#the plot of aftg is really not what interests me at all i just like the characters

[dayurno]

[true-bluesargent]

finally read lazarus today and i am bit excited for tsc now... i am not NEARLY as invested in aftg as my blogging habits would suggest honestly but it will be so interesting to see things from a perspective that isn't neil's and i think jean as a character is so fascinating

[capcavan]

i think a lot of people with modern heteronormative, allo sensibilities read the books and view it as the beginning stages of neil and andrew's relationship, as them just getting together with later stages of intimacy and familiarity to come post-canon. i can see how that might be seen as the case given how common of an arc and ending it is in a lot of fiction. but the way i interpreted it is that the way andrew and neil are at the end of the trilogy IS the final conclusion/final form of their relationship. the whole trilogy was about their developing relationship. it went through all the stages of initial interest, learning about each other, figuring out each others boundaries and even agreeing on a plan for how they want to continue. not saying their relationship won't continue to develop in small ways but i think the shape of their relationship is pretty firmly set by the end of tkm. that's why they sound like an old couple who have been together for ages in tsc. for them, this is it. this is how it's going to be.

and idk, i just really appreciate that about aftg. it feels complete to me. that's why i find it quite sweet for andrew and neil to never marry and never say 'i love you'. and i really like your idea that they'd just find workarounds of (potentially) dubious legality just so that they can maintain the state of their current relationship. because it would mean that they are as content with each other and how they are together in the future as they are in the present.

but that's just my interpretation of canon. it has no bearing on peoples' own hc and interpretations.

i think people especially younger part of fandom sees marriage just as narrative plot point not realising what marriage as systemic tool is - marriage is tool that is meant to provide benefits to 2 people to keep them from separating specifically in case of them having children. Marriage is a way to secure relationship in a way that can be considered forceful. Yes not all marriages are like this but for many people marriage is a leash that is put on them by law. Neil and Andrew do not need law to force them to stay together, they already choose each other, they are SECURE. and above all , they love each other enough to know they would not want the other to need divorce if they choose to leave. No I am not saying that marriage is BAD but that it is much more than end goal trope of romance plot, if we put so much care into considering those characters trauma and mental health i think deep consideration of what marriage is, and can be, is also in place.

[codename-adler]

AftG AUs I NEED : An Open Invitation to All Writers

sharing ideas i’ve toyed with for so long but i’m beginning to accept i prolly won’t ever write, thus i’m taking a chance some of these will bewitch someone out there body and soul, and i’ll be able to scratch the itch a little… the more the merrier after all !

The Last of Us : either a romantic version of Joel & Ellie’s dynamic (obv. with the ages adjusted) /OR/ episode 3 AU 🥲 [any ship] {EDIT: i KNOW it’s been done already once, twice, but i *need* more! not just with Andreil! let’s be explorers of possibilities, cmon!!}

Detroit: Become Human : this one i’m really only thinking of Andreil, with either as android and the other as human… i don’t necessarily see them conforming to a specific plot line from the game, i think the android/human dynamic is interesting enough and fits them perfectly, but go off i guess !

Brokeback Mountain : i don’t really need to explain this one do i? happy ending vs. canon character death, that is the true question… [any ship]

Titanic : it’s got so many options and tropes, it’s like a buffet for fic writers ! could be used as setting only, or follow Jack & Rose’s tragic (or not!) love story. [any ship]

The Haunting of Bly Manor : Jamie & Dani haunt me still. great opportunity for Renison, Lailalvarez or Kathea, or perhaps a gender swap on mlm ship? or not, leave them boys as is. haunt me, it’s all i ask. [any ship]

BBC Johnlock : don’t shoot the messenger alright? sorry for the ptsd flashbacks btw. i just think their dynamic and crime/detective AU are great opportunities. i’m personally partial to Jeanaaron for this one, as they were my og idea bc the similarities are??? amazing??? Sherlock!Jean & Watson!Aaron, and the Reichenbach Fall??? so neat. but really, [any ship]

The Maze Runner : Thominewt // Kandreil !?!?!? it’s right there! [any ship] tho.

SKAM : ofc Robbe & Sander from WtFock are physically the perfect Andreil which leads to a great adaptation opportunity here, but Élu from SkamFr are also a great blueprint for a Kevaaron story. honestly any S3 Skam + [any ship]

Dune : listen, i don’t have all the answers. idk how that would even work. but surely you can figure smth out ! [any ship]

Inception : i love the movie. i love hans zimmer. i love Arthur x Eames. NORA SAKAVIC LOVES ARTHUR x EAMES. they’ve got such Andreil vibes, but so do Jerejean, even Renison. and the Foxes as dream crew??? so perf it’s insane. give me and Miss Sakavic what we really want. [any ship]

The Fault in Our Stars : 🥲 [any ship]

CA: The Winter Soldier / Civil War : so it’s kind of like an amnesia AU, but more angsty bc Stucky dynamic. Andreil’s the perfect fit, but who knows who else… [any ship]

Jujutsu Kaisen : 🥲🥲 [any ship.s]

Attack on Titan : 🥲🥲🥲 endless, endless paths… to pain ! [any ship.s]

How I Live Now : is that too niche? or too boring? 🤷‍♀️ (also let’s leave out the cousin thingy…) [any ship]

Red, White & Royal Blue : duh. (but not so duh, apparently, since i’ve yet to read it !!!) [any ship]

The Old Guard : oh the possibilities… Yusuf & Niccolo my loves… nobody be doing it like them, nobody. absolutely one of the most movie ever… top 10 of mine for sure. ugh, gosh ! foxes as Immortals?? the action, the mystery, the soulmates?? please i’m begging. [any ship]

that's what i'm letting go of for now... if anything inspires you, please tag me in your works so i can indulge in and appreciate what you've come up with!!

Love, Adler xx

[tropical-lycan]

The Foxhole Camp (All for the Game slasher movie AU)

BIG UPDATE : Some concepts art are out you can find them on my Tumblr account! ALSO CHAPTER 1 IS OUT

AND WE GOT AN OFFICIAL PLAYLIST

WARNING -> Spoilers for All for the Game trilogy and dark themes (horror)

I GOT SO INSPIRED BY THIS FANART BY @kururusti, the horror atmosphere coming from that fanart gave me literal chills, I love it.

I just had a crazy idea : what if AFTG wasn't about sports and mafia, but was a 1980s/90s slasher horror movie?

I thought of this because when I was younger I went to a French Summer Camp called "La Renardière" (literally meaning something close to "The Foxhole") and also because I'm a big fan of classic horror movies taking place in summer camps, such as Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp.

So, my plot idea is that in this universe, all of the Foxes are not sports player, but summer camp councelors, and they have to take care of kids. And Neil's dad is a slasher coming after them (let's keep his nickname "The Butcher", it's perfect for a slasher).

My plot idea is that Neil is the son of a murderous man (who is not a mafia boss in this version, he's just some crazy dude with an axe) and he ran away with his mother because the Butcher tried to kill them (think of movies like The Shining). They're still on the run because the Butcher really wants to finish the job (not sure why tho I have to think more about it). Like in the original story, Neil's mother gets killed and he is still chased by Nathan. One day the Butcher attacks him in the forest and leaves him to die (well I guess Nathan thought he had killed Neil or something like that, but he was just badly injured and survived). The councelors of the Foxhole Camp find him wounded in the forest while doing camp activities with the kids and decide to take care of him. Wymack who is the person running the camp offers him a job there after he recovers from his injuries (and I 100% imagine Andrew taking care of his wounds ❤️‍🩹). The Butcher will somehow discover that Neil isn't dead and he will try to murder all of them.

Now I'll do a quick summary of how I imagine each character's role with pictures from horror movies to illustrate the vibe (I might do my own concept arts later!!).

Note that the gifs I picked are NOT actor headcanons, it's mostly characters or concepts that inspired my ideas. I'll give the name of each movie/TV show if you're interested.

Also, I forgot to mention, but I imagine this AU taking place in the 80s, with a similar vibe/aesthetic to Stranger Things.

NEIL JOSTEN

(gif is Tommy Jarvis from Friday the 13th)

As I said, the Butcher was originally after Neil, meaning that in that AU he has the role of the Final Girl. Well...Final boy? Let's say final babygirl. He is the character who knows the killer personaly and has a deep childhood history with them (like Laurie Strode from the Halloween saga). Like in the original, he is very secretive and pretends to be someone else because he is afraid his father might find out that he is still alive. He becomes a camp councelor with the other Foxes and loves to play Exy with the kids (Exy still exists in that AU as part of the camp activities). I also imagine that he has no clue how to take care of kids and is still oblivious af. I mean...imagine that guy looking after children it's the funniest thing ever. I'm sure a lot of them ask him about how he got his scars.

At first he doesn't tell the Foxes what really happened to him and pretends he was attacked by a wild animal.

ANDREW & AARON MINYARD

(gif is JD from the Heathers movie, and yes...Heathers kinda is a horror movie???)

Okay maybe I was wrong when I said Neil taking care of kids would be the funniest thing...ANDREW DOING THAT IS EVEN FUNNIER. I kinda imagine him to be like a councelor helping Abby Winfield in the Infirmary (and yeah he steals meds and alcohol). He still has his dark and mysterious vibe (and I kinda imagine him dressing in a similar fashion to JD from Heathers, hence my gif choice). He would also be the guy suspected to be the killer (like Eddie Munson in Stranger Things 4), because he still has his mental health issue in that version. I also think it would be interesting to keep the backstory he has with Aaron and their mother, except they end up in a summer camp and not in an Exy team (it makes even more sense for people to think that he is the killer because of the rumors he killed his mom). Most of the kids find him terrifying, but i'm sure most of them see him as a rockstar or living urban legend. As in the books, he really doesn't give a fuck about his job. He will also be the one to discover Neil's secret, and I want a scene where he directly fights with the Butcher. I also imagine a cute romantic scene where Neil and him will go swimming in the lake at night (i'll probably make a fanart of this <3).

Aaron wouldn't change much compared to the books, I just think he would be really pissed when people accuse his brother of being the killer (while not being sure himself that he isn't). He would often leave the camp without telling people in order to see Kathy (who doesn't work there at all), leading people to believe at some point that he might be dead. I also want a scene where he pretends to be Andrew (who is chased by people who think he is the killer) in order to save him.

Drake, who knows that Andrew is working at a camp councelor, will try to trespass the camp at night in order to get to Andrew. And well...I guess Aaron will kill him as well and it will add more tension within the group (as if there was not enough murders happening there).

NICKY HEMMICK

(gif is Xavier from American Horror story season 9 : Camp Redwood)

Nicky would stay true to himself: proud to be gay and flirty with the male councelors, even though it must be harder for him since this AU takes place in the 80s. I imagine to be the funny guy of the bunch, throwing one-liners at the killer. I think that he would be more invested in the job than Andrew and Aaron.

ALLISON REYNOLDS + SETH GORDON

(I almost wanted to put a gif of Allison Reynolds from Breakfast Club as a joke but well...It's Chris from Carrie, I'd love to see Allison with that haircut)

She would be the stereotypical bimbo, but with more personality when you get to know her. I think Seth would be the first one to die and it would impact her character development and make her wanna take revenge on the Butcher. I imagine Seth to be like the stereotypical jock, still a jerk. This time he is killed by Nathan's axe and not because of Riko. I don't have much more ideas for them yet, but I love to imagine that Allison starts as a typical bitch and then she learns how to survive and becomes a badass character (like Emma Mountebank from the horror game The Quarry).

I think that Seth would be killed while the two of them are...Well...Doing... what camp councelor couples do in 80s horror movies... Allison somehow manages to escape the Butcher and to tell the others that Seth died.

RENEE WALKER

(gif is Robin Buckley from Stranger Things)

I don't have much ideas for Reenee yet but I'm open for suggestions if you guys have ideas. I think her story would stay similar to the original books as well. I just love to imagine that she tries to teach Andrew how to act more friendly with the kids, and making fun of him when as fails miserably to be a sociable human being (come on Andrew, the kids are freaked out by your crazy medicated smile). I also think that in their freetime they like to hang out and throw knives on the camp's archery targets. She is probably one of the most loved councelors.

DAN WILDS

(gif is Deena Johnson from Fear Street)

Dan is trying to do what's best for the kids. Her group would still be divided with the monsters on the other side because she is part of the ones who believe that Andrew might be the killer. She is sceptical when Neil tries to tell the Foxes that there is a murderer running around. Wymack puts her in charge when he has to leave the camp (not knowing that Kevin...well, you know their secret) and she takes that role very seriously, as the leader of the gang and "the rational one".

MATT BOYD

(gif is Chris Washington from Get Out)

I think that Matt would often try to play the role of the hero, fighting the Butcher many times to protect his friends. I don't have much ideas for him either but I'm open for suggestions!

KEVIN DAY + THE RAVENS

(gif is Kurt from Fear Street)

In this version I think that Kevin has something to do with the Butcher too. I'm not sure what, but I'd like to keep the idea that he knows Neil from his former life as well. Maybe he was another victim that survived, or one of his relatives was killed by the Butcher in front of his eyes. In this AU the Ravens are camp councelors from a rival Summer Camp (Evermore Camp). Kevin used to be part of them but he ran away because they have questionable methods when it comes to taking care of the kids (Riko put that fucking knife down, will ya?). Riko would be a psycho bully and a minor antagonist. He would also attack the Foxes and use the Butcher's murders as a cover-up.

Kevin and Riko take the rivalry between the Foxhole Camp and Evermore Camp very seriously. They often battle against each other in events such as Exy competitions and Capture the flag. The Foxhole Camp is considered to be a shitty and dangerous summer camp while Evermore Camp is for rich kids (in a similar vibe to the rivalry between Shadyside and Sunnyvale kids in Fear Street).

THE BUTCHER A.K NATHAN WESNINSKI

Our slasher!! As I said before he would be obsessed with the idea of killing Neil and the Foxes in the most gruesome way possible. The chemestry between the two will be very personal, like most killer vs final girl dynamic in slasher movies. I'm sure he will have some second winds... As for how he will look I don't know for sure? I like the idea that he is wearing an Exy helmet, in a similar fashion to Jason Voorheese's iconic hockey mask.

So yeah that's my idea for this AU. If you guys want to add ideas you can always contact me!! It'd be so cool to see what you think of it :D

I will do fanarts based on that AU if you're interested enough 🫵🫵🫵 I mean we need Neil and Andrew in summer camp staff uniforms...

[the-gayest-tree-you-ever-did-see]

what is this jean/Jeremy/Kevin thing it looks interesting and the art is cool

oh boy oh boy!!!!!!!! i am absolutely going through it anon. so basically there is this book series called all for the game by nora sakavic that you should totally read (the first book is called the foxhole court -- but please check out a list of trigger warnings for it because it is very heavy and deals with a lot of serious and painful topics. i myself have had to disconnect for some of the scenes and come back when i was ready; its completely okay to do so, or to not read the books at all if its uncomfortable). its about gay athletes, guys just going through the absolute worst, the yakuza, fucked up families, a running game of how pathetic can you get answered in 15 different ways by each person, fucked up relationships, all not-so-neatly packaged into a completely made up fictional sport. (its funny because i am NOT a sports person and barely even understand cricket even though i watch it all the time, but i know the rules of exy forwards, backwards, and inside out. its that serious.)

i also need to warn you that the first book is slow. the second book is also kind of slow. i personally didnt have any trouble with it because im more of a character reader and aftg had PLENTYYY to keep me busy, but i think its a fair warning if youre sensitive to pace. however. the payoff is so incredibly worth it. its an amazing read with obsession-worthy characters, detailed and balanced plot beats, flowing and natural dialogue, very creative sports , and the relationships will make you want to reread it twenty thousand times. the romance is also the slowest burn to ever burn. if youre going in for romance at the start, you Will Not Get what you want -- but you will get it. i think we as a fandom focus on the romances a lot (im new so dont take my word for it) but its 1) because we're tumblr dont come and 2) because the romances and relationships are incredibly interesting to see through the lens of the books and vice versa. what i really love most (and youll see this in the ec doc) is that it feels like each and every choice was deliberately made by the author to make the book. like. down to the ice cream flavor they get at one point. especially with the sunshine court, i feel like i can see exactly where she made a choice and what mightve happened if that choice wasnt made. its intoxicated to read. it feels like breathing and it feels like drowning.

i just read the sunshine court (where jean and jeremy are more from) so thats what all the recent stuff has been, but you should read the foxhole court series first for it to make sense. i think tsc is 100000x times better and better written than tfc but you have to work for it lol. and!!!!! the author is on tumblr (@/korakos)! also if you do read it, please tell me!!!!!! you can keep sending anons or you can dm me or you can come to my house and live in my room but tell me!!!!! theres also an extra content doc (thanks @jeansyvesmoreau for sending this to me) between the series' (so after the kings men, before the sunshine court) that you should definitely definitely read. but im getting ahead of myself.

i hope that helps?? or at least doesnt hurt. if you liked the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater, i think this is a good step up. let me know if you have any questions at all!!

okay ive been normal for this whole thing, ranting and incoherent noises below cut:

ANON ITS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD ITS SO GOOD. ITS SO GOOD. i told mel this but i cant possibly say i love these books because its not necessarily love. its not something i can explain but youll get it if you read it. there is a piece of my soul that was carved out, reformed, and then put back into me by nora sakavic. i dont think ill ever be the same again. i need a therapist who has read these books so they can understand exactly what im going through. each character was like a bomb to me. jean moreau is like a straitjacket. they mean so much to me. theyre nothing. i hate them. i need to feed them breakfast. OUGHHHHHHHHORGHEURGHEOGH. there is so much grief entangled with them but they are so vibrant and full of life it hurts. i cant stop thinking about them. i finished tsc yesterday and ive been sobbing ever since. i am dead serious. i cried myself to sleep last night thinking about one of the characters. i need you to know how real i am being.

i think if i meet nora sakavic i will probably kill her. just fully black out and kill her and not even know it. so i wont meet her for the better! but i need this to be out there. my fingers hurt from typing all this but know that there is MORE in my head. so much more. i am fit to burst with it all. love you anon thanks for asking

[karouvas]

book recs? My fav books are trc, aftg, soc, shadowhunters/riordanverse etc and the likes (so basically the most basic literature taste known to man) thanks!

well I enjoy all of those and trc is my fav series so will give you a couple of my main fantasy recs along those lines or not dissimilar and throw in one of my fav thrillers which is very gay and explores dark themes for aftg adjacent rep, and then another suspense book i love. I sort of went with books i could draw some type of lines of comparison to at least one of the books you mentioned.

•The Diviners series by Libba Bray — this is my go to ya fantasy rec these days, it’s historical urban fantasy with some horror and mystery elements. It’s set in 1920’s New York, book one opens focusing mainly on Evie and a specific case of a ghost serial killer but introduces other chars, after the first book it becomes more about an ensemble cast of Diviners who have different supernatural powers and their dynamics, also the main antagonist is bigotry and hate which I’m aware is a concept that can be done poorly in fantasy and I won’t pretend every beat of it is flawless but it is my favorite example of a fantasy series take on that concept that I’ve read. More importantly stunning character work I especially adore the female chars among the diviners Evie Theta and Ling, Ling is one of the most special characters ever and these books should be worth reading because of her INTP canon ace lesbian with autistic swag realness alone. 

I definitely would recommend it to TID/TLH fans for the historical setting and atmosphere as well as some of the playing with man vs machine + to TRC/TDT fans for the characterization and also the second book is largely about Henry and Ling learning about their dream powers and developing a friendship through this and also Ling has a narrative foil in dreamspace she’s gay with just think some of those idea would resonate with trcers + to SoC fans for the ensemble dynamics. 

•The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray

This is one I used to describe to people as The Gangsey all girls au set in Victorian London and that’s not fully accurate but it works enough to be a pitch, but basically it’s about this group of four girls who go to a boarding school together and discover a sort of parallel world where they can bee free and realize their ambitions detached from society, but in the real world they’ve awakened horrors they must deal with too. I need to reread this one but it was deeply formative, if you love messy complicated female friendship dynamics and paranormal/mystical plots that are just creepy enough this is for you. Also my favorite character in it is a gay blonde mean girl character who is ambitious and wants autonomy above all else but does also love her friends fiercely Felicity Worthington you will always be famous <3 if you enjoy Jessamine Lovelace and Grace Blackthorn from TSC she has strong parallels to both those chars imo and is better written/handled arc wise. But I will tell you that the other wlw char in the book who is her love interest dies there is byg, just so you no one gets mad at me for that. But still very worth the read imo. 

•The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor

this series is a mix of urban fantasy and high fantasy, the first book is set mainly in Prague but large parts of the other books take place in a fantasy world called Eretz so there is a fun parallel worlds element. But it’s about Karou who is one of theee protagonists of the 2010s yet got paid dust justice for my girl, and she’s an art student in Prague who was raised by a family of monsters (chimeara), her surrogate father is Brimstone and he has a business of selling wishes for teeth that Karou sometimes helps with but is frustrated that she isn’t allowed to know why or what they’re for. Karou’s dynamics with the chimearas and with her best friends Zuzana who is also a wonderful character and inspo for my letterboxd url rabidfairy09, are really lovely and the prose is so beautiful… but the story really takes off when the love interest Akiva is introduced I won’t go into details about that because spoilers, but they have one of my absolute favorite romances in the genre that does subvert and play with those paranormal forbidden star crossed romance tropes in ways I think are quite fascinating. Books 2 and 3 are more complicated to describe there is an essential conflict between chimeras or devils vs angels in this world so there’s your modern tsc connection, and very lyrical prose although I find Lainis even lusher and more elegant than trc prose. 

• Sawkill Girls by Clara Legrand 

Ya horror book that I remember reading over the summer in high school and I think it’s a good summer read tonally, part of the plot is one of those stranded on an island survival stories but it’s less intense than like Yellowjackets (no cannibalism), I don’t actually have much to sell about the plot I just enjoyed the vibes and also there are lesbians one of whom is an ambitious driven abuse survivor who had an arc I remember really liking.

•Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie Mclemore I actually really love all the books by her I’ve read but I think this is a great one to start with. Basically there are multiple generations of women who are all witches living together (300 fox way vibes), and Estella has several cousins and she and them are all in love with the same woman who is the daughter of the man who owns the estate, and there’s a thing where boys and this family keep disappearing and then one of them shows up and resulting drama. The main romance is m/f but like all the female chars being bi, it is a good romance from my memory but the main event is the familial dynamics, the main character Estella’s arc around dealing with her internalized self hatred and a lot of anti colonial themes those anti colonial themes and themes of multigenerational trauma are very relevant in all the Mclemore I’ve read so yes, very much would read her starting with this book. Also very gorgeous prose as is in all her magical realism stuff. 

•this one is already quite popular on tumblr so you may have read it but The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black, if you enjoy the cutthroat gang in SoC and that high fantasy world I think you would enjoy it I also get some Zoya vibes as well as Kaz vibes from Jude the main heroine. Won’t bother with detailed description because again, very popular books. 

•Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire

basically a series of portal fantasies or fairytales for adults, they are all novellas and it’s an ongoing series following several different chars not all of whom appear in each book. But I enjoy them and I think if you like Riordanverse this is like an adult fantasy take on similar concepts in a way, even though it’s not directly mythology based.

•The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir

This is the other tumblr popular series on the list and has a good amount of overlap with trc/aftg/soc fans so will only give the brief pitch that it’s adult sci fantasy and about lesbian necromancers in space. You will be very confused at least some of the time but it is worth it, trust me. 

•Black Iris by Leah Raeder 

new adult psychological thriller with a sapphic romance that slaps so hard. Delaney Keatings is one of my favorite unreliable narrators and also just an A+ character, there’s not a lot I can say about the actual plot because a lot of it is psychological but will give one other plot hint: vigilantes. Definitely look up trigger warnings before reading this there’s a lot about homophobia and also references to sexual violence, drug use a lot more it’s very in line with Aftg in terms of like, grittiness in that regard. Do highly recommend. 

•Dare Me by Megan Abbott 

like with Mclemore I love this author in general and would recommend everything I’ve read by her but this was my first book of hers so it’s a good introduction, and also a lot of it is about girls on a cheer team having homoerotic psychosexual dynamics as well as the murder, so it’s also in line with aftg thematically in that way. gay sports media. 

There are a lot of others but I don’t want to make this list ridiculously long so… here are some recs <3 thank you so much anon for letting me ramble and I hope you like them!

[bloody-wonder]

omg im the tsc anon, i literally sent it cause i knew from the past aftg opinions you shared - you'd likely feel similarly to the way i did about tsc

neil outshines jean to such a shocking degree when he only has a handful of scenes... neil is a fantastic protagonist so ofc it's hard to live up to, but come on 😭 jean has such a weaker personality imo? he does/says less interesting things, but also has a less interesting perspective on things. his lack of standing up for himself when the trojans badgered him constantly and talked behind his back bothered me to. can u imagine neils reaction if the foxes had been sharing his secrets over a group chat?

but just in general. tsc felt like a sanitised version of aftg, if that makes sense? scrubbed clean of the controversial and unconventional aspects. and it's those aspects that, in my opinion, played a huge part in what made aftg so good. noras a very talented writer, but i can not comprehend the decision to make tsc... all that it was, yknow? it feels almost like it was written for the 'andreil say ily' part of the fandom...

neil really saved this book for me icl. outsider pov of him is fascinating. and while andrew barely said/did anything even when he was there, i actually kinda liked that? it puts into perspective how ig off-putting andrew can appear to those who don't put in the effort with him. 'creepy little goalkeeper' is so funny and so accurate, he IS a creepy little goalkeeper and i love that for him.

idk, some things i had anticipated - the trojans being who they are were never going to match the foxes. jeremy x jean was never going to match andreil (and ive seen ppl comparing them already... the blasphemy.) but there were things i was surprised weren't there. i had expected kevin and jeans relationship to be a lot more tense ig? i had thought jean would harbor a MUCH deeper resentment towards kevin, but i suppose its just not his character? but when i was reading, i couldn't help asking what would the fan reaction had been if that had been the case? if kevin and jeans past relationship, and places in a cult hierarchy, had shown through in a much uglier and uncomfortable way? i can see why she didn't do that, i don't even necessarily want that, i think i was just desperate for this book to have some sort of deep conflict between the characters.

on the subject, kevin felt quite different from how he was in aftg. but i can't quite put my finger on why.

anyway, it is nice to see someone else have mixed feelings towards the book. i enjoyed it, but i was shocked how many people seemed to really love it. not because it was bad. but because, to me, it was so fundamentally different from aftg.

thank you for sharing your thoughts! i suspected you might have written me bc i used to be the resident notorious contrarian of the fandom lol

yeah neil is a textbook example of a protag who drives the plot forward, he has that main character energy which jean totally lacks which makes sense since jean was originally a minor side character. at the same time the differences in their characterization make complete sense in universe due to the different ways they were brought up and the different trauma they faced. so it all comes down to each reader's personal preference: for me, neil's arc is a self-indulgent power fantasy. i think i have a strong sense of self and when i can't achieve something it's due to circumstances so far out of my control it's impossible to overcome them. it's therefore very satisfying to read about neil facing impossible odds and winning thanks to the sheer force of his personality, whereas jean's way of dealing with trauma feels less fun by comparison. but other readers can relate to him more and all the power to them. i do however think tsc does a disservice to its new characters by opening with a rather lengthy recap of how cool the foxes were in the last act of tkm and closing on a chapter where neil comes along and reminds us who the real hero of this story is🤷‍♀️

i don't think tsc has been entirely scrubbed clean of controversial aspects - i saw plenty of reviews complaining about the amount of dark content (in book 4 of a series known for its dark content, le gasp) - but i do think the handling of certain things was less nuanced than in aftg. for instance, both stories have a plot bit about someone unknowingly exposing a character to their abuser which leads to them being retraumatized (jean himself comments on the similarities between drake and grayson). in aftg that someone is nicky - a person andrew knows and trusts, a person the readers grew to care about (lol not me but certainly some other readers) - so his role in the tragic sequence of events is that much more upsetting. rape and abuse is terrible but the fact that a person who means well can exacerbate the issues bc they don't have the framework to understand the other person - that hits so much harder for me personally. so in the end drake is just an evil rapist but nicky is a much more nuanced character bc through him nora questions whether being nice and having good intentions is enough, whose feelings should be centered on in such a complex situation, whose emotional needs should be prioritized etc. by contrast, in tsc that person is lucas - someone we basically just met, who is nothing more than an antagonistic stranger to jean and who we therefore don't care about. which is why when he leads grayson to jean it's like, first of all, duhh. but secondly, bc it happens against the backdrop of the other ("good") trojans' cheerfully patronizing attitude it doesn't come so much as a shocking twist that puts the ways how we deal with complex trauma into an unconventional perspective than as a culmination of everyone disrespecting jean's boundaries all the time - which is likely what nora intended but the overall constellation feels much less interesting to me.

ig this ties into your point about the book lacking the kind of deep conflict aftg had - but maybe that was intentional too, maybe it's supposed to be aftg light in that sense, sort of a post canon character study fic. which i am not opposed to, not everything has to be high plot and tension and grey morality, but unfortunately the emotional core the story relies on in the absence of the plot just didn't work for me. i can accept jean's "weaker" personality, i can understand him not being able to stand up for himself even tho i can't admire it, but i draw the line at how forced his friendship with jeremy and the girls ended up feeling. like, i still can't get over cat's sex toy joke right on the heels of jean being badgered into admitting he had been sexually abused - the info which jeremy promptly spilled to the girls. if something like that happened to me i would never be able to trust these people again, much less call them friends so soon. it's such a bizarre contrast between how neil joining the monsters in tfc despite their problematic initiation rituals feels valid bc the narrative earned it both plot-wise (we're now facing a bigger enemy together) and character-wise (neil pushing back, talking about why they did it, nicky apologizing) on the one hand - and how jean accepting jeremy, cat and laila as his new friends feels rushed and artificial despite them being so very nice and domestic and wholesome on the other hand. idk maybe it's bc i'm inherently skeptical about disingenuous cozy/hopepunk subgenres in modern lit bc they usually have a darker underbelly people are loath to confront but ngl the words sanitized and conventional did come to mind while reading and so did the idea that tsc will especially appeal to a certain subset of fans which found the (at times uncomfortable) complexity of the original trilogy too much to handle. well, i hope they're enjoying their fantasy of healing a survivor of cptsd by cooking and shopping and hugs - i certainly got to enjoy mine in aftg, there's plenty to go around lol

besides, tsc being so different/separate from aftg makes it really easy to just not engage with the fan content and discussions if it starts feeling like they veer into the annoying territory too much. tbh my primary concern when tsc was announced was that it could contain some retcons about andreil and aftg which i wouldn't agree with - and that didn't happen, my boys are still very much in character, so i can just retreat to my enclosure and leave tsc to jean stans who are its main target audience in any case.

[littlespoonevan]

So incredibly not the topic of interest rn lmao but my brain has been flirting with re reading aftg for the first time in like 8 years lately but I always get nervous is going to be way more unhinged than I remember it and it will ruin my memories of it if that makes sense. But your re read inspiring your new fic has me thinking maybe I’ll finally give in !! Plus genuinely forgot what andrew and neil were like when they first met because I usually only read post series fic so maybe I need to experience their journey again idk but long way to say thanks for the fic I loved it ❤️

aksljdfhs don't worry, anon, i am still so ready to talk about aftg 😂 and listen when i decided to reread i tried to be so objective bc so many people make posts now about how off the wall the plot is (which i, hand on heart, never noticed when i first read it lmao) and when i tell you i lasted about half of book 1 before i was IN IT all over again. idk what it is but the characters and the dynamics are just so fucking compelling i personally found it impossible not to get sucked in and i had an Amazing time rereading. i mean, like everything now, certain moments haven't really aged well but it was very small things like the language used at certain times so it didn't take away from any of it for me. so if you do decide to reread i hope you have so much fun with it!!

and thank you so much for reading my fic too, i'm really glad you liked it 🥹🥰❤️

[moondal514]

for the weird writing questions: 1, 32, 24 :)

Weird questions for writers

Hi Steph! Thanks for the ask <3

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Arial lol. I don’t really care about font as long as it’s something I can easily read so I tend to just stick with whatever the default is. I’ve tried the comic sans trick a few times when I’ve had writer’s block but unfortunately that only works for me for school assignments and not for creative writing

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

Define “prep work” lol. In terms of outlining, I tend to only do that if I have a very clear idea of what story I want to write and what scenes I want to have to move the plot from beginning to end. This happens most often when I think of au’s that would be cool and then I can easily lose hours writing an outline. In terms of research…I don’t like doing it cuz it almost always results in me getting distracted and going down reading rabbit holes that interest me more than writing 😂. So I try to write things that I don’t have to do any preliminary research for (which is why I will likely never write anything in a real historical fiction setting despite my love for such stories 😔).

I guess I would also call the way I revisit the parts of canon I need for whatever part of a fic I’m writing “prep work.” I try to be a stickler for characterization, especially when I’m writing pieces in 2nd person pov, so often I’ll have canon and/or fics by other people that have characterization I love open in a million tabs next to my actual fic doc like I’m writing a research paper or something 😂

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

Suddenly I have never read anything ever. My mind is going blank. Uhhhh. I guess:

“You gave me a key and called it home” from Nora Sakavic’s The King’s Men

Currently the title of my Andreil playlist. It’s just a piece of dialogue that is so romantic to me, not necessarily in an alloromantic way, and makes me all warm and fuzzy. Something about the idea that the greatest declaration of love is to invite someone to your home and ask them to stay, to give someone a home when they have never had one before.

I guess to answer the question of how I found it, I have to tell the story of how I read the All for the Game series in the 1st place 😂. So it’s my 2nd year of college. I have new roommates. Within a month of us knowing each other, one of my roommates learns that I like reading. She immediately gives me book recs, which include Six of Crows, The Captive Prince trilogy, and All For the Game (let’s not wonder what it was about me that made my roommate immediately recommend to me this trio of books of all things, after knowing me for only a month lol). Me being me, I put those books on my tbr list and forget about them.

Fast forward 2 years. My grandmother and I have this tradition where I give her access to my tbr list and then she randomly picks out and buys me a few to gift me for my birthday. It so happened that in 2021 AFTG was one of the lucky books she gifted me, and being that it was a gift from my grandmother I had to read it. And here I am, going nearly 3 years in the fandom

[altruistic-meme]

AFTG fic recs

Hi all! I just wanted to share some of my all-time favorite fanfics for aftg, for no real reason other than I want more people to read them and send their love to the authors :) 

Under a readmore because it got. A little long. But please enjoy!

WIPs

Dangerous Habits by LovelyLittleGrim ( @lovelylittlegrim )

Andrew has run into problems while on undercover jobs before. None of those problems were anything like the troublesome runaway that is one Nathaniel Wesninski

Aka: the fic where Andrew is undercover as a hitman for hire and Neil is the guy who hires him. Things get complicated from there.

Undercover Andrew? BAMF Neil? Hitman AU?? Absolutely. I’m in love. The story is just *chef kisses*

Chapters: 8/9

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, past rape/non-con, Drake Spear (who is his own warning), Butcher Neil, 

--

Negotiations by elesary ( @elesary )

This is what Andrew Minyard knows: his brother is dead, killed by a petty Raven prince who has never learned to keep his hands off of Andrew's things. His brother's daughters are his responsibility, a job that is made infinitely harder when their shitty grandparents want custody. Nathaniel Wesninski is a liar, but he might be the only way to avenge Aaron and protect his nieces. All Andrew has to do is watch Nathaniels - Neil's- back as he carves out his own life and identity from everyone who thinks they own him.

Andrew has always been good at upholding his end of the bargain, has he finally found someone willing to uphold theirs?

This fic has got me fucked up, honestly. I’m emotional over it. It’s fantastic.

Chapters: 11/?

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, attempted sexual assault, Butcher Neil,

--

the upper hand by plantelty ( @plantelty  )

Shortly after losing his mother, Neil arrives in the small town of Palmetto, South Carolina, alone in the world and with an impossible plan to carry through.

At the age of eighteen, Andrew ends up helping a boy stage his own death.

-

Just two fucked up boys learning to trust each other during the course of a summer, but also: multiple references to songs, twinyard angst (Nicky tries his best), The Plotting of Neil Josten's Gruesome Demise, and shit hitting the fan in a variety of ugly ways!

The cliffhanger has got me on the edge of my seat, but it is 100% worth the read and the wait for the last chapter!! 

Chapters: 10/11

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Canon typical violence, 

--

The Butcher’s House by Fire_Bear ( @fire-bear )

Andrew thought something was odd with the house the Foxes had to move into after their Athletes' House had been burnt down. He just wasn't prepared for what was actually wrong with it.

For this was a house full of monsters.

Ghost story! Ghost story! Ghost story! I literally think about this fic every other day, it’s fantastic. 

Chapters: 6/?

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: character death (major or minor is unclear), injuries, 

--

Promise of an Unbroken Boy by elesary ( @elesary​ )

Neil is caught by the police with Mary's burning body and is sent to juvie in Oakland where he is assigned to share a cell with one Andrew Doe, who promises him Exy, if only Neil will tell him all of his secrets. With no access to tinted contacts and hair dye, he agrees, it's only a matter of time until he's killed after all. What does he have to lose?

But Andrew's found someone who knows what a promise means, and he'll be damned if he lets that go without a fight.

Ngl this is definitely in my very top favorites -- I LOVE the idea of Neil and Andrew meeting pre-series, and this fic just BLEW my expectations for that plotline out of the waters

Chapters: 14/?

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Underage, attempted rape/non-con, canon-typical violence, 

~~~~~~~~~

Complete

The Nameless Monster by kanekicure ( @kanekicure )

Nathaniel Wesninski wants nothing more than to see his father dead and buried. But when his father promises him the title of The Butcher, Nathaniel quickly realizes that his destiny of following in his father's footsteps is closer than ever before.

So of course, when he gets forced to go undercover for the Baltimore police, he starts seeing what living could truly be.

-

Andrew Minyard is a newly recruited police officer for the worst precinct in Baltimore, who is dedicated on hunting down the notorious Butcher and his unnamed underling. But when Neil Josten is thrown into his midst as his civilian consultant; he starts to realize some things don't quite appear as they seem.

I love the story telling -- the secret identities, the plotting, everything.

Chapters: 14/14

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Butcher Neil, implied/referenced rape/non-con, implied/referenced child abuse, implied/referenced slef-harm (I believe there is a scene that is somewhat detailed on this subject), some characters also get drugged at one point, 

-- 

that’s just something people say by nanatsuyu ( @theoctopusnods )

Neil makes the mistake of stealing the wrong car. Andrew makes the mistake of offering a ride to a liar. They both make the mistake of turning the whole affair into a road trip ‘home.’

Gonna be honest; the summary does not give a big idea as to what is in store and i am SO GLAD I gave this one a try so i’m telling you that you will be too

Chapters: 24/24

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: implied/referenced child abuse, panic attacks (somewhat grahic descriptions of)

--

The Story After You by kanekicure ( @kanekicure )

Andrew Minyard does not understand how Riko Moriyama landed Neil Wesninski.

How the snot-nosed, small dick, rich brat, second son of the Moriyama family who also just so happened to own the largest EXY gear and merchandiser company in the world “RAVEN” - had landed smart mouthed, quick witted, stupidly blue eyed Wesninski, was beyond him. Well, unless Wesninski was a gold digger, but Andrew doubted it.

-

Or; how Andrew Minyard says he doesn't get into messy situations, until he meets Neil and suddenly he is in the most messiest possible situation ever imagined in his life - oh and also, he might be becoming a homewrecker.

Ok I am behind bc I haven’t read the final chapter of this but!! I love the story, it’s very emotional and moving, and I love the characterization in it.

Chapters: 10/10

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Abusive Riko/Neil, abusive relationship, implied/referenced rape/non-con, implied/reference child abuse, implied/referenced self-harm, graphic depictions of violence, some descriptions of injuries/scarring, 

-- 

This Complicated Life by 5a5b5p5 ( @andrewsbutterflyknife )

“This is exactly why I don’t want you and Andrew to meet,” Aaron says grumpily. “You two would get along far too well.”

Neil grins. “I just like pissing you off,” he says, “It’s not my fault your brother does such a good job at it.”

—

Neil doesn’t expect much from his Sophomore year of college, but when he becomes a waiter at the Palmetto Bistro, his life gets a whole lot more interesting. As it turns out, maintaining friendships new and old as well as navigating an interesting relationship with the head chef of the restaurant—who just so happens to be his best friend’s twin brother—is a lot more complicated than he’d thought it would be.

A much more light-hearted fic than most of the others! Includes a secret relationship, and also chef Andrew >>

Chapters: 10/10

Rating: Mature

Warnings: 

--

When I Fade, Keep Me in Your Memory by demesh 

Neil Josten has a secret: he can flicker out of existence.

He can vanish with the turn of a thought; click his fingers, and suddenly he’s not there anymore. Invisible and untouchable, he becomes a living ghost.

Having promised his mother never to let his ability go, Neil teeters the line between faded and real, a person and an echo. He can’t risk getting hurt.

But then, one day, someone sees him when they shouldn’t be able to.

 A (flower-shop) AU about how a faded and lonely Neil finds it in him to become someone real.

Another fic that I need to catch up on ;; but anyway it’s amazing and I love Neil’s ability in it, it’s so well explained and well-written about

Chapters: 12/12

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: mentions of past abuse, panic attacks

--

12 Ways to Woo a Minyard by NikNak22 ( @knickknacksandallthat )

Neil is a math nerd who, by a stroke of dumb luck, falls into a group of friends that are the closest thing to family he’s ever had. So, when he tells them about his new mysterious crush, he shouldn’t be surprised how immediately they come up with a plan to help win them over. One they insist that if Neil follows it, he’ll have them falling for him in no time. But things don’t always go to plan – or do they?

Nicky wants to set him up with someone else. Matt and Jeremy are confused but supportive. Allison and Seth offer lewd suggestions, while Dan does her best to keep everyone in line. Jean and Renee know something, Aaron doesn’t really care, and Kevin just wants Neil to join the lacrosse team.

But one thing’s for certain – whether Neil’s successful or not, everyone’s got money riding on this.

The romance-trope-filled fanfic of my dreams. Sometimes you just need a fic of pure joy -- this is that fic. 

Chapters: 14/14

Rating: Mature

Warnings: 

--

finders keepers by moonix ( @annawrites ​ )

Andrew meets Nathaniel through a scavenger hunt app. As their team takes part in a hunt that sends each of them to creepy, abandoned places alone to solve clues and gain points, Andrew and Nathaniel begin a little treasure hunt of their own. The anonymity of getting to know each other in small increments, never meeting face-to-face, allows them a level of intimacy neither are used to. Meanwhile Renee’s friend Neil is acting weird whenever Andrew shows up…

This was one of the first fics I read for aftg!! And BOY what a great start!! All of the little pieces and parts that work together, and just the scavenger hunt itself is fantastic! (I also REALLY wanna know if there is an app like this out there because I would be down to do that)

Chapters: 8/8

Rating: Mature

Warnings: (these all come from the author:) “mentions of historical abuse in a mental asylum, mentions of suicide, mentions of murder and kidnapping, morbid facts, creepy abandoned places including a haunted house at a theme park with disturbing rooms, special appearance of a creepy clown doll, fatphobia and some introspection on body image/complicated relationship with food, mention of self harm scars”

-----

Scared to Live (But I’m Scared to Die) by Major_816 ( @major816 )

Neil Josten goes to the Nest for Andrew, but he stays for a lot more.

~

"I'm sorry Coach," he muttered.

"For what kid?" Wymack shifted. "You've got to give me something to work with here."

Wymack watched the thin traces of sorrow as paper exchanged hands and he was looking down at a contract with the Edgar Allan Raven's.

"I signed them Coach, I'm sorry."

~

The one where Neil doesn't come back from Winter Break.

It is VERY dark, and is one of very few fics that I have actually been almost unable to read one of the scenes, so DEFINITELY pay attention to the warnings -- both these, and the ones provided for each individual chapter. I did go through the fic to collect as many warnings as I could find in the chapter warnings, but be sure to take care of yourself.

Chapters: 36/36

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: rape/non-con elements, implied/referenced rape/non-con, discussions of rape/non-con, canon-typical violence, graphic descritions, physical abuse, panic attacks, descriptions of injuries (often graphic), psychological warfare, dissociating, psychological torture, physical torture, use of knives, alcoholism/alcohol abuse, pain-induced delirium, rape/non-con, emotional self-separation, suicidal ideation/thoughts of suicide, emotional distress (which sums up the whole fic and also me while reading it), handcuffs/chains used as restraints, referenced/implied abuse towards animals, vomitting, begging, excessive use of painkillers, drowning, waterboarding, physical restraint, mutilation of an animal, mild hallucinations, non-con drugging, sleep deprivation, starvation, humiliation, the Butcher, 

Also one of the first fics I read and 100% my absolute favorite fic!!! Which is adfjhsd a little worrying, considering, but it is what it is. Anyway. This fic absolutely wrecked me, and while it is technically complete, there is a sequel in the works! So! But I am so so excited for the sequel, and I am working on rereading this. It’s amazing. 1000/10.

[zoroshonkingbazonkadonkas]

bestie!!!!! why do your book recs always slap SO HARD???

foxhole court: 3.5/5 | raven king: 5/5 | king's men: 5/5 | series as a whole: 5/5

It was kinda important to me than Andrew and Neil were canon, bc tbh I don't think I've ever read a book where the MC is queer and it doesn't have anything to do with the plot. The only queer characters I've ever seen have always been in a romance novel where I specifically searched for a queer one. Never just picked up a book, liked the plot liked the characters and it just so happens to have someone queer. Maybe Nico Di Angelo (but I don't really want to count that until the solangelo book comes out bc Rick might not handle it the best). And someone on the ace-spec in a relationship is awesome and rep I've only ever gotten from the charm offensive. Idk it was just important and kinda emotional for me idk idk idk

I saw this as a criticism but I quite liked it: it's character driven, not plot driven. The plot isn't the be all end all of the book. It adds emphasis on Neil's character growth. The book doesn't end when his father is dead, it doesn't end with the FBI investigation, it ends with showing how far the foxes have come, what their future is. Idk idk I just think it's neat.

Andrew<3

Fuck Aaron. I don't like him.

Also I still don't know how I feel about Nicky. I can never forgive him for sa Neil, but I also don't like that other parts of him are likable and if it wasn't for the sa he'd probably be one of my favourite characters. Idk idk.

I like Matt and Dan. Just like <3. Like that's it that's the thought.

Wymack. again idk I kinda want him and Abby to adopt me idk.

Kevin as aromantic but not opposed to having a relationship. Just doesn't look for it and doesn't care too much abt being single.

Andrew<3

Ichirou? Kind of iconic. Idk.

Exy sounds so interesting ngl. Like it's so much better than football or something idk I don't know any more sports.

Just like. I liked it. I need more recs? Pls? I need more like this. Pls.

I LITERALLY LOVE U OMG (and its because i have immaculate taste)

charm offensive my beloved<3

RIGHT? CHARACTER DRIVEN BOOKS>>>>

same for nicky, so true

AHAHAHAH yes ichirou is iconic but im also scared of him lmaoo

trc and aftg are grouped together a lot bc theyre both character driven series' but someone very recently told me 'icebreaker' has very aftg vibes

havent read it yet, but im planning on doing so soon

[birlcholtz]

Fic Questions

tagged by @the-lincyclopedia thank you!! (fun game: watch my writing get progressively less formal as the post continues. by the end it’s like what is capitalization)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

77!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

434,378 as of this week but it does go up quite regularly

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Okay so in terms of what’s on my AO3, I have Check Please, All For the Game, Sharp Zero, HP, and Miraculous Ladybug. I also have The Forbidden LOTR and PJO Fanfiction (as in, I’ve written it, but it’s never seeing the light of day)

(technically there is a PJO fic out there that has seen the light of day but I orphaned it because I was tired of getting comments asking about when it would be updated)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

and then i met you (and the whole world changed)

for the better

Knew It Was You

come home (to you, to us)

sin bin schematics

All of these are Check Please and all of them except Knew It Was You are part of my Zimbits Airport AU!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! It’s actually a very recent thing that I’ve started not responding to literally every single comment. Mainly I respond because I love talking about my writing so I am going to seize that opportunity when it comes up

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, DEFINITELY Happy Birthday (HP). Check out that MCD tag ahah. (I say HP but what I really mean is that I write fic about Regulus Black. The Regulus Black-centric tag is my home in the HP fandom)

fun fact: this is a very short fic that I wrote when I was 15 and basically forgot about until recently, and then I reread it recently and went holy shit?? I pulled NO punches????

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the wildest one you’ve written?

Not a ton? I think a lot of the fandoms I write for don’t really mesh that well. That being said, the aforementioned orphaned PJO fic is actually a PJO/ML crossover, so there’s that

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope! Sometimes I get comments that are just.... really confusing? And a more common thing is that in my AFTG fic I’ll get comments from people who are so focused on Andreil (or the most common ships in general) to the point that like. they miss the point of what I actually wrote. Those are annoying but they’re not hate, they’re very enthusiastic, they’re just... enthusiastic about a story I’m not writing? So it’s a bit frustrating.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No sjflskgjhgf I struggle enough to write kissing, I think if I ever tried to write smut my brain would just shut down. I’ve managed some fade-to-blacks (which are mostly in WIPs that haven’t been posted) but they rely HEAVILY on the powers of implication

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, although I have occasionally made a brief go of it, not to post, more as an exercise for myself in a language that I’m learning. Anyway I never finish them so I’m gonna say no

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really? I’ve definitely group brainstormed fics and then written them (the best example of this being Q&A (AFTG), which was the product of a truly off-the-walls group chat), but I tend to do all the actual writing myself. I think the way I write would drive a co-writer up the wall since it’s very disorganized and I don’t write stuff down because ~I know what’s gonna happen I don’t need notes~ and it would infuriate me if I was co-writing with me lmao, so I won’t inflict that on someone else

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I regularly move through ships I’m SUPER focused on, like it’s kind of a rotation. I will forever and always ship Percabeth though.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Okay so if you follow me at @birlwrites you may know this already, but i have this ‘warmups’ document that is just like, random ideas i get that i don’t necessarily want to finish but i just want to try out for a bit? and i have a rule that once a ‘warmup’ is more than 10 pages long (so 11+) then it has to be moved to its own document, just to make scrolling through the warmups doc easier. but usually, a warmup only passes 10 pages when i’m INTO it. so i have a bazillion wips i will probably never finish. i complain about this a lot. i have so many wips. i don’t need more.

here’s one: it’s titled ‘interrobang doesn’t know they’re dating’, it’s basically a full outline for a chowder/tango fic and it would be SO cool if i could ever like. get around to writing it. but i am constantly swamped with writing projects, so it’s probably not gonna happen. if anyone’s interested in adopting it though i’d be down for that!! i think it’s a fun idea i just almost def won’t write it myself

15. What are your writing strengths?

SNAPPY DIALOGUE AND SNARKY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE. my writing is COMEDIC, 90% of my ideas are based on a funny snippet that popped into my head, a lot of my worldbuilding is based on ‘hey you know what would be hilarious’ (whenever i explain how larai selects a chosen one in the rainfall universe i start laughing, which is a STARK contrast to how it plays out on the page), i love writing funny stuff!!

also i think my writing sounds nice, a lot of the time i pick words/syntax based on sound and flow so there’s that too. and i have lots of ideas! i don’t struggle much with writer’s block because a) i have a lot of strategies to deal with it and b) i have a lot of ideas to help get around it/work with it

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

PHYSICAL INTIMACY LMAO, sometimes in my end notes on shippy fics you can see me complaining ‘it took me literally 4 hours to write that very brief kiss’. also sometimes the humor in my writing gets in the way a bit, i have to very consciously put it away so characters can actually have serious, genuine emotions. also i don’t like outlining and i tend not to get betas for fanfiction so like..... i do my best continuity-wise but having really tightly plotted stories is just not my focus lol. (and i do put more effort into that for original stuff, it’s just fic where i kind of go wild)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If the reader’s supposed to know what it means, then writing it in another language is iffy for me. (stuff like terms of endearment which come up a lot in fic are fine imo, you can just put a note in to translate them and your reader will prob remember)

If the pov character isn’t supposed to understand it, and it doesn’t matter if the reader understands it, then ig it’s fine? but unless you already speak the other language (and i am NOT confident in my ability to translate english into literally any other language), then i think it’s way easier to just note that a character’s speaking x language and provide tone indicators, body language cues, etc. so the reader understands as much as the pov character.

That being said there are def times when it’s used super effectively--the dialogue in spanish in cemetery boys comes to mind! that’s not fanfic but it’s still creative writing so w/e

so i guess it comes down to: does actually writing out the dialogue in the other language serve a purpose? if it doesn’t, then you’re filling up the screen with words your reader isn’t likely to understand, which i try to avoid doing

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

so the first fandom i actually *wrote* for was PJO, but i distinctly remember creating warrior cats OCs when i was little. i never actually did anything w them but i had them and my favorite was a riverclan warrior named shellstream i remember this VIVIDLY

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

oh boy. okay so this is hard because i feel like i’m continuously improving as a writer. like in the sense that my writing is getting closer and closer to really matching my own taste? my favorites tend to always be my current projects as a result. and i do really love set those ghosts alight (HP) but it feels a little like cheating to say a fic i haven’t even finished writing yet. even though it’s def not cheating, that’s just the direction my brain is taking it.

i’m gonna say and then what? (OMGCP) because i’m super proud of the prose (especially ch 2 aka the first actual prose chapter), survived by (HP) for SUCCESSFULLY WRITING AN EMOTION and making readers cry :), and Q&A (AFTG) because i’m literally the one who wrote it and yet it still makes me wheeze. those are all fics i reread occasionally, because i’m big enough to admit i enjoy rereading my old stuff! (just like. to a point. some of my old stuff i can’t look at anymore because all the mistakes stick out to me like they have spotlights shining directly on them)

this was fun!! i’m gonna do an open tag because i just started my fall semester and brain tired. i know sometimes people see open tags and assume the op didn’t really mean it but I MEAN IT, PLEASE DO THIS AND TAG ME!!!!! YES YOU READING THIS

[palmett-hoes]

since the first step in achieving your goals is to state them aloud, here's a list of aftg fics/ au s that i'd like to write some day

- pre-canon fic from aaron's perspective spanning the twins' first meeting till they're drafted by the foxes and graduate high school. i'm increasingly enamored with aaron as a character as well as with an outside perspective of andrew's actions and i think it would be very interesting to look at the foundation on which their fraught relationship is built and first developed

- even more pre-canon fic. andrew's early life in foster care. yes, we all know about the most... gruesome things that were done to him, but i believe that there is plenty more that has affected and shaped him, especially in relation to my interpretation of andrew as an autistic poc. this would not be a happy fic.

- anastasia au. neil as anya, andrew as dimitri. possibly a plot amalgamation from both the animated movie and the stage show, with changes as i see fit. (no, neil is not the prince of russia). what i find most compelling about this au is the story of neil and andrew as childhood friends and then the angst of having andrew, as an adult, teaching an amnesiac neil how to act like a noble while being convinced that neil is an imposter. good shit

- art school/dance club au. the foxes attend the palmetto school of art at prestigious edgar allen university. they're considered the school's charity cases, and they are NOT friends. andrew is a studio arts major with a concentration in sculpture who works in the campus coffee shop in the mornings and frequents night clubs that employ pretty boys in the evenings. neil is attending college completely on his father's dime, PROVIDED he study what his father wants, despite his desire to study dance and music. going crazy without an outlet, neil takes a secret job as a go-go dancer. look. this may slightly possibly be a result of me having planned to party hardy this summer, then having my plans ruined by the virus :c

- 1950s High School au. the 1950s aesthetics fucking rock even though the 1950s fucking sucked. kinda wanna tackle both. plus, andrew already has that james dean bad boy fast car appeal

- an exploration of mary and nathan's relationship and history. i get that neil's parents are both super taboo and both really really awful people, but i have questions and i want to answer them

- neil never returns from baltimore. in order to keep his deals, permanently, andrew kills riko and tetsugi, and gets over 20 years in prison. when he gets out, he just wants to be alone, but it seems there's a ghost haunting him. this was conceived for MAXIMUM angst, no getting around it. i got the idea from a badacts fic and it has haunted me ever since

- post-canon sexuality exploration fic. i have a real passion for quality sex education and healthy experimentation, and neil very clearly didn't get the chance for either. yet at the end of the books he finds himself in a very intense sexual relationship. i just really want to give him the opportunity to find out how desire works for him and what he likes, on his own terms. i read a lot of fics where neil's desires seem to be completely dependent on andrew's initiaton, and while i do believe that andrew is the only person neil is attracted to and will ever be attracted to, i also want to explore how his sexuality manifests on its own. the vibe i'm going for is, uh, HornySweet (tm), but also with a lot of genuine eductional material. i want this is to be something that offers real information to its readers that may have been inaccessible for a lot of people, on topics like like sexual hygiene, maturbation, and sex toys in a non-fetishy way. this will be very very E rated, but like,, in a very earnest and goofy way because sex and sexuality is neat and cool but it's also not all serious perfect fucking. it's just,, a topic that deserves to be DISCUSSED

- mobster au. andrew, having never met aaron, takes a job for the moriyamas to track down a runaway asset. Neil. upon completion, they make andrew the butcher's apprentice, and pull neil back into the fold as a commodity rather than a person. lots of violence, lots of shady underground dealings, lots of plotting, lots of secrets.

i'm gonna put some more under the cut, ones that i don't feel as strong a drive towards right now or that i haven't thought as much about. if you (yes, YOU) like any of these, or are interested in any of these, or wanna hear more about any of these, or are even inspired to write something yourself by any of these please, PLEASE, say something in the notes, or send me a message, or an ask or anything. ANYTHING. i am stuck inside, all the time, and i am so, so lonely. i answer from hoob-gooblin

- princess bride au. come ON. princess bride is one of the most romantic AND most snarky movies of all time, and andreil literally invented love and devotion sooooooo it's a perfect match. "yes or no" vs "as you wish" kings of consent and communication and unconventional love declarations. also,, he may not be how I imagine andrew, but a young cary elwes in dramatic black pirate getup is DEFINITELY a valid andrew

- hozier au. sometimes,, i listen to an album, and imagine a fic that encompases the whole thing. nothing speaks louder to me than hozier's discography. (also, yes, i am gay). maybe a little bit inside llewyn davis. neil wanders through a small town and takes up some small jobs, but sings his heart out through twisted metaphors once a week in a hole in the wall bar staffed by a very short, dead eyed veteran

- prince and the pauper au. on a stealth recon mission in enemy territory, andrew encounters a local lord who happens to have his face. in a moment of desperation to save himself from arrest, andrew knocks the lord out and assumes his identity. he returns to the castle just in time for prince moriyama to arrive with a shifty-eyed, red-headed handservant in tow. lord aaron of columbia, meanwhile, wakes up on a ship manned by crown traitor and fugitive kevin day, calling him by a name he's never heard before, and then he's in the hands of the guerilla rebel forces that have been attacking the kingdom. i watched barbie princess and the pauper as a child and that movie fucking slaps

- little mermaid/beauty and the beast/bride of the rose beast/ladyhawke au. in a last ditch attempt to escape his father, neil trades his voice and his tail for legs and washes ashore on a small kingdom with horrible secrets. because he cannot speak, read or write, prince aaron employs neil to serve the monster in the catacombs, the prince's twin brother. the twins are under a curse that turns them into terrifying monsters, andrew by day and aaron by night. aaron's affliction is a secret, as is andrew's humanity. this is such a hodgepodge idea lol. did neil also have to be a mermaid for this to work? no. is he? hell yeah

- new york private school/twin swap au. aaron wins a scholarship to a prestigious school that will guarantee him a future, but then he relapses. convinced he just needs a little more time to get clean, he makes a deal with his volatile new brother, andrew, to stand in for him at the school just until he can his shit together. neil and ichirou moriyama have been raised together their entire lives, always under the knowledge that ichirou will inherit the family empire with nathaniel as his right hand. they hate the idea, but they have no way to escape, and now neil is being harassed by ichirou's bitchass estranged brother at their stupid, fancy private school. LISTEN, we as a fandom do NOT take enough advantage of the twin swap possibilities presented to us. pathetic

- post-canon fic where ichirou, realizing that the life of a mob boss is a lonely one, decides that he needs... a friend. however, because of the nature of his work, he can't just make friends with anyone, so he decides to make friends with neil. without consulting neil first. cue a lot of very weird, very awkward coffee dates where neil is convinced he's about to be disposed of, and ichirou just wants to know about his cats. the thing i like about ichirou is he’s a complete blank slate. i can make him a good guy, a bad guy, an ally, the Big Bad

- Kill Bill au. mary survives a bullet to the head and wakes up from a coma over a year later. with nothing left to lose, she sets out to single-handedly dismantle the wesninski circle. good thing she used to be its top assassin

- single dad andrew au. except look, look, stay with me here, okay, aaron is his son, and he's adopted nicky and kevin. LISTEN. STAY WITH ME. JUST THINK ABOUT IT. tbh the idea comes from my interpretation of the andrew/neil/kevin dynamic as distincly parental, then extending that interpretation to andrew's protection over the rest of his family.

- fashion au. andrew is a fashion designer and photographer who frequently works with allison reynolds. one day she brings around a short, twitchy assistant who looks like she just plucked him out of an alley. somehow, he becomes andrew's muse. i watch a lot of fashion competition shows

- ghibli. either howl's moving castle (andrew as sophie, neil as howl) or spirited away (?). maybe both idk

- legally blonde au. legally blonde is so good guys

[karouvas]

kandrew 8 ask game :3

..if I’m most interested in fics about them that focus on plot, angst, smut or actual plot? 

I’m probably most interested in angst for them sometimes followed by fluff (I generally love hurt/comfort in general and for aftg especially). But really I’ll read all of these depending on what’s interesting there from a character perspective but angst is definitely the common denominator in most of my favorite kandrew works or even scenarios about them in my head lol. Also re: smut since I’m not into men I really largely only enjoy m/m that’s more centered on that if it’s of the blowjob-as-a-character-study variety (and aftg has some excellent ones!), so the Kandreil fics that are just smut without that are p boring to me although I’ll occasionally try one to see what the deal is. 

So all in all angst lol. There’s just sooo much angst potential for these two because they’re the most repressed people in the world why I like them so much <3

(Send me a number + fandom/ship/char for ask game)

[bloody-wonder]

Any time I see a post going “fuck Nora for killing Seth” and lamenting that he died before he could get “redemption” I just get so confused. Nora’s the author; she didn’t physically murder a real person, she killed off a character she created, as was her right, whose place in the story was to die, to up the stakes and push them all to work together. Narratively Seth performed his duty. And “redemption”? AftG is not a story about redemption. It’s about living. And it wasn’t Seth’s story anyway

it turns out i’ve written An Essay on seth already so here it is if you’re interested

at first reading i didn’t think much of seth at all. there’s so much exposition and information about the characters and exy that the reader needs to get from the first book in order to understand and enjoy the other two, that i was quite overwhelmed and so the only things i remembered about seth were that he was kinda dick and that he died in retaliation for riko roast #1, which made the foxes work better as a team. then, after reading all the extra info on nora’s blog and re-reading the books i took a better look at him. he is certainly interesting. first of all he’s a symbol for the ‘old foxes’, those boys who were even more problematic than him and who failed to use the chance wymack had given them to make their lives better. unlike them he persisted, but at the same time – he gave up (he tells matt as much in their dialogue about the foxes’ chances to play better and for them to go pro). this aspect of his character is very relatable, for me at least. i mean i love neil and his unshakable will to make the most of any situation as much as the next guy, but i love it exactly because this is the inspirational shit i’m not able to do irl at all (riko roasts are so satisfying precisely because this is the kind of talk we dream we’d be able to give our offenders but most of us just can’t). seth on the other hand is my day-to-day mood.

he’s pretty down to earth and holds no illusions about his possibilities – this i would say is his most basic feature and at the same time it’s his fatal flaw. for if he were able to dare to imagine a prospect of more successful life for himself, if he were able to overcome his fundamental dislike of kevin, he wouldn’t disregard the team’s decision not to live the campus in the wake of riko roast #1 and, who knows, maybe he’d live. andrew saw matt’s addiction problem and chose to help him the hard way because he was positive that matt would survive, that he’d fight because he had it in him to overcome it. he didn’t regard seth in the same way – for many reasons, primarily seth’s being an asshole to andrew’s lot – but also because seth unlike matt had already given up on himself in a sense. we don’t know if he took the drugs that killed him of his own free will or if he was forced to take them, but i think he did it himself.

i find some of his characterization in the extra material very revealing: he was okay with his teammates’ shitty behaviors towards matt and the girls, with them doing drugs, with calling nicky the f-word, but he drew the line at some guys trying to rape allison while she was drunk at a party. most importantly this latter one wasn’t his instinctive action, like any person’s trying to save a fellow human from violence, like neil’s choice to stand up for kevin against riko at kathy’s show – this was a conscious decision (he passed the guys leading allison away, he went on, but then he thought no and went back for her). seth existed in this ethical grey zone, neither here nor there. every character in aftg is morally grey as we’ve established, but seth most of all, i think. if moral integrity was a scale, he’d be right in the middle of it. his inability to move brought his downfall. he’s a symbol for the ‘old foxes’, as i’ve said, and the story is about the ‘new’ ones, so it makes perfect narrative sense that he should die to make this ‘new era’ possible (it’s no coincidence that his death marks the end of the first book, the first act of this story). evolve or perish, so to say.

in this context he’s a tragic hero. he literally says ‘my life isn’t less important than kevin’s because he’s more talented’. this can be also read as ‘my life isn’t less important because i’m a minor antagonist in someone else’s story’. which he kinda is. he’s a secondary character whose death is a plot point, he’s a symbol and he’s the agent of tragic irony – all of which seems fascinating and rich to me. which is why i’m really sad that most of the fandom discourse on seth comes down to two camps: he deserved better vs. he deserved to die because he was homophobic and anyway he isn’t that important to care for him. the latter group also tends to view his death as him being punished by the narrative for being ‘bad’, which is the shallowest reading i can imagine. this is a common plight i see among my peers: people just dividing characters into the good ones and the bad one’s and debating whether those who are ‘bad’ deserve death or not. nobody deserves anything, people just get stuff or they don’t.

as for the former group, i can understand that people emphasize with seth’s struggle and would like a happier ending for him, because that’s humane, but i disagree, because although him living on would certainly dry some readers’ tears, it would impact the story in a bad way, make it less measured, it would remove all the complexity i’ve listed above. to put it simply, not every character who deserves development, redemption and what not has to get it, there’s absolutely no such rule. people who take to flawed characters and then feel robbed of a redemption arc if there isn’t one are missing the point of characters as a category in storytelling. 

as for me, i neither know nor care what he did or did not deserve as a human (which he is not, he’s made up), but i think that as a character he couldn’t be crafted better to play his role in this story and his death, i will repeat myself, makes perfect narrative sense.