Hunger (Frozen/Disney Dark Fantasy AU)

Your name is Elsa Lothbrok, 10-year-old daughter of Agnar Lothbrok, and princess to the Kingdom of Arendelle.

And you...are cursed.

At least, that's what your father told you. It's hard not to see why, considering the...irregularities surrounding you. You've always had an unnatural connection to the icy mountains of the kingdom, and indeed the cold in general.

The ice was the most obvious aspect, and it was something that many people thought was the only aspect of it. You could do magic, that was the only word for it. There were rumors from far off lands, and legends within the culture, but magic seemed like such a fantastic and impossible thing.

And yet, you could conjure up simple constructs of ice and snow. More than that, you were always cold, almost icy, to the touch. The cold was your natural environment, every room you entered became chilled.

Then there was the Hunger.

For as long as you can remember, you've been hungry. No matter how much you eat, there's always been that gnawing hunger in your gut. You try to be polite, you try to be courteous, but you fear that you behave like a glutton at dinner. But despite eating enough food for a family, you're never full.

You knew it was connected to your unnatural abilities, that much was obvious. The more you use your powers, the hungrier you got. At the same time, the hungrier you were, the easier and more intense your powers became. But while your powers grew, that hunger in the back of your mind, the clawing, gnawing, hunger that whispered in your ear to feed...it grew louder.

It grew more enticing.

The more that pit in your stomach grew, the more you could hear a little voice in back of your head saying:

"Just eat them, Elsa. They're only meat. Warm and succulent sacks of meat"

For a while, it was small and manageable. But then the...incident...happened. You still have nightmares about it, about what you almost did to your dearest little sister. Papa took you and Anna to visit a group of curious creatures, Trolls he called them. They fixed her, and for a moment you thought all would go back to normal.

But then...then they looked at you.

"Child of the darkness" they called you. Born and bound to the cold grip of death and all things dark. They lay forth a prophecy that spoke of shadow and sin, of dead things brought to life and buried things brought to light.

Now you have to stay in a tower on the far end of the castle. The air freezes around you. Frost creeps upon surfaces. You snuff out fires just by approaching them. If you were back in your room, near mother, father, and little Anna the whole castle would have been rendered inhospitable. Even now, this section of the castle is all but abandoned. Most people couldn't even sit in the same room with you.

Even now, the room you inhabit is coated from floor to ceiling in a layer of ice. Your hunger, once distant and gnawing, is now a monster roaring inside you. You can feel that hunger clawing at the very edges of your mind, craving anything and everything in sight.

And as seen with Anna, with but a touch you can steal the very life from someone. Something intoxicating in how pleasurable and flavorful it was.

It was like biting into a nice warm and rare steak, the succulent juices filling your mouth as the heat warms your very soul. That feeling of the meat ground and torn under your teeth, of the meal making its way down your throat and settling into your gut. And that feeling of contentment as you sit with a belly full of food.

It was a feeling without compare, and as vile as the act was, as much as it disgusted you, as much as it felt wrong on a visceral, intellectual, and existential level, some part of you could not deny, no matter how much you tried, that it was easily one of the most exhilarating and satisfying moments in your life.

And it was gone in a flash. That feeling of contentment, of warmth, of finally being satisfied was over in an instant. You needed more. You knew it in your very soul. You'd go mad without another taste at the freedom of thought that feeling of satisfaction gave you.

All of this because of your abilities. Things you've had for as long as you can remember. Things that set you apart from the rest of mankind.

And you can't help but think of them as…

[ ] A gift

• You feel blessed by the gods with your abilities. Using it is one of the greatest feelings you have.

[ ] A curse

• This is a vile affliction brought upon you. Its constant existence makes you feel vile and wrong.

[ ] A tool

• Your abilities are strange, but they're yours. They're a tool you can and will control, a unique tool with unique applications.

But...no matter how you feel about them, your powers aren't something you can change. Not yet, anyway. Regardless of how they make you feel, You have to accept their existence at the moment. Because with all things considered, you feel...

[ ] Optimistic

• You still believe the best in humanity, and have trust and faith in your family in spite of your differences and dangers.

[ ] Pessimistic

• You fear the worst, worrying that humanity, and even your family, will turn on you because of their fear.

[ ] Realistic

• You're cautious, having faith in your family, but you also know how dangerous you are, and you always try to look at things from a balanced viewpoint.

…

You shake your head, the maelstrom of thoughts far from a nice and happy place. Instead of wallowing in loneliness and despair, you looked around the room for something to spend your time with. Finally, you spot something.

Books.

A small collection of them. Your Papa brought them up. You had a very large selection of them, but a few were your favorites. Books you could read over and over and never get bored. They could eat up hours, days even. They filled your head with such wondrous tales and images, setting your mind alight with imagination.

So as you reached down to pick up a book to read, you carefully grabbed your most treasured book of all…

[ ] The Squire

• Gains title "The Squire"
  
• Starts the path of the Body
  
• Reading it makes your heart thunder in your chest, filling your body with an energy and exuberance that few others can match. You can feel the drums of battle thunder in your ears as your soul beats with thoughts of honor.
• You can't help but imagine yourself as The Lord of War.

[ ] The Student

• Gains title "The Student"
• Starts the path of the Mind
• Reading it make your mind spin and turn at the possibilities. Insights and ideas fill it, all making you wonder what is possible, what can you do, should you put your mind to it? And how can you make the world dance to your tune?
• You can't help but imagine yourself as The Empress.

[ ] The Acolyte

• Gains title "The Acolyte"
• Starts path of the Soul
• Reading it stirs something deep inside you. You can feel your magic churn beneath your skin. It reaches the depths of the soul, making your very essence feel. Your powers are a mystery, one you seek to unlock.
• You can't help but imagine yourself as The Sage.

A/n:

This is going to be how I do character creation for this quest. The whole Prologue is basically setting up the story. The choices you pick will make a very large precedent for the story. What you pick and make Elsa say in these opening chapters will determine who Elsa is as a person. As it is now, there is only one thing set in stone about who you are as a person.

You love Anna.

Now, whether that manifests as yandere level creepy incestuous love, aloof pseudo-older-brother protectiveness, or doting older sister who adores her cute little sis, that's all up to you. Either way, Elsa's going to love Anna. You can't change that.

...yet.

You can, however, make Elsa hate the rest of her family or even humanity as a whole. Or not, maybe she's a saint that just wants to spread love across the world or something.

Those are the types of things that are going to be determined in the prologue, along with a few other initial conditions. Doing this now will let me have a better framework for how Elsa will interact with the world. That'll let me post longer chapters without constantly making you guys decided what she's going to do or think every 5 seconds.

Which also means that the decisions you make here are extremely important. This is going to set a precedent for the whole quest. Sure, she can evolve and change as a person. It's entirely likely she will. But this is the initial condition of Elsa, and it's going to set the tone for everything else she's going to do.

I'll explain the path system in another post, one detailing some of the stuff on the Mind Body and Soul, but it's a bit much to get into all that in this chapter. All I'll say at the moment is that each picture is a glimpse at a potential endgame state for each path. Still, like the other two choices, this one sets a big precedent.

So all in all, choose carefully.