Demon Marcus, Sunday

[myownface]

Okay, so, it was time for the Valentine's display to come down, and...

Sparkle frowned at the window display thoughtfully. He didn't want to start putting, like, Easter or St. Patrick's Day stuff out yet. One was still too far away and the other one was just kind of overdone to the point of being tacky. He could do a display of, like, gear for outdoor winter activities? But it had been warm and rainy the last few days, he wasn't so sure he'd be selling a wealth of ski pants right now regardless.

He could... uh...

Hm.

Well, this was a dilemma.

Sale, Today Only!
Coordinate an outfit for a mannequin in the window today,
Get that same outfit for yourself, 1/2 off!

The answer? Let someone else do it.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[justice_undone]

Thanking Sparkle for the flower in class hadn't felt proper, so during late morning Breq entered Demon Marcus, looking for its owner.

[myownface]

Its owner was indeed in! Sparkle was sitting behind the counter doing his nails, in fact, with a bright sunshiney yellow nail varnish in hand. Now that he'd decided to let somebody else worry about the mannequins, he figured he had a little time to spare to just make pretty.

He smiled a little at Breq as she stepped into the shop.

"Hey there," he greeted. "How goes it?"

[justice_undone]

Breq stopped in the middle of the room.

"Good."

Better get this over with. "I wanted to thank you for the flower."

[myownface]

"Hey, you're welcome," Sparkle replied, smiling and shrugging his shoulders. "I got one for my employee here, too. I figure you guys are putting in the work, least I can do is get you a flower at Valentine's."

Even if Breq was going to drive him to a conniption fit before the end of the semester, he was sure of it.

[justice_undone]

"I wasn't sure about the customs for the holiday and I don't often get flowers," Breq said, then repeated: "Thank you. I appreciated it."

She supposed she did. It was kind of Sparkle.

[myownface]

"The customs for Valentine's are kind of whatever you want them to be," Sparkle replied, shrugging his shoulders easily. "If you get something from a teacher or employer or something, it's probably okay to not look into it too deeply unless their note gives you some reason to think otherwise."

But really, Sparkle was both not into his students and super gay. That flower was a very platonic flower.

[justice_undone]

And ships weren't generally interested in romantic relationships.

"I understand. None of the flowers I got were an expression of romantic love." That was a relief.

Her gaze shifted towards Sparkle's hands. Painting nails wasn't a fashion among Radchaai for obvious reasons, but she had seen it on other planets. That was a colour she hadn't seen used before though.

[myownface]

Sparkle smiled faintly and shrugged his shoulders.

"I can only speak for me," he replied, "but if you think the other ones you got weren't romantic either, then, hey."

He held his hand up, inspecting his nails, and then he lowered it to touch them up further.

[justice_undone]

"Is that colour unusual or is it just that I haven't seen it used on nails here before?" she asked, thinking it wouldn't be a too blunt questions for Sparkle.

[myownface]

"Both," Sparkle replied, turning a grin up toward her. "Not many people go bright yellow with their nails, but I'm not many people."

[justice_undone]

"No, I don't think you are," Breq agreed, then glanced around the room.

[myownface]

"So," Sparkle drawled, following her gaze around the room, "were you here for something in particular, or did you just want to talk about flowers?"

[justice_undone]

"Mostly to thank you for the flower," Breq said, expressionless as usual. "But I also wanted to ask you if our talks in class bother you."

[myownface]

Sparkle kind of paused in his nail painting at that. Glanced back up at Breq. And then put the cap back on his nail polish.

"I would be lying if I said they weren't, uh," he went silent for a second, groping for words. "Distressing? Kind of distressing."

[justice_undone]

"Would you prefer it if I talked about other things? I took your note to mean that you didn't, but I wanted to make sure."

Still no expression on her face. Breq wasn't sure which one would be suitable.

[myownface]

Sparkle shrugged and shook his head.

"If I tapped out on a conversation every time somebody said something that made me uncomfortable, I would, like, never talk," he noted. "I guess I just.... find it a little overwhelming? I guess? Just how casually you talk about some things."

[justice_undone]

"Anything in particular?" she asked.

[myownface]

Sparkle grimaced a little.

"Well, basically any time we start a casual conversation about how to kill people by the dozen," he offered. "That's usually a little, uh, much."

[justice_undone]

"Yes. I suppose that's not necessarily relevant to the class anyway," Breq said.

She could probably avoid the subject.

[myownface]

"Not generally," Sparkle agreed. And then frowned a little. "Mind if I ask you a question?"

[justice_undone]

"No, go ahead," Breq replied, adding a smile.

[myownface]

Sparkle drummed his fingertips against the counter, careful not to ruin his nails.

"Where are all of those conversations coming from? You don't just talk about someone who read about it or anything," he said, carefully. "You talk like someone who's seen it."

And who had seen it a lot.

[justice_undone]

"I have seen a lot. I've travelled a lot."

She added: "I'm older than I look."

[myownface]

Sparkle nodded. Slowly.

"Like... a lot older?"

Because there was a lot of experience in those conversations, and while Sparkle didn't doubt that the Radchaai were super fucked up, he wasn't so certain someone who was maybe, like, twenty or twenty-two instead of seventeen or eighteen would have been in the middle of a lot of that, either.

[justice_undone]

She could just as well tell Sparkle, Breq thought. People had been surprised before, but not more than that.

"I'm not human," she said. "I'm a ship. Th last remaining human fragment of the Radchaai troop carrier Justice of Toren. The rest of me was destroyed."