#a-commas-a-pause

36

Sixteen hours after Tim powers his phone completely off, it starts ringing.

"The fuck," Jason says without taking his eyes off the road. "Didn't I tell you turn that off?"

"You did and I already had," Tim assures him. "It's Oracle."

Well, to be specific, it's Dick calling, but what he means is that Oracle's behind his phone somehow turning back on.

"...It's creepy as fuck that that's even possible," Jason says after a moment of contemplation.

"Yep," Tim agrees. The phone stops ringing, and he holds down the appropriate buttons and then slides to power it off.

Then he pitches it out the open window, and his brand new, thousand-dollar latest-model smartphone is left to shatter against the asphalt at 80 miles an hour.

"I wasn't gonna make you do that," Jason says, but there's a smile tugging at his mouth--a very small thing, like he just can't hold it completely back.

"I only kept it so we'd know when Dick clued in enough to go to Babs for help," Tim tells him.

That gets Jason's eyes off the road. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Tim covers the hand that's been gripping his thigh for the last thirty miles at least, slotting his fingers between Jason's. "I meant it when I said I'm all in."

Jason's tiny smile turns into a real grin. He squeezes Tim's thigh and looks back at the road, some lingering tension Tim hadn't even noticed falling away from his shoulders.

"I'm with you," Tim tells him. He can't resist leaning over to kiss his cheek, and treasures the way the skin warms beneath his lips. "Whatever comes next."

"Whatever comes next," Jason echoes. His grin slides into a smirk; the sideways glance he casts Tim is downright mischievous. "How 'bout Vegas?"

Whether he plans on robbing casinos, tangling with mobsters, or even a quickie wedding (or, very possibly, all three), it doesn't matter. Tim's answer would be the same no matter what.

"Hell yes."

Sjdkskdkdkkdkskc it was very delightful to wake up to So Much Peer Review, and then to see this ask <3

I bet you think you're really funny for this :(

(because you are)

(seriously though this isn't all of it - it didn't even fit on the screen)

I was typing it out like either I'm the funniest person alive or I'm the most whackable mole in the whack-a-mole machine or both.

Like to be clear my own plan here is like. Lie to my local Labour MP about not voting for them if they don't get their shit together, but when it comes to it vote for them anyway because what else can you do. Like there's a very real additional human cost to the least awful guy not getting in so I can't really morally justify actually witholding my vote. But I CAN justify pretending (to them) that I'm considering it. And it seems like he's one step further than me on the extremity scale in that he advocates for actually witholding your vote and it's like. Look I get all your reasons. Labour in the UK/Democrats in the US are complicit in some truly awful things right now and I'm absolutely furious about it. But what could you achieve by witholding your vote that you cannot achieve simply by lying about it?

To be clear I'm absolutely one of the most truthful (honesty is a different matter and I don't feel qualified to comment on my own, but in terms of literal truth-telling I CAN claim this) people I know. But this is one of the few situations where I'm like. I think the most ethical thing to do is to lie actually?

Yeah no I'm in total agreement with you there.

At the end of the day, actually withholding your voting or voting for the Green Party as a protest vote are the most useless political actions you can take. Your intention with it doesn't matter when the outcome is the Tories or Republicans getting more power and enacting more of their policies that are going to hurt the vulnerable people that you care about.

It's very LARPy. You insist you're doing something principled and meaningful and acting like a "good leftist", but you're not. Intentions don't automatically equate to outcomes and in this case, we know that they are not synonymous.

Meanwhile, things like directly threatening to withhold your vote can do something, especially at a local level where the candidates are much more likely to actually hear that threat.

I mean, in general, there's a lot more you can do politically at a local level. Local politicians can better hear your demands and are much more likely to meet them. You can often communicate with them one on one and because a lot of people are barely bothered to get involved when the Big Election rolls around, you can get shit done because no one else is there to oppose you.

It's one of the things that really irks me about the withdraw-your-vote crowd because they act is if electoral politics is useless, and completely ignore the very existence of local politics.

Also one of the things I find very frustrating is the way critiques of the labour party or of the democrats are almost never followed up with any action. Like if you want to shift these parties further left, get involved with them. Starting your own party is not gonna work because you won't be able to get the votes or the seats or whatever to have any real power as a party. Good thing there's two nominally left-wing, already existing parties that you can very easily get involved with and push for more leftist policies within them.

I'm constantly told I'm speaking too quietly, but when I try and "speak up" it's too loud - can't seem to get the Goldilocks zone right. This has been a thing since I was born and continues to be a thing.

Plus like that scene is set in a room in a big manor house in Hertfordshire it's quite plausible that sound would bounce unexpectedly? Happens all the time in those sorts of buildings. Acoustics are strange. I think the much stronger evidence for op's point is that he was looking her dead in the eyes when he said it.

Yeah I kinda got the vibe of it being like a whisper and not a I'm gonna confront you face to face to settle this. Plus I've only read P&P once and it's the only Austen I've read so I'm not joking when I say I don't go here in regards to Austenblr so I didn't know if there's like unspoken rules over there.

Also same on that Goldilocks thing, I'm either too quiet or too loud, I don't know how to get into that just right range without being directed to. Like I know how to project my voice on stage to a theatre audience without any kind of microphone, but damn if I don't miss the mark a good third amount of time when I'm just speaking. Anytime I try to whisper, either I'm too quiet or I'm no longer whispering.

Oh yeah no like old British buildings are a nightmare with acoustics. Like sometimes they turn them into pubs and very clearly have not taken acoustics into plan because you have a meal in there and noise is bouncing goddamn everywhere.

No idea about plug and play pink though.

Oh yeah no, I probably should have specified that I meant from a 2024 perspective.

Honestly, I'm incredibly impressed by how well you remember my tags because I have absolutely no memory of half the stuff I say.