#group e

“Did you….” She trailed off, looking at the board quizzically.

Rumple sighed, playing at impatience, “Are you going to take your turn or not? I don’t have all day.” 

“You’re cheating.”

He gasped, raising his hands in feigned shock. “Me? No! Never!” 

And there it was again, that smile of hers. Beautiful, radiant, and utterly sickening the way it made his pulse race.

She reached her hand out, “Give them back.”

Rumple scowled, reluctantly handing the pieces over to her.

“You realize this will just take even longer each time we have to reset the board?” she scolded.

“No need. Here.” He waved his hand and all the pieces were back in place.

“And why would I trust you with that? You were just cheating!” Belle exclaimed, voice incredulous but eyes bright with suppressed laughter.

Rumple grinned and let out an odd little titter, “Not like you have a choice, dearie!”

She giggled, the sound setting off that fluttery feeling in his stomach. He was about to take her pawn again, but then she stood up, abandoning their game entirely.

“We’ll settle this later,” she offered, as way of explanation. He frowned, watching her leave as if they hadn’t just been in the middle of something. He was only doing this to humor her, and now she didn’t care to finish? He thought about making her do his bloody laundry for the next week. “And where might you be going?” He asked, unable to keep the sourness from his voice.

She gave him a warm smile anyway.

“To plant my flowers! The sun’s behind the trees and the ground is soft since it’s been raining.” Not what he had expected.

“Why?”

Belle rolled her eyes, “Surely you like flowers? Everyone does!”

He looked at her as if she was stupid. “I’ll leave you to it. I’m busy anyway!" He replied, disappearing in a plume of smoke. A few hours later, Belle was still outside. Whatever could be so fascinating about digging around in the dirt was beyond him, but she seemed quite serious about the whole thing. He watched from his tower as she carefully pulled weeds, tilled up the earth, and plotted out her seeds. Once the sun started setting entirely, he decided to go remind her that dinner still needed to be made. “So? How are your weeds?” He asked, appearing behind her suddenly. Belle jolted, “You know I hate when you do that, and they’re not weeds, they’re wildflowers. And one rose bush.”

He wrinkled his nose, “Roses?” That was Maleficent’s thing. And dreadfully tacky at that. “Yes! Remember when that peddler woman came here? You bought one. So I thought you must like them, right?” She beamed at him and he almost felt guilty about the true origins of that rose. He changed the subject.

“Have we always been interested in gardening? Or is this a new interest?” “Well.. I wasn’t really allowed to do this sort of thing before. We had gardeners and… It wasn’t proper to be seen with your hands dirty,” She smiled as she wiggled her muddy fingers at him, “But I’ve always loved flowers, and the study of plants is fascinating! I’ve always really admired those who have been able to do it. It enables advancements in everything else, you know? Food, medicine, textiles..” Rumple watched fondly as she rambled. She seemed like herself again. But then she stopped abruptly, a thought occurring to her.   “I’m sure you use them in magic as well?” “Obviously, but I get others to bring them to me. I have a large collection of dried plants stocked so I don’t have to…” he motioned to where she was kneeling on the ground, “Do this.” “Oh but it’s so nice! Come here, I’ll show you!”  “I can see what you’re doing from here just fine,” Rumple argued. But then Belle pulled out that laugh of hers that made him utterly defenseless and took his hand to pull him down to her level, “Now. All you have to do is reach your hands into the dirt and—“ He pulled his hand from her grasp and gave her an indignant look “No, no, no. I won’t be doing that, dearie. I’ll watch.”  

Belle rolled her eyes at him as she began to dig into the earth with her hands, “See? All you have to do is dig a hole deep enough for the plant. You know, for a man that spends most of his time torturing people, you are SO picky about what you get on your hands. Just give it a try!” And before Rumple could object, she grabbed his hand and thrust it into the cold, soft earth guiding him to dig. Rumple looked at this woman who was brave enough to grab the Dark One himself and force him to do… gardening with her. A woman whose hand was so very warm on his. After she let go he begrudgingly continued to dig. “No one’s ever grabbed me like that without losing their appendages,” he warned, giving what he hoped was a serious look, “and I don’t like being dirty.” “Oh I’m so scared,” she laughed back. 

After Belle had finished teaching Rumple about the ‘joys of gardening’, she left to make dinner. She smiled thinking about Rumple recoiling at the mere mention of dirt, but couldn’t understand why he was behaving so strangely about such a mundane activity. Though, these days he perplexed her more often than not.

In a farther, more mysterious part of the castle, Rumple was tinkering with potions that had no real purpose other than to keep his mind busy. Failing miserably, of course. He couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of Belle’s warm, gentle hands over his cold, inhuman skin. Perhaps she deserved something nice. His mind flickered back to the dress he saw at the Wonderland ball. Before he could talk himself out of it, he closed his eyes, picturing it clearly in his mind. A striking ballgown with rosettes but this time, blue. He walked into the kitchen, gown in hand, and announced, “I had to kill a princess and I thought it was a waste of a nice dress, do you want this?” Belle, startled again, turned from the boiling pot on the range, “You had to kill a…?” She looked at the dress in his arms, “A princess? Why?” She pouted, her brow furrowed with that slight wrinkle it got in the middle sometimes. He resisted the urge to smooth it away with his thumb.

He avoided her gaze as she waited for his explanation, pacing about the kitchen in circles instead, “She backed out of a deal. I did what I had to.”

Belle sighed, “Was she wearing that dress when you killed her?”

Rumple stopped abruptly, “What? No! I may be a monster but I’m not a creep, Belle.”

She eyed him, thinking this through, “So you…. killed a princess, on this big important deal of yours. And then you raided her closet?”  A smile played at the edges of her lips. She didn’t believe him at all.

“Look, do you want it or not?” he huffed.

“Where would I wear that to, Rumple?” She had a point.

“You could wear it here. I need to practice dancing sometimes.” he lied. He was already a very practiced dancer.

“Rumple! What’s gotten–” she was cut off by being poofed. Disorienting as ever but when she regained her bearings, the lights were dim, and she was wearing the dress. It fit her perfectly. He stood there in front of her. Wearing an opulent ensemble that matched hers. His grin didn’t reflect any hint of the trickery it so often held.

He extended his hand, “Care for a dance?”

“I was in the middle of making dinner.” She scolded, but took it anyway. He pulled her in close, hand on her waist.

“You’ve already wasted so much of my time today,” he explained, twirling her about with ease, “It’s my turn to waste yours.”

She searched his face for what she wanted to find, but was afraid of its absence,  “Why do you want to dance with me?” she asked, her hand moving from his shoulder to his chest.

He just smirked and casually replied, “Do I need a reason?”

Prospera Mercury/Elnora Samaya

Gaslight: Has two daughters: Ericht "Eri" Samaya, who when she was about three years old got severely injured and had to be put into a mobile suit; and Suletta Mercury, a clone of Eri who was created to pilot the mobile suit until Prospera could enact "Quiet Zero" and allow Eri to move under her own power. Has lied to her daughter (and everyone else) about said mobile suit being a highly-illegal and dangerous Gundam, the effects of which Suletta is only protected from because Eri's taking them on herself. Gatekeep: She does less of this but she does basically force Suletta out of her grand plan "for Suletta's own good" using Suletta's fiance. Girlboss: Head of the megacorp in charge of Mercury. Wears a mask/helmet covering her face in line with all good Char clones. Engineers a plan to take over a major chunk of space under the nose of the guy who ruined her life, because revenge is secondary to freeing Eri. Commits a massacre and allows Eri to commit a second one. Gets away with it.

Shadow Weaver

She traumatizes children for fun, tortures and gaslights people,.and she's the second in command for a fascist military