Jaskier "old-timey fuckboy" Alfred Pankratz (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cointosser) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
abraxaslogs2022-01-17 02:29 pm
cointosser) wrote in abraxaslogs2022-01-17 02:29 pm
[ OPEN/SOME CLOSED ] if I had to do it over, I'd do it all again
Who: Jaskier, Ciri, Geralt, Yennefer, Alucard, and some open prompts
When: Mid-to-Late January
Where: Cadens and the Horizon
What: Jaskier wakes from a vivid, nasty dream to physical evidence that it was unfortunately very real. He spirals, but like, only a little bit. It mostly involves getting drunk and buying hats to cope.
Warnings: Mentions of bodily injury/torture, maybe PTSD, heavy drinking
[Will be throwing starters (including open ones) down below! You can hit me up at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
scathefire or #scathefire6612 if you'd like to plot anything or want an additional starter. Also, let me know if you'd like me to avoid S2 spoilers, because there will be a lot.]
When: Mid-to-Late January
Where: Cadens and the Horizon
What: Jaskier wakes from a vivid, nasty dream to physical evidence that it was unfortunately very real. He spirals, but like, only a little bit. It mostly involves getting drunk and buying hats to cope.
Warnings: Mentions of bodily injury/torture, maybe PTSD, heavy drinking
[Will be throwing starters (including open ones) down below! You can hit me up at
no subject
Maybe he's a terrible boyfriend, but he's still pretty new at all this. About caring about people.
Anyways, watching Jaskier perform is something he's started carving out room in his schedule for, and on this particular evening, he's put down his research on Thornean mind-magic and come here to clear his mind.
He waits until the song is done before he seeks out the bard.]
That's a new one. Is there someone I need to be worried about?
no subject
Perhaps playing Burn is not... the most subtle thing he could've done. But gods, the energy of it. He needs that.
What he does not need is Hector -- fucking, how could he forget Hector? -- startling him, because he is not used to it. For so long, no one sought him out. Not as Jaskier.
He holds a hand over his heart, smoothing down his ruffled chemise.] Ah, Hector! It's -- no, no, of course not. [Oh, fuck. That sounds suspicious. And it's so far from the real problem.] It's... nothing. Just a spot of heartbreak in the past I was. Mulling over. [Without a pause, and perhaps with a hint of wine to his breath, he takes Hector by the shoulders. Oh. Lovely and real. Still very well muscled under those clothes.] It feels like ages since I've seen you.
[His words are quiet. Like a year and then some, and yet -- no time has really passed, has it?]
no subject
Hector frowns. From his perspective, no time has passed, so he's got no context with which to read Jaskier's sudden dwelling on some past dalliance gone wrong.]
...is there any reason it's been on your mind?
no subject
He missed Hector. In a way he cannot define, because -- he had not remembered him there. The Singularity -- for who else could be the culprit? -- had taken that from him. Taken the memories that may have steadied him so he could experience trudging through the hip-deep shit that Continent had become.
Has become.]
I don't suppose there's a way out of this question by continuing to pretend everything is all right, is there?
no subject
[Hector's inexperienced with people, but he's not dumb. It doesn't help that Jaskier hides his guilt worse than a dog covered in feathers from a shredded pillow.]
If you don't want to talk about it, just say so. I'm not going to force it from you.
[But he hopes he doesn't have to. They've become close. They don't have to tell each other everything, but if it's something important, Hector would hope Jaskier would share it.]
And if some old flame needs to disappear, that could be arranged.
no subject
One can't blame him for trying.
Jaskier takes his hands from Hector's shoulder, crafting a polite space between them. A funny thing, it is, this dissonance. Wanting to talk about it, wanting to not. Thinking to himself, if you were there, this wouldn't have happened to me. How could one forget their lover offering to raise the dead for them? Forgemasters, he imagines, don't get tied to chairs and played about with like dolls owned by... pyromaniacs.
He shivers.]
I appreciate it.
[He leaves it there, for now. Yes, he sort of does want to tell him. But he also feels terrible enough he burdened Hector with the whole Geralt thing. He must appear rather fraught with drama, mustn't he?
Jaskier chokes suddenly. Oh. Oh. That's -- that's what he thought? He. Oh. Oh, for the gods' sake --
Does it really sound like that sort of song?
(It could be about anyone.)]
While I find it extremely sexy that you would offer to take out anyone who has broken my heart -- and believe me, were we on the Continent, I would take you up on it -- it is not necessary in this instance. [His heart, if possible is all the fonder for the offer of -- er, murder, maybe? Hector is so... so very much himself.]
I do, I think, want to talk about it. With you. It's only... difficult. [How does he even explain? He's tried, a few times, but he isn't really sure it comes across. What happened. What it's done to him.
His set is done. He can't imagine forcing out another song now. Not today.] What say we go for a walk? I'll try to. Explain. Perhaps in three hundred words or less.
no subject
He puts a hand on Jaskier's elbow so he can keep him close even as the duck through the crowd drawn in by the bard's performance.]
Brevity hasn't been one of the considerable talents you've displayed thus far. Take as many words as you need for it.
no subject
[He knows how he is. It's what makes him so good at his job. All of his jobs. Music and mayhem. Yet, this story sits like a stone stuck in his throat. Even with Ciri, who had lived through part of it, he'd barely gotten it out. (He still needs to find some apology for her that is worth it. He's still sorry she was the one to walk in on him after he first awoke.)
Ugh. He can do this! It's. It's only somehow harder here. Again. To tell it again.
He'll take that touch, at least. He doesn't make a habit of escaping from his performances or his crowds, but here it's for the best. He thought he could do it, and he wanted to, and now the emotions the song dregs up, the time of his life in which he performed it --
Out in the cool night air of Cadens, he can breathe again. He hefts his lute higher onto his shoulder, the strap digging in, and allows its familiar weight.]
Let me attempt being succinct, then. [He swallows as they begin to walk, his hands on the strap of the lute case to finger it with a hint of nervous energy.] I woke up a few days ago, having dreamed I was on my sphere. Living my life. Surviving it, I should say. And when I awoke, it was confirmed by my companions to be real memories.
[There. Succinct. That really tells it all, doesn't it?] It was over a year of memories, however. In a night. And then I found myself back here, burdened with them, and -- I feel like someone now I did not entirely used to be.
no subject
But a full year's worth of life, experienced in a night? No wonder Jaskier is so upset. It must be overwhelming, the shock of so much information being forced into the brain all at once.]
That's.... Fuck. [What is one supposed to say to make this sort of mind-fuckery better? Should they be drunk for this?]
no subject
It's easier this way. He knows it is fucked up. It has fucked him up beyond belief. And he does not worry that Hector won't believe him, or that it could be something he simply imagined.
And on the other hand, he can trust Hector not to have the same burdens, like Ciri or Geralt. When conversations dragged on so heavily with the things that went unsaid but they were both aware of.]
Yeah. [Jaskier is almost amused. Yeah. It fucking sucks.] I know. So if anyone is to question my new frequent patronage of the local taverns, you may see why.
no subject
He beckons the bard closer, though.]
Come here for a moment. It's been a year since you kissed me.
[And then they can go get fabulously drunk or slander old lovers or burn down a building, whatever Jaskier needs.]
no subject
It's that easy? He simply accepts it? Time is a rather nebulous thing, after all --
Oh, fuck it. Who is he to complain? He winds his arms around Hector, all but smashing their lips together. He has a year to make up for, after all, and he intends to. In this, at least.
He tastes the same. Kisses the same. Those memories are the ones that rise, not the ones from the Continent.]
Hopefully I haven't gotten any worse at it.
no subject
He fits himself to Jaskier's body as the bard embraces him. The kiss sizzles, and Hector can feel what must be months of pent up frustrations. His lips come away a little swollen and his breath a little unsteady.]
Oh, it was awful. You're in need of practice. [He lies unabashedly and none too convincingly.]
Did you, uh, do much kissing in your sudden year? [Hector aims for 'casual curiosity', which is not what he feels in the least.]
no subject
His brows raise. Of all the questions, that's -- that's what he asks?
He wants to laugh.
Jaskier cups his cheek, stealing another kiss. He gently brushes his thumb across the forgemaster's cheek.] No, not really. In fact, I was quite busy running an underground smuggling ring in a stinking port city. [It sort of sounds like a lie, but it isn't. It's exactly what he's been doing. And his song was about... well, a broken heart, but not in the way Hector first believed.]
It sounds rather sensational when I say it out loud.
no subject
[In the streets with his lute, and in the sheets as well. Jaskier's self-assurance is one of things Hector finds the most intriguing about him.]
Smuggling? My, trading in respectability for a life of crime. I like it.
[He bets Jaskier made a very dashing rogue. In a port city, so maybe a sexy pirate?]
Was busking no longer paying your bills, or was it adventure you were after?