trebuchim | Etraya [ inbox

He gives Lune a small shrug as he sets his book aside and stands, reaching his left arm across his chest and catching it in the hook of his right arm to stretch out the muscles of his back and shoulder. It's a familiar motion, reminiscent of dozens, hundreds of hours spent training in the past.

Even without foretell, he'll need to be as limber as possible if he wants to get out of this without his body turning into a single enormous bruise. "We've got that new mission coming up," he points out. "And I don't want to be a weak point for the team. The only way to patch up the hole in our defenses is for me to work as hard as I can to get stronger, right?"

And to find a source of lumina, but they all know that. It's not worth bringing up. "Besides, don't tell me you haven't both been looking forward to wiping the floor with me."

On her feet now, Lune looks up from her journal as she chokes out a small noise at the comment Gustave chooses to cap off his reasoning with, caught somewhere between a laugh and a scoff— reluctant amusement meeting mild indignation at the accusation.

"I'm not sure I'd say that," she protests mildly, but her lips quirk a bit in spite of herself. "But, I do think maybe we've all been resting on our laurels when it comes to training, here. No time like the present to fix that, since everyone's amenable. Who knows what we'll face on that next world we're getting sent to."

It's definitely not a bad idea to take some measures in effort to be as prepared as they can. Lune nods, turning toward her room. "I'll get changed, just a minute."

Sciel cackles, shimmying out from between the coffee table and the couch and bouncing to her feet. She's in leggings and a sweatshirt, and that'll do just fine for her. On the other hand, she doesn't feel like she's been resting on her laurels, but general exercise is still not quite the same as being able to go toe to toe with something properly, and going out to visit Verso and Monoco is never as structured as a proper Expedition venture.

"Sorry to say I have been," she says, with a little bit of glee. "But it's all in good fun! You love challenges."

"You could be a little bit sorry," he says, reproachful and resigned in equal measure, but he can hardly complain: he's brought this on himself. In service of Maelle's request, yeah, but –

– But it'd be worth facing a dozen Sciels to hear Maelle tease him like she had the night before. Papa.

Gustave ducks his head, shaking it with a chuckle as he crosses his arms over his chest to wait with Sciel for Lune. He's not in uniform, but the comfortable khakis and hooded sweatshirt Maelle had gotten him will be fine. Better than sparring in a suit, anyway. He angles himself toward Lune's room, lifting his voice as he slides a teasing glance Sciel's way. "Hopefully whatever we meet there will be enough to give Sciel a real workout, so I can recover."

"We all hope for that," Lune agrees wryly with a playful smirk as she rejoins Gustave and Sciel almost literally a mere minute later, zipping up a fitted hoodie to replace the loose sweater she'd worn earlier with her leggings. "Right— are we ready to go?"

Sciel’s expression is sly in return, and she reaches over to Gustave’s back to give a playful run of her fingers up his spine. He’ll do better than he expects, she’s sure. No matter how far they’d gotten after he was taken from them, he has more than enough moxie to make up for it, and she knows it’d be more demoralizing than ever if they went easy on him.

“Give me a good run for my money and I will be very sorry,” she teases, a little spring to her step as she heads for the door, walking backwards so she can still look at them. “And hopefully very, very tired.”

He wriggles under that playful touch and gives Sciel an exaggeratedly exasperated look that loses any hint of edge beneath the amusement that comes right along with it. "Do you get tired?"

There had been a while after they first arrived here when he wondered if he'd ever feel anything but tired, but the months since the fog have been restorative, in their way. Expedition 33 has settled into life on Etraya, such as it is, and he sleeps through the night now more often than not. The bad dreams still come, but fewer and further between. He's as rested and ready for this as it's possible for him to be.

Gustave takes hold of the door and waits for Lune to exit after Sciel before following them both, making for the elevator at the end of the hall. "But I'll give the best I've got. At least I can still try to get out of the way... I hope."

Lune lets Sciel and Gustave's friendly banter wash over her without contributing to it, a hint of an indulgent smile on her lips as they file into the elevator. It's yet to stop feeling good when they can spend time together like this, without the pressures of one mission or another— as friends. The fact that they get to do it only after their respective deaths is a tangle she chooses not to examine as closely just then.

She clasps her hands loosely behind her back as she takes a spot against the back wall of the car, glancing over to Gustave and remarking simply, "You're giving yourself too little credit."

Sciel lets Gustave enjoy that momentary distance from her poking and prodding fingers, but the second they’re all filing into the elevator again, she steps in close to him again with another nudge in the side. How could she be tired when there’s so much fun to be had?

“He’s too humble,” Sciel remarks to Lune, still smiling. “The only time you ever need to get out of the way is when Monoco turns into a Stalact.”

Gustave hits the button for the lobby level, grimacing at the very thought of facing the monster Monoco had turned into on that stage. "There's a reason why I'm asking the two of you to spar and not him," he points out. "Can he really turn into any Nevron as long as he has its foot? How does that even work?"

And why? How would anyone even discover that particular talent? Gustave thinks about a Karatom that would be able to turn into a Nevron at will and shudders. "Probably a good thing for us the other gestrals couldn't do the same thing."

Lune lips twitch a little at that comment that could be considered somewhat backhanded at first blush, but she soon huffs in plain aggravated exasperation when Gustave goes on. Nobody is more upset than she is that she cannot answer this question with any sort of certain knowledge, and not for lack of trying.

"It appears so. And believe me, I have tried to get to the bottom of the process, but while Monoco may speak our language, his answers have been as unhelpful as the other Gestrals. And Verso was even less help."

Sciel looks at them both, amused. Of course they care about this. Gustave being put off by sparring with Monoco doesn’t bother her; the very first thing they did upon meeting him was beat the snot out of him, anyway, Sciel knows where she stands in the pecking order.

“Well, it’s not every Nevron,” Sciel says, like she knows anything more than they do. She doesn’t, but it’s fun to throw them a bone to chew on. “Floating eyeballs and wads of fabric don’t have legs. And what about the Sakapatates? Those aren’t Nevrons, but he can do them, too.”

"Wads of...?"

Clearly he'd missed a whole bizarre catalog's worth of Nevs in the far reaches of the Continent. Gustave shakes his head as the elevator glides to a halt, then holds out a hand to keep the doors from closing as he waits for the others to get out. "Excellent, just what we needed: a Gestral with his own shoulder-cannon."

At least maybe Monoco doesn't have access to the improved powder and cannon Gustave helped create for the Ultimate Sakapatate...

"The Sakapatates are an outlier among the Nevrons." Lune waves a hand dismissively as they step out of the elevator, warming up to this subject.

"We did encounter several new flying Nevrons that by and large had no legs. Or ones that by design had no limbs, like the Glissandos." For Gustave's benefit, she clarifies, "Giant snakes. Size also is a factor, he cannot harvest legs from the giant ones— say, the Bourgeons."

Exhaling a slight huff of exasperation, she adds, "But yes, the leg-harvesting isn't a hard rule, or at least it has exceptions. The Évêque doesn't have legs, but Monoco was able to turn into one of those as well. It's very bizarre."

“At least he’s not going to use any of that on us,” Sciel says, breezily tromping by Gustave just to slow up so she can link arms with him. “Unless you ask him to!”

She’s thinking back on nevrons, too; she’s often been too busy lancing them through with Foretell to worry too much about any vestigial legs hidden under the floating ones’ skirts and tabards, but it’s amusing to imagine. Should she flip up a Ballet’s skirts, next time they find one?

“I’m more interested in the polishing. Anyone could harvest a leg. Is the polishing what gives it its magic?”

Or control over Chroma to shapeshift, whatever.

He grimaces at the idea of giant snakes, but amiably lets Sciel take his arm, falling into step beside her as they head out into the city proper. "Maybe it's just that he needs some piece of it, but prefers feet, for some reason."

To annoy his companions? Potentially. "And maybe the polishing... uh..."

Gustave gives it some thought, then shakes his head in defeat. "No, I don't understand that at all, unless it's like polishing a weapon to keep it in good shape. But more importantly, right now... where should we go? Someplace we can keep from getting in anyone else's way, I think."

"Thankfully his interest only includes Nevron feet..." Lune mutters to herself. More audibly, she adds, "At least the polishing also removes some of the stink. They can have an... odour, to them."

So they're very lucky Monoco chose to stick with Verso and join him at their little wilderness camp. Just two bros being bros, stink and all.

"One of the fields nearby?" Lune suggests. "Plenty of room and no bystanders. Just to be safe."

“Lots of space is good,” Sciel agrees. “More space for Lune to rip up the land!”

And plenty of space for her to wheel her own weapons around. She gives Gustave’s arm a brief squeeze.

“Do you think he has to ask Aurora for them one by one, like our weapons? That might keep the stink at bay for a while.”

"Not if she has a sense of humor," Gustave points out, amused despite himself, and gives Lune a wary look. "I'm used to Lune ripping up the ground to give the rest of us an advantage. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to being on the receiving end."

In fact, he's sure he's not. The things he does for Maelle.

Lune isn't so convinced Aurora does in fact have much by way of a sense of humor, but she doesn't say anything. Instead, she meets Gustave's look with a small smirk of her own.

"And you haven't even seen the things I can do now. I'm able to manipulate multiple elements simultaneously." There's maybe a little bit of a boast clinging to her tone there, but she's rightly proud of her skills, result of hard work.

"Maybe we should make this the two of you against me."

Sciel gives Gustave’s arm a firm squeeze, bumping the side of her body against his with a grin.

“We’ll test how well you’ve mastered lightning when Gustave here takes a swing at you with that arm,” she teases. “But I’m up for it.”

Etraya [ inbox

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject