Thanks so much!! This is for the Tumblr game over here.
❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?
For Fratt, I would absolutely love to sink my teeth into something exploring what would happen if Matt accidentally crossed the line and killed someone as Daredevil (I'm thinking of Faith's storyline from BTVS and that horrifying moment where she accidentally stakes a human) and Frank's reaction to that - since he's always theoretically pushing Matt to go to those extremes but I think his reaction would be so juicy and painful if Matt actually did it. I think there are probably already a few fics along those lines out there (and I should hunt them out!) but I'd love to see @up-the-bracket or @kanashikute's take on it, as some of my faves.
For Clair Obscur, I absolutely adore AUs that have one foot in the world of Clair Obscur while still incorporating the AU - so a coffee shop or tattoo parlour AU but it's set in Lumiere post-canon, or a soulmates AU but it's set during canon (oh, hey, that's @hoodedmiho's lovely fic!), or a vampire AU during the game (ahem, yes, I've written that one), that kind of thing. I'd devour it from anyone but I'd love to read it from @zombiearmor or @vannral
(Although to be clear to anyone I tagged that this is not me requesting fic, it's just me saying how much I love your writing and that you could all do incredible things with all concepts ever 😆)
🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?
I've mentioned researching blood-letting for Pallor, so some recent research I've been doing is trying to find some good pictures of early 1900s lecture halls for reference.
(Uhhhh, those of you who have been reading my Gustave Stoker Sequel draft know why I was looking that up 👀)
11. Who's the big spoon? Who's the little spoon? Do they switch it up?
Is it weird if I say neither?! No spoons?! I feel like they are far more of a "roll over onto the side with absolutely no contact while they're sleeping" kind of a vibe. But if it comes to who wants to cuddle a bit before they roll apart to sleep, that's 100% Frank for me. He's a sap.
16. If you have written fics for this ship, what is your favorite fic you have written for this ship? Don't write? Recommend a fic of this ship then!
I've written a fic or a two... Ahem. Hard to pick a favourite, but I really, really enjoyed writing Induced Phenomena (super soldier Frank! I accidentally went full-id on that fic when I'd meant for it to be something super plotty but then the guys were both just aggressively Down To Fuck for the whole thing) and Whispered Oaths & Gentle Hands, where I got to write some good old fashioned Matt Whump.
… If I can throw in some recs regardless (I love reccing fics and always jump at the chance) I love Bag, the devil is my strength and my defense, i'm here standing hollow and gift wrapping.
19.1 An ideal free day for them would look like? What are they doing on that day?
See, if we're talking about them as an established couple, I think Matt would think that he wants to spend the time doing something soft and romantic. Something normal. And Frank would probably play along, and the two of them would wind up out in a park awkwardly feeding the ducks and then heading off to a second-hand bookshop to let Frank browse.
And of course by the evening Matt would actually be getting antsy and frustrated that he hasn't been having the ideal free day, despite all the Normal Ideal Free Day things being done - so Frank would casually mention that he's got a lead he needs to follow up on. And that he could do with some back-up.
That's what actually gets him Matt's devil smile.
And then they fuck in an alleyway afterwards, shhhhhh
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?
Honestly? That first "Bang," with that insane look on Frank's face. I'd watched the first season of Daredevil and had loved it but hadn't had any fandom-related feelings for it up until that point. Then the second Frank was introduced my fandom instincts basically sat upright in interest and I think I messaged my then-RP partner the same day urging them to catch up on Daredevil immediately.
There's just something about their rivalry-with-respect and radically-opposing-goals-and-methods-while-still-actually-liking-each-other dynamic that hits just perfectly right for me.
For the ship ask game - 6, 8, 19, and 22 for verstave perhaps? 😳👉👈
Ahhhhh thank you so much, nyoom! This is for the Ship Ask Game here.
6. A song you think of for this ship?
I think of You Matter To Me from Waitress as a Verstave song for me [uhhhh, sorry for the random talking interlude/monologue in the middle].
There's something around that idea of offering quiet support without expecting anything more: just being willing to be there for one another, even in silence - and then the challenge of choosing to stay there with someone when your usual response is just to run away and hide.
I could find the whole meaning of life in those sad eyes
They've seen things you never quite say, but I hear
Come out of hiding, I'm right here beside you
And I'll stay there as long as you'll let me
[...]
It's addictive the minute you let yourself think
The things that I say just might matter to someone
All of this time I've been keeping my mind on the "running away"
And for the first time, I think I'd consider the "stay"
8. If this ship were animals (if they're not already), what animals would they be?
I'm basic, they're both dog-coded to me. Gustave's a scrappy three-legged dog who is usually pretty chill but will start growling and snapping if people threaten his chosen family.
And Verso's a purebred, extremely expensive husky who has somehow impossibly ended up a stray on the streets and spends all his nights woefully whining at the moon, in between eating out of trash cans.
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?
I'd kind of massively fallen for Gustave during the prologue (I am a Matt Murdock stan and was primed for this thanks to Charlie Cox's voice) and it took me a long, long time to warm up to Verso at all. I stopped playing the game for a few days after the end of Act 1 because I have never ugly-cried so hard at a video game.
But once I'd chilled out and started playing again, I had a passing "haha wouldn't it be interesting if Gustave and Verso had interacted?" thought. That then became a very serious recurring thought. And then as soon as I finished the game I had to write a quick one-shot to get that thought out of my system.
And now I am happily trapped in Verstave hyperfixation hell. I think for me they're both separately really interesting characters, so when you blend them together there are 1001 different ways it go, different stories you can tell, different dynamics you can paint. It's a glorious blank slate for people to play with, and there are so many incredible writers and artists out there doing really interesting stuff with it.
22. A headcanon you have for this ship?
I tend to think of it as being Verso's first big/real relationship in decades. He might've fooled around with some of the other Expeditioners passing through over the years, but Gustave is the first time he's ever really allowed himself to become attached to someone in a lifetime - and that's terrifying! It's so intense for him that he's simultaneously drowning in it, and also not even knowing how to handle himself like an actual person. It's even more difficult to cope with because Gustave seems so normal (mostly because Gustave has had significant relationships, and even when he's smitten is kind of level-headed enough to know how to handle those feelings in a vaguely rationalish way.)
Verso as Gustave's Number 1 Simp is my favourite kind of Verso tbh.
ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD. I'm not sure you can answer this one, BUT! Can you tell me more about the various instances of deja vu that Gustave has had in Lumiere? 👀
Ahhh, thank you so much for asking about Inscription! I am having so much fun writing it and playing around with Writer lore.
Gustave has been having flashes of what he calls "deja vu" since he was a teenager. Since they typically happen when he's alone, it took a long, long time for him to be able to even believe that it was real. It just feels like the world is getting better or more vivid around him, like someone's adding in a lost description, or illustrating a scene around him. He's tried seeking medical help and the advice of chroma-experts, but the clinical diagnosis seems to be "You're just kinda weird, Gustave."
They mostly occur during times of heightened emotion, mostly when he's upset. The absolute worst case he's had in recent years was right after his big break-up with Sophie: he'd gone home moping, planning on hiding himself away for a few days to lick his wounds. After a short while his apartment seemed to be rewritten around him: cleaner, bigger, better; his hair became neater; his clothes were refreshed. It lasted longer than the other instances, not just a blink-and-it'll-go-away kind of thing - but, hey, on the plus side, the alarm about it jolted him the hell out of his moping phase over the break-up.
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.
I've read so many verstave fics where Gustave either forgives Verso or angry at him for letting him die but I haven't seen a fic where Gustave is actually?? Scared of Verso?? But in a way that no he doesn't know Verso let him die but somehow when he's brought back it's like his entire soul just trembles, terrified, whenever Verso is close and Gustave is frustrated because he doesn't understand why. Verso obviously feels guilty about it because in a way he genuinely wants to make amends but it's like the only way to make amends is to stay away from Gustave? But the issue with that is that Verso finds himself slowly growing fond of Gustave once he continues watching him from afar; there's just something so sweet and genuinely endearing in the way Gustave is so kind and gentle around others so it's hard to stay away from the man that's so scared of him.
Ooh, anon, thank you for sharing!
I am going to throw my very predictable answer at you, but...
I'm sure people would love to read your fic on the topic!
Hi! Just wanted to thank you for being such a positive force in the verstave fandom, we're lucky to have you!
(also your fics are super cool!!!)
Oh my gosh, anon, thank you. You made me cry a wee bit in the nicest possible way.
I love our fandom so much. I've made so many wonderful friends here and I've been so creatively inspired by both the canon material and by all the talented writers and artists we share a fandom with.
I've been having a pretty rough time recently IRL and I'm so glad to have our fandom as a little beacon of positivity in all that. I hope I'm able to add back to it a wee bit too with my typical nonsense (and I am just taking the chance to shout out @e33readingchallenge as the next silly fandom thing me, Phi, Nyoom, Pumpkin & Laya are working on)
Tell me alllllllllllll about the fun things that the soul adds to the canvas at the end of Liminal! Like the dragon. :3 What else does he plan to paint but hasn't just yet? 👀👀
Liminal, my beloved. Thank you, Phi! This is for the back-story lore game.
My take on little Verso at the end of Liminal is fully inspired by the drawings of my niece and my friend's kid - and, if the subject matter is remotely similar, then the Continent is in for a rough time when the soul's creativity gets to take off again without the weight of his family's grief. As well as the scariest dragon ever, we're talking lava-pits and volcanos and horses-with-three-heads and a seagull-that-will-eat-you and a cave-that-is-also-a-vampire (Phi already knows the origin of that cave 💀)
Ultimately, I think the soul fragment ends Liminal with a bit of hero-worship for Gustave: Gustave is the cool uncle that told off his family and made them all stop fighting for once! Of course he wants to paint cool things for Gustave to fight; of course he wants to show off and show Gustave all that he can create. This… definitely leads to problems for the canvas, and at some point they need a bit of an intervention with the soul to get him to cool it down a bit.
My favourite thing that I think the soul fragment adds is a new tower for Gustave and Verso on the Continent, though. This is where the Liminal VCU chapter is set. It's not quite Gustave's old tower that he was originally painted in, and it's not entirely something new either - same-same but different. A new start, but a familiar setting for it.
