#act accordingly

This is what it looks like:

And this is the most important bit:

They will cry and piss and scream when you decline to give your consent because this one lil form turns the tables. Without it, they can't collect your payslips to claim a thousand tax-payer dollars for themselves every time you find a job. They can't call up your current employer and harass them for paperwork until you get fired. They can't organise a job halfway across the country and then get your payments suspended when you don't show up. All of the above requires the collection and sharing of your sensitive information, if you decline consent to that, they cannot do it.

MOST IMPORTANTLY when it comes time for you to do Work For The Dole, they can't sign you up for hard labour, because generally the hard labour is outsourced to some private slave master. The most they can do is sign you up for their own internal program (usually some course on how to use a stapler or some shit, you sit in an air-conditioned room twiddling your thumbs for two weeks, rather than risking life and limb in a chain gang). Often they won't even bother subjecting you to their own internal program because it costs them money to run it and that money is supposed to go to Sarina Russo's next gold-plated jetski. So they'll just tick you off (which says a lot about how necessary the whole mutual obligations system is and why calls for it to be shut down are absolutely right, but I digress).

ok, theory time 😁

if Buck is on a date in this scene, why would Ravi and Eddie be there as well?

what if it's not exactly a date, but just a "date"? like there was this auction for charity, the 118 joined in, and the three of them volunteered (or were "volunteered" by Chim) to be the "prize"? get people to bid for one dinner with a firefighter kind of thing.

Ravi is polite and friendly to his "date" but couldn't care less about the whole thing and wraps it up as quickly as possible.

Buck is enthusiastic and rambles about firefighting, and when his "date" turns to more personal questions, he talks about Tommy (with that special smile he has when he thinks of him), his "date" assumes he's gay, he tries to explain he's bisexual and the other person clearly doesn't seem to believe him, and the dinner ends on a sour note.

and Eddie... actually hits it off with his date! 😂 they get along really well and decide to continue talking over drinks at a bar.

Only make me bump that WIP to the bottom of the list ❤️