#Tangled The Series AU | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

the-star-knight · 4 days ago

Text

Tales Of A Star

Summary: A retelling of the show through Star’s eyes

Star is young teenager, daughter to one of the Queen’s handmaiden and the royal stable keeper, when the long lost princess has soon to be held coronation, she comes across a magical stone. Unknowingly of how this is her destiny, she soon finds out that this gem turns her world on its head, giving her a sword, armor, and a duty she must carry: protecting the Kingdom of Corona.

Chapter 14 - Goodbye and Goodwill

Author’s Note: After over a year since the last chapter was posted, I finally finished this one haha. I only really post a chapter for an episode rewrite if I deemed that there's enough Star involvement for it. This one is a lil bit longer than what I would like for these chapter. It's 3.7K

Word Count: 3,701

◀ Previous Chapter || Next Chapter ▶︎

“I can’t express just how much this time in Vardaros means to us, '' Rapunzel said with a smile. “We may have come here as strangers but I'd like to think we’re leaving as friends. So in the spirit of the friendship we would like to share a Corona tradition with all of you. I’m proud to announce the first annual Vardaros Goodwill Festival!”

Banners rolled down with a picture of a gopher, very similar to the ones we had in Corona for our own Goodwill Festivals.

Unlike our own Goodwill Festival, this announcement was met with silence, which to me, it was expected. From the start, Vardaros was not a city where lots of people would be thrilled to see a celebration focused on kindness and goodwill.

“Boo!” man yells amidst the few scattered people who were even remotely interested in what Rapunzel had to say. In total there were about eight people and I counted.

Continue reading on AO3 or continue under the cut ⬇︎

“Yeah, I got booed at last year’s festival, too,” Rapunzel whispered to us, probably thinking it was a good sign. “Don’t worry, this is going to be fantastic!”

Something was thrown onto the banner. I turned around and it was a tomato splat all over the banner.

Not sure how confident Rapunzel is about this idea after that.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

“It’s great that you wanna do this, Raps,” Cassandra said to Rapunzel, “but this town isn’t like Corona. They don’t feel the need to celebrate something every six seconds.”

“You should really listen to Cass,” Vex suggested. “Vardarans aren’t really the ‘goodwill�� kind of crowd.”

“I hate goodwill, ya clod!” A cranky old lady yelled out as she walked past us, validating Cassandra’s point.

“I know people here are a little rougher around the edges but they deserve to have a good time.”

“Are you sure everyone shares your idea of what makes a good time?” Cass asked, concerned of what Rapunzel was thinking of. “Look, not one person has signed up for the gopher grab. Which might not be a bad thing since we don’t have a gopher.”

“She’s right, Rapunzel.” I added.

“Hey, don’t worry about that. I’ve got my two best gopher hunters on the job. I’m sure they're out there snagging a gopher as we speak.”

That really didn’t satisfy me, and Eugene apparently as well, since we’re referring to Hookfoot and Lance. Both had already left to the woods to capture a gopher and hadn’t come back.

“Probably, you know we may actually wanna cancel the gopher grab,” he suggested.

“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea.” I agreed.

“It’ll be tough to find a gopher here. This is sneezeweasel country.” Vex said.

“I’m sorry, what's a sneezeweasel?” Cass asked.

“It’s a mammalian omnivore indigenous to this region whose primary diet is gophers, mice, and voles,” Shorty burped out.

We all exchanged a surprised look. We all knew that Shorty, isn’t all there so him blurting out something coherent, and even intelligent almost, was surprising to say the least,

“Um, Shorty, how do you know so much about sneezeweasel?” Eugene asked.

“I used to be one!” Shorty replied.

“Oh, that’s better,” Eugene said in relief. There was the Shorty we all knew.

“Look! Someone’s signing up for the Gopher Grab!” Rapunzel jumped as she saw someone approach the sign up sheet.

“And you thought the good cheer wouldn’t catch on,” Rapunzel turned to Cassandra.

“Actually, he’s stealing your quill,” Cassandra corrected.

We all turned around to see the man approaching the sign up sheet, took the quill and ran off with it.

Yeah, that makes more sense, I thought to myself.

Cassandra chased the man. She manages to tackle him. What I didn’t expect was Cass yelling at him to force him to sign up. A crowd started to gather around Cassandra.

“Anyone else wanna wrestle me for the pen?” Cassandra said vigorously. “You lose your sign up!”

The crowd cheers her on and for the upcoming moments were just a blur of Cassandra physically fighting anyone who was willing to fight her one on one.

Next thing we knew, we ended up in the Captain’s office.

“Captain, I know why you wanna see us and I’m sure it wasn’t Cass’ intention to injure sixteen people…” Rapunzel began.

“Uh, It was twenty-three,” Vex corrected.

“It’s just that—”

“Rapunzel, I haven’t seen folks that excited in years. Nice job.” Captain said with a huge smile on his face. “When you told me about this Goodwill nonsense, I thought that this feel-good garbage is not gonna fly here. But that’s before I saw what Cass had up her sleeve.”

We stood there in shock. That wasn’t the reaction I don’t think anyone was expecting.

If anything, I thought we would get a strong reprimand from the Captain, at the very least. Then again, every single person that fought Cass, was weirdly eager to fight her. This place was definitely the strangest place that I have ever been.

“Uh, to be clear, that wasn’t an official festival event.” Rapunzel pointed out.

“Well, it should’ve been!” The Captain impeded.

“You should have Cass plan all your events,” Vex suggested.

“Huh, actually that’s not such a bad idea. I mean I know this party stuff isn’t your strong suit, but it would be fun to work together. What do you say? You wanna be my co-planner?” Rapunzel asked Cassandra.

”Ha! Me? Co-planning a festival?” Cass laughed, but then she paused for a moment. “Hm, why not?”

“Great!” Rapunzel gleamed.

“Can I help?” Vex offered.

“Of course you can!”

”I was actually asking Cass.” Vex walked out with Cass.

“Uh, I can help too, Rapunzel,” I muttered out, just to make things less awkward for the princess.

Rapunzel turned around and smiled. “Yeah, of course.”

I stuck around with Rapunzel and helped her brainstorm ideas for the festival.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

“Okay, partner, here is a list of events.” Rapunzel said as she pulled out a long list of ideas for the festival. “It’s the fifth draft, so it should be pretty close to final.”

I had helped her write down all her ideas, which were a lot. My hand is still a bit cramped from helping her.

“Hmm, okay, let’s see…bobbing for apples…ring toss…juggling? Raps, are you sure people here are into pony rides?” Cassandra raised an eyebrow.

“Who doesn’t love pony rides?”

”I hate pony rides! Ya clod!” A woman yelled loudly.

I guess that answers that question.

I didn't really question her ideas. They seem really typical for Corona, but now that Cassandra pointed it out, maybe these events were not the best way to get Vardarans excited about the festival.

”Like I said…” Rapunzel took back her papers from Cassandra. “Not final…”

“Uh, ok, um, did you have any ideas for events?” Rapunzel asked.

Cass handed her papers with drawings on it.

I took a peek at her drawings. They were honestly, more on the disturbing side with how it was scribbled with graphite and the people had Xs scrawled in as eyes.

”Hmm...human piñata?” Rapunzel said, trying to decipher Cassandra’s drawing. “Spit target practice? Okay, I-I don’t even know what this is!”

She held up the scribbled up drawing to Cass.

“That would be Piranha Dunk Tank, Rapunzel.”

I squinted and turned my head a little. “Oh yeah, if you squint and tilt your head this way. You can kinda see the piranha.”

”Um, I'm not quite sure these scream goodwill.”

Cassandra gasped. “Goodwill Scream Contest! Great idea! We can see who can scream the loudest!”

”OUT OF MY WAY!” A man yelled with super humanlike strength.

”And there’s the guy to beat!” Cassandra said, proud of her new idea.

Rapunzel sighed. “Cass, um don’t get me wrong. I love your ideas, but event planning takes a certain…skill set.”

”Skill set?” Cassandra looked offended. “Are you suggesting I don’t know how to help people have fun?”

“No! No, no, no…no! Maybe?”

Oh no, I really didn’t like the tension I was feeling between them.

”Well, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Rapunzel, but maybe the reason Vex suggested I be co-planner is because you lack a certain skill set.”

The princess laughs. “Well, then, Cassandra, if that’s the case maybe you should host your own events for the goodwill festival.”

“Maybe I should! Thank you!”

Both began to raise their voice, and not in a subtle way.

”After all, twice as many events means twice as much festival!”

”I agree! That way everybody wins!”

“Well, then, it’s settled, I’m glad we could work this disagreement without arguing!”

”It’s what friends do!”

And with that they both stormed off opposite directions.

Rapunzel stomped off in Eugene’s direction.

”Hey Blondie, everything alright?” he asked.

“Yes! My friend and I were just having polite conversation!” Rapunzel stomped.

Eugene and I exchange glances.

“Uh…do you know what’s all that about?” he asked me.

I sighed. “Looks like Cassandra and Rapunzel aren’t quite seeing eye to eye on how this festival should go.”

“Star!” Rapunzel called out my name. “I need your help. We are going to set up the best and most fun events at the festival!”

“I thought this wasn’t a competition…”

“It isn’t. We’re just going to make these events the most fun to the best of our ability!” I caught Rapunzel’s eye twitch. I don’t think she has realized it yet, but Rapunzel has the tendency to mask any negative feeling, especially associated with anger, with a big, uncomfortable smile.

“Uh…okay…” I reluctantly agreed.

We spent the next several hours gathering items and setting up the events for the festival. I went to the markets and gathered apples. Together we made decorations for the events. By the end of the day, we had managed to set up all the events.

“Alright, I think we’re all done!” Rapunzel smiled.

“Yeah, I can’t believe we actually have all the events set up for tomorrow.”

“Well, we’re still missing the gopher for the Gopher Grab but I have faith in Lance and Hookfoot. I think we can get some rest now.”

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

“Here we go,” Rapunzel said, “festival time.”

It was the next day, Cassandra, Rapunzel, and I were standing in front of the already set up events. Cassandra has help from Vex creating their own events. I slowly realized that this was becoming more of a “Us vs. Them” dynamic. Rapunzel and I in one team, and Cassandra and Vex in another team.

“Yep, let’s cram some goodwill down this town’ throat,” Cassandra added.

“Uh sure…now remember, Cass, if people don’t like your events don’t get upset,” Rapunzel warned Cassandra.

“Oh I’m not worried about that,” she said confidently,

Ah, there we go again. Weird tension between them,

“Good! I really hope your events go well” Rapunzel shook hands with Cass. “Afterall, if this Goodwill Festival is a success, we all win.”

“Totally” Cassandra agreed. “And besides it’s not like it’s a competition or anything.”

“Right. Right of course. It’s about showing the Vardarans as much fun as possible.”

They went to their respective events.

“Alright, Star, I’m going to man the apple bobbing section. You and Pascal can man the Guess How Many game,” Rapunzel pointed to the stand where there was a huge glass jar filled with beans.

“Okay. Come on, Pascal.” I grabbed Pascal and we headed towards the stand.

We stood there for a little over half an hour before realizing that people weren’t coming here, instead they were heading towards Cassandra’s event.

I looked over at the booth for bobbing apples and Rapunzel had her whole head in the bin. She pulled an apple using her mouth. “See? Got one! Isn’t this fun?!”

There was maybe one person that passed by and looked her way.

“Okay, let’s see if I can grab another!” Rapunzel dunked her head into the water again.

Pascal and I exchanged glances.

“Do you think she’s losing it?” I whispered to Pascal.

Pascal nodded.

“This Goodwill thing is really going into her head, huh?”

Minutes slowly began turning into hours.

“That’s 65 apples for me!” Rapunzel yelled.

It was actually her 67th apple, but hey who’s counting?

This wasn’t turning out like Rapunzel wanted. Every time someone came up, we would have a small light of hope, but it quickly dissipated when they took a look at Cassandra’s events.

I actually managed to sneak off and take a look at Cassandra’s events while Pascal took charge of the stand. I get why the Vardarans preferred Cassandra’s games over ours. It was more their style. Edgier, more dangerous. I guess they like the thrill more?

Cassandra had a throwing game, where they threw Shorty into a wall covered in honey (provided by Captain Quaid).

This is where I eyed the princess checking out the games as well.

I panicked a little and ran back to our booth.

I saw a man standing in front of our booth. He was a big, buff, rough around the edges guy, he looked like one of Pub Thugs in the Snuggling Duckling, which to other people, might make them uncomfortable but for me it gave a sense of comfort. It reminded me of Corona.

“Oh, hi there, wanna play? It’s pretty easy, just take a guess of how many beans are in this jar,” I pointed to the jar.

He nodded and lifted one finger.

“Uh…” I was confused. Was he saying that there’s just one bean in there? There’s definitely more than one bean in the jar. The jar was absolutely filled to the top with beans. “You guess is…one?”

He nodded to confirm.

I looked at Pascal.

“Um, how about another guess?” I suggested.

He lifted up two fingers this time.

Oh boy…

“Sorry, that’s not correct…”

He humphed in frustration and left.

“Well, that didn’t go well.” I turned to Pascal.

Pascal seems to glance behind me. I turned around and looked, the man was back.

He grabbed the jar from the counter and smashed it. He put a man in its place, a small man, around Shorty's height.

He lifted a single finger again.

I was stunned. I didn’t move to be on the safe side.

Luckily, Pascal quickly reacted and handed him a prize stuffed animal.

Yep, this is definitely not what Rapunzel had in mind.

No one else came by for the rest of the day (a good thing too, especially without a jar filled with anything to guess).

At the end of the day, we went back to the caravan.

I caught the tail end of a conversation between Rapunzel and Eugene. Rapunzel headed off somewhere while Eugene and Max stayed behind.

“Hey, Star, have you noticed that something is going on with Rapunzel?” he asked.

“I’ll say. Ever since this whole goodwill thing started, she’s been really weird with Cassandra,” I said. “It’s like they have some sort of beef with each other, but they’re ignoring the obvious signs of it.”

“They'll figure it out,” he said confidently. “They always do.”

“Anyways, how did the festival go today?” Eugene asked. “Not great…well, at least on our side. Cassandra had a lot of spectators, though.”

“Oh, well, tomorrow’s a new day! You guys can always try again!”

I shrugged. “Eh, I don’t think tomorrow’s gonna be any better. People here really like the edgier, more dangerous stuff that Cassandra has put out there, but thanks anyway.”

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

The next day at the festival we prepared for the Gopher Grab.

I got the sense that Rapunzel and Cassandra had figured things out from the conversation I had with Eugene, which surprised me when I saw that they were still cold to each other.

“Whew! Boy, is it ever frosty between those two,” Eugene said.

He was next to Max, Lance and Hookfoot, but none of them responded.

“Well, you’re right, I should do something about it. The problem is, when people don’t get along. Blondie the one who normally fixes it and she usually does it in some unique and artful way…” Eugene turned pensive. “That’s it! Max, are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

Max shook his head.

“Haha! Perfect! Oh, Eugene, you unique and artful devil, you!”

We all looked at each other and shrugged.

As it turns out, Eugene’s artful idea was to cuff Rapunzel and Cass by the legs.

I had plenty of questions, but didn't bother to express them.

Anyways, Lance and Hookfoot had already returned with a large box in the center of the arena.

Captain Quaid came up and asked, “What do you boys have in there?”

“A gopher, obviously!” Hookfoot rolled his eyes.

“I call him Snoozy because he was sleeping ever since we caught him? Isn’t that right?” Lance petted the box.

“Hm, I don’t think gophers need this big of a box,” I commented.

The Captain took a peek inside the box through a hole.

“You better get it outta here before you wake it up.” he said in a quiet but urgent voice.

“Why? What is it?” Lance asked.

Before the captain had a chance to respond, Vex came into the arena with a bell.

“Grab that gopher,” Vex said unamused and clangs the bell.

The creature inside began to growl and rumble inside the crate.

It seemed large. Larger than any possible gopher can be.

It busted through the crate.

It was large, had huge teeth, a tail that resembled a spiked mace and bloodshot eyes.

Everyone began to run.

“Wow you guys really undersold this gopher grab thing,” Hookfoot said.

“No we didn’t! Because that is not a gopher!” Eugene yelled.

“Huh?”

“Say what?” Lance said in befuddlement.

“I think this is a sneezeweasel!” I yelled.

“You brought the wrong animal! Come on!” Eugene groaned.

The three of them tried to grab and hold down the animal but it managed to throw Lance off it.

Captain Quaid and Vex came in with bees and ropes.

They tried to wrangle up the animal but it was way too strong.

Quaid got launched over a cliff, Vex managed to toss him a rope he could hold into.

“Eugene!” Rapunzel called out, as she was still cuffed to Cassandra. “You guys get Quaid, we’ll get the sneezeweasel!”

We all went over to try to help Vex.

Eugene yelled “Come on, the sheriff needs us!”

“Don’t worry, kid! We got this!” Eugene grabbed the rope. I grabbed the rope tightly as well.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Hookfoot and Lance rushing over to help but the sneezeweasel threw another blow attack at them. They were launched over my head and over the cliff.

I felt the rope in my hand slipping, as there was added weight to the rope. They had managed to grab the rope and it instantly became ten times harder to hold onto. The weight had dragged us towards the very ledge off the cliff.

“Okay, we may not…actually have this,” Eugene groaned.

“Hold on, I have an idea.” I said. “Starlight, star bright, I summon the power to fight!”

Now in my armor, I summoned my sword in one hand and dug it into the ground.

“You thought that was a gopher? Eugene yelled.

“Me-me? You drew him as big as a tree!” Lance yelled back.

“Oh it’s called perspective. Those trees are in the background!”

“You guys don’t know what a gopher looks like?” I was confused. There’s no way they don’t know what a gopher looks like, they have had to encounter it at some point, like in a book or something.

“Hey! We never need to know what a gopher looks like!” Lance called out.

“Uh, Eugene!” Vex shouted.

I looked behind, the sneezeweasel was coming straight towards us.

Eugene tried to cover us both with his arm.

Oh goodness, it would be really nice to summon my light shield right about now. The last time I had summoned it was back at Corona, and I haven’t managed to summon it since then, and not from a lack of trying. But if there was ever a time to try again, it would be now

Come on, protect, protect, protect.

I watched as the sneezeweasel paused in front of us and took a huge breath, preparing for another attack.

“Come on…Now!” I yelled.

The sneezeweasel began to blow at us.

A flash of light appeared in front of us, protecting us from its attack. It’s force from its blow pushes itself back further away from us.

“Way to go, Star!” Eugene cheered.

Unfortunately, the shield quickly dissipated.

“Oh horse turds…” I said.

The sneezeweasel came running back for another attack.

“Hey! Pricklepuss!” Rapunzel shouted.

“His Name is Snoozy!” Lance yelled.

The sneezeweasel was now after Cassandra and Rapunzel.

I watched as the sneezeweasel chase them.

Fortunately, with the help of Cassandra’s honey wall, they were able to catch the sneezeweasel.

When the Vardarans knew it was safe, they helped us pull up the Captain, Hookfoot and Lance.

“Next time, the princess draws the picture…” Hookfoot said as we helped him up the ledge.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

I helped put the last of our supplies into the caravan.

“You’re all packed up, huh?”

I turned around, it was Vex.

“Yeah…just waiting for Rapunzel…guess she wanted a little time to say goodbye,” I said. “Um, I’ll be honest, when I first met you, I wasn’t really sure about you…”

“Oh…thanks?”

“But,” I continued, “I was wrong. I’m glad we found an ally in you. Back at home, I don’t have friends my age so this is a nice change.”

I smiled awkwardly.

My first impressions of her was…well, it wasn’t great. After seeing how she’d changed to become a deputy of Vardaros, and how she’s helping out people here, I felt better knowing that this place was being taken care of.

Vex smiled. “Just be sure to visit us every once in a while?”

“Sure thing.”

I got into the caravan.

Rapunzel came back and said her final goodbyes to Vex and Quaid, then we headed off once again back on the road.

I laid back as I looked out the window as I saw the city of Vardaros get smaller and smaller in the distance.

Hm, maybe things can be changed for the better…

#tangled the series #tangled the series fanfiction #fanfic #tangled fanfiction #my ocs #tales of a star #my writing #tangled the series au

2 notes · View notes