my body is a cage that keeps me from dancing

[attitude]

Ten days is enough to change a lot. Faye's hit the gym every single day since her encounter with the spider woman, and hit it hard, making sure to build up strength and endurance in preparation for the exploring she was about to do in Darrow. Whatever time wasn't spent on the workout was put towards research, gathering of materials, and pointed questions posed to those who lingered around Semele's.

She's still green, but feeling pretty good about her chances these days.

The problem is that she gives off the air of someone trying hard, and so it becomes a little more difficult to lure people her way. It's a little frustrating at first, until she finally figures out that maybe the trick is to tackle the problem in the opposite direction. Be the one lured, instead of the one luring.

Before heading out of the bar with a man she suspects to be a vampire, Faye ducks into the bathroom, calling the brilliant bastard. When someone picks up, Faye doesn't wait for the greeting.

"How close are you to Obsidian right now?" she asks.

If it isn't Owen on the phone, at least the questions being asked probably won't be about that kind of hunting.

Comments

[attitude]

She waves as he retreats towards the back of the shop, allowing herself a light little laugh as she turns on her heel and lets her gaze skirt across some of the others in the room. There's no one she's willing to waste the time with, not wanting to leave any more tracks than necessary, but she can't deny that the power feels good as she stands tall, then sprawls across one of the couches in the lobby.

A few minutes later, she gets the signal, smirking as she pushes off the couch and walks... maybe not as quickly as she could.

Because there's no way he's sending that signal from the brink of death.

When she kicks the door open, gun pointed at the redhead and a sharpened stake under her belt, Faye almost can't contain a laugh. Because there are definitely fewer clothes on him than before.

And a lot more rope involved.

"I can't remember the last time I saw shibari being used on a man," she remarks, not breaking gazes with the woman, who's turned now to look her in the eye. And is way, way too calm about the gun to be an average human.

[beat_death]

"...laugh a bloody minute," Owen mutters under his breath, catching the way Faye almost laughs at him. Next time, she can be the bait, if it's so funny.

He's managed to only end up with one arm tied up, stretched up and over his head. His shirt and jacket are both somewhere across the room, but he'd managed to move the earring to the pocket of his trousers before they'd gotten too far into it. He may be a bit rusty at all this, but he's smart enough to know that both hands bound means he won't be able to call in the calvary.

Next time, he's definitely going to have a weapon on him, because this is just a sad state of events from his end of things.

The redhead though, she's even less pleased about the situation than Owen happens to be as she turns to face Faye.

"And just what the hell is this supposed to be?" she asks, though she doesn't make a move just yet, doesn't raise her voice. Owen wonders for a moment if she's just playing with them and they've underestimated things.

[attitude]

"It's about that guy I saw coming out of your room with a very peculiar set of injuries that he didn't go in with," Faye says, standing her ground, her expression no longer laughing. "You really think you're going to get away with that without people noticing?" The truth is, though she's done her best to prepare going in, all of the leads and resources she's read on vampires have been so varied that it's almost like trying to protect herself against a blank threat. Who knows if she's on the right trail?

It's about building intuition, but Faye knows she's far from the best one. And in her peripheral vision, she notices that Owen's a bit more trapped than she was hoping. Maybe she should have barged in earlier, but for now, she's not allowed to regret her choices. Only make the ones best for the team.

So, shooting a brief look in Owen's direction, Faye reaches down to her thigh to unsheath a dagger, throwing it hard. Her aim is good, but she's careful to throw in a direction less liable for error, off to the side of Owen's free arm. The worst it might have done would be a nick to the thigh. Fortunately, it sinks into the wall, well within his reach.

Unfortunately, the moment's distraction gives the woman a chance to rush up to Faye, knocking her off-balance and quickly pinning her against a wall. "Nothing wrong with that if he agrees to it," she breathes, and from this distance, Faye gets a clear view of those canines, long and tapered to a sharp point, almost like the fangs of a snake.

[beat_death]

Owen's set to work on trying to get his hand free just as soon as the redhead's attention's mostly on Faye. He's having a bit of trouble with the strap and can't manage to loosen it. At least, not without drawing attention to the fact that she's about to be a bit outnumbered.

Trying to free himself, he looks away from the scene for just a second, eyes snapping back when the knife whizzes past him to sink into the wall. It's not a second before he's grabbing it with his free hand, reaching up to cut at the strap and free himself, a bit of it left there on his wrist like he's making some sort of horrible fashion statement.

In the same instant, Faye's overtaken, and, dagger in hand, he lunges across the room to charge the woman from behind, pressing the cold metal of the knife against her throat.

"Might want to rethink whatever you were about to do," his voice low and threatening, though for all he knows it's an empty threat. Because fuck knows how resilient these things are to injury.

[attitude]

The breath is knocked directly out of Faye as she slams back against the wall. The woman doesn't have a typical human's strength, and Faye's about to tell Owen as much when suddenly, a hand slams against her neck, cutting off air. Fortunately, Owen's made good use of his time, coming over to press his dagger against the vampire's throat. Before he quite finishes his threat, there's a sizzling noise in Faye's ears, and the hand around her neck rapidly lets go.

"How dare you?" the vampire screeches, even as her knees start to buckle. Faye coughs to regain air, but keeps her eyes fixed on the woman as she tries to elbow back against Owen's body, but with far less force than she was using only a moment ago. From the looks of it, Owen might even be able to keep a good grip on the woman all on his own, even before Faye quickly steps up with a sharpened stake to press in warning against the woman's chest.

"Silver blade," she explains, glancing up at Owen. "Can't say that I paid legitimately, so we might have to sneak it back to the real owner before sunrise tomorrow, but I figured all the better to be prepared, right?"

"You bitch," the vampire grits, even as she howls in pain with the knife being brought further against her skin.

[beat_death]

"Good thinking," Owen says to Faye, admittedly impressed. Though he's angry with himself for not having done the research that he should have done before this. He might've brought his own silver knife, if that were the case. Or at least, he might've kept one on him, just in case he got a phone call.

He doesn't let up, though he does take two steps back, bringing the woman with him to give Faye a bit more room, so she's not pressed against the wall anymore. The blade continues to sizzle against her skin, and Owen's tries to place what it might smell like, but is having trouble with it. It's burning flesh— he doesn't even want to think about how he knows what that smells like but just a bit different.

"And she might be a bitch, but you're the one on the other end of the knife, sweetheart," he says to the vampire, then looks up at Faye. He's not entirely sure just how long he can hold on here, so it'd probably be best if she got on with it.

[attitude]

There's something incredibly satisfying about having Owen praise her for the forethought, especially after he'd been so skeptical of her knowledge in their last meeting. Even though most of his assumptions were true — that Faye hadn't been in this line of work, that she was inexperienced — she knows that she can be a decent learner when she's pressed to it.

Having a taunt on the tip of his tongue only emboldens her further, a cunning grin on her lips as she draws back an arm and pounds it against the blunt end of the stake pressed to the woman's chest. It's not easy pushing wood through flesh, but Faye manages it before too long.

Only to watch in horror as the woman seems to quiver and melt between them before suddenly splattering in every which direction, walls streaked with red.

Of her mouth, as well as the room.

"...what the fuck."

[beat_death]

"Shit!" Owen shouts, and all at once, the redhead has turned liquid and, he's completely covered in blood and whatever else is left of the vampire Faye's slain. He's a doctor and he's used to all manner of gore, both human and alien, but having it all over his face and clothes and in his hair is another matter entirely.

"Was it supposed to do that? Did you know it was going to do that?: he asks, wiping blood from his face with his palm. It comes away in one bloody glob, falling to the floor in one congealed piece. The only consolation is that Owen's shirt and jacket are on the other side of the room and likely aren't as completely covered in it all as he is right now.

[attitude]

"Would I have decided to go after a vampire first if I knew it'd do that?" Faye asks incredulously, and maybe she isn't being half as calm as she should be as a hunter, instead shuddering and stamping on the ground as she tries to brush off as much of the gunk as possible. Which isn't much, considering how it sticks to her, stringy bits drawn across her skin. "More than ever before, I've learned the meaning of regret."

Trying her best to keep the nausea down, Faye wrinkles her nose and continues trying to pick bits and pieces off of her body, spitting down on the ground as well to rid her mouth of the decay, before glancing up and finally settling her gaze on Owen himself.

It doesn't quite make up for the mess, but the look of him makes the sting a little softer.

"Pfft," she snorts.

[beat_death]

Owen's not exactly up on his folklore, but he doesn't think he's ever read anything about this particular consequence of driving a stake into a vampire's heart. He thinks he remembers something about people supposedly decapitating them and being sure to rebury the pieces away from each other, but nothing, nothing about this.

"Well this is a fine fucking mess," Owen says, and at least his mouth was closed when it all happened, so he doesn't feel like he's gotten any in there. Thank God for small consolations.

Still, though they've set out to do what they intended-- even if it didn't happen in a way that either of them predicted it would-- there's the matter of getting out of Obsidian without being seen. Not the easiest thing in the world to do when you're covered in blood.

[attitude]

"You don't need to say that twice," Faye says with a sudden shudder, stepping away from the mess and noting grimly that the only positive she has is the fact that the outfit she's wearing was bought for the occasion. It's a loss of cash to toss it out, but it's nothing she would have worn on a regular basis, anyway.

"Do they have a shower in here?" she asks, wrinkling her nose as she notices the smell, metallic and far too rancid for something that only just died in front of their eyes. "Do we even try to clean this up? There must be tracks and fingerprints everywhere."

A glance back down at the mass of dead vampire shows that it's still bubbling and liquefying. "Is it even illegal to kill vampires in Darrow?" she asks suddenly, brows furrowed. "It's not like that looks especially human."

[beat_death]

"Can't really kill something that's technically already dead," Owen hypothesizes, though he doesn't know the law in Darrow for sure. He does know that the people there seen pretty alright with ignoring these particular bits of the supernatural though, so it's probably a fair guess.

He walks over to his clothes and picks them up, notes the blood on his shirt. At least he's got the option of closing his jacket. The black leather won't be as horrible with the blood if he manages to get all the chunks off.

Jesus, this is fucking awful.

"How about you be the one to head out and ask the staff for a mop, bucket and a couple of scrub brushes, then?" Owen says, wiping his face off with his shirt.

[attitude]

"Technically, but her mind definitely seemed as alive as either of us," Faye points out, starting to tug open all of the drawers in the room in hopes of finding something to change into. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be filled with toys, restraints, any number of things that Faye imagines they would have started using had she not barged in at Owen's signal.

"Ugh, maybe we can sneak out the back," groans Faye, finally finding one with a length of cloth that she's pretty sure is intended for use as a blindfold, but that has enough absorbency to serve almost as a towel. "I don't know, what do you think? Can we even make a claim of self-defense? Actually, shit."

Her eyes dart up at the corners of the walls, quickly scanning.

"Don't they sometimes film stuff in places like this?"

[beat_death]

"Don't think they'd be doing much business if they were filming inside the private rooms," Owen reasons, though he knows that the main area's another matter entirely. Truth is, he's not too worried about all that, mostly because he knows that Tosh should be able to wipe out whatever footage they've got of the two of them in the system. At least, if they're not completely backwards and use tape or something.

With a city like Darrow, fuck knows.

Owen starts to pull on his shirt, but decides against it, putting on his jacket instead and zipping it shut. He wads his shirt into a ball and stuffs it into one of the pockets.

"Back door." he says, and hopefully it's not rigged to a fire alarm.

[attitude]

Glancing up at the top of the door that leads out of the room, Faye doesn't see any hint of an emergency exit trigger, so she nods and pulls her jacket more tightly around her chest.

Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the full length of the boots that she has laced up to her thighs, but against the black leather, she'll just have to hope that no one casually walking

around will notice the blood quickly congealing on her clothing.

"C'mon, we'll look less suspicious this way," she says, looping her arm easily around Owen's and holding him close as they slip through the doorway. In spite of all of the snafus from

earlier, she's finally feeling lucky as they slip out without too much notice.

All things considered, aside from the gunk that they left in the room, they've done pretty well for themselves.

"So, how bad was I for a first time?" Faye asks, raising a brow.

[beat_death]

He tries not too look too conspicuous as they make their way away from Obsidian. it mostly involves trying not to look around them as they walk, so he doesn't look like someone trying to get away with something. It's a different sort of thing, considering how they were able to waltz in and out of situations like this with Torchwood. Christ, they'd come into one crime scene to find their name smeared in blood on the wall and hadn't had to lay low because of it.

Once they've taken a few turns, Owen feels a bit less like someone might be trailing them; he feels like he can finally take a breath.

"Might want to give me a bit of warning next time, if someone's going to have to be tied up," he says, but other than the mess they've made, the potential for someone tracking them down for it, and his ruined shirt, it wasn't a half-bad outing.

[attitude]

Once they're a couple of blocks away from Obsidian, Faye lets herself breathe a big sigh of relief, air rushing out and rising in the cold air as she grins and holds tightly to Owen's arm for just a moment. He has his own daily life to get back to, as does Faye, but there's something a little unforgettable about staking one's first vampire together.

"But it's so much more fun when getting tied up is a bit of a surprise," she jokes, patting his shoulder with a slight huff of laughter. "I mean, you could have guessed when I asked to meet at Obsidian. Or, you could just get used to missions with me being a little more... fun." Her smile broadens, before she loosens her hold on his arm.

No point in getting overly sentimental.

"Do I get to escort you home tonight?"

[beat_death]

He's considered it. It'd be a lie to say that he hasn't. But he's a male, so Owen reckons that it'd be wrong for him to not consider it with her wearing leather and holding him in close, even if it was a part of their act. Even now, he's tempted. Maybe she doesn't mean what it sounds like she means, but even so, Owen's not unconvinced that he couldn't turn all that around in the end if he wanted.

But the first thing that comes to his mind is Tosh. It's weird, because he's not used to it, especially not in instances such as these. Already, he's toeing the line with all this, and even just inviting her back for a beer probably wouldn't go over well.

"Think I can probably make it alright on my own," Owen replies, though there's nothing bitter or hostile in his tone, "Took out a vampire already, so I think I can manage anything else between here and there."