Kaveh and Jameson strike a business relationship WHO: Kaveh and Jameson WHEN: Last week WHERE: A cafe SUMMARY: Kaveh and Jameson agree to work together. CW: Paranoia, Paranoia
Kaveh didn’t know Jameson too well. Part of him felt a little nervous about that. Could he trust her? He remembered his college years and how he would go to social events, especially those a little on the liberal side. He would scan the room and tried to find the fit man with the neatly trimmed beard, looking around a little too close.
That is what he thought about when he looked at Faihan’s post and saw the Dark Knight had arrived. That night, he locked himself in his office for several hours under the guise of grading papers as he went through the list of people who arrived at the meetings and were in that filter. He had a few ideas. He didn’t know if he wanted to share that with Jameson.
He already felt a little iffy about this proposal but instead of breaking in, where he was sure to lose his tenure, he’ll try to do it legitimately.
He sat at a cafe in town, sipping some tea and reading a newspaper, waiting for Jameson to arrive.
James remembered more now than she would have liked to. The night at the Cathedral, the subsequent evening at the library, slipping through the forest on that boy’s heels, her heart heavy in her chest as she searched the jumbled archives for illicit knowledge that didn’t belong to her, only to give it away…to give it away to the very person they seemed to be in conflict with now…
She remembered it, but she still didn’t understand what it all meant. She still wasn’t sure what her part—what Cinna’s part in things had been, or what it had all lead to, in the end.
Though James suspected it had been a badly placed domino, and this was not something she in the present day was willing to admit to anyone just yet. Not until she knew more. She had a child to think of, and no real loyalty to anyone besides that. Perhaps, she thought, she could get a step ahead, or come up with something to help before anyone realized what part she had once played in things. It wasn’t a bad place to start, anyway, trying to get a look into the university’s collections. Though James worried it was a long shot at best.
Still, it was with a bright expression that she entered the cafe, shoulders back, eyes sparkling. She glanced only briefly around the small room, before her gaze landed on Kaveh. She did not know him well, but nevertheless James did not let her uncertainty show on her face.
“Afternoon, Professor,” she chirruped, approaching the table. “I’ve always admired your work, but I must say, these are not the circumstances by which I envisioned our first collaborative research study.”
Kaveh looked up from his tea and offered Jameson a pleasant smile. He really hoped this was all a good idea and that he didn’t somehow miss a detail and Jameson was the Dark Knight all along. But then again, there had been a moment in which he thought Nacho may be the Dark Knight. It didn’t last very long, but that is where his mind went a lot of the time. He hadn’t lived with a simmering level of paranoia since he lived back in Iran.
“Good afternoon, professor! Please, have a seat!” He gestured to a chair opposite of him. “Likewise! Likewise! I’m intrigued to hear your expertise with this. And I hope my own doesn’t seem superfluous.”
He waited for her to take a seat, “How are you handling… everything?”
James took the seat opposite Kaveh, a tight sort of smile on her features, as her gaze dipped away. Gingerly, she set her tea, steaming and pale with milk, on the table, before settling herself into the chair and propping her leather bag near her ankle. Eventually, after situating herself, she looked up.
“Oh,” she started with a vague shrug, her eyes slipping around Kaveh’s and focusing more on his dark, heavy brows, or his trim facial hair. “Oh, alright, I suppose. All things…considered.” James shrugged again, leaning with her forearms against the table to lift her cup to her lips. She did not sip it right away, but blew softly as little thoughts skipped almost visibly through her eyes. There was no easy way to talk about all this. Even after everything, after all they had begun to share, she still felt silly discussing most of it.
“Alright,” she repeated, finally taking a sip. Then she leaned in a bit, dipping her chin with a nod. “I have a child, you know. A toddler. I don’t know if that’s made things easier or more difficult, really, but in some respects it hasn’t given me a lot of time to overthink any of this. So maybe that’s a good thing.” Glancing down again, James set her cup delicately on the table top. “Difficult, though, to have this whole other life going on, when she knows absolutely nothing about any of it. And you?” she added, looking back up. “How are you handling it all?”
Kaveh listened and nodded, smiling all the while. Yes, he thought he had heard somewhere she had a kid. Man, he wanted to be a father. All this whole business really stopped this life he wanted. He had a boyfriend he very much at this point wanted to grow old with. And he wanted that family. He wanted to adopt – maybe surrogacy? It didn’t matter. He could not have a normal life right now.
Not unless he could solve the mystery.
“Yeah, I think that is all we could ask for. Although I would like things to make sense again,” he laughed a little at his own joke. “A child to deal with. Well, sometimes it is a reminder to keep yourself grounded, I suppose. At least your child doesn’t understand because he is a child. I don’t think my boyfriend has those experiences so I have to hide that from him.”
He hated it and frowned at his cup in response.
“Yes, I’m handling it fine!” He suddenly smiled again. He considered for a moment telling her he knew magic now – still figuring it out but.
But no. Not just yet.
She could understand that. James wanted things to make sense again too. In fact, she wildly disliked all this not understanding. There was something invigorating, maybe even exciting about a mystery. It breathed life into her. Truly, curiosity was a drug as addictive as any other; once you started to seek, you always found there was more and more to look for. She was like her father in that way, and she knew it, though the thought did not sit well, as James leaned forward again to sip from her tea. Her father might still be alive, if it hadn’t been for his damned curiosity.
“I’m sorry,” she said aloud, a smile tugging at her lips, which only seemed to accentuate the frown. “I can’t imagine hiding all of this from a partner.” Her eyes danced away again. Her mother had always known about her father’s dives. She’d even been to some of them. But Aurelia have never been two hundred feet deep. She had read about the dangers, but she didn’t know them first-hand. It might have been easier, James reasoned silently, if she had never known about Otto’s adventures at all.
Of course, she would have figured it out in the end. One way or another, her father had still drowned for his mysteries.
“Elisa,” she went on, sitting up right and clearing her throat, “my daughter…well, kids are different, no? I’m just trying to protect her now. What she does not know cannot hurt her. I will deal with the rest once we have some answers.” She set down her cup, looking frankly across the table at Kaveh. “Do you think an artifact or a piece of rock could really tell us where we come from?”
Kaveh winced, “Sorry, daughter.” He nodded once. “I completely understand. Things are dangerous. I had to spend a few days bedridden because of the shadow… creatures.” How could he define those things. “I want to make sure no one else gets hurt from them. Especially bystanders.”
He took a sip from his tea and nearly spit it out when she asked about rocks. He couldn’t help but laugh a little, “Well, I found a rock that… seems to unlock my magic. Still trying to figure it out though.” Should he tell her about his little experiment trying to find those with weird auras? Nah, he would wait.
“I think it is interesting there are public artifacts, some that are semi-public, and then those under lock and key. I’ve heard only rumors. What have you heard?”
“Rumors,” James said eventually, clearing her after a small pause. He had found a rock? He had…unlocked his magic? James had not thought it possible, but a little thrill of electricity shot through her at the prospect. “Only rumors,” she went on, blinking quickly. “Between you and me, I always thought it a waste to keep such things in shadow. This is a preeminent research center, and we barely know what we might be sitting on. How can we progress in our scholarly development with all this red tape? But that was before,” she added with a small shrug. Before things had changed, when research and scholarly integrity had been the only things that mattered.
Kaveh nodded, “It is always a waste to hide knowledge from the people. I mean-.” He rubbed his forehead. “I understand protecting artifacts but that is what glass cases are for, right?” He took a sip of tea and nodded. “Yes, there is so much that happened here, vaguely acknowledged.”
James’ lips had pursed imperceptibly at the mention of the shadow creatures, and her face fell again as she thought of it now. She had mostly avoided such things herself. At least in this lifetime. At least, so far. But she did remember them now, and she was aware, too, of what things had been going on, that dark things had been appearing, and that some people had even been hurt.
But…bedridden? Had it really become so bad?
James sighed before going on, “Now, though,” she said softly, setting down her tea with a gentle clink of china, “it seems…imperative. Life or death, even. And also,” her brow furrowed, she paused, looking down then up again, “I find it odd. Like you said, to have barely disclosed records of what we’re even dealing with.” She had never been a paranoid person before. Only curious. Now, though, the twist of curiosity sharpened into something more severe in her. “Makes you wonder…” Her voice trailed off. She did not want to accuse the Dean, her prestigious family outright of anything, but perhaps the implication was there beneath her words.
Kaveh didn’t want to end up falling down this rabbit hole even though he had been touching the edge and staring down it for a long time now. James just pushed him in. The Arakis. Akane had to be the one who decided the artifacts would be under lock and key. Then there was Yuuki, the quiet sibling who had been there at meetings. His suspects list grew. Right then his list was made up of Joaco, Chelo, Andres… but yes, Yuuki fit too.
“I agree,” he settled on. “Which is why we should be careful on how we word our proposal. And…” He paused. “Think of a plan if denied.” He cleared his throat. “Maybe it’s simply I am to figure out what the artifact is made of and maybe you can… determine origins? And we can also say that – in case they say all tests have been done – say that methods must be revisited to prove hypotheses.” The social sciences work like that right?
She didn’t want to say it out loud, but James was almost certain they would be denied. They didn’t have a good enough reason between the two of them to be granted access to such a highly secretive collection. Besides which, it was more than a little unusual to need the Dean’s direct approval to even look at the things. Yes, though James had never quite considered it before, it all seemed more and more suspect.
She pursed her lips, nudging her cup in front of her without picking it up. Another thought crossed her mind, as Kaveh spoke, but she tried to push it down. It was a thread she found she didn’t really want to follow. It was an option she did not relish the thought of pursuing. It was complicated. Personal.
But it was a useful piece on the board. One, James thought, few others might have access to…
“I might have something of a backup plan,” she started, chewing her lip thoughtfully. Then she blinked, looking up to meet Kaveh’s eyes from across the table. She nodded. “It’s a start, anyway. The proposal, I mean. I might also be able to put in a good word for us. Or, rather,” she blinked, thoughts prancing deer-like through her mind, “rather, I might have someone I know…with a link to the Dean…who might—might, mind you—might put in a good word for us. Maybe it’ll help. Barring that?” She shrugged, lifting her cup with a faint smirk she could only just barely suppress.
Visions of a grand cathedral filled the back of her mind. Guards and disguises, quiet hallways after hours, whispers and plots… “Barring that, I suppose we can always orchestrate a heist.”
Kaveh nodded. It was always good to have a back-up plan or several. This he agreed with but if he could get something legitimately, it should be tried at least. He still wanted to be cautiously optimistic. Cynicism wore anyone down. He saw what that could do for people. He could see the benefits of paranoia, but not pessimism.
Even though Kaveh told Wren he would tell her what he would find, he hesitated slightly over bringing in another to this plan. But he pushed back that paranoia, “Oh? Who may it be? If you feel safe to tell.”
At the mention of the heist, Kaveh’s eyebrows shot up, “I suppose we should approach that when the time comes.”
James stiffened a little at the question, but held her cup to her lips to conceal the brunt of the gesture. She did not relish the idea of divulging the details of her personal life with Kaveh, who was a colleague, and who perhaps now did share some experience with her in all this…strangeness, but who was nevertheless not a great deal better than a stranger in her eyes. Her blue gaze passed over his features cautiously, then lowered beneath pale lashes as she took a drink and set down her tea again.
They were both keeping a good wall between themselves at this table. James could tell that much. It was probably for the best; what they were considering was likely neither of their most admirable versions of themselves, whatever the…Greater Good they were both aiming for.
“I suppose,” she began, considering, “a personal relationship of mine puts me a degree or two closer to the Dean than the rest of you.” Hearing what sounded like a subtle boast in her voice, James cleared her throat and forced a small chuckle. “Even if, professionally, I’m quite a few steps below tenured faculty on the ladder. But, if you’ll forgive me,” she added in a lighter tone, “I think I should protect the privacy of my acquaintance. But I won’t bring your name into it,” she offered, looking up again. “He doesn’t need to know. It wouldn’t make sense if he knew the details of our proposal anyway. I can simply ask him to drop my name around his—well, in polite conversation with the Dean.”
James’ smile was tight, perhaps even a bit awkward. Was it wrong of her to even consider exploiting her friendship with Icchi like this? Perhaps. But, James told herself privately, there were more important things at stake right now. She could deal with hurt feelings later. Or not at all, if it came to that.
Kaveh hated sneaking around. He hadn’t even brought Faihan in to it and he considered Faihan like a little brother. It had been for protection, same reason why he told Wren he’ll loop her in but not to participate in the shady deals. He wanted to protect the young people – even the chosen.
At James’s shadiness as to who this person was, Kaveh perked his eyebrows up. He suddenly laughed, “I suppose I shouldn’t expect it to be so easy.” He had no choice but to trust her at this junction. “I can respect the urge to protect your sources.”
How this all felt so nostalgic. Hiding in the shadows. Doing things that someone somewhere would disapprove. He just never expected he’d sneak in the shadows again and with someone like James.
“It’s settled then. I will start the proposal, send it to you with edits. You talk to your friend and we’ll see where we go from there,” Kaveh smiled and then takes a sip.
James nodded in agreement, also sipping from her tea and lowering gaze once more. There was a fleeting, fading thought—somewhere in the back of her mind—that she ought to feel anxious about all this. Or, at the very least, maybe excited. Surely there was a certain giddiness in the idea of sneaking around and going behind authority figures’ backs to try to get ahead of something even worse. There was something righteous in it, something perversely heroic.
But James didn’t feel either of those things. Neither excitement, nor very much worry. No, what James felt now, as she sipped the last of her tea and reached for her bag to make ready herself to get back to work, was something closer to a cold, militant determination. A familiar feeling, though previously long-dormant. With maybe a touch of curiosity, too. But not the thrilling kind. Rather, it was the tenacity of self-assurance that she knew, somewhere deep inside of herself, was more important than all the rest.
There were bigger things in this world, after all, and she was not interested in being a hero.
“And I’ll be in touch,” she said with a curt nod and a tight smile. “Perhaps my contact will have some advice as well. Not so much on the contents of the proposal, mind you, but on the…presentation?” She nodded again, then stood to leave. “And thank you, Kaveh,” James added, with a touch of softening sincerity in her voice. “It’s a good idea. I don’t know if it’ll work, but…it’s a good idea. So…thank you.”