PLAYER
» Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fuckingneal
» Birthdate/Age: June 1987, 25
» Characters Played: N/A
CHARACTER FACTS
» Name: Neal Cassidy
» Canon: Once Upon a Time
» Reference: here
» Canon Point: 2x21
» Gender: Male
» Age: at least 300. We haven’t been given specifics
CHARACTER INTERPRETATION
» Appearance: Standing 5’9, Neal doesn’t command the room with height or stature. In fact, he’s spent a good chunk of his life trying to blend in, so in a crowd, you might not even notice him. He’s stocky in build, with dark hair (graying in spots) and eyes. Facial seems to be a constant for him as well, as he’s rocking the goatee style pretty much whenever we see him. He’s also a fan of pea coats and scarves, so long as the weather is cold enough for them. His wardrobe otherwise seems to be low key- jeans and tshirts mostly.
» Suitability: N/A
» Orientation: It can be safely assumed that Neal identifies as heterosexual. The only romantic and sexual relationships we see him involved are those with Emma and Tamara. He has shown no real indication that he’s interested in men sexually.
» Personality: The personality of Neal Cassidy is constructed from the circumstances surrounding the way the persona came to be at all. His father raised him to be a good boy, to never stand out too much. When he ran to another world and his father refused to follow him, the boy that was Baelfire had to make a change.
He doesn’t trust easily, but once you’ve earned it from him or been through something with him, he’ll keep you near and dear. Being abandoned physically and emotionally by both of his parents, he longs for closeness, but is afraid to let a person in close enough to have the chance to hurt him. It’s a strange paradox and usually ends up biting him in the ass, because he chooses the wrong people to trust (see: Pinocchio and Tamara).
He took to a life of thievery like a second nature, making no qualms with stealing from the Darlings, but upon being presented with the chance to live more honestly, he jumped to be the good son once more. It can be assumed (until canon tells me otherwise) that he learned quite a bit of his con artist skills from his Lost Boy brethren. He was born to be a Lost Boy, after all. Neither of his parents had his best interest at heart when their own personal desires were in the same room. Because of this, he has learned to look out for himself above all else. It’s rather cyclical thinking and ends up causing him to make decisions that mirror those of both his parents on a regular basis (abandoning Emma, being the most prominent). Stealing from strangers is perfectly fine, as far as he’s concerned. He doesn’t know them or care about them. They probably wouldn’t give a fuck about him, so why should he give one? He takes what he needs, but not much else. We never see Neal living well, just well enough to get by. He only really even thinks about obtaining enough money for a future when he meets Emma and tries to set up the watch deal to get them enough to move to Florida. So even while disregarding the needs and wants of others, he’s not going about it for much profit, just enough to continue to live comfortably.
After dealing with massive emotional trauma as a child and living over three centuries in multiple worlds, Neal has picked up an incredibly laid back temperament which helps get him through the days. He is one with the duck that lets water roll off its back. This isn’t to say that he doesn’t care, but that he tries not to get himself worked up about things, if at all possible. Canon has showed that family remains his big button to push. Meeting his father again, learning he has a son- these things bring out a whole spectrum of emotions in him. No one can make him angrier any faster than his father can. A flippant comment about magic or hurting someone, or some implication like Neal’s mistrust isn’t rooted in reason... it hardly takes anything at all for Neal to lose his patience for his father’s behavior. And no one can bring a smile to his face quicker than his son- be it with a wooden sword fight or a sly attempt to get his own way.
At the canon point I’ve chosen for this application, Neal has just learned (as in literally moments before) that his fiancé was only with him to use him for her own nefarious purposes. The motivations behind Tamara’s betrayal are of limited consequence but the fact that he has to face knowing that a woman he loved never cared for him as more than a means to get what she wanted from the fairytale characters he was connected to. He’s dealt with loss before, but it never gets easier. Worse yet, he trusted her enough to introduce her to his son, who is without a doubt the most important thing in his life currently. It all happens in a rush, finding out about Tamara, getting shot, and then finding himself in a very familiar situation, dangling over a portal into another world. But this time, it’s Emma who was holding onto him. In the face of potential death, they stop holding back with one another and confess their feelings. It’s the most extreme situation imaginable to admit that you still love someone, but for him, it’s the only way he could ever say it. In letting go of her hand, he makes certain that his son will have a mother, and that he won’t have to grow up without a family like both he and Emma did. He doesn’t want to go. He has no idea where he’s going, but he knows he can’t risk her falling in with him.
SAMPLES
At least one sample MUST demonstrate your character's feelings about or reactions to sex!
» First Person Sample Choice: Prompt One
[The view from the video feed appears to be angled from the man’s lap. While it’s clear that he’s found his pants, he remains shirtless. Upon noticing that the feed has started, he shifts, instantly wincing and raising his right arm away from a nasty bruise/scar combo on his torso. Around his neck, a necklace rests against his throat.]
Hey, uh… So I’m trying to get my head on straight about all this. Definitely not the worst place I could have landed, but… Are these people for real? [Someone’s been trying to talk to the palace employees…] Not exactly killing me with kindness.
If anyone can give me the basics, that’d be great.
[He looks pretty sure that he’s done talking, but he stops and adds.] Oh, and I’m Neal. By the way.
» Third Person Sample Choice: Prompt Two
It felt like falling. And maybe that was because he was actually falling- falling down the green swirling vortex of the portal, falling away from her. But in the dream, it only felt like falling.
By the time he landed, it was the two of them in a dingy hotel room, he and Emma. They were laughing, high off of the success of some con. But it wasn’t really right. She didn’t have her glasses. Or her necklace. She was hovering over him, saying words that felt so familiar, but so different here.
”Please, don’t let go. I need you. I love you.”
And in that moment, he could never imagine letting her go. He pulled her to him, his lips so close that they might touch hers if either of them should move at all. It was Emma. For as terrified as he was of hurting her, he knew that he could never deny a plea like that. How could he let her go again?
“I love you too.” He meant it. He had meant it for the last decade. He was just too afraid to say it. They moved together fluidly, shedding whatever clothing remained. His mouth was on her- her lips, her skin. He tasted her, clung to her. As he thrust himself inside of her, he cried out and-
Neal awoke in a bed that was completely unfamiliar to him. Looking down, he realized quickly that he was naked. The second realization was that the dream he had been enjoying was a bit more realistic than he had thought. As his fingertips gingerly touched a slick patch of skin on his torso, he wasn’t sure if he expected it to be come or blood. It turned out to be the former- which, all things considered, was the better options.
“…Fuck.” His head fell back against the pillow, eyes closing as he tried to hold onto the feeling his own mind that wrapped him in, but it was gone. She was another world away, and he was going to have to figure out just where the hell he was.
REVISIONS REQUESTED
Emma - Meeting Emma was a surprise, albeit a welcome one. He didn't intend to come across anyone who had so much in common with him (lack of family, jade outlook, life of crime), yet adjusted so differently. They complimented each other. She was high strung and made quick decisions. He was laid back and saw more of the big picture. The differences likely had to do with the extreme age difference. He has centuries on her, after all. But she was good at what she did and he couldn't deny that he liked having her around. Falling in love with her was by no means planned. It just sort of happened while they were moving from city to city. Sure, they were together for that time, sexually and romantically, but it was the act of falling in love that took him by surprise. His parents' marriage had failed in front of his very eyes. His view of love and “happily ever” after was smashed into a million pieces when his family was torn apart, but there was Emma. She was everything he wanted- daring, and clever, and wild… But above all else, she was steadfast. She was willing to follow him anywhere. He needed that, more than she likely ever knew. It was that trait in her that he loved the most that he could not bring himself to emulate. Whatever destiny she had to fulfill, whatever story he was told by a mysterious man with a typewriter, Neal didn’t have to listen to him. Using Neal’s true name worked outwardly as a way to convince him that the rest of August’s message needed to be headed seriously, but it also doubled as a scare tactic. Unfortunately, it was one that worked. Running came natural to Neal at this point, and no matter how much he loved Emma, and no matter how much he told himself that it was her destiny that made him turn away and stay gone for so long, there was fear that guided him to leave her that night. He never stopped caring for her. It’s not shown how often he and August met up in those ten years, but the times we do see them together, Neal finds a way to ask about her, to ask August to make sure she’s safe. Loving her stayed with him over the course of the decade they were apart. Unfortunately, even after the curse was broken and he knew he could seek her out if he wanted, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Neal has something of a “fight or flight” reflex, and when put in a tight spot, he tends to choose “flight.” He runs. He ran from his father, ran from magic- and he couldn’t bring himself to find Emma because it would mean facing the reality that she might not want anything to do with him. And he was right… If not for Henry’s desire to know his father, and Emma’s deal with Neal’s father, she wouldn’t have spoken a word to him if he had showed up on her doorstep. He likely played out the scenario numerous times in his head, and even he couldn’t lie to himself to imagine a situation in which she would forgive him. The reality of how it all played out feels surreal at this point. They’re on rocky ground, still feeling out how to act around one another, how to make it normal. Henry being around helps, as it creates a comforting buffer for their awkward past. It isn’t until the final moments of current canon that several confessions come to light between him and Emma. He admits to his fear of her rejection of him, admits that he wanted to find her but couldn’t stand the idea of seeing how much he had hurt her. And secondly, just before he falls away into the portal, the two of them confess that they love each other. Neal never stopped loving her, never stopped wanting her to be happy. Spending time with her, seeing her older and wiser and doing so well, it meant the world to him. And as much as he hated to leave her again, he knew that he had to in order to keep her safe and to allow her to protect their son, because he wouldn’t trust the task to anyone else but her.
Papa – Baelfire was born into the stigma of having a coward for a father, but it never seemed to bother him. It can be assumed that his parents did their best to hide their problems from him as best they could, because he doesn’t seem to be affected much by their lack of connection in his early childhood. Still, he was a bright boy and by no means stupid. He knew that his mother wasn’t happy, but that she was far more able to find someone to fill the void in her heart. His father, however, had no one else. Because of this, Bae became his father’s crutch, the one constant in the man’s life. He doesn’t seem to be ill effected by the role, except that he had very few friends. When his mother left, it only got worse, as they were truly the only thing the other had left in the way of family. Bae was ready to grow up, to be more than just a hand around the house. He knew that his time was nearly due to fight in the war, and he was ready for it. Maybe by fighting, he could remove the stain from their name. Maybe if he fought, he could make people stop taunting the both of them for his father’s past. Unfortunately, the idea of Bae going off to war and possibly never coming back was too much for his father, and so they ran. Bae didn’t want to run. He thought it wasn’t necessary, he thought he could make it right for the both of them by doing his duty- but at the end of the day, he was still a child and he couldn’t break his father’s heart. A series of events, largely out of his control led to his father becoming the Dark One. It started as a means to keep Bae from needing to go to war, but it became so much more than that. It didn’t take Bae long at all to see how the powerful magic was changing his beloved papa. He wanted to believe the best in the man, but he had never seen cruelty in his father until magic came into play. He blamed the magic, saw it as a problem that needed to be fixed. He even went so far as to play into the hand of a deal with the Dark One, stating that if he found a way, that his father would give up magic for him. Unfortunately, Bae didn’t realize that his father assumed that there wasn’t a way to complete that deal, and had no intention of giving up his magic at all. The solution came in the form of a magic bean that would take them to a world where magic didn’t exist, and would therefore strip away any magic that had seeped into his father’s soul. Upon showing his father the way he intended to complete their deal, Bae was soon faced with a very harsh awakening to what his father had become. As he dangled over the portal, it was so clear that his father was gone, and this imposter in his skin now took his place. The Dark One didn’t want to use magic to keep Bae safe- he simply wanted to use magic. Years of standing at his father’s side made him acutely aware of the ways to hurt him, and in his final moments in the Enchanted Forest, he proclaimed the thing his father never wanted to hear from his lips: You coward. It wasn’t until over three hundred years later that he had to face the man, and he did so only when faced with the option of letting Emma take the fall for him. Standoffish hardly describes Neal’s attitude during their first reunion. His harsh and flippant replies only spur on his father’s desperate attempts to mend a bridge that Neal burned long ago. It’s left behind along with the name that only his father uses- a name that he repeats as if it might revive the boy he let fall into another world. Neal’s hostility softens only once faced with the possibility of his father dying, and even after the crisis is averted, they seem to settle into a comfortable avoidance. This relationship will be the hardest for him to mend, because the things that broke it were mostly out of his control. He was an innocent child who was forced to play with a hand dealt to him by circumstance. And until he sees steps taken to let go of the dependency on power and magic, Neal will likely remain closed off to his father.
August – We don’t see a great deal of Neal and August on screen together. Most of their scenes center around the event of August advising Neal that the right thing to do for Emma is to leave her so that she can break the curse. Of all the people in the world to trust, it is hard to understand at a glance why Neal would trust August. Neal and August have an understanding of one another, which is likely why through all the bullshit, Neal seems amicable to other man. This is also likely to do with a great deal of misinformation and assumption being tossed around, but a good portion of his decision to listen to August’s advice and actually follow it has to do with a gut feeling that they are the same sort of person. Now, this sort of person isn’t really a GOOD sort of person, by typical standards. At the point in canon when they first meet… selfless, brave, and true could not adequately describe either of them. Selfish motives, cowardice, and dishonesty fuel both of their lives at this moment. Even as August is attempting to right his wrong, to help guide Emma back to her path, he does it in a sloppy, haphazard way that only someone like Neal could understand. It’s because of this understanding that Neal ultimately trusts the man- so much so that he walks away from the best thing that’s happened to him in a damn long time. The timeline is foggy on when Tamara first entered Neal’s life, but the day that he met Tamara, he was chatting with August just before. This implies that they do keep in touch, that August comes by to see Neal when he’s in the area, and that they maintain a friendship over the years. These kindred spirits likely gravitated together as a way to cope with the mistakes of their lives- misery loves company, after all. Their morally ambiguous lifestyle choices also make them perfect candidates for fast friends. August seems to revel in debauchery of all types, and Neal has a problem with taking things that don’t belong to him. Between these hobbies and the common thread of failing Emma in some way, it’s a wonder that they don’t have matching friendship bracelets.
Family – Neal’s views on family are a bit all over the place. All he wanted as a kid was to have a normal, happy family. It’s what every kid wants, after all. But even before he could remember, his parents were not happy together, and only managed to fake it well enough to fool him for a few years. His mother left (and he likely learned of her death from Hook, but we haven’t seen this in canon yet, so that’s just my own speculation at this point). His father lost his mind and turned to addiction. He ran away to another world and tried to forget about what it was like to depend on another person for your own happiness. And then he met the Darlings. They were the family he had always wanted. Two loving parents supported and guided the three lovely and adoring children. Wendy and her brothers were smart and kind and welcomed him. The family took him in and reminded him what it felt like to be loved without anything like magic to taint it. After only knowing them for a short amount of time, he was willing to sacrifice himself, because he couldn’t stand the thought of these wonderful people, this perfect family being torn apart like his was. Neal finally gets the opportunity to be part of a family when he learns about Henry. He feels so guilty for losing all those years, but the chance to know his son soon eclipses anything else. He’s intently focused on being there in every way his father wasn’t. He supports Henry, engages him in the things he’s interested in. He wants to catch up on lost time, but isn’t trying to focus on making a big deal out of it. Unfortunately, when the portal opened and he clung to Emma’s hand, he realized that being there for Henry wasn’t something that he could do. What he could do for his son, though, was make sure that he wasn’t alone. By letting go of Emma’s hand, he made certain that she didn’t fall in after him, that she didn’t do something stupid just to save him. Henry needed at least one of them, and he’d be damned if he was the cause of his son losing both of his parents.
Magic – This show does a good job of carrying a theme with magic. It’s said several time: Magic comes with a price. Neal sees that price as too high, no matter what the circumstances. Now, for as absolute as he acts like this outlook is, he’s not quite as firm on it as one would think. The magic chalk that Emma uses draws a questioning look from him, but he doesn’t protest the protection spell. The magic used to save his father isn’t something he objects to either. Life and death scenarios seem to have a bit more laxity with his opinions of magic. However, when it comes to more frivolous things, Neal has no tolerance for it. In their first reunion, his father actually suggests magically reverting him back into a teenager so that they can experience his growing up together. Neal balks immediately and becomes defensive. He doesn’t want anything to do with magic, if he can help it, and will go out of his way to keep it at arm’s length or further. Between his experiences with his father in the Enchanted Forest, seeing the ways magic can corrupt someone and twist all the good in them into evil- and his experience in protecting the Darlings from the shadow who wanted to steal them away to Neverland forever, he has no trust for magic. It’s why he prefers the world without magic over any that he’s seen. Only in that world can you trust what you see and hear without wondering if some sinister force is guiding your hand. And it’s in this world that he learned to survive and flourish, because he didn’t have to doubt and wonder if magic would come to ruin it all. And to him, that makes this world perfect.
Trust and Loyalty – After losing his mother and father, then sacrificing himself to save his second family (the Darlings), Baelfire wasn’t sure if it was worth it to care for someone, if all that would come from it was more pain. He was also an angsty teenager and probably took it much harder because he was dealing with feelings of abandonment while he was dealing with ~becoming a man.~ He was young and impressionable, and in pain. He built up a wall because it was easier to cope that way, and it allowed him to choose how close to let people in. When we see him as an adult when first meeting Emma, he’s all smiles and jokes- completely comfortable with her invading his physical space because he can choose how close he allows himself to get emotionally. In fact, it’s possible that his carefree exterior is a defense mechanism that he created while in Neverland as a way to bury his insecurities of being left behind. If he’s always running, then you can’t be the one to leave him, after all. His attachment to Emma, was unexpected and taught him that finding a few key people to trust could be good for him. In doing this, he created something of an inner circle, which at the time only included the two of them, but by allowing himself to relearn the concept of trust, he gave himself the chance to allow more people in. This helped him learn to trust people like August, then later Tamara- and while the latter came back to haunt him, it’s good that he opened up to her at all, because she was a stranger and did not have an obvious tie to his Enchanted Forest past, so she was simply someone that he cane to know and trust. To a degree, after coming back with Emma and Henry to Storybrooke, Neal had to learn to trust the citizens of the town. Emma’s parents are a huge part of Henry’s life, and while he doesn’t do a lot of direct interaction with them, it would seem that he respects them for the way they take care of his family and everyone else in the town. Slowly, he was becoming part of Storybrooke, even if it was all cut short by a lying fiancé. Tamara’s betrayal will likely not cause Neal to revert into himself, because he has bigger things to worry about. He has a son and friends and Emma. He has more than himself to worry about, so he can’t just run.
» Journal:
fuckingneal» Birthdate/Age: June 1987, 25
» Characters Played: N/A
CHARACTER FACTS
» Name: Neal Cassidy
» Canon: Once Upon a Time
» Reference: here
» Canon Point: 2x21
» Gender: Male
» Age: at least 300. We haven’t been given specifics
CHARACTER INTERPRETATION
» Appearance: Standing 5’9, Neal doesn’t command the room with height or stature. In fact, he’s spent a good chunk of his life trying to blend in, so in a crowd, you might not even notice him. He’s stocky in build, with dark hair (graying in spots) and eyes. Facial seems to be a constant for him as well, as he’s rocking the goatee style pretty much whenever we see him. He’s also a fan of pea coats and scarves, so long as the weather is cold enough for them. His wardrobe otherwise seems to be low key- jeans and tshirts mostly.
» Suitability: N/A
» Orientation: It can be safely assumed that Neal identifies as heterosexual. The only romantic and sexual relationships we see him involved are those with Emma and Tamara. He has shown no real indication that he’s interested in men sexually.
» Personality: The personality of Neal Cassidy is constructed from the circumstances surrounding the way the persona came to be at all. His father raised him to be a good boy, to never stand out too much. When he ran to another world and his father refused to follow him, the boy that was Baelfire had to make a change.
He doesn’t trust easily, but once you’ve earned it from him or been through something with him, he’ll keep you near and dear. Being abandoned physically and emotionally by both of his parents, he longs for closeness, but is afraid to let a person in close enough to have the chance to hurt him. It’s a strange paradox and usually ends up biting him in the ass, because he chooses the wrong people to trust (see: Pinocchio and Tamara).
He took to a life of thievery like a second nature, making no qualms with stealing from the Darlings, but upon being presented with the chance to live more honestly, he jumped to be the good son once more. It can be assumed (until canon tells me otherwise) that he learned quite a bit of his con artist skills from his Lost Boy brethren. He was born to be a Lost Boy, after all. Neither of his parents had his best interest at heart when their own personal desires were in the same room. Because of this, he has learned to look out for himself above all else. It’s rather cyclical thinking and ends up causing him to make decisions that mirror those of both his parents on a regular basis (abandoning Emma, being the most prominent). Stealing from strangers is perfectly fine, as far as he’s concerned. He doesn’t know them or care about them. They probably wouldn’t give a fuck about him, so why should he give one? He takes what he needs, but not much else. We never see Neal living well, just well enough to get by. He only really even thinks about obtaining enough money for a future when he meets Emma and tries to set up the watch deal to get them enough to move to Florida. So even while disregarding the needs and wants of others, he’s not going about it for much profit, just enough to continue to live comfortably.
After dealing with massive emotional trauma as a child and living over three centuries in multiple worlds, Neal has picked up an incredibly laid back temperament which helps get him through the days. He is one with the duck that lets water roll off its back. This isn’t to say that he doesn’t care, but that he tries not to get himself worked up about things, if at all possible. Canon has showed that family remains his big button to push. Meeting his father again, learning he has a son- these things bring out a whole spectrum of emotions in him. No one can make him angrier any faster than his father can. A flippant comment about magic or hurting someone, or some implication like Neal’s mistrust isn’t rooted in reason... it hardly takes anything at all for Neal to lose his patience for his father’s behavior. And no one can bring a smile to his face quicker than his son- be it with a wooden sword fight or a sly attempt to get his own way.
At the canon point I’ve chosen for this application, Neal has just learned (as in literally moments before) that his fiancé was only with him to use him for her own nefarious purposes. The motivations behind Tamara’s betrayal are of limited consequence but the fact that he has to face knowing that a woman he loved never cared for him as more than a means to get what she wanted from the fairytale characters he was connected to. He’s dealt with loss before, but it never gets easier. Worse yet, he trusted her enough to introduce her to his son, who is without a doubt the most important thing in his life currently. It all happens in a rush, finding out about Tamara, getting shot, and then finding himself in a very familiar situation, dangling over a portal into another world. But this time, it’s Emma who was holding onto him. In the face of potential death, they stop holding back with one another and confess their feelings. It’s the most extreme situation imaginable to admit that you still love someone, but for him, it’s the only way he could ever say it. In letting go of her hand, he makes certain that his son will have a mother, and that he won’t have to grow up without a family like both he and Emma did. He doesn’t want to go. He has no idea where he’s going, but he knows he can’t risk her falling in with him.
SAMPLES
At least one sample MUST demonstrate your character's feelings about or reactions to sex!
» First Person Sample Choice: Prompt One
[The view from the video feed appears to be angled from the man’s lap. While it’s clear that he’s found his pants, he remains shirtless. Upon noticing that the feed has started, he shifts, instantly wincing and raising his right arm away from a nasty bruise/scar combo on his torso. Around his neck, a necklace rests against his throat.]
Hey, uh… So I’m trying to get my head on straight about all this. Definitely not the worst place I could have landed, but… Are these people for real? [Someone’s been trying to talk to the palace employees…] Not exactly killing me with kindness.
If anyone can give me the basics, that’d be great.
[He looks pretty sure that he’s done talking, but he stops and adds.] Oh, and I’m Neal. By the way.
» Third Person Sample Choice: Prompt Two
It felt like falling. And maybe that was because he was actually falling- falling down the green swirling vortex of the portal, falling away from her. But in the dream, it only felt like falling.
By the time he landed, it was the two of them in a dingy hotel room, he and Emma. They were laughing, high off of the success of some con. But it wasn’t really right. She didn’t have her glasses. Or her necklace. She was hovering over him, saying words that felt so familiar, but so different here.
”Please, don’t let go. I need you. I love you.”
And in that moment, he could never imagine letting her go. He pulled her to him, his lips so close that they might touch hers if either of them should move at all. It was Emma. For as terrified as he was of hurting her, he knew that he could never deny a plea like that. How could he let her go again?
“I love you too.” He meant it. He had meant it for the last decade. He was just too afraid to say it. They moved together fluidly, shedding whatever clothing remained. His mouth was on her- her lips, her skin. He tasted her, clung to her. As he thrust himself inside of her, he cried out and-
Neal awoke in a bed that was completely unfamiliar to him. Looking down, he realized quickly that he was naked. The second realization was that the dream he had been enjoying was a bit more realistic than he had thought. As his fingertips gingerly touched a slick patch of skin on his torso, he wasn’t sure if he expected it to be come or blood. It turned out to be the former- which, all things considered, was the better options.
“…Fuck.” His head fell back against the pillow, eyes closing as he tried to hold onto the feeling his own mind that wrapped him in, but it was gone. She was another world away, and he was going to have to figure out just where the hell he was.
REVISIONS REQUESTED
Emma - Meeting Emma was a surprise, albeit a welcome one. He didn't intend to come across anyone who had so much in common with him (lack of family, jade outlook, life of crime), yet adjusted so differently. They complimented each other. She was high strung and made quick decisions. He was laid back and saw more of the big picture. The differences likely had to do with the extreme age difference. He has centuries on her, after all. But she was good at what she did and he couldn't deny that he liked having her around. Falling in love with her was by no means planned. It just sort of happened while they were moving from city to city. Sure, they were together for that time, sexually and romantically, but it was the act of falling in love that took him by surprise. His parents' marriage had failed in front of his very eyes. His view of love and “happily ever” after was smashed into a million pieces when his family was torn apart, but there was Emma. She was everything he wanted- daring, and clever, and wild… But above all else, she was steadfast. She was willing to follow him anywhere. He needed that, more than she likely ever knew. It was that trait in her that he loved the most that he could not bring himself to emulate. Whatever destiny she had to fulfill, whatever story he was told by a mysterious man with a typewriter, Neal didn’t have to listen to him. Using Neal’s true name worked outwardly as a way to convince him that the rest of August’s message needed to be headed seriously, but it also doubled as a scare tactic. Unfortunately, it was one that worked. Running came natural to Neal at this point, and no matter how much he loved Emma, and no matter how much he told himself that it was her destiny that made him turn away and stay gone for so long, there was fear that guided him to leave her that night. He never stopped caring for her. It’s not shown how often he and August met up in those ten years, but the times we do see them together, Neal finds a way to ask about her, to ask August to make sure she’s safe. Loving her stayed with him over the course of the decade they were apart. Unfortunately, even after the curse was broken and he knew he could seek her out if he wanted, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Neal has something of a “fight or flight” reflex, and when put in a tight spot, he tends to choose “flight.” He runs. He ran from his father, ran from magic- and he couldn’t bring himself to find Emma because it would mean facing the reality that she might not want anything to do with him. And he was right… If not for Henry’s desire to know his father, and Emma’s deal with Neal’s father, she wouldn’t have spoken a word to him if he had showed up on her doorstep. He likely played out the scenario numerous times in his head, and even he couldn’t lie to himself to imagine a situation in which she would forgive him. The reality of how it all played out feels surreal at this point. They’re on rocky ground, still feeling out how to act around one another, how to make it normal. Henry being around helps, as it creates a comforting buffer for their awkward past. It isn’t until the final moments of current canon that several confessions come to light between him and Emma. He admits to his fear of her rejection of him, admits that he wanted to find her but couldn’t stand the idea of seeing how much he had hurt her. And secondly, just before he falls away into the portal, the two of them confess that they love each other. Neal never stopped loving her, never stopped wanting her to be happy. Spending time with her, seeing her older and wiser and doing so well, it meant the world to him. And as much as he hated to leave her again, he knew that he had to in order to keep her safe and to allow her to protect their son, because he wouldn’t trust the task to anyone else but her.
Papa – Baelfire was born into the stigma of having a coward for a father, but it never seemed to bother him. It can be assumed that his parents did their best to hide their problems from him as best they could, because he doesn’t seem to be affected much by their lack of connection in his early childhood. Still, he was a bright boy and by no means stupid. He knew that his mother wasn’t happy, but that she was far more able to find someone to fill the void in her heart. His father, however, had no one else. Because of this, Bae became his father’s crutch, the one constant in the man’s life. He doesn’t seem to be ill effected by the role, except that he had very few friends. When his mother left, it only got worse, as they were truly the only thing the other had left in the way of family. Bae was ready to grow up, to be more than just a hand around the house. He knew that his time was nearly due to fight in the war, and he was ready for it. Maybe by fighting, he could remove the stain from their name. Maybe if he fought, he could make people stop taunting the both of them for his father’s past. Unfortunately, the idea of Bae going off to war and possibly never coming back was too much for his father, and so they ran. Bae didn’t want to run. He thought it wasn’t necessary, he thought he could make it right for the both of them by doing his duty- but at the end of the day, he was still a child and he couldn’t break his father’s heart. A series of events, largely out of his control led to his father becoming the Dark One. It started as a means to keep Bae from needing to go to war, but it became so much more than that. It didn’t take Bae long at all to see how the powerful magic was changing his beloved papa. He wanted to believe the best in the man, but he had never seen cruelty in his father until magic came into play. He blamed the magic, saw it as a problem that needed to be fixed. He even went so far as to play into the hand of a deal with the Dark One, stating that if he found a way, that his father would give up magic for him. Unfortunately, Bae didn’t realize that his father assumed that there wasn’t a way to complete that deal, and had no intention of giving up his magic at all. The solution came in the form of a magic bean that would take them to a world where magic didn’t exist, and would therefore strip away any magic that had seeped into his father’s soul. Upon showing his father the way he intended to complete their deal, Bae was soon faced with a very harsh awakening to what his father had become. As he dangled over the portal, it was so clear that his father was gone, and this imposter in his skin now took his place. The Dark One didn’t want to use magic to keep Bae safe- he simply wanted to use magic. Years of standing at his father’s side made him acutely aware of the ways to hurt him, and in his final moments in the Enchanted Forest, he proclaimed the thing his father never wanted to hear from his lips: You coward. It wasn’t until over three hundred years later that he had to face the man, and he did so only when faced with the option of letting Emma take the fall for him. Standoffish hardly describes Neal’s attitude during their first reunion. His harsh and flippant replies only spur on his father’s desperate attempts to mend a bridge that Neal burned long ago. It’s left behind along with the name that only his father uses- a name that he repeats as if it might revive the boy he let fall into another world. Neal’s hostility softens only once faced with the possibility of his father dying, and even after the crisis is averted, they seem to settle into a comfortable avoidance. This relationship will be the hardest for him to mend, because the things that broke it were mostly out of his control. He was an innocent child who was forced to play with a hand dealt to him by circumstance. And until he sees steps taken to let go of the dependency on power and magic, Neal will likely remain closed off to his father.
August – We don’t see a great deal of Neal and August on screen together. Most of their scenes center around the event of August advising Neal that the right thing to do for Emma is to leave her so that she can break the curse. Of all the people in the world to trust, it is hard to understand at a glance why Neal would trust August. Neal and August have an understanding of one another, which is likely why through all the bullshit, Neal seems amicable to other man. This is also likely to do with a great deal of misinformation and assumption being tossed around, but a good portion of his decision to listen to August’s advice and actually follow it has to do with a gut feeling that they are the same sort of person. Now, this sort of person isn’t really a GOOD sort of person, by typical standards. At the point in canon when they first meet… selfless, brave, and true could not adequately describe either of them. Selfish motives, cowardice, and dishonesty fuel both of their lives at this moment. Even as August is attempting to right his wrong, to help guide Emma back to her path, he does it in a sloppy, haphazard way that only someone like Neal could understand. It’s because of this understanding that Neal ultimately trusts the man- so much so that he walks away from the best thing that’s happened to him in a damn long time. The timeline is foggy on when Tamara first entered Neal’s life, but the day that he met Tamara, he was chatting with August just before. This implies that they do keep in touch, that August comes by to see Neal when he’s in the area, and that they maintain a friendship over the years. These kindred spirits likely gravitated together as a way to cope with the mistakes of their lives- misery loves company, after all. Their morally ambiguous lifestyle choices also make them perfect candidates for fast friends. August seems to revel in debauchery of all types, and Neal has a problem with taking things that don’t belong to him. Between these hobbies and the common thread of failing Emma in some way, it’s a wonder that they don’t have matching friendship bracelets.
Family – Neal’s views on family are a bit all over the place. All he wanted as a kid was to have a normal, happy family. It’s what every kid wants, after all. But even before he could remember, his parents were not happy together, and only managed to fake it well enough to fool him for a few years. His mother left (and he likely learned of her death from Hook, but we haven’t seen this in canon yet, so that’s just my own speculation at this point). His father lost his mind and turned to addiction. He ran away to another world and tried to forget about what it was like to depend on another person for your own happiness. And then he met the Darlings. They were the family he had always wanted. Two loving parents supported and guided the three lovely and adoring children. Wendy and her brothers were smart and kind and welcomed him. The family took him in and reminded him what it felt like to be loved without anything like magic to taint it. After only knowing them for a short amount of time, he was willing to sacrifice himself, because he couldn’t stand the thought of these wonderful people, this perfect family being torn apart like his was. Neal finally gets the opportunity to be part of a family when he learns about Henry. He feels so guilty for losing all those years, but the chance to know his son soon eclipses anything else. He’s intently focused on being there in every way his father wasn’t. He supports Henry, engages him in the things he’s interested in. He wants to catch up on lost time, but isn’t trying to focus on making a big deal out of it. Unfortunately, when the portal opened and he clung to Emma’s hand, he realized that being there for Henry wasn’t something that he could do. What he could do for his son, though, was make sure that he wasn’t alone. By letting go of Emma’s hand, he made certain that she didn’t fall in after him, that she didn’t do something stupid just to save him. Henry needed at least one of them, and he’d be damned if he was the cause of his son losing both of his parents.
Magic – This show does a good job of carrying a theme with magic. It’s said several time: Magic comes with a price. Neal sees that price as too high, no matter what the circumstances. Now, for as absolute as he acts like this outlook is, he’s not quite as firm on it as one would think. The magic chalk that Emma uses draws a questioning look from him, but he doesn’t protest the protection spell. The magic used to save his father isn’t something he objects to either. Life and death scenarios seem to have a bit more laxity with his opinions of magic. However, when it comes to more frivolous things, Neal has no tolerance for it. In their first reunion, his father actually suggests magically reverting him back into a teenager so that they can experience his growing up together. Neal balks immediately and becomes defensive. He doesn’t want anything to do with magic, if he can help it, and will go out of his way to keep it at arm’s length or further. Between his experiences with his father in the Enchanted Forest, seeing the ways magic can corrupt someone and twist all the good in them into evil- and his experience in protecting the Darlings from the shadow who wanted to steal them away to Neverland forever, he has no trust for magic. It’s why he prefers the world without magic over any that he’s seen. Only in that world can you trust what you see and hear without wondering if some sinister force is guiding your hand. And it’s in this world that he learned to survive and flourish, because he didn’t have to doubt and wonder if magic would come to ruin it all. And to him, that makes this world perfect.
Trust and Loyalty – After losing his mother and father, then sacrificing himself to save his second family (the Darlings), Baelfire wasn’t sure if it was worth it to care for someone, if all that would come from it was more pain. He was also an angsty teenager and probably took it much harder because he was dealing with feelings of abandonment while he was dealing with ~becoming a man.~ He was young and impressionable, and in pain. He built up a wall because it was easier to cope that way, and it allowed him to choose how close to let people in. When we see him as an adult when first meeting Emma, he’s all smiles and jokes- completely comfortable with her invading his physical space because he can choose how close he allows himself to get emotionally. In fact, it’s possible that his carefree exterior is a defense mechanism that he created while in Neverland as a way to bury his insecurities of being left behind. If he’s always running, then you can’t be the one to leave him, after all. His attachment to Emma, was unexpected and taught him that finding a few key people to trust could be good for him. In doing this, he created something of an inner circle, which at the time only included the two of them, but by allowing himself to relearn the concept of trust, he gave himself the chance to allow more people in. This helped him learn to trust people like August, then later Tamara- and while the latter came back to haunt him, it’s good that he opened up to her at all, because she was a stranger and did not have an obvious tie to his Enchanted Forest past, so she was simply someone that he cane to know and trust. To a degree, after coming back with Emma and Henry to Storybrooke, Neal had to learn to trust the citizens of the town. Emma’s parents are a huge part of Henry’s life, and while he doesn’t do a lot of direct interaction with them, it would seem that he respects them for the way they take care of his family and everyone else in the town. Slowly, he was becoming part of Storybrooke, even if it was all cut short by a lying fiancé. Tamara’s betrayal will likely not cause Neal to revert into himself, because he has bigger things to worry about. He has a son and friends and Emma. He has more than himself to worry about, so he can’t just run.
Teleios Application
Apr. 21st, 2013 01:20 amPlayer Info
Character Basics:
Canon Character Section:
Name: Alli
Age: 25
Contact: airchildstrega @ AIM and Plurk
Characters Already in Teleios: None
Reserve: here
Character Basics:
Character Name: Neal Cassidy
Journal:
Age: over 300… he looks around late 30s, early 40s, fake birthday is 3/23/1977
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Canon Point: Pre-2x14
Debt:Class A: 2 years
Class B: 1,080 years
Class C: 75 years
GRAND TOTAL: 1,167 years
Canon Character Section:
History: here
Personality: The personality of Neal Cassidy is constructed from the circumstances surrounding the way the persona came to be at all. His father raised him to be a good boy, to never stand out too much. When he ran to another world and his father refused to follow him, the boy that was Baelfire had to make a change. However slowly it took place has yet to be seen (damn canon) but the man who will enter Teleios has benefitted from the overhaul.
He doesn’t trust easily, but once you’ve earned it from him or been through something with him, he’ll keep you near and dear. Being abandoned physically and emotionally by both of his parents, he longs for closeness, but is afraid to let a person in close enough to have the chance to hurt him. It’s a strange paradox and usually ends up biting him in the ass, because he chooses the wrong people to trust (see: Pinocchio and Tamara).
A life of crime doesn’t suit many people, but Neal takes to it like a fish in water. It can be assumed (until canon tells me otherwise) that he learned quite a bit of his con artist skills from his Lost Boy brethren. He was born to be a Lost Boy, after all. Neither of his parents had his best interest at heart when their own personal desires were in the same room. Because of this, he has learned to look out for himself above all else. It’s rather cyclical thinking and ends up causing him to make decisions that mirror those of both his parents on a regular basis (abandoning Emma, being the most prominent). Stealing from strangers is perfectly fine, as far as he’s concerned. He doesn’t know them or care about them. They probably wouldn’t give a fuck about him, so why should he give one? He takes what he needs, but not much else. We never see Neal living well, just well enough to get by. He only really even thinks about obtaining enough money for a future when he meets Emma and tries to set up the watch deal to get them enough to move to Florida. So even while disregarding the needs and wants of others, he’s not going about it for much profit, just enough to continue to live comfortably.
After dealing with massive emotional trauma as a child and living over three centuries in multiple worlds, Neal has picked up an incredibly laid back temperament which helps get him through the days. He is the one with the duck that lets water roll off its back. This isn’t to say that he doesn’t care, but that he tries not to get himself worked up about things, if at all possible. Canon has showed that family remains his big button to push. Meeting his father again, learning he has a son- these things bring out a whole spectrum of emotions in him. And while these things happen later in his canon than the point he’s pulled from, it’s important to know that we have seen that these are the big things that push him to that point.
Powers/Abilties: No magic abilities here. Con artist, silver tongue, sticky fingers.
Appearance: here
Samples:Actionspam Sample: several here
Prose Sample: There were more nights than he liked to admit that he didn’t have a real roof over his head. Moving from city to city would do that to a guy, but he made do with as best he could. Smooth talking his way into a free coffee was pretty easy by now. He could even swing a full breakfast if the waitress was feeling friendly. But a house? After a few solid days in town, he could nickel and dime his way to enough for a hotel room, but he didn’t mind a night or two without. It reminded him of a simpler time, a simpler world. Makeshift beds with patched together roofs were nostalgic for him.
He caught sleep whenever the need arose. Keeping odd hours was just the name of the game at this point. If he slept away the afternoon, it meant he could con a few drunks out of a hundred bucks later at last call. Unfortunately, his mid-day snooze was being interrupted by the sound of metal on metal. One eye cracked open enough to see a jean jacket and a blonde pony tail swaying back and forth as she jimmied the lock of the yellow bug he was currently occupying. She didn’t see him, and besides, he liked admiring the work of a fellow criminal. He even let her get comfortable with her newly claimed prize before he made his presence known.
"Impressive, but you really could have just asked me for the keys." He couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction, finding the whole thing pretty amusing. And it only took a few seconds before he decided he was just going to go with this. She was clearly someone like him and this could be an interesting way to spend the day, if nothing else. What could possibly go wrong?
