tallyyoungblood | closed post: in the eye of the beholder

Tally's had a lot on her mind since the death and the wedding. Life, love, the fragility of those things--but, of course, she is who she is, so her mind comes back to what it always does: beauty.

As much as she'd judged that strange man for his disheveled robes, everyone else had looked gorgeous, and happier than she'd ever seen a room full of pretties look. Most notably, they'd all looked legitimately different from each other, in just about every way possible. That the effect was beautiful instead of overwhelming is a new experience for Tally.

Tally feels like she knows what Claudius might say about the wedding. He'd heap effusive praise on everyone, and tell her that of course he wanted everyone to be uniquely themselves. She thinks he understands the halo effect better than anyone else she knows here, but also, as a former pre-Rusty king, understands how to deal with a crowd of adult uglies. Galahad, though, has never been someone Tally could guess at the thoughts of. He'd clearly been too happily overwhelmed to really talk at the ceremony itself, so she goes to knock on his door a few days later.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

tallyyoungblood

"Oh, good! Well, in order to pass on your genes, you want a healthy mate and to protect your children, right? So we automatically look for signs of health and youth in other people. That's where beauty comes from. I look like this because big eyes remind people of things they want to protect, like children and kittens and stuff, and the clear skin and the symmetry show I'm not sick and wasn't sick as a child. Obviously, like, we've gotten past the part of history where everyone has to have a million children, but we're still programmed by our genes to look for beauty. And of course we want to look beautiful, to attract other people."

From:

onthewillowsthere

He's silent, turning this over. He does want Claudius to notice the way he clothes and decorates himself, and think him lovely, but he also wants to be beautiful for beauty's sake. He was to be beautiful for no purpose, like the bone from in his pocket.

Finally he asks, "Do you want to be unbeautiful for Gideon?"

From:

tallyyoungblood

"Unbeautiful," Tally says. "You mean ugly?" She's turning the question over in her head.

From:

onthewillowsthere

"Do you mean ugly in my world or yours?"

From:

tallyyoungblood

"Ugly is ugly. It's evolution," Tally says stubbornly, but she frowns. Is it? She doesn't find Gideon ugly at all any more. "I don't want to be ugly, but maybe differently beautiful."

From:

onthewillowsthere

"Like this," he says, meaning her face.

From:

tallyyoungblood

"Yeah. Maybe being a little asymmetrical is bubbly sometimes."

From:

onthewillowsthere

"Will you tell me what you like about Gideon?"

From:

tallyyoungblood

Right, Galahad was asking about Gideon. "Well, she's fun to hang out with. She's really funny and totally loyal and determined."

From:

onthewillowsthere

He nods -- these are characteristics he's noticed in Gideon himself -- and waits to see whether she'll continue.

From:

tallyyoungblood

"If we're talking about, like, how she looks, it's totally weird. At first I just liked her muscles and her gold eyes, because pretties have those things, but she kind of looks pretty to me now. Or, you know. Not ugly."

From:

onthewillowsthere

"Hot," he offers.

From:

tallyyoungblood

Tally laughs. "Yeah. Really hot."

From:

onthewillowsthere

"I think she would like that."

From:

tallyyoungblood

"To hear me say it?"

From:

onthewillowsthere

"Yes."

From:

tallyyoungblood

"I'll tell her," Tally says. If she's being honest, she sometimes forgets that the way she feels about Gideon isn't obvious, or that she might need an out-loud reminder sometimes. "I do kind of think she knows. Because of all the, um, kissing."

From:

onthewillowsthere

"It's different when you say it," Galahad says, a faint flush rising on his cheeks.

From:

tallyyoungblood

"You make a good point," Tally says, thinking about Gideon calling her gorgeous. "But you totally get my point, right? How can this stuff be a sin? It feels good."