#I’m there for the Varian and general tangled content | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sonicgetsrawed · 4 years ago

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I Love You

Ngl I’ve been struggling to write lately!! But some peeps on discord got me feeling soft today so!! Enjoy!!!

Varian smiled as Hugo pecked his lips over and over again, each time Varian trying to catch his lips to pull him into a proper kiss. Hugo laughed as he pulled back before showering the younger with another onslaught of kisses, his hands lingering on Varian’s waist, his thumbs running over Varian’s stomach. One of Varian’s hands rested on Hugo’s chest, the other tangled in his still loose hair, their legs still intertwined. They’d spent the better half of the morning just like this, wrapped up in each other, enjoying the feeling of the other pressed against them, their lips constantly touching. Hugo leaned in for another kiss, this one slightly longer, just enough to allow Varian to pull Hugo into a proper kiss. They moved their lips together softly and slowly, Varian gently nipping at Hugo’s bottom lip.

“Gotcha.” Varian teased, his lips grazing over Hugo’s as he spoke.

Hugo hummed, sending a welcome sensation through their lips as one of his hands moved to Varian’s hair, fingers running through the messy black locks. “You always do.” Hugo whispered, pecking Varian’s lips as they resumed their game.

Varian smiled, chasing after Hugo’s lips again. It didn’t take long for him to catch Hugo, in fact it was almost like he wanted to be caught. Varian deepened the kiss, letting his tongue explore Hugo’s mouth like he had done a thousand times before. “Gotcha again.”

Hugo brushed his thumb over Varian’s face, smiling softly at his boyfriend, this time Hugo placing a kiss to Varian’s forehead instead of his lips. “We should probably get out of bed. It’s almost lunch time and I’m sure Rapunzel is wondering why we missed breakfast.”

“Let her wonder. I want to stay here with you.” Varian said, rubbing their noses together as he cupped Hugo’s face, bringing their lips together once again.

Hugo hummed contently, moving to place kisses along Varian’s cheeks, nose, lips, and jawline. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Varian said, the words easily rolling off his tongue as they had the first time he had said them. He frowned slightly at the thoughtful look on Hugo’s face, his green eyes examining him, watching him closely as if he was searching for more, as if he wanted more. Varian kissed the small crease between Hugo’s eyebrows as they scrunched together. “What are you thinking about?”

“It’s nothing, babe.” Hugo said with a light shake of his head, pulling Varian into his arms. It made it harder to see his boyfriend’s face but Varian wasn’t complaining, relishing in his boyfriend’s warmth and snuggling up to him. He knew Hugo would continue his train of thought on his own, whenever he was ready. Hugo sighed, the sound reverberating in his chest where Varian laid his head, the sound of his heartbeat lulling the younger slowly back to sleep. “Do you ever think about what comes next? For us, I mean?”

The corners of Varian’s lips turned up into a small smile. He had been thinking about it, he’d been thinking about it a lot actually. Before now they had put off all talks of marriage, they were too broken, both of them needing a lot of space and work on themselves before they could commit to a marriage that would be healthy and stable. Now, two years later, Varian felt that they were at that place, they’d hashed a lot of things out, figured out how to work as a couple, and even how they worked alone, they found themselves and came back together stronger than ever. He’d just been waiting for a sign Hugo felt the same before going through with any proposal plans. And he was certain this was it, but he still wasn’t going to push anything.

“You know I do.” Varian answered, lacing his fingers with Hugo’s and placing a soft kiss to his knuckles. “But I’m happy as long as I have you, in any way that I can.”

“You’re so sappy.” Hugo snorted, returning the favor and kissing Varian’s knuckles.

“Well, I answered honestly.” Varian huffed, not genuinely upset but just enough for Hugo to feel the need to run his fingers through Varian’s hair, lightly massaging his scalp. Varian could easily fall asleep like this, but he didn’t let himself. “And you?”

Hugo took in a deep breath. Varian nibbled at his bottom lip in anticipation for the older’s answer, but didn’t dare rush him as he gathered his thoughts. “Yeah, I do. I’ve thought about what my life would be like without you in it, I’ve thought about where I’d be and who I’d be with. I’ve thought about so many fucking possiblities. And I’ve decided there’s nothing, and I mean nothing, I want more than having you by my side for the rest of my life.”

Varian smiled up at Hugo, sometime during his little declaration moving to rest his chin on Hugo’s chest. Varian brought Hugo’s face down for another quick kiss, the angle a bit awkward but they made it work. And he couldn’t help but think Hugo’s words sounded vaguely like a proposal, his heart fluttering excitedly at the possibility. “Are you proposing?” Varian asked, half teasing and half serious. A part of him almost wished he was, while another part hoped he wasn’t so he could see out his own proposal.

“No.” Hugo said simply, brushing Varian’s hair back and out of his face. “But I want to. If that’s okay with you? If you think we’re ready, if you still want this?”

“I love you.” Varian said, moving so he was straddling Hugo, placing kisses everywhere he could as he spoke. “I love you so much. I love you for asking, I love you for wanting to have me in your life, I love you for working through all this shit with me. So, yeah, I do.”

“So, you’re okay with this? You’re okay with me planning a proposal?” Hugo asked, grabbing Varian’s face before he could start another onslaught of kisses.

“Okay? I’m more than okay with it! Hell I might beat you to a proposal.” Varian said, wiggling his eyebrows as Hugo burst out into laughter.

“Yeah, sure, Goggles. I’d like to see you try.” Hugo teased, quickly flipping them so Varian was underneath him, his hands gently trapping Varian’s wrists by his head. Varian wiggled a bit as Hugo ran his hands down Varian’s arms and sides.

“You wanna bet?” Varian said with a smug smirk, keeping his hands up as Hugo continued trailing his fingers down Varian’s body, a smug look of his own on his face. One thing that had never changed between the two of them was their rivalry, whether it be who can cook the best, or one upping each other with dates, it was something that made them, them. Even if they did get carried away from time to time. “Whoever has the best proposal gets to choose the honeymoon.”

Hugo laughed, returning his hands to Varian’s wrists, kissing him again before sliding back down Varian’s body and up again as he stretched. He placed another chaste kiss to Varian’s lips before finally answering. “You’re so going to lose.”

“What makes you so sure?” Varian asked, bringing one hand up to cup Hugo’s face as the older released it, lacing their fingers together with their other hands.

Hugo hummed, a thoughtful look crossing his features. “Because I’m generally better than you?”

Varian laughed, perhaps a bit too loud, and given the offended look on Hugo’s face definitely a bit too long. Varian leaned up to kiss Hugo’s lips, still giggling as he did so, it was less of a kiss and more just Varian laughing against Hugo’s lips. “I’m sorry, love, I’m sorry. You’re amazing and I love you.”

“You’ve said that like five times already.” Hugo teased, letting out his own laugh as he kissed the younger properly. “I’m not saying it back.”

“That’s okay.” Varian said softly, running his thumb across Hugo’s cheek, a soft look on Varian’s face. “I don’t say it because I want to hear it back, I say it because I love you and I want you to know.”

Hugo blinked, an almost confused look crossing his face before it dissolved into something softer, Varian could practically see the hearts in his eyes. Hugo took Varian’s hand kissing his fingers, his palm, his wrist, all the way down his arm, his shoulder, collarbone, up his neck, his jawline, and his cheek, before stopping his lips centimeters from Varian’s. “I love you too.”

Varian smiled, closing the distance between them, wrapping his arms around Hugo’s neck as the older settled on top of him. They pressed their foreheads together when they separated for air. “See this is why I’m going to win.” Varian teased.

“I take it back, I hate you.” Hugo said, a playful pout on his face. Varian laughed, kissing Hugo’s cheeks and nose.

“Let me make it up to you then. How does breakfast in bed sound?” Varian asked, with another series of kisses, ending with one to Hugo’s forehead.

“That sounds amazing.” Hugo answered, placing one last chaste kiss to Varian’s lips before rolling to the side so the other could get up.

Varian slid out their bed, leaning over and kissing Hugo’s cheek. “I love you.” He said softly, padding into their kitchen as Hugo held a hand to his cheek, a dumb love struck expression on his face.

#tangled the series #varian #varian and the seven kingdoms #hugo #varigo #varian/hugo

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words-with-wren · 4 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Adira & Hector & Quirin (Disney: Tangled) Characters: Adira (Disney), Hector (Disney: Tangled), Quirin (Disney), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider, Varian (Disney), Ruddiger (Disney) Additional Tags: Brotherhood, sun and moon au, Moon Powers Varian (Disney), look i'm making the brotherhood content i want to see in the world, also me? projecting onto Adira bc I too love my older brother?, it's more likely than you'd think Series: Part 22 of Sun and Moon AU Summary:

It had been a number of years since she had seen him, but she knew Edmund well enough to recognize his son. He had grown up a lot from the awkward pre-teen she had known before she left, and she couldn’t help but feel a glow of pride for the young man.

Far more interested now, she focused on the younger boy, taking a moment longer to recognise him - Quirin’s boy. His hair was a faint blue, and she distinctly remembered the young boy with bright coloured hair as he peered around his father’s leg.

Interesting.

___

Brotherhood time!!! Don’t worry, the next plotty thing is coming soon, we won’t leave you on a cliffhanger for too long.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventures #tangled brotherhood #tts adira #tts hector #quirin #eugene fitzherbert #moon powers varian #dark prince eugene #sun and moon au

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dearestpartnerofgreatness · 4 years ago

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I and L for the questions!!

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why: Good Girls is the main one I can think of. Although I’m still “in” the fandom, I disagree with a large amount of the Tangled fan-verse: I have neutral feelings towards Varian, and he’s one of the most popular characters in the fandom. I think Cassandra was in the wrong in her conflict with Rapunzel, unlike a lot of the fans. I don’t think it’s appropriate to ship a child with an adult, but many fans ship Varian (a teen) with characters who are adults. Also I HATED that writers made Cass [you know who’s] daughter, so I don’t enjoy reading content about that choice, of which there is a lot. On another note, ATLA does have certain circles that I stay far away from, but I’m still staunchly in that fandom. TBH it’s not generally Tumblr that drives me away from a fandom, it’s the content of the show itself (looking at you, Wynonna Earp).

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike): Dear Calliope: you’re annoying but because of you I will never forget how to pronounce spi-YUHR correctly so thanks for that <3

#tangled #tts #calliope #ask

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nullanythorm-ao3 · 4 years ago

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Just Some Random Fanfic Concepts

So I was going to wait and see if anyone else was interested in me posting up some of my general fanfic ideas. However, I’m bored and struggling to work with the CiM update I’m working on right now. So I’m just going to do it? Also, a heads up to look out for another post coming later, because I want to share some of my Variro YouTube playlist, too. BUT FIRST, story ideas. You’ll get some working titles for the ones I HAVE working titles for, but otherwise I’m just winging it cuz there are a lot of them. These are in no particular order. Things being higher or lower on the list doesn’t mean they’re more or less likely to be worked on.

#1 - A continuation for Land or Sea (title pending)

So a little background on this one. I got the idea for this one at the same time as I got the idea for Trust is Something Earned. I put which one I worked on first up to a vote on the Tangled Amino.

It’s a mermaid(merman/boy??)!Varian AU that centers on the idea: What if, in Queen for a Day, instead of coming up with a solution that created the amber when interacting with the rocks, Varian creates a different one and winds up getting himself turned into a mermaid instead?

It’ll feature 4 OCs: two created by me, and two created by a friend. The perspective will shift between Varian and an OC that belongs to a friend of mine named Charlotte, Varian’s childhood friend and love interest.

Without spoiling too much, it takes place primarily during the events of season 2 (and maybe stretches into season 3). It switches perspective between Varian, who’s sent to live in the ocean after the accident and becomes friends with an adventurous merboy named Caspian who helps him rediscover his passion for science and alchemy, and Charlotte, who’s left behind in Corona and is trying to rediscover her sense of self and direction after losing her best and only friend. Charlotte’s perspective will help show how the premise changes events in Corona, while Varian’s is wholly original.

The other OCs that will be involved in the story will be my OC Adrian Claire, who followers of TiSE will know, and my friend’s OC Henry.

#2 - Stitched Together (originated from Ragdoll)

Okay so the original premise for this was for it to be a Variro story. The focus was Hiro living a double life: a college student in San Fransokyo who realized the existence of the several magical realms that ran parallel to his home after discovering he had magical blood passed down from his mother (maybe even throwing in superhero and making it a triple life - poor Hiro). He finds what’s known in the multi-realm as a living doll - a doll that gained a soul either through devotion and affection of a previous owner and desire to become more human, or having a human soul literally shoved into it.

Varian, his doll, is the latter. Due to crimes against his home realm of Corona and his own uncontrollable magical talent, they forced him into having his soul magically “stitched” into a rag doll, until Hiro’s magical talent allowed him to awaken. However, because of his nature as a living doll, Varian now depends on and is subservient to Hiro, but the two soon grow a bond much closer than expected.

Now, after working on the lore and world of the story, I’ve grown its scope a little. Rather than simply being a crossover with Tangled and Big Hero 6, I want Stitched Together to be a bigger-scale crossover, including How To Train Your Dragon and the Tales of Arcadia series as well.

It’s going to be Hiccup/Hiro/Varian, along with Jim/Claire from ToA being close friends with the trio. They’re all going to be young wizards from different realms, with different magic specialties studying in Arcanum, the central realm that connects all magically advanced realms. Other characters from each series will show up as well! You’ll see a bit of all of them, it’s a pretty enormous project.

#3 - Maybe some Hogwarts Shenanigans?

I’d really like to do a short, maybe 7-chapter story on the Hogwarts Headcanons for the OT3 I did a while back. The big issue is I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on posting Harry Potter/Hogwarts content after the whole J.K. Rowling thing.

It’d be a chapter focusing on each year the three spend at Hogwarts together, some key moments through the years, and things like that. Just a small, random story about some kids at Hogwarts having fun.

Might do it, might not, we’ll see.

#4 - Time Travel Variro Fic (title pending)

This is another one sort of meant to run alongside season 2 of TTS, and maybe s3. It also replaces the S3 of BH6 the series. Just cuz.

Basically Varian escapes after being put in prison, and decides the best way to save his dad is prevent the amber from capturing him all together. Vindictive, feral little villain raccoon decides that if he can’t have his happy ending, he won’t let Raps have hers and plans to make a time machine so he can go back and prevent Eugene from rescuing Raps.

Unfortunately, a slight user error and hiccup in his plans (namely the fact that Ruddiger doesn’t appreciate being left alone and hops in the machine with him and all the noise and flashing lights of a steampunk-medieval time machine spook him) causes him to catapult into the future instead.

Meanwhile, Hiro’s dealing with his friends moving on to find work, his own internship at KreiTech while attending school, and being fifteen and struggling with hormones and his sexuality finally starting to rear its ugly head after being dormant for 15 years of being in an ongoing relationship with SCIENCE (aka he’s seeing guys, thinking ‘he’s cute/handsome’, and he’s PANICKING). Then, as he’s on his way home from internship one day, a random af raccoon tugs at his pants leg until he finds a boy in weird clothes unconscious in an alley somewhere

Varian, after being woken up, and unsure if he should bring up that he’s from the past or not, makes up a fake story about running away from a small town. Hiro, feeling there’s something more but empathetic to Varian’s story, invites him to stay with him at the Lucky Cat and introduces him to Cass.

Varian is stand-offish at first, absorbed in his “pet project”, as he calls it around Hiro. Basically, the machine didn’t time travel with him, he’s stuck, and is determined to get home and continue his plan. Hiro, however, is drawn in by the mysterious boy and tries to reach out to him and open him up.

Varian catches on to modern technology and science pretty darn quickly. He’s a smart boy. He also stays holed up in Hiro’s lab or the room they allowed him to borrow reading all day. Until finally Hiro cracks him out of his shell, he starts attending SFIT, and meets the rest of the BH6 crew.

There’s more to the story than this but that’s all I’m saying for now. Lots of drama, tension, etc, and just a fun time as boys discover their sexualities, learn where they can call home, and all that good stuff.

#5 - In Someone Else’s Shoes (Time Travel Team Awesome Fic!)

So this one is kind of meant to work in tandem with the Variro fic. While the Variro fic explores Varian failing in his plan and getting catapulted into the future, this fic shows the results of what would happen if the time travel worked.

It centers around Team Awesome! Varian travels back to the past, and tells Eugene that he dies if he hides in the tower. He convinces him that he’s his partner in his future, by knowing his name and stroking his ego a bit. But inform him that the crown will lead to nothing but trouble and his death (conveniently leaving out the part where he meets the love of his life and gets brought back from the dead because of a magical healing flower).

The alteration to the timeline erases the former Varian’s existence and overwrites the Varian of the new timeline with his memories - giving him the memories of both the former and current timeline. He wakes up in bed at the palace, being woken up by his personal attendant Flynn (Eugene, who only allows Varian to call him by his proper name when they’re alone) and told to get ready for his coronation as crown prince. It turns out, in this timeline, because Eugene and Rapunzel weren’t there to stop him from his running water experiments, the devastation on Old Corona caused the death of his dad and several others. Since he was the son of an old friend, and they longed for their missing princess, Frederic and Arianna take him in as their son, and monitor his scientific hobby to prevent him from causing more trouble.

Of course, this won’t do. He confides the truth to Eugene, that he was trying to save his dad by returning to the past (but again, keeping out key elements), and the two decide to work together to rebuild the time machine and alter the past without the catastrophic results.

Won’t spoil too much, there are some wild twists and turns here. But it’s one I’m really looking forward to, again!

#6 - Maybe some Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood shenanigans

I’d just really like to make some Camp Half-Blood AU stuff. It’d be more a series of one-shots, or just a story that jumps around in time in the course of it.

Crossover with Tangled, Big Hero 6, Tales of Arcadia, and How to Train Your Dragon with a focus on (as usual) Hiccup/Hiro/Varian.

Not going to say too much about it though, because I want to do an AU Headcanons post with some details on this one! I have lots of ideas.Some you might expect, some you might not.

#7 - Hercules Inspired Variro Fic (Title pending!)

So this one is wild. Basically, after the events of BH6 s1, Obake escapes. He stays on the run, escaping to Germany, and finds a young boy of genius on par with Hiro, but in the field of Chemistry, and takes him under his wing.

Varian is distraught after his father, who’d contracted an incurable disease, falls comatose. The government does nothing to help him, even though he has friends that hold political power, and Obake uses that to lure him into becoming his protege.

The pair lie low for a while, wreaking a little havoc in Germany while Varian looks for a cure for his father. The boy dabbles in all manner of fields while trying to help his dad, and before long finds out that the last component he needs is in America, in San Fransokyo.

Varian, now in his early 20s (which means Hiro is too!), Varian travels to America. He’s currently working as a villain under Obake while daylighting as the head of a German medical research company.

He meets Hiro by chance. He flirts a little, but tries his best to keep his distance while trying to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, Obake notices how flustered Hiro gets around Varian, and has Varian continue flirting with and pursuing him as a form of distraction, and confides in him about Big Hero 6 and their identities. Varian is against it at first, but goes along with his mentor.

Varian continues flirting with Hiro, gets in with the group as a friend, and begins distracting Hiro and sabotaging Big Hero 6 while working on a plan to steal the last component he needs for his cure - a solution being stored under high security at KreiTech - where Hiro works, partnered with Krei.

It’s Hercules inspired so there’s a bit more to it, but that’s all you need to know for now!

#8 - Phantom Thief Varian! (Title Pending)

Similar to the time travel one, this one KIND of links with the Hercules-inspired one. It’s not necessarily meant to link narratively or thematically, like the two time travel fics, but it has some similarities.

Namely the fact that Varian came to America after forming a company to research a cure for his terminally ill father. Whether or not Quirin is comatose in this one, I don’t know.

But it’s hard for a small company to get the influence or money Varian would need for his research. So, he steals valuables and rare compounds and materials to fund his research and keep him going, under the name “der Waschbär”, which Google Translate tells me means “the Raccoon” so I’m rolling with it.

He meets Varian in a business meeting with KreiTech, or one of those fancy business parties or something along those lines. They become infatuated with each other pretty quickly (as adults that are more sexually aware, I always picture these two precocious kids being pretty flirtatious when attracted to someone so they just kind of click pretty quickly).

It’s basically the story of Varian, the charming phantom thief who worms his way into Hiro’s life, and Hiro, the superhero aiding the cops in his capture. All while being completely oblivious to each other’s identities and flirting/pursuing each other constantly on the side xD I just like phantom thief stories okay?

#9 - POKEMON!!!!!

Yeah, I still want to do something with these pokemon headcanons

I’m still not entirely sure what kind of pokemon thing I’d want to do. Similarly to the other ones centered around my headcanon posts, it would probably be something I write in short bursts or one-shots and such.

I’m not sure if I want to do something focusing solely on Corona as a region and the Tangled Characters, or continuing the Hiccup/Hiro/Varian that the headcanons focus on.

#10 - The VTuber AU

Yes, I’m doing this! I’ve fallen neck-deep into the VTuber pit, and I love the idea of a VTuber Varian. I feel like his avatar is probably a combined effort between him and Rapunzel, who would probably be the artist behind his character. He’s probably an independent VTuber, streaming on his own with his own model - either because he was genuinely curious about the boom and wanted to try it, or due to the influence of his friends (whether a bet or something along those lines).

As stated in a previous post, I feel like his vtuber character is super steampunk, and probably raccoon-temed. There are a lot of VTubers that use the animal-ear look after all. His VTubing character is super chaotic, and tends to fly solo when streaming.

Hiro is a pretty big gamer himself, but never got big into VTubers. He felt it was just a fad attached to regular streamers, and never really got into watching other people play games, so vtubers make it even weirder really.

He was looking for help getting past a certain point in a hard game, though, and in his search came across Varian(in the fic, his VTuber identity will have a separate name! I just haven’t htought of one yet) streaming the game, and stuck around to see what he did in that part, and wound up staying because he was chaotic and fun to watch. Before long, he realized he was watching clips from previous streams and catching his streams regularly. The others start teasing him about it.

Meanwhile, Varian, who’s recently joined in with the group after having started SFIT the year or semester after Varian (maybe Year, since Hiro can be watching it while the others graduate and start looking for work, since he doesn’t really have any other friends in SFIT so he just kind of falls into it to pass time)

Still dunno how he figures out Varian is a VTuber, and whether it’s before or after they start planning though. I just rcreated this one it has work to do.

Anyway that’s about it. There’s probably a few smaller ones I put off to the side of my brain for the time being that didn’t get added here. I forget which ones I start planning a lot and I almost never write them down, I just plan them in my brain as I go and the ones that stick are just keepers. Hope you like these though! Curious to see what everyone things and which of the ideas the, like, 20 of you that follow me like.

#fanfiction #concepts #fanfic ideas #TTS #Tangled #Big Hero 6 #How To Train Yoru Dragon #Tales of Arcadia

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coltdancer · 4 years ago

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You Matter to Me (A Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure Short Story)

A security breach of the alchemy lab results in a daring decision that has consequences for Varian.

Set after Eugene and Rapunzel are married, Varian has explored, learned, and returned to Corona as the Royal Engineer/Alchemist and Cassandra has completed her personal quests and returned to serve Corona as a member of the guard.

Inspired by CJeanne's/OriginalDisneyDescendants absolutely beautiful work here on Tumblr (not sure it’s around anymore), she graciously allowed me to run away with my own story. This is pure hurt/comfort FLUFF, my people. My happy place, my M.O., my zone. **AND NOW THERE IS ART by @lizpotentielle!

“What did he take?!” Cassandra shouted, dodging the ornate vase launched at her head, nearly careening into the wall of royal portraits when the move shifted her balance but did not account for her speed. “Uh...I’m not sure, exactly!”

“Uh...I’m not sure, exactly!”

Ahead of her, his long legs giving him an advantage, Varian lunged toward the Soporian thief and very nearly made an impressive tackle, but the body-check inadvertently shoved their target through the door leading down to the dungeons and aided his escape.

Cassandra sprinted past and Varian scrambled to his feet to join her.

“We can catch him when he hits the cells!” she huffed, concentrating on skipping steps without twisting an ankle.

“Not if he beats us to the sewage outlet; it’s how he got in. It will already be open,” Varian panted just behind her, and they hit the bottom to find that indeed, the doors leading through the main thoroughfare of the dungeon were all hanging wide open, providing the bandit a clear path.

With a straight and unhindered shot, Cassandra pulled the bolas from her belt and hurled them towards the Soporian’s legs with a grunt. It was enough to make contact and wrap around the man’s ankles, sending him pitching forward. He writhed impressively mid-air to skid across the floor on his shoulder, the glass vial he had stolen skittering from his pouch and across the bricks, out of his reach. Varian pounded past him, dodging the swipe of his arms and making it to the end of the hall to shove the wooden door closed and block his exit.

Cassandra breathed with relief when, panting heavily, he stooped to scoop up the vial and inspect it. Because Varian had interrupted his heist, the vial likely wasn’t what the thief intended to make off with, but Cassandra knew that any number of the alchemical compounds Varian held in his main lab could be potentially serious or deadly in the wrong hands - the negative rumors and town talk that would create buzz in the neighboring kingdoms almost as much so.

Best to keep these things quiet. And most definitely out of the wrong hands.

Cassandra placed her knee between the Soporian’s shoulder blades to finish rolling him onto his stomach, reaching for his free arm to pull behind him, when he suddenly flipped onto his back and had her by a fistful of tunic and a dagger blade to her throat.

Varian’s cry of warning was swallowed with a gasp. The edge of the blade was close enough that her skin prickled and she froze, daring to make eye-contact. Cold, brown eyes - so dark they were nearly black - narrowed with malice and she sat back as the thief used his impressive core strength to right himself, the knife never wavering from its precarious position against her jugular. Even had she been wearing her armor, her neck would have still been exposed. She made a mental note to rectify that if she was so lucky, her jaw clenching when he drew his legs close enough toward himself to reach down and release the bolas around his feet.

“I was warned about you and your skill, my dear,” the thief breathed silkily, leaning in close enough that Cassandra could smell his breath and sweat. It was repulsive. He was rising smoothly to his feet and guiding her with him, a cruel twist to his mouth as she felt the cold metal press against her skin. She held her breath and stood, his free arm unnervingly blocking a counter-attack to his midsection. She chanced a glance at Varian. He looked slightly horrified, but surprisingly calm, and stock-still. She knew his mind was racing with calculations and weighing his options. She tried to shake her head to warn him not to do anything, but a nick at her neck and her stronger arm wrenching painfully behind her made her stop. The muscle in Varian’s jaw clenched and he made a move to reach inside his vest.

“Ah-ah,” the thief warned, “You keep your hands where I can see them, pretty boy. And unless you plan on accompanying me, just hand that tube over, and I’ll let this little wench go.”

Varian’s eyebrow shot up at the insult and something dangerous flashed in his eyes that Cassandra recalled from long ago, and then it was gone, replaced with a resolve that she decided in an instant she did not like one bit better - just as he threw his head back and swallowed the entire contents of the vial.

“Well, can’t say it will do much for you now…” he responded dryly, suppressing a shudder, both Cassandra and her captor gaping in shock.

“It might if I slice you open and siphon what drains from your guts…” the Soporian snarled, just before he drew back and head-butted Cassandra in a rage.

Spots and stars exploded from the contact and she felt herself tossed to the ground as the man lunged forward, swinging. There was a whoosh and the clang of iron as a cell door slammed shut. Cassandra shook her head and squinted, wincing at the sound as Varian locked himself safely inside and away from the blade. His eyes darted to hers and back again, assessing that she had not yet recovered from the blow.

“Wow, that’s exceedingly graphic. You Soporians are so violent,” he quipped, keeping the focus on him. “How about ‘no’? I rather like my guts where they are, thanks.”

“They said you had a smart mouth, you little traitor. Didn’t know when to shut up. Perhaps I should just let you keep talking and at least garner the satisfaction of watching what it does to you.”

And he did sound just a little too eager for that, Cassandra thought, blinking widely and trying to focus on Varian. The alchemist almost looked bored, his shoulders dropping with a long-suffering sigh. “Absolutely nothing,” he responded.

“What nonsense is this?”

“Do you even know what you took?”

There was just the briefest of pauses. “Yes. It was Belladonna.”

“Or you grabbed bimberrry juice,” Varian rolled his eyes. “Tell me, did you actually see ‘belladonna’ or did you just snatch a vial marked with a letter ‘B’ on it, because that’s all you could read?”

The Soporian’s eyes were practically bulging and all he could do was splutter, and Cassandra felt her stomach unclench. She wanted to laugh. Instead, she felt for the hilt of her sword.

“Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

The sound of metal releasing from its sheath as Cassandra brandished her own blade grabbed their attention then, and with one last glare and clang on the iron bars of Varian’s safety cage, the Soporian bolted down the corridor toward the sewage grates.

Cassandra lunged after him, but halted abruptly, rushing back to the closed cell. She was patting down her pockets and looking around frantically on the floor, but the keys were nowhere to be found. She looked up to find Varian dangling the keyring over his index finger. When had he snagged those?

She choked out a laugh. “ Why do you keep bimberry juice in your lab?”

He shrugged. “For medicine. Makes it taste better.”

“Oh. So it was really just bimberry juice?”

“No, it was belladonna.”

“ WHAT ?”

“Cassandra. That low-life is getting away.”

“We have to get you out of there.”

“Go catch your man.”

“What - no! Open the door. We have no idea what that stuff will do to you!”

“I’m pretty sure I have a good idea.” “I am going to kill you.”

Varian tilted his head, a wistful, amused expression crossing his features. He shook his head. “Sorry, but I’m not going to need your assistance this time around, Cassie.”

Her eyes widened with realization and she gripped the handle, rattling it furiously.

“ Varian . This isn’t funny. Please tell me you have some kind of antidote.”

He smiled, but the beat of silence was too long. “Of course.”

Cassandra’s stomach dropped like lead. “ VARIAN. OPEN THE DOOR -- ”

With a huff of a chuckle, Varian stepped forward and through the bars pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead, stunning her momentarily speechless in its acceptance. “He’s getting away, Cass. Let me handle the science stuff. You catch the bad guy so he can answer for this. Go on, now.”

She was horrified and angry and... scared ...which made her angrier, still, and she whipped around with a howl of fury intended just as much for the fleeing criminal as the maddening man she was leaving behind to potentially die a slow death.

Corona did not see a lot of high crime; the populace had nearly as infamous a reputation for squelching suspicious activity as the kingdom guard. When the infrequent circumstances arose, however, the reaction was generally well-executed and swift. Today’s heist was no exception, but it had created quite a stir. The chase had resulted in Cassandra pursuing the Soporian interloper through the drainage tunnels below the dungeons and out the spillway into the moat, a sure test of her endurance, before gaining enough ground to make him change course right into the trap Eugene and his guard had waiting.

And then it was over.

Cassandra had been anxious to report to the Captain, but he’d taken one good look at her, pulled a face, and insisted she shower first. He might also have alerted her best friend and Princess to her need for a good meal and in the meantime paid his own visit to the newly occupied dungeons to question their captive. She was begrudgingly grateful for the respite.

Now, as lamps were being lit and the sun dipped low on the horizon, Cassandra finished giving Eugene her version of the events and he scribbled notes in his parchment book about as furiously as she recounted them. He had grown so very efficient in his role and Cassandra could not help but be impressed - they squabbled to the point of aggravation sometimes, but she knew he took the role seriously and worked hard. She had often dreamed of holding that position. However, even as Eugene carefully closed the book he was writing in, his fingers lingering over the cover that reeked of Rapunzel’s handiwork with a small smile, Cassandra found she did not harbor ill will or even any resentment. She’d made her choices. The fact that she has been able to return to Corona and work her way into duty at all was rewarding, and the capture they made today proved once again that she was capable and Eugene’s faith in her was justified. But with the recounting of that chase and how she wound up jumping into the muck after their criminal, she was freshly reminded that she had left another man behind. That was not a decision she could commend, no matter how logical it was. No matter how confused it left her.

She blinked and looked up. Cassandra wasn’t sure how long she had been silent, mulling it all over again.

Eugene leveled her with a penetrating gaze before standing from behind the desk. He was disconcertingly adept at reading her. “C’mon,” he barked, and just like that Captain Fitzherbert was put away and he was “Eugene” once again. “Rapunzel was getting Varian a change of clothes. Let’s go check on him.”

Cassandra tensed, but knowing Raps had been with him and Eugene had procured his statement of events earlier as well...that had to mean Varian was fine and nothing untoward happened as a result of his daring strategy earlier. Her shoulders relaxed marginally and she cleared her throat, rising to follow him from the room. “How...how is he?”

Eugene snorted as he opened the door, sweeping his arm toward the threshold in a polite motion to usher her through first. “Been puking his guts up all afternoon, but whatever that nasty stuff was that he concocted and choked down seemed to do the trick.” He shuddered and grimaced. “Did you see that stuff? I’ve seen Shorty consume more appetizing sludge than that black tar-slime he mixed up. But...I guess if you’re poisoned, you’re not too worried about the taste, eh?”

Cassandra felt her jaw clench, ire returning as they walked down the hall toward the infirmary. She could see Rapunzel hovering at the door and as they neared, a bundle of clothes clutched in the princess’ hands. “Since he was foolhardy enough to do it to himself instead of oh, I don’t know , smashing the bottle on the bricks, I’d say that’s what he gets.”

Beside her, Cassandra could practically feel the dubious eyebrow Euguene was lifting. “A split-second to take a single course of action and save the Kingdom’s face - oh! and you,” he unnervingly summarized, and she just knew he was wearing that smug, all-knowing expression on his face as they came to a halt, muttering a “Yeah, it scared the hell out of me, too.”

Eugene bent to kiss his wife on the cheek. Worn thin by her concern (not that she’d admit it openly), Cassandra glowered at him and rather unceremoniously snatched the garments from Rapunzel’s grasp, continuing on for the infirmary door. Rapunzel stammered, unsettled, and reached out to halt her progress into the room. “Cass - I don’t think now is a good time -”

“Ah, Sunshine? Why don’t we just let Cassandra go on in.”

“But Eugene -” the princess hissed, even as the Captain of the Guard began to wrestle her away.

“Trust me.”

And God bless Eugene as he tugged on her arm and Rapunzel fell silent. Cassandra yanked the door open and stalked into the softly-lit antechamber, marching across the floor toward the only partitioned area that held anyone at the moment, on a mission to give Varian a piece of her mind for the worry she’d been fighting all afternoon -

And was halted at the edge of the make-shift curtain by the unmistakable sound of retching.

It took a moment for her to compose herself before she took a step forward to peer around the curtain where Healer O'Shea, a kindly man with silvering strawberry-blond hair, was positioned in front of an obviously still very ill alchemist. The doctor glanced up at her briefly, one eyebrow arched in silent query. He was bracing Varian with a gentle hand to the shoulder and supporting a basin as Varian’s whole body strained forward with a round of horrible, empty gurgles that made Cassandra cringe. Finally, he coughed and spit with a pained gasp.

“That’s it, lad. I think you’ve just about got it all out - and then some. This should be slowing down, now,” the physician murmured with approval. “Let’s try a little bit of ginger tea this time around, see if we can settle that stomach and start getting you rehydrated.”

Varian, if he registered what was said, did not outwardly respond. In fact, he seemed unaware of anyone standing there at all. Chalky white and panting for air, he was slumped over a bolster wedged between his arms and his stomach - the only thing that seemed to be holding him upright on the edge of the cot. Cassandra nodded, subdued, as the healer dipped his head in silent excusal, leaving her alone with Varian and feeling exposed. Whatever she was expecting after speaking with Euguene, it wasn’t this.

He looked... dreadful.

And just like that, she felt her anger dissipate. If it was even truly anger, to begin with.

“I’d rather you not see me like this…”

It was such a low rasp she wasn’t sure she heard it. But a few moments later, Varian mustered the strength to lift his head, the hint of a smirk in his voice, “Unless you came to make good on your offer? You’ve got your sword, right?”

Cassandra let out the breath she didn’t even realize she was holding, stepping closer. “You must be joking!”

“Only - mm, only half -” he grunted, then went positively ashen with a small groan and barely managed to find the basin beside him as his stomach heaved again.

If she thought it was bad mere moments earlier, Cassandra was certain Varian’s insides were trying to claw themselves out, now. His grip was white-knuckled and desperate as he fought through it, bringing absolutely nothing up, his stomach completely devoid of even the thick and tarry-looking charcoal Eugene said he had been bringing up for hours. Cassandra found herself reaching out to awkwardly pat at the shirt plastered to his back. He was hot to the touch and she could feel the muscles coiling angrily beneath her hand; it had to hurt.

Varian folded over the pillow again, trembling from exertion, and she managed to grab the bin from him before it could clatter to the floor. “Please, jus’...” then his head was in his hands and he gave up trying to talk. She wasn’t sure if he was begging for her to leave or for it to just be over.

Cassandra felt utterly inept; maybe it would be best to just leave the change of clothes for him and excuse herself quietly. He was a mess and she did not know what to do. She would have wanted to be left alone in this sort of scenario, but then, Varian was nothing like her. He was tenderhearted and tactile and...this was definitely Rapunzel’s department. The healer had disappeared to make the tea - naturally, she thought, setting the garments she held down on the bed. She hadn’t planned to stay, for goodness sake, and in no way would have agreed to play nursemaid. Sure, she and Varian certainly shared a level of comfortable camaraderie with one another; there had been the occasional long conversation when neither could sleep, mutual royal projects or endeavors, one exceedingly rare late night at the Snuggly Duckling when they’d both imbibed a bit too much and had chatted and giggled all the way back to the castle on Fidela. She looked back at the miserable man beside her and remembered leaving him behind in the dungeons. While not as powerful as fear, guilt was a fair motivator. Cassandra would be the first to admit she was no good at the “soft stuff”, but she realized that she wanted to try for him.

She chewed thoughtfully on her lip, searching the room and wracking her brain, then her eyes landed on the washstand against the wall. Quietly, she stepped over to it and pulled on the silver levers, letting the water run hot before filling a large basin from a stack of them on the side. She absently wriggled her fingers under the stream, as she almost always had since her return to Corona, marveling at what Varian had done with all the pipes and his huge fancy boiler mechanism, smiling faintly at a memory - and was quickly reminded of the man across the room. Cassandra threw a few of the folded rags over her shoulder and slowly returned to the bed as the healer arrived with a small cup of warm, pale liquid.

“Just a sip or two at first,” he told her and relegated the task by handing the cup off to her once she set her wares down on the bedside table. She stood there, gaping at the doctor’s back as he traipsed over to his desk and resisted the urge to tell him this was his job. She was beginning to smell a conspiracy.

“Hey, you still with me?” she asked gently, prodding Varian to sit up and relinquish his hold on the massacred cushion beneath his arms.

His breathing was a little easier and with a pang, she hoped he hadn’t dozed off. She picked up the tea and held it before him. It looked inoffensive enough and smelled pleasantly of meadowsweet, but Varian grunted with disapproval, turning a nasty shade of pale and green when she pressed the cup to his lips. Stubbornly, she waited him out until he finally took a few sips.

“There. Not so bad?” she murmured.

He managed a noncommittal noise in reply.

Cassandra went back to chewing on her lip, wondering how long it would take for the tea to come back up, if it was going to. “I bet you have some ideas on how to improve on the formula,” she finally added with forced brightness, and set it down, her smile fading when he said nothing.

Yeah, he was in pretty bad shape. She watched him drag in a deep breath, releasing it heavily. “You gonna be sick again?”

He seemed to be taking inventory. “No…” he swallowed hard, “...not yet,” he finally whispered, still breathless.

“Uh...Raps brought you some fresh clothes…” she offered quietly, but it just sounded silly when he could barely even hold his own head up. She frowned, and then pursed her lips in frustration. Why was this so hard?

Time for a purely practical decision. He needed help, and she ...could help with this.

“What’r y’doin?” Varian slurred, sounding agitated and batting altogether uselessly at her when she reached for his shirt. “Cass -”

“Hey, hey! It’s alright,” she soothed, enclosing his wrist in her small hand, waiting for him to look at her. He swayed against her and the magnitude of what she was asking wasn’t lost on her. Suddenly, her gracelessness no longer mattered. “Can I...Can I help you with this?”

His eyes, dull and bruised, slid closed. To her dismay, a small tear trickled from the outer corner and he nodded. He was exhausted.

Though she knew he couldn’t see it, she smiled with much more confidence than she felt. Maybe he wouldn’t hear it, either. She gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Okay. It’s okay, Varian. You’ll feel better soon.”

She pulled the sweat-dampened shirt over his head carefully, steadying him as his chin dipped toward his chest. She tried not to, but could not help but notice that his shoulders were peppered with a similar smattering of freckles as his face. It absolutely did not soften her smile. She turned to the bowl on the table to drop in the rags, swirling them around in the hot water to warm them up. “You know, what you did today...that was really stupid, Var.”

“This is supposed to make me feel better?” he mumbled irritably, and she cringed.

Speaking of stupid…

“Sorry, that came out poorly,” she muttered, abashed, wringing out a rag and gently pressing it to the back of his neck. He jumped beneath the initial touch, then sagged with a mewl of relief that made her stomach feel funny. Cassandra swallowed and drew the washcloth along the sweep of his shoulders, concentrating on removing the clammy layers of sweat and salt down his back and arms.

“I mean,” she tried again, slowly, “It worked, but it wasn’t worth your life.”

Varian sighed. “Admittedly really dumb. I’ll do better next time.”

Cassandra paused then, rag dripping over the bowl as she reached out and snatched his bearded chin, lifting it so that he was looking at her. “No!” she replied, eyes wide with alarm. “Varian, do not scare me - us… ” She took a breath, recovering herself and dropped her tone.“Don’t scare us like that again.”

He blinked dazedly but held her gaze until she reached up to gently wash his face, ignoring that funny feeling that came again when his eyes fluttered closed and he trusted her to it. She placed the rag in his hand so that he could make a pass or two at his front, then helped him thread his arms into the clean shirt, lifting it over his head. His hair was sticking up in all different directions and she bit down on a giggle. The urge to tame it with her fingers was strong, but Cassandra busied herself with the teacup instead, steadying it when his hands shook and encouraging him to work on it some more.

It did seem to be helping. With the modicum of relief from his nausea and taking in some fluid, the tension was draining from his posture. He could no longer keep his eyes open. She took the empty cup and gave in to thread her fingers through his hair - purely under the pretense of smoothing it back into place - and he leaned more heavily against her. She thought she heard her name, the ghost of a whisper on his lips when he was suddenly dead weight in her arms.

“Varian?!” The alarm in her voice and the shattering of the teacup drew the attention of the healer, who was quick to rise from his notes and return to the bedside, helping her ease Varian’s limp form to the mattress.

Cassandra stood by with wide eyes as he took Varian’s wrist and measured the pulse with practiced ease, gently tilting Varian’s head toward the lantern on the table, pushing back his eyelids and watching the pupils react to the light. He then took a moment to remove the instrument around his neck, listening to the sound of Varian’s breath in his lungs, the rhythm of his heart.

“It’s all right,” he assured her, straightening and reaching to pull up the blanket. “He’s just finally passed out. No small wonder. Maybe he’ll be able to get some rest, now.”

Cassandra let out a shaky breath and pursed her lips together, swallowing hard. Relief washed over her with astonishing force and she blinked against her silly, watering eyes. Healer O’Shea was watching her carefully.

“You may stay a bit longer; make sure our winsome engineer is comfortable,” he murmured, skirting the foot of the cot and bending over with a crack of his back to pick up the broken pieces of the smashed cup from the floor. “But then, unless you wish me to remove you from Captain Fitzherbert’s active duty roster, you’ll let me give you a check-over and will retire to get some rest as well, hm?”

The tumult of the day’s emotions and weariness threatening to overwhelm her, all she could do was nod in agreement. She knew there was nothing she could do for Varian, but found herself at war with the decision to leave him - again . He did not budge in the least when she needlessly fussed over the blanket, resting her palm across his chest, reassured by the gentle thump of his heartbeat. Somewhere, sometime over the course of their friendship, she realized how very much she’d grown to care for him. In the quiet of the infirmary, now, she could admit how right Eugene’s earlier dig at her had been: today had scared the hell out of her.

“What are you doing to me, you big nerd?” she whispered incredulously.

Cassandra scoffed then, and rolled her eyes in exasperation, swiping at her eyes once more and shaking her head. The healer cleared his throat across the room. She straightened and followed his gesture to a new cot, but not before she took one last moment to return the kiss Varian had bestowed upon her from behind the cell door, her lips pressed tenderly to his forehead as she bid him a silent goodnight.

She did feel better, Cassandra admitted, after a few hours of sleep and some breakfast. Much to Eugene’s chagrin, she even reported for duty. The Captain, however, seemed assuaged by her reasoning that she needed the distraction and she accepted his compromise to take off after lunch.

She was returning from the kitchens (making her way through the Great Hall since a steady thundershower rendered the courtyard an undesirable path) when Cassandra caught the back of a familiar mop of black hair heading in that very direction - and likely to the old ammunitions holds that had been converted to his main lab, near the garden.

“Varian?” she called, both concerned to see him up and about when she’d left him very much unconscious the night before, and relieved.

He turned at the sound of her voice and smiled wanly, waiting for her to catch up to him. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” she narrowed her eyes. “You’re looking…better?” she offered unconvincingly, to which he chuckled sheepishly.

“Yeah, I know...I’m kind of a mess,” he muttered, gesturing to himself, and she was dismayed at how hoarse his voice sounded.

“You look pretty peaked, actually,” she revised. “Are you sure you should be out right now?”

“Released on my own recognizance,” he puffed, but quickly deflated under her stare. “Yeah, okay. So, released once I kept down some lunch,” he admitted. “I just wanted to give the lab a once over, make a few notes.”

“Right. Where we’d find you slumped over the workbench at dinner time because you lost track of the hour,” she chuckled at the indignant noise he made. “Varian, I know you. And, I know what you went through yesterday with that stuff - it could have killed you! May I remind you of the antidote you spent all afternoon and evening bringing up --”

“Okay, okay...keep pushing it, and you can see what I had for lunch, too,” Varian groused, looking decidedly uncomfortable and definitely too pale.

And darn it, she’d let her blunt mouth run away with her again. “See? All you need to be doing right now is taking it easy.”

She stepped behind him to take Varian by the shoulders and direct him toward the other end of the hall, toward the bath chambers. “THAT way. Go use those hot showers you made possible. If you still feel like you’ve got it in you to check your lab, then we’ll talk.”

He spluttered as she began pushing him across the floor, but she could tell he wasn’t putting up much resistance, physically. “I don’t have clean clothes…”

“I’ll bring you some. Go on.”

Varian planted his feet and glowered at her, but then his shoulders slumped in defeat. He threw a longing glance at the bath doors and looked back at her. “It....would feel nice…”

Cassandra smiled triumphantly. “Right?”

When he continued to look uncertain, she could tell he was at war with something he felt he needed to do and what he wanted to do. She frowned and reached out to touch his elbow, lowering her voice. “Hey. What’s got you so determined to push yourself right now?”

He was silent for a moment, then met her eyes. “I really should make some notes. I - I need a way to better track, and secure, my inventory,” he answered ruefully. “Yesterday was a reminder of the real danger in some of the work I do, and how imperative it is to protect the kingdom’s assets - both from misuse and misconstruction.”

While the solemnity of his response was reassuring, Cassandra couldn’t help but think Varian had completely overlooked another important aspect of the “kingdom’s assets” - his own well-being.

Security detail was one of her specialties, not his, and before she could second-guess herself, she suggested, “How about you get that shower, take a load off and rest. You could...tell me what’s going on in that big brain of yours, and I could write the notes down for you.”

Varian’s expression shifted so swiftly to surprise that Cassandra found herself back-pedaling in case she’d offered too much.

“I mean if you - if I -” she rolled her eyes with irritation at her bumbling and huffed, feeling her cheeks burn. “If you trusted me to.”

Varian’s eyes softened and the smile he gave her made her stomach do that weird thing again. His voice dropped. “Of course I trust you,” he reassured her, and then it was his turn to look embarrassed. He reached up to rub awkwardly at the back of his neck. “It’s just...you’ve done a lot already, you know? And this doesn’t really matter all that much to…”

“It matters to you.”

“Well, yes.”

“Then it matters to me.”

Varian blinked, confounded. “Wow, Cass - that was almost….touching. Eugene would ask if you hurt yourself.”

“GO,” she growled good-naturedly, punching him lightly in the arm.

Varian flinched playfully and wobbled, off-balance, but even as Cassandra steadied him with an apology, he only chuckled and assured her he was fine, at last giving in to her suggestion and plodding off to the bath chambers.

She had been right, too, after hurrying back with clean clothes from his chambers - while the hot water and steam had brought back some color to his face, it had also left him rather loose-limbed and, if possible, wearier. She took him by the arm and steered him toward the steps of the garden tower, prodding him along like a drunken villager to his rooms. They were cold and felt damp with all the rain, so she set to starting some kindling in the grate of the bedchamber to chase the chill away as Varian kicked off his boots then crawled into his bed and collapsed with a groan. The flames soon took hold and, after placing some larger logs, Cassandra glanced over her shoulder. Varian hadn’t moved.

Thunder rumbled outside and a gust of wind splattered rain more heavily against the window, but the chill was dissipating and heat was spreading out into the room, now. Cassandra poked at the logs for something to do, hoping that if she gave him enough time, Varian would drift off to sleep and actually rest. It would certainly do him a world of good. Her eyes wandered over the eclectic arrangement of artifacts and trinkets on the mantle; some of them she recognized, but others she did not. She tilted her head quizzically at a glass urn, filled with what looked like a marbled mixture of ash and sand, labeled with nothing more than sketched flames.

“Go ahead, open it,” Varian spoke drowsily. “Spread some of it across the fire.”

Cassandra threw him a wry, “why are you still awake?” look, but reached up to gingerly remove the jar, setting the lid on the mantle’s ledge. She pulled out a scoop of the fine granules and studied them more closely. They sparkled slightly in the light of the flames and she found herself curious, scattering them across the expanse of the grate. The powder sparked and popped, surprising her, but then the flames were suddenly awash with changing color, blazing from jewel-toned blues and greens to bright oranges and pinks.

“What is it?” she breathed, delighted as the flames continued a steady burn of flickering color.

“Just a mix I’m still trying to get right,” he replied, but she could hear the surprise in his voice at her interest. “Potassium and copper chloride, lithium chloride...some alum. Sugar and salt.”

Cassandra shook her head fondly at his list of mostly unknown, scientific ingredients, still mesmerized. “It’s beautiful.”

“Yes, it is,” he responded groggily, but she could feel his eyes on her, instead.

Cassandra felt her cheeks redden and she offered him a small smile, uncharacteristically self-conscious with the attention. She felt warm all over. “How are you feeling?” she asked finally, replacing the jar and coming to stand at the bedside.

Varian shrugged half-heartedly. “Eh. Head hurts a little, but it’s not too bad.”

Translation: enough for him to mention it, though. Cassandra frowned, tugging the covers from beneath him and pulling them up to his chest. She stepped over to his desk and plucked the blanket from the chair. It was obviously one Rapunzel had knitted for him, large and heavy and very soft, its colors mirroring that of Ruddiger’s fur. It...smelled faintly like Varian. She wrapped it around her shoulders and then, after a moment’s consideration, rummaged in the armoire for an extra pillow and situated herself beside him on the bed with a quill and one of the parchment books he kept on the table. Varian wriggled under the blankets and finally settled on his side, snuggled surprisingly - and comfortably, she realized - close to her hip.

“Okay, first things first,” she began, and Varian craned his neck to look up at her. “You need a better lock. Maybe more than one. And lock it every time you leave...even for just a few minutes.”

Varian hummed in agreement, nodding against the pillow. “I should talk with Xavier.”

“Noted. How often do you check inventory?”

“I…” Varian frowned. “Not enough,” he admitted ruefully.

“It seems redundant much of the time, I know,” Cassandra responded patiently, adding to the page, “Especially if you’re the only one in there and you’ve not left all day...but, I recommend it. Sometimes you catch discrepancies. We do the same with armor and munitions.”

“Makes sense,” Varian yawned.

Cassandra’s mouth twitched and she glanced down at him. “Line of sight,” she added quietly.

“What about it?” he asked, fighting to open his eyes again.

“We should rearrange your workspace so that your back isn’t to the door. So that you always have a line of sight when someone comes in.”

“I hadn’t thought of that...that’s a good idea.”

“We should also add a sentry. I’ll talk with Eugene about it.” She scribbled down a few more notes and he yawned again. “I think that’s enough for us to start with,” she assured him, leaning over and whispering, “Get some rest.”

“...Cass, could you….?” Varian stopped himself short, his cheeks turning pink as he burrowed into the pillow.

Cassandra set aside the parchment book and quill, brow furrowed. She tried to surmise what he could possibly have wanted or needed that would embarrass him so after everything he’d been through. Tentatively, she reached out to comb her fingers through the long fringe at his forehead and he sighed as if he had been waiting for exactly that... oh. When she’d done it for him the night before, he’d finally relaxed enough to let unconsciousness claim him. She could not help but smile now as it seemed to work again. He really was a tactile creature.

“How’s that?” she asked, her thumb circling gently at his temple.

“Mmm.”

“Mmm?”

There was barely a grunt, but he seemed to nestle in just a little bit closer. She sighed and sank into a more comfortable position, allowing her eyes to close for a respite. Just a brief one, she compromised with the part of herself that railed against the domesticity of the whole thing. The rain continued to patter at the window and it was warm, cozy, and... nice , she decided, with Varian tucked against her side and breathing deeply. She would slip out once Varian was asleep. Her fingers continued threading through his hair and he hadn’t stirred in the slightest. As she began to drift off, herself, Cassandra had one last thought before the morning sun would finally wake her hours later: that Euguene’s ridiculous grooming habits had worn off on Varian and she now had the perfect dig that would drive Eugene bonkers.

Varian’s hair was definitely thicker and softer.

22 notes · View notes

plutoniumpodium · 5 years ago

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So I guess I’m going to post more often on here. Honeslty I just kind of want to scream because I’ve got two hyperfixations going on at the same time and that is wiiild. Detroit Evolution is the first one because wow that film was amazing and the first time I watched it I was stimming so hard. That’s been going on since it came out. Then I started binge watching to catch up on Tangled the series. I’ve been watching on and off for around two years, mostly just for the Varian content. Honeslty Varian is the hyperfixation, not really the show in general. He’s animated so well, and I love his story line along with how they sort of convey his emotions. I could talk about both Varian and Detroit Evolution literally all day.

#hyperfixation #detroid become human #detroit evolution #disney tangled

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whaleiumsharkspeare · 4 years ago

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Hi there! I just wanted to say that I love your blog! I'm always looking dor more tts content (there just isnt enough on this site :( ) so thanks for helping to keep the tangles fandom alive! Do you know any group chats or anything like that for tangled that i could join to know more people in the fandom? Its ok if you dont but just in case :) I hope you have a great day!

Hi! Thanks for your sweet compliment! I’m glad that you enjoy my content! It’s always my goal to make people smile on here :)

As a matter of fact, I’m a part of a great Tangled group chat and I have made such great Tumblr friends by being a part of it. It’s called Just Varian Things (because we’re all big Varian fans, ha!) but we can talk about Tangled things in general. I’ll tag the owner of the chat here in this post so they’ll see you but it’s a real nice community, both the chat and the Tangled fandom in general.

Thanks again for stopping by and I really hope that you’ve been enjoying yourself!

@newsies-of-corona (chat owner)

#ask whaley #whaley answers #tangled the series #rapunzels tangled adventure #just varian things

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lostinthewinterwood · 4 years ago

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Heart Attack 2020

Hey friend!

Looks like you and I both like to write like the wind and suffer in the process, so without further ado, let’s go :D

Also, oops, my habit of procrastination has caught up with me… sorry about that! Here’s a letter now at least…

General DNW

non-con/dub-con;

explicit sexual content;

incest (incl. adoptive/chosen family);

a/b/o;

mpreg;

non-canonical permanent major character death;

complete downer endings;

hurt no comfort;

heavy angst;

on-page deliberate self-harm*;

on-page suicide;

gore;

graphic physical trauma;

character bashing;

cringe comedy;

fic-as-writer-soapbox;

fic that’s all about real-world bigotries or real-world politics;

canon-typical 2020;

unrequested full-setting AUs;

unrequested identity headcanons;

unrequested romance as the main plot.

*I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. However, something like cutting would not be appreciated.

*****

General Likes

– I really like plotty fics

– Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better.

– Crossdressing for whatever reason and gender disguises, also for whatever reason, though not as a fetish thing—that I enjoy less.

– Time travel and time loops are always fun, especially as a fix-it. I have a general preference for Peggy Sue style (aka, an older character getting put back in their younger body at an earlier point in the timeline) over the character’s physical body stepping back in time, but either one is good.

– A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together

– Found family; families of choice

– Character studies

– Worldbuilding

– Canon-divergence AUs and missing scenes; things set pre- or post-canon; wriggling into canon and poking at it to see what it spits back at you, if that description makes any sense at all.

*****

wherein i request a time-travel canon and mostly don't request time travelers [art and fic]

Mother of Learning - nobody103

· Alanic Zosk & Silverlake (Mother of Learning)

· Zach Noveda & None (Mother of Learning)

· Kirielle Kazinski & Zorian Kazinski (Mother of Learning)

· Kirielle Kazinski & None (Mother of Learning)

· Raynie & Kiana (Mother of Learning)

· Neoluma-Manu Iljatir & Zach Noveda (Mother of Learning)

· Alanic Zosk & Xvim Chao (Mother of Learning)

fandom-specific dnw: romantic and/or sexual Zach/Zorian; physical parental abuse within the Kazinski family; significant exaggeration of canonical emotional neglect/abuse/general family dysfunction

Prompts:

If you want to write an AU, you can consider any AU requested for AUEx for Mother of Learning, as listed here, to be requested in this exchange as well, even if the requested characters aren’t requested there, as long as it isn’t written as purely mundane.

I’ve written a fair few Mother of Learning prompts already; if you want to see me going off more about things, especially for Kirielle, please see the Mother of Learning section of my Gen Freeform Ex letter here. If you don’t want to click through, though, here’s a bit of things.

Kirielle, Kirielle & Zorian:

If you want to focus on Kirielle’s relationship with someone who isn’t Zorian, for Kirielle and Nochka, they’re adorable and I’d love a further development of their friendship, especially getting to see it grow and develop over the months and years after the invasion. If you want to write about Kiri and Zach, these two seem to have a lot of fun teaming up against Zorian lol, I really enjoy their dynamic and how they play off each other. For Kirielle and Zorian, I love their dynamic! And again here I’d really enjoy seeing their relationship developing in real time, rather than a constantly looping world. I think it would be great to see either of them defending the other to their parents—and maybe Zorian ends up with custody of Kiri, there’s definitely things to explore there.

For Kirielle by herself, I’d love some sort of character study—what does she do now that the time loop is over? She’s growing up into a war; will she be a mage? An artist? Something else? Alternatively—what if she got pulled into the loop; what would it be like to grow older while still looking nine?

Zach, Zach & Neolu:

Assuming you don’t go for a setting AU, I’d generally prefer something set at least in part after the time loop begins, but beyond that I don’t have a strong preference for where in the timeline this might be set. Maybe something from before Zorian got looped in—maybe one of the iterations where Zach and Neolu just went off across the country having fun the whole month? Zach doing whatever, possibly very early on, or maybe him freaking out a little because what the hell, time travel is supposed to be impossible, and yet—what did he do in the start?

Or for post-canon, I’d really like an exploration of Zach, who’s got the lived-time of a middle-aged man and the body of a teenager—how does he relate to his classmates/other people in the real world, where everyone’s growing again? Maybe something about his lawsuit against his caretaker, or just a little thing with him, Zorian, and How Do You Live Normally, Again? This Is Hard, or some such thing.

Raynie & Kiana:

Me? Latching onto a minor character in a big sprawling canon? It’s more likely than you think!

Anyway I like Raynie a lot; we don’t get a whole lot on her, but what we do get paints her as someone who’s having a very interesting life of her own, utterly divorced from the timeloop shenanigans (except re: the shifter children thing).

I like her and Kiana’s friendship, too; I like how when we finally see more of them both we learn more about how they’re similar and different.

For specific prompts, if you want to go pre-canon I’d really love something with her initial going to Cyoria and how she befriended Kiana in the first place (or, perhaps more likely, how Kiana befriended her; I somehow doubt that Raynie age 13, recently semi-exiled from her tribe, was particularly in search of outsider friends).

For post-canon, really, anything dealing with the fallout of all the things that go down in the real world would be fantastic too.

Alanic & Silverlake, Alanic & Xvim:

I’ve grouped these because they both have to do with Alanic, but really they’re not very similar prompts.

For Alanic and Silverlake I’d be very interested in something to do with Alanic’s backstory; Silverlake knew him as a young necromancer, so… what happened there? How did they know each other? Why was Alanic set on becoming a necromancer; clearly he got far enough to have soul sight himself—how’d he get that? Why did he leave the necromancer’s path to become a priest?

For Alanic and Xvim, I dunno, this seemed fun? They’re both part of the “annoying but ultimately helpful teacher” club to Zorian, and they get along well with each other—gonna admit I don’t fully remember what goes down for them in the final, real-world iteration, but. They’re both a lot of fun and they play off each other well; just go wild here. I’m down for it if you are.

*****

mostly found family and similar vibes here lbr [art and fic]

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)

· Cassandra & Varian (Disney: Tangled)

· Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Red | Catalina (Disney: Tangled)

· Angry | Keira & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider (Disney: Tangled)

· Cassandra & Red | Catalina (Disney: Tangled)

· Cassandra & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider (Disney: Tangled)

· Angry | Keira & Red | Catalina & Lance Strongbow (Disney: Tangled)

· Angry | Keira & Red | Catalina (Disney: Tangled)

fandom-specific notes: Cass's canonical injured hand/arm that canon just kind of... forgets about and doesn't ever address after it's introduced is totally fair game; I'd love something that addressed that, just nothing too graphic about the original injury please. Dnw fic which explicitly breaks up Rapunzel/Eugene.

Prompts:

So, overall, I just love this show a lot? It’s just so wholesome and heartfelt and hopeful? Anything you write which can grab that vibe I’ll probably enjoy tbh.

But! Onwards to specifics!

Cass & Varian, Cass & Catalina, Cass & Eugene:

This is my “team betrayed Rapunzel and/or ill-advisedly trusted a blue spirit in the woods and/or died for her before being resurrected” group lol, and I’d love something that explores one of those things; canon gives us a little bit of that between Cass and Varian in the form of “Nothing Left to Lose,” but it doesn’t really address it after they’ve both found their way back; I’d love something post-canon for any of these pairs, after Cass has finally got her act together and they can start learning to deal with all of it. Sharing their experiences! Figuring out how to emotionally process the bad (or good-but-with-unfortunate-consequences-even-if-only-temporary) decisions you made! I’m here for it.

Eugene & Angry, Eugene & Catalina, Angry & Catalina, Angry & Catalina & Lance:

All the found family! If you’re just dealing with Angry and Catalina, I’d take anything at any point in the timeline tbh—how did they meet? When and how did they start thieving together? What did they do between their major appearances in the show? If you go post-canon—how do they work out their new lives with Lance? They’ve been living on their own for at least two years, probably longer; how do they learn to let go and let someone else take care of them? And for either (or both tbh) of them with Eugene—former child-thieves, reformed because of Rapunzel! He doesn’t have any parental-style authority over them; how do they relate to him as opposed to Lance, in a post-canon world?

*****

superhero time babey [art and fic]

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020) [SAFETY]

· Matteo & Roxana & Sam & Tuma (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

· January & Matteo & Roxana & Tuma & Sam (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

· Mike Kleinberg & Sam (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

· Eleanor & None (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

· Catherine & Eleanor & Sam (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

· January & Sam (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

· Eleanor & Sam (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

· Worldbuilding & None (Secret Society of Second-Born Royals)

Fandom-specific dnw: January as purely, irredeemably evil; absolute monarchy as unambiguously purely good.

Fandom-specific note: since I’m directly asking for politics in the worldbuilding option, it would be a bit silly to fully dnw real-world politics in this real-world-adjacent setting. Don’t worry about referencing real politics if that’s where you go with your fic; however, I would rather any focused-on politics be filtered through the context of the fictional countries the film uses, and please don’t reference real-world American politics post-2015. “unrequested full setting aus” dnw has been modified to “unrequested mundane aus” so if you want to, idk, put them in a fairytale au or a sports-but-still-have-powers au or something—go right ahead.

Prompts:

So, I enjoyed this silly little movie quite a lot—the characters were a lot of fun! I love them all! I really mostly just want more of them tbh. If you want an overarching theme—I would adore time travel here, even more than I normally do. Time loops especially are just… perfection.

Matteo & Roxana & Sam & Tuma, January & Matteo & Roxana & Tuma & Sam:

Team fic! Team fic! Team fic! For these two sets, I’d love something about the whole team—of course—doing team-y things. You could set it in the summer, before shit goes down in the climax; or you could set it after—they’re going after January, of course. What happens when they finally catch up to her? What do they do? How do they all process the relevant emotions of having been betrayed? Do we catch a redemption arc?

Mike & Sam:

These two are such good friends! I like their friendship a lot, and I’d love to see more of it. Something fun would be pre-canon—how did they meet? What led them to start their band? How much traction does their band have, really? Or post-canon—even having forgiven her, it’s got to be a lot to deal with, your best friend turning out to not just be a princess, but a superhero princess, while you’re just… a groundskeeper’s son(?).

Eleanor, Eleanor & Sam, Catherine & Eleanor & Sam:

Family times! There’s a lot of tension and secrets here, have been for a long time; tell me how they come to deal with it all and learn to live with each other better than they have been before the film—or give me backstory! How did things end up spiraling this far down?

January & Sam:

I’d love to have something dealing with January’s PoV on the events of the film, or Sam’s PoV on January; more fun with secrets and betrayals! (Fun for the audience at least; maybe less fun for these two though.) They got pretty close, after all—how did that have January feeling? Did she second-guess herself over that? How about Sam—she was the one betrayed by her new friend, after all. If you want to see me talking more about just January, check out my Yuletide letter here.

Worldbuilding:

Okay, so, I really did like this movie, so I say this affectionately, but… to call the worldbuilding here flimsy would be to, well, imply that it had bothered doing any worldbuilding whatsoever, and that’s not quite accurate, now is it? To be clear, I do think this was probably a good decision, given that the movie is dedicated to superhero funtimes, not How The Hell Is This Happening, but it does leave me with so very many questions. For being a movie all about royalty, this movie is almost allergic to actually engaging any of the politics it hints at, what with the presented sides being “monarchy good” and “terrorism is fine actually”; if you want to write about the politics of the world these characters live in, by all means go ahead! For example, how did they manage to be a Western European absolute monarchy all the way to the present day? I’d love to see that, or anything like it really, explored. Other worldbuilding I’d be interested in includes an exploration of the “gene” which… somehow… manifests exclusively in second-born children of royal bloodlines—does this include bastard children? What counts as a royal bloodline? What happens when one of the superhero royal children has to ascend the throne? Why only the second-born? Is it really genetic at all, or is it some sort of magic? If not magic, then wtaf is going on in the genetics of this world, I have to know more.

*****

disguise shenaniganery and/or PUNS

Original Work [SAFETY]

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Student Warrior Disguised as a Boy (M/F)

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Fellow Student Mage (M/F)

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & Male Student Warrior (M & M)

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & His Older Female Mentor (M & F)

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & Female Student Warrior Disguised as a Boy (M & F)

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & Female Fellow Student Mage (M & F)

· Child Superhero & Their Concerned Supervillain Nemesis (Any & Any)

· Spellsword Mercenary & Mathemagician (Any & Any)

fandom-specific dnw: age gaps in ships of more than 3 or so years when one character is underage; predatory manipulation between characters in the relationship in service of the relationship–if characters are manipulating each other for non-relationship things and such that’s okay, but i’d rather both parties in any of the ships be interested in the romance of their own accord. Additionally, please don’t have characters react to any gender-disguised characters (or characters in general, but it’s most relevant to them) in transphobic or transphobic-adjacent ways (i.e. none of the characters are requested as trans, but I still wouldn’t want to see the kinds of comments people make about trans people aimed at them). I’d also rather not see any kind of serious relationship with at least one character disguising their gender pre-reveal of that disguise–flirting, starting to date a little is okay but if it’s going further please have them reveal it. Please don’t play into the idea of gender-disguised character as “trap”.

also dnw characters requested as gender-disguised to be written as trans or to be written as absolutely loathing their disguise. other characters are fair game. if writing trans characters, dnw them to be explicitly nondysphoric (but not addressing it is fine).

fandom-specific note: the “setting au” dnw obviously does not apply here; my typical “identity headcanon” au dnw has been replaced by a dnw for “marginalized identities as the main focus of a fic” since there isn’t exactly a canon here lol.

If you’re a lovely friend who wants to do treats, I’d be totally on board for art treats for this section; however, I haven’t requested them as actual fills.

Prompts:

All of these are fun groupings that, I think, imply both setting and some amount of plot; but I’ll have some more specific prompts anyway. Overall I like all sorts of settings; all of my requested pairs imply some amount of speculative elements in the setting, but beyond that it’s all up to you. Just-left-of-modern? Ancient China but with magic? IN SPACE? Whatever you want to do, go for it.

Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl &/Whoever:

Look, I’m a sucker for identity/disguise shenanigans, and I love gender disguises, and for all the books I read as a kid featuring girls disguising themselves as boys to do [insert restricted activity here], I never saw its natural inverse; this is a travesty and must be corrected for. Anything playing into this whole trope/idea is just chef’s kiss, I promise you I’ll love it.

Child Superhero & Their Concerned Supervillain Nemesis:

Another favorite dynamic of mine! I love supervillains getting tricked into that semi-parental role where they’re like “hang on I may be a supervillain and a criminal but you’re a child where are your parents what are you doing here,” it’s quite possibly the Best dynamic I have yet encountered in superhero fiction… even if I haven’t actually encountered it all that much.

Spellsword Mercenary & Mathemagician:

Okay, I’ll admit that I mostly nominated and requested this for the pun potential. But I think there’s also quite a lot of implicit lore you could really dig into; what kind of world is this, where magic can be imbued in or used through swords, but can also be related to mathematics? Tell me more about it! How do these two know each other? Are they both shamelessly, pundamentally invested in wordplay as well as their actual jobs? If you’re looking for more plot-implying ideas, I would be super down if you wanted to map this onto one of my other origfic requests (but no pressure lol).

#exchange letters #heart attack exchange #requested: art #requested: fic #requested: mother of learning #requested: rapunzel's tangled adventure #requested: secret society of second-born royals #requested: original work

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bestworstcase · 4 years ago

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N but specifically your favorite fanfiction?

N - Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor

in general: is it egotistical of me to say that... it’s me, i’m my favorite fan author. ckvhkdhkfs Who Else is going to write the supremely self indulgent stories i want to read?

(esp because... tbh, the vast majority of fic writers in the tangled fandom are not writing the kind of content that i’m interested in; i don’t care for fluff or hurt/comfort, i’m not big on plotless oneshots in general, most plotted cassunzel content is ot3, and i like varian but not to a degree where i’m actively seeking fic About Him. also on the rare occasion that zhan tiri shows up in a fic i’m excruciatingly picky about how she’s characterized. and this is absolutely not a dig at anyone else in the fandom—there are many, many skilled writers out there, they’re just not writing fic that matches my very specific and somewhat narrow set of fic-reading interests.)

a n y w a y

my favorite tangled fanfiction is strings by pathygen (@thequietspaces on tumblr) she and i basically became friends like this:

#Anonymous

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alchemyready · 5 years ago

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RULES UPDATE! Mostly just some rewording, but a couple of things have been added here and there as well. I will be putting this on the rules page, but I’m posting it here first.

Feel free to like or reply to this post if you read them, but it’s not required!

Under the cut ‘cause y’know, long post.

ILLEGAL THINGS ON THIS BLOG:

1. This blog is PG-13, meaning that NSFW is an absolute no and I would prefer swearing to be kept to a minimum in interactions directed at me. If you have either of these things on your blog that's fine, just please make sure NSFW is tagged properly.

As for swearing, I won't make you tag it (I have the words themselves blocked in most cases) but I would prefer that you refrain from heavy swearing when you're talking to me directly. This goes for OOC interactions and IC ones.

Both of these rules are for my comfort, plus I'm currently a minor as of 4/5/2020, and so is Varian in most if not all verses.

2. I'm currently not open to romantic shipping. I'm not neccesarily against shipping, but I'd rather not get caught up in some of the drama that goes along with it. There's certain ships and types of ships I'm not comfortable doing, so I've chosen not to do any at all.

This may or may not change in the future, but if I open myself up to shipping with Varian it will be slow and I'll want to come to you first.

However, one thing I will never budge on is that I do not ship Varian with Cassandra or Rapunzel. Both of them are far too old for him. I do believe he had a one-sided puppy love crush on Cass in season one, which will remain in my portrayal, but that's as far as I'll ever take it. Otherwise, it's just not happening.

3. Hate, drama, or rudeness is absolutely a no-no for me. Directed towards me or anybody else. If you're the type of person to send hate to anyone, or to be rude to anyone, this is not the blog for you. I won't tolerate that at all.

I ask that you not rush me for responses. I do my best, but my muse can be very finicky at times and as a result things may sit in my drafts for awhile before I can respond to them. When I have high muse, I'll usually reply the same day, but if I'm dealing with writer's block it could even take me up to a month in certain cases.

Now, I will say that you're free to ask me if it's been over two weeks, because sometimes I will drop things as well. I'll let you know if I've dropped our thread, just make sure you're being nice about it when you ask.

4. Please don't reblog my threads if you're not the person I'm roleplaying with, and don't like my starter calls if you're a personal. This is mostly just to keep things clean on the blog and in my notifs, and while I'm personally not terribly disturbed by it, most people don't want their roleplays spread all over the website outside of the RPC.

5. Normal roleplaying rules apply- don't godmod, powerplay, etc etc. Generally don't try and control my character for me (small things such as assuming mine follows yours are okay, as well as establishing the situation in starters) and please ask before you kill him.

(spoiler alert: nine times out of ten i'll say yes 'cause i'm an angst fiend, but i'd still prefer you to ask first!)

THINGS I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO DO:

These aren't really requirements, but rather suggestions.

1. I'd appreciate it if you'd cut your posts, and turn asks into new posts rather than reblogging them directly. This is just to keep my blog and dash clean. If you don't do these things for whatever reason, then I'll do it for you in our threads! But I do encourage you to do this.

2. I'd also highly reccomend you have some knowledge of Tangled the Series before following me. This doesn't neccesarily mean you have to watch it (although it's a great show and you totally should) but I would prefer you to know enough not to be totally lost when we try to RP. This is both for my sake and your own.

3. Read all of my about pages. Both my verses page and headcanons / relationships pages have some important information on them, and I would appreciate it if you would check them out. Obviously the rules as well, but you're already reading those!

WHO I'LL INTERACT WITH:

I consider this blog to be selective, mostly with crossovers and OCs. I am especially picky with fandoms I'm not in / familar with and OCs. Not to say I won't RP with them, but if I can't figure out how our characters might interact, I won't follow back.

THAT BEING SAID, I'm still not mutuals only. I may not follow you back right away, but we can still totally try out roleplaying with eachother. If it works out, I'll go ahead and follow you, and if not this may not be the right blog for you.

I also will not do threads with personals. You're always free to send me asks and such, but long lasting interactions are limited to roleplay blogs only. Please let me know if your RP blog is a sideblog, otherwise I will assume you're just a personal.

Also, on my end, I don't send in passwords. I have social anxiety and it makes me nervous. But rest assured I always read people's rules before I follow or follow back! I may even ask you for your rules if I can't find them, in IMs if you followed me first or in your asks on anon if I'm following first.

BLOG CONTENT AND TAGGING:

Okay so, one thing you should definitely know before following me: I'm an angst fiend. I always have been, always will be. Varian also tends to be a heavy character in general due to the things that happened to him over the course of the series.

I personally don't have any triggers, and will write things such as death and violence, and occasionally suicide / self harm IF my rp partner is comfortable with it and it makes sense to happen in the thread. However this is very rare and will ALWAYS be tagged.

I tag every common trigger with the 'tw: (trigger here)' format. If you need something specific tagged that I'm not tagging already, you're free to let me know! You're also free to let me know if I forget to tag something and don't fix it.

I'm only human, and things like that do happen sometimes.

While I personally don't have any direct triggers, there are a few things I'd like you to tag for my own comfort. These are:

NSFW, visual gore, politics, negativity / venting, drama, and discussions of serious irl diseases and conditions.

The only one of these that I will unfollow you for if it's untagged is NSFW. The rest I'll tolerate as long as it's not extremely frequent.

The only thing here that's close to a trigger is the last one. I suffer from hypochondria / health anxiety and occasionally discussions like that can cause it to flare up, but usually only if I'm already worrying about the thing that's being discussed.

- - -

And with that, you’ve officially read my rules! Congrats. Thanks for reading through them all, and I hope to RP with you soon!<3

#be very afraid | the queen has returned (ooc)#just a few lab repairs | blog update #extremely supervised lab tour | blog info #//me? posting important things extremely late at night again? MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK.#//it's okay i'll reblog it at a sane time tomorrow

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annelixa · 4 years ago

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Trust Chapter 20

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Can also be read on AO3

Summary: Cassandra seeks Varian shortly after she stole the Moonstone so that she can use his intellectual gifts. Lucky for her, no one seems to be telling him what happened at the Dark Kingdom and he still sees her as the wise and trusted person he always knew. Utilizing that image of herself, she takes him for herself while under the guise of protection.

Fandom: Tangled the Series

Before the Sun had risen, the Saporians had joined the strange girl in the large automaton. Once again the large blue stone was shown to the group.

“This will give you control of the Brotherhood of the Dark Kingdom,” she explained, handing it to Andrew. “They will fight tirelessly for you, turning against previous alliances or relationships. Not even family will be spared from their wrath. Take care of it. If it is broken, the influence will be lost.” She started for the machine’s controls but paused and turned back. “Oh, and your dear alchemist’s father is in that Brotherhood.” She walked away. “Do with that information as you will.”

A dark smile spread across Andrew’s face and he glanced at the boy who was still asleep in the corner. He would deal with him later. Right now, he had a coup to start.

Joining the girl at the front of the machine, he sat beside her. Following his directions, she steered the monstrosity to a nearby village. Weeks before, Andrew had sent word to the other disgruntled residents of Corona and those sympathetic to the Saporian cause. His letters had told them of the coming attack and that, if they should want to join the revolt, to gather in the small village. The previous night, Clementine had been sent to alert the people that the time had come and if they still wanted to take part, they needed to gather in the town square at daybreak.

The machine stopped and the hatch in the back opened to let those inside jump out. Landing in the square, Andrew was pleased to see that a small crowd was waiting for them. About 50 people were standing quietly, waiting for him to speak.

“Friends!” he called, taking a few steps closer. “I’m thrilled to see that you all want to join us in our noble crusade! We have plenty of supplies for you, crafted by Corona’s own little alchemist. He has generously prepared them so that our uprising will be unstoppable.” Behind him, the other Saporians dragged out the crates that Varian had carefully packaged. “Come forward and receive your armaments.” The group lined up and received plenty of weapons from the supply. Letting the others handle the dispersal, he hopped back into the automaton. He had already taken his share of the supply, a fully stocked alchemy belt over his shoulder while a sword and a coiled whip were strapped to his hips. “Things are going better than I expected,” he told the girl as he rejoined her.

“Did you believe your plan would fail?”

“Of course not.” Once again, he turned to look at the alchemist. “What are we going to do with him?”

Rising to her feet gracefully, the girl approached the sleeping boy.

“Don’t worry,” she replied, gently reaching out to the touch him. “I shall keep him here so he can’t escape.” Focusing on the Moonstone she had hidden on her wrist, she created black rock manacles around his wrists that attached to the pipe running along the wall that he was leaning against. Grinning at her success, she also attached a black rock chain to the collar Cassandra had stupidly forgotten to remove. Satisfied that he would be unable to move for that spot, she draped two strips of cloth on the collar around his neck. If he tried to get loud, he wouldn’t be for long. She faced the Saporian again. “You will lead the invasion and I will control this machine, following your orders.”

Crossing his arms, Andrew frowned.

“Why does the kid stay with you?” he demanded. “What if I want my old buddy with me?”

Trying not to lose her patience, the girl took a deep breath.

“If you believe having him at your side would be for the best, then by all means go ahead. However, who will repair this machine if it starts to malfunction?”

“I will command the machine,” he argued back.

The man was stubborn, too dedicated to his cause. That wasn’t the worst quality though. It was the trait that she could control, similar to how Cassandra’s wish for recognition was her folly.

Stepping closer, she kept her voice calm.

“That would be a fine choice. I must ask though, do you know how to operate this machine?” His face flushed at her words. Realizing something, he opened his mouth but she continued. “The alchemist cannot operate it for you. If he was allowed to be in charge, he would sabotage your attack. Even if it killed him, he would do so. You know this to be true.” Placing her hand on his arm to soothe him, she smiled. “And if you are in here, who will lead your troops?”

She knew she had him cornered, the frustrated realization crossing his face.

“Fine.” He stomped out of the hatch. “You control the machine and follow my orders.”

Smirking, she replied, “Of course.” Once he was back in the square, she closed the hatch. The sounds of the alchemist waking reached her ears and she stepped in front of him. “And now for you.”

Drowsy, Varian yawned and blinked slowly. The room was dark and fuzzy so he reached his hand up to rub his eyes. After a moment, he noticed that his hand couldn’t reach. Confused, he looked around and noticed the unfamiliar surroundings. This wasn’t the cottage or the tower. Had he escaped? No. That couldn’t be it. He had never seen this place before. As he pondered, he tried to reach his eyes again and finally realized the problem; his wrists were chained to something behind him.

“What the…?” he muttered, pulling against his bonds.

“Good morning, dear alchemist,” the girl called warmly, moving into his line of sight.

“What? Who are you?” The girl seemed oddly familiar but he couldn’t figure out where he had seen her. Suddenly it hit him. He reached out, trying to point at her, but only succeeded in bruising his wrists as the manacles firmly held him in place. “You! You were in my dream! Why are you here?! Where am I?!”

Patting his head, she smiled brightly.

“Very good, sweet boy.” He jerked his head away from her. He wasn’t a dog and he wasn’t going to let this odd girl treat him like one. “Cassandra has decided to forgo her destiny but I found a group more than willing to follow the path. I believe they are old friends of yours?”

Feeling dread growing in his stomach, he quietly asked, “The Saporians…?”

Again, the girl patted his head, Varian glaring at her.

“You truly are clever, aren’t you, child? It’s quite impressive for someone of your young age.” The compliment did nothing to quell the unease the alchemist was feeling. “Yes, the Saporians. They are rather eager to destroy Corona.” She leaned forward, only inches away from his face. Uncomfortable with the sudden closeness, Varian tried to slide away but his back was already flush with the pipe behind him. “From what I understand, you were once more than willing to help them with that goal. Isn’t that correct, dear alchemist?”

Ashamed of his past, he turned away.

“That…that was a different time,” he tried to defend. “I’ve done better since then. I’ve been better!”

Seizing the opening, the girl tsked sadly and sat beside him. Varian scooted as far away as he could but she wasn’t dissuaded. Instead, she reached out and cupped his cheek, gently turning his face back to her with a sympathetic look.

“I know how hard you’ve been trying to do better but are you truly? All those weapons you made for Cassandra are now in the hands of dozens of angry people. Can you honestly say that is the success you were aiming for?” Unable to pull out of her grasp, he settled for simply glaring at her and trying not to let her words phase him. “You allowed Cassandra to steal you away, holding you prisoner and manipulating you into creating such dangerous items.” Varian tried to defend himself, indignant that she would even think to say something like that, but she just shushed him and rubbed his cheek with her thumb. “There there. I know it’s difficult to look back on your actions but can you truly believe that you had no idea what she was doing? That you didn’t follow her because you still wish harm and vengeance on Corona?”

“I…I…”

Did he want to do that? His mind screamed obviously not but his heart was wavering. He never asked for proof of the war she had spoken of so frequently. He had been content for so long to just continue creating. Had his previous friendship blinded him to what he was doing or had he known all along and tried to suppress it? He thought he wanted to be better, to make up for his mistakes, but did he actually want Corona to fall?

Noticing his distress, the girl pulled away.

“I will let you consider. I apologize for troubling you.”

She returned to the machine’s controls and grinned. He was just as easy to manipulate as all the others. Out of the glass in front of her, she noticed that all the people had been armed and were waiting on horses or in carts. Andrew was motioning for them to move out from his place in a balloon. Quickly starting the machine, she followed. The beast could easily overtake them all but she kept it moving slowly, wanting to let them reach the capital first. Behind her, she could hear the boy muttering to himself but she tuned it out.

Within an hour, the group could see the many buildings of the island city. Those riding in the carts jumped out, drawing their weapons and charged forward with those on horseback. Again she followed slowly until the machine was on the other side of the bridge. Once there, she could see how the people were already closing in on the palace. With a wide grin, the girl moved the arm of the automaton to crash into the nearest building. That would surely alert someone to the invasion. Stalking forward, she kept smashing the arms into buildings as the machine approached the palace. Guards scurried out, trying to fend off the attackers but were slowly being overpowered by the angry crowd. Some were slashing at them with swords or maces while others were using Varian’s various chemical compounds. Yells of surprise reached her ears as Adira and Hector blocked the castle’s entrance, preventing any from entering or escaping.

“Yes,” she whispered, full of a savage happiness.

Corona would fall.

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