mon ami

[beheld_beauty]

Not much happens at the castle. It's the two of them and the magic. She studies. He wanders around. He's not very careful about standing behind things - he does when he remembers and there is something nearby, but it's plain that nothing about being visible in the less-than-fluffy nude bothers Beast except on her behalf.

Finally she excises an hour of study time to spend on being able to look at him without intervening furniture or flinching. She finds it's possible to do this in her mindscape, without having to use a notebook. She can zoom in deep into a rose petal, find a level of detail beyond which there are no patterns, and write, directly there. This isn't an ideal memory aid - if she looks later the words aren't exactly the same - but it's much faster for sheer processing, and the chosen modifications morph into the structure of the rose without special effort as soon as she's sure she wants them.

She behaves with more equanimity about his nudity after that. "You can stop trying to remember to hide behind things," she tells him.

Comments

[deslandes]

Purr purr.

He's already on the floor; he flops onto his back at her feet, still purring.

[beheld_beauty]

"I am slowly becoming used to the fact that I see both forms but I only get fur if I actually put a hand out."

[deslandes]

The Beast laughs and purrs at the same time, an interesting if inelegant combination.

[beheld_beauty]

"What do you want to do when we break the curse? One way or the other?"

[deslandes]

"I... have no idea," he admits.

[beheld_beauty]

"None at all? You haven't been dreaming of it all these years - 'if the curse ever gets broken I'm going to go and...?'"

[deslandes]

The Beast shakes his head.

"I mostly haven't had much hope it would be broken at all."

[beheld_beauty]

"Because no one ever came until me?"

[deslandes]

He nods.

[beheld_beauty]

"I would probably have thought about it anyway. Just in case. To have something to do, if nothing else."

[deslandes]

"I would never want to spend my days dreaming about a freedom I don't think I'll ever have."

[beheld_beauty]

"I've been here for weeks now, though."

[deslandes]

He shrugs, curling up more comfortably at her feet. "I guess I'm not entirely ready to believe in you yet."

[beheld_beauty]

"I'm strictly nonfictional," she assures him. Pet pet.

[deslandes]

"I believe you're there," he says, purring demonstratively. "That much is inarguable. But that you might free me... harder to let myself believe."

[beheld_beauty]

"I have no reason not to disenchant you if I can. The other avenue is trickier. Not impossible, as far as I know."

[deslandes]

"So it is not certain you can do either one in time," he says, "and I would rather not become comfortable with hope until I know."

[beheld_beauty]

"...Even if the curse becomes permanent, that just means there are ongoing effects that aren't directly disenchantable. Maybe I should keep some of the magic books and the dictionaries for the foreign languages under a shelter of some kind, out in the forest, so I can take them with me and keep studying if we hit the time limit and it sends me away, and then maybe I could do something. I'm not at all optimistic - but it might be that if I learned enough, I could - I don't know. The thing that seems most likely that I could one day be able to do in spite of all the supposed obstacles is kill you. I don't even know if I could do that. I don't know if you'd want me to."

[deslandes]

"...I'd want you to," he says softly.

[beheld_beauty]

"If the time limit comes due," Belle says, "and we're still stuck here then, I'll leave with all the books I can carry and drag, and I will work on it, and I'll try to anti-curse you where I couldn't un-curse you, and if that doesn't work I'll see if I can get you out of here - the other way. But let's hope it doesn't come to that."

[deslandes]

"We can hope," he agrees.

[beheld_beauty]

"Sadistic nut of a witch," mutters Belle, "who would take all this power to change the world and do nothing productive, not even pointless harmless whimsy, but - disproportionate absurd cruelty, out of all scale - when did that start to seem to her like a worthwhile use of pain and power -"

[deslandes]

"Don't ask me," snorts the Beast.

[beheld_beauty]

"I have no one else to ask," Belle points out.

[deslandes]

"Then you will never know the answer."