Denoument App - WIP

[let_it_snow]

Player Information

Player name: Rose Marie
Contact: singasongasixpence || AIM: Lottielogic01
Are you over 18: Yes
Characters in the game already: Winifred Burkle
Proof of Reserve: Boop

Character Information

Character Name: Elsa of Arendelle
Canon: Frozen
Canon Point: Post-Canon, pre-short
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive

History:

Elsa was simply born... different. It's never made clear how or why the girl was born with powers of ice and snow, only that it was natural (unexpected, but not something impossible in a semi-superstitious world). In her early youth, she was especially close with her younger sister, Anna. In fact, they were so close, that despite living in a palace with a multitude of rooms, the two preferred to share a single bedroom. However, one accident changed that all. Coerced by a very playful and sleepless Anna, the two girls sneaked into the ballroom in the middle of the night to "build a snowman" with Elsa's magic. Tragedy struck in the midst of play when Elsa accidentally hit Anna in the head with her ice powers, severely injuring her. Their parents heard Elsa's pleas for help, and after digging through some old, dusty lore books for directions, took both the girls to the den of the trolls. Though the elder troll cured Anna of her injury (and took away her memories of her sister's powers), he could not cure the fear that the incident instilled in Elsa's heart.

From the very next day, the king and queen cut down the staff size and closed the palace off from visitors. Poor Elsa couldn't bring herself to be near her sister (and we can assume that for a while, her parents were concerned about them being together as well), preferring to lock herself into her new room in order to keep from accidentally harming her again. That anxious fear controlled Elsa as she grew older and her powers grew stronger, the terror extending beyond Anna to being fearful of harming anyone around her.

Then one day, the sisters' parents left on a short trip, one that would end in their own demise. Mournful, and now feeling utterly alone with no one else in on her secret, Elsa further sequestered herself from her only living kin. However, her parents' passing meant that she would inherit the throne as soon as she came of age.

And inherit she did. Though it took quite a bit of effort and hastiness to keep her powers from showing themselves during the coronation, Elsa succeeded in being crowned Queen of Arendelle. For a brief evening, everything went smoothly; the ball had proven enjoyable, and even the sisters' affections for one another were rekindled... until Elsa admitted that they couldn't keep the gates open. Things only worsened when Anna returned to the ball with Prince Hans, asking for Elsa's blessing to wed the stranger. Elsa attempted to pull Anna aside so that -finally- she could come clean about her powers, but ufortunately, Anna misunderstood and the two fell into an argument. The verbal jabbing ended in Elsa accidentally revealing her powers to the entire court.

Panic-stricken, Elsa ran from the castle through the crowd of horrified citizens, as far away as her legs could carry her. Later that night, she reached the higher altitudes of the North Mountain, and vowing to be herself and abandon life in society, used her powers to create a grand ice palace atop the mountain. For the first time in forever, Elsa felt she could be at peace without having to constantly worry about hurting -or killing- those around her, especially her loved ones. Unbeknownst to her, however, during her escape, she had accidentally triggered an early and permanent winter upon her former home.

When Anna arrived to inform her of Arendelle's situation, Elsa fell into what can be described as a Disney-fied panic attack, and that panicking accidentally unleashed a beam of ice which hit Anna smack dab in the heart. Upon seeing that Anna had not come alone, panicked Elsa ushered the trio -Anna, Olaf, and Kristoff- out of her castle with the help of her creation, Marshmallow. While the trio went off to see the trolls and thereafter return to Arendelle, Elsa stayed inside her castle, spending her time trying to control her anxiety... and its effects on her powers.

Yet peace and quiet was not something Elsa was lucky enough to have while recovering. Instead, Prince Hans and some of Lord Westleton's men stormed the castle. Elsa did her best to defend herself, nearly ending the lives of two soldiers who tried to kill her. Moments after Hans talked her out of it, an arrow is shot, causing a chandelier to come crashing down. The impact and her attempt to escape it knocked Elsa unconscious.

When she awoke, she was chained up in specialized shackles inside Arendelle's dungeon, and was quickly confronted by Prince Hans. He informed her Anna had not returned, much to Elsa's surprise. When asked to stop the winter, she pitifully and apologetically responded that she simply couldn't, and was thusly left in the cell. After much effort, she managed to escape just in time to avoid an unjust execution sentence, only to be chased by Hans. When he caught up to her, he lied that Anna was dead, that Elsa's powers killed her only living relative. Totally grief-stricken, Elsa collapsed to the ground. She looked up to discover that in the moments before freezing to death, Anna stood between Hans' sword and her sister, freezing in place and stopping the blow from hitting Elsa.

The rampaging storm suddently stopped as Elsa clung to the ice statue of her sister and openly, apologetically mourned. However, Anna's act of true love reversed the spell, reuniting the two sisters. The relief and happiness that swelled through Elsa allowed some of the snow around them to dissipate. Only then did Elsa realize that love will thaw.

That epiphany in mind, Elsa successfully rid the kingdom of eternal winter. Bonded once more, and now with her secret no longer, well, secret, the sisters returned to the palace. From that day forth, the gates of the palace remained open for all of Arendelle, and Queen Elsa's powers were henceforth celebrated rather than feared.

Personality:

Queen Elsa of Arendelle is perhaps one of the stranger Disney characters in that she's neither terribly complex nor the typical strong-willed-and-outgoing heroine, especially compared to the post-1980's standard characterization in Disney films. However, she's still pretty darn magical in her own right. Insert snare drum and symbol sound here.

Perhaps the first noticeable aspect of Elsa is her reserved nature. Having spent a life of both physical sequestering and emotional introversion, this doesn't come much as a surprise. Much of her proper, distanced persona stems from the fear of hurting those around her, forcing her to keep to herself. Never coming out of her room when Anna knocks, figurative sidestepping away from dancing with the Lord of Wesleton, and her constantly-closed-off but polite body language are good examples of this. Even at the end of the film, when she has the opportunity to open up and have some fun, she's still properly poised while presenting herself in front of the crowd.

That said, we can assume that some of her current reserved nature also derives from coming to terms with representing and running an entire kingdom; there's a certain distance, both physical and behavioral, she keeps out of prim politeness and royal upbringing. When saying goodbye to her parents, she shows respect by formally curtsying (which also allows her to avoid physical contact and the subsequent threat of losing control of her powers). Furthermore, it's probably safe to say that between the time of her parents' deaths and her coronation, Elsa needed to mentally step up to the plate to be the figurehead of the kingdom. Luckily, that's something she proves she's ready to do early on during the coronation party. She's able to meet and greet a large sum of people without losing face or figuratively or literally stumbling, and is shown to have held multiple, polite conversations just fine. Without a doubt, while her secret was safe, she did her best to behave like a proper queen should.

Alas, as we all know, that night ends terribly, all due to one thing: fear. Elsa, though packing quite a punch, is constantly living with fear. Fear of herself, of hurting others, of others hurting her due to her power and its strength. Said fear over the years has thrown Elsa into mental illness, causing her to struggle with both anxiety and depression (as confirmed by one of the creators). Almost every action and reaction she makes in the film is based in the fear of her secret becoming known (which would instill fear in others) and those around her being thrown into danger because of her powers. Hiding away? Fear of her powers. Admitting she's terrified of her powers growing stronger? Obviously, fear of her powers. Worrying about making it through the coronation? Fear of her powers. Running away? Fear for her powers and fearing for her life due to those who are fearful in their own right of her powers. Kicking Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf out of her castle? Fear of her powers, so on and so forth throughout the rest of the film.

However, there is a little something else behind the reasoning for her locking herself away all those years. As backwards as it seems, it's possible to interpret her having done it out of love. Rather, love spawned much of the fear of hurting her family. Had she not loved Anna so dearly, she wouldn't have prioritized keeping Anna safe by keeping herself at a good distance. This is very much true after their parents pass; Elsa's powers were clearly not in control when Anna comes to her. Had Elsa opened the door, there's a very real possibility that while in that compromised state, she could have hurt her last living relative or worse. That's also why despite being happy to see Anna visit her ice palace, Elsa begs Anna to return to Arendelle without her. It's better to deny herself sisterhood than to place said sister in danger.

Unfortunately, fear makes Elsa's powers stronger and incredibly difficult to completely control. For someone who seems rather meek and refined, it's ironic that she's packing so much magical intensity. After all, at the end of the day, she isn't a mean spirited or violent person. She prefers to not use her powers for destructive means. It's simply not in her to create misery or bring harm to the innocent. That's why when Anna broke the news that Arendelle was cast into eternal winter that Elsa went into a [very musical] panic attack.

However, that doesn't mean she's a pushover, not by a long shot. Before her secret's reveal, she readily turned down the request to bless a marriage between Anna and Hans. Though we know she deeply cares for her sister's happiness (as seen in asking Anna to return to Arendelle and open up the gates and live her life as she sees fit), she isn't about to purposefully make a rash decision which directly affects Anna's life (accidentally, yes, purposefully, no). In addition, when her ice castle is under siege, though she initially doesn't want to fight, Elsa defends herself and was ready to continue to fight until the death. In general, she tends to have flight or fight decisions when deeply stressed, and in this case, she panicked and chose to fight after running away didn't work. This was the only time in which her morals wavered, as it was the first time she had ever had her own life threatened. However, it does show that under enough pressure, even the composed and deliberate Elsa can crack.

In the end, Elsa is someone who desperately tries to do what's best for those around her but doesn't quite go about it the right way. It takes a lot of confrontation, specifically confronting herself as much as Hans and Anna, for that to begin to change. Fueled by love and fear, this queen of the ice and snow is not one to be trifled with, though ultimately she'd never want to be anyone's opposition if she can avoid it.

Items on your character at canon point:

❄ Clothes on her back
❄ ...Yeah just the clothes on her back.

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:

Elsa has one power: control over ice and snow. Ironically, it's both her strength and weakness.

Her powers are connected to her emotions, which for the majority of the film, makes things liable to change for the worst given her struggles with anxiety and depression. When she's in a bad emotional state, her powers are both in and out of her control. For example, her panic attack leading to an unintentional blast of ice which froze Anna's heart. We also know she caused an entire kingdom to be thrown into perpetual, bitter winter, and we know said weather escalated into a full-blown blizzard as she learned of Arendelle's fate and was incarcerated there. These were completely out of her control, and she simply couldn't undo them. However, at the same time those were going on, she was still able to consciously and purposefully use her powers: she created her ice castle and Marshmallow, fought against the soldiers, and broke out of her shackles/the dungeon.

Her powers are only under complete control when she's in a good mental-emotional state. As stated at the end of the film, "Love will thaw."

That said, her powers do seem to be spatially limited (as in the characters seem assume that the winter is only affecting the space inside Arendelle's boarders/the fjord). In addition, the other limit is Elsa's own imagination. She's clearly capable of creating weather, objects, and life with her power; all that she needs is the creativity to design them.

Samples
Prose Log Sample:

Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic.

Though she tried to mentally steel herself, the unearthly barking of hellish creatures, the crackle of bramble, and the swishing of the trees kept Elsa on her toes. There was no doubt that something -or multiple somethings- were lurking in the woods. Unease twisted her stomach into a tight knot; were the monsters circling her and closing in? Was that all in her head?

Her lips pursed and the air around her dropped into a stark chill. Whatever those were, if their aim was to hit, she was ready to hit back twice as hard. But perhaps that wasn't the worst of her concerns. Sure, she could probably fight off the sources of the eerie and frightening sounds until dusk, but she had no way of knowing how to find her way out of the foreign forest.

A twig snapped, and on instinct, she spun around and fired an icy beam towards the culprit. Much to her dismay and immediate concern, she missed. The thing must have had better reflexes than she thought. Fear clawed at her heart, and as quickly as possible, she began to run. Sprinting and stumbling, the blonde wove through the foliage and trees, leaving a light, frosty trail along the leaves and bark she passed.

However, her pursuers were just as fast, if not faster. The hair on the back of neck stood on end, and with a sharp turn, she sprinted to her left, beelining for some unknown destination. Suddenly, she skid to a stop, barely cutting off momentum in time to avoid falling down into a ravine thirty feet below. She looked back over her shoulder. They were coming. She could hear them! She hadn't the time to waste, and quickly made herself a long ramp of ice to cross down to the elevation below. Without further hesitation, she slid down along it, landing safely next to the creek.

Then she finally saw them: a pack of five or so monsters, horrible amalgamations of wild boar and wolves. They too stepped onto the ramp to give chase, though with a flick of her wrist, the ramp below them disappeared, plummeting the beasts onto the rocks below.

The crunch was enough to spur the urge to vomit, though Elsa wouldn't stick around to investigate. No, there was no telling if they were injured or dead, though she knew that's exactly how they wanted her.

Quickly and quietly, she scurried along the creek's path. By sunset, found herself at the edge of an odd-looking village of sorts. Weary and wary, but desperate for answers, she took her first steps along the cracked, paved road, and began to search for someone a little less beastly.

Network/Action Spam Sample:

[Elsa tales a deep breath, then mutters the instructions to herself once more. Strange magic "phones" are the prime means of communication in the town, or so she had come to understand. And if she remembers correctly, using them might be her chance of stopping something before it even begins.

Painstakingly, she types out her message.]

Dear residents of Denouement,

I have made a mistake and need to ask for your help.

[Elsa pauses. Was this really a good idea? Sure, people need to know what's going on, 'less they do more harm than good. Frankly, they deserve a heads-up, given the stories she's heard of this place.

Yet despite the town's notable number of odd and unusual residents, she still can't help but worry about being vulnerable. How is she to know if there will be backlash if her secret is too much revealed? However, a life that isn't her own may be in danger, and that is a life she needs to attempt to protect.]

If you see a giant snowman, could you please let me know? And -please- do not hurt him. He's harmless, really, despite his appearance. I promise he won't be a danger to anyone who doesn't make themselves a danger to him. Unfortunately, I believe he has wandered off, and I haven't yet found him.

His name is Marshmallow, if that helps any.

Thank you in advance for any help in finding him.

Sincerely,

Elsa of Arendelle