myownface | MCA #4, Monday Morning

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.]

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He had, which was why Minako was finding an empty fire escape where she could sit down before dialing his number and waiting to see if he'd actually pick-up.

It was a near thing. Sparkle contemplated the odds that he'd get yelled at versus the odds that he'd get sympathy or pity or something. And then decided, to hell with it, whichever one he got, if it was coming from Minako it was because she cared enough to do it.

So... picking up his phone.

"Hey."

And kinda sounding like crap when he did so.

"Hey yourself." Minako tugged on the ends of her hair in worry. "I'm guessing it didn't go so great?"

Sparkle tended to stick with, well, sparklers if it was good stuff.

"Hey, you're a real good guesser," Sparkle mumbled into the phone. Because, sure, that was totally a guess and not the obvious option, here. He sighed. "Should'a known it wouldn't, though. Had a bad feeling the second I got to her address and there were toys in the yard."

"Oh, Sparkle," Minako sighed, pressing her forehead with the palm of her hand. "You just...showed up? No call or letter?"

Sparkle's reply to that was kind of a mumble that might have sounded like, 'there was a lot going on at the time,' followed up with something that could very well have been 'never done this before,' but really, the actual contents of that mumble was basically anybody's best guess.

It was probably safe to assume the answer was 'yes,' though.

Minako just sighed again. "You and that big heart of yours," she said. "--I haven't figured out how to hug you through the phone, yet. I gotta add that to the 'save the world' list."

"... I mean, at the rate I'm going, hugging through the phone might save the world," Sparkle muttered. "Considering how stupid I get sometimes."

How stupid he got when things hurt. Sparkle got stupid when Sparkle got sad.

"You're not stupid," Minako retorted firmly, brooking no room for arguement. "You're sad and hurting and you do tend to do stupid things when you hurt, but so does everyone else."

A flick of her wrist changed the call from her mobile to her communicator, and Minako started flipping through her calendar on her phone. "--I mean, if you are going to destroy the world, we're gonna have some issues, you know? Saving it is kinda my job."

"So being friends with me is job security," Sparkle replied, a little too easily. "The stupid things get bigger, like, every time I do a stupid thing. Maybe the world's next."

He'd gone from breaking and entering to arson to plastic explosives, after all.

"My supervillain origin story: Felt sad. Blew up the planet."

"Sparkle? NO. Picture me in front of you, right now, with my hands on my hips making my pouty-face at you," she replied. "I've already dealt with one boy who went evil because he was sad and tried to destroy everything."

...and she'd kinda accidentally caused his death. Twice. Sorry, Ace.

"--what's your weekend like?"

"Weekend?" Sparkle looked around the living room. Looked at his open beers and glanced at the tv and down at his stuffed cat and sighed. "Sitting here watching Peppa Pig on Netflix until the end of time, probably. I might try to visit Leto sometime before then, but... I dunno. The weekend should be okay maybe?"

Or it would be full of giant killer bunnies. One of those.

Eh, it would give him something to stab?

"Great, 'cause we're gonna practice healthier coping skills!" Minako chirped. "Like binge-eating boxes of cereal, candy, hugs, and shopping!"

"We can do it on Fandom or in Baltimore or in Tokyo, that's your call."

"Haven't even touched my Sugar-Bombs," Sparkle muttered. Because, look, he'd already attempted the cereal part! Maybe picking the kind of cereal with 'bomb' right there in the name had been stupid, though. "Sounds good, though. Somewhere, dunno what I'll be feeling up for by then. Everything is kinda off-and-on right now."

"Great, then I'm coming there--" Minako said, ignoring Artemis' squawk of protest, "--and we can change our minds if you want. But I'm demanding hugs. That's non-negotiable."

"Hugs," Sparkle echoed, nodding a little even though he was talking to Minako on the phone. "Yeah, I think I can handle hugs."

He really really really needed hugs. So yeah, he'd handle them.

"I'm serious, you wanna stay in bed all weekend, well, we'll find a way to manage though that means you gotta eat what I make," she said. Which meant there'd be pizza. And maybe Thai. Or whatever other takeout she could order. "Though we are, at some point, gonna come up with a list of things to do when you're hurting that aren't stupid."

"... Starting with 'maybe call somebody who is likely to talk me out of destroying houses?'"

Seemed like a good thing to put in spot number one on that list.

"'What Would Minako Do?' isn't the worst thing you could ask yourself," she pointed out. "But in a nutshell? Yeah."

"I mean, whatever Minako would do, it probably involves you looking way better in heels than I do," Sparkle pointed out. "And legs that go on for days."

Shut up. He was jealous.

And deflecting.

"Oh please. You're no slouch either," she scoffed. "--and have way better eyeliner game."

Deflecting was still better than property damage, Sparkle!

"Eyeliner is life," Sparkle quipped. "I maybe let the eyeliner game lapse a bit this weekend, though."

Because it was pretty distinct. He might as well just have worn a sign over his head in Toronto, if he'd done his make-up.

MCA #4, Monday Morning

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