abraxaslogs | 1- pre-event open log

Who: Belle and YOU.
What: Exploring the castle
When: Before the festival
Where: Just about anywhere

ROOM 1. (open roommates and visitors)

[it's easy enough to settle in when you don't have anything of your own with you. Belle has a bed, a surprisingly nice room given the circumstances, and three roommates to share it with. honestly, it's a welcome change of pace. she's used to being thrown into these situations on her own. if they all have to be trapped in Thorne, at least they're together.

there's still plenty of work to be done here, information she thinks she could piece together if she could just find the right texts. it means she'll have to go back to the library sooner rather than later, but at the moment, she has one last book to finish. she picks it up to bring back to bed with her, looking up when she hears someone on their way into the room.

she smiles in greeting, warm and friendly.]

Don't mind me. I've spent so much time in the library, I thought I'd read in here for a change.

LIBRARY.

[eventually, going back to the library just happens to be the most practical option. it may offer the entire history of Thorne, but she isn't the only one in search of answers. they're all looking, each with their own thoughts about what needs to happen next and how to get home. and Belle, personally, isn't expecting that particular answer to come from a book.

she just happens to believe that understanding this world is going to help them learn to exist in it. they might be planning on a short stay, but the kingdom of Thorne has other ideas. so she brings all the books she can carry with her to the nearest table and sets them down with a loud, entirely accidental thud.]

I'm sorry.

[ she offers her apology in a quiet voice, looking the tiniest bit guilty at the person who's claimed a seat at the table nearest to hers.]

I was the librarian back in Storybrooke. Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop.

[ research is something she can do to feel useful here, she figured this was a good way to spend the day.]

DUNGEON.

[Belle remembers being advised not to spend too much time in the dungeon. something about how there's nothing for her down there, she's an honored guest, etc. but she also made promises to some people, agreeing to find specific items for them and bring them down. it's something Belle hasn't forgotten about, so she comes down to make good on a few promises, and to check in with those who she's spoken to before.

and if anyone else happens to catch her attention, she won't hesitate to do what she can for them. she hates feeling helpless, and nothing makes her feel as useless as the injustice of being one of the privileged guests while the other half of them suffer down here.]

BEING NOSY.

[obligatory Belle is snooping around the castle and wandering into rooms she shouldn't be option, though she'll steer clear of any rooms she knows have guests staying in them.]

WILDCARD.

[ For TDM carry-overs, study hall, wandering the hallways, and general meet-ups.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Where did you learn to love books this much?

[It's a passion that he can't say he's experienced very often. Aside from Sam, most others viewed books as something that were necessary during lessons, but never beyond that. Maesters were readers, lords and ladies were more active in other ways.

Even Sansa, who had loved songs and stories never read herself, these things were told or sung to her.

He frowned, obvious distaste on his face.]

You mean to be a magic user?

From my mother. She loved to read.

[ it's a happy memory, hearing stories when she was too young to read herself. she'd been so eager to learn, and her mother was so proud to teach her. then they'd shared that love of books with each other, even if no one else seemed to understand it.

she almost says as much, but Jon's clearly thinking of something else.]

I think we may have to be. I'm willing to learn.

[she does have a long, complicated understanding to base her knowledge on.]

You seem to have some concerns.

Edited 2021-06-23 01:41 (UTC)

You took after her.

[He wished that he could remember anything about his mother, to even know if he favored her in anything. He hadn't thought too deeply about her since coming back from the dead, but sometimes during the night, the image he conjured of her would appear. Beautiful, smiling and kind.

The sort of woman he imagined Belle's mother to be as well.]

I- [He broke off at that, firmly shutting any idea of wielding magic out of his mind.

Need or not, he won't do it.

His face was stony as he considered how to respond to her words.]

Magic has a great price in my world. More often it requires sacrifice, blood or life.

I like to think so.

[ she hopes so. ever since her mother sacrificed her life for her, Belle's tried to keep her close to her heart. what she liked, what mattered to her; she'd like to keep her memory alive. Belle isn't sure she can live up to the heroism her mother showed, but she's determined to keep trying.]

Magic has a great price in many worlds.

[depending - she thinks - on what it's being used for. the most painful magic can come with a sacrifice, but what about light magic? what about simple things that might help them here? Belle is quiet at first, considering what he's said with a wordless nod.

but there's more to magic than sacrifice. if that was all it was, no one would use it.]

In my world, dark magic comes at a high cost. But I wouldn't want to use that here. I know it wouldn't help anyone in the end, and I know it's not worth it.

Was she beautiful too?

[He didn't really think about the compliment he was giving, lost for a moment in the images he conjured of his own mother. Honesty took control in that moment and blurted out the truth he was nursing in his heart.

Not that anyone would deny how beautiful Belle was.]

Dark, light. They seem to be the same in mine. You can say you use it for the good of men and the realm, but it still has a cost. The sorceress I knew, the one who- [He broke off, swallowing his resurrection back to the depths of his stomach.] She sacrificed a girl, a child. She burned her alive to her god to power her magic.

It doesn't matter if it is for a good purpose, that sort of cost isn't worth pursuing.

[it's a compliment Belle catches quickly and feels almost undeserving of. and yet even as she hesitates to answer, she realizes that Jon hasn't caught on to it himself. so she pushes forward, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.]

She was the most beautiful person I've ever known.

[ in all the ways a person can be beautiful. not just her appearance, but her mind and her heart.

when he explains the magic in his world, she can feel the moment the conversation gets heavier for him. he talks about a sorceress and the terrible sacrifice she made, and Belle sighs sadly at what he knows of magic.]

Not that sort, no. Magic isn't worth a life. But it isn't always like that, Jon. Sometimes magic comes from hope. Sometimes it comes from love.

I never knew my mother. My father never spoke of her.

[He didn't want to rehash the struggles a bastard had to endure during their life, even if they were more nobly born. That didn't trouble him as much anymore. It was the absence of the woman who gave him life and who she might have been.

He wanted at least that shadow illuminated in his heart sot hat he might feel her presence, even if she was dead.]

How can magic come from love?

[Maybe he was a cynic. He certainly felt the power of destiny and love before, so he wasn't completely blind, but he had yet to see magic truly blossom from it. All he really knew was the force of two people coming together, where the world only held them.

Something Belle often reminded him of.]

Is there anything we feel that's more powerful than love? It strengthens us, gives us something to fight for, makes us brave.

[ in worlds where magic is tied to emotion, of course magic can come from love. and that magic, in Belle's experience, is the strongest kind there is. nothing else compares.]

I was once caught up in a kingdom-wide curse that ended with true love's kiss.

[ and she remembers, all those years ago, when true love might've freed Rumple from being the dark one. he was the only thing that ever held himself back; he'd loved his power more than her even then.]

Magic isn't inherently dark. It depends on how we use it.

I don't know. Both times I loved, something always interrupted it.

[There was never time to fully enjoy either. He had to leave Ygritte not long after the cave. Dany...well, it seemed as if it just started before he was pulled here. He didn't even have time to bask in the afterglow.]

A true love's kiss? I thought those were stories.

[And he doesn't seem ready to believe that it could be true. A true love's kiss couldn't save his world or bring someone back to life, no matter the intensity of the feelings.]

I have yet to see good magic.

In some worlds, the stories are true.

[ she would know, she's been to a few worlds now. the only constant she's seen with magic is that someone's intentions matter. hatred brings darkness. but love creates light, too.]

Do you need to see it to believe in it?

[ it's a sincere question, not a judgment. she's believed in plenty of things before ever seeing them. her life was limited back in the Enchanted Forest. sometimes she could only hope that goodness would prevail.]

Maybe I do?

[He didn't think he was such a person, given how often he had to prove that the Others existed, but deep down, he wanted to be reasonable. Fanciful things like true love's kiss and good magic seemed beyond his ability to comprehend.

Seeing made it real.]

Love has never been permanent in my world. Not enough for magic to come from.

[Though there had been hope. Now, here...he wasn't sure anymore.]

Then I hope you do.

[ not because she needs to be right, or feels like she has to prove herself. it's more than that - Jon is someone who can't imagine true love, yet there's no doubt in her mind that he deserves to have it.]

I don't know that anything is permanent, love doesn't have to be permanent to be true.

[ she's had love that was true for a time, even if it didn't last forever.]

1- pre-event open log

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject