How I think each Wolf responds to being Jaskier's sugar baby:
Geralt: lots of growling and glaring at the beginning. It takes years before they go from real protests to token ones. He tries to subtly do things for Jaskier in return, but every time the bard realizes what he's doing he doubles down on his pampering. It stresses Geralt out.
Eskel: he's surprised every time Jaskier gets him a book or new armor, even after years of knowing him. Always feels guilty for accepting it and tries to pay him back, which results in many lectures from the bard. It eventually devolves into the pair trying to sneak coins into the others packs.
Lambert: everything is a threat and must be treated with utmost suspicion. It takes a while before he realizes that the bard is actually genuine and has no ulterior motive, in which case he just gets extremely confused by it all. He has no idea what to do when Jaskier gives him something, so he ends up panicking and just giving the bard something in turn. Jaskier always accepts the young wolf's thank you gifts because he thinks it's sweet. Geralt, however, is very upset because Lambert keeps giving the bard bombs.
Vesemir: he does not want to be a sugar baby. He does not need to be a sugar baby. The bard, however, is an unreasonable little bird prone to flights of fancy and he won't stop hauling things up the bloody mountain for him. No amount of lecturing, growling, or reasoning can stop him. Nobody mentions it when the keep slowly becomes more bard friendly over the coming years. Vesemir is much to old for this.
Honorary mention:
Adien takes his job as sugar baby very seriously. He always accepts the bard's gifts with no complaint and he makes sure to suggest expensive things the bard can buy him. In turn, the Cat ruthlessly flirts with Jaskier, much to Lambert's and Geralt's pain.
okay, imagine with me, a very clishe Cowboy AU but each Wolf is living through their own genre/clishe plotline
Vesemir is a hardcore rancher. He's out there, working hard, talking about family values and how nothing in life is ever easy. His sons are his farmhands and although they turned out a bit weird, they all stick together, care for their ranch and their cattle like real men do. But surviving in the wilderness is hard work and when their rivalry rancher family, the Ketts (Cats) dare to intrude on their property things quickly turn for the worse! (His story comes with sooo many shots of the rising and sinking sun, closeups of cattle, birdseye view of cattle, a campfire, low angle shots of cattle, horses' eyes, another sunset, coffee, cattle, campfire, Vesemir standing on his porch, looking at the sunset) It turns out Vesemir and Guxart have a secret history! They grew up together as little rancher boys and felt something special between them but because they grew up as very manly rancher men they couldn't have possibly stayed "friends" so naturally they became rivals instead. But when they have to work together to save their ranches and the surrounding land and the cattle and their families and the whole town from an evil big corporate firm that wants to take over, they realize that they still lo- that they're still two very manly, tight-knitted friends. (staring at the sunrise together)
Geralt on the other hand is a horse whisperer. Vesemir insists that there is absolutely no such thing as a horse whisperer but Geralt can stand in a paddock of semi-feral horses and just breaaathe and the horses come and surround him in a perfectly meditative circle and breathe with him. (maybe that's just the autism, but we will never know)
Roach is either a rescue or a mustang, because of course she is and she will listen to no one except for Geralt who immediately knows her very soul as soon as they lock eyes. The only reason why he doesn't ride bareback in a white flowy dress, is because Vesemir taught him that horse whisperes don't exist and wearing a white flowy dress around cattle and semi-feral horses might not be the best idea. (The camera shows us horses brathing, noses twitching, long pretty eyelashes fluttering, more breathing, eye movements that show us the very soul of the horse, many long distance shots of horses slowly walking up to Geralt, his brothers sitting or leaning on the paddock/corral fence, shaking their heads in disbelief) And then one day a horse trailer pulls up to their ranch and Jaskier and his super rich kind of evil grandmother step out of the expensive white Jeep. And Jaskier's strict rich grandmother demands that Geralt fixes Jaskier's priced show jumping horse Pegasus which has been traumatized by... something to do with show jumping. And Geralt sees this terrified horse and this cranky rich grandmother and he doesn't want to help but grandmother is paying him a lot of money and of course they need that money to care for the ranch and oh, Jaskier is oh so pretty and he looks at Pegasus with tears in his eyes and Geralt can see the connection between Jaskier and his gelding and he can feeel the love. They spend days and nights together, trying to figure out what scares Pegasus so much and how to build enough trust with the horse so they can overcome these obstacles together. And Jaskier knows little about ranching but he has fun learning from geralt and the family and when they finally get Pegasus to jump over obstacles once again Jaskier smiles and laughs and together he and Pegasus look like they can fly. Geralt knows he has fallen in love but they can't possibly be together, because Jaskier needs to go back. But then Jaskier decides that he cares more about what is best for his horse than what his grandmother wants so he tells her to stick it when she comes back and then he lives with Geralt on the ranch and Pegasus and Roach can be happy little western trail horses forever and ever. And Jaskier gets his own cowboy hat.
Eskel is seemingly the most chill of the family. He's found his place and is happy with his life. He's the family's handyman, knows how to repair and build almost anything and is always willing to help out on the ranch and their neighbor's properties. He's well known in town for being a gentle, strong man who willingly helps old ladies carry groceries and who gets along with everyone. Vesemir has his ranch, Geralt has his horses and Eskel has his goats and chicken. And then, one day, he is in town when a newcomer makes their rounds. She's loud and bustling, fresh out of the city, wearing heels and dragging her luggage behind herself in a way that shows how utterly unprepared she is to be there. Turns out she got scammed: She thought she was buying this lovely old ranch house that she could easily turn around for some profit in a couple of weeks while she rethinks her wedding plans with her emotionally-absent fiancee. But the ranch she bought is a total mess and needs a lot more than a quick paint job to be worth anything. She's stubborn, though, and decides to stay in the house and do everything herself - even if she obviously has no idea what she's doing. So Eskel, known to be friendly, knowledgeable and quite the handyman, finds himself knocking on her door on a daily basis. (His camera shots include a lot of pretty landscapes, low shots from inside the local hardware store, artistically made timelapses) He teaches her about ranch life and she makes him laugh like he hasn't done since- Deidre! Turns out Eskel has a tragic past! And although he is friendly with everyone he has problems letting people into his life!!! And then, a day after they finally kiss in the kitchen of the house they built together, her fiancee shows up! Now she has to decide between two men and just when she's about to leave with her fiancee becuase leaving everything behind for a rancher she met only a few weeks ago would be totally crazy, she hears the news that little Bleater has gone missing and Eskel is out there searching for his beloved goat. So she ends up monologuing how life in the city isn't what her heart desires and she breaks the engagement off and tells Max/Mark/Marcus to go back to the city alone and then she comes running for Eskel and together they find little bleater and kiss in the light of the rising moon.
Lambert is a true rebel. Sure, he does his work around the ranch and he's actually really good at it, but he always insists on leaving one day and working in a big city. Instead of cowboy hats he wears leather jackets and earns extra money by working at the local auto repair shop, where he also fixes up his own very cool black motorcycle. One day he is begrudgingly riding his horse along their fence lines to check for damages, when he notices that a beat up truck has broken down on the dusty roadside and a handsome stranger is helplessly standing in front of it. Lambert of course, offers to take a look at it, but the car is beyond repair. So instead he pulls Aiden, who sheepishly introduces himself as one of the Kett family, up on his horse and together they ride to the Kett ranch. Lambert is regarded with much suspicion but he does work at the auto shop so he tells Aiden to call his boss to get his truck toed and fixed up. And despite knowing that their families are at odds, Aiden just keeps showing up when Lambert is working and keeps flirting with him. And Lambert slowly starts to understand that despite his wish to leave the ranch life behind, he actually holds everything Vesemir has taught him close to his heart and maybe it's less about leaving and more about finding his place on the ranch. (His part of the story comes with a lot of low shots, showing off how he and Aiden sneak through the darkness, meet up at night under the stars, pull each other into behind sheds and into tight nooks) Aiden has been away for a while, so he doesn't hold onto the family feud as much as the others but he doesn't want to stay a secret forever. Push comes to shove of course, and for a while they break up over it. But then it turns out that a corporation is trying to mess with the farmers so all of them pair up together to help out with the big cattle drive, meaning the Kett and Wilk family ride side by side again and Lambert can't stop yearning over Aiden until he finally mans up and promises no more hiding. They make up and then make out under the stars.
And all of this happens at the same time. All of their stories happen simultaneously. You have Vesemir cursing out the big corporation, while rich boy Jaskier moves into their guest room. Eskel stays behind when they go on the cattle drive to care for the ranch and continue helping with the fixer-upper. Jaskier realizes he and Pegasus are much happier out in the open when he joins the drive and Lambert finally realizes that he likes being a rancher when he and Aiden ride side by side.
We all know Aiden's Wolf is both a polyglot and really prone to cursing (Aiden would probably phrase it as 'Lam has a very talented tongue' and winking as suggestively as possible while he says it!)
-
I was inspired a little while back by this post about playing bingo with Witcher ships - there are a bunch of fun tropes common to LambertxAiden on one of the cards! I dunno if I'll make 'bingo' yet, but the idea for this popped into my mind when I looked at the card and I had to draw it!
(I apologize if any of the cursing doesn't make sense - I do not speak nearly as many languages and Lambert theoretically does and thus used a really quick and not-at-all-thorough google search to some up with placeholder text).)
