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 Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:17 pm
Hunter was not a small man; he had expected any suit he put on to be restrictive and annoying, but in keeping with the theme of the day, he had been fitted and was now surpringly comfortable. Still, there’s was just something odd about being well dressed and heading off for a night on the town. He lounged in the back of the limosine as he was driven to pick up Banyan. If one really thought about it; it was all a little strange. During childhood Hunter had been more inclined to emptying his dinner plate on her head, rather than sitting down for a meal.
But lately she had certainly grown on him. Banyan was easy to talk to and very amusing to be around. Even with his earlier behaviour, she professed to not hate him; which was unique amongst the majority of the people he knew. If pressed Hunter would even admit to being friends with her now. Ha, that brought his tally up to about three. Hunter figured it had started when he’d turned up to her christmas part; partly to be a nuisance, and partly to do something other than shoot arrows at things. He’d enjoyed himself far more than expected. Now they were celebrating missed birthdays with RC Cars, tea sets, sundaes and expensive dinners.
The limo came to a halt. Hunter swung open his door as the driver started to get as well. “Oi, stay where you are.” There’s weren’t many that would call him a ‘darling’, but Banyan had. The raccoon had a bouquet of roses cradled in on arm as he made his way up to Banyan’s door; a cheeky grin on his face. No point in doing anything halfway. He knew that what Banyan wanted more than anything was a little romance in her life; so for one night, he could play that role.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:27 am
Like any lady before an outing, she was busy detailing her face... and her hair, and readjusting here and a tug there. The garters were so new they still would crinkle at the ruffles. Fitting a man for a suit must have been so much easier than picking out an evening gown.
As a model one would have suspected she owned closets and closets full of clothing, but a majority of the time it was borrowed wardrobe that was ill fit and had to be pinned and tucked and she had to stand at angles where the safety pins wouldn't show. At least, at the studio she was used to. It also shared room with the local theater troupe, so perhaps that had something to do with some of it.
Often times, she'd be elbow to elbow with cabaret girls and magicians. Needless to say, the collection of "To Banyan, With Love" photographs were starting to become practically wallpaper on her apartment walls.
What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play...
She was still fussing with her near untamable hair, it always took a feat of prestidigitation to get her hair to do anything other than stick in random directions. Like Moses parting the Red Sea, she had managed practically by sheer acts of supernatural power to get her hair to smooth down to the sides of her neck and give a little tomboyish flip at the bottom corners. An oriental silk rose in pink with lifelike leaves and baby's breath tucked neatly at the base of a round ear and two tiny pearl earrings were placed on her head.
Her dress was a form fitted sleeveless gown that spiraled into three tiers that stopped just above the ankles. Tiny faux diamonds were staggered on the bottom hems on a background of the same pink from the rose in her hair.
She hurried to affix a bracelet of gold and opal to her wrist, slip on her heeled shoes, grab her little sequined evening purse, and answering the door. With one last quick glance to a mirror, she opened the door for Hunter.
All at once she caught the image of a man in a suit, a limo, and roses. Her heart gave a little flutter, but she wasn't about to show weakness just yet. She put a hand to her hip and gave him the usual smirk.
"Well, hello there, handsome," she said.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:33 pm
Hunter made no effort to conceal the way he looked her up and down; he unabashedly let his eyes run all the way from the top to the bottom and back up again. “Very nice. I’d say you scrub up well, but then, you always look pretty damn good anyway.” He gave her a playful wink and offered up the roses. “I like the hair.” His own had been washed and brushed into some sort of style; a few silky strands had settled against his cheek but most of it had been brushed backwards.
This, he decided, was going to be a lot of fun. If anyone else who knew him were to see this moment in time, dressed up so finely and without a nasty glare, they would have been terribly surprised. Today he would get to enjoy a side of life that wasn’t all fighting, archery or hanging about in the forest.
With a grin he took a step back from the doorway and proffered Banyan an arm. “My lady; your chariot waits.”
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:51 pm
Life is a cabaret, old chum,
Come to the cabaret...
Banyan took his arm, but not before locking the door behind her and putting her keys into her little clutch purse. The night wasn't clear, as rain was predicted in the late night forecast, but the stars did manage to fist fight their way through the thin strips of cloud to twinkle down at them. The faint sound of cicadas and lonely, nocturnal frogs was in the air. It was a bit of a humid, average night in suburbia, but tonight she'd pretend it was a cool, clear night and the moon was a thin crescent of silver.
"You look absolutely dashing, honey," Banyan replied. "You look a perfect gentleman. What do you think? Could we pass as movie stars? Do you think the paparazzi will trail behind us like the tails off shooting stars?"
For a moment as her eyes took on the scene of Hunter leading her to the limousine, she felt like they really could only be in a film or a dream and she'd wake up at any moment in this fragile scene.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:36 pm
“Why thankyou. I thought so too.” Hunter replied to her compliment with a grin. “Of course. From this moment on we are movie stars out for a glamorous night on the town; I can have the lead role in an upcoming gangster flick or maybe I’m the new Bond. Raccoon Bond. And if the paparazzi cause too much trouble, I’ll toss a glass of water at the camera.”
He led her down the path towards the limousine. Though he moved in a confident, relaxed manner, his ears flickered a little, catching the sounds of the night. Ever alert, it was hard to tune off from his training even on such an occasion.
Once they’d reached the limousine, he opened the door with his free hand and ushered her inside, waiting until she had made herself comfortable before following. “Wine?” A couple of chilled bottles were waiting and Hunter grabbed two glasses with his fingers as the driver started to pull away from the curb and off towards the restaurant.
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 3:45 pm
"You're to the nines tonight, honey," Banyan laughed, accepting a glass.
As the wine was poured, she leaned back into the seat, crossed her legs to adjust her dress, and she looked around in the limousine. Black leather interior and it looked to be extremely well maintained. It looked almost new off the factory chain, though it had more the scent of fine cologne and cleaned leather than that new car smell. The windows were tinted so that she couldn't really see the street at that hour of the evening.
Banyan couldn't believe the scene. She'd hardly expected to be out with Hunter on yet another off-beat adventure and all it took was three paper darts. The chain of events seemed so strange that, of course, it had to have happened that way.
"You know, I never went to my prom," she thought out loud, her fingers trickling idly down the necklace that lay against her collar bone. "I never even went to school dances growing up. Didn't go to birthday parties or those massive family Thanksgiving dinners you see so often on television. There was never anyone to go with. I never even had a best friend growing up because my mother was so much of a shut in, though she gave me the most fantastic bedroom as a kid."
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 4:41 pm
Putting aside the wine bottle, Hunter settled back against the leather seats and took a sip of the wine. He had never been a particularly big drinker, but he could enjoy a good drop now and then. The raccoon swirled the liquid around the glass and then lifted his gaze to Banyan, watching as she studied the limousine. He’d already given a thorough check of everything during the ride over and had been greatly amused by all the little gadgets and niceties available in the luxurious limo.
Hunter gave a soft snort. “I’m sure you weren’t missing much. Though I wouldn’t know; I never went to anything like that either. I was home schooled in most of the basics before I decided to run off into the forest.” He pondered on that for a moment. No, school wouldn’t have been able to handle him. Hunter and rules had never gotten along well. “Sorry, you didn’t have a best friend though. Even I had that. Not quite sure how though.”
While having an arrogant streak a mile wide, Hunter was self-aware enough to know very well that he was generally not well liked. Their loss of course. Still, he was glad there were some people who weren’t so damn sensitive. More often than not simple teasing was taken far more seriously than intended. “Tell you what, while we’re being movie stars, this can also be our special prom dinner. I’ll even give you one dance; not that I know how to.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 6:47 pm
"I had a few casual friends, people who you say 'hello' to on the way to school," Banyan reminisced. "But never anyone I could confide in. I was already grown up when little Elda showed up, but we haven't seen much of each other since she was a child. Friends are elusive creatures, it seems."
Banyan studied her glass in thought, she looked outside the window but could only see the passing streaks of sidewalk and traffic lights. She wanted to let the wine sooze into her mind, but she probably needed to be more coherant than that before dinner. Getting sloshed on a first date didn't seem the ladylike thing to do. She was too accustomed to drinking to forget about the world and the sheer weight of loneliness that fell on her shoulders and now she had to keep it in moderation for the sake of her company.
Well, it was only Hunter... but, you know. He'd never spent this much time with her before. It struck her as odd how they just suddenly got along when all this time there was so much aggression. She remembered the ice in his gaze when they were children, the instant dislike that fell upon her and the feelings of rejection even though she never asked him to play with her. And now they were trading tea sets for RC cars and were on their way out to dinner.
Something occurred to her then. Perhaps he was just as lonely as she was. She was the rat off a sinking ship, but what would that make Hunter?
"I can teach you to waltz," Banyan offered, taking a sip of her wine. "But I'm not sure this restaurant also has a ballroom, we'll have to find one suitable."
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 8:42 pm
“Friends come and go. But then, I clearly have a different idea of friendship then you. The people I like and get along with, who I suppose are my friends, I wouldn’t confide in. I don’t search them out and ask for help through tough times. That’s not the way I deal with my... problems.” No, he just ran off and worked his frustration out through tough physical training.
Hunter had matured somewhat over the last few months; there was less rage in his heart and he was more inclined to give others a second of his time. Once he had spent more than five minutes in her company, Hunter had found Banyan surprisingly easy to talk to. She put a bit of fun into an otherwise boring day and he liked seeing her happy.
“I can always just make room for us to dance. I’ll simply shove everyone’s tables out of the way.” He gave her a rather mischievous grin. Of course that might not go down well with the restaurant; not that Hunter cared.
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 8:57 pm
Banyan set her drink down to adjust her shoes. Wearing shoes when your feet were mostly rat feet made it difficult to wear heels for more than few hours. She had even put those little gel inserts into them... and the commercials had clearly not intended for ratgirls to wear them. Most of the Gaia commercials, oddly enough, were intended for predominantly human audiences. The elves, vampires, zombies... they all had human feet.
"Oh," she laughed, adjusting the cute little straps of her shoes. "Can we finish dinner before you try that, honey? I saved my appetite for this dinner. Besides, maybe we can tell them it's our birthday and they'll treat us special. I hear their chocolate triple layer cake is to die for."
She adjusted the plunging v-line of her dress and opened up her clutch purse to make sure she set her metallic blue cellphone (fully adorned in obligatory tacky "diamond" rhinestones in the shape of the chinese Year of the Rat characters) to silent mode. The little silver rat charm dangled soundlessly off its side. If Obi called her this time... she wouldn't exactly know how to explain to Hunter that she had to go rescue a dog and a bear from the mafia. Again. Aside from that, she supposed the first few strands of Tom Waits on her ringtone would confuse the general public.
"Did you know I slept with you every night?" she said with a smirk, tucking the phone away again. "My mother gave me a stuffed raccoon when I was eight and I named it Hunter. Don't worry, I didn't stick any pins in it."
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:52 pm
“Dinner and cake first of course. I wouldn’t dream of interrupting that. But afterwards we’ll take over the dance floor and then we’ll flee into the night when the police come to crash the party.” Hunter finished off his glass of wine and put it carefully aside. He gazed out the tinted windows as they idled at a red light. There were probably a few people around wondering who was inside the limousine. Hunter chuckled. Movies stars of course.
At the mention of her stuffed raccoon, Hunter quirked an amused eyebrow. “I wasn’t worried. I wouldn’t blame you if you had filled it full of holes. But I’m not sure if I should be flattered that you named it after me or not.” The tip of his tail twitched and he leant forward, elbows on his knees. “You can sleep with the real thing if you want. There’s far more to cuddle.” He said with a chuckle; a teasing twinkle in his eyes. “So have you still got your mini Hunter?”
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:08 pm
Banyan looked bemused at the mention of police. Having had to avoid them from time to time after they came around her apartment once inquiring why she was often seen throwing out or washing blood stains from off large area rugs. She told them simply that friends came to crash at her place from time to time and often they partied hard. She wondered how long it would be until they realized the truth.
Banyan inspected her bracelet in thought.
"Yes, along with a larger cast of companions," Banyan nodded. "I've started collecting ones that remind me of people I know."
She took another sip from her wine glass slowly, wondering if Hunter was being flirtatious or just teasing.
"Wouldn't your Haevan fellow get jealous about something like that?" she ventured, giving him a sideways glance and smiling.
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Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 3:11 am
Hunter's own involvement with the police happened on a fairly regular basis; usually in the form of a speeding ticket or a fine for weapon use. “So what, do you have tea parties with all your mini-hytes and pretend we're talking back to you?” He chuckled. “I bet I'm your favourite one.”
At the mention of Haevan the raccoon abruptly sobered. Hunter studied her face, trying to decide if the inquiry was a fairly innocent one or she knew the truth and was just fishing for a reaction. He rubbed the back of one hand with his fingers, noticing keenly the absence of the gauntlets that he usually wore.
“I wouldn't think so. I haven't seen him for a long time.” His lips pressed into a wry smile; ignoring the soft whisper of regret somewhere in his chest. It had been his own doing and it had been necessary for his own growth. He knew it had been the right decision, if indeed a painful one, and just hoped Haevan was happy. “Besides, I'm a big boy now. I can offer my body up to whomever I want.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 6:40 pm
Banyan knew nothing except that last she knew, Hunter was with Haevan. What she didn't want was someone arriving on her doorstep in a jealous rage when the cops already thought she was acting suspicious. A jealous phonecall could be hung up on, but a jealous lover egging and/or keying her car... No, thank you.
"So I can flirt a little more freely without guilt," she mused. "In all honesty, all I know is his name. I don't remember if I've even seen him. All I knew was his name and that he was a he."
She tugged at her necklace lightly in thought and looking into the reflections of she and Hunter in the wine glass. Her tall ears picked up what she could have sworn was distant thunder, but out here it could also quite possibly be the bass of someone's low rider. They were somewhere between her apartment and the restaurant, but she wasn't sure where.
Banyan looked about for the window controls and pressed a random button. Almost instantly the lights within the limousine dimmed and some sort of ambient piano music came up on some very nice sounding speakers in hidden locations. She gave a low, delighted laugh.
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 3:12 am
Hunter watched Banyan as she spoke; oddly satisfied with knowing that she hadn't known he had broken up with wolf quite some time ago. "He was a good guy. To be honest, too good for me."
Anyway this was all just playful nothingness, wasn't it? Even if he had still been with Haevan, it wouldn't have stopped him from having this fun and making an effort on her behalf. Or maybe not. Perhaps if Haevan had been there, he would have been less inclined to enjoy Banyan's company and go so far.
“Go for it. I am, after all, just a distraction until your true prince charming comes along. So feel free to make use of me.” He looked back to the wine, and after a moments thought, poured himself another glass. It was gone quickly and he could then refocus, his attention turning to the music that had started up in the limo.
“Oh nice. Atmosphere,” Hunter looked out the window, wondering how far their were from the restaurant. He wasn't used to this part of town and honestly had no idea exactly where they were.
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