abraxaslogs | [ CLOSED ] tooth and nail, tooth and nail

No, I mean— [ He shakes his head. He read it. It is fucking sparse. Hardly worth the weight of the entire tome. But that isn't what he's referring to. ]

You said it was originally in another language. But who wrote it, if it occurred before a written language existed? On the Continent, the elves—Ithlinne's prophecy has been recorded in both Elder and the common tongue. Across multiple writings. Scholars have debated it for centuries. When it will come to pass, what the new sun refers to. That sort of bullshit. But Ithlinne herself is the known source.

[ So who is the known source for this? Or what? Was it Cain himself? ]

Who witnessed Cain and Abel? How did this story come to be told and recorded for generations?

Ah. I follow. [Alucard will concede his perspective is not the correct one here. He doesn't like the religion involved, and he's reducing it only to myth, rather than playing into the story being real. Sypha would have known better.]

Tradition holds that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible - or Old Testament so far as the Christians refer to it - was written by Moses. He was a prophet and chosen by their god to lead them out of enslavement. These books are divinely inspired. The author, in this case, is not a witness. It is given to him by his god to put down on the page. So while logically I would say it was an oral history developed and then written down, the answer within the context of the faith is a prophet in communication with the divine.

Like an oracle.

[ All right. He can work with that. He does not believe in prophecies entirely, but they're a familiar to him. And he can accept that visions sometimes come to pass. That they hold some truth to them.

He's seen it with Ciri.

Either way, he imagines Cain's fate is where the answers lie. He was the original bearer of the curse. Perhaps somewhere out there, someone divined what happened to him.

He closes the book. ] I appreciate the information.

That's a good way of putting it, yes.

[Alucard breathes out, glad to at least have found something useful in the nightmare of having to discuss religion. But that does actually bring something up, and maybe it is pertinent here.]

I'm not sure how much it'll help. But if I may - how does religion and faith work for your world? I have a distinct feeling there are differences at hand that may also make this tricky.

[ Geralt glances up from his glass. What isn't different may be easier to cover. ]

We have gods, goddesses, saints, ancient beings. [ He shifts in his seat. ] Priests and priestesses who join a temple will dedicate themselves to that deity. Others prefer to wander and worship all of them.

[ He spent time at a temple, but faith never played a significant role. He knows the rituals, the history. Just didn't really worship anything. Nenneke never asked it of him or her students. Only that they respected the temple's rules. ]

Temples often give refuge and education. Graduates in healing magic are common. Historians, too.

[Hm. That's a lot, but there's an important part to clarify:] And their take on obedience and morality?

[ He raises an eyebrow. Obedience for what, specifically? ] Depends who you ask.

[ Probably, what Alucard is hearing out of this is just—the lack of any organized overarching sect or belief. The Continent can barely agree who landed first on its earth. Faith, like everything else, is scattered at best. Melitele is a well-known figure, but even her reach only goes so far.

Still. He thinks he knows what Alucard is getting at. ]

Religious fervour occasionally grips a small village. Sacrifices, infighting. Expulsion over petty wrongs. Unwavering obedience through faith are for the few fanatics. The rest of us couldn't give a fuck.

I see. Monotheism aside, the difference between our worlds in this case is the structure of religion and the hegemony involved. While my world has different countries and nations, most that reside within them fall under the Christian religion. That faith is organized, with ranks of priests, a hierarchy, and a priest in charge called the pope who is chosen by their god to lead the church. There is a general expectation that Christians obey the teachings of the church as they are interpreted by the priests.

[Alucard's gaze falls back to the bible.] Their god is concerned with morality, and judges you in the afterlife on the topic. That earns you either eternal reward or punishment, the Bible you were given is the guide from where the teachings and reasonings derive from. What you do in your life counts either as a good act or a sin, and what qualifies as sin is really anything the church doesn't approve of.

[As an example:] Murder is a sin, defrauding your neighbor is a sin, generally being a dick is a sin. Magic - usually called witchcraft - is a sin, by their account. Usually it falls to ordinary courts to met out punishments, but spiritual crimes, which magic falls under, is closer to their jurisdictions, as are general heresies and such. They burn heretics and mages alive. It's a point about the afterlife and the eternal flames of their Hell.

[ All right, that Dean did cover to a degree. As in, he was informed people who wear jeggings are doomed to hell, which he imagines is not a teaching in the literature, but who the fuck knows. It did get the point across.

He pauses. Afterlife. Yeah. That is what's absent, he supposes. ]

We haven't got an afterlife. [ He pours another drink. What's beyond death? Nothing, he thinks. Death takes you by the hand. The rest is empty, unknown. ] Though I'm aware of the matter of sins and hell.

[ He's seen it, through Dean's memories. Isn't sure what to make of it even now. Alucard speaks of the acts of a church, not what literally crawls forth out of another realm. These are two different things.

But as for disapproval. That is all too common. His tone turns wry. ] Humans published a text. On Witchers. Shortly before Kaer Morhen burned. Said we were deviants, only fit to be wiped out. Faith doesn't teach people to cast judgment. It's just one excuse amongst many. They'll always find a reason.

Faith was the driving factor in my mother's murder - or at least, why others watched it happen rather than intercede. [He pauses. Geralt may have put two and two together by now, but in case not:] If you remember the caves back in Thorne...that was what kept creeping past me. [The smell of burning, the anger, the rage of it all. Alucard finishes his glass.] I don't believe I've ever said it before, but I am deeply sorry for the loss of your people and how it came about.

[It doesn't need to be said. All the more reason to vocalize it. The dhampir refills his glass.]

The lack of an afterlife is a surprise, I'll admit. But there. That's the ultimate difference. The water in which my world swims in has Christianity laced through every part. And that's what makes it difficult to explain. You have to think about how to describe what is natural to you.

[ His gaze shifts up. No. Alucard has not said it, but Geralt had never returned the sentiment, either. It had not felt necessary. An event that runs deeper than apologies and regrets, for both of them.

Until now. Maybe it's different, here, when it is no longer the initial confession. ]

I'm sorry, too. [ He's wondered. How long before the Continent turned on mages. Once the elves were gone? Or would they look to the dwarves first? ]

Another on the Continent might have more clarity. But faith and I don't exactly walk the same path. [ Even his feelings on the question of Destiny—that is not really faith, where he's concerned. He is not looking for something to believe in. To lay his hopes upon. ] Didn't help with earning coin or killing monsters. I never gave it much thought.

[ Or more specifically: he thought about it for a long time, decided what the fuck did it make any difference, and then dismissed subject as not worth returning to. ]

Edited 2022-12-18 02:19 (UTC)

[A small, pained smile flickers across Alucard's face. It isn't trite, coming from Geralt. The man doesn't mince words or condolences.]

Amazing how a printing press and a few ambitious people can ruin so many lives.

[So it goes here as well. Alucard knows that, but it is easier. He isn't connected to the politics, nothing is so deeply personal. It makes a world of difference.]

At the end of the day, I think all that matters is that you have an established relationship with the world that lets you more or less function within it. The rest is trappings designed for others.

[ Does it make it better or worse they had not had what Alucard calls a printing press? Lots of painstaking effort in inking that sort of thing, one handwritten letter at a time.

He hums. ] And what relationship have you found?

[ Is it a loaded question? Perhaps. He has known Alucard for some time now. Geralt has found his place in the world. It is not a place he is always wanted, but it is a place he understands how to occupy. A place where he can say he knows his purpose.

Alucard is—wavering. Last they truly spoke. But the dhampir has seemed better since. ]

Edited 2022-12-18 02:31 (UTC)

One in progress. [Alucard will admit that much and easily. He's miles better than he was a year ago, reeling from Sypha's sudden reappearance and the myriad of awful memories that it brought up. The guilt, shame, embarrassment, anger.]

And one with no traces of home, no shadow of being a patricide or the son of Europe's most powerful and terrifying vampire. Although sometimes a long nap is still tempting.

[The urge is still there, at the end. But he has more to focus on now, more ties to the world. He can't just fuck off to the desert and stay there.]

[ Oh? Geralt tilts his head. ] You've forewent your eternal sleep?

[ That's surprising to hear. He assumed it remained an extended ongoing project while Alucard built the remainder of his little cavern hideaway. Apparently not.

It is a nice hideaway, in fact. Cozy. He can acknowledge he judged the notion a bit harsh at the start, though he maintains it didn't help that Alucard insisted on calling it a crypt. Perhaps it is, in the most technical sense, but in truth—it's a home more than anything. ]

What changed your mind?

There's too many projects at the moment. The hall is still in progress, Viktor has something only I can consult on, and--

[Oh. Alucad pauses, realizing that Geralt probably should be looped into this matter.]

I may have agreed to open an architecture and landscaping office with Jaskier?

[ Viktor consulting Alucard begs a question. He doubts it's to do with architecture, and he can't imagine Viktor would require consultation over science. He doesn't ask. Viktor is a private man, so is Alucard, and Geralt is not one to pry.

Landscaping, however. With Jaskier?

He makes a noise, bemused and curious. So that's what the two of them have been up to. Not too unexpected. Jaskier cannot spread his fame all over the continent, travelling through every kingdom. He obviously needs something else to occupy him.

The project, though, is not the point. It runs a little deeper than that, Geralt thinks. ] He has got that effect on people. Enormously annoying.

[Alucard is very relieved that Geralt doesn't ask. He doesn't need anyone finding out that they're fucking around with dhampir blood and the properties thereof.

The dhampir lets out a little snort, conceding the point.]

Agreed. And yet, somehow the most stable relationship of any sort I've had in my entire life. Hardly what I expected looking at him from the other side of a prison cell.

[ He is drinking slower now, though he's still reaching for the whisky. His preference will always be for strong liquor if it isn't ale.

For a moment, he's quiet. ] I used to assume he'd leave. When he started following me, I thought—a flighty bard, with all his silk and perfumes. He'd tire of the blood and shit that lines a Witcher's path.

[ That he'd tire of the Witcher. It's too intimate a confession. Geralt does not say it. He isn't sure, precisely, when it happened. All he knows is that at some point, he no longer told himself it mattered none if Jaskier didn't show, and started allowing himself to expect Jaskier to be there come spring. ]

After a decade passed, I stopped trying to understand it.

And here it only took a year and change. [Alucard shakes his head, fond and aware that even if the whisky isn't real, it's going to his head.]

Maybe because I'm younger. Or my baggage is messily packed, such as it is. [Or needier, especially at the beginning.] You're right, best not to question it. Not when it's a good thing.

[That much Alucard can't doubt. But Geralt asked him a fair and probing question. Turnabout should be fair play.] And how are you with the world these days?

[ Maybe. It is probably more apt to say Geralt is too old, too...whatever he is. He's not unaware most don't spend years upon years in solitude.

There's less of that these days. Solitude, that is. More and more, that's by choice. ]

Mm. [ Good question. ] Not dissatisfied. Could do with fewer problems.

[ Has there been some shit? Sure. What else is new? His baseline for a sort of contentment is, perhaps, more skewed than other people's. Everyone he cares for is safe, home is in one piece. He's not sleeping easy, but he isn't plagued by nightmares. Hell, even Rinwell has returned. For him, that's enough. He doesn't know how to want more from the world. It's rarely given more than this. ]

What, there's more besides having to have a miniature lesson in another world's religion?

[The question is dry and it comes with lifted eyebrows.]

I did apologize to Ciri for calling her blood extremely gross to taste.

[ CLOSED ] tooth and nail, tooth and nail

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