Demon Marcus, Sunday

[myownface]

The plan, ideally, was for Sparkle to take it easy today at Demon Marcus. After all, he'd already taken care of his gift exchange thingie, and all of his holiday shopping had been taken care of over the past few days on the mainland. Now that the weather was clear and the killer snowmen were gone, Sparkle was ready to get back to work, maybe sell a bunch of winter clothing that people had no doubt wished they had over the course of the week, and then kick his feet up and drink some hot chocolate or something.

... The actuality when he got there, on the other hand?

Sparkle sighed as he squinted at the 'Demon Marcus' sign, just barely visible above the door, which wasn't visible behind the snow that had drifted in through the storm.

"Oookay," he muttered. "I guess I get to shovel."

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan was jogging. Because who didn't go jogging through half-meter-deep snow for the joy of endurance challenges?

"Hey, you're back!" he greeted, "Need a hand?"

[myownface]

"Oh god, do I ever," Sparkle whined confirmed, looking over at Kaidan with big puppy eyes. "Whatever the island's trauma bullshit was would've been better than this."

He'd barely made a dent. The snow was piled higher than Sparkle was tall.

"This is dumb and I hate it."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan made a face. "Rabid feral snowmen with icicle teeth who were protesting global warming by attacking people and needed..dancing? It was weird, Sparkle. Be glad you sat this one out."

He lifted a chin at the door, "Move out of the way. I can take care of a big chunk of that. Then we'll only have to clear the actual door."

Jogging in place so he didn't chill, he powered up the Omni.

[myownface]

"Still beats the mind-control slugs," Sparkle declared, even as he moved out of the way, slipping behind Kaidan with his shovel in hand. "The mind-control slugs were assholes."

[spectre_alenko]

"Doesn't sound fun, slugs," Kaidan agreed. He stepped forward and sized up the snow. Arm held out, he triggered a mid-range blast of flame.

It melted a decent swath of snow before the flame shut off. Kaidan frowned at the resulting slush on the ground. "Damn," he muttered. Kicking on his barrier, he was surrounded by a blue glow when he reached back to make a 'gimme' motion.

[myownface]

Sparkle's eyes were kind of wide as he stuck the shovel into Kaidan's hand.

"Ooooooooooh."

Look, he knew that was a thing he'd never be able to do. But fire.

[spectre_alenko]

That was totally a thing he could do if he wanted an Omni implant.

Kaidan took the shovel and began using it upright, like a broom, to scoot the slush and water out of the path of the doorway. Once he had the area more or less empty of water, he stepped in and began hulking snow out of the way.

"How was your weekend? Other than blissfully slug-and-snowman free?"

[myownface]

"That's really the important part, isn't it?" Sparkle laughed a little and shook his head. "Did some shopping on the mainland, stayed in a hotel. Room service for days? Not half bad."

Seriously, Sparkle had no complaints about the week so far.

"Not something I'd want to do forever, but to avoid getting impaled on an icicle or something, I'll take it."

[spectre_alenko]

"Yeah, room service menus are pretty limited," Kaidan agreed, "I did my shopping last week. Hernando and I went on a journey through hipster hell. Otherwise known as the local craft bazaar-slash-antique show-slash-jumble sale."

A beat.

"Kind of fun, actually."

[myownface]

".... Ooohhhh. Is that an all year thing or one of those Christmas pop-ups?"

Because, so sue him, Sparkle was a sucker for a good jumble sale.

[spectre_alenko]

"I think it's an all-year thing? It was pretty holiday-oriented when we went." He grimaced a little, "I had to buy a secret Santa gift for someone and the powers that be behind it apparently have no sense of humor."

Mane 'n Tail was a perfectly valid hair care product, ok??

"The structure it was in looked pretty permanent, anyway."

[myownface]

"Oh, you got hit by that secret Santa stuff too, huh?" Sparkle grinned a little. "Yeah, you aren't the only one. I got to buy something for-" he shot any nearby squirrels a look. They were on good enough terms, he trusted them to keep his secret. "-Steeeeeeeeve."

Steve was a pretty good dude, as far as he could tell. Sparkle was cool with that arrangement.

[spectre_alenko]

"You will never guess who I got," Kaidan said wryly. "I have no idea who Steve is. I think I got a text from him once, though?"

He cleared the last of the snow from the doorway. "Yeah, I got hit with it. Which is fine, I was already shopping."

[unusual_sith]

Lana was coming by with a mission. She showed up once the door was cleared and stuck her head in. "Hello?"

[myownface]

"Hey," Sparkle chirped, settled behind the counter with a cup of hot chocolate in his hands. He hadn't had to shovel much before Kaidan had bailed him out of shopowner hell, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to milk it for all it was worth anyway. "Lllllana, right?" He snapped his fingers and pointed to her as he said her name. "What can I do for you today?"

Winter clothes? Was it winter clothes? Because goddamn.

[unusual_sith]

"It is," Lana agreed. She was actually dressed warmly in things she'd bought from him before, and was comfortable.

She smiled. "Actually, I thought I'd do something for you. I know it's a holiday around here, something for gift giving, and you were very welcoming when I came, so I wanted to give you something."

Not to mention it would hopefully allay any suspicion as to who his secret give-giver was.

She held out a flat package that was sort of obviously (to her, anyway) a holobook.

[myownface]

Sparkle blinked.

"Oh! Hey, you didn't have to do that," he said. Yes, even as he reached to take it. Because present! For him! "But I appreciate it anyway, thank you. Want some, uh, hot chocolate? The water's still hot."

[unusual_sith]

"Thank you, that'd be lovely," Lana said. "And I know I didn't have to, but I thought you might get a kick out of it."

[myownface]

"Well then," Sparkle mused, setting the holobook down for a moment to grab a mug and start scooping powder into it, "I'm looking forward to seeing what it is."

Another moment to pour the water. Another moment to stir.

"Marshmallows?"

You couldn't have hot chocolate without tiny marshmallows. That was the law.

[unusual_sith]

"Why not?" Lana said. "Thank you."

[myownface]

Aaaand in went a handful of 'em, because Sparkle and restraint didn't live in the same zip code.

"Not a problem," he said easily, nudging the mug her way. "Now, let's see what this is, huh?"

Obviously a holobook, even to him, but tearing open gift wrap was one of the greatest joys around this time of year, and this was his first gift, so of course he was diving right in there with a grin on his face.

[unusual_sith]

That grin would either be staying in place, or changing to a look of utter horror when he saw what it was - a slightly oversized volume, with artistic-looking pictures on the cover, titled Modern Sith Fashion.

It was certainly...something.

[myownface]

Sparkle blinked at it once he had it unwrapped, his brain needing to take a second to recalibrate to read the Aurebesh.

And then he was grinning more.

And then he was cackling.

"Oh my god this is amazing," he informed her. "Ah-may-zing. Look at those shoulder pads."

Sith had swagger. Who knew?

[unusual_sith]

"Spikes and epaulets are definitely in," Lana said. "I thought you might like to know what you're up against when I come in for clothing."

Her fashion sense was staid, Sparkle.

[myownface]

"That... that guy... is just wearing a hockey mask with a crown," Sparkle was trying his damnedest to not wheeze as he looked at the fashions within. "Oh my god. Oh. My. God."