myownface | An Abandoned Warehouse, Thursday Morning

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An Abandoned Warehouse, Thursday Morning

Sparkle wasn't usually the sort to play the Good Samaritan card or anything. Hell, he'd be the first person out there to vehemently deny that he ever did. But he'd gotten a note with his radio stuff today that had worried him more than a little, about a little kid who was sleeping in the freaking warehouses, and if he was going to be getting notes about this, with squirrels expecting to tell the population of the island that some little kid was totally sleeping alone in a place that was easy to break into, he couldn't just ignore that.

Fucking island.

So he'd taken it upon himself to check out the situation, his backpack slung over his shoulder with a spare winter coat in it that he'd grabbed from the kids section at Demon Marcus, and a bag of takeout from Moobyland crammed in there along with. And, stuffed down the front of his shirt and peering out from under his shirt collar, his secret weapon, Velcro. Because kids liked kitties, right?

It hadn't taken him long at all to find little footprints in the snow, or where the boards had been kind of jimmied free. Took him even less time to pry a couple more free and set the cat loose inside, first.

Because kitty.

[For one!]

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"Yeah, no. I'm really not big on trying anything or getting shot," Sparkle replied, squeezing through the gap in the boards and getting a good look at the girl. The eyes were kind of eerie, but he could ignore that. She was still just a kid with an interest in kitties, here. "Just, you know, there was a note from the squirrels and they almost had me giving away you were here on the radio. Thought maybe you'd want a few pointers about life around this messed-up place."

He nodded at the kitty.

"You like cats, kiddo? His name's Velcro. He likes being picked up, if you wanna."

She glanced uneasily between him and the kitty. Velcro. Then she slowly straightened out of her crouch and inched backwards a little, suspicion on her face.

“Why?”

To all of the above!

Okay, yeah, Sparkle could see that he was going to have to extend more of an olive branch than just the cat, here. The girl had obviously been through a lot.

"Street kid," he shared, gesturing to himself. "I know how fucked-up people can be about kids who are out there on their own." He considered her for a moment, and then took a seat, right there on the floor. Harder to try something funny if you had to get up first. He figured she'd realize that, too. She wasn't stupid. "The radio show around here reports, like, everything. So if you're a kid out here on your own, eventually people are going to find out. I don't mind being one of the people reading the notes - means I can run some of what gets handed to me through a filter before everyone hears it - but that's only good on Thursdays. Hungry?"

Stupid got you killed. No one had ever accused Amelia of being stupid.

She watched as he sat down, then flinched when Velcro brushed up against her leg. Keeping her eyes on the guy, to make sure he didn’t make any sudden moves, Amelia reached down to pet the kitty.

The idea of that level of surveillance was both startling—she hadn’t thought this place was anything like Midgar—and not—because Midgar had had the Turks, who were better than a radio for knowing everything. Everyone knew that.

“Ye-es,” she admitted, then added, “Why are you here, if the radio says I’m around? What do you want?”

Some street kids helped out those worse off than others. Some… didn’t. Some made it worse.

"Brought you some housewarming gifts," Sparkle replied with a shrug, letting his backpack fall to the floor beside him. "I'm not even gonna open the bag, I know that's gonna look suspicious as hell. But there's food in there, and a warm coat. It might fit you, I dunno."

He gave the bag a shove, sliding it across the floor toward her.

"Look, I've been there, okay? Just... squatting wherever there's a loose board to slip under, keeping out of sight, out of trouble. It's winter out there. Winter's the worst. Then you have to figure out how to eat and stay warm. I don't wish it on anyone. Hell, there were nights I got myself arrested just for a heated room and a chance at a meal."

Amelia reached and tugged the bag over to her, carefully, but after another suspicious look at the guy, sat down and tugged the kitty onto her lap. She made no move to open the bag just that second.

She didn’t think it was dangerous to be by it, given that she had his kitty and he probably didn’t want to hurt it.

He did get a slightly superior look out of her though. “I’ve never gotten arrested,” Amelia informed him. Though if she stayed here long, she might have to. “And you’re… better now.”

Had to be, to be giving her a coat and food.

Yeah, Velcro was his fuzzy little black clingy babycat. He'd gotten into fistfights with people who could kill him before, just for badmouthing that cat.

"Mostly better," he agreed. "I'm old enough to hold down a couple of jobs, plus the school here doesn't charge students room and board. I should be saving up for college after here, but whatever. I'll cope."

It wasn't like he was still putting much stock in his chances at getting a good post-Fandom education and a stable career. He put his hands on his ankles, sitting cross-legged as he was, and rocked back and forth a little, anxiously.

"How was your night here? Stay warm okay? It hasn't been as cold here as some of the nights I was stuck outside on, but it's still fucking brutal when you're trying to sleep and watch your back. Especially if you don't have money or matches or food in you."

“I’ve got blankets,” she said slowly, tilting her head in their direction. “It was cold, but…”

Amelia shrugged. She’d managed in colder weather.

“The floor’s not metal here,” she added, “so it’s warmer than where I was before.”

At least, that’s what she was telling herself. In Midgar she’d been better off, no matter what the temperature difference had been.

"Ugh, metal floors are a bitch," Sparkle agreed, nodding a little in understanding. "The blankets are good. Took me a while before I sucked it up and at least stole a few of those off someone's clothesline. Got busted for it, but what were they going to do?"

They'd sent him back to the group home. It wasn't even his first time running away.

"So. Eaten since getting to the island? There aren't places here to really go for handouts. It's like they don't think homelessness is a thing that happens here, or something."

“Stole some food a few days ago,” she said, almost cheerfully. “Didn’t get caught."

… Because she’d stolen it from herself, but Amelia didn’t know that.

She left off petting the kitty to unzip the bag and peer into it curiously. “I haven’t done it again,” Amelia admitted. “I was trying to figure out… stuff." Trying to figure out what had happened to her world, if this even was it. "Who are you?”

"It's not always easy to find food to swipe," Sparkle agreed. "I can jimmy a lock free like nine times out of ten, but I haven't had to around here yet. Not usually, anyhow." He let go of his ankle to point a finger at his chest. "I'm Sparkle. Student at the school. I work in the clothing store, too, if you need anything else that's warm. Gloves and boots and stuff like that, you know?"

Amelia paused in the act of pulling the coat out of the bag and looked at him.

“What do you want?”

No one was this nice, even with a background like Sparkle’s. Not in her experience.

"Ha! I know, right? I used to ask that question all the fucking time, too. Shelters and foster families that it never did work out with and handouts on the side of the street and even people here offering me jobs, like, 'this can't be right, you have to be expecting some kind of return for this and I'm not into that, creep,' or something." Sparkle held onto his heels again, giving her a twitchy little smile. He hadn't laid himself this bare for anyone. That was just one more sign of weakness in a world where people couldn't afford to be weak any more. "I don't want anything back for this. I know how sketchy this looks. I'm not going to, like, try to put you to work turning tricks or something just to pay me back for food. Ugh, no. But I've been through this hell, is all, and I wanted to make sure I got to you before someone worse did. This place is usually pretty good, but there's always worse. Fairytalefuckup Island here gets it less frequently, but way worse to make up for it."

...

"And 'less frequently' really doesn't even apply, lately."

She frowned thoughtfully at him, then deliberately pulled the coat out of the bag to examine it. It looked a bit big for her, but that wasn’t a bad thing, and it was just a plain and simple black. Nothing that would stick out terribly and make her a target.

“Thank you,” Amelia said, deciding to take him, for now, at his word.

Besides, if he did try to make her turn tricks, she could shoot him. He didn’t look like he was armed, though appearances could be deceiving.

“I don’t understand what you said about the island.”

"Yeah, most people really don't understand what I mean about the island until it goes and demonstrates, itself," Sparkle sighed. "And people don't understand why I hate it, when I can wake up and I'm not in my own body, or everyone just goes nuts for a weekend, or-- okay, when it rains food, that's pretty okay. It can keep doing that."

Right. So now he was sounding crazy again.

"If you don't believe me, that's cool. You'll probably think I'm crazy until the first time you turn into a cat or something for a few days. It's a thing, here."

Amelia looked doubtful as she pulled out the takeout bag and peered inside it.

“I woke up here without ever coming here on purpose,” she shared, wondering if that counted as weird enough. “Do you think being a cat would be warm?”

Priorities!

Also, she didn’t believe him.

"Probably super warm," Sparkle laughed, giving her an easy grin. "I was a dog once, but that was during the summer. Sucks, having a fur coat in the summer. And, you know... I'm so not a dog person."

Hence Velcro.

"He's really good for keeping warm, too. Not too big, but his body heat's nice like that. Plus, I dunno. Something about a purring cat, I guess."

Which Velcro was doing now. A lot.

“I like him,” Amelia said, petting Velcro some more because how could she not, when he was keeping her lap warm?

Warm, cuddly, and a kitten. There was no way she'd have not liked him.

“Were you really a dog?” Or was he just a crazy person?

"Yeah, I was, uh, a corgi? One of those dogs that looks like you took a real dog and sat on it for a while so it has stubby little useless legs," Sparkle replied with a roll of his eyes. "I don't ever want to repeat the experience. Kibble tastes like shit and you have to pee in public. Not fun."

Of course, he got a lot of cuddling time in through the whole ordeal, but...

Amelia wasn't sure what to make of that so she unwrapped a burger and inspected it. She didn't think he'd done anything to it, not that she'd be able to tell, so she took a bite.

Part of her was beginning to believe he was as nice as he was acting.

She chewed and swallowed and said, "Why does that happen?"

"Nobody really knows," Sparkle replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's something to do with this island. Part of me suspects it has a mind of its own, and that mind is a jerk."

Sparkle had been here a while. He was allowed to say that.

"Usually people are pretty okay about feeding people when they turn into animals, though, so it's not all bad."

"It's not fair," Amelia said, after another bite of burger. "It'd be easier to be an animal but I don't want to be one."

She liked being herself, even if was a grubby, exhausting existence.

"Nah," Sparkle agreed. "Being a person is way cooler. We get things like language and thumbs and chocolate. Did you know dogs and cats are allergic to chocolate? God, that'd suck."

A beat.

"There should be a chocolate bar in the front pouch of the bag, if you want it. My caretaker back in Canada sent it. Caramilk? Messy, but fucking awesome. I can get more."

All he needed to do was suck up to Lewis enough.

"Your caretaker?" she asked curiously.

Amelia would figure out what to do with the chocolate bar once she was done her burger. If it kept, she could have it for a few days, just in case she needed something to eat later...

"Yeah," Sparkle replied, shrugging his shoulders a little. "After a while, I kind of just gave up on running away and let the government stick me wherever. Wound up in a group home in Toronto... kind of like a homeless shelter for kids. Hated it, still hate it, but a roof over my head and three meals a day? You put up with a lot of shit after enough Canadian winters on your own."

He wrinkled his nose a bit.

"They... don't really have anything like that, here. Another reason this place is so screwed up, I guess." He considered for a moment, and then sighed and gave his shoulders a shrug. "Sucks either way, in the end."

Edited 2014-02-14 02:59 (UTC)

She didn't really know what to say. The WRO was supposed to look after everyone and Amelia supposed that they helped... but there were an awful lot of homeless kids in Edge, despite that.

And Midgar hadn't been much better, come to think of it.

Were there really places where there weren't so many?

"I'll be okay," she said, wanting to reassure him since he'd given her things and hadn't had to. "I'm tougher than I look."

"You are," Sparkle agreed, smiling faintly. "Had that gun ready and everything. I'm way more worried about how hard it is to find food around here than other people, now that I've met you."

Not that he wasn't still worried about other people, of course.

"Look... I've got some more stuff I can bring here for you. More blankets, some heat packs for keeping your hands warm. I could probably pick up a cooler or something to keep food safe from mice or whatever, too. It's not much, but it's all stuff I would've killed for when I was on my own." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I could see if I could find a working power outlet somewhere, too. Bet we could get a heater in here for you, if there was one."

"But then I'll owe you for all your things," she objected. "I can't take all of that."

Even if it would help. Even if she probably would need that stuff soon. Amelia hadn't lived through a winter on the streets yet, and he had. She knew she should probably listen to him.

But there was a limit to the amount of charity she wanted to accept. It was one thing to accept a meal, or even a coat that she hadn't known about until he'd given it to her. That was different, right?

Her thoughts chased themselves in circles. Half of them reasonably pointing out that the things he was offering would be useful. The other half of her thoughts loathed the very idea.

"I don't know," she said mulishly.

"Accepting handouts sucks, doesn't it?" Hey! Sparkle knew that one, too. "You've got pride, I so get that. But, hey, you only need the heater until it gets warm again, right? So that's one thing you just give back to me when you don't need it. That's not charity, that's more like a loan."

And if he left it at that, it neatly skirted around how he had no intention of taking back the cooler or the blankets.

"If you had monsters here, I wouldn't need handouts," she said rather sulkily.

Amelia couldn't kill most of the monsters in Midgar, though she was very good at running away. But she was even better at scavenging for the things they left behind.

In Midgar, and Edge, she managed okay.

"Yeah, can't win 'em all." Sparkle smirked faintly. "We have monsters from time to time. Not sure how that helps you out, though."

For some reason, they only occasionally dropped useful items.

"Mosters at home drop things," she said superiorly. "Money and items that you can use or sell."

Amelia drooped a little.

"That made it easier."

Oooh. Yeah. Sparkle gave a little not.

"Never had anything quite like that," he admitted, frowning a little. "There was a place to bring in cans and bottles, though, that would give you money for them. Never a lot, but if you went digging around in garbage cans and things on a Saturday morning, there were usually enough beer cans to buy a warm lunch, that always kind of kicked ass."

He wrinkled his nose again.

"They don't even have that here."

She finished her burger and scowled at the ground.

"How are people supposed to get food, then?"

"Most people around here are old enough to go to the high school," Sparkle sighed. "They get fed there. Otherwise they have jobs... I think you're a little young for most employers. This place sucks for that."

He pursed his lips, thinking it over.

"I know you don't want more charity, and I don't blame you," he noted, "but like I said, they feed me, there. It's not like they'll miss some extra food. I can just, like, pack food up to bring to you until we figure out something better for you. It's, like, literally nobody's food. They'd probably be throwing a lot of it out anyway."

Amelia tried to figure out if he was lying.

"They'd just throw it out?"

"I know, right? Drives me nuts when people waste food. But, like, if it doesn't get eaten and it sits around until it spoils then that's where it goes, like, straight into the trash, and maybe they shouldn't have made so damn much in the first place. Restaurants do it, too. Like, this perfectly good food and then all it's good for is feeding the rats."

Hadn't stopped Sparkle from having a scrounge through the trash once or twice growing up. He wasn't hugely keen on repeating the experience.

"I suppose," she allowed, once she'd gotten over her horror at the idea of all that food going to waste just like that, "that if it's going to go to waste anyway that I'm okay with accepting some from you."

So gracious, Amelia was.

She dropped her eyes to Velcro. "If that's okay?"

Velcro, being the good kitty that he was, looked up at Amelia and purred. See? Everything was good, tiny human!

"Yeah, I don't mind at all," Sparkle replied. "I'll grab some extra food tomorrow at breakfast and bring it here for you. I gotta work through the day, but if I bring enough, you can ration that out, too, until I come back with whatever the cafeteria made for supper, right?"

She was a smart kid. She'd made it this long, after all.

"You'll be coming here an awful lot," she observed, thinking that she'd need to create more ways to get in and out of the warehouse if he was. "I'll be okay, even if you can't make it every day."

"I know you will," Sparkle replied with a wry little smile. "I'm out and about like all the time anyway, so it's, like, not like it's a stretch or anything."

He drummed his fingers against his ankles.

"Probably should figure out other places to meet, to, so I'm not leading people right to your front door or anything."

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An Abandoned Warehouse, Thursday Morning

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