etrayalogs | tomorrow is here

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.

[ 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?

[She stands up straighter, and with there nothing to look at on the horizon, turns to rest her back against the railing. She crosses her arms, eyes lowered until she looks to Gustave. He seems better, away from Verso. She wonders if he can see Renoir's face in his, in the bones beneath his flesh, in the eyes. Maelle has a hard time reconciling the truth. Verso is so very different from Renoir, just as she would be so very different from her biological parents.

Maelle swallows around the lump in her throat. They're not okay. He's here, alive, but things are still wrong.]

I... I've lost track of the number of times he's apologized for not being able to save you. I know he didn't tell you the truth, and he should have... you, especially. But he...

[Maelle lifts her arms in a helpless shrug.]

It's a lot. I know it is, because you've only just... I only just got you back and it's not fair that we’re missing so much time.

Yeah. He's apologized to me for that, too.

[ He's already cooled down enough to feel slightly bad about the suspicion he'd harbored earlier, enough to be glad he hadn't said anything about it out loud to the others. Verso has his secrets, and it's clear he shares information only reluctantly — or incompletely — but that's not enough of a reason to think he'd deliberately made a choice, instead of just coming too late.

Gustave's glance shifts from the city around them to Maelle and back again, looking out towards one of the rivers a little ways away. ]

To be honest, I don't really know what to think or feel about any of this... him, me. The things he's told me and the things he decided not to tell me.

[ He shrugs, very slightly, shoulders loosening though his fingers are still tight on the railing. ]

I don't know him the way you and Sciel do. He helped me back in that casino, and we've talked a little, but...

[ He ducks his head a little, glance shifting down and back up again from beneath his brow. ]

It's a lot of things to be dishonest about it a short amount of time. I don't know how to trust someone who opts not to tell the truth just because it isn't easy, or because it's complicated.

I mean... he doesn't really know you, either. He knows what you are to us. To me. He saw...

[Everything, after. The tears. Lune's dedication to the mission, Sciel's gentle determination. Maelle's shock and grief. Gustave's absence was a wound that never really healed, even if Verso had been able to coax laughter and smiles out of them all.

But he never met Gustave. Didn't know his mannerisms or the sound of his laughter or how his forehead would crease when puzzling something out.]

I believe him when he said he would have told you. [Maelle looks away, towards the boring door to the rooftop. There’s still more to tell.] He's good at pretending he's okay. I don't think he is... I don't think any of us are, actually. I'm not.

[And if she's not, Gustave certainly isn't. She looks back to him, the concern plain on her face. Her voice is small, hesitant.]

You don't have to trust him. But you still trust me, right?

[ I believe him, Maelle says, and something squeezes tight in his stomach. It's not something he'd ever admit out loud, but he'd believed that if push came to shove, if she had to pick a side, if there were sides to pick... she'd pick his. To have her here, defending the man who'd lied to him, feels...

He grips the railing tight, offers her a small smile. ]

I trust you.

[ That doesn't change, not ever.

He wants to ask how many times did Verso volunteer information to all of you, without being backed into a wall first? but it's not a fair question to ask Maelle. She almost certainly wouldn't have been the one trying to get that information in the first place. ]

I'm glad you like him.

[The concern fades into a sort of blank stare. Then, abruptly, Maelle laughs, the sound loud in the silence around them up on the rooftop.]

You're glad I like him? That's strange for anyone to say. Please. Don't hurt yourself, Gustave.

[Still laughing, she steps away from the railing. How ridiculous this all is. He's alive! Alive, and he doesn't like Verso, who had become such a comfort despite lie after lie and omission after omission.]

[ She laughs, and it's such a familiar sound. He's spent so much time trying to win that laugh out of her, and even now he chuckles, sliding a look her way as he lets go of the railing and crosses his arms over his chest. ]

It's not that strange, is it?

Hey, come on. I'm just trying to keep you from getting caught up in the middle.

It's really strange.

[Maelle sighs out one more laugh, hands folded behind her back as she steps closer to Gustave.]

There's not a middle. There's only here.

[There are no sides within their Disaster Expedition. And if there were, she'd be on his, without hesitation.]

Hmm.

[ There's nothing he can say that which wouldn't be a direct argument. Maelle wants them all to get along, she wants him to forgive Verso and simply... go along, because he missed all the time Verso spent with the team, but she didn't.

There is a middle. She just doesn't want to see it.

Noncommittally, arms still folded: ]

You used to hate liars.

[She knows that sound. He doesn't agree, but he doesn't want to argue. Mirth fading, Maelle returns to the railing, right beside Gustave, arms folding in a subconscious mirror of her guardian. Old habits, picked up from him.]

I did. I do. I just... get it, I guess? He was afraid. Even with us, he didn't want to say anything about his family. If we hadn't gotten to know him and he just... said he was Renoir's son, I don't think I would have listened to anything else he had to say. I would have tried to kill him.

[An eye for an eye. And that would have ended badly.]

I don't like that he lies but I understand why he does.

[ He exhales, long and slow, shoulders lowering. ]

I don't trust him to tell the truth, Maelle. Not all of it. Not without being forced into it. I've only known him a little while, but he kept me in the dark all that time. Knowingly. And not just about Renoir.

[ Sciel is warm, understanding, sympathetic; she takes people at face value, and he can understand how she might have been willing to grant him patience simply because that is the way he is. But Lune? Did she go along with this, too?

He doesn't know; she's not here, he can't ask. But he feels strangely out of step, with Maelle excusing Verso, so reasonable as if he's somehow overreacting. ]

It's not a great way to start off a new team dynamic. How can we ever be sure he's telling the truth, or not just omitting something he doesn't want us to know?

[Maelle listens. She hears him, loud and clear.]

Okay.

[She doesn't want to argue with him. She only just got him back. Even before, their arguments were few and far in between, her respect for him so strong despite her teasing and joking at his expense. Seeing him upset hurt--she can't be the cause. She can't. ]

Just... in the end, he helped me kill Renoir. He helped us defeat the Paintress.

[She wants to mention there's not much left to hide, but there's still the Paintress conversation to have. She hasn't even spoken to Verso at length about that, their trip back home mostly spent in silence. Wondering what came next. Little did they know.]

We couldn't have done it without him. We never would have made it. Not even close.

Yeah. And I wonder why he did.

[ What kind of man helps kill his own father? What could Verso's motivations possibly have been? Was it really out of the goodness of his heart, did he really throw his loyalties onto the side of the Expedition? Why? ]

I mean, the Paintress, I can understand, but Renoir?

Renoir didn't want any Expedition to reach the Paintress. She granted him immortality. Somehow.

[He and Verso both. Because they were family? Maelle does wonder how much of that is true, now. Not that it matters.]

He's a monster. You remember the beach. Verso knew he needed to be stopped. I don't think it was easy for him, but... he chose our side.

[He had fallen silent after Renoir, when approaching the Paintress. When the ash and petals took to the winds. Maelle had been so wrapped up in her own emotions she didn't think to talk to him. Maybe she should have. Maybe she still can, for what it's worth.]

I know you don't trust him, but we had to. It... was hard, Gustave. Really hard. You were gone and--

[They had to continue. And that meant accepting help.]

[ He opens his mouth to ask are you sure that's the whole story? but Maelle's voice falters, fading out, and he lowers his head, feeling the clutch of guilt.

He was gone. Taken from them, maybe, rather than left them of his own volition, but gone all the same. It's hard not to feel like that's a failure on his part, no matter how unwilling he'd been. ]

You continued.

[ It's what they all do, right? One fell. The rest continued. He's sure Lune would have driven them along on the mission no matter what, even if Verso hadn't appeared. ]

I get it. Really, I do.

[They continued. And how she wishes it was with Gustave. He should have been with them every step of the way. He should have seen what they accomplished because of the Lumina Converter. He shouldn't have been dropped onto the stones and left to the elements and the cold when he had been her home, her warmth.

Immortal or not, she'll kill Renoir if he even looks Gustave's way.

Maelle takes a shaky breath and tries to keep herself calm, a grimace appearing on her face with the effort it takes.]

I thought I got to skip the difficult conversations by joining Expedition 33.

[The Gommage. The last wishes, hopes for the future. The goodbyes. Miserable things that would make Maelle want to run and never look back because how could she ever say goodbye to Gustave? The Continent wasn't any kinder. She hates this conversation, and how she feels as if they don't understand one another.

But it had felt that way when she first told him her plan to join him, hadn't it? It gives her a minute sense of hope, but hope has been sparse since their return to Lumiere.]

[ This city is so strange, patchworked together in a way that feels like the opposite of Lumière and the Continent. Back home, everything felt like it was all supposed to be part of one whole, a world Fractured apart. Here, it seems like nothing really fits together.

But he and Maelle still do. Right?

He tips his head back and forth, gives her a crooking half smile. ]

Turns out there's no escaping the difficult conversations even when you're dead.

[ A terrible joke. Sophie would have laughed, though, he thinks. ]

I really am glad he was there to help you all. And he helped me here, too, I just...

[ His lips twist, eyebrows pushing up as he shakes his head. He's always been honest with Maelle, about everything aside from that one, devastating thing, always talked to her like an adult, has always taken her opinions seriously. He is now, too. ]

I guess I don't understand him.

[ Dryly, poking fun at himself in an attempt to shake her from her own morose mood: ]

And you know how much I enjoy not understanding things.

Edited 2025-07-11 22:07 (UTC)

Stop. You're awful.

[Terrible, but the joke makes her laugh. They're both dead. To Renoir or the Gommage, at the end of the day, dead is dead and here they are in the next life. Their morbid jokes are at home, here.]

I don't know if I fully understand him, either. [Then, poking fun at herself:] Because we both know how good I am with people.

[Gustave is the only person she would say she actually understands. He's made it easy for her, with how open and welcoming he's been since the day they met. Everyone else... it feels like there's a wall.

Maybe not so much with Verso, if she thinks about it, but she pointedly does not while standing with Gustave.]

[ He laughs, too, and for a moment it feels like they could be back up there at the Hanging Gardens, the Expedition still to come, the Gommage not yet brushing its gentle, lethal touch over Lumière. ]

Well, you're pretty good with him so far. Pretend he's a Gestral, or something.

[ He wonders how Karatom is making out with his Ultimate Sakapatate. No more Expeditions for them to worry about, but he hopes the Nevrons will keep away. ]

[Oh, that laugh. She's missed it so much that hearing it might always make her heart squeeze. Maelle laughs under her breath, unsure if they should continue talking about Verso, but hoping that she might endear him to Gustave in some minor way.]

He practically is one.

[Does it make sense now, Gustave?]

Mmmm...

[ He pretends to give it some thought, shakes his head with a exaggerated disbelief. ]

Nope. Can't be. He hasn't tried to fight me even once yet.

That's just because he's old and tired.

[There was absolutely no hesitation with that reply.]

Speaking of old, we're going to have to get back into practice soon. Can't have you getting rusty if any of our missions here involve combat.

Me?

[ He finally unfolds his arms to hold his hands up in surprised, defensive. ]

Hey, I've already fought here. A bunch of times. If anyone's rusty, it's going to be you.

Yeah, you. I heard your joints creak all the way up the stairs.

[She motions back to the door with a smile, and bumps her shoulder into him. This, here, is her Gustave. Goofy and happy, life in his eyes.]

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