#tts sugarby

[bee-snail]

I've been rewatching TTS episodes (the youtube Disney Channel finally released all s1 episodes in my country!) and I realized that in Painter's Block, Xavier explains that Demanitus captured evil spirits and kept them prisoner in the hidden mountain chamber that holds the Demanitus Device.

We see this scene:

Sugracha's spirit was released after the "block" in the middle of this screenshot was broken. We see that there's more "blocks" beside it, so this combined with Xavier's explanation leads me to believe there's more spirits (people?) like Sugracha and Tromus kept prisoner inside them, and the fact all of them most likely have Zhan Tiri's crest on them implies to me that there are way, more followers of Zhan Tiri than we saw in the show.

Sugracha and Tromus may have been only two of her Disciples, the only ones who previously followed Demanitus.

I wonder how many Disciples he locked inside that chamber...

[bee-snail]

HELLO ?

FIRST: ZHAN TIRI AND DISCIPLES FIC AUAUAH2JFJW FKA FKA XKSN FJS D [DIES] I'M SO HAPPY HOLY SHIT.

You do not COMPREHEND the amount of HYPE I HAVE RIGHT NOW

LITERALLY SO MANY THINGS ARE COMING OIT THIS YEAR AND NOTHING GOT ME AS HYPED AS THIS HOLY SHIT JSMDNANFNW OMG OMT AAWHEJAJDNSN[DIES SOBS COMES BACK DOES AGAIN]

ZHAN TIRI'S NAME IS ZHANNA HELLO SHE'S SO CUTE 10/10 IM HOLDING HER SO FUCKING GENTLY

MY GOD PLEASE I CANT WAIT I CANT WAIT I CANT WAIT I CANT WAIT

TROMUS WAS UNAWARW OF THE FASHION ATROCITY BEING COMMITTED AND WAS INSTEAD MOURNING THE LOSS OF A SWEATER

AAAHAHAHAAHHAAHHAAAHDHAHFJAJDJAJNDNANA

FUCK

I'M IN LOVE

ARE THEY INTO OPEN RELATIONSHIPS ?? PLEASE ... I WANNA KISS AND HOLD ALL OF THEM

I do not CARE about the evils or the villainies or the murders , the atrocities are PART OF THEM and I WANT ALL OF IT

Me casually writing the "Three Disciples Prequel" because it isn't like there are other prequels that should be getting priority or anything... And this scene happens:

Gothel was wearing Matthews' sweater. It was huge on her, did nothing for her figure. The color didn't suit her at all.

Matthews was unaware of the fashion atrocity being committed. Instead, he mourned the loss of a sweater while the girls watched Gothel's behaviour with concern.

"This isn't right," Zhanna mumbled.

"There's nothing we can do," Sugarby whispered, crossing her arms, eyes moving to the floor. "The only person who could have helped... Well, you know what he had to say."

"One day I'll take pleasure in..."

"Killing him?"

Zhanna left. Sugarby frowned, watching the taller woman leave the house as though her face weren't plastered on wanted posters throughout the seven kingdoms.

Later that day, Gothel was sitting in the kitchen picking away at some strawberries.

Zhanna came in with a stern expression. "Gothel."

"I know, I know, get over yourself and get back to work."

"No." Zhanna's brows raised. "It was three days ago. Do I look like a monster?"

The fact Gothel didn't immediately say yes spoke of her mental state.

"I left a gift for you in your room."

"I'm sure I'll love it."

"I should hope so."

The door closed, Gothel thought that was weird. Weird enough, her curiosity got her to finally stand and leave the kitchen. Her room was small and had nothing in it.

Her stuff still littered Demanitus' lab, she hadn't officially handed in her resignation though if the man had not figured it out yet; he was dumber even than Zhanna claimed.

On the desk sat a small chest with intricate metal leaf detailing. Gothel would have found it quite pretty on any other day. Today, not even beauty could lift her spirits.

Yet she opened it to inspect the insides, finding the chest was not empty.

A human heart sat in a pool of blood with a stunning dagger inside.

Inscribed on the upper lid, Zhanna had written: "In the game of love not everybody had their heart in the right place. Maybe don't leave stuff misplaced."

Gothel swallowed, slowly she pulled the dagger, looking at the blood which dripped from it. Though there was no way for Gothel to know for sure who's heart this was... She knew.

And though his death did not repair the damage done it did bring her some much needed peace as she cleaned the dagger of and found a place for it in her belt.

Peace and perhaps the permission to take matters into her own hands the next time somebody took something that rightfully belonged to her.

[nerdasaurus1200]

Does anyone else just love it when the eyes of magical characters completely glow? Something about it is just so cool to me. We need more of this in media

Edit: I forgot Hector, I know he's not actually magical but I still think he counts

[scottfreed]

Comparing the Text of the "TANGLED: Before the Ever After SERIES BIBLE" and the "Tangled The Series: Series BIBLE"

I wanted to compare the text from the two Tangled bibles from the Disney leaks since there seemed to be a lot of overlap in the language and I was interested to see what had changed between the initial BEA bible(2015) and the TTS series bible(2018).

I'm in the asoiaf fandom and we do this with old George RR Martian drafts and manuscripts all the time, a sort of literary archeology. I took the plain text of both documents and ran a comparison to see what had changed between the two bibles. ((My dumbass put the 2018 TTS document as the original and the 2015 BEA doc as the "modified" one. So the Struck through text is actually the older/original/BEA.))

So obviously, the TTS bible was far longer since it was created and modified far later into development and even after wrap. It encompasses waaay more material. So naturally, all the S2 material outside if a brief synopsis was not in the BEA.

S1 Characters that do not appear in the 2015 BEA bible, but do in the 2018 TTS bible include: Angry, Red, Sugarby, Monty(even though his episode was), WRECK MARAUDER (Same as Monty), Fidella, and surprisingly: Stan and Pete.

And most surprising of all: the Captain didn't have a character profile in that initial document even though I could swear he has more episodes than characters like Lance, Varian, Quirin, and Xavier who all do have profiles in the 2015 BEA one.

I wonder if this indicates the order in which the characters were developed, or if they had different initial plans to use certain characters with more frequency and that didn't work out.

And as I sort of mentioned, in the BEA document, there were only summaries of six episodes after the special; "Challenge of the Brave," "Rapunzel's Enemy," "Cassandra Vs. Eugene," "In Like Flynn," "Under Wraps," and ""Fitzherbert PI."

It's fascinating to me how most of these are Cass and Eugene focused eps, with only one truly Raps focused one.

Anyway...

First big difference in the text:

By far the most common and consistent change between versions was Cassandra's job.

In 2015 in the Before Ever After pitch, she was consistently referred to as a "handmaiden" and then as of the 2018 TTS series bible this was changed everywhere to "lady in waiting".

I always wondered about this shift. At first I wondered if the change was to distance the show from the wildly successful, but thematically dark/adult "Handmaid's Tale" which came out within like a month of TTS, but now I'm wondering if it was more to align her thematically with her later characterization of "the Lady in waiting who is sick of waiting." It's probably that latter option. But I did kind of prefer the handmaiden angle since a lady in waiting is still comparatively powerful nobility. And imo a "maid" taking on a Kingdom is way more sympathetic than a lady doing so. It could have just added that extra layer of class conflict, but oh well.

No matter the reason, "Handmaiden" is out, "Lady in waiting" is in!

Attila got a little fleshing out between versions! Though this never seemed to materialize. I almost wonder if someone needed to hit a word-limit or something. I would have liked to see an ep showing Attila more and more integrated into Coronan society. See his progress from S1 to S3.

It seems the decision to have the full entourage outside of the main three on the mission might have been a later addition. (Alternatively the 2015 bible might have just had need to be more short and concise with the S2 details.)

It did seem(unfortunately) like the spare 5 didn't contribute much to the overarching plot, so I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. (And I'm including the Hookfoot filler episodes with that.) It would have looked pretty different, but might have been more character focused if they had gone in that direction.

Seems the Lorb episode was originally REALLY different...

The idea of them being mythical leaf people was a later addition, as well as the island aspect of the setting.

And it looked like the human "distinct tribe of people" were originally going to be worshiping Rapunzel and not Pascal. I can certainly see why they changed this so much.

It would be hard for Raps to beat the Demigoddess allegations and maintain the everyman vibe, plus the God Guise/Cargo Cult tropes are awkward as hell in that context.

"The Brotherhood of the Stone" ?

"The Brotherhood of the Stone" ?

"The Brotherhood of the Stone" ?????

..... Brotherhood fans btfo, its so over, we will literally never recover from this. *passes away*

No but really, no distinct mention of Adira or someone in her role. I wonder if the idea of discord/disagreement among the Brotherhood members didn't come about until later.

This is pretty cool! I didn't know that "Plus Est En Vous" seemed to be the initial name for the special! Then it got changed and used for the finale.

It also looks like "Cassandra vs. Eugene" was a pretty different episode initially as well.

It looks like originally, the scavenger hunt was not intended to lock them in the dungeons, and the Stabbingtons weren't involved.

I'm kind of of two minds on this one since on the one hand I like when decisions are deliberate and not just a matter of coincidence gives the characters agency. Plus I like the Stabbington's as villains and was glad to see them. But on the other hand, Rapunzel locking people in a cell when being locked away against her will is so central to her character and no one ever calling her out for it was so off-putting to me. Plus it made the Stabbingtons much less threatening.

I almost want to see that original version of that ep. I wonder if it would have been more character-focused.

And the last little changes I noticed were to "In Like Flynn" where they changed the word "crime" to "scheme" in the description and dropped the "King" for just "Frederic" probably just to convey the lighter tone of the episode better.

Oh, and one more!

The "Moonstone" didn't seem to be named as of BEA and there was some intentional(?) ambiguity about Edmond and his title and origin.

Overall not a lot of big differences. But it was a bit surprising what elements and characters where emphasized compared to what ended up manifesting in the show.

[art-stardust]

Kidnap Lord Demanitus Kidnap Demanitus, lock him up real tight Throw away the key and then Turn off all the lights

Because sir Zhan Tiri is the meanest guy around If I were on his enemy-list, I'd get out of town He'll be so pleased by our success That he'll reward us too, I bet We're his little henchmen And we take our job with pride We do our best to please him And stay on his good side

GOTHEL I wish my cohorts weren't so dumb

MATTHEWS I'm not the dumb one

SUGARBY You're no fun

GOTHEL Shut up!

MATTHEWS Make me

[avitha]

[rosiebrie]

Tangled vibes pt.4

[shootingstarbit]

This is how I see it going:

Gothel, Sugracha the Eternal (Sugarby), and Tomus (Matthews) were the pupils of Demanitus, helping him seek out and study the Sundrop and Moonstone. However, Zhan Tiri convinced the three to double-cross Demanitus and set him free, probably promising to turn them into the powerful spirits Sugracha and Tomus are now. I don’t think Gothel had this power, though, I assume she found the Sundrop flower alone one day and decided to keep it for herself without telling Zhan Tiri or the others. I hope we find out what she was doing the whole time during raising Rapunzel, since it’s clear she didn’t live in the tower with her. Any insight?

[linn-zy]

Inktober Day 3:

Skull. I’m gonna meshi the prompt by @holliarty and Tangletober.

This skull is used by Mrs Sugarby / Sugarcha the Eternal.

Not much else to say.

[queer-cosette]

had a moment watching TTS where I was incredulous that everyone was chill with Mrs Sugarby, an old lady who looms out of the shadows extremely creepily with a walking stick and a hood decorated with skulls, then promptly remembered that literally half of Rapunzel’s best friends are Noted Pub Thugs and presumably no one in Corona bats an eyelid at weirdoes acting villainous and covered in skull-shaped accessories anymore.

[bestworstcase]

What are your opinions on the whole Rapunzel-Varian drama in S1 post Queen For A Day, especially with the whole "Rapunzel should've checked on Varian after the snowstorm" or whose fault it was for their conflict?

tbh… if i had to pick one single representative example of the tts fandom’s general inability to handle nuance in fictional conflict, it’d be the QFAD discourse™

because! while this isn’t to rag on anyone, if you pick a random person with an opinion on this question, chances are they will fall into one of two camps. either: 1) corona’s treatment of varian was horrifically unjust and everyone involved except him is a terrible person, or 2) rapunzel did what she had to do and varian’s anger is irrational, unfounded, and fundamentally unfair.

people in camp #1 tend to believe that rapunzel was simply being selfish and acting like a sulky child when she failed to check up on varian after the storm. people in camp #2 tend to point out that rapunzel was traumatized by the events of QFAD too, and believe that this justifies her failure to check up on varian.

but the thing is imo the conflict in QFAD + the rest of s1 is just as complex and messy as the argument cassandra and rapunzel have in RATGT, in that there is no One True Right Answer and no person who is one hundred percent “at fault.” the question of blame is… honestly sort of beside the point if you ask me. to break this down:

#1: rapunzel is a sheltered teenager with minimal social skills dealing with a national emergency halfway through her first unsupervised couple days on the job.

the girl has had like eight months tops of training for the monumental task of ruling a country. she grew up in a situation where the only choice available to her was how she would wile away her free time inside her tower; gothel exerted total control over every other facet of her life. and while she has a little more wiggle room now that she’s out of the tower, she is still basically living her life with all the big, consequential choices made for her.

QFAD was intended to be her first taste of true authority, while still being ultimately inconsequential. if all had gone according to plan, corona would have ticked along more or less on autopilot—just as frederic left it—while rapunzel got in a little practice making judgment calls about minor, unimportant things, like mediating small interpersonal disputes between her subjects.

nobody expected, and rapunzel was absolutely not prepared for, a legitimate national crisis to explode in her face out of nowhere. this was supposed to be pedaling by herself for the first time with training wheels and what she got instead is careening down the freeway on a motorbike at 95mph with zero warning. it is a miracle that she held things together as well as she did.

#2: varian is a child with an emotionally distant, unsupportive father who sets him up for failure.

he’s smart but he’s also fourteen. he has little if any formal training in alchemy, he’s figuring stuff out by trial and error, and he has zero adult supervision. his efforts have caused significant levels of destruction twice in only a few months—the exploding boilers in WTH, and his invention going haywire (with a little help from st. croix) in GE—and it’s implied that this is a fairly regular occurrence with him.

and yet quirin does nothing. he shouts at varian, shuts him down, and at several points orders him point blank to stop messing with alchemy… but he makes no effort to connect with his son or understand where he’s coming from; he doesn’t try to impose reasonable restrictions (like “don’t mess with volatile chemicals unless i’m there to help”) that would allow varian to pursue his passion while minimizing the danger; and he doesn’t create an environment where varian feels able to turn to his father for help. and then with the black rocks, he lets varian come along to see the king, but refuses to explain why he “lied” (/spoke in code) to the king, destroying any credibility he had in varian’s eyes and making varian panicky and desperate because it seemed like no one else cared.

so the end result is that varian feels like he has no choice but to sneak around behind quirin’s back. he can’t rely on his dad for help if anything goes wrong, but the situation is so dire that doing nothing also isn’t an option. he tries his best to be careful (before quirin barges in on him, varian is attempting to put just one drop of the amber serum on the rock) but even if quirin hadn’t startled him, a terrible accident was bound to happen sooner or later, and the responsibility for that lays just as much if not more on quirin’s shoulders—the adult in this situation—as on varian’s. the kid is FOURTEEN.

(i think a neat argument could be made for varian as a deconstruction of the teen/YA fantasy trope of the hyper-competent teenager with absentee parents whose absence allows the teen to get on with the important work of the high-stakes fantasy plot; but that’s a whole different post)

#3: rapunzel did the right thing, but lost control over the situation due to lack of experience.

it would have been wrong to abandon everybody in corona to run off into the blizzard with varian, and frankly it wouldn’t have helped quirin anyway. he was already encased in amber by the time varian got back to old corona, and rapunzel couldn’t have done anything in the moment had she been with varian then. the only benefit to her presence would have been to comfort varian—which is not a small thing, obviously, but it’s not in any way a reasonable exchange for the hundreds or thousands of lives that would have been lost if she left corona completely without a leader in the middle of a crisis. so broadly speaking, staying in corona was the right call.

however.

rapunzel was not in control during that scene in the palace. varian bursts in, panicking, explains his situation and begs for her help—and rapunzel just says, basically, “i can’t help you, there’s an emergency.” then nigel comes in and reinforces that, which makes varian freak out; he grabs rapunzel and shakes her, nigel signals for the guards in response, and varian gets dragged out of the palace while rapunzel pleads with the guards not to hurt him.

(sidebar: the hate nigel gets for describing varian as “attacking” rapunzel is unfounded. varian grabs her and shakes her roughly back and forth and that is, in fact, assault. nigel is not wrong to describe it as such.)

anyway, notice two the things that DON’T happen here:

1) rapunzel doesn’t offer up any alternative solutions. a more experienced or better prepared leader could have responded to varian’s plea with a plan of action, like: i need to stay in corona to oversee the evacuation, so we can’t leave right this minute, but cassandra will take you to ask xavier for advice right now and the minute it’s safe to leave we’ll go together to help your father. or whatever—the point is to engage proactively with varian’s problem, make him feel heard, and give him something productive to do so he isn’t just sitting around fretting in the palace or struggling back home by himself in the middle of a blizzard.

2) raps doesn’t challenge nigel’s decision when he summons the guards to throw varian out of the palace, which is something she absolutely could have done. she could have said no, i can’t go to old corona right this minute to help him, but we are not throwing him out into the storm again, he stays here with me. this is, again, a sign of her inexperience; she’s not used to being an authority, she’s never been in a situation like this before, and she’s under a ton of pressure—so when an older adult whom she sees as an authority (he’s her father’s advisor!) makes a judgment call, it probably doesn’t even occur to her that she can challenge it.

this is why i say that rapunzel lost control over the situation—because even though she made the Right Decision, she got a kind of awful outcome, ie varian being tossed out into the blizzard to struggle home by himself to deal with his problem without any support, and rapunzel inadvertently breaking her promise from earlier.

#4: rapunzel doesn’t immediately go to check on varian after the storm because she’s traumatized, busy, and trusts her father.

painter’s block is all about how the trauma rapunzel feels as a direct result of her decisions during the storm destroys her ability to choose anything. she feels so debilitated by the fear that she will make the wrong choice—because she worries that she chose wrong when she allowed varian to be sent away—that she can’t do anything at all, let alone find the emotional strength to go to old corona and confront her mistakes. and while she tries to process and move past this trauma, mrs sugarby exploits it in an attempt to force her to free zhan tiri.

the next episode, not in the mood, involves rapunzel being put under enormous pressure to entertain an irascible ally of corona’s while he and her father negotiate a trade deal with the threat of a war breaking out if they fail. NITM is a silly episode, but it has the highest non-magical stakes of any episode in the entire series. this isn’t an event rapunzel could have reasonably skipped out on for the sake of one person, no matter how much she cares. she’s slammed. she’s still being forced to prioritize just like she was in QFAD.

and in the third episode after QFAD, rapunzel is tormented by nightmares about varian and what happened to his father, so she presses frederic for information about the rocks and varian’s safety. and frederic assures her that everything is fine. he lies to her face about the rocks having been removed, and rapunzel has no reason to doubt him, so she relaxes… until varian contacts her directly, and she immediately jumps to help him.

#5: at the same time, varian has been forced into hiding because frederic is attempting to cover up the rock problem.

what happens to varian after QFAD is plainly unfair and unjust. his father is trapped in amber, the rocks have completely destroyed old corona, most of the villagers have presumably moved to the new land frederic set aside for them, and frederic’s secret police are crawling all over the village trying to suppress information about the rocks (and fred’s role in creating them). the blame for this lies squarely at frederic’s feet, and varian is right to be angry.

i believe that varian interprets rapunzel’s absence as a sign that she’s complicit in what frederic is doing, making his anger at her justified as well. he doesn’t have access to the information we do about why rapunzel doesn’t seek varian out immediately—he doesn’t see how distraught and shattered she is after the storm, or the high-stakes political nonsense she has to deal with, and he certainly doesn’t see her trying to pursue the matter of the rocks and varian’s safety with her father and being flatly lied to to convince her to stay put in corona. all he knows is that rapunzel kicked him out and now she’s ignoring him and her father’s agents keep chasing him away from his home, and he draws the conclusion that makes the most sense to him, ie rapunzel must be okay with all of this because otherwise she would be here.

and once he has that idea in his head, the fact that rapunzel immediately jumps to help him when he contacts her isn’t enough to dislodge it. he’s a scared, lonely fourteen year old boy looking at this situation through a purely interpersonal lens while rapunzel is an overwhelmed eighteen year old doing the best she can while juggling about a million things at once and putting varian low on her priority list because she’s been told by a trusted source that varian is fine.

they both make mistakes, they’re both missing important contextual information, and neither of them handles this situation in the best possible way. but neither of them is “at fault” in the sense of being purely in the wrong, and—imo—frederic and quirin hold the lion’s share of the blame here, because they had all the information, and they refused and refused and refused to deal with the black rock problem until it overwhelmed them both. varian and rapunzel are both just kids scrambling to deal with something that should not be their problem to solve, and both of them fuck up! (and even then—the best fred and quirin could’ve done was just be honest and upfront about what the problem was. neither of them had the means to fix anything, and neither of them was responsible for the very unfortunate timing of the blizzard. so it’s not as clear cut as everything bad in s1 happens because fred and quirin stuck their heads in the sand. a lot of it honestly was just sheer bad luck.)

a n y w a y, i think by s3 and after a lot of introspection, varian has figured a lot of this out, and that’s why he’s so quick to let go of his lingering grudge against rapunzel. he’s realized that at the end of the day, rapunzel was just as unprepared and lost in that situation as he was, that she’s not responsible for (and wasn’t complicit in) her father’s decisions, etc, etc.

[bee-snail]

I have a question that I don't know if you can answer, but I'm asking, anyway!

In Moonlight, have you any plans for any of the disciples to return?

In canon, Sugracha was yeeted into a portal and Matthews promised to return before turning to dust. Neither felt too permanent and seeing how you utilize so many under-utilized characters, I have to wonder.

What about the not-so-loyal disciples who found eternal life?

I definitely plan to play around with the Disciples in Moonrise! Zhan Tiri is an extremely important character in the story and to me it makes no sense for her not to have her Disciples back at some point.

In my AU I made it so that Sugracha wasn't sent into the Lost Realm with ZT because it'd be bad for my storyline, so she was arrested in Painter's Block and escaped when Ruddiger's monstrous form damaged the dungeons, allowing her and many others to run away.

I won't be saying much else besides the fact that both she and Tromus will show up eventually :] !!!

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Regina and/or Zhan Tiri for the ask game (I’m really curious about this)

Okay so sorsy this took me all day to get to :)

Regina:

First impression:

Okay evil queen whatever

Impression now:

Regina! Deserves! Better!

Favorite moment:

"Yes, because I'm sure preteen Baelfire made lots of pasta." That line as well as the scene where Emma's like "I don't need your help!" and Regina is like "Yeah, but I might need yours." So much development right there. Or on Neverland when she's like "yeah I was bad but all of that lead me to where I am now, so I regret nothing."

Idea for a story:

Something about her adopting lots of kids, because you can see it in how she interacts with Owen, Henry, Roland- she truly loves children and it's sad that she can't have her own biological children, but adoption is good and okay too!!!

Unpopular opinion:

Regina's relationship with Zelena is parallel to a lot of season 3 of tts with Rapunzel and Cassandra. The whole "My own mother chose you over me" "I didn't want to be raised by her anyways she was actually a terrible mother" and just all of that conflict is so paralell. (I'm still only partway through season 5, so I have no idea how this one will pan out)

Favorite relationship:

I love her weird friendship with Emma and how whenever they're together Henry's like "Mom! Mom!" talking to both of them. And I like her friendship with tinkerbell too, that's just really neat.

Favorite headcanon:

In the winter finale of season 3, that dramatic part halfway through where Emma leaves town with Henry and has her memories replaced with memories where she raised Henry as her own, I firmly believe many of the memories she gave Emma and Henry were memories of good moments that Regina had and loved in raising her son.

Zhan Tiri:

First impression:

Okay whatever evil sorcerery guy

Impression now:

Okay that's some cool lore but stop abusing Cass she's been through enough

Favorite moment:

Zhan Tiri gloating in the Demanitus Chamber

Idea for a story:

Definitley a backstory! See next!

Unpopular opinion:

She definitely either had a crush on Demanitus or knew Demanitus had a crush on her and weaponized that. Idk why tho.

Favorite relationship:

I wanna see more about her relationships with/ corruption of Zhan Tiri's three pupils who betrayed him (Gothel, Sugarby, and Matthews)

Favorite headcanon:

Zhan Tiri is either ace or demi, because of her color scheme in season 3.

Thanks for the ask, King!

[nerdasaurus1200]

I’ve had this idea in my head for like a month now, so here’s a little ficlet to explore Primrose and Hazel’s relationship!

~~~~

Unified Corona, 400 years before Rapunzel’s birth

Even in a kingdom as peaceful as Corona, there were still places people wouldn’t dare venture after dark. Janus Point was one of these places due to how…strange it became at night. Trees would grow on their own, orbs would appear out of nowhere, and there were even whispers of the very stones of the monument whispering to people. Even for the most powerful sorcerers it was not a place to be trifled with.

Which was precisely why Tromus kept staring into the darkness of the woods.

“Tromus, calm down. You’ll spread your nerves over to me and I can’t have nerves while I work. Sugracha scolded.

“Is the spell nearly done?” Tromus asked apprehensively.

“Just a few more steps, Master.” Daniella, their young apprentice answered. Her hands contorted as she raised them over the pedestal in the center, and a barren tree sprouted from the stone. As her hands glowed a sickly green the tree jutted out and expanded its branches like a fungus.

“Well done, Daniella.” Sugracha praised and raised five brushes into the air. Moving completely on their own the brushes began to paint on five canvases that surrounded the tree. Tromus smiled slightly as he caught eye of a large raven landing on one of the branches. The raven eyed him and cawed in greeting.

“We’re all here now. Just in time, the eclipse has almost begun.” Laterna warned as she lit her magic lantern and opened the spellbook.

“Once the totem has been recreated five times we can recite the spell.” Sugracha informed, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

“And what of the princesses?” Tromus pointed out, “If anyone has caught wind of what we’re doing-“

“Thanks to your tricks, Tromus, the princesses are none the wiser.” Laterna reminded, and chuckled as the raven with them let out another caw and flapped its wings excitedly.

“I hate to interrupt your little art session!” A voice in the darkness suddenly made them all flinch and a woman donned in red armor leapt down from one of the pillars, “Actually, no I don’t.” She smirked at her opponents in a silent challenge.

“Captain Primrose!” Tromus exclaimed.

“Daniella, be a dear and deal with the soldier.” Sugracha requested.

“It would be my pleasure, Master.” Daniella smirked coldly back at the captain, the green flow returning to her hands in the form of a flame. She moved to charge at Primrose, but was stopped by a flash of light.

Daniella cried out at the sudden flash, falling to her knees.

“It’s the mage.” Laterna sneered.

“I’m almost done, just one more painting. Stall them.” Sugracha said.

“There’s no time!” Tromus demanded.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, little mage.” Another woman stepped forward, golden magic radiating from her staff. Her eyes glowed gold as she prepared another attack and Daniella growled in her direction.

“Drop the paintbrushes and nobody gets hurt. Tell us where the Separatist hideout is.” Primrose demanded. Instead of obeying Sugracha and Tromus simply smirked at her.

“Foolish child. You really have no idea, do you?” Tromus chuckled.

“Have no idea of what? What are you hiding??” Primrose demanded. But she got no answer. Instead the band of warlocks simply disappeared into a puff of smoke. Hazel lunged forward and tried to get at least one of them with a blast of magic, but she was just a second too late. All that was left of them was that blasted raven.

“Argh, fiddlesticks! We almost had them!” Primrose kicked a stray rock in frustration.

“Mother and Herz won’t be pleased with this. We were given strict orders to bring them in.” Hazel observed cooly. She was always the more even-tempered of the two sisters, but even she couldn’t deny how frustrated she was at this failure. They’d been on the trail for three days now and they’d gotten no further on this case then when they first discovered the spells Tromus had cast on them.

“Mom will understand. The Unification has been tough on everybody.” Primrose laid her weapon down and observed the crime scene left behind.

“A replication of the great tree…paintings…an old tome…what were they planning?” Primrose muttered.

“They’re cultists, Prim. Who cares what they’re planning, what matters is stopping them. If these people are in league with the Separatists, this is even bigger than we thought.” Hazel cast a few fireballs to destroy the five canvases.

“I’m not sure they’re working with the Separatists. Tromus and Sugracha are more subtle than that, they know something we don’t.” Prim kneeled down and picked up the book, carefully analyzing the pages.

“Maybe so…” Hazel mused. Primrose was certainly emotional, but she also tended to be right a lot of the time.

“Regardless, they must be apprehended as soon as possible. I’ll gather ingredients for a scrying spell. You should set up a checkpoint at the border and double the patrols. Someone in the family will certainly have to guard the Sundrop as well.” She planned out.

“Oh man, Hazel, speaking of flowers check out this cool flower doodle in here!” Primrose gasped in excitement.

“Prim, are you even listening?” Hazel scolded.

“Of course I am, you’re planning. But I’m looking for clues. Whatever they were doing has gotta be in here.” Primrose continued flipping through the pages, “Aha! This must be it, a Summoning spell!”

“A summoning spell? What on earth could they need that for? Who would they even summon?” Hazel leaned over her shoulder to translate the spell.

However as soon as she said that, the two sisters read the name written in the margins.

“Zhan Tiri…” they muttered bitterly in unison. By some unknown compulsion Hazel’s eyes drifted to the illustration of the flower again, and her heart suddenly felt tight in her chest.

“Primrose…that’s not just any flower….” Hazel realized. Prim’s eyes widened in fear as she looked at it again and fully processed just what it was.

“That’s the flower…” She whispered horrified, “Our flower, our old crest. But…but why is it in a spellbook for Zhan Tiri.”

“Only one person alive still uses our family sigil.” Hazel glanced back up to the raven. The raven stared back at her, its gaze far too human to be an ordinary bird.

“Gothel’s working with them.”

[nerdasaurus1200]

I finally got around to doing more post series folks! Demanitus's design was inspired by @urban-hart

[nerdasaurus1200]

Sometimes I wonder if Sugarby ever recognized Cassandra offhandedly in this scene

Cause Matthews HAD to have recognized her.