Always read the TOS
While Tim and Sasha were taking off work to process everything, Jon continued to work during the day. He didn’t get much more than file sorting done, since he was pretty full, so making his archives feel better was more or less his goal at the moment. It was relatively easy since he had most of them filed away mentally, though from time to time, he would run into a statement that was relatively new. He could only figure that those were probably ones the Prentiss destroyed before any got to read them. He made sure those got filed away someplace safe cause they would be good, probably even fresh enough to be more than just a nibble.
Tim had a point. Jon had been getting a bit full of himself. That could be dangerous. He’d mentioned to Georgie that he was worried he was becoming too comfortable. That in playing human, he was forgetting just how dangerous he could be. She’d mentioned a few things for him to try, without diving into the self loathing pool, but none of them were as easy as that.
One of Jon’s mental alerts went off and his attention went to Tim. Jon Saw him enter a domain of the spiral no less. Wasn’t Michael from what he could tell, nor several of the other avatars he’d gotten to know in the future.
It wasn’t long, but Jon was frozen in place watching. It wasn’t the first time he cursed not having the full extent of access to the Eye. He could see around the domain, but not inside. No way of Knowing if Tim was alright or not.
[click]
A door opened behind Jon, and all his eyes focused on it. “Hello Michael”
“You know me, but I don’t believe we’ve met before.”
“We have. But I can’t expect you to remember it. What do I owe the honor?”
“So cryptic. I like it.” Michael sat in the chair as Jon’s eyes followed him. Jon hated to admit it, but Helen was better as Helen than as Michael. Michael didn’t move right, well, least not in a way Jon was used to looking at them.
“Mmhmm. You would enjoy it. Now, Mind explaining what you are here for. I don’t want to be rude and ask again.” Jon didn’t like how focusing on Michael was making it hard to focus on where Tim last was. Having to split his attention between two Spirals at once was stretching it.
“Manners. Something about that feels wrong?”
“It should. If anyone were to know why it’d be you.”
Michael laughed his laugh that tasted like the color of the sun.
“So, then you are so interesting cause I know you when I’m not me?”
Jon’s eyes started to glow.
“Oh, so, what's the word, tetchy? That seems right. Fine. I’m here to let you know your Guard is on his way home. You should figure out how to explain that to him. I’m not a fan of Archivists that hide things.”
“My Guard...?” Static rose through the air. “Oh. oh. Yes. I suppose I should…Thank you. Um, Are you looking for anything in return for this?” Jon’s eyes stopped glowing, with the extra’s still there, but eased of Michael.
“No. Just. If one of them is hurt. I’ll be angry. No one deserves what Michael got. Keep an eye out for my door.” Michael made his exit with laughter.
Helen’s exits were better too.
[click]
--
Jon entered Elias’s office fairly forcefully and closed the door behind himself so Rosie wouldn’t be able to hear anything.
“Hello, Jon. Been a while since you’ve initiated a meeting.”
“I want to see my assistant’s contracts.”
Elias reached into his desk with a laugh. “Finally noticed? You were so sloppy when we first arrived. Trusting my word that they had already signed their contracts.” Elias held them out for Jon.
They both knew what the contracts said, but Jon has to see them rather than just Knowing.
Jon glanced at them all, and sure enough, along with his was tricky wordings and binding agreements to the Beholding. There was a single line in all the contracts that was different from the others. Each of those lines, binding his assistants in a very different way, though still linking them to Jon.
“You should thank me. I know your goal has been to keep them alive, and now they have something of an option, should they choose to take it. If you need help developing them, I’m more than-”
“What ̛̹̙̐i͉̐s̝̽ ̳̽ỳ͎̠͚̂̎o̟͇͑ụ̢̤̘̀̑͗͌͐͜r̡̨͎͎̫͊̊̇̽̃ ̬̺͖͔̺̏̓̇̔͘g̡̘̖̹̜̎̆̾̒̚ơ̧̞̘̦̗̄́̓̚a̝̰̹̖͗͆͌͊̾ͅl͓̞̖̠̩̊̃̿̕̚ ̢͙̰͇̒͛̀̈́̉͢b̘̖̼̭́̊̂̂̕͟y̨̖̺̻̭͋̀̅͗͠ ͈̜̥̮̎̎̎̅̚͢d̥͖͉̼̍̿̒̍ͅó̘͙̗̤̤̂̊͌͡į̹͇͉̒̌͌̈̕͟n̨̞͉̺̺̒̅͑͐͡ĝ̮̯̯̘͕̕͞ ̨̡̟̲͉́͋̓t̘̭̰̥̦͑͋͞͡͠h͚̘͎̪̹̃̕̚͞ị̙̙͖̲̂̿̊̈͞s̰̬͔͖̀̀͊̆͛͟?̰͓̘̟̰̎̒̔̌̍”
“Wow. That is far more powerful than before.” Elias took a deep breath. “It still doesn’t work on me the way you want it to, but it’s important to me you know that I’m telling the truth when I say this. It’s a reward. You Became so wonderfully, and in a world that has so few possibilities for meaningful changes, thought I would give you something to Watch. Aren’t you curious now that you know? Isn’t it fascinating how no matter how drastic a change, nothing changes?”
“It’s dreadful.”
“What would be the point otherwise? It’s delicious how little us coming back in time changed anything. I doubt you’ve paid attention yourself, but nothing in the grand timeline of things has changed. There is a small wave of changes around us, but we are merely pebbles in a pond.”
Jon hadn’t thought about checking up on the rest of humanity. Just the immediate people he knew.
“Enjoy yourself, Jon. Now, if you will, I have a meeting with Fairchild, and I don’t think you feel like being around for that.”
“I’m taking these.”
“Of course. I’ve no real use for them anymore since they’ve been signed.”
--
Jon stared at the contracts on his desk so long that his tea got cold.
“Are you alright? It’s not often you have a meeting with Elias outside of the Archives.“
Jon let out a fond chuckle. “We both know that is a loaded question. If I said I was fine you would fight me.”
“I would. Yes.” Martin picked Marshal off the tape recorder to notice it was on. “And it seems like something is ready to be recorded.” Sat with her on his lap. She purred into him. “But those don’t look like statements…”
“No, they aren’t.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really, but what I want doesn’t matter in this case. And I get the whole privacy thing, but these aren’t about me.” Jon added in that last part as he could see Martin was about to remind Jon again. “Also, you should start being careful when asking questions…it’s a hard habit to break.”
Martin looked worried. “Wait, Why? Jon, what does that mean?” Jon handed Martin his contract.
“You signed this after Elias and I came back. I didn’t notice…”
Martin looked at it, and he read it over real quick, then again. The second read through, he saw it. “Fuck. I’m gunna punch his smug face next time I see him. He do this to everyone’s contract?”
“In various cryptic wordings. Yes.”
“Are the others the same as me or...?”
“It’s the ‘or’. Something about Tim being a ‘Guard of the Archive’s contents’, and Sasha being the ‘Ambassador of Fear’? Hell if I know what either entails. I bet Elias just made the titles up and the Beholding is curious enough to humor him.”
“Hm sounds like him. So what does this mean for us?”
“Nothing bad?”
“Nothing bad.” Matin nodded, petting the kitten. "Seriously though, what kind of evil paperwork demon is Elias? 15 pages of terms just for an internal job transfer. Its no wonder he's been getting away with this kinda thing for 200 some years..."