. carpe diem ”

(sketch and version without text under cut!)

I actually drew them for my birthday cake and I didn't think that people would like this sketch so much

Whole gang got furried dawg 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️!!!

(small note: i'm working my way through the book, but i've not quite finished it yet, so sorry for any book inaccuracies!)

it's the bowers gang, so obvious warning here for (mild) period and setting-typical hate and bigotry. stay safe!

a little more headcanony than what i wrote there, but based on my previous post on the way that vic and henry's relationship is characterised by vic's costuming – i think that vic would feel indebted to henry for keeping him from social exclusion. vic isn't weak, (in a fight he'd be able to hold his own against someone his own size, i figure, but probably not someone bigger or more than one person) but as the smallest he'd definitely be the easiest of the gang to physically overpower, and the most likely to be bullied if he wasn't sticking to henry's side all the time. vic feels a lot of love related to seeing henry as a 'protector' figure, even if henry isn't doing it on purpose.

(^ vic is very interested in the musculature henry gained in his mid-to-latter teen years for reasons related to this)

henry does have a strong protective instinct towards vic, but he's not actually thinking about it as much as vic thinks he is. he'd call vic's hair queer, then swing for someone else's jaw on reflex if they said the exact same thing, but he's not really aware he's being protective when he does that.

vic realised he loved henry when they were really young, maybe eight or so. henry figures it out either at eighteen (if he's lucky) or far, far further into his adulthood (if he's not). in a perfect world, they'd move far, far away from derry together as adults.

they were very physically affectionate as children, but butch decided henry was 'too old to be touching him like that' when they were seven and put a stop to it. henry's pulled away a lot since. vic's tried to pull back to not make things harder at home for henry, but sometimes still touches his hair or puts a hand on his shoulder.

henry's over at vic's house pretty often, if he manages to finish up his chores early. henry is noticeably calmer and less erratic when he's in vic's bedroom with the door closed and the blinds shut. this is when they return to being affectionate. it takes a couple hours, but they can get to a point of vic almost having his head on henry's shoulder.

(less canon compliant/established relationship:

henry is a comically bad kisser. it's horrible. vic loves him enough to put up with it, but he'll often end up with spit over his nose and chin.)

thoughts i had in an exam today: i think it's quite cute to imagine vic as having a permanent bitchface with everyone except henry. henry gets to see big shiny brown doe eyes and everyone else gets the world's most hateful scowl

as an addendum to that, i think it's interesting to see that - at least in the 2017 movie - vic is dressed to look physically small. his grey tank top he wears in the kissing bridge scene hangs off of him, and his green coat he wears in the rock fight is also far too big (even more obviously since the sleeves have to be rolled up, which make him seem even smaller, cue awws from the audience)

out of all of the bowers gang, he's definitely dressed to be the most feminine-looking in his clothes, even if i wouldn't say he's feminine.

i'm in super hell doing a level exams at the moment, and like every other british person on earth i feel the need to inflict that upon my favourite (american) characters. UK-IFICATION BEAM GO

i only drew vic and henry because!!! i have to study constantly or i'm going to fail and i'm so tired!!! but here's a shitty table of what i think the gang's grades would look like: