There is a total stranger who has done her no harm yet has not even introduced himself (or if he did it was overwritten with nonsense about laughing squirrels and accessorized owls) telling her things that are very hard to believe - and very unpleasant to believe, which makes it harder.
Rapunzel wants:
- To know the truth. - If a princess, to be a princess - if that's safely possible. - To be useful to more than two people with her power. If that's safely possible.
She has:
- An at least apparently helpful stranger who did definitely break his legs before he knew what her hair did and probably didn't engineer the entire situation. - Three days without her mother home. - Possible princess status. - Contradictory biographical information, and background knowledge from books about the major historical events of Corona that has been definitely curated and possibly doctored by her mo-
Gothel.
She didn't like it when Rapunzel called her that even though it was never intended originally to impugn her maternal status. She told her to stop. She's her mother and ought to be called that.
But she's got a name, and it's - more neutral. Considering. If little-girl-Rapunzel who never imagined that her mother would lie to her considered it a reasonable term of address then she can use it now without feeling too terribly disloyal.
She has three days before Gothel comes back.
She can get out of the tower, she knows, it shouldn't be harder than lowering herself to the ground floor. Getting back will be harder, especially if her helper is no help, but, well, if she's caught out of the tower she could claim to have overbalanced leaning out the window innocently. She's clumsy enough to do it even if that particular accident hasn't happened before. Certainly she's just seen that her hair suffices to cover for damage from serious falls.
And if her helper is no help, he already knows where she lives and she certainly can't fight him off and for the time being he's not doing anything frightening, so it's probably best to play along until she can find Gothel again.
So - she can best get what she wants - if she goes with him and finds out as much as she can. Maybe he's right and she shouldn't feel a second's guilt about disobeying Gothel. Maybe he's wrong but well-meaning and she'll be home safe before Gothel is. Maybe he's lying and ill-intentioned and her docility will at least postpone a more open show of aggression, which is all she can reasonably hope for alone.
Rapunzel puts the new stacks of paper where they go in her closet, and starts packing. Blank pages and pencils and her piccolo (it's portable, if she's abandoned somewhere she can try busking or selling it) and there's really no hiding her hair is there - she had a snood for it when she was a child because it became large enough to trip on but not long enough to drag out of the way of her feet, but it was last used when there was only ten feet of the stuff. The fabric surely won't stretch for seventy. She's not going to be able to tuck it into a hood; it's been too long to braid even with Gothel helping since she was nine.
She'll want to pack food, too.
She hooks her hair to the ceiling and rappels down.
no subject
Rapunzel wants:
- To know the truth.
- If a princess, to be a princess - if that's safely possible.
- To be useful to more than two people with her power. If that's safely possible.
She has:
- An at least apparently helpful stranger who did definitely break his legs before he knew what her hair did and probably didn't engineer the entire situation.
- Three days without her mother home.
- Possible princess status.
- Contradictory biographical information, and background knowledge from books about the major historical events of Corona that has been definitely curated and possibly doctored by her mo-
Gothel.
She didn't like it when Rapunzel called her that even though it was never intended originally to impugn her maternal status. She told her to stop. She's her mother and ought to be called that.
But she's got a name, and it's - more neutral. Considering. If little-girl-Rapunzel who never imagined that her mother would lie to her considered it a reasonable term of address then she can use it now without feeling too terribly disloyal.
She has three days before Gothel comes back.
She can get out of the tower, she knows, it shouldn't be harder than lowering herself to the ground floor. Getting back will be harder, especially if her helper is no help, but, well, if she's caught out of the tower she could claim to have overbalanced leaning out the window innocently. She's clumsy enough to do it even if that particular accident hasn't happened before. Certainly she's just seen that her hair suffices to cover for damage from serious falls.
And if her helper is no help, he already knows where she lives and she certainly can't fight him off and for the time being he's not doing anything frightening, so it's probably best to play along until she can find Gothel again.
So - she can best get what she wants - if she goes with him and finds out as much as she can. Maybe he's right and she shouldn't feel a second's guilt about disobeying Gothel. Maybe he's wrong but well-meaning and she'll be home safe before Gothel is. Maybe he's lying and ill-intentioned and her docility will at least postpone a more open show of aggression, which is all she can reasonably hope for alone.
Rapunzel puts the new stacks of paper where they go in her closet, and starts packing. Blank pages and pencils and her piccolo (it's portable, if she's abandoned somewhere she can try busking or selling it) and there's really no hiding her hair is there - she had a snood for it when she was a child because it became large enough to trip on but not long enough to drag out of the way of her feet, but it was last used when there was only ten feet of the stuff. The fabric surely won't stretch for seventy. She's not going to be able to tuck it into a hood; it's been too long to braid even with Gothel helping since she was nine.
She'll want to pack food, too.
She hooks her hair to the ceiling and rappels down.