I'm never gonna quit, got my legacy set in motion
It turns out that the older you get, the more you realize everyone is full of shit because no one knows what the fuck they're doing. Adults have just been pretending to have everything under control, but everyone is just one belt-loop snagged on a door handle away from losing their goddamn mind at any given time. This, all because everything you're supposed to do each day leaves hardly any time for the things you want to do, which sounds like the complete opposite reason to be alive at all, and everyone's grumpy about it even if they're pretending they aren't.
The only way to keep your head above any water at all seems to be mimicking sea otters to your fullest capabilities. This, of course, requires that you hold onto someone when you're afraid of floating away. That you find the right tools to help you crack open the best parts of life. That you adapt to your environment so you can chase opportunities in the sea and on land. That you scrub the saltwater out of your fur. That you...on second thought, he might just be spending too much time with Craig.
Craig is one of the locals that bums around the beach, and Kaisel's too much of an extrovert to pass up conversation on patrol, even when said conversation somehow circles back to sea otters every single time. Admittedly, he's learned some cool shit. Sea otters don't have to go to the store because they forgot green beans, or scrub the fifty-some-odd toilets of a sweeping estate. Sea otters seem to be having a grand ol' time, honestly, and Craig certainly seems to enjoy both life and sea otters plenty. Maybe there's a secret there after all.
What Kaisel has actually started to realize, other than Craig's affinity for the world's softest animal, is that you have to find a way to carve out time for the things that matter most to you. It's why he's here, stretching out in preparation for a good workout, needing the physical and mental release as much as the ice-cream guilt repentance. It's also why the double date just never quite made it on everyone's plates on the same day at the same time. They're all busy people, and while they've made time for each other before, wrangling four of anything is always much harder than three or two, and sometimes just the one, yourself, is more than enough to manage in a day.
Still, like a sea otter who's discovered a cache of urchins, Kaisel isn't about to let this opportunity pass him by. He catches sight of Zavien as he rises up from touching his toes, and immediately his hand shoots up and gives a vigorous wave. "ZAVIEN!" he shouts, already making his way to close the distance. "Hey! Looking to work up a sweat?" He offers a smile, though it's anything but easy. It's weaker around the edges than normal, threatening to buckle beneath uncertainty, the soft roar of his pulse rising behind his ears betraying his confidence with a swell of anxiety over how this might go.
He hasn't forgotten the way Zavien turned away at the rodeo, or the request for amends his invitation had returned. What he has forgotten is the slow churn of ire for the man who betrayed his older cousin, especially now that the shock of it has dulled with time. As evidenced by Sohalia's continued happiness, perhaps it's for the best that this is the man standing beside her rather than another.
What remains between them is something stale, and he means to let it breathe today, one way or another.
The only way to keep your head above any water at all seems to be mimicking sea otters to your fullest capabilities. This, of course, requires that you hold onto someone when you're afraid of floating away. That you find the right tools to help you crack open the best parts of life. That you adapt to your environment so you can chase opportunities in the sea and on land. That you scrub the saltwater out of your fur. That you...on second thought, he might just be spending too much time with Craig.
Craig is one of the locals that bums around the beach, and Kaisel's too much of an extrovert to pass up conversation on patrol, even when said conversation somehow circles back to sea otters every single time. Admittedly, he's learned some cool shit. Sea otters don't have to go to the store because they forgot green beans, or scrub the fifty-some-odd toilets of a sweeping estate. Sea otters seem to be having a grand ol' time, honestly, and Craig certainly seems to enjoy both life and sea otters plenty. Maybe there's a secret there after all.
What Kaisel has actually started to realize, other than Craig's affinity for the world's softest animal, is that you have to find a way to carve out time for the things that matter most to you. It's why he's here, stretching out in preparation for a good workout, needing the physical and mental release as much as the ice-cream guilt repentance. It's also why the double date just never quite made it on everyone's plates on the same day at the same time. They're all busy people, and while they've made time for each other before, wrangling four of anything is always much harder than three or two, and sometimes just the one, yourself, is more than enough to manage in a day.
Still, like a sea otter who's discovered a cache of urchins, Kaisel isn't about to let this opportunity pass him by. He catches sight of Zavien as he rises up from touching his toes, and immediately his hand shoots up and gives a vigorous wave. "ZAVIEN!" he shouts, already making his way to close the distance. "Hey! Looking to work up a sweat?" He offers a smile, though it's anything but easy. It's weaker around the edges than normal, threatening to buckle beneath uncertainty, the soft roar of his pulse rising behind his ears betraying his confidence with a swell of anxiety over how this might go.
He hasn't forgotten the way Zavien turned away at the rodeo, or the request for amends his invitation had returned. What he has forgotten is the slow churn of ire for the man who betrayed his older cousin, especially now that the shock of it has dulled with time. As evidenced by Sohalia's continued happiness, perhaps it's for the best that this is the man standing beside her rather than another.
What remains between them is something stale, and he means to let it breathe today, one way or another.
Kaisel
So welcome to the fire, I'm the one with the lighter
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
