October catch-all [closed]

[curruid_coinchenn]

Who: Berserker (Cú Chulainn Alter) and various
When: Throughout Octeuril
Where: various
What: lots of things
Warnings: Some NSFW threads, warnings in headers

Comments

[niespodzianka]

Mm. [ Geralt nods slowly. In the grand scheme of things, Ciri is a recent addition to his life. She's not quite twenty, and Geralt has at last cracked his first century. Even Yen was with him - on and off - before then. And after he'd demanded Pavetta's unborn child as payment, he spent a number of years refusing to accept it, not wanting to put a little girl through the horrors of the witcher life.

Sometimes you just shouldn't argue when fate gives you a baby, but sometimes you're a fucking idiot, so. ]

I wish I could make the world better so she doesn't have to live in such a fucking depressing wasteland. But all I can do is teach her to be strong enough to kill anyone who'd hurt her.

[ That's good parenting, right??? Right. ]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ It's good enough for Berserker, really. Considering his own upbringing and the fact he was able to kill a lord's guard dog with his bare hands when he was just 12(...ish, the timeline of his legend is a mess), it makes sense. It's practical. Even if his pursuit of it broke him, he knows the value of strength. ]

It's good enough. She will survive.

[ That's praise coming from him. ]

[niespodzianka]

[ That's all Geralt wants. For Ciri to survive and have the life she wants - even if it's not with or near him, even if it's not in their world. He had received so many dreary prophecies and fortunes from every soothsayer and sage on the Continent, it felt like; telling him that he'd succeed in his mission to find her, but then lose her again.

And he did. Because they traveled together, and he trained her, and she left in the middle of the night, leaving him a letter to explain she needs to learn to live without his shadow cast over her. Geralt of Rivia, master witcher-- and a girl? The pain is there, a raw part of his heart, but more than that, he's proud. Because he wants her to be herself, on her own. He wants to meet her again on the Path and learn what name she's taken. Will she be Cirilla of Cintra, or like she wanted when she was a little girl, of Vengerberg? Or just Ciri.

... Zoning out, just a little. Geralt focuses most of his emotion into his loved ones, and sometimes it borders on overwhelming. ]

Thank you. For sharing with me.

[ Geralt won't repeat any of it. It's not his business, and he considers this something special - in whatever way that means. He leans back and looks at Berserker, and looks out at the veiled room below; they can get another round or they can just sit here, or even go terrorize some of the mundane humans playing pool. He doesn't mind which way things go. The company's been fine. ]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ Berserker just gives a nod in response. If he didn't trust Geralt, he never would have said a word of it to him -- he has the distinction of being the first outsider to learn anything about him beyond just his name. As a rule, he's guarded with the past of his actual life, if only because revealing too much puts Caster at risk, too. No longer a Servant, no longer in a Grail War, but some things were too difficult to let go of.

After the shit they experienced in Dorchacht, this was a necessary reprieve. Another round and maybe some more conversation. Comfortable silence is alright, too. ]