A Party, the Funeral Home, Bristol, Friday Evening

[chosehumanity]

The party was in full swing. Ivan's Twitter feed had done its work: as far as Mitchell could tell, every vampire in Bristol was here right now, chatting, sipping drinks, dancing to the music. He'd gone on a limb and invited Eric too, partly to avoid future questions, and partly to at least hang with the guy one more time before giving him the 'yeah, you've been a good mate, but I'm trying to get out of this scene' speech.

And, okay, partly because Mitchell was having epic jitters right around now. Should he go through with this? Of course he should - he'd promised Lucy. But was he going to do this right? What would be the best way to say it? Just play it all casual-like, or make some kind of big, grave, Herrick-like announcement--

No, not the Herrick path. That would be sort of defeating the point.

He sighed, took a wig of his beer, and stared out into the crowd. Right. He could do this.

Eric Northman	Eric lounged casually against a wall, holding a beer and sipping from it (though the amount of liquid inside wasn't going down at all), appearing bored as long as you didn't look too closely at his eyes, which were appraising the people in the room by relative threat level. He'd already planned four separate escapes from the room, which, was just how Eric dealt with being in a strange place surround by vampires he didn't know personally. If he'd been feeling threatened, everyone in the room would have known it.
John Mitchell	"Eric," Mitchell said, some indeterminable amount of time later. At his side was a much taller, dark-haired and blue-eyed vampire-- about two centuries Mitchell's senior, more or less. "This is Ivan, a good friend of mine." He'd like them to meet before the party potentially blew up - metaphorically speaking - after his announcement. Ivan smiled. It looked more like muscle movement than honesty, but in the fashion that insinuated he'd forgotten how to smile at normal things at all. "Hello, it's nice to meet you. I'd say I'd heard a lot about you, but that would be a lie, and a little predictable."
Eric Northman	"Likewise," Eric said, giving the other vampire a very shallow nod. "It's quite a gathering." The last two vampire parties Eric had attended had ended badly, so if it looked like he was assessing the participants most likely to start something, it was because he was.
John Mitchell	"Thankfully, most of the vampires in Bristol are on twitter these days," Ivan mused, idly. "In the old days, you had to go sending telegrams, or throwing carrier pigeons at people, god forbid..." Mitchell stole a glass of something alcoholic-looking off a plate and swallowed it back quickly. He'd need all his courage for the coming hour.
Eric Northman	"And it was so awkward when they ate the carrier pigeon instead of receiving the message," Eric added. "I prefer texting--Twitter works well for you?"
John Mitchell	"It's the most efficient way to reach the greatest amount of people," Ivan agreed. "I don't think we've missed a single one of them, honestly." Mitchell set his glass back down. "Speaking of which, I should get 'round to that." Ivan spared him a glance. "Mitchell," he said, "Are you sure?"
Eric Northman	Eric's eyes flickered between the two of them. "It's better to do it now," he decided. He'd seen how much liquid courage Mitchell had been putting away, after all.
John Mitchell	"Yeah," Mitchell said, rubbing at his brow. "Yeah, it is." Ivan sighed. "Look, you're doing a good thing here," he said, "I mean, it's working. You got everyone on the wagon-- well, except for me, obviously, but I'm special needs-- my question is, are you sure you want to throw it all away?" "I'm not throwing anything away, I'm passing it over," Mitchell said, leaning back against the wall. "You know, someone... intelligent and capable, and... disinterested--" Ivan stared at him with big eyes. "...Oh my good God," he said, as he realised what Mitchell was asking, and flounced strolled past both vampires into the office next door without another word.
Eric Northman	Eric stared at him. "You're about to do something colossally stupid, aren't you?"
John Mitchell	"Nothing that bad, Ivan's just acting up," Mitchell said, holding up a placating hand in Eric's general direction. "Hold on." Which was necessary, because he was moving after Ivan pretty quick. "Ivan--" "I'm just not ready for that kind of responsibility," Ivan snapped, halfway through the door already. "You're two-hundred and thirty-six!"
Eric Northman	Eric rolled his eyes. "Children," he muttered.
John Mitchell	Mitchell shut the door behind him, hard, so at least they wouldn't be as audible. "Look, it's a caretaker role," he snapped. "All you have to do is keep the place--" "We are supposed to set up a relationship with the next Chief Constable," Ivan hissed, turning around and getting in his face, "Since you tore the last one's throat out!" Oh, come on. "Maybe there's no need!" Mitchell argued. "Everyone's clean now, you said so yourself." "Yeah," Ivan said, sarcastically, "Until someone goes bananas and tears into a couple of Cub Scouts." "We'll set up a new partnership! I mean, Christ," Mitchell said, gesturing heavily at his head. Seriously, Ivan? "You've arm-wrestled with Colonel Gaddafi, you'd think you can cope with the Chief Constable for Bristol!"
Eric Northman	Eric snorted. "Really? Gaddafi?" Way to miss the point utterly, Eric.
John Mitchell	"He's quite a good sport, shame about the lunacy," Ivan said, though even mentioning that much wasn't draining the tension from his voice, "But which leader doesn't have a touch of that these days. Mitchell, at the moment, I'm keeping my excesses in check as a favor to you, and because it amuses me. But you have no idea of the effort that that entails. Now I can't lead, not even by example. I'm just... one step away from wiping out an entire branch of Argos." His fingers trembling, he yanked a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. "But that's why this is a good idea," Mitchell said, "Give you something to focus on! You know, this," and he turned briefly to Eric to give him a firm-if-wild-eyed-look, then shoved his finger in Ivan's face, "...is the problem with vampires. Too much fucking introspection."
Eric Northman	Eric arched up a brow. "It's not easy to quit what we're hard-wired to do. We eat people. It's kind of a thing." And sometime they ripped their spines out on national television, but that was more a Russell being crazy issue.
John Mitchell	"We can be better than that," Mitchell said, firmly. (It was one of those things he'd been telling himself so he could sleep at night, for a very, very long time.) Ivan sighed, and patted him on the shoulder. "You're going to have to find someone else, Mitchell, mate."
Eric Northman	"Fish are friends, not food," Eric muttered not quite under his breath and sounding amused. (What? He'd spent the movie waiting for something to get eaten.) "Is there anyone else?" he added more seriously.
John Mitchell	"No one with even a fraction of the brains it takes to keep this running," Mitchell said, pressing his fingers to his temple. "Ivan-- I've met someone." He glanced up at the vampire. Last ditch attempt, this. "And I can't be with her and be part of this. I know it's a huge favor, but I can't--" He sat down on the chair near Eric's side. "She's my way out of this chaos. This could be my last chance, and if I get--" He crushed his eyes shut. "...It doesn't matter." Because pinning all your hopes of recovery on a single person was totally realistic and healthy and everything.
Eric Northman	Eric gave him a disbelieving look. "You're giving up power for a human? Who, as is their habit, will get old and die?"
John Mitchell	"Hey, most of us don't live so long--" Mitchell started, but Ivan interrupted him. "My Daisy was human once," he said, looking straight at Eric. "She changed her mind about that. She's the only thing that makes this long apalling life worth living." Then he turned to Mitchell. "You should have said. Everyone deserves a Daisy."
Eric Northman	Eric rolled his eyes. "Fine. Will the ones out there be full of warm, fluffy feelings that you're stepping down for more sex with a human?" His wouldn't, but his vampires were unapologetically anti-human in most cases. ...Bill was a freak. Everyone knew that.
Ivan	Ivan snorted. Then he started laughing. "Considering that Mitchell got the job by ramming one poor sod's fangs out and leaving them down in the dungeons to starve as an example, I doubt any of these sad sacks would put up a fight." He glanced at the door. "Christ, just look at the poor bastards."
Eric Northman	Eric shrugged a shoulder. "They are terribly young."
John Mitchell	"Yeah, well, I need to go talk to them now," Mitchell muttered, shoving past Ivan and back onto the party floor. Where he had to bellow rather loudly to get everyone's attention, but he got it anyway. "I have an announcement to make--!" Ivan strolled past him, his eyes flicking along the floorboards.
Eric Northman	Eric followed behind them, shutting the door and looking as intimidating as a thousand-year-old Viking can.
John Mitchell	"I'm sorry, to keep you all in suspense like this," Mitchell started, turning around to face the crowd. He was absolutely terrified, though not for the reasons Eric brought up. He just wanted to do this well, to leave something standing, you know? "I've made a decision. This has been... a really, really interesting journey... But tonight marks the end of the journey for me." Ivan's eyes flicked across the floorboards again. And there it was. There he caught it. "I'll be leaving you in the capable hands of--" A little screen hidden between the floorboards, tied to a package, and displaying one simple message: Hello. He dove at Mitchell. And then everything exploded.

[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, and preplayed with the awesome texted3times. Also: taken from Being Human 2x06. I'd say no vampires were harmed in the making of this post, but I'd be lying. To be continued... ]]

Comments

[onlymistaken]

[OOC: DAMMIT {SPOILER}.]

[bitten_notshy]

[OOC: DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT.

Sebastien wishes to register his agreement with Eric's assessment, however. Silly young vamps.]