Hi! For the ask game. For your delightful Shadow Queen fic, Breakfast, how do you think Regina's relationship with Facilier developed over time from the point where your fanfiction diverged from canon to the story itself?

Edit: OH, MY FUCKING GOD! I just noticed this was in the queue. I thought I posted it. So sorry for that! I definitely was not ignoring this ask! I've had it written since August 30th. I don't know what happened.

Hi! Glad you like the fic!

To be fair, I don't really have anything deep about him (obviously) deciding to abandon his quest for power in favor of his relationship with Regina. I was kind of riding on the proof in the show that he would put Regina and her feelings over everything else. His interest in the dagger was completely unmotivated and I think they just had it as a built-in setup for killing him off. I imagine the idea was that he was somehow tempting Regina into her old patterns of wanting everything and reverting to villainy (much the same as Rumple manipulating her for the better part of her life, especially since Facilier was practically Rumple 2.0) except that that went nowhere because he was just So. Good! for her. I'm really not sure what happened in the writers' room but anyway, my idea with the story was just "axe the moment of Facilier's death because it was stupid (and more than questionable) and from there it will all happen naturally since the dagger is also gone once Rumple dies". Those were pretty much the only obstacles between them and with them removed, I really think that the two of them would have been a couple.

I wish I could give a more detailed answer but, truly, Facilier had so little screen time and development that we are completely in the dark on his story or his motives. Instead, I just rolled with him being written as total husband material. You know, I am willing to entertain the idea that there might have been some need to process emotions and heal from Robin's death on Regina's side simply for the realization that the universe sent her Facilier after Daniel's death and then returned him to her after Robin's death. Almost as if they were meant to be together (btw, I have a sort of meta/kinda rewrite about the whole soulmate story with Robin that would bridge canon and this nicely but I'll have to work on it some other time) and help her find herself again when she feels like she's lost in grief.