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rocksandrobots · 8 months ago

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PotP Ch 54 - Christmas With The Krampus: Part 3

"Hey, thanks for helping out on such short notice," Tadashi said.

"Oh no problem, buddy." Fred's voice came over the phone. "Minimax and I were getting bored anyway. Christmas is never as big a deal as Hanukkah at my house. The only thing going on is the neighborhood lights display contest."

"Your Mom's in full-blown socialite mode?" Tadashi asked, already knowing the answer.

"Totally. Monster hunting is way more fun than tea and crumpets."

"There's no monster, Fred," Varian yelled over Tadashi's shoulder into the phone.

"Just let us know if you or Minimax see Vigor," Hiro added, ignoring his brother.

"Ten-four!... or is it four-ten... Either way, MiniMax and Fredzillia are on the job!"

Tadashi hung up the phone as the three of them entered the near-empty shopping mall.

Most of the storefronts were closed, only a handful of people roamed the food court, and a sign on the door said that the shopping center was operating at half-hours for the holiday. So they had only about an hour left to look for clues.

They made their way to the top floor, hoping that perhaps Vigor was just hiding inside, maybe wrecking one of the other window displays for the fun of it, only to have that hope dashed once they reached Canardist's emporium.

The door was ripped off its hinges and the inside of the shop was completely trashed.

"Still think there's no monster?" Hiro asked.

"Anyone could have done this," Varian replied, though with slightly less confidence than before.

Tadashi picked up a scroll off the floor and frowned. He couldn't read it.

"Varian, I think we need to keep more of an open mind here." He cautioned. "I mean, you and Canardist come from a world where fairy tale princesses are real and magical curses are a thing. Why can't this Krampus exist too?"

"Because..." Varian huffed but didn't finish his thought as he picked up an amulet hanging from a shelf. This one with Corona's royal seal on it.

"Because you don't wanna admit that you're wrong." Hiro finished for him.

Varian shot a glare at him, but couldn't deny it.

"What do you know about this Krampus? What do the legends actually say?" Tadashi asked.

Varian shrugged. "Not much. He's supposed to be Saint Nicholas's helper. While St Nick rewards good little kids with toys and sweets, the Krampus collects the souls of bad children and tortures them for their misdeeds."

He shook his head. "It's just a story parents tell their kids to get them to behave. Like with the Sandman who brings nightmares or Zhan Tiri and his shadow soldiers. None of it's real."

Hiro and Tadashi shared a look but didn't press for more details about the other horror stories that Varian had mentioned.

"Look, let's just run with the premise that all stories are based on a kernel of truth," Tadashi argued. "Like with Troy and the Iliad... exaggerated no doubt, but based off a real place and presumably a real war... With that being the case here, what would a real Krampus be like, you think?"

Varian gave the proposal some serious consideration. "Well, I guess... if he was real, he'd be some type of creature... just an animal."

"And what would a large wild animal do with a pet monkey?"

"Eat it," Hiro said, almost immediately. It was the most logical conclusion.

The other two boys grimaced.

The Varian shrugged again. "Well, nasty way to go, but what can you do? Who wants to break the bad news to Canardist?"

Tadashi stopped him from walking away. "Hold on. We can't just let a six-foot animal run around the city eating people's pets, and possibly attacking people themselves."

"How did he even get into this world?" Hiro asked.

"That would be a question for Canardist," Tadashi answered. "In the meantime, we have to hunt down this Krampus and capture it."

"And what do we do with it after we've caught it?" Varian asked. "I can't send it back. The portal isn't working the way I need it to."

"We'll figure that out once we find it... the only question is, how do we find it?"

"I have a bio-reading of the creature," Baymax responded.

"Really? How did you get that?" Hiro asked.

"It is shedding." The robot pointed at the floor and indeed there was hair everywhere.

"Great work Baymax.' Tadashi patted his creation on the shoulder. "Let's go suit up."

----------------

"Behold!" Minimax pointed down below into an alley, "There goes our psychic primate pal!"

Fred followed his faithful sidekick's finger and sure enough, spotted the chimpanzee running frantically down the road.

"Hey guys!" came Fred's voice over the intercom. "We found Vigor!"

"He's still alive?' Varian asked skeptically, as he held onto Baymax's arm tighter. The robot was carrying all three of them as they flew through the air, with Hiro and Tadashi riding on top and Varian cradled in his arms; having lost at rock, paper, scissors.

"Not for long," Hiro replied as he studied the scans through his helmet interface. A red dot was racing across the city map. "Whatever it is that tore up the store is heading straight your way Fred... and it's fast."

"Don't worry. We're on it." Fred assured them and was gone.

----------------

The superheroes found poor Vigor cowering in the corner of an alley.

"Hey buddy, it's okay." Fred coaxed the frightened animal. "You're safe now."

"Yes, no fiendish foe will do you harm while we're around," Minimax added.

The chimp came out of hiding and cooed in recognition when he realized who the armored men were.

He waddled over and hugged Hiro around his legs. A predicament that Hiro absolutely was not comfortable with.

"Yeah, th-that's right... we're here to take you home." He awkwardly said as he tried to gently pry the monkey off of him.

That's when an ominous shadow fell across them.

Everyone turned as one to see the Krampus snarling at them.

It was a towering nine-foot-tall, from its claws on its hind legs to the tips of the horns on its head. It was covered head to toe in dark fur and its bottom jaw had two protruding tusks. It slobbered drool as it growled like a dog, and Hiro could have sworn that its eyes glowed red.

Vigor howled in fright and quickly scrambled away and up the side of the building before anyone could stop him.

The monster took after him just as quickly.

The boys could feel the wind rush past them as the creature leaped up towards the roof, like how a car whizzing by might blow away the papers in your hand.

"Ok... take note... the Krampus moves very fast," Tadashi said, pointing out the obvious as everyone else stood there stunned.

Hiro shook out of his stupor first.

"Quick Baymax, after them."

He hopped onto the robot's back just as Fred swung himself up onto the roof. Minimax wasn't far behind as they rocketed into the air themselves.

"Do you see where they're heading?" Varian's voice came in over the intercom.

"I've already lost sight of them," Fred replied.

"They've turned down 2nd Market St." Baymax calmly stated.

Hiro followed Baymax's finger and his heart sank as something large and furry ducked into the subway.

"Oh no."

"What's happened?" Tadashi asked.

"They just went into Memento station."

"Don't worry, we'll head them off," Varian answered as he fished the portal magnets from his coat.

----------------

Varian and Tadashi exited the portal just in time to see everyone rushing towards the nearest exit, screaming and panicking as they went.

In the middle of the waiting platform, now on all fours and sniffing the ground with its pig-like snout, was the Krampus. It seemed totally disinterested in the frightened crowd as it poked about the various discarded presents and groceries.

"Soooo...what do we do now?" Tadashi asked as they watched the beast get a pair of candy cane-printed boxers caught on its nose. It took a second to shake the offending underwear off before it went to gnawing on the wrapping paper that it had been packaged in.

"Well.... umm..." Varian's mind raced as he tried to rationalize the impossibility before him. "it's... it's an animal, right?

"R-right?" Tadashi agreed, unsure what Varian was getting at.

"So how would you capture a really large animal?"

"No clue," Tadashi replied, never taking his eyes off the monster as it now decided to eat a forgotten Christmas ham.

"Well how would, like, the rangers catch a bear or a lion?"

"Tranquilizers, but we haven't any-"

Varian snapped his fingers. "Sleeping powder!"

He then started to search his pockets and harness... only to slow down as he realized that Tadashi was right. "I'm out of sleeping powder..."

That's when the Krampus finally took notice of them.

Both boys gulped as the creature let out a snarl.

Varian began to scour his pockets even more frantically. "H-hold him off while I try to make a new batch of sleeping potion."

"What am I supposed to do? Wave a red flag at him like a bullfighter?"

Varian didn't answer as he screwed the top off a chimball full of blue liquid.

You could not see his eyes behind his visor, but it was clear that Tadashi was rolling them as he pressed a button on the side of his helmet and disappeared from view.

This was enough of a surprise to slow the Krampus down, as it stopped stalking towards them.

A moment later a roll of sparkly red wrapping paper, discarded by its owner in their flight from the station, lifted itself off the ground and seemingly hung in the air as if by magic.

"Here boy, toro." Tadashi whistled as he waved the paper in front of the creature.

The Krampus howled and rushed towards the sparkly paper. Tadashi barely had time to move out of the way as it grabbed the cardboard tube and bounded away, ripping the paper to shreds in a frenzy.

"Well, there goes that idea."

"How's it going?" Hiro breathlessly asked as he, Fred, and the two robots finally ran inside.

The Krampus stopped immediately and focused its attention on the newcomers.

Heroes and monster eyed each other for only a moment as Hiro realized his mistake. Then the mass of fur and muscle was bounding towards them at top speed before Tadashi could even shout a warning.

Everyone scattered, only for the Krampus' jaws to clamp around Minimax's foot at the last second.

The robot yelled as the monster shook him back and forth before throwing him into the air. Fortunately, being a robot, he was only momentarily disoriented as opposed to being hurt.

While the heroes were busy checking over their friend, Vigor screeched wildly as the monster took chase after the monkey once more.

"No!" Hiro screamed, too late, as the Krampus overtook the poor animal.

The creature let out a victorious howl, and then, to everyone's astonishment, it gave Vigor a playful, sloppy lick of its tongue and bounded away barking. Vigor made a chittering sound, like the money equivalent of a laugh, and happily chased after the monster.

"Awe, how cuuuuteee!" Fred squeed while everyone else stood there dumbfounded. "They've been playing tag this whole time."

"It kind of acts like a giant dog," Hiro observed as he tilted his head in thought.

"Wild dogs can still be dangerous though." Tadashi reminded him. "We need to capture him and take him someplace safe."

"Got it!" Varian shouted triumphantly as he held up a chimball. Before he could throw the sleeping powder, however, the police barged into the station.

"Chief Cruz!" Hiro rushed toward the lead officer in relief. "We need to find a humane way of cap-"

"We're already on it." Cruz interrupted, shoving him aside. "You kids need to clear out of the way so animal control can take care of this."

"Kids?" Hiro quietly questioned, but he was ignored as some of the officers whipped out a tranquilizer gun.

The Krampus let out an inhuman scream as the dart embedded itself into its leg right above its paw. He started to hiss and growl as it tried fruitlessly to shake the painful splinter off. Vigor gave a worried whimper, unsure how to help his friend.

Unsuccessful in removing the dart, the Krampus then turned his attention towards his attackers, lowering on his haunches as if to pounce like a cat. Fortunately, Baymax was able to grab the creature before it could jump upon anyone.

As the robot and monster wrestled each other Cruz was already ordering his men to shoot again.

"Be careful of Bay- Red Panda," Hiro advised.

"I'm not concerned for your pet robot right now." Cruz snapped."If this next tranquilizer doesn't work then we may have to put the poor creature down."

Hiro frowned, not only at Cruz's dismissal of Baymax's safety nor even that the officer was considering lethal force, but the Chief of Police was no longer talking to them like they were vigilantes underfoot but speaking down to them like they were children... like they were the same kids he would take out to ice cream once a month.

However, the worrisome thought that they might have been discovered was banished from Hiro's mind when the Krampus broke free of Baymax's grasp, dogged the second dart, and ran down the railway tunnel.

"Blast," Cruz muttered.

"Don't worry. We'll track him down for you." Hiro yelled as he ran towards Baymax, happy to have an excuse to get away. He and the rest of the supers were already half way down the tunnel before Chief Cruz could protest.

----------------

Varian was the one to find the creature first. The Karmpus was huddled in an alley whimpering as it licked its wound. He snarled as Varian approached.

"Easy now...." Varian said softly as he inched his way forward. "Easy... I'm not going to hurt ya."

For a moment he thought the Krampus would run away again but it stumbled as soon as it tried to put weight upon its paw, and then promptly laid back down with a huff.

Varian untied the bandanna from around his neck, poured some sort of substance on it from his chimbag, and cautiously sat down next to the monster.

"Here... let's see what we can do about that paw..."

He pulled the tranquilizer dart out and the creature howled, but before the animal could even think of hurting him, Varian had wrapped the wound up with the bandana.

The Krampus seemed confused by such an action and sniffed curiously at the piece of cloth around his paw.

"It's just some chlorhexidine." he explained, though he did not know if the monster could understand him or not. "It should help ease the pain and sterilize the wound."

All the Krampus did in reply was to sigh and lay his head on Varian's lap, pinning him to the spot.

Varian resigned himself to his fate as a pillow and absentmindedly began to stroke the beast's fur.

"I know... San Fansokoyo is new and exciting and so full of amazing things to see, there's friends to make and wonderful inventions to discover... but it's also sometimes scary and unfamiliar.... with its own dangers... different from Corona's, sure, but they're still there... hiding just under the shining surface.... and you'll need those friends to help you avoid them, and they will cause they really, genuinely care about you... but... but.... it's still not home......"

The Krampus gave a sympathetic whine.

"You're probably missing the snowy pine forest that you grew up in... aren't you boy?"

Another little whimper.

"And maybe even... even your old friends and your own family?"

Suddenly Varian wrapped his arms around the hairy beast and gave him a desperate hug.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, "I'm sorry, I don't know how to get you back. I've tried and I've tried... and no, I don't want to leave everybody, but... but.... but Dad...."

The Krampus nuzzled his arm in comfort.

"Oh, what are we going to do?"

----------------

"Cantet nunc io, chorus angelorum;

Cantet nunc aula cælestium,

Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo,

Venite adoremus

Dominum."

The rest of the gang found Varian and the Krampus in the alley and much to their surprise he was singing a Christmas carol while gently petting the ferocious animal's head.

Said creature was contently purring in his lap. Which sounded more like a motorcycle idling than a furry friend expressing contentment.

Vigor cooed with delight and ran to meet them, throwing his arms around his new friend.

"Well, we finally caught him... now what?" Tadashi asked.

Varian only looked up at him at a loss and shrugged.

"We.... we have to try the portal again, I guess," Hiro said hesitantly, rubbing his forehead in thought. "I know it's not ready yet, b-but it's not like we can keep him hidden in the city."

Varian shook his head, and with some effort crawled out from under the huge beast and stood up. "It isn't just that that portal is broken. We don't even know where to send him to. We're talking about the entire world here. We can't just dump in him Corona, or the middle of the ocean, or 17th-century Istanbul... The point is... We need an energy signature to find where he actually lives, and I've no idea where we would get that."

"Well if we can't send him back, what do we do? Turn him over to Cruz and the animal control?" Tadashi asked

"I don't know if they would know what to do with him either," Hiro said.

"Maybe put him in the Zoo?" Fred suggested.

"They wouldn't know how to take care of him. It's not like mythical creatures are their specialty."

"I know!" Minimax shouted. "We can make him our new team mascot!"

"Great idea!" Fred joined in.

"Oh no... nope" Tadashi shook his head. "For starters, we have way too many exotic pets as it is, and secondly we wouldn't know how to take care of him either."

"I think we may have to ask Carnardist." Varian finally admitted. "She knows more than she's telling us."

----------------

"Oh, Vigor!" Carnardist cheered with glee as she smothered her long-lost pet with kisses. "Oh, I was so worried. Thank goodness you are unhurt."

As the happy pair were reunited, Hiro made sure that the blanket they had thrown over the Krampus remained in place.

They had called the cafe and asked the older woman to meet them back at her shop, and the supers had to think of a creative way to keep the inter-dimensional monster hidden from the rest of the shoppers; as few as there were today. The best they could come up with on such short notice was a shopping cart with a quilt hastily thrown over it.

Varian awkwardly coughed to gain the lady's attention.

"Yes, malchick?"

Varian ignored the unwanted nickname.

"You were right about the Krampus."

Making sure that no one was looking into the shop window he pulled the cover off.

Carnardist screamed.

"No. No. It's okay. He won't harm anyone." Varian tried to calm the frightened woman down.

It wasn't until Vigor hopped out of her arms and went to hug the creature did she stop panicking.

"See? He's a nice daemon." Hiro encouraged.

"The only problem is we don't know how to send him home," Fred explained.

"And we know you have a portal." Tadashi chimed in.

Carnardist eyes grew dark and she slowly straightened to her full height, even though she was several inches shorter than the teenage boys before her.

"Is that so?"

"Oh stop pretending." Vairan huffed. "You don't want to share your tech with us, then fine. The least you can do is put this guy back where you got him."

Carnardist folded her arms. "There are other ways to move between worlds than your portals malchick, and they require far more than just flipping a switch. I can not 'send him back'. I can not send anyone anywhere."

"Then how did you get here?" Tadashi challenged, ignoring Varian's flabbergasted expression.

Carnardist seemed to relent at this and walked over to a box full of scrolls that had tipped over. She picked one up. "This is the incantation for opening the door." She made to hand the parchment over to Tadashi, before quickly snatching it away. "But! It will not lead you to where you want to go. The window does not open to another world, but a pathway between the worlds."

"A pathway between worlds?" Varian echoed slowly.

"A dark place... an eternity of nothingness that is very difficult to traverse. Only populated by the remnants of dead universes, lost to time eons ago."

"The void," Hiro said softly as realization dawned on him.

"Even if you know where you are going," Carnardist continued. "and know the markers to find, making the journey would require much preparation and immense fortitude. Are you sure you can face such dangers?"

"No problem," Fred said as she finally handed over the scroll to Tadashi. "We're heroes! After battling supervillains, killer robots, and literal monsters, how hard can a little old trip through negative space be?"

"There are things hiding in the dark that are far worse than monsters." She softly warned.

This gave everyone pause. Yet Carnardist would not allow them time to consider her words fully.

"Now get that hairy brute out of my shop!" she yelled, shooing them out the door.

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"Arrggh, where is that toothbru-- Ahhhhh!" Krei stopped packing and let out a girly high-pitched scream when he came face-to-face with a towering beast with horns.

"Sorry to bother you Mr. Keri." Varian waved apologetically as he poked his head around from where he was standing behind the Krampus.

"But we kind of need to ask you a favor," Hiro added as he stuck his head around the opposite side.

Tadashi followed suit as his head popped up from behind the monster's shoulders. "Do you think you got room at that animal reserve for a very rare and exotic inter-dimensional demon?"

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"Baby raccoons!" Honey Lemon squeed when Varian showed off his newest pets.

She giggled and cooed over the tiny creatures as she scooped one up to cuddle. "What are their names?"

"Well there's eight of them, so I thought we could all name one," Varian answered.

"You're seriously not thinking of keeping all of them," Wasabi complained.

"No, Krei is going to keep them on the forest reservation," Tadashi answered.

"But we get to visit them whenever we want." Varian cheered.

"Them and Mr Krampus," Fred added.

"Mr. Krampus?" Gogo asked.

"You had to be there," Hiro answered.

"I'm going to name mine Ferdinand." Honey Lemon announced. "He just looks like a Ferdie."

Gogo knelt down and gently petted one of the babies that was crawling around. "Jane." was all she said.

"The Pacific Northwest raccoon is also known as Procyon Lotor Pacificus" Baymax stated simply.

"Ummm... that might be a bit too wordy for a name, Baymax." Varian gently suggested. "Why don't you call him Lotor for short?"

"'Lotor' it is then."

"Can I call mine trash panda?" Hiro asked.

Varian made a face. "Come on... at least be original."

"Fine... "He randomly pointed to one of the unnamed critters. "That one is now Garbage Breath."

Varian rolled his eyes in defeat. "Okay, then we'll call her by her initials, GB."

Hiro gave a smug smile in approval, but still wouldn't go near the wild animal.

"I'm calling mine Menace." Wasabi huffed.

"That's a cool name." Fred obliviously agreed as he lifted up another raccoon and nuzzled its nose. "And this one can be The Mega Awesome Raccoon Killer, aka M.A.R.K."

"What about you Tadashi?" Honey Lemon asked.

Tadashi screwed up his face in thought. "I think I'll call mine... Rei.

"Did you really just name it that because it starts with an R?" Hiro asked deadpan.

"Yup," he proudly admitted.

"And I'm naming mine Hypatia!" He picked up the last cub, still ignoring the mother who hissed at him from under the 'den' made of a tarp and cardboard boxes. "Isn't she adorable?" He cooed as he scratched her ear.

Ruddiger then climbed upon his shoulder and licked his kit on the forehead; pet and owner shared a proud smile.

#varian #tangled #bh6 #hiro hamada #tadashi hamada #rapunzel's tangled adventure #tangled the series #big hero 6 the series #big hero 6 #ruddiger #vigor the visionary

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howdoyoudothedew · 9 months ago

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Rated: G

Pairing: Mavpunzel (Mavis Dracula/Rapunzel)

Word Count: ~2k

A/N: Librarian Rapunzel and maybe human Mavis?

“Uh, do you have any books on Vlad the Impaler?” Rapunzel looks up just in time to see the prettiest girl she’s probably ever seen brush her hair behind her ear. It’s short enough that parts of it fall back in front of her face immediately; black wisps framing blue eyes.

Rapunzel blinks. “Vlad the Impaler?”

“Yeah,” the girl says. “I’m doing a report on him.”

Rapunzel feels her eyebrows rise in surprise. That’s not a typical report request. It’s not a typical request in general, really.

“You think that’s weird.” The girl seems to deflate, shoulders drooping like a balloon losing air.

“A little,” Rapunzel laughs, then backtracks as she realizes how that probably sounded. “I just mean he’s not usually people’s first choice. Or their second. It’s pretty cool, actually.”

The girl looks at her, head tilted and eyebrows drawn a bit. After a second, she smiles. “Thanks. My professor actually tried to get me to choose someone else, but Vlad’s pretty important to my family, you know?”

“I get it,” Rapunzel says, thinking of Varian. “My little brother is like that with Leonardo Davinci. I think he’d try to date him if he had a time machine.”

“Well, not quite to that level,” the girl laughs, her eyes shining. Rapunzel smiles.

“I can take you to his books, if you want?” Rapunzel says.

“Leonardo Davinci’s?” The girl asks, eyebrows quirking, mouth still wavering in amusement.

“Vlad the Impaler,” Rapunzel says.

“That’d be nice, thanks,” the girl says and Rapunzel slips from behind the counter to lead her to the biographies.

“So why’s he important?” Rapunzel asks as she scans the stickers on the books for ‘Vlad’. When the girl hums a questioning tone, she clarifies. “You said Vlad was important to your family.”

“Ah, yeah,” the girl chuckles. Rapunzel glances out the corner of her eye to see the girl rub her arm, her cheeks pinkened. “We’re sort of related to him. It’s actually, like, a whole gimmick of our family,–”

“Ah-ha!” Rapunzel grabs the book, brandishing it, then flushes. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

The girl shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. Is that the book?”

“What were you saying?” Rapunzel asks as she hands it over.

“Oh, uh, nothing.” The girl shakes her head again, taking the book and tucking it to her chest. Rapunzel has to stop herself from pouting. Curse her overly excited nature. She checks her out back at the counter, the name Mavis Drăculești catching her eye, and then Mavis is out the automatic doors and back into the setting sun.

“Do you have any vampire books that aren’t Twilight or like Twilight?” Mavis asks, leaning her elbows on the divider that rims the edge of the front desk. Rapunzel swivels her chair slightly to be able to see her better, humming an amused note.

“Classical vampires.” Rapunzel nods to herself. “But not Dracula, I’m guessing?”

Mavis shakes her head. “Nah, had it read to me as a bedtime story all the time growing up.”

Rapunzel bites back a laugh and turns to the computer. It’s cute somehow to imagine a small girl, all tucked in, falling asleep while a parent reads her a gothic horror novel. Rapunzel wonders if Mavis ever slept with a stuffed animal, before she mentally shakes the thought from her head. It’s probably not appropriate to wonder that about a patron. It doesn’t stop her from wondering if she ever slept with a nightlight, though. Somehow, Rapunzel gets the feeling she didn’t. Looking at Mavis, Rapunzel thinks she’s always been a friend of the night.

There is a list of books, Twilight included, that she scrolls through, before she stops on one. “Have you considered Draculaura’s book?”

Mavis barks a laugh. The sound is throaty, like it came from the chest, and Rapunzel smiles. “You mean the girl from Monster High?”

“Yeah.” Rapunzel looks up at her, smile full of humour. “It’s currently on shelf if you want to read it.”

“Maybe.” Mavis snorts.

By the time they’re done Mavis is walking out with four vampire books– Draculaura’s diary on top– and possibly a piece of Rapunzel’s heart.

When Rapunzel walks out of the backroom, a paper in her hands and the conversation she’d just had with the page on duty lingering on her tongue, she spots Mavis softly lingering next to the desk like she’s looking for something or someone. Rapunzel stops without meaning to. Mavis’ attention is elsewhere and Rapunzel takes the opportunity to soak the other girl in. She’s wearing a black Metallica t-shirt today, with a black and white striped long sleeve shirt under it. Her thumbs poke out from the thumb holes, and the fingers of her left hand are curled into the sleeve. Her combat boots have blood red laces, something Rapunzel noticed when she first took her to Vlad’s biography. The blue of her eyes shines like turquoise in the midst of all the black.

“I like your shirt,” Rapunzel says, stepping next to her.

“Thanks.” Mavis turns to her without a flinch, smiling. It’s an odd feeling, almost. Rapunzel walks so quietly, she’s grown used to people being surprised at her presence. It’s not a bad odd feeling. “My friend Johnny let me borrow it.”

“He has good taste,” Rapunzel says and Mavis laughs.

“Sometimes,” she says. “You’ve never had a movie night with him.”

“That’s true,” Rapunzel says. “So what can I do you for?”

“Children’s fantasy. Vampires not needed,” Mavis says.

“But appreciated?” Rapunzel asks and Mavis smiles.

“Always.”

“Great!” Rapunzel says, reaching for the books she’s been keeping in the bottom drawer of the front desk. “Because I spotted these and thought maybe you might like them.”

The books are from the The Little Vampire series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg and Mavis’ eyes light up when she sees them. She takes them from Rapunzel, staring at the art on their covers, and Rapunzel feels her chest warm. Somehow she’d managed to do really good.

“I love this series. My dad read it to me all the time as a kid,” Mavis says.

“I thought that was Dracula?” Rapunzel asks.

“That too,” Mavis says, glancing up at her. “But these, too. He read them every October, it was a tradition until I just… got too old, I guess.” Mavis shrugs.

“I’m glad to get them back to you,” Rapunzel says. Mavis looks at her again with a smile that stops her heart then resets it a few seconds later, like restarting a laptop.

“Thank you.”

“What’s your dad like?” Rapunzel asks as she scans through the catalogue for Mavis.

Mavis shrugs. “Pretty cool, I guess, though he’s a bit of a worrier. He owns a hotel, actually.”

“Just one?” Rapunzel asks.

“Yeah, any more and I think he might blow a gasket,” Mavis laughs and Rapunzel laughs with her.

“So what’s it called?” Rapunzel asks, curious.

Mavis looks around them conspiratorially before she leans in. “Hotel Transylvania,” she says like it’s a secret. Rapunzel’s pretty sure it’s not.

“Hotel Transylvania?” Rapunzel repeats, looking at her, and Mavis shrugs again. There’s a sly smile curving her lips.

“Like I said, my family’s really into the being-related-to-Vlad the Impaler thing. Especially my grandfather. He actually named my dad Dracula,” Mavis says, straightening up again.

“My grandfather was really into it, even named my dad Dracula.”

“Wait, doesn’t that mean-”

“My dad is Dracula Drăculești?” Mavis laughs. “Yeah.”

Rapunzel laughs a little, smiling wide, “That’s pretty cool.”

“Don’t let my dad hear you say that,” Mavis says. Her eyes twinkle like stars and Rapunzel finds herself staring at them, trying to see if she can find the constellations she’s memorized in the night air within their depths before she shakes herself from it and returns to the computer screen.

“I have to admit something to you. I’m not much of a reader,” Mavis says and Rapunzel stares at her in surprise.

“But you’re here nearly every week?” She doesn’t add that Mavis also gets books every time she comes in. She figures it’s implied.

“Yeah.” Mavis shifts, looking down at the grey carpet. Rapunzel tilts her head.

“So… why do you come in?” Rapunzel asks. It’s not to use the internet, or do college courses, because Mavis always walks immediately to the front desk, interacts with her, gets a pile of books checked out, and leaves.

“To see you,” Mavis says, cheeks darkening. Rapunzel thinks she feels her own cheeks heat.

“Oh.”

“Sorry if you don’t want that.” Mavis pushes her hair out of her face like Rapunzel has seen her do a number of times.

“No, I do,” Rapunzel is quick to assure Mavis, hands coming up to touch her, before she forces her arms to her sides. Mavis looks up at her through her lashes, eyes glittering with surprise.

“Really?” Mavis asks.

“Yeah,” Rapunzel says. “I love helping you.”

“Oh,” Mavis says, sounding small. It confuses Rapunzel for a moment, before she realizes what she said and what it probably sounds like.

“I mean! I- You-” Rapunzel clears her throat. “I- I like helping you. Specifically, not just cause it’s my job.”

Mavis perks up, eyebrows raising, and Rapunzel feels her heart lift with it. “Oh.”

“Oh.” Rapunzel nods. She has no idea why she repeated Mavis, but it feels right. It’s a confirmation, an understanding. “I close tonight, but if you want to stay…”

“Yes.” Mavis smiles. “I’ll take you out for food, if you want.”

“That’d be great,” Rapunzel says.

Rapunzel spots Mavis outside the library and waves a goodbye to the other librarian, the LAs, and the page she worked with that night before she runs over to meet her, pulling off her sneakers as she goes. The page smiles knowingly at her and Rapunzel nearly flushes.

"Ready to go?" Mavis pushes off the stone wall and Rapunzel nods before glancing around. There are no cars in the parking lot other than the ones she recognizes as her coworker's.

"Did you drive here?" Rapunzel asks, curious now.

"No." Mavis shakes her head. Rapunzel laughs, making Mavis frown.

"I didn't drive here, either. I walk through the woods," Rapunzel says, pointing at the trees behind them, and Mavis laughs as well.

"Come on," Mavis says. "I know a pretty good 24-hr burger place in walking distance." She holds out her hand and Rapunzel takes it gladly, smiling as much as Mavis does if the pull of her cheeks means anything.

Mavis walks her to a place she already knows and holds the door open for her like a gentleman, a move that would've made Rapunzel smile if she ever stopped smiling practically from the moment Mavis asked her out. Instead Rapunzel just thanks her as she steps inside. Mavis shoves her hands into her pockets as soon as they're both in the building, looking up at the menu.

"Do you usually get the same thing or do you try new things whenever you come?" Rapunzel asks. Mavis shrugs.

"It really depends. The first time I came to one of these places I actually tried to order everything on the menu. Johnny stopped me before I could," Mavis says, snorting. Rapunzel laughs, too, imagining an eager Mavis at the counter, nearly overwhelming the server before Johnny steps in.

"Will I ever meet him?"

"Johnny?" Mavis questions. "Yeah, of course."

"Awesome. He sounds pretty fun," Rapunzel says.

"He is," Mavis says.

The two of them sit at a booth in the corner, close together despite the diner being completely empty beside the workers. They split their fries between them and share a strawberry shake. Rapunzel makes Mavis laugh so hard at one point the milkshake nearly comes out her nose. As it was, the only casuality were a few bits of chewed fry they had to wipe off the table. It's a great first date in Rapunzel's opinion, and if the shine of Mavis' eyes means anything she agrees. Rapunzel chews a bite of her burger and wonders how to ask Mavis on another as well as how to ask for her number.

#mavis dracula #rapunzel #tangled #hotel transylvania #mavunzel #femslash february #mavpunzel #femslash feb 2024 #golden blond and jet black #fluff #library au #librarian rapunzel

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donnetellotheturtle · 10 months ago

Text

Wings

Chapter 2

“Its your house. You get it.” Nuru said after a long moment.

Hugo glared. Then the doorbell rang again.

Varian swallowed hard, unable to move. Hugo took a deep breath. “Hide feathers. I’ll take care of this.”

“But-“ He was being gently pushed by Nuru towards a door. A basement, if he had to guess. She opened the door and, confirming the feeling, it led to a set of stairs. Nuru pulled Varian down them. It was freezing down there. Varian immediately started to shiver.

Hugo swallowed hard as the doorbell rang for a third time. He opened the door.

Standing there, was Yong. Crap. He forgot he was supposed to tutor the teen today. And his mom dropped him off early. He looked at the clock. 11:00. Usually he didn’t come until 12.

“Hey Hugo!” Yong grinned, coming in.

“Yong I can’t-“

“My mom said that there was a huge bird out this morning! There were these guys passing out flyers! It looked super cool! Maybe we can go look for then instead of tutoring today!”

“No we cant.”

Yong pouted. “I wont tell my mom if you don’t.”

Hugo pushed his glasses up on his nose. He was too tired for this. “Yong…”

“….I saw something in the window earlier.”

Ah. Yong was watching them. Why was he not surprised?

“What did you see?”

“…A huge wing.” Yong looked at him with those intelligent, kind eyes. The teen truly meant no harm. He was just curious. “…I thought it was fake. Then it moved.”

Hugo sighed softly, running a hand through his hair. “You can’t tell anyone about this.”

“I wont! I promise!” Yong gripped his schoolbag.

“Do you have one of those flyers?”

The teen nodded, and pulled his schoolbag, and gave it over to Hugo.

It was definitely Varian. Though blurry, he could see the boys teal streak in his hair. The flyer was offering up 10000 dollars for whoever caught him. That…that wasn’t a good sign. Yong must have seen the grim look on his face, cause he hugged Hugos waist.

Hugo hugged back, then pulled away.

“Is the person in this picture okay?” Yong asked.

Hugo sighed. “Not exactly…he’s skittish and scared. He doesn’t trust us, really and I can’t say I blame him…not many people would pass up a prize like this.”

Yong bit his lip. “…Are you going to give him up?”

Hugo thought about it for a moment. The prize was good money but…the look on Varian’s face…that look when he first woke up this morning. It haunted him.

“No.”

Yong smiled, relived. “Good.”

Hugo chuckled. He knew what Donella and Cyrus would do in this situation and it filled his stomach with dread. He had to get Varian out of this house, away from dangerous eyes.

“So, what are you going to do?” Yong asked.

“I don’t know…I really don’t.” Hugo sighed.

“Can I…can I meet him?”

Hugo looked at the teen giving him puppy eyes. Then sighed. “I’ll see if he’s up for it.”

“Yong’s here…he was the one watching us earlier.”

“Is that a good or bad thing?”

“He knows about Varian.”

There was a short pause in the conversation.

“He doesn’t mean any harm. Though he does want to meet Varian…”

“I’m not sure that’s a great idea.”

“maybe run it by him? There’s also something else we need to discuss. There’s this flyer….with a 10000 dollar prize for Varian.”

“…Holy shit.”

“I know.”

“you’re not…thinking about it are you?”

“Of course not! I mean I did for a second…”

“Hugo.”

“I’m not going to take it.”

“…let’s not tell him about the flyers just yet. Might make him bolt. I’d rather not chase after him in the snow.”

“Agreed. About Yong?”

“Right. I’ll ask.”

Hugo turned to Yong quickly. “Could you hide that flyer? We don’t want to freak him out.”

Yong nodded and stuffed it into his schoolbag.

“Varian said its okay, but he wants to make sure it’s not a trap.”

Hugo thought about how to make him more comfortable. He wasn’t sure.

“What would make him the most comfortable?”

A short pause.

“Giving him a lot of space, but everyone in view.”

“Got it.”

Hugo gently pulled Yong away from the door, and waited. A minute later, Nuru led the way in and Varian followed.

“Woah…” Yong whispered. “Cool!”

Varian stared at the shorter boy nervously.

“Can you fly? How fast can you go? Have you ever flown as high as an airplane? Where did you come from?”

Yong was bouncing on his heels. Varian calmed down a little seeing the teens excitement.

“Uh…yeah, usually. Not right now cause of the splint but I can go pretty fast. I’ve never measured it though. I’ve flown higher than airplanes actually. It's really cold up there. I came from…Corona.”

All three of them turned to Varian.

“Corona?” Nuru questioned. “Where’s that?”

Varian bit his lip. “An island in the sky…”

“Cool!!!” Yong came up to Varian. “I’m yong!” He held out a hand.

“Uh, Varian.” Varian took it slowly.

Yong shook it excitedly.

“Feathers, if you’re from an island in the sky, how did you get down here?” Hugo asked.

Varian tensed. “I um…I….”

Nuru frowned, putting a hand on Hugos shoulder. “Questions for another time, Hue.”

“Right. Sorry.”

Varian smiled a bit in relief. Hugo bit his cheek. The winged boy reminded him of himself just after he was adopted by Donella. Jumpy and scared and ready to run at a moments notice if something went wrong. Ready to lie, cheat, steal, and betray at a moments notice if it meant he stayed alive.

Hugo shook those thoughts out of his head.

He watched as Yong asked questions to Varian.

“Whats Corona like?”

“Uh well…it’s a small kingdom. Ruled by queen Rapunzel after her parents retired.”

“Does she have wings too?”

“Yeah. Golden ones that are like 6 feet wide!”

Hugo smiled as Varian lit up in talking about his home.

“Woah!!”

“And my…my dad…” Varian faltered. “Oh my god…my dad.”

Hugo put a hand on Varians shoulder, squeezing it. “You okay?”

“I just…I haven’t thought about him in years…not since…”

Varian looked down, only for Yong to hug him. He looked at the teen. “It sounds like you miss him a lot.”

“I do…I really do. We lived out in old Corona together…a smaller island connected to the bigger one…I helped with the farm. He was the only one I had…no…no one there really understood me. At least he tried to.”

Hugo sighed. “We’re getting you home.”

“Huh?” Varian looked over to him.

“We’re going to get you home to your dad, Feathers.”

Varian all at once had hope, suspicion, fear, and excitement in his face. “…how?”

“I don’t know.” Hugo admitted. “But it’s better than staying here.”

Nuru nodded. “Youre one of us now, Varian.”

“O-One of you?”

Hugo grinned, wrapping an arm around Varian’s shoulders, careful of his bad wing. “Yeah angel. The dork patrol.”

Yong giggled. “That isn’t our team name!”

“You’re right! I nominate team flight control as our name.” Nuru said.

“Well I like the best friend squad!”

Hugo looked at Varian. “What do you think angel?”

Varian thought for a second. “….Team radical?”

“Yes!” The three called out, grinning. Varian chuckled.

Varian felt warmth in his stomach. Just a couple of hours and these two were already claiming Varian as one of their own. It felt, oddly calming. Varian couldn’t trust it though.

What if they wanted something? What if they learned about the money they would get for turning him in?

What if all of this was some dream his brain made up to help him cope with being in that awful place? One where he had friends and people he could trust.

“Angel.” Hugo was suddenly close to Varians face. It made the winged boys face heat up.

“Y-Yeah?”

“You can trust us. Okay?”

Varian bit his lip. “…You promise?”

Hugo took his hand. It made Varians face heat up more.

“I promise.”

Read this on A03!

#hugo vat7k #varian and the seven kingdoms #tangled varian #varian #vat7k #varigo #nuru vat7k #varian vat7k #vat7k fic

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panfluidme · 8 months ago

Text

Memories Etched in Stone

Master Post, Chapter One

CHAPTER TWO: THE QUESTIONING

The police arrived and had Varian sit down. They were big and much taller than Varian, but most people usually were, so Varian didn't have any problems with it. The woman smiled warmly at Varian, offering a doughnut for him to eat. He took it and broke it in half, offering one of the halves to Ruddiger.

"What's your name?" she asked softly.

He hesitated then sat upright. "V," he decided to go with the nickname Kiera had given him just in case. He didn't know where or when he was, so he decided to keep himself as safe as he could while still having a name he recognized and responded to.

"Is that short for something?"

"Yes."

"Can you tell us what it is short for?"

"No."

The other officer, the man, glared at him. "Where is the statue?"

"I didn't take it, honest. Why would—"

"How do we know you're not lying to us to get out of things? You were the last person see with it."

Varian looked at him, visibly confused. "Uh, no. I was seen where the statue was, I wasn't seen with it. And as I was saying, why would I come back to the scene of the crime if I already have the statue? That seems very pointless. A sure way to get caught. What would be the point?"

"He has a point, Officer Ferguson." She looked at her partner. "There would be no point in returning to the scene of the crime and then so admittedly denying it."

Officer Ferguson looked at her then rolled his eyes. "Fine, then where is the statue, V?"

Varian looked between the two. "How much do you two believe in magic?"

"Magic?" Ferguson laughed. "What does magic have to do with this?"

Officer Wilson looked at Varian, thinking carefully. She took in the features on his face, on Ruddiger, and his clothing. It took a minute or two, but she was the next to speak up. "You're the statue, aren't you?"

He looked at her then nodded. "Yes, ma'am, I am. I don't fully know why or how, but Ruddiger and I were cursed to become stone. I don't know how we became flesh again, but we did just recently."

"Enough with this bullshit, tell us the truth."

"I just did."

Wilson sighed softly. "Ignore him. I'll find you a safe place for you to stay. Feel free to wander around, please don't take anything. Some of the things here are touchable, much like Rapunzel's last journal that she wrote before she passed away in her and Eugene's section. We'll be keeping an eye on you just in case, but enjoy yourself."

Varian smiled at her. "Thank you, miss. I'll just look around." He got up and left, going back to the Corona section. Varian went to the small section that was dedicated to Rapunzel and Eugene. He ignored the group and grabbed Rapunzel's last journal that was free to the public to look through and sat down on the floor, out of the way of people.

Carefully, Varian opened the book. He saw Rapunzel's handwriting, loopy and perfect cursive. The first page was a painting of River getting crowned, Rapunzel wrote about how she and Eugene knew that Varian was the only person from their past that wouldn't be there.

River looked at his aging parents, both with grey hairs. Rapunzel was looking at him with pure adoration. Eugene's shoulders were a little slumped as they were with every big event in his children's lives. It wasn't that he wasn't proud, but he still wished that his non-blood brother was in their lives.

His hand was grabbed by his eldest child. Eugene looked at him and smiled softly. "Hey, son."

"You okay, dad?"

"I'm okay, I'm so proud of you. I know everyone is proud of you. You will be an amazing king, I know you will." Eugene kissed his forehead. "I know Varian would be proud too."

Varian looked at the paper and smiled sadly. It was nice to know that he hadn't been forgotten, even though he couldn't be in anyone's life anymore.

"What are you reading?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

He looked over at the person, who wore a pink vest with stripes and an off-white dress shirt with shorts. A backpack rested on his back and a smile danced his lips. Varian held up the journal. "Queen Rapunzel's last journal before she died."

The teen nodded and sat next to him. "I've read that, the ending is really sad."

"Might I ask how she died?"

"She got sick, it's theorized that it was cancer. King Eugene died of old age four years later."

Varian's eyes widened a little then he looked at the journal. He felt awful that he wasn't there to support her or Eugene. "Oh, I see. What's your name?"

"I'm Milo, what's your name?"

"Varian."

#milo murphy's law #milo murphy #zack underwood #melissa chase #crossover #varian #ruddiger #tangled the series #disney #memories etched in stone

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nerdasaurus1200 · 2 years ago

Note

I'm so sorry for you and everyone who has to put up with this hate.

Varian can be tall or short, why is that so important.

Even though, after reading some of your asks, the first does have it's appeal. Varian growing taller than his dad and giving everyone a big hug sounds kind of nice.

And what the hell does Jesus have to do with that? What does religion have to do with that at all?

This is all just wrong.

I legit have no clue what Jesus has to do with any of this. I think this person is just trying to fling insults to get attention.

I do agree though that tall Varian is interesting. I love the potential of it, of Lance and Eugene being salty because he’s supposed to be the short one. Some people calling him beanpole and he just laughs. Maybe sometimes the kids of Old CoroAnd when Cass comes back to Corona she sees how tall he’s gotten and is like “Wait, when did this happen???”

#nerd answers

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zonerobotnik · 1 year ago

Note

Why do I have the feelings I have something to do with that.

Nah, you weren't even a factor. Actually, I think it was Rachel's fault. Though, I should've seen it coming when they kept sending me a bunch of weird Asks about Andrew and then they sent me a link to Rachel's (biased, incorrect, and ignorant) review of "Rapunzel's Return" where she spent most of it mischaracterizing the Saporians and ignoring how relaxed Varian looks.

Slightly off-topic, but I'm listening to the song "Fuck You" by Lily Allen while looking for these screenshots and it lined up PERFECTLY with Varian coming out of the smoke saying "and we hate your whole crew". I wonder if anyone has done a short with that scene and that song yet?

Anyways, let's look at how he reacts to people being in his lab, Saporians vs Rapunzel, with visuals.

With the Saporians in his lab, he can take his eyes off them and seems perfectly content with them there. When Rapunzel and Eugene show up, though, he's tense and wary, watching them closely, not trusting them in his lab unsupervised.

Unfortunately, we don't have much to work with for the Saporians and Varian, but we have enough to know he trusted them and Rachel is full of shit.

You can see from Varian's shocked expression that this is the very first time they have ever given him reason to doubt them, to not trust them and their word. And, I say again, if they were abusive,

he would not be standing! He'd be in EXTREME pain! He just attacked them, and all they did was lock him in to hang out with Rapunzel a while and most likely remind himself why he hated her so much before! They were never intending to blow up the castle, just the city! He wasn't going to be harmed! So, yes, all the evidence points to Andrew and the Saporians NOT abusing Varian, contrary to what Rachel and a lot of people seem to think. But, people like alicia buy into her propaganda and ignore onscreen evidence.

#ask zone stuff

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writing-biting · 1 year ago

Text

Thank you so much for tagging me!! I lovelovelove things like this!

Time to pop my ao3 open and start answering some questions, ehehehhe :oD (←clown!! It's a clown emoticon!)

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

Counting the ones on my pseud, 32!

2. What's your total ao3 wordcount?

Let's see— 182,540!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Undertale (mainly just aus), Rottmnt (gets its own category because of how much I've written for it), tmnt, Lego Monkie kid, and I want to write for more stuff in the future!

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Ehehe, okay, here we go:

Pull the Strings (Mine or Yours) (my main longfic!! It's mainly about dream and nightmare getting dragged around the multiverse and having a miserable time. But swap sans is there too!) 371

What Do We Fight For? (The accidentally TMNT BAY-centric collab crossover I'm doing based on Champions of the Battle Nexus (which is currently getting a really good rewrite!! You should read it)) 205

Behind the Waterfall (cross-centric undertale fic that I wrote a few years ago instead of going to therapy) 183

colors pooled between his thighs (smut babyyyy, and me trying to figure out how ink's paints work) 171

Rinse and Repeat (rottmnt angst!! Or disaster twin bonding, but sad) 132

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes!! As much as I possibly can. I'm very, very behind on answering comments but I answer as many as I can, if I have something to say.

I answer comments because feedback and attention is what fuels a lot of my writing. Also I love talking to people, and I always have so much to say. I love talking about what I write, and comments literally make me so happy I just have to say something, just to try to give a little bit of that happiness back

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh!! That's really hard. It really depends on what you find angsty. All of my long stuff has hopeful or happy endings, and a lot of my short stuff has 'bad endings'

Unhealthy Power Dynamic and Minionship, Oh My! is written to be very upsetting overall, and ends on a pretty fucked up note. It's a part of my Killer is a little shit. series, which is pretty much just a bunch of angsty oneshots about Killer suffering

Pain, Fear, Control and Passion ends positively miserably, but won't make any sense to you if you don't know about my rottmnt separated au. And no one knows about it because I haven't talked about it

And I guarantee that either Leo doesn't pay attention during training or same as ever (everything stays the same) will you make you sick to the stomach if you care about teenage mutant neglected turtles (tm(n)t)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Mikey Knows His Worth which starts with a sibling argument and ends with a food fight. Not my usual tone tbh!

I'd say that A Couple of Minutes With The Janken Club is a close second though, ending with everyone about to play an absolutely wild, armed game of rock paper scissors

8. Do you get hate on fic?

I think I did, once or twice

9. Do you write smut?

Not as much as I used to! When I joined the rottmnt fandom I moved it under a pseud, because a lot of kids were now reading my stuff and I was also worried about drama (the rottmnt fandom can be weird weird about shipping)

10. Do you write crossovers?

Hell yes. I mean, I only have two crossover fics rn but I want to write more so badly

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Idk, probably not. Most of the stuff I write is just venting and gore, not the kind of thing people really want to take credit for

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Does it count if you translated it yourself? In my wattpad days, I had a varian/oc fanfic, and I translated the first chapter into Hebrew

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic?

YES!! it's so fun to do omg (What Do We Fight For? is cowritten!!)

14. What's your all time favorite ship? Bad sanses poly. Followed right by star sanses poly.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't?

Feathers and Petals (my separated AU), I've revamped it too many times and it lost its soul)

16. Writing strengths?

I have literally unlimited ideas. I could make up an awesome fic idea right now, in literally less than a minute. I could give you twenty, new, fresh, right off the grill

Also, I can both write and read relatively fast! And I actually enjoy editing (except I'm usually too worn out to edit much once I finish a chapter ahaha)

17. Writing weaknesses?

My writing is both stiff, and overly descriptive. I'm too judgemental of my own work. I work in short bursts and somehow burn out without doing anything. I hate writing dialogue, and would much rather just describe a character's thought process for several pages. I can't keep my themes, motifs or character arcs straight. I'm disorganized.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fics?

YES HELL YES MIX THOSE LANGUAGES IN. I really love when there's bits of different languages in stories

I will say that I only like it if there's effort put in. Like don't just be all 'haha words I can't understand are sexy'. Put effort in!

Basically, I think slotting other languages into dialogue can be either fantastic or horrendous, depending on how it's done.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I wrote a oneshot where Derby got banished to the moon by a villain, and when the main six defeated the villain they didnt know how to get her back so they just went 'oh well, guess she'll die there' and then there's a time skip of her running into twilight a thousand years later, when the rest of the main six is dead, and twilights like 'how tf are you not dead' and derby was like 'well I once ate this magic muffins that discord made and now I'm immortal' and twilight was like 'wtf'

I wrote that when I was like, a ten or something idk

20. Favorite fic you've written?

hold me close (tmnt2012, a mutant apocalypse oneshot) it has its own little box next to my heart

Time for me to tags some of my buddies!

@i-am-a-living-god @jewishicequeen @eternalscribbles @the-gingerbread-lee

20 questions for fic writers

I got tagged by @spyscrapper who likes to see me suffer

How many works do you have on AO3? 420. My end of year goal is 425.

What's your total AO3 word count? 442,443

What fandoms do you write for? Anything i can put my fingers in.

What are your top five fics by kudos? Dear lord. Uhm. As of right now (midnight, 11/16/2023) they are The Mouth of Babes at 555. Short Star Wars fic covering the age regression of Anakin Skywalker and a tiny slave dealing out some truths. It has more kudos than it has words. Ner Jupayr Alorir Ni Staabi At Gar «My Path Leads Me Right To You» at 531. Cody/Obiwan alternate Order 66 fic. Ghostwhite at 220, a Lupercalia Star Wars fic where "what if the clones are actually giant psychic wolves" Nekomata at 211. Sword Art Online fic where Sachi wakes up. Runt of the Litter at 192, a Captain America gets a wolf sibling Lupercalia fic.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Sometimes I do in fact remember to do that...

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? nothing more than love and space dust A Rogue One story where Cassian pulls the trigger.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? nothing more than love and space dust A Rogue One story where Cassian pulls the trigger.

Do you get hate on fic? I wouldn't know, that's their problem, not mine ^^

Do you write smut? I certainly TRY.

Do you write crossovers? Absolutely.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I mean. Probably?

Have you ever had a fic translated? Two! Both into Russian. I'm proud.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yesssss.

What's your all-time favorite ship? ....for... which fandom?

What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't? Most of them...

What are your writing strengths? I have so many ideas!

What are your writing weaknesses? I have so many ideas.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics? Please redefine the question?

First fandom that you wrote for? Escaflowne.

Favorite fic you've written? This is a trick question, isn't it? It's like asking who your favorite child is.

I'm not tagging anybody, I'm sorry. If you want to do this, please do!

#ask game #long post

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rachelbethhines · 3 years ago

Text

Tangled Bonus Marathon - Rapunzel’s World : The Ultimate Series’ Guide

Introduction

While I was gathering books and comics for this review series, I kept seeing this series guide advertised to me by google’s and amazon’s algorithms. Now neither would tell what the book was nor give me any sort of insight into it’s pages, and I never heard it talked about within fandom. It’s not even listed on the wiki with the other activity books.

So out of sheer curiosity, I snagged it used off of Abe Books for less than five bucks. Now this was originally released mid-season and is supposed to be a ‘here’s a who is who’ so far in the story, but I figured it works better as an introduction to the show. I also wanted something short to go between the larger novels and give myself some breathing space.

Content

As I said, this is just a ‘Who’s Who’ book, but with some world building stuff thrown into the mix. Not much though, sadly....

Most of the little blurbs and such, are just things you can see in the show yourself. There’s nothing really here to flesh out the characters or the world; no additional tidbits or factoids, no added story, no activities for what is suppose to be an activity book. It’s kind of bland, and I can see now why the fans don’t really talk about it.

The most interesting thing about the book is what it gets wrong.

Varian, Quirin, and Ruddgier are called the ‘Ruddiger Family’, as if they consciously named themselves after their pet raccoon...

And then they get both Herz der Sonne’s and General Shampanier’s names wrong. Calling them Herr Tazon and General Champagne... I kid you not, It’s Champagne.

If this book was scheduled for a mid-season release, back when Queen for a Day was still intended to come after One Angry Princess, then Under Raps may not have been fully finalized by the time it was published.

Yet most interesting to me, is that The Great Science Expo is implied to be an annual event in the book. But, like, wouldn’t Varian had won like nearly every year then? Yet the judge seems to barely know him? What would have prevented Varian from participating previous years?

I personally would like to think that the Great Expo is a rotating event within the seven kingdoms. Like it does happen every year, but each year its hosted else where. Which would mean that the last time the Expo came to Corona, it was held when Varian was seven and too young to enter.

Now, I’ve nothing to back that theory up, but it seems as plausible as anything else.

Presentation

The art work in the book is very uneven, at best. We get some nice background shots and a few new promotional images of the mains. I especially enjoy the page listing out Rapunzel’s outfits. But then you you also get a lot of repeated artwork that fans see touted in every merch.

Heck, that one image above of Varian is repeated twice within this same book, while the royal family portrait shows up on three separate occasions. Then there’s the fact that all the villain's models are shown in default mode...

Everyone else at least has their models posing. Even minor characters, like the castle staff and the townspeople, at least were set up for their one promotional image. Yet, this, is lazy. Someone really dropped the ball here and it feels rushed.

Would I Recommend It

I don’t understand who this is for. There’s nothing here that you couldn’t learn just by watching the show or reading a Wikipedia page to catch yourself up with. If this had perhaps been released between the pilot and the first episode, as a way to generate hype, I could understand it, but it was instead a midseason release, so none of this would have been new information to most audiences at the time.

I guess if you lived overseas and couldn’t get the episodes till later, and for whatever reason didn’t have internet access, then maybe this might have had value then.... Only, its even harder to get merch like this overseas anyways so... Not to mention, that none of that is relative now that the series is over with.

I don’t know. I know a few people who like this book a lot, but I personally fail to see the appeal. This is the first thing I’ve come across in the marathon that I would recommend skipping over.

Next Up

We’ll be looking at our second original novel and first series based original novel to boot. Here’s hoping that’s better than the last book. Next is Rapunzel and the Lost Lagoon.

Also the streams have retuned this week over on the salt discord.

https://discord.gg/52hGg6TS

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #varian #tts

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roseworth · 3 years ago

Note

Ooooh how about 9, 10, 11, 12 for Tangled/Series with the salt asks?

salty ask list

9 - Most disliked character(s)? Why?

fuck i know this is such an obvious answer but zhan tiri, mostly because in my head shes sort of the representation of a lot of the wasted potential of the series :( the entire show was building up to a Big Boss Fight with zhan tiri but then it was just cass and rapunzel while everyone else was dying on the ground :/ and then it ended with her just. connecting her wrists and everything was solved. that is so boring! give me a cool fun big fight! why are so many of the main characters not there for the final battle against the big bad! at LEAST let lance eugene and varian be there??? theyre main characters too??????? anyways i am angry and bitter. zhan tiri ended up being such a boring villain (her final form wasnt even cool?? all the stories and flashbacks looked so sick but then she was so. Nothing.) and it was clear that there was so much backstory with zhan tiri and demanitus that we didnt get to see! like they had one flashback that we saw that was missing context and didnt even explain what happened or what was going on :( AND AND AND zhan tiri's history with gothel was just brushed over :/ :/ she even has a line to cass that was like "run! just like your mother!" or something like that and its like WHAT! ARE! YOU! TALKING! ABOUT!!! what did gothel do! why should we care!! bitch!!!!!

anyways. long story short. i dont like zhan tiri because she should have been better.

10 - Most disliked arc? Why?

hhh i know i just talked about this earlier today but. cass's villain arc drives me up a fucking wall. it should have been so good it should have been about her relationship with rapunzel and how she was always outshined. i wouldnt even mind the gothel twist that much if they had used it as a jumping off point instead of her entire motivation! if it was just the final straw for cass feeling abandoned, then i would be fine with it but instead it was literally the only thing used in the important episodes :( there were even little moments throughout season three where we were teased with the possibility of another motivation, but then once we get to cassandra's revenge its just "grrrrr rapunzel you killed my mom that hated me!" and its just weird and i Do Not Like It. i said a little more about it here too if anyone is interested in me being a bitter hag

11 - Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

stalyan :) i do love to angst and make headcanons about her being abusive but its not canon (theres a little bit of canon that you can use to support it but sometimes i choose to ignore that bc cool girl is cool)

idk! i just like the idea of her kinda just being influenced by her father to act on her worst instincts then once she gets some distance from him shes like "okayyyy so that was fucked up, oops" and moving on with her life outside of the baron's empire! i just think shes neat :) she has done many things wrong but i am willing to forgive her

12 - Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

listen. i LOVE the terapi island arc. i get that people dont like it because it halted the plot for a few episodes and threw them off course but i just think that its soooo much fun :') first of all rapunzels dress is so cute (green dress supremacy), and i think that there were just some nice moments from the characters in all the episodes and it was nice to just let them hang out on a weird island for a bit! i really liked serafina (seraphina? idk) i think shes a cutie and her episode was fun (shoulda been a lance episode though, every day i wish that hookfoot wasnt in season 2). i get everyones problems with it and i agree, however i am willing to look past all the issues because i had fun

#i forgot that hookfoot existed when i was writing the answer to the first question #so im too lazy to change it now. but my answer is also hookfoot.#but thank you for the ask ily!!! i wrote so much for all of these oops

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vaelynez · 4 years ago

Text

Varigo on Affection

Hi hello, I’m writing this essay on the boys and how they handle affection. Why? Because I had a long car ride and felt like it and they’re my comfort ship. If there’s discord formatting that I missed I apologize.

Please note: these are all personal head canons, if you don’t like them that’s fine! 💕

Did I put this in discord? Yes. Does it need to be here? No. Is that going to stop me? Absolutely not!

Hugo -

Hugo tends to show his affection via physical contact, and listening to Varian but that part isn’t intentional. He doesn’t realize how much that means to Varian. He’ll usually be the one to grab Varian’s hand on walks or ask to cuddle (mostly in the beginning, as time goes on Varian starts getting more comfortable to ask for hugs and stuff. We’ll get to that later).

When he was younger he’d constantly be looking for any form of love. (By younger I’m saying like 16-the trials). He never got it in any form, parental, friendship, romantic. He’s had physical relationships and settled for that because it was something. So when he starts dating Varian he has a hard time accepting that Varian actually loves him. Hugo’s constantly putting a hand on his shoulder, grabbing his hand, wrapping an arm around him thinking that’s all he could do. He backs off when Varian is showing apprehension though, especially in the beginning because he overwhelms Varian, which I’ll talk about when we get to him.

He doesn’t take things further than that, though. He’ll grab his hand and Varian will accept and he’ll get flustered like omg omg omg omg he accepted my hand hold help. Also yes, he is a tomato at this point. Once Varian get’s past his new relationship jitters he teases Hugo for it. (In a lighthearted way, he’s not trying to shame Hugo in any way they’re just being bickering dorks).

He’s never had experience talking about his feelings, either. Most of the time Donella never asked and he didn’t have friends. He’s a very emotional person (which he grew up hating) but he never was allowed to express these emotions and buried them.

The most verbal-affection he shows is when he’s helping Varian through a bad day. When Varian has a panic/anxiety attack, nightmares, overworks himself etc. Hugo tries to help him through through words because Varian hates being touched when he’s in these moments. It scares him. He’ll also try to talk Varian through his guilt. He’s the first person to not blame him for what happened to him when it comes to the whole amber situation. He’s the first person to tell him, hey, you crossed lines but I get why you did it and you had a right to be upset.

When he joins the group, he does the same thing. Hugo knows how to act, deceive, everything he grew up doing.

As time goes on, because of he doesn’t quite know how to process his own emotions, so when he starts developing feelings for Varian he knows something’s changed but he doesn’t know what.

Over time, there’s a moment where it just clicks. He’s watching V do something where he’s in his element being the most Varian Varian can be. Maybe he’s explaining a chemical formula to Yong, I’m not sure yet aha.

So he’s watching that, and he’s just sitting there subconsciously thinking, I love him so much. Then what he’s thinking hit him and he’s like- oh whoops.

Their first kiss is in the library after the apology. They spend months (≈3) holding each other’s hands and cuddling because both of them are scared to make the next move. Though Hugo tends to kiss the top of his head, or Varian will kiss his cheek, hand etc.

Hugo’s still having troubles vocalizing his feelings, so he continues to show it through actions.

So they’re talking it out, and Hugo tells Varian he loves him for the first time (which is a huge step for him to admit, and also stuns Varian) and he’s like- I’m sorry I know I hurt you and I truly care when Varian asks if he can kiss him. Hugo get’s flustered and starts tripping over his words and is like, “I-I mean if you want to-“ so he does.

It’s after this and when they go back to Corona that their relationship starts to grow bit by bit. They start slowly working through their problems together and healing from their past traumas.

Hugo’s as patient as can be, and appreciates how understanding Varian can be. Hugo will have moments where he still feels like he’s not enough. Varian tries to help him through it the best he can.

He’s scared to tell Varian, though, because aforementioned nobody’s ever loved loved me for me. He values Varian’s friendship and isn’t honest about his feelings for a while because he doesn’t feel he’s worthy of him. But Varian’s constantly telling and showing him that he is.

In the beginning of their relationship Hugo always made the first move because of these insecurities. (While listening to Varian, of course). But Varian starts making them over time, flustering Hugo in turn. But he comes to cherish those moments because actively reminding him, no you dolt I do love you! Now have a hug! Insert angry Varian nosies.

Most of these feelings go behind the scenes, though since Hugo doesn’t know how to talk about them. He’s also afraid of being vulnerable. So part of their banter is Hugo trying to convince himself he doesn’t care (mostly in the beginning when they practically hated each other). Now it’s a staple in their relationship because Varian’s a sassy child of sass and Hugo’s an ass Hugo. I mean, it’s Varigo. 20% love, 80% actually I love hate you.

After the library they start getting closer. Especially after settling down in Corona. Though Hugo’s go-to is still contact. He’ll hug Varian at any chance he gets. Call him Hug-o. That, and he won’t ever admit this, but he loves whenever Varian will hug back. Varian hugging/cuddling him? It’s everything he’s ever needed and more.

In short, Hugo’s a touch starved asshole who loves his boyfriend and wants to cuddle 24 7. And I love him for it.

Varian -

Varian shows most of his love and affection via words. When it comes to contact, he has to trust someone for him to be able to hug them. So, instead of instantly jumping to hug someone he’ll let them know that they’re appreciated.

Because of some of the attacking from Corona before and after his pardon, as well as some of the fights he saw in prison contact scares him when he doesn’t know someone.

On top of that, none of his friend/family are overly touchy people. Besides Rapunzel. Eugene will put a hand on his shoulder or the occasional hug if somethings wrong and he’s trying to comfort him.

He didn’t grow up with anyone voicing their appreciation of him either. Especially Quirin. He spent so long trying to get Quirin to tell him he was proud of him. So when he starts dating Hugo, he tries everything to get him to understand he does appreciate and love him. He’s the first to say I love you, which was pretty early on which both terrified and meant the world to Hugo.

When they first get together and Hugo’s constantly trying to hold his hand, it scares him at first because nobody’s ever been that touchy with him. (Respectfully, Hugo backs off if Varian’s uncomfortable). They do end up talking about it and Varian asks if they can take it slow, which Hugo agrees to.

Over time he slowly starts to accept it more. He’s also very flustered when they first start showing their feelings. (Bonus, Nuru basically tells him hey I can tell from here that you love him so pls figure this out soon I cannot do this anymore. In a respectful, I’m gonna help a friend out sort of way. She knows before he does). After he starts getting used to someone showering him in affection, in a way, he starts going to Hugo. He’ll grab Hugo’s hand or initiate a hug.

When it comes to their first kiss, Varian is heartbroken because of the betrayal. But when Hugo goes into the library he apologizes, which hits a nerve Varian didn’t know he had. Nobody ever apologized for hurting him, ever. (No, that prison scene does not count as an apology, Rapunzel. Personally head canon that after that she never wanted to bring it up because it’s all good now so why talk about it? Once it’s over it’s over. She does the same thing with Cass as well. This isn’t Rapunzel hate, though! It’s just something I feel she does). Seeing Hugo understand that he hurt him and let him know that yes, it is okay for you to be upset means everything. He was never allowed to be upset before. Corona treated things like his actions negated everything he went through. He was told that he deserved to go to prison and the trauma came with it because it was his ‘punishment’ for everything he did. Now, Hugo’s telling him he understands. Despite the betrayal and everything that happens, he knows he still loves him. He’s still hurt but he’s willing to work through it with him. He trusts that he won’t hurt him again.

So, Varian asks to kiss him and Hugo accepts. Varian knows that Hugo’s someone important to him and he doesn’t want to lose him. The sting is still there, it’s salt in the wound from everything he went through before. But he wants to give Hugo a second chance.

When they go back and start settling down in Corona, he starts becoming more aware of Hugo’s insecurities. They’re harder for Hugo to hide now that he’s not constantly acting around him. Though during the trials there were moments where they stopped and Varian sensed something was off, but he never knew what.

He tries his best to constantly remind Hugo that he cares, that he loves him, and all that. He doesn’t get as flustered now that they’ve been together for a while and becomes almost as much of a cuddle bug as Hugo, especially on bad days. Almost. While Hugo rarely talks about his feelings, Varian starts tp learn how to tell when Hugo’s having his own bad days. He’ll stick by his side, hold him, and remind him of everything.

When Hugo helps him through his bad days, it means the literal world to him. Going back to what I said before, he never really talked about everything he went through. He never let himself heal, either. He would constantly blame himself for it. Nobody had ever given him another opinion. They were either involved, or bias citizens. So when Hugo tells him, hey, yours feelings were valid you just took the wrong actions, it means a lot. (He knows his actions were bad at this point).

Hugo allows him to be upset, but still does his best to show him that he’s loved. He doesn’t treat him like a burden when his mental health gets the best of him, and vice versa.

While Hugo doesn’t outright say how much he loves Varian, he shows it through his actions. Varian tries to tell Hugo how much he loves him, by saying it and reminding him that he’s here for him. He loves him for him. And that’ll never change.

And there’s my essay. Enjoy! Also if it’s messy sorry I wrote this in one go and skimmed it over twice. Don’t know why I made it so long I just said ha time to ramble!

#tw: mentions of violence #tw: panic attack #tw: anxiety #tw: nightmares #varigo #tts hugo #tts varian #varian and the 7 kingdoms #varian and the seven kingdoms

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rocksandrobots · 3 years ago

Text

Phantoms of the Past Chapter 27 - The Halloween Hunt: Part 2

All three of the Coronians continued to scream as the car drove directly at them. Only at the last minute did Lance react, "Let's get out of here!"

He scooped up Rapunzel and flung her over his shoulder and grabbed Eugene by the shirt collar to pull him along.

Only for Eugene to stumble as they ran, and Lance lost hold of him.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel screamed as the vehicle rammed right into him...and then passed right through him again. As if he had been a ghost!

Eugene stood there in shock as he patted himself. "I'm... I'm alive? I'm alive!"

He jumped for joy, and then indignantly turned around and yelled at the horseless carriage as it drove away. "Hey, I'm walkin' here, ya road hog!"

------------

Wasabi ventured a peak out between his fingers. Noticing that there wasn't a bloody smear across his windshield, he turned to Gogo , who was driving, "Why don't you watch where you're going? You almost hit that guy!"

Gogo rolled her eyes. "Relax, I didn't hit him… Did I?"

Fred turned to look out the back window to see a man with a goatee and green vest angrily shouting at them. "No, he looks fine, to me. He is mad though."

"That's it! I'm driving!" Wasabi tried to reach for the steering wheel, but his costume prevented him from stretching his arms out to thier full length. It also didn't help that Gogo held him back with one hand as she continued to steer with the other.

"Chill. We just got started. Besides, those idiots shouldn't have been in the middle of the road anyways."

------------

"The nerve of some people," Eugene complained as he rejoined his friends on the sidewalk. "to not watch where I'm going."

Rapunzel threw herself at him and squeezed him tight. "Oh, thank goodness you're alright."

"So is this place, like one giant illusion or something?" Lance asked, "Because that metal death carriage just went right through you. Like it wasn't even there."

Eugene only shrugged.

"It can't be." Rapunzel argued. "Xavier said that the candle would take us to Varian. He can't be living in an illusion for months on end."

"I don't know," Eugene argued back, as he looked around once more. "This place sure looks like something he would dream up."

Lance shook his head. "Can't be him making all this… Not enough giant murderous automatons running around."

"Oh, and what do you call that?" Eugene pointed to another wheeled vehicle that rolled past. This one was a large truck that parked next to a house. The door of the truck opened and several men started carrying boxes inside the building.

"U-haul." Rapunzel read on the side of the vehicle. "Huh... It looks like people here use these... these horseless carriages to get around. Maybe they can just turn incorporeal, as like a safety feature?"

"Yeah, somehow I doubt that's it." Eugene said as they all three watched the now heavy traffic flow pass, while on the other side people bustled about. One thing was for sure, they were in a very, very busy city.

"I like your costume." a small voice beside them called out.

Lance jumped in fright and scrambled into Eugene's arms. "Ahhh, it's a goblin!"

The 'goblin' in question was a short child wearing a monstrous rubber mask.

"Lance, it's a costume." Eugene sighed.

"Oh... I knew that... I was just playing along..." Lance nervously laughed. "...giving the kid confidence, you know."

Rapunzel gave the child a wide smile and knelt down to the kid's level. "Thank you, I think your outfit is great too. Ummm... maybe you can help us. My friends and I are new here... can you tell us where we are?"

"You've on 4th street." A taller kid joined them. This one was dressed in a fur vest and wore a horned helmet. "If you keep heading that way you'll reach main street about six red lights down. Then you turn right and you'll be in downtown." The kid pointed behind the gang of travelers with a toy club.

"Downtown... got it." Rapunzel nodded, not that these directions meant anything to her. "What's downtown?"

The child shrugged. "I don't know, restaurants? Events? It's where all the tourists go. That and the bridge." Then she nudged the other smaller child. "Come on Bobbie. Let's hit up the next house." And with that the two kids walked away, carrying what looked to be two bags overflowing with candy.

"Well, that was strange." Eugene committed once the children were out of ear shot.

"Do people always dress like hideous monsters here?" Lance asked.

Rapunzel held back a laugh. "Oh, they're just playing pretend. Let's try heading this way towards that downtown they were talking about?"

"I thought the spell was supposed to bring us to Varian." Eugene complained as they started walking. "So far we haven't seen hide nor hair of the goggled headed delinquent."

"He... must be nearby." Rapunzel tried to sound positive, but the hesitancy was evident in her voice. "Let's just keep going. We might run into him."

None of them noticed the yellow car that passed by heading in the opposite direction.

--------------

Varian didn't see the three Coronaians either as he pressed the call button on his cell.

Wasabi had given him a device to hold his phone up on the dashboard so that he could drive with his hands free, and he went back to watching the road as soon as the phone started ringing.

"Hello?" The girl on the other end asked.

"Hey, Megan. Is Trina with you?"

"Yeah, Carl and Globby dropped her off here just a few minutes ago. Then they went to take Noddle Burger Boy trick or treating."

"Great! That'll save us time. I'm heading over to the art institute now to pick up Carol, and I'll swing back around to get you two on the way to SFIT."

"Sounds good. Do you think we can fit all the instruments in your car? My drum set is pretty big."

"Eh, we'll make it all work. Don't worry about it. Just be ready to go when I get there."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye."

The call ended, but despite his words, Varian did worry. Try as he might, he couldn't shake the feeling of unease that came over him.

He took a deep breath. "It's okay... You're just nervous 'cause it's your first real performance. Nothing bad is going to happen."

He didn't really believe himself.

-------------

Rapunzel couldn't shake the growing feeling of unease as they walked along the sidewalk in the afternoon sun. They had perhaps been journeying for half an hour and still hadn't seen any sign of Varian. Though they saw plenty of other people.

They were definitely in some sort of city, and it was busy. Rapunzel had never seen so many people and tightly packed buildings in her life. The largest she had come across was Vardoas, and it seemed to be dwarfed by this place... wherever they were. She tried to guess their location by what few signs that were up, but it seemed to be an even mixture of English, Spanish (according to Eugene who was fluent), and a third language that Rapunzel didn't recognize at all. Lance said it was Japanese, and that he had met an old sailor in prison once, who heralded from the far away island. Though he himself couldn't read it.

She figured that they were in some bustling port town that saw a lot of trade between these three kingdoms, but none of her guesses felt right. Neither London nor Madrid were anywhere near this, Japan, and Spain and England were sworn enemies, so it was odd that both languages were spoken here.

Then there were the people themselves. They saw more and more children, and a fair few adults, running around in costumes. They were dressed as everything and anything you could imagine, from horrific monsters, to mythical creatures, to cute oddities, like pumpkins and puppies. There were also outfits worn that she was sure were costumes as well, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what they were intended to be. Some women and even a few men, wore extremely short skirts or tops that barely concealed anything. Rapunzel was too surprised to even blush. Other's had brightly dyed hair and flashy makeup, with unitards and tights to match. She would have thought a circus was in town if not for the rest of the people also in costume.

Occasionally, she would see someone wearing clothing familiar to her. People dressed in grand ball gowns, normal peasants garb, sailor's outfits, military uniforms or knightly armor. Yet, she quickly discovered that these were just costumes as well.

The people not in fancy dress, seemed to prefer woolen jerseys and long blue britches. Even the women wore these trousers the same as the men, and on the few occasions that she did see a dress that wasn't a long flowing gown or a super short skirt, it was often a type of tunic with tights. She also saw a lot of coats and scarves, but she didn't feel the least be cold herself.

But if she thought the people were odd, the city itself was even weirder. They saw more of those horseless carriages parked along the street and driving upon the road. The buildings around them were tall and made of red brick with several windows. Most seemed to house shops and vendors of some kind on the bottom floors, while the few homes were thin structures squished in between the taller brick buildings. Some of the houses had tiled roofs with corners that swept upwards at the end, and others had flat roofs that you could easily walk upon, a few even had mini gardens sitting on top with full grown trees!

Yet nearly all were decorated in the most bizarre and sometimes gruesome manner. Pumpkins and squashes were carved and set on the front steps, some with cute smiling faces and others with hideous glares. Fake looking ghosts and paper mache skeletons hung from windows. Most of the shops held displays of varying degrees of horrific, from sweet scenes of silly bats dancing, to witches on brooms petting black cats, to bloody zombies eating brains. And there were cobwebs upon cobwebs everywhere, along with even a few fake spiders in them, which scared poor Lance.

Rapunzel herself got a fright when one tall statue, shaped like a banshee, screamed at her when she walked by one shop. She jumped.

"What is going on? It's like everyone here is trying to scare one another."

"I think it's some kind of holiday... it must be a festival of some sort..." Eugene said as he hugged her close.

"Oooh, like the Feast of Fools in Paris, or bonfire day in England… heh, remember Eugene? That party lasted all night." Lance suggested.

Eugene laughed... "Yeah, I remember. Man what a loser, that Fawkes guy must have been. You failed to blow up Parliament one time and people are still celebrating in the streets to mock you 40 years later."

Rapunzel didn't pay much attention to their banter. Instead she tried to read some of the signs hanging up in the store windows. Most were repeating the same word and phrase over and over again.

"Trick... or treat.." She read slowly. "and Happy... Hall... O... Ween?"

"Halloween?" Eugene echoed. He walked closer to one of the signs to read it better.

Meanwhile Lance was distracted by a bowl of unguarded candy standing by the door. "Take one... well don't mind if I do."

"Día de Muertos... Dia.. Day of.. Day of the Dead!" Eugene finished translating the other sign. "Oh.. Oh! Oh I get it now. It all makes perfect sense."

"It does?" Rapunzel asked him.

"Yes.. you know All Souls Day in Corona?"

"You mean that depressing holiday where everyone visits the graveyard and bakes raisin bread?"

"Exactly. Well, other countries celebrate similar festivals and it goes by different names. 'All Saints' Hollow Eve... or Halloween, is the Irish take on the holiday... or was it Scottish? Either way, it's a big thing in the British Isles. And Día de los Muertos is Spanish for Day of the Dead... though I hear tell, that it's more popular in the Spanish colonies than Spain itself..."

"That's it!" Rapunzel jumped for joy. "We must be in the Americas! That's why there's so many different cultures here. Haha! Oh how exciting! We've traveled to a whole other continent!"

Eugene chuckled, "Boy when Varian wants to get lost, does he ever 'get lost.'"

"Oooh, tell me all about this. 'Hall-o-ween!'

"Well, we've seen most of it. Folk dress in costumes and hand out treats, or sometimes trick people with scares. Legend has it that such tricks are supposed to dissuade evil spirits from stealing your soul on this night."

"Well this candy sure is a trick." Lance huffed, gaining his friend's attention. He stood next to the bowl on the stand and kept trying to scoop up the treats. Only for his hands to pass through the container as if it was made of air.

"Lance, will you stop fooling with that?" Eugene snapped and dragged him away before anybody saw.

"But, it's jinxed I tell you! Just like that spooky carriage that almost hit us!"

"It is not jinxed." Eugene argued back, and as if to disprove this he tried to lean against a metal lamp post, only to fall straight through it. He jumped up in fright. "What is with this crazy world!?"

"Hmmm... I wonder..." Curious, Rapunzel tried to touch a blue box that had the word Mail written on it. Her hand also past through it, as if she herself was a ghost. She pulled it back quickly and examined her palm.

"Wait! Are we ghosts!? Is this the Afterlife?" Lance squealed.

"Don't b-be s-silly... Souls Day is j-ust a normal holiday like any other." Eugene stuttered as he clung to Lance in comfort.

Lance hugged him back. "Maybe the legends are true. Maybe we've crossed the barrier into the land of the undead. Where they torment you with delicious food that you can never eat!"

Rapunzel didn't listen, she lifted her hand to the sky to get a better look at it. Her hand shifted in color under the light of the sun; it was almost as if the sun was flickering like a candle...

"Pro-ject… Project! That's it! We're just projections!" Rapunzel called out.

"What?" Eugene asked as he slowly untangled himself from Lance.

"Xavier said that the light of the candle would project us to where we wanted to go. He meant it literally. The light from the candle is projecting our image onto the land... we're not actually here."

"Then where are we?" Eugene asked.

"Yeah, and where are our actual bodies?" Lance asked as he experimentally poked Eugene to see if he was actually there. Eugene smacked his hand away in annoyance, and this quickly devolved into a slap fight between them.

Rapunzel once again ignored this outburst between them. "I don't know, Lance... back in Corona I guess."

-----------

"This is boring!" Angry whined as she rested her hand on the crate beside her.

"Yeah," Catalina agreed as she rested her own head in her hands. "They aren't doing anything."

Everyone present in the blacksmith's shop were staring at the trio sitting in the middle of the circle on the floor. Rapunzel, Eugene, and Lance appeared to be in a trance as they sat around the still fluttering green flame of the magic candle. From their eyes poured a gastly white light obscuring their irises and pupils.

"Patience, little one." Xavier soothed. "They still have several more hours left before the candle burns out."

"What's happening to them?" Edmund asked.

"Their minds are being projected to wherever Varian is hiding." The blacksmith explained. "The further away that he is, the less accurate the spell will be. I'm afraid that they may need every minute that's available to them to find what they seek."

------------

Rapunzel started to breathe heavily as she marched up the steep hill. "Almost... uh... almost there." She called back.

"If we're not.. uh.. if we're not really here... oooh boy... then why am I running out of breath climbing?" Eugene complained.

"All I know.. ooff.. is that we've been here for at least an hour... uh.. and haven't seen Varian.. huff... anywhere." Lance huffed. "How are we... huff... supposed.. oooh... to find him in a city this size?"

"Think, huff... positive, Lance." Rapunzel encouraged. "We must have.. oooh... we must have covered half the town by now... All we have to do... is reach... huff... the top of this hill... eh... and will be in that 'downtown' those kids were talkin-." Her enthusiasm instantly faded away as he came to the top of the hill. She stood there in shock as her friends finally joined her.

"Oh... sure... it'll be a piece of cake to find him in this!" Eugene snarked, as the three of them saw the sprawling city below. "Why.. 'tis but a village."

It was anything but a village. The city seemed to go on forever. The only thing else that broke the skyline besides gleaming towers of glass and the giant lanterns hovering above them, was what looked to be a bay sparkling off in the far distance under the low hanging sun.

"Welp, we tried." Lance said, before turning to leave.

"No. We can't give up!" Rapunzel argued after him. "Varian's our only hope to translate the scroll. Think of Corona."

"Blondie, we all care about Corona." Eugene said as he laid a hand on her shoulder. "But look at where we are. Look what we're up against. Finding him is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Yeah, and we don't even know what this 'haystack' is called, or where it's located." Lance interjected.

Rapunzel pouted and pulled the scroll out of her pocket. "There has to be away." She whispered, as she studied the paper, looking for answers. Suddenly Lance's voice broke through her musings.

"Hey, what if we asked that magic mirror over there?" She turned and saw him pointing to a store display. Inside the window were several black 'mirrors' of all sizes. Only they weren't very good mirrors as they didn't reflect back the person's image clearly in their dark surfaces.

"Lance, that's not a magic mirror." Eugene rolled his eyes.

"Oh, then what is it, genius?"

"Well... clearly it's.. it's uh... some sort of odd, art installation...."

That's when the 'mirrors'' turn on, displaying simultaneously the image of several young boys in short britches and colorful shirts fighting over a checkered ball.

"Oh What the- Holy Hera!" Eugene jumped at the sight.

"See, I told you... magic mirror." Lance smugly gloated.

"Oh, maybe the mirror can tell us something." Rapunzel interrupted, her hope renewed once more. She waved at the largest of the black boxes inside the window. "Hi, I'm Rapunzel, and these are my friends, and we were wondering, Mr. Mirror, if you could... Do you know where we are?"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth the scene on the mirror changed and there sat a small man inside of it. He had a big bushy mustache and wore a well tailored suit.

"This is Bluff Dunder, providing you with the lastest San Fansokyo news."

"San Fansokyo?" Eugene echoed. He had never heard of such a place before, and he considered himself to be very well traveled.

"Bluff Dunder?" Lance snickered next to him.

Rapunzel shushed them to be quiet and let the mirror man speak.

"Happy Halloween everybody. The weather is the perfect nippy temperature for the chilly holiday, and trick-or-treaters should bundle up as the night settles in. In sports, the jaguars defeated the hawks today 3 to 1 and will be heading to the world cup."

"Oooh." Rapunzel cooed in interest. "I hope none of the animals were hurt fighting."

"Who cares," Eugene snapped, "What about Varian, huh? Do you know where he's at?"

"Eugene... don't interrupt the man.."

"...and be sure to tune in tonight when we cover an exclusive snoop. Big Hero Six, or shall we say Big Hero Seven?"

The screen changed again and showed a group of armored individuals, poised as if ready to fight. They looked like bright colored knights.

"Who is this mysterious newcomer who's been seen with the famous superhero group?" The man in the mirror went on. "Friend or foe? Human or no? We've obtained an exclusive interview with notorious criminal, Mr. Sparkles, for details on this latest crime stopper."

The scene changed again to another small man, this one with pink hair. He wore a bright orange jumpsuit and was being held in what looked like a jail cell.

"Yup, yup, yup…The Portal Pirate and me go waaaay back. I was there when he first arrived in San Fansokyo." The little man said as he studied his nails. Then he looked up and suddenly grabbed the bars of the cell. "Hey, are you getting 'my good side' with that camera?" He shouted.

Then the scene cut again. This time the image was more blurry. There was clearly a thin, dark haired young man standing in the midst of a purple fog. He wore a long frock coat and his face was obscured by a bandana and goggles. He threw a neon green ball at something, and then pressed some buttons on his glove. A bright blue portal opened, like a hole in the air, right next to him. As he turned to step through, and the light of the portal caught the matching streak of blue in his bangs.

"Varian!" Rapunzel pointed out. "Look, It's Varian!"

"Well, whaddaya know? The mirror did find him." Eugene could barely believe it.

"Yeah, but does the mirror know where he is right now?" Lance asked.

More images of Varian cycled through the black box as Bluff Dudder's voice carried on. "Yes, who knows of this mysterious visitor to our city? Is he really from another world? What is he after? And will he become a permanent member of the noble group of heroes who defend our fair San Frankoyo?"

The image on the box changed yet again, and Bluff Dunder reappeared. "Answers to all this and more, tonight at 8 o'clock sharp, with your host, myself, Bluff Dunder!"

"Eight tonight!" Eugene shouted. "We haven't that kind of time to wait man! Why can't you just tell us now?"

Man in the mirror ignored him as he continued to ramble on about more news regarding the city. Rapunzel gently tried to steer her boyfriend away before a fight could break out between him and the magical being.

"Thank you Mr. Mirror!" She said with a tight smile. "You've been a big help."

The mirror didn't answer and switched to yet another new scene of kitty cats running around as a jaunty jingle played. She hoped that they hadn't offended the mustached djinn as she walked away.

"Pff, figures." Eugene continued to complain. "Never trust a magical entity to give you a straight answer."

"True, True." Lance nodded.

"But he did give us more to go on." Rapnuzel explained. "apparently Varian's been hanging out with those... those knights that protect the city... what did the mirror call them?"

"Big Hero Six.. no Seven... or was it Nine?" Lance mussed. "It was some sort of number."

"Well, I'm sure that if we asked someone here, they'd know." Rapunzel said.

"Oh sure, just say we magically traveled here by candle light and are looking for a strange child who's been apparently helping to protect the city for months, but is secretly the most wanted criminal in our land... I'm sure no one will call use crazy then."

Rapunzel gave Eugene a pout at his cynicism, but she couldn't fully disagree with him either.

She sighed and shook her head. "We don't have to tell anyone about the candle, we'll just say we're looking for this 'Portal Pirate'.

Lance scratched his head. "If he's trying to turn over a new leaf here, then why call yourself a 'pirate'?

His friends could only shrug only at that.

"Let's just try to ask the first person we come across and see what they have to say." Rapunzel insisted.

That's when Rapunzel spotted a man dressed in a blue uniform with a badge standing by one of the parked self-propelled carriages. He was writing something down in a small notebook. After finishing this he tore the page out of the notebook and placed it on the front window of the vehicle.

'Hello my good sir,' Eugene called out to him. "You look like a man who knows his way about town. I was wondering if you might be of help to my friends and I. See we're visiting your fair city for the first time...."

"And it's amazing by the way." Rapunzel enthused.

Eugene wrapped a hand around her shoulders to keep her from rambling more, as she was want to do.

"Uh-huh, it sure is sweetie. Anyways, we were hoping you could help us locate a particular person. I believe he goes by 'the Portal Pirate' here. Have you heard of him perchance?"

"Yeah and he hangs out with some group called Big Hero Six." Lance added helpfully.

The man in blue rolled his eyes in clear annoyance and Eugene realized that they must have said something wrong.

"Tourists..." The man uttered under his breath, then more clearly he said. "Those vigilantes are not associated with the police force, and I'm afraid I don't have time to play tour guide." He pointed to the badge pinned to chest. "This isn't a costume. I'm a real officer and Halloween is our busiest time of the year. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Enjoy your trip."

He turned away and started to walk to another blue and white vehicle. 'Police' was written on the side and a red light sat on the top of the roof. He opened the door to get in, but Eugene hurried forward before he could enter it.

"You're a law man. That's great!" The officer stopped, and Eugene pressed forward. "Lance and I are special operatives from our country and we're chasing down a very dangerous criminal. He's apparently running around your city pretending to be one of these vigilantes."

The officer narrowed his eyes at them. "And you expect me to believe that? If you were really secret agents then why haven't you contacted the proper authorities?"

"Well, we only just arrived, you see." Lance said. "And you're the proper authority aren't you?"

"I'm the Chief of Police, yes." The officer frowned.

"That's great!" Eugene continued. "See, you're precisely the right person to help us. I'm Eugene Fiztherbert, this is my partner and buddy Lance Strongbow, and her royal highness herself, Princess Rapunzel!"

Rapunzel waved at the officer with a small smile as he eyed her up and down. The policeman held his composer for only a moment more before snorting with laughter. Then he quickly coughed and slipped back into his authoritative stance once more.

"Alright, you got me. That was a funny joke. Now, I need you to move along. I have work to do."

"B-but, it's not a joke!" Rapunzel insisted.

The chief rolled his eyes. "Please, I'm supposed to believe those are your real names? If you're Rapunzel then I'm the tooth fairy."

"It's true... well, mostly true." Eugene added. "Lance's name is actually Arnwaldo Schnitz, and according to my long lost father, my real name is Horus... which I hate… b-but she really is the princess!"

The officer crossed his arms. "Oh really, the princess of where exactly?"

"Corona." Rapunzel softly answered and the policeman dropped his arms in surprise. He looked like he was in shock.

"Say that again." He ordered in all seriousness.

"Corona. Did you not just hear her?'' Now it was Eugene's turn to roll his eyes.

"Corona?"

"Yes, Corona. The land of the sun, the sea, and really killer sauerkraut."

"And you claim to be some... sort of authority from there?"

"Yes, that's what we've been trying to explain to you." Eugene was getting exasperated. "We're hunting down an escaped convict. We have reason to believe that he's hiding out in your city pretending to be this... Portal Pirate, that's been running around."

The officer blinked as if he connected the dots in his head. "And how did you come by this intelligence?"

"Oh that magic mirror over there told us." Rapunzel helpfully said as she pointed back to the window display.

The chief pinched the bridge of his nose in confusion. "Magic mirro... You mean the television? You saw the Portal Pirate on tv and recognized him? How?"

"Oh it was easy!" Lance said. "He always wears those same goggles, has a blue streak in his bangs, and he practices alchemy." He shuddered. "You don't wanna mess with that alchemy he's got. The things that kid builds can make a grown man cry with fear." He bit his finger as if to prevent crying himself.

You could see the wheels turning behind the officer's eyes as tried to traverse this newest revelation. "And.. and what do you want with him again?"

"He's wanted for treason." Eugene explained. "He's a terrorist and weapons expert... mostly because he builds his own weapons. Like Lance said, he's very dangerous."

"He's also an expert in dead languages." Rapunzel added. "He's the only one who can translate this scroll."

She pulled out the document to show the policeman. He reached out to touch it and Rapunzel quickly drew it back.

"Sorry, but's very old and very delicate." She hastily explained. She didn't want to give the poor man a fright by also showing him that it was see through. Especially since it looked like he was finally coming around to their story.

"But what is it?" The man pressed.

"It's a an ancient artifact, and it's written in code." Eugene said, trying his best to side step all of the magical explanations. Even he had a hard time believing in magic, and he'd been surrounded by the stuff non-stop for years. He seriously doubted that this lawman believed as well, especially given his reaction over the 'magic mirrors', or 'televisions' as he had called them.

"So let me get this straight." The officer said, as he stood to his full height. "You're undercover agents sent over to extract a deadly criminal who has taken refuge here in America, and you wish to re-arrest him and get him to translate this scroll for you."

Eugene thought the matter over, "Yeah, that's pretty much it. Not unless you want to arrest him for something else. We'll happily cooperate with your government over this. We mostly just need the scroll translated and assurances that he won't attack our kingdom again."

"Hmmm hmmm... and as traveling dignitaries, I'm sure you have all the proper papers to visit our country, and have gone through all of the necessary channels to legalize this international extraction?" The officer loomed over them and Rapunzel's stomach suddenly dropped as she realized that the lawman wasn't actually interested in helping them.

Eugene also must have realized this at the same time as she did, as she started to feel him tug on her sleeve. "Oh, well... we must have left those back at the castle-"

"Where are your passports?" The officer pressed.

"Umm Eugene?" Lance nervously asked.

"Run!" He shouted and the trio turned and bolted back down the hill.

Rapunzel ventured a glance behind them and saw the officer entering the blue and white carriage from before. The red lights on top began to flash and a siren blared from the vehicle as he took chase. He was upon them in seconds.

"Halt! By the authority of the San Fansokyo police apartment, I order you to stop running!" The officer yelled over a megaphone at them.

"Uh, Eugene?"" She called after her boyfriend. There was no way that they could outrun the horseless carriage.

"Uh, I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" He called back to her. "Uh.. quick! He surely won't drive through a building."

They dove into one of the stores.

"Happy Halloween, how may I help you?" A smiling old lady at the front desk greeted them.

"Uh hi, you wouldn't have any royal guard repellent would you?" Eugene nervously joked.

The little old lady was only confused by the question.

Rapunzel and Lance stood by, trying to catch their breaths, when Rapunzel heard a small voice beside her.

"I like your Rapunzel costume. " She looked over, and saw a little girl with a long yellow braid like her own, though hers was clearly a wig.

Rapunzel gave the girl a tight smile. "Thank you... b-but mine isn't a costume. See?" She tugged on her own hair. "all real."

The little girl's eyes lit up as she gasped in excitement. How far had her story spread?

"Uh-oh, tall, dark, and blue is walking right this way." Lance said.

Everyone looked up and saw the policeman had parked the carriage and was heading right their way.

"Well desperate times call for desperate measures." Eugene stated.

"Like what?" Lance asked.

"Like this." Eugene grabbed his hand, and in turn Lance grabbed Rapunzel's, and then all three of them ran through the wall into the building next door.

Rapunzel could hear the little girl cry out "Coool!" before disappearing on the other side.

They were suddenly inside a barber shop and a few people screamed upon their sudden appearance. Then just as suddenly applause broke out.

"Thank you, thank you." Eugene bowed, deciding to take advantage of the opportunity. "We'll be here all week."

"Man, how did you do that trick?" One guy called out.

"A magician never reveals his secrets." Lance said, picking up on Eugene's con with practiced ease.

Their relief was short lived however when the police officer poked his head around the front door in irritation. "I don't care how you did that. You're not getting away!"

Eugene panicked. "Uh... and for our next trick, a disappearing act!"

And they ran through the opposite wall again, and again, and yet again; to many screams of equal fright and delight. They may have ran for several blocks before they finally lost the lawman chasing them.

They exited out of a flower shop last and finally stepped out on to the sidewalk huffing and puffing.

"No... huff. seriously..." Eugene breathed. "If we're here having an out of body experience, the why.. oooh... why do I keep running out of breath!?"

"Maybe 'cause, we don't actually have any lungs?" Lance innocently suggested and Eugene gave him a light smack.

As they pointlessly argued though, Rapunzel spotted a fuzzy creature run into the alley next door. It was black and white, and had a striped tail.

"Wait a minute..." Rapunzel whispered as she recognized the animal, and started to walk after it. Lance and Eugene paused in their discussion, gave each other confused looks, and then started to follow her.

-----------

Ruddiger pulled the tattered bed sheet over the wooden crate. He then placed an open tin can and a used paper plate on each end. In the center, he had placed an empty glass soda bottle, with a dandelion weed in it. He eyed his handiwork and then smoothed out the wrinkles in his makeshift tablecloth with his paw.

Satisfied, he opened his mouth and let out a chittering nose. Suddenly, a blonde female raccoon poked her head over the rooftop across the way. Ruddiger ran in a little circle for joy upon seeing his crush. For her part however, the other raccoon only tilted her head at him curiously.

Ruddiger had been trying to impress the pretty female for months now. Ever since he spotted her hanging around the cafe his first day here in this new world. There hadn't been any other raccoons in Corona. He himself had been brought there on a boat when he had tried to raid the ship's food stores. He had barely gotten away from the angry sailors, before stumbling upon the apple orchard that would become his home for the next couple of years.

Now that he had found his own kind again he couldn't have been happier; only his ways were apparently not the same as hers. Either because of growing up in different eras, or because he'd been living with humans for so long, Ruddiger found that he had a difficult time in communicating with the fair beauty. She'd only stare at him blankly whenever he tried to woo her.

Well, hopefully this would finally catch her attention.

Ruddiger gave her a nervous smile and pulled out a can of whipped cream. He sprayed the sugary treat into the tin cup and paper plate and stood back to offer it to her.

Finally intrigued, the girl raccoon hurried down the drain pipe and cautiously walked over to the whipped cream, still eyeing Ruddiger with her blank gaze. She gave the sweet an experimental sniff and then licked it. She seemed surprised by the taste, and Ruddiger feared that she may not like his gift after all.

Then suddenly she started to furiously gobble up the cream with animalistic vigor. Ruddiger blinked in surprise at first. He hadn't expected this reaction, but as she started to walk upon the crate to get to his cup of cream as well, he realized that she must have really, really liked the stuff; perhaps even more than he did.

He gave a blissful sigh as he rested his head in his paws and stared at the gorgeous creature before him as she mindlessly devoured both their dinners. They had finally found something in common.

Ruddiger's happiness was short lived however, when a long blonde haired woman stuck her head around the corner of the alleyway.

"Ruddiger?" She gasped. "Ruddiger!"

Rapunzel ran into the alley with all the excitement of bumping into an old friend. This startled Ruddiger's date who stopped eating immediately, scurried back up the drain pipe, and disappeared over the roof, knocking over a couple of trash cans as she went.

Ruddiger looked helplessly on as the girl of his dreams vanished, yet Rapunzel seemed oblivious to the trouble that she had caused.

"Oh, who was that? Did you find yourself a lady friend here? And you were having a raccoon date! Oooohh how cuuutee!"

That snapped Ruddiger out of his stupor. He snorted in irritation, and hurried up the fire escape to get away from the annoying woman.

Rapunzel, however, was only confused by this behavior. "Oh, please don't go!" She called after the raccoon as her boyfriend and future brother-in-law joined her in the alley. "We're looking for Varian. Do you know where he is?"

Ruddiger didn't answer. Instead he poked his head round the railing of the balcony and angrily shook his paw at the princess. He then chittered at them in what could only be described as the raccoon equivalent of a curse.

Rapunzel frowned. Even though Ruddiger was Varian's pet, she had thought that the raccoon was on her side....or was at least sympathetic to her. After all, Ruddiger had been the one to free her family from Varian's imprisonment.

She watched the indignant animal disappear inside the building through a window with wounded pride.

Eugene placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay sunshine, don't worry about it. If Ruddiger is here then Varian can't be far away. He's probably in that building right now."

"Great! Let's go ask him for help and get this over with." Lance cheered and turned to walk into the wall.

Eugene stopped him, "Uh... maybe this time we should go through the front door, and not scare everybody senseless?"

Lance's face fell as his friends walked out of the alley. "Oh... Right."

-----------

"That's it... Concentrate..." The disembodied voice hissed in her ear.

Cassandra squeezed her eyes tighter and tried to envision the opal on her chest in her mind's eye, willing it to obey her commands.

"The Moonstone responds to emotions, yes," Her ghostly mentor instructed, "But it can only be controlled by sheer force of will. You need to learn to harness your feelings and focus them. By having a clearer goal in mind you can channel your energy."

Cassandra took a deep breath and tried to replace her negative feelings with more productive thoughts... especially since her primary emotion right now was annoyance.

The phantom she had met in the haunted shell house nearly a year ago, sure did love to boss her around. That is, when she wasn't endlessly prattling cryptic nonsense. Not for the first time Cassandra regretted ever opening that blasted door and releasing the demon.

For demon she was... Cassandra long suspected who the stalking spector really was, but she had never stated so out loud. Names gave power, and so long that she didn't name the thing that haunted her, then that was less power the demonic wraith had.

Still, the ghost had proven useful. Without its knowledge Cassandra would never have known how to prevent the curse on her hand from spreading. She may have been nothing more than a charred and blackened husk by now, had she not stolen the moonstone.

Rapunzel had been so hurt by Cassandra's supposed 'betrayal' but really the whole thing had been her fault. She had been the one to sing the decay incantation, even when Cass had told her not to. She had been the one to shut down any complaints or concerns Cassandra had, and so Cass hadn't even bothered to tell her about the spreading infection. She had been the one to get lost in the shell house, even though Cassandra hadn't even wanted to go into the accursed place to begin with.

Rapunzel had even been the one responsible for Gothel, their 'mother's' death, according to the ghost that she'd freed. Not that Cassandra had ever really cared about the woman... Yet it was just another example of how wherever the other girl went, destruction and misery followed, and most of the time it was all due to her own oblivious selfishness.

Anger flared up within Cassandra's chest again. She couldn't believe that she had ever wasted her time trying to befriend the princess. All the missed opportunities, all of the lost potential, all of the misplaced faith defending the indefensible.

And that anger only spread from there; she was mad at Rapunzel for hurting both her and others, she was mad at herself for going along with the girl's excuses, she was mad at Eugene and the rest of her former friends for enabling Rapunzel's worst excesses.

She was angry at the royals and their unchecked authority; the way that they had steamed rolled over people, how they sanctimoniously pretended that their atrocities were 'helping' people, and how they taught that hypocrisy to their daughter. She was even mad at her own dad for protecting that authority and teaching her to blindly respect it as well.

She was also angry at the people of Corona who still supported the royals. Who no doubt blamed her for things that she couldn't control. Those sheep were probably singing their little lost princess's praises for stopping the mean bad woman for 'attacking' their beloved kingdom.

Cassandra growled under her breath. Oh how she hated them! She hated all of them! She hated their condescension, their snide comments, their rude gossip, their disappointed stares.l… How they always talked about her behind her back, teased her for her dreams, or simply ordered her about. How she hated their callous disregard of anything that didn't concern their own petty puerile interests. It wasn't just Rapunzel who was awful. The entire kingdom was toxic.

'Rotted to the core and founded off of lies' had been Andrew's description of the kingdom, and Cassandra now began to wonder if the Saporian had been right.

"Good, get angry." The voice whispered again. "After what they did to you. What the royals did to your poor mother. They deserve it. Take that rage and now focus it... envision your enemies, and think of how you'll make the coward before you."

Cassandra imagined the rocks. She imagined them following her commands. She vindictively imagined all those she hated shivering in awe and terror of what she could do. She controlled the plague that had ravaged the land. She could save them and be their hero or devour them whole and ruin them forever. It was their choice.

'Let's see them laugh now.' She thought.

Suddenly the rocks shot up before her and made their way to Corona again. But this time, they were focused, they had intent, and they were heading straight to where she wanted them to go... To Rapunzel.

The rocks glowed a bright blue this time and Cassandra's eyes snapped open. Where her irises and pupils should have been, there was nothing but an empty void filled with a matching blue light.

The demon beside her smiled.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #varian #of rocks and robots #bh6 the series #big hero six #Rapunzel #Cassandra #Eugene #Lance

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swinging-stars-from-satellites · 3 years ago

Text

fic writer review

thanks to @delphiniumblooms for tagging me!!! :D

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

66 posted and one lonely little draft that's probably never gonna get finished

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

102,532

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

including things i've multiple-tagged for related fandoms, 24. but like i said, a lot of that is because of interconnected/related fandoms

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

tell me more than just the scars i've known - my first Sylki fic that i wrote while extremely frustrated by lack of cell service, it's not my favorite thing i've written but listen: sometimes a girl's just gotta write some whump, ok?

Dream Again (When One's Left Behind) - the one and only Tangled: The Series fic i've ever written. Varian angst and platonic h/c with one of the only alternating POVs i've ever successfully written.

for the bad decisions that we made - the Sylki fic i posted less than two days ago (writing for big fandoms is wild, guys); yet another take on an s2 reunion but this time featuring heart-to-hearts, hugs, and one of my favorite lines of prose i've ever written

Learn Me Right - Newsies sickfic that i'm not incredibly proud of, but it's where i started writing my favorite minor character, so it's cool.

We Are Broken - one of my other Newsies fics, bc yeah i had a phase back in January, and i saw some Wormsies post that gave me an idea.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

YES. i always reply to comments just bc i love talking to people, and i also love talking about my fics at any opportunity. also bc i know how nice it is to leave an author a comment and get a reply later on, it's just such a great feeling so i like to be that person :)

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

eurrgghh probably either Dust & Ashes or we're gonna sing it again and again, bc they ended with MCD, but i really kind of hate both of them in retrospect because i was trying to write them to be canon compliant, but i wasn't familiar enough with canon and they're just... very very off

7. Do you write crossovers?

nope, not unless you count different eras and contexts of Doctor Who stuff as crossover

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

nope again, AO3 culture is very nice and i really love it

9, Do you write smut?

biggest NOPE yet, i don't write it or read it. just.... n o p e.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

11. Ever had a fic translated?

again, no. but that would be really heckin cool if one of my fics ever did get translated!!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

i'm saying "no" a whole lot, wow... but yeah, no i haven't. i've considered co-writing something with my best friend, but we've never gotten around to it

13. All time fav ship?

i... cannot pick one tbh. it changes with my hyperfixation. right now i have Sylki brainrot lol

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

probably my Gallifrey/DWEU buddy cop au?? i love it, it's my brainchild, but yeah :/

15. Writing strengths?

i've been told that i'm really good at packing a lot of emotion and meta into very short fics, and i'm pretty proud of that tbh

16. Writing weaknesses?

i suck at plot and dialogue can sometimes drive me nuts. i think my biggest weakness as i perceive it is that i find it hard to *not* make things in fics go very fast? like i write everything out that i want in a fic but it's still incredibly short and i worry that it feels rushed, even though other people don't usually think that.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

uh... the only language other than English that i know is Koine Greek (as in, the specific Greek that the Bible's New Testament was oroginally written in) and it's a dead language, sooooo.......

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Big Finish Doctor Who! (tho tbh i think back when i was 11/12 i wrote some random self-insert stuff for whatever little fandoms i was in back then 😅)

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

ohhh i can't choose? usually i'm just most partial to whatever i've most recently written, which right now is for the bad decisions that we made. i think one of my Gallifrey fics, In The Drift, is definitely high on my list of favorites though.

here's my AO3 for anyone who might like to take a look!

tagging @fortes-fortuna-iogurtum and @picnokinesis if either of you want to do this, and anyone else who sees it if you want. :D

#Lu rambles #Lu writes #writing #fanfic #ao3 #tag game #my fic #fanfic pals #loki series #pro sylki #lovedaggers #newsies #newsies live #tangled the series #varian angst #dweu #doctor who expanded universe #gallifrey #big finish audios

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neokonewman · 4 years ago

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What are your thoughts on Chris’ BS that Fredric is a “misunderstood” good guy/Anti-hero?

Okay, here’s the thing about my feelings towards Frederic. I WANTED to like him so much. I WANTED to sympathize with his trauma of losing his baby girl after barely saving her and his wife from death. I WANTED to understand his reasons behind trapping Rapunzel back inside a tower, because while Gothel did the same out of pure selfishness, there is legitimate love and worry behind Frederic’s actions. I WANTED to root for him to learn from his mistakes and grow into a better person and father. I am always going to appreciate an antagonist with understandable motives, and who let’s his personal feelings get in the way of doing what’s right.

Here’s the thing though... Frederic’s actions and motives not only make no sense, but they are completely and ultimately pointless and incredibly stupid. Like what exactly would Frederic have accomplished by locking Rapunzel away in her tower? He has absolutely no plans in dealing with the black rocks only than methodically sticking his thumbs in his ears while singing “LALALA~!” while the rest of his kingdom fell to ruin. He made no attempt to stop the rocks without Rapunzel’s involvement. He outright silenced those who WERE trying to find a solution to the indestructable rocks. He sent the royal guard in disguise to harass a young teen out of his home just to keep his secret, yet never once did we see him put even a quarter of that energy into stopping the rocks.

Sooner or later the rocks were going to reach Rapunzel. It was inevitable. We saw they th Et are able to grow upwards into towers. We later find out that they can cross oceans. The only thing Frederic truly “accomplish” was increasing the damage to his own kingdom just to buy his family about... a day or two of false peace while his people suffer from his consequences. He rightfully should have been overthrown after the sheer failure to act as a competent ruler for his people. No sob story about his trauma can ever excuse the lives he put in grave danger, and a 14-15 year old who has lost everything because of Frederic’s dangerously selfish behavior should never have been used as a scapegoat for those failures.

But even if we ignored all of that mess, there is just... really nothing to like about TTS!Frederic and nothing shows him being anything close to competent. It’s canon that he threw a tailor to the stockades because the poor guy ACCIDENTALLY ripped one of his robes. He thinks it’s perfectly valid to steal a pet away from their owner because said owner commited some petty vandalism. He canonically doesn’t even know his kingdom’s own laws enough to know that a person accused of a crime has the right to proper due process, legal representation, and a proper investigation before being shipped off to a prison abroad ominously named “the Lost Sea.”

His big advice to ruling over the lives of his people was “always listen to your heart no matter what others say.” which at first glance seems kinda decent, but remembering that apparently his heart thought all of this was even remotely okay makes his words all the more stupidly selfish. No, a leader SHOULD listen to those around them in order to keep their power in check. No a ruler SHOULDN’T just be able to get away with everything they want. “Listen to your heart” means absolutely nothing if your heart thinks it’s okay to put a large amount of people in mortal danger just for the sake of your selfish needs, ESPECIALLY IF THOSE PEOPLE RELY ON YOU TO LEAD THEM.

However the BIGGEST misstep that throws Frederic way past the “misunderstood anti-hero” role is the fact that he did all the things I mentioned above, and he suffered no consequences. They took away all of his character established in S1 and replaced this incredibly flawed person with the “dumb useless dad” trope and never confronted him on his wrong doings even after getting his memories back. Frederic just outright got away with throwing Varian (14-16 year old whose home, only family, and mental stability were cruelly taken away thanks to Frederic’s negligence) into the dungeons with an ADULT terrorist even though Frederic PROMISED to get Varian help.

They made the black rock situation all Varian’s fault even though he was the only one doing anything to try to stop the rocks from destroying Corona. VARIAN IS THE MISUNDERSTOOD ANTI/HERO OF TANGLED THE SERIES. Rapunzel and Varian had the same goal in studying and stopping the black rocks. Varian is the one willingly to cross the line Rapunzel wouldn’t dare to achieve that shared goal. Varian is the one who inspired Rapunzel to take matters in her own hands and help develop her character. Varian is the reason why Rapunzel and company went on the season long road trip to their poorly explained destiny.

Frederic is nothing more than an antagonist the story botched because they thought giving him a sad story would somehow be enough to explain why he gets a completely free pass for his actions while he condemns those around him for doing lesser crimes. He is the one outright getting in the way of Rapunzel’s main goal anf development. His overprotective selfishness is the obstacle Rapunzel actually overcomes to be her own person. He is the one who put Corona in danger and continued to leave it in danger for his own fake peace of mind. He is the one who retraumized Rapunzel by attempting to lock her away from the world again, and no moment of “love” is enough to excuse his actions or make him any better than Gothel. Heck, AT LEAST GOTHEL NEVER PUT METAL BARD OVER RAPUNZEL’S WINDOW LIKE FREDERIC DID.

So in short, yes anon, Frederic being a poor misunderstood anti-hero is complete BS.

#negativity #long post #anti tangled #negative #anti-tangled #tangled #tangled criticism #discourse #tangled the series #rapunzel’s tangled adventure #tts #this ended up being very long #but he’s a frustrating character #for so many reasons #king frederic #neo muses #neo rants #neo answers #anon ask

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kazoosandfannypacks · 4 years ago

Text

When I wrote this it was 2:30 AM but I had no obligations that day and was filled with too much spite to sleep so here's my comfort Tangled AU, the Tangled Royals AU

WARNING : CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR TTS SEASON 2 AND THE FIRST EPISODE OF SEASON 3, SO MAYBE DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN IT, OR ELSE IT WILL ALSO ACTUALLYNMAKE NO SENSE (I'm looking at you, Kingofbr00klyn.) Also I don't normally tag people in things, but this is basically a short little did and it's my first thing close to a fix on here and I want to tag @whaleiumsharkspeare , but if you want me not to tag you in things I can not.

Anyways.

Tangled Royals AU

When Gothel takes Rapunzel; she's recovered that same day.

The guards arrest her and without access to the sundrop, Gothel passes away.

But they still find Cass and Captain adopts her

But then the king and queen are like "what do we do about our daughter's magic hair"

So they turn to Quirin for help because he seems to know a little about this

And Adira also helps because yeah, why not, let's get all this rock stuff solved now

And then they brainstorm with King Edmund as well

And eventually they figure out all this moonstone stuff

And now that they figured out how to solve the moonstone and sundrop problems, he turns back to his orphaned son Eugene

But Eugene has a best friend now and of course Lance gets to live in the castle with him.

And little seven year old Eugene is teetering around the castle with Lance and exploring

And after working together they all become friends

So The Dark Kingdom and Corona have festivals together every year

And of course they get together at other times too like special birthdays and such.

So little princess Rapunzel grows up in her castle with her best friend Cass always watching over her.

And little prince Eugene grows up in his castle with his best friend Lance by his side

(Also it's worth noting that in this AU Rapunzel still meets Pascal even though I don't know how, but somehow little Rapunzel finds baby pascal and is like "Can we keep him?" And her mom and dad are like "yeah, why not?"

But anyways the two kingdoms see each other a couple times a year

And the kids always get into wild shenanigans together.

Like, Lance and Eugene are always causing trouble back home

But then you put them in a social setting and it's so much worse

Also keep in mind that when Eugene is 14, Lance is also roughly that old, Cassandra is 12, Raps is 8, and Varian is 4.

Also... Duh... Varian's dad is best friends with Eugene's dad so he comes to all the celebrations as well

And Edmund always reads the kids a story from "The Tales of Flynnigan Rider"

And Eugene kind of becomes a cool older brother to Rapunzel

He'll lead the kids on shenanigans and adventures together and they'll somehow avoid getting in trouble

And Cass is always trying to keep Raps out of trouble.

It never works

She'll turn her back for half a second and Rapunzel will be following the boys on some crazy little scheme

And Eugene is such a Big Brother Friend and never minds his little sisters following him.

But because of all the trouble he causes, Cass still doesn't like him too much in the AU either.

Also they always come over for Rapunzel's birthday, because it's such a special day and they celebrate Cassandra's adoption that day too.

And the kids all decorate lanterns together and the kings and queens and prince and princess and friends launch their lanterns together at the start of the lantern ceremony

And just before they can reach the age where Edmund and Frederic can make those dumb dad friend jokes about "you better watch your son more carefully when my daughter is around," something changes.

As they get older, shenanigans happen less and less.

By the time she's eleven, they've stopped altogether, and they hardly mention them to each other.

Most of their conversation is just formal royalty type conversation now.

But sometimes someone will inadvertently bring up an inside joke and Rapunzel and Eugene will look at each other with this sense of knowing what the other is thinking

And he's still always calling her "Princess blondie" and whatnot.

But one day on her birthday, she asks her big brother who she hasn't spoken to much in a while if he's going to decorate lanterns with her again this year

And he feels a little sad to let her down, but his dad wants him to start behaving more like an adult, because he's growing up quickly, and someday he’ll have actually kingly responsibilities that he needs to fill, so he can't

And she gives an "okay" that doesn't seem too disappointed.

But Eugene and Cass can both tell it is

Even Lance can tell she's a bit sad

But then little Varian comes in and asks to decorate lanterns, and Rapunzel loves her little brother and besides she promised him she'd do it and she never ever breaks her promises to Varian, so Raps, Cass, and Varian head off to paint lanterns.

(Ruddiger and Pascal have their own little lanterns too)

And when everyone launches their lanterns for her birthday, she feels just a touch colder than normal.

Pretty soon, Rapunzel is twelve, Sixteen year old Cassandra is officially signed on as her handmaiden, Varian is eight and starting to get into this "alchemy" stuff (which definitely causes unspeakable chaos for the kingdom) and Eugene and Lance are eighteen, and heading off to go see the world and get a better education.

This is her first birthday without Eugene and Lance there

But Edmund and Varian and Quirin and Ruddiger still come over and she picks up bits of gossip from them.

Especially Varian... He always overshares, especially as a kid.

*infodumps every scientific detail of the last letter he got from their big brother* "just cut to the important parts" "Princess Rapunzel, when the Prince of the Dark Kingdom sends you a letter, every word is important" and Cass just laughs and disagrees.

And on occasion Rapunzel does see Eugene

And it is always exciting for a moment

And he'll sit down with them and tell them the tales of his daring adventures

And Lance is that annoying best friend that interrupts stories only to spoil the ending or normalize a detail that was better off embellished.

And Cass rolls her eyes at every story

And eventually Varian even gets bored

But Rapunzel always listens intently

But other than that they don't spend much time together at festivals anymore

And Rapunzel secretly starts to realize how much she misses her brother

And Cass makes a comment about how Raps shouldn't be so sad about it and Rapunzel says she's not as she sketches another picture of him in her journal

That's when Cass realizes that Raps doesn't really think of Eugene as just a brother anymore

And Lance finally realizes that Eugene just doesn't talk about Rapunzel the way he talks about other girls

Anyways after six years of his exploits around the world and her becoming a fine young lady and princess, he returns for her birthday celebration

This is the first time he's been to one of these since she was eleven

And because it's Cassandra's "birthday" celebration too they host a joust or something

And Cass competes, so Eugene and Raps get a little too "into" it as they cheer her on from their royal viewing boxes.

And their parents give them judgmental sideglances and they give each other guilty but unashamed sideglances.

And then there's a bunch of little celebration festivities

They've got the whole carnival out for this one

And Eugene does one of those strongman games with the giant hammer and does terrible wins two little cupcakes after multiple attempts

And he's about to offer one to Lance, but Lance is a lot better at it than him, so Eugene decides he doesn't need it.

But then he sees Rapunzel across the street and decides to go talk to her

And he gives her a cupcake and wishes her a happy birthday and she gives an awkward little thank you and mentions something about when they were kids and they went on this grand adventure to steal cupcakes from the kitchen

And Eugene remarks that that was the time he ended up backing into a hot oven and he couldn't sit comfortably for weeks.

And Rapunzel is so ashamed at herself for bringing it up and apologizes and he laughs it off and says it's good to remind himself of the good old days.

And Rapunzel mentions how much harder it is now that she's becoming an adult and has to deal with reigning and visiting with guests and dignitaries and...suitors

She looks at him as she says that, almost as if it's an awkward and sobering subject to bring up around him, and it kind of is for both of them

But he brushes it off with "It's even harder to be a suitor." because of all the pressure on him and "Do you know how badly it reflects on your kingdom when this face gets rejected?"

And Rapunzel can't tell if she's more saddened at the thought of Eugene presenting himself to kingdoms that aren't hers, or at the thought of princes being presented to her someday that aren't him.

Anyways, to lighten the mood, he suggests that they go back to old times and sneak away from their duties for the afternoon.

And Cass and Lance secretly cover for them because they want to see where this leads

And then basically the entire kingdom scene from the movie happens and they spend their afternoon together visiting the library, drawing, eating cupcakes, ext.

And eventually she starts everyone dancing like in the movie

And there's no way Eugene is joining in

But he gets pushed into the circle

And yes, it's Maximus this time too, though he's barely in this AU

and the dance ends just like in the movie too

And then Raps says "well, I guess we better get back to the castle"

And Eugene is like "I have a better idea" and winks at Lance to tell him to tell the kings where they'll be.

And, of course, he takes her out on the canoe

And she asks "why are we going here?"

And he tells her she's spent so long looking at the lanterns from the inside, maybe it's time to look at it from this angle, get a new perspective, and maybe everything will look different.

And he's absolutely right

It's even more magical

And of course they sing "I see the Light"

Just like in the movie, except maybe with slightly different lyrics

And this time when he hands her the lanterns to launch, he also holds a couple paintbrushes

And he says "just for old times sake, sunshine."

And she smiles and takes the lantern and brush

And she paints some elaborate scene in three minutes and he just paints a sun

"For Corona, right?"

And he says yeah

But it's actually because she's his sunshine

And they launch their lanterns together

And then, ya know, just like in the movie, they almost kiss.

But then he sees all the people watching them from the shore

This is the price of being prince and princess

The world is watching you

And he didn't even know what was going on anymore, so why should they?

So he kind of awkwardly dismisses her

Because they were good friends as kids

But it's they're different people now

And he doesn't know how to deal with that

Eventually they get back to the castle

And Lance is trying to figure out what happened from Eugene, but he won't share much

And Raps tells Cass she doesn't want to talk about it but does anyways

And they have her coronation that weekend as well and everyone stays for that and Eugene and Rapunzel keep exchanging glances they don't understand

And eventually all the Dark Kingdom people leave

Anyways, it's not long before word travels that the princess is about to recieve her first suitor

And she's not looking forward to it and it just doesn't feel right

But Cass works twice as hard as normal to get her ready

And Ariana notices her daughter's bad mood and sits down to have a talk with her about how there is more within her, and maybe when it feels like a dream is ending, a better one is beginning

And before long she sits down with her parents in the throne room, a touch less excited then normal

And Stan and Pete are at the door to announce their guests

And Raps tries to go into it with an open mind

"Presenting... Prince Eugene Fitzherbert of the Dark Kingdom."

And Rapunzel is so excited she almost does a double take and doesn't understand what Eugene is doing there

Like, to Cass, she's like "why is he here, does he know I'm busy with all this stuff and I have a suitor coming today what is he doing did he leave something here yesterday why did he come here" because she still doesn't get it

And Cass rolls her eyes at her oblivious little best friend

And then Eugene comes in with all the pomp and fanfare the Dark Kingdom has to offer

And Raps is just sitting there utterly confused, but everyone else knows what's going on

And there's also this really cool fog with a cool color scheme that Varian set up and it's overall quite impressive

And Eugene asks Rapunzel if she'd like to go for a quick walk on the balcony

And she looks to her parents like "can I go?" And they look at her like "No duh! Get out of here!"

And she walks next to him, and Pascal doesn't even ride on her shoulder or follow her this time

And he says something along the lines of "ya know, Goldie, I've been to all the Seven Kingdoms and beyond, and I've seen so many places and learned so much, but the lesson that took the longest time to learn was to learn who I am, and I'm still trying to figure it out, but there's one thing I have learned about myself."

"I... I love you, Rapunzel. And I don't want to go another day without you by my side."

And finally everything starts to click in Rapunzel's mind, that duh, Eugene is the suitor she was so worried about meeting

And he gets down on one knee "Would you please do me the honor of uniting our kingdoms and becoming Mrs... Princess Eugene Fitzherbert?"

And she's absolutely floored and doesn't know how to respond

And she says some kind of "I don't know, I didn't expect this, it's all happening so fast, I don't know if I'm ready"

And he stands up and takes her hands, putting the ring away for now, and says he'll wait for her, because, after all, he's been waiting for her for the past eighteen years, what's a few more?

And she gives him a big, unexpected hug that at first he's too taken aback to know what to do with, but he wraps his arms around her as well, and gives her a precious little kiss on top of the head

And she just looks up at him and smiles

And Cass and Lance and Varian and Pascal and Maximus and Ruddiger are just watching them from a distance

And eventually they do get married, but reigning their kingdoms together does far more than tie them down

Instead it takes them on all kinds of quests and adventures

But the greatest journey is the one they take together

Because it's the journey of their dreams coming true

Anyways, idk, I think about this a lot.

#tangled au #tts au #prince eugene fitzherbert #princess rapunzel #varian #cassandra #lance strongbow #king edmund #pascal #ruddiger #rapunzel #eugene fitzherbert #king frederic #queen ariana #tangled fanfic #tangled au fanfic #idk this is a weird format i don't usually use #but i think it works for this

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