Tag: aftg

groundswell waves – ephemeralsky – All For the Game – Nora Sakavic [Archive of Our Own]

This is my fic for the AFTG Big Bang 2018 event! Huge thanks and lots of love to Christine (@c-dragon-art) for making kickass fanart for this fic, to Olivia for proof-reading it, and to @aftgbigbang for organizing this event. You guys fucking rock.

TWs: References to past abuse, descriptions of scars. Please let me know if you need me to add to the list.

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By the time the plane lands, Neil has managed to shake off the memory of his mother’s protective grip and urgent hisses. The passengers deboard and the airline employees bid them all a chipper thank you, we hope to see you again.

Neil takes his time, dragging his feet across the washed-out carpets while other people move in big groups around him, talking loudly as they lug their tropical holiday paraphernalia and hop onto the travelator. It’s different, he muses derisively, than all the other times he’s been at an airport, leisurely instead of vigilant.

The airport is old and smells like coconut lotion, and some parts are closed off for renovation. The arrival hall is quiet and dreary except for the rainbow banner that says Welcome to the Aloha State!

(or: Neil moves to a small town in one of Hawaii’s islands, where he works at a beachfront shop, breaks into a public swimming pool, learns how to surf, pillion-rides a motorcycle, and finds a home)

// support me on ko-fi

groundswell waves – ephemeralsky – All For the Game – Nora Sakavic [Archive of Our Own]

AFTG Texas AU

exy-13:

This ain’t about the Ravens. This here is about yall. This is about all the snakes you’ve had to get out of yer boots, all the Alamos you’ve had to fight for, and everyone who said ‘what in tarnation’ when you dared to dream of how the stars at night are big and bright (clap clap clap) deep in the heart of Texas  Yall are here tonight cause yall chose to get it when the gettins good and lord have mercy mama didn’t raise no fools. Yall are here and butter my butt and call me a biscuit but i do declare they all said you’d’em never be! and they aint able to say you haven’t earned your way here all fine and dandy. All thems eyes are on you. It’s time to show them that they better hold on a cotton picking minute, youre fixing to show em what yall are all made of. No room for conniptions, no room for being dumb as dirt, no room for holding your horses. This here is your friday night football game and the whole town is here. This here is the time for yall to act like you got some sense. Seize it, don’t breeze it. Pull out all the stops till the cows come home. Fight because you don’t know how to let the alamo go. Win because you’re still bitter over the last waiter you had not knowing basic chemisty and trying to tell you that ‘no they don’t have sweet tea but i can give you unsweet and bring some sugar’ as if any amount of sugar is gonna change the solubility of a cold liquid. This here high rising fool with a superority complex has ruled for far longer than a pastor at a sermon who’s fixing to put some jesus in you – it’s time to be pretty if you can, witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you.

This one goes out to @foxsoulcourt who asked for more of the southern AU, @fuzzballsheltiepants for their encouraging comment and of course to the AFTGFL fam for the love and support

everythingthatmatters:

vex-vern:

glenflower:

coldsaturn:

alrightlupin:

off-meds andrew has literally no chill remember when neil was like

“seth overdosed?”

and andrew just went “keep up with the conversation”

like somebody died andrew

kevin in that same scene tho 

andrew “he wasn’t that important” minyard

kevin “but what about exy” day 

neil “i don’t understand the big deal” josten 

these assholes are literally MADE FOR EACH OTHER. neil spend the next couple pages analytically watching his teammates, trying to figure out who’s the most apathetic. spoiler alert: it’s neil. it is 100% neil.

 neil is SO ruthlessly efficient in his affections? he is utterly delighted when riko dies because it means that his foxes are safe. he doesn’t care that seth died beyond his worry that it may be his fault, so allison might be hard to handle. THAT IS HIS EXACT REASONING: “if allison connected the dots and blamed seth’s death on neil there’d be no dealing with her this year”. 

he doesn’t even really feel guilty about inadvertently causing seth’s death – the first time explicitly feels guilty in the text is when andrew blames him for drake. THAT fucks him up. seth’s death? a minor inconvenience at worst. at best, it got rid of an obstacle in the team’s line-up, a ruthless observation that not even exy-obsessed kevin makes. 

#i will be the first person in line to scream my love of neil josten from the roof tops #and to insist that we coddle this boy and protect him forever #but neil is not a nice person at times #he STRIVES to be #that quote about allison comes almost directly after he considers his parents and how they were both different types of monsters #and how he didn’t want to be monstrous like them at all #but neil never fostered healthy attachments to people #and so he has no real empathy for those who die along the way#something he very obviously learned from his mother #and he has no mercy for those who must die along the way to protect his loved ones #something ichirou calls him out on #and calls him a wesninski for #the foxes make neil josten into a real boy and into a better person #but ichirou is right in that there is still a bit of the monster in neil #which is perfectly matched to andrew #who wears his monstrous-ness outwardly #but care so DEEPLY under the surface#in terms that would horrify neil josten: neil is a monster like his mother who smiles when riko dies and shrugs when seth falls in his path #and andrew is like his father who ruthlessly cuts down anyone who is a threat to him or his#and whose leash is now held by neil #WOOPS THAT GOT DARK #THEY’RE NOT REALLY THAT AWFUL #LIKE I SAID THE FOXES MAKE NEIL INTO A BETTER PERSON #BUT GOD HELP ANYONE WHO HURTS THE FOXES#BECAUSE EMPATHY IS SOMETHING THESE BOYS ONLY RECENTLY LEARNED