1. Bae is sick. He has a terminal magical affliction, he was born with a broken magical core, so his body never assimilated to the magical environment.
2. Bae spends most of his time in a hospital.
3. Rumple works in the Global Magic Research Institute (or GMRI for short)
4. He spends most of his time doing projects and research, he's very proficient with magic after all. It's a high paying job, it gives the money needed to pay for his son's hospital fees. And he gets equipment that he can use to find some cure for Bae as well.
5. And when he's free he spends time with Bae (he isn't free a lot. His son does get mad at him sometimes for it because it hurts. Rumple is torn too. The job pays to keep Bae alive, but he can't spend time with his boy)
6. Rumple is given a new job. The mer folks and the leylines of the sea are facing problems. They're not working right. They want Rumple to go fix it. And his company promises they will cover his son's medical fee while he's doing the job and he will get paid when he returns successfully. That's a deal of a lifetime.
7. The issue? He'll be even more busier and time with Bae will be lowered. But Bae's medical fee... So, he takes it. [His son is not happy, rightfully so]
8. And there's a hidden agenda for Rumple.
1. Merfolk are known to be notoriously shy and they do not interact with humans at all, animosity towards them for destroying the oceans they live in.
2. Belle is not like that
3. She's fascinated by the world above the sea and wants to know more about humans and everything.
4. She spends more time outside the city, exploring the sea than she does at home. (She's also a complete bit of an outcast so not her loss)
5. So, when she comes across a human interacting with and working with the leylines and with things she's never seen before, sigh, her curiosity wins out against self preservation.
6. She did wait a few hours before deeming him approachable. (A few hours wait was an eternity for her).
The overall story is basically Rumple and Belle working together to find out why the magic in the cities under the sea is failing.
With Rumple slowly falling in love, learning to be less tense and Belle discovering things about herself that will have grave consequences and a fate planned for her she cannot escape from.
1. Belle isn't normal. She's the only octopus mer-folk out there. Part of her reason for always travelling is also because she wants to find someone like her.
Rumple was not only shocked, he was terrified because an octopus mer-folk had never been seen before. Merfolk were known to only have fish-like characteristics, fins and a tail. Not... tentacles.
2. The tattoo around Rumple's arm is a suppressor. Rumple's own magic was deemed far too volatile and unstable by GMRI, his magic being the rare case of reacting with his emotions, too in sync with them to be controlled, and they told him to get the suppressor.
He can take it off. He usually doesn't.
3. The lines of his neck are gills, it's the spell that lets him breathe underwater.
4. Merfolk cannot be on land. That is the rule. But Belle is apparently an anomaly of nature itself. Because she can get legs when she touches the land magic.
She discovered this when they got into trouble and Rumple got hurt and she had to swim to shore to save him. [Yes, Rumple takes Belle to see Bae eventually]
5. The nickname Rumple. It's what everyone in the company calls him (to the point he accidentally introduced himself as Rumple to Belle).
Why? Because most of the time he looks like a rumpled blanket ._.
He used to be sharply dressed. At some point he stopped caring when he realised results are the only necessary thing. Now he's unkempt mostly because he spends most of his time in the lab.
He's a genius when it comes to understanding the mechanics of magic, so he's GMRI's most prized researcher.
6. She has no sense of personal space so she's very handsy uhhh 'tentacle'-y. But you can't blame her, she navigates with them, they're her limbs just as much as her arms are. So poor Rumple always ends up well, held by her X)
[just like in the picture. Poor guy]
7. Rumple's hidden agenda is that there are rumours. The merfolk were known to have a medicine to cure any disease, no matter what affliction, the medicine would cure it. He wants to get that medicine.
He is initially using Belle to get more medicine about the cities and any hints of the medicine but dw, he softens up for her :3
So, there you have it. The ✨LORE✨
Did it take me 6 hrs to come up with this? Nah, just one, so there isn't much planned out. X)
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