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Beauty ([info]i_tame) wrote in [info]we_coexist,
@ 2012-02-22 20:57:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:honour bellaforte, stand still, thomas townsend

Goodbye Horses, Hello Thomas (Thomas)
There used to be a stable.

No, no, that wasn't exactly right.

There used to sometimes be a stable -- and it used to appear when she wanted to spend some time with the horses that were sometimes boarded there. With all Beauty's new-found vacation time, she'd had every intention of going on long, lovely rides across the City Commons, but the stable simply wasn't appearing. It just wasn't there anymore.

Other things had changed, too. The whispers in her cottage - those invisible servants who forced clothes on her and who set out her meals and who apparently did the laundry and kept the place clean - had disappeared. At first she was glad -- but as the days passed, she found herself actually missing the strange companionship that the whispers had been. She could never quite understand them, but they ... they'd been friendly to her. They'd been kind, or at least, they tried to be very kind.

Beauty stood at the top of a rolling hill overlooking where the stable used to be, arms twisted behind her back, hands clasped together. She hoped that the horses were all right, wherever they'd gone.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-02-23 03:25 am UTC (link)
The City had done much roaming since being put in the Thomas body. It had found it's own streets to be strange and uncomfortable with the movement gone. As Thomas, it had found things more than a little difficult and was a little worse for wear.

Food was not easy to come by, and he found himself often hungry. The irritating body seemingly insatiable. Then the things that came after eating, well... those were just plain disgusting. But also a need of the body, and not something that could be ignored. Sleep came at strange times, when Thomas had been walking all day, trying to stay moving in case Baba Yaga was searching for him, not wanting for it to be easy on her. He would sit down and then suddenly wake up, hours later. Rested but still frazzled.

He knew some of the citizens he saw, those ones that he had brought in. But he had been afraid of them. He hadn't dared to go near them. Until now, of course. He just couldn't keep moving anymore. He needed a safe place to sleep. A warm meal that wasn't picked from the trash or stolen. Some new clothing, perhaps, or at least a chance to clean what he was wearing. He knew he smelled foul, he would catch wiffs of himself every once in a while and it made him want to vomit.

Which was another very unpleasant bodily function he'd experienced.

When he saw the one known as Beauty, Thomas decided that this was the time to stop. To ask for help. If anybody would be caring and nurturing, it would be her. If he had a chance at safety anywhere, it would be in her care.

He approached her slowly, not sure quite what he was going to say until he got near to her.

"Please. I need help."

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[info]i_tame
2012-02-24 06:51 am UTC (link)
The smell wasn't unfamiliar. At home, even in Paris, it was common for men and women alike to bathe seasonally. But Beauty hadn't smelled that particular musky scent in some time. She remembered again just how long she'd been here in this place -- away from her home, her family, and everyone she loved. It made her sad -- but it also focused her on what it meant for someone here to be in the state that this smell suggested. It was nothing good. And the voice itself told that story.

Horses forgotten, Beauty immediately turned and smiled -- even though she hadn't yet seen the man. And when she did see him, what a sorry sight he made. "Monsieur," she exclaimed. "Why, of course you do! Come along, then..." And here, she folded her arm gently around the young man's waist. Typically, propriety kept her from touching anyone so intimately as this, but the circumstances strongly suggested it. The poor man looked ready to fall down on the hill.

"My home is just this way. Will you come with me?" She was leading him in the direction anyway. "My name is Honour, but everyone calls me 'Beauty,' and I would love it if you did, too. You look like you must be starving! Does a late breakfast sound good? Croissants are never lacking from my home," she chattered happily, and ignored the niggling suspicion that there might not be nearly as many as there usually were.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-02-25 03:30 am UTC (link)
He already felt a little bit better because of her immediate kindness. Thomas hadn't been on the receiving end of much else but disgust and anger since his time in the body. Mostly because he didn't know how to live, or what he should be doing.

She didn't wait for him to answer, but started to guide him to her house. "Yes, thank you." He said anyway, wanting to be polite. Not wanting to do something that would change her mind on helping him.

"Breakfast sounds very good." Thomas' stomach growled loudly in agreement. It also panged painfully, and he grasped at it with his free arm. When was the last time he'd eaten? It hadn't been very much, he knew that. Time seemed to blur together so much more now. He did not like it one bit.

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[info]i_tame
2012-02-25 04:02 pm UTC (link)
He had one of those faces. Under the grime and muck of God-knows-what he'd gone through, his face was wholly ageless. Typically, Beauty could guess about how many summers a man or woman had, based on their face -- at least in this soft City. (The rural countryside was far harsher and aged people much quicker, but it wasn't that way here.)

This gentleman could have been 15 or 35. His face fit both. His eyes were strange, too; she couldn't quite put a name to the strangeness. Ah, perhaps it was simply the strangeness of the entire situation. She noted how he held his stomach and wondered if he would be less-than-all-right once she got him past the dirt and the hunger.

"Are you ill?" she asked gently, slowing her pace just a touch. She didn't ask his name. She didn't want to ask him for more than what he wanted to give her. They'd made it as far as the valley. Up the next hill, then they'd be home. Beauty was already cataloging everything she'd need to do.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-02-26 03:11 am UTC (link)
"No." Thomas shook his head. "I don't think so. I just haven't really eaten very much or very well in a while."

He had no idea about food poisoning, what caused it, what it felt like, so he couldn't say if he had it or not. But since his stomach hadn't started hurting until she'd mentioned food, he was going to guess it was safe to assume he did not have food poisoning.

As they crested the hill, he spied her little cottage and felt relief begin to wash over him. He wasn't even truly being cared for yet, and already he was overcome with her generosity.

Tears began to wash down Thomas' cheeks, and he couldn't stop them. He tried to wipe them away and was annoyed to find that they just replaced themselves in a couple of seconds.

He looked at Beauty. "Thank you. This means a lot to me. Thank you."

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[info]i_tame
2012-02-26 04:37 am UTC (link)
Her heart turned over when she saw him wipe his face, then heard the tears in his voice. She didn't embarrass him by turning to look to confirm it; instead she just gave a gentle smile and busied herself with moving her feet up over the hill -- carefully and slowly enough that she was sure he'd be all right while she did it.

Beauty was glad she had more than enough money saved from her job to supply herself with the things the City had stopped supplying. Here and there, she'd heard complaints from other people about the lack --- but she never really stopped feeling ill at ease with having been waited on by invisible servants. It felt more honest to work for a living. Her work was easy, these days at the bookstore, but it hadn't always been like that. She remembered tending a house of 4 -- and she still could do it. It was nothing to her to take in another person. And it was so clear that he needed someone to do it.

"You're welcome," she said very gently. And, as she opened the cottage door, she pulled her arm away from him again and instead led him into her home. "If you'd like to sit down," she said, gesturing to the tiny table in the corner and its two chairs, "I'll bring you something to eat. After you've eaten, you can wash up and rest. Do you have a job? I think I might be able to talk to someone to see if he has a position open where I work..."

Unbidden, a memory woke and stretched in her mind. Someone had offered her the same kindness when she first arrived, herself. She smiled, somewhat painfully, and turned to prepare her guest something to eat.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-02-28 11:01 pm UTC (link)
Thomas moved slowly to the table and chair she pointed to. He was glad to see them, and it felt for a moment as if the distance between the door and the chair went on forever. But he made it and sat down somewhat heavily.

"I have a job." He said quietly. Then he thought. "I had one, anyway. I probably still have it ultimately." Thomas frowned. "I just don't have access to it right at the moment."

He knew it sounded odd, but he couldn't really think of anything else to say to her. Or a better way to say it. Thomas wondered what he should tell her and what he should keep silent about.

She was being so kind, how could he be dishonest to her?

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[info]i_tame
2012-02-29 05:25 am UTC (link)
"I see," she said, keeping her voice mild and soothing. She didn't quite understand how one could have a job but not have access to it -- but then, the City had turned strange, lately. And she'd learned early on, here, that anything was possible. She set a plate of croissants on the table for him. Beauty had gotten out of the habit of making her own food for the longest time, but now that The City was no longer setting out her meals, she'd returned to what she knew. This meant that she had fresh-churned butter and homemade blackberry preserves to compliment the croissants, so she set these things out on the table too. But she cheated with the orange juice and bought jugs of it from the store. She poured him a glass of that, too, and set it beside him. "Here you go," she said warmly, then turned toward her hearth to start a new fire.

She would need to visit the well behind her cottage before long, but for now, she could use the water she'd brought in this morning to make up the bath for him. "It's getting cold out there," she said over her shoulder. "Do you need somewhere to stay?" Beauty had no second thoughts about offering her home to the stranger. People sometimes needed that extra bit of help. She wondered if he was brand new to The City. He seemed to be. Perhaps he arrived just before The City changed its behavior. Yes, that made sense, given his state. Perhaps he didn't know he was trapped here. She wanted to ask him so many questions, but she couldn't bring herself to make him feel even more uncomfortable than he already was.

If he wanted to tell her something about himself, she resolved, then she'd let him do it on his own terms. For now, she'd give him whatever he needed and let that be enough.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-03-01 12:05 am UTC (link)
"I would never have let it get so cold." Thomas muttered to himself, but probably loudly enough for Beauty to hear it. He wasn't exactly good at this human thing yet, and didn't know just how to control his voice perfectly.

As soon as the food was on the table, Thomas dug into it, also not knowing that stuffing oneself when hungry can cause more issues. He just knew that his stomach felt empty and he wanted to fill it. The food was really good, too, so he smiled up at the girl in thanks.

"You would let me stay with you?" He was actually a little surprised at that. He was expecting this certain citizen to be kind to him, but this nice? It was refreshing. It gave him hope that he might be able to survive this body.

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[info]i_tame
2012-03-02 03:41 am UTC (link)
She looked over her shoulder at him from where she crouched in front of the hearth. "Of course," she said, and the tone in her voice suggested that his question was surprising only because the answer must have been obvious. When she turned back to the fire, however, her quiet smile slid away. She wasn't quite sure she should be staying in the tiny, one-person cottage while someone else used it. A male someone else, specifically. She didn't mind at all giving her home to someone else while he needed it...but there was propriety to satisfy as well. She didn't want to be thought of as a trollop.

All of these things were her own issues to concern herself with -- not his. She didn't give them to him. After finally building the fire up high enough for it to be all right left alone, she set a large pot (she got it at the store, too -- and it was much lighter than the cauldrons she'd used at home!) on to be heated. And, at last, she could return to her guest again, which is exactly what she did. Sinking down in the chair opposite him, she pillowed her chin in her hands and gave him a big grin. "I wouldn't have let it get this cold, either, if I could control the weather -- although, sometimes it's nice to be cold just so you can come back home where it's warm again, don't you think?"

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-03-02 07:09 am UTC (link)
"No." Thomas shook his head and spoke around his food. He had no idea it wasn't polite to do so. He might not have cared anyway, with how hungry he was. "I like it to be warm all the time. Occasional rain. But nice, even temperatures. Not too hot, never too cold."

He paused. "Okay. Maybe once too cold, but it was just because the snow was new."

It was the exact weather pattern the City had always had. He had wanted to experiment with the snow when he'd discovered it, and so he did. But he'd found it wasn't as fun as he'd thought it would be, so it hadn't happened again. Until now. The weather was already dropping down. Thomas knew that the snow would follow. There was nothing that he could do about it.

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[info]i_tame
2012-03-05 02:07 pm UTC (link)
At home, her sisters had learned the fine art of controlling their facial expressions. It was part of the social expectations of Paris, since only a very skilled (or very wealthy) lady ever managed to marry well. Already 17 when she came here, Beauty was considered rather older than most single ladies, and she was approaching her 21st birthday now... even still, she'd not managed to learn the skills her sisters had.

So, when her guest said those things about the weather, and in such a peculiar fashion, her face didn't remain smooth and polite. It quirked, one eyebrow drawing up sharply, lips pursing and drawing to the side. She realized she'd done it, then smiled sheepishly. Surely she was reading too much into it. "Well," she said, "I wish you were controlling the weather, then. We didn't used to get weather so cold as this, here in The City. I suppose you're new here?"

She could only imagine that he'd been freshly brought here. That's all that made sense; otherwise, he'd never have been in this state. There were a few good things she could say about The City, now that she'd lived her for a while. One of them was that the weather was nearly always temperate. Another was that its citizens were nearly always given what they needed -- even what they wanted.

Well, not everything. Beauty's thoughts dived toward one particular person who used to be here and now was not -- before she pulled them right back away from him again.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-03-15 01:56 am UTC (link)
"No." Thomas said. "Not new. Not even close."

But he smiled at her. She'd just given him a very large compliment. He was now more sure than ever that he'd made the right choice in speaking to her first. She was kind. She knew what she got was special.

He paused in his eating and looked up at her.

"Honour." He said, deciding to put his trust in her. "I have something I'd like to tell you. I believe you will keep it to yourself. And I believe that I can trust you with it. I will be very angry if you betray me. I can do things if you betray me. Can I tell you?"

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[info]i_tame
2012-03-16 01:51 am UTC (link)
Her brow crinkled as he denied he was new -- then smoothed again when he smiled at her -- then drew together once more when he ... he seemed to possibly have just threatened her. A sliver of coldness sluiced down her spine. It came to her that she was very, very alone in this cottage, that she had no protectors whatsoever close at hand, and that she knew absolutely nothing about the person sitting with her, save that he was in need.

Normally, that was all she needed to know -- that the person was in need. But.... now she wasn't sure if she'd thought things through well enough. She had little choice but to nod. "Of course, sir... What is it that you'd like to tell me?"

And she hoped, now that she'd given her word, that he was about to tell her something that wouldn't hurt to keep secret. Taking a breath, she centered herself, forcibly calmed the sneaking sense of panic, and faced the gentleman head on. Her eyes were sombre and very slightly wary.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-03-21 03:02 am UTC (link)
Thomas was satisfied with that, and he grinned at his new friend - he could call her a friend now. She had given her word and he believed her. Plus she'd been nice.

"I have been here a long time." He tilted his head. "Longer than any of you. I know everything. I know why you were brought. I know how things work. I know what you want and what you need and how you get it."

He sat back in his chair, still grinning up at her. "I, my dear Honour, am The City."

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[info]i_tame
2012-03-26 03:29 am UTC (link)
Beauty didn't know what to say. What to think. Her mouth opened then closed again, only to open once more. "I don't think I understand, sir," she said very quietly at last. "Could you please explain what you mean?"

Her tension ratcheted up a notch or five. Was she dealing with an indigent and insane unfortunate, here? She again recognized that she was very much alone here in her cottage, and she had no protectors whatsoever. Beauty made a mental note to consider getting her nose out of so many books and instead focus more on establishing friendships beyond those she made with vampires.

(And could anyone ever say that they were friends with vampires? It seemed an impossibility in and of itself. And yet, she'd begun thinking of at least one as a friend. At the very least, he was a good acquaintance. So odd, how this City changed one's perspective. And that brought her again to this strange and pungent visitor sitting at her table-meant-for-one.)

She forced her mind to stay open -- otherwise, she knew very well that it could go more poorly for her than it needed to. She waited -- and listened -- and did not heed the growing feeling in her chest and the back of her throat.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-03-27 08:31 am UTC (link)
"I've been cursed." He said, stuffing the last of the food into his mouth. "A very big and very powerful curse. The witch forced me into this body. Now things are all wrong. They're so wrong! The weather isn't perfect, my buildings and streets stay in one place. People aren't being fed!"

It frustrated him, and he didn't know how to not show it. It also angered him more than a little bit, but that he was able to keep in check.

"I take care of my people. My children. I give them what they need to have, and I can't do it now. I am disconnected. Broken. I cannot provide. It will drive those who were born here crazy. They have never known any different."

Thomas placed his head in his hands, elbows on the table.

"I hate this body. I hate the restrictions." A new emotion was coming over him, his eyes were leaking. Crying. Was he crying?!

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[info]i_tame
2012-03-28 02:38 am UTC (link)
Beauty wasn't so arrogant as to think that she knew everything. She didn't believe that it was impossible her guest could be right about his identity and what happened to him. But she had to admit that it was rather far-fetched. But... if it were true that he was who he said he was, then he should know something about her. Something that no one else knew. Opening her mouth to test his assertion, she found that she had no room edgewise.

Until her guest's head went down and he started weeping in distress or frustration or both. The turning of her heart in her chest was nearly painful. She could hardly endure grown men openly weeping. Men were supposed to be strong, in command of their feelings, and they hardly ever wept! But.... here he was...

It was in her nature to soothe. She edged to his side, did her best to ignore the wafting stench from his body, and stroked his shoulders gently. "I'm so sorry," she said softly, "For what has happened to you."

And in that moment, it didn't matter that if what he said were true, this was the entity responsible for yanking her into a world both unfamiliar and terrifying. This was who pulled her away from her father, her sisters, her life. This was the entity responsible for yanking Errol away. No, none of that mattered, because he was hurting and she could only try to soothe him.

"I'm so sorry," she said again.

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-03-28 08:30 pm UTC (link)
"I don't understand why I cannot stop this leaking!" Thomas blurted it out between a choked sob and a sniff of his nose. "There are so many fluids from you humans. I ... Why can't I control them?"

He thought of the disgusting things like having to go to the bathroom and vomit. Why would anybody, anybody allow their body to do those things? Though he, himself, had discovered that he couldn't hold back with them when they had to happen, he was sure that there must be somebody who had discovered a way.

"I do what I do out of love." He said. "I give. I give people what they need and what they want."

Thomas finally looked up, wiping furiously at his eyes. "I knew that you would be nice to me, Beauty. Thank you."

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[info]i_tame
2012-04-01 08:58 pm UTC (link)
"I don't understand why I cannot stop this leaking!"

Beauty squeezed his shoulder gently, then left him at the table to riffle through her personals drawer in the small chest beside her bed. Returning quickly, she handed the odoriferous man a handkerchief and resumed patting his shoulder soothingly as she sat back down beside him.

He was talking crazy talk -- except that if it really were true what he said, it was completely sane talk.

Except when he said that he did what he did out of love. Beauty bristled at that, hating that she knew her life had been so very easy compared to the countryside, hating that any objection she uttered now would seem like an ungrateful insult. She squeezed down her anger into a tight, neat square and shoved it back behind her teeth, then swallowed it hard.

"We all," she said as carefully as she could, "Need someone every now and then. I'm glad I could help you."

Now was not the time to complain. To yell. To cry. She said, instead, "I think that bathwater might be cool enough for you now. If you'd like, I can finish pouring it for you."

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[info]i_blankityblank
2012-04-03 01:02 am UTC (link)
"Yes." Thomas stood up. "I think that would be very nice."

He was looking forward to getting clean. From not smelling so bad anymore.

The leaking had slowed, but had yet to stop.

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[info]i_tame
2012-04-03 01:49 am UTC (link)
"All right," she said, simply, and started back to work for her guest.

The rest of the answers could come later. She was worried, but she didn't think -- didn't truly believe -- that she was in danger.

That would do for now. And maybe later, she could ask this guest more questions. Maybe later.

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