#omgcp Jack

[atlasthemayor]

NEW PIC OVER ON MY TWT

<<click here>> to go see it 👍

(or see it HERE under the cut) 👁️

tw for artistic nudity (pretty much just a pinup)

I'm gonna be doing way more stuff like this (or more saucy), so be sure to follow me there if you wanna see more!

[bittysfoodbaby]

i think this is also a great jumping off point on how hard it is to make friends at such a large school when you don't have a premade group of friends going into college. think sports teams and summer practice sessions, early move-in programs, rush for greek life, those are all predefined social spheres that theoretically make it easier to get to know people—let alone find friends and a community—and even then it's hard to keep up those connections.

for someone like jack, he may have had those setups to make friends but imagine being a first-time traditional freshman excited to go d1 and then in the corner of the locker room is a nontraditional retired tier 1 crashout and former semi-pro celebrity staying away from everyone because he sees what may be fun for you be the very thing that hurt him in the past. obviously the vibe you'll get is that he's going through mad shit and you don't wanna catch that smoke fr!

obviously we know that jack is going through said shit but again, imagine being in the same rookie class as jack and seeing him just not hang out with people. no team breakfasts, no haus parties, and even in practice he's lowkey giving drill instructor. nhl draft and ncaa amateur policy aside, who the hell would want to hang out with this mf? he's... cordial at best but there's no one who would actually hang out with him on the regular because he's not personable to the rest of the team!

i think that putting in a (somewhat and constantly trying to be) well-adjusted adult in the same space as fresh-out-of-adolescence young adults did a number on jack's social life at samwell in addition to the immense pressure he put on himself to live up to his father's legacy that still remained with him post-rehab. for him to finally develop that support system that he deserved in the end makes it all the better.

pulling this over to tumblr from AO3

samwell teammates as jack's colleagues! so interesting!! gnawing on this like a dog on a bone

because primarily no one ever talks about the fact that jack literally has no friends

he and kent aren't speaking terms and it's unclear if they were ever really friends (toxic bfs? hook ups? something else entirely?)

jack doesn't mention staying in contact with anyone else from the Q or even any other junior hockey events - camps, development programs, national teams, etc.

i don't think there's any mention of him having any friends on campus (but idk maybe?). but it also seems like no one on the hockey team likes him that much. i would say almost every member of SMH likes bitty much better and/or just has a closer relationship with bitty (as the main character). it also seems like pre-bitty, the previous upperclassmen absolutely hated jack. also no one ever mentions how odd it must have been for a dude in his mid-20s who's been living separately from his parents for nearly a decade to be hanging out with 18 year olds

which is what keeps me gnawing on this comic a decade later. bitty is living in a comedy bildungsroman where all works out in his favor and jack (and kent, sort of) is living in an indie film that is just packed to the brim with despair

and he has no friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i firmly believe most people on the team firmly dislike jack because what do you MEAN zimmermann's kid who fenagled his way out of being drafted (HOW? you can't just drop out) is now playing ncaa (HOW? has to be bad bob pulling the strings)

and the few people who show up for him (mostly the Haus people, and even then reluctantly, looking at you Holster pre patron intervention) only really seem to have superficial relationships with him. like sure, dex and chowder see him as their idol, but beyond that who does he actually hang out with?

as far as the comic is concerned bitty is his only friend which is not good grounds for a relationship btw

[ohyoufool]

this fucking sucks I'm going to [remembers suicide jokes are bad for your mental health] reinvent myself on a college men's hockey team

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Simon Snow/Tyrannus Basilton (Baz) Grimm-Pitch- Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Eric “Bitty” Bittle/Jack Zimmermann- Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

[skullism]

I couldn't resist

[montrealmadison]

what is this feeling, so sudden and new?

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Jack opens up an Insta account and within a year garners just over a million followers.

The thing is, his follower base is delineated into two camps:

One camp is those who follow Jack the hockey star and husband to Eric Bittle. They end up get baffled that his account is a gallery with artsy shots of historic structures, old military sites, and some hockey.

The other camp is a growing number of art affectionados who follow Jack the photographer and amateur historian. They love the composition of his work. They also conclude that this guy really likes hockey.

[lovelylittlelosers]

[tossawary]

I reread "Check, Please!" this afternoon. One of my favorite moments (SPOILERS) is the aftermath of Jack and Bitty's on-ice kiss on live television, when Jack is talking to his parents about the public reveal that's just happened. They're like, "Oh??? That's a big step isn't it???" And Jack is so smiling high on cup victory and love that he's like, "Yeah. Who cares, though?" And Jack's parents look like they're bluescreening, he just fucking broke them, because what happened??? To their anxious child who had a mental breakdown and overdose??? He's all relaxed and happy and chill now! Wow.

And there's obviously a lot of things contributing to this character development / mental health stability for Jack. He's older. He's been through both college and rehab. He's got a lot of support in good friends, a great boyfriend, loving parents, friendly teammates, and a supportive employer. This is a happy choice that he made on his own terms. And so on and so forth.

But on a more humorous note, I also think part of this newfound chillness must come from the fact that his good, supportive friends are all loud and proud weirdos. Shitty Knight does something wild every 24 hours, possibly on purpose but also possibly a genuine fuckup, that would have had Jack curling up under a rock out of embarrassment for life, then Shitty just walks it off. No big deal, brah. And if it's not Shitty, then Lardo or Ransom or Holster have got Jack's back in terms of nonstop sheer hot, shameless mess and friendship. It puts a lot of things into context.

Freshman Shitty: "Heeeey, man, my new best friend, nice to meet you, thanks for getting me off that roof and also lending me your jacket! Not that I've got anything to be ashamed of, nudity is our natural state of being, but, y'know, don't super want to start the first day off getting arrested for streaking while trying to get to my Gender Studies class on time. Uncomfortable and uncool. Want to get brunch? My breakfast was half of a cheap beer and a packet of sour gummy worms, which while delish, my man, does not do good things to my stomach or my brain health when I'm trying to do the good thinking stuff. Speaking of, dude, excuse me a mo', I think I need to puke into this trash can here. Don't want to litter or anything."

Freshman Jack, holding Shitty's backpack while this stranger pukes politely into a campus trash can: (internally) "I think this is curing my anxiety somehow."

[nursedexy]

[generalghosty]

omgcp is being re-released on webtoon and it reminded me how much i love these two

[aristocrating]

bitty: how was the hangout with kent, honey?

jack: oh, it was good. he had a friend over. doja, i think her name was? she seemed nice.

bitty: doja... cat?

jack: i think that was her last name, yeah.

bitty:

[omgpostsplease]

number one sees an opening, he lines up the shot...

inspired by

@notallthosewhowander jack: backhand forehand backhand aaand that’s a slapshot— redirected on smith’s blade— goes in glove side! *shoves peas into laughing toddler’s mouth* (x)

[parvuls]

no, because - famous person starts dating less famous person and is then gradually overshadowed is a trope. a trope often used to bring external conflict into stories. but jack and bitty are carefully constructed as the opposite of that, and I'm fucking feral over it.

we joke about how jack will eventually be bitty's trophy husband and be thrilled about it, but it definitely has a giant grain of truth in it. it's how they're characterized. bitty is an extrovert; jack is an introvert. bitty reached out and built himself an online audience to deal with his trauma; jack shut himself out and started avoiding the public to deal with his.

bitty finds comfort in being able to talk to others and (as seen in spotlight on eric bittle) considers being a public figure a sort of healing experience: coming out and being a public person (in every manner of speaking, not just sexuality wise) and putting himself in the limelight is such an important part of his journey because he sees it as a way of helping others who were in his situation.

jack grew up in the spotlight as the only son of two prominent figures. he grew up as a child with anxiety with the media's eyes on him as he was compared to his father. he grew up as an overweight teen featuring in trashy gossip columns as he was compared to his mother. he got into rehab in part because of this attention and it only attracted more attention to him. a lot of jack's anxiety stems from the notion of people looking at him and thinking about him and talking about him and judging him, and it's unfortunate because jack's dream is to play hockey, and that comes with even more attention.

but that's the thing: jack and bitty's story is (once again) a demonstration of two people making each other's lives better.

jack's fame thrusts bitty into the spotlight post-cup, and it's a giant push forward in helping him reach a bigger audience and thus grow his independent fame. bitty's growing fame slowly overshadows jack, to the point where ngozi says they'll one day be Eric Bittle and his Athlete Husband. and that means jack gets to play hockey, and win cups, and achieve fame in his own field, but the media's attention slides off him to his husband, and the fans on the street gradually approach bitty more than him, and jack is free to have his success with less of the personal scrutiny.

it's not that jack becomes less important than bitty. it's that bitty gets to stand in front of the direct sun and flourish as a result, while jack gets to stand in the shade bitty creates and flourish as a result. it's symbiosis. it's beautiful.

[randomoranges]

You know what time it is :)

2024 edition!

[montrealmadison]

"well, they were a pretty big deal. like, demolishing-all-of-junior-hockey's-stats kind of deal. like patenting the zimmermann-parson no-look one-timer kind of deal."