She Lives With Woe {KISTIN}

[nightmare]

All the words in my mouth
That the scene deemed unworthy of letting out
Banded together to form a makeshift militia

Zan tilted her chair back, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples with the tips of her fingers. I love my job, I love my job, I love my job, she told herself fiercely in her head. However, that didn’t seem to work, so she changed the motivational chant to it could be worse, it could be worse, it could be a helluva lot worse. Surprisingly, that didn’t cheer her up in the slightest. With a faint sigh, she let the two front legs of the chair fall back to the ground with a thud, which came out muffled due to the layer of papers on the ground.

“Di, if yeh come intah my office and ruin my papers one more time, I’m putting yeh out on the streets!” she snarled at her Kneazle, cleaning up the papers that he had knocked onto the ground when she wasn’t looking. El Diablo looked affronted and stalked off, offended. Zan blew stray wisps of her hair out of her face in exasperation. “Ah Di, I know yeh’re cranky now. That makes two of us,” she commented dryly, attempting to reorganize the papers and giving it up as a miserable failure.

It was just after dusk, about ten at night. Most of her employees had left hours ago, worthless layabouts. A few had stuck around until nine thirty, at which Zan had kindly reminded them that smoking in front of the store did not count as working, and they certainly wouldn’t be paid overtime. Though she handpicked most of her employees, there were very few of them, and the amount of worked that faced them made most of them very, very lazy. For some reason, the more work they were given, the less they wanted to do it. Either way, it had caused Zan to actually make posters advertising work here.

Unfortunately, the turnout had not been fantastic, and the few that had shown up seemed disappointed at the amount they would get paid. Thus, no new workers had been hired, which made Zan cranky, which made El Diablo cranky, who in turn could destroy the store. See what too much work does for you?

With a sigh, Zan stood up, arching her back as she did so. “C’mon love,” she said tiredly to El Diablo, who was currently sulking in the corner of the office. “Let’s go out. I have a few things tah do, and yeh can catch any mice.” Though rodents were rarely a problem in a pet store, a few did occasionally sneak there way in. That’s where El Diablo came in. She walked out, tiredly rubbing the palm of her hand into her eye. It had been a long day, and she was tired. Evander isn’t coming tonight; I can dust quick then leave, she thought tiredly, barely seeing El Diablo as he crept off somewhere in the store.

TAG ! Kistin
LYRICS ! Woe by Say Anything
OUTFIT ! Just a T-shirt and jeans.
NOTES ! WOOT! Postage for Zan! Have fun.

[KISTIN THEODORE CROSS !]

Kistin had had enough. He had heard quite enough of "Zan" this, and "Zan" that...Evander was doing his bloody head in! However, he was intrigued. Sure she was Ev's love interest...but that was all he knew. Being the overprotective brother he was, he wasn't going to let any old girl steal his brother from him, especially one he had never met before!

However, meeting her was not going to be easy. Ev had so far cut Kistin off at every turning when it came to him meeting her. He didn't understand why - Okay, he had threatened to turn her into a porcupine if she wasn't worthy enough, but that was all! He meant, in the end, if she was as nice as his brother said she was, she'd be fine. The issue is when Evander likes someone...then the bias gets involved and porcupines become all the rage!

That was how Kistin had started this whole escapade. He was sick of being told about her...but not being allowed to meet her. Hence how he came to be strolling down Knockturn Alley...incognito.

Yep, he was disguising himself to find out who Zan was. He had..."found"...one of her flyers, advertising for work, and decided he may as well do it and kill two birds with one stone - one, he would (possibly) get a job, and two, he would (definitely) get to find out who this mystery girl was. It was a win-win situation!

Ah, there was the shop. A pet shop? Oh great. Last time he had worked in a pet shop, he had released the bats as an advertisement...and got sacked. Ah well, he thought, try, try again!

He walked slowly into the shop, wearing a blood-red shirt (ironed...but untucked) and jeans. He wore some heavy-duty boots on his feet...God knew what kind of animals there'd be. For all his luck there'd be a baby elephant or something...

"Uh...Hello?" He called out, looking around. "I'm looking for Z..." He suddenly realised he better not call his possible future employer by their nickname. He looked at the flyer. "I mean, Miss Harper? I'm here about the job flyer?"

He stood shiftily, waiting for an answer, looking at a cat in one of the cages who seemed to dislike him. Well, either that or cats are meant to hiss at you if they like you...

[nightmare]

All the words in my mouth
That the scene deemed unworthy of letting out
Banded together to form a makeshift militia

Zan half-heartedly piled a few more papers on her desk, but it didn’t really help much. Her back room had become a chaotic mess of paper and office supplies. However, she never found enough time or motivation to clean it up. Plus, Evander was constantly telling her to clean up, and doing so would mean that he had won. Which clearly was not okay.

Even though it was well past sundown, Zan had found it hard to go to sleep early. She had gotten used to staying up late, and simply could not go to sleep. Which really wasn’t that big of a deal, considering she lived just above the store. However, she decided she would at least try to go to sleep at a normal time tonight, since it was unlikely that she would be getting any more job applicants this late.

After a few seconds, Zan decided to follow El Diablo out into the store. Before she could, however, she heard a voice coming from the store. Zan froze, instantly suspicious. The voice claimed that its owner was interested in a job, though that didn’t do much to ease Zan’s discomfort. After all, most of the other applicants had been lazy people who thought that working for a woman would mean no hard work. However, Zan wasn’t going to take any chances that she might actually have a good employee here.

Zan entered the store, calling, “Here I am, in th’ back.” She brushed off her hands and leaned back on the front counter, waiting for the applicant to come forward so she could see him. When she could, she held out a hand for him to shake, introducing herself, “I’m Alexandra Harper. For now, yeh can call me Zan. If yeh do get hired, yeh will call me Harper an’ nothing else.” When dealing with people who were or might work with her, Zan at least tried to be professional.

TAG ! Kistin
LYRICS ! Woe by Say Anything
OUTFIT ! Just a T-shirt and jeans.
NOTES ! Nope