toplvl | Time to Make the Donuts

Time to Make the Donuts

THE ON-DUTY MEME

We're all used to playing our characters in special circumstances--sharing a bath, AUed into a robot, in the rain, lost in the ball pit (well that's one way to get your extra hour)...but how often do we get to actually play our characters doing their day jobs?

This meme is for just that.

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Write a starter about your character going about their day at work, wherever that may be.

If your character is a doctor, write them checking in on a patient, or having a meal in the hospital cafeteria. If they're a lawyer, write them at court. If they're a professional ghost-hunter? Yeah, that'd be a pretty neat starter too!

Be sure to include some sort of hook that allows other characters to join in the action, even if your character works alone. Maybe they brought their pile of research out to a cafe? Maybe they need help with something?

2. Respond to other characters' starters. Please tag out if you put a starter up. I know I can't enforce this, but no meme goes anywhere if people don't engage.

3. Thread. Have a good day at work, or perhaps an awful day at work.

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"Yeah, now that you mention it, I'm gonna have to insist. Let's take the food upstairs." He'd also rather not cause any trouble, and the way people are staring, it's best for the two witchers to make themselves unseen. He waves to the serving girl again and asks her if she can have some of the maids change the water in his bath. And he insists they can take their own meals upstairs, which makes her look quite relieved to not have to perform all the usual small niceties for two guests more beast than man.

Rolling his eyes, Lambert picks up his plate and tankard while he waits for Eskel to placate the humans. He knows it's best not to cause a scene or make trouble, but he hates being treated Less Than.

Once they're up in Eskel's room, alone, he speaks. "It's not like we chose to be mutant freaks. We clear out the shit they can't handle, the least they could do is not treat us like monsters."

"I know, I know." Eskel says, in what he hopes is a soothing tone. "And the old guy that runs this place is fine, I just don't want to make things harder for him." He sits down on the floor so Lambert can sit on the bed when he wants it,back resting against a broad vertical beam. "And nobody wants endrega guts on their floor, no matter who's dripping them. Into the bath you go, brother."

With a grumble, he sets his plate and tankard on the small table, then starts to strip his armor off. Everything gets piled on the floor beside the tub, so he can wash it later. Then he steps into the tub and sinks down with a content sigh. The water is fresh and warm, soothing. His head thumps back against the rim.

"Thanks."

"It's nothin'." Eskel says. "Like you said, I'm gonna have to sleep with you, so I had to get you a bath." He jokes, offering Lambert his crooked smile. He proceeds to pick a thick slice of brown bread from his plate and shred it with his fingers; the crust is thick and hard and it's easier to chew smaller chunks on the side that doesn't have damaged teeth and gums where the blade of the knife had caught in his mouth. The witch's intervention had saved his life, but there were limits to what she could have managed. He supposed an injury that only occasionally pained him was better than one that killed him outright. He watched Lambert idly.

"What have you been up to? Been riding around with your friend the Cat?" He winks. What are brothers for if not to tease you about your love life?

Lambert picks up the soap after a while and lathers himself up, making sure to get behind his ears and in all the little places he doesn't often have time to bother with. He's safe, Eskel's sitting right there, so he takes advantage of the bath.

"Yeah, 'til this morning, actually." His face gets a tiny bit pink, a goofy smile stretching his lips, and he keeps his eyes on his task of scrubbing up good. "He wanted to spend the whole year together, at least until I had to go back to Kaer Morhen, but contracts are running thin. Not enough for two witchers, unless we wanted to stick to camping and hunting. So I told him I'd try and meet him again in the harvest season before I head up the mountains."

Eskel grins at him.

"You gonna try to bring him north this year?" He asks, carefully. He's got mixed feelings about encouraging Lambert but he's long since abandoned the idea he could talk the younger witcher out of it. So he might as well be in Lambert's corner, if the other witchers push back. Geralt could go either way on the issue, but Eskel was sure Vesemir would lose his entire shit.

Lambert sighs and lets himself sink further under the water, trying to submerge himself.

"Maybe. If he wants to." He definitely wants to. The fact that Vesemir's head will explode is merely a bonus. If Aiden agrees, it means he'll get to spend a couple of months with his Cat in a safe place, where they don't have to worry about being tossed out of an inn or watching their backs when they camp. They won't have to worry about making enough coin.

"You gonna help me convince the old man to let him in?"

"I could. I'd want to meet him first. I trust your judgment but I wouldn't want to butt heads with the old man without having something to show for it. Vesemir can't accuse you have having wrapped me around your little finger when we were younger if I like him personally." He smiles ruefully. He'd do anything for either of his brothers, he'd fight and die for them, with them, he'd ride to the ends of the earth to find them and bring them home. But he'd always felt like he had to look out for Lambert, the sensitive and hot-headed novice more than half a century younger than himself.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." With a sigh, he stands up and lets the water cascade off of him, then grabs a towel to dry off as he steps out. "He isn't like the other Cats, though. I think you'd like him."

"He makes you happy, that makes me like him a lot already." Eskel says, watching Lambert with half-closed eyes. "I'm glad you have each other, I think."

Lambert pulls on clean smallclothes and a linen shirt. "You think?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at his brother on his way to grab his dinner. He then takes a seat beside Eskel so he can finish eating. "Why the hesitation? You jealous~? Want me all for yourself~?" He bumps Eskel's shoulder playfully.

"Nah." Eskel bumps him back. "I'm glad you've found somebody. I couldn't be that person, we both know that. But this Aiden guy...well, he must be pretty special, To get back all those walls you've had up since you became a witcher. He better take good care of you." He laughs, tipping his head back to finish his ale.

"Yeah...He does, so don't worry." He hastily shoves a bite into his mouth so he doesn't have to keep talking. It's uncomfortable enough just having Eskel know, even though they've been intimate with each other.

Eskel lets him be, getting up and tidying the room a little. He watches Lambert now and again but doesn't say anything. His brother seems as at ease and happy as Eskel thinks he's capable of. It's nice, the older witcher thinks. Maybe Lambert will find that peace he's looking for.

Once he's finished, Lambert puts his dishes on the table, then goes to start cleaning his armor. The rain had washed most of it off, so it doesn't take long. What takes the longest is actually taking care of his sword. The silence really gets to him, though, so he glances up at Eskel.

"Had any fun contracts lately?"

"Had an absolutely crazy Leshen contract." Eskel says, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of bragging. "The damn thing might have been as old as the Conjunction and it was clever. Tracked it for days And then I lost him, would you believe?" He shakes his head. "Well, I'm combing the edge of the woods and I come to this crossroads." He toes off his boots, rolling his shoulders. "And there's an old man sitting there, still as a stone, with a huge black wolf at his feet. He was sitting with a little bowl for alms in front of him. And I said 'You shouldn't be out here, old man, it's dangerous' and he goes..." Eskel drops his voice to a shuddering creak. "'Come closer, my son, for I am old as the mountains and I cannot hear.'" Eskel shakes his head. "I shoulda known but my medallion didn't jump until it was too late. The old lifted his head and his eyes were like burning embers in a sea of black. And the then the wolf was on top of me."

Lambert chuckles softly, but as the story starts to get more interesting, he turns his attention fully on Eskel. "Fuck, you really fell for that?"

Like I said, my medallion didn't react, so I thought maybe I was being paranoid, chasing this thing around in the damn woods do long. Anyway, the wolf's on top of me and I can't get to my swords so I had to cast Igni to get it off me. Everything smelled like burning fur. And I could hear the old man laughing and laughing and laughing. And when I get up he's gone but there's a fog so think I could barely see the trees. And just when I think I've lost him again..."

He unbuckles his belt, tugging trousers down and smalls up, showing a cluster of scars twisted into his thigh where the Leshen and caught him on its antlers.

"Thing gored the shit out of my leg."

Edited 2020-10-24 23:10 (UTC)

"Shit!" Lambert exclaims, wincing at the sight of the warped flesh. "Looks like it hurt. But you're obviously not dead, so...how'd you kill it?"

"Well, the trouble with leshies is getting them to hold fucking still so I'm just throwing Yrden left and right and trying not to get caught in any of 'em and I'm bleeding all over the place and I've just wrecked my only pair of pants and this thing just won't go down." He fixes his trousers and throws himself onto the bed, head hanging off the side, as a boy might, while he tells his tale. So we're just going round and round. 'Cause I'd smashed all this thing's totem, so he knows once I've killed him, he's gone for good, so he's determined to get me first. Finally, I took a chance and tried Axii and I'll be damned if I didn't manage to stop him just long enough to get the silver through him." He exhales, arms flopped to his side. "Shoulda seen the skull on that fucker. Antlers like..." He spreads his arms.

Lambert puts his sword away, then scoots closer to the bed, staring with rapt attention at his brother. He's trying to imagine what it looked like. Eskel's signs were amazing to watch when he was younger, and it's no different now. His eyes go wide when he sees how big the antler spread was.

"Gods, yeah, he must've been ancient. Axii really worked on him?"

"Barely. I could feel him fighting me the whole time. I think it confused him more than controlled him. How dare I, a mere man, crawl into his mind like that. The look in his eye before I took him down, I've never seen such rage." Eskel says, with something like admiration.

"Well, yeah, he was as old as time itself, probably. And you come along and fuck his day up." Lambert chuckles. He's definitely proud of Eskel. "Did you get better pay for it?"

"I couldn't get more coin but the lord of the manor let me sleep in the house for a night until walking was a bit easier." Eskel laughed. "So I got a real mattress and a decent meal out of it. Almost worth losing my business, eh?" He says, gesturing to the spot on his thigh where the antler had come down frightfully close to his cock. "What about you?"

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pricklywolf - 2020-10-26 07:57 (UTC) - Expand

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