The Story of How I (Almost) Died
is a crossover between Worm and Tangled (and to a lesser extent the rest of the Disney Animated Canon) by dstar17.
One night, Gothel is out singing to her hidden magic flower, when she is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Contessa and Taylor Hebert. Contessa shoots Taylor in the back of the head, then holds Gothel at gunpoint and forces her to use the flower's magic to heal her injuries. After forcing Gothel to swear to secrecy about this incident, and ordering her to drop off Taylor at a nearby town, Contessa then leaves.
Some time later, Danny Hebert is settling in as a Dockworker manager in the Kingdom of Corona, while his daughter Taylor is forming a relationship with Lieutenant Hector Fitzherbert (Eugene's father).
Roughly a year after Taylor's arrival in Corona, Gothel kidnaps the infant Rapunzel, so Taylor and Hector go chasing her through the woods...
This fanfic contains examples of the following:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In canon Eugene Fitzherbert was an orphan with no known parentage (which in turn was retconned to Lost Orphaned Royalty in the series). In this fic, he's the son of an officer of Corona's Royal Guard and eventual stepson of Corona's greatest Parahuman.
- It's unknown in canon when the Snuggly Duckling was built. In this fic, it was built shortly before Gold Morning (becoming an obstacle to Gothel's regular visits to her flower), was briefly named the Gruesome Grim (after its chief patron, who used it as a hideout), and received its name after Taylor started a bar fight while searching for the infant Rapunzel.
- Adaptational Wimp: Gothel, thanks to The Worf Effect. Taylor is a much younger adversary than she is, and has more combat experience than either, Rapunzel, or Eugene did in canon. When Gothel kidnaps the infant Rapunzel in this fic, she's tracked down, overpowered, and arrested in just three chapters.
- Adapted Out: Characters, lore, and plot points from the TV show, due to the Author having not watched it.
- Eventually downplayed in the epilogue, since Cassandra is mentioned off-hand.
- Anti-Climax: Taylor taking down Gothel is a simple matter of kicking down the door and defeating her in a knife fight.
- Asshole Victim: Grim gets beaten up and thrown out of the bar during Taylor's musical number.
- Babies Ever After: The story ends with Taylor Happily Married to Hector, with a daughter named Rose, another baby on the way, and Eugene as her stepson.
- Bad Guy Bar: The Snuggly Duckling, as per canon. The patrons are initially hostile to Taylor and Hector, only to back down when informed of their search for the missing Princess.
- Bar Brawl: During Taylor's musical number in the Snuggly Duckling, one of these breaks out between Grim and a villain named Hookhand. Hookhand wins.
- Even Evil Has Standards: All of the bad guys in the Snuggly Ducking (sans Grim) quickly back down after hearing that Taylor is searching for a kidnapped infant.
- Feeling the Baby Kick: The Epilogue ends with Hector and a heavily-pregnant Taylor doing this.
- Gossip Evolution: Apparently, Prince Eric and Princess Ariel's fight with Ursula was changed by rumors into a giant kraken with lightning powers attacking Prince Eric's wedding, since that was the story that Hector heard.
- Happily Ever After: In typical Disney fashion, Taylor gets one, marrying Hector and having kids.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Taylor has her original QA bug-control powers, and the Disney universe has its magic. Everyone still calls Taylor a sorceress.
- Mr. Exposition: Hector fills this role for Danny and Taylor.
- Musical Episode: Taylor gets her musical number in the Snuggly Duckling in chapter 8.
- Musical World Hypotheses: Invoked and discussed in-universe. Danny questions why people randomly break out into musical numbers, and assumes it is a Master effect. Taylor also has a discussion about it with Hector in chapter 7, and mentions that she's been in "Three group songs and one solo, and the solo was yesterday".
- Mythology Gag:
- Much like Eugene would do in canon, Taylor and Danny question why spontaneous musical numbers happen.
- Danny Hebert takes up working as a dockworker manager in Corona, much like he did in Brockton.
- Hector keeps getting called "Fitzhebert" (his last name is Fitzherbert with an R), similar to how Taylor keeps getting called "Herbert" (her last name is ''Hebert" without an R) in fanfics. When they're married in the epilogue, the narrator calls them "Fitzhebert".
- Noodle Incident: Taylor's musical numbers prior to chapter 8. She mentioned having "Three group songs and one solo" to Hector, but the context is unknown.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Taylor. Although the Disney shared universe has its fair share of A-class and S-class villains (Ursula and Jafar having been recently defeated), Taylor is still far more dangerous than anyone else in Corona. Gothel ends up being hit hard by The Worf Effect as a result, being arrested just three chapters after kidnapping Rapunzel.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Gothel has several in quick succession when accosted by Contessa, who forces her at gunpoint to heal Taylor with the magic flower, then swears her to secrecy about it.
- Corona as a whole has a Mass "Oh, Crap!" when the infant Rapunzel goes missing.
- The patrons in the Snuggly Duckling when Taylor's musical number suddenly starts up.
- Gothel has another one when Taylor storms in to rescue the infant Rapunzel. And again when Taylor has her gagged instead of listening to her exposition about Rapunzel's hair.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Gothel quickly books it after dropping Taylor off in a safe place, having already seen too much Parahuman activity for her personal comfort.
- Sequel Hook: The epilogue mentions Corona getting a request from Arendelle for Taylor to come and tutor Elsa in controlling her powers. Taylor can't go at the moment because she's too pregnant to travel, so she instead offers for Elsa to come to Corona.
- Shared Universe: In this fic, the Disney Animated Canon is one. The events of The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin are all recent events, and Frozen (2013) is due to happen in a couple decades.
- Shout-Out: Taylor's musical number is described by the author as being to the tune of the Marilyn Manson cover of 'Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These'.
- Spanner in the Works: Taylor ends up being one for Gothel's attempted kidnapping of Rapunzel.
- The Worf Effect: Gothel, who was the Big Bad of the movie, ends up being demoted to Starter Villain for Taylor's adventures in the Disney Universe, due to being much weaker than Taylor's previous opponents.
