asgardeventide | [video | open | filtered from Spain]

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[video | open | filtered from Spain]

I've got a question for the people-countries here. Or the country-people. Is there something you prefer to be called? I don't want to be rude, but I still don't really understand everything about it yet.

[An urgent look.]

But Spain said that sometimes, when a country is gone, the person just disappears! Is that true? Is it like dying, or do they go somewhere else? It doesn't seem right, for a person to just disappear into thin air after existing. I mean, I know no one lasts forever, but that's different from going 'poof.'

If you could answer me, I'd really appreciate it. I want to understand more about this.

And do any of you know Japan? What's he like?

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No! No, Nakama, it's -- It's okay. [ She smiles in what she hopes is a reassuring and not crazy way. ] Don't be sorry when I asked. [ this with a silly giggle ] You're prooobably not the only person who thinks that anyway.

Why, how old are you really?

Um. I'll be eighteen soon.

Oh, good, I wasn't too far off.

So how old do you think that I am, then? It's only fair. [She's expecting 10, 11, based off her pudgy face and shapeless body.]

You know, I really have no idea! [ How does one judge a person's age anyway? It's only from her own experiences that she feels any surprise at the discrepancy in what people assume of hers. ] I haven't asked anyone else, so I don't have a full picture of what humans in general are supposed to look like at certain ages. I only know how I looked. And as far as how you act...

[Somehow this girl reminds her of Namine - everything she says speaks of an aching loneliness, of isolation. It worries her, but still feels too personal to ask about. So she simply shrugs, looking curious.]

How do I act?

[ a shrug ] Nice. Not conniving or wicked or vain the way I thought women were meant to be. You seem - strong. You know? Like my mother. [ it's a compliment really ]

There are a lot of girls who are that way... I'm glad you don't think I'm one of them. I've always tried to be different.

[Strong? She blushes.] Thank you. My mom is strong, too. The strongest person I knew.

Exactly. [ she stands straighter with the truth she feels in her words. ] It's - sort of like I said before: I don't know your mother? But I know she ought to be proud.

...At least I know mine was right about something.

That's all I've ever wanted. [A bit choked up, but then she looks confused.]

Did you doubt your mom, then? Did she tell a lot of stories or something?

No! [ It's too fast an exclamation and too defensive to be innocent and Rapunzel, blushing, knows it. ] I've never doubted her. How could I? She knows so much more than I. And maybe Asgard isn't anything like Corona so she could still be right, but...

[She gives Rapunzel a solemn, comforting look.] There are probably billions of worlds represented here. Of course some of what she said might seem wrong. Those are things she couldn't be expected to know, though.

Right. [ And this works to reassure her, to fix her smile. ] Right! I mean, maybe everyone in Corona is a brutal, vicious miscreant.

[Now she looks alarmed.] That doesn't sound like a very nice world...! I hope you're safe when you go home.

When I go home?

You don't want to go home?

[ And just like that her face falls, guilt rushing over her before she can think of anything to shut it out.

But rather than answer, Rapunzel simply reaches up to play with her hair, pretending to think about it. ]

It's okay, you know. There are a lot of people who don't want to go home right away. There's a lot of freedom and a lot of really good people here, and not everyone comes from worlds like that. It's understandable if you want to stay.

[It's just her suspicions talking, but she feels like Rapunzel was very sheltered, which is why she brings up the freedom. Again she's reminded of Namine, and she wonders if the girls know one another.]

I am free. [ She agrees with a quirk of the lips that doesn't last. ] I guess it's - the people that's the problem. [ Because over the weeks that's what she's come to love about the city: these people who may just be her friends. She hopes they are. She likes having friends. Everything is better when you're not alone.

But again she forces those feelings down and away and puts on a cheerfully playful look, as though any discomfort was only a joke on her part. ] But if you want to get home, Nakama? I'm going to do what I can to help you. You're not the only one who wants that. And - [ And even if time DOES stop when they're here... She'd prefer to know her Mother isn't dead because of her selfishness. ] And... it can't hurt to have a way back. You know?

Oh, Rapunzel... [How can she explain to such an innocent girl that she can't go back? She hates this part, hates that it ever has to come up and hates telling people about it. So she tries a dodge, crossing her fingers that it'll work.]

... there are a lot of people who not only want, but need to get home. And we have to focus on them. So many worlds in danger, and so many people who are the only ones who can help. We can't stand in the way of that, no matter what we want.

[ That makes sense. She doesn't really want it to. But it does. Perfectly.

But maybe it's her innocence that allows her to see what's really being said here. Or rather - what isn't being said. The things she'd expected to hear with the way Nakama was talking earlier but which fell through to something else. And the surprise on her face shifts slowly into confusion as she tilts her head. ]

I... thought you were one of those people.

I'd love to go home... if I could.

[So much for that dodge. Now it's time to put this as lightly as possible.]

But I can't. My time at home - is finished.

[ She hesitates again, voice softening instinctively. ] What do you mean?

[Just say it. Trust her to handle it as she will.]

I'm dead. I was brought back to life to be here. And the gods can only keep us alive here.

[ At first the words don't really sink in. Or if they do, they don't sink far enough. They sit at the surface of her awareness for her to look at and examine but Rapunzel doesn't really understand them for a long moment.

And then she does. And maybe she should be shocked or pitying or sympathetic or something normal, showing a reaction that works under the circumstances, works with the situation. But as her lips part and her brows come together and her stomach slowly falls, all she can think of is the fear. Because the thought of Nakama dying like one of her plants or like the animals outside her window - it scares her, and the second part of her sentence doesn't register at first in the face of that.

When it does - when she comes back to herself enough to nod as usual, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she looks anywhere but at the screen - Rapunzel can't think of anything to say except ] How?

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