#so stick with me

[cowboygideon]

Hi, please enjoy this little Challengers drabble I wrote. It's mostly a character study of Art?? I guess?? And it's essentially artrick, but if I continued it, the intention would be throuple endgame, so keep that in mind. Also, it's tragically unedited, and sentence structure means nothing to me. Anyway, here it is—!

---

After New Rochelle, it’s like a switch in Art’s brain flips. He feels Patrick’s hands on his back, the sliver of skin at his waist where his shirt rode up when he jumped, ghosting over the scars on his shoulders—and, somehow, it twists his stomach like a betrayal.

Patrick wins the match. He tries to talk to Art afterwards, chases him off the court, but Art just can’t. He can’t talk to Patrick, not after the match they just played. It’s not even about the signal, that goddamned serve, even though it should be. Really—and he doesn’t want to admit this to himself, inside his own brain, even—it’s about the fact that it’s been thirteen fucking years and playing tennis with Patrick still feels the way it did at Mark Rebellato, still lights up every synapses in his brain, still feels like really good sex, or something equally euphoric. It’s also about the fact that there’s been a hole, a giant gaping wound, in Art’s gut for over a decade, and now it feels like it's scabbing over.

It’s about the fact that Art doesn’t even care that he lost. It’s about the fact that he knows that he’d lose a thousand fucking matches, a million, if it meant getting those years back; if it meant he wouldn’t have Patrick’s hurt, confused expression outside of that room at Stanford tattooed on the back of his eyelids, burning there everytime he blinked.

Tashi finds him afterwards—he can’t hide from her, not anymore.

He tells her he’s quitting tennis.

He tells her he needs some space.

What the fuck does that mean, Art?

I—I don’t know, Tashi. I just need a second.

A second?

He leaves her, standing in the waning afternoon light, outlined in the sun like a fucking angel, wondering what he meant by a second. He wants to tell her what he meant. He doesn’t know what he meant, he realizes, and then he goes to the bathroom and vomits up his breakfast. When that meager meal is gone, he sits on the grimy tile with his head in his hands, wondering if he’d just fucked up his entire life.

---

By a second, Art meant a separation—or, at least, that’s how Tashi takes it. She doesn’t yell at him, doesn’t say anything, really, as Art packs some of his clothes into a couple suitcases. He brings his tennis gear, which Tashi also, very pointedly, says nothing about.

She follows him down stairs—a giant sweeping staircase; white, sterile, like everything else in this monster of a house, which Art has many times considered throwing himself down, bleeding out just to give the place a little color—and outside into the driveway.

She stands, their mansion at her back, arms folded across her chest, nails digging into her biceps. He wants to go to her, take her hands in his and work the tension out of them. He still loves her—so fucking much, a painful amount—but he also knows that he needs this. Tennis is Tashi is tennis. It doesn’t matter how many years stretch between now and the last time she actually played a match, Art knows the sport would never relinquish its hold on her.

And that’s perfectly fine. But if Art wants to quit, and wants to really commit to it, he can’t be falling asleep, waking up next to a constant reminder of everything he was leaving behind. After so many losses, after his blatant loss of passion, anyone would believe that this was Art Donaldson simply giving up, giving in. They’d believe it was easy for him, like he could just put down his racket and never pick it up again, and that was the end.

But he knows it isn’t going to be easy. As much as tennis has ripped him apart these past couple of years, it’s a very real, very big part of him. It’s his childhood, his college experience, his livelihood. It’s how he met Tashi, it’s why he has a beautiful daughter.

It’s how he met Patrick fucking Zweig.

“I slept with Patrick,” Tashi says, after a couple very long minutes of silence. She’s staring him right in the eyes, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, unashamed but sympathetic. “Before the final.”

Art shifts his weight onto his back foot, clutches the strap of the duffel on his shoulder. He knows, of course, but he didn’t expect her to just come out and admit it.

“And I talked to him afterwards,” Tashi continues. Now she looks away, training her gaze on the concrete. “He wants me to coach him.”

That is a surprise. Art’s heart seizes in his chest, and he feels the same way he felt after he lost the Junior Open final to Patrick and lost Tashi to him, too. Like one game had just determined his entire future. Like he’d really, truly failed.

“Are you going to do it?” Art asks. “Coach him, I mean.”

There are a couple more moments of tense silence, which is familiar. Their marriage has consisted of a lot of those silences the past couple of years, disjointed conversations mingled with stale air, pulled taut between them, like a tightrope of pain and indignation.

“I’m considering it.”

Art nods. There’s not much else to do besides that, he thinks, but he says something else anyway, not really knowing why: “You should.”

Tashi looks up from the ground, a plain shock opening up her face. It’s not often he surprises her. “Seriously?”

Art shrugs. “Why not?” There are a lot of answers to that, but he continues, “I think he has a few good years left in him.”

A beat. Tashi’s mouth pulls up at the corner, tucking a small smile into her cheek. “That’s what he said.”

Art hums. Of course he did, Art doesn’t say. Of course, even after all these years, they’d maintained some of that signature synchronization.

Tashi tells Art to pick Lily up this Friday, at around lunch time, and Art agrees. A quick, perfunctory hug that neither of them wants and he’s off, driving fifteen minutes away, further into the heart of Palm Beach, where he’s renting an obscenely expensive apartment. While he drives he thinks about how close they are to the academy he’d grown up in; Mark Rebellato sat only half an hour or so south, near Delray. With the thought comes that familiar roiling in his stomach, a painful twist of nausea so powerful he considers pulling over.

It was funny when they bought a house here—Tashi and Mark Rebellato had been slotted into very separate parts of his brain, a kind of before and after. He’d (they’d) met Tashi at the beginning of senior year, the end of August, so, really, he’d had about nine months of both Tashi and the academy mingling in his mind. But the entirety of that year had been permeated by both the thought and the absence of her, the memory and the repression of what had happened in that fucking hotel room. She and Patrick’s phone calls started to take up half of the time that he and Patrick used to dedicate to each other.

Before and After.

---

Art and Tashi are separated for six months—half a year, Jesus Christ—before he sees Patrick again.

He knows she’s training him. It’s all over the sports channel, for one thing, stories about Tashi Donaldson’s new project spliced with stories about his own retirement. It's a devastating, headache-inducing loop that he cannot bear to turn off.

He keeps playing tennis, somehow. Not as often, obviously, but just enough to keep him sane. He’d tried to go cold turkey in the beginning, spent an entire week laying on his bed in his empty apartment, dreaming about the New Rochelle match; the win in the doubles tournament; his loss to Patrick the next day. It was enough to make him consider taking a dive off the balcony.

Still, it’s nice. Eating a burger for the first time in a decade, sleeping past five-thirty, playing for fun, not to get somewhere.

Nice.

How he manages to avoid Patrick for so long, he isn’t sure. An act of God, maybe. Maybe some very intentional scheduling on Tashi’s part, maybe some subconscious effort on his own. Either way, his breath catches every single time he leads Lily up to the house, peering up and down the street for Patrick’s shitty white Honda CR-V, listening for the tell-tale sound of a ball hitting a racket out back. But there’s nothing. Six months of nothing.

It’s enough that he gets comfortable, simultaneously grateful and disappointed in the fact that he clearly isn’t meant to ever see Patrick Zweig again. He’d walked away from that part of his life: Tashi and tennis, and by extension, Patrick.

So, when he sees that familiar head of dark curls behind Tashi when she opens the door, his heart plummets, from his chest into his gut.

Tashi looks surprised to see him. “Art,” she says. “You’re early.”

Patrick is in one of the chairs in the sitting room, which is past the entryway, all the way across the room, beside the sliding glass doors that lead to the backyard. He’s so far that his head is really more a dark smudge against the bleached white of the house, but he turns around when Tashi says Art’s name.

Art checks his watch. It’s ten forty-five, he usually drops Lily off a little after eleven. “I guess,” he says.

He can hear the sounds of a bag being packed, the sound of rackets clacking against tile and clothing shifting against polyester. Then, Patrick-smudge stands up, heaves a bag-smudge onto his shoulder.

“Hi, Mommy,” Lily says.

Tashi’s shoulders, squared and tense, relax at their daughter’s voice. She smiles—uninhibited, all teeth, a smile she reserves for Lily alone—and opens her arms. “Hi, sweetie,” she says, and tucks Lily into her side in a tight hug.

When they separate, Lily turns around and hugs Art. “Bye, Daddy,” she says, muffled against his shirt.

“Bye, Lils,” Art says. He wraps his arms around her, feels his shaking hands still against her tiny shoulders, his one constant. “I love you so much, okay? I’ll see you next weekend, baby.”

Lily pulls back, an affronted look on her face. “Um, no!” she says. “My show’s on Wednesday, remember?”

He does remember. Her dance recital, he’d been looking forward to it all month. It was marked on the calendar on his fridge, a reminder on his phone.

The sight of Patrick had thrown him off more than he’d care to admit.

Art brought his hands to his mouth, a show of exaggerated remorse. “Oh, my God,” he says. He kneels in front of her and puts his hands on her shoulders. “Of course, I remember, Lils, I’ve never been this excited for anything in my life.”

She giggles, and he pulls her into another crushing hug, pressing a dozen kisses to the top of her head. “Okay, okay!” she says, pulling away.

“One more,” he says and presses a last kiss to her forehead.

“Gross, Dad,” Lily says, nose-wrinkled, but she’s smiling at him, and so is Tashi. For a moment, they aren’t living in separate houses, trading their daughter back and forth at the end of every week. For a moment, they’re a family.

Then Art stands, and looks past them. And—Patrick.

He’s smiling, too.

Lily takes her bag off the steps and slides past Tashi to head inside. She waves to Patrick as she passes him. “Hi, Patrick,” she chirps, and Art is thrown by the familiarity there.

Patrick glances at Art, so quick he almost misses it, and then waves back. “Hey, Lily,” he says. “You have fun with your dad?”

“Yeah,” she says. “We went to the zoo!”

“Awesome,” Patrick says, grinning like it really is awesome. “I’m about to head out, so I’ll see you later, kid.”

“Okay, bye, Patrick.”

Art watches them, a little bewildered, before returning his gaze to Tashi.

She talks before he can: “He’s here for training, and he stays for dinner sometimes,” she says. “That’s it.”

Art thinks this is her way of telling him that she’s not sleeping with Patrick, but it's hard to say. Not that he could object, exactly. He’s the one who asked for a second.

Patrick-smudge becomes a full-fledged Patrick as he approaches them in the doorway. There’s this stupid fucking sheepish look on his face, like a kid who’s been caught with his hand in the cookie jar—which, on anyone else, would look just that: fucking stupid; but on Patrick is irritatingly endearing. Art remembers Patrick was always good at that, at making his bad qualities look like good ones.

Regardless, it doesn’t lend much credence to Tashi’s proclamation that she and Patrick aren’t fucking, but Art attempts to suspend judgement. If they are, he thinks, he can’t blame her. Not really. Not when Patrick looks—well.

Back in New Rochelle, he and Tashi had caught a split-second of one of Patrick’s matches, his third or fourth, maybe, not long after the tournament started. As they headed back to the hotel, Tashi had talked at Art about how terrible Patrick looked, with the scruff and the track marks and the general air of a stray dog that’d wandered onto a tennis court.

Art hadn’t contributed much to that conversation, for the simple fact that he didn’t entirely agree with her. Later, in the sauna, his suspicion was only further proven: Patrick Zweig, thirty years old, living out of his car, maybe addicted to drugs, still looked really fucking good. The universe was truly cruel.

Crueler still is the fact that now, under Tashi’s care, with a workout regime and a real bed, he looks impossibly better.

So, yeah, if Tashi is fucking him, Art won’t—can’t—blame her. Patrick has that effect.

Patrick hovers around Tashi’s shoulder in the doorway, staring at Art. Art deliberately does not stare back.

“Tomorrow,” Tashi says. “Six a.m. Don’t be late, Zweig.”

She says Zwieg like people usually do, pronouncing it with the w sound, instead of like a v. Art used to correct people when they were kids. He doesn’t now.

Patrick salutes. “Yes, Coach.”

“I’m fucking serious, Patrick,” she says, casting a glare over her shoulder.

Patrick throws his hands up. “So am I, Tashi! When am I not serious?”

Art has to look up at that, out of habit, leveling Patrick with a glare that used to say you’re being such an idiot, and they make eye contact. Patrick grins. Art doesn’t.

“Art,” Tashi says, voice softer. “I’ll see you Wednesday, okay?”

“Yeah,” Art says. He doesn’t want to watch the two of them say goodbye, deal with the fanfare that a goodbye entails, so he turns and starts down the driveway. He can hear them talking as he walks, and then a door shutting. Then there’s the sound of slides scuffing against concrete.

“Hey, man, wait up,” Patrick says.

Art hesitates, mid-step, and is reminded of Patrick following him after winning the challenger.

“Art, man, come on,” he says. “Just talk to me for a second.”

Art stops. Turns around.

Patrick is wearing one of his stupid muscle-tees, a pair of his even stupider mid-thigh length gym shorts. So, to put it plainly, he looks fucking stupid. He also looks so Patrick that Art swallows.

“What?” Art says.

There’s a smile on Patrick’s face, as there usually is, but it’s not as sure as Art remembers it. His eyebrows are pushed together, his grin failing a bit at the corners. He looks hesitant, cautious, which are both decidedly not patented Patrick emotions. “Uh,” he says, like now that he has Art, he doesn’t know what to do with him. “I just wanted to, I don’t know. Say hi. I guess.”

Some of the anger simmering in Art’s gut fizzles out—he can’t help it. “Hey,” he says quietly.

“Hi,” Patrick returns. His smile regains some sincerity and he drags his eyes over Art, appraising him. “You look good.”

Art huffs out a laugh. “Yeah, you, too, dude.”

“That’s what having a mattress will do for you.”

He says it jokingly, but at the same time it's a reminder—of Patrick’s years spent without him, of Art’s spent without Patrick, of the fact that Patrick was living out of his fucking car and doing drugs which is still an idea that Art can’t wrap his head around.

They stare at each other for a moment.

Then Patrick says, hooking his thumb over his shoulder, “I still can’t believe you had a kid, man.”

It’s not what Art’s expecting him to say, treading over another reminder of their separation, but Art hums and nods anyway. He isn’t sure how else to respond. There are some thoughts swirling around in his head, prospective replies piled up beside things he would never fucking say under any circumstances, the loudest of which is: I still can’t believe I had a kid without you, which Art understands is a very odd thing to think, so he mentally scratches it out and replaces it with: I still can’t believe I had a kid and you weren’t there, which he also understands is only marginally better.

Art casts a look around, checking the driveway and the street, and finds only his car parked up by the garage.

Patrick says immediately, like he’s reading Art’s mind, “Tashi picked me up today. My car’s in the shop, its—”

“Shitty, yeah,” Art finishes.

Patrick hesitates a split-second before laughing. “Yeah, it is,” he says. “I’m just going to get an Uber back to my apartment.”

Some deep-rooted urge to take care of Patrick, fostered by six years of living out Patrick’s pocket and Patrick living out of his, of pushing their beds together and operating in complete synchrony, compels him to say, “I can take you.” He pauses, then adds, “If you want.”

“Oh,” Patrick says. His eyebrows have shot up to his hairline, and he’s momentarily stunned into silence. Another unfamiliar occurrence. “Uh, yeah. I mean, yeah, if you don’t mind. Thanks, Art.”

tbc.

[sunrizef1]

are you still doing the what happens in vegas series?

Okay it took me entirely too long to answer this because I'm not exactly sure

Like… yes?

I honestly thought people had stopped caring about the series and with that, I didn't want to keep putting out whiv chapters if people only wanted like one-shots or smaus

I was also kind of getting burnt out about it but now that its been a while, Im thinking I'll get back into it with a fresh mind

Tldr: yes, but it might be slow until I get the next one out because the worst part for me is starting a chapter

[crabussy]

hey. don’t cry. crush four cloves of garlic into a pot with a dollop of olive oil and stir until golden then add one can of crushed tomatoes a bit of balsamic vinegar half a tablespoon of brown sugar and stir for a few minutes adding a handful of fresh spinach until wilted and mix in half a cup of grated parmesan cheese and pasta of your choice ok?

[curlyhairedprince]

nick nelson is the head of the lesbians protection squad.

[lichen-soup-scribe]

So, my spouse has been exploring his gender lately; he also just built himself a new laptop. Today he told me that he in an attempt to process some genderfeels through metaphor, he made a post on a trans forum along the lines of: "I'm a lifelong Windows user and I think I'm pretty good at it. I want to find out what Linux has to offer but I'm afraid I wouldn't be any good at it. And how do you choose the right Linux distro, anyway? Do you have to try them all?"

The responses, he said, were a mix of useful advice about feeling out your gender and useful advice about choosing a Linux distro.

I love trans people so much

Edit 4/8, in case you don't see the reblogged additions -- my wife is now going by Eve!

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

[spookberry]

post trick or treating activity

[verocitea]

Behold, the truth.

[livixbobbiex]

You know what's fun?

They seem to have made Percy more on the inattentive end of ADHD than hyperactive. Aside from the capture the flag scene, we mostly just see him zoning out, 'daydreaming', the line "I don't think it's the marshmallow's fault I never pay attention".

ADHD barely gets good representation as it is, but I don't think I've ever seen the inattentive type in media like this before. This is going to be huge for a lot of people who don't fall under the hyperactive stereotype umbrella.

I'm just really excited that more people will get the chance to see themselves.

[demigods-posts]

percy doing better than annabeth in college is one my favorite developments in the rrverse. if we reflect on percy and annabeth's academic upbringing. annabeth living at camp allowed her to receive accommodations for her adhd and dyslexia and surround herself with like-minded campers who had the same limitations. whereas percy was ridiculed, belittled, and routinely humiliated because of his adhd and dyslexia. even more so, percy's friends and family leave him out of the loop on so many important issue (no chb orientation film, no information about the great prophecy) which perpetuates his subpar confidence and self-esteem in his skills as a student and a demigod. but going to college at NRU changes his mindset because he receives the accommodations he should have gotten years ago and fucking thrives to the point of getting higher grades than annabeth — a person he deems way smarter and more prepared than him in every way. the most important thing percy is learning now is that a supportive environment makes all the difference, and he is more capable than he initially thought.

[not-the-dum-e]

[x]

[ghosted-jazz]

Traffic Gals- Introducing Gem!

[egophiliac]

I don’t think we’ve ever seen you draw knight of dawn before 🤔 what are your thoughts about him? Or take?

I've drawn him a couple of times, just really little/in the background. but I should draw him more, I love this guy a lot! I have many, many thoughts about him and the way he parallels Silver...and also I think it is extremely funny that his ghost is stuck in a ring. especially considering where that ring has been for the last 16-ish years.

[zebratimw]

"All those empty rooms

We could have been anywhere, anywhere else

Instead, I made a bed with apathy

My heart knew the weight

Ten years worth of dust and neglect

We made our peace with weariness and let it be..."

(Song: The Moon will Sing by the Crane Wives)

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

real talk having the 2nd worst new years eve yet 🤢🤢🤢 (throat infection, twisted neck, banged-about-foot, ego AND the rest o' me all bruised like misjuggled peaches 🍑🍑🍑)

im bent outa shape and suspectin the universe owes me 8 buck if anyone wannsa chip in

[3twindragons]