Board Thread:Off-Topic Fun/@comment-6195464-20130207205701/@comment-22525977-20130925035829

Name: Tod/Alexander Vela Origin: Godfather Death

Background: In the FTR, he's from the same kingdom Cora, Regina, and Henry Sr. are from. His father was a poor man with twelve children; Tod was the thirteenth and his father made Death his godfather. Death made him the most successful physician in the land by showing him a magical herb and then helping him cheat: if Death stood at the feet of a sick person, that person would die and Tod would have to say that they were beyond any mortal help; if Death stood at the head, Tod could treat them and that person would live. One day, King Xavier fell ill and Tod was brought in to see if he could be healed. Death stood at the king's feet, meaning he would die; Tod, however, turned the king around so that Death was standing at his head and Tod could cure him. Death was enraged, but agreed to give Tod one more chance. Years later, in another kingdom, Queen Ava falls ill and King Leopold, having heard of Tod's legendary skills, sends for him. He's brought in to examine the queen for the first time and finds Death standing at her feet; he declares there is nothing to be done and Queen Ava dies.*

(The candle which Cora gives to young Snow under the guise of being the Blue Fairy comes from Death; in the original tale, mortal lives are represented by fairytales and the physician pays his life for the life of the princess he saves. The way it goes down here is that Death knows that Ava is sick and it's Cora's doing, so because Tod is involved he appears to Cora and asks to what end is she murdering Queen Ava. Because he's, you know, Death, she tells him the partial truth—that she's testing Snow—and he gives her the candle. A kind of "You're testing your child, I'm testing mine" type of thing.)

King Leopold bears Tod no ill will for the queen's death—no one else could save her, after all—and tries to get him to stay in the kingdom on the grounds that it will benefit Leopold's subjects. Tod declines the offer and returns to his home in Xavier's kingdom. At this point, he offers his services to anyone who can contact him in time, but his primary income comes from the ruling class. Cora is aware of him and of his relationship to Death, though, so when she relocates to Leopold's kingdom to marry Regina off, she blackmails Tod into coming along ("wouldn't everyone like to know that you take orders from Death himself, hm?"). She keeps him well away from Regina—wouldn't want any repeat performances of Daniel, after all—but after Cora is banished through the looking glass, Tod does what little he can to make Regina's life easier. He has no romantic interest in her and they're not exactly friends, but he doesn't know whether Cora shared the details of his godfather's identity and they are from the same country, so he feels some loyalty to her on the basis that they're both immigrants from the same place and she might know his secret.

He doesn't work for Leopold directly, but again serves the lower classes at little to no cost and supports himself on the money the aristocracy pays him. Following King Leopold's death, he remains loyal to Regina and she rewards him for this by leaving him alone as long as he refuses care to Snow and Snow's allies, an agreement which Tod finds acceptable but which alienates him further and further from the vast numbers of Snow's supporters in the general public. He starts considering returning to his home country because of this—he cannot help people who refuse to ask for his help, after all—and Regina, on finding out, puts him under house arrest her palace and turns him into the court physician.

When Snow and Charming depose Regina, they throw Tod in prison on the grounds that he's a Regina-sympathizer and therefore untrustworthy as a physician—he might poison them instead of curing, and his reputation is such that no one would think to doubt his word—and he molders there for a while before Death helps him to escape (he's Death, walls mean nothing to him) and he goes into hiding in the more sparsely populated parts of the forest. This is where he is when the Dark Curse is cast.

Tod gets caught up in the Dark Curse with everyone else and becomes Dr. Alexander Vela, who works at the Storybrooke General Hospital alongside Dr. Whale. He's dating Archie and his cursed memories include remembering that he had an episode of schizophreniform disorder** in medical school, the primary symptom of which was hallucinations of the grim reaper. On the whole, though, since Regina had no reason to wish to destroy his happiness, he's content. Once Emma shows up and time starts moving forward again, Death is able to enter Storybrooke and starts appearing to Alexander again; Alexander (quite understandably) freaks out at this, especially after he starts to get flashbacks to his life in the FTR. Because magic doesn't exist in our world, Alexander can see Death but not hear him or otherwise interact with him like he could in the FTR, which adds to his belief that he's hallucinating again.

After the curse breaks and Gold brings magic to Storybrooke, Alexander regains both his memories of being Tod and the ability to communicate with Death again. Now, though he's happy to be reunited with his godfather, he suffers a crisis of conscience regarding the treatment of his patients; Alexander Vela remembers the Hippocratic Oath and leaving patients to die because Death said so is certainly not the standard of care. However, if he defies his godfather again, he will die. And, on top of that, his loyalties are still with Regina while Archie's lie with the Charming bunch, providing another layer of distress.

 *It is at this point that my version diverges from the original tale—the original Queen Ava is the first king's daughter, and the original physician falls in love with her and saves her life, only for his godfather to fulfill his promise to take the physician's life in exchange for the next person he saves against Death's will.

**That's the symptoms of schizophrenia, but isolated to a period of one to six months.

 Portrayed by: dunno. In my head he looks and sounds like Raúl Esparza.