#because yes rumple and regina would be weaknesses for her heart | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ouatsnark · 2 years

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I’ve got 99 problems... with this Captain Hook hate blog

Per a special request, I was sent a link to this Killian Jones hate fest!

Now, you are free to hate Killian Jones all you want but one thing I will not stand for is the amount of reaching that goes on to say that he can never be redeemed because of his past. How very biased, really. Out of all of the villains on this show, it is Regina and Rumple that commit heinous unforgivable acts of sexual violence and child abuse but they are both praised in the above hate blog. I wonder why?

As usual I am going to preface this by reminding everyone of something:

Killian Jones was consumed by and being manipulated by a dark force made up of an army of dark ones seeking their own agenda and using him to do it. Regina Mills was never consumed by darkness. She chose evil and her heart turned black because of her evil deeds. So she is accountable for her crimes while Killian at least has an excuse while consumed by the darkness especially since he overcame that darkness, shows remorse over his weakness and never seeks the power again.

Also keep in mind that this is all said because Killian Jones does show a change in character and had a complete redemption after sacrificing his life, showing remorse, owning his crimes and facing his victims. Because of that, his past mistakes has no bearings on the man he has become.

With that said lets get into this!

Red Flag Claim #1: Killian Jones went from good guy to evil in 60 seconds

First off, this is an ensemble show so not every character is going to get the backstory treatment they deserve and since Killian's backstory did not involve the Charming Family and the lead up to the casting of the curse... it is logical, though unfortunate, that they didn't spend that much time on what happened between his brother's death and him finding Milah.

It's also not that surprising that a man that grew up as a child slave would turn from Navy officer to Pirate after suffering another betrayal at the hands of the King. His father had betrayed and abandoned him. Now his King had betrayed him which resulted in the death of a brother he loved and hero worshiped. His brother was the one who pulled him out of drink and dice and helped him make a respectable life for himself in the Navy. It makes perfect sense to me that after trying so hard to do everything right and suffering more loss and betrayal, that he would seek to destroy the very greed that brought him to this.

But that doesn't mean he was as vengeful as we see him after Milah's death at that very moment he decided to go against the King.

CLAIM: but but but we saw Regina's build up to evil

Regina was a grown woman imagining strangling a child after learning said child was manipulated by her mother. That is pretty evil as it is so she went from “innocent” to fantasizing about murdering a child in 60 seconds. So Regina's potential for great evil truly came out of nowhere.

CLAIM: but but but we saw all of Regina's stages of grief

Calling Kilian toxic because we didn't see every stage of his grieving is so disingenuous. As I said, his backstory only really involves him. So comparing Killian's lack of backstory with Regina's is not fair. Because Regina's past is directly tied in with Snow, Emma, Charming and Rumple so of course we saw more of her. Never mind that his stages of grieving is irrelevant when it comes to his stages for changing his ways. Which this "hate blog” I am referring to completely erases but we'll get to that later.

CLAIM: but but but Hook didn't direct his anger at the source of his pain so he’s toxic!

Yeah. He did. And everyone doing the King's bidding.

"Our kingdom is corrupt and immoral. They took my brother from me, and now I'm gonna take everything they've got..."

Remember why he killed David's father? Because David’s father had the King's gold.

Did he hurt innocent people? Yes. He was a villain. But if you're gonna hate a villain for doing villain things at least get it right!

At least Killian isn't blaming an innocent child for the actions of an adult... something that Regina is never held accountable for. So if you’re going to compare Killian to Regina lets be fair here. If past misplaced anger is a “red flag” against future relationships, platonic or romantic, then lets call out Regina because it is Regina who left more bodies in her wake than Killian and her target truly was not the source of her angst… it was an innocent child.

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 1 red flag due to her targeting an innocent child & fantasizing about murdering that child. Probably never should have never been allowed around children since she goes on to abuse quite a few including her own illegally adopted son. She also falsely accused Emma of ruining her life with Robin when it was her evil deeds that caused the whole Marian fiasco. Regina also blames Snow, Rumple and the book for all her mistakes.

Rumple: 1 because he blames Milah for “creating him”. No, that was your own decision buddy.

Killian: 0 cause this was in fact a false claim on him. His lack of backstory doesn’t mean he will flp back and forth between good and evil after his redemption (the only time he did was when consumed by darkness). A lot of this was made on biased assumptions of things happening off screen. Besides, he has never accused an innocent person of doing wrong against him or blamed someone for his actions.

So the real red flag here should be blaming an innocent person for your own actions which does not apply to Killian Jones.

Red Flag Claim #2: Hook made pimp jokes & played a part in adultery!

Lets make something clear here. When Rumple boards the ship looking for Milah and Hook says what he says to him… Hook is CLEARLY baiting Rumple to see if Rumple will defend Milah. It is a test. A test that cowardly Rumple FAILS. Which in Hook’s mind means that Rumple does not deserve her because “a man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets”. So with that in mind, he sails away with Milah.

I really do not like that neither Milah or Hook thought about Bae. Or maybe they did? It isn’t shown. But obviously Milah sought Hook out and marriage vows were broken and a child was left without a mother… something that Hook obviously regrets later as we see him trying so hard with Bae. So at least we know that Hook is capable of realizing when he is wrong. I say this to point out that obviously there is still some good in Hook to where he can change.

“Hook: You're wrong. I was the villain in that little drama, Swan. He was a good man trying to keep his family together. I took this cutlass and put it to his head and taunted him. I was the only one there who's changed for the better. He became an evil, manipulative killer.”

Killian Jones readily takes responsibility for his role in that which shows that he has changed from the man he was. Has Rumple? No. Of course not because Rumple thinks being a coward was the right choice and then making the decision to give away their second born without asking Milah was pure cowardly genius. All three had a role to play in that marriage falling apart.

Because I very much dislike cheaters and if I thought for one moment that Killian Jones would cheat today I would be done with his character. But I believe that people can change and the moment Hook paid off a pre-paid hooker because he was too much in love with Emma is the moment I knew this man would never look at another woman ever again the way he looks at Emma Swan. He didn’t expect to ever see Emma again but his heart was lost to her and her alone. So again, his affair with Milah has no bearings on the hero he became.

Also what about Regina and her affair with Robin? They believed that to be his wife. Regina was PRAISED for sleeping with Robin while they believed his wife was in mortal danger. And no, Regina sending them across the town line because she had no other choice does not overlook the fact that she wanted Marian dead and never told Robin she was the cause of his wife’s death and disappearance.

Regina’s curse also had Snow having an affair... an affair Snow was actually vilified for. And what about the couples that were separated and sleeping with other people? Regina’s curse actually created instances of adultery. David and Katherine are another example.

So if having an affair is a red flag for Kilian then it was for Regina because intent matters... never mind that she also tried to sleep with David. Lets not leave Rumple out either since Rumple kissed the sEQ in S6. Which I am only bringing this up because the hate blog mentions Rumple and Regina as being better than Killian a few times when in reality... Killian is an angel compared to those two.

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 2 for the curse creating multiple accounts of adultery & for her affair with Robin (intent matters) & it being shown as something positive. She’d obviously do it again if she felt entitled to the man.

Rumple: 2 for his involvement with the serum Queen

Killian: 0 Red Flags because this was Villain Hook. He repented and we know that he would never do this again nor would he cheat on Emma & he was honest about it.

Red Flag Claim #3 & 4: Hook promotes Rape Culture

But let me guess… Regina doesn’t? Or Rumple? I have done an entire thing on just how all of this can be applied to Regina and is actually more damaging to culture (because she suffers 0 consequences) so spare me the clutching of your pearls.

The only rape culture that truly exists is the culture where a person is blamed for being raped or being told they wanted it or saying they should have liked it because the rapist is hot. That is the true negative culture we have when it comes to sex crimes because it makes stopping the rapists so much harder because this toxic culture silences victims. Sex jokes, innuendo or flirting are NOT threats of rape. Making everything said or done you don’t like into being a predatory behavior trivializes actual threats of rape. Maybe stop looking for more ways to make victims out of people and focus on the real crimes.

This show lets all of the other villains get away with actual acts of sexual assault that are never addressed and therefore romanticized by many in the fandom:

Regina raping Graham & never owning up to it or being confronted about it. No one knows about it. Because of Regina’s looks and seductiveness, many say Graham was lucky or wasn’t raped at all.

Regina’s mind rape of an entire town. She took people’s memories and had people sleeping with other people they’d never consent to if they had their memories. She does not regret this because it got her Henry. Then her victims are forced to accept her because she illegally adopted Henry and her abuse of him was swept under a rug.

Rumple raping Belle in the S4 AU & posing as Hook to put his hands on her after her rejecting him. The fact that he had the author rewrite her as his wife against her knowledge or permission is never addressed. He is then rewarded with getting Belle back.

Zelena raping Robin and getting to raise his child.

Neal getting an underage Emma pregnant and shouting at her for not telling him he had a son when he was the one to abandon her. He never apologizes he just kind of assumes they should get back together once his fiance is dead.

Regina threatened to rape David in the EF and plotted to rape David in Season 1... nothing is ever said about it

Wish Hook plotting rape and murder is somehow justified because suddenly he’s doing it for a child. He is then seen as a good guy.

Killian has never committed sexual assault. Yet he is the one you all continue to cry “rape culture” over. Imagine that? That is what makes this so absurd.

Also the fact that Hook is a 200 year old pirate is completely ignored. Stop trying to box him into todays “me too” standards where innuendo is no longer allowed. It doesn’t work! And it takes the fun out of it. He’s being a 200 year old jack ass and Emma is kicking his ass! It’s hilarious! It is also pretty good scene when Charming defends his wife.

And that’s the point. We actually see Hook getting what he deserves. He is the only one that has real time consequences for his actions and is called out by the other characters. I would say that is the opposite of promoting “rape culture” because we see the consequences of his actions. We see that his actions are wrong in the moment he is doing it.

But do you want to know why Hook being wrong doesn’t effect his entire character development? BECAUSE HE TRULY CHANGES!

What inappropriate sex jokes do you hear him make after he decides to work on being a better man? When does he invade the space of people after leaving his piratical ways? Hell, even as a pirate how does he ultimately treat women? Because he made Milah his equal and took orders from Cora and Emma. And it was Regina being the sexual aggressor between them in the past but you never hear a peep from people about what she did to him!

CLAIM but but but he sexually intimidated Belle

Regina uses her sexuality to make Hook uncomfortable but no one wants to talk about that! She uses it against David too when she locks him up in the Enchanted Forest. And what about when she first meets Graham? But I am hearing crickets about that. Why? Because women can’t be abusers? Newsflash: yes they can.

So if you’re going to make a big deal about what you claim is sexual intimidation with Killian you sure as hell had better be mentioning Regina.

CLAIM but but but he admitted to getting women drunk to have sex with them

NO HE DID NOT! Where in this line are those words?

“If I didn’t know any better, Swan, I’d say you were trying to get me drunk… and that is usually MY tactic.”

I could keep reiterating this until I am blue in the face but some just will not get it through their thick heads. So this is what I wrote on my “When SQ takes stuff out of context” post!

We see him matching Emma drink for drink (or so he thinks). He thinks she’s as drunk as he is. We see him drinking with other females. The show portrays him as someone who likes to drink and drink with other people. This is not a crime. He DOES NOT say he remains sober and gets women drunk. In fact…

Women and too drunk for sex while I’m sober is not in that line and is not what is being portrayed.

An off handed comment like this is not an admission of rape nor does it equal rape.

We see Killian walking away from Milah when they first met. We see Killian give Emma a couple of chances to back out. He isn’t forcing anything.

He paid off a pre-paid hooker… to be honest … if the show wanted to portray him as a rapist they did a pretty lousy job.

STOP MAKING EMMA OUT TO BE A RAPIST ENABLER! If that is what he was implying Emma would’ve killed him then and there!

So if two people are getting drunk together… are they both rapists or is it just the man cause you’ve decided to blame all things on men?

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 4 because she commits acts of sexual assault and gets away with it.

Rumple: 3 his is seen as true love

Zelena: 1 gets to raise her child

Wish Hook: 1 claims its for his child & it gets brushed under the rug

Gothel: 1 the act is ignored

Neal: 1 assumes he’ll get to have Emma once he’s ready

Killian: 0 because this was in fact a false claim. He never commits an act of sexual assault which is the only “rape culture” that actually exists.

Red Flag Claim #5: Hook hits on Emma’s mother

... sigh. They weren’t even together yet... He was still a villain... like what do you want? He is a smart ass 200 year old pirate and David hits him for it!

You know what’s an actual red flag? Insulting someone’s loved ones.

How about we look at how Killian helped Emma patch things up between Emma and her parents?

Red Flag Claim #6: Hook has so many red flags cause he’s a villain that didn’t show loyalty!

YES. He is a villain? So what? So was Regina. Will I find a post about her red flags? Likely not.

Oh but he has so many because his loyalty is in question? Yes, he was a self serving pirate. However… when he was teaming up with Emma he was sincere. She used her super powers on him, remember, but due to her feelings being an issue she wasn’t sure she could trust that she was right about him. Killian confirms she was.

Here are some examples of how Killian Jones loyalty is no longer in question:

Hook could have easily turned on them and joined Pan so he could get Emma to himself and out of Neverland once again. But he did not. He is no longer that same villain. And that matters.

Hook could have taken Hades deal and gotten him and Emma out of there but he didn’t… he didn’t even write Rumple’s name on a headstone and he’d be well within his rights to do that! But he didn’t.

Hook could have left Neal to rot in that Echo Caves but he did not. He helped saved the boy he cared for but wronged so many years ago.

Hook overcoming the darkness and sacrificing his life for all of them showed his loyalty to them. He knew it should be him and wouldn't even suggest Rumple or Zelena taking the sacrifice.

Therefore, once Killian joined team hero and decided to become a better person his loyalty was to that of the greater good and it did not waver.

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 5 because she claimed she was on their side then went over to Team Cora and instead of apologizing she snapped at everyone for wanting to leave her sorry evil ass behind! However. Since she has since permanently joined team hero I will reduce that back down to 4.

Rumple: 4 because he continually stabbed them all in the back

Killian: 0 because he is no longer that villain

Red Flag Claim #7: He has no problem walking away from a woman being tortured

CORRECTION! He has no problem walking away from a person THAT JUST TRIED TO KILL HIM and was plotting to kill everyone else.

You gonna mention why Regina was about to be tortured by her victim? You gonna mention that Regina was 10x more evil than he and was plotting to murder everyone? Oh, no you’re just gonna glomp onto the fact that Regi is a poor whittle woman?

Oh and if this is about sexism... I do not want to hear anything from the crowd who worships a queen that murdered innocent women and children but downplay the vileness of what she did to CHILDREN. Never mind that Killian was an equal opportunist villain. Meaning his victims were women AND men.

Ok. Whatever. Moving on

CLAIM but but but Regina was going to save everyone!

So Killian saving his own skin means he can never become a hero but Regina being forced to join team hero because her plans to kill everyone has been foiled is a perfectly acceptable path to heroism? Are you kidding me?

Neither Killian nor Regina are heroes at this point but both still had the potential …. you know if they’d actually had Regina admit to her crimes, say she is sorry and sacrifice her life but that never happened… Regina cleaning up her own mess because she and Henry were going to die doesn’t make her any different than Hook leaving and deciding to come back. The only difference is that Regina is a woman and Hook is a man and “man bad” & “woman good”.

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 6 because she let the Charmings face her evil self when Regina should have done everything, even sacrifice herself, for the people who gave her a 999 chances she didn’t deserve. She was suppose to be redeemed here. And I gave her another one because she had no problems using the dagger against Emma knowing how much it physically and emotionally hurt her.

Rumple 5: because he had no issues leaving them all to die in the shattered sight curse

Killian 0: because this is in fact a false claim & because we know he wouldn’t let an innocent suffer. See what he did for Morgana in the Underworld, Neal in Neverland, David, Aurora’s heart, sheltering Belle from Rumple, coming to Milah’s rescue...etc

So the real red flag here would be letting people who saved you die in your place and that red flag belongs to Rumple and Regina.

Red Flag Claim #8, 9 & 10: Hook saving David for Emma is bad bad bad and also manipulative & selfish

I am sorry but I do not believe that it’s a bad thing if Emma is a reason for inspiring Hook’s change. Actually I think it makes a lot of sense.

Killian didn’t decide to turn to pirating because of his father selling him into slavery. That certainly played a part in his potential to choose evil but that is not what pushes him over the edge. Killian loved his role as a Navy officer. He looked up to his brother, the captain, and wanted to serve his captain and his king. But his loyalty to the king was betrayed when the king lied to them and that lie resulted in the death of his brother. Now it makes perfect sense why he is drawn to Emma. She is a leader. A good one. One that he trusts like he trusted his brother.

Killian needed to find his way back to the hero that he was in the Navy. He finds this in Emma’s leadership. Emma was a leader that gave him a chance to be a part of something bigger than himself just as Liam had done for him. Killian was getting a second chance to reclaim the man that he was and was always meant to be.

So Killian doing things for Emma isn’t only because he’s fallen in love with her. He sees her as a true leader and he wants to be worthy of being a part of her team. He just needs to find his way back.

Anyway, that is my perspective on Killian’s reasons for doing what he does.

Back to the hate blog.

CLAIM: but but but it was just to get into her pants

No, no it really wasn’t. As this hate blog I am debunking has pointed out, Hook was into the ladies. Why would he put so much effort in for one woman if his feelings for her didn’t surpass a “one night stand” kind of thing? I mean I get that Emma is beautiful but she is not the only “fish in the sea”. He was not there to add another “notch to his bed post”. As he says “he wouldn’t risk his life for someone he saw as loot” and him being in Neverland aligned against Pan was definitely risking his life.

An important part is always left out of this argument. Hook tried to stop David from giving him credit. Hook never meant for them to learn about the true purpose of their mission.

So one might want to take the whole “I’m not doing this for you mate” as Killian being cocky and not caring about David but I offer you up another explanation. Killian is just beginning his journey and he has his own walls and reasons for hiding behind an act of bravado. He’s been rejected by his father and even by Neal. He wasn’t ready to be vulnerable in front of them and show that he cares. But also he did not want to see Emma suffer and, yes, it was the right thing to do.

“Hook: Doesn’t mean I’d leave your father to perish on this island.”

Who says he is lying there? Love is a powerful motivator…. it can also heal and change minds and hearts. I think it is wrong to look down on romantic love as being a good motivation to being a better person. Killian wanted to become a better man deserving of Emma but he was only able to achieve that because that is what he wanted and he worked for it.

Besides he knew Emma’s past. He of all people know what its like to lose a parent.

Claim: Hook wanted a reward for saving David and Emma was weak and gave him one

Stop treating women, especially Emma, like they do not have the ability to think for themselves! He was teasing her! She wanted to kiss him and she did! If she’d walked away without kissing him he’d have let it go just as he walked away from Milah when Milah first said “I can’t” and when Tink said “no” to a drink.

Trying to say that Emma felt pressured into kissing him or did so to shut him up is absurd. What would kissing him or not kissing him do? Nothing. Literally nothing. There is nothing forcing her to kiss him other than her own desire to kiss a devilishly handsome man.

CLAIM: but but but there was no lead up no eye sex or brow lifts or coy smiles or moving in closer together

I’m sorry but what? I present to you evidence about how so very wrong you are.

I also do not know what people expect from Emma… if they think she should have been more outwardly expressing her feelings for Hook? How? When love has left her abandoned and scarred? She is scared. She’s built walls. If you think Hook should have just left her behind those walls forever well 1) that’s sad and 2) just no. There WAS tension between them.

And if you don’t think Emma wasn’t moved from that kiss then you really need to take off your Killian hate goggles and watch it again.

CLAIM: but but but she was grieving Neal … a man she still loved!?

Was she really? This blog rambles on about their own opinion of what Emma is feeling but it does not match up with what we see. When they meet up with Neal, she tells him that she hoped he was dead. When Neal re-entered her life he’d abandoned her a second time and gotten a fiancé. He’d also mocked her and refused to listen to her (compare that to Hook who was following her lead and believing in her).

Emma was also not acting like a woman grieving for another man so to expect Hook to realize your head-canonned feelings you’ve decided Emma should have is absurd. It’s also absurd to think that her “I hoped you were dead” was because she “didn’t want to go through the pain of losing him again”. What about the pain of abandonment and betrayal? Neal had caused her so much pain that she wanted it to be over. But since he is the father of her child her connection to him, for that reason, is essentially forever in some capacity. But to imply that she was still in love with Neal and wanted to be with him is not true. If she wanted to be with Neal then she wouldn’t have rejected him and stood him up. And remember what happens when they do find Neal and get back to Storybrooke? Hook backs off!

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 7 because her adopting Henry was purely for selfish reasons & she put her curse before his welfare. Really she should not be allowed around children! She then made Emma risk her soul to bring Robin back not caring what it would do to Emma because Regina couldn’t lose HER love then vilified Emma for trying to save hers. Also her thoughts about Marian were pretty damn selfish. She used manipulative tactics against Emma in S1 to turn Henry against her.

Rumple: 6 because he is in fact the most selfish since he puts himself first even before Bella (S4 shattered sight, sleeping curse, S6 curse, locking her on the Jolly etc etc)

Killian: 0 because this is in fact a false flag. Doing something for someone else is not selfish & he was not expecting a reward. He never manipulated Emma. He waited for her to make every decision on how their romance progressed.

Red Flag Claim #11: Acting like a school boy

Supposedly Killian showed no consideration for Emma who was only looking for her son...

The man literally flew his pirate ship back to a place he hated so she could rescue him... I am pretty sure he is taking the circumstances into consideration.

“The only thing I have to choose is the best way to get my son back.” ”And you will.” ”You think so?” ”I have yet to see you fail. And when you do succeed... well, that's when the fun begins.”

AW look at that. He takes the time to encourage her. And we know this is sincere because from the start he has called her “Amazing” and been quite willing to follow her lead without complaint.

Yes, Neal and Hook acted like immature school boys and goodness knows no human is perfect but I guess when you’re a 200 year old recovering pirate you ought to be? Give me a break. Stop labeling everything toxic.

What they did was ridiculous but it doesn’t cross the line. You know where the line is? Their behavior would have crossed the line if they’d demanded an answer from her then and there and then got violent when she didn’t respond or made a choice one of them didn’t like. THAT is toxic.

You know what is a bigger red flag? Neal saying “well she has me now” just after his fiance died. It was as if he was only ready for Emma when it was convenient for him.

You know what is also a big red flag? Striking someone out of jealousy. Regina does that to Emma over Graham.

CLAIM: Emma became weak shell of her former self in S5 and abandoned Henry for Hook

So the only evidence they can provide for Emma abandoning Henry for Hook is S4 because Henry wasn’t sure about Emma dating Hook as Henry PUSHED EMMA TO MAKE THE MOVE! Like you guys… really? What child is ever okay with their parents dating a new person? Henry has had Emma to himself for…what? 2 years in Once time at this point? I don’t remember the timeline but that doesn’t matter. Emma is his mother. Seeing your mother date anyone is weird, awkward, etc etc. And here you are making a point that Henry believes dating Hook will make Emma happy! Because it does. And why does it? Because Hook has proven himself and has proven that he truly cares for her and isn’t here to just “get into her pants” because if he was he’d already have given up that chase by now. Get real.

By the way, it was Regina who abandoned Henry for a man. Once in S4x02 and again in S6.

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 8 for punching Emma over Graham (a man she was sexually assaulting) & for being a crappy mother & for being degrading over Emma’s leadership capabilities

Rumple: 6 though if I were doing a true breakdown of characters he should probably have a lot more at this point... lets make it 7 because his poor behavior red flag should be when he killed Belle’s fiance & never told her and snapped when she confronted him on it. So count is 7.

Killian: 0 because he backed off and let Neal have his chance if that is what Emma wanted

Claim: True loves kiss never worked for CaptainSwan so red flag!

Are people who hate Killian Jones and CaptainSwan capable of critical thought?

Did True loves kiss work for Charming when he tried on Snow when Snow didn’t remember who she was? No it didn’t. Gee I wonder why. You think maybe the whole memory thing is the issue here!? Geez.

Or are we talking about during Dark CaptainSwan? Try keeping up, luvs. Emma hadn’t given into the darkness fully yet nor did she want to get rid of the power. True loves kiss didn’t work on Rumple either when he didn’t want to let go of the power.

And it didn’t work in Storybrooke either because unknowingly to Killian, he was cursed as well. You can’t break your own curse, dearies! If you could then Snowing would have been able to wake each other up in Season 6.

Red Flag Claim #12: Hook delighted in Emma’s pain

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad to hear that.” “You’re glad to hear I had my heart broken?” “If it can be broken… It means it still works.”

I actually had a discussion about this It Still Work scene.

So the way this hate blog takes it is not how I took at all.. but of course when you hate Killian Jones you’re gonna look for the negative side of everything.

Love is what drives Killian Jones. And I think he feels that love is worth any risk. A heart closed off and without love is a sad future indeed…

This response was the best:

“Second, anyone who looks at Killian in the first pic can see that he is not delighting in or gloating over her broken heart. I always took his line as encouraging her that her heart would heal. It was acknowledging her pain, which was true and legitimate, but also pointing her toward a future where her heart was whole again. A future that, I think, he was letting her know he would be a part of. That he wouldn’t leave her. That he would always be there for her. Whether she saw him as a romantic partner or not.”

Everyone downplays Emma’s fear of abandonment. Killian recognized that in her as he had also felt it. Killian Jones declaring that he would always be there for her and then proving it was essential in helping Emma break down those walls.

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 9 for actually causing Emma physical and emotional pain (trying to kill her & her family, over Marian, over the dagger, over her wishParents). For the mental anguish she put Henry through for 10 years subjecting him to a curse town then gaslighting him just so she could keep her curse.

Rumple: 8 because he delighted in causing everyone pain when it benefited him

Killian: 0 because he never wanted to cause Emma pain. He only ever wanted her happiness.

Claim: Hook trading his ship for Emma is toxic … because he did it for Emma!

I love this one! I’ve heard it so many times before. It’s honestly hilarious.

Killian Jones giving up his ship for Emma was a grand gesture of love and selflessness. A gesture he didn’t tell Emma until she asked which is so significant.

Remember when he said he would win her heart not because of any trickery but because she wanted him? He had several chances to do so but he waited. He didn’t use that gesture to sway her opinion of him. He let her find her way to him on her own.

So if Hook was intending to use his grand gesture to win her… he’d have told her this the first time she asked which I think was in NY Serenade. The fact that he waits is so significant. He waits until she’s had time to realize that he is there for her. He is going to be the one person that is never going to walk away. That he will be there to dry her tears and offer encouragement. That is what she discovered during their journey back in time.

Red Flag Claim #13: Evil Killian is controlling and manipulative!

Killian Jones is so controlling that he let Emma kiss him first, let her ask him out first then waited for her to ask him to move in. Geez someone stop this man from moving too fast!

So I am over halfway through and now I do know for a fact this is a Regina stan and probably an OutlawQueen stan. How do I know this? Emma and Killian get the blame for Regina’s broken heart… Regina is cast in the victim role and they come right out and say its Snow White’s fault Cora ruined Regina’s life. Cora ruined Regina’s chances with Daniel but it was Regina that ruined her own life. Not a ten year old child. Regina ruined her own happiness with Robin because she was a murderous tyrant.

CLAIM but but but “It was the darkness acting like a devil on her shoulder saying come back Regina, it’s easy here, comfortable, you have been here before…”

REGINA DOES NOT HAVE DARKNESS IN HER HEART. Her heart is black because she chose to do evil things. She is not consumed. Good grief people!

CLAIM but but but “Give Regina her credit, she didn’t succumb to the darkness and seek revenge on Emma. No, Regina fought her darkness!!!”

You’re not going to mention that her first instinct was to make sure that a little boy lost his mother again so she could have the father? You’re not going to mention that her “fighting it” boiled down to “if I do this they’ll know it was me”? Of course not. Cause you’re a Regina apologist.

CLAIM but but but Killian grabbed Emma’s arm and made her stay and not go console the poor little evil murderer

Again, Emma has a mind of her own. If Emma wanted to go after Regina then Emma would have ignored him and gone after Regina. How do I know this? Because he warned Emma about bringing Marian back and Emma disagreed and he consented. He tried to stop her from fleeing when her powers were going haywire but she ignored him and everyone else and ran. Do I need to go on?

No one makes Emma Swan do something she doesn’t want to do. Emma Swan does things when Emma Swan is ready to do them. Giving someone advice is not controlling someone. Giving an opinion on a situation is not controlling someone. Do you even know what controlling someone is? He isn’t demanding or telling her there will be consequences if she goes against his suggestion. He gives his opinion and she agrees. She stays. Stop looking for things that aren’t there!

CLAIM but but but he guilts her over not wanting to spend quiet time with him

Because whether you like it or not she is sending mixed signals. They were just making out the night before. And now Emma is doing what she does and is hiding behind her walls.

And for crying out loud not everything is about Regina or not everything should be about Regina! Especially this. This is the biggest issue I have with the show because of people like this eating up what the show presented: the little murderer Regina as the ultimate victim and Emma, Hook & Snow as the true villains. Emma owes Regina NOTHING and Killian understands this. Emma should not be feeling guilty over Regina since we know Regina has never felt guilty over any pain she’s caused Emma!

And by the way, Emma was pulling away from Killian because she was afraid of losing him. So it was not just about Regina.

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 10 because Regina never apologizes for her bad behavior toward Emma. She also gives 0 thoughts to Roland. Not when Marian returns and not when Robin dies.

Rumple: 9 because he moved Belle’s life around like a chess piece

Killian: 0 because this is a false claim. He has never manipulated Emma.

Red Flag Claim #14: Killian stumbles on his journey… that’s it someone burn this ship down!

So this blog assumes that Killian is already redeemed by early Season 4. No, no he is not. His journey is just beginning. So most of this diatribe is already off due to that.

No one should expect someone trying to recover from something to never take a misstep.

I don’t think I have ever said that Regina joining forces with her mother in Season 2 was a point of no return. I wasn’t even shocked. What makes me upset about that is that it’s overlooked and Cora and Regina are turned into the victims when they were they villains.

But if you’re going to criticize one villain trying to reform for making mistakes along the way & acting like it means they can never change... then you have to criticize all of them!

CLAIM: but but but some stuff about alcoholism

Look. Killian should not have gone to Gold. Killian should not have let Gold get into his head. I would not be surprised if Gold lied about cursing the hand. But it doesn’t matter. Killian has always been open about his weakness. He has never denied it. But apparently if an alcoholic slips up once then you should write them off because.. because... bad man is bad.

I would say this whole thing with Gold and Gold taking his heart was another lesson for him in his journey. I am guessing this person missed how humble, self loathing and regretful Killian was that he let Gold get to him? I am guessing so because the blog continues on to praise Regina’s journey as if she actually had one.

CLAIM: but but but but “When we compare Regina to Hook, she took the time to look deep within her soul, to figure out what was right and what was wrong, what was a healthy behavior to express anger or emotional pain and what was not, she started to take other people into consideration, she then started to open up her fragile formerly dark heart and letting people in.

All of that is a complete lie. After Regina’s S3 redemption, she continued to belittle Emma, cut her down, vilify her over Marian, hurt her with the dagger, torture her in S6 and just in general be a total bitch to her.

If you want a real comparison between Regina and Killian then check out my

“Killian Jones vs Regina Mills - How they treat Emma Comparison“

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 11 because when Regina stumbles no one knows about it. She plotted to have Marian killed & no one knows. She also wanted to destroy Emma’s happiness (rip Hooks throat out) and had to split herself in two to “like doing good”. That is NOT the marks of a changed person.

Rumple: 10 because he stumbled and stumbled and was rewarded with his HEA

Killian: 0 because he owned his mistakes. He comes clean. And he shows remorse.

Red Flag Claim #15: THE EMOTIONAL ABUSE CLAIMS

So let’s look at what emotional abuse can involve (please note that you don’t have to tick off each one and have them all for emotional abuse, it can be just one or a couple of things on the list. But the more you tick it’s likely the abuse is intense).

I love this. “oh he ticks off one of these in an obscure way! HE IS ABUSIVE!” That is not how this works! Emotional abuse is a repetitive behavior and done to gain submission. You can’t point out someone’s bad reaction to one thing and just label them an abuser. That is so not helpful and is in fact wrong.

SIGN 1: Getting angry when you want to spend time with your friends

CLAIM: Hook – When she wanted to apologize and support Regina after bringing Marian back

REBUTTAL: False. He was not angry. Also Emma asked for space and he gave it.

Real Sign of Abuse: Regina hurting Henry to drive a wedge between him and Emma because she was jealous. Regina showing jealousy over Emma’s relationship with Henry.

SIGN 2: Isolating you from friends and family

CLAIM: Hook, nope I don’t think he is guilty of this per se, but he does show jealousy and disdain as far as Emma spending time with Regina

REBUTTAL: What even? He never did that.

Real Sign of Abuse: Regina sure as hell tried to keep Henry from Emma though. She is also the reason he does not have any friends. And yes, that counts, seeing that Regina illegally adopted Henry and was abusing him.

SIGN 3: Putting you down all the time, using names like ‘frigid’ or ‘slut’ to control what you do, humiliate you and destroy your self-esteem

CLAIM: Hook = Guilty “washed up… pretty blonde distraction… you’ll always be an orphan.”

REBUTTAL: He said the first while a villain and right after her betrayal and when they weren’t together and the last two was while he was actually consumed by darkness. What about the times when Killian was his true self?

Real Sign of Abuse: How about Regina?

SIGN 4: Threatening to harm you or to self–harm if you leave them

CLAIM: (not if she left but he threatened that he wanted to hurt her like she hurt him… selfish prick she saved your fucking life you ungrateful swine!)

REBUTTAL: Again… being controlled by ultimate darkness. He later dies for her.

SIGN 5: Demanding to know where you are all the time

CLAIM: the sheer number of times he yelled her surname looking for her,

That is the biggest reach I have EVER SEEN!

CLAIM CONTINUED: and was so pissed he couldn’t find her that he then decided to emotionally manipulate her into showing up that he jumps off a building purposely knowing she would have to turn up and save his life

REBUTTAL: Can we look at the context around this please? It’s not like he was worried she was off cheating or having a drink with her fiends. They were in the middle of a crisis. She was keeping something from him that was effecting them all… it wasn’t something trivial. It was life and death. Literally, actually. This is taking a big situation involving magic and different realms and reducing it to a domestic dispute when it wasn’t. Please stop you’re embarrassing yourself.

CHARGE: Rumple when Belle wouldn’t do what he wanted he placed a band on her wrist to track her.

SIGN 6: Monitoring your calls and emails, threatening you if you don’t respond instantly

CLAIM: Not really, though he was agitated when she couldn’t pick up and he was trying to warn her that Rumple had been controlling him and he lied to her in the process. But I am guessing the situation was pressing and caused that, however he should have just told her Rumple’s plan and done the honorable thing by being honest and truthful.)

REBUTTAL: This is such a reach. This is what trying too hard to make a square peg fit into a round hole looks like. No one is denying that Killian made mistakes but pretending like him owning up to it wasn’t part of his journey is just disingenuous. He owned his mistakes and tried to correct them. He later showed remorse and guilt for his failure. That is what counts.

He never once threatened her during this really sad example which just shows you are grasping at straws to try and make emotional abuse fit when it doesn’t.

SIGN 7: Blaming others for their problems or feelings

CLAIM: Guilty. He blamed Emma for the darkness.

REBUTTAL: Dark Hook blamed Emma for the darkness and why not? She made him a dark one against his wishes! Why not look at what he says after the darkness has left him?

CLAIM CONTINUED: If Emma could fight it so could he.

REBUTTAL: Are you seriously trying to compare Killian to the savior? Emma was the only one that could fight it! Her light magic and the goodness inside of her gave her an advantage!

CLAIM CONTINUED: Rumple never told Belle she was a pretty distraction, washed up etc so how much was actual Hook and how much was the actual darkness?

REBUTTAL: Killian Jones was NEVER verbally abusive to Emma so therefore we know it was the darkness. But you’re going to sit there and say that Rumple never abused Belle? He threw her in his dungeon, shook her, forced her to be his servant and was disgusted when Emma let it slip that he “falls for the hired help”!

You’re a complete joke now. Congrats.

SIGN 8: Being verbally abusive

CLAIM: This is the same as putting you down but also incorporates hostility in tone of voice, shouting, getting right in someones face and shouting etc

REBUTTAL: NEVER HAPPENED. Also we already covered this.

SIGN 9: Using threatening behavior towards others

CLAIM: Guilty. Threatened her family.

REBUTTAL: As Dark Hook. Regina did for two seasons but I am guessing that is OK? Heck, Regina’s evil half, which is still Regina, was threatening Emma and her parents and Regina let her! The only time Regina put herself at risk was to save Zelena.

SIGN 10: Getting really angry, really quickly

CLAIM: Guilty – the hand incident, and when Emma was sucked up in the vortex of evil he snapped at everyone but his biggest snap was at Regina… why??? Oh I don’t know, maybe it was because Emma made the ultimate sacrifice for Regina and absorbed the darkness instead of letting Regina take it. Emma never made that sacrifice for him. That’s why he was so snappy with Regina especially.

REBUTTAL: This is nothing but a head canonned biased opinion that has put thoughts into Killian’s head. Emma made the sacrifice for the town. Killian is not jealous over Regina. The man who stands up for Regina when Emma is doubting her (after Robin died) is not jealous of Regina.

Also... really? You’re acting like he doesn’t have a reason to snap? This “sign” should be prefaced with “getting really really angry FOR NO REASON” which isn’t what is happening here! There is a reason. Emma was missing and was in danger and Regina had given up on her!

Killian was not the bad guy here. He was only trying to come and help Emma.

Real Sign of Abuse: If we’re going to make stuff up why not agree with what Killian said? Maybe Regina was liking not having Emma around so she didn’t have to share Henry.

SIGN 11: Using force during an argument

CHARGE: Regina Mills throwing Emma Swan down her driveway.

CHARGE: Rumple for locking Belle on the Jolly

CLAIM: And he was a douche. He was unknowingly dark all that time and managed to control himself to a certain degree and as soon as he was told that he was a dark one, everything changed.

REBUTTAL: You realize that the Darkness can’t control you if you don’t know its there… right? Of course you don’t know that because you don’t care enough. You just want to hate Hook for whatever reason..

SIGN 12: Threatening to spread rumors about you

I’ll just leave this here:

Red Flag Count:

Regina: 12 because she emotionally abused Henry for 10+ years and her treatment over Emma due to Marian had Emma doubting herself. Regina never would follow Emma’s lead, often making Emma's ideas seem stupid. If anyone is abusive it is Regina.

Rumple: 11 definitely an abuser

Killian: 0 because he was never abusive toward Emma and any wrongs he committed he owned, apologized and showed remorse.

Claim: Regina’s abuse is actually good!

I wish I was kidding.

CLAIM: but but but Regina only did it once!

She cut Emma down so many times… what the hell? I’ve already posted some references of that but OK take some more.

CLAIM: but but but if Regina hadn’t gotten Emma angry then she wouldn’t have lit the fire besides she gave her a cutesy friendly grin!

Are you for real? Regina was proud of herself for abusing Emma into lighting the fire and taking credit for Emma’s work. How would you explain away Regina claiming Emma can’t get the map to work, snatching it away from her, then breaking Pan’s rules and nearly getting David killed? Geez.

I’ll just leave this here

Claim: Kilian’s sacrifice wasn’t good enough!

CLAIM: but but but Killian cleaning up his own mess doesn’t make him a hero

But Regina cleaning up her mess in Season 2 did? You see the hypocrisy in this claim? Oh you do because this hate blog claims that the curse wasn’t Regina’s mess at all. But oh yes yes it was.

And it further ignores the fact that Killian Jones was consumed by darkness at this point! This wasn’t villain Hook nor was it the Hook that was just dating Emma! It was a Dark hook being manipulated by the Darkness to do the darkness’ bidding.

Furthermore, it wasn’t his mess! It really wasn’t anyone’s except for the darkness who was pushing for these events to happen. Remember, the dark ones wanted to “live again”. Emma even admits that turning Hook was a mistake. But how can you blame her? She’d suffered so much loss in her life she didn’t want to suffer his. She thought they’d be able to do it together... and guess what...she was right! They did! Or would have if Rumple hadn’t double crossed them again.

Kilian was only able to break away from that darkness when he it was hurting Emma.

CLAIM: but but but but He sacrificed himself knowing that Emma is a sucker for the grand gestures and his so called love for her would be forever immortalized.

What a bunch of opinionated garbage. Before Emma made him a dark one he was ready to die for her to be rid of the darkness so that she could have a future.

“Our future is now. Reunite the blades so I can see them before I go.“

"But our future... “ “I'll just be happy knowing that... that you have one. Aah!”

“Just promise me one thing. If I helped take off that armor, don't... put it back on just because you're gonna lose me.“

Sounds to me like he is only concerned for her future happiness! I do not believe for one moment that he didn’t want her to move on. Also, he died thinking he would never see her again. So no, Killian Jones sacrificed himself to save all of them FROM THE DARK ONES and to rid the world of darkness forever.

CLAIM: “Evil doesn’t always look evil. Sometimes it can be staring right at us and we don’t even know it. Just because a pirate is pretty and masks his darkness, doesn’t mean to say he isn’t dark or has truly found redemption.”

Just because an evil queen shows a lot of cleavage and cries about her own happy ending doesn’t make her redeemed. Just because she masks her feelings behind sarcastic remarks you find funny doesn’t mean she isn’t a bully.

To Summarize:

1) I reject the idea that Killian Jones is a “Rape Culture” icon due to the fact that he never commits an act of sexual violence or threatens it. Also his actions have consequences in the form of the physical or being called out for it. We are shown that things he says and does is wrong. Sometimes a joke is just a joke.

2) If prior bad behavior is a reason that someone can never become a better person then we are all in trouble. Because the conclusion of this “hate blog” I debunked is pretty much just that. Killian Jones was a villain. Villains are bad. They do bad things.

3) Killian Jones DID become a better person. He showed remorse and paid for his crimes. He treated Emma so well, respected her, and loved her. And in the end that all that matters to me.

Also the biggest trait of a toxic person is inability to admit when you are wrong. KILLIAN ADMITS HE IS WRONG ALL THE TIME. He feels he is unworthy and still has a long journey ahead of him. Regina blames everyone else for her actions and expects to be rewarded for her good deeds. Rumple admits who he is but he just doesn’t care.

#anti regina mills #anti swan queen #anti regal believer #killian jones #cs hate debunked #captain swan #emma swan

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kelyon · 3 years

Text

Golden Rings 12: A Wolf

The Storybrooke sequel to Golden Cuffs

Rumple notices an unusual event

Read on AO3

Content Warning: Graham in this chapter and nothing good ever happens to Graham.

He is lying on their bed, spread-eagled and naked on the blue and gold coverlet. The gray-green of his skin looks rough and dull compared to the vibrant silk. His wife stands above him, clad in a gown of emerald velvet. She holds his dagger loosely at her side.

“Tell me the truth,” she orders. “Do you want to do this, Rumpelstiltskin?”

Magic surrounds him, connects him to the blade and to his wife. She is the mistress of the dagger. He gave himself over to her long ago. She owns him, body and mind, will and power. He must obey. It is impossible, unthinkable, to do anything else. At her command, he speaks the truth:

“I want to please you.” His breath comes hard and heavy. “But I am afraid. I do not want to be a slave to anyone.”

Belle sits on the bed beside him, sets the dagger aside. She cradles his face, leans over and kisses him. Their foreheads touch, they breathe together for a moment.

“Thank you for telling me you’re afraid,” she whispers. “And thank you for wanting to please me. We don’t have to play this game if you don’t want to.”

“But I do want to.” He reaches for her face, runs his black claws through her hair. It is easier to say these things when he is closer to her. She makes it so easy to be weak. “I want to belong to you, sweetheart. I know you won’t hurt me.”

She kisses him, long and deep and loving. He surrenders to the kiss, he lets her take him. Belle loves him, wants him, treasures him. For some far reason beyond his comprehension, he is precious to her. She will not let him come to harm.

In his long life, no one has ever protected him before.

“If I ask you to, Rumple, will you face your fear?”

“Yes,” he answers without hesitation. “There is nothing I would deny you, Belle. Nothing in the world and nothing of myself.”

Slowly nodding, she pulls back. She sits up above him. She picks up the dagger emblazoned with his name.

“I won’t hurt you, and I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.” Her voice is calm as she looks down at him--calm and cool, but still full of love. “But in this game I will keep you from doing what you want. Do you understand?”

He swallows. Belle will take care of him. Belle will push him to the edge and pull him back again, just as he has done to her a thousand times. Belle loves him and he loves her.

He trusts her.

“Yes,” he says at last. “Yes, I understand.”

“And if you cannot bear it, if you wish to stop this game, I charge you now that you must say the word we have agreed upon.”

“I will,” he whispers.

“Tell me the word now, Rumple, so that it is fresh in your mind.”

He almost smiles. “The word is apple.”

Even the faintest allusion to Regina will be a bucket of cold water on both of them. The woman who hurt Belle in the past, who will hurt both of them in the future--the mere thought of her will be enough to sober them both and signal the end of anything playful.

“That’s very good, Rumple.” Belle punctuates her praise with a kiss on his forehead. “I don’t want to hurt you, not in your body and not in your heart. In this game, I will control you, but you must speak if I go too far.”

“I will,” he promises. And the magic will hold him to his words. “I trust you, Belle. I love you.”

“I love you.” She looks down on him, her beautiful hair curling down to brush against his naked chest. Her smile is so warm, so lovely.

Then she gets off the bed, and holds the dagger aloft. When she looks at him next, her smile is gone, her eyes are cold, her face impassive. This is Belle with power, Belle in control. In control of him.

His mouth goes dry and his pulse begins to race.

“Until I say otherwise,” she declares, “you are to lay flat on the bed. You will not move. You will not speak, except to answer a direct question or to say the word. You will stop the game if there is any danger to the castle, to myself, or to you. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he breathes. His cock is already growing hard, just from being near his wife, just from being at her mercy.

“And Rumpelstiltskin?” she adds.

He cannot speak, but nods to show his attention.

“Under no circumstances are you permitted to come until I say.”

He closes his eyes and bites down a groan. He doesn’t protest--he can only speak to end the game before it begins. And this is what Belle told him she was going to do: keep him from doing what he wanted. His body is hers, he has agreed to it again and again.

She will do as she likes with him. He will trust her, and he will enjoy the experience.

With one hand still holding the dagger, she begins to unlace the front of her bodice. The green velvet of her gown gives way to a white silk chemise--light underneath the darkness. She doesn’t remove the dress completely, but lets it cling to her body, half-open. It gives the most tempting, most alluring glimpses of her skin.

He doesn’t realize he had reached for her until he feels the magic pull him back to the bed. It pulls him by the wrists, as though he is wearing shackles. As though he is bound by the same golden cuffs he had used on Belle so long ago.

Perhaps she is thinking the same thing. The next time she touches him it is to twist his wedding ring around his finger. Their rings were once her cuffs. What was once her bondage is now their bond, their marriage, their love.

Half-dressed, she leans over him. He can smell her body--her sweat, her arousal. He wants to pull her close and bury his nose in her. He wants to smell and taste and touch--then hear her laugh and sigh in pleasure.

But he cannot.

Because it pleases her that he doesn’t.

Instead, she straddles him. She hitches up her skirts and petticoats and spreads them out over his body. Silk and lace and velvet tickle the bare skin of his chest. He can feel her legs, her heat, even traces of her slick desire--but he cannot see any of it.

She sets herself lightly against his cock. The position teases him, taunts him with how similar it is to what he really wants. Their bodies are close together, but not nearly close enough. They will not be close enough until he is fully sheathed inside her and she is screaming and moaning in delight.

Belle sets the dagger down on the bed beside him. If he could move his hand but one inch, he could grab the blade and all his power would be his own again.

But even if he could, he wouldn’t. He gave the dagger to Belle. He gave himself to her, and that is a vow he will never break.

She must see him looking at the dagger, for when he looks on her again, she grins. “That’s good that you didn’t reach for it,” she coos. “Maybe someday we’ll be able to do this without magic. What would you think of that?”

She has asked him a question, so he can speak. “I think I might like that.”

Her grin transforms into a loving smile. Bending over him, she runs her pale hands over his dark chest--first her fingers, then her palms, and then back with her fingernails raking against his bare skin. He throws his head back. A strangled moan fights to escape his closed lips.

She chuckles. “Oh please make noise, my darling. Be as loud as you like.”

He is glad of that permission when her clever fingers brush over his gold-speckled nipples. Faint circles swirl over his sensitive flesh, teasing, tempting. When she finally relents and pinches him, the pain is close enough to pleasure that he groans and arches up briefly before the magic pulls him back down.

“Oh!” Belle sighs as she rides him. “I thought you might like that! Now I can feel that you do.” She grinds down against him, her slick folds rubbing against his shaft. He is still not inside her and it is driving him mad.

But of course she knows that.

She takes her hands off his chest and brings them to her gown. She pulls the bodice open further, so her arms are just barely in her sleeves. Her white chemise is loosely knotted at the back, when she pulls at the knot, the silk billows out around her. Now her neckline is at her waist and her beautiful pink breasts are finally exposed.

He groans at the sight of her, his perfect wife. How has he not exploded already?

Because she told him not to.

“Let me tell you something, Rumple.” She leans over him again, to whisper to him. Her body presses against his. Her nipples are as hard and pointed as his own--he feels them against his skin, as hot as her breath in his ear. “I like it too.”

Then her lovely hands are on her own flawless body. She touches herself the same way she just touched him--sweeping, scratching, pinching. She thrusts her hips against his pelvis and he can do nothing to enhance either her pleasure or his own.

It is excruciating.

It is exhilarating.

It feels like she does this for years, for an eternity. His wife takes her pleasure and he’s lucky he even gets to watch. She moves around his body while he lies paralyzed on the bed. Using his cock and and his mouth and his balled fists like so many lifeless toys, she makes herself come again and again. He has never been so powerless. He has never been so hard.

She strips away the rest of her clothes and he can see everything. He can see his dark cock entering her and disappearing inside her body. She clenches around him, hot and wet and maddening. He has no control over this. He cannot take her as he wants to. He cannot move, cannot even jerk his hips to get in deeper as she rides him. She kisses him and praises him, allows him to worship her breasts with his mouth.

“You’re so good, Rumple.” Her eyes are glazed and sweat glistens over her skin. Every part of him smells like her pleasure. “Are you ready?”

He feels her muscles tighten as she uses him for one more orgasm. One more, but not one last. Belle knows that. She knows the beast she has in her bed. A beast who can be tamed, but cannot be denied for long. A beast with hungers and urges that she has long been eager to satisfy.

She will satisfy him again, his beautiful wife. Because it pleases her to do so. He is her beast, and she will unleash him. They will love each other in every way, in every moment, for as long as they are together.

“I’m ready.”

“In that case, Rumpelstiltskin, I will free you from the constraints of this game... Right... Now!”

****

Power arced across the sky and Rumpelstiltskin jolted upright out of sleep. His breath came out in pants. He was sweating, despite the chill that permeated the drafty house. Inside his pajama bottoms, his cock was painfully hard.

But he couldn’t bother with that now.

Grabbing his cane, he heaved himself out of bed and hobbled to the nearest window. He pulled back the curtains and scanned the sky frantically. What should he look for? Would there be anything to see? Clouds hung heavy over the houses of Storybrooke, and the only light in them was the reflection of the orange street lights. It was an eerie and unnatural sight, but it wasn’t what had woken him.

It wasn’t magic.

After twenty-eight years of the curse, he still recognized magic. He knew the feeling, the taste, the vibrations of it, better than he knew any other sensation. This was supposed to be a world without magic--a world where he was powerless. That was why Bae had wanted to come here in the first place

But he knew what he felt.

It was fading, even as he stood by the window. The surge had been a burst of magic, wild and formless, like the lightning of a summer storm. It was untrained and probably unintentional, the magic of someone who didn’t know what they were doing. Someone who didn’t even know she had magic.

A slow smile spread across Rumpelstiltskin’s face. No, the Savior didn’t have magic. She was magic. In the old world, magic was a skill to be learned, a talent that could be either developed or ignored. But Emma Swan was the product of True Love. Magic was a part of her very nature, and had been from the moment of her conception. Even if she knew what she was dealing with, she wouldn’t be able to fight it or hide it. Magic was her destiny. Whether she knew it or not, she had brought it to Storybrooke.

He closed the curtains. Though it was still dark outside, dawn would be coming soon. And there was so much work to do.

He limped over to the washroom, to attend the needs of his human body. Mrs. Gold was asleep in the bed, lying on her stomach the way Belle liked to. She had one arm stretched out to the side, her pale skin all but glowing against the dark red sheets. She was reaching to the other side of the bed, to the space where he had been sleeping.

Quietly, Rumpelstiltskin approached his wife. Belle’s face, Belle’s hair, Belle’s sweet, gentle yearning. She was there, he knew it, inside Mrs. Gold. Belle was just sleeping, waiting to be rescued.

He pulled the quilt up over her shoulders, to protect her from the night air. Belle was always cold. Mrs. Gold had finally stopped going to bed naked, but her negligees barely covered her. There was a gift-giving holiday coming up soon, something like the winter solstice. Perhaps he could buy her something long and made of flannel. Mrs. Gold would hate such a garment, but perhaps she would wear it just to please him.

Of course, he shouldn’t encourage her to think she was pleasing him. That would only lead the poor woman to more disappointment.

Sighing, he left the bed and went to the washroom. The problem of Mrs. Gold wasn’t going to go away, but it wasn’t the issue that occupied his thoughts now. Magic was what he had to think of. There was magic in Storybrooke. What was he going to do about it?

With the flip of a switch, he brought light to the darkened room. Magic used to be as simple as that. He’d used it for his comfort and his necessities just as the people of this world used electricity. It was an odd reversal of the curse that in this world all but the poorest people had the same luxuries as the Dark One. And now magic was no more accessible to him than a bolt of lightning.

He stripped off his clothes and turned on the water in the shower. In the old world, he had spent weeks mastering the “Indoor Rain” spell. Longer still to tinker with it so he could summon water that was warm but not scalding. But every house in Storybrooke had this ability--as long as people paid their water bills. That was one similarity between the worlds: Whether something was magic or only seemed like magic, it all came with a price.

Gold’s bathtub had a seat built into the corner to accommodate his bad leg. It was also handy whenever he wanted to watch his wife soap herself under the warm spray. He had made Mrs. Gold get on her knees for him a hundred times in this tub. She would wash his feet, or suck his cock, or bend over his knee and take a punishment. Sometimes Gold would leave her alone on her knees in the shower while he dried off and dressed. He would spray her down with freezing water--sometimes while she was still clothed in those designer fashions she took such pride in wearing.

She was his thing, and he could break her if he wanted to.

Rumpelstiltskin hung his head and let the water run over him. He would never be clean of these memories, of what Gold had done to his wife, how he had abused the power he had over her. He tried to push the thoughts from his mind. He tried to remember his dream.

Every night since he had come back to himself, Rumpelstiltskin had dreamed of his old life. His dreams always took the form of memories, distinct from any natural dream. In the dreams he was always himself, and he always knew what was going on. He dreamed of his father, of the women who raised him. He dreamed of Millah, of Bae, of the deals he had made as the Dark One.

He dreamed of Belle. Belle as a girl making a deal she couldn’t possibly understand, wanting nothing more than to save her people from an army of ogres. Belle as a captive in his dungeon, wearing the cuffs and learning how to play the games he set up. Belle as he came to love her, came to realize that she was the most precious person in the world to him--and that he had no idea how to cope with that. Belle, loving him so much she allowed him not to love her. Belle, wretched and despondent after he had trapped her in her library. Belle taking her freedom.

Belle coming back.

Belle as his wife, as the mistress of the dagger. Finally, both of them together and equally able to love each other. Belle as his partner and his second self, of them talking and planning and spending every day side by side. Dream after dream of them loving each other, and expressing that love with their bodies.

His cock was hard in his hand. In the weeks since he had awoken from the curse, Rumpelstiltskin had masturbated less than a dozen times. Whenever he did, it was always like this--under a stream of running water, in the early hours of the morning, after dreaming about Belle.

He took care of himself quickly, mechanically. It didn’t feel right to take much pleasure in this act, not without his wife. This was just a base need, a release, a discharge of too much pent-up energy.

For the longest time, that was all fucking had been to him too. As the Dark One, he had taken a few lovers: People who had offered themselves to him as part of a deal. Students who wanted a hands-on demonstration of that type of magic. Jefferson had been so wonderstruck with new possibilities he was eager to try anything, with anyone. For so long, the most licentious depravities had been enjoyable--but as impersonal as fucking his own hand.

Belle had changed that. Belle had changed everything. With Belle, pleasure and love and intimacy had become entwined again. She had known him, as no other lover had ever known him. And she accepted him. She wanted him.

Rumpelstiltskin came with a strangled grunt. He stifled his noises so Mrs. Gold wouldn’t hear. For a moment, he breathed. He pretended that the heat of the water was Belle’s body all around him, caressing him, cherishing him.

Then he finished washing, and got dressed.

****

The early morning light was enough to see by as Rumpelstiltskin moved through the house. He had been able to dress without turning on a lamp and running the risk of waking Mrs. Gold. Leaning on his cane, he made his way down the stairs and into Gold’s study.

In addition to the safe in the shop, Gold also had a safe hidden behind one of the bookshelves in this room. Rumpelstiltskin spun the combination and the door swung open. Inside there were stacks of banded hundred dollar bills, an accordion file of documents--contracts, deeds, incriminating photographs of some of Storybrooke’s most upstanding citizens--and a steel box. The box was fireproof, waterproof, and required two separate keys to open.

Rumpelstiltskin didn’t breathe until the box was opened, and he saw that the contents inside were intact.

The chipped cup, Baelfire’s shawl, and the dagger.

He touched the objects reverently. The shawl was wrapped around the cup, protecting it from potential damage. The dagger was separate from that tangle, as though it knew it didn’t belong. Carefully, Rumpelstiltskin lifted the cup and the shawl out of the box. With one hand on his cane, he cradled the precious things in the crook of his arm.

He used to carry Bae the same way.

After scanning the room for a moment, he decided to set the things up on a shelf by Gold’s desk. That way, he would be able to look at them and know that they were safe. Bae’s shawl and Belle’s cup were the best parts of his old life--the best parts of himself. It was better for them to be out in the open, where he could see them and remember.

The dagger, however, was only worth having when it was in Belle’s hand. At any other time, it was a liability. The only weapon that could hurt the Dark One, the only way to control him or take his life. Now that Emma Swan had brought her own sparks of magic into this world, Rumpelstiltskin would have to keep such an explosive item far away from any flames.

He shut the metal box and locked it with both keys. Wedging the box under his arm, he went to the back of the house. In the kitchen, he grabbed the canvas apron and threw it over his shoulder as he went into the garage.

The garage produced a garden spade and a pair of rubber boots. Very useful. Gold kept a pair of gloves in the glove box of his car. He would need those as well. Rumpelstiltskin had pulled out the keys and opened the car door before a pang of conscience made him stop.

Mrs. Gold.

If she woke up and found him gone, she would panic and think she had done something to displease him.

With a slight huff. Rumpelstiltskin shut the car door and went back inside the house. He wrote a quick note saying that he needed to take care of some business and he would be back before it was time to open the shop. Creasing the notepaper, he set it at Mrs. Gold’s place at the dining room table. She would see it as soon as she came down for breakfast. If he got back before she woke up, he could destroy the note and she would never know he had left.

That taken care of, Rumpelstiltskin drove into the woods. Gold owned most of the wild forest that surrounded Storybrooke. It took about twenty minutes to drive from the pink house to the rustic cabin where Gold liked to get away.

They had spent their honeymoon there, on some frigid February weekend that had never really happened. The tradition of this world was for grooms to carry their brides over the threshold of their home. But Gold had ordered his new wife to crawl to him on her hands and knees as a beginning of their wedded bliss.

Because the cabin was so isolated, Gold allowed himself to let loose when they were here. He would have Mrs. Gold walk naked and barefoot through the forest, and let herself get caught in brambles and mud puddles. Then he would punish her for being so careless, so dirty. Out here, both of them got to unleash their animal natures--Gold as a predator, his wife as prey. A victim.

Shaking his head, Rumpelstiltskin parked the car and got out. He put on the apron, boots and gloves, and carried the shovel and the box in one hand. He couldn’t walk far into the trees, but he managed to find a clear spot. Balancing on his good leg, he stuck the shovel in the ground and heaved his weight onto it.

The shovel sank into the forest soil. They weren’t so far into winter that the ground had frozen yet.

He dug deeper than he needed to. It was exhausting work, but mindless. Almost like spinning. While his body was occupied, that gave his mind an opportunity to roam free. He could think, he could plan. When had dug enough, he tossed the box that held his dagger into the hole. It landed with an unceremonious thud. Then, Rumpelstiltskin hid the source of all his power under the dirt.

As he patted down the last of the soil and covered the spot with fallen leaves and sticks, a man came barreling through the forest. He ran as though the hounds of hell were after him. Abruptly, he stopped, and spun around to look at the trees and brush around him. He looked disoriented and on the verge of panic.

Gold knew this man as Sheriff Graham, the well-meaning head of local law enforcement. He was Gold’s tenant, a fact Mrs. Gold often used to her advantage.

There was also reason to suspect that the sheriff station’s close ties to the mayor’s office was not merely a working relationship. Graham was a handsome young man, after all, though at this moment he looked sweaty and feverish. Like he hadn’t slept in days.

Or like he had seen a ghost.

Deliberately making noise, Rumpelstiltskin hobbled out into the clearing. Graham jumped at the disturbance. He must have been entirely in his own world.

“Mr. Gold!” Graham panted. His brow was furrowed, his eyes bloodshot. He looked at Rumpelstiltskin like he wasn’t sure what he was seeing. Like his eyes told him one thing, but some other sense was telling him something completely different. “I thought you were a wolf.”

“Did I forget to shave?”

Rumpelstiltskin grinned as he put the pieces together. The sheriff’s station had hired a new deputy a few weeks ago. Graham was now spending several hours every day in the company of Emma Swan. It was possible that his current state had nothing to do with the surge of magic that had burst through town earlier.

But it wasn’t likely.

“You know, Sheriff, as far as I’m aware, there are no wolves in Storybrooke. Not the literal kind, anyway. Why are you looking for one?”

Graham shook his head. “You’ll think I’m crazy.”

What a person in this world would think was madness was exactly what Rumpelstiltskin wanted to hear. “Try me.”

“I had a dream about a wolf.” Graham rubbed his forehead. It was less that he was answering Gold and more that he was trying to understand what was happening in his own mind. “A white wolf. It had one eye as red as blood, the other as black as night. And then, I swear, I saw the exact same wolf out here. But it ran off. Or maybe it was never here...”

Until now, it hadn’t occurred to Rumpelstiltskin to wonder who Graham had been in the old world. But now he didn’t need to wonder at all. The traits Graham described were unique in a wolf, the sort of coloring that showed up only in one pack. The pack that had lived in the mountains near the Dark One’s castle.

He remembered the day--about thirty years before this curse--when he had heard the keening howl of a lonely wolf. It had been a white female, with one eye as red as blood, and the other as dark as night. The wolf’s sister had been mated and whelped a lively litter of pups. But because this wolf had no mate, she had no chance at a litter of her own, and her loneliness would only grow.

Rumpelstiltskin had sensed her desperation and knew that having a favor from even one wolf could be a valuable tool. So when it happened that a human woman running through his forest with her child had tripped over a root and smashed her head against a stone, Rumpelstiltskin whisked the boy away and offered it to the lonely wolf to raise as her own pup.

Graham was that boy, all grown up. The wolf he dreamed of was the only mother he had. The only mother he remembered. And it was driving him to the brink of madness.

“Did you see anything strange out here, Mr. Gold?”

“I’m sorry to say I haven’t,” he answered. “Do wish I could be more helpful.” He made to walk away, but then turned back to the shaken Sheriff. “You know,” he said, “they say that dreams are memories. Memories of another life.”

Graham blinked slowly at Rumpelstiltskin. He could see the wheels turning behind the poor man’s teary eyes. What he said made so much sense, but it couldn’t be true. Could it? Could it possibly? “What do you believe?”

He gave the sheriff a grin he knew he wouldn’t understand. “I never rule out anything.” He nodded his good-bye. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

What would it take to fully give Sheriff Graham his memories back? Rumpelstiltskin didn’t know. But if anyone could do it, it would be Deputy Swan. And once that happened, well…

That would be very interesting.

****

But whatever hopes Rumpelstiltskin might have had were dashed the next morning when Mrs. Gold unfolded the newspaper and shrieked.

“Oh my God!” She covered her mouth with her hand and read an article in fraught silence.

“What is it?” He asked, doubtful that anything that troubled Mrs. Gold would merit his concern.

“Sheriff Graham…” She looked up from the paper and her eyes brimmed with tears. “He’s dead.”

Rumpelstiltskin leaned forward. “What?”

Mrs. Gold nodded and showed him the article. She began to read the text out loud: “First responders arrived at the sheriff’s station late Wednesday night, responding to a 911 call from known drunk driver, Emma Swan. Sheriff Graham Humbert was declared dead on the scene. The medical examiner confirmed the cause of death as a cardiac event. Despite the association of alleged vandal Emma Swan, autopsy reports indicate no suspicion of foul play. A source close to Humbert theorizes that he may have had a heart condition that went tragically undiagnosed.”

She shook her head. “A heart attack?” she whispered. “But he wasn’t even thirty-five!”

Rumpelstiltskin did not let his hands shake as he picked up his cup of tea. Dead. The only other person to come close to having the curse broken was dead. “That does seem unusual.”

Not only unusual but unnatural. Supernatural. It was obvious what had happened: Graham worked closely with both Regina and Emma. Of course he would be caught in their crossfire. If the Savior’s magic had any effect in this world, it could well be that the Queen had a few tricks up her sleeve as well. So, Regina understood what had happened to Graham, and she had decided to eliminate him.

Poor man.

“God!” Mrs. Gold shivered. She sank back in her chair and let the paper fall into her lap.

“You’ve gone white,” he observed. “Are you alright?”

“He’s just dead,” she said softly. “Just like that. Twelve hours ago, he was fine, but then--” she snapped her fingers. “Gone forever. Poor man never got a chance to be free.”

He looked at her carefully. Odd that Mrs. Gold would care about the lives and deaths and freedoms of other people. That was much more Belle’s domain.

Had Belle ever met the wolf-boy in the old world?

“Did you know him well?” he asked gently. Even without Graham, there was still magic in this world. There were still memories that would sound crazy unless you knew what they meant.

“He was kind to me.” Mrs. Gold tilted her head, her gaze seemed far away. Was there something different about her voice? Or was he just hearing what he wanted to hear? “Poor man was trapped, Regina did that to him. But he did the best he could for me. I’ll never forget that.”

“What did he do?” Rumpelstiltskin whispered. He stared at his wife, only half-believing what he was hearing. It couldn’t be real. But perhaps it was. Emma’s magic could be doing miraculous things right now. Right before his eyes.

But then it ended. Like the popping of a soap bubble. Mrs. Gold blinked and snapped out of her reverie.

“I--” It took her a moment to focus, for the curse to reassert its control over her. “I don’t remember. Graham was just… a nice guy.”

Slowly, Rumpelstiltskin made himself nod.

Mrs. Gold went back to the paper. “Weird that it’s just a little half-column in the back pages. I mean, the man is--was--the sheriff of the whole Goddamned town. You’d think a sudden death would be front-page news.”

“Mr. Glass is certainly using uncharacteristic restraint,” he agreed. “I wonder if the powers that be told the paper to bury the story.”

The breaking of Graham’s curse was a threat to the power Regina had over the reality of this town. His death had solved most of that problem for her, but not all of it. No good would come to Regina if people around Storybrooke began to poke around in the circumstances of the sheriff’s death--or his life, for that matter. Better for her if no one looked at this too closely. Better still if people gradually forgot that Sheriff Graham had ever existed at all. Doubtless, Regina would use all the power she had to make sure no one ever mentioned Graham again.

****

Since Gold had been the sheriff’s landlord, and the man had no other family, it fell to Rumpelstiltskin to clean out the apartment of any personal effects. There was precious little, and nothing worth selling in the shop. Mostly clothes--cheap but well-cared for--and the debris of a life of police work. The walkie-talkie radio set was better quality than anything the city issued out. That could be useful to someone.

Under Graham’s bed, there was a plastic crate full of items that could never be resold. There were harnesses and collars, leather cuffs and spreader bars, whips and floggers and bamboo canes. A half-empty spool of black-dyed rope. The number of toys and restraints would rival even Mrs. Gold’s collection. Everything was high-quality--much more expensive than the salary of a town sheriff could afford--and every item that wasn’t black was either blue, red, or royal purple.

Poking through the crate with the end of his cane, Rumpelstiltskin revealed a layer of dildos and plugs--some truly breathtaking in size. A black leather strap-on harness was clearly the method of delivery for the dildos. There were nipple clamps and cock rings and thin chains with hanging weights. Deeper still were collections of needles and electronic pain devices. He couldn’t identify the small metal objects that looked like miniature cages or conjoined rings. But then Gold’s knowledge helpfully supplied the phrase cock and ball torture.

Nothing about Sheriff Graham gave the slightest suggestion that he would use these implements on another person. But Rumpelstiltskin knew who would. Regina had never discriminated in victims. Perhaps it gave her more of a thrill to hurt a man than a woman. Especially the sheriff, who was supposed to have as much power and authority as the mayor. But no one was allowed to have more power than the Queen. She probably took great pleasure in reminding Graham just how powerless he was.

Rumpelstiltskin would put money down on a bet that Graham was never allowed to use a safe word when he was with Regina. For twenty-eight years, the man had been at the mercy of a woman who had no mercy. A woman whose lust and bloodlust were both insatiable. And the instant he had gotten even a taste of freedom, she had put him down like a dog.

He had half a mind to take the crate of paraphernalia and have it dumped on Regina’s front lawn. It would be so satisfying to declare open war against the Evil Queen, to expose her for what she was and bring out the whole truth for the entire town.

But if Rumpelstiltskin were capable of doing that, he would be the Savior, and not Emma Swan.

He was not the hero of this story. It was not his role to go up against Regina. He was not a white knight. Rumpelstiltskin was the shadow-power, the trickster-demon, the Dark One. The best he could do was to know who the real heroes were, and make sure they had the tools they needed to defeat the real villains.

With that in mind, he decided to pay a friendly visit to City Hall. Perhaps there would be a copy of the Storybrooke Town Charter that he could borrow. The office of sheriff was currently vacant, after all. It would be his duty as a citizen to make sure that vacancy was filled in a lawful manner, by the candidate who could do the most good.

#golden rings #poor graham #rumbelle #rumbelle fic #ouat

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themattress · 3 years

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OUAT AND ME: SEASON 3

Story - Season 3 was the first season to (intentionally) divide itself between two story arcs, with the first half being the Neverland Saga and the second half being the Wicked Saga. While the Neverland Saga focused on the journey of the show's main characters through Neverland as they conquer their own inner demons in order to save Henry from the clutches of Peter Pan, the Wicked Saga focused on a new Dark Curse being cast on Storybrooke and the main characters' fight against Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West, who is working toward a secret objective that will allow her to exact revenge on Regina, the Evil Queen.

The Neverland Saga, in the present day sequences, is the best the show has been since the Enchanted Forest quest early into Season 2. In its best moments, it's even on par with the Dark Curse Saga of Season 1. Seeing all of the characters work together toward a shared goal after all the clashing agendas from the previous season is so refreshing and exactly what the show needed, and everyone undergoes some kind of character development and gets their moment to shine. Greg and Tamara are killed off within the first few minutes of the premiere episode after finding out that "the Home Office" was the Lost Boys all along, and Peter Pan is quite possibly the greatest Big Bad in the show's entire run, and certainly among its most popular for just how wonderfully menacing, manipulative and despicable he is.

Unfortunately, I can't extend the same praise to its flashback sequences. The ones that involve Rumpelstiltskin and Hook in the 4th, 5th and 8th episodes are great and connect to the current narrative, but I take issue with all of the others in some way, big or small. The flashbacks in the 2nd, 9th and 10th episodes have fuck-all to do with what's currently happening in Neverland, and while the ones in the 3rd and 6th episodes do, there are too many issues in them to consider them good. For the 2nd, 6th and 10th, the problem is that the show is starting to contrive new "Snow White and friends vs. the Evil Queen" stories where they don't belong and aren't needed, and it especially has a negative impact on the Evil Queen since this is the point where she shifted from slightly campy to overtly campy, her menace quota reduced to virtually nil. For the 3rd, giving Regina and Tinker Bell a past connection is fine and works for the story, but the way they do it is stupid and with dire consequences later down the line, plus the show doesn't get much into her connections with actual Peter Pan characters like Hook, Wendy, and, well, Peter Pan. And as for the 9th, I actually have quite a lot to say on that so I'll save it for when I'm discussing Episode Quality.

My thoughts on the Wicked Saga have not changed all these years later: it's a textbook example of They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot. With the set-up it starts with: a new Dark Curse, a new Big Bad, and new dynamics between many of the characters, they had the chance to take the show in a bold new direction following the ending of the Neverland Saga wrapping up the plot that's been going on since "Pilot". But instead, Adam and Eddy fall back into their bad Season 2 habits, and the result is that the show settles into this kind of bland status quo that it won't ever be able to shake off. The arc isn't actually a bad one, as it's solidly structured just like the Dark Curse and Neverland Sagas and there's a lot of great moments and developments made. It just falls short of the greatness that it could have had.

Characters - Everyone's more likable now! At least until they aren't.

* Emma takes center stage in the Neverland Saga. After finally learning to believe based solely on faith instead of always waiting for evidence to do so, she takes charge as the leader of the group affectionally dubbed "the Nevengers" by fans. In learning how to be a leader, she is able to learn more about herself and become an even more confident and decisive hero. Tragically, her character arc isn't fully resolved before it gets cut off by the events of the midseason finale, leaving her in a state of anxiety and uncertainty in the Wicked Saga before finally making her way back to the resolution of her character arc in the season finale. And on paper, this sounds fine, but in execution Emma's character through the majority of the Wicked Saga is a one-note bore who mainly exists to prop up the development of other characters. She isn't as sidelined as badly as she was in the latter half of Season 2, but still not ideally handled, especially when much of the story arc is specifically building toward only her being able to defeat Zelena only for Regina to do it instead. However, the resolution her character receives in the finale is handled exceptionally well, so I guess it all balances out in the end.

* Snow is actually back on top form in the Neverland Saga and it's wonderful to see, but it doesn't last into the Wicked Saga where she's back to the insipid, Regina-coddling weakling that Season 2 turned her into, whose biggest contribution to the plot is simply having a baby. Charming is a lot more interesting, as in the Neverland Saga we get to see his David Nolan weaknesses return but this time as a result of his Charming strengths, which is a fascinating dynamic to see at work and leads to some great interactions between him and Hook, a relationship that got started in Season 2 and will only continue to grow (and occasionally regress) as the show continues. And in the Wicked Saga, he has an entire episode dedicated to his feelings of failure as a father and how he fears that he might fail his second child too.

* Henry....still sucks, damn it! For a story arc with the mission statement of Save Henry, the Neverland Saga makes it difficult to care about saving him when he's portrayed as so stupid and gullible and easily led by his captor, Peter Pan, to the point where he literally sacrifices his heart (the Heart of the Truest Believer) to him against the pleas of his father and mothers. And while he has the potential to become more interesting in the Wicked Saga due to having lost his memories, the show totally ruins it by giving him his memories back by the end, because Heaven forbid that Regina pay a lasting consequence for her decades of villainy.

* Oh, and speaking of Regina, like Snow she's also really good in the Neverland Saga only for the Wicked Saga to ruin her again. In the Neverland Saga, she establishes herself as the Token Evil Teammate of the Nevengers, who knows she's a sociopathic villain and owns it as she utilizes her skill set for the greater good. Her line after ripping out a Lost Boy's heart at Emma's behest sums up why she works so well in this arc: "She didn't. I did. That's what I'm here for. One happy family." This should have been Regina's seasonal character arc and her status within the show going forward: a part of the family who may be evil and grouchy and not get along with everyone and even antagonize other members of the family, but who can still be counted on when push comes to shove and whom the other members of the family stand on equal grounds with and can push back against. It's the ideal recipe for a slow-burn redemption where by the end of the show she's truly become a semi-decent person. Just the act of destroying and fully reversing the Dark Curse in the midseason finale alone, at the cost of Henry losing all his memories of her while she gives him and Emma good memories of having always been together was a powerful start to such a redemption. It was all right there.

But of course, Adam and Eddy could never let their precious Regina go so long without having all of the things both she and they believe she is entitled to. So in the present-day story of the Wicked Saga (she's still fairly decent in the flashbacks), Regina gets a handsome soulmate in Robin Hood, and validation over her more powerful half-sister, and engagement in family dinners, and reconciliation with Snow without her expressing any remorse or apology toward her (Snow puts the blame on herself instead - "I was such a brat!"), and Henry with all of his memories back, and to out of nowhere and without her heart in her body become a powerful practitioner of light magic to the point where she's basically the Savior now! Yes, she seems to lose Robin at the end when Maid Marian is brought back, but that just ends up making her victim complex and blame deflection even stronger ("You're just like your mother!" she says to Emma, "Never thinking about consequences!" Because how dare she bring back one of Regina's past victims and allow her to be reunited with her family!)

In short, the Wicked Saga put a sudden fast-forward on Regina's redemption, giving her all sorts of goodies that would make sense as individual karmic rewards on a slow-burn redemption but make no sense when they happen in quick succession. And then at the end, they took one of those things away just to make her seem like more of a martyr, something they've been doing ever since the end of "Queen of Hearts" back in Season 2 and at this point I was sick of it. Little did I know it was about to be taken to a whole new level...

* Rumple wasn't bad in the Neverland Saga, per se, in fact he's amazing in the last four episodes. But early in, he backtracks on the goodwill he built up in the Season 2 finale by arrogantly abandoning the rest of the Nevengers to go rescue Henry all by himself, and all this accomplishes is getting him lost in the jungle, crying over old childhood dolls, being plagued by a hallucination of Belle, taunted by Peter Pan, and having an underwhelming reunion with the son he thought had died only to quickly come to blows with said son as he begins showing signs of temptation from his selfish self-preservation instincts at the expense of Henry's well-being once again. It just gets tiring after a while and you're glad when Regina verbally bitch-slaps him back into some semblance of his old self, which leads to the aforementioned amazing moments where he reconciles with the other Nevengers, confronts his father, and ultimately masterminds the heroes’ action plan in the midseason finale which culminates in his final redemption as he sacrifices his life to take down Pan once and for all.

But therein lies the problem: Rumple's entire series-long character arc just came to its natural conclusion. He chose love over power and courage over fear, standing up to the father who ruined his whole psyche and giving his life for his loved ones. However, since it's the middle of the season and Robert Carlyle is still contracted for more, they had to resurrect him. This decision cheapening his sacrifice is bad enough, but the writers also have no real idea what to do with him for the rest of the arc other than act crazy in a cage and then serve as Zelena's meat-slave, which is even less fun to watch than him moping around in the jungle was! While him deceiving Belle and killing Zelena at the end promises better things for him in the future, it's still a slog to have to sit through what preceded it, and you never quite shake off the feeling that the show might have been better off if it only had the balls to leave him dead.

* Hook was already one of the best additions to the cast in Season 2, but Season 3 is where he truly shines. He is in his element in the Neverland Saga, bonding with Emma and Charming while he rediscovers the more heroic and honorable side of himself. The insight into his past especially helps with this, as we better understand where he came from and how he got to where he was when we first met him. And in the Wicked Saga, he is the impetus behind Emma regaining her memories and returning to Storybrooke to be the Savior once more, as we learn that he had attempted to return to his old pirate ways back in the Enchanted Forest but ultimately couldn't do it, as his experiences with Emma and his love for her had changed him for the better. And so when he learned her family was in trouble and needed her help, he sacrificed the Jolly Roger and his pirate captain status in order to get back to her. After learning this on top of all the time they spend together, particularly in that very season finale, Emma finally lets down her walls and enters a romantic relationship with him...and I can't blame her in the slightest, because out of all her love interests, it's clear that she and Hook have the most in common and have the best chemistry. It’s True Love.

* This also might just be the best season for Belle as a character. Her focus episode in the middle of the Neverland Saga is actually about her and her desire to be a hero and contribute to the cause rather than just about her romance with Rumple, and she gets to be a badass who saves the day and makes a great new friend in Ariel. She's also good in the Wicked Saga, where she bonds with Neal, takes Hook and Regina to task for their past misdeeds against her until they apologize and make it up to her, and continues to be a valuable asset as the town librarian and scholar. Pity we can't feel happy for her on her wedding day, though, as even in his goddamn proposal to her Rumple manages to be the worst lover ever.

* Neal is promoted to a regular character this season, which naturally means he's its designated screwed-over regular who won't make it to the next season! It's a shame since despite how miscast Michael Raymond-James continues to be, Neal is better written in this season than he was in the previous one. Through both the Neverland and Wicked Sagas, he shows a passionate desire to be a better father to Henry than Rumple was to him, to not repeat the same mistakes that Rumple made. And so when he is separated from Emma and Henry, he becomes obsessed with getting back to them no matter what the cost, veering dangerously into Rumple territory as he starts dabbling in dark magic. But when the ritual to resurrect his father so that he can find a way back to Earth costs him his life, he ends up accepting his fate rather than cling to life like a coward and risk becoming just like Rumple. While I don't particularly miss him nor do I find his heroic death enough to warrant Snow and Charming naming their new son after him, I'm glad in the end he was able to break the cycle.

* Peter Pan, as I said before, is a top contender for the show's greatest Big Bad. Much of it has to do with Robbie Kay, who absolutely nails the cocky and charismatic yet malicious and frightening qualities that you expect to see from an evil version of Peter Pan. He is so utterly, thoroughly, skin-crawlingly evil that you are invested in the heroes' quest less out of concern for Henry and more because you want to see this demon child be defeated. And of course, there's his backstory and true identity - he's actually Malcolm, Rumple's father, who cruelly abandoned him in order to bond with the Eldritch Abomination personifying Neverland's dark side and obtain eternal youth. But eternal youth doesn't mean eternal life, and Pan will die unless he obtains the Heart of the Truest Believer belonging to his great-grandson, Henry.

While this backstory is divisive among fans, I'm in the camp that loves it. Not only does it add a greater layer of depth to Rumple and his story and make Pan both more pitiful and more reprehensible, but OUAT is at its best when it uses fairy tales to explore real issues, and this is a quite literal exploration of "Peter Pan Syndrome", where adult men selfishly remain in arrested development even when they become fathers. It also really boosts Pan's Ultimate Villain cred, as none of what transpired in the show would have happened if he hadn't abandoned his son and scarred him for life. He is Patient Zero for all the characters' suffering.

* Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West, naturally feels like a step down when compared to Peter Pan, but this isn't for a lack of effort on the part of the actress, as Rebecca Mader is delightful as she chews the scenery in a blaze of bug-eyed, bared-teeth, shrieking, cackling, psychotic glory. The issues with Zelena are in the writing. First off, making her Regina's half-sister is questionable given that we just had a villain with a secret familial connection with one of our mainstay baddies, which was following from an evil woman with a familial connection to Regina specifically! And them being sisters doesn't have much bearing on the conflict beyond explaining why the Wicked Witch has green skin (it magically turned green out of jealousy for Regina), and she only has green skin in the flashbacks anyway. It also doesn't track with how they first present Zelena in her backstory: she's a girl who wants love and a place to belong, but the moment she discovers she has a sister in another realm her reaction isn't to seek her out and bond with her but "why does she have all of that power and privilege, I oughta have all of that, it's not faaaaaaaaair!" She also lusts after Rumple who, having previously insisted that no-one could ever love him, casually admits that "he has that effect on women" and stops training Zelena because he accepts as fact that she loves him more than anything else and so she can't cast the Dark Curse for him. It makes no sense.

On top of that, her big secret plan ends up being anticlimactic - she wants to create a time travel spell so that she can go back in time and make herself the one who casts the Dark Curse for Rumple - and she is defeated ridiculously easy by Regina's out-of-her-ass light magic powers and then unceremoniously shivved by Rumple in her jail cell. All while Adam and Eddy drop boulder-sized hints that she isn't really dead and we haven't seen the last of her. Then why "kill her" to begin with? Why not just keep her imprisoned? Like I said, Zelena is a good idea for a character and with a great actress, but the writing really let her down.

* Beyond the usual side characters around Storybrooke who are fine as usual, we get several new ones that all make an impact. There's Felix, Pan's creepy and fanatical right-hand boy; Tinker Bell the cynical exiled fairy turned reluctant ally of the Nevengers; the adult versions of John and Michael Darling who run the anti-magic group Greg and Tamara belonged to on Pan's behest since he's holding Wendy hostage; Liam Jones, the deceased older brother of Killian Jones; Ariel of The Little Mermaid fame played to adorable perfection by Joanna Garcia-Swisher, Blackbeard the pirate who serves as Hook's arch-rival in their mutual field of interest; and Glinda the Good Witch who protected Oz until Zelena ousted her from power.

And then there are the new ones that make much less of an impact such as a charisma-free Prince Eric; Walsh the Wizard of Oz (and Emma's short-lived boyfriend, and a flying monkey - yes, he's really all three of those); a bland version of Rapunzel; a dumbfounding semi-villainous adaptation of Lumiere the talking candle, and Dorothy Gale who is so devoid of anything special or interesting that she's a slap in the face to her literary and cinematic counterpart. I'm not sure what went wrong with these characters, but it went very wrong.

However, one side character needs to be addressed above all others: Robin Hood. He's back and involved in the present day story, now played by Sean Maguire instead of Tom Ellis, and the revelation via Tinker Bell's pixie dust that he's Regina's "soul mate" is the start of his character being butchered beyond repair. The sad thing is that it could have worked: the argumentative, mutual dislike yet still caring about each other type of relationship they have in the flashbacks was perfect and should have continued, progressing naturally into Belligerent Sexual Tension and finally romance as Regina becomes a better person. Instead, when they lose their memories and meet again in Storybrooke, it's now love at first sight and instant romance, with Robin being disgustingly courteous and compliant toward Regina (claiming she's "bold and audacious, but not evil"). Robin Hood is supposed to stand against corrupt, oppressive tyrants, not fall in love with them, and Regina is nowhere near out of her corrupt, oppressive tyrant mindset yet. But she's Regina, Adam and Eddy's favorite character, and so if Emma's getting a sexy British love interest than so must she, regardless of how it clashes with his code of honor! Ugh, such a waste of a great hero, and of a good actor.

Atmosphere - Remember when I said that Season 2 got dark in the bad way? Well, the Neverland Saga is dark in the good way, where the darkness isn't coming from a constant steam of personal misery, heinous actions, and the heroes failing against the villains, but from things that are suggested and things that lurk in the shadows, from trials the heroes must face in order to come out stronger that come off almost like an intense form of therapy, and from a particularly evil villain who will do anything to get what he wants. The fight against said villain also restores the tit-for-tat style of combat that Season 1 did so well at, with both the heroes and the villain getting the best of each other on multiple occasions so that it feels like a legitimate struggle rather than a never-ending one-sided blowout like it was with Cora.

Unfortunately, the show also takes this dark atmosphere to way too literal an extreme. The choice to keep Neverland in the present day always at night seems cool early on, but the novelty wears off quickly when you feel like you've been looking at the same backdrop for scenes and even episodes on end. I think allowing some scenes to be at day or afternoon would have done wonders at keeping up a sense of variety - many gifsets online brighten up the pictures and they looks so much better as a result. This was a big wasted opportunity.

The tone of the Wicked Saga is generally lighter and campier, with the only particularly dark things coming from Rumple and Neal's storylines, and that was definitely the right call since anything heavier after the Neverland Saga would start to feel oppressive. And again, the fight against Zelena is an even-handed one, with both heroes and villain getting to score points.

One of the biggest surprises upon revisiting this season is just how well Storybrooke was handled as a setting. It doesn't show up too often in the Neverland Saga but is well utilized when it is, and in the Wicked Saga we get a lot of new locations like Zelena's farmhouse beyond the woods and explorations of ones that were previously underexplored such as the docks and shipyard area. More importantly, magic shenanigans are kept to a minimum and for the most part there are actually sensible rules applied to them! Pan enacting the Dark Curse, the heroes counteracting him, Zelena's usage of magic, Emma learning to channel her inner magic, the séance to summon Cora's spirit, the time travel spell...they are things that don't just happen, there's stuff that has to be done and established beforehand.

It's not all done well, of course - we get the worst excuse why no-one can leave the town line yet (flying monkeys will get you if you try!) and Regina's light magic is pulled out of her ass following a breaking of the Dark Curse from her that makes no sense (Henry wasn't under any curse, so a True Love's Kiss on him shouldn't break squat!), but it's a step up from Season 2, enough to fool you into thinking that Adam and Eddy have learned their lesson.

Episode Quality - There's no bad episode in the Neverland Saga, although there are a few that stand out as weaker than the rest. "Nasty Habits", for instance, is kind of drag whenever Peter Pan isn't onscreen, since the Nevengers are stuck moping around at Baelfire's former tree house while Baelfire himself ("It's NEAL!") continues to be unable to sell the drama between him and his father in the way it deserves to be sold. And "The New Neverland", beyond having an awful title that gives everything away too soon, has a ridiculously fast-paced and repetitive plot in order to set up the midseason finale...a problem that could have been easily rectified had it not also hosted the most pointless flashback in the entire season.

And now I need to talk about the flashback in the episode before that one: "Save Henry", the climax of the Nevengers' time in Neverland. It's about how Regina first adopted Henry, and I actually really like it. It shows how she almost might have reformed after obtaining her new son but then discovered he was the child of the Savior, and unable to choose between him and her power over the cursed town, she copped out by drinking a memory loss potion. Not only is this tragic but it actually explains a lot about why Regina was so unstable and abusive in Season 1, since a flashback in that season had Snow drinking just such a potion to forget Charming and we got to see exactly what it did to her psyche as a result. However...this flashback didn't belong in this particular episode. Sure, Regina's love for Henry was a part of the present day story, but so was Emma's. And Neal's. And Pan's desire to fully assimilate his heart so that he could live forever. I really think that a flashback to Neverland in its prime, shared between Pan, Hook, Baelfire and Tinker Bell, would have been far more appropriate. After all, we hear a lot about those relationships, but I really want to see more of them.

I have few complaints about the present day narratives of "Heart of the Truest Believer", "Lost Girl", "Quite a Common Fairy", "Good Form", "Ariel", "Dark Hollow", "Think Lovely Thoughts" and "Save Henry", though, nor about the flashback of "Nasty Habits" that brilliantly composites Peter Pan with the Pied Piper of Hamelin, luring children away with a pan flute.

And then there's the midseason finale, "Going Home". Holy shit. This is the finale that gives "A Land Without Magic" a run for its money. It's not just the finale to the Neverland Saga, but the finale to the entire story that was begun in "Pilot", with every character making what appears to be their last stand. The stakes and the emotions run very high in this one, peaking with the double punch of Rumple's beautiful sacrifice to save his loved ones from Pan and the scene at the town line where Emma and Henry have to say goodbye to all of their friends and family from Storybrooke, with the town and the characters disappearing in a cloud of purple smoke as Emma and Henry drive across the town line, all their memories of the show's events forgotten but replaced with new memories implanted by Regina, memories of Emma never giving Henry up for adoption and them living happily together for years. It all started when Henry came to Emma's apartment to bring her to Storybrooke, and now it ends with them both leaving Storybrooke and heading toward their happy ending. It's perfect.

The Wicked Saga had its work cut out for it in topping what came before it, and "New York City Serenade" following up the last minute, literal Sequel Hook of "Going Home" does end up feeling anti-climactic in how quickly Stoybrooke, its residents, and all of Emma's memories are restored (also, Emma's new boyfriend being a flying monkey was so dumb), but it's still a solid and enjoyable enough episode to watch, with its direct follow-up, "Witch Hunt", being even better. "The Tower" has great atmosphere and character development, and while "Quiet Minds" definitely could have been better, it could have been worse too. "The Jolly Roger", meanwhile, is the perfect midpoint episode, mostly a breather and a deeper exploration of Hook's character and how much he's changed in spite of him doing his damndest in the flashback to resist that change, as well as the welcome return of our fave fish-girl, Ariel.

It's really just the four heavily Zelena-focused episodes "It's Not Easy Being Green", "Bleeding Through", "A Curious Thing" and "Kansas" that I have trouble with; I feel like the writers really dropped the ball on Regina and Zelena's conflict and individual character development in these episodes, which is ironic given that Evil vs. Wicked was the biggest thing promoted about this half-season arc and it ended up being its weakest element.

The two-part season finale, "Snow Drifts" and "There's No Place Like Home", is both a weird and wacky homage to Back to the Future and a return to the series' magical roots. Emma and Hook's adventure to the time of the "Snow Falls" flashback is so much fun and is the perfect antidote to the last few lousy episodes. It also could have very well made an ideal series finale if five changes had been made to both it and the whole Wicked Saga's story: Neal would have to still be alive (that way we don't get the baby being named after him, which is stupid), Rumple would have to still be dead (so no lying to Belle via wedding proposal and killing Zelena), Zelena would have to still be alive and in jail (totally doable with Rumple not alive), Marian would have to not be included in the plot at all (past or present), and of course the stinger with Elsa showing up would have to be removed. Do that and it's a happy ending. But they didn't do that, so following a quick diversion, I'm stuck having to watch Season 4.

Overall - Just as there is no doubt in my mind that Season 1 is the show’s strongest season, there is no doubt in my mind that Season 3 is the runner-up. This is an all-around solid, largely well-crafted, entertaining season of television, especially the first half of it. During this season, I was proud to call myself a OUAT fan. It’s such a shame that the Wicked Saga didn’t end up innovating more and instead settled the show down into a status quo, because if it hadn’t done that then this season’s template would have been the one to follow for the rest of the show, with truly new and exciting story arcs in each half of a season that shake up the show and its characters for the better rather than always returning them to the same tired status quo that only lessens their appeal every time it happens. Oh, what might have been...

#Once Upon a Time #ABC #OUAT and Me #Opinion #Analysis

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treatian · 3 years

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The Chronicles of the Dark One: Magical Loopholes

Chapter 60: Weaknesses and Strengths

Barely a minute after Emma had disappeared into the back, she reemerged, this time with her family in her wake murmuring something about Granny's and dinner. Her arm was wrapped around Henry, the Dwarves followed out with Ruby, and Mary Margaret and David, now awake and significantly happier than before, kept their arms firmly around one another. Emma glanced his way only once before squeezing her son tighter and leading the way out the front door.

And just like that, it was over. The emergency lifted, the trouble gone, and everyone, including him, was free to go about their business. The shop was empty…save for one lone heartbeat he sensed the moment the others left his property. Regina. She hadn't gone with them. Curious, he moved into the back to find her standing there, her eyes cast downward as everyone had left her alone to celebrate. She'd made a great sacrifice to make that happen, just as he'd been willing to make a great sacrifice to keep his Belle safe, a sacrifice he now had to take responsibility for. Henry was right…villains never won…not really.

"Congratulations," he muttered, bringing her gaze back up to him. "You just reunited mother and son. Maybe one day, they'll even invite you for dinner."

His words stung her. He could see that. But he couldn't bring himself to care. Today changed very little in his mind. What had happened in the past had still happened. She'd still held Belle prisoner, and the actions she'd taken today, the sacrifice that she'd made, would have put Belle back in that precarious position. As she moved around him wordlessly and left, he realized that no matter how guilty he felt over it all, he wasn't willing to forget that one fact—especially given the trip he was now forced to make.

He wished this wasn't becoming a pattern. He wished that he wasn't constantly preparing himself for his last conversation with Belle. But here he was again, readying himself, telling himself that he needed to do this, preparing his heart for the break it would feel when she decided that she couldn't take it and kick him out. All the other times she'd forgiven him, he could come up with an argument for why she'd done it. This time…he didn't see a way out. He couldn't see her being okay with what he'd done today. He couldn't see her accepting it. The fallout was going to hurt. It was going to sting. But like before, he owed her the truth. He'd meant what he'd said to Regina when they'd attempted lunch yesterday…he didn't want it to be kept secret from Belle, and with the witnesses, it was foolish to think that he could keep it secret from her. She deserved to hear it from his mouth before anyone else had the chance to tell her.

He let himself into the library, making certain to lock the downstairs door before he began the suddenly long trek up her stairs to the apartment door above. His mouth was dry as he knocked and listened to the sound of the locks on the door tumbling out of place before she finally pulled open the door to reveal herself.

She stared at him for a second, a small pause to look him up and down before she let out a breath and he found her in his arms.

He probably should have stopped her, seeing as how he was here to make a confession that would probably make her regret this embrace later. But instead, he released a breath that he hadn't known he was holding and returned the gesture, held her closer as she buried her head into his shoulder. He memorized the feel of her body against his own, every dip and curve of her body. He let himself enjoy it while he could, let himself cherish it. He wanted to live in this moment, cast a Curse that would keep them like this forever, instead of moving forward into the inevitable.

"Belle," he finally choked out after a hard swallow.

She loosened her grip on him but didn't move away, merely let her forehead bump against his as she inspected him in a way that confirmed he'd gotten to her before Ruby had. It was good. It was what he wanted, but the coward in him acknowledged it might have been easier the other way.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

No. He most definitely was not. But for her purposes…

He nodded. "But more importantly…so are you."

"Come on," she whispered, taking his hand and pulling him inside. "Come talk to me."

She led him back over to the couch, the very place that she had sat nights ago as he'd unknowingly pushed magic into her wrist while he'd iced it. It was fine now. The bruises were gone, and if she realized why she didn't say. She just helped to sit him down and make him comfortable.

"I'll, uh…I'll make some tea…"

But before she could rise fully to walk away from him, he grabbed for her hand. If he got too comfortable, if he was left too long on his own to think about options, he might not have the courage to do what he needed to do. And besides, once she heard it, she might regret the comfort that she offered to him.

"Stay," he urged. "Please."

Her face turned white as she moved to sit back down beside him. He wedged himself back into the corner of her couch, suddenly aware that it was the first time his body had rested since all this began, and rubbed his forehead, trying to find a place to begin the tale that wouldn't sound so bad that she would run before he completed it. It didn't help that she held his other hand between her own and brought it to rest on her leg.

"Rumple, what happened?" she urged. "You can tell me anything, Rumple, really you can."

Could he? Yes. He could. He knew that now. What he didn't know was how she would react to his news.

"I…I attempted to do something very bad today, Belle. I worked with Regina to try and carry out a plot. Had I been successful, Mary Margaret and Emma would be dead right now instead of over at Granny's having dinner."

There was a pause as she considered his words, a pause as he waited for her to drop his hand and move away. She did stiffen slightly, shook her head in what he recognized as confusion, but she stayed where she was. Her hands stayed where they were.

"Wait…Emma…Emma and Mary Margaret are back, and…you tried to…to kill them?!"

"No," he answered honestly. "We tried to kill Cora, but Mary Margaret and Emma…"

And then he told her everything, explained it step by step in a way he'd never explained himself to anyone before. He told her about what happened yesterday, about everything from the moment he'd left her onward: Henry, Aurora, the messages, putting David under the Sleeping Curse, and all that followed. He told her of the panic he'd felt when David didn't wake, and they had no confirmation that their messages had been received and his certainty that if they hadn't, then Cora wouldn't be defeated, that she'd arrive in Storybrooke and tear the place apart, that she'd go after Henry and her and…

It was right around the time he told her of their plot to kill her and stop her that he realized he was no longer afraid, that he was no longer waiting for her to get up and move away from him or drop his hand. He held tighter to her hand, an anchor and guiding light in the midst of his confession. He'd never expected she'd make it this far, and yet here they were, still talking. Maybe, just maybe, he could tell her everything.

"…and they're at the diner now, but I…I wanted to come see you first, to tell you myself, so you didn't have to hear it from anyone else or think I was keeping anything from you. I wanted to ask your forgiveness, though I know that I've no right to it after-"

"People make mistakes, Rumple. I don't expect you to be perfect just to try not to give in to the Darkness," she insisted. "What it sounds like, to me, is that you made a mistake, one that Regina rectified before it was too late, but you did it for the town, to keep me and Henry and everyone else safe."

"You're not angry?" he half question, half-realized with shock.

She swallowed hard and nodded her head in an unnervingly uncertain sort of way. "Your methods might not have been best, but I can't fault your intentions."

Oh, it wasn't possible. It wasn't possible that again, after everything he'd done, she was still here. That she was still here, that she believed him and wanted to stay with him. It wasn't possible that she could forgive him for any of this, and yet she was doing just that again. If he had the energy, he'd have scooped her up and kissed her until the morning. But the room was warm, and her couch was cozy, and her presence calming. For the first time, the terror was over, and she made him feel human in ways that surprised even him.

"And Cora?" she pushed further, her grip on his hand tightening. "Who is she exactly?"

Cora…that dreadful story, the only part of this he'd left out because it hadn't applied to what had happened today. He owed her that story. But cliché as it was, for now, he just wanted to sit here with her in the stillness and listen to her heartbeat. He wanted only to treasure her presence.

"One day, I'm going to tell you that," he promised with a heavy sigh, "just not today."

She examined him, then nodded as if in acceptance and understanding. He wished that she'd close the distance between them, that she'd stop staring at their hands and let him hold her, a true sign that all was right and well between them. He wished-

"I'm sorry." Her apology wretched out of her with a near sob as she glanced his way. His hackles rose at the implication of it. What did she have to apologize for? "I'm sorry that she used you like that…that she used me against you like that."

He took a breath and sat up, trying to rouse his mind and body as he understood what she was talking about. Regina. The "she" she was talking about was Regina. And "used me against you"…she thought that Regina had pressured him into all this. Which she had…yesterday. Today he'd been the one to do the pressuring because he knew better than to risk Cora coming here. To let her think anything but that was to do her a terrible disservice. It wasn't honest.

"She didn't," he insisted. "One way or another, I would have come to the same conclusion. I would have done it all over again to keep you safe. Whether she realized it first or I did, I would have done the same thing."

"I don't want to cause you problems. I didn't know that I made you weak," she cried, her voice cracking on the dreadful word Regina had used yesterday. "I never wanted to be your weakness, not with those women that took me and not with…"

Cora.

She was rambling. He couldn't even be sure which woman she was talking about. Her mind was so scattered and hung up on that one word that Regina had accused her of being. "His weakness." She was his weakness. He knew that. He'd known that when he'd taken her home and never wanted her to leave. But the longer they sat here together, his hand in hers, he was coming to believe that she might have been more than that. Without her, he wouldn't be half as stable as he felt now. He wouldn't be half as clear-minded or half as restrained as he'd been. She was his weakness, but she was something else too.

"You are," he explained, tightening his fingers around hers so that she squeezed back. "You are my weakness…" and then he moved to test touching her further by cupping her cheek into his other hand. She leaned in…not away, closing her eyes and sighing as if it was a balm for her soul just as she was a balm for his. He felt the bonds between them tighten further than he'd ever known possible. It was his confirmation. She was a weakness, but also…

"But you are also my greatest strength. Never doubt that, my beautiful Belle. Never."

She opened her eyes to look at him finally, and tears slid down her cheeks as she pulled her hand free from his. His stomach lurched in a second of panic before she finally did what he'd been waiting for. She moved her arms around his waist and kissed him. He took it happily before kissing her forehead and settling them back against the couch. Legs tucked under her, head resting on his chest, he sighed as he held her to him and left the day behind him.

#Rumbelle #Rumple #Rumpelstilskin #Dark One #Mr. Gold #Belle #Regina Mills #Evil Queen #ouat #ouat fanfiction #fanfic

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swanqueeneverafter · 4 years

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Sins of the Past Pt.19

Somewhere In The Forest. (After travelling through the night and getting completely lost, Richard decides to lighten Henry’s mood.) Richard: “Psst! Psst! Psst! Henry. Henry! Henry, wake up. (Tapping his chest while leaning over him:) H-Henry! Wake up! I have incredible news!” Henry: “Ugh! Is that news that you've misplaced your toothbrush?” Richard: (Laughs:) “Zinger! No. No, you know how we're lost and if we keep heading into the land of the Giants we’re liable to be trampled to death?” Henry: (Sighs:) “Yes, we discussed it last night in great detail.” Richard: “Well, I have someone here who wants to lay all your fears to rest.” Henry: (Yawns:) “All right, but it better not be that pathetic excuse for a dragon.” Richard: (Turns holding said dragon in his hands:) “Can you believe it? Imagine how our foes will run in terror! What do you think?” Henry: “I think you're a complete idiot. (Throws off his blanket, stands and begins to walk away:) You do realize that I’m further away from joining up with Ella than I was when I started?” Richard: “Well... Hey, where you going?” Henry: “To find Ella... Without you.” Richard: “What? Why?” Henry: “Because I am done. I am done cleaning up your mess. I am done telling you that it's not your fault, because... news flash, Richard... it is your fault. I'm done with your weakness, with your whining, but most of all, I am done with you!” Richard: “Okay. I admit, I'm on a bit of an unlucky streak, but I am destined for great things. You'll see.” Henry: “You have about as much chance of great things as that lizard does of breathing fire.” Richard: “It's a dragon, and it can breathe fire. Show him, Tad Cooper! (Lifts him up:) Show him. Come on. Well clearly you make him nervous.” Henry: “The perfect pair... A dragon that isn't a dragon... And a king that isn't a king.” (Henry walks away.) Richard: “Well, I am done with you, too!”

Storybrooke. Town Line. (While Emma and Regina put up a protection spell at the town line, David concludes his phone call.) David: "That was Kristoff. He, Anna and Elsa are just leaving with a small delegation for Camelot." Mulan: "I understand how Elsa is feeling, but walking into Camelot without a plan is madness."

Ruby: "Elsa has a lot of experience with not showing her feelings. Her plan is to enter Camelot gracefully in order to get Lily and Maleficent out, gracefully." Regina: "That will never work. Are we forgetting about when Elsa first came to Storybrooke? She ended up freezing half the town because she couldn't keep her emotions in check. The sight of Lily being held behind bars is likely to cause Elsa to spiral out of control and send Camelot into a new ice age." Emma: (Considers:) "That might help Morgana and Morgause cool off for awhile." Regina: (Chuckles:) "That was terrible." Emma: (Smiles:) "I know." David: (Agitated:) "You know what, I don't think you realise the gravity of the situation here.” Snow White: “David...” David: “The Queen of Camelot has put a bounty on my daughter's head. Not only that, but it appears that she's kidnapped Maleficent and Lily in an attempt to persuade Emma to turn herself in. So you’ll excuse me if I don't happen to think that this is a laughing matter." Regina: "And you think I do? You think I enjoy the fact my wife is being hunted? Or that there's some rogue knight with magical powers out there waiting to strike and I have no way of finding him? It's been tearing me up since I first heard about the bounty in Neverland. So don't you dare lecture me on how I should feel when you're the one who let Mordred go on two separate occasions!" Emma: "All right, look, the protection spell is up so that means no one is coming in or out of Storybrooke. If we want to catch this Mordred guy, we're going to have to work together. Now I know Hook and Rumple are out looking east and Ruby and Mulan have volunteered to start searching west, which leaves the town and suburban areas. So I say we all head back to town and try to live our lives as best we can for now." Regina: "Agreed." (They break up. Mulan and Ruby heading to the woods while Emma and Regina walk back to Emma's bug. Now alone, Snow pulls David aside to talk.) Snow White: "David, you have got to calm down. You can't go having shouting matches with Regina every five minutes." David: (Sighs:) "I know, but I just feel like this time things might not turn out the way we hope. No matter what she says, Morgana is out for blood. If she has any chance of winning over her people, she has to look strong. And I'm terrified of what that'll mean for Emma." Snow White: "We won't let that happen." David: (Nods:) “I know we’ll try, and I will fight with my very last breath to prevent anything from happening to my daughter. But I gotta wonder how many more chances we have left until our luck runs out."

Wonderland. (Ella and Lizard walk together down the winding road.) Ella: "You're not helping me find Will for repayment of a financial debt, are you?” Lizard: (Stops walking and removes her hat. Shrugging:) “I was on the streets. He took me in, gave me a place to sleep. Taught me everything I know.” Ella: “Well, sorry to hear that.” Lizard: (Laughs:) “Come on, I know he can be difficult, but his heart's in the right place.” Ella: “Sounds like you two were close friends. Unless wait, were you two...” Lizard: “No. Uh, no. I mean... that would never... Will and I we just ran together. You know, stealing. Sometimes for the Caterpillar, and sometimes just for fun.” Ella: “You'd rob people for fun?” Lizard: “Will kind of went through a dark period after the whole Alice in the tower thing. So how do you know Will?” Ella: “Oh, he’s helping me find my mother.” Lizard: “Your mother?” Ella: “Yes, she fled to Wonderland a long time ago. Given his experiences here I thought Will would be the perfect guide but, well, we’ve had some interesting diversions along the way.” Lizard: “Speaking of diversions, we might not know where Will is right now, but if you’re interested, I might know someone who could help you find your mom?” Ella: “Who?” Lizard: “Well, she’s sort of an Oracle. She uses these crystals and... (At Ella’s sceptical look:) yeah I know, but it could be worth a shot?” Ella: (Considers:) “How far from here is this Oracle, because Will did say we’d meet back up at Tulgey Woods?” Lizard: “Oh, well that’s perfect, it’s right on the way. So, what do you say?” Ella: “All right, you’re on.” Storybrooke. Zelena's Farmhouse. (While Zelena dotes on Maria, Regina and Emma smile at each other.) Emma: "Thanks for looking after her, Zelena. We kinda needed our hands free while putting the protection spell around the entire town." Zelena: (Replying to Emma, but speaking to Maria:) "Oh we didn't mind at all now, did we? No, we didn't." (Emma and Regina exchange looks, Emma motions towards the baby and Regina shakes her head.) Emma: (Sighs, awkwardly:) "So, um, thanks again and we'll just take her and be out of your hair." Zelena: (Finally looking up:) "Oh, so soon? It seems I hardly get to see my niece much anymore." Regina: "Well we just figured with you helping Robin out at the bar and any alone time you wish to spend with Robin Hood..." Emma: "We didn't want to impose." Zelena: "It's no trouble at all. I can take her all day if you'd like?" Emma: "Well..." Zelena: "It's just so hard sometimes, thinking about all those years I missed out on with Robin. Between Gothel's aging spell and... that unfortunate incident with some enchanted onion rings... I feel as though my time spent with Maria gives me at least a glimpse at what those precious years of motherhood could have been like." (Running her tongue across her lips to stifle a smile, Regina looks up at Emma, who realises she's being played.) Emma: "I... if you think it wouldn't be too much trouble..." Zelena: (Her attention already focused on Maria:) "I'll have her back before dark." (Under the distinct impression that they've just been dismissed, Emma and Regina make their farewells and leave the farmhouse.) Sheriff's Station. (Sitting with his feet up on one of the desks, Rumplestiltskin watches as Hook paces angrily up and down.) Rumplestiltskin: "You'll wear a hole in the floor, you know." Hook: "That's the problem! I don't know anything. I don't know if my wife and daughter are alive or dead!" Rumplestiltskin: "I understand how you're feeling. When the Jabberwocky took Belle and Gideon from me, it was all I could do not to lose my mind. But we must be patient." Hook: "Patience is not something I'm used to. Action has always been my answer." Rumplestiltskin: "Well it can't be now. At least not yet. Despite the fact that we would be crushed if we attempted to go up against Camelot's army, we don't know what capabilities Morgana and Morgause have."

Hook: "Emma and Regina can tackle any magical force that comes their way." Rumplestiltskin: "Not necessarily. Don't get me wrong, their combined magic is stronger than any I've encountered. It is far more powerful than even the Darkness could've hoped to be. But these two women, they have honed their magical craft under the Old Religion." Hook: "So?" Rumplestiltskin: "There is a reason I stayed away from Camelot all those years. The Old Religion encapsulates the entire history of magic, light and dark. It goes back even further than Merlin's time. Without truly knowing what we'd be up against, I'm afraid caution is the only correct course of action we have available to us right now." Walking Through The Forest. (Still angry about his fight with Henry, Richard trudges through the forest talking to his pet dragon.) Richard: "You can't do anything right, Richard. Everything's a disaster, Richard. You've ruined my life, Richard. That's not a real dragon, Richard. Well, you know what? Henry may not believe in you, but I do. I super believe in you, Tad Cooper. ♪ Hey, little fella, I know just what you're thinkin' ♪ ♪ Nobody gets you or sees what you could be ♪ (He walks through a field to the bewilderment of several sheep:) ♪ But pluck up your courage and turn that frown up ♪ ♪ Soon we will eat this entire town up ♪ ♪ Then they'll believe in my dragon pal and me ♪ (Richard and Tad Cooper now sitting upon a tree swing:) ♪ That's right, little fella ♪ ♪ We'll leave those doubters blinkin' ♪ ♪ We're gonna show 'em a thing or two or three ♪ (Richard now spinning in circles as he sings:) ♪ Imagine the wonder that we'll inspire ♪ ♪ When we are setting their heads on fire ♪ ♪ Then we'll be even, my dragon pal and me ♪ (Crossing a bridge, letting the dragon feel the wind blow through its... scales:) ♪ We'll rise up ♪ ♪ And open their eyes up ♪ ♪ We'll light the skies up ♪ (Back on the tree swing:) ♪ And rain destruction and death on their wives and kids ♪ (Mimicking an attack on a village:) Raar! Raar! Aah! ♪ So, when, little fella, you feel your heart is sinkin' ♪ ♪ Just you remember, one day, we'll make them see ♪ ♪ And when they are watching, completely flipped out ♪ ♪ As their intestines are being ripped out ♪ ♪ They'll all look up to us, then I guarantee ♪ (More spinning in a field:) ♪ Then they'll believe in my dragon pal and me ♪ ♪ Doo-doo, doo-doo, doo doo doo doo ♪ ♪ Then they'll believe in me ♪ ♪ They'll believe in...Me ♪ (Richard collapses contentedly onto the ground, Tad Cooper clutched against his chest, when a group of men surround him with clubs:) I must warn you... I have a dragon.”

Storybrooke. Goldilocks' Gym. (Rather than sit and do nothing, Regina and Emma decide to work up a sweat at the local gymnasium. Having sparred with Gabrielle and outrun Tinker Bell on the treadmill, Emma searches for her wife. Wandering to the back of the gym where the private rooms are located, Emma glances through each window before finally finding Regina. Entering the room, she finds the brunette doing stretches while wearing a blue leotard.) Regina: (Smiling over her shoulder:) "Good workout, dear?" Emma: (Taking a seat on the floor, wincing:) "I'm definitely gonna feel it tomorrow. (Watches as Regina continues stretching:) So this is what you've been doing, warming up?" Regina: (Chuckles:) "There's slightly more to it than that. I haven't done these kind of stretches in years." Emma: (Leaning back on her hands:) "Well don't let me stop you, I'm loving the view." (Wordlessly, Regina turns to her and, placing her hands beneath her chin in an innocent pose, begins to sink to the floor. When her elbows finally touch the ground, Regina enjoys the expression on Emma's face.) Regina: "I can't tell what's wider, your eyes or my legs." Xena: (Standing in the doorway:) "That's not so hard." Regina: (Lifting her eyebrow:) "Oh really? (Swings her leg beneath her and somehow manages to spin around into a standing position:) Care to try it?" Gabrielle: (Arriving, towel in hand:) "Xena, don't you dare." Xena: (Confidently:) "I've got this, Gabrielle." Gabrielle: "No, Xena. Don't-" (But before anyone can stop her, Xena lets out a yell, flips in midair into a somersault and lands, split legged on the floor. Emma places her hands over her ears at the thudding sound, Gabrielle covers her eyes, unable to watch and Regina covers her mouth, to stifle her snigger of laughter. With her eyes now wider than Emma's were a moment ago, Xena remains in her prone position, incapable of movement, mouth agape. After a brief moment of uncertainty, the three spectators converge upon Xena, each helping the famed warrior princess up from the floor.) Forest. (While looking at a map, Henry walks through the forest and trips over something, landing in the dirt.) Andre: (His voice echoing through the woods:) “Who goes there?” Henry: (Staring up at the men stood at the top of a steep hill:) “Oh, goodness. Giants.” Andre: “State your business, wee man.” Henry: “I'm Henry. I’m completely lost and need to find my fiancee. (They stare down at him, unmoved by his plight:) You know, I'm told your people are among the fiercest warriors in the land.” Andre: “Among? We are Giants, with fists the size of pumpkins.” Henry: “Pumpkins, good.” Andre: “And heads so big, they blot out the sun.” Henry: “Perfect.” Andre: “We love a good war. Don't we, fellas?” Other Giants: “Yeah!” Andre: “Hush! Titan, Colossus, pull him out of there!” (A giant reaches down and offers his hand, pulling Henry out of the mud.)

Henry: “This is great. Thank you so much. Hi. Henry. I'm... Hello. (He looks around, now towering over the giants:) I'm so sorry. Aren't you supposed to be...Taller? I mean, not to be rude, but you did say that your heads blocked out the sun.” Andre: “Yes, they do block out the sun. You've got to catch it at the right angle. Sorry. Can I, uh, just... Here? Uh...There. Complete darkness.” Henry: “Mm. Are you sure that you're giants?” Andre: “Of course we are giants. Just very short giants is all.” Titan: “Fee fie fo fum.” Andre: “Yeah. Well said, Titan. We will join you on your quest... On one condition.” Henry: “I’m quite certain I didn’t ask, but yeah. Go on.” Andre: “You must prove your loyalty by helping us fight our most hated enemy... The Dwarves!” Giants: “Yeah!” Titan: “Stinkin', tiny, awful, high-pitched-voiced Dwarves.” Andre: “Right again, Titan. Tonight, we meet to set the rules of battle, and tomorrow, we fight. So, what do you say? It shouldn't take long. They're only very small. (The giants laugh:) Stop laughing!” Henry: (Takes a breath:) “Yeah. Why not? I'm desperate. Let's do this.” (The giants all cheer.) Camelot. Dining Room. (After a formal greeting between the two Queens, witnessed by courtiers and common people alike, Morgana and Elsa share dinner together alone.) Morgana: "I can't tell you how much it means to me to have Arendelle's support in this troublesome time." Elsa: "Of course. Camelot is a treasured ally." Morgana: "Even so, I realise Guinevere's abdication must have come as a shock?" Elsa: "From my conversations with her, I never had the impression that Guinevere truly embraced her position as queen. She, much like myself, was thrust into the role after the tragic death of a loved one. For me, my parents, for Guinevere, her husband. Your brother." Morgana: "Indeed, but you seem well suited to the role now." Elsa: (Smiles:) "I have my moments." Morgana: "Don't we all. Thank you, by the way. For referring to my brother's death as tragic. Others I've spoken to remember him as a cold and callous ruler." Elsa: "I couldn't comment, we never met." Morgana: "Others say his death was justified, and that Emma Swan was acting in self defense." Elsa: "Again, I couldn't possibly-" Morgana: "You are friends with Emma, are you not?" Elsa: "Yes, I-" Morgana: "Close friends, would you say?" Elsa: "For a time, we were very close, yes." Morgana: "Was that before or after she became the Dark One and killed my brother?" Elsa: "I don't know what you're trying to imply but-" Morgana: "I'm merely asking if you are still friends with the woman who killed this nation's King and refuses to stand trial for that crime under Camelot law." Elsa: "From what I understand, your majesty, Arthur not only threatened Emma directly, but also her family. (Sitting a little higher in her seat:) And frankly, if you want my honest opinion, yes, your brother did deserve exactly what he got. If it had been me, I might've done the exact same thing." Morgana: (Smiles:) "There now. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Elsa: "Excuse me?" Morgana: (Chuckles:) "The one thing I remember vividly from my time in Uther's court is having keep up the pretense of propriety. It was always exhausting and I hated it. We are alone, Elsa. You don’t have to worry about airs and graces with me. I've hated my so-called brother for years for what he did to me. Of course I do not mourn his loss, but you must understand, for me to be truly cemented as Queen in the eyes of the people, his death must be avenged. Now, please tell me why you are really here?" Elsa: (Taken aback by Morgana's mercurial nature:) "I..." Morgana: "Oh come now, I know you didn't just come here to welcome Camelot's queen." Elsa: (Conjures Lily's sweater into her hand:) "My lover is missing. I used a locator spell to find her and the trail brought me to Camelot." Morgana: (Sitting back in her chair, fingers pressed together:) "I see." Elsa: "I have reason to believe that Lily and her mother Maleficent may be imprisoned here in the castle." Morgana: "Maleficent? Her powers are legendary. And you believe me capable of capturing both her and her daughter and locking them away in my dungeons?" Elsa: "Well...I..." Morgana: (Leaning forward:) "I'm not sure if you're aware, but we've had a mass breakout from our dungeons just very recently. Of those who escaped, none of them possessed any trace of magical ability. (Chuckles:) I'm sorry, but to think that I would be brazen enough to house you, your sister and brother-in-law whilst keeping your lover and the mighty Maleficent locked away in my dungeons is ludicrous." Elsa: "So you deny it?" Morgana: (Still smiling:) "Wholeheartedly. In fact, why don't I accompany you to the dungeons so you may see for yourself? (She stands, tossing down her napkin:) Come, I could do with a walk before tackling dessert."

Storybrooke. Swan-Mills House. Night. (With Maria tucked up in bed, Regina sits at the piano. Practicing a few chords, Regina doesn't see Emma as she enters the room. Smiling when Emma rubs her shoulders, Regina leans back against her.) Regina: "Ready to play?" Emma: "You have no idea." (Walking to stand beside the piano, Emma's nakedness is revealed for the first time. The moonlight pouring in through the windows highlighting every breathtaking curve of her body.) Regina: "So you weren't serious about letting me teach you then?" Emma: (Smiles, perching herself against the piano:) "Oh, I thought we might teach each other. You know it's always more fun when we both learn a thing or two." (Slowly rising from her seat, Regina seizes Emma's lips with her own. The keys of the piano playing a cacophony of notes as Emma's body is pressed up against them.) Regina: (Smiling against Emma's lips:) "I think you'll be glad to know, I've already warmed up my fingers." Wonderland. (Lizard and Ella stand at the entrance to the Oracle's garden. The Oracle herself can be seen a short distance away, her back to them.) Lizard: "Are you sure you want to do this?” Ella: “If you were granted the same opportunity, would you not want to meet your mother again?” (Walking further into the garden, Ella nervously approaches the Oracle while Lizard stays behind, watching.) Oracle: “Welcome, Ella.” Ella: “That’s... (Glances back at Lizard then stares at the Oracle:) How did you know my name?” (The Oracle turns to face her, revealing herself to be...) Morgause: “I’ve been waiting for you. I hold the answer to the question that burns inside you. I know what happened to your mother, Ella.”

#Sq #swan queen #swanqueen

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goblinconceivable · 4 years

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A runup

Gots to write it out if I want to start. Overly long, rambly, and not worth reading, merely worth writing, and I always do so in a technically public forum.

Right. So. What bugged me about Hook’s treatment is that all aspects of his character devolved to being Emma’s devoted lover. It was treacle, pure treacle. And unlike Snow and Charming, who drew strength from each other, and did everything as a united front, HookedSwan was lopsided. Emma is the Savior, the tip of an arrow with her loved ones behind her. And while her loved ones were interwoven with each other, in history and present, interrelationships growing and strengthening over time, Hook’s wide history with various characters didn’t evolve.

Yes, he fought and adventured along with the rest. But he never felt part of a team. He didn’t have many moments with other characters, not in a deep sense, it was always ‘for Emma.” Which has it’s place in fanfiction, but that’s the problem: canon should not be fanfiction, especially with an ensemble cast.

Enter Regina. Though in fairness it’s Regina I adore, and Hook is just a pretty and interesting character to match her with. But while Emma may open her love to someone (I never understood her love for Hook, except that he gave his ship up for her? Why does she love -him- apart from his love for her?), I think her true match is Baelfire. They are the ones who found each other, as is the case with True Love.

The best argument for Hook is that Emma may be a princess, but grew up in the Real World, and in the Real World love is something we often fight to create and keep, not a predestined fact. But, again, aside from fulfilling that, I don’t get the relationship. Not when Emma’s side of things is fueled by the urge to protect the love she has, without having fought to get it, as it was handed to her.

So compare to Regina. Who, frankly, is better at loving. Snide of me. But she’s a whip, fighting for everything, even if she goes about it the wrong way. She’s constantly disappointed but keeps trying, keeps fighting, without prophecy on her side. When she’s offered anything - second chances from the Charmings being the most notable, she fights against it, against herself oftentimes, and it’s that struggle that is interesting.

So how would the story have played out if Hook’s random devotion focused on Regina instead? And... Why not? She’s strong, she’s a fighter, she’s “special” in terms of magic, she’s broken. But her darkness matches, surpasses his own, and that’s where canon failed. They kept reintroducing Hooks dark past, his own darkness, but as something to leave in the past, not he’s found light. But as a lengthy and successful storyline noted with Regina, it’s not leaving the past behind but embracing our past selves, dark as they might be, which allows us to find peace and move forwards.

There is a nod to this, when Regina stepped in when Hook was the Dark One. It may have been love for Emma that kept pulling at him, but it was Regina’s understanding of the heart of his issues that cut to the core, and guess what? It wasn’t about romantic love, it was familial. It was fundamental. It was about Who He Is, and who anyone is is much more than a romantic entanglement. Charming and Snow know that about each other, accept and foster that. Emma just keeps saying he’s changed.

And he has. Regina has, But their worth is lodged in who they were, as much as who they evolved into being. Regina knows that, which makes HookedQueen a more organic love story. I love dynamics where the female is further along, wiser, stronger. I loved Robin, and loved that he was further along, had never been as dark, but was accepting of her past and understood. They would have been happy. But Regina’s story is to lose light, that’s the unfortunate canon, and drawing from that, ultimately her story of love is a story of Loves.

Daniel and Robin became a part of her, a part of her story. Her strength is to find more than one True Love, because her strength is when she fights to love again after loss. That is reality. That is the true Real World.

Hook is the same. Assuming he and Milah were true love he learned to love again. Though frankly, I don’t think they were, or when they found Milah in Purgtory she would have been less disinterested in him - she was dismissive when Rumple indicated her unfinished business had to do with Hook. If it was true love she’d have been jumping to find him.

Break for assessment: Emma and Hook were True Love because Canon said they were, and there’s no getting around that, except by going around that. Though hmm, there IS. They weren’t confirmed as True Love for a while, and even then there’s wiggle room in how True Love isn’t just between Lovers, and a Savior Superpower could be True Love in general, all love being true and whatnot. But anyway.

Regina and Hook. Hook resisted instantly falling for Emma because of his belief in Milah, which by that time had been corrupted by his love for vengence. Regina resiste Robin for the same reasons. So, happily, they resist each other. Equality, that, levels the playing field. But Hook caved with Emma, as he would with Regina, which sets up a similar dynamic, which was, let’s face it, lovely to see because a pining Pirate is a very handsom pirate. But Regina doesn’t want a doting follower, she wants an equal, or rather someone stronger in some ways, weaker in others. She needs to be loved first to allow her to lower walls and let herself love.

She would question blind devotion, fight it as a weakness, and that’s where it’s interesting. It’s not just a denial of real affection for Hook, not just a wall put up, but a deep questioning of Why. And that’s interesting. A journey internal and external (yay plot) that justifes how two hearts twisted into darkness find each other once they’ve begun to untwist themselves. Regina began long before, Hook’s heart started to go out with Bae, if not before, in both cases a child acting catalyst.

Regina fought for her relationships with the rest of the characters, and they fought for her. She’s the inroad for Hook to actually get the same, which is how his character needs to develop into something independant yet a part of the whole crew. He is a pirate, she is a queen. Why are they not called PirateQueen or QueenPirate? HookedQueen makes it sound like he caught her by the tip of steel.

Anyway, I didn’t get as far as I hoped, progress made picking apart what didn’t work with the Emma/Hook dynamic, and inroads to what dynamic would work for me with Regina and Hook. Another shot at research and some pen to paper time would be worthwhile. And, as I was so lately reminded, a oneshot is a good place to start to begin working things out. I mostly bypassed that with Rory/Logan because I half wrote some things before finding a clear story to complete, but they were dark in a lighter way, different fandom and genre and all. But this will take some work, epic always does.

#OUaT

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thestraggletag · 4 years

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Back to You, Part 1 of ?

Bitches say they’re “just gonna write some drabbles, fill in some prompts, keeping things sweet and casual” and then come up with unplanned sequels to their fics.

It’s me, I’m bitches.

Anon Prompted: Long Road reunion reunion... how about they go out to eat? Maybe Belle drinks a bit too much wine a bit too quickly....

Summary: sequel to The Long Road. Sometimes we move on from places and people. And sometimes we just think we do.

Belle and Rumple reconnect in NYC.

A/N: The Japanese restaurant mentioned in the story does not actually serve alcohol. I took a bit of artistic licence to comply with the prompt.

He didn’t know what to expect, really. So he hadn’t let himself think about their date, choosing instead to make the necessary arrangements to prolong his stay. After that he had visited Bae’s old neighbourhood, taking in the sights and wondering about his son’s life there, trying to see if there was anything that told him about the adult Bae, who he had barely gotten to know.

By the time he arrived back at the bookstore Belle was waiting for him outside, wearing a grey coat and a beret, looking in her element on the streets of New York. In Storybrooke her high-end, avant-garde sense of style had certainly stood out. Very few appreciated her adventurous take on fashion, and he wagered the only reason she hadn’t gotten snide comments for her short skirts or sheer tops, or mocking laughs for her daring colour palette and use of prints was because she was the Dark One’s wife.

He tried not to read too much into it when she spotted him and her face broke into a familiar smile, one he had only seen her direct at him.

“Hey.”

He had never managed to get over the short-circuiting his brain did sometimes around Belle. But judging by the widening of her smile she still thought it charming and not pathetic. Small comfort. She looped her arm around his left one, minding his cane, and fell into step with him as easy as breathing.

“Hi there. Where do you want to go for dinner?”

“You’re the one who knows the city, sweetheart.” What the fuck was wrong with him, why did he call her that? Why did his infamous self-control take a fucking vacation every time he was in the vicinity of his wife? “Surprise me.”

If she felt uncomfortable by his faux pas she didn’t let it show. She took him to an area of Manhattan called the East Village, to a white-bricked building with a bright red banner he couldn’t read on the door. The interior was small and slightly outdated, and he sat down as she ordered at the counter for them, trying to get comfortable. When she sat down she told him how she’d found Otofuku a month into her life in New York, while on one of her usual visit to Strand, an apparently popular used bookstore nearby. They served Japanese street food which was to die for, as well as a home-made plum wine that, sadly, they did not bottle to take.

“I’m not ready to venture much outside the city, not yet, but I’ve been travelling the world through food and Japan has some of the best food you’ve ever tasted. I figured you’d like the experience. I know food is one of your weaknesses.”

Belle had learned that early on, back at the Dark Castle. And once in Storybrooke, when he had finally shared with her his past as a lame, poor spinner, she had understood why. She had never said it outright but she’d always made a big deal out of every meal they shared, especially dinner.

They were served fast. Belle had ordered a house special, the Deluxe combo consisting of a pancake-like dish, a bowl of noodles and some sort of fried meatballs with sauce and flakes of some kind. They were brought a carafe of the house plum wine, lovely golden in colour and with a couple of actual plums at the bottom. She taught him to say “kanpai” as the toasted and walked him through the dishes, delighting in his expressions and the awed way in which he saw her handle chopsticks. The server had been gracious enough to give him a knife and fork.

He had expected things to be awkward, stilted, or at least tense. Had expected to struggle for things to say, for how to behave around her. But, surprisingly, it wasn’t. He enquired after her life in the city, enjoying her colourful anecdotes. She was a natural storyteller in a non-traditional way, easily making him feel as if he’d been there with her for her first subway ride, or the time she’d gotten lost at the Met. The wine helped, slightly sweet and easy to drink, served chilled to perfection.

By the time they got a second carafe the mood had turned somewhat serious, Belle talking about her first days outside Storybrooke, second-guessing her decision and scared of the world before her. She apologised for not saying goodbye in person, feeling that though she had done it partly because she knew he wouldn’t let her take the dagger with her- “And I wanted so much to do that for you, to free you of it”- she had also done it because of cowardice.

He tried to recall the white-hot anger he had felt, the sense of loss and betrayal. The sheer pain of realising she was gone, that she had left him. But he couldn’t, not when her eyes got glassy and he could see shadows under her eyes. He found himself instead telling her about what it felt to have the voices of the Dark Ones in his head muted, about how blissful the newfound silence in his head was. Told her about his recent efforts to connect with Henry, and how that had forced him to clean up his act a bit, which meant releasing the fairies, for a start. He didn’t miss the way she brightened up upon hearing that.

“It’s easier now, with the influence of the dagger muted to a distant murmur. Not that Regina or the Charmings are rushing to set aside their inherent mistrust and holier-than-thou attitude, but I’ve made a solid start. And it’s nice to talk to someone about Bae. Hadn’t noticed how thirsty for knowledge of his father Henry was.”

Miss Swan, apparently, did not talk to the lad about him at all, and the thought of it still angered him. How quickly she had moved past his son’s sacrifice. Everyone had.

“Henry’s a good kid, very strong-minded. I’m sure he’ll make up his own mind about you, whatever everyone else says.”

By the time they were digging into their dessert- some sort of weird fish-shaped cake with banana and some sort of chocolate and hazelnut concoction- the mood turned light and sweet again. Belle delighted in watching him bravely cut into the head of the fish cake, trying not to make a face as he popped the bite into his mouth. It was surprisingly good, the chocolate and hazelnut spread devine and he moaned as he took another bite. When he looked up Belle’s eyes were glassy and her cheeks flushed. They had drunk too much without realising. The wine was just too good, sweet and smooth, too easy to drink.

When he insisted on seeing her home she did not refuse him. They grew silent in the back of the cab, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Belle rested her head against his shoulder, the alcohol making her sleepy and affectionate as it tended to do, and it felt right to let her snuggle, to wrap an arm around her and catch the faintly envious glance of the cab driver on the rear-view mirror. It felt suddenly like the end of a date, the thought scary as it was thrilling. He told himself over and over that he was in New York for closure, to understand why Belle had done what she did and come to terms with it. And they had certainly delved deep into that conversation. Now he could truly begin to heal and move on, which is what he wanted.

Wasn’t it?

They arrived at a modest but nice-looking brownstone on the edge of Chelsea, one in a row of many similar buildings. He instructed the cabbie to wait for him and escorted her to the door itself, feeling a sudden spike of panic. Was this it? Was it the last time he saw her? Did she wanted it to be? Did he? And if he didn’t, what could he do about it?

“This was lovely, Rumple. Seeing you here. I didn’t think you… I’m just glad. That you did.”

She looked lovely under the low light of the nearby street lamp, her cheeks flushed with drink and her hair mused from her impromptu nap on the taxi. His heart fluttered, alerting him to what he had already suspected. He still loved her. More than ever before, which he had not thought possible. Madly.

“It was… wonderful to see you. Thank you for dinner. And for… for everything.”

For the dagger, and for forgiving him for all that he had done to her. For never losing the ability to see the best in him. For being one of the two truly good things in his life.

“I enjoyed it.” She bit her lip and got a look in her eyes that sent a thrill down his spine. He knew that look. It was the look she got right before she did something brave. A look of resolve mixed with the slightest tinge of fear. “You said you were staying a week, I assume to explore the city. Perhaps you need a guide?”

“Yes.” He had no time to cringe at how rough and desperate his voice sounded, or to fully consider what he was getting into, and how messy a week with Belle would make their inevitable parting. Why should he care when Belle was smiling and writing her number on the receipt from the restaurant, telling him to call her tomorrow.

“Sweet dreams, Rumple.”

She kissed him on the cheek before biting her lip and going inside the building, gently closing the door behind her. The cabbie honked at him helpfully, lifting him out of his stupor and reminding him that the meter was still on. He got in, muttered his hotel address and spent the rest of the ride trying not to grin like a fool.

#rumbelle #rumbelle fic #Back to you #Thestraggletag fanfiction #GUYYYYS #THE LONG ROAD BACK TO YOU #GET IT?#THIS IS THE MOST INGENIOUS I'VE EVER BEEN

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searchingwardrobes · 5 years

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Stay

Happy birthday, @sambethe! I don’t know you very well, but I know what a wonderful job you did as a mod for the CSBB. Especially when tumblr seemed to be going to hell, you were calm and kept everything running so smoothly. I can’t tell you how much your kindness meant whenever I messaged you in a panic! I hope you are now getting much needed rest and have more time to read those romance novels you love 🙂

This fic is based on the song “Stay” by Lisa Loeb. As a teen of the nineties, this is one that I know all the words to. Whenever it comes on the radio, I crank it up and sing (badly) at the top of my lungs! Listening to it the other day, it struck me that these could be Emma’s words about her relationship with Neal. The song is kind of contradictory – she talks about the guy wanting her to stay, yet the relationship is so unhealthy for her. Killian said he liked being the one to bring down Emma’s walls, but the show could only give us glimpses of how he did that. I like to call this “fluffy angst” though I don’t think that’s a thing! I incorporated lyrics of the song into the fic. Hope you like it, @sambethe!

Set during those six weeks of peace we all love so much.

Summary: “I have a proposal, love.” He tugs her close, wrapping his arm around her, her head tucked under her chin. “You tell me every awful thing you falsely believe about yourself, and I’ll refute it eloquently.” Or how Killian Jones brought down Emma’s walls, one small brick at a time.

Rating: T

Words: 1,000 or so

Part of my Fandom Birthday Playlist series. There are six other completed ones, and normally I would link back to them, but it’s been a long day, and I’m too tired. You can look it up under my series on Ao3 or search the tag on my blog (if tumblr feels like cooperating).

Tagging: @snowbellewells @kmomof4 @jennjenn615 @bethacaciakay @kday426 @teamhook @thislassishooked @whimsicallyenchantedrose @snidgetsafan @delirious-latenight-laughs @winterbaby89 @optomisticgirl @wellhellotragic @let-it-raines

In Emma Swan’s life, she always heard negative: no, no, bad. Early on she came to the only conclusion she could: she must be worthless. After all, foster parent after foster parent said so. Teachers said so. Kids at school said so. Even the adoptive parents who decided she wasn’t enough.

So it’s taking her some getting used to, the way her boyfriend is always so positive. Which is funny because, like her, he’s so cynical most of the time. But when it comes to her, it’s always, “You can do this, Swan” or “I have faith in you, Emma.” Even before they were anything to each other, he had called her brilliant and amazing. She isn’t used to it, and sometimes she shies away, gets uncomfortable. Even so, he doesn’t stop saying it.

One day, Killian took her out on his boat, and they stayed out until the stars lit the sky. The darkness and his arms around her, his chest a strength she could lean against, loosened her tongue and she told him about her relationship with Neal. Tears had slipped down her cheeks as she remembered how naïve Neal had believed her to be. “I thought that I was strong,” she whispered into the night.

Killian shifted so he could look into her eyes, though he had to gently tilt her chin to do so. “You were, Emma. You’d been living on the streets for years by then. You may have been young, but you weren’t naïve, and you certainly weren’t weak.”

His eyes searched hers, and she melted against him, because in the ocean blue depths she felt she saw herself reflected back. And she was not only beautiful, but strong and intelligent.

Killian comes to mean so much to her that she can’t go a day without seeing him, can’t go an hour without talking to him or at least texting him. And yes, it still scares her a little, but not in the way she’s used to. She’s been with plenty of men who caught her because they wanted her, only to let her go once they had her. Like the married guy who Emma realized too late only saw her as a challenge. It’s what made her wary of Killian in the beginning; he was a pirate, after all. But now? Now she knows one thing at least: Killian Jones stays.

It isn’t just that he’s put down roots in Storybrooke, either. It’s that no matter what a mess she is, no matter how she keeps him at arm’s length at times because of her scars, he still keeps showing up. He still keeps offering his heart. Emma’s done her fair share of being the one to leave, to cut things off. But it was ever only because she felt that, eventually, she’d be thrown away for the trash she was. Better to beat them to it. But Killian? He makes her feel the opposite of trash. The look in his eyes, even from across a crowded room make her believe she’s a treasure he would cross oceans for.

And he has, actually.

One night they’re sitting on top of the hood of her Bug, looking out over Storybrooke. Killian is tracing the lines in her palm, making shivers race down her spine. Then he lifts it and kisses the buttercup tattoo on her wrist, his gaze intense beneath his lashes. It reminds her of the way he bandaged her hand on the beanstalk, and her breath hitches.

“I have a proposal, love.”

The shiver goes all the way to her toes. She’ll never get tired of that accent or the timbre of his voice.

“Oh?” she’s breathless, but she doesn’t care, even when he smirks.

He tugs her close, wrapping his arm around her, her head tucked under her chin. “You tell me every awful thing you falsely believe about yourself, and I’ll refute it eloquently.”

She chuckles even as she swallows nervously around a lump in her throat. “Eloquently?”

“Naturally.”

“But what if you believe it?” she whispers, hating that she sounds like a small child. “I mean, what if some of it is actually true?”

“Impossible.”

A tiny half smile hitches the corner of her mouth. How does he always sound so damn sure? She releases a shaky breath. “Okay. I don’t belong. Anywhere.”

“You are a legend in Storybrooke, an irreplaceable hero, beloved daughter, devoted mother, and every single person in this town would gladly take a bullet for you.”

“Even Regina and Rumple?” Emma asks sardonically.

“Okay,” he concedes with a laugh, “almost everyone. And yes, even Grumpy.”

She reaches over to grasp his hook. He’s right. Storybrooke is her home, the first one she’s ever had. “I only hear what I want to. I don’t listen hard. I don’t pay attention.”

“Who told you that, love?” he asks gently.

“Pretty much every teacher I ever had.”

“Well, I never had the privilege of attending school -”

“Not missing anything but snobs and bullies, believe me.”

“-but,” he continues without missing a beat, “I do know intelligence when I see it. You are one of the most observant people I’ve ever met. And if people thought you only heard what you wanted to, it’s only because you were protecting yourself the only way you knew how. No one knows the pain a child carries when they have no family Emma unless they’ve walked through it themselves.”

Emma pushes away from his embrace so she can look him in the face. His jaw is doing that clenching thing it does when he’s irked about something, and she melts realizing that he’s angry at anyone who would belittle her.

“It’s in the past,” she tells him softly, massaging his jaws with both hands cupping his face.

“But it’s like I said, the scars of childhood tend to linger. So,” he turns to place a kiss on her palm, “any other bricks in that wall I need to take care of?”

“I was stupid to cry over him. I was weak to cry because he wouldn’t stay.”

He knows who she’s talking about. In the beginning she had hesitated to talk about Neal. Killian knew him as Milah’s son, as Baelfire, the boy in Neverland. Yet when she’d finally broken down and laid it all bare, he only saw her. What that meant was something Emma couldn’t even put into words.

Killian cups her face now, kisses her tenderly, then closes his eyes as he presses his forehead to hers. “You loved him,” he whispers, “there’s no shame in crying over lost love. Your ability to love is what makes you strong, Emma, not weak.”

She doesn’t know how he is able to express his feelings so eloquently; it certainly isn’t her strength. They have many of the same scars, yet his words just pour out of him. Of course . . . she pulls back.

“Hey,” she says, shaking him slightly so he’ll open his eyes. “What about you? How about the lies in your head?”

A shadow falls across his face, and with it that charming, boyish smirk. It’s his armor, she’s learned that by now.

“Perhaps another time, love.”

She lets it go, for now. Later that night she lays awake in his arms as he softly snores. His face his relaxed in sleep, vulnerable. As the moonlight illuminates the scar across his cheek, she traces it lightly with her finger. When she asked about the scar, where he had gotten it, he had shrugged it off with bravado, boasting about the many scars a pirate earns in battle. She knows because of her super power that it was a lie. She also knows the lie was harmless. Emma isn’t the only one with wounds from childhood.

“One day,” she whispers to him, “we’ll take care of the lies you believe Killian Jones.”

He rolls towards her, gathering her in his arms, yet he’s still asleep. Perhaps his heart heard me, she says to herself, then chuckles at her own attempt at flowery words. She’ll most likely get her words all messed up; they’ll probably come out all wrong, but one day she’ll make sure he knows what an amazing man he is. Mostly because . . .

He stays.

Such a short, simple word, but to Emma Swan, it’s everything.

#cs ff #fandom birthday playlist #for sambethe #on her birthday #fluffy angst #if that's a thing #deleted scenes #six weeks of peace

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ouatsnark · 2 years

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“Rumple isn’t an abuser!”

Someone recently replied to one of my posts on Instagram saying just as the title suggests.... which leaves me shaking my head.

Rumpelstiltskin was the Dark One.

His heart was so dark that he was dying from that darkness.

Hades said that Rumple & Regina supplied him with the most souls.

“Oh but isn’t that the darkness? Didn’t the darkness make him do that?”

Yes, at first you could blame it on the darkness. But Rumple had 300 years to master the darkness and multiple chances to be rid of it forever. But he didn’t give it up. Which makes him solely responsible for all of his misdeeds as the dark one.

Child Neglect & Abandonment

This was his first chance to get rid of the darkness but because he is a weak coward, he chose his powers over his child. That is abuse. Baelfire was abandoned.

Rumple murdered Milah. Twice.

Think what you want of Milah but she did not deserve to be murdered. Technically, twice. And Rumple did not kill her in self-defense or to defend anyone else ... he murdered her in a jealous rage, for revenge and then again to protect his own interests.

He also wouldn’t fight for her honor when Hook tested him aboard his ship. Maybe not abuse but it is the mark of a cowardly husband.

Oh. And Belle still doesn’t know that it was Rumple that killed Milah.

Rumbelle is the poster for Domestic Abuse

And Belle was afraid of Rumple. We never see him hit her but you have to wonder what makes her so fearful of him...

She thought she needed protection from him. She obviously felt there was enough evil in him to harm even her. After all, he nearly killed Henry when Henry stood between him and his power (S5 finale).

He was pretty controlling.

There were so many times he used Belle’s life like a chess piece... strategically moving her around to gain his own happiness.

When Belle and Henry wake up tomorrow morning in New York City, they won't remember a thing about tonight. I'll tell then the Snow Queen destroyed Storybrooke, whilst I saved everyone I could. I won't be a villain. I'll be a hero.

Like the time he put her into a sleeping curse so she wouldn’t know that he was planning to run with her & Henry and leave everyone else to die.

So that she would believe he was some kind of hero.

He didn’t ask her if that is what she wanted. He wanted it. So he did it.

Season 6 finale. He didn’t ask Belle’s permission to change her life or even tell her that in doing so it would ruin the lives of everyone else. It is a real shame Belle just wont learn that Rumple will put his selfish desires before an entire town and won’t even consult her to see if that is what she wants for her life... I mean, after all, that wasn’t the first time...

Season 4 finale. Rumple has the author re-write Belle back to being his wife again after SHE REJECTED HIM. That kiss right there? Sexual Assault.

Actually, Rumple spends a lot of time sexually assaulting his supposed true love:

Pretending to be Killian & touching her. Sexual assault.

Not taking “no” for an answer. More assault and harassment.

Belle puts herself into a sleeping curse to save her unborn child. Since she was at odds with him during this time and tells him:

You're not the one who's going to wake me, Rumple. My father is.

I would say that him kissing her while she is asleep and can’t consent is indeed sexual assault... these touches were for his benefit not hers.

It’s a shame the writers could not see what they were writing and address it properly.

And Gold did not really care about Belle’s opinions.

I mean he did propose to and marry her after lying to her about the dagger and thus allowing her to believe he’d finally given up his powers for her.

It wasn’t until he realized that just maybe he was pushing her too far that he stopped.

But it never should have come to this in the first place.

Pretty sure he never saw Belle as his equal.

1x12 Rumpelstiltskin: Ah… No. You see, um… I, uh, make gold. What I want is something a bit more special. My price…is her.

I mean he technically bought her... and then there was the line in the Season 3 movie about falling in love with the maid.

Also:

So don’t try to sell me a line about Rumple being a good person. He wasn’t. First he was a coward. Then he was just a powerful coward. He cared for nothing but his own happy ending and by extension of that Belle since he thought of her as the key to his happiness.

#anti rumbelle #anti rumplestiltskin #anti mr gold #anti rumple #rumple is a wife abuser

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destroying-your-happiness · 5 years

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Here’s a short preview for Consumed, Chapter 8. Keep in mind that the final version could change a bit.

Time ceased to have meaning as thick, purple veins pulsed under Regina’s smooth olive skin.

Emma watched them, bewitched in grief as they spread uncontrollably, blemishing outward like water colors on a wet canvas, flowing with every beat of Regina’s heart.

The sounds around her were muffled, heavy footfalls and shouts that barely registered as despair tunneled Emma’s vision and blocked out everyone but Regina.

“Emma? Henry?” The bellow came from David as the group burst into the foyer downstairs.

Henry tore himself away from the sight of his mothers to stumble into the hallway. “Up here!” He cried, his face chalky and eyes red-rimmed from tears that he tried to blink back.

Snow and David rushed up the stairs, with Belle right behind them and Rumple at the back. They pushed into the room expecting anything, only to falter at what they encountered.

“What happened?” David barked, his jaw set and fists clenched as if he could fight the empty space for answers.

“Is she—”

The words stuck in Snow’s throat, unable to form around a lump as she pulled Henry into her arms instinctively.

“I don’t know!” Emma frantically yelled, her arms tightening around Regina as if holding her harder would wake her up. “I found her like this.” The statement hung heavy in the air, the shock settling over everyone as they shared the same, aghast look.

“I can’t – I can’t heal her.” Emma whispered brokenly, her voice hitching as she sucked in a stuttered breath. “I tried. I tried, but nothing’s working.” She desperately explained, her tear streaked face contorting to a twisted snarl as she hissed, “I’m The Dark One and I can’t even help her.”

“Even the Dark One has limits.” Rumple quietly attested and stepped forward. He leaned into his cane for support and offered Emma an apologetic slant of his lips.

“What are you talking about?” Emma snapped angrily, her panic shifting to aggression as he hit her with a truth she didn’t want to acknowledge.

“There’s a reason I learned to wield other forms of magic, Miss Swan.” He supplied softly, his eyes darting over Regina as best they could with Emma coiled protectively around her, like a viper ready to strike down anyone that got too close. “Potions and spells alike, but one thing holds true for it all: magic has a price, even yours.”

Emma bared her teeth, but just managed to contain her roar of outrage as she wrestled with the notion that even with all the raw magic she now possessed, she was still powerless when it mattered the most.

“Let me have a look at her.” Rumple requested, warily moving forward only to halt at the warning glare Emma sent him. “Please, she’s my…” Emotions flickered over Rumple’s face as he gazed down at Regina, extinguished one by one like the flames of candles until only grief was left. They had spent a lifetime together, student and mentor, friend and foe.

Regina was perhaps the closest thing to family he had for a very long time, and though their history was incredibly complicated, he loved her. His teary eyes raised to Emma and he held out his hand as his face crumpled. “Please.”

Perhaps it was seeing the softer side of Rumple, or maybe it was the way his grief matched her own, but Emma swallowed thickly and moved to lay Regina down on the bed with such tenderness it was though she were made of the most fragile glass. She hovered by Regina’s side, clasping her limp hand, unwilling to lose contact with her for even a second out of a paranoid fear that she would vanish from her life forever.

Bending over Regina, Rumple pushed the hair back from her sweaty brow and took in the evidence of what he seemed to suspect. Up close, there was no denying it, and as he supplied regretfully, “Well it seems I now know what happened to the antiquity that was stolen from my shop.”

Alert and furious, Emma spun towards Rumple as if he were responsible and demanded harshly, “What did this to her?”

Unflinching in the face of Emma’s wrath, Rumple sighed, “A particularly sinister antiquity called Cupid’s Arrow.”

“Like, an actual arrow?” Henry cut in, his boyish features screwing up with confusion.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Rumple informed him, though his eyes remained fixated on Emma. The pain on her face resonated through him like an invisible force. It bonded them not only because of their relationships with Regina, but also because of the Darkness, and how it filled every crack and weakness in their lives, patching up their brokenness with its own insoluble glue.

“That’s insane,” Henry spat, pulling free from Snow’s arms to stand by Emma as he seethed. “Who just shoots someone with an enchanted arrow?”

Belle cleared her throat and placed her hand on Henry’s shoulder to soothe him as she explained as gently as she could. “The kind of person who believes he deserves to have someone, more than he believes that she deserves to choose.”

Henry furrowed his brows and looked at the five of them as if they were talking riddles. “What?” He grunted, more upset than he was before.

“True love can’t be forced, and love itself can’t be faked. That’s why love potions don’t exist.” Rumple revealed, holding his grandson’s gaze until he was sure Henry understood. “They cause obsession and infatuation. Lust, but not love. Cupid’s Arrow is drastically different. It targets the love that already exists within a person, and if the victim has any feelings for her attacker, that love can grow to fill her heart entirely. Like a weed, it strangles all else that might already be flourishing inside.”

It was Emma who broke the tension with an incredulous, “So she’s, what, just going to wake up and fall in love with Robin?”

“No.” The word sounded rough as it fell from Rumple’s lips, and Snow blindly reached for David as Henry turned sharply towards Emma as if hoping she would refute whatever they were about to hear.

“If there’s no love at all to be found in her heart for the attacker,” Rumple began, pointing to the darkening veins on Regina’s chest. “The arrow poisons the victim instead. Either way, it becomes a death sentence, of sorts. She either loses herself, or her life.”

There was a finality to the way Rumple said it that left Emma unable to breathe, and she felt the room tilt around her. The edges of her vision blackened and she felt the Darkness inside her sprawling out, like a shadow under the sun.

“So she’s dying?” Henry wailed, hot tears burning his eyes before streaming down his cheeks. David pulled him into an embrace, and Snow wrapped around them both.

“No!” Emma barked viciously, refusing to believe it for a god damned second as she turned on Rumple. “There has to be a way to reverse this, to save her! There’s always a way, so say it, tell me or I swear I’ll – ”

“There is a way…” Rumple hurriedly agreed. “But—”

“Tell me!” Emma shouted, the rage inside her dimming as desperation took hold and she choked out, “I’ll do anything, just tell me and I’ll get it done. I’ll fix this.”

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once-upon-a-ouat · 5 years

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“Deadly Sins”

Summary: Regina embodies every single one of the seven deadly sins in Rumple's life. Set in a canon divergence in pre-curse Enchanted Forest. Written for Golden Queen Week 2019 Day 1 - Seven Deadly Sins. I'm sorry that this is late but the words just weren't coming yesterday. Anyway, I hope you'll like it.

Word Count: 687 words

Read on FFN or AO3

Sloth. He’d never had the privilege or peace of mind to just sit around and do nothing. He was always making plans and calculating his next moves, his mind and his thirst for success sharpening with every plot he concocted. But she made him bored of every scheme that didn’t involve her. Like a queen she held his attention, distracting him from his line of work and causing him to lose his focus. And for that he’d never forgive her. She was just a means to an end. Yet, she had the audacity to become an end in and of herself.

Wrath. He saw red and knew it was her. It was always her. It was her who made him want to lose control and rip her apart. And he had to rein in the urge to tear out her heart and keep it as a trophy. He shouldn’t because she was doing that well enough on her own. He couldn’t because he needed her. He needed her. Needed her for his games. Needed her for his plans. Needed her in his hands. Need. Dependence. Weakness. Wrath. Regina. One inevitably led to the next until she had him trapped in her vicious circle.

Greed. He wanted her. Wanted more of her. More of what she was willing to give and more of what she was not. More of her poison. More of her sweetness. More of her insults. More of her sighs of ecstasy. More of her hate. More of her love. More. More. Everything.

Gluttony. He ate her, ate away at her, swallowed her soul, and he couldn’t get enough. It was not enough. It would never be enough. Even if he tore her in pieces and swallowed them all, it wouldn’t be enough. He was insatiable and it would never be enough. So he kissed her and let the taste of her linger on his lips. And when that wasn’t enough, he licked at her skin and let the scent of her perfume fill his nostrils. And when that wasn’t enough, he bit at her skin and let the sight of the marks feed his hunger for her. And when that wasn’t enough, he made her bleed, and weep, and despair, and he ate it all up, knowing that it would never sate him, knowing that it would never be enough.

Lust. More were lusting after her than not. But he was not one of them. She was a beautiful woman, yes. But her true beauty was her heart. So good. So pure. So touchable. It was what he lusted after. To have it in his hands, leave his fingerprints all over it, wrap it up in darkness and make her his. With his magic in her head and his words in her heart she was so filled with despair that she made him lust after her like all the other fools.

Envy. She had nothing to be envious of. For all her titles and gifts, she had nothing. Nothing but that fiery soul of hers that refused to surrender completely to darkness, refused to be swallowed up by his darkness, and it made him so envious. For she was far from incorruptible. But he couldn’t corrupt her as much as he’d corrupted himself. She had a spark of light that burned and burned him when he reached to snuff it out. And he was left hurt and envious for his own little spark was fading day after day while hers kept shining in his eyes, blinding him and preventing him from seeing his goal.

Pride. He was proud of her, proud of what he’d created. A powerful sorceress in a wretched human being. He’d built her up and he’d torn her down all at the same time. And she was his. His queen and his monster. She was everything and nothing. She repulsed him and attracted him uncontrollably. She was horrific. She was perfect.

She was sin after sin after sin. And he committed them all with total disregard of how deadly they could be. Death was a price he was willing to pay.

#once upon a time #ouat #gqweek19 #golden queen week #golden queen #rumplestiltskin #regina mills #fanfiction #my fanfiction #my writing #operation end

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treatian · 4 years

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The Chronicles of the Dark One: The Dark Curse

Chapter 58: A Push in the Right Wrong Direction

It was an odd thing, months ago when he'd first realized that he was going to have to deal with Regina and the trauma that she had surrounding Daniel he'd wanted nothing but that part of her life to be worthless so he didn't have to deal with it. Now that he had a plan in place for handling it, the amount of time it was taking to get to that moment was a bigger frustration than his original discovery.

Perhaps the one good thing that Cora had done for Regina was groom her to be pliant. After years of being forced to play a role she didn't want to play, he found that she was still remarkably good at it. The only difference was that instead of being asked to play the role of a daughter devoted to finding a King to marry, now she was playing the role of a Queen who wanted to learn sorcery for power. She responded to his anger in the tower that night in a productive way. Questioning if Daniel still held her back forced her to prove that it didn't, and now, whenever he looked in the mirror to check on her, he saw her practicing.

One day he'd had the very bright idea to push her forward. He let her come over and just happened to leave the letter he'd once written to Cora about Zelena out in plain sight. He'd watched as she'd found it, read it, smiled, thinking it was about her, and then folded it up and shoved it in her pocket for safekeeping. He pretended he'd noticed nothing. The truth was he was never going to send that letter to Cora, not after what had happened with Zelena, but if it could do some good in some way, then that was how he was going to use it. At that very lesson she finally learned how to make fire. It was small and pitiful, but it was something.

"Teach me more…teach me something new."

"As you wish."

It was a sign that with proper motivation Regina could accomplish anything. In the month that followed she was unusually devoted. In fact, he watched as she became more than devoted, she became driven. A small taste of the magic she was capable of was all it had taken to flip the switch, and he'd been thrilled to watch her master skills that he once thought that she might never accomplish…but not perfectly. Oh she could immobilize and move objects, making them appear and disappear at will now, and finally, she had a desire for what the magic she did could do for her, as evidenced in the questions she was asking about its uses, but a fireball, a true flaming ball of fire still eluded her. She just didn't have the anger for it. She had the craving to learn the other things, things that would impress and scare her husband away from stalking her bed at night, things that would earn her fear and respect among the guards that she was growing for herself, and things that he knew were earning her quite an interesting reputation among the household servants, but true anger...she just couldn't bring it to life and possess it.

And he was growing tired of waiting for her to possess it. He was growing tired of waiting for her to be in a place where she might be in need of the Doctor's "talents". He was growing tired of listening to Jefferson's never-ending reports of failure on the Doctor's part! It was obvious to him that the plan he'd had in mind before wasn't good enough, not to do the job he needed to have done. The one he possessed now, however, was genius. It had taken a while, but he'd finally come up with a plan that could work! In fact, the more he thought of it, this plan would work better than his previous plan. But Regina in this state, as he took her through her drills lesson after lesson, watched her immobilize creatures twice, three, four times her size…she wasn't ready for it to be enacted.

But if the Doctor was successful soon, the plan he saw in his head might not work, and he'd have to resort to the one he'd initially worked out. He didn't want that. Not anymore. This needed to be handled delicately and soon!

And so the night before a lesson with Regina, he watched her alone in her bedroom at the palace. She summoned water, her hairbrush, a spellbook, and finally she tried and failed to spark a fireball in the palm of her hand. It was time to give her a push, he decided, and see if that might spark what was necessary. And wasn't it just his luck that it was the one-year anniversary of Daniel's death? If that didn't urge her on and open up that anger that he knew she had to have, then he didn't know what would.

It was time for her to take a heart.

Not a human heart. She was still too weak for anything like that just yet, an animal would be better. And so as he put her through her drills in the woods that afternoon he summoned to her a rare black unicorn. It wasn't a friendly beast and reared up at the danger it perceived. Regina backed away, her hands close to her belly as if she was afraid of it. But he stayed right where he was demonstrating what it meant to have no fear. He'd already had her immobilize sheep and people, horses and entire carriages. This should be simple for her.

"Now, show me what you've learned. Immobilize it!"

Regina took a timid step forward, then threw out her hands. He felt a wave of magic bloom in the surrounding area, it was unfocused magic but still strong.

"There. I did it!" she smiled proudly as the horse continued to stand unmoving on two feet, a bluish wave moving over its body. Certainly, she had done it. She'd frozen the horse, as well as everything else in the area, but they could deal with that later. Focus wasn't the point of this little lesson. That was what came next, and it made him giggle uncontrollably for this was where her test began. Unlike her sister, he had the feeling that in time she would pass.

"Excellent work, my apprentice. Now there's just one last tiny, tiny, teeny, little detail. Take its heart."

The smile on her face left quick as lightning. This was bound to be a touchy subject for her, he was well aware. But that was the point. It was time she got past this, time she get over Daniel and began to focus what she felt for the past, and how she might use it in the future.

"Like what my mother did to-"

"Oh, your true love. Indeed!" he exclaimed with a less than caring tone. "Then, you already know how it's done!" He didn't want to seem caring, he didn't want to sound as though he was familiar with what anniversary was coming up for her. He wanted it to sound like it was normal. If she could do this without all the cock and bull he was about to give her, that was best! Less work for him and for Jefferson as well. If not…well, he was far more prepared for this to fail than she'd ever know.

Regina didn't want to do this. She loved horses, and that was why he'd chosen such a rare one to start with. But after a moment, at the urging of her teacher, she did inch forward slightly, looking at the exposed chest of the beast before her.

"Gentle," he instructed as she raised her hand. "If you do it right, no harm will befall it. Unless, of course, you will it."

And that was where she faltered, daring to look up into its eyes instead of right at its chest. He could hear her breath grow high and sharp, her own heart pounded, and suddenly she withdrew her hand and turned her back on the creature.

"I can't. It's innocent!"

"Nothing is innocent!" he stressed. Not Regina, not this horse, not even her precious Daniel. Still, he wasn't done pushing. He reached out himself and removed the heart before her eyes. Or at least attempted to before she turned away. Her spell broke as he pulled it forth, the horse gave a great whinny and put its feet back on the ground, but it didn't rear up again as it had before simply because he didn't have time for that and willed it not to. Regina turned around just in time to watch him convince the beast to lie down in the dirt at their feet. "Now, it belongs to me. You see, when you take a heart, it becomes enchanted. Stronger than a normal heart. You're not hurting the beast; you're controlling it. Now, show me you know what to do with that power."

He tossed the glowing red heart to her, and she caught it with little problem.

"Kill it."

"What?"

"You've seen it done, now do it yourself. Show me you can take the next step in your training. Crush it."

In her own defense, she faired better than he thought she would have. By this point, he had expected her to outright refuse and resort to name-calling as she stumbled off. But instead, she listened. And he watched eagerly as his next plans were written. Holding the glowing heart at arm's length, she turned toward the beast and began to squeeze so that he could hear the delicate muscle begin to crack and break beneath her fingers.

But then she stopped.

The second the beast moved to put its head on the ground and let out of cry of pain or sorrow, he wasn't sure which, she stopped. There were tears in her eyes as she shook her head, and the horse slowly started to rise to its feet again. There was that weakness he'd been seeing in her, the vulnerability that needed crushed far more than the heart did.

"Dearie, dearie, dearie. And I had such high hopes…"

"And I didn't sign up to kill unicorns!"

"Magic is power!" he shouted back at her. "Until you can take power, you're not learning anything. Do you want me to teach you or not?"

"Yes!" she insisted.

"Then, there's one simple question for you to ponder."

She shrugged. "I'll tell you anything."

Rumple let loose a loud high pitched laugh. This wasn't a test for him. It was for her. "I don't need the answer…you do. What's holding you back?"

Regina opened and closed her mouth. It looked like she was the one who had her heart torn out. "This old argument again?" she cried. "I thought we were past all this!"

"Oh, we'll never be past it, dearie. Not until you have your answer! Until you can answer that question, it'll be back to potions for you, something a bit less…stunning."

Afterward, back in his tower, he wasn't surprised to look through that cauldron and see her place the heart back in the unicorn. Just as he wasn't surprised to see her transport herself to her family's mausoleum and mourn the body of her beloved Daniel. It was a year, in a few days it would be time to recharge the preservation spell. By then, he intended for everything to be ready for her next visit. Today he'd push, next time, he'd break her.

#Rumbelle #Rumple #Rumpelstiltskin #Dark One #Regina #Evil Queen #ouat #ouat fanfiction #fanfic

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swanqueeneverafter · 4 years

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Sins of the Past Pt.17

Storybrooke. Sheriff's Station. (Grif sits alone inside one of the cells while Hook and David talk in the Sheriff's office.) David: "I'm the one who caught him, so I should be the one who gets to talk to him first." Hook: "That's all very well and good, mate, but you're not the one who's wife and daughter are missing. In fact, they're both sitting outside this office. So why don't you go and be with your family because lord knows I would if I could!" Rumplestiltskin: (Leaning in the door way:) "Do you really think he's going to tell either of you anything? Even if he did there's no way of verifying the information." Hook: "Rumple's right. Lily and Mal don't have that kind of time." David: "Then what do you suggest?" Rumplestiltskin: "A simple truth serum ought to do the trick. I believe I still have a vial or two knocking around in the shop." David: "Great, get it. Ordinarily I wouldn't approve of such measures but Grif's our only lead and he's not talking. (Rumple nods and leaves to fetch the serum. Sighs:) I'm sorry, Hook. Of course you should be the one to interrogate him. It's just..." Hook: (Nods:) "I know, mate. Powerful as she might be, your daughter's being hunted. Speaking as a man who's face has been on his fair share of wanted posters, I know exactly how she feels." Bullpen. (Snow watches David and Hook shake hands from afar.) Snow White: "Oh, look at them, two concerned fathers." Regina: "Yes, they're a credit to all men who re-enter their daughter's lives when they're in their late twenties. Now can we please concentrate on what our next move is? If Lily and Maleficent weren't in the dungeons of Camelot, where could they be?" Elsa: (Standing by Lily's desk:) "We don't know they weren't there. (Turns to face them:) Guinevere said Morgana had separated the prisoners as much as possible. The dungeons are vast." Emma: "Well it's not like I can go in there with a search warrant." Snow White: "You're not going anywhere near Camelot, not with two sorceresses out for blood." Regina: "Hey, if it comes to a magic fight, I think we know who'd win. But yes, Snow's right, we can't go back to Camelot right now. If possible we need to face them on neutral territory." Elsa: "You may not be able to go, but I most certainly am." Regina: "And what are you going to do, sing them into submission?" Elsa: (Ignoring this:) "Whenever one of our allies names a new leader, it is customary to send an envoy with words of congratulations. Well, as Queen of Arendelle, I can think of no one better suited to formally welcome Morgana." Emma: (Knowingly:) "And to snoop around her dungeons." Elsa: "Precisely."

Cave. Location Unknown. (Lily continues to pace inside her cage, slamming her hands against the walls as Balinor, her captor, calmly watches. The sound of hoof beats is heard outside. A man, dressed all in black, drives a horse-drawn carriage with a cage in the back. Stopping at the mouth of the cave, the man jumps down and walks slowly towards them.) Aredian: "Did you miss me?" Balinor: "Where have you been?" Aredian: "Dealing with this one's mother. She's proving to be much more... spirited. We were right to keep them separated." Lily: (Shaking the bars of the cage:) "If you've harmed her in any way I swear I'll-" Aredian: "How does it feel to be in a cage? It's where you belong, you know. In a cage where civilised people can come and stare at you. Along with all the other freaks of nature." Balinor: "Aredian, please. I don't like this. Why must we wait so long?" Aredian: "I have not yet been able to procure a buyer for our latest stock. Apparently in these parts, dragons are to be feared, revered and respected. (Scoffs:) Tolerance of magical creatures is almost as dangerous as the beasts themselves. Unchecked, it spreads like a disease. It seeks out the young and the old, the weak and the able, the fair and the foul of heart alike. The people of the realms have grown lazy, Balinor. They’ve grown idle. They stand on the brink of dark oblivion. (Putting his arm around Balinor:) It is up to us, my friend, to remind the world that man is superior to these creatures in every way. The thought that these half-breeds can be considered our equals must be extinguished. (Slapping him on the back:) Now, I’ve had a long journey, so what’s for dinner?” (Lily watches their interaction carefully, taking note of the power dynamic between her two captors. Storing away the information to use to her advantage, Lily decides to bide her time until the chance to escape presents itself.) Wonderland. (Ella and Will hurry through the forest. Since the early hours of the morning, they've been tracked.) Ella: “Someone's following us.” Will: “By the sounds of things, I'd say several someones.” (They duck down behind some bushes.) Ella: “Do you recognize them?” Will: (Peering out:) “They work for the Caterpillar. They're Collectors.” Ella: “What are our options?” Will: “Well, basically, we could die, or we could run.” Ella: “I don't particularly care for the first one.” Will: “Me, neither. Left or right?” Ella: “Left.” Will: “Okay.” (They run. The Collectors right behind them.) Collector 1: “Where'd he go?!” Collector 2: “After him!” Collector 3: “He's getting away!” (Will and Ella run, jumping over tree branches and along uneven terrain. Will tosses a knife at one of the Collectors, taking him down and causing others to trip over the fallen man.) Collector 2: “He’s getting away!” (Will and Ella hide inside a large tree trunk.) Will: “I'm the one they want. We should split up.” Ella: “We should stay and fight.” Will: “Or, better idea you stay, I go. (Stands and calls out to the Collectors:) Oi! Over here!” Ella: “Will, no!” Will: “I'll be fine. I know these woods like the back of my hand. (He immediately turns and falls over a branch. Jumps back up:) I'm fine! Meet you back in Tulgey.” (He runs off, the Collectors following hot on his heels.) Ella: “Will! (Clasping her necklace:) It's okay, Mother, This is just a detour. I'll be with you soon.”

Storybrooke. Sheriff's Station. (Hook stands arguing with Grif.) Grif: "For the last time, I don't know what you're talking about." Hook: "You're a terrible liar." Grif: "Why would the Queen let me in on her plans? I'm just a lowly soldier." Hook: "You know more than you're letting on." Grif: (Smiles:) "Do I?" Hook: "Where are my wife and daughter you son of a bitch?!" David: (Stepping in:) "Hey, Killian, easy. I know you're upset but don't let him rattle you." Regina: "You could let me talk to him. I can be very persuasive." David: "Oh, no. Using a truth serum is one thing but I won't allow the use of torture." Regina: "Won't allow? I’m sorry, I don't remember you rejoining the sheriff's department." Emma: "She's right, Dad. You're not a cop anymore." David: "Maybe not, but emotions are running high here and I'm not about to leave that man alone right now." Regina: "So you don't trust me, is that it?" Emma: "Dad!" David: (Defensively:) "That's not what I meant. I just think someone who's not prone to flying off the handle might be useful at this time." Regina: "And you chasing a man down in your pickup truck was being level-headed was it?" Emma: (Standing between them:) "All right, let's just take it easy." David: "I agree. Look, Snow's already taken Maria for the afternoon, why don't you two go and enjoy yourselves for a few hours?" Emma: (Shrugs:) "We are still technically on vacation." Regina: (Motions toward Grif:) "What about him?" David: "Rumplestiltskin will be back soon with the potion and we'll know for sure if he's telling the truth. I'm just going to be here to make sure Hook doesn't do anything he'll regret." Hook: (Glaring at Grif:) "Trust me, mate, I won't regret it." Emma: (Trying to keep the peace:) "See? sounds like a plan to me. Killian? I know this isn’t too much of a comfort right now, but I wouldn’t worry about Maleficent. Robin said she personally saw Mal kick three pretty powerful witches out of the bar not too long ago. I think she can handle two without too much problem. ‘Gina, shall we?” Regina: "All right. (Walks over to David so they are face to face:) But make no mistake, I'm leaving because I want to, not for any other reason." David: (Knowingly:) "Of course." Regina: (Keeps her eyes on him for a long moment before turning to leave:) "Come on, Emma. Let's go home... (She takes Emma's hand and, pivoting on her heel, speaks into Emma's ear while looking at David:) and see if I can't make you call me 'Daddy'." (Turning scarlet, Emma gives one mortified glance backwards while allowing herself to be lead out of the station.) Wonderland. Grendel's House. (Amongst the wreckage, the Grendel sits alone at the dining room table. He doesn’t even move at the sound of footsteps coming towards him.)

Morgause: (Now standing before him:) “Good evening. You're looking well. Just like I left you. Although, (Looks around:) what happened here?” Grendel: “Bandersnatch attacked.” Morgause: “Did you kill it?” Grendel: “No.” Morgause: “Who did?” Grendel: “I had guests.” Morgause: “Guests? More than one? Tell me who. Tell me who, and I can help you.” Grendel: (Slowly looks up at her:) “You can bring back my wife?” Morgause: “Perhaps.” Grendel: (Stands:) “But that is impossible.” Morgause: “There is no such thing as impossible.” Grendel: (Hesitates:) “It was a young woman. And a man.” Morgause: “Who was this man?” Grendel: “She called him ‘Knave.’” Morgause: “Thank you for your honesty. You've been of great assistance.” Grendel: “Now... You will reunite me with my wife?” Morgause: “With pleasure.” (Morgause draws her sword and stabs him through the heart. The Grendel falls to the floor, dead.) Camelot. Throne Room. (Aredian stands before Morgana with a proposal.) Morgana: "Dragons?" Aredian: "Yes, Your Highness." Morgana: "You wish for me to purchase dragons, from you?" Aredian: "Why, yes. Just think of the grandeur their presence will bring to your coronation. Really start your reign off with a bang." Morgana: "You mean send it crashing down in flames, more like. You are aware of my father's legacy? How he sought to rid this land of all magical creatures and those who wielded it?" Aredian: "I am, My Lady. I'm also aware of how you seek to distance yourself from that legacy." Morgana: "And you believe the best way to do that is to have fire-breathing dragons under my command?" Aredian: "What better way, Your Majesty? Let the people marvel at their new leader's supremacy. Queen Morgana: She who walks with dragons." Morgana: "You would have me show dominance over these creatures? To have them be seen as nothing more than pets for my amusement?" Aredian: "Well, I-" Morgana: "You disgust me. (Stands:) As Queen I seek to heal the wounds inflicted upon the people of Camelot by my father and his heartless nature. I shall welcome all those who practice magic, everyone who has ever been ostracized and belittled by those too blinded by fear and hatred. Camelot shall be a haven to every man, woman, child or beast." Aredian: "My Lady, if I have upset you then please forgive me. I merely-" Morgana: "Guards! (Two guards close ranks on Aredian:) These men will accompany you to wherever it is you are holding the dragons and you will release them immediately. (Aredian begins to protest:) If you do not, mark my words, you shall have me to answer to. Now go!" (Aredian glares at Morgana while he is escorted from the room.) The Enchanted Forest...Pub. (Henry and Richard enter.) Richard: “Oh, this place is fabulous! It's all men. A real gentleman's club. (Waving:) Hello. (To Henry:) Get used to the attention, son. This is what happens when you hit the mainland with King Rich.”

Patron: (To Henry:) “Haven't seen you around here before. Trust me... I'd remember. The Queen's gonna want to get a look at this one.” Queen: (From the staircase:) “I do!” Richard: “Oh, no.” (Dance music plays as the Queen emerges from behind several men.) Queen: ♪ You trespassed upon my kingdom ♪ ♪ And now you are in my sway ♪ (Descends the stairs assisted by two men:) ♪ Which basic'ly means, as the queen of all queens ♪ ♪ I'm going to make you pay ♪ Patron: ♪ Will we be throwing him in the dungeon? ♪ (Two men, dressed in leather, dance inside a very small cage.) Patron 2: ♪ Or tossing him to the bear? ♪ (A stout, hairy man lifts his tankard and winks.) Queen: ♪ Well, one thing for sure ♪ ♪ We'll settle the score ♪ ♪ And trust me, it's more than fair ♪ (Runs to stand directly before Henry:) ♪ Off with his shirt ♪ Men: ♪ Yeah! ♪ (Two men remove Henry’s doublet:) ♪ Strip him down ♪ ♪ Don't be shy, boys, go to town ♪ ♪ I'll bet that chest is heaven-blessed ♪ ♪ So firm and pert ♪ (The Queen is lifted back towards the stairs:) ♪ Off with his top ♪ Men: ♪ Yeah! ♪ (Henry’s shirt is stripped away from his body:) ♪ Let it fly ♪ ♪ Check that six-pack, it's to die ♪ ♪ Tell ev'ry Lance and Bruce and curt ♪ ♪ Off with his shirt ♪ Richard: “Oh, this is so fun! I want to fly like her, too. (Spreading his arms:) Someone pick me up.” (Instead, the men pick up Henry, carrying him to the bar, which they deposit him behind.) Queen: ♪ Ooh, so now that you're in my power ♪ (The men flood the bar asking for drinks and Henry serves them:) ♪ We'll put you behind these bars ♪ ♪ And there you will stay, taking orders all day ♪ ♪ Till Mars is aligned with Mars ♪ ♪ And for our pleasure, we'll keep you waiting ♪ ♪ Who knows just how long you'll serve ♪ ♪ But, baby, you bet ♪ ♪ You're gonna get ♪ ♪ The punishment we deserve ♪ ♪ Off with his shirt ♪ Men: ♪ Yeah! ♪ Queen: ♪ That's the deal ♪ ♪ You're our beefcake happy meal ♪ ♪ Go on, you guys ♪ ♪ Just feast your eyes ♪ ♪ Until they hurt ♪ ♪ Off with his shirt ♪ Men: ♪ Yeah! ♪ Queen: ♪ Till the dawn ♪ ♪ Dig that lush pectoral lawn ♪ ♪ Drink in those lats and traps and delts ♪ And after that, who knows what else? ♪ ♪ So save some room, boys, for dessert ♪ ♪ Oh, off with his shirt ♪ Men: ♪ Yeah! ♪ Richard: (Tosses Henry his shirt:) “Put this back on. You'll catch your death.” Henry: “Well, I have had a blast. You know, I've never been to one of these places before.” Richard: “What, a pub? Oh, don't be stupid. You've been to a pub before.” Henry: (To Patrons:) “Anyway, uh, I'm gonna head out. Got to get him back to his kingdom. I've got to return to finding my one true love. She's, uh...” Men: “Awwww!” Henry: “Yeah, she's waiting for me, but thank you for everything. And thank you for not feeding us to the bear. Goodbye, Bear.” Bear: (Waves:) “Laters.” Henry: “Richard, vamos.” Richard: “Sí.” Queen: “Where do you think you're going?” Henry: “Uh...” Queen: “We just had our best night in years. You'll be staying here forever. Or at least until those abs go soft.” Henry: (Chuckles:) “But...” Queen: “Guards!” (Henry and Richard are surrounded by guards.) Richard: (Chuckles:) “At least Bear seems happy.” Storybrooke. Recent Past. The Dragon's Lair. (On a rowdy night at the bar, Emma, Regina, Lily and Zelena are having a girls night out.) Emma: (Downing a shot:) "Woo! Another round!" Barman: "Are you sure?" Lily: "Hey! You heard the Sheriff, another round!" Emma: "We are armed and dangerous!" (Emma and Lily break down into a fit of giggles.) A Short Time Later... (As their drunken state worsens, all four women find themselves laying on their backs on top of the bar, allowing the barman to pour shots directly into their mouths. To the delight of all the male patrons watching, the women begin dancing with each other on top of the bar.) Happy: "Yeah! Ladies, take it off!" (Putting their arms around each other, the four women stand in a line on the bar and proceed to can-can. The resulting kicks hitting Happy square in the face as he's knocked back and forth.) Much, Much Later. (With the bar mostly cleared out, Regina bursts through the doors, riding a motorbike with Emma on her back. Lily, waving her top in front of them like a red rag to a bull, sidesteps them at the last moment as Regina revs the engine and drives by. Zelena, for her part, has taken to sliding across the floor on her back under tables, with her bra on her head.)

The Final Straw. (With Lily looking on, though barely conscious, Emma pours a bottle of tequila over Regina's chest and is about to start licking it off, when she is grabbed by her hair and pulled upright.) Maleficent: "That's enough!" Emma: (On wobbly legs:) "Whassa matter? (hic) Jealous?" Regina: "Yeah, Mal... Jealous? (Chuckles, before falling off her bar stool. From the floor:) Whoopsie. Ow!" (Regina rubs her head, having collided with Zelena on her 10th sweep of the bar floor. Mustering all the patience she has, Maleficent picks up Lily's shirt from the bar and throws it to her daughter.) Maleficent: "Cover yourself up. And as for the rest of you, since I very much doubt you're going to remember this night anyway... (Suddenly, Maleficent grabs Emma and pulls her into a deep, steamy kiss. Releasing her after a long moment, Maleficent watches Emma stumble, a dazed expression on her face. Shrugging:) I'm sorry, honey. I just don't see what all the fuss is about." (With that, Maleficent walks away. Blinking rapidly, Emma stands confused and looks down at Regina who's also in shock. Before either of them can process what just happened however, Emma's feet are taken out from her by Zelena and she falls, landing in a Mills sister heap on the floor. Unable to get up, the three women soon find themselves drifting off to sleep. Halfway through pulling her top back on, Lily stumbles backwards, crashing upside down in one of the comfortable leather chairs by the fireplace before she too dozes off.) Wonderland. Present. Forest. (Will ducks down behind another tree trunk, in an attempt to evade capture.) Collector 1: "We must have missed him! You go this way! I'll go the back! Look along the bank!" (Will smiles at this, then hears sounds of men being beaten. Peering through the trunk, Will sees the Collectors all lying on the ground unconscious. Stepping out from behind the tree, he stares at the carnage.) Will: "Ella?" Anastasia: (Standing behind him:) "Did you really think that she could do this all by herself?" Will: "Bloody hell." Anastasia: "Hello, Will." Elsewhere. (Morgause stands talking to an unseen person.) Morgause: "I hear from the Caterpillar that you're one of his finest Collectors. Well I happen to have a very special job in mind for you." (Morgause's eyes glow as she casts a spell over the person in front of her.)

Storybrooke. Swan-Mills House. (Regina and Emma arrive home.) Emma: "I wish you wouldn't give people the wrong impression about our sex life. Especially my father." Regina: (Chuckles:) "He was asking for it, shooing us out of the station so the men could handle things. (Tossing her keys into the bowl beside the door:) I mean since when have they managed to solve anything by themselves?" Emma: "Well, that may be true, but I was referring to who calls whom, Daddy." Regina: (Scoffs, removing her coat:) "I was trying to make a point." (Suddenly, Regina feels a harsh slap to her backside.) Emma: (Whispering in Regina's ear:) "So am I. (Proceeding to nibble on the brunette's ear, begins unbuttoning her blouse:) I want you to walk to the living room while removing all your clothes. (Moving to Regina's other side to nibble her other earlobe:) If you don't do it in such a way that pleases me. (Another slap to Regina's behind:) There will be consequences. Do you understand? (Silently, Regina nods:) Now go." (On shaky legs, Regina begins to walk across the hall, removing items of clothing along the way. After a few paces, Emma begins to follow her, removing her own clothes as well. Peppering the relatively short walk with words of approval, Emma enjoys the sway of her wife's hips as she makes it to the couch. Standing in her underwear, leaning against the door frame, Emma watches as Regina turns to her for instruction.) Emma: "Sit. (Regina obeys. With a slight lift of her chin:) Show me. (When Regina reaches behind to unclasp her bra:) No. Not yet." (Regina nods and moves her hands down to her waist, lifting her hips to slowly ease her panties down her legs. Leaning back against the couch, Regina allows her underwear to slip down over her ankles and onto the floor. Smiling to herself when she hears Emma's footsteps coming towards her, Regina closes her eyes and waits patiently for Emma's next command.) Sheriff's Station. (Rumplestiltskin returns to the station holding a bottle.) David: "Is that it?" Rumplestiltskin: "The strongest truth serum there is." Grif: (Now worried:) "Drug me with whatever you wish, I still don't know anything, I swear!" Hook: "Well we'll soon find out." Rumplestiltskin: (Approaching the bars:) "I need you to drink this." (Rumplestiltskin opens his hand a little, revealing the luminous green substance contained in the bottle. Recognition dawns on Grif's face.) Grif: "There must be some other way." Rumplestiltskin: "I wish there was. Truly, I do. You told me you always dreamed of sitting at the round table one day. Well, now I'm offering you something greater. Your death will be the cornerstone of a great new kingdom. If you take this." David: "His death? What are you-" Grif: (Snatching the bottle:) "For Camelot." (Grif takes the potion. Gagging, he falls to the floor and disappears in a cloud of green smoke.) Hook: "What the hell was that?!" Rumplestiltskin: "Poison from the Agrabah vipers." (Before their eyes, Rumplestiltskin transforms into Sir Mordred.) Mordred: "Something your Mayor is very familiar with and would have prevented me from using, if you hadn't sent her away.” (With one last satisfied grin, Mordred disappears.)

#sq #swanqueen #swan queen

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