Essi gasped awake in the dark of her bedroom as the howling wind buffeted the solid stone walls of Kaer Trolde in vain. The only sounds apart from the relentless gale were her own heavy breathing and the blood pounding in her ears. She took a deep breath and reached for the cup of water on the nightstand.
“Mmm, bad dreams, lover?” The blankets rustled as warm lips pressed to the back of Essi's shoulder.
“Yes. But you should go back to sleep,” she said plainly, taking a deep breath and a deeper drink.
“I’m not partial to sleeping while my bedmate’s in turmoil, thank you very much.” An Craite nosed at the back of Essi’s ear and snaked an arm around her waist. The warm pressure against the poet’s back was firm and reassuring, and her breath eased a little from her chest, settling somewhere a little lower.
“I’m not in turmoil, Cerys. It was just a dream. I’ll be alright.”
“Aye,” Crach’s daughter began to traverse the tender landscape of Essi’s neck, “you will. But why play the hero when you don’t have to? Besides, how do you know I wasn’t already awake?”
“I heard you stir! You’re hardly subtle about waking up,” Essi smirked, turning her head towards her lover's lips.
“And I suppose I should scold you for not being quiet about being frightened awake.” Their lips quietly slotted together, both tasting of early morning and the remains of bedtime mead. Cerys tilted her head fondly, surveying Essi’s frizzy halo of pillow-mussed golden hair. She was beautiful like this: sleep-pliant and puffy-eyed, her usual veneer of coy inscrutability set aside for the time being to show the soft, messy chaos that dwelled beneath it.
*vibrating at a probably inhuman frequency* Aro Eskel???? 👀👀👀👀 (Heronfem's Beginner's Guide has me craving more aro Eskel whoops)
I do not know what this Heronfem’s Beginner’s Guide is???
I am sure there must be other takes on Aro Eskel but this excitement now has me worried that I won’t do it justice, lol.
Edited to add: OHHHHH you mean A Beginner’s Guide to Exploiting the Kaedweni Tax Code For Fun and Profit
Yeah I’m reading that one but somehow Eskel being aro was not the most salient feature of the story, for me-- listen, there’s a lot of worldbuilding in that story and I was mostly taken in by Lambert in a stunning ballgown, okay.
All y’all who’ve enjoyed my nonbinary Lambert, there’s a really fully-realized modern A/U NB Lambert with a super interestingly worldbuilt modern Continent in that story, btw, and it updates regularly and is fantastic.
@childoffantasy wanted hand kink and so it was born
Not on my computer so no snippets lmao but Geralt massages Jaskier's hands and Jaskier gets horny about it. Luckily for him Geralt is also horny about it lmao
childoffantasy replied to your post “tienriu replied to your post “So I don’t know a lot about “The Fae”...”
....Return Of Hydrocodone Midnight Theatre??????
LOL, sadly no, I didn’t get any of the Good Shit for my concussion (didn’t really need any, so that’s neither here nor there). But marijuana is legal for recreational use in Chicago now, so once the crowds die down and supply is a little more steady, there may be some Edibles Midnight Theatre :D
kimmiesue13 reblogged your photo and added:
Your catsle, if you will
I SEE WHAT U DID THERE AND I APPRECIATE IT
niennanir replied to your post “starkwest replied to your post “So I don’t know a lot about “The Fae”...”
yeah, a lot of this is extremely modern and western European and possibly not accurate. If you want to take a dunk in the fae worlds but not wade in too deep I'm going to recommend George MacDonald's <i>Phantastes.</i>
Well, I don’t mind stuff being recent, precisely, I just like to know what is and what isn’t, you know? Like if I’m going to bite a living author’s style I want it to be intentional :D But I’m starting to figure it out -- the more I learn about specific terminology the easier it is to follow it back to its source.
prof-elsie replied to your post “tienriu replied to your post “So I don’t know a lot about “The Fae”...”
You need to look at Tam Lin, if you haven’t already.
You know, I feel like it’s some kind of curse, but I’ve never been able to read Tam Lin. Even trying to read summaries I just GET SO BORED. And I don’t think Tam Lin is in and of itself boring! I just can’t stand it. (I actually have already written a scene in which Sly Devil is like “No, I DON’T own a copy of Tam Lin, that’s for a REASON, it’s RUBBISH” and his apprentice mimes clutching her pearls in shock.)
owlsongsandgoblinlaughs replied to your post “starkwest replied to your post “So I don’t know a lot about “The Fae”...”
everything that person told you is an elaborate fiction no more than 200 years old at best.
Be fair, Titania as a fairy queen shows up in Shakespeare and that’s 400 years old. :D
yee-jun replied to your post “tienriu replied to your post “So I don’t know a lot about “The Fae”...”
You abbreviated Sly Devil to Dev so now my brain has fancast Dev Patel...
Honestly that’s kind of where my brain went too. :D
drgaellon replied to your post “tienriu replied to your post “So I don’t know a lot about “The Fae”...”
Naproxen isn't Advil, Sam, though it is related. Naprosyn = naproxen. Advil = Motrin = ibuprofen.
Dammit! I can never keep them straight. I only ever try to use the brand names because when I say “Naproxen sodium” people look at me like I just claimed to be an alchemist :D I can’t help it, we always bought the generic stuff so I don’t know any of the brand names. I guess Aleve is Naproxen, and I just never get the A names right.
POV — something that’s already happened, retold from another character’s perspective
oh i’m so glad you did this one i literally already had one in mind from when i read through that ask game. from one of the next fics in the fire and powder verse, working title currently km2. i’ll put the part i’m doing in original (eskel) perspective first for context, since km2 hasn’t been posted. under the cut!
And at first, Eskel doesn’t recognize the tune Lambert starts to play. Or – no, he recognizes it, it’s one of Jaskier’s songs, but he can’t name it. Until Lambert starts trying to sing.
Lambert cannot sing.
That’s apparently not about to stop him, as he belts out the chorus to Toss A Coin, horribly off key even as he plays it correctly. At first, Eskel laughs – it is, objectively, hilarious. His brother looks like an idiot, with a lute in his lap that looks too small in his hands, playing a song they all tolerate and hate in turns, and singing like a particularly powerful banshee. He’s certain Jaskier will laugh, too, because he always does when Lambert tries to sing – when any of them try to imitate his art. It’s always made him laugh.
Eskel turns to find Jaskier isn’t laughing, and his stomach drops to his boots.
Jaskier’s eyes are wide, and full of unshed tears that sparkle in the firelight. His hands are tight on his knees, white-knuckled, nails making tiny little holes in the fabric. He’s shaking.
“Jaskier,” Eskel says, voice half a croak, and the bard is suddenly moving.
He bolts to his feet, wiping a hand across his face as the tears finally spill over. “I’m – it’s not – you’re just,” he splutters, voice wavering, “I just can’t – I’m sorry.” With that, he turns and runs from the room, footsteps thudding in the direction of the rooms.
Lambert’s lute makes an odd, hollow noise as it slips from his hands to the floor. The sound jolts Eskel out of the haze of shock, and he scrambles to his feet after Jaskier; Lambert follows a split second later.
so that scene, from jaskier’s perspective this time:
Jaskier recognizes the tune Lambert’s playing immediately. Of course he does -- it’s his song, the one that started his path to fame. One of his favorite songs he’s ever written, in fact, except -- except --
He feels the way his nails dig into his legs, the ache from how tightly he’s gripping, but he can’t stop himself. He can’t stop the tears, either, the flood of them he can feel gathering in his eyes. But even worse, he can’t seem to look away from Lambert, either, or move.
Lambert looks so happy, so proud of himself, belting the chorus to Toss A Coin loudly and horribly, and Jaskier wants to laugh. He wants to be able to laugh, to take joy in this little thing. He knows Lambert just wants to see him smile, but....
All he can think of is his first winter here, sitting where Lambert is sitting now, thrilled at the stories and all the songs he could write about them. Thrilled to just be there, to be included in this inner sanctum, to be so clearly loved. He remembers Lambert, drunk, humming the first few bars, starting to sing; the laughter that had bubbled in his chest before he did just that. The joy and humor he felt when Geralt swore from two rooms over, but when he and Eskel returned, he was smiling.
“Jaskier,” Eskel says, something broken in his voice, and suddenly Jaskier cannot take it any longer.
The tears spill over when he moves. He wipes angrily at his face; he doesn’t want to do this, doesn’t want them to see this. “I’m – it’s not – you’re just,” he can’t even speak, can’t string together the words to assure them that it’s not their fault, it’s his. “I just can’t – I’m sorry.” He doesn’t wait to see what they look like, or to hear what they might say; he turns and he runs, wanting more than anything to save them the heartache of watching him collapse like this. They don’t deserve the burden.
