Second Stanza: audio UN: Marsh.

[gristle]

[The teenager's voice is just annoyed:]

Doesn't this place have anything normal like trick or treating?! Why does everything have to be dead people and scary stuff and ghosts?

Why can't it just be going around filling pillowcases with candy?

Comments

[bamboozlement]

[correct; it’s aggressively fake.]

And you trust complete strangers to give you candy that isn’t poisoned or otherwise weird? You must be braver than the Marines.

[gristle]

People are different here than at home. Besides, if someone did that, then the guard would get them.

[Bev is trusting in that.]

Don't you have trick or treat back home?

[bamboozlement]

[jason wishes he could believe that. he has basically no faith in people, and his world and experiences have given him no reason to alter that outlook.]

Lots of tricks, not many treats. Not the kind you’d want anyone dropping in your pillowcase if you wanna keep all your fingers, anyway.

[gristle]

[Bev’s eyebrows are currently in her hairline.]

Where the hell did you live? A war zone?

[bamboozlement]

Close enough. My neighborhood was called Crime Alley for good reason.

[gristle]

Oh damn. Derry’s bad sometimes but it’s not that bad.

[bamboozlement]

Yeah, well, you know what they say - what doesn't kill you will probably try again another time.

[jason ... nobody says that but you.]