[The sharp, chilling realization of having said the exact wrong thing hits Jaskier like a physical force. Far be it from the first time, but in those past instances, the worst he had to worry about was losing his chance with a busty little barmaid or the flautist peppering the royal court with his fluttering notes. Alucard shuts off as abruptly as a curtain dropped upon a stage.
Jaskier tries to save the moment in the only way he knows how: by talking more.]
I meant -- hah! Only a jest, you know. I meant in front of your cactus. That it -- I suppose it would be a bit fitting, considering the place, but terribly morbid --
[Therein rings a second weight that hits him, inevitably: he is making this worse. It's a thing he does, unfortunately, when panic begins to grip him.
Oh, fuck. He was truly on point with that eye-of-the-storm metaphor. Yes, that's definitely going down in the books later. And like a storm, there is the thunder and the squeezing of the air around them, a pressure that comes before lightning itself.
He cannot help that he winces. That he knows, exactly, what that sound has meant. He was too on the nose for other things. And though it would not surprise him that Alucard is a quiet, simmering danger -- he is a dhamphir, after all -- it's... it's not even the murder, it's the pikes --]
Please... please tell me they were bandits, o-or something. Or. you know. Bones. Random bones. Random bones totally makes complete sense.
[No, it doesn't, but he's also met witches, and they're scary and probably like bones, so maybe Alucard is also scary and enjoys a few reminders of the Inevitability of The End, or something in that vein. Suitably morbid. For him.]
remember when this thread was about pierogi
Jaskier tries to save the moment in the only way he knows how: by talking more.]
I meant -- hah! Only a jest, you know. I meant in front of your cactus. That it -- I suppose it would be a bit fitting, considering the place, but terribly morbid --
[Therein rings a second weight that hits him, inevitably: he is making this worse. It's a thing he does, unfortunately, when panic begins to grip him.
Oh, fuck. He was truly on point with that eye-of-the-storm metaphor. Yes, that's definitely going down in the books later. And like a storm, there is the thunder and the squeezing of the air around them, a pressure that comes before lightning itself.
He cannot help that he winces. That he knows, exactly, what that sound has meant. He was too on the nose for other things. And though it would not surprise him that Alucard is a quiet, simmering danger -- he is a dhamphir, after all -- it's... it's not even the murder, it's the pikes --]
Please... please tell me they were bandits, o-or something. Or. you know. Bones. Random bones. Random bones totally makes complete sense.
[No, it doesn't, but he's also met witches, and they're scary and probably like bones, so maybe Alucard is also scary and enjoys a few reminders of the Inevitability of The End, or something in that vein. Suitably morbid. For him.]