#this is so many words

[lesawrites]

I finished the three day novel contest! I actually think I did really well. I have a decent first draft, especially for being written in just three days. I even had about six hours extra time to edit and rewrite things. Now it’s after midnight and I can’t do any more work on it, and it’s at 23,351 words!

I’m really proud of myself for completing this, especially with how little I prepared for it beforehand. My outline was vague, and I ended up changing a few major things last minute, and somehow I still pulled through. Even if I don’t win the actual contest part of it, which I doubt I will, I’m super happy I did this.

[youareapipedream]

Aaron and Andrew

Here is a sort of guide to the twins pasts and how they met, and their relationship with each other throughout the years.

(I really hope this makes sense, do let me know if anything is confusing)

When they were separated 

Tilda Minyard became pregnant after what Nicky believes is a one night stand. Once the twins were born, Tilda gave them both up to foster care a few days after they were born. Consumed by the guilt of giving her children up, she returned to the system and decided to take only one of them back. The one she chose wound up being Aaron. 

Due to the fact that Tilda didn’t register the twins under a last name, Andrew wound up staying in the foster system under the name 

“Andrew Doe” and bounced from family to family, none of them good, until he was thirteen. At this time, he moved in with the Spears. Cass and Richard Spear were the first family Andrew truly felt a connection to, more so Cass than Richard. Cass wanted to adopt Andrew, and he wanted to let her. 

The problem was, the Spear’s biological son, Drake, started to sexually abuse Andrew. Andrew finally felt like he had a real family, a real mother, in Cass. Drake was graduating soon and he wanted to join the army right out of high school. Andrew thought that if he could last until Drake graduated, then he could have the mother he wanted and wouldn’t have to give her up because of Drake’s abuse. 

Then, Officer Higgins from Oakland PD, who knew Andrew, saw Aaron who was with his mother and her boyfriend at a football game. Higgins believed Tilda was another foster parent and that the twins got separated in the system. 

Higgins convinced Tilda to give him her number so he could give it to Cass Spear. She did, likely out of embarrassment and received a call the next day. Tilda told Cass that she wanted nothing to do with Andrew. Aaron, aware of what the call was about, listened on the home phone upstairs. He heard Tilda say that she didn’t want Aaron to meet Andrew. Aaron had a huge fight with Tilda but she wouldn’t budge, so Aaron went behind her back and contacted the Oakland PD. Aaron told them to give his information to Andrew’s foster family. Two weeks after, Aaron got a letter from Andrew telling him that he wanted nothing to do with Aaron, and to leave him alone. 

While Aaron was trying to convince Andrew to meet him, so was Drake. Drake harassed Andrew, trying to get him to agree to meet Aaron. This was the reason Andrew refused to do it. Andrew didn’t care what happened to him at the hands of Drake, but he didn’t want anyone else to deal with it, especially the brother he’s never met. Cass convinced Aaron to try again later, and he was going to but he waited too long. Andrew decided to get himself locked up in a juvenile facility to escape Drake’s abuse. Juvie is where Andrew learned to play Exy, 

With their mother

About two months after all of this happened, Tilda took Aaron and moved him to Columbia. Once Luther, Tilda’s brother and Nicky’s father, found out about Andrew, he went to interview Andrew’s foster family. A month later, Luther flew himself and Aaron out to California to see Andrew. Aaron picked up Exy in school as a way to get out of the house for a few extra hours to escape Tilda’s abuse. 

Andrew noticed something was wrong and didn’t believe that the bruises came from Exy, and so he did everything in his power to get out. A year after this first short visit, Andrew got released from Juvie on good behavior, and put on probation. Luther managed to convince Tilda to take him in and so Andrew moved to Columbia. Andrew found out that Tilda has gotten Aaron addicted to drugs. 

Andrew didn’t like Tilda, and made that very clear, but he and Aaron had a cautious, but somewhat friendly relationship. Andrew and Aaron made a deal, Andrew would stick with Aaron until high school graduation, and protect him from women who wanted to hurt him, on the condition that Aaron ice out anyone else. Andrew initially did this to get Aaron to stop seeing the friends who enabled his addiction. Aaron, even with the deal in place, tried to make friends and even date a few girls. One night, Andrew pretended to be Aaron and got into a fight with Tilda. Andrew made it to Luther’s house, which is how the Hemmicks found out about Tilda’s abuse. Luther called Tilda to talk but she took Andrew and left. 

It’s uncertain what exactly happened to cause the car to crash, Nicky thought maybe Tilda panicked when she realized it wasn’t Aaron in the car, or Andrew did it on purpose, or if they were fighting. It is later implied by Andrew that he staged the entire accident, yet what exactly happened that caused the crash is still not known. Tilda wasn’t wearing her seatbelt and died during the accident. 

Aaron believes that Andrew killed Tilda because she left him in the foster care system. Andrew says that he killed Tilda because she hurt Aaron. Tilda’s death destroyed the fledgling relationship between the twins. 

With Nicky 

Nicky Hemmick was in Germany when he found out about his Aunt Tilda’s death and when he came back to the states for her funeral, he was told that his father was planning to take in the twins. Nicky was miserable when he lived with his parents and didn’t want the twins to have to deal with what he went through so Nicky became their legal guardians. They got a house in Columbia and the first thing Andrew did was stock the upstairs bathroom with canned food and other supplies and lock Aaron in it, forcing him through withdrawal. Nicky got a job at the restaurant Sweeties where he and the twins were introduced to a non-addictive drug called “cracker dust” to try and help Aaron with his addiction. He found out from customers about Eden’s Twilight and got a job there by befriending one of the bartenders, Roland. Eventually he got both of the twins part time jobs at the club. 

Medication

Two years before the start of The Foxhole Court, Nicky was attacked outside of Eden’s Twilight by four men because of his sexuality. Andrew stepped in and nearly beat all four of them to death. The courts rules that the violence took a step too far past self defense and Andrew’s lawyer managed to convince them to have Andrew engage in intensive counseling and be medicated for three years  instead of going to prison. 

With the Foxes

Andrew was scouted by Edgar Allen University, with Kevin and Riko, but he turned them down and nearly immediately signed with the Palmetto State Foxes. He signed with the Foxes because Coach Wymack was willing to sign his brother and cousin as well as let Andrew come off his medication for Exy games. All three joined the team. 

During the series, the twins rarely interact with each other unless they have to, showing a distant and oftentimes cold relationship. Aaron blames Andrew for Tilda’s death, and Andrew refuses to apologize for keeping his end of the deal they made, even if Aaron won’t. 

In The Raven King, while Nicky is trying to reconnect with his parents, Drake is waiting upstairs and attacks Andrew. Neil notices something is wrong and takes Aaron upstairs to help Andrew. Upon seeing what was happening, Aaron murders Drake to help Andrew. After the attack, the decision is made to send Andrew to rehab to get him off of his mood altering medication. He comes back and seems even more uninterested in his brother than usual. 

During The King’s Men, Neil manipulates Katelyn, Aarons girlfriend into shutting him out until the twins go to counseling together. Eventually, they do start going and attempting to work out some of their issues. Later in the book, Aaron uses their deal against Andrew, if Aaron can’t have a relationship with Katelyn because of their deal, then technically Andrew was breaking their deal by doing what he was doing with Neil. Andrew angrily and reluctantly agrees to end the deal with Aaron and confronts Katelyn in the library where he tells her that even though he is allowing her to see Aaron, that doesn’t mean he approves of or likes her. He tells her to stay away from him. Aaron and Neil end up switching rooms, Neil moving in with Kevin, Nicky, and Andrew, and Aaron moving in with Matt. 

After the books 

The twin’s relationship improves slowly over time, but eventually they acknowledge each other outside of the counseling sessions. According to a post from Nora’s Twitter, after the twins graduate and figure out they have to leave each other “Aaron catches hold of Andrew and Andrew is the last to let go.” After graduation, Aaron proposes to Katelyn right before his fifth year at Palmetto and they get married shortly after graduation. Neil manages to convince Andrew to go to the wedding but it takes two separate favors to do so, one to get Andrew to go and the other to make sure Andrew doesn’t threaten Katelyn. Aaron and Katelyn move to Chicago after graduating from Medical school and decide not to have children because of their busy careers and general disinterest in having any. Andrew lives with Neil and they adopt two cats while having successful professional Exy careers. 

[shubbler]

ok fellas i have an idea for a fanfiction set in an AU but A: i haven’t written anything and then finished it in about 5 months B: i haven’t written anything actually GOOD like. ever C: i’ve never really written fanfic before and i know i’ll find it way too cringe to upload even tho i love reading fanfic and don’t find it cringe when other people do it D: i have like 18 unfinished projects i want to finish, one of which is a short story that i haven’t even started and a few of which are time sensitive E: i don’t have an idea for most of the plot, just the concept and F: i’m pretty sure i’d be terrible at keeping the characters in character so

[cottaegecore]

― Simone de Beauvoir, from Diary of a Philosophy Student

[framblebee]

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 1x2 | 1x3 | 1x4

[taimanzano]

One of one. One, alone, one.

[nuheyenuh]

Against the current.

[freitag1607]

1.05 / Battle of the Labyrinth

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

How much longer 'til your luck runs out?

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[idontmindifuforgetme]

If you’ve had a period of basically dissociating from a hard time of your life, you’ll know that doing even the littlest thing that has an effect in the real world vs on a screen can be so profound. Something as little as you doing a favor for someone, or someone noticing something about you that you didn’t think anyone would even pick up on bc your brain is all messed up about being perceived. Your living footprint is all muddied and murky. It takes a lot to even feel like you’re inhibiting your body. So consequences that come as a direct result of you just living, whether big or small, blow you away on an inexplicable level

[petricorah]

thankfully, he didn't get it [id in alt]

[dramatic-dolphin]

insane to hear those stories like "a homeless man asked me for money and i bought him some bread instead and he threw it in the trash" like wow.... all this could have been avoided if you treated him like a human being and asked "i can't give you money, is it okay if i buy you food instead?" and he would have said "no" and you could have walked away without wasting money or food, instead of assuming you knew what's best for him. it's not that fucking hard.

[aardvaark]

everyones fave thieves

[girlfictions]

thinking about this poem by noor hindi today.

(donate to palestine here)

[thefabledpheasant]

Seeing other writers on tumblr talk about writing is so validating because all of them are basically:

“I hate writing but I love it more than anything but it’s agony but I have a million stories to put to paper but I barely ever write a word”

And like I’ve always felt this way and I worried it meant I wasn’t supposed to be a writer, which tore me to shreds. But no. That’s just the curse of being one, I guess.