#at wymack for not knowing

[odetojupiter]

i see you saying that it’s heartbreaking that wymack set up the foxes to help people with trauma but couldn’t help his own son and i raise you: wymack saved kevin before kevin left the nest, without even knowing. kevin never would have left the nest if he didn’t have somewhere to go, and wymack - with the media attention he garnered with the foxes - became such a trustworthy figure in kevin’s mind that he didn’t doubt for a second that wymack would take him in and keep him as safe as he could. wymack did help kevin, before they had even met each other, by being such a strong beacon of hope that kevin was drawn to him despite the fact that he was raised and abused in a cult and probably found trusting anyone difficult, let alone someone he hadn’t met.

something else to consider: the foxes are still a newish team (if i remember correctly seth’s year is their first year, dan is their second, meaning neil is their fifth), and jean tells neil that kevin only found out wymack was his dad a few years ago when neil is in the nest. this means that kevin will have been aware of who wymack was - outside of wymack having played the sport prior to coaching - and would have seen the type of person he was before he knew they were related. he’d have witnessed from after wymack fighting tooth and nail to support his foxes despite all the mess, the tragedies, would have seen him staying firm in his belief in second chances BEFORE he found out wymack was his dad.

think - kevin saying to jean imagine having that. jean would say it’s a publicity stunt, it’s not real, those types of people don’t exist and kevin would agree and say they’re a shit team anyway, but something about wymack always rang true to him. maybe after that conversation he didn’t bring it up - other than to say i think my mother would’ve liked dan wilds when it’s announced she’s the new captain. but he still sees wymack’s actions in his periphery, and it’s enough to build up a picture of him as someone who is real. and then he finds out it’s his dad

imagine how that would have been for kevin - going from living in a cult, cut off from any family he may have had after kayleigh’s death to suddenly being told he has a dad, and that dad is the type of person who would have risked himself if he knew what was happening to kevin.

[bookishsugarplumprincess]

biblically accurate Neil and Andrew Instagram profiles

[aalyre]

one thing about the foxes that will always make me giddy is the team taking shots at their own goals knowing that andrew’s gonna catch the ball

[foxstens]

kevin getting angry at neil for not taking his health seriously and telling neil to run then promising to teach him every night and keeping neil's binder safe without looking what's in it and calling wymack to make sure neil is okay after winter break and offering to talk about riko if neil wanted to

[bisexualchaosdemon]

Sometimes, I think about the fact that Wymack is Kevin's dad, and I want to weep. He dedicated his entire life to helping others who had grown up like he had, only to find out that his own son had grown up a caged and abused wreck? That's a level of pain that I can't even fathom.

[rekikiri]

neil is very quiet for a long time after joining the foxes. no matter how vigilant wymack tried to be, he never heard neil coming while they lived together. he got very good at hiding his flinch because neil definitely scared him more than he scared neil

[livelaughloveandread]

Nicky: *after becoming the Minyard twins’ guardian* I need an adult!

Nicky: *with a rising sense of horror* I AM an adult.

Nicky: I need an adultier adult!

Wymack: *knocks on the door to recruit Andrew*

Nicky: *with obvious relief* You!

Wymack: Huh?

[deklo]

wymack and lil kevin 🫶 they’re watching kayleigh play exy

i have many thoughts about them. many headcanons/au’s. so little time.

[sammichly]

yk what i want wymack to one day follow through and actually sign the foxes up for a marathon. they make a day out of it and everyone is So Unhappy to be there at 6:30 in the goddamn am. except for. fucking neil. hes having a grand old time going for a fun little run with his team :)

meanwhile literally everyone else is wishing a thousand fiery deaths upon him for being a sick enough bastard to enjoy this. wymack went home early.

[you-know-i-get-itt]

time to bring my url into whatever this is:

pt. 4/?

[skullism]

buying your friends embarrassing shirts to wear to the airport: foxes edition

[deadliestpieceontheboard]

can't stop thinking about Kayleigh Day. she moved to Japan for a sports management exchange program and made up a batshit insane sport. her best-friend was yakuza and apparently she had no clue. she was non-monogamous and had lovers all over the world. she had no family. she had kevin. she was fierce enough to spread exy internationally in half a decade. david wymack loved her more than she ever could love him. she became a legend but died before she could ensure women in exy were heard. the team spirit award is named after her. the best player in the world is her son. we know nothing of her but her name.

[kevindavidday]

as shifty as they were when they were younger, at the actual age that andreil are at do you think they've got the potential to be friendly strangers? like not overly friendly but the kind of people who understand what being human is

think about it, the experience of living a sheltered life and neil is standing behind someone in the grocery line, watching them unable to scour up money for ramen and water so he pays for it to help things along

andrew watching a little kid peer into his mega expensive car of the year and the kid gets scared of him and moves aside but andrew opens the door moves back, tells the kid he can have a look its fine

do you think they would interfere by force if they ever saw something bad happening in front of them? neil on his runs stopping to help someone cross the road, feeding stray cats in alleyways, yk the people who know what struggle is and don't want it for anyone else?

idk if they're the type to shrug off injustice so easily, i feel like whatever they learnt as children is buried deep inside the caution and fear of strangers and all but maybe what wymack taught them would rise to the surface too cuz if wymack hadn't chosen to help them they wouldn't be alive either

[knox-knocks]

Do you think the adults ever looked at neil and andrew and just remarked about how young they look? 18 and 19 at the beginning of the books. they’re like Babies compared to them.

Like imagine betsy listening to andrew tell her about how he feels responsible for the safety of his family. and he’s just. so so young to have this much weight on his shoulders.

And abby tracking neil’s scars with her eyes. sure she’s seen a lot while working with the foxes, but this… not to mention wymack picking neil up from the airport and noticing how small he is when he’s cradling his broken body in his arms. how he has more scars and bruises than unblemished skin

[o-vera-nalyzing]

perhaps the biggest thing i ignore in aftg canon are the heights. and i don’t mean like neil/aaron/andrew cause they’re very short in my head. i mean like kevin/wymack/matt/jean. cause like as someone who has a very tall family and a dad who played d1 football i just cannot see someone who is 6’2 as tall. 6’4 is where i start considering someone tall. like in my head matt is 6’6, kevin is 6’4, wymack is 6’3, and jean is 6’5. wymack was 6’4 back in the day but he’s shrinking. and nothing anyone can do will convince me otherwise

[thesoupcanner]

Sometimes I forget just how terrible of a narrator Neil is. Like the only people that didn't catch onto Andrew's feeling were Neil and the audience. I wonder just how obvious Andrew was but we don't know about it because Neil is just so in his head about things he dismissed it