MCA #4, Saturday Afternoon

[suitably_heroic]

There was music screaming across Atton's apartment again, for the first time in about a week. He was here much sooner than Mical would have liked, but he couldn't stand hanging around the Temple any longer, and the kolto had healed up the worst of his chest injuries. What was left now was the enduring-- bruised face, bruised insides, and moving hurt, but that wasn't new.

For the sake of not aggravating his injuries, he'd sat down on a pillow on the floor. That was the only concession he was making. He had a job to do, here: rebuild his lightsaber. Maybe build one that suited him better. He'd been running around with a loaner for too long.

Besides, if he had to stay in, he might as well work on his finer Force control.

He let the various segments levitate into the air, taking care to spend some time on each one. It was... more complicated than he'd planned. But that was good. Stretching his legs, so to speak.

He grabbed the bottle by his side and took a long gulp, letting the fizz settle in his stomach. No alcohol for him any time soon, it'd dull the senses. But a sugar rush? That would keep pushing him on.

Besides. It was harder to think when you had sugar screaming through your system and something physical to focus that energy on. It shut out most of whatever this past week had dredged up, except for one thing:

Her face. There is another war waiting, in the Unknown Regions.

Maybe Brianna was right. Maybe he was kidding himself out here, pretending to have a normal life.

[[ door shut, post open for messages or visits or what have you ]]

Comments

[myownface]

Because Sparkle would freak the fuck out?

... That was probably a pretty good call.

"Yeah, well." Sparkle wrinkled his nose all the same. "Still sucks. No more getting mauled by terantatoes or whatever. New rule."

He was pretty sure it was a damn good rule, too.

[suitably_heroic]

Yeaaaaah. The others got into tough enough scrapes, but add up Atton's habit of, sigh, yes, Brianna, playing pazaak with his life-- maybe he should be doing the healing up back at the Temple from now on after all.

"If it helps, they tend to come out when the dark siders are strong," Atton offered. "So the population should be heading down soon enough."

[myownface]

That wrinkled nose wasn't going anywhere any time soon. Not really.

"Yeah? More you take out, the less tomatillos there are?"

Now he was getting the name wrong on purpose.

[suitably_heroic]

"Terentateks," Atton said, rolling his eyes. "And yeah. They're... think of them as giant rhinos, infused with the dark side of the Force. The Sith used them as Jedi hunters. But the less Dark Jedi there are, the less terentateks have a reason to be up and about. Apparently, they just go to sleep if the balance swings out too far into the Jedi direction."

'Giant rhinos' was the best he could come up with, because the actual thing would probably scare the hell out of Sparkle.

[myownface]

"Huh. So, get rid of the worst of the dark siders, and no more Tarantinos. That's kind of... weird. I mean, like, interesting, but these things, like, evolved specifically to work with people who are all... what, attuned to the dark side?"

Sparkle was actually kind of trying to understand, here. Much as he freaked out about it, he did actually care.

[suitably_heroic]

See, for Atton, part of the messed-up thing was looking at Sparkle, knowing he'd been the exact same way when he was 16, and trying to figure out how he'd gotten to the part where all of this seemed normal.

"I'm not the biggest Sith historian in the galaxy," he said. "But I figure the Terentateks are probably a product of Sith alchemy. The ancient Sith really liked to mess with the biology of everything around them. Tweak a few things here, suffuse a species with the dark side, and ta-da - slave species that'll be rabid against your enemies long after you're dead. Makes sure you can be a pain in the ass for centuries yet."

[myownface]

"But only if there are enough of the dark-siders around to warrant them being awake and functional, right? Like, they're not going to be after the Jedi if they're in hibernation?"

Now you were confusing the boy, Atton.

[suitably_heroic]

"No, they're fueled by the dark side," Atton said. "Which means they need dark side power to keep going. The fewer dark side users in the galaxy, the less power gets drummed up, the more the Terentateks are all, 'screw it, I'm going for naptime, wake me up when the next great Sith Lord stands up'. That's how I understand it, anyway."

[myownface]

"Oh. So. It's, like, a whole galaxy thing," Sparkle replied, scratching at his head and nodding a little. "It's still weird trying to think of things at that scale."

Toronto kid.

"But there's headway being made there anyway? Less dark side stuff all around, so you could, like, use the big stompy tarantulas as a gauge almost, if it didn't involve getting your ribs smashed up."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton pulled a face. "Yeah, I'd rather not make jaunts to Korriban a regular thing, thanks," he said.

Because Korriban. It messed with your head even if you weren't an ex-soldier with a dark side past.

"We'll probably be mopping up some stragglers of Dark Jedi over the next while, like the guy we ran into here," he said. "But what we did last summer cut the head off of that one. At least, that was the idea. If it's not true, I'm going to be really annoyed."

Things out in the Unknown Regions, apparently. Better not be Sith.

[myownface]

"I think 'really annoyed' is a good start, anyway," Sparkle decided as the timer on the oven went off and he pulled himself to his feet again. "Uuugh, I would be so pissed."

It was easy to announce that he would be so pissed, really. He was never gonna be a Jedi. It wasn't going to ever be his problem.

[suitably_heroic]

... Sadly, also a thought Atton had had at sixteen. Go figure.

Atton let out a snort. "Yeah, me too, kid," he said. "But hey, food."

It was halfway through getting up to go collect said food that he remembered getting up was a bad idea, and he wound up grabbing the arm of a nearby chair to keep himself upright all the way... well, up.

[myownface]

Atton, you were getting such a look.

"I was going to go get that, you know." What with the whole not being mutilated thing Sparkle had going for him, and all. "Sit your ass back down, I'll bring it out."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton rolled his eyes. "I can get it," he said. "Just need to start moving, then I'm fine."

See? Walking to the kitchen went more or less all right.

[myownface]

Sparkle just sighed and rolled his eyes right back before using a rag to fish the pizza out of the oven. On his list of things to sneak into Atton's apartment? Proper cooking supplies, eesh.

"Suit yourself," he sighed, shoving a plate at him. "But if you hurt yourself worse I'm filling your whole apartment with cats."

[suitably_heroic]

"Look, which one of us has more experience getting the poodoo kicked out of them?" Not necessarily a good thing, Atton. He grabbed the plate.

[myownface]

"All the more reason to make this place into crazy cat lady paradise," Sparkle pointed out. "Out of spite. Because god knows you're not going to take it easy when you're hurt, here."

Case in point, Atton being on his feet. In the kitchen. Right now.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton let out a frustrated noise. "I only ever pretended to like sitting on my ass," he muttered. "If I can move, I'll move, all right? There's not going to be some smartass making my pizza every day."

[myownface]

"And presumably you're not going to have busted ribs every day either," Sparkle snarked, looking around for a knife to cut the pizza with. "But since I am here, you're going to have to suck it up and accept that maybe there are people who give a damn and want you better soon."

Really, it wasn't as though there couldn't be a smartass making Atton's pizza every day. At least until Sparkle graduated. So.

[suitably_heroic]

There had been a time when Atton had believed life was sink or swim, and everyone's only responsibility was to be self-sufficient. He'd grudgingly changed his tune on that when it came to helping other people, but he was clinging to it tenaciously where it came to himself. He had to. (Mical didn't get it, either, but Mira did, even if she'd probably be calling him an idiot right now.)

"I'll be better soon," he said, rolling his eyes. "Top drawer, I keep a bread knife."

Some people should probably not be allowed food preparation.

[myownface]

Sparkle was going to keep his eyeroll to himself, this time. Who used a bread knife to cut pizza?

Atton, obviously.

"Cool," he muttered, making his way to the top drawer. A few moments later, and he was starting to unceremoniously hack his way into the pizza. "Soon's still not now, but if it makes you happy, man."

[suitably_heroic]

In Atton's defense, he... didn't really have a lot of cutlery to go around in general. Forks. Bread knives. There was a spoon squirreled away somewhere.

"All that matters is, I should be up and going for class," he said. "Maybe make a trip back to the Temple in the mean time if there's anything going on there, I don't know. I'd been hoping this place would be quiet."

Slink off, deal with his wounds by himself, rifle through his brain until everything got nice and locked away back where it belonged.

[myownface]

Sparkle wasn't even going to point out that class was on Thursday, so there was no need to be up and going now. And if there was anything going on at the Temple, he could only hope that it had more people who would at least try to nag Atton into sitting the hell down or something.

If nothing else, he wouldn't have to do his own cooking there.

Sparkle finished cutting the pizza, set the knife in the sink, and then gestured at the food. If Atton was so hell-bent on being up and getting it himself, then he was more than welcome to.

"Yeah, well, you had to know I was going to come by to harass you after you've been gone a week if you texted me," he pointed out. "It seems pretty quiet otherwise. And this way you get pop tarts."

And broccoli! And concerned grumblings! Lucky man!

[suitably_heroic]

Sadly, the only way anyone was bothering Atton into sitting down was if Mira happened to show up; nobody else at the Temple ever really quite managed to handle Atton.

Which he was proud of, by the way. In a crotchety, kark-you-all kind of way.

"If I'd known you'd jump up and race right over here, I'd have waited another week," he grumbled, stacking on some pizza on his plate and then shuffling off to the dinner table. Gingerly. "I mean, not that I don't appreciate the concern." It was always nice to know people cared.

Just, you know. Not up and close enough to see the actual bruises.

[myownface]

Sparkle shrugged a little. Hey, he'd seen Atton doing far worse than he was at just this moment. He was worried, yeah, but comparatively...

"If you waited another week, I'd see you in class on Thursday anyway, and then probably just be even more annoying then to make up for lost time."

He would have, too.

"I might even be nice and frame it as bitching about how you left Skywalker to teach in your place." He shrugged, content to lean back against the counter. "Depends."