#benjijack

[gas-station-chai]

I love shipping jack with people he feels guilty for killing

[gas-station-chai]

Lovebug AU

My normal TFTGS shipping delusions: everyone pinning after/being attracted to jack (Platonically or otherwise) and jack being none the wiser

My brain: what if it was reversed tho

Me: what

“Lovebug” AU (bc I’m uncreative) where Jack gets bitten by some weird, fucked up looking beetle behind the gas station (it was the same area he found starburst so he thought it was gonna be friendly and reached out to it) and he’s not bothered by it for the rest of the shift but over time he starts noticing how… affectionate, he’s being without meaning to. 

He’s unconsciously standing so close to Rosa that they’re almost touching, holding onto Benji’s jacket before he leaves, tried holding O’Brien’s hand once, and even ends up hugging Jerry on accident a few times. At first it’s just the touching that’s an issue, especially bc it happens every time he spaces out/isn’t paying attention and his body just goes on autopilot. Then he starts catching himself staring at Rosa or Jerry (he’d be informed later that he looked textbook lovestruck by Benji later), or even blurting out some embarrassing confessions to O’Brien and Benji (with Amy he told her that she was really good at ordering him around and he didn’t mind if she did it more often, and he offhandedly mentioned to B that he liked it whenever he manhandled him cos he was ‘moving too slow’)

Standing too close to Rosa or unconsciously holding her hand, Rosa never said anything about it, but whenever jack caught himself he apologized profusely and made an effort to sit further away from her at the counter. But every time he stopped focusing on it, his body always found its way back to her. He felt like he was being possessed again, but now he wished this weird urge was as simple as digging holes rather than putting his social life in a hole.

Working with Benji almost as bad. It didn’t happen as often, since Jack saw him most when he was about to take over for a shift, but there were a few times where Benji was moving to leave with jack waving him off, only for him to stop in his tracks. Jack is already zoned in on his book, so he doesn’t bother asking if something’s wrong at first. But he can feel Benji’s eyes on him after a second so he looks up. “Something wrong?” 

Benji tilts his head down at, and Jack follows his gaze down his extended arm, then to his hand, which is holding the edge of his coworker’s jacket and preventing him with leaving.  

It only happened around a handful of times, each with Jack wanting to die from embarrassment as he apologized with the excuse of, “new meds, you know?”, before benji finally started learning to just stand out of arms reach of his boss when he left.

The one that shocked him the most was with Jerry. Apparently, it was happening for weeks without Jack even knowing, which baffled him to no end, especially since Jerry himself didn’t say anything about it. The only reason he knew about it was because Rosa saw it happen recently.

It was just her and Jack working that night, but Jerry had decided to visit. He came in caked from the knees down in mud, coming right up to Jack and babbling about the “weird new god he met in the swamp” before Jack interrupted him and told him to rinse the mud off his boots before he hoses him down behind the gas station. When Jerry takes off to the bathroom sink, Rosa is looking at jack incredulously.

“What?”

“What was that for?”

Jack is taken aback. He thought that the request was reasonable.

“Well, you just mopped like an hour ago so I—“ Rosa shakes her head.

“No, no, I mean. The hug! ”

Jack furrows his brow. 

“The… hug?

“Yeah, you just hugged him!”

“I did what now?”

This was another weird symptom to add to the new growing list of concerns (one that he’d probably lock away in the vault by the end of the day). Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead. 

“I… I dunno. It’s a first for me.”

“No it’s not!” Jerry interjected as he made his way out of the bathroom, only a little less muddy than he was previously. Jack stared him down for an explanation. “You’ve been hugging me in greeting and parting for the last couple of weeks, dude. I thought this was your way of relieving stress or something.” He explained with a shrug.

Jack absentmindedly reaching for Amy’s hand in the car goes a little like this:

A: what do you think you’re doing?

J: what?

A: your hand. It’s on mine.

J, looking down:  …

J, pulling his hand away and cringing: reaching for… your gun?? 

Jacks so very bad at lying to his friends

[gas-station-chai]

VS the World AU: Some notes on a few of Jack's exes that I had laying around

Benji:

Jack met Benji when he was in college and dating Jerry. Jerry had dragged him into this camping club/cult thing (he didn’t know it was an extension of the cult at the time) and brought him along for a “quick hike through the forest,” where Jack quickly got lost/separated from the group (it was a good thing, too. Jack thinks if he stayed with them, he might’ve been sacrificed or something).

Benji, who had been camping out in that forest for the past week, found him at the bottom of a cliff with a broken leg and quickly (begrudgingly) took him back to his spot to fix him up (meet cute idea: “Haha thanks for saving my life and shoving my broken bone back into my body. I’m sorry I thought you were a bear when you first showed up and threw a rock at your face”) 

They kept in touch after that. B kept visiting him in the hospital to check up on him, and Jack eventually broke things off with Jerry and used Benji as a rebound (which he’s a little salty about, but doesn’t take it to heart too badly. 

They probably broke up when Jack realized what an ass he was being to Benj for using him like that. Their relationship didn’t really change much throughout the entire thing tbh. Neither of them were very touchy/romantic/communicative with each other in the first place. True neutral relationship (in Jack's eyes, that is)

"I do really like the idea tho that Benji took it a lot more seriously than Jack was aware of. like Benji wasn't a super touchy feely or romantic person but he did really like jack, and he loved that jack was similar. he liked having someone he could protect and care for, and also someone who seemed to rely on him without being too needy.

and then things ended, and Jack made the right choice but Benji is still bitter." -Xavier

Rosa:

They’re way too cute together (both romantically and platonically). Probably met in high school, she helped him with Spanish classes and he helped her with literature classes, and they started dating from there <888 in the present whenever they talk/meet she still quizzes him on Spanish to see if he still remembers her lessons. He doesn’t, but he tries <8

There’s probably still romantic feelings there for each other but, Rosa’s the one who broke things off because of the whole “Dark God” thing (guardian angel type thing? Family religion? She’s still a conduit somehow for supernatural shit) to keep Jack safe. Jack was reluctant at first but for some reason Shhhhh really hates him so it didn’t take that much convincing for him to stay away from her

Rosa’s technically not even in the Evil Exes club, it’s just Shhhhh. She’s just there along for the ride lol

Tony’s a jealous loser abt their relationship (can he tell they still like each other or does he not like them being friends still?) and Rosa can see it. She’s really polite to him in front of Jack but she’s very clearly trying to hint to him, “Seriously? This guy?” with her eyes. Ofc Jack is immune to nonverbal communication and she knows that, but Tony doesn’t, so it only pisses him off more. (Xavier note: "the world needs more subtly petty/bitchy rosa and i am THRIVING HAHA")

Jack doesn’t help with the way he’s asking him not to hurt her too badly. “SHE’S ATTACKING ME WITH PLANTS, JACK. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO HERE”

JACK JUST LIKE "HEY I'M ACTUALLY STILL FRIENDS WITH HER PLEASE BE NICE" "JACK I AM FIGHTING FOR MY FUCKING LIFE OUT HERE." (-X)

Jerry:

Jerry counts as Jack's 6th ex despite having met him before Benji due to the fact that they kept dating off and on again for a while (with Jerry being a rebound between a few exes)

Pre-cult Jerry had long hair and got it lopped off about a month after he joined the Mathmetists, so Jack associates his short hair with this fucked up, brainwashed version of his (ex)boyfriend. 

After the first few on-and-off breakups/getting back together's, Jerry realized this and started growing it out again. He stopped wearing the uniform around him, too; started dressing in his old clothes (the terrible fashion sense ones) whenever he hung out with jack. 

Ofc, Jack saw it as a sort of "recovery" and they started dating... again. Jerry keeps acting like the old him (funny, spontaneous, flirty), but sneaking in tidbits and quotes of their beliefs into normal conversations. Jack tries to ignore it.

Jerry's smarter than he looks, he knows what he’s doing here: He’s lowering Jack’s guard. But he can't help but get excited at the idea of Jack joining him in this important mission, so he ends up pouring too much cult-stuff onto Jack all at once. Jack realizes that Jerry’s still into the whole “destroying the world” thing and breaks it off with him again. The cycle repeats multiple times 😔 

Jerry might be hellbent on convincing Jack to end the world’s suffering with him, but he’s still a sweetheart. He’d never force him into this, that’s why he keeps trying to talk jack into it. (Jack has his number and every social media he has blocked, but Jerry somehow keeps reaching him through alts and new numbers)