it's just not empirically possible!

- the other losers pinning up ben’ blueprints for the clubhouse once it’s completed 

- mike providing furniture from old bits of wood gathering dust on the farm

- stan and richie making a clubhouse out of a few planks of wood as shelves. stan bringing books on birds and plants and other educational non-fiction materials while richie brings graphic novels.

- bill's sketches being put up on the wall in between polaroids mike took on his camera

- bev adding several crocheted blankets that her mother had kept at the back of a cupboard for years

- richie leaving his radio in the clubhouse

- bev making curtains for the window out of old fabric

- ben and eddie keeping a box of snacks there

- eddie making a point of cleaning up every once in a while

- richie carving their names into a beam of wood in the ceiling

- mike making a scrapbook with candid photos that stan writes captions for because he has the best handwriting

- bev sewing up cushion covers for their hammock

sometimes i think about the fact that both richie and eddie's tokens have no value.

Ben, holding a bottle of whiskey: "what would you say to a spirit?"

- included more scenes from the book- the dam in the barrens, georgie’s photo album, stan birdwatching in bassey park before he sees it for the first time etc.

- stozier’s friendship, like their intro in the barrens is just the best

- the scene where the losers are watching a horror movie: especially when richie ends up pouring soda over the bowers gang to distract them from eddie 

- “we.  what if we do it” 

- the aftermath of the rockfight and the fact that Mike kept the photo they took 

- bill refusing to move more than a metre away from the hospital door and being the one they send in to see mike (and their whole conversation) 

- bill and mike and silver (young and old were both some of the best parts of the miniseries) 

- all the reddie content

- everyone’s reactions at the reunion 

- richie collapsing onto the sofa and throwing his arm over his face 

- beverly marsh

- the losers sitting around the townhouse and filling each other in on their lives 

- bev, richie and eddie sitting under a blanket on the couch

- reddie lying in front of the fire

- eddie kaspbrak’s various outfits

- richie drunk in the library 

- every single casual shoulder touch, hug or hair ruffle between any of the losers 

((CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK AND THE MINISERIES))

- Mike is and always was the only reason that the losers worked out the connection between Pennywise and the 27 years.  (Yeah I’m still mad the movies gave that to Ben) 

- Mike’s relationship with his family is never depicted in any on screen adaptation but is one of the best parts of his character in the book

- the only reason we have the interludes in the book is because of Mike

- he kept a diary for 27 years like that is an achievement and a half

- he went back down into the sewers in the 27 years the losers were away, alone.  in the dark.  fully prepared for the possibility that pennywise would wake up and kill him, just to save the silver bullets.  

- he told the losers at the restaurant that they could go back home, that he was prepared to take pennywise on himself even though he knew it wouldn’t work that way

- mike interviewed literally every person possible to be as prepared as possible for the likelihood they’d have to fight pennywise again

- he got stabbed by henry bowers and yet his main concern was still everybody else

- he stayed in a racist town with a clown living in the sewers for 27 years as a librarian just to protect six people who didn’t remember him.  Six people who protected him once a long time ago.  

- he kept tabs on every single loser watching from afar just to make sure that they were safe

- Mike Hanlon is the most selfless, criminally underrated character who does not get enough appreciation for everything he did.  He’s such a big part of the IT story and I feel like (particularly in the movies) that’s overlooked

((So I know in the last post I made it seem like all 7 losers all lived and killed Pennywise but I changed that in this one))

And then Stan sees Eddie die.  Physically sees him become a ghost.  And Eddie’s so shocked to see Stan that he doesn’t know whether to hit him or hug him.  Deciding he might just fall through his friend if he tries either, he just cries.  And that’s when he realises that hugs are fine, because Stan is hugging him and apologising endlessly while he attempts to explain.  And then, just as the sewers start to come crashing down Eddie realises Stan is fading, fast.  

“Unfinished business,” Ghost!Stan tells him, “you have unfinished business!” and Eddie feels a phantom (literally) asthma attack coming on because what unfinished business could he possibly have - Pennywise is dead.  

Unsure of what else to do Eddie finds himself back at the townhouse, the remaining living losers preparing to leave.  He’s found it too painful to watch them these last few days.  He hears one of them sobbing most nights though he can’t tell who and can’t bring himself to check.  

The first loser to leave is Richie.  The guy looks a wreck as he slips a note onto the checkout desk and heads out to his car.  In fact he looks such a mess that Eddie’s instinct is to follow him.  He gets into Richie’s car and fully expects him to drive to the airport.  But he doesn’t.  He stops just before the city limits.  Gets out some place Eddie recognises: the Kissing Bridge.  

Eddie stays sitting in the car while Richie seems to be recarving something in the wood.  Curiosity getting the best of him, though, he gets out to take a look.  R+E and right then his heart breaks.  If only he had told Richie when he had the chance.  

Unfinished business. Richie’s getting up to leave but Eddie understands now what he needs to show him.  A carving he did himself 27 years ago, just a little further up the bridge.  

He’s talking to Richie, talking to him as if he can hear him, telling him where to look, eventually turning to yelling at him-

***

Richie couldn’t tell you why, but he felt compelled to turn around.  To take one last look at the bridge that connected the hell that was Derry to the rest of the world.  And as he took that last look, his eyes caught on something that made his heart stop.  There, amongst everything else scratched into the bridge was E+R.  

Don’t be stupid, he told himself, there are hundreds of people that could be about.  He shook the idea off and turned back to his car.  And then, something he’d never forget for as long as he lived.

He could have sworn he saw Eddie, leaning against the side of Richie’s own car, smiling at him, though he seemed almost transparent and was gone so quickly Richie barely had time to catch the words.  

AU where Stan and Bill don’t know each other but they end up sitting next to each other on a plane from the US to England (Bill because he’s going home and Stan because Richie went on tour and he’s just trying to be a good friend and surprise him by showing up) and like Stan is sure he should know Bill but he’s not sure why and anyway Bill thought he’d get some writing stuff done because it’s a long flight but this new stranger is terrified of flying.

So they get to talking and even when Stan gets distracted and asks Bill doesn’t tell him that he’s William Denbrough, the author.

“Why don’t you like flying?”

“Birds are meant to fly.  Not us.” 

“You like birds?” 

“Yes.” 

So when Richie gets to the restaurant in the miniseries, he panics when he sees the other Losers and runs to the bathroom.  He splashes water over his face and is all like “come on, don’t let them see you like this.” 

Georgie would see a bird and ask Stan to tell him about it, he’d do it so often that Stan bought him a bird book for his next birthday so they could go bird watching together, Georgie dragging Bill along to help take photos for his picture album

Ben sneaking Georgie the sweets he used to only buy for himself and building forts with Georgie whenever Bill had a sleepover that Georgie decided to crash

Bev teaching him how to use a yo-yo like she did with Richie and always showing Georgie her designs first because he liked to talk about the colours with her

Richie doing his voices to make Georgie laugh (and maybe accidentally teaching him the occasional curse word every now and then) 

Mike letting Georgie run around the farm, making him a swing out of rope and tyre and pushing him on it (probably while Bill sat on a fence somewhere and sketched it) and also giving him book recommendations from the children’s section of the library

AU where Stan comes back as a ghost because his unfinished business is helping the losers kill Pennywise so he goes back to Derry.   Obviously there are some incredibly angsty moments where he realises everything that he’s lost but there are some good moments too.  

Ghost!Stan sitting in the empty chair at the restaurant, leaning back with that distasteful eyeroll when Richie and Eddie almost hold hands through him.  

Accidentally appearing back at the townhouse when the fortune cookies are opened because hey this ghost stuff is new and that was terrifying.  

Stan in the clubhouse watching the losers find his token.

Stan respecting the whole “find your token alone” so practicing possession to organise the townhouse properly.

Stan sitting in the lounge mentally completing a crossword from a newspaper lying open on the table, when he sees Richie come in.  He listens in on Ben trying to convince him to stay but he knows Richie’s going to make a run for it, in the same way he knew how to read Richie when they were kids.

Stan getting in the car with Richie as he drives away and being what makes Richie stop at the Synagogue.  “Thanks for showing up, Stan.”

Stan standing with the losers as their tokens burn