What do you think Jack’s teammates, brother, and family’s reactions were the first time they met AW as a WOC? I feel like she’s so different from his usual “type” — the blonde, white, cookie-cutter girlfriends he’s had before and is traditional to the NHL— so I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on how they perceive her and the relationship. Like, do they clock the difference immediately? Is it more subtle judgment, curiosity, or even discomfort from them and the other wags? And do you think anyone is more openly skeptical than others?
I’m also curious whether they take the relationship seriously at all, or if they just assume it’s a phase — like he’s experimenting or “scratching an itch” and will eventually go back to what they expect from him. You know, that mindset of she’s just the girl he’s having fun with right now, and sooner or later he’ll fall back into his usual patterns.
What do you think Jacks reaction would be to someone not taking it serious or treating her badly I imagine he’s fiercely defensive of her and unwilling to let anyone else diminish what she means to him.(I can just imagine him being like this is Y/N I’ve known her a week she forced me to take my medicine and scratched my hair until I fell asleep I still have her eyelash in a box and the glass from the first date she didn’t agree too. I’ve forced her into a relationship, she doesn’t want to be here but also like me and hates that about herself but if I ever lost her or had anyone speak about her I would kill them and then myself)
Also, you mentioned that fans don’t really pick up on the darker tone in the verse — but do his family and teammates notice it? Like, are there small behavioral changes in Jack that they pick up on but maybe don’t fully understand? Or do they sense something is off with the dynamic and just choose not to get involved ( it’s not like hockey player are famous for that or anything)
And about the Hughes brothers dynamic: I know you often write it as a bit… off or intense in your fics, so I’m curious if it’s similar here. Like, hypothetically, if the reader went to Quinn for help, would he brush her off and go straight back to Jack with it? Or is there any part of him that would hesitate?
Do you see the brothers as being just as morally questionable as Jack, or is he more of an outlier — like the “bad egg” of the family? And with Jack specifically, I know he’s aware of his behavior, but do you think this is something that’s always been in him and he’s been enabled to act on it but never really has and suddenly the reader unintentionally brings out or intensifies in him
Sorry for all the questions — I hope you’re not sick of me in your inbox 😭 I just love this story so much and want to understand your thought process more so when I re-read it (which I already have… like 30 times) it’s even more vivid 🥰💕
please believe me when I say I could never be sick of you in my inbox in general and also bc you love the AW!verse as much as I do and indulge me in it 😭🩷 like genuinely it makes my day to see you in my inbox I’m always so excited, I’m always pulling the Lola Tung “I love this questionnnnn” in my mind 🫂
+ I struggle with deciding if this takes place with what actually happened post-Olympics or an even more fictional universe where the Hughes brothers stfu 😭😭 bc if it’s canon, everyone outside of his family thinks it’s a publicity stunt to rehabilitate his image. No one believes it’s organic in the slightest. But let’s go with the middle ground lol
+ Oh everyone notices immediately. And for Jack to be the one to break from the mold makes it even more noteworthy (if possible). I’ll start with his teammates. They’re in the know months before he hard launches her and even when he does hard launch her, they still don’t really believe his infatuation will last. The other WAGs save for a few (Nina for example) hold Reader at arm’s length for a plethora of reasons (internal biases, assuming Reader won’t be around for long, etc etc), Most of them, alongside their bfs, believe Jack isn’t serious about Reader. They have the mindset like you said of “she’s just the girl he’s having fun with right now, and sooner or later he’ll fall back into his usual patterns.” In their minds, she’s not the woman he’ll stay with for more than a few months much less marry
+ I don’t think anyone Jack knows is brave enough to treat Reader badly or talk badly about her anywhere near him. From what it seems, everyone loves Jack, teammates or not, and no one wants to risk his bad side. If he finds out things are being said privately, well…he’s not afraid of confrontation or embarrassing someone in public so he’s the type to say something about it but not fight about it. Just say his piece, make it known how he feels, and make them feel stupid lol He’s good at boundaries and compartmentalizing so he ends up noticeably colder to those people which then trickles down to other people also treating those people coldly. A really unexciting answer lol but I think just how the hockey world is set up prevents any blowups between players or teammates or even friends of friends. But he never forgives or forgets and he’ll be an asshole about it lmfaoooo
+ His friends are genuinely surprised by how serious Jack is about Reader. They assume she’s a one-off and then she joins them in the summer. But for them, as long as they still have their same Jack, they don’t really care. They quickly learn what Jack is willing to divulge (not a lot) and what he’s not willing to divulge (pretty much everything) and go from there. They talk amongst themselves about how surprising it is that Reader’s not the usual blonde white girl (and not nicely ofc) but abandon that train of thought early on bc Jack won’t take it lightly
+ His parents are more than a little thrown off by Reader tbh. Not enough to say anything because Jack is going to do what Jack is going to do of course but it’s an unexpected development. They don’t treat her any different though than they did to any other girl Jack has brought home. But there are definitely some behind the doors talks between his parents but in a very white liberal way. Reader does win them over pretty early on by virtue of being polite, ‘loving’ Jack, and making Jack a better person so it’s not something his parents think about after that first year
+ ‘this is Y/N I’ve known her a week she forced me to take my medicine and scratched my hair until I fell asleep I still have her eyelash in a box and the glass from the first date she didn’t agree too. I’ve forced her into a relationship, she doesn’t want to be here but also like me and hates that about herself but if I ever lost her or had anyone speak about her I would kill them and then myself’ this is killing me so bad LMFAOOOOO that guy is nuts 😭 everyone can tell he’s intense about her and sometimes he gets this wild eyed look when he thinks she’s being disrespected and the room gets real quiet 💀
+ For the most part, I do think Jack is able to keep what he’s doing and what he’s become under wraps. Reader also tends to go along with whatever Jack wants (to make her life easier) so that works out in his favor in making him look less insane. Sometimes he slips up but those moments are so far and few between that his friends, family, and teammates chalk it up to him being stressed or whatever. They do pick up that he’s obsessive but it’s kind of one of those things people tend to romanticize looking from the outside in so Jack’s able to get away with a lot. And as we’ve seen, hockey players can get away with anything so even if any of these people did pick up the darker tones, no one would feel inclined to intervene unless Jack crossed whatever moral line they held in regards to abusive relationships as sad as that is. The only ones who really pick up that their relationship isn’t what it seems are Quinn and Luke ofc
+ I saved the brothers for last bc whew. You got me with the ‘you often write it as a bit… off or intense in your fics’ AKSJSKSNSN I really do think they’re so weird about each other. Realistically, Reader would never go to either brother for help. She knows where she stands and she also knows that as long as Jack is happy, Quinn and Luke are happy to let him get away with anything. That’s not to say they aren’t sympathetic but their love for Jack trumps all. Besides, everything Jack does is with her in mind so is it really that bad? <- bastards, every single one of them
+ Quinn and Luke are the ones who take to Reader and the relationship the quickest. Luke’s there from the beginning and Jack talks to Quinn sm that Quinn might as well be there himself so they see how quickly Jack goes into the deep end. They raise their eyebrows at Jack deviating so much from his usual type, maybe even tease him a little bit, but they’re supportive from the start. They don’t entertain many of the speculations that come out in private or public. And they know Jack better than anyone. It’s serious to him so it’s serious to them
+ All those brothers are morally questionable lmfao they care about each others happiness and success more than their own 😭 I think Jack feels things a little more deeply than his brothers by virtue of being the middle kid and balancing taking care of Luke while also relying on Quinn to a significant degree. But I think he’s even shocked by how much he feels for Reader. As far as most things go, Jack leads a pretty perfect life. #1 draft pick with the talent to back it up, almost instantly becomes the face of a franchise, gets the golden goal, has a good reputation (or did…), was able to be his own person when entering the league, entered the league at 18 years old and was already making millions by 19, is beloved by everyone in his life, brothers that he would die for and who would die for him no questions asked etc etc like I really could go on and on. So it really is a shock to his system when he meets Reader and wants her attention to be solely on him. He assumes it’ll fade eventually but if anything, that need grows hungrier and hungrier as time goes on
+ The fact that you read AW once blows my mind but for you to reread it too…I could cry 😭😭😭 thank you for loving them as much as I do 😭😭😭🤍🤍🤍
Okay… I need a second because that just happened and I’m genuinely spiraling a little. We need to talk, Quinnboni—because there is a LOT to unpack here and I don’t even know where to start processing all of it.
Firstly—Hana.
Girl… I already didn’t like you. I truly thought you had hit your lowest point, and somehow you proved me wrong. And the thing is—I was actually willing to give you a chance. You hadn’t crossed certain lines yet, and compared to Jack, you weren’t the one actively trapping the reader, so I was trying to stay open-minded. But after this? No. Absolutely not. Any benefit of the doubt is gone.
I remember you mentioning before that part of her resentment comes from feeling like something that should have been hers was “taken,” and that she saw the reader as stepping beyond her place—especially as a woman of colour who, in Hana’s eyes, hadn’t “earned” it. And that context makes her behavior make sense, but it also makes it hit harder.
Because I keep circling back to this: was Hana ever genuinely interested in Jack as a person, or was it always about what he represents? The exposure, the status, the way being tied to him elevates her brand as a influencer? Is she even a real hockey fan because she loves the sport, or is she more in love with the image and lifestyle attached to it?
Like if you stripped all of that away—no spotlight, no status, no social gain—would she still want him? Or is Jack just the vehicle for the life she thinks she deserves?
What really stood out to me is how her cruelty escalates in direct proportion to Jack’s attention shifting toward the reader. At first, it’s almost dismissive—like she doesn’t even register the reader as competition. But the second that changes, something in her snaps.The way she turns cold so quickly, so completely, feels less like a gradual dislike and more like a reaction to her control slipping. And the group dynamic plays into that so well—the subtle isolation of the reader, how she’s edged out, how the tone shifts around her—and how, in a way, that actually benefits Jack because it leaves her more alone with him. It’s uncomfortable in the best way.
Hana being glad the reader isn’t coming to the get-together, only for Jack to keep asking about her—it’s like you can see Hana’s disdain growing in real time. Every mention chips away at her, and it’s almost satisfying and painful at the same time. I also can’t get over how telling it is that Jack has the reader’s number, but Hana doesn’t even have his. That imbalance is chefs kiss - kindly get fucked Hana
You can also see those early signs of Jack’s protectiveness creeping in—like when Landon directs the reader and Jack reacts. It’s subtle, but it feels like a warning of what’s coming. There’s already this underlying sense that his attention isn’t casual, that once it locks in, it’s not going to let go.
And that moment where Hana points out that the reader isn’t his “usual type”—it’s so loaded. I keep thinking about the line: “He must be in his exotic era.”and the follow-up *“That must be it… He’ll be back to normal once he gets his fill.”* It’s such a perfect example of Hana trying to rationalize something she doesn’t understand, reducing the reader down to something temporary or experimental so she can feel like she still has control. But as a reader, it reads like pure foreshadowing. We know he’s not going to “go back to normal.” We can literally see the cage bars starting to close while she’s convincing herself this is just a phase.
Also—what *did* he whisper to Samir in that moment? *“He mutters something under his breath to Samir who nudges his shoulder and covers his mouth as he responds.”* That tiny detail feels so deliberate, like there’s a whole layer of meaning we’re not fully privy to yet.
And then that entire confrontation scene… it’s brutal in the best way. The shift in him is so sharp:
‘’Jack tips his head back as he finishes his beer. He sets the bottle back down on the table with a harsh clack. His half-smile doesn’t meet his eyes. Her skin prickles at the noticeable chill he’s brought forth. Malicious amusement lurks in the depths of his eyes. As opposed to what?” He doesn’t give her time to think before following with a derisive, “You?”
That moment is vicious. It’s not just rejection—it’s humiliation. He knows exactly what she wants, and he weaponizes it. And the fact that Samir and Landon are smirking, not stopping him, just reinforces that Jack operates in a space where no one really challenges him. That’s the first time, for me, where he feels genuinely dangerous in this world. Not just manipulative or charming, but actively cruel in a calculated way—and fully aware of it.
And I love (and hate) how you circle it back to Hana still blaming the reader. The fake concern, the fake friendship, even pretending to be sick—it all reinforces that she *cannot* see herself as the villain. It has to be the reader. It always has to be the reader, especially after “taking” something that was never hers. Meanwhile, Hana thinks Jack needs saving, but he’s exactly where he wants to be—and that irony is so good.
It made me wonder too—if the reader hadn’t been there that first night, what would have happened? Would Jack and Hana have actually ended up together? And if they had, would she have been able to survive him? Or if he met the reader later anyway, would Hana have been doomed from the start regardless?
Then you shift into that next phase where Jack is in the reader’s space, and it feels like such a turning point. He’s not just part of her world—he’s *taking it over*. First her friends, then her home, and it’s so clear it won’t stop there. There’s this underlying sense of possession that’s only getting stronger. It reminds me of that idea of wanting to “live in someone’s ribcage”—like he doesn’t just want to be around her, he wants to be *inside* every part of her life.
I also love the contradiction in him—how he goes from manipulative (planting that doubt about whether she lied) to almost soft, not caring if he gets sick, but still making it something she has to deal with. That push and pull is addictive and unsettling at the same time but I can see the care there.
And the parallel tension is so good—her realizing she’s losing Hana, Hana already deciding she’ll make her pay, and Jack knowing it: *“Jack thinks back to what he overheard before he left. She’ll make you pay alright. Your charges are a mile long even without this lackluster offense.”* The fact that he feels satisfaction in that?? He’s awful. Truly awful. And yet I’m completely obsessed. I hate him, I love him, I want him ruined, I want them to have a happy ending—he makes me feel everything at once.
And that ending… it’s perfect:
*“You don’t realize how dangerous that question is on your guileless tongue.”*
*He hums, reaching over to add another blanket over your shoulder. You shiver when his hand brushes against your neck. There’s a shaky intake of breath when he bunches the excess fabric over your lap, smoothing his hand over your thigh.*
*“Careful. That's gonna go straight to my head,” he says instead, laughing at the face you make.*
*“Why would I lie to you?” you ask.*
She’s doomed. Completely, utterly doomed—and the scariest part is how soft it feels in the moment. That quiet intimacy feels more dangerous than the overt cruelty earlier. Is that where he’s at his worst—when he’s gentle?
This was honestly incredible. The world you’re building is so vivid it feels immersive beyond the story itself. It genuinely feels like something I can see, like I’m there watching it unfold. It’s one of those stories that keeps expanding in my head even when I’m not reading you ability to exceed my expectations blows my mind
Thank you so much for this—for building this world and putting words to something I never could but can picture so clearly. And for expanding it beyond just the story itself and being so lovely in the comments too. This was absolutely worth waiting all day for, and even the weeks between parts. Please never stop writing this world or any of your other fics, you’re brilliant at it. I had such a shitty day at work, and this genuinely made my night.
This is only my first read too I’m sure I’ll be back tomorrow re-reading the whole universe and with lots more questions. 💕💕💕
uh oh my government name...
+ Hana never deserved your grace #mytruth
+ So much of how Hana views and treats Reader is rooted in racism. When Reader was playing by the rules, Hana was her biggest fan and cheerleader. But now that Reader has stepped out of bounds (so to speak), the vitriol is impossible to keep contained. If Tatum was in Reader's position, Hana would be nasty but not nearly as such because she's also taking Jack's preference of Reader as a hit to her pride. She's a beautiful, blonde white woman. The world is her oyster. So why is Jack picking what she sees as her antithesis?
+ It's tough to say if Hana was ever genuinely interested in Jack as a person. Him being a known hockey player definitely elevates him in her eyes but at the same time, I think for a lot of influencers it kind of just happens based on social circles + how those guys look for girlfriends/partners. Kind of like a hazard of the profession. Had Jack been a regular guy, I think she would've been charmed by him regardless of status honestly. She's not solely looking for a hockey player but those players are what have fallen into her lap as of late 🙂↕️ And Hana does love the sport! She spent most of her childhood going to games with her dad and it just happened to work out that she was able to tie her influencing to that world as well
+ omg I'm so glad you noticed how her disdain just kept ratcheting up as the night went on. She's done what she can to diminish Reader's credibility within the group and she sees how they bend to her will but that means nothing if Jack won't fall in line as well. It never crossed her mind that he would be impervious to her tricks nor that she would be helping him guide Reader into her gilded cage crafted by Jack himself
+ The way Reader will never know that her having Jack's number is another strike against her from Hana and the way Hana will never find out that it was Samir who gave Jack Reader's number...there are levels to this LASFKLASD
+ Jack was ready to rip Landon a new one for taking any tone other than neutral about Reader 😭
+ "He must be in his exotic era" is pulled straight from something I heard in high school 🥲 and Hana saying Reader isn't his usual type instead of implying it just goes to show how comfortable she felt in that environment...in her eyes, Jack is 'rebelling' 🙄
+ Jack makes a really nasty likely bordering misogynistic remark about Hana to Samir rip. Alluding to her being a 'puck bunny' and having the audacity to think she would even be considered within Reader's league because "come on, look at her"
+ Jack knew he had to do more than just nip this in the bud. He had to make sure Hana would know her place and the only way to make sure the lesson would stick would be to embarrass her in front of her friends. And he knows that while they may Hana's friends first, he's the one they defer to 🤷♂️
+ For Hana, Reader is the reason things have not been going to plan. She can pinpoint that night as the moment where things began to go offtrack. And someone has to pay for that wrong. Jack is the innocent on here. He doesn't know he's being lead astray so he gets a pass. But you/Reader? Oh no baby, you need to atone
+ It's actually funny you mention a hypothetical of Reader not being there because I've been planning a fic where Jack is dating one of Reader's friends (non aw!verse) in order to get to Reader but I hadn't decided where their starting point would be (did he meet Reader first or the gf etc). But maybe I can do an AU of aw!verse where he's with Hana and then meets Reader lol. But anyway, if Reader hadn't been there that night, it's likely that Jack and Hana would've slept together. I don't think Hana is Jack's type personality wise so it probably would've stayed as a very casual, sex based relationship if it went past a one night stand. And the thing is, even if Hana and Jack did date, she doesn't have what Reader does that sparked Jack's obsessiveness so they'd probably have a very typical relationship that fizzled out for xyz reason. Hana doesn't get Jack the way Reader does nor is she aware of his bullshit the way Reader is so she'd probably be safe
+ Originally I wasn't going to add the scene with Jack but it felt like a missed opportunity lol 🙈 the fact that he knows her neighbors enough to be on a first name basis and for her neighbors to not be surprised that he's showing up at her door...yeah it's not looking good for Reader 😭 Most people would probably say 'oh I'd like to live in their skin' about their partner, but Jack truly wishes that Reader could live under his skin instead so that he can keep her safe and ensure she always has a home. Anyway othe
+ He kind of hopes Reader does get him sick bc he's not playing regardless and he wants her to take care of him 😭
+ The moment he feels genuine satisfaction that Reader is losing her friends is when he knows he's gone past the point of no return and he just does not care. Not when it means Reader will be turning to him and using him as her rock and making him her center of gravity. Just how he wants it to be!
+ Reader has no idea she's damned herself with that one little question. She's been damned, ofc, but this solidifies Jack's intentions. How can he let her go when she's this sweet?
+ It means soooo much more than I can ever say that you've enjoyed these extra installments + crazy long answers in the aw!verse 🙂↕️ I appreciate you so much!!! Thank you so much for always taking the time to read my fics and then also come back and tell me what you think, it makes me so !!!!!!!!!
