All in all, it was a nice day. It had the promise of being a tad hot in the afternoon, but otherwise, it was a perfect day for recruiting.
The Jedi, being unusually prepared, had arrived early. Their stall was very carefully put together but creaked slightly in the wind. The Sith stall, on the other hand, had been slapped together but no amount of the Force was going to tear the thing down. It would be there forever, like all of the Sith stalls ever created.
After they had tested the stall several times, Vader was heard to remark, "We have got to stop doing this. How many of these things have we made?"
No one seemed to have an answer.
Around nine o'clock, the first few hopefuls arrived. They drifted towards the Jedi stall (naturally, since it looked better). The Sith, of course, checked their watches. Nilhus turned to Rayvin and said something. Of course, Rayvin was completely lost.
"What'd he say?" Rayvin asked turning to Sion, who was the only one who could understand Nilhus and wasn't a Jedi (because Visas Marr was very good at understanding her former master. But she was currently smirking at him from the Jedi stall).
"He wants to know when that woman of yours is going to get here with the cookies," Sion said.
"Oh, the cookies are done," Rayvin said, "She's working on the ice cream with her apprentices."
At ten o'clock, everything was completely underway. Everyone was crowding around the Jedi stall. The Jedi, of course, were amused by their evil counterparts' luck. Or, they were amused until Darth Terron showed up with her various apprentices with vast amounts of cookies and ice cream.
"What took you so long?" Malak demanded.
"The supply of old ladies with ice cream is running dry. So we branched out and went after old men with ice cream," Terron said nonchalantly, "Mmm, ice cream."
"FREE COOKIES FOR ANYONE WHO SIGNS UP!" Chaotix shouted (using the Force, of course) above the noise of the masses.
There was stillness. Sidious, grinning, turned to Terron and said, "See, I told you it wouldn't work."
And then the masses came crashing down on the Sith stall, shouting "Cookies!" at the top of their lungs.
"That's why we build them so strong," Vader said, marveling at how even the pressure of holding eighty people up hadn't collapsed their stall.
"You owe me fifty thousand credits," Terron told Sidious. She then turned to Chaotix, "Tell these poor souls about the ice cream."
"GUILT-FREE ICE CREAM!" Chaotix told them. This left only a select few at the Jedi stall.
"You know," Aishenna said, turning to Otlem, "If I knew I wasn't doing the right thing, I'd be over there right now."
"I can't get over
the child-killing thing," Otlem told her matter-of-factly, "But
if…"
"Well, if it isn't Otlem Waclimit!" said a new
voice.
"I'm sorry," Otlem told Aishenna, "I just can't put up with that idiot again. Plus, free cookies!" Otlem wandered over to the Sith stall.
Aishenna turned to face the newcomer. "You're not a Jedi!" she exclaimed, "You're some pet of the Senate!" And she walked off, muttering angrily.
And then, there was no one at the Jedi stall.
"Seems the Jedi sent the wrong people to recruit," Sion remarked.
"You owe me another fifty thousand credits," Terron told Sidious, "And for a guy who took over the galaxy, you're dumb."
Sidious muttered something that sounded more than vaguely insulting about Terron. He then went smashing into a wall since Rayvin heard it.
"You don't take to well to people insulting me," Terron told him. He grinned maniacally and turned back to the seething mass of people. Terron shook her head and watched the next group of Sith-to-be surge forward.
The day ended at seven thirty. The Sith had had a very rewarding day – well, except for Sidious, who now owned Terron one hundred and fifty thousand credits. The last fifty thousand, in case you were wondering, came from the fact that this was Terron's day to recruit, and she had beaten Sidious in number of recruits by a factor of twelve. Free cookies and guilt-free stolen ice cream really seemed to work.
"You know," Luke said over at the Jedi stall, "We really need to get a new recruiting tool."
"Yeah," Mace Windu agreed, "Those hideous orange jumpsuits don't seem to be working."
"Wonder why, I do," Yoda said sarcastically.