gynvael: (005)
Geralt z Rivii ([personal profile] gynvael) wrote in [community profile] abraxaslogs2021-12-07 11:20 am

[ OPEN / CLOSED ] i think i found a way to kill the sun

Who: Geralt + Various
When: December
Where: Cadens, Horizon
What: Some catching up now that he's home
Warnings: Discussion of trauma; nsfw marked



(( placing starters in the comments below. find me at [plurk.com profile] discontinued or at Noa#1979 to plot stuff! ))
aquaveiled: (himeka-173)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2021-12-26 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That makes sense if this is a military outpost or something, though that is one hell of a place to grow up. Maybe he is from some sort of neighboring village?

Himeka takes a sweep of the room once again as she slurps up her own noodles. She is not the sort of person to judge others for their upbringing, but even she doesn't think this would seem optimal for any child. ]


Did it always look like this?

[ So...broken and run-down? Mayhaps it has a happier past than she is imagining.

At the very least she is glad to see that both the wolf and Geralt seem to be enjoying their meals. That he uses his fingers isn't a bother either--the point is to eat the food, so long as he is able to do so she will consider it mission accomplished. Of course she could offer to show him how to use the chopsticks, but she doesn't. Should he ask she would happily oblige, but he is free to mimic what he can of her movements all the same. ]


Hingashi? No, well--yes.

[ That probably begs further explanation. Want as she is to leave many things unexplained, she does offer this-- ]

There are Raen all around Hingashi and Yanxia. But I grew up in the Ruby Sea, which is right between the two.
aquaveiled: (himeka-203)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2021-12-27 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
[ Himeka smiles at that, titling her head to the side just so. ]

Something like that.

[ She was trying to be more delicate about it, something that she is generally not known for being good at, but if he's going to come out and say it... His description does strike her as odd, though. Not that Geralt said it had been burned down at some point, it definitely looked like there could have remaining damage from sort of siege, but how he describes his attackers.

Geralt is a Witcher, a monster hunter for coin with good taste in meat and drink. That is what she understands of him. But from the terminology that she's gleaned from all the other hyur and hyur-like peoples, "human" is the moniker. And yet...he's picking that in particular for what, for her not to assume other Auri-like people had come to the assault? That doesn't really make much sense. ]


"Humans"?

[ She tilts her head to the other side as she chews on a piece of tofu, regarding him openly for a moment. ]

I thought that was what you called yourselves.

[ Or...maybe there are different tribes? Or a different usage all together? It can be so complicated.

Likewise, she picks her spoon back up in her left hand. ]


I am. The Raen clan of Au Ra left our ancient homelands some time ago. You can find us all over the East, so I've learned.

[ In all honesty she was pretty surprised to see other Auri out of the sea. Unsurprisingly she assumed an immediate kinship with them that was not always reciprocated. ]
aquaveiled: (himeka-158)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2021-12-29 06:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ Huh. She actually stops mid-slurp at that. Far be it for her to tell someone else how to define themselves, if he wanted to call himself toast she would respect it as much. But she is, as ever, still curious. ]

What makes you different? I'd thought it was just the name of your job.

[ It's a loaded question posed with not a hint of the baggage that actually surrounds it.

Himeka finishes offer a couple of spoon-fulls before she nods, deftly splitting half of her egg in two with her chopsticks. ]


I grew up in the Ruby Sea. You've seen it before--well, you've seen a neighboring village. The Kojin were the ones that taught my predecessors how to build and maintain that bubble.
aquaveiled: (himeka-197)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-01 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[ As he seems want to do, Geralt's response offers little outward info, but much to think about. Witchers then...are perhaps a hardier type of human? Ones best fit for the job of hunting down monsters? Being difficult to kill would certainly lend to that.

Curious as she is by nature, Himeka accepts the answer for now. She has never been the sort to needle or pry unless it was absolutely necessary, confident enough in the fact that the answers will come eventually. The journey is half the fun, after all. ]


That's a trait most people would want.

[ She pops one half of the egg into her mouth, pausing mid-chew to beam when Geralt mentions the gifts. At least she does swallow before she speaks. ]

Does she?

[ That makes her happy. It had been such a one-off in wanting to offer something to both of her guests at the time, bereft of her memories as she was, but they still meant something to her even then. Pieces of the person she was that she forgot. (Ironic given how the situation is actually quite a bit reversed in that regard...but that's neither here nor there.) ]

I'm glad. I did chance upon her while we were all still imprisoned back in Thorne. She's grown up into a lovely woman.
aquaveiled: (himeka-194)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-01 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ ...Or it could not be at all what she was imagining. Himeka cocks her head to the side. ]

The "process"?

[ He's opened the door for inquiry so of course she is going to take it. Does one...begin as a human and become a Witcher? Or is this just something unique to Witchers that makes them hardier than they may normally be?

Luckily for the wolf, she is not the sort to let anyone go hungry. At such a pointed look she gladly takes the other half of her egg with the other end of her chopsticks and places it on the table in front of it. There you go, furry friend. Eat up!

The more Geralt speaks, the more questions Himeka has, it seems. She goes back to her ramen and starts to pool some noodles onto her spoon as if they are talking about the weather and not the shadowy girl Geralt had been so protective of in the initial iteration of his domain. Himeka hadn't initially made the connection between the two until Ciri introduced herself and began to speak about her profession and the later conversation with Geralt at Sam's cookout--it seemed too fitting to be a coincidence. But she saw no reason to share that discovery with anyone else.

"Recalls" is another interesting way to put it. She slurps up the noodles before she asks for clarification, not exactly picking up on what he's implying. ]


Should she have forgotten?
aquaveiled: (himeka-215)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-02 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
[ Himeka cocks her head in the other direction. He doesn't seem inclined to offer more information without prompting. Were he not providing the conundrum of timeline discrepancies with Ciri, it would warrant a follow up. Another time, perhaps.

Because this is something Himeka has a vested interest in, regardless of whether she would have chosen that life. Enough that she even stops eating to allow what he's saying to fully settle in. (Should the wolf choose to make an attempt on her unguarded bowl, she will allow it.)

She recalls how alarming it had been to see Emet-Selch again down in the dungeons--but that situation is very different--he is far from family, even if she does feel some sympathy towards him, even if she does not agree with his actions. Instead she tries to think of how it would feel to suddenly see Alisaie or Alphinaud all grown up. ​]


...Then I suppose it must be something of an...hm...unnerving comfort to see her alive and well?
aquaveiled: (himeka-351)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-03 06:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ Bread in ramen broth...something she hadn't considered but it is something she will absolutely try. Once the weight of this new discovery settles a bit.

Usually a keen listener, Himeka is also a terrible liar and it's clear that she's thinking deeply when she starts to draw inward. Never having considered herself much of a "big thinker", she's trying to work past the urge to simply push it aside to bring up with someone more knowledgeable than her. There always feels like a better authority to go to, but without so many of the usual suspects present...she'd been fairly content just running errands for the locals and not worrying too deeply about the big picture. At least not until she can get better answers from Emet-Selch. (As if this all weighs on his insight, which is while not insincere, not usually as forthright as needed.)

How ironic that it keeps being Geralt who unwittingly brings her back to it. At least this time she feels she owes him more of an explanation than the ominous implications left in the air in Sam's kitchen.

She manages to smile, albeit more weakly than usual. ]


That's good.

[ That they found their footing, at least. ]

I cannot imagine how difficult that would be...to remember people who don't remember you.

[ Well--she has some semblance of it, if on the receiving end. Looking back on their past conversations, how many small jabs were made at what she has apparently forgotten in some past life thousands of years prior?

There's a pause as she stares at her half-eaten ramen for a moment, before finally venturing-- ]


--...I had wondered once before it the mages here were able to pull people across time as well as from our different stars, but I'd written it off entirely.
aquaveiled: (himeka-403)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-03 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Himeka looks up then, a little surprised. So this isn't a recent revelation for him? Has she been taking the timeline consistencies for herself and Estinien for granted? Of course, he did show up a few weeks prior to her...but she hadn't thought too much on it. Just a small blip, like how travel can be different on the First. They were taken from the same point on their star, but the time it took to get them to Abraxas just differed.

This, on the other hand...is quite a bit more drastic. ]


Hold on.

[ She needs a moment to think this through again, replaying how Geralt just described it. This is not a way she has really thought about time before, despite already having some experience with changing it.

"I suspect time and place both run concurrent...Doesn't matter what point in our lives we were. From here, those paths can only continue forward." ]


So...

[ She splits her second half of the egg into two more pieces. ]

You're saying that because of arriving here...were you to return to your sta--erm, sphere, you would forever be unable to return to the same time as your friends and family here?
aquaveiled: (himeka-363)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-07 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She has to think on that again. That, at least, makes more sense to what she is expecting...G'raha travelled to the past and inevitably changed and corrected the future as a result. That would be something similar to this, wouldn't it? ]

...To be honest I had thought some on what this may mean when we return.

[When. Himeka does believe they will, somehow and someday. ]

When we travelled to the First, my friends' were sent at different points in time prior to my arrival. Or, well, their souls were. Even though it had only been a few weeks for me, one had spent nearly five years in that same amount of time.
aquaveiled: (himeka-299)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-11 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
[ And that is certainly something she hadn't considered either. Where the different stars are situated...is there a rhyme or reason to it? Is it random? Is there an effect and connection to the Singularity based on distance? Or-- ]

--or may make it easier to pull people from those respective worlds.

[ This is.

A lot to think about.

She just wanted ramen.

She puts her utensils down entirely and presses her mouth to her curled knuckles as she just thinks. After a long quiet moment, she just sighs in defeat, dropping her hands. ]


I don't know what to make of this. Other than the fact I know several individuals who would be much better equipped to guess on this than me.
aquaveiled: (himeka-357)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-12 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
[ That has been how she'd seen most obstacles in her way: I don't know what I don't know and I won't know until I do. But it is a bit different now, isn't it? The burden of insight has shifted, there is no convenient long-lost friend turned wizard waiting to whisk her back and forth between worlds now. All she has to guide her path are her own wits which...seems dangerous in and of itself.

She had trained once as an Astrologian. Now is one of the times she sees the appeal in consulting the cards for some sort of guidance, even if the notions of fate and destiny never sat well with her. Just the thought that something stronger and wiser than you could be guiding your actions may be a comfort.

But...in the end, she much prefers when her choices are her own. If she makes the choice to put some effort into this conundrum, something has to come of it. Right? ]


For now.

[ Himeka sighs, shaking her head before offering Geralt a weak smile. ]

I'm not overfond of worrying myself, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel some sort of responsibility to make sense of it.
aquaveiled: (himeka-322)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-01-21 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She can only nod at that. He's right--sometimes there is naught to do but wait, but she has never been someone who likes to sit around and do as such. So she'll have to find ways keep herself busy, other mysterious to unravel that carry many fewer headaches, if she can swing it.

Himeka finally goes back to her soup, not without putting some noodles on the table now for the wolf. ]


I'll do the same.

[ For now she is content, at least, to pretend there isn't much else to worry about outside of a dusty fortress, a quite man, and a very hungry hippo dog. ]