Demon Marcus, Sunday

[myownface]

Yeah, Sparkle was here. He was here mostly because the bars didn't open first thing in the morning and he couldn't stand to be in his room any more. He wasn't doing anything. He'd pulled up a chair behind the counter and was mostly just staring at the stock around him. Occasionally he felt the urge to just... something. Break things. Something.

He didn't, though.

He did, from time to time, just slam his fists down on the countertop before retreating into the back room for a few minutes, here and there. Whether it was to drink some of Callie's old alcohol stash, cry, or throw up was his business and nobody else's.

[OOC: Open store, but Sparks isn't going to be terribly helpful today.]

Comments

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Don't ask where Kenzi got the vodka from. That's not the important thing, okay?

The important thing is that it's jug-sized.

"You are drinking this with me," she told Sparkle as she stumbled into the shop. "'Cause I misssssed you, dude."

Kenzi may have pre-gamed before showing up at Demon Marcus.

[myownface]

That was probably the most important thing in the world right then, wasn't it?

Please pardon Sparkle for literally launching himself over the counter, fully intending to pull you into a hug, Kenzi. He was actually very firmly planted in 'desperately in need of a goddamn hug' territory at the moment. He promised to not cry on you too much.

"Oh god," he muttered. "Oh god you are my absolute fucking favourite right now."

For some people, 'back to normal' wasn't actually a great thing.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

That was hysterical laughter mixed with hysterical crying as you were hugged back, Sparkle. The right Sparkle.

Hiccuping, she said, "You're my favorite too!" Well, anybody who'd hug her was. She needed that. "So here! It's like 80-proof. We could use it to bleach our brains, too."

[myownface]

Okay, so maybe Sparkle was crying a little, too.

A lot. A little lot. He already had enough alcohol in him to not give a shit who saw him in the middle of a spectacular breakdown. That was pretty much how it needed to be, damn it.

"Big fan of brain bleach right now," he informed her, burying his face in her shoulder for a moment. "Like, big fan. Can we just drink until we experience long-term memory loss and never think about any of that ever again?"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Let's see!" Kenzi popped the top off the bottle and chugged, then handed it over.

Don't ask don't ask don't ask don't ask-- she had to ask.

"Amelia?"

[myownface]

"Gone," Sparkle mumbled, clinging to the bottle for dear life and taking a deep swallow before even trying to go on. "Left a window open and her pjs on the floor, split at the seams. Took some of my clothes. Probably some adult from around the island happy to be rid of the fucked-up kid that couldn't keep who the hell he was straight from week to week."

There had been a drawing, her and Velcro and him, labelled 'My family.'

He'd clutched to it and sobbed for most of the night.

"Mia?"

Sparkle hadn't met her, but he still remembered hearing about her on the radio. If it was this bad losing a kid sister he'd had for maybe a month now, losing a daughter...

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Shit." Kenzi didn't know anyone named Amelia on the Island. But Sparkle was probably right. And if the squirrels hadn't caught whoever it was leaving his place, they'd never know for sure.

She remembered how happy Amelia had been with that pink tutu. And then he asked about Mia, and she sobbed, shaking her head.

"Nothing. Nada. Not even her stuffed m-monkey, and..." She had to pause to grab a pair of silk socks and wipe her face and her nose. She was never a pretty crier. Especially not when drunk. "It's worse than those stupid future-kid weekends because she's a never-kid. Damnit. Need more booze please."

[myownface]

Not even a maybe-kid. Sparkle nodded a little and held the bottle back out for her.

"I got a never-family," he offered, quietly. "Tried phoning them this morning. What kind of fucking idiot tries to phone his adoptive parents that never adopted, right?"

They'd adopted his big sister by blood, too. Some other him still had Carla in his life. The family he phoned... didn't. Some other snot-nosed shitty teen had answered and it didn't matter how polite she'd actually been to him while he was talking to her like a crazy person, Sparkle loathed her. Loathed her so damn much.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Oh, fuck." That really didn't cover it, not enough. Kenzi hiccuped again, stunned by that thought. Poor Sparkle. She smeared more mascara over her face, trying to wipe at her eyes. Screw it.

Hugs! All the hugs! "They were -- it's their loss, those guys who didn't adopt you. Seriously. I just. I can't." Hugging! MORE HUGGING!

[myownface]

Sparkle wasn't completely convinced that they were the ones missing out. He was the one who was standing around and passing a bottle of vodka back and forth with his fellow fucked-over Torontonian Russian-Canadian punk-thief.

"I propose we get really, really fucking drunk, and then stumble around town breaking into the homes of anybody that's actually happy right now so we can punch them in the face."

Normally he'd just steal their pepper shakers and shoelaces and other useless crap. Nope. Today seemed like a good day for face-punching.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"'Kay. Okay." Kenzi sniffled, and took a long pull off the vodka. "Oh. OH! And, if we find that guy, that guy who maybe did this? We turn him into shark-bait."

Not even remotely kidding.

[myownface]

"I would be perfectly okay with tying his feet to a large rock and throwing him off the causeway," Sparkle murmured. And then sniffled a little, himself. And then winced and shuddered and made grabby hands at the bottle again. "Oh god oh god oh god..."

There were not coherent words out there to express such heartfelt sentiments as, 'I ate so many people over the course of the past week.'

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Drink your medicine," Kenzi said, because she didn't need to know the details to know that this kind of week had left him needing to forget. She swayed a little, then slid down to the floor. "Fucking ballerina life."

That was easier to remember than the craptastic choices she made as Mia's mom.

[sharp_as_knives]

When Hannibal eventually showed up, he was dressed a bit more casually than usual, though not quite down to the standards of the artist he'd been. He had some leftover dinosaur steaks with him, but kept it tucked away for the moment in favor of carrying a bottle of wine.

It wasn't the best he had; he somehow had a feeling Sparkle wouldn't care. But knowing how the boy coped, it seemed an appropriate offering.

[myownface]

Hannibal was pretty much the best, helping him feed his horrible coping habits while simultaneously making sure he didn't end up in a ditch somewhere. Sparkle would probably be more appreciative of that if he wasn't currently contemplating crawling into a bottle as it was.

"Hey," he said, fairly numbly, as he gave a little non-committal wave. "Welcome back."

Seemed like a good greeting for pretty much anyone, right now.

[sharp_as_knives]

"And to you." Hannibal eyed Sparkle, then reached into his bag to pull out wine glasses, pulled the temporary cork he'd put in the bottle, and poured them both. "It would seem rather pointless to ask how you're doing. Would you rather talk about it, or simply sit?" He pushed one glass to Sparkle and picked up the other.

[myownface]

"Been sitting all day," Sparkle murmured. "Except when I wasn't, I guess."

That wasn't really an answer, so much. He swallowed a lump in his throat, and then shrugged his shoulders and reached for the glass that Hannibal had poured for him.

"Melia's gone."

It seemed like a good place to start. The important one. The obvious one. The rest were clawing, nagging, insidious hurts that chewed on his self-doubts and left him feeling sick and useless.

Amelia, on the other hand, was heartbreak, plain and simple.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Did she leave, or did she never exist?" Hannibal asked.

[myownface]

Oh god, Sparkle didn't even want to think about that second possibility. Though it might have been easier to get over than the thought that she'd just taken off without so much as a goodbye.

"Was someone else, I think. Slipped out the window while I was... you know... out. Last night."

[sharp_as_knives]

"And you don't know where she went." Hannibal swirled his wine, took in the scent, then drank again. "Do you want to search for her?"

[myownface]

"Dunno." Sparkle stared down into his wine glass quietly. "Pretty sure she's not a kid any more. She wrecked her pajamas. Left with some of my clothes. Probably doesn't want to be found."

He wouldn't much blame her, he supposed.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal thought about the implications of that, and nodded. "Likely not, at least for the time being. She may have quite a bit to process herself. Perhaps she'll contact you after that." It would be the polite thing to do.

[myownface]

Sparkle took a mouthful of the wine. He wasn't chugging it this time, but he wasn't exactly taking time to enjoy the flavour, either. More like he was going through the motions.

Trying to get another taste out of his mouth, maybe.

"She might. I'm not really going to hold my breath." He was too damn screwed up, any sane adult who had been a kid under his care probably wouldn't, right? "But it would be nice."


[Sorry! Adventures in power outages!]

[sharp_as_knives]

"It would," Hannibal acknowledged. "She has a lot to thank you for."

[myownface]

"I guess so." Sparkle shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't do that much. Mostly I just confused her more, every time I changed."

Yeah. Because he totally had control over that. Sure.