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We don't talk enough about how the two people Jean associates with ducks are Elodie and Thea.

Jean loves Elodie so much and tried so hard to take care of her and keep her safe from their parents' neglect despite being only a child himself. He did what he could and in his mind, he may even have succeeded, until he had to leave. For years he believed - and hoped- that their parents loved her more than him and kept her. But foolishly or naively, he never imagined that the worst could have happened to her. Even knowing what their parents were like and how far they would go to erase their debts, he never wanted to think she might be having it worse than he was. As long as he didn't know and didn't think about what could have happened to her, she could remain "small and safe and sheltered" in his memories. He didn't have to face the reality that what he had been able to do for her, fixing her ducky dresses and loving her, was never enough to protect her.

And then we have Thea. Thea, who called Jean her "little Parisian duckling", who gave him attention and teasing affection in an environment where sentimentality was discouraged and where everyone else shunned him. She knew what being a Raven was like and she still let him lie to her about being fine, because she couldn't tear the team and the entire system apart looking for the truth. She still believed what the other backliners and Riko told everyone about him because she was too foolish or too naive to imagine the worst scenario could have happened to him. No matter how much he needed it, no matter how chummy (by Raven standards) she was with him, she wasn't able to protect him. And then when they reunite, she still treats him like a bratty kid to tease, as if things are unchanged and they still have the same relationship they had back at the Nest. As if she's still clinging to the safe mental image of her little Parisian duckling for as long as she can, unable to accept she's failed him in ways she couldn't have helped.

So yeah...ducks. Ducks, for Elodie, the sister he loved but could not protect, and for Thea, the sister who loved, but could not protect, him.

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I got them therapy for their birthday

HBD to the Minyard twins and also to me~ :)

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Put ‘em up 🙌

Exclusive sticker design! Info under the cut:

October this year means costumes!! One of my fav times of year in general, so it’s another set of two stickers that will go out to my sticker club, the star tier on patreon 💕 anyone that joins in October will get one, even if you join only for that month and then leave again! Also ships international ☺️

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Neck kisses 💋 💋

#Andreil

My commission info. Dm me if you are interested ^^

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andrew minyard texts to various people

to neil

to kevin

(medicated)

to wymack/betsy

to aaron

to renee

"thats ooc!" i don't care

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andreil and meow meows

unfiltered under the cut + wip

they own stupid samsung flip phones so they can't canonically take pictures of each other 🙄

also i was originally going to render but decided against it, though i liked the muscles... so, i'm leaving it here as well!

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Nora and number games

Nora mentioned in an ask that she likes to play games with hidden numbers in her writing. I decided to see what I could find. Side note: I’m in WAY too deep. Matt (four letters) Boyd (four letters) plays #4 on court. Aaron (five letters) plays #5 on court Gordon (six letters) plays #6 on court Allison (seven letters) Jamaica (seven letters) was born in July (seventh month) and plays #7 on court Nicky, who’s name is short for Nicholas (eight letters), plays #8 on court Renne was born in September (ninth month) and plays #9 on court.  Neil Josten (ten letters) plays #10 on court

Kevin’s birthday is 22/2. He is the only fox (including the adults!) without a middle name - i.e. with only two names. He plays, of course, #2 on court. Ichirou’s name contains ichi, which is a homophone for one in Japanese. He is the first-born son.

And my personal favourite: Andrew Minyard makes thirteen letters, the same total as Andrew and Neil’s jersey numbers added together.

Some stuff that is absolutely a reach but I found it and I’m including it anyway: Andrew (six letters) is a multiple of three. He plays #3 on court. Matt Boyd (eight letters) was born in August (eighth month), a multiple of his jersey number, four. Jean Moreau (three syllables) plays #3 on court. Moreau (six letters) is a multiple of three. Dan Leigh Wilds (each name one syllable) plays #1 on court. Kevin is two syllables while Day is one. Kevin is believed to be the second-best striker, but is eventually proven to be first. Kevin Day (eight letters) is an even number, i.e. divisible by two. Anyway, this was me all evening:

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i want the trojans to meet the foxes so badddd, i know it's unrealistic bc of the locations but

i want jeremy+laila+cat to meet the monsters. i want them to see the grumpy asshole (affectionate) kevin is with his foxes.

i want laila and renee talking about goalkeeper strategies (i know andrew couldn't care less abt that conversation).

i want cat and nicky having fun together (they're both loud, extroverted, queer latino backliners, and even neil said that cat's smile reminded him of nicky's).

i want neil getting to properly know jeremy and to know jean is in good hands.

i want andrew to confront jean about the candy he threw away and jean getting annoyed saying an athlete shouldnt eat that much sugar (he takes after kevin) and that he's doing him a favor.

i want laila and dan being friends and bonding over how hard it is to look after their respective mafia-linked boys.

i want neil bickering (in a friendly way) with jean (forever partners).

i want matt and jeremy being besties since they're both adorable sweethearts.

i want andrew being (at least slightly) protective over jean bc he knows he's important to neil, kevin and renee.

i want jeremy cat and laila finally meeting renee, the cute girl whose photo jean is always staring at with a fond smile and soft eyes, the girl who got their friend out of the hell he'a been living in for his whole life and is the reason he's still here today (i love renee sm).

and i want jean and kevin to be friends again and be able to laugh together and to talk about a future they're going to have doing what they love most, playing exy. because they're finally okay and safe, and they have a team/family that loves them and will protect them always so there's nothing to be afraid of

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Happy Halloween!!

A little piece I did for @aftg-paranormal :D I decided to go with the Foxes girls doing some necromancy magic, in order for Allison to kind of have closure with Seth... I'm pretty happy with how the light turned out!

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Neil Josten, post-game interview

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Okay I’m awake again and something that really stood out to me with TSC was how different jean and neil are as protagonists. I expected they would be, but the thing I really noticed was how distinct their reactions were.

So, these books are HEAVY. There are many many traumatic events and the characters spend a lot of time in high-stress situations. Even when they’re not being attacked or threatened or XYZ, they’re often in a state of heightened physiological arousal (their sympathetic nervous system is going haywire). As a psychologist, the thing I find really interesting is that we see very different reactions that are all aligned with different adrenal responses, and I wanted to talk about it.

As a baseline, when your sympathetic nervous system is activated, you typically experience what some psychologists call the four Fs. Fight, flight, freeze, and/or fawn (some people use another word here but I don’t like it and think it’s less accurate to the situation). These can occur simultaneously or alone. And of the four characters who are most showing this response are the ones who are consistently in the highest stress situations, but who are also traumatised in such a way that even when they’re not actively in danger their sympathetic nervous system is overreactive and heightened.

So first off, we have Neil. He’s pretty clearly shown to have two responses: flight and fight. For his entire childhood, he’s been fleeing from danger and in the earlier parts of AFTG, we see this response - he tries to run as far as he can possibly get from anything that might be a risk. As a side point, this is pretty clearly a learned response from his mother. As Neil begins to feel more secure and his flight response is impeded (he can’t run away) we see the emergence of his other primary adrenal response - fight. I don’t feel like I need to explain this one, tbh, we’ve all seen how he runs his mouth. Fight is also typically shown when you believe you can defeat whatever’s threatening you, so I love what this says about how his confidence develops across the trilogy.

Then you have Andrew. He’s not a POV protagonist but I feel like his response might be the most obvious. His primary responses are fight and freeze (Andrew Minyard runs from/fawns for no man). Fight is pretty obvious - he’s a very violent person - but I feel like the most clear example of this is stopping Riko from attacking Neil. Andrew is obviously wired and his instinctive response is to protect. I love that for him. His other primary response, unfortunately, is freeze. Based on the most obvious time we see it (during Drake's attack), this is probably a response he developed as a child, before he felt strong/safe enough to fight back. God, these books make me sad sometimes.

Next is Kevin. He has a slightly more varied response - i can see the argument for him freezing, although i wouldnt say it's a primary response - but his main two responses are fight and fawn. Fight isn't necessarily literal, btw - the most obvious example is covering his tattoo. His fawn response is slightly more expanded on in TSC (mild spoilers if you haven't read that yet) when we see him responding to Riko's attack by begging first Riko and then Jean to intercede and stop the violence. he's trying to appeal to their affection for him, which is absolutely heartbreaking. Kevin i love you.

And finally, we have Jean, whose primary responses are only really made clear in TSC, although they are backed up by his appearances in the trilogy - freeze and fawn. We see freezing in Jean's response to sympathetic nervous system arousal, often from hearing about or recalling upsetting events/information. He closes in on himself and becomes unresponsive. Fawn is slightly more complicated, as we see it somewhat throughout AFTG. when he's loyal to riko and doing things he thinks riko will like in hopes of reducing any potential pain/threat he will experience, i'd call that fawning. an example at usc is him getting on his knees and handing coach rhemann his racket - he's not just submitting to punishment, he's trying to be helpful and well-behaved in hopes of lessening it. it's honestly a really strong response from him and it absolutely breaks my heart. jean in tsc is really struggling and i hope the last book brings him some peace. i also find it really painful that he's the only one of these boys without a fight response - he's never felt capable of winning against his abusers. i really hope the trojans and bee are able to help change that.

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basking ☀️

(A small jerejean... vibrating for tsc2 coming SOON 😵‍💫)

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Jean finally gets the service animal he deserves. Of course, everyone falls in love!

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me when Wymack said this to Jean:

"(...)I know why you think you have to go back to Evermore, and I know what’s waiting for you there. I will burn this house down before I let him touch you again."

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beep boop! Beacon Hills is in California

you know what that means…

HELLO WEREWOLF JEREMY KNOX

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i want to keep pressing the Teen Wolf Jeremy Knox button just to see ur brain explode 🥰 tell me what going on in there!!!!!

okay so i have to admit i don’t know a single thing about teen wolf BUT the idea of werewolf jeremy knox has me in a chokehold because omg

first of all. the first time he turns into a werewolf (during his freshman year) he kills 2 people. one of them is his brother.

the second time, he’s still very confused and scared and kills one person. this is a teammate

the third time is the same. he thinks he’s cursed (he is)

the fourth time, he sees a pattern and realises what’s happening so he acquires handcuffs and cuffs himself to his window. the next morning he wakes up covered in blood and there were no reports of deaths in the area but can that really mean anything?

the fifth time, he tries to kill himself before the full moon but it doesn’t work because he transitions halfway and now the werewolf has a gun so that’s great (the werewolf doesn’t use it, obviously, but i’m very sleepy right now and i had to say that)

the sixth time he finds heavy chains and chains himself to his bed. this works! he wakes up with clumps of his own fur in his hands but no blood and no victims

since then, he’s been doing the chain thing. until one day when the chains break, ofc