abraxaslogs | [ september / open ] shattered windows and the sound of drums

[ She chuckles, winds her arm around his. ] 'Course I am. Halloween comes every year. But no hints! Everythin' is a surprise this time around.

[ Knowing what to expect takes so much of the fun out of Halloween. The only real way to approach it is to dive in blind, and she doesn't intend to even let her costume leak early this year. ~~It will all wind up being irrelevant when she has to scrap everything and start from scratch a week from the day, but she can use it again next year.~~ ]

No costume repeats. Well, except Geralt. I figured it was either let him be a wolf again or else he probably wouldn't come at all.

[Oh. Right, right. Holidays being a very big thing for them, apparently, beyond an equinox or another harvesting festival. (Which are mostly the same, anyway.) Jaskier smiles, stealing a kiss on her cheek. A little thank you for the party.]

Finally. Something to truly look forward to. It gives me plenty of time to prepare an even more elaborate costume.

[And figure out the best way to outdo his experience last year. Perhaps Nadine will be a bit interested in something to celebrate the anniversary, of sorts...]

Oh, no, you've chosen wisely. It was enough of a battle for the wolf idea. Now that he has already done it once, he will be more likely to agree a second time. Mmm... perhaps something a little more elaborate. Like a fur collar? [He pats his chest, then around his neck. Something like a... feather boa, but fur.] Something slightly more humiliating that I can convince him is very sexy indeed.

Oh, I expect nothin' less from you. You set yourself a high bar last year.

[ While her world was extremely devoted to holiday celebrations, Julie in particular will just take any excuse to party, especially if she can take it to extravagant levels. But it also seems like a good idea to her, to not just have something annually to look forward to, but also as a remaining link to a home culture that so many of them seem to share.

With a soft snort, she shakes her head a little. ] See, now I think you'd be pushin' your luck. 'Sides, anythin' he can't just forget about, he's liable to take off as soon as you turn your head. The ears and tail, those are real outta sight, outta mind things.

And I shall not fail to please! It is an absolute promise. And I must engage [And there is a certain tone to this word that is dripping with innuendo] with that lovely bartender of yours. I have hardly forgotten him.

[Steven was, after all, his first kiss in Abraxas, and had led to many more. He owes him a second, perhaps lovelier kiss.

And a much more elaborate costume to do so in.

Jaskier gives a laugh, his shoulders shaking. Petunia lifts her head, watching them curiously.] I've always pushed my luck with Geralt. That's what makes it so fun! [Though she has a fair point. He made that amazing coat for Geralt and he'd taken it off near immediately. Which Jaskier still blames for the spilling of the wine that nearly ruined the party last year.

Hmm. Perhaps something with more subtlety then.] Here, do you have more work to do for the hounds? I shall aid you and we can think of a few ideas before the sun sets. Oh, you know, for a start -- I bet I could sneak a bow on his tail. He'll never even notice.

Forgotten him? [ She blinks. She is unaware of Steven having engaged anyone. They share a mental link, she assumed she would have known. ] What did you do to my Steven, Jaskier? I can't remember you foolin' around with him.

[ The way she says it clearly indicates that she thinks this is funny, though. She's not upset in any way.

Gently prodding Boris to get off her lap, she stands and holds her hand out for Jaskier, to help him up as well. ] I just need to make sure everyone's locked in safe, and that they all have food and water, then we should be done here. Boris, kennel.

[ The dog takes the command immediately, walks back to his kennel and flops into his bed as Julie goes toward one corner of the room. She begins walking along the gates to double-check them, that each one has a dog, is locked, and that the food bowls look substantially full. ]

Bow on the tail works. Make it sparkly. If you put the ribbons in the right spot, you can probably get some bows on the back of his ears, too.

Do to him! He certainly liked it. [Jaskier has absolutely no idea that she has a mental link with anyone. Or. Maybe, with Moglad, he may understand now, but back then all he'd seen was a handsome man with liquor.] He was my first, as you might say, rendezvous in Abraxas. But I assure you, it was only a few kisses.

[Very nice ones, thank you.

Jaskier nudges Petunia as well, who grunts at him and doesn't move until he sings her a few lines of Toss A Coin. Her tail goes wild as she howls back at him, but she does, indeed, stand at his side.

He's beginning to think tying the training with the songs may have not been the best idea.

It's rather funny, though.

Jaskier follows after her with Petunia (and her flower crown) at his side, having her sit as he helps with the final feedings and checks of the cages. His own hound will go in last, simply because... well. He has not been very good alone for a bit.

Though Julie is here. It helps.] You know what? You are a genius. We have to place them precisely where his bloated biceps cannot quite reach them. He'll never even know.

I don't know that I've ever seen Steven not like somethin', honestly. [ He is, overall, just a terribly agreeable manifestation. ] I just usually know everythin' he gets up to. That's all.

[ She checks each dog off on a clipboard as she goes, walking along the line of cages, occasionally double-checking a closure or fetching a bowl of water. The dogs are all pretty quiet, tired after a long day out in the rubble; the few dogs who are still awake are calm, satisfied with a scratch and a treat.

Julie can't help snickering. ] Well, he'll probably figure it out eventually. Based on the way the air moves or some weird Witcher shit. But he'll forget before you see 'im again in the mornin', so.

[ That is a favor she is willing to take on, for Jaskier's sake. ]

[Which isn't really a bad thing. And now it is far too late for Jaskier to really philosophize on the merits (or demerits, as it may be) of kissing someone else's crafted being in their domain. It was only, at the time, he had not had any of his own, had not really thought about what he was doing...

He was drunk, all right?

And he may do it a second time! Since Julie's protests are -- well. Not protests, actually.]

Not if he's inebriated enough! [He calls out, separating from her only to place Petunia back in her cage, with a filled bowl of water and what appears to be mashed meat and carrots. He gives her a kiss on the head, removes her crown (if only so she will not eat it overnight) and returns to Julie with it on his own head instead.] And I hope you mean because of the inebriation. Or the herbs. I do hope for more of the herbs.

[Yes, he could recreate them at any moment, but it is not the same. Not the same as how it feels to feel so light in a party. Full of beautiful people.]

Oh honeybun, no. That is not what I mean. [ She does expect him to be inebriated, but not so much that he forgets things. Geralt never forgets anything, no matter how much grain alcohol she gets into him. Fucking Witchers. She has to rely on other methods. ] But yes, you can have as much weed as you want. You didn't have any molly last time. You would really like molly.

[ She takes his arm and heads for the door, casting only a single spare glance back at the dogs. She'll see them again in the morning. The largest overhead light goes dark, leaving only the smaller sconces on the walls to provide dim light overnight. ]

That's the only reason you have Nadine, y'know. Drugs.

[Look, even Jaskier can fool himself into things sometimes. Like believing that Geralt is not fully cognizant of any past memory where he's made a fool of himself in front of the Witcher. Whether sober or not.]

I suspect molly is not the name of a lovely lady I will be meeting.

[Not that he's in dire need of that. They curl their arms together, and though he is reminded of past times of their... less than shining moments -- with Julie near catatonic in the Horizon, with him drinking himself into a stupor -- it is something good, he thinks, that they can be relatively human now. In the face of tragedy.

With dogs. The dogs help.

Jaskier gasps.] What! I could have sent her swooning without those, thank you! You're being very unfair to me, I'll have you know. You had better not be telling Nadine such lies.

[ His reaction takes her by surprise, because that was genuinely not how she intended the sentiment to come across. She can't help but to cackle as they exit. ] No, I mean that she only even agreed to meet you 'cause she was rollin'! You don't know just how repressed she used to be. I had to convince her that she was allowed to talk to you at all, and she wouldn't've gone for it if I didn't get her high first. It wasn't about you at all, it was all her.

[ Jaskier really had simply been there at exactly the right time. At the time, Nadine had been reeling from the loss of Flagg, still in the mindset that everything she did and said was being watched by him through her mind's eye. Julie was the one to talk her into it, to pick Jaskier out of the crowd based on a single meeting, to push them together. And the MDMA was the key to start the whole thing. ]

Molly makes everythin' just feel good. Makes you super happy and friendly, makes music and dancin' better. Plus, it gives you energy, 'stead of makin' you super chill.

[It may be the one and only time Jaskier truly has looked abashed. Which is oft considered a miracle, considering how he tends to run his mouth before rolling the words in his mind first.]

Oh.

[Jaskier clears his throat, smoothing his hands down over his coat.]

That certainly does explain her, ah, enthusiasm that night. I imagined it was something she had taken, but not specifically what. [Among other feelings. Not that Nadine cannot be very enthusiastic in bed, but he knows now that she is quite reserved. And they have had many conversations on her, how Julie puts it, repression.

Certainly they have begun to explore past it, as well.]

Honestly, you did both of such a service that ight. I had not dreamed such a thing would happen from a single party. I owe you lone-deserved thanks. From both of us.

[ All she can do is laugh. It had been an uphill battle on her side, to get Nadine to agree to even talk to another man. Albeit a pretty small hill, since Nadine was high enough to sort of just go along with everything Julie said, but uphill nonetheless.

With a satisfied noise, she pats his arm as they head toward the portal back to Cadens. ] I didn't really think much from that night would turn out how it did, either. I mean, my goal was just for everyone to have a good time. That's all. [ She does not add in the fact that she told Nadine to think of Jaskier as a sex toy with a face. ] No need to thank me. All I want's for everyone to be happy.

[ And, as a group, she thinks they're all fairly happy. ]

[He can only assume she may mean herself and Geralt, along with the two of them. And, honestly, all he had expected himself were some strange, new drinks, a kiss with the bartender, and to possibly leave this world sooner rather than later, leaving the people here behind.

Before his mind had really... accepted. Understood. That they were going to stay.

To be fair, the description wouldn't be terrible. For him.]

I think you've done a stunning job. And I do like to think we are. I mean -- you know, as much as Geralt has ever been considered happy.

[ At the time, Julie had very much still been reeling from being brought into Abraxas. Brought back to life. And then she had been broken out of the dungeon only to be hit with an enormous awareness of the world's magic, in a way that she was still months from understanding was not the norm. She had not yet begun to process any of what she had spent the previous year and a half going through; she was still drowning it all out and pretending that it didn't affect her.

It was a different time then. She was a different person. She thinks many of them were. ]

He just don't like anyone to know he's happy. [ It's said with a snort. ] It kills him that we figured out he's all bubbles and marshmallows under the growls.

Astute of you. [He laughs. Truly, Geralt has never been particularly hard to read -- though apparently most of the population is not as talented as Jaskier at reading people -- but Julie cut right through Geralt's normal level of bullshit as easily as fire through snow.

It's relieving. Because gods, if he had a coin for every time someone was afraid of the man --]

Oh, I even know marshmallows now. And he, truly, is. Of course, he can cleave a man in two without effort at all, but between all the cleavings, he's... I think he is truly finding one of the closest times of happiness he's had. Or so I like to hope.

[He has seen hints of Geralt with his brothers, but it was already after... well. Tragedy. He imagines there are plenty of good memories there. It really is only hope to cling to that he can find happiness after that. After all this neverending loss.]

[ Reading people is basically Julie's bread and butter, and while there have been several times that Geralt has surprised her, she doesn't really find him to be an overly complicated man. In fact, in most respects, he is so predictable that she can tailor conversations around how she thinks he'll react to things. She has never been able to tell whether this is her being good at understanding him, or whether everyone else was just so terrible at even trying.

She laughs a little at Jaskier's description, throws out a quiet, joking "Hot". (Well, mostly joking ~~it actually is kind of hot~~.) Her smile softens a bit by the time he stops speaking, and she squeezes his arm lightly as they reach the portal back to Cadens. ]

Me too. I can't speak for anyone else, but the last year has been like, a billion times better'n anythin' I ever had back home. But I think Nadine agrees too. And y'all are part of it, all of y'all. So. [ There's a beat and then she turns her head toward him, squeezes his arm again while digging her nails in just a hair too hard. ] And if you ever repeat any of this, I will bury you, sugarplum.

[At least Jaskier understands, intimately, the attraction towards someone who is capable of such a feat. It is not been said only once that the bard finds himself chasing after those who could so easily bury him several feet deep.

Though Jaskier has also smelled him when he was covered in selkiemore innards, so there are some powers at work to tamper such attraction.

He laughs, delighted.] Well, if you do, please put such sentiment on my gravestone. Anonymously, of course. [He leans down to kiss her cheek, the portal to Cadens sparking magic through the air gently. It is such a novelty, he thinks, this connection between these places. The threads they have weaved themselves between each other.] Trust me when I say that knowing you and Nadine has been one of the greatest blessings in my life. Sincerely. Even if you both work excessively hard to keep me humble.

[It's only another gift in the grand scheme of things.]

[ september / open ] shattered windows and the sound of drums

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we can start to wrap if you want!

that would be great!

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