#she’s still a bit confused as to how Gothel could have done all that for years

[axel-ambassador]

Cass's S3 arc was wasted potential, how about we fix that

This is gonna be a long one so buckle up.

yes yes we all know how much her villain and redemption arc was very iffy and can be fixed in so many ways. For example the ones I've seen:

Remove Gothel and focus on different motivations, you could have her doing it to protect Rapunzel rather than simply turning against her out of jealousy.

Have Zhan Tiri literally posses her through her ill feelings and control her like a puppet both physically and mentally.

Have the mirror demon Cass take the moonstone as a double plot twist, leaving Cass stuck in the house of yesterdays tomorrows, and nobody even knows.

All of these are fantastic ideas to rewrite her arc but one I've seen less explored in detail is the insanity route.

Insanity and delusion arcs, if done well, can make for some very compelling characters, whose motivations and actions can be unpredictable, but also understandable.

What if the moonstone slowly ate away at Cass's sanity, ON TOP OF what's she's already going through with her feelings of uselessness and abandonment, and with Zhan Tiri constantly talking in her ear and feeding her lies used to justify those feelings. Just take what we already have in canon, and spice it up a bit to make it more believable.

What if the moonstone also projected voices? Lost souls who have succumbed to the effects of possessing the stone, some nagging and screeching at Cass, telling her not to make the same mistake as they did, and some encouraging and praising her to follow Zhan Tiri and do these awful things.

The thing is, despite hearing voices, Cass refuses to remove the stone, because she's never felt so alive, so powerful, and she slowly gaslights herself into believing that the stone is, in fact, keeping her alive, because without this power she may as well be dead, with her injury essentially ruining her future, and that's her justification in Crossing the Line.

Think of the Ice King from Adventure Time. His crown gives him incredible ice powers and keeps him alive, but it takes his sanity from him, creating an impossible labyrinth in his mind that he becomes trapped in, leaving him a shell of his former self.

So Cass spends 6 months without other human contact, with only the comfort of the little ghost girl and the voices. She's angry, she's scared, so the red rocks still appear. She doesn't know what's happening anymore, why she feels so proud and yet so so guilty all the same. She's confused, she can't sleep, she can't think straight, the voices are pulling at her psyche, tearing her mind in two, one that is still loyal to Raps and is sorry betraying her, only wanting to be noticed for once, hoping they can fix their friendship, and one with a darker train of thought that is angry, in pain, and thinks that this is the only way, that Rapunzel needs to know how it feels to be seen as nothing but a shadow, an afterthought, a mistake, like she has been seen as for so many years.

They conflict, each thought slowly becoming more and more incoherent as it all blends into a cacophony of static noise, a whirlwind of emotion that she doesn't know how to process, and so she does what she's always done when he feels lost.

She fights.

Rapunzel sees her after 6 months and notices something off. Cass's confidence and pride all those months ago seem to be gone, she sees a caged animal, growling and clawing at scraps of salvation. She's talking to herself.

Varian is kidnapped, with the intention of obtaining more power, because without this incantation, she's nothing but a nuisance to her former friends unless she proves that she's powerful enough to pose a threat, so she can finally be taken seriously.

Nothing Left to Lose is relatively the same, but Cass appears more unhinged in her movements, nearly impaling Varian and even herself as the song continues. She cant lose, not when she's lost her parents, capability, future, friends, home, and without knowing just yet, sanity.

Bring back the deleted storyboards of her panting and lashing out as she destroys the painting of Raps, and you can see the slight remorse in her eyes before a faint whisper ushers her away from the wreckage, telling her to claim their her rightful throne.

When the gang tries to enter, she revels in their struggle, they finally have an inkling of what it's like to be so determined to reach a goal, only to be shut down at each corner. She laughs, but it doesn't sound like her. She eventually lets them up on her own, they need to see just how powerful she's become.

"I'm glad you could make it Raps, I've been waiting for you."

Attack. Attack. This is your chance, coward.

"Shut up..."

"...I didn't say anything Cass..."

Cass pauses, none of the voices ever responded to her pleas before. She looks at Rapunzel with an unreadable expression.

You're crazy, you're insane insaneinsaneinsane doitdoitdoit makehersufferkillher kill her

"I said SHUT UP!"

She lashes out. She fights. She's quick, strong, but also sloppy, and that's what makes her fall to Rapunzel's power.

The moonstone is chipped like her psyche. What now whatnow whatnowwhatnow?

More power they whisper, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

But it's not enough, it's never enough, she's never been enough. She's stuck, she's always been stuck. An endless cycle of a dream, a goal, a passion, followed by an obstacle, an intrusion, a blonde princess. She needs to break this cycle before it breaks her further.

So she lets the ghost girl guide her, too tired and too sick to navigate her ocean of emotions anymore. Letting wave after wave pass over her until she drowns, and suddenly she's in a cave, clutching a broken box, pieces scattered about like her heart.

She doesn't know what she's saying anymore, what's an intruding voice and what's her own thoughts. She keeps flashing back, stuck in a house, stuck in a castle, stuck in a tree, stuck in a mirror, stuck in a tower, stuck in a cave, stuck, stuck, stuck.

She and Rapunzel break out, with a broken mirror, and a broken spirit.

The voices are screaming, ringing, screeching, she can't form a single coherent thought. She's stuck between ideas.

Forgive her, love her, fix this, fix yourself.

Kill her, hurt her, show her exactly how much she's hurt you. Kill.

Fix. Kill. Fix. Kill. Fix. Kill. FIX. KILL. F I X. K I L L.

Compromise. She's never considered a compromise, never had the peace of mind to. Kill or be killed, was all it ever was for her.

Now it's Rapunzel who is stuck, trapped in a cave by a woman trapped in her mind.

Eventually she finds the missing shard, but her minds only fractures further. She sees visions when she touches those small shoulders, a demon conqueror, a blue haired puppet, an eclipse.

Everything shatters.

She's sick. She's ill. She doesn't know who she is or what she's meant to do.

For once, the good voices ring louder.

Find her. Talk to her. Tell her what's wrong. Maybe she'll listen.

For once.

For once, she lets the good voice be her guide.

But of course they wouldn't want her. She's crazy. She's ill. She's insane as Eugene has put it.

"Cass, please, you don't have to be the bad guy."

So that's all she was.

"I don't want to be the bad guy. I'm sick...I can't think straight. I don't want to fight anymore ok? I just...I can't-"

She's cut off by a shot of amber, and everything is a blur.

Anger, pain, sadness, guilt, betrayal, whispers, screaming, crying, she's screaming, she's crying, she's insane. She's stuck.

She's in a throne room, your making a mistake rightful place, they say. She doesn't want this, she wants...she doesn't know what she wants. She can't feel, she can't think, and suddenly, she doesn't care.

She doesn't care when the eclipse comes. She doesn't care when Rapunzel arrives to take back her kingdom. She doesn't care when the puppet strings are pulled and she's suddenly fighting again. It's automatic. It's feels right. It feels wrong.

Rapunzel is trapped, encased by her (how did that happen?) She can only make out one word in the train wreck that is her mental state.

"Why?"

Why? Why had she done this? Was it even her anymore? Was it Cassandra? Who even is Cassandra? What does she want? What is she doing? She doesn't know the answer to any of these.

Voices and thoughts overlapping, creating a buzzing sensation, she answers as honestly as she knows how to.

"I wish I knew..."

Zhan Tiri take the moonstone, and she just lays there, thinking she's about to die, after all, the stone kept her alive, right? She's never felt so alive and so dead.

She hears Rapunzel's voice, she must have died too. Or maybe it's another one of the good voices giving a final goodbye. She looks around, Hell isn't yellow and rocky...Hell doesn't have a brunette princess...

They're stuck.

"Snap out of it Cass-"

You're crazy.

"I should be dead..."

"...what...?"

Useless. Unwanted. Mistake.

"That stone kept me alive... I might as well be dead... after all, I was as good as dead to you wasn't I?"

"Cass..."

Pitiful. Weak.

"Shut up...i can't think...i don't know who I am anymore...the voices...the voices won't stop...what am I supposed to do...what am I meant to do...who am I...?"

"Oh Cass..."

She tries to listen to Raps's speech, how she was sorry for ignoring her and her feelings, sorry with what was happening to her, how she was her best friend, how they can both work to fix their friendship, to fix her.

For once, Cass allowed herself to relax, as Raps pulled her into her arms.

She dies, for real this time. She can feel the floatiness, the numbness, the void that she could only feel in her mind had finally spread to the rest of her body.

Dead weight.

She's awake, and it's as if nothing has changed. She's surrounded, Raps and Eugene are there welcoming her in their embrace, and she almost feels whole again.

She cries, and cries, and cries and screams and cries and cries and cries.

She doesn't know who she's meant to be, she doesn't know anything anymore. Drunk and ill with power for so long, she's lost everything, her purpose, her future, herself.

She's stuck.

She's given a trial, found guilty of treason, but sentenced to exile as a way to better herself and her mind. Prison would only kill her further.

She's on the road, nothing but herself, Fidella, and the voices, searching for a destiny long lost to a cycle of misery of pain, finally moving, no longer stuck.

geez that took forever oh well I hoped you enjoyed I guess and if you made it this far, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think :)

[martianbugsbunny]

OUAT Thoughts Pt.71--Episodes 13-14

I have watched through S7E14; spoilers DNI. Also, spoiler warning for anyone further behind than I am.

—Alice isn’t the killer, but I wouldn’t blame her if she was. Those ladies are bad news.

—Hook looks exceptionally handsome with those streaks of grey in his hair.

—Who does Ahab think he is, challenging the inimitable Captain Hook? All he does is follow a whale around, big whoop. And he looks like he hasn’t taken a bath in months.

—I adore that Hook sketched the Jolly Roger without even knowing who he is. His love for that ship is ultimate.

—AAAAAAH!!! I got my meet-cute! I am just feasting this season, I tell you what!

—Robin in Hyperion Heights having a copy of Alice in Wonderland because it’s her favorite book is peak. They really are going to know each other even when they don’t know each other.

—I just noticed that there’s a Cheshire Cat face painted on one of the walls of Alice’s little storage container house. Awesome!

—I cannot handle Rumple’s life being in mortal jeopardy again. I thought I wouldn’t have to do that this season, but apparently I was wrong.

—Also, Alice is adorable. I love her smile. Those big front teeth are cute, and her lips complement them perfectly. And blonde hair actually looks good on her, which to be frank I don’t think it does on too many people. (Although, the number of cute blondes on this show is inordinately high. Emma, Elsa, Alice, I’m sure there are others, but I’m having brain block right now.)

—Alice is having magic is awesome. Of all the people who could conjure things with a wish, I’m glad it’s her.

—It was fun that she got to wear the Alice outfit, even for a short amount of time. That shade of blue was pretty nice on her.

—Starfish is the cutest nickname ever.

—If they make Regina go bad again just before the end of the show I will not be happy. After everything she’s already done as a hero, having her be bad just because Facilier showed up.

—Robin is so lucky. She has a girlfriend who can paint, do magic, dresses cute, is pretty, and is totally mad and funny. I don’t know if I want to have that girlfriend or be that girlfriend, but I’m a bit jelly either way.

—I love how frustrating it is to watch Rumple try to explain things to Hook without actually explaining them, because if he did he would sound insane. And of course, Hook doesn’t know that Rumple knows best, so he keeps ignoring Rumple’s advice. They’re driving me crazy.

—I still how no clue who it is that’s killing witches and trying to frame Alice. I actually really like that, because it’s suspenseful but not confusing.

—I need Hook to stop being so thick and realize that Gothel is up to no good. Even if he doesn’t know who she really is, he shouldn’t trust her. She’s very s u s.

—In conclusion, Alice. 😍💓😍💓😍💓

[princess-rapunzel-of-corona]

Be very honest. Name the most toxic person you have ever met.

S2 AU

{sighs}

I think the most toxic person I’ve ever met was.. Gothel. For 18 years she lied to me about who I really was and told me stories that weren’t true to scare me from wanting to leave the Tower because all she cared about was my magic hair.

{Baffled}

I mean what kind of person steals a baby from her parents, hide her for 18 years, pretend to love me and lie to me about being the lost princess all because she wanted my magic hair to stay young. What kind of mean person would do that?

[wlw-lovestruck-fiction]

A FMC x Lavinia hurt/comfort fic, where Lavinia comforts FMC or the other way around. I feel really lonely currently.. I'm going through a tough time and I kind of crave some comfort :/ Thank you and sorry for bothering you. Take care :3

Written by @blue-is-the-coolest-color

It felt good to be in the camper again. Between fluffy blankets and surrounded by random books Lavinia has picked up from libraries or bookstores that have interested her. It’s a strange collection, fairy tales and fiction, a few vegetarian cookbooks scattered about the small kitchen area, a few books about animals or fauna. A collection to capture Lavinia’s curiosities of this world.

Speak of the devil. Annisa had to move her arm quickly as the taller woman shifted next to her until she managed to snuggle up close against her, wrapping her arms around Annisa and placing her head on her chest. Annisa rolled her eyes affectionately as she put down the book she had been flipping through in favor of running her hands through Lavinia’s hair.

“You’re very affectionate tonight,” Annisa pointed out, though she really couldn’t blame Lavinia for a bit of clinginess. It had been weeks since they had been able to have a moment alone, but she could tell the ordeal with Rapunzel had caused something short of frustration to play on Lavinia. The girl was distant since she arrived at the camper, deep in thought at moments with her brows furrowed together and lips tight. Annisa had played it off as exhaustion after everything, but now she was a bit more worried as she felt Lavinia cuddle as close as possible.

“Thinking.”

“Ever articulate.”

Annisa teased as she started rubbing circles into Lavinia’s shoulder blades. Soothing the tension that stuck there and causing a soft sound very reminiscent of a purr to leave Lavinia’s lips. The two stayed like that for a moment before Lavinia gently pushed away until she was on her elbows hovering closely. Annisa could see the confusion and frustration in the other woman’s eyes as she waited patiently to see if Lavinia would deflect or if she would say what had been haunting her for the last hour and a half.

“Ranpuzel has killed innocent witches. Simply for being witches, and she wanted to kill me regardless of what it would do to the people of my kingdom. She even threatened the witchling, and yet-” Lavinia’s eyes narrowed slightly in a brief glare as if the reasoning of it pissed her off, “and your friends are really going to let all that go? Even though she’s proud of those she’s slain.”

Annisa listened patiently, not commenting as she felt Lavinia’s arms tense and relaxed with the statements, as if Lavinia was trying to keep from letting the anger consume her more than it has.

“We are not unalike.”

Lavinia admitted reluctantly, as if the statement was acid in her throat.

“We both grew up in less than ideal situations, used or thrown away, isolated, forced to struggle for years. We crawled out of it in different ways, killed people, did horrible things in the name of our own selfish justice or reasoned it in whatever way. We both-”

Lavinia trailed off hard and Annisa had to fight the urge to brush the long silver hair out of her face as it slipped from her shoulders. There’s a pain in Lavinia’s voice, on that Annisa hadn’t heard too often from the other girl before.

“Gothel,” Lavinia tried to articulate what she wanted to say, but it’s choked and Annisa feels her heart break at the sound.

“Lavinia,” Annisa pushed herself up a bit as Lavinia hastily rubbed at her eyes and tried to go back to how she was laying.

“Forget it, it’s nothing.”

“It’s not,” Annisa argued as she let her hands move to Lavinia’s face, trying to get the woman to look at her, “it’s hurting you, so it’s not nothing.”

Lavinia looked away, a bit of shame crossing her face.

“I was once a student of Gothel. There was a time, back when I was young, that I wanted to be strong and feared like her. Because then maybe I could hold on to the things that mattered to me, then maybe-” Lavinia’s eyes darkened and she tried to turn her head as to no look into Annisa’s eyes, but Annisa still saw the tears the threatened to spill over, “I was orphaned when I was very young, I couldn’t use magic, I was alone. Gothel had this power and I wanted her to teach me. She didn’t at first, but decided I was amusing and worth playing with. She’d send me on these ridiculous errands and I’d do an insane amount of magical research to try and convince her I was worth her time.

Then my magic appeared, my ice alignment made itself known and suddenly I was the only student Mother Gothel wanted to teach. She taught me spells she wouldn’t utter to the other witches in her coven. It felt like she had taken me under her wing. I would have done anything for her.”

Annisa listened quietly, horrified by the raw pain that had claimed Lavinia’s throat. She had known Rapunzel was a victim of Gothel, but hearing that Lavinia had also been a target caused her heart to ache for the woman in her arms.

“She told me about how she planned to kill the ice king and needed my help. I was important to this mission and she needed me to follow her orders to the T. I was so excited to help her, to make a real difference and to take down the Tyrant who abused his power and caused the mass slaughter of so many magical beings in the ice kingdom. The king liked to set up his own witch hunts where he’d release a witch he had captured into his private woods to hunt down and kill. Our plan was for me to get captured and to wait for Gothel who would come and stage a breakout. During the panic she would kill the king while I distracted all his guards with a permafrost spell I had read about in a book.

So I did my part, I let the king catch me and I lived in the dungeon underneath the castle. I waited for Gothel to appear. I waited weeks, starving in a dark wet cell. I was so hungry, I hadn’t felt hunger that strong since arriving at the orphanage. Eventually it was my turn to be hunted, and when they let me into those woods I decided I would kill the king myself. So I used an old spell Gothel had me test a while ago and I slaughtered almost all of the king’s men in the forest. And then I killed him and sat on the throne covered in blood and announced that the king had fallen.”

“Gothel had left, abandoned me there, then had the nerve to show up two weeks after my coronation and demand I give her magic in exchange for teaching me. We fought and I threw up the magical barrier around my kingdom using one of her spells for spite.”

“I guess that explains how you don’t age.” Annisa interrupted and then almost hit herself for such a sudden outburst, but Lavinia nodded.

“I don’t age because it’s the same spell Gothel uses to steal magic, only my people can refuse to give me their magic, they offer up their magic to keep the barriers around the kingdom, so I guess in a way I’m not giving them much of a choice.”

Lavinia sighed, balancing herself on one arm for a moment to run a hand through her hair.

“I let all my pain get the better of me, and I hurt more people because I was too afraid of losing my newfound power. I wanted to keep everything out, because that’s how everything could stay safe,” Lavinia shook her head, “I sound like a maniac.”

“Lavinia, it doesn’t matter what you did before, all that matters to me is that you’re trying to do better now,” Annisa flashed the other girl a soft smile, “what Gothel did to you was horrible, and you shouldn’t have had to suffer to feel like you weren’t alone.”

“But I always am, somehow.”

It’s so quiet and heartbreaking to hear Lavinia’s voice like this. Annisa’s smile dropped as she tried to process the hurt, pain, and anger flashing through Lavinia’s icy eyes.

“To have a chance like Rapunzel has been given. To actually be allowed to keep writing my story without having to hurt you more to do so. I’d have to bend over backwards to be given a quarter the chance at redemption that she’s been allowed after everything. Why? Because her story deemed her a hero despite her murders and crimes?”

Maybe weeks ago Annisa would have said something to defend Rapunzel, defend why she should be given chance after chance where Lavinia shouldn’t. Lavinia dropped her head back to her shoulder in frustration.

“...You’re mad because they won’t give you that chance,” Annisa commented as she wrapped her arms around Lavinia’s shoulders, keeping her in place when she felt her start to shift, “I didn’t think you cared so much about what they thought about you.”

“I don’t,” Lavinia grumbled into her shoulder, “but I know it would be easier for you if they trusted me to keep you safe at least. Then maybe you wouldn’t have to sneak around to see me.”

Annisa held the woman tighter, placing a firm kiss to her head as she felt her relax into her arms.

“They’re not all against you. Arin wants to give you a chance, and I could convince Oliver to as well. And you have me.”

“As long as I have you.”

Of course the melting queen would sneak in some sweet nothings while they layed there, Annisa couldn’t say she was surprised by the familiar affection in Lavinia’s voice.

“So you're using me as a pillow here all night? I’m supposed to be home.”

Lavinia smirked, wrapping her arms tighter.

“Stay, please?”

“Oh my,” Annisa pretended to swoon, batting her eyelashes, “did her majesty just say please? To little old me. What a blessing that has bestowed upon my unworthy ears!”

“Brat,” Lavinia laughed, a beautiful light sound that Annisa would kill to hear, “you’re not allowed to leave now, punishment for mouthing off to a queen.”

“You love when I mouth off to you.”

“Maybe.”

The smirk caused Annisa to blush, suggesting a far dirtier joke that Lavinia had opted out of saying.

“I wish I could stay here,” Annisa sighed as she looked up at the ceiling of the cabin, the little snowflake fairy lights making her smile, sinking her fingers into unbelievable soft silver hair as she felt Lavinia tilt to head, eyelashes brushing against Annisa’s neck in soft butterfly kisses, “I love being this close to you.”

Lavinia hummed her agreement as Annisa’s fingers scratched at her scalp and wandered through her hair.

“It’s certainly a treat, watching the Ice Queen melt just for me.”

“You’re the only person worth melting for.”

Annisa hated how her mind immediately flashed to a certain snowman character from a Disney movie. She couldn’t control the way the giggles shook her form. Lavinia propped herself up on her arm, trying to look bored but the soft look in her eyes betrayed her horribly as she watched Annisa laugh at a joke she didn’t understand.

“Remind me that I need you to watch a movie with me.”

Lavinia hummed and let her fingertips trace patterns into Annisa’s arm before bringing her hand up to her lips, pressing a soft kiss that caused Annisa to blush.

“Do you really have to leave now?”

“I guess I can spare five minutes.”

Five turned to an hour, but it wasn’t like Annisa was complaining.

[invisible-pink-toast]

So something that I’ve wondered for a while is what would happen if Eugene did die in the tower, and the tear didn’t bring him back. What would Rapunzel do and how would that change her story. 

And I wanted to look into Rapunzel’s life in the tower and her sort of warped perspectives on things through what Gothel taught her (and her reactions to finding out her entire life was a lie). And for some reason last night I was compelled to write it and now it’s become a bit of an ongoing project (it’s already 10k rip) with a lot of angst but also some comfort and I thought I’d post the start here! 

(also spoiler alert but Eugene doesn’t stay dead long term (because fuck that) but I did want to deal with grief and confusion and change so he stays dead for a while...)

______________________

Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine, make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fates design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine. 

No glow. No movement. No response. 

Eugene had let out one last breath, and had faded. But Rapunzel hadn’t let go. She stayed and held him close, and tried to bring him back, voice going hoarse and words choked with tears as she repeated the healing incantation over and over and over again. 

But he doesn’t wake up. She feels Pascal come and sit on her shoulder, burrowing into her in comfort and she starts to sob. 

She cries, great wretched sobs that shake her entire body and have her gasping for air, that sound more like screams and wailing. It hurts, the crying, but nothing could ever hurt as much as the pain in her heart, seeping through her veins and her bones into every inch of her, pain at the knowledge that Eugene is- is dead. 

He’s dead. 

She weeps until she can’t anymore, until a welcoming darkness comes and takes her. But her sleep isn’t peaceful - Mother is grabbing her and Eugene is hanging and then he’s lying and red red red stains the floor and brown hair wraps around her, tightening, choking until she gasps awake. 

She doesn’t open her eyes. Doesn’t want to see anything. She lies with her head on Eugene’s chest, but his chest doesn’t move. His heart doesn’t beat. 

In the Snuggly Duckling, when the pub thugs had slammed the door shut and gathered around them to grab ‘Flynn Rider’ - Eugene had put himself between her and Hookhand, holding out his arms to protect her. When the guards had come thundering down the secret passage he’d put his arm around her to urge her forwards. And when the water came rushing in and they couldn’t see, he pulled her back up and brushed the hair back from her face. 

He was always protecting her. Right up until his final moments. He was warm and kind and reassuring. She could go out and take on the world with him by her side. 

But now he was cold. And still. And silent. 

After a long time, Rapunzel looks up. Broken glass is scattered around them. Brown hair lies around the room. It’s dark, she’s not sure how long she cried, or how long she slept. It doesn’t really matter. There’s nothing for her to do. 

What now? 

She’s the lost princess. But what does that mean? Would she be able to prove that? Why would she even want to? The King and Queen are her parents - but this is the King and Queen that sent Eugene to be hanged. How he managed to escape that, she has no idea. But anyone who would want to hurt Eugene can’t be good. 

Mother isn’t- wasn’t good. Mother’s not even her mother. 

All those years, her entire life, locked away in this tower. And for what? 

And there’s so much world out there, it was so exciting and colourful and beautiful - but Eugene’s gone. Eugene’s dead. His blood is on her hands and her hair is on the floor and what’s so beautiful about the world anyway? Why should it get to be beautiful when Eugene is gone and she’s in so much pain? She can’t stay in this tower, doesn’t want to stay in this tower, but she doesn’t want to go into the world either.  

What now? 

She just wants to lie down. Go to sleep again. She’s so tired. She doesn’t want to do anything ever again. 

Well that’s the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream. 

She’d seen the floating lights. They were beautiful and important and everything she’d ever hoped for. More so, because of the man beside her. And she found her new dream, with his smile and his touch and his heart. And his company had filled up her heart and warmed her soul and made her want and dream for things she’d never dared to before. She had found her new dream. 

But he’s gone. And he’s never coming back. 

You were my new dream.  If you do this - then you will die.  You need to go find a new dream. 

Eugene had died for her. Eugene had come back for her, sacrificed himself for her. That couldn’t be for nothing. That was so big, and so painful, so it had to mean something. Eugene had given her his life in exchange for hers, she needed to make sure that sacrifice wasn’t in vain. She needed to live. But she was so tired. 

What now? 

Eugene’s face looks peaceful. Almost like he was sleeping. She hopes he’s at peace. That he’s somewhere warm and good. 

Where do you go after you die? 

She’s never wondered that before. Mot- Gothel never talked about it. Rapunzel didn’t even know about death until she was nine and she’d choked on a fishbone. She couldn’t get any air in and began to panic. Mother had gone white as a sheet and ran over and slammed her hands against Rapunzel’s back several times, so hard it hurt, but the fishbone moved and she could breathe again. Mother had been furious, yelling about waste and dying and hair. Mother never brought fish back to the tower again. Mother didn’t want her to die. 

Because she had wanted Rapunzel’s hair. Gothel didn’t care who else died. 

Eugene’s dead. 

He’s gone. 

The light in his eyes and his smile and his kind and beating heart. Gone. But his body is still here. 

How easy would it be for Eugene to come back? His body is here. Where’s the spirit gone? Why can’t he come back? 

He’s not coming back. 

Hot tears slip down Rapunzel’s face. They taste like salt. 

Rapunzel strokes her fingers against Eugene’s cheek. He shouldn’t stay here. Trapped forever in this tower prison. He should be under the sky, free. 

Two days ago they had walked by land that was covered in stones with names on them. Eugene had explained that it was a graveyard, and people were buried there after they died. Rapunzel had freaked out, the thought of being trapped underground- but he quickly tried to calm her, explaining about funerals and tributes and how it was about saying goodbye. 

Eugene was gone. He should get a funeral and a tribute. She didn’t think she could say goodbye though. 

Maybe not ever. 

But he deserved a proper goodbye. An important one. And a stone with his name on it, and the good things he’d done. 

Rapunzel makes herself stand up. Walks past the broken glass and the brown hair and gets some water, and gives some to Pascal too. She walks to the window and looks down. 

She blinks in surprise when she sees Max waiting at the bottom of the tower. The white horse looks relieved to see her, but not surprised. Pascal chirps on her shoulder, he talked to Max while she was asleep. A smile almost graces her lips. Max came back for her. He must have helped Eugene escape. That was kind of him. 

Then she sees Mother’s cloak. And the smile is gone. 

Mother is gone. That’s good. Mother was bad - Mother was Gothel, she wasn’t her mother, but she was Rapunzel’s everything for all her life, but she stole her away and locked her away and used her hair and told her lies she lied and lied and lied but she held Rapunzel when she cried about the lightning storms, and she bought her paints and complimented her art and she made her favourite soups and she lied and hurt and pulled and chained her up and she killed Eugene. She stabbed him right through and stole the life from him just like she stole Rapunzel’s life. Gothel was gone.

Rapunzel covers her eyes. She doesn’t want to cry. Doesn’t want to cry for her, because she was bad and she lied and she hurt, but Rapunzel still cries.

She turns away from the window and sees the knife on the ground, right where Gothel dropped it after Eugene cut her hair. The knife is clean, Gothel must have cleaned it, but then why can Rapunzel see the blood on it? Eugene’s blood. That knife killed Eugene. 

And something in Rapunzel snaps. She storms over, over the broken glass and the hair and she grabs the knife. She marches back to the window and she throws the knife, throws it as far as she can, away from her and away from Eugene. Then she rushes to the sink and washes her hands, scrubs as hard as she can, because she touched the knife and there’s blood on her hands, Eugene’s blood on her hands, and she scrubs and scrubs and scrubs until her hands are red but there’s no blood. 

A funeral. 

Eugene deserves a funeral. 

She’ll take him outside. She’ll bury him there, so he’s outside under the sky. 

He deserves that. And it’s something that she can do. Something she must do. She owes him her life. She won’t let her life go to waste. But she won’t leave him, not like this.

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Gonna make full use of my ‘comic rant’ tag and roast Future State: Superwoman.

Spoilers! And yelling! Of the disgruntled kind!

So a few things at the start here: 1.) I wanted to love this book. I wanted it to be great. I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, in spite of some iffy stuff in the solicit text. So this rant is not coming from a place of having decided this was going to be awful ahead of time. 2.) My tolerance for bad Supergirl comics is pretty high! Takes a lot for me to actually come out and say that a particular issue is trash. Reader: This story is trash.

It’s not ‘middle-aged white guys writing/drawing a story about sending a minor to a potentially hostile planet fully nude’ trash, mind you. It’s the compost bin, rather than the landfill. Slightly nicer trash, but it still stinks to high heaven. Allow me to expand!

PROLOGUE - SUMMARY: ...I actually can’t summarize this comic b/c it would devolve into a lot of senseless yelling. We’ll just have to tease out this terrible plot as we go along. 

PART I - DEAD DOGS TELL BAD TALES: The comic opens with Kara standing at Krypto’s grave. That’s not why this comic is trash, but it bears mentioning. Because why. Why would you do this. 

PART II - IN WHICH IT ONLY GETS WORSE: So, Kara has a running inner monologue, and the main thing we gather from Kara’s thoughts is that it was Krypto who taught her to be a hero. On paper, that sounds very sweet! In practice, it reads as Kara having no moral center whatsoever—whatever good qualities she might possess, she did not learn from her parents, or her foster parents, or friends, or fellow heroes. Nor do they come from within Kara herself. Nope, t’was Krypto who taught Kara not to be a jealous rage monster. That is not hyperbole--Kara’s walking around angry about her cousin all the time and she’s like, ‘It was you, Krypto, who taught me not to judge, and to let go of anger.’ Listen, I love Krypto, but this? This is, as the youth would say, a bad look.

PART III - THOSE CERTAINLY ARE...SOME THEMES: The set-up here is that Kara is on the moon, and has established a sanctuary for alien refugees. That’s a dynamite idea! I love that! Buuuuut Kara didn’t look at the plight of alien refugees and say, ‘I want to help!’ Really, she didn’t even look at herself and say, ‘I don’t want others to feel like I’ve felt.’ No, she said, ‘Earth won’t accept me as a hero, and Clark didn’t name me protector of Earth, so. I’m out!’ (Honestly, if your moral compass is so whack that you need a dog to walk you back from Hulk-Smashing...can’t say I blame Clark for not picking you, Kara!) But apparently, the people on the moon don’t really like her either. And it is literally never explained why. There’s a whole montage of Kara fixing stuff and saving lives and all the moon folk just glare at her. This makes both the moon people AND Kara look like a**holes, because they come across as ungrateful, and she comes across as a glory hound. Thanks! I hate it! So the ‘peace’ Kara’s found on the moon isn’t really peaceful at all, cause she still resents her cousin, and people still don’t like her, in spite of the fact that she’s constantly performing acts of service for them. 

Also, side note, I’m just now realizing this is an entire population of alien refugees...and Kara is somehow still the odd one out. Like, Earth I get, because everyone else is a human and maybe freaked out by the super powers. But a bunch of aliens? WHY. Why did you do this. Why did this need to be set on the moon with alien refugees if you’re not going to interrogate Kara’s identity as an alien refugee herself AND all of the aliens are inexplicably humanoid in appearance and utterly ordinary in terms of power levels.  

Like. This is not the CW show, where they have a budget, and a huge ensemble cast to serve. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE. AAARRRRRGHHHH.

PART III CONT’D: There’s also this weird ‘birthright’ element introduced...like, Clark and Jon stole Kara’s ‘right’ to be earth’s defender which is...a terrible reading of Kara’s modern origin. It brings in the idea that Kara is a ‘chosen one’ and because she didn’t get to be that chosen one, all of her hero work is for nothing. Never mind the whole central conceit of what makes Clark and Kara heroic...that they have this incredible power, and choose to do good with it. Nah...it’s all about her ‘right’ to protect the people of Earth! And mean ol’ Clark took that away! THANKS. I HATE IT. 

PART IV - A POOR USE OF SPACE: So, all of the Future State books kind of struggle with the issue of too much exposition, which is understandable. They have to introduce an entirely new status quo in a very limited amount of literal page space, so you *really* have to have a handle on how you allocate your time and focus.  

Introducing a brand new, lore-heavy heroic character who gets all of the development and dynamic art and pulls focus away from the character you’re meant to be writing is a bad use of a two issue limited series.

Like, this is a crappy Supergirl comic but it’s a great backdoor pilot for a Lynari ongoing, I guess. 

Imagine if in the Jon Superman book, they introduced a random, brand new best friend for Jon, and he got the big character arc instead of Jon. That’s something you save for an arc in an ongoing title, NOT A TWO ISSUE EVENT COMIC.  

Back to said new character, there’s a lot of forced attempts to parallel Kara and Lynari, but Lynari’s backstory is so confusing, rushed, and poorly explained that it’s like: okay, they’re both...angry? And the moon jerks hate them? ...uh. Okay.

(I’m gonna bring back my ‘why is this set on the moon, even’ question so that my ‘poor use of space’ header becomes a better joke.) 

PART V - I'M HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO...B/C THERE SURE AIN’T ONE HERE: I’ve already mentioned that Krypto was apparently Kara’s conscience so when Lynari’s aunt arrives to...kill them? (again, everything about Lynari’s backstory is rushed and poorly explained) Kara gets real mad and basically pulls a Gothel: ‘You want me to be the bad guy? Fine! Now I’m the bad guy.’ But thank goodness Lynari is there to tell Kara no! Don’t murder the giant aunt eel! Lynari then steals Kara’s powers and gives up the swamp jewel that’s been hidden inside their body and now their aunt is less murder-y!

WOW. Couldn’t even give the big damn hero moment to Kara in her own book, huh?

So the day is saved. It takes Kara a while to regain her powers, and it’s only then, when she’s no longer ‘above’ the moon jerks, that they’re like, ‘oh, we like her!’ There is a bit of narration about how that attitude is awful. But that narration is provided by Lynari. See, the inner monologue is no longer Kara’s thoughts, but rather it has switched to Lynari’s point of view. They’re telling us this story. And do you know why?

PART VI - WHY THIS COMIC *SUCKS*: KARA DIES. SHE’S THE FRIGGIN’ ‘SECOND GRAVE’ OF THE TITULAR ‘TWO GRAVES’

Fudge this comic to heck.

See, Kara dies on the moon, presumably of old age. She’s buried next to Krypto. And this random character who we’re suddenly supposed to care about tells us her story. Not Clark. Not the Danvers. Not Brainy. Not even one of the supporting cast members from her solo title. No one from Kara’s life is mentioned at all, save for Jon and Clark, and they’re pretty much relegated to flashbacks of Kara punching them. 

PART VII - TIME TO COMPARE DEATHS, I GUESS: First and foremost can I just say that I hate that’s a sentence that I’m typing about Kara in the year of our lord, 2021. But okay: Kara’s big famous death in Crisis stopped the entire DC universe cold. Everyone paused in the middle of the destruction of the multiverse to mourn her loss and honor her (GENUINELY HEROIC) sacrifice. Clark and Barbara--two established characters with a strong connection/relationship to Kara--offered lovely eulogies. 

This one: Kara gets to die of old age in obscurity after a lifetime of striving to be recognized and only achieving it by de-powering and serving a population of jerks. 

Not the warm and fuzzy ending you think it is!

(Meanwhile, Clark lives for millennia and spawns an entire dynasty of Els, all of ‘em out there, protecting the cosmos. I was looking forward to House of El in the hopes of maybe seeing some Kara stuff but NOPE. Thanks to Superwoman, we’re probably not gonna see any future Kara stuff beyond this! G R E A T)

And like, the argument could be made that this ending makes Kara happy. This is the life she chooses! She wants to be alone and garden on the moon! Except, we get zero insight from Kara regarding the remainder of her life. We only have Lynari’s narration and some montage shots...nearly all of which focus on other characters. But honestly, even if we did get Kara’s side of things, I doubt it would shed much light on her feelings, bEEECAUSE...

PART VIII - SUPER BLAND: This Kara really has no personality outside of ‘detached and vaguely bitter.’ I like Sauvage, I think she’s an incredibly talented artist, but here, Kara is stiff and her expression often reads as aloof. She’s very pretty, but it comes at the expense of being expressive. (And I know Sauvage can do expressive stuff...because Lyanari gets to be expressive.) Like...I love that shojo manga vibe but this is a Kara devoid of spark and warmth. 

...Like...Melissa Benoist’s portrayal of Kara is right there... 

I’ve already sort of touched on this but her inner monologue doesn’t have much personality either. She’s just parroting the same, ‘I need to do as Krypto taught me!’ nonsense for both issues. Until, of course, we shift to Lynari’s narration, and lose Kara’s thread entirely. 

PART IX - LET’S WRAP THIS UP: This book frustrates me to no end because it had a lot of stuff going for it. It’s got a female writer and artist--still a rarity for the Supergirl book--it’s a limited series mostly free of continuity and character baggage, and it’s not tied down to the grimdark cyberpunk stuff happening in the Gotham books. YOU COULD’VE DONE ANYTHING. And, once again, DC goes with a pitch that’s: Kara is angry, Kara resents Clark...and Kara dies.

It’s also happening...right as Kara has no dedicated ongoing title, the movie’s been shelved, the TV show is entering its sixth and final season, and all promotion has shifted to new CW and HBO shows. 

*screams into the void* 

MAAAAAAN I hate this book. I hate that it retroactively makes me hate the Andreyko run a little bit--a run that I took to be about a traumatized young woman forced to confront her grief, and who leans on a beloved animal companion for comfort. Here, Krypto is L I T E R A L L Y the reason Kara’s not constantly frying folks with her heat vision. 

I hate that this book has made me use the word ‘literally’ so much in this rant.

I hate that this could possibly be more in continuity than Millennium.

Remember Millennium? Where Kara was in like...five pages? And she was warm, and kind, and promised to help Rose because it was the right thing to do, and oh yes, WAS PRESIDENT OF EARTH?!??! AND A CLASSY OLD LADY!?!?!?!?! WHO WAS STILL ALIVE AND KICKIN’ IN THE FAR FLUNG FUTURE!?!?!?!?!

I hate that I’m using my lunch hour to rant about how much I hate this comic.  

I hate that DC editorial seems hell-bent on erasing the interesting aspects of Kara’s character to sand her down to ‘the angry one’ or ‘Batman 2.0′

PART X - LET’S END ON SOME (?) POSITIVES: Don’t read this book! Don’t do it! Don’t waste your time and money!

Instead, check out ANYTHING ELSE. If you want mom!Kara, read Tom Taylor’s ‘Last Daughters of Krypton’ in the DC Nuclear Winter special. If you want heroic oldlady!Kara, read Millennium. Honestly? Pick up anything by Bendis that has Supergirl in it. It is miles away better than this. You want angry Kara working through her grief? Andreyko, Red Lantern, even Infected. ANYTHING BUT THIS. HECK, grab Superman of Metropolis instead! That has bad Kara characterization but at least she doesn’t end up dead. 

Anyways. This comic is bad. I wish it wasn’t! And this is now the SECOND TIME IN A ROW that Kara’s book ends on a terrible note before the character disappears from monthly comics for an unknown period of time.  

*screams into the void again*

[stahlop]

Making a Memory (9/?)

So sorry for the delay on this next chapter. I ran out of prewritten chapters, then I went on vacation, then my youngest turned 5, and just lots of things happening. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Thanks again to my wonderful betas @profdanglaisstuff​ and @thisonesatellite​ and thanks to @gingerchangeling​ for her amazing artwork.

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Ao3

God she’d missed him. She missed the feeling of his lips on hers. The slide of his tongue pressing against her lips for entrance. His hand threading through her hair. The feel of his body pressed against hers. She missed the feel of his hook pressed into her lower back.

��Killian!” Emma pulled away from him, and took a good hard look at her husband. God dammit, her husband!  His eyes were still half closed and his lips were still puckered as he tried to chase hers back.”Killian,” she said softly. Her hand came up to his cheek, felt the scruff that she hadn’t felt in so long, noticed the red had been replaced with gray. He smiled into her hand, the laugh lines around his eyes running much deeper than when they’d left town. She automatically started threading her fingers through his hair and noted the gray intertwined throughout.

“Swan.” He breathed out. “Emma.” His eyes opened completely (she’d missed those beautiful blue eyes) and he was staring at her, as if finally seeing her for the first time. She felt completely exposed before him. It had been 12 years. 12 years! All her old insecurities about them came crashing back into her, until …”My beautiful Swan.” He touched his forehead to hers and Emma practically sobbed at the feelings that overwhelmed her. They were here. Together. In Storybrooke. With their family.

Their girls!

“Killian!” Emma pushed him away from her. He looked taken aback until she pointed over to their booth where their children were sitting. Their children. He grinned at her, taking her hand and brushing a kiss to her knuckles. Damn if that still wasn’t a huge turn on.

“Come on.” She said as she pulled on the hand he’d just kissed to lead him back to their booth.

They resettled themselves down in their seats. Emma proceeded to voraciously consume her grilled cheese and onion rings as if she hadn’t eaten in days. It wasn’t until she stopped halfway through to take a sip of her water that she noticed Henry, Hope, and Alice looking at her as if she were an alien sitting in front of them.

“What?” She asked, rubbing her nose. “Do I have something on my face?”

“Mom?” Henry asked. He didn’t need to ask anymore than that. Emma knew the silent question he was asking. 

“I don’t remember everything.” Emma said. “But I remember enough. I remember coming to Storybrooke. I remember magic. I remember Killian.” She smiled at him. “I vaguely remember the final battle. I definitely remember being pregnant with you two.” She pointed at the girls. Alice was grinning as wide as the Cheshire Cat from her namesakes story, while Hope just stared at her with a slightly confused look on her face. “I know we were cursed by a witch of some kind, but I’m hazy on the details of why.” She turned to look at Alice on the other side of the booth, her voice taking on a melancholy tone. “And I’m looking forward to getting to know you, my sweet Alice.” She reached out her hand to her daughter (her daughter!) and Alice placed her own hand in hers. “It kills me to know that I missed out on your life.” Emma smiled at her, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

“Killian?” Henry asked the same question.

“It’s all still a bit muddled.” He said, scratching the back of his neck. “The more you or Emma remind me of memories, even with just a word or a phrase, I get flashes of the past. But I’m still trying to connect it all together. But I know now, that everything Henry has said is true. Without a shadow of a doubt.”

The booth was quiet after that, almost as if no one knew what to say after the revelation that they’d recovered many of their memories. It felt strange to Emma, sitting there and eating when no one in the town knew who they were. Granny was right there in the kitchen without an inkling that she had once knitted her and the twins baby blankets. That she used to flirt shamelessly with Killian. That she used to scold them for making out in the hallways after their dates and ‘other’ activities. After the waitress had collected their plates, Granny came over to their table.

“Mr. Swan,” she said, addressing Henry, for he was the only one she recognized. Will you and your family be needing accommodations?” Henry nodded.

“Yes. For at least a week. Three rooms.” Granny nodded and went off to get them keys. 

“A week? Henry, we can’t stay here for a week.” Emma said, trying to take control of the situation. She had a job to get back to, they had to get the girls back to camp. She’s sure Killian had a job to get back to as well.

‘You’re mother’s right, lad. We have a lot to figure out, but we can’t stay here at the moment. There are too many logistics we need to work out.” Killian said. He took Emma’s hand in his. She sighed at the feel of his calloused hands holding hers. “Not that I don’t want to reacquaint myself with you, Swan.” He said, his voice lowering, his one eyebrow raised in that ridiculous way that drove her crazy.

“Ew!” Hope said as she closed her eyes tight and stuck out her tongue. “Some of us don’t want to hear that stuff.”

“I think it’s sweet.” Alice said, a wide grin on her face.

‘Look,” Henry began, before Emma could say anything else. “We need to go over a few things, so we have to at least stay tonight. You two can buy some clothes for yourselves and the girls for tomorrow and for sleeping tonight. Call the camp, let them know you found the girls and they won’t be returning, you can collect their things in a day or two. But, I think after you find out what I’ve discovered, you won’t want to get back to your false life right away.” Granny came by at that moment with three keys which Henry collected. Emma sighed and looked over at Killian who also seemed to be thinking over what Henry had just said. One night couldn’t hurt, could it?

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

Killian still couldn’t believe they were back in Storybrooke and that he remembered his Swan. He couldn’t believe that when Emma came to his door that morning that his whole life would have been revealed to be a lie and that the love of his life was actually standing in front of him. But here they were. He wished he could remember everything, he knew there were pieces of his life from before that still weren’t coming to the surface, but for right now, he knew enough. He knew he was with his family.

Tears pricked at his eyes as he realized exactly what damage Gothel’s curse had done to them. He’d had Alice with him, yes, and he wouldn’t give those years up for the world, but she was supposed to have a mother, and a sister, and a brother. It shouldn’t have just been the two of them against the world. He should have regaled his girls with the tales of his and Emma’s romance. They should have known all their grandparents and a community that loved them from before they were even born. Instead they’d been separated and cursed to forget each other. And so had the town.

They had left the diner and were walking down the main drag to the few clothing stores that were there. It was only mid-afternoon, and plenty of people were milling around town. People that Killian recognized. People like Belle who had wandered out from the library with a sullen, dark haired, teenager trailing along behind her, which Killian realized after almost a minute had to be Gideon. Belle looked the same. Her brown hair still had no traces of gray in it, but it had been cut to her shoulders, her skirt was closer to her knees than mid-thigh, and she was wearing flats instead of the sky high heels she’d been known for. Gold met them halfway from his shop, still clad in the suits that he wore, and Killian almost did a double take. Even under the curse, he still hadn’t aged a day. Gold kissed both of Belle’s cheeks and they were engaging in conversation as Killian and his family walked by them toward the clothing shop on the other side of the street. 

“They won’t recognize us.” Henry said, suddenly appearing at Killian’s side. “I’ve been here once a year since we were cursed. Visited the library, visited the pawn shop. Neither one of them has ever even given one shred of evidence that they knew who I was.” Killian thought that Henry was telling him this to be reassuring, even though he and Gold had buried the hatchet (figuratively) years ago, but he could hear the sadness in Henry’s voice that even after all these years, the fact that they didn’t recognize him still hurt.

“And how is it that you have managed to retain your memories, lad?” Killian asked, realizing that Henry was no longer a lad. Gods, he was, he calculated in his head, 28 now! Practically the same age Emma had been when they’d met. He’d missed so much of Henry’s life.

“I’m the Author.” Henry explained. Killian realized they’d all stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to hear his explanation. “I’m supposed to observe and write everything down. Apparently, that makes me immune to mind-altering curses. Remember how I maintained my memories during the Black Fairy’s curse?” Both Killian and Emma nodded.

“So you’ve known this entire time?” Emma asked. Henry nodded. She stepped over to him and hugged him tight. “My poor, Henry. That must have been so hard for you.” She squeezed him even tighter.

“Where are we headed, Henry?” Asked Killian as they stowed their shopping bags back in their cars after finding clothes in one of the shops and then headed back down the street. The path they were on seemed familiar. The girls still seemed in awe of their surroundings. He could see Alice’s glee every time they passed a shop, having explained to them that Henry’s sequel to his book was the story of Emma’s life in Storybrooke up to the most recent curse. That had certainly explained why she knew what the Snow Queen’s Scroll was. Something that Killian still couldn’t remember all the details of himself. Alice seemed to know more about his past right now than he did. Hope still seemed unsure of everything, even though the truth was smacking her in the face. It made his heart ache to see how much like past Emma his daughter had become. There were walls around her 13-year-old heart and he had no idea what had made her so guarded.

“The Sorcerer's Mansion.” Henry said matter-of-factly. 

Fear welled up inside him as the Dark One talked about the one special ingredient he needed to separate himself from the dagger, and Killian realized exactly what the Dark One planned on doing. “As luck would have it, dearie, you’re my oldest friend.” The hand that had once plucked the heart of his dearest love and crushed it to a fine powder had now plunged into his chest. The icy coldness of it as it wrapped around his heart was a feeling he knew he would never be able to forget. He watched as the Dark One pulled out his heart and displayed it like a prize he had one. He begged for him to just do the deed. Kill him. Get it over with. “Oh, no. I promised you we’d have some fun first.”

Killian stopped in the middle of the walk as the memory overcame him. He could feel his whole body shaking and the tang of blood in his mouth as he bit his lip. It almost felt like a panic attack (they seemed to be having them in abundance today), except he knew he was basically reliving the memory. Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome as he now knew it to be called.

“Killian!” 

“Papa!” 

He could hear their voices but they sounded very far away, even though he knew they were right next to him. He could feel Emma and Henry take his arms and help walk him over to a bench to sit down until it passed. He couldn’t get the image of his heart in the Dark One’s hand out of his head. It just wouldn’t go away. Even though he knew his heart was safely in his chest and had been for the past 15 years, he could still feel that squeeze as if it were happening right then and there. 

Eventually he felt Alice’s hand rubbing up and down his arm and whispering to him that they were here for him and everything was going to be alright. Emma held the other arm and attempted to do the same as Alice. His breathing finally evened out and returned to normal after what felt like a lifetime. He could see his family around him and not the Dark One holding his heart anymore.

“Papa?” Alice asked. She sounded so small. He hated when she sounded like that.

“I’m ...I’m okay, Starfish. Just,” he paused to take in another breath of fresh air, “just an old memory reeling it’s ugly head and taking me by surprise.” Alice and Emma continued to comfort him, but Killian noticed that Hope looked confused and Henry started to pale as understanding crossed his face.

“Oh, crap, Killian. I’m sorry. I’ve just been so focused on getting us to the future, that I didn’t really think about the past.” Killian nodded, understanding. Henry had always been impulsive that way. What else could he expect from someone who at the age of 10 had gotten on a bus to find his birth mother to break a curse. The kid (not really a kid, but he’d always be a kid to Killian) had a real hero complex going.

“What’s happening? Why did the mention of the mansion freak him out?” Hope asked, a puzzled expression still adorning her face.

Alice gave her an exasperated look before saying a hushed tone, “That’s where the Dark One took his heart! Come on, Hope. You read the book just this morning.” Killian couldn’t help but grin at that. Of course Alice would have committed every part of Henry’s sequel to memory, while Hope probably didn’t believe a word of what she read.

“He used to have nightmares about the…” Emma circled around her heart to indicate it instead of saying the actual words, “before it happened, because of…” she trailed off, probably because she didn’t want to mention Milah in front of the girls. But Alice seemed to have no qualms about it.

“Because the Dark One crushed Milah’s heart?” Killian almost burst out laughing.

“She really has your tact, doesn’t she?” Emma said to him as she bit her lip and also tried to suppress a laugh.

“She’s definitely her father’s daughter.” He said, his body feeling back in control. He nuzzled up against Emma’s cheek where she gave him a chaste kiss. He heard a loud sigh come from the direction of Hope.

“Are we going to have to see you two make out all the time now?” She asked, clearly annoyed. Hope rolled her eyes, but Killian could see the mirth behind them. 

“Yes!” Emma laughed, clearly used to this kind of behavior. He’d missed that laugh.

“Alright.” Killian said, taking a deep breath and finally getting up from the bench. “I’m good now. Let’s head over to the Sorcerer’s Mansion and see what Henry has found.”

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

Memories swirled around her the more they walked through Storybrooke. Bits and pieces coming together in her head. It was so different from when Killian had given her the memory potion in New York and everything had just come rushing back. But this time it had been 12 years, instead of one, and Emma could see that despite the town looking exactly the same, the people had aged, just like she had. It made her very nervous, walking through the town. She was afraid to run into her parents and see what they looked like now. But also afraid because she knew they wouldn’t recognize her in the least.

Killian’s reaction to the memory of his heart being taken by Gold had scared her. She knew she had more memories just trying to break through. She’d already had one panic attack this morning (was it really only that morning?) when Henry had brought her to Chantey’s Lobster House, she wasn’t sure if she could handle another one. But she also knew they needed to do this. They needed to remember. They needed to make the town remember. They needed to get back the life that was stolen from them.

The Sorcerer’s Mansion was exactly how she remembered it on the outside. And she remembered everything that had happened there. From almost getting rid of her magic, to almost getting eaten by a giant spider. She was glad that it didn’t spark the same fear that had overcome Killian before.

“No one lives here still?” Emma inquired. She’d always wondered why no one had claimed this place, especially since both Merlin and the Apprentice were dead. 

“I think …I think I technically own it.” Henry said a little sheepishly. The twins both looked at him confused, but both Emma and Killian seemed to understand. “As the Author, I think it belongs to me.” He explained. “Luckily, no one from the town has seen me go in here. I’m not sure if they realize it exists.” He said, now drawing a baffled look from Killian, and Emma assumed her face looked similar, because how could the people of the town not see a huge mansion, even if it was away from the main drag.

“Let’s go in and I’ll explain it better.” Henry said as he opened the door.

They all walked in and Emma drew a breath as she surveyed the inside of the mansion. Henry had definitely been busy as she saw many whiteboards set up all around the room with notes and pictures on them. It looked like a police investigation room. 

“Please, sit.” Henry said, motioning for them to sit down at a large dining room table in the center of the room where there were several fairy tale books piled. Killian immediately deferred the head of the table to Emma and he sat to her left so he could continue to hold her hand. Hope sat on Emma’s right and Alice went to the other side of Killian. Henry took the other head of table. 

“I feel like I’m about to give a TED talk.” Henry joked nervously. It broke the tension that had mounted in the room, and everyone gave a good chuckle. Even Hope who still seemed a bit in disbelief at the whole situation. Emma couldn’t blame her. It took her falling through a magic portal to come to terms with everything, and that had been after killing a dragon and waking Henry with True Love’s Kiss. She was glad to see that Alice had inherited her brother’s belief at least.

“So, mom, Killian, if you recall, we found out that the powerful Gothel we had been threatened by was from the future, and the present day Gothel had not acquired her power yet. We also had a prophecy to contend with, one that Gothel was determined not to let pass.” She and Killian nodded in agreement.

“Well, it was obvious to me that someone needed to be monitoring the present day Gothel in the Enchanted Forest. The Blue Fairy had been doing that before we left, but obviously, with the mind wipe, she wouldn’t be able to do that anymore.” Emma started to tense. Killian’s hand also tensed in hers. She knew they were both thinking the same thing. Don’t let Henry say it. She pleaded in her mind. Please don’t let Henry...

“So I went to the Enchanted Forest to keep an eye on her.” He said proudly. 

He said it.

“How, pray tell, did you manage to do that?” Killian asked the question she was also thinking. 

“With a magic bean.” Henry said as though it were an obvious conclusion. “Several magic beans, actually. You may not recall, but we brought about 20 of them with us when we left town. Plus, the bean fields are still here and growing. They are still tending to and harvesting the beans.”

But how is that possible?” Alice asked intrigued. Emma could see she was intrigued by the whole concept of magic beans. She only hoped if Alice ever did get to go through a portal, she did it willingly and not accidentally fall into one or have to take one to rescue someone like she’d had to. Although, both of those trips did leave her panting over the hot pirate sitting next to her.

“Well,” Henry began, sounding very professorial, “while the people here may not know there is magic here, magic is still here. And it’s doing it’s damndest to make sure the citizens don’t know that until the curse is broken and their memories return.” Henry's voice had gotten faster and higher with this explanation.

“So when they harvest the magic beans…” Alice began, but Henry jumped right in.

“They think it’s something else entirely. I asked Granny on one of my trips and she said they’re just soybean fields.”

“And when you said you didn’t think anyone knew the mansion was here...?” Emma asked, trailing off when she realized she already knew the answer.

“It’s because this place is already pure magic. It probably just looks like a large field or something to them. Very Harry Potter.” Henry said amused at his little joke. That brought a smile to Emma’s face, and Hope’s as well. She and Henry had made sure Harry Potter was in Hope’s life. Of course, Emma could have never imagined that Harry Potter would be a little on the nose to their real life. 

“Ok, let’s go back to the beans and the Enchanted Forest.” Emma was not enjoying the nonchalant attitude Henry seemed to be taking this whole endeavor in. “I’m not too thrilled about you willingly going to the Enchanted Forest when such a potential threat is looming there. You may be the Author, but that doesn’t make you invincible. You don’t have the sword fighting skills or magic.” Emma worried. And that’s when she realized that she hadn’t felt her magic since getting to town or since her memories had returned. She immediately tried to conjure up a ball of magic, but nothing came out. She kept turning her hand and expecting the magic ball to be there when she turned it back, but there was nothing. She closed her eyes and tried to call on her emotions the way she had when she had first started learning how to control her magic, but still nothing. Killian’s hand eventually came to rest over hers looking upset. They both looked up at Henry for an explanation.

“I think the curse needs to break before your magic will return.” Henry said sadly. “The twins never showed any magical inclinations before we left, so I don’t think Gothel factored them in when creating the curse.” Emma nodded. It made sense. It still worried her, but she’d also lived more of her life without magic than with it.

“But that segues perfectly into what I found out on my trips to the Enchanted Forest.’ Henry smiled, trying to bring the mood back up. They all settled back into their chairs as Henry began his story.

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

“The first time I used a magic bean I almost forgot to pack another one to get myself home.I almost walked into the portal and then at the last second realized I had no way back. I managed to grab one and get back into the portal before it disappeared.  I waited a little bit before going.” Henry explained. “I needed some time after that first trip to Storybrooke and saw how everything was just... normal. That Gothel had just left after the destruction she had wreaked now that we were all gone.” Henry swallowed back the small sob that threatened to leave his throat and quickly continued on.

“I quickly stole some clothes off a clothesline so that I would blend in and quickly hoofed it to the closest town and started making inquiries about Gothel. But she was still relatively unknown. It was frustrating. The people who had heard of her thought she was relatively harmless, mainly refilling lakes and rivers that had started to dry up, clearing up dead parts of the forest, and even bringing rain to help with growth. Most of the people seemed to feel she was being helpful. She’d even helped some families with her herbs when they’d fallen ill.” Killian cocked an eyebrow in confusion about this, Emma furrowed her brow contemplating what it all meant.

“I wondered for a time if there was another Gothel, a helpful Gothel, that maybe our Gothel had taken her name from. For several years, I went back to the Enchanted Forest asking about her, and every time it seemed she was not a threat.” Henry took a breath before he proceeded.

“But all that changed the year the twins turned seven. There were many rumors that circulated around the Enchanted Forest about Gothel’s sudden change. Some said she was spurned by a man, some said people were taking advantage of her goodwill. The most believed rumor was that someone had stolen some of her plants from her garden.” Henry almost rolled his eyes at this. He remembered thinking how odd it was that Gothel was going down the same path that her counterpart in the fairy tale books did. “Whatever it was, it seemed to have inspired a great hatred toward humans and Gothel was no longer the helpful witch that she had been for the past five years. She was now determined to rid the world of what she was calling ‘a pestilence on the land of her foremothers’. But I saw that she still wasn’t powerful enough to do that. This Gothel didn’t even know about the prophecy yet. She could do little more than make rivers flood and bring heavy rains, making people leave those areas due to their hovels being washed away.” Both Alice and Hope shifted nervously in their seats when Henry had brought up the prophecy, though Alice seemed a little more intrigued about Henry’s story.

“I continued to research the prophecy. It was because of this prophecy that the whole mess we were in had started. We obviously knew what the beginning of the prophecy meant. Alice and Hope had been born on either side of midnight during the Harvest Moon Lunar Eclipse. And Gothel was the ‘sinister conjuror’.  And she had separated us to make herself stronger, but it was the last line that I needed help with. And reconciled on the day and night the true harvest moon meets.”

Henry knew what a Harvest Moon (or Blood Moon) was. It was the moon closest to the fall equinox. Killian had taught him that when the twins were born. But what did that mean for the girls? How did a Harvest Moon help them defeat Gothel?

“It took me almost three years to figure that out.” Henry said sheepishly, as though it should have taken him less time to figure it out. He’d researched a lot about the Harvest Moon and couldn’t figure out the connection, finally going to a planetarium show and getting some insight when they had a special about the different types of full moons. Henry’s audience stared at him waiting for the answer.

“A Harvest Moon falls closest to the fall equinox.” Henry explained, even though they all knew that because of the circumstances of their birth. “But it rarely falls on the actual fall equinox. When you were born it fell on September 27th, but the actual fall equinox was on September 23rd.”

“So, you think the date that Gothel will come back will happen on the night of the Harvest Moon this year then?” Killian surmised.

“Yes!” Henry said excitedly. “This year, the fall equinox falls on September 22nd and that’s also when the Harvest Moon will happen. The last time it happened was in 2010, and before that 1991. It’s a very rare occurrence. Just like the night the girls were born.” Emma and Killian both looked at the girls. Henry could see the terror in their eyes, knowing that because of the prophecy, the girls would have to fight this powerful witch. Alice and Hope just nodded at Henry, as if they were agreeing with whatever a teacher had said, even though they didn’t fully comprehend it.

“But, I’ve also discovered something else.” Henry said, eager to get to the crux of his revelation.

“It seemed that every time I made another trip to the Enchanted Forest, Gothel was getting stronger and stronger. The villagers were leaving in droves, fleeing to King Eric and Queen Ariel’s or King Phillip and Queen Aurora’s kingdoms.” Alice’s grin at the mention of those particular fairy tale characters almost took over her entire face. “I knew it was pointless to tell them that once Gothel had finished with the Enchanted Forest she would most likely come for those kingdoms next. The royalty that had taken over when Grandma and Grandpa had decided to stay in Storybrooke,” (a lovely couple in which the prince had apparently been cursed to be a frog at one point), “didn’t have the resources to take down such a powerful witch. Their army was no match for her, and as neither the Queen nor the King had any magic with which to match Gothel, they were losing the battle to maintain control of their kingdom quite quickly. It was their baby that Gothel stole to use in her time travel spell to visit mom the first time.” Both Hope and Alice looked horrified at this, even though it had been explained in his book during the whole Wicked Witch debacle. “According to the few villagers that had stayed around, Gothel had promised to stop attacking in exchange for borrowing the baby. This spell didn’t kill the baby but only drained a few years off it’s life for the time traveling ability. That was two years ago.” Henry desperately wished he’d brought some water with him, as he was getting parched from all the talking he was doing. He licked his lips instead.

“Right before the girls left for camp, I had a hunch and went to the Enchanted Forest earlier than I normally would have, to observe what was happening.” Henry stated.

“How did you know Alice would be going to the same camp?” Killian asked suddenly. 

“Um, that scholarship application she filled out? That was actually from me. I paid for her to go there. I also mailed you brochures to put the idea into Alice’s head.” Henry felt slightly guilty for that ruse, even though he knew he had to get the girls together somehow once he’d figured out the date of the Harvest Moon.

“Wait.” Hope interrupted before Henry could continue. “Every time you said you were going to write somewhere that didn’t have cell phone service so you could concentrate, that was you going to the Enchanted Forest?” Hope piped in.

“Yep.” Henry nodded.

“Man, I always thought mom was going to have heart attacks when you were off the grid and she couldn’t get a hold of you.” Hope reminisced, smiling for the first time since Henry had taken her from camp.

“Well, I wasn’t technically lying. There is no cell phone service in the Enchanted Forest as they haven’t invented electricity yet.” Henry chuckled.

“So, what did you find out?” Alice asked, bringing the conversation back on topic.

“A few days before camp started, Gothel was still reigning terror over other areas of the Enchanted Forest. She had kept her promise to the new royal couple about leaving her remaining villagers alone. But on the day I’m assuming you met, she had what I can only describe as a power surge. She was flying through the village with her magic going in and out. I even saw her fall out of the sky a few times. It’s like she was still powerful Gothel one minute and then her magic would fail the next. It was immediately after this that she borrowed a baby again. Not the same one as he was too old and didn’t have the same innocence needed, the king and queen had had another one and she used him.” Both Hope and Alice grimaced at this.  “She went back to the point when she threatened us and made us leave Storybrooke. Now, when we saw her there, she was pretty powerful, because at that point in time, the twins were young and hadn’t come into their magic yet. Had she stayed in Storybrooke and not forced us to leave, she may have defeated us. But over the next few days I noticed her magic getting weaker and weaker. I mean, she’s still pretty powerful, but she’s still having those surges. I came back and a few days later I got the phone call from you, Hope, about meeting Alice.” He paused before really getting to the good stuff. “After rereading the prophecy, I’m almost positive that you two meeting again is what is causing her magic to weaken. The prophecy states by separating will make stronger. We all assumed that meant that Gothel separating us meant she would get stronger, but”

“But it made our magic stronger instead.” Hope interrupted. “Her separating us fulfilled the prophecy, just not the way she intended it to.

Henry smiled at his sister, his heart swelled with pride. He was definitely a proud big brother at the moment. “Exactly! The fact that your magic activated outside of Storybrooke practically proves that.”

“So now what?” Emma asked, her face looking almost ashen. “We now have a date for when she’s supposed to return, and the girls have magic. What are we supposed to do with this information?” Her voice sounded desperate, as though she didn’t really want the answer that Henry had to give.

“Now,” Henry said, licking his lips in anticipation, “we prepare for a fight.”

Tag List: (Let me know if you want to be added or removed)

@profdanglaisstuff​​​ @thisonesatellite​​​ @mariakov81​​​ @hollyethecurious​​​ @winterbaby89​​​ @jennjenn615​​​ @kmomof4​​​ @superchocovian​​​ @lfh1226-linda​​​ @ilovemesomekillianjones​​​ @cssns​​​ @itsfabianadocarmo​​​ @xsajx​​​  @qualitycoffeethings​​​​ @snowbellewells​​​ @courtorderedcake​

[non-sequitura]

Non-sequitura Disney in-depth analysis (after making a tier list)

Warning: SUPER longform. If you don’t know a movie well, you should skip the summary. I tried to be light on spoilers, but they’re there.

I went chronologically from favorite to least favorite. So S tier is, in order from fave to least fave, The Incredibles, WALL-E, then Zootopia.

S tier (Something I consider high quality AND a movie I greatly enjoy. I would love more Disney movies be like this.)

The Incredibles - one of my favorite movies of all time, possibly THE favorite. Rockin social commentary, epic action scenes, memorable characters, not a minute of screentime wasted, great take on the Fantastic Four, hilarious parts for both adults and children, an interesting villain, etc. 

WALL-E - I love how social commentary was done here. Also skies above, what a beautiful love story. Really blazed a trail in non-verbal storytelling (especially given it was an animated kids film!) Robot animations are particularly delightful. 

Zootopia - another social message delivered excellently and entertainingly. I love Judy and her persistence, I love the expressiveness of the faces and the epic city setting. I love Judy and Nick's banter. This movie deserves to be remembered longer than it has been so far. Admittedly, not one of my fave villains, which makes it my least favorite of the Ss. 

A tier (either super high quality or something I greatly enjoy and deem of at least reasonably good quality)

Mulan - this movie did everything right. Truly feminist protagonist, an icon for strong Asian women, fairly culturally accurate (tho Mushu confuses me), GORGEOUS and iconic music. Lets a relatively natural romance develop. I frickin love the action scenes, I love the emporer. Sadly, this movie just didn't lodge its way in my heart as well as Pixar did. Pixar just has some magic, yo. 

Cinderella - my gosh what an underrated protagonist. Her family straight-up abuses her and she never loses sight of her goals for a better life. Iconic visuals helped bring Disney out of bankruptcy. A gorgeous alto singing voice. 

Wreck-it Ralph - alright alright ppl don’t crucify me for this. I honestly can’t think of much wrong with this movie. Vanellope and Ralph’s vitriolic best buds relationship is adorable, her forgiveness of him is heartwarming and (relatively) deserved, rockin’ Owl City song, epic visuals that mix together bc of all the different games. ALSO ONE OF THE BEST DISNEY VILLAINS NO CAP. One of the only twist villains I like. And we stan the romantic pairing. 

Tangled - I’ve talked about this a lot, but Rapunzel deserved the whole world after what she’s gone through. That being said, Gothel is not some shallow monster she needs to escape from, but an intelligent, well-defined monster with backstory. I could totally see this story happening if the world of Tangled existed. Epic love story, hilarious dialogue. Music is… good but much of it is less memorable to me. Visuals are good but not quite at the level/creativity of many other disney films. 

The Lion King - they really put Hamlet in Africa and pulled it off lol. But in all seriousness, no one took the premise of this film seriously at the time and it became sooo iconic. I love Scar and his eventual downfall, I love how Simba grows emotionally, I love the sad moments that don’t overpower the overall feeling of light goofiness. And music so memorable it was one of the first Disney musicals. 

Coco - not a super unique story premise. But an incredible culture to explore with such creativity and sensitivity. I love the themes of death not being the worst and music being so central to the story. Twist/twist villain was memorable and not expected. And yeah, it did make me cry, so props there. 

Ratatouille - the most recently watched of these films for me. This movie is soooo unique! Back when Pixar was truly super out there with their concepts. Super Parisian visuals and soundtrack. It somehow starts goofy (THE OLD LADY TRIES TO KILL REMY WITH A SHOTGUN WHILE WEARING A GAS MASK) but really drives home the message that you can truly do what you want regardless of who you are. Colette can get it. And the monologue by Ego at the end is one of my favorites in film. 

Frozen - Anna is one of my favorite Disney protagonists. She’s so resilient and loyal. Elsa ain’t bad either but she experiences… less character development. The film is a tad too pleased with its own self-awareness for my taste, but there’s no denying how iconic the music and visuals were. 

Inside Out - Alright, this movie hits home for me bc I tried to run away after moving. A super thoughtful, heartfelt depiction of (potentially depression? imo) with great moments of humor. Riley’s inner world is so creative and lovely. Also realistic depictions of Minnesota/California culture. 

Tarzan - Jane! is! smart! and! adorable! Her scientific curiosity makes her very endearing. it’s so cute to see her and Tarzan learn from each other. Also Tarzan’s “found mother” is epic. Solid score. Solid film all around. To quote Lily Orchard, “This film is what Pocahontas tried to be.” 

B tier (one of my favorites but has a few significant flaws that bring it down (or not quite as memorable to me, but consider good quality))

Peter Pan - Haven’t seen it in a hot sec, but I remember being super charmed by this as a kid. Just going out, having incredible adventures, and returning to a warm home at the end of the day. Tinker Bell is hilarious and beautifully drawn. Gets major negative points for the depiction of Native Americans tho. 

Big Hero 6 - I was super charmed by the protagonist, his family/friends, and the setting. The plot/villain’s motivations are a bit of a mess, though. 

Princess and the Frog - This movie has so much flavor to it! The visuals/music are lovely and unique. Tiana is incredible but it’s kinda annoying how EVERYONE keeps trying to shoehorn her into romance. The thing is, her goals are entirely reasonable. Focus on her restaurant, then look to settle down. But they’re like “nooo you’re ignoring the important things in life” smh. Also, epic villain, woohoo! The movie dragged significantly for me when they were in the bayou. Charlotte is delightful. 

Winnie the Pooh - don’t remember it super well, but I think it was charming and occasionally dark, which is an addictive concoction. 

The Little Mermaid - MAN ppl roast Ariel way more than she deserves. Visually, it was… fine. idk. This movie is good. I don’t have much else to say about it. 

Snow White - the one that started it all. Visually, super impressive. Musically, lovely. I find the romance a bit… off. Well, more than a bit. What is it with Disney and kissing sleeping people? 

Alice in Wonderland - a nerdy acid trip. Right up my alley! I also like films where ppl go on incredible adventures and return to the status quo, but THEY changed bc of it. Epic. SUUUUPER creative visual interpretation of Carroll’s book. Brave - gosh I loooove films where a parent and child learn to understand each other. Never got why ppl hated this movie so much. The Scottish flavor is present and fun. Merida made one mistake and made it up. The arrow scene is iconic. 

Cars - a fun ride! (hahaha puns.) We love seeing Paul Newman as a car. 

B-minus tier? (same as B, but problematic, or weaker story-wise.)

Hunchback - man… settings-wise, this film might be my favorite. I also love Esmeralda and Quasimodo as characters and as a duo (though the sexualized depiction of Romani ppl is not epic.) I also don’t find the discrimination against Esmeralda/Quasimodo jarring bc it matches the time period. Frollo is super interesting as a villain. The gargoyles are… def not necessary. Basically, this film doesn’t know what it’s doing with tone. 

Sleeping Beauty - Aurora was my favorite when I was younger because I thought she was the prettiest, and that still defines how i feel about this, basically. Visually lovely - everything is kind of elongated and gothic. Maleficent is spiteful and epic. I have no issue with the fluffier parts of the movie, like the music or the fairies. RIP for lack of consent being a plot point, though. 

Hercules - Megara is incredible. one of the only Disney “princesses” who acts like an adult and has cynicism as a major part of her personality. I love her and Herc’s progression where she learns to trust him (yes, he is genuinely that sincere, it’s not a front.) Muses are unique, whoever came up with them was high on something and I’m living for it. I just think the plot itself was somewhat unrealistic/ weirdly-paced. There are some memorable songs, some less-than-memorable songs. Art style is cool but I’m personally not a fan. EXTREMELY inaccurate depictions of the original Greek gods. 

C tier (entertaining, but I don't consider it a great movie)

Bolt - I watched this like 11 years ago. It was fun! A cool concept about those put on a pedestal learning their worth even without celebrity boosting them up. Animation was… fine I think. not super memorable to me. 

Frozen 2 - They really took any scrap of character development Elsa had in the first movie, threw it in the garbage and set it on fire. Anna deserved so much better. Songs are bombastic and impressive, have the occasional interesting lyric, but are really weirdly placed and none are quite as iconic as the first movie’s (except Aurora, she does great work here. Also the song Anna sings after she thinks Elsa died.) 

Not a big fan of the vaguely homeopathic theme. Not a big fan of Olaf’s WEIRD character development. Not a big fan of the suuuuuper awkward dialogue and the animations that imply not only that Kristoff is into his reindeer but that Elsa and Anna are into each other (if you’re questioning if they did that, yes, they did, I can find screenshots of some really weird expressions/moments. THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO PANDER TO YOUR WEIRD FANS, DISNEY.) 

The voice actors did great work, the animators did great work (look at the details on their clothes! Look at how Elsa’s posture changes to be more confident! look at how they're animated while they're singing!) Some weird costume/makeup choices that make Elsa look like an aging starlet, but she also has some gorgeous moments so eh. It’s a wash for me. 

They really did not know what to do with Kristoff this movie, huh. The only thing that happened to him was singing a cheesy 90s ballad and marrying Anna, both of which were admittedly epic. Also, the trolls got 0 appearances despite being literally psychic. Probably could have helped with a lot. I'm not a huge fan of lore/worldbuilding, and thee was a lot of it here. Overall neutral on it. 

Also a big theme in this movie I don’t love - **** TANGIBLE CONSEQUENCES TO OUR ACTIONS!!! The danger is Elsa’s death, the elements, colonialism, and Arendelle literally being destroyed. None of those end up playing out, so I was left at the end going “this film had literally no stakes.” 

Monsters U - same as above - entertaining at the time! Not super memorable. The ppl we were supposed to dislike kept switching. Doesn’t really match the canon of Monsters Inc (I thought they were supposed to have known each other since childhood so why did they meet in college?) 

Cars 3 - so apparently, everyone HATED this movie! Fun! I never watched Cars 2 (yes watched Cars 1 if you haven’t been paying attention to this list), but I didn’t think this movie was bad at all. Well-acted, some fun chase scenes, the scene where Lightning fails at driving in the simulation is genuinely hilarious, and some interesting perspectives on teachers getting the spotlight for their skills for once. 

Incredibles 2 - I liked this film at first, but then it was… just okay in retrospect. I love me some good family dynamics. The plot here makes not a lot of sense. THEY BUILT UP THE UNDERMINER FOR NOTHING AND THEN FORGOT ABOUT HIM. I was surprised by the villain swap, but it happened so last minute I never really understood their motivations even after they explained them. Tried to tackle waaaay too many messages. 

D tier (I didn't enjoy these or consider them mediocre)

Finding Dory - Maybe I should have put this higher? Like C tier at least. Ah well. Wasn’t a huge fan of the body/physical comedy (not my thing), but it was entertaining and awww finding family is heartwarming. 

Finding Nemo - I remember nothing about this movie. 

E tier (this film has significant problems)

Beauty and the Beast - *sigh*… I want to love this movie. The score is gorgeous. Visually, they could have made it more distinctly Rococo-era France but didn’t (why?) The voice actors did good work and I think Paige O’Hara is SUPER underrated here. 

The Beast is emotionally manipulative with an awful temper that (for MOST of the movie. He doesn’t change.) That’s the main reason this is in E tier. This movie shaped so many generations of people thinking they can change the behavior of someone who treats them badly through the power of love. But you can’t. She learns to “love” the beast under coercion. It’s not Stockholm syndrome - it’s a trashy romance novel. Big fan of Gaston as a villain. He’s an archetype ppl can recognize and it’s so satisfying to hate him.

F tier (I think this film actively harms the industry and would rather it not have been made. Both the one in E tier could be considered harmful to the industry, but I think they had significant enough artistic accomplishments to scrape above that. I'm also generally a fan of "lack of censorship bc it's better to teach what not to do.")

Pocahontas - this movie took real historical events and romanticized them AND sexualized one of the only Native princesses they’ve had. Boo. Nothing wrong with animation!Pocahontas as a character, it’s just people put her in a story that doesn’t represent history well at all (and these historical events, unlike those in say, 14th-century Germany, had super relevant effects on people alive today.) And they portrayed the Native Americans and colonial settlers as equally in the wrong. (though I like Governor Radcliffe as a potential villain and love the line “see how I glitter.” I can’t NOT laugh when I hear it.) Lovely music, though. Nice animation, but the colors are weirdly… muted? 

Bad Garbage (I don't wish this film had never been made, but I wish I never had to see it.)

Planes - this movie was ridiculous. I remember not much about it except that I kinda hated it and that it was super cheesy with tension one could see right through that immediately resolved itself via one twist or another. 

Haven’t seen tier: Recess, A Bug’s Life, A Goofy Movie, DuckTakes Movie, Lilo and Stitch, Pinocchio (actually i have seen this but I remember nothing about it), The Nightmare before Christmas, Toy Stories 1, 2, and 3, Up, 101 Dalmatians, The Great Mouse Detective, Cars 2, Moana, The Good Dinosaur, Pete’s Dragon, Fantasia, Peter Pan Return to Neverland, Fantasia 2000, The Black Cauldron (read the book, though!), Bambi (or I did and remember nothing about it), The Rescuersm, The Rescuers Down Under, Planes Fire and Rescue, Bambi 2, The Fox & the Found, Oliver and Company, Atlantis, Treasure Planet (I want to, though), Piglet’s Big Movie, The Jungle Book, the Emporer’s New Groove, The Jungle Book 2, Chicken Little, Brother Bear, The Three Caballeros, Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, Dumbo, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Aladdin (seen parts but never the whole thing), Strange Magic, The Sword in the Stone, James and the Giant Peach, Frankenweenie, Lady and the Tramp, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Doug’s 1st Movie, Monsters Inc. (want to, though), Meet the Robinsons, Dinosaur, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Tigger Movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, that pooh movie at the end without the title on it

-11/21/20

[honeyxmonkey]

Shattered Trust (part 5)

“Why did you leave?”

Veronica pursed her lips and looked away. She couldn’t bear to see the hurt in his eyes. She sighed and carded her fingers through his hair.

“I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I thought you would be better off without me.” She brushed a tear away from his cheek. “I promise I will never leave you again.”

Varian hugged her, letting a few more tears fall. He had exactly what he wanted. How long would it last?

*******

“Varian wasn’t in his room.” Rapunzel sighed and dropped onto her throne. “He might be in town today.”

Catalina and Angry looked at eachother confusedly. “Why is Varian so upset? We haven’t seen him in a few days, what happened?”

Rapunzel groaned and mentally slapped herself. The girls didn’t know.

“We uh... we lied to him. About something rather big and he’s really mad at us.”

Lance snorted from where he was sitting on the side. “’Mad is an understatement. I have not seen him this angry at anyone since... well, since I don’t know when.”

Rapunzel thought back to the day he stole the flower. “I have, and trust me, if we let him be alone for too long something bad could happen.”

Eugene cleared his throat and gave her a look.

“I didn’t mean like that. I was wrong to think he would do something like that again.”

Eugene nodded, apparently satisfied with her answer. “Alright, but I do think we should give him some space to clear his head.”

******

Varian immediately liked his mother. She was everything he’d thought she’d be and more. After he was done crying, they’d spent the day together. They got to know one another and it was great. That was when he found out she had tried to come back once when he was five.

“So, he wouldn’t even talk to you?” Varian asked her quietly.

Veronica nodded. “He was so mad. I mean, he had every right to be after I left without a word. And you... well, you weren’t there that day. I never got to see you.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, after your father yelled at me, I left. I had no reason to stay. He didn’t want me back in his life and I can’t really say I blame him.”

They both were silent for a moment before she asked him a question.

“How did you know I was here?”

“Monty told me. He was surprised he hadn’t seen us with you yet.” Varian bit back another wave of tears. “They- they lied to me. They all told me you were dead. When I asked why they lied, dad wouldn’t say anything. Rapunzel said she was afraid I would leave Corona with you.”

Veronica looked surprised. “Why would the queen think I would want to take you away?”

Varian laughed bitterly. “I don’t know. She’s never been this insecure about our friendship before. It’s almost like... like she’s jealous? I don’t know why. I mean, she has no reason to be.”

Veronica was silent for a moment. “Varian, you should talk to them. Perhaps this is the only way to make things right. For everyone’s sake.”

Varian nodded. He really didn’t want to but he knew she was right. He couldn’t keep ignoring his friends no matter how much he wanted and no matter what they’d done, they were still his family and he loved them. That would never change.

*****

Varian and Veronica went to the palace later that day. Pete and Stan were pleasantly surprised to see him.

Pete hugged the young alchemist and it seemed like he was trying not to cry. “I’m so happy you aren’t trying to kill us right now!”

Varian pat his back awkwardly. “Yeah... me too?”

After releasing him, the two guards allowed them in the castle.

“Rapunzel is going to be so stoked to see you!”

Varian bit back a bitter comment. No matter what Rapunzel had done he had to keep a level head. He refused for things to turn out like they had last time.

They entered the throne room to find all his friends were looking anxious. Rapunzel most of all.

When she saw Varian she jumped up and ran to hug him but stopped short when he backed away from her. Instead she offered him a smile.

“Varian, I am so sorry.”

“For what?”

A look of confusion crossed her features. “W-what do you mean?”

“What are you sorry for? Lying to me? Letting Nigel lock me in a dungeon for something I didn’t do? Oh, or sending Cassandra of all people to talk to me.” The bitterness in his voice stung like venom. “Did you think I was going to go back to being a villain? Is that something you’re scared of?”

He expected her to deny it right away, but instead she turned her head away and bit back tears.

“I... Varian I...” She couldn’t even bring herself to say it.

Varian once again felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. Why was she so scared of him? Scared of him. One of his best friends, his basically sister, was scared of him. Scared he would turn to kidnappings and murder plots at the drop of a hat. Scared he would turn into a monster again.

“Okay.” Varian’s voice was barely over a whisper. He looked right at Rapunzel. He wanted to be angry at her. He wanted to yell and make her feel just as wronged and betrayed as he did. But one look into her eyes and he could tell she was already suffering tremendously from guilt. He didn’t want to add to that. “That’s okay. You don’t have to say anything.”

She was surprised by how soft his voice had gotten.

“I can tell we’re having trust issues.” Varian decided he would be the bigger person and make the first move to forgive. “But Rapunzel, you don’t have to worry about me like that. I’m not going to try and hurt you again.”

Rapunzel nodded and she knew he meant it. She took a step forward, arms out as she waited for Varian to accept the hug. Varian fell into her embrace and for a moment, everything seemed like it was going to be okay.

Veronica watched with a smile. It gave her no greater joy than to see her son surrounded by people who loved him.

The Nigel walked in and that moment ended.

“Your majesty, we went back to his lab and we found this.” Nigel marched forward and showed Rapunzel the automaton plans. “I have every right to believe he wants to use them for evil.”

Rapunzel stared at the plans but Varian wasn’t worried about her. He glared at Nigel.

“Did you break into my house?” He demanded angrily.

Nigel fixed a cold, steely glare of his own on the boy. “Don’t try to turn me into the bad guy. The evidence for your conviction is right here.”

Rapunzel slowly looked at Varian. “Var, what is this?”

Varian snatched the plans out of her hands and kept his glare at Nigel. “Do you want to know why I have these? Do you want to know what this is? I’m trying to help my village.”

Rapunzel stayed silent as Varian explained.

“I tweaked the design so that instead of them being made for battle, they’re supposed to be used for construction.” He crossed his arms. “I’ll take your apology now, Nigel.”

Nigel glared at him. “Do you truly expect me to apologize to you? How do we know you aren’t lying?”

Rapunzel stepped in, fixing her own glare on Nigel. “He’s not. I trust him.”

Nigel crossed his arms. “Forgive me for saying this your majesty, but trusting this boy is foolish and would only lead to the end of the kingdom.”

“Excuse me!” Rapunzel demanded, her gaze intensifying. “How dare you, Nigel! Varian has proven time and time again how trustworthy he is! How can you still not believe in him?”

“Forgive me, but you were quite certain he would return to his old ways when he left yesterday.”

“And that was my mistake. I shouldn’t have even entertained the thought.” She looked at Varian apologetically. “I’m sorry.” She looked back at Nigel, her glare returning. “But you do not get to go and arrest my friend because he yelled at me. He was angry and had every right to be.”

Varian watched Nigel’s face go red from anger and embarrassment. “But he’s attacked the kingdom before! Who’s to say he won’t do it again!”

Rapunzel grit her teeth. “That’s enough, Nigel.”

“Your majesty, he is a danger to Coro-”

“THAT IS ENOUGH NIGEL!” Rapunzel yelled, startling everyone in the room. “I want you to take a leave of absence.”

“What! For how long?”

She sighed and ran a hand over her face. “I don’t know!” Just, go. We all need to take a breather and I don’t want you two in the same room.”

“Then why send me off!”

“Because you’re being irrational and I don’t trust you around him right now!” That’s why.” Rapunzel crossed her arms. “Now, Nigel.”

The man grumbled under his breath but walked away, aggressively brushing past Veronica on his way out.

Varian let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding in. “Thank you.”

Rapunzel gave him a tight lipped smile. She was obviously still stressed out. “Of course. I’m sorry for everything that happened. I shouldn’t have lied or doubted you.”

Varian nodded. “And while all this was happening, I found my mom.”

Her eyes widened. “You... what?”

He pointed his head towards Veronica who took that as her cue to walk over.

She did and gave the queen a smile. “Your majesty.” She bowed her head. “Thank you, for standing up for my son. It... it means alot to me, to know that he has such a good friend.”

Rapunzel couldn’t decide between being shocked and faking happiness. The result was her staring blankly as everything Quirin told her ran through her mind. This woman seemed nice enough. But then again, so had Gothel.

She shook off her thoughts and gave her a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Um... thanks for watching after Varian for the day. I know I was the last person he wanted to see.”

If his mother noticed her apprehension, she didn’t comment on it. “Yes, well. I hope you two can patch things up. I’d hate for you to end your friendship over me.”

Rapunzel was startled by this. It was an odd thing to say. The queen looked into her eyes but only saw warmth and motherly affection.

“Uh... right. Yes. I mean, I love Varian. I would never let that happen, of course.” She awkwardly stumbled over what to say. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the woman.

“Rapunzel,” Varian’s voice was soft and his eyes were kinder than she’d seen them in a while. “I know my dad probably said some awful things about her but, she’s changed. I trust her.”

Rapunzel resisted the urge to tell him he’s barely known her for a day. But, knowing the reaction that would entail, she instead smiled and nodded. “Okay. If you trust her then I do too.”

*******

Hope you guys enjoyed chapter 5! Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated!

[bluekat12345]

The Sun and Moon Shall Be Our Guides: Chapter 22

(I think I made this chapter a bit confusing, especially at the beginning, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I try to explain. Also, sorry if it gets bad at the end.)

First Chapter: https://bluekat12345.tumblr.com/post/624227138892152832/the-sun-and-moon-shall-be-our-guides-chapter-1

Previous Chapter: https://bluekat12345.tumblr.com/post/645694040005902336/the-sun-and-moon-shall-be-our-guides-chapter-21

Next Chapter: https://bluekat12345.tumblr.com/post/648056174249459712/the-sun-and-moon-shall-be-our-guides-chapter-23

Things have been terrible for Gothel, it was like the universe was trying to punish her for no reason!

After so much convincing and careful planning to organize the perfect wedding for Eugene and that Princess from Corona, it all blows up all because those stupid black rocks chose then to strike. Couldn’t they have waited a little longer, just a minute longer to allow those two be officially become husband and wife? Then they could destroy as much of that church as they wanted.

Then to add insult to injury, Edmund and the King of Corona choose to cancel the whole thing! Without even telling her! If they had said something to her, she could’ve reassured them that there was no need to cancel something so important, and something they, mainly her, worked so hard on. But no, they chose to give up the whole thing because they got scared of those stupid rocks.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, but she still hadn’t heard from those buffoons she sent to Corona! In retrospect, she probably should’ve expected them to bail the moment they got the chance, so she supposed that was more her own fault than anything else.

But before she could even worry about that, her weak-minded husband decides to cause more trouble and tried to touch the moonstone, when the castle shook, a part of the castle could’ve crushed her! It was only luck that he was the only injured, she had just had gotten her hair done the way she liked it and she would’ve been furious if anything he did ruined that.

The only good thing about this whole situation was that those Brotherhood brutes were able to fill in for Edmund. Usually, that would be a problem for her, for she relished in power and people doing what she wanted, and the idea of those ruffians Edmund trusted so much getting in her way infuriated her. But the idea of having listen to peasants complain to her for hours and demand her to do things for them chilled her to the bone. They should be doing things for her, not the other way around!

But then, things went not so great again when Eugene and Cassandra returned from their little trip to Corona. First, Eugene denies the opportunity to become King. How could he deny his birthright? He has the perfect chance to become the most powerful man in the whole Kingdom and he refuses! If he was scared, Gothel would’ve reassured him that she would guide him, she would help him make sure the peasants knew he was in charge, with her at his side. She bet that Quirin had something to do with it, he was always trying to turn her dear step-son away from her. Cassandra still listened to her, the girl always did want to her make her mother proud. But Gothel found it pointless, Cassandra was useful to her short-term, but long-term, Cassandra’s obedience had no meaning to her.

But Gothel decided that complaining about the situation was pointless, as it gave her nothing but headaches, gray hairs, and wrinkles, which were terribly unattractive. So she decided a trip to the Spa Room might do her some good, help her relax after all the bad things she had to endure.

But then she thought her luck was starting change when she noticed a young woman with very long braided blond hair standing in the hallway.

Rapunzel had tried to take a nap after finishing her first entry in her journal, she truly did, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t get comfortable, no matter how much she tried.

So, she tried to relax in her room, but she still couldn’t relax. This room was so different from her bedroom back home, and the room seemed to constantly remind her what was going on and what she had done. Pascal was asleep, and she didn’t want to wake him up just because she wasn’t able to sleep.

Perhaps, she could relax better if she had left the room. So, without disturbing her friend, she quietly left the guest room and stood in the castle halls.

“Well, aren’t you a familiar sight~?” A woman’s voice sang. Then a woman approached her. Rapunzel quickly recognized her. It was King Edmund’s wife, Gothel.

Rapunzel bowed at the woman. “Your Majesty.”

Gothel smiled at her. “Well, if I had known you were visiting, I would’ve freshened up.”

“I only just got here and my visit was kind of a surprise.” Rapunzel confessed. “I’m sorry if my visit is inconvenient for you.”

“Well, I suppose nothing can be done about it now.” Gothel said. “Well, I was about to head to the Spa Room, anyway. Care to join me, dear?”

“Oh, I’m not sure-” Before Rapunzel could finish what she was saying, Gothel put an arm around her shoulders and began leading her away.

“I insist.” Gothel said. “Surely, you won’t decline my generous offer. It would be rude.”

Rapunzel felt conflicted. A trip to the castle’s spa room sounded nice, but she felt that she had more important things to do than go there and freshen. But she didn’t want to seem like a rude guest.

“Alright.” Rapunzel said, walking with Gothel. “That does sound nice.”

Gothel’s smile seemed to grow. “I know.”

Meanwhile, Eugene and Cassandra spoke with Lance, Varian, and the Brotherhood regarding the Sundrop flower Rapunzel brought them, Cassandra placed the bell jar containing the flower on the table so everyone could see.

“That’s the Sundrop?” Hector asked, clearly unimpressed, “That’s supposed to be the flower that will save us?”

“It looks kind of dead.” Varian admitted as he looked at it. “Are we sure this is it?”

“Rapunzel wasn’t sure either.” Eugene admitted. “But she said her mother said it was the Sundrop.”

“You mentioned that Frederic had it in his possession for several years.” Adira spoke up. “I take it he hasn’t been taking proper care of it.”

“I thought the same thing.” Eugene added.

Lance looked at the flower, a bit disgusted. “You’d think someone would at least water the thing.”

Then Cassandra asked. “How can we be sure this even is the Sundrop?”

“Rapunzel said her mother told her so, and I believe Rapunzel.” Eugene replied.

Cass rolled her eyes. “Just because someone says something doesn’t make it true.”

Eugene frowned. “Rapunzel wouldn’t lie to us.”

“You don’t know that.” Cassandra countered. “You’ve known her for a few days, so you don’t know what she’s capable of.”

“She’s risking a lot to help us! Have you forgotten that it’s her father who doesn’t want to help us, and she does?” Eugene reminded. “Why would do all this only to lie to us?

Quirin spoke up before the argument could continue. “You both make good points. Eugene, I’m sure Princess Rapunzel wouldn’t deliberately lie to us. But it is true that we shouldn’t just assume that this is the Sundrop, after all, even Princess Rapunzel herself was skeptical.”

Eugene sighed. “I guess that’s true.”

The room was silent for a moment, filling with tension. Then Varian spoke, as if it was an attempt to break  it. “The scroll piece she brought with her was real. Having another piece of the scroll should be able to help me understand the Demanitus Scroll better.”

“That’s great, son.” Quirin smiled.

“See? If her mother would give her an actual piece of the Demanitus Scroll, why would she give us a fake sundrop flower?” Eugene asked Cass.

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “That still doesn’t mean anything. An old scroll isn’t going to help us now. All it will tell us are the things we know now.”

“For once, Cass, can’t you just be a little more optimistic? Just once?” Eugene practically begged his sister.

“I’m being realistic.” Cass argued. “I’m not going to put all my faith into a dead flower. If you weren’t so naïve you’d see that.”

Quirin spoke up again. “Alright, let’s calm down-”

“Stay out of this, Quirin!” Cassandra ordered. Quirin closed his mouth.

That seemed to make Eugene madder. “Don’t talk to him like that!”

Cassandra glared at her brother. “You always do this! We don’t need to listen to him, he isn’t our father! Just because you want him to be doesn’t mean-”

“Enough, Cassandra!” Eugene shouted, glaring at his sister, startling everyone in the room. Even Cassandra was caught off-guard by her brother’s tone. “We have come too far to lose hope now. I trust Rapunzel and what she told us, so we are going to try this flower. End. Of. Discussion.”

Everyone continued to stare at the prince as he spoke. Everyone was still surprised by his tone. It was so unlike Eugene. So serious, rigid, and authoritative. He sounded so much like Edmund at that moment.

If that wasn’t surprising enough, Cassandra actually obeyed. “Very well.” Then she walked out of the War Room. “I’ll be on patrol.”

Once she was gone, the room was silent once more, the tension thicker than before. Eugene seemed to calm down a bit. He sighed as he leaned on the table.

“Hey, buddy?” Lane called out. Lance reached his hand to touch Eugene’s shoulder, but Eugene moved away.

“I need to be alone.” Then the prince walked out of the War Room.

“Well, here we are~!” Gothel sighed happily as she and Rapunzel arrived in the Spa Room. Rapunzel watched as Gothel slipped off her shoes and sat in a chair. “Nothing like a good manicure and pedicure to relax after such a stressful day. Wouldn’t you agree, dear?”

Rapunzel stood awkwardly as she watched a pair of servants approach Gothel. “I suppose so.”

Gothel frowned at the blond princess. “Well, don’t just stand there. Sit with me. Relax, take your...wait, are your shoes?”

Rapunzel looked at the ground and saw her bare feet. She liked walking around barefoot, much like her Aunt Willow. She wasn’t if she should tell Gothel that, it didn’t seem like she would like that. She had brought some shoes just in case, but Eugene and Cassandra didn’t didn’t seem to mind, so she hadn’t put them on. 

“I must’ve left them in my room.” Rapunzel quickly replied. “I took them off when I tried to take a nap and I guess I forgot to put them back on when I got here.”

“Well, make you put them on when you get the chance.” Gothel said. “You can’t just walk around barefoot in my castle.”

Rapunzel quickly nodded and sat in another chair beside Gothel. A pair of servants were approaching her, but Rapunzel shook her head gently. She wasn’t in the mood to be pampered like this. It seemed like, but she didn’t feel like it at the moment.

Gothel didn’t seem to mind, thought. “So, what brings you to Corona, dear?

“I came to try and help.” Rapunzel stated. She wasn’t sure if she should mention the Sundrop to her, as she remembered those two men her father confronted that mentioned her hiring them to find the Sundrop. She was sure Gothel wouldn’t do something like that, but she still felt she should be cautious about this.

“I’m not sure if you can really be helpful, dear.” Gothel replied. “It’s a generous thought, it really is, but one person won’t make a difference.”

Rapunzel frowned.

Gothel seemed to notice a gave Rapunzel a small smile. “No need to point, its very unbecoming for a princess. What I mean is that Eugene needs much more help than just an extra person running around the palace for him. He has enough people for that already.”

Rapunzel couldn’t deny what Gothel said made a sense. She promised Eugene and Cassandra that she wanted to help them. And yes, she gave them that scroll piece and the flower, but what if that wasn’t enough?

“He needs someone he can depend on to be by his side, not someone who’ll run errands for him.” Gothel continued. “Eugene needs someone who will be able to provide a shoulder for him to lean on, someone he can someone who can help him when he is King.”

Rapunzel was growing confused. “He has that. He has Cassandra, his friends, and he mentioned those three-”

“Their servants, dear, nothing more.” The dark-haired woman stated with a frown. “His friends cause more trouble than fix it, and Cassandra, I love the girl with all my heart, but I don’t imagine her listening to Eugene all that well. But you? I can see that?”

“Excuse me?” The Corona Princess asked.

Gothel smirked at her. “Think about it, dear. You two were engaged. And although its broken off, surely something is there. Call it mother’s intuition, but Eugene seems to think very highly of you, not the way one would talk about a friend. And you? You came all this way just to help him, surely that can’t be just a gesture of friendship?”

Rapunzel felt her face burn. “Well, surely it doesn’t, I mean-”

“Stop stuttering.” Gothel sternly instructed. “Don’t speak unless you know what you are going to say.” Then she smiled and said gently. “I just want what’s best for my dear Eugene, he is my son, after all. And I think you could be that. Just think about.”

Rapunzel quickly nodded, then she stood. “I should head back to my room.”

“If you must.” Gothel shrugged. “I’ll be here for a while. I hope we can talk again soon.”

Rapunzel nodded at Gothel then quickly left the Spa Room. As she walked to her room, she kept thinking about what Gothel told her. The more she thought about it, the less she could deny it.

“I think I like Eugene...!”

[tangledinart]

i never wanted to say it before but i feel you on the cassandra stuff tbh, her type of character is actually one that i'd normally love and despite her taking a while to grow on me in season 1 i DID come to really like her and i love her voice and her design too! but personally i was so sure that she wasn't going to become an antagonist that destinies collide's ending just frustrated and confused me, and now her storyline in season 3 is frustrating and confusing me even more and it doesn't (1/2)

help that its entire basis is not one but TWO theories i personally never believed in or wanted (her going bad + being gothel's daughter). and i also agree that she tends to overshadow other characters a lot and i hate it. the movie was nearly as much about eugene as it was about rapunzel, and his best friend lance apparently doesn't even deserve so much as a new outfit. i love this show and i wanna love cass again but i'm just kinda annoyed right now and i hope something comes to change my mind (2/2)

I completely agree with you! When we first met Cass it took me till Secret of the Sundrop to like her... At first I didn't trust her, and I also already was annoyed that she wanted to cut Eugene out of everything, but I learned to appreciate her in early S2 and now I can go back and watch S1 and love Cassandra and she completely gained my trust! I think her bickering with Eugene is so funny and that she was such an inspiring character who I could relate too so much and she meant a lot to me. But then episodes like Freebird, or Rapunzel and the Great Tree, or Rapunzel Day One came rolling around... I was starting to get irritated because I felt like Cassandra was overshadowing all of the characters (tho I'll still forgive Ratgt because buddy is so funny and its a phenomenal episode XD). Eugene and Lance never get anything when Cass is being focused... Its not like I am mad when Cassandra gets focus I think she did deserve focus, I just get mad when she is focused and the other characters like Eugene and Lance, AND NEW DREAM AS A COUPLE are neglected or poorly written and Freebird is the best example. And I actually was happy Cass was getting focus in S2 at first cause she didn't get a ton in season 1, but when it started overshadowing Eugene and Lance I got upset. Eugene deserves to not be poorly written in episodes because of Cassandra and LANCE DESERVES AN ACTUAL CHARACTER ARC FOR PETE'S SAKE. So when Cassandra somehow got into No Time Like The Past... I was very angry because I've been wanting to know Eugene and Lance's backstory for 2 years and honestly it wasn't even a backstory, and all I really enjoyed were some moments and seeing all the younger characters! But I was heartbroken that it wasn't at all that we expected and it was all done for Cass and Eugene's character has actually been changed, she literally is getting focused in the next episode Beginnings so she did not need to even be mentioned in this one and Eugene did NOT need a character change and should be able to have a valid opinion that Rapunzel doesn't agree with, that episode made it look like Eugenes opinion was wrong and it pissed me off... I would of much rather had Lance and Eugenes actual backstory and I know several people who agree with me. And I'm really upset with Cassandra rn, i don't think her reasoning to betray Rapunzel is good enough. I think Cassandra's betrayal is terrible for several reasons, 1 everyone who assumed Cass would be an antagonist was proven right and I hate it cause Cassandra deserved better, and less predictable writing and I completely agree with you saying the two worst theories came true..... 2, she is overshadowing the other characters even more with this arc and its beginning to become overwhelming because Cassandra got so much in S2 and its getting annoying.... 3, her being Gothels daughter is not a good enough reason for her to betray Rapunzel especially after how close Rapunzel and Cass were and also I don't think its logical that Gothel had a daughter and I found it cheap and I expected better. That was my least favorite theory in the show for multiple reasons and I am mad it came true and Cassandra deserved better. And Rapunzel deserved better, Rapunzel already had to deal with Varian's betrayal and this one is WAY worse and even harder for her, because Cassandra is her best friend and GOTHEL is the reason it happened and Rapunzel DID NOT deserve to have to be pained by Gothel again and I'm so upset.

I can understand why Varian betrayed Rapunzel because Rapunzel actually did hurt Varian, there was nothing she could do during Qfad and its not her fault but Varian had a right to be upset, especially because no one ever came to him afterwards until he reached out to Rapunzel with the note. I do not and never will justify Varians actions in S1 but he had every right to be upset and everything he did was to try to save his dad, what he did was terrible but he had good intentions for his dad at least and he thought it was his last resort to get his dad back, so with Varians betrayal I could see why and it made complete sense!.... But I just can't see why with Cassandra's betrayal. Its not Rapunzel's fault that Gothel chose Rapunzel over her, and its not Rapunzel's fault that her hand got burned. And what does taking the moonstone accomplish for Cassandra? Just to be noticed? FOR WHAT?! Cassandra wanted nothing more but to be recognized for the good things she's done and she is gonna do nothing more with that moonstone then destroy and jeopardize the people she wanted to be recognized for good in the first place. And I feel like its a disgrace to Cassandras character and I dont see how she is going to get a satisfying ending now. I don't see how she is going to reach her dreams now and it breaks me because I wanted Cass to get her moment of glory like she wanted so bad and this isn't it. This isn't what Cassandra wanted.... Varian had time to redeem himself, he completely had an attitude change and took responsibility for his actions and made amends with Rapunzel and he has a whole season to get fully developed for his ending... but Cassandra? There is a chance she will be like this till finale and she will just get some rushed redemption or not even get one at all. So unless she gets out of this around midseason I don't even know how they can give Cass a good ending. And yes I'm also aware Cassandra is being manipulated and lied too and is being corrupted but she is still aware of what she is doing and she chose this... and I'm upset cause I truly loved Cassandra and am heartbroken and yes I am confused and don't even completely understand why she did this and don't know where they are going with this. At Destiny's Collide I had no solid opinion on MoonCass cause I had no idea why she did it, but now I'm also confused and frustrated because what we did find out wasnt good enough to me and they have a lot to prove to make me like this arc. And I hate not liking something and have to depend on hope that maybe just maybe it will get better. I hope to goodness it gets better and I haven't given up on Cass yet but right now I don't like her. I just think her new arc is so cheap and predictable and could of been executed so much better, and the worst part is the other characters are paying for it.

-Rapunzel already had to go through a betrayal and shouldn't have to go through this again and its also distracting her cause she is hurting so bad. It hurt her so much in priemere she tried isolating her feelings and its definitely still affecting her. (But I'm also proud as heck of Rapunzel for stepping up and ruling Corona through all of this.)

-Eugene is always poorly written or neglected when Cass is getting focused. Cassandra is treated as if she is more important then Eugene and its ridiculous. Eugene is an original character from the movie and should be prioritized before Cassandra instead of being used as comic relief in Cassandra episodes.

-Lance has yet to get a character arc and has only been used for comic relief, and I haven't forgotten that Cassandra told Lance that everyone has a destiny and Lance needs his. And I don't really see how Lance is supposed to get an arc with this Cassandra plot. Though I guess I can't really predict that far, but LANCE BETTER GET AN ARC HE DESERVES IT.

-Varian's redemption was used as a tool to help Rapunzel cope with Cassandra's betrayal. He has always been used as a tool for the plot and I'm afraid he is going to only be used as a tool for Cass's situation this season instead of his own thing because they resolved his situation so fast.

Sorry if this was too negative for some of you but I've been upset about this for a bit and its best I get it out. I really hope the crew knows what they are doing here and that Cassandra's situation somehow turns out really good, and I haven't completely given up on her and I still hope she comes out of this good... but right now I'm upset at the direction her character took.

[lassluna]

Let the Stars Remind You (14/20?)

“It’s ok Papa, you don’t have to worry. We can trust her, she’s just like me,” She says holding his hand. “She can hear the stars. She’s just like me.” she repeats, a look of wonder on her face, pure belief in what she’s saying. Killian looks down at her. His little girl, his Starfish, and isn’t sure. He still isn’t sure if rescuing Emma Swan is the best thing he’s ever done, or their undoing.

Ao3 FFn

Alice won’t stop crying, and screaming.

She doesn’t know what to do.

Emma has never seen her like this. Considering she’s known the girl only a few weeks, it wasn’t saying much, but in that short time, Emma really felt like she knew Alice, knew both of them. Alice was a strong girl, strong and resilient.

When she’d come back after sneaking out she was in a similar state, but it was different then. Then they both knew Killian was a walkie-talkie call away. She’d held it together for the most part, talking through tears. Even though she was scared, even though she was confused, she was strong.

The difference is that Killian wasn’t coming this time. Emma is alone with a devastated young girl who doesn’t know how to be strong without her Papa.

Emma doesn’t know what to do.

“Alice…” Emma tries, but Alice’s magic is sparks, making it even harder to get close to her as it bites at her skin. Emma notices that they’re both still in pajamas. They were in their pajamas in the middle of the woods.

Emma doesn’t even have any shoes on. Emma has no idea how to fix any of it. She doesn’t even think there is any ‘fix’ to this. Everything was just broken and Emma is the last person equipped for this.

God, this is such a god damn mess.

“The bad people took Papa.” She says, eyes full of tears, she was shaking, trembling with anger, fear, sadness all of the above really. It was a god damned mess that makes her want to cry, let alone a 6 year old.

Alice can’t stand still, walking a few steps and then turning around, almost rhythmically, like a pattern to help her get some control back.

But everything is out of control and Emma has no idea what to do to get it back, to try and fix things. Emma doesn’t fix things, Emma breaks things and runs away. “Papa!” Alice wails as if Killian had the power to come back, to appear in thin air and soothe a distraught Alice. She broke this. She was unable to protect them and now everything was broken again.

Emma can’t run away. Not now, not when someone needs her, when Alice needs her. Alice the little girl she’d made a flower crown for, the little girl she’s read to and eaten spaghetti with; Alice the little girl who had magic just like her. They are the same.

Emma has to fix this.

“We’ll get him back.” She promises, kneeling down on her level, looking the girl in her eyes. She tries not to think of how red and puffy her eyes are. “I promise, we’ll get him back.” She tries to touch her, embrace her, but Alice refuses. Her sadness turns to anger quickly.

It reminds her a bit of Killian.

“Is it true?” She demands, “Did you help the bad people? Did you betray us?” She asks. “My Papa loves you.”

Emma knows. Emma knows Killian loves her, heard it in his voice, saw it in his eyes. Emma knew true love and that was it, that look was it. That was all Emma ever wanted from anyone. She felt his love for her in that moment saying goodbye.

And she felt her own love for him that night in bed together; when she swore she’d never let anyone hurt him. Emma wasn’t going to lose anyone else.

But that’s exactly what she did. She lost Killian, Alice lost Killian.

“Did you let the bad people take him?” Alice asks.

Emma shakes her head adamantly. “No. Never. I never told them, they never sent me.” It doesn’t matter what lies Gothel, Eloise, spews. That was the truth. “But I did know them. I-I told your father that I thought going with them was a good idea.” She admits.

Honesty, Emma knows, is the best thing right now.

“No!” Alice yells. “They’re bad scary people!” She stomps her feet. “They’ll hurt my Papa! They told me so.” Emma nods. She believes her now. She believed it when Killian sounded terrified at the very thought of going back, the anger he expressed. It had been surprising to see that look on Killian, it reminded her of herself when her social workers tried to send her back to a previous foster home.

“I know, that’s why we were fighting, I didn’t understand. I didn’t know they were the scary people. They tricked me.” She admits. Honestly, Emma feels so stupid for believing them. Hadn’t she always thought that when things were too good to be true they most likely weren’t? But after Graham died, she needed something, someone to run to. Emma was lost and they prayed on that. “They tricked me.” She repeats, defeated.

“They tricked us to.” Alice says in a breath, calming down a fraction. “I wanted a Mama so badly. She said she was my Mama, but Mama’s don’t take you out of school and away from home. Mama’s don’t threaten to hurt Papa’s unless you did something. She’s not my Mama.” Alice confirms, sounding far older than her 6 years

              Emma nods adamantly. “She isn’t. You’re right; she’s not your Mama.” She doesn’t know what to do with Alice right now, she feels she’s crossed some line; like this is a talk between her and Killian. Emma feels like an intruder of a very delicate topic.

“Then who is?” Alice asks. “Why don’t I have a Mama? Why do these bad people keep chasing us away from our homes?” Alice seems defeated, tears running down her eyes asking Emma the big questions. Questions she doesn’t have the answers to.

Killian would know what to do. Emma thinks. She decides on the truth. The truth is all she ever wanted as a child.

“I don’t have a Mama or a Papa.” She says eventually. “But I did have an Ingrid.” It catches Alice’s attention and stops the tears suddenly, so Emma continues. “She wasn’t my Mom. But she loved me like a Mom does. She took care of me and watched over me and tucked me in at night. She drove me to school, and cleaned up my scrapped knees.”

Alice nods. “Papa does those things.”

“Because he loves you. That’s what you need Alice, that’s all you need, people that love you. You don’t need to call them Mama for them to love you.” It brings a small smile to her face.

“Do I have an Emma?” She asks in a small voice. Emma nods, embracing the child. She doesn’t know how it happened, but the moment she met Alice she couldn’t imagine ever letting anything bad happen to her.

In that moment Emma vows not to run away until Alice was ok. She vows not to run until Alice was with Killian once again.

Alice nods in a huff and takes her hand. “Let’s get going.” She says simply. It catches Emma off guard.

“Going?”

“We have to follow the plan. We need to get going.”

“Going where?” Alice turns to look at her. She seems unsure.

“I don’t think you’re ready yet.” She says simply. Emma nods. She isn’t sure if Alice forgives her entirely, but she could live with this.

//

They walk for a while, through thick forest life and Alice is making a beeline through the trail, almost like she’s following a map. Meanwhile Emma’s trying not to step on any twigs or rocks.

“Papa made me practice.” Alice explains, almost as if she’s read her mind.

And with this kid, Emma wouldn't be surprised.

“Once the Stars told me how to get places without walking, Papa showed me where to go. First we did small distances and then we decided where to land, out of sight he said, so that I don’t scare anyone.”

Emma nods, sensible she thinks, she knows first-hand how terrifying magic could be. Boston had definitely not been a fan of magic. To be fair she herself hadn’t been a fan of magic until recently...

If she’s honest she doesn’t even really know how to use her magic. It usually only kicked in when she was in fear for her life, or someone she cared for. Protecting Killian from Gothel’s spell had been the only time it ever did as she wanted it to.

“We had a place to go, then I’d make a call and I’d be safe until Papa came to get me.” She explains. “We got waffles whenever we practice.”

That gets her attention.

“Waffles?”

“Papa makes me get peanut butter ones because they’re a good source of protein, but I was thinking I could get the chocolate ones this time.” It makes Emma pause, because out of the list of concerns rattling around in Emma’s head, whether or not the kid had a balanced breakfast wan’t one of them.

“I don’t see what’s wrong with chocolate.” Emma agrees slowly, not exactly sure where they were going, but if there were waffles it couldn’t be too bad right?

Eventually they do make it to the road and Alice stops, looking around quizzically.

“Everything ok?” she asks.

Alice doesn’t answer, obviously deep in thought. She takes Emma’s hand and they cross the road. “Always look both ways according to Papa.” She responds automatically.

“Of course.”

//

They do eventually make it where they need to go, a beat up dinner with exactly 2 cars in the parking lot. The waffles suddenly make a lot of sense.

“Alice, I don’t have any money to pay them with.” Emma insists. She’s also pretty sure they don’t serve people without shoes. She tries to wipe off as much of the dirt on her feet before entering as possible.

“That’s ok, Uncle Liam will pay the lady when he gets here.” Alice offers.

“Uncle-” But Alice is already bounding towards the entrance before she can get a word out.

Honestly, Emma should have expected Liam to be Killian’s Plan B. But honestly the idea makes her a little nervous.

Liam was supposed to be Killian’s big brother, his confident, and his idol. Emma was pretty sure that he would find problem with his niece calling him without Killian and meeting him with a strange woman without shoes.

However, it seemed like their only option. Lord knew Emma had no one else to call.

The waitress greets Alice warmly. A slender brunette around her age, Lily’s her name and the name tag looks worn and faded. It looks like she’s had this job a long time.

“Where’s your daddy?” the woman asks before glancing her way with a sour expression. “And who’s this?”  She asks looking Emma over. It makes Emma bristle uncomfortably. Something seems off in Emma’s opinion.

“Hi Lily, this is Emma.” Alice introduces warmly. “Can I use your phone?”

“Of course sweetie, your usual booth?”

“Yes please.”

Lily directs Emma as Alice rushes off towards the phone. She looks very pained as she does so. “Alice knows me pretty well; I’ve been friends with her dad for a while.” Lily says with a smirk. “We’ve bonded over some deep stuff.” She says it with this voice of ‘ you wouldn’t understand.’ She leaves without so-much as giving Emma a menu.

Emma rolls her eyes. Typical. She thinks. As if Emma doesn’t have enough to deal with, she has a snippety waitress being jealous. It was the perfect way to top off her day.

But compared to her day of losing Killian, of being nearly skewered by Miss Candy Land, this was nothing. She could handle this, Emma could keep her cool and everything would be fine.

Alice practically skips back over and slides into the booth, Lily slinking back immediately afterwards.

“Hey sweetie, decide on anything?” Alice nods.

“Chocolate chip waffles!” She exclaims happily. It brings a smile to Emma’s face. Lily frowns.

“Doesn’t your daddy usually say to get the peanut butter ones?” She offers gently. It makes Alice frown, looking confused. The blonde looks back at Emma unsure.

“She said chocolate.” Emma intrudes firmly. Lily turns to glare at her, as if she’s interrupting something. Lily takes a breath and gives a sigh.

“Ok, if you’re sure pumpkin.” She moves to leave shooting daggers at Emma, but Emma raises her hand.

“Coffee please.” She says it quickly and smirks at Lily sharply. “Cream and two sugars.” The woman slowly nods then leaves with a huff.  Emma is pretty sure that the woman was going to spit in her coffee.

“Is she always here when you come?” Emma asks, alarms bells slowly starting at the look of this place. It looks like something from the early nineties.

“Yup. Well not the first time, there was an older woman here who was very nice, but Lily’s been here the rest of the time, she talks a lot to Papa, but he always tries to get out of here as soon as possible. I don’t know why because waffles.”

Emma smiles. “I don’t know either. But do you know what’s better than waffles?” She leans in as if Emma is about to tell her some deep dark secret when a voice calls over them.

“Alice! phone!” Its Lily, because of course it’s Lily. Alice jumps up the booth excitedly and rushes into the back, mumbling about what could possibly be better than waffles

Lily comes back without a word, practically dropping her coffee on the table. “Whoops.” She says as some of it spills on the table, completely intentional as far as Emma could tell. This woman’s behavior was really ticking her off. Emma is literally moments from decking the rude waitress.

She knows it would get her removed from the establishment, but it would feel so good.

She keeps it together; she just needs to keep it a little while longer for Alice. Liam would be here soon and then…Well Emma didn’t know what then, there was a good chance Liam would take Alice and leave Emma behind.

But that didn’t matter; Emma would hold it together until she got Alice somewhere safe, that’s what she promised Killian after all.

Alice was the goal here. Keep her happy and content until her uncle arrives. It was a simple plan relying on some chocolate chip waffles. Maybe with extra whipped cream.

Speaking of which, the meal just arrives in the arms of the older waitress, an older blonde woman this time.

“Right there please.” Emma says simply as the woman smiles. “Thank you.” They are covered in chocolate chips and a swirl of chocolate syrup with an absolute ton of whipped cream. Alice is going to lose her mind when she say it. She smiles just thinking about it.

“Can I get you anything else?” She the woman asks. Emma shakes her head, there looks to be plenty of whipped cream on those pancakes, not to mention the amount of syrup. Alice was going to have a sugar rush in no time, but then Emma freezes. She feels her stomach drop.

Lily is printed on her name tag.

“You’re both Lily?” Emma says slowly. It could be a coincidence she reasons. The name tag looks brand new. Lily wasn’t uncommon enough for it to be impossible. The woman looks at her confused.

“Who?” She asks with a genuine confused expression.

“You’re name tag…”still trying to process what’s happening, process that the person serving them was not an employee, or was a figment of her imagination or…She hears the phone ring, loud and clear above all her racing thoughts.

They never heard the phone ring. Alice wasn’t on the phone.

That’s all she needs to burst from her seat and run to the back where Alice is, where Alice was.

Emma sees the phone all alone and the door leading outside still swinging open. “You can’t be back here!” The waitress yells, but Emma ignores her. She needs to get to Alice. She needs to get to her now.

Emma should never have left her alone, not for one second. Not with Candy Land and Gothel after them. She was so stupid.

‘Lily’ had her hand on Alice half leading, half dragging her towards her car obviously in a rush. A faded red corvette was in the parking lot, looking strange compared to the old trucks and station wagons parked besides it.

“Hey!” Emma shouts making them stop in their tracks. Lily’s head snaps back towards her in surprise. “Get your hands off of her.” Alice looks up, face bright and oblivious.

“Lily says Uncle Liam wants to meet in town!” She exclaims. “Lily says she’d take us! They have waffles there too!”

Emma glares at the brunette, “Is that so?” She snarls. Her blood is boiling and Emma is exhausted in every sense of the word. She’s tired from walking, from the emotional drainage of a day, worse of all; she’s tired she can’t even give this girl waffles without it blowing up in her face.

Emma swan has had enough.

“Yup.” she says, curtly. Emma doesn’t need her superpower to know Lily was full of shit. She strolls up to them, trying to get Alice behind her before she escalated the situation. And Emma had every intention of escalating the situation.

“Alice.” Emma says slowly. “Come here.”

“But-”

“Now Alice.” The girl does as she’s told, here blue eyes wide with confusion but she trust Emma.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Lily growls.

“I could say the same to you.” Emma snaps back.

There’s a pause, and Emma swears Lily’s eyes are glowing green with murderous rage. Perhaps, they glow a fraction too much to be normal.

“I’m really glad you were a crappy waitress.” She then decks her in the face, making her stumble backwards. “Because that felt fantastic.” She hits her again harder, before kicking her in the stomach.

Emma moves to hit her again, aiming to knock her out fast, but when she lunges, Lily grabs her wrist and cracks her neck, blood trailing down her lip. Her eyes no longer look human, her pupil is a singular slit, much like a lizard.

Shit. Emma knows things are about to get dangerous.

She pulls out of Lily’s grip. “Run Alice!”

Thankfully she does as it let them both get far enough away from her before she breathes actual fire at them.

Because of course she breathes fire. Why the hell not.

“You couldn’t have just let me have her could you?” Lily growls; strolling towards them, her arms hanging down loosely. “You couldn’t have just let me win?” She hisses; cracking her neck again, heat radiating off her entire being, and not fever type heat, but Emma was confident that even touching her would burn. Emma backs away from her for a moment, watching her stalk towards them. Something happening to her as she does so, her skin seemed to melting away, leaving blotches of scales in their wake.

“Emma? What’s happening?” Alice asks clutching onto her leg.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to stay and figure it out.” She admits honestly, pushing her further and further away from Lily.

“I just want to take her to Mother. People like you always get in the way.”

“People like who?” Emma asks, because now Emma knows exactly what this is about. It makes her tense up more because she knows know what they’re dealing with: Desperation.

Her limbs seem to twist as she moves, moving and shifting into place. They seem to transform her into some sort of creature, some sort of lizard.

“People who don’t understand what it’s like to be different!” Lily shouts. “People like you get everything handed to them!”

Now that grinds her gears. “I think you need to just shut up.”

Not understand what it’s like to be different? She seethes, different is all Emma ever felt.

Since the moment she was born she was the foster kid. When her magic started to manifest when she was 12 years old it only got worse. It got so much worse. She felt different every moment of every day, different when she caused a candy machine to short circuit when she got angry, when lights started to flicker when a teacher or a bully made her feel scared, different when every single foster family sent her back because she was a bad luck charm.

Lily takes this moment to blow another puff of fire her way, but Emma’s not scared this time. This time Emma was ready. Magic gathered on her skin, prickling and protecting her practically pushing them back, it made Lily jolt in surprise.

When Graham died and the whole town thought it was her fault. They never liked them together in the first place, but it hurt when they wouldn’t even let her go to the funeral. It hurt when they tried to erase her from his life. It hurt when they blamed her for his death, telling everyone she caused the heart attack.

Emma thought it was because of the people she was with, thought normal people would never understand her. She thought that she was better off on her own, or maybe people like her. People with magic in their veins just like her.

“Then you should understand.” Lily snickers. “You should join me, come home, where we are wanted and-“ power gathers in her hands and she blasts it, hitting her right in the chest.

She never felt wanted; never felt she belonged until she met Killian and Alice.

“They don’t want us.” She snaps. “They want to use us. Any place that only wants us if we do bad things isn’t worth going at all. It’s not a home.”

Home was a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. Home was playing checkers with chess pieces, home was reading stories, and tucking in Alice at night.

Home was Killian and Alice and they destroyed it.

“Well it’s better than nothing.” Lily snarls, lunging at her again, this time Emma can’t get her magic to appear, it short and sputters in her hands. She hears Alice scream as she’s lost in claws and scales and feels nails dig into her neck, feeling her skin hot and fiery.

She begs her magic to fling her off, to work, to help her get Alice home.

              She can’t breathe, feeling a lizard snout in her face, sharp teeth forming. For a moment, Emma thinks she’s going to die.

She thinks Alice is going to be taken to where Killian would rather die than see her go. And Emma was powerless to stop her.

“Oh enough of that.” An unfamiliar voice calls. The weight on top of her vanishes as it’s flung away in a flash of green light. Lily hits a tree and stops moving completely. Emma sucks in a deep breath of air. She’s startled, looking around for the presence. She sees a pair of people looking over at them, one female, deep orange hair over a black blouse and long skirt, she looks rather annoyed at the whole situation, the other is male, familiar blue piercing eyes, but his hair is lighter and curlier.

“Who-“ Emma stutters out, getting to her feet slowly. “Who are you?” Somewhere deep inside, she knows. She knows exactly who he is.

She gets her answer promptly however, “Liaammm!” Alice howls, running at full speed practically tackling the man. Prepared, he kneels down and scoops the now sobbing 6 year old into his arms, murmuring softly to her. His weapon, a hand gun dropped at his feet. She hears him call her by name, and then calls her ‘starfish’ as he tries to soothe her.

Seeing Alice with her family, Emma immediately feels at ease.

The woman ruins that peace however. “Where’s Robin?” The woman snaps, strolling up to her impatiently.

“Robin?” Emma repeats, trying to remember if she even knew that name. “I don’t-“ The woman doesn’t stay long enough to hear her answer, deciding to go investigate the spot Lily fell instead. She doesn’t know how to respond, especially when the man, still cradling Alice strolls up to her. He looks furious.

“The better question is who are you, what are you doing with my niece and where the hell is my brother?”

Tagging:

@hollyethecurious​ @therookshiningthrough @branlovestowrite​ @celestial-fire-writer  ​ @winterbaby89​​​ @kmomof4

[thedyslexicbard]

Tangled in Webs ~ Chapter 3 The Unbreakable Promise

bt A/N: oh I’m back with the next instalment if you want the previous chapters they are on a master list i will post later!!

After some re thinking and re watching i have decided to change a few things such as peters hair length and some other bits :) sorry for the huge hiatus i was just uninspired and didnt feel like writing but im back baby :) 

For previous chapters look in the #tangled in webs tag :)

Words 2417 Yeah thats a lot of freakin words bro 

Summary: so as the title suggests its a Tangled AU where you as the reader are Flynn Rider until you reveal your true name as Y/N Y/L/N but you’ve seen Tangled right? and peter of course is Rapunzel but his name is peter!!

Peter looked out of his tower and sighed as the sun began to set, he twisted round leaning against the windowsill huffing “guess i'll be watching the lights from here” Peter looked at M-J who gave him a sympathetic squeal. Peter didn't notice the figure running towards his tower until it was to late.

The Girl fell face forward the brown satchel slipped from her hands as Peter let out a cry hiding behind a mannequin, Peter peeped over the top of the mannequin then using it to shield himself as he moved forward to the body.Peter winced as he drew the frying pan once more prodding the girls head flinching back as if to see if the girl moved, nothing happened peter looked to MJ with a confused expression to chameleon was just as confused replying with a simple shrug. Peter looked back at the body his frying pan was still ready to THWACK again he stepped forward nudging the girls head revealing part of her face he took a moment to look at her features then looked to MJ, who in return went to the exaggerated portrait of a thug peters mother drew only moments before mimicking the red colour and miming pointy teeth. Peter flipped the pan around using the handle to push the girls top lip to reveal normal white teeth, peter Gasped he then flipped her hair from her face to show the most beautiful girl Peter had ever seen that wasn't a portrait in a book. He moved in closer admiring her beauty when a bright (Eye Colour) Eye peered back at him in one split second Peter hit the Girl again in fear.

Peter had to do something about the girl he couldn't just leave her there on the floor for his mother to find, peter paced around looking for places to hide a body his long hair flowing behind him “Ah HA i got it MJ i’ll hide her in here” he exclaimed wrapping his hair around the girl and using his strength to pull her towards the Wardrobe (Closet). “okay here goes” he huffed pulling the girl up letting her limp body flop on him as he used a web to pull open the door, “jeez i never knew a girl could weigh so much” peter huffed “okay in you go” peter moved quickly so that the girl would flop into the wardrobe but she infarct missed. this time peter aimed his web shooter to a high beam in the tower wrapping his hair around the girl again he swung dropping Flynn into the wardrobe the force closing the doors tight “YEs” peter cheered dropping in front to pull his hair from the closet “oh no, no, no don’t be stuck OH COME ON !” peter face planted the door grumbling nonsense as he opened the doors again The body flopping out instantly. he took a few steps back thinking of a solution.

His next attempt seemed flawless push the body up quickly close the doors but no the girl flopped out once more, “Okay this time will indefinably work” peter thought he grabbed a nearby broom lifting the girl up and pushing her in and slamming the doors on her hand “ouch” peter winched as he poked the hand back in pushing a chair up to stop her flopping out again.

“okay, okay, I have a person in My Closet, I've got a person in my closet,” peter started still not believing himself as he spoke to his reflection “I have a Person in My closet!! Haha Awww Yeah Two week to handle myself out there,huh Mother? Well tell that to my Frying pan”  

BONK !

“huh?” peter rubbed his head where he hit it with the frying pan noticing a shiny object in the satchel the girl dropped, he walked towards it picking up the object admiring the bright blue crystals and gold rim, he scrunched his face trying to figure out what it was. He held out his pinky finger sliding the crown on as if it were one of his mothers hideous rings looking at MJ to see her opinion, She only shook her head. Peter held the crown closer to his face closing one eye as if he was using one of the many magnifying glasses looking at MJ again who only shook her head. Frustrated peter turned to the mirror again looking at his reflection he looked at the crown in his hands and deciding to place it upon his head staring at his reflection his hazel eyes wide with curiosity-

“Oh Peter!!” Gothel cried from the bottom of the tower snapping peter from his trance, he stated rushing around putting the crown into a pot and heading to the window.  “would you let down that rope”

“one moment mother” peter shouted down as he hooked the rope around the window hook letting it drop to the ground.

“i have a big surprise!” Gothel shouted upwards with delight as she grabbed the rope

“uh, i Do too”

“Oh i bet my surprise is bigger!”

“I seriously doubt it” peter mumbled pulling the rope, Mother Gothel appearing at the window beaming

“i brought back parsnips. i'm going to make hazelnut soup for dinner, your favourite. Surprise!!”

Peter pulled the rest of the rope back into the tower leaving it in a neat pile “Well Mother there is something i want to tell you”

“oh Peter , you know i hate leaving you after a fight” she started hanging her cloak up and heading to the kitchen area “especially when i have done absolutely nothing wrong”

“okay, i’ve been thinking a lot  about what you said, earlier” peter started eagerly  as he shuffled closer to the wardrobe as not to spoil his surprise.

“I hope you’re not still talking about the stars.” he tone became dull with a hint of aggravation “Floating lights” peter corrected “and yes I’m leading up to that” he moved closer to the wardrobe

“because i really thought we dropped the issue, sweetheart”

“No mother, i'm just saying, you think i'm not strong enough to handle myself out there” his hand was mere inches away from the chair holding his ticket to see the Floating lights, Gothel turned to face Peter “Oh darling, i know you’re not strong enough to handle yourself out there”

“But if you Just-”

“-Peter we’re done talking about this” Gothel faced him anger lacing her tone

“Trust me-”  “-Peter!-” “-...I know what i’m-” “-Peter” “Oh Come on” His hand was on the handle he could finally -

” PETER ENOUGH With THE LIGHTS peter you are never leaving. this. tower. EVER!” GOthel screamed her voice echoing within the tower, Peter flinched with every word his hand moving away from the chair and his freedom

“ugh great. Now i look like the bad guy” Gothel slumped into her chair head in her hand, Peter didn’t know what to do he could feel tear pricking at his eyes he hated making his mother shout at him. Peter looked around the room his sight settling on his new painting of the lights then back to wardrobe he sighed “all i was going to say, mother is that i know what i want for my birthday, now.” peter warped his arms around him in a hug smiling

“and what is that?”

“new paint. That paint made from the white shells you once brought me”

“Well that is a very long trip peter almost three days time”Gothel protested

“i just thought it was a better idea than, uh, stars.”

Gothal sighed getting up from her chair walking towards peter “are you sure you’ll be alright, on your own?” peter wrapped his arms around Gothel “i know i’m safe as long as i’m here” Gothel kissed his hair in acknowledgement.

Peter packed Gothel a basket of food as she put her cloak back on “i’ll be back in three days time, i love you very much, my dear”  

“I love you more”

“I love you most”

Peter watched as Gothel left the tower and through the hidden passage and in a flash he raced to the wardrobe armed with his frying pan he moved the chair from the wardrobe shielding himself, he took in a deep breath exhaling “OKay”  he grabbed his hair and whipped it to the handle pulling it open, Flynn Flopped out with very little grace peter to checked to see if she was a live and tied her to the chair with his hair and some of his webs. Peter pulled the chair into the sunlight beaming into the tower, Mj squealed as she popped up on Flynns shoulder she slapped her a few times but gave up reeing up she stuck her tongue right in Flynns ear.

“AAHHHHHHHHH….. What?” flynn screamed her breathing became erratic as she tried to figure out her surroundings, she noticed she was tied up and looked down at the restrains “is this hair?” she asked looking at how far it goes stopping at a shadow

“struggling …. Struggling is pointless” Peter stammers fear and adrenaline took over

“Huh?” Flynn squinted at the shadow

“I know why you’re here” peter started moving closer “And i'm not afraid of you”

“What?” Peter emerged from the shadows his frying pan ready to strike “Who are you, And how did you find me?

“Ah ha” was all Flynn could say

“Who are you, and how did you find me?” peter asked again his frying pan raised

“ahem , i know not who you are Nor how i came to find you but may i just say…. Hi” she smirked “how you doing? The names Flynn Ryder, how's your day going,huh?”

Peter looked confused at the confidence Flynn had he huffed “Who else knows my location, FLynN RyDer?” he spoke pointing the pan back at Flynn.

“All right Blondie-”

“Peter”

“Guzuntight, here's the deal, I was in a situation, Gallivanting through the forest, i came across your tower and” sudden realization hit Flynn “oh no where is my satchel?”

“I’ve hidden it, somewhere you’ll never find it.” peter bluffed but Flynn didn’t buy it as she scanned the tower her eyes landing on a ceramic pot  “its in that pot,isn't it.”

THWACK

Flynn woke again to MJ’s tongue in her ear again she look at the lizard before screaming “Will you stop that!” rubbing the side of her head on her shoulder

“Now its hidden where you’ll never find it” peter smirked waving his hair behind him he stated to pace around Flynn “So, what do you want, with my hair? To cut it?”

“What?!”

“Sell it?”

“No! Listen, the only thing i want to do with your hair, which is a very large amount for a guy like you is get out of it. Literally!! And what's with this other stuff, and please tell me it didn't come out of you”

“What!? No i made it it's like spiders webs and glue”

“Right your like the king you make things cool cool cool cool no doubt no doubt”

“Wait, you don't want my hair?” Peter was confused his mother told him that his hair would be the only reason anyone would want to hurt him

“Why on earth would i want your hair?” Flynn was even more confused why would anyone come to steal someone's hair “Look, i was being chased, i saw a tower, i climbed it, end of story.”

“You’re telling the truth?”

“Yes”

“Hummm” Peter ran everything though his head as Mj popped up once more running down his arm to the end of the frying pan, she stared flynn down as peter moved her away growling.Flynn just looked confused.

MJ started to squeal and squeak as if she was talking to peter “i know, i need someone to take me.” peter began  earning a few more squeaks “i think she’s telling the truth, too.” more questioning squeaks “doesn't have fangs, but what choice do i have?”.

Flynn peerd round concern played on her face as she started to bounce on the chair to move peter sighed “oh okay Flynn Ryder, I’m Prepared to offer you a deal.”

“Deal?”

“Look this way” peter pulled his hair making the chair spin losing its balance making Flynn fall face first “oof” Peter on the other hand climbed on top of the fireplace pulling the curtain back on his new masterpiece “Do you know what these are?”

“You mean the lantern thing they do for the Prince?” she spoke face squashed against the floor

“Lanterns….i knew they weren’t stars. Well, tomorrow evening they will light the night sky,with these lanterns. You, will act as my guide take me to these lanterns and return me home safely Then and only then, will i return your satchel to you that is my deal”

FLynn smiled at how ridiculous this guy was being as she tried to roll over “yeah, no can do, unfortunately, the kingdom and i aren't exactly, ‘Simpatico’ at the moment so i won't be taking you anywhere”

Peter raised an eyebrow and looked at MJ who motioned to whoop Flynn’s ass, he jumped down from the mantle and pulled his hair in turn FLynns chair lifted up “something brought you here, FlYNn RyDEr, call it what you will Fate, Destiny.”

“A horse” she deadpanned

“So i have made the decision to trust you.”

“A horrible Decision, Really.” she mumbled

“But trust me, when i tell you this” peter moved in closer so he was face to face with the girl “you can tear this tower apart, brick by brick but without my help you will never find your precious satchel.” Flynn gulped “LEt me just get this straight, i Take you to see the lanterns, bring you back home and you’ll give me back my satchel?”

“I Promise” Flynn only raised her eyebrow at him “And when i Promise something, i never Ever break that Promise EVER!”

“Alright, listen, i didn't want to have to do this but you leave me no choice Here comes the ‘Smolder’” Flynn tried to pull a sexy face but peter didn't buy it he just looked at her with pure determination “this is kind of an off day for me. This doesn't normally happen… FINE! I’ll take you to see the lanterns”

“REALLY!!” Peter exclaimed letting go of the chair Flynn slammed face first once more into the floor “oops” “i think you broke my face”

__________________

Tags - Tag list is still open 

@beautiful-holland@yikesmcdonald @greenarrowhead @shamelessbookaddict

[sprnklersplashes]

wounds tend to linger

AO3

So this fic was born partially out of a discussion with @calibaz about if Alice ever feels anger towards her dad for leaving her alone in the tower and partially resolving some of my own issues with canon. Some of you know I have issues with WHook, but since the prompt was too interesting for me to ignore, I did my best to set aside my biases and if this comes across as bashing, I am sorry. Also I used “Rogers” as a way to differentiate from OG Killian, who also appears in this story, not as a means of bashing him.

Rogers thought all their issues were resolved with the death of Gothel and that now he and Alice could enjoy their happy ending. Turns out the past isn't easy to outrun.

The house is completely dark when Rogers returns, which is odd. He’s fallen into the routine of going out early on Saturdays before Alice is awake to do the shopping and when he returns, she is up and about with a pot of coffee brewing. Today though, the kitchen light is off and when he steps in, the house is eerily silent.

What’s more odd, in fact it is a step above odd, is that she is in the kitchen, still in her pyjamas, but instead of making coffee and singing under the kitchen lights like she always is, she’s sitting cross legged on the table with the light off. With the natural light coming in from the window, Rogers can just about see her flicking a pen between her fingers and if he strains, he can hear the muffled sobs that make his heart clench.

“Alice?” he whispers as he creeps closer. He turns the light on and she doesn’t even move; her face nearly blank, looking at something that isn’t there. He thought her bad days would be gone for good with the curse broken and Gothel gone, apparently not. “Alice what’s the matter?” When he puts his hand on her knee, he tenses, expecting her to startle, but she just lifts her head slightly to look at her.

“You’re back,” she states.

“Yes.”

“You came back,” she continues. “You came home.” All at once, it dawns on Rogers. Yes the curse might be broken and Gothel gone, but the wounds the witch made still linger and take its toll on Alice. Ever since he was cast away from her he imagined her sitting at the tower window, waiting for him to come back, and that doesn’t just disappear. So he smiles gently and cups her cheek, making her look at him.

“I came home,” he whispers. “And I will always, always come home to you.”

Contrary to what he both expected and wanted, Alice’s eyes harden, her mouth turns downwards, she shakes her head.

“No,” she tells him, the tiniest hint of venom in her voice. “Not always. Not when it really mattered.”

“Alice, what’s this about?” he asks.

“I found the storybook,” she says and gives a mad sounding laugh. “Henry’s storybook. The new one, with our story in it. And do you know what I found in it, Papa? Do you know what I read in our story?” Rogers’ throat runs dry as a million thoughts fly through his head. “I found the day you left me. Tried to get Maui’s hook to free me. Then stopped because you wanted to fight a duel. You left me alone for hours to protect your honour, your stupid reputation. Left me alone going out of my mind with worry all because someone bruised your precious ego!” The pen flies out of her hand and clatters against the wall.

Her words hit him like Ahab’s bullet did. Of all the things he’s done that he’s not proud of, this ranks high on the list.

“Alice that was years ago,” he reminds her. “Why bring up the past now, when everything is so good?”

“Because it’s not good,” she says. “Because it can’t be good when you did that. You’re not meant to do that!” She jumps off the table and steps towards him, such power in her slight frame he backs up. “You’re not meant to be the one who leaves me, you’re meant to be the one who stays! Not the one who left and never said anything to me for years and years!”

“That’s not fair,” he counters. “My heart was poisoned, Alice, what did you want me to do? I spent years looking for a cure! I couldn’t be anywhere near you!”

“I know!” she sobs. “But you could be near me. We couldn’t touch but you could be near me. You were near me so many times. You could have written to me, shouted to me, done anything to make me feel like you still cared! Instead you just sailed around the world and did everything you wanted now that I wasn’t there to tie you down!”

“Alice it wasn’t like that!”

“How do I know that?” she asks. “I never heard a word from you for years. You know after I got out of the tower, sometimes I’d wait by the ruin. Wait for days, hoping you’d show up. Hoping you at least cared enough to come back and see if I was okay but the joke’s on me isn’t it? I got out and heard about Captain Hook drinking in taverns and trying to steal another man’s wife and I thought ‘no, not my Papa. They’re talking about a different Hook’. The I read the bloody storybook and every damn word they said about you was true.” She’s close to hyperventilating, tears streaming down her face. She could end up in a full blown panic attack if this doesn’t wind down.

“Alice calm down,” he tells her.

“No I won’t calm down!” she says, sounding like a child. “Did you know that the other you has a daughter too? And he’s never made her feel like he didn’t love her or made her feel alone, so maybe I should live with him and not you!”

It’s like his heart is poisoned again. The words hang in the air between them and from the look on Alice’s face, she doesn’t regret them one bit. She wears her heart on her sleeve. She meant every word she just said.

She doesn’t say anything else. She just shakes her head at him, gasps a little bit and heads for the door. Rogers doesn’t try to stop her, partially because he’s not sure what’s going on is real. Not until he hears the door slam so loudly that he walls shake and then he wakes up and jerks into action. He races to the door and opens it, only to catch a glimpse of her coat as she runs down the street. He could of course run after her and take her back to the house and talk to her until she calms down and sees sense.

Instead he stands in the doorway, his stomach ice cold, his head reeling, and his heart broken.

                                                                                               *****

One of the best things about Robin is that she doesn’t ask questions when she knows she shouldn’t, rather the opposite of Alice in that regard. So when Alice appears at her door with tear tracks and her cheeks, bitten nails and lost looking eyes, Robin just nods and lets her in. She makes her tea, and a cup for herself, and they sit on the sofa together and turn on the TV and watch some singing contest that neither one of them could care less about, but it numbs Alice’s brain for a while.

Her phones makes a noise after a while and the screen lights up. As much as she doesn’t want to; she opens it to see a text from her father-‘where are you?’. Five minutes go by and other one-‘We need to talk about this.’ ‘Please come home, Alice.’ ‘Just tell me if you’re okay at least.’

She plans to ignore them all night long, but they keep coming in, some of them at five minute intervals, some in a chain of short, sharp pings until she cannot take it anymore. She opens her phone and types out her reply; ‘I’m fine, I’m with Robin, don’t come to get me. I want to be away from you for a bit’. She feels guilty, knowing how cruel her message sounds, but part of her also doesn’t care.

Robin is looking at her, not at the phone but at her, her expression concerned.

“Can I stay over?” she asks.

“Of course,” Robin answers. The other good thing is that she doesn’t have to go home to get her things; she’s stayed at Robin’s so many times that there’s her pyjamas, underwear and a toothbrush on standby in case movie nights go on too long and become movie mornings. Robin toys with one of the bracelets on her wrist.

“Papa and I had a fight,” she mumbles. Robin’s hand moves to her shoulder and rubs soft circles on it. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“In that case,” Robin says. “There’s at least three of these dumb reality shows and a day’s supply of chips in the kitchen.”

“Your version of a day’s supply or mine?” she asks. When Robin laughs, she smiles for the first time that day. She watches reality shows with Robin and eats whatever Robin makes and lets all that business go to the back of her mind. For as much as she can allow at least.

                                                                                               *****

Robin is still asleep when she wakes up. When Alice pushes a lock of her hair behind her ear she doesn’t even flinch. So Alice crawls her a quick note telling her where she’s going and puts it on the pillow, gets dressed and heads out the door.

She heads to the bakery and orders two coffees, one black for Robin, one cappuccino for her, and a chocolate éclair, Robin’s favourite. She’s tempted by the triple chocolate cupcakes on the display, but this is for Robin. She deserves a treat for last night.

As she waits for the barista to finish her order, the bell rings and another customer comes in, the only other one to be at the bakery this early.

“Morning, Hook,” the barista greets and Alice freezes before logic clicks in and she can breathe. In this town, her dad isn’t “Hook” or “Killian” to pretty much anyone, just “Rogers”. He doesn’t mind, it’s less confusion for everyone involved.

The Storybrooke version of her father stands at the counter with a broad but tired grin on his face and his baby girl sitting in a papoose on his chest.

“The usual?” the barista asks.

“Aye please,” he responds before he turns and sees Alice and his face grows brighter. “Morning Alice how are you?”

“Fine,” she responds, trying to keep her voice sounding as normal as possible. Hope gurgles and reaches out to her, and Alice… She isn’t made of stone. “Hello gorgeous, how are you today?” She steps forwards and lets Hope take hold of her finger in her fist before she lets it go and reaches for Alice’s necklace.

“Yeah, you might want to keep a distance,” Hook says with a laugh. “She’s in that mode where she likes all the shiny things and decides they’re hers.” He looks down at the baby, expression full of love and happiness and… Loyalty. “Aren’t you, my little magpie? You’re just a pirate like Daddy aren’t you?” He kisses her little head and rubs his nose against her hair, apparently not caring about anyone seeing him. Like he and Hope are the only two people in the bakery.

“You love Hope don’t you?” Alice asks before she can stop herself, running her fingers over Hope’s hair.

“Of course I do,” he answers, furrowing his brow in confusion.

“More than anyone else?” she asks before he can ask what’s wrong.

“Well, not more than anyone,” he admits. “She sits in her own little bubble with Emma and Henry and my brother and Milah.” Hope gurgles and takes his finger like she’s saying thank you. “But yes, I love her so much. I’d do anything for her, if that’s what you’re asking. Alice what-”

“And what if someone separated you from her?” she asks as tears prick her eyes, not sure if she wants the answer. “And you couldn’t see her, what would you do then?”

“I’d tear down every kingdom until I found her again,” he says. Alice sees realisation dawn on his face and she feels bad for dragging him into her issues. But she doesn’t stop.

“But you’d let her know you love her?” she asks. “You wouldn’t just let her think you didn’t?” She’s shaking now, her heart feels like it’s going to burst and she’s worried about throwing up in the middle of the bakery.

“Never,” he says. “Alice, is everything okay?”

Instead of just answering, Alice does what she’s been doing since yesterday. She runs. She runs out the door without her purchases and down the street until she finds some big rubbish bins she can hide behind and just breathe. She puts her head on her knees and lets herself cry miserably, wishing she’d never found that damn storybook.

“Alice?” she hears after some time, she doesn’t know how long. “Alice, love, are you okay?” She stays silent, hoping he has the sense to go away. “Alice unless the skips now where combat boots, I know that’s you.”

She decides to admit defeat and stand up and climb over the skip and sit on top of the lid. She ends up being greeted with the sight of a slightly-horrified looking Hook who still has Hope perched on his chest.

“Your father may not have his heart poisoned anymore,” he says. “But you are still liable to give him a heart attack with those antics.” Alice gives a small shrug and taps her feet against the skip. Hook raised an eyebrow and took a careful step towards her. “You’re not okay, are you love?”

“Not really,” she admits. She feels everything she’s held back since yesterday morning begin to pile up inside her. Cracks forming slowly and she knows she’ll break soon.

“I know I’m not your dad but is there anything I can do to help?” he asks. She lets the tears fall then as she loses the strength to hold it together. “Oh, sweetheart.” Hook reaches up and dries her tears for her, the exact same way her own father used to do for her.

“Papa and I had a fight,” she admits. He doesn’t react, she guesses because he doesn’t know how to, but he keeps wiping her tears and stroking her back. “How much did he tell you about me? About why he couldn’t be around me?”

“He said that a witch kept you locked in the tower, and that she poisoned his heart,” he replies softly. “So that he could never save you.”

“Did he tell you why his heart was poisoned?”

“Because she discovered him in the tower with you.” She shook her head violently, trying to clear it of all the bad thoughts inside her, trying to get them in order. “Love be careful you’ll hurt yourself.”

“He didn’t tell you the whole truth,” she sighs. “Gothel poisoned him because he fought a duel. He left me waiting for him to go fight a bloody duel!” The tears come harder, faster now, snot dribbles out of her nose and breathing gets harder. “He thought fighting was more important than me!”

“I’m sure he didn’t think that, Alice,” he whispers. “Come love, let’s get you down off this.” He takes her hand and helps her off the skip, muttering a soft ‘there we go’ when she hits the ground. “Alice, I think you might need to talk to your dad about this.”

“Why?” she asks.

“Well, I think there might be a bit more to the story,” he said. “Maybe he deserves the benefit of the doubt.” Alice shakes her head, not wanting to think that. Petty as it is, she wants to sit in her anger.

“You know he never once came back for me?” she asks. “He never even wrote me a letter until I sent him one first. He never even tried to check if I was all right he just left.”

“Alice, I’m not for a moment going to pretend that I know what your father thought all that time,” he says. “But as a Killian Jones, I do think this sounds like a classic Killian Jones mistake. Running away from your mistake because you were too ashamed to face it.”

“You think he was ashamed?” she asks. She realises that in all her anger, she never really looked at him when she confronted him.

“I do.”

“But it doesn’t change things. Doesn’t change the fact that he left me alone for years,” she reminds him and he only nods.

“I know, love, I know, but don’t you think he might deserve a second chance? Don’t you owe it to yourself?”

His words unlock something in her; she was expecting him to tell her she owes it to him. Owing it to herself is another matter and one she hasn’t considered.

“How’d you mean?” she asks.

“You love your father; don’t you owe it to yourself to try to hear him out before you shut him out completely?” he asks. “Take it from me, holding on to grudges it hard. Save it for the people who really deserve it.” That gets a giggle out of Alice at least.

“Will you come with me if I do?” she asks. He might not be her true father, but she feels close to him. And there’s also the added bonus of the fact that he’s good with words where she is less so, which might come in handy.

“Of course,” he says with a caring smile. “Let’s just get your coffee and cupcake and…” He puts a hand in the papoose, underneath Hope. “Maybe stop to change a nappy first.”

                                                                                               *****

And that is how Killian ends up at the doorstep of his alternate self-his daughter gurgling happy on his chest and playing with his shirt, his not-daughter picking her nails anxiously while waiting at the door.

“Be careful, love, you might hurt yourself doing that,” he says without thought. “It’s a hard habit to break.” Alice nods, but doesn’t take her eyes off the door.

When it opens, Killian sees his alternate self nearly collapse with relief at the sight of Alice. He understands even if people think he can’t yet. He remembers fretting endlessly the first few months Henry in the Enchanted Forest and even younger when he was out at parties. And then there’s Hope, who has turned his world upside down, who he’d move mountains for. She doesn’t have to go missing for him to know how he’d react.

He goes to hug her and Alice immediately steps back. His heart goes out to both of them.

His alternate self looks at him, a small hint of a smile on his lips.

“Thank you for bringing her home,” he says.

“I want to talk,” Alice tells him. “I’m ready to. But I want him to come in too.” She shrugs. “Conflict mediation.”

Rogers lets him in without resistance, even setting up a space Hope to play on the mat. Alice retrieves a rather sad but still charming looking teddy bear from her bedroom and sets it on the floor, smiling as Hope immediately becomes enchanted with it. Killian wonders if he’ll ever tire of Hope’s squeals of happiness, her near-toothless smile. He hopes he doesn’t. Alice gets up and creeps silently to the table, looking from him to her father nervously.

“Alice… I know I was wrong to duel Ahab,” he begins. “I should have come straight home to you.”

“Yes, you should have,” she says. Killian finds himself surprised at the fire in the girl known for her big smiles and bright eyes. “But that isn’t why I’m upset. Well it is but it isn’t.”

“I know,” he sighs. “I know. Look Al, the truth is-” The words get caught on his throat and to everyone’s surprise, he turns to Killian himself for guidance. Killian is confused for a brief moment, considering all the possibilities he has, before realising all he really can do. He nods. He can’t take this fight for Rogers, but he can help him get onto the field. “You’re right, I could have talked to you. It was only when you walked out the door I stupidly realised all the ways I could have spoken to you. I could have stood at the bottom of the tower and shouted. I could have left you letters. Could have asked any of my crew to come in and give you my messages. But it’s too late for all that now.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asks, her voice broken.

“I was…” He looks at Killian again, and Killian repeats the same nod, his heart pounding. He hopes against all hope he does the right thing. “I was weak. And selfish. Every day I thought about how much I missed you. I never stopped to think about you missing me. All I could think about was ending my own pain. I should have thought about easing yours.”

His admission almost makes the room lighter. Killian can see it in Rogers, how it lifts the weight off his shoulders and as for Alice… he hears her breathe.

“And I’m sorry, Starfish,” he continues, beginning to sob. “I’m sorry that I was so blinded by my pain I didn’t think about yours. I wish I had written to you or talked to you or done anything to ease your suffering.”

“Oh, Papa,” Alice says, running over and hugging him. “Thank you. Thank you.”

“Do you forgive me?”

She doesn’t speak, but she nods against his shoulder, blonde curls bouncing up and down.

Killian senses that it’s a family moment, so he makes to leave, lifting up Hope-who is rather upset at having to be separated from her new toy-and strapping her into the papoose with soothing noises and kisses on the head all while bouncing her gently, hoping to give her the sleep she so clearly needs.

“Hey,” his own voice whispers form across the room. Killian turns to see Rogers looking at him with shining eyes. The two Killian Joneses with their girls on their chests. “Thank you.”

[party-of-rpg-muses]

Mun Plays Kingdom Hearts 3

So, I got Kingdom Hearts 3 earlier today, all while wearing my special Kingdom Hearts shirt that I got from Disney World.

Okay, starting off, I couldn’t help but grin when I saw the full intro while Face My Fears played. Surprisingly, I was able to identify many significant moments in the KH series, despite only playing KH2 and Birth by Sleep. But I do know about important details in the other games.

Anyway, starting in Olympus, it took my a while to get a hold of the controls and possibly longer to get used to the camera, mostly just the vertical camera. But I took to the combat like a fish to water. It really hasn’t been all that long since I played a KH game, only a few years. I think last year when I played more of KH 2 Final Mix. BUT ANYWAY!

Inside Olympus proper, I found myself learning about Flowmotion, but kinda didn’t use it often, prefering to stick to tradition combat. However, I learned that Sora’s default air combat had significantly improved since KH2 and typically my go-to for racking up combos. I later climbed Mt. Olympus and came face to face with the Rock Titan, who, of course, wasn’t all that tough. Especially once I used Attraction Flow. But he was still quite fun.

I continued further to reach the Realm of the Gods and even did a bit of exploring and found a forge where I crafted a slightly stronger shield for Goofy. Shortly after, where I learned how to use Airstep, I found a box blocking a door, which honestly had me confused for a bit before I realized I had to go further up, quickly finding the remaining three Titans.

I started off targeting the Ice Titan, struggling to find some kind of footing, though I did use quite a bit of Fire Magic. He wasn’t so tough, but the Fire Titan was a bit harder. Only a little bit. And after him was the Wind Titan, who was actually a challenge to defeat. Twice, Sora was in critical health during that part where you’re suspended in air and had to fight it. Kinda reminds me of the fight against Leviathan in FFXV. But in the end, I managed to win. Though I can’t help but wonder why Maleficent would want the Black Box the Master of Masters gave Luxu... Well, I’m sure we’ll learn soon enough.

After that I spent a bit of time following Riku and Mickey in the Realm of Darkness, fighting Heartless. It was actually quite fun having a lot of power at my disposal. It reminded me of endgame Sora in KH2 (and yet, I know about the events of Dream Drop Distance), but I can’t help but wonder what Riku meant when he said he was leaving his Keyblade behind for his “other self”.

Next came Twilight Town, quickly finding Hayner, Pence, and Olette after taking care of a few Nobodies. However, they were being chased by a Demon Tower with a HUMONGOUS health bar! I mean, I fought Yiazmat and his 50 million HP in FF12, but this was way too early! It took me quite a while to figure this boss out and for most of the fight, I just wailed on it. But eventually, it just left after I dealt enough damage.

When I was tasked with going to the Old Mansion, I actually got kind of confused, since I was looking for that hole in the wall from KH2 that lead to the mansion, though I managed to find the sewers. I then found Remmy, or Little Chef as the characters later called him. But once I reached the mansion, I couldn’t help but reminisce. For those who don’t know KH2 was my first KH game and the mansion kinda played a big role early in the game. Skipping to later, (though I enjoyed seeing that Sora had no idea how to use technology, no doubt because he’s been busy with other things and Destiny Islands, at least, back when he was a kid, didn’t have much tech) I was momentarily confused when I saw both Ansem and Xemnas together, but figured it had something to do with Xehanort time-traveling, which was mentioned at the beginning of the game. Though I wasn’t expecting to fight both Heartless and Nobodies at the same time.

When I returned to Twilight Town, I found myself getting lost, trying to find ingredients, but at least I now learn I get get ingredients from stuff like takeout boxes and baskets. It also took me a few tries before I got the hang of cooking, but when I did, I made quite a few dishes. I then tried to leave the Tram area, hoping to explore placed like the Hideout and Train Station, but no such luck. Guess those parts aren’t in this game. But it does make sense, since odds are those parts have no purpose in this game.

I then noticed the Toy Story and Tangled worlds and planned on going to the former, but stumbed across the latter because I didn’t mark it on my map. But hey, I was there, so might as well complete that world, despite the fact that Tangled is the only Disney movie I actually hate...

Well, just like with the movie, I didn’t find the characters or humor of that world all that good, so it was just kinda there. The only thing of interest I can mention was that I used the Rage Form for the first time. And the final boss of the area, Mother Gothel’s Heartless, was incredibly difficult, especially that part where she traps you inside these vine-cages while dropping exploding acorns. But I managed to win.

With that part done, I went to the Toy Box, the world I’ve been looking forward to since I learned it was being added to the roster. I won’t like, Galaxy Toys was actually quite confusing and the worst offended went to when I had to find Buzz, though that was more of what I was told to do. I was told to go to Babies and Toddlers to reach Kid Korral, and I was forced to look online and found that I had to go to the Play Place, where I found the 3 aliens.

Honestly, I couldn’t help but grin when I noticed the Mag Blocks assembled to form a Cactuar. A cactuar and moogle are the only FF characters making a comeback, not counting the brief mention of Cloud and Auron at the beginning of the game by Hades. But the boss was... quite easy, especially when compared to Mother Gothel’s Heartless, causing me to think that I was supposed to go to the Toy Box first, then Kingdom of Corona after. Ironically, that was my initial intention anyway. But whatever. For the boss, I was able to abuse Sora’s better air game to easily reach the boss’ head so I could attack. But once I beat it, I saved the game on the world map and turned off the game.

I gotta say, I am LOVING this game so far! I’m having so much fun playing the game and I’m glad I waited this long to play. Though I didn’t wait as long as everyone else, since I didn’t play KH2 on PS2, but on PS3 as part of the KH2 HD Final Remix thing. And I didn’t play Dream Drop Distance. Nevertheless, I’m still enjoying the game quite a bit. And it was worth it avoiding leaks.

[swanqueeneverafter]

60. The Final Battle, Pt.2

Enchanted Forest. Dockside Tavern. Present. (Will Scarlett enters a tavern, spots who he's looking for and approaches. Taking a small pouch from his pocket, he dumps the contents onto the table.) Will: "Sorry,  didn't mean to interrupt. Actually, yes, I did.” Blackbeard: “And who are you supposed to be?” Will: “The name’s Will Scarlett.” Blackbeard: “You’re interrupting my game, Will Scarlett.” Will: “Judging by your dwindling chips, I'd say I've done you a favor.” Blackbeard: “If you want a favor in return, (Draws his sword:) I'd be happy to oblige.” Will: “Well, as luck would have it, I do need a favor. A magic bean, to be exact. I’ve asked around and I’ve heard that Captain Blackbeard is the man to see about one of those.” Blackbeard: “And in return, that sorry lot of cheap jewelry you probably stole from some wench?” Will: “If the jewels aren't enough, I do have one more thing I could offer.” Blackbeard: “Oh, and what's that?” Will: “I’ve heard that you haven't had a vessel for some time. Not since you lost the Jolly Roger.” Blackbeard: “It’s only a matter of time before I find her again.” Will: “Well, it's a good thing I'm here, then, isn't it? Because what's a pirate without a ship?” Blackbeard: “Are you trying to antagonize me?” Will: “Yes, I am.” Blackbeard: (Picks up his sword once more:) “Oh, good. Then you do wish to duel.” Will: “I wish to do something better. (Puts his hand on the sword and slowly lowers it to the table:) Something a bit more civilized. (Picks up a deck of cards:) How about a hand of cards for the location of the Jolly Roger?” Blackbeard: (Nods to his companions at the table, who leave:) “Have a seat.” Tavern. Exterior. (Meanwhile, as they wait outside the tavern, Alice and Robin are having an argument.) Alice: “You're not hurting my friend. He really is a sweetheart. The gentlest of giants.” Robin: “Well I have to find him first. I think he's close.” Alice: (Points to a tavern opposite to the one Will is currently in:) “Well, maybe someone in there has met him. Then you'll see.” The Double Woodpecker Tavern. (They enter the tavern to find it filled with women, children and several men brandishing weapons.) Robin: “Oh, I think they've met him.” (A man wielding an axe approaches them.) Clayton: “If you've come seeking shelter, you'll find none here. That monster destroyed our homes.” Alice: “He's not a monster. Why does everyone keep saying that?” Robin: “Because non-monsters don't flatten villages.” Clayton: “Smart girl. I see you have a weapon. You can stay here and protect the women and children.” Robin: (Scoffs:) “Like hell, I will. I'm going after him, same as you.” Alice: “All right, everyone stop.” Robin: “Alice, be quiet.” Alice: (Continues:) “Okay, that troll? That one you keep calling a monster? He's the only reason I'm free. He's my friend. And he'd never hurt anyone. Unlike you.” (Several men begin to encircle them upon hearing Alice’s words.) Clayton: “You're a crazy girl. How 'bout we put you back where you belong? Lock her up.” Alice: (As a man grabs her:) “Wha-” Clayton: “And her friend too.” Robin: “Whoa, whoa. Friend's a strong word. I just met the girl.”

Storybrooke. Abandoned Farmhouse. (David and Snow White are locked inside a large cage while Robin sits there watching them.) Snow White: "Robin, we're sorry for trespassing. We had no idea you were living out here." David: "You can't just lock us in a cage!" Snow White: "Robin, you know us, we're your friends. You don't have to worry about us." Robin: "In my experience, if you really don't want to worry about something, you lock it into a cage... A strong cage, like this one. It's when you unlock the cage... that's when the trouble starts.” Zelena: “Did someone say trouble?” (Robin stands and turns to face Regina and Zelena.) Regina: “We love trouble.” Robin: “Ah, the sisters reunited at last, how touching.” Zelena: “Drop the charade, Gothel. We know it’s you.” (Smiling wickedly, Robin transforms into Gothel.) Gothel: “Oh well, I suppose the fun had to end sometime. (To Zelena:) You were exquisite, my dear. Everything I’d hoped for and more. Even if we were in foreign bodies at the time.” Zelena: “Ugh, I think I’m going to be sick.” Gothel: “Come now. After all, the only reason you had a daughter in the first place is because of the very same deception. Turn about is fair play, wouldn’t you agree?” Regina: (Stepping in front of Zelena:) "After what you did to my niece, you're lucky I don't rip you to pieces right now." Gothel: (Chuckles:) “With what magic?” Regina: “I may not have magic, but there is magic here. It’s only a matter of time before I get mine back.” Gothel: (Sighs, non-plussed:) “Your son couldn't convince the Savior to break the curse. Do you think that was an accident?” Regina: “What did you do to Emma?” Gothel: “I didn't have to do anything. Henry may have the heart of the Truest Believer, but your precious Emma’s belief is gone and there's nothing you can do to bring it back. I, meanwhile, have been putting my efforts elsewhere, and I'm willing to offer you salvation. Join me now and your family will be spared." Regina: "Spared from what?" Gothel: “The balance of nature is shifting, Regina. We're on the precipice of a great extinction. One that man cannot crawl back from.” Regina: “Sorry, but I'm not really a joiner. You and the Black Fairy may have cursed us, but Storybrooke is my home. And I protect my own.” Gothel: “Why don’t you look outside if you doubt my power. Those aren’t clouds in the sky. It’s a rebirth.” (As lightning splits the sky, Gothel disappears with one last wink to Zelena.)

Enchanted Forest. Tavern. Present. (Blackbeard and Will continue their card game. Will throws down his cards, having lost another round.) Will: "Deal.” Blackbeard: “Still don't know when to quit?” Will: “Deal!” Blackbeard: “What's so important about that magic bean? Who are you running from?” Will: “I've been separated from my sister for far too long. Turns out, the witch who cursed us, is the only one who can cure us.” Blackbeard: “Well, I’m afraid you’re gonna have to wait even longer. (Blackbeard lays his cards on the table. Laughing:) Time to pay up, my boy!” Will: (Nods:) “Let's go, then.” Blackbeard: “Aye. Let's.” (Both men stand and leave the tavern.) The Land Without Magic. Boston. (Emma returns to her old Boston apartment and places her bag on the table. Sitting in a chair, her attention is caught by something poking out of her bag. Standing, she crosses the room and takes a notebook with a message from Henry written on the cover.) Henry: (VO:) "You might not think this story's true. But I know that it is. And it can still have a happy ending." (Opening the book, Emma sees the depiction of herself, alone, blowing out the candle on her birthday cupcake. Turning the page she sees herself fighting a dragon and then waking Henry with true love's kiss.)

Enchanted Forest. Jail Cell. (Alice & Robin have been locked up. Alice pulls hard on her chains before giving up, frustrated.) Alice: “I've got to get out of here!” Robin: “Well, you should've thought about that before you went all hippie Troll-hugger on that Frankenstein mob.” Alice: “I had to try and stop them. He didn't mean it. The troll's just scared, and confused and he's all alone.” Robin: “It must be hard for you. Being locked up again.” Alice: “The day I got out of that tower was a bloody dream come true. At least at first.” Robin: “Why? What happened?” Alice: “I thought I'd find a way for me and Will to be together again. 'Cause what's the point of being free if you're all alone?” Will: (Chuckles, softly:) “You know, I give your brother a hard time, but he’s been great to me.” Alice: "You never did say how you two met?" Robin: (Looks down:) "He saved my life. There's something I should tell you... I'm not as old as I look." Alice: "No?" Robin: "No. Technically, my brother, Roland? He’s my older brother. I'm barely a year old." Alice: (Laughs:) "Excuse me? What are you talking about, you're clearly about my age." Robin: "Let's just say Gothel has touched a lot of lives." Alice: "Gothel?" Robin: (Nods:) "She used her magic to age me, to force my mother's hand. Will got me out of Storybrooke before the curse could hit." Alice: "And I thought my life was tragic. You've missed out on your entire childhood. At least I had a few years with my parents and Will before I was locked away." Robin: (Shrugs:) "It's not so bad. I'm able to pick things up super quickly." Alice: "Well even so, you can't have any sort of childhood memories." Robin: "No, but I remember my Mom. And my Dad, before he died. If there's one good thing to come out of what happened, it's that I've managed to keep all of the memories I had while I was a baby." Alice: "Is that why you're dressed like your Dad, to be close to him?" Robin: "How did you-" Alice: "Will brought me loads of books back when I was in the tower. The stories about Robin Hood were some of my favourites." Robin: (Strokes Alice’s face:) "I'm amazed you didn't go mad, all alone in that tower." Alice: "I did used to talk to a hat. (They share a laugh:) It wouldn’t have worried me if I had gone a little mad though. I remember my Papa used to say all the best people are mad. He’d say ‘Alice, you meet loads of people in this world. But the best ones, they’ll challenge you. Make you see the world through a whole new looking glass.“ Robin: “You're lucky. I never got any fatherly advice. All I have is his name and his legacy to uphold. Which is why, (Holds up her now unchained wrists:) I can't stay here.” Alice: “How’d you do that?!” Robin: “I told you I was a fast learner. (Holds up a hair pin:) First lesson of escape and thievery: sleight of hand.” Alice: (Checking her hair:) “Amazing! Do me next!” Robin: (Getting to her feet and walking to the cell door:) “I’m sorry, Tower Girl. But hitting that Troll is my one shot at honoring my father’s legacy. (Uses the hair pin on the cell door, which springs open:) And I'm not gonna let you stop me.” (Robin walks out of the cell, leaving Alice behind.)

Storybrooke. Outskirts. (Using a locator spell, Mr. Gold follows Belle's copy of 'Her Handsome Hero' to a rundown house in the suburbs. Stooping down to pick up the book, Mr. Gold notices the curtains twitching. Glancing up at the gathering storm clouds, Mr. Gold walks up the front steps and enters the house.) Mr. Gold: "Belle? (He places the book on a side table and walks further into the house. Entering the kitchen, he finds Belle crouching in fear behind the cooker:) Belle." Belle: “I don't want to leave! (Scrambles to her feet:) I don't want to leave! Please!” (Belle runs past him into another room and locks the door behind her.) Mr. Gold: “Belle.” Belle: “How do you know my name?” Mr. Gold: “I can explain if you give me a chance.” Belle: “Just leave me alone, okay? I'm safe here.” Mr. Gold: “Belle, I know this is difficult to understand but... you're not like this. The Black Fairy did this to you. Changed you. I promise you, the woman who did this, I am gonna make her pay.”

Enchanted Forest. Docks. (Blackbeard, laughing, leads Will towards the docks.) Blackbeard: "Now, where's my ship?" Will: "Ah, yeah, about that. I don't actually know where the Jolly Roger is. I was kinda banking on beating you at cards." Blackbeard: "You lied to me!" Will: "And you had six aces in your deck. I'm not as drunk as your other opponents, mate." Blackbeard: (Drawing his sword:) "Underhanded methods or not, the fact remains that you now owe me a ship." Will: "Well I don't bloody have one, do I?" Blackbeard: "Then I see no reason to delay killing you." Will: (Panicking:) "But I do know who has it." Blackbeard: "Really, and who's that?" Will: "Hook. He's got your ship." Blackbeard: "Does he now? Excellent. (Sheathing his sword, Blackbeard plucks a magic bean from the brim of his hat:) Now all I have to do is use this bean to find Hook, and the Jolly Roger shall be mine once more." (As Blackbeard is about to use the magic bean, he is struck in the neck by a blow dart, which causes him to lose consciousness. Quickly catching the bean as Blackbeard falls to the ground, Will looks to see a woman approaching.) Will: "Er... thanks for that." Tiger Lily: "Think nothing of it. Now, hand over that bean." Will: "Oh, sorry love, I can't do that." Tiger Lily: "And I can't allow you to use that bean." Will: "Look, I'm sure you're a really nice person who just wants to get back to her loved ones, but this is my bean and I'm not-" (Before Will can finish his thought, Tiger Lily plunges a second concealed dart into his neck, knocking Will unconscious.)