A fair amount of talking, but because you've given it an underlying tension and created characters we care about, its not at all dull.
Beauty's comment speaks to a lot of hobbies, they're painless to the degree they don't provide a living for you.
So Beast was a CANDIDATE for this role? That, to me, implies that he was watched and chosen for this post... I guess I had always assumed that he had entered into the contract to save his own skin after committing some terrible atrocity. At the mystical fountain perhaps?
That particular list should be ringing some bells, Beauty.
Also HA to her irritation, I love it!
Also also, Megan: chatty chatty yes good. This is a romance (well, or so we hope) and that's where most love comes from, IMO. If we want action we'll go reread Digger. =)
Ah, there we go, the scary lady is his mother...who probably studied plants to learn how to make poisons from them, given what we know of her characterization thus far. By "necessity" I think he would mean he learned to help his mother with her work and not get poisoned by dangerous plants in the process.
And Beauty, this discussion clearly indicates that he was a member of the upper class, if not nobility, given that he didn't have to work the land and given the nature of his studies. And...what does he mean by "appealing candidate"? Were there other candidates? Was he watched and chosen for this role? I thought it was his curse that led him to be here, but I suppose with all of the talk of contracts, it must be more complicated than that.
