no bc he borderline purrs. he nuzzles. he grabs onto them so tightly that diapers are considered bc they can’t wriggle out of his arms to go pee in the middle of the night. and YES they have to have a schedule bc otherwise they will beat the shit out of each other. each person gets 15 mins and the egg timer is sacred in their house. whoever went first last time goes last the next time.

PLS THEY’RE A TRIO OF SAD WET PUPPIES ALL WAITING FOR NANCY TO GET BACK FROM COLLEGE!!! when nancy calls they all take turns passing around the phone and telling her about their day. they sit around smoking weed and whine about how much they miss her, actually. it’s like a daily thing. they help each other with hw for their gen ed classes. jon and rob give steve study tips bc he sucks at memory retention and definitely has undiagnosed ADHD. they dance around in their socks and steal each other’s cassettes and have basically no boundaries. beds are shared. steve is always in the middle and he loves it.

LITERALLY i’m heavily considering writing some kind of spin-off one shot just so i can write more scenes of the three of them goofing off. robin and jonathan making fun of steve for having a basic music taste. the three of them sharing homemade pb&js bc they are all poor now. also they LIVE TOGETHER I can’t believe i forgot to mention that oh my god. they have a tiny condo and host d&d campaign nights.

idk if it counts as a hc (I think some people are worried the duffers won’t go this route tho) but max will be blind! also there’s gonna be a time jump to 1988 in the middle of the fic, and cute but random tidbit: steve, jonathan, and robin are all attending community college together and steve intends to become a child psychologist :P

as soon as the fic is completely written and edited!

oh my god okay so i’m currently trying to curate a whole playlist for it and just haven’t had the time but like. rn i heavily associate el with jane says by jane’s addiction. like the whole song is about her you can’t convince me otherwise. also alone by heart oh my god. max is sort of giving i owe you nothing by bros, ric wake, and bob cadway but also here i go again by whitesnake. lucas is girl you know it’s true by milli vanilli. will is soooo lucretia my reflection by sisters of mercy coded rn. steve is run to paradise by the choirboys and also new sensation by INXS. nancy is the passenger by siouxsie and the banshees. mike is sweet jane by the cowboy junkies but like, platonically. also the flame by cheap trick, and will too. everybody is teen age riot by sonic youth but specifically jonathan and robin. also jonathan is everyday is like sunday by morrissey. also suedehead. they’re all don’t know what you got til it’s gone by cinderella, and one by metallica is just. the whole fic vibe.

hmmm i would say you need a basic knowledge of the characters and plot, plus some idea of what happened in s4/how it ended because it picks up right where that left off. anything super specific that you might have questions about could probably be looked up on the ST wiki tho!!