The Jedi Temple, Atton's Coruscant, Saturday

[suitably_heroic]

There hadn't been this many Republic vessels sitting outside and in the Jedi Temple in quite a while. The cavalry had come in full-blown last night, though by that time there was little left to do but clear the base of the regular-flavor pirates left inside. The Senator had been rescued, and was probably on her way home in a plushy diplomatic shuttle right now. Not so much for Atton, who sat patiently in his uncomfortable seat in the back of one of the Fleet ships as he waited for the pilot to clear the last of the landing procedures.

At least they hadn't brought the Hawk into this.

He reeked strongly of kolto, but that was a smell he was used to. Hadn't had the time to resolve more than the worst of his injuries, and his leg still hurt like hell from where it'd been pinned underneath the stupid Force-worm three consecutive times, but he'd live.

Mical sank down into the seat next to him. "You can't keep doing this," he said.

Atton slanted a look his way. "Do what?" he said. "Save your ass? Just stop getting in trouble, then."

It was a stupid joke; they both knew which one out of the two of them was most likely to get into that. Mical sighed. "Your ability to... resurge... is useful," he said. "But if you keep abusing it, you're going to get yourself killed."

"No, I won't," Atton said, shutting his eyes. "That's the whole point. I don't want to die, so I don't let me."

"Sometimes I wonder about that."

"Don't." Atton took in a deep breath and let his head drop back against the seat.

"You're indispensible to the Jedi Order," Mical pressed on.

"Thanks," Atton said dryly, "Good of you to recognize it." (He liked hearing it, but he wasn't going to tell Mical that.)

"...and we are still low on Jedi," Mical said. "You refuse to take a Padawan, Brianna is still searching for one, and Mira is preoccupied. I wondered if perhaps we should look into some of the old Jedi Order's old recruitment programs."

Atton blew out a breath. "How, exactly, did we go from being nearly murdered by a Force-worm you didn't see coming to trawling orphanages?" he wondered.

"And if we do resume said program," Mical said, ignoring him, "I'll need you alive to teach combat and lightsaber techniques. Please keep that in mind."

Atton opened one eye and squinted it at him. "Sure," he said. "I'll get right on that."

---

Mical offered him an arm to help him get out of the ship three times. Atton refused, of course, because it was karking Mical, and no, he'd do it on his own. He wasn't an invalid.

In the end, it was the troops that hauled him back up to his feet off the loading ramp. That was less galling, because it was familiar: they were laughing, and Parish smacked him over the back of the head once. You know, the military way. "Going a little feeble in the knees, General?"

Atton shot Parish a foul look. "Don't call me General," he griped. "This isn't the Mandalorian Wars, smartass." Plus it reminded him a little too much of-- yeah, not going to think about that right now.

"Do we need to get you a walking stick?" Thont asked.

"Only if you want me to hit you over the head with it." It was easy, getting back into this rhythm. Familiar enough that Atton could actually muster up a smirk as he glanced sideways at the kid-- Wisud-- and gestured at him with his head. "Actually, maybe this badass can do that for me. Hit Thont for me, will you, kid?"

Wisud, looking tired and smelling a fair bit of kolto himself, actually grinned underneath the Miraluka headcoverings. Hadn't actually seen the kid do that, uh, ever. The kid reached out and jabbed Thont lightly in the back; she made an exaggerated stumble forwards. "Oof."

Atton grinned a little, even as his arm got hauled over Parish's shoulders. "That's a good Jedi Padawan," he said. He glanced up at the Temple's entrance as it came closer and closer. "...Hey, does anyone happen to know what day it is?"

[[ thus ends largely handwavey adventures in Gamescommity. nfb due to distance, open! ]]

Comments

[myownface]

Guess what day it was, Atton! Just guess!

Not that Sparkle had been sent an itinerary or anything this week, no, and he hadn't exactly heard from Atton since, you know, all of that mess. But it seemed stupid to miss coming here on the chance that something something reasons something...

Anyway, he still didn't want to be around the home right then, and Atton was more like family than anyone, and shut your face, maybe the temple was a little more like home the more he visited than Mapleview ever had been. Things he wasn't going to say for anything in the world, thanks.

Still, Atton hadn't been at the Portalocity station to meet him, which meant he was making the hike to the temple solo today. Not really difficult, given the number of times he'd made the trip, but it did mean he was looking a tiny bit uncertain as he approached the temple entrance. If Atton wasn't even here, he was going to feel like such an idiot. Maybe even a clingy idiot. Depended on whether or not he was caught skulking around, mostly.

"Knock knock?"

[suitably_heroic]

And here Atton and his new pet Republic soldiers had just about made it into the Temple. A little further in and to the left, which meant they were out of sight, at least. "...Okay, so that's what day it is," he muttered quietly. "Hey, Parish? Can you just park me against the wall here? Thanks."

"If you're sure," Parish said, dubiously. He pushed Atton's arm off as he got near the wall. "Seems easier to drag you to a seat."

"I've got to walk again anyway," Atton retorted. "Shoo. Go find your actual superiors."

The man shrugged, then nodded to the others. They went on, Wisud trailing after them as the kid most likely went looking for Visas. Atton himself kept his shoulder to the wall, using it for support until he reached the corner. Poked his head around it. "Hey, Sparks."

[myownface]

Sparkle tilted his head a little sideways as Atton's head appeared around the corner.

"Hey," he replied, looking somewhere between relieved and concerned. "Forget what day it was? Or am I interrupting something?"

There was also, like, option three? The one where people figured Sparkle could hold his own well enough to walk his own damn self to the temple alone. But considering what had gone on last week, he kind of doubted that would be the case just yet.

[suitably_heroic]

"Just got back from a thing," Atton said vaguely. "Haven't been keeping track."

And hey, Sparkle hadn't gotten eaten by a rancor on the way here. That was good.

[myownface]

Fortunately, if there was even the slightest chance that somebody was talking their pet rancor for a walk, Sparkle had the good sense to avoid it.

"Fair enough," he replied, scrunching up his face a little more as he tried to place just what was off, here. "Is, uh, this a bad time?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Nah, it's fine," Atton said. "Though after the week I've had, I hope you're all right with holovids and juice instead of, you know, training."

He was going to try and avoid rounding the corner as long as possible. Maybe in that short space of time he'd regain full use of his leg? That would be great.

[myownface]

Yeah, Sparkle's scrunchyface was now just straight-up squinting.

"How bad's the damage?"

Come on, Atton. You two had met.

[suitably_heroic]

Yes, and so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that Atton was trying to avoid any questions whatsoever.

"Eh, you know me, I'll live," he said. "What's up on your end?"

[myownface]

That squint didn't go away right away, but after a few moments Sparkle sighed and let Atton change the subject all the same.

"Petitions, I guess," he replied. "Proper door-to-door petitions coming to the house to lodge formal complaints which weren't at all well-received."

It was great times in Toronto, now. Yep.

"They are fucking hell-bent, you know? Like living in a neighbourhood grants these spoiled assholes the right to decide who can exist on land that doesn't even belong to them, because of course it does, they get everything, don't they?"

[suitably_heroic]

"It's impressive what a bunch of spoiled assholes can accomplish if they only work together," Atton said with a sigh. "A story as old as time. Figured anything out you can do about it yet?"

[myownface]

"Not really," Sparkle admitted. "Start looking at legal options, I guess. Lew's been pulling out his hair, like, this has got him really pissed off they've been asking for personal information about us for criminal record files and all of it. But, like, four of them are lawyers, so it's going to be hard to, you know... out-legal them."

A beat.

"I'm kind of toying with the idea of breaking into their homes and leaving superglue on all the toilet seats. They can't kick us out if they can't leave home. And, you know, maybe they need some extra alone time to deal with all the stupid fucking shit they're full of."

Sparkle had a case of the angry.

[suitably_heroic]

"You know, I like the idea, but I'm thinking it won't work out the way you'd like in the long run."

Okay, talking like this was starting to get ridiculous. Atton pushed away from the wall on his end. It hurt, but he was upright. He rounded the corner-- and immediately found himself grabbing for the wall again. Damn it.

"... and there's too many of them to arrange 'accidents', sadly."

Maybe Sparkle wouldn't notice?

[myownface]

Yeaaaaah, no.

"Way too many of them," he agreed, stepping forward to offer Atton a hand. "Come on, you stubborn asshole. Let's get you sitting down somewhere before we talk any more about this stupid shit."

There was probably some kind of bad pun about having no leg to stand on, there, but Sparkle was drawing a blank anyway.

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm not an invalid," Atton retorted.

Mostly just to make sure that was, like, established before he took Sparkle's offer of some support, as he was doing now.

[myownface]

"No, just an idiot," Sparkle replied, almost fondly. Almost. If you squinted and stuff, right? "Where you wanna head? There's a lot of temple, I mean."

Sparkle was totally okay with dumping Atton's ass wherever and then going on a wander to fetch the juice on his own, anyway.

[suitably_heroic]

"I was on my way back to my apartment," Atton said. With the help of a squad of soldiers and a Miraluka boy, not that he was going to volunteer that part. "So just to the turbolift and then up."

[myownface]

That wasn't too far, fortunately. Sparkle nodded, and then started off that way.

"Cool," he decided, nodding a bit. "Then you can pick the holo while I get us some juice and something to eat. Sound good?"

Because like hell if Sparkle knew what was good to watch around here, yet.

[suitably_heroic]

"Sure," Atton said.

Look, it wasn't like there were a whole lot of other options. It wasn't like he'd be getting to the kitchen on his own. "So how much trouble did you get into after last week?"

That was a better topic.

[myownface]

For Atton, sure.

"Oh god," Sparkle muttered. "Lewis wanted to fucking skin me. He had to make shit up and cover to my parole officer. Like, pull a fucking miracle cover to my parole officer. Since, like... parole..."

And not getting his ass thrown into jail was kind of up there on his list of priorities these days.

[suitably_heroic]

"Come up with a dead grandma, that kind of thing?" Atton guessed, as they limped along down to the lift.

[myownface]

"Hell if I know," Sparkle admitted. "I still need to touch base with Lewis about what the hell he came up with, and... eh."

He'd really rather not. At all. Talking with Lewis right now didn't seem like a supergreat idea after the last time and with everything else going on.

[suitably_heroic]

"Afraid he'll yell at you some more? Yeah, okay, that's fair," Atton said, nodding briefly. "Anyway, hey, parole crisis averted, that's good."

[myownface]

"Yeah, parole crisis averted," Sparkle agreed. "Now I can focus on the other ones."

It was stupid. If he fucked up with his parole officer, he stood a good chance of getting locked up again. If they fucked up handling the neighbourhood, he'd end up homeless again, or shuffled to another group home, or whatever.

"Nerf today?"

Hey, look! Another, easier topic change!

[suitably_heroic]

Homeless wasn't that liable to happen if Atton - and probably not just Atton - had anything to say about it, but it wasn't in Atton's nature to reassure people about that kind of thing if he didn't have to. Safer to let them try and be self-sufficient, at least as long as it didn't involve anyone getting shot at.

"Nerf's great," he said, as they made it to the turbolift. He reached out with his free hand to hit the control panel. "I haven't had anything that isn't a ration pack in days."

[myownface]

"So, then lots of nerf. And maybe like a soup or something to go with it," Sparkle mused, because yes, he'd been trained to embrace the wonderful world of side dishes now and there was simply no escaping it. "Or some kind of finger food. Something we can still shovel into our faces while we're zoning out on holos..."

...

"Are potato chips a thing here?"

Look, he was going to cling to the whole 'potatoes are a thing in other galaxies' thing like a desperate man. He knew his way around potatoes. And they seemed at least slightly less offensive to Atton's senses than broccoli.