post-DRRP shenanigans masterpost for loveisanopendoor

[defyingfrigidity]

[Exactly what it says on the tin! A collection of threads happening in the aftermath of the events of danganroleplay's Round 2, once the surviving characters are returned to their worlds. After nearly three months of being a hostage and unwilling participant in traumatic murder games, Anna finally returns home to Arendelle, and finally gets to see Elsa again.

Beware, though, that SPOILERS for the game are inevitable.]

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[loveisanopendoor]

[Spoilers indeed! After finally managing to meet up with the rescue party from the Future Foundation, in addition to the legendary Pokemon Xerneas who managed to bring back all of her fallen companions...it looks like Anna was able to come out of that atrocious school and all of the horrors it brought with hopes of a happy ending before her. Though she still doesn't quite have all of her memories back just yet of joining up with the group and volunteering for Hope's Army, the second she discovered that the Future Foundation had a way to return her back to Arendelle, she practically jumps at the opportunity. It's been far too long since she last saw her sister, Elsa, who she imagines must be...well, worried sick would be a major understatement, after three months with no word...

With the promise that she'd see her fellow students again soon, she immediately headed back to Arendelle. After everything she went through...she can't imagine how this meeting is going to go, but she can already feel herself tearing up at the thought as she wonders just how much has changed in the three months since she left...]

[defyingfrigidity]

[A few things have changed, and not really for the better.

The moment Anna sets foot in Arendelle once more, she'll notice how cold things are. Though the time of year means it should be the tail-end of summer and the direct opposite of cold, it feels more like a bitter winter day. There's snow on the ground - not quite the same amount as the last time it snowed in summer, but it's still noticeable - and the sky is obscured by overcast, dreary-looking clouds. Like it could snow again any minute.

The other thing that changed, which Anna will only notice once she makes her way through the town (and alarms quite a few of the villagers out braving the chill, no doubt) is that the gates to the castle are shut tight and guarded heavily. Gone is all the lovely, icy flair Elsa had added to the walls and towers of the castle upon her return. Looking at the castle now, it's like a trip back in time.

If those aren't hints enough as to how Elsa and their kingdom have been handling things in Anna's absence.... well. Just how quiet the town is should be another big tip-off.]

[loveisanopendoor]

[That doesn't come as too much of a shock. After everything that happened, Anna isn't surprised at all when she sees the snow covering the ground of her kingdom, and notices right away just how freezing it is; not quite as cold as the frigid air of the ninth floor of the tower she was stuck in, where she was forced to brave the events of their final trial with her eight remaining classmates, but still quite cold nonetheless. She can't help but give a sullen expression as she looks up at the heavy clouds covering Arendelle, clouds that look like they might just start breaking and covering the kingdom in snow...to be honest, she's actually surprised that it's not storming already when she gets there.

Not even five minutes back, and she's already feeling a ton of different emotions at once, but most of all, she's proud of her sister, for being so strong after such a huge absence...so full of hope...

She won't keep her waiting much longer.

Naturally, it'll come as a pretty huge shock to the townspeople braving the winter (not to mention the gate guards) when they see that their lost princess has finally returned; unfortunately, though she knows they probably have many questions for her, she seems to be in quite the hurry to get back to Elsa; she'll bust the gate down if she has to (and Heaven knows she'll actually do it). She understands why the gates are closed, sure, but that's going to have to change right away. Not important now, though.

Having walked through the hallowed halls of the castle for as long as she can remember, she knows the inside of the palace like the back of her hand even after so much time away from it, and her first stop is obvious; after all, it's the same first stop she made pretty much every morning for years upon years. If Elsa is anywhere in the palace, she knows, she's probably here...she doesn't even have to try the doorknob to know that it's shut and locked tight. Just like it was for so many years before...

There's absolutely no time to waste. She can practically feel her arm shaking rapidly as she brings her hand up to Elsa's door...and knocks, the same way used to knock so frequently so long ago. This time, though, she knows right away that she's going to get an answer. There was no doubt of that.]

Elsa..?

[defyingfrigidity]

[Perhaps surprisingly, there isn't an immediate reaction when Anna knocks and calls out to her sister. In fact, judging by the lack of sound coming from inside the room, it doesn't even sound like there was a reaction at all.

After all, Elsa has been through her own hell as well. The nightmares, the hallucinations brought on by her inability to sleep for nights at a time... those were the things that haunted Elsa as fiercely as the threat of death haunted Anna these past few months. When things had started getting really bad, when Elsa had started hearing and seeing things that weren't there during her waking hours... she had run to her door, flinging it open and hoping that her sister was there. But often times it was only a maid, or Kai or Gerda, or even her own imagination.

And each time it hurt. It cut deeper into Elsa's already wounded heart. So when she hears that familiar knock, and that familiar voice... she's fully convinced that this is just another figment of her imagination. She knew she would only be hurting herself if she reacted again, and so... she didn't.

Luckily for Anna, though, should she try to open the door, she will find it unlocked.]

[loveisanopendoor]

[...Wait, what? No answer? That's...pretty weird...

Anna tries knocking and calling for her again, but when there's no answer...]

Elsa, it's me, Anna...are you in there? I...

[Her voice catches in her throat...where does she even begin..?]

I'm sorry for being gone for so long...I...I really missed, you, Elsa...

[When there's still no response, though, she can't help but get scared...what if something terrible happened with her gone? She tries to open the door...and the fact that it's unlocked both relieves her and scares her a bit, but before she even has time to process any of those feelings, she's headed straight inside...]

Elsa?

[defyingfrigidity]

[Congratulations Anna, at least one fear can be cast out! Elsa is inside, sitting at her desk (which is currently cluttered with paperwork), and she looks perfectly okay!

... Well. "Okay" in that it doesn't look like she's been through any kind of attack. If we're talking overall? Elsa... really does not look okay. She looks paler, if that was somehow possible, and it's clear that she's lost some weight. There are also dark circles under her eyes - eyes that are wide, unable to hide a mix of confusion and... fear? It looks like she's seen a ghost.]

An... Anna....?

[This.... this can't be right. Anna's gone. She left, promising that she'd only be gone a short time, but it's been so long, too long... it was just like when mama and papa left...]

[loveisanopendoor]

[That's not true, though, is it, Elsa? Even after so many months...you never gave up hope that she'd be back for you. She promised she would be, after all.

You know she takes her promises very seriously.

And that's why she's throwing herself at you, wrapping her arms around you with so much force that she might just knock you over, so tightly that she's afraid that if she holds you any closer she might accidentally break you in half. She runs her hand through your hair, slowly letting those blonde strands slip between her fingers...and she's almost in tears, so happy to see you, after three months of hell, after going week after week thinking that she might never get to see you again...

She's in your arms now. She's home. Her eyes are stinging from how hard she wants to cry as she looks at you, and she looks like a complete and utter mess herself...but she's home. A dream come true.]

Elsa...oh, Elsa, Elsa...

[defyingfrigidity]

[... She's warm. Anna is warm, and solid, and oh god this is real and not another one of her nightmares where Anna slips away before she can reach out to her and Elsa wakes up screaming or crying or both.]

An... An....

[She can't even manage to choke her sister's name out, because the tears are coming hard and fast, and her breathing is shaking so bad it feels like she's going to have some sort of panic attack, but the feelings are actually welcomed, because this is all out of happiness, instead of sadness.

So she lets it all out. Elsa practically wails as she wraps her arms tightly around her sister in a hug that's nearly as crushing as Anna's. She buries her face in her shoulder and just sobs, her tears quickly soaking through the fabric of Anna's dress.

She's trying desperately to say something, but between her shaky breathing and her sobs, all that's really coming out of her mouth are a few strangled hiccuping noises.]

[loveisanopendoor]

[Anna can't help but cry herself once she hears her sister's sobs; these three months have been especially hard on the both of them, and Anna knows that better than anyone. So Anna will just keep Elsa's head held to her shoulder, letting her cry as much as she possibly needs to as the tears pour down Anna's face as well...she's been holding them in for far too long, and it's finally time to just let them go...]

I'm here, Elsa, I'm here...

[defyingfrigidity]

[It takes a few minutes for Elsa's sobbing to subside even a tiny bit, but after a while, she does manage to slow down enough to talk, at the very least.]

I thought... I-I...

[She pulls back slightly. Not enough to pull out of Anna's hug, but just enough so that she could see her face. She reaches up, placing her hands on either side of Anna's face, looking like she's still surprised that Anna's here in front of her.]

I wanted to hope... I did, but... [The brief pause in her tears is over now, and they're falling fast again.] It's been so long without any word, I was .... s-so scared...

[And those words alone show just how badly all of this has been hurting Elsa, because when does Elsa ever openly admit to being scared?]

[loveisanopendoor]

Elsa...

[Anna knows just how Elsa feels...it was awful that the Future Foundation didn't send word back about what happened, but then again, she's pretty sure the last thing Elsa would have wanted to hear was "your sister's gone missing and is being held hostage in a murder game". That...probably wouldn't end well.]

I know...I didn't think I was ever going to see you again, on some days, but...

I'm here now, Elsa. You're here with me, and I...I'm not going to leave you again...

[She's still holding onto Elsa tightly as her voice cracks, as though she were afraid that she'll lose her if she lets go even a tiny bit...]

[defyingfrigidity]

And I'll make sure you're never taken away again.

[Gently pressing her forehead against Anna's, Elsa smiles. For the first time in months, Elsa smiles a real smile, not some fake one she tried to put on for her people and her staff before giving up entirely. She's happy now, and she's not going to bother hiding it at all.]

I don't care what those people who asked for your help say. I know it may seem selfish, but... you don't belong in some army. Your place is here, with me and all of the people we look out for.

[loveisanopendoor]

[Thank goodness; Elsa smiling just makes it that much easier for her to relax...]

After what I went through, I'm...pretty sure I couldn't agree more. I still want to do what I can to help the people who need me, but...I think I've had my fill of going off to faraway places and being away from you...

I missed you so much, Elsa...

[loveisanopendoor]

[That first day back in Arendelle seemed to go well enough; as expected, Anna was treated to quite the welcome wagon, with the young princess promising to give a detailed version of events later after everything's simmered down, and everything was finally starting to look like it was going to begin to take a turn for the better. Olaf, Kristoff and Sven were naturally delighted to see her return, but, naturally, Anna spent the majority of the time joined to Elsa at the hip; who could blame her, though? This was her sister that we were talking about here, and after spending so long without her, the way she was holding onto her was almost uncharacteristically firm: for better or for worse, though, it seemed like neither sister was willing to let the other out of her sight for too long.

After an admittedly rather long day, though, Anna was fairly exhausted and was delighted to feel that her sister's bed was almost as comfortable as her's was back in her room down the hall, and eons better than the ones back in her dorm...she can't help but notice, though, that it doesn't really feel as though it's been broken in all that well. She wouldn't be surprised if Elsa's gone through more than a few sleepless nights in here, or nights where she was so tired that she fell asleep at her chair by her desk...but now obviously wasn't the time to ponder such things; seeing her sister's smiling face as she lies in bed next to her is more than enough to put her at ease, and she's happy to, at least, notice that Elsa fell asleep before she did. Now that she's home, she reasons to herself, that must be an enormous weight off of Elsa's shoulders...

...Unfortunately, though, after everything, Anna doesn't sleep nearly as easily. There's a lot going through her head as she reflects on everything that she and her classmates have been through together, and how she's going to break it to her sister and her kingdom when the time comes for that...though Elsa had seemed patient enough, she also wanted to tell everyone so that they could help the rebuilding effort in Kalos. At the same time, though, every time she thinks about those three months, and every time she sees those bodies and those executions whenever she closes her eyes, she can't help but feel herself break into a cold sweat as she tries to calm herself down and assure herself that it's over now. When she finally does fall asleep, she's fairly fitful (even moreso than usual, Elsa might notice), unable to stay in one spot on the bed.

When she wakes up merely an hour and a half, though, her heart is pounding, and there's already a scream in her throat that she's only halfway able to catch as she heaves, trying her best to catch her breath and keep herself from breaking down into a harsh sob (with mixed results).

Sorry, Elsa. It's a Friday.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[The way Anna clung to her during the day was odd, yes, but Elsa can't really complain. After all, Elsa herself would freely admit that she was feeling a bit clingy as well. This whole mess was different than their last separation. They rarely saw each other, yes, but at least during those thirteen years they knew the other was there, with only a few walls separating them. This incident, though... entire worlds had separated them, and Elsa didn't even know if Anna was alive or not. The clinginess on both sides was rightly justified.

And hey, at least it was doing her good, in a way. Anna would be right in assuming that Elsa's bed was unused more often than not recently. Between sleepless nights and nights where she avoided sleep so long she fell asleep in her study or the library, Elsa might not have spent an entire week's worth of nights in her bed.

Now... maybe Elsa was the lucky one, here. She'd had more than her fair share of nightmares, and she had been a bit paranoid when they were getting ready for bed, afraid that she might wake Anna up with her thrashing. But with her sister cuddled up next to her, Elsa had quite quickly drifted off into silent, peaceful slumber. Peaceful slumber that didn't last very long, because however desperately her body needed rest, Elsa was still a light sleeper (which she'd jokingly blame was Anna's fault, with how many times her sister woke her up in the middle of the night to play with the aurora borealis shining through their window) and so was quickly and jarringly woken up by her sister's strangled scream and sobs.]

Wh-Wha... Anna!

[She's disorientated for only a moment before she quickly sits up, turning to her sister and reaching out to her.]

Hey, hey... it's okay, Anna....

[loveisanopendoor]

[She was half-hoping that she didn't wake Elsa up, but, at the same time, as selfish as it was of her, she was moreso hoping that she did; at the very least, to make sure she's still there and that it all wasn't some sort of horrible nightmare..

But there's no doubt about it. Anna's a mess; her hair barely had time to go off in all directions as it usually does, but it's still quite a frazzled mess of red, and her lightly freckled cheeks are already stained with tears as she tries desperately to catch her breath, eventually settling on pulling Elsa in and sobbing vehemently into her shoulder..]

Elsa, Elsa...

[It only makes her wailing louder, and it seems like forever until she stops crying, but...eventually, the shaking stops, and her breathing calms slightly..]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa knew heartbreak. Dear god did she know heartbreak. She didn't think anything could compare to the phantom knives digging into her heart every time she had to shoo her sister away from her door, or the pain when she had been notified that her parents had been lost at sea, or even that intense ache when she had thought, for a few moments that seemed to stretch out into forever, that she had killed Anna.

But god, this was almost as bad as all those incidents. Here was her strong, brave, fearless baby sister, the sister who stood in the face of Elsa's power and didn't flinch at all, the sister who went through utter hell as a part of Hope's Army... sobbing and shaking in her arms.]

Shhh, Anna... [Elsa pulls her close, one arm around Anna's shoulders as her other hand rests at the back of her head.] It's okay, Anna. You're safe, I promise....

[loveisanopendoor]

[As much as Anna wants to calm herself down...she can't bring herself to just yet. Those horrible, gruesome deaths, week after week, have most certainly taken their toll, almost as if it were a routine...and as much as she wanted to convince herself that it had all ended and everything was going to be alright, there's a part of her that can't help but expect to find another dead body today, just as she had every Friday for the past eleven weeks...her stomach is in literal knots as she can't help but see it in her mind's eye, no matter how hard she tries to push the thought away, and the very idea of it shakes her so horribly to the core that Elsa's words only barely reach her as she trembles in her embrace...

For something as horrible as waking up to a murder becoming a routine, a force of habit...Anna can't help but bring herself to tears all over again. She won't ever be the same again, will she..?]

[defyingfrigidity]

[She will be, if Elsa has anything to say about it. The fierce desire in her to protect her sister is something that just can't be stopped, and even if Elsa has to support her in ways that she's not used to supporting another person... so be it. Elsa will learn how to help her sister through her traumas. Because Anna's helped her so much, and Elsa can never, ever repay her for that, but at least she can start to.

And... well. She's Anna's big sister. That's what she's supposed to do.]

I know you're scared Anna. And... and that's okay. Nightmares are terrible things, and it's not bad to be afraid of them. [Lord knows Elsa's been scared of her own dreams for over a decade now.] But they're also easy to chase away. Remember how mama would chase our nightmares away?

[Her voice is shaking a little as she talks, because it's still a little nerve-wracking seeing her sister falling apart like this... but she tries to stay strong, to keep her voice calm and comforting.

She lays back down, Anna still in her arms, shifting a little so Anna's head is resting on her chest. The hand at the back of her sister's head remains there, but Elsa moves her other arm so that she can rub circles on her sister's back.]

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy, when skies are grey
you'll never know dear, how much I love you
please don't take my sunshine away...

[Of course, Elsa doesn't know the impact her singing that song to Anna will have on her sister. It's just.... a song she's heard before, and thought it had a calm enough tune to soothe Anna.]

[loveisanopendoor]

[She's trying her hardest to pull herself together for Elsa, and she sniffles and acknowledges her sister's words...once again, she can't help but admire her sister's strength, and her patience as she helps to soothe her tears...she's always been thankful to have her sister by her side, and tonight is most certainly no exception; if Elsa wasn't here right now, who knows how much longer she would've continued to sob into the night? She's been holding it in for week after week, and she finally broke down...

But when Elsa tries to sing to Anna, bringing her head to her chest and rubbing her back, her sobbing starts to calm down and turns into something else...but what exactly it is, she's not quite sure what...and as much as she feels the need to let the tears continue to flow, something about the words of that song have an effect on her the second she hears them...and by the third line, she's singing along, her voice strained from crying so hard...]

...You...know that song too..?

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa can't help but smile as Anna begins to sing along. That's a good sign.... definitely good. Even if she is a little surprised that Anna knows the song.]

Yeah... I'm not sure how I first heard it. I think a maid must have been singing it while I was passing through the hall one day? But... it really stuck with me.

[She looks down a bit, so she can look Anna in the eye with a slight hint of curiosity on her face.] How do you know it?

[loveisanopendoor]

...Its a lullaby...m-my friend Tobias...he taught it to me, and it was his favorite...er, is his favorite, I should say.

[As she talks about him, Elsa might notice one of Anna's hands slowly bring itself towards her neck...there's a rose in a vial hanging from a thread dangling from it, and Anna's clutching it...]

I...that song means a lot to me, Elsa...

[defyingfrigidity]

... Oh. I had no idea.

[She's.... not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Elsa certainly hopes it's good, because she'd hate to have caused her little sister more strife so soon after waking from a nightmare... but Anna seems to be taking it well. So. Good thing?]

Hm? What's that?

[loveisanopendoor]

It's just...funny that you know it, is all...

[She says, with a bit of a sniffle...looks like the song actually ended up cheering her up a little bit...]

This is something that he gave me, when we were stuck...it...sort of reminded me to stay strong, even when times got hard. Just like your glove did.

[defyingfrigidity]

I know this may sound incredibly cheesy, but... maybe we were meant to learn that song, if we both learned it from two different sources. Those words certainly resonate with me, after all...

[Maybe she's looking too much into it. But hey, she'd rather be a sap and have Anna laugh at her than let Anna keep dwelling on her nightmares.]

What a beautiful good luck charm.