Pennywise

"*I'm Pennywise. [...] Cause I can change **everything** about myself to lure in my victims,*"
—Pennywise explains his odd nickname to Travis[src]
**Pennywise**, often shortened to and referred to as **Wise**, is a character in *Juvenile Prosperity*. He is a travelling con-artist encountered by Travis Rogers, and the two began travelling together upon forming a brother-like friendship.

## Biography

### Early Life and Background

Next to nothing is known about Pennywise's background. He comes from an abusive background, and at some point, he developed a reliance on heroin. He broke his addiction but was terrified of using again. He began travelling the country, using his impressive cunning to become a successful scam artist and thief.

### Death

Following his heated argument with Travis, Pennywise overdosed on heroin and wandered out onto the beach, eventually dying of hypothermia and exposure at the edge of a cove. His body was buried by Travis before he moved on.

### Season 2

#### 'The Last Song'

Pennywise appears during Travis' dream after he is shot by Archibald Robinson and begins to bleed to death in the desert sand. Wise approaches him from a thick fog, saying he forgives Travis and that his death wasn't Travis' fault. He then offers to lead Travis through the fog to "somewhere else". Travis asks what is through the fog; Pennywise replies with "all the beer and weed" he could want. Travis then asks what is at the "other way", to which Pennywise replies that all that awaits him there is pain, suffering, hunger and loss. Travis then asks "which way is Bernadette? Which way is Athena? Which way is Melody?", upon which Pennywise retreats into the fog. The scene then returns to the bleeding Travis as he lies still on the desert ground.

## Overview

### Personality

Pennywise is a troubled but friendly young man who is hinted to have suffered many tragedies and years of abuse. He has struggled with addiction for most of his life. His years of experience have made him into an extremely cunning, charming person, able to talk himself out of nearly any situation.

## Relationships

### Travis Rogers

"*I got a new brother, Wise. I got **you**,*"
—Travis to Pennywise about their friendship[src]
Travis and Pennywise form an extremely deep bond, coming to see one another as brothers over the course of their journey. It was Pennywise who instilled in Travis many of his skills and personality traits that have served him well during his life on the road. Pennywise's unfortunate death is also a major source of Travis' trauma and issues with addiction.

When they first began travelling together, they formed a deal where Travis would provide backup for Wise in exchange for money. As they explored Concordia, the two of them discovered they shared many personality traits and hobbies, including beer and weed, and spent a night on the town, bonding as they went. When the confrontation with Douglas and his goons turned bad, Travis stepped in to defend his new friend and was nearby killed in the process. Upon waking up in the hospital, Travis convinced Pennywise to help him escape, and together they stole a car and escaped onto the road. They split up after thanking one another for the time they spent together, before Pennywise returned and said that he wanted to spend more time with Travis, which, as a loner, he had never felt before. Travis happily agreed and they began heading west.

Over the course of their time in Nevada and California, the two men become closer and form a brother-like bond.

Following Pennywise's death, Travis becomes wracked with guilt, blaming himself and their final argument for causing Pennywise to overdose. He spends several days in the vicinity of the motel and the cove where he buried Wise before finally deciding to move inland and commit suicide in the desert. Although he is saved by Athena and brought to the Burrows in Fort Worth, Texas, Wise's death continues to haunt him. During his eighteen-month stay at the Burrows, Travis appears to come to terms with Wise's death but still mourns him privately, wearing his gold ring as a momento of his friend.

As Travis explains in "*Beautiful*", in the year after the fall of the Burrows he began travelling with a young woman who he met in the closing moments of the *Season 1* finale. Following her tragic death, Travis reverted to his despondent ways and began to hallucinate Wise again, leading to his own struggles with heroin, the same demon that brought around Wise's death. It is clear that Travis never recovered from Wise's death or his perceived role and used heroin in an attempt to become closer to Wise and see the world as he did - in Travis' own words, to "make the world make sense, just like he made it make sense". When Travis' addiction resulted in him having an overdose, leading to him spending time in rehab, he reevaluated his choice to abandon the mission that he committed himself to in "*Hell Is Full*" and decided to take it up again, forming the Fr8ers in Wise's memory. When he makes this confession to Bernadette - at the same time as he considers leaving behind his life as a singing vagabond - he finally realizes that Wise's own demons were responsible for his death and finds peace. Although he keeps Pennywise's ring until at least 2018, Travis finally finds the strength to move on and remember his friend as he was during their travels together, rather than the heroin-tainted memory that he has mourned for years.

Travis once more dreams of Wise after being shot and left for dead in the Nevada desert by Archibald Robinson, but this version of Wise is clean and happy. The "ghost" of Wise offers to guide Travis to "somewhere else" but disappears when Travis decides to keep living and not give up in order to reunite with the Fr8ers, his new family.

## Trivia

* Pennywise is **The Conman**, one of the essential characters in David's transformation into Travis Rogers.
* Travis' song "*Black Windows*" is written in memory of Wise. In the song, Wise is referred to as "**The Brave Fox**".
* Pennywise's name and his ability to change himself to suit his victim is a reference to the shape-shifting killer clown from Stephen King's *It*.