fandomtownies | Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

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Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

Sparkle had given serious consideration to just not coming in to work today. Sure, he actually liked his job here and sure, there wasn't a goddamn jury that would convict him for buying some tea last week, in a legal transaction involving putting actual money that he owned into a cash register.

Besides, it looked like Iris did just fine with re-stocking on Friday. He had left some tea in the back, after all.

But he still had a nasty taste in his mouth after his last talk with Seivarden and that fucked-up radio broadcast she'd pulled on the weekend, and while Sparkle was usually one to knuckle down and dig his heels in to escalate while braced for more bullshit, it occurred to him that he didn't want to do anything that might somehow hurt Iris' business.

Even if 'angrily buying all the tea without using the employee discount' was not generally bad for business.

Maybe he was a little bit quick to close up behind him to skip off to the Wednesday school thing this week out of curiosity, though. For the fresh air and not at all because he felt weird about being here right now, honest. He'd be back afterwards. And maybe stay late to make up the time.

[OOC: Open!]

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And when he got back, he'd find Ino sitting on the counter, clearly waiting for him, with a notebook on her lap as she kept herself entertained in the meantime.

"Yo," she said.

Sparkle, who was now dripping wet and dyed several colours, though not all the colours because he'd given up about three obstacles in, blinked up at her from the doorway. And then gave her a sheepish smile.

"Hey, boss," he greeted. "I took a late lunch and I'm gonna make up the extra time a little later, I swear."

Her lips twitched.

"You might wanna look into not dripping first," she advised. "Though the mop has your name on it, if you really wanna."

Sparkle glanced down at himself, and then gave a sheepish little laugh and a shrug.

"I don't mind mopping anyway," he admitted. "But I'll get to it before it stains the floor blue or something."

Ino considered the floor.

"Probably for the best," she agreed. "Though paintin' the floor don't sound like the worst idea ever."

Sparkle also looked down at the floor thoughtfully.

"Blue?"

... Actually, that kind of sounded fun.

"I were thinkin', like, maybe really abstract flowers?" Ino said, though she hadn't even thought of it until a moment ago. "Blue'd be part, but also pinks and purples and yellows and oranges..."

She contemplated.

"Maybe geometric flowers would look better."

"It'd be kinda fitting," Sparkle mused, staying in the doorway so that his dripping was mostly on the outside. "Extra friendly, you know?"

She probably knew, Sparkle. It was her idea.

She'd let that pass, though.

"And the colours would be nice to have around. Especially when it gets cold again."

"Bright summery colours, a good heating system," Sparkle mused, "pretty much essential for getting through winter, yeah."

Even if winters here were kinda... puny.

She'd lived through worse. That didn't mean she liked winters on the island any better.

"And I've already got heating covered," Ino said. "The biggest issue would be... who would be painting this thing?"

She was calling 'not it'.

Sparkle looked thoughtfully down at the floor some more.

"I mean... I'm not much of a painter," he noted. "My thing is sewing. But it could be fun on, like, a day the shop is closed."

"There's got to be some painters on the island," Ino mused, tapping her pen against her leg. "To at least, like, make sure we're not going to just make a mess."

Ino would like her shop to not be a disaster, thanks.

"But yeah, it'd be fun to just have a paint day to blitz through it."

"If there are, I haven't met them," Sparkle noted, "but I have heard some things about some students doing some painting? That's about the best I've got."

He waved an arm around outside, checking to make sure he wasn't dripping anymore. And then he stepped inside.

"Could put up, like, classified ads or something. 'Artist wanted.'"

"That's true," Ino said, brightening. "Maybe I'll do that. And see what happens from that."

Because now she liked this idea.

A beat.

"Did you ever start workin' on my coat?"

She leaned over the back of the counter and fished a towel up from behind there to lob it in Sparkle's direction.

Sparkle caught the towel with relative ease - compared to that sadistic obstacle course, it was nothing, really - and ran it through his hair, wrinkling his nose when it came away red and blue.

He was going to have to fix his hair after this, wasn't he?

"It's mostly done, actually," he replied. "I'm picking at it bit by bit while I'm on Coruscant, but I've got pictures if you've got a minute?"

Yes, yes he was.

"I've got all the minutes," she said cheerfully.

Since she'd shown up specifically to talk to him and all.

"Well, for all the minutes, I've got all the pictures." He draped the towel over his shoulder, pulled his phone out of his pocket (thank god for his foresight in getting a phone durable enough to survive Fandom), and pulled up his image gallery. "I decided to go with embroidered detailing," he said, "in a hue just different enough to show under the right light, a little shinier than the rest. How do you feel about floral?"

All hand-embroidered, because he was not made of money. There was a reason it was taking so long.

That just meant she was going to pay him more. Gods, Sparkle.

"I'm all about florals," she informed him. "At least, when I'm not stuck in uniform."

And... Ino wasn't a fan of the blue uniform at all. Nope.

"Kind of makes sense you'd lean as far from the uniform as you can when you aren't in it," Sparkle mused, finding the right set of images and handing his phone to her. "Just swipe to the left for the next one. It's a bunch of your coat, and you'll know that's all when you get to my fish."

... He got bored on Coruscant a lot when Atton wasn't around.

"I'm used the the uniform," Ino admitted, as she took the phone, "and it matters to me, but it's not what I wear if it were up to me. I'm not even sure some of the others have clothes that aren't their uniform."

Seriously, she was pretty sure most of them didn't. Unless it was for undercover jobs.

"Now I'm curious 'bout how many fish pictures you've got here," she said, studying the first of the ones about her jacket.

"Way too many," Sparkle replied, settling in to watch her flip through the pictures. "I have a lot of spare time between shifts, you know?"

And with Atton out doing Jedi shit all the time, not exactly a wealth of ways to spend it on Coruscant unless he was feeling artsy or something.

Ino couldn't help but grin at him for that.

"Are you askin' for more things to do?"

... So help him, Sparkle realized after a moment, he kind of was.

"You have something for me to do?"

"You're my minion," she said, like that was an entire answer.

To Ino it really kind of was. He was her minion, so obviously she had things for him to do.

"What's your preference--something physical or something mental?"

Sparkle chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment as he thought that one over. His knee-jerk had him wanting a physical challenge. It was how he got most things off his chest. Punch something. Bite something. Burn something.

But he wasn't in the middle of something visceral and frustrating right then, so, after a little bit of thought, he said, "Something mental."

Maybe he could use the challenge.

"Okay," she said easily. "How're you at languages?"

"I have some French," Sparkle ventured. "Lew's from the French side of New Brunswick, so it's the confusing French that makes Quebecois squint at me, but I have some French."

Not that 'Lew' meant anything, either. But there. Some French.

"If it makes you feel better, my French is both Parisian and several centuries out of date!"

Thanks, Fandom. Thanks.

"Okay, so step one that I'm gonna drop on you then, is this: learn Japanese, please."

She didn't ask for much!

Sparkle blinked, but shrugged and pulled out his phone.

"Duolingo's free," he noted. "And I have a shitload of time on Coruscant anyway. Might as well add it to the list."

Easy enough, right?

"Good," she said, though she hadn't heard of Duolingo before. It was pretty easy to guess what it meant, however. "I'll test you on it randomly."

"I can live with that," Sparkle decided, nodding and scratching his cheek. "Sure."

Her hair twirled itself absently, as Ino nodded in agreement.

"Alright," she said, "there's that. Now, please tell me what was up with the tea thing."

It wasn't a question, though it was said in the same cheerful tone the rest of the conversation had been in.

Sparkle blinked, and then groaned as he pocketed his phone again.

"Long story. You want the sparknotes or for me to backtrack all the way with 'once upon a time?'"

"I've got all day," she said easily. "Hit me with the full story."

Sparkle chewed his inside cheek for a moment. And then sighed.

"Ever have someone in your life you don't really... like... hate? You kind of actually fucking pity? But they're just so repeatedly awful that one day all of a sudden you just can't, anymore?"

Ino thought about that, since it seemed to matter.

"Not really," she said, shaking her head. "I don't tend to put up with shit."

At least, not that kind of shit.

"I don't usually," Sparkle sighed. "First time she came into my shop, I didn't bend over backwards far enough to kiss her ass, she started swearing at me because I didn't offer her a change room to try on gloves, and I wound up banning her until she came back to suck up because she thought Hannibal was my father."

... It was complicated.

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Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

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