#[twn] hard thoughts

[hall0ween-twn]

“aww.. look at you. cock barely stretched you out and you’re already moaning like a whore. thought of me watching you get fucked by this cock turning you on? dripping all over the bed and we’ve barely started. wish it was daddy’s cock instead? i know baby but you wanted this, wanted me to watch you get fucked stupid by the machine, right? sounding so pretty baby. gonna pump that pretty pussy of yours full of cum. you like the sound of that? want to get bred by daddy’s cum? can see you tighten around that cock. don’t worry, i wish it was my cock getting wet too. what was that? my cock feels better? of course it does baby, it’s daddy’s cock. be good and take this fat load and i’ll consider giving you what you want.”

[wren-of-the-woods]

Criminally Underused Bird Nicknames for Jaskier

I love "Lark" as much as the next Witcher fic reader, but there are so many more options we could explore! Here are a few:

Jay / Bluejay This one has excellent potential because 1) jays are incredibly beautiful, colorful, intelligent, and social and 2) their songs are terrible. (Examples here, here, and here.) As such, it'd be perfect for a fond-yet-teasing nickname for Jaskier. Plus, it sounds like the first letter of his name!

Magpie Magpies are corvids like jays, so they're similar in many ways. This one has the extra connotations of collecting shiny things for bonus fun teasing <3

Sparrow Sparrows have lovely songs! They tend not to be very colorful, but they're very cute and the name sounds endearing. I've seen this one used in fic occasionally and I like it!

Sanderling Sanderling is an adorable name for an adorable bird -- they're little sandpipers that run around on beaches! It works perfectly as a reference to Jaskier's role as the Sandpiper and I think it's really sweet.

Peep Peep is a general term for the smallest few species of sandpipers (they're hard to identify at the species level, so calling them peeps is most convenient). It's similar to Sanderling in that it references Jaskier's role as the Sandpiper and sounds adorable!

Bonus: Songbird I have seen this one used in a few fics and I love it every time! It's vague enough to let you imagine whichever bird you want while also sounding very sweet.

Extra options include, but are not limited to: warbler, finch/goldfinch, nightengale, robin, kinglet, titmouse, mockingbird, and starling.

[limerental]

ficletvember 2023 - day 26

twn jaskier pov of lotl ft. yennskier

After everything, Jaskier knows there are some stories that evade being written into song.

content warning for lotl spoilers so. mcd.

The ethereal fog hushed the sound of his footfalls. Distantly, he recalled admiring how the heels of his new boots had clacked on the uneven cobbles as he strode into town, but now, Jaskier heard nothing. Not even the wind.

When he bent, the creak of his knees surely echoed in the silence, but the little crowd huddled on the street did not seem to hear. 

He was getting old. He'd had a lot of time lately to be glad for that and a similar measure of guilt that so many had died so young. The recent war's list of the dead went on for pages and pages of yellowed parchment and those names were only the conscripted soldiers, not the slaughtered peasant men or farmer's wives or scores of non-humans in towns like this one. 

Or the small number dead in a battle whose outcome had had no consequence in a fortress that no longer existed, forgotten.

Jaskier had not yet written that story into song and may never. He would hate to hear his own verse warbled by some drunk in a tavern who could never know the little details that evaded preservation. Milva's wheezing laugh. Cahir's snoring at night. The clove scent of the vampire. The girl's colorful curse words. 

He hated his part in that story. That his being alive to tell the tale meant his cowardice had prevailed, and he had let them go on without him. 

Jaskier knew he would not write the story of what had happened here for a very long time. 

For a moment, he crouched on the quiet street and reached to brush the fall of dark hair out of the pale face. He tried hard not to look at the blood-stained cobbles. He almost wept then, once would have been a weepy, useless mess from the start, but there would be time for weeping later. 

He could do this now at least. This small thing. He stooped further to crook his arms under legs and shoulders, lifting past the strain of his back.

He was getting old. 

Jaskier had foolishly feared that those he loved would outlive him. That he would retire as an aging poet to the coast somewhere, and the little family would visit from time to time and reminisce together. 

And maybe that they would be there when he finally croaked, his weathered hands cupping their soft faces. Older, yes, not immortal, but long-lived enough to have a lifetime without him. Maybe to think of him fondly in quiet moments and remember those nights fumbling together and visit to lay flowers on his grave.

She felt small in his arms. Impossibly light. It seemed terribly wrong, that weightlessness. 

To him, the very thought of her was the heaviest thing in the world.

He lay his lips against her brow and held there. He whispered the things he had never told her. How those few nights they had spent lying in one another's arms, even knowing that neither was destined wholly for the other, had meant more than he could ever shape into poetry. 

If all of those details vanished into forgotten history, unsung, then so be it. Only he would remember the fond derision of her affectionate mockery, the softness of her wild hair, his thrill when her voice whispered low to speak with hushed sincerity against his skin. 

Even when this song was sung, he would let who they were together be lost to history. 

His role in the story had only ever been outside of it. 

Drawing a shuddering breath that was loud in the quiet, Jaskier hitched the body higher in his arms and carried Yennefer to the water.

[some-stars]

twn thoughts, in no order:

1. god i love aretuza and all the wretched sluts there <333333

2. thanedd ep was VERY good

3. this season was so unbelievably gay?? so many lesbians in particular, really appreciated that. also obviously appreciated jaskier/radovid even if radovid is discount lestat. he had charm! and the part of me that is forever 13 will always cheer when the boy i like on a show kisses another boy, i cannot deny this. (also “then take me here” was smooth as all hell, damn.)

3a. but like. everything was gay. all the sorceresses were so gay and emhyr and cahir were gay in a really nasty way (that i love) and valdo and jaskier were gay rivals and you KNOW yennefer and sabrina have banged before and also tissaia and philippa are exes. i don’t know where the hard left turn into homosexual propaganda came from but im LOVING it

4. love love love that ciri is becoming a fully developed Person with flaws and characteristics and not just Fantasy Girl Protagonist, i am absolutely dying to see her with the Rats

4a. OH AND ALSO MISTLE. MISTLE WAS GAY AND GORGEOUS AND ASTOUNDING. BRING ME MORE OF HER POSTHASTE

5. the yen & ciri fight was SO real it was hard to watch, like that is mother-daughter pain coming from someone who clearly knows it. that is just so--right down to the “dad” being idealized bc he doesn’t have to compromise his principles, bc men can get away with that. the gender of it all almost makes me sad that they seem to be dropping the creepy “ciri’s magical womb” element of the plot bc honestly i think they could handle it well, they SEE women so clearly. like aside from jaskier, who is just down to a very fun performance, the weakest points of this show are and have always been the white men, this show is about women!!!!

6. i got mixed up for a second and thought “can’t wait for part 2, i want liamralt” and that should tell you how i feel about twn geralt lmao. hcav was less actively offensive to watch than in s2, at least, although a lot of that is bc he didn’t have the potoo contacts and ab armor, not bc he actually did any better. but whatever this show is about Women so he doesn’t matter.

[bamf-jaskier]

What do you think of Witcher Blood Origin?

Well, if you can't tell from my recent posting I am massively in love with it.

I got the chance to live chat through it in a sever @spilledbutter set up and I had so much fun live-reacting.

Reasons I enjoyed it:

The Seven are amazing characters because not only do they have very distinct personalities and character design but they also all have great chemistry together

it's hard to balance a large main cast like this show had but I think they did a great job

it reminded me a lot of Heroes, which was one of my favorite shows when it was coming out

Each character has interesting motivations and is fleshed out really well for a show with only 4 episodes

the costume design is just gorgeous. At this point Merwyn is carrying the witcher universe when it comes to fashion. I just know I'm going to be reblogging so many posts of her outfits.

The music is also amazing, I haven't really made it a secret but I was massively let down by the season 2 soundtrack and it's great to see them have super good musical backing and the original songs are fabulous and I have been listening to them a lot

Eile and Fjall were a big reason I got as invested in the show as I did

twn is sort of infamous for how little screentime and build up Yennefer and Geralt have as their main romance so it was really great to see a relationship that actually felt like they got a good amount of plot attention, screentime, and chemistry

the whole Larkstone (Eile and Fjall) relationship really kept me going and the actors did such a good job

I think their relationship is easily one of my favorite parts of the show

the friendship between Meldof and Callan (Brother Death) is also something I didn't expect to love as much as I did

which goes back to what I was saying about the chemistry of The Seven

They just fit perfectly together and complimented each other

it very much had Hansa vibes in the best way possible

and even the characters like Scian who had these previous connections to characters (Scian helped teach Eile) were able to add new dynamics

I was so impressed with the chemistry the show was able to create with so little time. I'm super sad they cut it from 6 to 4 episodes because I just know those other two episodes contained amazing stuff

there is so much more I could say but I'm just going to tell you all to watch it yourselves. At this point it's a rambling train of thought more than an easy list.

It's only 3.5 hours to watch it all and it has really revitalized my interest in The Witcher and it was just super well done.

[gleamingsilence]

Ask game!

Which actors/actresses would you headcast as your (books/games) blorbos? I'm going to drop Dijkstra, Phil and Vesemir on you but you can choose others, too, of course!

Ah, thanks for asking!! Let's do easiest to hardest:

For old Vesemir I would choose Bert Cöll, his german voice actor. (I mean look at him!!)

Dijkstra is really hard! Graham McTavish is actually pretty good face wise for the game (imo), he's just not massive enough! But it would be hard to do book-Sigi justice, even though Big Show is kinda looking good:

I never really thought about Darling Phil. I don't disagree with her TWN version; Cassie Clare does her vibe very well. The only other actress that comes to my mind is Martha Hackett and I found one photo of her as Seska from Star Trek fitting (sorry!).

[kuwdora]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @deerna and @jawanaka !

How many works do you have on A03? 110 - but this would probably be +200 if I had been crossposting my fanvids there. I still remember when video embeds did not work on AO3 pages. But that was ages ago. And I’m terrible at crossposting. Especially when I have so many to crosspost at this point.

What's your total A03 word count? 280,783

What fandoms do you write for? In the past it was Stargate SG-1/Atlantis, Heroes and Sanctuary and a lovely romp with Being Human UK. Star Trek. These days I’m still on The Witcher, with the occasional fleeting non-witcher stuff I manage to finish.

What are your top five fics by kudos? I can see through you, The Witcher Netflix. My Geralt and Jaskier role reversal thing. More like a role inversion.

Surface Tension, The Witcher Netflix. soft very established relationship Geralt/Yen/Jaskier smut.

Papa’s Got a Brand New Suit, Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Julian/Garak PWP. From ye olde porn battle days. Learning Curve, The Witcher Netflix. Yen/Jaskier, post-season 2 soft feelings and sex with an emphasis on all of Yennefer's pain.

Heart Tap, The Witcher Netflix. Leshen Eskel(/Geralt). My first story about what it could be like for Eskel to live with his transformation into a monster. I'm actually surprised this is in my top 5 kudos considering how niche it is but man I love my tree boyfriend and have so many more thoughts about him that I haven't gotten out yet...

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes! I try to respond to comments when I can. Sometimes it takes forever and sometimes I do forget to respond to comments but man I love rolling around in them.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? My angstiest endings are for fic that I haven’t finished or posted on AO3 yet for more of my witcher fixations. But for posted things?? Hmm. I do have an old Heroes fic called Code of Hammurabi that is Peter/Sylar time travel AU that’s particularly angsty and gave me the chance to rummage around in the way Peter would endure in a very very messy situation.

Oh, my Doctor Sleep ficlet is also pretty angsty. Danny reflecting on his time with Billy when Billy's ghost shows up. I'm smiling upside down is the name of that ficlet.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Oh that’s probably my smutty fluffy thing for Being Human. PWP. Moon Mambo, Hal/Tom.

Do you get hate on fics? No, but I sense that’s only a matter of time before someone directs their hate at me.

Do you write smut? Yup.

Do you write crossovers? Yes, but not for a very long time. I have a “Ciri collects all the young girl protagonists from sci-fi/fantasy books for a group project” crossover idea but my focus is too scattered to get that going. I did start it with a Nona-meets-Ciri Locked Tomb/witcher crossover here: Call to Adventure.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I’m aware of. I think my stuff is far too niche and self-indulgent for that kind of thing but who knows. The internet is a smaller place these days but people seem to find new ways to steal. Alternatively: I did learn that someone submitted one of my Stargate SG-1 vids to a Creation Con fanvid contest that had prize money in it. That was very upsetting to learn well after the fact.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, not co-written. But I do love rolling around with my beta and workshopping my fic into better shape and a lot of my stuff ends up way better as a result of my betas. And I also love doing the same with folks who ask me for beta. It’s a fun kind of collaboration.

What's your all-time favourite ship? Agh this one is so hard. Don’t make me pick just one. Aeryn/John from Farscape. Fraser/Ray(s) from due South. I don’t write a lot of book Yennefer/Geralt but they also are It for me.

What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Oh my god, definitely my TWN Leshkel canonical divergence AU thing. I have something like a whole season 2 (not a fix-it) outlined, with lots of stuff focusing on Ciri and Leshy Eskel, and Leshy Eskel with Triss. With more stuff about witcher-and-leshen biology and Wolf School disappearing, Kaer Morhen becoming a magical greenhouse where a mythical Swallow is rumored to visit every 6 years.

What are your writing strengths? Description, maybe characterizations. Theme and tone.

What are your writing weaknesses? Too much description, comma splices. Slow pacing.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I think it’s fun to do but it can be a lot to read and I definitely will overthink the writing and both the reading. If it suits the characterization and context clues within the text, I think that’s cool. But I think it’s fine to go without con-lang or other languages in fic. It’s just a matter of texture and color that adds to the scene, you know?

First fandom you wrote for? Stargate SG-1.

Favourite fic you've ever written? Ever??? It’s so hard to pick just one. Hang on, I got several of those ‘rec 5 of your favorite fics’ asks in my inbox. Lemme see if I can pick 5 for that.

[smolalienbee]

5 Witcher drabbles for 500 followers! (fic requests)

hello. and hiiiiiiiiiiiii. so i just hit this absolutely stupid and meaningless milestone of 500 followers on this hellsite and I thought it’d be fun to something related to it - therefore!

send me a pairing (or a character) and a prompt and i will write 5 witcher drabbles! (actual drabbles, 100 words each; one drabble per prompt so the total will be 500 words)

preferred characters/pairings: Jaskier, Geralt; geraskier, yennskier, geraskefer, jaskel; i generally write TWN characters with a dash of game!Eskel; ships don’t have to be romantic!

prompts can be anything you come up with, but if you need inspo you can take any of the prompts from here

feel free to specify if you want to see a specific genre or mood or an AU (though no NSFW this time); or you can leave that up to me!

(if i get more than 5 requests, i’ll either randomize which ones i do or just pick the ones i vibe best with; i might also try to combine them into a full 500 words ficlet, but that depends on what i get)

i’ll keep this going for probably a few days, depending on how many prompts i get! i’ll let y’all know once i’m closing the requests for these, though i’m also accepting ficlet requests on a rolling basis, regardless of these ones!

[fangirleaconmigo]

Hi, hope you're having a great day! I'm very glad you are so passionate about the books and are giving all those 'netflix only' fans, like myself, a chance for some deeper context and comparisons. You've talked some about the relationships Geralt and Yennefer have with Ciri and Dandelion. Is there a difference or a deeper relationship between Ciri and Dandelion in the books? Is he just her adopted father's friend or are they family in their own right? I've noticed the Netflix adaptation kind of makes a point of isolating Jaskier from all of Geralt's friends. No one seems to like him or respect him, if they can even stand him. It's very off putting. Then they hardly had the two interact so I'm worried it will be more of the same with his daughter, do you have any thoughts on that?

Hi Nonny! Thanks for the ask xo.

Yes, it’s a bit odd isn’t it? Jaskier tries to be friendly and he can’t seem to catch a break. I get, of course, that it’s a joke. It’s a really common type of running joke (common esp in sitcoms), where everyone is inexplicably mean to one person, and that’s it. That's the whole joke. (Like Jerry in Parks and Rec) I will admit that I literally do not get it. My sister will be laughing at stuff like that and it just does literally zero for my funny bone. I sort of just cringe.

But lots of people love it! And lots of people love it in TWN. Actually I read a Reddit comment where a person said that when Geralt punched Jaskier in S1, they laughed so hard they almost pee’ed themselves. (Paraphrased). And I have to be honest, with that type of humor. I just look at the screen and there's nothing. Not even a chuckle. Humor is just so damned subjective. And I don't get it. I would rather see nuanced characters and an amazing friendship in all its glory. But what can do you?

And with Jaskier, I think it's so interesting that in doing that with his character, they inadvertently make him such a tragically lonely figure. It is SO IRONIC. Of course in the books Dandelion annoys some people and charms other. He is loud and gregarious and funny and some people find him totally obnoxious and others find him extremely entertaining. But he is by far the most outgoing, extroverted, people loving character and probably has the most friends of anyone.

And yet somehow in the show, he is the most lonely one, in a way that feels kind of tragic! It's interesting! And for those who love angst, they are probably eating that up. You've got Jaskier playing Burn Butcher Burn, people cheering and laughing, while he dissociates and basically falls apart right in front of their eyes. And they just cheer.

Is there anything lonelier than being surrounded by people to whom you are invisible? People who see you as more of an object or clown?

And then if you take away all of his other friends, and make Geralt refuse to call him a friend for the first twenty years of their friendship, and you have somehow made the popular bard the most lonely character in the witcher world. (I think Yen is the most lonely in the books, because the sorceresses are such sharks to her. But in the show they are more of her friends)

But yeah. I don't think TWN meant to do that with Jaskier? I think they just thought it'd be funny? (total speculation) But here we are.

But I would very much like to see Jaskier be a fuller character, and more obviously to be a part of his beloved found family. I ADORED all of his scenes with Yen in S2. And I'd love to see more of his scenes written with the understanding of what he brings to the witcher universe. He is just a beating human heart of a loyal person who loves his found family. So let's see some more of that bond.

But you asked about Jaskier and Ciri in the books, and I've made that post here. XD

[abeautifulblog]

TW3: done!

Emhyr: “Witcher. I do not wish to see you... ever again.”

Oh, hard same, buddy!!

(that is me @ emhyr not me @ geralt)

~~

Anyway, I am now officially done with TW3, main storyline & both expansions & every side quest I could find. I doubt I’ll ever feel compelled to play it again, but I do think it’s a useful experience for people writing Witcher fic.

It gives a much firmer sense of place than the show does, what it feels like to run around in Temeria/Toussaint/Skellige/etc. I loved the atmospherics in Novigrad -- it’s a disgusting cesspit of a city that’s been taken over by murderously anti-nonhuman zealots, and as the game goes on, they really make you feel the increasing threat being leveled at Geralt. (Like, “don’t let the sun set on you in this town” vibes.) At one point I was running around Novigrad and had to run past a bonfire the fanatics were overseeing, and my verbatim thought as I got close enough to see the contents was "oh good, at least it's just books this time," AND AIN'T THAT THE NOVIGRAD MOOD, LADS.

(I have been kind of tempted to do a Jaskier-centric fic about how he got his groove back became the Sandpiper, but I would absolutely set it in Novigrad instead of Oxenfurt, and lean hard into the claustrophobic aura of menace in that city.)

The game also gives a better grasp of a witcher’s daily life than the show does, what kind of contracts & creatures he handles. TWN did itself a disservice with the lack of monster-of-the-week episodes in S1, because it never gave us a baseline for what Geralt’s life looks like when things aren’t on fire all around him.

The way to do characterization -- especially with someone as understated as Geralt -- is to put them in a variety of different situations and show how they respond to each. What makes them happy/sad/angry? How honest/brave/compassionate/disciplined are they? What are the limits to that honesty/discipline/etc? game!Geralt is both a lot more consistent and a lot more likeable than netflix!Geralt -- just a chill, level-headed dude with a strong work ethic and dry sense of humor, who respects women and is pretty much immune to provocation.

And yes, I managed to Dodge All The Tiddies. 👌

[hall0ween-twn]

peeta eating you out while michael sucks on your tits <3333

peeta is so sloppy but he's just so eager. all he wanted was this moment!! and now he's finally tasted you, he's never gonna stop. his face and your thighs are just covered in slick and saliva. he might be super eager but he's taking his time, he needs you so wet before you're able to take him.

michael, on the other hand, likes to inflict a little pain. nothing too crazy but it's enough to make you clench around peeta's massive fingers. the juxtaposition from michael's rough pinching, biting and sucking on your tits and peeta's lowkey makeout session with your pussy, it's enough to make you cum.

"pinch her nips again.. fuck, i can feel you clench so tightly around me baby. you like it? like feeling mikey being rough with your tits? yeah you do. gonna cum for us? god you're so wet, making a mess everywhere. so perfect."

[average-travel-companion]

TWN: Witchers

So! I was minding my own business a few nights ago, playing a game on my phone, when I thought to look up the names of the actors who played witchers in TWN season two. My train of thought was as follows: "Oh, TWN didn't give us much personality for many of the witchers, maybe the actors that played them have had other, similar roles I that actually had personality, which I can use as a basis for their witcher’s personality. Alternately, I could stalk their social media so see what kind of a person they are." Lo and behold, IMDb had only officially credited the actors who had been credited by Netflix in the show. Said actors, the witchers they acted as, and their Instagram account handles are as follows:

Basil Eidenbenz - Eskel (basil.eidenbenz)

Paul Bullion - Lambert (paulbullion)

Yasen Atour - Coën (yasenatour)

Nathanial Jacobs - Everard (n.amosjay)

Jota Castellano - Gwain/Gawain (jota.castellano)

Chuey Okoye - Merek (chueyokoye)

Kim Bodina - Vesemir (doesn’t have one)

Henry Cavill - Geralt (henrycavill)

Now, that's all well and good, but in the wide shot in S2E2 where almost all witchers can be seen in one frame (here's a link to a tweet that has said picture, and some close-ups), we can see eleven (11) total witchers, and Eskel, who barges in right after said wide shot, makes a total of twelve (12) Netflix-canonical witchers. Didn’t Geralt say that there were 20 of them, when he last counted? What about the other 8 TWN? Turn on your location, I just wanna talk —

Speaking of Netflix-canonical facts, I figured refreshing my memory of TWN's page on the witchers who died in their sleep (Everard, Gawain (spelling discrepancy), Merek) couldn't hurt. Disappointingly, said page revealed no other information about said witchers.

So I went back to IMDb and saw that on the full list of credits, two more actors are credited:

Joel Adrian - Hemrik (Instagram, S2 wrap post)

Max Kraus - Tolbert (Instagram, Instagram post about 'The Good Part' of working on TWN (the few shots of using google maps to get to what i can only assume is the set is a Mood))

They're both uncredited for four (4) episodes, which is HALF THE SEASON. I am EXTREMELY angry about this. What the fuck.

Up to 10 named witchers, yaaay.

The tweet I linked to of the wide shot with almost all witchers visible in it gave the remaining two witchers the names of Diever and Vartok. However, google is unhelpful, as is instagram. And yet I persisted.

I swear to goodness I waded through IMDb for at least an hour trying to find names of stunt performers who were in both S2E2 (Kaer Morhen) and S2E8 (Family, in which there was a big battle at KM), but my search was unfruitful. Desperate, I went to Instagram.

Now I’d like to rant here a moment about how I Do Not Like Instagram. It’s hosted by facebook — sorry, “Meta” — and on the iOS app, you have to hit the screen Six Different Times to get to posts you’ve liked. That’s at least four times too many, in my opinion. So this was unfamiliar territory for me. I thought I’d be able to use IG’s search function, and it would work, and I’d easily find the actors’ names and wash my hands of the whole thing.

So you can imagine my disappointment when IG’s search function failed me.

Nevertheless, I stomped through the metaphorical swamp of IG, and I have emerged successful.

Just so we're all on the same page, I was trying to find the actors/stunt doubles who played the witchers labeled Diever and Vartok in the wide shot. Any sort of canonical confirmation. Their names would be nice, but not necessary. From the other images in that tweet, I was looking for an Asian man and a white guy with a beard. Can't be too hard, right?

lol NOPE

For those curious, my actions were as follows:

Jota Castellano has a picture on IG of him and five other witchers. (I’d post the pic here, but I’m on mobile, and I need to sleep but I need to finish this post more, let me live)

In the description of said photo, he tags all the TWN-canon witchers. #Vartok gets you literally nine results, so I decided to look under #Diever.

Before perusing said tag, I decided to go in reverse chronological order using the “Recent” tab, as opposed to the “Top” tab.

Y’all. I don’t think I can properly express the feeling of excitement that overtook me when I saw what I can only guess is a character poster for an Asian witcher. I was honestly about to jump out of bed, but I resisted and clicked on it.

Lo and behold, I’d like to introduce y’all to Nicolas Wang, who played Diever in TWN.

Since Nicolas Wang seems to care about giving proper credit, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he tagged a handle I was unfamiliar with.

Meet Lachlan Parkinson (edit: this used to say 'Peterson', I was wrong, his last name is Parkinson), who played Vartok in TWN. As of the time I’m posting this, their most recent IG post is of Peterson’s eyes blacked out with black veins around them, similar to the effect we saw on Cavill’s face when Geralt took whatever potion he took in I think S1.

So far as I can tell, neither of them has been credited on IMDb or in the Netflix credits. I don’t know if that was a stipulation in their contracts, but here we are: all twelve TWN witchers have names and actors.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, I guess?

[limerental]

ficletvember 2023 - day 29

twn triss/istredd, background merihart

After her confession that she never snuck about Aretuza at night as a girl, Istredd urges Triss to do so with him.

Triss shivers, regretting her bare legs as she tugs her cloak tighter around herself, feeling silly and naked and like she should turn herself right around and go back to bed. The summer air does not sink deep enough to warm the caverns below Thanned, but the rock itself seems to hum with its own heat. 

She shivers, even so.

Aretuza’s curfew does not technically extend to instructors, but part of her still feels like a girl. Will always feel like a girl here, watched and measured, desperate to please. 

She should turn back. Who’s to say the recent disappearances will stay limited to novices? That the sinister happenings on the island will not sink its teeth into her as well?

“You’re out of bed, novice,” says a stern voice from the shadows, touching her arm, and she startles so hard that little shocks of static leap from her and sting the looming figure’s hand. She regrets it at once, recognizing his voice. 

“Oh! Istredd, I didn’t– I’m sorr–”

Istredd laughs, shaking out his stung hand. 

“I hope you wouldn’t have cast that as a girl,” he says. “You’d have been expelled. Or just mocked for how weak that little spell was. I’m alright. Don’t fuss.”

“I wouldn’t have cast anything like that as a girl,” says Triss, “because I would be in bed. Where we both belong.” She realizes the innuendo of her words a moment too late, glad for the dim light to hide her pink cheeks. 

“Yes, that’s the whole point of this, isn’t it?” Istredd asks. His voice is barely a whisper. “You’re out past curfew, Merigold.”

It’s snuck up on her out of nowhere. This flirtation with him. She’s known him for years and never had the thought pass her mind, but his eyes soften when he looks at her and he is handsome and clever and has aged out of his boyhood ego and she thinks maybe– 

Well she’s always fallen for people horrifically out of her reach who barely look her way. Maybe it was her girlhood yearning for Yennefer, dulled now to a painful sort of nostalgia, that blinded her to his appeal. 

Istredd looks good in the faint magical glow that seems to rise from the walls themselves, just bright enough that the corridors are not the full darkness of a true cave system. He smiles at her and dares to step close again, fingers ghosting along her arm. 

“Well, we’ve snuck out,” she says, arms folded as she resists further shivering under his heavy gaze. “I can say I’ve done that now. What next?”

“Follow me,” he says and is off down the corridor, his touch never quite leaving her. She imagines herself as a novice, following a boy into the dark and knows she would have been a nervous, useless wreck. She still feels a touch of that, but the nerves take on a different shape. 

Something terrible will happen soon, she feels. Something brewing here that will lead to suffering far beyond the horrors she saw at Sodden Hill. Something like the distorted, ominous visions she saw in poor Ciri’s head.

She shivers. She can never seem to get warm these days, feeling the cold up through her scarred breast. As though the fire that marred her has left her forever chilled in its wake.

Istredd puts an arm around her shoulders as they walk. That helps barely at all.

The corridor he leads her down opens to a pool rippling with a warm glow. He must have snuck down here before them, because a tray of food and wine is laid out beside the pool, candles hovering among the rocks. It’s beautiful. 

She’s bathed in pools like this beneath the island with her fellow sorceresses but not for years and never with a man. Especially not since the fire sank deep and changed her. 

In Kaer Morhen, she had had some brief hope that being allowed to ease some of Geralt’s pain, to kiss his scars, would soothe her own. That she could give the world some small comfort. Heal something broken and then maybe, her own brokenness would feel lessened.

“Oh, Istredd, I– It’s lovely,” Triss says. She wants to cry. Istredd is sweet and charming and kind, and it’s all too much. He rubs at her shoulders and whispers in her ear. 

“We don’t have to go in,” he soothes, seeming to notice her doubt and well of emotion. “Come and sit.”

She sits beside him on the ledge of the pool, and together, they slip their bare legs into the water and sip at the wine and eat from the tray. The water froths up with sweet-smelling bubbles, and Triss smiles at Istredd, thinking how nice it would be if she could love a man like this. 

It would be nice if everything was simple and she had simple worries. She could slip into the water with Istredd and be impossibly happy for a moment.

She lays her head against his shoulder and sighs. 

“I’m sorry,” Triss says and doesn’t say what for. 

“I understand,” says Istredd, though she hardly understands herself. 

Tomorrow, the conclave. 

Triss does not know how to explain herself to him, fearful that some warble of her voice would give everything away.

She wonders as she sits there, feeling chilled deep despite the warmth of the pool, if she would have let Istredd take her by the hand and lead her deep into the water had she not laid close to Philippa only that morning, hushed secrets and plots whispered against her skin.

Probably not, she thinks, seeing how sweetly he smiles at her.

Triss has only ever felt the sort of love that hurts.

[some-stars]

i was rambling some geralt s2 thoughts on discord last night so here they are:

i want--geralt walks in accidentally on jaskier holding yen after a nightmare, and all the walls he's built to cope with having to see her as a threat to ciri, all the distance he tried so hard to enforce--just crumbles

i do think there's a lot of hay to be made with how geralt so abruptly put ciri ahead of yennefer, like obviously he wanted to protect her but it felt, in the show, like he was--making himself deny that he had ever loved yenn, almost. like he thinks, if he's going to protect ciri and care for her and put her first (the way no one did for him) he has to give up everything else that could potentially harm her…i feel like he's wound very, very, very tightly and i want him to snap

he feels so cold. and yeah, i could make doylist commentary about that, but i don't want to. i want to make it make sense.

i think geralt is absolutely desperate to be perfect for ciri, i think he is utterly convinced if he isn't a Perfect Father to her then that makes him the same as his mother who gave him away, the same as vesemir who expressed love while hurting him so terribly

and i think letting yennefer back in after she proved to be Flawed, letting jaskier close when jaskier makes it so hard to control his feelings....absolutely terrifies him now more than ever. what if they make him weak. what if they make him so soft he fails ciri

(on a tangential note, GOD what i'd give for a deep exploration of geralt's intense and ambivalent love for vesemir--ESPECIALLY twn vesemir who came so close to putting ciri through the trials. there is so, so, so much love there, and hate buried so deep and so intensely Off Limits to his conscious mind that i don't know if he'll ever truly face it, because it would break him)

[bamf-jaskier]

Eid Mubarak!

Have some Muslim!Fringilla celebrating Eid as a gift. This was put together by me and my friends as we got ready to celebrate today!

This is going to take place in some fun and funky Modern AU where everyone is friends and hangs out a lot :)

Fringilla almost completely follows all the halal dietary restrictions but will occasionally engage in drinking and if she doesn’t have the money won’t buy halal chicken since it’s so much more expensive

There was definitely a time when Istredd and Vilgefortz tried to tell Fringilla that cigarettes were not Hala, trying to be the non-Muslim Haram authorities over here but she put them in their place lol

However before Ramadan Fringilla was completely halal and abstained from drinking, smoking, all of it for 40 days to follow the words of Abd-Allah ibn Amr

Fringilla has definitely had little Ramadan Mubarak gathering with all their friends throughout the month

She always leads the prayers and it’s really emotional for her because her parents did this when she was a kid and she feels really connected to her religion by getting to chance to do it herself

On Laylat al-Jaiza (night before Eid), Yennefer, Fringilla, Triss, and Sabrina were all hanging out in Yennefer’s kitchen and drawing henna designs on each other’s hands for Eid al-Fitr

Yennefer is really good at henna, she’s been doing it since she was a kid and she is quick and talented at it. In middle school she would hang out with her friends after school and create designs underneath the slide on the playground

Fringilla is not great at the actual movement, she always smudges her lines a little bit but she is the PERFECT person to draw on! She always stays absolutely still and she is her friend’s favorite canvas to work with

Triss is extremely good but takes a long time to get her designs perfect. What often ends up happening is that Yennefer does henna for most people but Triss will give one lucky person the most gorgeous design ever that took her 2 hours

Sabrina is an artist on paper but struggles with the texture of henna so her designs are a bit wobbly but she’s learning! She only started using henna once she met Yennefer and Fringilla

Fringilla has a massive feast planned that night and some of their other friends, Vilgefortz, Istredd, and Cahir are going to join them

The morning of Eid al-Fitr, Fringilla goes and visits her parents graves. Her Uncle Artorius offered to fly out to go with her but she decided to just call him instead after visiting and they have a long phone conversation

She spends as much of the day as she can cooking and of course her friends come and help

Cahir is surprisingly an amazing cook and is literally the perfect prep partner

He can prep vegetables quickly and cleanly and Fringilla loves cooking with him

Yennefer and Fringilla fight over the best way to cook dishes, arguing that THEIR recipe is obviously better and Triss hs to mediate

Sabrina has a special talent for making deserts so Istredd and her are on desert duty

Vilgefortz is a terrible cook and is banished from the kitchen

The man burns water

Yennefer invites Geralt over to help them cook since he’s great in the kitchen and they need all the help they can get but he’s not able to stay for dinner since he works night shifts and is scheduled tonight

Fringilla and Geralt get along super well so she’s always happy to have him over

Triss promises to save him some food after for all his help

Once they are ready to eat the night is wonderful!

They share foods, stories, gossip, and dance while eating plenty of food and desserts and just enjoy themselves

When she’s surrounded by her friends and know that they are there for her and celebrating with her…well Fringilla always feels a little happier and loved

It’s nice to see just how much her friends care

[kuwdora]

for the ao3 wrapped writers ask game: 17 and/or 29 pretty please!

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

Mmmm, this year?? Vilgefortz. I had a very Specific Itch to scratch and golly, I sure did indulge myself—and @reinvent-and-believe and @sidprescot too, mwahahaha. The TWN Thanedd episode came and went with Vilgefortz. His scenes with Geralt worked me into a froth because I absolutely needed more because how much I loved their book scenes. And honestly it’s not right how truncated Vilgefortz' dialogue is in the show. And thus my brain overheated and Ouroboros happened. It really was that saying—write for that group of like 3 or 5 people who are gonna lose their minds. And they did. I think @littlestsnicket's brain melted and I'm not sure @sidprescot will be the same lol. It was great. I winked so hard at my readers that my eye fell out and @reinvent-and-believe picked up my eye, cleaned it off and handed it back to me and @sidprescot is just foaming at the mouth and brain the whole fucking time (ilu all). I also managed to post more about writing/drafting this fic than anything else I’ve written in the last few years, lol god. I have 15 million witcher thoughts at any given time (mostly about yennefer and yennskier and geraskier) but this is what i manage to post the most about, sdflakjsdf. I love Witcher canon blending and riffing on themes, okay. My blending is not to everyone's tastes, but yeaaahhh I had quite the time writing Vilgefortz this year. All the Continental art history was so much fun to weave throughout the story.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Here’s my favorite passage from chapter 1 of Ouroboros, it’s about 900 words. I loved starting the fic off with the TWN characterizations and then running with it back to some book vibes and all my feelings about all the canons and aaaand and…lots of things. Love this whole passage. Indulgent.

“Doesn’t appear to be much glory in this gallery,” Geralt said, gesturing at the vertical diptych he was studying.

Vilgefortz nodded and strode closer to point out the relevant details. There was a curious furrow to Geralt’s brow that made Vilgefortz more confident in encouraging Geralt to voice his thoughts.

“This one is called Ships in a Desert and it’s a very controversial piece with multiple meanings. Each canvas represents a different interpretation of First Landing and encourages the viewer to engage with different possibilities. This bottom artwork is clearly not historically accurate because as you can see the ship and its wreckage is strewn across a desert landscape rather than the coast of Redania. The artist Yona Skanfall also intended this scene to subvert Ithlinne’s Prophecy.

“You can see in the foreground a future where the Continent’s water has dried up and its inhabitants are boiling their own skin as a direct result of humanity wielding Chaos. People did not take kindly to this kind of heresy against the prevailing narrative about the White Frost. But there were those who were ardent defenders of this piece because it held true to the original prophecy’s themes of a calamitous end by humanity’s hubris. But Aen Ithlinnespeath was a sacred elven prophecy and any minute deviations from the story caused an uproar. Yona certainly made no friends by implying the Hen Ichaer died before they could save the world—note the desiccated seed pod in this dune. If this scene alone had not gotten Yona banned from two kingdoms for smearing elven canon and laying waste to the kings of her day—see the scattered crowns in the sand here and here—her choice to depict Jan Bekker as a woman gave others all the more reason to ostracize her.”

“Why were people offended by Jan Bekker as a woman?” Geralt asked.

“Why indeed? Vanity. Sexism. Most primary sources and historical records suggested that Jan Bekker was actually quite a hideous man. In the early days of the Brotherhood mages had not yet mastered the art of cosmetic transformation. Many saw their ugliness as intrinsic to their character, especially those first survivors who bore the scars of scurvy from their journey. To remove that element and depict Jana Bekker as a buxom heroine was antithetical to their view of history.”

“You’re telling me mages are superficial in more ways than one? Color me surprised.”

Vilgefortz laughed and found himself warming even more to the witcher. He bit the inside of his lip and stepped closer, brushing against Geralt’s elbow.

“There have been other interpretations of Jana over the years. I myself have collected several woodcuts of her and Nina Fioravanti in mid-coitus from a series called Ars Orgasmica. I could show them to you, if you’d like.”

Geralt didn’t verbalize a witty retort, though Vilgefortz could sense the words propositions and pornography floating on the surface of his mind. Geralt turned his attention on the other painting from Ships in a Desert. He gestured. “Tell me about this one.”

Vilgefortz tore his gaze away from Geralt, carefully gathering his words. “This painting depicts a slightly different interpretation of her original interpretation. The wreckage of First Landing is in the foreground and the bodies of the ship's crew are barely visible in the sand. The emphasis here is on the future that was lost. Notice the verdant hills in the background, never to be discovered by the first mages. Perhaps if there was a lighthouse in this desert sea, these two ships would not have crashed and fallen to the dunes and become lost to memory. Perhaps they could have met, shared resources, and survived in spite of the hardship. They could have thrived and built a new world together.”

“The hills are better off without the mages,” Geralt murmured.

Vilgefortz turned back to Geralt and nodded solemnly. “A solid interpretation. The commonality amongst these pieces is suffering. Yona depicted it well.”

“Your lot is notorious for causing suffering.”

“Truer words have never been spoken.”

“Truth is something this ball is in short supply of.”

“Tonight there’s so much more on offer,” Vilgefortz said.

“If I wanted to have my fill of lies and subterfuge, I would have stayed downstairs eating from the bottomless pit of illusory caviar.”

Every one of Geralt’s conversational parries aroused more desire in Vilgefortz’s chest. He’d hoped to keep the witcher’s attention for more serious matters tonight, but the wry humor was an unexpected delight. Enticing and novel in a way that Vilgefortz had known others had been charmed by, but never believed he would also find so alluring. He wanted more of Geralt.

“I agree. Stay with me. At my table we would feast upon spiced boar and toast to our communion. No illusions, only the boundless companionship of two men appreciating art and history together.”

A grimace passed across Geralt’s features, like Vilgefortz’s words were little more than indigestion. The firelight from the braziers cast a warm glow upon Geralt’s face, and there Vilgefortz saw a world beyond the staid neutrality that Geralt wore like a tattered cape. A place where two outcasts would be respected and admired. A time where Vilgefortz could lose himself beneath the witcher’s broad hands and taste Geralt’s scars for the first time.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go take a shit. Must be the caviar.”

read on ao3

ask game - ao3 wrapped