Vintage; Jane Goodfairy

Jane was born from air.

When fairy godmothers are born, they are born from ideas, from treasured memories and beloved relationships. Good hearts who only long to do good in the world. It's why any of the realms in Auradon were capable of birthing fairy godmothers and the rare fairy godfather, as good people lived all over the continent. However, the vast majority were born in places ruled by royalty, especially those ruled by the great ladies, as their kindness and goodness are inspirations to their people. They were not as fearful or distrustful of magic as others in Auradon City were, indeed, many welcomed it and were curious by it.

Jane herself was born in Queen Cinderella's kingdom, where a lot like her tend to be born. Hearing that story makes many wish for their own similar hope, after all. She was a sparkle of light, then found herself in Ms. Goodfairy's home, being instantly adopted by her. Cinderella's own Fairy Godmother, who named her Jane and treated her well.

Jane loved her mom, but her lifestyle didn't really prepare her for any kind of actual socializing. Mom was often too busy, being the Headmistress of Auradon Preparatory, to do much with Jane, leaving her alone to fend for herself. A lot of her magic she just learned from a book herself, failing. She wore dresses she knew from television were considered to be 'vintage'. According to Audrey, that was another word for old. Old was bad. Her hair was done by a local salon, which had no idea how to actually do anything and gave her the worst haircuts imaginable.

What she really longed for was the day she would actually be able to be of use, be helpful. That was the dream and goal of any Fairy Godmother. To be the dream of a downtrodden maiden or lad, to come in their darkest moment, and then completely change their lives with magic. She wondered who it would be, who she'd help. One of her peers?

She was invited to Auradon Preparatory, well wasn't that expected, her mother being who she was and all? She shied away from everyone, especially because she didn't attend actual classes, and only really clicked with Lonnie, who didn't understand why she was invited, not having a drop of royal or noble blood anywhere in her. There weren't other fairies like her. Miss Tinker Bell, sure, but she was from Neverland and those fairies were different. They couldn't even have a real conversation because of the language barrier.

Then, Mal showed up. Mal, an evil fairy, daughter of the most notorious fairy of them all. She helped Jane, gave her a beautiful hairstyle and new set of clothing. She was…nice. Jane couldn't believe it. Yet, Mal really seemed genuine and tried to use her magic to help others. She made Jane be cool and new and not old and lame. Even Audrey took notice.

Jane wasn't sure what to make of anything anymore. Who was good, who was bad, what was old and lame and cool and new? Who decided those things?

She wanted to age out of school.

Vanilla; Ally Liddel

Ally liked plain tea, unadorned dresses, blank walls, and vanilla in all her desserts. It was a shock when people found that out, but it made sense to her in the sense it wasn't supposed to have sense. Life was loud and colorful and chaos and nonsense. Mother was forgetful and uninterested in remembering her adventures, Father was decent but too athletic to get much conversation out of, and her aunt was droll. Wonderland was uninterested in her family, but very interested in her.

The first time she fell down the rabbit hole, she was ten and did so on accident, landing on a beach. What followed was hours of impromptu dancing and chasing that left her confused and exhausted. Mother knew what had happened immediately and sat her down, explaining what was to be done now that she's seen Wonderland. Ally listened, intrigued. Since then, she kept a separation between her normal life and her life in Wonderland, wanting everything to be as normal and boring as possible in the real world so she knew when she had truly returned. The only 'odd' thing were her blue streaks in her hair, only because that was the fashion. Even her friends were completely normal. A mermaid, a girl who knew aliens, and a boy who can fly with Peter Pan.

She stirred her plain tea and took a sip during the lunch break.

Bland. Just how she wanted it to be.

Sleep, Mike Darling

To the Darling family, nothing was more detrimental than growing up. Their entire livelihoods rested on that very fact. They could never grow up, otherwise Peter Pan would stop visiting. They grew up anyway.

Mike's family kept a large portrait of Great-Great-Grandma Wendy in the living room, a serious woman wearing a violet evening gown with her eyes closed. Mike saw her a few times when he was a kid, now that was a woman with imagination. She still had the light in her eyes. Everyone remembered Wendy, and Great-Grandma Jane, the two girls who never wanted to grow up. Nobody really remembered Wendy's brothers, and maybe that was for the best. They became boring. While Wendy never forgot her spirit of imagination, John and Michael did very quickly. John became a boring bookkeeper and never married anyone except his job, while Michael became a changed man due to World War 2, immigrating to America shortly afterwards and marrying the first woman he could establish any kind of connection with. His dreams were the only things that gave him peace after that.

John forgot about Peter Pan, but Wendy and Michael never did. It was tradition for every Darling to have a child of their own to keep the story going, and they had more than enough to make up for that. Mike was fourth generation in a short line. His mom is Maddy and she's the daughter of Great-Grandpa's son, Mikey.

Anyway, enough of the boring history lesson. Mike was the current Darling, blah blah blah. That came with experiences his friends didn't have. Sure, Wilbur's parents invented time-travel, Melody could turn into a mermaid and swim to Atlantica whenever, Lilo had been to mother-freaking space with aliens, and Ally was always one fall away from Wonderland, but that was typical. He could fly. He had been to Neverland. Every night, even at Auradon Prep, Peter Pan was there, letting himself in the room by the window and taking his hand and flying off.

Mike enjoyed the mermaids the most, and actually managed to figure out how to make them not drown him!

When he discovered Peter Pan only came while asleep, he started to fall asleep everywhere, unafraid of his snoozes. He wanted to maximize his time with Peter Pan because he loved his adventures. When he was awake, that's when he was with his friends, playing video games and maintaining a cool attitude. At night, he belonged to Neverland, flying high and touching the clouds as Peter Pan led him to the famous star.

Mike was fourteen though. A lot happened at fourteen, and he purposefully kept himself immature mentally in the hopes of extending his time, for it was too soon and he wasn't ready for the fun to end.

"What fun? Who are you talking about?" Mom asked, even though she still set out little fairy houses when she thought nobody was looking.

"Can't you grow up and be a man like I had to?" Great-Grandpa would grumble whenever he was in a talking mood, forgetting how every night he would still gaze at the famous star and whisper about how unfair it was that Peter Pan abandoned young boys when they needed him most.

Sure, he would remember, but remembering was different from actually experiencing.

Anyway, Mike was fourteen now.

Machine; Prince Arthur of Camelot, Second of His Name, Blessed of Merlin, Fae's Favorite

Artie desperately wanted nothing more but to see what constituted as 'technology'. His closest look had been once when he was seven or eight. Only a few years ago! Sir Father and Lady Mother were in the throne room, discussing something lowly with Merlin, when he had just come in from training. He ran in and the three stopped and stared at him, wondering how much he had overheard. Merlin smiled then and posed dramatically, gesturing.

"My boy, may I introduce you to….the microwave!" He announced.

"What's it do?" Artie asked happily, looking at it from all angles. He poked a button and there was a loud sound and the door swung open and he ran for comfort from Sir Father, who chuckled.

"It heats up your meals and cooks them! No need for a twenty-five-person kitchen! Amazing, right?"

"But quite unneeded." Lady Mother said. She was a graceful and polite woman, with shining brown-blonde hair and church windows embroidered into her long dresses and cloaks. Sir Father was also golden and muscular, always wearing his shining kingly armor, completely unrecognizable from the young boy deemed Wart that is famous throughout the land.

"But I like it! What if I'm hungry in the middle of the night? It's cool!" Artie pouted. "I could just keep it in my room!"

"How would you power it, without electricity?" The foreign word danced in Artie's ears.

"Uh, I'll think of something!" He pouted. "It just sounds neat. I'm tired of mutton and potatoes. Mad Maddy Mim tells me about the food they eat at Auradon Prep, stuff like pizza! I bet you could make that in a microwave!"

"That girl is as off her rocker as her grandmam is, and no offense to either of those ladies!" Merlin said. "She could be tricking you,"

"Go practice your swordfighting," Lady Mother smiled calmly, and Artie nodded politely and did so.

When he came back, the microwave was gone. He blew his sweaty hair out of his face.

Every year after that was the same. Merlin would bring back something cool and he wasn't even allowed to keep it. Artie was only eleven, but he was tired of routine. Why wouldn't his parents let him have a bit of fun?! Merlin and Sir Father got to be teachers at Auradon Prep and see all kinds of amazing things. Things Artie might never get to see himself, if Camelot remained the way it was.

Nobody wanted to say so, but it was the joke of the realms. It was extremely feudal and backwards, and offered nothing interesting in terms of trade or tourism. Those were words Sir Father stressed over. Nobody cared about their realm, nobody cared about the story of King Arthur, nobody cared about an extremely primitive kingdom. They were a joke. They were dying. They needed something new.

Mad Maddy said so. She was a good friend of his, but she was rarely ever in the castle, living in the woods instead with her family. Then she went to Auradon Prep and left him alone, just like Merlin and Sir Father. Even when Sir Father was there, he was busy with king stuff, leaving Artie himself in the care of Lady Mother and Sir Lancelot, whom Artie secretly didn't like because he was really gloomy and had trouble actually talking to people. He just regurgitated the same speeches about tradition and honor and chivalry and boring things. Like he was such a great knight. He smelled like alcohol a lot and couldn't stop staring at Lady Mother. Lady Mother herself was a woman, and therefore kind yet firm and just as boring to talk to.

Artie didn't want to be king. He wanted to see Sir Father more. He wanted the adults to actually take him seriously. He wanted machines and technology in the kingdom. He wanted Camelot to be respected as a serious realm of Auradon and not just some joke. He didn't want the throne, he wanted to be a regular kid.

Please don't put him on the throne, please don't make him a joke of a king in a dying kingdom.

He just couldn't bear it.

Set; Princess Arabella of Atlantica

Laugh all you want. That's what Arabella said every day. She didn't care. She knew exactly who she was. One in a set, one in a group of multiple other cousins, all fighting to stand out in their own ways. Arabella didn't mind. It was fitting. Aunt Ariel's sisters were just that, her sisters. Basically a monolith for the purposes of the story. Her peers didn't even know who her mom was. And really, did it matter who she belonged to? She looked just like her dad anyway, a random merman dude she rarely saw because he worked on a kelp farm and wasn't a fan of royal life.

Arabella didn't mind what anyone said about their family. Life in Atlantica was different, too different, with its own set of rules. Of course they wouldn't get it. The vast majority of her peers and other Auradon City residents were just humans. Most humans just had one kid and had a very simple lineage. Merpeople did not. They had numerous children, resulting in a lot of siblings, which then turned into lots of cousins. Aunt Ariel and her sisters were a tad unique as most only had one or two children, except Aunt Arista, she had those bubbly triplets, no pun intended, but that was still seven girls having at the bare minimum a child each, which resulted in seven cousins. Who could get that?!

At school, her rhythm came from Anxelin and Louis. They didn't see her as interchangeable, instead as her own person. Like how she did enjoy shiny things but especially loved the rare black pearls, they respected that. They knew about hearing the most bizarre slander about their folks and the three would keep each other up on the phone, texting the weirdest jokes they could possibly think of.

Can you believe Aunt Ariel traded her voice for legs?

My mom spent half her life in a tower. Now I gotta live life fast!

You guys try living down here. I can't look at frog legs anymore! Make me sick!

They'd all start laughing and hollering until the dawn came.

Her first year in the upper levels at Auradon Prep, Chad actually offered to date her. Imagine that! Her dating a real prince! He even said her pixie cut was cute!

She liked him, but he broke it off after several months. Apparently she was 'clingy'. That was something else humans just didn't know.

When merpeople like someone, they devoted their entire beings to that one person, even if it's just a fling. That's how her aunts and mom recognized Aunt Ariel was in love instantly. To merpeople, it's as natural as breathing, but other species are naturally wary and even turned-off by it. She shouldn't have been shocked Chad was that way, but it still stung. He didn't even bother to ask about her culture or why she wanted to spend all her freetime with him.

"He ain't a charmer, that's for sure. Daddy says a real prince is kind both inside and out." Louis told her the next day after her breakup. "And Chad is weird anyway. He didn't see ya as a cutie. That's what ya are. All bubbly and musical."

"Oooh, let's sing!" After all, any child born of a famous hero and princess often and randomly had the urge to sing. It wasn't a merperson thing for once! She grabbed his hands and they ran across the schoolyard, belting loudly. At the end, they fell into a pile of flowers, laughing.

"You think he'd have done that? No way,"

Arabella kept laughing.

Who needed Prince Charming, or numerous cousins? She had all she needed right there.

Chains; Jordan

The life of a genie was one of servitude. Sure, some were freed by generous or disinterested masters, but for the most part, they were destined to be slaves and either forgotten in caves or passed along through families.

Jordan's dad never forgot where he came from. Being freed was something he didn't use lightly, instead he traveled the world, seeing all he couldn't while he was trapped in the lamp. By his side was the former maid to the now Sultana, a quirky woman named Dahlia. Jordan felt she was primarily her dad's though, especially after one day when they were visiting Hispaniola when she was four and coughed hard and made waves suddenly bubble up. She was a jiniri.

The travels only lasted for a few more years until her brother was born, then they sailed back to Agrabah, then settled down in Auradon City, moving back and forth as her dad tried to find a groove he liked. Jordan enjoyed being in Agrabah the most, hanging out with Aziz. The two clicked naturally, both having similar strokes when it came to pranks, plus it was her home at the end of the day.

Her dad finally decided to open up a magic shop, seeing how the citizens in the main capital were either ignorant or distrustful towards magic, thinking it would help them become more comfortable. Jordan worked in the shop when she was able and wanted to, Dad never wanting her to work when she didn't want to.

"Being in a lamp for so long, serving so many masters, makes you thoughtful about these types of things." He said when she asked him once.

A moment Jordan wouldn't ever forget was shortly after she started school at Auradon Prep and she was at work. She was stocking the collection of wands when a slightly older teen came in and looked her over.

"Aren't you a genie?" They asked.

"Jiniri."

"Whatever. That means you can grant all my wishes, right? I found this lamp. If you go inside, you'll be enslaved and be mine, right?" They held out a bronze oil lamp, a dead look in their eyes.

"It doesn't work like that."

"Does it matter?! I need magic! Life is horrible and my realm doesn't have fairy godmothers, so I need a genie! Just serve me!" They advanced on her, backing her into the wall.

"Stop!"

"Shut up!" They tried to grab her but she vanished into smoke, appearing behind the counter, her heart pounding. The person huffed and threw the lamp on the ground, making it clatter. "Stupid!"

Jordan didn't work for several months after that and stayed in her dorm, often shapeshifting into a small mouse to be unnoticed. Dad didn't ask any questions, and she was grateful. She was a strong girl, but the incident shook her up more than she expected. She even refused to tell Aziz.

School was slightly better, she did her magic to keep herself from losing her mind, but most were confused by her powers and only recognized her dad as a sidekick. Unimportant aside from that fact. Mom was completely forgotten.

Was that to be her life?

Jordan felt there were other forms of being trapped that didn't involve the golden shackles genies normally wore.

Ink, Songbird, Fan; Princesses Li-wei, Shu-mu, and Yu-min

Three peas in a pod. Identical lilies in the pond. Gorgeous songbirds of feathered wings. Soft blossoms blowing away in the wind.

Lonnie was not a princess, no matter what Auradon said. These girls, these cousins, were.

Li-wei was the oldest of them. Tall, willowy, dressed in violet and blue hanfu with sheer shawls trailing from her figure and her hair dressed elaborately in flowers, she was every inch a princess. Moreso than her cousins, as her mother, Ting-Ting, ended up becoming Empress in her own right after the previous died of old age, ruling alongside her husband, Emperor Consort Ling. Their house was one of laughter and love, her parents both being natural jokesters. Li-wei was…not. She was a musician. She played both the pipa and bamboo flute beautifully, but she could only hold her head up and look away when jokes were said. She had no sense of humor, and it pained the songbird so.

Yu-min was the middle of the group, daughter of Mei and Yao. Mei was never one for being a princess and Yao was not one for royalty either, so the two packed up everything and lived life on the road, making Yu-min rustic and far more familiar with the inside of a cart than anything noble. She definitely didn't look like a princess either. She was muscular and had a really large forehead, made all the more noticeable by her space buns she wore. She wore pink, but instead in trousers and short flowing tops, nothing that could get in the way. She was most alike to her parents, and also enjoyed writing poetry. When she came across ink on their travels and she could let her feelings truly flow out, that's when she felt at home, even in the back of a wobbly, rickety cart.

Shu-mu was the youngest of the trio, and the least like her parents. Her home was one of warmth and scents, food constantly cooking on the fire and temple bells gently being chimed. Chen-Po returned to his profession after the war of working in a temple, leaving his wife Su to care for the home. Shu-mu didn't feel neglected, that wasn't the problem. She couldn't cook worth her spit and couldn't sit still during mediation. She was chubby and curious and couldn't be contained in either vision of her parents. She wore orange and simple dresses, her hair usually left loose or tied back in a simple style, as Chen-Po and Su weren't overly extravagant people. What Shu-mu was actually best at was dancing. She had a silk fan decorated in rich green, a gift from Aunt Ting-Ting, and every day when she was alone she would dance in the house, twirling and stepping with light grace like she was born for it. Her short stature and thick limbs no longer hindered her and instead helped her as she danced and moved.

They were princesses, all three of them, but Auradon didn't really treat them as such and forgot their titles, giving that to Lonnie instead. They loved their spirit sister, they truly did, no bond was stronger than theirs, they just wished they could also get their dues.

They were the sun, moon, and stars. All completely different from the other, yet all just as necessary and all in the sky.

Wall; Prince Pacha of the Kuzconian Empire

Do not lock out your people. That was the first thing Pacha was told when he started receiving training to take over the empire one day. Emperor Kuzco, a man who physically somehow hadn't aged a day despite it being close to two decades since he had his story told, learned a lot of valuable lessons. The most important thing he hoped to impart onto Pacha was the importance of listening to your subjects and treating them as individuals. Even if there wasn't a solution to their problem, you still had to listen and make them feel heard. That was why there were no walls around the palace, and both the Emperor and Empress took frequent visits to the village down below, primarily spending time with Pacha's namesake and his family.

Pacha didn't mind peasants. He was just embarrassed that Dad had to name him what he did. 'Emperor Pacha' didn't have a good ring to it. When he was younger, he tried to complain, only for Dad to laugh and say Pacha is an important friend of his and he should wear his name with honor. Eventually Pacha stopped bringing it up.

Anyway, once Emperor Kuzco got his groove back, the empire truly prospered under his rule. And opened a lot of waterparks. Dad was really into those. Pacha couldn't help but to feel lost in everything. He went to a normal school, with peers, and they liked him fine, but he couldn't really truly relate to them. He would always be the heir and nothing could make peasants forget that fact.

Yzla was the one who kept him grounded and the only one who truly understood him. Ironic, but it was the truth. She was a science nut and the two clicked. Some nights, they'd fall asleep in her room, their heads on the table, and the guards would pick Pacha up and put him in his own bed. They had their own catchphrase and fashion sense, usually borrowing the clothes of the other. They also enjoyed helping the royal chef, Kronk, with his meals, and loved his fare. Dad never got into those peasant dishes, but Pacha loved them, especially the pillbug stew. It was fun to go slurp slurp slurp. Slurrrrrp.

Pacha also just enjoyed parties. That's the one thing he could do with his peers. Who could say no to a castle party? Mom disliked that and tried to keep him focused on his studies, while Dad encouraged his more wild side. As a result, his grades slipped and even at Auradon Prep he wasn't interested enough in the dull atmosphere to 'apply himself'. Even there, he didn't really have anyone except Yzla. James was cool sometimes, but the strong and silent bit really wore thin after a while.

He wasn't lonely, he swore!

Maybe there were more walls to tear down in the kingdom than at first thought.

Postcard; Lilo Pelekai

Lilo saved everything sent to her. The aliens didn't have a concept of 'hey us humans can't actually store all this stuff in places' so they gave Lilo everything that fascinated them and she kept it. What they were really fascinated by were postcards. Lilo remained in Hawaii as she grew, not able to move, but Stitch and the others traveled everywhere they could and sent back weird or mundane postcards they found, completely blank because they didn't really know how they worked. They really liked the ones from Hawaii, and Lilo had a whole drawer to store them all.

Otherwise, life went on. She continued her hula dancing and photography, eventually winning an award for the latter when she was twelve, shortly before being accepted for Auradon Prep, a huge surprise. Who cares about little old Lilo? Stitch was arguably more famous than her, seeing how odd he was. Still, who was she to deny that? She easily fell into a new group of friends and was armed with her camera always.

Not much to say, but there never really was. Lilo was just an average girl with an older sister trying to make ends meet.

Oh yeah, and she was best friends with a lot of aliens.

Yellow; Jennifer Penelope Hawkins

Jenny wasn't meant for this world. It wasn't fair her parents got to have all the cool adventures years before she was born, reformed themselves, and completely disregarded being pirates to work boring jobs at the dull inn. Where was her adventure? Where was her fun? Where was her life? All she ever did was take orders, bus tables, go to Madame Bennet's finishing school to learn girly activities she hated, and because that woman had several eyes, she couldn't even sneak away or anything, and be fussed over by her god-sisters, who weren't even bad, they were just too much. Every time she got overwhelmed, she'd run away and jump on her homemade solar surfer, taking to the stars.

The stars of Montressor weren't like the stars of other worlds. They shimmered in shades of orange and yellow, like the soups Grandma Sarah was great at making, like the fancy blouse she had to wear to Madame Bennet's in its stupid sunny yellow, like Mom's fur, like the hanging model of Treasure Planet over her bed, like the adventure she longed to have to distant worlds.

Dad didn't even pretend to understand. He smothered her and disliked how she was fiery. He praised her smarts but wished she'd be a proper lady. Mom would tease he was quite the rogue in their youth, and he'd get embarrassed and tease her back, and Jenny would get frustrated because her parents were dumb and weren't rebels. Dad was too put-together for that. He was lame.

One time she got escorted home by the police because she sped too fast on her solar surfer and didn't mind the speed limit, and the look Dad gave her could've curdled milk. He didn't get it, she was just having some fun!

Then she started Auradon Prep and didn't like it. While the classes were definitely better, it was too cheerful of an atmosphere for her. The kids didn't understand her either, how she came from a world similar to theirs but with advanced tech. Ships that flew? Crazy! Her final year, she was finally saddled with a dormmate who wouldn't stop arguing with her, Marianne. An annoying pompous princess who doesn't know how to have fun either. Whenever she adjusted her glasses, Jenny knew she was in for an earful.

At night, Jenny would flop into bed and look out the window, looking for any familiar yellow or orange stars. Montressor was a planet, after all, so wouldn't they have the same views of the sky?

She couldn't wait to graduate, take her solar surfer, fly out somewhere far, and hopefully never come back.

~We never meet Guinivere or a stand-in for her in The Sword in the Stone, so I imagined how she'd look and act as a woman of the Silver Age of Disney and ended up with a mix of Cinderella and Mrs. Darling. Same with Lancelot. I based him off the socially awkward version in the novels The Once and Future King this movie's based on, as well as made him a bit antagonistic due to the fact Disney likely wouldn't let adultery slide.

~For those here who haven't read my main fic, Hispaniola is the name I gave Prince Eric's kingdom, based on a Tumblr post that speculated he lives in Spanish Florida.

~A jiniri is a female jinn/genie.

This was probably my favorite of the three chapters to work on. Underappreciated characters and movies for the win! They're in a special order again ;)