[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]

[So squeezy. Alhaitham shifts his hold, threading fingers between each other and gripping tight with the indent of fingertips to the back of Kaveh's hand.]

It matters to you, doesn't it? [That Alhaitham knows him. That Alhaitham has seen to deep, has dug his fingers in to pull the depths of Kaveh up from the dirt.]

[fussiest]

[ alhaitham's fingers slip into the valleys of kaveh's. kaveh worries his half-bitten nails in turn, picking at the jut of alhaitham's knuckle. ]

Of course it does. [ kaveh's breath catches. ] ... it matters to a lot of people.

[ of being known. of being known by alhaitham. ] You must know it. And must have seen it - isn't it the mortifying ordeal of being known?

[justscribing]

Then who are you suggesting it doesn't matter to?

[A question for a question. It matters to a lot of people. It matters to Alhaitham, who has always been difficult to know in purpose. Who does not give himself freely not out of a sense of shame but to maintain the distance between himself and the masses. It has kept many, many people from ever trying.

Alhaitham asks of the one person who knows him far more than anyone else.]

[fussiest]

[ kaveh looks. the question is like a rock flung against the battered shore. of course it matters to alhaitham. this argument is a nested doll. the underlying premise must, then, be one of care.

there is a second layer. kaveh asks - a question for a question: ]

Does it matter to you that you know?

[ that alhaitham knows kaveh - that he knows that kaveh has killed everyone that has ever had the misfortune of being loved by kaveh. ]

[justscribing]

[It's all in what they don't say, really. What they refuse to say. The question isn't whether it matters to Alhaitham. Kaveh knows it does. Kaveh knows Alhaitham would not put his considerable attention into something that does not matter to him. Kaveh is not asking if it does.

Kaveh is asking why it does.

It's in the things they refuse to say. But in the dim lights of the mall, hasn't Kaveh admitted it first?]

Of course. ["I can't lose even a fraction of you, Alhaitham."] You have always mattered.

[fussiest]

[ kaveh thinks - but the rejoinder is obvious, isn't it? why is the question. it is a 'why' born from the words 'shouldn't. and why should it? hadn't kaveh said so himself? he is merely kaveh. and he has done things that disqualify him from mattering to anyone save himself.

but the question, like those words of thanks that ought to come so long ago, don't come. they don't come because this is alhaitham - because this isn't merely alhaitham. kaveh's hand is limp in alhaitham's. and then - a squeeze. something like the quiet acknowledgement of a flower bud at dawn. ]

... if we take a right, here, we will find the exit.

[justscribing]

[It's amazing what can be said in the warmth of their palms. It is not a rejection. It is not the full of it, but it is the smallest sprout that has been spared by Kaveh's flame to have the chance to bloom.]

Then we go right. We've found everything worth coming here for already.

[fussiest]

[ but the only thing you found, kaveh thinks, is kaveh. he breathes. kaveh takes the first step forward. ]

Let's go.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham lets his following steps speak the agreement for him. They leave, hand-in-hand.

The only thing he found, the only thing worth finding, was Kaveh.]