Geralt of Rivia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
willnotchoose) wrote2020-05-16 01:07 pm
willnotchoose) wrote2020-05-16 01:07 pm
(no subject)
User Name/Nick: KaOS
User DW:thiswasatriumph
E-mail: promotedtocondiments [at] gmail [dot] com
Other Characters: none
Character Name: Geralt of Rivia
Series: The Witcher (the Netflix show primarily)
Age: chronologically 103, physically late 30s-early 40s
From When?: end of season 1; in his venom-inspired fever dream on the way to the cottage he ultimately succumbed to the ghoul's venom and died (for Barge purposes, at least)
Inmate/Warden: INMATE - while Geralt is, generally, a decent person underneath it all, nonetheless he never learned the finer points of fitting in with others. He was trained and molded to be a weapon in humanoid form, and that's generally how he thinks of himself and moves through the world - obstacles need to be removed, in whatever shape that takes, and anything like feelings or emotions are not to be taken into account. Consequently he makes a large variety of choices that aren't really advisable and in fact are pretty morally dubious because it's the 'practical' choice; people who stand in his way can be beaten or killed without compunction if they can't be removed otherwise, demands and threats can be delivered regardless of the situation the other person is in, because as far as he's concerned he's only going to be regarded as a monster anyway so why bother trying at pleasantries. Yes, he was trained to do 'good,' in a sense, but he was also trained to be an emotionless killer, to avoid the politics and wars of man and keep himself out of their struggles past eliminating the inhuman monsters that plague them, regardless of what that means for the societies themselves.
Item: n/a
Arrival: pulled right on the edge of death. very much Displeased about it.
Abilities/Powers: At baseline, Geralt's essentially a human who's been turned up to 13. The various processes he was put through as a child to turn him into a Witcher have amplified natural human ability; he's far more durable, stronger, faster, and dextrous than even the most athletic human of his size and build, with keener hearing and smell and eyes he can adjust himself to be able to see in relative darkness. The processes also make him heal faster (although not significantly so; he still scars and he can still be killed, he just won't bleed out quite as fast and is less likely to be prone to infection), and age slower, and make him immune to just about any poison. He can do simple combat magic, called 'signs' in his world, rudimentary things like conjuring fire or pushing someone back that only last as long as he can maintain the gesture. He's been trained in every form of medieval weapon, and has combat skills equivalent to the most elite military group in terms of brutality, efficiency, and effectiveness. He knows something of herbalism, at least enough to make Witcher elixirs, can recognize what's safe to eat and what isn't in the woods, and knows how to live and survive in the wilderness.
A Witcher's true strength, however, or at least the thing that pushes them even further over the edge into Extra, are the aforementioned elixirs. When drank, they can amplify their abilities even further, from healing to durability to complete control over their bodies. They would be lethal to anyone else, and even so take a toll on Witchers themselves, leaving them exhausted and weak for hours once they wear off.
For Barge purposes, his innate physical abilities will remain the same but his magical ones will be blocked, and he won't come in with any of his elixirs.
Personality: Witchers, allegedly, are emotionless creatures. Unfeeling, all but inhuman to hear most tell it, and under most circumstances Geralt wouldn't argue otherwise. Because it's not entirely inaccurate; he was made, forged through alchemy and magic and intensive training to be a weapon of man. Most social cues and mores escape him, he can barely hold a normal conversation if it isn't about work, and he's far more likely to run away from kindness than towards it because it's just not something he's experienced much of in his life. He was only a child when the process started, a fate he had no say in, and without normal rearing, with the emphasis on ability and strength rather than empathy or morality, essentially raised in a military academy environment where any modicum of humanity or empathy was discouraged, it's honestly a wonder he came out as well-adjusted as he has.
For a given value, anyway.
Geralt sees himself through the lens of others more than his own. He's grown resigned to his particular existence over the years, but it's generally taken the shape of bitterness for what could have been and a general heartfelt belief that the universe operates on randomness and selfishness rather than by any greater power. He doesn't believe in gods of any kind, although he'll at least acknowledge others aren't inherently wrong for doing otherwise. He exists to kill monsters, his worth measured in his ability to kill monsters and stay alive, and that alone, because that's the only lesson he's ever learned in that regard. Before Yennefer he only ever paid for sex, and Yennefer ended in misery because emotions got in the way. ...well. Emotions, moral disagreements, and a djinn wish, but that's all details.
Because despite what the rumor is, he's not wholly emotionless, only extremely stunted. He either stuffs them down or gives into them at the worst moments, a bull in a china shop hurting everyone in his vicinity because he's never learned tact, lashing out at friends with cruel words when his own feelings are hurt because he doesn't know how to process, whether or not they're deserved or even the right target. He's blunt and reserved in most instances, but holds his true feelings close to his chest because they're more fragile than he likes to let on, and keeping them out of sight and unacknowledged is too deeply ingrained. Emotions are a weakness Witchers aren't allowed. When he ultimately makes friends they're friends to his last breath even if he won't say the word out loud, his own life risked for theirs over and over because he has very little regard for his own. Geralt lets others think he has no emotions, but the reality is he feels deeply, he just doesn't always know what to do with them, or how to articulate, and continually puts himself last because he's only a tool. A weapon. An instrument to be used, no more and no less. Most days it's highly debatable whether he even still sees himself as human or not.
But despite all that, and despite the particular flavor of his training, he's still managed to form his own kind of code. He won't kill sentient monsters, or those that aren't a threat so much as in a bad position of their own. Won't perform assassinations no matter how much money is offered or how 'necessary' it's claimed to be. He never takes more than what is owed him, and only ever reneges on a deal if it was found to have a false pretense at the start. He won't abandon a friend, and acts to try to mitigate loss of life on all sides if he can, preferring to find a less violent solution if possible, even going so far as to negotiate his and Jaskier's freedom by reasoning with elves rather than the more violent bent the bard was trying to advocate for. He keeps himself out of the affairs of humans as much as he can, choosing instead to tread in the middle ground, to live in the greys; when asked to kill Stregobor, a sorceror, or Renfri, a magically-inclined princess said to bring about the end of the world, because of a perceived 'lesser evil' to be chosen, he refuses both of them. As far as he's concerned evil is evil, no matter the shape or degree, and the evils that concern men, the ones that aren't monsters, aren't his business to solve. If he chooses to help the sorceror then a woman who didn't choose the destiny claimed about her dies and there's no way to know if the end of the world was actually stopped. If he chooses to help the young woman then maybe the end of the world will come, but there's no way to know until it happens. There's no way to know which is the right answer, which is truly the worse evil, so he chooses neither, in the end having to kill Renfri in self defense and getting run out of town, labelled the Butcher of Blaviken, an event that still haunts him because there was no way to know if he acted rightly. If he caused more harm or prevented it. He intervened when Queen Kalanthe ordered a man cursed to be a monster during the day killed, refusing to carry it out despite her insistence he was a monster that needed tk be dispatched because he recognized the man wasn't a monster. A cursed man is still a man, after all, and should not be killed only for existing, especially if there is no tangible threat. He managed to break a curse on a striga for the same reason; strigas are made through a curse, and if the curse can be broken the one who was cursed can be restored. He found the source, and used the one who caused it as bait to ensure the requirements, namely that someone keep it out if its crypt until a rooster crows 3 times, thereby successfully breaking the curse and allowing the king to get his daughter back. Because that's ultimately what the code is supposed to preserve. To provide a framework for How to Behave, How to Nagivate the World. Hunt the monsters that kill people indiscriminately, but don't kill humans for money because he was created to protect from the monsters lurking in the shadows, not to meddle in human affairs. Those who attack him, however, are fair game, so long as they're actually trying to kill him, and those who are cruel or terrible people, those who act to harm others deliberately, are acceptable losses if it comes to it. Intelligent 'monsters' aren't monsters; elves, dryads, mermaids, cursed folks, and so on and so forth, anything capable of reasoned communication, are regarded with empathy and therefore off the table for hunting. Because honestly he relates better to the 'misfits', to the other unwanted races, than humans most of the time.
Even with his sort-of-code, however, it's not without its own rocky edges. Due to his upbringing, or more accurately the fact he had no choice in any of it, he has a rather tempestuous relationship with the idea of Fate and Destiny, choosing to fight it every step of the way and give it the metaphorical middle finger whenever possible. Even when it bites him in the ass to do so. He feels trapped in his own life since it's based upon the choices of others with no escape he can see, so he rails against The Inevitable, to the point where he abandoned a child he'd inadvertently claimed, only more recently finally accepting his responsibility in that. The claim, an ancient understanding that's said to bind two people by destiny, was made out of cynicism, a throwaway bitter joke when asked for what could be made as payment for breaking a curse, and in his disdain for the practice, and destiny in general, he abandoned the child of Surprise that was fated to be his, only finally returning to claim her after effectively being shamed by the woman he loves for spurning his only chance at having a child while she tries so hard to have one of her own to no avail. He's spent most of his life at best despising the idea of destiny and at worst not believing in it at all, since, as the saying goes, "the sword of destiny has two edges; you are one of them and the other is death" and as far as he's concerned all he spreads is death anyway. Destiny's pointless, but after a fever-dream conversation with his mother he's started to rethink it a little. He found Ciri again by accident after losing her, after all, events lining up just right (or they would have if he'd made it to the cottage anyway), so maybe, MAYBE, there's something to it.
Geralt has spent a vast majority of his life trying to fill a void inside himself he doesn't know how to fill. He's resigned to never having a family of his own, and the fear most regard him with; he's a weapon to be used, nothing more or less, worth only the value others ascribe to him, and consequently his main motivation amounts to keeping busy and staying Useful until he eventually grows too slow and is killed, since trying to fill an unknowable void hasn't exactly gone well in the past.
Barge Reactions: Geralt's from a medieval society, where even electricity and basic running water aren't Things yet. The Barge, and all it's technological advances? Is going to blow his poor little mind. He'll probably assume it's all magic at first until he's educated otherwise, but it's certainly going to be quite the culture shock with an enormous learning curve.
The people actually on the ship, on the other hand, will throw him for less of a loop. He's met all kinds, cursed people and elves and monsters of just about every kind, so a few people with strange colored skin or different anatomical structures won't catch him too off-guard; he's always better when he can physically see things for himself anyway. Floods he'll dismiss as enchantments, and ports will take some getting used to, but he's good at adapting. He'll figure it out.
Path to Redemption: Geralt's main obstacle is himself. After too many years of hearing what others think of him, enmeshed in the world where people hate Witchers because of how they are made and the rumors that go along with it, and knowing that path himself, he tends to at best let others assume what they want, at worst subscribe to the belief himself, which in turn limits him a great deal. It prevents him from finding another path if he chooses because he thinks there is no other option for him, prevents him from forming close attachments because he thinks he's not capable of it. At his worst he believes he's the brutish monster most people see him for, at his best he merely resigns himself to the fact others believe it and there's nothing he can do about it, and as a result he doesn't make any effort to improve the situation.
He isn't a thug, or a brute, or a monster, not really. He's emotionally stunted to the point where he can't generally recognize what he feels other than anger and lust and, occasionally, fear, and even then in his worst moments he tells himself it's only mimicry. Not real, just a monster pretending to be human. Going through the motions, playing through what he remembers of being human. He's a boy forced to grow up too quickly without a nurturing guide to get him through to manhood the 'right' way, is all, and really most of his quirks and Issues all go back to that. He's incredibly intelligent, a voracious reader of history and an extremely capable tactician when allowed, he's just learned not to show that part of himself, to only let others see the nastier side of him because the rest of it rarely bears out well in the end. The rest of it's a weakness that might get him killed.
In order to graduate, therefore, he needs a warden willing to try to help him through the rest. To help him understand he is allowed to have feelings and wants past basic needs, to want things for himself that aren't necessarily in line with what was decided for him or what others want from him. That he doesn't need to play the brute or keep the parts of himself that aren't brutish hidden. ...he also needs to get some damn self esteem and regard for his own skin, but having friends and people who care about him generally that actually stick around should help with that. Jaskier helped start things, and his feverdream pushed a little further; Jaskier demands more 'human' responses, from his endless questions to his critical observations to just treating him like a human being, something Geralt hasn't experienced much. He operates in the world according to his code because he's at a loss otherwise, and in order to graduate he needs to learn to let go of it a little. To learn to exist in the situations that aren't a hunt or a fight, to learn to be comfortable in them, because he ISN'T comfortable in any other situation; to borrow from the books, he gets stir-crazy when he's stuck in a town for too long, and even in the show he's shown to be extremely uncomfortable and awkward and generally socially inappropriate in social situations, although at least in his case it translates more to unease, verbal barbs, coarse language, and general grumpiness. A huge issue for him in the books, which extrapolates to the show without much effort, is the idea that he's an endangered species, much like the monsters he fights. That eventually he'll run out of monsters and will be the only monster left, and what will happen then? He's a dying breed, there's no way to make more witchers and it's unlikely anyone would want or need more anyway. He needs to relearn some of his humanity, to learn how to adapt to the changing world he warns the sentient 'monsters' of so often but ignores when it comes to himself. His code's insufficient to cover every situation, as much as he tries to make it fit; he needs to learn how to actually live rather than keeping himself apart from everything and everyone around him. He leans on his code because he believes without it he'll fall among the monsters, that his code is the only thing separating him from mercenaries and hired thugs. That without it he'll lose whatever inclination towards morality and ethics he has, because Witchers are emotionless creatures that have none at baseline, they need some kind of code to keep them on the path and without adherence to one straying is inevitable. Of course, this isn't true, he acts morally and ethically regardless even when his code would guide him otherwise, but he needs to learn that. To trust himself and his intentions, to trust that he's not as inherently monstrous as he fears he is. He needs to break from years of nihilism and cynicism, the insistence that there's no greater point to anything and he exists to be a cog in the machine; his insistence on living in the greys instead of choosing a side, no matter what that side is, needs to be overcome because there's more to the world, more to him, if he only chooses to look and allow for it. Refusing to choose a side when it truly matters will only end in being alone, and it's not a weakness or failing to choose when it comes to it.
Deal: n/a
History: an episode by episode overview can be found here
Sample Journal Entry:
[ PUBLIC -- video ]
[ Geralt regards whoever's watching from a rather...unusual angle. The camera's aimed right at the hollow of his throat, adam's apple bobbing as he speaks, dark blue shirt collar and metal chain around his neck the only things really breaking up the view. The voice sounds like he gargles with broken glass and is largely devoid of inflection past 'dry sarcasm', so at least those who've met him can figure out who's addressing the network without too much trouble. ]
If someone could stop screaming at the top of their lungs at two in the morning I'd greatly appreciate it. Because if you don't I'm going to break in and wring your fucking neck. Zero be damned.
Hell, I'd enjoy the silence at this point. The only damned reason to be going on like that is getting attacked by a fucking banshee. And even banshees are quieter.
Sample RP: linkage!
Special Notes:
User DW:
thiswasatriumphE-mail: promotedtocondiments [at] gmail [dot] com
Other Characters: none
Character Name: Geralt of Rivia
Series: The Witcher (the Netflix show primarily)
Age: chronologically 103, physically late 30s-early 40s
From When?: end of season 1; in his venom-inspired fever dream on the way to the cottage he ultimately succumbed to the ghoul's venom and died (for Barge purposes, at least)
Inmate/Warden: INMATE - while Geralt is, generally, a decent person underneath it all, nonetheless he never learned the finer points of fitting in with others. He was trained and molded to be a weapon in humanoid form, and that's generally how he thinks of himself and moves through the world - obstacles need to be removed, in whatever shape that takes, and anything like feelings or emotions are not to be taken into account. Consequently he makes a large variety of choices that aren't really advisable and in fact are pretty morally dubious because it's the 'practical' choice; people who stand in his way can be beaten or killed without compunction if they can't be removed otherwise, demands and threats can be delivered regardless of the situation the other person is in, because as far as he's concerned he's only going to be regarded as a monster anyway so why bother trying at pleasantries. Yes, he was trained to do 'good,' in a sense, but he was also trained to be an emotionless killer, to avoid the politics and wars of man and keep himself out of their struggles past eliminating the inhuman monsters that plague them, regardless of what that means for the societies themselves.
Item: n/a
Arrival: pulled right on the edge of death. very much Displeased about it.
Abilities/Powers: At baseline, Geralt's essentially a human who's been turned up to 13. The various processes he was put through as a child to turn him into a Witcher have amplified natural human ability; he's far more durable, stronger, faster, and dextrous than even the most athletic human of his size and build, with keener hearing and smell and eyes he can adjust himself to be able to see in relative darkness. The processes also make him heal faster (although not significantly so; he still scars and he can still be killed, he just won't bleed out quite as fast and is less likely to be prone to infection), and age slower, and make him immune to just about any poison. He can do simple combat magic, called 'signs' in his world, rudimentary things like conjuring fire or pushing someone back that only last as long as he can maintain the gesture. He's been trained in every form of medieval weapon, and has combat skills equivalent to the most elite military group in terms of brutality, efficiency, and effectiveness. He knows something of herbalism, at least enough to make Witcher elixirs, can recognize what's safe to eat and what isn't in the woods, and knows how to live and survive in the wilderness.
A Witcher's true strength, however, or at least the thing that pushes them even further over the edge into Extra, are the aforementioned elixirs. When drank, they can amplify their abilities even further, from healing to durability to complete control over their bodies. They would be lethal to anyone else, and even so take a toll on Witchers themselves, leaving them exhausted and weak for hours once they wear off.
For Barge purposes, his innate physical abilities will remain the same but his magical ones will be blocked, and he won't come in with any of his elixirs.
Personality: Witchers, allegedly, are emotionless creatures. Unfeeling, all but inhuman to hear most tell it, and under most circumstances Geralt wouldn't argue otherwise. Because it's not entirely inaccurate; he was made, forged through alchemy and magic and intensive training to be a weapon of man. Most social cues and mores escape him, he can barely hold a normal conversation if it isn't about work, and he's far more likely to run away from kindness than towards it because it's just not something he's experienced much of in his life. He was only a child when the process started, a fate he had no say in, and without normal rearing, with the emphasis on ability and strength rather than empathy or morality, essentially raised in a military academy environment where any modicum of humanity or empathy was discouraged, it's honestly a wonder he came out as well-adjusted as he has.
For a given value, anyway.
Geralt sees himself through the lens of others more than his own. He's grown resigned to his particular existence over the years, but it's generally taken the shape of bitterness for what could have been and a general heartfelt belief that the universe operates on randomness and selfishness rather than by any greater power. He doesn't believe in gods of any kind, although he'll at least acknowledge others aren't inherently wrong for doing otherwise. He exists to kill monsters, his worth measured in his ability to kill monsters and stay alive, and that alone, because that's the only lesson he's ever learned in that regard. Before Yennefer he only ever paid for sex, and Yennefer ended in misery because emotions got in the way. ...well. Emotions, moral disagreements, and a djinn wish, but that's all details.
Because despite what the rumor is, he's not wholly emotionless, only extremely stunted. He either stuffs them down or gives into them at the worst moments, a bull in a china shop hurting everyone in his vicinity because he's never learned tact, lashing out at friends with cruel words when his own feelings are hurt because he doesn't know how to process, whether or not they're deserved or even the right target. He's blunt and reserved in most instances, but holds his true feelings close to his chest because they're more fragile than he likes to let on, and keeping them out of sight and unacknowledged is too deeply ingrained. Emotions are a weakness Witchers aren't allowed. When he ultimately makes friends they're friends to his last breath even if he won't say the word out loud, his own life risked for theirs over and over because he has very little regard for his own. Geralt lets others think he has no emotions, but the reality is he feels deeply, he just doesn't always know what to do with them, or how to articulate, and continually puts himself last because he's only a tool. A weapon. An instrument to be used, no more and no less. Most days it's highly debatable whether he even still sees himself as human or not.
But despite all that, and despite the particular flavor of his training, he's still managed to form his own kind of code. He won't kill sentient monsters, or those that aren't a threat so much as in a bad position of their own. Won't perform assassinations no matter how much money is offered or how 'necessary' it's claimed to be. He never takes more than what is owed him, and only ever reneges on a deal if it was found to have a false pretense at the start. He won't abandon a friend, and acts to try to mitigate loss of life on all sides if he can, preferring to find a less violent solution if possible, even going so far as to negotiate his and Jaskier's freedom by reasoning with elves rather than the more violent bent the bard was trying to advocate for. He keeps himself out of the affairs of humans as much as he can, choosing instead to tread in the middle ground, to live in the greys; when asked to kill Stregobor, a sorceror, or Renfri, a magically-inclined princess said to bring about the end of the world, because of a perceived 'lesser evil' to be chosen, he refuses both of them. As far as he's concerned evil is evil, no matter the shape or degree, and the evils that concern men, the ones that aren't monsters, aren't his business to solve. If he chooses to help the sorceror then a woman who didn't choose the destiny claimed about her dies and there's no way to know if the end of the world was actually stopped. If he chooses to help the young woman then maybe the end of the world will come, but there's no way to know until it happens. There's no way to know which is the right answer, which is truly the worse evil, so he chooses neither, in the end having to kill Renfri in self defense and getting run out of town, labelled the Butcher of Blaviken, an event that still haunts him because there was no way to know if he acted rightly. If he caused more harm or prevented it. He intervened when Queen Kalanthe ordered a man cursed to be a monster during the day killed, refusing to carry it out despite her insistence he was a monster that needed tk be dispatched because he recognized the man wasn't a monster. A cursed man is still a man, after all, and should not be killed only for existing, especially if there is no tangible threat. He managed to break a curse on a striga for the same reason; strigas are made through a curse, and if the curse can be broken the one who was cursed can be restored. He found the source, and used the one who caused it as bait to ensure the requirements, namely that someone keep it out if its crypt until a rooster crows 3 times, thereby successfully breaking the curse and allowing the king to get his daughter back. Because that's ultimately what the code is supposed to preserve. To provide a framework for How to Behave, How to Nagivate the World. Hunt the monsters that kill people indiscriminately, but don't kill humans for money because he was created to protect from the monsters lurking in the shadows, not to meddle in human affairs. Those who attack him, however, are fair game, so long as they're actually trying to kill him, and those who are cruel or terrible people, those who act to harm others deliberately, are acceptable losses if it comes to it. Intelligent 'monsters' aren't monsters; elves, dryads, mermaids, cursed folks, and so on and so forth, anything capable of reasoned communication, are regarded with empathy and therefore off the table for hunting. Because honestly he relates better to the 'misfits', to the other unwanted races, than humans most of the time.
Even with his sort-of-code, however, it's not without its own rocky edges. Due to his upbringing, or more accurately the fact he had no choice in any of it, he has a rather tempestuous relationship with the idea of Fate and Destiny, choosing to fight it every step of the way and give it the metaphorical middle finger whenever possible. Even when it bites him in the ass to do so. He feels trapped in his own life since it's based upon the choices of others with no escape he can see, so he rails against The Inevitable, to the point where he abandoned a child he'd inadvertently claimed, only more recently finally accepting his responsibility in that. The claim, an ancient understanding that's said to bind two people by destiny, was made out of cynicism, a throwaway bitter joke when asked for what could be made as payment for breaking a curse, and in his disdain for the practice, and destiny in general, he abandoned the child of Surprise that was fated to be his, only finally returning to claim her after effectively being shamed by the woman he loves for spurning his only chance at having a child while she tries so hard to have one of her own to no avail. He's spent most of his life at best despising the idea of destiny and at worst not believing in it at all, since, as the saying goes, "the sword of destiny has two edges; you are one of them and the other is death" and as far as he's concerned all he spreads is death anyway. Destiny's pointless, but after a fever-dream conversation with his mother he's started to rethink it a little. He found Ciri again by accident after losing her, after all, events lining up just right (or they would have if he'd made it to the cottage anyway), so maybe, MAYBE, there's something to it.
Geralt has spent a vast majority of his life trying to fill a void inside himself he doesn't know how to fill. He's resigned to never having a family of his own, and the fear most regard him with; he's a weapon to be used, nothing more or less, worth only the value others ascribe to him, and consequently his main motivation amounts to keeping busy and staying Useful until he eventually grows too slow and is killed, since trying to fill an unknowable void hasn't exactly gone well in the past.
Barge Reactions: Geralt's from a medieval society, where even electricity and basic running water aren't Things yet. The Barge, and all it's technological advances? Is going to blow his poor little mind. He'll probably assume it's all magic at first until he's educated otherwise, but it's certainly going to be quite the culture shock with an enormous learning curve.
The people actually on the ship, on the other hand, will throw him for less of a loop. He's met all kinds, cursed people and elves and monsters of just about every kind, so a few people with strange colored skin or different anatomical structures won't catch him too off-guard; he's always better when he can physically see things for himself anyway. Floods he'll dismiss as enchantments, and ports will take some getting used to, but he's good at adapting. He'll figure it out.
Path to Redemption: Geralt's main obstacle is himself. After too many years of hearing what others think of him, enmeshed in the world where people hate Witchers because of how they are made and the rumors that go along with it, and knowing that path himself, he tends to at best let others assume what they want, at worst subscribe to the belief himself, which in turn limits him a great deal. It prevents him from finding another path if he chooses because he thinks there is no other option for him, prevents him from forming close attachments because he thinks he's not capable of it. At his worst he believes he's the brutish monster most people see him for, at his best he merely resigns himself to the fact others believe it and there's nothing he can do about it, and as a result he doesn't make any effort to improve the situation.
He isn't a thug, or a brute, or a monster, not really. He's emotionally stunted to the point where he can't generally recognize what he feels other than anger and lust and, occasionally, fear, and even then in his worst moments he tells himself it's only mimicry. Not real, just a monster pretending to be human. Going through the motions, playing through what he remembers of being human. He's a boy forced to grow up too quickly without a nurturing guide to get him through to manhood the 'right' way, is all, and really most of his quirks and Issues all go back to that. He's incredibly intelligent, a voracious reader of history and an extremely capable tactician when allowed, he's just learned not to show that part of himself, to only let others see the nastier side of him because the rest of it rarely bears out well in the end. The rest of it's a weakness that might get him killed.
In order to graduate, therefore, he needs a warden willing to try to help him through the rest. To help him understand he is allowed to have feelings and wants past basic needs, to want things for himself that aren't necessarily in line with what was decided for him or what others want from him. That he doesn't need to play the brute or keep the parts of himself that aren't brutish hidden. ...he also needs to get some damn self esteem and regard for his own skin, but having friends and people who care about him generally that actually stick around should help with that. Jaskier helped start things, and his feverdream pushed a little further; Jaskier demands more 'human' responses, from his endless questions to his critical observations to just treating him like a human being, something Geralt hasn't experienced much. He operates in the world according to his code because he's at a loss otherwise, and in order to graduate he needs to learn to let go of it a little. To learn to exist in the situations that aren't a hunt or a fight, to learn to be comfortable in them, because he ISN'T comfortable in any other situation; to borrow from the books, he gets stir-crazy when he's stuck in a town for too long, and even in the show he's shown to be extremely uncomfortable and awkward and generally socially inappropriate in social situations, although at least in his case it translates more to unease, verbal barbs, coarse language, and general grumpiness. A huge issue for him in the books, which extrapolates to the show without much effort, is the idea that he's an endangered species, much like the monsters he fights. That eventually he'll run out of monsters and will be the only monster left, and what will happen then? He's a dying breed, there's no way to make more witchers and it's unlikely anyone would want or need more anyway. He needs to relearn some of his humanity, to learn how to adapt to the changing world he warns the sentient 'monsters' of so often but ignores when it comes to himself. His code's insufficient to cover every situation, as much as he tries to make it fit; he needs to learn how to actually live rather than keeping himself apart from everything and everyone around him. He leans on his code because he believes without it he'll fall among the monsters, that his code is the only thing separating him from mercenaries and hired thugs. That without it he'll lose whatever inclination towards morality and ethics he has, because Witchers are emotionless creatures that have none at baseline, they need some kind of code to keep them on the path and without adherence to one straying is inevitable. Of course, this isn't true, he acts morally and ethically regardless even when his code would guide him otherwise, but he needs to learn that. To trust himself and his intentions, to trust that he's not as inherently monstrous as he fears he is. He needs to break from years of nihilism and cynicism, the insistence that there's no greater point to anything and he exists to be a cog in the machine; his insistence on living in the greys instead of choosing a side, no matter what that side is, needs to be overcome because there's more to the world, more to him, if he only chooses to look and allow for it. Refusing to choose a side when it truly matters will only end in being alone, and it's not a weakness or failing to choose when it comes to it.
Deal: n/a
History: an episode by episode overview can be found here
Sample Journal Entry:
[ PUBLIC -- video ]
[ Geralt regards whoever's watching from a rather...unusual angle. The camera's aimed right at the hollow of his throat, adam's apple bobbing as he speaks, dark blue shirt collar and metal chain around his neck the only things really breaking up the view. The voice sounds like he gargles with broken glass and is largely devoid of inflection past 'dry sarcasm', so at least those who've met him can figure out who's addressing the network without too much trouble. ]
If someone could stop screaming at the top of their lungs at two in the morning I'd greatly appreciate it. Because if you don't I'm going to break in and wring your fucking neck. Zero be damned.
Hell, I'd enjoy the silence at this point. The only damned reason to be going on like that is getting attacked by a fucking banshee. And even banshees are quieter.
Sample RP: linkage!
Special Notes: