Lune is stood facing one of the windows, meticulously folding up her expedition sash into small squares, the emblazoned "33" staring up at her. She pauses, runs a thumb over the pattern. So many years of work, culminating into this. But there isn't any need for this now, is there? Their Expedition is done, and it both failed and succeeded. The Paintress is gone, but so is Lumière, and Lune is finding it hard to pin her hopes on some cosmic entity that has apparently promised their world returned to them in exchange for their efforts here, regardless of Sciel's optimism. She still isn't certain on the specifics of this deal.
Drinks at the restaurant had been good. She still can't believe Gustave is here, that they're all here. As much as that's a comfort, she also feels the slight distance between them and herself, having missed out on the experiences they'd gone through here without her.
Where's the reason in all this? Now that she's had a moment to think again, she just feels... overwhelmed, the wine in her belly both a help and hindrance. She hates feeling this unmoored.
What she's wearing feels rather incidental next to everything else, but she isn't going to stop Sciel from fussing, either. Not when even Lune can figure out that has nothing to do with her clothing or getting strange looks on the street.
She packs the folded up sash in her Pictos space for safekeeping and draws in a deep breath of the cool, crisp air. Air conditioning, she recalls distantly. Her focus sharpens when Sciel goes on, latching onto the lifeline thrown at her. She can do that. Focus on something else, find another issue to deal with that isn't her own mental state.
Lune turns, hands clasped loosely behind her back but her spine straight and shoulders back. Ready as always. "All right. Tell me."
Maelle watches Sciel and Lune from her spot on the couch. They're really only missing Esquie and Monoco, now. She thinks they could easily get lost in the busy convention near by, but it seems like they all have a knack for finding one another. Maybe next month they'll be reunited with another friend, and then another, and they'll come to see that maybe Etraya itself is the answer. Lumière was fine, but... would it be so bad to simply enjoy what Etraya has to offer?
"Verso and Gustave haven't exactly managed to hit it off," Maelle announces, staring up at the ceiling. "Verso's been Verso and wasn't very forthcoming with the truth about who his father is, among other things, and Gustave didn't like that. Rocky start."
It runs deeper than that, but Sciel can explain better than Maelle.
"It was a lot for both of them, meeting one another and... seeing where they stood among us. I guess."
When it should have been simple. Maelle is still surprised how badly that's gone. She sighs, reaching her palms up to press them into her eyes. Disaster Expedition indeed.
Sciel hadn’t expected Maelle to start them off, but it is about what she expected. Some clarifications, then, for her friend who is fussy about details.
“To put a finer point on it, Verso didn’t tell Gustave that he’d known us and travelled with us for months,” Sciel clarifies. “So I gave it away when I arrived shortly after.”
Hearing Verso’s name out of Gustave’s mouth might have been a record scratch moment if she hadn’t been so consumed by Gustave’s mere existence, hale and whole in her arms. It had certainly grown on her heart over the following hours, though.
“Together we decided that the 33 should stick together, but I didn’t think it was right to have them both under one roof when Gustave knew so little and was so concerned about Renoir.”
Sciel pauses. All that seems to be quite enough information in one go, and for a beat she just looks at Lune, apologetic. She’s not really sure for what; it had to be done, but perhaps far more strategically.
“I backed Verso into a corner and made him tell Gustave.”
Lune watches Maelle in alert silence, listening to her opinion on the situation. She feels bad for Maelle, clearly torn between her two brother-figures, but she's also heard some iteration of Verso's been Verso more than once since showing up here. Her jaw tics slightly in low-grade annoyance at the man and his damned secretiveness.
Lune breathes out a long sigh, torn between weariness and irritation. "No. Of course he didn't."
Verso does not volunteer what he doesn't have to, but Lune wonders what was the point of keeping his knowledge of the 33 from Gustave in the first place. She thinks she needs to tread as cautiously as she can, here. She knows she has a more critical opinion of Verso than Maelle and Sciel do, and this is only a summary of the events from their point of view. Lune doesn't know precisely what's been said by whom. She'll need to speak with Gustave in private one of these days soon, see for herself where he's at. Probably Verso, too.
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised by any of this. It must've blindsided Gustave and I don't blame him for reacting poorly. It sounds like you made the right choice." Lune glances at Sciel, indicating the separation and forcing Verso to come clean both. Better Sciel than her, she wouldn't have very been gentle about it. Verso keeps making his bed; he's going to have to lay in it.
Lune frowns slightly, thinking back on what's been said.
"Why was Gustave concerned about Renoir?" Beyond the obvious, but Lune is still in the dark about the tiny detail that Renoir's actually there, too. She's trying to connect the dots, but they're incomplete as of yet. "He knows now that he was Verso's father, yes?" Is that the root of his suspicion?
Maelle sits up. Just thinking about Renoir makes acid threaten to crawl up her throat. Sitting upright offers only a little help, but she can breathe easier, and really hates how often Renoir comes up in conversation. He's a looming shadow over them--over their happy reunion, over this supposed healing Sciel keeps talking about.
"Renoir is here, Lune," Maelle says after a glance to Sciel. She frowns, then drops her gaze down to her knees, hands gripping the sofa cushion at either side of her. "Guess no one checks if you were a monster in life before ushering you in. And he's fucking everywhere, apparently."
They can't escape him. She bites her tongue, knowing spitting out threats here is pointless, but she can't help but think how much easier life would be right now if Renoir wasn't a problem. If she didn't have to worry about Verso, about Gustave, in relation to him.
Sciel watches Lune's expression shift, all those tiny, subtle changes chasing every little statement, and she feels herself pulling in a deep breath of her own. She's glad, too, that it was the right choice. Hesitant as she is to speak for Gustave's deeper feelings or thoughts on the matter, it would have all been so much worse if it had dragged out for weeks, and still, Sciel feels a quiet churn of anxiety in her stomach at the possibility of this whole thing going sideways and plunging right down a mountain face.
Renoir is going to be a big part of that. Between massacre and murder and the events of the Monolith, it's unavoidable.
She finds herself pushing the suitcase away from her on the floor, her hands falling to rest on her knees, and she looks up at Lune with contrition.
"But that's about all Gustave knows," Sciel says, carefully. "That and that we finished Renoir on the Monolith. But none of the circumstances of that, nothing about the 58s, or Old Lumière, or Verso's mother."
It feels like a damning list, brief as it is; each could fill a book, couldn't it? She'll have to take some care later to steer them away from this. Put Lune's mind elsewhere, after a deluge of information that would be all too easy to dwell on, even if it's something she needs to know.
"It's felt like too much to put on his shoulders when he's still reeling over Renoir, and adjusting to Verso joining us."
"...What?" Lune's voice is almost a hiss at Maelle's revelation about Renoir, her parade rest forgotten in an instant as her shoulders tense up and hands curl into fists at her side.
Suddenly it all makes so much more sense, and it is... oh, it is not good. Lune's mind whirls with indications, constructing possibilities, but they all crash into a halt Sciel picks up the narrative.
"What?" she parrots again, incredulous now. "Sciel?"
Lune palms her forehead, starting to pace in a circle as the tension within her mounts, her other hand planted on her waist. If she thought it was bad before, this is kind of worse. She takes a moment to straighten out her thoughts, so as not to launch into a tirade; that won't help now. She can't judge too harshly, she wasn't here. She doesn't know the details, surely they only did what they thought was right in the moment.
"Okay– I understand wanting to protect Gustave from being overwhelmed, but what happens when he does find out? It won't stay hidden forever! It's not going to help matters when Gustave realizes it's been kept from him intentionally, even if your intentions were good."
Because that's how she would feel in Gustave's position. No, Lune cannot claim she can predict his thoughts and feelings exactly, but she's fairly certain he isn't going to be pleased.
Not good. Not unexpected, and Maelle looks to Sciel with a frown, but not panic.
"I told Verso he needs to tell Gustave about the Paintress. At the very least," she says, looking to Lune. "I don’t know how long it's going to take him to do that, but he said he would."
But sometimes that doesn't mean much, does it? Maelle's feet don't touch the floor from her position on the seat cushion, heels knocking into the base of the sofa as she swings them. She feels like she could go run laps around the convention center.
"He already doesn't like Verso," Maelle continues, wishing there had been some clear way to avoid the road to where they are now. If there was another path, she didn't see it. Not then. "We can't have him... disappointed in us, too."
Hurt. Again. Maelle shrugs, helpless.
"Kinda feels like we're already in it, though. No matter what we do..."
This is, regretfully, the thing Sciel warned her about, clutching her arms on the crosswalk between the convention centre and Disneyland. For now, Sciel has to tear her eyes away from Lune to watch Maelle, her fears, the anxiousness in the childish swing of her feet. Sciel gives Maelle a concerned smile and a nod that feels as bracing to herself as for the rest of them, and then turns her gaze back to Lune.
"No one has any intention of keeping the whole story from him forever, and he knows there is still a lot to talk about,” Sciel confirms, voice steady. Lune can regulate her tone, but there’s still some need for a softer landing, a refusal to let this tip somewhere too intense.
All of this is fixable. And there's been attempts, at least, to strike a balance between several extremely different needs. As feeble as they sound, as inadequate as they've been, Sciel believes in them, in the situation they've been thrust into.
"But Maelle's right. If Verso had walked into our camp that night and told us everything we know now, we never would have trusted him... we could only trust that he'd never led us into harm's way, and he hasn't. Gustave will not have that experience no matter what we do or don't say."
And with Renoir here, especially, tension will continue to run high.
"Maelle..." Lune sighs, her tone softening, both arms dropping to hang at her sides. The last thing she wants is to cause the girl any anxiety, but it doesn't seem possible to avoid it either with this particular topic. "Gustave wouldn't be disappointed in you."
If Verso had walked into our camp that night and told us everything we know now, we never would have trusted him. It's true, and Lune knows it. But she also hates any sentiment that touts the kindness of a lie. She knows her own relationship with truth is black and white. Lying by omission is still lying, they all heard her ream Verso out after Old Lumière. This really isn't any different, even if the impetus came from a good place.
Lune folds her arms loosely across her chest. "I wish I could trust Verso to make being forthcoming a priority. I also don't know if it's possible to protect Gustave and Verso both at once when it comes to this."
She's fairly certain someone is going to be get hurt either way. Lune looks at Sciel, something searching in her gaze. She knows Sciel and Verso became... close, back on the Continent. She can't help but wonder whether that's still going on.
Maybe Gustave wouldn't be disappointed, but hurt by her is just as bad, if not worse. And it's already happened. She doesn't want him to feel betrayed. Or Verso. But Lune is, unfortunately, right.
"So we... what, tell Gustave everything in one go and let him deal with it himself? That can't be the only way to do this. We can't keep cornering Verso so that he tells the truth, either. That's just... it's what Gustave dislikes the most, I think. He doesn't volunteer anything."
Which is frustrating and sometimes she can overlook it, but when it comes to Gustave knowing the truth, she doesn't know how long she can without it feeling like she's the one telling the lies. They shouldn't have anything to hide anymore, but Verso always manages.
Maelle clasps her hands between her knees and shakes her head.
"... if someone is going to be hurt and upset about this, I'd prefer it not be Gustave."
So maybe Verso will just have to deal with them telling the truth if he won't. Maybe he'll even be relieved. And they'll... help Gustave through it. If they can.
"We avoid whatever pain we can," Sciel says, gently. To either of them.
Making Verso pluck up the courage wouldn't help, she thinks. As Maelle said, Gustave would see through it, just as he's seen through just about everything Verso's thrown at him, and that's just what Sciel has been there to witness. No, Verso will take time. Consistency, just as he'd shown them, bitter as it could be.
But Lune is looking at her, and Sciel greets that searching look with a shaking head. She doesn't know what she's supposed to suggest, otherwise she would have done it well before Lune's arrive, but whatever they decide, she'll contribute to.
There's her own courage.
"I'd like for you and I to talk to him together," she says to Lune. Maelle has missed a great number of their conversations about general strategy, over the past few months, and Sciel gives no reason as to why she should miss another; sixteen may be middle-aged, but it's not supposed to be. "I think your assessment of Verso will calm his nerves, at the very least. You're blunter about Verso's more... colourful tendencies. "
Lune may be frustrated by the situation, but she doesn't want Verso hurt any more than Gustave. There are reasons why Verso is the way he is, and she realizes Gustave can't see it the same way they can; he didn't spend months with the man, fighting side by side. But keeping Gustave in the dark isn't the answer, either.
"And we won't leave anyone to deal with anything by themselves."
They are still a team, regardless of circumstances. Somehow they'll need to try to manage this with as much grace and tact as possible. Lune is the first to admit the latter isn't her strong suit, but that's why Sciel is there. She meets Sciel's eyes and nods. "Of course. Whenever you're ready."
"And what do I do?" She asks, crossing her arms. She's certainly been feeling her age these days, and she's not sure she likes it. "Go draw on the sidewalk with chalk while the adults talk?"
“Of course not, Maelle,” Sciel says, her attention swivelling to the girl with a steady look. “You’re going to have a good number of conversations with us, and with Gustave, and with all of us together. But we should start with the night Verso first tracked us down, and what Lune and I made of him then.”
On the worst night of Maelle’s life, after that exhausting and bewildering trek back to camp. How long had it taken to notice they were all soaked to the skin from the weather when they’d just suffered a loss like that?
(And in case Gustave would like to mention her personal biases that he absolutely doesn’t care about and would be happy about if she was but he also doesn’t want to know, thanks. Not that she’s still thinking about it, and all.)
“Unless,” she ventures, cautiously, “you’re ready to talk about what happened. But if you’re not, that’s alright too.”
Lune's lips press firmer together for a second. She's always tried to see Maelle as an expeditioner first, just like she'd argued at Gustave that awful first night after the beach. But she'd also sort of imprinted on Verso like a baby duck, after Gustave's passing. Is she ready to have a discussion that involves both Gustave's death and – coming from Lune – blunt assessments of Verso and his actions? Lune flicks a glance at Sciel, then gazes steadily at Maelle.
"If you are ready," she says at length, trying to strike a balance between coaching herself in slightly more sensitive terms without babying Maelle in the process.
"You're welcome to join us, but– it'll be a frank conversation. A hard one, potentially. You have to be certain."
Maelle looks between Sciel and Lune, eyes dark. She wants to bristle, but the fact that the lump in her throat threatens to suffocate her, some part of her knows they're right to be concerned. That doesn't mean she has to like it, and it doesn't mean she has to agree. Stubbornness was inherited from Gustave.
"I was on the cliff. I was the first one to meet Verso," she points out, voice tight. "Does what I made of him not count because he saved me? Or does my opinion not matter because--because I'll--get emotional? Like a normal person?"
Like now, though she looks away, irritated with herself, a frustrated breath forced out of her lungs.
Sciel catches Lune’s look, and gets up off the floor, moving to Maelle’s side on the couch. Move over, petite. She sits down, turning her body to her.
“It counts, Maelle,” Sciel says, gently. “But what happened on the cliff isn’t something you’ve told us, either. I’d like to have that conversation with you someday, when you’re ready. And with me, you can get as emotional as you’d like.”
If she spread the things she does not want to admit to Gustave out like cards on a table, they’d reveal missteps and inadequacies and too many human failings. But it doesn’t matter. Forcing Maelle to recount that night before she’s ready won’t change anything that’s already happened.
She reaches for Maelle’s shoulder.
“But you know this is going to be a hard conversation for Gustave. And you know him! If any of us show any sign of discomfort, he’ll lunge to protect us instead of taking care of himself.”
Sciel smiles. Could Gustave even absorb a word of it with her torn asunder by panic? Probably not. Just looking at Maelle know, she sees Gustave’s care for her written on her sweet face. It makes Sciel think of Frisk with a bitter pang, and just like that her smile is sad. Maybe she was never cut out to be a parent, but Gustave is absolutely cut from that cloth, and he needs care, too.
“So for this, we’ll all need to be centred and calm, and ready to answer questions, even if they’re painful, because he should know what was in our heads. So, like Lune says… you have to be certain.”
Lune watches them in sympathetic silence, feeling a tiny prick at her own inability to offer comfort in such situations. It's the bridge all over again, but this time there no Dualliste to interrupt them.
This is Sciel's wheelhouse, not Lune's. She's able to explain all the concerns Lune has but is unable to put into words, offer Maelle that emotional response she's looking for. Lune can only provide distance, facts. It's hard to put distance between and examine rationally something that should have been final and irreversible, but is now thrust right in front of them to be dealt with Gustave. It's going to be difficult enough for Lune and Sciel, much less for Maelle... and Gustave. Lune isn't certain Maelle is entirely grasping how completely this is going to flay them open, expose every step along the way that they'd been too busy surviving to examine properly, to expose them to critical scrutiny. She's hardly looking forward to it, herself.
She's glad Sciel understands, however, and it comes across the words she's speaking to Maelle. Lune wonders, briefly, what it would have been like to grow up with this kind of support. She's happy Maelle has it, in the eye of such a decision.
Keeping her silence, Lune clasps her hands behind her back and waits for Maelle to work things out.
"If he should know what's in our heads, that includes mine, doesn't it? I have to be able to speak for myself," Maelle says quietly, glancing to Lune before searching Sciel's eyes with her own. Her opinion of Verso matters. She would be dead a few times over if not for his intervention. They know that.
She also knows they want to avoid too much emotion, tears, panic. Maelle is beginning to think that's simply not possible. Sciel's calm exterior and Lune's logical approach are aspirational, maybe, but there's no world where Maelle can stop herself from letting it all bubble to the surface. She supposes now is good practice, and she presses her teeth into her bottom lip as she steadies herself. Takes a breath. Looks to Sciel again, though she doesn't remember dropping her gaze.
"I'll never be certain and I'll never be ready but I can... I can stay calm. I want to be there for him. For Verso, too. Everyone seems to think... it was quick or easy when he joined us. It wasn't. Not for me."
He was easy to talk to once she let herself, and a friend soon after. It was easy to see where the broken pieces of a brother who missed his younger sister and a sister that missed her older brother fit together. They did one another a kindness by never saying anything about it, not directly, but Maelle saw it just as well as anyone else.
But he was no replacement for Gustave. He was a part of their Expedition because they had no choice if they wanted to defeat the Paintress. It’s that simple... until it isn't. The lies complicate it all.
It's not ideal, this kind of promise, but Sciel nods. There is space to try, and there's no reason why they can't adjust the plan if it starts to veer sideways. She gives Maelle a tight little squeeze, her expression sober.
"It was never easy," she confirms, nodding.
She glances back at Lune. They've shared a lot of looks, ever since Verso joined, and selfishly, Sciel is relieved that they can share them again. They're better as a team, the two of them.
"We give it a shot, if Gustave agrees?"
There will be a lot of conversations, anyway, and maybe Maelle doesn't have to know about one until it's already happened, sprung up from drinks she chose not to partake in, or something like that. The thought makes her feel like she's crawled into Verso's skin, and there she sits in it. She's not sure if she likes it, no matter how much she can forgive it in him.
Lune gives a small smile, but there's nothing cheerful about it. Maelle has had to mature far sooner than is fair, had to carry so much on those slender shoulders already. It is so for all Lumièrans, but it feels particularly incongruous here. She's so much stronger than they perhaps give her credit for, sometimes, but is it so wrong of them to want to protect her from more pain?
Be that as it may, Maelle has made her decision, and now it's their turn to respect it. Lune meets Sciel's eyes, nodding.
"If Gustave agrees," Lune confirms, her expression cast with vaguely grim determination.
"We don't have to throw everything at him at once. And shouldn't– not just for Gustave's sake. Staggered approach. We'll take it one step at a time, see how it goes. If it's too much, we'll continue another day."
This is what Lune can do; make plans, draw guidelines. The rest would happen as it will.
Maelle looks to Sciel and Lune and gives them both a nod. It’s settled, then.
"If Gustave agrees. Lune is right, it doesn't have to be all at once. I... I have his journal, and my entries in it. We're going to start going through it bit by bit. When we can."
So, eventually, he might have a better idea of what they encounterer out in the Continent. The Axons, the places he didn't get to see. But she knows he's most concerned about Verso, this strange man that's joined them in their absence.
"So--there's that, too. By the end of this he might not feel so... behind."
Maybe. She hopes. She's already tired of dwelling on the past.
"With any luck," Sciel says, and even now, optimism flares in her. Something has to go smoothly eventually, doesn't it?
She squeezes Maelle's shoulder one more time and then lets go, hands falling to her knees, attention still on Lune. She has a lot of admiration for her, and she feels it now, even as Lune looks stressed; this is far from an ideal situation to come into, but she shoulders everything anyway, even when it's unfair for her to have to.
"And how are you doing?" Sciel asks. "We've put a lot on your shoulders today, especially. Do you need a break?"
Lune exhales a slow breath between barely parted lips, decision made. She may still have some concerns about this, but she's proud of Maelle all the same. "Yes. Let's hope," she chimes in softly on the heels of Sciel's comment.
It's been an eventful day, and it's not done yet. Lune feels herself cycling between different levels of confused, worried, stressed and tired. She meets Sciel's gently concerned gaze.
"I'm fine," she says with a tiniest shake of her head, and it can't come as a surprise to anyone that she does. She never tends to her own issues when there are other things to preoccupy her. "We can keep going, if there's anything else. I'd prefer to know everything I need to up front."
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Drinks at the restaurant had been good. She still can't believe Gustave is here, that they're all here. As much as that's a comfort, she also feels the slight distance between them and herself, having missed out on the experiences they'd gone through here without her.
Where's the reason in all this? Now that she's had a moment to think again, she just feels... overwhelmed, the wine in her belly both a help and hindrance. She hates feeling this unmoored.
What she's wearing feels rather incidental next to everything else, but she isn't going to stop Sciel from fussing, either. Not when even Lune can figure out that has nothing to do with her clothing or getting strange looks on the street.
She packs the folded up sash in her Pictos space for safekeeping and draws in a deep breath of the cool, crisp air. Air conditioning, she recalls distantly. Her focus sharpens when Sciel goes on, latching onto the lifeline thrown at her. She can do that. Focus on something else, find another issue to deal with that isn't her own mental state.
Lune turns, hands clasped loosely behind her back but her spine straight and shoulders back. Ready as always. "All right. Tell me."
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"Verso and Gustave haven't exactly managed to hit it off," Maelle announces, staring up at the ceiling. "Verso's been Verso and wasn't very forthcoming with the truth about who his father is, among other things, and Gustave didn't like that. Rocky start."
It runs deeper than that, but Sciel can explain better than Maelle.
"It was a lot for both of them, meeting one another and... seeing where they stood among us. I guess."
When it should have been simple. Maelle is still surprised how badly that's gone. She sighs, reaching her palms up to press them into her eyes. Disaster Expedition indeed.
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“To put a finer point on it, Verso didn’t tell Gustave that he’d known us and travelled with us for months,” Sciel clarifies. “So I gave it away when I arrived shortly after.”
Hearing Verso’s name out of Gustave’s mouth might have been a record scratch moment if she hadn’t been so consumed by Gustave’s mere existence, hale and whole in her arms. It had certainly grown on her heart over the following hours, though.
“Together we decided that the 33 should stick together, but I didn’t think it was right to have them both under one roof when Gustave knew so little and was so concerned about Renoir.”
Sciel pauses. All that seems to be quite enough information in one go, and for a beat she just looks at Lune, apologetic. She’s not really sure for what; it had to be done, but perhaps far more strategically.
“I backed Verso into a corner and made him tell Gustave.”
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Lune breathes out a long sigh, torn between weariness and irritation. "No. Of course he didn't."
Verso does not volunteer what he doesn't have to, but Lune wonders what was the point of keeping his knowledge of the 33 from Gustave in the first place. She thinks she needs to tread as cautiously as she can, here. She knows she has a more critical opinion of Verso than Maelle and Sciel do, and this is only a summary of the events from their point of view. Lune doesn't know precisely what's been said by whom. She'll need to speak with Gustave in private one of these days soon, see for herself where he's at. Probably Verso, too.
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised by any of this. It must've blindsided Gustave and I don't blame him for reacting poorly. It sounds like you made the right choice." Lune glances at Sciel, indicating the separation and forcing Verso to come clean both. Better Sciel than her, she wouldn't have very been gentle about it. Verso keeps making his bed; he's going to have to lay in it.
Lune frowns slightly, thinking back on what's been said.
"Why was Gustave concerned about Renoir?" Beyond the obvious, but Lune is still in the dark about the tiny detail that Renoir's actually there, too. She's trying to connect the dots, but they're incomplete as of yet. "He knows now that he was Verso's father, yes?" Is that the root of his suspicion?
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"Renoir is here, Lune," Maelle says after a glance to Sciel. She frowns, then drops her gaze down to her knees, hands gripping the sofa cushion at either side of her. "Guess no one checks if you were a monster in life before ushering you in. And he's fucking everywhere, apparently."
They can't escape him. She bites her tongue, knowing spitting out threats here is pointless, but she can't help but think how much easier life would be right now if Renoir wasn't a problem. If she didn't have to worry about Verso, about Gustave, in relation to him.
"But yeah. Gustave knows now."
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Renoir is going to be a big part of that. Between massacre and murder and the events of the Monolith, it's unavoidable.
She finds herself pushing the suitcase away from her on the floor, her hands falling to rest on her knees, and she looks up at Lune with contrition.
"But that's about all Gustave knows," Sciel says, carefully. "That and that we finished Renoir on the Monolith. But none of the circumstances of that, nothing about the 58s, or Old Lumière, or Verso's mother."
It feels like a damning list, brief as it is; each could fill a book, couldn't it? She'll have to take some care later to steer them away from this. Put Lune's mind elsewhere, after a deluge of information that would be all too easy to dwell on, even if it's something she needs to know.
"It's felt like too much to put on his shoulders when he's still reeling over Renoir, and adjusting to Verso joining us."
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Suddenly it all makes so much more sense, and it is... oh, it is not good. Lune's mind whirls with indications, constructing possibilities, but they all crash into a halt Sciel picks up the narrative.
"What?" she parrots again, incredulous now. "Sciel?"
Lune palms her forehead, starting to pace in a circle as the tension within her mounts, her other hand planted on her waist. If she thought it was bad before, this is kind of worse. She takes a moment to straighten out her thoughts, so as not to launch into a tirade; that won't help now. She can't judge too harshly, she wasn't here. She doesn't know the details, surely they only did what they thought was right in the moment.
"Okay– I understand wanting to protect Gustave from being overwhelmed, but what happens when he does find out? It won't stay hidden forever! It's not going to help matters when Gustave realizes it's been kept from him intentionally, even if your intentions were good."
Because that's how she would feel in Gustave's position. No, Lune cannot claim she can predict his thoughts and feelings exactly, but she's fairly certain he isn't going to be pleased.
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"I told Verso he needs to tell Gustave about the Paintress. At the very least," she says, looking to Lune. "I don’t know how long it's going to take him to do that, but he said he would."
But sometimes that doesn't mean much, does it? Maelle's feet don't touch the floor from her position on the seat cushion, heels knocking into the base of the sofa as she swings them. She feels like she could go run laps around the convention center.
"He already doesn't like Verso," Maelle continues, wishing there had been some clear way to avoid the road to where they are now. If there was another path, she didn't see it. Not then. "We can't have him... disappointed in us, too."
Hurt. Again. Maelle shrugs, helpless.
"Kinda feels like we're already in it, though. No matter what we do..."
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"No one has any intention of keeping the whole story from him forever, and he knows there is still a lot to talk about,” Sciel confirms, voice steady. Lune can regulate her tone, but there’s still some need for a softer landing, a refusal to let this tip somewhere too intense.
All of this is fixable. And there's been attempts, at least, to strike a balance between several extremely different needs. As feeble as they sound, as inadequate as they've been, Sciel believes in them, in the situation they've been thrust into.
"But Maelle's right. If Verso had walked into our camp that night and told us everything we know now, we never would have trusted him... we could only trust that he'd never led us into harm's way, and he hasn't. Gustave will not have that experience no matter what we do or don't say."
And with Renoir here, especially, tension will continue to run high.
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If Verso had walked into our camp that night and told us everything we know now, we never would have trusted him. It's true, and Lune knows it. But she also hates any sentiment that touts the kindness of a lie. She knows her own relationship with truth is black and white. Lying by omission is still lying, they all heard her ream Verso out after Old Lumière. This really isn't any different, even if the impetus came from a good place.
Lune folds her arms loosely across her chest. "I wish I could trust Verso to make being forthcoming a priority. I also don't know if it's possible to protect Gustave and Verso both at once when it comes to this."
She's fairly certain someone is going to be get hurt either way. Lune looks at Sciel, something searching in her gaze. She knows Sciel and Verso became... close, back on the Continent. She can't help but wonder whether that's still going on.
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"So we... what, tell Gustave everything in one go and let him deal with it himself? That can't be the only way to do this. We can't keep cornering Verso so that he tells the truth, either. That's just... it's what Gustave dislikes the most, I think. He doesn't volunteer anything."
Which is frustrating and sometimes she can overlook it, but when it comes to Gustave knowing the truth, she doesn't know how long she can without it feeling like she's the one telling the lies. They shouldn't have anything to hide anymore, but Verso always manages.
Maelle clasps her hands between her knees and shakes her head.
"... if someone is going to be hurt and upset about this, I'd prefer it not be Gustave."
So maybe Verso will just have to deal with them telling the truth if he won't. Maybe he'll even be relieved. And they'll... help Gustave through it. If they can.
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Making Verso pluck up the courage wouldn't help, she thinks. As Maelle said, Gustave would see through it, just as he's seen through just about everything Verso's thrown at him, and that's just what Sciel has been there to witness. No, Verso will take time. Consistency, just as he'd shown them, bitter as it could be.
But Lune is looking at her, and Sciel greets that searching look with a shaking head. She doesn't know what she's supposed to suggest, otherwise she would have done it well before Lune's arrive, but whatever they decide, she'll contribute to.
There's her own courage.
"I'd like for you and I to talk to him together," she says to Lune. Maelle has missed a great number of their conversations about general strategy, over the past few months, and Sciel gives no reason as to why she should miss another; sixteen may be middle-aged, but it's not supposed to be. "I think your assessment of Verso will calm his nerves, at the very least. You're blunter about Verso's more... colourful tendencies. "
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"And we won't leave anyone to deal with anything by themselves."
They are still a team, regardless of circumstances. Somehow they'll need to try to manage this with as much grace and tact as possible. Lune is the first to admit the latter isn't her strong suit, but that's why Sciel is there. She meets Sciel's eyes and nods. "Of course. Whenever you're ready."
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"And what do I do?" She asks, crossing her arms. She's certainly been feeling her age these days, and she's not sure she likes it. "Go draw on the sidewalk with chalk while the adults talk?"
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“Of course not, Maelle,” Sciel says, her attention swivelling to the girl with a steady look. “You’re going to have a good number of conversations with us, and with Gustave, and with all of us together. But we should start with the night Verso first tracked us down, and what Lune and I made of him then.”
On the worst night of Maelle’s life, after that exhausting and bewildering trek back to camp. How long had it taken to notice they were all soaked to the skin from the weather when they’d just suffered a loss like that?
(And in case Gustave would like to mention her personal biases that he absolutely doesn’t care about and would be happy about if she was but he also doesn’t want to know, thanks. Not that she’s still thinking about it, and all.)
“Unless,” she ventures, cautiously, “you’re ready to talk about what happened. But if you’re not, that’s alright too.”
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"If you are ready," she says at length, trying to strike a balance between coaching herself in slightly more sensitive terms without babying Maelle in the process.
"You're welcome to join us, but– it'll be a frank conversation. A hard one, potentially. You have to be certain."
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"I was on the cliff. I was the first one to meet Verso," she points out, voice tight. "Does what I made of him not count because he saved me? Or does my opinion not matter because--because I'll--get emotional? Like a normal person?"
Like now, though she looks away, irritated with herself, a frustrated breath forced out of her lungs.
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“It counts, Maelle,” Sciel says, gently. “But what happened on the cliff isn’t something you’ve told us, either. I’d like to have that conversation with you someday, when you’re ready. And with me, you can get as emotional as you’d like.”
If she spread the things she does not want to admit to Gustave out like cards on a table, they’d reveal missteps and inadequacies and too many human failings. But it doesn’t matter. Forcing Maelle to recount that night before she’s ready won’t change anything that’s already happened.
She reaches for Maelle’s shoulder.
“But you know this is going to be a hard conversation for Gustave. And you know him! If any of us show any sign of discomfort, he’ll lunge to protect us instead of taking care of himself.”
Sciel smiles. Could Gustave even absorb a word of it with her torn asunder by panic? Probably not. Just looking at Maelle know, she sees Gustave’s care for her written on her sweet face. It makes Sciel think of Frisk with a bitter pang, and just like that her smile is sad. Maybe she was never cut out to be a parent, but Gustave is absolutely cut from that cloth, and he needs care, too.
“So for this, we’ll all need to be centred and calm, and ready to answer questions, even if they’re painful, because he should know what was in our heads. So, like Lune says… you have to be certain.”
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This is Sciel's wheelhouse, not Lune's. She's able to explain all the concerns Lune has but is unable to put into words, offer Maelle that emotional response she's looking for. Lune can only provide distance, facts. It's hard to put distance between and examine rationally something that should have been final and irreversible, but is now thrust right in front of them to be dealt with Gustave. It's going to be difficult enough for Lune and Sciel, much less for Maelle... and Gustave. Lune isn't certain Maelle is entirely grasping how completely this is going to flay them open, expose every step along the way that they'd been too busy surviving to examine properly, to expose them to critical scrutiny. She's hardly looking forward to it, herself.
She's glad Sciel understands, however, and it comes across the words she's speaking to Maelle. Lune wonders, briefly, what it would have been like to grow up with this kind of support. She's happy Maelle has it, in the eye of such a decision.
Keeping her silence, Lune clasps her hands behind her back and waits for Maelle to work things out.
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She also knows they want to avoid too much emotion, tears, panic. Maelle is beginning to think that's simply not possible. Sciel's calm exterior and Lune's logical approach are aspirational, maybe, but there's no world where Maelle can stop herself from letting it all bubble to the surface. She supposes now is good practice, and she presses her teeth into her bottom lip as she steadies herself. Takes a breath. Looks to Sciel again, though she doesn't remember dropping her gaze.
"I'll never be certain and I'll never be ready but I can... I can stay calm. I want to be there for him. For Verso, too. Everyone seems to think... it was quick or easy when he joined us. It wasn't. Not for me."
He was easy to talk to once she let herself, and a friend soon after. It was easy to see where the broken pieces of a brother who missed his younger sister and a sister that missed her older brother fit together. They did one another a kindness by never saying anything about it, not directly, but Maelle saw it just as well as anyone else.
But he was no replacement for Gustave. He was a part of their Expedition because they had no choice if they wanted to defeat the Paintress. It’s that simple... until it isn't. The lies complicate it all.
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"It was never easy," she confirms, nodding.
She glances back at Lune. They've shared a lot of looks, ever since Verso joined, and selfishly, Sciel is relieved that they can share them again. They're better as a team, the two of them.
"We give it a shot, if Gustave agrees?"
There will be a lot of conversations, anyway, and maybe Maelle doesn't have to know about one until it's already happened, sprung up from drinks she chose not to partake in, or something like that. The thought makes her feel like she's crawled into Verso's skin, and there she sits in it. She's not sure if she likes it, no matter how much she can forgive it in him.
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Be that as it may, Maelle has made her decision, and now it's their turn to respect it. Lune meets Sciel's eyes, nodding.
"If Gustave agrees," Lune confirms, her expression cast with vaguely grim determination.
"We don't have to throw everything at him at once. And shouldn't– not just for Gustave's sake. Staggered approach. We'll take it one step at a time, see how it goes. If it's too much, we'll continue another day."
This is what Lune can do; make plans, draw guidelines. The rest would happen as it will.
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"If Gustave agrees. Lune is right, it doesn't have to be all at once. I... I have his journal, and my entries in it. We're going to start going through it bit by bit. When we can."
So, eventually, he might have a better idea of what they encounterer out in the Continent. The Axons, the places he didn't get to see. But she knows he's most concerned about Verso, this strange man that's joined them in their absence.
"So--there's that, too. By the end of this he might not feel so... behind."
Maybe. She hopes. She's already tired of dwelling on the past.
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She squeezes Maelle's shoulder one more time and then lets go, hands falling to her knees, attention still on Lune. She has a lot of admiration for her, and she feels it now, even as Lune looks stressed; this is far from an ideal situation to come into, but she shoulders everything anyway, even when it's unfair for her to have to.
"And how are you doing?" Sciel asks. "We've put a lot on your shoulders today, especially. Do you need a break?"
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It's been an eventful day, and it's not done yet. Lune feels herself cycling between different levels of confused, worried, stressed and tired. She meets Sciel's gently concerned gaze.
"I'm fine," she says with a tiniest shake of her head, and it can't come as a surprise to anyone that she does. She never tends to her own issues when there are other things to preoccupy her. "We can keep going, if there's anything else. I'd prefer to know everything I need to up front."
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