[ CLOSED ] tooth and nail, tooth and nail

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: December
Where: Cadens; Horizon; Nocwich
What: Catch-all for December
Warnings: General Witcher stuff, will add more as needed.



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

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[gynvael]

[ 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. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[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.

[gynvael]

[ 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. ]

[cryptsleeper]

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.]

[gynvael]

[ 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?

[cryptsleeper]

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?

[gynvael]

[ 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.

[cryptsleeper]

[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.

[gynvael]

[ 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.

[cryptsleeper]

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?

[gynvael]

[ 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. ]

[cryptsleeper]

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.