Caritas, Sunday

[suitably_heroic]

No, Atton hadn't missed Sia's birthday on purpose, and if you said that he did, you were a filthy liar.

... To be fair, the weird, complicated dreams he'd been having for the past few nights weren't helping. Sometimes he swore he was waking up to the presence of people long since dead, just loitering around his bedroom, even.

It was freaking him out.

Stupid Force.

And so for the fifth subsequent night, he was comming Mira. Not before putting out the sign that offered a 30% off deal if you ordered two cocktails, no. But after that...

"Atton, I don't have time to listen to you complain whenever you feel like it," Mira answered.

"And hello to you too, sunshine--"

"I'm serious." Mira's tone was flat. "We're in trouble."

Atton blinked. "Oh," he said.

"Yeah, so unless you're going to contribute something useful to the conversation, this call is over."

"No, no, back up," Atton said slowly. "What kinda trouble are we talking about?"

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[notconflicted]

If you had asked her yesterday, Sia would have been fine leaving on a night out with friends, which was something she didn't get anymore and had frankly needed.

Unfortunately for her, her portal back home didn't leave this morning, giving plenty of time for her own comment about not even getting an opportunity for a callout to start rattling around in her head. So, she decided to stop in, just to see what happened. Maybe she was bracing herself a little.

At least until she walked in. "Everything all right?"

[suitably_heroic]

"I don't know, where'd you rank 'the last of the leftover Sith just kidnapped a planet with a bunch of my friends on it'?" Atton said.

Hey, go figure. Turns out being upset about something else cancelled out being weird about the Sia thing.

[notconflicted]

In any other circumstance Sia would have been relieved about the weirdness being canceled out.

"They kidnapped a planet?" she repeated, taking a seat.

[suitably_heroic]

"Took over, blocked every signal besides the one Mira's using to talk to me," Atton said. "No wonder she sounded ready to strangle me."

[notconflicted]

"All right," she said slowly. "Is something being done about it?"

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm packing up and heading over there after my shift," Atton said. "Otherwise, Mira's trying to handle her end."

[notconflicted]

"Do you need anything?"

Apparently no matter how weird things got, she was just going to keep worrying about him amy way.

[suitably_heroic]

"Besides a lot of luck?" Atton said. He pulled a face. "I thought we'd gotten the last of these schuttas."

[notconflicted]

"They do have a nasty habit of popping up unexpectedly," she said wryly. Since four thousand years later, she was still stuck with them.

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, but we looked in all the nooks and the crannies and we even hung out a few puppies as bait," Atton said.

[notconflicted]

"They're Sith," Sia said. "They're experts at waiting for the best time to hit you."

[suitably_heroic]

"Don't remind me," Atton said.

That used to be his job.

[notconflicted]

"I'm surprised you're doing your whole shift," she said.

[suitably_heroic]

"First portal home is next morning," Atton said, sighing. "At least the first Ebon Hawk-sized one."

[notconflicted]

"So you get to spend your night going crazy," she said.

[suitably_heroic]

"Pretty much," Atton said, faux-cheerfully.

[notconflicted]

"Would you prefer to be left alone, or do you want distractions?" she checked. She was flexible.

[suitably_heroic]

"I..."

For a second Atton remembered who he was talking to.

"Aw, screw it. Distraction would be nice. How're you at cards?"

[notconflicted]

"Probably worse than the last time we played, but that doesn't mean much," she said.

[suitably_heroic]

"We'll see how far we get," Atton said, slapping a deck of cards on the bar.

[notconflicted]

"I tried teaching it to the other Knights," she admitted with the tiniest smile. "It means they're not great, either."

[myownface]

It felt like just about forever since Sparkle had invaded Caritas during Atton's shift. Sure, he'd been at a bar just yesterday and he'd spent a good chunk of the morning regretting everything, but this one was less exciting anyway.

... Getting carded made bars exciting. The novelty would wear off around the end of the month, when Sparkle was actually old enough to drink legally everywhere.

"Hey," he said, sliding into a seat at the bar. "How's business?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Bar business or Jedi business?" Atton said, wincing a little.

[myownface]

Sparkle paused for a long moment before hedging, "Jedi business. You wouldn't have asked if there wasn't Jedi business."

And figuring out the bar business was really just as easy as looking around the room.

[suitably_heroic]

"Mira and Visas are in some real trouble," Atton said. "Sith are trying one last attempt at galactic domination and they're picking some hole in the Outer Rim to start with."

[myownface]

"Fuck," Sparkle said, eloquently. Because really, sometimes you just had to get that one out of your system, okay? "And is there, um. A game plan or anything? To make that not be a thing?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, the game plan is I pick up my gear tomorrow morning and grab the first portal out they were willing to give me," Atton said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, Sparks."

He hadn't been out there much, since his falling out with Mical. But sometimes you just had to go.

[myownface]

"No, you know, I mean... I get it," Sparkle said, finding himself somewhat at a loss. "Your friends are in trouble, you have to go. That's a thing."

He fidgeted a little, not sure if he wanted a drink in his hand or not.

"If there's anything I can do to help, you'll let me know, right?"

Not that Sparkle's showings in the face of certain doom in Atton's home galaxy had ever been anything remotely resembling useful. Unless playing cook counted.

[suitably_heroic]

"I will," Atton said. He sighed, slamming an empty glass down on the counter, and ducked below it to rummage around for the juma. "If I call, don't jump. I might just be going stir-crazy on a Sith planet, it happens."

[myownface]

And just so long as it was stir-crazy and not the kind that meant horrifying voicemail messages that left Sparkle 99% certain his best friend was dead, he could live with that.

"I won't jump," he promised. "In fact, I encourage you to pester me as often as possible."

He worried. Hence that whole... last time.

[suitably_heroic]

"It's a deal," Atton said.

He had no intention of losing his damned mind again, no.

[myownface]

"Okay," Sparkle replied. "Good. Good."

Yeah. Good.

"... Good luck, man."

Come back alive.