[ A beat or two pass, Geralt studying Sam with a careful look. He can sense the doubt that lurks deep beneath Sam's words. That perhaps Goro is right. The war could be how we get home. Not a war, but the war, as though it is already decided. He knows people like Goro. Starting a war is never the agenda. It is a stepping stone, for what they really want. And unlike Sam, Geralt feels no comfort in being in a city so interlinked with the army. Cadens is not yet officially under military rule, but it's one inch away. He's seen how that goes. ]
It's not. [ His answer is firm. After another second, he returns his gaze to his task. ] What's done cannot be undone. Spilling blood won't change that.
[ He is not unsympathetic. The desire to return home that lies within most of the Summoned, he felt it himself once. More than once. He knows how it is, to be taken from a life you had and be told you have a new purpose in a new world you didn't ask for. And if there's a way to open those doors, a way that will not cost everything, then they will find it. But plunging this world into war is not the solution. It will only leave bodies strewn in the fields and take more than what has already been taken from them. It's not as though they can push every grain of sand back into place, even if they were to find a path home. The moment each of them stepped into this world, it was always too late to go back to the lives they left behind.
Sometimes everything you know is stolen from you. And you learn to live with it and move forward, or else be consumed by the ghosts of a life that is no longer yours.
Together, they flip the table back on its feet. The lack of recognition on Geralt's face indicates plenty as to whether or not he's met this Tony Stark. ]
If he's no desire to be involved, let him be. [ Sam has a need, Geralt has learned, to get everyone on the same page. Not that Sam is pushy—or he is, on occasion, but in a very Sam way and not in the way Estinien was, who saw everyone as on one side or the other—and it's not for the sake of a man he's never met over in Solvunn that Geralt is saying this. It's because Sam's got enough on his mind, without worrying about who else he can or can't convince. They are not gearing up for war or for a fight. This is a matter of a simple warning, as to what may be coming. That's all it is. ] We'll speak to Amos first.
[ We. Up until now, Geralt has largely stayed out of the way when it comes to all. This. This growing fucking mess. He still means to. His intention, as always, is to keep Ciri safe, not to sink his teeth into a conflict between men and nations. But he is learning—or has learned, perhaps, from the memories he now has to reflect on—that he also can't sit idly by on everything and expect to shield her from it at the same time. At the very least, he has a certain understanding with Amos, about how the man sees the world. ]
no subject
It's not. [ His answer is firm. After another second, he returns his gaze to his task. ] What's done cannot be undone. Spilling blood won't change that.
[ He is not unsympathetic. The desire to return home that lies within most of the Summoned, he felt it himself once. More than once. He knows how it is, to be taken from a life you had and be told you have a new purpose in a new world you didn't ask for. And if there's a way to open those doors, a way that will not cost everything, then they will find it. But plunging this world into war is not the solution. It will only leave bodies strewn in the fields and take more than what has already been taken from them. It's not as though they can push every grain of sand back into place, even if they were to find a path home. The moment each of them stepped into this world, it was always too late to go back to the lives they left behind.
Sometimes everything you know is stolen from you. And you learn to live with it and move forward, or else be consumed by the ghosts of a life that is no longer yours.
Together, they flip the table back on its feet. The lack of recognition on Geralt's face indicates plenty as to whether or not he's met this Tony Stark. ]
If he's no desire to be involved, let him be. [ Sam has a need, Geralt has learned, to get everyone on the same page. Not that Sam is pushy—or he is, on occasion, but in a very Sam way and not in the way Estinien was, who saw everyone as on one side or the other—and it's not for the sake of a man he's never met over in Solvunn that Geralt is saying this. It's because Sam's got enough on his mind, without worrying about who else he can or can't convince. They are not gearing up for war or for a fight. This is a matter of a simple warning, as to what may be coming. That's all it is. ] We'll speak to Amos first.
[ We. Up until now, Geralt has largely stayed out of the way when it comes to all. This. This growing fucking mess. He still means to. His intention, as always, is to keep Ciri safe, not to sink his teeth into a conflict between men and nations. But he is learning—or has learned, perhaps, from the memories he now has to reflect on—that he also can't sit idly by on everything and expect to shield her from it at the same time. At the very least, he has a certain understanding with Amos, about how the man sees the world. ]