Lachambers

"It's like God gave you something, man, all those stories that you can make up. And He said, "This is what we got for ya, kid. Try not to lose it." Kids lose everything unless there's someone there to look out for them. And if your parents are too fucked up to do it, then maybe I should."

- Chris to Gordie

Lachambers is the slash ship between Chris Chambers and Gordie Lachance from the Stand By Me fandom.

Stand By Me (1986)
"Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my bestfriend."

Gordie and Chris are best friends, and since the start they have a more deeper bond than the rest of the group does. They laugh at Teddy twice together, while he's left confused on why. With Teddy, they sing together while mocking Vern. The group sets on a journey to find the dead body of Ray Browser, and Gordie tries to ask for permission to go with his dad. He complains about all of Gordie's friends, but Chris is the only one Gordie actively defends, "Chris isn't a thief."

A bit sad by the interaction, Gordie walks alone on the street until Chris appears putting an arm around Gordie's shoulder and asking if he's okay. He first shows Gordie the gun he stole from his dad. He lets Gordie use it and shoot it, making both of them running away to not get caught. Gordie gets mad at Chris for supposedly knowing the gun was loaded and giving it to Gordie to shoot anyway, Chris tries to justify himself, but quickly gives up when Gordie takes it seriously by saying it was a mean trick. Chris swears he didn't know it was loaded, having a pinky swear with Gordie. They get assaulted by Ace and his friend, who steals Gordie's cap. Chris calls him an asshole for that, but ends up taking it back after Ace almost burns him with cigarette. Gordie, still because of the interaction, gets pulled by Chris who just tells him to forget them.

After the group gets inside the dump, Chris briefly opens up about a nightmare he constantly has about Teddy, but Gordie reassures him that was not what happened, jokingly saying that Chris never misses. They have a race, and at the end of it, they look at each other's eyes for a while and then put hands around each other's shoulders and walk to Teddy and Vern, Chris ruffles Gordie's hair before letting go.

In a moment of vulnerability, Gordie asks Chris if he's weird, to which he answers definitely. Thinking he didn't take it seriously, Gordie asks it again, and now it's time for Chris to reaffirm him, replying that yes, but isn't a big deal about it because everybody was weird. Noticing Gordie was still feeling bad, Chris tries to talk again starting a conversation about school. Chris argues that Gordie's friends drag him down, and encourage him to take the shop courses instead of the college courses the rest of the group will. Chris is more than ready to support Gordie in his future, even if it means Gordie abandoning him to meet another guys. Chris reassures Gordie in his dream of writing, to which he replies he didn't want that. Knowing his family, Chris says that this is his dad talking and not actually himself. He gives a heartfelt monologue to Gordie about his habilities and capacity:

"'' It's like God gave you something, man, all those stories that you can make up. And He said, "This is what we got for ya, kid. Try not to lose it." Kids lose everything unless there's someone there to look out for them. And if your parents are too fucked up to do it, then maybe I should."''

In the bonfire with the group, Chris asks Gordie to tell one of his written stories. He agrees and starts to tell one, but when Vern interrupts him, Chris quickly tells him to shut up twice and asks Gordie to continue. Teddy and Vern both misunderstand or dislike the history in some level, implying that only Chris appreciated and got Gordie's histories in a special way.

Gordie has a nightmare about his dad and brother, but gets comforted by Chris when he wakes up. Gordie opens up about how he misses his brother, to which Chris replies he knows. He gets up and sits next to Chris and has another conversation about school and how they could go to college courses together. Chris opens up to Gordie about the stolen money, breaking down crying next to Gordie, who puts his hand over his shoulder trying to comfort him.

At the lake, Chris is the first one to notice Gordie was leaving and piles up on him. When Gordie faints, he's the only one to not make jokes like Vern and Teddy and even tells him to shut up while asks twice if Gordie was okay. He's the first to suggest to take Gordie back and to follow him when Gordie storms off.

After the group finds Ray's body, Chris tries to make the rest of them go away so he can comfort Gordie, who got reminded of his dead brother at the sight, giving him a shoulder to cry on. Chris keeps reaffirming Gordie on how he's gonna be a great writer throughout the breakdown, holding him until he's okay again. They get caught and Chris is called the f-slur.

Ace, with a knife, puts it on Chris' neck, but is stopped by Gordie poiting a gun at him. After they go away, Chris laughs at Gordie's joke about having a fat one and rubs his shoulder. When Teddy and Vern are back, Gordie first asks Chris to help him discard the body.

When they get back to Castle Rock, Teddy and Vern go in their own directions while Gordie and Chris walk together. In another moment, Gordie reassures again that Chris is able to get out of the town. Chris asks Gordie for skin, to which he accepts and says that he'll see him. In a flirty tone, Chris answers not if he sees him first. They smile at each other until Chris turns away.

Now older, Gordie writes about Chris' death, and, even if he hadn't see him in more than ten years, Gordie would miss him forever.

The Body (1982)
In the scene where the entire group gets leeches on their bodies, Gordie's first instinct is to ask Chris to get off of the leech on his balls, to which he ends up denying, but feeling guilty about it later when Gordie removes it by himself.

When they get back to Castle Rock, Chris offers to walk home with Gordie, and he accepts. They have the same exchange that happens in the movie, but as Chris leaves, Gordie admits that he wanted to tell Chris he loved him.

"I wanted to say something more to Chris and didn't know how to. Even if I'd known the right thing to say, I probably couldn't have said it. Speech destroys the functions of love, I think."

Gordie describes growing up with Chris and studying with him everyday, sometimes for 6 hours straight, and then both of them finally graduating. They went separate ways, going to different campus, but he mentions that no girl ever came between them.

"We both dated through high school, but no girl ever came between us. Does that sound like we went faggot? It would have to most of our old friends, Vern and Teddy included."

This excerpt is easily Gordie questioning the nature of their friendship, even mentioning his other friends and how they would react with the proximity. Gordie seems to care about conforming, a sign of his internalized homophobia. He explains more in the next paragraph about their relationship.

"We were clinging to each other in deep water. I've explained about Chris, I think. my reasons for clinging to him were less definable. His desire to get away seemed to be my best part, and I could not just leave him to sink or swim on his own. If he had drowned, that part of me wold have drowned with him, I think."

They had such a bond that even Gordie couldn't fully compreheend it or find the right words to describe it. They needed each other, Gordie going as far as saying his best part of himself would drown with Chris if he failed in life. Gordie takes Chris' suffering to himself, in a deeper level. And it's requited when you see everything Chris has done to Gordie in the entire book.

When Gordie reads the news of Chris being fatally stabbed, he drove out of town, parked and cried for half an hour for Chris. He also adds he couldn't have cried like that in front of his wife, because it would have been pussy.

The Body (1983)
"I smiled. I didn't really mind Vern's interruptions, but of course I couldn't tell Chris that; he was the self-appointed Guardian of Art"

- Gordie's input about how much Chris appreciated his art..

"Chris clutched his knees and rocked back and forth joyfully. "Ain't that great? Go on, Gordie!""

- Chris' reaction to Gordie telling one of his histories.

Stand By Me (1986)
"Chris isn't a thief.""

- Gordie defending Chris from his dad.

"Okay, Chambers, you little faggot. This is your last chance, what do you say, kid?"

- Ace being homophobic when he finds Chris comforting Gordie next to Ray's body.

"Although I hadn't seen him in more than ten years, I know I'll miss him forever."

- Gordie, years later, typing on his computer about Chris' death.

Fanon
Because of the time period the book and movie were released, most viewers tend to view their relationship as platonic or even brotherly, viewing Chris as some sort of older brother to Gordie to replace Denny. Many joke about how if the movie was released today, there would be a lot more people more open to the idea of the two having mutual romantic undertones, with these interpretations appearing only recently, in now a more accepting world to LGBT+ ships, to the few people who watched the movie. Even so, most people in the fandom haven't read the book to know about the canonicity of the ship with Gordie saying he loved Chris.

The reciprocity of the ship is not doubted in fandom content, most of them headcanonning Chris as gay for his lack of interest in girls in the movie, barely talking about Anette. Meanwhile, Gordie is mostly headcanonned as bisexual or as gay with compulsive heterosexuality, because later on he got married and had a son with a woman.

An article by vocal.media enters in detail on how Stephen King uses the ambiguously gay trope, some parts talking about how Lachambers also operates in a similar manner. Byler, another semi-canon ship, is inspired by Lachambers, and because of that, Lachambers is often called the OG Byler or the blueprint of Byler as jokes. There's also others who like to crossover Reddie and Lachambers because of how both of them are semi-canon slash ships done by Stephen King.

There's some theories that point out that Gordie has internalized homophobia and it was one of the reasons he couldn't confess to Chris or outright describe his romantic feelings for him. His reaction of not being able to cry in front of his wife for Chris, but having broken down on Chris' arms with no shame is a huge sign of it, along with him calling himself the f-slur twice in the book.

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