#expedition zero

[mistress-light]

It hurts to think he'd betray us, but nobody ever expects to be betrayed.

[berrydoodleoo]

We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember us - if at all - not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men.

(For Thine is the Kingdom)

The Hollow Men; T.S. Eliot

[cyan-renegade]

Dead man walking

Text is a shortened version of Julie’s journal, one of my favorite lore pieces in the game <3

[grumblecrows]

Before everything went wrong

[starryspindel]

This is stupid in hindsight but I keep seeing it and I don't know if it's people just referring to her as an overall member because it's easier and they do know she wasn't with them or because they genuinely believe this is true, but it's kind of grinding my gears so here I go:

Julie was never apart of Expedition Zero.

She was not with them when they left Lumiere for the Continent. She was not there when Simon disappeared. She was not there when Renoir, Verso and their unnamed companions made it to the Monolith and met Clea. She was not there when Expedition Zero was wiped out (because she would be dead).

She came after - when Renoir and Verso returned as the only two survivors. When she joined the new group of people Renoir formed to take them to the Monolith, making them believe they were a simple Search & Rescue team and not cannon-fodder for a fight the two must have known they might not win. It's why Verso, now immortal and his hair full of secrets, lied and lied and lied until Julie was driven to creating the plan to abduct and 'interrogate' him to get the truth.

Even Julie refers to herself as a member of Search & Rescue. She mentions Expedition Zero as a group separate from her own.

I want an Expedition Zero DLC or a side game or a goddamn novel as much as the next person, but babes as much as I want to see a romance turn toxic in real time, there's a huge chance Julie won't be there (maybe like a cameo at the beginning and end, but not for the full thing).

[thewritersdidit]

Why did Verso and Renoir join Expedition Zero?

This question came up on a reddit. Here's my rather long answer to it. I could pull out more specifics from the journals, but this is roughly what happened.

Were they in Lumiere?

My assumption was always that Renoir, Verso, and Alicia were in the part of Lumiere that was split and thrown across the sea to be an island. Verso talks about living above a bakery when he was a practicing musician, and Maelle knows the exact bakery he's talking about. It's entirely reasonable he was in that part of the city when it was split, and I imagine that Renoir and Alicia were also in that part of town. In fact...it's very plausible that Aline chose the part of town where they physically were standing and transported that neighborhood across the sea specifically to save them.

We don't know if Clea was with them. I could argue it either way. From Renoir, Verso, and Alicia's perspective, they survived but Aline was missing on the continent having never made it out of Old Lumiere.

Expedition Zero

When Lumiere then sent an Expedition, Renoir was the commander, and Verso joined as well. Verso says they were explicitly searching for their mother. I don't think Alicia was on the expedition, and if Clea was then she must have died/disappeared early on. Regardless, Renoir and Verso made it to the monolith, met the REAL Artist Clea, and Artist Clea killed the Expedition when they refused to leave. She couldn't kill Verso or Renoir though, and this is probably when both of them discovered they were immortal.

They went back to Lumiere, and that's why Expedition Zero was said to have survivors. However, it seems the records were either lost or very vague over the years, since Lune studied Expedition Zero and didn't recognize Verso or Renoir. While there, though, they helped to build the shield wall to defend the city.

Expedition Search and Rescue

Eventually, still in year 100, the city sent out Expedition Search and Rescue, which Verso and Renoir also joined. I'm not sure if Renoir was the commander of that one or not. Julie--Verso's loved one--was also part of Expedition Search and Rescue. Julie specifically questions how Verso and Renoir survived Expedition Zero. This rescue expedition ended in betrayal and mutual violence--though who betrayed who will depend on perspective. A LOT HAPPENED IN ONE YEAR.

Aftermath

After that, it's unclear if Renoir and Verso went back to Lumiere or stayed on the continent. I imagine they probably returned for a few years, then left with Alicia when it was obvious they weren't aging. Verso mentions in camp dialogue that he didn't feel at home in Lumiere after being betrayed [implication: by Julie], though he does talk about visiting over the years. It's possible that around that time, after fully leaving Lumiere, the family found the manor in Old Lumiere, and Renoir and Alicia at least started living in it again. Or maybe the manor had teleported somewhere else when they found it.

Sometime between Expedition Zero and Expedition 58, Verso cut off his father and went living on his own. It's likely that's when he met Monoco and Esquie. I assume this happened in the unknown 15 years between 100 and 85, when there were no expeditions, but it could have been later. We don't know when Verso changed from wanting to defend the Paintress to wanting to stop her, but 58 is the earliest confirmed journal we hear mention him. By that point Renoir had already started sabotaging them, though (64, the radio towers), probably with at least some help from Alicia (56, in Stone Wave Cliffs).

Speculation

The remaining mystery is the timeline for Painted Clea and Simon. Simon was on Expedition Zero, but I truly have no idea if Clea was. I feel like not, since Verso would have mentioned her along with his father, but when he does talk about finding survivors, he only mentions searching for his mother. Maybe they sincerely believed Clea died in the Fracture, and so didn't try looking for her.

At some point in the years the faceless avatar of the Paintress was able to move beyond the monolith (like the Curator), and she started residing in the Manor with Painted Renoir and Painted Alicia. My headcanon is that this happened well after Verso left. However, he learned of it at some point... possibly in Expedition 58. Although I wouldn't put it past Renoir to have found and told Verso earlier as an attempt to entice him back into the family circle.

I also headcanon that Renoir and Alicia have these awesome powers because they stayed loyal to protecting the Paintress, and she granted them boons: either consciously to protect her or unconsciously by their extended proximity to her avatar form. Verso doesn't get any extra boons because he left. But he also doesn't need it because eventually he has Esquie and Monoco to rely on. And even without powers, the painted family are basically demigods in the greek myth fashion. Functionally immortal, melodramatic, and objects of obsession for the gods.

[mango-and-isekai]

WIP Time!

So I paint on clothes (especially jackets) and decided to go with something more ambitious this time and began doing jacket inspired by Simon from Expedition 33 (fav boss, fav journal entry, I just want to get him out of the Abyss and rescue Clea w him). Everything was planned here except for the swords (I felt like adding something on the front but had no idea what and then came up with this. This part took me around 5hrs (with waiting for stuff to dry between layers). Hope to finish it today or tomorrow :)

I fixed the swords right before sleep so they don't look like crosses

Tiny Divergent Star <3

[bitter-sweet-cinnamon]

that morpheus red pill blue pill meme but it’s clea meeting expedition 0 at the monolith