Background for the Of Broken Families and Shattered Souls universe:

The Curse: Yes, if you've read Chapter One, then you know that when Baelfire left Neverland he went to the Enchanted Forest and was taken up by the curse. For the purposes of this fic, I put his escape at a few months before the curse was enacted, for reasons that will be explained much later down the line. Now, my story starts at the beginning of Season 2, with pretty much everything before that being canon. Obviously, this will change since I've altered a major aspect of the show. Baelfire's Curse was to be a patient in the mental asylum, for reasons that will be explained in future chapters (yes, you do actually have to read the story to find out.)

Neverland: Personally, I feel that a lot about life on Neverland is open to interpretation. My interpretation will be very dark, because, frankly, that was what the events in the show pointed at from my perspective. Here is some of the things we know about Neverland: Peter Pan has absolutely no qualms about kidnapping an eleven year old boy (that just so happens to be his great grandson) from his family using a third party, brutally killing said third party if front of the boy, sending his murderous syncopaths after the boy after he witnessed such an event, pretending to help him escape only to trap him, and holding him hostage for several weeks while he slowly conditions the adolescent into thinking that he can save an entire realm and everyone on it by giving up his heart, an action that will ultimately kill him. Furthermore, he basically brainwashes the Lost Boys by taking the lonely, unloved children, giving them a sick illusion of family, and getting them to do his every bidding by appearing as the omnipotent leader through indoctrinating beliefs such as "Pan is the only family we need," and "Peter Pan never fails." Heck, those stupid pan pipes might as well be considered a drug for the euphoric sensation they create. Furthermore, he likes to shove people into tiny wicker cages no bigger than dog kennels, and then proceeds to hang them from trees for extended periods of time. I doubt he would take Baelfire's dissent and escape attempts very kindly, and my story is going to reflect this.

Baelfire’s Personality: Okay, this one is a lot harder. Really, most of him in the show is as Neal, and in my story, Neal never existed. Now, he's not going to be exactly like the few clips shown of young Baelfire, which is good, because I'm not trying to make him that way. My version of Baelfire had just escaped Neverland when he was swept up by the curse, and as consequence was never fully able to deal with the trauma that he went through there. He’s not going to be 100% okay mentally, and a big part of this story is him trying to recover. I'm aiming for him to be an intense, determined, scarred boy who has a good heart and a strong moral compass. However, he's not going to be stuck in that “Hero’s Only” club that I feel characters like the Blue Fairy have kind of rooted themselves in. He’s going to make mistakes, but that's only human. He’ll be kinda pessimistic and have some pretty major trust issues as a result of his life experiences, and an aspect of this story will be him working past that.

Magic: I know that I already kind of explained this in my Author’s Note, but I feel I should still probably say a few words about it. Since Baelfire himself is a magic user, he doesn't have that die-hard hate of it he displays in some of the show’s flashbacks. However, he is still wary of it. He's seen and dealt with the backlash of the price of magic, and because of that he will be more cautious about magic than how some sorcerers like Rumplestiltskin and Regina act. Like some of the magic users in the show, Baelfire was born with it, and he still slightly resents that fact. In the flashbacks of the story I'm going to have him discovering his magic and coming to terms with that part of him. I also thought it would be interesting for people like Hook and Rumplestiltskin to discover his magic, since they knew him from his Pre Magic stage

Henry: Yes, he still exists in my story. No, Baelfire is not the father. That's not even possible with this timeline. When I started the idea for this fiction, I never really expected how big of a part he would come to play. When I was looking at both of their pasts, I realized a lot of it paralleled one another, and because of this Bae will see a lot of himself in Henry. However, that's not to say they are not two separate people. They have major differences, and they realize this. I see them having a serious sibling-esque bond in this story, with Baelfire helping Henry through the trials to come and Henry helping Bae deal with his past.

Rumplestiltskin: As a major part of Baelfire's past, Rumple’s going to be a major part of his present life too. No, Baelfire is not going to forgive him right away, like August/Pinocchio did when he was being faux-Baelfire. There's way too much bad blood for that, and August only “forgave” him in an attempt to get his hands on the dagger. Rumplestiltskin is going to have to work hard for forgiveness, and he's going to have to truly realize all the pain he caused for that to happen. On the flip side, Baelfire's going to have to learn how to forgive him after so many years.

Hook: For all you Captain Swan shippers, I'll let you know now that that will happen in this story. For all of you Swanfire shippers, Emma’s like, thirty while Baelfire, despite being over a hundred years old, is still stuck in a teenager’s body. That's not even legal. So sorry, but that's not going to happen in this story. If I ever write a story with them as the same age, I'll make sure it's Swanfire. Okay, moving on. In this story, Hook will have a pretty major role. In the show, I was disappointed at how they developed a rivalry over Emma when there had been a period of time in the past when they had basically been family. Also, from some of the parts of Season 2 you could tell that Hook still cared about Bae, and that's going to play a bigger role since Baelfire still looks like the boy Hook knew, instead of some strange man that Hook hadn't seen for years. This way, Baelfire acts as another reason to for Hook to redeem himself, and Baelfire can learn how to better deal with his trust and abandonment issues by interacting with Hook. (Yes, Baelfire had pushed Hook away when he found out about his mother, but he was a hurt, abandoned teenager that felt betrayed, and lashed out because of that. The fact that a 14 year old boy hurt your feelings is not a valid reason for a grown man to sell someone out to the devil incarnate.)

Belle: It's a surprise! I'll explain my reasoning in the Author’s Notes once I get to this chapter if you're interested. She's going to be a part of Bae’s life outside of his father’s girlfriend, I'm just not about to tell you what that part is.

Okay so this is entirely too long already, so I'm just going to end it here. Thanks for reading (if any of you have actually bothered to), and for your support!