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[justscribing]

USERNAME: Alhaitham ALHAITHAM GENSHIN IMPACT TEXT • AUDIO • VIDEO • ACTION • OVERFLOW

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[justscribing]

You've convinced your first customer. Aren't you proud of yourself?

[Alhaitham lifts his arms and slides the headband on, just in front of his own headphones so they're a bit forward, because he's not removing them, and it looks exactly as insane as you'd expect.]

Well? Does it suit me as much as you thought?

[unrequite]

... Well, I am proud of myself, yes.

[ Alhaitham isn't technically his first customer, but then again, Midnight's never done sales for cat ears before. The skillset isn't as interchangeable for Midnight as he'd like it to be. Succeeding is always nice.

Anyway, Midnight gets out his terminal and opens the camera app, because what else do you do? This image is blinding. I know this because I am currently fucking blind, what the fuck. ]

If I had to be quite honest — deathly, completely, perfectly honest — it's like you were born with them. I am never wrong about these things. Hold still for the camera, please.

[justscribing]

[I found it and I knew no mental image but that would be adequate for what the fuck is happening right now.

Alhaitham's expression drops to its usual cool neutral as Midnight holds up the camera. He isn't making a single move to stop it, just standing there and holding still.] Be sure to get my good side.

[unrequite]

[ Click. Midnight looks at the picture, nods, turns the terminal's screen to Alhaitham for his inspection. ]

Please keep in mind that I will send Kaveh the vast majority of these photos. Would you like to try a cat's paw?

[ Midnight lifts his own hand into a paw to demonstrate. Y'know, like. Nya? ]

[justscribing]

I won't stop you, but he should be meeting back up with me soon. [They're still in the general area, so he's sure Kaveh will make around around which game Alhaitham wandered to.]

Is that meant to be some sort of cute gesture? [Like that youkai courier girl that delivers his books from Inazuma? Alhaitham mimics it, out of pure curiosity about what it's meant to communicate.]

[unrequite]

[ Midnight shrugs, holds his terminal up for another photo. He takes a couple angles, then sends them, one at a time, to Kaveh. ]

Redundancy. Better for evidence to exist in as many places as possible. For posterity, you know.

[ Decentralizing the photos and diffusing them means that the photos will have a harder time disappearing. Midnight is aware of this concept, at least! ]

It is. It's quite coy. Would you be amenable to a wink, or should we stick with cat-like gestures for the moment?

[justscribing]

Be sure to get my good side, unless you'd like Kaveh to criticize your framing.

[That's clearly what's important here. Still, the winking gesture is a bit lost on Alhaitham who hasn't cut his hair in a couple months and now really has the left one hidden under his fringe.] Are you suggesting there's other gestures someone makes when wearing cat ears?

[unrequite]

Oh no, don't worry, just —

[ Midnight reaches out, takes Alhaitham's chin, and nudges him ever so slightly to look to the side. ]

— There we are. I can do the rest. To answer your question: yes, plenty, although I don't think we'll need to get into full body gestures. Now just put your hand to your chin right — there —

[ Click. Click. Click. ]

Gonna let Kaveh swing in here next

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham's stiff under Midnight's nudging, eyeing him the entire time, but ultimately allows himself to be pliable enough because Alhaitham does not do anything related to Kaveh in halves. Midnight knows a more dramatic pose. Alhaitham knows the more dedicated to this he is, the more uncanny it's going to be.

So there Alhaitham is, head tilted with his hand curled by his face in the facsimile of a cat's paw, expression entirely too serious for the lackadaisical gesture of a grown man in a cat ear headband doing the Nyan Pose.]

COMES IN SWINGING

[fussiest]

[ genuinely, that is the picture that sends kaveh down into one of the weirdest spirals of all time, because there's kaveh caught between why and how and there's the kaveh sincerely wondering if something's in the air in this carnival and it's hijacked alhaitham the way you would a radio wave. but that is midnight, who wouldn't hurt anyone unless they stumbled upon him in the middle of psychosis, which, granted, only happened once and it was very understandable given the circumstances and it was only kaveh who was hurt and it wasn't even that bad of a bruise, and so kaveh is left rounding the corner with genuine bafflement slipped into each and every molecule of himself that only somehow manages to compound when he sees the real thing.

kaveh looks. kaveh then looks between midnight and alhaitham. and then kaveh really looks. he does so with his hands. he marches up to alhaitham and tweezes the felt-tipped ears. fake. alright. ]

You. [ kaveh says the word at alhaitham as if it were a misplaced decimal, ] What are you doing, and how did you find a hairband that matches precisely the shade of your hair? Why is this the only thing you've put effort into all night?

[ he turns on midnight. ] And you! Why are you like this! What is wrong with you! Didn't anyone tell you that camera distance from the subject changes the exposure and refines the colour? What possessed you to have the flash that bright on a subject so close, and why hasn't someone exorcised it from you yet?

HENLO

[unrequite]

[ .
.
.



Midnight extends his terminal to Kaveh, phone app still active. ]

Would you like to take a few? He's a very cooperative model.

[ ... Well, it seems like he cares a lot about the quality of the photos. Handing off responsibility seems like a no brainer. ]

[justscribing]

[Kaveh approaches. Alhaitham sees him from the periphrial first, and his entire expression curves into satisfaction. The smirk digs into his cheek like a knife, unrepentant in the face of Kaveh coming in close and tweaking the faux fur on the headband.]

Midnight won it from this game, actually. What a coincidence.

[Also, did he not say so? There Kaveh is, all the more insulted by the terrible camera work. Yes, this was completely worth playing along.

Incidentally, he's still doing that pose.]

[fussiest]

Coincidence?! [ kaveh's voice rises to the decibel of somewhere between 'aggrieved anemo slime' and 'cat that just got its tailed stepped on'. it's a very specific decibel. kaveh snatches the phone out of midnight's hands. ]

I knew it. This was your fault [ you (midnight) (derogatory) ], I don't even want to know how you convinced him, and why are you [ you (alhaitham) (derogatory) ] still holding that pose? Did you also coincidentally begin mimicking the mannerisms of a small child pretending to be a cat?

[unrequite]

Well, our meeting here was very accidental — [ a pause here as his terminal leaves his hands ] — so I don't know what else you would call it. Serendipitous, perhaps? Alhaitham, you have a better word for it, if it exists.

[ Kaveh cares so much. It's so nice. Midnight hums happily to himself, watching Kaveh manhandle his terminal and work himself into a red-eyed, poofy Catastrophe. ]

Are you accusing us of conspiracy, by the way?

[justscribing]

If not a coincidence, would you call it fate? The pose was Midnight's idea, by the way. Isn't it suitable for this headband?

[No shame in throwing Midnight under the bus, it's just what it is.] Besides-[His gaze flicks to the phone.] weren't you going to start taking pictures?

[fussiest]

[ kaveh makes a noise that sums up all the derision that currently exists in the world. ]

And since when did you take just anyone's idea? No, you took a look at it and decided that it was the worst you can do. Who knows what's going on in that baffling head of yours. No, I am not going to take more pictures. I have enough of them, - here.

[ a few flicks of his fingers later, kaveh shoves the phone back into midnight's hands. with a few well-positioned nudges, he gets him a few feet back, and points at alhaitham. ] This is a proper distance. I've also dimmed your flash to an acceptable level. And no, I am not - in fact, both of you would have to be lemurs for me to call you a conspiracy. Why are you looking so pleased!

[unrequite]

[ Midnight takes the pictures in the exact position and lighting directed, then reviews the footage, looking so very pleased indeed. They're very good pictures. Kaveh has a fine eye for these sorts of things. What isn't there to be pleased about? ]

Me? They're very good pictures. You've a fine eye for these sorts of details. Here, Alhaitham, let me send you them.

[ And Midnight proceeds to send Alhaitham the whole album in one go because he's no brute, he wouldn't send them one at a time?? ]

[justscribing]

["Who knows what's going on in that baffling head" Kaveh asks, just after he described what exactly had been going on in Alhaitham's confounding brain. Kaveh knows, considers, and takes the bait anyway. Because it's Kaveh, too full of feelings and opinions to contain them within his body. It comes out in strangled sounds between teeth, in the furrow of his brow over wide red eyes, over the way his whole body seems to puff up with movement to express the full offense that Alhaitham and Midnight have caused him.

Alhaitham's eyes track him as he harries Midnight into a suitable position to teach him to take a better photo. Alhaitham's brow eases. The reflection in his eyes is a little too fond.]

You have photos that weren't up to your standard of quality. You'll keep those over the ones with a more considered eye behind them?

[No, Alhaitham fully expects Kaveh to delete them and attempt to erase this from his mind. That's okay. Alhaitham will have the copies. Maybe he'll print one.]

[fussiest]

Hah! Why must they be good quality when I won't ever look at them again? I can't even look at you right now. [ kaveh, of course, looks. he thinks - alhaitham is smiling. the thought comes to him without a single shred of the quirk of his lips to back it up as evidence, only that alhaitham's entire body language has shifted sometime between him walking over to midnight and him looking up, and kaveh absolutely knows he can't look at alhaitham right now. there are still cat ears on his head. he can't deal with having to look alhaitham in the face while he's wearing cat ears, he's already under too much mental stress.

wait.

kaveh turns back on midnight. ]

Wait. [ wait. ] His phone only had a single chime. You sent them to him in one go. [ lowly, dangerously: ] There are thirty-nine separate notifications on my phone right now, you absolute donkey. [ ... how does he know? because he counted each notification, you fuck. kaveh is, in fact, going to shake midnight like midnight owes him money. ] Give me back my peace of mind!

[unrequite]

[ Midnight tuts, examining the photos himself. ]

You shouldn't throw them out so needlessly. These are quite lovely. You should take more pride in your work.

[ He has more to say, although to be fair, a lot of it is sifting through the fact that the two keep looking at each other and smiling, and whether he should mention that or if he should store that away for himself, when he needs reminders that affection like that exists outside of himself in the world—

but then he is shaking like a fortune teller at a shrine on New Years. His brain rattles like fortune sticks. He laughs. ]

They were live updates as the situation developed. I thought you would appreciate how fastidious my attentions were.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham, to the blessed relief of Kaveh and probably most other people in a ten mile radius, finally drops the silly pose. Kaveh is shaking Midnight, so Alhaitham takes the moment to pull the phone out of his belt pouch and look at the bulk of pictures (there are a lot of pictures) Midnight sent. He is still wearing the cat ears.

With a neutral hum (he looks ridiculous. He's keeping the best ones) he struts over to them and stands with his hands on his hips.] He can't reverse sending you thirty-nine messages, can he? It's already happened. If you don't like them, you'll have to delete them yourself.

[fussiest]

And if I don't like you, to which higher power ought I entreat to delete you?! [ kaveh says, with some measure of despair. he chances a glance at alhaitham around midnight's bulk. still alhaitham, still cat ears.

the sound he makes can't be described using human words. ] I can't look at you. Midnight, I'm going to count to ten. Fix this!

[unrequite]

I don't know, darling, you were the one who called me godless — ah —

[ Midnight is looking at his past messages. Look, a man must try, even if the request is, quite frankly, ridiculous. ]

— The timestamp says at 19:04. Listen, do you want me to take your terminal and delete your copies? Do you really hate to look at Alhaitham that much?

[justscribing]

[There's a joke about deleting Alhaitham himself that flashes by his mind and is quickly thrown to the back of his thoughts. It's the sort of dramatic that they've volleyed between them with no heat that now hits in uncomfortable places, and Alhaitham is loath to wander too close to the truth that there are nights where he's still shaken before he falls asleep by the false memory of Kaveh's hands, tight around his neck.

Instead, he peels the headband off without a word and, while Kaveh is distracted, attempts to slide it right upon his head instead.] You're making such a fuss about these.

[fussiest]

[ it had been the very moment the joke left his lips that the implications had slid in between bone and skin. kaveh had stilled with it, but the moment passes - it ought to, it must - as he straightens, finally, to reach out and bat alhaitham's hand away.

it's a half-hearted attempt. the hairband slips on. kaveh scowls. ]

No, I hardly trust you to take a photo properly, I wouldn't trust you to delete thirty-nine notifications with any real efficacy.

[ kaveh turns to alhaitham. ] Well? Pleased? This is ridiculous; it patently doesn't match the colour of my hair or anything.