I found a coffee shop where I had breakfast, kindly paid for by the gentleman at the next table. As a thank you, our waitress flirted with him while we ate. It made his day, he probably told all his workmates about the pretty girl hitting on him at breakfast. She got a good tip out of it. And I got a free meal. Everybody wins! See, I'm not a monster. At least, not all the time.
I wandered around the mall for a while, looking at this and that, enjoying the freedom of going where I want to go, doing what I want to do. I spent a bit of time experimenting too. I figured the more I knew about my talent the better. That's why some people found themselves doing unexpected things. Some sat on a bench for an hour without moving. Some gave money to a complete stranger. One guy found himself singing nursery rhymes in the middle of the mall. That's where I worked out that I can leave people for about an hour before they can manage to shake off my instructions and go back to normal.
My experience with the jogger that morning also made me curious about experimenting with people's moods and feelings. I found that I could alter their reactions by what I told them. It's easy to make someone pour their drink over their head, and when they do it, they're understandably confused and angry at me. With a bit of practise, I found I could make them quite oblivious, like it was perfectly normal to dump their soda over themselves, or even make them happy to do it, as if it was the highlight of their day.
After a morning of experimentation, I thought it was time I got myself some new clothes. I went into a shop and started looking around. It was a fairly casual place, the sales assistant looked about 20, and was rocking what I assumed to be an on trend look for her age. Her blonde hair was chopped above her shoulders, and had a pink streak down one side. She had a number of piercings in each ear, as well as a little nose stud. She was dressed in a black tank top which showed off a tattoo of a moon and stars on her left shoulder, and a pair of torn jeans which showed nice flashes of her long legs.
She was folding some shirts as I walked in, and she looked up and gave me a friendly greeting. I smiled back before I started browsing through some shirts. I quickly realised that I don't like shopping. I wondered briefly if I'd had a wife or girlfriend in my former life that would do this shit for me.
"Hey there, can I help you with anything?"
Like I said, casual.
I looked up, finding the girl standing just beside me. I noticed the little nametag on her breast and nodded.
"Hi Kristi. Everything we do here today is going to seem like a completely normal interaction to you. You're going to pick out a few shirts, jeans, shorts and shoes that you think will suit me, then bring them to the change room for me to try."
She gave me a nod and a smile, "No problem, I'll bring them to you in a few minutes."
