Aftg Aaron - Tumblr Posts
Defending Aaron Minyard on the internet isn’t enough I need to be Andrew Minyard
Aaron Minyard is a dick yes but he’s a dick because he’s a scared ex-addict kid who’s desperately clawing at anything he can to be “normal” and not a Fox™.
Date the sweet cheerleader who also wants to be a doctor, get the 4.0 gpa, become a surgeon, Stay Away From The Foxes because association means he’s damaged and he’s Not Damaged anymore and definitely don’t talk to the therapist because that means he needs help which he Does Not Need. Keep the appearance of the “normal Minyard”.
He grew up in an abusive home with an addict mother who made him into an addict. Keeping up the normal appearance has been the name of the game his entire life, it’s second nature. Don’t let anyone suspect anything. Being apart of the Foxes comes with a reputation and that scares Aaron, it threatens a rickety appearance he’s oh so carefully built to protect himself from others (and mostly himself tbh).
Being an asshole and outwardly a dick is his trauma response. It’s the result of his refusal to process and come to terms with his past. He’s a dick to others because he’s the biggest dick to himself.
(Me personally, I also think his homophobia comes from a place of internalized shame and homophobia. Once again, he grew up with it drilled into him that he Needs to be “normal” and put together and I assume he probably also grew up religious ((his uncles a homophobic pastor who boarder line hates his own son)). Aaron grew up seeing how Nicky was treated for being openly gay. If he started having any thoughts about being anything other than straight, his first response would be anger and shame that’s expressed outwardly.)
His response to his internal shame and anger is to lash outwards at others rather than process it. (which isn’t an excuse, I just don’t think he’s an asshole because he’s an asshole at his core but because he carries a lot of shame.)
I think him rooming with Matt is what would really help him improve his ability to process his shit. (Along with more joint therapy with Bee and Andrew). Seeing Matt, another ex addict, who is fiercely kind and protective of the Foxes, who’s unashamed of his past and how it affects him now would be an eye opener for Aaron. His past doesn’t define him but it’s not something he can deny either.
Matt helps him see the Foxes as a group who has overcome their struggles. Who are helping eachother continue to over come their struggles. And he slowly starts to realize he can let them in and he can accept his past and still be successful and have the life he wants. And start to process and change the way he reacts the way he does.
(And process his not straight thoughts bc bi Aaron is real in my heart)
Nora really knew what she was doing when she made the twinyards scorpios
Aaron getting into medical school and leaving exy behind at Palmetto. He makes some friends, of course, and he doesn’t feel the need to mention to any of them that he’s family friends with multiple professional exy players, including the son of exy himself Kevin Day. He’s moved on from exy and while he’s proud of the Foxes he doesn’t want to be known for it while starting this new adventure.
But obviously he’s not gonna cut ties with the Foxes, so he continues to text them and call them and he’ll be included in some of their social media posts and occasionally he’ll post something with them in it. And his new classmates and friends start to catch on that he’s the Aaron Minyard, former starting backliner for the Palmetto State Foxes NCAA champions, brother of one of the best goalkeepers in the league and close friend of many other professional players.
And Aaron absolutely dreads it when they connect all the dots. Like he refuses to acknowledge that he knows them. People will ask him like “omg do you really know the Kevin Day?” or “is all that stuff about Neil Josten true?” or “are you actually Andrew Minyards twin?” and he’ll just deadpan stare at them and just go “who?” Even worse when someone tries to treat him like a celebrity or ask him about his time as a Fox and he just gives them the most disgusted stare until they eventually walk away.
Yet he’ll keep posting with them he even increases how much he posts with them because he proud of them because he thinks it’s hilarious to watch people get pissed off at him for pretending not to know who they are and then turning around and posting a picture of himself at their games or on their annual vacations.
And when Kevin signs with the team that’s located in the same city that Aaron’s in they start hanging out all the time. They’ll go out to a bar and his classmates are shocked that this kid from their anatomy class is taking shots with Kevin Day. Aaron will just ask them “who” when they confront him and immediately turn back to Kevin to continue their conversation.
Idk just something about Aaron being this random med school kid with 3 of the best professional Exy players trailing him is my favorite thing. Also him being proud of his foxes and showing it in his own asshole way
Aaron may not have an eidetic memory like Andrew does but he has a damn good one and he can remember anything he puts even the smallest amount of effort into remembering.
After everything that happened in Baltimore Aaron starts to note every small possibly important (and unimportant) medical fact about the foxes. And he’s not even totally conscious he’s doing it.
He consciously remembers Andrew and Nicky’s blood types. He knows Nicky’s allergic to penicillin and he knows Andrew doesn’t react well to doctors so it’s best for everyone if he can be administered some kind of sedative right away.
And then he thinks he should probably know this stuff for Kevin, and begrudgingly Neil, because they’re part of his strange little family that Andrew’s created. So he quickly and easily finds this information on them (because he’s a Minyard and he just knows how to find the things he needs to know). So he knows their blood types and he knows Kevin still feels residual pain in his left hand but doesn’t show it and try’s to ignore it. He knows Neil heals annoyingly quick from his all too common injuries but he also knows he aggravates those injuries easily by pushing himself too soon.
But it doesn’t stop there, there’s a small itch in the back of his head driving him to find out the important medical facts about the rest of the foxes. So he allows himself to remember their blood types and allergens and tells himself he needs to know incase of an emergency.
But he also notices that Matt has a high tolerance to pain medication whenever he’s being treated by Abby for an injury during practice or a game. And he notes the one type that works for him and keeps multiple bottles on him and in their room. (It’s also the only type that works for Kevin and works best for Neil so he stocks their room with it too)
And he notices that Allison is a slight germaphobe and applies hand sanitizer anytime she has to touch a public door handle or they go out to eat. So he opens as many doors for her as he can despite the confused look he gives her every time and he just glares right back at her. He keeps an extra mini bottle of hand sanitizer in his backpack for her as well and silently passes it to her when she’s forgotten hers.
He notices Dans chronic knee and lower back pain that Abby is constantly treating and how there’s always a rotating rainbow of colorful KT Tape on her. So he keeps an eye on Abby’s stock of tape and when a color is running low he casually mentions it to her to order more and then walks away.
He notices how Renee always picks at the scabs on her knuckles that result from her sparring with Andrew. He figures the wraps she has are getting old and silently leaves a new pair on the counter the next time he’s in the girls dorm, along with a box of bandaids and a tube of antiseptic ointment. He leaves a matching set of supplies in Andrew’s dorm as well just to be safe.
He doesn’t consciously realize that what he’s doing is protecting and taking care of the Foxes. But the others catch on and smile fondly at him because he’s letting himself care for them and become part of their family.
And the one time Dan mentions what he’s doing for them he looks at her like she’s crazy. He tells himself, and her, that that’s not what he’s doing, he’s just a future doctor and someone needs to take care of these injury prone idiot athletes and no one else besides him and Abby are going to do it right.
Aaron would definitely be so observant and acutely aware of the Foxes physical well beings despite him insisting he doesn’t care and hates them all. But he basically becomes Abby’s right hand man and teams second nurse because it’s good practice for his future and he knows them.
My Aaron Minyard headcanons that float around in my head all day every day and I need to write down before I forget them.
1. He is a mf with chronic migraines and he will let everyone know it and he will use it as an excuse to be an asshole.
2. He for sure wears Nike Blazers Mid 77s and baggy tops with baggy bottoms. And he’s a neutral/earth tones kinda person.
3. He is constantly cold and once again will let every know about it and bitch about it at least once a day. (It’s actually multiple times a day)
4. He will bitch about his course work and talk about dropping out at least once a week but you’ll catch him dead before you catch him ditching class.
5. He skateboards and he finds it fun but he also does it because he enjoys watching Kevin freak out about him potentially falling and hurting himself and fucking the team over.
Twinyard portraits on the Foxes photo wall
Gonna draw the rest of the Foxes portraits as well at some point
Something something Kevin being broad enough to completely cover Aaron so when they’re making out on the couch in the dorm and Matt unexpectedly walks in he doesn’t even realize it’s Aaron underneath Kevin and just quickly ducks into the bedroom something something like that
My kevaaron demons are telling me Kevin often comes to practice with his raging red scratch marks covering his back and Aaron sometimes has bruises on his waist and hips that look a lot like fingertips in the shape of a hand
this is the real redraw I wanted to do, I never liked how Aaron (or the other mini-monsters tbh) looked so the best choice for his design was to scrap it and start over. I also wanted to connect him more with Andrew's design and give him a better 'defense' vibe because he's...a backliner..so: better armor, a hitting stick, more snakes, and a shared color palette
Andrew
Defending Aaron Minyard on the internet isn’t enough I need to be Andrew Minyard
To me, it's fascinating how hell-bent Andrew is about protecting his people; people he didn't even know about for half his life. He gave up Cass - the one good thing he thought he could have - in a second when he found out about Aaron. He moved in with Nicky; a strange, older man who he had never met before, because Nicky could give a home to his brother (tbh I don't think Andrew even thought about himself in that scenario). He took in Kevin, and later on, Neil. And all that for what? For someone to keep near, someone to see him as useful, as important. Someone to give him purpose.
Oh right, this was supposed to be a question. Thoughts?
Oooooo honestly that’s a really great question! My memory of the exact timeline might be a bit all over the place so I could be wrong or misremembering, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with Andrew immediately suspecting that their bio mom (Tilda I think her name was?) was abusing Aaron.
I think there’s a possibility that Andrew was able to see parts of himself in Aaron, no matter how much he might deny it.
I think that, for the first time, Andrew met someone who was at least somewhat familiar with the pain he himself had endured and decided that keeping Aaron safe above all else, was more important than his possible future with Cass. The fact that they were brothers probably added to that sentiment, but Andrew would’ve probably made the same decision even if they weren’t.
And from there Andrew attempted to carve out a home for himself surrounded by the people he chose to let in.
Maybe during that time he started to understand that he could have some semblance of a family without Cass, without having to endure what he did in order to keep her. Maybe he was so determined to keep his chosen family that he felt he needed to prove his worth in order to make them stay?
Sorry this got kinda long but I really enjoyed thinking of an answer for this! :DD
As I’m reading tsc I find it so funny how Wymack gave Jean an envelope of money and was like “Please…I beg of you…buy literally ANYTHING to wear that isn’t like, a couple outfits you infinitely cycle through I’m NOT doing this again.”
He is so real for that LMAO he already has his hands full with the foxes (which include ex mafia kids, twins with at least one murder each under their belts, etc.)
I hope he gets to take a long vacation after what he’s been putting up with, it’s what he DESERVES.
Does Katelyn ever get described in the aftg books?? Cuz I keep seeing her being depicted in fanart as basically like, the female version of Neil. The idea of the twinyards basically having the same type is SO funny to me
Like whether or not it’s actually canon or just something the fandom has agreed on it’s still so hilarious to me. Poor Aaron wouldn’t be able to handle that realisation
Though it does make sense considering that Neil “unreliable narrator” Josten was probably too busy thinking about Andrew to even register what Katelyn looked like LMAO