• Familial - Rumpelstiltskin for all his faults considers family sacred in a way he does not view other things. In canon the reason he held onto as much humanity as he did as the Dark One was because of his child and a very long quest to reconnect with him. Other places where this has shown through has been his willingness to stay in a loveless marriage in order to provide a stable home for his child, the intention to throw off centuries-long plans in the hope of having a growing family to take care of, his allowance of bargain-free aid (and ongoing tolerance of certain hook-handed nuisances) to maintain familial connections, intentions to die to protect his grandson, giving up his freedom to save the life of a family member, and more. How this applies in the greater working of the game is that if he decides you are one of his, he will feel drawn to protect and take care you as one of those people in some capacity.

• Anxiety-Driven - While the series shows how he was marked early on as a coward, and that is the word used most often, it is truer and more accurate to say that many of the Dark One's actions are decided by his own anxiety. His worry about the worst occurring will often rule his actions, even when he is working his hardest to overcome that. He spends much of his early life in a single place, despite that leaving for anywhere else where his reputation couldn't follow him would have been better for him in the long run, because he'd by then been conditioned to believe things would get worse if he did leave. He injured himself to be kicked out of the army because he believed that if he remained, he would die and his son would grow up without a father. He lied constantly to his wife-to-be for fear he would be abandoned if he told the truth. He sheltered his child too much and barred him from making decisions that could separate them because he feared loss should he get too far away from him. He could not follow his son to the World Without Magic because he feared becoming disabled and helpless again. He sought the sorcerer's hat as a means to free himself from the Dark One's dagger (while keeping the magic) because he feared being enslaved. While he may actively try to work against this impulse, and even succeed, it is what holds him back the most, and in many ways it informs his other worst traits and even some of his positive ones.


• Low Self-Worth - To a paradoxical degree, this man is what happens when a person who doesn't think much of themselves suddenly achieves untold power. Whatever he shows on the outside, he thinks he is worthless unless he proves himself otherwise, whether through hard work or a show of power. We see this throughout his history; he was happy to be drafted in order to prove himself, and he remained in a marriage that was already over so his son could have a family -- he did not appear to heavily insinuate himself, allowing his wife distance and working hard despite his disability and reputation to provide, seemingly as a way to prove his place and presence is earned and paid for. He does not find himself attractive, and may often react to being treated otherwise with confusion or suspicion (see: Skin Deep), if he doesn't simply assume he's being given some token regard for towing the line. This may manifest positively in an arrangement because he puts forward a lot of effort to see to it that a loved one's needs are met (gifts, a comfortable place to live, cooking, dates, etc etc -- see his childhood with his father and eventual adoptive mothers, his first marriage, courtship of Belle), but it's most of the time a mixture of old-fashioned ideals and the belief that he is very easy to let go of and he needs to pay for the right to exist in that arrangement.


• Defensive/Combative - Rumpelstiltskin/Gold does not back down from fights like he used to, out of fear, because he believes that to do so would be stepping back into the realm he was in before he had power: a victim, and a perpetual one at that. Whether that altercation is physical or verbal, his fight or flight response triggers just as quickly as it ever did, and his wings were clipped a LONG time ago. He is the sort that, because of where he came from and because apparent weakness sets off his anxious tendencies like no other, will extend an argument for need of the last word, regardless of whether or not this will lead him to say very unreasoned/wrong things because not winning the argument would be conceding when he believes he is being attacked. See: the murder of his wife, his argument with his son prior to said son's apparent death, his constant arguing back with his jailer after he had been captured/enslaved, despite knowing it would make his situation worse. He can wind up going harder than necessary and using too much force because no matter how powerful he is, he still sees himself as a disabled, feeble man that means nothing to anyone, who is being attacked by someone bigger and faster than he is, and if he does not fight back, that is what he will fully become again.

• Wards/Potions/Charms - I've lumped all these together because they tend to have the same limitations: They're usually complicated and require specific objects or ingredients to do so, and said ingredients can and often do operate on fairy tale logic. For example: Rumpelstiltskin can cast a protective ward around an area, but it requires using special chalk. That chalk would have had to have been fortified in some way -- perhaps imbued in Holy Water or carved out by a craftsman who never told lies. He managed to bottle the essence of magic by getting a hair each from a couple in true love, which creates its own magic, thus allowing himself to access his powers again in the world without magic. He can track a person if he has an object that belonged to them, provided they're on the same plane and/or not dead (at the time). He could create a specific ward or charm against or for a person if he has a possession of theirs or something as simple as a hair. Even their name, if he uses it correctly, can be put into a spell. (He used Emma Swan's birth name, for instance, as a trigger to reawaken himself from the first curse in the series.) What's important, and what probably limits these things the most, is that he can't take any of these things without permission. They have to be given freely or won fairly by someone. In fact, most of his more impressive miracles that people buy don't work unless there's some form of consent from someone involved -- usually a signed contract. Now, whether the buyer fully understands that contract is their problem. He needs consent -- dubious consent counts. Most of these are plot-specific spells. They would require me to plan with other people and seek permission beforehand and would take time for Rumpelstiltskin to put together. For instance, if a spell/ward/charm/etc were to require "a heroic weapon," these components could mean several things. A heroic weapon might involve nabbing, say, Mjolnir from Thor (which is an object in his vault in the series, btw), or a pen belonging to an adventure writer. NERFS: I have none set in place because these limit themselves through plotting. I will not move forward with any of these without player and mod permission.
• Telekinesis/Immobilization - Gold can throw invisible force, lift people and objects, and also paralyze people to stop them interfering with him or running away. It lasts for as long as he's concentrating on it. NERFS: Will not until otherwise agreed upon by mods, be able to lift anyone or anything larger than he is without extra, concentrated effort.
• Healing - He can heal virtually any injury provided the person in question is still alive.
• Fireballs - He can make fire in his hands, and he can throw them.
• Teleportation - Gold has shown the ability to teleport to places that he knows. He would not be able to go behind locked doors if he's never been on the other side before or places that otherwise he might be warded from; this includes restrictions laid down by contract or written law.
• Transformation/Polymorph - He can transform people and objects -- he can't grant immortality, but he can make you younger, or age you. He can transform people into different animals, or into different people. He spins straw into gold. He turned a man into a snail just so he could step on him. NERFS: None of these things will be done to people or other people's belongings without player and mod permission where required.
• Heart Removal - Magicians of multiple stripes -- most of them people he trained -- have the ability to tear people's hearts from their chests, without all the added gore. What they remove resembles a crystallized version of the physical organ. Crushing it will kill them, but for as long as you hold it, you can command them to do anything, and if it is kept out of their body, they lose the ability to feel strong emotions. NERFS: This ability will not be accessible.
• NOTE: He was once clairvoyant, but that power seems to have disappeared since his last death.
• Youth Eternal - Gold is also incapable of being killed, save by the Dark One's dagger, which didn't come with him. He will heal from virtually any injury or sickness unless he is cut off from his magic. (Example: being sent out into the world without magic, beyond the borders of Storybrooke, would render him powerless and capable of being killed or poisoned. The latter is effective in that any poison or sickness he incurs, if allowed to run their course long enough to weaken him too much, even if returned his powers won't heal him and another means to cure him must be found.) Note: The dagger will not appear in Duplicity unless for agreed-upon, plot reasons, because its holder can also command him.

Samples:  Thought - TDM Thread  (I believe this has a decent mix of his spoken voice and internal thought process but thought is more pronounced; please excuse the fragment in the intro -- I didn't catch it til people had already replied.)

Network: UN - MrGold

Good evening.

[ The man onscreen is as ever, forcibly composed and stoic, a rare one for service with a smile here. ]

While it has been my fortune to secure gainful employment here in the city, I also have time to offer other services where I may, and here is where I would like to apply my brand of expertise to those that might have need of it and find value. To those that do not know me, most call me Mister Gold, and where I come from, in many lifetimes of experience, there are few things that I know as well as contracts, something that we as guests here have no choice but to interact with on the regular. I am the man that one approaches if they mean to test how airtight one is, the one who finds -- and closes, when asked -- loopholes. I am also the one you call when you wish a matter to be settled well before it ever reaches a courtroom. I know how laws work, and even better I know tricks of language and how to navigate them.

I am shrewd, confidential, and detail-oriented. [ His hand tightens on the golden handle of a cane that balances on the ground in front of him. ] I am also, like you, not from outside the program. We have very little in the way of legal representation here that does not come from a body that mistrusts us and may not have our best interests at heart, and I have a vested interest in seeing that change. 

For the time being, I am offering consultation to any interested parties from the Up or Down. My contact information is to follow.