[Claude doesn't actually mind that much that Jaskier shares those details with the others. The thing about Dimitri and Grant wasn't a secret he kept from them, and even if he didn't tell Felix about his belief that Felix wasn't interested in him, he doesn't expect that to be either shocking or upsetting to him. So he doesn't have any real reason to be bothered...
Well, except perhaps that Jaskier shared things he thought Claude had been keeping secret from his lovers, as some sort of punishment for...trying to help him. For telling Jaskier there was hope, for not wanting him to simply accept his fatalistic misery, and having been right about those things in the end. That Jaskier would use things - even fairly innocuous things - that Claude told him in confidence against him, as punishment for a crime that also wasn't exactly serious. Especially when Claude has so carefully respected Jaskier's privacy, Jaskier's secrets, has done everything he can to both encourage and justify Jaskier in trusting him. Jaskier had warned, and Claude hadn't tried to avoid the follow-through, but on some level it's a surprise that Jaskier did indeed tell all...and the context and manner in which he does is considerably more unsettling to Claude than anything he's actually revealing. This doesn't feel like teasing; it feels something more like revenge.
What follows doesn't improve matters.
If Claude had thought about it - which he hadn't, yet, but no doubt would have soon enough, after getting over his initial shock and delight - he might have expected his arrangement with Jaskier to end. Geralt is the man Jaskier truly loves; Claude certainly can't compete, and wouldn't try. Isn't interested in trying, because he and Jaskier have always been content to be good friends who have amazing sex. But when Jaskier can bed the man he loves - and when the man he loves thinks so little of himself that Claude can't begin to imagine Geralt having the confidence and security in a relationship to share Jaskier with someone - there isn't much of a need for Jaskier's arrangement with Claude anymore. And Claude, himself, is perfectly well provided for. His times with Jaskier were special and unique in their own ways, as any lover would be, and there will be things he misses about it, but it's nothing he can't give up with a smile to see Jaskier happy with Geralt. Given the time to catch up to current events, he probably would have offered to end their arrangement himself.
But on the heels of tossing out Claude's confidences like breadcrumbs to pigeons, as though they were nothing; of complaining loudly about him and his attempts to help; to just drop him in front of all the others as if this too is just another bead on the string of public digs at Claude's expense...when he so expertly makes it feel as though Claude has no more meaning to him now that he has Geralt, not even as someone to show basic consideration to...
Claude feels...almost stunned. More than that - he feels resented. Were his attempts to help Jaskier really that awful...? That this level of petty spite, this bitterness, is the predominant emotion to Jaskier getting something he desperately wanted? That he genuinely doesn't seem to care about what he says to Claude anymore, or how he says it?
It honestly adds up that he must have inspired that level of bitterness, when he examines the evidence. Jaskier, the hopeless romantic, Jaskier the performer, Jaskier the lover of the public eye, isn't reveling in revealing his relationship with Geralt. He's not treating it like a surprise he wanted to enjoy springing on them. He's acted as though he wanted to continue hiding it - from Claude specifically, perhaps. And rather than happiness and pride at being with Geralt, soaking up the congratulations, he's focusing on...complaining at Claude. As though that emotion overrides any others he might feel. It genuinely must, for the bard to be acting so uncharacteristic.
Claude has to accept that maybe he really was that overbearing, that aggravating. It wouldn't be the first time. But at the same time...even if he was, he knows it was because he wanted Jaskier to be happy. To never look or sound so hopeless and forlorn as he did when he talked about his feelings for Geralt that first time.
If he's ever hurt Jaskier, or caused problems for him...it had never been out of spite. And he's never betrayed something Jaskier told him in confidence. He's never treated Jaskier's feelings as trivial.
So no matter how bad he might have been...he thinks that, perhaps, he might still have deserved better than this.
The only visual cue that anything is bothering Claude, of the shock and hurt that ripples through him, is a certain stiffness as he tenses up. Only a close observer would pick it up. Geralt will be able to scent his growing unease, however - and, most likely, the sudden slap of shock and hurt that follows that last volley of Jaskier's. Then it sours into something that's not quite bitterness, but not definably anything else, either. (But, if the blackest, most fatalistically amused example of 'well, it it was it is' had a smell, that would be the nasal bouquet the witcher is being treated to.) What Geralt interprets any of this as is anyone's guess, of course.
Claude simply stands still for a moment after Jaskier's finished speaking, before he puts on one of his most practiced public smiles.] I'm sure it will take all four of them to fill the space you've left, Jaskier. [Easy, practiced flattery, with no real feeling at all behind it. Public humiliation only works if you're not in control of the perceptions of others. All he has to do is sell the illusion that he's in control, unruffled, that nothing is happened, and it will be true. Or true enough as makes no difference to anyone but him.
He knows this game better than he knows himself. On some levels, this game shaped 'himself'. Jaskier won't beat him at it.]
I would've offered to end our arrangement myself, but obviously that's not needed. [Since his input didn't matter, and wasn't sought.] So I'll just wish you both all the happiness I've always wished you.
[And then, taking a step back, he bows slightly. This is completely uncharacteristic; everyone here knows him to be a king now, and even if they didn't, Claude just generally has never bowed to people. He's not that formal with people.]
So if you'll excuse me...
[He almost adds 'my lords'. He comes so close, his lips almost form the words. A cat's claw strike at Jaskier - a needle shooting out, and hidden again almost before the blood runs. It wouldn't be a betrayal; there are multiple lords in attendance. Only Jaskier - and perhaps Geralt - know that Jaskier can technically lay claim to the title, too...and only Jaskier (and, again, perhaps Geralt) would read the depths of Claude's displeasure into it, that he'd reference something Jaskier keeps so secret in such a spiteful way.
But no. Even on a level with so much plausible deniability carefully padded in, Claude won't treat Jaskier's secret so cavalierly. He doesn't necessarily feel Jaskier deserves better than that right now; rather, he won't stoop to that level. He won't intentionally try to hurt someone he's considered a friend, even subtly, when they're not actually forcing his hand.
He can take worse than this.
He turns on his heel and walks away, heading for where he's left Wyvern and Mori. As he does, he focuses on his breathing, on calming his mind. If he had a pokédollar for every time he's had to do this today...well, he'd have two pokédollars, but it's weird that it's happened twice. The first time he's needed to do this since he arrived, and now twice in one day.
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Well, except perhaps that Jaskier shared things he thought Claude had been keeping secret from his lovers, as some sort of punishment for...trying to help him. For telling Jaskier there was hope, for not wanting him to simply accept his fatalistic misery, and having been right about those things in the end. That Jaskier would use things - even fairly innocuous things - that Claude told him in confidence against him, as punishment for a crime that also wasn't exactly serious. Especially when Claude has so carefully respected Jaskier's privacy, Jaskier's secrets, has done everything he can to both encourage and justify Jaskier in trusting him. Jaskier had warned, and Claude hadn't tried to avoid the follow-through, but on some level it's a surprise that Jaskier did indeed tell all...and the context and manner in which he does is considerably more unsettling to Claude than anything he's actually revealing. This doesn't feel like teasing; it feels something more like revenge.
What follows doesn't improve matters.
If Claude had thought about it - which he hadn't, yet, but no doubt would have soon enough, after getting over his initial shock and delight - he might have expected his arrangement with Jaskier to end. Geralt is the man Jaskier truly loves; Claude certainly can't compete, and wouldn't try. Isn't interested in trying, because he and Jaskier have always been content to be good friends who have amazing sex. But when Jaskier can bed the man he loves - and when the man he loves thinks so little of himself that Claude can't begin to imagine Geralt having the confidence and security in a relationship to share Jaskier with someone - there isn't much of a need for Jaskier's arrangement with Claude anymore. And Claude, himself, is perfectly well provided for. His times with Jaskier were special and unique in their own ways, as any lover would be, and there will be things he misses about it, but it's nothing he can't give up with a smile to see Jaskier happy with Geralt. Given the time to catch up to current events, he probably would have offered to end their arrangement himself.
But on the heels of tossing out Claude's confidences like breadcrumbs to pigeons, as though they were nothing; of complaining loudly about him and his attempts to help; to just drop him in front of all the others as if this too is just another bead on the string of public digs at Claude's expense...when he so expertly makes it feel as though Claude has no more meaning to him now that he has Geralt, not even as someone to show basic consideration to...
Claude feels...almost stunned. More than that - he feels resented. Were his attempts to help Jaskier really that awful...? That this level of petty spite, this bitterness, is the predominant emotion to Jaskier getting something he desperately wanted? That he genuinely doesn't seem to care about what he says to Claude anymore, or how he says it?
It honestly adds up that he must have inspired that level of bitterness, when he examines the evidence. Jaskier, the hopeless romantic, Jaskier the performer, Jaskier the lover of the public eye, isn't reveling in revealing his relationship with Geralt. He's not treating it like a surprise he wanted to enjoy springing on them. He's acted as though he wanted to continue hiding it - from Claude specifically, perhaps. And rather than happiness and pride at being with Geralt, soaking up the congratulations, he's focusing on...complaining at Claude. As though that emotion overrides any others he might feel. It genuinely must, for the bard to be acting so uncharacteristic.
Claude has to accept that maybe he really was that overbearing, that aggravating. It wouldn't be the first time. But at the same time...even if he was, he knows it was because he wanted Jaskier to be happy. To never look or sound so hopeless and forlorn as he did when he talked about his feelings for Geralt that first time.
If he's ever hurt Jaskier, or caused problems for him...it had never been out of spite. And he's never betrayed something Jaskier told him in confidence. He's never treated Jaskier's feelings as trivial.
So no matter how bad he might have been...he thinks that, perhaps, he might still have deserved better than this.
The only visual cue that anything is bothering Claude, of the shock and hurt that ripples through him, is a certain stiffness as he tenses up. Only a close observer would pick it up. Geralt will be able to scent his growing unease, however - and, most likely, the sudden slap of shock and hurt that follows that last volley of Jaskier's. Then it sours into something that's not quite bitterness, but not definably anything else, either. (But, if the blackest, most fatalistically amused example of 'well, it it was it is' had a smell, that would be the nasal bouquet the witcher is being treated to.) What Geralt interprets any of this as is anyone's guess, of course.
Claude simply stands still for a moment after Jaskier's finished speaking, before he puts on one of his most practiced public smiles.] I'm sure it will take all four of them to fill the space you've left, Jaskier. [Easy, practiced flattery, with no real feeling at all behind it. Public humiliation only works if you're not in control of the perceptions of others. All he has to do is sell the illusion that he's in control, unruffled, that nothing is happened, and it will be true. Or true enough as makes no difference to anyone but him.
He knows this game better than he knows himself. On some levels, this game shaped 'himself'. Jaskier won't beat him at it.]
I would've offered to end our arrangement myself, but obviously that's not needed. [Since his input didn't matter, and wasn't sought.] So I'll just wish you both all the happiness I've always wished you.
[And then, taking a step back, he bows slightly. This is completely uncharacteristic; everyone here knows him to be a king now, and even if they didn't, Claude just generally has never bowed to people. He's not that formal with people.]
So if you'll excuse me...
[He almost adds 'my lords'. He comes so close, his lips almost form the words. A cat's claw strike at Jaskier - a needle shooting out, and hidden again almost before the blood runs. It wouldn't be a betrayal; there are multiple lords in attendance. Only Jaskier - and perhaps Geralt - know that Jaskier can technically lay claim to the title, too...and only Jaskier (and, again, perhaps Geralt) would read the depths of Claude's displeasure into it, that he'd reference something Jaskier keeps so secret in such a spiteful way.
But no. Even on a level with so much plausible deniability carefully padded in, Claude won't treat Jaskier's secret so cavalierly. He doesn't necessarily feel Jaskier deserves better than that right now; rather, he won't stoop to that level. He won't intentionally try to hurt someone he's considered a friend, even subtly, when they're not actually forcing his hand.
He can take worse than this.
He turns on his heel and walks away, heading for where he's left Wyvern and Mori. As he does, he focuses on his breathing, on calming his mind. If he had a pokédollar for every time he's had to do this today...well, he'd have two pokédollars, but it's weird that it's happened twice. The first time he's needed to do this since he arrived, and now twice in one day.
(It's not even going to be the last time today.)]