french,, BELLE LACEY

when the curse was cast, she found herself completely wiped of everything, but a name. the name had been a whisper on the wind, and she had clung to it, hoping for it to be true. as asylum!lacey, she is meek, quiet, and very reserved. she hadn't much else to do, but build up who she thought she had been so by the time she was released she faced the world with reckless abandon. this persona was categorized as a bit of a rebel, and she's seen drinking in bars and causing trouble. she is stll kind and compassionate, but it is hidden behind her rough exterior. just don't ask her to talk about herself.

belle is caring and emotional, she loves wholeheartedly and it isn’t difficult to gain her trust. she’s also sympathetic and forgiving, it isn't in her nature to hold grudges. belle values intelligence and has a thirst for knowledge. a stimulating conversation would get through to her more than a pretty face. belle is a stubborn girl, she doesn’t give up easily and will stand for herself and her kingdom if she has too.

belle has a tendency to false-start her sentences a lot. it almost sounds as though she’s stammering but not quite, and it’s just a part of her normal speech pattern. it’s nothing to do with nerves or anxiety or lack of confidence, but the opposite - she’s confident enough to respond before she’s even thought through what she wants to say exactly. so many words are in her head at any one time that she struggles to choose the right ones, hence why she sometimes pauses. she’s also a romantic at heart and can trail off in the middle of a sentence while she’s deep in thought.

belle is currently residing in the caretaker’s apartment situated above the library. as she’s still getting used to modern day technology, she has neatly-written sticky notes on most gadgets around the house - detailing what they are, what they do and what not to do with them. day by day she’s finding she can remove more and more sticky notes, and is quietly satisfied that she’s becoming accustomed to life in Storybrooke.

she is the only daughter of sir maurice (moe french). during the ogre wars that ransacked her township, her mother, collette, sacrificed herself, while belle was pulled away by some guards. to help her with her grief, her father gives her a memory potion to make her forget her mother's death, and awakens to find her curiously gone from the her home. belle was engaged to be married to the arrogant gaston before a deal was struck with the dark one, rumpelstiltskin, in exchange for the safety of their township. she did not even get to see her kin delivered from the path of the ogres before she was whisked away to the dark castle. here, she became rumple's caretaker and companion, though it wasn't long before she realised she was falling in love with the man who held her captive.

one evening, she was feeling rather homesick, rumple inquired to her down mood; she explains that she misses her father and wishes she could see him. rumple allows her to do so via a mirror, which she only has to tell it to show her what she wants to see. she requests to see her father, and finds him falling ill. rumple decides to let her go. belle realised in part that he cared for her enough to set her free. in joy, she confesses how she felt for him through true love’s kiss. though he complied initially, the realisation that he would lose his power - and the deep-seated paranoia that no one could ever love him - forced him to push her away. when rumple cast her out, belle realised that not only was he too afraid to love her but unable to accept the fact that she loved him too.

she travelled aimlessly afterwards, drifting in and out of taverns before signing up onto a quest to defeat the dreaded yaoguai. with the help of mulan, belle tracked down the fabled monster and neutralised it only to find that it was a cursed prince. after saving phillip from his curse and hearing of his determination to be reunited with his true love, belle swore she’d return to rumpelstiltskin. instead, she was captured by the evil queen, regina.

when the curse hit the enchanted forest and whisked them away to storybrooke, maine; her life was turned a little upside down. she became careless and cold. she felt trapped in her own skin. she had no recollection of who she was, where she had been, or what she had done. a complete blank slate, like someone had wiped her memories and forgotten to put something back. she had simply only been given a name to go by. 'lacey.' she was just a pawn to one day be of use to regina and so was never given a complete cursed identity. she had no family, no background. at least, to her own knowledge.

at first, she was locked up in the storybrooke asylum, until one day, she was mysteriously released and she wandered. she, with nowhere to go, always found herself breaking into and returning time and time again to the shutdown library, where she hid away reading. when she's not in the library, she's helping moe in his flower shop 'game of thorns' or in the library caretaker apartment, on the second floor. during her time between breaking into the library and helping out at the game of thorns, she met a man known as will scarlet, and fell quickly in love with him - or at least so she thought. she finds herself six months into engagement and wedding planning with him.