71 Serendipity, Thursday Late Afternoon

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell got in from Baltimore sometime just past noon. He hadn't listened to the radio for a while; now he had oceans of time, and he was planning to use them to catch up. After all, you did get tired of having a sixteen-year-old accuse you of being unaware what was going on all the time.

The first thing he did when he finished was leave a voicemail. The second thing he did was - post-squirrel-checking the room - launch a diatribe over the phone to George about stupid bloody vampires who didn't know how to clean up after themselves or work the system. (He'd contemplated calling Mina despite their rusty truce, but he didn't particularly feel like helping out on this whole mad hunt by waking up any potential sleeping dragons about anyone else)

The third thing he did was flop down on the couch with a beer, cross his arms, put on a film that wasn't at all thematic for his feelings about the whole thing at large, and brood.

If he'd had any inclination of letting Fandom at large know about himself, it was firmly gone by now.

[[ ever get a post stuck in your head during your trip home? post open to anyone who'd have a reason to show up or call ]]

Comments

[bitten_notshy]

Jack didn't think Mitchell had anything to do with the attack, but the whole mess had him feeling like checking in was a good idea -- especially since Nick had gotten outed on the previous day's radio. He wasn't sure he wanted to just turn up on the man's doorstep, but a phone call? He could do that.

He dialed and waited for an answer a bit impatiently.

[chosehumanity]

"This is Mitchell," Mitchell answered, automatically.

Sometimes he forgot about caller ID, still.

[bitten_notshy]

"And this is Jack," Jack said. "Mitchell, have you been listening to the island news on the radio lately?"

[chosehumanity]

"What, you mean the call to arms for torches and pitchforks?"

It wasn't... hard to figure out what kind of a mood he was in. Mitchell got up and wandered towards the windows; might as well run a second squirrel check.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack heard the mood, yes. Which was why he didn't immediately snap back with a sarcastic comment about how positively inconvenient it was people were upset a teenage girl had been turned into a snack.

"Then you know she's blaming Max," he said instead. "I talked to her -- she's quite certain."

He didn't sound like he was quite so certain, was the thing.

[chosehumanity]

"Oh, please. If Max is a vampire, I'm a Saturday night American talkshow host in my spare time," Mitchell said, his voice low. He yanked on the curtains to make sure they were shut. "He's one of my mates."

[bitten_notshy]

"That's the thing," Jack said. "No one's ever suspected him of it before. I spoke to Rose about it last night, and -- he would have had to be turned very recently and by someone very, very stupid."

There was some slight prodding, there. He didn't think Mitchell was that kind of stupid, but -- never assume.

NFB

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell's eyes flickered black for a moment. He opened a window as his eyes shifted back and called out to the squirrels to bloody well scatter. No powers; just the power of the human voice.

The ravens were probably a little more esoteric, but it wasn't like they did anything other than follow him about on occasion. They made some noise as he shut the curtains again.

"He'd have to have been recruited by someone who doesn't know how to cover their tracks," Mitchell shot back. "This is bloody stupid. Even if this was a case of a vampire losing their shit and pushing too hard, they should've known better and just blamed it on an animal attack. Or taught him to blame it on an animal attack. This is just begging for trouble."

He was well-versed in these things.

Re: NFB

[bitten_notshy]

That answered Jack's question. He couldn't prove a negative, but (morality aside) the man had too much control over himself to indulge in anything as flat-out shortsighted as hunting on the island.

Which was, as far as he could tell and for different reasons, true of all four of the vampires he knew about. And so the detective was out of suspects.

"It is," he agreed. "And I'm afraid the trouble is going to come down on you and some of the others and miss the real target. And I'm sure Max won't have an easy time of it, either, even if he's cleared."

Re: NFB

[chosehumanity]

"If it's not Max," Mitchell said, "It's some bonehead who either looks like him enough that he got away with shoving the blame on someone else, or who thinks it's funny to endanger the lot of us just to see you all squirming about. Jesus christ."

Re: NFB

[bitten_notshy]

"Or it's someone who used magic to play with Raven's mind and make her see Max," Jack suggested. "Either way, it's someone who doesn't care what happens to anyone else. He's dangerous and I have no idea who he might be."

None of this should be a surprise, considering the topic under discussion, but Jack had a hard time remembering the evil-undead-fiends technicality.

Re: NFB

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell rubbed at his hair, practically yanking it over his forehead. "Right," he said, "So we've got a rogue vampire running around."

And that with no safety net in place to dispose of the bodies.

Re: NFB

[bitten_notshy]

"That's the size of it," Jack said. "I'd offer suggestions, but it's not as if I can do anything."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max still wasn't wandering around in plain sight, and he was getting quite good with the whole windcrafted invisibility trick. Which explained why the knock at Mitchell's door didn't have any visible source.

Other senses? Well, sure. But humans tended to be visual creatures.

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell wasn't human, though, and he could smell Max a mile away.

There was no blood other than the kind pumping through his veins that Mitchell could smell, though, which both put him more at ease and ticked him off more. He opened the door.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"It's Max. Mind if I come in?" Max asked, maintaining his invisibility. It's not like he knew Mitchell could smell him.

[chosehumanity]

"... Yeah. Sure."

Mitchell could still act the part, at least. He stepped aside.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Once he was inside and the door was close, Max dropped the invisibility and sighed in relief. "Got your voicemail. Thanks."

[chosehumanity]

"No problem," Mitchell said. At least he didn't have to act startled; he hadn't seen Max's powers in this much use before.

He shut the door. "Stick up for your mates, right?"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Well," Max shrugged. "It's appreciated. Especially considering how convinced people are that it's me." Not that he blamed them, really... Raven wasn't the sort to lie about this sort of thing, after all.

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell shrugged. "Hey, we've shared a few beers," he said, padding up towards the kitchen. "What's the world come to if you can't trust your instincts about that anymore?"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max laughed. "You've got a point. I mean, it'd be sort of embarrassing if you didn't know your drinking buddy was a vampire, right?"

[chosehumanity]

"Exactly," he said, pulling open the fridge and taking out two beers. "Besides, God only knows there's worse things than you wandering around the island."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Obviously." Max's eyes flashed unhappily as he took one of the beers. "Something attacked Raven, after all."

[chosehumanity]

"Something that doesn't want to be found," Mitchell supplied, nodding his head towards the couch.

And the monster persecution movie on. Hush.