MCA #4, Monday Morning

[myownface]

It was probably worth noting that Sparkle wasn't cleaning the apartment from top to bottom today. Sure, he'd gotten a lot of that out of his system yesterday over at Casa del Leverage, and between that and the whole thing with the explosives, mostly he was kind of just feeling numb, now.

So instead of scrubbing the bathroom from top to bottom until his lungs hurt, he had kind of oozed into the living room and was hugging his stuffed cat, ignoring a box of Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs, and staring at whatever fluffy kids' show happened to be on Netflix. Peppa Pig or something. He wasn't actually paying attention, he was just... tired. Maybe later he'd try to figure out where to go from here, but this morning? This morning was for cartoons and moping.

At least he wasn't sitting in the bathtub hugging the fish tank again. This was kind of like forward progress.

[OOC: Open for phone calls or that roomie or whatever, though I'll be pinging around work like the freewheeling rebel I am.]

Comments

[myownface]

Good call, Atton. Good call.

"... No."

Sparkle wasn't even going to pretend he hadn't done something stupid, now. So at least there was that?

[suitably_heroic]

Atton sighed.

He picked up another can of beer, opened it, and set it down in front of Sparkle. "Next time, just high tail it back here instead of adding to your rap sheet, all right? We'll blow up bottles in the parking lot or something."

[myownface]

Sparkle nodded a little, then set down the ice cream and made a reach for the beer. He needed the beer. Today it was not too early for beer.

"Was the place I grew up in. Before the homes."

Which didn't excuse it either. But hey, context.

"So, nothin' left back there now. I'm not going back. Ever."

[suitably_heroic]

"That's what you said last time," Atton pointed out.

This time, not a lot of judgment in his voice, though.

[myownface]

"It was stupid," Sparkle replied, because, shit, he knew it. "Eliot said Hardison could probably find my sister, and he did. I'd given up on that ever happening, and then it was real, and she was right there, flesh and blood family and I got fucking stupid."

Thinking that it would go any way but badly, he figured, had been 'fucking stupid' too.

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, she could've at least said she'd call you while you stayed at a nice, fireproof distance," Atton ventured, "So maybe you were only 90 percent the stupid person in that conversation."

[myownface]

Sparkle... wasn't so super sure. He'd always trusted Carla's judgment, and he knew better than anyone what kind of hell she'd been through with people who lashed out without thinking, before. So he hiked his shoulders up into a shrug, and kind of stared at his beer before taking a mouthful.

"I'm a stranger asking for her to make a place for me in her life," he said, finally. "And she has kids to worry about. I would've asked me to leave, too."

[suitably_heroic]

"Life's easier without family dragging you down, anyway," Atton said. "You can be free to be as stupid as you like."

Look, he wasn't sure what else to say either. His family was dead.

[myownface]

"At least we all know I'm really good at stupid," Sparkle muttered. And then he was taking another swig of beer. "And yeah. Who needs family? S'only never let me down before anyway."

Except for the family he got to choose. And even then, eeh...

[suitably_heroic]

Accidentally drag a guy into a murder spree once and they never let you live it down.

"That's the spirit," Atton said, taking a swig of his own beer. "I'll toss up the 'store closed' sign if you just want to lay around looking pathetic for the next week."

He was a giver.

[myownface]

"Yeah, maybe," Sparkle sighed. "Or I could go pester Leto for a bit, or... I dunno. I'll figure something out. Something that doesn't involve more property damage, I promise."

... Well. Probably.

[suitably_heroic]

"You could always go to town on the Danger Shop if you can't help yourself, I guess," Atton offered.

[myownface]

"... Wait, I'm allowed to do that?"

Welcome to the benefits of being a member of the faculty, Sparks.

[suitably_heroic]

"Yes?" Atton said, squinting at him. "I mean, I can even point you to all the good 'break stuff' sims." Beat. "Not that I've ever abused those." Beat. "Much."

[myownface]

Atton, you were getting Sparkle's 'big sad eyes' look, now. Over a can of beer and some melting ice cream.

"Gimme."

Yeah, he totally needed some of that 'breaking stuff' action in his life. It was either that or a 'cleaning stuff' sim. So.

[suitably_heroic]

"Call a date and I'll make sure you get set up," Atton said, shrugging. "I'll even make it extra arsony for you."

[myownface]

"I'm probably really gonna need it after class this week," Sparkle muttered, then started working on his beer in earnest. After a moment, he added, "Unless I come up with some other not-depressing useful thing to throw at them."

... It was a fairly depressing class, so he didn't have high hopes there.

[suitably_heroic]

"Then I'll stop by right after class. Chase all the kids out and we'll claim the Danger Shop for an hour or two," Atton said. "You can get all your rage out."

You know, in a way that didn't involve blowing up actual buildings.

[myownface]

Sparkle gave a little nod of his head, took another swig of beer, and then sighed.

"Thanks, man."

He wasn't sure if 'rage' was quite the right word for it. What was the opposite of that? Where you did stupid, horrible, destructive garbage just to remind yourself that you were capable of feeling something besides flat and empty and tired?

That thing. This was whatever that was.

[suitably_heroic]

Whatever it was Sparkle had been trying to take out on the house he'd been born in. That, yes.

"All right, good," Atton said, nodding slowly. "I'm glad you're not cleaning our bathroom again. Pretty sure the tiles would melt at this point."

[myownface]

"Did that to Eliot's kitchen yesterday instead," Sparkle admitted, after a pause. "The bathroom's safe, just so long as other people are stupid enough to point me to their cleaning supplies."

Sigh.

[suitably_heroic]

"You are the only person I know whose go-tos are arson and cleaning," Atton said, shaking his head. "At least this was just a day?"

[myownface]

Arson and cleaning! Halfway horrible, halfway productive!

Sparkle was special, sometimes.

"Yeah," he allowed. "And I didn't get caught. Like, nobody had to post bail or anything. Not that, uh, they'd accept bail at this point, I'm guessing."

Since he'd vanished without ever coming back.