#exrayspex

Y’all can have ONE more prompt tonight. As a treat.

64. Violet bruised eyes + 40. Gritty eyes when you stare into fire too long

Neither of them have been able to sleep. They're not talking about it.

"Pass me the waterskin?"

"Hm."

It's been...almost three days. Geralt caves first.

"Come over here."

"Huh?" Jaskier pulls the waterskin away from his lips, rubs at his mouth with the back of his hand. The crescents under his eyes are dark violet, like a bruise.

"Come here."

Jaskier stiffens. "Why."

"Because," Geralt huffs out, exhausted, "I'm tired. And I'm tired of pretending." It's one part guilt, two parts sleep deprivation. Jaskier hasn't curled at his back in three nights.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jaskier assures, but his hands shake as he caps the waterskin, sets it aside. They've both been affected by the change in sleeping arrangements, the painful awkwardness that hangs in the air. It reflects in the bags under Jaskier's eyes, the snappish edge to Geralt's voice.

It had been one kiss. Jaskier had been a little drunk, had been a little too handsy, and Geralt had been...enjoying it. He'd let it go too far and Jaskier had...kissed him. Full on the mouth, sloppy and sweet like the wine they'd been drinking, and Geralt had frozen. He'd taken too long to respond and Jaskier had pulled away and apologized.

Nothing's been the same since.

"Please," he whispers, eyes burning. It's from staring into the fire too long, he tells himself. It's not the fear that Jaskier will disappear the minute they reach the next town, still thinking Geralt doesn't want him.

Jaskier exhales noisily. "Geralt--"

"Please," he repeats, voice small. He doesn't want to hear Jaskier say it's okay. It's not okay. It hasn't been okay in days.

He sighs again, but he stands, comes to a stop in front of Geralt.

"What?" he asks when Geralt tips his head back to look at him. He shifts a little, nervous.

Geralt holds out his hand, tentative. He's worried Jaskier won't take it, will pull away. Instead, he just rolls his eyes and, after a brief hesitation, catches his fingers in his own, squeezes gently.

"What do you want, Geralt?"

"You," he says, tugs him gently forward and down into his lap, "and I didn't mean to make you think I didn't."

"Geralt--" he trails off, voice catching, but he lets himself be held, cradled against Geralt's chest, strong arms around his back.

"You...it scares me, Jaskier," he whispers into the top of his hair, "how badly I want you." He presses a kiss to the top of his head, unable to help himself. "And I miss you."

"I'm right here," he says, voice watery. His lips brush Geralt's throat, a barely there kiss.

He cups his face in one broad palm, runs the pad of his thumb under the dark circle under his eye. "You know what I mean."

Jaskier gives a shaky sigh. "I miss you, too."

Geralt kisses him first, this time. It's slow and hesitant, careful like he's always been with Jaskier. It's so important he gets this right. Jaskier gasps against his lips, fists curling in the linen of his shirt, tugging just a little, just that much closer.

They part on a gasp but don't go far. Jaskier presses his forehead against Geralt's, keeps his eyes closed. "Tell me I'm not dreaming," he begs, voice rough in a way that makes Geralt's gut burn.

[I’m still going through responses to the askmeme from way last week ago, I am really enjoying drawing it out and thanks y’all for indulging me. :)]

I really had so much fun with that. Little Fishie was originally intended to be rather a short story, but when I got to the end of that first bit and Geralt still hadn’t explained the meaning of the horse’s name to Jaskier, I realized that it should be the punchline, and I should have it come at some moment of tremendous duress, and, well. It kind of snowballed, the story’s over 40k.

I think the part I liked most was having an excuse to write Geralt laughing so hard he couldn’t speak. You don’t get a lot of that with him, and I was just delighted I could plausibly manage it.

(Also it was a fantastic excuse to have an outsider POV of Geralt being dramatic as fuck, literally dying and blood everywhere and he’s so blasé about it.)

“That’s the solution to the riddle,” Jaskier said. “The riddle that I don’t know what the riddle even  was. The riddle you had to tell me on your deathbed! But only the answer to! Are you trying to kill me now?”

Gerat was laughing too hard now to answer, and only a small coughing fit finally reined him in. “Come on,” he said, a little feebly, waving a hand, “come on, Jaskier. What did I promise to tell you, but only if you lived? What have you been pestering me to know, for literal years now?”

“I don’t know!” Jaskier said, flinging his hands wide. “Why are you laughing? What’s so funny?”

“Come on,” Geralt said. “You taught me all of those poetical terms about it.”

“Poetical terms,” Jaskier said, baffled.

Geralt considered it, now. To name a horse after a notable foodstuff she preferred, was that a metaphor? “I suppose it is metonymy,” he said.

“Roach,” Jasker shouted suddenly, and it was a good thing horses didn’t particularly care about answering to their names. It was also a good thing there weren’t likely to be necrophages in these woods, or anything else for that matter, because they could have heard him for miles. “Oh by the  gods, that’s it? That’s  it? She  eats  them?”

“She eats them,” Geralt said.

“Aargh,” Jaskier said, flinging his arms wide, and then flopping back against the log he had his back propped against. “Argh oh by Melitele’s  tits  I can’t believe you made me wait  years  for that stupid punchline!”

Thanks, lovely!!

2- Do you name your wip before, during, or after writing? It definitely depends on the wip. Good as Gold almost didn't have a proper title even when I posted the first chapter, cat!jask has a title and I've written less than 2k for it. I have another fic that I haven't even finished plotting but it has a title. Though, I will say I am LUCKY if a fic has a title prior to posting.

16- Post a plot twist to a wip of your choice, but don’t say what wip it’s in I don't know that any of my fics have plot twists in them? I'm not clever enough for that.

Ahh thank you so much! <3

I know a couple of people with those pod-style coffee makers, and using french presses or coffee dripper thingies, but by and large I guess most people just use instant coffee (I ahhh really hate coffee unless its mixed with piles of hot chocolate powder so I am not an expert, lol)

30. Ever drink from the toilet? i keep my toilet lids down because i’m not an animal

67. Describe why they are precious. there’s literally no other cat out there like him, for better or for worse. when i first met him i was working in a clinic & he came in with horrible injuries (likely burns) from abuse/neglect. but the reason i fell in love with him was because he was absolutely the sweetest, most affectionate cat i’d ever met, even when he was terribly ill. he just wanted to rub his disgusting wounds all over you. how could i resist that.

So I don’t know much about Neverwinter Online and I was like “warlock seems like an odd choice for Shayera Thal” but then I looked up the game’s classes and:

The Scourge Warlock in the Neverwinter MMORPG is a character class focused on tearing into a single powerful enemy. They have some powers that affect multiple creatures but the true power of the Scourge Warlock shines when they are focused on a single enemy. They can’t withstand a lot of punishment but can deal a lot of damage. Scourge Warlocks make ideal characters for players that want to focus on the most powerful of enemies to both damage and weaken them.

so that actually sounds basically exactly right! Hawkwoman in a game like that should be an offensive character, and depending on your interpretation of the comics probably something of a glass cannon.