vocalistyodels | OPEN POST

He'll start to lazily wander the room, fingers trailing over furniture and plucking up any trinkets left as decoration. The bard seems to have the lute situation under control, it sounds better after a few moments in his hands.

"And what bout your head? No second thoughts to our little adventure?" He still wants to travel with him? Doesn't want to run the other way? He wouldn't blame him for deciding this isn't his problem.

"Plenty - I hate camping, it's going to be bloody cold, beasts get extra aggressive in the winter if you look like a snack which I do - it's going to be miserable," Jaskier recounted, already working up a full head of steam for complaints. This was what Cooper would have to look forward to on said road. All while his fingers danced across the strings, tugging at them and adjusting the tension in them until they make just the right sound.

"But I'm still determined to go, if that's what you're getting at.

"Oh you look like easy pickings." He pauses, looks over at Jaskier, "For them." To be clear. He's not interested in eating him, just because he has to eat people meat doesn't mean he sees everyone as a possible meal. Though maybe he did pack some of their lady of the house away in his things in case he needs it. In case things get dire.

"Well that settles it then. Whenever you're ready to go we can head out. I did get things ready for the road while you rested your pretty little head."

Jaskier still raises an eyebrow at the 'look like easy pickings'. Sir.

Still, he clearly doesn't suspect Cooper enough to change his mind.

"You only think my head is pretty? Not the rest of me?" Jaskier teased instead of anything else, setting the tuned lute aside to pull himself out of bed. He was going to wash up while he still had access to a place with clean water from a pump before he had to rely on potentially questionable streams in freezing temperatures as well.

What. Just because he accidentally saved him doesn't mean he doesn't look like a cool breeze could take him out.

"Think you're worried bout the wrong thing." But it doesn't stop Cooper's eyes from having a look at Jaskier's body as he gets out of bed. The bard asked, it's not inappropriate. He is real nice to look at, Cooper won't lie, to himself at least, because he knows it's not like he'll ever get to touch another person intimately again... not that it's exactly top of his priorities.

The bard did ask, and he doesn't seem to have any shame about walking around naked in front of Cooper right after doing so as he goes to the room's basin to do a quick wash before gathering up his shed clothing from the night before.

"Am I? It's often a priority for me," Jaskier admits, still without any sign of shame. Being a bard tends to remove any one has, if one arrived with any at all.

Guess it's only fair, he saw all of Cooper the night before. Lucky them, they both weren't bashful about their bodies or another man seeing them like that. Would make traveling together easier.

"If it'll humble you any, looking pretty won't save you from the cold out there." He looks amused, eyes still shamelessly admiring the bard as he motions with a hand to the window. There's more snow on the ground, but at least it's stopped coming down.

He had seen all of Cooper the night before. So for all the man looked like wilted fruit, his nose appeared to be the only thing he was missing. It was good to know.

"It won't - I've traveled in winter before and am sadly aware of that fact. Though, counterpoint-" Jaskier paused to tug his shirt over his head, running his hands through his hair to smooth it back down once done with that, glancing back at Cooper as he tugged his trousers up. Did he really need to wiggle so much while he did? Probably not, but... "Being pretty makes it easier to find someone to share body heat with in the cold."

Jaskier please, you just got done banging a witch who was going to probably feed you to Cooper, but you managed to kill her through pure clumsiness and luck. Don't look at the people eating ghoul as an option for that sort of thing. Also there really is no need for all that wiggling, but Cooper isn't complaining.

Head tilted as he watches Jaskier pull on his clothes, Cooper huffs, amused.

"You can share body heat with the horse we'll be buying at the first sign of civilization. Bitch's hoarding can at least get us that much." He pries his eyes away from the bard's finer features as he moves towards the bedroom door.

"When you're ready meet me in the parlor." He's going to enjoy the fireplace a bit more before they're out in that cold.

Jaskier gives a wave over his shoulder at Cooper, tugging the rest of his clothing on. Once he's set to be presentable again - set to face a snowy landscape, rather - he takes up the lute, pulling the band of it across his chest to carry it on his back.

Cooper had said he'd gotten supplies for them, but he still takes a blanket for the cold and swings by the pantry to pack some food before heading to the parlor. In spite of how he acts, he has been on the road plenty of times before.

"You know -- I'm not really a fan of horses," Jaskier says as he comes into the parlor.

Cooper is comfortably sitting in a chair near the fireplace, eyes closed as if lightly dozing. He'll hum at Jaskier's comment, stretching like a lazy cat before looking over at him.

"M'sure the sentiment is shared, but we'll move faster with a horse. Bet your Witcher will be on one too."

"Oh, he always is," Jaskier says with a dramatic sigh and a shrug. He was not protesting the existence of a horse, just his own close relationship with one. A troublesome necessity.

"Then if we don't wanna miss your Witcher a horse gonna be imperative." Cooper presses, pushing to stand up. Aka, they're getting a horse and Jaskier can get over whatever his hold up is.

"So you ready?"

"As much as I'll ever be," Jaskier admits with an easy shrug of his own. "Gods willing we can get to another town before it starts coming down hard out there. I prefer walls against this kind of weather, not caves or cloth alone."

Really, for as picky and pampered as Jaskier is, you would think he hated traveling and avoided it altogether. But here he was, and he often spent spring to autumn on the road.

Most people would probably avoid traveling during the winter, but Cooper isn't going to let the cold or snow stop him from what he's doing. He's already been set back quite a bit. He wasn't interested in holing up for the rest of the winter to wait for better weather.

Bard be damned he'd head off regardless, but he's got connections so here they are.

"While the weather's let up we better make good time. Push hard this first day and see how far we get." He grabs his pack, hoisting it over a shoulder as he makes for the entrance. Cooper waits at the door for Jaskier, nodding at him carting around everything plus the lute.

"Sure you can handle all that?"

"If I can't, I'll leave things behind," Jaskier says with a shrug, following along after Cooper. It isn't like they're technically his things, no need to hold onto them for any kind of sentimental reasons. It looked cold out, and Jaskier preemptively wrapped the blanket around his shoulders.

"Besides, you're the one insistent on a horse. It can carry some things."

"When we get one. Till then, you're the horse." Cooper huffs with some amusement. Honestly if there's one good thing about how he is now, the cold doesn't bother him much anyway. Or maybe that's just him being so used to being naked with nothing to cover him from any chill.

Jaskier is already got a blanket around himself before they even head out. Opening the door to leave he'll nod for the bard to go first.

"Giddy up."

Putting the blanket on now helps keep that heat in, thank you sir. He's not a strange near-undead creature, either. Fully human, fully vulnerable to the cold. Maybe a little more than your average bear, even.

"I require dinner before I allow any riding, traditionally," Jaskier says to Cooper, snidely, as he passes by out into the cold day.

That sure is a loaded thing to say snidely. Cooper's brow even furrows, watching the bard as he walks out for a moment. He's not sure if that was a come on or not... or he's just being- yeah.

Don't think about it too much, Cooper. It's a saying. Besides, he's got more important things to focus on than a famous bard potentially flirting at him. Even if it's jokingly.

"If you're looking for a four course meal, you're traveling with the wrong man." He doesn't have the money for that sort of thing anyway, even with the trinkets he's taken from the witch's horde.

(Impossible to tell, anyway. Even for Jaskier. He says what he says.)

"I doubt we'll find any along the way regardless - if I recall correctly there's not any city large enough to warrant such an opportunity," Jaskier says with a sigh. That kind of offering required many nobles in relatively close quarters. As it was, while there was certainly gentry of appropriate status to be found along the way, it was in small enough groups that one would need a personal invite.

The hoops that required were not ones Jaskier wanted to jump through. Though he'd always keep an ear out if he heard a familiar name that required very little social massaging on his part. Cooper might be difficult to explain though...

Whatever. A bridge to be crossed when they got to it. He shivered as a chill wind cut through the valley, promising that the residual warmth from the house that the blanket brought was a finite resource.

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