Me: *listening To Book 11*

I’m going to write something for Jack x Spencer from Tales from the Gas Station… they live rent free in my head. I have to. (Imma call them Jencer as coined by multi-lefaiye)

Here’s a(n unedited) snippet of what I’ve written so far:

The first time it happened, it was only a few minutes to midnight. Early enough for Jack’s shift to still be considered starting but late enough for absolutely nobody except for the odd passerby to walk in through the doors. With a good ten-something hours to go and few, if any, customers, Jack was content to sit slouched back in his chair with his ear plugs in and book in his lap.

An irritated hand flashed over the pages of his book, waving at him.

Jack frowned as he looked up. His ear plugs weren’t that good, surely he’d be able to hear if they just called out his name…

He froze as his gaze met the face of the man in front of him. Bright red hair styled up and an annoyed scowl set across strong features. Spencer fucking Middleton.

Jack’s hand instinctively darted out to grab the gas station landline, only to be stopped by Spencer, who aggravatedly pulled the phone away from him and took it off the hook. A sign that the phone line wasn’t cut and that, if Jack could find the time to pull it off, he could call O’Brien.

The psychopath’s mouth started moving, as if he was speaking, but Jack couldn’t hear anything he was saying.

“What?” He asked, and Spencer’s full body heaved with the force of his sigh. The psychopath gestured with his hands to his ears and that’s when Jack remembered his ear plugs. Right.

After debating the pros and cons of actually hearing the psychopath out, Jack reluctantly took them out. He set them on the counter where Spencer swiped them off onto the gas station floor. Well, Jack was never going to use those again.

“About time,” Spencer snarled. “Who the hell wears ear plugs at work?”

“You would too if you could hear the shit that happens at this place,” Jack muttered.

“What?” Spencer asked, and when Jack didn’t respond, he just shook his head. He then shoved his hand into his pocket and Jack braced himself for whatever it was going to be. It was way past the running away phase.

A poorly wrapped sandwich was tossed onto the table in front of him.

Jack flinched before staring at it, confused, and then looking back up at his arch nemesis.

“What?”

Spencer looked at the sandwich and then at Jack pointedly. Jack just furrowed his brows down at it and stared. For a while. Waiting for whatever torment Jack had planned for him tonight.

“Oh just eat it,” Spencer snarled, and Jack blinked up at him blankly, wondering if Spencer really thought he was that stupid, before pushing it back towards him.

“No thank you.”

“Why not?” Spencer demanded, having the audacity to actually look offended.

“I’m allergic to poison.”

Clive: We need to ta-

Jason: Nope, sorry. No time.

Clive: Jason…

Jason: Byeeeee

That poor, poor man. May Clive persist

Tragones🙌🏻

why are they married in every single universe ever

Now that my brain is here…

Dom/sub verse where you get a designation six months to a year after you get your essences. Due to personality and whatnot, most adventurers are Doms.

Jason is a sub.

The presentation is slow. He starts getting fidgety when left to his own devices, unable to sit still. Worse than he was before being torn from his old world. Then he begins to get irritable. He prides himself on a laidback attitude. The bloke next door who will lend you a cup or sugar or tell you the secret ingredient he added to elevate his newest pasta dish. He’s affable, well liked, the baker down the street knows his sister’s name at this point.

Which makes Jason yelling at him all the more startling.

He apologizes and the baker accepts it, but the interaction sticks with him.

Then he’s out on a contract with Clive when it hits. His emotions have been a wreck, more than normal, but the fever comes in a wave. Dizziness, nausea. He can barely stand, Clive having to stop the skimmer and sit him down.

He checks the health status, the little person lit up in red. In big, bold capital letters it says “SUBDROP.”

Jason whispers it, scanning the word but not understanding. Luckily, Clive does.

Jason gets his first command that day.

“Jason, eyes on me.”

Clive walks him through a long routine. Simple requests. Giving Clive his hand, stretching, reading passages from one of Clive’s books. Jason runs through the motions until the fever and headache fade away, replaced by a blissful emptiness. A fuzziness.

When Jason comes to, Clive had parked the skimmer in the shade of a tree, a cooling ritual set up while he held Jason propped up against his chest. One hand stroking through his hair, the other holding up a book on magical theory.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Clive says when Jason moves. His body is heavy and awkward, like he’d been asleep for hours.

Clive walks him through what happened. Jason had gotten a “talk” from Rufus, but it was more equivalent to a first time mother telling their child about the birds and the bees. Oddly rehearsed and tense. Clive is more clinical. And apologetic when he tells Jason that he won’t be able to go more than a few weeks without a “command” before he starts to drop again.

And when he starts to drop, he becomes more susceptible to unwanted commands.

After that, Clive will give him small commands here and there. To pass him a napkin while they’re out to eat, read him a passage from an astral magic theory book, hand him a tool while he’s buried deep in his research. They stave him off until he needs another session a few weeks later.

Clive is respectful, never pushing the boundaries. He doesn’t even order Jason to share his interface powers while he’s in subspace. It’s comfortable, and Jason learns to love the crisp pronunciation of each syllable when he gives a command, the softer intonation of his voice when they wind down from a session, the feel of Clive’s hand as it scratches at Jason’s head and combs through his hair.

Sessions become more frequent, even when they aren’t necessary, and they become comfortable.

Jason notices the way other subs, usually crafts people, are treated around town. Subservient to their Dom, trailing a foot behind, quiet, secondary. A shiver runs down Jason’s spine even though Clive never once expects the same- and in fact encourages the opposite- from him.

Then they form the team.

Humphrey is a Dom, but he never pushes, never gives commands. He’d been oblivious to Jason’s designation for most of the time Jason had known he was a sub.

Neil joins, and it’s different. As a healer, he picks up on Jason in their first true interaction. An intake.

Humphrey is with Jason when Neil frowns, a blue flow from Neil’s diagnostic power blanketing Jason. There’s a sterile coldness about it and Jason shivers.

“You’re a sub,” Neil says, looking at Jason strangely.

“So I’ve been told.”

Neil turns to Humphrey.

“How’s he been managing with commands? Are you his Dom?”

“No. I don’t-“ Jason starts, but Neil keeps talking.

“What are the symptoms of his subdrop? So I can keep track.”

“You know,” Jason says loudly, gaining Neil’s attention. “I know I’m gorgeous and we’ll be a fantastic team of four, but I didn’t think I would be the Invisible Woman.”

“What?” Neil asks.

“I’m right here,” Jason says. “And I’ve got all the answers you could need.”

Neil looks hesitantly between Jason and Humphrey.

“But he’s a-“

“Neil,” Humphrey cuts him off. “This team does not do things that way. Jason does not have a Dom. We will all be treated the same. If you cannot accept this, then you can find another team.”

And therein starts Neil’s fascination, soon to turn into admiration (and no small amount of jealousy), of Clive and Jason’s relationship.

Slowly but surely posting a bunch of older art works on to my blog cause I forgot I had this accountttt

Also I don’t like to partake in fandom discussion too much, just cause all fandoms suck, but I might change that on tumblr cause I trust this place to be less insane than TikTok and Twitter

Jason Asano and co :) as of beginning of book 10 at least ! Currently catching up

(yes all three familiars are there! Look closely at shade to find colin)

pulling sqq into the pool seemed like good revenge at the time. (regrets were had.)

All credits for beautiful story “Black Dog” to stereobone on ao3.