The Tale of the Frozen Vagrant

## Background

The Tale of the Frozen Vagrant is a myth in the Face of God universe and is treated as a Christmas fairy tale similar to the Krampus.

The character in the story is a real person in-world, Amos Hemmingway, who was an investment banker in England who was born in the early 20th century.

## Myth

The Frozen Vagrant is a legend in the Face of God Universe about a man who lives in the 1970's who walks around the late winter nights when it's snowing outside and in heavy blizzard and murders people the night before Christmas. The story started as a myth, but turned into an edited version that is more of an American urban myth.

The man is seen to be white and have a beard, but the white is attributed to the snow in his beard. According to the story, he is doing this because he's experimenting with how the human soul responds to his ability to manipulate matter--he's trying to see if he can manipulate the soul or spiritual world too. So when he kills people, he tortures them to get a different response and tries to manipulate or observe these emotional responses. When he kills them, he disintegrates the bodies into photons. Thus he leaves no trail, though being human, he sometimes misses blood or other evidence.

The Vagrant also has a trick that allows him to appear as different people to specific eyes, while appearing in normal form to others. He does this by taking off or putting on a layer of his clothing, for example, removing an outer coat or putting his hat on.

He has no need to eat or sleep, but has a "burning desire," according to the story that keeps him walking constantly across countries.

In the Face of God story itself, since this character is Amos, the reason he doesn't need to eat or sleep is because he can basically live off of photon energy.

*Author Notes:*

Amos Hemmingway's story is about getting rich by manipulating matter and winning in the stock market. I think his story will be about the satisfaction of real work vs. winning in any way possible. Because he can manipulate matter, he's able to have advantages over others, but he will see that there's a pointlessness to winning without an equal challenge--but better yet there will be an arch nemesis or challenge.

## Plot Within the FOG Story (Possible)

***As with all sections labeled with the [possible] descriptor, the concepts in this section may or may not be included in the final story***

### Thomas Meets Amos

Somewhere amongst the plot of Gems, Silence, and All Is Silent (basically as the story gets around the midpoint), Amos reveals himself.

Walking across a cold desert, he comes to an abode with a man that offers him soup and shelter, while they talk about an event in a nearby town that keys him off to something he needs. Just as he gets up to leave, an officer comes to the door looking for Amos.

The owner of the house answers and Amos puts his winter clothes back on, which refers to the myth that allows him to change his appearance. He appears to the cop as a sexy hooker, but the owner of the house sees him as the same older man.

Basically Amos gets out and gets close to the cop and stabs him in the neck with a knife from the man's house. Then he leaves.

In the next scene, we are shown Thomas Manns, who has now come back into society after hiding and is famous. He's been offered work back at another therapy practice, but doesn't know if he wants to go back. As he opens his town house door, a kid about ten stares at him. He asks if he's Thomas, and asks for an autograph.

He quickly signs, and Thomas realizes he has some kind of disability, and the boy says he wants to help people like Thomas did. Thomas thinks back to the firm he bankrupted and other things he did that he feels guilty about, gets up and goes in the house.

His girlfriend has prepared dinner, and they are relatively new in their relationship. They talk about casual things until the conversation shifts to a subtext regarding Thomas' guilt, and results in an argument. When the two come back together that night or later, Thomas explains the story of how his grandmother affected him--he was close to her--how she trusted Thomas etc. and how that trust put in him helped him to find himself and his career path. He explains what he did, revealing some of his dark acts, including how he failed so many disabled patients, particularly children, by bankrupting a firm connected to several practices, and thus explains the nature of their argument. Contrary to expectation, his girlfriend appreciates he told this dark truth and they come closer.

The next day, Thomas goes on a daily bike ride, but is knocked off the bike and goes unconscious. To make a long story short, Amos apprehends Thomas, tells him who he is, and explains some things. Various other people get involved.

Although not related, it's worth staying here that Thomas's relationship with his new girlfriend climaxes when he reveals that he doesn't love her, but is nurturing her because she herself has a disability, and it's a way to rid his guilt, while also reminding him of old times and possibly even of his other lover Rachel Hargood, who has a speech disability. His emotions are mixed and complex, but basically he explains he finds it hard to love and the only person he ever loved was his grandmother; this detail of Thomas's character is still in development but the general idea is that he is an emotionally mixed and a challenged character. This story event could happen right after the story about his grandmother, or perhaps at a later point.

### Ava and the Vagrant

At this point in the story, Ava Sanchez, Rose's younger sister, is about seven. One plot idea surrounding a Christmas theme is to sort of present a lonely Christmas/hometown Christmas theme that shows Ava's life with other characters in it, and capitalizes on the Frozen Vagrant myth. Eventually, Ava would be shown to have some connection to Amos; the picture here is that Amos is the frozen vagrant, and Ava has the Fire of God trait. On a side note, the author has an idea to put a Christmas scene in every book as an easter egg; so far this is only concrete in the book *Heart.*

## Comparisons and Inspiration

The Frozen Vagrant is comparable to the Yule Man, specifically the Yule Man legend described on the SCP website or the Wendigo due to his silent approach. Another real life inspiration for this story is the Hinterkaifek muders, which ocurred in 1922 in Germany--basically connecting the rural and remote aesthetic of the story to the real life event of the murders.