Witchernonsense - Tumblr Posts
AU in which Geralt is a hardcore conspiracy theorist who lives in a tin-foil lined RV. Jaskieresk is a final year university student studying fine arts who gets his weed from Geralt. They often smoke together and 'what if' at each other until they're either crying with laughter, or adding another layer of foil to the van, petrified.
Yenna is a park ranger for the land upon which Geralt has parked his vehicle. She looks the other way because he's the kind of guy who picks up litter, yells at teenagers who are going off-path into dangerous areas, and also because he's actually really hot and they totally fuck sometimes. Okay, often.
Jaskieresk and Yenna get along incredibly well because neither of them completely buy into Geralt's theories (although some are pretty well thought-out and have a lot of supporting evidence) and it's just too easy to tease him until he's sulking. Sometimes the ribbing goes a bit too far and Geralt will climb his favourite tree effortlessly (the muscles on the crazy fucker!) and refuse to come down. If it comes to it, Yenna offers to show him her boobs, and Jaskieresk promises the rest of the burrito he's eating. That usually tempts him back.
Nobody expects Geralt to uncover the location of a recently abandoned government facility in which genetic testing has reportedly been performed on children. Jaskieresk is totally in favour of a crazy-ass road trip, but Yenna needs convincing. In the end, she goes with them because a) if there is a grain of truth here (she's never seen Geralt so sure), then children's lives are at stake, and b) she absolutely does not trust Geralt and Jaskieresk to not accidentally blow something up during their 'adventure'.
So they get to the place - it looks like a tiny abandoned house - and trek inside. Geralt has an array of weird instruments to detect radioactivity and signals and all sorts of shit that Yenna and Jaskieresk don't understand. At first Jaskieresk is nervously chatty, screaming every time a shadow startles him, but after they search the dusty-ass house, he relaxes. There's nothing there. He and Yenna begin another session of teasing as Geralt grumps and triple-checks his map and sources.
Jaskieresk does a theatrical impression of Geralt fumbling with his paper map, and in the process, nudges an exposed brick by the fireplace. A hidden door slides open with a metallic woosh, revealing a brightly lit passageway. Stairs lead down to a securely locked door, complete with keycode.
Both Yenna and Jaskieresk are speechless. Geralt lets himself be smug for a moment, before he enters the passage and descends the steps.
Jaskieresk is quick to follow - 'cause then he gets to be safely sandwiched between Geralt and Yenna, smart - and they all peer at the panel. Authorised Personnel, it says in LED wording. Jaskieresk immediately goes to touch; Yenna slaps his hand; they begin squabbling. Geralt ignores them, studies the worn pattern from the many fingertips pressed into the keys, and quickly figures out that the code is the project leader's year of birth.
Yenna looks up from the headlock she has Jaskieresk in as the security door opens with the sound of filtered air depressurising. They're hit with the scent of antiseptic, ozone, and food rot.
Okay, so at this point, they're all a bit creeped out. Not even Geralt expected to get this far without resistance. They huddle together as they sneak down a long, sterile corridor, peeking at abandoned rooms. Yenna has one hand on her gun (she's the only one licensed and trained). Jaskieresk has one hand on Geralt's ponytail (he's not trained in the use of Geralt, but hey).
They see chaos everywhere. It looks like everyone working here left in a rush. The smell of old food is coming from a break-room where a platter of sandwiches has been abandoned. The offices have their computers broken, their drives removed and smashed. A sink is full of the charred remains of paperwork.
Clearly something happened.
Geralt goes about inspecting the hard drives, seeing if there are any he may be able to salvage. He turns up one, and a USB drive forgotten at the bottom of a drawer. Yenna carefully sifts through the burnt papers, picking out scraps that survived the blaze. Jaskieresk closes the break-room door and whines about the smell.
They're about finished with their tasks when they hear a thud. The trio freeze, staring at the end of the hallway at the last door, unexplored. Yenna withdraws her handgun, not twitchy with the trigger - she has discipline - but she won't waste time with the draw. She makes a motion for Geralt and Jaskieresk to get behind her as they inch down the hall. Both men obey silently.
She releases the electronic lock and the door glides silently open. They're confronted with a perplexing sight: rows of large metal cages, empty. As they walk, they read the small tags. Numbers, names - first names - with a red cross beside each. With a feeling of dread, they realise this is where the children were held. And every cross, a failed experiment.
Yenna is shaking by the time they reach the last cage. Jaskieresk looks as if he might be ill at any moment. Geralt's jaw is set firm in anger. They see the tag: 087 - Ciri.
Beside it, a green tick.
Inside the cage, a huddled form; she's bundled in blankets, pressed as far away as she can get. The child can't be older than ten. She still has a central line in her arm.
As Yenna puts her weapon away and switches to stoic crisis mode, coaxing the girl with a matronly voice, Geralt and Jaskieresk back up to give them room. They exchange a meaningful glance.
After this, there will be no going back to smoking and giggling and tree-climbing. After this, Jaskieresk's degree will sit incomplete. After this, they'll fight to hide and protect this child, and uncover the truth of her mistreatment.
After this, they'll begin to learn exactly what Subject 087, aka 'Ciri', is capable of.
