WHO: The E33s (Gustave, Maelle, Lune, Sciel, Verso) and potentially friends? WHEN: Late April WHERE: Bramble Valley, in the flower fields WHAT: Mingling! NOTES\WARNINGS: Blanket E33/spoilers and usual individual character warnings apply.
Focused as he's been on the missions, on trying to win a new future for Lumière, even Gustave can't simply go forever without a day or two off. The parks have been easier than other missions, yes, but he's been going almost every day, fixing rundown rides and dutifully crossing tasks off his list.
Not today. Today had dawned beautiful and spring-warm, the air still a little crisp through the morning but heating slowly as the sun rose higher, and the playful early afternoon breeze had brought with it the scent of warm grass and fresh flowers. It hadn't taken too much for them all, Gustave included, to acquiesce to the summons that brought them to Bramble Valley and the fields and fields of flowers blooming there.
The late morning had been spent wandering through the blooms to find a good spot for lunch, but the picnic basket at the location they'd selected – a little bump of a hilltop shaded by the spreading branches of some tree bursting with a blush-pink spring bloom – had turned out to be not so appetizing. Opening the top had instead released a team of sleek white mice, clambering over each other to get out and dash away into the field.
Now, Gustave lies on his side, idly twirling a blue forget-me-not between thumb and forefinger as he considers the arc of the sun overhead and poses a question to no one in particular. "Maybe we should look around for another basket?"
Whatever anyone heard or thinks they heard, Maelle did not yelp when the mice scurried out and away from that basket. She also didn't grab onto Sciel like she might jump onto her shoulders. Must have been someone else! Now, she's sitting near Gustave, reaching over to pluck some pastel flowers, collecting a little bouquet.
"I'm not opening another," she declares, and decides Gustave is a good enough flower frog. A pink flower is tucked into his curls, followed by a blue. She turns, looking for a third color. Purple...?
It would be great if one of the picnic baskets actually had food, though. She could eat. Then again, Maelle can almost always eat. She's a growing girl.
“I’ll open the next one,” Sciel promises, from some ways away, where she is a few feet up the tree and trying to find the best footholds to keep ascending. “Otherwise we’ll hear your stomach before long.”
She had dressed too optimistically for the weather this morning, in embroidered shorts and a flouncy blouse, but with her skin soaking up the sunshine, it’s the perfect temperature. If it weren’t for the very pleasant company, she thinks, she’d just sprawl out naked in the flowers for a few hours.
Lune is sat cross-legged not too far from Gustave and Maelle, her long, dark skirt spread out around her and her guitar cradled in her lap as she plucks at the strings almost pensively — it's clearly a new tune, one that she's still practicing. Her dark hair is gathered into a careless knot at the back of her head; she makes another mental note to get it trimmed one of these days, it's getting too long.
"Don't fall," she cautions Sciel wryly, glancing briefly out over to where the other woman is conquering the tree before looking back down at the strings, shrugging one shoulder. "Any direction seems as likely to yield us actual lunch as the other."
In other words, she doesn't really care, nor is she in a particular hurry to move along. It's nice here, surrounded by cheery flowers and dappled sunlight in the cover of the bloom-laden tree, a mellow spring breeze blowing occasionally through the fields.
Gustave holds still as Maelle busily threads flowers into his hair, tucking them here and there and tipping her head to gaze critically at the result. He reminds himself to ask her to take a picture before they leave and all the blossoms fall out, and glances over to where Lune is idly picking out notes. "And who knows how far we'd have to go to find real food."
Or a bottle or two of wine or juice, which is the other thing missing from this outing. His stomach rumbles, just a little, but it's not pinching enough to make him think all that hard about getting up. He squints up to where Sciel's in the tree, careful to keep from moving his head too much and shaking Maelle's flowers loose. "Should've sent you up there with a telescope. I don't know how you can see anything but flowers."
Very deep, Lune. Maelle smiles to herself before locking back in to make sure the flowers in Gustave's hair are both spaced out appropriately and aren't repeating colors too much. His head is beginning to look like a smaller version of the flower fields around them.
"We should definitely find something so Sciel doesn't have to cook for us again. She did a lovely lunch for us yesterday," Maelle reminds everyone. "Even if we just get pizza on the way back."
She loves Sciel's cooking, but that doesn't mean Sciel should have to feed them so often!
She can't pretend she's climbing for any practical reason, but getting a lay of the land is as good as any. She stretches up as far as she can to get a good enough hold to then walk herself up the trunk, step after step. It's a bit of a weird manoeuvre to get her foot up into the V in the trunk, but she manages, and she boosts herself upright again, smiling as Maelle suggests pizza. A basket would be nice, but if it doesn't happen, so be it.
"It is a whole lot of flowers," she reports back. "But I can see the river, and the roof of that monastery..." She pivots on the spot, sole grinding on bark, one hand up to shade her eyes. "A few other parties wandering around. Maybe they can get pizza with us if they're short on edible baskets, too!"
Some wine would be a lovely way to cap off a pleasant afternoon, but Lune's not hanging her hopes on these elusive baskets.
"Or maybe they can share if they're more successful," she puts in playfully with a little laugh at Sciel's report, settling on strumming a more familiar melody on her guitar, soft but upbeat. Maelle isn't wrong, though, and Lune agrees with her easily.
"We should get something on our way back, if we have no luck with the baskets. Just maybe not pizza." So greasy!
"Not pizza," he agrees, holding still as Maelle continues her ministrations. "Something with a vegetable, please. After all that greasy food from the parks over the last few weeks, I want something fresh."
To Maelle, he adds: "Any more flowers and you won't be able to see me at all for how many bees are going to be buzzing around my head."
It's idle though, and he reaches one lazy hand into the blooming meadow to pick another blossom, holding it up for her when she needs it. The music from the guitar floats toward and past him on the breeze, and he watches appreciatively as Lune delicately strums chords and coaxes out a little melody. It makes him smile, expression pinching thoughtfully as he tries to place it. "Is that that song you used to play sometimes in the studio, late at night?"
"I feel attacked," Maelle says, brows lifted. The pizza from the one place isn't too greasy in her opinion, but the resident teen has no concerns over grease, and any consequences suffered from theme park food are long forgotten. Sorry, Sciel. She's learned nothing. "I'll remind you pizza can have vegetables, but we can do whatever the picky eaters wish."
She'll eat whatever is put before her. Gustave's additional complaint is met with a soft laugh before she plucks the flower out of his hand and tickles his ear with it. Bzzt.
The guitar is pretty, a song Maelle thinks is vaguely familiar, but not enough to be able to hum along with just yet. She does nod along with the tune as she tucks the flower properly into Gustave's hair.
“You and I can get pizza another time, then, just us,” she says, and she momentarily considers ascending again, but the branches seem a little more bendy up there. She settles on sitting down where she is, straddling the last reliable-feeling branch, swinging her feet in the open air. She looks down at the team, or at least what she can see of them between clusters of pink petals, and she thinks this is the nicest day of the year thus far.
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team bonding!
Not today. Today had dawned beautiful and spring-warm, the air still a little crisp through the morning but heating slowly as the sun rose higher, and the playful early afternoon breeze had brought with it the scent of warm grass and fresh flowers. It hadn't taken too much for them all, Gustave included, to acquiesce to the summons that brought them to Bramble Valley and the fields and fields of flowers blooming there.
The late morning had been spent wandering through the blooms to find a good spot for lunch, but the picnic basket at the location they'd selected – a little bump of a hilltop shaded by the spreading branches of some tree bursting with a blush-pink spring bloom – had turned out to be not so appetizing. Opening the top had instead released a team of sleek white mice, clambering over each other to get out and dash away into the field.
Now, Gustave lies on his side, idly twirling a blue forget-me-not between thumb and forefinger as he considers the arc of the sun overhead and poses a question to no one in particular. "Maybe we should look around for another basket?"
no subject
"I'm not opening another," she declares, and decides Gustave is a good enough flower frog. A pink flower is tucked into his curls, followed by a blue. She turns, looking for a third color. Purple...?
It would be great if one of the picnic baskets actually had food, though. She could eat. Then again, Maelle can almost always eat. She's a growing girl.
no subject
She had dressed too optimistically for the weather this morning, in embroidered shorts and a flouncy blouse, but with her skin soaking up the sunshine, it’s the perfect temperature. If it weren’t for the very pleasant company, she thinks, she’d just sprawl out naked in the flowers for a few hours.
“Any ideas of where we should look next? Lune?”
no subject
"Don't fall," she cautions Sciel wryly, glancing briefly out over to where the other woman is conquering the tree before looking back down at the strings, shrugging one shoulder. "Any direction seems as likely to yield us actual lunch as the other."
In other words, she doesn't really care, nor is she in a particular hurry to move along. It's nice here, surrounded by cheery flowers and dappled sunlight in the cover of the bloom-laden tree, a mellow spring breeze blowing occasionally through the fields.
no subject
Or a bottle or two of wine or juice, which is the other thing missing from this outing. His stomach rumbles, just a little, but it's not pinching enough to make him think all that hard about getting up. He squints up to where Sciel's in the tree, careful to keep from moving his head too much and shaking Maelle's flowers loose. "Should've sent you up there with a telescope. I don't know how you can see anything but flowers."
no subject
"We should definitely find something so Sciel doesn't have to cook for us again. She did a lovely lunch for us yesterday," Maelle reminds everyone. "Even if we just get pizza on the way back."
She loves Sciel's cooking, but that doesn't mean Sciel should have to feed them so often!
no subject
She can't pretend she's climbing for any practical reason, but getting a lay of the land is as good as any. She stretches up as far as she can to get a good enough hold to then walk herself up the trunk, step after step. It's a bit of a weird manoeuvre to get her foot up into the V in the trunk, but she manages, and she boosts herself upright again, smiling as Maelle suggests pizza. A basket would be nice, but if it doesn't happen, so be it.
"It is a whole lot of flowers," she reports back. "But I can see the river, and the roof of that monastery..." She pivots on the spot, sole grinding on bark, one hand up to shade her eyes. "A few other parties wandering around. Maybe they can get pizza with us if they're short on edible baskets, too!"
no subject
"Or maybe they can share if they're more successful," she puts in playfully with a little laugh at Sciel's report, settling on strumming a more familiar melody on her guitar, soft but upbeat. Maelle isn't wrong, though, and Lune agrees with her easily.
"We should get something on our way back, if we have no luck with the baskets. Just maybe not pizza." So greasy!
no subject
To Maelle, he adds: "Any more flowers and you won't be able to see me at all for how many bees are going to be buzzing around my head."
It's idle though, and he reaches one lazy hand into the blooming meadow to pick another blossom, holding it up for her when she needs it. The music from the guitar floats toward and past him on the breeze, and he watches appreciatively as Lune delicately strums chords and coaxes out a little melody. It makes him smile, expression pinching thoughtfully as he tries to place it. "Is that that song you used to play sometimes in the studio, late at night?"
no subject
She'll eat whatever is put before her. Gustave's additional complaint is met with a soft laugh before she plucks the flower out of his hand and tickles his ear with it. Bzzt.
The guitar is pretty, a song Maelle thinks is vaguely familiar, but not enough to be able to hum along with just yet. She does nod along with the tune as she tucks the flower properly into Gustave's hair.
no subject