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viking-raider · 1 year

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A WITCHER’S LEGACY - PART THREE: BONDS

Summary: You travel to Kaer Morhen with Lycus and Jaskier, while Geralt hunts down who's behind the Mage attack. Starting with Nenneke, in the Temple of Melitele.

Pairing: Geralt of Rivia/Reader

Word Count: 4.8k

Parts: I II

Warning: PG - Witcher!AU, Dad!Geralt, Soft & Protective!Geralt, Sassy!Reader, Language, Hurt/Comfort, Protective!Jaskier, Uncle!Jaskier, Confession, Separation, Nicknames, Memories, Unrequited Love, Rude Behavior, Fluff

Inspiration: A subject from my story, A Witcher’s Destiny, Season Two of Netflix’s the Witcher and a Quest in The Witcher 3!

Author’s Note: I hope you enjoy it! Line divider by @FIREFLY-GRAPHICS!

If you would like to be added A Witcher’s Legacy Tag List, please message me!

I also have the story on my AO3

If you would like to get notifications for my writing! Just follow my Tag List blog, @VIKING-RAIDER-TAGLIST and turn on the notifications for it! It’s that easy!’

“I don't want to leave you.” You whimpered, tugging on the hem of Geralt's cloak, while trying to stifle back tears.

Geralt smiled softly, wrapping his arm around your shoulders and pulled you in, closing Lycus in between you. “I know you don't, my firefly.” He whispered, pressing his lips to your forehead. “But it's for the best.” He told you, looking down at Lycus, nestled inside your own cloak. “For you and our son.”

“We've never been apart for more than a day or two, since we've met, you know that?” You said, looking up, and trying to smile for him.

“I do.” He chuckled, golden eyes sparkling. “What is it that married couples say?” He quipped at you. “The ol' ball and chain.”

That drew a genuine laugh out of you. “Is this you suggesting we legitimately marry?” You teased back, nudging him with your shoulder.

“I've told you before, you've been my wife for a very long time.” Geralt answered, catching your chin in his fingers. “I don't need an alderman to tell me that.” He whispered, his forehead brushing yours.

“Unless, you want it?” He mumbled, softly.

“I don't need one either.” You assured him, sweetly. “Besides, I think this sweet guy bonds us together far more than a marriage contract ever could.” You said, glancing into Lycus's face, seeing so much of Geralt in his teeny features.

“That's more than true.” He nodded, smiling at his beautiful son. “Now, hop up on Bell. It's a four day ride from Asheberg to Kaer Morhen.” He told you, grabbing a hold of the rose gray horse's reins to hold it still, while you maneuvered Lycus in his sling and pulled yourself up into the saddle.

“Hey.” Geralt called quietly, squeezing your calf as he looked up at you.

You looked down, lifting a creased brow.

“I'll miss you and I love you.” He assured you, giving you a reassuring expression.

“Same, my wolf.” You rasped back, your voice cracking around the lump in your throat.

Patting your thigh, Geralt turned away from you and Lycus. Taking a deep breath, as he tried to ignore the raging storm inside his body that wanted to keep him from walking away, knowing the danger the two of you were in. Stiffening his jaw and squaring his shoulders, he set his right boot forward in the slimy mud, before approaching Jaskier, who was fussing with the buckles to his own horse's saddle.

“I'm entrusting their safety to you, Julian.” Geralt said, giving the Bard a stony, golden glare.

“Come now, Geralt, I will protect them as if they were my own wife and child.” Jaskier replied, clicking his tongue at the Witcher, in an attempt to sound confidently dismissive. “As if they were my lute!” He added, with a melodic laugh, glancing at his long-time friend.

“That's another thing I want from you.” Geralt said, turning an eye over his shoulder to you. “She probably won't hear of it, but should anyone ask on the journey to Kaer Morhen, they are your wife and child.”

“What, why?” The Bard frowned, shaking his head.

“Because, people are clearly trying to find a woman and her child that she had with a Witcher.” He replied, cocking his head at him, amused by his friend's airheadedness. “While it won't fool the people specifically looking for them, it'll keep word of their location from being spread.”

“Ri-ight.” Jaskier nodded, finally understanding. “If it comes up, I'll claim them.” He promised Geralt, reaching out to clasp his shoulder. “I'll get them to Kaer Morhen and Vesemir safely.”

“I trust you, my friend.” Geralt sighed, returning the gesture. “Until then, I'll be looking for the bastards that are up to this.”

“How are you going to do that?” Jaskier asked, curiously.

“When I took her to the Temple of Melitele, to give birth to Lycus, there was an incident.” He replied, eyes narrowing, as he recalled the moment. “I didn't think much of it, at the time. One of the visitors snooped on a conversation between Nenneke and I. It's a suspicion and my only lead currently.” He explained, biting his lip.

“Other than heading to Aretuza and demanding the name of the Mage, by the description I give them.”

“Well, Hell Hounds know no fury, like a father and a Witcher on a warpath to protect his wife and child.” Jaskier laughed, slotting his expensive boot into one of his saddle's stirrups, but paused, looking back at Geralt. “Oh, this is going to make a great song.” He chuckled, the wheels already turning in his mind.

“No, it won't, Jaskier.” Geralt warned, giving him a knowing look.

“I said, it would make a great song.” Jaskier huffed, rolling his eyes and heaving himself into the saddle, but leaned down. “I never said anything about singing it to the Continent, you muse killer.” He grinned, winking, and straightening up.

Geralt shook his head and moved out of the way, catching your eye as you nudge your horse northward, out of Asheberg and in the direction of Kaer Morhen. His slow heart clenched, seeing your reddened eyes, his brow drew together as he nodded his head at you. Doing his best to instill one last bit of hope and strength into you, before you lost each other around the bend in the road. Letting out a heavy sigh, Geralt turned and grabbed the horn of Roach's saddle and swung into it, turning the Chestnut towards the west, where the revered Temple of Melitele was situated, just outside the Duchy of Ellander.

He hoped that Nenneke would remember the man that interrupted their conversation the night he had brought you to her.

“She's resting now.” Geralt said, meeting Nenneke just outside her office. “It was a hard journey from Smallton. We could only ride Roach a quarter of the way, before it became too much for her and the babe.”

“Well, from the examination I gave her, she is quite far along.” Nenneke replied, her expression troubled. “I would expect her to give birth within the next two weeks or so. It was wise you brought her to me, when you did, Geralt.”

“I was worried about more than her just giving birth.” He whispered, pressing his lips together, exhausted from the long travel, as well as the concern about you and the pregnancy.

“I don't want to sound—odious, Geralt.” The Priestess started, trying to pick her words carefully, for the Witcher's sake. “I know you love her and the two of you have been together for a very long time. But-” She gulped, regarding him with a measured eye. “Are you sure that this child is yours?”

Geralt sighed and rubbed his face.

“I am sure that the babe is mine, Nenneke.” He nodded, meeting her gaze. “Without a shadow of a doubt, it's mine.” He said, his voice wrapped with conviction. “I know she would never betray me, and I can hear its heartbeat, it's slow. Just like mine is.”

“But how, Geralt?” Nenneke pressed, shaking her head, surprised and confused. “You are a Witcher! Witchers are sterile. You can not have children, because of your training!”

“I know that, Nenneke. Trust me, she and I both had that conversation.” Geralt grunted back at her. “But she's adamant. She's never lain with someone that can get her with a child.” He huffed, agitated in your defense. “Besides, I know when she's lying to me. Her heart speeds up and her eyebrow twitches. Neither of these things happen, when she's asked about her fidelity.”

“But I have my suspicion about what it could be, that made it possible.” He added, pushing his jaw forward.

“What is your--”

A loud crash filled the stone hallway, startling Nenneke and putting Geralt further on edge. They turned and discovered one of the brass candle holders had been knocked over, spilling the thankfully unlit candles to the floor. Frowning, Nenneke strode forward, discovering the perpetrator of the disruption, a man hiding behind a pillar, like a gecko attached to a wall.

“What is the meaning of this?” Nenneke demanded of him, angered to find him spying.

“I-I--” He floundered, mouth flapping like a caught fish.

“Leave my Temple at once!” Nenneke hissed at him. “I will not have such disrespect to Melitele and her visitors.” She barked, jabbing a finger towards the double doors of the great Temple.

“Begone with you, at once, before I call the city guards upon you!”

Hesitating for a second longer, the man bolted from the Temple and out into the pouring night.

With any luck, Nenneke would remember who the man was, enabling Geralt to track him down, and through him lead the Witcher to those that were now hunting you and Lycus.

You saw the city of Ban Gleán come into view as you rode over the ridge, Lycus snuggled inside your cloak, babbling to himself as he tugged at the neck of your bodice, while Jaskier hummed to himself just behind you; the trail too narrow for you to ride abreast.

“We should stop here for the night.” You called over your shoulder to the Bard. “Restock whatever items we'll need for the last leg of our journey to Kaer Morhen.” You told him, gently pulling on the reins as the trail sloped downwards.

“It's the last trading post we'll see until we get there.”

“What about Ard Carraigh?” Jaskier yelled back to you.

“High Rock is too far out of our way.” You replied, shaking your head. “We'd have to go all the way north, then east to make it to Kaer Morhen. It adds at least a day to our journey, and I don't want Lycus out in the open any longer than I have to.”

“Fair enough, my fair lady.” The Bard twittered, pulling up alongside you as the road widened. “What are we in need of at Lower Village?” He asked, pursing his lips and crossing his eyes as Lycus popped his head out of your cloak, making him giggle.

“Winter is three months away, but judging by the mountain range,” You said, jerking your chin in the direction of the Blue Mountains. “The snow has already fallen in that region.” You guessed, chewing on your lip, wishing Geralt was there to confirm your suspicion. “I'll have to get Lycus something warmer to wear. Since his other warm clothes were from when he was a newborn. But I'm sure Geralt will bring me things to knit him more warm clothing.” You sighed, looking down at the little boy, and smiled softly.

“That's if grand-papa Vesemir hasn't beaten me to that.” You chuckled, amused at the idea of the oldest, surviving Witcher on the Continent knitting baby clothes as he wiled away his time in the Witcher stronghold. You still had the little cap Vesemir had made for Lycus's first winter at the Keep, when he was just a few weeks old.

“We'll have to replenish our food satchel as well.” Jaskier added, patting the bag attached to his saddle.

“Yeah.” You nodded, narrowing your eyes at him. “If someone had re-framed from munching on it, it should have been enough to make it all the way.” You quipped at him, eyes gleaming.

“Madam, are you implying something?” Jaskier gasped, touching a hand to his breast.

“Oh, not at all.” You chuckled, fluttering your lashes at him. “I'm just saying we have some sort of ghoul amongst our party, that's nibbling the food supply.”

Jaskier leaned over in his saddle, bringing his face close to Lycus's. “You sir, need to keep your wee ghoul hands out of the food satchel. You hear your mother, you're eating us to starvation!” He gasped with dramatic outrage.

Lycus stared at Jaskier, froze in place, it made you laugh, seeing the blank, but intent look in his eyes. How you loved them, with the small flake of warm amber at the bottom corner of his left eye, like a coin dropped in a calm sea, of their otherwise cerulean blue. It makes your heart both sore and light at the same time. Your sweet little boy. He was a wonder to the world, both in how he was created and to how the world worked to him.

But your wonder was short lived catching wind of something vile.

“Ugh!” You winced, nose wrinkling and face twisting in disgust.

“What's the matter?” Jaskier asked, pulling back to look at you.

“Someone has soiled his nappy, big time.” You said, shaking your head at your son.

“The ghoul has struck again!” Jaskier howled with laughter, rocking back in his saddle.

You and Jaskier hastily made it to Ban Gleán and you quickly changed Lycus's pamper, before going down to the grocer's stall with the Bard.

“Why are you using your own coin?” You asked, watching Jaskier pull out a coin pouch to buy the two loaves of bread and other food items that would last you until reaching Kaer Morhen.

Jaskier's cheeks colored as he dropped the orens into the grocer's hand, nodding his head to the man, before moving away with you. “It's not really my coin.” He admitted to you, reluctantly.

“Oh?” You replied, cocking a brow at him.

“Geralt gave me the coin, in case you needed any extra, along the way.” He confessed, unable to take the expression you were giving him.

“Why would he give it to you, and not me?” You asked, frowning. “I'm the one he gives our coin to, when he wants to save it.”

“I guess, he wanted to do the same thing, just extending it to me.” Jaskier replied, biting his lip. “You know Geralt trusts you in all things.” He said, trying to soothe whatever worries or concerns you had. “But you also know he's a bit overprotective, especially over you and Lycus. Just wanting to make extra sure you were prepared and taken care of.”

You sighed heavily and gently touched your shoulder to Jaskier's. “I know that, Julian. I'm just--” You trailed off, unable to find the words.

“You miss him and would rather be with that sour puss, than this charmer.” Jaskier chuckled, putting his arm around your shoulders, hugging you against him. “Honestly, I thought you were crazy when you and Geralt got together.” He snorted, shaking his head. “I really had it pegged, you and I would have been a couple.” He said, voice softening and his eyes darting to Lycus for a moment, a hint of something guarded in them, before it vanished behind another laugh.

“But now, I see the two of you have truly been made for one another, and because of that, I found the Countess!”

You cleared your throat, surprised at Jaskier's confession that he had felt something for you. “How is Lara, by the way?” You asked, having met the Countess de Stael on several occasions over the years.

“She's magnanimous!” Jaskier grinned, smiling up at the blue sky.

“You angered her again, didn't you?” You asked, lifting a knowing brow at him.

“I may have, unknowingly, insulted a beneficial member of her circle, in one of my latest songs.” He winced, looking back at you.

You laughed, shaking your head. “How do you unknowingly insult someone, in a song, Julian?” You asked, pausing by a stall selling yarn and other knitting goods. “You had to use their name or a general depiction of them for it to be perceived as an insult.”

“Ah, yes! Well-” He laughed, flashing that charming smile at you. “I did happen to attend a banquet, where this Earl was also an invited guest. But word got to me that he made a tactless remark about one of my songs...”

“Oh?” You giggled as he trailed off, picking up a thick ball of black wool, indicating to the seller of your interest in buying it. “What song, if I dare ask?” You shot a look over your shoulder at the Bard.

“One of your own favorites!” Jaskier replied, up playing his outrage. “The Stars Above The Path!”

You gasped, turning towards him. “That's blasphemous!” You huffed, half playfully offended and half actually angered by someone having the gall to say anything negative about Jaskier's music. Jaskier was many things, but a bad song writer wasn't one of them.

He wasn't a multi-hit wonder across the Continent for nothing!

“That's what I'm saying!” He replied, his blue eyes wide with indignation. “That puffed up, misanthrope!” He growled, brows drawing together as he pictured the man in his mind. “Anyway! He said the song wasn't, and I quote, catchy enough.”

“Not catchy enough!” You retorted, your face contorting with your confused exasperation. “I've watched grown men cry by the second verse of that song!” You huffed, ready to track this mediocre critic down and give him a piece of your mind.

“Geralt's tapping his foot to that song!”

Jaskier's head jerked back with surprise. “Geralt...Geralt taps his foot to 'The Stars Above The Path'?” He asked, his voice shaking with disbelief.

“He does.” You nodded at him, smiling at the shock on the Songster's face. “If you ever tell Geralt I told you this, I will deny it on my son's name.” You told him, chuckling softly at him. “But Geralt of Rivia, infamous White Wolf, proclaimed Butcher of Blaviken and supposed emotionless Witcher, loves your music.”

“Well,” He sighed quietly, planting his hands on his hips. “That little shit.” He huffed, rolling his eyes.

You snorted at him, shifting Lycus as he moved restlessly against you. “I'm still your number one fan though.” You added in, paying the stall worker for your yarn and stuffed it into the satchel that rested against your hip. “Yes, I know my son.” You cooed, feeling Lycus tug at your bodice and grunted. “I'm going to the inn to find a room, I need to feed this little rascal.” You told Jaskier, then glanced at the vendor.

“Where's your inn?”

“The Clover Hunter is just down the road, the first building you come to, after the bend.” He explained to you, pointing the way.

“Thank you.” You smiled, nodding your head.

“I'll see you there, just going to finish getting a few more things here.” Jaskier said, waving a hand around the stalls.

“All right.” You replied, then set off for the inn, softly humming the Stars Above the Path as you went. “Your eyes, like the stars above the road, Your lips like a cup of delight!”

You could smell a sharpness of imminent snowfall in the air. Despite how good the warmth of the mid-afternoon sun felt on your back, walking down the cobblestone street, mindful of the horse and donkey piles that dotted it. Turning the corner and glancing up, you found the town's inn. A brass sign of a Hunter drawing an arrow, its glinting tip shaped like a clover, swaying softly from its walnut beam.

Up the creaking steps, that led to a small porch shading the main entrance, you could hear the ruckus inside. Even for it being so early in the day. Situating Lycus, you shoved the door open and the rush of sound filled your ears. People filled the tap room, mostly men and soldiers, sharing mugs of ale and mead, while leaning against the bar top or crowding the long tables. Serving women sailed through the thicket of sweaty and unwashed bodies with ease. Ignoring, swatting at or shooting a look at any of the males that made a grab at them or offered an ungentlemanly remark.

With a quick scan of the room, you found the innkeeper, a rail thin man, in such a state of balding, you might have mistaken him for a monk for a moment, had it not been for the apron and no nonsense look on his face. He only had a ring of salt and pepper hair around his head and a smooth dome on top, that shined in the light of the sconce, he stood beside.

“Pardon me.” You called to a Dun Banner, a Kaedweni light cavalry soldier, who was local to the city of Ban Gleán, and stood in your way to the innkeeper.

The cavalryman turned at the sound of your voice, and lifted a dark brow at you. You stared back at him. The smell of his stained, gold and black tunic, bearing the Kaedwen Unicorn, his lank and greasy, shoulder length black hair, coupled with his unwashed body was a powerful bubble around you and Lycus. You stopped breathing through your nose shortly after entering the inn, to help combat the assault of the smell that permeated in the air. But, it no longer helped.

Making your brow wrinkle, as you took a deep breath as quickly as you could and blew it out, just as fast.

“Excuse me, I'd like to get to the innkeeper, please.” You elaborated, as politely as you could, when he continued to just stand there, his ale thick breath wafting on your face, making your eye twitch.

“Would you now, darling?” He finally spoke, cracking a smile at you to show his one chipped front tooth and its missing partner.

“Yes.” You replied, putting some authority in your tone. “My son and I would like to rest.” You huffed at him, but tightened your hold on Lycus, should the soldier try anything.

The cavalryman's beady eye cocked downwards to see the top of Lycus's white head peeking out of your cloak. The little boy had stopped fussing about you feeding him during the walk from the stalls to the inn. Sufficing himself with sucking on the combination of his fist and the hem of your bodice as he grabbed onto it, steadily soaking the fabric with his saliva.

You didn't mind, he was quiet and content.

But now you were faced with the brute, who decided to test your patience. If Geralt had been here, the Kaedwenian would have gotten out of your way with a hard golden glare and a growl, despite being a soldier for the Kingdom of Kaedwen and Geralt being an evil Witcher. But, you were just a lowly woman with a baby, who would most likely lose interest in his fist soon and start screaming for lunch, if you didn't get this single brain celled, brute to get out of your way.

“Croso!” A voice roared from the thicket of people.

The cavalryman looked away from you, his black eyes lighting on the caller, his smile growing wider, at the woman. She had a hard face. But you had a feeling it was deceiving and she may have been younger than she actually looked in her burgundy and black, buskless, plain fronted corset gown.

“Morana!” He called back to her, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at her.

“Stop pestering that lady and buy me a drink, you hound!” Morana scolded him, holding up her empty tankard. “Perhaps, I'll let you play with my toes later on.” She added an impish look in her gray eyes.

At that invitation, the Dun Banner was stumbling over his own feet, as well as into everyone, to get to the bar for a fresh mug of mead for her.

You looked across to Morana and gave her a gentle nod of thanks, which she returned with a kind smile. Now with your path less obstructed, you weaved through the crowd to the innkeeper, just as he finished a transaction with someone else.

“I would like a room, please.” You told him, once you had his attention.

“That'll be twenty Ducats, then.” He replied, hardly looking at you as he grabbed a tankard that was thrust at him, from someone behind you, and started to fill it up.

“That's fine.” You answered, taking the gold coins out of your money pouch and dropped them on the nicked up bar top.

Setting the overflowing tankard down with a slosh, the innkeeper swiped up your money and deposited it into his pocket, before waving you around the bar. You followed after him, mounting a set of stairs to the next floor, but bypassed that for the second floor. He took you to the end of the hall and shoved a door on the left open, jerking his head inside.

“This is the room.” He said, his face uncaring. “Don't cause any trouble.” He huffed, heading back downstairs.

“I don't plan on it.” You replied, looking into the room. “Oh, wait!” You called after him, catching him just as he took the first step down. “If a Bard comes in looking for him, please tell him where I am.” You informed him, not wanting Jaskier to worry you'd been stashed away somewhere.

“Sure. Fine. Whatever.” the Innkeeper shrugged and continued on.

“All right, my boy.” You sighed, going into the room, closing and locking the door behind you. “Let's get that monstrosity of a diaper changed!”

Geralt felt a small relief as the Temple of Melitele came into view as he crested the top of a hill, astride Roach. Urging the Chestnut onward, his troubled mind mulled over the situation for the hundredth time. He needed to find out who was looking for Lycus, and before they managed to do any harm to his son.

“Geralt?” Nenneke's surprised voice echoed in the vast, stone entryway of the great Temple.

“Nenneke.” The Witcher called back, giving her a wary smile, while handing over his swords to one of the other priestesses.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, shaking her head at him and looking around. “Where is your dear wife and that precious babe?”

“They're on their way to Kaer Morhen.” Geralt returned, leveling a tired and troubled brow at her. “Where it's safer for them.” He added, softer.

“Safer?” Nenneke frowned, her head cocking slightly in her increasing confusion, but she reached out and took Geralt by the elbow, ushering him to the back of the Temple, where her office was. “Tell me what's going on, Geralt.” She ordered him, motioning to the chair before her cluttered desk, while she began to brew them some tea.

Sighing heavily, Geralt folded himself into the seat, rubbing the side of his stubbly face. “There are people—a mage, at least that we know of, currently. Stalking my wife and son.” He put it, simply.

“Stalking, for what reason?” She inquired, skillfully pouring boiling water over a kettle of loose herbal leaves.

“I'm a Witcher that sired a child, Nenneke.” Geralt grunted at her, indignant. “Obviously, they caught word that Lycus is my blood and wish to do him harm.”

Nodding, Nenneke let the tea finish steeping and poured them each a cup, handing one over to Geralt, before taking a seat in her own chair. “You never did tell me how you managed to father a child, Geralt.”

“Since we were so rudely interrupted.”

“Yes, I know. It's the person that interrupted us, I believe is behind all of this mess.” He sighed, holding the hibiscus tea between his hands and stared into its deep red tint. “I want to know, if you remember who they were? Do you know their name? Or, perhaps, where they came from?”

“I might recall his name.” She nodded, pressing her lips together. “But, why don't we start with exactly how you came to have Lycus.”

Geralt gave Nenneke a critical look. He didn't want to talk about how you and he conceived Lycus. As complicated as it was to start with. He just wanted a name and a location of the man he was inquiring about. So he could settle into his room for the night, get a half decent night's sleep, in a soft bed, before traversing across the Continent in search of him and anyone else in the scheme, for the next three months. On top of plying his Witcher trade, so he could bring back supplies for the three of you.

But Geralt also knew Nenneke was far too curious to be deterred away from the subject.

“All right, fine.” He huffed, taking a large gulp of the scolding tea.

“It occurred during our stay in Toussaint.” He started, resting back in his seat, and looking up at the window set high on the wall behind Nenneke. The light slowly fading on the other side. “Originally, we were only supposed to pass through. However, an acquaintance of mine had a letter delivered to me, while in Beauclair, informing me of something that might prove troubling to Witchers.”

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wangxianficfinder · 2 years

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In the mood for a Fic...

~*~

1. itmf weird crossover fics, like you would not see mdzs and think about that crossover. An example is Of Ghosts and Heroes by The Silverfish (ZephyrAndTheSilverfish) (which, wow!) preferably Wangxian (bottom wwx), but others are fine too if you think it's worth reading :D

Wizards of Yunmeng Place Series by chatonnerie (G, 38k, WangXian, SangCheng, Modern AU, Wizards of Waverly place Fusion, Halloween Wei Wuxian's Birthday, Getting Together, Magic, Urban Fantasy, Fluff and Crack, Vampire Lans, Wizards Jiang family, Wizard WWX)

live from new york by varnes (E, 87k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, This is a SNL AU, however the juniors are featured and there are lots of shenanigans!, slow burn, friends to lovers, pining, getting together, happy ending)

the rivers start to sing by fruitys (M, 27k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Tangled (2010) Fusion, Fairy Tale Elements, Strangers to Lovers, True Love's Kiss, or something like that, Sharing a Bed, Wound Tending, Hurt/Comfort, Attempt at Humor, Implied/Referenced Torture)

🧡 don't threaten me with a good time by livinginaworldofnoise (G, 60k, WangXian, Modern AU, Great British bake off AU, Script format, Fluff and Crack, Reality TV, Social media)

❤️ More Questions than Answers by tiniestawoo (T, 2k, Sterek, WangXian, Teen Wolf Crossover, Curses, Curse Breaking, Modern with Magic, (alternate for CQL I GUESS?), Full Shift Werewolves, Beta DH, Demonic Cultivation, Crack Treated Seriously, Crack Crossover)

and having a marvelous time by varnes (E, 108k, WangXian, Yúnmèng Siblings, Sound of Music AU, (i know!!! i know. stay with me on this.), Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Family Feels, spies to lovers???, Protective Siblings, Sometimes You Just Want Your Dads To Admit They're Your Dads, Angst with a Happy Ending)

Come by it Honestly by ladyshadowdrake (M, 25k, Geraskier, WangXian, The Witcher Crossover, Crossover, Adventure)

~*~

2. I'm desperately craving for some sub!lwj, or overall just some lwj being taken care of and spoiled, also maybe some protective wwx? Preferably no modern aus.

I think if they check out the dom!wwx compilation they would find some good stuff!

~*~

3. In The Mood For scary WWX fics! Not limited to BAMF WWX but anything that really just plays with how creepy WWX and his cultivation can be. Thank you!

green flame, black flute, red ribbon by Fleetling (T, 3k, WangXian, LJY & LSZ, LJY POV, wwx kills people violently and with extreme prejudice, Hurt/Comfort, i think, yeah warnings for kidnapping, intimidation using weapons)

on my wei by thelastdboy (M, 23k, WangXian, SongXiao, Modern AU, Canon Divergence, YL WWX, Natural Disasters, Earthquakes, Aftermath of a Natural Disaster, Cultivation World Politics, Slow Burn, Miscommunication, Taxi Driver WWX, POV LWJ, Neurodiversity, Getting Together, Sentient Burial Mounds, Mistaken Identity, No Major Character Death, Names are Magic, References to Depression, Situational Mutism, Horror Elements, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Anxiety, Autism Spectrum, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known, Soft WangXian, WWX Has ADHD, And also a flock of ravens, Case Fic, Also 24/7 Horny Hours) this one has that spooky green fire and ravens donghua!yllz vibe

the field meets the wood by astronicht (T, 7k, WangXian, BAMF WWX, slight whump, Ritualistic Self Harm, Canon Era, Tang Dynasty style, Blood Loss, Blood and Injury, salt economics, Post-Canon, [Podfic] the field meets the wood by semperfiona_podfic (semperfiona), [podfic] the field meets the wood by jellyfishfire)

Breathing Firestorm by ladyshadowdrake (M; 110k, wangxian, angst w/ happy ending, fluff, captivity, creepy WRH, no non-con, dreamsharing, politics, mythical creature WWX, dark)

honey, don't feed it (it will come back) by neoncoin (M, 14k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Eldritch WWX, final girl lwj vibes, Body Horror, Graphic Description of Corpses, Sunshot Campaign, Hurt WWX, Hurt/Comfort, Horror, Angst with a Happy Ending, YL WWX)

~*~

4. So for a future itmf: can I please, please, PLEASE get something where people are actually on wei wuxian's side? Please? I have read so many fics where wwx is blamed for EVERYTHING. Oh lwj had to mourn you. Oh you and lwj are getting married? Sorry but we're gonna be on lwj's side of the wedding party.

Read a fic recently where lsz told wwx "you're the one with the words aren't you?" And could only think to myself how unfair that is. Yes, wwx is the one who can talk more, and easier, but that shouldn't mean all communication in their relationship is on him.

Read another where wwx and lwj were getting married and literally every single junior was on lwj's side of the wedding party? And more or less said wwx wasn't good enough and had to prove that he might be one day?

Idk, sorry for the request turned rant 😂 I just keep finding fic like this and I'm TIRED and I just really need to read something that doesn't put all the weight of everything onto wwx alone and actually gives him people who genuinely care and are in his corner. Please I'm literally begging 😭🙏

try stiltonbasket's fics. as a whole, their works have wwx working through his trauma at his own pace and then living a happy life with unconditional love and support from lwj and his other loved ones through the entire process. very comforting.

most of apathyinreverie's fics very much carry this vibe

absolutely all the fics from Vrishchika. She is the best WWX writer hands down. She has the characterization perfect, and she knows WWX's value. - I would probably have others, but this is the first name I can think of.

Hauntcats also likes to surround wifi with loving support, as well as giving him his due as the genius and all round amazing human being he is

~*~

5. Hiii, lovely people! I hope y'all enjoying autumn in all its splendor if you're on the northern hemisphere (or lovely spring if you're not). Anyway, for the next ITMF, any time-travel where the three yunmeng sibs travel back? It would be nice to see them all being on the same page and working together. Thanks!

~*~

6. Hi! Are there any Wen Qing lives fics in which she reunites with Lan Sizhui? Thank you!

❤️ kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight by AlfAlfAlfAlfAlf, tardigradeschool (T, 75k, WangXian, Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Eventual Happy Ending, Getting Together, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Inspired by The Parent Trap (1998), Kid Fic, teen shenanigans, two a-yuans, Fluff and Angst)

the dead horse Series by curiositykilled (T, 63k, WIP, WangXian, Yunmeng Siblings & Wen Siblings, WQ & LWJ, Canon Divergence, JYL Lives, WQ Lives, basically everyone lives except wei wuxian, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Canonical Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Family Feels, Platonic Relationships, Families of Choice, Depression, PTSD, raising a kid with your dead best friend's would-be lover, Slow burn friendship)

SIMILAR! 🧡 do not envy the roots that hold you down by eccentrick (T, 12k, WangXian, WQ & LSZ, WQ & LWJ, Found Family, Brother-Sister Relationships, Reincarnation, WQ wasn't given Meng Po's soup, Reunions, awkward cousins lwj and wq, wq is a creepy child, Grief/Mourning, Trauma, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Rebirth, Soul-Searching, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Guilt) a little sideways to the prompt but anon may enjoy it: in which wen qing reincarnates immediately as a lan and gains lsz as a three years older cousin

~*~

7. hello!! could you guys recommend any fics that focus on the one scene where wei wuxian drinks the wine that jin zixun is offering instead of lan wangji? preferably ones that address lan wangji's "I want this man to dominate me" expression?

~*~

8. Hi! Can you recommend some fics where Wei wuxian doesn’t have a golden core but also doesn’t starting demonic cultivation? I think itd be cool to see what his plan was if he wasn’t thrown into the burial mounds. Also I’d like to see him depend on other people more since he has no way of cultivating

Instead by apathyinreverie (T, 6k, wangxian, fix-it, darker gusu lan, manipulative elders, but in a good way?, golden core transfer fix-it of sorts, not Jiang friendly, or anyone friendly, except wangxian, cultivation world critical, fluff, sunshot, politics, courting rituals, genius WWX, no demonic cultivation, talismans, possessive LWJ, protective LWJ, WIP) according to the tags this should fit the prompt very well, but the alt plan of action still hasn't been written for now.

i really want to know (who are you) by Stratisphyre (M, 19k, WangXian, LQR & WWX, Modern AU, Modern with Magic, Golden Core Reveal, Single Dad WWX, Reasonable Authority Figure LQR, Allusions to violence and murder, Hospitalization) wei ying doesnt have a golden core and does not turn to demonic cultivation, hwoever its modern

~*~

9. Hii! For the next ITMF post can you recommend any fics where LWJ or WWX get turned into their kid selves and the other takes care of them?Just a really cute fic pls

grow by cafecliche (T, 14k, WangXian, Age Regression/De-Aging, Character Study, Post-Canon, [Podfic] Grow by jellyfishfire)

how do i forgive myself (for losing so much time) by thunderwear (M, 26k, wangxian, post-canon, de-aging, angst w/ happy ending, fluff, pining, first kiss) LXC de-ages but its such a cute fic!! wangxian take care of the baby

Silver & Gold by beeswaxing (E, 162k, wangxian, post-canon, de-aging, fluff & angst, happy ending, fix-it of sorts, family bonding, established relationship, non-sexual intimacy, BAMF WWX, pining, protective WWX, Mojo’s post)

always and forever by wqngji (Not rated, 3k, wangxian, post-canon, de-aging, child WWX, fluff, humor, protective LWJ)

Before the Morning Sun by Vamillepudding (G, 12k, wangxian, JC & LWJ, post-canon, de-aging, protective JC, light angst, implied/referenced child abuse, kid LWJ)

found your writing on my wall by howodd5ever (T, 25k, wangxian, JC & LWJ, JC & WWX, post-canon, de-aged WWX, accidental baby acquisation, getting together, referenced child neglect, case fic, nightmares, discussion of parent loss, child food insecurity)

shelter by hauntedotamatone (T, 5k, wangxian, post-canon, homelessness, food insecurity, childhood trauma, past child abuse, hurt/comfort, established relationship, loss of parents)

~*~

10. Hi mods! You do awesome work! I’ve recently read “The Price of a Home” (and associated series) and “Hold You Like a Victory” and I was hoping you would know of any more fics that play with the concept of WWX being a whipping boy. This seems like something that easily fits into the canon Jiang family dynamic and there’s just so much potential for fleshing out this AU. I’m dying for more content with this premise. Thank you! @philomathmac

The Earth Rings In Your Ears by bluerainmist (M, 60k, wangxian, whipping boy au, angst w/ happy ending, getting together, drama, rape/non-con elements, fuck or die, bad guys made them do it, corporal punishment, check all the tags!, smut, hurt/comfort, secret relationship, relationship negotiation, enemies to lovers, fuckbuddies to lovers, canonical character death, trauma)

~*~

11.vHii~ Does anyone know of any fics with a concept like or similar to this post for the next itmf? Thank you✨✨✨

JustAWanderingBabbit’s consistent take is that the sword master *was* sexually harassing MY, and sometimes NMJ learns of this in time.

~*~

12. Hello!! Just read through Build Your Home (on a landslide) from one of the comps and now I’m craving more fics that explore A-Yuan’s trauma (whether post canon or fix-t). Thank you so much for the hard work you do!!! 🤎

history by tongzhi (T, 15k, Post-Canon, Angst, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, lsz gets angry, LSZ and JL refuse to take their family's trauma forward, jiujiu is the best, Character Study, lqy abolitionist queen)

it took and left no name by Itabane (G, 1k, Canon Divergence, LSZ-centric, LSZ Remembers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Family Feels)

Gathered Herbs & Sweet Grasses by hansbekhart (Not Rated, 19k, WangXian, dad wangji, LWJ's Questionable Parenting Skills, Grief/Mourning, Recovery, Injury Recovery, Hopeful Ending)

~*~

13. Hi mods! There are no enough words for me to thank you for your hard work, as you make my days with each of your posts <3 Now, I'm not sure if this has been asked, if so, sorry for asking again, I might not look thoroughly: Do you know of fics from someone/something weird's point of view? I mean someone like Lil' Apple or Fairy (I read one of each before), or maybe places like Cloud Recesses or Lotus Pier? Thanks so much!!

There's a Baby Loose in the Burial Mounds! by ScarlettStorm (G, 3k, lsz is the best boy, even the ghosts think so, Original Male Characters, Original Female Characters, But they're all dead, sentient burial mounds)

our own kind of magic. by scarletwanlian (T, 18k, WangXian, Modern AU, 5+1 Things, Fluff, Humor, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, Magic, Magical Realism, College/University, Slice of Life, Witch!WWX, Banter) we get the pov of pieces of furniture 😁

then sigh not so by BlackWiresOnHerHead (T, 6k, WangXian, XuanLi, MianQing, Modern AU, sentient house, slow burn as told by an impatient narrator, Meddling, smart home but with magic instead of invasive technology, POV Outsider, the gang simply Has A Good Time, Getting Together, Sexual Tension, Recreational Drug Use)

My Next Life as a Bunny by shorimochi (T, 10k, WangXian, Reincarnation, Canon Divergence, Vore, but not really?, Food) ok this might be stretching it bc its technically wwx pov but wwx is reincarnated into food. so its also food pov.

The Donkey Books of How to Be Good and Punish Mean People Series by Admiranda (G, 6k, Crack, background wangxian, shameless indulgent fic, sometimes you just gotta write about a donkey, Not JC Friendly, bullying lqr, slight allusions to depression as seen through a donkey's eyes, shameless fluff, donkey ficlet, allusions to animal birth, The Cloud Recesses Rabbits, Little Apple is a mother now, WWX's excellent naming skills)

Дзінші by krinjina (T, 606, WangXian, China, Hurt/Comfort, Real Life, Кімнати персонажів теж важливі) in Ukrainian; the Jingshi’s POV of LWJ’s life. (The tag “Real Life” and the coda—which Google Translate renders as, “And they would write, give them free will and hands”—suggests some Reality Subtext.)

Песенка льда и пламени by kasmunaut & WTF Modao Zushi 2022 (fandom_Wei_Wuxian_and_Co) the title translates as “Song of Ice and Fire”. (G, <1k, wangxian, canon divergence, drama, animal death, crack, fairy tale, fluff, rabbits) Here’s a Russian-language fic (confession: I read it via Google Translate) that deals with a CQL-specific point: the POV character is one of Lan Yi’s spiritual white rabbits—who suddenly has to adjust to a very different way of life. (And yes, the story addresses how they subsisted in the ice cave.)

~*~

14. I’m in the Mood For: Any fics where WWX submits to the Lans for cleansing in exchange for safety for the Wens. I read Decay by ante bunny and loved the premise, but wanted more focus on the consequences of the cleansing.

I love the theory that resentful energy can’t heal but can hold things in stasis, and thus WWX is literally being held together with resentful energy. Because otherwise how did he survive getting stabbed and dropped at great height and starving all without a golden core.

It seems like something WWX would do - allow his execution is exchange for the Wen safety. In fact, I guess I’m in the mood for any fics where cleansing WWX reveals injuries or WWX giving himself up in exchange for Wen safety?Thank you, mods! You are awesome! @philomathmac

❤️ three surgeries and a mercy kill by MarbleGlove (T, 11k, medical procedures, fix-it, Demonic Cultivation, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Self-Indulgent, WWX Has a New Golden Core, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies) the resentment is very similar to your thoughts, but it does not have the 'giving himself up' element

Cradle by Dragonesque (T, 195k, WIP, Canon Divergenc, Adopted children, Yiling Wei Sect, BAMF WWX) He doesn't turn himself in (its yilingwei sect) but in later chapters I remember them discussing healing applications of resentful energy that worked in this way?

Boys With a Broken Soul, Hearts With a Gaping Hole. by JaenysBloodcourt (Not rated, 7k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, LSZ & WWX, fluff & angst, happy ending, boys in love, arranged marriage)

❤️ the kite string and the anchor rope by fleurdeliser (M, 39k, wangxian, canon divergence, sick child, after the yiling date)

~*~

15. For your next itmf, would you rec any stories where wwx is undercover as mxy, in any way, shape or form? Can be Outside POV, modern, canon, whatever. I just like wwx pulling one over everyone (except lwj of course)

Torch Song at Nightless City by ArcadianMaggie (M, 11k, WangXian, Film Noir, Detective LWJ, Singer WWX, 1940s, Chinatown, San Francisco, Murder Mystery, Noir, Modern with Magic)

These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou (E, 29k, WangXian, Modern AU, Kid Fic, Minor Character Death, Injury, Natural Disasters, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hospitalization, Accidents) wwx is in an accident/coma and misidentified as mxy… great story and similar to the ask!

🧡 Rule Number One: Never get attached. by KizuKatana (E, 130k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O, Criminal underworld AU, Fluff and angst, Crime boss LWJ, Rouge criminal genius WWX, Explicit Sex)

~*~

16. hi ❤️❤️ for itmf, I'm pretty sure i read something like this before, but are there any fics where jc at mount dafan says to wwx something like 'if you want me to think you're not wwx, stop gushing about how handsome hgj is' ?? many thanks!!!

~*~

17. Hello! Hope everyone's feeling good and healthy! <3 For the ITMF may I request idol/famous person AUs? Doesn't matter if it's singer/actor/youtuber/other or if it's both lwj and wwx who are famous or only one of them. Prefferably if it's wangxian fic. Thank you and have a nice day! @marudny-robot

Fandom Wiki Doesn't Know Everything by notoneforreality (G, 2k, Background WangXian, Modern AU, Junior Quartet Dynamics, Hinted ZiLing, Celebrity, Relationship Reveal, both in the romantic sense (barely), but mainly in the familial sense, kinda identity reveal?, Jingyi and Zizhen are massive fanboys)

how to fall in love with a catfish: a guide by wei wuxian (disaster rat) by bwyn, Yuisaki (T, 54k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Actors, Multimedia, Online Friendship, Drunken Shenanigans, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Underage Drinking, Drinking Games, Families of Choice, Ensemble Cast, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Catfish AU)

relics of love by cl410 (T, 2k, WangXian, Modern AU, Celebrity, Slice of Life, Child LSZ, Parenthood, Fluff and Humor, Soft WangXian)

on your marks, get set, bake! by BlackWiresOnHerHead (G, 41k, Modern AU, College/University, The Great British Bake Off, Humor, no GBBO knowledge required for entry)

🧡(we've got) time for one more by impossibletruths (E, 71k, WangXian, Modern AU, Rock Band, Siblings, What It Means To Be Lonely, Late Night Conversations, Mentions Of WWX's Subpar Mental Health, The Terror Of Admitting What You Want, Weddings, Fatherhood, Music)

🧡don't threaten me with a good time by livinginaworldofnoise (G, 60k, WangXian, Modern AU, Reality TV, The Great British Bake Off Fusion, wwx is a chaos demon determined to make gbbo more exciting, lwj cares about the Integrity of Bake-Off, Fluff and Crack, gbbo au, content warning for absolute unhinged nonsense, Enemies to Lovers, by enemies i mean BAKING RIVALS of course, the last two chapters are the twitter reactions to the show so, Social Media AU) (link in #1)

🧡【那夏天的我們】a stroke of fate by puddingcatbeans (G, 59k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fluff, Slice of Life, Falling In Love, Summer, Barakamon AU, renowned musician lwj escapes to tiny village and falls in love with local farmer boy wwx, good times only, YouTuber WWX, Food)

based on true events by paradisetrain (T, 3k, WangXian, Modern AU, Characters Writing Fanfiction, Idols, Celebrity, Actors, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Online Personas, Social Media, Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, POV Outsider)

[restoration exercise - no talking] by spookykingdomstarlight (M, 18k, WangXian, Model WWX, ASMR YoutTuber LWJ, Strangers to Lovers, Meet-Cute, Long-Distance Relationship, Identity Porn, Fluff, Light Angst, Loneliness, Yearning)

like, comment, share & subscribe by detectorist (T, 22k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, YouTube, Social Media, Flirting, Humour, Banter, Getting Together, First Kiss, Texting, so much texting, Youtubers For Social Justice, The Gang Gets Political, Competitive Flirting Via The Medium Of Youtube, it's about the yearning, YouTube Rivals To Lovers)

Falling to the Rhythm by Selenay (E, 128k, WangXian, Modern: No Powers, Dance, Strictly Come Dancing Fusion, Ballroom Dancing, Dancer!WWX, Violinist LWJ, Pining While Dancing, Oblivious WWX, Gratuitous Costume Descriptions, Gratuitous dancing descriptions, Slow Burn, [Podfic] Falling to the Rhythm by semperfiona_podfic (semperfiona) )

Some of You by tangerinechar (M, 60k, WangXian, XiCheng, XuanLi, Modern AU, Social Media, Actor AU, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Fluff, Love) ConfessionsMatchmakingLight Angst

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic recs #i'm in the mood for a fic #the untamed #wangxian fic search #wangxianficfinder #long post

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yinorathedragontamer · 11 months

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Requests + rules (requests are: CLOSED)

hey everyone!! this is a more updated version of my requests page, aka i made some changes and by now, i'm a bit more experienced with writing, so yeah! that's pretty much all <3

so far ill write for characters from:

buffyverse [buffy the vampire slayer + angel]

dnd honor among thieves

genshin impact

luca

encanto

one piece [live action]

voltron legendary defender [only paladins + allura]

onward

how to train your dragon

tangled the series

obey me

spider verse the maze runner book of life

good omens

agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

heartstopper

the witcher

tangled the series [i love varian so much its insane]

avatar the last airbender

legend of korra

Percy Jackson show + first book

sweet tooth s1

fallout tv show

Dead Boy Detectives

Supernatural (season 1-5, first half of s6. will update the further i get)

ghostbusters afterlife

ghostbusters frozen empire

The Turning

Deadpool

Deadpool & Wolverine

Arcane

bayverse tmnt

tmnt 2012

rottmnt

Agatha All Along

there are more though its late and i cant think of them right now, but if anyone would like to request anything id love to give it a try.

you can also request for anything that isn't on here if you want since i might be able to write for it anyway, if that makes sense.

what i mean is that even though there is a chance that i cant/wont write for it, there is also a chance that i will so dont be afraid to ask!

i would also like to add that:

english is not my first language so if there are any typos or anything you can always let me know

im a beginner in writing fanfic however i really want to get better at it, so if you do have even a vague idea for a request or a trope or au id love to try writing for it

i mainly want to write fluff, id also like to write angst with a fluffy ending or just try out angst in general [i know the first fic i posted here is angst but still-]

i don't mind writing things that are a little darker (for example things like traumatic events) though only a vague description of having been through it, I WILL NOT write it "currently" happening in the fic. there are a few small exceptions, but not many

fics based on songs [or specific parts of lyrics]

poly, or any kind of queer relationship

pregnancy/implied pregnancy

suggestive on that note, here's what i WON'T write (a few will be repeated from the list of what i will write, so apologies for that if it annoys you):

incest

pedophilia

full on smut

graphic fighting scenes (i suck at writing them when i'm not in the mood T.T)

sexual assault (unless it's a vague memory/trauma for a character, for example when a character talks to reader abt why reader has been hesitant for touch and its just a heartfelt moment of opening up to eachother about what happened if that makes sense) i can write for any reader [gn, fem, male, nonbinary, etc]

ofcourse if anyone has any tips or any feedback on any future fics then please do let me know! im open for suggestions to improve my writing skills.

anyway, thats all for now, have a great day!

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renlyslittlerose · 9 months

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So I'm like, 20 hours(?) into BG3 and so far these are my thoughts:

I don't like all the companions, but I'm still reserving judgment until we proceed a little further. Some feel like the writers played DA and ME, liked certain archetypes, and decided to try that with their characters without realizing why these characters worked so well in DA and ME.

In saying that, there are some characters I really like. Karlach is a breath of fresh air in the genre and a major stand-out for me (thus far). It's nice to have a character who has been through a lot of trauma but refuses to let it define them. She's happy to be out of the Blood War, she's happy to be adventuring, she's happy to have friends for the first time. She's just happy. And having her alongside Gale, and listening to them just enjoy the weather and fresh air, is such a pleasant experience.

I've decided to romance Shadowheart because I hear I can do side-romances while still dating her. I really wanna see if I can woo Mizora 👀

While I am playing a 'good' character (not killing the locals, trying not to be mean to people), I am making very practical - some might say slippery, tricky, unreliable - choices in order to further my goals. I won't step on the backs of people to meet my end goals, but if I gotta lie a little, or remove an eyeball out of my skull, or let a bunch of tadpoles wiggle around in my brain... well, who am I to say no to a little advantage?

In saying that, I welcome any and all bad outcomes because of my questionable choices l o l

I think the world is fun to explore, but it's reminding me a little of a watered down version of Witcher 3 in terms of things to explore, monsters to encounter, and the overall vibes. Still having fun, but there are some parts of the map where I think they could have done a little more to truly make it immersive (like the swamp - I mean, the tea house...)

Speaking of the Witcher - I wish they would have an indicator of the level of enemies before you're locked in a fight. I liked how in the Witcher (and Cyberpunk), enemies that were severely over-leveled for you would have indicators that told you not to bother, come back later, don't waste your resources, etc. I've had a bunch of times where I've been locked in a fight and wasted a good chunk of time, only to realize that there is no way I can win this fight and I better just reload and come back later

I am eagerly looking forward to being reunited with my wife, Jaheira. ~I have crossed oceans of time to find you~

The mission to rescue those trapped in the burning building has to be one of the worst fucking designed pieces of modern gameplay I have ever had to sit through. The only reason I didn't lose my mind was because @the-nuup was guiding me through it over discord.

All in all, I am having fun! I've been playing a lot of older RPGs over the last few years (BG1 and 2, Planescape Torment, KotoR I and II), so it's nice to have that same flavour but with modern graphics, voice acting, etc. It's scratching an itch, for sure.

I am currently in the underdark collecting mushrooms and avoiding large open spaces 🍄

#lemon plays BG3

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georgethepeach · 2 years

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Five Games Under Five Hours You Should Play

I've only been playing video games regularly for the past 5 or 6 years (if you don't count my hundreds of hours in Pokemon White and Nintendogs) and I find that committing to a long game can feel like such a drag. Why should I start playing The Witcher 3, a game that will take hundreds of hours to finish, when I could just play Animal Crossing again? Through this thought process, I've come across many short games that are up to 5 hours long that I love and I wanted to share them. These are in no particular order.

1. THE GARDENS BETWEEN

You play as two neighbours unravelling their memories through cool time manipulation mechanics. The graphics are absolutely beautiful and just adds to the overall tone of the game. For anyone who likes a bit of a puzzle and heartwarming human relationships. [3 hours - Switch, PS4, Steam, Xbox One]

2. A SHORT HIKE

Play as a dubious penguin trying to climb a mountain for phone signal. Complete tasks for other people on the mountain to reach the peak and explore the beautiful sights. This 3D pixel art style is not one seen often in gaming right now and it's a refreshing change. While only a very short game I expect I will revisit just to explore the island again. [1 hour - Steam]

3. PIKUNIKU

You play as a ??? in a capitalist world hellbent on destroying an island to build a new industrial town. Your job is to save them all. A wonderful and silly adventure where you play watermelon basketball and run away from attacking toast. Happy little game! [3 hours - Switch, Xbox One, Steam]

4. FLORENCE

Despite being the shortest on this list, this game is by far my favourite. Florence is about a former artist struggling to regain her creativity while stuck in a dead-end job. It's beautifully illustrated, animated, and scored and as a creative, I totally understand the feeling of not being motivated to do what you love. If you don't play anything else on this list, play Florence! [less than 1 hour - iOS, Android, Steam, Switch]

5. JOURNEY

Many people have likely heard or played this game before but it is scheduled to release for the first time on PC so many people will soon be playing it for the first time. Journey is exactly what it says it is. You play a fairly unknown character as they climb up to the peak of a mountain. Somehow without a word of dialogue and with the music and visuals alone, you feel the emotions of the character. An absolutely fantastic game [2 hours - PS4]

Most of these games have been sat in my game library waiting to be played for so long and finally playing them and finding out I'd had this great game sitting there was somewhat annoying. So I encourage everyone to play that game you bought 6 years ago in a Steam sale that is still in your library dying to be played because it might be better than you think.

#gaming #cosy games #short games #short game #indie games #ps4 #playstation #xbox #xbox one #nintendo switch #nintendo #switch #journey #florence #a short hike #pikuniku #the gardens between #casual gamer

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astrarobotica · 2 years

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People like to say the Switch is aging but...

Metroid Prime Remastered gets a surprise release and there isn't a single part of me that thinks it looks old or outdated or even "last-gen".

I'm not sure why they called it a remaster. Remasters typically just have HD resolutions, higher-res textures and a few modern lighting/shader tricks. This thing is more of a remake, because it's been entirely rebuilt from the ground up. Every 3D asset is new. Every texture is new. Even character animations in cutscenes have been tweaked. Metroid Prime Remastered looks like a brand new game, even though the original came out in 2002.

I've seen a lot of people saying over the past few months that the Switch is "aging tech", people on reddit have convinced themselves that the "Super Switch" or "Switch 2" or whatever is imminent (just like the Switch Pro!). And yeah, Nintendo is probably gonna put out another console within a few years. But I don't feel like the Switch is getting too old. I'm just as excited for games coming out on it this year as I was when the console launched. I don't see this game and Tears of the Kingdom and think about how much better they could look on newer hardware. They obviously would look better, but they still look incredible on the Switch.

I think this is why Nintendo has my favorite first-party IPs; most big games over the past twenty years have been increasingly focused on hyper-realistic graphics, while Nintendo has almost always focused on art style, which translates well regardless of hardware. And I think some games benefit from hyper-realistic visuals like Red Dead Redemption 2. It's such an insanely beautiful game, but it's also a very good game in general. A lot of recent games feel like they use realistic graphics as a crutch to support bland game design. Graphical fidelity and art style are two different concepts. Good art style can age well even on limited hardware. Fallout 3 was a pretty good-looking game when it came out, fifteen years later however...

Nintendo prioritizes art style. The art style of a particular game/franchise can be adapted to whatever hardware it's being developed for and then pushed to the level of graphical fidelity the hardware can handle. Metroid Prime Remastered is an entirely rebuilt game, but it retains the exact same art style from twenty years ago. Breath of the Wild was a launch title for the Switch, but it still looks just as impressive six years later. Super Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2/3, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Kirby and the Forgotten Kingdom (and many others)... they all look incredible on supposed "aging" hardware.

But why exactly is the Switch seemingly not good enough anymore? Well it came out after the PS4/XB1 and was already less powerful than those consoles. Now another generation of consoles have come out which are even more powerful, making the Switch seem more underpowered. People also tend to look at console generation trends, and most consoles are around for about seven years before the next one comes out. But that's an artificial reason; industry trends don't magically make the Switch outdated. The real reason is that people want a Nintendo to make a console with hardware on comparable level to other current consoles, or at least last-gen consoles at this point.

That's understandable, but is it because Nintendo games don't look good enough? No, it's because we want to play non-Switch games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 on a handheld, in particular, one less bulky and with a better battery life than the Steam Deck, and one that still has Nintendo games on it. Sure, some Switch ports are quite bad, but we also have Doom Eternal, No Man's Sky, NieR: Automata, and plenty of others that were poorly optimized to begin with or seemingly "too much" for the Switch to handle, yet we have them, and they're amazing. There's also Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which uses very clever upsampling to produce an amazing image quality. The Witcher 3 may not look amazing on Switch, but people said it would never happen, yet here we are. That isn't to say the Switch is capable of running any game, even with clever ports and decent optimization. But it's much more capable than a lot of people give it credit for.

I bought a gaming PC in 2021, primarily for sim racing. So I don't need a PS5/XBS, but I wasn't planning on buying one even before that. The only big new game I've even played from the past year is Elden Ring. Those consoles have already been out for two years, and there's only a handful of games that can't also be bought for the previous generation. Yes, games will look and perform better on the newer consoles, but cross-generation releases have never lingered around for this long before.

Even though new generations of console will always be more powerful than the last, not many games use that extra power for much more than higher-fidelity graphics. The big issue with that is that it's a matter of diminishing returns; the jump in visual fidelity from one console generation to the next has become less and less impressive over the past twenty years. Visual detail in graphics will always get better as the hardware advances, but the closer you get to photorealism, the less there is to improve on. More polygons on-screen stops being impressive when you stop noticing the polygons. The jump from 480i to 1080p was far more noticeable than the jump from 1080p to 4K. A lot of games on newer consoles are starting to boast about 60fps, because in some cases, an increased framerate is the most noticable difference between the same game on two console generations.

Overall this trend is a bit concerning to me. Honestly, it began when the "pro" consoles came out during the last generation. The old business model feels like it's rapidly becoming obsolete, and Sony and Microsoft must feel the same way, considering how many of their first-party games they're releasing on PC these days. So it feels strange to me that the Switch is somehow too weak as the other consoles just over a generation ahead of it are running straight into a very real plateau. Metroid Prime Remastered looks just as visually impressive to me as any PS5/XBS game.

Yes, Nintendo will eventually release a new console. But we’ve reached a turning point with Sony and Microsoft where the reasons to buy their new consoles are less obvious and convincing than they’ve ever been. So maybe it's a smart strategy for Nintendo to take their time and make sure their next piece of hardware is substantially more impressive than the Switch

#metroid #metroid prime #metroid prime remastered #nintendo #switch #gaming #video games

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chiefwritesbook · 1 year

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Writeblr intro (finally)

I feel like I've been saying I'll do this for a week and never actually end up doing it because I'm never on tumblr on my laptop. Anyway.

Hello, I'm Chief, I write under TC Smith, and I am (as far as I know) not a cat. People are prone to mispronouncing and/or misspelling my real name including my last name containing all of two letters. This is a phenomenon that confuses me to this day because my name (which is Mandarin pinyin) is phonetic and is pronounced exactly how it's spelled.

I graduated from uni with a criminology degree, but in classic disappointment Asian kid fashion I am trying to make a career out of freelance art & writing instead of the official qualification that says I can criminology the crimes. Unfortunately it also seems that nobody including me understands what this degree actually does, because every time I said I was studying criminology the response has been something to the effect of "oh I better make sure I don't do anything bad around you." It's okay, I'm not a cop.

Here is an art I drew for pride month to break up the text wall. As you can see I draw art badly and I think that my angry werewolf man looks great in hot pink.

My favourite hobby is not writing. I like to indulge in this hobby by spending way too many hours trying to 100% BOTW and crafting grandmaster witcher gear in Witcher 3, but I could be persuaded to take a break from such activities to not write in other ways instead. One such way is to procrastinate on tumblr or make pretty graphics and/or art for my book.

My characters live in my head rent free 24/7. I'm sorry if you ever get sick of me drawing and/or yelling about them. I try to keep fandom content on my art main @the-chiefster but I can and will forget which blog I'm using before I hit the post button.

I have a book releasing in April 2024. I may end up pushing the release date forward because in true autism/ADHD fashion I like to plan things out with so much room for error that you could fit an entire second plan in the empty space, and then NOT follow the plan that I made at all because I'm too impatient.

That's it from me since I have now exhausted my knowledge of things to put in an intro. Song of the Wolf is my debut and comes out either next April or this December (probably December). As always I am looking for more writeblrs to follow & interact with even though I'm an introvert. If I don't follow you back on this handle it's probably because I'm following you as @the-chiefster which is my main blog for art & fandom stuff. Congrats on making it to the end of this text wall, have a cookie 🍪

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writing community

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commodorebuzzkill · 10 months

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Let's do a Game Review because why not?

So, anybody remember Blazing Angels? It was made by Ubisoft in 2006, and featured World War 2, planes, explosions and shockingly bad and frequent racist voice acting. It was made at a time when Ubisoft noticed that Bandai Namco were reliably churning out 1 Ace Combat game per year and making good money doing it, so they said "we need some airplane games like those people." So they set themselves up with a studio in Romania that would have the job of making Ace Combat competitors. Ubisoft Bucharest turned out a total of 4 games (Blazing Angels, Blazing Angels 2, Tom Clancy's Hawx, and Tom Clancy's Hawx 2) before roughly 2010 when Ubisoft as a whole decided to give up on competing with Ace Combat, as Ace Combat wasn't earning a huge amount of money anyway. Ubisoft Bucharest was then closed, and Ubisoft has yet to make any arcade air combat games since then. That being said, I still enjoy playing it from time to time, because I can make things go boom in an exuberant manner, and shoot down hoards of axis planes.

I first played it in 2008 when I got my first console , and my memories on the whole were and are largely positive in spite of the game's failings. My friends and I would whither away hours playing the various co-op modes, particularly onslaught, which is essentially a competitive hoard mode, pitting the players against an endless supply of enemy aircraft for a set period of time to see who could rack up the most kills for the fewest losses. Insanity can ensue if you set the time limit to 30 minutes and select the Spitfire IX, which is stupidly overpowered, and come out the other end having shot down 331 enemy aircraft, and being able to gloat over your less experienced buddies who don't have their own copies of Blazing Angels to build up their skills.

At the time, I remember the back of the game's case showing an advertisement for Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of World War 2, complete with cover art depicting a de Havilland Vampire being pursued by a Horton Ho 229, and I thought to myself "looks neat, might get that some day."

High School came and went and I never played the sequel. Time passed, and now the tired 30 year old shell of the young, spry, and charismatic young man decided to buy himself a copy on a whim one day.

So, having heard Japanese pilots saying "You shoot even worse than you fly!" in the voice a 1950s cartoon would have given to any character from Asia a good ten billion times, you are probably wondering: Did they fix the shitty voice acting?

Yes they did. It's not Witcher 3 or anything but you don't want to grab a pencil and forcefully puncture your own ear drums. Baddies generally speak German or Japanese in a manner that seems comparable to, you know, real human speech, rather than say, your racist uncle doing baddy character voices while reading a bedtime story about how the badass Americans blew the squinty eyed Japs to Kingdom Come for being the evil, treacherous bastards they are. So Hooray!

Also, the graphics have gotten an upgrade and generally look cleaner, brighter, and better textured than those of the first game, and just to put a cherry on top, the game has a fun, campy story with a reasonably entertaining cast of characters, even if it does jump the shark from time to time.

Gameplay sees a bunch of updates as well. First off, the player can choose from a selection of aircraft for each level of the single player campaign, a feature that the first game lacks. Second off, through getting kills and completing objectives during each level, the player earns points which can be used to purchase upgrades for the next level, improving the firepower, protection, and speed of all their planes.

So, improvements all around! Go buy the game and have fun right?

Wrong.

This game is perpetually frustrating, though you will keep returning to it like some abused lover seeing the promise the game has. You think to yourself "Well, next level will be better!" over and over and over again. So, where to begin with the game's failings.

Let's suppose you're in a dogfight, and you have a mission objective of, I don't know, escorting your buddies as they escape from a secret Nazi air base. You have to shoot down enemy planes, so, using your understanding of literally every other arcade air combat game you have ever played, you open fire with your machine guns.

Hah, rookie mistake. In Blazing Angels 2, your primary weapon generally sucks. You generally have to chew on enemies for a while to kill them using just your machine guns, and oh, by the way, literally every single plane in the game has the same crappy machine guns as its primary weapon. Instead of having the fun diversity of firepower present in the aircraft of the first game, planes will have 2 or 4 light or heavy machine guns, pretty much never corresponding to the total number of guns on the real aircraft they represent. Flying a Spitfire mark V? 2 machine guns. Flying a Mosquito? 4 machine guns. An IL-2 Sturmovick? 2 heavy machine guns. An Me-262? 2 heavy machine guns. A Lavochkin La-7? 4 machine guns which are wing-mounted for some reason. The major difference between heavy and light MGs, in case your wondering, is that yes, heavy MGs do put out more damage, but overheat after extended firing. And the damage output is still nowhere near as high as that of the hard hitting planes of the first game.

Really, the weapons you have that are worth a damn are pretty much always your secondary armament. Many varieties of secondary weapons are present, such as cannon, high velocity cannon, rockets, missiles, bombs and torpedoes. All of these have limited ammo, which can be replenished by killing enemies with ammunition icons above them. These guys are really what your normal guns are for, getting more ammo for your secondary weapon.

This is very irritating, because whenever you think of a World War 2 dogfight, even in a campy story involving Nazi rocket ships, planes are shooting each other down by rata-tat-tating away at each other with gunfire, not firing anti-tank rockets, or bizarrely slow firing cannon. It just feels "wrong".

The game's control scheme is more or less the same as it was in the first game, but either my skills have degraded to total uselessness, or they've made aiming just a little bit more difficult. And I would like to call attention to the overall weirdness of the Blazing Angels control scheme in general.

In most air combat arcade games that use a controller, there will be 2 option for your controls. In what is often referred to as the "classic" or "arcade" control scheme, 1 control stick will control practically all motion for the plane, and rolling and turning will be rolled into one. Move the analogue stick to the right, and the plane will roll 90 degrees and then turn to the right, and vice versa. In what is often called the "advanced" or "expert" control scheme, the controls more closely correspond to those of a real plane, with separate yaw, roll, and pitch controls.

For whatever reason, both Blazing Angels games try to have both control schemes at the same time. On the Xbox 360 (I don't have a playstation) the left analogue stick behaves like it would in an "arcade" layout, moving the plane up, down, left, and right, but the plane still has roll control from the right analogue stick. If you've been playing Ace Combat 7, or Project Wingman, or IL-2 Sturmovick Birds of Prey (a fantastic and criminally underrated console air combat game btw), you easily forget what kind of control scheme the game has, and you'll have a lot of trouble orienting your plane. It will also result in weirdness like your plane turning very tightly without rolling at all.

Lastly, there's the single player campaign. I haven't played multi-player, given that I have no-one to play it with, and frankly, I don't enjoy the game enough right now to want to play it with someone else. If I could describe the difficulty curve in this game in one word, it would be "punishing", then again you can take my words with a grain of salt because as I said before, I may just suck. That being said, the game gives a couple levels in which you can orient yourself, then immediately flings you into the deep end. The difficulty curve feels quite steep, because most of the time you are fighting against either a punishingly short time limit or defending a target that needs protection and has a very short life expectancy. When that isn't the objective, the new objective is frequently: suppress the defenses of an enemy airfield, land there, abandon the plane you started with for an enemy plane, and then use that plane to complete the next objective. Often times, the plane that you start out with on missions that follow this pattern frequently would have achieved objective #2 just fine, but the game wants to stick you in a JU-88 or a Kyushu J-7W Shinden so just shut up and accept that you only got 3 minutes to fly the Pe-2 or De Havilland Mosquito, just say goodbye to them. Another odd feature, and one that kind of bothers me to be honest is that I would say a majority of the missions in the campaign feature the player flying a captured axis plane by default, and often for no given reason. For example... you have to defend San Fransisco from a combined Nazi-Japanese submarine attack using V-1s and submarine launched MXY-7 Okka suicide planes using an Me-163 Komet rocket fighter which just so happens to have guided air to air missiles. Hang on a minute, a level that involves what now? If you have a story about some pilots carrying out secret missions in remote areas to stop some strange secret weapon from being used or constructed and then say, destroying the paperwork afterword to keep anyone from knowing these missions ever happened, that's one thing, but if there was a giant aerial assault on fucking San Fransisco in broad fucking daylight in front of like 2 million people, I'm pretty sure it would be hard to hide something like that. Isn't that stretching plausibility a little too far? Or did World War 2 look very different in this world?

Some games give you challenge with each level, but leave you wanting more as your skills improve, enticing you with their plot, or giving your work payoff at the end of each level. Others just seem to hit you with a sledgehammer, and you only persevere out a grim determination not to be beaten. This is one of those.

Also, I've noticed its getting difficult to get your hands on original Xbox-360 controllers nowadays, so I find myself shackled to a knockoff which has the most irritating habit of switching itself off if below 3/4ths battery, and subjected to heavy vibration. Another odd feature of the Blazing Angels games is that their level of controller vibration is unusually high. Like, vagina havers could use the controller as an effective sex toy while playing either of these games, and I suppose if you are a determined enough deal hunter, buying a used Xbox 360, controller and copy of Blazing Angels might just be cheaper than a hitachi vibrator, although the hitachi admittedly doesn't use batteries, and either Blazing Angels games will eat the battery of your controller like a motherfucker.

So, if you want a plane game that turns your controller into a sex toy, I suppose you can buy Blazing Angels 2. Otherwise, I wouldn't really recommend it.

#Blazing Angels 2 #air combat games #game review #the commodore reviews another game

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8bitsupervillain · 8 months

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End of the Year 2023: The Games of the Year Combined List of Destiny!

So, what I wanted to do originally for this list was use one of the WWE wrestling games and have the twenty best games duke it out. Unfortunately none of them are free on the consoles, and I'm not spending seventy dollars on a goof (I might still do this soon…).

20: Diablo III

Perhaps my standards are lower than they used to be, but I had fun playing through it recently.

19: Doom 3

I disagree with the notion it's a horror game. It just plays like a slower paced vesion of the older Dooms.

18: Higanbana no Saku Yoru Ni

I enjoy a more straightforward horror yarn once in a while.

17: The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings

A fun game with a surprisingly good story that knows when to have sillier moments.

16: Dragon Age II

You push the button and something awesome happens.

15: Hammerwatch II

A fun action RPG that gave me what I was looking for when Diablo IV didn't. Also made me think about how not every gosh darned game needs to be an open world.

14: Might and Magic X: Legacy

I thought it was a pretty fun first person RPG. It doesn't really do anything new, but that's alright.

13: Demon Lord Reincarnation

A fun DRPG that uses a wonderful retro look for its graphics. Surprisingly emotionally gripping, and extremely cruel.

12: Amnesia: The Bunker

It's great someone made a new game in the style of Alien: Isolation. Kudos for using a scarcely used setting as well.

11: Dead Space

A fun remake that makes the original largely obsolete. It basically took everything the original did and tuned it up.

10: Armored Core 6

I appreciate the game didn't really dwell too long on the inherent backstabbing nature of mercenary life.

09: Class of 09 (Also Class of 09: The Re-Up)

Well that's kind of fitting isn't it? I found certain parts of this pair of games to be extremely funny, and at times surprisingly emotionally gripping.

08: Bravely Default II

An expertly crafted retro style RPG with a surprisingly strong storyline.

07: Pizza Tower

I was really surprised at how much I liked the gameplay when every single time I looked at it before hand I was left extremely unimpressed.

06: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

I won't apologize for my love of this type of game. It's just constantly satisfying combat all the way through.

05: Potato Flowers in Full Bloom

I went in to this expecting nothing and came away with an absolutely wonderful and compelling experience.

04: Resident Evil 4

I swear I didn't do this intentionally. I love the recent slate of Resident Evil games Capcom has put out, they seem to just go from strength to strength. Perhaps one day one will steal the gold medal.

03: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Absolutely stellar, a masterclass in mystery story telling. There is not one wasted character in the entire one hundred and thirty hour story.

02: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Just as impressively designed as the first Pillars of Eternity, with a fresh new setting. Everything is a ten out of ten with this game, the story, the characters, the gameplay, the whole deal.

01: Baldur's Gate III

But this just stole the show. Unparalleled levels of reactivity and planning for most of the outlandish plans players could think up gave Baldur's Gate III the edge. I know I win no points for originality by saying Baldur's Gate III is the game of the year, but the fact is that it is.

But can you say it in red?

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viking-raider · 1 year

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A Witcher's Legacy - PART FOUR: MUTAGENS

Summary: What should have been a short stay in Beauclair, turns into something much more complicated. Both to your and Geralt's present and future.

Pairing: Geralt of Rivia/Reader

Word Count: 6.6k

Parts: I II III

Warning: PG - Witcher!AU, Dad!Geralt, Protective!Geralt, Sassy!Reader, Language, Nicknames, Medical Experiment, Portals, Monster Fight, Mention of Smut, Fluff, Mention of Grave Robbing, Witcher Mutagens, Bickering, Mage Technology

Inspiration: A subject from my story, A Witcher’s Destiny, Season Two of Netflix’s the Witcher and the quest, Turn and Face the Strange, in The Witcher 3!

Author’s Note: I hope you enjoy it! Line divider by @FIREFLY-GRAPHICS!

If you would like to be added A Witcher’s Legacy Tag List, please message me!

I also have the story on my AO3

If you would like to get notifications for my writing! Just follow my Tag List blog, @VIKING-RAIDER-TAGLIST and turn on the notifications for it! It’s that easy!’

“Who's the letter from, Geralt?” You asked, watching the little carrier boy run off, excited about the ten crowns Geralt had kindly given him.

Frowning, Geralt unfolded the parchment, finding another piece of folded paper inside with a familiar writing in black ink. “Yennefer.” He said softly, casting his eyes up to you for a moment.

“Oh.” You replied, a tight smile pulling across your lips. “A wonder how she found out we were in Toussaint, since we just arrived.” You commented to yourself, moving to a vine covered staircase, with roses the size of your hand, the color of butter and the finest Toussaint Red, making the air so fragrant.

Letting out a humming grunt, Geralt read the letter aloud.

“My dear friend, I've been told you're on a jaunt in Toussaint, with your sweetheart. I've come upon some information which might be of interest to you. While browsing through a colleague's, Tomas Moreau's, book collection, I found mention of him conducting research into mutations.” Geralt scowled at the letter, a troubled feeling brewing in the pit of his stomach. “The details I've come to learn are rather vague and his laboratory's location remains a mystery. Yet his journal should at least provide hints as to both. It is said he was laid to rest with it in his tomb. I enclose a map I found in the tome I happened upon. Though less than completely legible, I trust it will prove useful.”

“Your friend, Yennefer.”

“So, mutations.” You echoed, turning back to Geralt and folding your arms tightly over your chest. “What kind of mutations? Was he trying to mutate the normal stuff or do you think he was trying to fuss around with Witcher mutations?”

“It's hard to tell without finding his laboratory and discovering more about his research.” He replied, pushing his jaw forward has he stared down at the letter, mulling it over in his mind. “I need to look into this. If he was testing mutagens for Witchers, then I have to find it and get it back to Vesemir.”

“Before anyone else finds it.”

“All right then.” You nodded, chewing on your lip, just as concerned. “Where to first?” You asked, wishing to help.

“Yennefer's letter said he was possibly buried with the location of his laboratory.” He said, unfolding the map the Sorceress had enclosed. “So, we go there and find it.” Geralt examined the map for a long moment, his brow twitching in his concentration. “It looks as if he was buried in Orlémurs Cemetery. That's not too far from here.”

“We can walk.”

“Lovely.” You smiled, then glanced about. “Which way, you big grump?” You asked, eyes sparkling with amusement.

Geralt smirked back at you, waving a hand towards the gently sloping, pathway. “This way, Firefly.” He replied, with a cock of his head.

Nodding yours at him, you started down the brick street, Geralt following closely behind you. The Capital city of Toussaint, Beauclair, was gorgeous and it filled you with a light, gaiety that put a skip in your step and a pleased smile on your face. As you looked about. Taking the architecture in, the hot sun beaming down on top of your head and shoulders, reflecting your mood. Geralt smiled at the back of you, seeing and sensing the joyfulness inside of you. He felt it seep into him.

You had an effect on him and his ordinarily sulky moods.

“It's so beautiful here.” You commented, glancing at Geralt over your shoulder.

“That it is.” He agreed, looking about, seeing the bustling stalls and shops, the Toussaintois going about their business and day. “We'll have to make our stay a more serious one.” He said, moving around to your side, his arm wrapping around your waist as you passed through a thick crowd. “I know this is your first time here.” He smiled, dipping his head slightly to press his lips to your temple, in a rare show of public affection.

“Hm.” You hummed, nudging your shoulder into his side. “That would be nice.” You cooed, looking up at him, trusting him to guide you. “You do still have a few injuries to nurse from that Wyvern contract, you took in Caravista.”

He grunted back at you, still smiling as you crossed out of the city gates. “It's settled, then. I'll investigate this matter, and afterwards, we'll find the best room in the best inn, and we won't leave until you wish to.”

“So, until they kick us out?” You quipped, giggling.

“As you wish.” Geralt chuckled, as you both stepped off the paved path of Beauclair and onto the well trod trail to the large, Orlémurs Cemetery.

Making it to the Cemetery, that looked like a manicured set of ruins with grave-sites dotting it, you and Geralt drifted apart, searching the faces of cracked and crooked, tombstones, that had seen many years out in the open weather and tears of loved ones.

“What did Yenn say, this colleague of hers name was?” You called out to Geralt, reading the worn name of Patrick Moulins, who, according to his headstone, had talked himself to death.

“Tomas Moreau.” Geralt returned, walking along a line of graves, before stopping. “Found him!”

You joined him before the overgrown and disheveled grave, the heavy stone that was meant to seal Professor Moreau's coffin in the ground, slightly askew. You looked at Geralt a confused and questioning expression on your face. Frowning back at you, Geralt moved closer to the grave, dropping to a squat to read the mossy etching.

“Typical Mage. It's in Elder Speech.” He huffed, shaking his head. “Ellas k'havani allder aen Dol Naev'de, ellas allder n'corrason. Glorsann a'Aelirenn.” He read aloud, despite it sounding like gibberish to you. “Salvation lies not in Dol Naev'de, but in our hearts. Glory be to Aelirenn.” He translated, as he reached into the grave, through the small opening, feeling around.

“Oh god.” You frowned, biting your lip and imaging his hand touching one of the Professor's bones.

Not the worst thing he's ever touched, honestly. You thought, shaking your head.

“Do you think it has anything do with what you're looking for?” You asked, as he glanced side to side, knowing he was falling into his Witcher seek and find mode.

“Maybe.” He rumbled back. “Someone's robbed the grave, the journal isn't inside.” He said, narrowing his eyes against the bright, cloudless sun and looked around, before standing back up. “The grave won't tell us anything more.” He said, pull Yenn's map from his back pocket.

“A regular ol' treasure hunt.” You quipped, peeking around his arm. “Anything helpful?”

“The map has mention of Aelirenn and Dol Naev'de, also known as Valley of the Nine.” He said, pointing them out on the map for you. “There's a small mark on it. So, it's worth a look. I'll have to grab Roach to make the trip though. It's a long way from here.”

He folded the map up and tucked into his pocket, then turned back towards Beauclair.

“Geralt.” You called out to him, motioning to the grave, when he turned back to face you.

“What?” He frowned, not catching the meaning of your gesture.

“Close it.” You cooed at him, with a somber expression. “It's not right someone disturbed him for a book.”

“We just disturbed him for a book, min minne.” Geralt countered, the corner of his lip twitching.

“Still, Geralt. He deserves his rest, as we all do.” You entreated him.

Drawing a soft sigh, Geralt returned to the grave side and leaned over it, he used the strength of his powerful arms to shove the thick stone slab back into its rightful place over Professor Moreau's coffin. He straightened up and looked at you, lifting a brow, and you nodded at him, satisfied.

“One less dead person risen from the grave you have to deal with.” You commented, sarcastically. patting him on the back and kissing his cheek.

“Funny.” Geralt chuckled, giving your bum a playful smack, making you yip. “You can't come with me.” He said, as you returned to Beauclair and where you had left Roach.

“Why not?” You frowned, a bit disappointed, you enjoyed helping him with his contracts.

“I don't know how dangerous this could be.” He reasoned, grabbing Roach by the reins. “I won't endanger you. So, I'm going to take you to the Rose and Knight inn, in the center of the City, and you'll wait for me there.”

“What if something happens to you?” You argued, following after him, while he led you through the streets.

“What else would be new?” He chuckled at you over his shoulder.

“The new thing is this matter isn't about you going to slay a monster in the countryside.” You huffed, annoyed by how nonchalant he was being. “This professor was mucking about with mutations.”

Geralt's shoulders slumped and he stopped, his head hung for a second, before he finally turned around to look at you. He could see all the concern and fear in your eyes over this task, more so than usual. Which he understood. Considering it for a minute longer, Geralt tugged Roach around and mounted up, then reached down and pulled you up behind him.

“If anything should happen-”

“I know, I know.” You assured him, leaning against his back. “Tuck tail and run.”

The ride through the Toussaint countryside was stunning. The rolling hills of vineyards baking in the cloudless sun, their vines drooping with fat grapes waiting to be picked and turned into area's finest wine. Homey and extravagant villas dotted the landscape as well, abuzz with their daily chores as you Geralt rode by them.

You sighed, pressing your cheek against Geralt's shoulder blade, relaxing. “I could stay here forever.” You cooed, as Geralt guided Roach onto a path that led in a thicket of trees, cooling you with their leaf-y shade, after the unrelenting heat.

“Oh.” Geralt answered, his chuckle rumbling against your cheek. “That's because you haven't seen it in the winters.”

“It can't be much worse than Kaer Morhen.” You commented, smirking.

“Oh, you'd be surprised.”

Coming out of the woods and around the bend of a sloping hill, Geralt pulled Roach to a stop on the shore of a large and startling clear lake, where the two of you got down. Geralt took a sword from a holster that hung the horse's saddle and the pouch of his vials from in the bag, before the two of you started looking for any indication of an entrance to a mysterious laboratory. You walked along the one side of the shore, where the bank was built up, eroded from years of the lake water lapping at, while Geralt check the water.

“What is it with Mages and their mysteries?” You sighed, shaking your head.

“They live too long.” Geralt grunted back. “After so many years on the Continent, they become paranoid and full of themselves.”

“Starting to make a lot of sense.” You agreed, spotting a unique little rock sitting on the edge of the sand and grass. Going for the rock, you noticed a narrow, grassy culvert that went back a good way. You couldn't see where it ended, or if there was an end, with the limbs of several trees flanking the culvert drooping over it, like a leafy curtain.

“Geralt.” You called out, cocking your head and taking a step into the ditch. “What about over here?” You mumbled, inching further.

The Witcher turned, just as you disappeared and called out your name. “She'll be the death of me.” He sighed, hurrying to follow after you. “Wait.” He hissed under his breath, grabbing you by the wrist as he came up behind, pulling you to a halt. “We don't know if the Professor's lab is down here or what is.”

“You need to be careful.” He softly scolded you, protectively.

“Sorry.” You whispered back, but cast your eyes up ahead. “But don't you think we should check it out?”

“I will investigate it. You will stay behind me.” Geralt corrected you, pulling his sword and moving forward.

You stayed on Geralt's heels, while he used the tip of his sword to part the tree branches, the muscles of his body tense and every one of his keen senses on high alert for anything out of the ordinary and wishing ill intent. You jerked and gasped softly at the whoop of a bird in the distance, instinctively grabbing the back of Geralt's black shirt.

Coming out of the other side of the foliage, you and Geralt discovered a decayed stone wall. It was covered in moss and dead, creeping vines, several of its ashy stones laying in the spongy, overgrown grass and mud. You saw nothing special about it and figured Geralt hadn't either, so you started to turn back.

“Fuck.” Geralt growled under his breath, stopping you.

“What's wrong?” You frowned, turning back to him.

“I hate portals.” He scowled, moving closer to stone wall and bent over, picking up what you had figured was just a rock, then slotted it into one of the gaps.

A low hissing, hum filled the space around you and the hair on your forearms stood up as the static from the portal mounted. Geralt stepped back from the wall, took a deep breath, and with a jerk of his arm, produced the Sign of his Aard. The Aard hit the stone, making it wobble in its base, before it started to glow and an arched portal appeared on the face of the wall.

“That's promising.” You commented, looking at Geralt with a lifted brow.

He shot you a dark, narrow eyed look and approached the portal, taking deep slow breaths. “What's wrong with a good, solid locked door?” He complained under his breath, before stepping through.

“Kills giant, poisonous monsters for a living. Terrified of portals.” You grinned, hooting with laughter, and following after him.

You came stumbling out the other side, gasping for air, disoriented and nauseous. But managed to land on your feet and was slowed down by Geralt's strong arm wrapping around your waist, pulling you against his torso. He looked you over, with an expression that wanted to make sure everything was in the right place and you had all the part you were meant to have.

“I'm fine, Geralt.” You cooed at him, gently kissing his stubbly cheek.

Nodding, he let you go and glanced around the cavernous room you had been spit out into. It smelled damp, moldy, airless and like a nest of Kikimore had been using it as a litter box. You could hardly see more than two feet in front of you, but thankfully Geralt had no such issue. His sharp, cat-like eyes could see around you, as if it was a well lit room. So, you made sure to keep near him, putting your feet where his had been.

The place was like Elven ruins that had caved in or been covered over across time. With tall arches and columns. Rubble and rubbish littered the ground, making your footing unsure as you went deeper in. Geralt stopped, causing you to bump him, your lips parting in question of why he had halted, until you saw the spark of his Igni, lighting something you couldn't quite make out in the shadows. Until, it ignited, a iron brazier, casting an amber glow against the wall and a small radius around its base.

“This is a crazy place to have a lab.” You criticized, giving the place a better look, now that the brazier was lit. “I can understand wanting to do your research in peace and privacy. But hiding your portal in such away, then having to navigate through a ruin to get to it.” You shook your head, confused.

“It seems like over kill.”

“It is.” Geralt agreed, lighting another brazier, that revealed a crumbling set of stairs. “It's only making me more suspicious of what type of mutagens he was working with.”

Your eyes shot up to the back of his head, an uneasy feeling filling your stomach at the thought of Professor Moreau testing Witcher mutagens.

Carrying on, you descended the stairs and passed through a narrow hallway, coming out into an elevated cross way, leading off in three directions, one of which was blocked off by a large statue of a panther. Sighing, Geralt moved forward, investigating the other two paths, in doing so, he discovered the body of the grave robber.

“Hm.” He grunted, shaking his head at the poor soul, but nevertheless, he searched his person for the Professor's journal, only finding a few loose pages of it.

“Geralt.” You called out, softly.

“One moment.” He answered, scanning the pages, learning the Professor had become paranoid with someone trying to break into his laboratory, and had installed security measures.

“Geralt.” You called again, a bit more urgently.

“What is it, min minne?” He sighed, turning on his heels to look back at you.

Your eyes were fixated on the panther statue standing menacingly above Geralt. “Is-is that-” You licked your lips, trying to compose yourself. “Is that statue-the panther's eyes—supposed to glow?” You asked, your voice squeaking a bit at the end as your eyes flared.

Geralt's head jerked upward to the statue, just in time to have the creature strike out against him. “Run!” He roared back at you, fumbling for his sword.

Not needing any other prompts, you turned on your heels and bolted down the hallway from where the two of you had just come. The panther knocked Geralt flat onto his back, forcing him to brace his forearm against its throat in prevention of its powerful jaws from biting into anything vital. Unable to grab his sword, Geralt brought up one foot, yanking a dagger from inside his boot and driving the needle thin blade into the snarling animal's neck. The panther gurgled, then dissolved into a pile of ash, revealing itself to be a specter, one of Professor Moreau's security attempts.

Getting up, Geralt searched for you, running almost full speed down the passageway and up the crumbling stairs. But skid to a halt, when he found you by the first brazier, a look of terror and worry on your face. Seeing Geralt was all right, you ran to him, colliding into his chest and locking your arms around his torso, to hide your face in his neck.

“You see now, why I didn't want you to come?” He sighed, resting his head on top of yours.

You nodded, still to overcome to speak for a second. “I do, but I still want to help.”

“I don't know what help you can be.” He countered, tipping your head back, so you looked at him, studying your eyes. “You are the most stubborn woman I've ever met.” He chuckled, shaking his head, knowing he couldn't deter you.

“It's why you fell in love with me.” You quipped back at him.

“One of the reasons.” He teased back, before becoming serious again. “You'll stay in the room I've cleared, before going any farther, do you understand me?”

“Loud and clear, Witcher.” You nodded, pushing up on your toes to kiss him.

Continuing on, You and Geralt navigated through the maze, hoping you were getting closer to the Professor's lab and the answers to your questions. There hadn't been any more specters to jump out and attack either, but there had been a few traps Geralt needed to disarm, before either of you could move forward. Such as a spike trap, that came up out of the floor.

“This place is endless.” You remarked, edging around the disarmed spikes, heart pounding in your chest.

“Seems that way.” Geralt answered, waiting for you, then entered the next room. “The fuck.” He barked, brow wrinkling.

“What?” You called out, staying in the other room, just like he wanted you to. “Is it safe?”

Geralt took a deep breath, studying the creepy Gargoyles that lined alcoves on the main level, with an inactive portal, while the next two levels were lined with inactive portals. “Stay there.” He barked, slowly approaching two pedestals in the center of the room, on either side of a massive statue, and examined them, finding scrap marks on the sides.

Looking at the Gargoyles, he noticed two of them were missing hands. Narrowing his eyes, Geralt approached one and broke the hand off with blast of his Aard. Taking the heavy piece of stone to the pedestal, he rested it on top and a loud clicking noise echoed in the room, followed by the unmistakable whoosh of a portal opening. Turning in a circle and casting his eyes around, Geralt found one of the portals on the upper level active.

“Geralt.” You shouted, planting you hands on your hips.

“Just wait.” He growled, seeing if he could map out a way up to the portal, but wasn't sure where it would take him or if he could get back.

Taking the stone hand off the first pedestal, Geralt shifted it to the other one, gaining the same results he did with the other one, but opening a portal on the middle tier. Humming, he broke off another Gargoyle hand and set it on the other pedestal, activating both portals, but not the portal on the main level.

“What's the issue, Geralt?” You called out to him, growing curious.

“Mage shenanigans.” He growled under his breath, circling the statue and regarding the other gargoyles and inactive portals.

Impatient with waiting for Geralt to tell you the way was safe, you strode into the room, but jerked back a step, surprised by the thick set of grotesque gargoyles. You recovered quickly though, spotting the singing portals and your frustrated Witcher.

“What's the rub?” You asked, lifting a brow at him.

“That portal-” He pointed to the portal in question. “needs to activate. But so far, only these two have.” He explained, motioning to the others.

“Mmhm. Quite the situation.” You nodded, biting your lip.

“Yes.” Geralt sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I loathe mages.”

“Didn't you date one?” You inquired, giving him a teasing and sharp gaze.

“Against my better judgment.” He replied, rolling his eyes.

“So, what happens, if you only have one of the pedestals active?” You asked, studying them.

“Only one of the portals open.”

“Have you tried going through one of them?”

“No, not yet, and I'm not really in a rush to.” He answered, pacing. “I don't know where they go, or if once I go through them, that I can get back here.”

“Perhaps, you're right.” You sighed, gazing at the statue. “Mages do live too long.”

That brought a soft chuckle out of Geralt. “They do.”

Seeing no other options, Geralt began climbing towards the portal on the middle tier, just as you noticed a crevice, low in the robe of the statue. Glancing between it and Geralt, you slipped your hand inside of it, praying not to come into contact with any unsavory creatures that could make their home in the small space, and felt around.

“Geralt, wait!” You called out, your fingers coming into contact with something.

“What is it!” He called back, spinning around as he stood before the portal. “What's wrong?”

“I found something! But I can't quite manage it.” You told him, staining.

“Don't touch it!” He warned you, jumping back down and quickly moving to your side. “It might be a trap.” He told you, his breath hot on your neck.

“And if it's not?” You asked, looking up at him.

“Move, I'll do it. Go back into the other room. In case, something happens.” He ordered you, jerking his white head towards the door.

Knowing that arguing with Geralt was useless, you did as he asked of you, but angled yourself so you could see him. Geralt pulled his glove off and wedged his large hand into the crevice, just finding the button that was hidden inside. With a little wiggling, he pressed on the button and yanked his hand back out again, readying himself for the worst.

Several of the gargoyles turned on hidden bases in the floor, all turning to face the statue and the direction of the inactive bottom portal, and a suspenseful moment later, the portal came to life. Geralt let out a huff of amused surprise, looking the portal over.

“It worked!” He called out to you. “And, it's safe.”

You ran into the room and grinned at the portal, proud that you had figured out a Mage's security system, but felt your stomach twist a little bit. “So, do we go through it?” You asked, looking up at Geralt.

“It's through there or back the way we've come.” He replied, pulling his glove back on. “I'll go first, in case there's anything dangerous.”

“Very well, I'll wait a minute, then follow after you.” You nodded, lightly touching his arm.

Nodding, Geralt stepped through the portal with no further ado and you waited anxiously for a minute or two, stomach in knots not knowing if Geralt was in the fight for his life on the other side, wherever it led. Unable to wait any longer, you slipped through the portal after him, coming out the other side gasping and sick to your stomach, but intact.

“Geralt?” You called out, pressing a hand to your tummy.

“Welcome to Professor Moreau's laboratory.” He replied, coming from around a corner.

You looked about the strange and disheveled space with a shake of your head. “I expected more.” You answered, moving down a set of stairs.

Geralt had lit the many braziers and standing candelabras situated around the room, giving the already unsettling room an unsettling feeling. You found cluttered tables, bookcases, tall brass instruments, a Mage communication device, a large, iron cage and a huge and grotesque, glass specimen jar with something black and almost human floating in it.

“Well, have you learned anything yet?” You asked, hugging your arms against your chest, even with the braziers, there was an eerie cold about the place.

“There are Megascope crystals on a pillow next to Moreau's Megascope.” He motioned to them, next to the mage communication system of three stands, that stood in a circle, a loop at the top, where the crystals rested and a powerful piece of glass to project the image magically etched onto the crystal. “I found another on that desk over there.” He added, motioning over to it.

“I'm going to see what our dear Professor has on them.” He said, moving over to the Megascope.

“I can dig around, see if there are anymore.” You said, glancing about. “Or anything else of interest.”

“All right, just don't touch whatever those are.” He said, pointing to the brass instruments, one of which looked like a strange Iron Maiden.

“Don't have any plans to, love.” You gulped, getting goose-bumps as you edged by them.

Geralt picked up the three crystals, slotting them into the Megascope and turned the rune cylinder at the bottom of one of them, activating that specific crystal's information. A bleak image of Professor Moreau, devoid of color, flickered to life in the center of the Megascope stands. Professor Moreau wore typical mage robes, he had a wrinkled face with a pair of pinch glasses perched on his nose, and spoke with a typical Toussaint accent.

“Today, I begin my great life's endeavor, one greater and more significant than any I have thus far undertaken, for it relates to me personally. To me and my son.” He spoke, confessing his son, Jerome, was a Witcher and he made an oath to recover him, his apparition turning in circles as he spoke.

“So, it is Witcher mutagens.” You said, poking around a bookcase.

“Yes.” Geralt nodded, troubled.

The crystal ended with the Professor vowing, Gods being on his side, to reverse the Witcher mutagens in Jerome and make him an ordinary man again.

“I wonder if the Professor managed to do so.” He frowned, turning on the next crystal.

“Observation twenty-two, despite applying a surfeit of toxic substances, significantly more than usual, the subject displayed no symptoms of overdose.” Professor Moreau's reanimated projection explained, as Geralt stroked his scruffy cheek. “This is a minor success. Jerome may be able to tolerate better toxicity.”

The crystal ended with a soft pop and Geralt moved on to the next crystal, explaining how to make the mutagens less taxing and listing the mutagen base. He slotted the last crystal he had in, listening to Moreau speak about how one mutagen could be transmuted into another through the addition of certain ingredients, and of his subject, though on the brink of death, was much stronger than he had been and came back from the edge of death.

“It seems he's enhanced his subject, instead of cured them.” Geralt commented, more to himself than you.

“Have you never met this Jerome?” You asked, coming to stand beside him.

“No.” He shook his head. “But that's not too uncommon. He might be from another Witcher school or dead.”

“Ah. Well, I did find the Professor's journal on Witcher Mutagens.” You informed him, holding up the worn, purple, cloth bound book to him. “I suppose, you want to take it and the Megascope crystals back to Kaer Morhen with us.”

Geralt gave you a golden glance from the corner of his eyes, that told you he did, but not before getting into something you weren't going to be happy about. You sighed at him, letting your hand drop back to your side, eyes falling shut for a moment.

“You want to test this mutagen stuff out, don't you?” You asked, needlessly.

“I do.” Geralt answered, with a short nod.

“Why?” You groaned, looking up at him with a pleading look. “Can't we at least go to Kaer Morhen and do it in a safe environment, with Vesemir? That way, if something happens, we'll have him to revive your stupidity?”

A broad grin passed over his lips. “But all the equipment is already here, min minne.” He cooed at you. “We'd have to build all of it at the Keep.”

“Then, you'd have to fight Eskel and Lambert for first go inside.” You added, knowing that was going to be his next argument. “I thought you were over the whole Trial of the Grasses! You bitch about how hard it was! How much it hurt and blah blah! But you're all pony up to do this?” You scolded him, shaking your head. “Jaskier would be tripping over his lute, if he was here to witness this.”

“What if it fails and you die!” You protested, waving the book in his face.

“I'm sure I'll be fine.” He smiled, kissing you lightly on the forehead.

You rolled your eyes at him. “It's not like I can talk you out of it. So, what do you need me to do?” You sighed, giving in.

“I want you to go through his book and tell me what ingredients I need.” He said, brushing the back of his fingers against your cheek, trying to pacify you.

“Very well.” You glanced around and found a low stool by the table, next to the strange Iron Maiden, and took it up, starting to skim through the book, while Geralt investigated the rest of the laboratory.

“Something about a Pale Widow.” You said aloud, still skimming. “Getting a syringe full of mutated giant centipede albumen from the Pale Widow and the Ashwagandha herb.” You looked up at Geralt.

“That's all it states.”

“Well, he has to have it readily here.” Geralt answered, scanning the room, spotting an opening in the stone wall inside the iron cell and a well used needle on the wooden table you sat beside. “Stay here, I'll be right back.” He said softly, heading that way.

“Ger-” You started to call after him, before giving up and going back to reading the book.

Geralt ducked into the opening in the wall, finding a dank and dripping tunnel, following it into a large, cavernous space, the floor deep with stinking mud. He slowly pulled his sword as he dropped into the mud, knowing a space like this was a ripe place for a creature to live and attack. But he only saw the walls lined with eggs, quiet and dormant. His medallion was still, giving no indication of magic or monster wishing ill intent upon him.

Though, he kept a firm grip on the hilt of his sword, approaching one of the eggs. He squatted down and pulled the dagger from his boot, slicing open the egg, to be greeted with a putrid scent, making his nose wrinkle. There was a long dead, juvenile, mutated giant centipede inside. Geralt wouldn't have been surprised if the Professor had been keeping its parent as a pet, breeding it for the eggs in his countless Mutagen experiments, then killed the elder after he gave up, leaving the babies to starve and rot off.

Stuffing his dagger back into his boot, Geralt pricked the curled up corpse with the syringe and drew out what little albumen was left inside of it, getting half a syringe full. He cut open another, until the needle chamber was full, then returned to you.

“All right, Albumen acquired.” He said, holding up the syringe.

“I found the herb, Ashwagandha, in one the chests.” You answered, pointing to where you laid it on the table. “All you have to do, is put them both in that boiler, then get into the machine yourself.” You told him, a hard lump forming in your throat, at the thought of your beloved Wolf getting into the iron maiden contraption.

Nodding, Geralt set the syringe down carefully, along with his sword, before pulling off his boots. He stripped naked and looked at you, seeing the worry and conflict on your face. “I'll be fine, Firefly.” He cooed at you, reaching out to cup your cheek for a moment.

“You best be, or I'll never forgive you.” You whimpered back, turning your head to kiss his palm.

Adding the ingredients and activating it, Geralt stepped into the machine, while you stood there, helplessly. You paced before the machine for several minutes, figuring that's all it would take, listening to it pop, hiss and clank. But ten minutes went by and Geralt didn't step out. Thirty minutes, still Geralt was inside. You grew concerned, debating on whether or not you should open it and check on him.

Perhaps he'd passed out and couldn't open the door himself? Or what if he was-

No, he's fine. You cut off the thought, pressing a fist to your mouth. He knows what he's doing. Geralt knows his limits. You tried reassuring yourself, pacing from the bottom of the stairs to the back of the room, your restless impatience growing as the hour and half mark was passed.

You started at the sound of unoiled hinges opening, lifting your head from the table you had rested yourself on, several hours before. However, seeing the door to the machine open and realizing Geralt was finally coming out, you jumped to your feet and rushed to him, just getting your arms around his torso as his legs gave out from under him.

“Geralt!” You panted, feeling his burning skin through your clothing, his head heavy on your shoulder as you both went down to your knees. “Are you all right?” You inquired, hearing his breathing slightly labored.

You cupped his face in your hands and pushed his head up, shocked to find his eyes glowing, the skin of his face dark and marked with black lines, as if he had taken one of his potions or elixirs. He didn't speak for a long time, just catching his breath and resting against you, his eyes and skin returning to normal.

“I'm all right.” He rasped, gulping thickly, his throat and mouth dry. “I'll be all right.” He groaned, pushing himself up onto his feet, wobbling for a second. “How long was I in there for?”

“Hours.” You replied, standing as well. “I was starting to think you weren't coming back out.”

He nodded, moving around the table for his clothing, which in your anxious impatience, you had folded. “We should go.” He said, sluggishly pulling them on.

“For fuck sake, Geralt, sit down and rest for a moment.” You barked at him, pointing to the stool by his leg.

“I'm fine.” He grunted back at you, bunching up his black shirt to pull it over his head and jamming his feet into his boots.

“All right, fine.” You huffed back. “While you were having a merry jaunt in there, I found a map of this place in the Professor's journal.” You told him, with a lifted brow. “Behind that bookcase is supposed to be a hidden passage out, that's shorter.”

“Good.” He nodded, looking towards the Megascope.

“I have the crystals and the journal.” You assured him, resting your hand on his back, feeling the tense muscles there. “I took care of all that, while waiting for you to finish cooking in your Mutagen steamer.” You quipped, forcing a smirk.

Grunting and nodding again, Geralt continued and shoved the bookcase out of the way, finding a vulnerable wall behind it. Without hesitation, he used his Aard on the loose bricks, blasting them inward and rocking the room around you.

“Gods alive!” You gasped, grasping the back of Geralt's arm.

Geralt chuckled and the two of you followed the low ceiling tunnel, finding another portal, that was simply activated by a crystal that laid on the ground. Stepping through, you found yourselves back on the shore of the lake, but a mile or two down from where you had originally entered. With a shrill whistle, calling Roach, you and Geralt walked along the water, to meet the horse, while also enjoying the fresh and cool air.

“I look forward to that luxurious room at the inn.” You commented, getting up behind Geralt on Roach. “To a nice, hot bath. That experiment has made you a bit-foul.” You chuckled, resting your chin on his shoulder and peeking around at him.

“More than usual?” He asked, cocking a brow at you.

“Just a tad.” You laughed, squeezing your arms around his waist.

He spurred Roach back to Beauclair and got a handsome room for the two of you, at the Rose and Knight Inn, that sported its own tub and a balcony, letting you see the vineyards and apiaries in the rolling hills past the city gates in the distance. You stayed for two weeks, not leaving the room for anything. Having your meals brought up to you. Preferring to stay in bed or the bathtub together. It was romantic and refreshing.

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