#then he gets a project in sumeru that he accepts immediately - there he meets alhaitham again

[swordmaid]

still thinking about the haikaveh 13 going on 30 inspired au .. like imagine kaveh going home drunk and upset after a bad meeting with a client. he’s presented his 8th draft of the project and there’s still something wrong with it. kaveh doesn’t want to compromise his own vision, and the client is adamant with his own, so they ended up just arguing instead of working on a compromise. then he goes to the tavern to cheer himself up but after a few drinks the bartender refused to serve him anymore since he still hasn’t paid his last tab and the bartender had been putting his current one under alhaitham’s. so kaveh goes home, drunk and upset at his client and also at the thought that he’ll owe alhaitham even more.

and when kaveh goes home alhaitham is lounging on a sofa and the books kaveh asked for him to clean isn’t put away yet. that little detail ticked him off - here’s alhaitham who doesn’t have any work to do at home and yet he doesn’t even bother to do the one thing kaveh asks him for. meanwhile kaveh has to go home late from a meeting that didn’t earn him anything and he’s even more in debt after alhaitham finds out about his tab. so, kaveh’s already drunk and upset and NOW annoyed he starts to argue with alhaitham. first it’s the fact that alhaitham hasn’t cleared away his books yet. then, alhaitham points out that he’s over-exerting himself for a client that’s not even paying him (he doesn’t need to be reminded of that!) then, kaveh argues that instead of trying to point out his failings why can’t he just console his clearly upset and stressed roommate like everyone else and if he was more compassionate about other people, maybe he’ll get along with other people better!! then cue the petty argument exploding into something bitter. kaveh is upset, drunk, and rambling, going on and on about how he doesn’t want to keep sacrificing his artistic integrity, and why can’t people just appreciate his art, and it would’ve been better if he never met alhaitham to begin with so he won’t be indebted to him and maybe his life wouldn’t turn out so badly. the argument only ends after alhaitham goes into his room clearly upset – the kind of upset kaveh was all too familiar with all those years ago — and now kaveh feels shitty and hurt and drunk and he wants to vomit so he passes out on the couch.

then, he wakes up in a room clearly different from their house.

the architectural style of the room is a marriage between the tumbling vines and glass windows of sumeru and the rigid structures and flow of fontaine’s. the couch he’s sleeping on isn’t the green divan alhaitham is fond of ; it’s a blue chaise with velour fabric that’s half as soft.

kaveh panics, looks around the room, then finds achievements displayed on the wall: articles and papers praising his name, pictures with the liyue qixing infront of a renovated and expanded golden house, one next to the fontaine archon besides an opulent theatre. there are articles of his latest creations, interviews with the man himself headlining the steambird, written papers and thesis about architecture published in the akademiya. kaveh learns that he’s not the light of kreshrarewar anymore ; he’s the most famous and accomplished architect in all of teyvat.

but alhaitham is not here anymore.

[thormanick]

All the Kavetham/Haikaveh ideas I don't have capacity to currently write, a very detailed list:

(Which I am humbly placing here before you. Be warned: this post is an incredibly long one!)

1. Fatui!Kaveh AU, where the night before the meeting happens between Kaveh and Alhaitham at the tavern, Kaveh gets a deal from Fatui representatives to work on a huge project in Snezhnaya. Kaveh is sceptical about it, but decides to accept the offer during the dialogue with Alhaitham (seeing himself as a burden, Kaveh decides that he will cause more trouble to Alhaitham than the Fatui, thus he decides to accept their offer even if it seems too good to be true). He tells Alhaitham about his decision to leave for Snezhnaya, and so the two relatively amicably/peacefully part their ways (not without Alhaitham testing Kaveh's reasoning a bit, but Kaveh's resolve remains strong).

And so, Kaveh leaves for Snezhnaya, where he gets to work on several huge projects for the next several years under Sandrone. Most of them are related to construction, engineering and reverse-engineering of Khaenri'ahn and Khaenri'ah-inspired technology, and he gets barely any time to work on his personal projects (he's overworked and exhausted and doesn't get much time and opportunity to be creative; however, the payments are good and he's on his way to getting out of debt, which is practically the sole reason driving him forward. The projects get progressively more complicated and, in a way, unhinged - engineering military equipment is alright, but working with the remains of Khaenri'ahn technology, dead gods and such proves to be... mentally taxing. Everything happens very gradually though, so Kaveh does not immediately notice the true scale of where the Fatui are ready to go to achieve certain goals). Kaveh doesn't really like the work environment of the Fatui, but he does his best (the Harbingers creep him out whenever he gets to see them on a rare official occasion (he might specifically dislike Pantalone because the Harbinger keeps picking at him for his debt, given a chance), but Sandrone's a decent boss who is somewhat encouraging and invested in his work and personal projects. She might be especially interested in Mehrak's existence and operation). Overall, everything goes quite smoothly for Kaveh, even if he doesn't feel quite at home in Snezhnaya and is aware of how dangerous the Fatui can be. He does not consider himself to be paranoid, but the other shoe has to drop at some point - and that happens when the new Acting Grand Sage of Sumeru gets to visit Snezhnaya on a diplomatic mission (aka: Kaveh reconnects with Alhaitham & Co for the first time in what feels like forever). The situation gets complicated when Kaveh realizes that Sandrone encourages the reestablishment of his connection with Alhaitham specifically - and she never encourages an action if she doesn't directly contribute from it.

Feelings, emotions and shenanigans ensue.

TLDR: Kaveh's doing his best despite being restricted in his ways of work, prevented from realizing most of his creative projects and slowly but surely building emotional walls around himself because Fatui and Snezhnaya; Sandrone being a kind of decent boss with sorta good work ethic but horrendous morals who is not exactly a good influence on Kaveh's idealistic tendencies and guilt complex; Fatui being contextually horrifying but kinda normal coworkers if you don't look at them too close; Alhaitham trying his best as a political figure (Nahida help him) while also trying to get Kaveh to return home with him (because he misses him); the main conflict revolving around Kaveh and his life choices with Sandrone and Alhaitham being kind of foils to each other (with Sandrone gradually destroying Kaveh's idealistic morals and playing on his guilt to get the most out of his potential as an innovator, and with Alhaitham actively trying to resolve Kaveh's guilt and show him that, despite their arguments, Kaveh's idealism still has place in the world and can co-exist with other philosophies). There might or might not be some macguffin-esque Deshret relic that both Akademia and Fatui hunt for that eventually brings the whole crew back to Sumeru. Kaveh might or might not get a chance to meet a fragment of Deshret's spirit within the mentioned relic. But there definitely will be a happy end for everyone here (Deshret will make sure of it).

2. Calamity!AU. The new Cataclysm comes, enveloping all Seven Nations, and so Sumeru does its best to survive. The cities are ruined, and the people gather together in random places to survive. Alhaitham gets to live within one of the settlements, established by the Akademiya. While trying to survive the first wave of the new Calamity, he is also looking for Kaveh; after an argument between the two the architect left for an expedition to the Desert, right before the new Calamity began. Unfortunately, the news comes that his group should have been around Tunigi Hollow - one of the spots in Sumeru where the first wave of the new Calamity hit the hardest. There is no concrete information on whether Kaveh's group survived or not. Alhaitham, not loosing hope, does his best to find any information on Kaveh's whereabouts, but due to Sumeru becoming extremely dangerous to traverse and disjointed as a result of the new Calamity, the search stretches out for almost a decade.

One day Alhaitham helps a caravan, traversing the forests to get to one of the settlements, to fight off the monsters. Unexpectedly, Kaveh turns out to be one of the members of the caravan. Their reunion is almost cut short by the caravan's need to keep going, but Alhaitham convinces Kaveh to join him instead. The two return to the new Sumeru city settlement, where Alhaitham lives and works under the watch of Akademiya and Lord Kusanali. It appears that during his years of travels around the destroyed Sumeru Kaveh learned new ways of architectural construction that would be more efficient against the monsters, born by the Calamity. He also seems to behave quite differently, hardened by the experiences of the past years. Alhaitham proposes for Kaveh to stay with him in the city, and Kaveh accepts. The feelings, new routines, dealings with the changed versions of each other and attempts to find new pace of life in the new world ensue.

TLDR: The world might be ending and impossible to live in, but even so each new day is brighter when the person one loves is by their side.

3. Another Cataclysm!AU, where Kaveh and Alhaitham get assigned separate missions in the grander scheme of things created to prevent the coming of a new Calamity. The plan succeeds and the world remains safe, but not without heavy losses: amongst many others, Kaveh does not survive while carrying out his mission.

Decades pass as Alhaitham goes through his grieving process. Eventually, one evening on the anniversary of the Calamity's prevention, Alhaitham wanders to a place he and Kaveh used to visit together. A Ley Line disruption occurs, and he gets to see a glimpse of Kaveh through it. They have a conversation; the Ley Line apparition (a memory of Kaveh) is convinced that Alhaitham is from the future, and so they talk a lot about the Calamity, whether it was prevented, and about each other's futures. Alhaitham can't bring himself to tell Kaveh that he does not survive the Calamity, but he does tell Kaveh that his architectural legacy lives on. Kaveh commends Alhaitham on his achievements (though not an acting grand sage for a very long time, Alhaitham kept playing an important role throughout Sumeru's history, helping to keep it safe).

Eventually, their time runs out. Ley Line disorder starts gradually disappearing. Alhaitham urges Kaveh to be careful and stay safe, knowing that the Calamity (on Kaveh's side) is yet to come. Kaveh laughs and tells him that on his side, Alhaitham just told him the same words after they finished the debriefing session, related to the Calamity. He says that he was feeling very nervous, but that seeing future-Alhaitham made him convinced that they are on the right path.

And so, the Ley Line disorder disappears. Alhaitham spends some more time at the spot before returning home. Despite painful memories having been brought up, his heart feels a bit lighter.

TLDR: closure comes unexpectedly, takes many forms and does not erase the pain in an instant, but, nevertheless, it heals.

4. AU! where Kaveh and Alhaitham are both magical birds that can transform into humans (and half-humans).

They live together in the depths of Sumeru forest - a domain of a long lost God of Wisdom. Kaveh's feathers are rumoured to bring blessings, while Alhaitham's feathers, on the contrary, are said to bring bad luck or even curses. Humans, living at the edge of magical forest, kinda worship them, but also prefer not to interact with them, primarily because Alhaitham is not happy when others trespass on his lands, and because searching for Kaveh is extremely hard (he's often off working on his projects deep within the forest), and the magical forest is very dangerous on its own. So, the humans build their cities outside of the Sumeru forest, and Alhaitham and Kaveh peacefully live together in the depths of it.

Despite Kaveh and Alhaitham living together for a long time, their opinions on humanity are diametrically opposed: Alhaitham barely tolerates humans, finding them to be reckless, meddling, cowardly and deceitful; Kaveh, on the contrary, finds humans to be creative, inspiring, free and beautiful in their own way. Throughout the years, Kaveh manages to build somewhat of an amicable relationship with the humans, living at the edge of the forest: he learns more about their traditions and arts, while the humans receive his guidance and blessings in various matters of living, craftsmanship and arts. Eventually, Kaveh's knowledge and magical powers catch the eye of Lord Sangemah Bay, who resides in and governs one of the bigger settlements at the forest's border. She makes a deal with Kaveh that, despite providing him with valuable (in his eyes) experience of working with humans on some of his grandest architectural projects, costs him a lot - meaning he has to give away lots of his blessed feathers, which makes his remaining magic much weaker (and generally undermines his health for a bit). Alhaitham is not a huge fan of such approach (in his eyes, Kaveh is wasting his powers and time for nothing, endangering himself), and so a conflict between him and Kaveh breaks. As a result, Kaveh flees their home, secluding himself while he's focusing on other projects he finds curious. Kaveh keeps working with humans, and though Alhaitham certainly keeps an eye on Kaveh's wellbeing, he does not make it easy for humans to reach him. So what if there are new random magical seals, obstacles, almost-traps and riddles appearing here and there when people try to get to Kaveh? It's a magical forest, things happen! (Kaveh knows that Alhaitham does this on purpose, and Alhaitham knows that Kaveh knows, and it leads to them indirectly, and then directly bickering and arguing. The magical forest quite possibly grows very tired of them. Their friends Tighnari and Cyno certainly do, but alas.)

The new equilibrium, found by Alhaitham and Kaveh, is challenged once more when Kaveh leaves to the Lord Sangemah Bay's city to direct yet another one of his grand projects. They do not see each other for a long while. Despite all the challenges, Kaveh's relationship with Dori gradually grows stronger - the two value their partnership - and Kaveh ends up making friends amongst humans. However, not everyone is happy about Lord Sangema Bay's growing friendship with the "deity of blessings" personified. As some people come to despise her for her wealth, influence and ever growing power, so do they come to despise the bird of paradise.

When the project is complete, the time for celebration comes. Kaveh gets to attend a feast by Dori's side as a guest of honour, and is invited to stay the night in her palace before returning to the forest. Kaveh agrees: he's been spending all his days and nights at the building site, and resting a night before returning home would be nice. As the night goes on, however, Kaveh begins to feel weary and unwell - the new type of wine he was served did him no good. He excuses himself early for the night and, as soon as he gets to his bed, he's out cold.

After an undetermined amount of time (in what appears to be the middle of the night), Kaveh wakes up because of immense pain in his back.

As he gradually comes to his senses, he has a horrible realization: one of his wings was cut off when he was asleep. Alerting the guards and Dori yields no results: the intruder escaped, presumably with Kaveh's wing, and there are no traces of them left. While Kaveh gets immediately attended to, he goes in shock and, eventually, loses consciousness.

When the messengers form the city arrive to the forest, Alhaitham receives them reluctantly at first, but as soon as he hears of what happened, he rushes to the city. He ends up taking Kaveh back to the forest, hoping that its healing magic will help restore his wing. However, nothing seems to work: neither spells, nor the powers of nature, not even Tighnari's medicine. Though the wound is slowly healing, Kaveh remains unconscious for days. To get more information on what happened, Alhaitham returns to the city to question Dori together with Cyno (who's also to continue the investigation within the city once Alhaitham returns home), while Tighnari stays with Kaveh.

Though the questioning concludes that Dori knows nothing and is willing to assist in the search of the perpetrator, Cyno concludes that she was not thorough enough in ensuring Kaveh's safety and overall security of the celebration in general, revealing that Dori recklessly cut corners here and there. Furious, Alhaitham leaves Dori his cursed feather, giving her an ultimatum: she has to find the perpetrator and give them to Alhaitham to deal the final punishment. Until then, her city is doomed to slowly crumble into decay and oblivion. Dori accepts the deal.

Alhaitham returns to the forest to look after Kaveh, while Cyno remains in the city to continue the search. When Alhaitham comes back, Kaveh is finally awake. However, he remains extremely closed-off, practically a shadow of himself. The recovery process is slow and challenging, but Alhaitham does his best to support Kaveh in all ways that matter. Kaveh struggles with healing: the loss of a wing affected not only his body, but also his mental state and magic. He cannot transform, he can barely use any of his magical skills, and he cannot fly anymore, which hurts him most of all. It takes a while for Kaveh to get on his feet (quite literally), even longer to finally leave his room. He also feels guilty for being in Alhaitham's care, because he remembers all of the Alhaitham warnings about the humans he didn't listen to, and so lots of internal conflict ensues.

Meanwhile Alhaitham does all he can to try and navigate the situation. He looks after Kaveh's healing process; brings back his blueprints and equipment from Kaveh's place so that he has enough to work with if he wishes; he also (to the best of his ability) remodels their home to make it more accessible to Kaveh. Given that their natural method of moving around their house was flying (whether in form of birds of half-humans), Alhaitham now implements more adjustments for walking or climbing. (When Kaveh feels good enough to leave his room, he's amazed by what Alhaitham managed to achieve. He also helps fix some of the constructions, given he's the one with the experience in architecture.) Alhaitham and Kaveh grow closer, slowly unpacking and mending their relationship, turning it into something new and beautiful.

At the same time, Alhaitham continues to watch the forest borders - to make sure that no intruders interrupt Kaveh's recovery and their peaceful life together. One day he notices an interesting sight: a small, but beautiful shrine appeared right by the forest. He decides to investigate; upon approaching the shrine, he meets Nilou (whom he saw in the palace when he visited Dori). She explains to him that, after he and Kaveh left the city, a group of people decided to organize a shrine, dedicated to Kaveh, to pray for his recovery. Nilou explains that in their eyes it's the least they can offer for all the help that their city received in the past and as amends for the pain they have caused. Alhaitham warns her not to get any closer to the forest, but the action of people leaves a lasting impression on him.

Meanwhile, Cyno's investigation progresses. Cyno writes to Alhaitham that together with Dori they managed to find and capture the perpetrator. Questioning reveals no useful information, but Cyno suspects that there might be more to the attack on Kaveh than they anticipated. To uphold his end of the deal Alhaitham goes to the city to deliver the punishment to the attacker and to undo the curse he put on Dori's city. Before he leaves, Kaveh, scared of what might happen to Alhaitham, sews into his cloak a blessed feather for protection (because Alhaitham wouldn't accept it outright). While Alhaitham is away, Kaveh begins working on a new project: a mechanical wing.

When Alhaitham gets to the city, he is led to the cell where the attacker is being held. Cyno and Dori are by his side for the final questioning. The man - a mere mortal (with strange red-ish eyes), one of Dori's citizens - keeps talking in circles, making less and less sense with each new word. Alhaitham lets Cyno and Dori go before rendering the punishment. When the curse (one of Alhaitham's darkest yet) is finally prepared, suddenly, the tables are turned. The perpetrator attacks Alhaitham, but his movements seem unnatural, almost like those of a puppet. Alhaitham realizes, that the man is being controlled by someone with prowess for strong, incredibly dark magic that seems similar to that of the Desert. The strange puppet manages to overpower Alhaitham in a fight, but cannot harm him (due to the protection from Kaveh's feather). The perpetrator manages to escape, taking with him Alhaitham's cursed feather (they seemed to be pleased to receive it. Alhaitham fears to think what they will use it for).

Dori and Cyno pick up the investigation, with Cyno going straight to the Desert. Dori begins reinforcing the city (her people discover that Alhaithams curse (now lifted) awakened Miasma deep under the ground. The Miasma begins to slowly spread, seemingly in the direction of the Sumeru Forest). Cyno sends back a message, confirming that strong and dark magic seems to be gathering within the Desert, possibly for the purpose of destroying the magical forest.

Alhaitham manages to get back to Kaveh and tell him of what happened in the city. In order to be able to protect the forest together with Alhaitham, Kaveh doubles down on his efforts to create a mechanical working wing. Everything works, besides the golden feathers - they need to be blessed in order to allow the mechanism to work as intended, but Kaveh does not have enough power for it. Alhaitham takes a risk and brings the feathers to the shrine, created by Nilou and other humans, so that they could bless them for Kaveh. (They are short of one feather eventually, and Alhaitham gives Kaveh one of his own, his first blessed feather, to complete the wing.)

TLDR: Kaveh works on restoring his wing and faith in himself and humanity; Alhaitham learns that humanity is not always evil. Dori and Cyno discover that the escaped perpetrator (caugh controlled by Dottore caugh) used Kaveh to get to Alhaitham to gain his cursed feather for completing some sort of ancient ritual to unseal the forbidden knowledge magic deep within the Desert in roder to unleash it on the magical forest, slumbering God of Wisdom and human cities. Kaveh learns to curse his feathers (while opposing Dottore in a final fight), and Alhaitham learns to bless his. Humans and Sumeru Forest continue to coexist peacefully. Alhaitham and Kaveh live together happily ever after.

5. Pacific Rim!AU, where Kaveh and Alhaitham used to be pilots of a Jaeger, but during one of their battles they suffered too much damage. In order to save Alhaitham and what remains of their Jaeger, Kaveh takes most of the damage by severing already unstable connection between Alhaitham and Jaeger's system. Both barely survive the encounter, but meanwhile Alhaitham manages to recover fast, the damage Kaveh has taken leaves him in a critical condition, eventually resulting in him being unable to ever pilot a Jaeger ever again (and putting many new restraints on his usual daily life).

As soon as Kaveh comes to his senses, the two have a huge fight about Kaveh's rash decision, and eventually break off their friendship. They don't see each other for a long, long time.

As the time goes on, Kaveh learns how to live with the changes that his body sustained with the help of his service dog Mehrak. Eventually he takes on a job at one of the Jaeger construction facilities (together with his friend Tighnari), studying Kaiju and creating new Jaeger modifications - though no Kaiju has been seen in the past several years, the world is still afraid of their return.

When the suspicion of the new Kaiju appearance arises, new pilot recruits and ex-pilots are summoned to the facility. There, Kaveh meets Alhaitham for the first time in years. After their fallout, Alahitham resigned from piloting Jaegers, yet now he had no choice but to return to train new recruits (and possibly resume his role of a Jaeger pilot). Now once again the two have to work together as a part of a team in face of approaching danger, trying to resolve their past conflicts and overcome their fears and insecurities along the way (when deep down they simply want to keep each other safe).

TLDR: Kaveh & service animal Mehrak is a neat concept I'd love to see more of, just as a concept in general. I think this one could be an interesting story idea centered mostly around Kaveh's day to day life. Additionally, Alhaitham who used to be only drift compatible with Kaveh but now suddenly discovers he's drift compatible with Cyno. I need more Cyno & Alhaitham camaraderie I think it would do them lots of good (at least in this specific AU setting lol).

6. Oxenfree!AU where Kaveh and Alhaitham are two ex-best friends turned reluctant coworkers (photo-journalist and journalist respectively) working on writing a piece about the disappearances of a group of teenagers that happened at the Edwards Island several years prior (timeline somewhere between the first and the second games). The radio shenanigans ensue, making the two face their past, possible futures and, most importantly, their present. (In Oxenfree tuning into certain radio sequences can temporarily mess up time-space shenanigans, just fyi).

TLDR: I just think that this setting could facilitate some character exploration that would be very fun.

7. Modern MermanKaveh!AU, post-fallout, where it's a little bit more about haunting Alhaitham (and the narrative), than being a merman. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, Kaveh drowns one day, trying to save someone from the water. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, he doesn't really die, being stuck in between (existence and death, normal life and the necessity to live in water). Kaveh manages, for quite a while even!

But of course Alhaitham has to come back and turn his world upside down once again.

TLDR: can you tell Alhaitham's quote about drowning stuck with me huh (and I made it literal lol). On a serious note... Idk, vibes??? I want to see the "stuck in the middle" Kaveh, whatever that entails. Some existential explorations. And the development of his relationship with Alhaitham, of course. // Kaveh is a merman unable to fully live the life he used to have, and Alhaitham doesn't know that he survived (for a while), alternatively "let me help to save you from metaphorical and literal drowning" Alhaitham and "I learned to live like this, this is what my norm now looks like" Kaveh.

8. Another Modern MermanKaveh!AU/DrownedGhostKaveh!AU, because I apparently have no self-control (I feel like I should also clarify that whenever I mention a mermaid, I think of them more as of ghosts of drowned people and less as mermaids-mermaids, the half-human half-marine creature ones). This idea was initially prepared for chili/zhongchi but it's been sooooooooooooooooooo long and I still haven't done anything substantial for it so I'm borrowing it from myself for myself and tweaking it for kavetham because I figured it could fit them. So here it goes,

Alhaitham is a scientist/marine biologist that moves from the city to a much smaller port town, getting himself a place in a local partially repurposed lighthouse. Kaveh is a merman, who has been dead for a long while and who's been living within local waters ever since he drowned. Alhaitham leads a very isolated life, going through a rather rough patch emotionally (maybe a badly ended past relationship and relocation from an established group of friends to a remote place brought up past negative emotions related to loss that were bottled up for a while. who knows, not me). Anyways, Alhaitham's not doing too well, but seaside walks help him unwind, even if for a short periods of time. During one of such walks, he finds an old pendant washed ashore. He picks up his find, hoping to do some research on it outside of his work time (because research is his fun-time).

He expects this to be a brief excursion into local history. He does not expect to become haunted by the ghost of a man to whom this pendant belonged to way back when.

Kaveh, in turn, is extremely excited to finally, finally be able to get out of the sea to the surface. He intends to stay ashore as long as possible and, well, if he just so gets to amuse himself by haunting a grumpy marine biologist that refuses to believe in merpeople, ghosts of drowned and other supernatural occurences - who's he to say no?

TLDR: this AU can go two ways (in my eyes): the happy ending way and probably more gothic-horror-story-esque ending. So, Alahitham is cursed to be haunted by Kaveh: for a while he's the only one who can see him, with Kaveh being something akin to a ghost. However, the longer Kaveh haunts Alhaitham, the more human he becomes (others can see him, he cannot phase through walls anymore, etc.). The curse in itself goes something like this: the cursed thing, after being picked up/taken in, cannot be thrown away and will always come back. The ghost, tied to the haunted thing, shall haunt whoever picks the cursed thing (the thing should be tied to the ghost, but may not necessarily belong to them) and drain their life energy. The ghost can become free and human again if the haunting goes long enough and they kill the human who picked the cursed object in the end during a very specific time that doesn't occur too often (proverbial blue moon, idk). If they don't kill the human and decide to let them go, then the ghost will seize to exist and the human will regain their strength. (An alternative option to the ghost dying for a less angsty au: the ghost voluntarily takes back the cursed object and returns to the place where they died, but then they will never be able to haunt anyone ever again. The effect of the curse on the haunted remain, but much weaker).

In this case, let's say Kaveh and Alhaitham stay by each other's side from half a year to a year, idk. They grow closer, eventually becoming friends and maybe more (the usual kavetham shenanigans Kaveh falls first but Alhaitham falls harder). Alhaitham's mental state gradually improves, yet overall he becomes weaker because of the curse (to the point that it becomes a serious concern), which Kaveh blames himself for. The appointed time approaches (both Kaveh and Alhaitham are in on the details of the curse), and Kaveh, seeing it as an opportunity to set Alhaitham free, manages to separate himself from Alhaitham. Kaveh is ready to return to the sea/merge with it (ah yes the classic Little Mermaid influence does anybody feel it lol). However, Alhaitham sees through his plan and arrives just in time to stop him. They have a confrontation. Eventually, they manage to lift the curse (as you can see I have not figured out exactly how this can happen but! it definitely can!) with Kaveh becoming human again and Alhaitham regaining his health. The two continue to live together happily ever after.

The other scenario is practically the same, but it's more ghothic? and abstract (and probably more suitable for the og pairing it was made for, but i'll throw it in anyways). I have not engaged with gothic literature much and thus don't have much experience in how it works/how to write it, but the idea is that Kaveh is more of a projection of Alhaitham's grief than a ghost fo a drowned person (in other words, he's definitely a ghost, but his presence is also much more symbolical). The story follows quite similar beats, except the setting of the curse is a bit different: it's more of a "kill first or be killed" thingy with a deadline. Kaveh earnestly tries to drown Alhaitham at first through various means, but the more time they spend together, the more Kaveh sees of Alhaitham's life and pain and feels sympathetic for him. Despite the curse, Kaveh tires to help Alhaitham in various ways; and it works! Alhaitham gradually begins to feel better; the two grow closer to each other (more in a platonic way).

So now the precedent is that though Alhaitham's overall doing better, the curse still preys on him, hindering his life in various ways that become more and more serious/dangerous (the curse's deadline approaches, and it tries to survive the best way it can through Kaveh's influence on Alhaitham). Eventually, Kaveh lets Alhaitham go, merging with the sea (once again, yes, it was partially inspired by the Little Mermaid). Alhaitham realizes what happened and tries to look for Kaveh, but it is in vain.

Eventually, life goes on.

Bonus Elden Ring AU (because guess who suddenly went on a lore video watching spree): Kaveh is a craftsman and one of the inhabitants of Castle Morne who managed to escape before it was overrun by Misbegotten. He's a follower of St. Trina and Miquella (he doesn't follow Miquella at first, but slowly he comes to suspect that the two are one and the same). After escaping from Castle Morne, he finds his way to Jarburg, where he is welcomed to stay and be the new Potentate.

Alhaitham is from a distant branch of Carian royal family and a scholar at the Academy of Raya Lucaria. Quite possibly explored an area of studies similar to Sellen's. Eventually he separates himself from both Academy and his family, becoming a wandering scholar.

The two meet somewhere nearby Jarburg when Kaveh gets ambushed by the same people who were trying to get to Alhaitham. The two fight them off. Kaveh, trying to help injured Alhaitham, leads him to Jarburg. The two continue living together there ever since (not without hiccups, but they're doing their best).

TLDR: this one is short and very simple because I just started diving into the Elden Ring's lore, but I just. Really wanted to make some AU for them. I also desperately wanted it to be peaceful and happy one despite it being a seeming impossibility for anything dark souls/elden ring related, but one can dream. If I were to make this one darker I'd probably expand on the duality of their two characters here, and how Alhaitham probably used to conjure spells on humans (with gaining knowledge being his sole life purpose for a long time) and has challenges with comprehending the world outside of a framework of pure logic, and how Kaveh gets an increasing tendency of escaping to the dream world/wherever Miquella is in order to alleviate his mental turmoil (maybe he witnessed too much during his escape from the Castle), and how the two have opposing perspectives on the idea of worshipping gods, and- like, there's a lot that can be done. But I also just really really really want them to simply be happy together in a jar village, leading a peaceful life.

That's it for now! Thank you for reading all of this, I can't commend your patience enough if you got to the end of this list!!!✨🎉✨

Maybe in the future I will unpack some of these aus. who knows.

[fightabear]

okay here's a backstory dump for this fatui!kaveh... fucked up au idea. i've got like... an animatic planned because i'm in desperate need of refreshing those skills, but there won't be like a linear ongoing comic like my other projects.

'potentially a fanfiction? maybe? but 'potentially a fanfiction? maybe? but there will probably be like. drawings of key moments.

TL;DR

everything is the same up until the night they meet at the bar, kaveh does not go with alhaitham. either alhaitham bungles the proposal, or kaveh is simply too proud to accept the help being offered and views it as an admission that he should be living selfishly.

instead, after a dream conversation with nahida, he becomes involved in the very early stages of planning for the sabzeruz festival.... and is killed, both as a warning to alhaitham to learn his place, and as a lesson to those of sumeru who wish to worship lesser lord kusanali so openly.

ill dottore revives him as part of his experiments with the akasha terminals. this is a success, and kaveh retains little to no memory of his life in sumeru. he is given a new name and a new purpose - yahya of the fatui, sworn to serve the tsaritsa and her goals. he re-enters the story at the same point, after the crisis in sumeru has ended. he remains behind as the eyes and ears of the doctor and one of the only holders of a functioning akasha terminal.

LONG VERSION OF HISTORY AND BACKSTORY:

that night at the bar, at his very lowest, kaveh refuses the invitation to stay in alhaitham's home. it feels too much like giving up. too much like accepting that he was wrong, that his beliefs are wrong - not the way he went about enacting them. to accept the invitation feels like co-signing onto alhaitham's view of the world as he understands it, and that is so grim and bleak he declares he would rather die than live in a world where people live only for themselves.

he has no idea how prophetic the words are to be.

that night, camping in the wilderness, lesser lord kusanali meets kaveh in his dreams. he does not recall most of the dream, only that she is a warm and comforting presence. everything he believes knowledge should be. a light in the dark, the tools to give the suffering some sense of peace. the people of sumeru are lost, he declares, and the akasha terminals have ruined their capacity to think for themselves. to see the world beyond puzzles that must be solved, and people are hurdles rather than assets.

and when he wakes, he no longer feels as aimless. there is a path forward that he sees all too clearly, and all he grown tired of in sumeru is the akademiya and it's overreach.

the efforts to revive the sabzeruz festival gain much more traction when the light of kshahrewar himself joins in. the actual festival is months away, but the fact that it being planned - that a famous scholar has joined in on the efforts - immediately gets traction.

people who hadn't previously seen kaveh's vision now see it at his hip, and rumors start to spread. he has been chosen by lesser lord kusanali to bring them into a new age of wisdom. kaveh had never minded the whispers of others much, as the only expectations he had ever worried about failing were his own and his client's - but if he'd heeded those warnings, he may have been better prepared for what happened.

when word came from the akademiya that his proposal had been approved, he has confused. what proposal? he had been funding this work on his own and with the aid of the desert folk - who were more eager to assist an endeavor for kusanali if her people were kinder than that of rukkadevata. still, he goes to the meeting place that the head of his darshan asks. they have a pleasant dinner, a few drinks - the taste of which is off - and kaveh grows concerned that questions about his supposed proposal are dodged.

they walk the docks of port ormos afterwards, though kaveh insists that he is not feeling well after that meal and wants to go home. thjat kind nature is taken advantage of, as the man says he wishes to discuss something important. he has been carrying a heavy weight and wishes to share it.

they stop short and stare at the water, and the man laments that kaveh has thrown away a bright future in pursuit of fruitless dreams. he was always a dreamer, that's what made his work stand out, but he does not care for or respect the spirit of knowledge. it brings him no joy to do this to the most promising alumni in centuries.

what he says is truly upsetting is that in the end, kaveh hadn't even earned this through his own merits. it had been his friendship with the scribe that sealed his fate. he would be a message to all.

there's no room for elaboration. kaveh can't even process what he's being told, uncertain if alhaitham ordered this or - if this is meant ot harm him.

regardless, there in the docks on a dark summer night, kaveh meets his end.

he flings mehrak as far from himself as he can once it takes too much damage to pull his sword free. they deliver death unto him brutally, and staged to look like angry debt collectors. and as he lay dying, the doctor steps from the shadows and asks if they have any further use for him once the message has been sent.

he's found in the morning, laying haphazardly on the shores. a dumped body that resurfaced. those lovely hands smashed and broken.

the details of the architect's ruined financials filter out, that he was less a light and more a bringer of ruin. it looks cut and dry. a debt collector had come to collect.

rumors of non-existent fundraisers slip into the conversation, leaving people to assume him nothing more than a charlatan and a fraud. destroying the budding reputation that the festival had.

before an autopsy can be performed, the body goes missing. those dedicated to recreating the sabzeru festival do not give up, and they are determined to see it through. not believing for a second that kaveh was taking them for a ride, and determined to not let his death be in vain.

elsewhere, the doctor carries on with his work.

a broken bird of paradise awakens in his laboratory. the glittering green vision resting atop his chest no longer gives off a glow, but the light at his temple does. this akashic terminal glows with the blue of cryo. all the information that could possibly exist within it has been downloaded into his mind, most of it partitioned away so it doe snot overwhelm him. this process, and the modifications to the terminal itself, makes up for the parts of his brain too damaged to continue to function on their own. the terminal regulates the processes his body should know how to do, allowing him to breathe, his heart to beat, his body to move when he wants it.

the drug slipped into his drink done a decent job of keeping him in a death-like state without actually crossing that threshold into death, but the damage was extensive. recovery, too, would be a nightmare. impossible were it not for this little gift.

when the bird is finally well enough to take wing, Il Dottore bestows upon it a new name, yahya and the codename uccello del paradiso. and with this name, a new mission - to serve the tsaritsa and burn away the world.

yahya does not know what happened to him, only that the cruelty of the existing world is what caused his suffering. he knows that he would have died, were it not for Il Dottore intervention. he is grateful to have been saved, though he remembers so little about his life before he feels he may as well be a new being.

his hands are strong enough to hold a sword, but the fine motor control necessary to write or paint has been lost due to a mixture of the damage to his mind and hands. he is still deceptively strong despite that willowy frame. even more so than before, as the modifications to his body and brain allow him to use more strength than what a normal person should be capable of without harming themselves.

his mind is sharp as ever, and the modifications to the akashic terminal allow him to more directly interface with ancient technology. most of his work has been in the investigation of king deshret's ruins and the so-called 'forbidden knowledge'.

he is most often seen in a modified version of a fatui agent's outfit, though the colors mirror that of ill dottore's harbinger uniform. he is also most often seen with a mask, meant to cover up the altered color of his akashic terminal and to hide his face from any who would recognize it in these lands. though there is light scarring across his face, he still looks like himself... though his eyes have changed. they're flat and lifeless.

the most concerning feature of his new existence is that at any point, his eyes can be looked through. his ears lsistened through. his voice used to say another's words. his autonomy hijacked and used used for the fatui's goal's. and he won't remember anything about it.

i'm still working out where this goes from here.

alhaitham and fatui!kaveh (yahya from here on out) have some encounters where they come to blows. yahya just seems to have it out for him and alhaitham has no earthly idea who this could be, but he pisses so many people off in the run of a day he doesn't pay much mind to it.

alhaitham definitely gets mehrak working in the aftermath of everything and hears the conversation with the doctor because mehrak recorded it, so he knows that the man has kaveh's body. but he assumes its just the body and he's disgusted at the idea that kaveh's corpse is being used for cruel experiments, and he just wants to get it back to give kaveh peace.

it isn't until he speaks with wanderer that he finds out that the experiments were a success and kaveh is alive.

WHAT IS FATUI!KAVEH LIKE?

yahya is still kind at heart, though no longer the sort of person who burns himself alive just to warm others for a second. he is still compassionate to the deserving, but far more willing to lash out at those who throw their weight around to punish the unworthy. in many ways, he is the version of himself alhaitham wanted him to be. he priortizes himself and his safety above all others, though that leaves a coldness to him that is difficult to ignore and hard to witness to those who knew him before.

he is far more quick to violence. pacifism obviously did him no good in the past. and what good is doing good if the evil are still there to reap it's benefits? there is a greedier, hungier edge to him - all to fill the void of loneliness and grief for a life that was robbed of him. yahya can't remember anything about who or what he was. he was told that he was killed for debts owed, and that he should blame the gods for it. as if the god he so loved had helped him, this could have been avoided. thanks to the modifications to the akasha terminal keeping him alive, nahida can't even enter his mind to set the record straight.

he can't pursue the softer things that brought him joy due to the damage he sustained before his death and revival. he collects mora as some holdover of the stress he used to have around it, though he has little to spend it on. nothing really sparks that joy and passion beyond the idea of creating, and he finds his new limitations too frustrating to deal with to pursue that.

while he is far from hostile to most people, he holds little love for sumeru. what he can recall - the phantoms of memories, nothing concrete - does not speak of a life filled with joy. but of loneliness, abandonment, and an untimely end at the hands of people he had trusted. he doesn't think he was much mourned, and doesn't realize that his death set both alhaitham and cyno on a path that ultimately lead to the changes in sumeru he had long desired.

DOES FATUI!KAVEH HAVE A VISION?

sort of. his vision expended most of its power keeping him alive, and is still kind of doing that. he wears it around his neck now, but it looks like the dead visions that we saw during the vision decree. it does start to glow when he starts to remember who he was and the convictions he used to hold.

DOES FATUI!KAVEH HAS A DELUSION?

yes! and he can use one without the negative effects because he's already basically dead. i'm torn as to whether i want it to be pyro or hydro.

WILL HE AND ALHAITHAM KISS?

probably yes.

the core idea here is that alhaitham always fucking knew that kaveh was going to give too much and get himself killed, and alhaitham is grappling with guilt.

kaveh is also feeling a lot of guilt, though he can never place the emotion or figure out why. the fight in the akademiya and the conversation at the bar are recurring moments for both of them.

but the tl;dr is that kaveh eventually realizes that despite how much of a dick he can be, alhaitham wasn't telling him not to ever help people. because alhaitham himself does help people when he can spare the bandwidth, he just... believes people need to also be willing to stand up and help him help them. and that he has to care for himself first so he's not dragged down and drowned.

he was trying to tell kaveh that he needs to take care of himself too. and that he can't drive himself into the ground over the guilt he feels for his father's death. because that wasn't his fault. that was kaveh trying to take responsibility for a situation he didn't create, which is ultimately what he does every time he rushes to save someone. he's trying to take control of an uncontrollable universe, to give all people an equal footing in the world without noticing that he himself is falling off the fucking cliff.

so yes there is probably a big climactic speech and then kaveh's vision flares back to life because he remembers why he lived the live the way he did and all the good he got out of it. and how inspiring it was. and how even if he mcfuckingdied, so many people cared enough to get justice for him. his actions had impact, had weight, and the ripples they caused made sumeru better for everyone.

and then the kiss.