#selkie Jaskier

[thedemonofcat]

In selkie culture, there's a rule: whoever returns the selkie's cloak, the selkie belongs to them.

If Jaskier is being honest with himself, it’s partly his fault for leaving his cloak among Geralt’s belongings. Maybe he should have told the witcher about being a selkie before Geralt found the cloak mixed with his things and returned it to Jaskier.

Since then, Jaskier has been grappling with how to tell Geralt that they are, technically, married.

Especially when, as far as Jaskier can tell, Geralt hates him.

[0dde11eth]

Ok but baby Selkie jaskier putting a fin on his back for Halloween so he can be a shark!

[0dde11eth]

@penandinkprincess selkie jaskier coded

obsessed with this baby hippo from thailand's khao khew zoo.. she has been so utterly betrayed by the world

[thedemonofcat]

According to legend, a selkie will fall in love with whoever possesses their cloak. What the legend fails to mention, however, is that the cloak must be willingly given.

Right now, Jaskier is in a state of panic. He’s lost his cloak—not just any cloak, but his selkie cloak. As best as he can figure, it must have gone missing after the mountain, lost in his haste.

He isn't sure if he misplaced it or if someone stole it. With no other options, Jaskier turns to Geralt for help, knowing this means revealing to the witcher that he’s a selkie. He's almost surprised at how quickly Geralt agrees to assist, especially after everything that happened on the mountain.

What Jaskier doesn't know is that Geralt is hiding a significant secret. He has Jaskier’s cloak. Geralt didn't steal it; it simply ended up among his belongings, mixed in with Jaskier’s things after they left. Jaskier had always left his stuff lying around, and Geralt noticed it slipped in with his own gear. Besides, Geralt had always known Jaskier was a selkie—no ordinary human would smell like the sea.

Geralt fully intends to return the cloak; he could never be so cruel as to trap Jaskier. But the longer they spend searching for it, the longer Geralt gets to keep Jaskier by his side.

[0dde11eth]

Omg omg omg a friend shared this on Facebook and it's exactly what Lambert would do to (adult) selkie jaskier!

@penandinkprincess

[0dde11eth]

if i was a harbor seal you KNOW i'd be taking joyous underwater naps!!!!!!!

[pherryt]

Getting to the Bottom of Things

Witcher - Part 12 of Second Chances

Ship: Geraskier

Words: 3052

Rated: T

Summary: Between them all, they'd come up with a list of possibilities for Jaskier's ancestry and then proceeded to eliminate them one by one till only one thing was left.

[permanentlydepressedpigeon]

@penandinkprincess selkie!Jaskier the morning after drinking too much? Or a selkie!Jaskier with a cold.

[thedemonofcat]

Many wicked individuals would go to great lengths to capture a Selkie. You see, Selkies were renowned for their beauty, and it was a well-known fact that possessing a Selkie pelt would bind the Selkie to the owner.

As a Selkie himself, Jaskier is acutely aware of the peril he faces whenever he decides to take a swim. Fortunately for Jaskier, he has Geralt, who doesn't tolerate anyone attempting to steal his bard's pelt.

It's an unusual scene to stumble upon: a pond with a seal joyfully swimming, accompanied by a vigilant Witcher standing nearby.

[0dde11eth]

@penandinkprincess

big boi is coming

(via)

[0dde11eth]

Selkie jaskier always has to supervise every activity. He watches the witchers very carefully when they cook, clean or train.

I guess you can say the witchers need his... seal of approval

@penandinkprincess

[thedemonofcat]

One day, Geralt is hired on a bit of a stranger job. The village notices at night some mysterious force from the nearby Beach keeps singing at night.

So Geralt does the only thing he can and goes to the beach before sundown and waits in hiding. To Geralt's surprise, at some point in the night, a seal pops out of the water.

To add to his surprise, the seal, once on land appears to take off his cloak and turn into Jaskier.

This is how Geralt learns that his Bard is, in fact, a Selkie

[0dde11eth]

@penandinkprincess

[0dde11eth]

Ok but can you imagine how badly all the witchers (geralt) would freak out if they found out that baby jaskier CAN FUCKING CLIMB A TREE!?!?!?!

Apparently seals in Aberdeen have learned to climb onto a branch and rest there

Arboreal seals

I AM LOSING! IT!!

ARBOREAL SEALS

[geraskierfanficprompts]

Jaskier who is the child taken in exchange for a changeling. He's not genetically fae, but he is culturally fae. Like, he loves nature and trickery and cream. He has a distaste for lies and iron. He is the MOST polite about hospitality.

Maybe Geralt has suspicions about Jaskier being fae; however, it’s just how he was raised.

Bonus points if Jaskier isn’t human, he’s just not fae.

That ending is the best part omg I'm crying Imagining some fairy/siren/selkie/??? Jaskier who all the witchers are CONVINCED is a fae and he's just like "No, I just have manners lol."

[dapandapod]

For Mermay:

Geralt/Jaskier underwater singing

YES PLEASE and thank you for indulging me. I had to stop everything to write this, right now and immeadiately. I hope you enjoy! <3

Send me a pairing and a word, and I give you a fic?

On Ao3 here

Jaskier scoffs but doesn’t say anything when the witcher starts explaining different beasts to him that the first year they travel together.

His beastiarity about Mer is so fantastically outdated, and one would think someone as well traveled as Geralt would have a bit more updated view of people below water.

But correcting him means offering up a piece of Jaskier’s past that he is not sure will be well received, so he keeps his mouth shut.

The monsters in Jaskier’s songs that first time they met, they do exist. They are just not from the surface world. In his childhood, Jaskier remembers dark shadows from above, diving down and with sharp fangs reaching for his siblings.

Kelp can be a great cover, but there are beasties that know them even better than Shore Mer.

There is a reason you can’t find Lettenhove on a map. Well, technically you can, and it is a acknowledged county in books of old, but it is a lake. Was a lake, now a part of a river leading to the shore. They are still there, forgotten by almost everyone.

It is Deep Mer who has fish tales. Beautiful women from the depths with their beautiful voices and glistening skin and scales, luring fishers with them into the darkness, that is how the world thinks of Mer. There is only one type of human too, right?

No, Jaskier will not correct Geralt.

He is tempted that one time when he sees his witcher whistle, communicating in ways of old with the Deep Mer.

He is tempted again, when he refuses the lord, but holds back when all is said and done.

The secret is not only his to keep, and with Essi now exploring the surface world too, he keeps the words locked behind his teeth.

Still, Jaskier needs water sometimes. When the weather is fine, he bullies Geralt into swimming with him in a pond. He spends almost more time than Geralt in a bath, and when apart, he finds ways to submerge in rivers and lakes and sea alike.

Shore Mer are different, adapted for a life of both. While dry, his smattering of scales retreat, his feet less flat and flipper like.

They are not Selkies, no, those are something else. Drowners too, are nothing alike a Shore Mer, except for owning legs and having a similar swimming pattern. It’s unavoidable, given how you need to move in water to get anywhere without looking, well…. Like Geralt currently does.

Geralt didn’t join him to the coast after that blasted mountain. Didn’t even mention the presence of a hot spring, despite the middle of winter making the halls of the keep barely bearable.

He did, however, trail behind Jaskier on his way down the lake below Kaer Morhen, snow and ice slippery under their feet. Jaskier never heard him, never saw him, just felt the pull of the water, the intense need to Change.

Jaskier didn’t notice Geralt was there until he was below the ice with him. Cold water never bothered Jaskier much, his body regulating itself to keep him alive, but Geralt, noble, stupid, idiot Geralt, did not know this.

He dove into the water, clothes and all, attempting to save a bard that did not need saving.

In the end, it was Jaskier who had to drag a nearly hypothermic Geralt back up to the keep, and only then did he learn of the fucking hot springs.

When Geralt finally looked and felt like an icicle, there was a long, long conversation, bordering on argument.

Terse silence ruled for almost a week, until Geralt finally caved, the stubborn fucking idiot. 

Not only for Ciri’s sake, they lingered well past spring. 

Jaskier finally braves correcting the witchers about Mer, lecturing them about how the information is for their ears only. They, out of all people, should know the dangers of being seen as different.

On a spring day when the sky is startlingly blue, Jaskier invites Geralt to swim with him. With the help of the Killer Whale potion, the witcher manages to mostly keep up with him.

Below the surface, the light is murky, particles glimmering where the rays of sun pierce the darkness. 

Singing under water is… different. Vocal cords sound different with water instead of air. 

It’s been a while since he felt safe enough to sing below the surface, because of both land and water creatures, but with Geralt with him, there is no doubt.

The lullaby he starts with is soft, lapping like waves against the shore, dancing with the currents of the sea. He sings of the stars, only visible to him if he leaves his world.

In his own tongue, he sings of a wolf. There technically isn’t a word for wolf, but that one time he sang it for Essi, she understood.

All the while, Geralt is watching him. Eerie and beautiful as his hair fans around him like a white crown, eyes of a predator. Every once in a while, he has to go and breathe, and when he returns, Jaskier has lost himself in the movements of his song.

When they heave themselves up on one of the big rocks by the edge of the lake, Geralt is quiet. Jaskier stretches out on the rock, letting the sun dry his skin back to the smooth planes he is now more used to.

The witcher watches him, but Jaskier doesn’t feel threatened.

He closes his eyes, and doesn’t open them again until a shadow closes out the sun. Geralt’s hair is dripping with cold water, his thumb coarse against Jaskier’s cheek, but his lips so infinitely soft.

Geralt kisses him like he can’t help himself, and Jaskier kisses him back like he has only ever dreamed of.

“I’m sorry I made you feel you had to keep this from me,” Geralt murmurs, knocking their foreheads together after some good long moments. Jaskier’s breath comes short, and he smiles.

“If it were only my secret to tell, I wouldn’t have.” Jaskier whispers, and Geralt scrunches up his forehead in that adorable way of his when he is concerned. 

“You still look like a drowner when you swim.” Geralt says, ruining the moment completely, and Jaskier shoves him back into the water as punishment.

When Geralt gets out of the water, he traps Jaskier under him, cold water dripping over sun heated skin. 

Laughing and kissing under a pale spring sun is just a new step on the path they walk together. A path that always calls for a witcher and his bard.