alwayskayaking | Duplicity Inbox

[It's been a long time since he's felt anything like this with Tim. He's been frustrated with the man. Guilt-ridden. Righteously angry, though? That's years.]

And how desperate was she, Tim?
You don't need to blackmail someone for there to be coercion in this city.
For you to be taking advantage of someone who has virtually no power in this society.

No idea, but I still gave her a choice. If this city put pressure on her to sign with me that's not my fault she didn't find someone else.

[Screw text.]

Are you serious?

[There's incredulity pouring out of Jon's tone.]

She can change her mind in three months! It's not like I tricked her! Pretty sure I've been treating her a lot better than Elias treats you and you're only in a pretend contract with him!

[Is it fair to throw Jon's mistakes in his face like this? No, but Tim is feeling defensive and wants to turn this around on Jon.]

Do you really want to set Elias and how he treats me as the moral bar you need to clear? Is that how low you're planning to sink?

She's a person. What are you doing to control her? You had better be letting her get a job and make purchases. At the barest minimum.

Edited 2020-09-07 04:31 (UTC)

If she wants a job then she can get one and spend her money as she wants. [After she gets permission for anything over twenty dollars.]

Have you given her explicit written permission that she's allowed to do those things? Something she can carry around for prospective employers or people at the shops?

You have no idea what it's like to be a Submissive. Nothing is simple. I couldn't even but a pack of cigarettes or a cassette tape when I first got here without a Dominant there buying those things for me. I had to get a permission slip to do anything. Like a child.

She has that. [Up to $20 dollars.] But she does need to tell me where she'll be working if she decides to get a job.

[More importantly.]

Wait, why did you need that? You're a dominant.

Why? Why do you need to know that?

My Submissives have blanket permissions to work wherever they want without me needing to know specifically what they're doing. I'm supposed to be the nosy one, Tim. If you want to know, you can ask her. You shouldn't make it a condition. You should have virtually no conditions on anything she does as long as it's not hurting people.

And I wasn't a Dominant when I first got to the city. I was a Submissive for more than a month. They changed my designation.

It's a condition because then it's not something that I have to wonder if it's a lie. Not something I have to question if it's real or not.

It's a condition because I want to know where she is. She's my responsibility now and if someone gets hurt while I'm responsible I want to know. I don't know this woman well enough like you know your submissives. I'm afraid that my trust needs to be earned before I freely give it away these days.

How you treat your submissives is just going to be different to how I treat mine and how I'm sure other people treat theirs.

Huh. Didn't realise that happened to you. [He bites his tongue from saying anything like: makes sense and they got it right the first time.]

You shouldn't be treating that woman like she belongs to you. She doesn't. You're playing into their system when you put stipulations on your Submissives unless it's something directly designed to prevent the city from doing horrible things to them like public humiliation.

[Jon may have exceptionally strong opinions about this.]

And now you know. My first contract partner bought me at a slave auction when I was still a Submissive. I was his servant for the three months our contract lasted.

Edited 2020-09-07 14:12 (UTC)

Is that what you assume I'm doing? Is that really how you see me? You think I'm doing this because I want to own her? Well, haha... wow! Yeah. You caught me. That's exactly what I'm doing. I just wanted a woman around the house to do the cooking and cleaning. To go grab me a beer from the fridge whenever I fancy one. I have her kneel down in front of me so I can prop my feet up too. Can't forget that! I sure am a piece of work buying her whatever she asks for while she's looking for work.

[He takes a breath from his angry tirade. Trying to remind himself to relax a little. Jon did have a point and he was being probably overly defensive, but it hurt being compared to a man willing to keep Jon as a slave.] Christ, Jon. I'm sorry that happened to you. It shouldn't have happened, but do you really think this situation is the same?

I didn't buy her. I gave her a choice and I was clear with how I felt before she agreed. I even asked her to sleep on it!

I haven't asked her to do anything but let me know her general whereabouts when she goes out. Which isn't any worse then what nervous teenage parents ask of their kids. Besides the archives I haven't restricted her at all where she can go or who she can see-- well, except Elias. I made her promise not to go near him. [Or to give you any statement willingly, but Jon probably doesn't need to know that.]

But yeah, I guess you're right. I'm no better than some slave owner. Is that what you want me to say?

[Jon falls quiet, realizing he has gone too far, but still angry and wanting to yell at the other man.]

I want you to say that you signed a contract with a person, not a monster. That you respect her and her autonomy as a person. That you're not just- that you considered what rules you'd make for a human contract partner you didn't know well and went with those, not arbitrary rules based on her not being human.

[He did not do those things.]

Nope. Guess I just love owning slaves. Can't wait to get a bunch more. Good to know that's what you think of me, Jon. Thanks for that. [Click!]

[And hopefully Jon will see that Tim's response to Peter was made well before this phone call and thus the offer wasn't made in anger to this.]

Duplicity Inbox

no subject

no subject

>voice

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: discussion of slavery

no subject

no subject

no subject