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» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Chris
Current AGE: 25
Player TIME ZONE: CST
Personal JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fairytalelie
IM & SERVICE: KawaiiSpinel42 (AIM)
Player PLURK: quasigina
Current CHARACTERS: N/A
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Rumplestiltskin, aka Mr. Gold
Canon & MEDIUM: Once Upon a Time (Live Action TV Show)
Canon PULL-POINT: Post-2X22: And Straight on 'Til Morning
Character AGE: Roughly 300, but looks to be in his early fifties.
Character ABILITIES:
As the Dark One, Gold is blessed (re: cursed) with incredible magical ability. However, magic comes with a price- specifically, every spell performed selfishly has a negative consequence for yourself (it may be small or huge, depending on the spell). Spells performed for other people usually mean that the person who demanded the spell pay the price. Again, the rules are fluid and the show has a problem sticking with them, but that's the best that I understand them and how I'll be playing them in-game when possible.
Gold's magic can be used to perform AT LEAST the following feats:
Bargains: Less of a power outside the Enchanted Forest and more of a skill (as he can't manipulate reality to the same extent outside of his home realm), Gold deals in, well, deals. Basically, if you come to him for something, he will find some way to procure it for you, provided you can pay the price. It might be simple or it might be complex, but you will pay for it. He has no tolerance for people who break deals with him.
Dishearting: The process of ripping out a heart without killing the person it belongs to, thus enchanting it. Holding a heart means you control the person it belongs to and can make them do just about anything. Squeezing the heart or crushing it will either hurt or kill the person it belongs to. This is not a power he uses very often, however, so I wouldn't worry about him trying to collect hearts like a crazy hoarder. (That's Regina's thing.)
Enchantments: These seem to be done mainly with potions (which no one is exactly clear on how they're made beyond MAGIC AND HAIR AND SOMETIMES ENCHANTED GOLD), but can also be done with actual spells- it's all of a piece, really. Essentially, Gold can enchant objects to have a desired effect. For example, he has implied that he can manage a protection spell to keep Hook from coming near Belle, enchants a cup to trigger Belle's memories (it doesn't work), creates a potion that allows him to cross the town line without losing his memories, and a potion that can track a person so long as you pour it on an object the person owned (it has to belong specifically to them, however). The enchantments are not always foolproof and as magic will always come with a price, there tends to be side effects.
He can also heal people and himself, which I guess falls under this category.
Transfiguration/Curses: He can transform people or objects into different things, ranging from rats to puppets to pretty much whatever the hell he wants. Like the enchantments, he can also do this with potions rather than his own hand, which is how he typically deals out transfiguration spells when someone makes a request of him for one, because it usually means the person who asked for the spell will have to observe the price of the magic. (This is shown when he makes a deal with Jiminy Cricket for a potion that would get rid of his parents and he accidentally kills Gepetto's parents instead.)
He can also manufacture minor curses (such as the sleeping curse), but major curses take a lot more time and effort and will probably backfire due to magic being different in different places. The transfiguration spells are likely classified under the same heading as a traditional curse and can be broken by true love's kiss or fairy dust.
He can also spin straw into gold. But you knew that.
Random Other Spells: He has some form of telekinesis and is capable of throwing people across rooms with a wave of his hand or pinning people to walls with a thought. This seems to be one of the easier spells to manage, even in worlds where magic is a bit different. He can also put up barriers and throw fireballs.
Being the Dark One gives you certain advantages that unfortunately don't translate across realms, so while Gold doesn't have his enhanced reflexes and his foot injury is still definitely a foot injury, he's still remarkably strong and resilient for a man his age. He also can't die (unless someone stabs him with the dagger).
For more detailed information on spells/magic in OUAT, etc, see this this much more comprehensive guide.
Character HISTORY:
Rumplestiltskin and Mr. Gold
Cliffnotes version?
Once upon a time, there was a spinner named Rumplestiltskin who had a really hard life. You see, his father left him, his childhood friend was Actual Sociopath Peter Pan and he also left him to go live in Neverland, he sledgehammered his own foot in the war to avoid dying because a seer told him he was going to leave his son fatherless, his wife left him for Captain Hook, and then his son (Baelfire) was going to be conscripted into the army to fight ogres, where he would probably be maimed or killed.
And that was the bridge too far.
So Rumple, guided by a mysterious beggar, went off on an adventure to steal a mystical dagger by burning a man's house down, as sane and rational people do. His attempts to control the Dark One were met with a lot of mocking accusations about his son being a bastard and he responded by stabbing the Dark One. You know, as sane and rational people do. This led to him becoming the new Dark One and bringing forth a reign of terror, which justifiably pissed his son right off. Said son immediately sought out the Blue Fairy, who gave him a magic bean that would send them to a Land Without Magic. Rumple freaked out about the portal, his son fell into the portal alone, and Rumple swore he'd get his son back by any means necessary. The means he chose was a powerful curse.
[Insert 300 years of scheming and scheming, until finallly a pissed off queen with vengeance on her mind casts said dark curse over their land that sends a bunch of fairy tale characters to Maine and gives them new identities.]
For twenty-eight years, Rumplestiltskin, now Mr. Gold, and the rest of the cursed former denizens of the Enchanted Forest moved through life in a time loop, up until the day Emma Swan, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and the prophesized Savior came to town. Hearing Emma's name "woke him up," (aka giving him his previous life's memories back) and Gold spent the greater majority of the season scheming to get Emma to break the curse, while counter-scheming with former Evil Queen Regina Mills to keep the curse unbroken just to keep her out of his hair and to piss her off. This eventually culminates into Emma's son Henry eating an apple strudel with a sleeping curse baked into it meant for Emma and putting him into a magical coma. Emma, suddenly a believer in all the fairy tale shit she's been denying for a year, goes to Gold, and he sends her on a quest to slay the dragon underneath the town library to fetch a potion that can break any curse. Emma succeeds, but Gold tricks her and steals the potion for himself, leaving her to break Henry's curse with a Kiss of True Love (TM). The kiss also breaks the curse over the entire town.
Meanwhile, Gold, now reunited with his presumed dead true love Belle, heads out into the woods, and brings magic to Storybrooke. END SEASON.
In Season Two, we learn that Gold bringing magic to Storybrooke had dire consequences- anyone who crosses the town line loses their memories of their life in the Enchanted Forest and reverts back to their cursed self. Gold spends half the season looking for a way to cross the town line and the other half attempting to prevent his homicidal ex-girlfriend and Regina's mother (Cora) from coming to Storybrooke. Only one of those plans succeeded, but just before Gold could go off on his quest to find his son, his archnemesis Captain Hook (who is a little sore about Rumple killing his true love, who also happened to be Rumple's wife) shoots Belle over the town line. She survives, but her memories do not, and unable to restore her, Gold succumbs to temptation via Cora, who offers him a magical globe that can find his son (so he can have SOME happiness), provided he leaves her and Regina alone. Gold agrees to these terms and calls on a favor from Emma, taking her and Henry with him to Manhattan to find Baelfire.
Unfortunately, a prophecy made centuries ago states that a young boy will lead him to his son and that boy will be his undoing- that boy is supposedly Henry, and Gold's been planning on killing him the minute he becomes a threat, as soon as he finds his son. Unfortunately, he finds out that his son (now going by Neal Cassidy) is Henry's father, tossing that plan into the water. Even worse, Baelfire wants nothing to do with him. And to make matters even worse than that, Hook tracks him down and stabs him with his poisoned.... hook. He's saved at the last minute by Emma and Neal (who chain Hook to the radiator) and tells them the key to saving him is in Storybrooke, prompting them to steal Hook's ship and zip it back to Maine. While this is going on, however, Cora and Regina get their hands on Gold's dagger and intend to use it to control him, but Cora's plan changes when she realizes Gold is dying and she decides she has to kill him and become the Dark One, herself.
Gold, knowing he can't be saved by anything short of an enchanted candle that will trade a life for a life, manipulates Snow White into using it to kill Cora and save his life, using the fact that Cora killed her mother to force her hand. Snow curses Cora's heart (which she keeps outside her body) and then tricks Regina into returning the heart to her mother, effectively killing her and saving Gold. But Gold's troubles don't end there- his son still hates him, Henry is going to be his undoing, and his girlfriend still has amnesia.
He tries to fix Belle's amnesia, but is thwarted by a vengeful Regina who gives Belle curse memories, making her believe she's a barfly named Lacey. Gold tries to woo Lacey, but finds she's not attracted to the derp-puppy that Belle loves, and, distraught over losing her, takes his anger out on the Sheriff of Nottingham for seducing her under false pretenses. Lacey sees this, thinks it's hot, and the two of them begin a bad romance, wherein Gold ignores the majority of the action going on in town to have sex with his new girlfriend. After a dramatic conversation with Lacey, he decides that he needs to KILL HENRY and makes an attempt on the boy's life, only to find out that his son has supposedly died and that the town is about to blow up. Gold makes his peace with his inevitable death, and gives Lacey a convenient plot device potion that the Blue Fairy made IN THE NICK OF TIME BEFORE THEY ALL DIED that brings Belle back. The two share a heartfelt reunion and the town is eventually saved- however, Henry is abducted and taken to Neverland. Gold agrees to come along on the adventure to save the boy, and tells Belle that he has to save his grandson and rise to meet the prophecy to honor his dead son and that she can't come with him, because he's not coming back. He gives her a spell to protect the town and she tells him that she WILL see him again. He boards Hook's ship and everyone sails off to Neverland to face Peter Pan, who is apparently a BIG DEAL.
Character PERSONALITY:
Some villains believe they're the heroes of the story, but Rumplestiltskin isn't one of them. Maybe one he thought that was who he wanted to be, but "Dark One" is not synonymous with hero, so even if he believed he was doing good there for awhile, illusions fade and with the loss of his son, so went his tenuous hold on sanity and allowed him to fall into madness. And he is a bit mad in more ways than one, although this is more obvious in his Enchanted Forest persona. Rumplestiltskin is a man shaped by three hundred years of making deals and watching whole kingdoms rise and fall. He's met many people and taken on their attributes, because he has no idea who he is anymore, beyond a monster. Certainly not a poor, cowardly, utterly harmless spinner. In Gold, we see a calmer version of the flamboyant trickster of the Enchanted Forest- a man who deals in smirks, not giggles, but is no less of a fearsome foe should you cross him and that old madness is still there, boiling away. Fairy tales need grander gestures, but the real world deals in the subtleties he so loves. If anything, Gold is a living representative of all the cliches that the real world expects from the rich and powerful, just as Rumplestiltskin is a fairy tale's villain. It's all part of the act and he's big on theatrics. He has many roles and he plays all of them well- as Rumplestiltskin, he's the trickster playing with words and people for his own ends and acting as the catalyst for every story, if not outwardly the villain; as Gold, he is everything from the heartless loan shark to the unforgiving landlord to the corrupt attorney- the villains in every real world situation. But, for the most part, in every incarnation, he's the Faustian demon everyone turns to in their hour of need and the worst kind of chessmaster.
For being perfectly comfortable in his villainy, Rumple has standards and, in fact, is hardly the sort of person to revel in his wrongdoings. He's a monster- it's what he is- and anyone who misses that deserves what they get, but that's the long and short of it. He doesn't murder whole towns for sport, and while he might screw you over and trifle with technicalities, he'll almost never lie to you (you just need to be paying close attention to his word choice- words are important weapons and he wields them well) and if you play by his rules, he has no interest in harming you and usually prefers to talk his way out of situations before he resorts to physical violence (or, in most cases, magic). He might have been the type to make grand gestures and murder innocents when it suited him when he was new to this (and those innocents were never innocent in his mind- they had done something to upset him, even if it was trivial, but in his mind NO ONE is innocent), but now he's more suited to subtle means and smaller weapons- deals and contracts, as opposed to massacres. People come to him for favors and he grants their every wish... for a price, and usually the favors work in his favor too (there's very few pots in the Enchanted Forest he hasn't stirred). It works out fine, even if most people leave his company wishing they'd never met him, but so long as they pay for his services, everything is fine. Deals are important to him. Sacred, even. He never breaks them and he won't have them broken, in turn.
He's addicted to his magic, believing it to be a crutch. He rejects true love's kiss that could have saved him from his curse as the Dark One, simultaneously out of fear of betrayal and also because it would mean giving up on a chance at seeing his son again. He brought magic to Storybrooke for much the same reason- because he believed he wouldn't be able to find his son without it. But it's more than just a father's desperation- he loves control. He loves having power. It's everything he never had when he was a poor cowardly spinner and now that he's a cowardly all-powerful near-god, he needs it more than ever, because he's tasted it and fears going back to being nothing. It's why in stressful situations, he always falls back on self-preservation- not just to save his own life, but to save the parts of him he feels he needs. He's a desperate soul, no matter how collected he might appear, and no end is too extravagant to get what he wants. This, however, makes him very good at finding other desperate souls and getting them to do whatever he wants, especially if it means he can avoid paying the price for it. He does so love a good loophole and if he can avoid a situation by tempting someone else into doing it for him, then he'll move the pieces until they're exactly where he wants them to be. It's easy to tell when you're a part of Rumple's schemes, but, unfortunately, by the time you're desperate enough to come to him, you don't care that you're playing right into his hands. Say what you will of him, but he gets results. Conversely, however, it means he's just as easily manipulated. He has very obvious weaknesses and once zeroed in on, you can make him move nearly any way you choose, provided you don't make him angry enough to just flat-out out turn on you.
As long as he holds all the cards in a situation and still has pieces on the board, he's fine with a situation. He's hyperconfident in everything he does and nothing shakes him when he knows he's in control and approaches every situation rationally with some catty remark and a smirk and little emotion (if its Gold) or excessive glee (if its Rumple). He won't do anything he doesn't want to do and won't hesitate to say "no" if he thinks he can't get anything out of it. This also means he's an opportunist and will strike deals with people he actively despises, because they have something he wants or he has a use for them and even being a man who holds grudges, he can lay them aside for a greater agenda if he doesn't feel like he's been cornered into it. Almost every plan he concocts has a back-up plan ready to be put into place if the first plan fails and it's hard to say exactly how good he is at predicting outcomes (he can see the future to some extent, but he also believes people have a choice and that nothing is really set in stone) or if he's just so adaptable, he can change his game to suit how the situation has changed- likely both. However, as soon as he loses his control, things fall apart very quickly. He goes from being an incredibly intelligent, calm, placid man with a sense of style and a sassy streak three miles wide to being a desperate, fumbling fool not much different than the spinner he started out as or, at the worst, the vicious monster he claims to be. Breaking a deal with him is considered high treason, betraying him is only a little bit lower, and God help you if you hurt something he loves, because once that happens, all bets are off. He's not above petty vengeance and he's especially not above finding some way to end the people who've wronged him in underhanded and utterly devastating ways if he doesn't flat out and snap and cane them to death. He can be sensible and rational, but he can also be wild, unpredictable, and temperamental depending on what's happening around him. As he has a tendency to see only what he wants to see, he can also be extremely foolish, which is what allows him to be manipulated so easily.
Equal parts self-loathing and self-deluding, he hates himself immensely and believes himself to be a monster, but won't be the first to blame himself for why things are the way they are- at least not outwardly. Wrongs done to him will be inflicted back twofold and he can hold a grudge for an eternity. Even if he knows in his heart something was his fault, having someone around he can scapegoat makes it easier on him- he blames Milah for abandoning Baelfire, blames Hook for Milah's death, blames Maurice for abandoning Belle, and blames the Blue Fairy for sending Baelfire to another world. Technically, every one of those incidents were his own fault, but rather than accept the guilt and move on, he tries to shove it off on others and punish them. Punishing people is easy and it's a cheat to make himself feel better for awhile. It's how he's gotten what he wants since he became the Dark One and it's the only way he knows how to use his power, especially when nothing with that power can bring back his loved ones and make things any better. That isn't to say he can't become utterly devastated when his actions have consequences on those he loves and there is some amount of internalized self-blame there- he's not heartless, despite everything, and he can be repentant for his actions, but there's very few things that can get these reactions out of him. For the most part, he's an unrepentant jackasss who thinks everyone who comes into contact with him brings their pain on themselves because they're the ones who asked and they're the ones who believed he'd be a good person. He projects his own fears and insecurities and self-loathing onto other people, assuming that because he is awful and no good that everyone else is, as well. If he makes a baseless accusation about someone's true intentions, it's probably because he tried to do it once and it ended badly for him (hence his belief that intent is meaningless).
He suffers crippling abandonment issues and has sincere doubts over whether or not anyone is truly capable of actually loving him, due to the fact that every person he's ever cared for (save one) has outright rejected him. Because of this, he generally distrusts kindness given freely without want for payment and is suspicious of everyone's motives, since he genuinely believes that people are scum, regardless of how often he sees the good people can do. Showing him kindness is the quickest way to cow him, because he doesn't know how to handle it, and due to this attitude, he feels obligated to repay any debt and have debts repaid, in turn. He won't ask for help unless he's desperate and even then, he'll barter for it and expect nothing given out of the goodness of other people's hearts. It's difficult for him to break this mentality- even having honest proof that Belle loves him isn't enough to keep him from thinking he has no future for her. He's a difficult man to love by his own admission and when someone loves him, it tends to be the only thing that can keep him grounded and out of the dark somewhat- this is not just evidenced by Belle, but by how quickly he was willing to destroy the source of his power when he believed August was his son, proving he would have extended the same courtesies to his real son had circumstances not caused him to cling to his magic (and his magic and sense of self-preservation routinely trumps everything else). Conversely, it's when he loses his ties to the last shred of his humanity he has that he tends to be at his absolute darkest, because "there's no point to being good now."
He has very few genuinely good qualities, because most of them are buried under layers of bad qualities- his attempts at bravery have a tendency to culminate into acts of cowardice, his cleverness makes him manipulative, etc. He is, however, extremely passionate about everything he does, and his intentions were always good (however, AGAIN FOR THE CHEAP SEATS, intent is meaningless). He doesn't do anything specifically to hurt people unless they wrong him- he just doesn't care if people get hurt. The exception is generally children- barring a few extenuating circumstances, he's not inclined to harm children and has a soft spot for them, even going as far as helping them with no regard for payment. He also has an extreme devotion to family to the point of doing things he otherwise wouldn't do for the sake of family, even if he still has a hard time trusting the new family he's gained since finding his son again. He can't help it- his own inability to commit to redeeming himself and becoming a better man makes him a disappointment and the less people he has to disappoint, the less horrible he'll feel about it. He's the sort of person that wishes he could be Prince Charming- a dedicated, brave man who protects his family without hiding behind something as unpredictable and devastating as magic and turning to nasty habits like self-preservation and vengeance, but he also knows that was never his lot in life and it never will be. He is doomed to repeat his mistakes until he allows himself to let go and until he can do that, he'll constantly be sabotaging his own happiness and becoming an all the more darker person for it, slipping farther and farther away from the ability to simply walk from the life he's been cursed with. He has a horrible sense of self-preservation that overrides everything else to the point that he'd be willing to murder a child if it meant saving him from a terrible fate- it was only the fact that the same child was his grandson that actually stopped him, and, even then, he considered it.
Belle is his moon and stars and he has a tendency to fall over himself to please her (outwardly- he has been known to placate Belle and then sneak off and do the opposite of what she asks, because he is the worst). He loves her desperately and is extremely protective of her- if anything happens to her, he has a tendency to get very violent, and only Belle, herself, can pull him back (usually- sometimes logic wins out). He loves her dearly and she can turn a poised sorcerer into a dorky teenager at the drop of a hat. However, if Belle is his moon, then his son Baelfire (alias Neal Cassidy) is his sun. Everything he has ever done has been for Baelfire and getting his son back is his primary motivator to the point where, after believing him to be dead, he sets out on a suicide mission to save his grandson to honor him, intentionally walking into a prophecy he'd been trying to subvert for centuries. If he has Bae, then he has his happy ending and his redemption, and he tries to let very little (even Belle) get in the way of that. Those two are the only two people he truly loves and trusts, and even so, he has a hard time trusting Belle sometimes out of fear of showing her the bridge too far that will make her leave him.
Nearly everyone else he might consider a friend (or a member of his extended family) is a person he wouldn't hesitate to throw under a bus if he got a mind to. Regina, his former protege, swings from being begrudging ally to worst nightmare and he spends a lot of his time wanting to murder her and knowing he can't without alienating the people he loves. Emma Swan is his trump card, his other protege, and probably his favorite chess piece- he genuinely likes her and respects her and the two of them mutually understand each other, but she's a pawn and one he intends to keep using. Prince Charming and his lovely wife are the fools he can always count on to ruin his day with demands, though Charming has made an excellent wingman on occasion. The rest of the town, Gold regards with little more than contempt until they can actually prove their worth to him and that's how Gold regards most people he hasn't decided he needs to manipulate yet- a lofty aura of contempt and sarcasm. He doesn't make friends- he makes allies. Making friends requires him to trust people and the only way you're going to earn his trust is to consistently stand by him, even when you have no reason to.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON:
Here's the money shot.
This is the Dark One's dagger- it is both efficient at slicing and dicing and making julienne peasant and is the source of Gold's magic. Holding it gives a person full control over him and his actions and stabbing him with it transfers his power to another person. As such... he generally only uses it as a very pretty paperweight so he doesn't have to run the risk of losing it.
Over time, Gold will realize that combat magic will work a lot better if channeled through the dagger, forcing him to use it in fights (it won't completely eliminate the price of using it, but it will lessen it somewhat). Most importantly, the dagger will become wholly his to the point where anyone touching the dagger will be unable to control him. The curse is his and his alone now. The downside is his curse can never be broken, which he'll view as an upside, except for the part where magic is SUFFERING.
Character INVENTORY:
- This entire outfit. (Includes a coat, a three piece suit-and-tie, a ring with a blue stone)
-A cane.
-One monogrammed dagger.
» SAMPLES
First PERSON:
An entire war effort founded on the idea that you can change the past. [Gold sounds a bit amused at the thought. He can see the future- or could. Changing the past, however... well, that's completely out of the realm of possibility.] It's such a lovely notion, wouldn't you agree? The idea that by changing a few things, you can change the entire course of the future.
[He chuckles.] I wonder if it's occurred to them yet that for all their hard work, the future is not so easily bent into shape the way we'd like it to be. Some things simply have to transpire. Fate can't always be altered.
But I could be wrong, and frankly, I am going to be thoroughly disappointed if I'm not. I don't like having my time wasted, especially not for someone else's folly.
Third PERSON:
This is not Neverland.
Gold only holds his temper in during this introduction to Exsilium (a realm he's never heard of, but knows it can't be anywhere remotely near the Jolly Roger's intended destination), because he wants answers and it's difficult for someone to provide them with a hand around their throat.
All during her explanation, he glowers, limping along behind her, pausing to observe, here and there, and causing her to turn back to fetch him when she gets too far ahead.
"By all means, dearie," he says, snidely, during one such interruption in a spiel he has no doubt she's made a million times before. "Don't let me stop you." She waits for him to follow and he eventually concedes, finding nothing particularly noteworthy on the walls and no hope for escape at his back. Eventually, she stops again and he ends up overtaking her and having to turn around.
The sight of the armory would have given soldiers in the Ogre's War something to cry at. He might have wept too were he still one of them, but he was far from a soldier anymore, if he was ever one to start with.
"Well, that's lovely, my dear," he says, turning away from the sight with a wry, agitated smile. "But of no interest to me."
She opens her mouth to continue to override his protests, but this time he's ready for her. He reaches into his suit jacket and produces a long, curved dagger, tilted so that the name on it isn't visible. "I think this will suffice for your little war, won't it?" If it will shut her up, he doesn't care about the risk exposing the dagger like that can be. It's not as if she knows what it does or what it means for him. It's just a blade.
She nods and then moves on. He only hangs back long enough to pocket the blade again, casting a glance at the armory again. Three hundred years gone since he was labeled the Man Who Ran for hobbling himself on a battlefield and they expect him to pick up a weapon and fight.
Well, wars can be fought in a number of ways. If he can get out of this, perhaps he'll come out of it with a way to get Henry back and defeat Pan. It's optimistic in a way that he doesn't particularly want to be right now, but what choice does he have? It's something of Belle's he'll have to rely on, since she isn't here to tell him to suck up his anger and make the most of it.
» ADDITIONAL NOTES
I am sorry this is longer than the Bible. Don't hate me.
Player NAME: Chris
Current AGE: 25
Player TIME ZONE: CST
Personal JOURNAL:
fairytalelieIM & SERVICE: KawaiiSpinel42 (AIM)
Player PLURK: quasigina
Current CHARACTERS: N/A
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Rumplestiltskin, aka Mr. Gold
Canon & MEDIUM: Once Upon a Time (Live Action TV Show)
Canon PULL-POINT: Post-2X22: And Straight on 'Til Morning
Character AGE: Roughly 300, but looks to be in his early fifties.
Character ABILITIES:
As the Dark One, Gold is blessed (re: cursed) with incredible magical ability. However, magic comes with a price- specifically, every spell performed selfishly has a negative consequence for yourself (it may be small or huge, depending on the spell). Spells performed for other people usually mean that the person who demanded the spell pay the price. Again, the rules are fluid and the show has a problem sticking with them, but that's the best that I understand them and how I'll be playing them in-game when possible.
Gold's magic can be used to perform AT LEAST the following feats:
Bargains: Less of a power outside the Enchanted Forest and more of a skill (as he can't manipulate reality to the same extent outside of his home realm), Gold deals in, well, deals. Basically, if you come to him for something, he will find some way to procure it for you, provided you can pay the price. It might be simple or it might be complex, but you will pay for it. He has no tolerance for people who break deals with him.
Dishearting: The process of ripping out a heart without killing the person it belongs to, thus enchanting it. Holding a heart means you control the person it belongs to and can make them do just about anything. Squeezing the heart or crushing it will either hurt or kill the person it belongs to. This is not a power he uses very often, however, so I wouldn't worry about him trying to collect hearts like a crazy hoarder. (That's Regina's thing.)
Enchantments: These seem to be done mainly with potions (which no one is exactly clear on how they're made beyond MAGIC AND HAIR AND SOMETIMES ENCHANTED GOLD), but can also be done with actual spells- it's all of a piece, really. Essentially, Gold can enchant objects to have a desired effect. For example, he has implied that he can manage a protection spell to keep Hook from coming near Belle, enchants a cup to trigger Belle's memories (it doesn't work), creates a potion that allows him to cross the town line without losing his memories, and a potion that can track a person so long as you pour it on an object the person owned (it has to belong specifically to them, however). The enchantments are not always foolproof and as magic will always come with a price, there tends to be side effects.
He can also heal people and himself, which I guess falls under this category.
Transfiguration/Curses: He can transform people or objects into different things, ranging from rats to puppets to pretty much whatever the hell he wants. Like the enchantments, he can also do this with potions rather than his own hand, which is how he typically deals out transfiguration spells when someone makes a request of him for one, because it usually means the person who asked for the spell will have to observe the price of the magic. (This is shown when he makes a deal with Jiminy Cricket for a potion that would get rid of his parents and he accidentally kills Gepetto's parents instead.)
He can also manufacture minor curses (such as the sleeping curse), but major curses take a lot more time and effort and will probably backfire due to magic being different in different places. The transfiguration spells are likely classified under the same heading as a traditional curse and can be broken by true love's kiss or fairy dust.
He can also spin straw into gold. But you knew that.
Random Other Spells: He has some form of telekinesis and is capable of throwing people across rooms with a wave of his hand or pinning people to walls with a thought. This seems to be one of the easier spells to manage, even in worlds where magic is a bit different. He can also put up barriers and throw fireballs.
Being the Dark One gives you certain advantages that unfortunately don't translate across realms, so while Gold doesn't have his enhanced reflexes and his foot injury is still definitely a foot injury, he's still remarkably strong and resilient for a man his age. He also can't die (unless someone stabs him with the dagger).
For more detailed information on spells/magic in OUAT, etc, see this this much more comprehensive guide.
Character HISTORY:
Rumplestiltskin and Mr. Gold
Cliffnotes version?
Once upon a time, there was a spinner named Rumplestiltskin who had a really hard life. You see, his father left him, his childhood friend was Actual Sociopath Peter Pan and he also left him to go live in Neverland, he sledgehammered his own foot in the war to avoid dying because a seer told him he was going to leave his son fatherless, his wife left him for Captain Hook, and then his son (Baelfire) was going to be conscripted into the army to fight ogres, where he would probably be maimed or killed.
And that was the bridge too far.
So Rumple, guided by a mysterious beggar, went off on an adventure to steal a mystical dagger by burning a man's house down, as sane and rational people do. His attempts to control the Dark One were met with a lot of mocking accusations about his son being a bastard and he responded by stabbing the Dark One. You know, as sane and rational people do. This led to him becoming the new Dark One and bringing forth a reign of terror, which justifiably pissed his son right off. Said son immediately sought out the Blue Fairy, who gave him a magic bean that would send them to a Land Without Magic. Rumple freaked out about the portal, his son fell into the portal alone, and Rumple swore he'd get his son back by any means necessary. The means he chose was a powerful curse.
[Insert 300 years of scheming and scheming, until finallly a pissed off queen with vengeance on her mind casts said dark curse over their land that sends a bunch of fairy tale characters to Maine and gives them new identities.]
For twenty-eight years, Rumplestiltskin, now Mr. Gold, and the rest of the cursed former denizens of the Enchanted Forest moved through life in a time loop, up until the day Emma Swan, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and the prophesized Savior came to town. Hearing Emma's name "woke him up," (aka giving him his previous life's memories back) and Gold spent the greater majority of the season scheming to get Emma to break the curse, while counter-scheming with former Evil Queen Regina Mills to keep the curse unbroken just to keep her out of his hair and to piss her off. This eventually culminates into Emma's son Henry eating an apple strudel with a sleeping curse baked into it meant for Emma and putting him into a magical coma. Emma, suddenly a believer in all the fairy tale shit she's been denying for a year, goes to Gold, and he sends her on a quest to slay the dragon underneath the town library to fetch a potion that can break any curse. Emma succeeds, but Gold tricks her and steals the potion for himself, leaving her to break Henry's curse with a Kiss of True Love (TM). The kiss also breaks the curse over the entire town.
Meanwhile, Gold, now reunited with his presumed dead true love Belle, heads out into the woods, and brings magic to Storybrooke. END SEASON.
In Season Two, we learn that Gold bringing magic to Storybrooke had dire consequences- anyone who crosses the town line loses their memories of their life in the Enchanted Forest and reverts back to their cursed self. Gold spends half the season looking for a way to cross the town line and the other half attempting to prevent his homicidal ex-girlfriend and Regina's mother (Cora) from coming to Storybrooke. Only one of those plans succeeded, but just before Gold could go off on his quest to find his son, his archnemesis Captain Hook (who is a little sore about Rumple killing his true love, who also happened to be Rumple's wife) shoots Belle over the town line. She survives, but her memories do not, and unable to restore her, Gold succumbs to temptation via Cora, who offers him a magical globe that can find his son (so he can have SOME happiness), provided he leaves her and Regina alone. Gold agrees to these terms and calls on a favor from Emma, taking her and Henry with him to Manhattan to find Baelfire.
Unfortunately, a prophecy made centuries ago states that a young boy will lead him to his son and that boy will be his undoing- that boy is supposedly Henry, and Gold's been planning on killing him the minute he becomes a threat, as soon as he finds his son. Unfortunately, he finds out that his son (now going by Neal Cassidy) is Henry's father, tossing that plan into the water. Even worse, Baelfire wants nothing to do with him. And to make matters even worse than that, Hook tracks him down and stabs him with his poisoned.... hook. He's saved at the last minute by Emma and Neal (who chain Hook to the radiator) and tells them the key to saving him is in Storybrooke, prompting them to steal Hook's ship and zip it back to Maine. While this is going on, however, Cora and Regina get their hands on Gold's dagger and intend to use it to control him, but Cora's plan changes when she realizes Gold is dying and she decides she has to kill him and become the Dark One, herself.
Gold, knowing he can't be saved by anything short of an enchanted candle that will trade a life for a life, manipulates Snow White into using it to kill Cora and save his life, using the fact that Cora killed her mother to force her hand. Snow curses Cora's heart (which she keeps outside her body) and then tricks Regina into returning the heart to her mother, effectively killing her and saving Gold. But Gold's troubles don't end there- his son still hates him, Henry is going to be his undoing, and his girlfriend still has amnesia.
He tries to fix Belle's amnesia, but is thwarted by a vengeful Regina who gives Belle curse memories, making her believe she's a barfly named Lacey. Gold tries to woo Lacey, but finds she's not attracted to the derp-puppy that Belle loves, and, distraught over losing her, takes his anger out on the Sheriff of Nottingham for seducing her under false pretenses. Lacey sees this, thinks it's hot, and the two of them begin a bad romance, wherein Gold ignores the majority of the action going on in town to have sex with his new girlfriend. After a dramatic conversation with Lacey, he decides that he needs to KILL HENRY and makes an attempt on the boy's life, only to find out that his son has supposedly died and that the town is about to blow up. Gold makes his peace with his inevitable death, and gives Lacey a convenient plot device potion that the Blue Fairy made IN THE NICK OF TIME BEFORE THEY ALL DIED that brings Belle back. The two share a heartfelt reunion and the town is eventually saved- however, Henry is abducted and taken to Neverland. Gold agrees to come along on the adventure to save the boy, and tells Belle that he has to save his grandson and rise to meet the prophecy to honor his dead son and that she can't come with him, because he's not coming back. He gives her a spell to protect the town and she tells him that she WILL see him again. He boards Hook's ship and everyone sails off to Neverland to face Peter Pan, who is apparently a BIG DEAL.
Character PERSONALITY:
Some villains believe they're the heroes of the story, but Rumplestiltskin isn't one of them. Maybe one he thought that was who he wanted to be, but "Dark One" is not synonymous with hero, so even if he believed he was doing good there for awhile, illusions fade and with the loss of his son, so went his tenuous hold on sanity and allowed him to fall into madness. And he is a bit mad in more ways than one, although this is more obvious in his Enchanted Forest persona. Rumplestiltskin is a man shaped by three hundred years of making deals and watching whole kingdoms rise and fall. He's met many people and taken on their attributes, because he has no idea who he is anymore, beyond a monster. Certainly not a poor, cowardly, utterly harmless spinner. In Gold, we see a calmer version of the flamboyant trickster of the Enchanted Forest- a man who deals in smirks, not giggles, but is no less of a fearsome foe should you cross him and that old madness is still there, boiling away. Fairy tales need grander gestures, but the real world deals in the subtleties he so loves. If anything, Gold is a living representative of all the cliches that the real world expects from the rich and powerful, just as Rumplestiltskin is a fairy tale's villain. It's all part of the act and he's big on theatrics. He has many roles and he plays all of them well- as Rumplestiltskin, he's the trickster playing with words and people for his own ends and acting as the catalyst for every story, if not outwardly the villain; as Gold, he is everything from the heartless loan shark to the unforgiving landlord to the corrupt attorney- the villains in every real world situation. But, for the most part, in every incarnation, he's the Faustian demon everyone turns to in their hour of need and the worst kind of chessmaster.
For being perfectly comfortable in his villainy, Rumple has standards and, in fact, is hardly the sort of person to revel in his wrongdoings. He's a monster- it's what he is- and anyone who misses that deserves what they get, but that's the long and short of it. He doesn't murder whole towns for sport, and while he might screw you over and trifle with technicalities, he'll almost never lie to you (you just need to be paying close attention to his word choice- words are important weapons and he wields them well) and if you play by his rules, he has no interest in harming you and usually prefers to talk his way out of situations before he resorts to physical violence (or, in most cases, magic). He might have been the type to make grand gestures and murder innocents when it suited him when he was new to this (and those innocents were never innocent in his mind- they had done something to upset him, even if it was trivial, but in his mind NO ONE is innocent), but now he's more suited to subtle means and smaller weapons- deals and contracts, as opposed to massacres. People come to him for favors and he grants their every wish... for a price, and usually the favors work in his favor too (there's very few pots in the Enchanted Forest he hasn't stirred). It works out fine, even if most people leave his company wishing they'd never met him, but so long as they pay for his services, everything is fine. Deals are important to him. Sacred, even. He never breaks them and he won't have them broken, in turn.
He's addicted to his magic, believing it to be a crutch. He rejects true love's kiss that could have saved him from his curse as the Dark One, simultaneously out of fear of betrayal and also because it would mean giving up on a chance at seeing his son again. He brought magic to Storybrooke for much the same reason- because he believed he wouldn't be able to find his son without it. But it's more than just a father's desperation- he loves control. He loves having power. It's everything he never had when he was a poor cowardly spinner and now that he's a cowardly all-powerful near-god, he needs it more than ever, because he's tasted it and fears going back to being nothing. It's why in stressful situations, he always falls back on self-preservation- not just to save his own life, but to save the parts of him he feels he needs. He's a desperate soul, no matter how collected he might appear, and no end is too extravagant to get what he wants. This, however, makes him very good at finding other desperate souls and getting them to do whatever he wants, especially if it means he can avoid paying the price for it. He does so love a good loophole and if he can avoid a situation by tempting someone else into doing it for him, then he'll move the pieces until they're exactly where he wants them to be. It's easy to tell when you're a part of Rumple's schemes, but, unfortunately, by the time you're desperate enough to come to him, you don't care that you're playing right into his hands. Say what you will of him, but he gets results. Conversely, however, it means he's just as easily manipulated. He has very obvious weaknesses and once zeroed in on, you can make him move nearly any way you choose, provided you don't make him angry enough to just flat-out out turn on you.
As long as he holds all the cards in a situation and still has pieces on the board, he's fine with a situation. He's hyperconfident in everything he does and nothing shakes him when he knows he's in control and approaches every situation rationally with some catty remark and a smirk and little emotion (if its Gold) or excessive glee (if its Rumple). He won't do anything he doesn't want to do and won't hesitate to say "no" if he thinks he can't get anything out of it. This also means he's an opportunist and will strike deals with people he actively despises, because they have something he wants or he has a use for them and even being a man who holds grudges, he can lay them aside for a greater agenda if he doesn't feel like he's been cornered into it. Almost every plan he concocts has a back-up plan ready to be put into place if the first plan fails and it's hard to say exactly how good he is at predicting outcomes (he can see the future to some extent, but he also believes people have a choice and that nothing is really set in stone) or if he's just so adaptable, he can change his game to suit how the situation has changed- likely both. However, as soon as he loses his control, things fall apart very quickly. He goes from being an incredibly intelligent, calm, placid man with a sense of style and a sassy streak three miles wide to being a desperate, fumbling fool not much different than the spinner he started out as or, at the worst, the vicious monster he claims to be. Breaking a deal with him is considered high treason, betraying him is only a little bit lower, and God help you if you hurt something he loves, because once that happens, all bets are off. He's not above petty vengeance and he's especially not above finding some way to end the people who've wronged him in underhanded and utterly devastating ways if he doesn't flat out and snap and cane them to death. He can be sensible and rational, but he can also be wild, unpredictable, and temperamental depending on what's happening around him. As he has a tendency to see only what he wants to see, he can also be extremely foolish, which is what allows him to be manipulated so easily.
Equal parts self-loathing and self-deluding, he hates himself immensely and believes himself to be a monster, but won't be the first to blame himself for why things are the way they are- at least not outwardly. Wrongs done to him will be inflicted back twofold and he can hold a grudge for an eternity. Even if he knows in his heart something was his fault, having someone around he can scapegoat makes it easier on him- he blames Milah for abandoning Baelfire, blames Hook for Milah's death, blames Maurice for abandoning Belle, and blames the Blue Fairy for sending Baelfire to another world. Technically, every one of those incidents were his own fault, but rather than accept the guilt and move on, he tries to shove it off on others and punish them. Punishing people is easy and it's a cheat to make himself feel better for awhile. It's how he's gotten what he wants since he became the Dark One and it's the only way he knows how to use his power, especially when nothing with that power can bring back his loved ones and make things any better. That isn't to say he can't become utterly devastated when his actions have consequences on those he loves and there is some amount of internalized self-blame there- he's not heartless, despite everything, and he can be repentant for his actions, but there's very few things that can get these reactions out of him. For the most part, he's an unrepentant jackasss who thinks everyone who comes into contact with him brings their pain on themselves because they're the ones who asked and they're the ones who believed he'd be a good person. He projects his own fears and insecurities and self-loathing onto other people, assuming that because he is awful and no good that everyone else is, as well. If he makes a baseless accusation about someone's true intentions, it's probably because he tried to do it once and it ended badly for him (hence his belief that intent is meaningless).
He suffers crippling abandonment issues and has sincere doubts over whether or not anyone is truly capable of actually loving him, due to the fact that every person he's ever cared for (save one) has outright rejected him. Because of this, he generally distrusts kindness given freely without want for payment and is suspicious of everyone's motives, since he genuinely believes that people are scum, regardless of how often he sees the good people can do. Showing him kindness is the quickest way to cow him, because he doesn't know how to handle it, and due to this attitude, he feels obligated to repay any debt and have debts repaid, in turn. He won't ask for help unless he's desperate and even then, he'll barter for it and expect nothing given out of the goodness of other people's hearts. It's difficult for him to break this mentality- even having honest proof that Belle loves him isn't enough to keep him from thinking he has no future for her. He's a difficult man to love by his own admission and when someone loves him, it tends to be the only thing that can keep him grounded and out of the dark somewhat- this is not just evidenced by Belle, but by how quickly he was willing to destroy the source of his power when he believed August was his son, proving he would have extended the same courtesies to his real son had circumstances not caused him to cling to his magic (and his magic and sense of self-preservation routinely trumps everything else). Conversely, it's when he loses his ties to the last shred of his humanity he has that he tends to be at his absolute darkest, because "there's no point to being good now."
He has very few genuinely good qualities, because most of them are buried under layers of bad qualities- his attempts at bravery have a tendency to culminate into acts of cowardice, his cleverness makes him manipulative, etc. He is, however, extremely passionate about everything he does, and his intentions were always good (however, AGAIN FOR THE CHEAP SEATS, intent is meaningless). He doesn't do anything specifically to hurt people unless they wrong him- he just doesn't care if people get hurt. The exception is generally children- barring a few extenuating circumstances, he's not inclined to harm children and has a soft spot for them, even going as far as helping them with no regard for payment. He also has an extreme devotion to family to the point of doing things he otherwise wouldn't do for the sake of family, even if he still has a hard time trusting the new family he's gained since finding his son again. He can't help it- his own inability to commit to redeeming himself and becoming a better man makes him a disappointment and the less people he has to disappoint, the less horrible he'll feel about it. He's the sort of person that wishes he could be Prince Charming- a dedicated, brave man who protects his family without hiding behind something as unpredictable and devastating as magic and turning to nasty habits like self-preservation and vengeance, but he also knows that was never his lot in life and it never will be. He is doomed to repeat his mistakes until he allows himself to let go and until he can do that, he'll constantly be sabotaging his own happiness and becoming an all the more darker person for it, slipping farther and farther away from the ability to simply walk from the life he's been cursed with. He has a horrible sense of self-preservation that overrides everything else to the point that he'd be willing to murder a child if it meant saving him from a terrible fate- it was only the fact that the same child was his grandson that actually stopped him, and, even then, he considered it.
Belle is his moon and stars and he has a tendency to fall over himself to please her (outwardly- he has been known to placate Belle and then sneak off and do the opposite of what she asks, because he is the worst). He loves her desperately and is extremely protective of her- if anything happens to her, he has a tendency to get very violent, and only Belle, herself, can pull him back (usually- sometimes logic wins out). He loves her dearly and she can turn a poised sorcerer into a dorky teenager at the drop of a hat. However, if Belle is his moon, then his son Baelfire (alias Neal Cassidy) is his sun. Everything he has ever done has been for Baelfire and getting his son back is his primary motivator to the point where, after believing him to be dead, he sets out on a suicide mission to save his grandson to honor him, intentionally walking into a prophecy he'd been trying to subvert for centuries. If he has Bae, then he has his happy ending and his redemption, and he tries to let very little (even Belle) get in the way of that. Those two are the only two people he truly loves and trusts, and even so, he has a hard time trusting Belle sometimes out of fear of showing her the bridge too far that will make her leave him.
Nearly everyone else he might consider a friend (or a member of his extended family) is a person he wouldn't hesitate to throw under a bus if he got a mind to. Regina, his former protege, swings from being begrudging ally to worst nightmare and he spends a lot of his time wanting to murder her and knowing he can't without alienating the people he loves. Emma Swan is his trump card, his other protege, and probably his favorite chess piece- he genuinely likes her and respects her and the two of them mutually understand each other, but she's a pawn and one he intends to keep using. Prince Charming and his lovely wife are the fools he can always count on to ruin his day with demands, though Charming has made an excellent wingman on occasion. The rest of the town, Gold regards with little more than contempt until they can actually prove their worth to him and that's how Gold regards most people he hasn't decided he needs to manipulate yet- a lofty aura of contempt and sarcasm. He doesn't make friends- he makes allies. Making friends requires him to trust people and the only way you're going to earn his trust is to consistently stand by him, even when you have no reason to.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON:
Here's the money shot.
This is the Dark One's dagger- it is both efficient at slicing and dicing and making julienne peasant and is the source of Gold's magic. Holding it gives a person full control over him and his actions and stabbing him with it transfers his power to another person. As such... he generally only uses it as a very pretty paperweight so he doesn't have to run the risk of losing it.
Over time, Gold will realize that combat magic will work a lot better if channeled through the dagger, forcing him to use it in fights (it won't completely eliminate the price of using it, but it will lessen it somewhat). Most importantly, the dagger will become wholly his to the point where anyone touching the dagger will be unable to control him. The curse is his and his alone now. The downside is his curse can never be broken, which he'll view as an upside, except for the part where magic is SUFFERING.
Character INVENTORY:
- This entire outfit. (Includes a coat, a three piece suit-and-tie, a ring with a blue stone)
-A cane.
-One monogrammed dagger.
» SAMPLES
First PERSON:
An entire war effort founded on the idea that you can change the past. [Gold sounds a bit amused at the thought. He can see the future- or could. Changing the past, however... well, that's completely out of the realm of possibility.] It's such a lovely notion, wouldn't you agree? The idea that by changing a few things, you can change the entire course of the future.
[He chuckles.] I wonder if it's occurred to them yet that for all their hard work, the future is not so easily bent into shape the way we'd like it to be. Some things simply have to transpire. Fate can't always be altered.
But I could be wrong, and frankly, I am going to be thoroughly disappointed if I'm not. I don't like having my time wasted, especially not for someone else's folly.
Third PERSON:
This is not Neverland.
Gold only holds his temper in during this introduction to Exsilium (a realm he's never heard of, but knows it can't be anywhere remotely near the Jolly Roger's intended destination), because he wants answers and it's difficult for someone to provide them with a hand around their throat.
All during her explanation, he glowers, limping along behind her, pausing to observe, here and there, and causing her to turn back to fetch him when she gets too far ahead.
"By all means, dearie," he says, snidely, during one such interruption in a spiel he has no doubt she's made a million times before. "Don't let me stop you." She waits for him to follow and he eventually concedes, finding nothing particularly noteworthy on the walls and no hope for escape at his back. Eventually, she stops again and he ends up overtaking her and having to turn around.
The sight of the armory would have given soldiers in the Ogre's War something to cry at. He might have wept too were he still one of them, but he was far from a soldier anymore, if he was ever one to start with.
"Well, that's lovely, my dear," he says, turning away from the sight with a wry, agitated smile. "But of no interest to me."
She opens her mouth to continue to override his protests, but this time he's ready for her. He reaches into his suit jacket and produces a long, curved dagger, tilted so that the name on it isn't visible. "I think this will suffice for your little war, won't it?" If it will shut her up, he doesn't care about the risk exposing the dagger like that can be. It's not as if she knows what it does or what it means for him. It's just a blade.
She nods and then moves on. He only hangs back long enough to pocket the blade again, casting a glance at the armory again. Three hundred years gone since he was labeled the Man Who Ran for hobbling himself on a battlefield and they expect him to pick up a weapon and fight.
Well, wars can be fought in a number of ways. If he can get out of this, perhaps he'll come out of it with a way to get Henry back and defeat Pan. It's optimistic in a way that he doesn't particularly want to be right now, but what choice does he have? It's something of Belle's he'll have to rely on, since she isn't here to tell him to suck up his anger and make the most of it.
» ADDITIONAL NOTES
I am sorry this is longer than the Bible. Don't hate me.