The Temple, Saturday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

Atton had promised Sparkle a trip to see the Padawans, and a trip to see the Padawans, they'd have.

Even if the first Padawan they had to see as Atton walked up the many steps was Asida, leaning against a pillar and scowling at him, without a word. "And good morning to you too, sunshine," Atton called, as he kept on going. "Don't worry, I brought someone to fill that massive void in your stomach, that'll keep your face from setting like that."

She pulled away without another word and vanished into the building.

"Teenagers."

[[ for that one, and xtreme sp as i gotta go to a work thing ]]

Comments

[myownface]

"Teenagers," Sparkle echoed, watching her go and chewing on their lip as they followed after Atton. "Think I should talk to her? I mean, I can try talking to her."

A pause.

"No idea if she wants to be talked to."

That was always the tricky bit, with the hurt ones. Sparkle had made a lot of friends just bulldozing past the 'go away' stuff, back in Toronto. Sparkle had made a few enemies that way, too.

[suitably_heroic]

"I mean, you're not me, and you're not a Jedi," Atton said, his head kind of swaying from side to side as he thought about it. "Could work. Could end in her cutting off all of your limbs."

[myownface]

"I use those limbs," Sparkle complained. "It's really hard to declare it Taco Tuesday on a Saturday if I don't have limbs to cook with."

They took a few more steps.

"But, I mean... could be worth it. And then I'd get like a badass roboclaw or something."

The multiverse did not need a Sparkle cyborg. It just didn't.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton stuck his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Go," he said finally. "I'll keep an eye out, make sure she doesn't make sure you need a robot head, too."

[myownface]

Sparkle nodded, took in a breath, and doubled the pace, heading into the temple with no real game plan beyond 'talk' and maybe 'pray a little or something.'

"Asida?"

[suitably_heroic]

The girl was still walking away, a determined frown set on her face. "What," she snapped, with all the sullen anger of a teenager.

Atton sighed behind them and followed, many steps behind.

[myownface]

Oh god, had Sparkle ever been that sullen?

... Answer, yes. They were going to ignore that fact as they jogged to catch up anyway.

"Thought maybe I could draft you into taco night service today," they offered, grabbing at the first thing to come to mind. "I have weird Earth veggies that need cutting, lots of mouths to feed." A beat. "Wouldn't mind catching up."

[suitably_heroic]

"There's not a lot to catch up on," Asida muttered. "It's the Temple. It's boring."

Atton couldn't blame her.

[myownface]

Sparkle smiled lopsidedly at that.

"It's the Temple, it's boring," they agreed. "Especially now that Mical's been grounded from doing any plumbing work. And you always did do better when you had something to do with yourself, huh?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Mical won't let me take on any missions by myself," Asida said irritably. "Some of the others already get to go out and play Knight. I was almost done with my training. Why am I still here?"

[myownface]

Sparkle's best guess - that she probably reminded Mical of Atton - was left unspoken. They really did like the idea of not needing a replacement head, after all.

"Knowing Mical, it's probably something about mystical Force hokey pokey and frustration being a slippery slope," they mused. "Are you just being kept here? Just stuck in a routine with no direction?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Pretty much," Asida said, a little desperation sliding out beside her anger. "Mediation, strolls into the 'life of the city', and occasionally that sleemo friend of yours shows up to spar."

[myownface]

"Oh god, and I bet you're not even strolling out into the fun parts of the life of the city," Sparkle replied with a little snort. "The sparring at least let you feel like you're doing something for a change? Give all that extra energy an outlet, maybe?"

[suitably_heroic]

"I just want to kick his face in," Asida said flatly, shooting Sparkle an irritated look. "That's all."

[myownface]

"I mean, so do I, half the time," Sparkle offered. "But, I mean, that's because I care, and sometimes people just need a good face-kicking out of love."

Shrug. If they noticed the irritated look, they clearly weren't letting it get to them.

"Wanna talk about why? No judgment here. I've had my share of ugly emotions towards people, I doubt any of it would surprise me."

[suitably_heroic]

"It's obvious, don't you think?" Asida spat. "He got her killed. And now he's walking around here, being useless, and she's dead."

[myownface]

Sparkle looked quietly at her for a moment, and then just sort of nodded, gently nudging her toward the kitchen.

"He's got a lot to make up for, and Mira left some pretty big shoes to fill." A pause, and then, "What do you figure would fill them? From him. From anybody."

[suitably_heroic]

Asida turned and looked at them in earnest. Her face read What kind of spice are you on? "Nothing," she said flatly. "She was Mira. She was my Master."

[myownface]

Sparkle was quiet a moment. Took that look and that tone and the whole situation into consideration. And then said, "Nothing can replace her, no. Nothing can bring her back. And that sucks. She was among the best. Everybody felt it when she died. You're still feeling it. You're still angry about it, and that's understandable. Being benched isn't helping with that anger or that hurt, but Asida... Mical isn't going to take you off the bench if you don't let yourself heal."

[suitably_heroic]

Asida reached up, and tugged on her hair, her upper lip curling up in a faint echo of a snarl. "'Let yourself heal'," she mimicked. "What does that even mean?"

[myownface]

"It means," Sparkle said, hiking up a shoulder, "that you've got a couple options, here. You can keep lurking around this place, pissed off because you feel like you're being robbed of something all the other shiny new Knights have got. You can stop for a minute and actually think about the Jedi Mira was training you to be, and whether this is what she would have wanted for you. You can, like, keep jumping out at Atton and keep getting scruffed like a bad puppy when you do. Or you can find some way to actually move forward." They tilted their head a little. "Seems to me the lurking and the biting aren't getting you anything but more frustrated. You can do better than just running in place angrily all the time. Mira wouldn't have taken you as her Padawan if she didn't think you could."

[suitably_heroic]

Those were the words that finally made Asida just... stop. Her palm against a pillar, her hair, frazzled as it had gotten, falling over her face.

"Mira," she said slowly, "Gave up her life. For that. Not for me. For that."

[myownface]

"Maybe," Sparkle said, their tone gentling but only slightly, not daring to risk sounding anything even vaguely pitying or condescending, "it's because she believed it was worth it. Could you have lived with yourself if it was you she had died for?"

Did she somehow think Atton was having an easy time of it?