obscurchroma

[obscurchroma]

got one final assignment due and then I will be free to plot and tackle replies.

unless I knock tf out bc I haven't been sleeping well and we running on 3 hours of sleep total.

[obscurchroma]

my Gustave print canvas is here. I have him in hand and it was worth it. I gotta find somewhere nice to hang it now.

[obscurchroma]

my canvas print of Gustave and my expedition 33 shirts have come in. I cannot wait to hang my canvass print of Gustave up on my wall. I love him. I love him your honor.

[obscurchroma]

so, now that I've had my blog for a bit, any interested in becoming mains/affiliates?

[obscurchroma]

so, now that I've had my blog for a bit, any interested in becoming mains/affiliates?

[obscurchroma]

have we considered a thread shortly after the incident that took gustave's arm and your muse(es) helping him navigate and come to terms with that loss?

[obscurchroma]

Gustave is sunshine but also I like think Gustave is cringe, not in a bad way but in a unironically yells "HEY BESTIIEEE" really loudly and makes you want to smack him with a pillow type of cringe way.

[obscurchroma]

dbh more like how many ways can i get connor killed in one playthrough the answer is atleast 2.

[obscurchroma]

Maelle's laughter rings a little brighter. It was hard, some day, but she was working through being out here in the wilderness. The important think was that she was alive. Granted, she was alive and traumatized to say the least, but---hey---she was alive. Maelle was trying to stay positive and hold it together when she was surrounded by death on all sides in what she dubbed "the disaster expedition".

Every expedition was known for something. They were known to be an unlucky disaster. A shame because Gustave had high hopes for them to be known as the one that advanced lumina tech with his lumina converter.

❝ Yeah well, call me crazy. I am giving up nine years for this disaster of a venture. I believe Emma called it a 'bloodless guillotine' according to Gustave.❞

He told her how upset Emma was about them embarking on the expedition and Maelle was right---she was in fact upset. But well, they both wanted to feel more useful and end the cycle. Plus, Maelle wanted to see the world.

❝ I think you're a little more above the crazy considering you went on an expedition, lived, and then stayed with the gestrals. I'm surprised you didn't pick up their habits. ❞

@obscurchroma from here

It's good, to see Maelle smile again. To hear her laughter ring out like it had so often when him and Gustave were bickering over something silly.

For a while, after Gustave and Emma had taken her in, Maelle had almost become like Gustave's shadow. Following him to his work when she wasn't doing her own work as a courier. Julien had never minded. Had sympathized with her, honestly. It was tough, being the weird kid.

And he was only the weird kid in his house.

"Oh, all Gestrals are a bit crazy," Julien said with a laugh. "I mean, you've met them right?" Of course, Monoco was... different, than most. Still a Gestral, but... there was something there he couldn't quite but his finger on. It was driving him up a wall, if he was being honest.

"And I certainly count amongst the lunatics." He had no reservations about that. He'd thrived in the Gestral village for nearly a year, after all. That probably said more about him than he wanted to admit.

"I think most people who go on the Expeditions have to be a little crazy. Don't you agree?"

[obscurchroma]

❝ Hmmm possibly. ❞ He leaves the answer spoken yet unspoken. A smile spreading across his face. ❝ It could also be when I'm really enthusiastic about something---like when I shouted about the lumina converter to Emma. ❞ He was a little over enthusiastic and well, his dear sister didn't like a lot of noise to begin with.

Gustave crossed his arms. Emma still wasn't happy about him going on the expedition or the fact that he was taking Maelle with him. Neither one of them had the heart to really stop her.

❝ Well, we'll be gone from Lumiere for quite some time so there's making sure we have food and water and first aid supplies---mundane stuff, truly. I don't know why I need to help with that. It's like them hounding me to help put up three tables. ❞

Speaking of . . . ❝ You know, you don't have to go with me. You can stay with Em. ❞ He knows---expects her to say no---but he has to bring up up repeatedly anyway so that they both feel better.

❝ You still have nine whole years. ❞

Maelle raised an eyebrow. "Quiet down? Is that when you've over indulged in the wine?" Sure, Gustave could sometimes be loud when he was excited about something. But normally he was measured, calm. Soft spoken, even.

Why the adults liked to over indulge in wine, she would never know.

At the mention of the expedition, she nods, eyes brightening. "Can I help?" She was going too, after all. If there was something she could do to help, she should. "What else could there possibly be to do? The lumina converter is ready, and Lune's figured out where to land, right?"

Theoretically, anyway. Maelle would be honest and say she didn't understand all the math that went into it. But Gustave trusted Lune and so she did as well.

[obscurchroma]

Dropping my discord in case anyone wants to hang out and plot there bc it’s more reliable than tumblr dms.

crescent_moons

[obscurchroma]

Chrome leaked form him like a living wound. Repainted from memory --- not from something which she knew. Maelle restored all that was lost --- or tried. But her powers were imperfect. She was not as strong as her mother nor was she like her father or sister. Always lost in books as Alicia. Where her old self was more quiet and introverted, Maelle was different. Even if she reconciled those lives, she herself felt imperfect.

Much like Simon --- unfinished.

His hand reached out and Maelle watched, yet it never reached her. Chrome leaking and floating into the air only to disappear. Simon is unsettling, unfinished. Yet, Maelle could only look upon him with mercy. Like the canvas, all things were treasured. The soul of her long lost brother beating within everything that lived in this world. Even if she didn't paint this world, the comfort of knowing her brother's soul existed made her seek solace within this world she'd come to know. Perhaps it was a kindness that her mother repainted her.

A lot of feelings well up and hang within her. Her eyes unreadable. Her thoughts unknown. There is silence that hinged between the two. She allows it to fill the gap as she collects her thoughts, her words. She knows she should not still be in the canvas and yet she remained regardless. She is Maelle after all, given a new life and now became the paintress of this world.

❝ Everyone deserves to live. ❞ Those words carrying a weight of one who had witnessed far too much death. The horrors of the expedition still painted within her memories. Nightmares clawing behind her eyes at night. Her world obscured with darkness. She might've won, but at what cost?

A question still lingered within her mind if saving the canvas was truly the right decision, or was she just being selfish?

No. She deserves this. She deserves to be happy and happiness can only be found here.

❝ Are you happy? ❞

simon turned slightly as he pondered her question - just enough that the failing sun caught the sharp seam of his statuesque profile, like something half-buried in ruin. light shimmered across the chroma scars where clea had repainted him, gold veined with dusk burning out slowly, like a candle stubborn in its death; beauty distorted into the godlike - and, as always, it demanded a monstrous cost. the wind tousled his long, unkempt hair and lifted the edges of his long coat like a curtain rising on the final act. beneath the fabric: the shape of a man returned, yes - but warped, amended - a figure salvaged not from memory, but from myth retold in fractured brushstrokes. the left side of his coat was pinned empty, his shoulder slightly drooped from where the weight once was. the rest of him looked … unfinished; just caught in the middle of a sentence no one remembered how to end.

he wore the silence like a shroud, or maybe like penance. for a moment, something flickered behind his gaze - the kind of aching longing one feels when trying to remember the shape of a feeling long buried.

"it doesn't bother me." he murmured at last, thoughtful. his voice held no edge, only gravity - like it had fallen from somewhere high and broken on the way down.

"it reminds me."

of what, he didn't clarify. he reached out absently, not to touch her, but to feel the distance between them - the chroma in him pulsed like a slow heartbeat under his skin, and feathered outward from his hand, painting invisible threads into the air - spidery, luminous, living things that dissolved the moment they reached too far. "--you gave me back enough to feel the difference." his eyes dragged to maelle's face - twin eclipses, both light and dark, the kind that held stories the tongue refused to carry; they did not accuse her, but they saw her: the fear under the promise, the hope under the weight. there was a strange quiet between them after that - simply human.

then, a rasped murmur - like it might break something if spoken too loud:

"thank you for trying."

the word held something sharp inside it - just true. his breath left him in a slow rhythm, almost like he was measuring time with it.

(she painted with perfection. you paint with mercy. and I think that's harder, but it's why I'm still here.)

it was not gratitude - not quite; it was acknowledgement - knowing there is no going back, only forward, only through.

[obscurchroma]

"I have always wondered... how humans could not fly. Perhaps you can, but have not tried hard enough." Esquie hummed out in thought, staring out into the open night air. Soon, though, he'd turn his head to look toward where Maelle sat beside him. "Maelle, have you ever flown?"

❝ Outside of riding on your back? ----No. ❞ The answer comes quick. Eyes upturned to look at Esquie. Soon enough, gaze flits back down to the ground. Arms wrapped around her knees which are drawn closer to her chest.

There's something almost poetic about flight. Symbolism for freedom found within the concept. If she could fly, could she fly far enough that the paintress wouldn't reach her? Maelle had to wonder as she settled in close to her friend. There's something comforting about just being near Esquie. He's comforting --- like a soft blanket or a stuffed toy that you'd hug close to you. Considering Maelle always tried to put forth a tough exterior, she didn't have to when around him.

Dealing with him and the gestrals was so much easier than dealing with another human being.

Soft laughter is pulled from her lips. ❝ I don't think we can fly. I mean --- outside of Lune. I guess she counts as being able to fly, no? ❞ A smile is pulled forth, spreading across her face as she thought about the concept. ❝ Though, I don't think she can fly in the same sense you can. Maybe I should ask her . . . ❞

Maelle's gaze finds it's way back up towards Esquie. ❝ I'm open to trying to learn but something tells me that humans weren't made to do that. Just don't throw me off a cliff and tell me to flap my arms, okay? ❞

[obscurchroma]

Chat, d’you guys have recommendations for someone I can commission to make Gustave and Maelle icons for me? Maaaybe some other graphics too? Like header, promo dash icon, maybe some banners? I just don’t have time and spoons to keep trying to make something I like and will happily give monies.

[obscurchroma]

Like this if you would like me to send you some memes from Gustave and/or Maelle? Or just in general something to your inbox? Doesn’t have to be a meme. If you’re a multi feel free to specify who you’d like it for.