the boy’s no good by shoelaces on ao3

moodboard by the wonderful @sarka-stically who is truly an angel

13/15 chapters | 65k | wip

“She took some of my stuff.” Eddie replies, pulling at a thread on his t-shirt.

“Objects that encourage femininity, fragility, and emotional and physical attraction to the same sex,” Stanley reels off, nodding.

“My journal,” Eddie says quietly.

“Past feelings of homosexuality,” Stanley says flatly. “Don’t write anything they wouldn’t like in the new one they give you. They read them. You can say you miss home, but don’t mention any male friends. Don’t talk about any of the boys here. Don’t slag the camp off, or they’ll put you away.”

–

1993- When Sonia Kaspbrak catches Eddie kissing Richie, she sends him away to be treated for his sins in another state. Whilst Eddie searches for ways to fight back alongside new friends Stanley and Beverly, Richie unites a ragtag group of losers for a journey across America to rescue him.

chapter 13 out now

Chapters: 12/? Fandom: IT - Stephen King, IT (2017), IT (Movies - Muschietti) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak & Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough & Eddie Kaspbrak, Eddie Kaspbrak & Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Richie Tozier Characters: Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Henry Bowers, Sonia Kaspbrak, Georgie Denbrough, Maggie Tozier, Patrick Hockstetter, Don Hagarty Additional Tags: conversion therapy, Internalized Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Road Trips, more tags will be added as they become appropriate, references to CSA, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, Past Sexual Abuse, Suicide Attempt Summary:

“She took some of my stuff.” Eddie replies, pulling at a thread on his t-shirt.

“Objects that encourage femininity, fragility, and emotional and physical attraction to the same sex,” Stanley reels off, nodding.

“My journal,” Eddie says quietly.

“Past feelings of homosexuality,” Stanley says flatly. “Don’t write anything they wouldn’t like in the new one they give you. They read them. You can say you miss home, but don’t mention any male friends. Don’t talk about any of the boys here. Don’t slag the camp off, or they’ll put you away.”

-

i don’t really know what this is about so i’m gonna make an assumption to address it. i have gone to every effort to not romanticise any of tbng. whilst richie’s pov sections are romantically charged and reddie centric, richie is operating within a narrative where he does not know what eddie’s been through. he treats the story he’s in as a romance because he doesn’t know how else to deal with it and because he is not aware of the enormity of what’s happened. 

eddie’s sections are not romantic- they are largely descriptive and internalised, centred around identity and trauma with regards to his mother and his health. in fact, richie is a minor character within eddie’s story currently. his friendships with bev and stan are far more critical to this point of the narrative than any romance. these sections are entirely focused on what he goes through, how he fights back, and the relationships he forms.

eddie’s sections are also based heavily in research. using resources from people who have experienced conversion therapy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, these are just the ones i have bookmarked but there are more), academic articles (1, 2) and in regards to his experiences with his mother and the casual homophobia of the town he lives in, my own life provided a strong reference point. several upcoming scenes are *captain holt voice* lifted verbatim from my childhood. haha how fun for me. i am an lgbt person who had to come out to my family twice because they didn’t believe me the first time and i have since dodged every discussion because i don’t know what to expect.

i’m not romanticising the world. i’m writing it down, as i see it, and i am carving out a happier ending that a lot of people did not get, that i cannot be sure i’ll get, because in a frightening world, we need happy endings to sad stories. and if you can’t talk about a terrible thing in fiction, how will you ever stop it in real life?

this is a longer and more comprehensive reply than “Yikes.” should probably get, but i’ve never known when to stop. if you have a genuine issue with the way i’ve written something, or if i’ve misjudged the problem, talk to me again and tell me what the problem is, because it is genuinely not my intention to offend or upset. every chapter is comprehensively trigger warned (is that a phrase?) and the tags of the fic tell you exactly what you’re getting into. i wanted to write all this out for anyone who might be wondering about the ethics or the appropriateness of the fic, so here it is!

Chapters: 10/? Fandom: IT - Stephen King, IT (2017), IT (Movies - Muschietti) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak & Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough & Eddie Kaspbrak, Eddie Kaspbrak & Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Richie Tozier Characters: Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Henry Bowers, Sonia Kaspbrak, Georgie Denbrough, Maggie Tozier, Patrick Hockstetter Additional Tags: conversion therapy, Internalized Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Road Trips, more tags will be added as they become appropriate, references to CSA, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, Past Sexual Abuse, Suicide Attempt Summary:

“She took some of my stuff.” Eddie replies, pulling at a thread on his t-shirt.

“Objects that encourage femininity, fragility, and emotional and physical attraction to the same sex,” Stanley reels off, nodding.

“My journal,” Eddie says quietly.

“Past feelings of homosexuality,” Stanley says flatly. “Don’t write anything they wouldn’t like in the new one they give you. They read them. You can say you miss home, but don’t mention any male friends. Don’t talk about any of the boys here. Don’t slag the camp off, or they’ll put you away.”

-

Chapters: 11/? Fandom: IT - Stephen King, IT (2017), IT (Movies - Muschietti) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak & Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough & Eddie Kaspbrak, Eddie Kaspbrak & Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Richie Tozier Characters: Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Henry Bowers, Sonia Kaspbrak, Georgie Denbrough, Maggie Tozier, Patrick Hockstetter, Don Hagarty Additional Tags: conversion therapy, Internalized Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Road Trips, more tags will be added as they become appropriate, references to CSA, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, Past Sexual Abuse, Suicide Attempt Summary:

“She took some of my stuff.” Eddie replies, pulling at a thread on his t-shirt.

“Objects that encourage femininity, fragility, and emotional and physical attraction to the same sex,” Stanley reels off, nodding.

“My journal,” Eddie says quietly.

“Past feelings of homosexuality,” Stanley says flatly. “Don’t write anything they wouldn’t like in the new one they give you. They read them. You can say you miss home, but don’t mention any male friends. Don’t talk about any of the boys here. Don’t slag the camp off, or they’ll put you away.”

-

Chapters: 9/? Fandom: IT - Stephen King, IT (2017), IT (Movies - Muschietti) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak & Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough & Eddie Kaspbrak, Eddie Kaspbrak & Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Richie Tozier Characters: Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Henry Bowers, Sonia Kaspbrak, Georgie Denbrough, Maggie Tozier, Patrick Hockstetter Additional Tags: conversion therapy, Internalized Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Road Trips, more tags will be added as they become appropriate, references to CSA, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, Past Sexual Abuse, Suicide Attempt Summary:

“She took some of my stuff.” Eddie replies, pulling at a thread on his t-shirt.

“Objects that encourage femininity, fragility, and emotional and physical attraction to the same sex,” Stanley reels off, nodding.

“My journal,” Eddie says quietly.

“Past feelings of homosexuality,” Stanley says flatly. “Don’t write anything they wouldn’t like in the new one they give you. They read them. You can say you miss home, but don’t mention any male friends. Don’t talk about any of the boys here. Don’t slag the camp off, or they’ll put you away.”

-