Chapter 15 – Party Crashers

With three small hamlets in Norway now fully transformed into semi-equivalents of themselves from centuries ago, the world resolved to do the only logical thing in the face of the fantastic: embrace it and hope for the best.

Hans' predictions regarding Weselton and the Southern Isle proved partially correct. Sure, the pirate corsairs hired by Weselton tried to menace Arendelle and land soldiers there, but the operative word was "tried."

"I wish I could have seen their faces!" squealed Anna as she watched the BBC's international coverage.

"Marauders in service of the principality of 'Weselton' were today interdicted by a full carrier battle group centered on USS Theodore Roosevelt guided in by airborne intelligence sources. No weapons fire was exchanged, however, it was reported that several of the ships surrendered on sighting the US supercarrier."

"Whatever Hans said must've scared them enough to delay the assault" said Liz via Skype. She and her sister returned to their home due to the resumption of school, but they promised (and delivered on) weekly video sessions with the Arendelle royalty. "I would have thought they would've attacked right away!"

Meanwhile, plans for a full-out celebration proceeded apace. Celebrating what, exactly, nobody knew. However, it was apparent the only thing that could generate more hyper children than "Frozen" in a theater was "Frozen: As Real as It Gets." Pundits remarked it would make an interesting chapter in history textbooks—tens of millions of dollars, official government resources, and international cooperation to throw what amounted to a children's party. But the "love theory" gained widespread support, so as crazy as it seemed, few objected beyond the usual noisy elements predicting the end of the world.

"Even in this world, people are afraid of what they don't understand" said Anna on international TV. "If you can cure the pox, keep food cold forever, and your women wear trousers but Elsa's ice powers escape explanation, well, I don't know what to tell ya!"

A worldwide lottery allocated tickets to the event. It would, aside from random chance, be free from the usual celebrity fixtures of such galas—the stars were Anna, Elsa, and the children who adored them. Accommodating five thousand youngsters and the parents who herded them involved more than just logistics, security, too had to be considered. In scenes reminiscent of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," more than one ticket-holder found themselves subjected to harassment, bribe offers, and threats if they did not surrender their pass.

Several of these menaces found their possessions encased in blocks of ice. Nobody had any comment.

Finally, the day arrived. "Frozen: As Real as It Gets" would be a marathon of a gathering, though not for the typical reasons. Instead of dignitaries giving speeches while everyone stole glances at smartphones for the time, the event would open with a snowball fight. Plans to have Olaf greet guests were shelved when it was pointed out this could cause a massive bottleneck at the gate. Instead, he would be found inside, along with a tiara-wearing Marshmallow. After telling Elsa how many children would be present, the flustered Queen asked if she should create more identical snowmen.

"Eh, I wouldn't do that" advised one event planner. "Thing about kids, especially when one of their fantasies comes to life like this, is part of the experience arises from the uniqueness. You don't want them fighting over the 'real' Olaf, do you?"

Neither Elsa nor Anna had any significant experience dealing with children, so they deferred, but Elsa did create snow steeds instead ("Good idea, how else are we supposed to keep hundreds of children from mobbing us?"). Between the ice rink, snow-horse track, ice castle, Marshmallow rides, Frozen-themed food (one of the few things Elsa had very little to do with), and Frozen makeup sessions (Anna eagerly helped out), it was hoped that whatever magic brought the two here might be reversed.

As the snowball exchange ended and other activities began, Elsa and Anna mingled among their guests. It was rather difficult to handle children snapping from climbing all over them and asking for more snow to becoming teary-eyed upon being told "No sweetie, you can't have Elsa/Anna/both all to yourself."

Highlights included a long train of children pulled across ice by snow-jet, Anna disappearing under a pile of excited fans after tripping on said rink (which caused an even larger pileup), and Elsa confusing everyone at hide-and-seek.

"My older brother is jealous" piped up one youngster. The sisters shared a quick confused look—most of those they'd observed obsessing over them had been female. "He says not to worry about cooties anymore."

Anna explained the concept to Elsa, who didn't understand it.

"What makes us so interesting?"

Such questioning from the snow queen drew responses from parents. Sure, they'd been told by about every kid that the fantastical was "cool," "amazing" or "awesome" but that didn't explain the few adults who seemed to have as much enthusiasm as those twenty or more years younger. Again, Anna took the lead due to having been better versed in the world the pair found themselves in.

"Well. The role of women has certainly changed in this society. You don't have to be Queen or a royal to earn respect."

Elsa nodded approvingly. Still, despite agreeing with what Anna had to say, she wasn't about to ignore the lengthening line for her latest snow-slides.

The pair eventually moved up to the ice castle's balcony. Castle tours were being offered, though plans to show the movie itself on the main level were scrapped due to not having enough space and the simple fact that most audio-visual equipment would not tolerate the conditions within.

"There's really not much to see in here, is there?" asked Anna. "It's beautiful, but…where would you eat? Where would you sleep?"

Elsa laughed.

"Anna, next time you leave everything behind and start singing to yourself, maybe you can come up with something a little more functional! Besides, I think they're enjoying the ice rink…"

A crash startled both sisters. Several more caused them to look down—the castle's base began to splinter. Dark round objects lay in the wreckage.

"I thought we scared them off!" cried Anna.

Elsa didn't speak. There was a whole crowd ready to come up, and if the structure tipped they would be endangered. A blast of ice shored up the tilting upper level as she took Anna's advice, eschewing form for function. Black sails could be seen in the harbor, and the flashes made obvious what was happening. A frightening snarl crossed the Queen's face as she redirected what were pleasant flurries meant for the event into a tidal wave of ice that flowed out into the harbor.

Later analysis would blame high-tech systems that missed low-tech attacks: radar cross sections of wooden and cloth ships were not generally something any modern navy concerned itself with. While the pirates on Weselton's payroll were not privy to this, they didn't have to be to take advantage of the discrepancy as sail-powered ships that turned tail at the sight of a supercarrier stealthily snuck back around while the battle group's advanced defensive systems built around the notion of spotting threats hundreds of miles away due to radar returns ignored them.

"Elsa!"

"What, Anna? What would you have me do? If defending myself makes me a monster, then so be it!"

"No, no, I just… I've never seen anything like that before!"

Elsa fell silent in response.

"Look, if someone does something to you, oh, like trying to leave you to freeze to death, punching them in the face is perfectly justified! I mean, who shoots at kids? They're the real monsters!"

A second commotion. Where all the horsemen charging overland came from, Elsa could only guess. Anna's gushing yet again came in too early—these "advanced" people who according to Anna had some pretty fantastical abilities apparently missed some very obvious (to Elsa) things. It didn't take much "discouragement" to cause a rout by panicking the horses. No need to (deliberately) injure; dismounted soldiers not geared to fight on foot did not an effective assault force make. She smirked while raising a stampede of snow-equines. Not only would they be denied their own mounts, but icy horses covered in spikes made for further incentive to leave.

"Oops."

Anna gave her a strange look.

"I didn't mean to put huge spikes on the horses…"

"And I'm sure they didn't mean to attack a gathering full of children. I distinctly remember the last time you were confused and scared, you turned this whole place red, or so you told me anyway."

Satisfied that attacks would come neither by land nor by sea (air remained impossible), the sisters turned their attention back to festivities. This included trying to participate in as many things as was humanely possible while greeting as many of the kids as practicality permitted. A few unwise parents failed to heed the large "NO TECHNOLOGY PAST THIS POINT" signs and lost their devices as a result—no Instagramming or Facebooking would occur, no matter how fast the skating, how authentic the winter steeds, or how clumsily amusing Anna tended to be on ice skates.

"It's as if the magic doesn't want to be recorded!" complained one.

That it took supernaturally-induced events to get some children to pay attention to reality at length was not lost on other parents. Afterward, a small trend of "de-digitizing" was noted in the news.

As the chorus of "Let It Go" built, a crescendo of the final part of a lengthy day, the only record of this peaceful gathering would ironically arise from military-grade cameras able to record the visuals at a distance. Said sensors were able to pick up on a huge snowflake reminiscent of the movie itself as the song progressed. High-definition sensors captured a huge flash; the snowflake fragmented into one last snowfall as everything reset in the blink of an eye.

Children on the ice rink found themselves again wearing shoes. The rink itself vanished. A few interested in the ice palace blinked and their elevation changed from around two hundred feet above ground level to ground level. No trace of Arendelle or its two opponents could be found anywhere, not a scrap of cloth or flake of snow.