#tangled rewrite

Varian’s confession: This next scene played three ways in my head. One with just Rapunzel present, one with Rapunzel and Eugene present, the other without either them present, it’s just Varian and Quirin. It takes place immediately after Quirin shares his past.

With tears and a shaky voice, Varian admits what he’s done over the past year. Quirin has to walk out of the room to process what Varian has done, leaving Varian brokenhearted and sobbing.

With just Rapunzel, she takes Varian into her arms and holds him while he cries. She tells him to give his father a few minutes to process things. She says that even if Quirin is ashamed of what his son did, he should be proud that Varian told him the truth even though it was hard for Varian to say. After a few minutes, Rapunzel gets up to talk to Quirin to bring him back into the room to comfort Varian. She gives him a moment to speak his mind. He’s distressed at the mess Varian has landed himself in. He feels like he’s failed him as a father. He knows he can’t protect his son now. Varian has to fight this on his own. He has to watch his son struggle through even more distrust, more sneers, more leery looks, even some ridicule, name calling and harsh words, possibly threats and acts of violence. Things he has tried to shield Varian from or soften the blows of. Rapunzel tells him that he can make up for that by being there for Varian now. Being his support, reminding him that at the end of the day, there’s someone he can always come home to that loves him dearly.

With Eugene present, Eugene too has to step back a bit to process Varian’s side of the story. When he has done this, he places a comforting hand on Varian’s shoulder before he checks on Quirin seeing that Rapunzel has Varian in her arms. Here, Quirin admits that he wants to protect his son but now he feels that he really can’t. Eugene tells him that yes, Quirin’s ability to protect Varian from the people is relatively low right now. Varian screwed up and has climb out of this hole on his own and make amends himself. He also agrees that Quirin has been a bit a of distant father, even throws in a joking reference to the amber which earns a bit of a glare. Eugene recomposes himself and says Quirin can make that up to Varian standing by his side and support him. “You left him out there” (pointing back to dining room) “thinking that you’re ashamed of him, and that he’s lost any hope for a relationship he can have with you. Go back in there/Go to your son, and let him know that you’re here for him.”

When it’s just the two of them they are in the dining room or in Quirin’s room looking at his chest he brought from the Dark Kingdom. After Varian admits what he’s done Quirin leaves to process and compose himself. Varian, heartbroken, tears streaming down his face pleads in a desperate broken voice for his father to not leave him. His voice gets smaller as his father walks away.  Quirin comes back after calming down. He holds his son as he cries into his shirt, apologizing over and over. It’s a rough conversation with Varian being vulnerable in his shame and Quirin venting some frustration but trying to hold it back for his son’s sake. At the end, Quirin says he’s proud of his son for telling him the truth.

Scene- Quirin comes in seeing his child hunched over, hugging himself as he sobs. He walks over to him, gently puts his hands over his son’s. Varian either jolts at the contact, or he takes a second before he looks up at his father. They hold each other’s gaze, reading the emotions the the others’ eyes before they shift their positions. Varian is practically on his father’s lap. Quirin brings Varian’s head to his chest, one hand on his head the other wrapping around his son’s small body. He really is a child dwarfed by his father, wrapped in the cocoon of his father’s arms.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I-I’m… I’m so sorry, Dad.”

“What are you sorry for?” Quirin asks. There’s a slight roughness in his voice mixed with other emotions. He’s sad, heartbroken, scared for his boy but decides to be strong for him. He’s trying to be gentle to coax words out of his son.

“Everything! For disappointing you, for what I did to the King and Queen, to Corona, (his voice speeds up before dissolving into sobs) to Rapunzel, the Saporians, the amber, all of it!”

He collapses into sobs that shake his whole body. Quirin shifts his arms to make sure he has room to breathe. Varian buries his face in his father’s shirt.

“I wish you would think about these things before you do them. Think about the consequences of your actions and how far they can reach.”

…

“I hoped that it wouldn’t require a death to make you stop and examine your actions,” Quirin said.

“But it did.” Varian said a few tears coming down his face. “Y-your d-death, and almost a (sniffle) year in prison.”

Clearing the Air, Making Amends- Topics that the two will talk about and how they promise to change or do things differently moving forward.

Moonstone Headcanon: Quirin has PTSD from his time in the Dark Kingdom. The helplessness he felt with the Moonstone’s power, the failure he felt when they all had to leave, when he couldn’t protect his people, or his King.

Scene- After hearing accounts from Edmund and Adira on what the moonstone was like, volatile, unpredictable, destructive, Varian asks if his alchemy ever made his father feel like he was around a second moonstone. Quirin, not wanting to hurt his son doesn’t answer at first. Varian asks him to be honest with him. Quirin says “yes, some times were worse than others.” Varian is distressed that he caused his father so much pain and stress. He apologizes. Inside he wishes he had known about the Moonstone, maybe he would have toned down some of his experiments for his the sake of his father’s sanity.

Scene- After hearing a rough story about Quirin’s time in the Brotherhood, Varian hugs his father to comfort him. He can tell his father has a lot of heart wounds from the experience. He walks in front of his father who is sitting down, presses his father’s head to his front, holds it there with one hand, then drapes the other hand around his shoulders. “Thank you, Son,” Quirin says with a sigh and returns the hug. “You’re welcome. I’m really proud of you, Dad.” Quirin leans into his son. “Thank you.”

Scene- Quirin gets nightmares about the moonstone. Sometimes Varian’s alchemy gets mixed in there. Sometimes Varian dies, sometimes he’s mixing and pouring not even aware to the destruction he causes. Sometimes He and the moonstone merge into an entity. Destructive, but trying to have restraint.

Alchemy: Show or confirm how Quirin’s experience with the Moonstone has affected his view of Varian’s alchemy. If it’s volatile or unpredictable, don’t mess with it! He doesn’t understand alchemy, or how all the reactions come about. Varian says that he can always ask and he’ll be happy to explain it to him. At a different time, Eugene point out that Varian gets excited every time he talks about alchemy. Quirin confirms this but admits that it’s like trying to understand a foreign language. Using a foreign language as an example, Eugene says that if you know some basic words and sentence structure, context and meaning can be easy to pick up. Even cutting through the jargon can be easier if you know the basics of the language. Quirin realizes has to swallow his pride and re-channel his feeling of feeling stupid so he can connect with his son. It’s pointed out that if Varian can slow down and give Quirin time to process what he’s saying or use everyday language or simple terms or even bottom line something then go into more detail, Quirin can follow along better.

Taking on big projects: Quirin says that he was afraid to encourage Varian because he didn’t want Varian to take that as permission to take on bigger projects. But that’s what happened anyway (i.e. hot water system). Varian admits that he thought that if he successfully did something amazing for his village his father would be proud of him, praise him, look at him with pride instead of disappointment. Quirin apologizes for this. He says that the disappointment came from stress from dealing with the fallouts from the explosions. Also it seemed like in the excitement of his projects Varian would not consider how far the damage could reach if something goes wrong. It seemed like he didn’t have a contingency plan or failsafes to avert disaster. He also worries that Varian will hurt himself or get killed from his work going awry. Varian promises tot tone down his alchemy. Keep thing simple, no new chemical compounds.

Quirin wants his son safe but he doesn’t know how to go about that.

They discuss how Quirin felt with Varian’s alchemy. How worried it made Quirin that Varian never fully grasped how dangerous his alchemy methods were to himself and those around him. How Quirin was reaching the decision to let life teach his son the consequences of his actions. He just hoped that it wouldn’t require a death for Varian to step back and accept that what he was doing was overly risky. He knew a death could break his son causing him to breakdown in guilt and come out of it with a broken spirit.

He wants to protect his son from people. He’s been able to shield him from the brunt of their words, but now with Varian’s stint as a villain, he can’t protect him in that way anymore. It hurts and he feels like he has failed his son as a father. He later realizes that he can use his position as Village Leader to protect his son from threats and acts of physical harm, but that’s about all he can do for now.

Once Varian becomes more responsible with his alchemy and inventions Quirin starts being more vocal with his support of his son’s passion and works.

Explaining Alchemy- Varian explains that he felt alchemy was all he had since his mom is dead and he doesn’t have a good relationship with his father. Also asking him to give it up like some people wanted was like asking Monty not to make candy.

Varian shows his dad his notebooks, records, and chemical recipes. The notebooks are organized by year, records show the results of his mixtures and their reactions. He even has graphs and pictures in his records. Quirin turns to the explosives section. Tables for each explosive compound. Which mixtures cause explosions and how big those explosions are. Example “Flynnolium”, needs a reactant to explode and is very flammable. A table shows which equations cause big “BOOM”, and which produce flames but no explosion. The only constant on the page is “Flynnolium”.

Scene- “You take notes. Careful notes,” Quirin says flipping through one of his son’s notebooks.

“Kinda have to. I do, or rather did, a lot of mixing. It’s hard to remember every result of every combination I mixed.”

Quirin looks through one of the books. Tables that record chemical equations, how much of each chemical, and the result of the equation. There’s graphs of flame’s heights and sizes, rows of drawings of explosion radii. Multiple uses of DANGER! TOO MUCH! DON’T DO IT! AVOID FOR EVERYONE’S SAFETY!

“I had no idea.” Quirin says quietly, in awe and impressed by his son’s meticulous notes. He looks up at his son as he arranges things on a shelf. His eyes soft and proud, an equally soft smile on face.

“I wanted you to be proud of me” Varian explains that his bigger inventions were attempts to get his father to be proud of him. Varian realizes that he has to go into better detail of what that means. “I wanted to you to look at me with pride in your eyes, instead of disappointment. That’s what fueled me. I thought that if I could fix my mistake with the amber, we’d be good. I decided on my way to the castle that that day that I was going to be a different person. I wanted you to believe in me.”

It’s finally decided what both of them can do for each other. Varian promises no more mixing chemicals for awhile. He’s got a pretty good arsenal as it is. He promises to keep any new inventions small scale, calculate potential damage, and prepare for damage if something goes awry. Any big projects he’ll ask for help. (basically anything to help lower his dad’s stress levels). Quirin for his part promises to be more open with his son. Both in how much he loves him, and let Varian know when he sees something Varian can improve on. He agrees to ask about Varian’s alchemy projects more often. Varian promises to find a way to explain his projects in layman’s terms. In addition to this one of them buys Quirin a dictionary of alchemical terms to show he’s actively making an effort to get close to his son, to join him in his world.

Nightmares After being reunited, the two of them have frequent nightmares.

Ruddiger usually comforts Varian; sometimes his dad hears him and comes in to comfort him until he falls asleep.

If Quirin gets a bad nightmare regarding Varian dying, getting injured, or pleading with his father to save him and Quirin is unable to, he will go to Varian’s room and check on him. He’ll wake Varian up and try to calm him down if Varian is having a nightmare. He smiles if Varian is sleeping peacefully. He’ll stay and watch his precious son sleep.

Ruddiger will usually stay with Varian. However, there are times where he will hear Quirin come in while Varian is sleeping. If Ruddiger is awake enough, he’ll notice that Quirin has had a nightmare. If Varian is sleeping peacefully, Ruddiger will follow Quirin back to bed and lay near him.  Quirin comes to appreciate this, he even tells Ruddiger one night that he’s grateful for his presence in their lives. Ruddiger gives a soft, happy chitter in response.

When both of Varian and Quirin have night terrors, Quirin goes to Varian’s room (he may or may not have heard Varian yell). They calm each other down, then embrace in a sweaty hug. A few times, after they’ve calmed down and they’re not ready to be alone, Quirin invites Varian into his room. They get into Quirin’s bed after switching the sweaty pillows. Once they’re tucked in, Quirin wraps his arms around his son. In this case Ruddiger climbs onto the bed and will do one of three things:

1) He’ll place himself next to Varian or he’ll find a divot on top of the blankets and nestle himself there. He makes sure he’s in arms reach of both the humans, or by their legs.  

2) He’ll find a spot between the father and son and position himself there so Varian can wrap his arm around him.  He pays attention to whether they need to have close contact. He won’t get in the way if they really need to be close. 

3) If Quirin is on his back and  Varian is resting his head on his father’s chest or shoulder, Ruddiger will sleep on Quirin tummy.

EXTRAS: Ideas that didn’t really fit in the categories above

The first night or three after Quirin’s release from the amber, father and son slept in each other’s arms, not wanting to be apart. Varian either had his hand or his head or both on his father’s heart to guarantee that his father was with him.

Quirin standing up for his son against jerks in Corona or against Nigel. Speaking against threats  or when comments about his son get taken too far. Occasionally he will draw himself up to full height and berth to warn people not to touch his son.

Quirin gives Varian the money to buy the albemic he mentioned in “Day of the Animals”, and packed a couple ham sandwiches and apples for Varian’s lunch for the trip.

The Saporians break out again, target and capture Varian. Quirin fights Kai then Andrew, and knocks Clementine out while the handle of his sword before she can use the wand in a surprise attack. Varian’s jaw drops seeing his father’s control and power with his sword. When Varian is recovered and the Saporians thwarted, Andrew makes a final attack on Varian. It’s intercepted by Quirin who then grabs Andrew by the throat, lifts him and warns him to stay away from his son. While they are walking back home, Varian is marveling at his dad’s skill. Someone informs Varian that Quirin was holding back. If he wanted the Saporians dead, they would be dead. He says he didn’t kill for his son’s sake and for his own; Varian’s aversion to blood and not wanting to be the reason someone died, and Quirin has seen enough death from the Moonstone.

Scenes of Varian and Quirin fighting side by side in the final battle. (WHY DID WE NEVER GET THIS?!?!)

Both of them riding on Ruddiger, Quirin welding a sword, or hammer like I’ve seen in some fanart.

Quirin using Varian’s alchemy balls and the Project Obsidian bazooka to trap their enemies and protect his son when enemies get to close. Sometimes he throws the wrong alchemy balls to his mild frustration.

Varian using his alchemy to protect his father’s flank and blindspots. Throws a smoke bomb to hide his dad. Takes Quirin awhile to re-adjust before he lands a punch to an enemy. A bit later he warns Varian not to obstruct his view while fighting. It makes him an open target.

Battle banter and encouragement! WE GOT SO ROBBED!!