beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle studies magic.

It's tricky. Getting into and out of her rose-sphere is routine after a few days, but she still hasn't uncovered an explanation of how channeling works, though she's been informed that there are three options for how to do it (by herself, through a willing helper, or through an unwilling helper). Unlike the fourfold options for reaching the Dreamworld, this does not tell her how to begin fumbling towards a practical understanding, even though she can rule out the last one just on the basis of its description.

Beast can only do so a tiny bit of reading per day, and her pile of books that she can read shrinks much faster than his. She combs the library for multilingual dictionaries, so she can pick her way through the titles of the foreign-language books and at least prioritize them before handing them over.

Finally something in an obscure language that even Beast can barely read - Belle has to look up a lot of words - explains the channeling in a way she can understand.
deslandes: (⑮ fangs ♌)
Author: deslandes
This is how channeling works:

To cast a spell, you need power and a way to form that power into an effect in the world. (Power can be drawn from many things; the text says 'from the Heart, from the Will, from the Sky, from the Earth, according to the needs of the spell and the resources of the Mage', and doesn't elaborate.)

If you work using yourself as a channel, you risk being distracted by the pain of channeling. The book recommends working this way for small spells, where the pain and the consequences of failure will also be small. It is also careful to specify that there are no permanent effects on the caster from working this way.

If you work using a willing channel, you will be free to cast your spell without the distraction of pain, but after a few uses your channel will start to suffer remnants of channel-pain even when you are not casting through them. (The Beast seems to think this is very funny.) These 'Echoes' can last for years, and get stronger the more power someone is made to channel, but after enough time spent resting they will fade away to no ultimate lingering effect.

If you work using an unwilling channel, every use will cause damage to the channel's mind, leading eventually to death. Even one spell, if it is a powerful enough spell, can burn out an unwilling channel to the point where they forget their own name. There is no known way to heal the damage caused by forcing power through an unwilling channel. The book strongly recommends against this method.
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"What's so funny?" Belle wants to know.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs his striped-and-spotted shoulders.

"It doesn't sound like such a terrible fate."
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...Accumulating lingering pain every time someone you're trying to help uses magic doesn't sound terrible? It sounds potentially much worse than being alone in a magic castle, to me."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
He snorts. "One man's pain is another's pleasure. At least that way I'd have a choice."
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"It does sound like it can get very bad indeed, though." This book has a handful of illustrations, including one of a man in rather wretched apparent discomfort with an enchantress standing over him. Belle translates the caption one word at a time: "To make... a fortress... suitable... for... an enchanter," she says as she picks her way across the phrase. "The Toolkit said something about counterspells always taking at least as much channeling as the original. I don't know if this castle is a 'fortress suitable for an enchanter' or not, but it's probably close to the same power requirements. I wonder who she channeled through."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Maybe that was why she screamed so much. It looks like the channel needs to be there when the spell is cast, and there wasn't anyone else around."
beheld_beauty: (la belle)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...This having been a long time ago, are you sure all you did was run into her and laugh?"
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"...She might have met my father," he says.
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle isn't sure what this has to do with anything, so she waits.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
Apparently he thinks that constitutes a complete explanation, but after a few seconds he seems to notice that Belle disagrees.

"My father was a very unpleasant person," he elaborates.
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...So she punished you?"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs.

"I wouldn't be surprised."
beheld_beauty: (dégoût)
Author: beheld_beauty
"My impression of her sanity only drops over time. Did she at least include him? Has he got his own hiding castle somewhere?"
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Oh, he was dead before I ever met her," the Beast says casually.
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
More patient waiting-for-elaboration.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He blinks his large brown eyes at her.
beheld_beauty: (nuit)
Author: beheld_beauty
Okay then.

"So," Belle says, turning to her notes, "my impression is that I'll be able to handle it for small spells - anything in the Hedge-witch book, probably, I can look for my father first once I know how to turn having decided on a channel into being able to channel a spell through same - but I don't think I'd be able to hold together any more significant concentration through the medium-sized magic, let alone the larger things that I might need to do to disenchant the castle."
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"And all these books are very sure that it's bad to lose concentration on a bigger spell, though none of them will tell us how."
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"There are plenty we haven't dug into yet," Belle points out, "but yes, it's something I'd like to avoid finding out the hard way."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs. "So what now, little enchantress?"
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"We keep looking," she sighs, "so we'll at least have the option of disenchantment, maybe, when I've learned enough. The effects of willing channeling through another person aren't permanent, and from what you've told me, failing at breaking this curse is."
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He nods.

"...Thank you," he says.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"You're welcome, but you realize I'm not completely altruistic - the curse might well elect to trap me too. Just because I'm fond of this library doesn't mean I'd like to be stuck here for the rest of my life if I could instead tell Charlie I'm all right and be able to get new books when I'm done with these."

She reaches for a new book.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
The Beast chuckles.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle sorts books she's translated the title for one way or another into piles: probably useless, maybe useless, very advanced (theory and practice piles), need more background to determine (theory and practice), and theoretical and practical piles of most basic. The unsorted pile shrinks.

And finally she finds some usable instructions - in language she can read, even - about how to channel in each of the three ways. "Excellent," she says, setting about turning this book into notes.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Good news?" he inquires.
beheld_beauty: (perspicacité)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Instructions on channeling."

The part on channeling through oneself is first. Belle reads it first.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
To channel through oneself, the enchanter approaches his (many of these books, despite their own illustrations, seem convinced that all magic users are male) Dream-world from the inside. He must make a Dream-gate at the borders of his mind, bring power through himself from whatever source he chooses, and channel it out of the gate and into the spell.
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
Make a Dream-gate. Ooookay. That's helpful. Or, no, there's more detail in there. Now she just has to figure out how to connect to the Sky or the Earth or the Will or the Heart. Perhaps this book has something on that, too?
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
It does!

The Heart refers to emotions, her own or other people's - apparently using either the caster's emotions or the channel's is most efficient, but anyone present or connected to the spell can work. The Will is the caster's intentions, which if properly focused and sufficiently strong can power some small spells all by themselves.
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
How nice! That explains those little abbreviations in the corner of each spell page in the Hedge-witch book; it was suggesting a power source. Many of them were Will-oriented. Belle goes back to look up the finding-a-person spell.

That's Heart-powered.

That's all right. She can summon up strong emotions about her father if she needs them. They haven't been useful before now.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
The other two power sources are also explained, but in less accessible terms. Apparently Earth power comes out of the ground, and can be substituted for Heart and vice versa in a pinch, although the greater the amounts of power involved, the riskier it is to make such substitutions. Sky power comes from the sun, or (rarely) the moon or stars, and is similarly not-quite-interchangeable with Will.

There are further explanations of how to connect to each of these power sources, starting with Will, which is apparently the easiest; the caster need only focus very hard on the desired goal, and the power will become available to send through the Dream-gate. Similarly Heart, using one's own emotions, is just a matter of keeping the emotion and the spell in focus at the same time.

Using someone else's emotions is trickier. Apparently you have to touch their mindscape. There is a separate chapter on how to do that.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I don't need it for the first spell I want to try," Belle says, "but at some point it might be useful for me to learn to connect to your mindscape, if you don't object."

She reads the instructions for the hedge-witch spell, "translating" them into her own words until she's sure she understands them all. She thinks she gets it after the Dream-gate part. She'll have to have another look at her rosevines with that in mind.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs agreeably.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle meditates her way into her sphere of rosevines.

She noticed the flowers, and the prickles, but she hasn't paid a lot of attention to the vines. But they're nearly as interesting as the blossoms, on inspection. There are - sections. While some vines from each section cross into each adjacent section, it turns out that each vine forms a complete circle with itself if she follows it patiently enough, and most of them do this over a small enough area of the sphere to help define regions.

And here is a bit of a gap, neatly crisscrossed vines around it, that would make a decent gate, she supposes, if it would only -

The vines move, when she considers it. The gap widens.

She's not sure how big it's supposed to be, but if she wills the spell to work, maybe something suggestive will happen...

A flower close to the gap bends its stem towards the outside of the sphere.

Belle makes the gap exactly large enough to comfortably admit that rose, and she focuses on her spell, and -
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
Power flows out of her, in three streams that twine and tangle together, bright blue and indigo and turquoise. It slides around the rose and out into the world beyond her mindscape.

Pushing the power out of her mind stings a little, like being slapped very lightly, but all over and not fading with time.

She doesn't have to keep it up for long, though. This spell only needs a brief jolt of power to get it going. And then Belle sees her father.
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
Charlie has apparently made his way home, and he's physically intact, but he looks drawn and worried, maybe sick with grief; he's sitting at the table at home, staring disconsolately at a plate of food.

The spell's not particularly prolonged, but Belle's seen what she needed to see. She opens her eyes. "My father's okay," she said, "or, well, he's alive - but I think he's worried about me," she murmurs. Pause. "And, I did a spell!"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"You did," the Beast agrees. "And you glowed in pretty colours."
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I glowed? That's interesting." She nibbles her lip thoughtfully. "It hurt. Not that bad and not for that long, and I didn't have to concentrate through much of it, but - I'm not really optimistic that I'll be able to do anything big."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs. "You can put the next one through me if you want. See what it's like."
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Okay. Maybe there's a spell somewhere that will let me get - a message to Charlie, or something."

She starts hunting.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
The Beast squirms in his enormous chair, then settles, watching her again.
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Nervous?" Belle asks. "If I find something it'll have to be little for me to be willing to try it this early in my studies, little like what I just did - doesn't hurt too bad, like a light smack."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
He chuckles and shakes his head. "Not nervous, no."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"What, then? If you're having," she gestures, "extraneous emotions it's not impossible they could throw off a spell..."
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
He rumbles thoughtfully for a moment, then says, "Restless."
beheld_beauty: (la belle)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Why's that?" No message-sending spells in this book; she grabs the next likeliest.
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
Snort. "Oh, I'm always restless."
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Mmm." She only needs about a third of her brain to scan indices for message spells. "What bothered you about being alone, anyway?"
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"I hadn't heard a voice not my own in a century and a half when you came," he says. "I haven't touched another person in just as long." With a twist of a smile on his surprisingly expressive face, "Wrestling rosebushes just isn't the same."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle looks up.

She tilts her head.

She reaches out and settles one hand on top of his paw, well away from the claws, and goes back to reading, turning the pages with her other hand.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
His fur is very soft and fluffy.

He slumps in his chair and purrs.
beheld_beauty: (sourire)
Author: beheld_beauty
Ooh, soft. Her thumb makes short absent stroking motions with the grain of the fur.
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
The Beast purrs some more.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
She reads on, one handed.

"Better?" she asks after a few minutes.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Much," he sighs. "Thank you."
beheld_beauty: (dégoût)
Author: beheld_beauty
"It's nothing," she says.

She leaves her hand where it is, until she gives up on finding a message spell and requires both hands to gesture appropriate levels of frustration. "Do enchanters never want to communicate with anyone who isn't in the room with them?" she exclaims.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Maybe not," shrugs the Beast.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Well. At least I know Charlie got out of the woods okay."

She resumes her more general studies.

After a silence, she starts singing to herself softly.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes




"Do you miss him?" he wonders.
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Charlie?" she asks, stopping and looking up. "I - mm, not exactly. I love him and I want him to be happy and he's clearly not and if I were there he would be, so in the sense that I want to go back to him, I do, but if he'd died when I was six along with my mother, or if for some reason he didn't care about me, I'd be all right without him. I wouldn't choose those situations, but I'd get along fine. Having people around has never seemed terribly important to me. I might change my tune if I were alone for a hundred years, but on an ordinary day it's like - having dessert. A perfectly nice thing I'd like to do routinely that I could adjust to think nothing of if it became impossible."
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
He nods thoughtfully.
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I do need things to do to be happy. If I'd been cursed like you my complaint wouldn't be that I was by myself, it'd be that I couldn't read the books."
deslandes: (⑮ fangs ♌)
Author: deslandes
The Beast laughs.

"All this time," he admits, "I've wanted to learn to cook—" He spreads his hands. That is clearly not happening.
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I'd teach you, but," she nods.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"I watch the kitchen sometimes."
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I did that too. Trying to figure out where the produce and meat came from. Never figured it out, they always seem to be there already from someplace I wasn't watching."
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"A few years ago a deer wandered into the garden," he recalls. "I killed it. Venison for dinner. But the rest of the time, it has to get the meat from somewhere else. Maybe the forest feeds it somehow."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"It gave me roast duck once. I haven't seen or heard any wild ducks in the area. Are the fruits and vegetables discernably seasonal? The garden doesn't have a proper vegetable plot - it's got herbs, but not ones that look tended."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
The Beast snorts. "Magic," he concludes.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Magic. She went to an awful lot of discomfort and trouble just to punish you," Belle says, shaking her head.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Yes she did."
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I really hate to be so mistrustful, but I can't make sense of her motives at all and it's bothering me - are you sure that in a hundred years you haven't forgotten some other detail?"
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"I don't know," he says, "but I don't think so. I was running - I ran into an old woman, knocked her down - she looked so angry, lying in the dust - I laughed - she got up and started shouting. I don't remember everything she said. Some of it made me think she knew my father... and of course," he gestures around them, "there's the fact that she knew to take me home."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Home?"
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"This used to be my family's castle." He snorts. "In a sense it still is, at that."
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
"So you're some sort of nobility?" She asks this quite neutrally.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Some sort," he agrees. "My father was the Marquis."
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Of where? Was the castle originally -" She waves vaguely. "Hereabouts?"
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"Of the forest," he says, "and some land around it. I never paid much attention to the size of the family holdings, and I don't remember our name or the name of the march anymore. I think... the castle used to be at the edge of the woods."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I don't remember reading about a local marquis gone missing, but then, maybe you were at the opposite edge of the woods from Les Fourches, or the magic covered for the possibility that someone would go looking for you."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"I wasn't the marquis when she cursed me. Not in any way that mattered. My father died because I killed him," he sighs. "Killed him and set the castle on fire and ran away. Did you read anything about that?"
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...I read about a marquis's castle up by the source of the Sequine River that burned," she recalls. "They didn't think there was a surviving heir, though, if I remember right."
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs. "In a way there wasn't. I hardly think I could claim the title after all this time."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Perhaps not. Especially without a way to prove your identity. What did you use to look like? Do you have a portrait somewhere?"
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"I was..." He frowns. "I don't remember."
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Not at all? Oh dear." She pats his paw again.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
His face relaxes; he purrs.

"Maybe there's a spell," he suggests whimsically.
beheld_beauty: (perspicacité)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Maybe. I need something to practice with, if I can't send Charlie a message." She tries to remember if she's seen anything like that.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
The Hedge-witch had 'To Look Upon the Past', and the Discerning Enchanter had 'To See True Form or Nature'.
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
Hmm. Both promising, but the first looks a little easier.

"You want me to channel this one through you?" Belle confirms, reading through the instructions.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
He nods.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Okay. This might take a while, I have to find your mindscape."

She drops into her meditative state and sets about looking for it.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes




Not surprisingly, it looks a lot like this castle.

But unlike in the real castle, the climbing plants swarm over every inch of stone.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
She has to be able to send the spell through it somehow. She inspects windows.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
Blocked by thorns and ivy, most of them.

But the castle's front door - apparently, in this vision, the garden doesn't count as in his mindscape; the outer wall just plain isn't there - is clear of green things.
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
Poke, poke -
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
It shifts slightly.
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
It doesn't, she thinks, have to be open far, but it does need to be open -

Push -
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
The door swings open, inviting her in.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
She doesn't need to go in. But this is where her spell will go.

She forms the intentions and the will behind Looking Upon The Past, and - sends it, thisaway.
deslandes: (⑤ nothing bad coming ⚦)
Author: deslandes
The power of Will... sparkles. Every shade of grey from black to white, glinting and swirling together in thousands of tiny motes that together make up a fluid similar to the Heart-power she used earlier.

It flows in the door, and away out of sight... and cascades out of a tower window a moment later, spilling around the covering vines.

The spell shows her the Beast as he was, as a human. Tall, handsome, just about her age, with curly brown hair almost the same colour as his mane.

He used to be a very happy person.
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle commits that face, that smile, to memory, and she opens her eyes.

"I wish I could draw," she says.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Was I pretty?" he asks with a snort.
beheld_beauty: (sourire)
Author: beheld_beauty
"You laugh, but you were. And tall, and curly brown hair this long -" she gestures - "and smiling. You looked happy."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"I'm tall now," he observes. This is very true.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Yes, but you were then, too."
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"I wasn't this tall then," he says, but now he is definitely being silly.
beheld_beauty: (perspicacité)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Well, you were only about my age, perhaps some of this is natural growth you had left in you," she suggests. "No, I think you'd be this tall now regardless of your previous height."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"Sometimes my ears touch the frame when I walk through a door," he snorts.
beheld_beauty: (sourire)
Author: beheld_beauty
She giggles.
deslandes: (Default)
Author: deslandes
"At least I'm not - quite - tall enough to hit my head."
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Perhaps it would be more convenient if she'd turned you beastly enough to find walking on all fours more comfortable."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"I can do that just as easily," he shrugs. "But I like standing up."
beheld_beauty: (perspicacité)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Why's that?"
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"I don't know, I just do."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Fair enough. Is it going to be hard, when I've disenchanted the castle, to get used to being - nonbeastly again?"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs expressively. "How would I know? I've never done it before."
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
"You've been human before," she points out. "...I do hope the end result doesn't involve, say, you crumbling to dust on account of being a hundred and seventeen and no longer affected by the curse?"
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"If it did," he says, "I'd still like that better than the other option. But I don't think it will."
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
She pats his paw again.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
He purrs contentedly.
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle goes back to one-handed reading.

"What was channeling the spell like?" she asks after a minute.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Oh - I liked it," he says. "Stung a little, but in a good way."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
She tilts her head curiously. "Like -" She doesn't have a good reference for this. "Scratching an itch?" she suggests, because that can sometimes be a good tradeoff even after further scratching hurts.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"A little."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Huh."

Read read read idle paw-petting read read.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
Purr purr purrrrrr.
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
So passes much of the rest of the day. Belle takes her meals in the library, careful not to spill on the books. She reads by the cooperative lanterns until her eyes are too hard to keep open, and then she bids Beast goodnight and goes to bed.

In the morning, it is so cold she can see her breath, and she has to work very hard to haul herself out from under the covers to race to her closet.

Everything is short-sleeved and none of the skirts go past her knees.

"Warmer," she says, and she shuts the closet and shivers and opens it again.

Nothing better presents itself. "Come on! It's freezing! At least build up the fire! Go on, please, give me that - that green thing I wore three days ago again, I liked that -"

The closet refuses.

Belle wraps herself in her blanket, eats only the warm parts of her breakfast, and tromps down to the library in three of the inadequate dresses layered on top of each other and the blanket on top of that, still shivering.
deslandes: (⑮ fangs ♌)
Author: deslandes
The Beast has also wrapped himself in a blanket, but he's not shivering, just grumpy.

...When he sees her, he scowls.
beheld_beauty: (dégoût)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Why is it so cold?" exclaims Belle, huddling under the blanket and trying to find a way to handle a book that doesn't involve reaching her hand out into the chill. "And it wouldn't even give me a warm dress - it's been so cooperative about clothes until now!"
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"The cold bothers me less," he says. "And my fur is warm. I think the castle has designs on us."
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Oh, lord - I do not appreciate coercion, castle - maybe I can find a warmth spell or something -" She breathes into her hands, darts them out to pull books in, and forms a tent of her blanket to retain warmth while allowing her to read.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes




The Beast drapes himself awkwardly over the back of her chair.

Her blanket-tent becomes significantly warmer.
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
She shivers less. She doesn't say anything. She flips through books with bluing fingers.

She does not find a warmth spell.

Finally she reaches up and takes his nearest paw in both hands and digs her fingers into the fur.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
Despite himself, he purrs.
beheld_beauty: (dégoût)
Author: beheld_beauty
She holds onto his paw till her fingers are reasonably pink-looking again and then she resumes her search.

She has done this four times when she says, "All right - I'm frigid, I'm going to lose toes here - what does it want?"
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"...It wants us to touch," he says reluctantly. "More than we have been."
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...Is that a euphemism?"
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"It had better not be," he snorts.
beheld_beauty: (la belle)
Author: beheld_beauty
"What are you going to do to the castle if it is, scratch up another door? That'll show it," she says with a heavy sigh. She squirms under her blanket. "Assuming it's not a euphemism what will make it stop screwing with the temperature, do you think?"
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Did I not just say?"
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Yes, I mean specifically, I've been holding your hand, will sitting next to each other on the window seat do the trick or are we talking about hugging once or snuggling all afternoon or what? If you know. Perhaps you don't."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"How would I? But snuggling is my guess."
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...You're fairly sure we can manage this without me getting clawed?"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Of course," he says, blinking.
beheld_beauty: (la belle)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I'm not all that much more durable than a book," she points out defensively, and she starts scoping out library furniture.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"I promise not to try to turn your pages," he says, flopping into his usual chair. It is quite large and comfortable, and there is plenty of room for her in his lap.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
She sits sideways across his thighs. When this doesn't instantly warm the air, she sighs and leans on him, head on his shoulder.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
He wraps his arms around her. His arms come with an extra helping of blanket in addition to their natural fluff.

Regardless of what the room is doing, Belle is quite cozy.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
Mmm warmth.

Belle didn't bring a book; she still doesn't want to stick her hands out into the air the way she'd have to in order to hold one. She closes her eyes.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
With her curled up on top of him like this, the vibrations of his purring permeate both of them. It's an oddly soothing effect.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
Warmth and purring and warmth and purring and -

Zzzz.

Belle talks in her sleep. "Fruit. Sky. Winter."
deslandes: (⑮ fangs ♌)
Author: deslandes
...The Beast laughs.
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
That jolts her awake. "What? What happened?"
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"You talk in your sleep," he says affectionately.
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...I do? What did I say?"
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"'Fruit sky winter'," he quotes.
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...That doesn't even make sense," she complains.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"No," he agrees. "It does not."
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Weird," she mutters. And she breathes in air and breathes it out as visible fog. "Well. It's still frigid in here but at least you're warm." She snuggles up comfortably.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
He starts purring again.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"You're liable to send me right back to sleep," she yawns. "You sure purr a lot."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Food tastes better when you're starving," he says.
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...That's a common saying, yes, do you just mean it's been a long time since you got to hug anybody and now it's a big deal?"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He nods his large fluffy head.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Aww." Snuggle.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsnugglesnugglepurr.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
Zzzzzz.

("Mirror. Vulture. Shoes. Ivory.")
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
This time he manages not to laugh.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
She naps for about an hour. During that time, the air starts to warm, and she unconsciously wriggles, trying to divest herself of her blanket.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
...well.

He unwraps his arms from around her. That... should help. Yes.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
That lets her get the blanket off, but then apparently she's too cold; still asleep, she wraps her now-free arms around him and settles in closer.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes




He tucks his arms carefully around her again.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
That stops her from wriggling around.

All the while she's murmuring random words.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
He really isn't listening to the words.

Her voice is nice, though. He likes her voice.
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
Eventually she wakes up. She yawns. "Is it just me or is it warmer in here?" she asks.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"It's not just you," he says.
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Here's hoping that's the only trick up its sleeve." She slides out of his lap. "Maybe it'll give me a longer dress now. And then I can just keep it on until I'm satisfied that's the last time the castle pulls this." She runs up to her room to check.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
There is indeed a selection of warmer dresses available.
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
Excellent. She changes out of her three summery ones and comes back downstairs in a nice burgundy number, ankle- and wrist-length. And she sets about reading. "I'm sorry if any of how I reacted to that was - rude, or callous, or something," she says.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"...What do you mean?"
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I resented having to snuggle you," she points out. "I wasn't being subtle about it. Some people would take that personally, even though it had everything to do with the having to, not particularly the you."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"I resented having to snuggle you too," he says. "Even though I liked it. Actually, especially because I liked it."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...Especially?"
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"There are few things worse than being forced to do something I would have wanted to do anyway," he says, "and one of them is when someone else is being forced to help."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"If I have to be forced to do things I'd just as soon they be things I'm in favor of doing. If someone powerful commanded me to - say - study magic, that's my cue to see if they'll help me accomplish that more efficiently, not resent them for it. But I hear you about the someone-else-being-forced-to-help part."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Mm," he rumbles. "Being forced to do something I don't want to do is another of the worse things."
beheld_beauty: (perspicacité)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Fair enough," she says with a surprised laugh.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
He snorts softly.
beheld_beauty: (sourire)
Author: beheld_beauty
Study study study study. Quiet absent singing.
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes




After a little while, he gets out of his chair and curls up on the floor at her feet.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...Is that comfortable?" she asks, curious.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Yes."
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Huh. Okay."

Study study study study oh there's a furry thing there pet pet oh wait that's not actually just a cat but if she stops now she might have to explain how she forgot that he was a person pet pet.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
Purr!
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
This is one heck of a mane. Inches deep. She can put her hand in halfway up her forearm to scritch his scalp. Might as well, at this point.
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
Ooh, he liiikes that. Purr purr purr.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
She goes right on doing it. She only needs one hand to turn pages.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
And the Beast goes right on purring, curling up closer until his head rests in her lap.
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
She makes no objection.

She reads. She takes notes.

And she gets to a paragraph that makes her idly scritching hand stop where it is.

"...Er," she says. "How bad was that time limit again?"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"...I don't know exactly," he says. "A few years. Probably more. Maybe less."
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"How do you know?" she asks. "...Disenchantments are difficult. And dangerous. More so the more complicated the spell you're countering is. It could take a few years, maybe more, before I can try it on something like your curse and be reasonably sure I'm not going to kill myself trying."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"There's a rose under glass at the top of the tower in this wing," he says. "It loses petals slowly - the floor is covered in them. When the last petal falls..." He shrugs.
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Can I see it?" she asks.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Of course. Now?"
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"No. Lemme look up a spell to see if I can get a more precise time limit. The rose is probably the spell's fondement and I should be able to learn a lot about the whole curse if I look at it the right way."

Flip flip flip.

It takes her about fifteen minutes to find a spell that suits her; she's getting pretty familiar with the magic books she can read. She memorizes it, and copies down the key points into her notebook, which she picks up to bring along. "Okay, now's good."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
The Beast leads her up to the top of the tower, to a small round room whose floor is covered in dried and scattered rose petals. In the very center of the room, a round table seems to have a sprawling rosebush growing straight out of the middle, under an arched glass dome that attaches to the rim of the table by many slender legs.

There is only one flower on the bush still standing tall and hanging onto a full crown of petals. A few of the rest, drooping off in all directions, still claim a petal or two.
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle casts. She works through herself; it's a light sting, and she can tolerate it without losing hold of the spell. And with enchanter's sight on her, she looks at the rosebush that she believes to be the curse fondement.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
Good guess.

The spell is very elegantly designed; the parameters for ending the curse are clear, and the open pathway for completing it is still in good order after all this time. A strong, focused emotional connection of romantic love between the Beast and anyone else will fill up the waiting power well and transform the spell, leaving the Beast in his human form again, the castle back at the edge of the forest, and both castle and forest completely unmagical.

If, on the other hand, he doesn't manage to fulfill the parameters... the pathway will close. The goal of forest and castle will turn from the complicated sorting it currently does, turning away only those people who are probably incompatible, to a simple and easy equal rejection of everyone. If there is anyone else present, it will pick them up and dump them out. The Beast will live forever in his lovely, lonely castle.

And he was wrong about how much time they have left. The ultimate deadline is in a little less than a year and a half.
beheld_beauty: (la belle)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Year and a half," murmurs Belle. "And if it's not broken by then, I'm sent away, and no one ever finds this place again, and you're still immortal."
deslandes: (⑮ fangs ♌)
Author: deslandes


The Beast growls.
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I - I think I'm progressing in the enchanting books at a decent clip," she says, still staring at the rosebush even after her enchanter's sight fades out. "But this is a huge, complicated spell - and disenchanting it will be hard - and it's very specific about the kind of love, too -"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He sits down on the floor amid drifts of dessicated petals and buries his hands despairingly in his mane.
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I'm sorry," she says. "I'm only reading what it says - I can read very quickly - if you help me with the books in the other languages maybe I can do it, a year and a half isn't that short a time -"
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Well, we don't have much choice, do we? Except you could give up and wait it out."
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I'm going to keep working on it," says Belle.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Thank you," he sighs.
beheld_beauty: (dégoût)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Sadistic overreactive psychopathic witch," mutters Belle to herself, turning to return to the library.
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
The Beast snorts agreement and follows.
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I can't even figure out if she wanted you to break the curse or not. Some of the parts seemed helpful - sorting people by their likelihood of being a suitable other party, the long time limit from the beginning of the curse - but - some of the parts do not, like turning you into a - whatever you are. Cat-creature. Putting the entire castle in the middle of the woods so in all these years only one person has passed the minimum threshold of likelihood."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"Maybe she couldn't decide either," he suggests.
beheld_beauty: (la belle)
Author: beheld_beauty
"How come you're that picky, anyway? People get lost in these woods all the time. Even just in my lifetime and just in my village I've seen several girls about my age stumble out of the Witchwood having been lost for more than long enough for the castle to draw them in." She starts sketching a curriculum for herself that bypasses every skill not necessary for learning disenchantment. She does not need to become intimately familiar with all four power sources; she does not need to learn to channel through an unwilling subject (she wouldn't have needed that anyway), she does not have to learn a repertoire of even the most appealing spells for their own sake but only to build her own skills.
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Did any of them seem like the type to fall in love with an enormous lion-man?" he inquires.
beheld_beauty: (perspicacité)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I didn't ask them," says Belle, "but then, if I'd stumbled out of the wood instead of getting stuck here, and someone from Dulac or wherever I wandered to asked me 'are you by chance the type to fall in love with an enormous lion-man', I would have believed myself to be conversing with the village idiot."
deslandes: (⑮ fangs ♌)
Author: deslandes
He laughs.
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle giggles a little ruefully.

...And then she looks up that seeing-things-as-their-true-form spell, the one she originally set aside in favor of seeing-the-past.

Maybe there is a way to just leave it on.
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
As a matter of fact, there... isn't, quite.

But there's a cross-reference to another spell, and that one lets the caster choose a kind of spell-sight to keep ready at all times, to be triggered merely by applying one's Will in the appropriate direction, without the pain or fuss of a full recasting.

It takes significantly more power than any of the cross-referenced vision spells, including 'To See True Form or Nature', and then of course needs the power requirements of the encapsulated spell on top of its own. The complexity of casting is likewise a significant step up.
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle looks at this spell.

And she looks at her disenchantment curriculum.

It will take her a few days to learn the spellsight permanence.

It will take her - longer - to learn the disenchantment. Longer to do it without tearing herself apart even if Beast lets her channel the whole thing through him.

She frowns at her curriculum and starts jotting down optimistic periods of time it might take to learn each substep.

She adds up the column of figures.

It's as optimistic as she can possibly be, in reality she'd probably have to detour to pick up something she forgot to include, and she could still get herself killed.

"We could," she says, "I suppose, always try doing it her way."
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Are you the type to fall in love with an enormous lion-man?"
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I'm the type to spend a week on learning to apply this sort of spell-sight," she says, tapping the book, "if that's the best thing to do. I really don't know about the lion-man part, but I don't think so."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes


"I would not find it very hard to love you," says the Beast.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I have never been in love before. I don't know if it's difficult, but it might easily take less than a year and a half."
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"It's always taken me much less than that."
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Do tell. I need all the information I can get."
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Oh, before - this," he says, "I used to fall in love at a glance or a word. It all seems very far away now. But it felt... beautiful, at the time."
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"If I were the type to do that I suspect I'd know it by now." She turns a page in her notebook and begins laying out all the steps for permanent truesight. "I have already glanced at you and spoken, so perhaps I'm not so easy to love as you suggest. Or you've lost that particular facility."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"Not always the first glance or word," he corrects. "Just the right one."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"What makes it the right one?" (Note, note, note. He did have a very lovely smile, but while that would certainly help, she can't imagine falling quite in love simply by having it turned on her.)
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"It's the right one when I fall in love with it," he says, tautologically.
beheld_beauty: (la belle)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Yes, I mean, did this happen according to any special pattern?"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs helplessly.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"If you don't know, you don't know," she says.

Note note note.

"What's being in love like?"
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"Sad," he says. "But in a good way. And it must be less sad, if the person you love also loves you."
beheld_beauty: (évaluer)
Author: beheld_beauty
"- How could something be sad in a good way?"
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
He struggles to describe it.

"Even if I never see them again - and I mostly didn't - and even if they're all dead now, which they must be, they lived once and I saw them once and loved them once and it was beautiful while it lasted."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
"- hm."

Notes. Notes.

"Of course, if this works, as well as it needs to, you wouldn't never see me again."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"Yes," he says. "If this works, it will mean you love me, and that will be very different."
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"And presumably unambiguously a happy occasion."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs.

"I don't know that until it happens, do I?"
beheld_beauty: (perspicacité)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Surely you can make reasonable guesses?"
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
He just shrugs again.
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
She sighs.

Notes notes notes. "How are your eyes doing?"
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Fine for now. What do you want me to read?"
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
She turns to a page in a book about permanent spells, and hands it over. "If I'm going to do the enchanter's sight thing I need to know more about what I'm walking into."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
He reads.

This section deals with duplication of permanent spells: apparently you're not supposed to do it. Casting a particular spell on a particular object, and then casting the same spell on the same object again - with the same or different parameters, it doesn't seem to matter much - will usually lead to effects you didn't anticipate, and it is always better to either disenchant the subject before the second casting, or find two different spells that you can combine to get the desired result. Even casting two separate permanent spells on a single person or thing can be tricky, but unlike the same spell twice, it isn't a near-guarantee of disaster.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
Bell writes all of this down. "Well," she says, "if the sight spell I have in mind does what I mean for it to do, I'll have plenty of time to learn to safely disenchant myself if I want to switch later. ...If it doesn't... When you said that one book was about fake love potions did you mean the potions don't work, or that they work to generate 'fake love'?"
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"They don't work," he says. "The first part was all about how dangerous real love potions are, and how it's a much better idea to sell fake ones and let people fool themselves."
beheld_beauty: (l'oeil)
Author: beheld_beauty
"...Real love potions exist, though? They might be more or less dangerous than attempting a disenchantment, so it might be a good option to have in reserve if we run out of time."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
He shrugs. "I haven't seen them in any other book; have you?"
beheld_beauty: (à gauche)
Author: beheld_beauty
"No, but we haven't got through all the ones in the other languages yet. Let me know when your eyes are up for more reading," Belle says.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"I could do a little more now."
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
She passes him another book and opens it for him.
deslandes: (Default)
Author: deslandes
He reads.

He turns up nothing about disenchantments, and nothing about love potions.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
She lets him rest, and she works, and dinner comes, and she eats, and she works, and finally she goes to bed.

This pattern goes on for several days, until finally she says, "I think I can do the enchanter's sight now, if I channel through you."
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Then do," he says cheerfully.
beheld_beauty: (les yeux)
Author: beheld_beauty
"It's gonna be worse than the last spell I cast," she warns, but when he doesn't produce a last-minute objection, she relaxes into her mindscape, and composes the now-familiar spell, and sends it through the front door of his castle-mind.
deslandes: (④ is it my body ⚦)
Author: deslandes
The Beast wriggles happily in his chair, and when Belle opens her eyes into the real world again—

He's still there, tall and fluffy and catlike. Nothing about her perception of the real world has changed.

But... behind him, or beside him, somehow existing in exactly the same place while being simultaneously and mutually visible, there is the image of a man with a familiar face, smiling a familiar smile. He is somewhat older than seventeen, but still not yet into his prime, let alone past it. The two images move together, the Beast in physical reality and the man in the reality of true essence.

Neither image is wearing any clothing. And unlike his Beast-form, his man-form needs it.
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle shuts her eyes again. "You should probably start wearing clothes. I didn't think of that."
deslandes: (③ have you got the time ⚦)
Author: deslandes
...He laughs.

"Where am I going to get them?"
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Does the castle not offer you clothes? It might if you ask. It does me."
deslandes: (⑩ witchwood ♁)
Author: deslandes
"Are there clothes that would fit this body?" he says. "And it would be so uncomfortable..."

He observes Belle with her eyes closed.

"I'll go ask," he decides.
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Thanks," Belle says, wrinkling her nose.
deslandes: (⑨ graveyards on your soul ⚦)
Author: deslandes
Off he goes, presumably to find and supplicate a wardrobe.



When he returns, he's wearing clothes.

Well.

One of him is.

And both of him look terribly uncomfortable.
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
She opens one eye, then closes it again. "Never mind," she says. "It doesn't carry over to the human trueshape, it would seem."
deslandes: (⑮ fangs ♌)
Author: deslandes
There is a sound of tearing cloth.

"Never doing that again, then," he says.

And: "...Sorry."
beheld_beauty: (dégoût)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I'm just feeling very silly right now for not having thought of it. Of course there's no particular reason your true shape should include or be affected by clothes."
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Does it make a difference?" he asks. "To... you?"
beheld_beauty: (énervé)
Author: beheld_beauty
"I'm not accustomed to being around naked people."
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"You've been around a naked man for a month now," he points out. "Just a very fluffy one."
beheld_beauty: (froid)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Yes, I know. The fluff makes a difference. Your human form does not have it."
deslandes: (⑬ eye of the ♌)
Author: deslandes
"Sorry," he says again.
beheld_beauty: (inspecter)
Author: beheld_beauty
"It's hardly your fault." She holds a book up so it blinkers her on that side, and resumes reading.
deslandes: (⑫ a killer's hands ♌)
Author: deslandes
"...If you're not going to look at me anyway, are you going to keep the spell?"
beheld_beauty: (calme)
Author: beheld_beauty
"Well, I could look at you if you stood partly behind something," she points out.
deslandes: (⑭ bloodmouth ♌)
Author: deslandes


He drags his chair around to the other side of the table.
beheld_beauty: (Default)
Author: beheld_beauty
Belle opens her eyes again. "There we go," she says.
deslandes: (① bring back the warmth ⚦)
Author: deslandes
He grins.
beheld_beauty: (sourire)
Author: beheld_beauty
"You really do have a nice smile," she says, and she returns to studying.
deslandes: (③ have you got the time ⚦)
Author: deslandes
...Well, now he's grinning even more.
beheld_beauty: (sourire)
Author: beheld_beauty
She permits a few seconds more of distraction from her study, and returns her attention to enchanting.
deslandes: (⑪ earthly pleasures ♌)
Author: deslandes
The Beast settles into his chair and takes a nap.