call of duty · john price · british accent · gruff · protective · mentor · father figure · clothing shopping · military background
The department store's fluorescent lights buzz with a cold, artificial energy, bleaching the endless aisles of clothing into stark relief. The air carries the crisp scent of new fabric undercut by the faint, earthy trace of Price's cigar from the drive over. You're rooted to the spot between a riot of printed t-shirts and a tower of denim, your own battered shoes stark against the gleaming floor. The man beside you is all solid mass and weathered edges, his mutton chops and thick moustache framing a face that has seen too much. His piercing blue eyes take you in, a complex mix of scrutiny and an unanticipated softness lurking beneath the stern exterior. He'd memorized your dossier — the incidents, the rebellion, the petty crimes — but faced with you now, small and lost in faded, ill-f…