[ CLOSED ] though my feet my rest

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: August
Where: Cadens, Horizon
What: August catch-all
Warnings: General Witcher canon stuff.


(( starters below. plot with me discontinued. ))

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[gynvael]

[ Crash-landed? To Geralt, he can only imagine something similar to the Conjunction. A literal collision of spheres that also sent the last of humanity falling into a continent they did not belong in.

He does understand, though. Kaer Morhen holds painful, violent memories. The surrounding mountains are a harsh and unforgiving environment. It's still home.

Carefully, he watches Vash, his hands. The organism glows with a gentle pulse. He doesn't know where Vash is going with this until he sees the small figure hidden within the unfurling bulb. It resembles a water spirit. Vash need not tell him it is alive. He can tell at once. And the implications of what Vash explained earlier sink in.

(Is this what Vash meant? When he claimed he could speak to things not unlike the Singularity?)

His brows draw into a deep frown. No different than kindling. ] And humans keep them for their use?

[ If his words carry an edge of distaste, it is not an accident. Is he jumping to conclusions? Perhaps. Experience tells him he likely is not. What else would they do with a creature that offers boundless resources for survival? Kindness has never come easy to the world or the people in it. ]

[boltaction]

[ understanding permeates vash's smile. maybe even a glint of fondness, too. he thinks luida would like him. rem certainly would have. ]

Well, yes, but...

[ he walks closer and extends his hand to offer geralt the little reproduction of the plant. it twirls to face the witcher, looking up at him with its large, expressive eyes. a cellular pattern pulses under its nearly translucent skin. if geralt holds out his hand, it'll glide across the bridge of their fingers to settle above the heart of his palm, suspended in the air. ]

They need humans as much as humans need them. They can't survive outside of the containment vats they're kept in. They need humans to track their vitals, and to intervene if something goes wrong. If the people caring for them are good to them-- it's symbiotic. They would've died out, too, if the humans hadn't crashed with them.

But knowing how to care for a Plant is a, well, highly specialized field, and most places don't just have a Plant scientist living among them. Or even nearby. And it's expensive to hire one to make the trip out if something's amiss. Some places just can't afford it in the end.

[ he bites the inside of his cheek for a moment, his face pinched with consideration, his gaze downcast. and then he fixes geralt with a cautious stare. ]

Remember when I asked about the Singularity-- in the baths-- and I said I could talk to... "things"?

[ he thinks the "reveal" is unnecessary at this point; geralt has almost certainly figured it out by now, but vash might as well say it out loud. for posterity. or whatever. ]

[gynvael]

[ There's much Geralt has seen over the century. This is wholly new. Where did they come from? What sphere exists where resources cannot naturally spring from the earth itself, yet these strange creatures they travelled with ensure they do? How did the humans even find them in the first place? (Or did they make them?)

The why and how of it almost seems beside the point. Perhaps it's been lost to history altogether.

Even knowing it's an illusion, Geralt isn't sure what to do with the Plant hovering above his palm. It looks impossibly fragile. He can't help feeling as though there's something inherently tragic about a creature created to rely upon and coexist with humans, knowing that such a reality is near-impossible to maintain.

After a moment, he quietly returns the Plant to Vash. Yes. He remembers. ] You can communicate with them.

[ Like Vash suspected, it's not a question. He studies Vash for a long few seconds. What is Vash, then? Not one of the Plant scientists, he thinks. ]

Why are you telling me? [ The curiosity is genuine. They'd only spoken once before today, and he suspects Vash doesn't make a habit of announcing these details to everybody he meets. ]

[boltaction]

[ vash accepts the simulacra of his sister back, watching her watch him while he gives geralt's question due consideration. why is he telling him? ]

Barely anyone knows I can back home. It's better if they don't. It'd scare them, for one, and for two...

[ his expression shutters a bit, a muscle in his jaw flexing. the frenetic scales of a piano echo faintly in the back of his mind. ]

And for two it'd be dangerous. But here-- a sharkman is my neighbor. Wanda can manipulate materials on an atomic level that shouldn't be possible. Magic is real.

I don't see much of a point in hiding it like I did, at least not from other Summoned, you know?

[ in short: circumstances here are far different than they are on no man's land. but that's not quite the full picture, and after chewing on whether he should or shouldn't for a bit, he finally blurts out: ]

Is it silly if I say I just felt like you'd understand?

[ vash finally looks back up at geralt, his mouth slanting with a tentative smile. ]

[gynvael]

[ Yeah. He can understand that inclination. Someone like Vash, who can communicate with the very thing they depend upon for survival—that knowledge could shift the entire tide of the world. There's a reason why he's been so protective of what Ciri can do. What she is.

Geralt gives a small huff—surprised and yet not by Vash's declaration. ]

No. [ No. He doesn't think that's absurd. Just...unexpected.

For a minute, he's quiet, observing. He seldom offers much about himself, not out of secrecy but because—as he told Vash in the Feywilds—he finds the reactions to be...complicated. For him to process. All that anger and distaste and bitterness on his behalf. They mean well, he knows. He still prefers to avoid confronting those emotions. At at least when it comes to his past. He's been there. He spent a long time trying to move on. For the most part, he's managed to. It serves no purpose to reawaken old wounds.

But Vash is not the same as the others. ]

Humans made my kind to face their monsters. And when there remained few monsters to fear, they searched for new ones in us. [ He was never given the choice to hide. What people didn't understand about Witchers, they made shit up. ] But amongst the Summoned here—none of us really belong.

[ So here they are. Outcasts alongside outcasts. ]