Belle's Legends

“Not all sciences for me, like I suck at chemistry and physics but I’m mostly good at the other stuff. The stuff that you don’t have to do math for.” Jack explained with a little laugh. He definitely wasn’t good at math, in fact he had to study way more than most of the others to not fail exams because of it. He always got distracted and by the time he realized what he was doing, the test time was almost over. “Oh… god, I didn’t realize it was anything that serious.”

“So just biology then,” she grinned at his joke. “My father was very sciencey. He’s an engineer, you see...so science is pretty much his life. I never really grasped it though no matter how much he tried to teach me in his workshop,” she told him. “Yeah it was pretty bad...I managed to get all my books out, but I nearly got harmed in the process...even with help.”

Hans couldn’t help but frown at her comment. “That’s really a shame. Old literature is probably some of the best stuff. Sure, the language is hard to decipher sometimes, but it’s better than Twilight.”

Belle nodded as he expressed what a shame it was. “I often find that people don’t appreciate old literature, but the Odyssey is one of my favourite books. And Shakespeare is a favourite writer of mine.”

“I think that’s better though, because arts can be applied to anything but I think it’s harder to apply the science to the arts… o r maybe it’s hte opposite. I can’t remember now.” Jack said thoughtfully but shrugged. “Oh, really? What happened with that exactly, anyway? Why’d it ever close?”

“Science is perhaps the area I’m weakest at, but if I needed it I could probably read something and grasp it quick enough,” she smiled at his shrug, but then her smile died away. “Visitor levels were dwindling and staff morale was an all time low. Eventually someone snapped, set it ablaze and suddenly....everything was going crazy. People were screaming, running everywhere. Fire blazed...and Marcus died.”

“Maybe it does, that’d definitely be harder if my parents taught it. They’re both obsessed with sciency smart stuff.” Jack explained to her but was saying it just casually. “So how long have you been working here?”

“Oh my mother was the opposite, much more focused on the arts subjects. But I’d say my education was well-rounded, so it deosn’t really matter where the focus was I guess. I’ve been here for a while, since the circus reopened. And I was here before it shut down as well.”

Certainly he would be lying if he still said he wasn’t enjoying this. The music, the atmosphere, the smoke and the lights, everything. Even the act of dominating someone in such a performance. Invite them, seduce them, possess them. Eric felt completely part of the stage as he moved smoothly on it. He just never thought he had visitors from the circus, aside from Carolyn.

One of the few places that Belle hadn’t been in the circus was the vanity tent. After all, she wasn’t really sure how Brendan would react to her being there, especially knowing his fears about infidelity. But eventually she went, lingering in the back as she watched the man move in ways she’d never seen before. It was certainly something different, and she wasn’t sure what to do.

The noise of Vivian’s fingernails drumming against the surface of the metal platform she was sitting on was echoing through the empty performance tent. Her feets were dangling twenty metres over the ground, kicking the trapeze which was swinging back and forth every time it came towards her. She had sat there for a while already. Her practice had basically turned into her scowling at everything and nothing. Creating new performances always took time, effort and a patience which Vivian didn’t always have. Why weren’t things working the way she wanted them to? Why was gravity messing things up and swinging the second trapeze in the wrong direction, when she needed to jump on it? Fuck this! Fuck that! Fuck all of it!

    “Such bullshit,” the acrobat whispered under her breath and everyone who looked at her now would see something light up her eyes; defiance. She was Vivian Xavier. She always got what she wanted, and right now she wanted this stupid performance to work. The next time the trapeze flung to her, Vivian jumped off the platform and swung herself to the other side. Pirouettes and saltos weren’t the problem, nor using the trapeze for different poses without getting entangled - she was a professional after all. The only problem truly was the timing.

Vivian added another piroette, twisting the ropes of the trapeze in hope it would buy her some time and it did. When she let go to grab for the second trapeze, she could feel it brushing against her fingers and she would have had it… if only someone didn’t pull the entrance of the tent open, lightening the tent up. Reflexively she looked at them, missing the chance and before she knew it she fell. Safety net or not a fall could still hurt if you landed the wrong way, and the cracking sound of her wrist told everyone in hearing range that she did so.

   “Ow… DO SOMETHING!”

Belle had heard rumours that Vivian was changing up the show after Natalie had left for a third time, and to be honest she didn’t blame her. Losing someone so key to the act must be a pain in the ass, and she wanted to see how she was getting along. When she finally did get herself down to Vivian’s tent, everything seemed quiet as she opened up the tent and stepped in. Glancing up, she watched Vivian fall with horror and stood frozen for a moment until she started yelling.

“Oh my god, Vivian!” She suddenly jumped back into action, rushing towards the safety net. “Do you think you can get down if I give you a hand, then we can get you along to the medical tent?” Or would it be easier to phone someone to get them to come here. She didn’t know, she’d never had this happen before. But surely there was some form of protocol to follow...surely.

“That makes sense, but I mean I think the whole education system is kind of relaxed. Other than SATs which were and always will be Hell, but like I’ve met people from Europe that know stuff we don’t even touch on because that’s all saved for university.”

“My mother home-schooled me, so I guess my schooling may havebeen more rigorous than it might have been elsewhere. But I see your point...hm. Maybe an overhaul needs to happen.”

Hans looked at the cover of the book and tilted it toward her for her to see. “The Odyssey by Homer. Have you read it before?” he asked with a smile as he moved over in the grass. “Feel free to join me, I would hate for you to have to find a new place to sit on your break.”

Belle sat beside him, setting her bags down before she looked up and grinned. “I have read it, but I’ve never met anyone else that has. Most of my friends were put off by how old it was, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

“Oh you’re French? That’s cool… I don’t think it’s all Americans, I’m just not really great with languages. I’m decent at math though.” Jack pointed out with a shrug. “And some science.”

“What you tend to find is that the teaching of language in English-speaking countries is quite...relaxed. So people just forget it. But English is the language of the world, so we learnt it quite rigorously. However I’m not too good at science, that’s my downfall.”

Jack chuckled at the question about languages. “Well, I took Spanish all through highschool, so naturally I can sing the alphabet and count to ten, fifteen if I’m not too tired.”

“Ah, of course! Americans seem to struggle with foreign language...or so it seems, at least. My native tongue is French, but I grew up learning English from a very young age.”

“Oh right… that’s a thing.” Jack said thoughtfully before shaking his head. “I don’t actually need a Swedish copy. I don’t even speak Swedish.”

“Yep, google is definitely a thing. Saves my life a few times each day. Oh, well you had me there for a minute. Do you speak any other languages at all?”

“Oh, no, I’m so disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing what they named Voldemort in Swedish.” Jack told her, sticking his bottom lip out in a pout. “Nah it’s okay, I’ll find it somewhere.”

“I bet if you google what he’s called it’ll come up,” she laughed. “I can order it, it’s no bother, really.”

“Really? Any book?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow, seriously doubting that she had everything. “What abooooout the Swedish version of the fifth Harry Potter book?”

“I don’t stock books in other languages mostly...but I could order it in if you wanted it! I do have it in normal English, of course.”

“I don’t usually come in here, honestly. I just wanted to check it out.”

“Yeah, I tend to get a lot of people in here who’re just taking a look around. I promise that any book you could want is in here.”

“Oh, no I think I’m fine.” Jack said with an amused chuckle. “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“You sure, you look a little lost if I’m honest,” Belle smiled. “Alright then!”

“Did you know that less than 28 percent of Americans between the ages of 17-23 are qualified for military service?” Gus asked as he snapped out of his thoughts, turning to look at the person close to him. “That’s only about 1-in-4. If one belonged to those… you wouldn’t want to give up on it, would you? Is there something more important that could actually make you drop out, ignore the honor, stop fighting?”

“How come only 28 percent are qualified?” She asked, her brows furrowing. “I guess you have a background in military, or is this just a whim? For me...I don’t think I’m physically strong enough, but it would also depend who they were at war with. I’m French, you see...so if they were fighting the french, I’d have to drop out.”

“I’m nearly a hundred percent sure I heard you wrong there.” Jack told the other, honestly curious as to what they’d been trying to tell him. 

“Oh, I asked if you needed any help looking for a book. Why, what’d you think I said?”