CHARACTER ESSAY » shinichi/conan and beatrice
Number four. I'm making this fancy and bulleted because their relationship is
com pli ca ted
Also going out of order for now hmm
♔ Meeting
Let's be up front first and foremost. Beatrice has an image to uphold, and that image is of a haughty, holier-than-thou higher-level being with little to no regard for human life except as chess pieces. While I think plenty of Beatrice's trollery is genuine (EP3 shows her having confusion, which can be interpreted as genuine, somewhat, as to what is even WRONG with torturing people as long as you fix them in the end??) and enjoyed on her part, a lot of it is the facade of the golden witch, shoes that need to be filled. This does not change wherever Beatrice goes. She viewed her stay on the island when she first arrived as extremely transient with a chance of people from home showing up-- even if she wanted to ease up, would she really want people from the island going OH YEAH BEATO'S HARMLESS to people from home who might show up? The act is important, it stays, it's a part of her.
So she met the little boy who didn't believe in witches who was too smart for his own good. Okay.
Beatrice heavily underestimated him. She thought he was a little boy who read too many detective manga and had a sense of justice and thought he could 'disprove the witch'. Honestly, in the beginning? Beato thought of him as a toy to humor and uphold her image, expecting to get bored of him very quickly or make him believe right away. Neither happened. Also, maybe a part of the act, maybe genuine, Beatrice is a bit of a bragger. Boy, she thought, she would love to horrify him by vaguely hinting that she might be involved in the deaths of many people. It was all in good fun, like I said, she didn't expect to be interested in him very long or hang around. As you can see, that did not happen.
So they began a game, a very simplified version of what Beato is familiar with; Explain my tricks with human methods, and you win. Fail, and I win. Every time Conan wins a match in this, she quite literally shows him bits and pieces of the game of Rokkenjima, inviting him as an observer to her tale, not challenging him on it, as it is Battler's right. She does this because he was so devoted to the truth that it functioned as a reward for him, and for Beatrice, it was just showing off and giving her something to snicker about. After a while? Beato kind of realized that annoying him was fun. Having a game to play was fun. She gives him a plethora of nicknames and rarely calls him by his real name...s.
So at first he started out as most people do with Beatrice; a toy.
♔ Development
The island made it hard for them to keep secrets from each other right off the bat, with the Truth event, which made people feel compelled to tell the truth-- He found out the easy way there's more to Beatrice than what meets the eye. Beatrice found out right away that he's, well, a teenager. This didn't surprise her at all given the fact that she's a goddamn witch, though it did offend her because he can believe in DRUGS THAT SHRINK SOMEONE and not witches or even magic. Frankly she still finds that a bit stupid. Anyway, some secrets were out and then Beato, annoyed, realized she couldn't leave him alone with them, so pesterings would have to continue. At the same time, she was starting to see his value as an opponent, and more as 'interesting person' than 'thing to make me less bored'.
I don't think Beatrice made the 'possibly, maybe friend' connection until the high school event, even though they were fundamentally changed for that. She got to see who he was without the eight-year-old in the way, without the odd circumstances of the island in the way-- as close to normal as one could see him. AU!Beatrice was kind of... tsundere for him? Translating her canon to that AU meant she was a pretty lonely girl, so hey even the jerk who'd play chess with her during class and match her morbid sense of humor a little bit was an okay guy. When the event was over, she realized he was the same person, just a different situation, and it was then that he thought he might be alright, ~annoying as he was~. And I guess I'll echo what Conan said in their essay that they probably would've just stayed as healthy rivals if nothing came in and messed up the status quo.
But then more witches from her world came in.
♔ Present
Okay, Beatrice didn't want him involved at all with Bernkastel and Lambdadelta because a) SHE INVOLVED HIM IN THE GAME, THAT'S A NO-NO and b) they don't have any qualms about fucking around with Beato. Fucking around with Beato also means fucking around with the people she likes, so she felt like he was something of a target. Buuut Beato knows by this point that Conan is nosy as hell and wouldn't leave alone a witch who basically vowed to destroy Beatrice. So she had two choices: Cut off all ties with him for his own good, or at least prepare him in case that guess of hers ever became a reality.
But let's rewind a bit. Before she made that choice, Beato broke down in front of him. I think I forgot to mention that all these new witches were like HAHAHA YOU DID WORSE THAN LOSE since Beatrice is from the beginning of Game 4 and these witches are from the end of Game 5. Biiig biiig dramatic difference. So learning that she lost without even being there to experience it or know why...? Struck Beato hard. She thought there was kind of nothing else to go on for, and lo and behold, Conan was kind of her only friend. Sakutaro, yeah, but Sakutaro is genuinely a little kid with a little kid mindset. She needed someone more mature to talk to. Anyway, he helped her regain her confidence and even though she's quite sure she'll lose, she wants to protect this kakera. She also wants to see where Erika's loyalties lie, to see if she can't bring over the Witch of Truth with the bait of existence... buuut that's another story for another time.
She granted Conan the ability to use the blue truth for his own protection, but instructed him not to use it. Though she hasn't outright said it, she feels as though this makes him her piece in this game, from a witch's standpoint. Therefore, showing off that ability = bad. Don't show your hand. For right now, she's watching over him and making sure he doesn't abuse what she has let him use. She's also quick to scold when he shows overconfidence with this game, but in an odd way, that's out of concern than pure annoyance. Fuck it if he doesn't believe in witches, but like hell she will let him underestimate anyone else from her world lest he wants to die repeatedly.
BUT ALSO she's kind of... childishly bothered by the fact that she can't really get a rise out of him. So she's going to fix that in the future in a very bad and possibly poorly thought-out way. We all know what Beatrice's idea of a harmless trick is in comparison to what humans think is harmless, so... yeah.
All in all, she trusts him, cares about him to the point of anger, connects with him on some level, he's the only person here to ever see her childish side and the tragic side. He is not replaceable to her.
com pli ca ted
Also going out of order for now hmm
♔ Meeting
Let's be up front first and foremost. Beatrice has an image to uphold, and that image is of a haughty, holier-than-thou higher-level being with little to no regard for human life except as chess pieces. While I think plenty of Beatrice's trollery is genuine (EP3 shows her having confusion, which can be interpreted as genuine, somewhat, as to what is even WRONG with torturing people as long as you fix them in the end??) and enjoyed on her part, a lot of it is the facade of the golden witch, shoes that need to be filled. This does not change wherever Beatrice goes. She viewed her stay on the island when she first arrived as extremely transient with a chance of people from home showing up-- even if she wanted to ease up, would she really want people from the island going OH YEAH BEATO'S HARMLESS to people from home who might show up? The act is important, it stays, it's a part of her.
So she met the little boy who didn't believe in witches who was too smart for his own good. Okay.
Beatrice heavily underestimated him. She thought he was a little boy who read too many detective manga and had a sense of justice and thought he could 'disprove the witch'. Honestly, in the beginning? Beato thought of him as a toy to humor and uphold her image, expecting to get bored of him very quickly or make him believe right away. Neither happened. Also, maybe a part of the act, maybe genuine, Beatrice is a bit of a bragger. Boy, she thought, she would love to horrify him by vaguely hinting that she might be involved in the deaths of many people. It was all in good fun, like I said, she didn't expect to be interested in him very long or hang around. As you can see, that did not happen.
So they began a game, a very simplified version of what Beato is familiar with; Explain my tricks with human methods, and you win. Fail, and I win. Every time Conan wins a match in this, she quite literally shows him bits and pieces of the game of Rokkenjima, inviting him as an observer to her tale, not challenging him on it, as it is Battler's right. She does this because he was so devoted to the truth that it functioned as a reward for him, and for Beatrice, it was just showing off and giving her something to snicker about. After a while? Beato kind of realized that annoying him was fun. Having a game to play was fun. She gives him a plethora of nicknames and rarely calls him by his real name...s.
So at first he started out as most people do with Beatrice; a toy.
♔ Development
The island made it hard for them to keep secrets from each other right off the bat, with the Truth event, which made people feel compelled to tell the truth-- He found out the easy way there's more to Beatrice than what meets the eye. Beatrice found out right away that he's, well, a teenager. This didn't surprise her at all given the fact that she's a goddamn witch, though it did offend her because he can believe in DRUGS THAT SHRINK SOMEONE and not witches or even magic. Frankly she still finds that a bit stupid. Anyway, some secrets were out and then Beato, annoyed, realized she couldn't leave him alone with them, so pesterings would have to continue. At the same time, she was starting to see his value as an opponent, and more as 'interesting person' than 'thing to make me less bored'.
I don't think Beatrice made the 'possibly, maybe friend' connection until the high school event, even though they were fundamentally changed for that. She got to see who he was without the eight-year-old in the way, without the odd circumstances of the island in the way-- as close to normal as one could see him. AU!Beatrice was kind of... tsundere for him? Translating her canon to that AU meant she was a pretty lonely girl, so hey even the jerk who'd play chess with her during class and match her morbid sense of humor a little bit was an okay guy. When the event was over, she realized he was the same person, just a different situation, and it was then that he thought he might be alright, ~annoying as he was~. And I guess I'll echo what Conan said in their essay that they probably would've just stayed as healthy rivals if nothing came in and messed up the status quo.
But then more witches from her world came in.
♔ Present
Okay, Beatrice didn't want him involved at all with Bernkastel and Lambdadelta because a) SHE INVOLVED HIM IN THE GAME, THAT'S A NO-NO and b) they don't have any qualms about fucking around with Beato. Fucking around with Beato also means fucking around with the people she likes, so she felt like he was something of a target. Buuut Beato knows by this point that Conan is nosy as hell and wouldn't leave alone a witch who basically vowed to destroy Beatrice. So she had two choices: Cut off all ties with him for his own good, or at least prepare him in case that guess of hers ever became a reality.
But let's rewind a bit. Before she made that choice, Beato broke down in front of him. I think I forgot to mention that all these new witches were like HAHAHA YOU DID WORSE THAN LOSE since Beatrice is from the beginning of Game 4 and these witches are from the end of Game 5. Biiig biiig dramatic difference. So learning that she lost without even being there to experience it or know why...? Struck Beato hard. She thought there was kind of nothing else to go on for, and lo and behold, Conan was kind of her only friend. Sakutaro, yeah, but Sakutaro is genuinely a little kid with a little kid mindset. She needed someone more mature to talk to. Anyway, he helped her regain her confidence and even though she's quite sure she'll lose, she wants to protect this kakera. She also wants to see where Erika's loyalties lie, to see if she can't bring over the Witch of Truth with the bait of existence... buuut that's another story for another time.
She granted Conan the ability to use the blue truth for his own protection, but instructed him not to use it. Though she hasn't outright said it, she feels as though this makes him her piece in this game, from a witch's standpoint. Therefore, showing off that ability = bad. Don't show your hand. For right now, she's watching over him and making sure he doesn't abuse what she has let him use. She's also quick to scold when he shows overconfidence with this game, but in an odd way, that's out of concern than pure annoyance. Fuck it if he doesn't believe in witches, but like hell she will let him underestimate anyone else from her world lest he wants to die repeatedly.
BUT ALSO she's kind of... childishly bothered by the fact that she can't really get a rise out of him. So she's going to fix that in the future in a very bad and possibly poorly thought-out way. We all know what Beatrice's idea of a harmless trick is in comparison to what humans think is harmless, so... yeah.
All in all, she trusts him, cares about him to the point of anger, connects with him on some level, he's the only person here to ever see her childish side and the tragic side. He is not replaceable to her.