For Mitchell

[nobler_things]

He ached. His knees were bruised-- he'd jammed them on the floor of the stage, and he'd been coming down off an hours long adrenaline high that just wouldn't quit. Humanity, at times, was horribly tedious. He'd been looking after his own for centuries-- his girls, whose faces changed over the years but each was no less important to him than the

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[chasinghumanity]

The election speeches had left Mitchell unsettled, to put it lightly. His own performance he felt had been lackluster and then, more importantly, that poor girl had had to gone through all that on a stage and Peter Parker had to trample indelicately all over it like her trauma was a piece fitting neatly into his argument. Like bad shit didn't happen everywhere

[nobler_things]

"Having a chat about our feelings, are we?" Spike said with a low chuckle, eyes sliding over to the man at his side for a quick glance at that face all pinched with worry.

Knocking back the rest of his glass, he let out a sigh and waved the bartender down for another pour.

"She's fine. Scared out of her head, but in one piece. Which, as I understand it, isn't the end one usually gets after being fitted with one of those bloody collars."

[chasinghumanity]

"We don't have to, if you don't want," Mitchell pointed out, but that worried look never went far from his face. It got muddled up with detached politeness and interest, but stayed put. Even while asking the bartender for a beer, his eyes darted back and forth between him and Spike.

"Usually happens?" he repeated. "So it was something from home, not something wholly island created?" The only collars Mitchell was aware of in abundance on the island were on dinosaurs and those didn't just appear on people.

[nobler_things]

"Not home, specifically. A demon dimension she had the great misfortune of getting herself trapped in," Spike said, patting down his pockets for a cigarette.

"But that was before I knew her. I'd heard that she'd been broken when Angelus found her there, in Pylea, but I'd never seen her like that. Not until today."