Hey can we talk about how flipping BRILLIANT gabenath is? Because I don't see enough people appreciating how wild their dynamic is.
Imagine you are Gabriel Agreste. You are fresh out of college and have married the girl of your dreams. She's the most beautiful, most fun, craziest individual you have ever met and you two match each other's freak dangerously well. She let's you infodump about all your autistic hyperfixations and wants to lead an adventurous charge to help you research. She fills your world with energy and poetry and reason for breathing. And for some reason, she thinks your loser behind is the best thing since sliced bread.
Then, on your expedition to adventure, you two meet another woman. And she's absolutely amazing in all the opposite ways to Emilie and completes your trio perfectly. She's aloof and cool-headed and discreet, but has all the dangerous amounts of loyalty the two of you have. She and your incredible wife hit it off immediately and become best friends and you could sit and listen to them talk for hours at a time (and are maybe having some uncomfortable fantasies about them pinning each other against the wall).
The three of you grow ever closer through your adventures and you eventually start a family, fully prepared to spend the rest of eternity with these two. And then your wife goes comatose. The light of your life has been stripped from this world and it's your fault, all your fault. The child you once loved so much you can barely stand to look at, and you know Nathalie blames you too. Your kid would blame you if he knew. You have to save Emilie. You have to. There's this tiny glimmer of hope and you are going to cling to it because you would not be able to live with yourself if she's actually dead. You can hardly live with yourself as it is, but you have a responsibility to bring her back. For Nathalie and for your son if for nobody else.
Nathalie helps you of course. Emilie was the light of her life too. She pulls you off the edge when you start to lose yourself. Reminds you what it's all for. You take comfort in each other. You grieve together. It brings you closer than you ever thought you could be with another person. You've stared at each other's souls and been inside each other's minds. She knows you better than you know yourself.
And sure, maybe in the heat of the moment, you've thought about taking things further, but you couldn't. You still can't. It would be a disservice to Emilie's memory to go around with her other soulmate in her absence. It would be a disservice to Nathalie who surely wants nothing to do with you after it's your obsession that got Emilie where she is. She only tolerates you because she knows you're just as desperate to revive Emilie as her, and you'll be gone soon. Besides, your wife is coming back. It would be wrong, it would be like cheating. Even if you can guess she would have approved. You can't.
Imagine you are Nathalie Sancouer. Imagine you are young and full of big dreams and are suddenly hired by a pair of the most beautiful crazy angelic ridiculous perfect human people you have ever met. Imagine they think you are all that and a bag of chips. You would die for either of them without thinking twice. Of course you would. They're geniuses and romantics and are living the world's most epic romance and they've decided you get to be a part of it. You get to watch. From the sidelines. It's heaven. It's torture.
They've just about teased you to the point of insanity and you think you can't spend one more day without taking drastic action. And then Emilie goes comatose. And it's your fault. Maybe a bit of Gabriel's fault, but he can hardly be blamed. He's the artistic genius without an ounce of common sense. You're the businesswoman. You were supposed to be the one with a level head who made them think through the risks before this happened.
You have to save her. Your only reason for living was them. She has a career and a son and a husband and so much to add to this world. Gabriel agrees and, brilliant as he is, has already made a plan.
You'll help. Of course you will, how could you not. Screw danger, screw him not wanting to involve you, screw propriety and boundaries. You will save Emilie together. And you will make sure Gabriel does not lose himself too, because they are perfect. They're perfect for this world and for each other. They have to be together til the end of time. You're just their lowly assistant. Expendable.
You fall even more in love with Gabriel as time goes by. How could you not? You were already a goner for both of them, and now you see him in his fits of passion and despair and struggle. And it is intoxicating. You want more, you can't help yourself. Who wouldn't? But you understand that he's already doing you such a kindness, going above and beyond to include you in all this.
He's a promised man. He's already made an oath to his wife and you respect that bond more than your own sanity because you understand it completely. If one of them had asked, you'd have promised yourself away in an instant. But of course they'd never ask you, not when they have each other. You can't. You have to bring Emilie back. For her and for him. And maybe a little for you because you can't stand to live like this. Without them everything is pointless. With them (but not really with them) there's too much point, the smallest dumbest things suddenly become the most meaningful experience in the world and you can't stand it. You can't have them, but you can't leave them either. Just because Emilie is gone makes no difference.
Imagine being so close yet so far. Imagine being a matched set---Hawkmoth and Mayura, do not separate---and yet never as close as either of you wishes. Imagine blaming yourself for the loss of your shared love and thinking the other is too perfect, too faultless, to good for this world to possibly want you after all that. Imagine being gabenath
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