Dite's Decadent Delights, Friday

[myownface]

Okay, so Sparkle was getting kind of crappy at little things like showing up for work on his days to, you know, work. What could be expected from a teenager who was pretty sure he didn't have a boss anymore at either of his jobs?

Okay, sure, so somebody kept paying him for the shifts that he did pull, but he was just as inclined to blame some kind of weird island thing for that. Either way, the important thing was that he was here at work now, and putting out a display of over-the-counter contraceptives, sorted according to variety, and then pretty colours on the packaging. Because condom-box rainbows and dental dam checkerboards were awesome, okay?

They just were. Don't judge him.

[Open! SP from work, and probably tiny phone internets pinging when I get home later, though.]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal got Sparkle's return voice mail, and drove out to the island. He'd never actually been in Dite's before, and had rather assumed from the name that it was a sweets shop.

He was finding out otherwise as he looked around for Sparkle.

[myownface]

Aaaand, one more package of Trojans right there, to complete the dark end of the spectrum, and--

"Oh! Doctor Lecter!" Sparkle had not actually expected Hannibal to show up at the shop to talk. Please, pardon him for a moment while the image of Hannibal standing with a backdrop of fuzzy handcuffs lodged itself permanently in Sparkle's brain. "Uh... hey!"

Seriously. The cognitive dissonance here was epic.

[sharp_as_knives]

No, Hannibal was definitely not a fuzzy kind of person.

He was, however, a doctor. He'd probably seen kinkier things in the ER than this shop ever got.

He wandered over to Sparkle, and waved at his interesting decor. "An innovative use of color."

[myownface]

"Yeah? I, um... It was attention-getting. I don't really expect many people to wander in here not already knowing what they're looking for, but I figure it can't hurt to make a display of stuff for safe sex that's actually hard to miss."

And then he'd be jealous of anyone who bought from it, because he wasn't getting any, these days.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Always a good thing to promote." Something around here should be safe, in any case.

Speaking of which... "It would seem that your friend Atton has no advocate in Dean Skywalker."

[myownface]

"Heh. I could've told you that," Sparkle replied, snorting a little and then walking around his display so that he could hop up to sit on the counter. "Skywalker's a Jedi, right? Like Atton said... shades of black and white. Nobody's going to back him up when the dean of the school's on the other side, like there's no such thing as a middle ground or something. And then people wonder why I have problems with authority."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Atton got in touch with me yesterday, though. He sent me an e-mail. So he's not dead yet, at least. He's stuck somewhere, but I don't think it's the same people holding him. Or that's not really the impression I got from him, anyway. It's been years for him already."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Oh?" Hannibal looked up at that. "It's good to hear." He waved one hand dismissively. "The most I could get from the dean was a promise that Atton would have a decent attorney and a fair trial, as their government values those things."

Yeah, he was still skeptical. Of the government, of Skywalker's several-thousand-years-removed knowledge of it, and of the individuals in it.

"I had managed to get him to seek permission for Atton to be in contact with friends, though that hardly matters now, thank god." He pursed his lips. "When I attempted to gain assurance that Atton would be treated well and as if innocent until proven otherwise, he threw me from the office."

Not literally, at least.

[myownface]

"So he doesn't give a shit if Atton is even safe or not? Asshole."

Sparkle wrinkled his nose and shook his head. "I mean, I'm not exactly surprised, but, shit, he can't even pretend to care?"

It was a Jedi thing, Sparkle wouldn't understand?

[sharp_as_knives]

"Apparently not." No, Hannibal wasn't exactly Anakin's biggest fan now, either. "At least your friend is doing well, though? So either he was not as guilty as the dean assumed, or he managed to escape."

Personally, Hannibal was hoping for an innocent verdict in a trial, just to prove Anakin wrong.

[myownface]

"Atton never said which," Sparkle muttered. "He did say he was with a Jedi, but I don't think it was the Jedi who was keeping him where he was."

Not easy to say, given how brief Atton's emails had been.

"He did say he's probably never coming back here, though. Can't say I blame him. Can't wait for that acting camp, at this rate."

How easily a mind could be persuaded with a little body looting.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I wouldn't blame him, either." Hannibal thinned his lips. "Not while the dean feels the way that he does."

He nodded to Sparkle. ""If you attend the camp and have a nearby apartment, he could visit you there," he pointed out. "How is your practice for the audition coming?"

[myownface]

"Could probably use some help going over my lines," Sparkle admitted. "Those long monologues get tough to remember. Who knew, right?"

Besides the author of Sparkle's canon, whose speciality is monologues.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Anyone who's ever had to memorize one, I imagine," Hannibal answered with a chuckle. "I'd be happy to help, if you have them with you."

[myownface]

Sparkle gave his head a nod.

"Yeah, I've got a few, I read them when I'm not actually doing stuff around the store. They're all from movies... I figure that probably won't be too much of a problem, right? I mean, so long as I deliver them well and I don't stop halfway to freak out or like try to remember a line I've forgotten or something, that's all that matters?"

He remembered doing a lot of rehearsing with Amelia, when he wasn't himself, and that seemed to be the big deal. Keep going, don't lose the character, even if the words are there. The audience won't know you've fucked up unless you show the audience that you've fucked up.

[sharp_as_knives]

"That's the important part," Hannibal agreed with a nod. "Never let them see you sweat."

Did you need lessons in that part, Sparkle?

[myownface]

He was getting better at not sweating! Particularly while staring down certain death. Sparkle hated this place, sometimes.

"And in the end it's just a role, right? Like changing shoes, no big deal, except you have to remember a bunch of words to go with 'em." He made a reach for one of the printouts and looked at it for a moment before offering it to Hannibal. "I dunno, I tried to pick one that was kind of different."

Different from himself. Something that looked at the human condition with a little bit of romance, maybe even a little bit of hope. Sparkle had found that last thing in short supply, lately.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal read it through and nodded. "The importance of art in life. I approve," he said with a chuckle.

[myownface]

"Yeah, well..." Sparkle ducked his head a little. "I kind of figured it was, I dunno. Topical. Kind of beat the Travolta monologue about the state of Hollywood and hi-def brain splatter, anyway."

Sparkle could talk about brain splatter without shuddering again. That was kind of like forward progress, depending on where you were sitting.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Probably a wiser choice," Hannibal agreed. Although brain-splatter could be beautiful, too! But it was probably an acquired taste.

So yes, Hannibal thought that was good forward progress.

[myownface]

"I want this," Sparkle replied, shrugging a little. "So I'm trying to be smart about it. It gets me off the island, even if it's only for a couple of months. And I'm really... really done with here."

A beat.

"Bonus points if it's something I can make use of after I graduate too, I guess."

He supposed.

[sharp_as_knives]

If Sparkle was contemplating doing anything after graduation other than self-destructing, Hannibal would count it a win.

"That sounds like a good idea." Hannibal shrugged. "And if you decide that this isn't for you, we can always find an accountancy camp."

[myownface]

"Um... maybe?" Sparkle blinked, and then wrinkled his nose. "Um, accountants can totally get along by counting on their fingers, right?"

He was kidding. Nope. A mathematician, Sparkle was not.

[sharp_as_knives]

"That depends upon how knowledgeable their clients are," Hannibal answered with a chuckle.

[myownface]

Sparkle gave a wry little smile at that. He remembered how well his counterpart - the one with the family - had done in Hannibal's class on cooking the books. Math had come pretty easy to that kid. Of course it had. He'd had people there to show him how to do it.

"Fair enough. I guess if you're good enough at acting, you can probably sell it for a lot of them anyway."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Acting is a useful life skill for a lot of things," Hannibal answered.

[myownface]

"Fake it 'till you make it?" Sparkle smirked a little at that. "Sell it with attitude, or whatever?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"Precisely." Hannibal smiled. "As no doubt you have discovered, few people look past appearances. If you can appear to be confident, they're unlikely to question you."

[myownface]

"Yeah, people care about appearances pretty much everywhere but here." Sparkle shook his head. "I've been saying that was too good to be true."

For as shitty as the past few weeks had been, now that he knew Atton was still alive out there, he could at least feel vindicated, a little.

[sharp_as_knives]

"You should know it isn't only me that this doesn't sit well with," Hannibal told him. "Mr. Starsmore also feels the dean acted badly, and that your friend should not have been summarily judged as he was. But then," he acknowledged, "I would imagine he has a history of reasons not to judge on appearance."

[myownface]

"Starsmore is, uh, the one with the..." Sparkle made a vague gesture toward his mouth, and then shrugged and reached for a pen to fidget with. "Maybe he doesn't, but it's good to hear anyway. I mean, coming from teachers, not just, like, other pissed off students. Means I'm not just being a whiny kid."

... Who had camped out in a warehouse watching his friend bleed out. You know. Typical whiny kid things.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal gave him a serious look. "I have seen you hurt, drunk, upset, and in any other number of situations. I have never known you to whine."

Thankfully. Hannibal didn't much care for whining.

"Are there other students upset as well? How many know what happened to Atton?"

[myownface]

"Cade," Sparkle reported. "Sia. I think that's all. I'm the one that was all the way outside of... whatever this Jedi-Sith crap is, lucky me. I don't know how Sia's doing. I don't know her that well. Cade's been drinking a lot, though."

So... not actually a stretch.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I don't know either of them, I'm afraid." Hannibal shrugged. "Feel free to let them know about my progress - or lack of it - with the dean, if you think it warranted."

[myownface]

"Cade might wanna know," Sparkle replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I think he'll be more interested in knowing Atton's not dead yet, though."

It had certainly been awesome news for Sparkle, anyway.

"I'm thinking the more I stay off Skywalker's radar the better, though. Squirrels tattle all the time around here."

[sharp_as_knives]

"True." Hannibal grimaced and reminded himself again of that and other reasons he was not going to ask for the dean's business card. "I should say that I wouldn't think much of a dean who would use his position of power to victimize a student, but..." He shrugged.

[myownface]

"That's what power is for, isn't it? Get your own way and nobody'll even question it? If it's not, shit, have I ever been looking at the wrong people."

Sparkle? Bitter?

...

Duh.

[sharp_as_knives]

"It often is, yes," Hannibal agreed. "But I loathe seeing it used against the powerless, rather than others in power."

He shrugged and gripped Sparkle's shoulder for a moment. "Well. Acting camp, and then possibly accountancy camp, and you needn't worry about him for some time now. And your friend is well. So the best we can do is ignore the man."