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

[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."

[powershines]

She plays another song. It's different from the first one, but still has loose, almost improvised timing. There's a long trilling run at the end and she gasps for breath after she caps it off.

[hisowninvention]

"It's the same kind of weird, but I don't know what the word for it is. I'm not a musician or anything."

[powershines]

"I know some things from sheet music too -" And then she plays a commonplace ballad, which is recognizable, if a little sloppy about emphasizing the notes that are supposed to be emphasized.

[hisowninvention]

"Yeah, I know that one. I think it's not as weird as the other ones, but still weird compared to how I've heard it before."

[powershines]

"Huh. Maybe I can get a proper music teacher and they'll be able to tell me."

[hisowninvention]

"You're a princess! You can absolutely do that."

[powershines]

[hisowninvention]

[powershines]

"You're doing it again."