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]

"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."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa swallowed and shook her head a little. This conversation wasn't going to get any easier for either of them at this rate.

"No... Not because I threw anything. More because I had no control over when I threw it. Anna getting hurt was just a rude awakening to that."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry shivered a little. Was it getting cold in here? Weird.

"Elsa, I'm a genius. That's not me bragging. My IQ is about 350 and growing everyday," he said calmly. "But I don't understand what you did to your sister that meant you had to keep yourself away from anyone else. You're also not the first person to have hurt someone you've cared about. I want to help you. Can you tell me exactly what happened?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Deep breath, Elsa. Let it all out.

"I have powers," she said, and that was probably the most straightforward delivery of that statement she'd ever given in her life. "Ice powers. They were strong when I was a child, strong enough that we almost lost Anna, and they're getting more powerful every day, too. And I can't always control them."

'Conceal, don't feel' only got a person so far. Oddly enough, she felt oddly serene, telling Barry all of this. Like a little weight from her shoulders that she'd been carrying for far too long.

"I didn't just throw ice at her head. I froze a piece of her mind."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Ice powers?" Barry said in awe. "Holy shit. Your sister... is she okay? Was she permanently harmed?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa shook her head a little.

"No, not permanently. The Troll who looked at her managed to undo most of the damage. She has a lock of white hair where I hit her, but she doesn't remember it, and she doesn't seem to have suffered because of it."

Unless you counted her sister never talking to her again, anyway.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry bit his lip for a second in thought. "Okay. Listen... I might be able to help."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Help?" Elsa gave Barry a sidelong look at that, trying to gauge where he was going with that. "How do you mean, help?"

She'd been offered a lot of help learning how to use her powers, and, while they had all been given with the best of intentions, using them was actually sort of the complete opposite of what she wanted.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"I don't know yet," Barry said honestly as he reached into his bag for his tablet and scanner. "But I once built an atom smasher that could fit under my bed. I once transformed my best friend into a dinosaur and turned him back. If I can do those things I should be able to find some way to help you."