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[vrdantwind]

"Hey, this is Claude! Pretty sure I'm doing this correctly. You can leave me a message here, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. Talk to you soon~."

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[vrdantwind]

[Dimitri, how could you sent him up the river like this??

Well, Claude has some suspicions about this - somewhat promising ones, in fact - but he's in a rather delicate position on multiple fronts here. There are certain things he can't reveal to Jaskier, just as there were certain things Claude had to be sure not to reveal to Geralt. There's well-intentioned meddling, and then there's betrayal, and Claude is pretty well aware of where the line is.

It does make it hard to explain things to Jaskier here, though.]

What kind of odd behavior are we talking about here?

[rollstoseduce]

[Jaskier huffs as soon as he hears the question - it's the same Dimitri made. Why can't these men trust his judgement of Geralt's character? Why do they insist on asking for FACTS and EVIDENCE? The nerve!]

His brooding shifted! [Ask the same question, get the same answer.] Something is on his mind, eating him alive, and I'm almost scared to ask what it is!

[vrdantwind]

That sounds ridiculous, but I'll accept that if you've known a guy for 22 years, his flavors of brooding are pretty distinct to you. [Claude can't help but sound a bit amused. It is a funny way of putting it to an outsider, Jaskier.]

And what are you afraid it is? Because, before you insult me with an accusation, I'll say that I didn't give a single secret of yours away to him. I keep my promises.

[rollstoseduce]

Big words for the bloke capable of evaluating even the tiniest twitch of his boyfriends' eyebrows.

[A sigh.] Yes, you do keep your promises. You also like to play with fire, to walk as close to the edge as possible without falling. [Like a true politician!] What happened then?

[vrdantwind]

Honestly...it's a little tough to say. [Claude rubs his chin thoughtfully.] You're a lot like me, in that I think if I say what it's safe to say without saying more than Geralt would likely want me to, it'd probably make you curious and go poking around the matter...which would kind of negate any discretion I'm trying to show. And I really am trying to get Geralt to like me, despite everything, so I don't want him to feel like I've ratted him out...

So what is it safe to say? I suppose it'd be easiest to sum up as the antics of a mischievous pokémon forcing Geralt to share something with me he wouldn't have if he'd had a choice in the matter. It wasn't anything directly related to you. We wound up talking about you through that, but that had absolutely nothing to do with anything you've ever told me in confidence. I did make it inescapably clear how much I know you think of him in a general sense, but you've never been shy about that yourself, so I wasn't telling him anything he didn't know - just things he's somehow still in denial about. But that's nothing you don't know.

Oh - he did tell me he doesn't have emotions, and I told him I didn't believe that at all. His personality isn't that much unlike that of a guy I know who's as human as anyone else; I really don't know how anyone sold him on that idea.

[rollstoseduce]

[There's a long pause after Claude speaks, and that alone says a lot about how Jaskier is currently feeling. It's hard to make heads or tails out of it, there's so much going on! Claude is being respectful of Geralt's privacy, and he wants the witcher to like him, and Jaskier appreciates that. Yet at the same time he wants to yell at him, complain about the fact he gets to know but Jaskier doesn't, and how is that fair? He's the BFF, not Claude! It was an accident, though, not Claude's fault, so he shouldn't take it out on him... but if something is going on with Geralt, shouldn't Claude tell him so he could help?

And how come that even after Claude wore Geralt's ears off the witcher will still not fucking tell him what the problem is?

Ugh, the frustration is unbearable, and he's thinking way too much about this, and that's not his way to do things.

A sigh. At least that last comment he can reply to easily.] A mix of his teachers drilling that asinine witcher logic into their trainees' heads since they were kids and bad witcher stereotyping running wild through the Continent. [There's clear anger in his voice when he mentions his society's treatment of witchers, but it's gone when he speaks again after another (much shorter) pause.] What you found out... was it a dark secret? Witcher related? Or something embarrassing?

[vrdantwind]

Mm...I wouldn't really say it was any of those things, exactly, but I guess 'embarrassing' comes closest. I don't think it was anything he's particularly sensitive about, but it was certainly private enough that I don't think he cared to have someone like me seeing. But then I don't think he'd care to have someone like me see the contents of his sock drawer, so that may not be saying much. I said I want him to like me, but I'll say I've made very little progress on that front. Considering how similar you and I can be, I honestly expected him to be more open to being friendly with me, but...I guess you just hit some special chord in him I don't.

[This is definitely some blatant flattery of Jaskier, but it's also true.]

[rollstoseduce]

[So he's upset because his privacy has been breached? It does make sense for Geralt to be angry at Claude when it happened, but for it to bother him even days later? Curious. Mayhap he's worried that Claude will spill his secret - because Claude is right, Geralt doesn't really trust him at the moment, barely even likes him.

The way Claude explains this though... Jaskier puts aside his current frustration for a moment because he simply has to laugh at that.]

Geralt doesn't warm up to people very easily. I told you about our meeting at the tavern, but haven't I mentioned what happened after? He punched me. So unless he has hurt you and you haven't told me for some dumb bloody reason, I think you aren't doing that badly.

[vrdantwind]

I mean, I probably wouldn't tell you if he had just because one, if I pissed him off that much it'd probably be my own fault, and two, I can't see how tattling on him to his closest friend would make him any less inclined to punch me in the future. [Claude sounds faintly amused.] That said, though, no, he absolutely hasn't done that. Even though frankly, a few times, I've been bold enough about saying things he doesn't want to hear that I was bracing myself for it.

Nothing bad, mind you. A lot of it has been an outright refusal to accept his more toxic beliefs about himself as fact. But I haven't exactly minced words, and I am basically saying I think I know and understand him better than he understands himself. Which may very well be true - after all, I think an outsider's view can be more objective, and you and I both appreciate that a lot of the things he thinks about himself are just flat out false - but it's a pretty audacious claim to make. Especially coming from someone he doesn't know that well or like that much. And I'm sure you understand how unwelcome truths can anger people.

It really speaks well for him and his better nature that he's let me be as audacious and annoying to him as I have, and he hasn't resorted to violence against me. He really isn't inclined to hurt anyone unless it's necessary, is he? Well, that or he doesn't want to have to deal with the tongue-lashing you'd give him if he roughed up a friend of yours for being verbally aggravating.

Personally, though, I'm leaning towards that he's just a good man. One who has a lot more patience than I'm accustomed to people having, but then he is a lot older than anyone I'm used to talking to.