fh_trips | SPRING BREAK, Cyseal, Tuesday Evening

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spring break 2016: cyseal

SPRING BREAK, Cyseal, Tuesday Evening

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Sparkle watched that golden light until it was out of sight, wrinkled his nose a little, and then looked back at Hannibal.

...

"You are Dr. Lecter this time, right?"

"I am," Hannibal answered. He offered Sparkle a smile. "I threatened not to let him back in if he continued being rude."

"I'm kind of impressed you agreed to let him ride along in the first place," Sparkle admitted, gesturing toward the inn with the remains of his carrot. "He doesn't really strike me as the kind of guy who'd know 'polite' if it bit him on the ass."

Not that 'polite' could do that, since it was an intangible concept, and Bob was... well... just intangible.

Hannibal grimaced. "He can be quite polite, when he tries. Unfortunately, much of his experience with others has been...adversarial, to put it kindly. He isn't terribly used to trying."

Sparkle eyed Hannibal for a moment at that, and then sighed, apparently mollified some by that answer.

"If you say so," he replied. "It isn't like I know the first thing about the guy, either. Except that he's dead, I guess."

Hell, Sparkle hadn't even caught the guy's name.

He was just going to call him Ferdinand or something.

"He was a sorcerer," Hannibal said. "He came to town for the convention, and then returned to teach."

He pondered what more to say; he saw no reason to make apologies or excuses for Bob, but he didn't want his own judgment in hosting him brought in question, either.

"He's been dead for over a millennium," he settled on. "No body or way of interacting with anything."

"... Okay. I'd be pissy, too," Sparkle conceded. "Doesn't mean I need to enjoy his company, either."

Sparkle still hadn't really grown out of that 'holding a grudge' thing he did so very well.

"Not at all," Hannibal agreed. "I let him use my body occasionally, and he repays me with a bit of magic, but as you see, you can tell the difference. Particularly now you know it's a possibility."

"God, yeah," Sparkle sighed. "I'll be all paranoid about it. Though... I guess he's probably pretty harmless when he's not possessing people. Or something. If he can't, like, directly interact with people, I mean?"

He was just a jackass. Sparkle could cope with jackasses.

Hannibal nodded. "When he isn't possessing anybody, he's completely harmless. Apart from the insults."

Which was the reason for them, really.

"I guess whatever weapon he's got at his disposal..."

Sparkle shook his head and then took a bite from his carrot.

"Okay, maybe I'll cut him a little slack. Being dead sucks."

Thanks, Fandom, for that being a lesson he'd actually learned.

Repeatedly.

Ugh.

Hannibal smirked. "He's also much older than anybody's grandfather. The epitome of a crotchety old man."

He'd shake his cane if he had one, probably.

"I'm basically going to have to call him 'gramps' until he introduces himself, now," Sparkle decided. "The true tragedy is that he can't even hold a cane to shake it at people."

Hannibal laughed. "He goes by Bob, but please feel free to keep calling him 'gramps'. He could make himself look as if he's got a cane; he's quite good at illusions. But he can't hit you with it."

"Good to know," Sparkle cackled, clearly pleased. And then, after a moment's pause and maybe just slightly less pleased, "He, uh, can't just go ahead and possess anybody he feels like, can he?"

"No," Hannibal answered firmly. "It's part of his contract - he has to have permission."

And now Sparkle was going from 'less pleased' to 'relieved.'

Very relieved.

"Okay," he said, even heaving a little sigh at that. "Okay, cool. I mean, I didn't think he could... I want to think people would've heard more about one of those convention ghosts still running around and taking hold of people... but... you know..."

Shrug.

Hannibal nodded. "So far as I'm aware, he's the only one who's returned. And he hasn't even requested what he calls a 'ride' very often. You've nothing to fear from him but his tongue."

"And he doesn't know nearly enough about me for his tongue to be much more than, like, a minor annoyance anyway," Sparkle decided. "Not that anyone on the island even cares all that much about the kind of shit I've gotten into."

Since he hadn't ever committed, like, cold-blooded murder or something. Everything was a little relative on the island that way.

Cold-blooded murder was underrated!

"No," Hannibal agreed. He smiled at Sparkle. "How is your fresh start working out?"

"It's..." Sparkle smiled faintly at that, in spite of himself. "I mean... not bad, you know? I have the shop, and, knock on wood, the island hasn't tried to kill us all in a while. So at least until that happens, I can pretend that life is almost something like normal. I kind of needed that, after Toronto, I think."

"I'm pleased to hear it," Hannibal said. "You should visit more often; I enjoy teaching you to cook. I was going to have a party for relaxing after all the pollen, but now it will have to wait until after vacation."

"Yeah, one kind of bled right into the other," Sparkle replied, nodding. "But if you want to throw a party, I mean... I'm always up for playing sous chef. I've been keeping in practice, you know? Cooking at home for myself and Atton. Or sometimes even in his galaxy. Spice shopping on Coruscant is a whole different ball game."

And you kind of had to make certain that people were clear that you were looking for, you know, seasonings as opposed to drugs.

"What sorts of spices are there?" Hannibal asked. He'd never really tried anything from that world, and he was always up for new flavors.

"It's... oh god, some of it is hard to describe," Sparkle admitted. "I mean, as it stands, half the time I go to the marketplace I still have to ask the vendors to point me to the stuff that isn't toxic to humans. Basically the only thing immediately familiar in that whole damn galaxy is potatoes."

WHY DID THEY HAVE POTATOES IN A DIFFERENT GALAXY? WHY?

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

sharp_as_knives - 2016-02-25 04:20 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

myownface - 2016-02-25 04:27 (UTC) - Expand

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