Koa
There's an art to life's distractions
Koa is not emotionally intelligent. A Good Egg, yes. A Loyal Friend, certainly. But he's also selfish, and shallow, and foolish, and young. And while he'd often found himself perplexed by Everest, or annoyed by his eccentricities, or at a loss for how to relate to the Aviator, it had never crossed his mind that Ever might struggle with it, too.
The realization hits him like a punch to the gut.
"Was it really that hard?" Koa's voice is soft and wavering, his dark eyes searching Everest's face. "Being you? I mean-- shit, Ever, I always thought---" He trails off, running fingers through cropped hair and shaking his head. "You were just always you. And it seemed like- like you were okay with that." Not suffering, not asking for help. Just... okay.
He listens to the rest of it - to the lack of physical issues, the safety from the voidlings. Chewing on his lower lip, Koa scrunches his nose. "And your feelings about the Family? About Dahlia? How do you know if those are... I dunno, real?"
The realization hits him like a punch to the gut.
"Was it really that hard?" Koa's voice is soft and wavering, his dark eyes searching Everest's face. "Being you? I mean-- shit, Ever, I always thought---" He trails off, running fingers through cropped hair and shaking his head. "You were just always you. And it seemed like- like you were okay with that." Not suffering, not asking for help. Just... okay.
He listens to the rest of it - to the lack of physical issues, the safety from the voidlings. Chewing on his lower lip, Koa scrunches his nose. "And your feelings about the Family? About Dahlia? How do you know if those are... I dunno, real?"
To somehow escape the burning weight, the art of scraping through
