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chasingmidnights · 2 years

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For the Greater Good

Title: For the Greater Good

Summary: What most people don’t know is that Belle had a younger step-sister. Another thing that most people don’t know is that you would do anything to protect your family and your village. So, when a man by the name of Rumplestiltskin shows up to make a deal to help save your village, he requires something in return. You or Belle. You immediately offer to go with him, telling him to take you instead. Intrigued, he happily accepts.

Warnings: not sure if there is any really; just Rumplestiltskin being Rumple; maybe some slight abuse; mentions of death of a parent; angst; again you’re responsible for what you read, I just post here.

Word Count: 1,854

You were busy cleaning Rumple’s mansion, one of the many chores he has bestowed upon you when you arrived. As you were dusting one of the bookshelves, you hummed a little tune your mother used to sing to you before she passed. You were so caught up in what you were doing that you had failed to realize that Rumple had joined you in the library.

“What is that that you’re humming?”

Needless to say that you were quite startled when you heard his high-pitched, accented voice fill the room. You place your hand on your chest and the other on top of the ladder to steady yourself. You take in a couple of deep breaths as you look down at your new master. You watch him as he crosses his arms in front of him and holds his chin in between his thumb and index finger.

“Well? I’m waiting.” He inquires again, this time in a sing-songy type voice.

“It’s a song that my mom used to sing before she passed away. One of the very few things that I remember about her.” You finally reply, you cast your gaze down to the floor. A moment of sadness taking over you at the thought of your mother. “I can stop if you want me to.” You lift your gaze to meet Rumple’s.

He’s such a difficult man to read but you have a feeling that he’s mulling it over. After a few moments of an intense silence, he finally answers. Waving the hand that was once on his chin as he does. “No, I want you to sing it.” He takes a seat in a nearby armchair, crossing his legs in a dramatic way.

You're surprised by his answer. “I’m sorry, what?”

He props his elbow up on the arm rest and waves his hand again, his voice a little more demanding. “You heard me. Sing.”

You turn to face the bookshelves again and take a deep breath. Your nerves are setting in. You typically didn’t sing in front of others. It’s not that you didn’t sing badly, it’s just that you were pretty shy and got stage fright easily. Before you know it though, the words are coming out.

“How does a moment last forever?

How can a story never die?

It is love we must hold onto

Never easy, but we try

Sometimes our happiness is captured

Somehow, our time and place stand still

Love lives on inside our hearts and always will…”

You continue to sing the song, hoping that it pleases Rumple. You try not to think about what could happen if he doesn’t find it enjoyable. The last few lines of the song fall from your lips and you take a moment for yourself. A tear slides down your cheek and you quickly wipe it away. Suddenly, the sound of clapping fills the room causing you to lift your head and look over at Rumple. A sigh of relief slips past your lips. From the time that you’ve gotten here you’ve learned that the man is very unpredictable. He stops clapping a moment later and the smile slowly fades from his face. His face contorts into curiosity and his head tilts the side.

“I think I’d like my tea now.” Rumple orders, his voice deeper than from before.

“O-of course sir, right away.” You stutter at your words at first before quickly climbing down the ladder that you were on.

You know he doesn’t like to be kept waiting so you rush off to the kitchen as soon as you step off of the ladder. Last time that he felt like you were taking too long, he locked you away in a cell for two days. You made haste at your task at hand, gathering everything up that you needed and setting it on the tray. You handled the fine china with extra care, making sure not to put a chip in any of it. Once the water had come to a boil, you quickly made fresh tea for Rumple. However, before you have a chance to leave the kitchen, Rumple appears behind you causing you to jump.

“You’re a jumpy one.” He comments, his high-pitched voice returning, a giggle coming out of him as he finishes.

“I-I was just about to bring this out to you sir, everything’s all done.” You reply. However, you miss noticing the tea cup next to your hand and end up knocking it over. You hold in your breath, hoping that it doesn’t fall to the ground. But just your luck, the tea cup tumbles off of the wooden countertop and lands on the concrete floor. You hear the cup crack as you squat down to pick it up. As you turn the cup around in your hands to examine it, you do in fact notice a chip in the cup. You stand up and your nerves begin to set in. “I-I’m afraid that there’s a small chip in the cup. B-but you can barely notice it, see?”

You hold out the tea cup to Rumple to show him, making eye contact as you do. You cringe inwardly as you see the stern look on his face, which causes him to look even more menacing. His eyes narrow in on the tea cup for a brief moment before his whole facial expression changes and his mood lightens. “No matter, it’s just a cup dearie.”

You finally let out the breath that you were holding and a small smile curls up on your lips. Setting the chipped cup to the side, you grab a new cup and begin to make Rumple’s tea to his liking. You hand him the tea cup and he accepts the cup, instantly taking a sip.

“So, tell me dearie, why’d you do it?” Rumple inquires, as he removes the tea cup from his lips.

“Do what?” You answer, scrunching up your face in confusion while tilting your head to the side.

“Why did you,” he points his index finger at you. “Volunteer to save your village. Why not let your sister come instead.” He asks again, quirking up an eyebrow. “Surely you’ve heard all of the despicable things about me?”

“Oh, well, I guess I did it to protect her. So she wouldn’t have to bear this.” You answer as you go back over to the kettle and tray, cleaning a few things up.

You feel uneasy as he eyes you up and down. “But she’s your older sister, shouldn’t it be the other way around?” He does a little twirl of the finger at the last part as he continues to drill questions at you.

You shrug your shoulders in response. “I suppose but she’s always doing the right thing and taking care of me. I guess I just thought that maybe for once it’s my turn to return the favor. Plus, I couldn’t stand to see those horrible beasts ruin our village.”

“So, you have a sense of dignity to your village then? Hmm?” Rumple inquires, before taking another sip of tea.

“Yeah, I guess so.” You nod your head slightly

Over the next few days, you grew a bit more comfortable at the mansion. When you were done with your chores, you would either read in the library or do a bit of exploring around the mansion. Rumple would disappear for hours or sometimes longer but you didn’t mind, you liked being alone. Not to mention, being in the presence of Rumple sets your nerves on edge. On one particular day, you had gotten your chores done and you were feeling a bit restless, so you decided to explore a part of the mansion you hadn’t explored yet. The West Wing.

As you open another door, your eyes grow wide in shock at what your eyes are seeing. You rub your eyes to make sure that your eyes aren’t deceiving you. The room is set up for a child and you hesitantly step into the room. A small part of you feels that you shouldn’t be in here but your curiosity is stronger. You take in every inch of the room that it has to offer. A small, child size bed is placed on one side of the room with a bedside table next to it. A wardrobe rests from across the bedroom doorway, undoubtedly filled with children’s clothes. On the opposite side of the room from the bed is a small wooden desk. Something catches your attention on the bedside table so you walk over to check it out. You lift up the piece of parchment paper and a gasp slips out of you. On it, is a sketch of a young boy, it was a beautifully drawn image. Every detail was sketched with perfection and precision. You wondered who the artist was. You feel the bed dip underneath as you take a seat on the edge of it. You had no idea that Rumple had a son, a mix of emotions flooded through you. You wondered where he was or what happened to him because you definitely haven’t seen a young boy around. At the end of the bed, you notice a folded up piece of clothing and just as you’re about to reach for it, a screaming Rumplestiltskin stops you in your tracks.

“What are you doing in here?! Who said you were allowed to come in here?!”

You’ve never seen him so upset before and you had to refrain yourself from wincing with how his voice screeched. As you looked at your master, his face was twisted in anger and he spat with every word that came from him. His entire body was shaking with how upset he was with you. Before you can get a grasp on what was happening, he had a tight grip on your upper arm and he was dragging you out of the room. You tried to get out of his tight grip but it was useless, he was much stronger than you. It didn’t take long before you were being tossed into a cell. A grunt escapes you as you land on your hands and knees. The slamming of the cell door catches your attention and you’re on your feet in an instant, rushing over to the now locked cell door. The clicking of the locks confirms that it is in fact locked.

“You can’t leave me in here!” You cry out to Rumple.

Suddenly, he was in your face, the only thing separating you from him were the bars on the small window on the door. His voice is dark and still filled with rage, seething in fact, as he replies. “You’re mine now! So watch me!”

With that, you were left alone. You slid down to the floor with your body against the door still as numerous thoughts fill your brain. Why did you have to open your big mouth and volunteer? Maybe you should’ve just let Belle come instead. If this was going to be your life now, you begin to wonder if doing this for the greater good was worth it.

#for the greater good #once upon a time #rumplestiltskin #ouat rumple #rumplestilskin x reader #belles sister #beauty and the beast references #beauty and the beast #writing challenge #october writing challenge #angst prompts #tales of a whumpie newbie #step-sister!reader

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firelxdykatara · 2 years

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once upon a time for the ask game! not sure if you’re deep in the fandom still but i remember seeing you post about it so i’d love to hear more of your thoughts

oh man ouat at its height was my LIFE, it was my main fandom along with tvd for years lmao, so LET'S SEE HERE

blorbo (favorite): EMMA FUCKING SWAN, HANDS DOWN. I love her so much, she's everything to me, which is a huge part of why I still haven't bothered with s7--no Emma, no point. She was dealt such a raw fucking hand by the series, she kept being torn down and kicked while she was low, especially in the later seasons, but at the end of the day she had Killian and she had Henry, and her parents when they weren't too busy coddling Regina to remember their actual daughter, and she got her happily ever after which is the really important bit. The rest is easily fixed in fanfiction.

scrunkly (my baby): Henry, I think. I don't normally care much for child characters, and he did frustrate me a little when he seemed to forget the fact that Regina abused him for the first ten years of his life so badly that he readily convinced she was the Evil Queen and fled to Boston to find his bio mom to bring her back to KILL SAID EVIL QUEEN, but he was also young and Regina kept abusing him and I prefer to believe that a lot of his later attachment to her was more a defense mechanism than anything else. And anyway at the end of the day I love him, he's baby. (And it was so funny to watch him hit puberty between seasons with the show scrambling to come up with reasons for timeskips to catch up.) Honorable mention goes to Ruby, who I love so very much and I'm still mad the wrote her off like they did. I maintain that she and Belle should've been ouat's central queer romance and the real Beauty and the Beast storyline but ABC were cowards.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated fave): Elsa, I think. The Frozen arc tends to get a bum rap in fandom, but I actually quite liked it and I think it was the last half-season arc that was generally consistent all the way through and stuck the landing (the less said about s5 and s6 the better, and 4b still makes me incandescent with rage), and I loved Elsa and her dynamic with both Anna and Emma so much. She's the only character I really shipped Emma with aside from Killian (and Graham, but he'd died long since), and she was so perfectly cast I'm still in awe.

glup shitto (obscure fave): Ariel. She only showed up in a couple episodes, but I thought Joanna Garcia was wonderful in the role and I always loved seeing her show up on my screen. Honorable mentions go to Jasmine and Aladdin, who I remember nothing about in terms of their ouat storylines but I do remember Karen David and Deniz Akdeniz were literal perfection and their chemistry was FANTASTIC and if I could I would sell my soul to have a live action Aladdin remake starring the two of them.

poor little meow meow (problematic fave): I'm sure Killian still counts (as problematic/controversial, not particularly unpopular, but still), given the narrative the SQ fandom tried pushing about him. And pre-redemption he was absolutely my problematic fave, he was the epitome of if evil bad, why sexy??? and there are a few people he absolutely SHOULD have killed and it would've been sexy af of him (mostly rumple ngl). And anyway yeah Killian Jones, 100%, I love him so much and I'd have happily been pre-redemption Killian's pirate queen.

horse plinko (punching bag): Probably Neal. I don't actively hate him as much as I used to, but I'm reminded of my loathing every time I rewatch s2 and s3 and I still fucking hate that we were FREE OF RUMPLESTILTSKIN (and he actually went out on a decently high note! making one single, selfless choice, and saving storybrooke, and gods damn it all he should have stayed dead smfh), and Neal had to go and be a fucking idiot trying to get back the father he'd spent 300 years hating for abandoning him akldjghlkdsjfhg (granted, it was some truly, ridiculously awful writing, but I already didn't like Neal so it's not much of a stretch to just blame him for committing suicide by stupidity). So yeah I'd love to kick him around just for cathartic funsies.

eeby deeby (superhell bound): Regina Mills and Rumplestiltskin. (I refuse to pick just one.) I hate them both SO MUCH and their 'redemptions' were utter shit and the show would've been much better if Rumple stayed dead after 3a and Emma kept getting to punch Regina in the face for attempting to use her as an emotional punching bag all through the later seasons. But since that didn't happen, Regina can just go right to superhell with Rumple's scaly ass.

ask me about blorbos from my shows!

#once upon a time #ouat #burst-of-iridescent #asked #ask game

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andypantsx3 · 4 years

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war paint | 9 | thief

pairing: Bakugou Katsuki / Reader

length: 27,765 words / 10 chapters

summary: Desperate times force you to disguise yourself and join the kingsguard. When a suspicious string of crimes strike the palace, however, Captain Katsuki Bakugou starts paying extra close attention. (spin off of in cinders)

tags: mulan AU, secret identity, romance, reader-insert

warnings: aged up characters, some violence, eventual smut

“You look far too happy this early in the morning,” Kaminari commented sourly over breakfast, spooning aimlessly around in his bowl. His hair was a mess as it was most mornings, standing up on end like he’d been struck by lightning, and there were deep shadows under his eyes. He looked like he’d just rolled out of bed.

Sero took a seat at his elbow, looking you over in bemusement. “Yeah, normally you’re asleep in your porridge, L/N. What gives?”

You hid a private smile. For the last week or so, you’d been kept thoroughly occupied by your captain and hadn’t seen much of your two friends, but the week had been something like the happiest of your life. You'd spent every day tangled up in Bakugou, training, talking, teasing. It seemed right that Sero and Kaminari would comment on your mood, since you also felt like satisfaction was spilling out of you, bursting through cracks in your skin like sunlight.

Maybe it was. Maybe they could really see it.

“Just in a good mood,” you hummed, shoveling porridge into your mouth so you didn’t have to follow up.

Kaminari eyed you suspiciously. “You do something to Nishimura? Put a cow pie in his bed?”

That wrenched a laugh out of you. “No, why would I?”

“Uh, maybe because he’s a shit to you,” Kaminari replied through a mouthful of his breakfast.

“Tit for tat,” Sero mused thoughtfully, chuckling.

You made a face. You’d quite honestly been too occupied with Bakugou over the last week to give much thought to Nishimura, though you certainly couldn’t admit as much to Kaminari and Sero. Nishimura hadn’t ceased his bad behavior, but you’d been spending so much time away from him, either on the training field for extra practice, or practicing something altogether different over the top of Bakugou’s desk. Or up against the wall. Or -- one memorable midnight -- back in the baths where the captain demonstrated very thoroughly what he’d wanted with you the night he’d caught you sneaking around.

You’d pretty much forgotten all about Nishimura.

You listened with half an ear as the conversation wandered away from your good mood, shifting to the subject of Lord Jiro’s daughter. Kaminari had tripped over her in the hall earlier this week, and he was now given to waxing poetic whenever she came up. You finished up breakfast as he practically spouted sonnets over the shapes of her earlobes, leaving him with a comment of encouragement as you set back off for the barracks to fetch your sword belt before drills.

As you turned the corner into your room, however, you collided with what felt like a boulder rolling out from within. You jerked backwards clutching your nose where you'd crunched it against the stone, winded by the impact. You looked up in surprise, finding Hasumi, Nishimura's idiot friend, instead. His tall frame filled the doorway to your quarters, broad shoulders thick with impossible muscle, and his eyes widened a little as he caught sight of you.

You looked up at him in question, but he merely grunted something offensive and sidestepped you, making sure to knock one brawny shoulder into yours as he did. He was large, even taller than the captain, and he nearly bowled you over with the force of it.

You stumbled back into the wall, biting down on a swear. That was going to leave a bruise.

Hasumi swept quickly down the hall, not waiting to hear anything you might have to say about his rough treatment. Your temper boiled, and thought about calling after him as you watched him irritably, but thought better of it. If he was here in your building, then that meant Nishimura was back in your room and you would need all the energy you possessed to deal with that. You took a steadying breath, resigning yourself to at least thirty seconds of similar unpleasantries. You wondered if Hasumi’s aggression was any indication of the kind of mood Nishimura was in.

To your surprise, however, the room was completely empty as you stepped inside. Had Hasumi been here to sneak another animal into your bed? You whipped your sheets from your mattress, but found no trace of anything inside, just the worn gray cotton of your pallet cover.

You felt your eyebrows draw together, but you remade your bed, then retrieved your sword and belt, buckling it around your waist. Maybe Nishimura had sent him in to fetch something. At times, Hasumi seemed more like Nishimura’s little peon and less like his friend. You often wondered if Nishimura was even capable of making friends without a shred of human decency in his body.

You thought on it as you walked to the training pitch for morning drills, something about the interaction with Hasumi niggling at the back of your mind. Had he seemed a little flustered when he’d seen you?

The thought was wiped clean from your mind when you arrived at the training field, however, as Bakugou appeared to have replaced your usual morning instructor. The sight of him this early, hair still a little rumpled from evening activities that you may or may not have had something to do with, filled your brain with a satisfied buzz that overrode all capacity for other thought.

Bakugou furthered your distraction with his usual merciless direction, running the battalion through a series of exercises worse than Ojiro had ever set you to. Your focus narrowed only to breathing and keeping upright as he pushed your battalion to your limits. He seemed to enjoy the sight of your suffering especially, red eyes following you around the training field, hungrily tracing the droplets of sweat down your neck where they disappeared into your collar.

By the lunch bell, you could swear you would be feeling the effects of the grain bags you’d hefted in your shoulders for weeks, would be running laps in your sleep for days afterwards. You collapsed in a pile with Sero and Kaminari as soon as drills ended.

“He’s a demon,” Kaminari whined, a tangled heap in the grass. “Why is he like this?”

Sero panted quietly, chest rising and falling in quick little huffs. “He needs to get laid or something.”

You choked. Instantly, Kaminari and Sero’s heads whipped around to stare at you.

“Uh, choked on my own spit,” you coughed out quickly, panicking. “Can’t breathe after all that.”

They seemed to buy it, relaxing back into the prickly grass. You flopped back as well, hating the way your sweat seemed to pool in the band of your chest bindings. Tonight was definitely a bath night; Bakugou would have to be left to his own devices for an evening. He deserved it after the hell he’d just put you through.

You barely roused yourself in time to make it to lunch before the mess hall closed, then swept off to patrol. You were paired with Nishimura again and the evening was expectedly unpleasant. Nishimura seemed more aggressive than usual, needling you with an abandon that was frankly alarming. Now more than ever, he was acting like he had nothing to lose, launching from disturbing comment immediately into the next with hardly any space for a breath. You wondered idly if it would be abusing your relationship with Bakugou to say anything about it -- you resolved to think on it more for the next few days before coming to any plan of action.

After patrol, you climbed into bed with the rest of your bunkmates and waited for them to drift off before stealing back out of the room to the servants’ baths where you washed off the day’s training. An anxious feeling settled over you as you bathed, and you hurried through the motions quicker than usual, not stopping to enjoy the relaxing heat of the pools as you usually did.

The anxious feeling followed you as you dried yourself and dressed, floating after you as you slipped through the dark castle grounds. As you arrived back at the barracks, it became clear why. The barracks were no longer dark, the windows glowing with the light of hundreds of candles.

A random bunk check.

You swore, tearing across the field to your building. You didn’t know the consequences of being found out of bed, but you didn’t like to think of what they would be. Ojiro usually scheduled and led the bunk checks, and while nicer than Bakugou, you’d witnessed enough of his fury to be afraid.

Only, it wasn’t just Ojiro in the doorway of your building.

You pulled up short when you noticed that all of the soldiers that housed with you were lined up in strict rows outside, one notable gap where you should have stood. Heads whipped up as you were spotted. From the far side of the field, Sero gave you an anxious look. Ojiro stood on the steps to your building, and behind him, silhouetted in the light of the doorway, was Bakugou.

Even in the dim light, you could see the line of his broad shoulders was tense, and his fists were clenched where they hung at his sides. Something white was clutched in his left hand. His expression was hard and a stone sank in your stomach. He looked angrier than you’d ever seen him and you couldn’t understand. Surely he’d have guessed you’d have gone to bathe?

“Stay where you are,” Ojiro ordered you over the sound of sliding metal. You watched in horror as he drew his sword, jerking it up to point at you. The air seemed to crackle with roiling energy and a sick feeling slid over you.

You froze, heart beating wildly, staring at Ojiro's sword. Was this protocol? Was it standard to discharge someone at sword point, or was this more? Could you have been figured out just by your absence?

“Ojiro?” you asked the officer in confusion. He frowned.

“Come quietly, thief,” he said, “Lay down your sword and no blood need be spilled.”

Apprehension shot through you like a bolt of lightning. Thief? Because you were out of bed after hours? That seemed like a leap.

“Ojiro, I’m not the thief,” you held your hands up at chest height, opening your palms in the universal gesture for peace. “I apologize for being out of bed and I accept my punishment, but I haven't stolen anything--”

“Explain this, then,” Bakugou’s rough voice bit into the dark night. His expression was stormy as he thrust out the item he’d been clutching in his hand. From this distance, you could make out what appeared to be a tidy letter scrolled on fine parchment in a dark ink. You felt your brow wrinkle in confusion as your eyes traced over the parchment. You couldn’t read it from where you stood but -- your eyes caught on a large varicolored marking at the bottom of the page and your heart leapt into your mouth. Though murky in the darkness and several paces away, it was quite likely the seal of the Todoroki prince.

“I don’t understand,” you said helplessly. Your mind swam with uncertainties. Why did he think you had anything to do with a missive from Prince Shouto?

“This was found underneath your mattress,” Ojiro said. His voice was hard. “It’s the missing treaty from the prince’s study.”

Found underneath your mattress? A feeling of horror settled over you as you flashed back to earlier that morning, where you’d almost collided with Hasumi coming from your rooms.

Hasumi.

All of sudden, things seemed to snap into place. The red flash under the thief’s cloak when you’d fought him in the master of coin’s office - it had been a soldier’s uniform. The pause the shadowy figure had given when he’d caught sight of Nishimura, the way he’d fled rather than fought the two of you. It had been Hasumi.

The thief was Hasumi and he was framing you.

“Ojiro, Captain, I didn’t--! I wouldn’t--!” you started, but an angry noise from Bakugou stopped you.

He leapt from the steps to your building, stalking across the field. He moved like a panther, padding aggressively toward cornered prey. His hand went to his sword, and you barely managed to draw yours in time to block him. The force of his strike nearly tore the sword from your hand and you only just managed to hold on to it, stumbling back from him.

“The debt,” he spat, “Your family’s debt, I should have fucking known.”

He raised his blade again, striking at you like a viper. You blocked him again, darting back out of his reach.

“Captain, I didn’t do it--” you said, but he cut you off with another overhand strike that seemed to carry every ounce of power he had in him. His blade slid along yours with a horrible grinding sound, catching on the grip and almost ripping it from your grasp.

“I thought I understood all the sneaking off,” he shouted, “Thought I had you all figured out.”

You parried another strike from him. “I didn’t do it! I wouldn’t do that to you!”

“Yes you fucking would,” Bakugou shouted, thrusting again. His anger seemed to make him quicker and deadlier that you’d ever seen him before. “You thought you were tricking me this whole time, disguised as a fucking man. You had no idea I’d figured you out until I told you. You were happy to keep on fooling me, fooling everyone in this battalion. What’s one more deception when you've already been lying for months?”

You growled in anger, your temper rising. Your vision tinged red at the edges and your sword felt almost hot in your hands. “I’m not the thief, Katsuki! You're being fucking stupid!”

You aimed a blow at his shoulder but he caught it, moving with almost superhuman speed to throw you off. He whirled around and before you could blink, brought his blade down on yours with incredible strength. As your arm went wide with the force of the strike, his blade whipped up to your chin, as it had all those months ago when he’d fought you and Nishimura.

“Drop your sword,” he said, pressing the flat of his blade into the soft skin of your chin, tipping your face up to his. Your breathing shallowed and you stilled.

It was quiet a long moment, the only sound the huffs of your breath. Over Bakugou’s shoulder, you could see the lines of the other soldiers, Ojiro’s long shadow in the glow of the candles. Sero looked beside himself, twitching like he itched to move, to run. Whether to your aide or away you didn’t know.

“Drop it,” Bakugou repeated. You hesitated and his blade pressed harder into your chin. You let the grip of your blade fall through your loose fingers, heard it clank softly in the grass.

As soon as you had, Bakugou moved, grabbing your arm and twisting to wrench you in front of his chest. His sword pressed diagonally across your shoulder.

“You’re under arrest for treason against the crown,” he growled into your ear. His tone dripped with disdain and his grip tightened painfully. Then, turning to Ojiro he barked out, “Get them back in bed. Show’s over.”

You had only moments to cast one last panicked look at Sero before you were moving, a rough hand pressing you forward. Bakugou marched you forcefully toward his office, sword held steady at your neck. His fingers flexed where he gripped you, nails digging into the flesh of your arm, and the heat of his hands was overwhelming, like he was seconds away from sparking off an explosion and blowing you to pieces.

When you arrived at his office, Bakugou all but threw you away from him, gesturing with his sword to a seat at his desk.

“Captain,” you said, turning to him as soon as he let you go. “I swear it wasn’t me! It’s Hasumi, you have to listen to me. It’s Hasumi!”

Bakugou’s face darkened. “If you’ve known it was Hasumi all along why tell me now?”

“I didn’t!” you cried, taking a careful step towards him. “I just figured it out. He’s trying to set me up.”

Bakugou scoffed. “How convenient," he intoned cruelly, "Just like it was convenient that you, always you saw the thief several times but were never able to catch him. What did you give the others who went along with your story? Are you giving them a cut? How many accomplices do I have to weed out?”

“Katsuki,” you pleaded. “Please listen to me.”

“Don’t,” he grit out. “I heard you that night, outside the barracks. You were begging someone not to let me find out. What if he finds those in my sheets you said. I could have just followed you inside and solved it all then. How stupid I was to have ignored that. To have ignored every warning sign in hopes that you were something more.”

Hot tears pooled in your eyes. “Captain, please. I can explain everything. You have to listen to me.”

Bakugou turned his back to you. The line of his shoulders was hard, and his fist balled at his side. “No. I have no desire to listen to you.”

You stepped closer, your blood pounding in your ears. “Captain.”

He ignored you, stalking over to the door on the opposite wall, the one you thought must lead to his personal chambers. He wrenched it open, almost ripping it clean off its hinges.

“You have until morning,” he said, knuckles white where they gripped the door knob. “I will give you this one opportunity. Go back to your family - you’ve settled their debt. I will tell everyone you fought me and ran.”

You let out a choked noise like a sob, but he shrugged you off as he stepped through the doorway. “Go now. If you’re still here in the morning, you’ll be tried and hanged.”

The door slammed shut behind him with a finality.

You stared after him, the hot tears spilling over onto your cheeks. What felt like years passed as you watched the rough grain of the wood, willing Bakugou to come back out, to take you into his arms and tell you he believed you, that you would figure this out together.

The door did not open again.

#bakugou x reader #fanfic #bakugou katsuki x reader #bnha #bnha x reader #boku no hero academia #bakugou katsuki

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darkerdeariegold · 3 years

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I have a sudden urge to know any food related headcanons you have for rumple.

Ooooooh thank you for this ask, I am EXCITED to get in to it.

I apologise now for how long winded this is going to be but you know I love my man and I have feelings about him and his story.

So I’m gonna do food and drink because they’re linked.

Food

As a boy, money was tight thanks to the way Malcolm managed their lives. It seems clear that he wasn’t starving as a boy, but he was a skinny kid. I think that as a child his diet mostly consisted of cheap and easily accessible foods. Things like flat breads (usually a little hard and unpleasant but filling), root vegetables like potatoes and whatever fruits were in season. Especially if they were small enough to fit in to a pocket so things like apples, berries and pears.

It’s that start that means he’s not fussy when it comes to food. Even when he became the Dark One and had the ability to produce a feast out of thin air - and he did, wanting to make sure Bae never went with an empty belly like he had - he didn’t look down on any sort of food. Food is survival, and survival is what he’s good at, despite any odds against him.

When he began to live with the Spinsters - and did so until his adulthood - he learned what a good meat pie was and that rapidly became his favourite food. It was cheap cuts of meat - because as spinsters they had enough to live a comfortable but never affluent life - but the way it was cooked, slow and low for hours just made the meat fall apart and become the juiciest, most tender cut.

He always asked for a meat pie for dinner, and because they loved him, they indulged him a few times a week if they could, at least once if not. (They would go without for him and he only realised that when an adult himself).

Vegetables were always a staple of his diet simply because if you could grow it, you could eat it and it cost barely anything to maintain. He likes stews and soups, easy food that you can put any combinations of vegetable in. His favourite is the humble potato, because he knows just how much you can get out of it and how filling it can be. He learned how to bake them on the fire and always finds comfort in that.

He learned that he has a sweet tooth when he was able to begin to conjure food. He already knew he did from his love of strawberries growing up - always his favourite berry to pick and eat - but when desserts like sweet rolls and cakes became a staple of his life, he was a little addicted.

He does, after all, have an addictive personality.

Not that he’d never had cake before - the spinsters liked to make him one for his birthday but a shortage of sugar usually meant it wasn’t as full of sweetness as it could be. Still good, and always appreciated.

Until Zelena’s abuse of him for a year a meat pie was his favourite food, along with a hamburger. Something he only discovered in Storybrooke, as well as pickles. Now, he can’t even think of it. The abuse has tainted what once had been a comfort to him. Now he feels physically sick whenever a meat pie is near him.

Thanks, Zelena.

He’s definitely not a snob about food; he’ll eat anything really, except for those meat pies now. He likes sour food, he likes sweet desserts. He isn’t one for too much spice (he just doesn’t have the tolerance for it) and the first time he bit in to a chilli pepper his entire face felt like it were on fire). He’s been seen to eat apples, ready noodles and hamburgers on the show to name just a few foods that it’s canon he is fond of, or at the very least will eat.

Though he’s a meat eater he’s used to having a diet rich in vegetables and genuinely enjoys those. Simple roasting of them is perfection.

So his favourite foods are;

Hamburger (he loves the bread in this world, how much more taste it has)

Pickles (he likes sour food, used to that flavour because of the absence of sugar in his diet when younger)

Strawberries and other sweet fruits.

Desserts in general; he has a sweet tooth but has to limit himself.

Bacon and eggs.

Potatoes, especially baked with butter.

Meat pies USED to be. Eventually he’ll work through that trauma and be able to enjoy a good pie again. He just needs to focus on the initial positive thoughts he had surrounding it.

He loves a good condiment - ketchup, mustard (mild) and ranch. Not a huge fan of mayo in anything more than a small quantity.

Drinks

Tea is a little different here than it was in the Enchanted Forest, but it’s certainly his favourite drink. He especially loves the way Belle makes his tea; a dash of milk, no sugar and brewed to perfection. Even he can’t make a cup taste quite as well as she does.

He doesn’t have a lot of milk in there, and he never has sugar; mostly because he was a tea drinker before he was the Dark One, and so he was a tea drinker when he couldn’t really afford the luxury of sugar.

Coffee was a revelation in Storybrooke and, when cursed and needing to sleep each night he found a cup of black coffee in the morning before his breakfast was the perfect set up. He still likes a cup of black coffee every now and then.

Also likes a hot cocoa- that was always a treat when a lad, and he loved the nights he would be tucked up in to bed with a small cup of it. Leaving him - and his belly - feeling warm enough to drift off to a peaceful sleep.

He doesn’t like fizzy drinks. Doesn’t understand the need for them. As sweet as his tooth is, most carbonated drinks are too sugary for him. The kind of sugar that sticks to your teeth isn’t pleasant to him.

Alcohol is a strange little bedfellow that he has a very difficult relationship with. He grew up seeing the negative effect it has on his Papa and it’s a drink that genuinely scares him. But it also helps to numb things. Numb the pain, numb the guilt. He has a small flask of scotch or whiskey hidden in his shop, a bottle too - always the finest stuff when it comes to drink - for those moments when he is feeling that he needs a support.

Why the finest? Because psychologically, even if he can just conjure a bottle when he wants, it feels like a luxury. Something to not rely on consistently. If he drank cheap whisky or spirits he recognises that his addictive personality could lead him down a path as dark as his Papa.

You only ever see him with alcohol when he’s struggling with something, namely guilt or a decision that he’s afraid of. We see him with a flask in the Enchanted Forest after losing Belle. We see him with alcohol in the Underworld. We also see him drink in Hyperion Heights when he’s clearly going through the pain of grief. If it numbs the pain, even for a moment, it’s alright. A small moment of respite is better than nothing.

His favourite drinks;

Tea, dash of milk and no sugar

Black coffee

Iced tea, either with or without sweetener.

IF he’s self medicating, expensive whiskey or scotch.

#brave-heart-juliet #honestly thank you so much for this ask #feel free to ask any headcanons hahaha #i apologise for how long my answer got #rumplestiltskin #rumbelle #headcanon

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themattress · 3 years

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OUAT AND ME: SEASON 6

Story - Season 6 returns to the single-season story arc structure, with its story being the Savior's Fate Saga. The story deals with Emma reaching the point that all Saviors eventually reach: burnout in the lead-up to their Final Battle. And Emma's Final Battle comes courtesy of the Black Fairy, the creator of the Dark Curse who wishes to extinguish all light magic.

And yes, that is the core story of this arc. The problem is that it only constitutes about 25% of it; the rest is dedicated to subplots upon subplots: all the people who were brought in from the Land of Untold Stories, the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Evil Queen split from Regina, Regina and Zelena's sibling rivalry reigniting, Belle and Rumple's relationship growing more toxic then ever before, Aladdin the Savior of Agrabah and the Princess Jasmine who is looking for him, a new curse befalling Snow and Charming, the mystery behind how Charming's father died, a new realm being created by a genie's power which brings about the "return" of Robin Hood, a multi-realm quest undertaken by Hook, and flashbacks that have jack shit to do with anything....this season is so packed, it's insane!

If the core story was particularly strong, maybe this wouldn't matter so much. But it's not, since it relies upon yet another bullshit redefining of what it means to be "the Savior"; all of a sudden it's an ancient position that has spanned across all of time and through every realm, like a fairy tale version of the Slayer concept from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And anything empowering about being the Savior is totally gone with this new definition, as now it's a requisite that all Saviors get worn out and die in their Final Battles, doomed to never obtain their happy endings. What a cheap, lazy, miserable way for the writers to raise tension after realizing that all of the epic, mythological stakes raised last season would be hard to top.

Not helping is that in a pretentious way of subverting expectations, they have the majority of the Final Battle...not actually be a battle. Instead, it's a ham-fisted "full-circle to Season 1" situation for Emma and Henry, while everyone else is getting to do more exciting things in the Enchanted Forest. Even the actual battle part of it ends up being underwhelming. Everything does still get wrapped up in a pretty suitable ending, but it's undermined by both the infernal status quo the show's been stuck in since 3B and an intrusive sequel hook into the ill-conceived "reboot" that is Season 7 which never should have been allowed to happen.

Tl;dr: this story arc sucks.

Characters - It's the lowest point for so many of them...

* Emma is a little better in Season 6 than she was in Season 5. She's still generally treated terribly due to the very nature of the arc and has some horrifically shitty things done to her, but she is also able to catch a break every now and then rather than the misery being an uninterrupted stream. She also marries Hook by the end and even plays a decent role in the finale showing how far she's come since Season 1. It was as good a note to go out on as she was going to get, and Jennifer Morrison made the right call to make this the end of her story.

* Snow and Charming...what is there to even say about them at this point? I guess I can say that not only have Goodwin and Dallas' performances largely flatlined and not only are they still written as more parental toward Regina than to their own goddamn daughter who Regina separated them from for 28 years, but they now have retcons applied to them that are ludicrous at best, character assassinating worse than Season 4's eggnapping subplot at worst. No wonder that Goodwin and Dallas were all too glad to call it quits after this trash!

* Henry, despite all odds, is still one of the better characters in this season! Jared Gilmore continues to prove what a better actor he's become and bring a likability to Henry that sometimes is even enough to counteract less-than-ideal written material. Also, getting to see him more invested in Emma again after being hogged by Regina for so long is great.

* The Savior's Fate Saga is a tale of two Reginas. The Regina Mills of Storybrooke is still as insufferably written a Mary Sue as ever, but now we also have the Evil Queen, the dark side of her personality that split from her. With the exception of one episode, the Evil Queen is played excessively campy by Lana Parilla. Adam and Eddy's claims that this "purely evil" Evil Queen would be even worse than the previous one are laughable when we end up seeing what's actually on screen; the Evil Queen from the first two seasons was a legitimately frightening and formidable villain, whereas this Evil Queen is a clown. Sometimes she's an entertaining clown, while other times she's a cringe-inducing clown. But what she most certainly is not is a worthy adversary to the heroes, especially this late into the show.

And then there's the irony in her ultimate fate: rather than destroy her, Regina mixes her heart with hers so that they are both equal and both redeemed. On the one hand, this is a mind-boggling new level of Creator's Pet for Regina to reach, as you would think that the whole point of the Evil Queen is for Regina to suffer the karmic fatal punishment that she deserves for all her years of atrocities without actually having to kill Regina off. And yet in the end Adam and Eddy couldn't bring themselves to kill off any version of Regina, even after they gleefully killed off alternate versions of Snow and Charming a few episodes earlier. But on the other hand, the redeemed Evil Queen is honestly more likable than the redeemed Regina, actually apologizing to Snow for everything, temporarily sacrificing herself for the greater good of everyone in the finale, and getting to have a happily ever after with an alternate version of Robin Hood following a romance closer to what that relationship should have been from the very beginning. In the end, though, I'm just left wishing that the writers had done a far better job redeeming Regina so that this split Evil Queen wasn't necessary. Who knows, we might have had a better season if so many of it wasn't wasted on her.

* Rumple is awful in this season. Just...the absolute worst. After resolving the plotline that the Season 5 finale left him on in the premiere episode, he cuts his hair short and takes his Darkest Dark One shtick to a whole new level of unpleasant and abusive. He stalks and harasses Belle, attempts to take her baby away, makes out with the Evil Queen, and continues to casually threaten Storybrooke without any remorse or any repercussions. And once his new son Gideon and his mother the Black Fairy enter the picture, he dicks around in nonsensically written plotlines in both the past and the present, while Belle essentially takes him back yet again despite the horrific abuse he inflicted upon her. It's painful to watch, especially when Robert Carlyle has completely given up and is phoning it in like mad, with his regular delivery of lines being in a sleepy tone of voice that actually gets grating to listen to.

Much like in Season 5, Rumple improves in the last five episodes of the season, with Robert Carlyle regaining some energy as he declares war on the mother who abandoned him (if you know Carlyle's life story, you can understand exactly why this is) before learning the shocking truth that he was born as a Savior with his mother being his fated enemy, and that she was banished after she cut him off from that fate. Finally exhausted with it all - light, darkness, heroism, villainy, everything - after the emotions of this revelation hits him, Rumple lays his last cards down on the table, joining his mother's side for the Final Battle but with a magical contingency in case she betrays him (which she does). He then kills his mother, chooses to do the right thing for Belle and Gideon's sake even against the temptation of his dark side, and is rewarded for this one good deed by getting a do-over with the two of them as a family and even being accepted at the table with the other heroes. To quote Rumple back when his character was of the exact opposite quality as it is now: "Well, that was a bit of a letdown!"

Now, the "Rumple was born as a Savior" twist is out-of-nowhere nonsense, but it might have worked if Season 6 had been the final season. Not only would it had made him an effective foil for Emma, but it would also add more dramatic weight to his ultimate fate: his death. Yes, Rumple was in fact all set to die if either the show hadn't gotten renewed for another season or if it was and Robert Carlyle turned down returning for it as he actually was very close to doing, sacrificing his own heart in order to break the spell on Gideon's, conquering his dark side once and for all. A very similar scenario ends up being utilized for Season 7's finale, but it lacks the punch it would have had here, where it's the would-be Savior who, after having reached burnout, dies in his Final Battle, rather than the actual Savior who is able to survive thanks in part to his sacrifice. Of course, I still would have preferred Rumple's death after him being the sole Big Bad of a two-part series finale at the end of Season 5, but I digress. Bottom line: Rumple was a complete mess this season and it's sad how far he’s fallen.

* Hook starts off well enough in this season, being Emma's stalwart emotional support who accepts her offer to move in with her (a pay-off that we should have had in the Season 5 finale if it only wasn't so crappy), bonding further with Belle and Henry, resolving the hanging plot thread of his younger half-brother while gaining a new father figure, and eventually making plans to propose to Emma. But then...it happens. It's revealed to both him and us that in the most contrived situation possible, Hook was the one who killed Charming's father. This derails his entire character for most of the remaining season, initially torn between telling Emma about this and covering it up before having a break with her which causes him to go mope and dope for a while before being forcibly sent off on a multi-realm misadventure by Gideon and, once he's finally gotten back to Storybrooke, has his transgression easily forgiven by Charming and his marriage proposal re-accepted by Emma, making this entire stretch of time absolutely pointless! Hook has some good moments in both the musical episode where he and Emma's wedding happen and the finale, but they aren't enough to salvage this from being his weakest showing in any season. Dark Hook was better than this!

* Belle...nope, not even gonna talk about her. Like I said before, she's done as a character.

* Zelena is this season's screwed over regular, and in comparison to Archie, Ruby, Neal, Will Scarlet and Robin Hood, she's got it easy. Her problems have less to do with her character, which is one of the better ones in the core cast at this point, but with her material. First, she and Regina have a sudden falling out because Regina...blames her for Robin's death. OK, all of that talk about how far Regina's come for not going evil over the loss of her romantic partner in the Season 5 finale isn't really worth much anymore when she's still resorting to blaming other people who aren't the actual murderer for that loss! Zelena then goes back to living at her isolated farm house, entering an alliance with the Evil Queen where she'll help her out in small ways but also not commit to fully teaming up with her as a villainess since she has a baby to take care of, plus she rightly doesn't entirely trust her alternate sister.

After the Evil Queen betrays Zelena but Regina still doesn't forgive her for what she blames her for, Zelena is absent or in minor roles for several episodes before she ends up joining the heroes' side out of altruism and the desire to become a good example for her daughter, eventually sacrificing her magic powers to aid the cause, which finally gets Regina to forgive her (probably because it's a sacrifice she's never been able to make). And that's about it.

Oh, but she does get to hit the Black Fairy with a car. That was awesome.

* The Black Fairy / Fiona is the Big Bad of the Savior's Fate Saga. Jamie Murray does a great job portraying her, being whimsically evil like you'd expect a dark fairy to be, and the Black Fairy being the person who created the Dark Curse actually makes a lot of sense when you go back and rewatch Season 3's "Going Home", a Dark Curse-heavy episode that first talks about her, or the Blue Fairy's knowing, worried expression upon Rumple's mention of a curse back in Season 1's "The Return". Unfortunately, that's all the praise I can afford her.

The core problem with Fiona as a character is a simple one: she is too derivative of previous, better Big Bads...especially Regina and Peter Pan. Like Regina, she is a powerful, larger-than-life villainess that Emma has always been destined to face as the Savior, and who ultimately casts the Dark Curse which makes herself mayor of Storybrooke, Henry's adopted mother, and a foe that Emma can only defeat if she believes in magic. And like Peter Pan, she is a parent of Rumple who also chose power over love and abandoned him, becoming the all-powerful ruler of a dark realm who occasionally went out and kidnapped children to bring there, and who is positioned as the story's Ultimate Evil who makes her last stand casting the Dark Curse in Storybrooke and being killed by her own son. This is especially bad when we already have an evil version of Regina to contend with this season and when it's following off of Hades, who was a better successor to Peter Pan's style of villainy (ruler of a dark realm that the heroes venture into to save someone) while still being unique.

She did improve somewhat in the last few episodes, where we see that she at least has sincerely loving Rumple as a differentiator from her ex-husband, has a warped belief that eliminating light magic and wiping out all realms but one is actually the right thing to do, and plays her role in the finale well. But it's too little too late for her to be considered as belonging among the great OUAT villains, let alone the Ultimate Evil that she's billed as. She needed a lot more originality and a lot more truly heinous deeds if that was ever to work.

* There are tons of new side characters in this season, usually either well-handled or not.

Well-handled side characters include the Tremaine family (particularly Lady Tremaine) who make Cinderella's life miserable in both the past and present, Captain Nemo who serves as a father figure for Hook and his half-brother Liam II, Gabriel the Woodcutter who makes an entertaining villain in an otherwise dumb flashback, Robert the father of Charming who is well-depicted in spite of how he dies, and Roderick, Gideon's brave but ill-fated friend.

Poorly-handled side characters include the Oracle who is a plot device character if there ever was one, Edmond Dantes (the Count of Montre Cristo in name only) and his lover Charlotte, Beowulf (another in name only character), Stanum the Tin Man who is pointlessly shoved into Zelena's backstory, Tiger Lily who is an exact carbon copy of Tinker Bell, and almost all of the Wish Realm characters because, as I will discuss later, the Wish Realm episodes are awful.

Then there are the in-between side characters, the ones that are handled...well-ish.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde carry over from the Season 5 finale at the start, then are both taken out of the picture in the 4th episode. Their backstory is well written, they are both well acted, and their death contributes to the ongoing Evil Queen plotline. However, it can't help but feel disappointing - we'd only just gotten a working relationship going between Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Whale in the previous episode, and now that's rendered pointless. And Sam Witwer is such an entertaining presence as Mr. Hyde, so it's sad to see him cut down so soon.

Robin of Locksley, the Wish Realm version of Robin Hood who crosses into Storybrooke, is cool in that we get Sean Maguire back and he is allowed to play something slightly different, since this version of Robin is a selfish, sarcastic asshole instead of a noble, chivalrous hero. However, it also reinforces how badly handled Robin Hood in general has been. Much like with what I said about Regina, I would have rather him and his romance with Regina been written well from the beginning so that this "do-over version' wouldn't be necessary.

After much hyping by the network, Aladdin and Jasmine kind of suck. Aladdin has an inexplicable cockney accent that is really distracting, he's written more selfishly and immaturely than his animated counterpart, and making him a Savior in order to tie him to the main plot is stupid. Jasmine fares better, especially when she receives some development in the 15th episode that largely focuses on her, but before that she was just kind of there and didn't possess the same strength of character she was so known for in the animated film.

Jafar, the Big Bad of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, is featured too. He is now played by Oded Fehr, and while Naveen Andrews is missed, Oded is one of the best replacements possible and does a stellar job. But while he's great whenever he's on screen, that's the problem - he isn't on screen very much at all. He also doesn't accomplish anything relevant to anyone beyond Aladdin and Jasmine in the time he has - even when he is released from his bottle in the present day, all he does is have a confrontation with Jasmine before BOOM! He gets turned into a wooden staff by magic dust thrown into his face and that's it for him. This was yet another sad waste of a great character with a great actor, but then again, Jafar returning in any medium tends to elicit diminishing results compared to his initial outings.

Finally, we have Gideon, Rumple and Belle's son and Emma's direct opponent in the Final Battle. The problem with Gideon is that the writers keep changing his character on a whim. First he's a projection of Rumple and Belle's future son from within Belle's womb, who masquerades as Morpheus in order to put Rumple through a test which he fails miserably. Then, after being kidnapped by the Black Fairy and taken to the Dark Realm, he shows up as angry, Kylo Ren-esque villain who claims that he wants to kill Emma so that he can somehow absorb her power, become the Savior and defeat the Black Fairy. But then it turns out that this was an act he was forced to play - after having been raised to be a villain by Fiona, Gideon rebelled, so she ripped his heart out and has been using it to control his actions so that he could free her from the Dark Realm for good. So he's a pure innocent, then. But then, in the Final Battle, he is rewritten by Fiona's curse into a stingy, spiteful businessman before reverting back to his innocent but controlled self...and then reverting back into a baby. Gideon, you've come full circle....and I still have no idea just who the Hell you are.

Returning characters include Violet, Ashley / Cinderella, Dr. Whale / Victor Frankenstein, the Dragon, August Booth / Pinocchio, King George / Albert Spencer, Baelfire, Tinker Bell, Ariel, Blackbeard, Malcolm, and Isaac Heller. Some of these returns are successful (I always love to see Ariel, and Isaac receiving some closure as a character was fantastic to see), others not so much (Tink's cameo was contradictory and pointless, and there was no excuse bringing back Baelfire in a flashback - for God's sake, Dylan Schmid is as tall as Robert Carlyle now!)

Atmosphere - There really isn't much of one anymore for the majority of the season. There is nothing remotely special about Storybrooke or the Enchanted Forest at this point, new places like the Dark Realm are woefully underexplored, and there aren't any locations like Camelot, the Underworld, or the Land of Untold Stories from last season that make a big impact.

However, there is certainly atmosphere in the two-part season finale, "The Final Battle". Unfortunately, instead of being an epic atmosphere like you would expect, it's dark and miserable and claustrophobic up until the happy ending. Kind of sums up the show now!

Episode Quality - A few episodes in this season are so bad that they're downright unwatchable, and I was able to watch the worst of late Season 2. "Changelings" is all about Rumple taking his abuse of Belle to a new level all while the episode tries to use the Evil Queen and the Black Fairy as scapegoats so that you can feel bad for him. "Ill-Boding Patterns" continues the whitewashing of Rumple at the direct expense of his sons, completely butchering Beowulf in the process. "Page 23" is an exercise with boredom in both the flashback and present day stories and comes to a truly awful conclusion for Regina's character that doesn't even make sense for her. And "Awake" has the ugliest-looking, most ill-conceived flashback story ever: Snow and Charming actually woke up during the Dark Curse and then woke up Rumple so that he could take them to Emma, only to then choose to abandon her so that she can achieve her destiny as the Savior before everyone goes back to sleep (quite literally in Charming's case, how the fuck does that work!?) The only reason this exists is so that Adam and Eddy can say "See? Snow and Charming totally DID abandon their daughter!" whenever anyone says it's Regina's fault Emma grew up without parents.

Perhaps most insidiously, we have the two-part midseason finale, "Wish You Were Here" and "Tougher Than the Rest". Aladdin is turned into a genie and the Evil Queen takes advantage of a passing statement Emma made about sometimes wishing she wasn't the Savior by making a wish that Emma's desire was granted. Thus the Wish Realm, an alternate world where the Dark Curse was never cast, is created. And the insults just keep piling up from there: the depiction of Emma as a wimpy princess if she had been raised by her parents, Regina trying to prove to Emma that "none of this is real" by crushing Wish Snow and Wish Charming's hearts (I can vividly envision Adam and Eddy having an orgasm over this scene), Emma snapping out of it when Wish Henry tries to kill Regina and that's "everything Emma never wanted him to be" (a fucking hero who will bring down the monster who slaughtered his grandparents!?), Charming similarly being considered "dark" for trying to kill the Evil Queen, the explicitly stated notion that Emma owes Regina for ruining her life because that's what made her strong, the appearance of Wish August who is so much more boring than the real August, the appearance of Wish Hook as a fat old drunk, and Rumple and Belle getting back together due to what's going on with Gideon, with Belle asking "What have we done to each other?" (NO. There is ZERO moral equivalence between Belle and Rumple here.)

"The Savior", "A Bitter Draught", "Street Rats", "I'll Be Your Mirror", "Mother's Little Helper", "Where Bluebirds Fly" and "The Black Fairy" are all watchable, if not particularly good.

All the other episodes have their strong points. "The Other Shoe" is a fun breather episode the likes of which this show desperately needed more of. "Strange Case" features a great take on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "Dark Waters" has Hook and Henry at their best and introduces Captain Nemo played by the great Faran Tahir. "Heartless" is the only episode in the season where Lana Parilla plays the Evil Queen with old-school menace, with the curse she ends up placing on Snow and Charming being legitimately ingenious and diabolical. "Murder Most Foul", until its literal last minute twist, is a highly engaging story and features a (rare at this point and thus even more appreciated) explosively emotional performance from Josh Dallas in its climax. "A Wondrous Place", if you ignore the awful Storybrooke scenes, is a weird and wacky crossover between characters of various stories that reminds you why you liked this show to begin with, and features Oded Fehr's last and best performance as Jafar where he is finally able to match Naveen Andrews in raw intensity.

Then there's the musical episode, "The Song In Your Heart". This is the textbook definition of an episode that is really good and enjoyable in a bubble, but is utter nonsense when applied in context. The flashback is a total filler story about a musical curse being cast by the Blue Fairy so that its result can be used by Emma in the present, and it’s only being used by Emma in the present because the Black Fairy suddenly decides "forget casting the Dark Curse and having the Final Battle, I'll take the Savior out now!", and when she fails it's right back to casting the Dark Curse and having the Final Battle as if nothing ever happened! And Emma and Hook having their rooftop wedding where the whole town starts singing and dancing about "a Happy Beginning" despite knowing damn well that the Dark Curse's arrival is imminent is hysterical- all logic dictates this should have been saved for after the crisis is over, not before it's even begun! It's dumb as Hell, but the songs and dance moves are fun (except for the Snow and Charming vs. Regina one, that was just cringy) so it gets a pass.

Lastly, there's "The Final Battle". For all of its many, many faults, it is better than Season 5's two-part finale (and also better than Season 7's, as we'll get to in the next post), and the areas where there could have been improvement are so blatantly obvious that what could have been is easy to imagine (ex: Rumple dying, a few questionable shots from the final happy ending montage cut, and the entirety of the dumbass Season 7 lead-in framing device removed entirely). It's the closest to a decent series finale we have, even if in terms of satisfaction it pales in comparison to the likes of "A Land Without Magic", "Going Home", "There's No Place Like Home", and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland's "And They Lived..."

Overall - I need to issue a formal retraction about the statement I made in this long-ago post. Not about how Season 5 would have been better with an even stronger connection between its two arcs; I still believe that. But returning to a full-season story arc format was a terrible idea, because with Season 6 we see that Season 1 was lightning in a bottle that's never getting recaptured. Every other time Adam and Eddy are given a full-season story arc, their ADHD style of storytelling won't let them stay focused and they'll end up throwing everything but the kitchen sink into it, resulting in a disjointed, convoluted, borderline incoherent mess. This is especially bad at a point where the vast majority of their most talented scriptwriters have long since departed from the writing team. Season 6 isn't the worst season (that comes up next), but it's probably the most miserable and depressing one, especially considering the fact that it was enough to make several main cast members quit. Back in Season 3, I'd have been ecstatic if you told me that this show would be getting 3 more seasons. Now, when actually at Season 6, I was horrified when I was told that it was getting 1 more season.

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

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scentedflowersong · 3 years

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12 Days of Swan-Mills Saga X-Mas - Day 7

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love Swan-Mills Saga gave to me…

Welcome, dear friends, to the seventh of our twelve holiday meetings, during which we recall some of the best bits of the five Swan-Mills saga stories by the marvellous @swanqueeneverafter (thank you for the artworks used here).

The seventh day belongs to the ghastly gang - the villains of The Story of Us.

!WARNING! Spoilers ahead !WARNING!

ARTHUR PENDRAGON

Status: dead, killed by Emma (TSOU), after ressurection killed by Queen Annis’ champion (TO&FQ) Notable dark deeds: enchanting Guinevere and the whole kingdom into obedience, killing king Fergus, binding Merlin to Excalibur (with Zelena’s help) Evil Rank: 7/10 - literally an evil bastard (*sighs* Pendragons)

BLACK FAIRY/FIONA

Status: dead, killed by Rumplestiltskin Notable dark deeds: creating the Dark Curse, kidnapping children and raising them as her slaves in the Dark World, kidnapping and brainwashing Gideon, casting the Dark Curse (with Gothel and Facilier) in search of the ultimate power Evil Rank: 9/10 - Blue was a bitch to her, but torturing children (especially her own grandson?) can’t be excused

BLUE FAIRY

Status: alive Notable dark deeds: never bloody heping anyone!, not telling Snow and Charming the truth about the wardrobe, baishing Fiona to the Dark World, never helping Rumplestiltskin (and thus causing 90% of evil the Stiltsking family is responsible for), bullying other fairies, prevennting Nova and Grumpy to be together, powerful as hell yet never using her powers Evil Rank: 11/10 - shady bitch

CAPTAIN HOOK/KILLIAN JONES

Status: alive, redeemed Notable dark deeds: killing numerous people (namely his own father and David’s father), trading Bealfire for (ultimately) useless information about Rumplestiltskin, repeatedly choosing revenge over love/family, teaming up wih Cora, locking Snow and Emma in Rumplestiltskin’s cell, shooting Belle and causing her to lose her memories, working with Tamara and Spencer Evil Rank: 9/10 - yo ho ho, the pirate’s life for me

CORA MILLS/THE QUEEN OF HEARTS

Status: dead, killed by Snow White (redeemed/moved on) Notable dark deeds: killing queen Eve, taking Zelena in to heal Regina only to throw her out afterwards, killing Daniel, “selling” Regina to king Leopold, almost being responsible for Regina taking the infertility poition, turning Anastasia into the Red Queen, killing countless people Evil Rank: 10/10 - the queen without a heart

CRUELLA DE VIL

Status: dead, killed by Emma Notable dark deeds: killing her own mother and her husbands, using her animal-controlling skills for evil, kidnapping Henry, probably one of the few actually born evil Evil Rank: 7/10 - if she doesn’t scare you, no evil things will?

DR FACILIER

Status: dead, utimately killed by Emma (WDMC) Notable dark deeds (in TSOU): trying to bring the Dark Ones to our world, teaming up with Black Fairy and Gothel to cast the Dark Curse, posing as Hook and maintaining an abusive relationship with Emma during the curse (the aftermath of which - Emma’s PTSD was already mentioned) Evil Rank: 10/10 - NOPE

GOTHEL

Status: dead, killed by Emma (WDMC) Notable dark deeds (in TSOU): kidnapping Alice and keeping her in the tower, putting the curse of poisoned heart on Alice and Will, teaming up with Facilier and Black Fairy to cast the Dark Curse, making Robyn grow up fast, posing as Robin Hood and being intimate with Zelena during the curse (like, alright, that was sort of a call from karma to Zelena, but still), Evil Rank: 10/10 - try being more like Poison Ivy, sis

HADES

Status: dead, killed by Zelena Notable dark deeds: trying to overthow Zeus, bringing the Underworld to Storybrooke, trapping Storybrooke’s inhabitants in an underground prison, killing Robin Hood Evil Rank: 6/10 - nothing much for the king of Underworld

ISAAC/THE AUTHOR

Status: alive Notable dark deeds: abusing his powers as the Author (leading for example to sending newborn Lily into the world without magic), writing the “Heroes & Villains” storybook Evil Rank: 6/10 - not evil, just a prick, bonus points for disabling Cruella’s powers for murder

JAFAR

Status: dead/turned into a wooden staff Notable dark deeds: mindcontrolling the sultan, trying to get Jasmine to marry him, breaking Aladdin’s spirit and convincing him he’s not a Saviour, shrinking Agrabah into a ring Evil Rank: 6/10 - not bad, but we’ve seen worse

MALEFICENT

Status: alive, redeemed Notable dark deeds: putting Briar Rose and then Aurora under the sleeping curse, turning Prince Phillip into the Yaoguai, helping Regina finding her “inner spark” (mastering dark magic), helping Rumplestiltskin getting the Author out of the book by kidnapping Pinocchio (with Regina) Evil Rank: 6/10 - not really the mistress of all evil, eh?

MERLIN

Status: dead, killed by Morgana (TO&FQ) Notable dark deeds: toying with everyone and never doing anything useful, being resposible for the creation of the Dark One Evil Rank: 6/10 - he’s not evil, just immensely useless, which is eve worse when he’s the “most powerful man”, right?

NIMUE

Status: dead Notable dark deeds: becoming the first Dark One, using Facilier to return to our world and trying to kill most of the ‘heroes’ Evil Rank: 6/10 - victim of Merlin’s selfishness, but extra bad points for working with Facilier

PETER PAN/MALCOLM

Status: dead, killed by Rumplestiltskin Notable dark deeds: abandoning Rumplestiltskin for eternal youth, kidnapping children in his search for Henry, kidnapping the Darling family and keeping Wendy captive, pursuing Henry into giving up his heart, switching bodies with Henry, killing Felix and casting the Dark Curse Evil Rank: 8/10 - the head of the Stiltskins, no wonder they all turned out bad

RUMPLESTILSTKIN

Status: alive, redeemed Notable dark deeds: becoming the Dark One, abandoning Baelfire, responsible for all of the Mills girls turning dark (to some degree), creating the Evil Queen and convincing Regina to cast the Dark Curse, killing countless people, marking Regina for the Wraith, teaming up with the Snow Queen, making deals with Hades, helping Isaac write the “Heroes & Villans” storybook, repeatedly choosing power over love/family, killing both of his parents Evil Rank: 10/10 - Rumple’s fingers are all over the story, rarely in a good way

TAMARA

Status: dead, killed by Rumplestiltskin Notable dark deeds: torturing Regina (with Spencer), shooting Neal, kidnapping Henry and taking him to Neverland Evil Rank: 4/10 - just a bitch who didn’t know she was Pan’s pawn

THE DARK SWAN/EMMA SWAN

Status: alive, redeemed Notable dark deeds: using Violet to break Henry’s heart, killing Arthur, trapping Merlin inside the tree once more, ripping out Merida’s heart and using her as a poppet, speeding up Zelena’s pregnancy, trying to use Zelena as a vessel for darkness Evil Rank: 5/10 - look, half of the things she did as the Dark One were ultimately for the better

THE EVIL QUEEN/REGINA MILLS

Status: alive, redeemed Notable dark deeds: casting the Dark Curse, killing countless people, putting Snow under the sleeping curse, killing her father, manipulating the Genie/Sidney into killing Leopold, framing Snow for Leopold’s murder, hiring Hook to kill Cora, ripping the Huntsman’s heart out and using him as a poppet, killing Owen’s father, killing Graham, teaming up with Cora, teaming up with Hades (after the Split), trapping Regina and Emma in the mirror (after the Split), putting the sleeping curse on Snow and David’s shared heart (after the Split), creating the Wish Realm and sending Emma there (after the Split) Evil Rank: 10/10 - it’s the EVIL Queen for a reason (”yea, she’s a mass murderer BUT you can aknowledge someone’s dark deeds AND still love them uncoditionally” - Emma Swan-Mills, probably)

THE SNOW QUEEN/INGRID

Status: dead, sacrificed herself to stop the curse of the Shattered Sight Notable dark deeds: casting the curse of the Shattered Sight, killing her sister (by accident), freezing Arendelle Evil Rank: 3/10 - Inngrid was more of a victim than a true villain

THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST/ZELENA MILLS

Status: alive, redeemed Notable dark deeds: terrorising Oz, putting Dorothy under the sleeping curse sending Walsh after Emma, killing Neal, kidnapping baby Neal, opening the time portal, killing Marian and posing as her (+ tricking Robin Hood into leaving Storybrooke with her and even using the guise to have a child with him), teaming up with Arthur and binding Merlin to Excalibur, interrupting Emma’s proposal Evil Rank: 8/10 - gloriously wicked, could’ve done worse atricities though

Please, feel free to let me know what you think of the ranking, the picks, the misdeeds listed (the lists are not definitive), or anything else :)

Stay tuned for more…

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stahlop · 4 years

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Once Upon a Time 3x04 “Nasty Habits” Review

Reviews 1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10 1x11 1x12 1x13 1x14 1x15 1x16 1x17 1x18 1x19 1x20 1x21 1x22 2x01 2x02 2x03 2x04 2x05 2x06 2x07 2x08 2x09 2x10 2x11 2x12 2x13 2x14 2x15 2x16 2x17 2x18 2x19 2x20 2x21 2x22 3x01 3x02 3x03

So Neal still has major trust issues when it comes to his father. Emma still has ‘feelings’ for Neal that she never got resolve because of his death (more on that in Emma’s section), and Tink (yes, she told Emma to call her this so that is what I’ll be using from now on) pretty much has decided they’re on a suicide misson. And David’s still being a selfish ass.

Summary: Gold and Neal rescue Henry by making everyone, including Henry fall asleep, and Neal reveals his deep seated trust issues with his father are still alive and well. Hook takes everyone to Bae’s cave for clues on how he escaped, and in the Enchanted Forest, we discover that Peter Pan and the Pied Piper of Hamelin are the same person.

Opening: Lost Boy dancing

Character Observations:

Rumplestiltskin/Gold: Rumple is essentially holding Bae hostage by being the Dark One. No one wants to play with him because they’re afraid of Rumple. And this whole scene is obviously supposed to take place before Bae went through the portal in The Return, but that was filmed almost two years ago and the actor playing Bae went from 13 to 15 and looks it. Anyway, Rumple just wants Bae to be happy, but Bae won’t be happy trapped in their hovel. Rumple offers to build him a castle (maybe this is why he knew to look for a castle in The Heart of the Truest Believer?), but Bae just wants to have friends. Bae thinks Rumple doesn’t trust him, but Rumple is quick to tell him he does trust him, it’s his enemies he doesn’t trust. And this is the theme of Rumple and Gold’s arc. Trust. Bae thinks Rumple thinks he won’t come back, and you can see by the look on his face that the thought has occurred to him, but he insists it’s Bae’s safety that he’s worried about. He doesn’t know what he’d do if he lost Bae. Rumple comes home later with a crown (because of the castle he’s going to have them live in), and Bae is gone. He looks shaken when he realizes Bae isn’t there. He traces Bae to the city of Hamelin, first accusing them of taking Bae, but then realizing that boys have gone missing. The man in town exposits how only some boys heard music and their parents didn’t believe them when they told them about it. Rumple is going to take this piper down! Rumple’s just hanging out on a rooftop when he hears the music and starts seeing teenaged boys climbing out their windows. Rumple follows them and sees a whole group of boys dancing around a fire wearing masks. He confronts the piper who turns out to be Peter Pan. And Rumple looks scared the second Pan takes off his hood and calls him ‘laddie’. Pan does nothing but berate Rumple. We get hints to their relationship as Pan makes reference to Rumple being all grown up. He also tells Rumple the reason he can hear the pipe is because only boys who are lonely and lost can hear it. Pan goes on about Rumple being abandoned and he’s really cruel about it and you can see how upset Rumple is getting and it’s really weird to see him so vulnerable. Pan wants to make a deal for Bae. If presented with the choice, Bae chooses if he’ll go home or go with Pan. Rumple refuses to make the deal. I know we’re supposed to think it’s because he doesn’t trust Bae (and Bae tells him this later on), but come on. What kind of parent would make that kind of a deal? You don’t bargain with your child’s kidnapper! Rumple doesn’t take the deal. He eventually does find Bae in the circle of dancing boys, and it almost looks like he’s going to give Bae the choice that he and Pan had talked about, but instead, he poofs them back to their hovel. Bae is pissed, and accuses Rumple of abusing him with his power. But no, turns out Rumple’s known Pan since he was a boy and they were incredibly close. He wasn’t immortal until he went to Neverland. But he ended up betraying Rumple so he can’t be trusted. So who is Pan to Rumple? Friend, brother, another relation? He insinuates that Pan is darker than he is. But Bae doesn’t think anyone could be worse than him. Rumple tells him he had no choice and he had to protect him, but Pan told Bae about the deal he’d offered him (of course he did), so Bae knows Rumple could have let Bae make his own choice. And this whole thing just goes to show that teenage boys are the same whether they’re in our realm or the Enchanted Forest. They don’t understand that sometimes what their parents do to protect them is not what they wanted them to do. Rumple took Bae out of a bad situation that he knew more about than Bae. But all Bae sees is his father not trusting him to make the right decision, so he leaves. Rumple looks devastated. I’m going to assume it’s not too long after this that Bae gets the bean to go to the Land Without Magic.

Gold is getting ready to go to war, complete with war paint. Imaginary Belle tells him he was always more comfortable behind a mask and she was the only one who saw past it. And then they go through this whole thing where he needs to be the monster to save Henry and Belle doesn’t want him to lose himself because of the prophecy. That he has a nasty habit of self-preservation (I wouldn’t call that a nasty habit. Who wants to die?), but since Neal died, Gold has nothing left to live for, not even Belle. He says she’ll eventually see the monster, despite that she always says she sees the man behind the monster. So is he saying there is no man behind the monster? Or that he’s just going back to being the monster without any chance of being the man again? Whatever it is, he’s convinced it’s the only way for him to save Henry. He goes to Pan’s camp and doses some of the Lost Boys with poppy powder? He’s certainly not using his magic here. Maybe it’s so Pan can’t detect him? He grabs one of their spears and that’s when a very much alive Neal comes crashing out from the woods. Since Gold believes Neal to be dead, he thinks Neal is a figment of his imagination to remind him of how he failed as a father. But he’ll sacrifice himself for Henry. He’s about to kill him when Neal calls him Papa, and Gold finally realizes that it is truly Neal. Gold tells him that no one in their group has the stomach for what needs to be done to rescue Henry (and I’d say Regina does, considering she’s almost sacrificed herself several times for Henry just to be saved at the last minute), and that Neal doesn’t have the stomach either. Neal thinks they can do this without hurting or killing anyone, but Gold doesn’t agree with him. Gold tells Neal that Pan is too powerful and the only way to beat him is if you’re willing to die. Neal tells him there’s another way. Gold ponders this as if he never considered there could be another way. Especially since this other way is apparently using squid ink, something Gold has experience in using and has had used against him. Gold uses some sort of sleeping spell to take down everyone in Pan’s camp, including Henry, although it doesn’t work on Pan. They confront each other and Pan reveals he knows Bae is with him. Neal shoots at Pan, who once again catches the arrow before it hits him, but Neal coated the shaft and not the tip. Gold and Neal grab Henry once Pan is frozen. Pan tells Neal about the prophecy and how Gold is there to kill Henry, but they need to get out of the camp and away from Pan, so they leave. Neal is understandably upset about this, but Gold reminds him that Pan lies. Neal eventually gets him to tell him about the prophecy. Neal is convinced that Gold is going to try and kill Henry to subvert the prophecy, despite the fact that Gold said he was willing to die for Henry when he thought Neal wasn’t real. Gold tries to get Neal to trust that he’s willing to die for Henry, but Neal doesn’t think he can believe him. Neal says the only way he can trust Gold is if he gives him the dagger. Unfortunately, Gold gave it to his shadow in Lost Girl and can’t give it to Neal to prove his trustworthiness. Neal understands that at this moment, Gold will do anything to save Henry, but he also knows that once he’s back in Storybrooke and happy with Belle, he may not have that same notion, and will want to live out his happy ending rather than be ‘undone’ by Henry. Gold insists that Neal is his happy ending and that saving Henry is his redemption. He just needs Neal to have faith in him. Neal basically tells him he can never believe him since he left him behind all those years ago (which brings Gold on the verge of tears), and then doses him with the squid ink so he can’t follow him. Gold is terrified for Neal. He knows Pan will find him without his protection, but Neal tells him he has no choice. I mean, Neal did live a lot of years on Neverland, it’s not like he doesn’t know his way around and how to hide from Pan. But Gold just sees his son leaving him again and knowing that he’s failed to protect him. The squid ink wears off and Gold is alone with his thoughts (Belle), who talks him through whether he’s willing to die for Henry now that Neal is alive. She tells him habits can be broken and he tells her to go away. He doesn’t want to hear what she has to say. And now he’s really all alone.

Bae/Neal: Bae is lonely. He has no friends and his father won’t let him leave the house because he’s afraid his enemies would use Bae against him. So what does he do? He gets lured out of the hovel by Pan when he plays a song for lonely and lost boys. And then he gets mad at his father when Rumple poofs them back home because he wanted to make the choice for himself. And, I’m sorry, I get that Bae is a teenager at this point (he’d be 14 since Rumple is the Dark One and he was still 14 when he went through the portal), and teenager’s think everything is about them, but this has nothing to do with Rumple trusting Bae to make the right decision. I get that Bae wants the freedom to live his life (as most teenagers do), but running away and then hoping your parent lets you make the right decision as to whether you stay with your potential kidnapper or go home with your parent is not about trust. It’s about good parenting. So suck it up Bae. Papa made the right decision to take you out of there.

Neal, on the other hand, still doesn’t trust his father. And this is more because of his father choosing his power over him. Neal is captured by Felix who calls him stupid for coming back, but Neal manages to until the knot that Felix had tied his hand up in and punches him out. He literally runs into his father attempting to rescue Henry, and Gold almost kills him because he doesn’t think Neal is real (which makes sense since he was told that Neal died). Neal is surprised to see his father since he only saw Emma in the crystal ball, or maybe because he doesn’t expect his father to care about his son. Either way, for someone who spent lots of time in Neverland, he seems to think it really weird that Gold doesn’t believe he’s real (isn’t the whole point of Neverland to use your imagination). It isn’t until he calls him Papa that Gold finally believes it’s him. Neal doesn’t even get into how he survived when Gold asks, just that Robin Hood’s debt is paid. Neal wants to know where Emma is, but Gold informs him that he left them all on Hook’s ship. Neal doesn’t seem too happy about Gold’s intentions of needing to kill Lost Boys and Pan to get Henry. Gold tells him he doesn’t have the stomach to do what needs to be done to save Henry, but Neal tells him he’ll do what he needs to do. To be honest, Neal really needs to think about killing Pan, because he knows what he’s capable of and he knows that Pan could get to Henry once they get him off Neverland. So the whole not killing Pan route doesn't seem like the smartest course of action on Neal’s part. Anyway, Gold tells Neal that the only way to beat Pan is to be willing to die, but Neal knows of another way. He calls on a giant squid so that Gold can extract the squid ink. So, Neal is smart enough to coat the shaft of the arrow in squid ink, knowing that Pan will catch it and it will immobilize him, but, unfortunately, squid ink does not immobilize the mouth. Instead of Neal and Gold taking Henry and just fleeing, they listen to Pan spout off about the prophecy that Pan insists means Gold is there to kill Henry. Gold takes them to the other side of the island where Neal is freaking out, but Gold placates him enough to make him think that Pan is playing games. I mean, that is a hard decision to make, believe Pan or the father you have a bad relationship with. Neal attempts to wake up Henry but can’t because of the spell, so he gets back into it with Gold. Eventually, Gold tells him about the prophecy, and how he was planning on killing the boy until he found out it was his own grandson. Neal does not take kindly to this information. Gold is begging Neal to believe him, to let him help, that he would give up his life for Henry, but Neal has a hard time believing this. Neal wants the dagger from Gold to prove that he trusts him, but Gold doesn’t have it. Neal finds this too convenient and feels his father has an excuse for everything. Neal finally tells him why he doesn’t trust him. Because today he’ll do the right thing, but once he’s settled into a happy life with Belle, he’ll decide that he wants to stay happy, and Henry will be in the way of that. Gold tries to convince Neal that he is his happy ending, but Neal tells him he left his own son for the dagger, how could he think it would be any different. The whole time he’s been holding Gold’s hands and he has actually dosed him with squid ink. He takes Henry and leaves a heartbroken Gold behind. Neal finds the remnants of a campsite and assumes it’s Emma, but Pan and the Lost Boys are lying in wait. They grab Henry, and Neal swears he’ll get Henry back, but Pan says if he’d only stayed with his father Henry would’ve probably been safe. Pan also mocks Neal for not having an exit plan, especially since no one leaves the island without his permission. Neal is pretty sure he can escape since he did it before. But Pan tells him he wouldn’t be too sure of that, since he’s back on the island like he never left (um, he’s an adult now, so that’s a lot different than the last time he was there). Neal starts to realize that Pan may have let him go and Pan says everyone is right where he wants them. Henry finally starts to come around, and Neal yells out for him as the Lost Boys take him somewhere on Pan’s bidding.

Emma: Tink basically tells them that without an exit plan she’s not helping them. Emma tells the group she’s right, Neal taught her to never break in somewhere without a way out (and as we learn later, he learned that from Pan). Hook lets them know that Neal is the only one who’s left the island without permission and takes them to the cave Neal lived in when he was on the island. Emma is in shock at all the whole thing. Hook wonders if she notices any clues, but she’s just impressed by the drawings. Hook tells her Bae got it from his mother and it gets a little awkward. Emma lights a coconut candle and starts looking for more clues. She realizes that Hook cared for Bae with the way he talks about him, and things get a little uncomfortable between them again. Emma deems them just a bunch of pictures. Emma figures out that her coconut candle actually has a top on it that makes a star map. They think that’s the way he got off the island. Emma gets upset when Hook can’t read the star map because he thinks it’s in code. She runs out of the cave and Mary Margaret and David try to talk to her, but she’s trying to keep her emotions in check. She tells them she’s not sad about him dying, she’s pissed off because she thought he didn’t love her when he left her, but he really did. And she can’t tell him how angry it makes her that she can’t do anything about all her feelings now, because he’s dead. She tells Mary Margaret and David that she knew she still loved him when he came back into their lives. And here’s where I have to say something about Emma’s reaction. I know a lot of fans who wanted her back with Neal use this as the reason why. Emma obviously loves him and he loves her and Neal’s apologized for what he did and they love each other and blah, blah, blah. But here’s the thing. Neal was just engaged to Tamara a few days ago. He’d moved on, content that Emma had broken the curse and was living her happily ever after while he was too much of a chicken shit to confront his father. Emma may still love Neal (lord knows why), but it’s the love that she had for him when she was 17. It’s that first love that stays with you and that you look back on with rose colored glasses no matter what really happened. Emma doesn’t know Neal now. She’s barely spent any time with him. And Neal doesn’t know Emma now. And all we’ve seen is his condescension towards her. Are we really going to believe that the strong woman Emma has become now, the one who doesn’t put up with Regina or Gold, the woman who slayed a dragon, the woman who confronted a giant, and who now has magic, would put up with the man who let her take the fall for his crimes and go to jail, forcing her to give up her child in the process? Emma may still love Neal, but she’s not in love with him. And yes, she’s upset, but she’s just seen that he was as lost as she was as a child (if not more), and I think she’s finally realized that he’s gone and not coming back (just wait a few days, the island is not that big), and that’s where the emotions are coming from.

Mary Margaret/David: I know, I’ve put them together all season, but they don’t really do anything away from each other. Emma has put a plan into motion but when Tink finds out there is no exit plan, she basically tells them it’s suicide to enact it. David pulls out the whole ‘we find each other’ line, but Tink is not going to help them until there’s something a little more concrete. She peaces out and David is about to go after her, but Emma tells them that Tink is right. They need an exit plan. David asks Hook how he got off, but he’s vague and just says Pan probably won’t repeat the deal they made. Hook brings them to a cave and David volunteers to help open the door with Hook. Hook tells him he doesn’t look so hot, meaning he can see the Dreamshade affecting him, but David just quips that it’s a million degrees in the jungle and he’s plenty hot. Hook wonders how much longer he’ll keep up the charade of hiding his sickness from his family. David wants to know why Hook cares so much, and Hook wants to know why David doesn’t seem to care. David feels that he doesn’t want to burden them while they’re looking for Henry, especially when there’s no hope for a cure. Hook tells him that heroes always believe in hope. David wonders if Hook is keeping something from him, but Hook insists that hope and reality are two different things. He repeats that David will never make it off the island alive. David is resigned to his fate once again. Inside the cave Emma realizes Neal lived there and Mary Margaret is hopeful that Neal left some sort of clue as to how he escaped. They find the star map and realize that the only person who can read it is Neal. Mary Margaret and David follow out an upset Emma. After Emma tells them about her sadness and anger, and then leaves, Mary Margaret gets upset because she doesn’t know how to comfort her daughter. That’s the first thing a mother learns and she missed it. David understands and feels the same way. Mary Margaret tells David she wouldn’t know how to move on if David were to die before her. David insists that she would move on and be happy without him. Mary Margaret is thankful that nothing will happen to him then. David looks extremely guilty.

Pan: In the past, he has become the Pied Piper to lure unloved and lost boys to him (and saying that to Rumple gives him the idea to name his band of boys the Lost Boys). He has a panpipe that only lost boys can hear. Rumple confronts him after Bae runs away. Pan is luring boys to Neverland while they’re awake so he will have friends there (sounds like he’s lonely too). They’ve only been able to come to Neverland in their dreams previously. Pan is a complete ass to Rumple. He makes fun of him for having been abandoned as a boy, mocks him for his wife running off, and now his biggest fear has happened, his son has left him. Rumple doesn’t think that’s true, so Pan wants him to test that out. Give Bae the choice to stay or leave and see what he chooses. Rumple refuses to take the deal. And man, who pissed in Pan’s Cheerios because he obviously has some pent up anger issues when it comes to Rumple. He’s just so angry and he seems to derive some sick pleasure out of tormenting Rumple and seeing him close to tears. He’s like an abuser of some sort, and I get the feeling that he was a bully or abuser to Rumple as a child and that’s why Rumple has reverted back to how he was before becoming the Dark One. Pan again mocks Rumple, telling him he doesn’t recognize Bae dancing around because he’s actually happy. Pan goads Rumple into making the deal with Bae, but he doesn’t, and Pan says he’s going to regret it.

Currently, in Neverland, Pan is trying to get Henry to believe he’s brought him there to save magic. The Lost Boys are dancing and celebrating because of it. Pan tries to get Henry to go out and dance by playing his panpipe, but Henry doesn’t hear it! This confuses Pan greatly. All Henry’s been saying is how his family is coming for him. He is there because he has the heart of the truest believer. Why would Pan think he feel unloved and lost? He’s about to explain to Henry why he should be hearing it, but Felix comes to tell him that Neal escaped. At first he’s angry, but once he realizes Neal and his father have been reunited, he feels this is perfect for his game. Rumple uses a sleeping spell to make all the Lost Boys and Henry fall asleep. He, again, mocks Rumple, now, for coming to save his family, and speaking of family, reveals Neal is with him. He can’t resist getting in another dig about Rumple abandoning Bae, and then Neal shoots an arrow at Pan. He catches it and basically calls Neal an idiot for not remembering how powerful Pan is, but Neal catches him off guard when he reveals he didn’t coat the tip in squid ink. Pan is impressed, but he makes sure to let Neal know about the prophecy and his father’s intention to kill Henry before they leave. Pan ruins Neal’s plans for finding Emma and the rest of the group, and also tells him sticking with his father would’ve been the smart thing to do. He reminds Neal that there is no escaping Neverland and a very smarmy Neal, tells him he did it once, but Pan tells Neal that he’s right back where he escaped from, and basically insinuates that he let him escape because everyone is right where he wants them to be (that sounds a lot like Rumple getting captured before the curse and being exactly where he was meant to be). They take Henry back and take Neal somewhere, not sure where yet,the Lost Boys they know where to take him. Back at camp, the Lost Boys are dancing around the fire again, and Henry finally wakes up. Henry remembers his father calling for him, but gets upset when he realizes it was just a dream since Neal is dead. Apparently, that’s enough for him to feel unloved and lost, because now he can hear the panpipes and dances with the other boys. Honestly, I’d like to believe that Henry joins in because he has no friends and this is the closest he’s going to get to having them.

Hook: He is very sensitive in this episode. He’s very upset that David is keeping the fact that he was scratched by the Dreamshade from his family. He looks very upset when David asks him if he’s been keeping a cure from him. Hook is very deliberate in his wording when he says David won’t make it off the island alive. You can see his jaw twitch when he says it. He brings the gang to Neal’s cave and you can see that he regrets the actions that led to Bae living on Neverland. It does seem that Bae and Hook had some sort of relationship after what we saw in And Straight on Til Morning. Otherwise, how would Hook know where Bae lived. Unless he was just watching him from afar. After they discover the star map, Hook toots his own horn by telling them how he taught Bae to navigate by the stars, but he also taught him the importance of secrecy, so he can’t read the map. And while this is upsetting to Emma, Hook seems to have some fatherly pride in Neal using what he taught him.

Questions:

What happened to Greg after the shadow was ripped from his body that there wasn’t much left of him? Did the Lost Boys tear him to pieces or are there wild animals we haven’t seen yet?

Did Bae live in the cave before becoming a Lost Boy? Was he a Lost Boy first and then ran away to live in his cave? Was he always at odds with Pan? If so, why was he ever considered a Lost Boy if he didn’t blindly follow Pan? Why does Hook know where Bae lived when Bae wanted nothing to do with him?

Was Neal always planning on using squid ink to immobilize Pan? How was this possible if he needed Gold to get the ink out for him?

Does anyone else think it’s weird that it’s only teenagers that Pan’s music seems to affect (with the exception of Henry at the end)? Isn’t the whole point of Neverland not to grow up? Isn’t a teenager pretty close to being a grown up?

How does Pan know about Milah?

Did Mary Margaret really suggest the coconut with holes in it was a colander? Come on! Mary Margaret lived in the forest and she couldn’t think of a better reason why he might have a cup-like object with tiny holes in it?

Did Bae recognize Pan from this adventure? Did he know about Pan wanting to take them to Neverland? Is that why he was so insistent about Wendy not going with the shadow?

How does Bae know that Belle is back in Gold’s life? Wasn’t Belle still Lacey the last time he saw her?

Why is Henry still asleep and all the Lost Boys are awake when he’s recaptured?

Observations:

It’s nice that Emma’s false eyelashes have stayed on throughout their Neverland adventures.

Regina’s expression when Tink tells her that nothing much was left of Greg was amazing.

Hey look, Neal actually took off his coat because it’s hot in the jungle!

Rumple calls Hamelin a rathole of a town, which is funny because the story of the Pied Piper is that he gets all the rats out of town with his music.

Blowing into a giant shell is how you call a giant squid from the bottom of a bottomless ocean (as Gold told Henry that’s where they live in Into the Deep).

Drawings that I noticed in Bae’s cave: P & S for Port and Starboard like Hook showed him on his ship, sea turtle, the Darling Family, possible hands in a portal (his and his father’s letting go of him?), the Darling house (and two stars above), Hook’s hook, a boot squashing a snail, a hand holding a writing utensil.

Pan is playing a Pan Pipe, which is named for Pan who is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, and rustic music. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. The literary character of Peter Pan is also named for Pan.

Pan calls Rumple laddie, which makes sense if he knew Pan as a child, but not as much if they were children together. Laddie is usually something a grown up calls a child, not what children call each other.

Still no mention of Rumplestiltskin’s mother.

Pan taught Neal about never breaking into a place without having an exit plan strategy.

So, I really hate Pan. He’s a bully, and an asshole. While Rumplestiltskin is evil and dark, he at least had a goal, to get his son back. Pan just seems to derive pleasure from torturing Rumple. Why that is hasn’t been revealed yet, but Rumple has decided that he doesn’t want Belle, his voice of reason, hanging around anymore because of Pan’s antics. Henry apparently feels lost since ‘dreaming’ about his father, despite the fact that he was pretty confident about his family coming to rescue him at just the beginning of the episode. David is getting worse, Mary Margaret would die without David, and Emma has finally realized Neal is really dead.

Please leave comments and reblog! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future reviews.

@searchingwardrobes @thisonesatellite @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @laschatzi @profdanglaisstuff @mariakov81 @lfh1226-linda

#once upon a time #once upon a time review #once upon a time rewatch #once upon a time 3x04 #once upon a time nasty habits

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scarletfish · 4 years

Text

don’t worry, you will

Summary: Two weeks ago, Juno was engaged. Now he's quarantined with a complete stranger who can't operate a microwave and has no sense of personal space. And they were quarantined (oh my god, they were quarantined!)

Pairings: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel, background Vespa/Buddy in future chapters Word Count: 3000 Chapters: 1/5 Warnings: canon-typical alcohol abuse, depression AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24016468/chapters/57779629

A/N: Thanks @space-city-traffic for the prompt, and @pipis-pods for the suggestion that Juno and Vespa communicate and become friends

Chapter 1

Diamond paid you $1520 . Your Venmo balance is now $1520.

Fiancee. Rent. They’re the first and last things on Juno’s mind. He realizes he’s been sitting in the parking garage for over ten minutes, idling and staring at the alert on his cracked phone screen. He turns the car off.

His car with a long crack in the windshield. Everything is goddamn broken. He gets out of the car, pauses. Gets back in the car.

This calls for a detour.

***

Twenty minutes later, Juno is ready to take his newly acquired liquor to his room so he can introduce it to his newly acquired headache, but he still has one more stop to make.

Hyperion Apartment Complex twists eight stories high, and the tacky light grey brick facade is almost reflective at night. Semi-nice rooms in a mostly bad part of town. Hyperion city makes cheap look beautiful, the way fast-food commercials brush up plastic meat with shoe polish and glue. Diamond had always hated it.

Juno shoulders into the leasing office with two large grocery bags. The front desk is empty, and everything is fading or peeling. He rings the bell and sits on a peely, faded chair to wait. Might as well put the whisky to good use.

Taking a swig, he looks out the floor-length windows to the filmy outdoor pool. (Rita swears security fished a body out of it a couple years ago. Juno told her she needs to stop watching so much Law and Order.) For the hundredth time, he wonders if this is even worth it. She's going to ask questions, it's inevitable, and he doesn't know how to answer them. Doesn't know the answers himself.

He starts poking holes in the plastic grocery bags with his thumbnail. Takes another swig. Then a couple more-

“Boss!” Rita bobs into view with her tablet in hand, Cheeto dust on her bright purple jacket.

Since the police force scandal, Juno runs a small PI business from a shitty downtown office, which is where he met Rita. To this day Juno’s not sure how or when she wormed her way into a position he wasn't even offering. He’s also not sure when she sleeps. As far as he knows, the part time leasing office representative is her third job- she also does... something with computers.

“Rita,” swig, “I need a favor.” The shorter woman has already started talking, anticipating their usual back and forth.

“And I know I ain’t supposed to call you that here, but you are my boss, and I don’t think my other bosses-- wait, huh?” Confused by the change in script, Rita eyes the half-empty bottle of whisky in Juno’s hand. Her eyes jump to the clock.

“Mista Steel, are you okay?” One pro of hiring Rita: she’s very perceptive. Con of hiring Rita: way too perceptive.

“Fine. I need you to check someone out for me.” Rita’s eyes immediately light up.

“Oooooh, boss, another case already? Is it gonna be as exciting as the one with Mista Prince Julian? Are we gonna get to travel? I’ve always wanted to go somewhere exotic, like Maine, or Florida-” Juno cuts her off before she can get going.

“He was a dramatic politician with a cheating husband who ended up dead, Rita. Not everything is a Netflix rom-com.”

There's a bitterness in his tone that might not have been there a week ago, but the smaller woman doesn't notice. She's already sunk into her desk chair, head propped in both hands, sighing dreamily as she swivels back and forth. Time to bring out the big guns.

Juno reaches into his shopping bag and pulls out the chips, dangling them in front of Rita’s heart eyes. She snatches. He raises them just out of reach.

“Focus. It’s not a case. There’s this guy I need you to find. I’ve got name and place of employment. Can you do it or not?”

Rita pouts. “But boss,” she whines, “you don’t even need me for that, you can just Google his name like I showed you. I thought we were gonna do something exciting.” Juno pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, well, Google isn’t gonna cut it this time, because,” I wasn’t really paying attention when you showed me that, “because, he’s highly secretive. And, that’s potential name. And potential place of employment, my source isn’t very,” he almost chokes on this last word, “reliable .”

The gears start turning. “Secretive… hang on Boss, is this another high-profiler? Have you been holding out on me?” She lowers her voice (not much). “Boss, this is about a case, right, you just can’t tell me because they might have tapped the phones!?”

What… who does she think they are? Juno drops his head into his hands to rub his temples. When Juno doesn't immediately contradict her, Rita continues in her stage whisper.

“Don’t worry Boss, Rita’s got your back! I’ll have this secretive criminal tracked down before they even know we’re on their case!”

“It’s not a case.”

“I’ll be as quiet as… as those monsters in The Quiet Place! Except they ain’t so quiet when they’re attacking people, but neither are we when we’ve got the bad guys cornered and we’re ready to take them out-”

Besides the recent political debacle with Julian and his missing husband (that one was a high-paying scrap tossed Juno’s way by an old friend), most of the cases he’s hired for are affair investigations and insurance fraud.

He’s certain neither he nor Rita have “taken anyone out” ever ... unless you count that time he tried to teach Rita to drive stick shift. Or the Hot Tub Debacle. But those were accidents.

Juno slings the bag of snacks onto her desk. “Just find out whatever you can about the guy, okay?”

“Fresh shrimp flavored?” Rita squeals, “Aw, you’re the best Mista Steel!” She digs into the large bag and talks around a mouthful of orange crumbs while Juno tries not to vomit in his mouth.

“Shipping ish ‘aking fore’er wi’ this crathy thirus thing goin’ gon,” she swallows, “speaking of, have you been watching the news Boss?”

“Every morning with my sunrise yoga. Listen Rita, I’ll check in with you tomorrow, okay?” Juno’s limbs are… heavy, suddenly. Maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s because he hasn’t slept well in that last, oh, ten years... or maybe it’s the weight of that single text, sitting in his phone for almost a week now. Looking at Rita, he thinks of telling her everything. Just spilling his guts right onto the scuffed linoleum floor.

The engagement. The text. The Craigslist ad. The man he’s supposed to be meeting tomorrow.

Rita’s still chattering on, and her voice cuts through the haze. “-but you never told me the name of Mister Criminal?” She happily shoves another handful of chips in her mouth. “Oooo, or is it so secret you need to write it down on a piece of paper and then I can read it and eat the paper-”

“Peter Ransom. Might’ve done a job for Vallas Vicky’s hotel recently.” That’s all he knows. “And he’s not a criminal Rita, he’s just a normal guy.”

Rita’s dialogue wanders around to closing borders and something about Italy, but Juno’s already moving towards the door (it shuts a bit harder than he intended). He doesn't know why he's so upset with Rita, when all she's done is try to cheer him up and offered her help. He makes his way back to the parking garage elevator. It smells like cotton candy vape and something vaguely mossy. A group of ragged kids is flying down the incline around the corner on penny boards.

Juno takes another swig of whiskey in front of the chrome doors and jams the elevator button about twenty times before he remembers.

Of course the fucking elevator is down for the weekend.

He wants to sit at the bottom of the stairwell and drink himself into oblivion. He want to wallow in this feeling for a moment, the feeling of the universe kicking him while he’s down.

Instead, he drags himself to the stairwell, drudges down the second floor hall, and practically collapses through the door.

An eager chittering greets him from the cage in the living room. “Hey, Smallfry.”

Diamond wouldn’t go near the ball of fluff (“It’s so dirty Juno,”) so when they moved in together eight months ago, the rabbit was a launching point for multiple arguments. Juno drops his grocery bag of Timothy hay and carrots by the cage, not bothering to stash it in the kitchen.

He pointedly doesn’t look in the smaller second bedroom that Diamond claimed as an office space. He doesn’t look at their shared bed either, because the sight of the rumpled sheets will just wrap around his ribcage and squeeze and squeeze until he can’t breathe again and everything is spinning-

Juno takes another swig and collapses on the couch. And then, because he wants to hate himself a bit, he thumbs through his phone to his fiancee’s most recent text. No matter how often Juno reads it, it never changes.

3:56AM: Diamond

Juno. I’ll forward my part of two month’s rent before the month is over. That should be long enough for you to find a temporary roommate, at least until the lease expires at the end of the year. Do what you’d like with the furniture.

Ex-fiancee.

***

Juno bolts upright, disoriented and confused. The decorative couch pillows left lines on his cheek, and he’s nursing the beginning of a monster headache. He gropes around for his phone. 7PM. It’s only been a few hours.

It feels like days. Months. Years.

Juno shivers. He left the door to the porch open, and a cool fall breeze is raising goosebumps on his arm. A nearby screen door slams, and heavy boots tread the balcony next door. “Hey piss-bucket, you been day drinking again?”

The green-haired nuisance next door is only loud when she chooses to be, so Juno knows she's hoping to stir him out for a cigarette or two. He wonders briefly when Buddy will be back. Vespa only gets this chatty when her partner is gone for long periods of time on work trips.

He toys with the idea of stepping out. Hey Vespa. How're the axe-throwing students? (She refuses to tell him what she does for work, so Juno assigns her a new job every night.)

She’ll respond with something like, Great. If your failed PI business finally tanks, we could always use some new targets.

Maybe if Juno gets drunk enough, he’ll tell her why he’s not planning on ever being sober again. Tell her that he’s such a fucked up human, his fiancee ghosted him three weeks before the wedding with no forwarding address. Over text.

She’ll have to laugh at that. It’s the goddamn joke of the century, and Juno’s the punchline.

He jumps violently when his phone starts ringing. “I know you can hear me, Steel,” Vespa sneers from her balcony.

Juno groans at the name lighting up his screen. He was wrong- he’s not the punchline. Fucking Mick Mercury is.

He almost sends it to voicemail, but at the last second he crosses to the balcony door, wrestles the screen closed as Vespa flips him off (“What, too busy getting wasted alone?”) and finally slides the door shut with a bang.

He leans against the wall by Smallfry’s cage.

“Whaddya want, Mick.” Juno’s brain struggles to keep up with the excited babble streaming out of the phone.

“Juno! That hit we got on your listing? The Peter guy? He messaged again!”

No one’s outright asked Juno, “Did your fiancee ghost you three weeks before your wedding over text?”, so he’s not lying to his friends, per se. He just isn’t ready for the inevitable string of I-told-you-so’s from Rita and Vespa, who have hated Diamond since the moment they waltzed into Juno’s life ten months ago and stomped all over his heart with their designer boots.

Mick, bless him, is blissfully ignorant of Juno’s recent string of unfortunate life events. He’s blissfully ignorant about most things, actually, but his unending stream of well-intentioned business ventures mean he knows how to advertise.

Juno isn’t sure who Craig is, or why he keeps lists of random shit online. All he knows is that he can't afford rent on his own, and Mick owed him a favor. A lot of favors.

“Let me guess, he's found something better and he's not interested anymore.”

Fuck Diamond for putting him in this situation. Even if he deserves it. Even if he should’ve known better.

“No, Juno! He says, and I quote,” he clears his throat and reads dramatically, “‘Juno, would it be possible to move our rendezvous sooner? Due to personal issues I find I’m in need of accommodations a bit sooner than expected, and your ad did say the room was available post haste.’” Mick drops his voice back to normal. “He wants to meet sooner!”

“Yeah, I got that Mick. ‘Post haste’?”

“I went for a 'trustworthy but not desperate' vibe, ya feel?” Juno is quickly wishing he read and approved the ad before Mick posted it across the internet in his name.

“All right Mick, whatever, sure, just let me know when you set it up for.” There’s a long, telling silence. “...Mick?”

“Okay so here’s the thing,” and with that, Juno knows the universe is screwing with him again, “I kinda already told him you could meet him tomorrow morning? At eight? And I gave him the address of the apartment?” His words get faster with each blow.

“You gave him the address? Goddamn it Mick, I thought we were meeting for coffee somewhere first so I could make sure he’s not some wackjob who wants to hack me to pieces and wear my skin as a suit!” Juno’s less worried about becoming a potential skin suit and more worried about waking up before noon with the spectacular hangover he’s got planned, but he’s not going to tell Mick that.

“Oh Juno, you’re so,” he chuckles, “you’re hilarious! Skin suit. Ha! You’ve been watching Law and Order with Rita again, haven’t you?” Juno resists the urge to slam his head into the wall and end it all.

“Anyways, get some sleep tonight and make a good impression on our friend tomorrow! I’ll pass him your number. And hey, maybe you could mention my new Hair-in-a-Can line? One good turn and all that. The recall went real smooth with the last one!”

“Mick, hang on, listen to me-” Juno’s cut off by a loud crash in the background.

“Sorry Juno, gotta go, the cans are a bit more,” a high-pitched scream, “uh, high-pressured than we expected, good luck pal, don’t be a stranger!”

The line goes dead. Perfect. Juno eyes Smallfry.

“Not like I have anything worth stealing, huh? Unless he deals in small, neurotic rabbits.” He restocks Smallfry’s hay before he’s too drunk to remember. Vespa's convinced that a hungry rabbit might be inclined to chew through the apartment wall and go on a carnivorous hunting spree.

“My last roommate had a rabbit. It got mad when their sister’s rabbit got a nicer cage, so it chewed straight through the bars and,” she snapped her fingers, “chomp chomp. Nothing left but rabbits feet.”

“Bullshit.”

“What are you Steel, the rabbit whisperer? Okay, maybe it was a gerbil! Whatever, same difference.”

Then he grabs an extra blanket from the hall closet (it really is starting to get cold), two bottles of liquor, and the TV remote and settles onto the couch for another long night.

***

The best mornings are the mornings Juno wakes up still drunk and pleasantly fuzzy. This is not one of those mornings.

His alarm is playing quite loudly, meaning it’s probably been going off for quite some time, and two things happen in quick succession as his brain painfully struggles towards consciousness.

He rolls over in bed to grab at his phone and realizes the bed is actually a narrow couch. He hits the floor with a heavy thump . He's blindly swiping at the floor trying to turn the damn thing off, ignoring the nagging anxiety that he’s forgotten something important... There!

Blearily, he reads the alarm label… “SOUR CREAM.” What?

There’s a sharp knock at his door. His tipsy brain stumbles around in tight circles. He set that alarm weeks ago while cooking… never bothered to re-label it.... that doesn’t explain…

A second set of knocking, more forceful this time, accompanied by a muffled voice.

It’s 7:50AM and he honestly can’t remember why he’s supposed to be waking up or who could possibly be at the door. No, wait… he vaguely remembers…

Mick. The phone call. The desperate roommate.

All at once, Juno’s certain that he doesn’t need a roommate. It’s only four months after all, and the idea of a complete stranger snooping around his stuff, asking questions about his life, getting tangled up with his job, makes Juno’s skin crawl. It’s not worth the money. He can figure that out… somehow.

It’s decided. He’ll ignore the knocking. This Peter guy will eventually give up, he’ll tell Mick to take down the advertisement, and he’ll figure something else out.

Then a noise outside the door makes his blood run cold. He knows that giggle.

“Sorry Mista Criminal, lemme just, ngh-hungh, try that key.” Rita, traitor secretary and ex-best friend, is using her spare key to let this man into Juno’s apartment. The stranger’s muffled voice leaks through the door. “Could you maybe...?”

There’s no time to think. Juno’s only on the second floor, there are bushes underneath the window. If he can get out quick enough, he might be able to avoid a meeting altogether-

“Thank you Rita, you are an absolute gem, and twice as beautiful if I might add...” the door clicks open.

Might’ve been able to. If he’d moved a little quicker.

“Hello! Juno, I presume?”

Fuck.

#peter nureyev #juno steel #jupeter #the penumbra podcast #quarantine au #omg they were roommates #this turned into a Whole Thing #multi-chapter #Juno Steel and the Series of Unfortunate Life Events

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sorin-in-the-sixth-sense · 4 years

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A list of my favourite fictional grey characters (not in order) SPOILER ALERT!

Regina Mills (Once Upon A Time)

There is a reason why Regina is called «The Evil Queen» She was pure evil. A murderer, a kidnapper, a rapist, how could I like her? Well it wasnt before season 3 I started to like her. It took a lot of time. And I suppose I will never fully love her after she raped Graham for...years... and murdered people - children when she was a tiny bit frustrated. I would even say that she is irredeemable. And I thought her redemtion arc was unrealistic in the beginning, and for God’s sake, she should not have been crowned The Good Queen in season 7. But she tried to change so hard for Henry, she tried to redeem herself. Tried to be a good mother for a change. She saved multiple lives and souls. She didnt completely redeem herself, I must admit it. But she tried so hard and I feel like she deserves something from that. She eventually became a very good mother, even though it was a little late since Henry was already 12 when she became one. She was still a bitter bitch and blamed innocent people for unfortunate things that happened to her (Zelena, Mary Margaret, Emma) but by season 7, she became something more than that. She became half good. Grey. And even though she didnt completely redeem herself, she came close. Also, I love her sassy personality, she should be crowned The Sassy Queen, not The Good Queen.

Rumplestiltskin (Once Upon A Time)

The Dark One who after 7 seasons became one of the greatest heroes in OUAT. The man who was known as the village coward because he ran away from the Ogre War and was too afraid to fight for his wife became one of the bravest men. Like Regina, he was a murderer. He was super manipulative with all his deals and the «all magic comes with a price, dearie» thing. He manipulated people into getting themselves killed. Before he became The Dark One, he was a good man with a pure heart. But the power of the dagger took over him and his heart was all black. He was power sick. He always wanted power, but not for selfish reasons. He felt like he needed power to protect his son Bealfire/Neal and his wife Milah, but when he took that power, the darkness came over him and he, after time, became evil. It wasn’t before he met Belle French his heart showed a little bit of light. As he said, she was his light in an ocean of darkness. Their relationship was problematic and selfish in the beginning. He manipulated her into thinking he changed (which you know i detest *cough* James Potter) Rumple loved power more than he loved her, at least in season 4. He too often chose it over her, until season 6 when he started to properly redeem himself. His redemtion arc took over 300 years but it came in the end. His love for her changed A LOT. In the other seasons, his love was unhealthy and selfish. But in season 6 and 7, he changed a lot. This time it wasnt only for Belle, but Gideon too. They helped him let go of power and in season 7, he tried so hard to get rid of the dagger and the power so that he could live a normal life with his family. And after Belle died, he didn’t return to the dagger or the dark side. He helped the good side to defeat Drizella and the other villians in that season. He even became a father figure to Alice. And in the end he sacrificed himself to save Killian’s (Nook) life. And he got reunited with Belle. He is the most interesting character in OUAT, no doubt there.

Sawyer/James Ford (LOST)

Sawyer is without a doubt one of my fave characters from LOST (after Charlie and John) in his background, he was a thief and manipulated woman to believe he loved them, just to take all their money. (Maybe except Cassidy, since he fell in love with her later, but he still manipulated her AND got her pregnant) He’s a real asshole. Buuut - then he became an entirely different (and better) man. He meets Kate Austen and I feel like his love for her changes his character. In the beginning he was a bit of a perve with her (i mean, walking straight towards her completely naked...) he doesnt develope much in the 1 season, but later (beginning in the 3 season) he becomes quite selfless and protective. In season (was it 4? I dont quite remember) he falls in love again with Juliet Burke, and heeeeell, she was good for him. He also developes a nice relationship with Claire Littleton (platonic) he becomes protective of her. He attemts to comfort Hurley after Charlie’s death. In the rest of the seasons he is the born leader. He puts the team before himself (like when he sacrificed his chance to escape the Island) and in the paralell universe he is absolutely the best.

Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)

Okay, no he’s not exactly a grey character since he’s a lot more dark than light, but I love him too much to not put him here. Differently from the other character I’ve mentioned above, Heathcliff doesnt have a redemtion. He died an awful person. He abused and manipulated a lot of people. Before he became this asshole, he was a much better person. He was an ass to those who deserved it (Hindley, That bitch deserved to die so young. Edward was a kind man, but I don’t like him, sooo... nevermind) The way he treated Isabella was sickening and awful, she had every right to leave him and take Linton away and hate him. I Don’t like Isabella, but she never deserved to be treated that way. His love for Cathy was unhealthy, but it was true and he would do so much for her. (They kinda remind me of Snily, so ofc I ship it) Heathcliff went through so much trauma in his life and never recovered. After Cathy died, he was practically dead too, then he killed himself years later. His life made me cry for days, especially the ending. He is such an interesting character with so many layers.

Ulrich Nielsen (Dark)

(Before I say anything, I haven’t finished the entire show yet, so this is gonna be short and probably not 100% correct)

To be honest, I don’t like Ulrich at all as a person. I look at him and I see a fully grown up man with no remorse for what he did to Regina as a teen. He cheated on his wife with a woman he didnt even love. He tried to murder a CHILD who hadnt done anything wrong (yet) because he thought he was going to kill his brother and son in the future (okay, i get why he did it. He was desperate to get Mikkel back and the whole time-tarvelig thing was extremely stressfull) BUT HE COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING A LOT LESS HARMFULL TO PREVENT EVERYTHING TO HAPPEN. Despite this, i love him as a character. He is so interesting and there are times were I have to remind myself why i dont like him. He is brave and intelligent and... so fucking hot as a teen.

Hannah Kahnwald (Dark)

(Again, havent watched the whole show yet)

This girl is MESSED UP. When she was fourteen, she accused Ulrich of being a rapist, which is a very serious accusation and then blamed it on Regina who she knew was a victim of Ulrich and Katharina’s bullying. She is a home-wrecker, and when Katharina found out about Ulrich cheating on her with Hannah and confronted her, Hannah blamed it on Ulrich and said he pressed her and that she wanted it to end, but he refused or whatever, i dont 100% remember the conversation. But she was also a very good mother to Jonas and she was so sweet to Mikkel/Michael. She is a bitch, so much that its impossible to not like her.

Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

Saved the best one to last. The guy my whole account is about, ofc he’s on this list, and ofc this is gonna be the longest text.

This guy is a complete asshole. Always has been, always will be. He bullied Harry and Co (mostly Harry and Neville) he was a bitter and sarcastic bitch. He used to be a follower of Voldemort. Even in his youth he had a lot of flaws. We all know he became the bastard he was due to childhood trauma, mental illnesses and manipulation. I believe he had depression, grief and PTSD. At least in his 20’s he was suicidal, and I believe it remained like that til the day he died, because he had no one to help him or give him support. He turned to the dark side in an attemt to make his life better (as many members of gangs do) but he only stayed like that for two years, which is extremely impressive if you know what kind of person Voldemort is. As a 21 year old, Snape was a very different person from what he was as a 38 year old. If he was the way he was as a 38 yr old when Lily, James and Harry was in danger. First of all, he wouldnt start to try to save Lily by asking Voldemort, he would have went straight to Dumbledore, probably with his own brilliant plan on how to save them. Second, he wouldnt hesitate for a second to save James and Harry to. In canon, he needed to have a personal reason to save them, which was Lily’s feelings I believe. As a 38 yr old, he risked his life to save people he hated (Lupin) This is a great character developement. He went from being a selfish bitch, to become a selfless asshole. He was that kind of person who did anything in his power to protect someone, even if that person had nothing to do with winning the war and had nothing to gain himself.

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rumpledgoldenweaver · 4 years

Text

TV Night

Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt “I want to watch”

Read it on my blog https://earlyrisingwriting.home.blog/2020/03/26/tv-night/

This isn’t really smutty… I don’t know if I can do smut properly.. so I’ve gone for humour..?

All Belle wants to do is watch a film in peace..

She tried very hard not to sound overly pleased when Rumple called saying he’d been roped into attending a Storybrooke Council meeting that probably wouldn’t finish until late. In fact she actually managed to get through the entire conversation without letting the grin on her face show in her tone of voice. All she had to do now was wait until Gideon went to bed then she could have the treat she’d been promising herself for a month.

A box of paperback books had been left on the library circulation desk whilst Belle had been at lunch. She had no idea who the benefactor was, however not one to look a gift horse in the mouth she’d started to sort through them. One in particular had caught her eye as the photo of the leading man reminded her of Rumple.

Book One: Woven Lace – Hot to Touch

Belle devoured the book in one sitting. Scouring the internet for more she found that a straight to video film had been made of the first book, even better it was available to stream for free via Netflix. Now the perfect opportunity had presented itself. Her husband was out, her son fast asleep. Dressed in comfy pyjamas and armed with a bottle of wine Belle settled herself on the sofa, ready to indulge.

“Lacey this is police station not a pick up joint. You can’t keep wandering in here and..”

“Oh Detective” Lacey purred running a manicured red nail down the front of his shirt “you know you love it when I come here and entertain you”

“Is that what you call it?” damn that woman. He should tell her to leave. Really should tell her to leave

“Or entertain you and come.. take your pick”

Her hand had reached his belt, deft fingers were starting to undo it

“Lacey. Please don’t..”

“Don’t what Detective? What don’t you want me to do?”

“Stop” he groaned “dammit Lacey don’t stop..”

Belle was transfixed. She had never heard of the actor playing Weaver - Robert something.. she would be Googling him as soon as the film finished. That wasn’t all she’d like to do to him. She gigged, Ruby was bad influence on her.

“What on earth is that?”

Belle simultaneously jumped, blushed and fumbled with the remote in order to try and turn the film off. So engrossed was she in Woven Lace’s on screen activities that she hadn’t heard Rumple arriving home.

“Nothing.. just some TV programme or other..”

“Oh I see” Rumple grinned, parking himself next to Belle on the sofa “Well press play then”

“What?”

“Press play. Come on I want to watch”

Belle stared at him. Surely he was joking? Nope he wasn’t, he was teasing her and thoroughly enjoying it like the asshole he could be sometimes.

“How was the council meeting? Let me get you a glass of wine...”

“Nowhere near as interesting as your TV show. Whatever it’s called..” he pressed the button that put information about the film on screen “Woven Lace: Hot to Touch apparently. Ooh!”

Belle returned with a second glass.

“You can watch but please try not to give a running commentary”

Rumple’s hand covered his heart, a look of mock indignation on his face “Me? Never!”

“Hmmm” was the only response his wife made as she pressed the play button.

He lasted about ten minutes

“Who is that actor? I’ve seen him in something...”

“Robert Carlyle”

“What’s he been in?”

“I don’t know. Google him”

“Certainly wouldn’t recognise him from that angle”

“Rumple!”

“Sorry”

The action had moved from Detective Weaver’s office to his apartment. He’d had found a use for a spare pair of handcuffs, Lacey was demonstrating a rather impressive range of movement.

“He’s a messy sod. Clothes everywhere”

Belle snorted “Not everyone puts their three piece suit back in the wardrobe on tissue covered hangers before taking their lover to bed”

“Touché”

Glancing across he noticed that for all her sharp retorts Belle looked rather pink around the ears, he leaned in and whispered “You fancy him don’t you”

The pink blush got deeper “Who?”

Rumple grinned “Who she says. Him on the TV.. Robert Weaver or whatever he’s called”

“I...”

“Yes you do”

Belle looked at him “He reminds me of you”

“What? An old, grey haired short arse?”

“No! A hot silver fox who obviously looks after himself”

The view on the screen left them both in no doubt as to the actor’s health and fitness regime.

“Indeed” grunted Rumple.

The sound of a small voice crying for his Mama silenced any further retort. “Oh fuck” Belle and Lacey exclaimed in unison though for completely different reasons.

“I’ll go” Rumple got up and stalked out of the room.

Belle sighed. All she wanted was two hours peace to watch a trashy, shamelessly pornographic movie. Was that really too much to ask?

Gideon was very happy to see his Papa, he got a story, cuddles and a promise of pancakes for breakfast the next day. Rumple was more than willing to indulge his boy whatever he wanted. He closed Gideon’s bedroom door, instead of heading back downstairs to torment Belle some more, he headed to their room and sat heavily on the bed. Knowing full well it was silly to be jealous of an actor and indeed he was being childish, selfish as well as all the other litany of charges likely to be held against him by his wife didn’t help. He considered using magic to help him apologise. He could conjure anything she desired. He looked at his wardrobe door. Maybe he wouldn’t need magic.

The film ended with Weaver and Lacey declaring their undying lust for each other. Belle switched off the television, huffing to herself. Rumple hadn’t come back downstairs after settling Gideon, no doubt he was sulking somewhere, dreaming up fantastical revenges against Mr Carlyle for daring to capture her attention. She was shaken out of her mental preparations for appeasing a moody Dark One by a knock at the door.

Who in the seven hells was calling at this time of night? If it’s one of the Charmings she muttered I’ll turn them into a bloody frog myself. Never mind the Dark one, it’s the Dark Wife you need to be wary of.

Whoever it was knocked again “Alright alright keep the noise down” she pulled open the door, a mouthful of abuse ready and waiting to go for whoever was on the other side.

“Mrs Gold?”

Belle opened her mouth and then shut it again. Detective Weaver was stood on her porch, head cocked to one side, thumbs in his jeans pockets, smirking. The top three buttons of his shirt were undone, a heavy silver bracelet visible from under the sleeves of his leather jacket.

No way thought Belle.

“Mrs Belle Gold?” Weaver repeated

“Yes...”

“It’s been reported that you are watching pornographic material whilst under the influence of alcohol. Is that right Mrs Gold?”

“It might be” she smiled, catching on to her husband’s game.

“May I come in?” Weaver entered the house without waiting for a reply, Belle shut the door behind him.

“You do realise Mrs Gold that those are very serious offences. I will need to take you into custody”

He dangled a pair of handcuffs from the end of one finger “Will you come quietly?”

“Absolutely not” Belle grinned

Her husband gave a filthy smile “I was hoping you’d say that”

#a monthly rumbelling #rumbelle #woven lace #smut that isn't smutty

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kelyon · 3 years

Note

Fair warning: you may not like what I have to say but I can’t let this pass by. Any healthy SSC BDSM relationship is one where the sub has full agency and can stop the play whenever they choose. I used to be in the BDSM community. SSC is paramount there. Anything less than this is considered RACK (which is dubious on its face) and even potentially abuse. Having said this, I truly do not understand how you can call ‘Golden Cuffs’ a BDSM story? Belle has no agency up to the point I stopped (I’m sorry, I couldn’t go further, it was antithesis to what we hold as nonnegotiable). Making a choice under duress at the start is nowhere near the realm of proper agency. The cuffs take away her agency. The violence against her person takes away her agency. And on and on. BDSM in stories can be wonderful, if done correctly. Rape, non-consensual torture, being forced to sleep in a dungeon that makes one ill...these are not okay to put under the umbrella. Does the story reveal that Belle actually had agency all along? Did she make a deal with Rumple that we didn’t see where she plays out these fantasies with him with her rules firmly in place? I know there’s the “don’t like don’t read” idea but this misinformation is dangerous to have on places like tumblr or AO3 where some people might try to learn about the subjectfrom an author they admire or even trust. BDSM already has enough stigmas, and work like this just makes it seem like we’re all degenerates out to hurt people or control them. You are responsible for what you put out there. I urge you to please have a care going forward.

Hello! Thanks for stopping by! It’s been a while since I’ve had a comment like this. There are a billion conversations that could be had about BDSM and Beauty and the Beast stories and Rumbelle and Golden Cuffs. Anything I say here is bound to be incomplete or unsatisfactory.

First off, you’re right. Absolutely no real person should give their sexual agency or physical safety to another real person without having a thorough mutual understanding of what is or is not acceptable. BDSM is about trust. Safety, Sanity, and Consent are the most important things in, honestly, any relationship or interaction you have with another person.

I’ll take a minute to state the obvious: This is a work of erotica based on a tv show based on a fairy tale. Nothing in this should be taken literally. Young women should not agree to leave their families to live in castles with monsters--not as prospective brides, not as maids, not as sex slaves. In the world of the story, Belle’s “normal” future is still marriage. She thinks of a future with Gaston as being pretty much the same as a future with the Dark One.

I call this a BDSM story because I think that people who are interested in BDSM will find things in this story that interest them. I hope it’s understood that this is a work of fiction, and not even a fictional depiction of a modern healthy BDSM community or scene. The story is a fantasy for the reader, even though it’s not a fantasy for Belle. It’s true that Belle doesn’t have a lot of the things that would be mandatory in a real scene--like safe words. Heck, she doesn’t even have “scenes.” This is her constant reality. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting that.

I know this next question will come off as condescending and I beg your forgiveness. But I have to know: What chapter are you on? Is it chapter 14? Mentally, I call that chapter “the first deal-breaker,” because that’s when even people who made it through the first 14 chapters tend to jump ship. And I don’t blame them for that. (I don’t blame anyone for nopeing out of any work of fiction. Your mental health is more important than my scribbles!)

The central tension of Golden Cuffs is having Rumple and Belle find a dynamic that works for them. In the process of that, they find out a whole lot of ways that it doesn’t work, and there are catastrophic consequences.

To summarize a famous Tumblr proverb “That character did something problematic!” “Yes. It’s a plot point. They’ll get better.”

In chapter 14 of Golden Cuffs, Rumple fucks up. He also fucks up in chapter 15. And chapters 27-31, 35, and 42-45. This is a story of him fucking up in new and creative ways. Every time he does, he tries to make it better, and eventually he makes it worse again. I understand someone not wanting to read this kind of story. And that’s fine.

But the story exists, it is properly tagged, and I even include authors notes on any chapters that I consider especially troublesome. I truly hope that anyone who reads the entirety of the fic will come away with an idea of what a healthy, happy, kinky relationship is like.

Take care!

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celticheartedfangirl · 4 years

Text

My OUAT Rewatch -- S5E14 -- Devil’s Due

Link to Rewatch Review and Ranking archive

Everyone stand back, it’s time to honor the MOM OF THE YEAR!

Yeah, if you’re a Milah fan, you may want to back away now. In fact, you may want to back away PERMANENTLY from my blog because I have no love or empathy or sympathy or ANYTHING for this fucking bitch except cheering for the fact that not only is she dead, she’s DOUBLE DEAD.

Yeah you heard me. Not even sorry.

So I went back to look at March 2016 me to see what some of my thoughts were on this one. I had LOTS to say but I want to focus in on a few key things:

1. I loathe Milah. She’s a bitch, an abusive spouse, and just a piece of shit in general, and probably one of THE worst parents on the show, and that’s saying something given this show. I don’t feel one ounce of sympathy or sorry for her. Not ONE. Not even half of a half of a half of a half of one.

And I had about HAD IT with the Milah apologists in this fandom, and I’m not just talking about the OUAT fandom in general, I’m talking about the RUMBELLE fandom. Yes, there are Milah apologists in the RUMBELLE fandom. I’d wave hi to them, but I’m pretty sure they all have me blocked. Or vice versa. Or we are mutually blocked.

GOOD.

Anyhow, I wrote this very lengthy, pointed post after this episode on why the character of Milah disturbs me so much, so here it is:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141406210392/seeing-pro-milah-stuff-on-my-dash-is-so-upsetting

I blocked A LOT of people after this episode initially aired. Not even sorry.

There is also this excellent post laying out exactly how Milah is abusive for all the idiots who claim that “Milah never abused Rumple”:

https://violetfaust.tumblr.com/post/133300598121/milah-never-abused-rumple

I know I’m being blunt here but this character triggers me more than any other character on the show. She is TERRIBLE. Just in this episode, let’s look at what mommie dearest did in the flashback ALONE:

1. She yells at Rumple for PLAYING WITH HIS CHILD. Seriously.

2. As soon as Bae gets bitten by the snake, they go to a healer and her immediate -- IMMEDIATE idea is “Hey, let’s KILL HIM!” I mean, sure, her kid is dying, I’m sure any parent would do anything to save their child, but I honestly think most would stop short of “Hey, let’s do murder!” unless the way of saving their child was stopping an actual murderer who was trying to murder their child. But nope, Milah goes right for bloodlust. But of course SHE can’t do the killing, let’s make her husband do that, then get mad at him when he can’t muster up the same level of glee for murder that she can.

3. After Bae is healed, she goes STRAIGHT TO THE BAR. Doesn’t stay to comfort her son that almost died. Nope -- goes off to drink and look for the pirate that flirted with her earlier. You stay classy, Milah.

Which brings me to the issue that caused all kinds of debate when this episode aired -- “Ermagod Rumple took Milah’s agency with that deal he made!”

Oh, please.

Who thinks that Rumple and Milah had anything that remotely resembled sex since he came back from the ogre wars?

PLEASE. That was a DEAD BEDROOM. They weren’t planning on more kids.

And hey, if mom of the year Milah wanted more kids, why weren’t there a bunch of baby Killybunnies running around on the Jolly Roger given that she was off with him for at least EIGHT YEARS.

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141199068997/violetfaust-chanceofserendipity-rebelside

Rumple’s choices are always -- ALWAYS -- shit, shittier, and shittiest. He NEVER has a good option. His choices were

a) Bae dies

b) he commits MURDER

c) he give up a hypothetical second child that he literally has NO REASON to think will ever exist

Which one would YOU pick, oh great and wonderful Milah defenders? Tell me your brilliant plans if YOU were in that situation.

“Oh he should have talked to Milah” HELLO have you ever seen this abusive cow be reasonable to him? NO. You can’t reason with an ABUSER. So don’t even give me that bullshit answer, sit down.

Just look at this bitch:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141713831697/emospritelet-thatravenclawbitch-woodelf68

Using sex as a weapon on her abused, desperate spouse. Yes, I know we love squishy woobie!Rumple but this is ABUSE. Using sex as a weapon is ABUSE.

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141212899672/milah-never-abused-rumple-we-only-saw-a-little-bit

And in the underworld, Rumple is AGAIN faced with a no-win, no good solution situation.

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141427043007/you-used-to-say-belle-not-having-a-reaction-when

Honestly, if the genders were reversed and Rumple were a woman and Milah were a man, the whole fandom would be like:

I’m done with Milah, just talking about her makes me stabby. So onto Emma . . . . here’s March 2016 me:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141400138912/so-hold-up-emma-tells-milah-about-neal

Someone slap her for me.

Also the “Poor Hook” bullshit:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141200226257/what-pisses-me-off-the-most-about-the-whole-save

And Adam running away from fans who ask him valid questions that he has zero answers for:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141895654207/audreyslovegrows-queen-of-the-merry-men

But Belle is pregnant so . . . . . yay? I remember thinking back then, “Gee I wonder how they’ll fuck THIS up.”

Here, have some hilarious fan art from the really good scene we all love:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/141429781082

BTW, despite all the bitching, MAJOR KUDOS to Robert Carlyle for knocking it out of the park on this one! Well done, sir!

This show doesn’t deserve you.

Points tally:

40 points to start

15 points for Rumple centric (was the last one SERIOUSLY Season 3? I think it was, JFC, this show . . . . )

10 points for Papafire

5 points for Swan Queen

5 points for in character Rumple

5 points deducted for Hook

Despite my bitching, which is mainly about the CHARACTER Milah, I didn’t dislike this episode. Full 25 bonus, no deductions.

Total points: 95

Follow #celtichearted OUAT ranking tag for more to come!

#celtichearted ouat ranking #devil's due #anti milah #anti emma swan #tw: abuse #pro rumple

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cogentranting · 4 years

Text

I still think Once Upon a Time could have done something really interesting if Rumple died instead of Neal in season 3.

Rumple has arcs I like after season 3, but overall when I look back at his full story over the seven seasons, it doesn’t work very well because there are too many back and forths between he’s redeemed, no he’s not, he’ll do anything for Belle, he’s gonna be really abusive for a season etc. It’s too inconsistent. But if you end the story with his death in 3, it’s a pretty clear clean arc.

Meanwhile Neal is the Dark One’s son, a huge part of Emma’s origins, Henry’s father, the whole reason the curse was cast... and his impact in the present is pretty minimal. Even his sacrificial death doesn’t actually do that much. It just tells them who the witch is (which they could have found out if they just thought to themselves for a second ‘hmm there’re exactly two new people in town after this second curse. Zelena and Robin. I wonder which one is the evil witch lady?’). Even his role within the love triangle feels underutilized because Emma never makes any sort of choice. She never even really confronts her complicated feelings for Neal.

So what if, instead, Rumple dies stopping Pan same as always, but then when Neal brings him back using the vault, the way that they save Neal is not by doing the weird combining Neal and Rumple thing- it’s by giving Neal the dagger and having him stab Rumple, becoming the Dark One.

Then you have Rumple die his big hero death in 3A and cement it in 3B by not letting Neal trade his life for his. And you have Neal suffer the consequences of turning to Dark magic regardless of the price, by being corrupted. From that point forward, Neal can take the place of most of Rumple’s story lines.

For the rest of 3B Neal is the Dark One and is controlled by Zelena. Through this there’s little hints of him going dark but mostly he remains the same. During this Emma follows the same progression in her relationship with Hook, but at the same time gets to actually make the choice to close the door on her relationship with Neal instead of having it closed for her. She can even make that choice at around the same point that Neal dies in the real show (3x15). Then at the end of the season, Neal is free, seems to be stable, but kills Zelena, just like Rumple did. This is his tipping point into becoming really the Dark One.

Season 4A his motivations are essentially the same as what Rumples were; he wants to separate himself from the dagger but keep his power (because he’s been powerless his whole life, trapped by his father, by Pan, in hiding in the real world, controlled by Zelena etc. and he’s never gonna be controlled again blah blah blah). He still takes Hook’s heart but this time the connection dives more into the whole twisted family history and their Neverland connection. You maybe bring in some of the “you took Emma from me” idea but keep it pretty clearly as a side thing. The whole situation now has this added note of tragedy because instead of a straightforward rivalry there was once real familial affection between them. At the end of 4A he’s driven out of town just like Rumple. I think you maintain the connection/friendship that he had with Belle in 3x15 throughout 3B and 4A and still have her be the one to use the dagger for this (though now maybe also have Hook and Emma there as his other two main connections) and it still reflects similar growth in how she views the Dark Ones just with the romantic element removed.

4B plays out basically the same except that instead of Rumple rewriting his story to make Belle love him, Neal is trying to force Henry to love him (you use 4A to do more with their relationship of them trying to build something but it being off because of how Neal is being corrupted, and then you use Hook and Henry bonding as a foil for that, a positive alternative. This influences the animosity Neal feels while he’s controlling Hook. And at the end of the arc Henry also cuts ties with Neal. In fact if you wanted you could have him fully take the role of Belle in this arc and not develop a relationship with Belle and Neal. However, I don’t want to cut Belle from the story, so you’d have to find her a completely new arc. Maybe you find her a new love interest (not Will. Ana’s his true love) or maybe you just develop her as a friend for Mary Margaret or Emma. ) The story mostly plays out the same way but with Henry a little more center which fits well with his role in the finale becoming the author. However, there are two difficulties. 1. you have to remove the arc about the darkness killing Rumple, since Neal wouldn’t have accumulated near enough darkness to be killing him. You do have to work in some actually truly evil things for him to do instead of just evil things he almost does, so I think some characters have to really get murdered. I’m thinking Archie or some fairies since they don’t do much anyone and everyone would be horrified. The attempt to remove the darkness to save him would need slightly different justification but it’s all magical mumbo-jumbo anyway so who cares. Potentially he could do something to try to hurt Henry and that could be framed as “an act so dark and against his nature that it’s destroying all the light in his heart” or something like. or it could just be a misguided attempt to stop him from being the Dark One that backfires. The other difficulty is the alternate storybook. The finale story line really only works if Henry isn’t initially in the book. But I think you can work around that just by saying that A. Isaac is pulling the strings and B. putting in something about how because Henry is the author, their attempts to rewrite him into the book didnt’ work. Other than that it’s the same. You can even still have “heroic Rumple” in the story.

Season 5A plays out the same except Belle needs a new plot. Play up the Merida connection, let her flirt with Merlin, have her trying to save Neal for the sake of Rumple. I don’t know, her 5A story isn’t great to begin with. Emma and Hook’s Dark One guide is still Rumple not Neal (for that matter if you want to keep Rumple around let Neal see Imp Rumple as his guide for a season or so). Letting Hook die to get his power back is seen as a big step toward Neal being irredeemable. His underworld arc involves a lot of back and forth of different influences-- he’s being forced to try to save Hook who he’s burned a bunch of bridges with, he’s reunited with his mother who gets to move on but her influence isn’t enough to save him, Pan plays more of a role of trying to forge a connection with him, and ultimately he keeps making worse and worse choices until he’s more and more like Rumple at his worst. Eventually he sides with Hades in the conflict and he ends up killing someone (Robin if you want to keep the rest of the story mostly the same, Zelena if you want to make further changes. Belle if you want to go really dark and tragic.) Then Henry trying to destroy magic in the finale is a direct parallel of Baelfire trying to go to a land without magic, because this time Henry is trying to save Neal from the influence of the Dark One. But the season still ends with Neal being the most evil he’s been yet.

Season 6 has more of a shift. The Black Fairy is still a major influence but instead of using Gideon (who no longer exists in our story), she’s interacting with Neal directly. You keep the savior Rumple backstory because it still plays into the themes of the family history and the two sides of Henry’s lineage. But here Fiona takes more of a backseat and Neal becomes the main villain of the season, and in a lot of ways the culminating villain of the main seasons 1-6 arc. It ends with Emma defeating him, but after he’s defeated there’s a moment of him turning on Fiona inspired by Henry’s love for him (very Luke and Vader- esque). This isn’t presented as redeeming Neal, just offering a glimmer of hope for his redemption. He ends up banished back to the enchanted forest (or another realm).

Neal then takes Rumple’s role in season 7. He’s looking for the Guardian but now the motivation is sort of a short cut to redeeming himself-- he’s trying to remove the darkness at the expense of someone else in hopes of it magically making him back into who he once was. The Alice relationship is essentially the same. Now the Weaver/Tilly relationship also provides a sort of parallel to the his relationship with Emma when they first met (though of course not romantic) except this time he’s redeeming himself by becoming a more positive influence rather than shaping her into a thief. The Weaver/Rogers relationship plays basically the same role, with adjustments made to accommodate the ways in which the Hook/Neal relationship is different from Hook/Rumple one. But now, Weaver’s connection to Henry is a big deal, and the relationship ties the plot lines together more tightly. Neal’s redemption plays out through this season in equal parts through Alice, Rogers and Henry. It culminates in the finale, with Wish Rumple still being in the finale as a sort of final temptation, and with the glimpse of evil Wish Henry being an inspiration toward his final act of redemption, saving Rogers in order to heal the separated father and child in a way that his own family was never able to heal. This is also plays a part in Wish Henry and real Henry’s final confrontation.

The way I’ve described it here make it sounded a little like focus is shifted off of Emma, but that’s not the case, her story remains virtually the same and she is just as dominant. But this gives us three clear avenues- the hero lineage with Snow and Charming and Emma, the redeemed villains with Regina and Hook, and the villain lineage with Pan, the Black Fairy, Rumple and Neal. It gives us a clear through-line on the side of the villains where each subsequent villain gets us closer to our ultimate villain as we watch Neal go from the kind and noble son of the Dark One who he lost, to the skeevy love interest, to the Dark One and the main nemesis. His negative character development becomes the antiparallel to Emma’s heroic growth.

It also keeps the story lines more closely linked, since often Rumple’s motives in the real show are tangential to what the main heroes are doing. Neal’s corrupt “love” of Henry that put him in clear opposition to Emma’s true love. The romantic history of Emma and Neal informs and complicates their dynamic and presents extra challenges in confronting him, without being a main point, except to positively highlight the strengths of the Captain Swan romance. It let’s Emma be a clear nemesis to the main villain, rather than an incidental obstacle. Defeating him also thematically represents defeating the tragedies of her past-- rising above the broken relationship that made her stop trusting, led to her giving up her son, and putting up her walls etc. in order to be someone who is a wonderful mother, is very happily married, and a hero who protects everyone.

It also streamlines Henry’s arc. There’s some concept in the existing story of Henry’s mixed lineage, but it’s only explored intermittently. This allows him to have clear representation from all three avenues: from his mother’s side of the family you have the clear heroes. From his father’s side you have the worst villains. And in his chosen family (his adoptive mother and his stepfather) you have the redeemed villains. He’s the product of every type of great hero and villain. By having an evil Neal continually vying for his affections, and having Henry continually and consistently choosing the side of good and hope and redemption, you have a clear representation in him of the show’s main themes. The finale involving adult Henry, Wish Henry, Wish Rumple, Dark Neal, Regina, a version of Hook (even if it’s not actually the one that’s Henry’s step father) and (in this version) more of a presence for Emma (discussing her more even if you still couldn’t have her in it, but if we’re spinning entire alternate shows here, I’m putting her in the finale) Henry and Wish Henry become a focal point for the themes of the show and Henry’s triumph and the resulting redemption for Neal become a representation of the show’s values. The heroes of seasons 1-6 who aren’t in season 7 also get a piece of this final triumph because their influence on Henry (making him someone who ultimately kind, and generous, and brave and faithful) is what has won out in the end.

#ouat #ouat au #ouat rewatch

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eirian-houpe · 4 years

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Scattered - Chapter 7

Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold

Characters: Belle (Once Upon a Time), Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Gaston (Once Upon a Time), Maurice | Moe French, Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Alex (OC)

Additional Tags: AU, Curse gone wrong, Rape/Non-con Elements, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Cruelty, Abuse, Triggers, Eventual Smut, Romance, Character Death, Gaston is evil, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform

Summary: Casting a spell, any spell - at least the ones that involve more than just the wave of a hand, or worse, the wave of an irritating fairy’s wand - takes time, and patience, and the right ingredients, and… just like any recipe, if you get it wrong, it doesn’t mean the cake won’t cook, rather then will, just with unexpected or unintended outcomes. All of Rumplestiltskin’s careful planning and manipulation, all of his hopes and dreams turn to dust; ashes in his bitter heart in the blink of an eye… in the fall of an equine heart. Belle exchanges one terrible prison for another, and it’s one she is desperate to escape, and though Rumple’s fate as The Savior was severed from him centuries ago, sometimes fate itself has a way of finding an alternate route home.

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[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6]

Chapter 7 - ...Always Comes With A Price

Jefferson refused to move as Regina tried to stare him down. They’d been here before… almost this same, precise showdown, and with the same leverage. Grace.

The last time hadn’t ended well, in fact it was instrumental in his separation from Grace now and he wasn’t about to repeat his own stupid mistakes, not where Regina was concerned.

“No,” he said, sounding almost convincing. So for good measure he added, “Absolutely not.”

Regina simply stared at him, her eyes hard, her gaze calculating and he could almost read the formulation of further threats that were - he had no doubt of it - going through her head at that moment. He fidgeted, tugging at his jacket, and just as he felt himself starting to falter, the thought of his daughter - lost to him in this cursed world - almost shattering his resolve, he had a realization, and snapped, “Besides, it’s moot, and you know it. There’s no magic in this world, ergo, my hat won’t work.” He straightened up then, feeling a flush of satisfaction at Regina’s expression of distaste, so added, with no small amount of satisfaction, “Face it, your majesty, you’re screwed.”

The expression of distaste turned to one of amusement, and then smugness as she began to tsk softly, and came out from behind the desk, waving her finger at him like a ticking metronome.

“Oh, ye of little faith, Jefferson,” she said. “Did you honestly think I would bring myself to a world such as this one, without some kind of… contingency plan?”

Jefferson groaned. He might have known. He should have known, but an act of desperation had him blurt out, “If you use all your magic to power the hat, what will you have left to summon him even if I can get you the dagger?” He followed her as she paced across the room and he continued. “You know even that can’t work across realms.”

“Unless there’s already an open portal - yes, yes, I know.” She sounded bored.

“You prepared for something like this, didn’t you?” he said, accusing and incredulous.

“Oh, p-lease,” she scoffed, “you think I’d ever trust that twisted little imp?”

“So what happens now?” Belle asked as she finally pulled away from his embrace. She felt somehow cold without his arms around her, in spite of the still too recent assault. She felt safe in his arms.

“What happens now,” he said, his voice almost a strange kind of sing-song tone, “is that you stay here, under my protection, until you’re healed - until you’re well.”

“But,” she began, not even sure how to formulate what she was even trying to ask. “But… my people…? My father!” her stomach twisted into knots. When her father heard that she was missing, it could kill him… if Gaston even bothered to tell him, though she thought Gaston might instead tell a storybook full of lies that would be just as hurtful. She truly feared for her father in his condition.

“Belle…” Rascende tried to interrupt, but she wouldn’t let him; couldn’t.

“My father is sick. Very sick,” she said, reaching out to grasp one of his hands in near desperation. “If he hears of this, of anything, it could steal away his will to get well again; to live.” She felt her hands tremble against the warmth of Rascende’s. “Without my father, our people will suffer. Gaston will—”

“You leave him to me,” Rascende growled, then he blinked and softened the hard expression that had entered his eyes at the mention of Gaston’s name. He shifted his grasp around her fingers then until he was holding her hand and she no longer desperately clutching at his. “Just rest, my Belle,” he said gently, “And leave everything else to me. I promise I will take care of your father, and see to it that Gaston can’t hurt anyone any more.”

She did not miss the way he called her his, but it soothed her, comforted the painful tension coiling in her so that she focused on his words, his promise to her and something in her trusted him more deeply than she had ever trusted another in her life. She wanted to talk to him, to tell him everything and surrender to him and his promise of aid.

“Chanctonbury,” she said, the hated name a breath on her lips. “He did this… did something so that my father would exhaust the coffers and—”

She jumped as Rascende’s soft finger touched just lightly on her lip and she silenced at once, stilled, and was uncertain whether it had been some kind of magic on his part to make her stop speaking, stop panicking and take several deep breaths, one after another.

“I have promised you,” he said quietly, “have I not, that I will take care of your father and make this little… problem… you have with the young lord Chanctonbury and his father go away…?” his voice took on a the same, and yet somehow exaggerated sing song tone as before. “And in return, all I ask is that you rest, and allow yourself to get well again.” He tipped his head to one side, to regard her, his warm brown eyes rippling with a strange, light, amber-gold for just a moment as he finished, “Do we have a deal?”

Another time… or a dream; a nightmare. Monsters, ogres, her people in danger and a strange little man offering help… for a price.

”What I want is something a bit more special.” His fingers curled in a gesture she couldn’t identify, before his hand disappeared behind her father’s form for a moment. “My price…” she saw him then, pointing over her father’s shoulder, “is her.”

Her head spun, she felt caught in a whirlwind, between two worlds with no foot in either where she belonged or where she should be, and in some unspoken way she knew, she knew, that neither one of them was here. She felt her eyes begin to roll and her eyelids flutter, the dislocation causing nausea to bite hard.

“Belle…?” strong hands - his hands - closed around her upper arms. “Belle what’s wrong?”

The touch grounded her. Her mind began to clear in spite of the lingering feeling of faintness, and before the words could slip away she whispered softly, “The deal… is struck.”

“Belle look at me!” he commanded, though his voice was somehow still gentle, and not without hope. “Look at me. Hold on to it… remember…”

Desperation crept in too, though he tried not to allow it. He wanted her to remember, needed her to, then he could protect her properly, without this transparent charade. Why had Regina done this… more to the point how?

What if it wasn’t Regina?

Impossible! he scoffed mentally, pushing the thought away in the face of the struggle he saw on Belle’s face, as though she were trying, and trying hard to obey his command, to hold tight to the ledge but with fingers that were slipping. If only he could catch her. Who could possibly be strong enough to disrupt the casting of the dark curse… Impossible!

“I… I don… I can’t…” Belle’s voice, colored with deep confusion pulled him out of his almost frightened musings.

“Look at me, Belle,” he said again, “Tell me… what did you see? What did you remember?”

Her eyes were beginning to lose that slightly glazed, faraway expression and he cursed inwardly, almost begging for more time. If only he could get her to speak of it, to keep it.

“R… Rumple…” she closed her eyes, her face a frown as she spoke his name, “…stiltskin…?”

“Yes,” he breathed and gripped her more tightly, “Yes, it’s me. I’m here. Forever, remember?”

“Yeah, I…” she murmured even more faintly.

He tried so hard to somehow keep a hold of her; of her mind, of her memory, even as the shield flared and wavered around them… holding, though inside the cottage, the pots rattled on the hearth. He looked that way, for barely a second.

“Master Rascende…” Belle pulled away from his grasp on one side to be able to run a hand over her face. His heart lurched then sank, constricting in his chest as if the bile rising in his throat were a hand that grasped it. “…forgive me,” she continued, “I don’t know what came over me.”

“You’ve… been through a lot,” he told her, managing to keep his voice surprisingly steady, even through his own pain, “Perhaps you just need to rest a little more.”

She offered him a slightly bemused, slightly embarrassed smile. “I’m sure you’re right,” she whispered. “But you… you’ll still… you’ll help…?”

“Of course I will,” he gave her a sorrowing smile. “Just as soon as morning comes, I’ll go to Amberley hall and see what’s to be done… beginning with your father.”

She reached out and clutched at his arm as she lay down, and he carefully covered her again with the blanket. “Thank you, Rascende. Truly.”

His lips tightened from a smile into a part of the serious expression that overtook his face. “Think nothing of it,” he said, gently pushing with magic drawn from the growing things of the forest, and the natural turning of the seasons, the Land, to nudge her toward sleep. “I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

She acquiesced quickly, and he freed himself from her gentle grasp to stalk toward the fireplace, each step changed him from the gentle man he had been at her side to the tightly coiled spring of resentment, rage and pain. He reached inside of his jacket and closed his hand around the item he mentally summoned to the hidden pocket within. The familiar weight of the handle a comfort, a shelter to him in times such as these. He needed greater power, and this could give it to him immediately; without the need to wait on his full attunement with the natural magic of this world. It would serve him greatly - as greatly as he had already, always, and still served it.

“I’ll get to the bottom of all of it,” he promised through clenched teeth, the breath of his uttered words misting the blade of the Dark One Dagger as he spoke.

#rumbelle #au #curse gone wrong #noncon warning #abuse #romance #eventual smut #character death #graphic violence #gaston is evil #i will always write jefferson

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darkerdeariegold · 4 years

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So, I need advice on how to play Rumple. IDK I’ve had my confidence in how I play him shaken because it feels like I need to justify WHO he is as a character right now a little too much.

I mean, this is how I see him and if you’ve got the patience to read it, thank you. But primarily I’m looking for feedback. For people to tell me if I’ve completely misunderstood the character I’ve felt closest to since day one. Because honestly, if I don’t KNOW him, then who the fuck does, right?

He wasn’t always after power. That’s my primary thing. When you look at young Rumple all he wanted was his Papa to love him. He grew up neglected, emotionally abused and then was abandoned FOR power. For me, that was the start of a very skewed relationship with power itself, but it didn’t make it his automatic driving point.

Growing up he was content with the small things, as we see. He was content to just be around his Dad and, when with the Spinsters, he thrived when he was getting praise for his natural spinning skills. Growing in to a man there was no indication that he wanted power; far from it, actually. He was happily married, settled in to a typically feminine job of spinner and doing all he could to provide for the woman he loved. He was just living his life like a normal man.

Then comes the battlefield and the things the seer told him. Now, people can say he was selfish in wanting to get out of battle but he was THERE. He was afraid, but he was there. He made no efforts to actually run from battle, instead accepting that he would likely die the next day, UNTIL the seer told him about him about to be a Father. Back comes rushing all of the ways he felt about his own Papa and how he was abandoned. The pain, the feelings of not being worthy. For me, injuring his leg so he survived and hobbling miles home (humiliated and called a coward) was a selfless act. He made that choice not for himself but for his son. He will have known that he would be considered a coward. Perhaps even known Milah would be angry that he’d brought that shame on them. But he was willing to shoulder that so his son wouldn’t grow up without a Father like he did. So his son would grow up knowing he was loved by the man that was meant to do anything for him. Which he quite literally did.

He even bargained away any future hope of adding to his family in order to save Bae. Was that impulsive? Yes. Was it selfish? Yes. But it came from a desperate man doing desperate things. Desperate is a theme we see running through his character right from day one. He’s desperate for love, desperate to be a Father, desperate to do right by his boy. So desperate that he constantly self sabotages himself because he doesn’t fully think through the consequences or, when he does, decides to take on the negative consequences for that one positive.

He even shouldered the pain of Milah walking out on them so his son could grow up never feeling abandoned like he had done. He was selfless time and time again. What would his son care about his humiliation at being left? He wouldn’t. So telling Bae that Milah was dead wasn’t to spare himself, it was to spare his son’s feelings.

He even took the Darkness on for his son. The very quotes state that he tells his son to imagine what he could do with that power, how he could protect him. How he could save ALL of the children. Not saying the power aspect wasn’t tempting but to pretend that his motivation wasn’t skewed more in favour of actually saving his son’s life is to not understand his character at all.

When Bae used the dagger to control him what did he do? He wiped his son’s memories of it and let his son believe he was a monster, all to save his own heart from darkness. That’s not selfish, that’s selfless. Even with the darkness he was still putting his son first.

Then comes when he fucked it up; letting go of his son’s hand in his moment of weakness. He had the taste of power then, he knew that he was a more formidable man now than he had ever been before. He could walk properly! He could provide for his son! He could have anything he wanted without the struggle. People came to HIM for deals, people knew he was capable. He’d gone from being mocked for being a coward and a cripple to being feared for his power. That’s addictive and heady for anyone to handle. What he did in letting go of Bae was his first real selfish act and it was a shitty thing to do. Something he immediately regretted but there went his impulsive nature again; acting sometimes before truly looking at the consequences.

What appears to be at least a hundred to two hundred years pass by and he dedicates himself to finding a way to find his son. He even manages to confront his own Mother during that period, showing his own fears and pains when it comes to being abandoned. Pan had done it and so had Fiona; Rumple was damaged by it and by abandoning his own son like he had done was damaged further. He sacrificed his chance at true love to find his son; he did it in a cowardly way, but that’s the root of who he is in the end. He’s vulnerable and he’s afraid, and the darkness gives him a shield from all of that.

When he did let his guard down with Cora she only broke his heart and tricked him; to him being vulnerable is a weakness, yet when it comes to love it’s one he can’t help. IE when he’s reunited with Belle he doesn’t hesitate in telling her he loves her because his initial impulsive reaction to shoo her away so he can find his son (without even contemplating that he could balance both if he just learned to trust her) was the wrong thing.

He learns from his mistakes. Maybe not immediately, and he damn sure repeats some of them but he does learn. He’s not JUST a power hungry, selfish assholes. Jesus, the man DIED to save his son and Belle. (and the rest of the townsfolk but that was just collateral).

See, I think he’s very much an introvert with extrovert qualities because of the darkness. I think the Darkness is his mask, his way of hiding those introverted qualities that make him feel insecure and less than and he uses the darkness as a way of being what he thinks is an untouchable force. But I look at him and I see those introverted qualities because I have them too. Only trusting and caring for a handful of people but boy when he does, he does with his whole heart. He has little hobbies, has an addictive personality and tends to hyper-fixate on things.

Zelena - I fully believe she was indeed in love with him and he knew it too. He needed someone to sacrifice who they loved for his curse which is why he cast her aside. No point being the one she loves and who needs to die for the curse he needs! What he did to her was cruel, but I also fully believe that when she had him captive she abused him physically, emotionally, mentally and sexually. You see that from how he recoils from people’s touch after that, how he genuinely seems afraid when people are in his personal space. He was reduced to a shell of himself by her which is why he acted out after it, did the shitty things he did and power grabbed. Because the moment power is taken from him, he’s hurt. The moment someone sees a weakness in him, he’s hurt. So to Rumple, psychologically I think for him power isn’t just for the sake of power. Power is to keep safe. Power is to make sure nobody can hurt him.

We do see further hints of how he’s capable of being a hero and selfless though when he is willing to fight a damned bear (Merida) to protect Belle. Armed with nothing, with his limp too, he’s willing to die to save her. Again. Don’t tell me those are the actions of a selfish man. Don’t tell me that he’s JUST a power hungry asshole because he is so much deeper than that.

When he finally (and I’m skipping through a lot of the show because shit man they kept going back and forth with him at one point which is basically a mix of bad writing and Rumple being damaged and desperate) had his chance at being a Papa again Belle decided to listen to whatever the fuck was going on with Gideon and was going to keep him from his own son. His actions with keeping her on the boat and the bracelet were not appropriate, no. They were however his way of trying to get control back. Of trying to have this second chance that he was so desperate to have. He’s a Papa, and when he’s good at it, he’s GOOD at it. That season was a clusterfuck of bad writing though because Belle was wildly ooc at times (befriending her husbands abuser?!?!).

ANYWAY. What I’m trying to essentially say is that how I play him is how I see him. He makes mistakes, he doesn’t like a lot of people and that Darkness (as we saw with Emma) is a corruption that you have to be mentally strong to overcome. He controlled it. He didn’t try to kill everyone with it like Hook did, did he? He’s not quite as weak as everyone says, nor is he as villainous as some want to just pigeonhole him to be. I play him as a man that’s capable of enormous amounts of love, is very much ‘ride or die’ and will threaten to cut you if you so much as look at the woman he loves the wrong way. He’s a dedicated if overbearing Papa. But he’s also impulsive, he also is selfish and he also feels like he needs the power of the Dark One to be safe and strong. He doesn’t seem to see his own natural strength and courage and instead relies on shows of power, schemes and plots. He can be underhanded, he can be even downright cruel to the right people. He is vengeful, he is broken and he is a goddamn hero in his own way. He is sarcastic and sharp, he is humble in some ways and absolutely egotistical in others. He is abused, he has been abandoned and he has been a lousy parent at times.

What I want to know, please, is if people see him differently and if I need to be playing him differently? I don’t want to do an injustice to a character that means the absolute world to me. An ask, anonymous if you want, would really be appreciated. Thank you if you read my ramblings this far and thank you for any advice and tips you can send my way.

#ooc #so i guess i'm just a little insecure today....

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