ᴇᴛʀᴀʏᴀ— 𝒊𝒏𝒃𝒐𝒙.

[demainvient]

 
𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 — 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 — 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞

Comments

un: ScielCandide | text

[cache_coeur]

[No matter how bumpy things have been lately, a dear friend is a dear friend.]

Salut Gustave!

Hope you’ve settled in well with your assignment. I miss our apartment already and it’s very strange to be so far away from everyone after an entire lifetime on a little island, but might as well make the best of something new, right?

I’ve been assigned a “husband” and child. The man is a strange fellow. He seems to be enjoying himself, but he’s not at all suited to taking care of children, so I’ll be busier than expected. The child, Frisk, is very sweet and helpful (despite a penchant for trouble!!) and insisted upon caring for the gardens. Very shy, though. I can just look at them through the window and the moment they notice, they look ready to scurry off. I’ve checked that there’s nothing toxic and left them to it. I didn’t want to have expectations but it’s ended up very bittersweet just the same.

Did you get a car? I hope you did, you’d be a good driver. I think Expedition 63 was wasting their time with them, personally, but for the distance these Americans travel just to go to work, they’re very useful. I think you could do a better one, couldn’t you?

Anyway, I’m hoping to take Maelle shopping again in the next few days so hopefully I will see you soon and we can drink & chat, but you can find me any time here:

[an address is typed here, in the suburbs between Palo Alto and San Francisco]

Bisous,
Sciel

un: GustaveEiffel

[demainvient]

[ Strange to be writing back and forth to each other, like leaving little journal entries. Strange for the distance between them right now to feel like more than just the physical. ]

Hi Sciel,

Yes, getting there. It sounds like you're finding the good in the situation... you've always excelled at that. And if anyone could get a shy child like Frisk to warm up to them, it's you. Maybe they'll appreciate your own knowledge of plants and garden work.

I have an assigned partner, too: Ororo Munroe. It's a strange situation, but she's very kind and extremely interesting to talk with. I think it's probably as odd for Maelle as it is for me, but so far she and Ororo seem to be getting along. It probably helps that Ororo has some similar powers to Lune; there's a little something of the familiar about her.

Like you said, it's, well... bittersweet. A glimpse at something I wanted, once.

[ He deletes it; Sciel knows. However unsettled things might be between them, they still know each other well. He makes a mental note to find Sciel and take her for a walk or a drink when he gets back, to see how she's feeling. ]

Ororo and I are taking a trip today, to a place on the other side of this immense ocean we've found ourselves near. And I thought the Monolith seemed far! Lumiere seems smaller than ever now when I look at the maps and images of this country, this world.

We'll be back tonight. I've let Maelle know I'll be away, but maybe don't be surprised if she reaches out. It's good for us to be apart a little, I think. But it's still hard.

I'll be sure to check in with you for that chat and drink when I come back.

Gustave

un: Storm; text

[agoddessonce]

[ Hello, fake husband. Attached to this message is a screenshot of a train schedule in Japan of all places. ]

I thought we might take a quick trip.

[ She also needs to see who, if any, of her friends are in safe houses out there. ]

un: GustaveEiffel; text

[demainvient]

[ Ah, interesting. He peruses the schedule, amused; this marriage might be fake, but he can't say Ororo hasn't paid attention to his interests.

A quick study of the location later, and his interest is piqued: an island like Lumière, but much larger and with a far greater population. The architecture he glimpses as he flips through images looks fascinating, too. ]

I think that sounds like a great idea.

Will Maelle be joining us, or should I let her know we'll be back later?

un: verleso | text

[fromfire]

Verso, Expedition 33

[ To Sciel and Maelle, it is easier to write but this feels like something. Still, it feels better than separating himself, he supposes. ]

Anyway, I am just checking in.

I have nothing to report in terms of figuring out the source of the morality shift but I did not just reach out to say I have nothing.

I also reached out to wish you well in this equally strange world. I am hopeful you are finding it all quite pleasant despite the mission we are on.

Well, that's all.

un: GustaveEiffel

[demainvient]

[ It's a strange feeling, seeing those words together: Verso, Expedition 33. He wonders if Verso had written any journals for the Expedition once he joined, if Lune had allowed him to leave his words along with hers. ]

Gustave, Expedition 33.

It's good to hear from you. It's odd to be so separated from the expedition, but I suppose it's only to be expected. Maybe by covering more ground we'll be able to achieve more in the mission, although I also have found no clues leading to the morality shift. It's strange, though, isn't it? Unsettling to think we could be manipulated that way by something we can't even see.

Things have been going reasonably smoothly for me so far. My assigned partner is a kind and thoughtful person with powers like nothing I've ever seen before, although in some aspects they remind me somewhat of Lune. Really, I'm just grateful I was assigned along with Maelle. There are some kindnesses here, it seems.

I hope your own assignments are treating you well. Did you find yourself with an assigned family, too?

I've been trying to take advantage of this world's technology to travel around, but you can contact me at the following address. Or perhaps you'll let me buy you a drink one of these nights, and we can talk. I'd like that.

Thanks for reaching out.

Gustave

Un: ScielCandide | Text

[cache_coeur]

Are you doing anything right now? If not, you should join Lune and I for drinks! 1150 Magic Way.

Un: ScielCandide | Text

[cache_coeur]

[Surprise second message:]

Also, could you bring a pair of shoes?

[demainvient]

What? Lune's here?

[ Gustave please focus ]

Yeah of course, I'll be there in a moment. Guess this new speed actually is coming in handy for something.

text

[maellum]

There's something strange on your bed.

[Maelle has been in a mood, lately. Quiet, contemplative. Sad--but she's trying her best to push it down. She has so much to be happy about, really. And she focuses on that.

She has Gustave, and her greatest joy is making him smile and laugh. So, on his bed sits a small wrapped gift.

She hopes he likes it. And she hopes it softens the inevitable hurt of cracking open the journal together. They have to start, and even if it's uncomfortable, she hopes they come out better for it at the end.]

Re: text

[demainvient]

[ He's sitting at the table he'd dragged into the apartment and turned into a workbench, flipping through schematics that he'd taken with him when they left Earth when the text comes through. Gustave glances at it, frowns, and heads into the bedroom to give the little wrapped package sitting on his bed a dubious glance. ]

Am I supposed to open this all by myself?

[ Maelle's been... off, lately. Ever since they came back to find Lune hadn't come with them and Verso had disappeared to who knows where — not that she's said as much. In fact, she's hardly talked to him about Verso at all since their conversation on the patio of the assigned house in San Francisco. ]

telepathic phone straight into ur brain

[sophielicious]

/Hi, it's me, Sophie Cuckoo, etc, don't question it too hard, texting is for lame people who can't do this.

Is Maelle, like, your kid or something? Just so I understand./

[demainvient]

[ Hunched over the workbench in the 33's shared apartment, Gustave startles, pencil stilling in his hand. ]

Sophie. Hi.

[ Can she hear him if he speaks out loud? He has no idea, but thinking his answers feels slightly dangerous. ]

In a way. She's my adopted sister, but we never really could decide if I was her brother or her father.

Why do you ask?

Un: ScielCandide | Text

[cache_coeur]

Headed back shortly. Let me know if you need more time.

Un: GustaveEiffel | Text

[demainvient]

No, come on back.

text | sometime after sophie babysitting, before the fog mission

[maellum]

Hey. I don't know if Sophie is going to bring it up, but I don't want you to be blindsided in case she does. I told her about some of the things that have been going on lately. I figured it was the polite thing to do with her telepathy and all. It's difficult to say we're okay when she can tell that we're not.

[demainvient]

[ ...Oof.

Well, there probably wasn't a way around that. ]

I'm glad you were honest with her. She's been a big help and a good friend. It was kind of her not to go prying, I'm sure she was curious.

How are you doing?

a little later than maelle's text

[sophielicious]

/Text or is this okay? I just wanna check if you're okay.

Blink one for yes, two for 'fuck off'./

[demainvient]

[ Shortly after one blink: ]

/You know, it's actually quite hard to keep from blinking more than once in a row.

This is fine. And thank you again for all your help tonight./

Post Fog (what are timelines)

[maellum]

Bullshit, Sophie had said, when Maelle claimed she was okay after the fog. Okay feels more and more of a memory. She does try, of course. Spending time quietly in the living room rather than hiding away in the bedroom. Forcing up a smile. Small talk, even if she doesn't care for it. She tries her very best to not cling to Gustave as tightly as she wants, and while she certainly has, she doesn't want him to worry. Her number one priority is to not make his life more difficult than it is.

But sleep doesn't come, and one night as she stares up at the ceiling from her own bed, she thinks he must be awake, too. She knows what his breathing sounds like when he's actually asleep.

"Hey, Gustave?"

[demainvient]

He's been staring up at the ceiling without seeing it, his head pillowed on his right arm, trying to keep his thoughts drifting instead of getting dragged down into memory. The fog has cleared, but not inside his head; he finds himself wandering back and back and back to everything he saw there, everything he heard. He still doesn't know all of the others' experiences, but he suspects they weren't any more enjoyable than his own.

Maelle's voice isn't an entirely welcome interruption from his thoughts — he'd been hoping she'd fallen asleep, although the careful silence from her side of the room had suggested that his hope was a vain one. He rolls his head to the side and looks over toward her, a vague shape in the darkness. "Can't sleep?"

telepathic snitch

[sophielicious]

/Kid's worried about you./

idr if this was before or after the fog but YOLO

[demainvient]

/Yeah./

[ Not much to it, but it's not dismissive, just resigned. Maelle has been worried about him almost since she first got here, and he can't say she's wrong to.

There's so much he could say, worries and uncertainties of his own, but he settles for: ]

/I'm glad she can talk to you. I think it probably helps./

text » un: robin

[brat]

( fully off network, because damian only publicly shows his face when it's to get snarky with others, but at the same time as gustave's post - )

I can track it.

[demainvient]

I appreciate the offer, Robin. Are you willing to work with a group to try and find him?

[sophielicious]

/Knock knock./

[demainvient]

/Hi, Sophie.

Need something, or just wanting to chat?/

text | un: stendhal

[maellum]

Say you found a redheaded orphan on the side of the road. Very sad. What would you name her?

[demainvient]

Is this in addition to the red-headed orphan I already have? Because I'm not sure I'm allowed to have two. Pretty sure there's some kind of law against it.

[sophielicious]

/Come to Harry's Hideaway Pub, in Quiverfields./

[demainvient]

[ He's used enough to Sophie's impetuous ways by now not to argue or even ask for more details; he just sends along an acknowledgement and finishes up what he's doing to head out.

Harry's Hideaway is a nice little place that he's visited a time or two before, and he knows his way around as he comes in and looks about for Sophie. She gets a smile and a lift of his hand into a small wave before he makes his way over and draws a seat out for himself. ]

This was a nice surprise.

[trebuchim]

Lune had persuaded — or perhaps gently bullied, as she hadn't really given him too much choice in the matter — Gustave into joining her for a stroll, to explore this curious world some more while they have the chance. It's beautiful out in the wilds and, so far, it's considerably less hazardous than the Continent. Not having to watch out for roaming Nevrons all the time does wonders for the conversation, easily chatting about this and that as they go, pointing out anything of interest along the way. It's nice just to spend some time together with a friend instead of a co-worker; without any urgent, overarching goal or deadline.

(Yes, they do still have a mission goal, but that's beside the point.)

"Wait." Lune suddenly stops in her tracks, alert, her hand raised. "Do you feel that?"

It's the most familiar of feelings, tugging at her senses; a pull she hasn't felt properly since leaving their own world. She's sure Gustave hasn't, either. The sudden appearance of it is so stark, like a bright splash of color against a blank canvas. Her voice is a little breathless with wonderment when she goes on. "It's... it's chroma."

She doesn't know how that's possible, but her mind connects the dots instantly. If there's chroma, that means one thing: lumina. Lumina that they desperately need for Gustave. She has an intact Lumina Converter in her Pictos space ready to go. She doesn't stop to consider any further, a new objective clear in her head. Glancing over to Gustave, she touches his upper arm as if to prod him along, but doesn't wait to see if he follows.

"Come on! Hurry!" Her bare feet leave the ground as she takes off after the source, floating just above the grassy ground, long, braided hair fluttering in her wake.

[demainvient]

Maybe this is what it would have been like moving through the Spring Meadows if the team had lived, if he hadn't been shellshocked and focused only on finding Maelle. Those paths had been beautiful in their way: lit by the glow of chroma-stained trees, lined with soft grasses and cheerful flowers, crossed here and there by bubbling rivers. He would have liked to have explored it with Lune at a slower pace, one less driven by panic and desperation, when they could have exclaimed to each other over every small discovery, every new reminder of what the Expeditions before had created and accomplished.

This is different, but he can appreciate the allure of a brand new world to explore with a friend at his side. He's become familiar with some of these paths during his time spent as a hart out in the woods, but they're nearing the edge of what he knows, and—

He looks over as Lune touches his arm, his left hand going to his chest. "Yes— I feel it, too— where—"

Chroma. It tugs on him, light but insistent, and he's halfway to spinning around when he realizes Lune's already on the move, floating lightly into the air and flying forward. "Lune!"

There's nothing for it; he launches into a hard run, trying his best to keep up with her as she gracefully navigates through the trees. "Slow down! We don't know what it might be, why would there be chroma here?"