[ it would also seem he does not pull punches with his questions, though she is at least very good at pretending it doesn't make her want to die a little. ] I am indeed married, but it's a complicated thing. [ he doesn't want to be married to her anymore. ): or well, she'd assume. she had to flee in the dark of night. she blames his meddling family. ]
I hear you understand that, though. [ complicated things. ]
I didn't realize it was so complicated- ah, painful, I mean. I apologize for broaching the subject. I was operating on minimal information, and I- I wanted to ask a good, personal question, which could really help you to be- Well. ( it's difficult to not broach the subject he's attempting to avoid if only because of how much it relates to the universe he's from, to the world and story that he comes from.
he gestures vaguely with the mechanical arm in front of him. )
I'd say I'm familiar with complicated things, yes. So perhaps you might forgive me, and we go with something simpler to ease into it?
I'll forgive you, but only because you've asked so nicely! [ and because she does, in this strange realm space, understand what he's trying to evade. it's not something she wants to think too much about, either.
it's sort of funny he began this conversation asking about makysm, because she thinks he would like maksym a bit more than her. they could discuss inventions and other esoteric things, things she found boring and off putting because she was silly. ]
Though asking me to choose is also a little mean, when I'd like to claim most of them. But I like most shades of green. And pale buttery yellows. And burnt orange.
And here I was trying to avoid mean questions, but I won't ask for forgiveness this time as it seems you've come up with acceptable answers.
( that don't delve into too much detail about herself to be fair, but he didn't ask for details about herself - simply color preferences )
Ah, favorite color - ( he goes through a few of the options, but red has connotations he'd rather not think of, and- ) Copper, I think.
It was quite relieving when I placed this on for the first time, and it actually worked with help from my apprentices, of course. ( he pats the mechanical arm which flexes the hand on the other end. )
[ technically, he did ask for just the one, but her nature is such that she'll always want a little bit more. her eyes trail over to his mechanical hand, feeling less rude about doing so since he's the one who's drawing attention to it. ]
Copper and burnt orange are rather similar, aren't they? I salute your taste.
They are. I hadn't considered that actually, but they're within the same realm of color, so you're right. We've both exceptional taste.
( gustave looks down at his arm, which he lifts up in her direction, flexing each of the fingers on the end of it. )
My apprentices designed it actually. They're young- well. ( getting older as the years pass and the oldest person in lumiere becomes younger and younger. ) But they aren't to be underestimated. Obviously, they had oversight and guidance from myself, but the actual look of it was all them working together.
Asking about talents isn't too personal a question either, is it? Where would you say your own talents lie?
[ she continues to study the mechanical hand, eyes rounding a bit as she sees the flex of its fingers. she's never seen anything quite so sophisticated, and looks equal parts amused and impressed that a young cohort of apprentices are responsible for it. ]
I believe the question skirts the line just so, but I've no marvelous invention to show in return. [ unless she herself counts, but that's a secret she reveals to nobody. engineers like gustave, scientists, scholars, mages — they would and have done great and terrible things to study what lies in her very essence. she'd much rather be the creator than the canvas herself. ]
But I am not not a chemist. I like working with scents and minerals. I've a very good eye for spotting a gem in the rough, and I like making perfumes for myself and loved ones.
[ getting the composition just right is a genuine treat for her, though more often than not she lacked resources to test all that many interactions. ]
Oh, that's perfectly alright - there are more ventures to explore beyond invention. ( some part of him wonders what he might have been interested in, what he might have delved into if not for the pressing need to invent a great deal of things. would he always have been drawn to the mechanical, to the creation of new and innovative ideas to make life in lumiere better? to attempt to save it? it feels impossible that he would ever be anything else, but it also feels impossible to live in a world that wasn't actively dying one year at a time. )
That is an important skill to be able to spot gems, and making perfumes? That absolutely is the sign of a chemist - a scientist in a way, but also an artist. Correct?
You've got to have a good sense of a person and of how smells meld together to do something like that. What's the process? You start to think of the person and of the scents they most might like?
here is what i had so far but it is all subject to change tbh:
• she is born to a sweet family who is nonetheless accepting of their fates/station, a mentality that she grows to find intolerable. part of their acceptance is they like the quiet/peace of where they live, particularly because it is important to protect their daughter's secret(s), both the fact she is a runechild and she inadvertently murdered someone with her powers.
• they work for alira's family, who vacations in the countryside for several months out of the year. they tend to that countryside home. alira is a strange~ child who doesn't make friends easily, so they have elizaveta be her friend. the two genuinely get along but the dynamic is by nature uneven.
• alira is genuinely a nice person (think a melly or a jane bennett or e33's sophie), but sort of blinded to her privilege and oblivious to how elizaveta resents it. she does not have elizaveta's hunger.
• alira's parents want to make a match with maksym's family, but elizaveta swoops in to marry him instead. this is sort of scandalous as elizaveta is not from a "well to do" family, and also alira's childhood friend.
• idk how but he does find out that she first married him exclusively for his money, which leads to bitterness/friction between them. also someone in his family had her investigated maybe and found out about the murder?? which leads to another murder, thus she had to flee to keep from being caught.
i think for the campaign the idea i had is that both he and alira would be trying to hunt her down/find her for different reasons, and he'd have divorce papers at the ready as a way of kind of fooling himself that's why lmao
but for a verse where everyone's around i can also see like ... idk if you remember the show with lucas where his wife had amnesia but i can see something like that. where the scuffle with the person she murdered ended up with her also being injured/having a sort of amnesia and navigating a world where everyone doesn't like her and she doesn't know why asldkj
and ooooh okay that makes a lot of sense lmao >> here's some divorce papers weeee
and oooooh i DO remember the show, yes. THAT would be a lot of fun to play with potentially, and he'd be like torn like hurt and angry but she doesn't remember why, so it's like what do w/ that
and still having feelings for her beneath it all, of course ahem :oh:
and also feel free to come up with your own character for him/what you'd like to play with, i didn't have too much in mind yet beyond like a science-y/cerebral type who had a secret of his own wrt his health, be it mental or physical and it maybe causing some mild agoraphobia which doesn't make for the best first impressions
so the person she met when he was in completely new territory aka alira's parents home is different to who he ended up being when they went back to his own etc
YESSSS i really love the idea of him having some kind of mental or physical health thing, and i could see it causing some mild agoraphobia too. maybe that is part of where his intelligence like pokes in too, researching, trying to find a way to help himself with what ails him in that sense.
if eh did have mild agoraphobia, it would be even that more surprising for her when he like shows up jklre;a lmao
otherwise it may be fun to play on some bridgerton themes like how antony always had that like weight upon him due to his father's death - maybe his father died of whatever is afflicting him so there's a lot of pressure wrt all that
guh yes i do really like the idea of it potentially being hereditary so that he has to contend with legacy on several different levels, and also trying to avoid his parent's fate - something elizaveta also wants to do albeit on a different level
AND YES lmao she would not be expecting it and also maybe if he DOES have a sickness he might also die ?? which is. upsetting. she didn't want to be a widow after all ig
yessss exactly it would be a fun thing to play with as well of like how to navigate that complicated situation --
jrekl;areaw JUST a possibility to die type of deal, but i like the arc for him being like well i've been afraid all my life and i won't be anymore, i choose love over fear~~~ and well, anger/passion/emotion >>" etc.
i can be vague with the sickness like i was with noah, but maybe it's like a curse on his family or just legit hereditary. i'll have to play around and think about it but there's options there.
i wonder too if the murder to save herself was rune related?? does that mean it's the first time he saw her runes or would he have seen them before dat?
I would not be here if I did not. ( wish. of course, all the immediate questions that flood into his mind are not ones that can be asked here and now. not if they're to be introduced at another time. he swallows then, searches for something else.
that's the hard part too. he is reserved. he does not open up easily, but he did to her, and-
and he believes some of that must have been real. most of it? she left so abruptly, and there was never time for any questions at all after he learned the truth, so many truths. ) What scents would you give to yourself, and why?
[ she doesn't know if she's relieved or disappointed that the question is so harmless. relieved, she decides, that so long as they find themselves in this space she's safe from having to truly face him, not to mention face herself.
then again, the answer is somewhat revealing, but whether he believes it or not, she wasn't always dishonest. ]
Where I am from we are famous for our roses. But reproducing the scent of one authentically is actually very difficult. The molecules are volatile. It isn't so stable on the skin.
But I'd like to try someday. [ it would remind her of home, and she does miss it. can already think of other notes that might go well with it if she were successful — dark red wines and geraniums and truffle. maybe a hint of musk. ]
( maksym does not know what to believe - that is a large part of the issue. he learned all he learned, he stumbled upon the corpse in the aftermath of what occurred and saw her horror, knew she did not take pleasure in her kill, and he let her go. watched her go. and he never got any real answers.
about any of it. )
So you would draw on scents from where you are from? Despite how difficult it is to capture it.
[ her sentimentality is not such that she would ever return to the grueling nature of it. but ... there are some things she did not appreciate while she had them, and it's one thing to choose to leave her home, her parents, and another to not be able to return to it. maybe ever. ]
I've just met a man I think you would like. He is an engineer, and he fashioned himself a mechanical arm with the help of apprentices. Did you ever have one?
[ an apprentice. if she may ask questions in return, that is. ]
( it seems an important question to ask - there was a reason she left, but there must have been a reason that she would choose the scent of it, choose to remember it all at the same time.
a pause following her question. he does see the other conversation, does think of how much they could speak of if they had the opportunity to speak, but - )
No. ( too reserved, too secretive with his own problems, he's not open like that man is, open and emotionally intelligent and warm. ) It would have been... nice to have the help, but as you know, not many are allowed within those walls.
[ in some ways, they both rushed into a marriage they would soon find themselves unprepared for. she had not anticipated his secluded lifestyle, the reasons for it. she's always been told she should keep herself hidden as well, and so it should've been perfect.
but he wore armor in more ways than one. and is asking her what parts, a question that is far less safe. ]
The summers spent in Alira's home near the valley. The horses I tended to. [ it was the only job she truly enjoyed. ] My mother's singing. The climbing roses. [ their first kiss was against a trellis hedge with those roses, the petals set loose from their movements. she's not sure he even noticed that detail. ] Like I said, some parts.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
I hear you're married? That was... supposed to be a question about said marriage.
no subject
[ it would also seem he does not pull punches with his questions, though she is at least very good at pretending it doesn't make her want to die a little. ] I am indeed married, but it's a complicated thing. [ he doesn't want to be married to her anymore. ): or well, she'd assume. she had to flee in the dark of night. she blames his meddling family. ]
I hear you understand that, though. [ complicated things. ]
no subject
he gestures vaguely with the mechanical arm in front of him. )
I'd say I'm familiar with complicated things, yes. So perhaps you might forgive me, and we go with something simpler to ease into it?
What's your favorite color?
no subject
it's sort of funny he began this conversation asking about makysm, because she thinks he would like maksym a bit more than her. they could discuss inventions and other esoteric things, things she found boring and off putting because she was silly. ]
Though asking me to choose is also a little mean, when I'd like to claim most of them. But I like most shades of green. And pale buttery yellows. And burnt orange.
[ she's not good at this, is she? ]
What about you, monsieur? [ a favorite color? ]
no subject
( that don't delve into too much detail about herself to be fair, but he didn't ask for details about herself - simply color preferences )
Ah, favorite color - ( he goes through a few of the options, but red has connotations he'd rather not think of, and- ) Copper, I think.
It was quite relieving when I placed this on for the first time, and it actually worked with help from my apprentices, of course. ( he pats the mechanical arm which flexes the hand on the other end. )
no subject
[ technically, he did ask for just the one, but her nature is such that she'll always want a little bit more. her eyes trail over to his mechanical hand, feeling less rude about doing so since he's the one who's drawing attention to it. ]
Copper and burnt orange are rather similar, aren't they? I salute your taste.
You designed this yourself, then?
[ that's quite impressive. ]
no subject
( gustave looks down at his arm, which he lifts up in her direction, flexing each of the fingers on the end of it. )
My apprentices designed it actually. They're young- well. ( getting older as the years pass and the oldest person in lumiere becomes younger and younger. ) But they aren't to be underestimated. Obviously, they had oversight and guidance from myself, but the actual look of it was all them working together.
Asking about talents isn't too personal a question either, is it? Where would you say your own talents lie?
no subject
I believe the question skirts the line just so, but I've no marvelous invention to show in return. [ unless she herself counts, but that's a secret she reveals to nobody. engineers like gustave, scientists, scholars, mages — they would and have done great and terrible things to study what lies in her very essence. she'd much rather be the creator than the canvas herself. ]
But I am not not a chemist. I like working with scents and minerals. I've a very good eye for spotting a gem in the rough, and I like making perfumes for myself and loved ones.
[ getting the composition just right is a genuine treat for her, though more often than not she lacked resources to test all that many interactions. ]
no subject
That is an important skill to be able to spot gems, and making perfumes? That absolutely is the sign of a chemist - a scientist in a way, but also an artist. Correct?
You've got to have a good sense of a person and of how smells meld together to do something like that. What's the process? You start to think of the person and of the scents they most might like?
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
plotting.
• she is born to a sweet family who is nonetheless accepting of their fates/station, a mentality that she grows to find intolerable. part of their acceptance is they like the quiet/peace of where they live, particularly because it is important to protect their daughter's secret(s), both the fact she is a runechild and she inadvertently murdered someone with her powers.
• they work for alira's family, who vacations in the countryside for several months out of the year. they tend to that countryside home. alira is a strange~ child who doesn't make friends easily, so they have elizaveta be her friend. the two genuinely get along but the dynamic is by nature uneven.
• alira is genuinely a nice person (think a melly or a jane bennett or e33's sophie), but sort of blinded to her privilege and oblivious to how elizaveta resents it. she does not have elizaveta's hunger.
• alira's parents want to make a match with maksym's family, but elizaveta swoops in to marry him instead. this is sort of scandalous as elizaveta is not from a "well to do" family, and also alira's childhood friend.
• idk how but he does find out that she first married him exclusively for his money, which leads to bitterness/friction between them. also someone in his family had her investigated maybe and found out about the murder?? which leads to another murder, thus she had to flee to keep from being caught.
no subject
cause he lurves her
despite also being like angry at her, etc.
just a thought >> also leads to the question of how they will run into each other again after dat which obvs they must :eyes:
no subject
i think for the campaign the idea i had is that both he and alira would be trying to hunt her down/find her for different reasons, and he'd have divorce papers at the ready as a way of kind of fooling himself that's why lmao
but for a verse where everyone's around i can also see like ... idk if you remember the show with lucas where his wife had amnesia but i can see something like that. where the scuffle with the person she murdered ended up with her also being injured/having a sort of amnesia and navigating a world where everyone doesn't like her and she doesn't know why asldkj
no subject
and ooooh okay that makes a lot of sense lmao >> here's some divorce papers weeee
and oooooh i DO remember the show, yes. THAT would be a lot of fun to play with potentially, and he'd be like torn like hurt and angry but she doesn't remember why, so it's like what do w/ that
and still having feelings for her beneath it all, of course ahem :oh:
no subject
and also feel free to come up with your own character for him/what you'd like to play with, i didn't have too much in mind yet beyond like a science-y/cerebral type who had a secret of his own wrt his health, be it mental or physical and it maybe causing some mild agoraphobia which doesn't make for the best first impressions
so the person she met when he was in completely new territory aka alira's parents home is different to who he ended up being when they went back to his own etc
no subject
if eh did have mild agoraphobia, it would be even that more surprising for her when he like shows up jklre;a lmao
otherwise it may be fun to play on some bridgerton themes like how antony always had that like weight upon him due to his father's death - maybe his father died of whatever is afflicting him so there's a lot of pressure wrt all that
no subject
AND YES lmao she would not be expecting it and also maybe if he DOES have a sickness he might also die ?? which is. upsetting. she didn't want to be a widow after all ig
no subject
jrekl;areaw JUST a possibility to die type of deal, but i like the arc for him being like well i've been afraid all my life and i won't be anymore, i choose love over fear~~~ and well, anger/passion/emotion >>" etc.
i can be vague with the sickness like i was with noah, but maybe it's like a curse on his family or just legit hereditary. i'll have to play around and think about it but there's options there.
i wonder too if the murder to save herself was rune related?? does that mean it's the first time he saw her runes or would he have seen them before dat?
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
no subject
no subject
that's the hard part too. he is reserved. he does not open up easily, but he did to her, and-
and he believes some of that must have been real. most of it? she left so abruptly, and there was never time for any questions at all after he learned the truth, so many truths. ) What scents would you give to yourself, and why?
no subject
then again, the answer is somewhat revealing, but whether he believes it or not, she wasn't always dishonest. ]
Where I am from we are famous for our roses. But reproducing the scent of one authentically is actually very difficult. The molecules are volatile. It isn't so stable on the skin.
But I'd like to try someday. [ it would remind her of home, and she does miss it. can already think of other notes that might go well with it if she were successful — dark red wines and geraniums and truffle. maybe a hint of musk. ]
no subject
about any of it. )
So you would draw on scents from where you are from? Despite how difficult it is to capture it.
Your home must mean a great deal to you.
no subject
[ her sentimentality is not such that she would ever return to the grueling nature of it. but ... there are some things she did not appreciate while she had them, and it's one thing to choose to leave her home, her parents, and another to not be able to return to it. maybe ever. ]
I've just met a man I think you would like. He is an engineer, and he fashioned himself a mechanical arm with the help of apprentices. Did you ever have one?
[ an apprentice. if she may ask questions in return, that is. ]
no subject
( it seems an important question to ask - there was a reason she left, but there must have been a reason that she would choose the scent of it, choose to remember it all at the same time.
a pause following her question. he does see the other conversation, does think of how much they could speak of if they had the opportunity to speak, but - )
No. ( too reserved, too secretive with his own problems, he's not open like that man is, open and emotionally intelligent and warm. ) It would have been... nice to have the help, but as you know, not many are allowed within those walls.
no subject
[ in some ways, they both rushed into a marriage they would soon find themselves unprepared for. she had not anticipated his secluded lifestyle, the reasons for it. she's always been told she should keep herself hidden as well, and so it should've been perfect.
but he wore armor in more ways than one. and is asking her what parts, a question that is far less safe. ]
The summers spent in Alira's home near the valley. The horses I tended to. [ it was the only job she truly enjoyed. ] My mother's singing. The climbing roses. [ their first kiss was against a trellis hedge with those roses, the petals set loose from their movements. she's not sure he even noticed that detail. ] Like I said, some parts.
(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)