#expedition zero

We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember us - if at all - not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men.

(For Thine is the Kingdom)

Dead man walking

Julie was never apart of Expedition Zero.

She was not with them when they left Lumiere for the Continent. She was not there when Simon disappeared. She was not there when Renoir, Verso and their unnamed companions made it to the Monolith and met Clea. She was not there when Expedition Zero was wiped out (because she would be dead).

She came after - when Renoir and Verso returned as the only two survivors. When she joined the new group of people Renoir formed to take them to the Monolith, making them believe they were a simple Search & Rescue team and not cannon-fodder for a fight the two must have known they might not win. It's why Verso, now immortal and his hair full of secrets, lied and lied and lied until Julie was driven to creating the plan to abduct and 'interrogate' him to get the truth.

Even Julie refers to herself as a member of Search & Rescue. She mentions Expedition Zero as a group separate from her own.

This question came up on a reddit. Here's my rather long answer to it. I could pull out more specifics from the journals, but this is roughly what happened.

Were they in Lumiere?

My assumption was always that Renoir, Verso, and Alicia were in the part of Lumiere that was split and thrown across the sea to be an island. Verso talks about living above a bakery when he was a practicing musician, and Maelle knows the exact bakery he's talking about. It's entirely reasonable he was in that part of the city when it was split, and I imagine that Renoir and Alicia were also in that part of town. In fact...it's very plausible that Aline chose the part of town where they physically were standing and transported that neighborhood across the sea specifically to save them.

We don't know if Clea was with them. I could argue it either way. From Renoir, Verso, and Alicia's perspective, they survived but Aline was missing on the continent having never made it out of Old Lumiere.

Expedition Zero

When Lumiere then sent an Expedition, Renoir was the commander, and Verso joined as well. Verso says they were explicitly searching for their mother. I don't think Alicia was on the expedition, and if Clea was then she must have died/disappeared early on. Regardless, Renoir and Verso made it to the monolith, met the REAL Artist Clea, and Artist Clea killed the Expedition when they refused to leave. She couldn't kill Verso or Renoir though, and this is probably when both of them discovered they were immortal.

They went back to Lumiere, and that's why Expedition Zero was said to have survivors. However, it seems the records were either lost or very vague over the years, since Lune studied Expedition Zero and didn't recognize Verso or Renoir. While there, though, they helped to build the shield wall to defend the city.

Expedition Search and Rescue

Eventually, still in year 100, the city sent out Expedition Search and Rescue, which Verso and Renoir also joined. I'm not sure if Renoir was the commander of that one or not. Julie--Verso's loved one--was also part of Expedition Search and Rescue. Julie specifically questions how Verso and Renoir survived Expedition Zero. This rescue expedition ended in betrayal and mutual violence--though who betrayed who will depend on perspective. A LOT HAPPENED IN ONE YEAR.

Aftermath

So I paint on clothes (especially jackets) and decided to go with something more ambitious this time and began doing jacket inspired by Simon from Expedition 33 (fav boss, fav journal entry, I just want to get him out of the Abyss and rescue Clea w him). Everything was planned here except for the swords (I felt like adding something on the front but had no idea what and then came up with this. This part took me around 5hrs (with waiting for stuff to dry between layers). Hope to finish it today or tomorrow :)

I fixed the swords right before sleep so they don't look like crosses