Lady Hare's Test Thread {No Posting Please!}

[Lady March Hare]

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ｍｙ
ｈｅａｒｔ ｈｉｔ ａ ｐｒｏｂｌｅｍ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ { ｅ ａ ｒ ｌ ｙ } ｈｏｕｒｓ,
Ｓｏ Ｉ ｓｔｏｐｐｅｄ ｉｔ ｄｅａｄ ｆｏｒ ａ ｂｅａｔ ｏｒ ｔｗｏ.
[ＷＯＯ - ＨＯＯ!]
Ｂｕｔ Ｉ ＣＵＴ ｓｏｍｅ ｃｏｒｄ (ａｎｄ Ｉ ｓｈｏｕｌｄｎ'ｔ ｈａｖｅ ｄｏｎｅ ｉｔ)
▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ Ａｎｄ ｉｔ ｗｏｎ'ｔ ｆｏｒｇｉｖｅ ｍｅ ａｆｔｅｒ ａｌｌ ｔｈｅｓｅ ｙｅａｒｓ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇

▇ location: R E S T U R A N T XXXXX ▇ mood: A T iE A S E XXXXX ♫ s w e e t m e l o d y ♫XX
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“Ehh…”

Lydia’s expression was drawn as she studied her werewolf friend. She’d never known the guy to experience such horrible luck, and she’d known him for quite a while. She’d been hoping that he’d relent and they’d be able to head home; it would have given her double benefits of seeing Abram home alive and offering a polite out of her first ‘official meeting’ with Darius Constantine, which she was positive was a disaster. It was doubtless that she cared deeply for Abram, but she also cared deeply for her company’s reputation, and the two didn’t make for a pretty mix. Lydia couldn’t focus on being a competent president that would inspire the vampire’s trust while also making sure that Abram didn’t meet with an untimely end. Not only was it inefficient, it was tiring. The sudden light pressure against her back was equal parts comforting and surprising, and she snapped her attention back to Darius. She regarded him silently, something within her sighing at the man’s tone towards Abram, and nodded.

“Of course.” she cleared her throat. She half turned, paused, then glanced back at Abram somewhat warily. “And… be careful, Abram.” She was pretty sure that statement got her a deadpanning response, but she turned her back on the hapless hound and briskly returned to the table. She coached herself mentally as she slid her body back into her seat: relax, you can turn this around. Just get your feet back under you, and for God’s sake, try to sound at least a little competent, Lydia! Straightening her back and raising her eyes to the vampire’s, a small smile pulled at her lips at the mention of the witch.

“Ah, yes. There’s nothing to apologize for.” she insisted. “Her enthusiasm is admirable, and her devotion to her employer is one of the strongest I’ve seen.” Lydia added, carefully editing any hints of the romance that the witch had been openly proclaiming existed from her reply. Office romances were tricky, her mother had often told her; seeing and choosing to ignore for the sake of business relations was always preferable to challenging. Besides, her mother had always added with a cheeky wink, it’s none of your damn business anyway. Lydia couldn’t agree more, and dismissed the situation from the forefront of her mind.

“Oh….. thank you for saying so.” she replied slowly, then hesitated. Darius apparently had a knack for saying things that caught her off guard and, instead of panicking, she looked at this situation as the ultimate sort of training. That helped, a little. For he wasn’t the first to bring up her mother, and he wasn’t the first to offer sentiments for her passing; for these words she had mechanical, stoic replies that both brushed aside any warmth or awkwardness and carefully reestablished business mode. But he had said something different, and it turned her smile slightly sad. “You know… since my mother died, I’ve had many people tell me things about her. They said she was a good leader, a good boss, efficient, hard working, smart… all sorts of things. They were all true, but they made her sound like some sort of machine. You… you’re the first person who has told me that she was kind. She was rather fond of you, Mr. Constantine, and I think I’m beginning to understand why.” The sadness vanished and her eyes, which had dropped momentarily to the table, rose to meet his boldly. The talk had turned to the business, which clicked the brunette into the safety of efficiency.

“Well, to be honest, I still have a great deal of paperwork to get through. I was away in training and had been for the better part of the year when my mother had her accident, so I am afraid I am a bit behind in the ways of the company. And while it would be dishonest of me to say that there won’t be some changes, for though I am as close to being my mother as possible I still have a lot to learn, I’m determined to follow my mother’s vision for how the company should run as closely as humanly possible. I have no plans on changing the arrangement you and your kin had with my mother, Mr. Constantine. Of that you can be sure.” Though her face stayed calm and determined there was enthusiasm in her voice, something subconscious that happened whenever her thoughts turned to the trust her mother had voiced in her on appointing Lydia her successor. Though if there was a moment when she was going to loose her cool and beam like a kid at Christmas, it was at his next statement. He hadn’t taken offense to her, and was giving her a chance to save face? Yes! That a private business meeting could be interpreted as anything other than a private business meeting was an alien concept to the gray eyed girl in that moment; ‘company’, ‘meeting’, and words like them were trigger words that set off the President machine in Lydia’s brain. Couple that with the relief that fate hadn’t completely screwed her over, and she was a happy camper. She nodded, struggling to keep her expression serene. “I would love another chance to meet with you. What time would you like to meet? I assure you that any time is perfect for me; I’ve yet to arrange my schedule for the week, so I can easily meet with you at your convenience.”

And she would meet with him and give this another go. Darius could say that he wanted to meet at 3a.m. on the moon and she’d be there, damn it.

In considerably better spirits, Lydia didn’t even notice her friend’s return until the vampire spoke, and the turned to him with surprise. For a long second she simply stared at Abram, and then had to lift a hand to her lips to cover the smile. He certainly was suited to the look, but all Lydia could see when she looked at him was that old movie and the stupid comments Abram himself had made when they’d watched it together.

“Don’t you laugh at me, Lydia!” Abram warned.

Oh, but it was difficult! Giggling in front of someone fate had just given one a second chance with was stupid, and Lydia swallowed back her amusement as best she could. This was aided slightly by Abram's sudden popularity, and gray eyes widened in disbelief when the werewolf was swarmed. My, the patrons of this establishment were enthusiastic. No doubt another corner of the multifaceted game plan this restaurant was striving to achieve. But Lydia wasn't exactly in the proper mindset to enjoy the pleasant satisfaction that came from observing predictable variables being predictable, since there were oddly enthusiastic teenage girls hanging on to her love interest best friend. She blinked when she caught where her thoughts had drifted and shook her head slightly; it wasn't like her at all to be jealous. Well, maybe that wasn't exactly true, for when pushed she could be possessive, but she wasn't used to feeling the familiar sting out of the blue like this. It was oddly unsettling. Fortunately masking her feelings for Abram was something she had a good deal more practice in, and she limited her outward response to a quirked eyebrow. Darius' words caught her off guard and she looked at him from the corner of her eye in surprise. Was he serious? He sure looked to be, but the vampire had the sort of face that struck her as always being serious in whatever emotion or lack thereof that he chose to portray. The thought that he could be serious made her feel oddly cheerful. Abram had warned her that all vampires hated all werewolves, and that this hatred made it difficult for them to be civil to one another. Darius, while clearly not ready to exchange best friend necklaces with Abram, was being arguably civil. Lydia made a mental note to give the blonde a stern scolding for weaseling preconceived notions about vampires into her head on the way home.

"I don't know..." she couldn't seem to be able to resist murmuring. "There won't be any cat's around, will there?"

Abram cringed slightly, and the urge to giggle made itself known to her again.

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Ｉ ｓａｉｄ ｎｏ, ｎｏ ｙｏｕ'ｒｅ ｎｏｔ ｔｈｅ ｏｎｅ ｆｏｒ ｍｅ!
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▇ location: R E S T U R A N T XXXXX ▇ mood: 1, 2, 3, 4... XXXXX ♫ s w e e t m e l o d y ♫XX
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Had he been in his four legged form, Abram’s hackles might have raised at the vampire’s tone. He was a generally laidback sort of fellow, but this vampire was striking him wrong in every way. Abram came to the quick conclusion that he might not have been partial to the man just because he was a vampire before, but he outright disliked him now. The superiority in the dark haired creature’s carriage and the confidence in his command that Abram would have to follow whether he liked it or not got under the easygoing man’s skin, and it was not a pleasant sensation. Especially when the command clearly carried a veiled insult. Abram snorted, but softly; Lydia would not approve of him making a scene. Speaking of Lydia, had she basically just brushed off the vampire’s touch without taking offense? Abram knew that she’d be working with vampires as her mother before her had, and he was pretty sure he’d sternly explained to her that it was not okay for vampires and humans to ever contact physically. Hadn’t she been listening when he told her she was basically a walking, talking cheeseburger? Geeze!

“Ugh.” he muttered under his breath as he watched the human and the vampire move away. The girl clearly needed a refresher talk; maybe this time he would use diagrams.

His attention shifted to fall on the witch girl, and he couldn’t help lifting an eyebrow at the expression on her face. He was sure it was possible for a person to be more transparent, but he wasn’t really sure how. The girl’s entire face seemed to glow, and the emotion in her eyes was so intense that it made him a little uncomfortable. Love and complete, utter devotion… for that vampire? What had he done to deserve it? Abram stole a quick glance towards the door, frowning slightly. Vampires had never seemed to him like the lovable sort, and this one in particular; there might be some secret side of him that the witch girl who was his lover knew about alone, but the blonde couldn’t help but doubt it. He studied her closely as she turned to him, her face twisting into an adorable smile. Despite the fact that she had leveled him in such a short span of time, Abram was a softy at heart, and the idea of the romance she was involved in through the werewolf’s eyes was a pitiable one. She was a witch, and he supposed witches could take care of themselves, but with such devotion perhaps she was blind to the danger she could be in? What if the vampire got tired of her one day and just killed her off? (Because Abram was pretty sure vampires did that on a regular basis.) He stopped himself before his thoughts went too much farther; as Lydia would say, it was really none of his business. It was a shame, though, because she was cute, and Abram was of the opinion that cute girls should not get mixed up with monsters like vampires.

Deciding that perhaps he should pay attention, especially when his nose alerted him to the fact that there was blood in the open, Abram followed the girl as far as he could before coming to an abrupt halt. His nose twitched and he made a face at the delightful smell combination that was vampires and blood, his eyes scanning for the corpse. No, no; there just seemed to be a bowl of so- Abram leaned forward slightly, squinted, then sighed. Well, wasn’t that clever? Focusing on the conversation that was going down with the shiny vampire was quickly rewarded with the wish that he had never done such a thing. As he’d often suspected, vampires had nothing of interest to say, and he rolled his eyes at the vampire’s first assumption. And the slang was horndogs… wait, vampires got married? Strange; he’d been pretty sure that was another rumor. Hey! Considering where they were, maybe it was. He might have grinned at this, but then the shiny vampire turned his attention to Abram, and there was no reason to smile anymore. He simply narrowed his eyes in a glare and didn’t dignify the other man with a response. The smell would be an issue with him too, but you didn’t hear him whining about it. Geeze, vampires were such prima donnas.

“And you work here… why, exactly?” he asked dryly, looking down as her hand came to wrap around his with some apprehension. He shook it off –it was just hand holding, and not even this little vessel of chaos could kill him by holding on to him, right?—and followed her obediently, his eyes brightening when at least one of his questions for the day was answered. “Cassandra, huh?” He murmured, more to himself than to her as he logged it in his memories. Hey, at least if she killed him now, he’d know what name would be inscribed at the bottom of his tombstone like they did in all of the old cartoons. He was distracted from such amusing thoughts because, oh, hey; another vampire. A female this time; she got a soft, guttural growl from the very tried werewolf. Keeping his mouth shut was taxing on his strength, and he was starting to fantasize about transforming and going apeshit on somebody. Which was a good deal out of character for him and made the shaggy haired lad shake his head when he caught himself thinking it. The woman left, thank goodness, and Abram counted to ten before glancing to Cassey with a small smile.

“Hey, vampires will be vampires. I’m used to them. Sure, not in confined spaces, but used to them enough.” he said with a dismissive shrug. It was annoying when they were face-to-face, but after they left, what did he really care about what a bunch of vampires thought about him? Not two cents, as it was, and as hearing the little witch call them ‘bloodsuckers’ prompted a chuckle it was simple enough to say that he recovered from anger relatively fast. His attention was then drawn to the clothes, which he reached to take from her in relief. “Thanks…” he started, then paused under her continued stare. What, was she going to… supervise? Before he could struggle out something that could answer that question without being rude the girl turned pink and darted from the room. He followed her with his eyes and didn’t battle the smile that settled on his lips. Yup, she was cute all right.

Shaking his head with a chuckle, Abram gave the room a quick, appraising scan before pealing off his soaked clothing. It was funny; this particular outfit had come though countless transformations without so much as a stain, and one trip to a restaurant had ruined its record. No, actually, that wasn’t funny at all, and Abram sighed as he pulled on the clothing Cassey had provided him with. They fit and, grinning again at the insistent words that had been flung over the witch’s shoulder as she had exited, he pulled the vest on to humor her. And the shoes, though they had considerably less give then even the last pair he’d been wearing, and pausing only to finger one of the costume’s dramatic slashes he exited through the door Cassandra had. She was right outside, as promised, and he shifted at her assessment, running a hand through his hair a bit self-consciously.

“Ah, think so?” he grinned at her widely, tweaking one of her fake cat ears in good humor. “Thanks for letting me borrow these, Cass. Who knows? Maybe I’ll end up looking dramatic enough to get a movie deal.”

Moving back into the restaurant had an interesting effect. Even people who had been giving him the stank eye as a result of his inappropriate yelps seemed mollified at his appearance, as if it had all been part of some show they’d only just understood. Abram grinned a bit disbelievingly --paying patrons weren’t that stupid, were they?—and followed Cassey back to their table. Lydia had her game face on, which Abram supposed was good seen as an alternative had been dead, but his eyes hardened at the look at the vampire’s eyes. He was quiet for a long moment, then grinned.

“Don't you laugh at me, Lydia..." he warned before turning his attention to the vampire. "They were just as polite and friendly as I’d expected them to be.” he reported. He was going to add an aside that Cassey seemed to be the only one on payroll with a functional personality, but then something strange happened. He was randomly being hugged by a teenage human. Now, in general Abram liked hugs, but hugs from random strangers was, well, strange. “Um…” He stared down at the girl and stiffened slightly, his expression startled. Wait, was that a camera? The flash said yes. The girl released him and, oh; he got it now. They thought he was an employee. Ahhaha… yeah, right.

Cassey turned to leave and Abram might have turned to ask her back, but then Darius spoke. If any words could cause an ulcer, Abram was pretty sure the vampire had just found them, and the green eyed boy quirked an eyebrow. Seriously? The bloodsucker was offering him a job? Was he insane? A flat ‘no way in hell’ was sure not to disappoint, but then Abram remembered the vampires. And he had a sudden burst of inspiration, at how delightful it would be watching them struggle with the realization that he was their equal, a comrade. They might even have to make nice in front of the customers, which would clearly be a more difficult job for them then it would be for him. And Cass seemed like the easily bored sort; perhaps she could be persuaded into helping him arrange for ‘sensitivity training’? Ooh… the future of torturing vampires with his presence was tempting, tempting…

“Huh. You know, I might have to take you up on that.” he said, sudden warmth in his smile. Abram liked to say that he was laidback, but really, he was rather passive-aggressive. “I have been looking for a job since my last one didn’t quite work out…” That was an understatement. He’d worked at a pet store, and the kittens had proven to be rather racist. It had been a rather traumatic experience… for the customers. He hadn’t lasted a week.

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{ ｓ ｅ ｎ ｔ } ｉｔ ｔｏ ａ ｐｌａｃｅ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｍｉｄｄｌｅ ｏｆ ｎｏｗｈｅｒｅ
Ｗｉｔｈ ａ ＢＩＧ ＢＬＡＣＫ ＨＯＲＳＥ ａｎｄ ａ ｃｈｅｒｒｙ ｔｒｅｅ.
[ＷＯＯ - ＨＯＯ!]
Ｎｏｗ ｉｔ ｗｏｎ'ｔ ｃｏｍｅ ｂａｃｋ, 'ｃａｕｓｅ ｉｔ'ｓ ｏｈ ｓｏ ｈａｐｐｙ
▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ Ａｎｄ ｎｏｗ Ｉ'ｖｅ ｇｏｔ ａ ｈｏｌｅ ｆｏr ｔｈｅ ｗｏｒｌｄ ｔｏ ｓｅｅ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇ ▇