тнє Ⓓєsєят --- p r i v a t e

[Lady March Hare]

An unnecessary breath he had been holding released in a sigh, and Carter straightened himself at her soft confirmation of his request. Feeling slightly more at ease with his situation then he had been in... well... ever, the dark haired specter nodded in muted thanks. Of course this was a gesture most effective when seen, but Carter didn't think about that much. Without another word he turned his back on her, retreating to general silence for the evening.

- - -

Now, he couldn't say it with 100% certainty, but Carter was pretty sure that a day passed. Just one day, not the multiple ones that tended to gang up and jump him when he wasn't paying attention. It wasn't a completely good night, nor was it his best; when Marie left and the silence he had, until recently, been fuming to save, seemed to drive on his restlessness, and before he knew it he was pacing the floor of the bar again, his emotions lashing out and boiling over unevenly as was the way with poltergeists. But it was to his credit; though things trembled nothing shattered into pieces as had been the norm, and though a stool did pitch over on it's side at some point during his march it wasn't broken. So despite the immortal crushing it had actually been a genuinely successful night... which is why it was a bit sad that he was too irritated in it's aftermath to appreciate it to its full extent.

Having gotten all of his fury out in the dead of night, Carter was in a mood that could be almost called calm. His daylight hours were torn between peering blankly out the window and searching the perimeters of the bar. His logic was weak and already tried; he didn't know what it was tying him to this bar, but it didn't have any apparent weak spots. So he returned to the bar and sunk onto the remaining stool in a slight huff; not back to his normal angry place, but pouting (the word of others, not Carter's) all the same.

What was he to do with his day now? He knew if he sat around doing nothing he would just get restless, just get angry. That wouldn't do. After a long moment he sighed. Maybe he would spend the day watching Marie if she came by... a bit strange, especially for him. But hey, it would be a distraction, and maybe that's what someone caught between need: distractions.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Russell, he wasn't going to deny it, there was a little part of him that somewhat expected Oli to take off immediately. Btu the fact was is that she didn't leave. Sure, she seemed a little uneasy after the second confronation, but he knew that it would pass. After having himself invisible and watching her drift off into sleep, that's when it openly hit him like an oncoming train.

He didn't want her to leave.

And he knew that if he were to torment her or do anything too drastic, than it would test her more than he'd like and she'd probably chicken out and run, anyone in their right mind would. So at that, he decided that he'd stay how he's been. Calm, reasonable, easy to deal with, easy to talk to. Maybe she'd think a bit higher of him as he does of her. For a good majority of the morning and early afternoon, he had left her alone to do what he pleases; she probably forgot what it's like to not have the feeling of somebody watching her. But upon missing being around her, he decided to finally suffice to his own needs. And that's when he found her trying to find him...ahah, he could tell. And of course, there he had been in invisible glory, cackling wildly(not for her ears of course) as he watched her peer around each corner. After he had been done laughing at her, his eyes had trailed to her a** of hers, taking in the view of watching her walk away, before phasing over to the entertainment room.

He had been peeking over her shoulder when she put the movie in, a broad smile growing on his face as he saw what she chose; RAMBO. It was a favorite of his, Mr. Peters had watched it once. And whenever he wasn't home, this same movie would be on at random times even without the TV being turned on, because he loved it that much. He just wished that he had weapons and instinct like Rambo here does. And right as the beginning credits began to roll on the screen, he soon phased into view, sitting on the couch. One hand was raised, his index finger bobbing as he began to hum the song that was playing, knowing every note. This didn't mean that he sang it well though, ahah, his voice was off-key. He soon looked to her as he did so with a bright, quirky smile, wondering how she'd acknowledge him.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Even though Carter most definitely didn't deserve it, Marie found herself following through with his favor that he asked of her. She had told Vince the exact words that came from his mouth, and well, apparently they both had different views. Vince told her that he shouldn't be apologizing, and that it was his fault for not ordering the guys to be more alert, like he had said when he was in the bar. She didn't push it past that, because it was obvious both men weren't going to come to a moot point. She actually did ask more about him though, what he was like. And apparently he even had quite a temper when he was alive too, and the most controlled he'd be would be when he'd be with Vince. She even began to notice him in old pictures with Vince and Los Diablos back in their hayday...huh.

She wasn't sure if she should feel priviledged though, she can just hope that he still remained as calm as he had from the other day. She was on her way back to clean like she had said, being in the truck with the cleaning supplies once more, some refills on some. It was freaking hotter than hell this afternoon though, and since there wasn't any AC installed in the bar yet, it was probably a pit in there. So her hair was up in a high ponytail, and she had on a pair of black converse lowtops, a pair of darkwash low-rise denim shorts that were frayed at the ends, and a grey wifebeater that belonged to Vince and was very baggy on her, the arm holes and baggy neckline revealing the metallic silver bikini top. Call her weird, but it's more comfortable to wear than a sports bra in situations like this.

The truck soon pulled up to the place, and then she was at the door. She turned the handle and opened it, walking in a couple of paces. The first thing she'd do is to see if he kept his word. One hand went to her hip as the other rose to her sunglasses and pushed them up onto her head, her eyes looking around the place. Yes, there were a couple of stools knocked down, but...other than that, everything seemed to be how she left it. That made her grin a bit, nodding a little in approval. Well, good. This is what she liked to see.

[Lady March Hare]

One minute she was 'alone' on the couch, and the next there was movement. Despite herself Oli jumped, a hand instantly going to press to her chest as she twisted to look at her ghostly companion. Her breath left her in a sigh and she cleared her throat in slight embarrassment; though she had always been a bit of a twitchy person it took doing it in a haunted house for her to feel awkward about it.

“Russell.” she said as way of greeting, relaxing back into the couch. “Geeze you scared me...” she started before trailing off, perplexed. Keeping the beat, bobbing his head, a wild smile... she couldn't help it; she bit her bottom lip to hide what threatened to become a fond smile. “So a guy from the 1800's likes Rambo, huh? I have to say... I'm impressed.”

She didn't know what she had been expecting out of him, but whatever it was this made relaxing much easier for her. There were still some heavy suspicions in the back of her mind; it was an unfortunate part of her personality to suspect. She wasn't sure that she would be able to shake that suspicion that the ghost was playing her still... but despite that she was able to reasonably relax around him. Amazing, really, it was.

[Lady March Hare]

The trend of pathetic appeared to be continuing as far as Carter was concerned; as soon as the sound of a motor filled the air the ghost man looked up, his bright blue eyes alert. So, she was coming back after all; that was a relief... it would have really sucked to psych himself up for something to occupy his attention with for a while only to have that fall through. The door swung open and there she was, peering carefully around the bar. Whether she was checking for him or intruders or something else Carter didn't know (no, not really), but he made no effort to show himself, satisfied with just watching her for the moment.

As she moved inside he looked her over carefully, trying to read any tell in her movement or expression as to whether she had delivered his message. When he realized just how intently he was studying her he turned his head to the side with a slight huff in self irritation, busying his eyes with some drifting dust particles. He didn't need to be thinking about stuff like that... Marie was going to open the bar again; he should be trying to figure out what he was going to do when she did, not wasting his time with idle thoughts. But since it was apparently a day for idle thoughts he went back to watching Marie, hunching forward over the counter to rest his invisible chin in his palm.

He supposed he owed her some sort of real apology... but not anytime soon. Why? Because he was stubborn as hell, that's why, and he was determined to stick to his little arrangement for as long as he could. Because, if nothing else, having Marie around was good for his mental state. Since apparently mental states were important in the afterlife... Carter was learning many things from dying. Of course, such learnings were wasted on someone already dead, but the idea to share them with a living person had been infeasible up to this point.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Russell had let out a calm, yet somewhat hearty chuckle at her response, "Heh, sorry about that, darlin'. For once, I didn't mean to give ya a fright." He flashed her a charming smile, just loving how the playfulness was totally laced in that. Like he could resist, even though now that he thought about it, he wasn't that bad to her when it came to the unexplainable activity to begin with.

"Yep, indeed I do. This guy blows my mind, he totally serves those coppers what's comin' to 'em. I've seen this so many times, I love it." He admitted willingly. "What about you, huh?" He inwuired, letting his elbow nudge her arm gently. "What do you think of this movie?" Women in general never seemed to like action and violence that much. But then again, Oli was different from the rest, which he found himself adoring.

He knew that this wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, because by each passing day, he found himself getting attached to her quite fast. He knew she wouldn't be staying here forever, and at the same time, he doubted that she wanted a spirit getting latched onto her and following her home...Buuut. Of course, Russell was thinking with what he was feeling, not with logic. Passion guided him when he was alive, and it was doing the same dead.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Without wasting any time, Marie had gotten to work. She set the other barstools upright, and made a couple of trips back and forth from the truck to bring in what she'd need. Even though Carter said he didn't give a damn about the stereo, she could quite easily read his voice, he was irritated by the thought. So sure enough, the Ipod was whipped out, the ear buds in her ears as it was stuck onto an armband.

Within a passing hour, the floors were clean again, and all of the broken clatter that was too big to be swept up was thrown into the bed of her truck to be taken to the dump. Coming back from the truck, she had a stepstool hooked under one arm, and a box full of brand new lightbulbs she got for the fixtures that were broken.

Sure enough, there she went, putting one fixture up after another. The sounds of shredding guitar solos and epic beats emitted from her earbuds, she was a bigtime classic rock/metal fan. There was one lightbulb that she was beginning to screw in, leaning up as far as she could reach(since she wasn't the tallest and the ceilings were high -___- ) She was bobbing her head a bit, singing the words quietly to herself, the song currently being American Hair Band by Tuff. She wasn't exactly paying attention to the fact that the stepstool was swaying a bit and she could flat out fall on her face in any coming second.. xD

[Lady March Hare]

Oli couldn't hold it back any longer; at his almost tangible sweetness and eager reply to her question she giggled, a smile settling easily on her lips almost before she knew what she was doing. Instantly, of course, she lifted a hand to scratch at her nose as way of distraction, but it wasn't very effective. Olivia never got along this well or this fast with living people... for reasons probably quite understandable people weren't usually quick to bond with her. It was an oddly nice feeling, and Oli returned her focus to his question and her eyes to the screen to avoid thinking about it... at least at the moment.

After all, she was a soft core criminal... she couldn't afford to go softer by growing fond of a dead guy. Noooo way. No how.

“Figures you'd say something like that.” she giggled. Her eyes dropped to their elbows as she wondered just how he did that. “And Rambo's a classic! Besides... I like violent movies. Nothing like a bunch of action to make you feel better about being on your couch!” she laughed at her non-logic a bit sheepishly; it'd made a lot more sense in her head.

[Lady March Hare]

Carter had to admire her; Marie was a machine. With gusto and enthusiasm she had dove into the cleaning project before her, putting bees and all of those other stereotypically productive creatures to tearful shame. The ghost had to shake his head slowly, not quite smiling but, you know, not scowling at everything in general. Which was an improvement... of sorts. Listening to her sing was an interesting experience, she was so into her music... at least, he thought the earplugs in her ears were music makers somehow. He had resisted the urge to wander up for closer inspection of this new technology stuff.. successfully, he mentally added with something like pride.

Of course, that was before he noticed the wobbling stool. It was a disaster waiting to happen without a doubt, and the dark haired ghost man kept glancing at the girl, waiting for her to notice. Minutes passed and she didn't; Carter's expression turned slightly disbelieving as the girl rocked hard and the stool waited. The ghost sighed and dragged himself to his feet; he didn't want to spend time being visible and exercising his clumsy control over solidity, but he didn't want any harm to come to Marie... er, Vince's granddaughter. He walked until he was behind her and shifted back into visibility, focusing hard to add mass to his figure. When he was reasonably satisfied he planted his foot a tad bit abruptly onto the bottom step to anchor it more to the ground, sliding his hands into his pockets as he watched her back.

"You're going to hurt yourself." he said mildly, his face expressionless.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Well I'll be...

Russell didn't have much control over his face, his lips spreading into a wide, goofy smile as she giggled. It was the first time he's ever heard her laugh really, and honestly...he couldn't understand why she'd try and hide it, of all things. Up until this point, she just seemed to be someone that had her underwear in a wadd, if you caught his drift. And even when she tried to cover it up by scratching her nose, it didn't even matter, the deed was already done. And with him being himself, there's no way that his opinion wasn't going to go unsaid. "Was that laughter that just spurted outta you of all people? Gee...I feel priviledged." You'd figure that this would be spoken out of sarcasm, but he genuinely meant it, grinning sweetly at her.

He let out a deep, content sigh and let himself relax into the cushioning of the couch. At least comfort was something he could still feel, not everything was taken away from him that he had while he was alive. But at the answer to his question, he gave her the most thrown off look ever. Hah, well lookie here, the tables were turned.. xD

He stared at her blankly for a few seconds before letting out an exasperated chuckle just to finally get a breath out, shaking his head a bit. "Wow, now you are by far the only lady I'll ever know that's into this sort of thing." Yes, you heard him right. He knew for a fact that nobody like her would be walking in here, besides her of course.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Here Marie was just about to finally get the new light fixture screwed in all of the way, when she had let out a small gasp from surprise when she suddenly felt the weight of the stool go backwards, which knocked her off of her equilibrium a bit. She swayed and almost fell forward, both of her hands immediately latching onto the top of the stepstool. She brought up one hand and removed one earbud from her ear, the sound blaring from it as she let it hang, looking over her shoulder. Hurt myself..Wha..? ..Oh. Heheh.

Once it finally clicked on the fact that he had to put his foot down to balance the stool off, she realized what must've happened. Maybe she got too into her jams? It happens. xD A rather sheepish grin curled up onto her lips, letting out a quiet laugh in slight embarrassment. "Heh, thanks..."

She was appreciative that he kept her from completely biffing it, but from the way he was acting was strange. He was the complete opposite the other day, but maybe it was because he had time to himself to cool off? She didn't know. But she wasn't about to complain since things were seeming to get slightly better, the last thing she wanted was to jynx it and go back to square one.

[Lady March Hare]

Oli's nose scrunched as she made a face at his laughter... she should have seen it coming. If it were anyone else she might have done something childish such as make her face work and stick her tongue out at him, but considering the circumstances she'd put that on the back burner. So there was nothing to do other then grin and bear it. After all, he didn't seem to mean any harm, and despite his mischievous air she had a feeling he was speaking with general honesty. That almost made Oli shift in place; was she really that a**l so that her laughing was a shock? Ugh, maybe so... she hadn't been focusing on being fun of late. Yeah, she'd blame that.

“As well you should be!” she replied in a tone that could almost be called teasing before she lifted an eyebrow at the look he gave her. What? Had she said something strange? Obviously, and she almost giggled at his response. “I doubt it. Everyone loves violence these days, even we 'ladies'.” she said, stretching. Relaxing into the couch, she looked at him curiously. “Why, is it really that shocking..?”

[Lady March Hare]

Carter blinked, then sighed; nope, didn't notice. Oh well, at least the dark haired woman hadn't taken a spill; he'd have never heard the end of that. Neither from her or Vince... why this logic applied when it wouldn't have been his fault really wasn't an issue. He was just glad she hadn't fallen; he couldn't have caught her even if he'd tried. Or, he didn't think so... the results of the past hadn't proven otherwise. Of course, being thanked was annoying... for some reason Carter had always hated being thanked. It made him feel put on the spot; if you're grateful for anything then keep it to yourself. Of course he couldn't reasonably get made at Marie for something she didn't know (and something, he was beginning to suspect, she would think was incredibly stupid anyway), and so in the spirit of renewal (or whatever) he didn't snap at her.

Only nodding at her words, he tilted his head in the general direction of the light fixture with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"Well? Finish up. You're not going to fall now." he muttered. Should he apologize for having broken the light bulbs in the first place? Probably. Would he do it? Nope. So why was he willingly interacting with her again? Guilt? That didn't help to consider.

[hair band J U N K I E]

Well, this was definitely news to Russell, about women liking such things. He had explained to Olivia on how the dames were back in his time, how the most of them were only interested in tending to their husbands, sewing, cooking, very domestic. There was the occasional spunky female gunslinger or bartender, but usually they had such arrogance to them, and once again, that was a peeve of his.

And for the next couple of hours, she was the oh so lucky one to get to deal with his ridiculous antics when it came to this movie. Either she'd get to watch on how he'd intensely stare at the screen during his most favorite violence scenes, balling his fist and doing the 'hahah! yesss' motion with his arm whenever Rambo would whoop some a**. He had to say, this experience was new, watching this with someone else. Well, Mr. Peters doesn't count since he usually wouldn't be aware that he was in the room with him. But he had to say, he was liking this. Oli here could be his movie buddy anytime. c:

As for the meantime, it was at the ending scene of the movie, and it was at that infamous scene where Rambo got all vulnerable and emotional with the Colonel after his rampage. And this was probably the most hilarious part for anyone that would witness Russell here. He had full out copied Sylvester Stalone's exact facial expressions, along with his accent and his nonstop cry/ramblings just like the movie as it played on the screen. He turned to look at Olivia as he did this, motioning along with his hand to make it look mockingly dramatic as he did so. Yeah, he was a goof, so what.. xD

[hair band J U N K I E]

Sure enough, all of the new lights were put up, and it was on her priority list to get a better stool, heh. And after that came breaking all of the remaining shards of glass sticking on the windows to get them ready for new windowpane. And as for the moment, she was out by her truck, leaning on the seat cushion, standing with the driver's door opened. She was on the phone with a contracter to come and get some air conditioning installed. "Alright, no problem. Yeah, I'll see you then."

She snapped her phone shut and stashed it in her shorts pocket, letting out a small sigh, pretty tired as for the moment. But she didn't feel like driving home just yet. So at that, she reached and pulled out a tote bag, taking it with her as she went to the porch-like entrance of the bar, letting the door remain open as she took a seat on the steps. And out of the bag, she pulled out a set of charcoal pencils, shaders, and a sketchpad. She flipped it open and began to sketch the landscape view in front of her, including the truck. She took in every detail, this was her area of expertise. It should be since she was a professional tattoo artist. That and bartending, the only two things she could say she was good at.