#andrew fucking minyard is on the team

[exyconfessions]

Not to start drama because I know everyone thinks she's the "good one" out of the foxes, but I swear "Renee" is from my hometown and she was kind of known for hanging around with the wrongs types of people if you catch my drift. Renee isn't her real name and it's a widely known rumor that she actually killed a guy a long time ago. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I've never seen anyone talking about it soo.....

.

[criminalgays]

actually i’m done being nice to people who are mean to aaron minyard

like yeah he and andrew didn’t get along great but also they both had their own fucked up childhoods and didn’t know how to communicate that with each other

andrew thought he was protecting aaron, and aaron didn’t know how to tell andrew that he didn’t need that protection.

that doesn’t make either brother “evil” or “bad”, it makes them HUMAN and i desperately need people to realize and respect that

(also they’re fictional characters from a story set literally EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO and written 10 years ago and it’s unreasonable to apply today’s standards of logic and morality to that)

[feelingthedisaster]

okay, being 100% honest, dont pull a josten and lie to me

if exy and all the aftg stuff was real, would you actually like exy? if someone mentioned kevin day/neil josten/etc, would you recognize their names?

and if the answer is yes, would you be a hater, a stan, indiffent?

remember, you cant lie

[s-exy-sapphillean]

Allison gets so much bullshit from some people in this fandom

Her bitchiness and her being an asshole gets overplayed so much by some people as if kevin day isn't bitchy asshole supreme. Like it's kind of a relevant characterization of kevin that he's an asshole; it gets brought up a lot. All of the monsters are fucking assholes except nicky. But ig it's worse when a woman does it? Because people will write entire essays about how actually they're not really assholes because it's all because of trauma, but of course allison just is a bitch.

And yeah andrew choking kevin is a big significant moment for their dynamic and andrew's characterization but also far from the first or only person andrew choked. He almost broke allison's neck for a hit aaron absolutely deserved (because he was being an asshole)

[hope-was-a-disquieting-thing]

Neil: Wait, you can't kill me! I have a husband!

Kidnapper: And what makes you think I care about that?

Neil: Oh no this isn't a plea for mercy. It's a warning.

Kidnapper: Wha-

Andrew *breaking down the door, knives in hand looking marginally pissed*: Neil.

Neil: Oooh, you're in trouble now.

Andrew: Bold of you to assume I'm here for him. I warned you what would happen if you got kidnapped again junkie.

[bisexualchaosdemon]

Okay, but what if Andrew could actually score a goal?

I know, I know, just hear me out! We know that Andrew can bat the ball all the way to the other side of the court ("He swept his massive racquet around in one long swing and hit the ball so hard Neil heard it bounce off the away court wall behind him.")

And we also know that he has crazy good aim when deflecting shots on goal (There are a lot of examples of this, but let's go with "Andrew stopped every shot on goal and bounced a couple rebounds off the strikers' helmets just to rile them further." because I love how much of a little shit he is)

So, if Andrew is strong enough to hit the away court wall and precise enough with his aim to smack multiple players in the head/knees/feet, it's possible he could hit a ball into the other goal, right?

[lazy-to-an-l]

Aaron Minyard is not homophobic

the guy just doesn't want to hear about his brother's sex life, or Nicky's non-existent but still overly sexual one. The man is here to play Exy for the scholarship, and to make his brother get an education. That's it, having to hear about the entire teams sex lives while he is trying to defend their side of the court makes him want to die. Also, considering he would pay to drop kick Neil, and or literally anybody else on the team I don't blame him.

He and Andrew don't care to talk about sex because they literally have one person they want to talk about that with and it is not:

1.) each other

2.) anybody else in the world

It is two very specific red heads who are slightly taller than them and IN fact managed to put leashes on them when they were not looking and they don't know what to do about it.

//EDIT// I want to say I completely didn't realize that what Aaron said to Neil at the cabin was a slur when I made this. It's shitty of him and a homophobic thing to say, but at his core, I don't believe him to actually care enough to *be* homophobic outside of that irrefutably homophobic comment. He doesn't care about Nicky and Erik and treats them with the same disinterest as everyone else, which solidifies that in my mind. I think it was more just his stupid pissing contest with Neil and trying to go for a low blow more so than anything. I also attribute it to the era it was written and set in which, when nobody was particularly as progressive as people are now. But that's in no way meant to be an excuse, I think both can be true that he said a wildly homophobic comment purposefully, and that he truly has no reason or want to care enough to be homophobic in day to day life.

[hella1975]

hella do you think you could dumb bitchify aftg 🥺

(your making me want to get it but idk yet)

NO. GET HELP

[dcvina-claires]

the year is 2006. you’re an avid fan of collegiate exy. kevin day recently transferred from the best team in the league to the worst after breaking his hand in a skiing accident. before the season starts, janie smalls attempts suicide. she’s a fox, so absolutely no one is surprised by this. however, this means that david wymack has to find a new striker. he picks up a neglected, unremarkable kid from millport. for some reason, this mysterious nobody thinks it’s okay to publicly humiliate riko moriyama, king of exy. apparently, neil josten and kevin day talk shit about riko all the time (this confuses you. kevin and riko are supposed to be best friends). not long after, seth gordon dies of an overdose. once again, it’s the foxes, so no one should be surprised, but something is… off. seth was clean, and it didn’t seem likely for him to throw it away. the foxes don’t get anyone to replace him. despite being short a player, they’re performing better than ever before. you don’t want to admit it, but neil josten can probably be credited with a lot of the foxes success. and something is off about that kid, too. he’s a 5’3 brunette with brown eyes, and then suddenly he’s not. he comes back from winter break with red hair and blue eyes, but more interesting than that is the number four tattooed onto his face, marked for the ravens, marked for the perfect court. the normal minyard twin murders someone in cold blood. neil josten is actually nathaniel wesninski. his father, the butcher of baltimore, tortures him and burns his tattoo off. the trojans throw away their shot at winning. kevin covers up his tattoo with a queen chess piece. he’s never been skiing, the theories behind what happened to his hand are endless. jean moreau transfers to the trojans. this isn’t helping with the abuse allegations. despite everything stacked against them, the foxes beat the ravens. the unhinged minyard twin shatters riko’s hand to stop him from murdering the mafia kid on live tv. for some reason, this is riko’s final straw and he kills himself. some people are blaming kevin, andrew, and neil, but you personally believe that it’s a tad bit dramatic to commit suicide after losing one game and breaking a hand. the rest of the ravens don’t seem to agree, as they’re all suddenly in the most fucked up game of “follow the leader” known to man. jean moreau is spotted being escorted from the foxes dorm room a bloody mess, but that’s only the beginning. one of the ravens stabs himself with a letter opener, another steps onto the subway tracks, and a third overdoses. it’s 2007, and you started saying that the ravens were in a cult as a joke, but you don’t know if it’s a joke anymore. you’re seriously starting to consider that your favorite sport was created solely as a front for the mafia

[inadvisablebutinevitable]

I think that in the future when the US court for Exy is first announced and the entire internet is talking about the roster, some reporter will go up to Neil and be like “so how does Kevin feel about being on a team with so many gay athletes? between you and Minyard, Alvarez and Dermott, and Knox and Moreau, there are three gay couples on the US team, some fans are speculating that it is perhaps too many—“

and then Neil cuts him off and goes “yeah, and between me and Jean there are two children of mobsters on the fbi watchlist. Between Andrew and Jeremy there are two convicted felons, and between me, Kevin, and Jean, there are three former perfect court members who said fuck that and got our tattoos removed or replaced. We can all count buddy”

Neil loses his press privileges before practices even start

[interstellar-productions]

*takes you by the shoulders and shakes violently* listen to me. You have to listen to me. I don’t have enough time to explain.

Aaron Minyard opened his acceptance letter into med school with every. Single. One. Of the og 9 (10 in our hearts) foxes present. (Plus Wymack and Abby). He was surrounded by his entire family when he opened those results.

When he got in it was the only time any of them had seen Aaron cry. Andrew had such a tight grip on the back of Aaron’s neck during it he almost left bruises. Neil was holding his hand (neither will admit to doing such a thing). Nicky sobbed (Erik was on video call when Aaron opened the results. Erik got noise complaints from how excitedly he was cheering). Kevin finally realized medicine was Aaron’s exy and was happily shaking Aaron’s shoulders.

It goes down in fox history as one of the best moments for all of them. The photos hang on the fox wall in the foxhole court.

Wymack and Abby both keep framed photos of Aaron with his acceptance letters in their offices (right next to the photos they keep of all og 9 foxes getting their offers for pro teams).

Edit:

I FORGOT KATELYN OH FUCK

I’m at work rn but tonight I revise ok ok ok I promise (Katelyn my fellow red head I’m so sorry 😭)

[xhoneyghost]

hc that during the Minyard Josten rivalry, Andrew called Neil a "speedy fucking asshole" during a post game interview

During games, the opposite team's fans would chant "Asshole, asshole, speedy fucking asshole" everytime Neil had the ball to throw him off his game.

By the end of the season, Neil gave an interview saying "Oh, I thought they were cheering for me. Was I supposed to be offended? Do better."

And thats how Neil's fans adopted the chant and now they sing it every game he plays. Losing only for the classic, "run fast, faster, even fuckin' faster Josten is out, he's goin' to get ya"

[criminalgays]

pro-exy au but it’s all the WAGs getting together for Neil and Andrew’s team to do their holiday charity shit like a lot of real nhl WAGs do

and all the WAGs know that neil and andrew are married, but they don’t know who to, and are lowkey judging neil and andrew for not getting their wives to join to not-technically-required-but-it-totally-is-required holiday charity events they all take part in

eventually neil gets so fed up he shows up to the next WAG event just like “y’all motherfuckers wouldn’t shut the hell up so i’m here for andrew and i” and all the WAGs are like “no it’s supposed to be your wives”

it’s at this moment neil realizes he and andrew never actually told anyone outside of the foxes they’re in a relationship, let alone married

this incident becomes known in the press as “that one time the WAGs of the Kansas City Firebirds accidentally outed star exy forward Neil Josten and his husband, star exy goalie Andrew Minyard”

Kevin Day is quoted on ESPN as saying “those stupid motherfuckers couldn’t keep ONE thing to themselves”

(actually they can. no one knows that kevin lives with them in the off season too ;))

[dvrcos]

Andrew Minyard mic’d up if aftg took place today and the Foxes did social media promo

Andrew absolutely refuses to be mic’d up for a long time

When he finally agrees to do it it’s during a game against the Jackals

Everyone is sure it’ll be a bust and they won’t get much of Andrew actually talking

But to everyone’s surprise, Andrew turns his inner monologue outwards and doesn’t shut up

He commentates the game from his perspective

‘And there’s the son of Exy Kevin Day running the ball up- and oh yeah no he’s down for the count’ *huffs a laugh through his nose*

‘The other fuckers have the ball now, if my brother dearest let’s them get it to my goal I’ll kill him’

And when the opposing teams striker trips Aaron up and gets past to Andrews goal he shuts them out of course

‘He’s dead. Find a new backliner coach’

When he gets bored of the game and the backliners are keeping the ball away from his goal he starts to sing

He does a full rendition of “Life is a Highway” because Neil and him watched Cars on the bus ride to the game

And he gets into it

He makes the guitar noises with his mouth and everything

He even sings it in the best low, country voice he can do

He interrupts himself in the middle of the song suddenly, feeling the need to give his full synopsis and review of Cars

‘If I was the stupid fucking car and I fell out of my sentient truck/trailers ass I would keep driving in the same fucking direction. Simple’

‘Josten would do the same thing as Lightning McQueen. He would fuck up an entire town, he’s already done it once actually, when he came here.’

‘Stupid junkie, I hate him’ he adds but there’s a fondness in his voice

‘How do the cars reproduce? Are there humans in this universe that build cars and then make them sentient? Do the cars bang?’

Halfway through his rant one of the strikers gets past Matt and Aaron and he doesn’t even stop talking when he smacks the ball halfway across the court

When the other teams strikers start breaking through the backliners more frequently Andrew doesn’t even seem to care

He just swats every attempted goal away, squawking a quite ‘mine’ like the seagulls from Finding Nemo after hitting each one

Mine *smacks* mine *swats* mine *swish*

He keeps his goal almost completely shut down the entire game, spare a few times when the other team can get the ball past him because he’s not paying attention

‘I wonder what coach is buying us for dinner after this. I hope it's good since we’re’ *his goal lights up red* ‘Oops, anyhow it better be good, I’m working my ass off out here,’

‘What if we all started moving in slow motion. Josten and Day would look stupid running up the court like that,’ *a ball flies past his helmet* ‘If we were in slowmo I would’ve stopped that’

He plays the entire game (Renee's out with an injury) and he shuffles through doing all this the entire game

He sings verses of whatever song pops into his head

He reviews the movies he’s watched recently

He commentates the game in his dry manner, listing off every stat he knows about the other team and then explains why they still suck

He makes fun of his Foxes and the other team

He talks about his random hypotheticals

All while keeping the goal almost perfectly defended against the other teams strikers

When the game ends and the Foxes are loaded back up on the bus they listen back to the recording of Andrews mic

And they’re shocked that he doesn’t stop talking once the entire game

They listen to his entire recording on the ride back to campus

All of the Foxes are laughing the entire time

Even Neil is smiling (even though he’s used to this version of Andrew that is weird and likes to ramble)

When they post his mic’d up highlights to their social media it goes viral

It’s their most viewed and liked mic’d up video

Their fans are begging for more of Andrew mic’d up but he refuses to do it again

He got the enjoyment out of doing it once and doesn’t feel a need to do it again

The foxes do start to pay a little more attention to what Andrew’s saying while in goal (and all the time)

Aaron Mic’d up

[shouts-into-the-void]

Just read screenshots of the Aaron extra chapter and I have so many thoughts, so here they are:

It's always so funny to me to be reminded of the fact that the animosity between Aaron and Neil is mostly one-sided. Like, Neil finds Aaron frustrating, but all the antagonistic stuff he does to him is ultimately in service of helping him in some way and while he's angry when Aaron provokes him, he otherwise regards him with disinterest and even expresses the desire to see what he's like when he's relaxed and enjoying himself during the party with the Vixens. Meanwhile Aaron just really hates that man.

I really appreciated Nora using this chapter to clear up some of the gripes a lot of the fandom has had with Aaron's character in the past and confirm that Aaron's comments to Nicky have to do with his cousin making graphic and unwanted sexual advances on their teammates, and his accusations towards Neil were from a place of concern for his brother. I also liked that it was pointed out that of course he would have at least some internalized homophobia due to being raised by religious zealots in a conservative area, but is unlearning it due to Nicky.

On a similar note, I'm glad that we were provided the context that Nicky's inappropriate behavior is a defense mechanism to weed out people who might hurt him rather than legitimate advances, because I think the fandom tends to forget that he is also a character with extreme trauma written outside of the "perfect victim" stereotype. His actions aren't okay, but the entire point is that they are the result of what he's had to endure just like every other member of the team

The implication that Andrew specifically signed with the Foxes so Aaron could go to college

Aaron and Andrew have the same nervous habit of picking at loose thread

It causes me physical pain to see Andrew clearly trying to open up to Aaron about his self-harm, but because his way of communicating is less straightforward (he doesn't lie, but he because he stuggles to confront and be open with his emotions, he presents the truth in flowery, vague language) and because the two dont really know or understand each other, Aaron can't fully grasp the implications of what he's saying

On the subject of things that cause me physical pain: baby Aaron telling his mom that he wanted to be a neurosurgeon like the people on TV and her laughing and saying he'd never make anything of himself. Fuck Tilda Minyard, all my homies hate Tilda.

Andrew is so uncomfortable, someone Get Him Out of There.

Going off that and his nervous habits (that Aaron mentions he did often enough to be noticable as a habit premedication), I am highkey wondering if the reason Sober Andrew doesn't talk to anyone outside Neil is because he's just. Socially Awkward.

We get a little bit of insight into Andrew's "misogyny" (I personally think distrusting certain people as a result of extreme personal trauma is a little bit different than just being sexist, in the same way women distrusting men because they're used to being harassed and belittled isn't misandry, but that's up to your personal opinion) and that his distain for Katelyn comes from the fact that he thinks she's stringing Aaron along and will turn out to be awful like his previous girlfriends (there's also a notable implication that Aaron has the same self-destructive tendencies as Andrew, and may be why he went out of his way to get him into college and on the straight-and-narrow) also see that this extends to Bee as well despite their close relationship, with him being so afraid that she'd reject him for being gay that he can't even look at her while talking about Neil, probably made worse by the fact that she's a maternal figure for him, which is where this trauma response originates.

Aaron is the only person on the team who's aware that Andrew hasn't slept with Neil, and the only one to grasp the significance of the fact that they've gotten close to that point already despite Andrew's trauma, outside of Renee

It was overall really interesting to see inside Aaron's head (I actually wouldn't mind a book from his perspective, he has a similar way of thinking to Neil but much more grounded) and to see Andrew through the lense of someone who just views him as Just A Guy

[biscof]

For the few years that Andrew and Neil are on different pro teams Andrews team knows next to nothing about him. Now since he got off his meds and significantly mellowed out after graduating, its not that his team mates don’t like him, they just don’t know who he is outside of being an amazing player. When his teammates release their lack of Andrew Minyard info the “who the fuck is our goalie” coalition is created. They share all the information they have on Andrew in order to paint the picture of who the hell this man is.

One day one teammate comes across Andrew after practice reading a book in the players lounge. As they step closer to desifer the cover Andrew glances up at them with a questioning look. When they ask what the book is Andrew gives a surprised raise of his eyebrow and gives a shockingkly well put together synopses of the plot. After the player goes home that night they look up the book only to discover that the fantasy adventure novel that was described to them was not only an extremely sappy romance, it was also the last part of a queer YA series.

Andrew is spotted soon after at a local coffee shop drinking some sort of whip cream topped chocolate concoction with reading material much different than before. He sips his drink and peruses some large fancy looking book. With only a quick google search they realize that its some complex scientific book about Homo sapiens through history?

A few weeks later another of Andrews teammates walk in on a pacing Andrew with his phone clutched to his ear. He’s talking in an intense whisper, not angry but concerned, about some sort of cat sitter falling through. After Andrew spots them he hisses out a quick goodbye into the phone and hangs it up. When they ask what the call was about, Andrew contemplates for a second then explained that he’s visiting family and the cat sitter he had sceduled wasn’t going to be able to come after all. When the teammate volunteers to do the job Andrew only sighs but accepts their offer. After a weekend of cat sitting and semi snooping around Andrews apartment the brave cat sitter reports back to the team with all their suspicions confirmed.

Andrews pro teammates have concluded this: Andrew Minyard is not the violent and cruel man the media and his past can make him out to be. Andrew is actually a cat loving book nerd with a spotless apartment decorated in soft cream and earth tones. He is sarcastically funny and incredibly smart. And maybe, just maybe, Andrews pro team are some of the first people to see him for who he truly is under his sandpaper exterior.