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

[ kaveh eats. meat and onions; you couldn't get anything more simple. he'll have to be creative, kaveh thinks, with the limited range of ingredients they have. or he has. the discomfort lingers along the set rails of that thought: if he lives apart from alhaitham, it will be a singular 'i', rather than 'we'.

still: ]

The lack of books here will be an issue, though. That is, if all the books are like the ones you've found.

[Alhaitham stops. Wrinkles his nose. Proceeds with the next bite.]

Even without books, there's always practical discovery.

[But the bigger issue is: how quickly is Alhaitham going to get bored without a single piece of literature to read. Even a novel.]

[ ugh. ]

You're not suited for the practical. Or rather, this world isn't suited to you being practical. The last time you were practical about anything, you toppled a government. Our government.

Our government was building an artificial god. [And Kaveh, incapable of minding his own business, would have been leading the charge the minute the traveler walked across his path. Alhaitham doesn't call him out on that because he doesn't have to.] Cyno was there too, you know.

You mean at least Cyno was there. Cyno's trustworthy, and then there's you.

[ but there's far less censure there than there ought to be, kaveh thinks. it's hard to, when in the end, it did work out. kaveh breathes out in the way of a sigh. ] Still, did you ever find out what happened to the artificial god that they tried to make? They were nearly successful, weren't they?

The Traveler and Lord Kusanali dismantled it. Seems they had some idea of using human wisdom and a gnosis to power a mechanical suit. I'd guess our Archon has the gnosis now and the machine is a pile of scrap in some basement.

[Because, well, after you meet the Traveler you realize what chaos flows through their wake. And they surely didn't leave much of that fake god standing.] Whether you could call it nearly successful is debatable, but they did get extremely far in their plan. That they were able to hide it all the way to that stage...

[ alhaitham trails of. kaveh knows the traced lines of that silence. he's thought it himself in the aftermath: that the most powerful individuals in their country had been able to hide such a thing for such a long time beneath their noses. the thought is nearly unfathomable, until it became not so.

centuries of corruption. alhaitham had been instrumental in cleaning up its vestiges in the aftermath. in a way, alhaitham had sacrificed quite a bit of what made up his personal comfort for something that he had never asked for. ]

Well, you were able to follow its paperwork trail in the end. If there was anyone who was capable of it, it would've been you - and it was you. [ kaveh's fork scrapes his plate. ] Still, you had books to distract you back then, even. You don't have any such things right now. Don't get into trouble beyond documented compare, Alhaitham. I won't always be around to get you out of it.

[Really, it was a small enough sacrifice until he was admittedly blindsided by being put up as Acting Grand Sage. He understands the logic, but he just doesn't have the personality to tolerate that much responsibility or power. Luckily he's managed to discard most of it and return to being the Scribe with a little more infamy than before.

At that, Alhaitham snorts out a laugh.] Shouldn't I be saying that to you? Trouble might as well be your actual name with how often you find yourself in it.

[ alhaitham laughs. kaveh allows the egregious roll of his eyes to punctuate his words. ]

Says you. At least none of my trouble has ever involved having to break our god of out proverbial jail. You really have no right in calling anything I do trouble anymore in comparison. And before you say anything - yes, Alhaitham. It's always a matter of comparison and scale.

That's only because you were gallivanting in the desert. [He sets down his fork, propping his chin on his hand as he leans forward.] Had it not been for that, you would have certainly found yourself at the center of it.

[Because this is Kaveh, who is incapable of minding his own business.] And frequency is still an important metric.

[ there's nothing to say for that. kaveh knows his own measure. he knows that the building would've needed demolition if it the cage hadn't been opened on its own. he, too, props his hand on his chin, and leans. the distance between them is as it ever was: enough, just enough. ]

It is. As is severity. Or will you debate me on that as well?

Of course. [Fondness grips his smile, and he purses his lips to reel it in only a second later.]

To start, are we judging severity based on total consequences or personal risk?

Total consequences, obviously, because your sense of personal risk is broken. [ says kaveh, with the kind of droll you ought to reserve for someone who doesn't have a track record of changing the trajectory of your society as you know it. ]

Prepare your argument as I do the dishes. Did you get any of the liquid soap that they have here? The stuff is marvelous; it seems to strip the oils from whatever surface it ends up on.

Pot, kettle. [That phrase Kaveh does like to use.

Alhaitham gathers his plate to take it to the sink, but that's as much assistance as he's offering.] I did, but I also brought bar soap in case the efficacy was overstated. You're free to try it.

[It's lemon scent.]

Kettle, pot.

[ the scent of lemon overpowers. kaveh brings his own plate to the sink, and adds it to the insubstantial pile there. steel wool, it seems, is still used to scrub pans, though there's also this yellow and green thing that objectively falls under the category of 'sponge', but is made of material that kaveh has never seen or felt before. it's elastic under his touch, and provides a surprisingly good grip on the green side.

fascinating, this world. fascinating, that there exists a civilisation that lives like this. if this is a true civilisation. ]

Hm. I'll use the liquid soap today, then, and have the bar soap tomorrow. It's only a miniature experiment, but it'll do for an impromptu test.

[Kaveh is in the honeymoon phase of plastics, but wait until he learns about the ecologic damage.

Alhaitham makes a mental note to put one of the bars by the kitchen sink for Kaveh's little comparison. And some blank books and pens for notes that they can both use. They'll need it.

In the meantime, though, he leans against the counter with crossed arms and takes a moment to collect his thoughts.]

All right, here's my argument: you surpass me both in frequency and severity of getting into trouble and are using my part in stopping Azar's corrupt plan to skew your data. In measuring for an average you have to adjust your results to prevent such outliers from disrupting your results.

[And so the argument goes again, to the rhythm of Kaveh washing the dishes and Alhaitham, after letting them pile up enough, grabbing a towel to dry them off and put them away.

And when that's done it continues back into the sparse living room, conversation winding through the debate of what level of severity Alhaitham bullying a bunch of Eremites is until Alhaitham looks up at the singular analog clock on the wall and realizes--] Oh. It's almost midnight.

[That's a bit later than he'd usually sleep, but it has been an odd day.] We should turn in.

[ and so the argument goes again. the rhythm is set by the weight of kaveh's scrubs. alhaitham, half-way through kaveh's diatribe on the inherent problematic nature of merely eliminating outliers from social science datasets, steps in to dry. it goes like this, kaveh thinks, kaveh and alhaitham, shoulder-to-shoulder as they always were. alhaitham's house had been much like this. they had done this hundreds of times between them on days where their schedules aligned, when kaveh isn't off running to port ormos and back for a client revision, and alhaitham isn't caught up in the personal experimentations that is the hallmark of his true interests - they were like this, weren't they. even in an unfamiliar environment caged in stark lines of gray and solid, unassuming white, it's all too easy to fall back into a rhythm like this, as if nothing has shifted, or, indeed, changed.

it hadn't always been this way. it had always been this way. both can be true.

at the tailend of the argument, alhaitham notes the hour. kaveh looks. the clock itself, kaveh thinks, is a marvel. a little boring to look at, but the mere lightweight function of its hands mean that it's less likely to drift in time than other clocks. he ought to take it apart sometime soon, just to see if clockwork has evolved in a society like this. and then, kaveh's brain catches up to him. ]

Oh. [ he says. ] ... I suppose we ought to.

[ a leaden beat. and then: ] I will be staying in your guest room, then. There wouldn't be time to clean out another apartment at this hour.

[... Ah. Perhaps Alhaitham has taken for granted, in the familiarity, that the only thing that would change would be the scenery around them.

He is still, for a moment, statuesque in his apparent focus on the clock. And then his eyes shift sideways to Kaveh without the hint of disappointment.] I believe you're normally supposed to ask to stay guest in someone else's house. You could show some politeness and start with 'please'.

[Says the least polite man in Sumeru.]

[ the guilt settles, and then wars - kaveh's expression falters. the distraction carves through him and remains. ]

You- [ !!! ] did you forget who made you dinner today? If I were a proper guest, you should have been waiting on me hand and foot!

Hm, I recall you making that decision on your own. [Tact, who is they.

Amusement cracks his face for a second as he stands up.] And I'll be using the bathroom first.

[With that, he turns to go down the hallway. Bathe, sleep, and in the morning while there's still coffee and Kaveh he'll make sure to press the spare key into his hand on the excuse for if he ever needs Kaveh to get into his apartment when he's not there. Thereis no good place to hide it along an empty corridor.]

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

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