[ CLOSED ] the feeling never dies in your eyes

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: September
Where: Cadens; Horizon; Libertas
What: thisisfine.jpg
Warnings: Blanket for Witcher canon, destruction/war imagery and related topics, etc., references to child death, NSFW marked



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

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[gynvael]

[ Another second passes. The wolf stands there, silent—though if there's anything in Steve's pockets (food, specifically), it'll sniff for it. Geralt drops down the wood beams, one, then two, before he hits the ground. There's a chance, now and again, when he meets someone new they haven't got their memories. A rare chance. He can't remember the last time that's ever occurred. (Not since Yennefer.)

But Steve seems to recognize him. He also seems surprised by something—like he doesn't expect to be where he is or see what he's looking at. ]

No. [ Geralt's sword hangs loosely by his side. ] Lost again?

[ How does one get lost in the Horizon? He doesn't know, but the truth is, he's beginning to think Steve always looks as if he's newly stepped off a ship and found himself on an unknown land.

Whatever the reason, Geralt waits, patient but expectant, for an answer. ]

[hairington]

[ the wolf does not really nuzzle him or act like most dogs normally would, but it also doesn't bite him either, so after another second steve just sort of awkwardly straightens back up just in time to watch the other man drop to the ground in front of him.

he does recognize him, especially now that he's this close, but if he was here, then he'd have to be one of the summoned, too, right? steve narrows his eyes for a second, as if trying to put it all together, when he catches sight of the sword. the conversation he had with eddie back in nocwich comes into clear focus, and when the man speaks, steve's eyes go back to him. lost again? ]

No. [ it's not said defensively, mostly because the other man's tone hadn't felt all that offensive. he looks from him to the snowy landscape around him, to the buildings he can just make out, the large pillars he'd just been balancing on. it is entirely possible that geralt is very correct, and that steve just. always looks like this. ] Or- not really. I'm just trying to get my bearings around the Horizon. This is yours, right? [ he means to ask if this is geralt's domain, but the vocabulary hasn't quite set in.

the wolf will probably end up approaching steve at that point, sniffing at his pockets. steve does have some snacks in there, mostly because he was craving a hamburger and for some reason he's not convinced a ye olde mcdonalds exists quite yet, but steve doesn't seem all that bothered.]

Geralt, right?

[gynvael]

[ Geralt nods, which serves to answer both questions at once. A pause, because he isn't certain what to do with Steve who's simply shown up. Most people come to him for a purpose; Geralt is not at all made for hosting or welcoming, and it shows as they just. Stand there in the snow for an extended minute or two.

The silence swells. Possibly, this is awkward for Steve. Geralt appears not to notice any strain in the air. Eventually, he shifts his weight. ]

Come inside.

[ Invitation extended, Geralt does not wait for Steve to follow. Either the boy will or he won't. He just walks, stepping atop the bones buried in the snow, the very real human skull that sits just off the path. They pass the stables where a shiny black motorbike is inexplicably parked next to an equally ebony horse, around a crumbling wall, and then the doors heavy doors to the keep loom ahead.

He pushes them open. The fires inside roar to life. ] You've been managing in Solvunn?

[ Nero gave no indication Solvunn's had any difficulty from the brewing conflict, but that's Nero. Geralt is aware Nero's concept of what is difficult is similar to Geralt's own and thus not an accurate measure of what's truly happening. ]

[hairington]

[ repeat, dingus. robin's voice in the back of his head catches steve a little off-guard, if only because it had almost felt like he could hear her. but wanda had mentioned that the horizon could do things, that it was fed by imagination.

geralt nods all the same, and steve nods in response, his eyes going back to the wolf who now has his nose pressed up to steve's pocket, and steve just sort of laughs. ] Yeah, yeah, alright. [ are wolves even allowed to each hamburgers? the burger's not even real, and, well, neither is the wolf either, right? so steve reaches in and unwraps what is left of it and handing it over.

so, no, the silence isn't that awkward. if only because steve's found something else to focus on. when he does eventually speak, though, steve's looking back over to him. come inside. geralt doesn't wait for steve, just turns and starts in, and steve only pauses for a moment or so before he follows, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jacket. why not? he catches sight of the bones, the skulls, the weird things hidden in the snow, but some part of steve just sort of assumes this guy is just...really into Halloween. or maybe just that metal stuff that eddie does. it's weird, yeah, but steve just sort of keeps up behind geralt and heads inside.

the fires, though, that's cool. steve's a bit wide eyed as he looks around. dustin would love this place... ]

What? [ he'd been too busy looking around to really hear what geralt asked, but then he's able to put enough of it together. ] Oh- yeah. Solvunn's kinda the same. Have you been?

[gynvael]

[ That's definitely a burger he smells being fed to his wolf; a distinct smell he now recognizes after being fed by a combination of Sam, Dean, and Julie. It also tells him roughly the sort of world Steve hails from if that's what he has in his pocket. The wolf scarfs it up in one bite.

Everyone's different when they step inside Kaer Morhen. There are those who find it not at all unusual, others who stare at it for too long. He knows the feeling. He's never forgotten seeing it for the first time, the foreboding walls and dark corridors that swallow you up when you're barely five summers old. The gnarled tree that rises in the center, glinting with silver medallions. The Kaer Morhen he's built carries a warmer, softer aura here. Perhaps some of that is just through him—that sense of home that he knows the fortress to be.

Steve finally looks back. Geralt tips out some ale into two mugs and hands one over wordlessly. ]

No. Met your goats once. [ They mostly ate his hair. Good cheese, though. ] I was in Thorne for a time. Never Solvunn.

[ It bothers him. Not being able to cross certain borders. He can ride up to the edge of it if he wants, but—those lines are drawn firm in the earth. He isn't interested in testing them for the moment. ]

[hairington]

[ steve is going to assume that counts as some kind of entrance fee, or perhaps even offering, before he really heads in after geralt. part of him is sad to see the burger go, but the other half remembers that - you know - none of this is real, so it doesn't matter all that much.

it's the building itself that steve spends most of his attention on, his eyes still wide as he looks, and looks, and looks. there is a distinct warmth to it, that feeling of home that feels...weird, in a way. perhaps because steve, himself, isn't really sure what that's supposed to feel like. perhaps, because, you know. he's never actually been in a place this huge, this made of stone and imagined he would ever feel warm. but he does, and his eyes catch on various details around the place. items, things, clues that maybe there should be other people here, too.

again, he thinks about how obsessed dustin and his friends would be. steve shakes his head and turns back and geralt is offering him ale. or what he's assuming is an ale, considering it's all anyone really offers around these days.

at mention of the goats, steve snorts, smiling a little as he looks down at the mug in his hands. ] Yeah, the goats like to be known. [ but then geralt mentions thorne and steve's smile sort of falters. just for a moment. ] So getting around to all these places is really that hard, huh? [ not that steve had been trying, or has any real need to get around. he's just not used to having his car, not having the freedom to move if he wanted to. it itches at him in ways he's not even that aware of.

steve gets the distinct impression that geralt is not...one for conversation, and that if he doesn't want this to dissolve into silence, he's going to have to carry it himself. so, after another sip of ale, he gestures around them. ] This place...is this your home back home? Or is this something you came up with?

[ because he does have a question, a request, but part of him feels like it's...impolite to just sort of jump into it. yet. ]

[gynvael]

They're fussy about their borders.

[ It's just politics. With a horse, anyone can go anywhere in theory. Were he at home, he'd have little trouble with movement, war or not. No one's ever cared about a Witcher riding through. Here, he hasn't got that reputation to fall back on. He's one of dozens of the so-called Summoned; he can recognize that's a position that makes his very existence a matter of politics.

He lets Steve look around without pointing out anything in particular. There's always plenty: the plates of bread and cheese, the scorched stone, the swords that lay on a nearby table. The rooms that circle above on the upper landing. The boy is right; he isn't one to converse needlessly, and he spends most of the minutes in between studying Steve, watching him as though he's trying to figure him out. Steve's curious, undeniably a fish out of water, and he'd wager Roach herself that Steve comes from a world much like Julie's or Sam's.

Which begs the question of what drew Steve here. To the world. There must be something about him, about the sphere he occupies. That's been the case for everyone he's met. ]

I grew up in these walls. [ Steve might be working up to it out of courtesy. Geralt's got no such qualms. ] Why?

[hairington]

[ they're fussy about their borders. steve supposes he can understand that, in some distant, objective way. he paid enough attention to his history classes, to the news he might hear on the radio, to know that borders between countries were serious business. enough to start wars, in some places. whether or not he had any specific, active experience with them or what sort of politics that could even mean, there's a sort of stifling feeling with it. that not only are there no vehicles in which to take them, but they wouldn't be allowed to cross even if they did.

unfortunately for geralt, or maybe even disappointingly for geralt, steve isn't really building to anything with that question. he's just curious, just trying to have a conversation, but steve does see a kind of next step in it, in the form of the swords on the table just off to the side, on the easy way geralt had been just. you know. casually up on those huge poles outside swinging his sword like it was nothing.

why geralt asks, and part of steve wonders if he should explain why. why he's here, why he's being...probably kind of annoying. why he feels like he has to take the opportunity, even if it's kind of. weird. but it makes sense, in steve's head. castles, magic, swords, monsters. steve doesn't know the differences between the fantasies but he's come across geralt twice, and now that he knows he's also a summoned.

steve may, or may not, have been staring for just a second too long at the weapons. but then it seems as if he makes a decision and he's looking back to geralt again. ]

I know you don't actually know me, like, at all. But if you're a- whatever they're called. Summoned or whatever. Then we're in this together, right? Whatever this shit is. [ a beat, and then steve lets out a breath. ]

Could you show me how to fight with a sword?

[gynvael]

[ He does notice, can't miss it in fact, at how Steve doesn't take his eyes off the sword. It's not wariness. Curiosity, perhaps.

That much is confirmed when Steve asks that. Geralt's eyebrow arches. They don't know each other, correct. He does not offer to teach just anyone who shows up at his door. He agreed to train Amos and Nadine. That's it. But it isn't for their experience that he took them on. It's a matter of temperament. That he can be assured he's putting both weapon and knowledge in the hands of someone who wants to use it for a reason that feels right to him.

He leans forward. Looks Steve up and down for a long minute. He's not saying yes, but he isn't saying no yet, either. ]

Tell me what for. No bullshit.

[ He doesn't want to hear about self-defence, or in case of monsters in the woods, or anything of that sort. One can learn to swing a sword for those reasons from any local fencing instructor. Studying under a Witcher is something else altogether. ]

[hairington]

[ his reaction nearly has steve taking it back. calling it some joke or trying to lighten the mood. but before steve gets wrapped up in the feeling, before that anxious worry starts clogging up his throat, steve reminds himself what he’s doing. why he’s here. he hadn’t come into the horizon looking for geralt’s domain to ask this, and he definitely hadn’t planned on asking him today, but after what he heard about what was happening, about what he’s been told is going to get worse, he can’t not take the chance.

geralt leans forward, looks steve over, and it’s been a minute since steve has felt so thoroughly read. he wonders what geralt sees, wonders if he should be worried about what it is that’s there, but he pushes that away. refuses to look away.

he’s serious about this. and he’ll do whatever he can to prove that. at the question - or, it wasn’t exactly a question, was it? tell me what for - steve’s brows furrow.

a few answers come to mind - about how he needs to protect people, about how he can’t really do anything else. about how it’s been years since he’s felt any sense of control over his life and the few brief moments he got closest was with a weapon in his hands, but for whatever reason, steve knows those aren’t right. or, rather, they are truthful. they are real, honestly how he feels, but geralt is asking for the reason, and steve has that feeling that if he says anything else, geralt will know he’s lying.

so, without giving himself any time to think much more on how it sounds, he answers: ]

I’ve got a- a friend here, from my home, and right before we were pulled up out of that lake, he- [ steve presses his mouth together in a line, closes his eyes and sees eddie’s body, bloody and mangled, in the dark road. he thinks of the empty yard when they made it out of the house. he thinks about his own fear, sharp in the back of his throat. when steve opens his eyes again, not even a half-moment later, he’s looking back to geralt again. ] I couldn’t protect him, and I won’t let it happen again. [ a voice like robin’s in the back of his head keeps talking, faster and faster - i’m not good at a lot, but i can be good at this. i don’t know what the fuck is going on, but you do. i like the warm feeling this places gives off and i don’t know why and i want to stay - but, thankfully, steve doesn’t really let himself get caught up in it. instead, jaw a little tight, he says: ]

If more shit is going to keep happening, I have to be able to help; I have to be able to protect my friends. [ even if most of them don’t need protecting. ]

That’s what for.

[gynvael]

[ He hasn't got any expectations for what answer might come. What little he knows of Steve is superficial; they've yet to exchange past a scant few words until now. It's why he asked, why his eyes are fixed on Steve.

He isn't sure what he's searching for out of the boy. But he'll know when he hears it.

Another stretch of silence passes as he considers. It is not an uncommon sentiment—the death of a loved one being a driving force—but there's no anger or bitterness underneath it, just a genuine want to keep something important safe. And that's rare, he thinks, in someone so young. He doesn't ask who it is or what happened. That's not for him to know.

There's a shift where Geralt seems to come to a decision. He stands, taking his sword with him. ] Come with me.

[ The training yard lies outside the doors, closer than it'd have been in the real Kaer Morhen. His is a little less sprawling, the mountains tighter together and easier to navigate. ]

You'll need to find one in Solvunn to train with outside this place. What you learn in here is only memory. [ He skips the wood swords on the rack, hands over one of the blunted steel blades. Steve can handle the weight of it. ] What've you wielded before?

[hairington]

[ truth be told, steve starts freaking out a small bit when geralt lets his answer linger. when geralt follows that all with silence - part of him starts to think he gave the wrong answer, but then another reminds him that it’s the truth. whether it’s right or wrong isn’t really important. if geralt tells him to fuck off, he will, but it won’t stop him from trying.

thankfully, it seems to be enough - geralt comes to a decision, stands, grabs his sword, and steve’s eyes go a bit wide. oh, okay, okay they’re doing this. geralt says come with me and that is exactly what steve does, setting the mug of ale down and following in close behind as they head back outside again.

when geralt hands steve the blade, he does consider the weight. heavier than a bat (without the nails), but not that different from his (with them). it doesn’t look sharp, or really anything dangerous. ] There’s someone in Solvunn who offered to help, so I can do that too.

[ the question, though, has steve’s easy curiosity shifting to something more…not embarrassed, exactly, but it does feel like all this experience he thinks he has isn’t really anything impressive at all - not when he’s outside an actual castle, holding an actual (blunted) sword.

he shrugs. ] A- uh- baseball bat, mostly. With nails in it. And fireworks and molotov cocktails, but I don’t know if that counts.

wrapping!

[gynvael]

[ They're doing this. Geralt stands back to watch, letting Steve handle—or mishandle—the blade as he will. He isn't expecting much out of someone who's never held a sword before, makes no effort to correct anything yet. They can work on that later when they get started with a genuine lesson.

For now, he just wants to see where they're starting from. ]

Everything counts. [ He's certainly sizing Steve up. Handling a sword is only a small part of it. The rest is reflex and coordination, something which he can tell Steve is not lacking. So. They are not quite starting from the bottom. Near it, though. ]

There's a man in Solvunn. He'll be a good sparring partner. [ How easy is it to get a sword in Solvunn? Geralt hasn't any idea, but that's Steve's problem to sort out. ] You'll want a bastard sword. Find one with a weight you like. Return in two weeks' time. Then we begin.