Character Encounters: Bookshelf

As it is the last day of September, I figured I had better do a Character Encounter. Kendra hosts them at Knitted By God's Plan.
In this story, you get to meet the "Beast" character from my Beauty and the Beast retelling.


This month, instead of letting the Character Encounter catch me unawares, I had come specifically looking for it. Aha, there was door to the study! This was where my Beast spent all his time, surrounded by books and plants and big furniture. I opened the door and went in. There he was, sitting behind his desk in his wheelchair, book propped up in front of him. For once he wasn't wearing the mask that hid his war deformities.
"Hello, Virgil?" I asked him. "May I call you Virgil?"
"Who are you? I've never seen you before! Mrs. Neville!" my Beast exclaimed, his native British accent coming out especially British today.
"I would call you Mr. Prince, but I think too many people are using that name, so I want to change it. I just don't know what I want to change it to yet. Yet Virgil Prince does have a ring to it... What do you think?"
"What are you talking about? Mrs. Neville!" Virgil Prince pressed the button on the side of the desk that alerted various staff members that he was in need of their services.
"She's not here," I said, "so you have to talk to me. Now, why does the name Virgil have such a ring to it?"
"I don't know!" Virgil snapped.
"Why are you called Virgil?"
"I'm not," he growled, "I go by my last name or 'sir.'"
"Still, your first name is Virgil. Why is that?"
"I don't know! My parents liked the Aeneid!"
"Have you ever wished you had a different last name? If so, what?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm thinking of renaming you!" Hasn't he been paying attention? I thought.
"Well, choose anything other than Maro."
"What's a really British-sounding last name... Virgil Austen? No... Virgil Dickens? No... Virgil Bronte? No... Virgil Smith? Virgil Brown? Virgil Stafford? Virgil Churchill? That has a ring to it."
"No. I refuse to be called Virgil Churchill."
"You don't get a say in the matter."
"Oh yes I do! It's my name, after all! And I say that my last name will stay Prince!"
I narrowed my eyes at him. "This isn't over," I said.
"Oh yes it is! Get out of my study! NOW!"
I could see why Carillon was frightened to confront him. Maybe I should just call him Virgil Terbeest. Beest meant "beast" in Dutch. He could be a Dutch man instead of a British man. Hmmm...


Live long and prosper!