Daybreak | IC Inbox.

[awooligan]

CLIFFORD NORMAN
UN: REDRIDINGHOODIE

STATUS: grade 11

ACCOLADES: n/a.

BIO: name's cliff. let me know if you'll buy cigarettes and shit for me, we can work something out.

© TESSISAMESS

Comments

[kept_his_letters]

Don't say that.
Please.
Whenever you say it's not a big deal, it is.

[And she... hates it. She hates how much more helpless it makes her feel.]

You don't have to apologize.
In any case, It's a big world.
You never know what's been tried.
But it would probably take a lot of work.
You'd have to round up the dead in a way that doesn't hurt them, you, or anyone else.
Then you'd have to study. A lot. Or find someone who has.
Maybe Papá could help there.
He told me he tried things on himself.

[awooligan]

seriously, it's

sorry

that isn't tr

don't worry about it

[...Just ignore it. It's not a big deal.]

I don't want to give up on them, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
I can barely keep my shit together with this wolf stuff
I can't do that stuff without someone getting hurt
I mean, I was right there with you and you still got hurt

[kept_his_letters]

That wasn't your fault.
None of that.
Don't forget that you helped me out more than anything.


But, maybe that's the thing you've got to think about.
Don't worry about saving everyone.
Sometimes you can't.
It's about doing whatever you can to help as much as you can.
If you can't do that all without people getting hurt, do the next best thing
and remember that it's your best.
Forgive yourself for it.
Wolf or not, you're still human.

[awooligan]

it shouldn't have happened

[Not her getting injured, and not her being taken away, separated from them in the first place. It was okay in the end, but... It shouldn't have happened.]

yeah
thanks

[He doesn't want her words to be such a punch to the gut, but they are. She could just mean it as that old saying, "you're only human," but he knows she knows what he struggled with feeling, even if he should know better. Being a werewolf makes him a monster. Being blighted makes him infected. Being different from his family, friends, and everyone he'd ever known before coming here makes him afraid, because what if they think something's wrong with him? What if there is?]

I don't like that they used to be people, but I'll have to do something anyway
at least I know there is stuff I can do to help

I'm glad you got to go home but I wish you were still around, too

[kept_his_letters]

:(

[It shouldn't have but... she rather thinks that's her own fault.]

I think that's understandable.
It's hard just to think about.

[Harder still to be there.]

I don't know that I'd be very useful with all this.
I'd probably get in the way.
Even if I kind of wish I could be both places at once.
Or maybe just that you were my neighbour or something.

[awooligan]

I don't mean here for all this crap
obviously I'm glad you're away from it
I miss hanging out with you is all
being neighbors would be good
you'd be that cool girl next door

[kept_his_letters]

Haha, cool, sure.
I guess you just have to move to México then!
And you'll have to learn to speak Spanish.

[awooligan]

yo hablo un poco

[kept_his_letters]

¿Un poquito?
¿De Verdad?

[awooligan]

uhhh sí y ¿que?

[kept_his_letters]

It means you definitely have to visit me.
And I don't have to fumble with English as much!

[awooligan]

I don't think you fumble but it isn't fair to make you the one always using another language
I'll practice more so I don't embarrass you on your home turf

[kept_his_letters]

You won't embarrass me.
But it would still be cool.
So, thank you.

[awooligan]

sounds like a challenge

[kept_his_letters]

Pfff
Embarrassing me?
I don't know.
Could you do that without embarrassing yourself?

[awooligan]

could you at least pretend for once that I have any chance of winning against you?

[kept_his_letters]

Ah, Of course.
Please do not embarrass me, Cliff, and therefore win.
My poor old heart cannot take it.

[awooligan]

thank you
but I wouldn't wanp

[why must his fingers betray him when he's just trying to delete]

my bad, ignore that

[kept_his_letters]

???
What?

[awooligan]

if I tell you I was going to say something stupid are you going to make me say the stupid thing

[kept_his_letters]

Well, you kind of just told me it was something stupid, so all that's left is saying the stupid thing.

[awooligan]

or I pretend this never happened but then you're going to think it's a big deal or something

[Which...it wasn't. Obviously.]

I was going to say something about how I wouldn't want your heart ever getting hurt

[kept_his_letters]

Cliff
That's really sweet.
That's not stupid at all.

[awooligan]

[Embarrassing... Especially since suddenly it’s as if he can feel the heat of her lips on his cheek again and his heart thuds uncomfortably, though not in an entirely bad way.]

maybe
but it definitely feels weird to say

[kept_his_letters]

I guess it's easier when people don't think about it.

[Then again, she'd done that and it had gone very very stupidly.]