Summary: So much of Dr. Baron Facilier's life has been defined by one meager dish. Through good times and bad, soup has been along to take the journey with him through life, love, revenge, and ultimately, darkness.
A/N: I got this prompt from a lovely anon to help celebrate my 200 followers! I love this prompt so much and I can't thank the anon who sent this enough for being so patient with me as I wrote this! I hope what I wrote is satisfying. Dr. Facilier was one of my favorite new characters of Season 7 and I only wish we could've gotten more of him, especially in regards to his relationship with Regina. But I decided to make this more than just about Shadow Queen (Though I'm still planning on writing their origin story some time, probably in November) because there's a lot to Facilier.
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A simple bowl of soup.
It's all Baron got most nights.
Ever since his mother's sickness got worse, he needed to support them.
So all day long, he'd show off slight-of-hand tricks in the center of town just to be able to buy that simple bowl of soup for himself and his mother.
But that part of the evening had been worth it, for his mother told him stories - so many beautiful stories - about his father.
He was a powerful and beloved sorcerer who performed feats of wonder for theirs and neighboring towns. With his magic, crops came back to life and the sick became healthy.
Baron never got to meet his father. The same benevolence that earned him such love and renown proved to be his downfall when a nasty fire broke out. It was too far spread for him to end it all at once, and while taking on the damage piece-by-piece, a building collapsed with him under it.
Unfortunately, as soon as Baron's father left this world, so did the town's concern for his family.
But ultimately, it didn't matter as much to Baron, for both magic and love would surround himself and his mother every night over love and a simple bowl of soup.
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A simple bowl of soup is flung through the air.
Baron's sick of it. He's sick of being alone. He's sick of starving on the streets. He's sick of these meager card tricks that don't get him nearly enough to live off of. And no one will hire him for anything more.
He's thirteen years old for God's sake! He's too young to be living like this and he knows it!
So for one instant, he lets his aggravation out and his bowl of soup is his chosen target.
It leaps as it makes its journey and hits the nearest wall with a satisfying clack.
But once the moment of satisfaction is gone, his stomach decides to growl.
Oh yeah, he's sick of the mocking, too - the mocking his stomach gives him that he's become so accustomed to.
Just then, as he looks back at the small table he's sitting at, the simple bowl of soup appears again.
However, it's no longer so simple.
It glows with an ethereal green halo around it.
And that's how Baron discovers that he has magic.
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Baron's first meal after being freed from his friends on the other side is a simple bowl of soup.
Now that was a crazy ride.
His friends had been there for him - his sole magic teachers when all others well-versed in the craft turned him away.
Who cares if his magic was green? It worked, and that's what mattered.
But those in his world didn't agree. "Go back to the parlor tricks, boy. You know not the devils that lurk behind that magic."
They were empty platitudes compared to the feeling of a full stomach.
And where Baron's world failed him, the other world was happy to pick up the slack.
Baron's training lasted years - years where he seldom saw a person, and the ones that he did rarely left the same way they came in, if at all.
It didn't make for much of a social life, but it did make for one hell of a powerful student.
And of course, being the good friends that they were, they demanded payment.
Should've known - "All magic comes with a price" was lesson one for a reason.
So Baron put his skills to good work. He made enough to feed himself, but hardly enough to make a real dent in a debt that gradually made him feel like he was drowning.
Baron started to wonder if this is to be the rest of his life.
What a miserable existence that would be.
But then he saw Princess Tiana walking around his town. She was alone and her face screamed of fear and desperation.
Baron could immediately tell that she was on her way to see the only person in that town worth a damn: him.
Suddenly, everything he'd done from the magic he'd mastered to the reputation he'd garnered to the goons he enlisted among all walks of life came together.
Within a few minutes, he had a plan ready, and within a day, it was completed.
Well, apart from a tiny little mucus-covered snag.
But he got what he wanted and that's what mattered.
And now with the power of a God and the taste of the finest broth money can buy on his lips, he's free.
Never has a simple bowl of soup tasted so satisfying.
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It's over a simple bowl of soup that Baron first hears about the Dark One's and his magical dagger.
An old man came to him, interrupting his lunch and asking for what he knew about time travel.
When Baron revealed that it was impossible, the man asked for death.
Now that was perplexing.
He asked the man why and he got quite the story in return.
The man had always been lazy, but once, he had miscalculated the time he had left to pay a loan.
And so he made a deal with the Dark One for money, only to repeat the mistake. The Dark One punished him with a hundred year sleep.
When he woke up, everyone he knew was long dead. What else was there to live for without that?
Baron had his own answer to that question, and to his own credit, he's able to persuade the man out of this path. He may have taken a darker path, but he refuses to believe he's a complete monster.
Besides, this man could be useful one day.
The man asks Baron if he aims to kill the Dark One and when Baron discloses that he does, the man tells him all he knows.
"Make him suffer for me."
Baron smiles and nods, offering the man - Rip, as he introduces himself now - a bowl of soup as the dawning of their new stories begin.
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A simple bowl of soup is what Baron recommends for his and Regina's date.
Chowder hardly fits anyone's idea of romance, but Baron and - more importantly to Baron - Regina aren't most people.
And Seattle is cold this time of year.
Regina certainly takes to the idea.
So they walk and talk around a nearby park.
There's a moment where the wind is especially hard and she gravitates towards his side, and it's heaven for Baron.
They talk. It's clear that Regina's being reserved, but that's no surprise. Ever since their first encounter, she's always held something back.
But he hopes that that can change. They have time to explore in this land.
He tells her how he was always awake - how he had planned on taking out Gothel while she was still in captivity, but had his chances destroyed before his plans could go into fruition. Regina fills in the gaps that he couldn't.
Who'd have thought that Captain Hook would be a good cop? Or that she'd make one hell of a Manhattan?
But that shouldn't surprise him too much - she's rather refined.
Now if only her sister had the capacity to be so cordial.
Zelena interrupts their date and figures out the truth - looks like the brains run in the family. She makes it clear that he's not welcome and with a promise of a next meeting, he does.
The disposable bowl of soup goes into the garbage, but Baron can tell that the same cannot be said for his and Regina's possible future together.
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A simple bowl of soup turns out to be his last meal.
Seafood Bisque has a way of lingering on the tongue, both as one is savoring the sensation of capturing his enemies - one far-too clever queen especially - and as one takes their last gasp of air as their life is ending.
Baron's life begins to flash before his eyes. He decides to focus on that rather than the feeling of what he's sure are his "friends" stealing his soul's autonomy forevermore. He knows not what will be his reality from this moment forward, but he holds onto his memories for as long as he can.
Just before Baron's spirit goes into the unknown void of oblivion, he sees a young boy and his mother.
And they're bonding over a simple bowl of soup.