#he is also given a label — quite literally with his branding — of pirate

[trickstercaptain]

i'm just thinking today about how jack is an outcast but also simultaneously a social chameleon, and i think it boils down to the idea that he knows and is known by a lot of people ( like it is a functional part of jack's character within the plot that he just Knows People, even if he is universally loathed by them all lmao ), but very few, if any of those people actually Know him. i think a lot about school era jack in modern verse and how he doesn't neatly fit into any clique or category ( which is classic jack behaviour anyway, he doesn't fit into boxes ). he's kinda weird, is a loner and has difficulty forming close friendships, but it's not enough for him to be horrendously bullied or labelled a freak. like i honestly don't think he was really bullied much at school at all, at least directly, because a) he was bullied enough at home and b) he's assertive, strongly opinionated and will give as good as he gets to anyone who tries anything lmao. it's more likely that he encountered problems because he didn't give a fuck and stood up for those who were not confident enough to stand up for themselves.

he plays sports, swims and is good at gymnastics ( and within his hawkins and moordale arcs, is on the swim team ), but you can't characterise him as a jock either because nope. he's very musically inclined and is somewhat of an edgy, rebel delinquent, but is also intelligent af and enjoys reading shakespeare lmao. he's also the sort of straight-talking, somewhat judgemental bitchy type that would probably get along with the popular crowd, even if he's not one of them. and being rather flamboyantly queer, particularly as he's figuring out his sexuality, jack loves hanging out with girls even taking the fact that he dates around/hooks up a lot out of the equation. but being all of those things also means that he cannot latch onto a particular group to call his people. he is known by all of these groups, and can boundary-hop between different parts of the school social strata in the way only a trickster can, but doesn't Belong to any of them — and that's how he ends up outcasted.