joy, plain and simple [OPEN]

[princesscliche]

WHO: Giselle and many folks, no doubt
WHERE: Ccccentral park, and perhaps elsewhere if led away!
WHEN: The days following the rise of the geeks (tues, wed, thurs, fri? PICK SOME)
WARNINGS: EXCESSIVE SMILING AND USE OF "OH" AS A SENTENCE-STARTER. Also a strong likelihood of busting out into song/dance (I WILL PM IF THIS BECOMES IMMINENT).
SUMMARY:

Comments

[princesscliche]

By waking up extra-early, Giselle had managed to have enough time for not only her self-designated morning chores, breakfast, and the final touches on a new summer dress, but also to take a stop by the park to say hello to some of the animals and frequenting elderly that she loved so much to see. It was a special day, yes, but it just wouldn't do to leave anyone feeling neglected!

It did make her a little late, however, seeing as she was trying to get her cab driver to follow a robin that knew the way to the MAC (Giselle sure didn't!). Of course, all of that was surprisingly over and done with when she did say 'MAC' - apparently he already knew where it was! It was quite a relief. She sure hoped that cab driver had no hard feelings for the trouble she'd accidentally put him through.

While Giselle craned her neck up and marveled at the residential building, her bird friend took to flying up to the proper window, tittering when it found Rapnuzel there. It gave a loud series of chirps down to Giselle below, who waved her thanks before going inside.

It took another few minutes to negotiate the elevator, picking wrong floors before a kind stranger indicated stairs. Stairs! That was much easier.

Before it seemed like she'd vanished into thin air, she was knocking on the door, smoothing the flyaways in her hair down. Goodness, but it was hard work making rendezvous on time!

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel was honestly a bit startled when the bird landed on the windowsill she was sitting right next to, then tittered something and flew off. She hadn't been expecting that at all...but then, she never had much luck with birds. They always flew away when she tried to talk to them. Pascal was woken by the tittering and hoped onto the windowsill to peer after the creature as it flew away, before glancing up at Rapunzel and giving a little chameleon shrug.

When the knock came a few minutes later, Rapunzel laughed to herself. Giselle talked to birds, she had said, so that would explain the odd behavior. "It's open!" She called out pleasantly, since she wasn't expecting anyone else this morning. The apartment was perfectly clean, and would've looked it too if not for the hair draped over pretty much everything. Rapunzel was a foot or so into her braid (which was almost as wide as her waist at this point) which meant she'd managed to make about ten feet of hair disappear.

Which left a lot.

[princesscliche]

The knob jiggled almost frantically, then the whole door gave way to one beaming redhead just ready to pounce. She sang out her greeting, "Rapunzel!" and rushed in, giving a giggly gasp at the sight of all the hair pooled around the floor, minding her step.

"Ohh! Oh, my, it's even shinier in person! Your hair is so beautiful!"

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel was a bit surprised at just how 'up' Giselle was, though she probably shouldn't have been since it was pretty much the same as she was on the network. She smiled brightly at the compliment though, her fingers continuing to work at her braid. It was an almost automatic motion, really.

"Thank you! Don't worry too much about stepping on it, it's very strong." Considering she used it as a level and pully system back home it probably made sense. She'd managed to string most of it across the couch and some chairs.

[princesscliche]

Giselle marveled with unabashed delight, spinning on a foot to take in the scope of all the hair around the room. She'd never seen so much hair before! It was definitely a bigger impact in person than in a storybook. Of course, all the wonder had to fall back to the source, and she realized - "Oh!" - that she had agreed to lend a hand. Sweeping over, she picked up a length of hair draped over the nearest chair, sitting down and setting it in her lap.

"Here, I'll help with this side, and you do that, and we'll be done in no time."

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel nodded eagerly as the other sat down, and then she gave a quick explanation about how exactly her braid worked, since it ended up being the size of a small truck by the time she was finished. It probably weighed more than she did, really.

"Thank you so much for this, Giselle. We wouldn't have been able to leave till after lunch if I did it on my own!" Even getting up early, Rapunzel's hair was...well...a task.

But with two people, just look how quick it went.

[princesscliche]

Almost too quick, it seemed. Giselle had a knack for killing time that may have surpassed even Rapunzel's, if only because she never seemed to get bored with whatever task was at hand. Her fingers were deft, catching on quickly to the trick of the knotting as she was shown, and it was really no time at all before the deed was done. All the while she had chattered on about this or that: Shockwave's pets (Panthro being her favorite, oh but not really because how could she ever choose?), meeting an elephant, having dinner with pirates, and, of course, all about her meeting with Prince Edward (she never tired of it) and her hopes for the happily ever after she was certain would follow.

Strangely enough, that part was the shortest to get through. She hardly noticed.

"Looks like we have time for lunch and then some!" Giselle replied, giving a little applause, encouraging the girl to do a showing twirl of her new up-do. She hopped to her feet, regarding the fine work fondly until she couldn't possibly hold back anymore; she held out her arms to embrace her. "Oh, I'm so glad we finally have been able to meet like this! It's really so wonderful."

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel stood up when it was finished, smiling brightly. "We do! Oh thank you," she did, in fact, twirl around on the toes of her bare feet, the braid swinging about behind her like...well, something rather dangerous. She was very good at not hitting things with it, though the first minute or two after she finished were always a bit dangerous. The braid was probably large enough to be called a tax dependent.

She accepted the embrace with almost as big a smile, hugging the other tightly. "I know!" It was strange, the way they met people without meeting people in the city. Through the phones, it didn't really count. "I'm so excited," she added as she stepped back, clasping her hands together. "This is going to be so much fun!"

Pascal just watched them both from the window. He doesn't seem terribly impressed.

[princesscliche]

"Oh, yes!" Giselle exclaimed, drawing back and taking hold of both hands, bouncing a little. "We should go right away! Before something else stops us!"

And that was all the motivation she needed to tug the girl by the hand out the door - nearly forgetting that said door ought to be closed on the way out - and bouncing down the many flights of stairs as if elevators didn't exist at all. Outside, she had a chance to show off her cab-hailing skills (she was actually getting pretty good at it; being pretty seemed to help) and secure them a ride without a hitch.

"We want to go to the statue!" she cheerfully announced to their driver.

She looked more than baffled when the man asked Which statue?

Her eyes darted to her younger friend helplessly.

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel had just enough time to hold out a hand so Pascal could hop on and disappear up her sleeve before she was being tugged along by Giselle, locking the door when reminded and then being very impressed by her cab-hailing skills. "I always take the buses!" She commented absently as they climbed into the car.

She'd never actually been in a car, really, so this was all fairly impressive, and she smiled brightly and poked at the leather of the seat in front of them, almost missing the conversation between Giselle and the driver.

As if she could sense eyes on her she looked up. "What?" Her mind ran through the conversation she'd been ignoring, and she smiled brightly. "Oh! The Statue. It's, it's on an island, the statue of...libertines?"

Oh she hoped that was right...

[princesscliche]

Giselle could only nod in blind agreement with her friend as the cab driver squinted at the both of them, eyebrow quirking as he realized he'd just picked up some of those passengers. He caught on quick, though, correcting Rapunzel ('Statue-a Liberty, lady.') before starting them on her way. Relieved, Giselle reclined in the seat, hands bouncing excitedly in her lap as she interchanged between gazing out the window and giving Rapunzel eager glances and smiles.

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel nodded politely to the correction, and even said 'statue-a liberty' under her breath a couple times until she was sure she had it right before she turned to peer out the window too. "Oh this is much different than on the buses! Usually everyone is reading newspapers and the windows are much higher up."

She glanced over at Giselle during the ride, probably just as much as the other did, her hands in her lap, tugging nervously on her skirt. Pascal eventually emerged from her collar but Rapunzel shooed him back into hiding, since some people didn't like seeing him.

[princesscliche]

The ride was a fairly lengthy trip compared to what Giselle was used to, but even in her eagerness to see the statue, there was much to be relished in the ride there. The poor cab driver was probably sick to death of giggly girls before it was all done for all the noise and flailing she got about to, oftentimes scooting over to Rapunzel's side to peer up at a peculiar building or sign that was passed by. She'd let out little squeaks of surprise with each sudden stop or start on those busy urban streets; journeys were meant to be savored, of course, but the destination was always the biggest in mind.

"There, I see it!" she squealed, practically falling on Rapunzel as the cab took a sharp turn, the seemingly endless walls of buildings and alleys finally clearing to expose the coast and its giant sentinel. "Look!"

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel was just rather bad at sitting still. The whole ride she fidgetted, not so much flailing like Giselle as touching things and poking things and scrunching up a second of her skirt and then smoothing it out again. And even playing a little finger game with Pascal when he got tired of hiding and crawled out into her lap.

He disappeared again when Giselle almost tackled her, and Rapunzel laughed as it came into view, peering silently through the window after. She could tell even from so far away it must have been amazingly tall..she thought she'd never get used to that, really, not ever. The fact that things could be taller than Mother's Tower and yet weren't mountains still seemed so strange to her.

[princesscliche]

It must've been worth it to prolong the car ride full of gasps and giggles, or maybe he was just used to weirdo tourists, but the cab driver seemed to endure long enough to take them close to a street where one of the many tour boat stores were lined up to take advantage of girls such as them. He did have to make a grab for their attention before they spilled out, and Giselle gave no less than five thank-yous as she paid him for his time - never exact change on hand, she just let him keep all the rest; she was too excited to go.

"Ohhh, just look!" The scale was a lot more impressive from where they were, and they weren't even that close. "Have you ever seen a person that big before?" Not even the ogre that had tried to eat her was so large.

[paints_lanterns]

Rapunzel watched intently as Giselle paid, since this was her first taxi ride, and was surprised to see how expensive it was! Still, Giselle didn't seem to mind paying it, so Rapunzel pushed the thought out of her mind and let herself get swept up in the enthusiasm too. "No, never! I wonder if it's even bigger than the buildings they have over here?"

Without hesitating she caught Giselle's hand and hurried down towards where the ferries to take them across where, bare feet slapping against the sidewalk as she went. She slid to a stop though and paused. "Uhm," she glanced back at the other, and then at the boats.

"...I guess we take the one that just says 'Ferry?'"