myownface | MCA #4, Tuesday Evening

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MCA #4, Tuesday Evening

Sparkle had been... less than functional today. The episodes of Sesame Street that an errant wish yesterday had bestowed upon him had gone away again, and so even getting his hands on his brainless g-rated amusements would have involved stealing from, like, PBS or whatever. Which Sparkle wasn't entirely opposed to, but figuring out torrents and shit involved thinking. And brains. And... combining the two, somehow, so that brains were doing thinking, and Sparkle wasn't exactly feeling that so much just yet.

So he'd kind of pottered around the apartment aimlessly for a while. At some point, he'd remembered how cereal worked. Somewhere around noon he'd realized that he was halfway through cleaning the bathroom for what was apparently the third time already, and around what would have been suppertime, he was already on his fifth shower.

By the time the evening rolled around and Sparkle could see his reflection in the bathroom floor, he'd given up on shower six and had mostly just deposited himself on his back in the otherwise empty tub, poking halfheartedly at whatever stupid cell phone game he could get for free from Google. There was a game that involved tapping the screen. Just tapping the screen. And it was just cartoony enough that the little cartoon character swinging the sword around to beat up cartoonish monsters didn't even bother him all that much.

If anyone asked, he'd just say that it was cooler in the tub than anywhere else in the apartment. He was Canadian. He wasn't made for... comfortable planetoid weather.

Shut up.

[OOC: Open mostly for phone calls, though that guy who lives here is welcome to check up on Sparks in person for our hilariously mismatched SP if he so desires.]

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Sparkle chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment.

"I didn't have my phone," he admitted. "I was, um."

He huffed a soft laugh that didn't actually have any mirth in it.

"It's hard to actually say it. I wasn't expecting that."

"Sparkle, what happened?" It must be serious if Sparkle found it difficult to talk about, and there was concern in Leto's voice, even if whatever had happened was over.

There were a few hollow thumping sounds as Sparkle attempted to rearrange himself in the tub so that he could hug his own knees as he talked.

"Atton was gone for a while," he said, "and one of the other Jedi asked me to go to the temple for a bit, to see if maybe we could figure out where he went, or lure him out or something, I dunno. Except some guys broke into the temple and started shooting. I got hurt, and grabbed, and taken hostage."

'Taken hostage' somehow happened to be easier to say than 'kidnapped by my best friend, who was with those guys at the time.'

Thumping sounds weren't the priority thing to ask about now. "Hostage? By who? Enemies of Atton?" That seemed the most reasonable answer, and Leto knew Sparkle was not from a place where things like that were likely to happen.

"Kind of. But also yeah?" He wrinkled his nose, and then sighed again. "He went undercover, to try to infiltrate them to take them down, so yeah, enemies of Atton. He was... just also kind of with them at the time. S'complicated."

"He was part of the group that took you hostage? And unable to help you?" Apparently Leto was going to have to spell things out for Sparkle, but he could deal with that.

"... Yeah, that." Sparkle swallowed heavily, thankful that Leto could follow along, here. He knew he probably wasn't at his most coherent. "And then... I guess it was a few days? I don't know, I was in a room. But they caught him checking on me and he was taken captive too and then we were going to be executed but he killed everyone except for the guy I killed but that was a little later and- we got out eventually."

...

Maybe just focus on that last part? That part was coherent, at least.

Leto had figured out the getting out part beforehand, so he paid more attention to the 'going to be executed' and killing someone. They had talked about the latter, and he knew how Sparkle had felt about it.

"Was that the first time you killed someone?"

He assumed it was the first time Sparkle had been sentenced to be executed, so he wasn't going to ask.

Sparkle was quiet for a minute before answering that one.

"... Sort of. I mean, there's always... Fandom stuff. You know? But when that happens I'm not really me, or whoever it is gets better or whatever." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "This wasn't either of those things. I had a blaster and he was coming toward me."

Trying to escape the murdering Jedi. But Sparkle hadn't taken the time to sort that part out.

"You took a life for the first time then, even if it was necessary." The Fremen sent their children out to kill the wounded enemies after a battle before they were taken to the deathstills. They never took hostages. Bodies would provide water for the tribe rather than using valuable resources if kept alive. This was not the time to mention any of this to Sparkle.

"How did you get home?"

"Atton brought me home, after he... took care of... the guy who tried to kill us," he sighed, trying not to sound as small as he felt and mostly failing. "Starships and portals. Can't go wrong with portals."

Unless Portalocity was being moody, anyway.

Leto had met Atton only once, but if there was one thing he had learned about the man it was that he cared about Sparkle, and that he would not put him in danger if he could avoid it. So the next question was rather obvious:

"How come you were taken hostage in the first place? Did they come to Fandom?" That seemed unlikely though.

"No, not Fandom," Sparkle sighed. That was good, anyway. It meant that home was safe, comparatively. "I was still at the temple. They were looking for an easy human shield, I think. Leverage against the Jedi and the Republic for whatever illegal garbage they were doing. Wrong place, wrong time. I was convenient, that's all."

Which was better than alternatives that included things like 'trying to get at Atton,' at least.

"You went to Atton's world as leverage?!" Leto knew Sparkle didn't need someone telling him he'd been really stupid - he probably knew that already - but there were limits to what he could calmly accept.

"No, not exactly. I..." Sparkle sighed. "I went there to try to help find him. I was just in the temple when the guys broke in, and they took me as leverage. I didn't... like... I wasn't volunteering to be kidnapped, or anything."

More thumping around the tub. Laying down again seemed like a great idea.

"I mean, we didn't KNOW where Atton was. Just that he took off somewhere, and that Mical's an idiot."

Which was possibly irrelevant, but still worth saying.

"Sparkle, did you go to look for Atton in his world, where his fellow Jedi had failed to find him?" This was getting a bit confusing, but Leto would really like to know.

Edited 2016-07-07 11:14 (UTC)

Sparkle's toe scuffed against the foot of the tub. Okay, when he put it like that...

"I went to the Jedi Temple, because I know him better than anyone else there, because Mical asked me to, because they couldn't find him," he explained. "They thought I might have a better idea about what he might have done. Or maybe they thought my being there would...like... flush him out or something. I didn't, like, volunteer to go. It was the Jedi's idea."

Mical's. But Mical was stupid, in Sparkle's professional opinion.

"What, are they idiots? Using your sense of loyalty?" He could have added lack of sense and self preservation, but now wasn't the time.

"And letting you get kidnapped?"

Sparkle wasn't going to argue much with... any of that, actually.

"Guess so," he muttered. "Mical, like, tried to fight them off, but by the time he took care of the guy with the blaster, I'd already been grabbed and stabbed and I wasn't much good for anything."

He'd been a bit of a gibbering mess, really.

There was a moment of silence. "I thought the Jedi took pride in being honest and loyal, or something similar." And not using friends as targets.

"Stabbed? I'm guessing you didn't get the pleasure of returning the favour."

"I don't even know what the Jedi stand for," Sparkle sighed. "They're mostly just a bunch of hypocrites in stupid robes, from what I can tell."

This whole thing had really cemented that one in there good.

"And I didn't get to stab her back, no," he muttered. "I did kick her a good one, though."

Which was why she'd stabbed him.

"Vibroblades are dumb."

By which he meant, 'vibroblades are very good at what they do, which sucks if you're on the wrong end of one.'

"I suppose you can find hypocrites in any universe, with or without robes." Leto thought for a moment, considering how to phrase his next comment. "I hope you know that you are always welcome to ask me for help or to discuss strategies if you want to."

It was better than directly telling Sparkle that he had made some stupid decisions, because even if he chose not to acknowledge it, he probably knew that himself. It occurred to Leto that it wasn't often he cared enough about someone for something like this to make him angry. Ghanima took on students she felt responsible for, while he kept a distance to all but very few.

"I... yeah..." Sparkle chewed the inside of his cheek. "I would've asked a lot of people for help if I could. I was kind of kept locked up. Didn't exactly have my phone or anything."

Which was why he hadn't answered, earlier.

"I... I'll keep it in mind, though. I don't feel much like talking strategy right now, but I guess that's something I'm going to keep needing. I'm not in Toronto anymore."

"I meant before accepting the invitation from the Jedi," Leto clarified, then added in a gentler voice: "I am sorry, Sparkle. I wish you would have better news, but I am glad that you are home. I was worried when you didn't return my call."

"Oh... oh, right..." Sparkle chewed his lip. Of course that was what Leto had meant. He still wasn't completely all there again, yet. He breathed in, held it for a second, and then exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry I worried you. I mean, didn't mean to, obviously. I just... You know. It'd be better if none of it had happened, but here we are."

The past didn't change, so much, no matter how often he wished it would.

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