The Universe's Mixer

"Hmm, hm hmm hm, hmm--hm-hmmmm..." Tabs was happily humming the theme to It's a Small World while shopping around the gift shop she found, picking up candy and flowers and possibly cake if she could find it. Just because she didn't have a boyfriend or at least a date on Valentine's day didn't mean she couldn't still treat herself, and that's exactly what she's doing.

After a good haul, she struggled with her stuff up to the front. The teenaged male clerk smiled at her in a friendly way that caused her to blush. She couldn't help it, he was so gosh darn cute! Except in that moment, she dropped her bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider from trying to put everything on the belt at once. Then, to make matters all that much better, while the clerk was telling her to move back, she slipped and sliced her hand on a piece of the broken glass.

With much shock, a hand towel and help from the employees, she was ushered to the suddenly nearby hospital. After waiting a bit, Tabs was sitting in one of the rooms on the butcher papered bed, swinging her legs back and forth while waiting for the doctor.

Schmendrick had a particular point of view when it came to hardship: outlast, outlast, outlast. He'd developed an infuriating amount of patience over the years, which he'd needed to keep from going mad as the world passed him by and left him treading water. He had the feeling that he could outlast this, too. The City was not the worst place he'd ever been, and though he was rather disappointed in his occasionally-faulty magic, that was old hat too. He could cope. He could outlast.

The key was a sense of humor. He didn't need a job - Zoe had been right about the City providing food and money. So, he didn't take one. Instead, on sunny days he set up in the park nearest to where he was staying and did tricks. Once upon a time such things would've seemed beneath him, but he was finding that even the mistakes made children smile. It seemed worthwhile, like a way to benefit the people around him, even if it were in some small way.

He'd rather spend his days laughing than miserable.

At the moment, Schmendrick was at a fork in the path, busy turning handkerchiefs into hummingbirds. He got two correct in a row, then balled the third in his fist and transformed it into an orange. So far, so good.

Then the orange began to sing quite the bawdy song. It was barely two lines in, just before the opening description of the barkeep's daughter, and the magician's eyes had gone as wide as dinner plates. He slapped a hand over the opening in the peel that was serving as a mouth and hissed at the orange. "SHHH."

"Mfffmrrruuuuhhhhmmmm." The orange hummed.

After a whole huge messy brawl occurring between Tabs, Dick, and some ugly guys which messed up half of the pizza parlor (by the way, TOTES not their fault), the two of them were strolling innocently on their way out of the place and out on the sidewalk. Okay, Tabs was running out, Dick, hobbling. Same thing.

Unfortunately for them both, it was raining, and their victory inside is dampened by a lack of umbrella for either of them. "Aw man!" she whined, holding a hand up to shield her eyes from the rain as best she could. Across the street, some guy was slowly moving across the way, sluggish and...odd. At the same time, a car was driving way too fast especially when the roads where this slick.

Eyes bugging out at the soon to be horrific disaster, Tabitha began moving towards the guy, waving and yelling "WATCH OUT," trying to get his attention any way she could, not realizing how close she herself was to danger. From the car of course.

They'd been moving along down the sidewalk for a while now, at least an hour since they'd met, with Tabs doing most of the talking and Dick concentrating on their surroundings and the creation of a mental map which would soon prove completely useless. The girl had a voice best equated with a brook, and it poured on cheerfully until Dick interrupted (gently) with: "Hey, I gotta take a break. My arms are killing me." With a last swinging step on the crutches he came to a stop on the sidewalk, shuffling a little on one foot to get the damn things out from under his arms and rolling thick shoulders to get the kinks out of his muscles.

He looked around. "What are the chances we find something to eat around here?" The backpack he wore might have a pack of squashed M&Ms--if they were lucky. If they weren't lucky it would just have his costume and escrima, which weren't going to help the lunch problem unless someone came along that Dick could beat food out of.

Okay, something was up here. One second she could have sworn she was rushing off to her bio class (she has a test for pete's sake!) and the next...she was...here. Wherever this "here" actually is. So startled she was, BAM she tripped and landed right on her keister. Not a good position to be in while lost somewhere. Assuming she was actually anywhere. Maybe she hit her head on the door. Lord knows she's done that plenty of times.

Maybe trying milk three days after its expiration date was the crux of the problem here, and she was hallucinating up the wazoo. Or maybe she was dreaming. Though that didn't explain why her butt hurt a little from the fall. She pinched herself to be sure, as anyone can tell you dreams don't hurt. "Ow," she muttered.

Okay, she's not dreaming.

Her cell phone! Why didn't she think of that? Rummaging through her purse, she...remembered it was sitting on her nightstand charging. Drat. At that point, she had no choice but to start exploring the city/concussion/hallucination, determined to attempt to get to the root of the matter: what she was doing here.