mes études

[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.

Comments

[deslandes]

He shrugs expressively. "How would I know? I've never done it before."

[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]

"If it did," he says, "I'd still like that better than the other option. But I don't think it will."

[beheld_beauty]

She pats his paw again.

[deslandes]

He purrs contentedly.

[beheld_beauty]

Belle goes back to one-handed reading.

"What was channeling the spell like?" she asks after a minute.

[deslandes]

"Oh - I liked it," he says. "Stung a little, but in a good way."

[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]

"A little."

[beheld_beauty]

"Huh."

Read read read idle paw-petting read read.

[deslandes]

Purr purr purrrrrr.

[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]

The Beast has also wrapped himself in a blanket, but he's not shivering, just grumpy.

...When he sees her, he scowls.

[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]

"The cold bothers me less," he says. "And my fur is warm. I think the castle has designs on us."

[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]

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

Her blanket-tent becomes significantly warmer.

[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]

Despite himself, he purrs.

[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]

"...It wants us to touch," he says reluctantly. "More than we have been."

[beheld_beauty]

"...Is that a euphemism?"

[deslandes]

"It had better not be," he snorts.

[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]

"Did I not just say?"