01-04-2016, 04:35 PM
For the time Kalen spends inside, he is at least reasonably present. It may be a little more difficult to read in the way he will let silence settle over him, the way he will just watch over the gathering more than stepping into it. Mostly he is silent near his friends and sometimes he is silent alone and occasionally he will go to be silent near Richard's window. Richard gets more space, yes. And Kalen is perhaps more aware of being near him, a little sharper and a little less careless about the way he leans into the wall. But Kalen, more than some at this party, knows what Richard is; and, for all that that knowledge makes him wary, it is also, in part, that knowledge that brings him back now and again. It is not easy, friendship with Judges. But he does not imagine that it is easy being isolated by what you are, either.
It is easier to read interest and presence in the way that he playfully (but carefully and deliberately ineffectively) bats at Grace while she affixes LED magnets to his coat buttons, the ease with which Serafine is allowed into his space, the way the slope of his shoulders shifts into something more relaxed and open as Dan reads to him about Edison. (And Kalen adores being read to. Adores the steady sound of voices really, Henry's stories are similarly well-received.)
It is easier to read interest and presence in the way that he playfully (but carefully and deliberately ineffectively) bats at Grace while she affixes LED magnets to his coat buttons, the ease with which Serafine is allowed into his space, the way the slope of his shoulders shifts into something more relaxed and open as Dan reads to him about Edison. (And Kalen adores being read to. Adores the steady sound of voices really, Henry's stories are similarly well-received.)