The New Conjunction (a Witcher->Real World crossover)

[justmedk]

Ciri didn't hold out long before she started crying freely. It was not croocdile tears or acting. The stress, fear, and discomfort of the past 8 hours or so, had definitely gotten to her.
Kicking and squirming, however, was pure instinct, not a calculated move to get out of her punishment. It just hurt so dang much! She screamed as he got to her sit-spot, every word of his scolding being heard and received, and she knew the truth of it just as much as he did.
She soon - sooner than the other times - reached the point where she had no energy to squirm and kick anymore, and just hang limply over his knee wailing like a baby with colic. His almost-rhetorical question "Understood?" is met with a fierce, and hoarse scream of

"YEEEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESAAAWWAAHHHHH!!!!"


___________________________

Outside, Renata was heading over to the smith's place where Ciri lived. She knew Daniel to be a kind man who always had time for the village kids somehow, so she didn't fear going over to his house uninvited. Especially not when it came to asking his niece if she wanted to pl..hang out with her. Ciri hadn't come over to her place yesterday like they'd agreed, so she wondered if everything was okay.

She had almost reached the door and was about to knock, when she heard something unmistakeable.

A spanking. She was transfixed in front of the door. She was no stranger to spankings herself, but usually she was on teh receiving end, not listening in on one. And the part of her that told her that it was rude to eavesdrop on something like this, was overshadowed by her curiosity. She dared to go to a window, the top of her head only peeking up enough that she could see. She frowned a bit. Ciri was awfully quick to crying, and it wasn't even crocodile tears. Either the girl was exceptionally thin-skinned, or she was so talented an actress that she just HAD to give Renata lessons! Maybe it'd work on her parents?

She decided not to risk detection, and started to head back to her own house. She could come over again later, or tomorrow...

[guesswho]

Once Ciri confirms she understands, he continues. It's a painful experience, but for the so called greater good. If this is what'll stop her from getting killed in some extensively stupid way, then she'll just have to spend some time over his knee. But he doesn't continue for much longer, just dozen or two more, now mostly focusing on her thighs. After Ciri gives up her struggle, this time without even having to pin her down, Daniel takes a look at the damage, and since her cheeks are quite red and well spanked, he decides it's enough. She's got all she could take already.



"Okay, Ciri, come here. It's alright, all's forgiven." Daniel makes sure to say that, so she really understands he's not angry with her, or sending her away, or whatever other disaster scenario she made up in her head while waiting for death back in the forest. With that, he lifts Ciri up and hugs the crying girl. She might feel like the roaring fire is not in the fireplace but on her backside, but that's price to pay for running away and almost freezing to death. Preferable to the other possible price, he feels.


"When you next decide to run away, please do so when it's summer and because I didn't let you go to some event clearly out of your age group. Or something similar. I have understanding for that." Not that his understanding would save her. "Alright? Yeah. Calm down, get some rest. Let's chill out here. I'll order pizza."

[justmedk]

Ciri clung to Daniel desperately, even crawling up to sit on his lap, as much as that hurt to do at that point. She really needed to comfort, the affection at the moment, and she didn't much care that her bottom was burning. She was letting everything out now. All of the terror, and shame, and fear, and remorse of the last several hours, as well as the confusion, desperation, heartache and despair of the hours preceeding it, was flooding out of her in one gigantic deluge of emotion that she didn't know how to handle, and thus sought out the one person who she instinctively knew she could depend on.


After what seemed like forever, but was in fact only some five minutes or so, she began to calm down, as her desperate crying turned to hiccupping, then sobbing, then sniffling, and finally, she got off his lap. It wasn't a full on waltz of a spanking dance, given that she'd had time to calm down, but she still jumped up and down a bit trying to rub the sting out of her rear. Very much unsuccessfully, too.
Finally, after about a minute of that, she hugged him again, closely, tightly, before running back upstairs towards her room, without even thinking about picking up her pants and panties that had long ago been kicked halfway across the room.

Once she got to her room, she plopped down on the bed and hugged the doll he'd gotten her. She'd deliberately left it behind. She didn't know why. Maybe because she knew that it'd get destroyed or at least damaged out there, and she didn't want that to happen to the closest thing she had to a link to the good old days.
The fact that much worse than that could have very well happened to her - and almost did - hadn't registrered with angry-and-impulsive-Ciri.
It didn't take long before she fell asleep from the exhaustion, not only of the night's and early morning's stay in the forest (though of course primarily that), but also from the spanking and the cathargic mental turmoil.



It took a couple of hours before she woke up again, now back to normal except for the obvious fact that her behind was still on fire, so that she would likely never sit down comfortably again! She sighed, and tried to resign herself to that fate, as she slid her legs off the bed first in a clever maneuvre to avoid getting up by sitting first. Only then did she discover that she'd left the bottom part of the clothes downstairs, and blushed crimson before she found a long skirt in the dresser and put it on. No panties, though. The less fabric against her butt at the moment, the better.

Then she headed out of her room and began to descend the stairs slowly. She was embarassed, yes, but embarassment had to give way to hunger, and she was definitely hungry...

[guesswho]

Daniel just sits there and holds the weeping girl. Clearly, this is not just result of her spanking. Sure it was painful, but definitely not this painful. So it must be all the pent up emotions and stress finally finding release. Nothing to do then but provide comfort she needs until she calms down enough to talk. But while she calms down over time, it doesn't appear talking mood has hit her yet. After a bit of the spankee dance, which is especially cute now and a final hug, Daniel watches her well spanked behind disappear upstairs. He shrugs and lets her go. Girl needs some rest.



So does he, in fact, morning slog through the mud didn't do him any favors, so Daniel takes a nap on the couch in front of the fireplace. His favorite napping spot, ever since he had the fireplace built. When he wakes up, it's pizza time. Nope, he's not cooking today, under no circumstances. A quick phone call to the pizza place in the town over, and while they generally don't deliver this far, he knows the owner and is known to tip generously. These are two conditions to achieve anything in these parts.



Pizza comes just in time apparently, because he can see Ciri at the top of the stairs, just as he comes back with three boxes.



"Good morning, sleeping princess. Come down, let's eat something." He calls to Ciri and in case the holes in the pizza box weren't enough, he cracks it open to let the aroma spread far and wide. "Ordered specifically cause you can eat this laying on your belly." Daniel is in good mood today. Disaster prevented, a nice nap, and Ciri appears to have...well, if not forgiven him, at least not to hate him too much. Unfortunately for her, Daniel's good mood includes light teasing.

[justmedk]

Ciri smiled shyly when he called her "princess". Completely apart from the fact that...well...she WAS a princess...the term of endearment hit straight home and she was about to answer when her nose beat her lips to action: This smelled absolutely delicious!

Her eyes widened in a smile as she rushed down the stairs. She was "starving" and this smelled so good! She was about to say as much, when he pointed out the reason for his choice, and she blushed crimson, but said nothing. She couldn't, really. She did appreciate the gesture. So she lay down on the couch, her pizza in front of her, and her mouth watered. This was better than even most of what she'd had at the palace in Cintra! The smell, the taste, the texture. It was divine.

Though by some feat of willpower, probably also the sting in her rear, she was careful to not spill any of it on the couch as she laid down and ate happily. The look in her eyes as she tasted pizza for the first time was one of pure bliss, and though she was careful to avoid spilling, it was also obvious that she was restraining herself to remember her table manners.

Once dinner was over, she made a point out of helping cleaning up, folding up the cardboard box and putting it in the trash, before she laid back on the couch again, looking at him expectantly.
But before he could say anything, she beat him to it:

"I guess...I should go first", she said with smirk and sighed. "I....don't know what to think. I...I shouldn't exist....some random person with a silly name thought me up. But...I do. Everyone I ever loved and cared about...shouldn't have existed either. But they do. Or did. And....that's kinda hard to take in to be honest. I...I know I'm real, because...well...", she began. "Kinda silly to say you weren't real when you just...almost weren't", she referred to this night's and morning's incident. "But....yeah..I just don't know what to do or think....", she finished sheepishly.

[guesswho]

Pizza meets with success, but he didn't expect anything less. But after pizza and cleanup comes time for serious talk. He always knew he'll never be able to avoid it indefinitely, but also always hoped that somehow, maybe, it'll go away. So he listens to what Ciri has to say...and it's much the same as his own feelings.



"Well, you are clearly real. See, I don't think you're made up...as such." Daniel walks up and down, thinking. "There is a theory that some scientists came up with, that there is an infinite number worlds, and not all of them are bound by our own rules of physics. They also think that travel could be, somehow possible between these. So what I think happened is, your world is just one of infinite number of worlds, just like this one. And you somehow managed to travel between. That we have a book and game series describing events in your world...well, freaky, but stranger things have happened. Maybe someday, in your world, a book series will happen about events from our world? Maybe it already exists, somewhere. It's all very complicated, and frankly, out of my thinking capabilities. I hit iron for a living. What do I know." Daniel shrugs. He's read a lot, and certainly isn't stupid, but he also doesn't have any idea about all the physics and maths behind this.


"Now, as to why I didn't tell you." He takes a deep breath. "I didn't know how to. And I was scared of your reaction. I kinda hoped I'll somehow manage to hide it from you, so we can avoid...well...today. It was stupid of me, and I hope you'll be able to forgive my lie." It wasn't a great decision on his side, but that kind of thing sometimes happens when he's stressed out...

[justmedk]

Ciri looked at him strangely when he said he didn't think she's made up. Both strangely hopeful, but also with the kind of look a dying person might give to a doctor who claimed he'd be up and running a marathon tomorrow: Completely incredulous, and ever so slightly insulted. But she didn't say anything, merely listened as he spoke. Infinite worlds? Well....


"I mean...it makes sense in a way", she said. "I have seen other worlds. I opened a portal to one back at Kaer Morhen and only barely escaped. It....it might be that the author of this book...is somehow a seer", she began. "That even without his knowledge, events as they passed came to him in dreams or even entered his mind without him knowing it. So he wrote the truth, but thought it was just a story". She was visibly trying to grasp a difficult concept here, but she was far removed from teh desperately angry and doing-something-stupid-out-of-desperation-Ciri from last night.



"I doubt that someone from my sphere would write about this place", she said with a smile. "Even if the exact same thing happened, they would keep it to themselves, or people would merely laugh at them. Horseless carriages? Giant marketplaces inside even more giant temples? Cities as vast as continents?", she chuckled. "No one would want to read that"


When he apologized to her - or what she took as an apology anyway - she nodded eagerly and hugged him. "Of course!", she said. "I...I was angry, and felt betrayed...but...I mean....I meant what I said the other day. I don't know what I'd have done without you. Most likely I'd be dead from exposure from the first time you found me.", she said quietly as she had her arms around him. "I...I do forgive you", she said the words, not knowing if he needed to hear them, but just in case he did; she said them.



"So...what's next?", she said, looking up at him, and it was clear that she didn't just mean "today". It was an infinitely more existential and long-term question than that

[guesswho]

So at least there's that. He's been worrying that lie will be causing problems down the line, eventually. And has been feeling like shit about it, the excuse of doing it for sort of greater good not even working on himself. But she's also right, what's next? He never wanted a kid, and now he's stuck with one. At least they skipped the diapers and all that.



"Well, I guess you're here for the long haul. I'll need to get you in a school and get you some paperwork...I'll figure that out. This is your new life, and I'll be here for you, of course." Whether it includes supporting in her whatever she does, or taking her over the knee. "When you're ready, we'll enroll you somewhere. Looks like you'll get to visit the big city everyday." She'll love it there. How difficult will be to keep an eye on her, when even Geralt couldn't really achieve that is another question. But he does have someone in the city who could help keep Ciri in line, and she'll be visiting to get to know her soon...



"But what do you want to happen next? That's the important question. This is your new life, so let's make the most of it." If she's going to stay in this world, and it looks like it, might as well make it count and prepare her for adult life...though he doubts Ciri will find some boring job to slog through for the rest of her life.

[justmedk]

When he told her that she'd visit the big city every day, Ciri got a mixture of exitement and horror in her facial expression, though she tried to hide it from him. "That sounds great!", she said, her voice revealing that she was not quite sure about that, but wasn't willing to admit it. "I mean...I don't know how to..you know...go there. Or most of the stuff they'll teach there. But...yeah, it'll be great!", she attempted to convince both him and herself.



His question caught her a little bit by surprise. What DID she want to happen next? She wasn't entirely sure, except for: "I want to find some way of making a life for myself here...though...I don't know how", she said, a little bit embarassed. "It seems that what I'm good at, isn't very valuable here. I can jump, run, fight...but in a world with no monsters or witchers, that...makes me less than useless, I guess", she shrugged, but there was a real melancholy in her voice. Not knowing whether you'll be useful is not a nice place to be.



Later that night, it was a tired, downright exhausted, and confused Ciri who plopped down on her stomach on her bed. Today had been...interesting. But she preferred to think of it as the start of the rest of her life. The knowledge that, yes, your whole world and you yourself was thought up by some random writer - but one who might have been in touch with another world the way she was - was hard to reconcile. But she had begun the process. She knew a few things: Daniel would be there for her. She had at least one friend here who cared about her....


"Oh no!", she thought suddenly. "I haven't spoken to Renata since...day before yesterday! She must be mad or think I don't want to hang out anymore!"
That thought kept Ciri from falling asleep for quite a while until exhaustion overtook her.


The next morning, she had already showered and changed clothes to her "play clothes", which she scowled a bit whenever he called them that. First order of business after breakfast was heading straight over to Renata's house and apologizing. She would tell the truth, or, well, parts of it. She didn't have a phone to call her, and a lot of stuff had happened. She hoped that would be enough. So she was more in a rush to finish her breakfast than usual, not really thinking about how staggeringly unlikely it would be for her friend to be up and ready this early on a Sunday.

[guesswho]

Unfortunately, someone of her skills won't be useless even in this world, but she'll find out soon enough. And he's not ready for that kind of talk with a thirteen year old right now. Unlike Ciri, Daniel has no trouble falling asleep, and gets up a bit early. He watches Ciri at breakfast. Sitting doesn't seem to be a problem, but she is in a hurry. Like, a lot.


"What's the hurry? Got places to be, trouble to cause? At seven in the morning on sunday?" It's a small miracle he isn't grumpy despite being up so early. "If you've got a meetup planned with a friend, I'd suggest waiting. Most people don't like to get up this early. How about you drop her a message? It's time for you to get a phone, I think, so might as well." Daniel says, while calmly, slowly eating his own breakfast. In part to annoy Ciri. Is he...becoming a dad? Is that what's happening to him? He'll need to watch out for that. When the brakfast is done, he goes to dig up an older but still working phone. It'll be enough to start, and won't be much of a problem when she breaks it. He doesn't even consider the possibility of phone's survival beyond a couple weeks, they're not very sturdy at the best of times.



"C'mere. Let's see if this still works." Daniel plugs it in and starts charging. He uses one of his burner SIMs and starts it up. "Okay...works. Great. Let me show you how it works." He starts explaining basics of how smartphones work and helps her install a couple apps. And a parental lock, and makes sure Ciri knows it's there and why it's there for her own protection, rather than him being a nosy bastard. Which he is, but not in regard to other people's phones.


"So, here you go. Try not to break it. It's fragile, but that's the price of technology. Over time, I'll let you install more stuff on it. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think it's best if all the stuff you install there goes through my approval, until you're a bit older and know more about this world. We do have monsters. But they look like humans and instead of violence use information. It's infinitely more effective." He finishes and passes the phone over to Ciri to let her try some things on her own.