MCA #4, Tuesday Morning

[myownface]

Sparkle had fashioned a little trauma fortress out of the bathroom. It had every houseplant he could carry, his stuffed cat, a fish, and a small mountain of Pop-Tarts, which had mostly been left untouched since he'd hauled them in with him on Sunday night so that he would have something to snack on while he cleaned. And how he had cleaned. He'd cleaned all Sunday night on into a chunk of Monday morning, and at the rate he was going the mirror was going to be so polished that it would develop the ability to see through time or something.

And then he'd settled in for a shower. He hadn't even taken his clothes off, he'd just kind of stumbled into the tub around noon on Monday, and he'd stayed there, scrubbing blood off his hands, off his face, out of his clothes, not really satisfied, not ever feeling clean enough. If he looked at his hands, he could swear there was still blood under his fingernails, and he was filthy besides, and then he'd have to clean the blood out from the tub, too, and--

It was an ugly cycle. He hadn't even thought twice about falling asleep in a ball under a stream of water, fully dressed with the fish tank tucked into the tub next to him, out of the shower's path. It would have been hard to think twice, anyway, since he hadn't really slept in days, by that point and fatigue had finally taken the wheel.

Someday, if he looked back on this year, it would go down as the one where he'd basically given up on trying to function.

[OOC: For one in particular! I'd say open for phone calls, but let's be real, his phone is probably dead in his pocket.]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"... Okay, okay, I get the picture, you can stop now," Atton said, holding his hands up. "So no hanging out with the pony any time soon, I got it."

[myownface]

"No lots of things," Sparkle muttered, then looked between the bed and Atton before sighing and going to rummage for some dry pajama bottoms. "The pony was nothing. I mean, creepy at the time, but it wasn't, like, everlasting trauma or anything."

Ooh. These bottoms were fuzzy. Fuzzy was good.

"Pinkie's probably still cool."

Pinkie really wasn't why he was freaking out.

[suitably_heroic]

"Okaaay," Atton said slowly. "So what part is the everlasting trauma?"

Was it the hollow Sparkle thing?

[myownface]

That was probably a safe bet, yes.

Sparkle kind of blinked over his shoulder at Atton. Squinted at him. Then shrugged and wrapped his towel around his waist, keeping his back turned so that he wouldn't flash his bare ass at his roomie while he peeled his way out of his sodden jeans. Ugh, what had he been thinking?

"An exact copy of me comes shambling out of the alleyway in the dark on a version of the island where everything I care about is either dead, dying, or turned into some giant nightmare monster thing." His voice had gone quiet again. Flattened out to neutral. "And it tries to kill me. Some me tried to kill me. Ran at me, ripped apart my cheek, and I gutted it. With a knife. I didn't even think. It was just on me and then it was dead and it was me."

Slightly more traumatic than a sneaky pony.

"In some other Fandom I'm a gutted corpse in an alleyway, and in that other Fandom, I'm probably better off like that."

[suitably_heroic]

It was all right, Sparkle. Atton was making an active effort not to get flashed by your bare ass to begin with, through the novel approach of eyeing the wall.

"I dunno. This version of you is alive, which is the way I like it," he said. "At least your reflexes are getting better."

[myownface]

Sparkle was silent for about ten whole seconds, under the guise of being really engaged in pulling on his fuzzy jammies.

"... Right. I'm gonna go lock myself in the bathroom again," he muttered, making his way back to re-claim the fish.

[suitably_heroic]

"Don't do that," Atton said, sighing. "Look, I'm sorry, all right? I should've been here."

[myownface]

"Not like you knew it was coming," Sparkle sighed, picking up the tank and just sort of standing there with it, feeling stupid. "Did you? Not like I could've called you once it came either way. It's not you I'm mad at."

[suitably_heroic]

"Nah, pretty sure I would've noticed if Fandom was throwing another screw-everything-up party before I left," Atton said.

He eyed the tank.

"... You know you can leave that in here, right?"

[myownface]

"Could." Sparkle looked down at the fish. "Maybe he's good company."

He was a fish. He was not exactly stellar in the conversation department.

"... You wouldn't get all weird if I kept the fish in the house?"

In fairness, it was not a cat. Or another houseplant.

[suitably_heroic]

"It's a fish," Atton said, after a pause. "What's it gonna do, leap out into my juma? Sure, it's fine."

He'd just never thought about, y'know. Having one in the house.

[myownface]

"I mean, he's a feisty one," Sparkle said, and carefully went to put the tank back on his dresser. "But, like, jumping is about all he can do. Because fish."

He couldn't really go for walks or anything, here.

[suitably_heroic]

"Then just keep him out of the kitchen, or he's lunch," Atton said, rolling his eyes. "Just don't expect me to buy fish food."

[myownface]

"He eats fish flakes," Sparkle muttered. "Like, the can I have will basically feed ten of these things for life. It's fine."

Sparkle crouched down slightly, so that he could put basically all of his attention into watching Milady... mostly just kind of float there. So far as fish went, he didn't exactly do tricks.

"Guess I should get all the stuff out of the bathroom."

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, I don't think standing there is doing the houseplants any good," Atton said. He ran a hand through his hair. "Look, you just take the day to... do whatever you need. I'll order takeout."

[myownface]

"Takeout sounds good," Sparkle admitted, sighing and looking over his shoulder at Atton. "Can you, uh, get me something vegetarian? Not like a regular thing I promise, I'm just not feeling meat today."

There'd been jerky. He was not going to talk about the jerky.

[suitably_heroic]

"Another 'last week' thing?" Atton guessed.

He sighed. "Sure, I'll call up a Vegetariana. Don't say I've never done anything for you."

[myownface]

"Something like that," Sparkle replied, hiking his shoulders up in a shrug. "I mean, we could just get whatever, most places have stuff without meat in it."

He could kill a pile of fries right about then.

"But... thanks."

[suitably_heroic]

"Anything specific you want, then?" Atton asked, as he walked out of the room to go find his phone.

[myownface]

"I guess... whatever," Sparkle replied. Then, realizing that was singularly unhelpful, he added, "Chinese or something?"

He could just camp out with a vat of bean sprouts for the rest of his days.

[suitably_heroic]

"We could get Chinese," Atton agreed. He snagged his phone off the table. "I mean, they put enough sauce on their food I can actually pretend your vegetarian crap is real food."

[myownface]

Sparkle gave Atton a wry, tired smile, then sort of propped himself up against the nearest wall.

"Hey, I'm not going to kick your ass if you order a beef broccoli and then just eat the beef," he noted. "I will happily eat the broccoli. That is a sacrifice I will be willing to make."

Seriously, he'd eat basically anything. He just wasn't too sure, with as tired and as out of it was he still was, that anything that reminded him of that other place was going to stay down.

[suitably_heroic]

"You said no meat. We're having no meat."

Atton's word on that one was going to be final, Sparks, considering he was already putting in the number and calling.

[myownface]

Sparkle blinked, but then gave in and nodded. Hey, he wasn't going to argue if Atton wanted to... he wasn't sure what. Punish himself by eating the same thing as him? Show solidarity or something? It was a nice gesture, either way.

After another few seconds, he made his way over to take a seat, too. slumping forward with a sigh.

"Then get some of those veggie spring rolls, too," he muttered, because... he could kill like a half dozen of those, too. Had he really just been living on Pop Tarts since the weekend?

[suitably_heroic]

Sparkle didn't usually demand the vegetarian option, which led Atton to believe something about the past week had made the idea of meat-eating hard on the guy. He was going out on a limb that seeing someone else tear into it might not exactly help, either.

"...And two portions of vegetarian spring rolls," he finished. "No, I haven't lost my mind. Yes, this is still the same address. Okay. Okay. There. You've got everything you-- Fine, next time I'm ordering online, see if I--"

Beat.

"She hung up."