🌱🏛️ quiz, vol. 04

[indispensable]

Who: Alhaitham & Kaveh
Status: Closed
Where: Their home in Eltrut, the Roost, Latrommi etc.
What: Roommates that are now upgrading to husbands
Warnings: It's Pride month. They're getting married. You know what to expect at this point. 🏳️‍🌈

&

JUNE/JULY 2024

→ 🌱️ tidings of home
→ 🏛️ the yearly special
→ 🏛️ on the topic of the hearth
→ 🌱️ into the abyss (hole)

code | gifs by taso

Comments

the tidings of home

[indispensable]

[Honestly, it'd been a matter of time.

From the moment Kaveh wrangled (read: whined and begged and pouted) out an agreement from him to take in one of the cats from Gale he'd been counting down the days to an incident like this. Back in Sumeru he'd already known all too well how persistent cats could be if they wanted to, and it seems like the cats here are of no exception—doubly so when they're explicitly denied from something.

In this case, it is the Fish.

To the cat's credit, it has been reasonably well-behaved since Kaveh brought it back here. But the curiosity in its eyes has never gone unnoticed by Alhaitham, and despite how vigilant he has been in trying to keep up his guard, cats are sly little creatures, and Alhaitham unfortunately does have other things to attend to besides the important task of ensuring the safety of all the Fishes. And thus, as he said at the start: it'd only been a matter of time before this would've happened.

The cat, for better or worse, seems to be aware that it's gotten into trouble, given the way it crouches down and looks up at Alhaitham with wide, pleading eyes that he assumes has worked for it every other time. Unfortunately, he knows better than to be swayed.]

So? What are you going to do now?

[He asks this very serious and important question to the perpetrator, eyes narrowing as all it does is to let out a small mew while continuing to give Alhaitham that wide eyed innocent look. Which of course is still not going to work on him in the slightest. Alhaitham huffs again, then brings up the victim of the feline's curiosity: one of the small fish figures he'd obtained from the Hatchling Surprises a while back, having been broken clean off its (admittedly flimsy) stand.

Predictably, the cat shows no signs of remorse at all, and even tries to get it off his palm with a swipe of its paw. Alhaitham quickly pulls his hand back before it can claim its prize, the exasperation in him rising as he continues to look at the feline in disapproval. Somebody's not going to get any treats with their dinner tonight, that's for certain.]

ah, the joys of parenthood

[empyrean_mirror]

[Kaveh had been out for this particular incident, finishing something Quite Important, so it's only once he comes home that he discovers this scene--Shadowlily crouched and looking as innocent as she can up at Alhaitham. Alhaitham, holding one of the small fish figurines, broken off the stand (he'd TOLD him to get a sturdier way to display them!). Really, it takes all he can not to giggle at the sheer ridiculousness of it all--it's only the knowledge Alhaitham really does cherish all the little fishy monsters that keeps him centered.

So Kaveh sighs, drops his keys into the bowl, and has Mehrak gently take the Fish out of Alhaitham's hand and Shadowlily's reach, so he can examine the damage himself.]

...Well, I see you two are getting along swimmingly.

he didn't ask to be a cat dad!!

[indispensable]

[Though Alhaitham hears the door when it opens he keeps his gaze focused on the cat, not trusting it to jump at him or something under the impression of playtime. He's seen what she has done and it well aware of what she is capable of if she really wants to.

Thankfully, he's saved from this staredown by Mehrak floating over to take the broken fish figure from him. Alhaitham lets it happen, then finally glances over to Kaveh at the main entranceway, having finally returned from whatever errand that had been necessary enough for him to step out.]

My nap was disturbed. [Says with the faintest hint of a grumble. He had been in the middle of a perfectly nice nap on the divan when the sound of the figure falling had woken him up—which really only makes this all the more annoying. Not only was his sleep interrupted, now one of his fish statues is broken too. Truly an annoying afternoon, if he has anything to say about it.]

and yet, he is becoming besotted with his daughter...

[empyrean_mirror]

I see. Well, Lily? What have you got to say for yourself?

[Kaveh says this like it's perfectly natural to scold a cat like she understands, and Lily does droop a bit even as she meows, presumably protesting her innocence. Idly, Kaveh wonders if one of the languages Alhaitham speaks is cat. He's always meant to ask him about the lady in Port Ormos...

Wait, no, Focus.]

These aren't toys, and you shouldn't be breaking them or disturbing your father. You don't like being woken up from your naps, do you?

[Kaveh continues examining the fish with a thoughtful, pursed expression, not minding one bit how Alhaitham might react to being described this way.]

its a work in progress

[indispensable]

[The cat, predictably, attempts to protest its innocence in response to Kaveh, which does nothing but draw out another huff from Alhaitham. Imagine still trying to be innocent even in the face of such overwhelming evidence... its lucky that Cyno isn't around given such flagrant disrespect for the truth.

But aside from that, Alhaitham has a few bones to pick with Kaveh's choice of words there. His arms come up to cross over his chest as he gives his senior a frown.]

Aren't you supposed to be the father, given the fact that you are the one who did the adoption?

[Alhaitham doesn't want to take any responsibility for this, okay. He only said yes because it was clear that Kaveh was not going to take a 'no' for an answer.]

of course. Kaveh certainly won't find them napping together within the week.

[empyrean_mirror]

...And we are engaged, Alhaitham, which makes it a complete family unit.

[Kaveh snorts, and then crouches down to Shadowlily.]

If you're bored, ask to play in the garden instead of breaking things. I can fix it this time, but what would happen if I couldn't, huh?

[That receives a much sadder meow, and the cat seems to slink out towards said garden--though not before attempting to rub against Alhaitham's ankles by way of apology. Kaveh just sighs.]

The good news is, this is a pretty easy fix.

not at all (maybe two weeks because he will be tsundere about it...)

[indispensable]

[Alhaitham huffs a third time, though he doesn't make any more attempts to protest. After all, its not as if there are any lies in what Kaveh has said...

He watches the cat as it approaches him, staying nonchalant and impassive even as it rubs up against his ankles. A little mewling and rubbing isn't going to sway him from the tragedy of his fish statue being broken; he's going to need a lot more than that.]

Maybe it should just stay broken, so that it remembers what it did. [More grumbling as he keeps his gaze down on the feline that continues to wind itself around his ankles, clearly having no intention to move on until its certain that Alhaitham has forgiven it. Which is definitely not going to happen in the slightest.]

july 9th

[empyrean_mirror]

[No one saw us forget this log completely all month, okay? Okay.

It's a beautiful morning. The...incident that weekend took much out of Kaveh but he's been convinced (coerced) into resting and for once, a true miracle has occured: Kaveh has slept in. Which is probably why the cat has joined him in being a blanket lump as the sun shines in through the windows.

He's forgotten what day it is, but he is starting to slowly become aware he is hungry. It's just the bed is comfortable, and he's pretty sure if Alhaitham's going to insist he rest, he can bring him breakfast, right?

Of course.]

special day for special man

[indispensable]

[Food in bed is a thing that is largely dependent on Alhaitham's mood. There are some days/times where he is fine with it, but there are other times where the thought of having crumbs on the mattress and sheets becomes far too uncomfortable for him to deal with, and so he makes sure that they eat somewhere else away from the bed instead.

On this particularly fine day the meter for that particular feeling is unfortunately leaning closer to the latter, but Alhaitham for once will let himself temper that discomfort down. The easy reason for this would be to cite the events of last weekend and tell himself that Kaveh would benefit from all of this. The not as easy reason is... well. Alhaitham has never denied himself from any notions of sentimentality, but experiencing it has never been as easy as how Kaveh seems to do it.

Regardless, however, he is still willing to commit to this to the best of his abilities. And that will start with him stepping into their bedroom with a platter of Kaveh's preferred breakfast foods which he brings over to the bed, though he places it down at the bedside table first because his senior is still curled up on his side and the bed table kind of needs him to not lie like that.]

Kaveh. [He calls out as he reaches over to grab his husband's shoulder to give it a shake.] Breakfast.

princess' day...in

[empyrean_mirror]

Mmn...?

[He makes a soft sort of whining noise at being stirred into wakefulness, but he has at least rolled over onto his back, which is progress--oh no he just rolled over to the other side to make grabby hands at Alhaitham.

...Despite how much he makes fun of Alhaitham for it, the man is useless before his first cup of coffee, huh?]

time to be super spoiled

[indispensable]

[Alhaitham snorts when he sees the way Kaveh stirs, not even blinking when his senior ends up grabbing onto the arm he'd reached out to shake him awake.]

Not until you actually get up. [He says simply, because there are still some lines that he's going to draw here and Kaveh lying down to drink coffee is one of them. That's just literally asking for an accident to happen and changing bedsheets is exhausting, so he'd rather avoid it if at all possible.] Now up.

[He emphasizes his command by drawing back his arm, and as long as Kaveh continues to latch onto him the architect will be forced to sit up in bed, which is really the most he'll ask of Kaveh today. Surely that is not too much to ask.]

the most spoiled

[empyrean_mirror]

Haithaaam...

[Kaveh whines more insistently, but he does allow himself to be pulled up in spite of this, rubbing groggily at his eyes with his free hand. Lily makes an accompanying "mrrp?" before burrowing back into the blankets, evidently uninterested in people breakfast.]

spoiling each other as celestia intended

[indispensable]

[Alhaitham drops and pulls his arm away from Kaveh once he's confident that his senior will stay awake and upright, giving him a moment to awaken further as he turns away to pick up the coffee from the tray and bring it over to the architect, holding it until Kaveh is finally awake enough to notice and take it for himself.]

Don't spill it. [He tells Kaveh as its taken off his hands. If his senior ends up spilling coffee on the bed he's never going to hear the end of it, even if it is Kaveh who ends up doing the actual washing. It's still the principle of the matter here.]

on the topic of the hearth

[empyrean_mirror]

[Kaveh coming home from a cafe slightly buzzed is not actually a particularly common occurrence. To be honest, the walk home had burned off most of the alcohol in the coffee drink he'd had (why does every cafe on Eltrut burn their roasts like this anyway? You can barely taste the beans!) which is a good thing.

His head still feels like it's buzzing, though. He's worried. He's angry. He's scared, because given what Lyney had said, there is a Fatui Harbinger in town and it's one of two women he's seen from Teyvat. He has a good guess whom.

...The important thing is to find his husband. So Kaveh toes off his shoes, tosses his keys vaguely at the hook (he missed), and calls out as he heads down the hall.]

Alhaitham?

time for smol drama

[indispensable]

Here.

[Alhaitham responds loud enough for Kaveh to know that he's currently in the study, and when the architect steps in he'll see that Alhaitham is seated on what has long since been designated as his 'reading chair' and perusing through one of his recent acquisitions from the bookstore. That much is nothing new, nor should the fact that he has decided to take the Fish plushie with him in here. It's tucked at his side at the moment, very decisively squashed between the man himself and the side of the chair.]

You're back sooner than I expected. [He comments once the other has stepped into the room, eyes still fixed on his book. Kaveh did tell him that he was heading off to meet Lyney and given the history of their... gatherings, Alhaitham had been half expecting having to go pick up his senior again. So this change is very much an appreciated one... if it'll stick, that is.]

smol because everyone else is short--

[empyrean_mirror]

Yeah, about that...

[Kaveh sighs a little bit. Both at the damn plushie and at the fact he's going to have to interrupt reading time, which is not going to be a great start for this conversation.]

I need to talk to you about it, actually.

only tol models allowed in this thread

[indispensable]

[...well to say that is a concerning sign would be an understatement. They've gone through this enough times by now for Alhaithtam the severity of whatever Kaveh wants to discuss, if this is how he's starting things off.

Alhaitham takes a moment to finish up the page he'd been reading before marking it off and putting it aside to come back later, then stands up from the chair and looks at Kaveh, jerking his head at the doorway. If they're going to have to talk then better to do it out in the living room.]

you must be this high to drama

[empyrean_mirror]

[Kaveh nods, and pads out to the living room, sitting on the couch. The amount of tension in his body is obvious to look at him--his shoulders tight, his expression pinched. This can't be good, can it.

He drags his hands over his face, thinking of how to start this while he waits for Alhaitham to sit with him.]

...It's not going to be good news, so keep your temper until I've gotten through all of it.

anything below is just baby

[indispensable]

[As they walk over to the living room its impossible for Alhaitham to not notice the tension that Kaveh now carries on him. If he wasn't already concerned before, he certainly is now. Just what exactly happened during his outing with Lyney?

At the very least it doesn't seem like Kaveh has no intention of keeping anything from him, so Alhaitham settles down next to his senior without a fuss. He almost starts to reach out as well with the intention to try and soothe and give some measure of comfort, but is stopped when Kaveh gives him that warning.]

...Mmn. [Its a stifled sound from the back of his throat, and its hard to not be a little strung up himself now when Kaveh feels it necessary to give a warning like this. He keeps his hands to himself then, crossing his arms over his chest and giving the architect a small frown. Time to hear whatever it is that Kaveh wants to tell him.]

mid-ish july (what is time) | into the abyss (hole)

[indispensable]

[Frankly, nobody should be surprised about this. When there's all this talk of this strange island that's appeared overnight which is also basically unknown to even the locals, of course Alhaitham is going to want to know more. The fact that it is seemingly endless only makes it all the more curious. How deep does it go, and why is it there? And most of all—why did it appear now?

Armed with all the natural curiosity that a scholar of Sumeru would have and then some, thus Alhaitham sets off on this exploration—though not before doing whatever he can to make sure that Kaveh wouldn't be able to follow. Not that he thinks he could keep Kaveh from going after him for long, but the plan is to get most of it out of the way before his senior arrives on the scene and he'll only have to endure a little bit of the architect's yapping as he wraps up.

...said plan, however, very quickly falls through as it becomes apparent soon enough that he's going to have to spend a lot more time here. One unsuccessful attempt is all the time Kaveh needs to catch up to him as he'd anticipated, and with not much choice left in the matter now all that's left to do is to head down a second time, now with his senior in tow.

The first two levels are cleared easily enough (with a pause at the second floor to make sure they have enough flowers for the levels below), since Alhaitham has become familiar with them earlier. The third is the village, of which they take a momentary break as well as some necessary preparation before proceeding down further to the fourth, which is where they are now.

...the pain that lances through him almost as soon as he steps foot down on this level is still just as unpleasant as the first time round.]

Flowers. [He murmurs, telling Kaveh as much as it is for himself. They're going to need it before the bleeding decides to start kicking in.]

[empyrean_mirror]

It's a shame we can't bring them back out with us.

[Kaveh winces, but he's passing Alhaitham a few of the flowers before inhaling some himself. The pain is...excruciating, but it's not too much worse than the Withering was that night, or so he tells himself.

He can survive this. He'll be fine. But Alhaitham's gonna get another blistering lecture about it when they're done.]

[indispensable]

[Alhaitham lets out a small grunt of acknowledgement to Kaveh's words, but doesn't say anything else as he uses the flowers as well to deal with the oncoming pain. Even now there is still really no explanation as to how this 'abyss' as its called are causing all of these effects, which is as frustrating as they are troubling. Once again this place has revealed more of its darker side and it really does bring into question just what secrets this world holds in general.

The only potential lead that exists right now is most likely whatever lies at the bottom, which is why Alhaitham is doing this in the first place.

With the flowers having managed to do away with the worst of the sensations, Alhaitham goes to grab Kaveh's hand, making sure that his senior stays close as he treads forward. He hadn't managed to stay here too long last time, being unprepared for the pain that'd come and just managed to grab something off the ground before retreating. This time he's going to make sure that they pass through to whatever lies below.]

[empyrean_mirror]

[Kaveh takes his hand without complaint and follows after Alhaitham. He hasn't gone this deep previously, and the place gives him a deep sense of unease and discomfort. He doesn't like it here. He can see the curiosity that drives Alhaitham, and it's not like he isn't curious, but not all of his interests need to be pursued!

But like hell is he letting Alhaitham come down here alone. So he follows along, trying to focus on keeping his breathing steady, and an eye out for the way farther down...

He's never been so far down. He has no idea if there's monsters down here.]

[indispensable]

[Since he wasn't here for very long last time Alhaitham is also likewise not very familiar with that they might encounter on this level, save for what the villagers from the floor above have mentioned in passing. The treasures he does know since he'd managed to grab something, but everything else might as well be a giant question mark.

...but with that having been said, all those giant burrows that he can see as they move along is certainly not very promising. There are also some smaller ones, but its really the big ones that truly has his attention, and he tightens his hold on Kaveh's hand as he tries to hurry the pace. If they're lucky enough they might just manage to make their way through this quickly enough and head down—

A sudden, skittering noise sounds out from around them then, and the fact that its accompanied by a darting shadow close by does nothing to ease the sudden feeling of danger that Alhaitham now feels. He pulls Kaveh closer to him now, keeping him as close as possible as he summons out his sword and holds it at the ready. Whatever it is, he's not letting it get to his husband.]

[empyrean_mirror]

Are you trying to fight alone? Don't be absurd--

[No sooner does Kaveh call for Mehrak, claymore at the ready, does something rush from his blind spot, fast and uncomfortably skittery. He yelps, Mehrak blocks it (he hates having her block but he needs both hands!) but the thing shoots off into the dark again.

Waiting. Watching. Ready to attack.]