[closed] 🌱🏛️ quiz, vol. 01

[indispensable]

Who: Alhaitham & Kaveh
Status: Closed :]
Where: Everywhere (wherever the prompts take them)
What: A pair of roommates get very busy in the month of February
Warnings: The warning you need in seeing two men pine for each other so hard they grow an entire forest.

&

FEBRUARY 2024

→ 🌱 a tale of birthday shenanigans
→ 🏛️ dragonapping aftermath
→ 🌱 treading grounds, both new & old
→ 🏛️ zombie mermaids, round 3

code | gifs

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FEBRUARY 11TH | BEAUTY BANDITRY

[indispensable]

[Despite the time that he has been here thus far, Naughtilust has never really been a place that has caught Alhaitham's interest in the slightest.

Certainly, he knows the existence of the place and yes, he knows why its there, but for him those things have more or less been nothing more than near-negligible information for him to have. Needs of a sexual nature have never been his top priority by any means, though he knows it is not the same for others. Kaveh, for instance, tends to be far more upfront with his desires from what he remembers—something that Alhaitham doesn't really quite experience, certain unnamed incidents notwithstanding.

...all of this is to say that this particular job that they have taken has been somewhat surprising on many levels—from the nature of the stolen goods to the discovery of the culprit himself, alongside his motivations.

Which now brings them to the present, as they are back to exactly where they've started: right smack in the center of Naughtilust itself, their culprit looking somewhat smug and pleased after voicing out his conditions for returning the stolen goods, as if convinced of the fact that he will have his way.

It's that, combined with the fact that Alhaitham at this point just kind of wants this job over and done with, that he simply says—] Sure.

[There is a pause now as the crowd that has gathered to watch this drama unfold find themselves caught off guard. Surely this supposed specimen of full on masculinity did not just agree to let himself be dolled up with make up? Most others like him would not at all!

A murmur breaks through the crowd now but Alhaitham pays it no mind, arms crossed over his chest as he waits to see how the other party wants to enact this supposed challenge of his.]

Somewhere between February 13th and February 18th | The Aftermath

[empyrean_mirror]

[So, look. After Kaveh got snatched by dragons a...few times it was generally agreed that he'd go back to Eltrut and stay put instead of being walking dragon-bait. Kaveh really only had a few token protests about it--in truth he felt pretty guilty about the mess, so he'd mostly been behaving himself by tinkering on a variety of projects.

But the pantry waits for no man. Kaveh has spent the morning looking through the cupboards to put together a list...surely it's fine if he doesn't go wake Alhaitham up, isn't it? Sure, he's still got the magic coffee cup ready and he's not intentionally hiding what he's doing but...it's just down the street? They need groceries?? It's surely fine, right?

...Right?]

Later that evening | Aftermath of an aftermath

[indispensable]

[Needless to say, the rest of the day does not go very well for Alhaitham.

Still, even if one were to actually ask him how the aforementioned day went, Alhaitham would not be able to answer. Though he does not shy away from emotions or have the desire to turn them away (he can never, not really—emotions are, ultimately, a core aspect of humanity), it does not necessarily mean that he understands them in the way that Kaveh does. His senior, perhaps, might have a name to this thorny, prickly sensation that rests in his gut and lodges itself in his throat, but Alhaitham does not. The only thing he knows is that how uncomfortable all of this feels, and how much he wants it gone as quickly as possible. Yet he knows the only solution to achieve that is Kaveh himself, to settle whatever it is that has come between them.

It is not the first time they have argued like this. It will not be the last time they will argue, either. Alhaitham knows better than to expect otherwise, and yet...

There has only been a handful of times when he'd felt this discomforting sensation, and when it comes down to it he hadn't really so much as 'resolved' them as much as putting them aside and making a note to not tread down that path again. But even he knows that is only delaying the inventible rather than actually fixing the issue. It might be fine for now, but its nowhere near a foolproof method; if this song and dance happens enough times eventually there'll be a time where every path might easily lead to a route that should be avoided and all of this will happen again.

But what else can he do? He doesn't want to end up saying or doing anything that will only serve to activate Kaveh's misplaced sense of guilt, even if he has been getting better about that since the Interdarshan Tournament. Since he'd come to known that he has nothing to blame about himself in regards to his father's death, and things between them had been getting better in some ways...

Perhaps... perhaps he can take a chance, somehow. Things aren't the same between them as they were before—that much he can recognize, and their time in this world thus far has changed things even further. Back in Sumeru there'd been undeniably some sort of status quo that the both of them hadn't touched upon, but since arriving here it'd undeniably shifted in ways he doesn't quite know how to describe. And not so long ago it'd all felt fine, and now—

The streetlamps flickering on nearby draw his attention out from the swirling recesses in his mind. The lamps turning themselves on mean that its already nighttime, which means he'd pretty much spent the whole day outside after having stormed out not long after his argument with Kaveh. There's certainly a level of hypocrisy here in where he'd ended up staying out the whole day after telling Kaveh to stay inside, but that hardly matters as much as everything else that still lingers in his mind.

Whatever the case, and despite his still uncertain feelings on the whole situation, Alhaitham doesn't want to end the day on a bad note. So he goes to the bar where he'd gone to pick up Kaveh in the past when his senior went drinking with Lyney (he'd still gotten the address saved, even until now) and buys a six pack of the wine he remembers Kaveh had been drinking the other time to bring back.

From there the walk back to the house doesn't take very long, even if mostly unfamiliar since the last time they were still living in the provided apartments. But he gets there, eventually, and its hard to ignore the way his heart pounds once the house becomes visible in the distance and gets closer with every step taken.

...running away is not something he ever intends to do, however, so Alhaitham resolves himself and walks that last bit of distance to the front door, opening it up with his keys and then stepping in before he can second guess himself. He shuts the door behind him once he's in, putting the six-pack down on the floor so that he can take out his footwear first before doing anything else.]

Near the End of February | 23rd-25th | Zombire Mermaids

[empyrean_mirror]

[Well, this was all probably a terrible idea.

The problem really was that the latest round of zombie mermaid sightings were, unfortunately, not far from their house, merely an hour or two boat ride from the nearest dock, and Kaveh, very reasonably (he feels) suggested they should probably deal with it themselves instead of waiting for them to migrate closer. Solve the problem, get the reward, absolutely do not get bitten, test the latest adjustment of Alhaitham's earpieces for seasickness before they have to go off on a grand adventure with Cid.

There's something else Kaveh would like to test, of course. He's not sure how well it'll work. Maybe if they're lucky he won't need to. But...well.

He is fiddling with something, as they head for the docks--Kaveh secured a boat to borrow after repairing the engine for a local, which he'd done free of cost because he could--and now they just need to go but. Well, he's a little nervous, okay? The undead isn't a thing in Teyvat.]