( OPEN ) february catch-all

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Jaskier; Yennefer; You
When: February // Feoveuer
Where: Aefenglom
What: A rescue. Not quite from who you'd expect. + other things as they come.
Warnings: Violence, CW related to the current event.

[ starters in comments. plot with me at discontinued! ]

OPEN: post-kidnapping

CLOSED: Jaskier | Yennefer | Jaskier pt. ii | yennefer + myr

Comments

[whomthebelltolls]

I see. The... function sounds a bit like a Hunter. Or at least... the original idea of them, back when I was still active: Kill the bloodthirsty Beasts that were a threat to the population.

[She's not a Monster, but she sure gets confused for one a lot. Another drink is starting to sound good, actually.]

Well, or to escort the scholars into the catacombs and deal with what was in there, as well. We did a lot of that, too. Do you want another shot?

[gynvael]

[ He raises an eyebrow. In some ways, he can't say it's a surprise to hear her profession back home isn't unlike his. ]

Original idea? [ He doesn't clarify, that it's never been much about threats to the population. The wars humans wage across kingdoms have created more corpses than any monster. ]

Mm. [ He slides the empty glass to the side. ] Won't turn one down.

[whomthebelltolls]

Whiskey fine? [She asks this as she gets up, and if he doesn't ask for anything else, she just gets that, and another glass of brandy for herself. This one she has filled... a little further than the others. Once she sits again, she talks.]

Once the Healing Church really gained its foothold in the town, things became infinitely more complicated for what it meant by a Hunt. It went from Beasts, to people who were showing signs, to people who could potentially have contracted it. By then I had retired, but I still lived in Yharnam, and I still had to see it happen.

[She does take a sip, letting the liquid burn down her throat, before sitting back a little.] ... I guess it didn't matter, in the end. The Scourge took the town entirely, according to the Hunter that was there to watch Yharnam's fall.

[gynvael]

[ He's past the point of being picky, so Geralt accepts whatever she hands him with a grunt. It's filled, which is all he cares about.

Besides, he's more distracted by her story. Not an especially unpredictable one. Even in this city, he can see shadows of the same rising. The way the townsfolk carefully avoid any talk of the Outer City.

In the end, people always cause more destruction than the thing they feared. ]

You grew up there?

[whomthebelltolls]

Mm, not quite. I grew up in Cainhurst Castle, but Yharnam was an old holding of the castle that grew into its own town once... nobility began to stop meaning much.

[She takes a sip of the brandy, and swirls the glass a little.] But after training as a knight for a few years, I decided to leave Cainhurst and go to college in Byrgenwerth, which was attached to the city, in a manner of speaking. I spent the rest of my time in Yharnam from there. Enough to see the rise of the Healing Church.

[Another sip.] Saw a memory from one of the hunters that lived in Yharnam long after I did. Got to see the town decaying back to nothing. Can't say I was surprised.

[gynvael]

[ Ah. His eyebrow lifts. ] You were knighted.

[ Rare, for a woman—though at the same time, he can't be too surprised, from what he's learned of her. He wonders what it's like, to go from one world fallen to an infection that gives birth to beasts to yet another that does the same.

He turns the glass in his hands. ]

Every time a plague or a beast tears through the Continent, kingdoms seal off entire villages and leave them to rot. [ He tips back his drink. ] Eventually, it eats through the nobility, too.

[whomthebelltolls]

Yes. Hunters in Cainhurst were Knights. After I left, I was back to being merely a Hunter.

[She swirls her glass again, then takes another deep drink. When she puts it back down, she has a bit of a pensive look on her face.] I suppose it both was and wasn't like that. Cainhurst blood didn't frequently create Beasts; it was the low-quality, diluted stuff from the Church that was most dangerous.

But it wouldn't have mattered.

[gynvael]

Different than our knights, then.

[ No. It doesn't ever matter. There's a reason he tends not to look back. Cities fall; they rise again, one way or another. And humans will always be around in some form. ]

The corruption on this sphere. Are there similarities?

[ It's not his job to solve the Cwyld, beyond what related contracts are posted for assistance -- it'll still be here, he thinks, long after he's gone -- but he's been curious enough to keep an eye on what people know. ]

[whomthebelltolls]

Mmm... yes. Beasthood does not kill a person that becomes a Beast, but they're never able to return to their previous life. So in many ways, they become like a Shade - aggressive, unable to think of anything but attacking and killing, unrecognizable from the person they used to be. The Cwyld is a bit more... obvious of a source of corruption than what happened back at home, though. I was going to say 'they don't worship the Cwyld here like they do the Blood at home', but apparently that was a lie for a small group of people.

[She huffs, and it's derisive - clearly she doesn't approve of doing something like that either way.]

[gynvael]

[ He considers her words for a moment, though she distracts him soon enough with another topic. There's an equally derisive snort in return. In a way, he's almost surprised it took that long for something like the Circle to emerge -- a mixture of those wanting to harness the Cwyld's power and a thirst to learn of it at all costs.

He doesn't give a fuck what people worship. But they could've left everyone else out of their bullshit. ]

We'll see how long they stay down this time.

[ Most have been captured or killed, but ideals are not so easily swept away. Especially not with the head of the cult still out there. ]