#cxldheartedbeast

While Maurice tended to the preparations around their estate--already in costume as a sultan since he had been far too excited for the night’s festivities--Belle was in her bedroom, making preparations of her own. They had no household staff as of yet, and Belle’s mother had passed away when she was young, so Belle had learned to dress on her own, including tying her own corsets when she grew old enough to wear them. Fully dressed in a gown of gold and crimson, with shoes to match, she sat at her vanity desk and plaited her hair into a simple but regal braid crown, pinning the remaining tresses so they fell prettily in front of her right shoulder and placing a silk rose above her ear. She applied a modest amount of makeup--only enough to colour her lips to match the crimson in her gown and tint her cheeks a slightly darker pink than their natural hue--and reached for a vial on the desk. The vial held an invention of her own. Like her father, Belle was a bit of an inventor herself, though her few inventions were of a more chemical nature most often. The liquid in the vial was a compound which, when exposed to the air, would crystallize in a way that imitated the appearance of jewels. This vial held a clear batch of the compound, while another held a batch whose shade was nearly blood red. She only put three drops of the clear compound upon her skin: One on the bridge of her nose and one at the corner of each eye. Then with the darker compound she created a mask of sorts around her eyes by connecting those three drops. Thus adorned, she went to help Maurice with the preparations and greet guests once they began to arrive.