Kaveh and Wren strike a plan WHO: Kaveh and Wren WHEN: Last Week WHERE: Kaveh's office at UML SUMMARY: Wren and Kaveh trade theories CW: Adorbs.
Kaveh wanted a boring life. All he wanted was a job, a house, a love and the only magic he would deal with would be the subtle magic of nature and the not so subtle of video games. And whatever miracles God wanted to give him. He really wanted to get back to that and figured the best way was to really try to dig in deep and figure out what is going on to stop it from progressing.
As he sat at his desk in his office on UML campus, he clicked a red pen, correcting Geology 101 quizzes. The piece of obsidian he found, that he knew was Seneca’s, he placed on his desk because he had been carrying it in his pocket all day. The rock managed to poke him when he sat down. The only thing, he was now more aware of it. More aware of the magic he felt certain it contained. And more fearful he was just crazy like in a Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind sort of way. But also, the aliens turned out to be very real in that movie and he thought it would be here as well.
He had tried to activate the stone, asking the talking cat and everything. He couldn’t get it to work but he felt something. Almost like static shock but more intense. It frustrated him because it lined up with his scientific skepticism.
Right Mind. Seneca had told his students this. Maybe he had to put the skepticism aside. Stop being a scientist for a clear few moments. Maybe it will work then?
The door knock pulled him out of his thoughts, “Come in –” he said in Persian before quickly switching to Spanish, “I mean come in!”
Wren had just played delivery girl for her mom and her mom’s coworkers, which was a great excuse to wander the halls of UML and see what was going on.
Not that much was ever going on. Lunch appeared to be the hottest topic of the day here. Nothing to distract her from thoughts of the whole … situation. Reincarnation? Magic? Actual Craziness? Wren wasn’t so sure on it, and she was someone who was so sure about so many things.
Maybe it was her past self that bothered her so. Maeti was so unlike her, even though she seemed like a cool character, someone who she’d cheer on in a movie or a book, but Wren felt …
She felt inferior. Which was weird, because she shouldn’t, and she could see Maeti’s thoughts and mind she she felt inferior in her position too. It was complicated. And weird. And patchy and incomplete, so maybe things would get better in time as she understood more about what was going on and-
Stop, she told herself. The only place this train of thought goes is into sleeplessness. Or running into doors, which was more likely to happen as she walked around thinking about all of this. A thing she had almost done, in fact! She was so aware. Whose door- oh!
It was Fate. It brought her right to Kave- to Professor Karimi’s door. He was involved in this entire situation, so he was a good person to bother talk to about things. Did he remember Maeti? Did he remember more about himself? Were they all actually insane?
She knocked, because she was raised to be polite sometimes, and then opened the door just enough to peek her head through. “Hey Professor! Do you have a moment? It’s nothing serious.”
Kaveh found Wren familiar. He knew her from the group meetings of the self-proclaimed weirdos meeting. But he did remember her name. Seneca always felt drawn to the quiet ones not because he felt a connection because the quiet ones always were up to something.
“Sure, come in Maeti,” he paused and squinted his eyes shut. “Sorry, that is not your… now name, is it?” He sighed. “But please come in. I have a bowl of candy right over there and I also can make some tea if you want.”
He stood up and gestured to one of the seats opposite of his desk.
“Wren, now.” That answered the question on how much he remembered from back in … the day? She guessed that was the right way to think about it.
“Tea would be nice!” She sat down and tried to organize her thoughts into something coherent enough to have a conversation. Deciding Fate brought her to his door was probably insane. “I was in the area because I was delivering food for my mom and … I don’t know. I guess I wanted to talk? Or see if you wanted to talk. That sounds dumb now that I said it outloud.”
Kaveh nodded a little, “Wren.” He repeated so it would sink into his memory a little bit better. “I hope you are behaving yourself,” he replied in a light tease before spinning around to his electric kettle he kept in his office. He still had water in it from throughout the day and the warmer did its job. He grabbed a disposable cup and poured it over some loose leaf. A floral smell wafed throughout the room and he placed it in front of Wren, with a little bit of creamer and sugar placed next to the cup in case she wanted it.
“Always!” That might be a lie. But she was behaving herself now!
Taking a seat back on the other side of his desk, he grabbed his stone and played with it between his fingers.
“And you are more than welcome to come by and talk, even if it is just to rant about whatever is on your mind but,” he stopped himself from rambling.
“What’s on your mind, Wren-Maeti,” he finally settled on.
“A lot. It’s jumbled. Like, how do we have memories of another person? What if we’re all making up some sort of ideal, but then I realize we probably aren’t because Maeti isn’t really my ideal anything. Not that she’s bad, but. She’s not what I’d pick and I don’t think we’re anything alike, but then I think about a bit and realize we are alike. It’s weird.”
The entire thing was weird, she realized, and that’s not the weirdest part. Not really.
“And then I wonder if we’re all insane, but then we have physical things so we can know we aren’t totally insane. And the ruins - I always figured aliens or something, but what if they have to do with all this? And the weird items they’ve found over the years? I’ve looked into them a lot and … maybe? It’s scary to look too, because what if we’re right and they are and it’s all very real.”
Kaveh listened patiently to Wren voice the same exact concerns he had. He knew that it seemed like most of the people affected by the strange events seemed to be settling into their ways. He just could not slip in so easily. He felt a kinship to Wren to know she had the same thoughts he did.
All the way down to thinking about the university artifacts.
He nodded slightly, giving a small smile, “I share the same concerns as you, believe me.” He even laughed a little. “I also have been thinking about the artifacts. Some are open to the public but I think there are some behind lock and key…”
As he rubbed his chin, his eyes drifted back to looking at Wren. He certainly was not being a reasonable adult. Then again, he kind of thought of himself as more a big brother type – or an uncle type despite being the younger brother and not having much of an opportunity to be an uncle.
“I can take a look and let you know…” he should at least try to be responsible. “If this some sort of shared delusion, best I get in trouble, not you.”
“You would?” That was not what she expected to hear after all her thoughts spilled out like a disorganized jumble. Which it was, since that’s what happens if words stay in her mind too long and left to simmer.
“I have notes and stuff I’ve taken on the ones known to the public. Maybe they’ll help? But I don’t know. I thought it was aliens and so it has a focus on that more than … whatever this is.” Wren thought about it for a moment, then brightened up. “What if it’s still aliens? What if we are the aliens?”
Kaveh nodded once, “Yes, I will check it out and let you and the group know what I find out if anything…” He went through his mind all sorts of scenarios on how he could get to the more restricted ones. Which teacher could have better access? Salzburg? Maybe he would need to speak to her as someone who dealt with artifacts as a job.
“I would gladly take a look at your notes and offer my thoughts, if you would like,” Kaveh offered gently.
“Sure! I don’t think they’re right or any good, really, but maybe there’s some bit of truth in here that makes sense in context.”
At the mention of aliens, he blinked a couple times. No, of course not. There are no aliens. In fact it is insulting to say aliens came here built artifacts when humans are just as capable. Before he said anything, he paused. How is he supposed to know this? Magic wasn’t real 6 months ago and now he questioned if that were real.
“At this point, anything is on the table,” he laughed a little awkwardly.
“It’s exciting! And scary.” It’d be more fun to hear about and have others talk about than be involved herself, if Wren was honest with herself. When she could remember, she could feel all the doubt and surreal nature of whatever it was.
“What do you think is going on? For real going on. I guess.”
Kaveh crossed his arms as he looked at his desk. What did he think was going on? What seemed to be going on went against science and his religion. But then again, as a scientist, shouldn’t he be challenged?
“I think something happened in the other world that caused a rift into this world. And either souls from that world bound with ours or we were… reborn into the world,” he offered. “That is the best I got. Based on what I remember from physics but even this is fantastical.”
Hm. “It feels right?” Wren offered, which was about the best she could do. “That has to mean something, I think.”
Kaveh smiled a little, "I will let you know what I find. Feel free to stop by any time."