tomorrow is here — closed

[demainvient]

WHO: Expedition 33 (Gustave, Maelle, Sciel, and Verso)
WHEN: post-mingle, pre-mission
WHERE: the apartments
WHAT: the remaining members of Expedition 33
NOTES\WARNINGS: spoilers for Acts 1&2 of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Comments

group meeting!

[demainvient]

Maelle hasn't let him out of her sight, and he's hardly let her out of reach, but she's not the only one he feels like he has to keep an eye on, now that they're together again. He and Sciel had already had an unspoken agreement to stay together; it's only natural to take Maelle and try to find a place big enough for all of them.

He hadn't really... realized that Verso would probably be there, too. That Sciel and Maelle would want him there, after having had him join up with the expedition. It's a strange feeling, thinking about how this near-stranger to him had taken up his place in the team and become a trusted companion to his family and friends...

Well, there's space for Verso, too, if he wants to stay with them. Right now, the place is barebones and mostly empty, but it has a large living area with some comfortable couches and chairs, and enough beds for everyone. After months of sleeping on too-thin bedrolls on the hard ground, beds — not to mention hot running water — feel like an impossible luxury. Gustave looks around from where he's standing near Maelle, arms folded across his chest, and shrugs. "Well, it's no falling down, half-ruined building left behind from the Fracture, but it'd be a roof over our heads. What d'you all think?"

[maellum]

Having the four of them together, at least, has improved Maelle's mood. It's still strange and surreal, but she's altogether certain it's real, and she even smiles as she looks up at Gustave, hands clasp behind her back. For now, this is home, and it's perfect because he's standing beside her.

"I don't know. Can we source some rubble from somewhere?" She asks, teasing. Even with the furniture, there's an audible echo from those bare walls. Sciel gets a smile, Maelle glad that there's no doubt about whether she'll be staying, but the smile becomes hesitant as she looks from her to Verso.

"Maybe we can fit a piano somewhere, too."

Because he's staying, right?

[cache_coeur]

It's nice, seeing Maelle and Gustave together again. Not that they'd ever been particularly clingy, but she can see them alert in a new way, looking around whenever the other strays too far or leaves the room. They'll settle, she's sure. Until then, she'll smile every time she sees how many inches are between their elbows.

It's less cute when Maelle says that, but.

"Not even a piano could make it less ugly," she says, crisply, a joke without a wink. Where is the wallpaper, the ironwork, the etchings in the bedposts? "But seems quieter than my old apartment. The restaurant below kept its terrace open until two in the morning."

She's by the window, for now, figuring out how to jimmy it open to let a better breeze in. The arm that should do it is broken. New, strange problems to have: Lumière's weather had been so sterile, kept even by the Dome, and a real summer is going to be interesting to contend with.

"What was our last proper pied-à-terre, anyway? The manor floor? Verso, come help me with this."

She has her doubts whether Verso will stay, but it wouldn't surprise her if he did. Once an Expeditioner...

maelle

[maellum]

Maelle's quietly meandering around the apartment, opening closet doors and closing them when she confirms they're empty like all the others. Fascinating, this idea of a home that's theirs to decorate and fill as they please. It's exciting and overwhelming all at once. Gustave and Emma gave her a warm and loving home, of course, but it was still their home that she moved into. She got to fill her room with little things she found here and there, trinkets and treasures, and her wardrobe held her sense of fashion, but in a way she always felt like a guest.

She wonders if that feeling will find her here, even once they fill this apartment with comforts. Granted, there's no better comfort than Gustave, and even as Maelle wanders from room to room, fingertips trailing along white walls, she's acutely aware of where he is. The sound of his voice or his footsteps nearby gives her enough peace of mind to not be glued to his side.

In the kitchen, Maelle leans up on her toes, reaching an arm up to try and see if she can reach an empty top shelf in a cabinet over the counter. Not even close. A good spot to hide things that aren't meant for her. She gives up with a sigh.

[cache_coeur]

[After Maelle’s talk with Gustave and then Verso]

Maelle has been quiet since she got back, creeping around the apartment like a little mouse, looking for somewhere to disappear into. For a while, Sciel just watches her from the floor, where she’s turned their ample floor space into her own person stretching pad. She touches her toes, she ease herself into the splits, she tests how tight her hamstrings are. Very tight, it seems. Too much negative energy.

She watches their little mouse slip into the kitchen, through the very same door Verso had slipped out of, and listens to more cupboards open and close. Open and close. Open and close.

Sciel pushes herself up on her hands, and then to her feet. She feels her knees pop. That is part of getting old, whether you are fit or not. It seems knees are just bad no matter what. She hopes she does not have to have shit knees for all of immortality. It would be better to be sixteen, other than the part filled with all the world’s sorrows and none of the world’s experience to handle it with.

It makes her sad, and there’s been enough of that today.

“Maelle,” she calls. “Have you found anything interesting?”

[maellum]

"No. Not yet," she says, opening and closing the oven door. It's with no force, but she's in a rotten mood, tired and embarrassed and sad. This is not how their apartment hunt waa supposed to go. Gustave upset, Verso living apart. Maelle, feeling like it would be so bad to turn to petals and ash again.

Sciel seems fine, though. Ever in control of her emotions no matter the situation. Maelle wishes she could chase away the chasm in her chest.

She sighs, and opens a cabinet next to the stove, sticking her head in to see if there's anything in its depths.

Verso.

[fromfire]

after the mingle (sciel edition)

Somehow, Verso believes that she would walk out the door as well but she doesn't. She closes the door but leaves it unlocked for the two to return, to come home. There is no offering smile or words but he understands. He thinks he does. Sympathy for omission of truth can only go so far.

So, he watches her head toward the kitchen; his gaze chasing after her and it is only a few beats later that he follows after. It wouldn't be right to leave her; it wouldn't be fair. At least, it doesn't feel fair to him.

"Sciel." He calls her name first as he draws close, like she doesn't know he is still there. His eyebrows come together first before glancing around the kitchen, stopping only after the little journey his eyes made on her face.

What should he say? He is sorry? But the apology is meant for Gustave rather than to her -- no, he knows what to say, what to ask.

He takes a step closer. Yes, that is why he chased after her; he worrier how she is. He told her once that she seemed the most stable of the Expedition; not as stressed as the others. But he understands her a little better than before, so asks, concerned, "Are you all right?"

after group mingle (open)

Where does he go from here? He wonders about all the truths he has locked inside of him. Those he holds onto to protect those around him; those he hides to protect himself.

An exhaustion weighs on his shoulders but it is one of his own making. So, what right does he have to be tired? To seek sympathy or consolation from anyone? He has none.

But he has a promise -- he would stay; he is part of this continued Expedition. For how long depends on them, he supposes. He feels like a fraud, like he's playing pretend with both Expeditioners and Renior. Trying to find their happiness for them, with them (maybe), but it is all just his own selfishness.

He wanders through the rooms, getting a feel for the space that he will live in with the others; he lets his thoughts sink him somewhere unpleasant. He doesn't touch anything as he moves from room to room. His hands staying at his sides as he walks; his gaze traces everything, acknowledging every little piece, but he acts like a specter who is only there to watch.

[cache_coeur]

She's got her hands on the counter, looking down at it, but she turns when he follows her in, leaning her hips against the counter's edge. She holds one arm with the other, vaguely uncomfortable despite how steadily she meets his eyes.

She knows she's right about him, deep down. It feels strange to always be looking for the version of him she trusts in, glossing over the parts where he abandons his better self. Stranger still when he tries to hold onto that person and doesn't quite get there.

She wants to believe she really does know that person.

"Yes, but... that wasn't fair to him," she says. Too non-specific. She adds: "The way you flirted with him, knowing what he doesn't know."

[fromfire]

His gaze drifts down to how she holds himself and back up to her face. A slight twitch of his mouth as he gives her a half-smile at the confirmation that she's okay -- a quick little reaction but he isn't sure how true it is.

He doesn't let his gaze flicker away at her comment, however. "No, you're right." Maintaining eye contact, he tilts his head away in his usual manner. A small sigh follows as he doesn't have any good defense for putting him in that position.

"I'll have a proper talk with him." A promise that he gives readily. Thinking on it more, he decides on going back on what he decided to say: "It feels wrong not to say sorry to you, too, though." He doesn't think he should ask if he should stay, however. That may be a better conversation with Gustave since --

-- his gaze does drift away, then.

"But you sure you're okay? You're always there for us, but sometimes I worry about who is there for you." His head inclines in her direction.

[maellum]

It's some time before Maelle approaches Verso. Gustave had been her priority, but there's no less concern for Verso. He had already looked like he would slip away the moment eyes weren't on him, and so she's surprised to find him in one of the empty bedrooms, but not displeased.

Relieved, actually.

"Hi," she says, cautious as she steps in. "Um. Can we talk?"

If he's lingered about, he must be expecting this.

"About Gustave and... everything."

[fromfire]

"Hey." His tone isn't as cautious, but welcoming, patient. "Always."

He shifts around to face her, offering a little smile.

"It's good to have him back, isn't it?" What he decides on saying, but his smile softens, something warmer. He's uncertain how he feels, but he doesn't want her to feel guilty.

"But yeah... we can always talk."

[demainvient]

In the end, Maelle had given him a little time alone on the roof, and he'd needed it, even with the constant, niggling need to go and find her, get her in sight, touch her, make sure she's real. He looks out across this strange city, breathes in strange air, and tries to work his way through all the thoughts tangling up in his head, the emotions tangling up in his chest, but it doesn't work. He's never been good at simply... letting go, at letting his mind go blank. Everything snarls up together, and soon enough he realizes he's simply circling through the same cycle over and over again.

Enough.

He heads back down with a firm stride, only to find the man he's looking to speak to is no longer where Gustave left him. An oblique comment from Sciel later, and Gustave is back in the hall, standing outside the door to the apartment Verso had apparently taken. Been shunted into.

Another dose of guilt, slid gently into the already too-large mass in his gut, his chest. He understands why Sciel had made that call, but...

Well. He hesitates only a moment longer, then lifts a hand to knock lightly at the door.

[fromfire]

Verso doesn't necessarily mind the new space that he's in. Sciel's right that it isn't across the continent. It is what it is. Both Maelle and Sciel say comforting words to him as he exits the scene, and he appreciates their kindness and reassurances for what they are.

He's using the Pictos to move larger objects out of the way to set the piano in the living area. His fingers slide across the smooth surface of what he's stolen. It isn't the piano that he had for decades upon decades, but he's grown fond of it. Because it is what was there for him when he came to a new world, to a new place without certainty.

Music found him yet again.

But he tilts his head as he hears the knock on the door. Shifting, he acknowledges Gustave in the entryway. He's mildly surprised but makes a small gesture for him to enter if he so wants to do so.

"Hopefully, you're not been sent here because they asked you to come." His tone wraps itself in ease, saying without saying that Gustave doesn't have to do anything for him, that he isn't the one in the wrong.

on the roof— Maelle

[demainvient]

[ He's only a little way into the hall when he hears softer steps coming after him, quick and determined, and in a blink he shifts his intended direction. Rather than simply pacing around in the hall, where he could still be only a few steps from Maelle, he now heads toward the stairs that lead up and up and up to the roof of the building.

There's no Hanging Garden, here. There isn't even a quiet cliffside looking out over a strange and shattered but still beautiful world waiting for them, filled with untold dangers and wonders. This city-island isn't anything like Lumiere, the buildings too ugly and people everywhere. When he looks out to the horizon, no Monolith greets him, its numbers glowing implacably through the day and night.

But it still feels better to get out into the open air. He pauses at the door, waiting for her, and holds it open so she can join him out here. The roof is as utilitarian as the rest of the building: no greenery, no grass, no stones to throw. Just as well, probably, considering the people milling around below.

His right hand still flexes as he heads to the railing, looking out. He'd feel better if he could find a rock or two. For now, he just leans on the rail, curving both hands lightly over it, and gives Maelle a rueful look. ]

You know, between the two of us, I'm the one who's supposed to be checking up on you. Not the other way around.

[maellum]

Says who?

[Maelle stands beside Gustave, hands on the railing. Part of her worried he might try to shoo her away, send her back to the apartment. But they both know she wouldn't have listened. Her place is beside him, here.

So much has happened to her, to their Expedition, but she knows Gustave is struggling. Even without Verso and his complicated family (oh, and he didn't even learn all of it), it's hard. He'll try to be strong for her, as he always has, but he's as human as the rest of them.]

... do you want to talk about Verso? [She asks quietly, wishing they had stones to busy their hands with. She stares out before them, noting the lack of the Monolith as he does, and how empty this world feels. Everything feels sterile.]

The paperwork doesn't even exist here, so... you'll just have to take my word that we're family. We can talk. I'm sorry that...

[She could have told him, but didn't. It wasn't her story to share. She's sorry that he didn't meet Verso before, at home, and see what help he was to them.

Maelle sighs, head dropping to stare at the ground between her feet.]

I'm sorry. This is a mess. It's not supposed to be like this.

[demainvient]

[ Almost the very last thing he wants to do right now is talk about Verso. He tightens his hands on the railing, pulling himself slightly forward, then settles back again. ]

I shouldn't have lost my temper.

[ Not in front of Maelle, who only wants the two of them to get along. He's always tried to be a good role model for her, to show her that it's possible to solve problems without getting angry, but...

He doesn't understand what it is about Verso that gets so far under his skin. It's absurd to feel betrayed by a man he barely knows.

His head turns at her sigh, the look he gives her as fond as it is wry. ]

How is it supposed to be?

@gustave, winding down

[maellum]

Maelle has a slight headache from all of the emotions of the day, but she decides to focus on something more fun: their new home. It's easier to focus on a single room rather than a room that will have no occupant. She supposes Gustave would want the one with two single beds in it, at least for tonight, given her request to sleep in his room. Just for a night.

She's just finished with some minor rearranging (because even if it's only for a night, she didn't like that the beds were on opposite walls) when she hears the front door. Gustave. She's quick to head over to greet him, a smile on her face despite an uncertainty about his mood.

Whatever it is, Sciel's given her a way to fix it.

"Welcome home, I guess," she says, a sweeping gesture towards their mostly empty space. "It's almost exactly the way you left it."

[demainvient]

He closes the door behind him, glancing toward the entry to the kitchen, but Sciel is out of visual range and Maelle is coming toward him, smiling. He gives her a quick onceover, trying to determine her level of tension, if she's upset or sad and trying to hide it, then sets his hands at his hips to glance around the room as she gestures.

"Bare, charmless, and almost totally generic," he agrees, nodding in confirmation. "Yeah, almost exactly the way I left it. Which is good, considering I haven't been gone that long."

[maellum]

"Ooh. Harsh, but not wrong," Maelle says, and she thinks he's not in a terrible mood or else he's somehow gotten very good at hiding it. Yet care has her asking anyway, smile softening as she steps closer.

"Everything okay?"

He hasn't been gone that long, as he said, but who knows? She doesn't mean to pry too deeply, but she worries. Worries far too much, these days, even with him back.

Maybe moreso now that he's back.

@verso, knock knock

[cache_coeur]

It’s freshly noon when Sciel gets back from doing the shopping. (If you can call picking things up and walking out with them “shopping”, anyway.) It’s as if she’s lived an eternity here already, or at the least tumbled headfirst into this place and gotten back up on her feet with a full schedule: up when the noise around the apartment kicks up, meditations, breakfast with Gustave and Maelle, tidying, a run that turns into a wander around the city, back for lunch, on and on and on. It’s easy, this life. Near weightless.

It must be, given how much space they all need to decompress. Gustave most of all, but he has Maelle at his side much of the time, and Sciel is not inclined to think anything is gunning for him. Verso, on the other hand, needs some sort of tether, lest she find him off his rocker in a cave somewhere.

So: here’s Sciel, flip-flopping her way down the hall in sandals, one hand wrangling a paper shopping bag and a six pack of beer, and the other arm balancing a flat cardboard box with a lid that sags slightly in the middle. It’s left a warm, reddened spot where it presses against her bare ribs.

Knock knock, Verso. Or rather, kick-kick, as she doesn’t have a free hand to knock with; a drum with the edge of her sandal will have to do.

[fromfire]

Verso has been doing his own wanderings at dawn. He sleeps about the same as he did back home -- an oppressive void instead of dreams. But at least, when he is awake at night, he plays soft and soothing melodies rather than anything that would disrupt the sleep of others in the apartment. During the day, when he's done with his aimless wandering (and encountering others), he returns to play some new songs -- sometimes a faster, louder one.

He told Maelle once that his heart would almost break from the beauty of the notes; he finds peace in the playing that he does.

Drawing his hands away from the keys, he tilts his head at the knock at the door. Although, he has to admit the knock sounds a bit off. Shifting around, he pulls the cover down and pushes himself up to see who it is. Still odd to have a door. A thought that he doesn't think he should share with anyone.

Pulling it open, he blinks in surprise at all that Sciel is holding. He's opening the door wider so that she can get in -- and holding his arms out so that he can take some of what she's carrying.

"If I knew you were bringing me so much, I'd have come a little quicker to answer."

@sciel, the first night

[demainvient]

Maelle and Sciel had had their little prank, a tiny slice of normalcy that feels a little absurd in the face of everything they're dealing with, but it's good. It helps — them, at least — and he can be grateful for that.

He's also grateful that Maelle turns in without waiting for him to tell her to go to bed (more than a few times, anyway), leaving him and Sciel alone for the first time since he'd found her at the waterpark. He leans against the kitchen door frame, looking over at her with a wry twist to his mouth, lifted brows. "This place didn't happen to come with some wine already in it, did it?"

[cache_coeur]

The day's been a real whirlwind, and though she feels it to her bones, she's certain she's still the one with the most energy left. She looks him over, still glad that she gets to see him, glad that the little quirks of his face won't grow fuzzy in her memory just yet.

She takes one step over to open the nearest cupboard door to reveal... absolutely nothing. No spare energy for a flourish, but there's an unspoken ta-dah.

"We're destitute," she replies, a little grave. "You want to go for a walk and see what's open late? Or we can get some with groceries in the morning."

@verso, sometime leading up to the mission

[maellum]

Maelle doesn't go out of her way to avoid Verso, but it's easy to not run into someone now that you don't spend every day together. Verso's absence in the apartment makes her quietly, privately sad--he never lived there, and Maelle doesn't know what this configuration of herself, Gustave, Sciel, and Verso even looks like when there's not tension, but she still would like to see it, some day. He should be with them now. Gustave should have been with them then.

He just can’t tell the difference between an offered hand and a raised one. Sciel's words have been bouncing around her head since she heard them. They've eased away some of Maelle's embarrassment, replacing it with sympathy, but she's still sixteen and she's still feeling burned. Yet she's also a sixteen year old that has lost family over and over again--and this first mission they'll go on together always has the potential of going terribly wrong, and Maelle doesn't ever wish to sit and speak to someone no longer there when she could have said the words where they could hear her.

So, she heads to Verso's door one morning and knocks, waiting with her hands behind her back.

[fromfire]

Verso isn't trying to avoid Maelle. He's always been a night owl and when he awakes, he wanders. It probably would be different if they shared a space, but he hasn't seen her that much. Yet he also is aware of how much he hurt her with his rejection and thinks the time apart is good. It means she has more time to fill her days with Sciel and Gustave, as well.

He does, of course, play his piano when he is in his apartment. Like a way to say that he is there for those that know. It isn't a constant stream of melody, however. With the mission coming up, he wonders what is to be expected of them. It sounds vague and what awaits them unknown. If he had his immortality, he wouldn't worry as much.

And if he dies in another world, what would happen?

Hearing the knock at the door, he shifts around. "It's open!" He calls; he finds it easier to just keep it unlocked. Honestly, having a door continues to be a novel experience.