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The Perk, Friday Morning

Sparkle wasn't usually up this early in the day, no. Especially not on a Friday, when he had no classes and no work and didn't have to be out the door for clubs until late afternoon. But Velcro was being a jerk that morning, curling up to lovingly sleep on his face, and Sparkle wasn't the greatest at getting back to sleep once he'd been woken up. So. That was that.

He had mostly just headed to the Perk because if he was going to be awake, he was going to need coffee. But he was coming to that realization that coffee wasn't just coffee any more, and the seasonal selection of lattes was kind of making his eyes cross. Egg nog? Peppermint? Gingerbread?

"Do they just serve baked goods in a cup, or what?"

[Open, with some sp-for-work heads-up! Sparks hasn't been out much this week, oops.]

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If Jaq had known he had classes, he might have gone.

As it stood he was blissfully unaware-- and craving a cup of the island's substandard caf. "Just tell them to get you one of the black ones," he advised, as he came to a stop next to the kid with the weird hair.

[[ atton's identity nfb, s'il vous plait! ]]

"See, that just makes me worry they'll burn the freaking gingerbread before they put it in my cup," Sparkle countered, glancing sidelong at Atton and offering him an easy grin and a nod hello.

Did he, like, do something with his hair or something? Sparkle squinted a little, trying to get a handle on just what was going on, there, before he shrugged.

"And how have you been, man?"

Wait, what?

Jaq gave him a funny look. "Have we met?" he said. Going by what Sia told him, it was entirely possible that this guy met At-whoever, but... "Because I don't think I am whoever you might be thinking I am."

Sparkle gave Atton another weird look, yes. Looked like Atton. Sounded like Atton. Fandom thing?

"I... guess not?" Sparkle's eyebrow was going to stay raised for a minute all the same. "You new here or something?"

He wasn't entirely convinced, yet, that Atton wasn't just messing with him.

"Yeah," Jaq said. He leaned towards the counter and said, "Two black coffees, hold the everything," before leaning back. "Just popped up here a couple of days ago. Si tells me it's normal."

Wasn't a couple of days ago when all of the adults started to-- ah.

Ah.

Atton was getting one more once-over, just for good measure, before Sparkle settled into an easy sort of grin. Hey, everyone had their secrets, didn't they?

"As normal as around here ever gets," he confirmed. "You staying in the dorms, then? Or are you one of those guys who managed to score a place in town?"

"Been sleeping on couches," Jaq admitted. Mostly because he hadn't figured out which room had been his since he fled from it.

Also somehow the idea of going back there didn't feel comfortable. "I take it you're one of the long-haul crowd."

"Didn't think I was gonna be," Sparkle replied, casually stuffing his hands into his pockets as he waited for the barista to figure out how to pour coffee that wasn't half his weight in whipped cream. "I got here at the start of the summer, thought it was going to just be a couple of months. That... didn't stick so much. Name's Sparkle."

Go on, tiny Atton. He had his eyebrow raised and he was waiting for a comment.

"You actually admit to a name like that," Jaq said, sounding... yeah, sounding pretty amused, "You can't be scared of much."

"Haven't got much to lose," Sparkle replied with a shrug. "If the name's going to be all I've got, I might as well be proud of it. Why, you figure you could do better?"

"Nah," Jaq said, holding his hands up. "Somebody else named me. Sorry."

Hahahaha.

Sparkle tried to bite down a grumble, shaking his head a little.

"Not like I chose this one, you know. But I was named after fireworks, so..." Hard to complain too much when your namesake was a tiny, pocket-sized mini-explosive ... thing. Right? "... Whatever. How you liking the island so far, anyhow?"

Better than before? No? Sparkle was still trying to get a feel for who the hell mini-Atton here was, really.

Jaq shrugged. "It's okay," he said. "But if Si's lying or wrong and I don't pop back within the next few days-- well, I had plans."

"When weird shit happens here, it doesn't tend to last longer than a few days," Sparkle offered, torn between being an absolute lying shit (because that was always more fun) or having a little pity on Atton, here. Even if he'd been the lying shit first, damn it. "Plans, huh? Something big going on back home that you gotta get back to?"

"There's a big war going on and I'm tired of staying home watching my mom be scared, you know?" Jaq said.

Sparkle didn't know a hell of a lot about war, but he did know a thing or two about being fed up with the way things were, especially when it came to home.

"I can guess," he replied. "So you're gonna... what, go fight?"

Jaq shrugged. "Someone's got to put in the time and help people out, you know?" he said. "Space, especially since the Jedi aren't doing their part."

Yeah, if there had been any doubt before that this was Atton, at least the mention of Jedi helped solidify that one.

"As far as I can tell, all they're good for is flapping around in their cloaks, thinking they're intimidating," Sparkle offered. "So... What's the war about, anyhow? You don't hear much about that kinda thing around here, you know?"

Nosy Sparks was going to be nosy now.

"The Mandalorians want more territory, so they've been slaughtering their way through the galaxy for years," Jaq said. "But they've been hitting places near Republic trade routes lately... My dad got stuck that way. Now the Republic's waking up."

"Of course they are," Sparkle replied with a shake of his head. "It's easy to ignore something until it creeps up into your own damn backyard, isn't it?"

And then, you just wanted it out. And to hell with anybody who didn't jump in to help, the same way you neglected to jump in and help, yourself, until it became your problem.

"I assume they just didn't want all our troops murdered," Jaq said lightly.

The Jedi had claimed to be the Republic's defenders forever, though. Jaq had been neutral on them for a while, but he was starting to get annoyed with the arrogance of it all.

"Until it touches them, and that's exactly what starts to happen?"

Sparkle was a smidgen jaded, himself. And yet, for all that he was complaining about people just sitting back and watching that sort of thing go on, he was well aware that he wasn't about to jump up to fight someone else's war, ether.

"That's the Republic army's job," Jaq pointed out. "Protect the Republic." He eyed Sparkle. "This is why I'm joining up."

Sparkle shrugged and held up his hands.

"Fair enough. I wouldn't risk my ass for anyone else's sake either, who am I to talk?"

... Well, it was true.

"It's ugly out there, then."

"It's war, of course it's ugly."

Jaq had absolutely no idea just how thoroughly he would know that very fact in a few years' time. "They bombed Serroco not too long ago," he said, more sedately. "Rained down nukes on all the major cities."

"Shit." Sparkle swallowed, leaning back and looking Atton over in a new light.

Not quite the same messed-up street kid he'd thought he was dealing with, that was for certain.

"How do you even fight something like that?"

"Fire blaster bolts at them and hope they hit?" Jaq offered.

"Hit what, the nukes?"

See how suitably impressed Sparkle was that Atton's blasters could combat nuclear warfare.

"The ships."

Jaq gave Sparkle a Look.

Sparkle was going to see Atton's Look, and raise him a shrug.

"Well, you let me know how that goes for you, then. Not like I have any idea how this space battle stuff works."

He knew Atton had survived running off to war, at least. So he wasn't going to get too concerned. If he could help it. Maybe.

"If I ever get back here," Jaq said, shrugging in turn. "Nice meeting you and everything."

"Yeah," Sparkle replied, resisting the urge to reach out and give the guy a pat on the shoulder. Doubly resisting the urge to reach out and give him a pat on the ass, just to see if he could rile him up. "Might have to hold you to that one."

Because he was so going to want an explanation for whatever this was, once it wore off.

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The Perk, Friday Morning

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