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Tweak says, "Do I dazzle you?"

eadwulf grieve (eadwulf) wrote in dunwichgame,
@ 2024-05-19 10:31:00

Entry tags:

!log/thread/narrative, critical role: eadwulf grieve, the witcher: jaskier, ∙ plot: 016 it's dangerous

Eadwulf & Jaskier

05.17, late night | Eadwulf's home | High (adult situations)

Interlude.

The steps creaked as Eadwulf made his way upstairs, bottle in one hand, glasses in the other. As he hadn't bothered with the lights, his shadow scrolled along polished banister and smooth wall, fading only when he stepped into the bedroom. No moonlight here. No spill of light from the lamps on either side of the bed, either.

"I hope you haven't fallen asleep," he said, setting the glasses down gently on the nightstand closest to the door. "I wasn't finished with you yet."

The room was in rare disarray: his clothes scattered at the foot of the bed, Jaskier's shirt dangling from one of the bedposts. A boot had somehow wound up on the dresser. Eadwulf could've cleaned it all up with a wave of his hand (and a little surge of power from the crystals in his arms, which would be doing all the work, really) but he didn't see a need.

He held up the bottle of wine. "White is all I have. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

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humble_bard
2024-05-19 10:38 am UTC (link)

Oh, that held promise. Jaskier rolled onto his side and propped his head up. A sheet was the only thing between him and the night air. He did not mind in the slightest that they had not made it to the party being held at the Up and Up. He was content right where he was.

"I have not, I wouldn't dream of falling asleep on you." He could feel that second wind inching up on him. Falling asleep wasn't exactly what he was known for. If anything it was his stamina, for a man that didn't physically fight.

"White is perfect, so there's nothing to forgive."

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eadwulf
2024-05-19 01:28 pm UTC (link)

So reassured, Eadwulf poured a splash of wine into the two glasses and held one out to Jaskier. "Not regretting the fancy champagne they'll be enjoying at the club?" he asked, joining him in bed. "Or the aggressively colorful cocktails?" The music, which would be loud and distinctly modern? The people, sure to be distinctly loud and drunk at this hour?

Some might have argued there was no better place for a bard than a den of depravity. Yet Eadwulf had run into Jaskier outside the club and found it notably easy to convince him to skip the whole event.

As flattering as it might be to think he had that kind of influence, he suspected there was more to Jaskier's reticence than that.

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humble_bard
2024-05-20 08:48 am UTC (link)

Jasier sat up when Eadwulf handed him the glass, letting the blanket pool in his lap. "Not in the slightest. I dislike the bubbles. " Though the invite did have an distinct orgy vibe if he'd ever felt one. He edged a little closer to his companion. "And the aggressively colorful cocktails do tend to be a little too sweet for my tastes."

He dropped his lips down to brush them over his shoulder. "How about you? Are you not missing the possible impassioned pants, groans and squeals of our fellow MisTakes?" He was careful with that glass placement, as it dangled over his knee. There was no other place that he wanted to be other than right here. His list of lovers had dwindled down, and there was a possibility of adding to it, but he'd hardly choose that over being right here.

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eadwulf
2024-05-20 11:00 am UTC (link)

"Oh, I'm feeling quite bereft." Eadwulf smirked and took a sip. The wine was straight from the fridge, at least, as cool as it was sharp. He was pleased to have guessed right: the other, sweeter varieties wouldn't have been to Jaskier's taste.

And he wanted tonight to be to Jaskier's taste. For Jaskier as much as himself.

"I'll live, I think. If not, be sure to sing at my funeral. Say something about my sword, too. How large it is, that sort of thing..." They had enjoyed a relatively quiet spell since Sabrina and her sea god. Joking about death almost felt safe. Debatable whether it was in good taste, however.

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humble_bard
2024-05-21 07:45 am UTC (link)

"Oh yes, I would tell that epic tale. How mighty your sword is, and exactly how well you wield it." He chuckled softly, though it was a little hard to talk about his death, he'd come so close. The articles of clothing he had worn that day still bore his companions blood. He'd given up on trying to get it out, but hadn't the heart to throw them away. What if, one day, that was all that he had left to remember Eadwulf by? Though they were a rather morbid keepsake.

Jaskier took one long swallow from his glass before reaching over his companion to set the glass on the bedside table. It was good wine, but he wasn't here for the wine. He was careful with his 'falter', so he wouldn't cause Eadwulf to spill his wine, on his way back to the back. His elbow just 'gave out' before he was back to his borrowed side of the bed. "Oops. Perhaps I should add how well you're able to make people swoon with your sword wielding skills."

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eadwulf
2024-05-21 08:38 am UTC (link)

As convenient accidents went, Jaskier's was utterly transparent. But it was not unwelcome. Eadwulf managed to shift the glass out of the way, saving the wine and sparing the sheets, just as Jaskier lost his balance.

"Oh, it is my sword you're blaming, is it?" Eadwulf caught him around the waist, hand slipping down Jaskier's surprisingly muscular back. "Here I thought you suddenly unable to hold your liquor." He set his own glass on the night stand, carelessly nudging Jaskier's barely-touched one. Not a drop spilled. Not that it mattered. Eadwulf knotted his fingers in Jaskier's hair. "What else would you say, in your lament?"

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humble_bard
2024-05-22 08:02 am UTC (link)

"It is a very mighty sword, but no, it's all you, it would be an absolute travesty if I were taken down by a sip of wine." Jaskier hummed softly. He settled over him as his hand slid down his back. A soft little rumble rolled up from his chest, as his fingers knotted into his hair. "I might have to mention the softness of your lips..." The words left his lips on a breath.

Jaskier traced his fingers up Eadwulf's side. "I might mention the desire you stirred in me. Of the hunger you cause." Even during round two. He still had a burning longing.

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eadwulf
2024-05-22 01:11 pm UTC (link)

"Entirely appropriate," Eadwulf agreed, rolling them over, "for a funeral." As was mentioning funerals in bed, of course, while kissing his way down Jaskier's chest, nearly but not quite to the locus of that longing.

"My mourners will blush as one," Eadwulf mused. "Father Andrew-" the only religious figure he knew of, in this own, "may spontaneously combust with indignation." One could hope so, at any rate. Eadwulf's teeth found a particularly sweet spot right above Jaskier's hipbone. "All through the power of your song..."

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humble_bard
2024-05-24 02:57 am UTC (link)

Jaskier chuckled, the sound a rougened lusty tone, as Eadwulf's caressed their way down his chest. "I thought so. A bawdy tune is always better than a funeral dirge." He chewed his lower lip, as his companion's kisses crept lower.

His fingers slipped through Eadwulf's hair. His eyelashes fluttered at the scrape of his teeth. He hummed softly, "Perhaps I should make it even more bawdy, and sing about the tickle of your whiskers against my skin. Or maybe your breath. Of the reactions you stir." He wet his lips slowly. "You know just to be sure I'm doing my part in ridding Dunwich of it's... you know." Words were beginning to fail him.

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eadwulf
2024-05-24 02:09 pm UTC (link)

Though sorely tempted to tease Jaskier until he crumbled into sheer incomprehension, Eadwulf found he lacked the fortitude.

Later, once they were both spent for a second time that evening and the clouds had parted just enough to allow blades of moonlight to slant through the window, he lay on his back, one hand tucked behind his head. The other traced idle patterns on Jaskier's hip as the sweat cooled on their bodies.

"Have you ever actually sung at funerals?" Eadwulf wondered, picking up the thread of their conversation. "Or is that not the done thing, in your realm?" His own had a variety of traditions, as different as the races and the nations that spanned the four continents of Exandria. Yet for all that he had put many people in the ground, he couldn't recall attending last rites – ever.

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humble_bard
2024-05-25 10:13 am UTC (link)

Jaskier was just getting his breath back. His head resting on Eadwulf's chest as he coasted down the slow path of being sated. For the moment at least. He chuckled softly when the conversation picked back up, as if they hadn't just been entwined.

"Sung? No, but I've played them. If I'd not been shattered I probably would have sung at my mother's. But I have played at more than a few highborn funerals. They don't really want lyrics, or they don't want to pay for them, anyway. Heirs tend to pinch the coins as much as they can." He wondered if that made him sound horrible. Or if nobility was just as insufferable in his world, as it was his own.

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eadwulf
2024-05-26 05:12 pm UTC (link)

"And you have never sought to soothe the grieving newly-moneyed with your... instrument?" Eadwulf wondered aloud, feigning innocence. He had little experience with the habits of noblemen beyond what served his master's ends. Where they went and who they spoke to. Who they owed.

How their debts might be used against them. Or perhaps which servant might make for a useful scapegoat when something befell the new master or mistress of the house.

Nothing Eadwulf cared to bring up in bed.

"I am sorry," he added after a beat. "About your mother. Were you close?"

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humble_bard
2024-05-28 06:45 am UTC (link)

Jaskier sat up just a little at that question, so he could gage his face properly. "Well, not if it was a love match, of course, or if it was suspected that they were the reason that there was a funeral." He figured that might be a safe answer, because it was the truth. He'd been more than his share of noble men and women.

"Yes, very close. She is the whole reason I quit being an teacher and became a bard. I started the 'traveling' part after her funeral." He had loved his mother, and despised his father. "My parents are the reason I am the person I am today."

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eadwulf
2024-05-30 04:31 am UTC (link)

Those were precisely the reasons Eadwulf might have slept with a nobleman or woman. Reasons to avoid a prolonged entanglement -- or gain something one could use to blackmail.

Jaskier was more principled than him.

Yet for all that he spoke warmly of his mother, it was notable that he did not mention his father. Eadwulf stroked a hand through his hair, fingers curling around his nape. "Give yourself a little more credit than that." And because the conversation threatened to slip into unpleasant recollections, he surged up to kiss Jakier, putting an end to all further jaunts down memory lane.

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	humble_bard 2024-05-30 09:53 am UTC (link)
	He was glad for the distraction. Not that a very naked Eadwulf beside him hadn't been enough of a distraction, but his lips definitely took all other thoughts away from, basically everything else in the world. A groan rumbled up from his chest the moment his lips were caught. Jaskier had never been so glad to miss a party in his entire life. (Reply to this) (Parent)