#but!!! who knows. alderman is such a tentative matter because you could say or believe anything and be ‘right’

[langfield]

Hi. I had a question about Alderman. I remember someone on Reddit saying there's no reason for him not to be alive or in Caledon in the living world so surely when the timelines combine he'll still be alive? Although Max seems to be certain he's dead/expunged from existence going by her journal entries. What do you think? thanks

hello! so, the alderman thing is rather tricky, because his status ( as either alive or dead ) is never actually confirmed by max nor moses. all we know about the situation is this : alderman, after touching a version of himself, completely ceased to exist in dead world … nobody knows him, and now his mother never had him at all, with her pregnancy being morphed into abdominal pains instead. there are pieces of his presence scattered around if you know where to look, but overall? vincent alderman is nothing short of an anomaly, something that once existed and has since been removed from that particular version of earth. he was sucked into some sort of vortex before even that disappeared into nothingness as well. it’s a rather intense fate for a character and implies a sort of schrödinger's cat scenario, where alderman is forever inbetween being alive or dead, since we never figure out what really happened to him. my tentative theory is that he’s alive but stuck between timelines eternally? almost hidden, if you will. my partner’s imagery of the whole thing is that if you unraveled the strings of time, he’d slip out and be visible again. think of it as him stuck in a knitted purse, i guess? though that’s just my idea.

we don’t know anything about living world alderman, besides the fact that he should still live in lakeport, vermont, and should be a detective on the force. as it stands, i’d say there isn’t an alderman at all anywhere, anymore. given how intense time-based consequences are, i find it highly unlikely that living world alderman is just fine and dandy … again, he didn’t just die, he was instead effectively erased from time entirely! that’s rather severe, and it makes more sense to me that this caused a ripple effect across all of time and space : like safi’s and max’s storm, which tears into every caledon timeline regardless of choices made or not made. this also adds a scary layer of permanency to double exposure that is rather needed? there is no fixing what happened to alderman. he may still be in need of saving, but it will take more than timelines clashing to fix his predicament ; which is already a pretty hefty feat on it’s own! i like how nervous alderman’s erasure makes you feel initially, how you can’t help but think of someone else falling into the same tragic fate. or how reggie got so, so lucky … there are many things max can’t fix, and this is one of said things to me.

to clarify : these are just my opinions, all of which aren’t backed up by anything except feelings and vibes. the handling of alderman’s character and plot was rather poor, without any proper conclusions or evidence to back up anything outside the obvious. i’m being rather kind in assuming that a.) there was plans to pick up the alderman plotline in the rumored de sequel, and b.) they didn’t mention alderman again because there was nothing to mention when the timelines collided, since nothing changed about his fate. i hope my answer is satisfying somewhat, even if not backed by any evidence!

[janiedean]

Uh, I didn't see that meme! Glad you're keeping open for a little longer! :D Let's see... 33 for Geraskier and 23 for Yenraltskier?

(33 was posted before so this is for 23 ;) )

23: “We need to act quickly–he doesn’t have much time.”

“Sorry, what -”

“I’m not telling you again,” Yennefer says. “We need to act quickly - he doesn’t have much time and I’m pretty sure you want his ass in one piece and I certainly don’t want you to lose the only damned person who’ll stick with you regardless because - never mind that. You know what you have to do. Five minutes at most, Geralt. Got it?”

“… Right,” Geralt sighs, “got it.” He could have added something else, except that Yennefer is already off by the time he opens his mouth, heading for the town square straight ahead.

Five minutes.

He can wait five minutes, help her out with her scheme and then say his piece later, he supposes - they had talked about it briefly and he had figured it’d take a while to get there, but at this point… well.

At this point, maybe they should just go with it.

He leans against the wall and waits.

–

Jaskier really needs to start asking people if they’re married before flirting back if they bat their eyelids at him.

He’s sworn himself that he’d start doing that countless times - actually, to just… calm down when it came to finding beds to tumble into -, except that since Yennefer has been around more often than not and they came to an understanding he has found himself not just pining after Geralt but also wondering how it would feel to have a tumble into her bed, and… a man can be frustrated until a point, all right?

So, when the maid had flirted with him that afternoon, he did flirt back.

Too bad she’s apparently unhappily married to the tanner whose shop is right in front of the inn, who is really not taking things well.

“I swear,” Jaskier says again, “it was all a misunderstanding, nothing actually happened.” False, for that matter, there had been a quickie in the stables, but still -

“I’ll believe that when the sun rises west,” the man mutters, sounding like he’s really really fucking pissed off, “and since the alderman takes this kind of offense seriously -”

“Where in the world did you even end up?”

What the -

Before he can wonder why is Yennefer shrieking right next to me, she’s in his line of sight and she’s slapped him in the face once, though… not as hard as she could have.

“I can’t believe that I go fetch my clothes ten minutes and here I find you chasing after someone else’s skirts, you cheating bastard!”

Oh.

Oh.

She’s also staring at him with the face of someone who’s telling him to hold her fucking cover or else she really will have his head.

“Yen, darling,” he pleads, getting into the part very quickly, “I swear I could never look at any other woman.”

“Oh, that’s what you always fucking say!” She shouts again. “Always sweet words and songs and poems and then I always find you trying to fuck other people, that’s the damned problem!”

“I don’t!” He shouts back, trying to sound as enraged at the idea as possible. “All right, fine, maybe I can look, but how could I ever think about touching someone else when you are waiting for me when I come home?”

“Really,” Geralt’s voice comes from somewhere at his side, wait, what, he’s just approached the tanner with the face of someone who just wants to be as far from here as possible, “I’m, uh, those two, both of them were come from… cursed families. Both of them. Which is why they hired me to solve the problem and I’ve been following them for a while.”

What story is that fucking even? “And I hope you will solve it soon,” Yennefer says, “we’ve been together for months, I would really like to tie that knot.”

Jaskier is about to die of a heart attack here. What?

“… A curse is preventing you from getting married?” The tanner repeats.

She shrugs. “See,” she says, “my grandfather was a bad sort of person and got a witch angry once, so she cursed all his descendants to drop dead if they chose to marry someone else. While his father didn’t want him to be a musician, so he cursed him to lose his voice should he want to settle down with someone, knowing that he’s certainly not celibate.” Oh. Oh. She definitely came up with it. Geralt could have never made that up. “That might cause a problem or fifteen, so that’s indeed why we hired the witcher here.”

Geralt clears his throat. He looks pained inside. Then he lowers his voice, a bit more than usual. “In all confidence, my good man,” he says, “look at her. Who would be so fucking stupid to even touch another woman when she is his intended? I have been around them for a month and I’m sure she’d geld him if he even only tried.”

The tanner considers it. “Well,” he says, “I don’t see why a witcher would lie to me. And the lady does make a point. Guess I misunderstood,” he says, and finally grabs his wife and goes back home. Or something.

The audience gathered in front of the inn senses that the show is over and they go back home, too.

Jaskier lets out a breath of relief.

“Woah,” he says, “you two really put on a good show, didn’t you?”

“She did,” Geralt groans, “I just went with it.”

“It was more amusing than I had presumed,” Yennefer smiles, “except that you really do have a death wish, bard.”

Fair point, he supposes. “I… guess,” he sighs. “It’s just - never mind. I know. I kind of did try to, uh, avoid it, but -”

“I suppose,” Yennefer smiles, “that being in the room next to ours regularly might make a man feel like getting his rocks off?”

Jaskier knows he’s gone red in the face.

Geralt is halfway smiling, too, which - fine. This is fine. He can wing it.

“And what if it was the case?” He asks, tentatively, trying to not sound like he’s angry about it or anything, and then Yennefer looks at Geralt with a very, very wicked grin, and -

Geralt grits his teeth for a moment, then looks at him and his face is suddenly not as constipated anymore, and - “If it’s the case,” he says, “we have been talking and neither of us would object if you knocked on the door instead of seducing married women. And since we have to sleep here tonight, maybe you might want to make sure that everyone knows you’re not sleeping with the maid. And now I have to go find a fucking real contract before you two drive me both completely insane,” he says, and then goes off in the other direction.

Jaskier blinks at Yennefer, who just grins back.

“Did he mean it?”

“Door’s open, bard,” she winks. “I have an errand to run and I suppose you have some songs to work on, so how about we see each other later? I’m extremely interested in finding out why exactly do all those women risk their husbands’ wrath to have a tumble in bed with you. Just come talk to me before the set if you have ideas to share - I do think Geralt’s wanted you for years, so we might as well give him a good time, right?”

Then she also goes off to where Jaskier thinks the apothecary is located.

Well -

Well then.

He smiles to himself as he goes back inside the inn and heads upstairs.

He does have a few songs to work on, and he definitely needs to come up with a list to present to Yennefer later.

After all, if he wants them to invite him again, he will have to impress, but he thinks he can do that.

He can do that indeed.