WEEK 7

[grimgrinningghosts]

[You've all been here for well over a month and it's getting harder and harder to keep spirits up. There has been small hope thanks to a mysterious person talking to you through your dreams. A small hope that maybe you'll be able to escape and get your friends back, but you'll have to escape first.

There are no new floors to explore, the outside area remains the same as it's always been. Might as well get comfy here.

11 guests remain.]

[ SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ]
 

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Comments

[defyingfrigidity]

Oh please, you're far from difficult as well! You're one of the ones helping keep us all together, I think. Especially when it comes to the trials we're forced to participate in.

[He's probably one of the easiest guys to talk to??? He doesn't really seem that difficult at all...]

... I'd like to think so too. I didn't have many friends outside of Anna in our world, so I'm not used to how these sorts of things work, but... when I think about how I feel about all of you, I absolutely know that I consider you all friends.

[sixfingeredstan]

Perhaps now. In my younger days...not so much. And I suspect Fiddleford would tell you I still am.

[He means that lovingly, of course.

Ford gives Elsa a sympathetic smile, and then something seems to occur to him.]

—Ah! I nearly forgot.

[He digs in his breast pocket for something small and shiny on a ribbon, and holds it out to her. It's Kristoff's Ice Master badge, not that Ford knows that.]

I thought perhaps this belonged to you. I pulled it from the slot machine.

[defyingfrigidity]

[For a moment, Elsa tenses; the last times she received items from home... it had been Anna's coronation dress, and later her doll. She was glad to have those mementos, but at the same time, it hurt seeing them, so Elsa was preparing herself for that ache all over again.

But... oh. She wasn't expecting something like that. She takes it, running a thumb over the flat circle of the badge...]

This isn't mine. It was a medal I gave to a friend of Anna's, after he helped her try and bring me back to Arendelle after... [After she totally screwed everything up.] After my coronation.

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford offers Elsa a little smile.]

Well, even if it doesn't belong specifically to you, it's still a nice memento from home, I'm sure. I wasn't aware that 'Ice Master and Deliverer' was an official royal title.

[defyingfrigidity]

It wasn't. I made it up.

[So blunt....]

If he didn't help Anna... she might not have made it up the North Mountain and back. I needed to do something special for him to show how thankful I was, and because he worked as an ice harvester, I thought that would be the best thing to do.

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford pauses, and then snorts.]

That makes a bit more sense, then. But that's a very kind thing for you to do. Give the lad some job security at the very least!

[defyingfrigidity]

He deserved it! If he hadn't helped Anna.... if she hadn't been able to find me after I ran away... [The shadows of a smile and her amusement begin to fade from her face.] Arendelle might have been cursed forever. I would have kept hiding, alone up in the mountains...

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford reaches out and lays a gentle hand on Elsa's shoulder, giving her a little squeeze.]

Listen. I don't know your whole story, and...you don't have to tell me. But I do know that it seems like you're being much harder on yourself than you need to be. It's easy for me to say, I know, but as someone who's made some colossal mistakes...sometimes the nicest thing you can give yourself is a little forgiveness.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Boy, Ford, you're giving her a talk maaany people have given her already. She doesn't seem annoyed, though, because... well. He doesn't know just how often she's been told that. So she can forgive him for that. Still... she doesn't look entirely convinced.]

I know. And I try. Sometimes I think I'm over it, but then something happens, or I say the wrong thing or someone mentions something that's happened in the past, and it just... all comes back.

It's hard, trying to move past something like that. Especially when that something is a result of over a decade's worth of problems that you've caused.

[sixfingeredstan]

I know. Trust me, I understand more than you might guess. I've caused a whole lot of problems in my day, problems with lasting repercussions. Problems that ruined lives.

[Like, you know. Fiddleford's. Eventually. Ford sighs.]

So I know...it isn't as easy as thinking it and seeing it come true. But someday, it will be better. I hope so, at least. You're young, and smart, and kind. You deserve to be unburdened.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Why is it always the people they love most that get the worst of it when they screw up? Ford fell out with Fiddleford, Elsa hurting Anna resulted in Anna developing a terrible sense (or lack thereof, really) of self-worth... it's horrible.]

... Did it get better for you?

[It's hard to tell. They didn't talk much the first week, only after the murders started happening... so she didn't get to see what kind of place he was in before all of the horror started taking its toll on all of them.]

[sixfingeredstan]

It did. Slowly but surely. Coming home to see that I had a family who loved me...coming here and finding that Fiddleford had the capacity to love me, too. It helped. I'm not a hundred percent, and I can't say whether I ever will be, but...it does get better.

[He offers her a small smile. He's trying.]