#the Nest

[dawnatlas]

forever partner friday but it's on a saturday and i gave up halfway through so its messy as hell

anways... what's spookier than the nest am i right

[kevjeanday]

Current WIP

[m1ll3nn1uml1nt]

Actually obsessed with the trojans (specifically Jeremy) calling out the weird ass language Jean and Kevin use. Like no it’s weird that Kevin casually talks about Jean submitting. It’s weird that a grown ass man insisted on being referred to as ‘the master’ by his team. Like we get used to it with the foxes bc they just talk Like That, but to any normal person it’s jarring as hell.

Like to me it really points out how everything, down to how the ravens talk, was a means of control and manipulation and how it’s so indicative of a the abusive culture of the nest

[fairvstairs]

You just don't get him like I do.

Wymack pulled a bottle of vodka out of the bag and put it down beside Kevin. “You have ten seconds to inhale as much of this as you can. I’m timing you. Go.” It was alarming how much a man could drink when he needed an emotional crutch. Wymack had to pry the bottle from Kevin’s desperate fingers afterward.

Kevin was silent for an endless minute, then said, “You should be  Court.” It was barely a whisper, but it cut Neil to the bone. It was a resentful goodbye to the bright future Kevin had wanted for Neil. Kevin recruited Neil because he believed in  Neil’s potential. He brought him to the Foxes intending to make a star athlete out of him. Despite his condescending attitude and his dismissals of Neil’s best efforts Kevin honestly expected Neil to make the national team after graduation.

“Good thing you’re not there anymore.” “Jean still is.”

“Let Riko be King,” Kevin said, with the exaggerated enunciation of the thoroughly sloshed. “Most coveted, most protected. He’ll sacrifice every piece he has to protect his throne. Whatever. Me?” Kevin gestured again, meaning to indicate himself but too drunk to get his hand higher than his waist. “I’m going to be the deadliest piece on the board.”

Before he stepped on Kevin tapped the butt of his racquet against the floor and passed his stick to his other hand. He stroked to half-court head high and left-handed and the crowd went wild.  

[goryhorroor]

horror sub-genres: insect

[broken-heart-raven-queen]

*At Christmas break in the Nest*

Jean: I don't know how he didn't budge by now and signed the contract. Can't you guide his hand when he is unconscious or something?

Riko stabbing Neil on his side and looking at Jean: No, Jean, that'd be highly illegal.

[bees-figurines]

If Exy was a real sport would I watch a single match? No. But would I click on a 3h long video essay on YouTube titled "I read all of the Nest conspiracy theories so you don't have to"? Absolutely yes.

[okjii]

once again thinking about the parallels of Neil going into the Nest over Christmas break for Andrew and Orpheus going into the Underworld for Eurydice. hows your day going though.

[aziraphale-is-a-cat]

I think the most ironic part of the Nest and the power balance between Riko and Jean, Kevin, and Neil is that out of the four of them, Kevin is arguably the only one not an owned man.

Neil and Jean were given to the Moriyamas, but Kevin was raised as the child of a late colleague. Over the course of the story the only person really coming after Kevin was Riko, the Moriyamas family really had no interest in whether he remained a Raven until Neil came into the picture.

Kevin could, and did, walk away from Edgar Allen, and Neil was never required to stay there by anything other than Riko's seemingly unaffiliated blackmail, the only interest the main family had was in the potential profit of their careers. The Nest was never a prison made for them, and in the end it even let go of Jean, but Riko could never leave.

If Riko decided he'd had enough of the Ravens and tried to transfer out to another team like the others, he wouldn't be able to. If he decided he wanted any other life than what he was given, he couldn't have it. Riko was trapped in the Nest in a much more permanent way.

Riko spent his whole life convincing Kevin that he was property not of the Moriyamas specifically, but of the Nest, because that's what Riko was. Kevin was the first to leave, but Riko never did.

[ulysses-s-wishes]

It’s not really funny but I’ll never get over Neil saying “oh, these injuries that were very obviously caused by handcuffs? Yeah I got these in a fight.” and also Jean saying “Yeah, my hair got pulled out on the court during a scrimmage, while I was wearing a helmet.” I know they can’t tell the truth, but babes, how would that happen! Those are injuries are physically impossible to experience in the manner you are describing!

[k0nanharv3y]

Robin Hood Au Part 8

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7

///

"See? He's just silly" Steph said, making sure she could only be heard by the people at the table

"I was convinced that the suspect would be someone of interest, not to mention that he is surprisingly mediocre" Damian pressed himself back in his chair, crossing his arms and looking around the cafeteria with some interest under the contempt

"I agreed with Blondie this time, it may had just been a coincidence"

Bruce's eyes swept over all of his children, stopping at Dick and Cass, both of them staring at different places

Dick stared intently at the corkboard, and Cass followed the barista's every move, with a soft, almost unnoticeable frown

"What are you looking at Richard?" Damian stepped forward, following the blue gaze of the second oldest Wayne

"The pictures, are gone, I swear I saw them yesterday's night, it isn't- I can't belive that's a coincidence, they were right there!" He leaned forward a little further and pointed at the blackboard "I-..."

"Stephanie, order ready, Damian, order ready, Cassandra, order ready!" The boy's voice interrupted him, loud enough to be heard over the people's conversations

"That was fast" Duke was surprised

The three called stood up from their seats, walking towards the bar, thanking and carefully taking the trays with food

Cass never took her eyes off Timothy and Damian returned with a frown

"I consider it disrespectful that he doesn't dare to look me in the eyes" Damian slid the tray onto the table and looked at the food before looking back at the boy, finishing arranging a few things on someone else's tray

"Thomas, order ready!" Duke got up and went for it

"But I have to admit that his food looks decent"

"I thought you liked people being afraid of you" Jason glanced at the food and smelled the aroma it had "It almost... smells like Alfred's" Jason turned to look at Cass's food and she offered him a cookie, now only glancing surreptitiously at the boy "Nah, thanks kiddo" he declined

Duke slid across the table, setting down his tray carefully and smiling. "I think I've never had something that smells this good"

"Don't insult Pennyworth's food like that, Thomas"

"I was referring to something bought in a cafeteria, I would never insult Alfred's food"

"Kids, don't fight in here"

"Richard, order ready!" Dick quickly stood up and walked with a (practiced) smile to the bar

"Back to my point, he has spoken to me disparagingly since I came in and has not dared to look me in the eyes, it's path-"

"Damian" Bruce interrupted him, glancing at him

"Bruce, order ready!" The boy's voice cracked almost comically, and Jason smiled because this was a teenage rooster, and he remembered that Tim was, in fact, still 17 years old

Bruce stood up and walked to the bar, while Dick returned

"Maybe he just... doesn't like kids...?" Duke tried to justify, not taking his eyes off the food, wanting to start nibbling on everything

"Or maybe he's just racist" Steph joked and Jason smiled "I mean, It's not that far-fetched, he was a rich kid, he's white as fuck, although I don't think that's it, but, it could be possible"

Damian frowned and growled in his sister's direction

"Hey, don't look at me like that, brat, you were racist with me for being blonde!"

"And I was not wrong"

Jason let out a giggle and began to laugh along with Dick and Cass's soft cackle. Bruce came back and put his tray down as he sat

"Jason, order ready!"

Jason stood up and started walking to the bar, still laughing a little

And the table fell into a comfortable silence, everyone waiting for Jason to arrive so they could start eating. It wasn't a tradition they had at the manor, but it was in public places thanks to the fact that, even though they had been ignoring it, they could hear the murmurs of "Wayne" from the tables that were watching them out of the corner of their eyes

And when he came back he seemed to be trying to juggle between two trays, the one with his food and a smaller, curved one with cookies in plastic bags

Bruce quickly took the smaller one away so Jason could sit down

And once everyone was at the table, they looked at their food, and noticed the napkins on each plate

Oh god, Steph was right

They were pre-written, but they were all, more than anything, disconcerting

"I would like to eat first" Steph took her drink and took a big sip and thought 'Tim, help me help you' as she watched him out of the corner of her eye leaning on the bar and looking at his phone as he had nothing to do, but still with a frown

///

Hey, if someone wants me to tag u in comments when i make a new post, lemme know cuz I always forget who is who

[corner-collects-rocks]

sometimes i wonder if kevins obsession with exy is actually some deep rooted need to be connected to his mom, who like created the game. im sure riko made quick work of putting kevin in his place once he got to the nest so im sure he buried himself in exy originally as a way to escape riko sure. but all that trauma so quickly? part of his obsession has to be because hes trying to hold onto his mom or a time before everything got bad. idk sometimes the way neil and andrew talk about kevins obsession with exy it sounds like kevins doing everything in his power to use exy as a coping mechanism. (im sure i couldve worded this better if it wasnt 2:30 but like- think about it)

[elene78-blog]

I've read that the Ravens are caricatured and ridiculous villains, and I'm sorry to be completely biased, but I think the Ravens are very well-developed as villains (which, in reality, they aren't, or not all of them) and are by no means the epitome of evil.

The thing about the Ravens is that their motivations and construction are read between the lines. Nora doesn't delve into them for the simple reason that we're in Neil's point of view, and they're never discussed on a deep level. Neil isn't interested in that, and it doesn't have a place in the main trilogy either. Nora is interested in developing the Foxes, not the Ravens, but...

There was a Kevin in the Ravens.

There was a Jean in the Ravens.

Among the Ravens, there was also a Riko, a Grayson (who, according to Lucas, wasn't like that before The Nest), a Zane who was in love with Colleen and tried to kill himself after her suicide and still wants to die, a Lyle, a Sergio, a Thea...

In the first trilogy, I can't deny that the Ravens were a poorly developed concept, but... in the new trilogy? Jean has given us a whole world of different perceptions.

Those who say the Ravens are just villains may be skimming the surface. All the people who entered The Nest had their stories. Those who attacked the Foxes must have had them too, but we don't know them because they weren't close to Jean, and that's what this new trilogy tells us.

What it basically tells us is that The Nest erases all traces of goodness and turns you into something horrible. Kevin could have been something horrible, and so was Jean, but due to their circumstances, they managed to escape from that and not die trying. What we see now is the result of those who failed to take the step Kevin and Jean took.

CAUTION! I'M NOT DEFENDING RIKO OR GRAYSON.

I think The Nest brings out the worst in people because it's a cult, and in such an environment, people who were good become bitter, hard, and aggressive (Jean, Kevin, Thea), and people who had dark desires (like Grayson and Riko) find support and decide to exploit them.

Riko was a sadist (I don't know if by birth or because of his upbringing), and the environment of The Nest and his position within it allowed him to nurture his sadism and feel supported. Grayson surely had dark desires he didn't allow himself to explore because he knew there would be consequences in California. But in The Nest? Where everyone is cruel and Jean can't fight back? He allowed himself to feed the monster. It's possible that, if he hadn't gone to The Nest, he would never have become a rapist. Or maybe he would.

What I mean is that the real villain is The Nest, and how the environment corrupts boys and girls who pursue their dreams until they become monsters or shadows, and that concept is very, very well developed in the new trilogy.

The Ravens are not caricatured villains. They're people who have fallen into the hands of a mafia-controlled cult and have made shitty decisions based on that.

This concept is very well developed, and I have to say, I find it more psychologically interesting than Riko being a jerk.

[andrew-03-minyard]

just remembering how Kevin is such a nerd he begged Riko to major in history with him while at the nest and Riko was such a simp he agreed without hesitation

[sunriseabram]

i like to think that neil adapts his accent to match whoever he is talking to...so does that mean in the nest he spoke in a slight french accent