deadbirdarising | Ba, Bitches

Ba, Bitches

[Placeholder image until I can find something better~!]

"I coulda paid for myself, Jace," Steph argued, but she wasn't overly forceful about it cause, okay, yeah, maybe she was on the way more broke end of the Bat scales. Like, all the way at the bottom end. She did have more than enough to cover it, though, and she hadn't been expecting him to pay for anything.

When Linda slid her copy of the paperwork and the license back to her, Steph gave her an upbeat, "Thanks!" as she picked them up and tucked them away in her bag. Linda actually did seem pretty nice overall with her whole trying-to-warn-the-nice-girl-off thing.

"Your boss has some kind of teenager clause?" she asked, genuinely curious as she turned to look up at him while shifting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. That part, she had genuinely no idea about. It could mean anything from "kick out all teenagers who try to come in" to "hey give them a job" or... well, any number of things, really.

To be fair, none of the Bats knew anything about a 'teenager clause'. None of the Bats knew anything about how Hood did his business, after all. Bruce tried and Tim liked to spy on what he could, but Jason knew both their tricks and had done a fairly good job at keeping himself covered in front of his would be 'family'.

Except for now, apparently. He still wasn't sure what she counted as, but whatever it was, he was giving her a glimpse of the man behind the curtain.

"Eh, it's not that big'a deal. Local shops can hire a high schooler. Legally and all above board. Give 'em a chance to earn something other than working for the more dodgy folks or on a corner somewhere. Shops do that, they get a discount." Jay rolled one shoulder in a half assed shrug and Linda rolled her eyes as she pushed a card out from under the glass.

"I can't hire anyone under 18, dipshit." Her tone was dry, but she didn't sound as cut up about things as she could have. The card was a club membership ID, Steph's general info printed neatly and a big green stamp proclaiming her as 'Full Member'. "This'll get you one handgun rental per visit. Anything more than that and you'll have a 10% discount. It'll also open that door. Just swipe it and come on through and we'll get you set up with something that'll fit in those dainty little hands of yours."

Jason snorted a small laugh, shaking his head as he gestured for Steph to lead the way. 'Dainty'. Honestly, the blond was either going to punch the woman or get all giddy and he was more than a little mildly curious about which it was going to be.

The smile Stephanie gave Jason when he explained the 'teenager clause' was a bit more genuine than the ones she had been giving Linda. Of course it was. If anyone would support giving teenagers better options than getting into trouble or staying home more often if it was a bad environment, it would be Stephanie. She had started spending as much of her free time at the Widowstone Creek area YMCA as she could pretty much as soon as she was old enough to ride her bike there on her own. Not only was that where she first picked up gymnastics and learned how to swing a bat, but it was also a safe place to spend her days and evenings away from the screaming, violence, and being locked in closets at home. "Sounds like a pretty good clause to me."

Turning back to Linda, she took the card and nodded along, committing the perks of the card to memory. "Have you thought about hiring like, a senior? A lot of seniors are 18. I was 18 when I was a senior." Sure, she actually should have graduated when she was 16, but when you have to take half a year off for certain medical reasons, then have to take another year off while you're pretending you're still dead and healing from the actual temporary death, apparently they won't just handwave that away and let you continue on as scheduled. Who woulda guessed?

"You hear that, Jace?" she said, giggling a bit as she turned and took a couple of steps backwards towards the door she'd been pointed towards, wiggling the fingers of her free hand at him, bruises just barely visible across the backs of her knuckles. "I'm dainty." With a smirk, she turned, swiped her new card, and stepped through the door. She wasn't being subtle about looking around as she moved towards the counter that time, taking in the people and details in the room.

Giddy it was, then.

Jason chuckled as he followed her through the buzzed open door. While she took in her fill of the weapons that lined the counter that cut through the middle of the room, Linda on the other side to help her find a grip that fit, he moved over to the bank of lockers that sat on the opposite wall. A key appeared from the inner pocket of his jacket and then the locker was swinging open and Jason was shrugging out of the black leather to put it inside.

"Gimme your helmet, Blondie." He reached out a hand expectantly, smirking at the fact that Linda was trying to talk over him about what kind of grips she liked.

Once Linda was satisfied that the newcomer would be good with the little Firestar she'd chosen and after she'd checked over the gun that Jay had pulled from it's holster at the small of his back, she'd handed them both a set of heavy ear protection and then, finally, it was Jason's turn to take Stephanie back into the range itself. It wasn't busy, being a weekday evening, and he made sure there was a little bit of distance between them and the other woman shooting.

"Thanks. For...going with me, back there."

Stephanie had paid close attention to Lynda's explanation about the gun, only pausing to turn and toss her helmet to Jason. Then, with a big smile and a thanks, she took the gun and ear protection and followed Jason into the range.

"It's no problem, Jace," she said with a more genuine grin and a shrug when he thanked her. "I know how bad it can go if you've got something going on and then someone comes in and ruins it." It wasn't some big thing like Jason seemed to have going, but Steph had a whole plan worked out at one point, and everything was going perfectly until Matches Malone (who she later found out was Bruce all along) didn't show up for an arranged meeting, which led to a city-wide gang war. Yay. "Besides, I'm so not as much of a stickler for rules or whatever as some people we know."

Once they reached a counter, Steph carefully set down the gun before dropping her messenger bag on the ground, out of the way but in front of her, then hung the ear protection around her neck. "Alright, time to teach me your ways."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ba, Bitches

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject