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Gold closes the door behind him with a sigh -- he was about to start a pot anyway. The house inside is rather tidy and cozy. The floors clean and polished, the beams dotted here and there with carvings.

The kitchen is outfitted with more modern appliances, but it appears to have been functioning without them before. The fireplace in the wall (it appears to be shared between the kitchen and the living room on the other side) has cubbies for chopped wood, large enough to accomodate dutch ovens and even a cauldron where needed. Herbs and the such hang to dry from the ceiling beams, and warm light spills in from the round windows on the far wall, adorned with simple sheer lace rather than full, heavy curtains.

Presently the otherwise cool place is gently warmed by embers still burning down there. Gold fills a kettle and gets it on the stove to heat. "Please make yourself comfortable." There is a table with a few wooden chairs.

The Doctor casually puts his hands in his pockets, "Nice place." As his head turns around, "Loving the fireplace." Slowly he finds himself a seat, "How have you been doing?"

"Thank you. I have grown rather attached to it."

Hence why, during the whole moon debacle, he spent all of his energy protecting it and getting rather snippy at anyone and anything not treading lightly enough around it.

"...I've been fine. Fully recovered, back to work." He considers the two blends he has right now. "...Conifer and juniper berries or lemongrass and honeysuckle."

"Well, that why you were so determined to keep it safe from the vines. Good. Good, to hear! Surprise me!" The Doctor exclaims there is a short pause, "I believe I brought up if you wanted to chat about your home world?"

"You memory is very charitable. I believe I didn't object to holding a conversation on the subject."

A little clipped. This is not a man clamoring to share everything about himself. There are boundaries that can be crossed. But for the time being he is willing to answer questions.

He decides on the latter blend, wanting to save as much of the winter mix as he can in case someone in the house takes sick before the berries are back in season again. It soothes chest congestion.

The Doctor gives the other a beam, "The thing is - you never gave me your name. What am I to call you? Mystery man?" The Doctor teases, "Where I come from is Earth, and the main thing about that Earth is magic doesn't exist. Everything that magic can do can be done with some sort of technology."

"Most call me Gold."

He hadn't realized that this might be something he hadn't said yet.

"It differs from world to world. Dimension, probably a more palatable word to use. I came last from an Earth that also did not have magic save what had been brought from other places."

"Dimension or universe would be better. World to world wouldn't make sense, a universe has certain laws for everything. Like here for instance here, we can assume that on another world here the physics would be the same. That's interesting where was the magic coming from, what dimension? And how was it leaking into your Earth? I'm going to say thar was some sort of Space Rift caused by some event."

"It wasn't leaking; it was brought."

Matter-of-fact. There was only magic in Storybrooke (and in small pockets elsewhere) at first because a few people had brought magical objects. Tangible pieces. Magic was only fully restored within the bounds of its borders because Gold had been smart enough to bottle its essence and smuggle it over.

Something only the Dark One could have managed.

"By whom?" There's concern on The Doctor's face because that means there's a dimension hopper, which means they're cutting though The Void and going though The Void to get to that universe. In other words; holes and he doesn't like his in-between space filled with holes.

"That has both a simple answer and a complicated one." Jumpers pretty much an accepted thing, Doctor. And that's before anyone gets into the logistics of what the Dark Curse does. Or magic beans, for that matter.

"Believe me - I can understand the science and math behind opening a wormhole at a subatomic level and also enlarging that said wormhole in order to cross between dimensions and The Void, the in-between space."

"Portals. We generally don't get more complicated than that. Doors, often literal, more common if you're talking about going by way of a jumper that you either found or happen to have on your payroll." The kettle whistles its readiness, and Gold takes it off the heat, preparing two cups and setting his new mixture to steep. "And sometimes a curse -- that's usually the only thing strong enough to bridge into a world without magic; your common paths will usually lead to other worlds with magic only."

"I know what portals are." The Doctor listens and finds what is stated very interesting. "And that's how you got to a world without magic? Someone gave you a curse. I'm sorry, so,so, sorry."

"Probably strange to hear, but I am not. Not in the grand scheme of things. It was the only way I was getting there." He taps his temple. "Fated."

"Fated? Yeah sorry. Don't believe in that sort of thing. But good to know you didn't end up on an Earth without magic. So - you ended up in another one with magic. Which I would assume wasn't too much of a problem for you?"

"Your belief or lack thereof changes very little. You see the path you are on plainly -- or as plainly as you allowed to see it. You follow it." A frown. "Sorry, are you referring to where I am right now, or are you confused about what I just said?"

"Not really. Rather I see the paths all over. What happened with crossing over to another world with magic?

"We differ in that respect. I was able to see just one line, where it led to, what would build it up. Who would play a role."

He's realizing he never really tried to see any other prophecy once he had the one. Did it even work that way? At the time, would he have cared?

He took it to find his son. Why would he look elsewhere?

"Crossing to worlds with magic was something I had a good deal of experience in already. Jumpers, like I said. Pays to know at least one. But once beans went extinct, only an especially powerful curse would open the way to a World Without Magic."

"Beans? You mean like magic beans? Blimey, I hope you weren't Jack and sold them for a cow. But that would be the human version of that fairy tale. My people's versions involved portals much like you're telling me here about. One's from beans that make portals. And did you ever cross over with a curse?"

"Everyone is a story somewhere. I, however, am no Jack and that story in my world ended with...well, fewer riches and more genocide. So there you go."

Such a chipper subject to serve tea to. He also rose to fetch the most recent plate of sweets he'd baked. When he did his last acorn loaf, there'd been more dough leftover than he had planned for. Better to make use of it.

"Yes. The Dark Curse was enacted by one particularly angry soul, who stole everyone that had ever crossed her away into a world where their happy ever afters would be lost and forgotten. I came along for the ride."

Edited 2024-06-06 19:44 (UTC)

The Doctor is deeply silent, because the word genocide makes his stomach twist. There's a silent look of that they're not too different in some ways.

"I hate it when the world ends like that." The Doctor remarks dryly, "I'm so, so, sorry for your loses."

"Really. Memory wiping too. All sorts of bad in these universes. But I assume that the memory wiping can't be permanent, surely if it could be resolved with science."

A short pause, "Is that what you do? Hop around between dimensions?"

Edited 2024-06-06 20:14 (UTC)

"Have done; it is not exactly something I was looking to make a hobby out of. When I say that it takes a curse to get to a world without magic, I mean having tried to get my hands on other methods first."

He settles down before his cup.

"Memory alteration and loss tend to come in and out in various forms. The person enacting the curse made herself the ruler of her own little pocket of the world without magic, and she wrote not only her role in it but also that of every person trapped there. So when it was at last broken, many people suddenly had two sets of memories in their heads: The ones that had been stolen from them, and the lives that had been created for them. ...So yes. As I said before, I have some experience with pocket dimensions, of various forms."

"I'm not blaming you for what happened. If anything you should like a traveler, like me." The Doctor remarks simply, "If anything," His sounding stinged, "I'm tired of hearing about genocides."

Then loses himself inside of the tea cup.

"Quite. And where you part of the memory alteration pocket dimension?"

Sadly the older you get the more of them you become aware of. "...Yes. I knew that part would end eventually. The goal was to wake up and leave once the curse lifted. The spell made its borders dangerous for any of us to cross, you see. The danger didn't leave, however. Just...changed. Something of a troublesome setback."

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