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No because Neil is so gentle with Jean I'm gONNA BE SICK

"Why didn't they love her enough to keep her safe?"

nathaniel, neil, nathaniel, neil. andrew flips the two names around in his head like tossing a coin. heads or tails, the coin always comes up abram. nathaniel and neil are two sides of the same coin; forged in a dark basement, in musty hotel rooms, on the exy court. both hate sweets, love to run, to talk back any chance they get.

some days, the coin lands on nathaniel. jack makes one too many comments at practice and neil - no, nathaniel - has him on the ground, raquet to his neck in an instant. he can't hear what the strikers are saying but through the grate of the helment, andrew sees nathaniel's smile.

others, it lands on neil. andrew finds neil and matt splayed out on the couch, three movies deep into a "pop culture lesson". neil motions for andrew to sit and absently cards his fingers through the blond's hair. matt hides his grin in his sleeve.

but abram; he runs to andrew after each winning game to tap sticks, he sits each friday in columbia, talking about escape routes for an alien invasion, he keeps ice cream in the freezer and cigarettes in his backpocket.

heads or tails, doe or minyard, doe or minyard.

doe was made and unmade in california. 13 homes, 13 film reels constantly playing in the back of his mind, each scene driving the cuts deeper and deeper. andrew doe learns the danger of wanting and vows to keep everyone out.

minyard went to juvie for his brother. he crashed the car to keep him safe. he spent years on medication that sent him up up up to protect his cousin. minyard guards himself with knives sharper than his glare; he protects those that are his and fuck anyone else.

heads or tails, the coin starts to come up drew.

it starts small; quick grins in columbia at neil; shared dinners with aaron that don't end in a fight; something like excitment in his stomach before an exy game. when neil is hanging out with the upperclassman, he stays.

heads or tails; the coin lands on growth

hc that immediately after the events of the trilogy neil crashes so hard. from christmas onwards his body has been abused and in various stages of healing and he is running through it all on adrenaline. this boy wins the championship and secures his safety and i bet just turns off.

there's no nathan or riko to be running from. the season is over, he has his trophy. there is nothing immediately pressing that concerns his performance on the court or his/andrew's/the team's safety and his body finally gets to come out of fight or flight and man is he fucking tired.

I always think about how we saw Andrew at one of the lowest points in his life. Like after thanksgiving, getting sober, and Proust (a reminder of everything that had ever happened to him), Andrew was probably near the most raw, unforgiving, and volatile he could ever be. Add that to the harsh personal contrast of how relatively calm his life was right before; it's safe to say we saw Andrew at his worst.

So when people say things like Andrew bottoming (something Nora said he one day does in the ec) don't make sense, or just overall say things that imply Andrew is exactly like how we see him for the rest of his life, it kills me. Because we saw him at one of the worst points in his life, but more importantly we saw him get given the tools and the people to heal. So yes, he's always gonna be rude as fuck and generally off putting, but he's gonna grow and transform in ways we couldn't imagine. He'll always have trauma, and his outlook will always be influenced by it, but he was a teenager in those books, and he has an entire life to live and heal with Neil and Bee and yes, Aaron.

Aftg is about overcoming trauma, and it doesn't necessarily focus on the healing part of that, but I still think it's one of the most important post-canon things that this fandom doesn't really talk about.

"omg those are the exy monsters they're so scary"

you mean nicky? with a mortgage, husband and two kids?

neil? canonically a math nerd who enjoys cross country?

aaron? the pre-med student dating a cheerleader?

kevin? worlds first almond-mom-history-nerd?

andrew? the boundary respecting ice cream addict?

like yeah ok they've killed people but like also they have a cheese drawer so just calm down, be respectful, and don't start punching people - you'll be fine.

Who's the dragon warrior? It's me!!!

To anyone who had an emotional connection to Wymack while reading aftg: I know what you are

(I'm crying over a fic because Wymack hugged Neil)

To anyone who had an emotional connection to Wymack while reading aftg: I know what you are

(I'm crying over a fic because Wymack hugged Neil)

need need NEED more Fox Girls Trio content!!! gimme the bonded besties!!! the lore, the bits, the inside jokes, the secrets, the shenanigans!!!

this is Dan, Renee & Allison post-grad in my ✨psu foxes shit✨ btw:

y'all read all three aftg books and still said Kateaaron wouldn't make it past college. THAT is fucking crazy

Thinking about how when Jean saw the Foxes’ photo wall he thought “They looked ridiculous and mismatched. They looked bright and alive and carefree, like they’d somehow forgotten everything that made them qualify for the Fox line-up”

hey hold on a sec. we talk about what baltimore was like for kevin, neil, andrew, but can we talk about wymack for a second. Can we just.

the year before the twins and nicky signed at psu, two of wymack's foxes, ian and kirk, died in a car crash.

the next year, kevin day broke his hand and went to wymack, the only person he thought would keep him safe.

the year after that, seth gordon, the only surving member of wymack's original lineup, overdosed after he was so nearly clean, and it almost destroyed allison.

months later, andrew was attacked in columbia and committed to easthaven. aaron killed someone. andrew was gone and the others came back shattered.

then neil claims to go home for the holidays, they don't hear from him all of christmas break, and on new years, neil calls him and asks wymack to pick him up from the airport. he's there instantly and god, he looks half-dead. neil sees the 4 tattoo and tries to cut it off his face. all he can say is that he didn't sign to the ravens.

then there's the blood in the locker room. wymack can't push away the feeling that something's getting closer, something is coming to hurt his foxes and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

then. the game at binghamton. neil looks on edge but wymack doesn't ask what's wrong. neil and andrew are above his paygrade. then the riot. he can't see any of his kids in the crush. he finally pulls them all out, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight–

neil's gone. neil's gone and they can't find him. andrew can't find him. neil got taken by someone. what was that like for david wymack? did it feel too familiar? did he look at his kids and think not again, i didn't lose another one again. does it ever scare him. does it terrify him. when aaron came back from the police station in columbia, twenty four hours in holding and he couldn't look wymack in the eye, did he think what if i can't save these kids? when andrew was lying in a hospital bed, too drugged to react, did he think what if i can't give them their second chance? when neil grabbed that knife, when he fell to pieces on wymack's kitchen floor, when he came back to them in baltimore, bloody and broken, did wymack think why am i always too late?

thinking abt how wymacks apartment made neil uncomfortable since he “preferred staying to lower levels so he could make an easy escape if need be” when later the roof of a four story building becomes neil’s safe space because the safety and comfort andrew provides outweighs neil’s survival instincts…. yeah….

cannot believe there are only 9 fics under the “service top jeremy knox” tag on ao3 after the nora factoid drop😤😤 absolutely unacceptable😤😤

For all of aftg’s tragedies, the one that gets me the most is the fact that it isn’t real and I will never see an edit of Kevin Day switching his racket.

The foxes have a PowerPoint night

_________

Andrew : doesnt make a PowerPoint but critiques everyone else's

Neil : gives a tour of europe with the best spots and worst spots

Kevin : critiques all of their plays individually its not supposed to be funny but its so in character and the foxes are so drunk it ends up being hilarious

Nicky and aaron : they make eachother powerpoints that they have to bullshit their way through. Nicky has to explain straight sex in detail whilst aaron ranks drag queens.

Dan : recounts all of the worst fox media moments with dramatic reenactments

Allison : just a slam down roast of each person

Renee : how she would manage to survive in different fictional worlds and who of the fixes she'd bring to help her

Matt : teaching neil specifically pop culture references

i was reading some of the aftg bonus content + old asks nora answered (here) and a lot of it is sad, but the one thing that truly got me was this:

i’m in tears over seth gordon because like. imagine for a moment that you are a fifth-year senior, last one standing of your original teammates, the rest of whom killed themselves or dropped out. you raised your younger siblings from elementary school onward, struggling with behavioral and substance issues for years. you try so hard to get clean but it never quite works unless your on-again-off-again girlfriend decides she wants to be with you, and she fills the void that drugs leave. it’s a good period with her, so you don’t take any drugs with you when you go out. you’re so close to graduation, so close to championships, but you overdose, drown in your own puke on the bathroom floor. it’s ruled a suicide, but you were killed by your new teammate’s enemy to prove a point. you sang. you were a tenor.

masterlist for my silly little aus before they get lost in my dash forever

tsc social media au —

insta profiles part one & two | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine

aftg x f1 —

twitter profiles part one & two | rosters

spotify playlists —

jean moreau | jerejean | haoyu liu

sideblogs —

@piatsri (f1) and @pocketferns (sideblog for everything non-aftg & f1 i guess)

you guys don't understand how insane the sentence "why didn't they love her enough to keep her safe?" is coming from the protagonist of a series like all for the game. none of the foxes, even in their most delirious state, would have that expectation from the people who had betrayed them. jean is such a deeply genuine and emotional person, so different from the perspective neil provides, that it actually hurts more to know he had any hope at all for elodie's survival