fandomtownies | Demon Marcus, Sunday

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Demon Marcus, Sunday

Sparkle was kind of in a haze today, but it wasn't... a bad haze, probably? Yesterday a whole lot of Life had been dropped into his lap when he'd figured he'd be able to steal away another few days before facing it down, and that meant that he'd had to actually face some stuff.

Some ugly stuff. Some stuff that maybe he was already wondering if he could ignore by packing up and moving to Antarctica to become a penguin.

What he wasn't expecting when he came in to work today, then, was the weaponized cuteness that Hernando had seeded around the shop, mostly behind counters and in registers, places where random photos of kitties wouldn't catch the eye of paying customers unless Sparkle drew attention to them with a sudden, startled cackle or a high-pitched dolphin noise, or, in one noteworthy incident, a shout of "WHY IS CEILING CAT IN MY TOILET!?"

... Mission accomplished, Hernando. Warm fuzzies achieved.

Demon Marcus was open. And there was even a NOW HIRING sign in the window, because hey, you never knew with the new kids.

[OOC: Open!]

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"It is difficult to see the man he is through the man you thought he was, and still difficult to believe you didn't deserve what he did to you," Hannibal said. "You are getting there, but that doesn't mean it's easy. And reliving the original trauma for your lawyer and then in court is no little thing, either."

He swirled his pasta up on his fork. "If that man were intelligent, he would seek a plea bargain, which would spare you both the time in court and might grant him a reduced sentence, but I doubt he is that smart."

"It's Lewis," Sparkle mumbled. "I don't think he even thinks he did anything wrong."

And that stung, too.

"No," Hannibal agreed. "That is why you will need to go through this. If he won't admit it - and he likely never will, barring extreme intervention - we will need to forcibly expose him."

"There's the thing, though," Sparkle sighed. "He did admit it. I mean. He thought he was being a fucking hero at the time, but..."

He lifted a forkful of noodles and shrugged.

"He said it. 'Unconsummated love affair with my ward.' Those were the words, I can't stop hearing those damn words. And if I'm lucky, someone has those words verbatim in some minutes somewhere or an audio recording, I know there was something in the papers Raine pretty much screamed about it I just think about looking and I kinda want to die."

Kinda.

A lot.

"He won't admit his wrongdoing," Hannibal amended. "But yes, he said that, and it is all in very official records. There will be no getting around that."

He cocked his head at Sparkle. "If you think it would help, we could try reading them in a controlled environment. Quiet, comfortable - perhaps with Hernando there as well, if you would prefer. You would have company and reminders that you are safe, and could take it as slowly as possible."

Sparkle gave a slow nod, eyes down toward his lunch, and he pulled in a slow breath.

"I suppose I'm going to have to, huh? Or I could just dump it all in my lawyer's lap and let someone else worry about it and just sit back with my fingers in my ears and my eyes closed, going, 'La la la la!' at the top of my lungs..."

Which, admittedly, was more an eighteen-year-old-Sparkle solution than a twenty-two-year-old-Sparkle solution.

But the temptation was strong.

"You could do that," Hannibal agreed, "but I doubt it would go over well in court. Best to become acquainted with everything ahead of time, so as not to be blindsided by it later."

"Yeah, I know," Sparkle sighed. "Hernando mentioned that I might want to find out where my parents are in advance, because he makes Lewis out to be exactly the sort of person who'll go reaching for something like that on the stand."

He paused a moment.

"Jack suggested I look into something uglier. So looking up minutes for the city council meeting are pretty tame by comparison."

Hannibal frowned. "I can see nothing that their presence would do for him that could not be turned into worse by your lawyer, but he might be inclined to do it simply to hurt you. Mention it to your lawyer; they can attempt to block it."

He eyed Sparkle. "What did Jack suggest?"

Sparkle's shoulder hiked up and he stabbed another noodle, nodding. Yeah, that had been Hernando's suggestion, more or less. Try like hell to keep that from happening.

Sparkle wouldn't survive his parents being put on the stand. In either trial.

"She suggested my lawyer look into how many of Lew's old kids, like, ones who aged out, before me? Are still alive."

Actually, she'd suggested that Sparkle look into how many of them had killed themselves, but he figured Hannibal could follow that train of thought around anyway, and he didn't want to say it, just suggesting it made him ill.

He could. "That, I regret to say, is probably smart. You're unlikely to have been the first one he targeted. Perhaps you might even find one or two willing to also testify. But that should be left to your lawyer. If you still want me with you when you meet, I can suggest it myself."

Sparkle didn't really have words for that. He just nodded.

A lot.

In reply to all of it. Please come with him? Please? Please ask the hard questions because Sparkle wanted to, really wanted to, but he was going to chicken right the fuck out and having some sort of touchstone there who could keep him on track would help him stop himself from changing the subject and switching tracks and sabotaging his own damn case.

Hannibal smiled. "I'll clear my calendar whenever you need it; just let me know."

He ate a bite of pasta, washed it down with beer, and hummed. "It's a pity in a way that I'm known to be involved in this already. Perhaps I can find another suitably astute psychiatrist to perform an evaluation of him."

He wondered how Bedelia would take the knowledge of other worlds.

"On Lew?" Sparkle glanced up at Hannibal with a sort of tentative, quiet thoughtfulness. "My Lawyer said that they'd probably try to throw a psych eval at me. You're thinking we play ball by the same rules?"

"I believe it can only help," Hannibal said. "A competent psychiatrist will be able to attest to his frame of mind and likely motivations. I may have some suggestions for your lawyer in that respect; I'll have to look into it."

Sparkle nodded a little, chewing the inside of his cheek.

"Is that one of those things that you'll have to convince someone of? Do people get to choose their own psychiatrists?" A beat. "Do I?"

Because who he'd pick here was kind of a no-brainer.

"Or is there an, I dunno, conflict of interest there?" Another beat. "I guess you were there through that shit and you saw the fallout, though. Could get you to testify anyway..."

Hannibal smiled. "I will definitely insist upon testifying on your behalf as a character witness, and my professional knowledge will help, but no, I doubt I'll be permitted to be the one to conduct the official evaluation. I can, however, help to choose who is."

Sparkle nodded a little, holding his breath as he did so.

"That'd be good," he murmured. "I trust your judgment, there."

"Thank you." Hannibal didn't even want to hide his smile at that. "I will do my very best for you."

Sparkle nodded a little, suddenly very interested in his pasta. Maybe a bit awkward.

Maybe weirdly touched.

"Haven't let me down yet."

... Okay, that one trip to Toronto had been kinda shitty.

But besides that.

"And I shall try never to do so."

That trip to Toronto had been a necessary intervention.

"I have every faith that you will come through this. It won't be easy, but you will."

"I mean, there aren't really any great alternatives," Sparkle murmured. And then he sighed. "But I know nobody's going to let me rot in prison, either. So, like, if it comes down to that... it's, what, one reality in a whole multiverse I just strike from the record."

He just really didn't want to.

"All very true," Hannibal agreed. "But your home means something to you, so we will all do our very best to see that doesn't happen."

Hannibal himself didn't miss his home reality, but to each their own.

"Yeah. Though it's about more than just home, you know? Fandom might not give a shit, but I can't, like, adopt if I want kids, like this. I can't just move on with my life. I guess I could tap Eliot and Parker and Hardison to set me up with, like, a new identity or something, but I kinda like the one I've got."

So, nuking 'Sparkle' from orbit was sort of a last resort.

"Should it come to that, Jono's world has people who actually work at building identities for people from other worlds." He shook his head. "Apparently it's not uncommon there. But still - we'll do our best to make sure there's no need for that."

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