We're all liars. ( a loose lift of his shoulders, and he's--turning around to head towards accelerator's apartment building. the fire's died down enough. ) An' we'll keep secrets even if we're pretty sure we don't need to. The guy who trained us ingrained on all of us that information's valuable and the more people who know shit, the more at-risk it is of getting out.
( bruce has more secrets than he has truths he's let others in on, and none of the robins he's trained are any better. )
I'd keep that to yourself. The bugs and who they belong to bit.
[Accelerator remains where he is, not following Jason for several moments. It's the time he needs to cool his expression into something more akin to his usual scowl, though it doesn't quite get there. Then he turns and follows him.]
Fine. Whatever. It's not like he was ever obligated to be truthful to me. It doesn't fucking matter.
[What Jason is saying is logical enough that he can't be mad about this, so he won't be.
(He's still put off by this, even if he's going to act like he isn't.)]
( the pause is enough for jason to figure out he's not happy about it. which--who would be? no one likes finding out they've been lied to. )
It's not personal. Hell, it's -- ( and his own lips are twisting into a scowl, but jason keeps walking. ) habit more'n anything else. Someone asks me for my name, I've got dozens that'll come out of my mouth before I ever get to my own.
( a little weird, still, that he's considered one of the adults. jason's not even close to the youngest of his crew, but being put in with the likes of bruce is. . . different.
jason stops in place a bit away from the apartment building's door. looks over to accelerator. )
I'm not gonna promise not to lie to you, because I'm not going to be able to keep that. But if I do lie, it'll be for a good reason. An' if it turns out it was a shit reason, you've got full permission to beat the living hell out of me. Because I'll deserve it.
He catches up, looking over, still scowling. And he refrains from doing any more of his whatever, I'm to apathetic to be bothered by any of this act. It's clear he's taking Jason's words seriously.]
( he's feeling it now. damian is an old man stuck in the body of a toddler, he's only got a few years on time, dickie's--different. but accelerator is a brat he's vaguely acknowledged as his brat.
( he wouldn't have done it any differently in junior's shoes. even if had just been habit. there's a reason junior hadn't shared; those bugs cover the entirety of the club, they're there to gain intel, if accelerator were anyone else, if jason hadn't told him to keep it quiet, he might have taken it to his friends, who might've taken it to someone else, and you can't gain intel on people who know they're being listened to. it's just asking to be given false leads. he gets it. tim and dick'll probably be pissed off if they find out he's spilling family secrets, but it's not as if accelerator hasn't been inside his head already.
he's not angry about it. he's angry their similarities are shining through again when he hates being reminded of those. )
[It isn't really fine, it's just easier to say that and act like it is. Before the Level 6 Shift, just accepting adults were shit was always the easier route to take. They all either feared or hated him, and it's not like any of them ever bothered trying to hide that. There was nothing he could do about it, so it was just easier to go along with it.
It's kind of hard to do that here, when Jason is being rude and vocalizing what he's really thinking.
but jason's just quirking a brow up, and - leaving it at that. accelerator can point it out, but jason doesn't want to address it. he's had enough crises this year already. so he changes the subject instead. )
[The change in subject matter isn't a big deal to Accelerator. He knows talking about stuff like one's self-loathing isn't easy, so he rolls with it and shrugs.]
( he's not following accelerator back up. stops just a bit outside the door, actually, and - turns around on his heels to head back out once he's verified accelerator's inside. )
[There's a few minutes of '....' as Accelerator writes and deletes a bunch of texts, because he honestly wasn't expecting Jason to go along with that. He had felt foolish as soon as he had asked it, but now it's actually happening and he just... isn't sure how to feel about that. Relieved? Embarrassed that needed to ask in the first place?]
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