#jamie tartt's undiagnosed auditory processing disorder

[jamiesfootball]

Another idea I've kicked around is a fic where season one Jamie gets stuck at Richmond because of the quarantine.

The timing would need to be adjusted for a bit, but the gist of it being that Jamie gets the send off back to City, only for City to refuse his return and send him right back around for health / safety protocol reasons. Guidelines are in flux, even with the masks they don't want to take the risk, Richmond is already exposed to him, etc.

So Jamie gets stuck at Richmond the way that gum gets stuck to the bottom of a shoe. Except now he knows they don't want him there. Even after he tried, they don't want him there.

The team looks at him, and they think he meant to leave, because no one told them otherwise.

With a complicated smile, Ted offers him a handshake and a, 'Hey, Jamie. Good to have you back- sorry it didn't work out."

Mind games.

Then take away his ability to go outside and distract himself.

Take away the crowds in the stands cheering his name.

And he could probably, maybe deal with all that if it weren't for all the masks, because it turns out when he can't look at people's mouths, he can barely understand what they're saying. He can't even hear how people hate him anymore.

[jamiesfootball]

do you happen to know the title / have the link to that jamie auditory processing fic?

Sure do! It's called 'Cityzens' by MayAChance and it fucking rocks!

@faithinchances does an amazing job at weaving together an absolute tour de force of hilarious cat acquisition (BEST CATS. AMAZING 10/10 CAT PORTRAYAL) and fucking heartbreaking character introspection. The story picks up directly after Jamie is sent back to City in season one, and it is THE story to me for exploring Jamie with his old teammates in a football environment that he actually understands. As such, this fic runs Richmond-critical, and god does it work, poking critically at comedic moments until the suspension of disbelief pops like a balloon.

Then there's the aforementioned undiagnosed auditory processing disorder, the portrayal of which makes me fucking feral. The sheer amount of effort it takes Jamie just to be able to hold a conversation - to say nothing of the times he flat out gives up on understanding what's going on. Combined with what is clearly some undiagnosed autism, touch-starvation, and the fact that so many of his coaches seem to fucking hate him for reasons he can't seem to ever puzzle out, and this Jamie is struggling all over the place just to keep it together.

And then there's his fucking dad. Because Jamie's back in Manchester, and this is all taking place between his return in season one and the breaking point of him quitting football in season two, and oh, OOOH, when I say I was on the edge of my seat when I found out the story was drawing to a close.

My emotions are literally spilled all over the floor with this fic. Can never recommend enough

Link here for fic *

*Note: For those that don't know, with locked fics you need to be logged into AO3 for the link to open, which doesn't always work if you're on mobile in the tumblr app. if issue persists, open link in desktop browser once you're already logged in to AO3)

WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION. PEP IS IN THIS ONE. A VERSION OF PEP. HE'S GREAT!