application for babylonwood
The Player
User Name/Nick: Brandi
User LJ: muggles
AIM/IM: pandasaurs
E-mail: kupocakes@yahoo
Other Characters: Jo, Anna, Nill, Vanille
The Character
Character Name: Rapunzel
Character Journal: gleamandglow
Canon: Tangled
Age: 18
From When?: Right after she and Flynn run away from her tower and go on the road to see the lanterns in the Kingdom.
Abilities/Powers: Rapunzel is surprisingly strong and agile for a petite girl that's spent her entire life indoors. She can swing a iron frying pan with ease, and packs enough of a punch with one to knock people out. She also is able to leap from rafter to rafter in her tower, and is shown being able to run and jump fast/far enough to skid across the top of water with amazing ease. She also seems to have the ability to speak to animals, given that she holds conversations with Pascal and Maximus that no one else understands.
Oh, and then there's that thing with her hair. Not only can she use it to tie things up, as a rope, to pick things up, to braid, to act as a pulley system, or to drag things; she can use it as a weapon as well. She is shown defeating enemies simply by wrapping her hair around them and pulling them into hard surfaces so they pass out, and she also can just wrap her hair around someone and toss them away from any situation. Oh, and it has healing capabilities too. When the magical incantation is sung, Rapunzel's hair glows gold and it has the power to heal wounds and reverse someone's age so they're young again. If her hair is ever cut off, it all will turn brown and it will lose all magical ability.
But don't worry, her tears also have the ability to bring people back to life and heal too.
Yes, I'm serious. Super serious. But there's actually a reason for it, I promise.
When Rapunzel's mother was pregnant with her, she became very sick and the only way to cure her was by the use of a magical flower. This flower had healing properties, and once it was found, it was put into a medicine and was given to the Queen. She was healed, and then Rapunzel was born. But because of the flower in the Queen's system, Rapunzel was given the magical healing properties of the flower. Hence the magical tears. That is also why her hair glows, and why it's able to heal others and stay so gosh darned perfect all the time. Seriously, she's seen brushing it, but I doubt she ever really gets tangles or split ends. It's perfect princess hair, which is probably both the most annoying and most impressive thing about her. Yes, I'm jealous of a Disney character's hair.
Anyhew, it's also shown within the first five minutes of the movie how skilled Rapunzel is in time management and keeping herself busy. Being locked in a tower her entire life has made her an expert at speed cleaning, and it's also made her a very artistic person as the arts are the only way she can really keep herself entertained. She's good at sewing, knitting, paper mache, music, writing, reading, dancing, pottery, and painting. Painting seems to be the thing that she favors the most, and she's covered practically every blank space on the walls of the tower with her work. She has no idea how to function out in the real world, but she's definitely highly creative and knows how to make things.
Lastly, she's surprisingly good at dealing with people. For someone who has been locked away from every human being ever except for her mother, Rapunzel is awesome at being great with people. She's congenial, she's spirited, and she's pretty funny. She's also highly compassionate and downright adorable, which leads even the scariest ruffians and thieves to be able to sing songs about dreams and happiness in her presence.
Oh, and she's also great at hiding bodies, in case that service ever needs to be provided. Just ask Flynn!
Power Limitations: Really, I don't plan on limiting the use of Rapunzel's hair. She needs it to function, and as a weapon, and given that it will get caught up in trees and can easily be used against her by the fae I think it's more of a hindrance than a blessing. The healing abilities will still remain intact, but she's only going to use them when it's absolutely necessary. She won't go around showing off what her hair can do, because she's afraid of what people will think of her.
Inventory
- Clothes(purple/pink princessyish dress, note the lack of shoes)
- long ass hair (with a comb hidden inside, because she can't be stuck here without a brush of some kind!)
- chameleon (named Pascal, he's her silent bff/sidekick)
- frying pan (yep. Cast iron skillet, bitches)
Personality: In a lot of ways, Rapunzel is a stereotypical Disney Princess. She's beautiful, friendly, whimsical, innocent, compassionate, and freakishly adorable. She talks to animals and she breaks into song, and she can make even the biggest and scariest men adore her to the point that they sing happy and magical songs with her. But underneath everything that makes Rapunzel fall into line with the rest of the Disney Princesses is a lot of insecurities and sadness that none of the others seem to have. After being locked away by her mother for her entire life, Rapunzel is depressed with the way that her life is going. She doesn't want to be kept in the tower anymore, she wants to go out and see the world. She's finally realized that telling herself that her day is full because she does the same things every single day doesn't work anymore, and she longs to have something more meaningful in her life. And she finds that meaning in getting to see these lanterns that are released in the sky every year on the night of her birthday. And this act of actually finding her own meaning and desperately trying to get to it is what sets Rapunzel apart from other princesses.
While it's meeting Flynn that sets her into coming up with a plan to escape her tower, she doesn't sit there and wait for a man to show up and rescue her. It's just a coincidence that Flynn shows up and is the lucky one that gets stuck with her, because she would have gotten just about anyone to help her at that point. She knows what she wants and actively seeks it out, and isn't easily deterred from it. No matter how many times Flynn tries to scare her into going back home, she digs her heels in and makes the best out of the situation and usually ends up getting things to go her way. She's resourceful and surprisingly cunning, enough that she's able to finally gather the courage to lie to her mother and get her to go away on a three day trip so she can find a way to escape the tower and go see the lights. She's one of the first princess figures seen as lying to their parents, and not looking for love or their prince but instead chasing after a dream. Of course, Rapunzel doesn't know she's a princess until the end of the movie, but even if she had known much earlier she wouldn't have just sat around and waited for a knight to come save her and get her what she wants.
But because she was locked in a tower, she is unsure of the world around her, mostly because of the people in it. Her mother has basically brainwashed her into being afraid of all people, particularly ruffians and men with sharp teeth. Rapunzel truly believes that the entire world is out to find her and her hair, and use it for their own personal gain, thanks to Gothel's constant reminding her of how delicate and innocent she is. And while Rapunzel is delicately featured and shaped, she most certainly is able to survive whatever the world throws at her and then some. She's shown fighting and holding her own, running away from danger, leaping off of cliffs, and facing obstacles alongside Flynn. She's not a typical damsel in distress at all, even if sometimes she meets people that make her initially freak out. Lucky for her, people are quick to warm up to her and she ends up getting to know people and befriends them easily.
She's a very trustworthy person, pretty much to the point where it's painful to watch her make deals that you know the other person isn't going to hold their end of. She says multiple times that she never goes back on a promise, and she really doesn't. Whatever she promises, she holds herself to her word and refuses to go back on it, no matter how much something may upset or hurt her. She's entirely trusting of others in this aspect too, and honestly believes that everyone ever is telling her the truth. When someone makes a promise or a deal to her, she believes they'll hold up their end of the deal, and is pretty much heartbroken when it doesn't end up happening. She just doesn't understand why people would lie to her, since she's grown up believing her mother has told her the entire truth about everything ever.
She's highly emotional, as all teenagers at that age are, and is shown having a meltdown of emotions after first escaping. She bounces back and forth between fear and happiness, and excitement and tears. One moment she feels high on getting to finally put her feet in the grass, and the next she's sobbing over what a terrible daughter she is. So she can be fickle in this aspect, but she is a teenager, one that is trying to find her place in the world when she's been kept away from it for her entire life. She doesn't quite know how to act in all situations and has to keep her emotions pent up in front of her mother, so she has a tendency to let them leak out when around new people (particularly poor Flynn). She can only keep her walls built up for so long, and now that her mother isn't around, she's able to freely express herself without having to worry about being yelled at or made fun of.
She's definitely able to hold her own in a conflict or confrontation, though, unless the person she's facing off against is her mother. She feels in debt to her mother for hiding her, and has no idea she's been kidnapped and hid away from her real family her entire life. She truly believes that Gothel does what's best for her and tries her best to keep Rapunzel happy, and has no idea that she's a never ending source of youth potion for the woman. So she does her best to keep Gothel happy, especially since she's slightly afraid of Gothel's temper and doesn't seem to be very fond of the jokes Gothel makes at her expense. But other than her mother, she doesn't hesitate to stand up for what she believes in, and she doesn't mind standing her ground. She's a scrapper, and fights to get what she wants. Once she gets an idea in her head, she won't back down from it, and if you're standing in her way she will figure out a way to get you to back down. She looks sweet and innocent, and overall she entirely is, but she can be fiesty and spirited when the situation calls for it.
She's a very artistic person, and is seen in the opening scene doing a wide variety of crafts and projects. she reads, she writes, she sings, she dances, she does paper mache, pottery, painting, drawing, sewing, knitting, baking, and so on. She fills her days with these activities and is an expert at them. But because she's used to constantly finding ways to keep herself busy, she doesn't really know what to do with idle time. Because of this, she'll be doing whatever she can to keep herself busy during the days. Cleaning, finding ways to do art projects, singing, dancing, all kinds of things will be done in order to keep herself from becoming bored and going crazy. While she essentially traded one prison for another, she's not going to look at it that way. She can be outside and see the trees and snow, and see animals. She'll get to meet people, so she's going to be perfectly content. She'll worry about her mother and about whether or not she'll ever get to see the lanterns, but she's not going to just sit around and lament her bad luck at being stuck. She's going to try and make friends with everyone, and she's going to explore everywhere she possibly can. She's going to be interested in meeting the fae and getting to know them, and she's going to really enjoy her freedom. At some point she's going to get homesick and she'll burst into tears, but until then, she's going to make the most out of her chance at actually having a chance to live life.
History: Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, there lived a King and a Queen who were waiting for their baby to arrive. One day, the Queen became very ill and almost died, but the brave knights and townspeople of the Kingdom sought out a magical flower that could heal the Queen. After drinking the medicine that the flower provided, the Queen was healed and shortly after a beautiful daughter with golden hair was born to the royal family. Overjoyed by the birth of their first child, the King and Queen set beautiful fire lanterns into the sky and the entire Kingdom rejoiced.
Unknown to the King and Queen, however, there was an evil witch lurking near the castle. This witch was named Gothel, and was angered that the Queen's illness had caused the uprooting and destruction of the magical flower that had kept her alive and young for many years. So one night, Gothel crept into the baby's room and sang the magical incantation that she used to sing to get the flower to glow and heal her. As expected, the baby's hair began to glow and Gothel became young again! Glad to have found a new source, Gothel cut off a lock of the baby's hair, and was dismayed to see that it turned dark brown in her hands and lost all magical ability.
It was at that point Gothel knew the hair would die just like the flower had, and that the hair had to be kept alive and on the baby's head in order to work. So she kidnapped the baby and took her away from her parents and her kingdom, and hid her away in a tower far far away. The baby, named Rapunzel, grew up lonely and believing Gothel was her mother who wanted to protect and care for her. She longed to go outside and play, but was never allowed to, and every year on her birthday Rapunzel would run to the only window in the tower to watch lanterns be released into the sky.
Eventually Rapunzel grew up, and on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she approached her mother with a suggestion. She wanted to go see the lanterns in the Kingdom! Thinking it was time to get some freedom, Rapunzel was shocked and heartbroken when her mother refused and yelled at her, and told her she was never going to leave the tower. But Rapunzel couldn't leave well enough alone, and it was after a thief by the name of Flynn broke into the tower to hide that she came up with a plan to finally get out and see the lights. Using Flynn's stolen crown (which just so happened to be hers, but of course she wouldn't know that) as a bargain, she hid his stolen goods and told him that he would get them back only after he took her to see the lanterns in the Kingdom. Not sure how to get there herself, she needed a guide, and Flynn looked capable enough to do the job.
After lying to her mother and sending her on a trip that would take three days, Rapunzel and Flynn set out on the road. And for the first time ever, Rapunzel felt the grass and dirt beneath her feet, and she could breathe the open air. Excited, she followed along after Flynn down the path and toward her dream.
But unfortunately, a force much stronger than either of them swept them up and pulled them into another story, one that will alter the ending. Trapped in a magical forest, Rapunzel must now learn how to survive among fae and people who are stuck alongside her. Given a chance to prove to herself that she can be strong and capable, Rapunzel knew that she had to do finally let herself life a little. She was given this opportunity, and she wasn't going to waste it by being afraid of what would happen to her. It wasn't a happily ever after, not just yet, but she knew enough to be aware that this was only a pause in her story back home. One day she would go back, and Flynn would take her to see the lights. And maybe then she could go back to being locked away happily, after having seen her biggest dream.
First Person Sample: Link to D_M post!
Prose Sample:
"Best out of fifteen, Pascal?"
The chameleon sitting on the blonde's shoulder squeaked out a negative response and shook his head, displeased with the fact his friend had found his hiding place the past ten times he had tried hiding. All he received was a laugh and a poke to his head for his annoyance, however, and Rapunzel moved to stand up and lean out the window. It was so beautiful outside today, with a warm breeze and a perfectly clear sky. She would have given anything to be out there, but knew that wasn't a possibility, and so she had attempted to make herself feel better about that by playing hide and seek. Unfortunately, there wasn't all that many places to hide in the tower, not even for a tiny lizard. Usually Pascal would hold out for at least twenty rounds, but today he seemed a little on edge and Rapunzel just left it at that and didn't push the issue.
Instead, she stared up at the sky, a longing smile on her face. Her chin rested in her hand, and her elbow on the windowsill, and she let out a sigh.
"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to spend a day outside?" She glanced down at her little green friend, who nodded sympathetically. "We could spend all day swimming! Or -" She paused, trying to think of just the perfect thing to do. The truth was that she wanted to do so very much that she knew she couldn't possibly fit it all into one day. But that didn't stop her from imagining what it would be like to get to do everything.
"Or!" Laughing, she moved away from the window and spun about, catching some of her hair that trailed along behind her as she twirled. "Or, we could find a way to get to the Kingdom, Pascal! Can you just imagine it?" She had no idea what the Kingdom even looked like, but she swore that she could hear the music that would play there and smell the scents that would be there. She had such a perfect idea of her ideal kingdom in her mind that she didn't need to know the reality in order to be able to fully enjoy it.
Of course, she wanted more than anything to get to see the lanterns there, but for the past eighteen years she had done nothing but dream about why the lanterns even were put into the sky and where they went after the lights were all extinguished. Oh, she had an ideal version of the Kingdom in her head, and not even Pascal looking at her sadly with those big eyes of his was going to make her feel sorry for herself for having to create a fake ideal world in her mind.
"Maybe mother will let me go this year, do you think?" Another spin was given, as if she were practicing for some kind of dance routine. Arms outstretched on either side of her, she turned her head to look into the full length mirror that was standing across the room. "I'm so ready, Pascal. So ready that it hurts, that I feel like I'm being smothered the longer I stay in here! It's not fair that I have to be here."
She realized that her voice had taken on a whining tone and opened her mouth to correct it, but noise from outside drew her attention. She instantly recognized her mother's voice calling out to let down her hair, and with a feigned smile that had been perfected by years of covering up disappointment she crouched down to pick up the rest of her hair in order to drop down out the window.
"The only way in, the only way out. One day I'll get to climb out too, but for now..." She looked down, and motioned with a nod of her head for Pascal to go hide. She waited until she saw her friend scurry away into the darkness before heading over to the window to look down.
"For now, I owe her everything. I can't bring it up, not yet. But soon, I promise." And knowing that she would never break a promise, especially not one to herself, she kept that fake smile on her face and was as animated as possible as she waved down to her mother and let down her hair.
Special Notes: Uh....nope.