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

[myownface]

"Ooooo, map." Sparkle had pretty much never been this fascinated with a map before in his whole entire life. Ever. "So, what places are the most fun to get to? Any you want to see but haven't? Where's Nar Shaddaa from here?"

Yes, Atton, rake those brains for the answers. Sparkle was staring at a roadmap of a whole galaxy in a vehicle that was capable of traveling it, and he was kind of in awe at the whole prospect.

[suitably_heroic]

See, the joy of having that galaxy map right there meant Atton didn't have to rack his brain for the names, at least. Just the locations.

"Uh," he said, then squinted at the map. "Nar Shaddaa's a moon of... that Hutt planet. Uh. Nal Hutta. So that's... Hutt space." Hutt space was up, right?

No, no. Right. "Toydaria, then next to that, Nal Hutta. Now, we're in the Core, that's this whole area."

He was saying this mostly for his own benefit. "That's where all the quote-unquote upstanding citizens live. Never mind that Corellia's right there." Beat. "And Alderaan in between. But uh, depending on your definition of fun, you'll probably want either Mid-Rim or Outer Rim..."

[myownface]

"Well, what's the difference?"

Sparkle was paying rapt attention and even taking mental notes while Atton recited things, yes. He was actually interested in this stuff. Never knew when it would come in handy, maybe? But answering his questions seemed to be helping Atton put things in order too, so Sparks wasn't about to take it easy on the guy.

[suitably_heroic]

"Mid-Rim's still halfway civilized," Atton said. "So it's where you get the cheaper establishments, but with less chance of running into a smuggling operation." Beat. "I'm not saying 'no chance', but less. The Outer Rim is made up of, uh, poodoo and Sith and Hutts, mainly."

He squinted at the map.

"...Zeltros," he said. "Zeltros qualifies as fun, I think. It's a vacation planet. Zeltrons love partying." A pause, as some random bit of information pushed up through the surface. "You know, I think future Cade had a Zeltron girlfriend."

[myownface]

"... Party girlfriend," Sparkle observed, nodding thoughtfully. "Hey, good on him. Future Cade seemed pretty happy with the way things were turning out for him, actually. Doing his thing... still had all his original limbs. Seems like a win for Cade."

Now Sparkle was marginally less enthusiastic. Was there a way to keep the conversation on Cade until he could steer it away from last weekend entirely? Maybe?

... Without making him look desperate to do so, which would be a dead giveaway that there was something up?

[suitably_heroic]

You were overthinking it, Sparkle. That was always a bad idea around a Jedi, and now that line of thought had Atton squinting at Sparkle, instead.

"Lot of people would be happy if they could bag a Zeltron girlfriend," he agreed. "Uh, there's a bunch of different vacation planets, just don't ask me to name them right now."

Look, Atton respected the notion of Not Wanting To Talk About Something. He just had to figure out if this was a safe thing Not To Talk About, considering he didn't even know what Sparkle was Not Talking About.

[myownface]

See, one of these days, Sparkle would get the hang of this best-friend-is-a-Jedi thing. As it stood, he was pretty sure he knew what that squint meant. Fuuuuck.

"Some other time, then," he suggested. "Like, I'm never going to complain about getting to hang out on the Hawk and gape at a star map. I'm pretty easily amused."

He was pretty sure this sort of thing was a bit less novel for the locals, anyway...

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, I could fly this thing anywhere right now," Atton said. "A good pilot never forgets how to fly a starship, no matter how often he gets punched in the head. Metaphorically speaking, in this case."

Beat.

"Anything else you have questions about?"

[myownface]

Sparkle gave his toes a little wiggle inside of his shoes and took a moment to talk himself down from insisting that they go flying somewhere, anywhere, just because starship. Score one for Sparkle in the responsible life choices column, just this once. After all, if Atton couldn't remember what he'd been doing out there all week, and there were still people out to kill him...

He was definitely going to have to pester him some other time, though.

"Uuuuhm."

Of course, coming up with other questions wasn't exactly easy, now that Atton had mentioned that it was just as easy as taking off and going.

He bounced a little on his toes.

"... Shit, can we?"

Okay, so much for his 'responsible' point.

[suitably_heroic]

"Sure."

What, you thought Atton was going to be the responsible voice of reason, here? He only did that when the threat of death was a lot more immediate, damn it.

"Got anywhere in particular you want to go?"

If this Thing Sparkle Didn't Want To Talk About was like, tough or awkward or something, he was perfectly happy putting it off for a while. Provided they didn't bump into any Sith with grudges or something.

[myownface]

Sparkle shook his head a little.

"Hell if I know," he admitted. "I know Nar Shaddaa, and here, and - whatsitcalled? - Manaan? Which I'm sure is great, but I suck at swimming anyway. Pilot's choice? You're the one who has to fly us there."

[suitably_heroic]

"All right," Atton said. He wandered back towards the pilot's seat and sat down. "Pantolomin's not far. It's another water world, but it's a whole lot more touristy. Actually, I think that one kid from the island--"

Damn it, he couldn't remember the name.

"Is from there? Maybe? They have a big swoop racing scene, coral reefs, that kind of stuff." He glanced over his shoulder. "Mrisst's on the same route, I guess, it's got jungle. And I guess we could reach Alderaan from here, but--"

He pulled a face.

[myownface]

"Face," Sparkle offered, helpfully. "With the scar, right?"

There were only so many people on the island these days who were clearly from around this neck of the multiverse. Sparkle was pretty sure. Hell, maybe there were new kids this semester, but he didn't much care about them anyway.

"But yeah, let's avoid Alderaan. Even the name sounds stuffy. Pantolomin sounds just fine. Races and reefs? I can live with that."

Not bad for a training day, right?

Pfft. These visits were more for an excuse to hang out with Atton these days anyway.

[suitably_heroic]

One of these days, Atton was going to be back in the right state of mind to actually put in some genuine training. And then Sparkle would probably be sorry. But right now, that had a decent chance of ending poorly for him, too.

So he was okay with flying Sparkle somewhere.

"Alderaan is beautiful," he said conversationally, as he sank into the pilot's chair where he belonged. "But stuffy, most definitely." He ran his fingers over the dashboard, initiating the start-up sequence.

If Sparkle thought the inside of the ship had had a lot of blinking lights before... "And hey, this way you can tell Face you've seen his planet."

[myownface]

Oooo, blinky!

Sparkle bounced on his toes again because shut up this was exciting, and then grinned a little more.

"Should I take a seat somewhere? Like, I'm not going to end up on my ass, am I? How does this even work? Oh god, this is fucking great."

What had he been worried about discussing before? Didn't matter. Sparkle was easily distracted by shiny things; it was right in the name.

[suitably_heroic]

"Grab the co-pilot's chair," Atton suggested. "Just don't touch anything, all right?"

Maybe he'd remember whatever the Thing was after burning fuel for a while.

[myownface]

"I must touch everything," Sparkle deadpanned, before grinning again and shaking his head, depositing himself in the co-pilot's chair. "Nah, nah. Your ship, your rules. I'll behave myself."

Just this once. Because spaceship.

[suitably_heroic]

"Good, because if you somehow turn my ship into a flaming ball of debris, I am going to personally put your head on a spike," Atton told him.

The Hawk was his, damn it.

He pulled the Hawk up off the landing pad. There was a loud click as the loading ramp and the feet pulled up into the ship itself.

And then it launched out through the large opening in front of them, hitting the Coruscant sky with remarkable speed. The Hawk had been a mob boss's prized starship, once; she flew like it.

[myownface]

"Yessss!"

Honestly, they didn't even have to leave Coruscant and Sparkle would be thrilled. They were flying, and at a ridiculous speed, and they weren't even being shot at! Or stupidly drunk and trying not to get caught hanging out with a bunch of dancers against their better judgment, or anything. Joyride! Joyride for the sake of going on a joyride!

Sparkle wasn't even going to bother trying to hide the glee on his face as he leaned forward and tried to take in all of it. Being from a backwoods nowhere planet with a primitive space program also meant that the mere act of taking off was pretty much the best thing ever, here.

[suitably_heroic]

Oh, baby earthlings. You were so cute.

But hey, on the Hawk, you even got the front row seat where you could actually see things, instead of being locked in a cargo compartment on the way to Ord Mantell.

Atton was even going to be nice and tilt the ship a bit once they made some altitude, so Sparkle could properly appreciate just how much city Coruscant was. Meanwhile, his brain was noodling at the soft spots in his memory. Last weekend. Old Cade. Sparkle. ???

[myownface]

Hoooly shit, it went on forever. No kidding, Coruscant was all city, huh? And now Sparkle was looking out over what he could see of it and trying to picture what Nar Shaddaa might look like from the same view. Similar but nastier? Probably the wrong shade of brown all over. That nasty kind of shade that didn't mean 'dirt' so much as 'city,' and that nasty sort of city that didn't mean 'cleat' so much as 'Hutts.' Yeah. This was way better.

And the temptation was high to scoot forward and press his face against the window for a better look. He managed to resist that, too. Barely.

"Fuck, it's just... forever. Just city forever. I remember thinking that about pictures of Toronto from the air, except Coruscant really is."

[suitably_heroic]

"Apparently nobody's seen the actual surface of the planet in thousands of years," Atton shared, as the thought popped up in his head. "And the lower you go, the weirder the place gets. There's rumors that there's levels worse than Nar Shaddaa, but no one's ever made it up from there to tell the rest of us."

He had to tilt the ship back just so they wouldn't hit another ship on the way out. Not that it mattered; Coruscant was quickly turning into a small globe behind them.

[myownface]

"That far down? I'd probably lose my fucking mind, too. Like. No daylight, right? Even a few levels down it starts to get darker. Though I guess there are some species that do just fine with that kind of thing. I couldn't."

Sparkle knew for pretty much a fact that he didn't do 'enclosed' well.

[suitably_heroic]

The last dregs of Coruscant's atmosphere were behind them, now; the stars laid ahead of them. Atton directed the ship towards the major hyperspace lane running out of here - they'd be seeing lines soon enough.

"Whatever's down there probably does okay with it, but I wouldn't want to meet it," he said. "Used to wonder why the Coruscanti had such a thing for Alderaan, but living there makes it easy to figure out. I kind of prefer the city, though."

[myownface]

"Well, cities make sense," Sparkle pointed out. "Like, I wouldn't last too long outside of one. Too quiet."

This all said in a breathy hush, mind. Sparkle was in awe.