#Neil Abram Josten

[northlt03]

Uhh believe me idk what possessed me to make this

[mayaheronthorn]

I just wonder if Andrew was testing Neil here to see if he made a right decision and Neil just proved him right again 😭

[little2nerdy]

the neil josten rant except it’s that quote from roy kent

“riko moriyama is a muppet and i hope he dies from the incurable condition of being a little bitch”

*neil doesn’t actually know what a muppet is*

[toramirr]

Neil Abram Josten. 19 years old. Milport Dingoes striker.

[sirascolat]

Christmas with the foxes, 2007.

[reesemh]

Neil Josten my beloved (he’s the cure to my art block)

[murdockbuckley]

do you ever think about how Neil "he could look at anyone's arms and judge the safe distance from them in a heartbeat" Josten constantly stood as close to Andrew as possible without stepping over any boundaries, because i do. i think about how being near Andrew was always a safe place for Neil, even when everyone was telling him otherwise.

[kairospy]

Neil Abram Josten, my protégée

[currently-evil]

Andreil in Nutshell

Not included: rest of the foxes sideeyeing them nervously

[allforthegaymes]

Andrew sat in the fbi interrogation alongside Neil, stuck between trying to decide wether to keep his wary eyes on the agents sat across from them or to keep his eyes locked on Neil, as if he’ll disappear again if he loses sight of him at any point.

Instead he keeps a finger hooked around one of Neils belt loops and sets himself to memorizing every word out of Neils mouth, keeping a watch on the agents to make sure they dont make a sudden attempt to go back on their words.

Which means he gets the first hand sight of how other people would react to hearing about what Neil’s gone through. And while he’d accepted every word from Neils mouth without a facial reaction, watching how the agents react make him think maybe he shouldve.

(The whispered thanks from Neil afterwards about Andrew not looking at him differently changes his mind)

The only part that really makes him freeze is when Neil begins the talk of his mothers death. Andrews all too familiar with dead mothers in cars, but hearing about the gun wound, the vinyl seats sticking to a half burnt away body, the bone burial along the beach. Neil stutters only once during his recounts, where he slips and mentions the smell.

He compares it to the scent of cigarettes, used Andrew’s one marlboro reds as a reference and suddenly all those rooftop rendezvous together makes more sense.

Neils half smoked cigarettes, never stubbed out but left to continue burning on the concrete next to them while they sit and talk. The way he only does stub them out when talking about his parents, or when Andrew mentions something about his own mom, or when Andrew says anything about the earlier days with Aaron.

Neil stops talking for a moment after that. Lost in thought.

And as always, Andrew follows him half a step behind.

Neils adamant claims during their zombie apocalypse walks with Renee around the track that he would always burn their friends bodies to make sure they dont come back from the dead.

The way he always leaves the room when they watch the newest episode of that stupid viking show that Aaron and Kevin like to watch and theres a burning boat funeral.

The way he-

And then Neil starts talking to the fbi agents again and Andrew is forced to tune back in and tuck away those thoughts till later.

He tells them about what happened in Baltimore.

The torture from Lola. The dashboard lighter pressing seared wounds into his skin. Over the tattoo, scattered across his arms, the faint marks from where she tried to burn holes through his jeans to get to his thighs. Saved only half as well as they were by the fact he’d worn a pair of the carhartt work pants Andrew had bought for him and not a pair of the threadbare thrift store jeans he usually wore.

Andrew makes the mental note to stop using his own dashboard lighter to light the cigarettes he smokes in the car. And to swap cigarette brands. And to stop smoking in the car.

And then its about the trunk of the car, the way Lola had held onto him and the comments she made in the car, the basement, the offhanded mention about how Nathan was barefoot when he walked down the stairs.

The little details that only someone who’s truly grasping for any recollection in a traumatic moment would retain. The way even when Nathan was walking down to tear Neil limb from limb, Neil still couldnt bring himself to look at his fathers face. The face that Neil shares. The face Neil still avoids looking at when he walks past the mirror in the hall in Columbia.

And he thinks about the way Neil shied away from Wymack in the beginning, the way he now searches for Wymacks face whenever they get separated from their coach at away games.

The gun shots during the Hatford raid, the way even though Neil was bruised and battered he still found himself with a smile on his face when he saw Lola’s body get blasted apart by silenced guns.

The way he knew even if they got a proper funeral no one down there would get to have an open casket. The evidence in their bullet shattered bones that their bodies would never rest peacefully. That people in a thousand years would know from the unmarked graves and their remains that they deserved whatever ended them.

And then he claims it goes dark, he says it with the same way Neil lies about everything else, with his body forced relaxed to not twitch and give himself away, but he breathes a little heavier when he calmly tries to describe the way he came to and found himself being helped by the emergency services, feigning he doesnt know what theyre actually called, playing into the runaway kid sent on the road too young and not knowing completely how the world works still.

Andrew wishes he didnt know Neil well enough to know its only half real. Wishes he didnt know Mary probably only taught Neil how to recognize and run from EMT’s, and never actually explained what EMT was meant to stand for.

Andrew knows first hand how hard it is to gain sympathy from government officials, but Neil’s got them eating out of his hand with the way he words his story, their final nail in the coffin to take down the Wesninski trails in Baltimore and beyond.

Neil knows they need him and he knows how to play them to believe whatever story he deems they’re worthwhile to hear.

[bob-ross-is-a-mermaid]

I’m still not over the fact that Andriel is CANNON and they grow up, live together and have cats named king fluffkins and sir fatcat mcatterson. After all they went through they still got their happy ending with one another

[ravlykpavlyk]

Neil Josten is absolutely fucking incredible narrator.

He has his priorities straight and does not pay attention to anything else.

Do we know Katelyn's surname (well now we do)? Do we know ANYTHING about her appearance? Do we know anything about the appearance of HIS MOTHER? Yeah, she was short and ... and what? And NOTHING, THAT'S IT. She was short and paranoid. I'm sure we know about his father ONLY because they were similar and Neil had a couple of breakdowns because of it.

But let him start about Andrew's fucking broad and solid shoulders-

[literary-claustrophobia]

The foxes showing up to practice all dressed like Wymack, complete with wigs and fake tribal tattoos. Wymack turns to Andrew, thinking he'll be safe cause there's no way they convinced him to do it. But when he does, all he sees is Andrew taking a long drag of a cigarette wearing something he obviously stole from Wymacks own closet.

[little2nerdy]

saw a post about how in the EC aaron says all minyards end up at rock bottom but then he's a neurosurgeon and andrew is an olympic/pro athlete. and i just needed to add on that theyre both in healthy long term relationships. like they both met their person in college and said "welp theyre the one for me"

like both of them broke the cycle so hard

also like idk what situation would cause this but like people figuring that out and making fun of the brothers for being so similar in their reltaionships would be v funny

[toramirr]

Sleepy

[sirascolat]

nobody's soldier