Re: floating above; malefactor/the boss
There was no deal on the table. The bossman hadn't made any offers. He didn't make offers lightly, and he had to be convinced there was something here he wanted. The green was interesting, but he wasn't sold yet. It was him that needed to be convinced, and not the other way around. There was no indication that there was even anything he could do. He was power, sure, heady and charming in a way that spoke of age and confidence in a borrowed and youthful face, but he wasn't an oily used car salesman.
He walked. He strutted. He strode.
"I don't want anything. I never offered to buy you, did I?" he asked. He hadn't, and he chuckled at this boy's vanity. "Do you always assume you're worth a purchase price?" A grin, hands in the pockets of perfectly tailored trousers. "Let me tell you something, son, the world is filled with beautiful things, interesting things. Be interesting and people will be interested in you." Sagacity from a voice that belonged to someone who had lived a very long time indeed. "Be interested in the world beyond yourself."
He glanced at the broom beneath the green boy's arm. "I don't require a broom," he said simply. "But tell me, do, how a broom sets a person free?"
He knew he'd hit a nerve with his slow comment about the boy's defensiveness. "I have never felt the need," he said, assuring and agreeing. He saw no need to lie in order to win his way into the green boy's good graces. "You see, I've always had power. I've never required a broom. But my greatest accomplishment had nothing to do with the power I wield and nothing to do with my being blessed in any capacity."
He stopped in front of a vendor's cart. "Would you care for anything?" he asked, his own stomach grumbling in a way it hadn't done in hundreds and hundreds of years. "What was the false promise made to you?"