Call me little sunshine

[knitsock]

PET NAME PROMPTS comment with your character + prefs. other folks will reply with what affectionate nickname their character would call yours if they were significant others...because now, they are! pet names can be a simple riff on/shortening of someone's name, cute, stupid, sexy (babe, etc), serious (my sun and stars), time period appropriate (dollface), or just plain weird. sky's the limit. from that one(ish) word prompt, threads spring eternal. shippy, smutty, adventure-filled, angsty, cracky, whatever. go with it!

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[wolfdogwitcher]

The bottle's in my room.

[He pauses and then flushes again.]

I rented a room at a place that's not fit for ladies. We can go pick it up, but you'll wanna wait outside.

[Sometimes regular inns don't want guests that might cause a stir so sometimes Eskel rents a bed at a house of ill repute, where they don't much care who he is or if he gets fall down drunk.]

[enanimant]

[ The dull flush creeping up his neck has her eyebrows raising sharply, a smile starting to curl her lips up. ]

Eskel, [ she asks slowly, something close to glee sparkling in her eyes. ] Are you sleeping in a whorehouse?

[wolfdogwitcher]

They've got beds and they don't care who sleeps in them.

[He says, defensively, not meeting her eyes as he takes a turn down a narrow cobbled pathway, winding down into an alley where said establishment is.]

[enanimant]

[ She laughs, patting his arm again, allowing herself to be led down the road like they're promenading in a garden already. If she notices any looks they garner from the townspeople around them, she ignores them completely. ]

It's not a judgement, darling, I understand completely. I'm sure the beds are quite comfortable, too.

[wolfdogwitcher]

They're better than sleeping in a hayloft.

[His embarrassment doesn't lessen when they reach the brothel. A couple of daytime dollymops are leaning languidly over the balcony sharing a long silver pipe and occasionally whistling at passerby

"Oooh, outside girls are extra." One of them chirps helpfully as Eskel stomps up on the little porch and nudges the door open.]
She's not staying, I'm just picking something up from my room. She's going to stay right here while I do that. Right, songbird?

[enanimant]

Company's better, too.

[ Jaskier doesn't seem scandalized at all by the working girls, looking up at them and waggling her fingers in greeting as they heckle Eskel from over the edge of their balcony.

Giving Eskel an innocent look that he should absolutely trust completely, she nods at him and crosses her breast with a fingertip to underscore how well she's going to follow directions. ] Yes, of course. I wouldn't dream of stepping off this very step.

[wolfdogwitcher]

[Sufficiently reassured that he's done his part to be as decent as he can in this situation, he shoulders through the door and makes his way through the dark, red-lit interior to grab the emerald green bottle out of his saddlebag. He manages to avoid several offers of an afternoon discount and slips out the door again.]

[enanimant]

[ It's sweet, that Eskel seems to think that she requires protecting or something from the realities of a brothel, like she hasn't accompanied his brother to more than one such establishments over the years. Some nights she's even partaken of the goods on sale, although admittedly, she prefers the hunt as much as anything else that comes after. But whores are eminently practical women, and she's picked up quite a few useful tips and tricks about keeping up appearances when supplies are scarce or timing is tight.

By the time he returns from his room with a bottle in tow, the girls from the balcony have descended and the three of them are loitering on the front step, admiring each others' frippery and passing the pipe around.

Jaskier may have slipped them each a crown for their trouble, but that's just because she's a nice person and she wants Eskel to have a restful night. ]

Ah, there you are.

[wolfdogwitcher]

[He should understand that while Jaskier is a lady, she's a bit of a libertine and that furthermore she's been a witcher's companion long enough to be well aware of the centuries-long, unspoken accord between witchers and whores that has lead to Eskel taking shelter here rather than other, more upright establishments.

He still looks startled when he sees Jaskier sharing the long silver pipe and chatting away.]

Got that bottle.

[enanimant]

[ One of the reasons Jaskier feels so comfortable in brothels is probably because they seem to be one of the few places that, as a general rule, doesn't automatically view witchers with a kind of caution that borders quite squarely on open hostility. Some of them are more welcoming than others, it's true, but as a whole, a whorehouse tends to be one of the more stable options for lodgings in a larger city.

Also, she likes to be admired, and whores are professional admirers. ]

Perfect. We'll have to stop by my rooms for the cup, I'm afraid, I tend not to carry those sorts of things around without cause.

[wolfdogwitcher]

[They're certainly happy to coo over her now, having established she's not competing trade and with a shiny new crown in their purses.

Eskel nods.]

Probably nicer places to sit and drink where you're staying, too.

[enanimant]

I wouldn't know about that.

[ She smirks at him as she passes the pipe back and busies herself with her goodbyes to her new friends — kisses to cheeks are passed around and yet another round of compliments doled out — before she slips her arm through his again and steps out into the street. ]

Most nights I wind up paying for my room and board with a song. Especially if Geralt's in tow.

[ Like she isn't usually the one following him. ]

[wolfdogwitcher]

[He lets her lead him this time, the bottle cradled in the crook of the other arm, which sloshes just enough to indicate he's already been into it, though there should be plenty enough to share.]

Yeah sorry, we can make for troublesome traveling companions. But you know that well enough by now, I suppose.

[enanimant]

No need to apologize. I wouldn't keep doing it if I didn't think it was worth it in the end.

[wolfdogwitcher]

No, I suppose you wouldn't.

[Doesn't mean he's not perplexed by it. He loves his brother very much but it's baffling that this human woman with her whole life and all the known world laid out before her would throw her lot in with a witcher seemingly just for the hell of it.]

[enanimant]

[ That's not to say that Geralt has made it easy for her, mind. But if there's one thing Jaskier is above all others, it's stubborn as a mule, and she decided at the tender age of eighteen that she was going to follow that witcher for as long as she could and by gods she's done it.

Even when he actively tries to get rid of her. ]

Oh, stop with that face. I quite like my life, trials and tribulations and all. Certainly I like it far more than I would have liked being a bird trapped in a jeweled cage, fated to bear the fat babies of an even fatter nobleman until my body failed me and I died in childbirth.

[wolfdogwitcher]

Yeah, can't see you taking to that kind of life at all.

[He admits. When put like that, her traipsing along after his brother, avoiding the same fate as her fellow titled ladies, makes perfect sense. Geralt couldn't be more different from the men she would be expected to tie herself to.]

[enanimant]

[ She shudders dramatically, sincere but also comical because she's more or less incapable of being one without the other. ]

Babies. Ugh. They're cute for a minute, but I've never felt the urge to have one of my own. And childbirth!

[ She shakes her head, like she isn't well-used to blood at this stage in her life, both her own and others (mostly Geralt's). But it's once thing to deal with her monthlies, or to wrap up a gash, and something quite different to bear forth an entire human being. ]

No thank you.

[wolfdogwitcher]

[Sure, Eskel can picture Jaskier holding a baby for a while, as long as it remained in its sweet, cherubic, awestruck state but he cannot imagine her dealing with the drudgeries of motherhood, no.]

Well, you won't have to worry about that now, I suppose.

definitely did not get the notif for this wth

[enanimant]

[ She scoffs a little, shaking her head at him again. ]

How little you understand the perils of noble womanhood! I will not be safe from this threat until I become an old crone or my father dies, whichever happens first. My family may have all but disowned me, but no one with any sense will waste a marriageable daughter if they can help it.

[ Squeezing his arm with hers, she lifts her eyebrows. ] I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the reasons I cavort so publicly with you and yours.

Oh no!

[wolfdogwitcher]

I mean, you're right, I'm not exactly versed in the ways of femininity or nobility.

[He laughs, sheepishly.]

And that's what I meant, I guess: Geralt hanging around probably scares people off.

[enanimant]

Count your lucky stars, my friend. And yes, he certainly does. Even the ones I don't want scared off.

[ She laughs like it's not deeply annoying to have Geralt loom over her shoulder when she's trying to find someone to tumble after a few long weeks of just her own hand for company. She knows he only does it to irritate her — and it works — because for all he likes to think he's some aloof and dignified monster-hunter, he's also an annoying younger brother.

Finally, they come across the inn she'd secured for the night, tucked away in a quieter part of town. Thankfully, since it's midday, there aren't too many customers to gawk at Eskel, and the proprietor is currently asleep, so nobody stops them as she leads him through the doors and up the stairs. ]

[wolfdogwitcher]

[Regrettably, for as much as Geralt would claim not to give a shit about the ungrateful, hostile world below the Gwenllech, he could become as protective as a mastiff over certain people. And no matter how much Geralt pissed and moaned in the winter months about Jaskier getting herself into trouble, it was obvious to everyone around him that she was one of those rare people under his considerable protection. And even rarer affection.]

I'm likely to be just as unhelpful in the case of folk whose attention you want to keep, I'm afraid.

[He follows her up to her room but remains outside the door to wait.]

[enanimant]

How lucky for both of us, then, that the only attention I'm interested in right now is yours.

[ Idly, she wonders how Geralt would react to the news that in his absence she tumbled his own brother, but it's just a passing thought. Despite what spurious accusations could be lobbed at her character, she is capable of spending time with someone without attempting to bed them.

It's just fun, that's all.

She pokes her head out the door when he doesn't follow her inside, lifting her eyebrows. ]

Well? Aren't you going to come in?

[wolfdogwitcher]

[Eskel would staunchly deny that he felt his face get hot for a moment before he buried it under the much more sensible presumption that she's agreed to this ill-advised day-drinking adventure because she wants to ply him with stories. Not that she could possibly be entertaining the idea of anything else.]

Oh. Sure. Just figured you'd be in and out, no reason for me to...

[In many ways, Eskel is not dissimilar to one of those big dogs that guards sheep high in the Kaedweni mountains where he was born: clever and fierce, yet gentle and seemingly unsure how to act when invited in or scratched behind the ears. A noble but half-wild, solitary beast.

He steps into the room, with a habitual glance at his surroundings.]