View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
After lunch, Rapunzel wants a little fresh air. She goes out the back door, trailing guards and Rolan into the walled garden (subject to the same border patrols as the rest of the grounds, quite safe). There are flowers and topiaries and little water features and -
"Oh! There are magic plants here!" she exclaims, approaching a section of mismatched flora edged with white stones. "I didn't realize there would be. I wonder where the gardener is, I wonder what they do?"
+ Show First Post
powershines
hisowninvention
"It's just... not scary to me. I'd like to be able to just share my thoughts without words getting in the way - not with the whole world, obviously, but with, for example, you."
hisowninvention
"Okay." He glances at the gardener. "Do you mind if we experiment with the plant? Won't hurt it, I promise."
powershines
"I'm still catching up to the fact that you can just tell what they do like that - why did no one never notice it about the tree?" wonders the gardener.
"Did you ever try feeding a fruit to someone who wasn't expecting to have magical-tree-fruit in particular?" asks Rapunzel. "It's simple enough that it'd be easy to ignore the knowledge if you already had it even in vague terms."
"I suppose," marvels the gardener. He tastes a creeper and laughs.
"Did you ever try feeding a fruit to someone who wasn't expecting to have magical-tree-fruit in particular?" asks Rapunzel. "It's simple enough that it'd be easy to ignore the knowledge if you already had it even in vague terms."
"I suppose," marvels the gardener. He tastes a creeper and laughs.
hisowninvention
Rolan tangles his hand in the little coily tendrils of the hanging moss and gives it a kiss, as directed by mysterious plant knowledge.
He shows Rapunzel: see, it just isn't scary, it's fun and interesting and useful and now he can explain things so much better and by the way he loves her.
(That last part isn't quite intentional - he was using the plant in the way that doesn't hold anything back, to underscore his point, and, well. He loves her. It's part of every thought he has in which she is remotely involved. He doesn't especially regret sending it along, unless it turns out to embarrass her or something.)
He shows Rapunzel: see, it just isn't scary, it's fun and interesting and useful and now he can explain things so much better and by the way he loves her.
(That last part isn't quite intentional - he was using the plant in the way that doesn't hold anything back, to underscore his point, and, well. He loves her. It's part of every thought he has in which she is remotely involved. He doesn't especially regret sending it along, unless it turns out to embarrass her or something.)
hisowninvention
"Sorry," says Rolan. (Slightly sorry, conditionally sorry - she's grinning, so he can't be all that sorry, her grin is just so delightful.) "Should I not?" (He is observing the gardener for reactions that might indicate incipient rumours about the princess and her Ambiguously Close Friend, ready to deflect suspicion with a suggestion that perhaps being thought-sent at by the flower can be a little overwhelming if sudden, but so far the gardener seems thoroughly occupied and not inclined to speculate about the details of this exchange.)
powershines
(The gardener is tasting a magical tall-grass-clump.)
"It's lovely," Rapunzel assures him.
"It's lovely," Rapunzel assures him.
hisowninvention
"Oh, good."
In that case he will continue. With details, even - he loves her and this is how: the delightfulness of her grin and the memory of hugging each other while they cried and the way he felt when he risked life and dealt death to save her from being kidnapped, the knowledge of future grief combined with the certainty that it was just worth it combined with that indescribable flying feeling he gets every time he takes a major risk on his life or freedom - and the things he's already told her about, with depth and colour now, the desire to share all his knowledge of the world with her and wrap her up in his arms to snuggle all her troubles away or just to feel the way he does when he hugs her, and to stay with her, to keep seeing her exist in her inimitable herselfness for the rest of his life - which could be quite a while, and isn't that an interesting new development, a long life has never been a tremendously high priority of his but he could see himself liking immortality if he got to spend all that time as Rapunzel's friend.
In that case he will continue. With details, even - he loves her and this is how: the delightfulness of her grin and the memory of hugging each other while they cried and the way he felt when he risked life and dealt death to save her from being kidnapped, the knowledge of future grief combined with the certainty that it was just worth it combined with that indescribable flying feeling he gets every time he takes a major risk on his life or freedom - and the things he's already told her about, with depth and colour now, the desire to share all his knowledge of the world with her and wrap her up in his arms to snuggle all her troubles away or just to feel the way he does when he hugs her, and to stay with her, to keep seeing her exist in her inimitable herselfness for the rest of his life - which could be quite a while, and isn't that an interesting new development, a long life has never been a tremendously high priority of his but he could see himself liking immortality if he got to spend all that time as Rapunzel's friend.
powershines
Rapunzel is just about weeping with happiness.
The gardener starts to address her but decides to wait.
The gardener starts to address her but decides to wait.
hisowninvention
Perhaps they should borrow this plant, so that future experiments can take place with fewer close witnesses.
Rolan disentangles himself from the hanging moss and stops sending so Rapunzel can calm herself down.
Rolan disentangles himself from the hanging moss and stops sending so Rapunzel can calm herself down.
powershines
Rapunzel does, eventually, calm herself down, and get to a standing position again.
"Princess," says the gardener, when it's clear she's no longer occupied with having feelings about Rolan's thoughts, "I think you'll like the grass."
"...oh?" She bends and tastes the tip of a blade.
Then she bursts out laughing.
"Princess," says the gardener, when it's clear she's no longer occupied with having feelings about Rolan's thoughts, "I think you'll like the grass."
"...oh?" She bends and tastes the tip of a blade.
Then she bursts out laughing.
powershines
"The grass - it - I'll show you!" She unties the end of her braid and sits in front of the grass and drops her hair on it.
Within about thirty seconds the grass has animated sufficiently to undo her braid, while maintaining control of all seventy feet of hair in its unbraided state. When she doesn't get up right away, it starts re-braiding the hair, in a much more complicated pattern - it's divided the hair into a dozen parts and is simultaneously working on three different cylindrical braids of it. When it has finished these it twines all three together in a more standard braiding configuration and then wraps one of its blades around the end patiently until Rapunzel has it tied back up again.
"I can't pick how it does my hair, but it will sure do my hair. It'd weave threads too, if you gave it those, or anything else you can twist around in patterns."
Within about thirty seconds the grass has animated sufficiently to undo her braid, while maintaining control of all seventy feet of hair in its unbraided state. When she doesn't get up right away, it starts re-braiding the hair, in a much more complicated pattern - it's divided the hair into a dozen parts and is simultaneously working on three different cylindrical braids of it. When it has finished these it twines all three together in a more standard braiding configuration and then wraps one of its blades around the end patiently until Rapunzel has it tied back up again.
"I can't pick how it does my hair, but it will sure do my hair. It'd weave threads too, if you gave it those, or anything else you can twist around in patterns."
powershines
"Did you check the creeper vine, what does it do?" Rapunzel asks the gardener.
"Holds things," reports the gardener. "If you ask politely and hand it something."
"Holds things," reports the gardener. "If you ask politely and hand it something."
hisowninvention
"All these plants are so cute," says Rolan. "Rapunzel, would you like me to borrow the thinky one, for - convenient explanations?" (His hand is still close enough to the plant to count, and so he can clarify that 'convenient explanations' definitely also includes future instances of explaining his love in such detail that she nearly falls over from happiness, because that was amazing. Unless she would rather he not, in which case he can regretfully but earnestly try to tone it down.)
powershines
"If that's allowed. It looks like it might be relatively portable, anyway, no roots."
"Er, I'd want to ask their majesties to be sure, as everything in the garden's theirs," says the gardener. "I don't object for myself, if that's what you're asking."
"All right."
"Er, I'd want to ask their majesties to be sure, as everything in the garden's theirs," says the gardener. "I don't object for myself, if that's what you're asking."
"All right."
hisowninvention
"It's so little and cute and helpful," he says, petting its tangly tendrils. "Let's ask your parents about it next time we see them."
hisowninvention
"Sounds about right." (He wants to hug her, but in context it might have implications that he would rather not broadcast, relating to everyone's favourite unmentionable subject. She can have some huggy feelings, instead.)
hisowninvention
Rolan smiles the Smile. (And now she can know exactly what it represents, the way he gets all warm and cozy inside when she is being delightfully herself.)
powershines
"Eeeeeheeheehee!" she squeaks.
The gardener snorts to himself and gives the creeper vine a pat and goes off to finish his edging.
The gardener snorts to himself and gives the creeper vine a pat and goes off to finish his edging.