Mr. Gold ❧ Rumpelstiltskin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
faustianism) wrote2012-05-05 11:54 pm
faustianism) wrote2012-05-05 11:54 pm
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Application for the RP Game ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sirenspull
Player Information
Name: Amy
Age: 22 years old
AIM SN: liljewishgoy
email: psychopomphic@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes.
Currently Played Characters: Raul Creed (rapturescreed), Doctor Kenzo Tenma (surgicalshot), Tim Drake (theshortestbird), and Death (thehighcost).
Conditional: Activity Check Link: AC Link!
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: Reserve Link!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Once Upon A Time
Canon Format: TV Show
Character's Name: Mr. Gold / Rumpelstiltskin / The Dark One
Character's Age: 100+ years. Appears in his late 40s – early 50s.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take? Here! It sends text, email, video, and audio, while also standing on it's own. It also plays music.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: As Mr. Gold, he has no special, magical abilities. That does not mean he is unable to do anything; he’s gifted with a silver tongue, is an actual lawyer, and knows his way around the rules when writing up a contract. He didn’t get to the spot that he’s in, just by standing to the side and not doing anything to get there. He is smart, conniving, and ruthless, being a pawnshop owner, but also a money manager, lawyer, and a baby broker. He is a good gardener, and also has the ability to see an item and know where it is from, and how much it is worth, something any good pawnshop owner should be able to do. As Rumpelstiltskin, he is a man, as they say, of many talents. He is considered to be the most magical and powerful being in the fairytale world, but, as he might say, all magic comes with a price.
Rumpelstiltskin’s price is that all of his magic comes from a dagger that has his name on it. Whoever controls the dagger will control him, which makes it the most precious item he has, not counting his son. He is also not immune to “true love’s kiss”, which is said to be the most powerful magic in the world, and can break any curse; including the curse on him, which is what gives him his powers. The dagger places a curse on whoever's name is on it, making them a being everyone calls “The Dark One”. It’s not known how many “Dark Ones” there were before Rumpelstiltskin became one, but since the dagger grants the owner, the one whose name is on it, immortality, and then the number could be much smaller than anyone might imagine.
Having this power means that the person can explore different and creative ways of using that magic. Rumpelstiltskin can appear wherever he wants to, and is very adept at getting people to make deals with him, despite any of their prior misgivings. He is a source of magic, and can do many things such as make potions, and spin straw and thread into gold. Some other abilities he has are much more complex; he can bottle anything, from fame, wealth, and even true love. He can also create curses, which is what many people come to him for, even if they don’t understand that they are getting a curse, and not just a potion. He is the creator behind most of the curses used throughout the fairytale land; more specifically, he was the one who created the Dark Curse that the Evil Queen uses to transport all of the fairytale characters to our world, so no one would get a happy ending. While this curse was not originally created for that purpose, it was created by Rumpelstiltskin. He also created the curses that made Snow White lose her memories of Prince Charming, and the curse that turned Geppetto’s parents into wooden puppets. Curses are something that takes time; he cannot make them on a whim, like the Dark Curse, which took hundreds of years to make, and he has to be a sort of chemist when he makes them. They need specific ingredients, they need time to brew, and Rumpelstiltskin always makes them with a backdoor, in case he needs to break them. Most of the potions he makes are actually curses, and he usually trades them to those who are willing to pay the price for them.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Since Mr. Gold has no magic powers in the “real” world of Storybrooke, because of the Queen’s curse, Mr. Gold will gain all of his Rumpelstiltskin powers back. The reasoning behind this is that all powers are nullified in Storybrooke, because of the curse, and so when Mr. Gold is transported to a realm that is outside of the curse, the curse breaks. Because the curse breaks, he will be able to use all of his powers, and will be able to turn himself into the way that he looks as Rumpelstiltskin, and back to how he looks as Mr. Gold. Of course, since he’s gaining his powers back, he will have to learn how to control them again, and it will take time for him to adjust to them. When it comes to making deals and curses, he needs specific items, which might be hard to come by in the port. He’ll have to make do with whatever he can find, and he won’t be able to make curses that affect the entire port; instead, he can make them and have them affect a few people, at most.
Weapons: Cane with a sword in it, a small handgun, a gold lighter, dagger with his “real” name on it, two small crystal vials with water in them, a handful of gold string, a Swiss army knife, a piece of wood that he claims to be a wand, and a small teacup with a chip on it that he carries everywhere.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Wiki Link for Mr. Gold | Wiki Link for Rumpelstiltskin
Point in Canon: Mr. Gold will be taken from episode 1.19 “The Return”, right after he learns that August Booth is not his son Baelfire, and after he tells him that, Mr. Gold tells August to convince Emma that the curse, and therefore all fairytales, are real.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
"I like small weapons you see--the needle, the pen, the fine point of a deal. Subtlety. Not your style, I know."
Mr. Gold, whether he is his Storybrooke persona, or his fairytale counterpart, is a man who enjoys making a deal. A simple enough idea, but deals, and making them, are everything that he holds dear to his heart; if he still has one, that is. Rumpelstiltskin is the Faustian Figure of the series, and can be seen in almost every fairytale there is, whether it’s Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, or Cinderella. Making a deal with either Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin is like making a deal with the devil, and there is always a catch to everything he says. Most of the people he makes his deals with don’t bother to read the fine print, but, Mr. Gold always keeps his word. As he has said before, he has never broken a deal in his life, except for one; and that is a story that he won’t ever tell. Mr. Gold is a man of finesse and style, preferring the pen rather than the sword, and making sure he gets everything in writing. There is a civilized way to make contracts, and while he does occasionally hurt other people, it’s never in a crude or un-thoughtful manner. He is a gentleman, whether he is Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin, and he takes the chance to remind people of that when he is called in for some reason or another.
"I like to watch the wheel. It helps me forget." "Forget what?" "... I guess it worked!”
But, who is the man behind the demon of the fairytale world? How did he get his gold dusted skin and amusing mannerisms? Did he always act a little crazy, or, was there really a man inside the beast, hidden away until someone could find him? Many people have heard the name, but do not know if the name was given to him somewhere, or if it was his name before everything that happened. Rumpelstiltskin was, and has always been, an enigma. The only thing anyone ever knows about him, is that he enjoys making deals. In fact, he can’t resist making them, which everyone treats as one of his biggest weaknesses; they don’t know anyone close to his heart that they could go after, seeing as he would much prefer to isolate himself, rather than be around groups of people. This is not because he’s anti-social, or unable to be around other people. If anything, he is one of the most social creatures, always invested in everyone’s future, so long as it benefits him when the time comes. Both Rumpelstiltskin and Mr. Gold play the long card, preferring to get what they want in the end, rather than right away. It takes time, and patience, of which they both have plenty. When it comes down to it, Mr. Gold is an unhappy man, and unlike the other fairytale characters, he is not trying to find happiness in the form of another person, rather, he’s looking for something else to fill the empty hole in his heart.
"I'm the town coward. The only choice I have is which corner to hide in. I'm lame, friendless--the only thing I've got is my boy and they're going to take him away from me. If they take him away, I'll truly, truly become dust."
What caused this empty hole? Frankly, Rumpelstiltskin is a coward. During the Ogre War, he ran away from battle, leaving his company to die and becoming a traitor to the army that he was supposed to be a part of. And when his son reached the age where the army drafted the kids into fighting, Rumpelstiltskin took his son and ran away once again. The thought of losing his son didn’t make him want to stand up and fight, it just made him scared and weak. It’s this cowardice that drives him to everything he does; taking it when his wife leaves him because of how ashamed she is to be his wife, kissing the soldier’s boot in a show of fealty just so they won’t take his son, and even when he loses his son to the new world, because he is much too afraid to lose the power that he has gained. When he burns down the castle to gain the Dark One’s dagger, which will grant him the power to do anything. Literally anything, and while he uses the power to save his son, eventually he begins to be drawn in. There’s a reason that they call whoever controls the dagger the “Dark One”, and eventually, the person in possession of the dagger becomes a shadow of themselves; they give in to their desires, and in this case, Rumpelstiltskin’s desire is for more power.
“Why do you need to remind me that you owe me a favor? The day I make my request, you’ll owe me more than half a sandwich.”
Power isn’t something that a person can gain right away, though. A person needs to be smart, completely aware of the consequences and ramifications of gaining said power, and with a dash of vengefulness added to the mix. Mr. Gold is every one of those things, with an addition of a conniving personality. A person has to be, when they’re busy running around making deals with everyone, and both Gold and Rumpelstiltskin make a living out of making deals. While on the outside, Mr. Gold owns a pawnshop, he technically owns most of Storybrooke as well. He deals with the residents on a day to day basis, collecting money, hearing their tales of woe whenever they can’t pay the rent that they owe him, and making deals with them that don’t always turn out best for them in the end. Mr. Gold is smart, in fact, he’s a lawyer, so whenever he drafts a contract, he always knows what goes into the fine print, especially since he’s the one who puts them there. But, as many characters have pointed out, making a deal with Rumpelstiltskin or Mr. Gold is like making a deal with the devil; there is always a catch, and it’s always going to come back at you twofold in a really bad way. While he may never actually screw someone over by terminating a contract, or not living up to his end of the bargain, he will screw someone over by making sure that they put what they want in writing. The devil is in the details, and he knows how to manipulate the words to suit his own needs. By giving people a time-frame, even a small one such as “at some point in the future”, he gives the deal-ee the idea that they are in control of what they’re doing, and that they don’t have to worry about the consequences right afterwards. And with that, the dealer gets what he wants, and the deal-ee gets what they want until it all comes crashing down around them.
“All I want is your happiness, Bae.”
This all started because of his son. Rumpelstiltskin tried to save his son by running away, and when that didn’t work, he allowed himself to be degraded, hoping it would help. When that didn’t work, he showed how brave he could be, by burning down the castle and stealing the Dark One’s dagger. The downside of all this, one that Rumpelstiltskin could not foresee at the time, was that his son, Baelfire, became afraid of him. The relationship that he and his son once had was on the fritz with his newfound power; people would now get out of the way as they came by, and if Baelfire got hurt, even by an accident, Rumpelstiltskin was much more inclined to hurt them more, or even destroy them in some way. Rumpelstiltskin was fine with this, being alone, with only his son as his only true company, but his son was losing friends, and was fearful of what his father had become. No longer was his father this kind, meek little man; he had now become a sneaky, cocky, and manipulative man who couldn’t care about other people even if he tried. While the dagger gives that person the powers, it’s the person themselves who changes, and brings out the darker parts of their personality, now that they don’t have to worry about anything else. This leads to the creation of the curse that the entire show is based off of; a curse that brings fairytale characters to a world where there are no happy endings. The curse was given as a gift to Baelfire, so he could combat the darkness in his father’s heart. And as much as Rumpelstiltskin loved his power, he loved his son more, agreeing to go wherever he wanted him to go. But, at the pivotal moment, as Baelfire was beginning to be pulled into the green swirling pool that would take them to a world without magic, Rumpelstiltskin’s cowardice came back full force, and his hand slipped, and his son was gone. In that moment, everything that he loved vanished; his cowardice vanished as well. How does someone become afraid of losing something that they have already lost? That’s what Rumpelstiltskin feels.
"You will serve me my meals, and you will clean the dark castle. You will dust my collection and launder my clothing. You will fetch me fresh straw when I am spinning at the wheel. Oh! And you will skin the children I hunt for their pelts. That one was a quip."
He’s funny. Rumpelstiltskin is one of the oldest characters in the fairytale world, namely because the dagger gives him immortality along with vast amounts of power and many large estates filled with gold and jewels, and so he has watched evil rise up and then get beaten down, and back again. He’s never been a man who wants to rule everything; he just wants to survive, and keep his own freedom, doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Because he operates outside the grid, in a way, he can pop in and out wherever he wants to be; and, it’s not just him that is all over the place. His emotional state seems to be all over the place, going from manic to depressed, to happy, to anger, and everything in between. In a single conversation, he will make a joke with his accent laid on thick, and then settle down to become a real businessman; professional and yet down to earth. He makes jokes, and he doesn’t always enjoy being the center of attention, but he does appreciate being the center of one person’s attention. When he crashes the wedding of Cinderella, so he can remind her of their deal, he goes to have a good time as much as anyone else is at the party. When someone makes a deal with him, he doesn’t doing anything halfway; Cinderella is still sent to the ball, complete with her glass slippers, since, as he puts it, every good story needs a a defining feature. And when he makes the deal with the Evil Queen and gives her the curse, he allows it to affect everyone and everything he knows and cares for. It’s the benefits he’s going to get from these deals that make him content to make them; he knows, in Cinderella’s case, that he is going to get her first born child, since that is the deal they made. And in giving the curse to the Evil Queen, Rumpelstiltskin extracted a promise and a deal from her; he wouldn’t be in jail in this new world, he would be powerful, and he could get her to do anything for him as long as he says “please”. What kind of person deals in baby brokering, while on the other side dealing with evicting a group of nuns from their home? He is a man of considerable talents.
"No one breaks deals with me, dearie."
And considerable talents are what he has. There is a much darker side to what he does, and not everything has to do with power. He doesn’t care about killing others if they’ve wronged or harmed him, or something he considers dear to him. In fact, Mr. Gold has enacted revenge on people in Storybrooke because of what they did to him when they were back in the fairytale land and he was known as Rumpelstiltskin. It’s not a simple matter of blurring the lines between these characters; rather, Mr. Gold is a more evolved version of Rumpelstiltskin. Mr. Gold lives in the real world, and has to go along with the rules of that place, but he finds ways to circumvent them at every possible way. It’s not that Mr. Gold takes pleasure in hurting people; while there is a part of him that feels a sense of satisfaction after dealing with those who have wronged him and putting them into difficult positions, he’s not really someone who’s very evil. When he or Rumpelstiltskin make deals, he doesn’t just make deals with those already in power. He makes deals with everyone, and doesn’t discriminate against anyone, whether they be lower class or a king and queen. If anything, he’s almost like a god, occasionally getting involved, but mostly sitting back and watching everyone else make fools of themselves. He does love being the catalyst for most of what happens; he finds it fun, and whenever he has the opportunity to, he acts on what he wants to do. And he does act; with all the power that he has, and all the deals that he makes, he can act however he wants. So, he acts a little kooky, a little crazy; his voice goes high and low during his conversations, and he occasionally giggles during odd times. He plays up the character that he is now, since before he gained his powers, he was much more normal.
"All magic comes with a price."
Everything comes with a price, and both Rumplestiltskin and Mr. Gold know this very well. In exchange for having ultimate power, there needs to be sacrifices made; for someone to get their happy ending there needs to be a time when they give a part of themselves away. Rumpelstiltskin gave a part of himself away to have the power he has now, when he lost his son because he chose power. He closed himself off from everything good in the world, because he knew he would need his powers to find his son again. So, when Belle came into the picture? He was understandably wary at first, even as he had a small amount of glee at the people who were so upset that Belle had to go work for the so called “beast”. What he didn’t know was that she would eventually fall in love with him, and when he found out, he began to draw back. No one could ever love him, as he has stated multiple times, and yet, this girl fell in love with him. Not with the power, not with his riches, but with him, as he was as a person as well as a powerful creature. And then, when she tried to heal him with “true love’s kiss”, the most powerful magic in the world, he began to lose his powers. It literally began to change him back into a man, his powers and gold dusted skin leeching away the longer the kiss happened. But, he couldn’t let that happen, and when he pushed her away, it was because he loved his power more than he loved her. When it comes to love versus power, Rumpelstiltskin will always choose power. As Mr. Gold, though, he has learned that choosing power was the wrong choice; this is indicated by the fact that his most cherished item is the chipped teacup that Belle had broken accidentally. Time is the greatest asset that he has, and he has learned from his past mistakes, growing in a more positive way then regressing to the way he has acted in the past.
“They say that dreams… dreams are memories. Memories of another life. Good luck sheriff, I do hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Whether he’s Rumpelstiltskin, or Mr. Gold, one thing is certain; he is a man that no one wants to be on the bad side of. As he tells Emma when she goes to him for help, everyone is afraid of Regina, seeing as she is the mayor, but, everyone is much more afraid of him. He’s a man who deals in secrets, with the skills of a lawyer to back up the contracts that he loves to write. He’s emotionless as Rumpelstiltskin, and emotional as Mr. Gold, and while he doesn’t always agree with some of the deals, he does make them, nonetheless. He hates certain types of people; the town’s nuns are his biggest annoyance, and he would happily get rid of them if he could, because he knows that back in the fairytale world, they are fairies. And fairies are the ones that took his son from him, and so he blames them no matter what. He is protective of what is his, and he considers almost everything his; his son, his dagger, and the chipped teacup are the most precious things in his life. As he has said before, everything and anything has a price; when he says this, he is a perfect gentleman, something that he is when he is either Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin. There is power in manners, and it’s easier to sway people to his side if he appears kind and concerned with other’s welfare. It’s a subtle power that he exudes, not an overt one.
“Every story needs a memorable detail!”
In the end, he is a man who will always be a coward on the inside, and the only time that he found the courage to do anything, was when his son was threatened. His son is the only person he loves, and without him in his life, there is a broken component to it that no deal could ever hope to mend. Until his son comes back, he will love no one, and will never give up his power. But, the day that he finally reunites with his son? He’ll give his son the dagger with his name on it, and will finally have his happily ever after.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: Mr. Gold is a man who will have a lot to do in SP! He’ll find some way to get into the good graces of some pawnshop owner, and then make a deal with them so that he gets the pawnshop after a while. During this time, he’d also be learning how to use his old powers again, and begin to make a name for himself as either Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin. At the same time, he’d also start making deals with people; NPCs and other Newcomers, deals that he will come to collect on a month or two after he’s made them. He’ll try to avoid the police, and he won’t even think of touching the political scene, instead trying to do all of his dealings off the books. He’ll also try to restock his potion supply, finding those out there that he can use to bottle fame, fortune, and eventually true love.
Appearance/PB: Mr. Gold and Rumpelstiltskin are played by Robert Carlyle, pictured here . As Mr. Gold, he is a tall, thin man with medium length brown hair and brown eyes. He’s always dressed in a nice suit, wears a ring on his right ring finger, and walks with a slight limp, so he always carries a beautiful cane with a gold handle. He also has a golden tooth, which is prominently displayed when he smiles, which is often. As Rumpelstiltskin, while the same actor portrays him, he looks much different, pictured here. He has brown hair that is a little longer than his Storybrooke counterpart, and it’s curly instead of straight; he also has unnatural gold/red eyes. Instead of one tooth being gold, every tooth in his mouth is gold, and his skin is also colored a dusty gold color. He tends to wear some sort of armor made of leather and black scales, with red or purple pants and a red or purple shirt. He also, at times, wears a green cloak that is embroidered with gold.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[While this may be a strange new world, Mr. Gold considered it lucky that he could find several things that reminded him of home. Not Storybrooke; that was not his real home. It wasn’t the home that his son had grown up in, or near the forest that he used to play in with his boy. But there was an ocean, and there was a beach, and he was currently on it.]
I would have never taken the time to spend it on a beach. [Starts out conversationally, voice lightly accented.] But enjoying life’s simple pleasures is something most people are lacking, these days. I’m sure there’s something out there that anyone, if given the chance, would do. Something worthwhile, a pleasurable way to spend their day off, if they ever gave themselves one.
Perhaps someone could find time in their day to come spend it at the beach with me. Wile away the hours having a nice chat, if you will. How about this, to those on the network: I’ll make you a deal. An hour of your time, for whatever it is you may wish of a lonely man in return.
Third Person Sample
Today was a slow day. Things always moved slowly in the pawn broker business, but there were days where you could get two, maybe three people in the door if you advertised enough. But the point of having a pawn shop was not to make money off of buying and selling other people’s so called “priceless” items. No. A pawn shop, as Mr. Gold saw it, was to bring in people on the sly, ones who would not go through the front door, but the back. The ones who didn’t come for some priceless artifact from another person, but who, instead, came because they had heard about this Newcomer’s certain set of skills. A professional that was off the books, someone who didn’t care or judge you based on whatever it actually was that you wanted. And, best of all, he wouldn’t sell you out to the companies, which was something everyone seemed to be worried about. Apparently, the companies also dealt in fine print, some mighty fine print at that, and Mr. Gold was not about to let himself get sucked into their problems, nor the problems of the rest of the island. Let the others play at pretend politics, while he made a nice side living here in his newly procured pawnshop in one of the numerous back alleys in the port.
Mr. Gold checked the time on an ancient grandfather clock that swung at a steady pace in the corner of the room. It was a little past noon, and while he would be getting hungry at this time, making his way to the diner on the corner, cane clicking on the sidewalk, he waited, feeling that he should give it a few more minutes. Something was in the air; call it a smell, call it a sixth sense, but Mr. Gold knew that if he gave it a few more minutes, it would all be worth his time. As he picked up a mirror with a gold backing, wiping it over with a cloth, the bell above the door jingled, someone making their way in his shop.
“Hello,” He said pleasantly, setting the mirror down and smiling at the young woman who was looking around nervously. It was always easy to tell who was coming into the shop for what was in the front, and what was in the back. She didn’t say anything, and he calmly went onto the counter, wiping over the pristine surface with a cloth.
“Is there anything I can help you with, dearie?” Mr. Gold asked, and the young woman came over.
“I’m... my friend told me I could find a good deal, here,” She fidgeted, hands in her pockets, and Mr. Gold smiled, his gold tooth glinting.
“Well, then right this way. I’m sure we’ll be able to find something to your liking,” He gestured for her to follow, a small key appearing in his hand like a magician pulling out a rabbit, and he opened the door. The back room, or, his office, as he liked to call it, was exactly what one would expect from an office; a desk, some cabinets for filing paper, and several antiques scattered around the room, such as a spinning wheel in the corner. There was a pedestal next to the desk, a chipped teacup placed on it carefully, as if it wasn’t what seemed to be a piece of trash, but something that was priceless and deserved to be displayed.
“Now, what is it that you need?” He took a seat behind the desk, the young woman sitting in a comfortable chair in front of it. As he heard her tale full of woe, of a man she was desperately in love with, and a family who hated him, his mind wandered. He’d heard tales like this quite often, as both Rumpelstiltskin and Mr. Gold, and it never got any more interesting. He wished it could, but he didn’t care for the stories; what he cared about was what he could get in return.
If all she wanted was to have her family accept this boy, then who was he to judge? He had always been good at recognizing a desperate soul, and he pulled a piece of paper out, an old fashioned quill at the ready. He liked them a little bit better than pens; every story needed a memorable feature, after all.
“I believe this will help you. All you need to do is take this key,” And here he produced a gold key, letting it light up for a moment in his hand, and then handing it over carefully, “and when you lock the door of your house at night, everyone in the house will accept your dear lad, no matter what it is he does.”
She seemed hesitant, but she took the key anyway, and then the quill. Before she signed the paper, she asked what the price would be.
“Every magic comes with a price,” He said, leaning back in his seat, eyes glittering with contained happiness. Or, as close to happiness as he could get. “But, because this is a special day, I’ll give you a discount. One day, in the future, I’ll come and ask you for a little favor. Nothing a little love from the love of your life can’t fix. So, what’ll it be, dearie? Do we have a deal?”
Name: Amy
Age: 22 years old
AIM SN: liljewishgoy
email: psychopomphic@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes.
Currently Played Characters: Raul Creed (
rapturescreed), Doctor Kenzo Tenma (surgicalshot), Tim Drake (theshortestbird), and Death (thehighcost).Conditional: Activity Check Link: AC Link!
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: Reserve Link!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Once Upon A Time
Canon Format: TV Show
Character's Name: Mr. Gold / Rumpelstiltskin / The Dark One
Character's Age: 100+ years. Appears in his late 40s – early 50s.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take? Here! It sends text, email, video, and audio, while also standing on it's own. It also plays music.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: As Mr. Gold, he has no special, magical abilities. That does not mean he is unable to do anything; he’s gifted with a silver tongue, is an actual lawyer, and knows his way around the rules when writing up a contract. He didn’t get to the spot that he’s in, just by standing to the side and not doing anything to get there. He is smart, conniving, and ruthless, being a pawnshop owner, but also a money manager, lawyer, and a baby broker. He is a good gardener, and also has the ability to see an item and know where it is from, and how much it is worth, something any good pawnshop owner should be able to do. As Rumpelstiltskin, he is a man, as they say, of many talents. He is considered to be the most magical and powerful being in the fairytale world, but, as he might say, all magic comes with a price.
Rumpelstiltskin’s price is that all of his magic comes from a dagger that has his name on it. Whoever controls the dagger will control him, which makes it the most precious item he has, not counting his son. He is also not immune to “true love’s kiss”, which is said to be the most powerful magic in the world, and can break any curse; including the curse on him, which is what gives him his powers. The dagger places a curse on whoever's name is on it, making them a being everyone calls “The Dark One”. It’s not known how many “Dark Ones” there were before Rumpelstiltskin became one, but since the dagger grants the owner, the one whose name is on it, immortality, and then the number could be much smaller than anyone might imagine.
Having this power means that the person can explore different and creative ways of using that magic. Rumpelstiltskin can appear wherever he wants to, and is very adept at getting people to make deals with him, despite any of their prior misgivings. He is a source of magic, and can do many things such as make potions, and spin straw and thread into gold. Some other abilities he has are much more complex; he can bottle anything, from fame, wealth, and even true love. He can also create curses, which is what many people come to him for, even if they don’t understand that they are getting a curse, and not just a potion. He is the creator behind most of the curses used throughout the fairytale land; more specifically, he was the one who created the Dark Curse that the Evil Queen uses to transport all of the fairytale characters to our world, so no one would get a happy ending. While this curse was not originally created for that purpose, it was created by Rumpelstiltskin. He also created the curses that made Snow White lose her memories of Prince Charming, and the curse that turned Geppetto’s parents into wooden puppets. Curses are something that takes time; he cannot make them on a whim, like the Dark Curse, which took hundreds of years to make, and he has to be a sort of chemist when he makes them. They need specific ingredients, they need time to brew, and Rumpelstiltskin always makes them with a backdoor, in case he needs to break them. Most of the potions he makes are actually curses, and he usually trades them to those who are willing to pay the price for them.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Since Mr. Gold has no magic powers in the “real” world of Storybrooke, because of the Queen’s curse, Mr. Gold will gain all of his Rumpelstiltskin powers back. The reasoning behind this is that all powers are nullified in Storybrooke, because of the curse, and so when Mr. Gold is transported to a realm that is outside of the curse, the curse breaks. Because the curse breaks, he will be able to use all of his powers, and will be able to turn himself into the way that he looks as Rumpelstiltskin, and back to how he looks as Mr. Gold. Of course, since he’s gaining his powers back, he will have to learn how to control them again, and it will take time for him to adjust to them. When it comes to making deals and curses, he needs specific items, which might be hard to come by in the port. He’ll have to make do with whatever he can find, and he won’t be able to make curses that affect the entire port; instead, he can make them and have them affect a few people, at most.
Weapons: Cane with a sword in it, a small handgun, a gold lighter, dagger with his “real” name on it, two small crystal vials with water in them, a handful of gold string, a Swiss army knife, a piece of wood that he claims to be a wand, and a small teacup with a chip on it that he carries everywhere.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Wiki Link for Mr. Gold | Wiki Link for Rumpelstiltskin
Point in Canon: Mr. Gold will be taken from episode 1.19 “The Return”, right after he learns that August Booth is not his son Baelfire, and after he tells him that, Mr. Gold tells August to convince Emma that the curse, and therefore all fairytales, are real.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
"I like small weapons you see--the needle, the pen, the fine point of a deal. Subtlety. Not your style, I know."
Mr. Gold, whether he is his Storybrooke persona, or his fairytale counterpart, is a man who enjoys making a deal. A simple enough idea, but deals, and making them, are everything that he holds dear to his heart; if he still has one, that is. Rumpelstiltskin is the Faustian Figure of the series, and can be seen in almost every fairytale there is, whether it’s Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, or Cinderella. Making a deal with either Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin is like making a deal with the devil, and there is always a catch to everything he says. Most of the people he makes his deals with don’t bother to read the fine print, but, Mr. Gold always keeps his word. As he has said before, he has never broken a deal in his life, except for one; and that is a story that he won’t ever tell. Mr. Gold is a man of finesse and style, preferring the pen rather than the sword, and making sure he gets everything in writing. There is a civilized way to make contracts, and while he does occasionally hurt other people, it’s never in a crude or un-thoughtful manner. He is a gentleman, whether he is Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin, and he takes the chance to remind people of that when he is called in for some reason or another.
"I like to watch the wheel. It helps me forget." "Forget what?" "... I guess it worked!”
But, who is the man behind the demon of the fairytale world? How did he get his gold dusted skin and amusing mannerisms? Did he always act a little crazy, or, was there really a man inside the beast, hidden away until someone could find him? Many people have heard the name, but do not know if the name was given to him somewhere, or if it was his name before everything that happened. Rumpelstiltskin was, and has always been, an enigma. The only thing anyone ever knows about him, is that he enjoys making deals. In fact, he can’t resist making them, which everyone treats as one of his biggest weaknesses; they don’t know anyone close to his heart that they could go after, seeing as he would much prefer to isolate himself, rather than be around groups of people. This is not because he’s anti-social, or unable to be around other people. If anything, he is one of the most social creatures, always invested in everyone’s future, so long as it benefits him when the time comes. Both Rumpelstiltskin and Mr. Gold play the long card, preferring to get what they want in the end, rather than right away. It takes time, and patience, of which they both have plenty. When it comes down to it, Mr. Gold is an unhappy man, and unlike the other fairytale characters, he is not trying to find happiness in the form of another person, rather, he’s looking for something else to fill the empty hole in his heart.
"I'm the town coward. The only choice I have is which corner to hide in. I'm lame, friendless--the only thing I've got is my boy and they're going to take him away from me. If they take him away, I'll truly, truly become dust."
What caused this empty hole? Frankly, Rumpelstiltskin is a coward. During the Ogre War, he ran away from battle, leaving his company to die and becoming a traitor to the army that he was supposed to be a part of. And when his son reached the age where the army drafted the kids into fighting, Rumpelstiltskin took his son and ran away once again. The thought of losing his son didn’t make him want to stand up and fight, it just made him scared and weak. It’s this cowardice that drives him to everything he does; taking it when his wife leaves him because of how ashamed she is to be his wife, kissing the soldier’s boot in a show of fealty just so they won’t take his son, and even when he loses his son to the new world, because he is much too afraid to lose the power that he has gained. When he burns down the castle to gain the Dark One’s dagger, which will grant him the power to do anything. Literally anything, and while he uses the power to save his son, eventually he begins to be drawn in. There’s a reason that they call whoever controls the dagger the “Dark One”, and eventually, the person in possession of the dagger becomes a shadow of themselves; they give in to their desires, and in this case, Rumpelstiltskin’s desire is for more power.
“Why do you need to remind me that you owe me a favor? The day I make my request, you’ll owe me more than half a sandwich.”
Power isn’t something that a person can gain right away, though. A person needs to be smart, completely aware of the consequences and ramifications of gaining said power, and with a dash of vengefulness added to the mix. Mr. Gold is every one of those things, with an addition of a conniving personality. A person has to be, when they’re busy running around making deals with everyone, and both Gold and Rumpelstiltskin make a living out of making deals. While on the outside, Mr. Gold owns a pawnshop, he technically owns most of Storybrooke as well. He deals with the residents on a day to day basis, collecting money, hearing their tales of woe whenever they can’t pay the rent that they owe him, and making deals with them that don’t always turn out best for them in the end. Mr. Gold is smart, in fact, he’s a lawyer, so whenever he drafts a contract, he always knows what goes into the fine print, especially since he’s the one who puts them there. But, as many characters have pointed out, making a deal with Rumpelstiltskin or Mr. Gold is like making a deal with the devil; there is always a catch, and it’s always going to come back at you twofold in a really bad way. While he may never actually screw someone over by terminating a contract, or not living up to his end of the bargain, he will screw someone over by making sure that they put what they want in writing. The devil is in the details, and he knows how to manipulate the words to suit his own needs. By giving people a time-frame, even a small one such as “at some point in the future”, he gives the deal-ee the idea that they are in control of what they’re doing, and that they don’t have to worry about the consequences right afterwards. And with that, the dealer gets what he wants, and the deal-ee gets what they want until it all comes crashing down around them.
“All I want is your happiness, Bae.”
This all started because of his son. Rumpelstiltskin tried to save his son by running away, and when that didn’t work, he allowed himself to be degraded, hoping it would help. When that didn’t work, he showed how brave he could be, by burning down the castle and stealing the Dark One’s dagger. The downside of all this, one that Rumpelstiltskin could not foresee at the time, was that his son, Baelfire, became afraid of him. The relationship that he and his son once had was on the fritz with his newfound power; people would now get out of the way as they came by, and if Baelfire got hurt, even by an accident, Rumpelstiltskin was much more inclined to hurt them more, or even destroy them in some way. Rumpelstiltskin was fine with this, being alone, with only his son as his only true company, but his son was losing friends, and was fearful of what his father had become. No longer was his father this kind, meek little man; he had now become a sneaky, cocky, and manipulative man who couldn’t care about other people even if he tried. While the dagger gives that person the powers, it’s the person themselves who changes, and brings out the darker parts of their personality, now that they don’t have to worry about anything else. This leads to the creation of the curse that the entire show is based off of; a curse that brings fairytale characters to a world where there are no happy endings. The curse was given as a gift to Baelfire, so he could combat the darkness in his father’s heart. And as much as Rumpelstiltskin loved his power, he loved his son more, agreeing to go wherever he wanted him to go. But, at the pivotal moment, as Baelfire was beginning to be pulled into the green swirling pool that would take them to a world without magic, Rumpelstiltskin’s cowardice came back full force, and his hand slipped, and his son was gone. In that moment, everything that he loved vanished; his cowardice vanished as well. How does someone become afraid of losing something that they have already lost? That’s what Rumpelstiltskin feels.
"You will serve me my meals, and you will clean the dark castle. You will dust my collection and launder my clothing. You will fetch me fresh straw when I am spinning at the wheel. Oh! And you will skin the children I hunt for their pelts. That one was a quip."
He’s funny. Rumpelstiltskin is one of the oldest characters in the fairytale world, namely because the dagger gives him immortality along with vast amounts of power and many large estates filled with gold and jewels, and so he has watched evil rise up and then get beaten down, and back again. He’s never been a man who wants to rule everything; he just wants to survive, and keep his own freedom, doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Because he operates outside the grid, in a way, he can pop in and out wherever he wants to be; and, it’s not just him that is all over the place. His emotional state seems to be all over the place, going from manic to depressed, to happy, to anger, and everything in between. In a single conversation, he will make a joke with his accent laid on thick, and then settle down to become a real businessman; professional and yet down to earth. He makes jokes, and he doesn’t always enjoy being the center of attention, but he does appreciate being the center of one person’s attention. When he crashes the wedding of Cinderella, so he can remind her of their deal, he goes to have a good time as much as anyone else is at the party. When someone makes a deal with him, he doesn’t doing anything halfway; Cinderella is still sent to the ball, complete with her glass slippers, since, as he puts it, every good story needs a a defining feature. And when he makes the deal with the Evil Queen and gives her the curse, he allows it to affect everyone and everything he knows and cares for. It’s the benefits he’s going to get from these deals that make him content to make them; he knows, in Cinderella’s case, that he is going to get her first born child, since that is the deal they made. And in giving the curse to the Evil Queen, Rumpelstiltskin extracted a promise and a deal from her; he wouldn’t be in jail in this new world, he would be powerful, and he could get her to do anything for him as long as he says “please”. What kind of person deals in baby brokering, while on the other side dealing with evicting a group of nuns from their home? He is a man of considerable talents.
"No one breaks deals with me, dearie."
And considerable talents are what he has. There is a much darker side to what he does, and not everything has to do with power. He doesn’t care about killing others if they’ve wronged or harmed him, or something he considers dear to him. In fact, Mr. Gold has enacted revenge on people in Storybrooke because of what they did to him when they were back in the fairytale land and he was known as Rumpelstiltskin. It’s not a simple matter of blurring the lines between these characters; rather, Mr. Gold is a more evolved version of Rumpelstiltskin. Mr. Gold lives in the real world, and has to go along with the rules of that place, but he finds ways to circumvent them at every possible way. It’s not that Mr. Gold takes pleasure in hurting people; while there is a part of him that feels a sense of satisfaction after dealing with those who have wronged him and putting them into difficult positions, he’s not really someone who’s very evil. When he or Rumpelstiltskin make deals, he doesn’t just make deals with those already in power. He makes deals with everyone, and doesn’t discriminate against anyone, whether they be lower class or a king and queen. If anything, he’s almost like a god, occasionally getting involved, but mostly sitting back and watching everyone else make fools of themselves. He does love being the catalyst for most of what happens; he finds it fun, and whenever he has the opportunity to, he acts on what he wants to do. And he does act; with all the power that he has, and all the deals that he makes, he can act however he wants. So, he acts a little kooky, a little crazy; his voice goes high and low during his conversations, and he occasionally giggles during odd times. He plays up the character that he is now, since before he gained his powers, he was much more normal.
"All magic comes with a price."
Everything comes with a price, and both Rumplestiltskin and Mr. Gold know this very well. In exchange for having ultimate power, there needs to be sacrifices made; for someone to get their happy ending there needs to be a time when they give a part of themselves away. Rumpelstiltskin gave a part of himself away to have the power he has now, when he lost his son because he chose power. He closed himself off from everything good in the world, because he knew he would need his powers to find his son again. So, when Belle came into the picture? He was understandably wary at first, even as he had a small amount of glee at the people who were so upset that Belle had to go work for the so called “beast”. What he didn’t know was that she would eventually fall in love with him, and when he found out, he began to draw back. No one could ever love him, as he has stated multiple times, and yet, this girl fell in love with him. Not with the power, not with his riches, but with him, as he was as a person as well as a powerful creature. And then, when she tried to heal him with “true love’s kiss”, the most powerful magic in the world, he began to lose his powers. It literally began to change him back into a man, his powers and gold dusted skin leeching away the longer the kiss happened. But, he couldn’t let that happen, and when he pushed her away, it was because he loved his power more than he loved her. When it comes to love versus power, Rumpelstiltskin will always choose power. As Mr. Gold, though, he has learned that choosing power was the wrong choice; this is indicated by the fact that his most cherished item is the chipped teacup that Belle had broken accidentally. Time is the greatest asset that he has, and he has learned from his past mistakes, growing in a more positive way then regressing to the way he has acted in the past.
“They say that dreams… dreams are memories. Memories of another life. Good luck sheriff, I do hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Whether he’s Rumpelstiltskin, or Mr. Gold, one thing is certain; he is a man that no one wants to be on the bad side of. As he tells Emma when she goes to him for help, everyone is afraid of Regina, seeing as she is the mayor, but, everyone is much more afraid of him. He’s a man who deals in secrets, with the skills of a lawyer to back up the contracts that he loves to write. He’s emotionless as Rumpelstiltskin, and emotional as Mr. Gold, and while he doesn’t always agree with some of the deals, he does make them, nonetheless. He hates certain types of people; the town’s nuns are his biggest annoyance, and he would happily get rid of them if he could, because he knows that back in the fairytale world, they are fairies. And fairies are the ones that took his son from him, and so he blames them no matter what. He is protective of what is his, and he considers almost everything his; his son, his dagger, and the chipped teacup are the most precious things in his life. As he has said before, everything and anything has a price; when he says this, he is a perfect gentleman, something that he is when he is either Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin. There is power in manners, and it’s easier to sway people to his side if he appears kind and concerned with other’s welfare. It’s a subtle power that he exudes, not an overt one.
“Every story needs a memorable detail!”
In the end, he is a man who will always be a coward on the inside, and the only time that he found the courage to do anything, was when his son was threatened. His son is the only person he loves, and without him in his life, there is a broken component to it that no deal could ever hope to mend. Until his son comes back, he will love no one, and will never give up his power. But, the day that he finally reunites with his son? He’ll give his son the dagger with his name on it, and will finally have his happily ever after.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: Mr. Gold is a man who will have a lot to do in SP! He’ll find some way to get into the good graces of some pawnshop owner, and then make a deal with them so that he gets the pawnshop after a while. During this time, he’d also be learning how to use his old powers again, and begin to make a name for himself as either Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin. At the same time, he’d also start making deals with people; NPCs and other Newcomers, deals that he will come to collect on a month or two after he’s made them. He’ll try to avoid the police, and he won’t even think of touching the political scene, instead trying to do all of his dealings off the books. He’ll also try to restock his potion supply, finding those out there that he can use to bottle fame, fortune, and eventually true love.
Appearance/PB: Mr. Gold and Rumpelstiltskin are played by Robert Carlyle, pictured here . As Mr. Gold, he is a tall, thin man with medium length brown hair and brown eyes. He’s always dressed in a nice suit, wears a ring on his right ring finger, and walks with a slight limp, so he always carries a beautiful cane with a gold handle. He also has a golden tooth, which is prominently displayed when he smiles, which is often. As Rumpelstiltskin, while the same actor portrays him, he looks much different, pictured here. He has brown hair that is a little longer than his Storybrooke counterpart, and it’s curly instead of straight; he also has unnatural gold/red eyes. Instead of one tooth being gold, every tooth in his mouth is gold, and his skin is also colored a dusty gold color. He tends to wear some sort of armor made of leather and black scales, with red or purple pants and a red or purple shirt. He also, at times, wears a green cloak that is embroidered with gold.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[While this may be a strange new world, Mr. Gold considered it lucky that he could find several things that reminded him of home. Not Storybrooke; that was not his real home. It wasn’t the home that his son had grown up in, or near the forest that he used to play in with his boy. But there was an ocean, and there was a beach, and he was currently on it.]
I would have never taken the time to spend it on a beach. [Starts out conversationally, voice lightly accented.] But enjoying life’s simple pleasures is something most people are lacking, these days. I’m sure there’s something out there that anyone, if given the chance, would do. Something worthwhile, a pleasurable way to spend their day off, if they ever gave themselves one.
Perhaps someone could find time in their day to come spend it at the beach with me. Wile away the hours having a nice chat, if you will. How about this, to those on the network: I’ll make you a deal. An hour of your time, for whatever it is you may wish of a lonely man in return.
Third Person Sample
Today was a slow day. Things always moved slowly in the pawn broker business, but there were days where you could get two, maybe three people in the door if you advertised enough. But the point of having a pawn shop was not to make money off of buying and selling other people’s so called “priceless” items. No. A pawn shop, as Mr. Gold saw it, was to bring in people on the sly, ones who would not go through the front door, but the back. The ones who didn’t come for some priceless artifact from another person, but who, instead, came because they had heard about this Newcomer’s certain set of skills. A professional that was off the books, someone who didn’t care or judge you based on whatever it actually was that you wanted. And, best of all, he wouldn’t sell you out to the companies, which was something everyone seemed to be worried about. Apparently, the companies also dealt in fine print, some mighty fine print at that, and Mr. Gold was not about to let himself get sucked into their problems, nor the problems of the rest of the island. Let the others play at pretend politics, while he made a nice side living here in his newly procured pawnshop in one of the numerous back alleys in the port.
Mr. Gold checked the time on an ancient grandfather clock that swung at a steady pace in the corner of the room. It was a little past noon, and while he would be getting hungry at this time, making his way to the diner on the corner, cane clicking on the sidewalk, he waited, feeling that he should give it a few more minutes. Something was in the air; call it a smell, call it a sixth sense, but Mr. Gold knew that if he gave it a few more minutes, it would all be worth his time. As he picked up a mirror with a gold backing, wiping it over with a cloth, the bell above the door jingled, someone making their way in his shop.
“Hello,” He said pleasantly, setting the mirror down and smiling at the young woman who was looking around nervously. It was always easy to tell who was coming into the shop for what was in the front, and what was in the back. She didn’t say anything, and he calmly went onto the counter, wiping over the pristine surface with a cloth.
“Is there anything I can help you with, dearie?” Mr. Gold asked, and the young woman came over.
“I’m... my friend told me I could find a good deal, here,” She fidgeted, hands in her pockets, and Mr. Gold smiled, his gold tooth glinting.
“Well, then right this way. I’m sure we’ll be able to find something to your liking,” He gestured for her to follow, a small key appearing in his hand like a magician pulling out a rabbit, and he opened the door. The back room, or, his office, as he liked to call it, was exactly what one would expect from an office; a desk, some cabinets for filing paper, and several antiques scattered around the room, such as a spinning wheel in the corner. There was a pedestal next to the desk, a chipped teacup placed on it carefully, as if it wasn’t what seemed to be a piece of trash, but something that was priceless and deserved to be displayed.
“Now, what is it that you need?” He took a seat behind the desk, the young woman sitting in a comfortable chair in front of it. As he heard her tale full of woe, of a man she was desperately in love with, and a family who hated him, his mind wandered. He’d heard tales like this quite often, as both Rumpelstiltskin and Mr. Gold, and it never got any more interesting. He wished it could, but he didn’t care for the stories; what he cared about was what he could get in return.
If all she wanted was to have her family accept this boy, then who was he to judge? He had always been good at recognizing a desperate soul, and he pulled a piece of paper out, an old fashioned quill at the ready. He liked them a little bit better than pens; every story needed a memorable feature, after all.
“I believe this will help you. All you need to do is take this key,” And here he produced a gold key, letting it light up for a moment in his hand, and then handing it over carefully, “and when you lock the door of your house at night, everyone in the house will accept your dear lad, no matter what it is he does.”
She seemed hesitant, but she took the key anyway, and then the quill. Before she signed the paper, she asked what the price would be.
“Every magic comes with a price,” He said, leaning back in his seat, eyes glittering with contained happiness. Or, as close to happiness as he could get. “But, because this is a special day, I’ll give you a discount. One day, in the future, I’ll come and ask you for a little favor. Nothing a little love from the love of your life can’t fix. So, what’ll it be, dearie? Do we have a deal?”