The Perk, Friday Afternoon

[suitably_heroic]

Atton hadn't had as much coffee at the Perk in his life as he did during the months where he was officially living on Coruscant. Sometimes it was just nice to be reminded that there were people in the world who weren't a) Sparkle, b) apprentices, or c) his fellow Jedi.

And caramel coffee.

So there he was again, sitting by the window of the Perk, scowling at his communicator. Mical kept sending him messages. He'd already set his comm so it didn't let anyone know Atton was reading anything anyone sent him, but eugh.

He had to go back, he knew that. But Mical could've just left it at one message instead of constantly reminding him about it.

... and if anyone pointed out that Atton could've stopped this deluge any time by texting back the letter 'k', he was going to loudly protest somehow. Yes.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[notconflicted]

Sia hadn't needed her phone recently, but she kept it charged and on just in case, even when she left it behind in her apartment while she did other things.

Like today, when Atton was still getting someone trying to video chat with him from Sia's phone anyway.

[suitably_heroic]

"Seriously?" Atton said as he heard the inbound video chat sound and looked down. "... Huh. Not Mical."

He clicked 'accept' before realizing who it actually was. "Poodoo."

[notconflicted]

Lucky for him, Sia wasn't going to be calling him anytime soon.

However, his screen was going to be full of dog snout, because unluckily for Atton, his name was at the top of the English alphabet.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton blinked a couple of times.

Then he let out a huff of relieved almost-laugh. "Of course it's you," he said. "Hey, buddy."

[notconflicted]

Vitor wasn't used to dealing with a screen- this had been an accident- but he recognized the face on the other end, and started pawing at the screen to say hello.

Like a lot.

[suitably_heroic]

"Missed me, Vitor?" Atton said. "I'll bet. You make bad choices."

[notconflicted]

Bad choices, such as responding to that by licking the screen.

Sia would appreciate that, right?

[suitably_heroic]

"You taking good care of Sia?" Atton asked, raising his eyebrows. "Bite diplomat ankles?"

[notconflicted]

Vitor didn't understand the question, though he'd definitely answer yes to one of those questions. The other he would get into trouble for.

Instead he sniffed the phone, and felt like there should be pets involved right about now?

[suitably_heroic]

Atton let out a vaguely amused snort.

But he reached out and tapped the camera a few times with his finger. That counted, right?

"Don't tell Si about this, you runt."

[notconflicted]

Luckily he couldn't! But he appreciated the effort, and barked happily at the screen.

Which might sound a little loud since he was right here.

[suitably_heroic]

"Oof," Atton said. "Yeah, that's a good boy. Nice talking to you, Vitor."

[notconflicted]

If that was a goodbye, Vitor had no idea. Also he didn't know how to hang up. So he just barked again instead.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shook his head. "Please let Sia not have this thing on automatic record," he muttered as he pressed the big red 'hang up' button.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan apparently hadn't had enough Jedi in his life on Friday, because after stopping by the park to watch Kanan train, he went to the Perk. He nodded politely to the dual-fisted-sword dude from the day before. Dude looked busy with his phone, so Kaidan wasn't going to interrupt.

He ordered by shrugging at the barista and telling them to surprise him. The resulting giant foamy brew smelled like cloves and tasted like heaven, he discovered after a cautious sip, so that was a win.

A quiet word with the cashier meant any further drinks of Atton's, for the day, were taken care of.

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, if it isn't yesterday's audience," Atton said idly, without looking up.

He didn't exactly have eyes in the back of his head, but, well, Jedi.

[spectre_alenko]

"Kinda hard not to be, what with the lightsabres and all," Kaidan acknowledged, "Very flash."

[suitably_heroic]

"And very don't do this at home," Atton said, dropping his comm because he was so over dealing with Mical right now. "Newbie or not? You look familiar."

[spectre_alenko]

"Couldn't if I wanted to," Kaidan shrugged, "Swords of any kind are not my thing. I'd probably cut a hand off if I tried."

He nodded, "New to the island, only been here a few months. Doppleganger thing going on, there was a different 'me' here a few years ago, I'm told." It was getting less difficult to say that without his face twisting into a cat's arse. "I'm Kaidan. You're Atton, right? Sparkle's roommate?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Yep, that's me," Atton said, and leaned back in his seat. "I'm taking the summer off to annoy people back home, but usually I teach and tend bar and beat people at pazaak around here." He shrugged. "Never had a doppelganger situation, but it happens."

[spectre_alenko]

"So I've heard," Kaidan said dryly, "But hey, at least it wasn't an evil clone situation." He paused, then shook his head and sipped his beverage, "This island is weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, but definitely weird."

Another sip. "Heard you're the person to thank for the video of Seivardan being a dick, so, uh, thanks. It was a real eye opener."

[suitably_heroic]

"'Definitely weird'," Atton echoed. "Space, you're like a baby runyip who just walked into a potluck."

He took a big sip of his drink. "But nevermind. That was the legendary Seivarden? That explains a lot."

[spectre_alenko]

"Runyip?" Kaidan asked, "Do I want to know?" He'd begun paying attention when people from Kanan's galaxy started throwing slang around. He was, after all, trying to learn. A shoulder shrugged, "So far there's only been one minor jinx since I've been here and not, like, shark tornado levels of weird. Though I've been warned."

He nodded, "That was Seivarden, being an utter bitch. You know, her version of the incident has her being abused by the staff and a patron for no reason, and then just leaving with dignity?" His face did twist into a cat's arse over that.

[suitably_heroic]

"Runyip. Small, furry, lunch for big bad gundarks," Atton said, waving it off. "Oh, even if I hadn't been getting stories from Sparkle for like a year now, I could've told you she was lying," he continued, mentally revising the pronouns he'd been using for the asshole he'd met the other week. Seivarden, right. "Some people just radiate 'entitled jackass'. You can smell it for miles."

As opposed to Atton, who just made a point to be a regular, run of the mill jackass.

[spectre_alenko]

"I really need a dictionary from your galaxy," Kaidan noted with a small amount of amusement, "Though I wouldn't generally classify myself as 'lunch' for anything. Nice don't mean easy."

He held a hand out in an open-palmed gesture, "The disadvantages of hearing only one side of the story - I knew Seivarden had issues, not the extent to which she was rewriting things." He took a sip, "But, thanks to your video, now I know. It's helpful."

He still hadn't figured out what, exactly, to do about it. Short of slapping Seivarden upside the head.

He changed the subject back to glowing swords. "Do you teach the saber thing or just spar?"

[suitably_heroic]

The guy was nice, which both meant Atton wasn't inclined to troll him too hard, but also made him want to be a contrarian about that inclination.

"Eh, after a couple of years, we only whip out the slang to confuse newbies and to be assholes," Atton said. Back when he thought he'd be hiding out on Earth forever, he'd basically memorized the entire Urban Dictionary.

Not that he was going to say that much.

"I just spar," he said, "And go out on missions. Here I just teach kids how to avoid getting killed, back home I don't want to deal with tiny baby Jedi bugging me all the time. You're a new teacher here? I'm not keeping track."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan chuckled mildly, "Every new word is a chance to make a friend of mine wince when I misuse it, so, y'know, it serves a purpose." He'd also fallen down the Urban Dictionary hole and still suffered a bit of trauma from it. Which he would never admit.

Shaking his head, he answered, "Not a teacher. I own a store in town, LAN gaming and electronics repair. Though something Sparkle said earlier has me thinking I should run a driver's ed course, or defensive driving, or something."

Tiny baby Jedi. He was filing that away to unleash on Kanan at some point.

[suitably_heroic]

"You've got people doing that here every now and again, but I think we haven't had one of those in a while," Atton mused. "Though speaking of Sparkle, I do need to take the kid to figure out how to use a speeder back home."

Sparkle would still be 'the kid' by the time he was 60, if Atton was still alive by then.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan tried to hide his amusement at 'the kid' coming from someone who didn't look all that much older than Sparkle.

"He seemed enthused by the idea of motorcycles, and from what I hear, speeders go faster than ground-based vehicles are capable of, so he'll probably love it. You're going to have a spastically excited Sparkle on your hands."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton was 33. But he'd looked five to ten years younger than his actual age for most of his life, and he'd once exploited that to pretend to be a teenager for a few years - he was happy to leave this guy with the illusion.

"I have that every day," Atton said, rolling his eyes. "I could throw an unlit sparkler across the room and he'd be going for hours."

[spectre_alenko]

"Well, yeah, sparklers," Kaidan said, sipping his drink, "That's like teasing a kitten with a feather." He tilted his head at Atton, "You two seem like unlikely roommates."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton squinted at him. "I've known him for like ten years," he said. (Well, less on Sparkle's end of the timeline, but whatever.) "What's so weird about that?"

[spectre_alenko]

"Didn't say weird," Kaidan pointed out, "Said unlikely. Sparkle's a good kid, emphasis on kid. You seem like someone who skipped the 'kid' phase entirely."

He shrugged, "It's a good thing. The roommate thing. He seems to look up to you."

He hadn't actively insulted Atton when he mentioned him, at least.

[suitably_heroic]

"We went to Fandom together, actually," Atton said, setting his cup down on the table.

[spectre_alenko]

"Kinda guessed when you said you'd known him about a decade," Kaidan sipped his coffee.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton let out a soft snort. "He doesn't look up to me anyway," he said, "He knows me too well."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan sipped his coffee and acknowledged, "I've known him about a month. I could be wrong."

[suitably_heroic]

"Eh, well, if he likes you, you're probably good people," said Atton.

Which was not ever going to stop him from giving someone a hard time. "Anyway, I was gone for a while after Fandom, came back, and he needed a place to crash. It made sense."

[spectre_alenko]

"He doesn't seem to hate me," Kaidan said dryly, "but again, only known him a month. He gave me tea yesterday, which was adorable. I think his plans for the rest of the tea are.. less than adorable, possibly bordering on spiteful, but since I think the intended recipient is Seivarden.. more power to him."

Kaidan, those plans are pure spite and YOU KNOW IT.

[suitably_heroic]

"It's Sparkle," Atton said, picking up his cup again. "If he's not setting anything on fire, it's not spiteful."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan processed that, and shrugged. "Then he's being far less than spiteful. Good for him, taking the high road."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton made a faintly amused noise. "That jackass really got to you, didn't she?"

Hey, divert to other people's issues rather than his and Sparkle's long histories of screwing up.

[spectre_alenko]

"I dislike being emotionally manipulated," Kaidan said, "I dislike even the attempt at it, poor as it was. I don't know whether it was to make sure I had a favorable opinion of her, or if she's got her head up her own colon so far that she genuinely believes her own story, but in either case, it's not ok."

He took a sip of his coffee, "Haven't yet decided how I'm going to deal with it. Sparkle's method amuses me."

[suitably_heroic]

"Probably the latter," Atton said lightly. "It doesn't work so well when it's the former."

[spectre_alenko]

"The data is inconclusive," Kaidan said, sipping his drink and making a face, "Which is a good thing, for my temper. I can at least try to give her a benefit of doubt." Instead of a smack upside the head.

[suitably_heroic]

"Rather you than me," Atton said, taking another big swig. Seriously, caramel: best thing ever. "You give someone like that a finger, they'll take an arm. Probably literally."

[spectre_alenko]

"Might give her an arm, ending in a fist," Kaidan glowered, then forcibly took a drink of his coffee before adding, "Which is an inappropriate response to something that's really just a minor annoyance, and I know it, so I'm just.. enjoying Sparkle's response for now." He smiled a little, "It was, at the very least, clever."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shrugged. "Sounds like she deserves to get punched, if you ask me, which you didn't," he said. "And I'm not supposed to say that because blah blah Jedi protectors of the peace blah but really, punch her if it feels right."