#how much i talk abt each kinda varies but yeah thats more or less it

[mouseoho]

🧡🧡🧡 happy with how these two came out!

(seoho | leedo)

(+ my art blog!)

[pansy-picnics]

How would the tangled kids react to Varian and Cassandra’s villain arc? Also I love your art 😊

AJDJDJDGG OKAY SO. this is SO fucking good but ive been putting it off for so long bc i wanted to draw something to go with it but i’ve just. never figured out what so inevitably i’m just gonna answer it on its own

this subject in particular is SO FUNNY for me to think about bc i think the kids’ reactions depend a lot on how their parents talk abt it and both of them handle it in COMPLETELY different ways. like uknighted dream is pretty open abt it (obviously they give the incredibly watered down kid-safe version) and they kinda use it as a learning experience? like in very vague terms.

its kinda just like

alina: oh why are you and mama cass fighting in your drawing :(

rapunzel: <:) well yknow how if you shake a bottle of soda, when you open it it explodes everywhere?? well sometimes when we bottle up our feelings and don’t do anything with them or talk to someone we trust, they end up getting all shaken up in there, and eventually theyll explode! mama cass and i used to have a lot of trouble talking about our feelings, and because of all those emotions that got bottled up and shaken around in there, we found it hard to properly communicate with each other at all. but then we realized how much we really cared about each other and how we really wanted to make things work, so we learned to be more honest about how we felt and how to communicate with one another without everything just ‘exploding’, so to speak. and thats why we always teach you how to manage your big emotions, does that make sense? :)

on the other hand VARIAN? literally could not care less. at least not with the ud kids. he still has one of his wanted posters that hugo grabbed as a “souvenir” on their trip, and the automaton he used to fight rapunzel? its still in the corner of his lab and he pulls it apart regularly for scrap metal.

ryder will be wandering around his lab when hes like 7 and hes like “uncle vari whats that”

varian: that’s an automaton buddy

ryder: did you make it?

varian: yeah

ryder: what’s it for

varian: well nothing now it’s just spare parts. but i actually made it a long time ago to fight your mom

ryder: which one

varian: both actually. and technically your dad. but mostly rapunzel

ryder: oh

ryder: did you win?

varian: no it wasnt really that kind of fight. nobody won

ryder: oh that’s boring

ryder: can i try it

varian: absolutely not

when emery comes along though varian is like “okay we are Never addressing this again” bc em thinks varian is SO cool and varian actually cares So much about his newfound image. (very stupid of him for that to be his main priority obviously bc emery is like 4 and if she knew what he did she would probably just be like “okay. can i have apple juice”)

anyways yeah ilmari and the twins don’t really tell her anything either because they don’t really see it as anything worth telling her about, especially in comparison to way more important things like the fact that lance will sometimes sneak you dessert before dinner if you can convince eugene he has a gray hair without him catching on. so obviously emery grows up fairly unaware of anything varian has done but the defining factor is that shes constantly hearing about it out of context and is just left to struggle with that enigma.

like you know the experience of being like 14 years old at the family thanksgiving and you get to sit at the grown ups table for the first time and hear about all their weird beef and inside jokes and also hear your aunt mention out of context that hey your dad went to prison once bc that’s LITERALLY what the tangled kids experience in relation to their parents’ pasts. like the twins forgot about most of what varian told them by the time they grew up, they knew the watered down version of what happened with cass but they never knew the little details right. so they’ll just be hanging out playing checkers together while the adults are sitting across the room chatting over drinks and varian jokes “oh man its just like that one time cass kidnapped me” and all the kids immediately whip their heads around like “WHAT?”

this is ESPECIALLY true with emery who’s parents are notorious for having more insults for each other than pet names. em could just be reading by the fireplace late one night and var and hugo come out for a midnight snack and just start talking like

hugo: sometimes i think maybe objectively we should be evil again. like just for fun

varian: honestly. i took over the kingdom once i could do it again no problem

hugo: you’re probably actually strong enough to do it yourself now 🥺

varian: you want to kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid

emery: ….right so are we just gonna brush over the “again” part or did you guys forget i was here

varian also eventually realizes that by doing this he is replicating EXACTLY how quirin used to be secretive of his own past and how like one day varian just suddenly had to grapple with the knowledge that his dad who baked pies and fed the apple peels to his raccoon probably had a kill count. and obviously varian is absolutely distraught over this revelation

“HUGO HELP ME. I think im becoming my dad” “oh. well hey it happens to all of us it could be worse. besides your dad is hot so like i see it as a win win” “What” “what?”

i should probably also mention that ilmari knew about cass’s villain arc long before they even MET and ilmari actively tries to use this against her when they’re like 13. like “yeah well you cant tell ME what to do i’m gonna tell alina and ryder you tried to stab mom when you were in your 20s” (it doesn’t work btw)

[sleevesareforlosers]

could you perhaps elaborate on kobra and cherri’s dynamic in twitterverse with regard to their like. soft-ish moments of respect and why they keep coming back? maybe???

ah! i can! (and again i know i get rambly feel free to follow up if any of this isnt clear)

okay yeah so as you (im assuming ur the same person thats sent the other twitterverse asks) mentioned yesterday, so much of twitterverse is about like. reputation and perception. and cherri and kobra are somewhat equal in terms of how theyre treated by the rest of the zones.

theyre both addicts, theyre both known to be lethal, kobra's got a bit more of a sociable reputation from racing and sleeping around but hes still like. not necessarily seen as a person by other joys? i touch on it a bit in. i think chapter two or three? when kobra's smoking with that roller after the race and they go "i cant believe im smoking with the kobra kid" (or whatever they say) like. its a weird celebrity worship. cherri has a bit of a worse time of it because waveheads are SO stigmatized in the zones whereas sweet tooths are like. ehhh theyre partiers that took it too far

so like. theres a lot for them to respect about each other and theres a lot of understanding that can come with being these kind of. highly stigmatized individuals and having a way that people do expect them to act. you arent really gonna have the same expectations from a person thats on the same footing as you. and most of their softest (imo) moments come around when theyre having sex bc theres a lot of intimacy inherent in that Anyway (especially once it happens more than once). im Really going benefit of the doubt that ur an adult but i still wont be too graphic here

so for instance, theres a moment where cherri asks kobra if he Actually likes having sex bc up till then (and after still but i think to a lesser degree) kobra is. really performative about how he fucks. and im not gonna say whether or not kobra having this many hookups is good or bad for him bc it varies, but cherri's pretty good at getting a read on people and it can tell that kobra isnt being 100 percent genuine. and this is like. a big moment for kobra bc its a guy that, really has no reason to actually stop and care abt what kobra wants but it still does. its a moment where kobra gets that cherri isnt going to take advantage of him (an earlier draft also touched on this when they were at the radioshack and cherri established that there was something it wouldnt do with kobra while he was high)

so ig thats like. (apart from the fact that it is really nice sex) why kobra keeps coming back? bc he consciously or unconsciously knows that cherri sees and respects him as a person and doesnt really look up to him OR look down on him. just kinda looks at him

as for cherri, its also a lot of being able to feel like its more or less an equal to kobra. like, im not sure how much it came across and if/when i do a followup ill probably explore this more but newsie and chimp (cherri's two closest relationships other than whatever it and kobra have) are SO much more put together than it is. its the black sheep/wavehead/ultraviolent/bad at talking to people/cant even really get itself around the zones without asking for a ride/fuckup of the family (affectionate). theres not really a sense of inferiority that cherri has from this but it is like. newsie takes care of it in a lot of ways and sometimes you're jsut tired of that! kobra isnt gentle with cherri, he treats it like an equal and like someone thats dangerous and capable and desirable and (going back to how stigmatized waveheads are) he treats it like its a person. (i dropped an essay abt cherri and personhood in regards to gender a LONG time ago like before i even started publishing SOA that kinda ties in)

i also hope im not spoiling things for u bc idk how far youve read but i really tried to make sure i never had kobra and cherri insult each other based on obvious insecurities. once cherri clues in to how much kobras reputation as a 'slut' bugs him it never throws that at him, neither of them really throw the waveriding and sugar at each other to try and rile one another up. like yeah, they'd probably be justified and it wouldnt be punching down bc they are, more or less, equals, but i think both of them would feel a) shitty and b) hypocritical for using shit like that as an insult

so um. to sum up its on a shallow level bc they can have really good sex with each other and on a deeper level its the kind of understanding that comes with being outcasts in different but still deeply similar ways.