Daybreak | IC Inbox.

[deuteranope]

RICKY MARTEN-TAYLOR
UN: WEASELING

STATUS: Student, 11th 12th Grade.

ACCOLADES: n/a.

BIO: my name is fucking maverick (the fucking is optional) not ricky, I'm first dad to the best cat what else is even more important than that like really
19 // he/him // fluent in english & french
hmu if you want me to #freesomething
#FREETHELEASH
#FREETHEBEATS #BUTDON'TCAUSETREBLE

© TESSISAMESS

Comments

[deuteranope]

[Once he's close enough, it's pretty easy to tell someone is inside and probably awake, since music is playing -- not blaring or anything, blasting music to make sure everyone knew he was there was fine and all, but not at midnight -- and there's some lazy humming to go along with it. Or there was... It cuts off pretty sharply when Kano pokes his nose at the bottom of the door.

His presence has been noticed, but nobody comes just yet. If Kano could see inside, he'd find Maverick sitting crosslegged on his bed, eyes glued to the door, with one hand on his phone and the other reaching into his hoodie pocket to grip something. Mysterious things outside his door at odd hours is not...something he enjoys, so he's playing the waiting game for the moment.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Oh- it looks like he was noticed, when the humming stops and Kano withdraws his nose, pressing himself down as flat as he can. Doors swing inward, so at least he wouldn't be in danger of getting slammed by it if Maverick decides to fling it open, but any sort of commotion is what he want to avoid, especially when the dorms are filling up again and he's low-key high-key wary of the RA. Best to announce his presence, even if he feels really stupid doing this, it's the price of being in character. Meow, meow, open up. He sits up straight and also scratches at the door for extra measure. ]

[deuteranope]

[He didn't know what to expect from this spooky visitor, but a meow wasn't something that would have made the short list, of the soft "the fuck?" is any indication. He's much more willing to investigate this, though, and he hops down from the bed to crack the door open a pinch.]

Holy shit. What the fuck.

[There's a cat????? He opens the door further to lean outside and look up and down the hall. No owner... No obvious place the thing came from. No need to be anxiously holding onto the little pocket knife he probably wasn't supposed to have, but oh well. That can go back in his hoodie now, anyway.]

What are you doing over here? [He's torn between crouching down and stepping aside to let the cat in... He decides to compromise with a big step back and lowering himself to sit cross-cross applesauce.] Heyyy, kitty. Not gonna lie, pretty fucked up place for you to be hanging around. You got an owner, or what?

[just gonna chat up the cat]

[suddenlybees]

[ It's a good thing he didn't burst into Maverick's room looking like a rhinoceros, or he might have gotten shanked... A cat is the most handy form for this sort of thing, cute enough that people allow them to get close, but standoffish enough that he can get away with keeping his distance, swiping at whoever gets too close. This is good. But he also needs Maverick to step aside, or maybe feed him or something. What's Cat for "Feed me, I'm hungry"...? He flops onto his side and meows again, tip of his tail flicking on the ground behind him. Meow, meow, feed me. ]

[deuteranope]

[Pretty much all phrases in Cat have roots in "feed me", so it's not too hard to suppose that's what a visiting kitty would be after, when it finds signs of life. Hmm. What does he even have, though... Most of the shit he packed was ratty clothes. Laptop and charger. Maybe something in one of the boxes Mama handled? Maverick pushes himself up to crawl the short way over to his pile of crap and digs a while, though with his door being open and a wild (?) cat randomly there, he doesn't focus completely on his task. Nekano can feel free to come in and explore, but Mav's got his eye on him.]

Jackpot! Damn, maybe she'd seen that I'd need cat-friendly snacks.

[Or jerky's just a good, convenient food that wasn't straight up sugary garbage. Either way, thanks Mama! Now he can jostle the little plastic bag over to the cat.]

Well, my feline friend, what say you to turkey jerky?

[suddenlybees]

[ It's a messy room, clearly in the process of being unpacked, but even then there's just so much stuff. When he'd come to the academy three years ago, he'd brought nothing more than a backpack, a change of clothes, and a toothbrush. Three years later, his room is still pretty bare-bones, so the prospect of exploring somebody else's room is always a treat. When Maverick steps inside, Kano's right at his heels, and his first stop is to wedge himself underneath Maverick's bed and poke around there. Is it too early for Maverick to keep a porn stash...? He can always check back later. In the meanwhile, he extends a single paw out from under the bed and scratches at the floor. He's not playing your game, human. Toss that jerky down here. ]

[deuteranope]

[He...he has a laptop, Kano. The porn "stash" is digital... Under the bed is nice and clean, not even a discarded sock or a dead fly.]

Haha, yeah, all right. Okay, okay. Just don't leave any crumbs and shit, got it?

[He tears open the bag and picks out a piece he can tear into manageable chunks, then tosses the handful over before getting another strip for himself to munch on. Can't have kitty choking, or something... He'd get his dadship of Ricktoria revoked. Speaking of which -- ]

You know, I just got a cat. She's with her other dad.

[suddenlybees]

[ Hecking rich kids and their laptops and digital porn stashes and boring floors. At least it's clean and he can try not to think about the fact that he's dragging turkey jerky under the bed and eating it right off the floor. ...That's kind of gross and maybe he'll feed this to Ellie instead. The jerky goes into his real pocket while he extends his fake cat paws again. Both of them. Scritch-scratch at the ground. He also meows again, just because it seems like doing so puts Maverick into a good mood. ]

[deuteranope]

[He's not rich, Mama just works really hard and is great...........and inheritance shit, but that's pretty much gone by now.]

Hey, chew, jackass.

[And yet he easily gives up more food... It's even a fresh piece, not just the remainder of what he'd been working on.]

-- anyway, I'm kinda bummed, I haven't actually seen her yet. Pictures, yeah, but not like this thing you n' me got going on. You're cute, though. [So he feels a little better. Heeeere's even more jerky, brat.]

[suddenlybees]

[ This other cat is really missing out, what with all this free food and easy praise- the latter of which is something Kano never hears, so he feels a bit jealous of his cat self, even if it's also himself. The jerky gets stuffed into his pockets, and he waits a reasonable amount of time to pretend he's chewing an adequate number of times instead of inhaling the meat whole, before slinking out of the foot of the bed. No one's allowed to be bummed when he's around; that's a small part of the reason why he'd spent so much time getting this whole turning into a cat thing just right, so long as he doesn't go up to cold-blooded a cat hater who'd kick him and cause him to revert back. ] Myah~~ [ It's a super wide cat yawn, tongue curling, so Maverick can rest assure he hasn't choked on any jerky. Then he jumps onto Maverick's desk, careful not to step on any papers or whatever's on it so he won't be shooed off immediately before he can dig around what's here. ]

[deuteranope]

[He perks up a little when Nekano reappears, though he does little more than lean forward and watch him go around. Cats can be wary little things, and he doesn't want to do anything to make this one uncomfortable. Knew too much what that was like. Good kitty...]

Yeah, you can knock whatever the fuck you want off. Cats are into that kinda thing, right?

[Right now there's just a pencil, eraser, crumpled up piece of paper which, if investigated, is just a list of locations with little notes, presumably to remember how to get there, some standard school books, a collection of short sci-fi stories, a memoir, and a framed photograph of a young boy with wild red curls and missing teeth smiling shyly at the camera with a black woman that looks barely older than Maverick is at present crouched next to him. Looks like maybe they were at some kind of parade?]

[suddenlybees]

[ He's getting more and more jealous of this cat by the second; imagine being told he's allowed to tear things apart and be as destructive as he wants. If he were granted that sort of permission as a kid, he doubts there would have been a wall or piece of furniture not smashed in by a metal baseball bat, but it's too little, too late. It's a bit half-hearted, but he bats that crumpled piece of paper off the desk and onto the floor, jumping down after it and dribbling it under the bed, lost in the darkness for him to pocket later if he remembers to before leaving. Then he's back onto the desk, looking this way and that, and picks the pencil up in his mouth so he can trot over towards the picture, just next to it so that the blunt end of the pencil taps against the frame. Better than pressing a wet nose or clawed paw up against what looks like a childhood picture, Kano thinks as he gives a muffled meow, prompting Maverick to talk about this. ]

[deuteranope]

[Yeahhh, you play that football, kitty. Mav's carefully edging around the room so as to not disturb him when he's back to the desk, so that he can sit on the bed instead of standing in his sea of boxes like an asshole. He's also making a mental note to pick up that paper, later, maybe, if he remembers.

...That's not a particularly cat thing to do, but cats are cool and humans were made to find coincidences in whatever, so he can roll with it.]

S'me. Look like a real dipshit, right? [Maybe because of the smiling...? He's really just kind of the same, just a decade or so younger.] Don't got too many pictures of Mama, though... That's my mom. She's like, uh... I don't know if you're a stray, I guess, but if you are, and you knew what the fuck I was fucking saying instead of this just being me talking to my own dumb ass and because I want you used to the sound of my voice so we can hang out more, then she's like someone who picked me up when I was a stray. She's cool.

[suddenlybees]

[ "Dipshit" isn't the word he'd use, but it'd definitely strange seeing Maverick make that face, the fur at the back of Kano's neck standing with the uncomfortable feeling that the smile isn't something he's meant to see. He turns his head to hide that fact, muffled murble escaping his throat as he pads around the photo frame and stands behind it. How is he supposed to convey this... Being a cat is so stupid, because he can't say anything- not that he knows exactly what words he wants to say, but... He drops the pencil, letting it roll across the table as he bounds back towards the bed, leaping onto it instead of under this time, where Maverick had left his phone when he'd gone to open the door. It's this phone that Kano bats at. ]

[deuteranope]

[Maverick, on the other hand, is delighted that the kitty is deigning to come so close to him. He doesn't plan on moving, but as Kano paws the phone he has to intervene by leaning in and rescuing it.]

Nah, that could actually break, and it'd be a pain in the ass to replace. Sorry, kitty.

[...Since he has his phone, though, he's going to hold it up, camera app running, and focus in on his new friend. Let him get pictures!!!]

If I didn't know any better, I'd say -- oh shit, stay like that, fucking please -- you're trying to get me to call my Mama. Meow once for yes.

[suddenlybees]

[ The tip of Kano's tail twitches in amusement at how excited Maverick's getting; like this, he looks more like the little kid in the photo than he does the surly teen so resistant to playing icebreaker games with the rest of the floor. Apparently, Kano hadn't needed to go through all the trouble of distracting him back then with that doorknob trick; in the end, therapy animals are the way to go. Getting a good picture of a cat can be difficult, especially one that's pitch black from head to toe, so Kano does him a solid by flopping over onto his back, paw raised in a maneki neko pose. ] Myaaa~h. [ And there's the single meow, for Maverick's human coincidence. ]

[deuteranope]

[It's almost like...not being annoying...will make it so people aren't annoyed with you????? Advice Mav could use himself, but he's not quite sure what else the point of him would be to other people, if he wasn't an annoying punkass kid.]

Ha! [Not just because he's getting some quality pictures of a cute cat. He's also feeling pretty dang smart for figuring something out!!!] I get it, now. You must be a familiar, right? Look, it's cool. I mean, you're a cat, not a rat, right?

[So don't be a blabbermouth about how he's not always an asshole... also he doesn't actually know how familiars work, but. yeah.]

Anyway, kitty, you're smart and all, but did you forget how to tell time? It's midnight.

[suddenlybees]

[ ...Kano squints at Maverick. It's less a kitty smile and more a human squint, as he meows again and swipes at Maverick's knee like the annoying asshole cat he knows he can be. They had a deal, Maverick!! Stop calling him out about how uncatlike he is, and call your mom!!! They were becoming friends, weren't they? Don't throw away all this progress just to respect your mama's sleep schedule. ]

[deuteranope]

[rolls eyes...mama's better than cats, sorry!!! also he never took any deal!]

Nope. She's a fucking early bird, and with me here she's finally gonna get a decent fucking night's sleep. Gotta make it seriously worth my while if you want me to fuck that up already.

[suddenlybees]

[ The betrayal is like a stake through his heart, and it's a good thing emotional pain doesn't undo the illusion like physical pain does, or Maverick would have a grumpy human Kano sitting at his bed scratching at his knees. He meows, withdrawing his claws, but bumping his paw against Maverick's knee again. Text her, fool. But that might be a little more difficult to convey, not as intuitive as the prompt to call her on the phone, so he gives one last bump against the knee, and jumps off the bed and ducks under it with a displeased yowl. ]

[deuteranope]

[Hey... :c]

Oh, come on. Don't be such a baby about it.

[Kitty... Here, kitty kitty. Maverick moves to his stomach, shoulders and head draping over the edge of the bed so he can try and make peace.]

Look, I know I look like a fucking shitty kid, n' all, but me and Mama are tight. You don't gotta worry about me never calling her, okay? Just not at this fucking time of night. What if I hit her up before orientation tomorrow?

[suddenlybees]

[ There's no answer from under the bed other than a shadow shuffling around, that wadded up piece of paper disappearing into the abyss, and the cat sulking in silence for a good minute or two before Kano decides that's an acceptable alternative. He pokes his head out the other end of the bed so he doesn't headbutt Maverick right in the face when he does so, and paws at the floor again. Feed me and I'll forgive you, or something. ]

[deuteranope]

[He sulks, too, until the sudden demanding motions start up again and get him to snicker.]

Yeah, yeah. Here you go, fleabag.

[One more piece for himself, then he happily drops the bag to the floor. Take all of it, pretty kitty.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Score. He drags the bag underneath the bag with a thank-you chirrup, and goes to work shaking the jerky out and stuffing them into his pockets. Instead of, you know, just pocketing the bag as-is, since Maverick might get suspicious if he doesn't find trash stuffed in the far corners of his room the next time he pulls his bed out to vacuum underneath it. With the promise in place— he'll have to pester Maverick the next day, or otherwise pay him a visit sometime later when it's dark out but not too late— he drags himself out from under the bed and pads towards the door. Staying true to his claimed magical ability of making doors disappear would be too obvious, so he does the non-cat thing of pawing at the door to be let out. ]

[deuteranope]

You use me for my food and my duty as a son, and then you leave me, huh.

[Sounds like he's still in a good mood, though. Got some nice pic, after all, so it was a pawsitive experience. He stands up on his bed before hopping down and going over to join Nekano at the door.]

Don't be a stranger now, okay? Go ahead and just fucking scratch the door next time, it's fine. Be free!

[BE FREE!!!!!]