(OOC: Finding young Bae/Neal gifs is really hard, my apologies. Also I love this story as well! I really want to add to it one day.)
I like Belle, she’s nice! I wish she could stay always. She makes everything better. When she comes for dinner it’s the best! She plays games with me, and she reads to me. She even does voices! Papa smiles a lot more too and I like that. Aunty Mal says Papa is a lucky dog *wrinkles nose* does that mean we’re getting a dog?
Honestly? Up until Once Upon a Time I NEVER used ship names. I would refer to a ship by their names e.g. Rumple/Belle. I think it’s because the very first time I saw ship names was over a decade ago, and they were so laughable that I shuddered and vowed never to use them. That fandom had a ship war going on between ‘Jam’ and ‘Smarty’. I think you could probably see why I hated the very idea of ship names heh.
Once Upon a Time is extremely good at coming up with ship names that roll off the tongue, and aren’t cringeworthy. They make sense and it’s all good. Some ship names are not so inventive. So with some ships I will still use that name referral, rather than ship name. It depends on what the ship name is I guess.
Thanks for the ask! 🙂
I ship more than just Rumbelle but they are my main OTP. In fact this moment in Skin Deep is when I fell for them. When he caught her and she looked at him like he was a hero, and he looked at her like he couldn’t believe what he’d done. Then can we say flustered? With them both pretending it wasn’t a big deal. Yikes I was done for!
Now Rumbelle has a fair few AU’s built in as my bingocard shows e.g. knight!Rumple, GoldenLace etc. Now, judging by what I mostly write I could just say AU – Non-Magical but that’s a cop-out heh. Truthfully it’s hard to pick because what I love the most is a good story. I mean the Rumbelle fandom is so talented, I swear some of them could write a story about Rumbelle watching paint dry and I would be riveted.
Oooh I just saw it was trope/AU and picking a trope is easier than a setting! Heh. I mean I do have weaknesses for various settings. I’ve read every Regency Rumbelle fic I can find for instance. However, I wouldn’t say that was my favorite because to be honest it very much depends on the story. It could be an AU I enjoy like Regency but if the implementation/twist is something I’m not so keen on so I would give it a pass.
Right trope! I love so many, but my absolute favorite has to be mutual support/understanding/comforting one another etc. I hope that is actually a trope. I just love it when characters talk to one another, and help each other out. I’m a real sucker for fics where Rumbelle are already married/together and then they have to deal with an external problem.
I like it when they work as a team. Don’t get me wrong, most of what I write is Rumbelle getting together, and I do absolutely love reading those stories as well. It’s just the question was “pick a favorite” and so I had to pick just one.
Thank you for the question!
(OOC that would be really out of character)
Belle: *splutters*
(OOC not sure how to answer this)
Belle: I’m thrown, honestly I don’t know what to say. Evan would never do that but I understand that we’re talking hypothetically. So in an alternate universe where Evan wasn’t Evan, and would do such a thing, would I say yes? *bites lip* I don’t think I would. I’m trying to imagine a circumstance where I would say yes, I would have to be both really desperate and acting on principle. I’ve done a lot of stupid things out of the ‘principle of the matter’.
Gold: For example leaving the marina rather than pay the rent.
Belle: Yes I suppose and that’s another point, I would always have that option. I guess the keyword is ‘everyone’ and acting to defend my friends … I might have said yes.
Gold: Really sweetheart? *he’s very skeptical*
Belle: It would have to be extreme circumstances but *bites lip again* Evan …?
Gold: Yes?
Belle: I love you as my loving, considerate boyfriend but perhaps for one night only we could … pretend? Your relentless glowering landlord act can be very sexy.
Gold: *coughs* Well Miss French, I’ve heard you wish to make a deal.
Yay thank you! I haven’t done one of these before so I hope I do it right, and I seriously love this fic so double thank you 🙂
The prompt for this fic was Light!Gold and Dark!Belle. Gold’s perspective right now, is of someone who has done some things he’s not proud of – he knows what it’s like to make the hard call – but he has clean hands. He has always followed orders, followed protocol. He has been ordered to do some distasteful things, but never anything utterly immoral. He’s a soldier and he’s probably veered close to the line but he’s never crossed it.
Belle crossed it a long time ago. She said earlier in the scene “When
I signed up, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I wanted to help, to
protect and serve – to be a hero.” and then she started rationalizing. At first it was just dirty jobs, and then it started getting more and more wrong but it’s a slippery slope. Once she’d started down that path, she kept telling herself it was for the best, or that she was committed and had to see it through. There were no good choices and she wound up doing things, that she would have vowed never to do when she started.
Gold tries to empathize with her. To say that he gets it, that he made an oath to his nation, that he has always fought for the Frontlands and what he thought was right. Belle shuts him down because while she may have always fought for Avonlea, she knew that she wasn’t fighting for what was right. She knew at the time what she was doing was wrong, but she was in too deep and did it anyway. They aren’t the same and she doesn’t want him to think that they are.
She betrayed him but she learned to shut out her conscience a long time ago. It’s like she repressed it, and now he’s killing her with kindness and understanding. It would be easier if he raged, if he hated her because she hates herself and she knows that she deserves it. She knows that but she doesn’t feel that. She learned to live with it long ago, because she had to and so the choices became easier.
Belle’s not about to break down and wail with guilt because she knows who she is, and what she’s done. She accepts it, and she might wish things had been different, and she might try and be better now. However, what’s done is done and if push came to shove, she’s still capable of almost anything. She might have a few qualms about it, but she’s learned to live with the guilt, push into a box and get on with the job. That coldness is always going to be a part of her, even if miraculously she did manage to build a new life.
*sighs heavily* I don’t know. Is it possible for a person to fundamentally change, especially at his age? I mean he’s halfway through his life, his behavior is pretty entrenched. Look I’m not saying my dad is a bad person, or that he has bad intentions. It just all gets screwed up.
I know him better than anyone else. I think he probably wants things to be different, for things to be better, but then he’s been wanting that for years. I kinda blackmailed him to go on this sabbatical as I figured maybe a big external change would force things, and give him the opportunity to make different choices. If he can’t work for three months, then he has to fill the void somehow right? Then maybe he’ll learn that there’s more to life than work. Maybe he’ll learn to make time for us, rather than just writing cheques.
You can probably tell I’ve discussed this with Emma a lot right? Emma reckons dad won’t change until he’s ready, and I guess I agree with that. What kinda hurts though, is that I needed him to change a long time ago and he never did. You know what is really screwed up? Part of me doesn’t even want him to change now, because it means that I wasn’t worth changing for when I was a kid. I haven’t even told Emma that, but she probably knows. She knows all the crazy stuff in my head before I do half the time.
Creatively speaking banging my head against the wall always seems like a brilliant idea. I actually did it once, to see if the impulse went away – it didn’t. In terms of Lachlan, the man definitely knows how to get under my skin, which is in turns both infuriating and very welcome. Don’t worry, if it comes to it, I won’t be banging my head against the wall.
I don’t bloody know. I thought we were having a good time, I make my move and she storms out. Her loss right? Plenty more fish in the sea and all that. Though when I woke up I did remember her saying she really liked me *smirks* so maybe it’s worth another punt. Anyway, Belle’s just offered to drive me to LA. Several hours alone together in the truck should move things along.
Yay! Thank you 🙂 It also appeared in Her Happy Ending but I think I’ve confused everyone enough by posting snippets of that already.
From upcoming WIP – Nightwalkers
Belle waited another ten minutes before sauntering over towards the bar. “JD and coke.”
“Wouldn’t you prefer a cosmo love?” the bartender asked, flashing her a grin which made her skin crawl. He had sleazebag written all over him.
“That depends, do you want to be wearing it?” Belle said sweetly.
“Killian get the … lady,” Regina sneered. “Her drink.”
Yay! Thank you 🙂
8) Favorite quotes?
“I can fix a bad page, I can’t fix a blank page.” – Nora Roberts
“Be confident in your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
“I didn’t fail. I just found 2,000 ways not to make a lightbulb; I only needed to find one way to make it work.” – Thomas Edison
“You ended that sentence with a preposition. Bastard.” – Jack O’Neill (Stargate SG1) – I have a t-shirt with this printed on, it’s become something of a joke in my house. There’s this awareness, and it causes laughter and rephrasing when the sentence ends with a preposition. I don’t know why but it’s a thing.
18) Are you a ‘neatly designed outline’ writer or a ‘fuck it i’ll figure it out as i go’ writer?
Depends on the project. I used to say that for novel length projects I needed to have a scene by scene outline, and that I could only fly by the seat of my pants for short stories. That isn’t exactly true these days. I’ve kinda let go of the outline process when it comes to fanfic, and I just write and see what happens. Sometimes I like this because it means no delay with the writing – I can just dive straight in. Also it makes it easier to include prompts because the development is more fluid.
The rest of the time I hate it because I stare at the blinking cursor, and I have no idea what comes next, but by this point I’m usually committed to the story because I’ve started posting it. Also, outlines are a serious advantage on low motivation days because it means less thinking is required. I know exactly what I’m doing, so it’s just a matter of beating myself around the head until I do it. That doesn’t always work of course. Sometimes I know exactly what I’m writing and the focus just isn’t there anyway, a little bit like right now.