Are all Librarians this much trouble?
Rick O’Connell (The Mummy Returns)
Yeah I can think of at least one heh
And I love her for it 🙂
#although trouble is probably the wrong word more insatiable curiosity and purity of heart
Tag Archives: Belle (Once)
The Auction
Synopsis: Boston PD is in dire financial straits so the Police Foundation decide to hold an auction – win a date with one of Boston’s Finest. Resigned to her fate Detective Belle French goes under the hammer. The winning bid belongs to the notorious defense attorney Carl Gold, but he never had any intention of using the date, and tells her to just enjoy her night off. Instead Belle decides to honor their deal, surprising him at his office at the designated time of their contracted date.
Note: Written for @rumbelleorderinthecourt. Enjoy!
Warning: It’s nsfw, rated explicit.
Gold’s lip
curled as he looked around the packed ballroom. This was obscene, and
degrading, and the fact that it had become the ‘must attend’ event of the year
was appalling. The who’s who of Boston’s
elite was here tonight, ostensibly to support the Boston Police Foundation, but
really here to rub elbows with each other and network for personal gain. It was
a world he’d bought a place in, with his very lucrative and very successful law
practice, but it wasn’t a world he liked.The police were
feeling the financial squeeze, the same as the rest of the world, the same as
everyone apart from those in this room and others like them. Boston PD was in
dire financial straits; with pay and hiring freezes for another consecutive
year, layoffs, no money to replace equipment or for additional training. Gold
knew a lot of police couldn’t be trusted, he’d seen the worst of law
enforcement as a young child growing up poor, but he had seen them occasionally
do good things since.That was why he
was here tonight. The cities elite had got tired of benefit dinners, so the
Police Foundation were trying something different to get them to put their
hands in their pockets, they were trying an auction. ‘Win a date with Boston’s
Finest’– and they had turned out in droves because of the novelty. His
reputation demanded his attendance at events like this, but only one person
could have made him attend this travesty of human decency – Detective Belle
French.I’m such a sucker for bachelor/ette auctions and this was great and so in character for both of them! I love the image of tiny Belle all grit and fire in a cop uniform and Gold was perfectly put out by his duties as an attorney. I really enjoyed it!
Thank you! I seem to have quite a few “Belle is a cop” stories because I think it really suits her. She’s passionate about helping people, she’s strong and brave and often underestimated and I think she’d be clever about solving crimes, because she could read through lots of files and draw connections. Anyway, I’m really glad you liked this fic! Thank you so much for commenting 🙂
Belle, anyelle edition too :p
Awww I love you! Thank you for blowing up my inbox 🙂 For anyelle I can only go off the 14 things I’ve seen. That being said:
OTP: Rumbelle of course, but this is the anyelle edition 🙂 So out of all the anyelle possibilities I would say Rushbelle.
BrOTP: Belle and Barney. I just can’t ship her with him but I think with a lot of exasperation Belle could probably straighten him out.
OT3: Rush/Belle/Gold although I don’t think Lachlan would object to an OT4 🙂
NoTP: Well obviously Hitler or Sergei as they are too evil and don’t get a Belle but as they kinda go without saying, I’m going to go with Renard.
I’ve been watching the anti-Belle comments add up on this transcript post ever since the night the episode aired, and didn’t respond till now b/c I considered those transcripts to be something I put out there for the fandom to use as they want, and people are allowed to have their opinions even if I disagree with them.
(That said, if I do the transcripts for 6B, I’ll be adding a request to each one that if people want to make anti comments about either character, not to do it on the transcript post. People are allowed to have their opinions, but I don’t want hateful opinions associated with my blog.)
But I’m finally speaking up on that particular scene, b/c I just don’t get it. What, exactly, did Belle say that was so awful?
She told him that she wouldn’t allow him to tamper with their son’s fate, like any mother defending their child would do. She reiterated that she believes him to be capable of love, and capable of being a good man. She asked him to be that good man and good father who earns his son’s love, rather than taking it by magical force.
She accused him of being afraid of failing, of being weak. That seems to be the point which really provoked many fans’ wrath. I saw that as her challenging him. She’s always challenged him, right from the beginning. She still thinks he can be a good, decent man…not a perfect one, just a good one. How is challenging him to be good, such an awful thing?
I just don’t understand where all the hate is coming from, based on that one short scene.
You said I could respond, so here’s my response 🙂 Obviously I can only speak for me. I come from the perspective that I support both Rumple and Belle, I don’t side with one over the other, I try and see both sides. That being said I had a real problem with this scene. Why is that?
Under the cut for length. Also in case this doesn’t get copied in the tags, warning for discussion of mental illness.
Did anyone else get a very 1920′s noir feel from her hair/makeup/clothing or is that just me? Seriously, I was like – give me all the AU’s, and imagining starlet Belle ala Audrey Hepburn.
TMI question: What is attractive about the character of Lacey for you as a fic writer?
Oh thank you, I love this question! And I’m going to disclaim that if you don’t like Lacey or don’t like my theories and opinions on Lacey and Belle, do not comment on this post if that’s your only contribution. I want zero hate for Lacey/Belle on my posts and I will block with prejudice.
First it’s that Lacey is a bit of a blank slate. We don’t see much of her beyond the episode Lacey. We know she’s around, and that she’s with Rumple/Gold, but we only see her with him and in small doses. And then suddenly at the end of the season she’s back to being Belle and that’s that. Like too many things on this show she is never talked about or dealt with again. So she’s a character that has a few basic traits that I can take anywhere.
Second, Lacey is Belle’s cursed persona. I don’t care what any other arguments there are about this. I believe if Regina had let Belle out while the curse was in effect, this is the person we would have seen. Lacey is basically the dark parts of Belle, the bad side of her traits amplified, same as what we see of other characters under the original curse. This gives rise to a ton of possible cursed AU scenarios.
But Lacey’s existence also gives us an interesting look at Belle herself. Lacey is part of Belle. Where Belle is compassionate and helpful, Lacey is selfish and gives no fucks about others. Belle is passionate and brave, Lacey is impulsive and audacious. They are similar traits, but where Belle exemplifies the best side, Lacey can sometimes be… the worst. Lacey is the part of Belle that does love the darkness in Rumple/Gold. She’s the part that is just a little bit pleased that her husband is a powerful, dark sorcerer, the part that wants a rough fuck in the back of the pawn shop and a shot of whiskey afterwards. Those things exist in Belle too, but I think because she wants to be a hero so badly, she pushes them down. We’re seeing it right now, Belle refusing the part of herself that likes the darkness, that has probably done things she regrets, things that are probably less than good.
That doesn’t mean Lacey is bad. David Nolan wasn’t a bad person, he was Charming without the bravery and conviction of being Prince Charming. Lacey is just the less great parts of Belle, and that means that Lacey can also be the good parts too. I’ve seen people say they hate the character because she’s one dimensional and shallow. Well, gee, we got about 30 minutes of her on screen on a show that isn’t necessarily known for it’s consistency of characterization and storytelling. So no wonder. Things are swept under the rug of this show every episode. That doesn’t mean Lacey can’t be a complex character, that she doesn’t remember losing her mother like Belle does, that she doesn’t remember a bad fiance she narrowly escaped marrying, that she hasn’t been abused and mistreated by villainous people.
When I write Lacey I try to write her as vulnerable but faking it. All her bravado, her give no fucks attitude? It’s a sham. Behind it all is a woman who has been hurt and who is trying desperately not to get hurt again. She doesn’t trust easily, so it takes work to get to the real person underneath the hard drinking and partying. There’s a broke girl who hustles pool to make rent. A daughter who doesn’t feel loved by her father anymore because she made choices he didn’t like. A woman who lost her mother when she needed her most. A person wants to be good but finds herself attracted to the bad.
THOSE THINGS ARE ALSO BELLE.
The one thing I’ve always liked about this show is that there isn’t a firm line between heroes and villains. On any given day, a hero can fuck up and a villain can be selfless. Belle can be Lacey as much as Lacey can be Belle. I hope this season we see at least part of that, and see Belle opening up to the parts of herself she doesn’t maybe like so much. I hope we see her accepting the darkness in Rumple and loving him for who he is. I think that more than anything will be the catalyst for Rumple becoming who he needs to be and fulfilling the prophecy Merlin spoke of. I’d kill to see Belle remember being Lacey and possibly the things she did with Rumple during those cursed days. I’d love to see her struggling with the things she did and felt as Lacey, but I know we won’t get that.
Ultimately, I like writing Lacey because she’s closer to the real me than Belle is, even some of the parts we see on screen. I relate to a lot of her traits when I write her, and yeah maybe I project a bit. So when I see people hating Lacey, I feel some personal offense. Because it feels like I’m being hated too. Her existence also make the Belles I write more complex because I can use those “bad” traits of Lacey to flesh out Belle.
*jaw drops* This ^^
I love Lacey, precisely because of all those layers she does have. People knock the show a lot and not fully exploring storylines (like Lacey’s) is kinda irritating, there is so much potential and then it’s forgotten. However, at the same time, it gives us amazing storylines – like Lacey, which writers can take and do something awesome with.
The whole ‘we are both’ thing, I just love it. I agree with all of this post, hence why I’m reblogging it because well this ^^ which remains relevant through to season 6 because people aren’t just one thing, people are complex creatures who are lots of things. We’re also illogical, we sometimes want one thing and do another. “The heart wants what it wants, and does things for reason that reason does not understand.”
Oh and I have to quote you now because this – “On any given day, a hero can fuck up and a villain can be selfless. Belle can be Lacey as much as Lacey can be Belle.” – is just so true and I believe this so much. Nobody is all good or all bad, life isn’t totally black and white – we are both.
There are all these gifsets on my dash of that heartbreaking moment where Belle is in the hospital and throws the chipped cup and smashes it.
That reminded me of when I first saw that episode, my jaw just dropped. I don’t think I’ve been as gobsmacked by the sheer insanity of characters actions since I watched the SGU episode Divided. That was pretty mind-boggling just “why??” in parts too.
I would love to write a fix-it fic of “In the name of the brother” where everyone actually utilizes some common sense, especially in dealing with Belle.
I mean she’s upset and confused and they are just dragging her around, telling her she’s crazy for what she saw. Nobody takes the time to explain what happened, or to explain anything. Plus how they all treated Gold – separating him from Belle. I suppose it’s no surprise, they were just showing what they truly thought of him even back then. However, it just made the situation 10x worse.
I’m approaching this episode in my re-watch. I actually began the re-watch during the hiatus, I stopped it for 5B and haven’t restarted it – oops. I think I got to the 5th episode – The Doctor. Although I might have watched that, I forget to be honest. This show has got into my head, I remember it so clearly, that it’s hard to remember what I’ve watched twice and what I’ve only seen just the once.
When I get to it, I might write a small oneshot. I just want them to show Belle a little bit of respect. Just slow it down and actually talk to her. She looked so bewildered and scared and it was so unnecessary.
Rumbellers & Beauties– has there been any fandom discussion about the possibility that Maurice is not Belle’s biological father? It certainly would explain a lot, don’t you think?
still-searching47 answered: Do you have someone in mind then? To be honest I think Belle isn’t like Maurice, because she’s very much her mother’s daughter.
No, I don’t have anyone in mind. I mean, we know so little about Belle’s mother that I don’t even want to hazard a guess.
I only asked the question b/c I was thinking about Maurice and his relationship to Belle due to the OUaT Positivity Project. Looking ahead, the prompt for Day 23 is “Father” and Maurice has been such an awful father to Belle, that I was trying to figure out what I could say about him that would be positive. Which then made me wonder WHY he’s so awful to her. I mean, what kind of father refuses to even try waking his child from a sleeping curse? And it occurred to me that if he’s not her bio father–and has known all along–that would certainly help explain his behavior toward her. It could even explain the TLK refusal….he won’t try b/c he knows he doesn’t love Belle and a kiss from him won’t work.
There’s been some speculation (wishful thinking probably, but let’s go with it for the moment) that Belle’s mother is still alive and she’ll see her again in S6. If OUaT does bring Colette back, it’d make for a very interesting storyline for Belle to not only be reunited with her mother, but find out the truth about her father–if there’s a hidden truth to be told.
Some fathers are like that though. They are selfish, they want what they want. Some care in their own way but others don’t even care that much. Fathers can be biological or not. It’s not genetics that make someone a good father. So Maurice can be biological and be the way he is. I think Maurice does love Belle, but he loves a version of her that doesn’t exist – his ideal version.
I don’t think he accepts her for who she is, nor supports her choices. He thinks that he knows best. I daresay that if confronted about “why wouldn’t you wake her?” he would be genuinely confused as to what he had done wrong. In his mind he would be doing Belle a service in his ultimatum. He would think that made him a good father, because was looking out for her best interests. However, what he thinks is best for her, probably isn’t what Belle would think is best.
To be honest I don’t know what you could say about Maurice that was favorable either. Unless it was a backhanded compliment, like he thinks he is helping but he’s really not. Maybe, he only tries the same trick once, like sending her across the townline (only tried once). He did give her away at her wedding which I’m sure meant a lot to Belle. He was there whether he approved or not.
Question – Kingdom of Avonlea
I have read fanfic where Belle is Princess of Avonlea, who will one day be Queen. I have also read fanfic where she is the daughter of a border knight – Sir Maurice, who looks after a small area of the kingdom of Avonlea.
Now the Once Upon a Time wiki lists him as Sir Maurice – not King Maurice. However, in Skin Deep wasn’t he wearing a crown? I’m just wondering what it is in canon. I mean the whole arranged marriage for an army thing, makes Belle and Maurice sound more important than just a knight and his daughter.
So is Belle a Princess or just a Lady? Anyone know or is it up for debate and pick whatever option makes most sense for the story? I’m plotting something and I want to get it right.
That’s a question that’s been debated before, and as far as I know, the fandom never reached a satisfactory answer that we could all agree had been backed up by canon. The show runners seem to have left it deliberately vague. But I’ll signal boost you & see if anyone else wants to chime in on this.
Part of the fun of fanfic is that you can spin things any way you want without being overly concerned with canon!
That said, Sir Maurice just has a cool hat on in Skin Deep, not a crown, and Rumple talks about saving their “little town,” not their kingdom, so there are signs that he’s more of a lesser lord and definitely not a king. The ruling structure of the Enchanted Forest has never been fully defined, so it’s hard to say if Maurice is a knight or a successful merchant or what. I don’t know anything about historical hierarchies for comparison. Maybe someone else can shed some light?
I’ve always just gone with what worked for the story. Sometimes she’s the daughter of a knight, sometimes the princess of a small merchant kingdom. At this point, there really isn’t any one right answer so just do what you want. Nobody is going to pillory you in the town square on this one.
I suspect he wasn’t a king, but then in Her Handsome Hero this season, they made him one or made him higher ranking. I’m pretty sure I remember Gaston explicitly asking Belle to be his queen so that means someone in this is a prince or princess. I believe it’s Belle.
But exactly what Mantis said. Do want works for the story. That’s why it’s an AU. 🙂
Thanks for your answers guys! Super helpful. I really appreciate it 🙂
I’m going to make her a Princess (and eventual Queen) because it works better for the story. If the answer had been that she was definitely just a knights daughter, then I would have had her become Queen/ruler of the kingdom some other way, this just makes it simpler. I just wanted to get it right in the first place.
I guess I wasn’t sure what the canon was because canon isn’t sure. Maybe she started off just a noble but then as rowofstars said, they made her more later on. Anyway, it works.
Thank you!
What is True Love?
When it comes to true love on the show, that is sometimes up for debate. I have always thought true love should mean true acceptance. How can you truly love someone if you don’t love all of them? This is why I struggle to understand how people can be true love, if they haven’t known each other all that long.
True love might just be ‘soul mates’, sort of a magical connection and that is there whether the couple know one another or not. However, if this was 100% true, then true loves kiss would work when people had lost their memories. The show proved more than once, that the person with amnesia needed to start feeling love again (Snow to Charming for example when she took the potion) before the kiss would work.
However, this post isn’t really about the definition of true love. It’s about Rumplestiltskin and Belle and a theory I have about what went wrong in their relationship. How did we get from the true loves kiss in Skin Deep, to how their relationship progressed once they were reunited in Storybrooke?
In the episode ‘Our Decay’ Rumple finally stood up for himself. He told Belle that she loved all of him and I don’t think he was wrong. It wouldn’t have been true love if she hadn’t loved him as he was – and she met him as the dark one – after all the subsequent suffering she lost sight of that.
I know I said I wasn’t going to question the nature of true love. However, this does lead into my theory. I have questioned a few times how they were true love, given her intent when she kissed him was to break the curse of the dark one. I mean what did she say to Regina – “I could love him but something evil has taken root in him” – which suggests that she loved the man she thought he was under the curse, not who he actually was. I suppose it depends what she thought breaking that curse would do. Did she know it would take his power away? As I said at the top, I sometimes struggle to understand how true love can happen without true acceptance.
Anyway, they are true love and that is a fact. Therefore I choose to believe that is because Belle had true acceptance once. Perhaps at the beginning in Skin Deep it wasn’t something she consciously admitted because you aren’t supposed to love someone who is “dark”. Maybe she would have come to accept that if she had been able to return – “I’m coming back Rumple” – she declared right before Regina captured her and then she was locked up for a long time.
Rumple and Belle have been apart far more than they have ever been together. Imagine somewhere you went as a young kid, or something you did, or something you saw etc. and for years and years all you had was the memory. You then go back to that place, watch it again or go through the same experience but it’s different – it’s not what you remember.
If it’s supposed to be a good memory, over the years the mind romanticizes certain parts, plays up the good and obscures the bad. We’ll paint ourselves in better lights, we’ll give ourselves more noble reasons, we’ll ascribe more meaning or knowledge to the situation that only hindsight gave us, not something we knew at the time.
I wonder if that’s not what happened with Belle. She remembered loving Rumple but they never had a life together, not as a couple, and so she created a fantasy which didn’t match reality. She turned her memory of him, into something that he never was and I don’t think she even realizes that she did that. She keeps saying that he was different back then – but he was the dark one. He hasn’t changed.
How the warped memory affects their relationship
I’ve always thought that Belle constantly demanding he change and emotionally blackmailing him, to try and force him was wrong. She did that from the very beginning of their ‘reconciliation’ back in season two. “I thought you changed.” and Rumple says “What in the hour you’ve known me.” or words to that effect. She walked out but then she came back. She’s said a couple of times in different ways “promise me and then we can be together”.
Now I get couples need to compromise, work together, make sacrifices etc. but using love against someone, threatening to withhold it if they don’t do what you want is bad. I’m hesitant to label it abuse but it certainly isn’t nice. I know when it comes to Rumple and Belle, the haters of their relationship always think that Rumple abuses Belle, but to be honest I’ve always thought it more the other way round.
Rumple does lie to Belle but only because he’s scared of her reaction. He has this belief that if he’s not perfect she’ll leave him – and that belief is just justified because that’s what she does, all the damn time.
Well finally he stood up for himself. – “But if you want me to be a different man… I’m sorry. This is who I am.” – Why is that wrong? If the situation was reversed and he demanded she change for him then everyone would be up in arms.
Loving someone is accepting them for who they are. Belle once told Neal she loved Rumple – “all of him, even the parts that belong to the darkness” – but those are just words. In actions, certainly in all their recent interactions, there has been no acceptance of the darkness.
I’ve never quite got why Belle kept saying he had to choose. Having power doesn’t mean he loves her any less. I think maybe she got scared about what that power could lead too. Given Regina, the curse, Lacey etc. it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her to have a fear of magic. She once saw magic kill Rumple, and then it killed Neal and then Rumple was never the same.
After he was free from Zelena, the darkness took over and Rumple lost control. He went after the hat because he thought that would save him. The dagger made him a slave, I can certainly understand the fear of being controlled. The first thing Zelena ordered him to do was kill Belle. He said in Our Decay that he “loved the dagger” but it’s the power the dagger represents.
Belle once used the gauntlet and she thought that power was what he loved most. I think it’s pretty much accepted in the Rumbelle fandom that the gauntlet showed his weakness not what he loved the most – Belle has always been his strength. I really don’t see why he can’t have both, his magic and Belle. She first fell in love with him as the dark one – a sorcerer – so why should he now have to be anything less than himself?
Rumple said that Belle would see that “he was right” and I certainly hope she does. I think he is right. She said that she couldn’t condone him being like this again – but why not? What exactly is she objecting to? Rumple never did anything ‘villainous’ until after Zelena had killed his son, tortured him for a year and the darkness took hold of his heart. Oh sure he was never a saint but was he such a danger to the town when he worked with them against Cora? allied with them in Neverland to find Henry? defeated Pan?
I have written before that I don’t think anyone is all good, or all evil – we are both. Life isn’t so black and white, it’s just all shades of grey. I’ve long thought so-called villains made the best heroes, precisely because they will do what is necessary to get the job done. They don’t have the hangups about ‘I can go this far, but not that far’ and so they are a lot more successful than people that hamstring themselves.
In ‘Her Handsome Hero’ Rumple basically talked so much sense. It was like he finally understood the truth about darkness and light, perhaps even found that prophesied balance. Belle on the other hand was pretty sanctimonious and then after the events with Gaston, rather than giving her a reality check it pushed her the other way.
I’m wondering if maybe this sleeping curse is a good thing because she is now trapped in the hall of mirrors. All she can do is reflect on her life and maybe a period of introspection will give her the time, and the space, that she needs to realize the truth of the matter. That Rumple is the same man now, that he has always been – her true love.
I firmly believe Rumple’s true loves kiss didn’t work in the underworld because he didn’t believe that it would. If he had faith in himself, in that Belle did actually love him, then it would have been fine. However, he’s taken too many knocks to have that certainty.
It’s like they are fighting between what they consciously try and think, and what they know deep down in their subconscious. I thought it was very telling that Belle kept correcting people that Rumple was her husband, that her first thought on arriving in the underworld was that Rumple needed her – that she went to look for him straight away.
Basically Rumbelle’s biggest problem is their failure to communicate. However, I have every faith that they can do it because they are true love. So long as they love one another, everything else should hopefully work out. That might be dangerously naive of me but if the canon on the show lets me down, there’s always fanfic.