October 25th - Unfinished Business
This is based on the bit from Reign Storm when Sidney shows up riding on Dora's back. I don't care how timid she is, if a complete stranger tried that she'd set them on fire. (A ha ha ha I wandered so far off-prompt.)
An Improbable Meeting
The Cause:
Once there was a man, dark and cruel and hungry for power. He gathered a hoard of iron and stone and built himself a castle of unbending stone. (Aragon hates what his kingdom is becoming, soft and weak off the fat of trade and truce. He will not stand for anything less than perfection in his belongings.)
On his sister's sixteenth birthday, he poisoned his father's drink. The king's killer was never found. (Aragon wears proper mourning drab to his father's funeral. The day after, he parades through the court in full royal purple.)
He did not stop there. He built his castle higher, spread his net farther, until everyone in their kingdom and surrounding lands feared his name. (Aragon wants to rule his kingdom so absolutely no one will ever dream of challenging his authority. He gets his wish.)
He was the feared sorcerer-prince of Aragon, his power so great that even his kingdom's name changed to suit his whims. It was then that he knew victory. (Aragon takes the throne by force of magic, but he cannot escape the price. The ruler of Aragon cannot escape the form their true self dictates, so he will forever be a monster.
Claws and flames and unbreakable armor. He couldn't be happier.)
He ruled over his kingdom, a monster in a false human skin. Eventually, his subjects stopped hoping he would ever be deposed. (Aragon knows there is no one else who could challenge him. His sister is worthless, even if she's stopped raving and making a fool of herself.)
He never imagined she would come back, or why. He'd bought into his own lies. (Aragon is the prince. What he wants, he takes, and consequences are for lesser men.)
An Effect:
Once there was a girl, tall and proud and fierce as a wildcat. She gathered an abundance of silks and jewels and built herself a castle of golden dreams. (Dorathea wants to be a princess like in the stories, beautiful and blessed and happily married to a handsome prince. She believes in fairy-tales.)
On her sixteenth birthday, she could not go to the ball. She stole a bottle of wine and drank it alone. (Dorathea is not a child. She isn't afraid.)
She did not die then, not quite, but she fell ill. She wasted away slowly, quietly, invisible to all. (Dorathea hears the rumors, remembers the taste of too-sweet wine and curses her own weakness. Slowly, she loses her mind.)
She woke as something strange and other, something hungry, a beast with no name and no memory beyond one last thwarted desire. It was then that she knew greed. (Dora is lost for a very long time. She wanders, unwatched, right out of Aragon's kingdom and into the infinite realms.
She only wants someone to take her to the ball. She doesn't want to remember.)
She lost her necklace. She doesn't remember why, but it's important. (Dora sees it glittering through a window and crashes through. The glass scratches her skin and tears her fine dress to tatters.)
She never realized why she suddenly remembered her father's kingdom, or why she had to go back. She did apologize for accusing the boy of theft, when he'd only been a great help. (Dora knows she shouldn't have cried all over him, like a scolded child. She doesn't know why he would be angry on her behalf when she, but she's happy anyway.)
A Moment:
Once there was a boy, bright and kind and hungry for knowledge. He gathered a heap of pens and papers and built himself a castle of foundless hope. (Sidney knows Casper High better than anyone, its twists and turns and quiet dark places where he's small enough to squeeze through and the bullies can't follow. He's too weak to fight back, too scared, but he never forgets.)
On his sixteenth birthday, he was locked in an airless room. It was the last day of the semester. (Sidney screams for hours, tries for days to escape but there is none. He's so tired he can't move.)
He died then, unlamented and quickly forgotten. His name was remembered only as a high school urban legend. (Sidney has to be seen. It doesn't have to be his family, he knows it won't be, but someone, please…)
He was the kid who'd had Locker 234. He was a ghost. (Sidney doesn't care anymore, doesn't bother hoping anyone will find him and help him escape his own twisted memories. His existence is an endless day recorded on cheap black-and-white film.
Green is a color, like damp grass and the sky of the Ghost Zone. He'd forgotten the taste of egg creams.)
He found a shiny necklace on one of his trips to the human world. No one else wanted it, so he took it home. (Sidney can't look away. She's every warrior princess and tragic heroine he's ever dreamed of, and he feels like such a dumb kid.)
He never thought he'd get to live his junior prom over again, as an attendee instead of a stage prop. The theme was "Fairytale Princess" and he doesn't know what that means. (Sidney knows she's centuries old, something right out of one of the fairytales the cheap decorations tried to copy. He thinks she might actually want to be his friend, though, and that's just so much better.)