Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

[myownface]

Sparkle showed up for his shift at Pick Your Poison and kind of... frowned as he looked around.

The place kind of looked like nobody had been here in nearly a month. Which he would have expected to some degree, between, like, visitors and less alive visitors and break and homecoming, he supposed, but he was kind of surprised, with all the layers of dust that had settled in, that it meant Iris wasn't back yet, either. He knew she had a shit-tonne of plants upstairs in that room he couldn't get to, and he was faintly worried about those. Maybe he'd, like, leave her a message asking if there was anything he needed to do about that.

And then, that done, he gathered up some cleaning supplies and set right to work dusting the shit out of the place.

Because honestly now. A dusty store that sold luxury bath supplies just wouldn't do.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

It was Wednesday and Kaidan was a little happy to be able to get back to his routine.

So there he was, pushing through the door of PYP with some brightly wrapped and beribboned boxes. Inside was the set of scare-wear that Jack had picked out. The outfit Kaidan had picked out could wait until closer to the winter holidays.

Inside the door, he began sneezing. "What the.. Also, hi."

[myownface]

"Kaidan!" Sparkle lowered the rag he'd been running around with and turned a grin his way, smiling... maybe a tiny bit sheepishly. "Hey there, sorry, place hasn't been dusted in forever. Apparently weasels don't do dusting. Stupid, they do like anything else they want to. We can prop that door open if it'll help?"

[spectre_alenko]

"Good plan," Kaidan chuckled, "We need to get you to make that a habit. This whole cleaning in an enclosed space is just not good for you."

Then the words caught up with him, "You're calling the new guy a weasel?"

[myownface]

Sparkle made his way over to the door, jamming it open with a rock, and then blinked and glanced back over his shoulder at Kaidan.

"What? No. No, man, I'm talking about me."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan blinked and then huffed a laugh, "Oh. It bit you this week too, huh? Seemed to be going around. Weasel? Really?" He thought about it and grinned, "That must've been cute. Were you brown or had you changed to white yet?"

[myownface]

"I was a very dapper shade of red-brown," Sparkle reported. "And I looked great in a tiny bowtie."

Because of course he'd found one of those. It had been like two weeks out from Halloween.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan raised both eyebrows, imagining that. "Ok, yeah, I can see where that would be adorable as heck. Tiny little tuxedo, kind of."

He held out the packages. "Here. Jack sends her regards and also gifts."

[myownface]

"I like regards and gifts," Sparkle decided, blinking and reaching for the offered packages. "What's the occasion?"

[spectre_alenko]

"That's a question I've learned not to ask Jack," Kaidan answered, "I have a hard time telling whether the answer is something she made up on the spot or if it's a legitimate occasion somewhere in the galaxy. I said souvenir, she decided to send things back for you too." He shrugged a shoulder. Jack, man.

[myownface]

"Huh," Sparkle said, tilting his head a bit. Okay, he was pretty sure he could live with that. He slung the rag he was dusting with over a nearby shelf, and then made his way back toward the counter with the packages in hand. "And what are the odds that what's in these things are going to, like, jump out and try to eat people or something?"

Look, he'd met her all of once. He'd kind of gotten that impression from her during that meeting anyway.

[spectre_alenko]

"That's actually not a bad question to ask, when it's Jack," Kaidan grinned, "But I was there when she picked it out, so I can promise it's not going to attack you."

He paused and considered the outfit. "Not, uh, on its own, anyway. You'll see what I mean when you open it."

[myownface]

Hm. Sparkle squinted thoughtfully at that statement, and then shrugged and settled at the counter, setting to work opening the first package.

"Really wasn't expecting anything from anyone," he noted as he did so. "I mean, I'm not gonna say no, but you know nobody has to, like, bring me souvenirs or whatever?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan eyed him for a moment and shrugged a shoulder, "It wasn't a thing I had to do, no. It gave me something to do while I was on Omega and kept me out of trouble."

He winced a little, "Mostly kept me out of trouble."

Explosions, Kaidan.

"..Ok, not really but at least I tried to stay out of trouble. In my defense, Jack was with me."

[myownface]

Sparkle blinked.

And then Sparkle laughed.

"Okay, see, now I'm sad I didn't get to come along," he teased. "Sounds like you had a good time."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan's smile turned a little lopsided, "For the most part, yeah. Liara was there, so was Jack. I wasn't expecting either of them, but it was nice to see them."

Even if the damned Batarians had decided to make life a little more interesting than he usually liked.

[myownface]

"Hey, they missed you," Sparkle offered. "And have probably been worried sick. I'm surprised you didn't have like a dozen people waiting on the other side, man."

[spectre_alenko]

"Didn't exactly tell anyone I was going," Kaidan admitted, "or there would've been. The problem is that wherever the Normandy goes, eyes follow. I didn't need the attention. Not for this visit. They know I'm alive and well, and if they need to reach me, well, all they have to do is tell EDI."

[myownface]

"Fair enough," Sparkle replied, shrugging, and then finally reaching into the package to pull out the first item that was tucked inside.

He blinked. He tilted his head.

And then he broke into a slow grin.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan watched Sparkle's face. He wasn't sure how he'd like the tunic or pants.

On the tunic, the right arm was a black sheath along the underside of the forearm with a ladder of chains along the other side. It left the shoulder bare but lead to a high-backed black neck cuff with more chains across the throat. The front was a mix of black and antique silver with stark angles dividing the two colors. The left shoulder and arm were a dense black lace picked with silver threads and worked with tiny black glass beads. The hem was asymmetrical from a triangular cutout on the right also laddered with chains to the waist that cut a low cross-body diagonal and came to a sharp point about knee length on the left.

The other box held a black pair of pants with lace insets that worked with the tunic.

Jack had said 'angry' for the look.

[myownface]

"This," Sparkle whispered, picking up the tunic and staring at it, "is terrifying."

And then he broke into a big dumb grin, bounced on his toes, and hugged it.

"Can you hang in there a minute? I need to try this on, like, right now."

[spectre_alenko]

"Wait, pause," Kaidan said, "I need a picture of you hugging the outfit because I told her you probably would."

He pulled out the camera, ready to get a shot.

[myownface]

Well, if Kaidan wanted to take a photo, Sparkle definitely needed to strike a pose for it, hugging the tunic close and grinning. He was not a camera shy boy in the least. So.

"It's so good. It requires hugging."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan laughed and took the photo, sending it off to Jack with a big fat, I told you so attached.

"Go ahead and try it on and I'll send her another. She was fretting about the fit. I had to remind her that you own a shop for clothing and tailoring."

He chuckled again, "My comment was that I wasn't sure if you'd wear it, but you sure as hell would hug it."

[myownface]

"Man, I will find reasons to wear it. I will make this into my Pride outfit and pair this thing with a feather boa and 'fuck me or fuck off' heels, don't think I won't," Sparkle announced, already making his way to the back room, pausing to collect the rest of the outfit on the way. "And it'll be good."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan laughed even harder, "So.. that was another thing she said. Well, asked. 'Does this say 'don't fuck with me' or just 'fuck me'?' and I mean, kinda both? So pairing it with heels that make a similar statement is kind of on track."