(no subject)
Sep. 20th, 2017 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
worstsinThere was something wrong happening.
At first Geralt had avoided the woods, because it felt like that off-ness was concentrated there. The birds and insects had gone quiet at first, and soon after they'd started to flee to the forest's edges. Though autumn had barely begun, in some areas Geralt found trees turning rusty, leaves dying off.
That had been at first, and from there things had gotten wronger.
When Geralt realized what was happening, he went to the woods. He worried it had no longer become an issue of protecting himself until he managed to leave Darrow, but of protecting Darrow potentially from himself.
Whatever corruption existed in the forest, growing and spreading, it affected his body, and his mind. It had twisted itself around the witcher mutations, had expressed them in new ways, or simply more.
And so Geralt was back at his old camp. Hiding, biding time, and keeping a baleful eye on the situation. He ought to do something about it, but what? What could he do, when he didn't even understand what was happening to himself?
He sat beside the fire, hunkered over an evening meal in a foulest mood. His skin was paler than usual, dark veins standing out against the white. All of his senses screamed. He gripped his dinner in hands that had begun to end in blackened, pointed nails, that reminded Geralt too much of Regis. That was the bruxa in him, no doubt, a fact that he wanted to put little thought into, if he could avoid it.
The canines that filled his mouth too much more than they used to, those were likely more attributable to a manticore mutagen.
And the fact that he had made dinner of a squirrel, and had not felt the bother or desire to cook it, that Geralt wanted to put thought into even less.
At first Geralt had avoided the woods, because it felt like that off-ness was concentrated there. The birds and insects had gone quiet at first, and soon after they'd started to flee to the forest's edges. Though autumn had barely begun, in some areas Geralt found trees turning rusty, leaves dying off.
That had been at first, and from there things had gotten wronger.
When Geralt realized what was happening, he went to the woods. He worried it had no longer become an issue of protecting himself until he managed to leave Darrow, but of protecting Darrow potentially from himself.
Whatever corruption existed in the forest, growing and spreading, it affected his body, and his mind. It had twisted itself around the witcher mutations, had expressed them in new ways, or simply more.
And so Geralt was back at his old camp. Hiding, biding time, and keeping a baleful eye on the situation. He ought to do something about it, but what? What could he do, when he didn't even understand what was happening to himself?
He sat beside the fire, hunkered over an evening meal in a foulest mood. His skin was paler than usual, dark veins standing out against the white. All of his senses screamed. He gripped his dinner in hands that had begun to end in blackened, pointed nails, that reminded Geralt too much of Regis. That was the bruxa in him, no doubt, a fact that he wanted to put little thought into, if he could avoid it.
The canines that filled his mouth too much more than they used to, those were likely more attributable to a manticore mutagen.
And the fact that he had made dinner of a squirrel, and had not felt the bother or desire to cook it, that Geralt wanted to put thought into even less.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 02:58 am (UTC)She knew Inej was unquiet, and she could see and feel the tension in other people around Darrow - some more than others. Her tailor seemed exhausted; a young man she'd seen a few times looked downright haunted.
And she hadn't really seen Geralt in a week or so. She hadn't thought too much of it the first day or so: maybe he was out monster hunting. But his visits had been so regular before, and more frequent since they had decided to start a relationship, of a kind, that his absence was noticed.
He didn't answer his phone, either.
Finally Nina grabbed her shawl and headed out to the woods. Autumn had finally come to Darrow and the leaves crunched underfoot as she made her way to Geralt's camp. She had only been to it a handful of times - usually he came to see her.
She smelled the campfire and before long she caught the familiar rhythm of his heart... but something felt off, somehow. Nina grew more cautious as she approached. She wore a long, comfortable red dress with a dark cardigan to help keep warm. She didn't bother to try to hide her approach, not wanting to startle him.
"I should be mad at you," she said as she approached the fire. "Making me traipse all the way out here to make sure you aren't dead."
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:06 am (UTC)It wasn't leave or stay back, because Nina didn't deserve that, and anyway, it was too strong a statement for what Geralt was actually feeling, which was a sort of twisting, antisocial resignation. He simply didn't want to be seen.
Geralt dropped his head, hiding his face from Nina, and quickly wiped his hands in the leaf detritus at his feet where he sat on a dry log.
"I should have called you, Nina. I don't have an excuse."
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:15 am (UTC)Maybe Geralt didn't need anything from her, and maybe she should have just trusted that Geralt had good reason for vanishing. But she had worried, and now she had to see for herself that he was alright.
He wasn't.
She slid a bag off her shoulder and slowly came closer to the fire, though for the moment she kept it between them. It threw light on Geralt, for one thing. His fingers looked blackened and she could see the pallor in him even as he tried to hide his face.
"What's wrong?"
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:24 am (UTC)So he shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands, his fingers that ended in what looked more like thickened claws than a man's flat, neat fingernails.
"Something's happening out here. Some kind of magical corruption. The mutations have gone unstable. At least, it seems like it."
Geralt felt sick to the stomach for a moment. It was a cruel reminder of how very, very little he knew about his own body, and what had gone into making it that way. Every witcher alchemist had died in the pogroms, every witcher who had been at Kaer Morhen when it was attacked was gone.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:29 am (UTC)She sank down next to him and pulled one of his hands into her lap, unafraid. She let her fingers brush over his, feeling the bones in his fingers. Slowly she lifted her gaze to his face, the same concerned look there.
"This must be terrifying," she said quietly, full of sympathy but not pity. Geralt told her of his mutations, but feeling his body change like this, out of his control, must have been disconcerting at best and frightening at worst.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:36 am (UTC)"This has happened before. Twice. The first when I was eleven years old. I think I might have been terrified then, but ... "
He stared at his hand in Nina's lap. It felt like it didn't belong to him sitting there, but it was his.
"I've got work to do, and this is going to make it that much harder."
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:41 am (UTC)Her pale hair, her moon-white skin, and her white dress caught the dying light of the day when she caught the scent of fire, and of Witcher. But something was off there, as well. She had not encountered Geralt at his campsite in some time and she was surprised to realize he was there now, when the nights were chilly.
She changed course through the wood until she found the fire proper and his lean to. Even at this distance she could tell there was something different and she approached with natural caution.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:43 am (UTC)"Work?" she echoed. "What work?" Was there some contract or had he just found a way to keep himself occupied?
This close she realized his scent had changed. It wasn't unpleasant, per se, but it wasn't the same and that alone was worrying, never mind all the more visible changes in him.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 03:52 am (UTC)It made his blood surge behind his temples, and it made him hungry.
He gripped at his knees, thick nails digging in painfully. It was grounding, just enough.
"Amalthea, you should leave the whole forest. Get out of here."
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:01 am (UTC)"And somebody should be figuring out what's going on here, and fixing it. But that's ... I'm not suited to it, right now. There's got to be someone out there that actually understands all of this."
Geralt grimaced and pulled his hand away from Nina.
"It was hard enough getting people to cooperate enough to make things easier for me before."
Now, he dreaded leaving the cover of the trees, even if they seemed to be dying.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:01 am (UTC)She felt it even in the city; she felt it in her dreams. Even those had become more persistent: dreams of running and running and the heat of the fiery bull on her back. The cold feel of the surf around her legs. A castle falling into the sea. A prince.
She wished she could forget all of it.
"What has it done to you?"
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:07 am (UTC)So she wasn't going to just abandon him to suffering if she didn't have to.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:09 am (UTC)He raised his eyes to Amalthea. They were no more alien than they usually were, a single truth that Geralt found comforting. But his face had an even more unnatural pallor, a grey, where it had once been pink.
"Nothing that wasn't already done to me by men."
And that was the truth. Whatever was being expressed was already inside of him. It was no different, in a way, than balding, or freckles. An outward manifestation of a genetic truth.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:15 am (UTC)The idea made him a little sick. Like he was accusing himself of being a monster all along, which only a familiar, human face hid from sight.
"Is it safe for you?"
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:19 am (UTC)"Men have done their worst to both of us," she murmured. "All in the name of what? Being helpful?"
Amalthea rolled her eyes and squeezed her arms around her legs.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:24 am (UTC)Nina didn't think that trying to slow or ease the intensity of his mutations would hurt her. She might not even be successful. She didn't think some part of him could somehow rub off on her, and she doubted anything she felt would frighten her now.
And even if it did, she was a soldier, unflinching in her duty. She cared about Geralt and she was willing to endure horrors for people she cared for.
"At worst, I think, nothing will happen. At best I might be able to ease some of your... symptoms." She wasn't sure what else to call them.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:24 am (UTC)But Geralt could hear Lambert in the back of his mind, his anger, his hatred of all of the injustices that boys were brought to bear at Kaer Morhen. Destiny? That's bullshit, Geralt, and we both know it.
He picked up a long, thin stick of green wood and used it to stir the coals in the heart of the fire. He stared into it, pupils narrowing until practically disappeared in the yellows.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:30 am (UTC)He wouldn't argue, or give her a hard time or stubborn lip. Geralt was too tired for it that night anyway. It had been a long week.
Lifting a hand, he pulled one corner of his mouth up, revealing his gums, and leonine canine teeth that were looking very nearly too big to belong in his mouth. Of everything that was going on, it was not what disturbed him most, but the silliness of it was that, cosmetic though it was, it pissed Geralt off.
It made eating hard, and it made talking stupid.
"Can you start there?"
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:40 am (UTC)"I don't have my tailoring kit," she said with a soft sound of frustration. "I'll do my best. I've never done anything quite like this before, and I want to warn you that even if it does work... it might only be temporary. Something is causing this, and if it isn't inside of you then it needs to be resolved first."
And she hoped it would be. "Could you meditate? Or at least... just sit quietly and breathe deeply."
Nina seemed to do the same, but she kept her eyes open and before long her hands began to move in subtle, small gestures. She sought out places where the physical manifestations of his genetic mutations were seeming to go haywire.
Rather than focusing on one part of him, though, she tried to focus on the way his body was feeding into these mutations and making them... more. She tried to find the threads of it, to slow it down since she knew she couldn't cut them off. This wasn't like breathing lungs or a beating heart. THis was cellular. It moved too fast for her to stop it at the source but... but she could slow it down, maybe roll parts of it back.
Her fingers curled toward herself like she was coaxing something.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:48 am (UTC)But he did as Nina told him. He let his chin drop to his chest, his eyes close. Soon their breathing was matched. And it wasn't long until he felt a change, however subtle. Nina had managed to stop, or move back, some of what was happening. Geralt wasn't even certain of all of the ways in which it helped, because he wasn't certain to begin with what all had happened.
But by the time Nina was done, he'd gotten what he asked for. His mouth felt more normal. He could almost ignore the change.
The teeth, above all, had bothered him. Everything else, he could go about his daily business without notice. But the over-crowded feeling in his mouth had been constant and overwhelming.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:51 am (UTC)As she focused again she gave him a tired smile. "How does that feel?"
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 05:03 am (UTC)Which was good, because even witchers weren't immune from mouth ulcers.
"You okay?"
He looked at her dubiously, worried she might have wasted some finite energy on helping him like that. There might be someone who needed it more in the future. Things were seeming grim.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 05:15 am (UTC)Nina moved closer and more or less tucked herself into Geralt's lap so she could rest her head on his shoulder.
"You smell better."
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 05:25 am (UTC)Eventually, he settled his arms around her, the touch very light and uncertain. He tried his best to ignore how she smelled, which at the present was heady, a combination of her usual perfume, drifting from her hair, of woman, and of something that made Geralt deeply hungry, not to kiss her neck, but to tear into it.
"Was probably the manticore, or maybe some griffin. Some kind of hybrid. They have an ... odor. Like a tomcat."
Geralt wondered if he shouldn't hold her tighter, but his nerves were still shaken.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 05:31 am (UTC)"I started missing you," she admitted quietly. "Then I was annoyed, and then I got worried. Even if you end up smelling like a tomcat again before whatever this is passes, just... let me know you're alright. And I suppose if you need to disappear I'll try to let you."