vdistinctive | At the docks, then out to sea, Sunday

The colors from the previous days were still holding, if maybe slightly more muted, Fandom's magic slowly fading but still managing to hang on for another day.

Seemed like a good omen as any for a wedding that Eliot still couldn't quite believe was happening.

Eliot's boat wasn't big enough for all their guests so they had "rented" (long story) a well-appointed yacht for the day. It was docked in the Port of Fandom, waiting for all the guests to board. Once the last person had crossed the gangplank, it sailed almost to the edge of the island, where blue water lapped with gray. Eliot's boat was already there, anchor down, Hardison in a tux, playing around with a sound system.

A few minutes to futz with mics and the speakers set up discreetly around the yacht came to life. "Testin'...Testin'..." Hardison murmured. Good. Everybody would be able to hear the ceremony on the second ship.

Looks like it was time to begin.

[TIME FOR A WEDDING! If you think you were invited, you were. Some OCD coming]

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Dante chuckled ruefully, eyes flicking from Sparkle to Kathy, over in the crowd.

"Trust me," he said. "I know."

"Yeah," Sparkle sighed, glancing that way. "Yeah, that."

This place.

... Most places. Sparkle missed Toronto a lot if only for the huge lack of cannibalism it seemed to have going on.

Dante shrugged again. "But you've been here for how long now?" he said. "You've been through this. You can live with it."

"I mean, none of like the twenty death experiences I've had at this point have stuck," Sparkle agreed, shrugging, "you know, so far. I know I'll probably make it out the other end of this bullshit still breathing. But that doesn't mean I enjoy things trying to eat me, either. And I'm, like, Fandom old-hat."

He was an easily traumatized bean, sometimes. But hadn't spent a week in the bathtub surrounded by cleaning solvents, so he was doing okay so far.

"How many years have you lived here now?" Dante asked.

"There was a break in there so I could go home to Toronto and fuck up my whole entire life," Sparkle noted, "but even with that taken out it's been like seven or eight years."

So, long enough that he knew the score. But was still cranky and tired and, yes, totally traumatizable. Which he had decided was totally a word.

Dante shrugged.

"Then there's gotta be something here you like enough to make the rest of it worth it," he said. "I lived here as an adult for like a year and I couldn't fucking breathe, man. So I left. Went home, which, fuck, fucked me up for years too, but it's where I can live."

Sparkle sighed and bunched up in the shoulder, just the tiniest bit.

"I've got people here," he said, sounding a little defeated. "I mean, fewer and fewer all the time, but most of the ones who matter most call this place home too, you know? I'm not a solo act. Can be when I need to be, but that usually ends badly."

Over the years, Dante had learned not to just blurt out everything on his mind. He rocked back on his feet, thinking about what he was going to say next.

Not like he knew Sparkle that well.

"Kathy wanted to stay here," he said finally. "But everybody leaving was hard on her too."

"I guess it would be," Sparkle replied after a short silence. "You know, it's weird, I grew up used to people coming and going all the time. But here that's a constant, and I don't know what to do with it."

"Can't say I have any advice," Dante said, voice wry. "The island started to get quiet, so I moved out and took Anders with me. But I'm not really used to, y'know-- standing still."

"Fair enough," Sparkle replied. "I'm not a fan of the quiet either, but my kind of loud is, like, city loud, you know? Toronto, this is not."

"Part of why I went back home to Limbo City," Dante said. "City that put me in more shitty demon-run homes and jails than anybody here's ever heard of, but the partying's bigger, the fighting's better and I've got to click through ten pages of take-out options every time I head to Grubhub."

"But have they ever sent you four extra pizzas for no apparent reason?" Sparkle smiled crookedly, then shook his head a little. "I don't know, man. I think it's the fighting I'm tired of. I never was any good at it."

This was not strictly true. For a baseline human, he was pretty excellent, at this point. But that only did him so much good going up against monsters, Sith, or whatever the horror of the week happened to be.

"Yeah, that's at least three weeks a year you're stuck inside with the doors locked."

"This year it's been the whole summer. Just nonstop crazy with a few low-key weeks thrown in for good measure. I'm not made for this, you know? But I can't just... leave."

He had options. All of them would involve losing something. None of them were really home.

"Ah well. It can't stay like this forever, I guess."

"Maybe time for an elaborate series of vacations or something," Dante said slowly. "But yeah, it's Fandom. Always goes back to baseline."

Sparkle broke into a short fit of hyena laughter at that. Just kind of doubled over and cackled for a moment, stopping before his sides hurt.

"Yeah, man. Yeah. It might be that..."

He wasn't letting anybody in on the joke, nah. This was Sparkle.

Dante snorted. "Should I ask?"

Sparkle gave his head shake and just grinned, reaching up one hand to wipe at an imaginary tear.

"Nah, man. Nah, it's fine. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I've done enough travel just staying put for one summer, you know?"

He paused a moment, looking thoughtful.

"Maybe a place in Baltimore, though..."

At the docks, then out to sea, Sunday

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