Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-31564770-20170515163509/@comment-32017528-20170516161808

Hmm...okay...let me take a whack at this. The following is not what we'll see, just what brought us to Seattle.

Sean's Season Seven Setup:

The characters we know and love were living curse-free in Storybrooke for another 10 years, and many of them were finally realizing they were just plain bored there. Granny died after she choked on her own lasagna, and Geppetto/Marco passed away a year later when a sign he had just hung came collapsing down hard on his head. "It will never fall," he had just exclaimed. Henry and Violet got married, and their daughter Lucy is just about to enter the first grade at the end of the summer. There's a big family barbecue, and Snow and Charming tell everyone they have an announcement.

"As many of you know," Snow says, "David and I have been very sad lately. Not with each other, of course. We're still very much in love," she quickly adds, and the two take each other's hand. "But after much soul searching, we've decided Storybrooke is a place we're ready to say goodbye to now. We've been here for almost 50 years, and though more than half of those were cursed, it's still been an awful long time. So we've decided," she says, pausing to take a deep breath, "to move on. We want to see the rest of this world."

Though the Charmings expected some major arguments over this, everyone else there surprises them by almost immediately agreeing, saying they too want to get out and see more of the world finally. Very quickly, they are all moving out of town, though many stay in the northeast in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Henry and Violet announce they will be moving to Seattle, but promise to visit twice a year and Skype often.

"Ha," Killian says after Emma explains what Skype is, "I once had a guy on my ship named Skype."

But here's where the problems begin...

For some reason, this mass migration of characters causes some sort of huge shift in the dispersal of magic around the world. While before some characters had ventured out from Storybrooke, this is the first time they're all leaving, and it awakens a kind of creature that's been asleep for millions of years.

Rumple, Regina, and Emma are the first to notice it due to a strange change in their powers, and a series of unexplained phenomena happening around the planet. They Skype together about it, and as they do, each of them shares their ideas. Rumple says he'll look through things from his old shop, now stored in his basement in Philadelphia, Regina says she'll do the same with her vault items, now stored in her own basement in Queens, and Emma, living in Boston, says she'll take a drive up to Storybrooke that weekend by herself (because Killian is participating in a Yacht Racing Tournament).

Emma goes missing, and Regina, Hook, and Killian surprise Henry and Violet in Seattle to break the news to him in person. They are shocked to learn, however, that Henry, Violet, and Lucy no longer remember any of them. Something about the strange things that have been happening has affected him. He laughs it off, at first, but soon tells them to leave. Violet clutches their little girl Lucy in the background as Henry points them to the door. Regina and Killian start to protest, but Rumple surprises them all by pulling a magic bean from his pocket, and throwing it down on Henry's living room carpet. Everyone gasps, especially Henry, Violet, and Lucy, who nearly scream from fright.

"Bloody hell!" Killian yells.

"Rumple, what are you doing?" Regina asks. "Where did you even get that?"

"There's no time for explanations," Rumple yells. "Henry, get in there!" He pushes Henry in quickly, and Regina steps forward to follow after him, but Rumple holds her back with magic. Unfortunately, little Lucy breaks free from Violet and leaps in just as the portal closes.

The mystical millions-of-years-old creature is apparently there, too. It's not contained to any realm, Henry soon learns, but as he's the only one who knows this, he also has to find a way to defeat it and get back to Earth.

In The Enchanted Forest, Henry remembers who he is again, but Lucy feels lost. She hadn't seen much magic before they moved from Storybrooke, and like Henry and Violet, she had forgotten it all in Seattle. Henry trains her and teaches her over the course of several months, and at the end of her teaching, when she finally believes, the book appears on her bedside table while she's sleeping.

Henry and the mystical beast finally battle (as we see in the Season 6 Finale), and as they do, the creature takes him to Earth, where Henry once again forgets everything. He only remembers his life back home in Seattle, where Violet is now gone. Lucy is now the only one left who knows the secret, and for some reason, the creature cannot hurt her. It senses something in her that is untouchable. Lucy meets up with Tiger Lily, who shows her how to get back to Earth.

"Your father won't remember you, or any of this," she cautions, and by now, no one there will remember either. "You need to remind them that magic is real, and this other world exists, or we will all perish."

Two more years have passed on Earth, and on Henry's 28th birthday, there's a knock at his door.