[ CLOSED ] through open passageways

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: March
Where: Cadens; Horizon
What: Catch-all for things
Warnings: Adding as we go



(( placing starters in the comments below. find me at discontinued or at Noa#1979 to plot stuff! ))

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[gynvael]

[ Right. Last time they spoke, he remembers what she told him about her home and the Renans. ]

Where I grew up, place was a shithole. Still is. Can't take five steps without something that's falling apart. [ A note of warmth suggests he's fond of his home, despite its state. Worse off now, after everything, but—it's survived more than that, too. ] If we weren't training, we were rebuilding.

[ He's said little about his childhood—realizes that Rinwell has actually never seen his domain. He's never seen hers, either. The notion simply didn't cross his mind when they occupied the same house, and for all that he's fond of the girl, she's the private sort, too. Someone who's learned to be on her own from a young age. He's tried not to intrude much upon her.

Maybe sometime, he'll ask to come by hers. There's a lot he still doesn't know about her, even if he's slowly piecing things together. ]

[rinwell]

[ She's gotten a lot more used to swearing since living in the Witcher Apartment (well, house, now, technically, when you consider the size of their upgrade.) Sometimes though she still looks slightly startled, which is perhaps hilarious given what she's lived through up until now.

(Them JRPGs only get so many swears to use, mind you.)

But she gets it, knows exactly what he means, especially with the fondness in his voice, and she bobs her head quickly. ]

We only had so many locations to rest, and you couldn't always trust they'd stay unfound, or safe. But we made do. [whether she means her family, or the resistance, or even the friends she made later? well, perhaps she'll tell Geralt eventually. She's started opening up, slowly but surely.] Was it a big place? And were there many of you training?

[gynvael]

[ One day, they'll get Rinwell to join in on the cursing. In the meantime, the concept of watching his language is simply not one that ever occurs to Geralt. The children of Solvunn discovered that well, most likely to the elders' chagrin. ]

Big. [ Empty. The halls echo. Fewer and fewer each winter. ] Not many of us left, though.

[ He understands what she means, too. Outside of the winter months, he moved from place to place. If he even had a place. More often than not, he slept in the woods. There's a reason he hasn't bothered to get a bed even in their larger home. It's an unneeded expense, and beyond that—

Some part of him isn't sure, what it might mean for him to set down a bed that's his. Permanent. In a home that he has. A home he does not return to only for a few months of the year but that's simply available. Here. It's almost easier to think of it as a place he's made for the others: Jaskier, Ciri, Rinwell. It's why everything he's fixing up, adding to the home, it's for them and nothing of his.

They reach it soon enough, speaking of. He pushes open the door, waiting for her to enter first. ]

[rinwell]

[ The day she does, there will be loud gasps, and much back patting, no doubt. Until then, however, she'll be sure to let them know if they've said something she doesn't like. ]

Oh. [big places, bigger because they've grown empty. What homes she'd had growing up had never been big (they'd been lucky to be small, in fact) but a part of her can almost imagine it.] That has to be hard.

[ The new apartment's location will take a little getting used to. Rinwell almost turns off the path back towards their old place out of habit part way along, and has to quicken her steps to catch up again. It's not a bad place, though. A far better place to lay low than she'd ever had on Dahna.

Once through the door, she holds it open in turn for Geralt; easier for carrying in the wood. ]

Where are the tools kept here?

[ She can fetch them! ]

[gynvael]

Mm. [ The sound is not dismissive, just acceptance. ] It's been a long time.

[ He slows a little for Rinwell to catch up when she veers off path, before continuing onward. She reminds him, in more than a few ways, of a Ciri he feels as though he knew only yesterday but who is in reality from years ago now in this world. It isn't the whole reason he's grown fond of Rinwell nor even the main one, but. There's something to it, too.

The door opens, and he slips through. ] By the— [ he shuffles the wood. ] —cabinet window.

[ She'll find tools rolled up in a leather pouch, a few of which he borrowed from Jaskier's necromancer paramour. Geralt sets the wood down on the floor, an empty space by the hearth they now have. He has little by way of true artisan skills, but he knows enough carpentry to nail some rectangles of wood to a wall and make sure it holds. He figures Rinwell may as well learn while she's here, too, and it's clear he's waiting for her to return before he begins. ]