Admittedly, I haven't been checking the ao3 tags much for a long time. But sometimes I wonder if there are fics exploring and acknowledging that (r)Alicia & "Maelle" are not only two entirely different people, but also that "Maelle", as her own self, is completely gone and never came back from the Gommage?
I know there are a few who ascribe to this implication, but I'm not sure if there are fics brave enough to tackle it? There was also a post (I don't remember where I saw it ahhh... >_<;; ) explaining exactly how this works.
Maelle was her own new Painted person when Alicia jumped in. She had her own experiences while Alicia was in her own slumber. When "Maelle" was Gommaged, all her life, memories, emotions, and experiences went right back into rAlicia. On the surface, it just looks like "Maelle woke up," but the reality is it's more like... Maelle passed on the torch to rAlicia, who just asked to be called "Maelle" too, to Verso's ire who understood exactly what actually happened. (And c'mon. Her entire mannerisms are way too different before Act 3!)
We can also see in the final farewell scene in Verso’s ending that "Maelle" was also part of the group standing with everyone else too. She was her own person.
Are there no fics that explore this?
That doesn't dance around this fact. A post-maelle ending where Gustave eventually comes to terms that this is (not) his Maelle. That the Maelle he once knew, loved, and raised is dead and gone and is never coming back.
Also very important for me is not to butcher Gustave's character over this. He is not a cruel person. He knows it isn't her fault but his family was "Maelle" and this is a loss he has to live with now.
He just needs to grieve his own Maelle.