Being Noticed

mitda, Jubal and the kid were out yesterday evening, which presented us with a quandary - do we take the risk of eating an emmie-meal or do we fast-food it for the evening.  We decided on the latter, not that I think emmie is totally incapable in the kitchen, however if it doesn't come in a microwaveable package it does cause her undue stress and worry ; ).

So off we went to Subway.  For those not part of North American fast-food culture Subway is a shop that makes long, very good sandwiches.  Not that this is a plug, they certainly charge enough for them.  But the thing is, we live in a very small Texas town, albeit not far from probably the most open minded city in the State. 

Arriving at Subway I pulled into the last reasonably close parking spot, nearly decapitating someone about to leave their car in the process.  He managed to close his door quickly and avoid it, along with his leg, being taken off.  As a result he, emmie and I were on the sidewalk going towards the shop at the same time.  I noticed that this fellow was giving emmie and I an unusually wide berth, without exactly perceiving why, and wondered if I really freaked him out by my driving.  emmie opened the door and proceeded to hold it open for him but he waved us both in ahead of him, as I passed him to go in he said "after all she's wearing the pretty turian".  

Suddenly it clicked, he knew exactly what her collar signified and was simply giving respect to two members of the "lifestyle" as it were.  I said to him "You'd be surprised how many people don't know what it means", and he responded that he knew full well, and in fact remembered us from a  play party we had attended some time before, one where emmie was tongue-tied trying to introduce herself and made more of an impression with her embarrassed silence (very becoming on a beautiful slave) than anything anyone else actually said did.

The incident left me with a weird feeling.  The fellow had been discreet enough, there was noone else really in the store, certainly not within earshot, and I had continued the conversation after he  mentioned her turian, so I had no issue with him talking about it.  It was just a surprise to find someone recognizing the collar in such a vanilla, everyday situation.  And I realized that in a sense this was exactly what we were about.  emmie was happy that she had been on good behaviour, but she usually is.  It's one thing to aim for 24/7 M/s, it's another to realize that in the midst of  a very vanilla neighbourhood we are actually living it.