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

[awooligan]

[He snickers again, trotting bouncily through the underbrush.]

Yeah, right. Way too much weird shit happens here for anyone to manage. I basically just got here and I already know that.

[hawkwardness]

< It can't be any better at the other schools. Weird is just how it is when you get a bunch of dumb kids together and teach them to do more with their magical powers. People have accidentally cursed the whole campus before by screwing up homework. >

[Not like normal schools, where the worse that happens is a bad grade.]

[awooligan]

Lucky I've heard that before. Might've wanted to say fuck it, run away, and just live out here. A house in the woods doesn't sound bad at all.

[It's nice to be able to casually joke about the possibility, instead of worrying he'd be cornered into it.]

[hawkwardness]

[They're making progress, the woods are getting deeper...]

< Who needs a house, though? All I need is a nice tall tree. No cleaning or having to keep the lawn looking nice. >

[awooligan]

Uh, me. I like having a real bed, fridge, microwave... A real bathroom. Roof when the weather's shitty.

[There's a lot of benefits to a house.]

Forest home doesn't have a lawn, anyway.

[hawkwardness]

[He's... not going to go there. Nothing nice to say about it and his lack of a real home.]

< Still have to rake leaves, which is pretty stupid now that I think about it. I don't miss chores. >

[awooligan]

Nobody can make me rake around my house in the woods, that's stupid. It's my house, I'll do whatever chores I want.

[thats what being an independent adult is all about!!]

[hawkwardness]

[...Good point. What a dumb argument. Why does Cliff keep dragging him into them.]

< Right, right. Just say no to trying to clean up nature. > [Heh.]

[awooligan]

[that is what being an idiot teen is all about

best of both worlds]

Nature and I, we do whatever the hell we want. We could learn to coexist through a shared love of anarchy.

[hawkwardness]

[Running around naked in the woods and bickering, it's what teens do.]

< You'd probably make it a week before you couldn't stand not having wifi anymore, dude. No internet. No games with Kevin. >

[awooligan]

[...hmmm. He had a good point. But also, only one boy is naked, gosh -- Cliff's got his clothes on same as he's got his fur, just on the flipside. Some shifters are just lucky that way.]

Maybe I'll live just close enough to civilization to get a decent signal. Kev's welcome to visit anytime he wants, too, as long as he doesn't wander off to study some wild animal.

[hawkwardness]

< Hey, if he wants to study animals, let him live his dreams. Maybe he'll grow up to be a vet. Wildlife researcher. Conservationist. Plenty of things he can do. >

[Kevin's not like him. Kevin can have a future. They just have to make sure he gets one.]

[awooligan]

[Mm. A fair point. That's the sort of future that would make Kevin happy, isn't it? A dream come true.]

Okay, but when he's older. He doesn't need to be like his brother and going out on his own to get bitten by a werewolf and rescued by a bear.

[hawkwardness]

[The deer that is Toby pauses and twitches an ear at Cliff...]

< Rescued by a real bear? Did that actually happen? >

[awooligan]

[Sigh...]

Man, I don't know. I was freaking out. But since I'm still fucking alive, I'm going with yeah, that actually happened. It wasn't normal, whatever it was. Had this white face and scary eyes, and bears don't usually talk.

[hawkwardness]

< Could it have been a werebear? I'm guessing not someone like me, I don't talk out loud. >

[He's lucky he can 'talk' at all, or life would be ten times as difficult.]

[awooligan]

Maybe. Kind of a dick if he was, though. All he did was get in my face and tell me to go home. Didn't want me to talk about what happened. Not that I wanted to -- didn't want to freak my mom out by showing her this big fucking gash in my shoulder.

[With a huff, Cliff starts trotting off again without looking to see if Tobias is following him.]

Besides... Either no one was going to believe what happened, or there'd suddenly be way too many eyes on me. No way, dude.

[hawkwardness]

[Deer Toby is indeed following.]

< The least he could have done was explain what happened. Warn you about what's coming. I'm guessing he didn't bother. >

[awooligan]

Of course not. Why do that when you can be a cryptic asshole?

[Obviously he's grateful to the white-faced bear for saving his life, but that alone wasn't looking out for him!! Come on, bear.]

I figured it out, but what if I hadn't in time? What if I'd been at home for the full moon?

[hawkwardness]

[Now there's a chilling thought that hadn't occurred to Tobias...]

< Right. What a creep. A useless creep, doing one thing right and thinking that's the end of it. >

[awooligan]

Yeah. Not really a fan, but I couldn't find him when I went looking to give him a piece of my mind.

...Anyway, I had to be really careful about this shit back in Oklahoma. I didn't even know right away if I could change without basically blacking out. That's why I didn't do much going around like this.

[hawkwardness]

< I get it. No idea that you'd stay yourself inside... >

[The deer face is as unreadable as his hawk face, his voice a constant even tone.] < No offense to your mom, but sometimes it seems as if everyone over the age of twenty is so... oblivious. Mystery bear-man included. You'd think kids weren't real people from the way they act. >

[awooligan]

[The wolf slows again, glancing over at Tobias with worried brows before looking back ahead of them.]

...Mom works a lot, and she has a lot of things to deal with. There’s a lot she doesn’t — didn’t — know. It’s not like I was telling her. I think the ones that would care are just busy.

[hawkwardness]

< Oh, no. I meant your mom's one of the exceptions. She's here with you, you know? Turns out I was right about her not giving up on you. >

[Told ya so!]

[awooligan]

Yeah. I just mean it isn't always their fault. Now Carl... Always on my case trying to catch me doing something, but didn't have a clue what the hell I was up to. It didn't matter. Definitely didn't act like I was a real person.

[Even his tone there is dull compared to his usual one when complaining about his stepfather. He's just tired now. But...yeah. His mom hadn't given up on him, all that, so it was good. Tobias was indeed right about that one.]