burtleburtle OP t1_j5s1njw wrote
Reply to comment by burtleburtle in [WP] You're a little snowman created as part of a throwaway army. Get knocked and you'll end in a puff of snow. Summers are hot here. You're aware of all that. But you've got your own agenda. And you're good with numbers. by burtleburtle
"Where's the queen?" asked April. "We have to save her!"
"She's dead," answered Luke.
"What? No! You lie!"
"I'll show you." As Dirk and Rocky sparred, Luke led April around into the remains of the castle. To the remains of the queen.
"See," he said, "cinders and bones."
April was petrified. "No ... no, it can't be ..."
"I saw it all," said Luke. "The dragon that burned her nearly killed me too, but I fell back into a snowdrift."
April stared at the remains. "You were there," she realized. "You could have saved her! How can you bear yourself, you could have saved her, but you ... just saved yourself! What sort of bastard are you???"
"An alive bastard," answered Luke.
"You ... she ..." April collapsed. "What's the point? I live to serve the queen! And she's dead! And I'm still here! What's the point? What's the point of anything?"
"You could start by figuring out how to keep being here," said Luke. He wandered back outside and April followed.
"She's deaaaaad!!!" wailed April. "I can't saaave her! I'm pooointlesssssss!" she cried.
"Hey watch this," said Rocky. He wound up and struck at Dirk. Dirk struck back. They both scored. They both exploded in little puffs of snow.
Luke stared. "Aaaaand, that's the end of Rocky and Dirk," he said.
"I'm poooointlessssss!" wailed April.
Luke shook her with his twigs. "April. April. Do you see Rocky and Dirk there?"
"Um"
"What is left of them, I mean?"
"Yes?"
"Do you want to die, like them?"
"Um ... not really?"
"Then you have to start looking out for yourself. You get knocked, you'll vanish in a puff of snow, just like them. Me too. Stop worrying about the queen. Start worring about yourself."
April sniffed. "You're mean," she said.
"I suppose so," said Luke.
"What's the point. What's the poooooinnnnt???" squealed April.
Luke waddled away, shaking his head.
burtleburtle OP t1_j5samr6 wrote
The two little snowmen, Luke and April, sat in the snow outside the castle ruins.
April was without mooring. She existed to serve the queen. But the queen was dead. Luke said she had been made by the queen as a cruel joke, just to be easily destroyed. She would not believe that. Luke was awful that way. Focused on the ugly. But without the queen, what was the point of anything? She might as well just sit there forever. She'd melt by summer. Did it matter?
Luke was without a plan. He'd melt by summer. He'd probably be destroyed well before then. Did he need to eat anything? It didn't appear so. So he ran by magic? Is that self sufficient? He should clearly protect himself against all possible ways of being hit. Was there anything else he should be preparing against? And summer was certainly a puzzle. Maybe if he could stockpile ice. He remembered when the queen was little, they had an icehouse ..
How could he remember when the queen was little? It seemed likely that he knew what the queen had known, that's how he knew anything at all. Did that mean he was actually the queen?
"Do you remember the queen's family icehouse?" Luke asked April.
"Oh yes, she loved to go in and sit and chew on ice in the middle of the summer! The cold felt so good in her mouth!"
Well you're clearly not the queen, Luke told himself. At least no more April is. And you're clearly not April. You're grounded. While April's living in some fluffy wish kingdom.
There was some motion in the woods, a creaking sound. Some wooden contraption slowly rolled out of the woods, up to the castle. Another snowman was pulling it.
"Look here," he said, "this can launch fifty snowballs at once. With a couple dozen of these we could defend the queen far more efficiently ..." the newcomer said.
"I'll call you John," said Luke.
"Really?" said the newcomer. "I've been calling myself Theo."
Luke laughed. "Theo it is! Much better. I apologize for my presumption. I salute you."
"Well, OK," said Theo, and Theo and Luke saluted each other.
"The thing is," said Luke, "the queen is dead. There's no point in defending a dead queen."
"Oh," said Theo, sitting down. "That changes things. I'll have to think about that."
"Luke's always rubbing it in my face that the queen is dead," said April. "I'm April."
"Hello April. Well, it is good to know. But I agree there's no need to dwell on it." He paused. "Other than how it changes things." He lapsed back into thought.
The three of them sat in the snow by the ruined castle. Three little snowmen. The sun set. They continued sitting.
burtleburtle OP t1_j5u49bu wrote
In the morning, Theo started building a snowman.
"You're a snowman," said Luke. "And you're building a snowman."
"Yes", said Theo.
This struck Luke as very circular. He thought of several comments he could make about it. But he rejected them. Finally, he settled on one. "Is there a reason?"
"I'm seeing if I can make it come alive."
"Ah," said Luke.
After a few minutes of patting and fussing, he had a snowman. With twigs for arms. And two stone eyes. But it just sat there. Theo stood back and pondered.
"It's as big as me," said Luke. "But bigger than you."
"Oh!" said Theo. "I forgot. I get lost in what I'm doing sometimes. I get worn down when I'm moving about." Theo grabbed some snow and patted it into the side of his torso.
"You can DO that?" asked Luke.
"Sure. And after awhile it redistributes itself." Theo was back to Luke's size now.
April examined the snowman. "She looks nice! I'll call her Lydia. Hello Lydia!"
"... heLLOO aaaaprilll ..." croaked Luke, trying to cast his voice.
"You!" scolded April.
Theo poked at Lydia some more. She was just a construction of snow. Finally he pushed her over, and she fell, crumbling into a few large pieces.
"That definitely didn't work," said Theo. "No puff of snow. That was just snowballs being knocked over."
"How big can you get?" Luke asked Theo.
"I don't know," said Theo, "I haven't tested that."
---
April was shuttling back and forth, gathering more snow and packing it onto Theo. Theo was over 3 feet tall now. He'd had to replace his arms with larger ones twice now.
"Are you getting stronger?" asked Luke.
"Sort of. So so," said Theo. "I can pick up bigger stuff. But I'm feeling more sluggish. I felt a lot more nimble when I was smaller." Theo leaned. He reached up nearly 5 feet with one arm and down to the ground with the other. "It feels like work keeping my head on."
"More snow!" said April, packing on more and hustling away for more. Being busy had lifted her spirits considerably.
After an hour, Theo had reached five feet tall.
"You look like you could lift a tree," said Luke.
"I'm having trouble lifting myself," said Theo. "Let me try running."
Theo thudded across the field, slowly, leaving big holes in the snow with each wobble. At the end he tried leaping. His head went up, came down, then his head split in two. Half fell to the ground.
"Theo?"
He did not respond.
April stared. "Is he dead?"
"I don't think so," said Luke. "He didn't explode in a puff of snow. That seems to be an important part of us, that we explode in a puff of snow when we die."
"He's missing an eye," said April.
"I think he's just disabled," said Luke.
They poked through the fallen half of his head. April found the stone for his eye and tried to put it back. "I can't reach." She was only one foot tall and Theo's head was five feet up. She tried putting it on his belly. That didn't seem to help.
"Wait, I know this one," said Luke. He looked around. "You need a longer arm. Take out one of your arms, and put that long thin branch in its place."
April did this. The new branch was four feet long, way out of proportion to her one foot body. "This is freaky," she said, leaning way back to try to lift the new arm. She lifted it and it dropped and fell out. She stuck it in further, tried again, then maintained control this time.
"Now the eye," said Luke.
April carefully picked up the eye with her new arm. She awkwardly maneuvered it into the air and managed to place it in the middle of the remaining half of Theo's head.
Theo's head turned. "Oh. I feel very odd," said Theo.
"That's probably too big," said Luke.
"I agree," said Theo, turning his head again. "Oh man. I feel dizzy. Perspective." He took out his eye and placed it back on the front of his head. "That's better." He sat. Both eyes were on the same side of his face now. "One to two feet tall seems ideal. Smaller is too wispy. Bigger is heavier than it's worth."
"That was fun," said April.
Theo started digging snow out of his side. On a whim he made another snowman of it. With arms and eyes. It just sat there. "Still no good," he said. He knocked it over.
"It's good to know what our limits are," said Luke. "There's only the three of us."
"Four. There's Sylvia too," said Theo.
"Sylvia?" "What?"
"You probably haven't met her. I don't know if I have even, properly. Sylvia is just what I call her. She hides in the forest behind trees and doesn't say anything."
Luke laughed. "How do you know you're not just making her up?" he asked.
"She leaves tracks. Or at least, she used to. I haven't seen any trace of her so far today. She keeps herself small."
"Maybe she died?"
"Maybe she got better at not leaving tracks. We're all learning to be better at being who we are," said Theo.
April looked out to the forest.
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