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--donation bonus (day #15, post 1/5)--
Rather than simply coating the attacker in metal, Hector decided to try something more elaborate. First, he stomped down the door to the apartment and then forced himself between the two. He earned a hatchet in the chest for his trouble. His lack of concern for it, however, brought the altercation to an abrupt standstill, and he seized the opportunity.

Metal gathered around the attacker’s torso, accumulating and crawling all over the man’s skin like a million fleas before two cylinders took form, one for each arm, with iron rungs binding them together. Gray dust extended down his back and stomach, completing a kind of straitjacket.

It wasn’t the most impressive thing in the world, he supposed, but it was certainly one of the more intricate things he had created. And though not altogether intentional, he had added little protrusions from the neck down. They served no function, and for a moment, he wondered why he even put them there. Then he realized that he had unconsciously mimicked a straitjacket’s buttons.

After the assaulted woman called the police, Hector turned to leave, but Garovel made him wait around a bit longer.

‘Just being diligent,’ the reaper said. ‘We don’t actually know why this guy attacked her.’

‘Does it matter?’

Garovel shrugged. ‘We’re uninformed intruders in this situation. For all we know, she could suddenly decide to kill him after we’re gone.’

‘You think so?’

‘No. But that’s not the point. We’re making assumptions about the situation which are PROBABLY correct, but let’s at least wait until we hear sirens before leaving, eh? Better safe than sorry, y’know.’

‘Hmm. Alright.’

Sirens soon arrived as expected, however, and Hector took his leave.

His mind returned to those unintended buttons again. They’d seemed like a minor thing, just a collective error on his part. But as he thought about it, he began to understand; they were not an error. If anything they were the opposite. They were extra. He’d created something which had more to it than expected.

And that had never happened before.