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]

While she looks it up, the Beast curls up on the floor and snuggles against her legs.

[beheld_beauty]

Her notes are inconclusive on the question she's curious about. Drat. It does have to be romantic; it doesn't have an exhaustive description embedded in the spell of what that is.

[deslandes]

The Beast puts his head in her lap.

[beheld_beauty]

Scritch scritch. "Well, that's a dead end," she says.

[deslandes]

"What is?"

[beheld_beauty]

"Working from the spell's definition of love. It's not embedded in the spell itself enough for it to look at. Apparently on some level I'm in love when I decide I'm in love. But there will be no use attempting to fool myself, or the curse."

[deslandes]

"Tricky," he murmurs.

[beheld_beauty]

"Very," she sighs. Pet pet.

[deslandes]

Purr purr snuggle purr.