epcot | rapunzel » disney's tangled

Rapunzel deftly worked her fingers between the locks of Nat's hair back and forth; back and forth; over and under. There was a small hum of a familiar tune her "adoptive" Mother sang once upon a time-- before her parents had found the surprised, bewildered teenager and took her back home.

"Almost done," she said cheerfully after a half-minute. Years of practice have not been lost on her at all-- dozens of feet of hair will do that. Nat's hair was a breeze in comparison.

With a soft snapping sound, she uses one of her flower-shaped pins to tie of the end of the braid. "So, you know there's a carnival in town right~?"

She wasn't worried. As unruly as her hair was when she didn't lazily tame it into a ponytail or a bun, she knew Rapunzel had worked with a bigger beast. Growing up the way she had, Natalie never had someone to fix her hair, no one to teach her what to do with it. Once, she remembered her father combing her hair after swim practice, detangling it the best he could, while he could. It was nice, but also kind of sad, that she only remembered this one singular moment in her life.

Most of the time, she kept mum about her personal life – you'd have to be a level seven friend to access that information. But she let things slip by once in a while to Rapunzel, being stranded at the mall, having no one in the audience while she played piano.

She leaned against the couch next to her legs and fiddled with the end of her cropped grey shirt while she worked, finding peace in the simple motion, even closing her eyes. "Mm?" Natalie murmured distractedly. "Nope."

Rapunzel tapped her shoulders, letting her know it was done. She nodded with satisfaction at her handiwork. Natalie was a good friend, and didn't even question the long hair. Or make fun of her for it. Having grown up secluded like she did, Rapunzel didn't mind their unspoken bond of privacy about personal lives. It was an easy friendship, but the more she got to know Nat the more she wanted to actually talk to her about it. Friends were a new thing for her.

And kinda weird. Emotionally, anyway. Chameleons were easy in comparison.

"Well, there totally is. Funnel cakes, and a fun house, and craft booths, and clowns. You wanna go?" she asked, leaning over to rest her chin on Nat's shoulder with a lip pout. Her eyes were pleading. "I've never been on a Ferris wheel before either."

She wasn't usually an easy sell, often digging her heels into the ground, wanting to stick to her usual ways, but it was just so easy, giving into little requests like that. If Rapunzel wanted to skip through a field of flowers while holding hands, Natalie would probably do it... just without admitting it out loud. There is a reputation to maintain here. Or at least a great deal of self-consciousness.

"Alright, Sunshine," she yawned, rolling her eyes at the other girl. Nicknames, for the record, weren't really her thing either. This was the first time 'Sunshine' ever passed her lips and she actually looked a little embarrassed, wide eyes fixed on the opposite wall.

"So." She cleared her throat as she reached to pat the new braids, curious about how they looked on her.. "Scarier rides before food. That's my only requirement."

Rapunzel beamed like a ray of sunshine herself, her hands going into the air with a squeal.

"Sure, abso- Wait, what do you mean scary rides? What's scary?" she asked, not sure if she meant the ferris wheel, like a fear of heights, or that thing that flipped upside down that she was nervous about even mentioning. The blonde might have stared at it in horror for about six minutes when she first saw it.

"Oh –"

Natalie shakes her head before she tips if back to look at Rapunzel upside down, a lopsided smile on her face. "Sorry. No, I meant the fast rides for adrenaline junkies. No jump scares or anything and I'll let you know which ones flip you over without warning you," she promises, crossing her heart for reassurance.

"We can ride in a bumper car together or the little coaster," she suggests, "and chill out in one of their little boat rides."

Hogwarts AU
College AU
Disney AU - it's not Flynn that climbed up 8D
Star Trek AU
Mermaid AU

It was all Fandral's fault. Really. He was the one that convinced Darcy that they could totally go sailing out into the sea nearby and fish and that the catch would be good enough to feast on. Darcy had rolled her eyes at the Asgardian as he boasted of a day when he brought in a catch that was able to feed a whole village.

Neither of them paid any attention to King Thor's warnings of a storm coming. And that was mostly Fandral's fault too.

Not tying down rigging in time? Totally Fandral's fault.

Trying to save the little boat that the two of them were on when the winds whipped up and began to toss them around like a spoiled child? Darcy's fault.

A strong wave knocked her off the deck and sent her right into the water, heading towards some very sharp rocks.

Rapunzel's long purple fin cascaded behind her, the storm above doing little more but make the currents a little stronger. Being a hundred feet below the surface had its perks after all. It was cold, always too cold, for the mermaid, this far down. But Mother wouldn't have it any other way. Humans were dangerous. Humans couldn't be trusted. Humans would kill you and take your fin home for dinner.

Always the same. But Rapunzel couldn't help it. The sun was everything to her. The way it looked from 20,000 leagues under was nothing compared to the warmth that came from being near the surface. She'd never been up, actually. The closest she'd gotten was about 20 feet under, floating peacefully in the relative warmth before she'd gotten to nervous and dove back into the depths.

She hated storms. They hid the sun from her and made the dark water even colder and harder to navigate. Her long blond hair streamed behind her like an extra tail as she looked for a familiar marker to lead her home, having to rise up to reach something besides empty ocean water. "Now where is that coral? The one shaped like a shark's head..." she mused, when Pascal squeaked as something came splashing into the water headlong.

"Oh!" Rapunzel's hands flew to her mouth when she realized how close to the surface she'd wandered. She'd watched the little boat without much thought-- they happened often enough-- but in a storm... "That's a person!" she told Pascal urgently, the little sea turtle frowning and shaking his head. "But she's heading-- That's the cliff!" How far off course had the storm sent her...? "Come on, we'll just turn it around so it doesn't, you know, die. Then it'll attract sharks!"

Pascal groaned reluctantly and paddled after his mermaid companion. Rapunzel reached Darcy and, biting her lip, gripped the girl under her armpit and with the biggest strokes she could muster, fought the current and pulled her away from the rock face. The beach was her only hope in this kind of weather... Oh god, if Mother could see her now.

Darcy fought against the dark currents, trying to fight her way back up to the surface to get any breath of fresh air. But the sea was proving too strong for her and the brunette felt herself being swept further and further away. Her lungs burned from keeping air in them to keep herself alive. She felt her limbs tire out and the darkness pulling at her consciousness.

Right before she lost touch with reality, she thought she saw someone swimming toward her. A beautiful woman with long, blonde hair, and--was that a tail?

The last bubbles of air left her lungs and Darcy gave into the black.

Exhausted and panting, Rapunzel wheezed as she pulled the heavy, waterlogged human onto the beach. "She's heavy," she moaned to Pascal, lying on the cold, wet sand unable to move any farther. The struggle of fighting the current and dragging the girl through it on top of it had made the mermaid's arms ache with effort, not used to the strain half as well as her tail was. Though she originally rested on her chest, she pulled herself off to give the human some space (just in case) and lie a foot away.

She nearly cried with the pain of trying to move again, contenting herself with the fact that it was a moonless night. No one would be able to say for sure this was a mermaid and not a large fish resting on the beach next to this unconscious person. At the soonest word of danger she could muster the strength-- somehow-- to slip back into the water and disappear again.

"It'll be okay..." she whispered to herself as she settled on that, ignoring Pascal's splashing (unable to breathe oxygen like she could), as she closed her eyes for just a moment. She wouldn't stay long, just enough to catch her breath...

Darcy dreamed of something really nice; someone resting on her. Comfortable. But then that warmth was taken away from her and Darcy began to cough. Air slipped back into her lungs and she turned over onto her side to cough out the seawater that made itself home in her lungs.

She was on the beach.

She was on the beach!? How did she get here?

Darcy heard someone whisper and squinted to look closely at who it was that saved her in this moonless night.

"Hello?" she croaked out. "Someone there?"

Rapunzel squeaked, not expecting the person to recover so soon, before slamming her hands over her mouth as she realized how stupid that was. Pulling her folds of hair with her, the mermaid dragged herself off of the beach as quickly as her fin and exhausted muscles would allow, trying to make it the few feet left toward the water.

Her long purple tail flapped helplessly as she pulled with her arms, daring a glance back at Darcy and turning red when she realized she was sitting up and looking for her. "Nobody!" she said, daring to hope she'd think this was some bizarre sea-washed dream leftover from the accident.

Not a full recovery. Darcy thought that her mind was still waterlogged. But at least she was alive. The brunette was practically seeing double as she saw someone blonde reach for the ocean. She must be water logged. Was that a tail?!

Darcy coughed up more seawater and tried to crawl after her, even with her tired limbs. Blonde. Long, blonde hair. Like the sun. But that was impossible, right? Darcy tried to move her wet locks of hair out of her face.

"Hey, wait!" she coughed.

Exhaustion took her again and Darcy practically face planted into the sand, still a few feet away from the blonde. "Ugh."

"Princess Jasmine?"

Rapunzel asked tentatively, her hand raised in a little fist as knocked lightly and stepped one of her ballerina flats into Jasmine's quarters. A gleaming tiara was perched on lilac her chopped hair. She made to tuck her hair behind her ear-- a nervous habit-- and was still baffled and put off when there wasn't any there. They just grazed the little short ones and she lowered it again.

"I-- I brought you a gift. Flowers. From Corona," she said quickly, awkwardly, with a group of cut stems with red-petaled flowers blooming from them in her other arm. She seemed to gain some self-assurance. "I hope they are a small way to thank you for inviting me to-- to visit!"

“Oh! Rapunzel, they’re beautiful,” Jasmine says kindly, smiling as she rises from the cushion to greet the other princess. She’s clearly nervous about the visit, though for what reason, Jasmine isn’t sure. She takes a deep breath when she gets close, inhaling the flowers’ perfume with delight. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to bring me anything. Having you visit is enough for me.”

She waits just long enough to find a vase to place the flowers in, painted turquoise with gold trim and embellishments, before turning back to Rapunzel and pulling her into a hug.

“It’s been too long,” she says softly. “How is Corona? And how are you?”

"Corona is fine! Papa is doing well, and Mom has apparently never been better," Rapunzel beamed, careful to avoid using 'Mother' still. The thought of the betrayal that left her with chopped brown hair still made her skin prickle and her chest hurt. She was careful to cover her left hand with her right, looking a little nervous again, but it's different somehow.

"How about you? I haven't seen Rajah, is he sunbathing somewhere?" she giggled, remembering how the big tiger scared her to death when she first met him, but she quickly discovered he was as sweet as Maximus once he knew you wouldn't hurt Jasmine.

“I’m glad to hear it,” she says, smiling warmly. Her eyes sparkle. “Though I see you’ve left out Eugene. Don’t tell me you two are arguing.”

Jasmine smiles, casting a fond glance at her window. “Yes, Rajah is in the gardens, taking a nap. You’d think he’s still a kitten, as much as he likes to lay around all day.”

The King of Corona had hired her because Jane was busy chasing down Nordic creatures and they needed someone to get rid of the creature in the tower.

Gothel, they called her. A vampire that stole blood and life force from anyone who passed by. There were rumors that she had kidnapped the lost princess when she was a baby to steal her life force too.

Darcy snorted a little as she trotted along on the trail that was marked toward the hidden glen where they thought Gothel was hiding. Chances were that the baby was already either dead or a vampire herself. But a paycheck was a paycheck. At least she seemed more credible than the thief that she saw approaching the castle. A witch of her standing could probably make him run around in circles before he could find his own tail.

At her horse's snort, she looked up from the map. Nothing. No entrance to the naked eye.

"Great! They gave me a crappy map!" She searched through her saddlebag for the quartz she used for scrying and let it twirl itself over her map. "Show me Gothel." The stone circled around the map before pointing squarely at the curtain of vines. "Huh."

Darcy slid off her horse and tucked away the map, following her crystal through the curtain of vines and into some sort of hidden grotto. She took a minute to soak in the wonder of what the place looked like before letting her gaze settle on the lone standing tower.

"Bingo."

She snapped her fingers and disappeared in a cloud of smoke before reappearing inside the tower.

Rapunzel screamed at the puff of smoke that appeared in her and Mother's living room, dropping the candle she'd been holding as she ventured out of her room for the night. She resisted the urge to bare her fangs as she usually did when startled, her hands flying over her mouth. Her bare feet quickly slid back as fast as she could, hitting a wall. Grabbing helplessly to find something to defend herself, she brandished a candleabra and held it like a baseball bat.

"Get out!" she squeaked, with as much might as she could muster. Her eyes were set determinedly, which wasn't much except that they were unnervingly dark-- a start contrast to the long blond hair curtaining them.

This was Gothel? This was the thing that everyone was scared of?

Darcy snorted a little. Gothel sounded harmless.

"Listen, Gothel, I'm not leaving. King of Corona asked me to pretty much tell you to stop hurting the people in his kingdom."

Darcy walked around the room to get a lay of it. Pretty simple furnishings; some baking; pottery. Ooh, a cookie. Darcy picked it up and sniffed it. Chocolate chip, her favorite.

"But hey, if you're this threatening, you should maybe just pick up your things and head out to another town. If it's not me, they're gonna send some schlub that thinks he's a vampire hunter." She snorted. "You wouldn't be able to believe this guy. Couldn't even tell a witch from a watch."

"Put the cookie down," she demanded, listening to the strange girl and getting more concerned by the second. Her dark pupils worked feverishly as she tried to take in all the information, hungry to hear everything, but not liking what she did hear so far. She gripped the metal item tighter and stepped toward her assailant.

"I'm not Gothel," Rapunzel said after another moment. Her eyes looked away for a moment, her lips parting for a moment as she bites her lip, but she quickly slips them back into her mouth in a flash. The hunter didn't know who Rapunzel was-- why was she going to tell her? "But I'm not telling you where she is if you're gonna hurt her! I- I think it's best if you just leave."

The cookie had been halfway to her mouth when Gothel stopped her. Or not Gothel. Darcy squinted in the low light before picking up a candle from the table where the cookies were. She took a deep breath and blew over the wick, setting it alight so that she could see better in this new moon night.

"First off, why can't I have the cookie?" she asked. She was a witch who knew what she wanted. And she wanted a cookie. It smelled pretty good. "And second, who are you? I've got no plans to hurt her. But the King of Corona sent me here, hoping to stop her. I was hoping that I could convince her to just hike to the next town, start over."

rapunzel » disney's tangled

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okay i know they're pink clouds but i keep thinking of cotton candy....

i accept this wholeheartedly.

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AUs;

gimme gimme (this took way longer than it should have sorry)

still counts! :D

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hope this works! what is history... years... dates...

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Vampire AU what so spoopy

you set this up so perfectly tho ;v;

thank youuuu

i thought this was a week late not... 3 weeks... lmao.....

that's okay >> my other tag was about 3 weeks late too <3