Mitchell Preplay 2.0

[chosehumanity]

Our catch-all post for the plot of coming Tuesday!

We've got a few things coming up; today I'll be posting a 'Mitchell's out of the hospital and talking to Annie and George' post, at which point you guys can send your guys home, if they aren't there already. The day after, Mitchell's looking up Herrick and telling him they're going to duke it out next Tuesday, and has a confrontation with Annie and George about it. He goes back to Fandom, and hangs there for two days.

- He comes back to Bristol with Kate in tow, having called Jack to come meet them, too, and he and George and Annie have teary goodbyes with lots of hugging before George leaves.

- George goes out to tell Herrick where their fight will be. Jack follows him there.

- Mitchell fucks off to the rooftop after saying goodbye to Kate. (Note: we could have Kate simply following *Annie* as she frees all those poor people, depending on what you'd like, Corazon)

- Jack sneaks back after George to witness the confrontation. Mitchell shows up, Nina gets her arm scratched, etc.

- Everyone cools off afterwards in liveplay.

All preplays go in this post!

Comments

The House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

The silence was a little deafening, all in all, now that Mitchell was back and George was-- and everything.

"So," George said, at last, and glanced at Annie. "I'll-- meet you at the station. Later."

"Maybe," she said, obstinately, and leaned against the doorframe. "Or maybe I'll stay here and fight."

Mitchell exhaled. This wasn't easy, exactly.

Re: The House, Bristol

[vanillajello]

Kate stood a little further away, as if to not intrude much. Almost like this didn't concern her, though it did.

"Everyone here is completely insane," she muttered darkly, mostly to herself.

Re: The House, Bristol

[bitten_notshy]

"I think we have to include ourselves in that," Jack said, equally softly.

After all, he'd come back.

Re: The House, Bristol

[vanillajello]

"Hmph."

Well, Kate didn't quite agree, surprising no one. She thought she was being levelheaded, even if she knew there were bigger things going on here than she could really grasp. Stating she was the sane one was a good way of shielding herself from the big stuff.

But she wasn't going to start arguing about that. She just looked on.

Re: The House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell's eyes had darted towards the two of them once or twice as they spoke, because he at least had been hearing it. He just wasn't in any mood to pass comment. Instead, he tousled his hair, and looked at the both of them more obviously this time, so they'd notice.

George took a second breath. "There will come a day where all of you will get why we're-- doing the things we're doing," he started.

"Oh, don't worry," Annie said, with a disgusted snort. "I get it."

Outside the House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

George hadn't managed to completely keep his expression straight during that conversation inside the house - that is, beyond the crying, which... yeah. Now that he was outside, though, he squared his shoulders.

He had a job to do. He had to talk to Herrick.

And so, he was pacing down the street with long, tensely confident strides.

Re: Outside the House, Bristol

[bitten_notshy]

Jack slipped out a few moments after George. For one, it meant he could have a cigarette and not worry about the hugging and crying, or Kate's ongoing near silence.

For another, he was curious what exactly George thought he was doing. (He liked George, but he was a bit prone to what Jack saw as sudden, hysteric action.) He followed along quietly -- close enough that he could have played dumb if George sniffed him out at first, but dropping further and further back and fading into the sidewalk as best as he could as they went on.

Re: Outside the House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

George wasn't trying to sniff anyone out. In fact, while his sense of smell had been significantly heightened due to the time of the month, his attention was so focused on what he was about to do that he didn't even think of smelling anything.

He just kept on walking, steeling himself a little more with every step until he found himself at the funeral parlor. He went in, stepping through the empty lobby and taking a corner until he found himself in a room with Herrick, and an old woman.

"I thought the undertaker thing was just a front," he said.

"Oh," said Herrick, turning towards him. "That's Nanna. She's one of us. She sits there... reads the brochures. Good for appearances."

Re: Outside the House, Bristol

[bitten_notshy]

Between George's refusal to turn around and the empty lobby, Jack was starting to get the sense of unease that told him things were a bit too easy. He fingered the star of David he'd jammed into his pocket and took a couple more steps down a hall.

If he was grabbed, his plan was to fake interest in being turned until he got a chance to run like hell. If he was grabbed and recognized and George couldn't help ... at worst, it would make for an interesting death.

He wasn't surprised to hear Herrick's voice. He was, however, surprised to realize George had sought the vampire out. The hallway was not precisely awash in nooks, but he managed to lean almost casually against a wall, out of the line of sight but not out of earshot.

Re: Outside the House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

If Herrick realised there was a human hiding in the building at all, he certainly didn't make a point of it. He simply leaned over the desk and smiled at the older woman. "You all right, Nanna?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, nodding happily.

"Had an affair with Hitler, didn't you?"

"Yes!" She seemed fairly pleased about the whole thing, actually.

Herrick leaned on back, and threw George - appalled expression and all - a lazy smile. "I know she's not the perfect example of a fit vampire, but you know what it's like. You're out and about, you get the munchies, you'll eat anything."

The House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

"Well, guess it's just you and me then, facing this insanity together," Annie muttered. She had her arms crossed, and she was still glaring at the door through which Mitchell had left several minutes ago.

Re: The House, Bristol

[vanillajello]

Kate, on the other hand, was still looking down at her boots like she had since he'd gone, still wiping at her stupidly red eyes and her wet cheeks.

"Mmhmm," she agreed quietly.

Re: The House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

"I just can't believe he's even thinking about going through with this," Annie raged on. She wasn't feeling quite as observant right now. "If it were up to me--"

And that was as far as she - and her lack of observant - got, as she turned around to find another ghost standing in the living room, touching the bandage at his throat.

Re: The House, Bristol

[vanillajello]

"Nothing you can do, Annie," Kate told her shoes. She wasn't all that big on the whole observant thing, either, seeing as how she'd completely failed to notice the way Annie had stopped talking. "Nothing I can do, either."

Re: The House, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

"They kept coming," the wounded man whispered. At least, Annie assumed he'd been wounded horribly before he died - he had bandages all over. "Something must have happened, because it's like they were angry," he said. He sounded like he was choking. "They wouldn't stop."

"Who kept coming?" She was hyper-alert now, at least to the ghost. Kate was a secondary priority.

The man looked up. "The vampires," he whispered. "Where am I--?"

Annie smiled at him softly. "I think you're dead," she said back, as comforting as she could be.

He quivered. "But I don't want to be dead!"

"I know."

The Hospital, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

On top of the hospital, Mitchell stood and waited. The sun was starting to set. Time was starting to tick away. Herrick... was usually punctual, but he was taking his time now, and whatever that meant, Mitchell knew that it didn't spell much in the way of good.

Still, this was where they'd decided to meet. This was where he'd wait.

He might as well enjoy the sun setting while he could...

Re: The Hospital, Bristol

[vanillajello]

... Which was really not going to be all that much longer, unless he was going to be able to enjoy it even with a fairly breathless Kate bursting through the door onto the roof.

"Mitchell!"

Re: The Hospital, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

"Kate?!" Mitchell asked, staring at her. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay back at the flat!

"Mitchell," Annie snapped. She wasn't far behind Kate. "Herrick's not coming."

Re: The Hospital, Bristol

[vanillajello]

"It's George," Kate supplied with a tone that betrayed what she thought about that particular turn of events, in case her next words didn't. "He's playing stupid fucking hero guy."

On the upside, she seemed to have regained some of her normal way of behaving.

Re: The Hospital, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

"Jesus," Mitchell swore. He was moving before he was even thinking about it. "Where the fuck is he?"

The Hospital Cellar, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

"George!"

Mitchell was the first one down, rushing past the store room in which Jack had hidden without a single thought in mind besides George. He shoved up against the heavy metal door but it wouldn't budge, Annie and Nina and Kate hot on his heels.

"George, don't do this!"

Re: The Hospital Cellar, Bristol

[vanillajello]

Kate was stumbling down right behind him, though maybe paying a little more attention to her surroundings. There were really more sensible ways to get killed right now than to fall and break her neck.

She skittered to a halt behind Mitchell, barely managing to keep from smacking straight into him.

Re: The Hospital Cellar, Bristol

[bitten_notshy]

"In there. I think he's still all right," Jack said, stepping out of the storage room and managing (if barely) not to run into anyone. He was still fighting a nervous quaver in his voice.

More softly, he added, "He -- was going to do this either way."

Re: The Hospital Cellar, Bristol

[chosehumanity]

"So you thought you'd help him?" Mitchell asked, incredulously. He banged on the door, then reached down for the lock-- but yanking that loose didn't seem to do anything. "It's locked from the inside, too," he snarled. "Annie--"

"What is going on here?!" Nina demanded, looking frightened and determined in equal measure, and then she promptly shut up as Annie stepped straight through the door, and started to unlock it.

Re: The Hospital Cellar, Bristol

[bitten_notshy]

"Given the choices, yes."

If Jack had gone back to the house to get Mitchell, George would have come to the cellar completely on his own. No look-out, no one to tell the story or try to stop Herrick if things went wrong. Jack couldn't claim completely pure motives -- he knew his own desire for excitement had gotten mixed up in there -- but he still thought it was the right choice.

"It's a long story," he told Nina.