A Game of Skill

[Draco]

"A added benefit is that some hunters are a little strange to begin with... Wearing their kills and such. You've just gone so far as to literally grow the fur!"

He paces back and forth at the doorway.

"The key is to gain trust. Trust that you won't harm them. Trust that you won't kill their animals. Trust that you can provide nice warm furs for the people to wear this winter! And maybe a few lucky rabbit feet for good luck. Oh, and if we can stuff a few animals, that's even better! People always like those! But that's stretching the idea!"

He listens a little to the idea of a book club.

"That may be a good idea. Maybe we should see if she has read anything you might have, and you can discuss it a little."

[Fraze]

The beast finishes washing while listening to the slew of suggestions and advice coming at him. He looks a bit like a wet rat. "Maybe I should just clean off when I get back to the castle. Selling furs...I guess that would help. We need to earn money somehow. I think the library has a book on tanning somewhere, but I would still need help with it.

"A book club sounds..." he looks at the ground. "...Embarrassing. But, but I guess it would help."

"Why are you so nervous talking to people? Is there anything you want to talk about?"
The beast looks from side to side, unsure of what to say. "I look scary. People saw me right after the curse and they tried to kill me. Sometimes they see me hunting in the woods and they shoot at me. They never want to find out who I am, they just want to get rid of me."

((Short post is short. Feel free to take it in any given direction from here. You've got some good ideas, now start acting on them!))

[♥ Azzie]

Azalea couldn't help it. She got up on two of her corners and wrapped the other two around Beast. "You poor thing!" she said. "Oh, goodness. I promise you, we'll make people think twice about you. Come on, now, the book club's brilliant. You'll have fun with it and it'll help you. You'll see!" She unwrapped herself and flopped onto all fours again.
"Can you show us to the library?"

[Pixie]

"Mr. Beast, you are a good man. They fear you merely because of the way you look. There isn't much you can do but break the curse. I don't get why people feel the need to judge someone's worth by they way they look. I've been there, though not nearly to the extent you have, and I find If you're small, or if you'r homely, then they look down on you. What you look like isn't who you are. It's what's inside that really matters. Relationships on looks don't last. Beauty fades, but a golden heart burns bright forever. You are a good, kind, man Mr. Beast. Let the villagers see it, since they are blind to all but superficial things. You do not deserve the way they treat you. If Mrs. Belle is the one for you, she will accept you even as a beast."
I wonder if I will ever find someone who wants me for the inner me. I wish people weren't so shallow. The beast does not deserve the way he is treated. I wish I could hug him but flat metal isn't plush or flexible. Why do we let people treat innocent people so poorly?
"Now, let's go to the library. I think I know of a decent romantic novel, and I can look for a copy of the good leather making book at home. See this-" She shifts her eyes down where her waist would be
" nevermind..."
I was about to say "bag" but irons do not carry bags. I need to get use to this form before I embarrass myself. I'm not in human form.
"Anyway, I used to make leather before the curse, so I can help you. C'mon, let's hurry to the library." She skips forward, but stops when she realizes she has no clue where she is going.

[Tiger]

Tiger might have smirked in an odd show of sympathy at the beast's words - fortunately, she didn't have a mouth right now, and probably looked more clumsy than bitter when she leaned against the wall. She'd had her own share of beastly looks...

Well, maybe be less smug and more helpful, then, you mutated clod, Tiger thought sharply.

Before she could speak, an iron delivered a grandiose speech. Tiger furrowed her brow - when had an iron arrived? She shrugged it off, figuring that this was just another Guildsperson she hadn't met yet.

"The others have good ideas. Maybe we can find a book on leather-making. Kill two birds with one stone." She hesitated, then added, "And...you know, I think you'll find a way to fit in, whatever happens. Belle doesn't seem put off by your looks, and that's a start." Tiger leaned away from the wall, ready to follow the gaggle of servants and the beast to the library.

[Celestial]

Celestitrunk glanced over at the iron. Funny, she couldn't remember a talking iron but help was help and the iron was a pretty good speaker.

"People fear what they do not understand. That's what people are like, especially in a village as small as that one. You have to take things slowly, let them get to know you, find an ally and then have them introduce you. Things will work out, trust me," she said in her kindest voice. "Now, let's get that book club arranged."

With that, she wandered out of the door towards Belle's quarters. The trunk knocked on the door with one of her iron legs and, upon confirming it was okay to come in, opened it and went in.

"Miss Belle, excuse me, but we're thinking of having a book club and we'd like you to participate. It would be very useful to have an actual human there to help with Beast's confidence in talking to people. Get him a little bit out of his comfort zone and have him practice what it would be like to go back into society at large. Would you be willing to help us out, please?" she asked tentatively, looking as sheepish and sweet as a trunk could. Hopefully Belle would accept. Without her, the plan did not exactly fall apart but lacked a very critical part.

[Draco]

Draco decided to follow Celestitrunk to see Belle.

"It really could help. I am unsure if we are able to candle this alone."

Did he just do a bad candle pun? Oh no, he did.

"The book club is a pretty bright idea, and hopefully by the wicks end he will be able to talk to you like he talks to us."

He did it again...

"We were all human once, well most of us sort of, but he has grown accustomed to us being what we are now. And obviously we can't just throw him off into village, unless you want to see our master turned into a rug!"

He thinks for a moment at how comfortable that rug could be. Then he shakes his 'head'.

"Sweetie, can I call you Sweetie? Belle? I'll stick to Belle. Ms. Belle, you've obviously seen how timid he can be. So will you help out? I'm pretty sure there are books you've both read, or you can start a new one! Oh, and we've thought of a job opportunity! But we can discuss that later with him."

[Fraze]

Belle listens to the requests given to her. "In general, my job is to observe and advise, rather than to take an active role in the reformation process. However, I...may be able to make an exception in this case. Can you show us to the library, so we can begin?"

"ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: OFF THE RAILS."
The group heads to the library, and forms a circle as best they can. The discussion starts off awkwardly, with many awkward pauses and false starts. The Beast looks as though he would be blushing furiously if his cheeks were visible.
At great length, a discussion begins. Those present touch on different genres, varying authors, their preferred books for different situations. A brief tangent is made toward cookbooks. The Beast manages to begin speaking up, thanks to many helpful pauses, expectant looks, and leading questions.

Finally, after a few hours, the discussion dies down again. The players slowly file out, with only Belle and the Beast staying in their chairs.

"So, do..." the Beast begins. Belle fixes him with a stare, and he pauses before gathering his words. "Do you like books?"
"Yes, I do." Another silence descends, and finally she adds, "I travel a lot for my work. It's difficult to meet people when you only stay in one place for a month or two, so I mostly read to pass the time. And you, do you have any interests besides reading?"
"Um..."

"No, not really." Struck with an idea, the Beast reaches over to a small table and picks up a book. "This one is my favorite." He hands it to Belle, who inspects it.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. It's a mystery novel, and it's very well written. It's about a castle that gets cut off in a snowstorm. The king is murdered, and they have to figure out who did it. I was so surprised when they revealed the killer was--"
"Don't tell me, I haven't finished it yet!" Belle yelps.
The Beast flinches back, his eyes wide. Belle glares at him for a moment, but then her face softens. She cracks a grin and begins to chuckle.
"I'm sorry, the--the look on your face..." She composes herself once more. "I brought that book along with me. I've been reading it the past few nights."
The Beast relaxes. "Can we talk about it when you finish it?"
"I'd like that."

A number of days pass. The book club continues, and the Beast slowly starts to become more confident. He begins saving the pelts of the animals that he hunts, cleaning and tanning them, and preparing them for sale. At long last, he leaves the castle--through the front door now, rather than the back--to sell them at the market.

The players follow him, along with Belle, who tags along behind. "Just in case you need a spokesperson," she says.
The motley gang is met with shocked looks, mutters, and a few screams. Some townspeople slam their doors and windows shut. Others come outside and glare at the group from a safe distance.
"Uh, I'm here to sell furs," the Beast mumbles. "I've got a few rabbit pelts and one deer..."
"You're from the castle, aren't you?" a voice calls out.
The Beast straightens up a bit. "Yes, that's right."
"Then the rumors are true, that castle is cursed!"
"Well, y-yes, but we're still people."
"You let the castle's farmland rot so the village can't use it, you hide away for ten years, and now you come into town selling furs like some common merchant?"
"Yeah, have you no pride? No decency?"
The crowd slowly dissipates in disgust, spitting insults. The beast crumples, and turns to go.
"Are you the lord the castle had ten years ago?" a voice asks. The beast turns around again. A man stands before him. He's heavily tanned, with a weathered face and thick, knobbly hands.
"N--no, that was my father."
"Is he still alive?"
"No, he was killed when the castle was cursed. Only the servants and I remained." The Beast gestures behind him at the assorted animate household objects.
The man takes his hat off and holds it over his chest. "I see," the man says. "That's a shame." He cranes his neck up to look directly at the Beast. "I knew your father, he was a good man. I owe him my life."
The Beast's eyes widen.
"One year, a heavy rain washed away the topsoil from half my land. The Lord of the castle gave me 20 acres of his land to farm for that year, and only asked for a quarter of what it produced. If it wasn't for that kindness, my family would have starved."
"Really?" The Beast listened, entranced.
The man nodded. "The village needs that land. Now, if you intend to make something of it, then all's the better. Do it. But if not, then it must return to the village, or eventually there won't be any village left."
The man eyes the furs the Beast was selling. "Now, it's mighty strange to me that the Lord of a castle--you are the Lord now, and you know it--would be selling wares at market. I'd sooner expect the sky to rain chocolate milk." The Beast furrows his brow at this. "But it looks to me that life has knocked you down a few times, and there's no shame in doing what you need to do to get back up. I'll take three of those rabbit pelts, could use a warm vest for the winter."
The beast takes a moment to register this last bit. "Uh--oh, of course, that'll be..." he calculates. "Three silver pieces."
The man digs into his money bag, pulls out the coins, and hands them to the Beast, who takes them and exchanges the furs. "Remember what I told you about that land, I want you to think about that."
"I will," the Beast responds.

At the castle, the Beast is giddy. "I did it! I mean, most of them were scared of me, but they didn't try to kill me! And I made a sale!"
"Well done," Belle answers simply. She seems to be smiling slightly.
"But I need to make the estate function again." The Beast comes down from his elation, and slumps into a chair. "How in the world can I make that happen?"

[Tiger]

From the doorway, Tiger said, "Well, we need to start cleaning up and plowing the fields..."

If I still had magic, this would be easy. I'd just conjure a few teams of oxen who don't need food, water, or rest. ...I suppose that's why they're blocking our magic, or whatever they're doing to keep us from casting spells. The fact that people could do such a thing worried Tiger, but there wasn't much she could do about it while still in Euripides's illusion.

"I'm sure we could pitch in...but maybe you could offer the villagers some sort of deal to help us out, too? Something like your father's deal with the man we met today, maybe - if they help with the cleaning and plowing, they get to use a plot and keep most of the profit for a year."

[Draco]

Draco hops on top of Celestitrunk, is about to say something, but hops off quickly. He sensed standing on top of her without asking, might get him killed later or right then. He bows a few times quickly to her before speaking up again.

"Yes, if we can make a similar deal as your father did with that farmer, things might work out. We can split the land up to different farmers in the area to do as they wish, we can take a small profit from it, and even help out a little. Meanwhile we could work on the remaining land for ourselves. If the people need it, we might as well let them use it instead of keeping it to ourselves."

[Celestial]

Celestitrunk was definitely not happy about Draco standing on top of her, mostly because she was not sure that she was inflammable in this form. Sure, it was just an illusion but as she discovered in the previous round, the injuries still hurt. Burning to death was not something she wanted to experience.

"Draco, never do that again," she stated icily before returning to the subject at hand.

"I definitely agree with those two. We do need hands to work the land and I can think of no better people than the villagers. Renting the land out to those who want it in exchange for the profit is the best solution. Perhaps, depending on the status of our treasury, we can hire those who don't want to rent out land to help us with the remainder, if such people will exist" the trunk says before turning to Beast. "And it will do wonders for your reputation as well. People are not likely to try and kill their landlord...well, okay, their landlord who treats them well. Which you should have no trouble with. Follow the example your father set and use your common sense and you too can make feudalism work for you!"

"Oh and, let's give that guy a thank-you gift. He really showed up at a convenient time to inspire us," Celestitrunk remarked, running through a mental inventory of the castle. There wasn't anything here a simple peasant might need that she could think of.

[Amneiger]

"Maybe our gift to him can be first pick of the fields? Or we can help him for a day."

[PFA]

((Beast's favorite pony is Fluttershy))

"Yeah, we'd definitely want someone with hands to help with the fields," Jernath remarked. "I mean, theoretically we could do it ourselves, but I imagine it would take a while.

"And if we're giving that guy a gift... maybe we could give him money?" Jernath paused. Predictable that the mercenary would be the one who thought of money. Oh well, whatever. "Or if we don't have much of that, I'm sure we could offer him something else. Like first pick of the crop, as he mentioned."

[Kristykimmy]

Kristy swishes back and forth on her bristles, nodding along with what the others are saying, hoping that it looks like nodding.

((Sorry I don't have much to contribute at the moment, I'm just not feeling so great. But, I'll try to keep up a little more.))

[Fraze]

The beast considers the suggestions presented to him. "It didn't sound like they wanted anything to do with the castle, but I guess we can try. We could put up flyers. If we find that man again, I'd like to offer him a good plot of land."

"Belle?" the Beast calls as the group disperses. Belle stops and turns around. "There's--" he stops.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry, this is difficult. There's...there's something I think I need to show you."
The Beast leads Belle up the stairs to his bedroom. ((Not like that you guys, come on.)) It got tidied up in the first massive cleaning, and the Beast still does what he can to organize it, but it's nevertheless more disheveled than most of the rest of the castle.
"You told me that you needed to know about anything that would make it difficult for me to live a normal life."
"Not quite in those words," Belle says, "but yes."
"Well, there's this," the Beast continues, gesturing to a rose under a bell jar.
Belle raises an eyebrow and cocks her head to one side. Tentatively, she reaches for her notepad.
"It's the--oh, how did it go--" the Beast thinks back to a quote from a magic book. "The 'physical manifestation of the curse' on this castle. If the curse isn't broken before the flower dies, it will be permanent."
"How can the curse be broken?"
Somehow, through his thick fur, the Beast still manages to blush. "I need to find love, or that's what I was told."
Belle jerks her head up. "That's a bit trite, isn't it?"
"Or the witch hadn't read very many books."
Belle puts the notepad away again. "This is a question that you don't have to answer, because it's entirely for my own curiosity. But how--"
"--did I get this curse?"
"Exactly."
"A witch came to the castle asking for a place to stay. I had just fought with my parents and wanted to take it out on someone. So I...I pushed her out of the front door and into the mud." Belle's eyes widened.
"I've regretted it ever since. She killed my parents and placed the curse on everyone else in the castle. That was the only time I had ever been assertive, and it was the worst mistake of my life. I guess I just decided it was better if I didn't take charge on anything at all."
There is a heavy silence. Belle says nothing, but seems deep in thought.
"I never told anyone that before. Even the servants don't know. I guess I really needed to get it out, so thank you for listening."
Belle stays silent for a while longer, before taking a deep breath. "You know, in my job, I deal with a lot of hopeless cases. I've learned to expect the worst from people, because that's what they usually show me. So when I first saw you in that doorway, I was ready to write you off as one more unresolvable situation. But looking at how far you've come, I think I was wrong."
"Thank you."
"Though I do need to ask, do you know how long you have until the curse is permanent?"
The Beast thinks. "Two months," he answers.
Belle gives him a look and smirks.

--------

Over the next few days, Belle, the Beast, and company create a number of flyers and put them up around town, conveniently timed shortly before the growing season. They're mostly met with grumbles and derision, but a few people step forward to work on a plot of the castle's land. Soon enough, over half of the land is claimed.

The next weeks pass by as a montage. The fields are plowed and the seeds are sown, and the baby shoots begin to poke up from the ground. However, the village becomes restless...

"First the castle is silent for a decade and the land goes to waste."
"Then it comes to life again and the lord is some shaggy monster."
"And now he's loaning out his land, making us do all the work to farm it, and taking a 25% cut!"
"Meanwhile, he doesn't even lift a finger!"
"A brute like that should be able to do his own farming."
"He goes out hunting every night, you know? That's how he gets all those furs he keeps selling."
"Sure, and first it's rabbits and birds, but before you know it he'll be slaughtering our cows!"
"We could just take the land for ourselves. Then it would go straight to the village and not into the pocket of that monster lord."
"What about that beast? And the government woman who always tags along?"
"We can get rid of them. They suddenly fell ill, the poor dears. And those dustbin servants should be easy to take care of. Who's with me?"

Cheers of assent. More cries of derision.

"Hey, he's not so bad!"
"Yeah, only keeping a quarter is more than generous."
"Doesn't matter what he looks like, he's got the village's interests in mind."
"Shaddap, he's just fooling you. Wouldn't be surprised if you're a broom with a disguise or something."

--------

Evidently, the mob mentality won out. A crowd is approaching the castle, with torches and pitchforks.
"Bring out the beast!"
"The monster must die! The castle must fall!"
"Make sure you get that girl from the government, too. She's in on it!

The crowd begins beating down the door. A team of people begins using a thick tree trunk as a battering ram, the door looks like it'll break any minute now. And glowing red eyes have begun to appear at the edges of the forest...

You might want to do something about this situation.

((Rushed post is...rushed? Somehow I never gave myself enough time to foreshadow most of this stuff, but you should all know how this goes one way or other.))