and he's not going to come for you. definitely not because of me.
( frankly, isolde doesn't think mark could care less about who she's been with. which is ironic, considering the thought of mark with anyone else makes her want to rip her hair out.
same as it is with elias, really. if he told isolde he had a fiancé she'd be sick with jealousy, probably. )
[there it is, the yet, a correction he baited her to take. sure he can believe her, but he doesn't trust men, won't trust mark's smarmy face for a second, and he thinks he's been watching the guy too long because he can't get his eyes out of his head.]
he owns a club. a very elite club. the entry fee is high.
he's also a veteran and ex-CIA.
( all common knowledge where isolde is from, and she can't imagine mark would pretend otherwise — obviously he wouldn't be forthcoming, that would be too much for him, but it's probably easy to tell. he has the movements of a soldier about him, like tristan. battle leaves permanent stains on you. take it from two people who know. )
[he puts it together: mark's code on the network, his vague but clever responses to everyone clamoring to prove how fast they can decode it, amy's just as clever question about the type of people he was looking to get a response out of. he's been spying while mark's been a spy the whole time and there's no chance he hasn't noticed. fuck.
he's not so great with military (they like being hired and making money), but he's more used to them than whitecoats. CIA is another beast. CIA means he's got the big guns behind him. "ex" doesn't mean "ex" when connections are bound to keep, not that he'll have them here, but it does mean he's smart, and elias has to watch out for smart.]
[he lets minutes slip by. the walls are closing in and he's pretending they're not.]
Whole fucking package there Isolde
[not like he ever told her what he does for a living, and how much he avoids the police and how his name's probably on some list somewhere and what if his name is on mark's list, too?]
( the saints and her uncle mortimer didn't sell her, she means, but she's too paranoid to trust texts with that information. )
i just told you. that's not shorting you. how am i supposed to know what you want to know? he's a drunk, too. and a hedonist. and weirdly into the aesthetics of food. tristan says he's gotten slow and sloppy. retired too long.
[she says she didn't short him, but that's how he sees it. no information given is none offered, and coming from where he is, where he's used to a note being passed – watch out for this person, here is their location, don't go to these coordinates – for an alert and receives none from isolde, he feels there's some imbalance happening. it's unfair to blame her for not knowing, and it's unfair his sympathetic nervous system makes him more alert, but life's not fair. unhelpfully:]
Cause that's the kind of shit I want to know
[he doesn't care about the food thing but...that's information he possibly can use.]
( ironically, she thinks this is possibly the most elias has ever spoken to her, and it's about mark. that's telling. though — maybe not in the way she first assumed. )
did he do something?
( it doesn't seem like mark, but then — what does isolde know about him, really? he has a twin sister. he once spanked isolde into an orgasm she was planning to fake. the last time she saw him before they arrived here, he humiliated every little shattered piece of her that he had broken, systematically, maybe creatively, maybe intentionally from the very start.
she's not sure how to feel if he broke elias in someway, too. stupidly jealous. (i'm his broken thing, i'm the one he hurts, i'm the one who deserves it.) blindingly angry. (elias is mine, too. you do not touch without two dog mouths biting back.) )
[elias did something behind isolde's back, for her. it's justified, but everyone has a funny outlook on the kind of justice they want to tolerate, so he covers his bases with a half-truth:]
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He know about me?
[which is a big question elias uses to umbrella: does he know i fuck you, is he going to have a problem with it, do i need to expect him at my door.]
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sorry that was a long way to say no. but he won't care.
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Are you lying?
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i'm not. it's an arrangement. we have a deal.
he hasn't been faithful to me either.
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[wait.]
you think I give a shit if you two are faithful to each other?
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aren't you asking because you're mad i didn't tell you upfront?
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I'm asking so I don't expect your husband to come knocking
[she said fiancé, he doesn't care about the difference.]
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( hmmmm )
and he's not going to come for you. definitely not because of me.
( frankly, isolde doesn't think mark could care less about who she's been with. which is ironic, considering the thought of mark with anyone else makes her want to rip her hair out.
same as it is with elias, really. if he told isolde he had a fiancé she'd be sick with jealousy, probably. )
do you believe me?
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Nope
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( this is affectionately said, mostly because she's pretty sure he decided before the conversation even started to not believe her. )
what do you want to know? i'll think about telling you.
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What's his job?
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That could mean anything
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he's also a veteran and ex-CIA.
( all common knowledge where isolde is from, and she can't imagine mark would pretend otherwise — obviously he wouldn't be forthcoming, that would be too much for him, but it's probably easy to tell. he has the movements of a soldier about him, like tristan. battle leaves permanent stains on you. take it from two people who know. )
1/2
he's not so great with military (they like being hired and making money), but he's more used to them than whitecoats. CIA is another beast. CIA means he's got the big guns behind him. "ex" doesn't mean "ex" when connections are bound to keep, not that he'll have them here, but it does mean he's smart, and elias has to watch out for smart.]
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Whole fucking package there Isolde
[not like he ever told her what he does for a living, and how much he avoids the police and how his name's probably on some list somewhere and what if his name is on mark's list, too?]
that's some key detail shit you shorted me
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( the saints and her uncle mortimer didn't sell her, she means, but she's too paranoid to trust texts with that information. )
i just told you. that's not shorting you. how am i supposed to know what you want to know?
he's a drunk, too. and a hedonist. and weirdly into the aesthetics of food.
tristan says he's gotten slow and sloppy. retired too long.
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[she says she didn't short him, but that's how he sees it. no information given is none offered, and coming from where he is, where he's used to a note being passed – watch out for this person, here is their location, don't go to these coordinates – for an alert and receives none from isolde, he feels there's some imbalance happening. it's unfair to blame her for not knowing, and it's unfair his sympathetic nervous system makes him more alert, but life's not fair. unhelpfully:]
Cause that's the kind of shit I want to know
[he doesn't care about the food thing but...that's information he possibly can use.]
how long's too long?
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( ironically, she thinks this is possibly the most elias has ever spoken to her, and it's about mark. that's telling. though — maybe not in the way she first assumed. )
did he do something?
( it doesn't seem like mark, but then — what does isolde know about him, really? he has a twin sister. he once spanked isolde into an orgasm she was planning to fake. the last time she saw him before they arrived here, he humiliated every little shattered piece of her that he had broken, systematically, maybe creatively, maybe intentionally from the very start.
she's not sure how to feel if he broke elias in someway, too. stupidly jealous. (i'm his broken thing, i'm the one he hurts, i'm the one who deserves it.) blindingly angry. (elias is mine, too. you do not touch without two dog mouths biting back.) )
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[elias did something behind isolde's back, for her. it's justified, but everyone has a funny outlook on the kind of justice they want to tolerate, so he covers his bases with a half-truth:]
saw you two together and got curious
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curious about what he does for a living.
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what do you do for a living?
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[read: drug dealer. he doesn't trust texts either.]
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( most esoteric man gets grumpy with her for not being forthcoming and yet ? )
i guess i'm in contracting, too.
( read: antiques appraiser. )
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cw: mildly nsfw
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