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

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[skeletones]

She shakes her head helpless at Mili's reckless enthusiasm. She doesn't disapprove.

"That sounds good to me, Mili," Coco says.

"I can stay up!" Teto exclaims quickly. "I can do it! I used to stay up late all the time in the plaza! Can we do it? We can at least do some right?"

Maybe if they go extra fast they'll have to do this and everything else he wants to do. He wants to see all of Santa Cecilia, to see who's around, what's still around.

He'll sleep when he's... hm. Well. Maybe not.

[awooligan]

He raises an eyebrow, challenging rather than disbelieving, and wheels his luggage closer to the wall so he doesn't have to worry about it getting in his way. Plenty of time left in the day, so now it's just time to see how long he and Teto can hold out. The one time werewolf zoomies would be useful, and they've abandoned him... But he's not all that concerned. Like they'd already made a point of saying, they were used to putting off sleep.

"Okay. Sounds like a 'go' to me, kiddo," Cliff says now that it's decided, though he really doesn't have to because Mili was on their way out the room before he finished the first word. He rolls his eyes again, amused despite himself, and gives Coco a half-smile before wandering closer to Teto, over to the center of the room. It isn't long at all before Mili is back carrying a plastic bin with the rest of the stars, adhesive dots on sheets to secure them with, and a sleeping black cat.

"I brought Poe! He can be our safety inspector."

"I didn't know you guys had another cat?"

Mili's eyeroll is much more dramatic than his. He should take lessons. "He's not a cat. Can't that nose of yours smell that much?"

Should...his nose be able to tell the difference between a cat and a thing that very much looks and smells like a cat, to him... That's the bewildered question in his eyes as he looks to Coco and gestures at this rude child.

[kept_his_letters]

Now, at last, Coco's smile turns uncertain.

"Poe is a fae. I think. This is just the form he chooses to stay in." She leans in close to Cliff and whisper-mouths from behind her hand, "I think he's comatose."

Awkward...

"Um, Mili," She says then. "Can we put Poe on the bed or Hammock maybe? So he doesn't get stepped on."

Teto, meanwhile, glances at each and every face before looking back to Cliff. He shrugs helplessly.

"Looks like a cat to me," He says.

[awooligan]

That bewildered look only intensifies at Coco's explanation. Comatose? What the fuck?? He returns the shrug right back at Teto.

"He's not a cat, sillies!" They say this, sounding extraordinarily patient as they first set down the bin, then extract Poe from it to place on the bed. They press a kiss to his sweet kitty head, right between the ears, before presenting the supplies to their 'twin'. "I'm scared of cats. So he's not a cat."

"And Pepita?"

"Also not a cat. Here we go!"

Cliff looks like he could argue this a while longer, but...sure. Okay. Not much of a point, with this one. All aboard the wolf express, or whatever. Teto's finally getting that piggyback ride he mentioned the first day they met.

[kept_his_letters]

She's just as alarmed as you are, Cliff. She's just not sure how at all to address the issue. Or for that matter, the fear of cats. She meets Cliff's eye and shrugs helplessly.

Teto, unused to the novel game of piggyback, hesitates only long enough to get over some youthful embarrassment and grab a handful of the stars and stickers offered. Then, he's grinning, climbing up, and grinning more.

"I can touch the ceiling!" He blurts.

"Now you're taller than Papá," Coco says to him.

Coco brings Mili over to sit, where they can both start putting stickers on stars.

[awooligan]

“I think that makes you the Alpha Héctor,” Cliff teases, though a large amount of his mental energy is going towards tempering the anxiety he’d known would come. Being a friend and a reminder of Kevin tipping things in Teto’s favor, which is what made him able to make the offer at all, but it’s still extremely uncomfortable having this much contact with someone that wasn’t his mom or brother.

Mili was eager to run around too close to Cliff in order to point out suggestions for star placements, so it’s lucky for him that they’re distracted by Coco’s task. Stickers...are fun. Not as fun as stars, and being stuck wasn’t fun, but they enjoy this activity well enough, even making short asides to the sleeping cat in a language not familiar to any of the others, but Teto will likely have a knack for all the same. It was their magic that made him inclined to learn and automatically translate languages in his head, after all.

“I should learn the sky pictures here,” they muse, taking up a bare star and lifting it above their head to squint at. “I know what some of them look like, but not what they are. Stars are amazing, though... They’re there for people long after they’re gone. I wonder if that’s where spirits go when it isn’t Día de Muertos, so they can still watch us.”

Not knowing jack shit about spirits, what Clifford can contribute is, “The sky’s amazing in Podunk, since it’s the middle of nowhere. One of the better things about the place. We’ll have to see how Santa Cecilia compares.”

Tiny, awkward smile to Coco, because maybe then he can telepathically communicate the nervous desire to watch the stars with her even though that’s pretty embarrassing.

[skeletones]

Teto sputters a laugh and Coco laughs too, though hers is tempered by the strain she can see in her friend's face. She wishes she knew how to assure or help him, or even what excuse to offer if he decided he needed to tap out on the task he's given himself. But, he did volunteer for this. She'll have to trust he knows what's okay for himself. At least she's got Mili settled.

She doesn't think much of the odd language Mili speaks, but Teto catches it, a little confused by how, though not enough to want to throw of the task, or Cliff's balance. It's hard to resist commenting when they turn to English though.

"You mean Heaven?" He asks. That's usually what people mean when they speak of spirits in the stars, he thinks, but he wonders if that's something a fairy would know about.

Coco catches Cliff's smile, matching it as she meets his eyes. Teto, still sticking stars to the ceiling, is the one to answer though.

"The sky's the best here," He says. "It goes on forever. I could teach you the constellations, Mili. Or, some of them anyway."

[awooligan]

“What’s Heaven?” is Mili’s answer, confirming that it isn’t something a fairy knows. This fairy, anyway. Stars were little soul houses people commuted to and from. It’s kind of a weird conversation for Cliff to be a third party to? It was almost more natural at this point to think about undead as an afterlife option than some place you go.

It’s much easier to let the scruffy preteen on the couch take over, shifting just a little to give Teto a slightly different area to work with.

“Really?! I’d like that a lot! I haven’t got my magic ceiling working yet, so we’ll have to be outside, but that’s still okay, right?” With an excited grin, they put a sticky back to one of the smaller stars and leans to place it on Coco’s cheek instead of setting it with the other prepared ones. Beautiful! “He’s right, though, Cliff! Santa Cecilia’s my favorite sky, and I’ve seen lots and lots.”

[kept_his_letters]

"Uuuh..." Boy, he's not sure how to answer that. Mostly because he's never run into someone who didn't know. "It's supposed to be a place where good people go when they die." A beat. "Sometimes. I guess." Everything sure was weird now.

He tries not to lose balance or grip Cliff too tight when he moves. With more stars made and his own running out, Coco brings over some from the pile to Cliff and Teto before joining Mili again.

"Outside's the only way I know how to do it," Teto points out to Mili.

The little star stuck to her cheek summons a giggle from Coco, who sticks one right back on Mili.

"And neither of you are at all biased," She says pointedly to both Teto and Mili. To Cliff she says, "Maybe you can show me the sky in Podunk one day. Seems only fair to see both."

[awooligan]

Were that other psl congruent with this one, Mili would be Furious right now, but without knowing about all that horribleness, they’re mostly just confused. That seems like...a very subjective thing, even to a self-absorbed chaotic creature? The ‘sometimes’ keeps it from being completely ridiculous. They nod, apparently satisfied. Soon they’re distracted from all that anyway, resolving to finish the ceiling when they can so they can show Teto their plan of curling up on a bed and feeling safely free in a room, and laughing along with Coco at new accessory. They wouldn’t mind that being a regular thing.

Cliff, reminded of his discomfort even though Teto’s trying to be gentle about it, is grateful when Coco addresses him, and offers a lopsided grin in return.

“I mean, Podunk is Podunk. It doesn’t have a lot going for it...but yeah. You should come.” He’d like showing her around. He’d like doing so much with her. “The woods are nice, too. That’s something I’ve got on you guys, at least.”

Mili, somehow, perks up even more. “Oh! I lived in the forest before Papá and Mamá let me stay. Sleeping in trees, squishing my feet in the dirt...”

“Yeah? I think I’d like living in a forest. I’d want an actual house, though.” Hm... “You think you two are going to stick around this place when you’re older? There’s no real rush to move out, I guess, since your Tíos are living here, and everything.”

[skeletones]

Teto breathes a little sigh of relief that Mili just accepts that explanation. He has not studied nearly enough theology to really get into it without feeling he's overstepping a hundred little bounds.

"I wouldn't mind that," Teto admits. "It'd be nice to see other places." Particularly now that no one's going to drag him away for good from this one.

Coco looks happy with the idea as well, smiling brighter when Cliff (intentionally or not) invites her sort-of-siblings too. She starts to say that a forest house sounds cute, like a fairytale, when Cliff asks that.

In that moment, both Teto and Coco seem to slow, looking at each other with that same uncertainty. Coco's head ducks first, her braid tucked back.

"I... I don't know. I never really thought about leaving like that. Moving out. I know that's weird in some places, everyone moves out these days but..." She shrugs. Hard to talk about whether you're leaving your parents' house to the boy who is maybe now your boyfriend. Would he be disappointed with that?

Teto's answer comes slower, a pause even after Coco's answered.

"I might," He admits quietly. "Someday. I mean, if... if there was something somewhere else." Like a person, he doesn't say. "Or if it got too weird. You know, like, when I'm older and stuff." And he started to look more like Señor R. Unlike Coco, he's still used to hitting the ground running when a given place has had its fill of him.

[awooligan]

It would be a lie to say he hadn’t been fishing, with a question like that. It felt weird to establish some of this information when he’d only just officially asked her to be his girlfriend today, but she’s also a constant reminder that her parents hadn’t been much older than them when they got married. She was also a constant reminder that she was extremely beautiful and he was lucky to be her friend, let alone boyfriend. But that’s neither here nor there, this time. His eyes linger on her a touch longer before he shifts his gaze back up to inspect whatever layout’s Teto’s got going on and keep his face neutral. Her answer wasn’t really a surprise...

“My plan was always to move out as soon as I turned eighteen. I guess I don’t need to, anymore.” Huh. He could stay at home, as long as he learned how to manage his werewolf side. It’s an interesting thought, even if he hasn’t considered it enough to know how to feel yet. Just having the option is a bit of a relief. “Between school and coming here, I’ve gotten way further away from Podunk than I ever thought I would.”

Mili seems to barely hold their tongue, wanting to express to them just how much they were all missing out. At the same time, they agree with Coco and Teto more than they could say. This had only been their home for a short time, and it was a place full of walls making boxes, but...they had freedom, still. More importantly, they had love. They wonder if they would leave even after everyone else in this room was long gone... There would be more Riveras to make this home in the future.

Instead, they return to the topic from before their not-siblings got a bit more awkward. “I can take you guys to all sorts of places, if you want! I guess a lot of the circle stations I used to use aren’t taken care of anymore, and even the closest ones are out of the way, but I can learn new —-” They cut off suddenly, pupils expanding like a cat readying itself to pounce on its next meal and hair fluffing up a little again. “I bet I could make one. Ohhh, I could make one! And then I could visit you at school whenever I wanted, Teto!”

Cliff can’t really share A Look with him to gauge if that would be a good thing or not... He is Unsure, himself.

[skeletones]

It's a little sad to her, to think he intended to move out only because he was hurt, that without that he'd stay. Even in little ways like that, he sooner sacrifices than speak up. Though the comment of going far makes her laugh.

"I think we've all travelled more than we expected," She says. On that, Teto can agree.

Mili's rescue from awkwardness takes him by surprise. He hasn't any idea what circle stations are, but he can still find amusement in the odd puffing up they do. He hesitates over their suggestion all the same.

"Um... I guess that would be fine." Even if he isn't fully sure, he was always one to give chances more than refuse them. It wasn't like he hadn't been the sort to stumble on a friend's space without asking before. "Not right in my room, I have a roommate now, but you could probably visit. Is it hard? To go back and forth?"

[awooligan]

They nod vigorously at his terms, eyes returning to a more human appearance. It wasn’t like appearing in his room was even an option, so of course! “Mm-m! Not if I go by circle! The school has a couple, and I was a student for a little bit, so I can use them no problem and everything! There aren’t any circle stations that close to Santa Cecilia, though. That’s why I want to make one.”

Cliff almost points out that when he’d broken into the official files, he hadn’t seen any ‘Mili Rivera’, but...right. Fae child. Adopted. The Rivera thing was a more recent development. It isn’t worth bringing up, especially since Mili is turning to look at Coco, now.

“Do you think Mamá and Papá will let me? Since it’s their property...”

[kept_his_letters]

Teto still has no idea what circle stations are. He should probably find out. Was it magic thing or a future thing...?

Coco looks unsure, head tilting.

"I think Mamá might take some convincing but Papá would probably be fine with it. Especially if it means that travelling could be easier," She muses. "Could you bring other people through the circle station?"

Teto looks curious now too. Back and forth between home and France... even getting to pass messages would be pretty cool.

[awooligan]

Yeah, that tracks. Both Mili and Cliff have gotten the impression that Héctor would let his kids have just about anything they asked for -- he'd give them the world. Move heaven and earth, one might say.

(Also, Teto, that's called texting.)

"Yeah! Probably only one or two at a time, having a big circle's kinda dangerous."

"Uh, why?" Cliff is frowning at them, now. What are they doing, introducing dangerous things to an environment full of chaotic, adventure- and accident-prone people?

The fae tilts their head, blinking owlishly at him like it should be obvious, before explaining, "If you step into a fairy circle without a fairy, silly stuff happens, I guess. You might talk backwards, or have your hair turn bright green, or turn into an animal -- not like a shifter. You get stuck. It goes away eventually, but our magic's kind of unpredictable, even with rules! Some fairy's trick humans into stepping into it for fun."

Thinking on it for a beat, Cliff flatly observes, "Your tíos would be so screwed." He's going to focus on that instead of the squirming discomfort from Mili's casual implication that they know what he is. It wasn't like he couldn't smell something a little different about them in return, though he would have just categorized it as wilderness if he didn't know about their fae nature. For all he knows, that's what they're choosing to smell like and he can't actually tell at all!

Well, aside from the horns. And the fangs. And the way their hair is expressive. And their animalistic eyes... Okay, so there are a lot of signs, despite being able to pass at Teto's twin.

[kept_his_letters]

(What ever happened to good old-fashioned letter writing?)

Teto and Coco listen to Mili's explanation of circle consequences, one more wide-eyed than the other. Coco opens her mouth to say something. Then, Cliff steal the thoughts from her head. She barks a laugh instead.

"It's so true!" She says, giggling helplessly. Teto laughs a little bit too. This is probably a point against Mili having a circle, all things considered. Those two were chaotic enough.

"Do you think it would get me too?" Teto asks after a pause. "Since..." Well, he's not fae but...

"Careful, Tío oscar and Tío felipe will definitely want to see you test it if you go saying that," Coco warns. "Still, it might be useful to have an easy path back and forth..."

[awooligan]

(Work on them hawk alebrijes and teach Cliff how to summon one, too. They'll all be able to do dumb romantic bygone era things in no time.)

It isn't Mili's fault that fairy circles could be nasty business, or that the twins were delightfully predictable in their unpredictability. Even they have to grin, though it fades into something more thoughtful while they consider Teto's question.

"I don't know! As far as I know, no one like you's ever existed before -- which is really neat! I don't think even Poe would be able to guess what sort of effect circles would have on you, though." They consider shaking him awake, but for some reason Coco always looked a bit strange whenever they interacted with him. Instead, "You're not not fae, so we can try it. Somewhere with really close circles, and only if we get Mamá's permission... The school has a few. It should be safe to play around with them there."

Cliff has to smirk a little at the unspoken acceptance that Imelda's opinion of it was the real concern. Harder to earn, and requiring more care to be taken, probably. He's also still riding the high of making Coco laugh, and being glad that Teto, at least, shouldn't be able to tell that his cheeks are a little flushed from the joy of that. His voice carries the shrug he can't currently act out as he says, "Hey, sign me up, if we're just making circles, now. No way is anything like that around Podunk, so... It'd save on travel costs, for sure. Be a huge relief to my mom."

And, of course, he wouldn't mind getting to see Coco more. Heck, maybe he could even have a circle by his hypothetical cabin in the woods and he wouldn't have to worry about crossing that whole "are you ever moving out" bridge. Though that...would probably still be a bit weird... He just wants her to be happy, okay.

Milk nods enthusiastically and bounces across the floor to pass a few more stars up to Teto. "Yeah! I can look into it! Poe usually took care of asking for stuff like that, but I should learn to do it myself. Even if I'm getting to be a kid again."

[skeletones]

Nothing ever like him before. The statement makes him blink. Being what he is, it seems an ironic statement. He's a memory, isn't he? A song played before. They speak as if he's new, brand new, and at that, maybe something special. He finds himself smiling before he returns to dotting the ceiling with stars.

"Okay. That sounds fun," He says. And of course, he'd wait to find out Tía Bruja's thoughts. Even if something happens for a bit, it probably wouldn't be too bad.

He grins even wider at Cliff's addition. Coco smiles at Cliff too.

"That would make travelling go way faster," He points out. Planes are kind of exhausting!

Coco asks then, "What do you like better, Mili? Being a kid or--" Adult's not the right word. "--not a kid?"

replying to this as Cliff like he's more than an afterthought here

[awooligan]

Planes are kind of super exhausting. International ones especially. Those facts are just as true as Teto being one of a kind and a wonder for it. If he shared his thoughts, there'd be nothing to stop Mili from correcting him. Did 'I Will Always Love You' being brought into the world by Dolly Parton mean Whitney Houston's rendition wasn't something new and special? He must get that foolishness from his 'father', with how silly humans are.

They hum a few random notes while they think, and twirl on their way back like both they and Cliff have seen Coco do at times. Little habits they've been picking up with curious fascination. Given the choice between kid and not a kid...

"I like being Mili," they say softly, unable to stop the smile as they say their name even if they'd wanted to. They can't fathom why they would want to. "Papá told me something, back when I was still Wist -- and really, really tall! -- about the last time I had human parents. I didn't really know what to think about it back then, but now I know what it's like to have him and Mamá, and Tío Oscar and Tío Felipe, and you, Coco, and Teto! I like this best because I love this family, not because I'm a kid again."

It be like that sometimes...

[kept_his_letters]

It almost certainly comes from his 'father'. And he would probably appreciate that metaphor. The nerd.

The little twirl Mili does makes Teto pause, observing them with a tilt of his head. Coco turns her smile on them and then, once they've done speaking, she rise, reaching over to pat their head and ruffle the hair between their horns.

"I love this family a lot too," She says.

It's a lot to think about, for Teto. He still hasn't worked out how he feels about it all. He'd wanted a family-- always-- but he'd never found one that he fit into and it's hard to tell how much he fits into the family of his older self. But there is Tía, and even beyond that, Imelda had told him, when they ran together, that they were going to be family someday. There's this room that they're decorating now, just for him.

"It'll be weird," He says before he can think to stop himself. "Being in a family."

Coco gives Teto an odd look but he's looking back, busy putting stars in his fake sky. Best not to point out what she knows of him, she thinks. Instead...

"At least you've got Cliff here now, while you figure things out," she said. "It helps to have a friend when you go through big or new things."

[awooligan]

Mili's head ducks for half a second on instinct before they're leaning into the touch, and Cliff raises an eyebrow thinking about how for someone that claims to be afraid of cats, they kind of acted like one at times. He can even hear, just barely, a pleased rumble that bubbles up from their chest. Weird...but at least they look happy, and Coco does, too.

He's already giving Teto's calves a gentle squeeze in an attempt at reassurance or solidarity when Coco makes her comment. It makes him smile, something crooked and small, as he softly agrees, "Yeah." He knows that firsthand, thanks to her. It might not have fixed everything or made him happy, necessarily, at the time, but... She'd been there, and it had helped more than he could say without wanting to throw himself into a lake.

"If you need to ditch things for a bit and just hang out or talk, or whatever, just let me know. Pretty sure I'm going to feel out of place the entire trip, especially around the grown-ups."

[skeletones]

Funny how Coco and Cliff think of entirely different events with the same sorts of feeling. It warms her heart that he picks right up on it, helping to talk things out with Teto in the process.

The silent reassurance from Cliff really does compound it that his friend is here for him-- even if Cliff mostly came to see his crush. Of everyone, Cliff is the one he knows best without the tangle of the past involved. This whole trip might have been paralyzing otherwise.

Teto laughs and says, "Yeah. Okay. Thanks, güey."

He kind of wants to hug but... well, he's not sure how to go about it like this. Or how Cliff would take it. Probably better to not.

"Coco? Can I have more stars?"

She answers with a smile, getting up to pass Teto more. And to put one star on Cliff's cheek.

[awooligan]

If everyone could stop calling him the fuck out on his very obvious feelings and motivations for wanting to visit now of all times, that would be great!! At least Teto isn't coming out and saying that thought right this second, or he might regret being on Cliff's shoulders. Then again, a hug would have made Cliff regret not having him on his shoulders. Guess things are going as well as they can.

"De nada, man."

He almost pulls back, Coco's hand lifting to his face and her coming so close in the first place. He can stamp down on that urge, even smiling a little down at her, but unfortunately he can't stop the way his cheeks heat up. Now that star's definitely going to stick out...

"Hey! This isn't fair, I can't fight back."

[kept_his_letters]

Stop calling him out? Absolutely not. Never going to happen.

"Mili already got me," Coco points out. It was a bit of a gamble, going ahead and doing that, but it pays off with that red flush to him. It makes her grin as she returns back to her sticker work. "Besides, no one said anything about playing fair."

Upon Cliff's shoulders, Teto giggles a little bit.