#book!witcher

[littlestsnicket]

"He didn't get much from it," he muttered. "He didn't get much from our friendship. He had little but trouble because of me. He constantly had to get me out of some scrape... help me..."' She leaned across the table, put her hand over his and squeezed it hard without saying anything. Her eyes held regret.

Blood of Elves

this makes me insane. totally and completely insane.

[they-reap-what-we-sow]

jaskier in curlers

a few thoughts inspired by @justanotherqueerboy telling me that book jaskier is A) blonde B) curly haired C) CURLS HIS OWN HAIR

jaskier forgetting to/can't curl, and confusing the shit out of geralt

jaskier curling GERALT'S hair as a disguise/ for fun

jaskier getting hurt and he can't curl his own hair so geralt does it for him because he doesn't want him to feel like he's incapable

and then we needed some angst sooooo

jaskier getting kidnapped and held for days, and geralt coming to his rescue. jaskier is bloody and tired and broken and hurt but when they get back to the inn, the first thing jaskier reaches for is his curlers. his hands tremble and the blood dripping off of them make the metal bits hard to hold but if he can just wrap him hair up, if he can put together just that much, it's one part of him that he can control, that he can have for himself. days of thugs beating and whipping his body, tearing and muddying his clothes, controlling and terrorizing his mind. 

 he can't fix any of that right now. but he can fix his hair

and then maybe some more

when Geralt finally found him, the bard had almost been unrecognizable. anyone but the witcher wouldn't even have noticed the crumpled pile of his body, lying abandoned in the clearing where the bandit had once been. his once immaculate clothes were torn to shreds,  covered with mud and what looked like dried blood. his vibrant eyes were glassed over, looking nothing like the endless skies that Geralt could often see in them. his hands, those very same that Jaskier claimed had been blessed by the goddesses themselves, lay bent and broken against his side. geralt remembered the way they danced across the strings of his lutes, and strength with which they massaged injuries, and he clenched the sword in his hand tighter. 

 there was no more threat to jaskier. the bandits had long since left him lying here, moved on to other targets. geralt could hear jaskier in his head, urging him to go after them, make sure they didn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. but that voice was only in his head. his jaskier, no the jaskier in front of him was motionless on the ground, a stuttered rise and fall of his chest the only sign that his heart was still beating. a gentle huff of air  broke from his lips, and the dust by his face rose and settled slowly.

 geralt breathed in once, storing his fury aside, to be opened later, when he had an effective object of it's force, and sheathed his sword. he gathered his the bard in his arms, and carried him back to roach. the horse whinnied softly, and took off at a gentle pace back toward the town where jaskier had been taken from. the inn where he was supposed to be safe, where geralt left him alone to protect him from the monster he was hunting. 

 geralt kept forgetting the worst monsters were the humans around them.

[ub-sessed]

Since y'all have been very kindly posting your favourite quotes from the Witcher books, I have noticed that there seem to be two English translations out there. For example:

I quite prefer the first translation in these two examples. Can any of you who have read/are reading the books tell me which translation is by which translator? I want to make sure I buy the right one.

[littlestsnicket]

wip tuesday

thanks for tagging me @astaldis !

i am, as of rereading the relevant part of blood of elves and spending literal hours doing rewrites because i finally managed to put my finger on what it wasn’t quite working, finally making forward progress on the yendelion fic! (just have to finish writing the sex. yes, this is where i thought i was when i set my writing goals for the week but i know what the sex is supposed to achieve now so i mean it this time.)

snippet:

“I’m in your debt and you’re responsible for me,” Dandelion said, easily looping back to earlier in their conversation. “I suppose that’s the purpose of the Law of Surprise—to tie this sort of mess up with a neat bow.”

“Perhaps. Should I claim it?”

“I don’t mind—being in your debt, that is—as much as I would have thought. I can’t imagine I have much you would want, surprise or otherwise. And,” Dandelion’s expression shifted from serious to impish in a blink, “if you used the traditional formalism, you might be left waiting a very long time for me to return home.”

“You shouldn’t show your hand like that.”

Dandelion shrugged. “You’ve always had the advantage, I don’t suspect it matters much.”

Yennefer studied him with a frown. “Regardless, I accept your earlier offer. You may repay me in song. It is what your life is worth.”

“Others might take that as an insult, my lady, but song is my life’s purpose.”

tagging: @whoslaurapalmer @gellavonhamster (i have your one piece fic open in a tab waiting for me to read the comics or be in the specific fey mood where one can read fic that they know basically nothing about the source material) and anyone else who wants to play :)

[littlestsnicket]

ok but false ciri fic? i want false ciri fic about her and emhyr’s loveless, and more than kind of fucked up, but also mutually agreeable marriage. all about her feeling out where the boundaries of this relationship are and learning how to wield the power she does have.

and her parasocial (that’s not really the right world but it’s the closest one i can think of) relationship with the real ciri.

and whatever happens to her after emhyr’s death.

i feel like this is not too much to ask. but i don’t have time to do it myself.

[littlestsnicket]

the important thing about dandelion in terms of his relationship with geralt later through the series is that in time of contempt, dandelion goes with geralt with a specific intention, and that intention is to make sure geralt isn’t alone. dandelion is there to forcibly stop geralt from self isolating even if it makes geralt furious with him, to make friends for geralt when geralt is at his worst and most ornery, but geralt doesn’t need dandelion to maintain those friendships. people that get to know geralt like him even when he’s being difficult.

geralt makes an active effort to leave dandelion in toussaint, and because geralt doesn’t try to go alone, dandelion lets him. he’s done what he set out to do, and i think having that sense to safety reminds dandelion of what his strengths are and what he can and cannot do for geralt.

he would follow geralt to his death, under the right circumstances, but he doesn’t have to. they all know that’s what the hansa is doing, really, and i’m sure dandelion’s feelings about it are messy and complex, but i don’t think guilt is a significant factor.

[littlestsnicket]

a huge part of book!yen’s character is how fucking alone she is. she’s not really involved in the thanned plot and then all the sides decided to declare her an enemy because they don’t know where she stands.

she’s practically forced to join the lodge, and immediately decides they don’t have her best interest at heart, as can’t stomach trying to improve her position through politicking.

when she goes to try to save ciri, she does it alone. she calls in favors, not calls for allies.

to be at that point, despite her power and competence, her story, her background, has to be one of betrayal. it really really does.