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Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

It was almost weird to be back to work at Iris' shop, today. Like there had been so much on the go lately that just coming in to work to sit around being surrounded by the first breaking indications of fall seemed weirdly decadent, even if he was doing it as an employee here to earn a paycheque.

Sparkle was so pulling out some hand lotion that was both glittery and apple-scented, though. Because dammit, he was going to treat himself, here.

... And then put the rest of the bottle out as a sampler, because it was awesome and people needed to experience the wonder of having twinkly applehands.

They just did, okay?

Maybe tonight he'd call up Hernando and take him up on that 'enjoy the beach' suggestion, or maybe he'd head to Coruscant to check up on the kids some more, or maybe he'd just catch up on his sleep. Things were finally starting to even out enough that he felt like he could have his pick.

That was nice.

[OOC: Open!]

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Kaidan headed over to PYP before work, another confection coffee in tow for Sparkle. Partly because he figured Sparkle could use it, partly because he just felt better showing up with something in his hands.

He entered the store and paused. "Apples?"

"Apples!" Sparkle held up his hands and gave a little wiggle of his fingers. "Fall product is starting to happen, there was no way I was going to go through my day not smelling like I'm making a pie or something."

You were in a store that sold fancy, fancy, stinky things, Kaidan. Today was apple day in the PYP.

Kaidan laughed and handed over Sparkle's drink, "Here, because what the world needs right now is you on a caffeine buzz with sparkly apple-scented hands."

To be fair, at least once he'd been in here the main smell had been cleaning chemical fumes.

He eyed Sparkle, "Are you huggable today or no?"

Sparkle grinned as he took the... it could nominally be classified as a drink, in that there was probably fluid under the whipped cream somewhere... hugged that to his chest for a moment, and then set it down on the counter.

"I'm huggable every day. Today I happen to be huggable and apple-scented, so we both win."

Then he was getting hugged for a degree that edged into 'squashed' territory. "You doing ok?"

"Hnnf," Sparkle said, totally intelligibly, as the air was squished out of him. "Yup, doin' fine."

He reached up to hug Kaidan back, at least! He was not being squished too much for that.

"Good," Kaidan said. After a moment, he added, "Saw your boy the other day. Looked like someone had kicked him in the head and he was way off his game, but upright and functional, so.. good job, Sparkle."

He had no illusion that Sparkle had a lot to do with that.

Sparkle gave his shoulders a shrug.

"August sucks," he replied. "But hey, the trick to dealing with Atton is mostly to let Atton deal with Atton. It's not hard."

Not if you knew him as well as Sparkle did, anyway.

"The way I deal with Atton is to let you deal with Atton," Kaidan pointed out, "I just flirt and play cards with him." For a value of 'flirting' that meant 'talking trash across a table at'.

"I wasn't feeling much, but he was picking up on whatever's behind my numbness, so.. like I said, he was way off his game," Kaidan noted with a small shrug in return.

"I'm just glad you're in one piece. How are the littles doing?"

Sparkle shrugged. Atton was generally way more observant than he let on, Jedi or no. Where he was standing, picking up on whatever was behind Kaidan's numbness wasn't the indication that he was off his game, but acting on it might have been.

"The littles are going to be fine. They loved all the stuff you sent, we're going to be eating Earth food for months, except the Togrutas, anyway. And I'm warning you now to never challenge one of them to a game of Jenga."

One of said littles, who was a bigger little, Sparkle was concerned about. But like Atton, he figured she'd need a little more space and a little less puppy pile.

"Togrutas can't eat Earth food?" Kaidan asked, sidetracked, "I'd be fine with Jenga. I can cheat just as well as the littles if need be."

And now Sparkle was off his game - Kaidan handed him a straight line and he didn't tease the crap out of him? Coffee had been a good choice today, it seemed.

"They can handle Earth food just fine," Sparkle replied, "but they're carnivores. While everyone else is having Kraft Dinner, I'm gonna have to at least cook up some hot dogs or something to keep them going."

He shrugged and took a mouthful of coffee. He was used to dancing the 'feeding different species' dance. At least there was still enough leftover taco meat for them to eat for another... good little while, anyway.

"I probably won't have to make quite as many trips as I was, in a bit. Things are kind of settling in. Kids are good at being snuggly balls of mush, they have one another, they'll be fine. And if Atton's getting back to work, I figure he's at least faking it well enough I don't have to worry anymore."

"You could always mix burger meat in with the KD?" Kaidan added doubtfully, "Burger mac is a thing, right? Or can they not have starches at all?"

Burger mac is a delight and you should know that Kaidan, shame on you.

"Are you allowed to say what happened? Kanan and I were thinking of heading back there sometime soon, but, uh, I kind of don't want to go if it's going to hit him like it hit the kids."

"I don't think they're obligate carnivores," Sparkle noted, "but I'd still rather feed them fun and healthy. All that starch is just empty junk to them."

He shrugged.

And then was quiet for a few moments. Kaidan was going to find out either way, when they went back. He blew out a breath.

"Mira's dead," he said softly. "That last mission with Atton, they found some kind of creepy Sith relic using tortured, brainwashed people as human batteries. As far as I can tell, she blew that fucker to kingdom come, but she went down with it. I've been trying to keep my head down and let people do their thing, so I haven't really pressed too hard for details I didn't already have."

Mira's dead.
The woman Atton referred to as his sister.

That explained an awful lot.

Kaidan hugged Sparkle a little tighter, trying not to just crush him. "I'm so sorry, Sparkle. I only met her the once, but I liked her. She reminded me of one of my crew."

She reminded him of Jack. The interplay between Mira and Atton had reminded him an awful lot of home.

"Do you have the green nail polish? The shade of her shirt? Let's do that today."

"I didn't know her very well," Sparkle admitted, managing to avoid another 'hurk' sound at that added squish. "Most of the time Atton spent with her was on missions, I think, or while I was on the island. But she seemed like good people."

He nodded toward the counter, where he had brought a little caddy of polish along.

"I do have the green, though."

"We were comparing notes on our chosen family," Kaidan said quietly, "Mira reminded me of Jack. Imagine Atton, only angrier and female. Pretty much Jack."

God help him if those two ever met.

He finally let Sparkle out of the hug to poke through the nail polish and dig out the Mira-shirt green.

Didn't take much to find it; just look for the green that made his eyes bleed a little.

Sparkle pulled out the bottle and gave it a shake.

"Yeah? Why not tell me about Jack for a bit while I paint your nails?"

"Jack is complicated," Kaidan said, turning his left hand over to Sparkle, "She was one of very few biotics of my generation that didn't wind up at Brain Camp. She wound up in a Cerberus facility instead."

Cerberus.. how to explain them. "Imagine the most horrible black-ops kind of organization, then make it blacker, more vicious, less human, and with no conscience at all, then add a penchant for human experimentation and vivisection." Kaidan had views. "That's Cerberus. They got ahold of Jack as a baby. She grew up being experimented on. It.. wasn't pleasant."

Understatement, they name is Kaidan.

"It warped her, in a way."

In a lot of ways.

Sparkle opened his mouth for a moment. And then shut it again. Frowned a little as he opened the bottle of polish and started to paint.

He'd mostly meant stuff like where she liked hanging out or how likely she was to punch someone's face in for looking at her funny. But okay, he could work with this.

"I mean, that's the kind of childhood that'll fuck a person right up," he noted. "Probably warped her more than 'in a way.'"

He was getting to that, but to understand most of his comments you kind of had to know where Jack was coming from.

"Yeah. She's had a rough life." Another significant understatement. "She doesn't feel things like regular people do, she doesn't have any sort of normal baseline for anything. You know how some people say things to show they care but aren't serious? Like, 'that guy insulted you, want me to kill him for you'?" Kaidan sighed, "If Jack ever asks? Do not say yes. She's only recently learned that she should ask first, and she mostly remembers to."

Mostly.

"I get her, though. I understand all the things that made her who she is, I understand why she feels things the way she does, and where she struggles. She gets me on a level nobody else can, and sometimes she's the only person I can talk to about the biotic crap because she's the only person I trust to understand.. and to not care."

Okay, so, 'dangerously literal.' Sparkle nodded a little. Good to know.

"I mean, I maintain that biotic shit isn't even the hardest thing around here for people to get their heads around," he noted, "but I think I get what you mean anyway. She gets it because you both dealt with it. Other people might understand something similar, but, like, it's not something someone like me is ever really gonna understand, even if I don't give a shit."

"I meant more what it feels like to be one than the other crap," Kaidan said, "But also some of that. Jack sizes everything up as a potential threat and, uh, there aren't many where she's concerned. I..was. We're polar opposites, temperament wise. I care about everything. She doesn't care about anything. Only recently, last few years, has she started letting herself care and it's hard for her because she doesn't know how."

He snorted a little, "She blames me for a lot of that. She blamed John, but then she and I got to know one another, now it's all my fault. 'Caring cooties'."

"Aww, you got your 'give a shit' all over everything?" Sparkle grinned a little. Next finger. "I'm... actually super not surprised."

First time they'd met there had been hugging.

So not surprised.

"Not everything, no," Kaidan eyerolled, "She's still very selective about what she tries to care about. But where she chooses to? She tries her best, and like I said before, biotics? We know how to amp emotions to the max."

"Every word she says is sarcastic and usually edged and biting. She will tease the living daylights out of me, or do or say anything just to watch me squirm," Kaidan said, "And she knows where all the cracks in my armor are, so when she wants to reach in and stab me? She knows exactly what to say and how to do it to get the maximum reaction."

After a moment, "If anyone else said or did anything similar where she could see or hear it, she would react without thought, because I am hers and nobody else is allowed." There'd be a glassine, smoking crater where that person had been standing and Kaidan would exasperatedly be explaining that you shouldn't just kill people, Jack. And she wouldn't care.

He lifted his other shoulder, "Textbook sibling."

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Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

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