Kaveh: Hmph, whatever, it doesn't take a genius to guess what you've been up to… You were investigating Sachin, weren't you? It was obvious from your notes. However, I don't believe his research alone would've been enough to pique your interest. His way of doing things is disturbing, while you… Well, to be fair, your philosophy disgusts me too, but you and Sachin are nothing alike. I don't imagine your views intersect at all. Egoism and nihilism are not the same thing.
Alhaitham: My personal interest aside, Sachin's legacy is not entirely meaningless — he conducted experiments on a great scale, and left his findings behind. Also, thanks for the compliment. But I'm actually just passing through — I didn't come here for the conversation. Well, not this one at least.
Kaveh: What do you mean? What topic of conversation could be more sacred among scholars than the exploration of differing philosophies?
Alhaitham: Well, based on what I've learned, Sachin and his "disturbing way of doing things" — as you put it — is very likely to have met your father twenty years ago.
Kaveh: …What did you say? Wait, so… No, surely that doesn't mean… Hah. So that's why he thought I looked familiar. My father must've gone into the desert due to his influence…
Alhaitham: I'm afraid so.
Kaveh: … Good thing I shattered that diadem. From now on… nothing like that will ever have to happen again.
Alhaitham: The boundaries of knowledge are ever-expanding. Someone else will inevitably pick up the same line of research one day, and Vahumana regards it as a reasonable research direction.
Kaveh: Oh, not this again… Even if you're right, and people are bound to fall into the same intellectual traps, things won't necessarily go the same way again next time. You have to admit that the actions of one individual don't always predict the behavior of the group, and vice-versa. Take Sachin, for instance. He's quite an anomaly.
Alhaitham: And so is the one who stopped him — you. Conflicts of this nature are indeed exceptional, but it will occur again in the future. You said it yourself — the actions of one individual cannot predict the behavior of a whole group. You know that not everyone would have chosen as you did.
Kaveh: …Even so, I stand by my views. You can forget about trying to convince me.
Alhaitham: That's fine. We've been arguing over this for years, and I don't hold any hope of you understanding. The issue we're debating has long since moved on from who's right and who's wrong.
Kaveh: …Thanks for letting me know all this.
Alhaitham: What?
Kaveh: I said, thanks for letting me know. Hey! Stop acting like you didn't hear me! You're doing this on purpose, aren't you!?
Alhaitham: They say that earnest thanks should be given thrice, so… One more time, please.
(x)
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quick Rapunzel!Ratio sketch before dinner
so basically Aventio Rapunzel AU actually follows Kavetham Beaty and the Beats AU and they’re heavily connected
/more useless lore under the cut it’s long lmao/
so in this entire fairytale AU Ratio is adopted son of Alhaitham (and later Kaveh’s). Alhaitham himself was living and supporting his grandmother and while he’s himself barely an adult he kinda adopted orphaned Ratio whose parents died of local variant of plague or incurable illness. Ratio was around 3 when Alhaitham took him under his wing because no one else wanted to take in a burden in form of an extra mouth to feed.
After events of Beauty and the Beast AU Ratio got officially adopted into royal family as Alhaitham and Kaveh’s child (6 years old by now), but then it’s revealed that Ratio’s parents died not of plague or illness that roamed around by that time, but by inherited defect in health. Small Ratio falls really ill and each day it becomes progressively worse and nothing helps. Then one day they acquire magical flower that miraculously cures Ratio but at the same night he gets kidnapped, since essence of a magical flower now flows through his blood.
Years go by and Ratio grows into a curious but easily annoyed young man whose hair impossibly long. He and people who confine him tried to cut them but each time it happens cut hair just turn into rotting poisonous mess and then grow up back again after some time (Ratio doesn’t know it, but all the poison and illness in his body go into his hair so it turns into a cycle of cleansing and getting sick again).
Come Aventurine who was simply trying to get away from pursuers because he is a gambler and is pretty much in big debt at the moment and he really needs some treasure to sell. He stumbles upon Ratio’s confinement and they strike a deal - Aventurine helps Ratio to finally escape from his kidnappers and reach nearby town while Aventurine gets a gemstone that Ratio has on him (which Aventurine recognizes as a sign of royal family since much similar but green one is in possession of King Alhaitham). Selling this one will give Aventurine enough fortune to pay off his debts and even live comfortably.
So they go on a chaotic adventure to reach a town (where Kaveh and Alhaitham reside) so they can go their separate ways. They arrive on time of missing prince’s birthday to see and partake in a festival (which Ratio was against at first because he’s not here for fun and he still fears he’s still followed by people who kept him confined). Aventurine insists, having suspicions Ratio may be a missing prince judging by gemstone he possesses but then again who knows what happened to prince and gemstone could’ve ended up anywhere.
After that deal is complete, Ratio gives Aventurine his gemstone as was promised and they go on separate ways. While walking his own way to sell gemstone, Aventurine stumbles upon Alhaitham who’s away from celebrations to be in quiet and reminiscence about a young boy he once adopted as his own. It’s near outskirts of city, Alhaitham’s old house and Ratio’s nearby, where they lived before Alhaitham got married to Kaveh. Alhaitham spots Aventurine who wanted to leave unnoticed, but in the end Aventurine understands whole picture because Alhaitham shares some past with him. Turns out Ratio is the missing prince - Veritas. No one knows Veritas’ last name so no one connected the dots between Prince Veritas and a man going by last name Ratio. Aventurine realizes how much royal family misses their son, realizes how he himself fell in love with this insufferable man and how he’s ready to risk it all for him in his last gambit gamble. Aventurine gives Alhaitham gemstone that Ratio gave him and promises to bring their son back while rushing to direction Ratio left.
Cut further and Ratio is found by his kidnappers again. Aventurine does arrive in time to help him escape once again, dragging him along to the palace so they can get help. They’re close enough when one of kidnappers manages to grab Ratio’s hair. Now he and Aventurine are separated, one of kidnappers managed to injure Aventurine when he tried to get to Ratio, and in his last effort he does reach Ratio and cuts off his hair, freeing him and telling him to run and not to look back. Ratio’s cut hair start to rot and poison to death everyone who was holding it in their grasp thus killing at least half of them. Ratio chaotically tries to cut his hand so his blood can be used to help Aventurine but it doesn’t work and his hair don’t grow out again like it usually does - meaning there’s no more essence of flower in his body, just as there’s no more illness in him, since everything was purged and purified in him. Alhaitham and Kaveh arrive on time with others to this scene and deal with remaining kidnappers while Ratio chaotically tries to do something because Aventurine’s life slips through his fingers and he refuses to accept such outcome. Ratio never really cried in his life no matter what, but this breaks his heart and final drop of flower’s essence in his single tear heals Aventurine.
Everything is good and sweet and nothing hurts anymore because I’m a sucker for happy endings (Kaveh be questioning Aventurine’s morals until Alhaitham smacks him on head. Eventually Kaveh remembers where he saw Aventurine - turns out Aventurine (which is not his real name) was Veritas’ childhood companion back after adoption into royal family. Aventurine was a son of a head maid and thus was always following Ratio around as well as studying with him and disappeared same night since he was taken away along by being a witness but then kidnappers just sold him away and with time he forgot who he was and what was his goal)
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I wonder why people turn Kaveh into a tiny guy that needs to tilt his head back to look up at Alhaitham as if he's a head shorter. Or turn him into an overemotional wreck that can't solve anything himself. Or he's portrayed as someone that does one mistake after another, and is more irresponsible than a five year old with scissors. Or is really mean, if not outright cruel to Alhaitham. Or just emotionally oblivious to anyone and his own feelings.
My guy over here is an alumni with honors; he's as tall as Alhaitham (or taller if someone cares); he's loud in volume and emotions, but he very much can be quiet and calm; he's gullible in the sense of trying to help others, but that doesn't mean he cannot be smart; and he's a grown ass man, no matter how babygirl-ified he can be, he took care of himself and his mother as a child, he lived alone as a teenager, and he is capable of living with someone else and actually live, not just survive.
Kaveh is very pretty, and wears his heart on his sleeve, and he's gullible, and has his silly moments. But there is a thin line between that and turning him borderline hyper-feminine, and take away all his smarts, and leave no emotional intelligence. Like, that's a new character, I don't know who that is. And then making him codependent on someone else (who is also mischaracterized to hell and back btw) and take all the nuance he ever had, until it reaches past the point of silly head-canons for AUs, only for it to become a Thing for people.
One of the highlights of his personality is the duality. It's the understanding and the stubborn passion; the friendliness and pettiness on equal measure; the liveliness and regret. He's not an endless crying mess, nor is he an eternal sunshine. He's Kaveh, he has his moments, he has his passions, he has his growth, he has his burdens. Stripping that away from him leaves nothing but a faint impression that could easily be called by another name.
Just. Please. Release Kaveh from the shackles of old yaoi tropes, I'm begging. He deserves so so so much more.
(The thing is, it can be fun dabbling into these mischaracterizations every now and then. We can do deep character studies by amplifying a personality trait, or give/take some at all. We can overexaggerate for a plot, or for artwork. But there is a moment, where these mischaracterizations reach such a widespread chokehold, that it becomes real to people who couldn't care less, and they run with this new version. Suddenly all the canon nuance will be switched out for fanon, any meaning the character had for certain objects or people will be turned on their heads, because no one listens to the source anymore. The silly guy that makes people fall in love with him for him will be replaced by an imitation that will always feel off. It's such a delicate balance of indulgence and preservation of the original, it makes everything complicated. I don't even know if I make any sense anymore.)
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When Al Haitham dreams, it's in shades of sandy blonde and red, metallic gold and feather-blue. His nightmares are colored much the same.
Kaveh leisurely strolls ahead of him, shoes leaving deep treads in the soft desert sand. He keeps a careful distance, arms length, and in return Al Haitham keeps an eye on him, the other man's back dead center in his sights.
He curses the sand in his boots and the long line of footprints he steps into, already the exact shape of the soles of his shoes.
They aren't lost. Al Haitham knows where they are. They've been here before. They are still here.
Kaveh doesn't watch their feet. His head is constantly tipped back with his eyes on the stars and their constellations (of which Al Haitham only knows two, Vultur Volans and Paradisaea). He'll walk right into a cactus like that. Al Haitham yells ahead for him to watch where he's going.
Kaveh reaches up to touch the side of his head in a strange motion, but otherwise there's no acknowledgement. They press on into the dark of night.
Something squelches beneath Al Haitham's boot.
It stops him short, pulls his attention like a magnet and as much as he wants to, he can't ignore it. He doesn't want to lose any more ground. But something won't let him move on. Al Haitham watches as red seeps into the golden sand, spills beyond the border of his bootprint until he slides his foot aside.
It's an ear.
It's a human ear, and there's a heavy earring attached, metallic gold, gems red and green, a familiar shape, a familiar shade-
Al Haitham opens his mouth to yell. Chokes. Swallows the lump in his throat as he quickly restarts his pace. Tries again.
"Hey!"
Another squelch under a hurried footstep. He doesn't stop to look. Al Haitham is pretty sure he knows what it is.
"Kaveh, hey!"
The path becomes littered, little slices and small pieces, fingertips and knuckles, Kaveh's arms once held casually behind his back now strewn along the sands. Every time Al Haitham extends his hand to him, reality warps and bends like the twisted image in a broken mirror, lines mismatched and edges jagged. Kaveh flits just beyond his grasp, fleeting fae, no longer able to hear him or to reach out to him. Al Haitham can only grit his teeth and follow.
His right foot marches forward. His left follows. His right again. His left suddenly doesn't follow, and Al Haitham is thrown off balance and pitches forward, swinging his arms outward to land on his palms and keep his face off the ground, because he's been in the desert enough times to know what a foot suddenly being stuck can mean.
Quicksand.
Al Haitham curses and swears in just about every language he knows as he tries to spread his weight as evenly as possible, stay afloat at the top of it because if he sinks, he knows he'll be done for, and shit, Kaveh.
His neck cranes uncomfortably in his search, Kaveh had only been a few feet in front of him, he can't be sunk much further, and he's in the desert much more often than Al Haitham anyway, he'll be familiar with what to do-
Kaveh stands in front of him, empty sleeves fluttering loose. Still just out of his grasp, still watching the stars. The quicksand is already up to his calves.
"Say, Al Haitham..." It's the first he's spoken this whole time. His voice resonates somewhere deeply nostalgic in Al Haitham's chest, produces a ripple that momentarily stuns his heart.
Kaveh is sinking.
Al Haitham stretches out on his belly as far as he's able, it's quickly up to his knees, Kaveh isn't even trying to redistribute his weight or pull himself out, it's at his thighs, Al Haitham sucks in a breath and yells for him, his hips, yells louder, his waist, Al Haitham's trembling fingertips can almost reach, his chest, Kaveh drops level with him, quicksand about his neck like a noose.
Kaveh's head tips back, back, impossibly far back, until it hangs, angle awkward, and he's looking right past Al Haitham with his tired smile and gouged, blinded sockets full of starlight.
"Do you believe in karma?"
The quicksand swallows him entirely and Al Haitham dives, shoves his arms deep and pushes off with the one foot he'd had left on safe ground, because he can't, he can't, it's not the same without Kaveh, not anymore, he needs him, no one else keeps him sharp, no one else challenges him like Kaveh, if he can just grab him, if he can just pull him back up-
Al Haitham thrashes, against the sands, against gravity, against the hardwood of his bedroom floor. Clumsily scrubs the back of his hand across his face to rub the grit of quicksand and sleep out of his eyes.
Sometimes he thinks he preferred it when the Akasha was still harvesting his dreams.
He pops his head out from under his weighted blanket and lays where he'd fallen out of bed for a moment, blinking blearily against the lamplight shining from his desk in the corner. Deep breaths. His consciousness shifts along the blurred line of nightmare and reality, crosses over the slow transition into wakeful awareness.
He's home, Kaveh is home. It's dark out. The house is dead silent.
He's just going to go check, he tells himself as he peels himself out of his sweat-soaked shirt and roots around for a replacement. He's already losing memories of his nightmare, the details spilling away from him like wet ink, but he knows he needs to see Kaveh. It'll feel better to do something, anything, than try to go straight back to sleep.
He's quiet when he slips out of his bedroom door, because they both keep late hours but their bedrooms are right next to each other, and Al Haitham will never hear the end of it if he wakes his roommate up.
Lights off, door shut. Nothing conclusive. He moves out to the main room.
Kaveh sits on one of those ridiculous sofas he'd ordered three of for some reason, back to him as he tucks a lock of hair behind his ear. A mostly-empty wine bottle stands tall on the table, next to the cobbled-together remains of an architectural model that's been picked and fussed over for four days straight now.
"Kaveh? What are you doing?"
This earns him an exaggerated startle, but Kaveh doesn't turn to look at him, preoccupied with whatever new sketch or blueprint he probably has in his hands. "Ohhh, nothing," he slurs cheerfully. "Just working. Just thinking."
Kaveh has always been the world's chattiest drinker. Al Haitham waits for the rest of it.
"Say, I think...I think I asked you this years ago, back then, but you never answered me." Al Haitham feels all the blood drain from his face in ominous familiarity, drip cold down the length of his spine. Kaveh sinks into the couch until he can tip his head over the back of it, looking up at him with a tired smile and exhausted eyes.
"Do you believe in karma?"
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IM GOING TO TALK ABOUT ALHAITHAM AND KAVEH AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!
i love this fuckin argument kaveh and alhaitham have on the port ormos bulletin board
it's one of those instances where kaveh and alhaitham are arguing and alhaitham is saying that like, while he disagrees with kaveh lol, he also doesnt deny theres truth to what kaveh says.
but i also think it's funny how alhaitham is like "end of conversation. ALSO-" like bitch you kept going IMMEDIATELY fkjsjfklds and then that stupid bit where theyre like "he said this" "he did not fucking say that" "he did" "no he didnt fuck you" "he did give me a month ill prove it!!!!" THEYRE FIGHTING LIKE CHILDREN ON A PUBLIC MESSAGE BOARD😭😭😭
also i have this one bit stuck forever in my mind from kavehs hang out
[video source i screenshot from]
MAYBE im reading into it way too much bc i have terminal haikaveh brain. maybe. BUT!!!! art is subjective i can do what i want :^) anyway i think a lot about this part because TO ME it sounds like kaveh keeps assuming the worst from alhaitham - makes sense, they argue all the time and they def have a turbulent relationship. HOWEVER!!!!! while alhaitham does like poking fun at kaveh and gets annoyed with him dskjfdsklf i FEEL LIKE theres an implication that he like, does not enjoy seeing kaveh suffer the way kaveh just assumes he does.
like here, kaveh is like oh, youre not hoping to see me make a fool of myself are you >:(?? just bc alhaitham was like. in a location unexpectedly. lol. and then alhaithams phrasing is just so specific where he like, doesnt say yes but doesnt say no either lol. hes like "oh so you think i get joy from seeing you in pain day in and day out? well if that were true id be entertained always because youre always in distress"
but like. I DUNNO MAYBE IM BEING STUPID BUT JKSDLFJDKL to ME it felt like he was deflecting the question. to be fair it was a silly question so maybe alhaitham didnt think it worth answering lololol but like "are you here to watch me struggle" "why do you assume i enjoy you struggling" is the vibe i get. but then with bullying also bc alhaitham is still poking at him and his distresses lol jdkslfdskl
and then like the moment the traveler is about to be like "kavehs feeling sad" and kaveh tries to deflect it, i personally think alhaitham managed to come up with a distraction to get kaveh to walk away for a minute so he could hear about kavehs troubles bc hes IMMEDIATELY LIKE
ok now that hes gone tell me about kaveh and his issues. and then goes on to explain kaveh and his behavior
and there are SEVERAL INSTANCES i mean this is an obvious thing lol but like, many such cases where kaveh and alhaitham will be like "yeah this guy is incredibly smart but his personality is fucking unbearable" i just enjoy that as much as they rag on each other theyre still like "no he is a genius though im not gonna deny that" AND ALSO [help]
alhaitham says stuff like this a few times, i think hes got a teapot line or so where he says similar things 🤔 but hes like "yeah people go about their lives doing different things and thats fine everyone should stay in their lane as long as theyre not disrupting the lives of others" AND YET!!!!!!!!!!!! he and kaveh endlessly fight with each other on how they go about their lives. trying to get the other to see their way of thinking even though i think they both acknowledge [or it says somewhere in the lore that they do] that it is a losing battle bc theyre both really set in how they see things and their methods of doing things. I JUST FIND IT REALLY INTERESTING that alhaitham is like, "mind your business and ill mind my business what ever bye" but when it comes to kaveh hes like. no actually i have to debate you. the way you feel isnt wrong however your actions make your life really hard for yourself and you could be living better if you changed" like he cannot stay in his lane when kaveh is involved!!!!! and like the whole reason he's even IN the parade of providence event at all was bc he was pursuing a thread of research that he figured out was connected to kavehs dad and his disappearance!!! mister "i dont want to get involved if it doesnt disrupt my life" got involved to give his boy some closure on the haunting of his dead father!!!!!!!!!! I am going to explode now goodbye!!!!
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