Kwik Stop, Wednesday Morning

[not_trivial]

Contrary to what was often the case, Alec was not oblivious to the recent weirdness that had been affecting the island. There were inept mundanes carrying guns. You'd better believe he was paying attention

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[myownface]

Okay, so Sparkle had a plan of attack, here. He was going to make his way to the Kwik Stop for provisions, as quickly as possible, so that he could hole himself up in his room. On the way back to the dorms, he'd duck by the junkyard and give them the stupid-assed gun that he didn't even want, let it be their problem, and hop into the sporting goods store to pick up a nice, sturdy baseball bat or hockey stick or something. He was way more comfortable with something like that in hand, after all.

And he would've managed it, too, if not for...

"Alec."

There were some faces he'd hoped to be able to avoid while making this trek, yes. Here was face number one.

[not_trivial]

Ask anyone from Idris and they'd tell you: Shadowhunters didn't really do deer-in-the-headlights looks.

Except that on this one remarkable occasion, Alec did. Shut up about it.

"Sparkle." He froze for a second, then caught himself and straightened his posture. With his back straight and the bow strap across his shoulder, he almost looked like someone who'd been coping well with their breakup. "Hello."

[myownface]

Yeah, Alec. Nice cover-up. Sparkle almost didn't notice it. Except for how he had been staring straight at you, and all.

"Decide to top up on Doritos today?"

The end of the world was always a good time for Doritos, shut up.

[not_trivial]

Alec hardly thought there was any sign that the world was ending. It was just a bunch of mundanes getting spooked by change, and that happened all the time. Things might get nasty (in fact, he was sure of it) but not apocalyptic.

Alec licked his lips -- his mouth was kind of dry. "Water, actually." He held up a bottle of water as proof. "Uh. What about you?"

[myownface]

"Totally Doritos," Sparkle replied with a shrug. "So long as the taps in the dorms are running clean, I'm not going to waste money like that."

Okay, no, he was just being contrary, now. He was probably going to get water, too.

[not_trivial]

"Right." Alec was missing the contrariness entirely, probably surprising no one. He was completely sure that Sparkle was serious, and was starting to feel self-conscious: his gaze was abruptly and sharply redirected toward his own feet. So early in the conversation, even. "I... um. How've you been?"

[myownface]

Oh, Alec. Sparkle sighed, giving a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. See how casual he was? Totally fine. Completely. Yep.

"I've been gettin' by. Working, doing TA stuff. Being, like, a functional member of society, which is kinda weird."

But nice. Weird, but nice.

"I've been pretty okay. You?"

[not_trivial]

Alec gave a nod that went on maybe a few moments longer than your average nod was really supposed to. "Working," he said. "Um, training. Going to class. The usual."

Nothing of consequence, really. Except the training. Alec totally believed that training was something of consequence.

"Uh, we actually had an assignment in one of my classes that made me think of--"

Sparkle? Kitty cats? Cheese? Too bad Alec was about to be interrupted, so the world would never know.

[pandora_baddies]

The bad thing about chatting at a Kwik Stop when there were psychos in the back room? The psychos weren't going to stay in the back room. And this was why there was a psycho - complete with mask and rusty blade - suddenly charging out from said back room.

Funny how that worked.

"I'm gonna make hammocks from your eyelids!"

There you had it.

[myownface]

"Um!"

Yes, Sparkle's wit flew out the window, right there. Something about being yelled at by a crazy guy wearing tires had a funny way of doing that.

Also, that knife.

"That wouldn't be comfortable at all!"

This, of course, was said as Sparkle scrambled backwards, because what the fuck.

[not_trivial]

Alec moved in a flash. He darted in front of Sparkle on instinct, whipping out a seraph blade from behind his back and bringing it to life with a gasped out, "Harahel." The dagger immediately began to glow and expand but not at all in a dirty way, and Alec strode quickly forward, aiming a broad slash at the psycho's midsection while trying to block Sparkle as much as possible.

[pandora_baddies]

The bad thing - okay, one of several very bad things about the psychos was that they just did not care about getting hurt.

"ENDOOORPHINS!" the psycho screamed as it staggered to the side with the blow. Oh, the cut hurt, but that just seemed to make it worse. The psycho slashed at Alec with his own blade. "Get ready for bad touch!"

[myownface]

"No bad touch! No bad touch!"

Thank you for that commentary, Sparks.

Of course, by this point, he was backed against the far wall, holding his backpack in front of himself. Nope. He couldn't possibly Nope his way out of this situation fast enough. Unfortunately, wall. Which kept things from coming up behind him, but wasn't so great for that 'hasty retreat' plan he had been trying to hatch, there.

[not_trivial]

Alec shot a quick glance over his shoulder to check Sparkle's position, making sure to angle his body so that Sparkle was still as blocked from view as possible. "Sparkle!" he called, startling himself with how authoritative and Jace-like he suddenly sounded. "Grab things to throw! Don't panic."

They were in a convenience store. Alec wasn't opposed to wrecking the shelving display if that was what was necessary.

In the meantime, he blocked the psycho's slash with his blade, then aimed another quick cut at its shoulder between two tires.

[pandora_baddies]

And that was all well and good, but what if there were two psychos. What if..

Oh, lose the 'if', because there came the other one, charging at them from the back room as well. "The sweet songs of sausage stumps will fill my days!" was its war cry as it joined the first one in trying to stab Alec. Yeah, the first one had screamed at having its flesh cut, but that hadn't really stopped it.

Stopping was not really something psychos did before they were dead. Not when there was prey around.

[myownface]

"Can we please not talk about sausage stumps, now?" Sparkle was not enjoying this, go figure. He cast one hand around blindly for something to throw - a can of beans? That would do - while still clinging to his backpack with the other.

Let at least this much be said for Sparkle: He had a pretty decent throwing arm when there were crazies with knives trying to kill them. He chucked that can of beans straight for the injured psycho's head.