Synopsis: When Mr. Gold buys Storybrooke marina, one of the marina’s few permanent residents, Belle French, swears he won’t get away with it. She sets sail and anchors in a remote cove and that night Belle witnesses a murder. At first light she returns to the marina to report it … but nobody believes her. Gold’s purchase of the marina now takes on even more sinister implications, and her growing attraction towards him only complicates matters. Vowing to investigate herself, if the sheriffs won’t, Belle soon starts to unravel a town-wide conspiracy.
Prompt: Conspiracy
Theory/Secret Society AU
Note: Banner by the lovely @rowofstars – thank you so much, you are awesome! 🙂
Anyway, I tried to include, or at least reference, all the things you said you liked e.g. Drova, Red Cricket, Granny, your smut preferences etc. I’m not so good at the pining, but there’s bed sharing and a tiny bit of fake relationship going on. I also got a small amount of inspiration from this prompt aesthetic as well.
Your gift comes in several parts and it’s all on AO3 because it came to just over a combined 31k words. I called the verse ‘Love at the Marina’ and the verse contains:
– Conspiracy Afloat (Seven Chapters, Main fic)
– Trouble Sleeping (Oneshot, nsfw)
– Unending Conspiracy (Oneshot, prompt and ficlet collection)
I really hope you like it! It’s been fantastic chatting with you these past weeks, thank you for being so friendly and nice. This fic was a bit of a departure from my normal style because the main fic was told entirely from Belle’s POV. Usually I swap between characters like mad, but I realized once I hit chapter three that I hadn’t switched, so figured I should leave it that way. Due to the single POV, there is a couple of extra oneshots, from Gold’s POV. I would have done more but I ran out of time.
Thank you again for being the best giftee ever!
I just finished all of my gifts!!!!!!!! WORDS I HAVE NO WORDS!!!!! THIS IS BEYOND AMAZING!!!! EVERYTHING ABOUT IT PERFECT AND WONDERFUL AND I WANT TO FIND A WAY TO SNUGGLE IT AND YOU FOR BEING SUCH AN FANTASTIC SANTA AND FOR WRITING ME THIS SHEER AMAZINGNESS!!!
I’m literally blown away by this fic and how you manged to include so many of the things I love!!!!!!!!!!!! BED SHARING, LACEY, SECRETLY WOOBIE GOLD AND SO SO SO MUCH MORE!!!! THIS FIC HAS EVERYTHING AND I KNOW I’LL BE REREADING IT A LOT!!!!
Okay, I’m going to try to control the caps now! XD You were a truly amazing Santa and I loved chatting with you! Your messages kept me sane after I broke my leg and needed to rest and talking to you was a blast! Thank you for being so friendly and nice to me!!!
I can’t get over how perfect this fic is! And I didn’t just get one! I got 3!!! (4 if you count Gold’s POV chapters as two separate fics!!!!) I’m trying to order my thoughts but it’s so awesome that I’m having trouble not just slamming my hands on the keyboard! You’re characterization of everyone was perfect! Belle and Gold especially! The way you set up conspiracy/secret society was fantastic, it was believable and not heavy handed, and it made total sense! I love that Belle was suspicious of Gold at first but saw the real person he was on the inside!!! Everyone thinks he’s a beast, even Belle at first, but then she sees him for him, the soft adorable woobie wrapped in a sexy suit!
Speaking of sexy, the bed sharing was awesome and the smut was amazing! It really feels like the culmination of their short (but so so wonderful) courtship! The way Belle knew it wasn’t just a one time thing, but the beginning of something warmed my heart! And that being proven in the epilogue when Belle knows she’s going to be apart of Gold’s life and family made me feel extra warm and fluffy inside!
There is just so much I want to talk about! The town, the conspiracy, poor Graham being corrupt but I think I have to end this reblog here before I write a whole essay of garbled fangirling!!! So again THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH!!! I can’t over state the amount of love I have for this verse!!!!
I’m utterly thrilled that you loved it so much. Now excuse me while I go cry over this wonderful comment. Seriously, I don’t know what to say. I want to respond but I’m just overwhelmed. Thank you so much! I really am so happy that you liked it. You’re an author so you know we take it as a compliment when people just want to slam their hands into the keyboard 🙂
Heh well you said you wanted innocent!Belle flailing around, and Gold being off-limits/a bit suspicious and I did my best. In the initial draft I had Belle have a secret crush on Gold, so they really had been secretly pining for each other for a while. It didn’t quite work when I wrote the whole thing, because like you said Belle was challenging her preconceptions about him. Haha yeah exceptionally fluffy endings are my thing. I always try and bring an element of realism, so life isn’t perfect, but they definitely have a “happy for now” going on as that makes me all warm inside too.
Thank you!!! You have been a fantastic giftee, and if you ever want to chat (even though it’s not RSS anymore) then you know where I am. My askbox/chat thingy is always open 🙂
This was so lovely and amazing. I loved how you really fleshed out this plot and made it so so interesting. So many of the characters made their way into this story both in little and big ways. It was wonderful the way you wove this story 😀
Gold and Belle slowly making their way together was amazing too. AND we got three good fanfic tropes out of it. Share a cabin, share a bed (twice!), and fake-dating (that turned real ;)). I loved it!!
The ending seemed like such a story book happy ending too, with them all around the table eating and getting along like one big happy family. It was great 🙂
Awwww thank you so much!
Yeah there were a few bit players woven in. I couldn’t resist the slight hint about Mulan and Merida – BraveWarrior 🙂 and then of course we have to give Leroy and Astrid a happy ending in fanon as canon has forgotten them. Heh yeah I like my syrupy happy endings, trying to give a snapshot of the future and plus I also couldn’t resist the slight Swanfire. I’m really happy you liked it! Thank you so much for the wonderful comment 🙂
