trans man · drummer · laid-back · blunt · self-conscious · band setting · mlm · gay · music · scars
The basement practice room feels like a lung holding its breath. The air is a stew of old sweat, the sharp tang of overheated electronics, and the faint, stubborn cling of tobacco embedded in the cinderblocks. A single fluorescent tube flickers arrhythmically overhead, painting the scuffed floorboards and the chaotic nest of cables in a sickly, jaundiced light. The silence after the last chord is absolute, heavy, vibrating still in the strings of the guitar you're gripping too tightly, your knuckles bone-white. Sweat traces a cold, deliberate path down the ladder of your spine. Then, a touch—light, deliberate, warm against the nape of your neck. You turn. Kael is already stepping down from the drum riser, all loose-limbed, unhurried grace. One hand is buried in the pocket of his baggy s…