#I do think that while Richie would be obsessed with the muppets

[stan-the-cinnamon-roll-uris]

Do you guys ever imagine an AU where Richie gets to have a fulfilled career during the 27 years apart from the Losers? Because I haven't been able to think about anything else in the last week.

Most of the Losers get to have that at least. Bill gets to write his books, Bev became a fashion designer, Ben is an architect and while Mike had to stay in Derry he still ends up with a career he enjoys.

Richie (besides Eddie, who obviously belongs into a garage but this post is not about that) is arguably the one who's worst off in chapter two and it made me think, what if that wouldn’t have been the case?

Lets say that just like in the book, Richie wanted to become a ventriloquist when he was a kid.

When he was younger he would try and try and try to get the right technique down but never quite figured out how to throw his voice in a way that made it seem like the puppet in his hands was talking for him.

But that didn't stop Richie from working on his voices some more until they became better and better.

It doesn't change anything about the fact that he grew up on a lot of reruns of Sesame Street and the Muppets, either. The love for these characters never really faded because no matter how old Richie is, he'll always be a kid at heart.

So maybe when he's older he tries to break into the stand up comedy scene in LA after college. And he tries to for a good few years but nothing comes of it. And for a while that sucks because all Richie wants is to make people laugh.

And one night Richie ends up back in his one bedroom apartment after blowing a show really badly. He feels miserable and it turns into that kind of bad night where it feels like he'll never accomplish anything because he's already 27 and he's been trying this comedy thing for over 6 years now but he still plays in the same sh*tty bars for the same sh*t pay and it feels like this is all for nothing. Nothing will ever come of it.

Which is precisely the moment when he stumbles across an old box in his broom closet.

He doesn't notice the town's name that is written on the back in his mum's cursive handwriting but he pulls out an old gonzo plush his parents got him when he was 7.

For a moment he thinks there should be a Big Bird plush accompanying it but he shakes the thought just as quickly as he starts pulling out two more muppet puppets he thinks he bought for himself when he was a teenager and Richie finally starts feeling better again.

So when Mike eventually calls the Losers back to Derry and Richie finds himself questioned by his friends about his life, after over 20 years apart, he tells them that he works in the entertainment industry.

And of course they all joke around because they don’t recognize Richie from anything on tv but that’s okay because if they would that would kinda ruin the purpose of being a puppeteer, now would it.

Because as it turns out, a week after finding that box in his broom closet, Richie stumbled across something else.

A casting call for Sesame Street.