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Room 209, Saturday
After yesterday's StuCo meeting, Sparkle had retreated back to his room and pulled his phone out again. Melanie had been encouraging him to call more, had been hinting that they had a few possible homes lined up, and people were interested in meeting him. A few of them even sounded promising to Sparkle, who had made wide eyes at the prospect of being set up with a nice gay couple in Ohio, because holy shit that would be about as perfect as it possibly could get without somehow travelling back in time and setting him up with a decent family when he was six.
He'd told that to Melanie at one point, and she'd laughed and informed him that she'd look into that, but since time travel hadn't been invented yet... Which had mostly just meant that, shit, yes, a normal world sounded good and okay, he didn't say that, but he had the weirdest feeling like maybe he could. She'd been a lot of the same places he'd been. He could tell Melanie that he'd died like three times since coming to this stupid fucking island and she'd sympathize with him and tell him that she got it, that dying sucked, and she'd do her best to set him up with a family where dying happened relatively infrequently.
Sparkle wouldn't think anything of it if she did. There was just so much... so much future to sort out, and wherever he wound up, they would make sure that he had a crack at college and god, it was almost too good to be true. But only almost, right?
"Yeah," he said, continuing into what had to be the fifteenth consecutive hour on the phone, having the same animated conversation, "acting, right? Like, the odds are shitty, but it's something I know I can pull off. Are there any good schools for that in Ohio?"
His phone's battery had died long ago. Sparkle didn't care.
[OOC: Down the rabbit hole we go. Open if anyone wants to drop in, otherwise establishy!]
He'd told that to Melanie at one point, and she'd laughed and informed him that she'd look into that, but since time travel hadn't been invented yet... Which had mostly just meant that, shit, yes, a normal world sounded good and okay, he didn't say that, but he had the weirdest feeling like maybe he could. She'd been a lot of the same places he'd been. He could tell Melanie that he'd died like three times since coming to this stupid fucking island and she'd sympathize with him and tell him that she got it, that dying sucked, and she'd do her best to set him up with a family where dying happened relatively infrequently.
Sparkle wouldn't think anything of it if she did. There was just so much... so much future to sort out, and wherever he wound up, they would make sure that he had a crack at college and god, it was almost too good to be true. But only almost, right?
"Yeah," he said, continuing into what had to be the fifteenth consecutive hour on the phone, having the same animated conversation, "acting, right? Like, the odds are shitty, but it's something I know I can pull off. Are there any good schools for that in Ohio?"
His phone's battery had died long ago. Sparkle didn't care.
[OOC: Down the rabbit hole we go. Open if anyone wants to drop in, otherwise establishy!]
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After being in the preserve with Karla a few days back, then doing her own walks around the island to see the extent of the damage, Karina had gone back and listened to a lot of radio podcasts and, maybe it was just stress or something due to the way the island wasn't healthy, but people seemed a bit weird lately, going by that.
Which was saying something for Fandom. Ugh, again.
So this was... like, she was checking in on him or some stupid shit.
Karina knocked. He was probably fine. But, like, just in case.
(God, Sparkle. You sucked.)
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He'd needed to excuse himself to Melanie and ditch the phone and hide the calling card. There was absolutely no logical reason to hide the card. Hell, Karina might even be happy for him if he said he was on the road to a proper home after grad. But the card had to be kept safe. How else was he supposed to dial the number on it after his battery was dead?
... There was logic in there somewhere. Maybe.
"Hey?"
So, that was a slightly disheveled Sparkle answering the door wearing yesterday's clothes and no make-up, with a desperately hungry cat trying to claw open a cat food bag on the other side of the room.
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Taking in what he looked like just meant that her expression shifted straight from 'ugh, everything' to 'what the fuck, Sparkle?'
"Hey," she said. "You look weird. Also, you smell a bit."
Tact, Karina had none.
Then she frowned past his shoulder. "What on earth is Velcro doing?"
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There was a spectacular crashing sound accompanied by the scattering of so much kibble all across the floor, and Velcro was jumping down from where the bag had been sitting in order to inhale what had been strewn about like a cat possessed.
For the record, he hadn't been. But there was something wrong with his person, and he was really hungry.
"... Is this important?"
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"Suddenly a little more important," she said, with a smile that her sponsors would gleefully be calling 'frozen' if she smiled it while being Blue Rose. "Excuse me."
She followed up her pure snark by roughly shoving her way past him and straight into the room.
Kibble crunched underfoot. Velcro ignored her in favour of eating all the kibble he could, but that was okay, that was great, and she was busy scanning the room for--
Both Velcro's water dish and food dishes were empty. She stepped over to where they were and checked the water dish. It was bone dry.
Karina counted to five.
"When's the last time you fed Velcro?"
[Shoving and Velcro's state modded with permission!]
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This, for the record, was an educated guess based roughly on the last time he'd slept, and was not at all accurate.
He rubbed at his elbow and frowned as he turned to watch her. His business card was safe in his pocket, but that didn't mean he was thrilled about her wandering around his room this way, anyway.
"He looks fine to me."
He looked like a tiny black furry roomba going insane all over the floor.
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She looked and watched the furry roomba for a bit before saying anything. He didn't look fine to her. For that matter... Karina looked again at Sparkle.
"When's the last time you ate?"
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"At the student council meeting they had sandwiches and salad out."
That had been yesterday. Early yesterday.
"I had a lot, there."
Eating wasn't important, right? That was how it worked? Velcro was just being overdramatic.
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Oh god, she was white-knighting for a cat.
... And she kind of wanted to bully Sparkle into eating too. But, first: the cat.
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That phone over there on his nightstand that was completely dead and had been for the past thirteen hours totally agreed with Sparkle's crazy person logic. Truly.
"Super important, and look, he got food just fine!"
And as soon as he evolved thumbs, he would be able to get water, too!
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Super helpful, Spark. Super duper helpful.
"It wasn't that long. I hung up to answer the door."
It could have gone on for much, much longer.
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Asshole.
Especially since she was worried about him. God, Sparkle.
"Did you sleep? You clearly haven't showered."
Why yes, that was a dig.
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...
Two days ago? He looked like complete ass, and even felt a bit that way. Hell if he knew how many days had gone by. He'd made it to the StuCo meeting because he'd had a very brief moment of something almost resembling clarity. If you squinted.
The fact that he hadn't showered was, all on its own, worrisome. Sparkle was usually ridiculously obsessive about his hygiene.
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Karina glowered at him, at the kibble-covered floor, at Velcro and then heaved a sigh. "You're going for a shower now," she decided. "Even if I have to drag you into the shower myself."
Don't try her, Sparkle. She would. And she would never, ever let you live it down.
Ugh. The things she did for her friends. This was the worst.
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Yeah. Seriously. He was becoming the smelly kid. He had spent a lot of his life trying not to be the smelly kid.
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He reeked.
She wasn't leaving here until he'd showered, eaten, and was settled in for some sleep.
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And he tried to hold that glower for a while before coming to the grudging realization that the sooner he just went with it, the sooner she'd leave him alone and he could call Melanie up again.
"Whatever. Fuck. Fine. I'll have a shower, okay? Like, God fucking forbid I have more important things to worry about right now."
Like 'staying alive,' Sparkle?
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She was calling bullshit on you, Sparkle.
"But okay, fine. Let's head to the shower."
Karina would escort him there. Like hell did she believe that if she left he'd still go and shower.
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As it stood, he was throwing his arms in the air, "Fine!" and stomping across the room (and almost on the furry roomba) to go for a quick rummage through his dresser for a change of clothes and a towel. See? He'd humour her. Because otherwise she was going to just drive him fucking crazy until he did the thing anyway.
"Lead on," he grumbled, clutching his clothes a little more tightly than strictly necessary. No, he hadn't bothered grabbing shampoo. Or soap. The water would so do the trick, right? He just had to get wet and then get dressed. Easy.
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Karina grabbed his shampoo. And soap. Because she was clearly more dedicated to this endeavour than he was.
"You be good, Velcro," she said. "I'll deal with your stupid owner."
Velcro ignored her, content to keep being a roomba.
"Come on," Karina said shortly as she stopped at the door. "You leave first."
Because she wasn't going to let him lock the door on her. Karina wasn't stupid.
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He was so not thrilled, here. Hopefully more of that stomping would get that point across!
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Sparkle was acting like a giant toddler.
The fact that that meant she had to be acting like his (rather terrible, to be entirely honest) mother made Karina grimace at his back. Even if that was the grossest thing ever, she was still going to do it because, clearly, he couldn't be trusted to take care of himself.
She followed him.
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He stifled a yawn as he reached the men's room door, and then, giving a pointed look over his shoulder, he stepped inside.
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Karina stomped her feet a little and set her shoulders.
Then she followed right in after him.
Her faith was at zero here, Sparkle. This was how bad it was.
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Sparkle was at least as far as the showers, giving them an angry look as if they were the source of all of his frustrations.
"You going to follow me in and wash my back for me, too?"
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A beat.
"Am I going to have to follow you in to make sure you shower properly?"
God, oh god, she hoped not.
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He dumped his shirt on a countertop, and then turned his back and started undoing his fly.
"You can, like, set the shampoo and soap down. I have this handled, you know."
What was he going to do? Turn the water on and stand spitefully outside the shower stall? It wasn't like that would get him back to the phone any faster.