Exhausted didn’t begin to describe how Jason was feeling at the moment. Gritting his teeth as he gripped a roll of tape with a bandaged hand, Jason ripped a few strips with his teeth before putting the roll aside and taping the side of his torso, trying his best to treat his fractured ribs. It had been a week and a half under the tutelage of Lady Shiva, and amongst the fighting styles he was learning, memory techniques, and various use of fun toys like both dry AND wet explosives, Jason had learned one thing in particular. Lady Shiva did not fuck around. Either way he was back in his room, patching himself up from a new set of training injuries, his hand sore as hell and his rib cage feeling like there were razor blades in between them. All in all, didn’t feel all too good.

But after taping his side, it didn’t suck so badly considering the tape stopped the fractured bits from moving around too much. So less sharp pain and more of the agitating dull variety, something that a quick beer from the mini fridge in his room seemed to help solve a little. Looking down at his torso for a moment, Jason took a quick sip before turning back to his computer, noticing that he had a new e-mail. Checking it, Jason noticed it to be a notice that a book he had put on order at a nearby bookstore had arrived… a month ago. It seemed this was a third notice, something that Jason must’ve not have noticed before. No matter, he wasn’t spending his night getting beaten by the Asian woman he called his teacher so Jason had time to head over and pick up the book.

So throwing on a t-shirt, some jeans, and his winter coat, Jason made his way downstairs and down the street, the crisp and cold winter air hitting his hard, his hands burrowing into the pockets of his coat as he moved through the crowded Gotham streets. Christmas was quickly approaching and it seemed everyone was scurrying around for that last minute gift, that last minute something for whomever. It seemed that the bookstore was no different, as it was more packed that usual, several people buzzing around while every employee seemed busy.

Stepping into the warm store it seemed a bit odd to Jason. He had been in here a few times, sometimes to get a book for himself, usually to pick something up for his mother who had been an avid reader. And while running errands was never a thrill to Jason, coming to pick up a book for mom had its perks, in particular a red head that worked here. Barbara, or as Jason usually called her The Cute Girl from the Book Store was one of the main reasons why Jason always swung by. Cute, kind, and funny she was a hell of a girl, even if Jason really only spoke to her as he pretended to ask about what book to read. Hell it was lame but had always at least let him talk to her for a few minutes, to at least talk about some novel he’d like.

Looking around for a moment he couldn’t see her red hair, wondering if she was hidden in the crowd or in the back or something. Everyone seemed pretty held up, but Jason catching sight of one worked looking around quickly sprang into action, approaching the guy with a quick, ”Hey. I’m here to pick up a bo-“ Jason began before suddenly being cut off by an older woman calling the employee over, the employee following. Looking over as he was ignored, Jason stood, gritting his teeth slightly before calming down a bit, sighing as he looked around. Eyes slowly scanned the shelves and then the people as he wondered what to do now, whether he should try to body check people out of the way in an attempt to make it to the front counter. This served as one of those rare times that he wished a villain would suddenly appear and wreak a little habit, if only because then he’d be able to get his god damn book already and not be a little overwhelmed by the crowd.

So standing there, Jason looked around again before looking at the door, figuring that maybe it would be smarter to come back another day… you know when people weren’t buying their kids books for Christmas, expecting them to be thrilled about it.

name ?! (Jason )
tag ?! ( Barbara )
mood ?! ( annoyed )
clothes ?! ( here! )

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I DON'T THINK I CAN BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN ME </div>
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<span style="float:left;font-size:60px;line-height:33px;padding-top:8px; padding-right:2px;">I</span>t was always busy during the holidays; especially in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. She could never tell if she actually liked Christmas or not. On the one hand it was of course fun and all with all of the lights and decorations and what not, and really there was no way you could beat the music. But of course it meant long and strenuous hours at work where times for breaks were never enough and it was impossible to walk anywhere without bumping into people. It was a problem. Everything became just so chaotic and stressful. The question was whether the holiday cheer outweighed the stress and craziness. Although to be far every year was different. Sometimes it was worth it, sometimes not at all. And now with the time before Christmas dwindling, the store was becoming very busy. And today was no exception. It had started out as an early day, and it was bound to end late. Not entirely what Barbara wanted to be doing on a day when it looked like it might snow. She would prefer to be inside, and watch as it came down. Instead she had been called in to take an extra shift because a coworker was sick. Damn the flu. And knowing her luck it would hit her next, right in time for Christmas she was sure.
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Babs still had not quite figured out if it was all worth it or not yet. Enough good and bad had happened that kept her undecided. She was waiting for that one event to tip the scales. That was not to say that she did not like her job. Most of the time it was a really good one. It was just times like this that made her wonder how long she would be at this. Already she felt like this day was stretching into forever, and that this morning, a time that had only been a couple of hours ago, felt like weeks ago. Still she had a long while to go before her day was over. And she had already had her “lunch break.” And so she was wondering if this day would end up being one of those bad days were things did not necessarily work against but they certainly weren’t working for her. How she was going to make things happen until she could get off work and go home, she had no idea. No idea at all. She had already tried coffee. But the caffeine mixed with the stress of her job usually only made her irritable which was not the affect she was going for. She did not thinking her boss wanted to her to randomly start yelling at customers for being stupid. Yes some of them could certainly use a slap on the head, but sadly it was not her job to show them how stupid they were being. It was her job to help them find and buy books. So that was what she was going to do, or at least try to do.
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Heaving a heavy sigh after finishing with a particularly difficult customer, she took a moment to run into the back and grab a drink of water. They were allowed thirty second water breaks every once in a while, and provided that they were not too often and were only thirty seconds. The cold water was a shock to her system, and she could feel it chill her throat. And for those brief seconds she was not thinking about her job. And that was the point of these. But she knew that her thirty seconds were already up. Heaving another sigh she returned to the main hub of the store, and went back to doing her job. She was supposed to ask people if they needed help, but normally she asked only those that seemed lost, because there were always enough of those people, if you took a moment to look. She figured that the people who did not look lost or confused either did not need help at all, or did not need the help more than someone who did look lost. So she wandered the floor, looking for someone who looked like they could use a helpful hand. She did not have to go far though when she saw a young man get shoved aside by an old lady (they could really be vicious sometimes.) So the other worker helped the elderly lady, and Barbara approached the young man. “You have to be careful sometimes, they can be vicious.” She said with a smile. “Can I help you instead? I swear that I am just as good as that other guy, or so I hope.” She said, hoping that he was not too angry and that he really did need help.



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THIS POST IS TAGGED FOR Jason Todd, AND IS 801 WORDS LONG. MY CHARACTER IS WEARING Dark Grey sweater, blue shirt, jeans. OH, AND I WANTED YOU TO KNOW I got it to work I think.

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<div style="width: 445px; height: 10px; background-color: 0d0d0d; text-align: right; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 1px; font-size: 8px; color: 41392b;">TEMPLATE BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0</div>
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”You have to be careful sometimes, they can be vicious.”

The sudden voice from behind him caused Jason to turn away from the door and to the redhead. He instantly recognized her; Barbara, the bookstore girl, a friendly face in the clusterfuck that was this holiday madness, the subject of nearly all of his memories of this place. Not that any of those memories were necessarily crazy or unique. No fun filled romps through here, the most memorable parts of all of this being this girl. Two years ago his mother needed a book on botany and it was the redhead who had helped him find it. He came here occasionally about a year ago to get a magazine or two, and while sure he could get a magazine at a news stand, this place was warmer… and had a cute girl working at it… and didn’t smell like canned soup and ass.

”Barbara. Yeah hey I’m here to pick up a book…” Jason began before suddenly stopping himself. Just because he remembered her didn’t mean it was the same the other way around. Hell she probably had customers all of the time and to assume that she knew him, recognized him, it was pretty stupid. Not a huge deal really if he hadn’t already called her by name. He guessed he could just pretend she was wearing a name tag… she had a name tag right? He couldn’t look down to check so he’d just assume she had a name tag.

So he just kept his eyes on her face with a smile that didn’t suggest that he was pondering if it was weird that he remembered this girl. ”Ummm… yeah sorry I just put a book to order about a month and a half ago, I’m just here to pick it up,” Jason added, pretending that his last comment was never made. Ironically enough while he had a few memories here and there of coming into this place, he didn’t fully remember ordering the book six weeks ago.

It had happened after he was released from the hospital, yet wasn’t yet fully healed. A cast on his arm, a cut still healing on his forehead, with a red eye that was still healing and more bandages and injuries under the hoodie he had on that day. Angry, bitter, and loopy off of pain meds Jason had come in here right after taking on his mission and his vendetta and had demanded a copy of the Art of War, which they were all out of. So he had put it on order, went home, and hopped himself up on more painkillers. Obviously the last four weeks had been better for him, and while he still had a serious thirst for vengeance, one that secretly defined his life, it was a secret. Jason apparently wasn’t too smooth on painkillers.

And while Jason wasn’t sure if Babs was the one who attended him or not because… well a walrus in a purple pimp hat could’ve helped him and he wouldn’t be concrete on it, he could only hope she hadn’t seen or heard. He was trying hard to seem put together and not nearly as… angry as he felt sometimes. The last person he wanted to see like that was the cute book store girl. Cute book store girl didn’t deserve to see him fly off the handle, that was saved for petty criminals who got their arms shattered by Red Hood. So, scratching the back of his head and trying to put the sudden worry he had developed, Jason looked around the store smiling and with a slight laugh said, ”It’s pretty insane around here today. Don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people here.”

name ?! (Jason )
tag ?! ( Barbara )
mood ?! ( embarrassed? )
clothes ?! ( here! )

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I DON'T THINK I CAN BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN ME </div>
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<span style="float:left;font-size:60px;line-height:33px;padding-top:8px; padding-right:2px;">S</span>he couldn’t help but smile when the guy turned to face her. She remembered him. Well, maybe not his name, but his face certainly. And when he said her name, she realized that he too recognized her. It only made her smile grow to a grin. Although it was a little awkward for her, not remembering his name. Inwardly she scolded herself for that. And she knew that she would have to ask him for it because she would need it to find his reservation. Well she was sure that she would recognize it from now on, right? She wanted to say that third time was the charm but then again she couldn’t quite say how many times she had been told him name. She wanted to say that it was something with an “s” in it, but of course so did a lot of names. Well great, good job to her for not knowing his name. And of course knowing who her alter ego was she, she should have been better at learning and memorizing names. Not that he looked threatening or that he might be involved with the crime world or any thing, it just seemed like a good idea to keep track of people who repeatedly showed up in her life. Or maybe she was just being paranoid and over reacting.
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So he was here to pick up a book. Well that meant it should be easy to help him find what he was looking for at least. “Okay,” she started to say as she turned and began to lead the way to the front desk where they kept all of the books. She trusted that he was following. “What was the last name and the spelling it was ordered under?” Of course she knew well enough that just because he was the one picking up the order, often people would send family and friends to pick up orders, so she could not be sure that this was his real name. Guess it was not such an embarrassing thing to ask, but she was hoping that it would tell her his real name, so that way they could be on equal terms. After all how far was it that he knew her name and she did not know his? She would have to fix that. And then in the future maybe she could surprise him by remembering his name. “And you don’t have to be sorry about anything.” She added as an after thought. She also wondered if she should mention that she was flattered that he remembered her name but she decided against it. She did not want to be giving him any ideas. Besides it was not like they had had a chance to really get to know each other or anything. He would have to buy her coffee or something else of that nature before she admitted to him that she was flattered. She also knew what guys could do with a thought like that. She knew that Dick Grayson probably would have turned it into some very inappropriate. She had learned the hard way.
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Barbara glanced around the bookstore. Busy would have been an understatement. Although at the same time she had seen worse. Those were the days she always worked hard to avoid, but she also ended up working many of them because there were just no enough employees to avoid all of them. It wasn’t like they were paid enough to survive those days. And those were the ones where she always thought of quitting. Today was certainly crazy though. Inwardly she cursed the last minute gift shoppers. “It is packed,” she agreed, “Although I have experienced worse.” She said, shaking her head. The one benefit of the economic downturn was that those types of days were farther and fewer between. But then again, it was days like these that gave her more of an opportunity to see the good loyal customers like him, although against she was not going to admit that. And she wondered if her was worth seeing again. He certainly had the good looks, and a nice smile, but that hardly said anything about his personality. But he also was not hard to help, and had been nice enough to let the older lady just now steal the guy helping him. That had to count for something, right?




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THIS POST IS TAGGED FOR Jason Todd, AND IS 731 WORDS LONG. MY CHARACTER IS WEARING Dark Grey sweater, blue shirt, jeans. OH, AND I WANTED YOU TO KNOW sorry it took awhile long than I expected.

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<div style="width: 445px; height: 10px; background-color: 0d0d0d; text-align: right; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 1px; font-size: 8px; color: 41392b;">TEMPLATE BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0</div>
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