daybreakacademy | The sound of your voice, cuts through the noise, It's all that I hear, that I need the most

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The sound of your voice, cuts through the noise, It's all that I hear, that I need the most

Who: Héctor and you
What: Héctor and his daughter return
When: After the day of the dead, month of November
Where: The Inn of Atropos, Soliel, Daybreak Academy
Warning: N/A

A - Crossing the Bridge

He would have liked to simply stay in Mexico. It was hard to shake the fear that if he left, he'd never see it again. But, with the sun rising and others needing to return, travelling along with the others seemed the best choice. And besides, Coco was with him. That was more home than anything in the world.

His room at Daybreak Academy is gone by now, but he's alright with that. He and his girl are saying in the Inn of Atropos, courtesy of Maverick's mother and her not even protesting the fact that he's dead in the day. It's something Coco has to bear with and they've got a lot to talk about, but in those night hours she's awake with him and he couldn't be happier.

He's got a lot to sort out on his own-- apparently, the veil finally dissolved sometime while he was away. This means resisting as an existing member of society, for better and worse, and negotiating his undead status is something that he and everyone he talks to is having to navigate. Still, soon enough, he'll be home. He and Coco will both be home.

He doesn't hide his room address. At least not from friends. They're all informed on where to find him, if they wish to seek him out, and he can be occasionally found in the lobby as well. He's in a good mood, eager to chat.

B - Pestering the Celebrities

"No. Ha, no. No, thank you, no."

Héctor backs out onto the street with a sheepish grin. His hands are raised. Apparently, his newfound fans have found him.

Fame, he finds, doesn't suit him, but fame is what he's found himself with nevertheless after his performance with Coco on Día De Muertos. Some are new fans, some are old De La Cruz fans come around to him, and some are more curious about his undead status than anything else. He hasn't yet managed to change back to his living self, though his energy is gradually returning. He hopes, if it comes back fully, he'll be able to slip into his skin and return to some level of anonymity back home.

Of course, that doesn't mean he isn't willing to play for people. He can be found, later, playing at a fountain in the center of Soliel, where he once heard a girl named Maya Matlin play, not far from the gazebo where he played with Peter Parker. He experienced some terrible things in this town, but there were many wonders too.

C - Dept. of Reunions

He couldn't stay from the school forever. Besides needing to wrap a few things up; telling the higher faculty that he was sorry, but, he just couldn't help them cure blight any longer and then further resigning from a job that forgot he existed anyway. It occurs to him that, with everyone remembering him again, and his own new necromancer status, he might again be able to resurrect himself if they can find a way to rid his body of the poisons. But... that's something he'll table for now. It's something to talk over with his family.

Right now, he wants to focus on his friends, the people who saved him and others about.

"Hey," He says, hovering in the doorway with a grin. "Hope you didn't think you could avoid seeing me forever."

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[He feels like he should say something, do more to comfort this kid. He's clearly made the boy uncomfortable. Maybe if he said less...

But ultimately, he just nods.]

Yeah. That's just how things go at times.

[He can tell Cliff is curious. He's not even pretending not to look. For a moment he hesitates, a part of him wanting to hide, but then he sets his guitar aside. He manages the smallest of laughs.]

It's a real body. My body. Not an illusion I wear. Lots of muscle and things to hold stuff in place, though that also means the things that do move tend to hurt more. [He lifts his leg and shows that slightly loose fibula wanting to pop away.] I got a cane for this while I was working at the school. Helped a lot so I'll probably get one again. Maybe a really cool one this time.

[Cliff isn't sure if that's better or worse... Like, obviously a body means kisses and bones not moving, and no body means a bit less pain, but he's thinking deeper than that. Deeper even than how draining it must be to either pretend to be normal, or to have everyone's attention. No, his priorities are on which one is more gross, and he just doesn't know.

Gosh. Just lots of important things to think about.]

...Like with a skull on top. The stubby part at the bottom can be the teeth. You should also probably make it a sword cane, just because.

[Cliff with the best priorities.

He grins at Cliff.]

A sword cane? Now that'd be something. Though I'm more of a bow and arrow guy. I'd show you a cool trick with that but everyone I've shown it to so far gets freaked out by the skeleton thing. I do like the skull idea though...

[If he were a wolf right now, his ears would be perked up and alert. Cool trick?]

I would've said one of those things you play violin with, but I don't know what you all play. But you know, I already know you're a skeleton. It's pretty obvious.

[cool trick...cool trick!!]

[Ah, the spark of interest in the kid's eyes! Or perhaps that's the light of the moon? Hard to say, but he's going for it.]

Ah, the other kind of bow. I've dabbled. Not amazing with violin but I can pull off a song or too. Alright. Don't panic. I promise this doesn't hurt.

[He grins. Then, he reaches for his own arm and he yanks. It pops right off like nothing and he fixes his grip on it, lining it up so the end is between his fingers and pulled back on his suspenders. He eyes up the empty plaza, takes aim at a lamppost, then fires.

His arm shoots across going out to catch the lamppost. It swings around, once, twice, then swings itself back toward the pair of them. It doesn't make it the whole way back but he brings it to "stand" at the elbow and give a wave. He's still grinning.]

Pretty cool, right?

[Oh Héctor, you know it's both.

The promise of it not hurting him goes a long way, as does Cliff's determination to show Héctor that he's cool enough to get to see the cool trick, so panicking definitely won't be a thing. Still, he can't stop the "uh!" of disbelief when the guy goes ahead and just...rips his arm off? Jesus.

The surprise doesn't dim his interest, though. His bright eyes are trained on Héctor's antics, and when the thing actually fires, he has to bark out a laugh. He has to stop himself from reflexively waving back at the arm by instead looking back over to Héctor and grinning. What the fuck, dude.]

Sick! [Absolutely ridiculous, but yeah. That qualifies as a cool trick.] How the hell do you even learn you can do that?

[Who just decides to test that out...]

[Finally! Someone who appreciates his tricks and talents. He looks damn well delighted for it.]

Oh, my kind, we come apart a little on accident all the time. A bump here, a slip there, especially as we start getting more aged and losing energy, things get looser. Well, at some point out there, I'd come apart again, and I thought, hey, why not see if I can pull things together? You know, work the magic a little. So, I practiced! Tested out moving limbs on their own, going to pieces and reassembling on demand... got me out of all kinds of trouble. Like this one time, mi familia and I had to face down these monsters and one charged at me. So, I just split in half! Hopped the top half of me over and let the thing jump over the bottom half of me. Fixed right back together intact. The arm thing was useful for distracting creatures, things like that. I can do just about anything on demand now.

[This guy. This guy tests it out.]

[Well, at least there were advantages to having a fucked up piece of shit body, he supposes... Cliff shakes his head as he gives another little laugh, just as bewildered as he is amused.]

That's honestly sort of amazing.

[Screwed up, a little hilarious, and all that...but clever, and needing careful practice and precision to work. Héctor might be a goofball and a dreamer that's made more bad decisions than can be counted, but it wasn't just Imelda with a solid head on her shoulders.

Metaphorically, in half this case.]

Shit. I want to ask you to do something now, but I can't think of anything. [The world is his oyster, except skeletons, or something.]

[He performs a joking dramatic bow. His arm starts to hop its way closer until it's close enough to rattle and then zip up back into the socket. He rolls his arm twice to make sure it's in place. Then he strokes his chin.]

Hmmm... Well, there's always this.

[He reaches up to grip his own head and then pops it off from his neck. The head stays animated, still grinning, and he tosses it from one hand to the other, back and forth and then sharply up. His body moves, bracing, and down his head goes, catching back onto his neck. His arms go wide.]

Ta-da!

[And with that he goes about actually fixing his down, giving it a spin so it's properly secured again.]

[Cliff splutters and shakes his head, but it’s too fascinating to be distracted by laughter for long. What the heck!! He can definitely see why someone might not have the stomach for this — particularly if they were someone whose first introduction was a scratching sound of an arm dragging itself across the floor, followed soon after by the skeleton in full glory, or was someone who had loved and missed him, like his family. Kind of a bummer he won’t be able to tell Coco about this cool trick without worrying about scaring her. Making her sad. Let her be happy from now on!!!]

Dude. Could make a real killing as a Halloween performer, or have your body playing guitar on one end of a stage and your head singing on the other. Be the weirdest crowdsurfing ever...

[Thinking about necks and connections, though — ]

Your cane could just be like a whole spine.

[Perhaps someday everyone will be as used to it as he is. Until then, it's just him and whatever people have the right sense of humor for it.]

Also switching up my fingers on my hand to play different chords than humanly possible.

[Oh yeah, he's thought about it.]

A spine cane! Oh! That sounds so cool. And you could say it had my back. [Once again, he laughs at his own joke.]

God, shut up. That was terrible.

[AND YET HE’S STILL SMILING. It’s hard not to, in the face of such self-assured buffoonery.]

Oh? You have a bone to pick with my jokes?

[Someone stop him.]

[He smirks and opens his mouth to say something, then...catches himself. His heart thuds heavily, perhaps berating him for getting so close to slipping up, or for letting his guard down around this weird guy he hardly knows. Instead, Cliff opts for rolling his eyes in an exaggerated way and falling back on his palms again.]

No way. I'm not being pulled into this, man.

Not humerus enough for you then. A shame, but I'm not rattled.

[Teenagers. What can you do? He pulls up his guitar again and plucks a few more directionless tunes.]

Mmm, I should get back soon. I've had a good break.

[What an absolute dork. Cliff can keep up the dramatics for a little longer, because a kid going along with the jokes and a kid being So Done with the jokes provides pretty much the same entertainment, he's pretty sure. He tips his head to listen to a few plucks, but the comment has him pushing himself to his feet and stretching out.]

I should head back, too. [Not prying into what the break was from or where Héctor's going. That sort of thing isn't something interesting enough to be nosy about, he doesn't care. He swipes his hand down to snatch up his discarded cigarette -- littering was more or less only fun when he was with his shithead buds back home -- and gives a wave.] Good show, though! I'll text you soon about the atole.

[Phone calls. A lot of gruelling phone calls.

He gets up himself, swinging the guitar around to his back.]

I'll be looking forward to it, kid. It was nice to meet you. And... thank you, again. For everything you've done for my family.

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The sound of your voice, cuts through the noise, It's all that I hear, that I need the most

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