

He's joking, Elsa. Joking.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"And that would cause my skirt to fly up," Elsa laughed, before dropping down to do another butt-bounce. If anyone back home knew the future queen of Arendelle was bouncing up and down on what should have been her bed, they'd be having fits! "I think I'll pass on any flipping today, Barry."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Well at least you learned the beginnings of it," Barry said doing a quick hop off the bed and onto the floor. "Now do you see what you've been missing?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm beginning to get an idea of it," Elsa decided, this time not bothering to get back up to her feet, so that she bounced a few times on her behind and then came to settle cross-legged on the trampoline. "I would never be able to get away with this back home. But here... here, I suppose it's okay."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry frowned for a second before settling himself down in a nearby chair. "Can I ask you a question? What's going on back home that won't let you have a little fucking fun?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa took a moment to consider that question, and then another moment still just to figure out how to answer it.

"There are a lot of things," she admitted. "I suppose the easiest one to begin explaining things with would be the fact that I'm the heir to Arendelle's throne. I've had certain expectations on me since I was born."

That was the easy one. That was the easy one. 'By the way, I'm a princess.'

Elsa's definition of 'easy' maybe needed a little work.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"No shit? You wear a crown an all that?" Barry said with a grin. "Okay. I can understand that. Family obligations can always be a pain in the fucking ass. But if that's the easiest, I'd hate to see what the hardest part is."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Well, I will wear a crown. I haven't really come of age, yet. My coronation won't be for another couple of years," Elsa explained, sounding relieved at his reaction.

... While at the same time not actually addressing that second part at all. Hardest part? There was no hardest part, that must have been Barry's imagination. Yes. Must have been.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"So does that mean you're going to be the absolute fucking ruler of your country?" Barry said tilting his head. "Or is this just a figurehead thing?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Absolute... ruler."

Elsa was not saying that other word, Barry.

"You're going to turn around and tell me that the Queen gets to decide who can and can't jump on the bed, aren't you?"

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Fuck no," Barry said shaking his head. "You're what... seventeen? And you've got to run an entire country in a few years? I get it. You've got people to look out for and if you make a mistake they might take the brunt of that decision."

Barry could relate to that. Maybe a little too much. Not the whole royalty thing but his friends had all been walloped at one point by Barry's experiments.

"That shit isn't easy to live with. On the other hand it doesn't mean you can't close the doors to your bedroom and tell all your servants to fuck off for a bit because their royal majesty needs to jump on the bed."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I suppose that should be simple enough," Elsa noted, a little ruefully. "My bedroom doors are always closed, and we don't have nearly as many servants these days as we did when I was little."

Which was practically inviting more conversation, and she was aware of that, but she was starting to think that around here, maybe it didn't have to be such a big deal.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Is this about your parents being... you know?" Barry asked tentatively.

You know. Dead.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa shook her head a little, though the reminder made her swallow a little all the same. It would be strange to go back to the castle and not have them there. They'd never be there again.

"No," she admitted. "I've been pretty solitary for years, now. Our lack of servants has more to do with that than with my parents, though letting go of the staff was my father's idea."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry tilted his head again and tried to puzzle it out. Which he couldn't. For all his brains, he still had trouble figuring out people.

"You want to tell me what happened?" Barry asked.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa took a deep breath and nodded a little. Okay. She was going to be good about this. She was going to open up and tell people what she could do. Yup. Going to get right on that.

"I hurt somebody very badly when I was little," she said, all in a rush of breath. "And the best way to keep that from happening again was to just get people out of the equation entirely."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry's eyebrows went up a little as he tried to think of the best question for this situation.

"What the fuck did you do?"

"What happened?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Excellent choice in questions, Barry!

"My sister and I were playing in the snow," she said, keeping her voice carefully neutral. "She was jumping into snow piles, and getting carried away, and... she fell. And I panicked, and instead of helping her, I ended up striking her head with ice."

Yeah, that would probably just raise more questions, Elsa.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Yep. Pretty much.

"Wait. Your parents made you stay in your room and let go of the staff because you threw a snowball at someone?" Barry asked with a confused look.

He hated being confused. Confusion didn't work for him.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa wasn't going to make this much easier, really, with her next reply.

"No, the trolls told them they should."

... Actually, no, the trolls had said that fear would be her enemy.

"And it wasn't exactly a snowball."

Elsa was fidgeting a little, now, wringing her hands in her lap. The temperature in the room was shifting a little as she got more nervous, though she wouldn't have noticed.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Trolls?

"Okay, you're going to have to help me out here," Barry said trying to smile and put some lightness into the conversation. "Because you fucking lost me at trolls."

TROLLS?

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"... Little people made of rocks? They might just be an Arendelle thing."

A beat.

"The last trolls that invaded the island looked nothing like the ones I'm familiar with."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Okay, the only trolls I ever heard of were nasty shits who live under bridges," Barry said with a puzzled look. "So why did little people made of rocks tell your parents to lock you up?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Pay attention, Barry.

"Because I hurt my sister," Elsa repeated, evenly. "And that was the only way to make certain it didn't happen again."

Actually, no, the trolls would probably be beating their faces against... other rocks... if they knew how completely downhill their advice had gone.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Because you threw some ice at her head?" Barry said again looking confused. "Because back home that's just called a snowball fight."