#Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel

[kanerallels]

Top 6 Reasons You Should Read the Tyme trilogy by Megan Morrison

Reread a fantasy series I love and appreciate, so now it's time for you guys to love and appreciate it too

It's a fairy tale retelling series. Which is always an endorsement in my mind, but here are some more reasons that's great in this series. The takes on the fairy tales are so cool and refreshing, and well executed-- Cinderella fighting for the working class, the Frog Prince going through a redemption arc where he becomes a better person, and the absolutely shaped storyline that Rapunzel has. And most of them (particularly books one and three) combine multiple fairy tales in such a smooth, natural way.

The world building is INCREDIBLE. The tiny details and the way the different countries are introduced are so cool!! And they really go into smaller details, like the main exports that keep the country going, or the traditions of each country when it comes to dealing with loss. The magic systems are SO COOL, too!!

The characters are all really well done-- they're beautifully developed, both as characters and their relationships with each other. Syrah (main character of book three) has one of the best redemption styles arcs I've ever seen where he goes from unlikeable jerk to a caring, kind individual. Even the villains have well thought out motivations and in depth backstories

The romances in each of the three books are PERFECT because you have a slow burn, a couple that get together in the same book but help each other grow in powerful ways, and a book where the main character doesn't get the girl. The trope breaking! The following of the tropes but in just the perfect way! The level to which I am obsessed with Jack and Rapunzel! It's INSANE

All of the books and their stories are deeply intwined. There are cameos and small details in each book that lead you back to the other three, details that pop out and blow your mind at a reread or even the first time around!

It's really funny and charming and delightful writing. And There are these fascinating implications of other stuff going on in the world you're reading about-- stuff that we'll probably never find out about, since the last book was released in 2019 and there's no sign of another, which is really sad

Anyways, this is a super good series, you won't regret it if you read it! Oh my stars and I didn't even mention SERGE MY BELOVED FAVORITE CHARACTER FOR SURE THE FAIRY GODFATHER LEGEND HIMSELF listen just. read this series. Good talk

[theviolettulip]

Yesterday was awesome.

Why, you may ask?

Because I spent 11 & a half hours binging one of my childhood book series - The Tyme Series. And today, I (unfortunately) concluded my binge.

So. Let's talk about it~

Starting with "Grounded", here are some of my thoughts/feelings in no guaranteed order, tho ill try to be chronological:

OH MY GOD SO MANY HINTS!!! I already knew I'd enjoy this reread cuz of how CONNECTED these books are, so I'll have fun noticing the hints & foreshadowing, and BOY DID I! I can't count how many times I struck the guy & butterfly meme pose and was like, "is this foreshadowing?" ESPECIALLY with the way Witch spoke to Rapunzel in the beginning & Prince Frog's actions

Rapunzel's....not UNPLEASANT, per se, I actually still liked her and felt sorry for her, but in the beginning she's just really brainwashed and does and says....unpleasant things

When Jack showed up I got SO EXCITED!! Also when he goes "I literally told you yesterday--" and gets cut off, I actually squealed and took a sec cuz AHHHHH I LOVE THIS SERIES AND PLOT SO MUCH!! her memory loss plotline is soooo good. BUT! I'm glad she doesn't forget Jack any more times

They did NOT like each other at first, not at ALL! XD Rapunzel 's insults are soooo amusing, but poor Jack!

Also poor Red Fairies....come ON, Rapunzel! You don't just say "I wish your mate died" to somebody!!

You know how years after you've read smth, certain moments & details remain in your mind? One of those for me was the scene where R&J are talking about killed vs died & just death in general. I absolutely ADORE Morrison's world building!! About the countries and beliefs and stuff!

The amount of CONNECTIONS Rapunzel makes throughout the books are quite....astounding! And numerous. And she makes them everywhere she goes, without intention! (Reminds me of Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece ngl)

Ngl throughout the whole jacks tournament I was shouting "GO RAPUNZEL! KICK THEIR BUTTS!!!" And she really showed her! Tho I feel kinda bad for the woman who lost, cuz she thought Raps was mocking her when she was being /gen

SERGE! SERGE SERGE SERGE SERGE!!1!!!1!

However it pains me to say that this wasn't my reaction when Raps met him cuz I...MAY have forgotten most things about Serge beside the fact that he's Ella's godfather. Still, he was sooooo cool & awesome & I love him! (Can't WAIT to gush about him (and Jasper. yes, get angry at me and expel me to the void, i deserve it cUZ I FORGOT JASPER EVEN EXISTED!!! 😭😭😭)

Not Rapunzel later getting interviewed and ending up just gushing about her boots for half the article XD

...I am sooooo glad Rapunzel is Rapunzel and not Charlotte, I know WAAAAY too many Charlottes!

I think this might make me a bit evil but I just ADORE grieving scenes when the death is fake! And sometimes when it's real....it's just that real emotions...I really like them. So when Jack is just despiration to save Rapunzel after she gets swallowed by a tree, I could FEEL the sorrow and despair and that made me ache and also fangirl a bit because they CARE about each other!! 🥹

OH just remembered, BRUH. When Prince Frog "died" I was like -_- cuz he's just hibernating, and I thought Jack would at least know that frogs hibernate in cold weathers! and Raps using that life-breather thing that Rune gave her, OH MY GOD I just realized! It's like Tangeled's Rapunzel's magic healing hair! And then she loses the power or uses it up, like in Grounded, and because of that they can't save their partners, both of which were injured by Gothel/Witch!! =(

Another moment that remembered well and was anticipating was Rapunzel & Witch's deal and questionaire situation. And I kid you not, I legitimately started crying. Not tearing up, CRYING! And I was hastily wiping off tears so I can keep reading. That last question was the straw the broke the camel's back--

"Do you love me?"

🥺😭

and then Envearia telling rapunzel to go get water so she can die OH MY GOD THE TEARS KEPT ON COMING!!

I think my foreknowledge added another layer to my experience. That, and my more kowledgable and experienced brain. Cuz this? This whole situation? SO. FRICKING. NUANCED! Rapunzel, she understands, truly she does, all the pain and suffering Envearia has caused, but she's still her mother. She raised her and loved her, loved her so much she did the thing she was afraid of the most. Die for her sake.

I was SO glad White didn't collect her. I would've been so pained ='(

On a lighter note, Raps's fam & Jack's fam being next door neighbors? Why is that THE cutest thing EVERRR. Just THINK of the fanfic possibilites! Of them becoming one big close fam so that when R&J tell them theyre together they'd be BEYOND excited! Plus you just KNOW Rapunzel's gram & Tess are invested in R&J, you just know it!

Anyhoo, that is Grounded's bullet list, and I was going to do the other two books here too but I am tired and I think it might be too long. I'll make them their own seperate lists, maybe just one if they aren't too long. (They'll be too long.)

OH! One last thing, do any of you know Rapunzel & Jack's ages? I don't remember them being outright stated in the books.

I *think* Rapunzel is 16ish, and Jack's probably her age. I think. Please correct me. I also have the same wonderings about Dash & Ella. I think they're 15. R&J are definitely at least a year older, but I think maybe a couple years makes more sense, so if D&E are 15 then I think R&J are 17.

Luckily, I know that Syrah is 15 cuz he says he was 13 when he kissed Deli and then a year passed and then another year passed, so he's 15. BUT he said once that he thought of Raps as his younger sis (which is ADORABLE and so sweet but I will get into that more when I talk about Transformed), but I don't think that necessarily means she's younger than him, just that she's more...childish and naive, and he's more experienced so it would make more sense for him to be the older sibling.

....I think I might be overthinking this. If you guys know anything, or have any better speculations or any at all, do tell! I'd LOVE to chat with anyone who has read this series! Questions & Comments are very welcome.

[pansy-picnics]

a fairly old doodle i just realized i never posted here. family :3

[ognimdo2002]

Giant Ground Sloth (Megatherium americanum) – Furry Tank

Megatherium (/mɛɡəˈθɪəriəm/ meg-ə-THEER-ee-əm; from Greek méga (μέγα) 'great' + theríon (θηρίον) 'beast') is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Late Pleistocene.

It is best known for the elephant-sized type species Megatherium americanum, primarily known from the Pampas, but ranging southwards to northernmost Patagonia and northwards to southern Bolivia during the late Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene.

[internetgiraffekid1673]

YES I AM STILL DOING OC-TOBER! I DON'T CARE THAT IT'S MID-NOVEMBER, I'MMA FINISH THIS DAMMIT!

By the way. Remember when I told you I did prompt 21 last time? Yeah that was a lie, that was prompt 20. TODAY is prompt 21, draw your OC with your favorite character

I have a lot of favorite characters from a lot of favorite medias, but I have firmly decided that my favorite book of all time is Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison. It's the second book in a series, and it is SOOOOOOOO good.

Anyway, my favorite character from that book is the blue fairy Serge. He's a fashionable model of professionalism who is waiting for his asshole boss to retire so that he can fix the fairy-godparenting business to help children in need instead of just rich brats. All of his carefully laid plans are abruptly hijacked when he gets an apprentice in Jasper, the crimson fairy who RADIATES dramatic theatre kid energy. I refuse to spoil anything else though.

In the Land of Tyme (the world where this book is set), witches are created by selling their souls to the Great White Fairy in the Sky (who's an asshole, but not explicitly a satanic allegory). To maintain their lives and powers, they have to consume innocence, usually accomplished by eating children. Witch and fairy magic do NOT mix, don't play nice with each other, repel each other, and make the users of both physically weakened and ill. It's like poison.

While Hazel's done some heinous stuff, she's not a cannibal, and she only preys on other evil people. Serge has no way of knowing this, and would be absolutely horrified in a number of ways if he met a child witch, while Hazel would just be confused.

Everybody go read The Land of Tyme series by Megan Morrison, it's been intricately worldbuilt to a degree that I would actually describe the books as lessons on civics, ethics, and politics disguised as fractured fairytales. They're REALLY REALLY good. Anyway.

[bee-snail]

Moonrise Rapunzel would be an incredible firefighter.

[artist-issues]

I Saw Wish

And it was the worst animated Disney movie I’ve ever seen. I have to watch it again before I can get into the nitty gritty details. But I don’t need details to sum it up, because my dad actually said it perfectly as we left the theater:

“It was like someone who didn’t really understand Disney movies tried to make a Disney movie.”

Both the form (the technical arts of filmmaking) and the content (the morals, values, and themes of the movie) were totally horrible.

I don’t know who’s fault it was. Jeremy Spears was in the storyboard room and Mark Henn and Eric Goldberg did some 2D animation. But they must have gotten outvoted, or they must not care anymore.

Because holy cow. Here’s some stuff that’s just off the top of my head.

SPOILERS. Not that it matters, because nothing interesting happens in this movie.

The writing? Terrible. Ninety percent of it feels like the characters are filling time with quirky one-liners that are trying too hard to be appealing, then failing, then taking you out of the movie. The jokes aren’t funny. The characters just respond to each other in conversation to check a one-liner box. The other twenty percent is whole conversations repeating tell-don’t-show exposition that has already been covered, usually twice, in previous scenes. Like if in Tangled, every scene had included some variation of Rapunzel saying to friends and enemies alike, “I have to see the floating lights so I’m sneaking to the castle with this thief who wants a mysterious tiara I hid from him. Don’t tell my mother, she’s a bit overprotective!” Over. And over. And over.

The character motivations are way too broad. Asha? Her dream is just “that everybody around me gets to be happy.” That’s it, in a nutshell. No deeper exploration of that. Nobody asks, “why do you care so much?” Nobody tries to convince her she should look out for herself, and then she proves she was right all along. The King? We are told (not shown) that he doesn’t want anyone else’s dreams to be “destroyed.” But he in no believable way expresses that that motivation is still what’s driving him during the movie—what’s driving him is just a plain old lust for power, no nuance.

By the way, the whole premise of the movie? Undercooked. Half-baked concepts strung together with no definitive meaning. Therefore, it’s not believable. Example: The characters act like the wishes are beautiful—well, actually, no, this movie doesn’t know how to show, so there’s not a lot of meaningful acting—the characters just tell us that wishes are “the most beautiful part of someone,” and that’s why it’s worth going through this adventure to give their wishes back to them. But there’s no proof of that in the movie. In fact, it directly kicks it’s own legs out from under that idea, because it has every character who gives up their wish forget that part of themselves. Asha’s grandfather has forgotten his wish, but that doesn’t make him any less “beautiful.” She, and everyone, still treats him like he’s this wonderful old man who deserves the world, who everyone loves…but why is he so appealing? If he “gave up the most beautiful part of him?” The only character who is changed by their lack-of-wish is the Sleepy-analogue character…who is just sleepy, which is described as “boring.” But nobody else who’s given up their wish in the whole kingdom acts like that. It’s just him. Also, the King acts like it’s so important to protect the wishes from destruction. But what does destroying a wish look like? That actually happens to Asha’s mom. Her wish-bubble is broken, literally, and she just says she feels grief. But like. Why? She never remembered it in the first place; it had been missing from her life for years. Also, what the heck is a wish?! It seems to range from broad concepts like “inspire people” to “fly.” Just “fly,” like a bird. The desire to levitate off the ground is the most important, beautiful essence of one background character. Like, what?! But no character ever has the why behind their wish to make us care.

I could go on and on about that point. Like, think about Disney movies that wrote the book on how to make movies about characters with wishes. If Ariel were in Wish, her bubble would look like “dancing and learning and exploring on the Surface with someone who understands her.” But we believe that that is her real, genuine wish, and that it matters to her, because we are shown why being understood is so important to her. Because it’s missing from her life. There’s a scene where she explores a boat alone, and even her best friend doesn’t get excited about it with her. Her dad won’t listen to her point of view. Her siblings don’t ask her about her life even when they think she’s in love. She wants what she wants because of pieces of her life that we are shown.

We are never shown why Asha’s grandfather is obsessed with inspiring people, so we have no reason to believe it, or care whether he gets it or not. We can’t feel disappointed when his wish is said to “never come true,” like we did when Quasimodo was abused by the people he wished to join. We can’t feel elated when he finally “gets” his wish, like we did when Simba smiles on Pride Rock remembering the same way he used to as a cub and claims the crown with a roar. We don’t have anything to hang on to, nothing to relate to, nothing to grasp and feel with the characters. So we don’t feel, because they didn’t put the work in to help us feel. They just say, “the mom’s feeling grief. Feel grief.” And expect us to do the work ourselves. I have to stop harping on this point and move on.

But The main point of the movie is very broad because of that lazy premise, and it’s barely reinforced by any kind of appealing storytelling. If I had to guess, the point would be “Keep wishing for more even when it’s hard.” But the story they told to communicate that meaning was so unimpactful. Asha doesn’t have a dream of her own that’s such hard work to accomplish! (Neither does her grandfather; his wish is “to inspire people.” And at the end, we’re supposed to see him strumming a guitar and believe it’s inspiring? We were never shown how he worked hard to learn how to play the instrument. Or that he carved it with his own hands, or anything like that. So there’s no meaningful demonstration of working hard for it or achieving your wish even if it’s far out of reach.) And nobody except the king is trying to take wishes away from anyone, and he just does it literally, after they voluntarily give them to him, so there’s not even any impactful demonstration of “don’t let anyone tell you your wishes are dumb or unachievable, or stop you from reaching them.” Even when he takes them away, it’s just because they…could, someday, be used to threaten his kingdom in a vague, really unlikely way. There are so many things you could do with “keep wishing for more even when it’s hard.” For instance; you could say the main character has always been afraid to dream (wish for more), because maybe when she was a kid something wonderful almost happened but ended in tragedy, so she keeps her head down and doesn’t want much because if you don’t dream you’ll never be disappointed. She takes no risks, and has to learn that sometimes trying and failing is worth more than slogging through life all self-protective. I mean, the pieces were right there. She has this line about her dad, and how she wished he would get better but then he died. She has lines about how nobody should have to live with grief?? Then that’s never addressed again! It’s just a throwaway emotion-moment with no buildup or follow-through to tie it to and support that main theme.

The compositions of too many shots were so terrible. Characters got cut off in weird places. One shot has Asha dead center, with her grandfather on the left side of the table and her mother on the right, having a family dinner with a super exposition-heavy conversation that is meant to be emotionally charged. But despite everything else being perfectly centered, half of her mother’s body is chopped off. The movie’s shot like someone’s mom who doesn’t understand technology tried to take a video with her phone.

The charm of the art “style” wears off basically immediately. I know what they were going for. I see the sketch lines and watercolor textures. This is maybe the first time Disney ever failed to accomplish a visual “look” that turned out good. Everything looks dull. Muted. De-saturated. Slightly out of focus, but not in a cool Spider-Verse way. The sets or backgrounds are lazy; at no point does the scenery look complete; big, empty, boring spaces that do not create any kind of “stage” for impactful moments. The rendering looks unfinished. When Asha’s hair moves during her belting of the “I Make This Wish” song, it’s bad. It’s unnatural. It flops in a way that doesn’t make sense for the weight of her hair. The most impactful visual moments come from the villain, and they’re moments when he looks way too unhinged for the kind of line he’s saying.

There is no interesting character development. Asha goes from believing everyone is basically good and their wishes deserve the chance to come true , to….that, again. That would be fine, she could be a static character, if she proved contrast-characters wrong, in a believable way. But she never does. Because no other characters argue with her except the King. And it goes no deeper than “everyone’s wishes are basically good and they deserve the chance to make them true” vs. “nuh-uh, because I get to decide what makes them deserving.” The King doesn’t have any kind of interesting development, either. They don’t expand on his tragic backstory—it consists of one drawing of him near a broken boat, and a few images of the corner burned off of his family taoestry. They never say “King Magnifico wished for _____ and it was taken away!” They literally never tell you what his wish or dreams were, or what motivated him to create the whole kingdom that the movie’s premise sits on. So there’s no convincing sense of progression, how he got this way, why he’ll keep going “so far.”

The pacing is weird. It undercuts every moment that could have any kind of emotion behind it. One minute Valentino is suavely bouncing around, then he’s given a two-second beat to blubber with badly-animated tears that he’ll miss Star—then he instantly gets to have another funny one-liner so we forget he might’ve been sad a second ago. We’re clearly supposed to believe that the King and his wife are devoted to each other, and his turning evil was such a big betrayal, but there’s no time and no impactful evidence for us to believe either of those things. And even if we did, the moment he’s defeated and trapped in a mirror, and begs to be let free, the Queen kind of shrugs it off, makes a forgettable one-liner, and tells them to throw him in the dungeon. And he doesn’t look remorseful. And we don’t even get to assume he’s embarrassed or emotionally devastated that he’s come to this—because the last thing he says is “nooo, the dungeon is so smellyyy!” Like this is a half-baked LEGO short that can’t get emotionally deeper than what an actual 3 year-old’s parents might be okay with.

And that’s the worst offense: The movie is not genuine. It works hard for nothing, and it has no vulnerability. It just uses old Disney standbys to pretend to be vulnerable. Have the music swell and the characters gasp and the songs drip emotion when characters are meant to be saying or doing something emotional.

But truthfully, think of all the Disney movies you’ve ever seen with the hardest emotional moments. The sheer joy of Genie when he realizes he’s free. The anguish when Elsa thinks Anna’s been frozen forever, or when Anna thinks she’s dead. The trauma when Simba loses Mufasa. The longing and dreaming of Ariel when she reaches up out of her grotto. The sense of foreboding when Mother Gothel says “fine, now I’m the bad guy” or the heartbreak in Rapunzel’s eyes when she thinks Flynn has abandoned her, or the shame on Aladdin’s face when Jafar reveals he’s a street-rat, or the horror of cruelty when the stepsisters rip up Cinderella’s dress, or Kala’s tears when Tarzan leaves her in the treehouse, or Sarabi’s tears when Simba comes back, or Mulan’s father tossing aside the sword and token of the Emperor to embrace Mulan, or heck, even just Lilo pushing Stitch in the woods and telling him “get out of here.” This movie has no moments like that. It has moments you can tell that the filmmakers wanted to hit like that—but they don’t.

Because no work is put into building them up. You know how much Simba loves Mufasa, because you’ve been watching their chemistry more than any other character all the way up till he dies. You know how much Mulan wants to please her family because she spends all of Act I desperately attempting to do that. You know Quasimodo believes the world below is beautiful and wants them to accept him because he has interesting things like—talking to gargoyles, convincing us that he’s lonely; building a scale model of the townspeople, convincing us that he sees them in a beautiful way and wishes he were beautiful in more ways than one like them, too.

Right down to the facial expressions, none of them are as anguished, happy, sad, excited, silly, in any convincing way like all of Disney’s other movies. Asha’s “low moment” when she’s afraid her “wish” hurt everyone else (still vague on what that wish ever was) lasts two seconds, she’s not crying, she’s barely sitting with slumped shoulders, and her family barely spend two seconds comforting her. They basically just say, “aw, no, it’s not y fault, it’s the king’s.” And she’s like, “yeah okay” and that’s that. It’s like the animators we’re afraid to animate really intimate emotions on the characters’ faces. The voice actors, too.

And the whole movie is peppered with Easter eggs to past Disney movies. But all that does, if you really know Disney beyond the visuals, is make you think of how hollow this movie is in comparison. How much you wish you were watching Cinderella or The Little Mermaid or something with depth and vulnerability instead of Wish.

[slvt4felix]

♡ I See the Light ♡

Pairing -> lostprince!felix x thief!reader WC -> ~6,700 words Includes -> tangled!au, violence? (frying pan incident), reader is a criminal, fem!reader, lowkey abusive and manipulative "mother", kidnapping, magic, Bbokari as Pascal Summary -> After stealing a particularly precious item from the King and Queen, the royal guards push you deep into the woods during an exhilarating chase. You stumble across an interesting tower and start to climb, unaware of what you will come across once you reach the inside. Or rather, who you will come across and how this unique person will completely change the trajectory of your life. Author's Note -> I am like the biggest fan of Tangled. It's my all time favorite Disney movie. And when I think of Felix the first thing that comes to mind is sunshine and I feel like he is so Rapunzel coded. So yeah... don't mind that this fic is literally just all my favorite things combined. I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Also this was only supposed to be one part, but I'm slowly starting to realize I'm really bad at writing short stories... so this story will definitely be multiple parts!

Masterlist ♡ Next Part

You pant, desperately trying to catch your breath as your legs move faster than they ever have before. They are starting to ache, along with your feet, your lungs, and just about everywhere else. But you can't stop, not right now. Not with the heavy footsteps just a few feet behind you and horses loud in the distance.

You stole something. Well, technically you have stolen many things, but what can you say? You were an orphan and never given the chance to make money more nobly. And this time, the object was just something you couldn't pass up.

You keep running, eyes trained directly in front of you. You desperately want to look behind you to see how much time you have, see just how much danger you're in, but the adrenaline and fear have you locked in. You won't stop, won't glance back at the angry guards until you manage to get some headway.

Your boot-clad feet heavily trample the ground underneath you, damaging the delicate blades of grass and petals of flowers that seem to multiply by the second. If only you were able to look down, you would notice the nature changing subtly underneath you. The rocky area you were previously in changed into a thick forest, covered in clover and wildflower.

If you weren't in this situation, perhaps you would've taken the moment to admire it. To take in your surroundings, breathing in the beauty of nature. But again, now's not the time. Maybe one day you will have the ability to stop and smell the flowers, but today there are more important matters at hand.

You hear a twig snap behind you and an unsettling crash. You instantly realize it to be a branch in the path that you had just jumped over. Luckily enough, after years of training, running, and stealing you can navigate your way through many terrains if needed. However, it seems like the guards behind you weren't so lucky. You swiftly turn your head and find exactly what you expect. The two burly men who had been hot on your trail now lay on a pile on the grass as the distance grows between you and them. You chuckle a bit to yourself upon realizing they must have dropped like dominos, one tripping with the other landing right on top. At this point, you were thankful for anything that could make you laugh.

Looking back ahead of you, you zone back into your mission. Your body aching to take a breather. You take a sharp turn, long used to getting out of these situations. This route change leads you down a steep hill. You almost tumble all the way down, but thankfully your dark brown boots have enough traction on them to help you safely make your way down. You jump off the last little way because what's escaping without a little extra adventure.

Now being back on the soft flat grass, you take in your surroundings, analyzing to try to make the best choice. The guys weren't likely to stay down for too long, so you have to make a decision and fast. You don't have time to try to get ahead, they would catch up in no time.

You realize you have been running for a while to try to escape the men. You weren't keeping track, but this is about as far as you have ever made it outside the kingdom. Everything looks untouched, giving off the vibes that maybe you shouldn't be here. It's ethereal looking, yet a bit unsettling at how everything seems to be in perfect harmony. The branches on the trees sway harshly in the wind and feels as if you were the one to disturb the peace, your presence entirely unwelcome.

You shake off the thoughts and roll your shoulders a bit. This was not the time for superstitions or paranoia.

'Maybe if those stupid guards hadn't chased me for so long,' you think bitterly. But in reality, you know you can't hold it against them. It's just their job, just like this is yours. It's just the way it is.

Typically you would have everything completely planned out. Especially the escape route. But, there was really no way to prepare for this. You usually don't get caught soon enough to actually get chased.

Panic floods your body as you begin to hear angry voices again. You're running out of time. The goal today was not to go to prison. You sigh angrily realizing there really isn't any simple escape route this time around. Before your brain even processes it, your feet are moving on their own accord, simply in fight or flight mode. But, today seems to be your lucky day and nature seems to be on your side.

You glance behind you after a few steps noticing that the men still hadn't caught up enough for you to be in their vision. In this slight hesitation, your foot catches on a branch growing from the ground likely belonging to one of the beautiful weeping willow trees surrounding you. It appears that the trees have inhabited this place for ages, their roots buried deep into the group and long wispy branches that hide practically everything behind them.

You stumble forward, your arms unable to find anything to grasp. You land harshly on your knees, making you hiss out in pain. You were definitely going to be covered in grass stains after this.

You quickly gather yourself, standing to your feet taking in your new surroundings. You falter a bit, unsteady due to the weight of your backpack making you a bit unbalanced. You must have fallen through into a small cave. The willow's long branches came down to hang in the entrance, blocking anyone from seeing the small hideaway. You're surrounded by rough, cool stone. There's a noticeable temperature difference that provides relief to your damp skin. The sun was beating on you aggressively the whole run, but hey at least it was bright enough out to see in front of you. It was the only reason you were brave enough to do this in broad daylight. Although it was easier to slip away in the dark, sometimes the paths of the kingdom and the forest surrounding can get pretty difficult to navigate after dark.

You hear heavy footsteps coming from the area you had just narrowly managed to escape. They sound pretty scattered, your mind providing you with the image of multiple royal guards rushing into the serene environment. You almost giggle at the thought of them all dressed head to toe in golden armor. A large sun engrained in their chest plate.

You peek slightly through the covering, seeing exactly what you had imagined. They are searching the area hastily in hopes of finding any clues as to which way you went. They look like children playing dress up, some of their spartan-like helmets falling over their eyes when they turn their heads obviously not fitting them properly.

One stalks past the opening, startling you backward. You hold your breath in fear. They may look silly, but that doesn't diminish the fact that they could positively ruin your life if they manage to capture you. You make your way farther into the cave, expecting to run into a rock wall blocking you in. You had planned to just hide it out in here until it was safe to leave, but soon you realize there may be another way to go about it. It seems to not really be a cave like you had initially thought. Rather, it appeared to be a tunnel of some sort. As you continue to walk the light grows dim. Before you know it, you can no longer see more than 2 steps in front of you. You put your arms out trying to feel in front of you. It would suck to run face-first into solid rock.

You bite your lip gently, starting to grow a little nervous at the lack of light and ability to see what's ahead. But you just have to deal with it at this point, anything to put more distance between you and the angry guards.

Soon you spy a light at the end of the tunnel, opposite from where you entered. You no longer hear any yelling or stomping and it gives you hope that maybe on the other side, there would be no one searching for you. They surely would have made it there by now if they could find it, right?

You emerge from the tunnel, eyes squinting as the sun's bright rays abuse your eyes again. When you finally adjust to the new lighting, you look around in amazement. You were somehow in a completely new area, large mountains and hills blocking the place in. It was unlike anything you had ever seen before. You had thought where you had just come from looked untouched, but this right here was actual nature at its finest.

It wouldn't be hard to believe you were the first human to step foot here in ages, the area completely overgrown with plants and animals. Yet, there was one unavoidable thing that proved that theory wrong. Standing high amid the greenery was a tall tower. It appeared nearly ancient, the stone crumbling a bit with vines wrapping their way up the walls.

It's honestly mystical with a stunning waterfall coming from one of the mountains just beyond the tower, painting the scene with a light mist. You notice that as the sun hits the vapor just right it creates little mini rainbows.

"Woah" you whisper. You aren't usually the type of person to talk to yourself, mostly preferring to keep your thoughts in your mind, but at this moment it felt perfectly justified. You spin in a circle, trying to take everything in. You had never really seen anything like this, despite the beautiful architecture the kingdom was made up of. This felt like something out of a fairy tale. Which you were so not used to. You aren't typically the main character. More likely the shady best friend or the villain who never really lives up to their name.

For a minute, you feel like someone else. Like one of the beautiful girls in the books you read who end up with the loves of their lives. Or even the protagonist in a high fantasy novel. At this point, you honestly wouldn't be that surprised if a fairy with sparkling wings flew out in front of you. It didn't even really feel like real life.

You approach the tower, eager to explore what you have found. You make sure to carefully walk across the wood that appears to have been thrown over the stream haphazardly in an attempt at a bridge. It doesn't exactly look stable and you weren't looking to get wet. But it was the only way across and you just had to get a closer look.

Surprisingly, you make it across with no damage and you sigh in relief. The material of your outfit does not feel nice wet. You had learned that the hard way last time you had stolen something.

You scan the perimeter of the tower, shocked at the realization that there is no door. You double-check, a little put-off at the idea, and again find no door. Not even an opening or one that had been covered by the overgrown bushes and flowers that had taken over the landscape.

'Who makes a tower with no entrance?' you question, your stomach turning slightly beginning to get an eerie feeling. It was just a little… odd. But who were you to say how something should be built? You aren't exactly an architect. And maybe things were just built differently back then.

You knew it was ridiculous to try and justify something as weird as this, but you couldn't help your brain trying to connect the dots. But it just doesn't make sense. You take a few steps back, trying to figure out how to approach the situation. The lack of an entrance is disheartening as you were beginning to think maybe you could've stayed here for a while. There was no way you could go back to the villages of the kingdom right now. They would definitely be searching for you. And if you could find an easy way into this place, it would be a nice spot to hide out until everything cools down.

You spot windows near the top of the tower and suddenly you realize, the window directly above you is wide open. That is your chance. You feel around the stone bricks that make up the base of the building hoping you can catch your fingers in the cracks. You manage to get a little bit of a grip, but not much. There's no way you could make it all the way up there by just climbing. None of the rocks jut out enough.

You gasp out, an idea rushing into your head. You reach down where a leather sheath is strapped to your thigh. You carefully grab your dagger out. it was only one, but it could definitely help. You didn't like carrying a knife on you, but it did become really useful sometimes. You didn't use it much, especially not to hurt people. It's more of a just-in-case option. You bring the metal up to your eyes admiring how the afternoon sunlight reflects off it, the handle carefully engrained with beautiful roses.

You would be lying if you said it didn't kind of make you feel like a badass.

You lodge the dagger into the cracks and use it to try and pull yourself up a bit. It was definitely helpful as you thought. You kick your feet against the stone, hoping to find a decent push-off spot. With the traction on your shoes and your leather gloves protecting your hands both providing a bit of grip, this might actually be possible. And at this point, what exactly did you have to lose? It would be such a nice shelter to rest in for the night.

You carefully, make your way up the tower, thankful for the wood that occasionally wraps the bricks giving you a place to catch your breath.

Finally, you manage to make it to the top, your chest heaving slightly and your fingers burning from the pressure. In your haste to pull yourself up the last little bit of the wall and slide through the window, you fail to notice the soft noises coming from inside. There's some shuffling, but you brush it off assuming it's some animal that had also decided to make this place its shelter.

You throw your leg through the window taking a second to sit there and catch your breath. You're straddling the bit of wood framing the window, it's delicately carved and decorated with light purple flowers on the ledge. You take a mental note of them, hoping to admire them later once you're settled.

Deeming yourself steady enough, you pull your other leg through standing up in the large room. As much as you want to take everything in, you first slip your backpack off. Nervous that things had gotten jostled on the way up. You open the buckle and slip the top open. You set the bag gently on the ground, squatting next to it as you pull out a sparkling crown.

You sigh in relief that it was still there, it hadn't fallen out. There wasn't even a singular scratch on it. The feeling of the cool metal weighing heavy in your hands punches a sigh of relief from your lungs.

"Thank God," you whisper to yourself, breaking the gentle silence of the room you entered. You had stolen the crown. It’s why the royal guards were after you. You had entered the castle through the ceiling and stolen the crown, the guards just barely noticing as you were exiting. It was the most valued object in the whole kingdom. The importance of the crown is in how it is associated with the lost prince.

It was the most well-known story in the country and maybe even the whole world. Everyone had been so ecstatic. The Queen and King were having a baby. An heir to take over the throne when they grew old and gray. But, the Queen had grown increasingly sick as the pregnancy progressed. You had been just a baby when all this was happening, but over the years you have heard of the story many times. It was hard not to. It was everywhere you went.

Thankfully, the Queen recovered. They had found a magical flower that had the power to heal her. The baby came soon after and the whole kingdom rejoiced. They had a beautiful baby boy, with golden locks and soft skin. They released a bright lantern into the indigo sky in celebration.

However, everything went wrong that night. The new parents had heard their baby cry in the early hours of the morning but when they got there he was already gone. Never to be seen again. They still hold hope that maybe one day their baby will return home. Even going as far as to hold an annual festival for him and releasing hundreds of floating lanterns into the sky on his birthday. It was honestly a gorgeous sight.

You go to put the crown back into your bag, still nervous to get scratches or fingerprints on it. It was worth a lot of money. A deal you couldn’t pass up. Just as your fingers leave the smooth metal you hear a shuffling noise coming from your side. Your head shoots up looking to discover where the noise is coming from.

You're shocked at the sight that greets you. You stand up, nearly stumbling back at the surprise. There in front of you was… another human? How in the world had he gotten up here? You didn't hear anyone else climb up after you and it's hard to believe someone could do that silently. Did that mean they had already been here when you arrived? Why were they here?

So many questions flood your head that you barely have time to react as an object comes flying toward your head. You quickly duck down, just barely missing the dark metal by an inch. You pop back up, thankfully agile from all your years as a criminal. Once you regain your footing, your eyes take in the sight of a young man standing in front of you. He has probably the lightest blonde hair you have ever seen in your life paired with deep brown eyes. The sun shines on him, making him look as if he was the sun lighting up the room. You're a little taken aback at the sight of him. Typically you are pretty good at reading people, but it seems like you aren't exactly making the best choices today. He doesn't exactly look like the type to try to hit somebody over the head with a heavy frying pan, but here he is sanding with the weapon of choice in his right hand.

He stares back at you while standing in a nervous, defensive stance. But to be fair, you would also be feeling quite uncomfortable if you had tried to take someone's head off and somehow managed to miss.

The stare lasts longer than most people would deem necessary, silence yet again filling the large stone room. Yet, neither of you break it. You're still reeling in shock from the frying pan.

Finally, you gather yourself and question him. "Did you really just try to hit me with a frying pan?" you ask in disbelief. His eyes widen when you speak. He looks more shocked than you feel, which is really saying something. He looks as if he has never interacted with another human before. For a split second, you wonder if maybe you were being too harsh on him.

But before you can get another word in a call sounds from outside.

"Felix, my love, I'm home," a woman yells in the distance. The boy's, who you now assume to be Felix, head shoots to the window in a panic. He turns to you, now looking even more anxious than before.

"You have to go, you have to go like now. She will actually hurt you. Like with more than a frying pan," he whispers as he comes much closer, his voice a surprisingly gravelly tone. You can practically feel the vibrations of it on your skin and you're stunned for a moment, frozen in place. He grabs your wrist, not unkindly, and leads you to the back wall of the room. You watch him carefully as he proceeds to open the door to an armoire, making you wonder what exactly his plan is. He gestures inside and you simply stare at him struggling to comprehend the situation.

"I'm not hiding in your closet," you spit, slightly insulted he would even suggest that.

"Do you want to get killed?" He asks, his tone firmer this time. You can tell he's serious, and your hands start to shake upon realizing how urgent he sounds.

He continues on despite your silence, eager to get you to follow along. "Listen, I don't know who you are or why you're here, but this is really bad timing. I was going talk to her about something important and now... you're here," he starts sounding utterly defeated. He knows explaining the situation to a random stranger likely wasn't going to help, but he was still going to try.

"She doesn't normally listen to me and she definitely won't if she has to deal with you, so just please hide. Just until I can get her to leave. Then I guess I'll figure out what to do," he finishes with a sigh and stares back at you hopefully. You simply nod slowly a little stunned. Felix realizes this is the closest he'll probably get to agreeance and doesn't try to convince you any further.

He grabs your hand gently as you step into the closet, helping you stay stable in the crowded space. You're surrounded by clothes of every color, so many blues and pinks that if you squint hard enough you can practically imagine you're walking into cotton candy.

"Just stay quiet, I'll try to get her to go away," He states quietly. He nods at you reassuringly and it comforts you. You still feel very trapped, but you no longer feel as nervous, rather trusting the man to take care of it for you. You don't know why he hasn't freaked out at you yet, but if he was going to, it probably would've already happened. He shuts the door slowly, dimming the small space. You watch his figure until the last little bit of light can no longer slip through, shutting you off from the room you had just been in.

Thank God you're not claustrophobic.

Once the door is completely shut, you're unable to see anything aside from black for a while, your eyes refusing to adjust to the sudden darkness. However, you listen carefully to everything happening outside the armoire in hopes of getting a better read on everything happening.

You hear Felix shuffling around in the room, obviously cleaning things up and maybe even hiding things considering his fearful reaction to the women's yell. You can hear her shout again from outside, but you can no longer make out what she says. The wood is too thick to depict more than a murmur. But, Felix seems to have heard what she has said. The noises from the room get much louder and rushed. Before suddenly they stop.

You hold your breath in the quiet, anxiously waiting for what comes next.

Felix takes a deep breath, glancing around the room one last time to make sure everything is nice and clean. He had noticed your bag left by the window, the stolen crown peeking out. A little chick, whom Felix had named Bbokari had been poking around next to it making him laugh in adoration of the small creature. He must have hidden when you had broken in, scared of the stranger. But that was to be expected, considering every time mother arrived home, Felix would tell the small chick to hide, pushing him out of sight. Now, Mother wasn't mean or an animal abuser. She had never hurt Bbokari before, but Felix honestly did not want to take that chance. She wasn't exactly a fan of critters or any type of outsider making their way into her tower.

He gives the chick a tiny pat on the head with his index finger, the small bird tweeting happily, before curiously picking up the crown. It shined brightly, the sun catching on the metal as he picked it up.

What in the world? he thinks in confusion. Out of all the things Mother has brought home, this is definitely not something he's seen before. It does, however, remind him of the fairytales he had read as a kid before she had confiscated them in an angry fit. She didn't like when he read about that stuff. It had confused him greatly, as she had never really told him why. So, rather than reading about princesses he was often stuck with books about nature or fiction stories about romance.

The chick pecks at his foot, urgently, trying to remind him of the situation at hand. He snaps out of it quickly putting the crown back in the leather bag. He brings it over to the stairs in the corner. He peels back the one broken step, shoving the bag beneath it. Not even mother knew of this hiding spot. He had to hide the bag, she would ask way too many questions about where that came from. He knows that realistically he should be scared about a stranger practically breaking into the tower. But maybe there's a small part of him that wants to prove himself to his mother. Show her that he really can handle himself. He's turning 18 tomorrow and maybe just maybe now that he's old enough, she'll let him go.

He's had this dream since he was little, to see the floating lights. Every year, they appear on his birthday. Hundreds of bright yellow lights fill the sky, and he cannot seem to figure out why. Either way though, he can't help but feel like they're meant for him. And every year, without fail, he watches them. He looks forward to it all year round, waiting for the day he can see the floating lights gleam again. It's his dream to see them up close in person, but it's starting to seem like it may be simply that- just a dream. How silly of him to think it's something that could actually happen.

Mother becomes very angry anytime he asks to leave the tower, or simply mentions anything about the outside world, but he feels confident this time. She's definitely going to let him go; she has to right? It's his only hope.

"Darling, I'm not getting any younger down here," Mother Gothel yells, sounding exasperated. He quickly picks Bbokari up, hiding him on a ledge behind a curtain, giving him a loving smile before rushing to go help her up.

She had created this tower without a door, purposefully hoping to keep him as far away from the outside and other people as she could. And hell, he couldn't blame her. After all the stories she has told him, he's thankful he's never been exposed to the harshness of the world.

Felix jogs over the window, leaning over the edge, feeling the soft spring breeze blow through his hair.

"Coming Mother!" he yells, adding excitement to his voice. Despite his earlier nervousness, he can't help but be excited whenever she comes home. She often takes long trips, only coming home for days at a time. He'll take any sort of human interaction he can get.

Felix grabs the rope from the wall next to the window, swinging it over the hook hanging down. He throws the rope over, watching his Mother grab it harshly once it hits the ground. Since there is no door, they use a sort of pully system. There's a loop at the bottom of the rope that mother slips her foot into and she holds onto the rope as Felix pulls her the rest of the way up.

It was exhausting, but he's gotten used to it over the years. Luckily, he's gotten a lot stronger over the years. Especially since now that he's older she goes on her trips a lot more. Don't get him wrong, he's thankful, he really is as these trips usually involve getting food or gifts for Felix and her. However, the days can get lonely and fast. There's only so much cleaning, baking, painting, and singing a person can do. It's the reason the walls of the tower are completely covered in different paintings. Some have even been painted over multiple times; he ran out of space long ago. Being home alone for days on end without being able to go outside isn't exactly the dream life some people would think. But he gets it. There are reasons he can't go outside and he must abide to keep himself safe.

So, he pushes the anger and resentment deep inside, painting on his happiest face for her to come home to. He finishes pulling her up and wipes a bead of sweat from his face as she finally steps into the sun-lit room.

She walks over to his bed, placing down her basket and shawl before returning to him. She always looks a bit run down when she comes home, her hair a bit more grey, wrinkles on her forehead, and this haunted look in her eyes. Honestly, it's enough to make him never want to go outside.

The woman caresses Felix's cheek gently, looking into his eyes. He has always loved whenever she was gentle with him, providing love and care, but it's starting to becoming rarer with each passing day.

"Felix, I don't know how you manage to do that day after day, dear," She says softly with a bit of concern.

"It's nothing, Mother," he reassures her, despite how exhausting it truly is. She lets go of him, before he can even finish the sentence, her gaze scanning the rest of the room.

"You keep it so nice and clean in here, it's so nice for Mumsy to come home to," she says, always impressed by the things he manages to get done while she's away. Felix cringes a bit at the statement, knowing he had finished cleaning at barely 7:30 am. It truly was the easiest part of the day. Honestly, the hardest part is always the waiting. Waiting for someone, anyone, to talk to or really just anything to do.

Mother walks over to his mirror that stands near the wall. It's circular and nothing fancy, framed in wood, but she looks at it as if it holds all the answers to life, like it's the most important thing in the world. Sometimes Felix wonders if she loves the mirror more than she loves him, but he quickly pushes that thought down, not wanting it to sour his mood anymore than it already has.

He follows her over to the mirror watching in disdain as she examines her face. Lifting her eyebrows and wincing as the skin drops back down, wrinkled and droopy from her trip. She glances up at him, making eye contact through the reflective glass. In this moment, Felix decides he needs to ask her. He's been waiting all day, or really his whole life, and he really just needs to put it out there.

He opens his mouth ready to admit his dream to her, but he's quickly cut off.

"Felix, my love, would you sing for me?" she asks, and despite her trying to hide it, he can detect the desperation in her voice. He's learned to pick out even the slightest change of tone from her over the years.

Felix's eyes widen, almost comically. How could he have forgotten. It's always the first thing she asks for when she gets back. Of course, she would want him to sing for her. His plan is just going to have to wait for a few more minutes.

He nods repeatedly, rushing off again to grab all the necessary supplies. He places Mothers chair down in the center of the room, before grabbing his flimsy stool, setting it in front of the chair. He sits down quickly, trying to hurry the situation along despite knowing how mother likes to take her time during the process. Going too quickly can become a bit more shocking than refreshing, but today was not the time for relaxation.

Mother finally comes over and takes a seat in her usual chair. She grabs Felix's hands and he can only hope she doesn't feel how sweaty they are. He's so nervous about how the conversation is going to go.

His mind is racing as he opens his mouth to start singing. The words coming with ease, practically muscle memory now with how many times he has sang it for her.

"Flower gleam and glow," he starts, his low voice bouncing off the circular walls. He can see her instantly start to relax as his voice fills the room. It makes Felix feel a bit better, knowing how happy it makes her when he sings. As the song continues, he starts to speed up, again eager to get it over with. Mother's eyes open again in panic, wanting the feeling to last longer.

"Wait-" she starts to say, but Felix has already made it to the ending line. As the song comes to a close, Mother jolts forward practically turning into a new person. Her hair is back to it's usual shiny raven color, a new sense of life brimming from her eyes, and all the wrinkles immediately disappearing from her skin. She's young again, just like she likes to be. He can't blame her, who doesn't wish to be young again.

Normally at this time, Felix would compliment her or tell her how he finds her beautiful before and after, but this time there is something else weighing on his mind. He can only hope that the wood of the closet is thick enough and that he had managed to close the door all the way, knowing sometimes it wouldn't latch completely.

This is the last thing he wants you to find out about. He's terrified you'll turn out to be one of those ruffians and thugs Mother warns him about, wanting to steal him away and use him for his magic.

Oh yeah, Felix has this magical ability where he can heal people with just his touch and voice. He can easily make anyone young again and heal all kinds of wounds. It's why he's in this tower, locked away. It's to keep him safe. Mother doesn't want his power to end up in the wrong hands.

She looks down at Felix in disbelief, not understanding why he is acting this way. He stands up abruptly from the small stool, the same one he has sat in since he was a child, and starts to talk, unable to keep it in anymore.

"Mother, tomorrow is a very special day. Do you know what day it is?" he asks, mouth running a mile a minute. She stands up with him, grabbing his wrist lightly, trying to stop him from pacing around the room. All the energy is making her head spin.

He doesn't even wait a second to let her respond, before reminding her, "It's my birthday!"

"Ah ah ah," she starts, "I distinctly remember that your birthday was last year." Felix tries not to let himself physically deflate at this. She always loves to play games like this.

"That's the funny thing about birthdays, they happen every year," he says gently, not wanting to anger her.

"What is it you want this year? How about those muffins you really liked from that one bakery?" she says, figuring that's what this conversation was about.

"Actually, Mother I was thinking, maybe I could go see the floating lights?" he asks, "The one's that fill the sky every year on my birthday."

At this her gaze immediately darkens, and he realizes that he was right. It's only a dream. It's not something that could come true. He should have known better. She would never let him leave the tower. She's told him this so many times before.

Yet, he couldn't help but try. It's who he is. He's too hopeful and innocent for his own good.

"Felix, you know how I feel about you leaving the tower," she states, her voice a low tone. Felix suppresses a shiver, his body reacting anxiously.

"But Mother-" he starts, hoping to explain himself.

"No buts, they are just stars, Felix, nothing worth putting yourself in danger for," she says, using an argument he had thought of many times.

"They aren't though, I have charted every single star in that sky, and it just doesn't fit. I can't help but feel like they are meant for me."

"Felix, do not argue with me" she says, her volume rising drastically. He knows she can get worked up fast with sensitive topics, but he really wishes she would just listen to him.

"Don't ever ask to leave this tower again," she says sternly as her grip around his wrist tightens harshly. He winces, tears pooling in his eyes, but he doesn't let them fall.

'Don't cry,' he repeats desperately in his head. She would never take him seriously or believe he could handle himself if he cried in front of her.

"Yes, Mother" he says back quietly, knowing there is no use fighting with her. She pats him gently on the head, satisfied with his answer, before moving back over to her basket. She starts to put her things back in their rightful spots, unpacking after her trip.

"Mother-" Felix starts again only to stop as her head aggressively snaps towards him, anger evident on her face.

"Enough about the stars, Felix," she yells in disbelief. Felix shrinks back instinctually. That wasn't even what he was going to say.

"I was actually thinking maybe you could get me more of those special paints you got me a few years ago," he says timidly, trying to come up with something else that she would be more willing to comply with.

"That's a 3-day trip," she sighs out in annoyance.

"I just thought it would be a better idea than... you know," he explains.

"Alright, dear, are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I know I'm safe as long as I'm here," he says back knowing just what she wants to hear. Felix helps as she goes to repack up her stuff, preparing for the long trip ahead of her.

"I love you, my flower," Mother says before she leaves the tower again, climbing down the rope to the soft grass of the outside world.

"I love you more," he says back. It's his usual response, but this time the words feels heavy coming off his tongue, almost as if it doesn't really weigh as truthfully in his heart as it did this morning. Everything just feels wrong.

Bbokari steps out from behind the curtain, chirping at him loudly. It was surprising how loud such a tiny animal could be. Felix walks over to him, gently petting him.

"Everything's going to be okay," he says softly, unsure if he's truly assuring the chick or himself.

A loud snore startles him from the interaction. Bbokari turns his head cutely towards the closet where the noise came from.

Felix sighs bumping his head lightly on the wall above the ledge.

“I don’t want to handle that right,” he says with a chuckle. Bbokari just looks up at him adamantly and Felix knows exactly what the little bird is trying to say. He can’t just keep you in the closet.

Felix rolls his eyes playfully before heading over to the armoire to let you out. However, he does grab his frying pan on the way… just in case.

More parts coming soon!!

[urheartsamess]

grounded: the adventures of rapunzel, megan morrison

[tangledbea]

My Tangled/Bridgerton AU ideas that no one asked for

Rapunzel and Madame Gothel

The daughter of an extremely successful merchant (yes, she's getting a downgrade, can't just have princesses running around everywhere), Rapunzel's mother died in childbirth, and her father died of a broken heart shortly thereafter. Fortunately, the woman who was hired to be her nanny and governess was there to step in immediately, caring for the girl like she was her own.

Rapunzel is raised by Madame Gothel, who she calls Mamá, and is hidden from society for the majority of her life and carefully cultivated to be the Diamond of society upon her debut, which will raise her own status on the ton when they all see how flawless her “daughter” is. Rapunzel is beautiful, demure, regal, elegant, talented… everything a man could want as a prize. Now, if only Gothel could wed her off to royalty and secure her own status forever…

Before her debut, Rapunzel was rarely seen in public, though she could often be glimpsed in her window on the top floor of her house. When she was allowed out in public, she was made to wear wide-brimmed hats, keep her head down, and carry a parasol. Gothel wanted to prove she had a daughter while cultivating mystery about her, so that her debut would be a big reveal to the ton and the world. Because of this, Rapunzel was raised alone, without friends, though she spent a lot of her time in the window watching the people below. When they weren’t in London, they were at their country estate, Der Sonne Manor, with sprawling grounds and little staff, who were under severe threat to never speak of the girl when they happened to catch sight of her.

Though Rapunzel is barely interested in most of the men whose eye she catches, she knows her job is to catch a husband. Against Gothel’s desires, she wishes to find someone interested in her, and not just her beauty and status. She hates suppressing her entire personality and hiding her quirkier interests, but she does what she’s told, lest she risk her mother’s wrath.

Unbeknownst to Rapunzel, Gothel murdered her father when she was an infant after securing that she would have access to Rapunzel's inheritance in order to raise her properly. She took advantage of his broken heart, manipulating him to sign legal documentation before killing him. Though the exact cause of his death is not confirmed, there are those who speculate that Gothel had something to do with it.

Eugene Fitzherbert and King Edmund of Umbra

There was treachery afoot in Umbra when Eugene (Prince Horace) was but a baby. King Edmund sent his only child away for his own protection, but the trusted maid he sent him with was killed en route to a safe location. Suspecting she was being tracked down, she left the baby on a stoop. The people who lived there were unable to care for him, and so took him to the local orphanage, where he grew up under the name Eugene Fitzherbert, and never knowing his lineage.

Growing up poor, Eugene longed for a life of wealth and adventure, envious of the nobles who dallied in the richer parts of town. Knowing that there was little to no future for an orphan, he took to stealing and conning to give himself even a fraction of the life he wanted.

He became jaded over time, convinced that the world was hard and cruel, and that he'd never know anything else. And yet, when he was 25, he was abruptly rediscovered by his birth father, who announced his lineage and brought him back home to be the Crown Prince.

Eugene (who refuses to go by Horace) is at something of a loss. This is the life he has always wanted, and yet he has no idea how to actually live it.

Lance Strongbow

Lance grew up in the orphanage with Eugene, and they were best friends, learning to steal and con together. However, their paths diverged in their late teens, and while Lance didn't know what became of his friend, he set his own sights on being such a convincing conman that even the nobles wouldn't know the difference.

He slowly and gradually worked his way up in subtle ways, until he hatched his major plan. The Baron of Vardaros is a man who has not made a public appearance for decades. The last Lance heard, he'd made his way to America and was never coming back. And so, Lance took his name and title, and has begun passing himself off as the current Baron of Vardaros.

He is a rake, spending his time at the club with other men and enjoying the marriage season because he gets much attention from fawning young ladies who are hoping to catch a rich, titled husband. In truth, he gets a huge thrill out of knowing that he is a fraud, and that no one around him is any the wiser.

Little does he know, the true Baron of Vardaros is soon to catch wind of his identity theft, and will want his revenge.

[bestworstcase]

I'm curious to know how would you fix/rewrite Eugene and Cassandra's relationship dynamic in TTS, y'know give it some more dept.

…well

the less facetious answer is: like in canon except we don’t pretend that eugene isn’t kind of an asshole, and i have actual narrative plans for him that are not just “he’s…there” bfhrgjfjk

the dynamic they have with each other in canon is actually really interesting to me, because i think eugene truly does, by the end of s1, feel as if they’ve become close buddies in a she’s-like-a-sister-to-me way—whereas cassandra is at “well his asshole behavior has decreased very slightly and he’s the princess’s boyfriend so. i guess. i can tolerate him.”—and this disconnect exists because eugene really does not know how to interact with people in a way that is not 1. imitating the superficial charm and devil may care attitude of the fictional dashing rogue he based his entire personality on, 2. worshipping the ground rapunzel walks on, or 3. picking on anyone who isn’t impressed by the first option.

and then you have rapunzel and the abysmal burning dumpster fire that is “i learned all of my social skills from mother gothel and a chameleon and am now the second most powerful person in an absolute monarchy” trying to… mediate between her boyfriend (who is an asshole to everyone except her, and firmly believes that she can do no wrong) and her lady-in-waiting (who is not of noble birth and lives in constant fear of being sent to a convent should upset the king or her father, and whom the boyfriend constantly antagonizes) by going “but why can’t they be friends 🥺” because she literally, due to the circumstances of her upbringing and her power over cassandra, cannot see the problem that has everybody else in the vicinity going “dude 😬” at eugene.

like thats awesome. oh my god. it’s such a disaster! the narrative of tts is always sitting firmly in rapunzel’s point of view because: disney princess cartoon, so the train wreck of it all gets obfuscated and cass is at every turn framed as the unreasonable one, but if you’re willing to step away from that filter and just look at what eugene says and does and what cassandra says and does, there’s honestly a lot of meat on the bones as it is. and then the bitter snow approach is to just present that through a variety of POVs specifically to play with the contrast between what rapunzel sees vs what cassandra experiences.

[theficpusher]

These High Walls (Fly With Me) by FallingLikeThis | G | 3907 Harry is a kidnapped young man trapped in a tower, all his beautiful hair cut off because of the last time he tried to escape. He’s stopped wishing to be on the ground because he knows it’s impossible. Now, his head is in the clouds. If you’re going to want something impossible, why not wish for the stars instead, right? And somewhere far away on a distant star, a fairy hears his wish. A Rapunzel/Peter Pan au.

If Only We Wish Hard Enough by lululawrence | nr | 5353 Before Harry let Louis know he was there, he gave himself a moment to just admire him. Truly take him in. Today, Louis was wearing one of his soft, simple green dresses that in many ways resembled the ones fairies often wore. Harry loved when Louis wore dresses. They showed off Louis’ waist and thighs more than any of his other outfits, and Harry loved that about them. “You know I can hear your wings fluttering so you aren’t fooling anyone,” Louis said before turning and looking over his shoulder. Or the five times fic where Louis is Peter Pan, Harry is his best friend Tinkerbelle, and it takes them awhile but they figure things out.

A Lost Hope, Found | nr | 9231 When Harry was 17 he realised that maybe fairy tales aren't always make believe. He came to this conclusion when abruptly woke in the middle of the night to find a boy standing on his window ledge, offering his hand. His mum had always told him to never talk to strangers let alone run away with one, but there was just something about the way the boy was hovering off the ground, his blue eyes dazzling that made Harry's heart flutter and his hand stretch out until he was pulled out of the window and too was flying. featuring Louis not in tights, Niall as a fairy that radiates happiness and Liam and Zayn as lost boys who really need to learn that brotherhood does not mean kissing each other every two minutes.

Flying Without Drowning by starscries | T | 12690 Louis has lost a lot of his Lost Boys, he and Zayn are the only one remaining. A new mermaid has showed up in Neverland and Louis is kind of curious about him, even though he won't admit it.

everything you do is magic [series] by jamesnaill | G | 12877 Harry has seen Niall do pretty much everything. He’s seen him heal trees, mend broken hearts and teary faces of the children who don’t get what they wanted for Christmas. He’s seen him give all kind of pretty colors to flowers and butterflies. He’s seen him dumping an entire bag of fairy dust on top of a tiny bird who was learning how to fly. Just as he’s seen him dumping the same amount of fairy dust on Louis’ head when he finds him snooping and messing around at night, then blowing as hard as he can to make him fly far far away. It’s all been pretty funny. Most times beautiful, even if at times confusing. Always mesmerizing and amazing. He’s never seen him quite like this. - Or, a Peter Pan AU where Harry is Peter Pan and Niall is Tinkerbell, whose health keeps getting worse as people say they don't believe in fairies.

An Awfully Big Adventure by JayseHasNoGrace | M | 27075 The old Captain Hook is tired. Harry comes along, near death, having become horribly lost and been abandoned by his crew. Hook helps him, but informs him that it is now his job to become the next Captain Hook. Oh yes — and he almost forgets to mention the persistent boy who is the ringleader of the Lost Boys. He explains the 'rules': that Harry (as the new Captain Hook) has to continue the everlasting feud with Peter Pan. Although there have been a long line of similar looking Hooks, Harry apparently doesn't look quite similar enough, and Pan notices. However, Peter Pan's identity might not be quite so straightforward either.

The Pirate and The Piper by jacaranda_bloom | E | 38396 Banished from Neverland by Captain Hook and the evil Siren Minerva, Louis is forced to live in the Other World. He makes a life for himself, resigned to the fact he’s never going to see his beloved home and Lost Boys again. Five years later he’s kidnapped and returned to Neverland, only to discover a far worse fate awaits him. But with an unlikely ally by his side, can he overcome those who seek his demise and restore freedom to his homeland? Or the one where Harry is Hook, Louis is Pan, and nothing is what it seems.

into that goodnight by devilinmybrain | E | 62801 Once upon a time, there was a boy. But not just any sort of boy. This was a clever boy, the cleverest of them all.

[corpsebasil]

there's so personal about sir nikolai :')

Sir Nikolai Rapunzel AU where he starts off all nobility/duty (or seeking redemption?? Reward?? Pre-knighting Nikolai promised knighthood if he returns with the princess?) but you become friends over time only for the trappings of knight/princess to lock in once the adventure is over

this one’s gonna be LOOOOOOOOONG my friend

You’d been kidnapped almost a year ago by some no-good noble that wouldn’t take refusal for an answer. He hasn’t touched you, thank god, but he was delusional enough to think that locking you in a tower would win you over. Stockholm Syndrome? Really???

But you were treated fairly well inside your captivity. You had a gorgeous view, paints, dozens of books, fine clothing, and almost daily new foods and treats were brought to you by an unseen servant that simply left it inside of your room.

There was a door, you knew, in your room that led to the hall. To the stairs that you could escape out of. But you’d become too lazy to try and open it anymore. That shit was impenetrable, and you had a feeling the door at the end of the stairs would be equally so.

Knights had come and gone trying to free you, trying to bring themselves glory. Some even, some men, were not yet knights but had been told they’d be knighted if they managed to bring you back home.

And oh god, they failed miserably every time.

Today, though.

Today you’re minding you’re own business when you hear a male voice call out to you from below. You give the window a bombastic side eye and ignore him, returning to your book. But he tries again, the dumb fucker.

“Your Highness!” He calls and you frown. “Princess!”

“Saints save me.” You grumble and stand, moving to the window. When you look down you see a blond man—handsome enough, more so than the others—and he’s got on a rather nice suit of armor. You almost snort—so he’s a peacock, then. “You can go now! I didn’t order any packages!”

“I’m here to save you!” He calls back and this time you do snort, smirking as you prop a hand on your chin and peer down at him.

“By all means, Sir.” You tell him, and he shakes his head.

“Just Nikolai! I’m not a knight, yet.”

“Oh?” You purr. “Yet? How presumptuous of you. And I’m sure you think saving me will grant this wish?”

“I know it will!” He grins and even here you can see the cocky smile on his face. “Sorry you had to wait for me so long, Your Highness.”

You scoff and move away from the window, absently hearing some shuffling occurring down below. Uncharacteristically annoyed you move to your basket of rolls on the dining table and pick one up before moving back to the window. Aiming, looking at his bent head as he examines the wall of your tower, you lob the roll down at him. It smacks him on the head and he jumps, earning a loud, almost witchy cackle from you.

“Alright.” He says, picking up the roll and tossing it up an inch or two in the air before catching it. “I see how it is.”

“Goodbye!” You call down sweetly, then go back inside, ready for your book.

Then you freeze.

Your body goes utterly still when you hear a sharp pinging noise hit the tower, then another, then another, the sounds getting closer every time. You’re still staring at the ground in mute surprise when you hear his grunt of exertion and then he’s in the tower, hauling himself over the window.

“Right, well.” He says, and you’re slightly surprised he doesn’t sound very out of breath. Your eyes slide very slowly to his and he gives you a casual smile. In his hands are two arrows. Arrows. He scaled the wall with—

“Are you mad?” You ask and he raises a blond brow. You move towards him and are not even sure why but you examine him fully with your eyes, as if looking for some kind of clue. He’s even more attractive in person and towers several inches over you. “You scaled a fifty foot tower in a full suit of armor with arrows?”

He pauses for a moment.

“Are you impressed?”

“Oh my god.” You exclaim and he has the audacity to laugh. Then you back up when he moves forward. “Ohhhh no. I’m not going anywhere with a crazy person. You’re raving mad. At least one of the men that tried and failed brought some rope to—HEY—!”

“Who says I didn’t bring rope?” He asks but you’re hearing him behind you and from above. Because this lunatic just threw you over one shoulder like a sack of potato’s.

“No no no, hey! Put me down! I’m not going anywhere with—wait I’m scared of heights don’t—”

“Don’t worry, princess.”

About five minutes later after much thrashing and screeching like a cat, he somehow managed to tie a rope to the windowsill, you still over his shoulder, and climb back down the tower. After your feet are on stable ground you wobble a bit, eyes wide and your mind stunned. He rolls his shoulders back and stretches, letting out an obnoxious yawn.

“Well.” He says. Casually. “I think thanks are in order.”

Your eyes slide so slowly to his you wonder if you’re going to start twitching. Then you lunge.

PART TWO COMING UP

[shay-the-writer]

October Writing Prompts

After the repeated fails of the last several months, what possesses me to make this month's prompt thing ... fuck if I know. But, let's go with it. It's a long one.

The prompts are both Halloween and Autumn-themed.

Playing a game of Trick or Treat. It's a bit like Truth or Dare with the Trick being like Dare. The type of story rating is up to you.

Trick-or-Treating with the kid(s). Nice, wholesome content.

Costume Party.

Going to a haunted house (a real one or a set up). <> Person A says haunted houses don't scare them but they end up freaking out at every turn and Person B holds onto them.

Raking up leaves and having fun in them.

A trip to the cider mill/apple orchard, pumpkin patch, Fall Festival. Apple-picking, cider and donuts, hay bale rides, hay bale/cornstalk mazes.

Hay bale/cornstalk maze adventure. (family event / Horror-themed and set at night / a couple getting lost [intentional or not] and taking advantage of a dead end or secluded spot).

Carving/painting pumpkins.

Pumpkin Spice food/beverage items. Person A loves it. Person B hates it with a passion.

Taking a walk through the park where the air is crisp but not too cold, it's cloudy but a bit of sun peeks out and makes the color of the leaves stand out. Leaves are falling around them, and the ones on the ground make a rustling/crunching sound when they walk over them.

The smell of cinnamon. This is usually a Christmas thing for me, but some places I've been to recently have had cinnamon-scented things in their fall decor, so I guess it works here, too.

Halloween night always seems to bring out the crazies. This one is probably crime show-specific.

Person A decided to take a walk with Person B, thinking it wasn't too cold outside to wear a coat, but Person B notices A is looking cold and gives them their coat because B planned ahead with their wardrobe.

INSPIRED-THE-PLOT: Adaptation of Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. (this story freaks me out, even a kids book I once had, with innocent kid-friendly illustrations, scared the crap out of me.)

INSPIRED-THE-PLOT: Surviving scary moments/disasters together. Alien invasions/attacks (Independence Day), natural disasters like tornadoes/volcanoes/earthquakes/etc. (Twister/Dante's Peak/etc.), dinosaurs run amok (Jurassic Park/World), or something supernatural (ghosts, demons, vampires), or psycho maniac serial killers.

Relationships between a human and a: Alien, Monster, Warlock, Witch, Sorcerer/Sorceress, Vampire, Ghost, Werewolf (or any animal-specific shapeshifter), Demon, Devil/Satan, Dark Creature (Fae, Imp, etc.).

Relationships between: Aliens, Monsters, Warlocks, Witches, Sorcerers/Sorceresses, Vampires, Ghosts, Werewolves/Animal Shapeshifters, Demons, Dark Creatures, a demon/devil/Satan with an angel/a God or Goddess.

MOVIE QUOTES

These are random and not necessarily Halloween-themed, but when put into a Halloween context, gives them a whole new meaning.

Rapunzel: Do you have magic hair? / Vanellope: No. (Ralph Breaks the Internet)

Principal Carol Newman: I want you to look into my eyes. What do you see? / Student: It's dark ... and it's cold. (The Santa Clause 2)

Lilly: Satan has finally left my body. (Pitch Perfect 3)

Billy Butcherson: Go to Hell! / Winifred Sanderson: Oh! I've been there, thank you. I found it quite lovely. (Hocus Pocus)

Gordo: Wow, evil and smart. / Kate: Embrace it. Fear it. (The Lizzie McGuire Movie)

Dorothy Gale: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? (The Wizard of Oz)

Patty Tolan: Okay, room full of nightmares. (Ghostbusters [2016])

A.J. MacInerney: I feel a nightmare coming on. (The American President)

Sophie Piper: It's the bad thing. (Halloweentown)

Olaf: Hands down, this is the best day of my life, [he begins to melt] and, quite possibly, the last. (Frozen)

Olaf: Oh, look at that. I've been impaled. (Frozen)

TV QUOTES

Like the movie quotes, these ones change meaning when put in a Halloween-context.

Regina Mills: She got sucked up by a vortex of evil. (Once Upon a Time)

Chilli Heeler: (after Bluey and Bingo's fight led to a broken gnome) This is what happens when you're unhappy with what you've got. Someone's husband [the gnome] eventually gets it! [killed] (Bluey)

Gnome: Hee-hee-hee. I'm flammable! (Big City Greens)

Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold: To the end of the world. (Once Upon a Time)

Spike: If you tell anyone we had this conversation, I'll bite you. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

John Munch: (while playing a video game) Damn it, I died. (Law & Order: SVU)

Princess Anna: What a funny-looking world. / Queen Elsa: Right?! (Once Upon a Time)

Lorelai Gilmore: That's the last time I buy anything just because it's furry. (Gilmore Girls)

Cyber Knight: Respawn, you fool! Respawn! (Big City Greens)

Bluey Heeler: He was not a funny clown. (Bluey)

Olivia Benson: It could use a splash of color. [Elliot Stabler points to a painting with blood on it] Blood red wasn't what I had in mind. (Law & Order: SVU)

Alice Green: Oh, an ominous message written in red liquid. (Big City Greens)

Vicki Nelson: Well, unless you have a demon GPS around here somewhere, this is all we have. (Blood Ties)

Vicki Nelson: You actually have a demon GPS? (Blood Ties)

Tilly Green: I have seen danger. And, I love it. (Big City Greens)

Casey Novak: I've had this nightmare before, only I was naked. (Law & Order: SVU)

Melinda Warner: If you bite me, I'll hurt you. (Law & Order: SVU)

Oz: (about a zombie cat) It looks dead. It smells dead. Yet, it's moving around ... That's interesting. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Angela Montenegro: Things in a toilet bowl should not move. (Bones)

Raymond Ettinger [guest character]: I can't find my head. (Law & Order: SVU)

Fin Tutuola: Your heart's bleeding all over my shoes. (Law & Order: SVU)

Fin Tutuola: I don't see a cat. / John Munch: They're freaky little creatures. They lurk. (Law & Order: SVU)

Rafael Barba: Cue the apocalypse. (Law & Order: SVU)

Weezy: Cryptids give me the creep-tids. (Big City Greens)

C.C. Babcock: Good God, it's multiplying. (The Nanny)

Alice Green: Go back from whence you came, Prince of Darkness! The girl's soul is mine! (Big City Greens)

Karen Walker: I'm not good or real. I'm evil and imaginary. (Will & Grace)

John Munch: Oh, there you are, you demonic little furball. (Law & Order: SVU)

Kate O'Brien: Well, that takes care of the heebies, but I still got the jeebies. (The Drew Carey Show)

Peter Griffin: (during a Brit cut-away) Oh, dear ... I've spontaneously combusted. (Family Guy)

Dorothy Zbornak: (to Sophia) You're a furry little gnome and we feed you too much. (The Golden Girls)

Yakko Warner: Wait, you're forgetting something. / Umlatt: What? / Yakko Warrner: Well, being an evil villain, you are contractually required to explain your plan before you get rid of us. (Animaniacs)

[cakerybakery]

Now that I’m finally done that beast of a story, The Devil’s Bride, time to rest.

Brain: you can work on ‘Ready?’, ‘Gal Pals’, ohhh that big one ‘Honey Trap’ that’ll make people sad!

‘punishment’ where Lucifer’s punishment in hell is punishing Adam and but joke’s on God they’re into it, that one you started about Adam raising the exterminators, or that mpreg where Adam accidentally traded delivering a child of his and Lucifer’s cause he thought Lucifer meant delivering children like as a midwife and figured that sounds easy in exchange for every extermination, those random scenes you know are part of a bigger story but aren’t sure what yet, oooohhh that really dirty one where Lucifer fucks Adam while looking like Eve and whispers all those dirty little fantasies into Adam’s ear. You also have a few more chapter ideas for ‘The Deals We Make’.

Then there’s the Adam is Charlie’s bio “mother” fic we’ve been picturing every time we listen to songs from Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures. Waiting in the wings is perfect for Adam believing Lucifer has fallen in love with Lilith and left him behind, Crossing the line is Lucifer trying to convince Adam not to tell heaven about the apple he tried to get Adam to eat, ready as I’ll ever be for the start of the exterminations, and Nothing Left To Lose is Adam arguing with Lucifer that he’s going to go after Heaven for lying about Charlie being stillborn and kidnapping her.

Me: … The day was perfect, as it always was in paradise. Eden had no storms or harsh winds, the sun was always sunny, the breeze just the right amount of cool on Adam’s naked skin. And today he was hunting.

Adam kept low to the ground and behind the brush to hide himself. He spaded out his toes and stepped toe to heel to soften his footsteps. He breathed slowly and deeply to lessen the noise of his breathing. When he was completely behind his target he crept through a small opening in the brush. Careful not to rustle the leaves or branches as he passed. Closer and closer he crept as silent as the owls at night.

His prey sat at edge of a small pool of water, unaware of the danger behind him.

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Alrighty are you ready for a bunch of rapid fir questions? Yes I did leave for like thirty minutes and then come back!

Favorite song

Favorite artist

Favorite colors ( I know basic but I genuinely like knowing)

Favorite movie

Favorite Christmas movie

Favorite holiday

Zodiac

Favorite classes/ least favorite classes ( yes I did directly plagiarize this from you)

Favorite way to get out of class ( random I know but I'm running out of ideas and inspiration is always helpful)

Favorite mobile game

Favorite book

Favorite queer book ( I need some recommendations)

Do you or do you not like jewelry? Favorite kind of jewelry ( bracelets, earrings, rings, ect)

Do you paint your nails? What color?

Do you play any musical instruments, which ones

Favorite pride flag only based on the colors not what it represents

I'll probably come up with more in like three seconds but right now this is what I got!

Aiight, let's goooo!

Favorite song: start with something hard why don't we! I have far far FAR too many favorite songs, and it tends to swap a lot. I'd say my current is One Voice by the Wailin' Jenny's because it's blorbo coded. I'd say more long term is probably Down to the River to Pray, specifically the Alisson Krauss version because it has many happy childhood memories attached.

Favorite Artist: uhhhhh. Currently, the Crane Wives, Madds Buckley, The Longest Johns, The Jolly Rogers, The Wailin' Jenny's and The Haunted Windchimes! That's not in any particular order, I just can't pick!

Favorite Colors: this one does actually have complicated answers for me! I would say really generally and generically, I like blue (because I'm boring). However. My favorite color to wear is gray, I like owning things in any pastel colors, and my favorite color combination is a violent and hideous contrast of orange and magenta!

Favorite Christmas Movie: KLAUS! GO WATCH IT! RIGHT NOW! KLAUS KLAUS KLAUS KLAUS KLAUS! It's on Netflix, it's an adorable animated comedy, I am OBSESSED, and I will watch it as a comfort movie ANY time of year!

Favorite Holiday: Halloween! I love spooky season! The vibes, the fun, the community, the weather---all of it is very fun.

Zodiac: virgo, but only JUST barely

Favorite classes: I like all my classes because I am a pathetic little nerd. In high school my favorites were probably orchestra and choir, but that feels like a copout because they're so different from other classes. As far as core 4 subjects, I really like history and social studies. In college it was my psychology classes HANDS DOWN!

Favorite way to get out of class: HMMMMM. So I actually HATED missing class in high school, and my parents would usually just let me take a mental health day if I needed it because they are the best. In college you can just . . .skip. Like. You shouldn't. But you can.

As far as what I learned from my peers, it depends on who you need to justify the skipping to. Generally though:

1) Period cramps are being extra bad

2) Friend or family member is having a mental health or physical health episode and needs help RIGHT NOW

are the two most reliable, but the way most of the kids in my school did it were to just be fully honest about skipping and bribe the teachers and parents. Like. The teachers cared a lot less that you showed up a half an hour late if you bring them burger king and a box of donuts for the class. Your teachers also don't tend to care as long as you show up most of the time, get all your assignments done, and keep your grades up.

Favorite Mobile Game: 2048

Favorite Book: For a long time I struggled to answer this, but I've decided in the past couple years! My favorite book is Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison. It's the second book in a series called The Land of Tyme (although it's not marketed under that). The first book is Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel, and the third book is Transformed: The Perils of the Frog Prince.

They're all really amazing and immaculately worldbuilt fractured fairytales that are all woven together. Like the worldbuilding is so good that I was able to use Disenchanted for a civics essay because it is a civics textbook disguised as a fantasy novel.

Disenchanted is my favorite because I am most attached to the characters there and also because it is the most grounded in the world. It's got the least extraneous fantastical plot going on, and the characters are all a lot more street level. But they're all very good and you should all go read them right now.

Favorite Queer Book: I really liked Aces Wild. Ragtag squad of asexuals that met online pull elaborate cons and heists on Vegas elite. Very very entertaining and heartwarming.

Jewelery: I think jewelery is really pretty on other people and I also can't touch any of it myself with a 10 foot pole because of my sensory issues. VISCERALLY despise being in contact with any and all jewelery. I can't even wear cloth jewelery, lanyards, watches, etc. It all just triggers my sensory issues out the wazoo.

Nails: Makeup of any kind also unfortunately drives my sensory issues up the wall, although that one's more about the smell than the feel.

Instruments: I do! I've been playing the cello for a little over 9 years now, and I'm pretty good at it! I also play guitar, which I mostly taught to myself during COVID. I can play the ukelele as an extension of the guitar too. I can also play the piano sort of. By which I mean I can read the sheet music for it, I know how that maps onto the keys, and I practice a lot, but I haven't had formal lessons since I was 7 and I don't think I'm very good. Didn't stop my church from having me play it for the tiny children during sunday school though.

Favorite Pride Flags Based Only On Colors: Any and all iterations of the lesbian flag are UNFAIRLY pretty. I'm actually also a huge fan of the aroace flag. I'm also pretty fond of the gay men's flag, the trans flag, and the genderfluid flag!

Thanks so much for asking! This was fun!