002

[solmate]

WHO: Alina + closed starters (Kirigan, Ciri, Kylo, Geralt)
WHAT: Alina haunts some friends new and old
WHERE: Free Cities, the Horizon
WHEN: Throughout October
NOTES: No warnings currently. This will be a catch-all for October threads. If you'd like a custom starter, dm me and we'll figure something out!

Comments

[solmate]

[ Alina moves slowly, although it's not from any sort of lack of urgency. These days have been draining, the uncertainty weighing more heavily than she could have imagined. Without a fate to point to, anything could have happened to Mal, and Alina's mind has invented all sorts of awful scenarios both here and at home that he might have succumb to.

The quickest she can move is to the door, but the unhurried knock and lack of commotion means that it's either something unrelated to their search for Mal or another empty-handed update.

She cracks the door open, and although she had been expecting this, it still hurts to see Geralt standing alone. She somehow manages to slump her shoulders more.

She is a thin, shadowy version of herself. Dark circles cut under her eyes, her joints appear bony and sharp. It's almost worse than when she was in the dungeon, cut off from the light that makes her live her life more fully and brightly. ]

Geralt. [ At least she doesn't act like she's expecting good news. ] Do you want to come in?

[gynvael]

[ The door inches open. Geralt peers through it, taking Alina in: the heavy cloak of misery that hangs over her. She looks like shit. Concern passes over his face. For a second, it appears he wants to say something before he leaves it be. He knows she has Sam, who's far better equipped to look after how she's doing. Geralt's skillset lies elsewhere.

So he nods, wordless. Yeah. He does. He waits for her to let him in before stepping through, though he doesn't go too far in. Habit, almost; few let him into their homes and most who do don't intend for him to stay long. He perches on the window's ledge instead, close to the door.

He need not tell her he hasn't got promising news. He can see she already knows. It bothers him, getting nowhere. More than usual, that is. Because he knows her. He's getting to know her and Sam, and he'd been familiar with Mal. They aren't wary strangers from a small village, handing him some coin to solve their problems and expecting to never see him again when it's over. It feels, distinctly, like he owes them more. ]

I wanted to talk to you. About Mal. [ He shifts his gaze towards her. He's got a few things he's learned, but he wants to hear from her first before he gets there. ] Had he said anything to you? Something he may have come across that wasn't right? Someone he spoke to?

[ What concerns him is not that he didn't find a proper trail. It's that he physically can't. Mal is not merely missing, didn't just run into trouble past the city limits and couldn't make it back. Something happened to him to remove him without a trace. ]

[solmate]

Mm-mm. [ She shakes her head. ] No.

[ Not that Mal had to tell Alina everything he planned (and not that either of them are exactly planners, and some lying by omission was more her speed), but they had stuck close to each other here. Laying low. Staying away from Kirigan. Working jobs, it almost felt normal. It was a comfortable pattern that almost made her forget they were anything but two orphans.

Alina looks down her hand idly running across her palm, searching for an old scar. Erased, just like Mal. ]

There's someone who would want to hurt him. But he's not here, he was in Thorne.

[gynvael]

[ Geralt absorbs that for a minute. Reflects on the possibility that someone's reach in Thorne can extend this far. The likelihood is low. But that leaves few options: something to do with the Singularity, which is as nebulous a theory as anything—they know fuck all about the Singularity—or the strange benefactor who rescued all of them for reasons Geralt still doesn't understand. They know even less about that.

He shifts his weight. ] I tracked him to a tavern, where he was working. Innkeeper said he left something behind. When she went after him, he was already gone. In the space of seconds. I checked. His trail stops cold there, too.

[ Not faded, not obscured. Just gone. He hesitates, before pulling out a folded scarf for Alina to take. What the innkeeper had tried to return. Geralt hasn't got any reason to hold onto it. ]

I don't know what it means yet. [ He isn't saying it outright, because there's no telling for certain. It's clear, nonetheless, that the goal is beginning to alter from Where has Mal gone? to What happened to Mal? ] But I can try to find out. If you'd like.

[ Or he can leave it be, at least where she's concerned. If she doesn't want to know any further, he can respect that. ]

[solmate]

[ Stops cold. It doesn't make sense. There should be something. Anything. It lacks a resolution or a finality that would be horrible, but kill her uncertainty. Instead it keeps her strung between the worst kind of hopeless optimism that he may come walking back through the door, and despair, imagining every impossible and terrible situation that could have befallen him. Alina shifts her weight, guarding herself and trying to hold it together. Her nails dig into her upper arms trying to keep herself steady. ]

You've done a lot already. [ She's honestly not used to anyone being so giving of their time, but Mal charmed everyone he ever met, so it makes sense that Sam and now Geralt would look for him. ] I— I don't really like to ask it, but would you? He would do the same for anyone. He was like that.

[ Was and she feels like she's been slapped with her misstep. ]

Is. [ She corrects very firmly. ] He is like that.

[gynvael]

[ He tips his head to the side. His answer comes without hesitation, as though he were always willing to concede, whatever her decision. ] I'll look.

[ His continuing involvement is complicated, multifold. There is Sam, who oscillates between someone (a friend) he wants to help and an ally he wants to maintain a working relationship with; there is Ciri, who he knows is concerned for Alina and her missing friend. There is Alina and Mal themselves—strung together alongside the rest of them on this bullshit ride none of them asked for. And then there's the simple fact that sometimes, he unravels a thread he just can't let go of.

In the end, it isn't really a favour—at least not in his mind, because as a rule, he doesn't like to do favours any more than he likes accepting them—though he understands Alina likely sees it as such. He doesn't correct her either way. She's asking, he's willing, so he'll do it.

He straightens up. Was, is. There's a slight change in his expression at where she stumbles between the two, but he doesn't comment. ] If you think of anything else, tell me.

[solmate]

Of course. [ She nods quickly. Geralt doesn't even need to ask. Anything that would help find Mal becomes top priority. ] Thank you.

Is there anything I can do for you? Maps, coin... I don't have much to offer, [ There's something dryly funny about that now. Everyone was fighting over her power not too long ago and now she is just so painfully ordinary. She's much more familiar with being borderline unhelpful, but that doesn't mean she relishes being back here. ] but whatever you need, I'll get it.

[ She's nothing if not resourceful. ]

[gynvael]

[ Whether she believes it useful or not, Geralt does in fact consider what she might have that he could use. There isn't anything material he needs, but: ]

If you decide to search on your own, take Ciri with you.

[ He's not insisting, but there's a sense it's more of a firm suggestion than an offer of assistance. He doesn't expect Alina to sit around and do fuck all. But if she's going to go, she shouldn't go alone, and he knows Ciri will keep him informed if anything happens.

Besides, Ciri would want to help. He knows that much about her. ]