[ 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

[piqure]

[ geralt had a point there. like a defense mechanism then. not sentient enough to maybe know if what its doing is good or bad or harming other places, but alive enough to want to…keep living? he thinks of death blooms that succulents get, that last-ditch effort of life, extreme until it dries up for good. this can't be....like that, can it?

peter isn’t sure why but thinking of it in those terms makes his skin crawl. just a little bit.

but instead, he nods, seemingly content to keep following geralt along for as long as the other will let him, internal monologuing aside. it feels kind of —easier, to talk about opinions on a place when the only thing around them was a couple of lizards, desert trees and rocks. peter considers the question with a hum, briefly thoughtful, though it doesn’t take a long time to answer at all: ]

I just — want to keep people safe. [ his own, very much so (desperately so), and the locals, who he’s pretty sure didn’t all sign up for much of this mess either. watch out for the little guy, you know? he still hopes he can. still hopes the bad luck of chaos didn't follow him in. jury is still out. ] And I want to figure out how to keep our worlds safe too, if they’re at risk.

But — you know, its weird when the threat isn’t some obvious thing you can fight, head on? I guess I anticipated that, when I first got here — [ threats that are obvious were more expected, maybe. although obvious didn't guarantee the implied clarity, not all of the time. not with quentin, not even with dr oswald, brief as it was and he can't think about the failures right now — ] And yeah, there’s the Singularity, and the magic stuff from it, but it’s not — I don’t know. It's like, we're here. So obviously something big is going to happen eventually. But when's eventually?

So, so I guess I’m on the same page as you. See what comes? Try and be ready for it.

[ as always, peter answers a simple question with one too many words and all coming from the heart as much as head. and so it goes. there’s another hum, of agreement, turning to glance over at geralt again with a few certain nods. ] Oh, yeah — Stephen’s definitely the right person to ask to do things like that. If anyone can find out what they’re keeping secret, it’s him.

[gynvael]

[ There is a difference Geralt hears in that sentiment, where he has said our own and Peter says people, worlds, unspecified. A whole. It reminds him a little of Sam. He doesn't comment on it, nor on Peter's tendency to answer questions—to say anything—with at least a dozen words in excess.

He turns down the sloping hill, starting to lead them back towards the city gates. Waits until Peter's finished talking, considers what the boy is really saying amidst it all. ]

Mm. [ He knows the feeling. It is easier. The simplicity of having something to kill. But whatever is going on here, the tensions that are stretched thin, it is in part the cause of humans in this world. No matter knows the truth of the Singularity—if any of them even do—Geralt can only see things sparking into war. And he has no interest in being tangled up in the wars of men. ] These territories already used some of us once for their own battles. I imagine what comes eventually will be of their doing.

[ Since then, what? They've held onto the pieces of the Singularity taken. Have any of the Summoned who went out that night Even been told what's being done with any of it? The events of the Dimming had not sat right with him then and it still doesn't. He expects it, for the nations to weaponize them. Why the fuck else would they be here? These are not commoners and peasants unknown that have been pulled into the sphere. But he doesn't like that more than a few went along with it for reasons that feel too much like choosing sides. ]

[piqure]

[ big picture strokes — worlds, people. the friendly neighborhood never thought the responsibilities - self imposed as they may have been - would extend to such far reaches; new york was big enough, but maybe his fate was sealed the day tony stark ended up sitting on his couch.

great power, and so forth and so it goes.

for geralt's precision, peter offers a tumble of words every time. maybe something about the hunter casts a suggestion of being a good listener. maybe there's a simplicity of perspective that ultimately puts them on the same page — look out for people, and figure out the rest when they need to.

peter's glance back to geralt is a quick thing, brows creased with concern at the mention of — ] Wait — there were fights? Already? I — guess I missed that. [ he doesn't like the sound or idea of it, at all. doesn't like that it was something he missed, and naively wonders if the people that had stayed here ended up okay. his stomach rolls at the thought, memories casting long shadows in the corners of his mind. ] Was it really bad?

[gynvael]

[ Right. That'd have been when Peter had vanished. How it works, fuck if he knows. It made a certain sense when folk disappeared and returned with no memory of having been in this world. As though they were pulled from the world once more. But what does it mean, when someone can vanish with their memories intact and return? ]

No one died. [ This time, goes unsaid. ] I wasn't there. Sam was.

[ Geralt had been healing at the time, for one; he has no intention of doing anything for the city for another. Sam went as a healer, though—a medic—and he knows it wasn't good. He knows he does not like the message it sends, that a sizeable portion of them participated willingly.

For all that he prefers to remain separated, he's aware that can't always be so. There's an us, a them—the Summoned—and many consider them as one, whether they truly are or not. Inextricably linked. He's been there too many times, the way people see what they want to see. How quickly it spirals out of control from a single spark. ]