Note: This unnecessarily long interruption was sponsored by me moving places and having all the worst luck in the world. This chapter contains nothing but fluff – but I plan on having more of an actual story in what comes after.
Basic bitches – October 1285
When Geralt woke up the first thing he noticed was the smell. It did decidedly not smell like Corvo Bianco's flowers, the horses, or fresh bread. He opened his eyes to a dark room, only a little light came in through the closed curtains. Kit slept next to him, her heart beating peacefully as always.
Geralt tried to remember the reason why he woke up in this unfamiliar room in, he just noticed, an exquisitely soft bed. They were not at home, not at the palace either. But he simply could not remember why they would be in any place other than home. He tried to recall the previous night – had he been drinking too much maybe?
He listened but there was no sound safe for some birds chirping outside. When he still failed to remember where he was, he started to nudge the sleeping Kit.
"Wake up!" he hissed quietly while scanning the room.
"Mh…" was the response he got. "Too early," Kit mumbled and turned onto her belly, facing away from him.
He shook her a little more energetic. "Wake up!"
She grunted, opened her eyes halfway and felt for something on the bedside table next to her. She grabbed a rectangle that suddenly started to glow, looked at it, and put it back on the table with a clatter.
"Geralt, I love you but it's only 5.30, so please go back to sleep," she begged with a tired voice, yawned and buried her face in the pillow.
While Geralt was still trying to figure out how Kit had managed to tell him the exact time of day without looking out the window, he noticed how her heart suddenly stopped for a second. Instantly she shot up into a sitting position, wide awake.
She again fumbled for something on the bedside table, there was a clicking noise and then a small sun in a round bodied glass bottle illuminated the room. The sudden brightness hurt his eyes.
"What the hell?" She threw the blanket that had covered her until a moment ago aside and looked around the room while simultaneously stumbling out of the bed.
"Wait!" Geralt called but Kit had already dashed through the door. He went after her, momentarily confused when he merely encountered a small corridor that contained nothing but doors, and then just listened for her footsteps.
"What the fuck?" he heard her curse from an adjoining room. Geralt followed her voice and found her spinning circles around herself in a room with odd furniture and odd… things.
"Where are we?" he asked, trying to take in all that he saw.
Instead of answering his question Kit just called out: "Alexa, play my favorite radio station."
"Who's…" Geralt did not manage to finish his question. Instead a disembodied voice replied to Kit's command: "Playing 1live by tune-in." A brief moment of silence and then another voice spoke.
"… sunny, up to 25°. Enjoy it while it lasts!" the cheery voice commanded. Suddenly an instrument like he had never heard it before started playing and just a moment later a voice started to sing.
I'm going under and this time I fear there's no one to save me
This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy
I need somebody to heal…
Music, he realized. But where was the singer?
Only now did Kit seem to notice him.
"We're back, Geralt. Back to my world," she croaked while hugging herself, her expression stuck somewhere between happiness and disbelief.
And finally, after three years, Geralt understood how Kit must have felt when she was dropped into his world. He was confused, as thoroughly confused as he had ever been.
He walked up to one of the two big windows, suddenly realizing how smooth and clear the glass was. He had never seen anything like it. He touched it to make sure it was not an illusion. It felt cold beneath the tips of his fingers. He briefly wondered what kind of craftsmanship was needed to create something so perfect when he finally took a look at the outside world. They were a few levels above the street that was occasionally lined by trees. There were other buildings, closely packed. They looked the same and yet, all of them looked different. Their colors, their roofs, their windows - nothing was the same but strangely they all had something in common that he could not pinpoint.
And down there, on the street, weird constructs, a lot of them, in various colors and sizes and shapes.
He looked back at Kit who had not moved.
"So, that's it then?"
She nodded and smiled timidly. "This is exciting."
Geralt walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. He felt lost, had mostly no idea what he was even looking at and he disliked it thoroughly. This was not at all how he had imagined this. How was he going to protect her if nothing made sense to him? But he would not mention it, he would not ruin it for her, he decided. Instead he resolved to learn as much as he could about the place that had shaped the person who was most dear to him.
Months ago, Kit had woken up one morning and told him that the powers who had brought her to his world, had visited her in her sleep again – something they had mentioned they might do. She had asked Geralt then how he would have felt about visiting her world. Naturally, he was intrigued. What would he not have given for a glimpse of her in her natural environment? But even back then he had been afraid that it would open up old wounds. She had been with him for three years now but he was still worried about her well-being, always.
Kit had mentioned that she had asked said powers if there was a way to arrange a short visit. They had not given her a definitive answer then.
Obviously, they had come to a decision.
"I can't believe it," she mumbled against his neck. "Are you feeling alright?"
Geralt nodded. "Just a little confused. Where is this voice coming from?"
Kit pointed at a small cylindrical device on a table. "That's Alexa. You can tell her to play music or ask her to tell a joke."
"There is not a person in there, right?" He knew there was not but he had not even a hint of an idea how this thing worked. The only experience he had with disembodied voices coming from odd devices were xenoglosses but those were nowhere near the quality of whatever this was.
"No, no actual people are involved." She smiled and reached for his hand. "Alexa, play my favorite songs." A short break followed and the music changed to a happier melody.
I used to think maybe you loved me
Now, baby, I'm sure
And I just can't wait 'til the day
When you knock on my door…
Geralt stared at the device, not sure what to make of it. How did the music get into this small thing? And what kind of instruments did they use? The sounds were strange, unfamiliar – so very different from the flutes and lutes he was used to.
"Let's eat something first before we tackle technological innovations," Kit suggested when she noticed his face. She took his hand, gave him a reassuring smile and guided him into yet another room.
"This is the kitchen and this…" She grabbed the handle of a big silver door, "is a fridge. A very empty fridge, sadly."
"It's cold," Geralt noticed immediately. "There is light in there." Light in a cupboard, what an outrageous idea, he thought.
Kit nodded. "We put food in here to make it last longer. The cold slows down the bacteria who cause it to decay. But I suppose we need to buy something to eat first. We should get dressed and go for a wa- Oh my god, I can finally show you a toilet!" She nearly jumped out of excitement. At that point it was hard to stay unaffected by her enthusiasm. Kit dragged him to yet another room. Black tiles on the floor, white tiles on the wall – they had a weird quality to them, oddly smooth and even. Geralt could identify the wash basin, even if it looked strange, and the tub. That left a white chair-like thing that had to be the famous toilet.
Kit showed him how to use it. He flushed a couple of times just for fun and then nodded.
"I can see why you missed this."
"You're going to love the shower!" She grinned. Any trace of sleep was gone, her big blue eyes shone with childish glee.
"And this place… That's all yours?"
"I'm renting it, so I don't own it. But yes, all mine."
Geralt raised his eyebrows in surprise. "This is a lot of room for one person. Whole families live in less than the big room with the music."
"Living room," she explained. "Well, I told you I was pretty well-off before. But then again this country is a rich one so most people have apartments that are bigger than what you would expect."
And just like that, a piece of the puzzle that was Kit's sometimes strange behavior fell into place. Geralt had no metrics by which to measure her wealth but judging by the sheer size of her apartment he was sure she had been more than comfortable. No wonder she had been plagued by worries initially and had been wanting an occupation, he thought. They had not even left the house yet but her world and her behavior made so much more sense to him already.
Kit went into the bedroom and reappeared with the glowing rectangle he had already seen before.
"A phone," she said while showing it to him. "Thank god they put us in May 2019. Next year around this time all hell will have broken lose."
Geralt shrugged. The years did not mean anything to him even though 2019 sounded awfully far into the future. But for now, the flushing mechanism of the toilet still held a great novelty value. The water taps and the ease with which they made warm water appear were no less intriguing.
"It's not even six yet, the supermarkets are still closed. No food until then." She pondered for a moment. "Let's be lazy and watch some TV."
They went back to the room where the music was still playing. She ordered the cylindrical device to stop and beckoned Geralt to sit down on something that looked like a very fluffy chaise-lounge. She then grabbed another rectangular device and started pushing on it. A formerly black box on the opposite wall suddenly started showing moving pictures.
Geralt could not take his eyes off the TV. While Sir David Attenborough narrated, Geralt finally learned what a rainforest was. The vibrant colors of the flowers and the animals had a surreal quality to them, nothing he had ever seen compared to it. He already liked the TV.
He thought about megascopes and crystals that could store visual information. But they had nothing on the clarity and quality of what he was looking at at that very moment. He had been aware that Kit's world was technologically advanced but somehow he had expected it not to be able to measure up to the magical solutions of his world. But it did and was even surpassing what he was familiar with. He was certain that he was in for a few more surprises.
For now, he was pleased that he could finally make sense of the seemingly odd pool of random knowledge that Kit possessed. It was like yet another a big chunk of something had suddenly slipped into place.
"And there is more of that?" Geralt nodded at the screen.
"So much more, pretty much on any topic you can imagine. Possibly more than you can watch in several lifetimes."
"How do you people do anything but watch TV all day?"
Kit chuckled. "It ceases to be interesting quite fast."
"Really can't ima-" He stopped when Kit crawled onto his lap and started kissing him intensely, the touch of her lips letting him forget whatever he had wanted to say in an instant. By habit his hands wandered all over her body, explored the familiar curves, when she abruptly stopped.
"See? Doing something else isn't that difficult," she whispered. "I mean, it's either this or watching monkeys copulate for the rest of the day."
"Some things are better done than being watched," he agreed while caressing her back through the thin fabric of the oversized shirt-like thing she was wearing. He could do this, he suddenly thought as he felt the soft couch beneath him and her warmth and her weight on him. The way she smiled at him assured him that everything was alright.
Kit nodded. "But Netflix and chill is for the evening. Let's get dressed and get some food!"
He wanted to protest, would have much rather picked off where they had left or explored the Netflix further, but then again, the outside world was waiting and he was curious to see what else he could learn about her.
Kit rummaged through her, by Geralt's standards, giant wardrobe.
"So odd. These clothes all look to be your size. But they were definitely not here when I left…"
"You think they put them here for me?"
"I guess so… Ah. It seems they decided you're a basic bitch – just like me."
He raised an eyebrow.
She pulled out a black leather jacket. "This is about as basic as it gets. I'm sure every single man has this type of jacket in their wardrobe."
"I don't understand…"
Geralt felt the soft leather and rubbed it between his fingers. It felt exquisite and yet, he wondered, why would anyone bother with it? It appeared to offer no protection and was entirely different from the type of leather he usually wore as part of his armor.
"Never mind." She fumbled with her rectangle again, her phone, Geralt reminded himself. "So, the weather is going to be fairly warm today. Let's dress accordingly."
She picked out short pants made from a material called jeans for him and something she referred to as a t-shirt. The grey fabric was light and soft and about the size of the one she was currently wearing. Was she sleeping in his shirt, he wondered?
While Geralt was not so sure about the cut, at least the shirt was comfortable. The zipper on his pants intrigued him as well. He pondered aloud how much faster he would be able to put on his armor if it was all zippers instead of buckles and belts. Kit shook her head.
"I'm showing you something entirely new and all you can think of are practical considerations and armor. It's really not easy to wow you." She chuckled. "You are going to love Velcro."
She did not elaborate on what Velcro was.
More than anything though, at least for the moment, Geralt was fascinated by his shoes. He remembered how he had admired similar shoes, sneakers, when Kit had brought them into his world. He knew they were going to be light but he was surprised by how comfortable they were. He took a few cautious steps to test them as he was not entirely convinced they would not immediately fall apart. Because how could something so light possess any durability at all?
"That's adorable. Just like a toddler." Kit had dressed as well and Geralt liked what he saw. The blue, flared skirt ended shortly above her knees and a strapless white top revealed her beautiful shoulders.
"Can you go out wearing so little?" he wondered suddenly. Sure, she had worn more exotic things around Corvo Bianco and Geralt would never forget the yoga pants – but ever since these early days she had been much more covered up. It felt odd seeing her like this, nearly naked by comparison.
She snorted. "You should see the others. Believe me, this is perfectly fine attire for a summer day."
He shrugged. Obviously, she knew best.
Kit grabbed her bag and keys and ushered Geralt out of the apartment.
"And you are sure these qualify as pants?" he asked with a doubtful tone in his voice, looking down on his uncovered shins as they left the building.
Kit said nothing and merely nudged him with her shoulder.
"Those are cars, aren't they?" Geralt realized suddenly when one of the oddly shaped contraptions he had noticed earlier on moved past them slowly. It was only now that he saw one of them moving that he was able to reconcile it with the information Kit had given him over time. The wholly unfamiliar sound confused him though, that had never been part of her descriptions.
He was wondering how many other things he was going to see that would look and act entirely different from what he had imagined based on what Kit had told him.
"Yes. Take my hand, I don't want you to die."
"Die? Why?" He focused his senses and was yet unable to detect any danger.
"Because we are going to cross a street now." She nodded at something that looked like a highly inefficient lantern. "If the light is red it means you need to wait, green means you can cross. But always make sure all cars have stopped. 1.5 tons of moving metal take a moment to come to a stand-still if the driver isn't attentive enough."
"Tons? How are they so silent when they are so heavy?"
And thus he learned about rubber and vulcanization. It seemed that Kit's people had actually reinvented the wheel.
Technically, he later thought, none of the things he saw were that impressive. One could have easily recreated most of these things or at least their basic purpose with magic. What made it so stunning was the fact that magic did not exist in this world but people had managed to find their way around this limitation and they had done it to perfection. And most importantly, unlike magic, technology was not an ability that was privy to a comparably small group of people but everybody was free to make use of it. He could see how this would have led to Kit having an entirely different self-conception where she would not see the opportunities that magic brought with it but rather the danger of abuse. He shook his head. Should have known about that, he thought, she did tell me. But actually witnessing all these things for himself was an entirely different matter.
"Okay, brace yourself. We are going to a supermarket now. You probably haven't seen that much food in your entire life in one place but please try to act like it's normal. Because it is."
"I'm not an idiot," he complained but promptly decided to prove himself wrong by not trusting the automatic sliding doors not to close while he was passing them. Kit giggled when he decided to walk through them with clearly superhuman speed. Nobody but her seemed to have noticed.
"I don't like this," he mumbled.
"I know, it's a lot." She grabbed his hand and pulled him close to kiss him. "For once, let me take care of you, okay? It would mean the world to me." He nodded and concentrated on her touch and the familiar energy whirring through his body, managing to forget the world around him for a moment.
It only took Geralt a few minutes to realize that Kit walked through this crowded little place, the many unfamiliar sounds of which started to stress him out, with an ease and instinctiveness that he had rarely seen in her before. The way she evaded the other patrons and their shopping carts was effortless and graceful. She had once called herself a fish out of water but now she was swimming again and she was doing it beautifully. He had no idea how she managed to find her way in this labyrinth and he admired her for it.
When they reached a giant sales counter displaying a ridiculously large variety of cold cuts he insisted on letting Kit make all the decisions, embarrassed that he had no proper idea what he was looking at.
"Just point at whatever appeals to you. I can guarantee you that half of the people here are doing just that because everybody just knows their favorites." She gave him a reassuring smile.
"That."
"Parma? Good choice, I like that one too."
After Geralt had stared in amazement at all the different types of butter the store offered, they were finally able to leave.
He shook his head. "I don't think that I ever fully understood how you felt back when you came into my world until now. Don't know how you did it but you're amazing."
She blushed, adorable as always. "Don't give me so much credit. I grew up here. If we were to stay longer you would get used to it in no time at all, I promise. It's okay not to figure everything out immediately."
"I once said that to you."
"And you were right."
"And still, you wouldn't believe me." He raised an eyebrow, mocking her.
"Stop complaining. You chose to be with me, remember? What did you call me again? Lady Kit the stubborn?"
He chuckled. "You will always honor that title, I'm sure." He squeezed her between his arm and his side, making her squeal, as he took the shopping bag from her and threw it over his shoulder.
They ate in front of the TV, "Like civilized people," Kit explained as they watched a video on youtube explaining how cameras and TVs worked.
"This is delicious," Geralt mumbled with a mouth full of bread roll, not taking his eyes of the screen. In his other hand he held a cup of coffee.
"I know. Though personally I wouldn't have mixed hazelnut cream and strawberry jam. But you do you…"
"But it's delicious," he claimed again as he stuffed another piece of bread into his mouth.
"Okay, okay, but please chew. I don't want you to suffocate," she chided. "I have nowhere to bury your corpse if it comes to that."
"Is that your greatest worry?"
"No, my greatest worry is that you eat all the food and I stay hungry."
"But can't we buy more if we need it?"
"Of course, we can. But we won't because I'm certainly not cooking today. It's going to be delivery services and restaurants all the way!"
"As long as we keep watching TV…"
Kit started laughing.
"What?" he looked at her aghast.
"We can't spend the entire day on the couch. I mean, obviously we could but there is more to my world than TV. Don't force me to limit your TV time as if you were a child."
He hummed. There were so many interesting things to learn and one did not even need to leave the house to do it. This world was a strange place and he would have liked to soak up as much knowledge as he possibly could – for her, to understand her as best as he could.
Somewhat unwilling Geralt let Kit lead him into the outside world again. This time their destination was a shopping street. It was full of people and Kit gave Geralt all the time to stare. At some point Geralt had uttered concerns about his outlandish looks but he had to realize that apart from his tall, muscular figure, he did not stand out much at all. His eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, and neither the color of his hair nor the scars visible seemed to attract any attention. It was rather him who was unable to stop staring at the people with their numerous colorful hairstyles, their tattoos and the endless variation of styles in which they were dressed. It took him a moment to realize that he had traded places with the people who would usually gawp at him. For once he seemed to be invisible and he enjoyed it.
A young woman with pants so short they did not cover her entire behind walked past them. Geralt furrowed his brow.
"If I saw someone dressed like that at home it would either mean she's poor or a harlot," he said. "Possibly both."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because she cannot afford clothing that covers her ass. Her situation must be dire." He sighed. "But this being your world, I know my assumptions are wrong. I just don't know why."
Kit bit her lips in an obvious attempt not to laugh at him.
"Those are called hot pants. They are meant to be short. Whether or not you show people your butt is more a matter of taste than of money. And this," Kit craned her neck to get a last look at the girl, "definitely is a matter of taste and not money. See those things she has in her ears? Those are apple airpods, they are not cheap."
"Are apples so expensive that people cannot afford clothing?"
Kit burst out in laughter. "I'm sorry." She tried to catch her breath but was not quite successful. "You are so fucking adorable and I love you." Tears were streaming down her face.
Geralt stood there, not understanding a thing. It frustrated him and now he even understood why Kit was so insistent on writing her diaries. He too would have loved a moment to sort out his thoughts.
Once Kit had calmed down she explained that the apples in question were merely a brand and not at all related to food. For educational purposes led him to an apple store. He was not surprised to learn that it did not contain a single apple. Never in his life had he seen something that was so pristinely white as the store and everything in it.
"I still think it's a horrible idea to call a store an apple store if there are no apples in it. It's misleading," he mumbled, his gaze transfixed on the screen of what he had learned was an ipad. He started popping the bubbles that floated over the screen with his fingertips after he had worked out that an ipad was probably just a bigger version of that phone Kit was so attached to.
Kit stood next to him and snuck her hand beneath his shirt to rub his back.
"What can I say? It's the height of our culture." She watched him watching the screen for a moment. "Maybe we need to go somewhere less modern."
"Somewhere, where it's less white. Preferably somewhere green..." As intriguing as all these tall buildings were, they constantly blocked his view into the distance. He felt trapped in a grey box that was as far removed from nature as it could possibly be. The windowless stores and all the artificial light – while impressive – did not improve his wellbeing.
For the first few minutes Geralt considered moving in the car weird and unpleasant. The vehicle was small, he barely had enough room for his legs even when Kit had pushed the seat all the way back for him. The safety belt was cutting into his neck. But then they drove onto the highway and Kit accelerated the car, invisible forces pushing Geralt into the soft seat. And suddenly the world looked very different. The lining poles and later bushes and trees started to blur and Geralt realized he had never moved at a speed this fast.
"How fast are we going?"
"About 130 kilometers per hour." She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "When I walk, I walk about a speed of 6 kilometers per hour." Geralt did not ask how she knew this because he was certain the answer would be the name of some technical thing that he had not yet learned about.
The hum of the engine and the gentle vibration of the car on the unbelievably smooth streets made him feel cozy and at ease after a while. He briefly wondered how the bridge had been constructed that led them high over a wide river but then decided to simply enjoy the view.
He felt dazed once Kit parked the car on a wide field of pebbles. A few other cars were parked there as well.
"What is this?" They had been walking towards a construct as odd as Geralt had ever seen one. He could tell it was mostly made from metal. It was gigantic – but its purpose did not reveal itself to him.
"It's an old smelter, the big things are blast furnaces. Up until about 40 years ago it was used to produce iron ore."
As they walked closer, Geralt started to notice all the details, the structure, the connections that kept everything together - he admired the intricacy that must have gone into planning this monstrosity. They started climbing the metal stairs of the smelter, their steps clanging loudly into the emptiness.
Once they had reached the highest level, the view was truly stunning. The sun had begun to set a while ago, the lights of the city sparkled in the distance. In theory this should not have been new to him but the artificial light had such a different quality compared to the night view of Novigrad where everything was illuminated by fire and candles. Certainly, he had never seen light this colorful.
It was quiet. There were hardly any people around them. But from up here he noticed that the landscape was green, so green. It had nothing in common with all the greyness he had seen all day. Maybe this world was not yet doomed, he thought.
"We are currently at 70 meters," Kit informed him after checking an informational sign.
"Do you have a lot of these abandoned smelters?" Geralt wondered.
"A few. This region used to be heavy on industry. But that changed in the past decades. Most jobs don't require manual labor anymore, this has all been outsourced, relocated I mean, to other countries."
"Then why is this still standing?"
"Because it's probably too expensive to dismantle and remove. And since we don't have anything in terms of spectacular nature, people decided to make it a thing. They are calling it industry culture. That's us in a nutshell: Put pretty lights on the ugly old crap, plant a few trees around it and voila, as good as new." As if on her command lights popped up around the building, illuminating it in different colors. For Geralt this only added to its strangeness but then again it was a beautiful strangeness. Just like she was.
They both leaned against the railing and looked into the distance.
"There are no stars," Geralt suddenly noticed.
"Oh, there are, but you can't see them. Too much light."
"There is one." Geralt squinted his eyes. "It's blinking."
"Then it's probably not a star. Maybe a plane, maybe a space station, possibly a satellite." Geralt hummed. He had heard all these terms before, Kit had explained them to him every now and then when she had talked about her world.
"Show me what a space station is," he demanded, tapping the side of her bag where he knew she had put her smartphone.
She fumbled for a moment before she opened the all-knowing youtube. Geralt watched astronauts as they floated through zero gravity, how up and down became meaningless, how oddly water behaved. He saw the recording of a rocket that brought them up there. And for the first time he saw earth from space. The world was so much bigger, so much bluer than he could have ever fathomed. He vaguely remembered his first conversation with Kit when she had asked where she was and had been very displeased to be told that there was only one continent. And now he understood why. Or why she did not feel the need to have children. There was just so much world out there. He had been alive for over 100 years and he was just beginning to understand how little he had actually seen in life. The picture of the blue marble, as the narrator kept calling it, floating in the black nothingness of space, was humbling. He was glad that he had only now learned about the size of the world he called his home and not back then when he and Ciri had a destiny to fulfill, had had to protect the entirety of that. Had he known back then, he thought, he might not have been able to keep a clear head.
"Can't believe that this is real. I understand but… I can't believe it." He stared up to the sky as if to look for answers.
Kit chuckled. "Remember, back then, when I refused to believe in monsters and magic?"
He nodded. "Such a long time ago." He suddenly realized that he had nearly forgotten what it had been like to live without her. When had that happened, he wondered? And how was she content living with him when there was so much more of the world than he could have ever guessed? Their life in Toussaint was nothing compared to what was out there, whether he liked it or not.
"You were happy when you lived in this world." Again, a statement, not a question. He scrutinized every minute movement on her face as she looked up to him.
"And now I'm happy somewhere else." She shrugged and smiled as she hugged his arm.
"Would you rather stay here if given the chance?"
She looked up to him again. "You don't look too happy. Where's that coming from? What did I miss?"
He hesitated but then confessed anyway. "I feel like I took all of this from you."
Kit did not miss a beat. "You didn't take anything, they did. You, on the other hand, are giving me everything. Everything I could possibly need." She smiled and stood up on her toes to kiss him. When he reacted to her soft lips it was less of a conscious decision and more of an urge. He squeezed her small frame against his chest as he tasted her as if it was the last time.
"The only place I want to be at is where you are. That's all." The way she said it had a finality about it that did not allow for him to bother her further even though he would have loved to. He had to know if and how he could possibly be enough for her.
Eventually, stomachs churning, they made their way downstairs again. There was a couple. She wore a white dress that looked rather expensive and he was dressed in black garments that vaguely reminded him of something that Kit had once sewn for him. A third person jumped around them as they took different poses. Something in his hands emitted bright flashes of light.
"What are they doing?" Geralt asked as they watched them from a distance.
"It's a photoshoot. They have apparently just gotten married. The other man, a photographer, is using a camera to take pictures of them to look at later on."
"Like the camera in your phone?"
"His is better. But…" She fumbled for her phone again, turned it on and held it in front of them. "Look at it and smile."
There was a quiet clicking noise as Geralt watched his digital reflection on the small screen.
"See? That's us. Can't have you run around in this world without at least having taken a selfie of us."
He looked at the picture and shook his head. "I will never understand how that works."
"Hardly anybody does, we have experts for that. The important part is to understand how to use it. Here, try."
He held the phone in his hand and moved the screen until they were properly centered in it. As he tapped the oddly non-physical button that would trigger the little machine to recreate their likes, she kissed him on the cheek as he stared into the camera with noticeable concentration. She took the phone from him.
"Well now, if you could just start looking like this wasn't torture, we might actually end up with a nice picture."
"This is… strange."
"Kiss me," she demanded as she took the phone from him.
Naturally, he obliged. This time he did not hear the clicking sound because he never properly perceived the world around him when he kissed her.
She looked at the phone and smiled. "Look at that! Much better."
While he found it strange to see how they kissed, he did not dislike it.
They sat down to have a snack at a small diner that served food outside. Kit ordered Burgers and fries for them. Geralt quickly came to realize that the modular built of the burger was not very compatible with the use of cutlery and appreciated that it was perfectly acceptable to use his hands to eat the unruly food. Still, he questioned the practicability of stacking food vertically as the pieces fell apart more and more whenever he tried to bite into his burger.
He looked around at the way the strategically placed trees and patches of lawn had been manicured, something that had mislead him into thinking that using your hands to eat was absolutely unacceptable. For a brief moment the thought of Yennefer and how she would have given him hell for doing exactly that.
"Don't worry about it. We simply like contrasts but this is not an area to live in if you are snobbish."
"But you have those too?"
"Yes. I'm sure we can make all your nightmares about dinner etiquette and uncomfortable clothing come true if you feel like it."
He thought for a moment. "Is that something that you would like to do? Wouldn't want to deprive you of the experience now that we're here."
She sighed. "You are perfect, do you realize that?" The way she smiled at him, so genuinely, made him want to give her everything that he possibly could. He smiled back.
"Thanks for being so considerate, but I cannot say I particularly like that kind of stuff. So, don't worry about it."
"Are you sure? You always seem to enjoy the parties at the palace."
"I do. But probably not for the reasons you think." She paused. "Sure, I like my pretty dresses but more than that I like how you look at me when I wear them. And I think, for as long as we are here, I got something better than that." A mischievous smile spread across her lips. Geralt hummed, she had his full attention. But sadly, she did not elaborate any further on what had sounded rather promising. "I like to watch the other people, too, I think that's fun. But it wouldn't be here, not to me anyway," she continued. "I don't need that here. There are things I'd rather do, places I'd rather go than some restaurant that has more cutlery on the table than dishes on the menu."
The newlyweds passed them again. He noticed how Kit examined the bride. He knew that look.
"Thinking of how to improve that dress?"
She nodded. "The rhinestones are too much, leaning towards tacky. Not my taste."
"Are wedding dresses to your taste at all?" he wondered, eye-brow raised.
"Sure, why not?"
"Because you once said you wouldn't want to get married anyway."
Kit pondered for a moment. "I think I said I couldn't imagine it because I had never met anyone who seemed suitable." A mysterious smile formed on her lips.
Geralt cocked his head. He had never seen himself marry anyone, up until a few years ago the idea would have been absolutely outrageous. However, the thought had crossed his mind every now and then in recent years. Maybe it was time to make room for those formerly outrageous ideas…
"Do you want it?" he asked then.
She shrugged, trying to look uninterested but her elevated heartrate told a different story. "Maybe. What about you?"
He shrugged. "Maybe." Geralt tried to suppress a smile.
With their stomachs full, they drove through the night back to her place.
"It's so quiet," Geralt remarked as they climbed the stairs.
"I think that's because nobody else is here. The names on the doorbells seem to be for show. Those are not my neighbors' names. Probably on purpose."
Geralt thought for a moment. "So you won't contact anybody from your former life who wouldn't remember you anyway."
She nodded. "Probably. The people in the bakery and super market weren't any I've ever seen before. I assume they did that on purpose. I have a feeling that I wouldn't find my parents in what used to be our home." Kit paused. "Former parents anyway. I guess they wanted to keep me from connecting to my old life." Geralt tried to decipher her expression. Was she sad? Had she hoped to meet her parents again? It seemed unlikely. They had never been a topic of conversation ever again after the first few weeks of her living with her altered memory.
Just to be sure, he squished her tightly to his chest after they had settled down on the couch again as they watched dirty dancing. He chuckled when they watched the scene with the lift that he and Kit had attempted as well. It was a fond memory – not as fond as what followed directly after though. Kit must have had the same idea because she excused herself for a moment only to reappear shortly after, wearing a hint of nothing. Swayze and the others were immediately forgotten about as he studied the patches of flimsy, completely see-through black fabric, something he had never seen before, that were supposed to be panties and a bra.
"More exciting than just another beautiful dress, isn't it?" she asked, the expression in her eyes unmistakable. He nodded slowly, not able to say anything as his blood had left for regions more south of his brain, as she slowly, sensually walked towards him and lowered herself on his lap. He wrapped one arm around her back, leaving his other hand free to explore the thin fabric and play with what lay underneath.
A few minutes later on he wondered how many neighbors they had just woken up. A while after that, on the dining table, he remembered that likely there were no neighbors to be disturbed. By the time they made it to the bed, he had forgotten that there was an actual world outside.
Dear reader,
the human mind is truly amazing. I don't think we give it enough credit for how it handles things. We are confronted with changes all the time and then we adapt, whether we are aware of it or not.
Surely you have been challenged with something in life that you thought was difficult, if not impossible to overcome. And yet, most of the time we do. We adapt and we deal with it.
I consider being thrown into a new world to be a fairly big challenge. But here I am, a few years later, feeling just fine. Admittedly I had help, but still. I've made peace with something that initially I did not think I would be able to survive.
And now we are here, in my world (or maybe just a copy of it, who knows), a short excursion that I asked for to show Geralt where all my perceived weirdness and absurdity comes from. He is the one who is trying to adapt now. And I thought I had a tough time back then but at least I went to a place that was, though unfamiliar, still familiar to me. The Middle Ages were a thing I knew where to place. There was no technology that I was unable to cope with, no entirely new concepts of what a social environment was. It was an uncomfortable transition but by no means impossible.
And here we are and I am trying to explain a world to Geralt that I don't even fully understand.
He is doing well of course. He is intelligent, attentive and educated. He quickly figures things out and comes to the right conclusions. He even broke my candy crush record in no time only to declare the game stupid a few hours later.
And yet there are just so many things that he was woefully unprepared for, despite everything I had told him beforehand. Sometimes he struggles to reconcile the information I had given him with the actual thing. Take music for example. I warned him that it was very different from what he knew. I told him about instruments that did not yet exist in their current form in his world. Or sometimes the instruments themselves do exist and he is familiar with them, but the way they are employed is so differently from what he knows. Say, the trumpets in "Walking on Sunshine" – he knows what a trumpet is and yet was unable to identify it as such because it simply is not used in the way he is used to. Sometimes, when there is a song on the radio where there is not one single instrument clearly leading, he cannot properly decipher the whole thing and thinks it is some undefinable noise. The sound of a piano was entirely new to him. He heard it on the radio first and had absolutely no idea what this instrument might look like.
Things became a bit clearer after we went to see the local philharmonics where he could actually see the whole orchestra and their instruments. Once he heard how all the instruments created one sound, he suddenly understood. You cannot blame him though, orchestras do not exist in his world yet, those will potentially show up in a few hundred years.
This is nothing that I had ever really thought about beforehand. But in a weird way it makes sense to me. I vaguely remember an article I read about people who were born blind and then got their vision back to a degree but who were not able to connect the things they had felt (say, the shape of a cylinder) with the corresponding visual information. Their brains had to form entirely new connections, they had to relearn all of it. I just said the human mind is astounding but it is also quite weird at times.
It feels strange to witness this world from his perspective and yet, I keep learning through him – not least because he makes me google all the stuff that I cannot immediately explain to him in the desired level of detail.
There is one thing though we have not been able to figure out so far: Videogames. To be more precise videogames in 3D. Ask him to move a character through a 3D environment and he will fail. I swear I have not seen Mario die so many times in my presence ever since I was 5.
Since I consider myself to be a person of science, I promptly followed this up by going to a movie theater with him to see what he thinks of 3D movies. Not much, as it turns out.
I feel a bit guilty, I think I might have overdone it on our first day here. He would never admit it but those new inputs were a lot. The colors, the sounds – compared to our home everything here is just screaming at you. It took me no time at all to revert back to my old patterns. Even when I woke up, not realizing that we had travelled to my world, literally the first thing I did was grab my phone like the fucking millennial that I am. Maybe it was the smell of my bed that subconsciously made me comprehend I was back before I actually woke up properly? That's how deep these automatisms are ingrained in me.
And poor Geralt does not understand even half of it.
I tried to tone it down the days after. We went to the zoo so I could show him zerrikanian horses. I actually kept calling them that instead of zebras – that just goes to show how much I have changed without noticing. The day after we went to a water park. He did not love the smell of the chlorin but he did end up liking the water slides. And my bathing suit. That one has a few strategically placed cut outs that Geralt could muster some interest in.
He also loves the fact that you can get any sort of food delivered to your doorstep at pretty much any time of the day. But, I mean… who doesn't?
After a few days I thought we were fine. He went to the bakery and supermarket by himself – he ended up finding the concept of a credit card rather handy even though initially I had to convince him that the little plastic card actually meant money and that I was not stealing food from right under the cashier's eyes.
But I could tell that he was unhappy. He always tries to act as if everything is fine but he has not yet realized that this world is full of reflective surfaces. He looks at the display of the shop window, I look at him – to get a chance to see how he truly feels.
At first I thought it was because of our puny forests (he actually called them that – granted, they are not great, this is a very urban area) and general lack of nature and quiet. He is, after all, a man of nature. It took me a while but I came to realize that the reason for his unhappiness was a different one. Like I said, the human mind is amazing when it comes to adjusting to new circumstances and Geralt managed to dull some of his witcher senses pretty quickly so the noise and what not would not drive him insane.
No, the issue was an entirely different one. I thought about the conversation we had that first evening when he told me he felt like he had taken all of this, my world, my former home from me. Which is bullshit of course. But now I keep thinking that he might actually believe that and that eventually returning home to Toussaint will hurt me again. Or that I won't like it there anymore.
I tried to convince him otherwise because I am absolutely certain that I will be happiest wherever he is (the feminist in me just wailed in agony – but what can I do?). Unfortunately, it seems words are not enough in this case. I want to see him at ease again. I need more than words to convince him and I have an idea.
Kids, do not ever try this at home! I guarantee that what I am about to do is a really, really bad idea about 95% of the time. But he and I are an exception to this rule (because I say so) #stupidinlove
Jokes aside, our relationship has always been accompanied by a degree of insecurity as we both come up with reasons why each of us is not enough for the other one, particularly in moments when we should be perfectly happy and content. Maybe fearing that something might take away our blissful little world is what makes us so compatible after all. The facts are: He cannot provide me with the amenities of the modern world or give me back my friends and family, and I cannot ever become a powerful sorceress who can protect herself so that he will not have to worry about me constantly.
I am still convinced we will overcome this eventually.
But one thing at a time. Next: Something more permanent!
It was dark as they walked along the street in silence. The smell of smog, always so present during the day, had finally abated.
"That's it," Kit said and nodded towards the entrance of the one store whose window was still illuminated. The interior behind it was kept in a pristine white. What was it with people's obsession about the color white, he wondered and thought back to the apple store.
Geralt cocked his head. The sign read 'skin therapy' and he had no idea what that meant. Beauty treatments maybe? He had not expected Kit to be interested in that type of thing but then again until now she had not had access to it. So, who knew?
"Can I borrow your medallion for a few minutes?" she interrupted his thoughts. Now he was truly suspicious.
"What for?" he asked as he grabbed it to pull it over his head. In a world without magic it was entirely useless. He would never part with it for long though, there was still a sentimental value attached to it.
"You'll see. Just wait here. It might take a while." She kissed him on the cheek, leaving a tingle on his skin, before she disappeared into the store. No magic, yet her powers remained unaffected. Maybe because the energy she used came from a different world, he pondered.
Geralt could see her talk to a heavily tattooed woman who had managed to dye her hair in every color of the rainbow. Compared to her, his looks were rather unremarkable. He had noticed early on that he was simply vanishing in the crowd – a crowd where everyone but him appeared to enjoy being singled out and seen. What would he give to be able to simply blend into the masses at home? There might have been a lot of things he disliked about this new place but admittedly, it had its perks. If he was honest to himself, it had a lot of perks. Really, the only downside was that the woman he loved was going to lose all of them – again. And he did not know how to compensate for that.
Kit and the walking talking rainbow disappeared into another room soon after.
He listened into the night. Cars in the distance, a weird whirring noise from somewhere close by. There were voices quietly talking, a dog barking. A baby was screaming somewhere on one of the upper floors of the house behind him.
A lonely man, rummaging through the pockets of his jacket, a cigarette in his mouth, wandered along the street. He cursed silently and, upon reaching Geralt, asked:
"Got fire?" The strange man pointed at his cigarette. Geralt understood and was about to raise his hand to help him out using some igni when he remembered that this world contained no magic and that he could form all the signs he wanted, and the only thing he would get from it were cramps in his fingers or a fist to the face in case of a cultural misunderstanding. Apparently, some of the gestures he used resembled something that had an entirely different meaning in this world.
The witcher, who had been deserted by magic, shook his head and the disappointed stranger moved on.
Kit returned in what was probably no time at all and yet it had felt like an eternity to Geralt who was never quite comfortable in this strange new place without her. He raised one eyebrow questioningly as he accepted his medallion back from her. She smiled sheepishly as her fingers kept feeling something behind her left ear.
"What did you do?" he asked, clearly unhappy about having been left in the dark – literally and figuratively.
Kit smiled mysteriously. "Give me a moment, I'm trying to heal it."
"Are you injured?" He tried to suppress the feeling of dread that crept upon him – something other people would have experienced as panic. "What did they do to you in there?" he asked harshly while glancing at the woman with the colorful hair who had reappeared.
"Calm down. They did exactly what I asked for." She took a deep breath and then removed her hand from her ear. Her healing skills had advanced in recent years and yet her degree of control was still limited.
"See for yourself." She turned her head so he could see what she had hidden from him behind her ear.
His eyes grew wide in surprise as he saw the pristine black lines, a stylized shape of his wolf's head medallion, inked into her skin. He ran his thumb over the spot, still a little red, as she put her hand on the back of his.
"Do you like it?"
He was too astounded to answer. Instead he asked: "Why?"
"So you can stop looking like I will desert you at any moment. So you will finally understand that I don't care whether I'm here or home with you as long as I'm with you." She sighted as she took his hand into hers. "You've been looking like a beaten dog for the entire time we've been here."
"Sorry, I didn't want to ruin things for you. I thought I had…"
"… put on a brave face? Yes, you have." She sighted and then smiled at him. "But I know you and you looked miserable often enough when you thought I wasn't paying attention."
He raised her gentle hands to his face to kiss them.
"After seeing you here everything feels wrong. You belong here," he confessed. And I cannot give you that, he added in his thoughts.
She shook her head. "But I don't. Not anymore. I belong with you, in our home, with our fat, lazy cat. This goes against everything I believe in as a somewhat-feminist but I belong to you and I've basically just branded myself like cattle to prove it. So, please, finally accept that my opinion is the only one that matters." She sighted. "Also, this hurt and I'm not going to do it again, so I suggest that you appreciate it."
The mix of frustration and determination on her face made him chuckle.
"I do… I do." He smiled as he turned her head to kiss the hair above the still red patch of skin. She stood up on her toes to rub the tip of her nose against his, grazing his lips with hers ever so lightly. He felt the hairs on his neck rise as her energy washed over him.
"There is a movie I'd like to watch," she said when they got back to her place. "I think it's important, it's the only genre we have completely ignored so far."
"Make some of that exploding corn with it?"
"Popcorn."
"I like exploding corn more. It's more accurate."
"Is it?" Kit wondered.
Geralt shrugged. "What's the difference between a pop and an explosion anyway?"
"The degree of edibility?"
"What are we watching?" Geralt asked as they settled down with a bowl of corn that had altered its state of aggregation in the microwave.
"X-men. I think you'll be able to see yourself in these characters. Besides, superhero movies have been the rage for over a decade now. It's only right I show you at least one." Geralt knew what a superhero was, however he was not sure what exactly he had in common with them as he was no hero at all.
And yet, by the end of the movie, he had understood exactly what she meant. A group of individuals that were genetically different from the rest, that were outcasts because of it - despite the fact that most of them tried to protect the people. Some people feared them – just like they feared witchers. Some would love to see them disappear – just like they did with witchers. And just like witchers, they too acted according to how they were treated.
Geralt remembered how unafraid of him Kit had seemed way back when he had talked about his abilities, his profession and what people thought of his kind. And now he understood why. In this world, people like him would be celebrated, would be admired for their abilities and for what made them different from the rest. Once again, a piece of the puzzle fell into place. He remembered all the people he had seen that tried to differentiate themselves from the masses with their style. Because sticking out and being special was desirable.
"I get it now," he finally said as the end credits ran over the black screen.
Kit smiled as she crawled onto his lap and put her arms around his neck. "That's what you are to me," she whispered, her lips tickling him as she pressed them against his ear. He closed his eyes, felt her warm breath travel over his skin. "I couldn't possibly ask for more."
Her little acts seemed to affect him more than he was willing to admit. When she fell asleep, her back to his chest, he carefully pushed her hair aside so he could look at the little drawing again. He placed a soft kiss on it and fell asleep with a smile on his face.
When he woke up the next morning, he immediately realized that they were back at Corvo Bianco. For an instance he dreaded the moment she would wake up and understand that the stay in her world was over. But then he saw the tattoo again, let the tips of his fingers carefully brush over it, and he knew they were alright.
When Kit woke, she muttered "home", smiled and cuddled into Geralt's chest.
It was a few days later when he met her at the bridge to the palace after she was done with work that he noticed something that changed his entire perspective for good.
"I need to show you something!" She linked arms with him as they strode towards the market place. "I was browsing fabrics today for a special dress for Anarietta and I found the most wonderful fabric! I think it would make a great tunic for you."
"Do I really need another one?" He complained mostly out of habit. Ever since Kit had taken on his wardrobe things had become much more comfortable.
"It's better to have and not need than to need and not have."
"Famous last words before a pile of fabrics buried her. Her cold body was found weeks later when her assistant went to look for a specific type of… frills."
She chuckled and let go of his arm when they reached the still crowded market place. "Come on!" she called as she weaved through the crowd as if she had never done anything else, fully focused on her target. For a moment Geralt stopped as she saw her dance between people and stalls, gracefully avoiding to bump into anyone. Where have I seen that before, he wondered. And then he remembered: She moved with the same ease and grace as she had done in the supermarket. He had thought of it as special back then only to realize now: She had been like this for a long time. But he had been so busy seeing her as a stranger in his world that he had failed to notice that she had stopped being a stranger a long time ago. Was it possible that his very own idea of what she was or was not had clouded his judgement to this degree? He felt like an idiot and yet breathed out in relieve.
With new resolve and a long overdue plan in mind, he followed her with quick steps until they reached a stall that was covered in all kinds of fabric.
"See this one? I'm calling it electric blue even if no one but you understands what that is." She pointed at a vibrant blue silk like Geralt had never seen it before. "What do you think? It would look great on you."
Geralt let his eyes wander over all the displayed items until a fabric made from white lace caught his attention. His lips twitched into a smile. Now or never, he thought.
"What about that one?" he said as he pointed it out to her. If he was a normal man he would probably have been nervous by now. But he was not, so his heart continued to beat slowly and calmly.
"Uh… I hadn't pegged you for a lace guy but I'm sure we can make that work." Geralt smiled at her confused expression.
"Not for me, silly, for you. Isn't this something that would make a nice wedding dress like people wear them where you are from?"
Kit stared at him, her mouth slightly open, then closing, then opening again as she obviously struggled to piece together what Geralt was insinuating.
"Wedding?" She finally asked incredulously. "You. Me. Wedding?"
Trying to hide the evil grin he was sure was spreading across his face, he shrugged innocently as if he was unaware that his weird proposal would have been anything special.
"You. Me. Wedding." He nodded as he repeated her words. "Sounds about right. That is, if you feel like it."
She shrugged, obviously still confused.
"By all the gods, that was the worst proposal I have ever had the misfortune to witness," the merchant, who had been ignored by the two of them so far, suddenly exclaimed. He shook his head. "May the gods bless you, you seem to need it."
Geralt's raised eyebrow and stern glance silenced the man immediately.
"So, marry me then?" he asked again as he turned back to Kit.
Kit smiled, nodded, and promptly started to tear up. As Geralt hugged her, he whispered: "Good decision. Otherwise that tattoo would have been a huge mistake." He kissed the patch of skin in question. Ever since their return it had become his favorite spot to place a kiss upon.
"If you ever leave me, I'll just have it tattooed over with the face of my next lover," she joked with a shaky voice.
"That would be truly atrocious, can't let that happen."
"In that case it seems you are bound to me for all eternity."
"Isn't that what marriage is about?"
"True. That and taxes."
"Then we'll get married for tattoos and taxes," Geralt agreed as he took her hand and they left the busy market square behind.