Video; UN: Filledwithsunshine

[onebadapple]

WHO: Snow White and YOU
WHERE: Network/Also a park
WHEN: Early January
WHAT: With the pressure of surviving her stepmother now gone, Snow's powers are finally making a scene
WARNINGS: Possible past mentions of abuse, tiny bit of body horror

[It's a very pretty scene. Snow is atop a giant hill in the middle of the park surrounded by a flourishing, beautiful garden and... floating gems?

Wait, since when has there been a giant hill in the parks anyway? And it's still winter, how is there a fully blooming garden in the middle of winter?

Snow, for her part, is terrified, though not for the reasons around her. Her hand is resting on the problem that started this all under her sweater and jacket.]

OH! I- I don't mean to be a bother to anyone... but I have a problem. A very very large problem!

I- I don't know how I made this hill or this garden! Or any of this! Though that isn't, in fact, my biggest problem.

[In the middle of her chest, right where the scar from having her heart nearly cut out is, there is now a gem, a deep, ruby red heart-shaped gem. And it's the thing that caused all this in the first place. Snow had, in her panic and pain, fallen to the ground and dug her hands into the earth, thus, the diamonds in the first place.]

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

[droptheious]

I um...well, I can make rocks?

[He opens his other palm to show her a rock growing in his palm, much like the plant.]

I can't do anything with gemstones yet, but if I can control rocks, I'd expect that would be linked. I know that people here definitely get powers...uh...differently here. Like there's no one single way to gain them.

[onebadapple]

And... And a gemstone isn't... in your chest, I'm g-guessing... [She rubs the spot idly, the lingering pain there.]

But why did I suddenly... get e-everything?

[droptheious]

Uhhhhhh no. No, I definitely don't have a gemstone in my chest.

[God, that means he COULD one day, though, and he doesn't want that. He has a rough enough time dealing with the sudden lycanthropy without adding that to the mix. ]

I dunno. That's...unusual. Most of the time this sort of thing happens slowly. Did you have any powers at all before this?

CW: past attempted murder, child abuse

[onebadapple]

[Her head and shoulders slump.]

It's... it's right where my scar was... is... I'm not sure if it's there anymore. But it's a red ruby, a deep red ruby, shaped... shaped LIKE a heart. [Should she show him? She didn't wish to be indecent, though.] It's like it knew where mother tried to have my heart cut out.

[Snow is in too much of a panic to realize she MIGHT not have told Varian that little fact.]

The only... t-the only thing I could possibly think of as a-a power was my ability to call and summon animals and speak with them. But I've had that since I was little.

[droptheious]

Oh...wow that's uh- [he hesitates] um. Your mom did...what?

[Sorry, everything else is by the wayside now. That's not really an aside kind of comment. ]

[onebadapple]

O-Oh, i-it was... she tried to cut out my heart, or well, Mr. Huntsman tried to cut out my heart on her threats. I was seven or so. He couldn't bring himself to do it. He's the one who brought me to the hospital in the end.

Stepmother pressed charges immediately. He's still imprisoned.

[droptheious]

[What the actual fuck. Varian's just...staring. ]

Oh, gee. So glad that he stopped himself from cutting your heart enough to have a change of his own.

[That's not fair, he's done awful things too, and he didn't need a threat hanging over him to do it. He exhales sharply. He knows Snow doesn't want to hear this, but he can't keep it from bubbling out. ]

I'm glad she's gone. She was a monster.

[onebadapple]

You're not the first to say that... [She let out a sigh. Maybe, with time, it will hurt much less and she can bring herself to admit it.] And you won't be the last, I imagine.

[She shook her head.] I... maybe she was, but she was the only mother I had. And... [And no one was exactly stepping up to fill the position, so maybe it was something about Snow.]

Well, in any case, I should be grateful this happened after she's gone. I can't imagine what would have happened if this all occurred while she was still alive. [Which was, not so coincidentally, the reason this is happening now. Brains know when you exist in consistent trauma and when some things aren't safe.]

[droptheious]

I know for a fact I won't be the last. Heck, I'm probably gonna say it a few more times, yet.

[Because Grimhilde deserves that to be her legacy. Only being known as a monster. ]

That just makes it sadder, and I'm glad you have better people in your corner now. [Not that he thinks of HIMSELF as a better person, but he is at least firmly in her corner.]

...Yeah, that's true. She probably would have made this a lot worse.

[onebadapple]

[She snorts in amusement, at least glad for his honesty in a gallows humor sort of way. She looked at the fist-sized diamond hovering nearby and slowly reached out, grabbing it.]

I know what she would have done if she found out I could make this. [She showed and handed him the diamond. He can probably guess what such a greedy woman like Grimhilde would have done as well.] She... I would be... very useful... but not an ounce loved for it. Maybe my life would have stopped being threatened, at the very least. [But it would have become a Gothel situation all over again.

As she was beginning to calm down, the plants seemed to become less "alert" and while the garden wasn't going anywhere, there didn't seem to be a sense of unease running through the earth itself.]

[droptheious]

...Yeah. That's probably what would have-

[Varian stops and looks down for a moment, trying to hold back the bile rising in his stomach. Because that really did hit too close to home. He doesn't know how he can truly despise a woman he never met, but here he is. Quietly:]

Have I ever told you about Gothel?

[onebadapple]

[She shook her head.] No, the name isn't familiar. [She tilted her head.] Who are they?

[droptheious]

[He sucks in a breath.]

She was an evil woman. There was this magical flower in my world that could heal anything- it would also keep a person young. Gothel hoarded the flower, hid it from everyone. But one day the queen got sick...they needed to get the flower to-to save her and the baby she was carrying. They did find it and Gothel was...uh- she really didn't like that.

[onebadapple]

[She looked over to the diamonds and then sighed, looking back to Varian.]

She... she kidnapped the baby, then? [She guessed, women like Gothel... like her stepmother...]

[droptheious]

Yeah, she did. [It's said quiet, but there's an underlying anger there.] She kept Rapunzel in a tower, away from the whole world for the first eighteen years of her life. She- she told her the world outside was dangerous and bad to keep her there, and to just keep...using her hair which ended up being where the magic was, all while pretending she cared about Rapunzel, when she just...didn't. It was about the hair and the magic of the sundrop.

[onebadapple]

Did... did she ever escape? Did Gothel ever learn to love her or let her go? Or... or does her tale end like my stepmother's in a way?

[droptheious]

She escaped, but Gothel never loved her or let her go. Gothel was an evil, hateful person to her last breath. Rapunzel was saved by the man she fell in love with. Gothel killed him to try and keep her - but unfortunately for Gothel, Rapunzel could heal...even the dead.

[Could. Not anymore. The power of the Sundrop is back in the cosmos where it belongs, but still. ]

Gothel died. The man cut the magical hair and she crumbled to dust, falling out of the tower she kept Rapunzel trapped in.

So yeah, a lot like your stepmother. The only thing Gothel was capable of loving was herself.

[onebadapple]

[So, Rapunzel's... stepmother? Captor? she wasn't sure what to call her, was just as unkind. What a horrible way to die, however, to fall to your death and crumble away.

She let out a breath and her smile was wet from unshed tears.]

I'm glad... Rapunzel escaped. I'm glad the man she fell in love with helped set her free.

I'm sorry she even had to go through that at all... [It has a happy ending, for which Snow White is grateful for. No one deserved that. Not even her, and she knew that.

Somedays she even believed it.]

I suppose I understand why stepmother made you so upset. It was Gothel all over again.

[droptheious]

[Gothel was an absolute nightmare.]

Yeah, me too. She deserved a lot better, but things are...good now.

[Even if he added to her misery for a little while there.]

Yeah, I never met Gothel but it sounded too close to what Rapunzel went to. I never wanted two friends to go through that...heck, I never wanted it to happen to ONE.

[onebadapple]

[She reached out and placed a hand atop his shoulder. Feeling helpless about your friends' suffering and trauma...

Honestly, she knew that pretty well, she worried all the time about her friends here.]

I'm sorry... [It's not what she actually wants to say. She doubts Varian wants to hear it either since they both know it's not actually HER fault, but she hates Varian was made to go through all that again and she doesn't have the verbiage to really express that.]

[droptheious]

[He offers her a smile, reaching his hand up to pat the one she's put on his shoulder reassuringly.]

Hey, it's okay, you've got nothing to be sorry about. You didn't do any of that, just like you didn't do anything to deserve what your stepmother did to you. That's-that's all on her.

[onebadapple]

I... [She lets out a breath. "You've got nothing to be sorry about." How are those words such a balm? Everything was always her fault, it was never perfect, it was never good enough, it was never ever... enough.

She wiped away some more tears.] Thank you for coming. [Even when he was uncomfortable right now with his appearance.] I think... Would it be alright if you walked me home, Varian? After so much excitement, I... I really just want a nap.

[droptheious]

[He would definitely argue with those thoughts if he could hear them. But for now, though, he accepts he can't push this and takes the chance to get her away from this place. ]

Sure-sure thing, Snow. Come on, let's get out of here.