oversized shoes and long luxurious locks

[thesundrop]

After the Dawning event, Rapunzel had received some advice on where to purchase shoes. So now the previously barefoot woman is proudly wearing a pair of men's shoes, that are two sizes too big for her. She sits on the edge of a fountain in the Nexus, admiring a lily that had floated by.

The long, long, long cascading length of her hair is wrapped around the base of the fountain a few times.

"Did you know that some flowers have meaning to them?" She excitedly asks someone who was walking by. "I just learned that the Oenothera means wine seeker. Which is funny... because I don't even know what wine is..."

"Should I be seeking some wine?" She asks again, just as excited.

"There are so many things I have never tried before... if you had to experience something for the first time, all over again... what would it be?"

Comments

[diabolical_adonis]

A young man--a fresh Nexus strandee--walks briskly by, burning off some irritated energy. The clutter and nonsense of the place is driving him crazy. Of course that witch would send him here.

A few paces past the strange young woman and her flood of questions, he stops abruptly. What better way to burn off a bit of anger than to take it out on someone else? He turns on his heel and traces his steps back to the girl.

"What are you talking about?" he demands, arms akimbo. "You don't even know what wine is? Are you stupid?"

[thesundrop]

Rapunzel jolts a little at the anger being directed to her. She holds some of her long hair tightly in her hand.

"Mother never let me have wine." She answers meekly.

[diabolical_adonis]

"Hah, of course. You're just a child, aren't you? Asking childish questions." He raises his chin imperiously despite his scant fifteen years.

"Does your mother know you're here?" he asks teasingly, crossing his arms.

[thesundrop]

"No. She never wanted me to leave the Tower. I left without her knowing." Rapunzel tells him. And crosses her arms slightly.

[diabolical_adonis]

"Do you have any idea what happens to naïve little girls who run away from home?" The words tumble out of his mouth and his breath hitches ever-so-slightly at the end. A blank look crosses his face but he shakes it off as quickly as it appeared. His habitual sneer resumes.

"You should never have left."

[thesundrop]

"I need to see the Sky Lanterns in person. They are calling to me."

Rapunzel steadies herself slightly. "What would you know about what I need to do?"

[diabolical_adonis]

"You don't know anything about the world. That's why you're asking silly questions, right?"

The young man opens his mouth to ask about these sky lanterns, but a memory crystalizes: a clear night and warm, glowing shapes mirrored in the glassy surface of dark canals. He makes a sound of disgust.

"What's so important about some stupid lanterns?"

[thesundrop]

"Then please educate me on the things you know about the world." Rapunzel tells him.

"They make me feel like they are being put in the sky, because of me. I want to see them in person."

[diabolical_adonis]

"Because of you?" He shakes his head in disbelief. "Some girl in a tower? Ridiculous."

If he had planned on continuing to berate her, the appeal to his expertise stokes the flames of his ego and instead, he takes a seat on the fountain, lifting away a length of hair, brow arched.

"You want to know how to make it in the world? It's simple." He rubs the fresh scar on his cheek as he rattles off his best pieces of misbegotten advice: "Be careful who you trust. Keep your eye out for witches. Never apologize. Always get in the first attack."

[thesundrop]

"I thought one could not attack others here..." Rapunzel gestures to the Nexus plaza.

[diabolical_adonis]

Mention of that annoying technicality elicits a dramatic sigh and a grimace. He waves a hand dismissively. "Save that one for later."

His hand moves to cup his chin. He gives Rapunzel a sideways glance. "How did you end up in this miserable, cursed place? You ran away from home and then what?"

[thesundrop]

"I went through a door, and came here. I do not know which way would get me back to where I was. So I am exploring where I am..."

[diabolical_adonis]

"How do you explore with all of this?" he asks, holding up a handful of hair.

[thesundrop]

"You explore and walk around with your hair. Your clothes. Why does it seem impossible for me to explore with mine?"

[diabolical_adonis]

"My hair and clothes don't get caught on things." He waves a hand at the current configuration around the fountain. "Not to mention they don't drag on the ground and get covered in filth."

A-ha! He smiles and raises an index finger before pulling out a dagger. "Here. I'll cut it for you. Easy!"

[thesundrop]

"My hair does not get caught on things either."

Rapunzel stands, and with a spin collects all her length of hair around her.

"No. I do not want it cut." She says it loud enough, that even the Nexus itself would consider the act as violence. And prevent any violence to her hair.

[diabolical_adonis]

Well, that's new. He's never seen hair move like that. If he's unnerved, he does his best not to show it.

"Oh, calm down, girl," he says with rolled eyes and a careless wave of his dagger. "It was just an idea."

The blade is grudgingly returned to it's sheath with a metallic hiss. "You're just as weird as the rest of this place, aren't you?"

[thesundrop]

"I will take that as a compliment..." Rapunzel keeps her hair around her, a little nervous about him right now.

[diabolical_adonis]

"It's not a compliment," he snaps, looking pointedly away. His hand returns to his cheek, dragging fingers up and down compulsively. "This place is awful. I'd sooner be anywhere else."

[thesundrop]

"Then why don't you leave, if you do not like being here?"

[diabolical_adonis]

"What, with one of these things? I tried. They're garbage." He fishes around in his coat and pulls out the sad, smashed remains of a PINpoint. By some miracle the mishandled device didn't teleport all or part of him into some kind of shrimp dimension. It's the least he deserves.

He tosses it into the fountain, frightening away some milling fish. "No doubt the witch is blocking me from going home."

[thesundrop]

"Sounds like it is a problem that you have to face, somehow." Rapunzel gives him a slight nod. He still unsettles her, especially with the threat of cutting her hair.

[diabolical_adonis]

"Of course. I'm no idiot. I'll find my way back and make them regret this. And everything else they've done." As much as he isn't used to problems that can't be solved by brute force, he isn't about to admit when he's stumped. Definitely not to someone he's just accused of being stupid. Repeatedly.

Rapunzel's careful distance is duly noted. His head cocks to one side. "If you're afraid of me, why don't you just run away?"

[thesundrop]

Rapunzel steadies herself. And notes softly. "You have been hurt before. I don't think that I am the person who you should be mad about."

She is not running away either.

[diabolical_adonis]

He jerks the hand away from his face, even as the wound has been irritated by his attention. "You don't know anything about me."

He stands, sputtering, gesticulating. "Augh! You don't ... you don't even know what wine is!"