i try all the time // red riding hood!

[whale]

For a significant amount of time, Doctor Whale had been trying to perfect his method of raising the dead. Of course, nothing had worked so far. He was already beginning to doubt that he could actually do it when a certain former mayor had found out that he was taking magical hearts from her. Despite trying to help her bring back the dead, Whale soon found himself without a way to get hearts. Of course, he still had some at the hospital, where he was starting to work again. For a while, he'd been something of a recluse. Of course, being a recluse meant that he didn't have a job and therefore had no money. So, he was forced to become the head doctor at the hospital once again. Not that he was exactly the most diligent doctor there. He spent most of his time trying to perfect his method.

After a long day of both hospital work and trying to figure things out, Doctor Whale decided that he needed a drink. Since there was pretty much no other restaurant in Storybrooke, he'd decided to head down to Granny's Diner. It was getting dark as he approached the diner. Whale pulled his long, black coat closer. Storybrooke in Winter was, of course, cold, especially since it had been snowing much more frequently. He suspected it had something to do with that strange boy who had literally flown into town a few months back. Soon, Doctor Whale had reached the entrance to Granny's. He opened the door and walked in, attracting the attention of the few customers who were there. He wasn't seen around town too frequently, since he spent most of his time being a recluse in the hospital.

Doctor Whale walked over to the counter and sat down at one of the stools. Now that he was there, he realized that he was awfully hungry. He hadn't exactly been eating regularly, just... drinking. Come to think of it, he realized that he hadn't even really slept in days. He was getting more obsessed with raising the dead every day. The stress of having his supply of magical hearts cut off didn't exactly help that. Point is, he definitely wasn't living the healthiest life since the curse broke. Doctor Whale pulled of the leather gloves he was wearing and put them into his coat pocket as he waited for someone to take his order.

[lilred]

Well, you sure didn't see this every day - Doctor Whale, putting himself in a situation where he might actually have to socialize. Since the curse had broken and everyone had regained their memories of their former selves, it had become noticeable to everyone that the formerly shamelessly flirtatious doctor had become somewhat more...withdrawn. No one seemed to really know who he'd been, back in their world (if he was even from their world; it seemed the curse had pulled people from a myriad of different places). But whoever he'd been, it was...quite evident that his former life wasn't exactly bursting with happy memories. In fact, he'd seemed a lot happier when he was just...Doctor Whale. And so Red had done a double-take when he'd walked into the diner, just to make sure she hadn't been mistaken - and sure enough, it was him. Just...coming right in and taking a seat at the counter as if he was one of their regular customers. Her initial thought was to question whether or not he was up to something.

Her second was that, wow - he looked kind of...down. Actually, really down, like he hadn't been sleeping for awhile. Like he was brooding over something. Like he...really needed a drink. Had something happened? Although she didn't know him particularly well, Red felt a slight twinge of concern. It...really wasn't any of her business, and she was pretty sure he wouldn't appreciate her prying, but she still couldn't help feeling as if maybe she should do something. She had to go over there and take his order anyway - might as well at least try to cheer him up while she was at it.

Of course, Red's mischievous definition of 'cheering someone up' with her unapologetic sense of humor was not always the most...conventional. Heading over to the jukebox, she slipped a few coins in and selected the song she wanted: What's Up by 4 Non Blondes. She thought it...appropriate, given the situation, and before long the music was echoing through the diner.

Twenty-five years and my life is still...trying to get up that great big hill of hope...for a destination.

With that, Red wasted no time in wandering back behind the counter and approaching Doctor Whale, approaching him with a notepad and pen in hand - but not immediately asking to take his order. She wanted to do a bit of investigating first. "We don't see you around here often," she remarked, flashing him a friendly smile. "What's the occasion?" It was a slow evening, and not too many other customers were present - Red didn't think Granny would object too much to her stopping to chat for a little while.

[whale]

Doctor Whale glanced up as music started to play. He wasn't exactly familiar with the song... and he didn't really want to be. It sounded like the usual weird, inspirational music people listened to when they were feeling down. Even though he definitely was feeling down, the last thing he needed was to be reminded of that. He had gone there so that he could get a drink and avoid his problems, not think more about them. But, he just had to shrug it off. He had already done enough moping, he just wanted to sort of... shut himself off from all that. He wanted to have a good time, like he used to before the whole curse-breaking fiasco happened. Not that it seemed possible, since he had all of his memories back.

Speaking of himself before the curse broke, the waitress he used to constantly hit on started to approach. Apparently, she was actually Little Red Riding Hood... or just Red Riding Hood, since she wasn't exactly little. If this were before he remembered everything, he probably would've grinned at her or winked or... something like that. Now, he just didn't feel like doing anything like that. His mood was slightly picked up when she cheerfully greeted him. It had been a while since he'd really talked to anyone, besides Regina and some of the hospital staff. Even then, that was just business stuff. Nothing that really meant anything. It wasn't like this was some huge milestone or anything, it was just sort of nice to have a conversation. Or, at the very least, the beginning of one.

He suspected that she probably wouldn't keep talking about him if she knew who he was. Everyone nowadays knew the name 'Frankenstein', sure, but it definitely wasn't associated with life, like he wanted it to be. Instead, it was associated with some... green-skinned, bolt-necked monster. Apparently, that was this world's version of Gerhardt. He couldn't even look at this world's... interpretation, for lack of a better word, of Gerhardt without feeling guilty. He did, after all, pretty much make Gerhardt into that monster. "I used to come here a lot more often, didn't I?" Whale replied. "There's no real occasion. I just need to get away from it all, I guess. It's not exactly easy, remembering a whole different life." Especially when your life was turned into a monster movie.

[lilred]

Get away from it all. Red sure could relate to that. Sometimes it felt difficult to get away from anything, being trapped in Storybrooke all the time - and sure, they could leave if they wanted to now that the curse was broken, but Red had responsibilities here. Granny needed her help running the diner and the inn, and Charming and Snow needed her help maintaining order in Storybrooke. So now...wasn't exactly the best time to go running off to see the world, no matter how much she may have wanted to see it. Everyone getting their memories back, on top of everything else, didn't exactly make things easier. In fact, it kind of made her a little homesick. The Enchanted Forest might have been lacking things like electricity, and modern medicine, but the vasts forests, the wide, grassy fields, the open sky...it all kinda made up for it.

From the sound of things, though, Whale didn't look back on the time he spent there quite as fondly. Red tilted her head a little. She wondered what could have happened - what he'd remembered to suddenly make him so bitter and withdrawn. Maybe the whole happy ending thing really was only a dream for most people. She leaned on the counter a bit, watching him carefully. "You're telling me." Despite her fond memories of their old home, there were some things that Red wished she could forget. Back when she hadn't been in control of the wolf. When she'd killed people - like Peter. ...Like her mother. But she shook those thoughts away. That wasn't something she wanted to dwell on, not now - not when things were starting to get better. And if they'd gotten better for her, maybe they could get better for Doctor Whale too. Sometimes, all a person needed was a little help.

"It's not easy, having two conflicting lives in your head, huh? I mean, even for anyone who didn't have it that bad back in the Enchanted Forest." Red turned, surveying their beer selection along the wall. If there was one thing everyone in Storybrooke over the age of twenty-one appreciated, it was the fact that Granny's Diner served alcohol. "And for you, it sounds like things were pretty bad. You wanna talk about it?" Grabbing a glass, she flashed him a sympathetic smile over her shoulder before choosing one of the better beers they had on tap and filling it up. She then turned, and slid the glass over to him. "On the house. You look like you need it."

[whale]

Did he want to talk about it? He wasn't exactly sure of that. He definitely didn't want everyone to know who he was, especially with the terrible reputation he had in this world, but... it would be nice to get some things off of his chest. He didn't exactly know Red well, since the only interactions he'd really had with her was flirting and checking her out. They hadn't talked at all since the curse broke, probably since Whale had distanced himself from everyone and generally shut the world out for a while. In fact, this was actually his first visit to Granny's since the curse broke. Pretty surprising, considering that Granny's used to be his most common hangout. He hadn't really been anywhere since the curse was broken, besides the hospital and Storybrooke's graveyard.

"Thanks." He said quietly before taking the beer and drinking from it. "I guess there's no use not talking about it." He was unsure of how he planned on explaining this. Knowing what people generally thought about the name "Frankenstein", he wasn't sure how she would react to knowing who he really was. He wouldn't be surprised if she were afraid of him or just thought he was crazy, if she knew that he was the doctor instead of the monster. Most people had trouble telling the name of the monster from his name. He had Universal Studios or whoever made that movie to thank for that. "Well, for starters, I wasn't actually from the Enchanted Forest. My world didn't really have a name, like your's."

He was stalling. He didn't want to immediately tell her who he was. He was pretty sure that most people would at least stop talking to him if they figured it out. But, he figured that he wouldn't really be able to talk about anything without telling her who he was first. "You want to know who I was? I was Frankenstein." He paused before adding. "The doctor, not the monster."