Yo! S'up?
Once again, a big thanks for the reviews and support. I know the last chapter was a little random but...this is a series of (not so) one-shots depicting random days by random people, so…
This chapter went in a completely different direction to where it started, but it introduces a few players I might bring into the ball game sometime down the track. I hope it isn't boring...
Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own Frozen or any of it's attributes, and any similarities to real life people and situations is entirely unintentional. And the same goes for the television show, The Pinkie and the Brain.
The Pinkie and the Brain
Olaf was easily the most sensitive snowman alive. The fact he was alive was beside the point. Especially now that the citizens of Arendelle were not only aware they had a living, breathing (no one could quite figure out how that was possible), walking snowman innocently exploring their kingdom with wide eyed enthusiasm, but had actually seen him. Seen him. And, in many cases, hugged him.
Having a Queen with the ability to turn summer into the worst winter Arendelle had ever suffered wasn't the easiest concept to accept. When she unfroze it, many wondered why it took so long, until word spread that she had never known how. Her actions in running away when her powers were suddenly revealed did work in her favour. It proved she cared a great deal about her subjects, and if isolation was the only way to protect them from herself, she was willing to do it.
Now, sometime down the track, and only rumours coming out of the castle about wayward power mishaps, life had once more settled down to how it had always been.
They rarely saw their Queen outside of the castle, which was fine by them. Not that they were scared of her, although, if pressed, many would admit they were still a little scared of her – she had magical powers, for Pete's sake! Running a kingdom, and keeping up with worldly ties, and whatnot, had to be time consuming, and a lot of pressure. And as their contacts in the castle reported, Queen Elsa was really doing an amazing job. So they were happy if she was happy doing whatever it was she needed to do to keep them all alive, safe, and well provided for.
The permanent unmeltable ice additions to the castle (especially the rink) were a nice touch. Children (and adults) of all ages skated away free hours, honing skills, trying new tricks. A group of teenage boys had started a new sport involving oddly shaped sticks (borrowed from shepherds) and a flat circular rock in which they competed in teams trying to score goals. Apparently it was an adaption of an overseas game called 'hockey' –which was usually played on solid ground with a small round ball, not skates and a small stone.
Those who couldn't afford skates (or weren't very good on them) played a similar game, but used shoes, their mothers' brooms, and a ball. It was definitely a comical game, and several teenage girls were slowly being persuaded to join in.
When those games started to get a bit rowdy (and random passer-by's felt their personal safety was in danger – not to mention the castle windows), Queen Elsa was forced to create a 'skating schedule'. The boys could have free range to play their weird sports Sunday only. Everyone else was well advised to steer clear. And she was not responsible for any injuries sustained in the use of her ice rink.
The Princess on the other hand was the complete opposite to what was widely becoming known as Arendelle's cool, calm, and collected Snow Queen. She was full of energy, very friendly, and such a sweet natured girl, the entire kingdom had become over-protective of her. And many eyes watched carefully whenever that ice harvester was with her.
Olaf sighed. The little snowman, for the first time in his life, didn't feel like his usual bubbly, happy self. And he didn't know why. Nor was he really sure what he was feeling, only that it wasn't normal.
His personal flurry was chugging away like normal, so he knew it wasn't temperature related. Could he even get sick? He didn't have lungs. Or internal organs of any sort. Except for his buttons, eyes, hair, stick arms, and carrot nose, he was complete snow. He had tried drinking water once – Elsa needed to remould his head after it started melting from the inside out. She had tactfully convinced him to avoid liquid water until she figured out how to stop him from melting.
He really liked Elsa. She was a very capable Queen, and completely dedicated to the people she served, but at the same time, she could be so clueless. The concept of interacting with people, particularly on a social setting, was often beyond her comprehension. She just didn't understand them, and she really didn't understand emotions. At all. People made her jumpy, and a jittery Elsa often had power related mishaps. Embarrassing for her, and amusing for the staff (once they got over their initial surprise, shock, fear).
He knew it was related to her thirteen year isolation, and his little non-existent in the physical sense heart went out to her. He remembered telling Anna 'I bet she's the nicest, warmest, gentlest person ever'. He wasn't far off the mark. She actually was all those things under the layers of control she had learned to employ – necessities of being a ruler, especially one whose magical abilities were so closely linked to her feelings.
Olaf hadn't seen Elsa in a week. She had been confined to her office –something to do with a frost incident involving all the paperwork on her desk (unfortunately not the first time, but almost every other time she had managed to reverse the frost before it did any damage) which he had accidently caused.
It wasn't his fault he had caught her sound asleep at her desk, and how was he to know that whenever she woke in a panic or fright, everything gets blanketed in snow and ice? Actually he did know, but he was so surprised to see her asleep that he forgot about what usually happened when she was disturbed.
This time the frost had been powerful enough to ruin everything on her desk.
And naturally, her desk had been piled high with financial documents relating to something called 'annual book keeping'. Heaven help anyone who went in there. She had made it clear she would not be held responsible, and whoever was foolish enough to bother her would be unfrozen next week. Only Anna had been brave enough to enter, and she'd come out only seconds later covered in ice and snow with a magical snowball chasing her down the hall until it found it's target –her face. Since then, no one had entered the study.
Anna, Kristoff and Sven (and chaperon) were off in the mountains somewhere doing who knew what, leaving Olaf with no one but the castle staff and three Mini-Marshmallows for company.
Personally, he didn't like the Mini-Marshmallows, and was very thankful they seemed to spend most of their time sleeping in Elsa's room. He knew several members of the castle staff had asked the Queen to get rid of them but she refused. Her defence was she couldn't take away life once it had been given. She made Olaf so proud – after all, if she consented to removing them, what would stop her from 'getting rid of' him if she was pressured enough?
So, the staff were slowly learning to live with two scary looking snowmen (the pink one simply wasn't scary because of her –formerly his- colour) and one overly friendly snowman.
Olaf sighed again as he trudged down another of the long castle corridors before turning to a window and peering outside. It truly was a beautiful day, but lately, whenever he went outside, he couldn't stop sneezing. And his eyes would water – and the tears sometimes made melted indents in his face before the flurry could compensate.
He loved summer so much, but why was it affecting him so bad?
Being inside was boring, so maybe that was why he felt a little down. Maybe…maybe a nice warm hug was all he needed.
With that perky thought in mind, he retraced his steps looking for anyone to help him out.
Where was everyone?
The castle staff was slowly growing larger although Kai was yet to convince Elsa on why they needed to re-recruit. Having the gates open didn't change anything was her opinion. She didn't realise that most of the staff (and Anna) were eager to host balls and entertain once more.
Yet, one by one, week to week, a new face joined the staff.
Olaf wondered if Elsa had noticed that yet. She had only become aware of the new cook after a reaction to a new culinary dish. Since then, spice was off the menu.
Anyway, that didn't matter. There had to be someone somewhere that could hug him.
Down one corridor and the next and up the stairs, then down several more hallways, back down the stairs, and –finally! A young girl in the dark green clothes of a housemaid with black hair and a freckled face. Definitely a newbie.
That cheered him up even more and he waved his hand in a very enthusiastic greeting. "Hi! I'm Olaf and I like-"
"Aiiieeeee!"
Seriously, why did every human he encountered do that? What was so scary about a happy, talking, friendly snowman?
The young girl dropped her load of linen and bolted behind a nearby curtain. He raised an eyebrow as the whole thing started trembling, eyeing the rod it hung from. The last thing he wanted was for it to fall and bonk her on the head. An accident to a member of staff was brought to Elsa's attention, and that would alert her to Kai's unauthorised recruiting.
He ventured a little closer, and when her head peaked out for a second, he waved his hands again, smiling as brightly as he could, "Hi, you must be new here. I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs."
Two brown eyes went wide, and it wasn't until he was a few feet away that she spoke in a trembling voice, "You're…a snowman."
Humans. So original.
He nodded energetically, "And you're a person."
She blinked, and her eyebrows drew together thoughtfully, "Well, yes, but I'm alive."
"So am I," he told her, leaning to the side to peer at her better. "You can come out, if you want."
She thought about it for a moment, staring at him warily. When he made no move to do whatever she thought he was going to do, she stepped out from behind the curtain and kneeled beside him, a curious look on her face, "How is that possible?"
"I don't know," he said with a shrug, reaching out to gently touch her hand. She flinched a little, but when she realised it was just a hand made of wood, she relaxed. "You should ask Elsa. Queen Elsa, that is. She built me. And Marshmallow, but you don't want to meet him. And you definitely don't want to throw a snowball at him. Trust me. Oh, and maybe you should be careful with the three Mini-Marshmallows. No one has thrown a snowball at them yet, but…"
Her eyes went wide again, "Mi-Mi-Mini-Marshmallows?"
He nodded again, "Yep. They mostly live in Elsa's room, but have been known to roam from time to time."
"Oh."
She looked so worried he decided to change the subject and squeezed her hand, "So what's your name?"
It seemed to take her a few seconds to comprehend his sentence, and when she did, she smiled, "I'm Heidi. This is my second day"
"And no one told you about me?"
She shrugged, "I came from Cudlee Creek. There was a rumour about you but I didn't believe it, and yesterday I was told so much stuff I hardly remember any of it."
He pointed at messy pile of formerly carefully folded linen in the middle of the hallway, "Where were you going?"
She told him, and then perked up, "You wouldn't happen to know where that is, would you? I mean, I was given a tour, but this place is so big. It's a castle, after all. I still can't believe I'm working in the Royal Castle!"
Fifteen minutes later, at her intended destination, Heidi hugged him, "Oh, thank you so much, Olaf."
He still didn't feel like his usual self, but he felt better than he had. In fact, he was so determined to find another human to hug, that he didn't notice the warning signs of danger before he was standing in the middle of it.
"RAGHHH!"
For the rest of the castle staff, the day had started much as most days did. Routine cleaning and daily preparations. In the perspective of Mistress Minnie Thawn, formerly of London and current Head Cook, the staff of the Royal Castle of Arendelle had no idea how unique their lives were. Maybe the older staff did, but the younger had no clue.
In her experience, coming from a line of work in service to some of Britain's finest noble families before her unorthodox marriage to a former officer in the Royal Navy and consequential relocation to Arendelle (she didn't realise her navy husband had no sense of direction until they were lost in the Artic Ocean), mornings were early, with the kitchen always preparing elaborate three course meals for the three main meals of the day, and a wide selection of biscuits and cakes, as well as cooking for the entire staff. The housemaids tidied up from the night before, and then tackled routine dusting duties. Once the lady's maids and valets reported their charges dressed, then the housemaids could clean the family rooms.
So it had come as a complete surprise to Minnie when she discovered neither the Princess nor Queen had a lady's maid. And access to the Queen's room was only permitted on the first Tuesday of every month. Since the revelation of her magical abilities, that standing order hadn't changed. The housemaids didn't really have much to do, except the never ending dusting and cleaning.
As to meals, she was lucky if she managed to serve breakfast and dinner to the Queen. Kai had explained, after she expressed concerns, that Queen Elsa usually got so absorbed in her work she simple forgot to eat.
Princess Anna, on the other hand, seemed to have a bottomless pit. When she was home, that was. As did Kristoff, when he visited. But when both were away, there was really very little for the staff to do but clean, clean, and clean some more.
So it was in the midst of repairing the oven – no handyman was permitted near it- that a terrified little snowman raced into her kitchen.
"Mistress Thawn, please, you have to help me!"
Olaf was a concept she was still struggling to understand and accept. After she heard he had slammed a cream pie (did he realise how many hours of work went into cream full stop?!) into Princess Anna's face, his access to the kitchen and anything food related had been severely restricted. She did not buy his excuse that Queen Elsa had asked him to do it.
She was still in the process of asking him what he meant when the little snowman squeaked, jumped into the oven, his flurry barely squeezing in with him, and pulled the door shut.
"What's the – Oh my sweet flying fish!"
"RAGHHH!"
Gerda, head housekeeper of the Royal Castle of Arendelle, tentatively knocked on the tall cream door with green, blue and purple painted patterns and turned the gold inlaid handle. In her other hand, a silver covered tray was carefully balanced.
She cautiously surveyed as much of the main office as the small gap she had made by partially opening the door afforded her. From her vantage point, she didn't see any evidence of frost or snow. And yet, Elsa hadn't responded to her careful knock, which wasn't unusual, since most of time, especially when absorbed in her work, she often didn't hear it.
After a silent debate, Gerda decided to risk it. She may only be a servant, but since the death of the King and Queen, God rest their souls, she, Kai, and Simone, the tall head housemaid, had filled the role of parents as best they could where their stations permitted.
Normally Kai was the only one bold enough to challenge Elsa, but he had learned the hard way to take Elsa's power related threats seriously –she was adamant she didn't want to hurt anyone, but accidents often occurred when she was stressed and irritated- and refused to enter the office. After a week, Gerda had had enough. Elsa needed to eat, and then she needed to sleep. What good were Arendelle's finances if the brain processing it all was too tired to see any errors?
And yet, it took three deep, calming breaths, before Gerda had the courage to open the door wide enough for her to enter. Then she paused – the room was empty. And the desk neatly cleared. Which meant…maybe Elsa had gone to her bed without eating.
After another silent debate, Gerda decided to go to Elsa's room and make sure. If she was still awake, it would be best for her to eat something first.
And so, once again, she found herself tentatively taping on a white and blue patterned painted door, before carefully turning the sliver door handle and pushing the door open. Her gaze immediately fell on the young Queen, and a small fond smile spread across her lips.
Elsa looked like she had just collapsed across the bed and fallen asleep that way. And, now that she thought about it, Anna was right – she really did have big feet.
The question now was whether or not Gerda should wake her. Just how long had she been asleep? Maybe Gerda should leave the tray on the bedside table. The room was already cooler than the rest of the house, so the warm soup wasn't going to stay that way for long. Not that Elsa ate or drank hot foods and liquids.
Unfortunately, before she could make up her mind, the decision was taken from her.
"RAGHHH!"
The silver tray tumbled from her hands to the floor in a noisy, messy clatter, as a frightened Gerda, with eyes as wide as saucers, ran from the room faster than she had run in years.
Simone was the eldest of the staff in the Royal Castle of Arendelle since the former head cook had retired a few months back after the pure happenchance recruitment of the very experienced in several cuisines and culinary knowledgeable Mistress Minnie Thawn. She had joined the staff as a young girl when the current Queen's grandfather was King. Her retirement was close at hand, but service was all she had known. The thought of having nothing to do but what she fancied frightened her, so she clung on to her role.
Besides, with Kai sneakily recruiting staff, she felt it was her duty to ensure they were properly trained before she withdrew. They were a little older than she had been when she first started, and two of them she wasn't yet sure of, but she was determined to make the most out of them. And they were slowly turning into decent young workers.
If Queen Elsa could be persuaded again to hold another castle function, Simone was confident, assuming Kai managed to get the staff back to an adequate level, the castle would be able to cater for all the Queen's guests. She had been horrified when first informed that the guests for the coronation had to find their own accommodation either in the town, or remain on their ships. What was the point of having a castle full of grand, lavish guest rooms if no one was allowed to stay in them?
Now that Arendelle, and the world, knew the Queen's darkest secret, Simone hoped to see at least one formal celebration before she retired. She had a passion for fashion, and loved sneaking glances at all the beautiful fine dresses the ladies wore. Unknown to most, she was the designer behind the Queen's coronation outfit.
She sighed as she wiped a finger over a mantle place and found dust. It was time she had The Talk, again, with her young housemaids about upholding the honour of Arendelle.
She was completely unprepared for three of them to charge past, screaming at the tops of their lungs. But before she could make them stop and berate them, she came face to face with what had caused such disruptive behaviour.
"RAGHH!"
Despite her age, Simone easily overtook the three terrified housemaids.
By carefully looking out the glass section of the oven door, Olaf knew when the coast was clear. He felt a little sorry for Mistress Thawn. She wasn't all that comfortable with him, so he could understand why she ran from the kitchen terrified. And yet, it took him a significantly long time to work up the courage to open the oven door and climb out. If anyone had been watching, they would have said he fell out in a few pieces, but Olaf was somewhat used to reassembling his body at least eleven times a day. And that was on the uneventful days.
Now, as he carefully navigated the corridors hopefully heading to safety, Olaf just managed to duck out of view as Simone, Heidi, Annalise and Birgitta charged past. He knew what was chasing them, and quickly retreated – madly grabbing one foot as it separated from his body and hopped toward danger and reattached it to his bottom snowball.
Clearly it wasn't safe in the castle. His heart went out to the terrorised staff, but they were solid, and not in any real danger. He was made of several pieces, and in serious danger of being pulled apart.
In the end, it took several detours and secret passages before Olaf saw the sunny outside world through the open main doors.
Unfortunately, the four terrified housemaids, who had been joined by Gerda and Mistress Thawn, buzzed passed him. He watched them slip and slid across the ice before spinning his head around.
Oh no, they were coming.
"RAGHHHH!"
His feet took off across the ice, gracefully sliding across the slippery surface, while he watched the two white Mini-Marshmallows jump down the stairs after him. They had their arms above their heads, menacing their sharp looking ice claws, and their jaws were wide with jagged snow teeth showing.
They really looked like their larger predecessor as it chased him, Anna and Kristoff down the mountain, and-
Wham!
Elsa always cautioned him to look where he was going since she often had to rebuild separated sections of his body. She wasn't sure how to make his flurry capable of splitting when his body separated, although she had tried several times. But there was always so much to see, that he often forgot her warning.
The rock that took his head off effortlessly careened through his snow from one side to the other and continued across the rink where it came to a stop indented into one of the ice adornments to the brick wall. From his vantage point, the world spun around and around so fast that by the time his head slid to a stop at the base of the fountain, Olaf was feeling queasy and very dizzy.
He blinked rapidly several times, trying to make sense of what he was seeing, when his head was lifted high into the air. It was a weird feeling having his head floating, and even weirder when he realised it wasn't his own stick hands that had down the lifting.
He looked left and right as best he could –to the left there wasn't much to see but a few guards high up on the wall, and to the right…oh, that explained it. Sunday afternoon. Ice hockey.
He watched one of the players zip across the ice to retrieve the stone.
What he didn't understand, was why his head was floating.
Until he heard the trademark war cry.
"RAGHHH!"
To his non-existent ears, it had a feminine touch. Wherever his body was, he felt his heart sink. It would be a miracle if he survived this, and he tried to look down to confirm what he was hearing. Since he could see the two white Mini-Marshmallows running through the gates –both casting an anxious look over their shoulders- Olaf knew, despite his inability to confirm this, that Pinkie, Anna's nickname for the pink Mini-Marshmallow, had him.
And from the way she was waving his head about as she chased down her white fellows, he got the distinct impression she was going to throw him at them, which was a very bad idea. His body usually retained it's shape when separated and after falls (at least, when the temperature was low enough), but he wasn't happy about the prospect of being used as a snowball.
So he tried, unsuccessfully, to talk her out of it as they ran through the main gates, along the stone bridge, and into the crowded main square of the township. The random stunned citizens had made a wide path, and watched on with startled expressions as the six castle workers, headless snowman with small flurry overhead (thank goodness Elsa's last attempt had actually worked!), and white Mini-Marshmallows raced through the square, eventually followed by Pinkie and Olaf's head.
He shouted a greeting to the people he had time to recognise, and tried to reassure several of the kids that everything was okay, Pinkie was just having some fun –which she tried to negate with a very loud "Not!"
As they sprinted down various alleys, sometimes doing complete block circles, Olaf kept trying to reason with his captive, "If you want revenge, this isn't the way to do it –Hi, Mister Ivan! He's a nice man, did you know? His family has been blacksmiths for generations – oh look, there goes his kids! Anyway, what did the Whites do to you to get you like this?"
She rambled something that he didn't understand – big Marshmallow had spoken so clearly, what was wrong with his minis? So he took a hazardous guess, thinking out loud as he tried to duck under a low table – he felt his hair scraping the underside wood, and asked her to be careful. If anything, that made her raise his head higher. Women.
"So…uh…are the Whites mean to you?" Was that a no? He frowned, and shouted another greeting as they passed the baker. "Okay…so…if they haven't done anything, then…Hello Rasmus! Have you seen my body?" The startled stocky middle age assistant Harbour Master pointed to the left, and Pinkie skidded around the corner in that direction. "Thanks!"
He shouted several more greetings, and asked her several more questions which, if anything, irritated her. His head was in danger of being damaged by random objects – she pointedly moved him closer when they passed solid, unmoveable items. Although, asking random citizens if they had seen the other Mini-Marshmallows pass by did seem to be working in his favour.
"You know, we haven't spent much time together, but I'm a nice snowman. I like all things summer, and warm hugs, and – gosh! That's it, isn't it?!" The sudden revelation hit him so hard his head hurt. "I get it! You want revenge on the Whites, because when Elsa made you, she wanted revenge on her sister. So since they're kind of like your brothers, that's why you're after them!"
She mumbled something sarcastically, and he figured she must have said "Finally, figured it out, did you?"
Knowing why she was after them still didn't make him feel any better about his current predicament, but he was slowly starting to enjoy the ride. So this was what it felt like to be tall –well, taller. And she could certainly move faster than he could – the wind felt nice blowing through his hair.
They had completely lost sight of their quarry, but –
"Aaachooo!" The sudden, unexpected sneeze caught them both by surprise, and his nose shot several metres ahead of them and rolled across the stone pavers. The force of the sneeze knocked Pinkie backward and off balance, and Olaf rolled free from her hands…toward a puddle of water.
"Ahhh! Pinkie! Help! Please!"
The puddle got closer and closer – he shut his eyes. He was about to melt – he knew what water did now. Maybe Elsa would be able to save him…if she had to make a new head, would he remember his life, or would he be a new snowman named Olaf? With his eyes squeezed shut –his only defence- he didn't realise just how close he came to being a melted snowhead when Pinkie grabbed him.
Only the unusual feeling of floating, and her garbled speech prompted him to open his eyes. She had him at her level, and her face looked concerned as she rambled off something.
Taking that to be a question about his wellbeing, he sighed in relief, thanking her profusely. His gratitude deepened when she carried him to where his carrot had shot off and repositioned it on his face.
"You know, Elsa gave me several pointers on the whole revenge thing. Help me find my body, and I'll help you get one up on the Whites."
One week later, Elsa found a trembling blue and green Mini-Marshmallow hiding under her desk.
Author's note: Ice hockey was a new concept on the field version around the 1800s. As to field hockey, variations of 'stick and ball games' have been around for centuries, with the first recorded reference of the term 'hockey' in 1363. Broomball, the other ice sport with the players in shoes, I'm not so sure about but I figured, why not?
Again, I hope it wasn't boring. It started off in a different direction, but for some reason, the idea of Olaf and Pinkie being buddies appealed to me.
