Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

[myownface]

Well, Valentine's was over.

Thank god.

And so Sparkle was coming in to work to halfheartedly inspect the wreckage of the shelves in the wake of the holiday.

... Yup. Those were shelves. Yup. They were pretty bare. Cool. Cool cool.

He'd get around to placing an order in a bit. Maybe after coffee. The last thing he needed today was coffee. Maybe after tea. Ugh. He wasn't awake enough for tea. Probably coffee, then...

He'd probably make it to about noon before closing up early and just bailing. His mind was still all over the place. Stupid mind. Stupid employment. He could just go home and clean the apartment some more. That would be great. Or maybe find his way to, like, the animal shelter and roll around in kitties, if the vet there would let him.

Hey, now there was an idea.

After coffee. But he was too damn wired for coffee.

[OOC: Open! Work SP is gonna be worky but at least the Care Bear mines are no longer trying to kill me outright.]

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan stopped at the Perk before heading to see Sparkle, bringing his usual gift of caffeinated slightly-coffee-flavored sugar.

He paused after he cleared the door and glanced around at the shelves. "Huh. Looks like the grocery stores on the mainland every time the word 'blizzard' is used." A few more steps took him to the counter so he could hand Sparkle his cup of .. mostly whipped cream, from the look of it.

"Hey, Sparkle. How are you doing?"

[myownface]

Sparkle was gonna take that cup of... mostly whipped cream. Really needed it, apparently. Even if he just kind of stood there holding it awkwardly for a moment once it had been passed over to him.

"Fine?"

... Ish?

"I mean, I'm at work. See how hard at work I am?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan quirked a brow at him. "It's a step up from laying in bed staring at the ceiling, but.." He threw a glance toward the raided shelves. "Not exactly buying it as concrete evidence that you're fine, buddy."

[myownface]

Sparkle made a little exasperated sound at that.

"Valentine's emptied the stock," he grumbled. "And I was out last week," coping, "so I didn't place any orders. There's not much I can do besides go to the mainland and knock over a Lush, at this point."

[spectre_alenko]

"At least you're not trying to kill yourself with cleanser fumes," Kaidan agreed. He'd seen you when you were in a mood. In this store, in fact.

He processed the comment with what he knew of Sparkle. "Do you need to go knock over a Lush delivery truck?"

Yes, that was a genuine offer.

[myownface]

"No," Sparkle mumbled, sulking into his coffee. "Delivery person doesn't deserve the shit they'd get in for it, anyway. I'd be just as happy making shitty life choices that don't fuck other people over, anyway."

[spectre_alenko]

"Ok, like what?" Kaidan asked. "How shitty are we talking?"

[myownface]

"Haven't figured that part out yet," Sparkle sighed. "I think I'm getting ink done tomorrow, that'll be therapeutic in a not-shitty way. Mostly I just want to get out of my fucking head or do something I'll regret later and I hate that."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan processed that too. "You care if you close up early? I don't want to disappoint the hordes of customers, but I have an idea," he offered with a lopsided smile.

[myownface]

"I mean, it isn't like I'm gonna make many sales today," Sparkle admitted. "What did you have in mind?"

[spectre_alenko]

"Throwing you in the shuttle, taking you ex-atmo and letting you learn to fly by racing around in an asteroid field," Kaidan shrugged, "I'm not really great with ideas but that's what I do when I need to get out of my head."

[myownface]

Sparkle's eyes went maybe a tiny bit wider.

"... Yesplease."

This would be an adventure. Sparkle couldn't even drive.

[spectre_alenko]

Flying wasn't much like driving anyway. You had to think in 'up and down' as well as forward, back, side to side. The shuttle was equipped with EDI and its kinetic barriers and cannons could take on planetary debris, a few asteroids weren't going to scratch the paint.

Kaidan tilted his head at the door. "Whenever you're ready to go. EDI's on the roof at your building."

[myownface]

Sparkle was already gathering up his coat and backpack and his wipped drink and his keys and making his way toward the door. Didn't even have to ring out the till. Nothing had happened in here yet today, after all.

"Now? How's now?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan laughed and reached to squeeze Sparkle's shoulder. "Now's fine. I had no plans other than this today anyway."

He headed out and waited for Sparkle to lock up before starting in the direction of MCA.

"Have you met EDI yet?"

[myownface]

Sparkle shook his head a little as he followed along, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Don't think so, no," he admitted. "She's the ship or whatever?"

[spectre_alenko]

"She's the ship," Kaidan agreed with a nod, "The shuttle's one of her secondary processes so it's not, y'know, all EDI can do but her personality matrix is onboard. She synchs with her main processing unit when she goes back home, so if you ever meet her on the Normandy, she'll remember you from here."

[myownface]

"That's so cool," Sparkle replied, breaking into a little grin. "God, I wanna be able to leave little bits of my consciousness in places. That'd come in so handy."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan threw him a lopsided grin, "It's useful when it's her, that's for sure. It was her solution to losing her mobile platform in the war. This way she can go with us as far as the shuttle, anyway, even if she can't come on planet ops with the team."

[myownface]

Sparkle's lips pursed a little, and he nodded.

"Makes sense," he decided. "Still sucks she can't come along otherwise, but it's better than gone."

[spectre_alenko]

"The Normandy's too big to bring into atmosphere anymore," Kaidan explained, "That's why she has the shuttles. From what I understand, the one here was sort of an experiment to see if it'd work and I guess it does."

It had been EDI's sneaky way of coming along on the search for him.

[myownface]

"Kickass that it worked," Sparkle decided, smirking a little. "And now you have two of your people here, right? That's gotta not suck."

[spectre_alenko]

"Doesn't suck," Kaidan agreed, "There's not much EDI can't do with electronics. This process is a little more limited but that wasn't the important part anyway. Her personality matrix was." EDI wasn't a tool. Not to him.

[myownface]

"Well, then I'm looking forward to meeting her," Sparkle replied. He nodded.

He got it. God, he would kill to be able to have Raine around. Or Minako, or Karina or Cade, or for Atton to be around more these days, not just when he was trauatized and hiding from the Jedi. Or for Leto to be less busy ruling his people.

Fandom was a lonely fucking place, sometimes.

He got it.

[spectre_alenko]

When they reached the building, Kaidan pulled out the key Jack had given him and opened the outer door. He headed up the stairs to the roof.

The Kodiak looked tiny compared to the Escape. It was, after all, just a shuttle.

"Hey, EDI," Kaidan greeted her, "I brought Sparkle up to meet you. Thought we'd go up and teach him the basics of flying and play around in the asteroid field. What do you think?"

"Hello Kaidan," EDI's voice came from the exterior speaker, "Hello, Sparkle. It is nice to meet you in person. Jack has told me about you. I think a run through the asteroid field is an excellent idea."