gynvael: (208)
Geralt z Rivii ([personal profile] gynvael) wrote in [community profile] abraxaslogs2022-01-17 12:57 pm

[ CLOSED ] let these bones be the giver

Who: Geralt + Various
When: Mid-January
Where: Cadens, Horizon
What: Dealing with a sudden onslaught of new memories
Warnings: Spoilers for The Witcher S2, trauma, discussion of torture, etc. NSFW marked.



placing starters in the comments below. find me at [plurk.com profile] discontinued or at Noa#1979 to plot stuff!

since geralt has been officially canon updated to the end of s2, just let me know directly if you want to have a zero spoiler interaction and i can set the threads pre-canon update for these cases.
sorser: (pic#15100681)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-01-25 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[He provides the description without too much flourish, expecting that the facsimile of the Sanctum Sanctorum should stand out easily enough based on just a few generalized details. It’s a strange building—pun definitely not intended—amid the otherwise meditative exterior, two different fragments of two different worlds, all belonging to the same man.

The interior reflects this mish-mash of weird and esoteric — an interior that Geralt will be privy to yet again once the door swings open on its own, inviting him in. The broad space of the foyer is inviting enough; a flame crackles in its fireplace along a far wall, as though shielding the indoors from the Himalayan air sweeping in.

Stephen’s already halfway down the staircase when the other man enters, dressed in the familiar: his navy sorcerer’s garb and the length of a red cloak fluttering behind him. The look he gives his guest is fixed, curious, and doesn’t bother to hide its assessment, gleaning what he can based on first impressions alone.]


You can sit where you want.

[If he’s inclined, there are places for it. Cozy corners that might not exist on any given day, depending on Stephen’s whims.]

If you think this’ll be an extended visit.
sorser: (pic#15100693)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-01-25 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[The table is adorned with a pile of books and a few odds and ends that could be representative of a storied, magical history, but one wouldn’t guess it by the way Geralt’s planted himself on the surface. Stephen quirks an eyebrow, but leashes the remark begging to roll off is tongue. He did say that he could sit wherever he wanted.

It’s straight to business with his man, anyway. Someone who he certainly does not recognize, ashen-haired and to-the-point, claiming that they had met once in the past. Stephen is quick to chalk it up to another version of him that had made the rounds in this world not terribly long ago, but he’s more unaffected than annoyed. It puts him at the disadvantage, but it also does away with pesky things like pleasantries and introductions.]


I don’t remember you.

[Just putting that out there, in case he’s expecting more familiarity that Stephen does not possess.]

But Sam wouldn’t be wrong. [Sam’s name is punctuated, highlighting that there’s a connection they’re glossing over, thank you, but he’s filing that away for now. Once Stephen is down the steps, he moves towards his guest, stopping just short to cross his arms.] On both accounts.

I don’t mind answering your questions. In fact, I think the more people that know, the better. But I’d like some context first. Who are you, exactly, and what territory are you in?
sorser: (pic#15218270)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-01-26 04:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[It happens. Of course it does, echo his own thoughts, and Stephen spends a whole half-second determining whether or not this is worth a slight tangent in the conversation — and ultimately, decides that it isn’t. He cannot do anything about what he—or another version of himself—did in the past, only accept that it happens, and hope that he had forged a few valuable connections before he left. Maybe he’s standing before one right now (good job, him), though he gets the feeling that they’re still more strangers than acquaintances.

Geralt. Cadens. Information committed to memory, the ever-shifting filing system in his brain.]


If you were one of the first to arrive, I’m going to assume your opinion of Thorne isn’t all that flattering.

[Which Stephen doesn’t care about; he’s heard tell of the Summoned sequestered in the castle dungeons, and anyone in their right mind would be upset about that. He sure would. It’s when these experiences sully the overall crux of the issue—the Singularity—that’s the problem. When it overcomplicates things.]

I’m still going to be straightforward with you. I don’t think Thorne is wholly wrong in their assessment. I do think the Singularity is connected to plenty of worlds well beyond this one. When I touched it, the presence of the Multiverse was clear.

[He couldn’t do anything more than sense it, he couldn’t reach out further, but it was confirmation enough.]

But the devil’s in the details. It’s connected, but does it bind worlds together? I don’t know. Is it connected to every reality, every parallel dimension, every facet of every universe? I can’t verify that, either.

[There’s still so much he doesn’t know. It frustrates him, like having a thread dangling before him and being unable to pull at it.]
sorser: (pic#15100692)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-01-26 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[He’s not inclined to hand out his resume just to prove that his opinion means something on the matter, even if it’s reasonable to wonder. He isn’t used to it; for better or worse, no one cared to question the authority of the Masters of the Mystic Arts when it came to something as wildly complicated and mind-reeling as the Multiverse. Their expertise was limited, too, for the sake of keeping balance, but at least they had more than most.

After all, Stephen’s astral form has been sent wheeling through the Multiverse itself to mitigate his pride in those transformative days. He experienced its color, its dazzling fragments of worlds that looked like atoms, atoms that looked like worlds, the deepest and darkest threats, the blinding light of the unknown, endless possibilities. And he had returned with a mind expanded — even if he felt like puking once he was grounded again.

He’s confident what he felt with the Singularity is dimly similar. Minus the nausea.]


Not exactly. [Context clues equate “spheres” to worlds for him.] My order doesn’t make a habit of jumping from one branch of the Multiverse to another. We’re in the business of keeping balance, not breaking known reality. So most of it’s uncharted territory.

But dealing with ancient, powerful relics floating around comes with the job. [The Infinity Stones were aspects of the universe itself in concentrated form. A monolith potentially bearing the heart of all magic? Not a stretch. Stumbling into the Singularity was not so much a surprise as it was an inevitability.] Maybe the Singularity’s just one confluence of power out of many. There’s no way to verify.
Edited (redundancy!! ) 2022-01-26 19:09 (UTC)
sorser: (pic#15218259)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-01-26 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[Any new influx of relevant information is automatically a headache for Stephen. That’s the curse of a man who likes to be over-prepared and hyper-vigilant of any and all developments. Everything is a fresh variable, shunted into a mess of potential what-ifs that have to rearrange themselves to make room. It’s hardly Geralt’s fault he’s this way.

Still, better to know than not. Stephen’s brow wrinkles.]


Okay.

[Just okay. Give him a minute to untangle a very parallel, very taxing example of a similarity, worlds away from this one.

Finally—]
The monoliths you’re referring to, how do you know they’re connected? Was there some kind of magical indication, or…?

[“Something happened” doesn’t tell him an awful lot, and he’s never been shy about fishing for more.]
sorser: (pic#15100719)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-01-27 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
[A demon violently prying open a portal to get home. Previously unknown monsters carrying around bits of monolith-evidence after an energy spike. Pretty compelling, he has to admit.]

So we’re not just talking about a passive connection. We’re talking about the potential to cross a threshold into other worlds or realities.

[Which draws another connection in the overall web: the Singularity, present in this world, harboring the same potential. Whether or not it functions similarly to what Geralt’s described is still up in the air, but it isn’t a so unfounded a guess that they can’t launch hypotheses off of it.]

If the Singularity’s anything like your monoliths, we could be seeing only half of the big picture. A connection flowing in one outward direction, when the reality might be closer to a two-way street. Inbound and outbound.

[A crossroads? It could explain why this world’s magic can summon people from the far reaches of the multiverse, if its nature was at all tied to the Singularity.]

And like the monsters you mentioned, things that mean trouble could sneak in or affect it in ways we can’t see. It’s something to consider if the people of this world can’t figure out why it’s started to weaken, otherwise.
sorser: (11)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-02-01 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[That theory doesn’t exactly clash with how Stephen’s been taught about the nature of his magic. Perhaps some exists natively in his world, fleeting influence that most will never be privy to; but most of the energy he conjures and controls and shapes into spells are pulled from the Multiverse itself.]

Whether or not that’s true, I think the Singularity is at least a source of magic that connects all worlds. The theory checks out on my end. My magic is drawn from the various realities and planes of the Multiverse — that’s how I was able to sense its tether to the monolith. Eldritch magic isn’t native to my Earth, either.

[Perhaps the giveaway’s in the name, anyway. Eldritch, ancient and weird. Magic that focuses heavily on portal-creation cannot be rooted only in one place.

Stephen sighs, shifting his weight to the other foot. His fingers flex into the cloth of his sleeve, arms still crossed and mulling over Geralt’s implied question. The idea of worlds being devoured alive by the Singularity isn’t a new concern for Stephen; if anything, it’s the primary one. He’s not much of a protector if there’s nothing left of Earth to return to.]


It’s possible. There are spells back home I could cast that’d tear holes in reality if I was too reckless. [not that he’d ever do that……….] To say the Singularity has the same potential isn’t a stretch, though it’d probably take two extreme circumstances for that to happen: an outright failing, or an unexpected surge of power.

[The failing is what Thorne is concerned about, of course. The surge of power? He wonders if that could be a side-effect, someday, of their eagerness to right the problem.]

…Are you worried about something in particular getting through?
sorser: (pic#15218260)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-02-03 10:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[Weaponized monsters. Great. Another potential tool in any one nation’s arsenal, and that doesn’t include the inherent dangers for the average citizens walking a country road. Another headache in Stephen’s growing collection of them.

Though maybe focusing less on the what ifs, and more on what each territory believes the Singularity is capable of, would shorten this list — just as Geralt says. Stephen looks skeptical, but not necessary at the suggestion itself.

But instead, at how’d they even go about learning that.]


What would you suggest? Speaking to the ones in charge would be the most straightforward way to pry out answers, but that’s assuming they don’t want to keep tight-lipped on the subject.

[Or—] Worst case scenario, we’d be giving them ideas.

[“Hi, have you considered the Singularity could act as an open gateway potentially ushering in an army of trainable monsters?” Not ideal.]
sorser: (pic#15218259)

[personal profile] sorser 2022-02-03 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[Stephen makes a low noise at the back of his throat. “Wait and watch” is not usually his go-to method of procedure, but neither is dipping his toes into the delicate orbit of politicking. This treads dangerously close to that, but equally isn’t surprising to him — it was just a matter of time.

He wonders if Geralt’s sole focus is that obvious; he kills the monsters, sure, he has no reason to believe otherwise. But something must’ve sparked this concern, something more layered than that, or else he wouldn’t be having this conversation. It’s a thought Stephen shuffled to the back of his mind for now.]


I can get in touch with Ambrose. [He’d reported in, once, regarding his read on the Singularity. Framing a second meeting as a follow-up of burgeoning concerns wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

Stephen’s brow wrinkles at the addendum, though.]


The queen’s not an option because she’s a dead end, or because she’s one that’ll get too many ideas?
Edited 2022-02-04 00:05 (UTC)
sorser: (pic#15218261)

their matching Tired icons are so funny

[personal profile] sorser 2022-02-08 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[Private talk. Squint and read between the lines enough, and he’s pretty sure that’s just a nice way of saying “violent interrogation.” Duly noted in his mind and underlined twice — the Queen is not one in which trepidatious ideas should be given. But the sword is a double-edged one: the Queen probably wants to know of all theories, rumors, and prodding questions being tossed about the castle, and will very enthusiastically dig them up if needed.

Problematic. Risk assessment is crucial here, caught between pursuing a route that could be a dead-end, versus one more fruitful, but also the easiest way of garnering the wrong kind of attention. Stephen wonders what kind of attention Geralt had cast on himself to warrant a “private talk”, and he even thinks to ask about it. But chances are he’d be told it’s none of his business, and if it was relevant, it would have been brought up well before now.

The thought dies on the vine. Instead—]


I think I want to take my chances with the High Mage first. I feel that any big revelations about the Singularity will make their way up the executive ladder with time. I’d like to just get the head start if possible.

[Time. Time is always the deciding factor in matters such as these. How ironic that he no longer feels there’s ever enough of it.]

And if I start to hear whispers about Thorne wanting to usher inter-dimensional monsters in through a shiny, newly opened gateway… Well. [Pointed look.] If that’s your expertise, then you’d be the first to know.