Todd Wainscott was sometimes called 'Teddy' but only by certain family members and always without his consent or approval. He was the kind of young man who would put on a smile, remembering that his protests during his teen years had never amounted to anything because Grammy would still call him 'Teddy' and his shrieking, annoying younger sisters both followed suit.
After leaving high school and attending a training course for I.T., Todd and hundreds of other hopefuls set out into the city with their associate diplomas that meant fuck all to the tech companies that were hiring. Todd realised he'd put effort into something with a lot of competition and he was only average at. He didn't complain and just got on with it, finding himself a job as a bartender pouring drinks for sad old men in a downtrodden bar before answering an ad for an upcoming new club called Venture, looking for bartenders.
And that was how he found out about the supernatural. The guy interviewing him, Hugh, had liked him and told him how trustworthy, loyal and generous he was - as if he could somehow know such things just by looking at him. Todd had barely said a word throughout the entire interview and got the job anyway but he was hardly going to complain. Along with employment, he got a startling introduction to the vampire world. Bitten by Hugh a few times throughout his stint at Venture, Todd started feeling affection for the centuries-old vampire and was let down gently without him even acting on his feelings. Such was the way with mind readers.
Shipped off to the Luminary as a donor once it opened, Todd made a good impression on Kerr and was set up in a posh apartment with a shitload of money and a very cushy job. He realised he was, effectively, a whore for vampires, but nobody treated him like he was scum and he decided to not get hung up on the single negative about his role, focussing on the good instead. Because that's how Todd was... he focussed on the good.
And that was why Ben sent him to deliver a message to Saraekiel.
"I need a personal touch but I don't want to go there myself," Ben told him, "so your pretty face can tell him my bad news and hopefully he'll forgive me."
Todd found Ben's words a little concerning but he didn't ask not to go or for Ben to choose someone else. Ben was his employer and this message was his job for now. He did wonder if Ben had chosen him because of his 'pretty face' or whether it was just because he was the donor who happened to be rostered off tonight, but it didn't matter. He was the messenger and that was final.
Ben told him everything he had to say and made him repeat it back before he had to wait downstairs in the lobby for a driver to pick him up. He felt very fancy sitting in the back of one of Ben's town cars, having someone drive him through the city. He felt even fancier sitting in his prim black slacks and a royal blue button down because Ben had instructed him to dress up. With a thin silver necklace and bracelet along with a thick silver watch on his other wrist, he felt the part. Until he didn't.
The feeling of being a fraud hit him the hardest when he was standing in the lobby of Grigori staring at the cute redhead asking him 'what it was regarding' about seeing Saraekiel. Standing there, with his shiny shoes that had clicked and clacked across the tiled floor making him feel weird and obvious, he couldn't think of what to say.
"I, um, am here to..." his voice was so soft that he could see the receptionist or assistant or whatever the redhead was, tilting forward to better hear him. Todd raised his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat, coughing into it like he'd had something caught in there. "I have a message!" he said firmly, then cringed with how loudly it had come about.
Of course the assistant wanted to hear the message to pass it on, so Todd shook his head.
"No, I have to see Saraekiel personally and tell him. It's from, uh... it's from Ben?" he said, sounding like he didn't know if it was from Ben or not while in reality he didn't know if the assistant would know who Ben was (but that was stupid, because the whole city knew who Ben was now because of the campaign that he'd lost so very recently).