#owbabh

[dhwty-writes]

What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

I mean, that is an incredibly broad question...

I live in the nitty-gritty of the worldbuilding so my fics tend to be meticulously researched. I have read an entire book about arranged marriages in medieval europe, translated vows of fealty and learned how spy networks during the middle ages worked, and that's just for OWBABH!

In more recent writing history, for my nano project I've done a deep dive into celtic and germanic fairy tales and the concept of witches and witchcraft during the middle ages. Also as always the intricacies of medieval aristocracy and warfare as well as fashion

Fanfic Writer Asks

[dhwty-writes]

What a MOOD

Sometimes the amount of “research” I do to plot a fic is entirely unnecessary.

[dhwty-writes]

"Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the White Wolf jumped over the moon..." or, Jaskier is singing nonsense again and Geralt is Tired. Hope inspiration finds you and your brain gets un stuck!

That was a lovely prompt! Thank you so much :)

For those of you who are reading it, in my mind this takes place in the OWBABH verse. But as it’s years before the mountain, it works as standalone, too

Geralt woke to the sound of music. That was, in and of itself, nothing too unusual when travelling with a bard, especially not when the bard was Jaskier. 

  "Hey Diddle, Diddle! The witch and the fiddle," Jaskier sang at the top of his lungs, "the White Wolf jumped over the moon."  

It wasn't bad. Jaskier had a nice voice. Geralt knew that. Jaskier knew that. He was very vocal about it. He wasn't complaining. Usually. 

Geralt's eyes snapped open and he bolted upright. The sun hadn't even risen yet. "What the fuck..." he growled.

"Geralt!" the music stopped with a dissonant twang of the lute strings. "You're awake!"

"You're singing," he accused him.

"I am!" he answered far too cheerily. Geralt's eyes adjusted to the relative darkness and he could see Jaskier clambering to his feet, to come walk over to him. "Wait until you've heard the end," he said and sat down next to him. 

Without any other preamble, he began playing again: 

"Hey Diddle, Diddle! 

The witch and the fiddle, 

The White Wolf jumped over the moon; 

The little cub laughed 

To see such fun, 

And the bard ran away with them, too."

He finished his rewrite of the song and beamed at him. "What do you think?" After a short pause he added. "Come on, Geralt, you need to work with me here, I can't see a thing!"

"That's because it's the middle of the fucking night."

"First of all, untrue. I can see the moon and you taught me how to guess the hour. So, sunrise's barely two hours away. Second of all, rude! And third of all, I need a review, or I shall surely perish. You know all of that."

Geralt smirked to himself. Yes, he did. "Didn't rhyme."

Jaskier heaved a heavy sigh. "I know. But, honestly, what does rhyme with moon? Loon? Noon? Those are all shite, Geralt!"

"Hmm," he agreed, thinking about a satisfying solution. He knew there wouldn't be any peace before they found one. "How about you swap the witch and the bard?" he proposed. "Makes more sense anyways."

"Oh, that's brilliant!" he exclaimed and promptly began singing again:

"Hey Diddle, Diddle! 

The bard and the fiddle, 

The White Wolf jumped over the moon; 

The little cub laughed 

To see such fun, 

And the witch'll run away with them soon."

"Better," Geralt decreed, oddly proud of himself.

Jaskier hummed thoughtfully. "I'm still trying to figure out how to fit loon in there."

He couldn't help but chuckle. "You know Yennefer will have your balls for it, right?"

"Only if you're a snitch."

He laughed louder at that. After a moment of silence, his restraint shattered and he pulled the bard against his side. "Any chance you'll go back to sleep?"

Jaskier scrunched up his face, tapping out a vicious rhythm with his foot. "Can't. Too many thoughts. Sleep's too boring."

Geralt couldn't help but smile. "I know," he whispered against his hair. "How about I get a fire started and we start packing up? We can leave before dawn, if you want, then you can walk." The walking helped, most of the times. 

"Oh, you're a treasure, Geralt," Jaskier said and lunged to his feet, but not before pressing a kiss to Geralt's cheek. It made his skin tingle.

"Hmm," he answered, smiling, and got up as well. 'I love you,' he thought. Not that he'd ever tell him.

[dhwty-writes]

soooo... how's it feel to have prophesied roach's death and the arrival of a horse that is decidedly not-roach?

- a dedicated owbabh reader

Sjcjsjsja thanks, this absolutely made my day! Where's the Apollo with the gift of prophecy meme...?

To answer your question: not great lmao. That was heartbreaking. Also the new horse is definitely not Roach and not not-Roach either. Dancer and Dreamer are dainty ladies! It is however, pretty close to how I imagined Titan, the horse of the late Lord Lettenhove (AKA not-Roach II, which is of course short for neither-not-Roach-nor-not-not-Roach).

[dhwty-writes]

The Countess of Goldfurt, Janina Pankratz – The Lady. The oldest of all Pankratz siblings. Bitter, hateful, cold. And perfect.

Janina | Józefa | Jaskier | Justyna | Jolanta

As promised, I’ve been drawing these past few days. Please have this image of Janina from my fic Of Witchers, Bards, and Broken Hearts. The other siblings will follow soon.

Click for higher resolution.

EDIT: I realised tumblr fucked up the quality of the pic, so here, have some close-ups:

[dhwty-writes]

Eeeeyyy double bingo! With OWBABH being on hiatus as long as it has been I'm wondering if it's starting to qualify for the Updated square too... This was fun, thanks for the tag love ❤

yes i made this because I didn’t want to work on a WIP 

[dhwty-writes]

The Honourable Józefa Pankratz - The Innocent. The youngest of all Pankratz children. Warm, joyful, caring. Most beloved by their parents and siblings alike.

Janina | Józefa | Jaskier | Justyna | Jolanta

The second of my four OC’s for OWBABH and the second sister. Click for higher resolution.

Check in this evening for a new chapter :)

[dhwty-writes]

The Viscount de Lettenhove had a reputation to say the least.

For the first line fic ask gamw thingy

hEY! There’s no need to call me out like that, nonny, I know the update is very much overdue. (Actually, there is very much a need to call me out like that, this actually might get me editing). So, you are rewarded with a fic that could be set in the OWBAB verse, although these lines (probably) won’t appear in the fic:

He’d always had, he’d been a terrible flirt since his childhood, if Ana and Wiktor were to be believed. And his flirtatious escapades certainly had not been limited only to the members of his father’s household, but had very much also extended to the assembled nobility at feasts, balls, and banquets. As such, the Viscount finally showing up at the annual Goldfurt New Year’s celebrations was quite a spectacle; no sooner had he stapped into the ballroom that he was swept away by some minor lady or lord or other, to dance, to joke, to entertain them with his songs. And Jaskier? Jaskier revelled in it, finally able to do what he did best again: telling stories.

Send me the first line of a fic, I write the next five

[dhwty-writes]

🌹-saeculorum

Ohhhh, hello there dear! I hope I pick a good one *sweats*

"Listen up, Goldfurt," Jaskier hissed. "Geralt is my witcher, he's my friend, my sword, and shield, so watch your mouth."

Send me flowers to get WIP sentences

[dhwty-writes]

👀

Hello dear!

Let’s see, how about the WIP that completely consumed my life for about 3 months but will not be finished for a long time, hm? The next chapter is also incredibly delayed, so have a long one:

"My lord?" He appeared to be in luck. Geralt was alone, albeit nearly naked. The only strip of fabric on his person was the towel slung low around his hips and the shirt in his hands, his hair still damp from the bath he just took.

Normally, Jaskier would have looked his fill, but of course it was that moment his mouth chose to start talking without any cerebral input: "You're not wearing that," he blurted of all things.

No 'Good evening, Geralt', or 'How are you enjoying our stay, Geralt', or even 'Fuck, why can't we go back to how it was before, Geralt, I'm slowly losing my mind'. No, it was 'You're not wearing that.'

If ever there was a moment for the skies to part and the gods to strike him down with a well-placed bolt of lightning, this was certainly is, right before 'You don't want to keep a man with bread in his pants waiting.' What was it about the witcher that made him so exceptionally stupid? Whatever it was, if the gods could hurry up and erase his existence from this earth, Jaskier would be much obliged, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, nothing happened.

Nothing of that sort, at least, because something happened and that was Geralt slowly glancing down at the towel and up at Jaskier again to deadpan: "I wasn't going to."

Send some end of the year WIP asks

[dhwty-writes]

Sneak Peek

I just finished moving out of my parents again and am sitting down to write a new chapter for OWBABH. While I’m doing that, have a little sneak peek for the upcoming chapter:

Geralt turned, the anger in his eyes enough to make battle-hardened warriors pee their pants. He made a sound akin to hissing when it had absolutely no effect on Jaskier. "Fine," he grumbled and went to stand behind the Viscount.

He nearly laughed out loud. 'Silly witcher,' he thought. 'For me, that gaze is almost adoring.' After about a minute of silent waiting Jaskier's hands began to fidget. He wanted to stop it, really, but there was nothing he could do against it. No-one could, more's the pity. His parents had tried to beat it out of him, as had various tutors, some lovers had tried to fuck it out of him, and he had tried to jig and sing it out. All very much unsuccessfu-

"My lord," Geralt growled softly and hooked his pinkie finger around Jaskier's. "No need to be nervous." The infuriating twitching continued.

"I know," Jaskier sighed exasperated and turned to him. "I can't do anything about it!”

“Hm,” Geralt answered thoughtfully. “Just hold on tight.”

He huffed and turned away again. Without really wanting to do so, he squeezed his finger tighter with his own. And impossibly the fidgeting grew fainter. 

The doors burst open and they sprung apart.

[dhwty-writes]

you GUYS owbabh just passed 15k hits on AO3, i might be freaking out a little

[dhwty-writes]

Spare owbabh? Please good author, can you spare some owbabh? 🥺🥺🥺

My dear reader, please accept this humble offering I lay before your feet:

It didn't take long for the door to open again. "Finally!" Jaskier meant to say as he turned on his heel. What got out was more of a garble: "Hngh." Geralt looked... dashing. There was no other word for it, truly. Well other than 'otherworldly beautiful and I can't decide whether the outfit choice was the best or worst idea I had in a long time and shit, I really should have taken that into consideration; he's not yours to keep, Jaskier, get it together, gods damnit!'

Yeah, dashing was much easier than that. Blue suited him, but Jaskier had already known that. He had chosen the outfit for their last ball together as well, after all. But in contrast to that disastrous outfit, the witcher wore clothes that actually fit him, instead of too small things Jaskier had pulled out of his bag. And on top of that, the witcher had the audacity to smirk. "You approve, my lord?"

"I do," Jaskier managed without embarrassing himself further. "We should go," he decreed. "The Count and Countess will make their appearance soon; it is considered terribly impolite to arrive after them."

"And you're only aiming for impolite?" Geralt teased.

It also comes with a sincere apology. I know that I haven’t updated in over two months and I know that that should be more and enough time to write two passable chapters, especially since I wrote ten times as much in the months prior to this accidental hiatus. However, I have to admit that the two chapters are not finished yet.

There’s a lot of stuff happening in real life right now that, unfortunately, has to be prioritised over writing fanfiction. Additionally (and I’m honestly not quite sure how it happened) I had kind of a drop after finishing my secret santa fic (AKA the reason why I didn’t write in december). The reason why I didn’t write in january is just that there seems to be nothing at all inside my head that begs to be written. I tried to write some things, hated most of it, posted some of it. Took me some time to figure that out (and I’m still not done doing so).

All in all, I am kind of a mess at the moment, I’m doing my best to get that update to you as soon as possible, but I won’t make any promises, since I don’t want to break them. But you can rest assured that I have not abandoned that fic, I have not abandoned that universe, and I have certainly not abandoned writing for this fandom in general. There is some process, albeit it’s slow. (There has been significant process in worldbuilding that is entirely unrelated to the story. Like, how Lettenhove was built, the history of the Pankratz family, and so on, and so forth. Would you guys be interested in that?)

Again, I am very sorry for the long wait, although asks like this warm my heart. It’s good to know that people still care about this fic, even though I haven’t been the best author lately.

Thank you, dear reader, and all you others who are with me for this journey out there. Hang in there, there will be a continuation <3

[dhwty-writes]

please please please tell us about OWBABH Mountain aftermath 🥺

Ahhh, I hoped this would come up! Buckle up, my dear followers, I am speaking this into existence now! For those of you who haven't noticed yet: I am playing "how many tropes can I fit into this fic?" with OWBABH and this is another one of them.

So, of course there will be an angsty part (you know me, there has to be an angsty part) where Jaskier is thinking about how he just got his heart broken and so on and so forth. But then ! Surprise! He is not the only one trying to find his way down the mountain.

"Shit, bard," an all too familiar voice says, ranking close second on Jaskier's list of "I'd rather burn myself alive than see those people again", "blubber any louder and you'll cause an avalanche."

"Yennefer," he replies drily, trying desperately not to strangle her, "what a coincidence."

She scoffs and rolls her eyes dramatically. "What do you want? I left him, you know? The bastard."

"Yeah, I heard."

"So? What are you doing here? Haven't you got a witcher to pine after?"

"So, uh..." His fingers start fidgeting with the lute strap. "Funny story. After you left, um... he kind of blamed me for the burning heap of shit his day-to-day life is? Yup, that happened. And then, um- then, I left, too."

She blinks dumbfounded. After a moment, she says: "Fuck." Jaskier starts fidgeting even more because it always seems like Yennefer is judging him, and he has just been judged and found wanting and- 'Oh, that's an idea for a song-'

"Bard," Yennefer calls his attention again, "want to get pissed in Toussaint at some noble prick's expense?"

And after that they kind of do that! Feat. drunk shenanigans, magical gossip and bitching about Geralt. I hope I get around to writing this soon :)