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[verbol]

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Hello from...

RUBILYKSKOYE

25/09/----

Sorry I missed you, but stay out of my goddamn head.

— JH

---

Rubilykskoye

@rubilykskoye

CODE BY TESSISAMESS

Comments

[rehandle]

[ It's a new month. He's not aggravated, irritable, turning into a monster or in a weeks-long stand-off with his roommate. Things are looking up.

What he is, unfortunately for everyone who's tolerated him in a social setting long enough to be deemed an acceptable target, is bored. ]

Hey. Did you catch the horse corpse flyover?

[verbol]

Oh thank God. I thought my hangover was so bad I'd started hallucinating.

[rehandle]

Nope. You may also have heard the distraught man wailing in your head around the same time: also real and directly connected.

[ He had a great time bullying him for no reason. ]

Still suffering?

[verbol]

Oh, I know that was real. I was pretending he wasn't.

Yeah, I think I've managed to piece myself together. The wailing really helped.

[rehandle]

In the absence of aspirin, pop a couple sounds of a stranger's distress. Noted.

[verbol]

It's that or the opium House is pushing.

You got dinner plans?

[rehandle]

[ — oh? The perk of the brief little frisson that question creates is the mention of House and his opium-peddling goes immediately relegated to something of secondary importance. ]

Let me check my schedule... no I do not.

[verbol]

I've got fish and beer, if you can brave the woods. The cabin's mostly still a wreck, but it's got a roof. Part of a roof.


- I've got a fire outside. Works just as well.

[rehandle]

You got yourself a cabin in the woods.

Did you fish those fish, Jim?

[ Stuck in monsterland and Jim Hopper's gone fishin'. Good for him, but that doesn't mean it isn't Stephen's divine right to make a Thing out of it. ]

[verbol]

It's the shell of a cabin, if I'm being honest. Been fixing it up, when I come out to fish. Even made the rod myself.

[rehandle]

[ He fished those fish. ]

Steady there, Mr. Bachelor Pad. The rod? Color me impressed.

[ Good mood? Gremlin hours. ]

I think I might be able to brave the woods. Frightening as they are.

[verbol]

[he FISHED those fish.]

Come over for dinner. Someone's gotta eat these fish and drink this beer.

[rehandle]

You're right. I couldn't possibly expect you to do that all by yourself.

When? And where, actually.

[verbol]

[is this. flirting??]

8? It's the cabin that looks like a hurricane blew through it. About five minutes trek from the lake.

[however, helpfully, he does provide some mental visual cues. ]

[rehandle]

[ Don't ask questions. ]

Thanks, you're really selling it. See you at 8.

[verbol]

I'm hoping you'll take pity and magic me a mattress that isn't a piece of wood. See you at 8.

[rehandle]

Some people take wine to dinner in actually habitable abodes. You want your guests to furnish yours.

Better be some damn good fish.

[verbol]

Call it an early Christmas present.

[rehandle]

Are you saying the fish is going to be bad?

[verbol]

No, no. It's good. Scouts honour.

[rehandle]

Better hope so, your quality of sleep depends on it.

Later Hop.

[ God, that's one from the archive. ]

[verbol]

Uh huh.

See you at 8, Stephen.

[rehandle]

[ And he will see him at 8.

The crunch and crack of an abrupt arrival in the undergrowth just outside of property lines is followed by footsteps and the emerging into view of one Stephen Strange, come empty-handed to behold what variety of tumbledown disaster Jim Hopper is trying to make hospitable out here in the woods.

And to eat fish and drink beer. Let's not forget the fish and beer. ]

[verbol]

[Jim's Cabin is partially derelict. It's got the foundations, sure, but it's a real fixer upper. Jim's been working on it, though. The roof's half-way done, give or take some fixing. The outside walls have been started.

He's got a grill outside, where he's got some potatoes boiling and some fish grilling, as promised. The old bathtub has been converted into an ice-bucket, where Jim's stored some bottles of wine, and shoved a cask of beer up close.

He's dressed about as casually as he gets here. Pair of loose slacks, open shirt. If Stephen's sudden appearance startles him, he doesn't show it. ] You really need to get a bell or something.

[rehandle]

Pretty sure that's recreational here.

[ Stephen strolls into the glow of the fire, scarf layered over jacket layered over linen shirt, hands tucked into his pockets and attention lifted to the shell of a cabin acting as a backdrop to their evening. ]

Nice place. [ Effortless sarcasm. But also, actually, it is nice. The grill, the smell of the food. The bath full of booze.

Focus drops to his host. His face caught by firelight conjures a fleeting selection of too sharp half-memories, camping trips it's a miracle he was ever persuaded to go on. The nature, quiet, the ease of Jim out here. Stephen had always said yes to the next trip eventually. ]

You didn't mention you had a fully stocked bar.

[ Might be time to start drinking. ]