For those who come after

When one falls, we continue

[mirystelle]

Night sketches

[mi-raine]

Gustave one (1) second after setting his foot on land outside Lumiere with his hopes and dreams

[giaunt]

"What you deserve?" Ingvar repeated, then shook his head, frowning. He may have hardly known Gustave, but he was of the opinion he certainly did not deserve his horse taken from him. If the way he had been by him treated was not enough indicator of that, then the apology for actions that weren't his was.

"I— I am being most grateful for your understanding, Gustave, Sir, but..." A pause as he considered his words, carefully measured them out. "you are owing to me no apology for actions which are not being yours. But... I— I am thanking you for your... your sympathies, and... your under-standing. Humans are not normally so kind to me as you, but— but you are not only one I have ever encountered who was so. 'Tis rare blessing indeed."

He paused a moment. Would he be thought foolish for suggesting this?

"I— I am being no horse, and I cannot be going close to human settlements, but— perhaps— perhaps I could be— assisting you in getting home, for— for surely being carried is being far swifter, and less strenuous upon your body, than walking whole of way."

He swallowed, somewhat uneasy. No retracting it now.

"Only — only if you are being all-right with such things, th-that is to be saying."

[ingenieurlumina]

"Ah, yes. I was foolhardy, leaving my horse in an unfamiliar forest to drift off in search of a point of interest? I could have been punished far worse than just losing my horse." Gustave rubbed his elbow, a little furrow to his brow before he dropped his arm, letting it remain further beneath his cloak. "People are unfortunately cruel to anyone they deem, not just those that are different from them." Gustave smiled, a little weakly as his shoulders lifted into a shrug.

"Just because I'm not responsible, doesn't mean the apology isn't warranted. There are other kind people out there in the world, but it was a risk, coming to talk to me. Wasn't it? Because if anyone else were to see - mm..." Gustave trailed off, shaking his head before he offered Ingvar a soft, apologetic smile. "You deserve it. I know I've only just met you, but you seem kind and gentle and people should be kinder to you. Humans should be kinder. But, thank you."

The offer was a surprise, Gustave's eyebrows lifted high and he looked at Ingvar, vibrating just a little at the possibility, fingers twitching towards the journal he kept on himself all the time, filled with notes on plants and research he'd come across in his exploration. It would make everything easier, it would make Gustave getting home easier - even if Ingvar could only take him a bit closer. But only if Ingvar was comfortable with it.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to impose. Or put you in danger."

[shivawalkerart]

"Dans chaque éclat, son doux rire

Dans chaque couleur, son sourire"

Une vie à t'aimer.

This game has become something very special and very important in my life. I'm glad to find time for my art ideas.

[ingenieurlumina]

|| Been mostly hanging on my multi right now, but I believe Gustave only owes Ingvar currently? Gustave isn't going anywhere but I've been enjoying my other muses too. ||

[astralwalker]

;; open

" —— excuse me, " and the voice is calm, warm, polite; a hooded cloak is pulled up over the top of his head, concealing his ears but not the spill of red hair over his forehead. Sandaled feet step lightly, quietly, bearing like one knowing he's intruding but unapologetic of it all the same. " Might I bother you? "

[ingenieurlumina]

The voice is unexpected, unfamiliar in cadence to anyone in Lumiére, and Gustave pauses in his work. He's certainly not been startled by the sudden appearance of someone else. "Sorry, sorry. Hold on a moment." Gustave finishes carefully connecting the finicky wire, eyeing it with a furrow of his brows thay tells he's not certain of the connection's stability, before he puts his tools down and turns to face the stranger. His vibrant hair more red than Maelle's own and Gustave blinks a little. "Yes, what can I do for you?"

[yelenhol]

A little preview of my upcoming character's cards project

[aveimperivm]

They had a larger group... and with the pause, Titus could only presume one thing-- some of the members, if not many of them, had died. The Astarte finally approached Gustave now, standing next to the man, where his voice softened the smallest bit, " I... am sorry, for your loss. " he said, gently. Already, it was cementing something rather obvious in the Astarte's mind-- he had to help.

But soon his focus came to the odd technique of Gustave's for summoning his weapon. At first, Titus looked horribly stumped at what he said, store it inside... yourself?-- but then, Gustave actually summoned his sword! Demetrian's eyes were quick to widen when he saw the chroma swirling around his hand, and then... manifested as his sword! Titus glanced down to his own chainsword as if he could somehow make a connection, " So it is some sort of... biomancy? Are you a psyker?-- " the thought, at first, almost made him bristle. Titus was tired of psykers with all of his damn encounters with them, but... again, there was no Warp here.

" -- A psyker would be like... a psychic mage, where I am from. But... psykers use a different power source, called the Warp. Not this chroma. So you are... made of chroma? "

So was Gustave even human? Had it been any other situation, Titus would have felt ready to prepare his bolter for firing, as was his duty as an Astarte of the Imperium-- to destroy anything non-human. However... not only was Gustave possibly his only chance to get home, and not only was Gustave not attacking him, he was... friendly? And Throne, was it hard for Titus to find friendly faces anymore.

" I... see... " Titus said, after a moment of processing it, " ... with the lack of the Warp, I can only presume you are not a psyker. Which is a relief. " he couldn't help but say that. Shaking his head, he gestured to before them, " May you lead the way to camp? "

" And perhaps, in turn, I may show you my weapon and how it operates. " he patted at his hip, with the chainsword clanking lightly against his armored leg.

[ingenieurlumina]

Gustave looked up at Titus, hazel eyes softening a little before he lifted his shoulders into a shrug, light. "We know what we're getting into, when we join the expedition. Die on the field here, trying to achieve our goal, or wait for it to come in Lumiére with the gommage." His mouth twisted into a wry little smile, a little tired, the crinkling at his eyes. "We just didn't expect to lose so many, so quickly. Though, I suppose maybe it's a mercy - rather than watching them die slowly." He shook his head again, it wasn't fun to dwell on. "Thank you though. I appreciate it."

"Psyker?" Gustave was confused, but he listened as Titus explained the concept to him, shaking his head quickly. "Oh. No, it's not magic, or...telepathy? It's. Hard to explain. Magic is more Lune and Sciel's forte, rather than mine." He lifted the sword so Titus could examine it. "It's like - the weapons are a manifestation of ourselves. It's will I suppose. Channeling our life out, pulling it to create the weapons we use to fight with." It felt like an oversimplification but really, the understanding of chroma and the way it worked was hard to explain to people who didn't already understand it.

"Well, everything is I suppose. It's life energy - the humans in Lumiére, the plants and animals, even the nevrons. We're all made of chroma and channeling that is how we learned to summon the weapons to our side."

Hazel eyes darted to the weapon, the sword with it's massive chain along the blade and his eyes sparkled with interest, curiosity before he nodded. "Of course, we can share some rations - though I don't know if we have a comfortable enough bedroll for you, or one large enough." He flashed an apologetic smile before letting his sword fade back to it's resting place in his chest. "Can I take notes?" Gustave asked, as he turned, jerking his head lightly towards the far side of the clearing, the way out.

[aveimperivm]

Did they not know what super soldiers were either? Titus furrowed his brows, this was going to be a bit more complicated than he thought... but-- right. This couldn't have been Terra. The man didn't even know who the God-Emperor was in this Millennium... then again, there were always some fringe planets that didn't know. He cocked his head to the side when hearing about Gustave's home, clearly stumped when hearing about the place's council, but he did at least listen.

" The Paintress... " Titus repeated the title and furrowed his brows. But soon, he shook his head to show he didn't fully understand. He did remember seeing a... giant woman? Was that the Paintress? Possibly some sort of Daemon Prince, maybe of Slaanesh. He looked down at Gustave now as he heard him explain Lumiére, only to once again be perplexed when he mentioned Nevrons... that had to be those odd creatures floating about. Titus brought his hand up to rub at his temple in some attempt to soothe his aching headache.

And blinked.

However, immediately, he pulled his hand from his temple to clench it into a fist, lifting it up, and thudding it over the ceramite plate of his chest in a somewhat dramatic display (though, it was completely normal to the Warden of Ultramar), with the chains around his arm clinking gently,

" I, Demetrian Titus, will not hurt you nor your people, Gustave. I swear it. Instead, I shall work to help you where I can against these Nevrons... and the Paintress. " It may help him get home, too.

Lowering his hand, he soon pointed to Gustave-- specifically to the hand that held a blade earlier. " ... How did you do that, as well? " for a rare moment, Titus couldn't help his curiosity. Curiosity opened the gates for doubt, he knew, and had often been told in his younger years... but Titus had never truly seen such psychic ability before even as he faced against foes like Chaos sorcerers and daemons. Given, his curiosity was a little less from the summoning and more of the fact that there was no sense of the Warp. None of that. Was Gustave not a psyker...? Then what sort of ancient technologies did he use?

[ingenieurlumina]

Lumiére didn't have an army, they were trained to fight but it wasn't a proper army. The only thing they had to fight was nevrons on the continent and preparing to fight them wasn't quite the same. Lumiére didn't fight people; it was hard to justify that kind of squabbling when a chunk of your dwindling population dissolved into petals the same day every year. And Gustave certainly didn't know what a super soldier was. Another oddity about the man before him.

Gustave cast a glance in the rough direction of the monolith - even though he couldn't see her here, he could still feel the weight of her presence, growing up in the shadow of the monolith did that to a man. Titus rubbed his temple and Gustave gave an apologetic little smile before he jumped at the thunk of Titus' metal gauntlet against his metal chest piece.

"Oh, uh. You didn't have-" Gustave cut himself off, shaking his head gently, "-thank you Titus. I appreciate it. We appreciate it. We need all the help we can get. We had a much larger group but." Gustave trailed off, clearly bothered by what had happened before he blinked at the question.

"Do? Oh, summon my weapon? Well, we store it inside ourselves." Gustave said, blinking a little bit. He waved his hand, gentle, pulling at the chroma, which swirled around his hand and manifested as his sword, deciding against summoning his gun as well for the moment. "It took a lot of trial and error to be able to do it right, it used to be very painful." He mused as he twisted the sword, turning his hand left to right.

[ingenieurlumina]

|| Gustave, the instant someone shows any inclination of feelings or anything towards him.

"Oh, wow, you have really bad taste....." ||

[nadaeris]

[amikoroyaiart]

Post Stone Wave Cliffs 😌

[classystaches]

HELP I climbed the gestral tower and all I got was this SWIMSUIT

[etoilesfantome]

idk if i'll make a promo yet but i'm remaking my multi @astralwalker ; come say hi (or not LKJDS).

[aveimperivm]

Earth... Earth. The name was familiar to him, it was on the tip of his tongue and yet Titus couldn't-- wait.

Earth. Old Earth... Terra? HOLY Terra? No, this couldn't be. This place looked NOTHING like Terra. There was no Palace where the God-Emperor sat upon His Golden Throne, no Custodians, no... well, no Hive Cities and Administratum buildings either. So this had to be... Titus looked around, working to not let his startle bleed into his expression (though his eyes did flick around a little quickly in his alarm). Breathe, Titus, he thought, we can figure this out soon.

Gustave mentioned a man, which made one of Demetrian's brows cock upward, but he didn't push Gustave. Not yet. Something like that, it seemed, Titus would need to figure out later on. For now, he gave a slow, confused nod.

" A Space Marine is... "

... Titus was unable to help but realize he'd... never had to explain this before. He rolled his wrist as he tried to explain.

" ... like a... transhuman. A super-soldier... created to fight for the God-Emperor. " He could only presume Gustave didn't know who the God-Emperor was. While he knew not many would have met Space Marines, this world was... far too different from Holy Terra. Quite frankly, he didn't believe it to BE Holy Terra. Okay. Figure that out later.

His head cocked a bit, " What are Expeditioners? And... what is Lumiére? " Many questions, admittedly, but this wasn't exactly... the best place FOR questions, with the creatures he saw moving about. Titus glanced around before shaking his head and continued, " Perhaps we could have this conversation somewhere else. Do you have a camp of some sort? If I may be allowed to stay at least temporarily, at least to... figure out where I am. "

[ingenieurlumina]

The man - Titus, he seemed surprised by the knowledge that they were on Earth, another confusing mark. Coupled especially with the fantastical nature of his armor; unlike anything Gustave had ever seen. His weapon that made little sense - and pinged Gustave's engineer brain like bullseye. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and he furrowed his brows, looking at Titus, though he had to crane his neck a little to, since the man was easily almost twice his height.

"A super. Soldier?" Gustave's nose wrinkled as he tapped his fingers haphazardly onto his forearm, onto the metal of his prosthetic. Rhythmic, pointer to pinky and back again as he listened, considering. "God Emperor? Non, we don't have anyone like that. We have a council that is in charge of Lumiére, but that's it." None of this made sense, did he hit his head on his trip to Flying Waters and that's why he was hallucinating a man this much larger, wearing armor that was improbable, describing confusing things - that must be it, he must be hallucinating. But what a peculiar hallucination this was.

"We're a guild of sorts - we're," Gustave paused, considering his words before he waved his hand lightly, vaguely, "we're trying to kill the Paintress in her monolith. To stop the gommage from claiming any other members of our people." Gustave tapped his fingers again, the same rhythm and he looked up at Titus. "Lumiére is my home, it's across the water, safe from the Nevrons that are here on the continent." He asked about their camp, about going there and Gustave made a face, uncertain. Well, he was curious, and if he was hallucinating, it wouldn't hurt. After all, the worst it would do is make the girls worry about him. "Yes, we have a camp. I- mm, you can come with, but I have to talk to the others. And I need your word you aren't going to kill us." Not that he couldn't have done so to Gustave at any point, several times over already.

[hellafluff]

Will you stop and let these guys appease your dash's machine spirits real quick?

[aveimperivm]

@ingenieurlumina continued from here.

--

He could summon his weaponry. Possibly a psyker? Titus tensed at the thought, thinking back to his old battle with Imurah, but-- no. He couldn't sense the Warp on this man. In fact... now that he thought about it...

He couldn't sense the Warp ANYWHERE. There was a rather eerie calm, despite the odd creatures that roamed this place (so humanoid, but... not, he kept thinking this HAD to be the Immaterium, but they weren't of Chaos origin-- none of them had the definitive looks of the daemons he'd encountered many times in his life), so as he looked over Gustave, he could only presume it was some sort of technology... no doubt, the Mechanicus would be chomping at the bit for it.

The Astarte could tell Gustave was tense. Obviously, not just from the stutter, nor the way he could hear the leather creak at the sword-hilt, but everything else about the man. Titus looked him over again, and again, trying to figure out if Gustave were truly hostile-- but... no. It didn't seem likely. More likely that Titus had barged in, unintentionally, and disturbed this man. There was no reason to act so hostile towards him... and even then, should things come down to it, Demetrian knew he could protect himself.

Slowly, he lowered his chainsword, mindful of sudden moves as he made a clear showing of how he was returning his chainsword to his belt. His hands came up, touching over his helmet. It depressurized with an audible hiss, its lenses flickering as the bright red faded into a darker maroon with the lights turning off, and Titus pulled his helmet from his head to reveal himself in an attempt to show far less hostility to Gustave. His head was bleeding from a cut from coral.

" ... I apologize, " Titus began at first, " for the intimidation. I did not know if you could be hostile at first. I am Captain Demetrian Titus. Ultramarines, Second Company. "

He nodded his head to Gustave, though his brows also knitted together like the Expeditioner's when hearing about where he was.

" I fear that does not give me much context. I do not know about this-- Continent. What planet are we on? " A beat, as he listened to what else Gustave had to say. Gesturing, the Captain replied as he glanced to the 33 on Gustave's arm, " And I have not seen attire like yours. Are you from a Guard regiment?... I am a Space Marine, or-- an Astarte. " Attempting to make things a bit easier, he brought a hand up to tap at one of his blue-and-gold pauldrons, pointing to the upside-down omega symbol at his shoulder, " This denotes which Chapter I am from-- thus, Ultramarine... are you from a 33rd Regiment? "

[ingenieurlumina]

Gustave's eyes never left the other man, towering over him as he was. Truth be told, Gustave wasn't even sure his sword or his overdrive could even do anything, were this man to attack him. But he didn't lower his blade yet - a minor fight was better than nothing, if it came down to it. Gustave's tongue darted out to wet his lips and he watched as the other man finally lowered his weapon. He put it at his belt and after a moment's hesitation, Gustave let his weapons fade back to the space they summoned from, uncertain but willing to show a gesture of good faith all the same.

He reached massive hands up, pressing something on his helmet and the glowing visor went dark before he pulled it off. It was a man, as Gustave had initially thought, face scarred and worn with age and battle no doubt. Silver discs that looked tiny on his face; but were likely as large around as Gustave's thumb, clustered at the edge of his forehead, though his face was streaked with blood. Likely from the coral, razor sharp as it could be. Gustave pursed his lips, wrinkling his nose a little as he considered the other before his shoulders finally eased just a little.

"Ultramarine?" He blinked at the large man, confusion furrowing his brows as he crossed his arms across his chest - anything to keep his hands busy. "No, I apologize as well. I wasn't, mm. I wasn't expecting to run into anyone else. Least of all someone not from the Expedition. There's a man-" Gustave cut himself off, giving his head a shake. "Non, apologies."

"Ah, well you're on Earth. This is the Continent." Gustave was confused, how could this man not know where he was? Were there others outside of the borders of Lumiére? Were the other cities as well? Other people not afflicted by the gommage? Gustave bit his thumb lightly, chewing at it thoughtfully. "A Space Marine? I'm afraid I have no idea what you're referring to. I'm an Expeditioner, from Lumiére. Specifically the 33rd." He said, gesturing at the band around his bicep.