[r8] talking head: gustave

[loveauthority]

[ Gustave is led to a quiet room within the resort with a pair of hammocks to suit the scene, and upon one of them is where the overseer sits. She beams, shuffling her cards in hand (she will not use these), and motions for Gustave to take a seat already!!!

This is the Talking Heads room, and there are cameras. Prepare to loosen those lips! ]

Comments

[9999]

[ tfw booze won't help your sadness. okay actually he was mostly just trying to be responsible. ]

Yeah, I've noticed. [ blowing a sigh. ] I'm flattered, I really am. But...

[makeine]

I know, I know, you aren't really here for romance. But is there any harm in, you know...

[ nudging him a bit with her foot. ]

Having some fun with it anyway? Enjoy being liked and the apple of someone's eye?

[9999]

... To be honest with you, no. Not really.

[ he frowns, letting her nudge at him while he shakes his head glumly. ]

I -- before I came here, I lost someone... special to me. And everything just keeps reminding me of her.

[makeine]

[ oh.

her nudging stops, foot back to herself, and she'll lean into her hammock. ]

Sorry to hear that. [ sincerely. ] What was she like?

[9999]

[ a sigh. It hurts to talk about her, a little, but at the same time, he likes to do so. It helps keep her around, if only in memory. ]

Smart. Beautiful. She always knew how to make me laugh, always had something clever to say that I'd never thought of before. [ he looks down at his hands, fiddling with the edge of one of his prosthetic finger joints idly. ] It didn't work out between us, but I never stopped missing her. Then I was with her for her Gommage.

[makeine]

[ it always hurts to talk about the people you miss. anna... hasn't lost anyone herself that way, not yet, and she's thankful for it -- but she thinks of lemon and her grandmother, of her own, of will and the dangers that still lie in euchronia...

...

ugh!!! she's still so mad at him!!! ]

Sounds like a fancy cheese. But I'm guessing... it's not?

[9999]

[ that gets him to smile, at least, though it's a bitter one. ]

No... I wish. [ #french #mycheese ] In my home, you only live for so many years before you disappear, and the terminal number ticks down every year. If you're that age when the number changes, you're erased - gommaged. It dropped to 33 this year, and she was 33 that day, so... that was it.

[makeine]

[ ...

yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ]

So, like... when it hits those single digits, your future's pretty much done?

[ the children are it, after all. would kind of... wipe out a lot of potential. and what happens if it hits zero? does it just-- stop? can people live normally again? so many questions. ]

wdym it's been 3 days

[9999]

[ thinking about it puts a little pit in his stomach; he nods, albeit stiffly. ]

We just have to stop it before that happens.

[ he doesn't want to imagine a future full of children who can hardly care for themselves, helpless and alone and dying from a threat they can't even comprehend - he unconsciously grips his hands into fists. ]