Dear fic writer:

[conuly]

It is 1992. This kid is twelve. He doesn’t know the word “gaslighting”, he doesn’t know the phrase “trauma response”, and if he knew the latter, he wouldn’t apply it to himself.

Also, there’s no such thing as a landline. It’s just a phone, so called because it transmits sound, phone, a long way, tele. It doesn’t do anything else, not even voicemail, and you need to pay extra for caller ID.

Comments

[zavodilaterrarium]

I feel awkward putting such words in modern stories, let alone ones set in previous years... the unmitigated confidence is amusing.

[conuly]

Right? It was hardly the dark ages! Get a grownup beta reader!

But you can only do so much to help people.

[gatheringrivers]

...and if you had dialup ISP's there was the "call wasting" problem too.

[lilysea]

Stranger Things fan fic?

[moxie_man]

If this is a "published work", you need to go after the editor too.

[hudebnik]

Oh, and you think twice about calling people more than a few miles away because it costs a lot more.