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damn that’s wild. Maybe the solution is gay sex

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Alex getting calls he doesn't want to answer and just passes the phone to five year old Harley

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That post I made earlier about Alex's rage being what allows him to love Rabbit but applied to other verses too?? In any universe where Christine Prescott falls in love with Rabbit, her anger and her sense of justice are still what let it happen. Not because she feels bad for him or pities him, but just.. she's his friend, but more than that, she's his friend *and* willing to fight for him. Where Andy gets pushed into hurting him to save his own skin, Chris would take a bullet for him. She doesn't care who sees them together, she doesn't care if it could get her unwanted attention, and if she thinks Rabbit needs her.. he doesn't have to ask. She's *there* and she's outright snarling at anyone who gets too close. And if Rabbit tries to pull away from her, she fights him on that, too. She leaves him notes and sits next to him every day until he confides in her again.

Even in the music au, he's so upset at Rabbit leaving without him that he spends ten years hunting him back down. Alex's anger is from the same exact place that all of his love and devotion comes from YOU KNOW

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It's the way Alex's rage and all his self-righteousness is what allows him to love Rabbit?? It's the fact that Alex sees this man, alone out in the middle of nowhere with blood on his hands and a long body count, and he *has* to give him a chance. He can't *not* listen to him when he speaks. Because it looks like no one else has ever done that for him, and that isn't fair.

And that same anger and sense of justice is the source of his downfall too, of course. No one has ever been on Rabbit's side in his whole entire life, and Alex loves him, and so it's only.. balancing the scales, if he kills for Rabbit's sake. It's only fair that they get to run away together. He won't take no for an answer.

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Through the Looking Glass: a talk with Jack Rabbit's Jonathan Stone.

By Alex Prescott

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"We have this joke that I'd be somewhere very different if Bobby hadn't pulled me out of that house," Jack Stone tells me. And after all we've discussed, I believe him. It's this troubled history, shared with his brother and bandmate Bobby Baker, that is the inspiration for the upcoming album In the Heart of the Woods.

Sitting comfortably in a studio apartment, he's as striking in person as he is in the magazines. There's no stage blood or leather straps here- he's dressed only in a faded t-shirt and an aging pair of jeans- but he doesn't need the flair to catch anyone's eye. He's larger than life in the way all rockstars should be, and not just because he's broad-shouldered and stands at nearly seven feet tall. It's in the way he carries himself, all comfort and confidence. He's soft-spoken, but only because he doesn't seem to see the need to be anything else.

He's very different from the boy who first left home ten years ago. He'd been a runaway. Tensions in Bobby and Jack's childhood home had finally snapped, and the boys- freshly 18 and 17, respectively- cut their losses. The high school graduation and junior year summer that awaited them had been traded instead for an endless string of motel rooms and parking lots, all their expenses paid for with any odd job they could land. Even now, with all their fame and glory, Jack confides that he's yet to have somewhere to call his own. It's all on the road, for him. He doesn't seem particularly bothered by it.

"When I was in school, I only planned on making it to the next day," Jack says, when asked what's changed in the past decade. "Confidence, mostly, is what's different. I don't think any of us imagined making it here." Of his bandmates, he says that they are closer than they've ever been. "We're all a lot more comfortable with each other. Probably as close to family as I ever had." They've encountered all of the bumps in the road that come along with a tight-knit group, as well as the trust formed in outlasting them. Early on in their career, Jack came out as a gay man, and after a brief romantic affair with his drummer, Andy Campbell, the band easily slid into the reputation of being queer icons. The end of the relationship didn't mean the end of the way they embraced that perception.

They've always been outcasts, and while they've found mainstream appeal, that seems to be who their music speaks most to. In a world that increasingly demands sanitation- from the banning of even the most null rainbow-colored kid's books to demands that everyone keeps their shirts on at Pride, if they have a Pride march at all- Jack Rabbit has remained refreshingly uncompromised. They've only ever followed their hearts, and if that means a sensual stage presence and a sound that still feels gritty, as if it's being dragged straight from the chest, who's to tell them otherwise? They're storytellers, first and foremost, and the stories they've chosen to tell are liberating, raw to the point of catharsis. It's sounds as if the upcoming album is no different.

In the Heart of Woods is a concept album, telling the story of serial murderer living deep in the woods that surround Rabbit's once-home at the northern end of Appalachia. A man, or maybe a legend, that they call the Jack Rabbit. Visually, the album has been taking inspiration from the iconic slasher films of past decades; in his most recent photoshoot, Jack Stone can be seen wielding a hunting knife and wearing a variation of his rabbit mask, striking a horrifying figure while dressed in jean shorts that could've been ripped from an 80's fashion mag if they weren't drenched in bright red corn syrup. He says that the album began almost as a "What if," then quickly grew into fantasy. They've leaned into the idea of a goofy horror flick, but it's just as much a vent and a cautionary tale. It is, mostly, Rabbit's own work, but he says that "Everyone has been supportive. I think they know I'll let them go nuts with whatever we do next."

It sounds as if there is a lot to look forward to for Jack Rabbit. Jack hints at some of the surprises we'll be seeing in the upcoming tour, mentioning in particular plans for on-stage special effects. He seems excited, in a way that feels infectious. Whatever comes next, and despite a decade spent on the move already, it seems there are no signs of slowing down. "I'm really grateful we ended up lasting as long as we have," he tells me, "And I hope there's decades more in the future."

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Written by Alex Prescott

Alex has been a full-time writer for TapeDeck for three years, with a focus on connecting with artists to tell their personal stories and explore their craft. He has also written articles for Variety and Airwave Magazine, as well as a run a personal blog discussing news in the entertainment industry, Delayed Broadcast.

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Through the Looking Glass is Alex's last article as a full-time staff writer here at TapeDeck. We wish him the best as he moves on to the next phase of his career, and he can still be found through his personal blog.

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Alex joining the band and then somehow becoming even more elusive than Rabbit already is

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Thinking about music au Alex and rabbit doing those slasher photoshoots

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Emily Harman, "Tender, the Bruise"

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Chris thinking Rabbit is just the cutest thing she's ever seen 😔❤️❤️

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Prison au Alex with his big goofy crush on Rabbit

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Charlie,, 😔❤️

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butterflies sucking fresh blood from a sock

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Look at his tits boy

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all apologies...

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Chris killing Alan 🥰

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Charlie wouldn't kill me he would just be kind of sad and pitiful. Alex would beat my brains in before I even knew he'd entered the room

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I had a really bad migraine last night, but I've run out of everything except these hungarian pain killers my dad gave me 9 years ago, anyway I don't remember anything and I can't feel my tongue and the only thing in my search history is this