fandomtownies | Caritas, Monday night

... yeah, ask them that question again if you dare.

Go on, drink that Gargle Blaster like you have no brain to lose.

"Wait, what victory are we celebrating?"

Somebody had been out of town for a week. That somebody had decided that he wasn't going to drink alone when he got back to the island, no matter how badly he wanted to.

Sparkle was also fairly certain he didn't actually want the answer to his own question, but since he'd asked...

"You missed the whole thing!" Kenzi gestured wildly, then started pulling a beer for Sparkle. "Storms! Soap! Ponies! Discord! Bravery! Explosions of anime stars!"

Sparkle actually blinked and rocked back a little at that. Normally he was used to the exuberance, but that was a lot of very random things all slapped into one explanation, right there.

"... Anime stars? What? How many of those gargle things have you had already, Kenz?"

"Not as many as I'm gonna have." 'Cause drinking on her break did not leave her enough time to drink Alot of drinks. "This dragony thing showed up from Pinkie's dimension and started messing with the island. And we were all ponies, which is usually fun, but not when the streets are completely made of soap." She paused and added, "Okay, that was fun for an afternoon, but only because I had wings and could avoid crashing. Where were you, anyway?"

Sparkle was quiet for a few more seconds while he processed that. Dragon thing? Soap roads?

Fandom.

"I was in Tokyo," he explained, scratching the back of his neck. "Minako invited me for a visit, and I can't say no when that happens, you know? Anyway, I needed to get the hell out of that apartment for a bit."

Kenzi gave him a piercing look, pouring herself a Diet Coke, and then sucked on the straw for a minute. "Yeah? The whole amnesia thing a couple weeks ago, or life in general getting to you?"

"The amnesia thing didn't touch me," Sparkle admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "So it isn't that. It's just a little more specific than 'in general' anyway, you know? The week before that was kinda shitty."

Sparkle's gift for understatement was shining bright tonight. It was possible he was trying to think up a good story and failing utterly.

"Dude, you know you don't haveta tell me. But if it's still bugging you weeks later, I can listen." Kenzi made her Bartender is In gestures, then smirked. "Or I can get you a Pan Galactic so you can forget it even faster."

Sparkle chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment and then shrugged his shoulders.

"I was gonna hit Baltimore tonight to get some weed," he admitted, "but if I get completely hammered here, that works too."

Lofty life goals for Sparkle.

"Did I mention at all that Atton had gone missing for a while, back there?"

"Less likely to get arrested here, too," Kenzi added, pouring him another beer. The Pan Galactic was on hold until he definitely said he needed it. "I think you did? You hadn't gotten really worried yet... or maybe I heard about that on the Radio?"

"Might've been the radio," Sparkle agreed, chewing his cheek and then reaching for the beer. "He was gone for my birthday, did you know? The Jedi where he's from were freaking out trying to figure out where he'd gone, he wasn't answering calls or anything like that."

He scuffed his toe against the floor, really interested in that beer.

"No," Kenzi admitted. "I didn't. Must've been scary." She was quiet a second and then asked, "Is he okay?"

Sparkle made a bit of a snorting sound into his drink. The result wasn't exactly flattering, but it did aptly portray just how he felt about the whole situation.

"Oh, yeah, he's okay, I guess. He had taken off. Was going undercover trying to bust some big crime syndicate or something like that. Any shit he got in, he walked into."

Sparkle, meanwhile, was pushing past the 'irreparably traumatized' stage right on into 'simmering frustration.' It came and went.

"What, didn't he feel like leaving a note? 'Taking down the Ombra, back in three weeks?'" Kenzi demanded. "How difficult is that?"

Sparkle wrinkled his nose a little.

"He had already been told not to go. If he left a note, the Jedi would've gone in to get him back, kicking and screaming. So instead they called me in, hoping me being there would... I dunno. Lure him out or something. Mostly for that first week I just sat around and cooked decent food for the Padawans and told Mical what a moron he is for not listening to Atton when he says things."

Sparkle's opinion of Mical hadn't improved any since then, either.

"You realize that the running off without telling people when he was forbidden to probably didn't help that not-listening thing," Kenzi felt compelled to point out. "Okay, so... He's okay. You're stranded with -- padawans? -- and cooking. THen what happened?"

Couldn't have been good, whatever it was.

"Padawans are like junior Jedi," Sparkle explained, needing to take a moment before getting into the messy stuff. "The Order in their time is getting back on its feet, so they're taking in trainees."

Okay, enough stalling. He fidgeted a bit, downed the rest of his second beer, and then slid his glass back to Kenzi for more.

"Then the Temple gets attacked."

Kenzi did a spit-take.

"Oh jeez," she spluttered, reaching for a bar napkin. "By who? Why? Did you get hurt? Do you need more booze?"

"So much more booze," Sparkle agreed, reaching up and idly rubbing at his shoulder, before kind of sucking in a breath and pulling down his sleeve to show off the ugly scar left behind by the stab wound he'd gotten, there. "Atton's new friends gave me this in the attack, then carried me off. Easy hostage."

"Oh, sugar-face. Here." Have a giant rum'n'coke, and that Pan Galactic was now being made. Kenzi reached over and patted his shoulder, then reached over to squeeze his hand. "God, how long...?"

"Only about a week. Could've been worse?" Sparkle squeezed her hand back, letting his shirt fall back into place. He appreciated the contact. He'd had time to process, but he still found himself jumping at shadows.

Maybe that was why he found himself falling short of being able to come up with a good lie, for once.

"A few days in, they caught Atton sneaking in to check on me. A few days later than that, it got ugly."

"It gets uglier?" Awww, Sparkle, noooo. And here is your Gargle Blaster. "I feel like I should be giving you a chocolate Mudslide too... what happened?"

Sparkle accepted the drink, already feeling a bit buzzed but more than willing to keep going. When he was talking about this stuff, drinking was a godsend.

"The guy in charge of the crime syndicate was some ass that had a grudge against Atton going way back over something that wasn't even his fault. He was totally happy to leave us alone in a locked room with a firing squad."

And there, that was about the point that Sparkle's voice went flat.

"Chained to the floor and all that good stuff. Atton got us out."

I'm not stuck in here with you...

Sparkle shuddered and took a drink.

"Aaaaaaack," Kenzi said in sympathy. One of the few wonderful experiences she hadn't had at this point. "Do you want a hug? Would that even help?"

Oh, to hell with it. Sparkle was on the drunker side of tipsy now, and he'd been honest all damn night anyway, he might as well keep up that trend.

"... I've been wanting to be hugged for like three weeks now," he admitted. "Like a lot. It's stupid."

"Pfffft. No such thing." Kenzi hopped up, and then swung her legs over to drop down on the other side of the bar, and glomped Sparkle. "I didn't get any workable hugs while I was a pony, you're doing me a favor anyway, and! It hasn't been as long for me so I owe you hugs!" SMUSH.

Please excuse Sparkle, Kenzi. He'd gotten the 'just openly sobbing' part out of his system when Tony had hugged him, and there had been plenty of hugs from Minako this past week, too. But that wasn't going to change the fact that he was basically clinging for dear life, here.

"Damn right you do," he decided, hanging on tight. "You owe me all the fucking hugs, you got that?"

Every last hug.

"Good thing I've got so many on hand, hunh?" SQUISH! "And booze! So much booze! We need to do another move marathon with Cecil and anyone else we can drag in again soon. Yes?"

"Oh, hell yes. I'm demanding a Sesame Street marathon. We can watch that old school Canadian one just to throw people off. They can be like, 'Why is there a French otter on Sesame Street,' and we can just smile and know."

There had been a French otter on Sesame Street because Canada was awesome like that.

"Yes! And that one series about the Shakespeare company haunted by a ghost! We will watch innocuous TV until none of us are in danger of nightmares for weeks!" Kenzi grinned at him, and gave him another small hug. She pulled back a little to study his face. "Are you and Atton okay? I mean, he did go save you, but..." Sparkle would not have needed saving if Atton hadn't at least told *him* where he was going.

That... that was a good question. Sparkle's shoulders hitched up a little bit in a shrug.

"I don't know," he admitted. "It was weird for a few days, and then Atton took off again. But at least this time he promised me he wasn't running off to join some kind of space mafia, so... there's that."

"Ummm-hmmm." Kenzi was scowling. Not cool, Atton. "What's his deal that he keeps going undercover? Don't they have someone else to do that crap?" Another hug. "Also while you were gone we couldn't swear. I am so fucking relieved to be able to say that again."

"They kind of don't, is the thing," Sparkle sighed. "Like, I could count the number of actual, fully-fledged Jedi they have on my fingers. The rest are the padawans... just kids. And Atton's good at the undercover stuff. So... you know. Space cop."

A beat.

"Fucking space cops."

He gave Kenzi a little smile.

"Yeah, it does feel good to say that."

"Goddamn yes. And shit. I'm sorry he's one of the few good guys from his home... dimension or whatever. I just wish it didn't have to be so hard on you." Another hug, and then Kenzi patted Sparkle's hair. "Don't know what to say, bud. But you can always count on me for booze and hugs."

"Galaxy," Sparkle supplied. "I guess it's a really far away one, and he's long before, like, every other Jedi on the island so it isn't like he can call in an assist."

Probably. Would that break time? Ah well. He gave Kenzi a little twitch of a smile.

"You are great for booze and hugs. Gonna have to pester you for both more often."

For quieter chatting.

Sitcoms forever.

Around! Gone for a bit to class this evening, but back after that too.

Caritas, Monday night

The Band

The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

Re: The Bar

The Lounge

The TV Room

OOC