A WHOLE NEW WORLD

[flower_power]

WHO| Rapunzel and open
WHAT| Rapunzel arrives and sets off in a random direction. Fantasyland looks. All right?
WHEN| Week 2, in the evening
WHERE| Fantasyland, towards Toon Town
WARNINGS/NOTES| NONE I DON'T THINK



Rapunzel was trying, as she walked, to convince herself that the strangest of the new things she was surrounded by was the shoes. Mother wore them, of course, but Rapunzel herself had never had cause to, because Mother went outside and Rapunzel never had. Until now. And it wasn't that they were terribly uncomfortable, but her feet felt constricted in the strangest way with every step, and feeling the sole flex under them instead of stone or carpet or even her own hair was profoundly distracting.

At the moment, it was distracting in the best possible way.

Rapunzel was trying not to think about it, trying not to think about the odd, dilapidated buildings she'd walked through, trying not to think about the gigantic golden horn that had seemed to be woven. She'd started towards the castle, as it at least looked marginally familiar - her tower had resembled the turrets. Far, far behind her, in a long golden ribbon, her hair stretched, and glinted bright in the sun.

There was a part of her that wondered if this might not be a dream - or nightmare - or maybe the fault of the man who she'd locked in her wardrobe, even if the idea seemed a little ridiculous - how could he have gotten out? A rat scuttled in the shadows of the awning, or tent, or whatever it was, that she was walking past, and Rapunzel squeaked and stumbled back, breath a little faster. She looked behind her, at the long gold ribbon of her hair, and on a sudden instinct began to gather it closer, until she had an armful of the stuff and her hair was only dragging maybe 20 feet.

"Mother," she whispered to herself, staring up at the castle that was now behind her, "I'm so sorry. You were right about the world." She just wanted to go home.

Comments

[revvinguptheharley]

"Which world?"

The voice came very suddenly from a figure lounging casually on a rusted bench. She lay sprawled across the seat with a hand on her cheek propping up her head as she watched the blond girl lament.

Exploring had left Harley's dress in tatters to the point it was boardering on immodest. The red stained strips of yellow fabric wrapped around her middle betrayed the wound she'd received on her first day but apparently she was more focused on the new comer.

[flower_power]

Rapunzel whipped around so fast that she almost tripped herself, stumbling over her hair in a way that she usually didn't. It was the shoes. She blamed the shoes. And after that... she just stared, for a moment, as her brain caught up with the rest of her, as she took in the outfit, and the blood, and the tattered remains of the dress.

Almost subconsciously, Rapunzel drew her light green cape a little tighter, closer to herself. "Oh my gosh, what-

"Is that... blood?"

She's a little paler than normal, fighting to keep from backing up too obviously (but they'd said that people here would try to kill her).

[revvinguptheharley]

The girl sat up and looked around "Blood? Where!?" Scanning the area comically before looking down at her makeshift bandages. "ACK! OHMYGODOHMYGOD!" She stood up, flailed her arms in mock panic then fell off the back of the bench crashing into the bushes.

Then she popped back out and gave a thumbs up "I'm OK!"

[flower_power]

Rapunzel gasped, eyes going wide, and took a few steps forward. Her expression, as she peered towards where the other girl had fallen, was a little worried-

And then, when she popped up, she was left to scuttle backwards, expression instantly wary again.

"You-" No, that was the wrong question. "Who... are you?"

[revvinguptheharley]

Straightening up and cocking her hip the blond girl put a hand on it and brought about her into the sir in grand flourish.

"Doctor Harleen Quinzell, but you can call me Harley Quinn!"

She grinned in an overly cheerful way, "and who are you? Goldilocks? "

[flower_power]

"My name is Rapunzel," she said, not entirely sure whether she was supposed to be defensive or not. The other blonde's tone was odd, and oddly animated, and left Rapunzel feeling slightly off-balance. She seemed too cheerful. Weren't they supposed to be here to kill each other?

[revvinguptheharley]

"Of course it is!" Harley laughed out loud. "Well welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth! This Earth anyway." Harley three her arms out and did a spin.

[polyturtle]

How the shell was he still alive?

His arm still hurt - well, what was left of the stump. He remembered losing consciousness. And then...then he was awake, his mind drifting back at the sound of Templesmith. A feast. At Fantasyland.

It was his best chance of finding Lottie if she was still alive. So he forced himself to move. He had to. Until the Arena claimed his life, he had to. Even though he was still in a shell load of pain, and hungry, and--

--And that was when he stepped on hair.

"Eh-?"

His eye went from where his foot was, all the way to...a girl. He gulped.

"Oh."

[flower_power]

Rapunzel was gathering her hair close when it stopped coming (which could have been worse, she could have been trying to run). Only maybe it couldn't have been, she realized as she looked up and saw something that may or may not be a monster standing on it. She squeaked, just a little, and after half a second frozen dropped her armload, which gave her a little more room that she could move in, and darted for a large pile of rubble. It wasn't perfect, but nothing here was perfect, and not-perfect was still better than nothing at all.

The good thing here was that Rapunzel was very strong, from all those days and weeks and months and years of pulling Mother up the tower every day, and she was able to heft a fairly substantial chunk of stone (it had to be stone, though it was strange and rough and not much like any stone she'd seen before). She cringed a little against the little pile of detritus, reminding herself of the man she'd knocked out, reminding herself that she could do this.

"G-get off of my hair!"

She sounded nice and strong, with just a bit of a stammer at the beginning of her words, hardly noticeable. Closing her eyes, she hefted her bit of rock and then crept around the edge of the pile, trying to hold it poised in as threatening a manner as she could manage.

[polyturtle]

Well, in between the inhuman looks and the blood all over his clothing, Don could probably forgive Rapunzel for thinking he was some kind of vicious beast. But, well, he was...stepping on her hair and...that was rude, so he stepped off.

"Oh, right. I-ah-!?"

He also considered the fact she managed to pick up a large slab of concrete like it was nothing and was now throwing it at him. Weakened as he was by the blood loss and hunger wait...now that he thought about it, how long had he been out!?, not to mention his sense of balance being off by only having one arm, he knew if the girl wanted to do him harm, she probably could. And if she kept chucking road at him, probably would.

He managed to avoid getting hit by that first volley, but his lack of arm and balance caused him to stumble backwards like a drunk baby turtle. He managed with some difficulty and more undignified stumbling to regain his balance.

"I'm sorry, honest!" He held up a hand--er, his only hand up towards Raphunzel the girl. "I didn't realize that was your hair!"

[flower_power]

Rapunzel dropped the bit of stone she was holding to grab her hair up as fast as she could, grabbing armfuls until she could barely see over it. She wished she was back in her tower. Back home, with Mother there, and the lights about to float into the sky. They were going to be there tomorrow, and she would miss it - never mind that Mother wouldn't let her see them in person, she would take the view from her window and be glad of it. What a pity that she wasn't.

She was looking around, trying to decide if she should try to run away or grab some more bits of rock - they weren't the best weapon, but they were at least something - when the thing... talked. She did dart back behind her rubble pile then, peeking out over the top, watching as he held up a hand. He sounded....

Well, he at least didn't sound like he was trying to eat her. He also didn't seem interested in her hair, though that wasn't quite the priority that it had been at home.

"What else would it have been?"

[polyturtle]

He sounded injured and disoriented, actually. But, details.

"Well...its not often you see people with...that...much hair outside of...of Guinness..."

And she was still gathering it up. Either he was delirious, or she had at least fifty feet of hair. Speaking of which.

"...that...is all your hair, right? I'm not still having a post amputation episode?""

[flower_power]

Well the point was it was words, that was the most important thing. The words themselves give her pause.

"Guinness? Is that a city?" There's a pause as she absorbs it. "There are... other people who have hair like mine?" As he continues on, though, he just starts confusing her. The words were making a sort of sense, up until he asked if he was hallucinating. Hadn't he just implied that people from this Guinness did have hair like hers?

Well, at least as long as hers. Presumably he doesn't know about its special qualities.

"I... what?"

[acro_bat_ic]

Stalking Harley. It was sort of the montage that ruled over her life since she first saw the blonde in this stupid arena.

She was getting used to traversing the areas, and mostly avoiding the people. Occasionally, though, she saw someone she hadn't expected to. Sometimes, those people looked a bit nervous. Scared, even.

Usually those were the times she found herself making a little wave. Though that sort of froze when she saw the twenty feet of hair. "...Wow. Your stylists really went all out, huh?"

[flower_power]

All of these people appearing out of the woodwork was making Rapunzel decidedly nervous - these people were here to hurt her, weren't they? That was what she'd been told, at least - if she was going to believe it. Given, however, that this was almost exactly what Mother had warned her about so many times, she was inclined to. Rapunzel wished she'd listened. If she'd only listened, if she'd been good, if she had stayed content in her tower her entire life, with only Mother for company, this maybe could have been avoided.

Maybe.

The girl was at least approaching in a fairly visible way, and waving a little as she did so, but Rapunzel still tried to eye her surroundings as surreptitiously as she could manage, trying to find some way to make a quick escape. If all else failed, she could probably climb her hair. The question, though, is confusing enough to make her forget most of her plans for escape, at least for now.

"My... stylists?"

[acro_bat_ic]

"You did have a stylist... didn't you?" she asked, eyeing the clothes. She stopped a little bit away, and just... looked at Rapunzel. She didn't even know how someone could grow their hair that long. Yet alone why they'd willingly do so before entering an arena.


"Someone to dress you?"

[flower_power]

Rapunzel still didn't quite understand. "Normally?" Someone had put her in this outfit before she was put here, was that what this other girl meant? It must be. And yet....

FFFFFFFFF. I DIDN'T TOTALLY FORGET WE HAD A THREAD OR ANYTHING.

[acro_bat_ic]

She rubbed on arm self consciously,m picking up o the girl's nervousness. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

YOU KNOW WHAT I DON'T BELIEVE YOU

[flower_power]

"I, um...." Rapunzel fiddled with a strand of her hair. "Well, Mother... used to help me get dressed? I guess? She hasn't had to do that for years though."

[pieceofcake]

Gaius, always a curious sort, peeked his way around a corner at the sound of Rapunzel's voice. "That you, Prin-- oh."

It took him half a second to register that that mass of gold stuff trailing behind her was not a train, but human hair. Had to be a decade's worth, at least. "Crivens, Blondie, you're going to get yourself caught on a nail or something. You a royal or something?"

Surely only the nobility had the time and resources to care for a head of hair that extensive. Which made it kind of unfortunate that it was dragging all over the ground. Hell of a shampoo job.

[flower_power]

The question gave Rapunzel pause. "Should I be?" Maybe there was some sort of mistake. Maybe the thing in the bag that that strange man had brought had been the mistake. Maybe that was why she as here.

"What do you mean, I'll get caught on a nail? Are there nails around here to worry about too?" After so many years of use, Rapunzel didn't even have to worry about splinters anymore in the tower, she'd worn every piece of reachable wood smooth.

Have a zombie.

[greatestdetectiveaward]

Javert's hungry. He's also dead. These are two solid things he knows. He doesn't know much else right now, except that his name once upon had some kind of 'airrrr' sound in it.

He's also slow. When he walks, it's an uncoordinated, lurching shuffle, and despite his attempts to keep his arms crossed they keep unraveling like a pelt spooling off a skinned animal. He trips on an exposed brick and it takes him a good five or six minutes to get back up.

Once he does, he sees something glinting down the road. Something shiny, a river of blonde hair. Maybe food. He instinctively moves towards it, thinking to himself that once he eats he can sit down and think to himself and figure out what's going on here and what it is he's supposed to do.

"Nnnnnhhhhhhopp. Pleeeeese." He meant to say 'stop, police'. Was he a police officer before he died?

AHH ZOMBIES one day i'll tag on time it is my dream

[flower_power]

When Rapunzel had been set loose in this place and told that people would try to kill her, she'd expected monsters. She suspected she'd just met one. This stranger's uncoordinated gait, the lurching step, his voice, made her retreat behind a little pile of rubble and back up. Her hair, or at least a good part of it, was draped over an arm because she was trying not to trip over it, and at least carrying it that way didn't make hefting a chunk of the odd, grainy rock - which really was the best weapon around, at least thus far - very difficult.

"Stay- stay where you are!"

Re: AHH ZOMBIES one day i'll tag on time it is my dream

[greatestdetectiveaward]

"You...stay..."

Javert's torn. On one hand, he wants to follow orders. Orders and comfortable, familiar, simple. Right. On the other, orders come from authority, and the only authority he can hear now is the pounding of hunger in his blood. He lurches forward, grabbing for her hair.

[flower_power]

This wasn't working.

Of course it wasn't working, why was she expecting it to work? Rapunzel squeaks and throws her chunk of rock at him, then grabs more of her hair and scurries back.