[OPEN]

[justscribing]

WHO: (justscribing) & you!

WHAT: October Catch-All (open + closed)

WHERE: Poison garden, University, Around

WHEN: all through October

WARNINGS: TBA + marked in threads as necessary




OPEN PROMPT LINKS [UPDATED AS ADDED]

Poison Garden

University

Feel free to reach me by PM or plurk (monochromic) if you want to plot for something specific!

Comments

[justscribing]

Are you going to admit your own recklessness, or do you really believe you gave more thought to investigating this place than I did?

[fussiest]

In truth, I didn't want to come. This is clearly another one of the traps laid by the city for its compulsions; the best that can be done for the place is to wall up the front and be done with it. I have all the firebrick to achieve it, even.

[justscribing]

Do you think this place would let you? [He tilts his head. It's a needless question: it wouldn't, and it might put him in handcuffs for his trouble.] It's better we're aware now that the stakes have changed, because this won't be the last time.

[That people are compulsed into action. That now their bodies can be twisted along with their minds. That nothing is safe, or sacred.]

Tsuruno and Robby have had a similar idea of avoiding the next change in the city. They plan to throw some sort of party, I believe.

[fussiest]

[ there's an answer on the tip of kaveh's tongue. as usual, the tip of kaveh's tongue is swallowed in the act. it's swallowed in guilt. it's swallowed in contrition. who wouldn't be humbled, kaveh thinks, as his expression softens. ]

... that would do it. The boredom and inherent unease of the place drives people towards the odd and the uncanny. But having something of a distraction helps, doesn't it? It takes away that edge of it. Keeps it manageable.

[ ... it's cold, what sinks in. ] And if this place punishes them for it, I wouldn't be surprised either. An experiment can't run if there is a confounding factor.

[justscribing]

They've considered that. In addition to the distraction, they're curious if it'll earn any retaliation.

[They're smart kids. Put most older adults than even him to shame in his opinion.] They'll let me know the specifics when they have them. They want to keep it word of mouth, so you'll have a lot of running around to do if you want to help.

[fussiest]

[ pride swells in him. kaveh looks. ]

I'll ask Tsuruno to see if she'd like a pair of meddling hands in it, but if she and Robby has it handled, then this is something they will see through.

Ah, but have you volunteered your services already?

[justscribing]

I volunteered to tell you. [Of course he's not going to help set up a party. He's not even going to attend.

But he may stay home, if the university is simply another mall. That is similarly an act of refusal.]

[fussiest]

[ kaveh gives alhaitham's hand a squeeze. it's not a friendly squeeze. ]

Lazy. By word of mouth, did they strictly mean so? Surely this could be a good time to introduce the Haravan script, have it be a pilot round for a proper code to pass along pertinent information.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham squeezes back.] Their intention is to keep it off the network. I suspect our experimenters will know what's happening anyway, but the precaution doesn't hurt in this case.

Do you need copies of the chart?

[fussiest]

If I said no, you'd simply absolve yourself of all responsibility. No, make three copies. What else was your training in archival work good for? Your handwriting is one of your few good points.

I'll pass on the information. Whether they use it or not is up to them, but it never hurts to have it as an option. We've so little of it here anyway.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham hums. He spares a glance down at their joined hands. Kaveh's is warm in his.

They have so little options here.]

Fine. [Since he's not using any of that training for anything more productive. Like helping the bookstore.]

[fussiest]

Good. [ says kaveh, whose hand is still in alhaitham's. the flowers sway. they bloom profusely, as if soaking in the fragrance of a late spring. kaveh thinks -

and nearly says -

but doesn't say - ]

I do so hate it here, Alhaitham.

[ 'thank you'. ]

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham looks.

Though he never did anything for gratitude-]

I know. ['You're welcome'.]

Don't tell me it's because it's making us hold hands now. You used to drag me around like this all the time.

[And often by his wrist, when he refused to release whatever book he was holding.]

[fussiest]

You were easier to drag, back then. [ says kaveh, warming to the nostalgia. ] Smaller, more compact. You never went anywhere unless you were dragged, and when you got there, you never moved.

They called you a lunatic, but what they should have called you was a sea urchin.

[justscribing]

We couldn't both be urchins. [Kaveh warms. Alhaitham's expression, too, warms.] And you've never been good at keeping still.

[fussiest]

They did also call me the urchin of the Kshahrewar. [ with a wry quirk. ] You disagreed?

[justscribing]

Should I have? [His head tilts with the silent baiting.] Which one do you think suits you better: urchin or light?

[fussiest]

Neither.

[ it has always been this answer. it is said with the lofty air of a prophet long-past, ] You know this, and I know this. I'm neither suited to being an urchin or a light. I've no rocks to cling to when the world insists on shifting beneath my feet. And I barely know the shape of my own path forward, let alone be able to illuminate it for anyone else. Absurd.

I am, and will always be, merely Kaveh.

[justscribing]

[Neither, Kaveh asserts. Both, Alhaitham rebukes. Because Kaveh glints with wayward starbursts. Because Kaveh burns like a sun descended to the earth, a brightness that demands the attention of those to witness the purity of its passion. No mortal could resist seeking its ever present warmth. And Alhaitham is only mortal.

Kaveh nurtured dreams from soil in a land that killed them. What else could he be called, if not light? What else could cause the burns on Alhaitham's heart for having dared to get too close, if not light?

... And for urchin, well--] But they were certainly using the definition of a misbehaving child for you. Do you deny it?

[fussiest]

- everyone wrote in the margins! They only singled out my annotations because they didn't like the way I criticised their way of thought, the kind that hasn't seen significant progress since the days of Kshahrewar's founding!

[ kaveh's free wrist rolls in the way of an grievance. it stills. kaveh looks, then looks away. ]

Enough about that. Alhaitham - ... [ ... kaveh's words bite off, severed where they stand. ]

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham is about to point out the issue was less the writing itself and more the content, up to and including leaving his personal sketches around.

But then Kaveh pivots the conversation. Then stops, cut off on his name. Alhaitham can't predict what that means.]

What?

[fussiest]

[ the silence swells. kaveh starts, as if to stop it. kaveh stops, as if to bury within it. for a moment, nothing comes.

and then: ]

How much... [ kaveh says, slowly, his gaze fixed on the roses across the maze. the red of them seems to bleed. ] did you hear? Earlier.

[justscribing]

Nothing I didn't already know. [Not quite a reassurance. As always, not quite.

But it's truth. It was nothing he didn't already know. That Kaveh holds himself responsible to every grief of his loved ones. Physical death of his father. Emotional death of his mother.

And after them, Alhaitham does not stand dead. He does not stand as loved by Kaveh.]

[fussiest]

[ kaveh still remembers his hands around alhaitham's throat, is the thing.

kaveh's fingers startle. in alhaitham's grasp, they are like live wires. they jolt in a way that suggests only their connection to alhaitham's hand prevents kaveh's feet from running. the adrenaline does regardless - the cold, sinking pall. kaveh opens his mouth. ]

You... know?

[justscribing]

[Kaveh jolts in a way much like a startled animal ready to run. Alhaitham on impulse squeezes tight, before remembering there's no reason for it and allows his grip to loosen back to a reasonable hold.] Does that surprise you?