03: Fate forbids what you pursue [visual | location: Mick's apartment]

[ownlittleprison]

For Mick, the past week had passed in a blur of activity. Early morning saw him barricading the windows to keep out as much sunlight as possible, and his Extra neighbors had complained greatly to the Extra who kept tabs on everyone in the building. He'd been issued a warning, and informed that two more strikes meant he had to leave

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[location: Mick's place]

[justaddmarbles]

Glitch stared at the visual feed and read between the lines. Vampire, and unlike the other ones he'd known about in the city...the aliens weren't providing for him. Then he checked the the map and grimaced at Mick's proximity to the palace. Too close, far too close to his home and his family and...

The visual. That face, even with all the distress and horror there was something there which yanked at him.

So. He had to protect. He had to help. He had to break the leg off the chair he was sitting on - Buffy'd been keen on stakes, and Mick had mentioned them as well - and set off for Mick's apartment. Knocking on the door seemed rather ridiculous but manners, manners, manners.

"Mick? It's Glitch. I have a stake." Pause. "I hope ash works."

...yes, because the type of wood is important.

[location: Mick's place] A little while later, for ease of...storytelling purposes?

[ownlittleprison]

Mick laid in his bedroom, drifting in and out of consciousness, plagued by the kind of fevered dreams that came to him after an unfortunate and involuntary trek through the desert when the sun was high up in the sky and there was no escape. No shelter for miles, and a young pregnant girl to protect. Those had been dire times, and these were marginally better.

He could tell himself he hadn't hurt one of the other captives until he lost his voice, but it didn't change the nightmares. It wasn't Extras in his dreams, but people. Innocent people, whose fear was palpable in the air and coating the inside of his nose like a thick film.

And all through it, an insistent thudding that didn't go away. Like the strike of a hammer, louder and louder in his ears until he startled awake.

A heartbeat. Right there, outside his door. "Beth--" Hope, feeble and weak though it may be, shattered in the space of one lurching heartbeat. Not Beth. Not his home, not L.A, not Josef

[location: Mick's place]

[justaddmarbles]

Glitch flinched a bit - the words and the delivery were familiar in some forgotten way - and paused in sort-of picking the lock. His toolkit was handy like that.

"You're the one who wanted someone to come 'round and kill you," he remarked. "Or whatever that announcement was supposed to inspire. I-I'd really rather not."

There had to be some other way, something that didn't involve anyone dying or being maimed. Glitch didn't especially have a plan, but he had conviction and determination and there was a better way, he was sure of it.

"I don't want to lose anyone else. Please, I just...maybe I can help you."

[location: Mick's place]

[ownlittleprison]

"What part of killing a monster don't you get? You're not supposed to come here alone!"

Come to think of it, now that he stood on the right side of the door, coiled tight as a spring and ready to snap, Mick wasn't sure that he wanted to inspire anyone to anything. Certainly not marching right up to the mythical dragon's lair and dangle a...fair maiden was a stretch, but then he wasn't entirely thinking straight. He could smell the other man, could pick out all the subdermal veins in his mind's eye from memory alone, and it was messing with his priorities.

He had to keep him out - but if the guy with the zipper for a center part was naive enough to come here all alone, he had it coming. He had to drive him off - but he was right there for the takingThe worst part of starving wasn't that the hunger pangs burned like fire through his entire body. The worst part was he knew it wouldn't be long at all before he couldn't take it anymore

[location: Mick's place]

[justaddmarbles]

Naive? Maybe, since he'd taken Mick's appearance and thought weakened instead of mad. Or maybe he'd found a glimmer of his old optimism, that thing which used to drive him, and turned it into grim determination.

"Someone else is coming," Glitch said. Lied? No, assumed. "That's what we do here, we look out for each other. So just...hang in there, everything's going to be okay."

He went back to work on the lock, frowning intently. Plan, strategy, he used to be good at this. Go in, sort Mick out, take him to Helen (he'd listened to the tablet, a little), or maybe Helen was on the way. Still lots of variables, but then he was used to that and he did have a last-resort failsafe in the stake.

[location: Mick's place]

[ownlittleprison]

Mick pushed himself against the door for a few pounding heartbeats longer, then stepped away to pace, increasingly agitated by the fact some stupid hero type was trying to pick the lock to his front door, and there was nothing he could do about it. You don't go marching up to a vampire's crypt or whatever, all alone, hoping that backup will arrive in the nick of time. He couldn't risk opening the door, but he couldn't very well-- Oh, right.

He turned back towards the door, returning to position while hoping against hope he could out-stubborn the other guy.

"You're not just saying that to make me feel better, right?"

[location: Mick's place]

[justaddmarbles]

That question got a breathy chuckle. "That's...no, no I'm not."

The lock picking wasn't going well; apparently that wasn't one of his forgotten skills. Glitch set the tool aside and frowned at the door, brain trying to sort through the best course of action. Wait for help? Wait for someone less charitable to arrive? Stake won't kill me, just paralyze me.

Absently he reached down to pick up his improvised stake, just to be ready in case the door magically vanished because he knew the hamsters hated/loved him like that. Unfortunately instead of the relatively smooth bottom of the chair leg he latched onto the jagged business end and hissed when a sharp edge bit into his palm. Instinctively he snatched his hand away and examined the cut, long but shallow, blood welling up and--

Blood. The next word out of Glitch's mouth was something considerably stronger than cripes.

[location: Mick's place]

[ownlittleprison]

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the world slows down - Mick's nostrils flare, taking in the air filling with the scent of blood.

Fresh blood.

Pupils dilating, lips thinning and curling to bare teeth, Mick couldn't stop the growl rumbling from the very tips of his toes, coursing through his gut and his rib cage and out through gritted teeth.

Suddenly, it isn't a question of keeping Glitch out, or from Glitch's point of view, of picking the lock. Not when the door cracks under the pressure of a full body slam.

[location: Mick's place]

[justaddmarbles]

Glitch had, hilariously, put his hand to his mouth to try and staunch the bleeding but clearly it was too late. He reached for the stake again but it clattered away, and the hallway was too narrow for his usual theatrics--

--been here before, small spaces, scratching, biting, just get away, just try and get away quickly before it was too late--

No, no no no, there was still a chance, this wasn't then and he could still figure it out.

"MICK! Listen, come on, just...you can--" Control this, something, words words words....

[location: Mick's place]

[ownlittleprison]

The door cracks from the force of the next slam, the sound echoing hollowly down the winding stairwell. And then it simply isn't there, as someone - or some thing - rips it off its hinges and throws it into the darkness of the apartment itself.

Mick isn't listening to reason, unfortunately. He can't even hear Glitch's voice for his heartbeat reverberating so loudly off of every last surface around him.

He hisses, like something between a snake and a big cat, eyeing Glitch like the monster he was never meant to be.

[location: Mick's place] /sneaks one more in

[justaddmarbles]

And Glitch scrambled back, lip curled into a silent snarl. He had his brain back, he could out-think in this situation, but there were pitch-black shadows that drove his instincts, he'd had to learn to fight his way out of things. Horrible things ,and he hadn't always won.

He could win this, though, all he needed was the stake and his speed and agility would do the rest. Or maybe just some divine intervention...

[location: Mick's Place] as alwayss tl/dr =(

[freaks_myword]

Have some intervention, Glitch, though not so much of the divine. But one can't really be choosey in such situations, right? Lucky for you, Gwen's got something going for her, and doesn't just come in handy in the handiest of times?

She'd been struggling to find the fastest route inside Mick's place. The building was cake, nothing a little electrical manipulation couldn't take care of. But she was used to blueprints, perimeter maps, and careful planning. A good heist had to be perfect or no cigar. She'd been making her way through the vent systems toward Mick's ceiling when the sounds reached her, sounding hollow. She abandoned tact and jumped down into the nearest hall and took off running.

One thing she could always applaud herself for was timing. "Hey! Mick!" Loook at the pretty girl, Micky. She tore off both gloves and felt electricity sizzle. "Down boy."