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

[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.]

[hawkwardness]

[Tired is the mood when a person thinks to himself that people like Carl seem to be so common...]

< And there would have been no way to prove you weren't, even without the... wolf stuff. Can't please 'parents' like that, I know. They've already made up their minds. >

[awooligan]

[The wolf hums, an ear tipping a little to the side in a moment of private, bitter amusement.]

Yep. Whatever. He's not my problem anymore, anyway.

[hawkwardness]

< No, I guess he isn't. Not from halfway across the world. >

[And that's all he has to say, apparently. Moving along quietly...]

[awooligan]

[Cliff isn't in any hurry to correct the assumption, just falls into his own short silence. Then he sighs dramatically and picks up his pace to the quadrupedal equivalent of a jog.]

Let's go! Cliff time for Cliff, I'm bored of just walking around. Thought the point was to have fun as a wolf.

[hawkwardness]

< Hey, I'm following you. Unless you mean you're looking for a cliff... for Cliff. >

[Dear god, that was awful and he's not sorry.]

[awooligan]

[He huffs and rolls his eyes so hard his head tips to watch Tobias again.]

That was indeed what I meant. Thought you said there was a cool place out here.

can't just leave it at 69 comments

[hawkwardness]

< There is. See if you can keep up with me. >

[And with that, he's going to get these hooves running. Being a deer is kind of nice...]

I mean, couldn't you have? I would have been tempted.

[awooligan]

[Cliff's moody bullshit vanishes as his ears perk up, and he's quick to race after Tobias. Now this is what he's talking about!!! Not even a little bit of trouble keeping up, even if he has to focus more on the trees around him than the deer he's supposed to be chasing. Running alongside? Being smug and managing to get ahead, even, sometimes? Perhaps.]

Re: I mean, couldn't you have? I would have been tempted.

[hawkwardness]

[Well, that answers the question if he would have been able to hack it in the wild as a deer instead of a bird. Nope. Chased down and eaten by wolves. Fortunately, it's all in good fun.

The cliff they eventually reach is not awe-inspiring, nothing people would tour France to see, but it's there and it's the closest. There's a bit of a view, at least??]

< Here. This is as good as it gets. But it's not bad, I hope. >

[awooligan]

[There's still a playful trot to his steps as he goes over to the cliff's edge and looks out, and with him panting a little and having a goofy wolf grin on his face, the colored ball of his piercing will be visible. Wolf with a pierced tongue, because it wasn't weird enough.

Seemingly satisfied, Cliff stretches and plops his butt down. The next moment, he's a boy with his legs dangling over the side.]

Not quite like my spot back home, but not bad. Easier to think in a place like this than anywhere down at school, anyway.

[hawkwardness]

[Wolf with a pierced tongue may as well happen. Tobias has learned not to question the little things like that. He's back to nibbling at the plantlife, probably not meaning to be obnoxious about it.]

< I'm with you on thinking better when I'm up high, I get it. >