Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin is Storybrooke's Bad!Santa (full res/one page viewing @ deviantart). 

Formerly a Rumbelle Bad Santa style AU that turned into a gag strip because I ran out of time to finish the other manips got distracted by Sassy!Thranduil. Hope I managed to salvage it for a bit of fun. Happy Holidays everyone~!

Rumbelle Greek/Roman Empire AU

prompt idea: ...I'm drawing a big blank... Belle is the archivist assistant or pupil of the local philosopher. Her city was conquered by the Romans, and Rumplestiltskin is the newly installed governor of the city-state. (IDK! My Roman history is rusty. I mainly wanted to try transplanting a face, XD) EDIT: Writers, feel free to give the AU a try if inspiration strikes :)

original photos: Agora film posters

Rumbelle student/professor AU premise:

Professor Gold (or Nicholas Rush, SGU) has a fierce reputation for teaching the most grueling courses in the physics dept -weekly HW assignments that lead to many sleepless nights, marathon exams, students leaving his office hours in tears. This year he's been assigned by the dept chair, Regina Mills, to teach the graduate level quantum mechanics class (or quantum cryptography, SGU) as punishment for being a thorn in her side. Word is the last time he taught the class, it was so demoralizing, 50% reconsidered their study focus or quit by the end of the first year.

As a scientist, Gold is one of the most distinguished and well published researchers in his field. As a teacher, he has a terrible habit of talking to the board when he A) really gets into solving an equation or B) whenever he gets struck by a new idea and goes a bit off on a tangent during the lecture. In the lab, he expects his graduate students to be as dedicated as himself - 1) "That man doesn't know what a holiday is!", 2) "Told me he taught undergrads that could solve this problem faster than me!", 3) "Called me up at 6am and wanted to know why I wasn't in the lab working on the new calculations. Just shoot me now!", 4) "He's a monster! I don't think he even sleeps!"

Isabelle ("Belle") French is a first year graduate student in the physics dept. She's got a sharp mind and is eager to learn. Despite all the gossip and rumors surrounding her professor, she's fascinated by the brilliant man - she's been following his publication history since a freshman in college. It also doesn't help that she's captivated by the lines of Gold's back as he lectures at the chalkboard.

Just to be clear, I do not truly want to see Star Wars mixed with OUaT. The five year old in me on the other hand....

No Belle in the lastest episode, but Jane Espenson's tweet that the trunk Gold snapped shut had items for Belle made me watch the scene again. On repeat viewing, I noticed Gold was carrying a vase. 

...looks an awful lot like the vase Belle put rose!Gaston in from Skin Deep :O On one hand, I'd like to think Rumpel is a sweetie for including a vase so Belle can have flowers, but then again...that's where Gaston met his end...maybe.