[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

[fussiest]

Alright. Please, holding him still. [ efficiency states that if you mix seeds from each packet, a single go at it would likely present the solution. so kaveh mixes the seeds. there's a small, handful of a rainbow blooming in his palm as he watches with some trepidation cyno's careful hands work. alhaitham's jaw parts. he's had 15 breaths taken so far, kaveh estimates, it's only been about a minute. a minute isn't enough time for the human body to die off, or is it? he hadn't taken any basic amurta courses. kaveh desperately misses tighnari.

despite it all, his hands are remarkably still as he works alhaitham's still-warm lips open just enough to begin sifting seeds inside. it feels very much like feeding woodchips into a disposal unit and less like what a living human being ought to be like. the parallel is disconcerting. ]

Alhaitham, [ kaveh says, beneath a strained breath, ] just once in your life, don't be difficult.

[cashewlater]

[ .. but of course, he is difficult.

the seeds slip into his mouth, but as much as cyno attempts to work his jaw, there's simply no triggering alhaitham's reflex to swallow. cyno frowns, trying to tip alhaitham's chin back, then down, but nothing seems to be working.

he's so deep into unconsciousness that even the usual triggers don't apply. ]

Kaveh..

[ his usually even voice is shaken. ]

[fussiest]

[ kaveh looks. the seeds slip past. his fingers still. the swallowing reflex, kaveh thinks, as he reaches down to feel the long line of alhaitham's throat. he breathes. that is all he does. kaveh reaches for another packet of seeds. he rips it open with his teeth. he takes the seeds in his fingers, and crumples them. dust, and husk, and dust - the mixture is pressed against alhaitham's lips. kaveh turns his head to see.

his throat stills. the breathing continues.

kaveh breathes in. ]

Water may drown him. We may need a tube of some kind, but I'm not a doctor, Cyno. It may go down the wrong way, or puncture something in him. Alhaitham's ability to swallow is compromised. He may drown in his own blood.

[cashewlater]

[ if only tighnari was here.. he would know what to do, surely. cyno considers giving him a call, but - ]

Are we sure there maybe isn't some other solution?

[ but gods, he can hardly stand to see kaveh so distressed. with the hand not cradling alhaitham's head, cyno reaches to close his fingers over kaveh's knuckles, squeezing. ]

We'll figure this out. He'll be all right.

[fussiest]

[ kaveh's hands are that of an architect's. they have the requisite strength to drag kicking and screaming dreams into a reality where dreams go to die. they are callused hands and scarred hands - they are a workman's hands. they ought not tremble. when was the last time that kaveh did not have steady hands? kaveh thinks back to the day the notice came that his father had passed away. he remembers seeing the way his mother's pencils dropped from her hands. she had never managed to pick them up again, is the thing. in the moment, kaveh thinks - his will never stop trembling. he, too, will never draw again.

cyno's hand covers kaveh's.

little by little, the trembling begins to cease. it is absorbed into the weight of cyno's hands, warm and sure above his. no less tightly gripped, no less fierce - but it's cyno. cyno is warm. cyno is here. kaveh breathes. he breathes. he remembers to breathe. ]

Of course. He will be. He is Alhaitham. You and he overthrew a government in a scant few weeks' time, upended an entire social order without anyone knowing the difference. [ kaveh's hand shifts beneath cyno's. it flips to his palm. it squeezes cyno's wrist. ] Alhaitham will be alright. Perhaps if we can open his mouth - tip his head back.

[cashewlater]

[ cyno knows full well that kaveh would not want him to feel guilty, but that is so very much easier said than done. seeing alhaitham like this, seeing kaveh like this, and knowing it's his fault..

not to mention the bite - ]

Okay.

[ he doesn't know what he could possibly do to make it up to them, to make this better, but he'll have to find a way. an apology alone.. it isn't enough to make up for the look on kaveh's face, the haunted shadow in his eyes. for now, all cyno can do is nod, remain strong, and do whatever kaveh asks of him. tipping alhaitham's heavy head back again, cyno hooks a thumb in his mouth, carefully tugging it further open.. sorry buddy.. ]

[fussiest]

[ tipping the head back, kaveh recalls, is linked to some sort of reflexive mechanism in which the airway opens up. at this point, kaveh doesn't recall where or when this knowledge came about, only that it is. cyno tips alhaitham's head back. he ought not be so pliant in another's hands, kaveh realises. the thought comes as something of a terrible revelation. it sets the stage for what's to come, because since when has alhaitham ever been simple?

the seeds slip between his lips. they collect along his lips, the soft palate of his mouth. kaveh feels the long line of alhaitham's throat. nothing. ]

Truly, [ kaveh says, frustration building along the curl of his tongue, ] has there ever been a junior more obstinate than you?

[cashewlater]

[ alhaitham is well and truly unresponsive. cyno's heart sinks. there must be a way.. there was a way to cure cyno, after all, and alhaitham is not dead, nor does he seem to be actively dying. he's stable, but simply in.. a stasis of some kind.

there must be a way to reverse it.

but before cyno can say anything further, his head snaps up and he looks down the path away from the tea area. ]

Someone's coming.

[ cue midnight.. ]