citylogs | [ closed ] out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field

[ apartments, says alhaitham, tossed like an ultimatum. kaveh stares. it follows, kaveh thinks, that alhaitham would pick the most generic of buildings to scrape the skies here in a city that wends a little like a post-modern maze. part of kaveh wants to attribute this to alhaitham being difficult, and he likely is - but also, this is alhaitham. a waste of kaveh's time is also a waste of alhaitham's time, time that isn't spent figuring out the inner workings of a world that he knows is likely piquing all kinds of interest in the back of alhaitham's mind, and so this puzzle has a set solution. kaveh begins to think.

from the quick aerial survey that kaveh performed on the roof of the tallest building he could find and climb earlier in the day, there are ten obvious apartment buildings meant to house individuals - five in what kaveh is calling the round district and four in the district that looks a little like a toothless avidyan spinocrocodile. kaveh does not know when alhaitham arrived, but he surmises it can't have been too long apart from his own arrival lest kaveh would have noticed that his roommate hadn't been around for some time. a general search pattern typically blooms out in a spiral shape starting from the centre, but this is alhaitham, who is known towards the eclectic, and would know that, thereby actively circumventing it so that he's able to find what nobody wants him to find. but this is also alhaitham, who can't be bothered to move the mint plant out of the way in the hallway when making his way to the bathroom in the morning, so whichever apartment he picked can't be too far out of the way. kaveh consults the sketch of the thematic map he'd scribbled down in his sketchpad. there is a confluence of two of those large underground tunnels that house the trains in the east quadrant of the round district, because why would you walk if you could test the transportation network at the same time? they corral two apartments equidistant to station tracks. of the two, the chances of alhaitham being in either one seems equally likely.

the rest: kaveh searches on foot. the first lobby is empty. climbing each floor to peer into the long length of empty hallways just in case obtains nothing, though kaveh considers and discards the possibility that alhaitham's sitting in a room somewhere because this is a solvable puzzle. it's fifteen minutes later - forty minutes in total of searching - that kaveh walks in through the sliding doors of the next apartment complex, and groans at the sight of alhaitham sitting on a cushioned couch in the lobby. with a book, because of course there is a book. ]

And there's you. [ it hadn't been a significant amount of walking, but kaveh lets natural dramatics fuel the flop of his limbs as he sits down heavily next to alhaitham. his legs sprawl. the weight of his body is caught by the backwards push of his arms. kaveh tips his head up towards the ceiling, and sighs. ] You could have been a bit more descriptive. Apartments? Really? There are at least ten of those; even a directional heading would have been better. If it had taken more than an hour, I would have left you here.

[ but there's relief there as kaveh stretches his legs, his head canting just so so that he observe the line of alhaitham's silhouette. he seems well; if he's gotten into any fights, kaveh can't tell, which, all in all, might be a good sign. ] What book is that? One of yours, or one of the ones from here?

Edited 2023-07-15 22:11 (UTC)

[There's always a book.

Which he doesn't look up from as Kaveh hits the doorway, because Kaveh will make his presence known the moment he spots Alhaitham. Anyone else going through those doors, he doesn't really care about.

When Kaveh sinks down in the seat beside him, he finally closes the book with one hand while tapping alive the screen of his phone to check the little clock in the corner.] Hm, you managed with about twenty minutes to spare. Congratulations.

[No comment on Alhaitham's utterly vague directions. There was, of course, no way he could possible make things too easy for Kaveh, especially not at what he considers to be the leisurely pace of an hour.

He tilts his head, looking sideways at Kaveh's face.] I found it here.

[He bends his wrist, offering what he was just reading to take--or rather, what he couldn't read. While all of the pages look ordinary on a quick glance, the text itself is strangely indecipherable.]

Edited 2023-07-15 22:46 (UTC)

[ congratulations, alhaitham says. in response: the advantages of being face-to-face is that an eyeroll can be patently observed. kaveh makes good use of his physical proximity to make that know with a vengeance, but the context of skill (?) isn't worth remarking upon when there are far more salient mysteries to unravel. alhaitham holds out his book, and kaveh immediately skims it. the rise of his eyebrows correspond logarithmically to the amount of time he spends looking at gibberish.

fascinating, and concerning. the lean of his body takes him into alhaitham's personal space; kaveh disregards it entirely to reach forward and flick forward a few pages in case this strange phenomenon is isolated to only the page alhaitham's looking at. spoilers: it is not. ]

What is this? This is no alphabet that I'm even passingly familiar with, but I'm no Haravatat. Code?

[And Alhaitham sinks back into the seat as Kaveh leans forward, giving him the space to flip through the pages when he decides he isn't going to just take the book.

He shakes his head.] There's not a pattern consistent enough to suggest even basic grammatical structure, so I doubt it's anything more than gibberish. But considering most of the books and records I found were completely blank instead, it stuck out.

[He'll surely hold onto the book even if it seems fruitless now. There must be some rationale for why this one in particular has even a facimile of language rather than emptiness that serves to fill the space elsewhere.

Also, like, there's nothing else to even try to read. He's an Alhaitham without books. What is he going to do in a week.]

If it were anyone else saying that, I'd have told them to look twice - but if it's you saying that... [ kaveh trails off, letting the unspoken implication hang between the two of them, because both of them know that alhaitham's gift with languages could have at least pinpointed the existence of code if it so, well, existed. and if it didn't, then whatever this is is something else entirely, and that begets more questions than it begets answers. ] But who would go out of the way to print gibberish? Well, more gibberish than usual, I'm not counting the recent papers that came out of the Vahumana publishing authority, because I didn't think some of them knew what a cogent argument was if it chased after them and bit them in the ankle. Do you think this is deliberate, or some kind of a weird warping effect?

[ and then kaveh's brain catches up with him. the look he gives alhaitham is a little helpless, perhaps dawning on something like existential horror as the real implications sink in: what on earth is alhaitham going to occupy his mind and hands with if most of the books found were blank and the other ones are like this? and, more relevantly to kaveh, what's going to keep alhaitham beyond getting bored enough to get into trouble beyond documented compare? kaveh thinks he feels a miniature aneurysm coming on, but it's a little early for that sort of thing.

kaveh grimaces, and finally retreats back into his space with a breath much in the way of a sigh. ] They had me fill out what seemed to be a survey on the underground vehicle. Did you have to do that?

[Kaveh did often say Alhaitham could stand to put his books down and socialize with other people more often. Unfortunately, Alhaitham is going to proceed to do everything but that.

But that's a problem for future Kaveh and Alhaitham, because present Alhaitham at least has new information to turn over in his mind that doesn't require cause trouble elsewhere.]

The doors wouldn't open until I did. I'm sure the answers to it are important to whoever is behind this. [So, yes. His gaze flickers over the page Kaveh's left the book at.] I think all explanation about this place is being deliberately obscured from us, but I haven't been here long enough to find the real difference between what's unwritten and what's this. [He gestures with the book for emphasis.] It could just be another distraction... but if it is, we seem to have plenty of time to figure it out.

[Of course, only Alhaitham could retain such an unhurried attitude when plucked away into some sort of eerie faux-city.] So what's your assessment of the City so far? You took long enough that you must have noticed oddities about it.

[ look, the last time kaveh left alhaitham unsupervised, he toppled a government. the look that kaveh gives alhaitham as the topic slides by is of faint, abject suspicion. but he allows it as he turns the latest question over in his head, again and again, like a dog with a bone. ]

Long enough. Please, anyone else would have taken three times as long to walk through the corridors of your convoluted logic to figure out where you are and when you are. Better yet, they wouldn't even have bothered to try. [ kaveh leans back. if a motion can be petulant, this is what it exudes. but aggravation aside, alhaitham's consistent steadiness in the face of the shifting unknown has always been something kaveh has reluctantly drawn strength from, for better or for worse. the world upends, a new dimension opens up, people apparently can't die, and alhaitham still has a book in hand. there wasn't a lot you could complain about that.

kaveh stretches, pulling his head from side to side as he works out a tense kink from the knots of muscle along his neck. ] Is there anything that isn't odd about this city? It's obviously designed for a population that is no longer here, the signs of life seem to evaporate at a very specific time not too long ago in the past, and it's as if time stopped there. There isn't enough dust accumulation anywhere to suggest the natural flow of time, even in places where a population wouldn't necessarily clean on the regular, like on top of a chandelier.

[ the chandelier is a long story. don't @ at him. ] Moreover, there's a rumour that people don't die here. You haven't been looking at your device, have you?

[Hey now, the govnerment had it coming.

There is the minute quirk of his brow as Kaveh mentions the chandelier. Of course Kaveh would end up preoccupied with the lighting somehow.]

Hmph. You think I overlooked it entirely until you went scrolling through a list of contacts for my name? [Though it's true that he's skimmed and diregarded most of what people have decided to ask, like if they're dead. That's a ridiculous mental exercise.

But people don't die here. Supposedly, but if that's true another piece of the puzzle clicks into place.

Alhaitham folds the book closed and sets it down on his leg, leaning forward slightly as he turns his head to face Kaveh properly.] Can we be sure there ever was a population here? What culture would never leave traces of their history behind with their language or records?

No culture would. [ kaveh asserts, because he doesn't need to be vahumana to know that culture persists despite and in spite of whatever calamity that befalls them. it persists in language, in history, in story, in architecture, in food, in whatever iota it could grasp onto as it is carried through the merciless crucible of time.

but that's the thing - kaveh follows the line of alhaitham's logic, and then, releasing his handhold on it, leaps. ] But we're in agreement that there is someone reading those surveys, which means the written word would need to be kept for them to read it. The device keeps a record of text from everyone on the network as well. I'll continue to monitor it, but nothing seems to be deleted as far as my memory goes, unless something is altering my memory - but then we'd have bigger things to worry about. My point is: doesn't this speak of control? Information on a network is similar to information on the Akasha network, and we both know how the dissemination of information was controlled back then; in contrast, the written word is more difficult control, which is why the Akademiya used to ban books all the time.

So the books are erased, but the network remains. Isn't someone just controlling the history of this place? And why would they need to control it unless there was a population here to begin with?

The Akademiya banned books and controlled access through the Akasha because Sumeru is a real place with centuries of real history. It would be impossible for them to cover every single piece of evidence of what was there before, and so the sages relied on people's complacency to trap them in an informational bubble. To not only remove every piece of information, but replace it with blank props? That's extrenuous if the point is to hide what came before.

[He waves his hand out before folding his arms.] Someone out there is trying to control at least the population here now. Cages may be designed to look like the natural world, but they're still artifical bars for keeping things in. The Akasha was also used to trap the people of Sumeru in a recurring dream after all, if we're drawing comparisons.

[What seems inexplicable as a quirk of this place starts to make more sense if it's not actually a city at all, but a set piece.]

[ alhaitham's hand waves. kaveh's gaze follows without seeing. the points made make sense - it's akin to saying that the effort needed to erase civilisation surpasses the benefit gained if there had been something to erase entirely. why have a cage prepared reusing an used 'set' if a new one can be created devoid of all the incriminating bits of information? but resources-wise, is that really more efficient?

alhaitham calls it a cage. kaveh thinks of the pristine buildings, the carefully prepared apartments, and the little bits and pieces of life that still clings to its veneer. ]

I see your logic. [ kaveh says, because alhaitham has a way of explaining things that germinates his ideas in the back of your mind. it makes sense. there has to be more, kaveh thinks: ] But if this were an artificial cage created solely for its current new inhabitants, then some details are extraneous. For example, in the clothing stores, there are clothing of all types, trims and colours; there was a dress on a rack that had a single stitch out of place, a bit of black that bled into red. The apartments too; some of the ones I've sifted through had photo frames that weren't empty - they merely had scenery so generic that it begs the question who was standing in front of it to make it worthwhile for a Kamera to record it. If this were a mere artificial cage, would someone bother to create all these little details? Could even a group of people create details so compelling to speak of a life that people didn't live?

Did you go through every dress on the rack to find one missing a stitch? [But this is the reason Alhaitham will tell Kaveh only about his current running theory. Who else could he expect to grasp its gravity and have noticed the details that could be used to poke holes into it?

He doesn't need to convince people of his stance. He needs the mirror that makes him reflect and refine it.]

I saw photographs like that in the apartment I've claimed as well. They're in a drawer now. [Because, frankly, they were kind of creepy.] If this were someplace intangible, like a dream, then the waste of raw materials to create such details wouldn't be a concern. Instead the space could subsist on the memories and imagination of those who are fueling it. The sages used the day of the Sabzerus Festical as the base for their dream harvesting, but there wasn't a point where a population may have been removed or replaced.

[What would that have looked like? Without the people of Sumeru sustaining it, would it also wash out to a more generic slate? They're never going to find real anwsers for that now.]

Hey, now. All the stitching was so even that I went through it wondering if it was possible for whatever that wove them to make mistakes. [ but kaveh's attention shifts. he hadn't been there for sabzeruz. the details of that day - or, well, that entire debacle, really - had been told to him in such disparate little pieces and often through tighnari's entirely disapproving filter that kaveh still isn't entirely sure of the sequence of events that went down that day, and getting details out of alhaitham is like pulling teeth out of an avidyan spinocrocodile.

a dream, however. kaveh frowns. ]

And nothing here corresponds with our understanding of Teyvatian elemental theory, so it means that if this were a dream fueled by raw memory and imagination, it would have to be by people from a civilisation that isn't like ours. [ there isn't anything that contradicts this theory, kaveh thinks. or rather, to begin with, if this is the case, neither of them are in a position be able to see the contradiction. ] I'm still not yet convinced, but it's more convincing than all of this being built from scratch for the sole purpose of making us feel eerie. Our next step is to find people who are familiar with the make-up of a civilisation like the one we're supposedly inhabiting now, and see if they see any inherent contradictions that can be explained with or without dreams.

[Alhaitham is loathe to admit that he genuinely had not seen through the samsara, and hadn't realized what occurred until the scholars involved, and the Traveler, corroborated the truth. But he may have abused his Acting Grand Sage privileges to gain access to Azar's records on their god plan before that information was locked away. He's not about to admit that though.

He nods once for affirmation.] Then should I leave interviewing everyone else trapped here to you? You're the sociable one.

[The friendly one. The generally likable one.]

Edited 2023-07-16 02:40 (UTC)

[ the generally likeable one. kaveh makes a face, because the arguments sort of make themselves: if you had to compare alhaitham and kaveh, and people tend to do so given their general proximity and tendency to operate as a duo when both of them happen to be in town at the exact same time, one would comparatively say that kaveh is more friendly and more sociably. the keyword being comparatively. it's always about comparison and scale. one could compare an avidyan spinocrocodile to a riboshland tiger, and come out with the conclusion that the riboshland tiger was both warmer and more gregarious.

alhaitham excels at interviews, kaveh knows. get him in an room with anyone, and only cyno would be better at stripping their head of all available information, if only to get alhaitham out of the room again. but approaching people who have ample chances to escape? kaveh looks. ]

Don't foist it all onto me just because you don't want to talk to anyone, Alhaitham! [ because he knows u!!!!!! with faint exasperation: ] At least help identify people who may be relevant to talk to. You read and listen just fine.

[Alhaitham huffs out a laugh as Kaveh goes through the argument in his own head and comes around--but not without some protest.] Sure, I'll read all those posts again and make you a list.

[Or he'll make a solicitation post directing people to contact Kaveh if the architecture here is familiar. As long as he anticipates it, it's fine, right.] As for me, aside from helping sort through all of that information you're going to collect, I'll continue to look for inconsistencies in this place. If it is real, then people aren't infalliable. They would have slipped up somewhere.

Maybe you'll be the one counting stitching next.

[ but there's a satisfied ring to that determination. it's a plan towards a way forward. who knows where it will lead, but it's not as though alhaitham and kaveh hadn't done worse. though the last research project they had worked on jointly had ended in a way whose ripple effects can still be felt today.

kaveh's head tilts. he picks at a clip that's falling astray, and then, with a flick of his fingers, undoes it so that he can gather the blond swathe of his hair up and out of his face. ] So you've claimed an apartment? Which one? In this building?

I wouldn't waste my time. [Because the truth is Alhaitham wouldn't have put enough stock in the qualtiy of the clothing to review every stitch and realize their odd uniformity. That is a priority uniquely Kaveh.

Alhaitham knows well what they're capable of together--they both do, in fact. The way it ended, however, is something turned over only once in his mind before being put to rest. The stakes this time are different. The situation is uncomparable. The end could be the same, because Kaveh will not release his sacrificing ways once he's put his mind to it and Alhaitham won't value strangers left behind if an escape comes only for them (and Tighnari and Cyno). But there's no point in worrying about the potential before they've even begun to unravel the mystery.

To Kaveh he offers a single nod.] This building on the third floor. They're free for the taking, like everything else.

[ a non-committal hum. kaveh's hands carve through his hair. he pulls out a few more clips; the red, wooden bits collect in his lap as he systematically unravels and winds his hair into something that clears the tugging discomfort gathering along his scalp. this building on the third floor - there's no need for a room number. kaveh has the unfortunate sense that the moment he steps into that hallway, he's going to know without a shadow of a doubt which room alhaitham has claimed for his own. there's a discomfort in his certainty. kaveh lets it rest.

instead, after a moment: ]

I don't have a debt here, Alhaitham.

[Alhaitham's gaze locks on Kaveh as he falls into silence, and doesn't stray once from him while he runs his fingers through his hair to adjust the style. It's his full focus dedicated to a puzzle of complex and nuanced pieces--look away, and he might miss seeing the most important component.]

You don't. Or rather, your debts don't matter here. [As far as Alhaitham can tell, there isn't even a currency that could trap him in a debt. It isn't true freedom, trading one shackle for another...

But this shackle doesn't tie him to Alhaitham's roof. That, he is painfully aware of.]

[ point. kaveh's head cants in the form of graceful acquiescence. it's the sort of nuance that a haravatat would appreciate, the kind of gap between words that split them from phoneme to etymon, teasing out the fragments of mirror shards that make up its meaning. but for a kshahrewar, who deals in stone and lumber and paint mixing ratios, a ledger is a ledger whether dyed in red or black.

alhaitham already knows the unsaid. kaveh breathes out. ]

Well, if Dori shows up on the next train, it'll be a different sort of debt. [ though the lack of currency means that there's a void to be filled. economic measures may value other things in a world where resources seems to replenish. but they don't know if it will all replenish. in that uncertainty, value can be created, and kaveh knows how easy it is to exploit it. ] Honestly, the first thing I did when I realised where I was, or rather - where I wasn't - and who was or wasn't here, I found a park and laid in the grass. Perhaps my shoulders felt a bit lighter. Nobody here knows who I am, yet, either.

[Yet, because even without the Palace of Alcazarzaray, without debts, without Sumeru, Kaveh was not given the title of Light of Kshahrewar for anything but his own merit. Like all living things are drawn to the sun, perhaps Kaveh making a name for himself is inevitable.]

And? Would you make yourself known once again as an architect?

[It's not a priority. Making a life in this place isn't even the twentieth thing on Alhaitham's mind. But are these not questions Kaveh will ask himself anyway, if in the dead of night instead of sitting in the lobby in front of him?]

Well, there's nothing wrong with being an architect, right? Everyone has a profession to call their own, and I've been introducing myself as that; it's second nature, almost.

[ it has always seemed to kaveh that alhaitham sees too much. there had been a time where two individuals had coexisted at the akademiya. there were days of shared exams, early mornings of dragging each other out of beds to make it to classes and late evening discussions on rooftops over existential structures. there were meetings in the back gardens where the rambutan trees bloomed profusely at certain times of the year. there were shared meals, and shared arguments, and shared growth. and then there hadn't.

kaveh has always been too little himself, and too much himself when alhaitham shares the same picture frame. he looks at him, and knows the substance of the question being proposed. they're in the lobby instead of under the stars at midnight, and kaveh asked and is asked - who is kaveh? what will he be?

it's not a question to which an answer will come easily, though kaveh suspects that if you asked alhaitham the same question, alhaitham would have something ready. something unshakeable, a conviction beyond judgment. kaveh looks up. his lips quirk, perhaps a little helplessly. ]

So... I ought to find an apartment, then. I've always wanted one with a view. Some of these towers go up quite high, and I've been wondering how they managed to build it like that.

[It could be said Kaveh condemned himself to be seen too much by Alhaitham the day he dared approach him in the House of Daena. What else was he, a man who seeks to know simply for the sake of holding knowledge, meant to do when someone as paradoxically false and sincere as Kaveh decided to walk into his life? And in his years of solving the puzzle known as Kaveh though shared meals, shared arguments, shared growth, Alhaitham ceded too much of himself in turn.

He hums, a sound that hovers in the middle between affirmation and inevitability. There's nothing wrong with being an architect. Kaveh could make himself into anything he wanted. His nature will make him walk the same path over again as if the choice wasn't there at all.

Alhaitham scoops the book in his hand just before stands.] You might as well see it.

[The apartment he's staying in.] Since I'm sure you'll need to know. I wasn't picking through them before I decided, but it has two bedrooms.

[It's not an offer in the same way that Kaveh would never ask. Alhaitham has no rationale to argue except that they were roommates in Sumeru, and so could be roommates again. The details of which are too vulnerable to admit. So he'll leave Kaveh to make the choice based on conjecture alone.]

[ hasn't it always been like this? kaveh asks without ever asking; alhaitham offers without ever offering. but the scoop of the book into alhaitham's hands is like the ring of a bell, the chime of a clock at midnight.

kaveh looks, and, because he is kaveh, allows a wry smile to creep up along the corners of his lips. he stands as well. the last clip is pressed and twisted into the back of his hair, and with whatever pent-up energy that has been dispelled in the last five minutes, he stretches up to his tip-toes. ]

Hah! I was wondering when you'll invite me to take a look. I'd like to see what you have, or rather, haven't done with the place. [ it's natural to do so. kaveh slides in next to alhaitham, step-for-step. the elevators are fifteen paces away. ] Do you even know which exposure you have? Forget it, I'll take a look myself.

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