awooligan: (1541)
Clifford Norman ([personal profile] awooligan) wrote in [community profile] daybreakacademy2020-08-31 07:20 pm

better to beg forgiveness, bad dog.

Who: Cliff and open, outside of one prompt.
What: Secret werewolf newbie getting ready for secret times and secret crimes.
When: The days around the full moon (Sept 2nd), night of Sept 5th for closed prompt.
Warnings: Profanity, mentions of underage smoking and drinking, inexpertly devised heists.

[ W A X I N G . ]
[The full moon’s coming, and while there’s the mounting anxiety of not being sure what he’s all going to do even under the care of people that knew how to deal with this shit, it’s also always a time where Cliff could feel his heart race with the need to go, do, see. He’s taken to walking briskly or jogging about campus during the day when he wasn't in class, barely holding back from a run, so that he can get a better idea of where things were or what different smells meant. It would be important to have these things in mind when he was able to meet up with Coco for their secret mission. Excited as he is for it, it would have to wait a few more days…

In the meantime, he can practice sneaking out through his window rather than risking alerting someone down the hall as he went by, or scaling the walls of the dorms. Definitely tougher than the siding back home, and his fingertips were going to get calloused, but it was infinitely more fun. Especially with this restlessness.

Clifford sits at the edge of the roof a lot, too, eyes scanning the night sky and lighting up as the moon -- almost full, almost dangerous -- hit them. Almost literally! His usual golden light brown eyes reflect back with an eerie glow like the beast he would be forced to turn into soon. Times like these, it was hard to mind too much or to keep to his human form.

Being a wolf racing through the forest, energized and unburdened, is something on his mind more and more. Schoolwork was increasingly hard to focus on, even as he slouched elaborately in chairs around the dorm, library, and cafeteria, curled around his studies. Same sentences over and over until he gives up and drapes open books -- usually about the Outlands, curses, or various once-mythic races -- over his face with a loud groan.]


This shit is impossible. Man, I need a smoke…

[Missing them wasn't exactly helping with how much tension he had. He thinks about asking any adult that wanders too close, but in the end if a faculty member approaches, Cliff will sit up again with a nervous,] Uh.

[Maybe it's about his underage smoking, but...whatever he was reluctant to bring up seems to be a bit more pressing.]

[ W A N I N G . ]
[Comparatively, the days following the full moon have Cliff in a stupor. He falls asleep more often than not for brief periods during his earlier classes, and when he rubs the weariness from his eyes he's scrambling to ask for notes to figure out what the hell he missed. It wasn't just for his sake that he picked the classes he did, after all, so even if he didn't have his stepdad peering at his grades as an excuse to get on his case, he wanted to try. Unfortunately, this meant bringing some attention to himself by hurrying to catch classmates before they disappeared into the sea of students.]

Oh, hey. Listen, I didn't get what that was about, can I see what you wrote?

[ W I N D O W P A N I N G - closed to relevant parties. ]
[Finally, it feels like it's time to act. He doesn't have to worry about getting too worked up and transforming, he’s not exhausted as fuck, and he’s itching to help Coco get to the bottom of things so he can see more of her smiles and make it so she doesn't have to cry anymore. The office visits he'd made as part of getting settled into a new school were used as wisely as he could. It wasn't going to be easy by any means with how much he still didn't know, but he's as ready as he can be without making her wait on him -- and she should have the information on the infirmary that they’d need for that part of it.

His explorations have given him another perk: he knows where to find her. Thanks to her talking about her hawk not-roommate, Cliff’s been able to keep an eye on the bird that comes and goes by window from the Aube dorms. Convenient that it was open, even if it wasn't convenient that it was a third floor room. He grunts softly as he pulls himself up to the ledge, grateful for the practice he'd decided to do. He peeks first, light glaring off his eyes and making it easy to inspect the room even if it’s dark. It would be real bad if some rando were in here, or if he came at a...uh, bad time.]


Hey! [His voice is a harsh whisper, but there's an excited current underneath it, too. Crimes! Crimes! Crimes!!] Coco?

[or rather, the bird dude that could direct him to Coco, for the time being, but he hasn't realized that yet. He comes in before he can get an answer though, it isn't good for his hands to just be hanging on for long like this.]
nor_iron_bars: Whisper at the grates (Playing with the good girls)

Waxing

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-01 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
You and me both, kid.

[Oh good, it's just Jailbreak. For a second there, it looked like there was a responsible adult on the way.]

I'd tell you to ask the stoner kids out behind the bleachers, but they're kinda busy right now what with- [She gestures as if to indicate perhaps the entirety of the human condition.] -the latest bullshit.
nor_iron_bars: How great should be (Still looking hella fine)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-04 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, the end is nigh. Again.

[The apocalypse is everyone's problem. Even the stoner kids. Jail seems fairly sanguine about it, at least.]

Kinda what we do here, the whole "save the world" thing. [Just casually discussing this while she rummages through a nearby shelf looking for something.] Good news is if we fail, you don't have to worry about final exams, so it's a win-win situation if you think about it.
nor_iron_bars: And in my soul am free (No that ain't your style)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-11 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[She shrugs.] Shit's gonna get bad everywhere, they just don't know about it.

'Sides, problems ain't gonna go away just 'cause bigger, angrier, louder problems showed up. Might as well do something about it when you can.

[It's amazing what you get used to, really.]
nor_iron_bars: Enjoy such liberty (Default)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-12 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jail smiles slightly, under her mask. At least this one didn't try "so if I had this friend who's a werewolf..."]

That'd depend on what kinda problems they usually had. Y'know how it is- some people transform and they wanna go all "red in tooth and claw", some of 'em just wanna chase their tails and take a nap.

If it's just feeling awkward, hey, no worries- it's everyone's campus, no matter how many legs they got at the time. If it's more of a safety issue, then you'd talk to one of the infirmary staff, they got some safe rooms where people can chill out for a while if they gotta.

[Blight is a medical condition like any other, as far as Daybreak's concerned. You just accommodate it like you would any issue.]
nor_iron_bars: Alone that soar above (Keep doing what you're doing)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-13 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay. [What, did he expect an argument?] If it's a big deal for you, then it's a big deal for you, I ain't gonna tell you otherwise. Not like it's my ass sprouting a tail every month, so it'd be kind of a dick move to lecture about it.

[She tilts her head, frowning at something she's reading in the book she's holding, and absently pulls a red pen out of one of her many, many pockets with her free hand to scribble a correction or rude comment. The line between advancing academic knowledge and defacing school property is sometimes a thin one.]
nor_iron_bars: Run swiftly round (You think you're hot shit)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-13 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's Wednesday, total bitch hours aren't until 6:30. Respect her inscrutable gremlin schedule.]

They knew what they were getting into when they hired me.

[The publicly available criminal record probably clued them in pretty quickly.]

Only difference between this and academia is it didn't take me fifty cited sources and a published article to say "this guy's wrong and he can suck it". What am I supposed to do, just let people be wrong in the library?

[As far as the book is visible over her shoulder, "you're wrong and you can suck it" appears to be entire text of the annotation she's currently writing.]
nor_iron_bars: And fettered to her eye (You know you got it)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-18 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jailbreak is... well, she sure is.]

Hey, I learned plenty in public school. [She winks and counts off on her fingers:] How to stomach cafeteria food, how to pretend to care about standardized testing requirements, how to break out of a locker from the inside... real classical education.

[The American public educational system: still pretty similar to the mid-nineties, honestly.]

For the college-level stuff, it's mostly because tradition. And trying to make sure no one's skimming the grant money and using it on tropical vacations.
nor_iron_bars: Voice aloud how good (And I love it)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2020-09-20 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, same. Protip, Spain is great this time of year.

[...Who the fuck gave this woman grant money???]

Then again, depending on what you study, the vacation can actually be a legit research trip. Knew this one guy who decided to specialize in tropical birds or something, and turns out it's amazing what you can write off as a business expense.