#the Moriyamas really know how to invest

[deadliestpieceontheboard]

if you're writing a modern au you must consider inflation neil might've costed 5 million in 1998 but today thats more like 9M please don't undervalue the child stock market like that

[jtl-fics]

ANOTHER BONUS IDEA

FF ends up accidentally becoming a really good baker

Neil (and Andrew) fund him into opening his own bakery

The Moriyamas see how much money is going into this bakery and accidentally think it’s actually another one of their business fronts. So it does become a business front. FF has no idea, but he ends up actually catering many mafia events, but yet feels more at ease/less likely to be killed at these than he does when Andreil are around. He thinks everyone is method acting or something (like they’re practicing special effects for movies)

It'd be after FF realizes that Andrew wants to be actual honest-to-goodness friends and has never thought about strapping each of his limbs to four Maserati bumpers and having them all take off in separate directions.

Ichirou comes to see his investment's investment and it ends up becoming his favorite spot to stop and get a baked treat in the morning. The owner / baker is really professional, doesn't react to any of the Mafia shit that he sees so he knows how to keep his mouth shut, yeah Ichirou thinks he has developed a nice friendship this Smith guy.

MEANWHILE:

FF after handing off the blueberry turnover to Ichirou and heading to the back.

"GRANDMA THE MOB WANTS ME TO PAY PROTECTION MONEY BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT IT."

The snake consumes its own tail. The cycle begins anew.

[fluttersae]

random knb headcanons bcs i want another season asap!

- idc what anyone says but i feel like kise is so narcissistic anytime he sees himself on a magazine cover or page he’d shove it right in front of people and be like “hey did you know that’s me?” “that’s me on the cover!” “i think you should buy this bcs im in there!” then kasamatsu slaps him.

- himuro would pin all the fanmail or love letters he’d gotten and put them over his wall just because he likes knowing he’s appreciated

- i feel like takao can just never keep a part time job. like he’d be bouncing between so many because he just manages to make a mistake. like he’d accidentally spill the drink when giving the customer their meal or just play around to much.

- kise would SO be into kids shows. like miraculous ladybug, my little pony, etc because he’s so “invested” in what happens next.

- i don’t know why but momoi would win first place in a science fair. don’t ask.

- imayoshi would be weirdly obsessed with yandere simulator because he can just kill anyone he wants in that game, and he’s just oddly attached to it

- when izuki wakes up the first thing he does is tell a cheesy joke to himself in the mirror, run his hands through his hair and be like “what an attractive funny guy you are,” with the finger guns.

- aomine definitely gets mad easily so because of this he has so many holes in his walls because he can’t control his anger

- izuki and takao would end up having a joke-off. which would end up in an argument between shutoku and seirin.

- mitobe works at a bookstore.

- kuroko would have this huge photo wall of pictures of him with the GOM and his friends in general that he’d have momoi print out

- wakamatsu listens to that good ole country music 😭.

- sakurai is really good at video games that involve first person shooting, but it would get really annoying how much times he says sorry. (love my boy sakurai still)

- moriyama is on SO SO SO MANY dating apps but for some reason he never gets a match with the girls he wanted.

- (adding to that) the boys of kaijo would set up a fake profile and pull a catfish, kise definitely conducted the idea, kasamatsu just went along with it.

- hanamiya says “no way jose”. don’t even try to argue with me on this.

- imayoshi doesn’t sleep. like his eyes are peeled open 24/7 at ALL times.

- midorima sets an alarm every hour to drink a cup of water because it’s quote unquote “healthy”

- takao would make such a big fuss about not being the first to sleep at a sleepover then ends up sleeping first and getting pranked.

- in every single room, murasakibara has some sort of food containers so he never gets hungry.

- i actually don’t know why but akashi has this like obsession with collecting older jewelry that has a possibility of being cursed.

- momoi has a bunch of stuffed animals and named them after every knb basketball member, and sleeps with tetsu’s every night.

- teppei is actually a metal/ hard rock fan.

[andreilslovechild]

Blood Red

hey guys I'm back. It's time to post another AU out of the blue there's some Nathan backstory for y'all

Nathan was not born into the Moriyama's debt

he grew up in Baltimore under 2 Polish immigrant parents who were too busy trying to survive in the capitalist arena that is America to feel anything but discontent for their son

His father ran a butcher shop and his mother was a secretary at a failing business

his father's shop was where he first learned to slaughter

where he first got used to the weight of a knife in his hand

the first time he transferred that knowledge to a human he was 19

one of the part-time workers at the shop was slacking off, and frankly pissing him off

so he followed him home after close

cornered him in a dark alley

and before he knew it, he had been killed with a butcher's quick precision

he hid the body in a dumpster and that was that

but he liked it

and so he tried again

with a stranger this time

and then again

and again

and again

and people began to take notice

papers began to write about the murders

and Nathan's moniker was born

but Nathan was inexperienced in clean-up

and so it was only a matter of time before he got caught

but he was lucky

oh so lucky

because the people who found him first were under Kengo's payroll

and he had taken an interest in the young butcher

and so Nathan was given a choice

go to jail and pay for his crimes, or come work for Kengo and get rid of whoever hes told to

it was an easy choice

it starts off small

he only does a couple jobs

but hes good

and so quickly he begins to rise the ranks

he's 22 by the time Kengo appoints him to be his right-hand

and then he starts to really work

on top of doing Kengo's bidding, he starts to learn business

and stock market

where when and how to invest

and his fortune slowly grows

allowing him to buy a large house on the outskirts of Baltimore

and to hire staff who are trustworthy

they know what will happen if they anger him

and then slowly his life comes together

he gets to kill as he wishes

he gathers a loyal crew of people to help clean up and protect him

his public image has never been better

he finds a wife

has a son

and everything is perfect

until it isn't

[aftgficrec]

@deathdorito said: For Raven Neil enjoyers i recomend Innominate by Major_816 - Neil starts off as a raven and from there he makes it to the foxes and alll that jazz

‘Innominate’ opens with Nathaniel Wesninski inhabiting his Alex persona, but not on the run like you might expect. He’s actually on the prowl. His eyes are butcher blue and his blond wig itches. The short while he’ll spend as Alex doesn’t justify a bleach job this time. He’s a friendly guy with photos of his hotel-industry family, unshakable documentation, known dietary preferences, and mannerisms practiced and polished down to a heartthrob smile that’s bigger on the left side.

Nathaniel’s hierarchy of loyalty puts Ichirou Moriyama and Jean Moreau at the top. Ichirou is favorite son and next in line to lead his family’s crime syndicate. Jean was sold to the Moriyamas as a child. Together they are family; brothers forged in blood. Only they and one other know him as Abram, his core identity that he’s fought to hold through a grizzly childhood as both carved and carver. Abram’s been terrorized and trained his whole life by his father, the Butcher of Baltimore, a bloody enforcer for the Moriyamas. The Family holds Abram’s second tier of loyalty with the noted exception being his machinations to disempower and kill their Butcher.

Abram is richly detailed, fractured and complex; plagued with debilitating nightmares and flashbacks, determined to hold on to his humanity but sometimes losing himself entirely to a persona more lethal than the Butcher who raised him. Now he’s been tasked to go deep undercover to shore up problems in the world of college exy where the Family has a vested interest. Jean has been undercover with Edgar Allan University’s team for 3 years. He reports on the Family’s weak link, lesser son Riko Moriyama. As Riko grows increasingly violent and unhinged, Jean gets quieter. Ichirou and Abram know something is wrong. To them Jean is a brother. To Riko he is property, a convenient target for abuse.

As Neil Josten, Abram’s mission is to infiltrate Palmetto State’s underdog exy team, to work out exactly what Riko is doing to Jean and extract him if need be, and to decide if Palmetto’s newly acquired star player Kevin Day is a loose end better off dead. As Day rebounds from a near career-ending secret attack by Riko, he remains a target for the lesser brother’s jealous rage that threatens to bring unwanted attention to the Family. Abram’s also determined to unravel what power beyond Riko tampered with goalie Andrew Minyard’s medical and psychiatric records and swayed a court to keep him medicated out of his mind. He needs to keep Andrew from looking too closely at the house of cards underpinning the identity of unknown exy prodigy Neil Josten, despite their eyes locking time and time again and the unshakeable feeling that they are somehow the same.

Ichirou is humanized and emotive; married with a baby on the way, protective of his chosen brothers, concerned for his father’s failing health, not quite ready to wear the crown. Jean fought back as a child and Abram suffered for it. What hurts is he hiding now? How will the brothers bring down the Butcher? Buckle up for the ride, y’all. I highly recommend investing in this story if you can handle the trauma and violence, it’s shaping up to be a stunner. Thanks very much for the rec! - A

Innominate by Major_816 [Rated E, 73397 words, Incomplete, Updated September 2021]

An AU where Mary never got Nathaniel out. Instead, he became too invaluable of an asset to be killed off or 'gifted' to Tetsuji. Instead, he's raised with Ichirou and Jean as a part of Ichirou's inner circle.

He'd always had a knack for languages and lying and all the 'messy stuff' came easily enough when your father is called the Butcher of Baltimore. So Nathaniel became the Wraith. He was untraceable, unknowable, infalliable; a criminal fairytale.

When Kevin Day leaves the Nest, there's no better person to send.

~

"Who the hell are you?" Andrew demanded.

He wasn't anyone, not really; not anymore. He hadn't really been anyone in years now. There'd been a time. Once. But there were entire lifetimes between who he could have been and what he'd become. He could taste it sometimes; blackberries and sand stinging his tongue like the iron branded on his shoulder.

It was easier to pretend he'd never been anyone at all.

"I'm nothing," he answered. the ghost of a smile pulled at his lips; sharp and cruel. "A wraith." The Wraith, he didn't say, but the shadows ran through Adnrew's eyes and he wondered if Andrew had heard it anyways.

tw: graphic depictions of violence, tw: graphic nightmares, tw: implied/referenced torture, tw: blood/gore, tw: referenced flaying, tw: graphic description of corpses, tw: murder, tw: canonical character death, tw: flashbacks, tw: victim blaming, tw: panic attacks, tw: child abuse, tw: abuse, tw: nonconsensual drug use, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: kidnapping, tw: alcohol, tw: dissociation

NB: There are also bonus scenes for this fic!

adj. not named or classified by Major_816 [Not Rated, 11267 words, Incomplete, Updated September 2021]

Bonus Scenes and alternate POVs from Innominate; including previous missions of the Four Horsemen, Abram as a kid, lots of foreign countries, and a lot of chaos.

tw: drugs, tw: nonconsensual drug use, tw: kidnapping, tw: panic attacks, tw: violence, tw: murder, tw: torture, tw: child abuse, tw: child trafficking, tw: animal abuse & death, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: gun violence, tw: knife violence, tw: blood

[writingpuddle]

The other night best friend and I (yes, that best friend) were riffing on trans Neil headcanons over the phone, but a realistic trans treatment of aftg gets dark real fast, so without further ado:

~The Mafia May Be Sexist (But It’s Not Transphobic!) AU ~

(tmmbsbintau, if you will)

Does this premise make sense? No, but if Nora can write about made up mafia sports, I can write a nonsense AU where transphobia doesn’t exist okay this is my party and ill be self-indulgent if i want to

We open with baby Neil, who was named after his maternal grandmother or smthg idk

Now lets say Neil is one of those “I always knew I was trans” kids

So even at a fairly young age he was like, nope this is wrong

For the most part his dad basically ignores him (what use is a girl to me???) but if he makes the mistake of getting in the way it’s the usual shit with knives and hot irons and basically Neil’s bog-standard Traumatic Childhood

His mom signs him up to play Exy to get him out of the house, and he loves it, because of course he does

Now tiny Neil may be terrified of his father

But remember transphobia isn’t real

So he when he’s about ten years old he tells his parents over dinner

His mom just puts her fork down and says that’s alright

But Nathan

Nathan

Nathan’s eyes start to glow

He has a son? Not a useless daughter?

He’s practically levitating with glee

And Neil, poor Neil, who has never had any positive reinforcement—from either parent, Mary, you’re not innocent in this—he soaks it up

Nathan puts both hands on his son’s—his son’s!—shoulders and dubs him Nathaniel

His son, his heir, his legacy

Mary takes one look at the possessive look in her husband’s eyes and thinks oh hell no

For the next few days Nathan absolutely showers Nathaniel with affection

He takes him to the hairdresser and buys him a whole new wardrobe, neglecting his mafia duties in order to dote upon his new son

It is possibly the happiest week of Nathaniel’s life

And then he wakes up in the night with his mother’s hand on his mouth and is given less than a minute to pack his things

Now he’s grown up in a criminal household; the notion of making a run for it isn’t exactly foreign to him

But it’s not until they’re in the car that Nathaniel realizes that his father is nowhere to be seen

Where’s dad? He asks

Shut up, his mother hisses, and slams the car into gear

From then on, he is never Nathaniel

His mother is 100% on board with his transition, but…not really anything beyond that

After all, people will be looking for a woman and a trans boy, which means Mary’s investment in Neil’s gender pretty much starts and ends with him passing as cis

She gets him all the medical treatments he needs (on the black market, since they’re on the run)—puberty blockers when he’s younger, testosterone when he’s older

But he’s never allowed to acknowledge being trans whatsoever

Not to his classmates, not to his teachers

He never gets the chance to have a queer community, or explore the nuances of his gender, because the only presentation they can afford for him to have is Masculine Cis Boy. The restriction is stifling. It’s suffocating.

Neil hates her for it

His life was, so briefly, perfect

He had his father’s love and approval for a day, a week, and he is both old enough to remember his father’s cruelty and young enough to believe that it could end

Nathan is incandescent

When he realizes what Mary has done he goes to the Moriyamas in a storm of fury

She stole my SON! He bellows

Now the Moriyama’s didn’t particularly care about Neil back when they thought he was a girl

Girls in the mafia are basically just for child-rearing, so he wasn’t a threat

So once they figure out what Nathan is talking about (this takes a sec, owing to Nathan having not previously gotten around to telling them about Nathaniel’s revelation), their first thought is that look, we might do the nepotism thing here in our family, but underlings don’t get to do the nepotism thing. Sorry, them’s the breaks

Obviously, Mary has to die—nobody’s disputing that, a woman who robbed her husband and stole his son? Only death will right that wrong—but Kengo tells Nathan that he’ll help find Nathaniel on the condition that he’s given to the Ravens upon capture

Nathan is utterly confident that his son—his son!—will perform admirably. He accepts the deal without a second thought

So they’re on the run for years and years, and Neil’s resentment towards his mother festers, but he never acts out too much, and he doesn’t contact his father

He almost does a couple times, but then he presses his hand to the iron scar on his shoulder and he can’t quite make himself go through with it

He’s sixteen when Nathan catches up with them in Seattle

There’s a shootout and Mary and Neil almost get away

But

Nathan arrives

Nathaniel! He shouts. My boy!

And Neil lurches to a stop

There is his father, walking towards him, his eyes still shining with the same fierce love and pride from when he was ten

Nathaniel, his father says. Hasn’t this gone on long enough?

Come home.

Mary is trying to drag Neil away, but he’s too fixated on his father

Can I? Neil asks. Can I really?

Of course, Nathan says. Everything is forgiven. I’ve even secured you a place on the Ravens. Didn’t you always love Exy? Come home with me, Nathaniel

Neil can barely believe it. His father is offering him everything he ever wanted. His mother has been keeping him from this, his whole life?

Why would they run?

And through this whole exchange Nathan has been getting closer, and Mary is pulling Neil back, and now he’s close enough to touch and the sound she makes is like something physical tears when she finally releases Neil and tries to flee

She isn’t fast enough

Nathan’s grin is as wide as the sun when his cleaver bites into Mary’s waist

Blood pours out

Neil screams

Mary clutches her side, staggering away, but it’s obvious she won’t make it far

Dad, no, Neil says. Don’t—

Shh, his father says. Don’t be afraid. She kept us apart all these years. She deserves to die.

And Neil—

Neil has hated his mother for most of his life

But he looks at the woman who has struggled so long to protect him—who has failed as often as she succeeded, but who fought anyway, everyday—and the man whose eyes are bright with glee at her pain

And he makes a choice

He only has a split second to see the betrayal in his father’s eyes before the pipe in his hand slams into his head and he pitches forward, unconscious

Neil does not wait to see if he survives

He grabs his mother and they run, her arm locked on his shoulder and her palm pressed to the wound on her side

Neil puts her in the passenger seat and jumps in, throwing the car in gear

You need a hospital, he says, frantic

No, she hisses, pinning a towel to her side. No hospitals

Guilt floods through him as he looks at her pale face

Sticky red handprints smear on everything she touches

I’m sorry, mom, he says, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry—

Enough, she says. Drive

He drives

He drives, and drives, and he follows her instructions, and later he wouldn’t have been able to say if he actually thought she would survive; he believed it, because he had to, because he had never been without her; he knew better, because gut wounds are slow, but they are inexorable

He parks on the beach and there are tears pushing at his eyelids but he chokes them down

I’m sorry, he said, I never should have believed him. I’m sorry—

You never would have been enough for him, she says, and Neil flinches

Her hand finds his chin and she yanks him down to meet her eyes, her gaze fierce.

He never loved you, she says. He would have made you in his image, and when you failed he would have torn you apart. I would not—I would not watch him try to make my son a monster. Don’t—don’t waste it

Mom, what are you saying—

Promise me, she says

Promise you won’t go back to him

She is dying

Neil can’t refuse

He promises

She releases his face and her red fingerprints on his face burn like brands. He can feel them hours after the tears wash the blood away.

Her last few breaths are jagged as broken stones before she rattles to a stop, and Neil is alone

He burns her body and staggers out onto the road and he keeps moving, he keeps moving, because he knows if he stops he’ll shatter

His hesitation has cost him his mother’s life

But his action costs him his fathers love

In one blow, Neil broke the golden image Nathan had of his perfect son, and now all Nathan wants is to destroy him

He finds his way to Millport almost on instinct alone

He finds one of Mary’s contacts who can supply him with the hormones he needs to continue passing and squats in an empty house and speaks to none of his classmates

When the Exy team tryouts are announced, he goes, intending to only watch from a distance

Perhaps it is inevitable he’s sucked in

There is so little light in his life

Can he be forgiven for wanting one little spark?

The Foxes come for him in May, and Kevin doesn’t recognize him, because how would he? Even if they met as kids, Kevin never saw Neil post-transition

Wymack ends up telling him something about Kevin’s past and the truth about the Ravens, and Neil pales a little bit, remembering how his father had said he’d gotten Neil a place on their line-up and finally understanding why

And sometimes he looks at Kevin with blinding jealousy for the life Neil didn’t get to have, and sometimes he sees him nearly comatose with fear and drinking vodka like it’s water, and his stomach hurts thinking how cheerfully his father would have consigned him to the same fate

So canon proceeds and Neil still bitches Riko out on live TV, and Riko still manages to acquire Neil’s fingerprints

And would you believe that? The Foxes mouthy new rookie is [deadname], Nathan Wesninski’s brat?

Well, well, well

At the banquet Riko pokes and prods until Neil finally snaps, and as Dan drags the team away from the wreckage Jean grabs Neil’s arm and says, low and fast in French, You’ll meet with us later

Why the fuck would I do that? Neil demands

Because otherwise everyone will find out that the Butcher is your father

Neil can’t hide his flinch and Kevin’s eyes go wide

They flee the scene, but before they even reach Coach, Kevin is already rounding on Neil

Is it true? He croaks

Not now, Neil says

But Kevin reads confirmation in Neil’s deflection

I didn’t know [deadname] had a brother, he says

Now here is the thing

Names are obviously a touchy subject with a lot of trans people, and certainly with Neil in particular

But with everything that just happened, Neil is a bit preoccupied, and it’s been a long time since he’s associated himself with that name

Since before he stopped using it, truthfully

And so his response is out of his mouth before he can even think twice

“Who?”

Kevin nods seriously, because he is wise to the ways of mafia bosses, and it’s not exactly shocking that Nathan Wesninski had a mistress and a secret second child, especially considering his first child had been a girl

It’s several moments before Neil puts two and two together and realizes that he has inadvertently slipped through a perfect loophole

He’s failed his mother so many times, but at least this secret is still safe, and he clings to that

Neil’s gender doesn’t really affect his interpersonal relationships with the Foxes—he’s already changing out separately, so this isn’t even a whole other thing

It’s harder to hide his testosterone when he’s living in shared dorms, but he has everything in the safe and figures out the safest schedule to open it up when he’s sure Matt will be in class

Andrew finds out when they start hooking up

But remember transphobia isn’t real so it’s sort of more like Andrew goes to undo his pants and is like wait your dick is removeable? Okay.

And then he just gets on with it

So Binghamton and Baltimore happen as canon, and if Neil had ever harboured hopes that his father would forgive him and love him again, they’re broken for good when his father stalks in and sees him shivering and just grins

It is the smile of someone who has torn someone off a pedestal and is going to enjoy reducing them to dust

Nevermind that Nathan had been the one to put him on that pedestal in the first place

Stuart deus-ex-machinas us out of the maws of death and we end up back in that classic Baltimore scene with the Foxes, and they still claim him, and they still take him home

He tells them all about his mafia father and life on the run, and it doesn’t really click until later that he forgot to mention the trans thing

Not like he, you know, has to tell them, and being trans is hardly an issue in Exy since it’s co-ed, but it would probably be nice to see a real doctor instead of keep buying his hormones illegally

And moreover, he wants the Foxes to know him

So they hit the cabin in the mountains and everyone knows Neil doesn’t drink, but when Andrew pours him a shot, he takes it

Ooh, Nicky says, Is Neil about to start spilling his secrets?

Allison snorts. What secrets does he have left?

Uh, Neil says

Wait, Allison says. There’s more secrets????

Yeah, he says. Um, I’m trans

There’s a pause

Well, that’s no good, Allison said. We didn’t have a bet going on that

Everyone laughs, and Neil smiles, and he looks at the sunset and remembers his mother, and he remembers a life filled with hiding, and secrets, and loneliness

Bats swoop in the twilight beyond the cabin, and he turns towards the warmth and light inside, and he does not look back

[professionalfangirl24601]

An Au where Andrew is a Raven and Riko is a Fox, Kevin and Neil are still Foxes. The Moriyamas are still invested in Exy. But the Ravens aren't solely their team. Also, Tetsuji doesn't exist. Just forget about him.

The Moriyamas adopted Andrew to create the image of kind successful businessmen who saved a poor orphan from the foster system. All the while they still treat Riko like he doesn't exist. They also used Andrew's young age to their advantage in crimes.

Andrew met Aaron and Nicky the same way, but he decided to distance himself from them, so they don't get dragged into the mafia like him. He pulled some strings to get Tilda killed, though.

Jean plays for the Trojans from the start. And all four of them are expected to give 80% of their future salary to the Moriyamas.

The fic follows Neil's first year of college. Riko plays nice and manipulates people to hide his true colors, so the other Foxes get along with him relatively well, he's like an upperclassman on the outside.

Andrew, on the other hand, does the exact opposite. He doesn't hide his personality, more, he makes himself seem scarier than he really is, so people will fear him and he'll be safer.

The Ravens are still the biggest rival of the Foxes and they're depicted as the villains. So when Neil joins them he is told by everyone that Andrew is evil. They also tell him how the year before the Ravens had tried "stealing" Kevin from them. He believes it at first. That's the only thing he sees, after all. The Ravens really seem fixated on Kevin joining their team.

He also thinks of Riko as any of the Foxes. He feels like something is off with him but can't pinpoint what. He avoids him like he did with Renee.

The Ravens change the districts as they did in canon and the Foxes speculate that it's because they want to humiliate them. Neil absolutely roasts Andrew at the banquet. Andrew says the same thing that he did to Jean in TRK:

"Oh, points for trying, but save your breath. Here's a tip for you, okay? You can't cut down someone who's already in the gutter. You just waste your time and mine."

No one really pays attention to his words, but that's the moment Neils starts doubting how close to the truth his reputation is. Somehow they get closer (I don't really know how), and Neil gets to know him better. He still thinks that Riko is a decent human being.

That changes when Riko finds out about Neil's father and threatens him to expose his identity if he doesn't do what he tells him to. He shows his true self and Neil can do nothing about it. He also finds out that Riko'd been abusing Kevin the entire time. He threatened to kill Wymack to control him. He still breaks Kevin's hand for the same reasons and Kevin goes to the Ravens.

That tips Neil over the edge and tells Wymack that Riko is not who he seems and he's dangerous to the other Foxes. He tries not to reveal too much information about himself and why Riko can control him. He also doesn't mention that he broke Kevin's hand because he knew that Kevin was Wymack's son and Kevin hadn't told Wymack about it because he was scared of what Riko would do to him.

Wymack tells him that he knew something shady was going on with Riko but still recruited him because he's really an idealistic dreamer. He tells Neil that Riko deserved the second chance as much as any of the other Foxes did. Neil can't help himself and says that Riko broke Kevin's hand and that Kevin's Wymack's son.

Aand I'm kinda stuck here. What do you think would happen next? What would Wymack do? Or Neil, or Andrew, or anyone, really?

[exycuter]

GO OFF TELL US THE META

ok sisters get this (re: neil and kevin’s conflicting attitudes to injury and what it all Means)

firstly and foremostly i wanna stress that both neil and kevin faced a LOT of abuse/violence in their past. the infamous scene where neil (reluctantly) reveals his scars to abby is telling enough but the series is through neil’s pov—we know he’s been raised in an extremely unsafe environment because that’s the nature of his life on the run. nowhere is ‘safe’ because he doesn’t have a home. kevin’s injury is again, like neil’s scars in that it’s telling enough, but when wymack tells neil the truth about kevin’s hand he also brings up that he can tell it’s not the first time they’ve raised hands to him. there’s emphasis on kevin’s upbringing as not only ‘second’, but also a ‘pet’, as ‘property’—which is cited as why the moiryamas didn’t formally adopt kevin. they don’t see him as human.

so time and time again in the series there’s a common theme of neil saying ‘im fine’. but what i think is really interesting is that neil doesn’t ignore his injuries. he acknowledges they’re there, because we’re reading in his pov, we know they’re there/how much they hurt. the ‘im fine’ isn’t ‘im not hurt, im okay’ it’s ‘i’m hurt, but i can carry on.’ (which is. so fucking sad.) because that’s what neil’s been brought up to do! not stopping is the most important rule, the one thing that makes him spiral into panic at the thought of. if he stops, he’s dead. his mother stopped, and he burned her for it. for neil, functionality is a sliding scale where his tolerance for pain isn’t a factor. 

ok so here’s where i start losing my mind in the #parallels of it all. kevin’s attitude toward being injured is almost the polar opposite of neil’s—in his first match back, he’s cautious, he’s careful. he stops when it hurts, he wears an arm brace the next day. but kevin operated in a very strict controlled hivemind his whole life. performance (as opposed to functionality) was the biggest key. if a racehorse breaks a leg, you don’t try to heal it. you shoot the horse. his place is entirely reliant on him performing as the moriyamas investment. he fears injury so much because he knows what happens to broken parts in well oiled machines. kevin always has to be at 110%, and anything that jeopardizes that is to be absolutely avoided at all costs. 

to quote @kevnday​’s sexy hot take—neil has nothing left to lose, kevin has everything to lose. they were both subjected to horrible acts of violence, but it had entirely opposite effects- neil’s ‘im fine’/keep going no matter the cost to himself attitude is because as long as he’s still breathing, he’s winning. kevin’s fear of injury/violence is because if he stops winning, he stops breathing. 

i just think the idea that overexposure to a stimulus can decrease/increase the response to it until you have a very unhealthy under reaction (downplaying your serious injuries to ensure functionality is never compromised) or overreaction (fear/panic when injured because it interferes with your ability to perform) very interesting and says a lot about neil and kevin’s characters !! 

[foxlolpop]

My Theory On Kaleigh Day’s Death

(Not everyone in the fandom takes the extra content to heart, I certainly don’t but hang with me for bit. This is also purely a theory that the fandom can of course expand upon or ignore)

In the extra content Nora explains that Kaleigh had zero knowledge on the yakuza. That she “might have hidden her son a little bit better if she’d known”. This comment makes me wonder if Ms. Day could’ve turned into a less extreme version of Mary. It also reminds me of why Mary ran away with Little Neil: to protect him from becoming one of the Moriyamas investments and of course other things.

But even with all the running and planning they still got caught.

Furthermore, while it was Nathan chasing the duo down and not the Moriyamas this still demonstrates pretty early on in the series the dedication the mafia has to their investments. How valuable an investment is. This is further punctuated when Neil bargains for his life with Ichirou. And how did he bargain for his life? He told Ichirou about how he would go pro, bring in lots of money for the Moriyama empire, and essentially become the investment he was always meant to be.

Now that brings us back to how Neil became an investment. A deal gone sour after Mary ran or more specifically the man behind the deal: Nathan Wesninski.

Nathan is the yakuza’s hitman. Kengo’s right-hand man. His men tracked down an investment that cost them resources, time, and lots and lots of money. Neil is worth more than the millions Mary stole. He is also worth the cold hard cash the Moriyamas could’ve mooched off him with exy during the 8 years he was on the run and then some as an official Raven. Instead money, probably issued to Nathan by the Moriyamas (cause where else is he gonna to get it), is flushed down the drain in order to pinpoint Mary and Little Neil’s location.

Now that I’ve made the importance of what an investments can mean to a mafia crystal clear; let’s backpedal. Kaleigh Day.

Kaleigh Day is a cofounder of exy. She is a successful woman. And unbeknownst to her organized crime is booming because she and her college BFF (Testuji) took their class project to the next level.

She also has a kid. His name is Kevin Day and his mother built exy from the ground up. Knows the sport like the back of her hand and she’s probably taught him more than a few things. Her passion for the sport like a gene passed on to Little Kevin (doubly so because of his father but he doesn’t know that yet). They probably scrimmaged together and those are probably some of Kevin’s fondest memories. A time when he wasn’t abused. But Kaleigh and her college BFF took their class project to the next level. Kaleigh Day is a cofounder of exy and she’s taught him more than a few things.

In short, Kevin is probably very advanced in the sport and will only keep getting better as long as he keeps learning. He’s a prodigy or at the very least the makings of one and Kaleigh Day has laid down all the groundwork.

In order to continue to advance he needs to enrich his learning in the best way possible. How do we learn best, you ask? In a focused environment that “optimises the ability of students to learn.”

Without a doubt, in an incredibly twisted way, I would describe Evermore as the perfect learning environment for someone who wants to excel in exy beyond their wildest dreams. The castle also provides fear and stress and beatings that keep you line, and these are powerful motivators.

You can accomplish anything if pushed to the breaking point albeit losing pieces of yourself in the process. But this is the mafia, they don’t care about your breaking point. They see Little Kevin and they see dollar signs. They see the perfect investment and you already know how much they love their investments.

This leads us to Nathan Wesninski. The Butcher of Baltimore; a clever cover up for what’s really behind the cleaver. He takes care of somone’s problems, complications.

Kaleigh Day is definitely one of those and she just happens to be his latest assignment.

Andrew Minyard, a kid fresh from juvie, made Tilda’s death look like an accident. Why can’t a highly trained hitman do the same, maybe even do a better job? They both died in a car accident, you know.

Finally, we have Kevin again. A little kid utterly heartbroken. Grief-stricken. His mother is dead. He thinks he’s all alone in the world but like an angel sent from above Tetsuji appears. Little Kevin has probably met him before, he was his mother’s BFF and exy’s second half after all. Because of these factors Tetsuji is Kevin’s godfather.

So, Little Kevin is whisked away with the sweet promises of a friend (Riko), maybe a family, and a place that is exy, exy, exy 24/7 (exy: a way he could persevere his mother’s memory). It sounds like a dream after all that’s happened. Suddenly, the world doesn’t look so bleak anymore and he thinks that maybe, just maybe he won’t be alone after all.

Kevin does keep learning. He does keep getting better so much so that he ends up paying for it with his left hand and pieces of himself he never thought he could lose before. Kevin is also a stellar investment alongside Riko.

In The Kings’s Men Neil tells Ichirou how much Kevin was worth before Riko destroyed his hand (click the pictures for better viewing):

These numbers really emphasize how much Kevin was worth and how much the yakuza lost when they deemed him useless.

All in all, Kevin’s seven-digit net worth compenstates the loss of the beloved Kaleigh Day in more ways than one.

None of his money would have been accessible to the mafia if Kaleigh hadn’t died. Kevin probably wouldn’t have made that much money if he continued with exy by his mom’s side anyway because of the Riko & Kevin Ride-or-Die Brotherhood the Moriyamas sold to the media.

Since Tetsuji was Kaleigh’s BFF Riko and Kevin could’ve probaby still been like brothers if she had survived the accident, but I think that it wouldn’t have been as powerful as the story the Moriyamas painted: Kevin, a sad lonely orphan, being unofficially adopted into the lap of luxury, where he pursues his passion and gains a friendship (a home, a brother, a father figure, etc) to last the test of time. It’s essentially the ruins to riches trope, and it definitely dragged in more than a couple thousand.

———————————————————————

“optimises the ability of students to learn” this qoute is from this article in the first paragraph.

I used the extra content and The Foxhole Court Wikia for fact checking. My grammar is shit so sorry for any glaring mistakes.

Again, this is a theory. I dont really know if this could’ve happened, I’m just saying it’s a possibility. I love Kevin with all my heart and no shade towards his mom. She didn’t know about the mafia.

Let me know what you think <3

[theshinsun]

1. as far as im concerned Kagami never left at the end of last game, that was an extended dream sequence... 2. i also totally agree with you that Kagami is prolly vers, if anything, and it was also MY PET PEEVE when people pinholed him into being a forever bottom at the peak of knb hype. 3. you keep teasing your long list of ships for Aomine PLEASE do him for the character thing lol. So far all your opinions are sending me into a realm of GOOD VALID VIBES

Omg thank you!! (I agree end of Last Game is not canon… or if it is he came right back the next year or smth I refuse to accept he just left forever. And I’m really glad to see the problem of Uke™ Kagami seems to be in decline these days… fewer people are writing for knb in general, but those that are seem to have an idea what a real gay relationship is or at least make him a fucking person and not a walking stereotype, and that’s encouraging to see). 

Also thanks so much for sending Aomine! …Strap in for this character essay tho I’ve been known to never shut up about this boy once you get me started.

How I feel about this character

I honestly… can’t even explain it anymore or even try to justify it but Aomine has had a bigger impact on me than, I think, any other character I’ve seen to date. I don’t even know what it is, I do relate to him (and project on him *cough*) but like, there are other characters out there that I have more in common with, and I like his whole arc and aesthetic but it’s nothing revolutionary, so… your guess is as good as mine. 

Whatever it is, I’ve been obsessed with this guy for over half a decade, and lately even as the KNB fandom falls into decline, my feelings are not they’re just getting stronger. His development over the course of the series is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever seen, (that one bit at the end of the Touou/Seirin game with “I want to practice” and his later conversation with Kuroko hit me in the fucking chest every time), and I love how even though he’s portrayed as cold, uncaring and rude, it’s still understood (at least by anyone with some nuance) that that’s not what he’s supposed to be like, and underneath the distant, kind of dickish front, he’s hurting a lot. I’ve talked about the degree to which he cares about people before too, but I still have to give a mention to the ferocious level of protectiveness this guy has for his friends. I could go on about him for ages, tbh, and maybe someday I will write a for-real structured essay to try to get it out there, but the bottom line is I love this character, I have for a long time, and likely will continue to do so long into the future.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Okay here we go… I ship this guy extremely liberally, even with people he’s never interacted with (hell you could mention any random character and I could probably see my way clear to shipping them with him somehow, I’ll still try to explain my logic if I can). Prepare yourself.

Kagami (of course, AoKaga is the OTP and definitely the one I’ve devoted the most time to, they’re just the best together I’ll never get tired of seeing them figure their shit out over and over)

Kuroko (I may be AoKaga on main, but I’m still such a sucker for the tragic romance between these two, and sometimes it just hits me over the head like a sledgehammer how much I love their relationship. I’ve also got a lot of feelings for AoKagaKuro, they’re such a perfect trio and I need to invest more of my time in the OT3)

Kise (I was a bit late to the game on AoKise, but I definitely see it now. I love their dynamic and how imperfect their relationship would probably be, the complexity of it. sign me up)

Momoi (I don’t see a lot of AoMomo love anymore, but I’ve still got a soft spot for it, childhood friends are my weakness okay)

Midorima (they’re so different but that’s what makes it interesting, and I love the idea of neither of them knowing how to show/tell the other their feelings and being awkward stubborn shits together)

Murasakibara (they almost never interact but I just think they’d have such a soft cuddly relationship and be really chill together… lazy Sunday mornings sleeping in and hanging all over each other that kinda thing)

Akashi (kinda same as Akashi/Kagami, I think the difference between polished upper-class Akashi and scrappy city boy Aomine would be hella interesting… though I’ve also got some angst ideas for them as a couple, after how things went down at Teiko… abandonment and whatnot)

Imayoshi (I got pulled into this ship HARD by Lysapadin’s A Firm Hand series and now it’s no longer a guilty pleasure ship and is actually something I’ll talk about in the open, just… the power dynamic fuck me up)

Sakurai (I fuckin love the idea of an anxious Sakurai crushing hard on Aomine and not knowing how to tell him but when he finally plucks up the courage and prepares himself for imminent death Aomine’s actually pretty chill about it… plus they’d be adorable together tbh)

Wakamastu (you know it’s gotta be enemies to lovers. not just bc I’m intrigued by the love/hate relationship itself but if you look past the attitude issues these two would actually probably have a lot in common. also I’m really interested in how their dynamic might change with Wakamatsu being captain and all)

Susa (idk but there’s one throwaway line in season 3 where Imayoshi says about Aomine “actually maybe he likes you” and that’s enough for me. bring me the rarest rarepair my body is ready)

Kasamatsu (it wasn’t supposed to be SERIOUS but they got me. That moment in the Touou/Kaijo game where Aomine helps him up and “you’ve really done it now, senpai” is legit, plus these two would be such a good-looking couple, honestly.)

Mibuchi (give me the pretty boys. I have no excuse for this except maybe their interactions in my own damn fic again)

Nebuya (sometimes shipping can be as simple as hey I want them to bang right. also they’re both humongous dorks under their respective rough exteriors and I love them)

Moriyama (they bond over liking girls at first and then they’re simultaneously like wait a minute… more Touou/Kaijo ships pls)

Nijimura (I have this idea of them reuniting late into/after high school and Aomine still calls him captain out of habit and Nijimura’s like relieved and impressed to see how he’s developed since the mess at Teiko)

Himuro (they Never interact but they’d be so Petty and Snarky sign me up)

Haizaki (twisted, but I’m interested it’d be so unhealthy and awful bring it)

Hanamiya (even more twisted tbh but there is that moment where Aomine confronts him… and I’m here for hate sex just as much as your typical romance)

Inoue (who, you ask? I know he’s such a side character and no one remembers him, but he’s a big reason for Aomine’s downfall at Teiko and they seemed to be buddies before that, I’d be interested in some kind of reconciliation between them, or a romance, ya know whatever works)

And then we get into crossover territory… MOST of these are not my fault they’re just things I’ve seen and adopted for myself

Kuroo Tetsurou (someone made a moodboard for them, and now I can’t stop thinking about them in a relationship, like damn… it’d be such a beautiful mess I wanna see more of it)

Oikawa Tooru (I’ve seen art, and also the light. These two damaged angsty prodigies, one sharp as a whip the other dumb as bricks, but both of them sassy and nerdy as hell. I could see myself getting addicted to this ship if I took the time to write it out, and I just might)

Yamazaki Sousuke (can’t lie, they look good together. I’ve seen more than one art piece of them interacting and I have a Mighty Need.)

Matsuoka Rin (angry lonely talented boys finding solace in each other’s company? you know that’s my shit. also shark teeth and cop AUs hells yeah.) 

Tanaka Ryuunosuke (I don’t know where the fuck this idea came from but I thought of Tanaka trying to pick a fight with “shitty boi” Aomine while in Tokyo and then losing his shit and here we are)

Terushima Yuuji (this one is purely physical… they pretty, I have no other reason, but also this absolute fuckboy, these two would be such a train wreck and I’m here for it tbh)

Yachi Hitoka (okay picture this Giant Terrifying basketball player trying to be less giant and terrifying to tiny shy Yachi and tell me you don’t just want to see that happen. I get Legosi/Haru vibes.)

I’ll spare you the rest of the ideas I’ve tossed around, because past this point it becomes pure crack (if it hasn’t already) but you get the idea. Throw a character my way and I can probably talk myself into it that’s the power this guy has over me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My non-romantic OTP for this character

K considering the List… it shouldn’t be surprising that I also consider this person a romantic candidate, but you know when it comes to non-romantic OTP it’s gotta be Momoi. Platonic or romantic, the way she’s stuck with him all those years and his obvious protectiveness and love for her and how (even though he claims to like big tits) he never even once starts to objectify her in any way, it’s so important to me. Momoi is Aomine’s redeeming factor when he’s at his worst, and she goes to bat for him even while he’s actively trying to shake her off and still tries to protect and help him when he refuses to accept it, even when it means they fight. (Also Kuroko saying “Aomine’s probably looking for you” after their argument puts to mind Aomine running through the rain calling Momoi’s name and that is just… pure). These two have the kind of unshakable long-standing friendship that’ll probably last them the rest of their lives, and no matter what context or form it takes, I can’t get enough of it. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

I’ve harped on enough about the fandom’s portrayal of Aomine as a one-note asshole who doesn’t care before, so let’s see if I can change gears a little bit here. 

I honestly don’t agree with… the persistent idea people seem to have of Aomine being a narcissist or obsessed with himself? Like yeah, he’s self-absorbed and egotistical, no question, this is not to say he hasn’t got those flaws and others besides… but that’s not the same as being like, physically attracted to yourself. Part of me suspects it was a “the only one who can fuck me is me” joke taken too far, so that now the idea of Aomine being in love with himself is just ingrained into the fanon culture, but if you look at the show itself, personally I don’t see it. If anything, I would think he’d have some self-loathing issues to work through (and that’s part of the reason he gave for skipping practice, he doesn’t want to be the way he is, and specifically says he doesn’t want to increase the difference between him and everyone else). But hey, that’s just my opinion. I’ll get off my soapbox now.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I mean he says he and Kagami are postponing their match, after their brief one-on-one when he gives him the shoes, and then we never get to see it… Tbh just more street ball with this guy would be great, since it’s what his whole style is based around. Even if he’s just playing by himself… or hell, maybe since he thinks no one at the high school level can beat him, we could get a scene of him trying to go up against adults. Maybe he still beats them and his despair worsens after that, but then it’d have more meaning, and at least we’ll have seen that he’s tried and is not just giving up before he’s seen all of what he could be up against in the future. Plus, picturing Aomine going five-on-one like Haizaki did against grown-ups and still slaughtering them is something I’d pay money to see. 

[fallingin-like]

november 17

above the clouds by @gluupor​ [requested by @fuzzballsheltiepants]

see which other fics i’m reviewing this month! / my review request post! 

this is an absolutely amazing fic that features airships, android!neil, and fantastic world-building. it’s a really fun and adventurous read, but still contains enough angst to break your heart. if you haven’t read this yet, drop everything and read it now. if you have read it, read it again.

okay i enjoyed this fic so much that i cannot put it in words. i remember when i first read it, i always get so excited when i see that you’ve posted and i read it in an hour, the time passing by so quickly. i couldn’t pull myself away and was reluctant to go back to real life after i finished reading. all your characters are so entertaining and as always, are integrated so nicely into this au.

things that stood out to me:

”over the khazak grass plains, year 1424 new era (ne), january” i just think that this adds a lot to the story so efficiently. we have a location and time and i just feel like this sort of title/header establishes a tone (makes me feel a steampunk/sci-fi kind of vibe). i’d be interested in how you came up with which locations and years to use?

”andrew shut off the engines and revelled in the silence. he could still hear the mechanical noises that resulted from keeping the gasbag at the appropriate pressure to maintain their altitude, but it was as quiet as it got aboard an airship.” i love this, mostly because i can relate to it? i’m really used to driving with music on, but lately i’ve been turning off the radio and driving in silence which is a really interesting experience, especially since i drive an electric car for work which is really quiet most of the time. also it introduces us to the airship!

”neil would eventually man the flight deck for night watch as he didn’t require any sleep” i am immediately invested in this version of neil and want to know EVERYTHING that he is capable of doing

andrew is wearing a scarf that nicky knitted for him!!! that is adorable! both nicky doing this for andrew, but also andrew wearing it!

your description of the monster is amazing. i would love to explore it. on the ground though (i am afraid of heights and not as brave as andrew lol) i saw that you were inspired by the mortal engine series and i can definitely see aspects of this both here and in later portions of the fic although i only watched the movie which was… interesting haha. were there any other sources of inspiration? i found that this reminds me a little of the films ‘alita, battle angel’, and a little bit of ‘castle in the sky’ as well

having little glowing things in their lamps instead of fire? woah that’s so cool

”neil was futzing around inside it with a tiny screwdriver” LOVE the word futzing. i’ve not heard it before, but it feels right. also it’s kind of cute that they are all helping each other out on the ship

algae bricks and beetle bricks? do they just,,, bite into it? because that feels so chaotic to me. lol mix into water and make it into mush? i am currently very grateful for the food i have

”jealous, aaron? don’t worry; i’ll come service you once i’ve got andrew settled tonight.” NEIL, YOU’RE GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME

”’better do it in the reclaimer,’ said kevin, taking him literally. ‘we need to preserve water if we’re headed to palmetto before our next resupply.’” one of the many things that i love about your writing is your amazing characterization of mr kevin day. what a legend 

”he wasn’t entirely sure why he wasn’t telling the others about wymack’s summons; there was something about it that put him on edge and he wanted to keep it to himself for now.” oh nO this is bad news!! you did a great job of introducing this undercurrent of worry into a scene that had just been so light and funny

“‘yes, i did,’ said andrew, keeping his voice steady. ‘last week before we headed into the plains.’” my stomach dropped at this point, memory problems are always so scary because it’s so hard to tell what the source of the problem is. andrew’s calmness is directly contrasting this, but it feels like it takes effort which is even scarier!

”andrew had spent his childhood shutting down any emotions. they’d been a liability in the type of life he’d led” and ”he had been destined for a short life with a brutal end. sometimes that seemed preferable to how much caring about other people could hurt. he often cursed those responsible for how his life had changed” ahhh this is so sad, but also really soft? because he’s come so far? and he’s opened himself up and let himself be vulnerable by caring

hearing the backstory of the twins is so interesting to me, you do a great job at both establishing this world that these characters are living in and how they fit in with it

”andrew was left with little choice but to do something nice to shut him up” i think this is one of the most andrew-like sentences to be ever written haha

”by all rights he should have died in the slums, but instead-and andrew was never sure exactly how he’d done it-he’d attached himself to andrew and aaron, like a barnacle that they couldn’t remove and grudgingly came to care about” cute!!! the tone is really andrew-like too

woah all these languages are pretty cool! i like the idea of having a common trading language, and the idea of having mandonese and spanglish is interesting.

”that seedy is mine” I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THIS AT FIRST BUT THIS IS SO FUNNY. lowkey reminds me of the lego movie haha. also seems fitting of kevin to collect ancient artifacts, even if he doesn’t really know what they do

ANDREW AND AARON AS GANG LEADERS YES PLEASE. i absolutely love it when people have such a great reputation. very exciting to hear that drake is not going to be an issue in this fic!!! wait a second… andrew and aaron were 16? so small!

hmmm i am interested how kevin got stuck in shanghai?

bad news that wymack is asking neil to stay on the ship. all this mystery and hiding is making me feel like things are not looking so good

”he’d forgotten again that it was bee whom andrew wanted him to see” NOOOOO

ohmygoodness the usbee. do they pronounce it uzz-bee? because that’s definitely how i picture them saying it and it is so funny to me. 

”i informed you that people are after you because i actually care about what happens to you, you miserable little gremlin” i really can never say it enough, but i love the way you use affectionate insults like this so so much.

”’oh, you know,’ said andrew idly, ‘those that slay together slay together.’” NO BIG DEAL. 

”a nobody who got the drop on you. better luck next time” NEIL I KNOW THAT YOU REALLY CAN’T HELP IT BUT PLEASE CONTROL YOURSELF AROUND SOMEONE WHO YOU KNOW IS SO DANGEROUS

”’this time, it was eavesdropping,’ said neil brightly” he’s so enthusiastic!! cute!!

”how do you travel now?” i am also interested in this!! for all i know, he just slides through shadows and pops up wherever andrew is haha

”neil flicked his fingers dismissively. andrew’s eyes narrowed at the performance. he wasn’t this dramatic, was he?” i am very sorry to break it to you, but andrew minyard you are one of the most dramatic people ever

ooooh dang neil is good. does his android body not process poison? also where did he get the knowledge that andrew was going to be set up anyway?

”within a few hours neil had forgotten the whole conversation, but he retained the knowledge that andrew had forced him to see bee and wasn’t happy about it” noooo why is this happening, it’s so heartbreaking to see neil forgetting things (also feels extra-bad because alzheimer’s runs in my family and this could definitely be me in the future which is Scary) and i Hate when andrew and neil are fighting because andrew is just trying to take care of neil!!! ;-;

”mickey, the mouse-shaped god of old america” OHMYGOODNESS

as startling it must have been to andrew, hearing about the moriyamas previously owning neil, i’m curious what was going through neil’s mind during this conversation. it must be so disorienting, not remembering your past. all of a sudden, you just started existing

”’shoot them. escape on the monster,’ said andrew. that was their usual plan for hostility they didn’t want to deal with.” i mean, i guess that’s a pretty solid plan. LOL

ohmygoodness katelyn also having red hair and blue eyes? “andrew always pretended not to notice that he and aaron had suspiciously similar taste in people, gender notwithstanding” LOLOL

”neil’s tension was ratcheting higher the longer they stayed in the region, something which he wouldn’t explain to andrew’s satisfaction.” ahhhh we! need! better! communication! what is neil hiding?

I HATE THAT NATHAN IS GOOD AT ACTING. YOU MAKE ME WANT TO BELIEVE HIM SO BAD EVEN THOUGH I KNOW HE’S LIKE SUPER SUPER EVIL AND IS GOING TO HURT EVERYONE NEIL AND ANDREW KNOW. 

thank you andrew for knowing better and for always thinking ahead. i feel like i can really trust you to take care of neil (and you, gluupor to take care of these characters even if sometimes you break my heart while doing so)

andrew: mawp mawp mawp mawp mawp mawp (LOVE THIS)

”wymack had always said it was because andrew had a death wish but it was really just because he liked going fast” this is really cute! both in this fic and in the series, andrew is like this and he had so little enjoyment as a child, was forced to grow up so quickly, and i’m grateful that he gets to have these little things

”’’M not,’ muttered andrew, too hot to put any effort into lying” so cute!!!

”stop and take a look? sure, why not? i don’t think we’ve got anything else pressing taking up our time right now” I CANNOT GET OVER HOW FUNNY THIS FIC IS

”’old news,’ said aaron. ‘we’ve moved on. now we’ve decided to crash into the sea’” it turns out that sometimes i actually really like aaron! now is one of those times.

oh my goodness, neil speaking only spanglish and BITING. “neil spat several curses at him before literally spitting as well” the scary thing is, this is still in character for neil haha

that’s so sweet of wymack to give andrew his ship!! ahh he’s such a soft character and i’m glad that all the foxes have someone who is taking care of them

what a beautiful way to wrap up this fic! also i feel strangely glad that nathan wasn’t actually the one to invent the tech needed to create neil. he’s too gross and evil to create such an intricate and wonderful person like neil.

BURIED IN ASH FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS WHAT

WAIT VALLEY OF SILICA LOL

oh dang yellowstone supervolcano. i’ve learned a tiny tiny bit about that and it’s actually pretty scary thinking about the consequences of it erupting and also knowing there is basically nothing we can do to stop that from happening and also very little we can do to predict it

andrew and neil are so so cute ahhh

also quick shoutout to the amazing art featured in this fic! so beautiful.

i love the flashbacks that you include. they provide valuable information and understanding of how the characters have developed, but it also gives a bit of a break from the intensity of the main plot. we get a little time to breathe and recover.

as the story travelled to different areas of the world, it was really interesting to see how you included history into it. i think my favourite story was the volcano and the ash-winter that followed. kind of scary to think of the possibility of that actually happening, because even though we have pretty cool tech, i don’t think things would go well. you do such a great job with your world-building, i never found myself confused about what was happening, the geography of it, the new tech, and the politics. i loved how you were able to smoothly include canon events/characters/things and have it work so well within this au.your descriptions are so so good and make this fic really immersive, i feel like i’m experiencing them with the characters.

definitely one of my favourite things about your writing is how you consistently do such an amazing job of incorporating humour and little character quirks into the fic. it really shows how much skill and talent you have because it’s always effortless and reads so easily. it fits well with the characterization and tone of your fics. i will forever be a fan of your dialogue and all the interactions between everyone seemed so realistic.

i’m continually impressed by your consistently marvelous storytelling. you manage to captivate me no matter what subject you choose. thank you so much for writing this!!

[jtl-fics]

I love this lil scene about riko telling the suit man off and ichirou being ,, ah a moriyama does not follow others" but really riko just lil scared touch aversive, not trusting of some random older bigger guy touching his shoulder as always - i'm just here to muse but ichirou having hard time realising how broken his brother is, taking all this standoffish behaviour and aggression as sign of confidence and pride - it's all just defensive mechanism you know the way you portray ichi makes me sad because he is cold calculated and he knows how to see benefit or lack of in certain actions and relationships so without active support of deus ex machine neil riko would yet again be under pressure to be worthy of ichis affection or even just acknowledgement i think he does not even bother considering more than this as possibility i know what i like but considering the way you build his character do you think he would be able to give riko unconditional attention and time to heal or would he see it as waste of time and weakness woudl neil have to force him to it

Math Nerd AU

So right now in the moment of the suit fitting and the pending lunch Ichirou is really meeting Riko for the first time. He's evaluating him, trying to figure out if he is worth investing in. He has a very good first impression of him, standing up to Tetsuji the way he did. Still, a first impression can be wrong and Ichirou wants to know what he stands to gain and what he stands to lose with Riko as an investment of his time.

That isn't to say that there is no hope for them to reach a point where Ichirou looks at Riko and sees his little brother. Ichirou has people that he is close with in this universe (His bodyguards and right hand men that he's had and been close with since he went away to boarding school & Neil who's lack of propriety and usefulness had Ichirou giving a shit before he meant to) but Ichirou has a hard time expressing that his affection for them is affection and not just that they're useful.

It's just that useful is on the path for affection for Ichirou since he won't let himself feel that about people who aren't useful. Neil's insistence that Riko would be of use is what brought him here, Riko's unscripted resistance to Tetsuji is what got Riko in the car, and there are future events that may build towards Ichirou and Riko developing a true affectionate bond with one another but I don't think it'll ever be entirely unconditional.

If only because Ichirou would never tolerate a threat to the empire he sees as his to inherit.

[imperfectcourt]

Andreil Anastasia Au

So I was gripped by something and I wrote this on my phone. Don't look too closely at literally any detail I just was smacked in the brain by an andreil Anastasia au and it was supposed to be short but now it's a lovely, unintelligible 2.1k

So.

I mean, Neil is obviously Anastasia, and the Monsters are going to take him on a grand road trip back to his father

And Neil lost his memory when his mother died while on the run. He doesn't remember how, just that there were flames and that he needed to run change lie

He knows there are gaps in his memory and despite his instincts to flee he's filled with a desperation to be someone and he has a postcard in his duffel bag that's worn and wrinkled so much that he can't make out the words on the back but the front is a picture of an old brick house and Edgar Allen Poe and he doesn't know when he got it or why he's kept it but if Neil from Before kept it he should too

Now the monsters. They need a bargaining chip. They have Kevin. The Moriyamas want Kevin back very desperately. Have been hounding and threatening them for months.

See, they had a great investment that went missing several years ago and they can't afford to lose Kevin as well. No, that just won't do.

So Andrew strikes up a deal. If he can find their lost investment and bring him back, they can keep Kevin. One investment is better than none and reuniting a poor kidnapped boy with his poor heartbroken father would do well for their reputation after the skiing accident.

Now, this is all on Andrew. Because Andrew has a promise to keep and he's going to fucking do it. He's heard enough stories and rumors and Kevin's drunken ramblings to know about Nathaniel. The Moriyamas pass a message that he was last seen north of Seattle so that is where they monsters conveniently vacation right after the semester ends. Aaron thinks it's a dumb vacation destination. Nicky loves the lgbt scene. Kevin follows Andrew.

At night, Andrew holds auditions for someone who can pass well enough as Nathaniel Wesninski to convince a few people who had met him when he was ten. According to Kevin, his father probably didn't actually want anything to do with him unless it was to kill him so chances were they'd never meet. If he can find and train someone good enough in the same city as Nathaniel's most recently known whereabouts, it should be good enough.

And the tip wasn't completely off. Nathaniel was on his way to Seattle because he thought it was time to come back through the continental u.s. Neil is looking for a place to crash and breaks into a boarded up motel whose aura makes him want to vomit and he's counting on that to keep others away.

When Andrew sees this short, flighty looking bastard with a shitty dye job skulking around his audition space he can't deny the shockingly blue eyes are exactly what all the others have been missing. Neil flinches at the name Wesninski and blames his feeling of dread on the blood stain next to the empty metal bed frame. (He doesn't need to know that his body is reacting to both things. His brain might not remember the sight of his mother being struck but his heart does).

He's desperate for a purpose and desperate to run change lie and it might not be an accident that he allows Andrew to stop him. It is an accident that he lets his guard down enough for Andrew to get a hold of the post card and make a comment about the Edgar Allen House in Baltimore. He'd never known what the weird house was. And really, that's the only reason he agrees to go on this crazy adventure. Possibly being reunited with a man who lost his son? Someone who shares his eyes and who comes from the same place as his only personal item? Learning who he is? Going to college? Playing a sport? What's the worst that could happen?

He agrees to go back with them. Andrew tells the others the plan- teach this kid enough about Exy to be useful by the time they get to the east coast so he can attend Edgar Allen University in Kevin's place. Neil is excited about a college education and answers and family and a purpose. Kevin feels sick with relief and guilt and clings to Neil's desire to go through with it.

And so they road trip. In a pinch, coast to coast is 40 hours of straight driving. They meander their way back and stop by any public court they can. Kevin teaches him how to perfect Exy (god, Neil feels so alive and right this is exactly what he's been missing why did his body know and crave this sport so deeply that his bones ached for it)

Andrew and Neil are both overly cautious, still. They trade as many truths as you can with someone who lost their memory. Neil can't trade his past but he can trade himself and he becomes so desperate to stay in the game that he begins giving away everything he's kept close (why had he? Why run why change why lie? Being known was everything, as long as Andrew was the one knowing).

He thinks he's been to Europe because he can never find chocolate that tastes exactly right and he knows some German and Russian. He has spent time in England probably because sometimes he uses words that make Americans tilt their heads. He knows French but usually speaks Quebecois French and he starts to do it around Kevin because it makes Kevin a little bit nuts and Neil is an instigator at heart.

These start out as secret truths. By the time they get to Wisconsin, he is much more open with these little bits of himself, as if others knowing them meant they are real, he's real (Andrew always knows first, though)

One day at a court near a public park in Madison, he mentions that he thinks he really likes math and Kevin snorts. "Russian, England, math. You sound more like Abram Besikovitch than Nathaniel Wesninski. Now set me up for that play again, it was terrible."

But Neil doesn't set him up again. He stops and stares at Kevin's mouth and then walks away in without a word all the way back to their shitty motel. Andrew follows him and puts the chain on the door to keep the others out. It's Neil's turn for a truth so he just raises his eyebrow and Neil doesn't need a clarification after weeks of zigzagging across america. He tells Andrew that Kevin made a joke and Neil didn't like it for some reason. Andrew says that Kevin will not say it again. When they smoke that night, Neil is solemn and feels like the void he'd been filling all summer has cracked open even wider in his chest.

In Chicago, some fans spot Kevin and ask for some selfies. Neil stands off in the background with Andrew and Aaron and Nicky and pokes fun at PR Kevin in rusty German.

Andrew gets a text from an unknown number later that says he has done a good job.

In Cincinnati, Andrew kisses Neil after a day of no Exy. In Pittsburgh, Neil kisses Andrew after a game with some local college kids. In Morgantown, West Virginia they stay in a decent hotel and kiss on the roof until the sun comes up. In Weston, Kevin has a panic attack and refuses to look Neil in the face and they order pizza and Neil falls asleep on Andrew's shoulder. In Ripley, Andrew does not believe in regret but he does believe in mistakes. On Route 77, he rummages through Neil's duffel while they all take turns peeing in the woods and its mildly helpful.

At a campground in Kenna, Neil goes missing.

While Nicky drives, Andrew chokes Kevin in the back seat and demands to know what he realized last week.

Neil doesn't know the woman who took him but his lungs do.

In the car, he remembers. The smell of burning flesh is pungent and unforgettable and singes his brain now like it did under the iron years ago. He screams and struggles and pleads. He thinks about Andrew and Kevin and the way the Maserati smelled after they drove too long with a broken air conditioner and the weight of an Exy racket and the absolute peace of kissing Andrew for hours and hours and of being known.

In Baltimore, he doesn't know how he could ever forget. He stares at his father and remembers. He remembers getting a postcard when they were at Uncle Stuart's house. He remembers the pipe to his mother's stomach. He remembers the car accident when he realized what had happened to her and the fire and stumbling through the California woods away from the emts and rescue and passing out near a stream. He remembers waking up and passing out all the way to the Canadian border where he used French that he didn't know he spoke and a passport he didn't know he had to cross into Vancouver.

He asks his father why, but really it's for Andrew.

Did Andrew know? Did Kevin recognize him? Had this always been the plan? Was any of it real? Was he real?

Desperation to fulfill a purpose. That was a joke. Desperation to survive was the only thing that mattered. Run change lie. Nathaniel fought his way away from his father, pulled himself across the concrete floor with his torn up arms, closed his body around the foot that kicked him in the ribs to trip, stall, anything.

A crash. Pop Pop. Thud.

Uncle Stuart wasn't surprised to see Nathaniel. Neither were the emts or feds. Nathaniel didn't have the energy to care anymore. He let them take him. His father was dead and he had no obligation to the Moriyamas and they had no real claim to him. What was it to him if the FBI had some questions.

It was all in exchange for some legal paperwork. Neil was back and he had some college credits in his back pocket and a decent high school GPA and absolutely no prospects outside of possible witness protection.

2 nights before his release from the hospital, Uncle Stuart comes back with a folder of paperwork for a university in South Carolina. He pats Neil awkwardly on the shoulder and says that the FBI aren't the only ones who can pull strings. Neil asks why this school. Uncle Stuart says that's where his friends go. Neil says that people who trade in people are not friends. Uncle Stuart asks if Neil really wouldn't sacrifice a stranger to save someone close to him. Neil says he has no one close to him and hates that it feels like a lie. Uncle Stuart asks if he still loves Exy.

In 2 days, he leaves the hospital and an agent drives him south.

A paper in the folder has an address and apartment number on it. When Neil presses the buzzer, he is let in with a disgruntled sound over the intercom. When he knocks on apartment 724 he comes face to face with a tall man who asks why he's so late to summer training and then how he expects to play in that condition. Neil asks what the fuck is going on. So does Kevin. Neil asks what the fuck again.

See, Stuart was always going to come after Nathan but a call from a boy who should not know his number had pushed up the date.

See, Andrew had looked for literally any clue that could be useful in Neil's duffel bag and found a phone number coded into a paper of numbers. Abram had been the key.

See, after Andrew had choked Kevin he learned that he had been surprisingly successful in acquiring an Exy investment for EAU. He learned that death would not pass over this unknown mistake, it would come looking for the runaway. He called the number, he asked about Baltimore, he told Stuart who he would probably find in that basement.

Neil hummed and waited on the couch. Andrew entered the apartment with a crash and did a poor job of looking unaffected. He clutched at Neil's bandaged cheeks and cursed him out for nothing, just to curse him. Fuck you you fuck you stupid fucking idiot you fucking dumb exy fucking fuck.

Neil asks about the promise. Andrew says that he always keeps his promises. Neil asks about the deal. Andrew says that the promise will just have to be long term babysitting if it can't be solved permanently. Neil asks about the kisses. Andrew says he doesn't believe in regret. Neil asks yes or no. Andrew doesn't answer with words.

[ipcearn]

I’m sitting in a nice hot bath, had two beers and have been stewing over this idea for roughly two weeks now, so lets do it

@lollaika and I both read the All For The Game series - I listened/read the first book then yelled at her excitedly and she asked if she could borrow the book right then and there, me, being a good roommate and all, basically threw it at her head in excitement, because yelling about something together is always more fun, and we got through the rest of the series a couple of days later (she actually finished it a day faster than me, mostly because I spend a Monday laying comatose in my bed after driving my dad to the airport at 4 in the morning), and after I finished the last 50 pages I had left over, we talked through some fanfic ideas that we would love to see

Hers was about Neil actually being gifted to Ichirou instead of Riko, and I was so enamored with the idea that this is the result: 

lol - even if you’re no longer on Tumblr - this is for you, hon:

*

So imagine, Nathaniel is ten, and he is about to take part in that first practice with Kevin and Riko.

But Nathan, Nathan doesn’t really like either Riko or Tetsuji, and while he doesn’t exactly care for his son either, he did already invest in some training for the boy.

So, he goes to Kengo and proposes a new deal. 

Nathan is more than aware of the no-nepotism rule the Moriyamas have concerning their people, but then again, Nathan doesn’t plan on actually having Nathaniel ever overtake him. But he still offers him to Kengo with the words that a good assassin - conditioned to loyalty from such a young age -  would be worth much more than a fucking exy player. 

And Nathan has enough pull with Kengo for him to actually consider it.

So instead of exy, they test Nathaniel in a different way. He’s ten and tiny and doesn’t really understand what’s going on, but he is already fast and has good reflexes - the same skills that would have been valued in an exy player, but Kengo is not his brother and instead judges what a fully trained Nathaniel would do with those after learning how to wield a knife and gun properly.

Mary doesn’t even get a chance to steal her son away before Kengo has him bundled off and dropped into Ichirou’s care. 

(Kengo already has Nathan and Nathan’s people, and he understands the value of loyalty instilled in a child early on - and while he certainly isn’t aware that he has less than a decade to live, he knows Ichirou will succeed him at some point.)

Ichirou is only a handful of years older than Nathaniel, nothing more than a teenager, and his ice-cold mask isn’t entirely perfected yet, but it is almost there.

And Nathaniel is tiny and scared, but he is a smart child, and impossibly curious, and it only takes him a few harsh lessons to understand.

Ichirou. should. never. be. disobeyed.

During his childhood and early teens, Nathaniel’s time is split between training at his father’s or Lola’s hand, and becoming Ichirou’s shadow. 

Nathaniel inherits Mary’s small stature and Lola teaches him how to use that against people. The first time Nathaniel manages to beat Romero in a sparring match is the first time his father smiles at him with genuine pride.

Ichirou is still finishing up his own education when Nathaniel gets dropped into his lap, and the moment he discovers how easily Nathaniel picks up languages and accents and mannerisms, his mind gets put to good use as well.

Nathaniel learns Japanese and French, German and Russian, and is in the process of learning Arabic when the whole shit-show with Kevin Day starts taking place.

But we will get to that in a moment.

See, there is a big different between Ichirou and Riko and how they treat their property. 

(Jean Moreau gets broken and beaten and raped, and he loathes Riko and later Kevin for leaving him behind. For never stepping in.)

But Ichirou is not his brother. Nathaniel never gets punished beyond reason. 

Ichirou has no need for a broken toy, and he never leaves scars. 

He values loyalty over mindlessness. Nathaniel’s sharp tongue and wit are tolerated for the amusement they bring to Ichirou when turned on stupid, stupid people. And Nathaniel has never directly disobeyed an order given by Ichirou.

There were times he was forced to circumvent due to other people not doing what they’re told, or circumstances getting in his way, but he never willfully goes against Ichirou.

(The first time Ichirou smiles at him, Nathaniel is given an order by Kengo, but before obeying, his eyes fall on Ichirou and he doesn’t act until Ichirou nods at him as well.)

What little free time Nathaniel has, he is allowed to spend how he wishes. As long as he does not go against any of Ichirou’s orders or puts himself in unnecessary danger.

(It’s not that Ichirou cares, but as Ichirou’s property he should only get hurt on Ichirou’s orders.)

So Nathaniel doesn’t quite develop an obsession with exy, but he keeps a keen interest, and enjoys watching game’s footage in his off time.

And then Kevin Day gets his hand broken somehow.

Nathaniel gets called in by Ichirou, blank faced, as he lays out the parameters of Nathaniel’s new task.

He is to be sent to Evermore, to look into Riko’s and Tetsuji’s conduct, as there have been news before. Little hints trickling through. Riko throwing around his name and his money where he should not step as side branch.

But if Ichirou would sent him as Nathaniel Wesninski there would simply be more empty reassurances on Tetsuji’s side. So.

So Nathaniel is to be sent in as a nobody, with the only words sent to Tetsuji that he is to be trained as a striker within a year due to the main branches wishes, and all involvement of the family kept from Riko.

He gets to pick his own name and appearance. He picks the name “Neil Josten” and goes for dark brown hair that wouldn’t be too far off from the color of his eyebrows. He dyes them as well, but checking his eyebrows incessantly might not be something he would have the time for.

Trying to keep the roots of the rest of his hair from showing would be hard enough, but Ichirou tells him to make it work somehow until said otherwise.

He picks brown contacts to go with it and Ichirou tells him he’d be supplied with enough to make it through the year.

Riko (and Kevin) might never have met Nathaniel Wesninski, but both had met Nathan Wesninski, and despite his much slighter stature, Nathaniel looked too much like his father to give it up to chance.

So while Kevin spent his time recuperating with the Palmetto Foxes, “Neil Josten” quietly joins the Nest.

[aftgficrec]

Idk if y’all do this but I don’t know who to ask but your favorite aftg SPOTIFY playlists? I like the “Andrew in clubs” by rb and the “andriel/AFTG” by sunellix but so far my favorite has been “untitled 1” by palmettofoxden because they made a tumblr post that went with it and I loved how they included the reason to each song. So if you can find playlist AND post related like that one I’ll love y’all more !!! Thanks

Oh, friend, you have no idea what you just got yourself into here.  You want playlists?  We’ve got playlists (and a little personal commentary from us).  A number of fics have amazing playlists to go along with them, so we’ve included little bits of info and links to those fics; then there are playlists for characters, and some general ones for the books.  We didn’t really find Tumblr posts to explain song choices, but we hope you enjoy this collection anyway! -M

NB: Fic links go directly to AO3. You can click on ‘recced here’ to see the trigger warnings that we’ve previously listed.

Playlists Based on Fics 

Red Rabbits Universe series by bloodydamnit, Jeni182, SeaBear13, windeavesdrops [Rated M-E; 647408 words in 3 works; 2 Complete 2019/2020, 1 WIP] (recced here)

If you’re unfamiliar with Red Rabbits then you’ve probably been living under a rock. From the very beginning the team behind this true crime themed fic have been excellent at providing a playlist for the characters, for the story, and for the highly interactive blog that can also be found here. If you’re looking for explanations as to why some songs are on the lists, check out the Tumblr asks and read the fic - there are many layers to this one but you can discover a lot in both Seasons. 

TFN by The Foxhole (2019) - Short and sweet (just like our favourite characters) this is a great list and sits perfectly alongside Season 1. 

TFN Minyard by The Foxhole (2019) - Africa is really the only song you need to listen to on this playlist but this is the list designed to represent Andrew in Red Rabbits. Sit back, listen, appreciate how very very well done this list is: emo bangers sit against indie bops, Lykke Li and MISSIO clash against Explosions in the Sky and Pink Floyd.  

TFN Seth by The Foxhole (2019) - Oh Seth, our sweet baby DJ, whose journey is honestly one of the best in fanfic. Here you’ll find Childish Gambino, Jay Z and Kanye, City Girls and The Weeknd. 

TFN Dan by The Foxhole (2019) - What a queen, it’s Dan Wilds with a mix of Beyonce, Frank Ocean and many more r&b, hiphop and pop tunes. Upbeat and powerful.

Neil Josten’s Music + Mathematics / The Calculus of Nocturnes by fuzzballsheltiepants [Rated M; 7863 words; Complete 2020] (recced here)

Like everything by fuzzballsheltiepants, this playlist is as well thought out and perfectly rendered as the story itself. The fic centers around Neil Josten, a high school math teacher with a secret obsession: the classical piano he hears music teacher Andrew Minyard playing every afternoon. Eventually his secret is found out, and his world begins to open up. This playlist can be listened to along with the fic, giving you an immersive layer to the story. 

Slinging Mozart Sideways / Slinging Mozart Sideways  by justadreamfox [Rated T; 9962 words, Complete 2020]  (recced here)

Some fun facts about this one - firstly, the working title was “gay pianists need to eat” (which I love) and secondly it was part of the 2020 Gift Exchange for Willow_Bird. Excellent fic. Excellent prompt. In which Andrew is in the music business, Neil is a classical cellist (with a British accent) and they bond over Nils Fram. It’s super pretty and the classical music choices are sweet, subtle and sometimes heartwrenching. 

One writer in particular, scribbleb_red, has been prolific in creating playlists for all their longer fics, and some of their Twitter hc fics.  There’s overlap in themes and genres across most of them but here are some of my faves:

Playlist: L'amour parle en fleurs / l’amour parle en fleur by scribbleb_red [Rated M, 61919 words, Complete 2019] (recced here)

Also known as The Lavender AU, this fic is set in the lavender fields of Provence in Southern France and deals with loss and recovery, grief and hope - and that’s exactly what the playlist lays out as well. Intended to accompany the reader through the fic, this playlist is a journey just like the story itself. 

Playlist: (don’t fear) the reaper / (don’t fear) the reaper by scribbleb_red [Rated M, 73111 words, Complete 2019] (recced here) 

for the fic of the same name, in which Andrew and Neil don’t meet in life but in limbo. Andrew is a grim reaper and Neil is the soul he’s meant to be helping cross to the other side. There’s just one issue: Neil isn’t really dead.  

Playlist: monster (under my bed) / monster (under my bed) by scribbleb_red [Rated: M; 1262 Words; Complete; 2020] (recced here)

In which Neil is the monster hiding Andrew’s bed and this changes everything.

not your homeland anymore (2020) for the fic of the same name, inspired by Taylor Swift’s folklore, this angsty fic is still being written and asks the question: what if Andrew hadn’t been there after Baltimore? 

NB: We have not recced this one yet. Please refer to the fic for TWs.

Playlists Based on Characters 

Oh yes, there are some highly creative folks out there exploring their headcanons via the spotify playlist. Here are five of our favourites: 

THE FOXES DEADLIEST INVESTMENT by realpeachy (2019) - Their ain’t no rest for the wicked and this playlist is as relentless, beat-heavy and secretly instigative as Andrew Minyard himself. Some familiar themes with Billie Eilish, Ruelle, Halsey and the like, but some quirky additions like badflower and tedy as well. 

NEIL JOSTEN by Arizona Kestler (2019) - A curious collection of songs on this one, ranging from Kendrick Lamar to Radiohead, AJR to Jack’s Mannequin. It definitely leans into the new-wave emo that many associate with AFTG but it always comes back to the high octane energy we associate with our favourite starting striker. 

yes or no? by jmoriartty (2018) - Could there be a more iconic playlist for andreil? well ok, maybe that’s just this contributor’s taste but having been steadily built through 2018 to 2019, it’s one of the most followed playlists on spotify for AFTG. Two Feet, MISSIO, Twenty One Pilots and grandson are all big hits on this bluesy, gritty, alternative playlist. 

you can call me king by scribbleb_red (2019) - As if any list was complete without a villainous inclusion, like with most of scribble’s lists this one deliberately lays out a journey for Riko Moriyama, his rise and fall. Maybe you’ll also feel Sympathy for the Devil. 

Double Trouble by an.fouda (2019) - Yes, it’s a twinyards playlist and it’s full of absolutely exquisite artist choices and emo hits. Try listening to Night Knuckles by Cavetown or Plastic Joy by Raw Fabrics. It’s a whole new level to this most complex of sibling relationships. 

Playlists Based on the Books 

Some of these are classics - they’ve set the tone for AFTG playlists all over the internets - and it’s fascinating to see how even now people come back to similar tones: alternative rock, grunge, hiphop, the high energy songs that mix a sense of hope and fear and danger. Plug in your headphones and prepare for a ride. Others are more recent and you can very much see how the themes of the music line up over time. If you want a playlist to remind you of the original series, here are some great places to start:

The Foxhole Court (Nora Sakavic) by pjofangirl2  (2017) 

You Are A Pipedream by lokisarmyismydivision (2017)

This is the moment you stop being the rabbit by Warren Vipod (2020) 

[whatmack]

hi im so invested in liam. how was his life with stuart? what's his favourite colour? does he enjoy watching films? which kind? how languages does he speak? does he listen to musicals? is he lgbt? what's his favourite subject? does he celebrate his birthday (if so it's be the same as nathaniels- would neil and liam have different birthdays despite being twins???? dhdksjfh) i LOVE HIM???? DOES HE KNOW I LOVE HIM

I’M SO FLATTERED TF AHHHHHHHyou: i love himme: writes this

Liam is a backliner.He’s better than Allison was expecting, honestly. Sure, he’s out of practice,and he doesn’t have Neil’s instinctive genius—nobody does—but with a littlepunch-pulling the Foxes can play with him fine. Kevin looks torn betweenpointing out Liam’s obvious mistakes and bursting with pride that he’s notcompletely hopeless. It’s kind of like having another Nicky on the team, backwhen Nicky was a freshman.Allison considers saying this out loud and manages to catch Renee’s eye. Reneeshakes her head. How she knows what Allison’s about to say, Allison doesn’tknow, but she rolls her eyes and keeps the comment to a mutter for nobody’sears but her own.“How does this work?” Aaron says.

Liam and Neil, who have been taking a break bythe side, chugging water, turn towards him as one. “What?”

Aaron clucks his tongue impatiently. It makes him sound like a disapprovinggrandmother. “I mean, Neil was one of that bastard’s fucked-up Perfect Court,right? So how come you weren’t?”

The whole team freezes. Kevin goes pale. Andrew looks murderous, but that’snothing new.

Liam takes his sweet time answering, swirling water around his mouth and wipinghis lips on the back of his wrist after he swallows. “You know Neil was a backliner,first?”

Even though it’s common knowledge—well, among Foxes—Neil flinches at the revealof personal information. Liam touches his arm comfortingly, and Neil relaxes,but this—this is something Allison has been thinking about. She rocks herweight even over her two feet and crosses her arms.

“Yeah,” says Aaron, impatient.

“Well, there was only one open spot in that perfect lineup, but the Moriyamas—”Liam’s eyes flick to Kevin, who looks ready to vomit “—they like insurance. Twinswere an opportunity. Two backliners, two chances for success.”

Neil is looking at the floor. Andrew comes up behind him and cups a hand on theback of his neck, the way Allison has seen him do when Neil is freaking out. It’ssweet, for a monster.

“The audition,” Kevin says, every word like the dropping of a heavy stone.

Liam smiles, blade-thin. “Even if we both did well, there were never going tobe two little boys kissing our mother hello the next morning. Only one spot,like I said. And it turned out Nathaniel….did better than Nathan.” He sweeps hishand first towards Neil, and then himself. Dan’s intake of breath is so sharp Allison feels dizzy.

“That’s fucked up,” Matt says, mouth slack.

Liam shrugs and drinks more water. Andrew has pulled Neil around to face him,their foreheads pressed together. Liam shoots them unsubtle glances, andAllison has had enough.

She holds out until the end of practice. The moment Andrew drags Neil outside, fingershooked through his collar, Allison seizes Liam by the arm and slams him againstthe painted concrete wall. Liam doesn’t make a sound, though Allison knows fromexperience that that hurt.

“What’s your game?” she hisses.

“Here? From the look of things, Exy,” Liam says, which proves more than hiscurls and cheekbones that he’s Neil’s brother. Allison shakes him, unamused.

“I see what you’re doing,” she says, letting her voice growl low. “I’ve done itmyself. I’m an expert. All this tragic backstory, open book, handing out informationleft and right like some kind of movie orphan. You’re trying to get us all tofeel sorry for you so we like you. “Well listen up, dickhead. I don’t believe afucking word you say, and I never will. And if you think you can come in herejust because of some passing resemblance to our Neil—” she strokes Liam’s cheek,smooth and unscarred, and the blaze of satisfaction is hot under her breastbonewhen he visibly holds back a flinch “—then you can fuck right off. You’renothing like Neil, and you don’t deserve to be. He’s ours. You’re nothing but atrespasser. Get out.”

Liam’s eyelids dip low. “You’re not what I expected.”

Allison twists savagely at his shoulder. Liam’s mouth opens in a grunt of pain.“Whatever you’re planning, I will find you out. Don’t think you can hide. Notfrom me.”

“You’d be a useful asset to my uncle,” says Liam, with none of his previous woe-is-metremor. This is cold, calculating. He drags an assessing eye up what he can seeof Allison with her pinning him this way, and Allison’s skin crawls. She stompson his foot for it. Liam winces.

“Start talking or I’ll do worse.”

“Bossy, bossy,” Liam murmurs. He deliberately relaxes in Allison’s hold. Itmakes Allison hate him more. “Can it at least wait until we’re somewhere elsethan a poorly-lit hallway at the back of a sporting facility?”

Allison considers. “There’s a café at the edge of campus with a private gardenout back. An hour, and if you’re late it had better be because you’re gone.”

“Done,” says Liam. Allison steps back. Liam rolls his shoulders, exaggerating,shooting Allison a glance that invites her to boost her own ego by noticing howwell she hurt him. Allison doesn’t fall for it. Her own stare is icy.

Another smile touches Liam’s mouth. “For what it’s worth—and I suspect it’snothing–I’m glad my brother has a teammate like you.”He’s wrong; it’s worth less than nothing. “Your name wasn’t really Nathan.”“Find out in a hour,” Liam says, and slinks down the hallway, leaving Allison to grind her teeth (a habit five dentists and six therapists couldn’t cure her of) in the buzz of the fluorescent emptiness.