Dantooine, Saturday

[suitably_heroic]

The problem with portaling to Dantooine was that the portal dumped you out at the spaceport and then you had to fly a speeder through the grasslands just to get to the Enclave. It was a pain in the ass, and one of a few reasons why Atton couldn't actually argue with Mical's 'move off of Dantooine' plans too much.

He was still going to argue, though. Just because. (Added to that: Coruscant was like the pretentious guy's Nar Shaddaa, and what kind of person lives in a Temple, anyway?)

He was used to it now, though, which is why the moment he stepped out of the portal he was making a beeline for the guy who rented out the speeders, passing by a bunch of droids and a Rodian on the way there. "Just get me something fast, all right? A two-seater."

[[ for the kid with the funny hair. ]]

Comments

[myownface]

... Yep, Sparkle was looking. Staring, really, wide-eyed.

"Jesus fucking Christ," he muttered. "They call that thing a temple? That's an entire freaking city."

So, the Jedi were crazy. That was good to know.

"So much for that living sparse thing."

[suitably_heroic]

"Right?" Atton said. "If I had to live there, I'd spend the entire time worrying maybe an entirely new species of mynock was growing and breeding on the other side of the damned Temple without anyone being able to make it down there to check."

[myownface]

"Seriously, you could, like, be renting out space there," Sparkle pointed out, not quite able to look away from the screen. "Five people don't need all that. Shit, five people don't need all this. And can you imagine the mess if Mical decided to install a waterfall in there?"

Mical was never living down the little dribble that was that failed attempt at landscaping, no. And the poor bastard didn't even know it yet.

[suitably_heroic]

"Big one, running right down from the top," Atton mused. "Probably Coruscanti would be surprised that it was raining..."

[myownface]

"There really needs to be some sort of passcode so that he can't do any plumbing without alerting all four of the rest of you to impending disaster," Sparkle declared. "You think this is bad, just wait until you have to fix the pipes in that beast there."

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh, if he's actually moving us into that beast, I'm making him make sure the Republic sends us a plumber to go along with it," Atton announced in turn

He raised his voice a little. "And I mean that. Stop skulking."

Behind him, someone heaved an exasperated sigh.

[myownface]

"Oh, god," Sparkle muttered, glancing at Atton. "He's here, isn't he? Like, right here? Anyone ever tell the dude it's rude to spy?"

It was rude to talk about people who were obviously right there as though they weren't, but that wasn't stopping Sparkle.

[suitably_heroic]

"Atton has, multiple times," Mical said mildly, "In spite of the circumstances of my original spying. As it is, I was simply meaning to speak to him - I did not know he had guests."

Atton rolled his eyes. "Considering you just deliberately jam-packed everyone into the Enclave, you should be prepared for anything." Beat. "You remember Sparkle."

Mical gave Sparkle a polite nod. "In passing."

[myownface]

Sparkle seemed to take a moment to consider before he nodded back. Yeah, okay, Sneakypants McPlumbingfail could have a return nod, since so far, he wasn't being too obnoxious.

"I've got first dibs on Atton," he decreed. "He was going to show me some stuff. There's this sad little waterfall that's crying for its mother, and we were going to try to maybe set the poor little guy free, later. After food. We haven't eaten since leaving Fandom."

Like, an hour ago. Portals were pretty instantaneous like that.

[suitably_heroic]

"Ah," said Mical. "Well. I had asked everyone here so we could discuss certain issues about our housing... but I do not believe we are in any rush."

He had these vague hopes that Atton might be slightly less disagreeable if he let the man have this one. Vague, vague hopes.

"Oh, now that's good to know," Atton said dryly. "In that case, maybe get out of our hair? And the kid's right, that waterfall is the saddest thing I've seen in years."

Mical let out a sigh. "I am merely trying to restore the Enclave to some semblance of--"

"You're failing," Atton told him helpfully.

"Hence the meeting."

[myownface]

"You know, there's this really cool business practice we have back on Earth, where, if someone calls a meeting, they actually let people know there's going to be a meeting, right up-front," Sparkle suggested with a bright smile that screamed 'I'm being helpful because I think you are a moron.' "That way, they know not to make other plans. I hear it works really well."

And it offered people who didn't want to go to a meeting an opportunity to find a convenient out.

[suitably_heroic]

Which was why Mical hadn't told Atton. Cough.

"I'll remember that for next time," Mical said, with a practiced ease. "I will leave you to your activities, then."

He bowed his head again as he ever-so-gracefully made his exit.

"Asshole," Atton muttered.

[myownface]

See, Mical, that train of thought was just going to leave to Atton always having other plans.

"Bit of a slimy fuckhead, isn't he?" Sparkle looked back at Atton from where he had, yes, been making a point to stare at Mical's ass as he left.

There had come a point where Sparkle had stopped doing it for his own benefit, and had started doing so entirely because there was a chance that it might make the man more inclined to steer clear of him whenever Atton had him around.

"And he's not even good at the underhanded manipulation thing. Like. You'd think if he's going to try it, he'd at least have some kind of backup plan going or something."

[suitably_heroic]

"See, Mira thinks his problem is he watches too many holovids," Atton shared. "Tries to copy everything from the movies, including that stupid fake-chivalrous 'I'm the good guy' routine he's got."

He shrugged.

"Anyway, we've got him out of our hair," he said. "Let's just get some nerf."

[myownface]

Well, what else was Mical going to do between being all fake-pious and messing with the plumbing? Holovids were excellent time-wasters!

"Yeah, let's do that," Sparkle agreed with a nod. "I'm looking forward to seeing what all of the fuss is about, already."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton produced his comlink and made a quick call. Couple of nerf burgers with a side of the local booze and (sigh) whatever vegetables they decided to throw in with that.

"There," he said. "Now hopefully we've scared off all the locals so they stop deciding to drop in every five minutes."

[myownface]

See? Sparkle was looking all proud of you, Atton! Vegetables! Atta boy!

"If it comes down to it, I'm not opposed to camping out in here and just constantly ordering delivery all weekend," Sparkle decided. "There are worse ways to spend a weekend."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton reserved the right not to actually eat any of the vegetables. Just FYI.

"Eh, it's a big place," he said. "We could camp out in the basement if we wanted to. Of course, I'm not sure that place is like, entirely laigrek-free at this point..."

[myownface]

If he didn't eat them, he was going to get so pouted at. It was the only weapon Sparkle had at his disposal. He was going to abuse it.

"Which ones are those, again?"

Sparkle, don't ask. You don't want to know. You really, really don't.

[suitably_heroic]

"You know those, uh, praying mantises you guys have?" Atton said. "Think those. But bigger. And they have horns."

Charming, really.

[myownface]

Oh, they sounded it.

"... I'm going to freak the fuck out if I ask how much bigger and I actually get an answer, aren't I?"

Because mantids were actually kind of cute. Mostly because they were tiny and thus easily squishable.

[suitably_heroic]

"They're at least a little smaller than you," Atton said.

That was meant to be reassuring, yes.

"I think we got most of 'em when we cleared this place out."

[myownface]

"Ooooooooohkay. Never going down to the basement," Sparkle declared. "Good to know, thanks for the heads-up, I keep forgetting that everything in the galaxy probably wants to kill you. Like fucking interplanetary Australia or something."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton let out a snort. "Oh, it's not that bad, kid," he said. "Well, unless you go looking for it, then you'll usually find something. But that goes for your Toronto as much as it does for my... entire galaxy."

[myownface]

"Okay, okay, I follow that," Sparkle replied. "That said? Still not a fan of bugs that are almost my size. I mean. For the record, and all."

Toronto didn't have those, even if the cockroaches did get pretty big.