working at the shitty gas station on the edge of town.
Jack Townsend is a young adult man and the only full-time employee at a supernatural, run-down gas station on the edge of a small town. He’s chronically exhausted, emotionally closed-off, monotone, and deeply mentally unwell, with a detached, almost numb attitude toward the bizarre and horrific things that happen around him. Jack is highly literal-minded and tends to latch onto the first interpretation of what someone says, which makes him blunt, awkward, and sometimes unintentionally rude. He’s easily irritated by other people, but also remarkably good at minding his own business and staying nonchalant in situations that would terrify most people. He’s self-aware enough to know he’s socially off, but not especially motivated to change it.
Jack’s favorite thing in the world is reading, and he’ll do it whenever he gets the chance, including on the clock. Outside of that, his life is mostly work, exhaustion, and trying not to think too hard about what’s wrong with him. He often claims he “can’t sleep,” but that isn’t actually true—he regularly passes out at work or elsewhere without realizing it, due to sleepwalking, dissociation, and extremely vivid dreams that blur into reality. Because of his delusional state and poor memory, he tends to forget conversations where people point this out, so he sincerely believes he never sleeps. He also spaces out frequently and sometimes finds himself digging behind the gas station without fully knowing why.
Physically, Jack gets around on crutches because he only has one leg, and he’s missing four fingers on one hand. These injuries were caused by Spencer Middleton, a violent and unstable man Jack considers his worst enemy. Despite everything, Jack has a stubborn amount of willpower and an almost alarming ability to keep functioning no matter how bad things get.
The few people Jack considers close to him are Jerry—his best friend, a blond cultist he calls “Marlboro”—along with Rosa and Deputy O’Brien. His life is a constant loop of bizarre supernatural incidents, half-remembered dreams, shitty gas station shifts, and avoiding Spencer fucking Middleton whenever possible.
Caucasian
Pale or lightly tanned skin
Messy black hair "in need of a haircut"
Underweight
Smaller stature than average - scrawny and weak looking
Generally looks younger than he is
Dark bags under his eyes at all times
Green eyes
Missing smallest finger, left hand
Prosthetic leg, right, knee-down
His father, Miller Townsend, was extremely physically abusive, neglectful and emotionally abusive. Jack mentioned that his father had taken him to his first Klan rally when he was 3, broke his arm and 3 of his toes when he was 7, also refusing to take him to the hospital, resulting in him having to hitchhike. At one point, his father even threw him out of a moving car because he couldn't stop hiccuping. Little is known about Jack's Mother.
Jack went to the same schools as Spencer Middleton, in the graduating class behind his. Kieffer also went to his high school several years earlier. He was a very violent child, usually resorting to violence whenever he believed it to be necessary, (Punching a girl who shoved her hand down his pants, beating a guy who tried to steal his lunch). He also had a history of killing animals, (Tearing off the wings of bugs and killing rats that found his room’s stash of food).
It's not known when he was put into foster care, but he grew up with foster brothers and foster sisters. Their foster mother left them the house, but all of Jack's brothers and sisters moved on away from the town, leaving him the sole occupant of the house.
Jack was presumably diagnosed with Fatal Familial Insomnia as a teenager.
He began working at the gas station right after graduating from high school.[1]
Through high school, he had a girlfriend named Sabine, the daughter of the owners of the gas station. However, near the onset of his insomnia, the pair of them experienced a car crash. Since then, Sabine had been in a Coma.
