{Everything I was told my whole life was a lie

[anewtruth]

Who: Princess Cirilla of Centra anewtruth [Netflix canon-4th Wall Visitor] & OTA
What: Crisis On Infinite Dreamwidths catch-all
When: Aug 12-18, 2022
Where: MetaHumans universe, Sunset Falls
Content Warnings: Updated as needed
Other Notes: HMU on Ciri's HMD / @ loyalwolf[#3540] on plurk[/discord] for something specific!

help me find a new truth.

Comments

[choicely]

Yennefer stiffens, distinctly, at the mention of a certain name, her fingers tightening an imperceptible amount on Ciri before she wills herself to relax her touch and straighten from trying to examine the girl up close. She doesn’t look any worse for the wear, and there’s no telling how long she’s been here — but Ciri has always been capable, having survived on her own long before she found Geralt and the rest of them in turn. The power she carries inside her would be more than sufficient enough to handle anyone who even thought twice about bringing her harm.

Still, she can’t entirely resist the instinct to gently smooth fingertips over the side of Ciri’s face, tucking a strand of light hair back behind her ear and then glancing over to Jaskier as he gets himself up off the ground.

“I’ve only just arrived weeks ago, but Jaskier came nearly a month before — though apparently none of us realized it. It was as if he’d never left from Kaer Morhen.” Speaking of… “What do you last remember?”

[anewtruth]

"I...I'm- fine." The word tastes sour on her tongue, a lie she wants herself to be fooled by, if just for a moment. Physically, she supposes, she is, fine. Unharmed from ending up here so dramatically.

Suspicion confirmed, they were in a new realm. Her words drop down to a whisper and when she speaks, her voice shakes slightly. "Did I do this...?" Everything is her fault these days, why not this, too?

"We- we were...regrouping. After Voleth Meir..." Her eyes stay on Yennefer, leaning a little into the touch against her cheek. Her voice is still on a waver. "You saved me..."

[rollstoseduce]

Her words are hesitant, and Jaskier isn't sure if believing her - perhaps Geralt has already passed on her his annoying I'm fine habit, he wouldn't be surprised. But then she makes that question, and his heart clenches.

"...fuck. Nononononono!" He shakes his hands over and over, and once he's close enough, he rests one on Cirilla's shoulder to give it a squeeze. "You did not do this, I promise. This realm is going through its own Conjunction of the Spheres, dragging people without giving much respect to banal concepts such as bloody time."

His huff is more playing up the dramatics than any real frustration - as crazy this whole deal is, he's glad that they aren't being missed at home. Now if the last member of their little adventure party was here too, then Jaskier could stop caring about silly things such as the possibility of returning and enjoy making a new life here with less of the terrors of the Continent and more of the comforts of the modern era.

"We should take her back to the hotel," he tells Yennefer before turning to Cirilla again. "How does a bath and meal sound, princess?"

[choicely]

"This wasn't your doing," Yennefer agrees, a quiet echo of Jaskier's louder and more insistent response. If it were, she has a strong suspicion that they would have all been drawn here, the three of them and everyone back in that chamber in Kaer Morhen, even perhaps some of Geralt's witcher brethren. She would have felt the same power that brought them to a place to witness the Wild Hunt, and there's no mistaking a power like Ciri's, one that could eclipse any other's on the Continent with little difficulty.

Something in her chest clenches, though, at Ciri's words, and she offers the girl a reassuring glance, hand shifting to smooth back over the crown of her head and over the length of her braid, a trailing touch that reasserts more than anything the proof of her presence, the reality of her being here and not just a desired vision.

"That might be for the best. Contrary to what you might think," she adds, mostly to Ciri, "neither of us actually lives here." Never mind that the very reason they'd even been here in the first place was in order to peruse the available houses for Jaskier's purposes, but that can be a conversation held at a later time when their latest arrival is less overwhelmed by the situation.

[anewtruth]

Jaskier is animated as ever in his insistence she had no part in any of this, a hand squeezing her shoulder which gives her more comfort than she can explain.

Yennefer is the calmer of the two, only backing the bard's earlier statement, a hand smoothed gently over her hair.

What would she have done if they were not here? The thought is uncomfortable, and she tamps it down, and tries to ignore it for its irrelevance. Instead, she nods at the idea of going somewhere for a bath and some food. "I think that would be good," she says, mainly to Jaskier's question, though she's looking at Yennefer. "Well, you must be staying somewhere."