(no subject)

[kittydesade]

A common way of offering a drink is to ask the equivalent of Will you have a drink? This involves the possessive phrase Tá... ag (has) which you saw in the previous unit, but with future beidh instead of tá. e.g.
Tá deoch agam cheana. I have a drink already.
An mbeidh deoch agat? Will you have a drink?
Beidh. Yes (lit, I will)
Ní bheidh. No.

Note also, using Cad? (What?)
Cad ad bheidh agat? What will you have?
Beidh pionta agam. I'll have a pint.

Vocab:
buidéal - bottle
gloine - glass
leathghloine - half-glass
pionta - pint
leathphionta - half-pint

And of course the next grammar point is the one I just noticed, which is that leath-, half-, causes lenition. Yay pattern recognition!

The numeral aon is used in the sense of 'any.'

Aon scéal? Any news?
An bhfuil aon scéal agat? Do you have any news?

Another way of saying any is to put ar bith (at all) after a word
An bhfuil scéal ar bith agaibh?

It is necessary to use either aon or ar bith when saying that you haven't got something. Notice that aon causes lenition.

Níl aon charr agam. I don't have a car.
Níl aon phost aige. He doesn't have a job.
Níl post ar bith aici. She doesn't have a job.


So, um. The preview for Once Upon A Time in two weeks has me thinking only two things. One, this is going to suck. For once, possibly not in the bad way it's been sucking. And two, I'm pretty sure Robert Carlyle went roaming around other people's back lots looking for more scenery to chew. Goddamn. About this week's Once Upon A Time we will not say a word. It didn't happen, and no one can convince me it did. If plot advanced even in the micrometer steps it seems to be advancing, it did so offscreen where actions happened that no one saw because this week's episode didn't happen. Except for Gold rolling his eyes and sighing his, as Anna called it, "I can't believe I got you elected" sigh. That was pretty priceless.

But I got some stuff done this weekend at least! Some cleaning, a lot of cooking, a good half-batch of minestrone because I didn't have all the veggies for it. A batch of cream of tomato soup with some spinach ground into it because of reasons, I discovered a good marinade in which to soak the beef to make it even more better for stew, and made the stew again, and omfg the whole damn thing was incredibly, incredibly tasty. I am inveencible! And I want more stew. And I cooked up half the chicken, the other half will get cooked up tonight since the rest of Sunday evening was devoted to discovering mold balls the size of golf balls in our bag of rice that we just fucking bought. Ugh.

Not as much writing done over the weekend, but some. Still not quite sure why but it had better damn well quit it, I have shit I need to get done. Still, today may or may not be light once I get the weekend backlog done, there's no incoming to speak of.

Oh, and I've been rewatching New Amsterdam. I'd forgotten how awesome that show was, I kind of miss it now. And Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has the most adorable little accent slips now and again. And now of course I want to write fanfic of it, which, excellent! There's a prompt on Yuletide for it. I tried to floss my brain with that sometime this weekend, it didn't quite work, maybe today.

... Oh. Also, the Muppets are awesome.

Comments

[oldandnewfirm]

His interest in Snow's hair was suspect, to say the least. My guess is that he needed it in order to weave her bloodline into the fabric of the curse and ensure that her child would have the power to break it. The problem with that theory is that the Queen probably had the curse before Rumple's first meeting with Snow. And yes, a new contract would take care of that problem and suit Rumple's approach better. Ugh, this episode is going to be sad. I can feel it.

One who wonders why Mr. Gold seems to show up only on the days when she's working a shift, and why he gives her wistful looks during checkout.

On the upside, this episode (and the internet) has given us the phrase, "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBELLE!"

[kittydesade]

Either that or he used it to craft an antidote that he'll then trade to Charming/James in exchange for something he wants more. Knowing what we do now about what he knows about love, he probably is guessing that somewhere down the line someone's going to come to him begging for the antidote.

And now I'm trying to think of this new contract. So, Rumplestiltstitters trades Belle her village's safety from the Ogre Wars for her freedom, and she has to go live with him for some previously designated amount of time to potentially ever. And then that blows up in everyone's faces, causing him to ... something. Do the who could ever love a Beast thing, crossed over with Richard's "But I, that am not shap’d for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass... since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determined to prove a villain, And hate the idle pleasures of these days." But somehow he feels kindly enough towards her, perhaps because she tried...

Argh. Something also to notice is that Snow's the only one we've seen so far who treats him with respect and who doesn't ask for things out of greed or hate or anything. When she came to him it was out of pain, looking to ease her pain, not for selfish reasons as much as the rest of him. And she was smart, and she didn't offer insult. And maybe Belle's the same way, and he seems to respond better to that. So he trades her... maybe a day of peace or, heh. Maybe that one kiss we saw. For her freedom. Something, I ran out of think, there.

Hah. Yes. Not really flirting but a sort of sad wistful charming air about him.

That is a terrible phrase and it should feel terrible. I actually groaned out loud when I read it. :P Then again, I'm one of those killjoys who hates all portmanteau couple names. (Although the original Let's get ready to rumble is about the right speed for this episode. Along with "Shit just got real.")

[oldandnewfirm]

He's gotta wake her up again somehow. And now that I think about it, the dwarves did seem to recognize him when he rode up in the pilot, so they may have told him about the potion so he could seek out a cure.

One kiss, so that for a moment Rumple can entertain the idea of what might have been. If I were in Belle's shoes I wouldn't be too keen on kissing a guy who'd just tossed me around and went on a rampage, but! Magic! And now that you've said that, I hope that's what happens. Now I'm wondering if the saner version of Rumple present in Storybrooke would be be more capable of handling a relationship, but considering that he appears to be beating the shit out of someone with his cane in the trailer, I'm going with "no."

It's true! You catch more flies with honey, and all that, so it makes sense that Rumple is more kindly disposed towards who don't come out swinging when they interact with him. Actually, that makes me wonder about Red's recommending him. Her words suggested that she'd never met him, but something about her attitude and body language said otherwise. Either she or someone she knew made a deal that didn't end too badly, but still spooked them.

Hee, I like most portmanteau names just because I'm lazy as hell. If a character's name is longer than six letters I get tired of typing of it over and over, even more so in the case of pairings. So portmanteaus are a handy shortcut for me.

[kittydesade]

I can totally see Grumpy, after that episode, telling Charming about the potion. "You go this direction I'll go that direction the damn imp has to be around here somewhere." ... which, come to that, makes me want to go back to the pil... no, to Price of Gold, where they were talking about how many dwarves died either to make the cells they held the tittering jackass in or just in the mines. Grumpy might hold a grudge.

Yes. Which he might want to, I still don't have a handle on how much of the softer emotions he's capable of in his creepy giggling magic form. And, heh, if I were in Belle's shoes I think I'd be reaching for the nearest blunt/sharp object, but that's me. Me too, actually. Come see the softer side of Rumple? And no. He looked really, really toothy and psychotic with the beating someone potentially to death with his cane. Also possibly binding and gagging them to start with. It just screamed "jealous/possesive rage."

Maybe Granny? I'll have to rewatch and see, now. And that's just making me want to write even more Ruby/Gold, but, yeah. It can't have ended that badly or she wouldn't have recommended him. So I wonder what she gave him.

I don't mind the typing, but the portmanteaus, something about them just makes my sense of word style or word aesthetics go twitch. Maybe just because so many of them are kind of awkward.

[oldandnewfirm]

Yeah. Rumple in both forms strikes me as a "I am not a jealous man. I just don't like people touching my things!" kind of guy. Hopefully being 100% curse free would cure that.

He looks kind-of sincere when he's handing her the rose? Maybe he has fits of sanity between his madness. Actually, he seemed pretty calm during his first interaction with James as well. Maybe the madness is just part of the act.

Granny would be a good candidate. Her contempt for him in Storybrooke seems to run deep, so it could stem from dealings she'd had with him in Fairy Tale World. And more Ruby/Gold is never a bad thing. Though now that we've seen the trailer, I have a hankering for Ruby putting a jealous Gold in his place. As for what she gave him...hm. Well, maybe she bakes really good bread, and Rumple couldn't resist a basket.

Aesthetics are definitely important when it comes to my acceptance of a given portmanteau. Some of them are just awful. On the other hand, some can be clever. I'll always be amused by the "ASS ship" from Harry Potter. (Albus Severus/Scorpius) It helps that Albus Severus was cursed with a terrible name.

[kittydesade]

Yeah. And he seems like he didn't used to be that way, so, possibly? Or possibly being cursed for all that time changed him in that way, too. Which is kind of sad. I like pre-curse Rumple.

At the very least he looks like he's making an effort to be sweet. And not in the mocking way, either. He looks a little the way he did when he was being gentle with Snow, back in the pilot. Or talking about children with Emma, as Gold, which might be as close to sincerely kind as he gets. I suspect his madness is part of the act. He strikes me as someone who needs to be in control of himself, at the very least, and allowing himself to go completely mad would take a lot of that away.

Heeeee, oh, maybe I should do that too. Although my current vague plots involve Ruby telling Ashley what she's doing, dithering and upset happens, and it concludes with Ashley going and telling Gold if you toy with her and break her heart I will beat you to death with your own cane. Because Ashley might be kind of a limpet, but she maced him. And that was awesome.

That really is an awful name. Dammit, Rowling. I'm trying to think of a clever one I've heard lately and failing, but that also could be because I just don't use them. Heh, I think my other thing is I just don't ship Rumplestiltskin with anyone, he's not... Hm. Something. He's too spiky and prickly? As Gold, there's a little bit more of a subdued attitude and he doesn't go out of his way to cackle and poke at everyone. Rumplestiltskin would have to calm down a hell of a lot more.

[oldandnewfirm]

I wonder if the Blue Fairy can do anything for him after he's cured? Like him, she seems to be the one people turn to as a last resort, only her deals actually end happily. It'd be nice if she could do something to restore him to his pre-curse self. Having said that, though, after how much trouble it got him into the first time I doubt he's going to be accepting any further help from magical beings, benevolent or not.

Now I'm just thinking of him calling "Miss, miss!" through the bars. So creepy.

You know, the one thing I've wondered since that episode came out is, where the hell did she get the mace? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that should exist in that town. Who are the residents supposed to be protecting themselves from?

I still try and pretend the epilogue didn't happen. It was just...no. And it was even worse in the movie, thanks to everyone's terrible "old age" makeup. Could they not spare the expense of wrangling up some new actors to play the parts? And yeah, pairing Rumple/Gold with anyone is tricky. Anyone who stuck by him would endure levels of constant scrutiny and manipulation that I wouldn't wish on any character. In fact, that's what made writing the two Rumple/Red things I've done a bit tricky. I had to pare down his asshole-ness in order to keep Red from trying to choke him to death through the bars of his cell.

[kittydesade]

I'm not sure there's anything anyone can do for him other than maybe mind-wipe him of all the past however many years. And yeah, I doubt he'd be inclined to accept any kind of magical help. Or just general gift-from-the-sky type thing. He seems really really wary of people who would give him things without asking for something in return.

You know what creeped me out? Those first two episodes, a lot of those faces he made were these kind of exaggerated childlike ones. Impish and childlike. Particularly when he's giving the Queen the 'please' clause. He was all harmless and innocuous looking except for where he isn't harmless or innocuous at all.

Wolves! I don't know, maybe mail order? Although I bet it was Ruby who gave it to her, possibly via mail order, or possibly she got it from the Huntsman, since they seemed close and he seemed a little protective. As, you know, the Huntsman would be if he's her Huntsman too.

It really, really was terrible in the movie. I was afraid they were going to do that almost all through the ending, at least after Neville chopped Nagini's head off. And then they did it and I wanted to slap everyone who thought that was a good idea. It was terrible makeup. Terrible. Horrible.

Uh-huh. Rumple is more openly provocative, Gold is so damned hard to trust with anything precious, let alone one's heart or secrets or emotions. And speaking of, am I the only one who thought he gave Emma a flirty look when he was talking to her in the hospital? And he's all "I like you, Miss Swan," and smiled and suddenly he was incredibly skeezy even if he'd never really been very dirty-old-man-ish before. I don't know. I might actually try to finish the Ruby/Gold I'm working on today and tomorrow, there's some more stuff that I hope I'm getting to where it rings true for him, but if Ruby does, as I think she might, slowly, end up falling for him, she's in for a world of pain. Anyone would be.

[oldandnewfirm]

Ugh, yes. Child faces, child voices. Those always equal Bad Things in shows/movies. And then he follows it up by hauling the Queen up by her throat. Which reminds me, whoever designed that cell should be fired. You could drive a vespa through those bars.

The Huntsman would be a good bet. Emma's pointing a gun in the next episode, so the police station must have a little worst-case scenario arsenal stashed somewhere. I'm curious whether or not the Huntsman will still play a role in Red's tale, since the big bad wolf isn't dead. (assuming that Dr. Whale is him) Maybe he gives her the wolf charm?

No, not at all. Just as he said, she's not afraid of him, and coming from a world where everyone was, that must be an intriguing change for him. Besides, something had to fuel all the Emma/Gold prompts on the kinkmeme! Not that people ever need a valid reason to ship. Oh dear. Run, Ruby. Run very far away! Possibly into the arms of Dr. Whale, if he does turns out to be your Wolf. Given the fake-out we got with Billy in Skin Deep, I'm no longer relying on cast listings for character speculation.

[kittydesade]

Yes. Oh god yes. Unless they belong to children, and even sometimes then. And yeah. Heh, for someone who was lamed as a human, he is awfully spry as a creepy giggling bastard. What with the apparently swinging down from the ceiling the first time we see him and then leaping up onto the bars with both feet and one hand with the Queen. And yes. As stick-thin as he is I'm surprised he didn't just work his way out. Well, no. He probably had his motivations.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. He's supposed to appear in more episodes, in flashbacks, so. Maybe?

Yup. Heh, I think that's why he expected better of her, really. And then in the most recent episode she turns out to be dumber than a box of rocks and he has that whole put-upon sigh expression that amused me so much. She should! Or maybe she can go cry on Archie's shoulder. Or someone. Anyone. But Gold.

[oldandnewfirm]

Every time I see that scene I wonder, what was he doing up there? Was he just like, "Hm, I'm bored. Think I'll go play on the ceiling now!" Maybe he's got an escape tunnel up there. Or a secret stash of whatever he keeps in his flask. And yeah, the fact that he stayed in jail-- hell, the fact that he allowed himself to be caught in the first place-- tells me that he'd always planned to end up a victim of the curse. There's gotta be something in it for him when it's broken.

Fingers crossed. Graham, we hardly knew ye. Like Stealthy.

Just not Granny's shoulder. Granny will either put on her best "I told you so" face and give Ruby a stern lecture, or march over to Gold's shop and tear him a new one. Possibly both.

[kittydesade]

I hadn't thought about it, actually, I just figured he was entertaining himself. Like you said, bored, going to play on the ceiling. But, yeah, when he pulled out that spelled quill and was all "What a lovely quill!" I knew he knew what they intended and he planned how it would go down. I just have no clue what the curse gets him, apart from 28 years as the feared and despised landlord to, well, everyone. Which clearly isn't fulfilling him in any deep or lasting way. It's got to be something else. Argh.

Indeed. Although Graham needed to let go of the idiot ball before I mourn him much longer.

Oh yes. Probably both, first one and then the other. Granny may be wary of him with the rent and all but she definitely wouldn't take any of his crap as far as it lands on her baby girl.

[oldandnewfirm]

My thinking is that he's somehow going to leverage the power that will be generated by the breaking of the curse to free himself from the curse of the Dark One. Or, hm. Since it seems to be important that Emma restore everyone's happy endings (or at least the happy endings of all the important people) before the curse can be broken, maybe he's counting on her to do the same in his case?

Granny vs. Gold would be an impressive match up. Like you said, she's wary of him, but I don't know that she's necessarily afraid of him. Interesting words would exchanged. Which reminds me of another theory that's been floating around, that Belle and Granny are one and the same.

[kittydesade]

... Maybe. I do think he wants a happy ending although I'm not sure he believes he deserves one. I'm pretty damn sure he desperately wants/needs some kind of peace.

That would be a wait no. Unless the Queen's immortal too, or at least very long lived, because she didn't age much between casting the curse and talking to Belle. But damn, that would be an awesome theory. Up to and including the part where she yells at Gold that he better treat Ruby better than he treated her.

[oldandnewfirm]

Some kind of peace that doesn't involve dying, because I don't think he's reached that level of desperation yet. Makes me wonder what the average lifespan of the Dark One is before they get tired of life and find some sucker to take over the job.

Ooh, I forgot about the Queen being there. Well, that does kind of kill that theory, since everything involving her actively being the Evil Queen seems to take place following King Leopold's death. Unless Belle somehow got cursed with old age or something, but that still leaves the issue of her having a twenty-something year old daughter. Curse you logic! But ouch, that'd hurt if Belle came back with that. Especially since that would mean she remembers their lives in Fairy Tale Land, unless she's referring to some curse-memory where she was in a relationship with Gold.

[kittydesade]

No, I don't think so either. But it doesn't seem like it was terribly long in his predecessor's case, or at least, not as long as his. He ... grabbed onto something, it almost seems like, and he's holding on until it comes out as either a decisive victory or a decisive defeat.

Yup. And yes. ... actually that's not a bad idea. Especially if the Stranger/Bae has some kind of magical memory-granting ability, too. And then Belle gets her memories back and remembers what he was like, what he did to her. Eep.

[kittydesade]

And of course somewhere around three in the morning is when I wake up and go oh. Duh. Of course Emma kissing Graham didn't break the spell, if there's anything to do with True Love's kiss it's going to have to be with the originator of the curse, who is... Gold.

Which. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH oh good luck finding his True Love anywhere. Or getting her to kiss him.

And what the hell did "the final battle will begin" mean, anyway? Apart from an excuse for him to giggle like a loon.

[oldandnewfirm]

Flashes of brilliance seem to happen most in the shower or in the middle of the night. Something about the brain getting time to process everything on the back burner, I suspect.

If the curse hinges on finding Gold's True Love, they're going to be spending a looooooooong time in Storybrooke. And if Emmahas to kiss Gold, oh dear. I imagine she'd sooner kiss a cactus than him.

I was wondering that myself. The most obvious answer is the final battle between Snow and the Queen, but I don't think that's what he meant. Some folks have been tossing around the idea that Rumple wants to bring an end to magic, period, and if that's true he could be referring to the final battle between magic and non-magic users. But I'm still not sold on the "he wants to end magic" theory, so I don't know about that one.

[kittydesade]

I suspect so, yeah. Final pieces sliding together.

Uh-huh. Although Kiki suggested that Emma just has to kiss someone in his bloodline because the curse might be tied by blood. Assuming my theory about the stranger being Bae is correct. But yeah, I can't imagine Emma ever kissing Gold. Or relations between the two of them ever coming to resemble anything like love, let alone True Love (tm).

Me either. Either the Snow vs Queen battle or the he wants to end magic theory, although he certainly has reason to be bitter about magic. But he seems less bitter about the existence of magic and more bitter about people who use it as, heh, the magic bullet to end all their problems. Sort of a, dammit, people, do the damn work and stop waving around magic wands, thing. Which is remarkably sensible for someone that psychotic.

[oldandnewfirm]

Oooh, true. Though I wonder why Gold would build that into the curse on the off chance his son decides to show up, but then again, precognition.

Which makes sense. I mean, look at Cinderella-- there's probably something she could have done to escape her situation eventually, but she wanted to escape it now. And go to the ball and marry the prince, no less. Not asking for much there are you, Cindy? Given how badly things went for Rumple when he tried to use magic to solve his problems, I'd be more surprised if he didn't want to face palm every time another sucker wished for wealth, beauty, power, etc.

The Queen's mother has been cast! http://www.spoilertv.com/2012/02/once-upon-time-barbara-hershey-cast-as.html

[kittydesade]

Precognition, maybe just a longing to see his son again. Wishful thinking. Or the bloodline cause was a side effect of something.

Yup. Cinderella, the King could have designated an heir or adopted rather than call on a magic fixer. Etc. Whereas Snow only wanted to save her people and/or find a way to stop the pain of heartbreak, which being a widower he can probably empathize with. If he remembers that at all, by that point, though. And Snow knew there would be a price and accepted it. And he, when he was human, just wanted to save his son and maybe all the children who were dragged off to war. And STILL got in way over his head.

Ohhh dear. Cora, huh? Hmm.

[oldandnewfirm]

Yeah, I'm guessing that whole "Stop the Ogre Wars!" plan didn't pan out once he turned evil. I think that would have involved too many abstract concepts and emotions he's just not capable of (or capable of sustaining for long periods) as the Dark One.

Not whining about the price seems key to getting into Rumple's good graces. Though, from Snow's perspective she didn't give much-- a lock of hair and her baby's name would seem like a small price for peace of mind.

She's supposed to be a good actress. I haven't seen anything she's been in, but I've got high hopes. I still kinda wish they'd gotten Angelica Houston though. She was masterful at being a bitch in Ever After.

[kittydesade]

I'm thinking not. Possibly also because he had no real plan for it other than rarr powerful magic. He didn't know what he was ... heh, that's another thing. He had no idea of the value of the power he was getting. The former Dark One just sort of dangled it in front of his head all "Look! Power. Magic. You could be powerful." and he was all "GIMME GIMME." Admittedly out of desperation, but still. It didn't seem like the kind of power that could move mountains. Or ogre armies.

Even with the whole names have power schtick? Then again, she was pretty desperate, too. And I think on some level she trusts Rumplestiltskin, maybe just on the level where she trusts him to be what he is. Which is still more trust than he ever gets.

That would have been hilarious. Probably too expensive, though. And they must already be running low on budget or something, the CGI in the episode that didn't happen was just terrible.

[oldandnewfirm]

That's another thing. Like a genie, it seems to me that Rumple's a conduit for greater magic that he doesn't have access to outside the bounds of a contract. I mean, we don't know how much power it takes to obliterate a fairy, so he may well be a powerful being in his own right, but nothing he's done so far suggests that. Of course that could just be another instance of him not wanting to throw magic around when there are subtler ways of achieving his aims.

I remember the guard mentioning that to her, but without any magical experience I'm not sure Snow, or anyone who didn't use magic for that matter, would fully appreciate the implications of giving Rumplestiltskin their name. And like you said, Snow appreciates Rumplestiltskin for what he is. As long as you don't try and screw him over (as Charming wanted to do), you'll get what you want.

Yeah, not their best work. In fact the first thing my sister said when the scene cut to Leopold's court was, "Oh, look! A green screen!"

[kittydesade]

A bit, yeah. Probably fairy-obliteration doesn't take as much as entire-land conversion, but that's probably the most powerful thing we've seen him do so far, otherwise it's been conjuring potions and clothes. Then again, as you say, not throwing magic around when nudging and manipulating people works well enough.

Mmm, true. And, heh. Yeah, Charming did completely blatantly lie to his face. Which was a dumb thing to do. Snow seemed genuinely... something. Sad, pitying? It's a little sad how little respect he gets, both along the lines of basic respect and the idea that, woudln't you be respectful of an unrepentant fairy exploder?

Pretty damn much. The whole episode was full of fail on so many levels. All the levels that didn't involve Carlyle or Eion Bailey, really.