citylogs | [OPEN]

I've noticed the same. [ kaveh's nod is firm. ] That means the layout doesn't change, which means my mental map of the greenhouse is accurate. I have our heading.

[ kaveh's hand squeezes alhaitham's. this one, too, is not a friendly squeeze. ] Let's go. Before this maze decides that it ought to make the difficulty higher for some archons-forsaken reason.

All right. [A nod, once. Alhaitham's hold is firm as he lines himself up side by side with Kaveh.]

[ alhaitham holds his hand. kaveh looks. and then, the first step - wending, through the hedge proper. kaveh's mind navigates. regrettably, it takes so little to do so. ]

... really, though. You found me again. I'd almost wonder if you have a supernatural predilection for it.

I wouldn't need it. [He'd already know where to look. He has already been attuned to seek that red and gold when it flits across his vision. The habit is seared into his being.

They walk, shoulder-to-shoulder. Hand-in-hand.]

Have you checked the other areas of the greenhouse?

[ it's absurd, kaveh thinks, the kind of confidence that alhaitham can affect while saying some of the most ridiculous things. they walk, shoulder-to-shoulder, hand-in-hand, and kaveh lets out a breath that he hadn't even known he had been holding. ]

Not yet. I've been preoccupied. Though I'd been meaning to at least map out a few things, and take a look at the irrigation system. If this place operates on the same logic as everywhere else, the machinery should reappear even if they're taken away - but I don't want the plants here to wilt if I remove their lifeline.

[ ... kaveh makes a face. ] Though perhaps they'd deserve it a little.

[Almost a snort escapes him.] So they've offended you.

[Of course they did, not simply for Kaveh's secrets but the ones they ripped out raw and bloody of other people. Alhaitham doesn't know how many he's heard. He knows better than to ask.]

The other path is all carnivorous ones, and there's a suspicious tea party in the middle of a section of poisonous plants.

Of course they have.

[ because nobody had warned tsuruno. and tsuruno had been the one to warn him. kaveh thinks - guilt bleeds in different ways. culpability bleeds in different ways. his grip on alhaitha's hand tightens. ]

And given that it's suspicious, I'll bet people are drinking from it. [ ... ] You haven't, right?

I've recorded the results of other people drinking it. [But not, of course, himself. It was the urge being pressed into him to do so that turned him off the idea. If this place is pushing for it, he knows it isn't good.

He'll take full advantage of other people's stupidity though.]

Of course. [ kaveh breathes out. ] That's you.

And? What results are there?

The green tea causes a full body transformation into another creature. [Which is. New and alarming, frankly?

But this being Alhaitham, there is instead the slight quirk of his lips.] Tighnari learned that the hard way. For the record, he drank it before I found him.

Tighnari? Is he alright? [ kaveh's eyes widen, much in the way of saucers. the first hit of anxiety never quite comes. alhaitham had been with tighnari. he had to be okay. still, kaveh looks. ] And what did he transform into, exactly? And how could you tell the difference?

[ because tighnari is already a furry woodland creature in all but name. ]

He's fine now. He turned into a smaller fox. [A beat.] I have a picture.

[ ... for the first time since the entrance into the greenhouse proper, a little smile tugs at the corners of kaveh's lips. they've ceased walking. the flowers sway like condemnation. kaveh looks. ]

Taken at the risk of your life, I would assume. Well? Let me see it. This is the last great work you'll be known for, so you ought to have some kind of witness.

[They stop. Alhaitham is already reaching for his phone, holding it in view for Kaveh when he opens the gallery and clicks the most recent picture. A little blurry but still legible photo of a very small, cute, angry green fox.

Frankly, he thinks it's deserved for Tighnari being fool enough to drink the suspicious tea.]

[ alhaitham holds out his phone for kaveh's perusal. kaveh considers the picture there, forever memorialised - tighnari, angry enough that kaveh can nearly feel the nip of his bite from the other side of the screen. kaveh isn't certain if he feels sympathy, elation, or some kind of terror for whatever the consequences of this may be. perhaps the city has finally made its fatal error.

still: ]

Is he still like this? I wouldn't feel right calling him cute if we've a right crisis on our hands.

No. Consuming the right packet of seeds nearby reversed the effects. [So there's a known cure to this nonsense, at least, even if it's a little unsettling that they've escalated to being physically twisted in addition to the mental horrors.]

[ relief intermingles with unfettered amusement. kaveh looks again, with a little less guilt this time around. ]

Tell me the tale from the beginning. How did you happen across him, and how on Teyvat did the two of you figure out the nuances of the seed-eating?

I sat down to record other people's drinking when he sat down next to me, already like that. I don't know how long he'd been waiting. He was far too short to get up the cabinets to the right seed packet.

The seed packets are color coded to each tea, and among the variety of poisonous plants were the only thing to stand out.

[ alhaitham had sat down to record other people's effects. kaveh looks. ]

Of course you did. [ kaveh says, after a moment. ] Were there many others who fell to it? And what effects were there?

[Look, if other people are going to drink the tea he might as well make notes so they know the consequences and cures in the future, and for an awareness of what this place seeks to inflict them with.]

There's six: a red tea, yellow, blue, black, green, and orange. I don't know their flavors since the teas themselves aren't labeled. The black tea seems to change the material state of your body. It turned someone from being flesh to metal. The green tea turns you into an animal. The others I've yet to witness.

Also, being in the vicinity fills you with an urge to drink it. Not unlike the urge to talk about those mementos from the bank.

[If he was not made entirely of self control, he might've had an issue. But he's nothing if not stubborn.]

[ detailed, kaveh thinks. it's the sort of work that alhaitham excels at, the way that the details can be tweezed apart, recorded and witnessed. bound in ink and parchment. kaveh hadn't known any of these things. and to think tsuruno would have had to learn all of this in a way that took away her agency, were it not for those who experienced it first.

kaveh slowly shakes his head. ]

Given that you are neither an animal nor made of metal, it's good that you were able to resist that urge. Of anyone, it would be you. [ ... ] Wasn't there a story about this, however? A sailor out at sea wanting to hear the call of a monster, but not wanting to fall prey to it.

[Of anyone, it would be Alhaitham, who stubbornly refuses to be forced into what he doesn't want to do. Alhaitham, whose mind is always thinking of the now and later, of actions and consequences.

He looks sidelong at Kaveh.] Are you comparing me to the sailor?

I'm saying that perhaps that the sailor had the right of it, and you could use a bit of extra precaution. [ kaveh's brow lifts into the blond of his hair. ] Cuffed hands; I wouldn't even be opposed to helping you find a muzzle.

If you think I need to be tied and muzzled so I don't drink tea, then you must be planning to avoid that area entirely.

[The return quirk of a brow.] As a precaution.

You- [ kaveh, scowls, ] And here I was as your Senior, worrying, but clearly you've made it extraneous. I wouldn't drink that tea even without a pair of cuffs to my name.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject