ten_fwd | Family Business. [Action]

Entry tags:

Family Business. [Action]

Closed to: Whoever has access to Rumplestiltskin's room.
You know what kind of beast you're dealing with.

Those words seemed to echo throughout her mind as she appears on the Enterprise. Belle's vision hasn't clearly yet and she isn't aware that she left the Snow Queen's cave. There was something entrapping her mind to the image of that mirror and it takes a few seconds for her to finally snap out of it, dagger dropping from her hands and clattering to the floor. Instantly Belle's hand shoots up to grip at her heart. Odd twists pain strike her there but it isn't physical. She scrambles to the floor, dropping down to her knees to retrieve the dagger and stow it back in her coat as she starts to sob.

She's angry and resentful and just plain pissed off? The dagger is fake. She should have known from the start that he wouldn't give her his main source of power. Why would he? He loved power more than he loved anything else. But if she's being honest with herself that's not why she's upset. She's upset because she couldn't resist the urge to use it like everyone else.

Belle doesn't deserve the pity she wants for herself nor does she expect to get it any time soon. How does one start to atone for violating the trust of someone they love? It's then somewhere between her own misplaced sorrow and hatred for being so weak that she finally notices the room. Where in the world is she? Blue eyes scan across her surroundings looking for something familiar but she finds nothing. This wasn't the cave she left? "Hello? Hello!" She pushes herself off the ground, wiping her eyes.

What right does she have to cry? This is her fault the exact same way Anna was her fault. Well roomies of Rumple or frequent visitors you have a Belle wandering around poking through stuff. Try not to be alarmed she doesn't bite.

Open:

Once she acclimated a little to the ship she found her way to the lounge and immediately takes a seat at the bar. Maybe she is channeling the cursed version of herself but she thinks she could use a drink. It's just too bad that Belle doesn't have a taste for alcohol at all. In fact, she hates most hard liquor but enjoys most wine. "Do you have anything red?" She inquires, trying her best to wear a polite smile that only wavers once the bartender is gone.

Maybe the lounge isn't that crowded but it's a sea of faces she doesn't recognize at all. Some of them are even different species but she doesn't want to ask about that. Such questions seem. . .rude.

But at least she can ask one to a friendly neighbor at the bar: "Can you tell me about where I am? Someone said this was called the Enterprise. What exactly does that mean?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Since Halloween, Henry and Gold had been on decent terms. Smiling, no avoidance and general civility turned pleasantness. And with that, Henry every so often dropped by to say hello to the man, mostly because he was still a version of his father even if he wasn't the man himself.

Today, he let himself in and saw a woman he didn't recognise poking around the stuff in the quarters. Knowing Gold shared the room with Jonas, this was suspicious.

"Hey. Who are you and what the hell are you doing?"

Belle freezes her hand darting back from a trinket that she recognized but she had no time to place whose it was when a piercing voice startled her. "Henry?" She answered, turning to face him. He is much younger than she remembers which means he probably has no idea who she is but how is that even possible? Is this another curse?

"I'm Belle Gold and I don't know how I got here." She answered truthfully. "Where am I?"

Henry gave her a confused look when she knew his name and it only intensified when she told him his name.

"You're on the...Enterprise." He looked at her more closely, but he still didn't recognise her. "Gold, huh?" If she recognised him, maybe she was from the future. Either his or Gold's. "I'm Henry Gold. You related to Rumplestiltskin too?"

. . Henry Gold. She looks shocked for a moment before finally opening her mouth to say something. "Legally, yes. He's my--" She stops herself. They didn't adopt Henry, did they? Neither Emma nor Regina would allow for that. "my husband from my point in time." She finishes finding the words she wants to use.

"He may not be from yours." And he wasn't. He didn't even know she was alive if she recalls correctly. "Why do you have his last name?"

"Oh, he's not. The one that lives here anyway." Henry rolled his eyes and moved to sit on the couch. "Back home, Mr Gold's my dad. Here, he's just Gold. Ask him about it if you're curious."

He gives her a curious look. "So what are you doing in here? Is this where you turned up or are you looting?"

What a rude little boy and he is so very casual about it. She doesn't make a move to sit. Belle is fine standing where she is. "Wait--there are two different Rumplestiltskins?" She shakes her head trying to wrap her mind around that. At least this is a distraction.

"I just showed up here. I wouldn't loot anything anyway. That's rather crude." She mentions a little offended. "What are you doing here if this Rumple isn't your father?"

"Yeah. Not here though. My dad's back home." At least she was accepting his explanation and not insisting the man was his grandfather.

"I came to talk to him. I'm allowed to do that." He doesn't like this Belle. "I don't remember you from Storybrooke. And if he was important to him, my dad would have mentioned you. So who are you really?"

The hiss of the door opening might have gone unnoticed with their attention on each other, but the man who walked inside was more surprised by the woman's words than her presence here. They'd married? That would suggest he'd gotten free of the Box and that hopefully Henry was saved and Pan defeated.

"The matter of my twin is complicated. Apparently there are two Storybrooke's and thus two of me, in one I seemed to have raised Henry, in the other...in ours, I didn't." He explained as he headed toward the two, the majority of his attention on Belle, though he managed to turn his gaze toward Henry as he came to a halt a couple feet from them.

"If he's anything at all similar to myself, he doesn't wish to speak of her because it's painful and he thinks her dead. Why should he pain himself to speak of a woman he loved when he doesn't believe she'll be entering his life again? I can assure you though, her name is Belle, and she is rather important to me."

She isn't necessarily accepting Henry's explanation rather than playing along for lack of a better way to handle what's just happened. A spell just took over her brain, she betrayed the man she loves, Q blinked her into a federation starship that she knows nothing about, and now Henry is talking down to her. All things considered she is doing well right now. The only thing that could make this worse is if the supposed Gold he's talking about did appear. That wouldn't go well for any parties involved.

"Excuse you I am important to him and I don't need him to mention me to you for that to be true." Great now she is scolding a child for questioning her integrity. Today is a good day. "Why would you even say something like that? I haven't been rude to you at all and I don't even know where I am or what an Enterprise is--" She catches Rumple's voice and that shuts her up. She crosses her arms over her chest fighting back the sting of tears. Belle feels stupid.

His explanation falls on deaf ears at the moment. She isn't having any of it with this boy. She doesn't say anything just keep to herself and lets the two of them talk. What does she have to say anyway? Belle just turns her gaze down, biting at her lip. She isn't in the right state of mind to talk to anyone right now.

Henry shrugged. "He told me everything else that hurts. Remember, I already know about Pan. And if you've been eavesdropping for that long, maybe you can answer my question."

He was curious as to who this Belle truly was and why he didn't know her in Storybrooke. And why Gold thought she was dead when she clearly wasn't. Henry didn't like not understanding things or being left in the dark.

"Pan is an entirely different matter and an older pain than Belle. I already answered your question. If you need more of an explanation, Regina lied when she told me - us - that Belle was dead. The reason she isn't seen in Storybrooke is due to Regina having her hidden away. I'd like for you to apologize for being so rude to Belle."

He closed the remaining distance between himself and Belle, a concerned small frown coming to his lips at the sight of her upset.

Pan. They were both chatting so openly about something that was rather. . .painful for everyone involved. Belle gives a small smile, looking up to Rumple as he approaches. "Hello Rumple." She murmurs just loud enough for him to hear, her hand reaches out to squeeze his but she doesn't want to risk more than that for reasons he isn't aware of. All of said reasons unrelated to Henry.

She sighs. "It's fine. He doesn't need to apologize. I just need a minute or two." Or an hour. Who knows how long it will take her to adjust. Keeping her own outbursts in check isn't working so well.

"However you don't need to know anything else about me either." This time she directs her attention toward Henry. Sorry, even if Regina is turning a new leaf she wouldn't trust Henry further than she could throw him with that attitude. He may be Gold's child in this. . .alternate world but he resembles Regina's attitudes and mannerisms more than ever.

Edited 2014-12-22 22:51 (UTC)

Henry almost scoffed at Gold. "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my Dad." He wasn't anything but a look-a-like that Henry tolerated and every so often visited because he missed the man who raised him.

"That does sounds like Regina though." He gave a one shoulder shrug and stood up. "Our business can wait. Might as well leave of my own accord rather than get kicked out." And he headed towards the door, making a mental note to avoid this Belle as well. Why was everyone always from their timeline and not his?

"As if I could forget that. You tend to remind me of it often enough." He replied as the boy headed for the door. "That doesn't mean I can't and won't chastise you as your father might were he here. I doubt he allows you to be rude for no reason."

He sighed quietly and turned his attention back toward Belle. "I am sorry for that rude welcome. I'll try to answer any questions you have if I can."

What's more Henry continues on completely ignoring her presence. Not only does she feel unwelcome she feels unwanted like the china piece that was once scenery and meant to stay there gathering dust as if to truly signify her unimportance. If his father is Rumple he doesn't show it, not the way Belle remembers him to be. Even as the Dark One he was never so unkind in her presence and if he was she could dissuade him. She gets the distinct impression she will never do the same with Henry.

"You don't need to apologise." She sighs. Paranoia doesn't suit her but the after effects of the spell are still prevalent. "He said there are two of you." A flash of contempt fills her eyes but it's not for him. "What is he talking about? Henry is Emma and Regina's son." They can start there and she'll worry about what an Enterprise is later.

"The Henry we know is yes. That boy...that boy is not the Henry we both know." Obviously, because their Henry would not have treated either of them in the manner they were just treated to. "It's complicated as I said, but I'll try to explain."

He used their connected hands to guide Belle toward the couch so they could sit down before he went into the explanation.

"Judging by what I've heard from the boy, in the world he knows, his Storybrooke, something happened that didn't happen in our Storybrooke and therein lies where our timelines apparently split apart. I don't know how that's possible, but that is somehow what came about. Thus why, it seems, there are two of me."

It certainly turned everything he thought he knew about how time worked on its head. He would have thought that if something had changed, then everything after that change would have been negated and re-written as it took place again, with no one the wiser to the fact that things had changed. Instead, it would seem that their world had split apart, and while their known timeline had proceeded as it should, the changed one had also proceeded onward as it's own separate timeline.

"As for the reason, he's not Regina's son...well, according to the boy, Regina ended up making a mistake that restored my memory ten years early. This apparently set off a chain of events that didn't occur our Storybooke, because in our timeline, I didn't get my memory back until I actually met Emma in Granny's bed and breakfast, when she decided to remain in town. Yet, in the boy's own timeline, it seems that I took Henry from Regina's custody to raise him myself, instead of allowing Regina to do it."

It's hard to explain things when all he has is second-hand information that he doesn't entirely understand himself yet. Yes, he knows it, but knowing it and understanding it completely are two entirely different things.

That much was, yes, obvious. She never recalled the Henry they knew regarding her so strangely. She followed the tug of his hand, and comes to sit next to him relishing the closeness of someone familiar. Anything familiar when she's been displaced yet again to what appears to be somewhere new. Belle tries her best to focus on his words and not let her mind wander to other thoughts. "So our universe formed divergent timelines." At least that much is a concept she is familiar with from books she has read. They were theories spun in stories but she never thought they would be proven true.

"Basically, there is a main set of events say, the ones we know. In theory there are an infinite amount of possible universes. His is one of the many that would happen if--by what you've said--one instance was changed." She explains, trying to fill in the blanks for them. Reciting knowledge feels normal and her voice comes across as less shaky. Belle quiets again when he continues.

"I suppose this will take some getting used to." She murmurs. "I don't know why he looks at me like I'm some sort of threat." But she doesn't go into that. Maybe he's right and that Rumple didn't mention her because whatever happened to her was painful and she may actually be dead in the timeline or the Hatter simply never found her and she is still living her days in imprisonment. It's hard to say.

"I'm sorry to toss so many questions at you but. . .he said we're on the Enterprise? What's that?"

"From what I've gathered and heard, it's a 'star' ship. We're in apparently among the stars, in 'space'. This ship can somehow move within this space to visit different worlds. They claim there's no magic involved, but I'm not entirely certain I believe them."

So the starship Enterprise. In Belle's mind she quickly works out imagining actual ships. They form an armada when they all come together in stories and those armadas are usually military-based. Is this ship, whether it's in space or not, only meant to visit other world or are they also conquering them? She doesn't want to stomach the idea of war or being caught in between when and if it happens.

Plenty of things work without magic is the quip she would like to toss at him.

"Okay so we're on a spaceship. . .in space and we're travelling to different worlds." She repeats, trying to digest that. Well it wasn't much different than being yanked back and forth by the curse except this thing doesn't need a curse and, supposedly, doesn't need magic to get where it's going.

What in the world is going on? Is she dreaming? This is all crazy she must have lost some marbles after staring into that mirror and listening to it's venomous words.

"I think I need a drink." She says a little lethargically, bringing the palm of her hand up to her forehead. "I'm not sure how to believe any of this. How could I have possibly gone from Storybrooke to some starship? A-and what about everyone I let behind? What about everyone you left behind? Won't they notice we're gone--" She stops herself with a sigh, biting back more questions.

"I'm not sure where to start."

"Why don't we start with how we got here? There's a creature in this world that is even more powerful than I am. Time, space, they mean nothing to him. He goes by Q and he's the one who has been dragging everyone to this ship."

As he spoke, he used his free hand to gesture briefly toward the table and there was a brief mauve colored smoke cloud making its appearance before dissipating to reveal a couple tumblers and a half full bottle of his favorite scotch.

"I'd be careful should you request drinks from this ship's bar, they might taste the same but they're not. They lack any kick the original drinks have, makes them rather useless really."

She has so many reservations about there being more power than what Rumple has available to him. To be honest being transported here isn't completely malevolent. Q could have put her somewhere far worse than a starship that is meant to travel between worlds.

"Thank you." She murmurs leaning forward to grab a glass. Her taste for hard liquor is somewhat weak and she wishes she had something to mix the scotch with but she'll manage. She pours a sparing amount into a glass.

"I don't usually drink to get drunk." She muses, taking a sip. It's strong but it helps.

"It doesn't make much of a difference to me. I just like the taste of wine from time to time." She isn't much for the effects. "It sounds like you've been here for a while with all the information you have." She glances over to Rumple. "You even have a room. I assume this is your room anyway, from what Henry said."

He let's the subject of liquor go, he doesn't often drink to get drunk either, but there's just something off to him about drinking something which mimics the taste of a drink, but doesn't satisfy in the same way as the actual drink.

"Indeed. I've been here nearly seven months now, and yes these are my guest quarters. If you like I can ask the captain to let you room with me." He won't presume to just assume she'll want to room with him, thus the phrasing of the suggestion. He'd like it if she did, and given the matter of their apparent marriage in the future, he couldn't see why she'd refuse, but she was still her own person and thus deserved to have a say in the matter.

"I would like that." She sets the glass back down on the table. For a second she looks as if something poked her but she recovers quickly. Right, she needs to find somewhere to store the dagger. Should she tell him she has it? Would he understand if he has been here for months but then what does it matter if what the mirror said was true and the dagger is fake?

"If it's not too much trouble, anyway." She turns more toward him. "Rumple can I ask you a favor?" Since she knows his magic still works here. "I want to forget something and. . .I need your help to do that."

"No trouble at all. I'd like that too."

At the request for a favor he nods, of course he's willing to do her a favor if it's within his ability to do so. Her words however concern him and a subtle frown pulls slightly at his lips. "I see. What...what is it that you want to forget?"

"I made a mistake before I appeared here." That isn't a lie but isn't the whole truth either. "And I just want to forget--" Her voice wavers and she looks down at her hands, trying her best not to fidget with them. No, she can be strong.

"Something stupid I did got the people I care about hurt." Rumple included in that mix but she won't say that aloud. "I don't want to forget what I did but I want to forget the result of it." She doesn't ever want to think about what she saw in that mirror again. "I would tell you what it was but I'm not sure if that will. . .harm anything." She pauses for a moment but continues. "You said you've been here for months so I don't want to interfere with your future when you go back."

Family Business. [Action]

Gold's Room

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)