fandomtownies | The Park, Monday Afternoon

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The Park, Monday Afternoon

Sparkle hadn't said anything, mostly because Canadian Thanksgiving was a stupid holiday that he'd never really had with anybody worth having it with, but... that was today. Which he figured wouldn't be a big deal. After all, he was in America now, and he'd have plenty of time to make up for the whole 'eat Turkey until coma mode hits' thing in something like a month anyway, right?

But so help him, everything was quiet, nobody he really knew was left on the island today, and he was feeling homesick. Again. Which was stupid, because he'd had about as many homes as Thanksgivings, and the vast, vast majority of them had been seriously disappointing. But hey, at least he was pet-sitting for Dr. Lecter and Prof. Starsmore, which meant that he could take full advantage of that by kidnapping the little black and white cat and bringing her to the park, where he was going to feel slightly guilty for eating a store-bought turkey sandwich in the company of a bunch of ducks. But only slightly.

"So, Joni," he drawled, tearing off a piece of meat for the cat in his lap and a few crumbs of bread for the gathering ducks, "I don't know about you? But I'm thankful for..."

He considered for a moment.

"Hair gel. Sure."

[OOC: Holidaaaaays. I have the day off, so I'm around. Flipside, I'll be slow to ping because turkey. Open anyway!]

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It was all... well, it was more than a little ridiculous to blame the ghost of a dead man that might only be a figment of her imagination (Ino had never talked to other dead people, after all, and Aerith had never talked to Zack, so it was hard to say) but she had the time off, and she'd kind of wanted to brace herself for the disappointment of not being able to get to the island before she made up her mind about Homecoming.

And then she'd wound up being able to get to the island, only it was almost completely quiet, which left her feeling weirdly nostalgic and creeped out at the same time.

But, hey, there was an active mind in the park, and when she got there, there was also a cat whose name she definitely recognized.

She didn't recognize the guy talkin' to her, but that didn't stop her. Ino never had been one to be shy.

"Hair gel is pretty great," she said agreeably. "Though it can be a pain in the ass to wash out."

Ino's hair nearly hit the floor these days. Hair gel and hair spray and all that stuff was a bitch to get out if she wasn't careful.

"Yo."

Hi, Sparkle. Have a cute blonde in a suit.

Oh, hey, a cute blonde in a suit! Sparkle wasn't really into that sort of thing, but he could appreciate a well-tailored suit no matter who was wearing it, so if his gaze happened to sit on her uniform for a little longer than it sat on her face, well...

Those were some really neat seams, okay?

"Yeah, well, it's not so bad when you don't have all that much hair," he said, nodding up at the girl with a faint smile. "I think you've got a bit more to contend with, there."

Joni's little ears perked up at the familiar voice, even if it had been just about forever, and she plodded across Sparkle's lap to peer at Ino, ignoring the offering of turkey, at least for the moment.

They were pretty great seams. They held up to almost anything the Turks could think to put them through and they made everyone who wore them look damn good.

(Or maybe that was just ShinRa's hiring policy in general...)

Either way, Ino didn't much mind. She was cute whether or not he was into that sort of thing.

"It's a trial and tribulation," she said cheerfully, reaching out to pet Joni. "I bear up under the pain of it well. Hiii, Joni, look at you, the cutie!"

Joni was so going to lean in to bonk her head against Ino's incoming hand. Hi, friend! Hi!

"Oooh, we know one another already, do we?" Sparkle smirked dow at the kitten. "So, are you going to introduce me to your friend, little girl, or am I going to have to figure this one out for myself?"

Sorry, Sparkle. Joni needed to purr and snuggle up against Ino some more.

And Ino beamed at the kitten, petting for all that she was worth.

It was nice to be remembered.

"Iris," she said off-handedly. "I went to school with Jono. You pet-sitting? The island's awful quiet today."

"Yeah," Sparkle agreed, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm taking care of this little lady and her old man friend for Starsmore and his fiance, while... like... most of the island's population is out checking out some tourist trap haunted town or something. I dunno, here works for me."

You know. Sulking into a turkey sandwich with the cat and the ducks.

"I'm sensing some bitterness," she noted, giving up and just reaching over to pick Joni up.

She'd give her back. Eventually.

"If it's trip time, that means you're neither student nor teacher. Got a name, or should I just call you town slave?"

She would, was the thing.

"Sparkle. It's Sparkle," he said, with the air of a guy who was just waiting to catch flack for his name, even while smiling a bit as Joni nuzzled on in to make herself comfortable. "And yeah, I'm one of those townie losers, I guess. I work over at the clothing store."

... He ran the clothing store.

Puh-lease, she worked with people with stranger names.

"Is it still called Pixie Dust?" Ino asked interestedly, looking up from Joni. "It really was run by a pixie girl, did you know? She was small and bitchy and hilarious."

That was about all that she remembered about Tink, but it was all true.

"Nah, we call it Demon Marcus, now," Sparkle replied. "The owner who was running it when I was first hired was a half-demon, so it made sense at the time. But I've found the pixie's old paperwork. It was... angry. It was angry paperwork."

Hilarious. But angry.

"I have to respect that."

"Tink was like that," Ino said, nodding. "Killer fashion sense, though."

A beat.

"So who is running it if the demon person ain't round no more?" she asked, slating a glance at him. "I wonder if it might be someone stuck on the island while everyone else is out to play..."

"It is completely possible that it's somebody stuck on the island while everyone else is out to play," Sparkle said, sticking his nose into the air loftily. "It's entirely possible that I inherited the place by accident, because apparently all it takes around here is a couple of nights crashing in the back room while you sort stuff out."

Ah, Fandom. Never change. Except for the trying to kill people parts. Those could change, Sparkle wouldn't mind.

Hey now, Ino liked those parts of the island. Usually.

"Sounds about right for the island," she admitted. "Well, congrats on having a shop. You likin' it okay?"

"Yeah, it's pretty great," Sparkle confessed, giving her a little smile. "I mean, there's still a burn barrel in the back, because god do we ever get some hideous stuff sometimes. But usually, it's... you know... nice. People come in and they've never seen a winter before, and I help them out. Or they don't know what shoes to wear with what dress or... like... whatever."

He laughed a little, softly, and reached up to scratch Joni behind her ear. Her tiny purr was a mighty one, right then.

"And the employees are great. I mean, they both do their best, you know? Ada's a great tailor and Alluka has one hell of an eye for style. The place wouldn't be the same without 'em."

And why shouldn't the purr be mighty? She was getting cuddles and scritches at the same time! Everything was good in kitty world.

"For someone who stumbled into owning a shop, you sound like it's the job for you," she observed. "Like you love it." Her hair rustled, around the back of her neck.

"You're awake?" she asked, attention diverted from Sparkle. "Well, come on out then. Don't be shy."

That got some sleepy, good-natured chirping as a teeny, tiny, yellow bird with black eyes toddled out from her hair, to stand on her shoulder, to inspect his surroundings solemnly.

"Well," Sparkle said, "I mean, it was a second chaaaaAAAAAAAHOHMYGOD."

Sorry, train of thought completely derailed by tiny bird.

"Oh my god oh my god look at you!"

Silly sort of looked at the person making all the noise, and gave an inquiring flutter of his teeny wings.

Ino blinked.

Then laughed.

"You want to hold him?"

"Can I? Oh my god can I hold the bird?"

LOOK AT HIM. IRIS DID YOU SEE THIS BIRD YOU HAD?

She was quite well acquainted with her own pet, Sparkle!

Ino was giggling as she gently scooped up the unprotesting Silly and offered him over to Sparkle.

"Play nicely with one another," she admonished.

Sparkle, meanwhile, was just making a constant, low, "Eeeeeeeeeeee" sound as he held out his hands to take Silly, cradling him carefully.

"Eeeee!"

Eee.

"Oh my god he's so soft. I didn't know birds could be this soft."

"It's because he's a baby," Ino said, since she actually knew a bit about birds these days, for obvious reasons. "He hasn't gotten his big bird feathers, so he's still all soft and squishy."

"Soooo squishy," Sparkle babbled, petting the little bird with one finger. "Who's so squishy? Are you so squishy? Huh?"

... Sparkle had no shame whatsoever.

"What kind of bird is he?"

That was alright, in this case it was endearing.

"He's a chocobo," she said, snuggling Joni so she wouldn't feel left out. "Since he's a baby, the official term is chicobo."

Which was pretty gosh darn cute all by itself.

...

......

"Even the name is adorable. Ooh my god where do you get one of these guys? Where?"

"At home?"

Ino laughed at herself, for that answer.

"On Gaia, my planet, they're fairly easy to find. This one crawled into my bag one day and I kept him. I could hook you up with one easily," and why not, sowing good will with someone on the island was never a bad thing, "but you should probably know that most of them don't stay as small as Silly. Silly's doing the whole 'Fandom pets never grow up' thing. Chocobos are big when they grow up."

She pulled out her PHS and flipped through her albums for a bit, before--"Here."

"OH MY GOD PEOPLE CAN RIDE ON THEM??"

Sparkle's blah day was improving exponentially, here.

"Okay, so, I have nowhere in my apartment to keep a bird the size of a horse, but I am so jealous right now, you don't even know."

"The perils of Fandom," she said playfully. "It does not, actually, have everything."

Ino didn't offer to wrangle a way for him to ride one. They were, after all, still basically strangers.

"Though it comes close, usually."

"Well, it's got cats, and... mostly people who have cats, I mean that's usually good enough for me," Sparkle admitted. "But damn, this little guy makes me wish Fandom had more sometimes. Are you here to stick around? Or just visiting and surprised to find all the cool kids away for the week?"

"More the second one," she admitted. "My home been cut off from here for the last few years, yeah? So then I get this email that Homecoming is just about here so I figured I'd see if I can get here or if the email were workin' but nothing else."

Ino shrugged. "I won't stay long, but I guess since I can, I'll be back for Homecoming." It would make Zack happy, which still mattered, and she'd have a good thing to tell him about, which also mattered. "After that, who knows? Got a job and a life back home. Still, bein' able to get away ain't no bad thing either."

"I think I kind of know how that goes," Sparkle mused, smiling faintly as he scratched Silly behind that teeny tiny noggin of his. "Having options, I mean. It's good stuff."

Silly was just going to flutter is wings in ecstasy here, Sparkle. You were spoiling him.

Ino watched that indulgently.

"Sometimes it ain't even important 'till they're gone," she said, after a moment. "But yeah, this being another option--might be nice. It's greener here. I missed that."

Even autumn on Fandom was greener than Midgar at any point in the year.

Since Sparkle's options were... Fandom, these days... he could appreciate that.

"Greener than where you're at, huh?" He raised his eyebrows a little. "What, even this time of the year?"

Sparkle couldn't read narrative. He could scritch the teeny bird some more, though.

And, to Silly, that was more than good enough!

"Oh, yeah," Ino said, smiling down at the yellowing grass at her feet. "There's green places, sure, but the city I live in is, like, two cities on top of each other. The bottom don't ever get light and the top don't have much ground to grow things on, being off the ground in the first place."

"... That'd do it," Sparkle replied, blinking. "I've been to some planets that are like that. Or, well, one of them was actually a moon, but the same idea applies." He gave a wry little smile. "Fandom is pretty green compared to, like, Nar Shaddaa or even Coruscant, too."

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The Park, Monday Afternoon

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