For example, in the Star Wars game, if you choose to help someone out who may need your help, and especially if you decline any kind of reward afterwards, you gain "light side points". These points affect the game in other ways that are beyond the scope of this post. However, if instead of compassion and kindness, you approach problems with a more hostile stance, showing off your strength and possibly even instilling fear into the other character, you gain "dark side points." Again, the ways that you approach these problems will allow the story to evolve in different ways but there is not necessarily any "good" or "evil", just methods on how you achieve your goals.
Today's adventure revolves around a struggle of wits and wills. It wasn't so much a series of acts as it was a succession of choices made that led to my indomitable will being realized. Never mind that my victim was a 60 year old Cuban man. Cubans are slow to lose their spark anyways. Hell, look at that guy running his island! He's decomposing day by day and he's still got the stones to run the place and defy the most powerful nation in the world while he's at it.
Anyways, my adventure started as most of my adventures do, at the end of the day. I'm pressed for time, I need to maximize the amount of meters that I change out by 4:30pm and the time for fun is over. The last hour of work is always crunch time and I'm all for "serious business" when it comes to crunch time.
I pull up to the home of my soon-to-be victim. In all honesty, at this point, I had no intention of starting a fight or of vandalizing anybody's safety circle. I just wanted to change the meter and move on to the next address. I saw that there weren't any cars parked in the driveway, so I walked up to the gate leading into the back yard. She heard me before I ever saw her and she began barking at me before I peeked over the solid gate. Luckily, this hostile dog was tied up and it wasn't going to pose a problem. I tried the gate and saw that it wasn't locked and that I could walk right in. As standard operating procedure dictated, however, I had to knock on the door to make sure no one was home.
Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock
How many times did I just knock? I slowly tried to replay the rhythm back in my head and take a guess at it. That's just one of the simple ways that I keep myself amused throughout the day.
Surprisingly, an old man, about 60 years old, opened the door. A shi tzu was barking at me incessantly from his feet, making it hard for us to hear each other.
What is it with dogs and uniforms? I wonder if my own dog would bark at me like that if she saw me like this.
The man greeted me with "Buenas..." which automatically changed the rest of the dialogue into Spanish. His accent betrayed him as Cuban as well.
In Spanish, of course, I began with, "Hi, I'm going to be changing out your electric meter." I paused to make sure he was on the same page with me.
"Hold on a second." he said to me. "Orlando, someone is here to see you." He said back towards the living room while he closed the door, taking that damned shi tzu with him. I pulled out my route sheet and took advantage of this moment to review the information on this address. I confirmed where on the property the meter was located, double checked the address, and saw that the account's name was under one Mr. Orlando.
A minute later, the old man opened up the door and said to me, "I'm sorry, the owner isn't here right now. Could you come back and do this some other day?"
Liar. You just told him someone was here for him.
Perhaps you remember from my last post the bit about my using my own vehicle and getting no reimbursement for gas or wear and tear. I wasn't about to just "come back and do it some other day" because these guys were too lazy for me to work.
I could have started with the higher path, hoping to appeal to the kindness in his heart, but you might already know that when it's crunch time, it's time for serious business... and I'm not fucking around when it comes to serious business...
I threw my body weight over to my right leg, leaning on it as if to convey the idea that I was getting comfortable and was therefore not going anywhere. I rolled my eyes at the old man in the most obvious way that I could, making sure that he saw how little I cared about what he wanted. "No," I started, "I can't just come back some other time..."
Liar. You're supposed to come back three times before escalating it to the power company.
"...I've already been here twice before."
Liar. This was your first time here.
"This is a mandatory upgrade that FPL is conducting across the whole state."
Half-true. FPL only has jurisdiction over the southern tip of Florida. However, the government has allocated funds so that all the power companies do this upgrade.
"I don't need the owner to be here to perform this upgrade,"
True, I don't need anyone to be home so long as I have access to the meter.
"but since I DO know that the owner is home, you can go ahead and tell him that I'm going to be cutting his power off and switching out his meter." I began walking away from the front door and back towards the gate.
"WAIT!" The old man yelled to me. "The dog is loose back there!"
Liar. I just saw it tied up.
"No," I retorted, "it's not loose, I just saw it tied up." I made my way into the back yard and found the old man had doubled back into the patio through the house to meet me there. His demeanor had changed from strong and steadfast, however, into warm and accommodating. He knew I was going to do what I wanted and that I wasn't going to leave a second before that. I had shown that I was in charge and that I had the power. I made him believe that needless consequences were going to ensue if he kept me from doing my job, something that he was all too comfortable with doing less than five minutes prior. I was expected to take one route but I had the guts to take my own route.
At the end of the day, I scared the bejeezus out of an old man for a $2 exchange of meters. The value that I got from it was worth much more however. Someone tried to impose their will on me and I turned it around and ended up imposing my will on them.
DARK SIDE POINTS EARNED!!!
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