[ 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! ))

Comments

[falcony]

[ it's not the first time sam's talked about riley - losing him came up in counseling often enough, when he used to run those sessions back at the va. steve asked him about it outright - who did you lose - and sam had told him easily. riley was one of the names that sam remembered, photos still up on the wall in his apartment in dc. which means that even now, telling geralt, it doesn't feel like a secret that is being shared, or like there is some hidden part of him being laid bare. it still hurts, still sits along his shoulders like a coat he'll never really be able to take off, but it's no secret.

sam doesn't know if there will ever be, or has ever been, a part of him that has been secret. it was part of the reason he'd told fury that so long ago, more of a soldier than a spy. but in that same vein, he also realizes he doesn't know if he's talked about riley, either. supposes that in a way, a lie by omission is just as bad. he lets out a breath, feels the rest of whatever tension leave him, laughs once at geralt's tease. ]

Yeah, yeah. [ sam is smiling, taking the tease with grace. ] But hey- putting up with me can't be all that bad. You've done it long enough.

[ which is more of an acknowledgement than anything, sam putting in words what he's confident both he and geralt have already come to an understanding on. what this is, what this has become. impossible circumstances, impossible places, and yet...

geralt is not one to linger, and neither is sam. which is why his eyes dart over to the bed, in the corner, and his brow raises. ] Alright- have to ask. What is that for?

[gynvael]

[ Has he? He supposes he has. It's been, nearly a year now? He remembers the tunnels, up on that mountain. Of those he met during his first days here, only two or so remain.

The idea that Sam, too, could be taken at any moment—he tries not to think about it. ]

Could be worse. [ There's the smallest tilt to his lips.

His attention lands on the half-constructed bed. Geralt gives the vague grunt of a man who does not want to assign any importance to this thing he is making which is, in fact, of some significance. ]

Jaskier came home with a...pet. [ Which needed a bed. So here he is. Making it a damn bed. ]

wrapping here maybe???

[falcony]

[ could be worse he says, and sam just laughs. because really, that is all there is to say. the smallest smile from geralt, the acknowledgment that neither one of them really wants to think on the what if. it's an understanding that neither of them want to accept - about what will happen, if it happens, what the other will do. they don't have a back home to go to. the second he, or geralt, disappear - that will be it for this. for them.

so they don't, and so sam asks about the bed and they continue to drink this nice bottle of alcohol and maybe they'll had down the street to a tavern for dinner, or maybe they'll just spend the rest of the day right here. sam's pretty okay with either, and as geralt grunts, sam just. lifts up a brow. ]

Jaskier brought home a...pet. And so you're building it a whole bed to itself. [ a beat, as if just to make sure geralt knows that sam absolutely is seeing the significance here. before he just sort of shrugs and takes another drink. ]

Sure. Why not.