camppetoskey | POST-TRIAL LOOSE ENDS & SHARING

POST-TRIAL LOOSE ENDS & SHARING

[that night, after a KO'd Eddie has been brought back to Cabin 3 to recuperate and everyone has scattered, Richie returns to the campfire with a book tucked under his arm, and a flashlight. he's not thinking about bringing supplies for s'mores, or hot dogs, or burgers, or any of that, not this week. so if anyone wants to show up with food, they're welcome. if anyone has appetites.

this week, he's focused on the remnants of a word he scribbled in the dirt earlier, flipping through the book he found on Thursday. he exhales, slowly, looking like he might just be sick all over again, no matter how tired he is. the makeshift scarf Cielo made him is draped over his shoulders to keep away any evening chill]

Oh, God. I ... I know what they said, you guys.

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... So ...

[he frowns, not sure how to take this]

Are you saying ... what, you might have to kill somebody and you don't want me to be mad at you if you do?

... no no no, that's not it.

[ He looks kind of embarrassed at the misunderstanding. He doesn't one hundred percent exclude the idea of him killing, but he also can't really think of a reason he'd do it right now. ]

Just that even if I trust you, I can't follow in trusting everyone else here or prioritizing their lives. I'll ally with you and Eddie. That's it, that's as far as I'll go.

That ...

[it's a compromise. and he's grateful for it. he realizes that that's a lot different from the "I'll try" response he got when he begged Boa to trust them, last week]

... Thanks, Boa.

[you don't like hugs but YOU'RE GETTING ANOTHER ONE ANYWAY]

[ Hugs are clearly important to you all, huh...? Boa's learning his lesson on that one and very briefly, Richie gets hugged back, just as a sign of goodwill. ]

If we survive with your method, that suits me just as well. So let's try hard.

That's the spirit.

[he grins]

Believe me when I say this doesn't mean the same thing it would where you're from: welcome to the Losers' Club.

[ He furrows his brows at that name. ]

... it better not. What does it mean?

That's what we called ourselves back home, those of us that kicked It in the ass. If you're part of the Losers' Club...

[he holds out his left hand to show off the scar there, freshly healed in the middle of his palm]

It means you're with me and Eds. That we're a team.

[ Blood oath, huh...? That's actually pretty hardcore. ]

You guys really couldn't think of a less self-deprecating name?

There's another story that goes with that.

[Richie grins. Bill may be the one who makes up the best stories, but he's the one who retells their stories the best]

While we were trying to figure out what was going on with It ... we came across this pile of crumpled up butcher paper and a bike on the side of the road. Bev - she's the only girl out of all of us, but she's really cool, like ... like Mitsuru and Usagi - she realized it belonged to this homeschooled kid, Mike. His family's black, and really poor, and he lives out on a farm on the edge of Derry...

[ Boa makes a grimace at the mention of Usagi. Usagi is so not cool.

But he's more interested in hearing the story than he is in reliving an argument that he's been having plenty with the girl herself. ]

Okay, so you're... you two, Bill, Bev.. and Mike. Got it.

[agree to disagree, Boa, he likes Usagi. but he won't chase that down right now, because he's in the middle of The Story]

And Stan, and Ben. But anyway, we notice the bullies' car near Mike's bike, on the side of the road, and Bev says we gotta help him, because he's all by himself. I wasn't that sure about it, because it's three of them, you know? Belch and Vic and ... Henry Bowers, who's the scariest motherfucker out of all three of them, really. Big, tall dude, with a stupid-ass blonde mullet, always wears his t-shirts with the sleeves cut off because he thinks it makes him look cool. But he's not cool, he's just a jerk. He tried to carve his name in Ben's stomach, he nearly drowned Bill in a dunk tank once at the Derry Fair, and he throws Stan's yarmulkes around like Frisbees. The three of them are like sharks. Only instead of blood, they smell out if you're different. And since Mike was about the only black kid in Derry ...

[he gives Boa a meaningful look. you see where this is going]

[ Sleeves cut off is just normal levels of Beyblade fashion, so Boa doesn't see how it makes anyone cool or uncool, but he follows the rest of this description and the feelings it evokes. Even though Boa is always inclined to say 'there just are people like this in the world' even he finds those attempted actions gross. ]

... prime victim material, yes. So you chose the name as like... irony? Rising above what those guys think of you all?

Something like that. We found them out by the quarry, and Bowers was shoving Mike's face in a pile of the meat he was supposed to be delivering, making these nasty-ass sheep noises and trying to get him to like, kiss it and stuff. So Bev picked up a rock and threw it, and it hit Bowers right in the head. Belch threw one back, and the next thing you know, it's six losers against three jackasses, and we beat the shit out of them. It was like something out of one of those post-apocalypse movies, all of us yelling and chucking rocks and bleeding. Eddie turned into a total berserker, man! He picked up a fist full of rocks and ran straight at them, hollering, and it was fucking amazing.

But we won. And we pulled Mike up onto the bank, and he said that we shouldn't have helped him: that they come after him all the time. So I said, "yeah, they come after us, too. Welcome to the Losers' Club." And that was it. We were the Losers' Club from then on. But ... we weren't actually Losers anymore. Because we were all together.

[see? see why he thinks strength in numbers is so important?]

So that's the rock story?

[ Boa looks impressed. Eddie told him about throwing rocks at bullies earlier this week, but he didn't get nearly this much detail.

This revelation distracts him a little from the dramatic point that the story was trying to make at the end, but... He smiles. ]

You two do know how to take care of yourselves when it counts.

Yeah, that's the post-apocalyptic rock war story.

[he smiles. and the fucking campers think they're harmless. well ha ha]

And we'll do the same thing if anyone comes after you, too, dude.

[ Being told that is... a really weird feeling. Not bad, but excessively strange. ]

I can take care of myself, you know.

[ Boa feels the need to point this out lest anyone forget. Strength is too much of his self-image as that he could accept help easily. ]

But yeah. We're a team, so... that works.

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POST-TRIAL LOOSE ENDS & SHARING

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omg I'm sorry my inbox ate this

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