Atton's Coruscant, Saturday

[suitably_heroic]

Bright side: Atton had actually managed to get off the planet, and had subsequently even managed to catch a nap on the ship, which made him feel a lot better. Bad side: spending several hours tooling above an evil Sith artifact had not been good for him, and now he was trying desperately to remember the name of the blond guy he hated so much. It was something with an N, right?

It'd come back to him. Some things already had. The emptiness in his gut was shrinking again; it was just a matter of time and exposure now.

It was just a pain in the ass.

Anyway, Blond Guy With An N looked livid when he set the Hawk down by the Temple, but Atton had said he had an important meeting coming up (which he did) and he didn't have the time (which he didn't). At which point Blond Guy With An N had decided to invite himself along on the jaunt to go pick up, uh, what was it again? Glitter?

Damn it.

"You should not be doing this," Blond Guy told him again. "In fact, you should not have gone in the first place, but right now we should give you medical attention, perhaps some scans..."

"I'll be fine," Atton said, rolling his eyes as he pushed open the door to the Portalocity station. "It's temporary memory loss. It comes back, I know that, it's come back before. Just got to, you know--" He pulled a face, then snapped his fingers as Blond Guy let the door shut behind him. "--what's the phrase? Work itself out? No."

Blond Guy, Blond Guy, B-- Mical? Mical. Mical was right. Mical sighed. "I don't even know if you are dodging my questions or you genuinely don't remember," he said. "If there is a threat out there--"

"No threat," Atton said. "Well, there is a threat, not just from this planet. I don't know if the Sith seeded badness there just to get me killed, or they shot me down above the planet because they knew it would make things worse and I'd, you know, get my ass killed, but where I went, there's nothing left with two brain cells to rub together."

Mical rubbed at his forehead. "Can we again touch upon how utterly stupid this was and how you should be in medbay?"

"I can't spend every Saturday in medbay."

"No, but you are doing your utmost best."

And so it was an arguing set of Lost Jedi who waited in the Portalocity lounge, attracting some small amount of attention.

[[ for sparkle ]]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

They hit the giant square surrounding the Temple, and Atton took an easy turn in the general direction of the landing pads.

"And all he's doing right now is--" He squinted. "...Sitting around? Not making a whole lot of credits. Maybe we should brighten his days with our presence."

Beat.

"Sparkle?"

Damn it, without the question mark, he could've made that sound like it hadn't just slipped back into his head.

[myownface]

Yeah, sorry Atton. Sparkle was just going to shake his head and make a snorting sound at you.

"I should tell you that you're completely wrong and my name is, like, Greg. Damn, man, you remembered Mical's name before mine."

Well, at least Atton had remembered to come get him in the first place, he supposed.

[suitably_heroic]

"He kept yelling at me," Atton retorted, "Eventually, I had to remember his name just to shut him up."

And he'd totally forgot about Mical all together for a while, there, whereas he'd still faintly remembered Sparkle. Come on!

[myownface]

Well, if Sparkle had known that, he would have been at least a little flattered. As it stood, he was sort of smirking, anyway.

"Well, it's good to know that you are remembering things," he allowed. "Next time you forget my name, am I going to have to yell, too?"

Because that would go over super well!

[suitably_heroic]

Atton rolled his eyes. "You can't do pissy and uptight nearly that well," he said. "Maybe try it with a stick shoved up your ass."

He went up the many, many stairs towards the Temple.

[myownface]

There were a lot of things that Sparkle could reply to that with that he was, mercifully, deciding to keep to himself. Just this once. Instead, he gave a little snicker to demonstrate that he was perfectly mature for a twelve-year-old, managing to more or less keep up with Atton on the climb up those stairs.

It was like being back on the island, only the stairs were all in one go!

"That would be too much like cheating anyway," he decided. "I'm still pretending to be an actor, after all."

[suitably_heroic]

"True," Atton mused. "And hey. Pretty sure Mical's never done anything with a stick, his or anyone else's."

Look, if Sparkle wasn't going to make the jokes, he was. Especially since Sparkle wasn't a student anymore, or anything.

[myownface]

Well, he sort of was, since the time-slide meant nobody would believe he'd actually graduated, and there was no way in hell he'd be able to challenge and pass any equivalency exams... But he wasn't a student in the school Atton taught at, so it was close enough.

"I'm tellin' you, man, that's pretty tragic," Sparkle decided. "I mean, like, for him. I'm going to guess there aren't too many people who are all broken up inside that Mical doesn't want to do them."

[suitably_heroic]

Yeah, well, Atton was seven years older than he probably should be, linearly speaking. 'Don't make sex jokes at the friends you are actually responsible for, education-wise' was about as far as he was willing to go.

"Please," he said, wandering into the direction of the landing platforms. "I'm pretty sure anything appealing about the guy vanishes as soon as he opens his mouth and starts spewing all that watched-too-many-holovids poodoo."

[myownface]

"Like, the inspirational story about the dogs that found their way home because they believed in themselves, or love always conquers or... any of that crap?"

Sparkle had to check.

"I should probably count myself lucky that Mical mostly really only just tolerates me," he decided, "because of you. If he decided he cared enough to give me the lectures, I might die laughing."

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh, no," Atton said, and now the actual air quotes came out, "He thinks you're a 'stabilizing influence'. Like, don't underestimate the ability of Mical to go full Jedi-I-love-all-things."

[myownface]

There was a long silence from Sparkle after that.

Yup.

Super long.

...

"What. He thinks I'm stabilizing? Has he met me? Is the guy totally cracked?"

[suitably_heroic]

"It's Mical," Atton said. "I wouldn't take it too personally."

Because. Well. Mical.

He shrugged as he wandered onto the landing pad; the Ebon Hawk was waiting up ahead.

[myownface]

"Faaair enough," Sparkle decided, following along after Atton and giving a little whistle at the ship up ahead. The speeders had been a big deal for him. This was... kind of awesome. It was going to take a bit of time to process this, too.

...

"Big."

Yes, Sparkle. You had to put people inside of it.

[suitably_heroic]

"It's a Dynamic-class freighter," Atton said, with all the pride you'd hear from a guy talking about his favorite car ever. "24 by 22.5 meters, maximum speed of eleven hundred kilometers an hour in atmosphere, dual turbolasers, dual heavy quad laser cannons, and it can fit eight people for stretches of two months."

He was gonna go up and pat the Hawk on the hull right now. He loved you, dear.

[myownface]

"Pretty," Sparkle decided, following after Atton to get a closer look. He needed to sort of pick apart what a lot of what he'd said actually meant, but it was all super impressive all the same. Maybe not even just because he was from the backwards primitive planet with limited space travel. "Like, why would anyone ever want to get off of her?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Because sometimes I need to eat or hang out with skinny idiots with bad hair," Atton said, shrugging lightly.

He ducked underneath the hull and wandered up through the loading ramp, heading through the hall and into the main hold. "Also, my apartment has a nicer fridge," he said. "Thanks for the pizza, by the way."

[myownface]

Sparkle smiled a bit at that, shrugging his shoulders a little, though he couldn't help but look around as the went. Even the hallways were fascinating, okay?

"Remember the pizza, huh?" He barely remembered it, himself. So, that was reassuring. "I guess weekend me thought it would be a good gesture, since I was there and everything..."

[suitably_heroic]

"I ate it for lunch on Monday," Atton said. He glanced over his shoulder. Figured he might as well stop here in the hold instead of dragging Sparkle around, since he was going all big-eyed. "I remember that much, because I was trying to get out of town fast--"

... okay, he had not actually wanted to bring that up, but it was coming back to him right now.

"--Anyway, it was decent pizza. So go, old you."

[myownface]

"Old me was a stupid ass. But he knew good pizza," Sparkle decided. "Glad you liked it."

Sparkle wasn't going to ask. Wasn't going to ask. Wasn't going to...

"Trying to get out of town fast to... whatever it was you did?"

Just checking. In spite of his better judgment and all.

[suitably_heroic]

"Yep," Atton said.

Helpfully.

He leaned back against the wall next to the hallway leading to the cockpit.

[myownface]

Sparkle nodded a little, and then kind of mirrored Atton's lean against the opposite wall.

"Did you, I don't know... manage to do anything you wanted while you were out there, at least?"

[suitably_heroic]

"I have no damned clue," Atton said lightly. "I can't figure out why I went. Give me a few days, it'll come back to me."

He knew it had something to do with her, he just couldn't recall what.

[myownface]

"Fair enough," Sparkle replied. And then, after a moment's pause, added, "If it turns out to be something shitty, and you, like, need a drink or whatever, call me. I don't mind taking off to hang out with you more, you know?"

This was sort of an 'any time night or day, I'm there for you.'

[suitably_heroic]

Did you just have to go and be, like, you, Sparks? Really?

Atton suddenly found it really, really important to check on one of the screens to his left, and then he eyeballed some lights on the ceiling before coughing up a, "Sure, uh, okay."

(He was fiendishly proud of himself for not tagging on the 'whatever'.)

"Anyway," he said, clearing his throat, "This way is the cockpit, where I used to spend most of my time before I took over this entire wonderful piece of scrap."

He pointed his thumb down the hall. Reciting the Ebon Hawk's layout was easy.