Imagine if Lucien did manage to survive the beach massacre on Dark Shores.
And imagine if he did make his way across the Continent with the rest of the Expedition.
And imagine if he did finally get to confess all his feelings for Gustave, if the near-death experience was finally enough to make him tell Gustave about the torch he's been carrying for him since they were teenagers.
And imagine if Gustave made a confession of his own, and they both realised that their unrequited love hadn't been so unrequited after all.
... And then imagine that the Expedition goes to Stone Wave Cliffs all the same. Imagine Lucien, trapped down at the bottom of the cliffs with Lune and Sciel, unable to do anything more than listen frantically to what's happening when Gustave makes his last stand.
(imagine their reunion once Gustave is finally repainted back)
Ship Ask Game! Ship Ask INTERVIEW, I got so many questions.
Verstave
2, 13, and 20
Restave
4, 15, 22
Guscien
10, both question 19s
Ahhh, THANK YOU FOR THESE WALS!!! 👀👀👀 Shipping interview let's goooooooo. So much fun!!!!
Verstave
2. Favorite thing about this ship?
Honestly? I love how many different ways that you can configure this pairing. I feel like there is some sentiment that it's unfortunate that they never got to meet, but I really love the freedom that that gives us--and that's if you're just sticking with canon. With AUs? Sky's the limit. I also just love how complex they are as characters, so there is so much to explore and dig into in how something shapes them and their relationship. I LOVE exploring their headspaces ahhhh. You can write them soft or broken, smitten or hateful, or anything else! Find reasons to make them do or say the things that you don't think that they would normally do or say. 👀I think Sandfall gave us an AMAZING sandbox to play in as a foundation, but they held back enough info to give us so much room to imagine whatever we want.
I do also love their brotherly parallels and how that can play into the relationship, if Maellicia is part of the equation. Plus their different approaches as to how to get the things that they want? Ahhh I could go on.
13. What's something they like to do together?
Parallel play! XD I like the idea that Gustave is writing or tinkering, while Verso is either painting or playing the piano--composing music or something. I also like the idea that they're both voracious readers, so they might just spend an evening reading together, leaning into one another's spaces and just enjoying the peace and quiet. 🥹
20. Who likes public displays of affection more?
So, I feel like Gustave would be the first to display affection out in the open, but I think, like you, that once Verso gets going that he just can't stop. After he is comfy with it, I can see him being the one who makes the grander shows of public affection. Like, he's much more likely to kiss or hug Gustave around others, while Gustave might do something more subtle, like touch a hand to his elbow or the small of his back.
Restave
4. How do you see this ship? Examples: "totally married", "besties who date sometimes for fun", "toxic exes that definitely shouldn't be 10 feet near each other".
Power couple. XD I think both of them are both incredibly competent individuals, and they're very dedicated to their goals. They can accomplish everything they want by themselves, but together?? Ahhh. I don't think there's anything that could stop them, and with having the other person supporting them and encouraging them? I think that'd make both of them even stronger individually.
15. One to three AUs you would like to see explored with this ship?
VAMPIRES!!! I will get back to that someday haha. 😂 I also have an idea about Renoir returning to Lumiere to lead Expeditions when the 60th manage to get their journal back to the city in time. 👀 Then there's the darker idea of Renoir pulling Gustave away from the Expedition and then helping him instead, but it's a lot more messed up than simply just, "Please join me to save Maelle."
22. A headcanon you have for this ship?
Renoir doesn't really bring this up, but he does worry that Gustave will leave him one day--either because of their history (this can vary depending on the story being written) or the age difference. He knows that his partner is handsome and intelligent and that he could have his pick of any partner, so Renoir does wonder if he's enough. If he was in a relationship with Aline prior, this is doubly worse, especially if it's in-universe and he knows that he's a painted version of the real Renoir.
Guscien
10. They're getting married. Who proposed? Where was that proposal? What season is the wedding taking place?
So... I'm seeing this for a Golden Ending sort of situation? Both of them plan to propose, but Lucien actually pops the question before Gustave gets the chance. Lucien gets down on bended on knee while they're going on a stroll by the docks, just reminiscing about the day that they left for the Continent together. He's been carrying around the ring for a while now in his coat pocket, just looking for the perfect moment. Gustave, on the other hand, had the idea to propose, but he was still crafting his ring for Lucien, which was getting delayed due to all the visits from his partner; if he had asked first, though, his would have been a little more planned--at a nice restaurant or something instead.
As for the season for the wedding itself... I feel like spring would be good for them? A new beginning for the both of them after all that they had experienced before the Canvas was saved and all. Also, I just like the idea of them having a wedding surrounded by blooming flowers. XD
19.1. An ideal free day for them would look like? What are they doing on that day?
I didn't even realize there was two #19s until it was pointed out to me in the asks. XD
I will forever headcanon that Gustave is not a morning person, so he sleeps in, while Lucien starts his day earlier. By the time Gustave is finally awake, Lucien has already gone out for a run and exercises, and he's brought breakfast back for the both of them. They spend the day with friends and visit a museum or art gallery. Afterwards, they enjoy dinner at a nice restaurant and then head off to the opera house for a show. The day ends with them making sweet, sweet love. :3c
19.2. What was the moment in canon that made you go "Yeah, I ship it"? If they haven't met in canon, what influenced you to ship the characters?
My shipping goggles are always on, and while I did sort of get some Lucien/Catherine vibes during the festival, the big moment for me when it comes to Lucien/Gustave was when Lucien saves Gustave on the beach. Everyone else is running and scattering, trying to save their own skin, and this man comes back to save Gustave. Risks life and limb for him. Ahhhhh ajskdfl;jfsd. That was my moment.
Thank you so much for all of these questions!!! Ahhhhh, I had so much fun. XD
For @zombiearmor for the Writing Request Game. Prompt: "Gustave/Lucien. Unrequited love. (That is actually returned?)"
Gustave shouldn’t be a part of this.
To Lucien, that’s as clear as day. It’s clear to anyone - except, it seems, the Expedition recruiters.
Gustave’s lumina tech is going to be the game-changer that keeps them alive; it’ll be their edge and the reason why their Expedition will be the one that takes down the Paintress - but Gustave shouldn’t have to be there on the Continent to see it happen. He should be tucked away in his workshop, ridiculous magnifying glasses on the tip of his nose as he tinkers with more wild technology. Safe and sound and ready to celebrate with them when they make it home, triumphant.
“Lucien,” Catherine sighs when he brings it up with her, “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m not saying we should do anything different,” he says. “Just, y’know. Keep an eye on him. Gustave doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into.”
“He’s a grown man.”
“Sure,” Lucien agrees. He pretends his heart isn’t racing. “But if we want the Expedition to succeed, we need him alive. Right? He’s the only one who knows how the lumina tech works, so…”
“Lune does too,” Catherine points out. Lucien tries hard, very hard, not to flinch. Catherine rolls her eyes in the end. “Fine. I’ll speak to the others. We’ll watch out for him.”
“Secretly. You know he’d kill me if he knew I asked…”
The footsteps from behind him interrupt before they have a chance to react. “Asked what?” Gustave asks.
And, damn it, Lucien’s stomach still flips at the sight of him - just as it has since their teenage years, since Gustave first set that gentle smile on him and asked for his name.
He’s going to die out there, Lucien thinks, the horror that has been haunting him since Gustave first signed up to their Expedition. We’re both going to die.
Catherine rolls her eyes at both of them. “Lucien was asking if we can sneak some extra wine into the supplies,” she covers for him.
“Alan would never stand for it,” Gustave muses.
“Exactly what I said.”
“But maybe if we disguised the bottles as something else…” Gustave’s got that spark in his eye, thoughtful and serious about the most unserious things. His hand comes to rest on Lucien’s shoulder, delightfully gentle, as he pulls him back in the direction of his workshop. “Come on. I have a plan.”
I’m going to die for this man, Lucien thinks, knowing it’s true, feeling it in his bones - but he follows him anyway, a smile haunting their lips.
HELLO. I AM HERE TO ASK ALL THE QUESTIONS. A FULL INTERVIEW EVEN. 👀👀👀 For Verstave, #10, 13, 19, 20, and 23. For Restave, #2, 4, 8, and 18. For Lucien/Gustave, #11, 17, and 21. For all three, #22 and 25: who steals their partner's clothes in the relationship?
Phi, I adore you. Here is my full-on Expedition 33 Gustave Ships formal interview, based on the ship ask game.
Verstave
10. They're getting married. Who proposed? Where was that proposal? What season is the wedding taking place?
Let's say this is somewhere in the Golden Ending that lives in my heart: Gustave lived, and together with Verso they were able to persuade Maelle to willingly leave the canvas and live her life. They came back to the wreckage of Lumiere together and helped to rebuild the place from scratch, piecing together the city and just falling into one another's lives almost accidentally.
They're together for years. Decades, as Gustave's immortality kicks in too, an accidental gift from Maelle just as Verso's is an unwanted gift from Aline. And they don't need to get married. Not really. They already know, soul-deep, chroma-swirling, that this is forever. A wedding would just be a formality.
"We could do it, you know," Gustave mentions anyway on the way back from a friend's wedding.
"Do what?"
"A ring on your finger. A ring on mine…" He trails off and shrugs apologetically. "Just… One day - if you wanted."
And it's not quite a proposal, not exactly, not in those words.
But they're married by the following spring.
13. What's something they like to do together?
I tend to imagine them enjoying existing in one another's space, maybe co-creating. The pair of them sitting down on one of the benches on the harbour, Gustave leaning against Verso as he's writing in his journal while Verso is scribbling half-planned notes for a composition (or knitting, since I've recently tormented you with my head-canon that Verso learns to knit in Lumiere.) No pressure, no need to talk, no threats, no world-ending-chaos. Just the pair of them and some peaceful silence.
19.1 An ideal free day for them would look like? What are they doing on that day? (there are technically two question 19s, but someone else asked about 19.2 so I'm doing 19.1 here)
Coffee and pastries together on their balcony for breakfast; visiting friends during the morning; duelling with Monoco in the afternoon; back to Lumiere for a romantic dinner date in the evening, both of them trying to spoil the other. Finishing the day with embarrassingly sappy sex.
20. Who likes public displays of affection more?
I think they come far more naturally to Gustave and that he'll do them absent-mindedly, but once something clicks for Verso he's obsessed. He wants to be holding hands whenever he can, he wants to kiss Gustave's cheek even if he's just leaving the room for a second, he wants to basically have some form of contact between them at all times.
22. A headcanon you have for this ship?
I think that Verso read every page of Gustave's journal after he died and before he brought it back to Maelle. I think he read it and another part of him just died over what he'd done, or what he hadn't done (and then when Gustave gets brought back through whatever handwavey method you'd like, Verso's already fallen for him quite a bit through his words alone.)
23. Describe this ship in the most out of context way that you can.
Murder victim falls for murder enabler.
25. Who steals their partner's clothes in the relationship?
BOTH. I may have written a whole-ass fic about it because I am weak for this trope. I choose to believe that they share a wardrobe. And also that Verso absolutely tries to get Gustave to borrow his clothes because he just likes the look of him in them.
Restave
2. Favorite thing about this ship?
There's a moment in Stone Wave Cliffs where Gustave says: "Why are you doing this? We’ve done nothing to you. We should be on the same side," and for me that's the whole crux of the fascination of this pairing. I am fascinated by both characters separately - they're both principled, they're both dangerous, they're both stubborn - and while Painted Renoir is one of the game's antagonists I don't think he's in any way a villain.
There's such an allure for me in the idea of scenarios in which the pair of them have to interact in a way that doesn't leave one of them dead, because I genuinely think that there's scope for them to hugely respect one another.
4. How do you see this ship? Examples: "totally married", "besties who date sometimes for fun", "toxic exes that definitely shouldn't be 10 feet near each other".
My favourite setting to think about for them is some kind of post-game scenario where they've both been resurrected - in which case we're looking at some kind of "guilty situationship that might develop feelings in the long run".
8. If this ship were animals (if they're not already), what animals would they be?
Gustave is very dog-coded to me: he's the scrappy dog with a missing leg that will come for you if you mess with any of the other dogs it's adopted into its family. Renoir, on the other hand, in my head is linked with lions because of his majestic summons.
So I guess for Renoir I have an enormous chromatic lion cuddling up with a scrappy stray dog.
18. If this ship was a dessert, what kind of dessert would they be?
Lemon meringue pie: sharp/bitter at the core, covered with something light and fluffy, then gently and painfully toasted on top.
22. A headcanon you have for this ship?
If Renoir had actually talked to Gustave at Stone Wave Cliffs, he could have talked Gustave into joining them if he'd managed to persuade him that it was for Maelle's safety.
25. Who steals their partner's clothes in the relationship?
Oh no. Renoir just buys Gustave's clothes for him. No need for anyone to steal anything, and Renoir's going to make sure Gustave's very well-dressed.
Lucien/Gustave
11. Who's the big spoon? Who's the little spoon? Do they switch it up?
My anti-spooning agenda arrives when I say neither. I think they would probably switch it up. I bet they also fall asleep holding hands, like sappy nerds.
17. What are the colors of this ship and do you like them together?
In my head I have grey, gold and purple, the Expedition colours for an Expedition couple. Obviously stylish.
21. What would be some pet names they would give each other?
Lucien canonically refers to Gustave (and Catherine) as "les amis!" Casually friend-zoning himself.
He also calls Gustave "you weirdo", which actually fits in with my friends-to-lovers headcanon for them - I feel like they've known each other for so long and have fully grown up together, to the point that affection for them actually comes in the form of teasing and playing around.
22. A headcanon you have for this ship?
I think they've both had a crush on each other for years - and this is my head canon for Gustave even when I have him in other ships, actually. Growing up yearning, pining and wistfully sighing over each other, while always assuming it was unrequited so nothing ever actually happened between them until it was too late ("until it was too late" may mean that the night before the Expedition took off they finally made their first confessions to each other after all those years.)
25. Who steals their partner's clothes in the relationship?
Gustave is stealing the hell out of Lucien's clothes, and Lucien absolutely doesn't mind, just smiles fondly and lets him get away with it.
