mon ordinateur

[beheld_beauty]

Belle is with Luc, going over the differences between the four enchanting power sources (a pentagon could give him skill, but would not allow her to evaluate his trustworthiness and responsibility en route, nor would it do him any favors if he wants to teach students of his own one day), when the Janepoint begins to make worrying sounds.

Beast is likely nearer the beeping than Belle is. Mon cœur, do you know what is making that noise? she asks.

Comments

[deslandes]

No, ma belle.

He goes and looks.

It's Jane, he concludes. She is - not here. There is a message.

[beheld_beauty]

Belle sits up abruptly.

"Go on reading," she says to Luc, and she strides through the castle towards the Janepoint to see for herself.

[deslandes]

The Beast points out the message.

[beheld_beauty]

Belle reads.

She squeezes his hand.

"I shouldn't have waited to fetch Renée," she murmurs.

[deslandes]

He hugs her.

"I'm sorry, ma belle."

[beheld_beauty]

Belle holds him. "I have occasionally wondered if Bells are too hasty. It seems this is not the case in all times and places."

[deslandes]

The Beast changes to his beast-shape, so he can hug her more fluffily.

[beheld_beauty]

Fluff.

"Quite apart from that I worry for Jane herself. I had thought that the advantage of the ansible was indelible connection - that this was why it persisted regardless of what worlds each end was in."

[deslandes]

"Maybe... maybe something happened to the ansibles?" he suggests.

[beheld_beauty]

"Jane told me once that even when the physical piece of an ansible is destroyed, her connection is still there, it just can't be used for anything. If the other ends of these ansibles were ruined -" She touches her handflower, and the ansible rack of the Janepoint. "Then I would expect it to last for a moment or two, while Aegis or Sue went and replaced the pieces."

[deslandes]

"Maybe they stopped working."

[beheld_beauty]

"Maybe. I don't know enough about the technology to say."

[deslandes]

"Nor do I," he sighs.

[beheld_beauty]

"At least I never spoke to Charlie about the possibility of bringing Renée back to life, and he will not be disappointed that I can no longer do so."

[deslandes]

The Beast hugs her some more.

[beheld_beauty]

Hugs.

"I suppose there is work aplenty to be done in Rêverie alone," she says. "And however short our time with the others was, we've come away with more tools."

(Neither she nor Beast has ever found a conventional Milliways door. The possibility is not so salient.)

[deslandes]

"And maybe someday they will come back," he says, snuggling her.

[beheld_beauty]

"Yes. But goodness only knows how long that might take."

It takes a long time.

It takes long enough that one idle afternoon, after coming home from enchanting an orphanage that was having trouble making ends meet and will now never lack for the ability to feed resident mouths, Belle asks her husband:

"Do you want to have a baby?"

[deslandes]

"...I don't know," he says. "Do you?"

[beheld_beauty]

"It might be nice. A little boy or girl."

[deslandes]

"Or something," he says agreeably. "Hmm."

[beheld_beauty]

"We have all the time in the world to think about it."

[deslandes]

"We do!"

[beheld_beauty]

Snuggles.

[deslandes]

Snuggly snuggles.

And... he thinks about it.

[beheld_beauty]

Belle watches him think about it.

[deslandes]

He doesn't know what having a child would be like. He doesn't know what their child would be like.

[beheld_beauty]

"It is a pity we do not have Angela and Micaiah's example, I suppose," teases Belle gently. "So that we would have a better idea."

[deslandes]

"Well, we must work with what we have," he shrugs.

[beheld_beauty]

"Yes," Belle agrees.

[deslandes]

So...

Yes.

The only way to find out what their child will be like is to have one. Anything else, and they would only be guessing. If they could go and ask Angela and Micaiah, it might be worth it to wait, but they can't and they don't know if they will ever be able to. So: yes.

[beheld_beauty]

This afternoon, as has been previously mentioned, is idle.

Belle lazily unravels a certain spell and snuggles up to her husband.

[deslandes]

Her husband kisses her.

[beheld_beauty]

That is the correct behavior in this situation. Yes.

[deslandes]

Oh good.

He has some other behaviours to try. Hopefully they will also be correct.

[beheld_beauty]

Belle has every confidence that they will be.

Dominique is produced eventually, and when she is nine, so too is Céleste - they can take their time; no one will think it odd that the resident Mme. L'enchanteresse still looks as young as she does and can go on producing children at will.

Belle goes on expanding her reach, a little at a time. She is not exerting her power in a way that happens to threaten the king; his people are becoming wealthier with her within magical arms' reach to help them, and she is not much for issuing commands when there is solicited help she can give, so for him the results are that he has an enchantress who may opt to do him favors and he can collect greater tax revenues. She spills out of Callia, into Albion and Hespultima and other neighboring nations and farther and farther.

Luc masters enchanting, and solicits a hexagon with which to grant himself steadiness through discomfort and the ability to - not enjoy, as he seems to find this idea unsettling, but to calmly endure - large enchantments funneled through his own mindscape. He gets it. He sets up in an enchanter's castle of his own in Kemet and does some of the same work that Belle does for nearby persons.

[pythbox]

Dominique is very talkative and outspoken, and when her little sister is born, she takes it upon herself to teach Céleste how to talk. She does this mostly by chattering endlessly at her, sometimes by reading to her like their parents did for her when she was very small.

[beheld_beauty]

Céleste follows Dominique around like she has somehow managed to become Dominique's tail, and listens raptly to everything, and learns to talk, and whenever she learns of the existence of a new language she runs right to Maman and asks for it and gets it.

[pythbox]

Dominique frequently announces that Céleste is her favourite little sister.

[beheld_beauty]

Dominique is Céleste's favorite big sister!

[pythbox]

That works out very well for both of them, then, doesn't it?

[beheld_beauty]

It does!

Céleste likes asking Maman for things. When she gets a little older she is a little more creative. She reads a story with griffins in it and she wants one. Maman dithers over magicking her a live pet, but eventually comes up with a design that will happily run wild if Céleste should ever tire of it. (Céleste of course insists that she will not tire of it.) Céleste names the griffin - which is just about her size, and will not get any larger - "Rainier" and teaches him to fetch and do flying tricks and heel behind her when she goes places.

[pythbox]

Dominique thinks Rainier is adorable, but does not want one of her very own.

[campanas]

Time goes on. Céleste sits at the Janepoint sometimes, talking to it with Rainier's head in her lap, like the lost Jane person who once lived there can hear her.

And one day, when she is seven (and Dominique sixteen) -

it can.