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]

Oh.
Um.
Okay. Before I say anything, is this good news or bad news?

[awooligan]

I don't know
Mom saw me in the background of something I guess
she wants to talk

[kept_his_letters]

Oh.

[That is a bigger oh than text can really account for.]

Okay, well.
She seems to love you a lot and I believe it will be okay.
You're great and no matter what your power is, that's still true.
But if it's not okay, I'll invite you to my place and I know you'll be allowed to stay. Just with no music.
Also, if I'm not here when you come back, Mamá also caught me and I'm sorry.

[awooligan]

[He wants very very badly for her to be right, but he can't help but to think that she loves him now. "Now" is before she knows for sure he's a monster, and just a little after knowing he's been keeping such a big secret from her. That he didn't trust her. Those thoughts are threatening to swallow him up, but suddenly it's like a plug is pulled and everything is swirling down the drain instead.]

what?

[kept_his_letters]

Ah! No! I'm sorry! don't panic!

She hasn't caught me yet! I'm hiding out from the cameras, it's okay! I'm just saying, if she sees me, she'll definitely grab me!

Please don't worry.



Unless it was something else I said.


If it was, I'm sorry.

[awooligan]

oh
god you freaked me out
you can't leave before we figure things out or if I can't really say goodbye it would be the worst

[kept_his_letters]

I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.

[But she's kind of relieved it wasn't anything else... and kind of in awe that that struck him so deeply.]

I wouldn't do that to you. I wouldn't do that to anyone. I wouldn't just abandon someone. Especially not without saying goodbye. I promise.

[awooligan]

[Sometimes you're a boy's best magic friend, which makes you his best real friend because he can't be real with the ones he's known longer.]

yeah

anyway I don't think your mom would like me much if I had to stay with you guys

[kept_his_letters]

She is pretty strict. But you're still a good person. If you had nowhere to go, she'd give you a chance.

Unless you're in a secret rock band. Then you might have to quit the band.

[awooligan]

I wish
but I've got enough secrets from moms without being in a band

[kept_his_letters]

A shame. I'd have liked to sneak into a rock concert.

I think Mamá could handle a few more secrets. We've all got some.

[awooligan]

maybe I can be convinced still

[Trade that secret for another, to take its place.

...

May as well, if he's losing everything else.]

I don't have magic
I have blight

[kept_his_letters]

[She blinks at her phone. She's so surprised by the confession she's sure she must have misread. Or maybe it's a joke. Or maybe...]


Oh.

[Think. Say something better than that.]


Well. Thank you. For trusting me.

Should I ask? Or guess? Or

I can tell you a secret too, I guess, so it's fair. Sort of. It's not as big. Though maybe it is, I don't know.

It's not hurting you, is it?

[awooligan]

[Fuck. There it is.]

you don't owe me anything

[This was a mistake... He's made things too awkward, but he chose a time when things had been good. How was she supposed to just drop it -- him -- without making it look even worse?]

I'm a werewolf
that's what I was doing when I didn't come home that night, it was the full moon
busy being a monster

[kept_his_letters]

Of course I owe you. You're my friend. I owe my friendship.

I know you aren't really into the real thing, but this is a digital hug. It's different. Please expect your digital hug in 3-2-1. Okay, now imagine it.

And now I have to tell you that monster is a funny word in a world like this.

I'm going to try and not ask you a lot of dumb things, even though I want to ask about your wolf self. Though I do still hope it doesn't hurt.

I don't have as big a secret. Mine is just that the Rivera family is a necromancer family, which freaks some people out, but we don't raise the dead like people think so it's really not a big deal.

We're still friends right? You're not going to tell me you're a monster and then say we can never speak again for my own safety? Because I've read books like that and they're all really dumb.

[awooligan]

[It's early, but today is already so much. He doesn't know how to respond to things, but it doesn't matter so much because before he can even struggle to come up with something, there's something else to read. The arm not holding his phone curls tightly around his body, unintentionally acting as her proxy, and eventually, he feels like he can breathe again.]

I don't read a lot of books so I never got a dumb idea like that

[Quite the opposite, he wonders if he could ever stop being being her friend. He'd been so convinced this would push her away, be the last straw, but... God. He wishes she were here next to him.]

thanks coco

I want to ask stuff too so we could take turns?
I'm going to have a lot of time to kill

[kept_his_letters]

[She also wishes he were here, but she'll keep herself from saying that.]

De nada, Cliff.

We can do that. Do you want to go first?

[awooligan]

okay

[At a loss for words, he doesn't have too many questions, really, but...]

what does a necromancer that doesn't raise the dead do?

[kept_his_letters]

Work with spirits. Blight stuff that isn't vampires or werewolves. Communion, things like that. Stuff that makes the spirits happy, I think. The name seems kind of silly to me, but it's what I was told.

Are you like a normal wolf when you change?

[awooligan]

I bet you'd be good at making spirits happy

yeah
maybe bigger? I don't know a lot about wolves
we don't have them in Oklahoma

have you ever talked to a ghost?

[kept_his_letters]

Thanks.

Wolves are pretty big, I've heard.

Kind of. I still haven't done any summoning, so usually I'm just talking to Mamá's spirit guide, her cat. But as far as actual ghosts, I've been there when Mamá did work for someone and I've said things then. And I talk to my dead relatives on Día de Muertos. I can't normally see or hear ghosts much though. Not without a lot of work and magic involved.

Do you think more like a wolf or more like how you normally do when you transform?

[awooligan]

I'm just me usually
I asked Tobias something like that to see if it would help me not be such an asshole to you guys like before but we're too different
I don't really remember what I'm like for the full moon

are you going to have a spirit guide someday?

[kept_his_letters]

Oh! So you can change even when it's not a full moon! Cool!

Anyway, you know, half the world is pretty cranky once a month. It might be good to look at it from a human angle rather than an animal one. There's bound to be something out there for keeping calm.

I don't know. I try to imagine it but, well, like I keep saying, I'm really no good at magic.

[awooligan]

oh
yeah
I don't do it a lot

you're okay enough at magic

[gonna moonwalk always from period talk because yikes]

you didn't ask a question that time

[kept_his_letters]

[Gosh, Cliff, are you scared?]

Throwing a rune I didn't make isn't the same thing. You haven't seen me do anything else.

Hmmm

[Can I pet your fur? No.]

Can I see your wolf form someday?