Kaisel
A R I S E
"Noe!!!" Kaisel said with warm surprise. Even though they were family, they rarely saw each other, especially since becoming adults. Being cousins they had grown up together, but only during holidays or festivals when their mothers reunited. It had continued even after his aunt's passing, because their father was still part of his family by then, even if it was a bit different then. Koa had always been Kaisel’s role model, but he and Noe were closer in age and had played together often.The respite her presence provided for his tension was short-lived. Before he could even embrace her, someone else arrived—sort of. His brain felt like it had been dunked into a vat of McDonald's Sprite. Too crisp, his name jolted through his own thoughts, that gut-wrenchingly familiar voice scattering the crumbs of calm Noe had deposited. It was the same one from before—that god's damned broadcast. His hands twitched in response to the pen's trembling and it tumbled onto the table, rolling a half-circle before stopping. Kaisel's open palm now clenched; the only visible betrayal to the fury that nipped at his nerves.
The audacity of this thing.
He understood though—the reason everyone nodded along to this song even if they despised it. They were afraid. Beneath its gentle veneer, the creature’s presence radiated terrible might. The intrusion was so easy, too easy—what more could it do if it willed?
The pop of Vox's absence was like a seal breaking, air rushing back into a vacuum. It hadn't seemed wrong until it was gone. Kaisel’s jaw had clenched so hard it ached. Now it slackened, and he rubbed at it, feeling his cheek muscle twitch in time with his heartbeat.
"Unbelievable," he said it like a swear, the word cutting even if he kept the volume low. "Are you alright?" he turned to Noe and reached for one of her hands, needing her comfort as much as offering his own.
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
