#to wymack he is Kayleigh

[bisexualchaosdemon]

Sometimes, I think about the fact that Wymack is Kevin's dad, and I want to weep. He dedicated his entire life to helping others who had grown up like he had, only to find out that his own son had grown up a caged and abused wreck? That's a level of pain that I can't even fathom.

[scholliski]

isn’t it crazy that Wymack was homeless in Baltimore after running away from his parents only to have to return decades later because Neil couldn’t escape his own

[odetojupiter]

i see you saying that it’s heartbreaking that wymack set up the foxes to help people with trauma but couldn’t help his own son and i raise you: wymack saved kevin before kevin left the nest, without even knowing. kevin never would have left the nest if he didn’t have somewhere to go, and wymack - with the media attention he garnered with the foxes - became such a trustworthy figure in kevin’s mind that he didn’t doubt for a second that wymack would take him in and keep him as safe as he could. wymack did help kevin, before they had even met each other, by being such a strong beacon of hope that kevin was drawn to him despite the fact that he was raised and abused in a cult and probably found trusting anyone difficult, let alone someone he hadn’t met.

something else to consider: the foxes are still a newish team (if i remember correctly seth’s year is their first year, dan is their second, meaning neil is their fifth), and jean tells neil that kevin only found out wymack was his dad a few years ago when neil is in the nest. this means that kevin will have been aware of who wymack was - outside of wymack having played the sport prior to coaching - and would have seen the type of person he was before he knew they were related. he’d have witnessed from after wymack fighting tooth and nail to support his foxes despite all the mess, the tragedies, would have seen him staying firm in his belief in second chances BEFORE he found out wymack was his dad.

think - kevin saying to jean imagine having that. jean would say it’s a publicity stunt, it’s not real, those types of people don’t exist and kevin would agree and say they’re a shit team anyway, but something about wymack always rang true to him. maybe after that conversation he didn’t bring it up - other than to say i think my mother would’ve liked dan wilds when it’s announced she’s the new captain. but he still sees wymack’s actions in his periphery, and it’s enough to build up a picture of him as someone who is real. and then he finds out it’s his dad

imagine how that would have been for kevin - going from living in a cult, cut off from any family he may have had after kayleigh’s death to suddenly being told he has a dad, and that dad is the type of person who would have risked himself if he knew what was happening to kevin.

[atlalasassy]

Hot girls aren’t normal about the All For the Game bonus chapters in the rainbow crate editions

[foxstens]

kevin was nine when he joined the ravens

kevin spent all spring on betsy's couch

kevin didn't trust her because he was afraid she'd tell andrew things

kevin trusted wymack's word

[bees-figurines]

It's funny how Wymack is such an early bird compared to Kevin. He must have gotten his circadian rhythm from his mum, which makes it funnier. Imagine how they must have been them as a couple.

[dayurno]

i'm always so gobsmacked baffled confused when kevin is blamed for not telling wymack that he's his dad???? like???)! of course he would be scared he literally has no family and the "family" that he does have is extremely violent and abusive why would he assume other people aren't!!!! and the foxes involving themselves in it and saying it's unfair is soooo irritating! kevin my princess

SO UNSERIOUS!!!! i genuinely find it nonsensical to worry about the man who, while receiving hard news, is otherwise fine and entirely safe and not the child that up until this point had been Human Trafficked and Kept Captive in a Cult and only shared this life-changing piece of information because it would help neil. like first of all. it is never the child's job to fix the relationship with the parent so jot that down, but even with that put aside, kevin had so much to lose!!!!!!!!!!!!! he could be sent back to the nest for once, could be accused of lying, could be hated by his only living family member, could be blamed for kayleigh's mistakes, and that's all without taking in consideration kevin's only experience with men coach wymack's age has been tetsuji moriyama, FAMOUS child beater and the reason kevin was human trafficked at all in the first place

coach wymack will be fine anyway! can we worry about kevin. even just a little bit. can someone please be nice to kevin. thanks

[simonsrosebud]

um guys.

tom blythe is lowkey but also very much kevin day

[captain-sunshine-11]

What if Kevin had gone to Wymack after Kayleigh died. What if Kayleigh figured out her time was running out but could not for the life of her (literally) figure out how or if her son would be safe. What if Kayleigh Day knew that Kevin ending up with The Ravens would be the worst outcome and had made sure that plans were in place for Kevin to go to Wymack.

What if Wymack shows up at her funeral, seeing little Kevin and can't believe how much he looks like Kayleigh in person. How much he looks like him. And only finds out that he was Kevin's chosen guardian as per her wishes when her lawyer approaches him at the will reading. What if Tetsuji and Riko tried to fight that claim but Wymack immediately jumped on that responsibility.

What if Wymack raised Kevin?

[lightlytoastedcashews]

oh i know david wymack was in SHAMBLES when he listened to casual by chappell roan for the first time

[lily-s-world]

You know which character of AFTG I really like but sometimes doesn't received enough credit? David Wymack.

That man was raised in a broken and completely toxic environment, where both his parents ended pretty badly, but he was able to pull himself together and get to learn Exy from one of it's creators. (Kayleigh Day)

Then he moved to train college teams, but instead of applying to coach in super fancy universities or with already known star athletes; he choose to stay in a basically unknown place because they gave him the opportunity to create a team with kids that had grown up like him. Like he said, he wanted to give people second, third... changes and opportunities, because he grew up with very few. And the players he choose, he knew the world will turn the back to them or already did; but he decided to support them anyways.

And not only by recruiting them, he often says he doesn't get into his players personal lives (and that is true) and that he complains about losing years from his life by dealing with his team, but my man was ready to throw hands with FBI agents if they didn't gave him Neil back. He allowed Kevin to stay, even though he knew he will probably never play again. He signed up Aaron and Nicky, because he knew they also needed help, not only to get Andrew on board. He put Neil back together after Evermore. And supported Renee when she wanted to get Jean to a better place.

I know he is not perfect, but he really shines when it comes to support and stand up for his team and his way of recruiting players.

[luvbug724]

how does kevin look like to you?

so now is the part where i reveal that i'm genuinely just insane about jean moreau and i don't have that specific of headcanons for anyone else but i have something else for you... come sit with me

i think wymack and kevin look very similar but not in a way that's noticeable at first. same features, different face shape, different coloring. something like that. zoom in on just their face & realize its identical but you wouldn't pick up on it from far away. really ppl only realize it once they actually have reason to look (cue allison lining them up next to each other and going my GOD. how did we not realize! but why would they have realized before??? You know??). in my head wymack is very average height, past his prime, works out for strength, not appearance, the works. which adds another layer to nobody realizing & also somehow makes it easier to see him as kevin's father, not his coach

[constelationprize]

something i often think about in relation to kayleigh day is we don't actually know anything about her

she could have been as abusive as tetsuji or at least close to it and it's not like kevin would've been able to tell

i dont actually believe she was abusive but its an interesting thought, that in any universe kevin would have ended up with an abuser at one point

God that would be fucked up. Entirely plausible, though. A big point of the Kayleigh Lives AU is that I don't believe that anything could have stopped Kevin from going down the path he did, not just because of The Plot™, but because it's integral to how the AFTG universe works that the Moriyama's will get what they want, and I can't see a reality where Tetsuji doesn't want Kevin for his team. I can see a universe where, if their worldviews were similar enough, Kayleigh could surrender him willingly to Tetsuji.

But yeah part of what makes me so interested in Kayleigh is how much of a character she isn't, you know? Even compared to the other Dead Moms™, we know very little about her personally. The circustances of her death and the details of what her relationship with Wymack was like all are things Nora only answered in the EC. And I think it's fun to extrapolate what she might have actually been like. What we know of her personality comes from very biased sources, people who loved her, and the picture of the kind, generous person is a sharp contrast to the actual facts we know about her. I don't think I can say enough times that LIYING to someone, with whom you had an otherwise positive relationship, about having their child because YOU think that's what would be best for them is not a Good Person thing to do. It's very fun playing with the contradictions! I love ruthless evil ambitious Kayleigh just as much as well-intentioned naively optmistic Kayleigh and everything in between.

Realistically, she probably wasn't neither good nor bad. They (Kengo Moriyama) just hated to see a girlboss winning.

[foxstens]

sometimes i think about how tetsuji is actually kevin's godfather

[dayurno]

omg reverse riko au is making me feel so ill..... please let us know if you have any more thoughts abt riko kayleigh and kevin legend.....

I DO my idea is that its around the same age kevin and riko met in canon so tetsuji kicks the bucket when riko is 7/8 and riko is (very forcibly) removed from the nest and sidelined to kayleigh as a new moriyama asset from the main branch takes over the nest. riko struggles a lot with the change because he is very young and very scared and he’s used to horrible things at tetsuji’s hand, which means that he doesn’t trust kayleigh and finds kevin entirely too weird. it’s honestly really cute because i think at this point obviously 7 year old kevin wants to befriend him but riko is such an anxious ball of anger that most of their interactions are like

baby riko: what do you WANT from me. go AWAY!!!! NOW

baby kevin: (heavy irish accent) nothing i think. do you want a bite of my sandwich?

anyway i think riko and kayleigh do get along but he never really considers her his mother or even godmother, for a long time he thinks of her as his Benefactor until the child therapy starts hitting and she becomes Aunt Kayleigh and then after a few more years he can be loosely convinced to refer to her as auntie once or twice a year. his second son syndrome never really leaves him; in the upcoming years riko struggles with the idea that he’s anything But an add-on to the days and still overworks himself to death trying to be acknowledged by kengo, but it’s leaps better just from being outside the nest and having people to look out for him

riko and kevin have some rough patches, especially during riko’s first years with the days. because kevin is an easy target and riko is afraid of kayleigh he ends up letting a lot of that anger out on kevin, though obviously at this point they are children and riko’s anger manifests in some mild bullying and name calling. i think kevin doesn’t even understand it most of the time 😭 riko has been around grown ups his entire life so his adult level insults make no sense to kevin’s seven year old mind. nevertheless after kayleigh tells him to stop picking on kevin riko does respect it (first out of fear, then later because they actually get along) and they go on to become brothers with only a slight tendency towards antagonism. riko’s jealousy of kevin is still a big part of their relationship and i think even more so when college applications roll around, and he’s even more worried when wymack comes into the picture, but it never culminates into anything as horrible as hand breaking because riko has an actual outlet and a support system :) it’s mostly a yelling match that eventually turns to getting scolded by kayleigh for acting like barbarians

[the-inner-musings-of-a-worm]

kevin honestly could have been angrier bc wdym he had amazing parents but his life still ended up like that

his parents are david wymack and kayleigh day but fate is pretending like it’s his dad that’s the serial killer