тнє Ⓓєsєят --- p r i v a t e

[Lady March Hare]

For half a second she stared at him suspiciously, and then the woman's muscles relaxed, a hand flicking up to shove her hair back from her exasperated face. If she had a fault (and, she had to admit, as a human being, she was bound to have a few XD), it was defensiveness. When startled she had a bad habit of barking out indiscriminately, and she had inadvertently spazzed in front of a complete stranger. Nice.

“Repair... man..?” she repeated slowly, then straightened abruptly and cleared her throat as she willed the color from her cheeks. “Mr. Peters didn't mention anything about a repairman...” she stopped herself and cut her eyes to the side, sending a subliminal glare at the sink.

Wait... if Mr. Peters had someone on call for things like that, then she'd correctly found her explanation for the sink! So she had been overreacting; how embarrassing. But who cared? She felt better! And besides... if this man worked for Mr. Peters, he must have heard all of that ghost mumbo-jumbo; she smelled a potential customer in her future! <3

“Oh... nice to meet you, Russell.” she said with a sheepish smile. “Sorry about the whole screaming thing... I'm still getting new to this house, you know?” She glanced at his hand and almost sighed; the last time she'd shook hands with someone the little brat had stolen her purse; she'd been avoiding the contact ever since. Despite that she forced her smile and slid her hand into the one he offered for a shake. “I'm Olivia Henderson... just call me Oli.” she said, glancing down at the oddly cool grasp before tentatively withdrawing her hand. Strange; her own palms were so hot in comparison...

[Lady March Hare]

So, she was braced for the same old, same old; she might be a worthy adversary after all. But that would remain to be seen; just because she'd managed to keep herself from running for the door didn't mean he was going to let her off easy. Fine; he could play games if that is what she was after. Though by no means a game of any sort when he completed his circuit of the room the door slowly closed on its own, shutting heavily.

Carter was still in the phase of slowly mastering the abilities of ghosts; he could appear and disappear with ease and speak to the living were he of a mind to (he was rarely of a mind to when he was alive, and death had changed very little about him in that respect), though his apparent talent was his ability to effect the world of the living with his thoughts and emotions alone. Of course he was still trapped in this bar and had limited abilities to solidify himself, but seeing as the first was a given and there was no real motivation to strive for the latter he relied on his most easily mastered talent.

The lights all flared and dimmed, flickering in unison whether they had been turned on or not. Lights were easy; he'd never had any problems with the lights. He could make them all burn themselves out or cut off in an instant, but found he enjoyed making them flicker the most; it seemed to get the point across most effectively. He stalked towards her, flicking his arm to the side as he passed the bar. The supplies newly placed upon it went flying, some clattering to the floor and one bottle actually making it across to smack into the wall. The smell of chemicals tainted the air, and the temperature in the building continued to drop. She had mettle; so what? He'd never met someone who would put up with the terror and stress he was capable of... why would she? The bar had been long closed; she could have no ties to this place. Maybe that was why he was so irritated with her, maybe not. Either way, she was not going to shrug him off.

[hair band J U N K I E]

It was so hard to keep himself from cackling when she shot a look to the sink, not to mention the security that she seemed to be feeling. Damn, this woman was a hell of a lot more manipulative than he thought! Not that he was complaining, this was definitely working in Russell's favor. He ended up letting out a small laugh at her mentioning of the screaming, just shrugging. "Eh, don't sweat it. It happens all the time." Heh, oh, once again, a dead giveaway...no pun intended. xD He gave her hand a firm shake, before allowing hers to slip out. It was much smaller, and much more warm. It's been such a long time since he's made any sort of mutual contact with anyone, it was oddly fulfilling.

"Olivia...Oli. Oli does seem to suit ya more, who gave ya that nickname?" He questioned, tilting his head to the side with a risen eyebrow. Oh sure, he could be playing it off being all polite now, but that didn't mean he won't want to mess with her later. He was gradually giving clues to the puzzle. Slowly but surely, maybe she'd have enough wit to put the pieces together and realize just what it is she's dealing with here.

But then again...he was a little iffy on this one. She was treating him like an average person, despite the fact that he looked like he stepped out of a time portal from the eighteen-hundreds. He'd might even get away with wearing his hat and his bandana around his neck, along with a long leather trenchcoat that he owned. Later on he was tempted to re-attach his spurs to his boots, that would be an attention grabber. Little did she know that he was plotting all of the possibilities for this evening as they spoke.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Marie had forced herself to ignore the shutting door. For the fact that the door is indeed shut now, it did make her a bit more uneasy since she was temporarily confined in here. Her mental inventory-taking was brought to an abrupt hault when she watched the reflection in the old glass, of the lights around her flaring and fading, and just all out being...well, controlled. Her heart was beating so hard at this point, that she felt like that it could be heard echoing throughout the bar in the silence.

She had slowly turned around, but before she could even process another thought, that's when the supplies that she had just placed on the counter flung off, one bottle going and hitting hard against the wall with the substance spilling everywhere. It had caused her to inhale sharply and tense up, but that mixed with the determination she had to stay at this damn place, she resulted to forcing herself to take deep breaths, deep breaths. She slowly made her way around from behind the bar, stopping about a few feet away from the new chemical spill.

She watched as the blue liquid oozed out and began to spread on the floor that she had just spent hours cleaning just a few days ago. She folded her arms, her head slowly turning to observe the rest of the new mess. And instead of being angsty or scared, a look that went up there instead was... agitation. She narrowed her eyes a bit slightly, before moving over to get the paper towels to clean it up. The more she thought about how she'd have to deal with this ******** thing making all kinds of messes, it just began to make her anger level sky-rocket. She was soon knelt over the mess cleaning it up, and fuming at this point. Ohh-ho-ho yes, her fuse was oh so close to setting off..

[Lady March Hare]

It happened all the time? This man obviously had a terrible job. Oli smiled and shook her head slightly, not even blinking when what others may have taken as subtle hints flew over her head with a soft whooshing sound. This repairman didn't seem like that bad of a guy... a cold one, sure; but if he fixed that sink it would be passable. There was a lot she was willing to let pass when it came to this particular person; in her 'profession' she had spent quite a bit of time around old women who insisted on wearing gypsies-like ensembles, beady eyed men who dressed like Druids, and the others... well, she'd stopped trying to figure out just what the heck it was they were supposed to be. People dressing strangely were sort of part of the job description... and quite possibly was the only aspect that she wasn't blatantly ignorant about.

So it was his hand that left more of an impression then his clothes; she looked down at her digits in idle curiosity before shaking it off. Strange... but not worth lingering over, surely!

“Is that so..?” she said with a grin. “Thanks... and you know, I don't know. Probably my mom. She always was too lazy to say a person's full name.” Of course, in actuality it was probably that little Olivia couldn't be bothered to write her full name on school papers. But that didn't matter; sating curiosity mattered! She tilted her head to the side slightly as she stared at him, then glanced around the kitchen again. “Hey, if you don't mind my asking... how'd you get in here? Do you have a key or what?”

For some reason her spirits had brightened considerably at finding someone to talk to, making her momentary fear of lurking spirits fade (haha). However, she hadn't imagined something touching her, and the thought of some secret opening in the place she was commandeering was not a happy one. She had to know where to keep her stick... you know, once she got around to finding one good for bashing the heads of intruders.

[Lady March Hare]

Carter's brow furrowed as he watched the young woman, irritation flickering in his eyes. Her movements were staying slow and measured... what the hell was up with that? Shouldn't she be getting the message rather clearly by now? There was no doubt she got it; so why was she still here, still acting so calm?! The lights flared brightly and then shut down to what could barely be called a resentful glow; a relatively accurate display of his sentiments.

Just what does this woman think she's going to do? he thought angrily to himself. Outlast me? I'm dead! She'd have to be some sort of idiot...

Or very determined; that was something that, under normal circumstance (meaning back when he was alive, of course), would have been something he would have highly approved of. The granddaughter of his boss being tough enough to stand up to spirits? Of course. Someone showing spunk in the face of odds extremely hard to understand? Most definitely. But when it was in situations like this (of which this would be the only one, he hoped), he'd rather she just behave like he had assumed she was going to behave and go running for the hills. It would be most convenient... of course, if she weren't there to serve as a distraction he would be doing his normal pacing and grimacing, so there was also some gratefulness in his actions. Not towards anyone in particular, but towards the generic break with the norm. So he didn't let up as he paused invisible just out of arm's length of the girl, looking down on her sternly with his arms crossed over his chest.

She looks... angry?

Understandable, but not considering the circumstances. Where was that fear he was aiming for? This girl was apparently going to be a tough case; what he had at first thought would be simplicity itself was apparently going to require more then the usual parlor tricks on Carter's part. That was annoying; despite how oddly nice it was to have something to do the specter didn't like the options available: showing himself and speaking. Oh, he could be as scary as hell when he did it no doubt, but for some reason doing it was a stronger reminder that he'd gone and gotten himself shot, which is an understandable downer.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Sure, it was completely obvious that the one thing that did phase Oli was the coldness of his hand, from how frequently her eyes would avert between his and her own, but Russell just kept that innocent, facadingly oblivious expression as if he paid no mind to her doing so. He had casually strode past her and made his way over near the sink, facing it as he let his calloused hands run along the smooth, tiled surface around it.

His head had turned over his shoulder, his eyes flickering back over to watch her when she spoke once more. Heh, wow, she was just making it easier and easier for him to lie. He nodded curtly, "Yep, he actually had one made customly for me since there's always some s**t breakin' one way or 'nother." He watched her with a quirky little grin, before turning and leaning against the counter's surface, folding his arms as he watched her. "So I've never seen the likes of you 'round this house before, why're ya here?"

He had a pretty good idea, but he wanted to hear what came out of her mouth. Every little comment that Olivia here seemed to make just amused him to no end. He doesn't remember the last time, or if he's ever been this entertained from actually speaking with a living being before. In a way, it kind of changed his perspective. He knew that if he were to do anything so extremely drastic and traumatizing, that he'd surely send her leaving for sure. And he was nowhere near being tired of having her around, so...who knows? Who knows what he'd be planning on doin'.

[hair band J U N K I E]

She just couldn't believe this. The whole reason why Marie had moved back out to the deserts of New Mexico to begin with was to just get her inner peace back, because everything had just turned into havoc. And sure enough, moving out here just seemed to be adding the fuel to the fire, and it infuriated her! Why couldn't she just get a break for once? She was always the one that had to put up with the worst s**t ever. But once again, she wasn't the one to put herself first on normal occasion. All for Gramps, all for Gramps, that's what she just had to keep drilling into her head.

But those thoughts, those thoughts... Call her crazy, but she couldn't sit with the fact that she was most likely going to be tormented out of her mind. She wasn't sure if it was going to make the situation better or a hell of a lot worse, but she was so heated up right now that it seemed like the right thing to do, and within a couple of short moments, she slammed a balled fist down onto the floor hard in aggravation, before pushing herself quickly up onto her feet.

"Now I don't know what the ******** you are, or why you're being so ******** difficult!!" Marie began in her rant, her voice powerful and somewhat lower, which it only got that way when she was truly pissed beyond reason. As she had began, she glanced around the bar, one direction, then the next. She knew it could hear her. "But I'm not going anywhere. And if I have to be constantly dealing with you throwing s**t around and whatever the ******** else comes my way, then so be it!! This place means the world to someone important to me, and I'm not going to let you ruin that!!" She wasn't hesitant or stammering in her speech, and with that look in her eyes and how she yelled, she meant everything, and she was going to stick to it.

[Lady March Hare]

Oli nodded slowly, watching him from under her lashes. Well, that was a minor issue; she'd have to be careful with her open mocking of the little old man who had hired her to clean the place of spirits now that she knew there was a friend of his lurking about. Still, it wasn't something she was overly concerned with; she'd put on this sort of show before. And a good business/con woman always kept an eye open for anyone who might find a 'ghost' that needed busting.

“That's a good idea, I suppose. Lord knows they need it around here.” she mentioned matter-of-factly, grinning widely. “Well, thanks for coming to check up on the old place. If I find anything out of place I'll let you know about it, ok?”

Were she not busy being full of it she would have ranted about that stupid sink, but since it was one of the events she suspected had led to her being hired in the first place it seemed smartest to milk it for all it was worth.

“Nope, I'm new around here. Mr. Peters hired me to deal with the spiritual problem here on the homestead.” she said, completely unwarranted confidence practically oozing from her tone as she spoke. She adopted a sympathetic tone as she continued, lacing her fingers together before her and resisting the urge to rock back on her heels like a child. “It's unhealthy for spirits to linger in this world, so I've given my word to Mr. Peters that I'm going to help any that haunt this place move on and cleanse this house so he can return to live in peace.”

Olivia had never quite understood how something could be bad for an 'entity' that was already dead, but it always seemed to work when she used it in conversation. Maybe she'd ask a real medium about it one day... you know, if such a person actually existed.

[Lady March Hare]

Was she lecturing him?!
She was lecturing him!

For a long second Carter just stared at the furious young woman, expression unimpressed and a single brow lifted to show surprise. So she really was that determined; she really was going to try to tough it out despite the fact that she knew 'something' wasn't quite right in the old bar? Well, that was oddly brave of her, he had to admit. Maybe she was Vince's granddaughter; though there had been no evidence to the contrary he couldn't help grumbling about it, since he was already irritated and everything.

For a long moment he just watched her, and then his pacing resumed. It appeared that she was indeed going to be difficult, meaning more then the basics were required. He'd have to show himself. Fine; fine. He paced around her restlessly, hissing a curse when it became more difficult to hide the sound of his steps his annoyance made apparent. He moved to stand out of range of her side and watched her for another long moment before he slid into the visible spectrum. Though by no means solid he was close enough to appear so, only the edges of his shoes and the crests of his shoulders showing an oddly transparent quality. The lights continued flickering wildly around him, no longer responding to the his relatively controlled thoughts in favor of his emotions once again.

"Is that so?" he sneered words finally meant for her ears, his voice retaining a natural growl of its own if he spoke when challenged. "Sounds to me like you don't know who the [********] you're talking to."

Though he didn't consciously ponder on it, this was his first time purposefully showing himself to the living; any previous glimpses that may or may not have been of him in the past had been accidental and only a brief, brief occurrence. It wasn't the first time speaking to a living person, seeing as a creepy voice from nowhere was usually pretty effective in driving away any drifters or delinquents in pursuit of new territory to inhabit.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Russell nodded once more, "Sure thing, darlin'." It was just a habit for him to add that onto whenever he spoke to a female, it was the same when he lived, and in his afterlife. Men had the word 'partner' that would usually follow, cliche but true. He loved how she so easily moved on from that, she was making things extremely convenient for him for the fact that she didn't want to know the repairing company, or a number, or a business card, or however everyone of the present day communicated, the methods were endless.

He did his best to put on a face of disbelief, tilting his head to the side and quirking an eyebrow. "Spirits? Puh," A chuckle followed as he shook his head a bit, one hand going onto his hip as the other hand came up, his index finger scratching an itch on the tip of his nose. "I think the ol' man has downright gone looney a bit if you ask me." Adding logs to the fire, that's what he was doing here. He was going to be satisfied by how thrown off she'd be, she'd might even be a bit angry at him once she figured out that what inhabited this place was him. He'd probably even tell Peters what a joy she was to have around when he eventually came back.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Okay, so...Marie wasn't going to lie here. Literally watching as the tall, male figure began to appear, it sent the most uncomfortable chills up her spine, causing her eyes to widen a bit. There was no way anyone was going to believe her if she told them what she was witnessing, so that gave her a pit in her stomach on top of that. Even though this was by far the freakiest experience that she's never had, it still wasn't enough to make her anger switch into fear. She was obviously taken aback. She took a couple of steps back from him slowly, her golden eyes still keeping a stare on him.

Her heart was beating rapidly yet again, and she gradually took in a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment and then exhaling. And when she opened her eyes once again, he hadn't disappeared, he was still there. But you know what? She had gotten this far, there's no way she's backing down. "My grandpa owns this bar...I don't know if you knew him or not, Vince is his name..." Her voice was slightly more stable, the tone being a tad calmer. She didn't listen when she was yelled at, so she figured it would be the same with him. And judging from the fact that his attire is indeed that of a biker, she felt it was appropriate to say that to him. "All I want to do is open it up again, because I know he misses it." She was definitely getting herself drunk at the ranch tonight after this...

[Lady March Hare]

On the inside Oli sighed; topping off the long, long list of things she hated were pet names. Still it wasn't something she couldn't deal with, so she pushed it aside and, having no idea she was being stupidly ironic, busied herself with being relieved that he didn't ask for some form of identification himself. It hadn't been too long ago some suspicious goody-goodies had wanted to know just where a self proclaimed ghost hunter came from and where she got off conning money out of people. Any day an encounter like that was avoided was a good day.

If she noticed anything odd about his replies she did a very, very good job of hiding it; she grinned and shook her head slowly at his words. Of course, she was of the exact same mindset, but she couldn't say that now, could she?

“Oh, I think you would be surprised. Mr. Peters isn't crazy, not at all! There is a definite presence in this place. Definitely.” she said, doing her best to be wide eyed and sincere. “But there's nothing to worry about... not even for a skeptic like you!” she added with a wink, gesturing broadly to the kitchen. “But don't worry; I'm qualified enough to deal with any ghosties hanging around this place. I'll take of them in no time... and hey, maybe the house will stop breaking all the time if I do, hmm?”

[Lady March Hare]

Poofing into sight had the desired effect, the dark haired woman was clearly rattled. He didn't speak as she stared at him, letting his presence sink in. Her eyes, almost golden, stared at him unblinkingly, torrents of emotions evident in that glance. He glared right back, fully expecting some sort of dash for the exit for about a tenth of a second before her rigid stance made clear that she would be doing no such thing. It took her a moment to calm herself, but her shouted words stood true.

"Vince..." his composure didn't slip despite the twisting frustration inside of him. He wouldn't admit that he knew the name now, like this; it wasn't his job to explain himself to someone who didn't understand the situation. Especially when he had already decided to run said someone out. "Huh... how sweet. Too bad it's staying closed."

He took a menacing step forward, two, then forced himself to stop; he wasn't alive anymore where he could get away with handling things with the threat of physical violence to hang over the heads of whoever was bothering him. The lights flickering dimmed to only an occasional spastic surge, but the door banged back open, the abused hinges squeaking in protest. The sunlight seemed to have a hard time streaming into the bar, and the breeze that shuffled in was somehow old, stale.

"I'll say it again." he said slowly, bright blue eyes glowering across at her. "Get the hell out. And this time, don't come back."

[hair band J U N K I E]

How Russell had managed not to flat out laugh in her face, he didn't know. Talk about a well-earned pat on the back. He totally had her wrapped around his finger! He doesn't remember the last time he's actually enjoyed himself this much, this was great!

At her inquiry towards the end of her sentence, a boyish smirk smacked up onto his face, his eyes taking a quick glance around the place as he shrugged his shoulders. "I reckon it just might." He watched her for a second or two, the mischievious practically just radiating off of him at this point. He then cleared his throat, "Well, ahh.." He let out a deep sigh, stretching out his arms with his hands laced together and cracking his knuckles. "I'll be seeing ya."

And at that, he had strode past her, heading over towards the door and opening it. He walked about halfway through, before peaking his head back in. "It was a pleasure meetin' ya, Oli." With a farewelling nod, he then closed the door shut behind him. He didn't go anywhere though, nah....He stood there for a moment out in the front porch with a glorious, satisfied smile creeping across his face from ear to ear. As he did so, he slowly became transparent, before he wasn't even visible at all anymore. He had loomed his way back into where Olivia was at once more. He was curious of her reaction, if she'd even have one, at that. Would she be set off balance if she saw there was no repairman vehicle? Or would she not even follow his trail out and go on with what she was doing? He was oh so curious.