Author Archives: Sam

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I don’t quite believe this. He was on screen again and didn’t say a word! That’s just funny the second time. Edit: and a third time! So funny.

Though to be honest I’m far more horrified about the – presumably main character – making out (with the implication of more) with his brothers widow. That is wrong, oh so very wrong. It’s the day of the funeral for crying out loud and they’ve never met before. I mean I get grief affects people in different ways and generally I try not to judge, but it just came across so wrong.

Anyway I’m not planning on live blogging this. I just had to get that out. Sorry.

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Well my accidental Monthly Rumbelling fic has reached 5k and is still nowhere near done. What was I saying the other day about my brain and oneshots?

Oh and as an update on the post I made the other day, about maximizing what I could get with my gift card. I did watch Trainspotting and two of the three DVD’s arrived today. The Last Enemy and The Tournament. To End All Wars is coming tomorrow apparently and I’ll rent Summer after I’ve watched some stuff and got my “to watch” pile a bit smaller.

I’m watching the first episode of The Last Enemy now and to be honest I’m wondering why I haven’t seen it before. I’m much more into sci-fi these days but back in 2008 I was all about crime thrillers. So far RC hasn’t spoken, he’s just doing a creepy following thing. He does that well heh 🙂 I will review properly when I’ve watched more!

Conspiracy Afloat (RSS)

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woodelf68:

still-searching47:

woodelf68:

still-searching47:

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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! 🙂

——-

@little-inkstone it was me, I was your Santa! Did you guess? 🙂

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!

“We could just share; we are both adults after all.”

Heh, heh, yeah, we know how that’s gonna turn out. Even putting a rolled up blanket down the middle of the bed didn’t stop Belle from draping herself half over Gold while she slept and having a very interesting awakening. Awkward boners ftw!

The story started off pretty slow, as most long fics do, and I was about to decide it wasn’t for me until I reached the last couple of sentences of the first chapter. Then I couldn’t have stopped for the world. I needed to know what had happened, and why! This was a very tense thriller, and I never had any idea who to trust. I gave Belle credit for not jumping to the conclusion that Killian was involved just because she saw his boat, but then I wondered if maybe that was a red herring and he was involved after all. And then Graham, Graham is usually a good guy in fics, but he wasn’t trying to do anything to investigate her claims.  I suspected Gold at first. And at that one point where Belle went to look for Leroy and didn’t see him immediately, I was prepared for her to find him murdered as well! Since I had no idea why Billy had been killed, who knew who was in danger?  I was thankful when Gold stopped being a scary potential killer, and turned rapidly into an ally.  One of the hottest things I’ve ever read was when Belle realised that he’d stripped off his own undershirt so that she could have a t-shirt to wear. I LOVED THAT. As I did the happy fluffy ending with Neal and Emma and Henry visiting. (And yes, Belle needs to buy him a t-shirt or two. Since she’s the captain of her boat, she should get him one that reads “First Mate”. *snickers*)

Nice smutty interlude – I wondered if Gold had really been asleep or not – and I liked the explanation for his short hair! So sweet.

Heh the bedsharing trope never gets old 🙂 Thank you so much for this amazing review! Your reaction was exactly what I was hoping people would feel. To be honest I don’t think Graham is so much a bad guy, but like in canon he’s been compromised so he doesn’t have much of a choice. It’s one of those slippery slopes things. Oh yeah Gold taking off his own shirt and Belle sniffing it and it was still warm 🙂 I am so happy that you liked it, thank you so very much!

You know, I realised that you never said exactly what Cora’s criminal activities were or why Billy got killed. *Looks stern* Fill in this hole, please. (Money laundering? Nice and vague. Was Billy involved in whatever was going on and idk, try to steal something extra for himself? Or did he stumble on something and threaten to tell David?)

Yeah I know I didn’t have time to go into the detail I would have liked. This story could easily have been 50k+ as I had subplot ideas which I started to hint at and then had to drop because of the deadline. I have a lot of backstory which didn’t get used.

I’m afraid the answer to Cora’s criminal activities isn’t very exciting. With Cora it’s mostly corruption. She runs a construction company, so she uses the Queen of Hearts to compromise people in power, such as council men, who can then award her contracts or get land approved for development. That is something that there has long been rumors about. The corruption goes further though, cheaper substandard materials and billing for higher price ones, lots of regulations ignored.

Basically anywhere she can cut corners and make more money she does it. In addition there is money laundering going on, tax evasion and ‘creative accounting’ and basically a lot of white collar fraud. Billy wasn’t involved, but he overheard something he shouldn’t have. He drove somebody when Killian should have done it, which is why Killian ‘took care’ of him because it was his mistake. Billy had no intention of going to the cops, he’d seen Sheriff Graham in the club enough to know he couldn’t trust him. He was attempting to flee town when Killian found him.

For Your Consideration- TEAs

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theoneandonlylittlebird:

Painting Layers of Love @still-searching47

Best Rumbelle Fic, Best Belle

Ok. Here’s the deal. I want to do everything I can to make certain this fic gets noticed and ideally nominated, so I’m going to tell you why you should consider this.

1. Unique perspective: a challenge to write. Belle is blind so everything from her perspective has to be described in her OTHER senses. You guys, this is incredible and well done. Doing this is thinking outside the box. This alone would merit a campaign for this fic.

2. Richness of detail and imagery in spite of, and maybe BECAUSE of, number 1. Descriptive effort is found in this story, lovely prose.

3. Excellent treatment of mental illness: representation matters, folks and this story is exploratory and compassionate.

4. Excellent treatment of disability: TWO CHARACTERS are disabled and both grapple with it. Again, representation matters!!!!! A theme that got my attention is that everyone has to make their way in the way that they can. Not a direct quote and I’m not doing it justice, but these are the kind of works that really matter for representation because they get at the heart of what it’s like. You do what you can.

5. Lovely story and slow-burn style fumbling toward intimacy (I assume). This work has the emotional richness, with very realistic considerations and motivations, to match its other fine qualities. You won’t be disappointed.

In case you couldn’t tell, I want you to notice this fic and consider it. This story is a gem, it’s unique and I think it is TEA worthy. This fic is worth your time.

Also, I would love to see more posts like this. Tell me why you feel strongly about one of the fics you’ve nominated and I’m MUCH more likely to go read it if I haven’t already and perhaps nominate it if I agree. I haven’t cast my ballot yet and there are may spaces still. If you have a fic, even your own, that fits the bill, tell me WHY.

Reblogging this feels incredible egotistical but I want to be able to find this post again, and you just made me cry. Like ‘I had to take my glasses off’ level of crying. I have no words but the most sincere thank you in the world. I just wanted you to know how much this post means to me. Seriously, thank you.

#I am overwhelmed and touched and just wow#there are no words

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Backed up my masterlist just in case.

Sent in my TEA nominations (cross fingers I didn’t forget anyone).

Taking a leaf out of emospritelet and worryinglyinnocents book and just writing what comes into my head, irrespective of whether it’s what I’m supposed to be working on or not. I’m attempting to turn a despised trope on it’s head, but I don’t know if I’m going to be successful or not. It’s one of those controversial ones, so even if I do finish the story I might not post it, as I’m a big coward.

The story is in my head though, so I’m rolling with it. Besides, even if I just write out a bit of this story and then stick it in the vault, never to see the light of day, at least words have happened which is something of a rarity these days.

Robin: what’s your idea of a great night with friends?

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Either playing video games over the internet. Pick an MMO and run around a virtual world. Can chat in text within the game, or over a service like vent, or skype if there’s not many people. If we absolutely have to meet in person then the movies is a good choice.

I did enjoy the NaNo write-ins though. We met at the library and ran writing sprints and talked about our WIP’s. Can also do write-ins online though through a chat program or facebook. Of course, hanging around on tumblr is a thing too 🙂

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Can somebody please remind my brain what a oneshot is?

I’m serious. I want to just write and finish something because that makes me feel good. I thought I had 4 oneshots on my list. A few weeks back I started one and … several thousand words later realized it was going to be a lot longer than I had thought. So I shelved it because I have WIP’s I’ve already started posting, and you know priorities.

The other day in desperation I tried with something else and … same thing happened. I just want the satisfaction of the end. Today I thought “I’ll look at my ideas list” and cheer myself up by picking something brand new and finishing it. Trouble is now every idea I look at is exploding in my mind before I even start writing it. I like all these ideas, and maybe that’s the problem.

So back to the WIP’s I guess.

#even with ideas i love the middle is like quicksand and sometimes it feels like a long slog to the end#i love writing but middles suck

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whitesheepcbd:

I got a comment on AO3, that I’m inclined to dismiss b/c of the ranty tone. But it got me thinking that maybe not everyone views the Golden Queen interactions in 6A the same way I do. 

So, informal poll– what was the GQ relationship in 6A about? Love? Sex? Power? Something else? Also, with the assumption that Regina and the EQ will re-merge eventually, what do you think Regina’s and Rumple’s interactions will be like afterward? What will Regina’s and Belle’s interactions be like?

The split!Queen and Rumple’s relationship was a can of worms I never really got into on tumblr when it was happening. However, I had a couple of anon’s hit up my 6A fix-it fic Right Kind of Wrong with questions about it. I replied on AO3 and never copied those comments over. Anyway, I don’t know if you wanted such a long answer but it’s what I’ve got.

GoldenQueen? Not quite.
Well first off I think calling it GoldenQueen is a mistake. That wasn’t Rumple and the Evil Queen, that was Rumple and the split!Queen which is different. The Evil Queen was a whole person – was Regina. This split!Queen is only half of a person, just as Regina at the moment is only half a person. So the Evil Queen on the show right now, isn’t the Evil Queen we know from flashbacks. The split!Queen made choices that Regina if she was whole, would never have made and it’s not about darkness either.

The split!Queen is a construct of magic. She’s not just Regina’s darkness because it has to be more complicated than that. Take Jekyll and Hyde as an example. Emotions that lead to darkness can’t be split, there’s still darkness in everyone. Jekyll split out the qualities he didn’t like in himself, but he kept negative qualities that he didn’t mind, like possessiveness which is what led to his darkness. The split!Queen is likely power-hungry, and vengeful, so the power of the Dark One would be like a siren calling. However, it’s not something that would call to Regina if she was whole.

So what was the Golden Queen relationship about?
split!Queen perspective
I didn’t like Regina’s statement that she and Rumple had always had a certain amount of chemistry. It was something that really bugged me. I know I probably shouldn’t say such a thing (people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones) but it was lazy writing. They wanted everyone to learn about Rumple and the Evil Queen, and they couldn’t think of a way to do it, so instead Regina just amazingly “knows.”

However, having said that. I did think about it quite carefully and I think that it’s possible that back in the day, when they were mentor and student, Regina could have had a bit of a crush on Rumple. Rumple had a lot of power, he was honest with her even if he wasn’t always kind, and he was giving her a way out of the life she hated – he was giving her back control. I think they probably flirted a bit as part of power plays but that’s as far as it went.

It’s been confirmed several times that they never had anything between them back in the day. Regina said “nothing happened” and the Evil Queen said the same to Zelena when they were at the spa. Anyway, from the split!Queen’s perspective she was once drawn to Rumple. There’s also the fact that what the split!Queen (and indeed Regina) have always struggled with is being alone. The split!Queen is the wounded part of Regina, who hungers for love and lashes out to make the world hurt, the way she hurts.

The split!Queen doesn’t want to be alone, and Rumple as the Dark One has power which could help her with her vengeance, and also help keep them safe. It’s his power that saved her in the past after all.

Rumple’s perspective
Self-destruction basically. Rumple had a lot of issues to begin with, but Neal’s death and his enslavement for a year at Zelena’s hands pushed him to the edge. Ever since then he’s lurched around, desperately trying to grab onto things that can save him – the hat, the author etc. but no matter what he does, it’s like he said in the season 5 finale “intentions are meaningless” – no matter what he does, he always loses. He tried to be a good man for Belle, he pulled Excalibur from the stone, he fought Hook with honor, and she still left him. Now, Belle had her reasons for that, and I’m not blaming her. Both Rumple and Belle bear responsibility for what happened to their relationship and I support them both. What I’m just saying, is from Rumple’s perspective it’s always lose/lose.

Now, he’s faced with being a father for a second time. He’s already buried one son and it has all but destroyed him. I do wonder if part of him isn’t purposefully self-destructing, so he’ll never have an opportunity to hurt this second child. I did wonder if maybe at first Rumple was hoping to make Belle jealous, to try and provoke a reaction to see if she still cared. To be honest though I don’t think he’s really thinking at all. There was clear evidence, that his mind is so full of panic and fear, that he’s not thinking logically in 6.04.

Rumple screwed up repeatedly in that episode, because he couldn’t see further than whatever answer he’d jumped too, which is a common problem for people with acute anxiety. He believed he was thinking everything through, but really he wasn’t. In many ways the split!Queen relationship is another stick for him to beat himself with. That being said I think a good part of him convinced himself that he was using the split!Queen to his benefit.

Basically I think he kept trying to keep on playing the game being – “Rumplestiltskin, the great dealmaker, the almighty Dark One” because if that’s how people see him, then they don’t see the defeated man he truly is deep inside. His reputation is like a mask and it’s all he has left. His repeated referral to himself in the third person backs this.

In terms of any pre-existing ‘chemistry’. In all honesty I don’t think Rumple would ever have actually been attracted to Regina, even pre-Belle because of Cora. I think Rumple did have genuine feelings for Cora and Cora hurt him badly. Regina was Cora’s daughter, and she followed in her mothers footsteps, he would never have allowed her to get so close.

Regina’s perspective
Regina has been where Rumple is right now, she hit rock bottom during season two. Her curse had been broken, she had lost Henry who had become what mattered most. It wasn’t just that she’d lost her son, it was that she had to watch him with Emma, sort of really twisting the knife – she’d been replaced. When she got to that point, Regina was very susceptible to manipulation – Cora came and twisted everything around until Regina was working with her mother.

It’s the same with Rumple, he’s lost everything that mattered to him, and it is being held just out of reach. In fact Belle is staying on the same ship, with the man that Rumple’s first wife ran off with. He is very vulnerable right now and he is very alone. Regina also knows what a massive self-loathing streak Rumple has. She has witnessed Rumple self-sabotaging himself before. Therefore it’s not a big leap for her to suspect that her Evil side would be drawn to Rumple, and then Rumple will be too beaten down to put up much of a fight.

Rumple refused the Evil Queen’s advances several times before he gave in, and Belle had crushed him with several very well chosen comments before he finally did give in. Now, I’m not blaming Belle for that, she is hurting and lashing out as much as Rumple is. Those two really need to talk with one another, rather than continuing the spiral of pain. I’m just saying Rumple is in a vulnerable place and Regina knows that.

Assuming a merge
what happens with Rumple and Regina then?
To be honest when it comes to this show, I expect that we won’t see any consequences on screen. It’ll be glossed over and they will all move on like it never happened.

In terms of the characters to be honest they are both adults and they both understood why it occurred, I think that they might launch a few barbs at one another over it and leave it at that. I don’t think things would be incredibly awkward or anything, they’ve both been through too much for that.

what about Belle and Regina?
Head and heart don’t always agree. I think Belle would try and be reasonable about it. Rumple and Belle were separated at the time and with everything that happened between them, they had no claim on the other. Belle told Rumple that, which I think was the opposite of what he wanted to hear, but in terms of their situation it was basically the truth. I reckon Belle would start off saying she didn’t care, and didn’t want to know, but in the end she would have to know the details and I think she would go to Regina for them.

Regina would be highly uncomfortable about it, and tell Belle what she really wanted to know, which was that it had been what her split self, and Rumple needed at the time, but that it hadn’t been true love. It had just been two lonely self-destruction souls seeking out the other. Knowing Regina she might then say something sarcastic like Rumple is a good kisser or “what’s one more tangle on this family tree?” or something. Then it’ll be over.

They’ve all gone through so much in Storybrooke, and committed countless crimes against one another. This is a more normal mess, but if they can move past all the other stuff, then they’ll move past this.

Under My Skin Belle: Lachlan is pretty cute… he seems good with his hands. Thoughts?

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Good with his hands? Why would you say that? *thinks about his deft movements as he bustled round his apartment* *thinks about how he used to play guitar, and the complicated patterns of the music* *blushes* Well I suppose it’s certainly possible but I hardly know him.

Besides it wasn’t his hands that made me look at him differently, and realize how attractive he is, it was his eyes. There’s more to him than first appearances suggest. I hope we get a chance to talk, I would like to get to know him better. Perhaps if we are on better terms, I won’t feel quite so murderous the next time Lachlan makes a racket. I might even be able to get him to stop.