Most call me Gold. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amicustenebris) wrote2023-05-17 09:49 pm
amicustenebris) wrote2023-05-17 09:49 pm
Entry tags:
PSL - For Archie, Set After 4a
With a kind of numbness that he hadn't felt since he cast Belle out of his castle and destroyed half his collection, Rumpelstiltskin made his way to civilization the very same night he was sent away. Once he hit the interstate it was not long before someone pulled over to offer help to the hobbling man, who looked like he'd wandered from a wreck. The stranger said they'd seen an abandoned car down the way a bit and offered to get him into town to call a tow truck.
He took advantage of his good fortune and was quickly able to access food, an ATM, a cane, and finally a place to collapse and eventually rent a car the following morning. He had thoughts of what he would have to do to figure out a way back over the town line. He understood the magic at work there, knew he could only go back in if summoned back in. But already the scheming began. Belle didn't understand his motivations, and he'd been incapable of correctly explaining. That was all there was to it. Part of him believed if he could say it right, if he could make sense of it all himself -- if he could just convince her that all she'd seen never meant he didn't love her? Then he could fix everything. Then he could be home with his wife, able to visit his son, able to walk and use magic.
He tried to call her from the phone in the motel. No answer. He tried a few times. There was an answer once. He couldn't speak.
Gold haunted that little hamlet outside of Ogunquit for a few days, with limited access to the internet or contact, just hoping he'd find some loophole that'd let him back in, afraid to wander out too far lest he lose his chance.
As far as he knew, Belle never caught on that he was calling. If she did, then she was patient. She stayed on the line longer than she needed. Spoke, and waited. Spoke. Then said goodbye. He couldn't work out why he could never say anything back, or even beg forgiveness. He kept doing it, knowing he couldn't stop himself crying afterward, knowing it was going to hurt every time, because he'd gotten so used to hearing her in the morning when she woke. And now when he called just to hear her it came with apprehension, certainty he'd hear that litany of accusations all over again, but he needed to. Maybe if he did speak, if he did let her know it was him, and he allowed it to happen, she might see he was sincere. She would forgive him. Remember she loved him. He would hand her the dagger and be her slave, be everything Zelena wanted him to be for her if that was what it took.
But he couldn't even bring himself to do that. It took him days to figure out why. That was when he headed south.
His rental car died just inside of Vermont. There were questions about his license. He switched to travel by bus from there -- crowded (good that he was traveling light), slow as sin -- he saw far more of the state than he really ever cared to. It felt ridiculously long for where he was headed, given how short a trip it had been by plane, but he didn't know if he could handle flying again. Not alone.
In Manhattan, the first place that he tried was Neal's old apartment, of course, and he did not expect to find it occupied -- by the Queen's married beau and his family, no less. They offered to leave it to him, which he declined. After a cursory search of the place, he found one or two familiar baubles, things his son held onto from his childhood all these years, somehow, things from their world, and he pocketed those, feeling an uncomfortable tightness that told him to get away, and he left as quickly as his legs could carry him.
Marion seemed especially keen to convince him to stay, at least until he found better accommodations.
He didn't trust it. He got away.
Crossing out into the evening air, he felt a rush of pent emotion and memory. Unkind words said in this very place. Hook's attack and his near death.
Then his actual death.
Then Neal's.
He went numb.
He took advantage of his good fortune and was quickly able to access food, an ATM, a cane, and finally a place to collapse and eventually rent a car the following morning. He had thoughts of what he would have to do to figure out a way back over the town line. He understood the magic at work there, knew he could only go back in if summoned back in. But already the scheming began. Belle didn't understand his motivations, and he'd been incapable of correctly explaining. That was all there was to it. Part of him believed if he could say it right, if he could make sense of it all himself -- if he could just convince her that all she'd seen never meant he didn't love her? Then he could fix everything. Then he could be home with his wife, able to visit his son, able to walk and use magic.
He tried to call her from the phone in the motel. No answer. He tried a few times. There was an answer once. He couldn't speak.
Gold haunted that little hamlet outside of Ogunquit for a few days, with limited access to the internet or contact, just hoping he'd find some loophole that'd let him back in, afraid to wander out too far lest he lose his chance.
As far as he knew, Belle never caught on that he was calling. If she did, then she was patient. She stayed on the line longer than she needed. Spoke, and waited. Spoke. Then said goodbye. He couldn't work out why he could never say anything back, or even beg forgiveness. He kept doing it, knowing he couldn't stop himself crying afterward, knowing it was going to hurt every time, because he'd gotten so used to hearing her in the morning when she woke. And now when he called just to hear her it came with apprehension, certainty he'd hear that litany of accusations all over again, but he needed to. Maybe if he did speak, if he did let her know it was him, and he allowed it to happen, she might see he was sincere. She would forgive him. Remember she loved him. He would hand her the dagger and be her slave, be everything Zelena wanted him to be for her if that was what it took.
But he couldn't even bring himself to do that. It took him days to figure out why. That was when he headed south.
His rental car died just inside of Vermont. There were questions about his license. He switched to travel by bus from there -- crowded (good that he was traveling light), slow as sin -- he saw far more of the state than he really ever cared to. It felt ridiculously long for where he was headed, given how short a trip it had been by plane, but he didn't know if he could handle flying again. Not alone.
In Manhattan, the first place that he tried was Neal's old apartment, of course, and he did not expect to find it occupied -- by the Queen's married beau and his family, no less. They offered to leave it to him, which he declined. After a cursory search of the place, he found one or two familiar baubles, things his son held onto from his childhood all these years, somehow, things from their world, and he pocketed those, feeling an uncomfortable tightness that told him to get away, and he left as quickly as his legs could carry him.
Marion seemed especially keen to convince him to stay, at least until he found better accommodations.
He didn't trust it. He got away.
Crossing out into the evening air, he felt a rush of pent emotion and memory. Unkind words said in this very place. Hook's attack and his near death.
Then his actual death.
Then Neal's.
He went numb.
no subject
"Let me handle the dishes," Archie offered. "You did all the cooking, after all. It's only fair."
Dividing up the work only made sense in his book, but if Gold decided to make it an issue, he'd back off. No need to stress the man out. Besides, it would mean he could take Pongo out for a walk that much sooner.
no subject
Gold had some distant understanding that some cohabitating people had an expectancy of an equal share of keeping the home. Rumpelstiltskin...absolutely did not.
no subject
no subject
Leaving him to it, he set to another small chore. The front desk sent up a little travelers sewing kit at his request, and using that, he set to mending a frayed seam in the shoulder of his jacket.
"How far are we, from where you found me?"
He knew how far they were from the hospital, to some degree, but mapping one's movements from inside an ambulance while experiencing a medical emergency had not been a talent of his.
no subject
"Probably about three miles? Five at most? Manhattan's not that big. It just seems like it is because it's so crowded."
no subject
Either way, he didn't seem to tense up at the answer.
"We should make plans to leave the city at some point. If not to Storybrooke then another place to regroup and decide on what is to be done. It then becomes a question of what you believe is the best use of our time in that span of it."
no subject
He hummed to himself.
"Maybe instead of a straight drive back to Storybrooke, we could take the scenic route. There's nothing in NYC I want to see, but there's a lot of nice country on the way home. We could even do a loop around Maine before heading back to Storybrooke. Might not draw too much attention from whoever Marian actually is if we're not making a beeline for the town line." He set the last dish to dry on the provided dish rack. "It's something that Mom and Dad would do if the local guards or police suspected something: just go about your business and don't run since it only attracts attention. It wouldn't take long before whoever had their eyes on us to get bored and move on."