fic: One Day in Velen (The Witcher, Geralt gen)
I had opted not to sign up for 
past_imperfect even though I love time travel tropes, but I did grab a late pinch hit.
One Day in Velen (4721 words) by Isis
Fandom: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Roach (The Witcher)
Additional Tags: Groundhog Day, Time Loop, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Foreshadowing
Summary: Geralt of Rivia has a bad day...over and over again.
I wrote this in just a few days, because the idea grabbed me really hard and everything gelled in my head very quickly, and it was super fun to plot out. Immediately I knew that I wanted to start the time loop with the second iteration, because the actual quest actions are not that interesting on their own, but they're made more interesting by Geralt's confusing and growing realization that Something Is Up.
This request was actually added to a PH when nobody volunteered, and there were no details or requested tropes, so I was completely on my own. Ciri is an obvious candidate for time travel, since she's the 'Lady of Space and Time', but since I'd written a time/space-traveling Ciri for Yuletide 2017 I wanted to do something different. The idea of a Groundhog Day thing came to me partly because the prospect amused me - poor Geralt, having killed the monster, discovering the next day that he has to kill it again - and partly because the other Witcher character who canonically can mess with time is Gaunter O'Dimm, who is sort of the Devil. In the DLC Hearts of Stone he has agreed to do three things for a character named Olgierd in exchange for his soul, and then he basically shanghais Geralt into doing these things for him. In one scene in the DLC he freezes time while he talks with Geralt.
This suggested that O'Dimm could capture Geralt in a time bubble, partly just to mess with him, but also maybe to assess him and his future usefulness (since this story is set pre-DLC; Velen is the second of the locations in the game where Geralt spends time). O'Dimm is also called "Master Mirror" - he has posed as a peddler of mirrors - and so that suggested the mirror imagery I make use of when Geralt discovers his 'cage' using a magic-sensing device that he receives (and uses) in an early quest. So I knew from the start it would be: Geralt wakes on Day 2 (which is a repeat of Day 1), realizes things are weird but relives everything; more days as he tries to figure out how to break the cycle; finally he remembers that he has the magic-sensor and uses it to break out, has a confrontation, and then is memory-wiped and continues on his merry way as though none of the time shenanigans happened.
The most fun part of writing this story was making Geralt get ever more exasperated and pissed off at his predicament as the time loops went on. The worst part was realizing that in real life people take their saddles off their horses when they camp, but since Geralt doesn't do this in-game, and I'd already written several paragraphs that I really liked and didn't want to cut involving his wondering if Roach had knocked off the trophy and then going to look for it, which wouldn't make sense if she hadn't been saddled, I waved my hands and wrote a really dumb rationalization for this behavior.
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
past_imperfect even though I love time travel tropes, but I did grab a late pinch hit.
One Day in Velen (4721 words) by Isis
Fandom: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Roach (The Witcher)
Additional Tags: Groundhog Day, Time Loop, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Foreshadowing
Summary: Geralt of Rivia has a bad day...over and over again.
I wrote this in just a few days, because the idea grabbed me really hard and everything gelled in my head very quickly, and it was super fun to plot out. Immediately I knew that I wanted to start the time loop with the second iteration, because the actual quest actions are not that interesting on their own, but they're made more interesting by Geralt's confusing and growing realization that Something Is Up.
This request was actually added to a PH when nobody volunteered, and there were no details or requested tropes, so I was completely on my own. Ciri is an obvious candidate for time travel, since she's the 'Lady of Space and Time', but since I'd written a time/space-traveling Ciri for Yuletide 2017 I wanted to do something different. The idea of a Groundhog Day thing came to me partly because the prospect amused me - poor Geralt, having killed the monster, discovering the next day that he has to kill it again - and partly because the other Witcher character who canonically can mess with time is Gaunter O'Dimm, who is sort of the Devil. In the DLC Hearts of Stone he has agreed to do three things for a character named Olgierd in exchange for his soul, and then he basically shanghais Geralt into doing these things for him. In one scene in the DLC he freezes time while he talks with Geralt.
This suggested that O'Dimm could capture Geralt in a time bubble, partly just to mess with him, but also maybe to assess him and his future usefulness (since this story is set pre-DLC; Velen is the second of the locations in the game where Geralt spends time). O'Dimm is also called "Master Mirror" - he has posed as a peddler of mirrors - and so that suggested the mirror imagery I make use of when Geralt discovers his 'cage' using a magic-sensing device that he receives (and uses) in an early quest. So I knew from the start it would be: Geralt wakes on Day 2 (which is a repeat of Day 1), realizes things are weird but relives everything; more days as he tries to figure out how to break the cycle; finally he remembers that he has the magic-sensor and uses it to break out, has a confrontation, and then is memory-wiped and continues on his merry way as though none of the time shenanigans happened.
The most fun part of writing this story was making Geralt get ever more exasperated and pissed off at his predicament as the time loops went on. The worst part was realizing that in real life people take their saddles off their horses when they camp, but since Geralt doesn't do this in-game, and I'd already written several paragraphs that I really liked and didn't want to cut involving his wondering if Roach had knocked off the trophy and then going to look for it, which wouldn't make sense if she hadn't been saddled, I waved my hands and wrote a really dumb rationalization for this behavior.
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth