Jaskier the Bard (justabard) wrote in momadness_log, @ 2023-01-18 19:39:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | the witcher: jaskier, ~inactive: alice hamilton |
Who: Jaskier and Alice (and a tiny bit of Derek)
Where: The Portal Room and A Conference Room Nearby
When: Wednesday, January 18, 2020
What: Thus Enters The World's Greatest Bard
Rating/Warnings: Some language, but otherwise tame
Status: Completed via GDocs
It was the most damnable thing.
One moment, he was strolling through Kaer Morhen, strumming his lute and composing his latest epic about lost princesses and crafty witches and brave Witchers. The next, he was enveloped in a blue light and took his next faltering step into a room he could barely describe. The walls were unnaturally smooth, crafted from a material he had no hope to name, nor could he draw any comparison to anything he'd ever encountered in his travels. At least they were of a color his mind could identify, a sort of shiny silver-gray.
Before his very eyes, the wall parted in a place he now understood was a door, which slid into a space he'd once thought was solid. Perhaps it was. Perhaps this was magic. A man strode toward him, thunder in his face, and Jaskier—having just faced beasts from another plane a few days past and being rather on tenterhooks because of it—took a healthy step back. He had naught in his hands but his instrument, and he didn't much fancy using it as a weapon but would if he had to.
Jaskier took in the man's strange attire with a sweeping glance, but couldn't identify where on the Continent he could be from. When the man began to speak, the mystery deepened even further. Although he knew the words, many of them at least, the accent was bizarre and rendered whatever speech he was receiving completely incomprehensible. "Whatever magic you've done, you will undo it now," he interrupted, summoning up a courage that was exactly skin deep. "I have very powerful friends who will miss me a great deal."
If it was a little white lie, he could say it very convincingly.
It had taken Alice a long time to finally give in and reach out to security about working with them. She'd worried that her own issues might interfere, but as the red portals had become more prevalent around them, it mattered less than it once had. In the early days, she'd been expecting—hoping—to be sent home at any moment. But since that hadn't happened, she'd finally become resigned that she needed to make herself useful. She'd already lived on portal gifts and charity for too long.
That decision had brought her to her second day of portal security training with Derek. There was a lot to learn, but in the comforting, distracting sort of way, and she'd sunk into it with relish, wondering why on earth she'd waited so long. She was actually looking forward to getting the first look at some of the new arrivals, and only a little of that was the tiny hope that she might know one of them. She simply wanted to be useful and maybe helped get someone oriented the way that others had helped her.
So of course the moment she'd stepped out for a short break had been the one when the portal activated.
She trotted back into the room and slowed as she approached, coming up next to her boss in time to hear this man with his strange clothes and his strange accent make his demand. She glanced toward Derek to make sure she was allowed within her role as a trainee to speak up, then said, "I promise we haven't done anything to you. We're only here to help you." She looked at Derek again. "We ended up here the same as you have. I know it's disorienting."
Any words poised on his tongue fled back into his throat as Jaskier was presented with another shock: a woman in trousers. A very pretty woman in trousers. The fear in his mind waged a temporary war with his inherent desire to turn on the charm. It seemed to settle into an uneasy stalemate that made his gaze flicker between the two before settling on the one who reminded him least of a certain golden-eyed Witcher. "This… is another Sphere? What place is this?"
Alice hadn't heard this whole alternate universe thing referred to in quite those words, but his meaning was obvious enough from the context. She nodded. "You could call it that. This is...Earth?" She struggled for a moment to decide on the level of description, from the Milky Way galaxy all the way down to New York and everything in between. But if this man was from this planet, she doubted he was from this time, so she just went with it. "I'm Alice and this is Derek. I can try to answer any questions you have, but it might be better if we sit down. Unless you need anything immediately? You aren't ill or injured, are you? Hungry? Thirsty?"
Earth. Jaskier had never heard of such a place, but the way that she'd said it, even as a question, made him believe it was so. The man next to her simply gave him a shallow nod when Jask looked his way, in silent confirmation. Another Sphere, this Earth, where there were men (and women) like him, and who spoke strangely but in a language he could understand. His mouth pressed together, fear starting to reassert itself yet again. The strings along the arm of his lute began to bite into his fingers with the grip he had on it, and he had to force himself to relax, or at least to rest his hand there rather than using it as a woefully inadequate support.
Normally, he would have bowed low with a sweep of his hat, but he realized with a fair amount of dismay that he'd left his hat in his room. Anyway, he didn't much feel like breaking eye contact with either of these odd beings. "Julian Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove, or simply Jaskier, as I'm better known, at your service. Or perhaps at your mercy? Please tell me you have wine or ale or spirits in this place. I feel this conversation calls for something quite strong."
Alice's eyes widened slightly at the slew of names, but she quashed her surprise with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. There were and had been so many different people here—from demi-gods to wizards to actual royalty—that a title was really nothing new. It was simply new to her in this setting. "I—actually, I don't know," she said with a bit of a laugh and yet another look of confirmation to Derek. "Do we keep alcohol around here? If we don't, we probably should." Just about everyone could use a little nerve calming when they first came through the portal. "If not, I've got a bottle of wine in my room we can grab." She held her hand out to Derek for the newcomer's datapad. "You're not a prisoner here. Or going to be forced to do anything you don't want. If that's what you're wondering. You might call this a safehouse, of sorts." She hoped that word translated to his Sphere.
"I'll grab something from the kitchen." This from the man with the stern, granite features—Derek. His stare was deeply unsettling, but something in it shifted, like Jaskier had been weighed and found not to be a threat. Jask wasn't sure if he should be insulted or not. "Go ahead and take him to the conference room down the hall. Don't hesitate to alert me if anything changes. I won't be long."
Ah, so not a guard as Jaskier first thought, but the person in charge. A commander of sorts. He seemed to think Alice had him well in hand, because he left through the magic doors without another comment. It left him alone with the fair woman who seemed rather kind. "So… is this a keep or a palace of some kind?" His attention caught on the object in her hand, but he could make no sense of it. "And what in the name of Melitele is that?"
Alice's grateful smile followed Derek out of the room. For all that he could be gruff and quiet, she'd already found him nice to work with. Sometimes that made all the difference in a job. "We're going to have more than just vocabulary challenges here, aren't we?" She hadn't wanted to assume based on his clothing, because he could have come from a Renaissance Faire, for all she knew. But this was more than that. She motioned for him to follow, starting toward the door and the hallway that would lead to the conference room. "This is called a datapad." She held up the object. "This building is pretty multi-purpose. This is the portal room, which obviously houses the portal that you came through. That most of us came through. There are several meeting and lounge rooms, offices, training rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, laboratory, medical. You name it, we probably have it. It was all here before the portal, but we refugees have sort of taken it over. Been allowed to take it over."
He did his best not to get distracted by the long sleek hallway as he followed her, just a step behind, but it was a near thing. The word she used felt bizarre in his mouth and didn't really explain at all what it did, but he supposed he hadn't asked that bit. He said it in his mind anyway a few times, trying to commit it to memory before trying his hand at saying it aloud. Finally, he gave into the temptation to reach out and touch the walls, which were cool and just as smooth as they seemed. It finally hit him that they had the appearance of unblemished steel. How such a thing was possible on this scale seemed impossible, but it was all around him. Jaskier nodded like he understood even half of what she'd said, though some of it made sense with what he knew from his home experiences.
Looking back over his shoulder at the doors which were sliding closed and then back again, Jask couldn't help but frown thoughtfully. "A portal? Is that what brought me here?" He shivered, couldn't have stopped it even he'd wanted to, and his frown deepened. "Fucking hell, I've really had enough of portals."
"That's what brought you here," Alice confirmed. "And believe me, that's a common feeling around here." She wasn't going to start by forewarning him about the other portal issues they were having, but she made a mental note to do that before she led him to his room. Right now he already looked like his head might implode. "Conference room is just here. It's a little stuffy and formal, but it's better than standing in the portal room." She led him inside and pulled out a couple of chairs, taking one for herself. "Have you been through a portal before? A magical one?" It was a guess based on his appearance and the way he seemed to look in awe at their surroundings. "We have a team of scientists studying it, but it's far more chaotic than it is explainable, apparently. Which I know doesn't answer any of your questions, but I think it's an important thing to understand. We don't control the portal." She looked down at her hands, feeling bad as she forced herself to add, "We can't send you back to where you came from."
There were wheels. On the chair. Why were there wheels on the chair? Jaskier sat down gingerly, fearing it might spin out from beneath him, but it only moved very slightly—and swiveled! Whoever owned this place must have more wealth than the entire Continent combined, for it felt a bit like sitting on a cloud. He got a little caught up in admiring this new kind of chair, but settled up to the table with its glossy wooden surface the color of which he'd never really seen on a table and set his instrument carefully atop. It, too, was cool, and he wondered if he had swapped one cold winter keep for yet another. "We have very different definitions of the words 'stuffy and formal', Alice, but I'm getting the feeling that this will be a universal truth where I'm concerned."
His mind raced with all the things she was saying, concepts he barely grasped, and words that made him snap his head up and stare. "Chaos? That's the magic the sorcerers from the Continent use to create portals, 'though I've never been through one myself. From my understanding, it takes a harsh toll on the body each time it's used, but I can't say I felt much of anything other than momentary disorientation when I got here. When I was pulled through." He turned over the last of what she'd imparted, heard the regret and certainty in it of someone speaking from experience. "Well, isn't this a right cock-up." Jask laughed, but it was an awful, bitter thing. "Your portal's got it all wrong. I'm not the one you pull through, I'm just a bard."
"I think you're probably right," Alice said with a commiserating smile. She could already tell from his expression as she talked that she wasn't doing a great job of explaining things, but she had no idea which concepts were foreign to him and which weren't.
She'd meant chaos in a more general way, but this was interesting information to have. "We don't actually know if it's magic or science. We don't know who created it. If anyone controls it or ever did. Any details beyond that are really not my area of expertise. There are people here from all sorts of different worlds. Some of them know each other, but are from different times in the same world and don't remember the other person ever being gone. It's almost as if we're perfect copies, or if we leave and get sent back at the exact same time." Which was probably more speculation than he needed to know right now, and she seized on the change in subject. "The traveling performer sort of bard? We have other musicians here, and I don't think there are any lute players." She gestured to the instrument. "There will be time for that, if you want to meet any of them, perform at places once you feel comfortable. It's okay if this is all strange. We can take it slow."
She'd been clutching the datapad in her lap, but she put it on the table now. There was a spare keycard in her pocket, and she pulled that out, too, ready to be programmed to whatever room she assigned him to. "This is how we communicate, when we aren't sitting face to face. It's a computer." She already knew that was a stretch, but she needed to understand what words meant something to him to continue. "Electric? A machine?"
Just as soon as he felt a cresting wave of excitement, it was dashed just as quickly when presented with the object he'd peeked at before and a new one. Was everything so flat and smooth and hard here? Well, obviously not these chairs, though their supports—he'd noted—were also of a similar shiny material as the rest of this place. Jaskier stared from the datapad and this new piece that had the barest appearance of a gwent card and then up to Alice's face. The frown was back, and he rather hated it. "I'm going to assume you don't mean like a mill? It's far too small for that. And I've never heard of a mill allowing someone to speak to someone who's not there. Are you sure it's not magic?"
He drew the datapad toward him and noted that a glowing box with a peculiar shape was blinking at him. "Does it… want something?" It took him a moment to realize he could actually read the words, although the blocking was strange and far too uniform. Jask looked at his thumb and then held it up to Alice. "Thumb… print?"
A mill? This was going to be harder even than Alice thought. How did you explain technology to someone who came from a society without it? "I'm sure. Though I expect it may seem like magic, at least at first. I mean, I grew up in a world much like this one, and even I don't always understand how it all works." She tapped her fingers on the table a moment, thinking, before she said, "Maybe think of it like a magical box that holds many different magical things. Mostly it's information, in a lot of different forms, but also ways to communicate with other people. In the case of this datapad, you'd specifically be communicating with other portal refugees."
Well, at least he could read English. She couldn't imagine what they'd do if that wasn't the case. She wasn't going to think too hard about the fact that, as far as she knew, everyone who'd come through was able to communicate with them. She'd already accepted the portal's mysteries, even if she didn't like them.
Alice leaned in and held up her thumb. "The little lines in your skin that are unique to you. It's how the datapad knows who's allowed to access it. It's ready for you to set up yours, whenever you're ready. Just press your thumb to the little gray circle there." She mimicked doing it with her own thumb, though without actually touching it. "It will vibrate when it's done, but otherwise you won't feel anything. It's only glass."
"Magic glass," he muttered, mostly to himself, and then gingerly put his thumb where indicated. Just as Alice said, it shook against the table. Even with the warning, he still jerked back, startled with a small breathed, "Fucking hell," which in turn made him look up again with a sheepish smile. "Ah, sorry. It's just… a lot to take in. I just watched monsters tear through a portal and decimate some of the strongest men I know, and now… another portal has dropped me into a world of such wonders that I would have never been able to imagine. Dear Alice… is it at all possible this is a wild dream brought on by far too much spirits?"
Alice grabbed the datapad to keep it from falling off the table, then pulled it over so she could enter his information for him. They were supposed to let the new arrival do this part, but she didn't want to overwhelm him more than she already had. She was about to ask about his name—which had been long and full of far more parts than she had boxes for—but his admission made her replace the tablet on the table and turn off the screen. "It's okay. And I'm sorry. For your friends, I mean." It brought up so many more questions, but she wasn't going to pry into what was obviously a terrible event. If he wanted to talk about it, he would. "And for all of this, even if I didn't do it." She gave him a rather sad smile. "Sometimes I wish it was just a drunken dream. I miss my mom, my friends."
She hadn't intended to say that last part, but it felt right. Maybe he didn't understand the technology, but loneliness was pretty universal. She hesitated a moment before putting a hand on his arm. "We can wait to do this, if you want. If you need a moment."
Funny that she should do the very thing he was just thinking of doing at her sad confession. Made it easy to place his hand over hers and give an understanding smile—or at least a commiserating one. The word "refugee" clung to his thoughts; this wasn't the first time he'd felt displaced or dealt with those who'd been turned out from the home they'd known or loved. Those were lands, countries—this was worlds, universes, even. Jask had to shut his eyes for a few breaths just to keep the panic at bay. He let out a long, noisy breath and resolutely shook his head, ending on a sad look and a soft squeeze of Alice's hand. "We hold the memories of the friends we've left behind; they become a part of us, right at the heart of us, a single beat to contain our multitudes."
"That's beautiful," Alice said, squeezing his hand back. She didn't know him, but she knew something of the feelings that could generate expressions like that. It felt almost wrong to say anything after that, to break the metaphoric spell of what was more poetry than it was statement. But it was her job to get him settled in this new universe to the best of her ability, and she had to at least try to help him with that. "I have made new friends in the nine months I've been here. It's not the same, but I'd be sad to leave them, too. Sometimes I try to think of it like a holiday on a deserted island."
"A holiday. Gods, what is that?" Jaskier laughed, the mood shifting with the practiced ease of a mournful ballad giving way to a bawdy round. He could still be caught up in the former, but it was the latter his crowd would see. "If you believed all the stories and rumours, you'd imagine the life of an itinerant musician was one of infinite leisure. However! When crossing vast lands with only your pack, your instrument, and your wits, it's hardly that. But if there's work to be done here, I would hardly be doing you a service by pulling a bunch of maudlin faces. What other magic of this wondrous age do you have to show me?"
Alice laughed, because that much she could understand. She'd never really taken many vacations from the dojo, either, though many people seemed to think that being self-employed was nothing but one long holiday. She stopped just short of suggesting that this could be his chance—because the last thing she'd wanted when she came through the portal was to have someone try to convince her being here was a good thing. "You're sure?"
She gave him a moment to change his mind before she once again grabbed the datapad and started to introduce him to it very slowly, one app at a time. Sometime in the middle of it, Derek returned with the wine, staying only briefly before Alice was left to her job. It was as good a time as any for a break, though, so she decided to give Jaskier—she'd finally nailed down the spelling and pronunciation of that—a few good sips of wine before they continued. "How's your head? Have I broken your brain yet?" It was a little bit of a tease, but also a genuine question.
"Not quite broken yet, but approaching full to bursting." Jask tipped his glass toward her, his third—and, oh, how he'd extolled its virtues upon that very first sip—which left him feeling rather more inclined to be warmed toward the whole business. He may not have fully comprehended everything Alice had shown him, but he felt relatively certain he could get to the bit on his datapad where his fellow refugees were exchanging messages.
And he'd had two delightful surprises when his image was captured for the board—"It's like a painting! But so real! My, but I am rather devilishly handsome, aren't I?"—and when he'd been introduced to the lady that willingly lived in the walls and ceiling and whom he was told he could ask just about any question he could imagine. And he could imagine plenty. "Are you sure I won't aggravate the Lady Friday? Surely she must sleep sometime."
"I'm sure. Someone has probably tried, but she hasn't broken yet, either." Alice hadn't tried too hard to explain exactly what FRIDAY was, because there was so much else he needed to understand before that one was going to make any sort of sense. What mattered was that at least she knew he could ask for things if he was struggling to figure them out himself. "Which—I'm sorry, I didn't think to ask. Do you want to get some rest? I'm not sure what time it was on your side of the portal." And considering what he'd very briefly described facing, it was possible the time didn't even matter. "We could get your keycard set up, and I can show you where you'll be sleeping. I've got a room assigned, but you can switch to any of the other open ones if you decide you prefer something else."
Jask chuckled quietly. It was like the mere mention of taking a pause to all this made him realize how tired he really was. Maybe not in body, but most definitely in mind. He had no doubt his body would follow as soon as he was horizontal. "In a keep like Kaer Morhen, it's virtually always the midnight hour, regardless of whatever the sun's decided to do outside." He stood carefully, still wary of the wheels underneath his seat, and then plucked up his lute only to pause and tilt his head. "You know, it's just struck me that this place doesn't carry the particularly piquant aroma of civilization that you find in even the cleanest of cities. I should know, I've been to many. But you know what I mean, yes? Rather a melange of unwashed masses of man and animal variety. Sweet Melitele, have I been offending your senses all this time? Please tell me there's a bath in this place?"
Alice wasn't sure she understood the name when he said it, but she couldn't help being curious about this keep. Maybe, once he was settled, she'd have the chance to ask him more about it. She blinked at him as he stood, her brain taking a moment to catch up with his unusual phrasing to figure out what he was asking. "Oh! No, don't worry about it." There was definitely an odor about him, noticeable once they'd sequestered themselves in the conference room, but she'd already been warned of the possibility. She was already drawing conclusions about the type of world he'd come from, so unwashed masses sounded about right. "You can definitely get clean before you get some rest. We have clothes available, if you want to change, too, and laundry services for your current clothes."
She pulled out her own datapad and pinged Derek. "Hey, would you mind showing Jaskier the showers?" She smiled at the man as she finished assigning his room and then stood, too. She handed Jaskier the keycard. "Make sure you don't lose this. It's a key and also a means of identification."
Well, that rather answered that, but he thought she was kind for not mentioning his current olfactory offenses. Perhaps he could make enough coin and treat her to some wine to make up for it. Jaskier glanced down at his clothes and then to hers, curious in the extreme and then concerned. "Really hoping these services know their way around leather. I won't tell you how much this coat cost. Be rather gutting if I lost this on top of, well, everything else."
Something about the beat of silence from the other end of the datapad seemed heavy, until he heard Derek's voice on the other end as though he was right there in the room with them. If nothing else, he sounded like a man trudging to a certain unwelcome fate. "I'll meet you in the hallway."
Taking the key (which was like no other key he'd ever seen or held before), Jask shifted a little and looked toward the door and then back again. "Will you still show me my room? Your fellow is probably nice enough, but… he's not the friendliest chap, is he?"
"The staff around here is top notch. Your leather will be safe with them." Alice didn't know about it specifically, but she thought it was safe to assume. As much as she missed home, she definitely couldn't complain about the accommodations and services. She smiled at her boss's answer and tucked her datapad away in her back pocket before gesturing toward the door with a little jerk of her chin. She had to laugh at the other's assessment. "Derek's a nice guy." She didn't know him all that well, but she'd been around him here and there even before this job, enough to know he had a reputation for being not so grouchy as his expression implied. "Just takes a little while to see beyond the gruff exterior and single-sentence replies. But of course I'll show you to your room! And if you ever need me for anything else, you message me on the net...or ask FRIDAY where to find me. This might be nearing the end of my official duties, but I live here, too, and we help each other."
For a sliver of a second, he really considered taking her hand so he could give it a grateful peck to the knuckles, but thought better of it, his need for a bath considered. Instead, he grinned broadly. "In that case, I fully intend to call you my first friend in this wondrous world. Lead on, dear Alice, and I'll play us a song."