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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.
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beheld_beauty
beheld_beauty
She goes.
She studies.
She's really not making much progress in her curriculum. If she's going to have any prayer of disenchanting the place before the deadline, she's going to have to narrow her focus. She can't just study disenchantment - she has to be specific, cross from her starting point to her destination on a tightrope instead of insisting on building a whole bridge. She can fix the breadth of her knowledge later. Right now she has something very particular to get at.
She goes to have another look at the curse fondement.
She studies.
She's really not making much progress in her curriculum. If she's going to have any prayer of disenchanting the place before the deadline, she's going to have to narrow her focus. She can't just study disenchantment - she has to be specific, cross from her starting point to her destination on a tightrope instead of insisting on building a whole bridge. She can fix the breadth of her knowledge later. Right now she has something very particular to get at.
She goes to have another look at the curse fondement.
deslandes
There it is, just the same as—
No. Wait.
Apparently the Beast was right about her being easy to love. There's a stream of deep violet power twisting and coiling around the outside of the power well, and its source is somewhere below her.
No. Wait.
Apparently the Beast was right about her being easy to love. There's a stream of deep violet power twisting and coiling around the outside of the power well, and its source is somewhere below her.
beheld_beauty
...Ah-hm.
Well, Belle can talk to him about that later, she doesn't want to have to cast the spell to let her see the details a second time. She takes careful notes, on everything, including the stream of violet. Does it look strong enough to carry his half of the disenchantment? The curse is designed to be broken by love; maybe it would be possible to subvert it with half the recommended dose and some more magical work...
Well, Belle can talk to him about that later, she doesn't want to have to cast the spell to let her see the details a second time. She takes careful notes, on everything, including the stream of violet. Does it look strong enough to carry his half of the disenchantment? The curse is designed to be broken by love; maybe it would be possible to subvert it with half the recommended dose and some more magical work...
deslandes
The dosage isn't the issue; the amount of power generated by how he feels about her would, it seems, be more than enough all by itself. The problem is structure: the spell is set up to accept a very specific thing, and without the two-way connection, there's just no budging it.
There are no books that talk about how to accomplish the kind of delicate surgery that would be needed to change the structure of the curse in the relevant way.
There are no books that talk about how to accomplish the kind of delicate surgery that would be needed to change the structure of the curse in the relevant way.
beheld_beauty
Dangit.
Well. She has many notes about the curse. She shaves off everything she can from the curriculum she's designed - disenchantments relating to anything not powered by Heart, disenchantments that are aimed at short-term curses, disenchantments that simply hasten programmed timed expiration.
She cuts down her estimate by about four weeks. This is not nothing, but it is not enough to be quite comfortable. Study study study. The next time the Beast wanders in she'll ask him when he was planning to tell her.
Well. She has many notes about the curse. She shaves off everything she can from the curriculum she's designed - disenchantments relating to anything not powered by Heart, disenchantments that are aimed at short-term curses, disenchantments that simply hasten programmed timed expiration.
She cuts down her estimate by about four weeks. This is not nothing, but it is not enough to be quite comfortable. Study study study. The next time the Beast wanders in she'll ask him when he was planning to tell her.
deslandes
The Beast wanders in about an hour later, preceded by the lunch tray, and flomps into his chair as the tray sidles up to Belle.
beheld_beauty
"Were you going to tell me at some point that you fell in love with me?" Belle inquires.
deslandes
He blinks.
"Oh," he says, not an admission but a realization. "I fell in love with you."
beheld_beauty
"The curse noticed. It doesn't help, unfortunately, not by itself."
beheld_beauty
"Assuming you're relatively constant about it, anyway. It is necessary for both halves to be at the same time."
beheld_beauty
"Well, I would have a good idea, in my case, but I make a particular study of my own mind, and I still wouldn't be as confident as that. So I want to know why you think so."
deslandes
He laughs.
"I'm sorry, I just can't think of another way to say it. It's not in me to give someone up like that, not for as long as I remember who you are."
"I'm sorry, I just can't think of another way to say it. It's not in me to give someone up like that, not for as long as I remember who you are."
beheld_beauty
"So," she says, "at least not within the time limit, then."
beheld_beauty
"All right." She sighs. "I really don't know how to fall in love with someone. There are not - instructions, anywhere."
beheld_beauty
"You're my friend," she offers after a moment. "You - you've been treated with appalling unfairness, and there's a sort of openness to you that I half-admire, and you have quite a smile. If unbeknownst to me that added up to love on my part I believe the curse would have noticed, though."
beheld_beauty
"Well," Belle says. "When I fully admire something like that, I copy it for myself. I'm disinclined to do that. It wouldn't suit me. But it seems to work for you."