[BTR|RP] Without the light of wisdom, what else can be done?

[hey_capn_jack]

{BACKDATED FOREVER; LOCKED TO IANTO. Follows this madness.}As it turns out, Elashte is either not as invested in answering Jack's proverbial phonecalls these days as he could be, or Jack chose a rather poor time to try to get in touch with him. And with Mio being not exactly a mindhealer, and the Vesmier being in a different country and rather

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[hey_capn_jack]

"Well, that depends," Jack says, steadily putting his mental controls in place. He's keeping part of his attention tuned to his own expression, his own tone and posture - both the physical kind and the more sociological definition drilled into him in the Agency. His posture in that sense is easy: torturer.

How much do you trust me? is what he'd like to ask, but that's quickly quashed. That's an emotional question, not a tactical one. His job is to coerce that trust, not scavenge it.

"Do you prefer dread or unpleasant surprises?" he asks, locking his eyes on Ianto's. There's a moment where his entire manner is analyzing - like he's looking at one of Owen's dissected alien corpses, or the guts of one of Toshiko's programs. Ianto's not a person, here, he's a bundle of psychoprogramming and encoded reactions, jammed into a collection of nerve endings and sensory organs

[hey_capn_jack]

Two small tickmarks fill themselves in, in the back of Jack's mind.

One: honesty feeds to intimacy here.

Two: surprise unbalances here.

Both good things to know.

He exhales, then gestures back to the edge of the bed. (Chair might be more comfortable; a more professional spot, less vulnerable. That's exactly why he doesn't indicate it.) "Sit."

It only gets worse from here.

"I'm a compliance officer," he says. "Technically. Eletor-Instagur of the Time Agency, specializing in information extraction and compliance. Call me a torturer emeritus." The corner of his mouth ticks up, but the smile is gone in an instant. "What you have is a set of conditionings which are causing problems I don't want to deal with, so it's my job to either dismantle the impulse you suffer to do that, or set up psychological systems that don't let you follow through on them. Now, there are ways to do all of this that don't factor down to physical pain. But I'm not going to call any of them 'pleasant'."