[ CLOSED ] here in this garden of bones

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: May
Where: Cadens; Horizon
What: Catch-all for May
Warnings: basic witcher canon stuff, adding as we go



(( starters below. discontinued or at Noa#1979 to plot. ))

Comments

<3

[gynvael]

[ The pithy reply earns a nod from Geralt in return. More needn't be said. Truth be known, it's more than he'd have said to someone with whom he's superficially familiar at best. He likes Dante. They simply don't know each other well. Now that he's said his piece—the rest is on the other man.

Besides. Family is what you make of it. Blood is not the only part that binds you together. Sometimes it isn't a point at all. Sometimes your blood abandons you, and you find your place elsewhere. More than anyone, he understands family is what you build with your hands. It doesn't just come to you and stay.

And maybe he knows what it's like to have who you thought was family turn away from you. When you need them most.

A silence falls. Then his lips quirk as Dante shifts the topic. ] So I've been told. We age slowly.

[ Is Dante the same? Part human can mean many things, as he's learned from Alucard. Perhaps there is no roadmap for their kind, either. Something which only exists because of an unexpected union. Vampire and human. Demon and human. ]

[subhuman]

[ Family is definitely a messy business, no matter how you cut it. A shame that people aren't always able to choose it. Dante isn't sure he'd be able to make the change himself, but Nero is, at least, someone who deserves the option to rid himself of that association.

He's got a feeling the kid would call him a dumbass for that, though. Which he is, so fair all around. ]

We do?

[ Geralt has the aura about him of the kind of man who's seen a lot of shit and, because of it, doesn't see the point in going into it. You can pack a lot into a few short years, but stretched over decades is another story entirely.

He rubs his chin as he gives Geralt a full once over. ]

Unfortunately, some of us are just young at heart.

[ Granted, he's got no clue where he'll be at in fifty years if he lives that long. Vergil looked pretty good all things considered...

...after he rejoined with his human side and stopped being a demonic abomination that was literally veined into a giant hell tree.

Long story. ]

But you're not alone, it sounds like like.

[gynvael]

Mm. [ Young at heart sounds about right. As far as he can tell, Nero is precisely the age he looks and equally young at heart. Perhaps it runs in the family. ] I wasn't at home. I am here. Though there were never many of us left.

[ Has he reflected on what it means to be the last of his kind? A bit. It's not as if the possibility of it never occurred to him. Dying out as they are, every Witcher knows he may be the last to survive. Now that it's come to pass, it's...

Maybe that's why he's been building something else. With the others he's discovered in this world. Geralt will frequently say he prefers his solitude, and that's true. That's how he spent his lifetime. But he grew up surrounded by brothers. He returned to them each winter for their camaraderie. It's more accurate to say that he prefers being alone over being with a stranger who can't possibly understand the path he walks. And here, he's found those who do understand.

Nero was one of the first to fall into that category. They've grown close as a result. ]

[subhuman]

[ A kind though, but really stupidity runs in the family. Don't ask Vergil how his skin looks so smooth, it's just a lot of time in Hell.

Normally this would be the kind of thing that Dante would leave well enough alone. He doesn't talk freely about his own past and origins and respects anyone else and their desire to do the same. But Geralt has open that door and Dante is, admittedly, curious. He knows Nero too--Nero who is far from subtle about.

Well.

Everything.

So maybe there's quite a bit he knows already. ]

"Us"?

[gynvael]

[ Certain topics, Geralt does not mind broaching. What he is falls under that category. He's not human whether there or on this sphere, and it's simpler in his eyes to nip those assumptions in the bud. ]

A Witcher. Created by alchemy and magic to kill monsters. [ His head tips to the side. ] Nero tells me he was trained to do the same as a boy.

[ Their similarities are several deep. He knows Nero was an orphan, was left by his adopted father, found his...biological family. Then abandoned by them, too. Or so Nero perceives it. Geralt doesn't know the full story. Given how much Dante seems to care about Nero despite being shit at doing anything about it, he imagines the situation had been far more complicated.

Or perhaps not. Sometimes a choice is just a choice. One you make in the moment and are never sure of from that day forth. ]

[subhuman]

[ Created by alchemy? Unfortunately not something that Dante is wholly unfamiliar with, though where he's from that usually has a lot more to do with demons as well. He doesn't make the same assumptions of Geralt. Even if he hadn't spent enough time in Abraxas to know that people in this world come from literally all over, he knows the feel of demons. He'd be able to tell.

Still, a "Withcher". He's got a name to put to it. ]

Pest control's in high demand, is it?

[ Enough that people would literally create individuals to deal with it rather than start a job fair? He'd guessed Geralt was a mercenary of sorts, but to be actually bred, in a way, to do it...

Doesn't leave the guy much of a choice, does it?

The mention of Nero does give pause. Seems like Nero has shared something of his past. The kid's much more open that Dante will ever be, but Fortuna isn't an easy topic. ]

He's one of the best.

[ But, he has to pat his chest with a weak little grin. ]

After me, of course.

[gynvael]

[ Demons simply don't exist in that way on Geralt's sphere. The line between what makes a monster is...not so thick. He clearly isn't human—but beyond that? It's hard to say. The essence of who he was never changed. Only his physical biology. ]

Not really. [ His tone is ironic. ] Over the past century or so...they've been dying out.

[ So have the Witchers. He finds more work in Cadens. Between the beasts that hassle merchants and the demand for alchemy ingredients, there's no shortage of things to kill, gold to make.

The joke is lacklustre, but Dante is. Trying, evidently. Geralt shakes his head. No, he doesn't doubt that. Nero may carry a short temper, but he is skilled. And he has a good heart. ]

Can't be much to kill in Thorne, is there?