knelt | ic inbox.

i wasn't sold into marriage with just anyone.

( 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.

Wtf

[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?

i don't have CIA records on file. years.

( 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.) )

No

[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

( erm ? )

curious about what he does for a living.

Someones job tells a lot about a person

Edited 2026-01-30 17:27 (UTC)

( well. he's not wrong. )

what do you do for a living?

I'm in contracting

[read: drug dealer. he doesn't trust texts either.]

Edited 2026-01-30 17:56 (UTC)

you know that that could mean anything.

( most esoteric man gets grumpy with her for not being forthcoming and yet ? )

i guess i'm in contracting, too.

( read: antiques appraiser. )

[it's kind of funny— she doesn't know what he means and she's going with it, playing with vague intel back at him. elias gives the idea some thought (brief, dismissed) before responding:]

No you're not

Edited 2026-01-30 19:16 (UTC)

it depends on your definition.

Legal or illegal?

( an interesting momentary thought about the morality found in taking lost objects from their burial sights — and then a panicking momentary thought, about being presumed as a hired hitman for the catholic church, rather than a soldier in god's holy war. well. either way, really, murder is murder. soldiers have legs to stand on, but it's frail from isolde's perspective, like standing on stilts.

ultimately, )

okay, we're definitely not talking about the same thing.

( interestingly though, he's given her enough to go off of. generous of him? )

about half and half for me.

No shit

[he won't elaborate.]

half and half with your dot gov husband
got it

( ouch )

so you are mad?

[if he's mad, his anger has a boiling point with mark's name on it. tristan is a metamorphous shape in the corner of his eye he doesn't care about since he arrived with isolde, and the dude's hard to miss when all he does is spend time at the pink slip waiting for isolde to clock out. but mark? mark is government, mark definitely knows he's been spying on him, and mark is not to be trusted.]

No
no I'm not mad

[is it wrong he wants to protect isolde, go to such lengths of protecting her that she can sleep through the night and when she doesn't, they sit and play scrabble or boggle or whatever stupid board game lying around? he's messing around, too. he knows isolde messes around. it might be in elias' core, he sees everyone he's beginning to know have these lasting, long connections, and he's left outside of every one. roza with her danny, isolde with her mark and tristan, amy with her giles. elias with what? lies. elias has lies.]

Edited 2026-01-31 03:26 (UTC)

( isolde would love to be contrary the way that elias insists on it, but ultimately — she has no choice but to believe what he's saying. what is the opposite option? think elias is mad that she has a mark, her own personal sword of damocles hanging over her head? )

okay. good. he doesn't know those things about me that you saw. you're the only one who knows that.

( she's not sure if it's a warning or an olive branch — don't tell him (isolde would never assume he would) or see the differences between you two (that you know something i never would've told you on my own). every truth comes with barbs and cushions depending on how you look at it, is the fact of the matter. the other fact: mark has never stayed up late to play scrabble with isolde because she's too afraid of falling asleep. only one person has ever done that. )

anyway i have a new board game for us. clue.

[it's – warming, to have a secret saved for him. one small facet of isolde reserved in his corner. selfish to feel anything by her confession, impossible for him not to, elias has a leg up on everybody else at last (when it comes to her).]

Ok

you want us to play clue???

Edited 2026-01-31 08:08 (UTC)