#oh verso..

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

I love Verso for really normal reasons like the fact he doesn't reveal himself to anyone, not really - and that he had had to act as mediator even when he didn't wish to but no one else would do it and they're all so stubborn in this family and that he could fit probably most crowd because he could forge a fitting mask fast and the fact he protects Truth by controlling it because control is safety and how he spends his time running and escaping and the fact his agency and self-determination is constantly stolen from him - denied to him, and how all the pain washed away so now there's nothing left and it's all a feeling of emptiness, of hollowness and how he's begging his sister to die and how he'd have begged his mother, would've begged anyone and how he already died and how people keep on bringing him back and ruining whatever he had of happiness and wanting him to perform a role that isn't his

Also he be looking nice af

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

Verso is deeply loved but not in a way that his family would listen to what's left of him. Somehow Renoir's and Clea's align with Verso's remains' but it's not because they went and had a talk. And Aline and Maelicia are down right denying his wish. Clea is disengaged. She won't acknowledge what's in the Canvas could be linked to her brother and she has other matters to take care of. Verso's soul remains linger behind.

There's only Verso to listen to Verso.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

What if you DIED in the war and what if you SURVIVED the war and what if your family LOST you and what if you LOST your friends, companions, lover and family. What if the only reason why you exist is because you DIED and everyone remembers it and the make-pretend would have never lasted because your mother couldn't take the grief away from herself when she painted you all so you exist but you exist because you died and everyone can feel you did. You're standing right there but it makes no difference. You're not the same. What if you died in the war and came back(was brought back) and it was still you but not completely and they all reminded you of it. What if you died and that death started a split and then a war in your family. What if one side wanted you alive while the other wanted you gone. Because you're gone. There are pieces of you that remain, but it's not the same. And you agree on that. You were always an impostor, even alive. Always lying. You're immortal because you're dead. Their conflict over you keep on killing all of those around you. They're destroying your world. Over you. They don't even listen to those remains of you. You're dead, so you're not listened to. Were you when you were alive, you wonder

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

Mealicia has so much beef with the world outside the canvas she doesn't even paint any version of her family beside her brother-copy and her brother-child-soul-piece and if you told her she was acting like her mom she would kill you

She's a Paintress. She's playing in her make-pretend world. She's avoiding grief. She makes everyone come back - but her parents. but her sister. She wants the years that was stolen from her brother. She wants her brother that was stolen from her. (Not all the guilt, not all the reminders, not all the pain - if only she could avoid and forget the nightmares too). She repainted the fragment of her brother's soul despite the fact it was clearly wanting to stop existing alongside his canvas. Both iterations of her brothers who solely existed in the canvas wanted to erase it and go rest. No one allows Verso to rest because the grief hurts too much.

So here is Maelicia, repainting Maelle's loved ones, ignoring Alicia's. Playing puppeteer the way Sciel and Lune are both dressed like her, the way Verso is condemned to a life he doesn't want - still here to fulfill the role of a man he's never been. Wishing for a death that is the reason why he came into existence in the first place.

It's not because she lives among them and think she's doing good that it changes reality. Aline thought it was good too - well, that it was something, at least. And before Renoir and herself trapped each other away, she must've lived among the Canvas as well. (I wonder, how long it'd take before someone dives in the Canvas to try to stop Maelicia - to try to pull her back. Clea can't keep helping their father while hunting down the Writers. Aline being anywhere near the Canvas is a whole mess and dangerous for everyone involved directly or not. Renoir would dive in to try and save any of his family member - that'd rush his aging as well. Clea's gonna be the last standing member of this damn family istg and then she'd have to keep going? Well at least she'd have the opportunity to destroy that forsaken Canvas. Which does make Maelicia's ending pretty pointless, considering Clea would probably throw it away once it's over. But hey, at least Maelicia could've comforted herself in disillusion for years. The only positive part of this ending is that the people living in the world inside the Canvas get to enjoy life without more pain and grief. But then here again, if the circle continue and fighting ensue, whole other fractures, who's to say. The question of their self-agency under Maelicia's governance also remains.)

Won't go as far as saying it's infantilizing but that young boy that could be Young Verso? Who sticks with her? Not helping the fact you've taken on your mother's role in the Canvas, Maelle. Also the lack of free will and autonomy you pushed on your brother-not-brother, deaf to his wishes. Well, he was deaf to yours too, wasn't he?

I won't deny her reasons, I won't deny her complicated and painful situation, I won't deny people in her shoes would've done the same or similarly. But she keeps the circle of self-destruction going.

Doesn't help outside the canvas tracking down Writers either despite the fact maybe she could have information to do so? But why try to avenge her brother when he's right there?

Why would've Aline come out of the Canvas when her united family was in there?

Their escapism is to be studied fr

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

You throw your life away to save your sister and she survives but not without consequences and she lives and she enters your childhood Canvas the same your parents have trapped themselves in and she manages to pull them away - for only her to remain

Your parents were aging in your Canvas and endangering their lives and now it's your little sister's turn. Because you're dead. You're gone. The pieces of you left only exist there. They're going to die for a life that already ended. It's not even *you*.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

I want to know about Verso's Soul Shard's agency in A Life To Paint. The remnants of his soul wanted to join him in death. But here he is, still in the Canvas, perhaps not painting anymore but who's to say he's happy with Maelle being trapped here? She repainted over him – he's at an age she probably doesn't remember him being, if she was even born then. Is he just a passive actor? He has a wish, to join his soul, to escape that Canvas - but with Maelle's repainting, does that remain untouched? She'd try her best to make her brother(s) happy, but Painted Verso isn't despite her efforts. But then, if she repainted the Young Boy as how she knows her brother had been back then,,,, of course he's happy in the Canvas. That's his!! That's his place, that's his soul!!! He's the first creator of this place!! Gestrals, Grandis, People. Where is Clea? Where is Maman? Where is Papa? They used to play with him.

He's the first creator of this place (what's left of the Original Him at least) and yet now it's (seemingly, possibly) all in Maelle's hands. No more control over it. Well, he never really did ever since he died.

Stay near Maelle, hold her hand (you reached for your other self's first, you both wanted to dissappear. Want?), look at a you-not-you play piano on stage. He's older than Original You ever got to be. You're stuck as a child. You smile and you're happy. Is it real? Even Maman and Papa knew you were a liar. When did they start – the lies, innocent or not? Are you lying to Maelle now? The Painted self still yearns for death and rest.

Do you?

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

You ever think in A Life To Paint, Verso and Young Verso look at each other and understand. But they can't talk about it. Because Maelle is always by their sides and can't bear to be asked death. So they're stuck staring at each other. Do you think Aline ever found the remains of her little boy and had to go through being faced with the fact he didn't want to keep going, that he wanted to completely fade?