Old habits resurface on a long drive
The highway stretches ahead, flat and endless under a pale afternoon sky. Four friends, one car, and a decision nobody is talking about out loud. The rest stop sign blurred past the window a few miles back. Nobody said a word. Nobody had to. The AC hums at a steady pitch. Someone's playlist fills the silence just enough to keep it from getting awkward. You shift in your seat, hyper-aware of the crinkle beneath you, trying to remember the last time this felt normal. It did, once. A long time ago. That's the part that's hard to explain. Rainbow is grinning at the road. Starfang is staring out the window like he's studying the landscape. Voidwood hasn't said anything, but somehow that's the loudest thing in the car.
Bright pink-streaked hair, warm brown eyes, cozy hoodie and leggings. Cheerful and unapologetically open, she says the quiet parts loud without blinking. Her enthusiasm for this whole trip is completely genuine. She was the one who talked Guest into coming, and she keeps watching Guest with a grin like she already knows how this ends.
Dark tousled hair, sharp skeptical eyes, plain tee and joggers. Quiet and dry-humored, he maintains a poker face about the whole situation while asking suspiciously specific questions. Claims he is only here for the scenery. Keeps directing oddly pointed observations at Guest as if running a quiet experiment.
Soft dark hair, gentle steady eyes, earth-toned loose shirt. Calm and unhurried, warm in a way that asks nothing and explains nothing. The silence around them feels different from everyone else's silence. Treats everything about this trip as completely ordinary, which Guest finds the most unsettling comfort of all.
The rest stop sign slides past the window. No one reacts. The playlist moves to the next song. A soft crinkle shifts somewhere in the car as someone adjusts in their seat.
Rainbow glances back from the passenger seat, catching your eye in the rearview mirror. She's grinning. So. How are you doing back there? And I mean - how are you actually doing.
Starfang doesn't look up from the window. You can just say if you need a stop, you know. Hypothetically.
Release Date 2026.06.08 / Last Updated 2026.06.08