23 April 2024

This is a connector scene between Isaac’s deal and their arrival in the forest. This assumes I’ll be changing Rapunzel’s first chapter to focus on some other part of her daily life; painting while Gothel is around when she knows Gothel’s likely reaction seems dumb. I hope to use the new chapter to foreshadow something, or build up something for Rapunzel to lose, but I don’t have that pinned down right now.

Once Rapunzel was sure Mother was truly gone, she darted to her paint studio. It had no door; the wall at the end of the hallway opened up for her as she approached, and closed behind her after she entered. It wasn’t always this way; when Rapunzel had first started painting, Mother had helped her get set up in the main living area, and would often watch her paint. That only lasted until Rapunzel made the mistake of trying to paint Queen Maleficent of Venwald. That had been a particularly bad episode Mother had even shifted into various animal forms, and she had lashed out at Rapunzel when the girl had gotten close to try and calm her down.

That painting hung prominently on the back wall of the studio, alongside dozens of others. Quite a few depicted Mother’s various different faces, but the most common subject had to be Queen Hannah. Rapunzel’s current project was actually based on a portrait of Hannah from over a decade prior, holding a baby. Probably Prince Isaac, but it was hard to tell; it could have been Rapunzel herself, before Mother had whisked her away.

Rapunzel let a finger brush the painting’s face, before she shook her head and got to work. She wanted to see how much she could get done in the next three days.