Demon Marcus, Sunday

[myownface]

Sparkle was antsy today. For a few reasons, really, not the least of which being that he was going to be heading to Coruscant tonight, partly to play buffer between Atton and Mical, partly because he actually found himself missing the place, and partly just because he was telling himself that he could. It had been almost two years since that thing with the Iridonic Horn, and if two years wasn't enough time to get his head around something that he knew, logically, probably wouldn't happen again, then he never would.

And he couldn't afford to keep writing off even those places that had been good to him up until some fluke caught him off-guard.

The other reason, and this wasn't a small one either, was the stupid holiday today. Which he'd forgotten about until he came in and some little kid wandered in looking for something nice for a gift, and he wound up spending twenty minutes going through cute scarves, kind of resenting everything. It wasn't the kid's fault, and so he'd been polite and helpful the whole time, but if any of his customers came in and asked him what he was planning for Mothers Day, he was going to lose it.

Anyway, Demon Marcus was open, and the end of Sparkle's shift couldn't possibly come quickly enough. Shit.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[myownface]

"I already asked you," Sparkle said, finishing his first nail and moving on to the second. He'd stop once she started talking. "What happens before a criminal is placed back into society?"

Go on. Tell Sparkle just how civilized they were in the Radch.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden cast a quick glance at Sparkle's hands, and then back to his face. She could just leave, of course, but she knew Sparkle could be stubborn.

"They are given a drug and then they go through a process that make them unable to commit crimes again. Then they are offered a new position somewhere, usually in another place. A new start."

[myownface]

Sparkle stared at her for a long time.

And then he put the cap back on the bottle. Set the bottle to the side. He couldn't sell it now anyway.

"I'd rather go to prison again than be stripped of my free will."

And that said a lot, considering he'd threatened to kill himself if he ever had to go back.

And yes, he put that 'again' in there quite on purpose.

[1000yearstoolate]

Oh, so that was what this was about. Seivarden wasn't going to judge before she knew what Sparkle had done. It wasn't like kef was legal either.

"What did you do?" She asked, not sounding accusatory.

[myownface]

That wasn't entirely what this was about. Free will was sort of the sticking point, here, even if Sparkle had just laid a big part of his life bare for her to see.

"I stole," he said, simply. "I stole and I hurt people and I burned things down. I did drugs. I did plenty."

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden shrugged lightly. "Did going to prison make things better for you?"

[myownface]

"It gave me some time to think about what I did," Sparkle replied. "I'm not going to say I enjoyed the experience. It fucking sucked. It ate like a year of my life I'm never going to get back."

And that had just been juvenile hall. He hadn't even been incarcerated as an adult.

"But I was still me when I came out. It was still up to me to decide my own actions."

[1000yearstoolate]

"I'm glad it worked for you, then." Seivarden drew a breath. "Why did you do it?"

That wasn't really the point and she knew it.

[myownface]

Because of people like you.

Sparkle didn't say it. Just looked to the side, seriousness etched into his expression that was seldom ever there.

"People do a lot of stupid things if it helps them feel in control of their lives for even just a little while. Wouldn't you say so?"

Ms. Blackmails-Brainwashed-People-for-Drugs.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden was silent for a few moments.

"That's why having help to make a better choice can be helpful."

Is wasn't an accusation. Seivarden was aware she was talking as much about herself.

[myownface]

"There are better ways to help people than making them unable to act," Sparkle replied. "There are better ways to help them than sticking them in a prison cell, too. Neither's a great solution. But what you're talking about... that doesn't sound like choice at all. That sounds like... something else. Something ugly."

[1000yearstoolate]

"Ugly?" Seivarden said. "What do you think is better, then?" She looked straight at Sparkle.

[myownface]

"Work with people to help them heal," Sparkle looked straight back. "Don't throw them into situations where they have nothing, where they don't have any choice but to do bad things in order to keep going. For god's sake, don't just carve out their ability to choose. Give them a means to at least make the right choices on their own."

He shuddered.

"What you're talking about? You think it's mercy? Really? Because I'd rather die. Whatever came out the other end of the process when they were finished? That wouldn't be me, anymore."

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden shrugged. "It's a good thing you're not in the Radch, then."

She didn't add that she had run away even before arriving in Fandom.

[myownface]

"I wouldn't survive a week in the Radch," Sparkle agreed.

Because he'd see something horrible happening within his first ten minutes there and pretty much immediately lose his shit, yes. He had no use for civilization. Not when it happened like that.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden couldn't help letting out a laugh at that.

"No, you wouldn't. You're missing out on a few things though."

[myownface]

"You mean besides the gloves?" Sparkle raised his eyebrows slightly. "And the obsession over tea?"

Nothing was the matter with tea, of course, but he couldn't help but poke some fun anyway. It helped calm his nerves after... all of that.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden had intended to move towards a lighter subject. "Tea, yes. Some gorgeous planets, better food, good arrak, entertainments."

She could have added 'people who understand me' but she didn't think that would appeal to Sparkle. It wasn't even true anymore. And she didn't have the social standing or the money to enjoy the things she had mentioned.

[myownface]

Sparkle gave his shoulders an easy nod.

"I've seen gorgeous planets," he replied. "I'm going to be spending a lot of my summer in another galaxy. That part is covered. And I want to think Dr. Lecter taught me to cook great food already."

And as for people who understood? Eh. Those were few and far between, and it was always even odds if you ever met someone who did understand that in the end they'd just use what they knew against you anyway.

[1000yearstoolate]

"Hannibal does cook delicious food," Seivarden allowed. "And he knows about good tea. I'm going to take his class at the community college, my cooking is terrible."

She did need a lighter subject.

[myownface]

"I might show up for one or two of his classes this summer... depends on how much I feel like travelling," Sparkle replied, shrugging.

He wasn't going to point out that most of the cooks in the restaurants that Hannibal was taking his classes to probably prepared their food with bare hands. That would be for her to find out.

... Maybe he should mention that it was important to not be rude on Hannibal's field trips, though.

Nah.

"It's something to maybe look forward to, though."

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden had already accepted that. As long as she didn't have to see it she could try not to think about it.

As for being rude...

"I hope it will. I'm fed up with the takeaway here, and it might be interesting to see other places."

[myownface]

Sparkle huffed out a little laugh at that.

"Somebody really needs to teach you how to cook."

Look, it would get some variety into her life. And maybe some healthier food and an outlet for some of that frustration she kept directing at other people.

[1000yearstoolate]

Would anyone be willing to?

"I suppose it would be helpful. At least I make better tea than they do at the Perk."

[myownface]

Nobody Sparkle could think of was that masochistic.

"I mean, yeah," he replied. "Food is almost always better if you make it yourself, once you know what you're doing. You've got control over what you eat that way, that you just don't get by stopping by Mooby's for whatever slop they put on a bun to call it a burger."