Julie Lawry (
princessvegas) wrote in
abraxaslogs2021-12-06 12:33 pm
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[ dec / open ] what even is the point of december without christmas presents?
WHO: Julie + others
WHAT: December catchall
WHERE: Places
WHEN: December
WARNINGS: Language, etc. Specific cws in subject headings.
[ ooc: dec catchall, starters in comments,
bitchcraft or bitchcraft#2753 to plot. ]
WHAT: December catchall
WHERE: Places
WHEN: December
WARNINGS: Language, etc. Specific cws in subject headings.
[ ooc: dec catchall, starters in comments,
no subject
[ Honestly, it's a reference that even most of her contemporaries wouldn't get -- the gesture is far more recognizable. Assuming, of course, that one knows what she's mimicking. But he won't have to wait terribly long to find out; she climbs the stairs just as quickly as the ladder, though she waits at the top and speaks over her shoulder as she opens the door. ] Okay, now it ain't full-grown 'cause there ain't room. I think full-grown ones are about twice as big, maybe a little more.
[ In the center of the large, cotton-candy pink sitting room, is a T. Rex skeleton, fully assembled and standing. It's maybe seven feet tall at the hip, twenty-five from tail to enormous skull. She'd realized, after speaking to him, that the idea of just how big dinosaurs really were must be almost impossible to visualize. How big most of her world must be to him, she knows, but dinosaurs seemed like an easy entrance point, and it's something that she has definitely seen on school field trips, so it wasn't difficult to create. Plus, as an expert on dead monsters, this had seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to put context to at least one of the things she's talked about.
The dinosaur's face nearly brushes the chandelier in the center of the room, its huge jaws distended to show off a mouth full of foot-long teeth. The tail is curved as if in mid-whip, and the arms are, as Julie had said, very small in comparison to the rest of it. ]
This is a dinosaur, the most famous one. It's called Tyrannosaurus Rex, or just T. Rex. There are lots of other kinds of dinosaurs, but this is the one everyone knows. I thought maybe seein' one would make it make more sense.
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Oh. He blinks, stares up at the giant lizard. It does, in fact, remind him of a wingless dragon. Just. Bigger, if she's telling him this is shrunk down. He reaches up to brush his fingers over its leathery skin, one of its curved claws. The head is almost comically large compared to its arms, and he can see why she calls it the most famous of its kind. Funny. He's always thought he's seen everything there is to see. The Continent has few novelties to offer him after a century walking it. Then he fell into this world. Met people.
Now he keeps finding strangeness around every corner. And he thinks, it's not always a bad thing. ]
Someone once told me they made— [ A pause, like he's recalling the word ] —movies. Of their monsters. Or what they imagine those to be. Do you do the same?
[ Is this how she has such a vivid conception of it? Or is it simply how she imagines it to be? Kay had not given him an especially thorough explanation of what movies are, so his grasp of it is tenuous at best, but as far as he can tell, it's similar to recording some sort of illusory image as a form of storytelling. He can't really picture it, though. ]
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It also kind of sucks to be the one from the world with the defining feature of "the one where mankind was wiped out", so it's nice to have something about that same world be interesting to others. ]
You mean do we have movies about dinosaurs? [ She's a bit surprised, actually, that he would link those two together, but she rolls with it. ] Sure, there's tons of movies about 'em. TV shows too. But we don't just imagine 'em to look like this, 'specially not this fella. We have whole skeletons in museums, lots of different ones, and T. Rex is a pretty common one. Even the closest city to mine, which was pretty small, we had a whole one in the science museum. I used to go there once a year when I was a kid in school.
[ She steps forward to stand next to him, hands on her hips as she looks up at the dinosaur too. She had forgotten how small standing next to them makes a person feel, even at half-size. ] But somethin' crazy about these things is that their closest livin' relative is chickens. Just like, regular chickens.
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I'd hate to see a chicken of that size. [ He considers. Her creatures are of a time long past. How long ago did she say? Millions? He wonders what it means, that they don't seem to have existed at the same time. ] People and monsters alike are not originally of the Continent. They say the Conjunction brought them there, after multiple worlds collided some time ago.
[ What that means for this world, this universe, he also doesn't know. He doubts even the most studied scholars would be able to determine more than haphazard theories. It's the downside of a place populated by those who've lived there for, at most, a couple thousand years, and whose sole concern has been occupying territories, destroying what they find, surviving the monsters that once roamed it, rather than finding answers.
Either way, Geralt seems to take in Julie's dinosaur for a moment longer before he does something he often avoids: creating in the Horizon. Nothing so large, but a palm-sized dragon appears in his hands. Gold, nearly metallic in its sheen. She's never met a dragon before. He supposes she may as well see what he means, too. Besides, he thinks Borch might find some enjoyment in his likeness crossing worlds.
He offers the statue to her. If she really wants, it could even fit atop a tree. ] Our dragons tend to be larger, but I thought it might grow... [ He glances up at the lizard filling the room. ] Crowded.
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Listening, she considers the idea of worlds colliding. In a way, it does remind her something, if not exactly the same. She beams at the dragon, takes it gently from his hand and it animates as she holds it, stretching its wings and blowing out a tiny plume of flame. ]
It's exactly what our dragons look like. Exactly the same. [ She wonders how they can have the same dragons when his is real and hers never existed at all.
Without looking at it, she shrinks the dinosaur to the same size, picks it up and then lets that one come alive too, holding them side-by-side to roar at each other and whip their tails. She places them both on of the many etageres around the room, all filled with random sparkly little knick-knacks, then furrows her brow as something occurs to her. There should be differences between the dragon he made and the illustrations she's seen, right? And so many of the animals are shared between their worlds, something that she's almost positive wouldn't happen through two separate courses of evolution. ] You said worlds collided, and that's where your Continent came from? That... I know I heard of somethin' like that before, back home.
[ She holds up a finger and disappears into another room, comes back after a moment with a globe. It's clearly a decorative piece, something to sit on a shelf or desk, but it still bears all of the continents she knows, as they are. ] See, this is my world. There's seven continents now, but it didn't always look like this. All the different pieces of land, they moved over time, a lot of times. They'd smash into each other and make different continents, then break up again, over and over, until it looked like it does now. It all took billions and billions of years, since before there was anythin' really alive on the Earth. And every time they moved around, it'd make new species, let 'em evolve.
[ She traces a route from Europe to North America with her finger, trying to remember the fragments of prehistory she's absorbed across her life. It's not much, no more than basic high school science and random pop culture tidbits, but it's enough. The kind of random factoid that serves at trivia nights or watching Jeopardy. ]
If the Conjunction wasn't actually worlds collidin', but big pieces of land collidin' instead... they told us that the Singularity links all worlds, right? What if the Singularity is what makes worlds change? Makes things move and evolve.
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When she returns with a globe, he peers at it with her, at the multiple pieces of land. It's an interesting concept. Lands colliding. He thinks of Ciri crossing worlds, of portals that were once open. He imagines it must've occurred alongside the Conjunction, or maybe at the same time, if so. Ofir and others like it, he can see what she means, that they could've once been attached to the same piece of land. If an ancient sea can dry up to give way to more land, then why not the other way around? ]
We haven't got billions of years recorded like you. The Conjunction was less than two thousand years past. Your creatures, your kind, they grew and changed with time, but ours...are just there. All at once. It's believed after the Conjunction, the once open paths to other realms were destroyed. [ Until Ciri. Elder Blood. Until the Singularity, apparently. He doesn't know the connection. Or what it means that the Red Riders—who are meant to be myth—have been unable to trace her here, likely masked by the Singularity's interference.
He turns the globe gently. As he does, the continents shift, replaced with the ones from his sphere. It becomes clear, maybe, why he's always referred to his home as the Continent as though it consists of nothing else. It's a significantly larger landmass than any of the others, taking up most of the northeastern section. His rendition is not as accurate as hers; he's far more used to studying flat maps and little is known of other lands, but an approximation is attempted. A smaller continent to the west. Then far south, across a vast sea. ]
You may be right. Perhaps the only difference is the rate and manner in which these things progress. [ To do with the proximity, maybe. It's only a theory. He's hardly an expert in these matters, despite all he's read. Wherever Julie is from, even a commoner of a small farm seems considerably well-schooled—but then, in his world, the average villager can barely ink their own name. Still. It's an intriguing consideration, even if ultimately he thinks none of this matters when the entire world is ablaze over that damn rock. ] It could explain why humans and monsters never existed at the same time in yours.
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You said Kaer Morhen was above a sea that dried up. It happened that fast? In less than two thousand years? [ It seems impossible, for such a major change to not take millions of years, at least without human intervention. Her fingertips drift gently over the span of The Continent, nameless on the globe. Her version of it was intricately labeled, with not just the names of continents, but of countries, capitals. It's off-putting, to see any kind of map so lacking in minutiae. ]
Well, you're here. So maybe the paths ain't destroyed, never were. Maybe it's just that no one was usin' 'em until now.
[ There's something there, she thinks, in the idea of the Singularity being what causes change in other worlds, through its apparent link to them. At the very least, it reinforces her fear of a war over it, because if the Singularity is directing evolution and conjunctions and whatever else, then what does it mean for everything if it's harmed or destroyed? These idiots squabbling over it like they should have the right to determine the very fabric of the universe. Her head throbs when she considers it; she's not good at thinking about all of this big picture insanity. It makes her feel small, and she can't stand it.
She leaves the globe shaped to his world, puts it on the shelf next to the dinosaur and dragon. Her chuckle is dry. ]
I wish they did. When monsters are big fairytale critters out to getcha, then they're a lot easier to avoid than the monsters we got. Ours just look like other people.
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[ His tone suggests he isn't certain that's altogether true. They are not the only ones who make that claim. Not that it matters; it doesn't change what the humans did to them. Or to anyone else. And what long history exists before then, it isn't near as finely detailed as hers. A few ancient fossils found, like the ones the keep sits atop, and not much more.
But it's true he's here. It's also true Ciri can do what they've all believed impossible. Traverse doors thought closed. In Geralt's mind, going back may not even be an option. What would they be going back to? What paths have been irrevocably shaped anew because he did not meet Ciri in those woods and instead found her here? There's a reason his focus has simply been on keeping her safe, shielding her from what may come. The rest—he can't know what it possibly holds.
Though lately, his focus has been on fuck all. And the reason for that makes him huff at her remark, a noise as dry as hers. ]
Yeah. We have those, too. [ He seats himself on what's closest, a chair, the bed, a stool. ] The beasts just make it easier for them to tell themselves they aren't so monstrous.
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[ Or they did, anyway. One of the shiniest silver linings of Captain Trips was that it couldn't be influenced with money or power. You were either one of the immune or you weren't, and no amount of wealth could change that. The great equalizer at last.
She watches him sit on the sofa, an enormous thing in emerald green velvet, designed to be so overly plush that it sinks under any weight. He still seems so tired. It's not that she expected him to exactly bounce back from actual torture, but she thought that getting back out of Thorne would give him more relief.
The tiny dragon huffs another minuscule plume of flame at her, and she taps it on the nose with one finger before she crosses to where he is. She wants to ask if he's really okay, but she knows he's not and she knows he'll say he is anyway, so she doesn't bother. Instead, she lets the cushion sink further under her knee on one side of him as she leans down, wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. ]
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Besides, if nothing else he's found...more he can trust. After all this. More people looking out for him than he'd thought he had. (Friends.) It means something.
And it means something he can come here for a little refuge. His hand rests on Julie's hip and he tilts up to return the kiss. It's simple to sink into it, let it fill his head for a bit to drown out the noise, and he tugs her closer to him: wanting, seeking the warmth of her body. ]
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She sympathizes. There's a reason she parties until she passes out, drinks every night. When it's quiet and dark, she relives endless death, all the sights and smells and sounds of it. It's not something she was ever prepared for, if it's even possible to be trained to endure that magnitude of human suffering, loss. She knows what it's like to want nothing more than to think of anything but what loops in the mind when it's left to its own devices.
And she doesn't mind being a distraction. It's what she excels at. Sparkle, shine, look over here. Easy.
Climbing the rest of the way into his lap, she lets him pull her until she's flat against him. She doesn't hold any weight off him, though she is unusually mindful of where on his back she puts her hands -- since she doesn't trust him to have used the Horizon's magic to make himself not have a huge, healing wound there, she doesn't want to cause any pain by grazing it. Instead, she digs her fingers into his shoulder, holds his face with her other hand as she leans into him. ]
nsfw on down
So there's no need to say why he's here, no need to say what he's looking for. A distraction but also just company. She's easy to be around; he likes listening to her go on about her world and the things in it, her home, her old and new life—all of which he understands about half of at best but which doesn't matter because that's not the point.
He is still healing, out there and in here alike, but he takes her weight on his lap easily—either because he's recovered enough or because some part of him simply doesn't wish for interface right now, though she'll find the stitched up gash down his back plain as day. Her dress is far less complicated to work with than her costume from the first time. He pushes up the already shortened hem of it, fingers curled around her bare thigh as they kiss. ]
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And it was a show. His heart still seems to be in his chest, rather than in someone's mouth, so it's not the worst torture she's ever seen, but it was a show. It was a Flagg-level display of power for sure, to someone on the court who must be playing a dangerous game. This is on par with sending a cursed man into a city to send a message, with leaving an elevator coated in blood in front of a thousand people, with holding a kangaroo court that culminates in murder televised to a whole city. She hopes that the point got across to the recipient. Got across to them like a steamroller.
Her dress, which is essentially just two sheets of very fine gold mesh stitched together, makes a dull metallic noise as it hits his medallion when she shifts. After a moment, she leans back briefly to unwrap the chain around her neck, bearing a large pendant of her Arcana, and lets it drop down to the couch, still attached to her actual dress, before she comes back and presses her mouth to his jaw, murmuring lightly. ]
Don't you dare bleed on me, Geralt.
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I wouldn't dream of it. [ He's not here to kill the mood. Far from it. Though speaking of jingles—her accessory makes another tinkling sound as his fingers bury in her hair, reminding him it's there. He raises an eyebrow, but does not tug it off. Instead, he gently teases the little bells where his hand cups her face. They chime with a fitting sort of cheer. ] And I've been resting.
[ He actually has, as irritating as it's been, and not only because a handful of folk have threatened him. He knows better than to take himself out for an extra week or two by running about too soon. His hand trails down to her shoulder, sliding the strap of her dress off of it. His nails scratch along her skin, most of them grown back from where they'd torn. ]
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Oh-ho, good boy. If I'd heard otherwise, I was just gonna save us all the hassle, cross the border and murder you myself. But it's a lot easier this way.
[ With a satisfied sigh, she works his shirt untucked and then slides her fingers up his torso, hands flat on his chest. ] I've been tryin' to learn magic. Nadine wants out sooner than later, but where we are is the best place for this kinda magic, I guess.
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[ He takes her in as her dress falls free, hands roaming idly over what he's come to learn well. Once his shirt comes loose, he pulls it over his head, dropping it off the side of the plush seat. Like he's assured her, most of him has healed, leaving behind fading marks and a small handful of stitches that have yet to come free. On his front, anyway.
His gaze turns interested. Nadine had mentioned that. Magic, before leaving for the Cities. It isn't a bad idea. ]
She said the magic was unusual in Nott. [ It's the only thing of note he recalls Nadine mentioning. That it was different than the magic learned within the castle. She'd sounded intrigued at the time, though she'd not been able to explain exactly what she meant by that. ]
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Eyes rolling thoughtfully, she lazily rocks in his lap as she tries to come up with the best way to explain it. ]
Mm-hm. Well, I don't think it's that unusual, it makes sense to me, but it's not like all the [ She quickly makes a bunch of hand movements, mimicking the things she's seen Nadine do. ] and chantin' and stuff. It's called Wild magic. There's not a lot of memorizin' things or studyin'. Mostly, it's about sorta grabbin' the magic in the air and channelin' it through your emotions and thoughts. I guess that's the best way to describe it. The people in the other cities don't like it much because it's not the most stable kind of magic, it's not as predictable or whatever, and I guess it's easier to teach lots of people how to do stuff that can be taught out of a book.
[ It also appears to require a certain sensitivity to the atmospheric magic that not everyone seems to have. Nadine has made it clear that she doesn't feel it like Julie does, that trying to access that power is not as instinctive as it feels for Julie. The downside, of course, being that it requires a maturity and stability that Julie does not always possess.
The first thing she accidentally did was make fire billow out of the fireplace. So, overall, great omen. ]
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He wonders if it possibly might help Ciri. Her magic is not exactly stable, either, though he can't tell what's truly interference from the Singularity and what is simply Ciri's fear that she isn't capable of controlling herself. Perhaps both is the real answer. ]
It suits you. [ Learning it, he means, the way that she describes. He's curious, but the comment is vaguely distracted, his hand gliding up her leg, underneath where her dress has pooled around them. ]
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Looking down, she can see just how raw his back wound still looks, though of course it is considerably more healed than would ever be expected of anyone else. The fact that he's carrying it around even when he doesn't have to does get a mildly disapproving noise from her; it's just not enough to make her actually protest until he expresses pain.
One arm still draped around his shoulder, she shifts her weight to be able to get rid of her dress, which ends up wherever it was his shirt went. Craning her neck down, she kisses him again with a purr. ]
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[ Well. Mm. In some ways. In others, he's beginning to learn just who she is. Like that disproving sound she makes, which he definitely sees coming when she peers down at him. He lets himself ignore the vague burning on his back that's pretty much not gone away since in favour of pushing her dress off the couch.
He wraps an arm around her, tilting into the kiss, teeth tugging gently on her lower lip. His nails trail down the bumps and dips of her spine. Her skin is warm, smooth. It's strange, to know that she's met her death, remembers it, and yet bears no mark from it that he's ever seen or felt.
Maybe that's just how it is. Maybe the only marks that matter are the ones that can't be traced, anyway. ]
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It could just be that death is a scar carried on the soul (or whatever constitutes it), rather than the skin.
Moaning against his mouth, her back arches first toward him, then slightly away as she reaches down to unbutton his trousers, which is, shockingly, much easier when she isn't high as the goddamn moon. She's not exactly willing to move enough to allow for much more than that at the moment, though, and the space between them is gone as quickly as it appeared. Her fingers dig into his shoulders.
She's going to teach him what a zipper is, once they're done. ]
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He shifts with more care than usual, and distinctly avoids leaning his back to the cushions—but there's no pause, at least, as he tugs her closer. A quiet hunger curls inside him.
Then his arm is under her, moving to either push her against the couch or down on it—he isn't picky about which. ]
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Without really thinking about it, she grinds up against him and whines, one hand curling back into his hair. Between the give of the cushions and his weight over her, she feels like she's sinking in the best possible way. Her voice is silky, breathy, when she breaks away just for air, for a second. ] Geralt...
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It is, fortunately, a damn big couch. He fits easily on it as he presses down to meet the rise of her hips. Heat and friction draw a sharp exhale out of him; the tail end of his name is swallowed up when he kisses her, thumb tracing the line of her jaw.
There is pleasure and there is forgetting, and he lets both pull him under. She's warm, the cushions plush, the room a dizzying floral pink, and it's all such a distant cry from the cold dark floors that have refused to leave him. It drags more than a deep want through him as he leans into her hands. ]
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His mouth catches a gasp in addition to his name, and her neck arches as her eyes squeeze shut. Her free hand presses against his chest, where she can't even feel his heartbeat over her own pulse throbbing in her veins, until all she can do is clutch his bicep. She crosses her ankles together and digs her heel into the small of his back, rolls against him with a cry.
Behind her eyelids, everything goes away for the first time in ages -- the ghosts and the magic and his back torn open, weeping blood into her sheets. There's only him filling up every one of her senses. ]
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there is alt text in this tag, your challenge has been set
i had to google it but lmao omg
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wrapping!