[AU] Beau-ty and Liz-Beast

[Beau LaRoux]

A long time ago in a swampy, sort of Southern-like area that's somehow vaguely near a castle for some reason, there lived a beautiful young man named Beau. That's right: he was often considered the prettiest darn man in the entire darn town, though said town was rather on the small side. He lived with several brothers and one sister on the edge of town, and they all got on well enough, mostly by performing their minstrely in town. However, each day, Beau would sing his songs and look up at the castle, dreaming about all the rumors he'd heard about it, and the supposed she-beast that it held inside.

Then one day, Beau decided that he was going to go there. he picked up his guitar and hopped onto a ratty looking horse and galloped off there. Now, the house looked pretty darn creepy and all, so Beau mostly sang to himself as he rode on in, eventually stopping by the door. He hopped off, grabbing a candlestick as he headed further in.

"Hello?" he called, looking about the creepy castle. We'd describe it, but just picture a creepy castle and you'd probably get it right. "Anybody home? I'm one of the local minstrels, an' I jus' wanted to see if maybe you'd like to hear a tune or somethin'," he kept looking, figuring that someone should be around here.

[Elizabeth Edison]

It was rumoured that the supposed she-beast had a snout and fangs with claws to the floor and was hairy and she had scaly wings. In truth, the Liz-Beast just had bad breath, bad cuticles, no mani pedi days and she didn't often brush her hair.

She didn't care to correct the rumours mostly because it meant nobody would check up on her and she could do what she loved to do best while she was alone; read and eat.

She did have a few staff lurking in the shadows, keeping the castle in working condition. Yes, the wallpaper was peeling, the floors needed just another strong coat of buffering and the cobwebs needed a little bit of sprucing up but the spiders did eat everything else so really, the Liz-Beast didn't want them gone.

So used to being alone, apart from the shady housekeepers, when she heard another voice coming from the halls, she paused midway while eating her spaghetti, the sauce dripping from the corners of her lips. "What?" She said through her full mouth.

Cutting off the long strands of pasta dangling from her lips with her teeth, she got out of bed and walked out to the halls to check out who had gotten in.

When her eyes caught sight of the intruder, an eyebrow shot up before she growled. "Who the heck are you?"

[Beau LaRoux]

The beast looked surprisingly better than the tales Beau had heard. Okay, so she still had some truly gnarly hair, and it looked like toothbrushes were some kind of foreign concept, and Beau thought he saw orange Cheeto dust clinging to her fingers or whatever, but she still looked pretty much like a girl. Did look like she had some blood or something on her chin, but that could've been sauce.

"I reckon I already said that," he said, mostly under his breath. He bowed deep, doffing his cap (because he totally had one). "Name's Beauregard LaRoux, your ladyship, an' I jus' happen to be one of the local musician-folk. Heard about the castle up here, an' I figured someone should come up an' check. You don't look nearly as hideous as the all the stories say."

Because of course Beau would flirt even with a she-beast like, well, whatever that was supposed to be. He rose from the bow almost elegantly, before pulling his guitar around (okay, you can't be surprised he had that). "If ya want, I could play you a few tunes or somethin'. Wouldn't cost ya more then a few crumbs off the table or nothin'," and no, Beau still didn't feel scared. Girl looked more or less like a girl, after all, and he'd had plenty of experience with the fairer sex, arguably too much.

[Elizabeth Edison]

The Liz-Beast looked at the boy with her nose scrunched up, stepping back when he started to bow. "What the-" she started before he introduced himself with the least name-sounding name she had ever heard. Beauregard? Wasn't that a flower or something? Oh wait no, it was a name of the girl from that puppet show with the candy man she saw a few months ago in the town square while she was under a wicked disguise.

Raising an eyebrow at his comment about her looks. She raised a hand as if to strike him before she paused and huffed. "Right...I can't do that here..." she lowered her hand and just imagined how cool it would be if she could actually produce flames from her hand from one of the books she read about a warrior princess who could produce flames out of thin air.

"You oughta bite your tongue about my looks, dude." She narrowed her eyes and frowned when he offered to play for her in exchange for some food. "Excuse me, you come to my house uninvited and expect me to give you food just so you could produce some unnecessary sound from your stupid guitar I didn't even ask for? Is this where you're going?" She asked with a snort, looking to her left with a derisive eye roll as though there was an audience who was witnessing this spectacle and thought it was just as dumb as she thought it was.

[Beau LaRoux]

The beast did seem kind of intimidating as she spoke now, but also kind of hot, though it was a little hard to tell under all the hair and Cheeto dust and all. Beau kept a careful eye on her, wondering what she was talking about with regards to the fire or what have you. He was just thankful that things were pretty much normal around here. Okay, yeah, he was pretty sure he caught the candlestick looking at him or something, but that beat, like, having strange powers or something like that.

"That's how the whole minstrel thing works, m'lady," said Beau, nodding his head in a sort of pseudo-bow. "I provide you with some delightful music, an' in return, you provide me some food or shelter or somethin'. You ain't gotta worry none about anythin' too fancy or nothin', an' if you really want, I could jus' go," he pointed behind him, but also moved to adjust his guitar, "but you're definitely missin' out."

Beau's fingers started moving across the guitar strings, putting a sweet tune into the air almost immediately. It was light, airy, even, mid-tempo and played quite deftly, the man who played it obviously skilled at his art, and obviously quite pleased with himself too, considering the intense, happy look he had right now.

[Elizabeth Edison]

"Well, I didn't ask for you to come here...minstrel." She sneered though it was at that moment, when he pulled his guitar up to his chest and started to strum that she sort of...melted.

Her fists clenched and unclenched as the smooth velvety notes seemed to caress her soot covered face. The music seemed to also transform the boy right then and there and it was like it was the first time he was seeing him and boy was he beautiful.

"Y-you minstrel. You say I should provide you with shelter for your music?" She asked as the plan concocted in her brain. It wasn't so much a plan as it was an order, even in her head.

"Well...say goodbye to your outside life. You're staying here and you're never leaving." She nodded decisively.

[Beau LaRoux]

Most people didn't ask for minstrels... at least not at first. Then they got to hear Beau play (or maybe get a look at him without his shirt because again: total beauty right there), and then they suddenly wanted to keep him around. Hence why he practically strutted with confidence as he finished playing, nodding and practically swelling.

"That's the idea," he said, nodding. "Few songs for a roof to sleep over an'---wait a second!" Because the lady had just pretty well ordered. "You can't jus'---I got family in town an' stuff. An' i think there's this really burly girl who's sort of got a thing for me an' has been tryin' to get me to marry her an' all but we really didn't start with that backstory stuff on account o' wantin' to get to the real tale an' all. 'sides, you can't, jus', like order people to stay an' all. You gotta 'least offer them some food or somethin'."

Though Beau did have to admit that there was something in the confidence with which the lady just sort of passed the order. She clearly expected the order to be followed without a second thought, and who didn't like hearing a confident woman? Didn't mean that Beau was just going to bow down and obey. Obviously.

[Elizabeth Edison]

The Liz-Beast saw the panic finally set on to Beau's face and a small smile came on to hers. It really was his fault for wandering over to her property unannounced. He should have thought of that before he came in.

"Well, your burly girl is going to have to be disappointed because you're not leaving this castle until I'm well and done with you. You said you wanted either shelter or food, I'm giving you shelter, that's more than enough." She shrugged, holding her palms upward.

"And don't bother trying to escape. The doors lock from the outside. You're stuck here anyways." She said in passing before she walked off to go back to her room to finish her spaghetti in bed.

[Beau LaRoux]

Okay, so Beau couldn't say he was really that disappointed about the girl. yeah, sure, she'd been the hottest in the village (and yes, girls can be hot and fit; it's a very delicate balancing act that can be managed with proper exercise, nutrition, and genetics), but that didn't mean that Beau had exactly been thrilled about her not-so-subtle advances. The fact that the beast girl just pretty much declared that she owned him now did have Beau staring though.

"Wait, what about food?" he said, suddenly feeling a little scared. Clearly she had a fair amount of food... not that she looked particularly chubby or anything, but she had obviously eaten food and stuff, at least, that's what Beau sincerely hoped was in that hair. "You're gonna--hey, you can't keep me! What kinda thing is--don't jus'--" the beast girl or girl beast had already stomped off. Beau hurried to follow, but nearly ran into a door.

Soon he ended up staring, thinking about kicking the door and all. He shouldn't have come here in the first place. He should've known better. Now he was gonna be stuck in the clutches of some sort of girl-beast for who knows how long. Just thinking about it made him cry manly tears, which obviously tasted like hot sauce and came out hot as lava or something. He pulled himself together though. the she-beast hadn't said he couldn't go exploring, after all. So maybe he'd do a little looking around. See if she kept some bodies in her closest or had magical furniture that moved around and did catchy song in dance numbers.

[Elizabeth Edison]

The Liz-Beast locked herself up in her room and after finishing her food, she went to sleep, the minstrel the last thing on her mind.

Meanwhile, the staff of the castle lurked, looking on as the minstrel moved about the castle. They didn't feel like they should engage with the stranger, lest they get any kind of backlash from the lady of the castle. But they did communicate amongst themselves via the small whiteboards they carried around. Some of the younger female servants wouldn't stop gushing over how hot the stranger was and the guitar was definitely something they would like to add to the already vast music room.

Which was where he seemed to be headed to at that moment. It raised conflict among the staff but they went about their business, trying to spruce up the place as best they could, silence echoing through the castle.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau thought he noticed the staff moving about and all, but it wasn't like they were singing and dancing furniture or anything like that. He couldn't've really ignored anything like that. Just normal people who were eerily quiet and seemed to communicate via whiteboard, however, were quite ignorable. Beau did see one or two, even nodded his head to a couple. He thought he'd seen a few of the girls (and maybe a boy or two) giggle and turn away as he did, but he couldn't be certain.

So he made his way through the castle, feeling like something was drawing him to a specific point. Some probably would call it Fate, and most of those people would probably be right. Though there had been a few Nu hints that indicated something else might be involved. Either way, Beau was heading straight for this music room without realizing it. Soon enough, he stood outside the door.

Not really one for caution, Beau just sort of pushed the door open. It swung noisily, as though its hinges hadn't seen oil in several decades. Beau waved a hand, coughing as bits of kicked up dust threatened to get into his throat. He walked in anyway, not sure what kind of room the she-beast would have tucked away in the darkest corners of her castle.

He was kind of hoping for a dungeon. with chains.

[Elizabeth Edison]

The play room had been the only one untouched by the fire that had scorched the whole place. It was too far into the castle and by the time it reached even half the distance, it was hosed down. Because of that, it became the only room everyone didn't dare touch.

It had once been filled with streamers and balloons and stuffed toys and various other play things and was once occupied by the royal family but ever since the curse, the beast only saw it as a bane of her existence. It was a reminder that had her family been in that room, they wouldn't have perished.

In the middle of the now bare, dusty room however, was a rose in a glass case. It was still fresh though a few petals had dried up and fallen to the table it was on. Weird place to put a rose really but who's to say anything that has been happening was normal?

[Beau LaRoux]

no kidding, this definitely counted as all kinds of weird. Beau stared at... cupboard? Okay, that was certainly a little weird and all, but it wasn't like the room was filled with bodies or something like that. Or a room filled with musical instruments: that would so be all creepy and unnerving and junk. This was just... odd. Beau carefully made his way around things, frowning.

Were those... toys? They kinda looked like toys. Why would she have toys though? Was she some kind of child trapped in that form? Beau supposed it was possible. Maybe she'd wanted him as some kind of playmate, longing for human companionship or what have you? Beau certainly hoped so. He really hoped it didn't involve, like his looks or something. Not that he minded, but it sometimes felt like that's all some people saw.

But yeah, enough about that. Beau finally saw the rose, sort of in this case and it looked kinda weird just there in a glass case. So he stepped toward it, looking at it curiously. His hands reached out, and he touched the glass and...

"Well, this is jus' weird," he mumbled, looking at it. "Maybe she's got some kinda flower thing goin' on?"

[Elizabeth Edison]

The beast woke up alarmed. Someone had gotten into the play room. She knew because there was an alarm telling her whenever someone even so much as looked at the room. Of course there was an alarm. She couldn't have just woken up because she sensed people going into the room or anything.

But someone had gone in and she immediately knew who it was. "That bloody minstrel!" She growled and jumped out of bed and ran from one end to the other to get to the room, where lo and behold the minstrel had gotten into the room and was looking at the rose.

"What. Are you. Doing here." She asked, her voice low and steady as she approached him, reaching out to slap his hand away from the glass. "You don't touch things that don't belong to you!"

[Beau LaRoux]

The voice caught Beau's attention, and he jumped. Which meant that he almost knocked over the really cool looking somehow special flower thing, which would've been rather ironic, given what the beast followed up with. He felt the slap and shook his hand a few times, lips pursed, brow furrowed and all.

"Well, you didn't, like, lock me in a room and tell the servants not to let me out or anythin'," he pointed out. He sucked his fingers a few times, wondering why they smarted so much. Then he pulled them out, giving them another few shakes, though the pain had pretty well gone.

"What's up with the rose thing though?" he asked, turning to look at it. "It's kinda pretty an' all, but this is kinda a weird place for it. Looks like you went and enshrined it or somethin'...' Beau trailed off, turning back to the beast. He blinked a few times, then pointed toward the beast's hair. "You got a little spaghetti right there."