blondes have fun that i don't want

"M, are you sure you wanna do this?" Evie asked.

Mal huffed a sigh, one that was pretty cranky. "No," she replied, "but I need to do it anyway if I want the people of Auradon to actually start liking and respecting me as Ben's girlfriend."

Evie started applying the hair dye. Auradon had adapted the bleach and the dye into one mixture that would only require one use. Mal had settled for a 'innocent princess' blonde, leaving only her natural purple at the ends.

She wasn't going to pretend she was happy about the situation, but, she really wanted her relationship with Ben to work out. So, sometimes, allowances had to be made. She wouldn't pretend to be happy about having to bleach away her purple, but, well, her purple had to leave if she wanted to be less intimidating.

(She liked being intimidating.)

Fortunately, the dye did not burn her head as it stripped away her natural, magical, powerful colour. Mal watched it circle down the bathroom drain once Evie was done.

On a higher-brain level, Mal knew that nothing had really changed. Not in a way that mattered. But she didn't feel the same. She didn't feel like the controlled, strong girl she was raised to be (Yes her mother was flawed, but if nothing else, she'd given Mal a sense of just who she was as a person). Mal's perception of self had never been anything but rock solid - her perception of right and wrong and the way you were supposed to look at the world was what had changed since she and her friends had been more-or-less dragged into Auradon.

She could feel the magic beneath her skin - could feel it around her. Leaving the barrier was like what she'd learned exiting a movie cinema during the day was like: all the light punching you in the eyeballs at once, giving you no choice but to blink until the bright spots faded away.

Now . . she could feel it, but according to the law, she wasn't supposed to use it. Definitely a law that was made by someone who had never used magic in their life.

(Emotionally, Mal liked Ben's dad. He was a dorky parent with dorky humour that she could live with, have a conversation with. Intellectually, she was never going to accept his presence in her life. Regent King Adam was the reason so many suffered. The reason people had - were - starving. The Isle was a mess, but it was a mess they didn't choose.)

But . . something felt off. Mal knew it was stupid to feel so attached to something as ridiculous as her hair colour, but the purple was something that had defined her as much as her mother: she was Malevolent Bertha, her mother was Maleficent, the queen of all evil; Mal had green eyes, pale skin and purple hair. She was the most devious teen on the Isle. She . . was the girlfriend of King Ben, and not accepted as such.

Apparently, when tabloids spent half your life time following you around, they (and the general public) develop an expectation of you: Ben dated Audrey. Audrey was a Perfect Princess (never mind whether or not she was one away from the cameras, it was the photographers saw that mattered), wore pastels, she hair was always perfect, her smile always bright and happy to see the flashing bulbs and constant questions. Mal, with her purple leather, dark never-quite-perfect hair, scowling and glaring at the constant invasion of her privacy was not wanted.

What Ben and she had was not wanted. She was sick of constant interrogation of her life, her mother, her looks, her relationship. If changing herself to fit the perception of what the people of Auradon expected of the girlfriend of a king was what it took to get some privacy back, to make them back off . . . then Mal would have to tough it out.

(She was wrong, by the way. The change got her no privacy, confused the people around her, got her more questions, and she ended up more unhappy.)

(And to think, Auradon was the 'land of happy endings'. Where was Mal's?)

I think its obvious that this is my explanation for mal's hair in D2.

Beast and Belle are regent royals because they've stepped down from power and Ben's in charge, and also because I couldn't be bothered googling the proper title for that position and because of the rule that a sixteen year old steps into power even though their parents are alive and healthy is really damn stupid. Pointless explanation short: Beast/Belle can be given power as king/queen if in an emergency/Ben's unavailable/my plot demands it and im doing it because this is my story and i say so. There.

also mals name is malevolent bc FU disney and de la cruz MALEFICENT JUNIOR IS SO STUPID OH MY GOD

i should be doing homework but here i am. university has really sorted out my priorities