network | text

[haircaring]

Who: Steve Harrington
Username: harrington
Warnings: none rn, will update if needed/requested

Hey so is this a regular Halloween parties and trick or treat kind of town, or is it gonna be like a portal to hell opens and rains unearthly terrors down on us kind of town tomorrow?

I mean I think this month's already been kind of a lot. Personally. But I know that's basically worthless to a demon or whatever. I just want to know my odds of having to deal with MORE horror movie bullshit.

But uh

also don't be a dick to trick or treaters no matter where we land on that. Like, be cool. They're kids. Between the hell portal and the popcorn balls, those twerps are gonna have enough to complain about.

Ok thanks

Comments

action??

[conning]

Neal sees the message pop up on the network as he's washing some dishes in the kitchen. Or rather, he hears the notification on his phone, finishes drying the plate he's just cleaned, and then goes over to check it because he can't help himself. He smiles at the note, a little sad and a little amused and a little fond all at once, then goes over to knock on Steve's door and see if he's inside.

heck yeah!

[haircaring]

Oh, shit. He got a knock.

Steve opens up in pretty short order, since he's just been in here getting all those vital text Halloween details.

"Hey. Everything okay?" It wasn't a building-burning-down knock and Neal doesn't look like there's a big emergency, so probably fine. Oh, or-- "Too much noise?"

He doesn't attempt to hide the fact that he has no idea how that could possibly even be the case. But who knows, everyone's got their stuff.

[conning]

The 'too much noise' question prompts a startled laugh. "Steve, Malcolm starts screaming almost every night between three and five in the morning. You can make all the noise you want."

He holds up his phone and gives it a little wriggle, drawing attention to the network post on its screen. "What's wrong with popcorn balls?"

[haircaring]

"Nightmares only count as making noise if someone's being an asshole about it."

Is a neighbor being an asshole about it? He's gonna ask later. He'll totally argue with a neighbor.

But good. It's just the network thing and not a him being bad at roommate etiquette thing. So that's fine, then.

Steve immediately relaxes enough to scoff. "Dude, they suck. You know what kids do with popcorn balls? They pick those things apart in the back of the car and make a huge mess, like animals."

[conning]

That startles a laugh out of him. "I liked popcorn balls. Better than apples, at least to a kid."

He tucks his phone away and crosses his arms, leaning against the doorway. "Though for the sake of the drivers of the world, a bag of homemade caramel corn might be more civilized, you're right."

Neal glances toward their living room window, and by virtue of that out at the greater Gloucester area. "I wonder if they have any trunk-or-treat things happening around the city. It could be nice, remembering Halloween is fun. Is supposed to be."

[haircaring]

"Caramel corn. Ten times better."

He'd like to see Henderson try to sacrifice caramel to screw up his upholstery. He guesses Max would've. Tells himself that one day she will, and he'll complain twice as hard about it because she's a goddamn menace and she'll think that makes it funnier.

Steve follows that glance outward, tilting his head.

"Okay, so I haven't gotten to 'trunk-or-treat' in my history catch-up." Or really bothered actively pursuing the history catch-up, because so much of the benefit of being done with school is not reading more about history. Still though. "That's like the big thing kids are doing now?"

[conning]

"Right."

Time differences. Cosmically significant time differences. Or at least, in this case, semantically significant.

"Not sure where or when it really started, maybe when families in apartments got more common, but basically... it's trick or treat in a parking lot with people giving candy out of their cars." Neal squints. "That makes it sound extremely sketchy."

[haircaring]

Oh, thank god Neal said it first.

"Maybe a little sketchy," Steve offers in the spirit of being gracious. "But I guess it also sucks to let your kids free-roam the streets all night in this town. Really narrows down the suspect list for if stuff goes wrong."

There's always someone slipping poison into stuff in this town, or setting fires, or trying to mass hypnotize people or something. Makes the Upside Down look more straightforward sometimes.

[conning]

Neal snorts. "I think it's more a chance for kids without suburban surroundings to get a little well-supervised taste of the holiday."

Though. "...Maybe in other places, anyway. Here it seems like a way to narrow down the suspect list for when things go wrong."

The thought of something happening to a group of kids makes his skin prickle with uneasy goosebumps.

[haircaring]

...

"So I just made this, like... super depressing."

His bad, man.

[conning]

That startles a laugh out of him. Bleak, maybe, but it's still genuine amusement. "Look, it doesn't take a lot to make many things around here super depressing. Finding ways to undo the depressing part is more important."