Summary: Emma doesn’t remember who she was before she was found in the woods, but she knows that she has a few close friends, a good job, and a loyal cat that greets her every day when she gets home from work. What she doesn’t know, however, is that her past is about to catch up to her in the strangest of ways. She learns quickly that not everything is as it seems, not even her cat.
Rating: E
Content warnings: smutty smut, brief mentions of the loss of a hand
Chapter specific content warnings: some battle-ish stuff at the start, some more happy smut, and hopefully a satisfying ending.
A/N: Just… all my love. I can’t believe it’s over, and this is the last time you’ll be seeing an update for this story. Out of this world, man. All my love to the team of people that helped me through this, and of course to @clockadile for her lovely artwork. And my eternal love to all of you that read, and left comments, and liked and reblogged, and sent me messages. You guys are rockstars. Thank you! x
Surrounded on all sides by the presence of Dark
Ones.
It’s not exactly how Emma would’ve
imagined a homecoming, but it’s what she’s getting. Regina is standing steady
beside her, holding her arm, but otherwise there’s a fire in her eyes that Emma
can’t remember ever seeing in their time as friends.
“You okay?”
“Never better,” the other woman grits out, and
there’s an edge that she’s never heard before. Emma raises an eyebrow at
her, and the look Regina gives her back is telling more than anything. “Might’ve
shaken something loose,” she adds.
When Emma was growing up, stories about her
mother’s step-mother were very few and far between. Snow always told the story
of how Regina saved her from a runaway horse accident, and how Snow would later
betray her on accident by sharing a secret she was never supposed to tell. Emma
knew the lore that Snow was framed for Regina’s disappearance when it was
thought that Regina killed Snow’s father, and even had to go through high trial
for it, but no one could prove anything so the issue was buried and Snow was
crowned queen.
Every story about Regina included her fierce
tenacity and the strength in her voice, and Emma is seeing all of that right
next to her. Her suspicions are further confirmed when the barest hint of a spark
emits from Regina’s fingertips. Unlike her own magic, Regina’s is red,
reflecting her fiery personality. It’s all extremely fitting to the woman she
got to know in Storybrooke.
They both do a visual check of their
surroundings. Killian, back to poor Cat, is still trying to pull his leg free
from the pile of his clothes. Robin is still mostly unconscious, but he at
least winces and curls into a ball, which isn’t the worst sign of life she’s
ever seen. They need to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike, but being
outnumbered is really putting a damper on any possible plan.
All things considered, Emma figures there are
worse ways to die. They’re not going down without a fight, and maybe Killian
can run away fast enough. Of course, judging by the way he limps his way over
to stand by her feet when he’s finally free, maybe that’s not a possibility.
She looks down at him, wishing she could remind him how much she loves him one
more time, but turns to face the man that got lost in the power of dark magic,
and all the entities that came before him.
Happy Once Upon a Time Day!!! Here is some sketch thing (from my fanfic Come Wayward Souls) I wasn’t sure what to do for today but Thanks to @lenfaz and @spartanguard it came to this! And I am hoping for some Emma comforting this season because Holy Angst Batman, does she need it after last season! And thanks again for looking at the @seethelovelyintheworld!! 🙂
Colin uses all of Robert’s inflections and manner of speaking in this scene…good actor.
DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I RE-WATCHED THIS SCENE ON MY TV JUST IN AWE OF COLIN’S ACTING. DO YOU? IT WAS OVER FIVE. EVEN HIS HAND MOVEMENTS WERE RHYTHMICALLY LIKE RUMPLE’S. AND THE KICKER IS RUMPLE IS TRYING TO SOUND LIKE HOOK. AND HE ALMOST SUCCEEDS. HE USES KILLIAN’S BUZZ WORDS LIKE ALAS AND LOVE BUT HE CAN’T STOP HIMSELF FROM TALKING IN HIS NATURAL RHYTHM. IT’S SLIGHTLY SLOWER AND CALMER (ESPECIALLY BECAUSE YOU CAN TELL IT’S SCRIPTED (BY RUMPLE)). HE PAUSES BETWEEN WORDS BECAUSE HE THINKS HIS WORDS ARE MORE IMPORTANT. THERE IS A BALANCED PATTERN OF WHETHER THE ENDS OF HIS WORDS GO UP OR DOWN. SO COLIN IS SPEAKING LIKE HOOK SPEAKING LIKE RUMPLE SPEAKING LIKE HOOK. AND ITS SUBTLE AND SO THERE AND THAT’S WHAT MAKES THE ACTING SO GOOD TO WATCH. AND HIS EYES. HIS MOTHERFUCKING EYES IN THIS SCENE. ACTING IS ALL ABOUT THE EYES AND COLIN FUCKING NAILS IT. BECAUSE YOU CAN SEE THAT LIGHTS ARE ONE BUT NO ONE IS HOME. EXCEPT THE MOMENT AT THE END WHERE HE IS GRABBING EMMA’S ARM AND FIGHTING FOR CONTROL AND HIS EYES FLICKER TO LIFE MORE. COLIN. COLIIIIIIIN. I WANT TO JUST HEAR YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR ACTING PROCESS FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER.
This!
This is my favorite scene in this whole show for exactly that reason. No really, the whole entire 4 seasons. It was brilliantly acted, the musical score was haunting. The whole thing has this horrible creeping quality that literally made me shudder and gave me goosebumps.
Every time I watch it … when gold/Killian says ‘love’ I just want to shower ad purge off the nastiness because oh, God, no!
Brilliant.
To this day I am still 100% incapable of not doing this:
ALL OF THIS and so much more. I’m always confused by people who cite any of the 4×08-4×11 scenes (especially kisses) as “great CS scenes” because I see shades of Rumple in ALL of them and I prefer my CS romance without Dark Ones orchestrating one half of them. Like, Rumple just never quite gets it “right” and it’s straight up creepy that he’s, like, kissing Emma using Killian’s face to do so. I don’t even consider them CS kisses, to be honest. I’m not sure what they are (and admittedly, I love them from a whump standpoint), but they ain’t romantic or passionate or whatever. Noooope. And by 4×11, it’s like Rumple’s figuring no one’s noticed so far, he must be doing a great job, this is so easy, he could do it in his sleep… and he’s stopped even trying so hard. And then STILL no one notices, which is a whole ‘nother topic.
This whole post is excellent.
To add, my favorite part was him saying, “He gave me some long-winded explanation about the portal, about how it brought the Snow Queen to this land… which I don’t recall.” Because tbh I thought that was Rumple’s bias against Hook showing, him trying to make it sound like Hook was an idiot who couldn’t understand the magical mumbo-jumbo, but in reality it played off well because it’s very in character for Hook to boredly zone out when Rumple is giving a lecture.
(Also the slight eye roll that not even Rumple could stop when he’s saying Rumple has turned over a new leaf lmao)
It All Starts With a Dance 