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MCA #4, Saturday Morning
Deep breath. Exhale.
...
Deep breath.
...
Exhale.
Dial.
Deep breath.
And hit send.
Sparkle had a call to make today. One he'd been putting off since forever, and his last excuse had run out. The island was back to normal. He didn't have to worry about The Big Stuff being completely derailed because he woke up one morning underwater or he couldn't leave the house because there were dinosaurs or on account of nightmarish penance zombies. Dr. Lecter had given him the number to phone, and yeah, he knew it was Saturday and yeah he knew it was early, but he was kind of hoping he could just leave a message and wait for a phone call back on... Tuesday. Because long weekend! See? Smart. Sparkle was super smart. It wasn't procrastinating if there was Labour Day to contend with.
Somebody actually answered the phone.
"Um."
That wasn't supposed to happen.
Shit. Shit shit shit.
"Hi, uh. My name is Sparkle," and ugh, he felt like he wanted to vomit just spitting out his last name, too, but he kind of had to in this case. "Dr. Lecter suggested I call you. Yeah. Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He said you're probably the best lawyer for... a couple of cases I have, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, I can talk right now, sure. So..."
It was not a short phone call.
Dr. Lecter had picked a good lawyer for the job, for sure.
But by the time Sparkle had hung up the phone again, he was looking a little green. That was fine. This was fine. It was all going to go super well, and...
If anybody needed him, he was going to just be burying his face in a pillow and screaming himself hoarse.
Sparkle Vs. The Criminal Justice System was off to an excellent start.
[OOC: Open! Probably not happy! But open! TW: Both threads contain some talk of child abuse/grooming.]
...
Deep breath.
...
Exhale.
Dial.
Deep breath.
And hit send.
Sparkle had a call to make today. One he'd been putting off since forever, and his last excuse had run out. The island was back to normal. He didn't have to worry about The Big Stuff being completely derailed because he woke up one morning underwater or he couldn't leave the house because there were dinosaurs or on account of nightmarish penance zombies. Dr. Lecter had given him the number to phone, and yeah, he knew it was Saturday and yeah he knew it was early, but he was kind of hoping he could just leave a message and wait for a phone call back on... Tuesday. Because long weekend! See? Smart. Sparkle was super smart. It wasn't procrastinating if there was Labour Day to contend with.
Somebody actually answered the phone.
"Um."
That wasn't supposed to happen.
Shit. Shit shit shit.
"Hi, uh. My name is Sparkle," and ugh, he felt like he wanted to vomit just spitting out his last name, too, but he kind of had to in this case. "Dr. Lecter suggested I call you. Yeah. Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He said you're probably the best lawyer for... a couple of cases I have, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, I can talk right now, sure. So..."
It was not a short phone call.
Dr. Lecter had picked a good lawyer for the job, for sure.
But by the time Sparkle had hung up the phone again, he was looking a little green. That was fine. This was fine. It was all going to go super well, and...
If anybody needed him, he was going to just be burying his face in a pillow and screaming himself hoarse.
Sparkle Vs. The Criminal Justice System was off to an excellent start.
[OOC: Open! Probably not happy! But open! TW: Both threads contain some talk of child abuse/grooming.]
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A short pause.
A deep breath.
"But at least it'll be over."
And even if they lost, even if they fought and fought and fought and Sparkle wound up with a prison sentence instead of community service, even if somehow, Lew managed to get an 'innocent' even in spite of standing up in front of the whole damn city and announcing their fucked up... thing...
Even if?
There were options. Not the options he wanted, not even necessarily the options that would let him sleep at night, but options.
"It's gonna suck, but at least it'll be over."
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Jack snorted again. "Sparkle? How's 'you but a little more fucked up' any goddamn different from how you might be any given week in this fucking place? Really now. Sparkle, you get through fucked-up shit here even though you know come Monday it's all gonna be over. This is just one more fucked-up thing you gotta get through, only it's gonna take a lot longer than a weekend. This one, though, this one's real. When you put paid to this bullshit, it ain't gonna come back at you a year later. That's a good thing, I think."
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He shrugged.
"This is my shit. It's my shit and when this is done I get to do it all over again and they're gonna try to rake me across the coals and that's all gonna be my shit, and if it doesn't work and it doesn't go away then I have to live with that, too. It's easy to get through fucked-up shit waiting for Monday, you know? I don't get a Monday with this. Not like that."
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"Yeah, that's true, there's no Monday whiteboard wipe for this," Jack acknowledged, "and you're not wrong about what the lawyers are going to do to you. They're called sharks for a reason and even the one you're paying for is going to be taking chunks out of you just to combat whatever shit the other lawyer's gonna pull. His lawyer's job is to make sure his client looks innocent and that's going to mean throwing as much blame shade your way as he can imply or outright say. It's going to get really ugly, Sparkle. His lawyer's going to make you look .. really bad. The other shit, the arson, they're not gonna try to make you look bad, they're just gonna try not to let the abuse excuse it. They won't be insinuating shit, but this asshole's lawyer? He's gonna. A burned down house don't have a reputation to protect but this asshole? Does."
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"Yeah. And I... don't. Really. I gave up my reputation when I fucking ran, like four years ago, and that's gonna get thrown at me too. Lew's been out there probably, like, fucking kissing babies," phrasing intentional, "and trying to make himself look like a saint ever since and I've been a fugitive. Right through the gate I'm not in a good place. And people are going to want to know why I didn't throw this back on Lew sooner and all sorts of shit I'm going to have to justify, I know. And Lew..."
He sighed.
"He's made for war."
Sparkle had told him such himself, once.
That had been an ugly talk, too.
He shrugged.
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"You think?" Jack asked, letting him pull back and tilting her head a little. "Usually guys like that, that ain't what they do. They dust their hands off and they go somewhere else, somewhere just far enough away that nobody can tag their shit to them and they start all over. People like him, they don't change. They only change the type of victim they go after."
She shrugged, "He's made for war. So what? Guys like him, they're loners. They don't have friends because that would mean caring about someone deeper than the fucking mask and they can't. They're empty. You're not. He's going to be alone in that courtroom with nobody but his lawyer. You're going to be there with a whole lot of people who'd turn him into red mist if they got half a chance. He's gonna be a lot better at sliming up and making himself look like the real victim here, that's true, but buddy, all you gotta be is you."
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Well.
He shrugged.
"It's never just one, right?"
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"It's never just one," Jack agreed with a nod, "And from the number he pulled with you? You weren't the first kid he's mindfucked." She opened her mouth and paused and then closed her mouth before cautiously saying, "Can I offer a thing you should have your lawyer do without making you puke all over my kitchen?"
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Just in case.
"Yeah. Bathroom's easy to get to from here."
See? No puking all over the kitchen!
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Jack took a breath and then said quietly, "Have them look at the list of every single kid that fucker ever came in contact with. Have them run the numbers of how many killed themselves. Sparkle.. It won't be zero." Beat. "I'm sorry. I know shitbirds like this. What you're saying, what he did to your brain.. it wasn't the fucking he wanted. Which means it was the power and the power to take away."
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Because his hands were falling to his sides and he was pretty certain his knees had turned to pudding.
"... I...."
He swallowed.
"Okay."
And he'd thought he'd sounded small before.
He didn't want to throw up. He wanted to just fade away.
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"That game he played?" Jack added, "He wanted to make you feel worthless without him. And you're not worthless. That was never true, Sparkle, and it sure as shit ain't true now. Buddy, look how many people want to annihilate this motherfucker on your behalf. Look at how hard we want to hurt him for hurting you. You are worth a whole fucktruck full of everything to us. Like I said, he's gonna be there alone and you're going to have people bitching at you if you don't let them be there. So you look at that, Sparkle. You fucking look at it whenever you get that look on your face you're wearing right now, where you start to wonder if it's worth it, because yeah. It is. And you look at it and you see how many people care about you on their own. You never had to be nothin' but you for any of us. That fuck? He had to break people's brains to get them to think they cared about him and he'll still be alone in the courtroom. So you look at that and you tell me - which one of you is the worthless one?"
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He breathed. And he nodded.
And he kind of leaned forward. To thump his forehead against Jack's shoulder.
And work, again, on not just shattering and crying.
Yeah.
Yeah... he knew the game.
And it was well beyond time the game came back around to bite him.
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Jack caught him by the back of his head and bonked his forehead - gently - on her shoulder a few more times. "You been through worse since him, Sparkle. Just because the island shit goes away on Monday don't make it any less a lived-in fucking experience while it's going on. You been through worse than this shithead and come out the other side and you're not gonna walk into this as a scared fucking bunny. Do you hear me? That isn't happen. You got a goddamn panther on you for a reason. You need to find a way to show this asshole your teeth."
Beat.
"Legally, shit. Beat him at his own fucking game. He's gonna look for the bunny because he never really knew who the fuck you were. He only got the parts you thought he wanted to see. So we show him who Sparkle is. Yeah?"
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He wasn't sure if Raine would be up for testifying. For standing up there and saying to the entire room the things that Sparkle had told her in confidence. In quiet desperation.
I LOVE the man, Raine...
But she was the one who had been right there, watching it all go down. The Rabbit who had watched Sparkle pine and Lewis walk away. If she was willing, maybe... Maybe.
Dragging himself through the coals in order to spite Lewis? In order to really build a strong argument for the trial that would follow this one, too?
That was a panther move he might be up for making. Let everyone see who Sparkle was.
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"Yeah?" Jack asked, "Good. All the bunnies you can bring to this party, the more the better. Every gun you got, Sparkle. We bring the A-game."
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Raine would be thrilled about the promotion.
"I don't have many guns," he admitted, a few moments later. "But I might not need them all."
Might.
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"Don't matter if you need them or don't, you bring every damn one you got just in case," Jack said firmly, "Slimeball's gonna go for every trick he can manage if his lawyer's even half awake."
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"Yeah. Yeah, I know. Even if he doesn't think they'll work, he'll try them. Even if he knows he's going to lose, he's going to want to get his in before he does."
Would want to make sure Sparkle's head was good and inside-out.
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"Yup," Jack agreed, "Guy like that isn't convinced he can lose. He's going to be trying to prove to himself that he's still got his hooks deep into you, that he can twist you and make you hurt or make you doubt. And you? Sparkle, you don't fucking let him. You deserve better than that."
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He had to repeat it. Had to commit to memory every time somebody reminded him, because that was one thing he was prone to forgetting.
"... Thanks for hearing me out, Jack," he added. Tried not to sound small.
Mostly managed it.
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"This ain't something you gotta thank me for," Jack shrugged, "I'm your friend. You can talk to me about whatever you gotta talk about. I won't be much good for much of the nice happy stuff, I don't know what to do with most of that, but something like this? Shit. Even without I do for that fucker, I can help with this. I know his type. He's a predator, but Sparkle? Every single one of us, we are too. And every one of us is apex as fuck, and that includes you for all you hate to be one - when chips are down, you'll tear apart a threat to protect what's yours and buddy, you're ours. We'll help your lawyer eat that son of a bitch alive."
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Apex as fuck. Yeah, that sounded right. He had so many damn apex predators on his side, didn't he? And--
Two words caught him, punched him right in the guts and stole his breath. Such simple words, too. Not even the first time he'd heard them. But.
'You're ours.'
But he was nodding. And hiccuping a little. And clinging for dear life as he tried even harder to not cry.
He needed to hear that.
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Jack had no idea what she'd said that had just undone Sparkle so.. there she was, holding him again and trying to offer what comfort she could. "Hey, man. We're here for you. I mean, I'm not even using a royal fucking 'we', I mean everyone I know who's your friend. I'm bad at this whole shit and even I know that."
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"Yeah," he managed. "Yeah, I know. S'fucking amazing, Jack. It's... It's good."
Even if it had been the royal fucking 'we.' But since it wasn't, even better.
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