Apparently, Geralt's rate is too low for this poncy asshole, and he hands Geralt what appears to be a hundred-- a thirty dollar tip on top of a seventy dollar charge is too much goddamn tip. Geralt frowns when he takes the bill from him, but decides against arguing, ultimately. It's Jaskier's money, he can do whatever he wants with it, including throw it at a ranch dad that he just met today. He pockets the money and is distracted from thinking any more about it-- or from opening up the folded bill and seeing the other hundred hidden inside it-- by this musical otter asking him for his number.
And this is more of that... odd behavior, the kind of thing that he would assume is flirting if Jaskier had been a woman. Geralt doesn't usually give out his private number, not when he has a landline for the business; he ought to tell Jaskier to call that, like everyone else. It's not like he's special just because Pegasus likes him and he's odd and rides well and Geralt took him up for a private trail ride.
Geralt takes the phone from him with a huff and enters in his name and number. This is purely for Ciri's benefit, he thinks-- it's just to look out for her and make sure that she's kept well away from strange men. And, also, it's probably not great for his daughter to harass one of his customers, even if he is YouTube famous or whatever. Then, just as he hands the phone back, Jaskier asks him about his favorite song.
He considers the question for a moment, and replies, "Yeah."
Then he turns, gives him the kind of curt good-bye that he usually does when he leaves a conversation, and heads right back down to the barn to finish up his work for the day. He'd answered the musician's question, anyway-- he'd only asked if Geralt has a favorite song, not what that song is. Teach him to be specific.
Later that night, Ciri points out that he has a buttercup in his hair. After a bit of prodding, Geralt tells her why, and she's furious that he didn't let her know that the musician was there. After he had gone to bed, his daughter still pouting but a little mollified by the pick that the musician had left for her, he thought about Jaskier's hands and his carefree laugh and Geralt could still feel the spot where his fingers brushed his face.
A few days after the musician left, Geralt finally caves to the pressure and gets a damn smartphone. It has no buttons and it's got too many colorful icons and he barely knows how to work it, but at least he's able to keep the same phone number so he doesn't have to memorize a new one. He transfers all his contacts over, including Jaskier's. Would've been a convenient time to 'lose' it if he wanted to, but...
He keeps it. It's fine.
With Ciri's help, he sets up an Insta-whatsit, under the name KaerMorhenRanch. She helps him take a few nice scenic shots of the barn and grounds for the first posts, and also snaps one of him tacking up Roach. He's lifting the saddle onto her back, the muscles in his arms filling out the sleeves of his t-shirt. He thinks it isn't a particularly good one to post, since Roach isn't even entirely in the frame, but Ciri insists that it'll do well.
It does well. More people start following the Ranch. People also start leaving strange comments, sometimes just a series of incomprehensible emojis, but Geralt ignores that.
Geralt-- or the Ranch, rather-- starts following Jaskier. It's just so that he can scroll back through this guy's feed or whatever and see the kind of stuff that he posts, whether it's appropriate for his daughter to be watching. Ciri huffs when she realizes, still a little upset at him about the whole not telling her that her favorite musician was at the Ranch thing, but Geralt is undeterred. He spends an evening scrolling through all of the posts that Jaskier made, watching a few of his videos. It seems fine-- he swears a little, but there's nothing terribly inappropriate. And what fourteen-year-old hasn't heard fuck by now?
He finds the blond girl from Jaskier's lock screen in a few other photos, and reading the captions tells him that she's his sister. That's... well. That should be nothing, it shouldn't matter at all, but it does, kind of? Geralt decides not to think about it. Further back, he finds a picture of Jaskier with his shirt hiked up, revealing a colorful musical tattoo; a picture of him wearing a shirt saying things about phases of the moon; a series of posts from when he went to a Pride parade in London. He looks brilliantly happy, dressed in bright colors and grinning cheerfully at the camera, flags painted on his cheeks. He recognizes the colors of one of them from the sticker on his guitar case, and that's... another thing that shouldn't matter. Jaskier is a customer, his personal life isn't Geralt's business.
Jaskier's next cover that he puts up on his YouTube account-- because Geralt follows him there now, too, but from a more discreet gmail account-- is Stacey's Mom. Against his better judgement, Geralt posts a comment.
whitewolf 1 minute ago cougars love a babyface
Is it immature? Yes. But who's going to judge him for one little immature comment?
Geralt really shouldn't enjoy all of this, though-- the YouTube channel, the Instagram, the text messages-- as much as he does in the following days, weeks. The messages should be all to the point, purely business, just Jaskier asking Geralt when Pegasus is available or when he could go up on the trails. It shouldn't be the musician asking him what he's doing and Geralt sending him back a picture of his boots immediately after Roach had shit on them. It's too friendly, too familiar.
He does it anyway.
got the afternoon free if you want to go up on the trail
no subject
And this is more of that... odd behavior, the kind of thing that he would assume is flirting if Jaskier had been a woman. Geralt doesn't usually give out his private number, not when he has a landline for the business; he ought to tell Jaskier to call that, like everyone else. It's not like he's special just because Pegasus likes him and he's odd and rides well and Geralt took him up for a private trail ride.
Geralt takes the phone from him with a huff and enters in his name and number. This is purely for Ciri's benefit, he thinks-- it's just to look out for her and make sure that she's kept well away from strange men. And, also, it's probably not great for his daughter to harass one of his customers, even if he is YouTube famous or whatever. Then, just as he hands the phone back, Jaskier asks him about his favorite song.
He considers the question for a moment, and replies, "Yeah."
Then he turns, gives him the kind of curt good-bye that he usually does when he leaves a conversation, and heads right back down to the barn to finish up his work for the day. He'd answered the musician's question, anyway-- he'd only asked if Geralt has a favorite song, not what that song is. Teach him to be specific.
Later that night, Ciri points out that he has a buttercup in his hair. After a bit of prodding, Geralt tells her why, and she's furious that he didn't let her know that the musician was there. After he had gone to bed, his daughter still pouting but a little mollified by the pick that the musician had left for her, he thought about Jaskier's hands and his carefree laugh and Geralt could still feel the spot where his fingers brushed his face.
A few days after the musician left, Geralt finally caves to the pressure and gets a damn smartphone. It has no buttons and it's got too many colorful icons and he barely knows how to work it, but at least he's able to keep the same phone number so he doesn't have to memorize a new one. He transfers all his contacts over, including Jaskier's. Would've been a convenient time to 'lose' it if he wanted to, but...
He keeps it. It's fine.
With Ciri's help, he sets up an Insta-whatsit, under the name KaerMorhenRanch. She helps him take a few nice scenic shots of the barn and grounds for the first posts, and also snaps one of him tacking up Roach. He's lifting the saddle onto her back, the muscles in his arms filling out the sleeves of his t-shirt. He thinks it isn't a particularly good one to post, since Roach isn't even entirely in the frame, but Ciri insists that it'll do well.
It does well. More people start following the Ranch. People also start leaving strange comments, sometimes just a series of incomprehensible emojis, but Geralt ignores that.
Geralt-- or the Ranch, rather-- starts following Jaskier. It's just so that he can scroll back through this guy's feed or whatever and see the kind of stuff that he posts, whether it's appropriate for his daughter to be watching. Ciri huffs when she realizes, still a little upset at him about the whole not telling her that her favorite musician was at the Ranch thing, but Geralt is undeterred. He spends an evening scrolling through all of the posts that Jaskier made, watching a few of his videos. It seems fine-- he swears a little, but there's nothing terribly inappropriate. And what fourteen-year-old hasn't heard fuck by now?
He finds the blond girl from Jaskier's lock screen in a few other photos, and reading the captions tells him that she's his sister. That's... well. That should be nothing, it shouldn't matter at all, but it does, kind of? Geralt decides not to think about it. Further back, he finds a picture of Jaskier with his shirt hiked up, revealing a colorful musical tattoo; a picture of him wearing a shirt saying things about phases of the moon; a series of posts from when he went to a Pride parade in London. He looks brilliantly happy, dressed in bright colors and grinning cheerfully at the camera, flags painted on his cheeks. He recognizes the colors of one of them from the sticker on his guitar case, and that's... another thing that shouldn't matter. Jaskier is a customer, his personal life isn't Geralt's business.
Jaskier's next cover that he puts up on his YouTube account-- because Geralt follows him there now, too, but from a more discreet gmail account-- is Stacey's Mom. Against his better judgement, Geralt posts a comment.
whitewolf 1 minute ago
cougars love a babyface
Is it immature? Yes. But who's going to judge him for one little immature comment?
Geralt really shouldn't enjoy all of this, though-- the YouTube channel, the Instagram, the text messages-- as much as he does in the following days, weeks. The messages should be all to the point, purely business, just Jaskier asking Geralt when Pegasus is available or when he could go up on the trails. It shouldn't be the musician asking him what he's doing and Geralt sending him back a picture of his boots immediately after Roach had shit on them. It's too friendly, too familiar.
He does it anyway.
got the afternoon free if you want to go up on the trail