· The Newcomer // Neal and the Doctor
So, it was a curse? He wasn’t all too familiar with the workings of witchcraft and magic, though he had been exposed to it plenty of times to understand that it wasn’t really a good thing. He had plenty of examples as to where magic was used for dark purposes and the word ‘curse’ was the epitome of that. The Time Lord wondered for a mere second if this was really his place, looking briefly about the console room with an inkling of uncertainty as if the silently ask his very much alive box if she was sure this was the correct place.
“Well, yes. You summed it up quite nicely. Though fate is kind of tricky thing to assume you know. That’s not what fate is because one simply doesn’t know it unless you believe it is so. Knowing and believing is entirely different. But what I believe is that if what you say is true, then you might need a bit of assistance in breaking it if everyone in the town is suffering from it already.”
What exactly could he do, though? The Doctor was one to work out things as he went and he did so quite wonderfully. But with Neal being here, a whole town in trouble, it was a situation all too familiar to him. He could do something to at least attempt it. “What exactly are we looking at, though? I didn’t see anything off at first glance, no. In fact everyone seemed rather satisfied to be up and about in Storybrooke,” as Neal had confirmed that’s where he was, “So, what exactly is going on?”
“I—see?”
Actually, he really didn’t. The man might as well be speaking Chinese, for all Neal knew, because he really couldn’t understand a word of what the man was saying. While he did know the meaning of the words he was speaking, they were jumbled together in such a fashion that they made no sense, and Neal had to retrace the man’s steps in order to figure out what exactly he was trying to tell him. Perhaps one of the consequences of being a Time Lord was the habit of talking so fast no human being could possibly understand you at first try.
Upon the mention of the curse being broken, Neal raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck. As far as he knew, the curse only went as far as to take away the memories of the residents of the Enchanted Forest that had been transported to Storybrooke in the wake of the curse. That part of the curse had at least been broken—but there was still the problem of the town border.
“Well uh—d'you believe in fairytales?”
He wasn’t even sure the man had ever heard of fairytales, let alone believed in them. Every child in this Land Without Magic at least knew of them, but there were only a rare few who actually believed them to be true, among which was his son, of course. The rest of them just lost faith over time.
“See, the people of Storybrooke are originally from a place called the Enchanted Forest. When the Queen whipped out her curse, they were transported here with no memory of who they were before Storybrooke was brought into existence. The curse’s been broken, but they still can’t cross the town border without losing all their memories of their lives in the Enchanted Forest.”
