Sparkle had had a bad weekend, and when Sparkle had bad anythings, he tended to set things on fire. So... this was the post-fire compromise Atton had thought of: get a bunch of flamethrowers and plasma wielders inside the Danger Shop, set it to a Canadian Neighborhood sim without any actual NPCs in it, and let him go to town ( Read more... )

"I know some of you have fired a gun before and probably know all this," Atton said, as the class met at the gun range, "But tough luck. You're getting this class anyway. And later on into the semester, I'll throw in a refresher course, just to be sure ( Read more... )

Atton walked into his office late, partly because he'd slept in, and partly because he'd evaded his babysitters for the weekend for a day already and he was hoping to stretch that time out for a while longer. But he couldn't really make it stretch much further, and so there he was, a large bottle of water on his desk and a bunch of plastic cups set ( Read more... )

Atton woke up.

Atton groaned.

Atton turned over and bumped right into a blaster rifle.

He blinked.

"... When the hell did I move all of the blasters into my ro-- oh."

Did he really have to go to class today? He did not want to go to class today.

[[ can be open for phone calls etc or the roomie. ]]

There wasn't much that showed the difference between the Jaq that woke up that morning and the Atton who'd gone to bed early the night before: his hair was military short, and the jaded, tired look in his eyes had been replaced with something more wary and watchful. A little baby fat had returned to his features, too, and at least two-thirds of the ( Read more... )

Atton was still tired. He was pretty sure he was going to stay tired until the month was over and he could finally move the hell on with his life ( Read more... )

"Awaken ( Read more... )

It'd been a long couple of days of conversations with the kids, talking them through what happened, or just shooting the shit. It was rewarding, though, because theirs was a language Atton understood - one he was a straightforward senior in, someone to pass on the lessons of a gnarled and screwed-up life to ( Read more... )

It had taken five days for Farani to recover enough that she'd been allowed out of the kolto tank. The center they were at was military-funded; Atton had to give his clearing several times as they helped Farani walk out of there. Didn't matter. Sure, he'd started this trip fully planning to throw himself into all kinds of scummy poodoo to make ( Read more... )

The military had been on Atton's mind for a while: not really a surprise, considering the last couple of months and who'd been responsible for anything. His Netflix queue at home (and may Sparkle never bump into it) was full of war documentaries and war series-- the wars on Earth might have been different, but in some ways, war just didn't change. ( Read more... )