Cursed Jaskier - Tumblr Posts

Prompt 24

!!!SPOILERS FOR SECONDARY QUEST FROM BLOOD AND WINE (WITCHER 3 GAME DLC)!!!

There's a curse inspired by a quest (The Warble of a Smitten Knight) from Witcher 3 B&W so I put a spoiler just in case you don't want any of it spoiled <3 The curse is surprisingly a very small part of the actual quest, but like,,, I don't wanna take any chances! I'm using the curse as my base (ALL PICTURES ARE FROM THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE FOR THE GAME) I see two ways of this starting. EITHER Geralt arrives in a town only to overhear some hushed comments in a tavern about how awful the bard playing is, and how they miss the one that went missing ever since he went into the forest a few years back, followed by the other man at the table chiming in with the fact more men have disappeared in that exact same forest or Geralt is riding through a forest only to find a note that has hastily written "HELP - REDWOOD FOREST" on it, either stuck in a tree branch, on the ground, or attached to the foot of a bird. Geralt meanders around the woods, and no matter which way he learns of the danger, he comes across a huge tree, with a home carved into it. He enters the home and finds it has many floors. Geralt hears someone singing. He climbs the steps for quite frankly an annoying amount of time, before he comes across what appears to be some sort of... Witchy labratory. Note that I'm also heavily inspired by Auntie Ethel from Baldur's Gate 3 so I'm kinda thinking of some sort of hag-witch-thing like her as the villain, but you can change it into pretty much anything with magic and a bad attitude. Geralt sees beakers and flasks and bibs and bobs and an abnormal amount of bone jewelry and furniture, and in the corner of the room is a large birdcage, holding a chained man inside. The man, upon noticing Geralt is there, beams and begins explaining how he always knew help would come for him. The witch (or whatever else) kills anything she deems has "trespassed" too close to her home or too long in the forest in of itself. Jaskier is the only survivor, as she heard his singing and decided she wanted to keep him. To make it harder for him to escape, she has cursed him to have the likeness of the very songbird she likened his singing to. It's songbird of your choice, really. He could look like a lark, a nightingale, orioles like in the original quest, a literal songbird, it's all up to you.

I however like to imagine Jaskier has two large wings on his back, and maybe even bird feet. Now I don't fuck with her "can only live seven more years" or "give some of the curse to another person" outcomes, I like to think that that if Geralt cures Jaskier, he can keep his wings at the least, and there isn't any bad consequences. Perhaps maybe still thinking sticks would be great in his bed or something funny like that lmfao If Geralt can't cure Jaskier, he can just protect him from townsfolk, poachers, and creatures alike. Perhaps they get a glamour spell enchanted item from a sorcerer or something for him to appear human so he can play music for crowds. If he does get cured, perhaps this can be a way they hide his wings!

Prompt 54

Jaskier's been asleep for over three days straight now. Just went to bed like normal one night and never woke up. He still has a steady heartbeat, and is of perfect health, he just won't... Wake up. As Geralt rides off to find a cure, he notices that there are other people falling asleep seemingly at random throughout the continent. He figures out it's everyone who has listened to a one of Jaskier's songs recently, whether performed by Jaskier or not. I like to think it's some curse Valdo paid for that backfired way out of control, "Make people fall asleep during Jaskier's performances" type of thing But the VOTW (Villain Of The Week) is really up to you, darlings

Prompt 55

The man who gave Geralt a contract has no coin, but is willing to part with antiques from his collection. Fine. Alright. Maybe something in there will be worth coin when sold. Out of all the items and furniture, one stands out to Geralt. He has no idea why, but he's drawn to it more than anything else. It's a lute. With flower engravings on it, of all things. It has a paper note on it, instructing to never play it. It takes Geralt no more than a few weeks to accidentally run his hands over the strings and play a note on accident. The second he does so, the lute disappears from his hands, and a nude man now stands before him, looking at him with shock. I can see this going either one of two ways Either this is a curse put on Jaskier and they've already met and this is a reunion, perhaps Geralt took the lute because it reminded him of his friend who disappeared, or perhaps he was cursed to forget him as part of Jaskier's curse to become a lute OR The person who made the lute, enchanted it to "Create life with it's music", not knowing that the (*only) life it brought was the lute's personification, itself. *Or Jaskier can just sing birds and shit into being idc, it's up to you, my darling

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ ~!PROMPT FILLS!~

@the-mightier-pen https://archiveofourown.org/works/56427481

Prompt 60

For completing an especially hard contract, Geralt is given a present from the fae. "Your perfect love", they call it. When Jaskier is shoved toward him, Geralt wishes he could say he was surprised. Geralt quickly gains his shock back, however, when upon his bard speaking, he finds he has been completely drained of his personality. Jaskier speaks as concisely and directly as possible, with no embellishment or flowering of his words - Hell, he doesn't even speak with emotion or tone in his voice. Geralt demands to know what they've done to Jaskier, only for the fae to teleport them out. Geralt goes from mage to mage, sorcerer to sorcerer, healer to healer, priest to priest, hoping desperately that someone, anyone, can revert Jaskier back to himself. Jaskier no longer sings. He barely talks. He doesn't wander off, or dance in place, or reach out to Geralt. His eyes have even dulled in color, now a blank gray, always looking hazy and glossed over. Nobody can heal Jaskier. Or so it seeems! I love happy endings SO two options (or any you come up with but you know what I mean) Option 1: Geralt marches back to the Fae's woods and demands they speak to him, as they've disrespected him by not giving him his prize for completing their contract those months ago. When they bring him in, affronted at the idea of what he is implying, they are shocked when he berates them for at least a full hour over how much he loves the traits his bard once had that they had thought he found annoying. "So you never gave me my perfect love." He finishes. They all converse for a moment, before nodding. "It seems we underestimated you, Witcher. We apologize for the misconception." And thank the gods, Jaskier slumps in place and looks to Geralt with bright blue eyes. "Geralt? Wh- What's going on?" Only to then be kicked out of the fae realm again. Oh well. At least Jaskier was cured. Option 2: TRUE LOVE'S KISS BABBYYYYYYYYYY

Prompt 64

Jaskier has been cursed to turn into a Lark during the day for years now. It makes following his dreams very difficult, what with a lark not being able to carry a lute nor his money pouch, but he just waits to move at night, when the magic turns him back into his human form. Which means he technically has a very awful sleep schedule, but that's not what we're focusing on. Jaskier is sat in a tree one afternoon, trying to sleep, when a horse neighs below him. He peeks down and to his surprise sees a witcher. A witcher! What stories he must have! Jaskier must follow him so that he can ask him questions once he becomes human again! So a very sleepy bird follows after Geralt, twittering and singing all the while. Geralt evidently notices, but ignores the bird for the most part. That is, until the bird lands on Roach's back. Geralt sighs. These birds will stop at nothing... He reaches into his pack, and plucks off a few pieces of bread, and scatters them along the road behind them. He watches as the bird eagerly hops down and pecks at them. Jaskier isn't usually one for eating off the ground, but he's technically a bird right now, and he really mustn't let free food go to waste! It's only after he's finished his banquet that he notices the witcher has ridden off. Oh drat. He'll try and find him that night. When he's not so tired. The next day, Geralt is sat at his camp with Roach, and is surprised to see the same hungry lark as yesterday flying over to sit beside him. Geralt once again shares a bit of his food, and even gets to pet the bird's head. He admits he's grown a fondness for the little lark. That afternoon, just before the sun has set, Geralt is armored up and ready for a fight. Roach is tacked up, he has his potions, his swords, his lark, his oils, hi- Wait, his lark? The lark keeps insisting on following him, until he finally shoos it away with a firm "Don't come. It's dangerous." and the bird seems to understand. Geralt is unnerved at the implications, but he has a contract to attend to first.

Geralt wakes up the next morning, bloody and beaten, no longer high on potions. It was very nearly a pyrrhic victory, it seems. Geralt brushes himself off and looks at his surroundings and sees that the monster and him tore the forest up a bit during their tussle in the night. He's walking back to his camp when he spots it, a fallen tree, and next to it, his lark. Geralt races over, and sees that the tree is pinning the lark to the ground by one of it's wings. The lark opens it's eyes and chirps frantically at him, kicking it's little legs and batting it's free wing erratically. Geralt manages to get the lark unstuck and mends it at camp. He plans to see to the lark's healing, and then release it back into the wild. This is complicated by the lark turning into a man in the middle of his camp later that night.

Prompt 75

After being yelled at on the mountain, Jaskier stumbles and tumbles his way down the perilous path down, all the while being half-blinded by his own tears. He makes it to town and decides to wait. Geralt will realize it was all a mistake and come to find him and apologize. It'll take a few days, but Jaskier can wait. He'll play for some coin, and buy himself something nice to distract himself from the heartbreak. It's been four days. Jaskier has a room at an inn, two beds, in case Geralt doesn't want to sleep in the same bed with him like they used to. Jaskier plays every night. Everyone keeps requesting his songs about Geralt, but he redirects them easily enough. The only problem is he ran out of non-Geralt songs after the second day. Even ones that don't mention him, Jaskier can't bring himself to play, because he knows that he wrote them about Geralt. It's been a week. Jaskier has his room at the same inn. He still plays for coin, but he's been forced to play his songs about Geralt, as nobody wants to hear the same songs for a week straight, so he had to diversify. Jaskier is worried Geralt might've gotten hurt. Hopefully with his witcher healing, he'll be here in no time. It's been two weeks. Jaskier has his room at the inn. He's decided to take a break from playing for a bit, lest he get boring for the crowds. He's begun really exploring the town, and he's even met one of his frequent listeners out in town, got his name - Pietr - And was introduced to his wife as "The song guy". It was nice hearing compliments about his work from them both, even if it did remind him of the nights Geralt would talk in-depth about Jaskier's songcycles with him. He misses those nights. He hopes Geralt heals up from whatever injury he must've gotten and gets here soon so they can continue having those. It's been two months. Jaskier has changed to a one-bed room. Geralt is taking forever, he can deal with sharing a bed with Jaskier when he gets here. Jaskier plays every few nights, he has regular listeners now. He's tried writing new songs, but every time he puts quill to parchment, he starts crying. Really wish he'd stop doing that. It's been four months. Jaskier has changed his room again, now in a room with a single small bed, just for one person. It'd be physically impossible to even attempt sharing it with Geralt, unless they laid on top of each other, and even then, Geralt's feet would poke out. Jaskier can only assume Geralt went after Yennefer before him. As always. Jaskier isn't sure why it came as a surprise when he first figured it out. Or why it still hurt enough to make him bawl into a glass of alcohol. He should've known from the beginning. At least he'll be next, he thinks moments before passing out drunk. It's been six months. Jaskier is beginning to worry Geralt may have died. Surely he would've come by now. Jaskier's head still whips around to look at the door every time it opens. He still peeks into every stable and prays he'll see Roach. He still asks the blacksmith if he's done any work with swords recently. One especially mortifying moment was the time he asked a brothel if they had seen Geralt's description, only for the women to all tut sadly and tell him that if he had to look at brothels to try and find his missing husband, he must've not been good enough for Jaskier to begin with. Jaskier leaves without even clearing up the misconception, because it was still a no. Geralt was still not here.

It's been eight months. Jaskier has the same room, but has begun to dwindle in popularity. At least in the "giving money to" department. He thought he could at least expect Pietr, but he ran into him in the market the other day and Pietr had no idea who he was. Jaskier must really be that forgettable, despite all his attempts his whole life to not be. Jaskier must've just overexaggerated what he meant to someone again. Jaskier has scaled the mountain again, all by himself. Either he finds signs of Geralt, dead or alive, or he dies in some rockslide accident and nobody misses him. He finds no signs of Geralt, however. Not a thing. Geralt left the mountain, that was for sure. Jaskier sat on the very same rock, and cried thinking of the very same coast, but this time he was alone. It's been ten months. Jaskier spends his days and nights either drinking or crying. He's only written one new song, one about someone's love dying before they ever get to tell them how they feel. He's never sung it, though. For a performance or in private. He's stopped playing altogether. He has no idea what to do with the rest of his life. As sad and pitiful and pathetic as he thinks himself when he says it, his life was Geralt. Following him for twenty years, writing songs about him, spreading word about him, making a name for himself as "The White Wolf's bard." It's been a year. Jaskier bought himself a small hovel in the village. He'd been there far too long to keep using the inn. He has a small flower garden. He spends most of his time tending it. Jaskier heard a villager say their penpal's village was recently saved by the White Wolf himself, and Jaskier freezes, standing still and gaping at the two women chatting. They begin to realize Jaskier's eavesdropping and move to talk inside their home. Oh. So Geralt lived. He just truly didn't come for Jaskier. Jaskier throws the last song he wrote for Geralt into the fire. Geralt isn't dead. But Geralt probably wishes Jaskier was. Jaskier stays inside his home long enough for his garden to get overrun with weeds and pests. He only leaves his home when one day, there's incessant knocking on his door. He opens it to find Yennefer. Great. She grabs his arm, summons a portal behind her, and shOVES him in. She sits him down in a chair in a kitchen, comments on how terrible he looks, and then leaves upstairs. After a few moments, Yennefer drags Geralt in, even though Geralt is clearly trying his best not to enter the room. Lovely. As if Jaskier didn't already feel like the bane of Geralt's existence. Yennefer finally sits Geralt down, and explains to them that it was just as she thought. They were bespelled. Geralt has been having lapses of memory and odd sudden urges for about a year now. He'd forget people he spoke to, towns he'd go in, and suddenly go off his routes or paths with intense need to go on a detour he could never talk himself out of. Geralt can hardly listen to her, he's just stuck staring at Jaskier with awe. Jaskier's alive. Jaskier's alive. Ever since the mountain, Geralt has been visiting the towns around the mountain, praying to find his bard again, only for everybody in the towns to not have seen anyone meeting his description. It was only two months in that he combed the entire mountain, both hoping and dreading to find Jaskier's body. He found nothing. No signs of his bard. And with nobody ever seeing him enter the village, it's almost as if he just... disappeared. Yennefer explains that anytime Geralt asked someone of Jaskier, the person would forget everything they knew about him. Any time Geralt almost made contact with Jaskier, his mind would suddenly tug him into a new direction. it seems to have been born into existence the day they had their fight on the mountain. Specifically when Geralt asked for life to take Jaskier off his hands.

Prompt 76

Yennefer has seen it all. She's become a sorceress, She's healed someone's obvious gay-crush right before sleeping with the man crushing on him, She's seen a man come back from the dead and explain he's a dragon, She's seen a lot, alright? She's not surprised by much. One day, however, she hears very loud knocking on her front door. Eulgh. She answers it, already expecting to be annoyed. A woman stands there, with brown skin, and long straight black hair. She has an odd pale marking on her face. The woman gestures to two horses she's leading behind her. One is a handsome chestnut, with a fluffy short mane that has bangs that dip past it's shockingly blue eyes. The stallion is anxiously tapdancing in place, as if it knows what Yennefer can do. The other is a larger, stronger horse, with a very dark midnight coat, with stunningly white mane and tail. The horse's long hair isn't enough to hide it's alarmingly bright yellow eyes... With familiar pupils. Yennefer turns to the woman again, and narrows her eyes. "Roach?"

Prompt 93

Geralt yelled at him, that's fine. Jaskier was just trying to cheer him up, but it's still fine. They're on top of a fucking mountain, but it's fine. Jaskier never even wanted to come to this mountain, but it's fine. Geralt never liked him, but it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Geralt said that to never see him again would be a blessing. It's fine.

Jaskier goes to get his stuff from Roach, only for her to start freaking out as he approaches. Jaskier futilely tries to calm her down for far too long, before she neighs, looking behind him. He spins around and sees a stomping, still-pissed Geralt.

"Oh, Geralt! Thank gods, something is wrong with Roach, I'm worried about h-"

But Geralt walks straight through him, and pats Roach's muzzle.

"What is it, Girl?"

Jaskier blinks in shock, turning to look at them. He watches as Geralt goes through their bags and seems to relax at the sight of them, stuffed full of all of Jaskier's bullshit. Perhaps he wants to sell all remainders of Jaskier, thinking Jaskier too dumb to bring his things with him, wherever he went. Maybe it wasn't relief at all, maybe it was defeat, as he stares at new duties, as he has to go chase after the stupid bard he despises to bring him back his things because no matter what, Geralt has a heart of gold.

Geralt makes camp, right there and then, and sits down to meditate.

Jaskier decides that if Geralt can't see him, he might as well get his fill of Geralt. He sits right in front of him, and stares at his face, semi-relaxed in a semi-peaceful meditation. He's still tense, as if waiting for something, or expecting the worse. Maybe he's worried Jaskier will come back.

"It's alright, Darling. I won't be there to bother you any more, it seems."

Jaskier makes sure to tell him, even though Geralt doesn't react. Roach has calmed since Geralt arrived, but still eyes him wearily. At least Roach can see him, he supposes.

Jaskier observes as Geralt stays at that same camp for another three days. Geralt either meditates, cares for roach, or wanders off into the wilderness at seemingly random times. He either stays away for two minutes, or nine hours at a time. Jaskier stays with Roach, worried about her without either of them. He knows she can handle herself, but he still worried. Same with Geralt. But it was nice being seen, sometimes. So he stays with Roach.

Geralt comes back, hurriedly packs up camp, leaps onto Roach, and rides like a bat out of hell. Jaskier unfortunately cannot fly or float or even hover. So he has to run after them. And even though Geralt can't see or touch him, Jaskier can still feel his lungs burn when he runs for too long.

Jaskier eventually catches up with them at a town at the bottom of the mountain. Geralt is searching for something, it's obvious. Perhaps a job? Yennefer, somehow? A beast?

"Brown hair, blue eyes, dressed in bright colors?"

Geralt is looking for him.

Jaskier gets excited for a moment, before remembering Geralt still has his things. He probably just wanted to drop his things off and leave him again.

"I haven't seen a man like that." "He- He… He looks sad. He was crying."

Geralt brings up this detail as if it pains him to even speak of it. Jaskier is confused about this, as it was technically Geralt's fault Jaskier ended up crying at all.

"I haven't seen him." "If you do, tell me. Please."

And Geralt moves to ask the same exact questions to the very next person in view.

Jaskier watches as he asks every single person in town, getting more and more desperate. By the end of the night, Geralt sits in an inn room with a large single bed, hugging a lute, as his eyes tear up.

Jaskier sits beside him, assures him he's fine, pleads with Geralt to not mess with the delicate lute, and demands he get happy and stop this frankly heart-wrenching display.

Jaskier tries moving items, tries clapping his hands, tries punching people, tries screaming his head off, but nobody notices him. Except Roach. And a barncat that ran away once it caught sight of Geralt in the distance. Great.

Jaskier can only silently observe as Geralt grieves Jaskier, hopes for him to return, prays that he's safe even though he left his lute , hums his songs under his breath before shaking his head and sighing, whispers "Please forgive me" to empty air. Jaskier has. Jaskier forgave him long ago at this point.

Jaskier's had enough. Jaskier's been annoying and loud his entire life. Surely he can make enough of a fuss to get the animals around Geralt to act up enough for Geralt to know something's up. He starts cooing at Roach and luring her in odd directions with the same promises he made before it all went to shit. Geralt knows something is wrong, but suspects it's with Roach, and not the environment around her. That is, until Geralt is in the middle of a hunt, and suddenly the creature he's there to kill can NOT focus on him, and instead keeps following some invisible being as they race back and forth across the clearing.

Prompt 96

While on a hunt, Jaskier is hit with a spell. Geralt races over to his crumpled form and reaches out to shake him awake, only for Jaskier to push himself up, and for two large wings to sprout from his back. Ah shit. Geralt and Jaskier are dealing well with the spell, if you ask them. Geralt and Jaskier hold hands while Jaskier tries very hard to learn how to fly. It's more like panicked flapping that sometimes lets him hover just barely taller than Geralt, but that's just because he's only started learning. Jaskier complains how unfair it is that he gets the chance to fly and feel the wind and see the views only for the spell to make it so that he doesn't instinctively know how to fly properly. Geralt reassures him that with practice, he could learn. But why practice if you're going to lose them soon, anyways? Eventually, Geralt notices Jaskier is much faster to dodge in hunts with his wings. He darts out of the way miraculously fast, and now that they've been practicing every morning, Jaskier can fly decently high to watch over the fight, getting all of his inspiration from a safe distance. It calms a lot of Geralt's worries. Jaskier asks him one day if he can help him, because his wings are getting itchy and he can't reach the entirety of them, and Geralt agrees. Geralt likes preening Jaskier's wings. He likes the calming silence occasionally broken by Jaskier's humming. He likes the soft feel of the feathers. But moreover, he especially likes the little sounds Jaskier makes as Geralt's fingers work away. Jaskier tells Geralt one day that he doesn't want to lose his wings. Geralt nods, and yet they're still on their way to find a magic-user. Jaskier is worried Geralt doesn't want Jaskier to have wings. Maybe Geralt hates all the extra maintenance Jaskier needs now... He's stupefied when they finally find someone powerful enough for Geralt to deem workable, and Geralt asks for a glamour for Jaskier to wear, so that Jaskier can perform with no fear of witchunts after himself, but can soar with his wings when alone and safe with his witcher to protect him. Jaskier is so busy being awestruck by the phrasing of Geralt being "His Witcher" that he barely even processes how sweet the glamour idea is.

Prompt 99

Years ago, a young viscount had his heart stolen from him, locked away in a vault deep beneath his family's estate. The teenaged boy flirted around too much, which worried his parents, for if the boy were to fall in love and be loved in return, their plans at marrying him off for more land and more riches could all be for naught. But the good thing about stealing away his heart, was that he could surely love no more, and even better, nobody could possibly love a heartless man. Years later, the boy grows into a man, who becomes a bard, who becomes The Bard. Jaskier has a history of being a bit of a manwhore. He's been told he "falls in love with everyone he meets." That isn't it, though. Jaskier loves a good dance under the sheets, but it can't be love. His heart is locked away. He knows when he holds a hand to his chest, and feels the painful magical scar marking where a heart should be, and no pulse underneath. Jaskier has worried for years and years if he's truly apathetic and only does good things to save face, but he does things when he's alone and nobody watches, so he thinks he must be doing it just to do it, right? He likes doing nice things, he likes helping, he likes liking... But surely if his heart is gone, he can't, right? And then there was the issue known as Geralt. Surely a heartless man cannot fall in love. And yet... Jaskier can't help but fall head over heels in love with the witcher. Even if it hurts every time he gets butterflies in his stomach. His chest burning and aching every time he feels something for the man. But his parents had told him that nobody could love him now that he had his heart taken away. It must've been part of the spell, along with the pain. So he loves Geralt from afar, knowing that Geralt could never love him back. So when Geralt confesses he's in love with Jaskier, Jaskier is very confused. "How? I'm heartless." "What? You're the kindest man I've ever met, Jaskier-" "No, seriously. My heart is gone. They said nobody could fall in love with me with it gone." Jaskier then realizes that it wasn't part of the spell at all, they had just assumed! Jaskier eagerly tells Geralt all about it, only to be surprised by Geralt's haunted, horrified expression. Geralt RIPS Jaskier's shirt off with his bare hands (Hot! Jaskier likey!) and inspects his scar, thoroughly. "We're going to lettenhove." "What? Why?" "We're getting your heart back."