Alaia Skyhawk: I'm back, and here's the next chapter :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.
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Chapter 99: Defiance
The day had come for the start of the spring semester, and on this particular day it also began with Alicia practically glaring at the pencil roughly six inches from her nose on her desk. Her mouth set in a frown, her eyes narrowed in intense concentration... And Sophie in the background grinning in amusement.
Sophie chuckled, shaking her head.
"You're trying too hard. You'll never move something with belief if you tense up like that."
"But I moved it half an inch yesterday, and now I can't move it at all!"
"And I've only been teaching you this for ten days. The fact you've moved it even that much in that amount of time, is quite frankly impressive."
Alicia sat upright from her hunched position, and slumped backwards in her chair with defeat. Although admittedly it was more exaggerated theatrics than actual defeat.
"I get the theory, I understand how you've explained it, so why is it so hard?"
Sophie stared at her, eyebrows raised, for several seconds. She then chuckled again.
"It's hard because you're trying too hard. Stop thinking like an adult about it, and think like a kid who trusts their belief completely. You have to learn to put yourself into that frame of mind, just in the back of your mind and nowhere else, so you don't actually start to act like a hyper little kid. That's the hardest part. Once you have it mastered, the rest will become a lot easier."
Alicia turned her head to look at her, still slumped in the chair.
"Given that I wholeheartedly believe in Santa Claus and co, I didn't think it would be that difficult."
Sophie grinned.
"Ah, but there's a difference between thinking you're thinking like a kid, and actually doing it. You've got to learn how to turn off your adult tendency to try and rationalise everything. Kids act and believe on impulse and instinct. They don't have adult cares slowing their thoughts down."
Alicia regarded her in bemusement, heaving a big sigh and adjusting her position on the chair. She then glanced at the offending pencil she'd spent most of the pre-breakfast and post-breakfast free time glaring at. Deciding to ignore it for now, and yet she flicked a hand at it as she got up. More random idle gesture than real effort.
The pencil visibly moved a full inch across the surface, gaining enough momentum to roll a short way afterwards even after the pushing force stopped. Alicia gaped at it, looked at her hand, and then turned to face Sophie.
Her room mate was laughing in triumph.
"See? You wanted to shove it because you were annoyed, and you did it on impulse. An act of temper reminiscent of the kind that is a small child throwing a toy in protest."
Alicia heaved another sigh.
"Great, I can only move it when I think like a three-year-old."
Sophie got up, collecting her rucksack and slinging it over her back.
"Only in the back of your mind, to be open to the right kind of innocent faith. The power of Belief can be forced with sheer raw will, but that will only result in dark ends. The last known wielder of that sort of power was the Boogeyman, and he was not a nice person."
Alicia also collected her bag, the two of them heading out to go to the painting studios. She looked thoughtful.
"So the Boogeyman is an immortal too? You've never mentioned him before."
Sophie shook her head.
"Yes and no. He didn't start out as one, but was tricked into becoming one to limit his powers since he'd have no believers. He doesn't exist anymore. He's nothing but an old story now."
Beside her as they walked, Alicia mulled that over.
"There's no such thing as the Boogeyman, eh? Guess I know now where that saying comes from."
Sophie smiled and nodded, not correcting the assumption. It had long since been decided that, for Kosmotis' sake, no mention of the 'Easter Fiasco' was made to anyone who didn't already know. Not for many years to come, would the world learn of that fight and how close they came to living in perpetual fear. Not until the Golden Age was fully restored.
The two of them walked briskly to the studios, pulling up the collars of their coats against the chill January winds. Arriving there, they proceeded to the studio where one corner was 'theirs'. Just about every MFA student used a particular space all the time, and it could be said there was an unspoken pecking order in getting the places with the best light. Not that any of the studios had bad light.
In that respect, Sophie had picked a spot that was middle of the range out of the spaces made free by the departure of last year's graduates. And yet towards the end of the first semester, that studio became the one with the most hotly-contested free space. Simply because Sophie had demonstrated she had an eye for the most breathtaking surreal scenes. While she'd only produced three large paintings during that semester, and a series of small watercolours, they were now proudly hung around the wall of hers and Alicia's corner of the large room. And it was clear to see from the most recent paintings of the other students using the room, that they'd taken inspiration from her works.
Sophie and Alicia were the first to arrive in their studio. Setting about unpacking their paints and brushes ready for the day ahead. They'd already set up fresh canvases the previous day, meaning that today they could get straight to work.
As Alicia began to plan out an abstract design on hers, Sophie started off with a scrunched up rag to daub a seemingly random mottling of greens, blues, and browns across her canvas. Afterwards she picked up wide, soft brush, using that to blend together the oil paints on the canvas. So that they became one seamless dreamlike blur of interconnected colours. It was how she started all her paintings, which was why none of the other students soon at work in the room paid much attention. But what she did next, definitely did bring all other work in the room to a halt.
Sophie took several steps back from the easel, taking her small table of paints and brushes with her. She then mixed several colours on her pallet, before holding her hands out over it and exerting her will. She lifted up two blobs of colour, one for direction by each hand. Her will becoming an infinitely changeable brush to apply them to the canvas.
Alicia was the first to notice what she was doing and came over to watch. That movement alerting the others in the room. They came over out of simple curiosity, but soon gasped in stunned surprise when they saw what was going on.
Sophie ignored them, although she was aware of Alicia explaining what she was doing. Her room-mate even managed to push around a paintbrush on her own table in demonstration that other people could learn to do the same. But even so, after a few minutes she was as entranced by the display of belief as the others. Watching as cloudy blues, greens, and browns were subsequently shaded with feather-soft strokes and tiny swirls so small you had to be right up to the canvas to discern them.
Over the course of the morning the clouded blur became the beginnings of a mountain cavern open to the wind and weather, with pristine skies above and lush greenery hinted beyond it and down in its depths. There was no way to tell what else would be painted in the foreground of the image, and from the way Sophie set down her paints at lunchtime her manner indicated the background was far from done. Only she knew it was going to be the first of five identically-sized paintings. Each one to show the home of one of the Guardians. The first was going to be the Tooth Palace.
When she stopped work and headed to the campus canteen with Alicia, the rest of the MFAs from their studio followed. That group joining them for lunch, filled to the brim with questions about where Sophie had learned to paint like that... Believing in Santa Claus might seen a bit childish, but moving things with your mind was seriously cool. In one display, Sophie had graduated from 'odd girl' to 'whoa, can she teach me to do that?'
The semester proceeded onwards, with Sophie choosing to do some studio time in the sculpture MFAs' building as well. There she shaped clay using hands for general modelling and mind for fine details. By then she had more than two dozen other students asking her to show them how to do the same with paint or clay, and she approached the head of the School of Art to ask permission to set up a club/class after hours.
It was met with resistance at first, until she explained it as 'a chance for the Yale School of Art to pioneer and study a new art technique before any other institution in the world'. Put that way, and with the prestige the school would stand to gain from it, she was given permission and even asked if she would write about the technique for her thesis. In addition to helping produce study articles that could be used to teach it to other students in the future.
Knowing it was the chance she'd aimed for, to get people to want to learn about the Immortals and want to learn how to use Belief, Sophie happily agreed. The study articles would be extra work, but they'd also earn extra credits towards her degree. And if Yale continued to teach the application of Belief even after she graduated, she would have more than done her self-appointed task at the university.
All this raised her profile at the university, but also exposed her more to the jerks who thought she was receiving favouritism and those who were general disbelievers in the Immortals. For every ten students that wanted to talk to her about it, there would be one who'd mutter snide or derogatory remarks behind her back. Truth be told, no matter what they thought about favouritism, she was doing a lot more work now than most other students. Between her studio time, classes, writing her thesis, and collaborating with one of the teachers on the beginning outline of the study articles. Yet she still found time to visit the Warren every Sunday for a chat with Bunny, and every other week she also took Alicia with her.
Yet it was as her nineteenth birthday neared, that Sophie got the phone-call that struck her to her core... Alicia finding her slumped to her knees on the floor of their room, crying and sobbing.
She rushed to her friend's side, placing her arm around Sophie's shoulder.
"Sophie? What's wrong?"
Sophie raised her head, face flushed and eyes reddened from crying. She had to choke back several sobs before she could speak.
"M-My second cousin, Elizabeth... She's d-dead... Shot, in Italy on her way to a conference."
Alicia's eyes widened in shock.
"What? How? I thought all your family wore protection charms!"
Sophie opened her hand, from where it clutched around hers. Revealing the glittering snowflake pendant. Grim reality drawing several more sobs from her before she at last managed to push them down.
"We do, but they only create a shield when triggered. Even when we add our own belief, they only store enough power to create and maintain a shield for about thirty minutes. So they only create one when we trigger them... Elizabeth... She didn't trigger hers in time."
As Sophie shuddered with suppressed sobs, Alicia hugged her tightly. The red-head's expression set in a hard frown.
"Did they catch the ones responsible?"
Sophie nodded into her shoulder, her voice quiet.
"Yeah, and they'll be charged with her murder, but that's not going to bring her back. And that's not going to stop the rest of their group from hunting down and attacking the other members of my family."
She said nothing more, not even when Alicia offered to bring her back something to eat. But at the same time her friend understood that she'd not want to leave the room more than necessary right now, not when the news would be plastered over the newspapers tomorrow for everyone on campus to see. But what she didn't know when she left to go get a take-out, was that it wasn't simple grief that kept Sophie in the room. It was also fear.
But one person did know. One person did sense her spike of terror... And that person emerged from the shadow beneath her bed to seat himself on the edge of it where she lay curled under the covers. His hand coming to rest on her shoulder even as the Unnatural Fear was drained out of her.
"Sophie, there is no sense in in fearing 'what ifs'. No sense in letting them control you, when you know better that such terror will only blind and make you miserable."
Sophie rolled over so that she could see Kosmotis, her face still red from tears but no longer gripped by panic.
"But the charm didn't save her."
Kosmotis sighed.
"Which is no flaw of the charm. I make no intent to speak ill of Elizabeth, or lay blame on her for her own death, but it was her own carelessness that left her vulnerable. She was with four armed guards, who wore body armour, and assumed she was safe and did not need to be alert to danger. That they would see trouble before she would, and protect her. As such, she did not react fast enough when the three gunmen struck."
He smiled softly in reassurance. "Although I do not recommend you spend all your time with your charm on a hair-trigger. Simply that you remain aware of your surroundings, the potential dangers, but without being ruled by them. So as Natural Fear would have you do. Listen to your survival instincts, and not the terror of 'what ifs'."
Sophie regarded him in silence before taking a shuddering breath. She then sat up, and nodded.
"Thank you, for coming to check on and help me... How is Jack taking this?"
Kosmotis sighed.
"Were it not for the repercussions that would result, he would have frozen the gunmen solid. As it is, the Sandman is keeping him company on the Dreamsand Isle. He's making Jack sleep it off for a few hours." Kosmotis stood. "And now I must go, for there are others of your family in need of me right now. Be well, Sophie, and be brave."
In a moment he was gone, vanished through the shadow below her bed. Sophie stared thoughtfully at the spot where he'd sat, as gradually the light of stubborn determination replaced what had been fear a few moments before.
The anti-immortal fanatics wanted to scare people, to stop those like her from continuing to guide the changing world... She wasn't going to let them win.
She got out of bed and straightened her mused clothing, before donning her bracer and writing a quick note to Alicia to say where she'd gone. She then dropped into a burrow to the Warren, but rather than go to see Bunny she knocked on a nearby portal and had it take her to the Dreamsand Isle.
Sophie emerged on the beach of stardust close to the little 'sandcastle' that was Sandy's home, and immediately headed for it. She had to duck her head down a little, what with the place being made to the Sandman's height proportions, but certainly not as far as many others she knew would have to.
There was no need to search the place for Sandy and Jack, for the pair were in the first of the rooms. The former wide awake, and the latter asleep on a bed made of dreamsand.
Sandy raised his eyebrows in surprise and concern when he saw Sophie, and drew a question-mark in query.
Sophie came over, solemn.
"I'm fine. Kosmotis has already been by to make sure I didn't stay worked up." She glanced at her uncle. "Could you wake him up? I need to ask him something."
Sandy frowned a little, but nodded all the same. A small wave of his hand preceding a twitch from Jack as the Spirit of Winter returned to wakefulness.
When he saw Sophie a flash of guilt crossed his expression, but a long look from Sandy caused Jack to sigh in
surrender. Obviously the pair had already gone through a long discussion about blame and guilt, and how no one was at fault because they'd already done as best they could in the circumstances.
Jack glanced at his niece, his voice subdued.
"I'd ask how you're doing, except I know you wouldn't be here if you hadn't already dealt with things and decided how to go forward. You get the same look in your eyes as Jamie."
Sophie nodded.
"You're right, and that's why I'm here... I want J Overland, the famous yet never-seen sculptor, to come to Yale School of Art and give a demonstration to the staff and students."
Jack blinked, momentarily stunned by the request, before he shook himself from his stupor and rose to his feet.
"Absolutely not! Do you have any idea of the attention that would draw to you?!"
Sophie stared him in the eye.
"I'm not going to let Elizabeth's killers send me into hiding, because that would mean they'd defeated me by murdering her. I won't give them that victory."
There was a hardness to her tone that surprised him, and a defiant resolve that reminded him so much of his sister. The fanatics had drawn the battle-lines, and she'd chosen her position relevant to them.
Jack remained silent, he and Sophie in a sort of staring match while Sandy looked on, before eventually he resigned himself and nodded.
"I'll come. Just let me know when, and I'll come."
Sophie stepped forward and hugged him in reassurance.
"I'll be fine, I promise. Because if we want the Golden Age, we have to be willing to stand up for it."
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When Jack arrived at New Haven a month later, the news that the Bennett Family had secured a visit from J Overland was already awash through the whole of Yale Art School. The excitement was high among students and staff alike, with so many wanting to attend the demonstration that a draw had had to be held to decide the lucky few who would be there in person. The rest who wanted to watch would do so from a couple of the lecture halls, via camera. Although how many of them would see or become able to see him was still up for debate.
He landed at the Old Campus Gardens where Sophie waited for him. Dressed smartly in his best shirt and waistcoat, and even going so far as to pull a pair of smart trousers on over his tattered ones. For the sake of making a good impression, he'd even gone to far as to wear one other item.
Sophie stared when she saw them, before bursting into laughter.
"You're willingly wearing shoes?"
After glancing down at the smart patent leather shoes he was wearing, Jack gave her a bemused look.
"You know I'm doing this for you. Don't tease."
She raised her hands in surrender, but was still grinning.
"Ok! Ok! I won't... Still, they look good on you."
He reacted with a smile to that, before nodding towards the large bag on the floor beside her.
"You got everything ready?"
She nodded as she picked it up.
"The stone you picked, and a case made by Ombric for the finished sculpture to go in. The stone has been marked to show what is needed for the base so it will lock into the case properly."
Jack gestured for her to lead the way.
"Then let's get going, shall we? My audience awaits."
He grinned in anticipation, despite whatever inward concerns he still had about the publicity of this. But still, it was a bit late to back out now.
The two of them walked the short distance to the Green Hall building, pausing only long enough for Sophie to take a modest block of red jasper out of her bag. When they arrived at the large studio chosen for the event, Jack remained outside while Sophie announced that the sculptor had arrived.
There was a moment of frenetic activity as cameras were hastily set away, before she opened the door and Jack walked in. There were a handful of students and teachers among those present who were able to see him immediately. And when Sophie passed him the jasper block so the rest of those can be shown someone was there, she then introduced him.
"This is my uncle, J Overland, or to give him his full name... Jackson Overland Frost." She ignored the startled gasps. "Jack Frost is going to demonstrate today how he uses ice to carve the artworks for which he's so famous as J Overland."
Most of the people present were gaping, a handful had begun to whisper excitedly to each other, and one teacher managed to croak out the question they were all thinking.
"J Overland is the Spirit of Winter?"
By now all but the most sceptical in the room could see and hear him, and while Sophie interpreted for those who couldn't, Jack spoke with a smile.
"It's been a long-time hobby of mine. Although in recent decades I've had the Bennett Family put some of my works up for auction for me, so I could purchase furniture and books for my home and also raise money for charitable causes. I regularly donate towards the purchase of new artefacts for the Burgess Museum, and also provide anonymous donations for education school trips." He looked around at those present. "You've heard of the Emily Winter Foundation, right? The organisation that picks schools at random from all over the world, and gives them funds to subsidise trips to inspire their students. That's one of my fronts, as the Guardian of Fun."
Most of those present hadn't heard of the foundation, Sophie could tell from their expressions, but it was certain they'd look it up afterwards. Even so, the knowledge that an immortal did additional charity work impressed many of them, and the remainder were certainly impressed as Jack conjured a tall plinth of ice in the centre of the room and put the block of jasper on top of it.
He then began to run fingers and hands over it, explaining what he was doing as he went. He listed the pros and cons of the method, and of how he had to be careful not to split the stone along any natural flaws within it. His audience watched with awe as pieces of jasper seem to drop away at his lightest touch.
He was carving a small tree, complete with tiny individual leaves. Something that would have been impossible at such a small scale with traditional tools. He got it right down to the fine details, over the course of the two hours, but stopped short of polishing it. He then explained then that the polishing was what took the longest, sometimes two or three days depending on the size or complexity of the piece. Lastly he etched a message into the side of the piece's base.
Gifted with pride to the Yale School of Art
May this inspire the artists of tomorrow
~J Overland~
Sophie moved forward as he began his gifting speech, holding the enchanted wood and glass case Ombric had made. She carefully locked the base of the piece into the case and closed it, all the while watching the students and staff from the corner of her eye.
News that an immortal was such a famous sculptor, would spread like wildfire across the art world. As would the news of his charitable work. The value of his pieces would likely sky-rocket, but that would simply mean anything he sold from now on would raise even more funds for good causes. Jack would become a positive example in yet another way, and that would reflect well on the Bennetts too.
And if the fanatics didn't like that, well to hell with them. If the Bennetts didn't back down, if they kept speaking for what they believed in, then their defiance in the face of the threats would only make their words hold stronger influence.
Those thoughts remained with her as Jack presented the sculpture to one of the teachers, who then handled it with the utmost care. And when Jack asked for a tour, to view the work of the students, there was a scramble to agree.
Sophie left him to it, let him take most of the attention while she faded to the background as much as she could. Just as she'd promised him, she wasn't going to flaunt her presence more than necessary. It was reward enough to see his smiles, and the positive reactions from students and staff, as he demonstrated his knowledge of sculpture both past and modern, in his remarks about the pieces he was shown.
From this day onwards, Yale School of Art would certainly consider itself proud to have been visited by an immortal.
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Alaia Skyhawk: There you go, I hope you enjoyed it. Look forward to chapter 100, because I have a special surprise for you all :)