Ted Holloway (darthted) wrote in ourtrueselves, @ 2009-06-11 00:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | theodore 'ted' holloway |
Narrative.
Who: Ted Holloway and a customer (NPC)
Where: The Marc Jacobs store on Bleecker Street, NYC
When: Early afternoon, June 10th
What: Ted loses his temper, and Darth Vader seizes an opportunity.
Vader did not nag. For the two-and-a-half months that he’d been living inside of a college freshman, he had not complained. Occasionally he demanded, and the disapproving mental frown was nigh-constant, but he was not an annoyance the way that some of the other reincarnates seemed to be. Ted wanted to think that Vader’s good behavior was out of respect for the sanity of his host, but that wasn’t the truth. Vader didn’t nag because he felt it was beneath him; he was used to getting his way and when he couldn’t have it, he resorted to either intimidation or violence. Neither was going to work in this case. You couldn’t choke yourself. You could intimidate, but that wasn’t a foundation for a long-term working relationship. Vader was smart. The body was young and he hoped to wear it for a long time. That meant bringing Ted around to his way of thinking. He needed cooperation; he needed an apprentice, not a resentful subordinate who might someday decide to fight for control. It was easier to tempt the boy at work. Granted, he was taking a risk given that Luke knew of the place, but Ted’s temper ran hotter when he was dealing with demanding customers and Vader knew all too well that anger led straight to the Dark Side. Today had been particularly bad. There had been a lot of returns, which affected store numbers and by extension staffing. To be honest, the kid was worried – hours had already been cut back because of poor sales. He’d been the most recent hire and, no matter how good of a job he was doing, if there were staffing cuts he’d be the first to go. The lady with the leopard-print handbag wasn’t helping. Ted called her ‘the Cougar’ when he thought of her because she flirted shamelessly with the store manager whenever she came in. Jim was probably in his late twenties, which put him a solid two decades behind the older customer. Like any good predator, the Cougar liked to attack when she felt that she had the advantage, and she knew how to spot weakness. She was returning a shirt. It was standard procedure to ask about the reason for the return, and for some reason that had set the Cougar off. She’d started by flaunting her wealth – ‘I can buy every shirt in this store ten times over’ – and had moved on to criticizing Ted’s attitude. To be fair, when it became clear that she was just looking for someone to abuse, he’d settled into the blank stare that he knew belonged to Vader: unamused, flat, and unwavering. It was better than losing his calm. Ted didn’t know what he’d be like when he lost his calm, and he didn’t fancy finding out. “Call Jim. I want to complain. I spend a lot of money in this store, and he’ll listen to me. I’m of more value as a customer than you are as some stockroom flunkie. You'll be gone.” Twin tempers flared inside Ted’s chest. Vader gave a shove at the edge of his consciousness, and he was too caught up in the moment to resist. “You.” He leaned across the counter, emphasizing the pronoun, “are not going to threaten me. You think your money makes you somebody? You’re wrong. If money is all you have to offer, you’re only important until you’re broke and then you’re nothing.” The Cougar was stunned. To be honest, Ted was a little stunned, too – the remaining rational part of his mind was screaming that he was going to be fired – but it was too late to take back what he’d said, and anyway, Vader was pushing forcefully against the barriers that Ted had erected between them. He should have stopped there, but he didn’t. Instead, he called up a talent that he’d promised himself he wouldn’t use. His knuckles white against the edge of the counter, the boy pulled himself forward until he was leaning across the register, staring the Cougar directly in the eye. “You’re going to take your shirt and leave. You will not complain.” To Ted’s surprise, the woman didn’t look angry, upset, or horrified. Her gaze was unfocused for a few seconds, and then she nodded, reached for the shirt as if nothing were wrong, turned calmly, and went for the door. Later that evening, Ted would be ashamed of himself. The first emotion that he felt wasn’t horror or revulsion, but relief. Relief mixed with Vader’s triumph. It wasn’t until he was canceling the return on the register that disgust set in and he began to wonder what the hell he'd just done. |