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]

"I'm pretty sure," Rolan comments as they head back toward Rapunzel's room, "that 'can't find a replacement who's better than I am' was a joke and she really likes cooking."

[powershines]

"Couldn't both be true?"

[hisowninvention]

"Being a joke doesn't necessarily make it false."

[powershines]

"Well, I hope she's also actually good at cooking."

[hisowninvention]

"Me too. If not, I might have to volunteer."

[powershines]

"I'm probably going to be too busy catching up on things for it to make sense for me to cook a lot. I don't think I'd miss it as much as I would some of the other things I'm used to doing."

[hisowninvention]

"Why, which ones will you miss?"

[powershines]

"I don't necessarily need to keep up with all my instruments and singing, but I like music. I don't think I need to keep making lots of crafts just to fill time or for fun, but I think it would be sad if I forgot how."

[hisowninvention]

"You have a nice singing voice."

[powershines]

"Thanks."

[hisowninvention]

[powershines]

"You've only ever heard me sing the hair song - I know more but all my sheet music is in the tower so I'd probably forget lyrics if I tried now."

[hisowninvention]

"Well, I seem to recall someone sending a bunch of people to go get that stuff for you, so maybe you can sing more things later."

[powershines]

"Maybe. I have a few things memorized on the piccolo, which I packed. I was thinking maybe if - something went wrong - I could busk."

[hisowninvention]

"Reasonable. It's not exactly lucrative, but you can get by if you're good at it."

[powershines]

"I have no idea how good I am, but it was the only idea I had on short notice."

[hisowninvention]

"Well, I don't think you're going to need to go that route."

[powershines]

"Yeah. It doesn't seem like it."

[hisowninvention]

"Which is nice."

[powershines]

"Yeah."

When they get back to her guest room (and the guards park in the hall outside of it) she pulls her piccolo out of her bag. "Do you want to hear? You can tell me if I'm any good."

[hisowninvention]

"Sure."

[powershines]

So Rapunzel plays a little something. It's an original composition, by someone who was loosely influenced by but not marinated in prevailing musical fashions. She's technically perfect on the notes - either that or manages to make it look and sound like she meant to do that every time she misses one - but loose and fluid about timings; it would be hard to pick out a consistent beat to the tune.

[hisowninvention]

"Huh," is his conclusion. "Well, I like it. It's weird, though. Not sure I can place exactly how, but - weird."

[powershines]

"...I could play something else and you could see if it's the same kind of weird?"

[hisowninvention]

"Okay."