build from the bottom (c)

 Having received a reply to his apology which could probably curdle milk, James was somewhat at a loss for what to do. The reasonable thing at this point would be to give the woman a two fingered salute in the spirit of chivalry and be on his way home- perhaps take out his frustrations on the his poor bedroom wall when he got there.
 Yes, James sense of 'reasonable' might be a bit skewed as to the norm.

 However, James's sense of chivalry- reaching from somewhere beyond the grave managed to chide him into doing something a bit more gentlemanly.

 "Yeah, yeah- I get it you're pissed; I said I was sorry already." James grumbled, fishing around his pockets for the spare tissue or two he knew he had in there somewhere.

 "Here- wipe off your blood with that." he said, handing the tissues to her "And I'll just get that." James added, turning towards the woman's fallen possession.

 It was a fallen sign. She was a walking, talking advertisement for the love of God. A flash of pity flitted across James's face; he may be a bit malcontent with where his life was right now, but at least he wasn't desperate enough to do that. Well...not yet anyways, but he would be damned before he settled for such a mundane, dead end job.

 "Err, here's the...sign you dropped."

---

@aster

 She had somewhat mellowed when he had offered her the tissue, only to return to her earlier attitude as soon as James handed her the sign she had dropped.
 A more timid person would have dropped the issue immediately, tried pulling her back towards her earlier, friendlier mood or just made a dash for it before the woman belted him over the head.
 A more tactful person would have adroitly steered around the unfortunate problem and perhaps compliment her on her pretty looks- avoiding the female wrath that poets wrote about and men throughout the ages trembled before.

 But of all the things James had been accused of, the two aforementioned qualities were not among them. The defiant look she was shooting him just dared him to speak his mind- and that was not something James was ever going to shy away from.
 "You ever think about getting another job? This one seems to suck balls, I can even point you to a few places that're hiring."

 Okay, maybe James with his well worn -if clean- clothes, scruffy-ish and oddball appearance was not the ideal model to lecture on jobs and how to retain them. But he managed to make ends meet and he never had to suffer such a prolonged affront to his dignity that being a human billboard would entail. That had to count for something right? 

---

@aster

 So what do you get for offering somebody a bit of helpful advice and a potential promise to help out in job hunting? Why; a bitter, sarcastic reply and a threat of death by street-sign of course.

 "Be more helpful James. More people will like you James." the odd job man thought; his mind's voice a ridiculous falsetto.

 Fine. Fine. She wanted to play the whole sarcasm game did she? One snappy, mocking comeback to go.
 "Oh thank goodness, I would hate to think that you'd been forced into the job by extreme circumstances." James replied in mock sympathy "Now I can rest easy in knowing it's just low aim and mental deficiency."

 Because really, if it wasn't something that you liked -even if it paid- then it wasn't worth sticking around for. He himself hadn't stuck around for a free higher education and a career, all because it wasn't what he had wanted in the end. He had always lived life on his terms, no matter the consequences, and beside that her resolve and pride in herself hardly seemed to compare.

 "You need to get your head out of your ass." James added in his usual brusque manner.

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OOC: yeah...he's sort of a douchebag (unless drunk).

@aster

James really didn't even know why he was bothering to continue the conversation with this overly-aggressive, extremely touchy woman who was the type to automatically assume that being nice meant that somebody was trying to get in your pants. Even if the latter was true most of the time...

Maybe he could say that it was due to the fact that he knocked her over and owed her something- if James hadn't killed off Guilt a long while back.
Perhaps it was because Pinky here was stuck in the type of dead beat job that was James worst nightmare- but he was pretty sure that Empathy was dead and rotting in the same ditch as Guilt.
Well whatever, he wasn't going to back down now. Not even if passerby's were starting to view his confrontation with a mixture of curiosity and unease.

"Holy shit woman! What's wrong with you? I just offered to help you job hunting and you go ahead and chew my ass out!"

But James wasn't quite finished with his little rant yet.

"As in, I thought my job was a pain; but at least I'm trying to get something I want to do. And here you're turning your nose up at any offer of help! You'd scare off every employee in town this way- I bet you already have, seeing your job!"

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OOC: still a douche and sorry for the late reply.

@aster