gorysortofstory | Yennefer Open Post

All the more reason to give her a chance to practice it.

"No, it's not nearly as fun, is it?"

She's seen the comfortable way Ciri ribs at the bard. It's good that she can have that normalcy with someone. He has things he can give that she and Geralt cannot.

"Mm," Ciri says with a shake of her head in agreement. She takes the offered deck and begins shuffling. After a moment, she admits, "I wish he could have stayed."

She knows why he couldn't, of course. He was not only expected back at Oxenfurt, but he was able to help better there than out in the middle of nowhere with the three of them. He could keep an eye on gossip and rumors, and plant the seeds of some of his own if needed to give them a little bit of respite. She also doesn't think Geralt liked the idea of dragging the bard around in the thick of danger like this either. Not when he had so few ways of defending himself relative to the rest of them.

Ciri suspects Yennefer agreed with that, too. Especially since she found herself in agreement.

She doesn't want anyone else dying for her.

But that doesn't mean she doesn't still miss having another familiar face around. Or how much less the tension between Yennefer and Geralt seemed to be with him around.

Ciri begins to deal the hands between her and Yennefer.

"We'll see him again," She promises. She wishes Jaskier could have stayed as well, but she doesn't say it for a multitude of reasons, not least of all not wanting to burden Ciri with her own feelings.

But she misses having someone around who forgave her rather quickly and trusted her with his life (to be fair, she did save it). She knows it'll be harder with Ciri and Geralt, especially Geralt as he's made his feelings known in no uncertain terms, but it should be.

Still.

It had been nice to have someone who wasn't expecting her to betray them if they took their eyes off her.

She takes her hand from Ciri, assessing her hand carefully as she does so.

"We had better," Ciri says to Yennefer's promise. It's as reasonable as Yennefer can likely make to her here and now. Anything more like a promise they wouldn't have to run anymore or that some semblance of a normal life could manifest itself sooner or later would be a lie. A sweet lie, but a lie nonetheless.

Ciri sets the remainder of the deck down before gathering up her own hand and assessing it. Not a particularly good hand, but... Well, like most things in Ciri's life, it certainly could be worse. She lifts her gaze from her cards to Yennefer, although she doesn't put all that much effort in trying to read her for her thoughts on her hand. She doesn't think a woman who has lived as long as Yennefer and spent as much time in court would ever allow herself an easy tell.

"No cheating and reading my mind, by the way." Before the possibility of offense, playful or otherwise, could be taken at the accusation, Ciri grins. "Jaskier did warn me about that."

And Ciri knows it's just an excuse the bard would employ if he lost not because there was merit to the accusation or that Jaskier himself even really believed it. Hence the grin.

Lying won't rebuild trust between them, even beautiful lies, and Yennefer respects Ciri too much to feed her pretty lies. In honesty she's not sure if a normal life will ever be in Ciri's cards anymore than it was in her or Geralt's, but she hopes they can at least give her a loving one. A sometimes happy one. And Jaskier is a part of that. He is part of this family too, even if he can't always be with them.

Yennefer's hand is decent but to say she has a good poker face would be an understatement. She does not give anything away as she goes over her options in her head. Aretuza did not just teach her magic, after all.

Yennefer snorts a little. "I don't need to cheat to beat him at cards." It's said as a loving jab. Not to say she's never read minds to give herself an advantage -- she'd be lying to say she's above it when it's been advantageous to her, but she won't do it to Ciri.

Ciri's smile widens just a bit further at Yennefer's remark about her games with the bard. She imagines whatever Jaskier might be up to in Oxenfurt, he felt that jab just now and likely feels a sudden urge to sulk over an insult he didn't actually hear for himself. She doesn't say anything in return though, her gaze looking down to her own hand. Ciri's heart sinks a little as she realizes she doesn't have a particularly starting hand, but she's careful not to let the disappointment show too much on her face, busying and distracting herself as she arranges her hand. Once as satisfied as she can possibly be with her hand, Ciri lifts her gaze to look at Yennefer expectantly for her to start the game since Ciri was the one to deal.

Yennefer places the first card down, a modest play as she doesn't want to give away her hand just yet. Just because she loves Ciri doesn't mean she'll go easy on her, that's not her style. And she doesn't think Ciri wants that anyways. She wants to be treated like an equal. That's not always possible, but when it comes to card games?

That can be arranged.

Much as Ciri tends to be in combat and with magic, she's not particularly patient when it comes to making her own move. Rather than giving it a moment to try and think of what Yennefer might do next, she's quick to play her own card. It's the not the best of her mediocre starting hand, but she's hoping the confidence with which she placed it might give that illusion. She doesn't anticipate mercy from Yennefer and doesn't even think she can realistically outsmart her. But perhaps she might. If she can seem as though she's only tasted victory because Jaskier doesn't always play as aggressively as he could maybe she can throw Yennefer off enough to pull out a victory.

That's the hope, at least.

Yennefer does not plan on showing Ciri mercy, that may be what Jaskier does but it's not her love language. The girl will need to learn to rise to challenges anyways, not just in cards. She looks over her hand and calmly places her next card down, like it's no big deal.

Yennefer Open Post

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject