"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."
Maelle is simply glad to be included without an argument or fight. There's something ugly that wants to rear up, but for now, it's appeased. She just wants Gustave to be okay. All of them, really, but it's only natural that she worries about Gustave most of all.
"You know you'll probably be living with when this mission is over, right?" She offers as a way of lightening the mood. It's important information! "There's still room."
Especially with Verso down the hall and Maelle sharing a room with Gustave. She tells herself she'll move into her own, eventually, but she's in no hurry.
There’s something she could tell Lune, right then, but the apartment is another thing to consider entirely, and Sciel decides to pivot with Maelle, at least for the minute.
“It would be nice if you wanted to, Lune,” Sciel says. Contrary to the girl’s belief, it is not anywhere near an obligation. “No hard feelings if you’d rather have your own place after a long Expedition. Verso does, and he still comes around for dinner.”
(It’s an enjoyable concession to living apart, actually. Verso is often at his best when he can entertain a little, and clearing the plates is a safe escape for either to leave the table.)
She leans back into the couch, leaning her cheek on her hand.
Lune is hardly surprised to hear Gustave and Verso aren't sharing a space. Nor that the rest of them have stuck together. Why wouldn't they, having been reunited with Gustave?
Lune is used to being on her own outside the Expedition– where sticking together was a necessity. They're no longer an Expedition, though. Yet, a large part of her doesn't necessarily want to be alone in that strange new place, before she's found her feet.
"If it's alright with Gustave." She gives a small smile, acquiescing. "Then, yes– at least for the time being."
Yes. Maelle visibly brightens, happy to hear Lune's answer. For the time being is good enough, and maybe she'll like the apartment too much to want to venture out on her own.
"There's enough space for us, promise," Maelle smiles. "Whenever we get to go back, you'll see."
"I can't imagine he'd say no," she says, and she feels grateful for both that and Lune's agreement; anything that lifts Maelle's spirits is a good note.
And perhaps, she thinks, when Gustave and Maelle are ready to stand on their own again, she'll get a place. Maybe something to offer to Lune, too, in case neither of them wants to go it fully alone, but if she's being honest with herself, it would be nice not to explain any visitors to a sixteen year old and two people who can't find anything romantic about ferris wheels.
"In some ways it's like this hotel, you know. The technology, the conveniences. But if you venture out beyond the apartments, there's a lot of open land and strange buildings. Nothing matches! It's like dozens of Sirène islands, all out of place."
Maelle's enthusiasm lifts Lune's spirits for a moment, a tiny smile curving at her mouth for a second. At least her arrival hasn't disrupted whatever existing group dynamic that's been shaped up in her absence too badly. Hopefully.
"Hm– I'm looking forward to seeing it all."
Her left arm drops to hang loosely by her side, right hand clasping the elbow– uncertainty. The curiosity and interest of discovery sparking up within her push against all this newness, and just... new trauma. She probably does need that break at some point in spite of arguing the opposite a while ago.
The group dynamic is a mess, and no small part of Maelle wonders if the tension would be so bad had Lune been with them from the start. She feels hopeful that Lune will help them make sense of things and encourage them to actually solve some of their problems. Somehow.
"We didn't get a chance to explore a lot before this mission. No will be able complain they're bored," she says. Though she has far more appreciation for quiet moments now, especially when she can look over and see Gustave whole and alive as if nothing terrible ever happened.
“I did some exploring,” Sciel replies, amused. “I watched a knight fight a large dragon, and I visited an island and drank rum out of a pineapple with that ‘old’ man.” She glances at Lune, smiling. “Forty-four!”
But since her attention is on Lune, her gaze drifts over that uncomfortable posture, the short response. Sciel glides to her feet, moving a little more towards Lune’s space slowly, obviously. (She’s not going to touch. She promises.) She gestures back towards the couch.
“Are you sure you don’t want that break? Or to just sit?”
That, at least, dredges a small huff of laughter from Lune, her smile brief but genuine. "That does sound like you, Sciel."
Said in all affection! In the face of Sciel's obvious concern, Lune realizes she's let her focus drift, to get distracted. She can obsess later, not now. Shaking her head, her hands migrate to her waist instead.
"Yeah. It's just... a lot on my mind." Understatement.
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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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"You know you'll probably be living with when this mission is over, right?" She offers as a way of lightening the mood. It's important information! "There's still room."
Especially with Verso down the hall and Maelle sharing a room with Gustave. She tells herself she'll move into her own, eventually, but she's in no hurry.
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“It would be nice if you wanted to, Lune,” Sciel says. Contrary to the girl’s belief, it is not anywhere near an obligation. “No hard feelings if you’d rather have your own place after a long Expedition. Verso does, and he still comes around for dinner.”
(It’s an enjoyable concession to living apart, actually. Verso is often at his best when he can entertain a little, and clearing the plates is a safe escape for either to leave the table.)
She leans back into the couch, leaning her cheek on her hand.
“It would be nice to have you with us.”
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Lune is used to being on her own outside the Expedition– where sticking together was a necessity. They're no longer an Expedition, though. Yet, a large part of her doesn't necessarily want to be alone in that strange new place, before she's found her feet.
"If it's alright with Gustave." She gives a small smile, acquiescing. "Then, yes– at least for the time being."
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"There's enough space for us, promise," Maelle smiles. "Whenever we get to go back, you'll see."
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And perhaps, she thinks, when Gustave and Maelle are ready to stand on their own again, she'll get a place. Maybe something to offer to Lune, too, in case neither of them wants to go it fully alone, but if she's being honest with herself, it would be nice not to explain any visitors to a sixteen year old and two people who can't find anything romantic about ferris wheels.
"In some ways it's like this hotel, you know. The technology, the conveniences. But if you venture out beyond the apartments, there's a lot of open land and strange buildings. Nothing matches! It's like dozens of Sirène islands, all out of place."
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"Hm– I'm looking forward to seeing it all."
Her left arm drops to hang loosely by her side, right hand clasping the elbow– uncertainty. The curiosity and interest of discovery sparking up within her push against all this newness, and just... new trauma. She probably does need that break at some point in spite of arguing the opposite a while ago.
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"We didn't get a chance to explore a lot before this mission. No will be able complain they're bored," she says. Though she has far more appreciation for quiet moments now, especially when she can look over and see Gustave whole and alive as if nothing terrible ever happened.
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But since her attention is on Lune, her gaze drifts over that uncomfortable posture, the short response. Sciel glides to her feet, moving a little more towards Lune’s space slowly, obviously. (She’s not going to touch. She promises.) She gestures back towards the couch.
“Are you sure you don’t want that break? Or to just sit?”
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Said in all affection! In the face of Sciel's obvious concern, Lune realizes she's let her focus drift, to get distracted. She can obsess later, not now. Shaking her head, her hands migrate to her waist instead.
"Yeah. It's just... a lot on my mind." Understatement.
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