Through the Mail Slot

Sparkle bounced on his toes as he waited to meet Hernando on the Causeway for their date. He'd... kind of panicked. Being given a couple of days to come up with something good given the date that Hernando had arranged had left him flailing, and now he was second-guessing basically everything, ever. But it was too late to back out now, even if his choice for the evening was less about art and more about ambiance.

He desperately hoped that the place wouldn't be swamped with kids.

He also hadn't even gotten as far as making dinner reservations.

Tonight was going to be interesting, okay?

[OOC: For that guy!]

Oh, Sparkle was in a good mood. He'd had a place in mind in case of one of Leto's surprise visits for a while now, and it just so happened that said visit was going to coincide with his return from the ski trip (and surprise Christmas, damn him!) that he'd gone on with Atton. So Sparkle had called ahead to make certain they were even open to the public, and then had specifically asked about which areas of the conservatory had the most moisture in them, "because we've got someone here with respiratory issues."

Hey, a little white lie for the sake of Leto's comfort never hurt anyone, did it?

"Okay, so," he said, grinning as he practically skipped through the portal, "we want to avoid the Mediterranean house this time of year. They keep it wet and foggy for the benefit of the plants inside. And the tropical house is humid to the point of being misty in there. But there's a desert house which might have some plants you haven't seen, if you like, or an orchid room, which is, like, super colourful, and they make sure that everything that's on display is in bloom, or else they'll swap it out for another one. The palm house should be pretty okay, too, with big tall trees and flowers and things, but if you're not sure about it, we can skip that one."

And the outdoor public gardens, eh. They had trees in 'em, but they probably weren't quite the sight to behold in late December as they were in, like, mid-July.

[OOC: For that guy! NFB for off-islandness!]

Yes, Sparkle was blowing off his job at Demon Marcus again today. And why not? He was sore after his detention yesterday (running Alenko's obstacle course four times was tough enough. Running it about fifty times before getting it right had been brutal) and he had good company. Hell, it was a date. Sparkle hadn't been on many proper dates in his life, but a trip to the zoo with Alec was setting a high bar for future ones.

Well, that's what he figured, anyhow.

"They have kinkajous here. I don't even know what the hell that is but we gotta see them before we go, right?"


[For the boy! NFB for off-the-island-ness!]

Look, Tony had said he wanted shawarma, and he'd also said that he was going to talk to Sparkle about the other weird things that happened on the island after the radio broadcast, and Sparkle was not about to let either of those things go. For one? Free food. And for another? He kind of wanted to know what the hell he'd gotten himself into back on that weird island, considering he'd just been sitting in a radio station with two huge men, one blue and the other wearing red footie pyjamas, and a bunch of drunk squirrels. Drunk, voyeuristic squirrels.

So they'd found this little place that had shawarma on the menu along with all the other stuff that these little cafe type places usually carried, found themselves a place to sit, and poked at their respective menus.

"So. What the hell was that back there?"

Neither of those men had been the tooth fairy.

[For one, and NFB for off-island-ness!]