Through the Mail Slot

It was dark. Of course it was dark. Dark was the best time to do this sort of thing for so many reasons. Because the cover of night would make it easier to bail without getting caught. Because what they were about to do would be so much more impressive to watch in the dead of night.

Because it seemed fitting, maybe.

Sparkle came from one side of the yard, Raine came from the other. They met in the middle, under the large sugar maple in the front yard, and they leaned in and wrapped their arms one another, holding on tightly for a few moments like soulmates who hadn't seen one another in ages. And then they both reached down to pick up the gasoline cans - Sparkle had provided them after Raine had made her suggestion - and started pouring.

( The last of Habitat canon! It's all a free-for-all from here! )

[OOC: Yep! The last of Habitat canon that I'll be touching on, taken from the last few pages of the script. Estaaablishy. OOC is welcome if people want to get a good, 'Oh, Sparkle' in, though.]

It was late October in Toronto. Halloween was right around the corner, and winter was just beyond that. There was a crisp chill in the air outside and the leaves had turned all manner of reds and oranges and yellows, and on his way out of the house on Mapleview, before Lewis had carted any kid from the home who was interested in speaking, or at least watching the proceedings, Sparkle had noticed that the large sugar maple out front looked a little bit like it was on fire, with the brilliant orange cresting up over the group home's roof.

City Hall, on the other hand, was a looming mass of cool grey architecture that put Sparkle half in mind of some of the more understated towers on Coruscant, like Toronto had taken a cue from some long ago galactic civilization they had no idea even existed. The inside, meanwhile, at least tried to look a little warmer, but there was nothing really comforting about having to watch people get up, one at a time, to talk to the city's counselors to try to explain what it was about the current situation that they simply couldn't abide by. Lewis and his kids had been seated in the raised seating on one side of the room, behind the city council seating. The neighbourbood folks who wanted them gone were on the other side of the room, staring hard back at them as one by one, the kids stood to say their piece.

Sparkle kept sitting. He already knew there was nothing he could say that would hold any weight over these people. Nothing in the world he could do that would make even a bit of difference.

So he let Raine talk instead. She was the last one to say her piece, and there wasn't a single thing he could add to any of it that these people would take seriously. Though, funnily enough, the one person on the other side of the argument who might wasn't there.

[OOC: I'm leaving this open for anybody who thinks they might have gotten an invite from Sparkle to show up as moral support to come along and get a feel for the situation. There is a pretty uncomfortable admission from Sparkle's legal guardian about his feelings for Sparkle in there, if you'd rather steer clear. OCD is up, either way.]

Sparkle was still... not at top form. Funnily enough. He'd gotten back from the island and Lewis had gone up one side of him and back down the other again for vanishing as long as he had. He'd missed school, he'd missed a meeting with his parole officer, and the dancing that Lewis had to do in order to keep that from exploding had been, apparently, nothing shy of a miracle.

( Canon! And weed. )

[OOC: Open for anyone who might be visiting or calling or texting Spark in Toronto! Yes, more canon! More steadily more upsetting canon.]

"... He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me he loves me not he loves me- Yo, Rabbit. You still haven't told me why you're here." Sparkle looked up from his shirt, which he was opening one button at a time, and over to Raine, who was sitting on her bed on the other side of the room, flipping idly through the pages of some girly magazine or other that Sparkle had already written off as too tacky to waste his time with. "Why are you here?"

( More canon, lo! )

[OOC: Yeah, just grabbing another chunk of Habitat and getting it out of the way! Open for phone calls or texts or whatever pre-Atton, but mostly just waiting for that guy!]

Sometimes, Sparkle did stupid shit. Sometimes he did it knowing full well that it was stupid, and really, he didn't care. Why the fuck should he care? There were already murmurings around the neighbourhood, around the high and poncy Mapleview Lanes about the no-good group home teens who were living there, about property values and bad influences on their kids and number 459 was empty and it wasn't like it was even hard they were practically asking for it.

( Raine couldn't believe it. )

[OOC: A bit more canon catchup sandwiched in with the usual 'Sparkle visits Atton' Saturday post! The Toronto parts are taken from Habitat, and slowly plunking along toward... more bad life choices, mostly. Sparkle no. For that guy!]