Beware The Moon (For viensapresmoi)

[amourpeint]

No one was entirely sure what to do.

Verso's... outburst after Renoir's defeat was understandable. No matter what was going on, that was his father after all. The direction it took however...

The admissions were damning, to say the least. And he gave no one time to question them, for good or ill, just all but bolting from the scene without waiting to see what the reactions were. Questions were posed to Monoco, who just confirmed the tale quietly before excusing himself. Assuring them that he'd go after Verso, bring him back so they could talk. Meet them at the last place they'd set camp.

Problem was, neither Monoco or Verso ever came back. Hours ticked by, and after almost half the evening had gone without so much as a hint from either of them? Something was clearly wrong. No one even had to say a word, not really, all of them seeming to on some unspoken agreement pulling out the map of the area to sort out where to start looking.

Comments

[viensapresmoi]

I'm not staying here! Not now!

Maelle's voice was shrill and Gustave couldn't bear it. Everything felt as if it were fraying at the edges. He couldn't focus from one minute to the next, his worry a sharp knot in his stomach. Lune was gesturing emphatically, Sciel had her hands up placatingly. Gustave sighed.

"I'll stay." He pressed the map into Lune's hands. "I'm a nervous wreck anyway. You three go, follow the route we talked about. If anyone comes back, I'll send up a flare. And...if anyone needs any healing, I'll have a tint or two here out of our supplies."

If anyone comes--, Lune started but Gustave shook his head.

"I send up the flare anyway. Protocol says not to work alone." He twitches a smile he doesn't feel her way. It's enough that she lets the matter rest. The women gear up and head out.

Gustave?

Gustave paces the camp. Where would Verso go? The route they mapped is the broadest sweep of this area, especially with Esquie to help them, but it's far from the Only path he could have taken.

"Mon amour...where did you run to?"

[amourpeint]

It was almost unnatural how quiet it was with everyone out of the camp. The only sounds the crackle of the wood in the fire, the soft scrape of Gustave's boot heels against stone and sand, echoed in kind-

Except this area wasn't nearly so prone to echo as it was closer to the Monolith. That wasn't Gustave's own footsteps he was hearing reflected back at him.

Something was out there.

[viensapresmoi]

In a flash, Gustave had his sword and pistol at the ready.

Out of sorts or no, he wasn't about to just roll over and let some Nevron take him out when he had his lover to go and save. But they'd never been accosted at camp before. He crept back around the side, cutting through the cave and prayed the Curator wouldn't make any noise to out his position. He was worried about sight and sound, but not his scent.

Cautiously, he peered around the corner back toward the glow of the campfire. Nothing. And no sign of the girls coming back for supplies. Gustave quietly pulled his pack on and started making for the exit to the camp. He'd rather have a fight if there was to be one somewhere other than where the cooking pots were.

No fluttering of silks and those footsteps were heavier than his own. So not a flier. It sounded bipedal...no sound of a dragging weapon. Putain! He could barely hear anything over the wind. The first sign of movement and Gustave turned, weapon at the ready to block--

[amourpeint]

There was a ring of steel against steel. A flash of light, a sparkling spray of chroma at the impact before the figure all but darted back again at being blocked, into the gloom of the evening, only just visible away from the campfire.

A brief few steps of circling before they were launching in again, a glimmer of gold fabric reflected on the left behind the gleam of blades, sword and dagger one after the other in a quick succession before once again darting out of Gustave's range with a breathless snarl.

Testing the defenses.

[viensapresmoi]

Putain.

Fast and armed. Click! His sword clashed against another. Gustave was intimately aware it would be easy to corner him if he didn't move very carefully. Every blow juddered up his arm from the force. It was too fast to get a lock on. The first shot Gustave fired went wide and dug a neat trench into the dirt that Gustave could only just barely make out. Another clash.

Click, click click!

He dropped to one knee and rolled out of the way of a swing that would have taken off his neck. Gustave was on his feet in an instant, his prosthetic crackling with building lightning.

"Alright you bastard...come and get me!" Tonight was the wrong night to try and get the drop on him. Even with Verso missing the man was a blessing. It was his lessons and sparring that had improved Gustave to the point he felt confident in holding his own. Now wasn't the time to think about those lessons though. Even if the pacing felt terribly familiar....

[amourpeint]

Hard, fast strikes, meant to test the defenses, meant to break flawed stances. Verso had used the tactics plenty on Gustave while teaching him. Not all the time, he didn't want to hinder the man's improvement that way, but enough that the rhythm was definitely starting to become familiar.

Another swing of the blade, a harsh exhale of breath, sword then dagger in quick succession, familiar blue-grey just visible in the gloam, reflecting the static crackling in the gaps in Gustave's prosthetic.

[viensapresmoi]

Click click!

Another clash, another blow that judders Gustave to the point where Gustave's feet slide on on the grass. Click clickclick--fending off attacks while regaining his balance is no easy feat. Verso drilled him in situational awareness like this and it's paying dividends now. A flicker of blue-grey in the dim light...

cl-click!

A crackle of lightning gathered in his fist. The opening Gustave has been looking for. He leaps to the side and dashes in close but brow eyes go wide. In an instant Gustave dismisses his sword and discharges the lightning into the ground at his feet, propelling him up and over his assailant in a flip before landing on the other side. He stumbles back half a step.

"Verso?!"

[amourpeint]

The sudden flash of lightning illuminated things a bit more for a brief moment. Enough for Gustave to get a better look.

White hair. Unnaturally pale skin, marbled with strange streaks of gold and black. The eyes turned his way as Verso rounded on him in that flip that blue-grey but with the black-stained sclera that just made the gaze look wrong.

And it was wrong. Verso's grip shifting on his weapons as flame sparked along edges, something in his body language seeming to recoil, balk, before that wrongness reasserted itself and he was lashing out again.

[viensapresmoi]

White hair. Too long. Something about it--

"Putain!" Where was Monoco??? How had they gotten separated? No blade to parry now. Gustave only dodged. He weaved across the grass with a practiced deftness. He couldn't afford to let up at all else Verso was definitely going to hurt him.

Verso was going to hurt him...

Gustave unhooks his pack from one shoulder and swings it around with his next dodge. One hand plunges into the pack and pulls out a flare. The other grips tight to the material before swinging it into Verso's side on his next lunge to throw the man off balance. It hits the grass and is ignored after. Gustave sends up the flare, illuminating them both in a reddish pink light for the briefest of moments.

And then he's back on the defensive again.

Look there--!

Gustave!

Esquie, take us back to camp now--

Lune wouldn't miss a flare on a night like this. Gustave panted into the dirt, ears pricked for that snarl in the dark. For footsteps against the blades. He was tiring, but still in one piece. He could hold out until they came back. He could. He would.

"Verso please wake up you ass! What are you doing?!"

[amourpeint]

The pack swings, and Verso slaps it down, but it does it's job in wasting that movement, giving Gustave a moment to get that flare off without the other slicing him down in the process.

And while the brilliant glare of the red does make the shadows around them all the darker, it gives at least a few more inches of visibility, another second of reaction time for Gustave whenever Verso's launching in. Trying to hurt, kill him, no response no witty retort to Gustave's call, not even a smirk of satisfaction at being called an ass.

An explosion of fire hitting the dirt between them aborting his next charge, as the girls barely wait for Esquie to get close enough to jump, to rejoin Gustave, weapons at the ready to defend, but... uncertain about the situation at hand.

Gustave!

What happened, are you alright?

Is that-?

The fire didn't last long, but it was effective in keeping Verso back at least long enough for that moment, reflecting strangely in his eyes as he studied the four, before letting out a low growl and melting back into the shadows again.

Not that he'd be going far. There was a sense of brief reprieve rather than a threat gone more than anything.

[viensapresmoi]

"Don't hurt him--" Gustave panted out, but it didn't sound like Verso was going to give them much of a choice. "It's not him, something's Wrong!"

I knew we couldn't trust him. Form up! Protect Gustave. Sciel--

On it~ She tossed Gustave a bottle of blue liquid before joining Lune. Drink this. Can't have you dropping on us yet eh?

If he tries to come at you again...

No, this wasn't good. Lune and possibly Maelle would be out for blood. Gustave slammed down the tincture. He didn't resummon his weapons. There had to be something he could do. His gaze swept the camp before he started scrounging for the scraps he needed to make a torch.

All of them froze when a loud noise belted out making their blood run cold. Something not human and very pained sounding.

[amourpeint]

Whenever Monoco had transformed, it had seemed almost whimsical. A loud bamf of smoke like a magician doing a trick, a child's playful idea of what it would be like.

There was no childlike whimsy here. The sounds in the dark were painful and violent, the snap of bone, almost wet tearing sounds, crunches and creaks accompanied by what started as more human cries of distress but were so soon twisted out of joint, deeper, more animalistic. Snarls and growls rather than anything.

And the sense of shape they could make out in the shadows was changing. Larger. More menacing.

For all the moment seemed to stretch uncomfortably, it was only just that. The girls had just enough time to get between the figure in the darkness and Gustave so he had the room to get back to sorts, to ready weapons when a figure barreled out of the dark again. Lupine in nature to be sure all shaggy dark fur long limbs, but something about it was wrong, twisted- it couldn't be comfortable to exist in that sort of form, and for now that pain was driving the creature to lash out, barreling into Sciel first with a snarl, teeth and claws blocked by the scythe for the moment.

Over her shoulder, Gustave would likely be able to make out the familiar blue-grey.

[viensapresmoi]

It was quick, painless, and showy. So none of them heard the gut-wrenching sound of bone and flesh tearing and thought of the Gestral. Shock gave way to survival instinct. Lune lit up the area with a surge of lightning while Maelle darted in around Sciel's side to test her blade against the beast's wet hide.

Gustave just stared.

"Mon amour..." Because he knew. He knew this was still Verso the way the man had been. He lit the torch he'd made and held it aloft while circling closer. "Verso! It's us. It's me! Gustave."

What are you doing Gustave?!

"I'm not turning a blade on him!" Gustave snarled with as much fierceness as the beast in front of them. "He needs help!"

Sciel glanced between the two of them before casting a wide path of darkness between both parties. Alright. Gustave wants to try talking their way out of this? At least she can keep him from being a target. Then she's right back into the fray.

"Verso you need to calm down so we can help you!"

[amourpeint]

Gustave might have been the softest target in the moment, unwilling to take up a blade as he was, but Verso couldn't get to him. The girls were all fierce in their defense, in ensuring that he didn't get to him.

Lune didn't like the plan, clear enough in the scowl and quick shake of her head, but she was outvoted in that quick battlefield reassessment. She did, however adjust her tactics a bit, supporting Sciel and Maelle in physically keeping the beast back, spellwork used to enhance their strengths, sap Verso's. Keeping her fire in reserve- she saw the way the creature jerked back at the sight of it, healing at the ready should someone need it.

But if this didn't seem to have any affect, she would only hold back for so long.

Denied his initial target, Verso seemed to switch tracks, snapping at Maelle whenever she danced in too close, swiping at Sciel with those dagger-like claws. But it didn't seem quite as focused as he had been before. Maybe it was just the pain of existing in this bastardized shape, clear enough in the way that muscles and limbs twitched and shuddered whenever he drew back from his assault to try another tack. Maybe it was how his attention kept sliding to Gustave whenever he drew close enough, or his voice cut through the din of the fight.

[viensapresmoi]

Lune kept the ground at the beast-man's feet slick with ice. Doing everything she could to keep it from getting a firm footing and angle of attack. Maelle worried at him, nearly flanking all by herself with a flurry of swift feints and maneuvering strikes. Sciel managed the middle ground between both sides. Keeping their movements hidden by a swirl of darkness until they were ready to reposition and go again.

Gustave set the torch down when he saw the fear in Verso's eyes of it. No, no he would fear fire more than Gustave's blade by the look of things. It left him truly defenseless. He spread his hands out in front of him to show they were empty.

"Mon amour. Please. Please listen."

If he gets through to lvoerboy you better have a ton of dirt ready to pin him down with, Sciel grit out to Lune. The other nodded along. If this was to be an all out fight it was going to get bloody. Even this skirmishing was dangerous.

"I don't want to hurt you. Whatever's happened, we can help. Heal your wounds. Make you a hot meal. We can help you through...whatever this is. But you need to back down."

[amourpeint]

Gustave wasn't the only one to see Verso's response to flame. Lune wasn't here to be cruel, but knew it was better if they kept control of the field, and so would keep him pinned in the fray by exploiting her fire to deter him from trying to dart into the darkness either to flee or come at them from another, more dangerous angle.

His attention kept slipping. Even when it meant that Maelle's strikes slipped past defenses, or Sciel was able to force him back. If this was just a straight combat, even with Gustave's joining with a weapon, they'd be hard-pressed to win. As it was... it was an even bout. Oddly enough even sliding into their favor as ears pricked towards Gustave at the pleading, the reassurances. Twitches in him as he seemed to want to do... something else, before there was an unpleasant creaking sound and he'd snap back to the fight. But each time less enraged and more... panicked. Swings going wide, a bit more faltering in his snapping bites, wild gaze turning constantly back to Gustave, no matter it meant he was getting hit more in the process.

I think it's working! Keep going, Gustave!

[viensapresmoi]

"I'm not going to hurt you." Gustave reached over across his body and with a heavy click and a hiss of discomfort released the mechanism that held his prosthetic left arm in place. He set the limb down on the ground at his feet. "See? No weapons. No pictos. Just me. You know who I am, don't you?"

He stepped out through the dark shroud Sciel had cast as a makeshift barrier between him and Verso and didn't flinch for the way the colour snapped painfully against his bare skin.

"Verso, look at me. I"m here, alright?"

[amourpeint]

Lune was going to save them both. And then she was going to murder them both. Verso for obvious reasons, in her mind, but Gustave for about scaring the life out of her, coming out from behind the safety of Sciel's darkness. She didn't dare shout and risk startling Verso back into more enthusiastic violence, especially not when he seemed to freeze utterly when he spotted Gustave. But she was ready, flames licking at her fingers and palms. If Verso so much as twitched the wrong way at Gustave...

It didn't seem likely, at least in the moment. Everyone around them froze, on tenterhooks as the huge misshapen beast's attention zeroed in on the engineer. Taut, trembling as he jerked forward an inch, claws digging into dirt and stone beneath him as he let out a strangled sort of snarl that was halfway to a whimper, ears flicking as he yanked himself back just as quickly. It was hard to say where his head was at in the moment past the confusing muddle of rage and pain, but he wasn't attacking anyone while the internal struggle was going on, focus entirely on Gustave.

[viensapresmoi]

"It's me, mon amour. It's Gustave. We were arguing just this morning about whether to fasten pack straps over or under the map case. I promised you kir and a strawberry tart for our first date back in Lumiere, non? At one of the boardwalk cafes so it wouldn't be too crowded like further in the city."

Gustave inches closer while he speaks. Like this Verso towers over him, but Gustave still crouches a little to make himself seem smaller and non threatening. There's no room to be embarrassed about idle conversation or plans they may have made. What does it matter who overhears what if one of them dies here like this?

"Can you please let us help you?"

[amourpeint]

It hurt.

Beyond just the simple pain of the twisted form he'd been forced into, the conflict between Clea's work and orders and what Verso wanted to do just had his head about splitting in two. The twisted creature stumbled back another step, teeth bared in a broken snarl, though it seemed more in uncertain defiance than aggression. Especially at Gustave's gentle words, his nonthreatening body language.

'I suppose I shouldn't have expected better from a pale imitation,' The voice speaking up didn't seem to come from anywhere specific, though it did bring to mind the tone heard from one of the faded impressions they'd spoken with in several places. And Verso tensed to hear it, a tremor coursing through him, hackles raising. 'Put an end to this disgusting farce. Be useful for once in your flawed existence and kill them all.'

One limb lifting shakily, like he was struggling with doing it or not at all, claws flexing uncertainly. Until there was another explosion of sound from him, a swipe sent Sciel and Maelle's way instead to make them jump back before he rounded like he was going to flee into the dark if not stopped.

Lune! We can't let him-!

[viensapresmoi]

"Verso!" Gustave reached after him but was forced to drop to one knee when the ground trembled beneath him.

No you don't--!

With barely a flick of the wrist and a forceful stomp into the grass, Lune channeled all the chroma she could gather into a pair of earthen pillars that jutted out at forty-five degree angles to pin part of Verso's body beneath them. With a chug from another tint bottle she swept the foot she had planted into a wide arc in front of her and took another step forward. A second pair erupted up and pinned his back legs too. Gustave's heart was in his throat, but she hadn't impaled Verso anywhere. Merely trapped him so he couldn't thrash overmuch and hurt himself or them easily.

"Verso!!" Gustave scrambled back up to his feet. "Verso it's us. It's me. Calm down mon amour, I'm here--" He stumbled over some uneven terrain from Lune's spells but kept hurrying up the hill to get to the creature's side. "We've got you. It's alright. Deep breaths. I'm here."

[amourpeint]

Verso couldn't thrash free, but that didn't stop him from trying as he found himself pinned by earthen pillars. Claws scrabbling against dirt, feet digging for purchase for all the spells had overturned everything, leaving little purchase for him to get a good angle to push loose. Likely by design- Lune wasn't about to go hunting all over the Continent for him, or wait for him to try and ambush them again. And aside from that, she still wanted answers.

He was hardly concerned with any of that though, harsh guttural sounds escaping him, soaked with pain and agitation in equal measures as he found his escape attempts stymied, was forced finally to go still, dragging in shaking breaths with massive heaves of his furry side as wide, wild eyes focused on Gustave's approach.

What even happened to him? Maelle ventured quietly, creeping a bit closer, but for now letting Gustave take the lead.

I remembered go me

[viensapresmoi]

Since Gustave was worried Verso would snap out at him if he tried to touch his head, he instead approached by one of the pillars of earth and ran his hand gently over one misshapen shoulder. Barely a graze of a touch that he withdrew if it seemed to cause more pain than relief.

"Shhh, mon amour. Here. Remember the song you played for me?" Gustave hums a tune as he circles back until he's directly in front of Verso once more. Or what's become of the man. It's one Verso played on the piano he stored within his personal pictos for Gustave on a night neither of them could sleep. Gustave has taken to humming it to himself when he wants to relax, but now it's purely for Verso's benefit.

What could do this to someone is the scarier question. Sciel shook her head while she knelt next to Lune to make certain the other was alright. It had been her chroma manipulation that had really kept them safe but it was clear she was tired now.

And where is Monoco? Lune muttered where she leaned against Sciel.

Re: I remembered go me

[amourpeint]

Even when he stopped struggling, more out of weariness than actual calm, there were still twitches, shudders, flinches. Unpleasant-sounding creaks. Like muscle bone and sinew were straining to work together as they should, straining not to come apart under the unnatural configuration they'd been forced into.

It was hard to say if anyone other than Verso would be able to survive... whatever had happened to him.

While Gustave was busy trying to calm Verso, to reach him somehow, at least had his focus, Maelle was circling to look for some clue or another. Only pausing when she caught glimpse of a bit of something pale where the dark, shaggy fur thinned against his ribcage. Humming a thoughtful sound as she leaned in a bit closer, brows furrowing.

There's something here, Offered, glancing between Gustave and the others, concerned. I thought it was... shrapnel at first, but it's... fused with him. Some kind of wood?

And with him still now, inspection would show that wasn't the only place marked like that with strange wooden pieces, that had been masked from view by the fur and fast movement in the fight before. The outer half of his left hand even seemed to be mostly that strange wood, the joints some unsettling combination of flesh and ball joint. From the way it shook, the effort it seemed to take to move the outer three fingers on that hand, this was not a thing that seemed to be working any better for him than anything else.

[viensapresmoi]

"Did they amputate his arm..." Gustave felt his stomach turn. Without his prosthetic on he couldn't clench his hand into a fist and it sent a spasm of phantom pain down the limb. He dropped to his knees next to Verso and began stroking the matted hair that had once been styled nice and neat.

"Verso I promise we'll do all we can to help you. Go r-rescue...M...mono...oh no."

Gustave wrenched to the side on the grass and emptied his stomach in a few heavy retches. The burn of the bile in his throat, in his mouth, hitting his nose just reinforced the reaction until Gustave found himself with Maelle steadying him while he sobbed into the action. He could hear the girls asking questions, feel Lune probing with magic to see if he needed healing. But he wasn't poisoned. Just.

Disgusted. Heartbroken. Did Verso even know...?

Gustave?? Y...you alright? Maelle ventured softly.

He shook his head. Dry heaved again but his stomach was by now empty. Tears ran down his face. Putain. How could this have happened?