mother knows best

[powershines]

Rapunzel doesn't sleep well, and she does wind up wrapped up in her hair overnight like a golden-cocooned butterfly. She's still dozing fitfully when the sun comes up.

Comments

[hisowninvention]

"Yeah. She was - holding back. I'm guessing Cearl warned her that you're shy, and not to overwhelm you, so she was restraining herself from saying a million things and being all weepy and excited. And she seemed curious about us but I couldn't tell what she was curious about specifically - could've been the same things as Cearl, but it seemed like more than that. Do you want me to tell you this kind of stuff after whatever conversations we're both in, if I feel like you might have missed something?"

[powershines]

"Yes. Please. It helps."

[hisowninvention]

"Okay, I will."

[powershines]

"She asked me a few questions, while we were going through her dresses, but mostly it was about how I grew up."

[hisowninvention]

"Yeah?"

[powershines]

"What kinds of books I'd gotten to read, how I learned to play piccolo, whether I was too cramped - like, physically, not getting to stretch my legs, seemed to be the question - in a tower all the time, what foods I like. Things like that."

[hisowninvention]

"Seems reasonable. What do you think of her?"

[powershines]

"She seems - nice, I guess. Kind of - fluttery? Does that make sense? I'm very short on baselines to gauge people by."

[hisowninvention]

"Yeah, I think I see what you mean by 'fluttery'."

[powershines]

"But nice. She was trying really hard. It's not her fault I've got no idea how to deal with her."

[hisowninvention]

"You can learn."

[powershines]

"I'm worried I missed critical socializing skills that people can only pick up when they're five, or something."

[hisowninvention]

"I do all right, and I didn't have the world's most inspiringly normal childhood either."

[powershines]

Rapunzel goes into her guest room. The guards move so they can see in through the open door, but there's enough space in the room that the guards may still be presumed out of earshot.

"What was yours like, then?"

[hisowninvention]

"Unpleasant. No privacy, but no friends either. The people who ran the place were about an even split between 'really invested in rules for their own sake' and 'just likes hurting people and keeping the kids in line is a good excuse'. About the only two skills I picked up there that were still useful outside were reading people's moods quickly, and hiding."

[powershines]

"How old were you when you got out?"

[hisowninvention]

"Ten."

[powershines]

"And - then what did you do?"

[hisowninvention]

"Learned how to steal things. Did a lot of that. Moved around a lot, too."

[powershines]

"How'd you learn?"

[hisowninvention]

"Practice, mostly. It helped that I did all my screwing up and getting caught while I was still little and cute and half-starved."

[powershines]

"You were hungry?"

[hisowninvention]

"'Half-starved' is an exaggeration, but... they didn't feed us enough. And when I got out, well, my main sources of food were theft and the kindness of strangers. Neither one's what you'd call perfectly reliable."

[powershines]

"I don't like thinking about you being hungry."

[hisowninvention]