#Neil Abram Josten

[mayaheronthorn]

Crying because I remembered that Neil has polish roots and that explains a lot 😭

I'm so sad that he doesn't know polish cause he would USE those curse words 😭😭😭

His father was the definition of "wpierdol"

[sirascolat]

nobody's soldier

[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.

[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-

[highwaystars]

all this sympathy is just a knife why i can't even grit my teeth and lie?

[koldefingre]

He so haunts jean’s narrative.

[stick-ball]

I imagine the fbi agents looked up what his tshirt meant after, which brought them the need to get drunk or a rise in salary for dealing with this.

[crazy-fangirl2524]

My biggest flex will always be how I knew Neil was the more feral and dangerous one than Andrew this whole time even before tsc and seeing the entire fandom freaked out makes me want to kiss and hug Nora and just thank her for finally finally showing everyone and I’m not just crazy

[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.

[sirascolat]

Neil Josten, Nathaniel Wesninski, Neil Abram Josten.

[cruxxlecrinkles]

You’re a fox, you’re not going anywhere

[kairospy]

30 min sketch of King and my king

[currently-evil]

Alternative universe where Wymack gives up his “above my salary” rule and just straight up disses Andrew when he is pining over Neil

⫸

Andrew: breaks into Wymack’s apartment to rant about how much Neil is a problem and a threat Wymack: You want to fuck him so much it makes you look stupid

⫸

Andrew and Neil getting in their usual first book word scuffles Wymack to Andrew after Neil leaves them alone: So what have you decided on? Spring or Summer wedding?

⫸

Andrew: allows some fox to score on him because he was too busy staring at Neil’s ass Wymack not saying anything out loud but catching Andrew’s eyes with so much bored intensivity the words just materialize on their own in Andrew’s mind: Wow that was pathetic.

⫸

Andrew feeding Neil some “i’ll still solve you” or other talk like that Wymack not even raising his eyes from some documents he was filling out: I’ve seen fucking garden snails flirt better than you.

⫸

Andrew buys Neil a matching phone Wymack: And here I thought Nicky was the only useless gay in the family, good to see I can still be wrong.

⫸

Wymack calling Andrew after Neil hitchhiked his way back to his apartment the first time Monsters took him to Eden: CAN’T YOU TAKE HIM OUT ON A DATE LIKE NORMAL PERSON???? YOU HAVE TO FUCKING DRUG HIM???

⫸

Andrew: buys Neil like a half of wardrobe in a exact style Andrew prefer Wymack: just aggressively sideeyeing  him in silence Andrew: SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP 

⫸

Wymack: shamelessly using Neil to stop Andrew from acting out against other Foxes Andrew: Fucking stop it. Wymack: No <3

⫸

Wymack: sends Neil to Andrew to ask him to stop throwing balls at Foxes’ ankles Wymack silently through very intense eye contact: JUST FUCKING BANG IT OUT AND STOP LETTING IT AFFECT MY GAMEPLAY

⫸

Wymack: Do threats of violence usually work for you? Or do you know about some Neil's fetish none of us are privy to?

⫸

Wymack to Andrew: Its good to know there is something that both you and Aaron share. I just didn't expect it to be inability to act like normal human beings around your crushes.