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spoilers possible within, proceed with caution!
(( ooc: continued from here. ))
We could do that with something else. That—this ship is a marvel, Maelle. There's a lot of things here that are really beautiful.
[ Gustave is nervous, but he's less afraid. At least right now. What he's focused on is just getting Maelle away from the castle and the rest can be dealt with after. He chuckles as she pulls him along. ]
You pull any harder and you're going to take my other arm off.
continued
[He likes it here. Good. There are so many people that want to return home, and Maelle once more feels like she's on the outside looking in. She wants to stay here forever, with Gustave, no matter how strange this place is.
She looks up at him at his remark about his arm. With an inhale, she at least slows her pace for him, still hugging his arm closely to her. Just as she once held his fabricated arm, keeping it safe.]
Sorry.
[That can't be all she says.]
I forget the elderly aren't very fast.
cont.
[ Returning... it, well. Gustave knows there isn't anything to return to. For him at least. He had reached the end of his journey, his expedition, and going back was just going to be...
Clearly his throat, he decides not to think along those lines for now. That's for quiet contemplation later, another walk around the lake.
Instead, he laughs as she insults him because it's utterly charming. ]
Not all of us are sixteen with the joints to match you know. I think I'm very spry for my old age.
continued
[Despite her teasing, despite all that happened, he's still the strongest person she knows. He is spry. He's strong and fast and so very, very intelligent.
He's everything.
Maelle can't ever lose the light he brings to her life ever again.]
Yeah, well, you'll have to duel me regularly to stay that way. Use it or lose it, right?
[It's a struggle to joke, but she has to try. For him.]
cont.
[ Really, he's joking about spry, but he's not going to argue if she agrees with him, knowing tomorrow she might not. That was just the way kids were, but that's just another thing to admire. Fleeting but honest.
Gustave isn't thinking about going anywhere for as long as he can manage it. If they have more time, he wants to take every second. ]
How regularly is regularly?
continued
[Every day. Their duels were always fun. Another way to play, while both honing their skills for the expedition. It didn't save him, in the end, but nothing really could, could it? Maelle was no help.]
Hmm. Seeing as you don't have anything better to do [nor does she!], it might have to be daily.
cont.
Daily. [ Gustave laughs, makes a show of the dramatic way he sways and the rise of his eyebrows. ] Merde. You're going to run me into the ground.
What—and why were you so confident I have nothing better to do? I could have... No, I couldn't even finish that lie convincingly enough in my head.
continued
[His silliness has always been a surefire way to get her out of a mood, and it's so effortless Maelle's own laughter surprises her.]
You don't have any apprentices yet. That's how I know.
[But it seems to be less of a dire thing here. The fae do things for pleasure and because they can and because there's no imminent doom. It's an adjustment, to be sure.]
I think you've earned a break.
[And, selfishly, she wants so much of his time she hopes he doesn't end up with apprentices. Not yet, at least. It's still hard to let him out of her sight.]
cont.
[ Seeing her brighten up, even just a little, makes him smile. If he can't do anything else, at least he can do that. And he's impressed by her point, nodding sagely. ]
Do you think the fae have children than need apprenticeships? [ Part of him wishes he'd thought to offer that as his end of the deal. Not... ]
A break, huh? So you can beat up an old man. Daily.
continued
You can always ask. I don't know how interested they are in learning from us humans, though. They have magic.
[Which, you know, would have made a lot of problems in their world go away. Or at least be solved without the years of effort put into pictos and the Lumina Converter. Oh, well. Maelle is trying very hard not to be bitter about so many things.]
It's for your own good, Gustave.
cont.
Depending on how you look at it, we do too, you know. [ Not that anyone's ever called it that by name, but, that's what it was, wasn't it? Magic? In some form. ] If they weren't, why bring us here in the first place? And if they don't want to learn, maybe they should.
[ Those problems, these problems, right at this exact moment, none of it actually matters. Gustave isn't solving anything other than trying to keep away the sadness that is clinging to Maelle and that's enough of a task to focus on. ]
Is that what you're going to tell yourself?
continued
[It all goes back to one thing, in the end. What does he want? This is his second chance.]
... what do we do here, Gustave?
[Renoir is a problem, but Verso told her not to worry. She trusts him. He may leave out important details, but he got them where they needed to be, ultimately. She has to trust him here, too.]
continued
I like the castle.
[She says quietly, firmly. The representation of the court, the realm. If not for this place, she wouldn't be speaking to Gustave right now. She pointedly doesn't look at him because simply remembering that fact is enough to make a lump form in her throat.]
cont.
We like the castle. Okay. Hmm.
[ Gustave puts his arm around her as he makes a show of trying to think of another target. ]
What don't we like? I'm sure there's something we can aim for. I was just, well, the castle is hard to miss. I just figured it would be an easy target. Unless you think you're up for a real challenge. We could aim for the boat?
continued
[He doesn't draw attention to it, nor does she, but just that simple act of his arm over her shoulders calms her. She's missed this so much--she wonders if there will ever be a day that looking at him doesn't make her heart ache. Some day, maybe this will feel real.]
You like the boat.
[No aiming for things they like.]
Maybe you just show me how to skip stones. I've never understood how that works.
cont.
I do, yeah. I'm going to figure out how it works.
[ Is that confidence? Bravado? Just him trying to keep his mind off other things? Maybe it's all of the above, but really, his focus is on Maelle, and getting as many moments he can before he's out of time. ]
I can do that. We need completely different stones for that though. I'll show you how to pick those out, too. There's a... a technique to it. Picking the right one. Just as much as getting it to skip over the water.
continued
[This, here, is what she missed most. His love for figuring things out. His love for teaching--for teaching her, and she keeps everything he's shown her over the years close to her heart. Her memories with him are her most prized possession.
She can't think that this is only temporary. That this is only extra scraps thrown to them. This has to be forever, in this strange, strange place.]
Where do we find them? These special stones.
cont.
[ If Gustave had been able to wish for anything, it just would have been more time. More time for this, to share with the people he loved. To learn more about the things he never got the chance to figure out. To finish those old prototypes he had sitting back home in Lumière.
There's no getting back the time they lost, but there's time now and he's not going to waste a second of it. ]
Well, you see, [ and he's animatedly gesturing as he speaks, ] The best ones are always by the river. They—the water smooths out all the edges and they'll glide over the surface. It's aerodynamics. My record is twelve. For skipping them. It would have been thirteen but I was robbed. Waves.
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