Duplicity IC Inbox

[fingeronthebutton]

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Comments

[fingeronthebutton]

Now, consider this, Jon.
Do you feel you have to ask for my permission to see these people?

[compellingstatement]

No.

[Maybe.]

I just don't want to get in trouble because you're not being explicit.
Do I or don't I need to ask your permission to spend time with people if it doesn't interfere with my work?

[fingeronthebutton]

I will think on it and present you with a response in an hour.
Do be patient now.

[He literally doesn't need the time. He's just doing this to mess with Jon.]

[compellingstatement]

[Patience is not one of Jon's limited virtues. He knows Elias is just being a bastard, but calling it out is only likely to extend the timeline. Still.]

You have an hour, then.

[He can attempt to assert himself a little bit? Maybe. Jon will spend the next hour researching, glancing at the clock every five minutes, horribly distracted as he waits for the sound of an incoming message.]

[fingeronthebutton]

[How cheeky. Just for that Elias let's an hour go by. And then doesn't reply back.

Yep. He's making you have to contact him, Jon.]

[compellingstatement]

[He gives it an hour and fifteen minutes before picking up his phone again. Bloody spiteful, childish- Ugh!]

I'm waiting, Elias.

[fingeronthebutton]

Oh are you? I don't recall agreeing to a time.

[compellingstatement]

You said it would be one hour.
It's well over that now.
I believe punctuality is in the Institute's staff handbook.

[fingeronthebutton]

Can you be sure, Jon?

[This is a text. The time might be mysteriously missing on his end now. Just to mess with Jon.]

[compellingstatement]

[For more than two minutes, Jon second-guesses himself, scrolling back through his phone in anger, then frustration, then confusion. Elias had said one hour. Hadn't he? Jon's own response that he has one hour is there, but... he'd been replying to it, hadn't he? God, he's tired. And anxious. He's not misremembering that, though. He is not.]

Don't do that.
You're not an avatar for the Spiral.

[So stop screwing with his head!]

Just answer the bloody question.

[fingeronthebutton]

[He chuckles because he knows Jon is second guessing himself.]

You may have a social life as long as you come to me whenever I call for you without the Call.

[compellingstatement]

['Be a good boy and you'll have more give on the leash' is what Jon reads in that reply.]

Fine.
That's all you had to say.
Goodbye.