Chapter Text
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Once Upon a time, in a small far away land, a young, handsome prince lived in a shining castle.
Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was rather guarded. He was quick to judge appearances, and believed kindness was something selective, only deserving to people he knew and held close.
And despite his cowardly nature, he boasted and presented himself as the bravest of the land.
But, one stormy winter's night, a young and frail boy appeared at the doorstep of the castle. He was thin, and pale, and frost clung to his lashes. Something about the boy’s soulless black eyes scared the prince.
The boy offered him a single red rose, in return for shelter from the bitter cold of the night.
“Please,” the boy said. His voice was very soft, almost fragile. “I’m cold.”
“I don’t know what you are,” The prince had replied, voice trembling as he tried to be brave, “but you can’t stay here.”
He then scoffed at the measly flower, letting arrogance fuel his false bravery. The shaggy and unsettling appearance of the boy actually scared the Prince.
The creepy boy warned him that appearances can be deceiving, and kindness was something everyone deserved regardless of beauty and whether they were human.
But the prince slammed the door on his face, dismissing him as he was terrified of what he could not understand.
That’s exactly when the storm grew louder.
A blinding flash of crimson light pierced through the castle. The great doors flew open, and in the strange boy's place, stood a figure impossibly tall and hideous.
It was Vecna. A corrupted sorcerer known to all but rarely ever encountered.
His body was like a shadow with some flesh, the shape of him warped as though reality itself could not settle around him. His feet barely touched the ground.
“How fragile the human heart is,” it said, voice booming through every corner of the castle, “It claims kindness, but surrenders far too quickly to fear.”
“What-what are you?” The prince cried out, dropping to his knees in fright and begging for forgiveness. Behind him, screams echoed through the castle over the sound of dark vines travelling through the structures.
Vecna tilted his head, looming over the Prince.
“A lesson.”
More vines erupted from the floor. Vecna raised one terrifying clawed hand, holding it over the Prince’s face.
“You chose cowardice, just as I’d believed,” he said, “Now, your fear will become the only face the world will ever know.”
The prince screamed in agony, bones cracking and contorting as he transformed into an eerie, dark beast. He had cried and pleaded but it was too late.
The fear in his heart had captured the attention of the one entity that feeds off of it. And it turned his entire world Upside Down.
His hesitation to offer a strange person compassion, cost him his most prized possessions. His appearance, his home, and all the people he loved.
Vecna had cursed the entire castle, and all who lived there.
The rose it had offered to the prince was an embodiment of the curse, just beginning to decay.
It was a timer that would only bloom until his 21st year.
If he could earn the love of another, as a terrifying beastly creature, by the time the last petal fell off and the flower rotted, the curse would be lifted.
If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast forever.
Ashamed by his horrifying appearance and his mistake, the prince locked himself in the castle. There was only a magic mirror left, that allowed him to see the outside world.
As the years passed, he fell into deep despair, and lost all hope.
For who could ever learn to love a beast.
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