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Procedures Not Covered in the Expedition First Aid Handbook by a_hardboiled_egg
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
28 Feb 2026
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Summary
It has been 8 months since Maelle kicked her family out of the Canvas and chose to stay. Gustave's friends and family have all embraced their second chance at life but Gustave is struggling to accept their new reality. He has thrown himself into his work to keep his mind off of everything but now he has been tasked with collecting study samples from the Continent. No one else is able or willing to join him on the trip and travelling alone is unsafe. Luckily, Maelle convinced Verso to go so Gustave could have someone to watch his back. Gustave and Verso have never really spoken and barely know each other, but a whole month on the Continent together is enough time to change that.
5 times Gustave had to be on corpse management duty + 1 time Verso had to instead
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Bookmark Notes:
Dying is fun
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Verso, sweaty and still pallid, looked at Gustave, looked down at his chest, looked back to Gustave, and said with complete seriousness “This is not how I wanted you to be inside me for the first time.”
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Bookmark Notes:
Excerpt:
“You seem more at ease out here than in Lumière.” Gustave noticed Verso heard him and worked really hard to keep his tone light before asking “Do you not like living in the city?”
For a split second, Verso looked like a cat startled by a loud noise before he quickly composed himself and replied, “I guess I’m not used to being in the city anymore.”
Gustave decided to press it. “You’ve been back in Lumière for eight months though, no? If you’re not happy, why is this the first time you’ve left?”
“Maelle. I need to keep an eye on her. Make sure she’s okay.”
Gustave was intrigued by this answer. He knew Verso cared for Maelle, but from what he gathered, they had a complicated relationship. “I’m pretty sure Maelle feels like she needs to make sure YOU’RE okay, not the other way around,” Gustave pointed out.
Verso stopped walking and stared at Gustave. Puzzled, he asked “Do you know why I so desperately tried to kick her out of the Canvas?”
Gustave also stopped. “You want Maelle out of the Canvas so all the Dessendres can move on and your suffering will end, even though it will cost us all our lives. I’ve heard it. I don’t agree with it because I am at least 75% sure I’d like to live, but I understand why you want that. What happened to Maelle’s outside family is tragic, and I would definitely be tired in your situation too.”
Verso looked shocked now. “Merde. They actually didn’t tell you. I can’t believe none of them told you. That’s only half the truth. I do want the Dessendres to move on, and I do want to permanently die, but I want Maelle kicked out of the Canvas so she doesn’t permanently die.”
Gustave suddenly felt hollow. “What do you mean?”
“Painters can’t stay in a canvas forever. Maelle is in here but Alicia Dessendre, her actual physical body, is out there.” He waved a hand in the general direction of the sky. Verso looked more and more pained as he continued. “Outside the Canvas, Maelle’s body is slowly withering away. She is choosing this fantasy life here over her real life with her real family all because I am in here. That’s why I want her out. I can’t let her kill herself to spend time with nothing more than a cruel facsimile of her dead brother.”
Verso took a deep breath and studied Gustave’s face for a moment. “I suppose it’s not just me. She wants to spend time with you and all the others as well. I’m not the only one she loves here, I’m sorry.”
Gustave hadn’t even taken offense to what Verso had said. The look on his face that Verso mistook for jealousy or contempt was actually one of horror as he fully grasped the situation.
Gustave began to feel nauseous and decided to sit on a nearby rock. “How long does she have?”
“Hard to gauge. Her parents were here for 67 Canvas years, but I don’t know how long that is outside. Time moves differently outside the Canvas. Her parents are both incredibly experienced and skilled Painters who have been doing this for decades. Maelle is new to this.”
“Fuck. Fuck fuck FUCK.” Gustave stood up again and began pacing. “I KNEW I had to be missing something. I KNEW something was off, and there was no way the conflict was magically resolved with no consequences. I have felt like I was slowly losing touch with reality for the past eight months because I knew something was off but I had no proof. You mean to tell me I haven’t just been crazy or depressed but my closest friends all LIED to me?”
“If you’re only 75% sure you want to live you’re probably also depr—”
Gustave raised a palm to silence him “Not now.”
Verso lowered Gustave’s hand back to his side. “Okay. Yes. Lune, Sciel, and Maelle all lied to you. I’m sorry you found out this way.”
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“Okay, you got me. I completely failed to account for blight. In my defense, it was not something we ever thought we would encounter when we prepped for the expedition so it wasn’t in my default pictos selection I usually bring with me.” Gustave begrudgingly admitted.
“I would feel more smug about this if it couldn’t kill you very slowly and painfully. No problem, I’ll just take it.”
“What do you mean you’ll just take it?”
“I have a skill where I can absorb ailments from others,” Verso said casually.
Gustave glared at him with concern. “Don’t you also have a skill where you can greatly wound yourself for stronger attacks? And another one where you can sacrifice like a third of your health for a stronger marking strike? Do all your skills involve hurting yourself? How has no one commented on this?”
“Because they are either less observant than you to notice or less rude than you to point it out like that,” Verso huffed.
“I don’t know how no one in your life commented on this.”
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