polemical | open post

[He wheezes a half-strangled little noise that's definitely a laugh] That would be so much worse, Dee. [He shakes his head] Enough worse that it might almost be worth it, except you definitely don't deserve whatever would happen in the fallout.

[He's still not sure how the two of them became allies, let alone friends, but he's thankful for it, even if just for insane ideas like this one.]

[ She huffs a little when he shoots her down, torn between relieved and offended. The idea of dating Chris but just to piss off his mom is both appealing but also disappointing. Better to not examine that too much and focus on how sucky his mom is. ] I could take it!

[ She's trying not to question it too much, because she's found that being Chris's friend is actually really nice and she's afraid if she pushes too hard things will fall apart. ]

She'd be fucking furious, huh? Lock you in your tower and not let you out for anything.

[He doesn't mean turning her down as a bad thing, it really is just for her protection.] Yeah she would, it wouldn't even just be a tower, I'd be sent all the way off to a convent, basically. And you...

[He shakes his head] I don't know, she'd figure something out, though.

I'd come break you out of your nunnery, Chrissy. It would be a daring heist, full of drama and danger and shit. Some real blockbuster shenanigans. They'd write songs about us. Okay. I'd write songs about us, but they'd sell really well. Then you wouldn't have to get a job, because my band would make a killing singing songs about us and you could just live off the royalties like a spoiled house-husband or something.

[ That...got a little bit away from her. Oops. ]

But for real. If I can help you... Please tell me.

[His brow furrows more and more deeply as she continues, but so do the lines at the corners of his mouth indicating a suppressed smile, because even as off the rails as that promise has gotten, it's still so very her that he can't help but be charmed.

He nods at the actual sentiment] I will, Dee. Promise, you'll be the first one to know.

[Possibly because asking Jason for any kind of actual help is useless, but that's not something to worry about right at the moment.]

Promise. [ She lets go of his hand for just long enough to twist her wrist around so she can link her pinky through his, curling them together and squeezing tightly. ]

I got a big van, we can stuff it full of your shit and hit the road.

[He can't help but smile at that as well, he hasn't made a pinky promise in years, but he knows even now they're the most unbreakable kind of promise.] It won't come to that, at least not anytime soon, otherwise you'll just get flagged as aiding and abetting a runaway.

[He tilts his head from side to side, considering] There's worse things to put you on the radar, I guess.

[ She huffs with annoyance, grumbling under her breath. ] Never thought I'd say this, but I miss Hop. Powell would pull me over just for shits and giggles, but Hopper was cool.

[ He let her off with more than one warning when he caught her doing something stupid when she was younger. She was sad to hear he died in the mall fire. ]

It'd be worth it, though.

She'd probably have gone running to Powell anyway, I got to hear all about how Hopper 'just wasn't qualified' for the position. [He shakes his head in something like exasperation] If he wasn't qualified he wouldn't have the position, right?

[His brow creases] Or, wouldn't have had, I guess.

Hopper was harder to sway, I think. [ He certainly wasn't swayed by all of her best attempts at excuses, though while he'd usually take her in to the station to wait for Wayne to come collect her, he wouldn't actually book her for anything, even if he caught her red-handed trying to deface property or whatever.

By the time she graduated to crimes worse than petty vandalism, they had come to a sort of "not in my sight" agreement which she greatly appreciated.

She's pretty sure Hop and Rick used to be buddies, back in the ancient times. Rick always was pretty sure he wouldn't get in trouble with the law when it came to his drugs. After Hopper died, though, Powell cracked down on a lot of shit and Rick got sent away. ]

Maybe your mom should be a cop.

[He looks aghast, though it's clearly put-on given the hand he presses to his chest] And take a job away from a man that deserves it? She would never.

[A small smile follows] And yeah, Hopper was harder to sway, and more than that he'd actually call her on shit, always professional, but he would. I think my favorite was, [he clears his throat, and while it's not a pitch-perfect impression of Hopper, it's reasonably close, especially the level of exasperation in tone and expression] 'Ma'am, if you want to police what your neighbors do on their own property you're welcome to take the deputy training course and do so officially if it's actually against the law, otherwise you'll just have to start an HOA'

[ Eddie's always been a big girl. She hit her growth spurts early, earlier than most of her peers, and she's pretty much kept pace since. Even once she hit high school, and her male friends hit their growth spurts, she tends to be one of the tallest people in the room. It means she's never been able to do the girly behaviors that smaller people can, the tucking yourself under someone's arm, the curling up tight in a small chair, and she's never really minded much.

Now she doesn't mind for a slightly different reason: when she brings her legs up to curl up a little, she winds up sort of spilling over Chris's lap since they're sitting so close and he still has one arm behind her.

She laughs at his impression, shoving him a little. ] That was good! I can't believe he said that to your mom, though. How pissed was she?

[The arm around her stays right where it is, swaying with the shove even as he smiles again, relaxing more easily once more. He's still not sure what it is about her that puts him so at ease, but he's also not about to start questioning it, because that's when whatever it is will stop working.]

Oh she was pissed, I'm pretty sure that's the first time she tried to get support for having him fired.

[The first time, because he knows it happened at least three times, not counting how stringently she'd objected to his appointment in the first place.]

The first time, huh. [ She's not surprised Chris's mom tried more than once to get their police chief fired. It sounds like something she'd do. ] Who would she even go to, to get him fired? He's the Chief of Police.

[ Truth be told, Eddie doesn't really care who you have to complain to in order to get a public official fired, because nobody would listen to her if she tried doing something like that. Really, she's just trying to keep this conversation going because she knows the tape is going to run out soon, and she doesn't really know what time it is or how long Chris has been hanging out with her, and she doesn't want to ask about it in case he figures she's no longer in danger of dying from doing something stupid and will go home. ]

[He smiles at the initial disbelief, and snorts amusement at the question] The Mayor. After that it was always just a petition around the neighborhood, but she could never get the required number of signatures for a vote of no confidence or whatever it is to remove a chief of police.

[Truthfully he's enjoying just existing without any expectations for a while, and he's going to savor it for as long as it lasts even once he realizes she's not in any actual danger, if she even was to start with.]

God, your mom would be friends with the mayor. [ Just like she assumes the Harringtons are buddy-buddy with the mayor, too. It sounds exhausting, all that play-acting at being respectable, keeping up appearances and forcing everyone around you to do it too.

She sniffs dismissively. ] Who would even want to be mayor of a podunk little town like this?

I don't know what kind of person would want to be mayor just in general, but I guess someone who couldn't hack it as mayor somewhere bigger would want to be mayor of somewhere like Hawkins.

[He's only met Kline a handful of times and hasn't liked him any of them. He seems like the kind of guy with Schemes, who always thinks he's smarter than he really is.]

Don't let your mom make you become mayor of our shit hometown, Chrissy. Aim higher. At least go for Muncie.

[ Okay, so this isn't Eddie's hometown as such, but whatever. She's going to count it. She spent too long bouncing around between houses when she was in elementary school to count any one place as hers. Hawkins is as close as it's gonna get, and isn't that depressing. ]

Politics? Are you kidding? I might as well start a brothel. [He shakes his head] Just because she's on good terms with the mayor doesn't mean she actually trusts him to do anything more than he was elected to do.

[He leans back on his hand, something that also means he's leaning into her just a little, since that other arm is still across her back] I'm getting a business degree and coming back here to climb the ranks until I'm owner of one of the businesses downtown, or I'm going to seminary so I can take over when the reverend retires. That's it, those are my options.

[ She knows he's joking, but there's nothing that Eddie loves more than a ridiculous bit, so when he says he should open a brothel she gives him a huge Cheshire cat grin. ] You should totally open a brothel, Chrissy. Guaranteed business, you'll never fail.

[ But then he continues about the actual realities laid out for him and she sighs. ]

You know, after college you could just... not come home. Stay in Chicago or wherever you're going. Get the fuck outta Indiana.

Getting out of Indiana would be easier if I wasn't going to U of I. [He had been joking previously, but now he just sounds tired] It's dad's alma mater.

[He shakes his head again, straightening a little, but still keeping that arm across her back, almost like he's forgotten that's where it is.] And dumping again, sorry. I'll figure out when I'm about to and stop before I do, swear.

[It's just that he hasn't had an outside perspective on any of this before, and while he always thought it was a little weird that his life was supposed to be that much on the rails, he's only recently begun to realize that it's seriously fucked up.]

Or hey, maybe the ground will open up and swallow me before any of that happens. It's always possible.

Oh, shit. Yeah. Uh, you could transfer out? [ That's a thing that people do in college, right? Transfer from one to another? Eddie has no fucking idea. Nobody in her family has ever gone to college and lord knows she's not going to be the first one.

Chris might have forgotten he has his arm around her, but Eddie sure hasn't. Even so, this conversation is important enough that she pulls herself up slightly, shifting to get her knees under her so she's sitting on her feet and facing him properly. This is important. She needs to make serious, earnest eye-contact. ]

Chris. I don't mind you dumping on me. I want you to dump on me. I like feeling like... [ we're friends, she doesn't say, because she's smart enough to realize that might be something that sounds like an insult even though she doesn't mean it to be. ] Like I can help you. Even though I know fuck-all about college, or having an overbearing mom, or the threat of seminary school.

[ She's clutched at his shirt in lieu of his hands since he's braced his weight on them, and it leaves her leaning into him precariously. Which is fine, because she needs him to pay attention to her, because she's deadly serious. ]

Probably? I think? I'd need credits and a comparable class to transfer to. I mean, I think that's how it works. [It's not like he's really looked into it before either, he's had no reason to.

He startles, just slightly, when he realizes how close she is as he turns to look at her, but there's a small smile a moment later.] I'm pretty sure knowing fuck-all about any of that is how you can help. It's like... fresh perspective, you know?

[Because Jason is not that, and doesn't really know just how deep this plan actually goes, and wow Eddie's eyes are really big this close and that's definitely not the kind of thing he's noticed before.]

[ There's a part of her that is legitimately curious about the process of transferring from one college to another, but only in a rather abstract way. It'll never apply to her, so it's sort of the same curiosity she has about deep-sea exploration, or nuclear physics.

But she's not curious enough to focus on that instead of what she considers to be more important, which is the look on Chris's face when he turns to look at her and blinks in surprise to find her so close.

Maybe she should lean back? But she's balanced herself by now, and moving would jeopardize that. ]

Yeah, if you want an outsider's perspective, you came to the right place. [ She wets her lips with the tip of her tongue, nervous for a reason she can't quite describe. ] I just don't know how helpful I can actually be.

We already know track and field scholarship somewhere else is probably off the table, not unless I get a helluva lot faster in the next few months.

[He shrugs, careful not to jostle her too much, as he can tell how precarious that balance is.]

So what else have I got going for me?

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