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@alamiras asked: topic : family. #notsorrybutsorry.

@acadamias said: talk about chris and his relationship with mister eyeball chambers :////

family --- the chamberses !

i put it in a post by itself because i knew it would get wordy, & i’ll probably want to reblog it in the future.

gods. i’ve spoken on & off about chris’ relationship with his family ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 just to start ), but . . . i have a lot to say, & it’s probably going to be very ineloquent & roundabout. i’ll split it into family member sections because it’s ,,,, probably easier that way. it’s 2,131 words, i think. read at your own risk :/ i’ll have refreshments ready

JOSEPH ‘JOE’ CHAMBERS — FATHER !

‘ chris's dad was always on a ‘mean streak’, more or less; he was a drunk who got welfare off & on – mostly on – & spent most of his time hanging out in sukey's tavern with junior merrill, ace merrill's old man, & a couple of other local rumpots. chris didn't talk much about his dad, but we all knew he hated him like poison. chris was marked up every two weeks or so, bruises on his cheeks & neck or one eye swelled up & as colorful as a sunset, & once he came into school with a big clumsy bandage on the back of his head. other times he never got to school at all. [ . . . ] that was the time mr chambers put chris in the hospital for an overnight stay, when his dad heard chris was suspended, he broke chris's nose & his right wrist. ’

chris ‘hating his dad like poison’ is an understatement ; joe chambers is the single reason chris never drinks ( won’t even take one sip when the despain kids smuggle in some beer to the treehouse ) — chris is terrified of turning into his dad. he knows what the townspeople think of his dad, & he agrees ——– fuckin’ rummy. joe is abusive - physically & verbally -, & doesn’t actively contribute to the family. when he is receiving welfare, he’s spending most of it on alcohol & coming home at two in the morning, looking to use his kids or his wife as a punching bag. off topic, but it’s no surprise that ace merrill turns out the exact same way ( if you replace alcohol with cocaine ), seeing as joe & junior merrill are on pretty chummy terms. similarly, if castle rock tv is to be taken as canon . . . richard ‘ eyeball ’ chambers, too. abusive addicts who are wastes of oxygen, & are as awful as the town they hail from.

everything chris does in life is a direct attempt to not turn out like his father. he’s physically affectionate to his loved ones, he’s encouraging of their pursuits, & he’s smart —- eventually going so far as to actually put that to use. hardworking, determined, ambitious, & looking out for children, chris is the antithesis of joe. unfortunately, years of systematic abuse from both his father & the other townsfolk have really sunk their claws in, & chris spends his entire life ( deep down ) worried that something’s going to go wrong, & he’s still going to turn into his father. it’s always there in the back of his mind, sitting in the pit of his stomach, & he dies still afraid he’s going to turn into joe. the phrase like father, like son makes him feel sick to his stomach. he can’t stand joe, & the second he’s cut from chris’ life, there’s a definite weight lifted from his shoulders.

RUTH CHAMBERS — MOTHER !

‘ other times he never got to school at all. his mom would call him in sick because he was too lamed up to come in. [ . . . ] his mom had gone off to lewiston to stay with her sister, the way she almost always did when mr chambers was on a bender. she went & left eyeball in charge of the younger kids. ’

don’t let chris’ reverence for his mother fool you ——- ruth chambers is a neglectful, emotionally manipulative, emotionally abusive woman who has attempted to foster within chris a sense of co-dependency. she dotes upon him as much as a narcissist can, using chris as a vessel in order to make herself feel better. she has absolutely no issue in abandoning her family when the going gets a little too tough for her, but she won’t let pass an opportunity to make herself look like an angel in chris’ eyes. when joe sent him to the hospital for a night that first time, ruth made sure she was the one holding his hand when he woke up the next morning, his broken wrist in plaster. she’s the one who calls him in sick to school - partially because she knows someone has to, but mostly because she wants him to think she cares enough to keep him home to recuperate & heal.

she’s a religious woman, & even though chris stopped believing in god a long, long time ago, he still very occasionally accompanies her to church with deb, because he knows how much that means to her. ruth, in all her gratefulness, makes sure to let chris know about the things that god considers a sin ( homosexuality, pridefulness, sex for pleasure, sex before marriage . . . ) —— all things that screw chris up during his teen years, & leave him very confused & unsure about who he is for a long time.

he thinks, when he tells her he’s going to college in portland, & she stops speaking to him for three weeks before he leaves, that that’s the worst of it. ruth gets actively upset that he’s leaving ; she sees it as her son abandoning her. she can’t stand the thought that chris has chosen himself over her. he struggles with her lack of communication, & gets upset when the day comes for him to leave & she’s nowhere to be found, but ruth comes around eventually & they talk on the phone about once a week or so ( more, if she decides to call him ), & chris thinks things are back to normal.

it takes him about a year & a half of living away from ruth to tell her his biggest secret ———– that he’s not entirely straight, & if he was upset by her reaction to him moving to college, it’s nothing compared to what happens when he breaks this news. despite having said i love you, baby, always a mere two sentences earlier, chris’ confession is met with thunderous silence, & eventually a curt ‘ well then, you’re going to hell. & i don’t want anything to do with you any more. ’ a few choice derogatory slurs later, & she hangs up on him. when the reality of the situation hits chris about two weeks later, & he cries. true to her word, they never speak again.

but despite that, chris never realises ruth isn’t a good person. he’s so used to physical abuse being his benchmark for what constitutes as abuse, that he never considers the fact that his mother . . . isn’t the angel he’ll always think she is. he sees their relationship as normal, as loving, & is wholeheartedly convinced ruth loves him as much as he loves her - even if her religious beliefs don’t leave much room for him at times.

FRANK CHAMBERS — OLDEST BROTHER !

‘ [ frank ], the eldest, ran away from home when he was seventeen, joined the navy, & ended up doing a long stretch in portsmouth for rape & criminal assault. [ . . . ] like my dad, when frank got thrown into the stockade in portsmouth. that was when he started always bein' mad at us other kids & hitting us all the time. ’

chris was six when frank was thrown in jail. he doesn’t remember much about his brother, but he doesn’t particularly want to. a rapist for a brother ------- chris doesn’t want that. as far as he’s concerned, frank can rot in portsmouth, & that’s more than he deserves. he doesn’t care that that’s when joe starting beating on his family - that’s joe’s problem -, but to think that that is in his family . . . that frank is what chris has every potential to be . . . that people see frank & think chris is going to go the same way . . . it makes him even more determined to prove everyone wrong.

RICHARD ‘EYEBALL’ CHAMBERS — OLDER BROTHER !

‘ his brother eyeball had broken his arm in two places & had left his face looking like a canadian sunrise. they had to set the elbow-break with a steel pin. mrs mcginn from down the road saw chris staggering along the soft shoulder, bleeding from both ears & reading a richie rich comic book. ’

it’s funny . . . chris spends his entire life thinking joe’s the one he should be most afraid of, when time & time again it’s shown that richie’s the real antagonist in his story. not only does rich break chris’ arm badly enough that it needs surgery & steel pins, he does it because he & his friends were sore about the brower situation. i’ve argued before that richie very possibly did it to warn chris away from ever saying something as fucking stupid as ‘ 'oh, why don't you go home & fuck your mother some more? i hear she loves the way you do it. [ . . . ] i heard your mother fucks for bucks [ . . . ] in fact, i heard she throws blowjobs for jukebox nickels. i heard -' ’ to someone like ace merrill ( &, in fact, that’s almost what gets him killed ) . . . some kind of twisted family morals thing, perhaps. doesn’t want to see his little brother get killed by his best friend [ SIDE NOTE: SEE HERE FOR AN INTERESTING EYEBALL REACTION ! ]. but there’s also the argument that . . . richie is just like joe, just like frank : a petty abusive drunk who has no issues hitting someone far younger than him to the point of landing them in hospital, & who almost definitely is going to be an abusive husband to a woman of low self-esteem who finds herself easy pickings. he’s a coward just like ace ------ they pick on those they don’t think can fight back, & they get power from it.

chris once said he didn’t hate richie ; once thought richie, maybe, could be saved. that’s long gone out the window, & chris can feel it in his bones that richie’s going to go the same way as frank & their daddy. richie’s a high school dropout who hangs around with ace getting drunk & picking up girls with loose morals & legs.

the older chris gets, the more he realises rich is too far gone, & there’s fuck-all he can do but watch his brother drown in the life he’s made for himself.

SHELDON & EMERY CHAMBERS — YOUNGER BROTHERS !

though they aren’t twins ( there’s a four year difference between sheldon & emery ), i’ve put them together because chris . . . doesn’t differentiate much between them. they may be five & nine respectively ( when chris is twelve, at least ), but he’s already certain how they’re going to turn out ------ just like the other men in his family. they’re rude, aggressive, & violent, expecting their mother to spoil them & then throwing fits when she doesn’t. they also gang up on their sister, & sheldon & chris have gotten into numerous rows before because of their closeness in age & difference in personality.

DEBORAH CHAMBERS — BABY SISTER !

chris loves his sister. maybe it’s because she’s so young & he basically acts as her proxy father, or maybe it’s because she’s the only other woman in the house ( &, consequently, will turn out exactly like her mother, emotional manipulation towards chris & all ), but whatever the case, he fucking adores deb. they’re incredibly close - particularly as they both grow older -, & she’s about seven when he leaves for college. same as with his mother, chris never realises the abusive tendencies in deb, or how she, too, just so happens to dislike anyone he dates because it means she doesn’t have his undivided attention. chris loves deb, & they vaguely stay in contact when possible, even after ruth cuts off contact with him. the contact with deb is changed permanently from then on, though ---- there’s a slight coldness to the way she talks to him, as if blaming him for something that isn’t his fault. it doesn’t help that she likes to hear him apologise to her, either.