#kcd2 codex challenge

Drabble 107/272 part of my KCD2 Codex Challenge.

Category: Characters Main characters: Hans & Henry Relationship: Romantic TW: None

Hans wiped his hands down his ornate pourpoint to smooth the edges of the fabric. When he looked up, Henry was standing in front of him with an affectionate smile.

“Good luck today with the Italians,” he offered quietly, fingers deftly fastening the final buttons near Hans’ neck. “You’ll do great.”

Hans wanted nothing more than to turn around and spend the rest of the afternoon with Henry rather than those uptight nobles. All they did was fight to see who can be the most passive aggressive and take pride in being absolutely boring. But at least they were planning on meeting up later tonight. That would have to keep him motivated.

Henry smiled, and Hans felt like swooning all over again.

Henry’s eyes lit up playfully. “Remember back at Ruthards? La tua bellezza mi abbaglia. Do you remember what it means?”

Hans lit up with a bashful smile and he dropped his head. “Henry… I have a confession. When you told me that, I… I already knew what it meant.”

Henry’s brow furrowed in a frustratingly cute way. “You did?”

“Yes. And when I heard it from you… I really liked hearing it, but I panicked and asked what it meant. I knew it meant a lot more than I looked good. Brabant – that treacherous scumbag – has a mouth that just won’t stop, so he ended up telling me that he had taught you some Italian to impress a lady. Said you wanted to flatter someone.”

Henry took Hans’ hand. “You’re the only one I told it to. And I meant it.”

He leaned in and the two of them shared a brief kiss.

Drabble 63/272 part of my KCD2 Codex Challenge.

Category: Society Main characters: Henry & Hans Relationship: Romantic TW: None

Henry tossed and turned on the pile of sheets he was given as a bed. Having snuck into an enemy camp under false pretenses, their presence was accepted, and Henry was shown to this raggedy tent. Hans on the other hand would be treated better with accommodations in the centre of the camp where the rest of the nobles and commanders could rest up in luxury.

Footsteps slowly crunched outside his tent, and Henry immediately tensed up. He had to stay on guard to ensure their cover wasn’t blown. What if that was a guard outside, waiting to rip him from bed? What if it was someone he’d come across who was looking for revenge?

A faint shadow danced beneath the fabric, spreading out across the beaten ground.

Henry sat up and took his dagger out from underneath the pillow, wrapping a careful grip around the handle.

If something were to happen, he’d have to get to Hans no matter what and get the two of them out of there.

Hans-

All of a sudden, the tent flap was pulled open.

Hans.

Hans?

Hans quickly let the fabric drop behind him as he stepped inside.

“Hans?” Henry questioned in a whisper, slowly lowering his arm until the dagger was back in his lap. “What are you doing?”

Hans glanced over his shoulder briefly before making his way to Henry. “I wanted to see you,” he answered easily.

Without hesitation, he gestured for Henry to move over and shimmied himself onto the bed. Henry immediately wrapped Hans up in his arms like he always did, and Hans slowly dipped his hands underneath Henry’s tunic to find a spot against his bare back. He buried his face into Henry’s neck.

“This won’t be as comfortable,” Henry joked quietly. “Certainly not whatever fancy tents you have at the top of the hill.”

“I don’t care,” Hans mumbled. After a moment of content silence, he spoke up again. “I need to say this now before I lose all desire to.”

“What’s that?”

“I can’t sleep here tonight.” Henry could feel the disappointment in Hans’ body. “I know we’re leaving early tomorrow morning, and if I fall asleep right here, in your arms, I worry that I won’t wake up in time. And they’ll find me missing from my bed, and they might find us here, and if they see me coming from the lower camp they might get suspicious, and just… things will get all mixed up. But I still wanted to see you before we left. I can stay ten minutes.”

As Hans was speaking, Henry danced gentle fingers across the back of his neck and head. “Just ten minutes?” Henry replied with an affectionate smirk. “Surely we can make it twenty?”

“Twenty it is then.”

Drabble 94/272 part of my KCD2 Codex Challenge.

Category: Society Main characters: Samuel, Henry, & John Relationship: Romantic, Familial TW: None

“What are you waiting for!” Samuel demanded furiously.

Sitting smugly at the head of the table, Jobst linked his hand in front of his mouth. “I’m thinking…” he muttered, his eyes far away.

“Thinking about what?” Samuel jittered with frustration, and a wave of desperation was impossible to fight back against. “Of course you’re going to pay the ransom! After everything he’s done for you.”

“We can wait. We can put into action the last bit of intel he gave us. And we don’t want to be spending unnecessarily given the campaign…”

“It’s not unnecessary!” Samuel shouted, the cups rattling when he slammed a fist into the table. “It’s for his life!”

At this outburst, Jobst soured, and he narrowed his eyes.

“Henry!” he barked, turning his annoyed attention to the man that had been silently standing in the corner. “Control your fucking dog!”

“Who are you calling a dog?!” Samuel roared.

As he angrily tried to strut forward, Henry pulled him back. Limbs flew and Samuel spit insults at the margrave while Henry tried to wrestle him out the door. Once Jobst was out of view and the two of them were alone in the entryway, the disgust that fueled Samuel’s anger disintegrated away, leaving him worried and sick.

“Sam…” Henry said quietly. “You need to calm down. This isn’t helping.”

“What’s not helping is Jobst refusing to pay for John’s ransom!” Samuel cried out. “Every second is putting his life at risk!”

“He’s a noble,” Henry reassured. “They won’t kill him.”

“There’s a lot of horrible things you can do to a person that isn’t death. And if Jobst delays any longer, the Cumans are going to think Jobst won’t pay at all. What use is a noble if no one will pay for him! If they think no one cares, they’ll just kill him like the rest of us to avoid another mouth to feed.”

Samuel suddenly deflated again, and exhaustion washed over him, a blanket of concrete weighing upon his shoulders. He clenched his fist.

“I can’t…” Samuel whimpered quietly. “I can’t lose him, Henry.”

In defeat, he stepped forward and slumped into Henry’s arms, face pressed into his shoulder.

“I know…” Henry replied calmly. “We’ll get him. I promise. And if Jobst waits any longer, you and I will go into that castle and get him ourselves, okay?”

Samuel raised his head. “You’re willing to do that? Even if it’s impossible?”

“Of course. You’re my brother. We’re going to get John back no matter what.”

Drabble 35/272 part of my KCD2 Codex Challenge.

Category: Character Main characters: Henry & Hans Relationship: Romantic TW: None

“Thirteen children!” Henry exclaimed incredulously.

“Uh huh…” Hans muttered, tapping his finger next to the sentence in the book so it was easier for Henry to find what he was looking at. “And a serial habit for marriage. He had four wives.”

“At once? I can’t imagine how he handled that. One woman seems like enough for me.”

Hans chuckled. “Not all at once. I’m sure the church would have lost its shit if the King of Bohemia was frolicking about with unfetted sin and polygamy. The church can’t think of anything worse than desiring the flesh of another.”

“I understand the temptation…”

“Wenceslas is from his third wife, and Sigismund is from his fourth. And… well… lots of daughters I’m sure he wasn’t too happy about. Only Elizabeth of Pomerania saw him to the end of his life.”

But all of a sudden, Hans whipped his head up and forcefully snapped the book closed.

“Wait! What do you mean one woman is enough for you?” he demanded. Who are you talking about? And who’s flesh are you tempted by? Henry! Come back here!”

Drabble 119/272 part of my KCD2 Codex Challenge.

Category: Characters Main characters: John & Samuel Relationship: Romantic TW: Suggestive

Lying overtop of his body, John propped himself up against Samuel’s bare chest. The eyes of the man underneath glimmered affectionately as he lazily ran his fingers through John’s loose curls.

“We could get away for a while,” John said wistfully. “Head back to Austria to one of my family’s estates.”

“One of… You have so many you can choose?”

“I can find an empty one somewhere.”

Samuel dragged his hand across John’s lower back. “How would your family react if they knew you’d found yourself in the bed of a lowly Jewish man? Which part of me would they hate the most?”

John cupped the side of Samuel’s face. “The rest of the world is outside those doors. The politics, and war, and suffocating expectations. None of that is in here when it’s just you and me. I don’t care that you come from a common family.” He leaned in and kissed Samuel’s cheek. “And I don’t care that you’re a Jew.” He pressed his lips to the other one. “And as for that last fact…” His eyes dropped to Samuel’s mouth before greedily taking in his fit body. “Well… I like that fact very much.”

Drabble 17/272 part of my KCD2 Codex Challenge.

Category: Crafts Main characters: Adder, Henry, & Hans Relationship: Platonic TW: Sexual content

Henry and Hans walked through the baths across from the Devil’s Den. The bathhouse keeper scrubbed at a pair of braies in her lap and looked up, offering a smile. Henry politely nodded back. A few people milled around on benches or through the flash of an open tent door as bathmaids attended to their duties. Someone moaned in the distance.

“Where could he be…” Hans muttered.

But all of a sudden, they both turned at the same time towards a distinct voice.

A Polish one.

Hans walked over to the tent and yanked open the curtain.

Upon seeing the scene, Henry and Hans were frozen in a half second of disbelief before they both let out an uncontrollable noise and turned away.

Adder was certainly in this tent.

Along with three other women – two upon his hands and a third to keep his mouth busy.

It was quite impressive how each seemed… sufficiently satisfied.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Adder!” Hans cried out. “Three? No wonder it’s taking me forever to get my hood back!”

Adder smirked.

Drabble 103/272 part of my KCD2 Codex Challenge.

Category: General Main characters: Samuel & John Relationship: Platonic TW: Violence

The man struggled against his restraints, Samuel towering over him menacingly while John stood behind him. In an abandoned barn in a field, no one would hear him scream. And no one knew where he was.

“Where’s the envoy?” Samuel demanded, grabbing his hair and forcing his head up.

“Please…” the man stuttered in terror. “Please… don’t hurt me-don’t kill me.”

John rolled his eyes. “So now you’re suddenly against capital punishment? Where was this morality when your people killed Jacques de Molay? Or Petronilla de Meath? I hear you’re salivating for Jan Hus now. Your kind kill in the name of God but will not die for him.”

“God will reward me for my just actions against those that denounce Him!” the man sputtered, words frantic and panicked.

“You work for the church,” Samuel replied, annoyed. “Not God.”

The man’s eyes hardened. “You will all be punished! You devils! You heretics!”

Samuel smirked. “I’m a fucking Jew. Your rules don’t apply to me.”

“We’ll smite them all down!” he continued, barely paying attention to what Samuel was saying. “All the sects, and deviants, and witchcraft, and blasphemy, and defamation, and cross-dressing, and sodomy-”

Samuel swung his sword down upon the man’s head in a quick strike, his words ending abruptly as he slumped over.

Samuel stared at the bleeding man for a second in silence. “The world is better off. And we weren’t getting anything out of him.”

“Well… certainly not anymore…”

This was personal challenge I set out to do that took two months to complete. I desire to explore the kcd2 world and wanted to write in it, but diving into something completely different than what I knew was daunting. There were so many intricacies to the setting, the landscape, the time period, the religion, the society, the politics, the atmosphere, etc. that I didn't know where to start. Therefore, I wanted to give myself a fun playground to work with and take the pressure off myself to know everything immediately.

I decided that I would write one drabble that was (sometimes loosely) inspired by every single codex entry in kcd2 - of which there were 272. My writings range from a few paragraphs to a page or two.

I had a lot of fun doing it and I'm glad that I steadily worked towards the goal I had set and achieved it! It provided a great excuse to practice creating bite-sized vignettes of the world, as well as get the feel for character dynamics, relationships, and desires (with a heavy hansry lean).

And now I will begin sharing these drabbles here for everyone to enjoy! To read them from the beginning, start here.

The six main categories are:

General

Characters

Society

Crafts

Events

Locations