the loser’s club at pride
(based off of my experiences and people i’ve seen/met at pride festivals/pride parades)
ben hanscom: just there to have a good time. carries a little pride flag on a stick and sits by the curb to watch the parade. takes pictures and chats with people sitting by him. goes to the booths area to buy a shirt and wears it happily on the way home. brings a book with him and rolls his eyes at the protesters. he makes sure no one’s looking before throwing a rock at one of their signs.
mike hanlon: carries extra water and snacks in his bag and offers them to people who look dehydrated and tired. watches the parade but also wanders down the sidewalk and goes into random stores to buy ice cream. tells everyone he passes that they look great. gets pulled into the parade at one point to dance with the people going by. goes home with at least one new pride flag and a shirt. flips off protesters as he walks by.
beverly marsh: ready to fuck shit up as soon as she arrived. wears big round sunglasses and dark red lipstick and a shirt that says “I LOVE GIRLS”. bops extra hard when a hayley kiyoko song plays. as the day goes by she steadily collects more and more stickers and buttons and pins that the people in the parade hand out and she puts them all over her clothes and her body. buys a pride flag cape and wears it like a superhero. starts a chant just to piss the protesters off. goes home with a cute girls number.
stan uris: gets there an hour early to find a good spot on the sidewalk to watch the parade. falls in love with like everyone that walks by because everyone is so pretty what the fuck??? compliments people on their hair. buys a pride flag and uses it as a blanket to sit on. watches the entire parade from start to finish and follows the crowd to the booths. buys as many pride shirts/sweatshirts as he can carry, then buys a pride backpack to put them in. flaunts all his pride gear to the protesters when he passes them just to make them mad.
bill denbrough: brings a separate bag specifically for all the free shit they hand out during the parade. has a rainbow tutu around his waist for some fucking reason, he doesn’t even remember it came from but he doesn’t care. asks to take selfies with everyone who goes by dressed up (whether they be in drag or just decked head to toe in pride gear). pays to get glitter art done on his cheek. points out spelling mistakes on protesters signs.
eddie kaspbrak: obviously wears his shorts with the rainbows on the sides. has rainbow facepaint on his cheeks like small little pride flags. more energetic than 90% of the people there. cheers for everyone in the parade and dances wildly to every song. goes to the stage after the parade to keep dancing along to whatever music they put on. covers protesters signs with his pride flag and acts like he can’t hear them when they tell him to stop.
richie tozier: definitely wasn’t supposed to be in the parade but somehow ends up there anyway. screams the lyrics to whatever song comes on. has glitter in his hair and doesn’t remember how it got there. winks at everyone he makes eye contact with. blows an airhorn anytime protesters try to say/chant something. has to take a break halfway through the day because he forgot to eat and drink water. pulls people into the parade to dance with him (only if they want, he asks first).