Ruggie and Jack (pt1)

Ruggie and Jack meet for the first time when Ruggie gives an impromptu tour of the school’s clubs with Jack and Epel.

Ruggie promotes the Spelldrive club in particular in an effort to get Jack to join but approaches it from the perspective of teamwork, of which Jack is not a fan.

Ruggie says, “every time I seen him play Spelldrive at Savanaclaw’s morning practice, it reminds me of the one that got away”.

Ruggie considers Jack to be a snitching “goody-two-shoes” (and Jack does say that he will be reporting Ruggie’s “dishonesty” during Vargas Camp), and during Halloween we see him having to convince Jack to break the school’s “no using magic on laypeople” rule to chase off Magicam Monsters.

Ruggie teases Jack for “heroically standing up for the downtrodden” when Leona and Ruggie play against Ace, Deuce and the others in a practice game of Spelldrive during Book 2, and expresses frustration at Jack’s attitude, saying, “the world’s not black and white. Not everything can be categorized as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Too bad he can’t be more flexible, huh?”

Jack seems to be taking Ruggie’s efforts to heart: in a voice line he says he might be looking to start aspiring “to be like Ruggie and not sweat the little things. But don’t tell him I said that!” And, during Vargas Camp, we see Jack successfully convince Ruggie to join a search in the mines for Deuce by tempting him with magestones.

In Book 2 Jack confronts Ruggie and Leona about their plans to sabotage the upcoming Spelldrive game, and Ruggie asks Leona outright if he wants Ruggie to “take care of” Jack, as Jack could be a problem. Leona does not allow it.

When Ruggie and Leona overhear their fellow dormmates plotting to “knock Jack down a peg” out of jealousy over his athletic talents Ruggie tells Leona, “It probably wouldn’t hurt to let ‘em put a little fear into Jack and teach him to respect the rest of his dorm”.

Leona decides to protect Jack anyway, with Ruggie having to intervene to keep him from using his unique magic on the bullies. When Jack thanks Leona for the help Ruggie responds, “You’re taking this like a man. I was expecting more lip from you.”

In Jack’s dorm vignette we learn that he absolutely adores Ruggie, meeting him in front of the school and refusing to go inside without greeting him as “That’d be rude”, despite Ruggie’s constant protests.

Ruggie describes Jack’s obsession with him as “creepy”. We see a montage of Jack bringing Ruggie his broom and a towel for flight class, offering to stand in line for him during lunch and bring him an umbrella in case of rain. Ruggie is suspicious of him and refuses to accept his help every time.

Jack insists that he will serve Ruggie as the de-facto second-in-command just as Ruggie serves Leona, as he has “no intention of breaking the pack’s chain of command”.