Kaisel
There are times, rare times, where innuendo escapes him. This is one of them. Entirely engrossed in the mechanics of wood and heat, he's unaware of the opportunity he just handed her until she turns back around on him. For a moment, he is slack-jawed with the realization, stunned to be caught so unawares by it. That quickly eases into a wide, face-consuming grin, one that presses underneath his eyes so even they find the shape of glee. "Hardwood does best when it's wet, you're right." It's unfair, really, that he can't catch hold of the feelings that cross through the link any better than he can wind. He'd like to snatch up one of those little, teasing pulses, the way he might steal her hand when it slips in to prod or press, hauling her closer to him for taking the risk. This distance allows her all the same ability to pester with none of the risk, other than his own fireflies of heat lighting up through the channel, bright and brief.
He can tell immediately by her tone that he's made a choice. Not the wrong one, exactly, but not the right one either. His next step comes less sure, gaze slipping over her way in time to witness her lay out every other consideration into the neat order of someone holding the study guide. "Well, I mean," he fumbles for a moment, hands leaving his straps to try and roll up his thoughts into something better as they gesture in front of him. "Obviously those are super important too. I thought you wanted the less obvious answers." The secret, challenging answers, not just the ones he forgot.
As they sing and hike, they wind around and through the fingers of tree roots frozen on an old grip of soil no longer there. The buoyancy of happiness that lifts her lyrics higher, lilting like a stream of bubbles, each popping beneath the words at varying times and heights, infects his own. Even though camp songs don't usually see much change in pitch or require an inclination for musical talent, his flat approach to singing is made all the worse for laughter's interruptions, leaving the woods echoing with a joy that feels slightly, hauntingly, out of place as they go. "Great song right?" He grins, completely aware of its absurdity and loving it for that reason. "Catchy too, you're gonna be singing it in the shower when we get home, just you watch." An earworm that pops up at the most random times for him.
Reaching for a stick they pass on the ground, Kaisel spins it around experimentally in his hand. It's a touch wet. "Something like scouts," he agrees, thwacking his stick against a root. "A bunch of Dragoon boys and two of the dads took us every so often during Longheat to go practice weapons, and hunting, and stuff. We sang often when traveling from one place to another."
"Woo000000ooaw." The word is drawn out with disbelief and drama. "That's so botanist of you to assume every forest is the same." His eyebrows lift with the accusation, though his mouth can't hold the shape of condemning her for long, a laugh soon spilling free. "Maybe it was because we were in a bigger group whenever we sang them, so it made us sound large and scary, all singing in unison, but it's definitely a survival tactic." The survival might have been the adult trying to corral a herd of young boys.
He can tell immediately by her tone that he's made a choice. Not the wrong one, exactly, but not the right one either. His next step comes less sure, gaze slipping over her way in time to witness her lay out every other consideration into the neat order of someone holding the study guide. "Well, I mean," he fumbles for a moment, hands leaving his straps to try and roll up his thoughts into something better as they gesture in front of him. "Obviously those are super important too. I thought you wanted the less obvious answers." The secret, challenging answers, not just the ones he forgot.
As they sing and hike, they wind around and through the fingers of tree roots frozen on an old grip of soil no longer there. The buoyancy of happiness that lifts her lyrics higher, lilting like a stream of bubbles, each popping beneath the words at varying times and heights, infects his own. Even though camp songs don't usually see much change in pitch or require an inclination for musical talent, his flat approach to singing is made all the worse for laughter's interruptions, leaving the woods echoing with a joy that feels slightly, hauntingly, out of place as they go. "Great song right?" He grins, completely aware of its absurdity and loving it for that reason. "Catchy too, you're gonna be singing it in the shower when we get home, just you watch." An earworm that pops up at the most random times for him.
Reaching for a stick they pass on the ground, Kaisel spins it around experimentally in his hand. It's a touch wet. "Something like scouts," he agrees, thwacking his stick against a root. "A bunch of Dragoon boys and two of the dads took us every so often during Longheat to go practice weapons, and hunting, and stuff. We sang often when traveling from one place to another."
"Woo000000ooaw." The word is drawn out with disbelief and drama. "That's so botanist of you to assume every forest is the same." His eyebrows lift with the accusation, though his mouth can't hold the shape of condemning her for long, a laugh soon spilling free. "Maybe it was because we were in a bigger group whenever we sang them, so it made us sound large and scary, all singing in unison, but it's definitely a survival tactic." The survival might have been the adult trying to corral a herd of young boys.
Haters on my back like a backpack
Blowin' up I'm fucking flawless
Blowin' up I'm fucking flawless
Code stolen from Queen Sky
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
