His current state was something strange. First he'd been a blank nothingness, then he'd been the intense, overwhelming desire to be someone else. Someone you admire so much it hurts. Who doesn't just inspire you to be like them, but inspires you to be them. He knew he wanted to be the great ice elemental but he also knew he could never be.
Then the comet struck, his master died and part of him died with him. He was nothing again. He was many other people after that. The second they put him on he could connect to their minds like a leech- except they were the ones feeding off him. Drinking in the magic he gave them, and the madness as well. Taking in that first wish as their own and slowly morphing into something else as their body and mind tried to recreate Gunther's desire.
He was worn by so many people and each time they would leave behind a trace of themselves. They fed on his magic, he fed on their personhood till it was completely devoured. But it stayed inside him, somewhere. Their memories were repeated across millennia until he was finally dug up by the man that he would take the most from, but who would in term give him the most back.
As the crown he'd known love before but he'd never witnessed love like this. Simon loved Betty- his princess, more than anything. Even when the crown consumed his whole mind that fact couldn't be erased. And then the crown met his princess. Betty entered the crown once and he had felt her presence trying to destroy him to save Simon, but instead destroying both of them. Or rather there had been no both of them back then, there was just Simon. He was still getting used to being without Simon after being conjoined to his mind for so long. It was lonely on his own. With no other memories or people to keep him company.
It was just him now. The Ice Thing.
And though it had been brief he was getting used to being without Betty too. At the very end, when all the other millions of ruined lives he'd been storing were erased, she put him on and made her wish.
"I wish for Simon to be safe."
He knew that even if her whole mind was consumed, like her magic had already tried to, her love for Simon would never be erased. Just like his love for her. There was a perfect symmetry to their feelings for each other. A balance that all the magic in the world couldn't undo that would always put them back together. A familiarity.
He wiped his long blue nose. Now he was worn by Gunther again, which was its own symmetry, and he had his own princess. Not Betty but a turtle.
After living through so many lives and watching so many loves be destroyed and slowly forgotten by his wearer he wanted to do things right. He wanted to create something for once. Maybe if he could just make her happy his life would be more than just ice cold desolation. Maybe he wouldn't be alone anymore. He wiped his nose again and a tear slid from one of his ruby eyes.
He wanted to do things right just this once but he couldn't. You were supposed to get your partner flowers and he'd tried to. He'd really really tried. He'd been so excited to give them to her but his ice cold hand had frozen them and now he was just holding an ice statue.
Turtle Princess opened the Library back door and despite everything, smiled when she saw him. She quickly frowned when she saw his expression. "Oh dear. Why are you crying?"
He sniffled and used his beard/wings to wipe his eyes and nose. "Nothing pet." he said weakly.
She saw what he was holding. "Are these flowers for me?"
"They're not supposed to be frozen." he muttered and Turtle Princess figured out what he was so sad about.
"Aw shucks it's okay if they're a little bit frozen." she said softly and took them from him. WOr even very frozen." she said as a second thought. "I'll put them in the freezer and then they'll last waaay longer than boring regular flowers. It's actually better this way."
"Really?" he said hopefully.
"Really." they were starting to melt in her hands so they set off to her house. "Also the like, shapes and angles on these are really amazing. Do you make ice sculptures?"
"I could try." Ice Thing brought his hands together and started crafting a figure. He finished and held it out to her triumphantly.
"Oh my glob is this me!" He'd made a tiny transparent figuring with long hair and a shell for a body that looked exactly like a smaller version of her. "It's so cute I'll have to put that in the freezer too."
It seemed Turtle Princess was gonna have to buy around ten freezers to store all the ice gifts he kept giving her.
Ice Thing smiled. Maybe he was going to do all right after all.
Turtle Princess reminded him slightly of Betty. Or at least Betty as Simon remembered her. Someone precious and fun to be around, someone smart and stubborn, someone who deserved the world. Someone to admire.
Admiration didn't always lead to disasters like the crown's creation, he supposed. Admiration and love could also be wonderful. He'd seen love through other people's eyes so many times that now seeing it through his own, it all seemed so familiar.
But maybe familiarity, like him, didn't have to be a bad thing.