I Think It's My Civic Duty As A Member Of The Aftg Fandom To Remind You All That Before Getting His First

aaron watching andrew be forced to take a medication that will alter his mental state.

aaron seeing all andrew's nervous tics before he takes the first pill. aaron seeing how scared andrew is.

aaron sitting outside the bathroom door while andrew gets sick after trying to get off his meds the first time. when andrew finally comes out into the hall and sees aaron, he just walks right past him. "withdraw sucks doesn't it?" aaron says. "don't talk to me," andrew says back and aaron can't help but hate how tired and defeated andrew sounds.

I wanna see more andreil "arguments" that's just them being petty assholes to each other. andrew calls neil an idiot on a plane one time and neil tells him "we are 32,000 feet in the air"

You know what I want?

Well I'm getting ahead of myself already. You know what I like?

I like those fics where someone says something untoward about Andrew (usually about his character, usually in reference to violence, and sometimes in reference to be worried about Neil's domestic safety) and Neil just,,, immediately starts tango-ing with his instinct to commit violence (sometimes an immediate 'oh. i gotta kill them now' or 'they mean well and also don't understand, don't kill them don't kill them don't-').

I also like those fics where Neil confronts his ability to be violent, but in a way that contains too much willingness and not enough shame, thus triggering his Wesninski Prodigal Son Issues (best when it's because his violence comes from either survival instincts or protective instincts - 'better them over me/my family').

With that in mind, you know what I want? I want a post-canon fic that is a big character study on Neil's capacity for fatal violence vs his desire to preserve life. First half of the fic being the tragic "Am I really my father's son?" angst where the person who keeps helping him through it is Andrew. Probably someone said something Quite Accurate But In Bad Faith about Neil in the media, which gathered attention, and it hit home harder than anticipated and now Neil is spiraling.

Do this a few times, Rule Of Threes and all that.

Then have a scene where Andrew does some violence (someone says something sexual about anyone under Andrew's umbrella of 'I care about this person but don't tell anyone I said that') and Neil stops him from doing something *clears throat* Not Great When Caught On Camera, and as a consequence someone expresses something about Andrew.

And Neil? Responds accordingly. Very Wesninski coded (I refrain from saying Nathaniel coded because that one fic somewhere on my pinned post convinced me that Nathaniel was never a cold blooded violent type - that was never his purpose. Nathaniel takes hits and survives them, he gets cut and makes sure he doesn't bleed out, he gets cornered and finds an out to run through. Nathaniel was never a predator, he was always prey, and that's why Nathan always saw him as a failure because Wesninski's were always supposed to be Apex Predators- but i digress)

Cue Neil unrepentantly embracing being Very Very Scary and later Andrew asks him how that little show is holding up with his issues. Neil shrugs and spouts some unintentionally romantic shit about not letting shit slide in regards to besmirching Andrew's character in front of his face. Cue Andrew saying something about 'Wesninski's would never commit violence out of protective affection. Only a Josten would do that.'

and suddenly Neil's spiraling is over via the power of Realizing Things, there's some banter about letting each other fight their own battles, Andrew says he hates him, questions get whispered and yeses get exchanged and lips get locked and other things get extracurricularly activitied-

Yea, that's what I want

saw a post about how jean and neil are pretty alike so andrew would probably like jean and just. thinking about how andrew could teach jean everything he's learned about bodily autonomy and consent and trust and self worth. thinking about aaron killing drake and neil putting a hit out on grayson. thinking about them both finding partners they trust to respect their boundaries. thinking about neil saying "andrew's taught me about give and take" and how andrew could teach that same lesson to jean. thinking about andrew teaching jean to trust bee and telling him about what he talks to bee about. thinking about jean getting bee a glass figurine for her collection because andrew told him she likes them. thinking about bee getting jean a magnet in return. thinking about how they have like more than a foot of height difference. thinking about them bonding over making fun of kevin. thinking about jean getting to know the person who finally stood up to riko and protected neil from him. thinking about jean learning that neil went to evermore to try to protect andrew from proust. just andrew and jean okay!!!!

does anyone else suffer from the aftg effect? i remembers the moment i finished tkm and I was looking into the air thinking "nothing its ever gonna top these books", like, yeah, after aftg I read more books, but i wasnt able to connect as hard as i connected with the Foxes; and it never matters how long i stay away from the books bc im busy with my life, every single time i go back to them without fail, to the way too sweet andreil fanfics, to the beautiful fanarts, to this cursed fandom that always likes to suffer for some reason, they always drag me back. it never fails to impress me how much these silly little books mean so much for me and for many people too, and thats the aftg effect, the feeling of knowing ur fucked bc theres no way ur going to get over the books in this lifetime or the next one, once u start liking the characters, theres no way back.

Everyone who managed to buy the rainbow crate editions with the bonus chapters, just know I'm haunting your houses and planning to implant man eating fungus into your dreams - no one is safe

Whenever Jeremy does anything for Jean in TSC I’m reminded of the fact that it was Andrew who most likely did it for Kevin, in his own fucked up Andrew Way (TM).

Andrew followed Kevin’s schedule to keep the partner rule.

Andrew took him shopping for new clothes.

Andrew took him to sweeties full of awfully unhealthy food.

When Kevin wakes up at night, in a haze and he looks for the other bed in the room, it’s Andrew he finds.

When he’s afraid, when he panics, when shit hits the fan and he needs help, it’s Andrew he looks for, and Andrew is right fucking there.

They’ve spent the past year in each others pocket, in a way that the drowning hold on to a raft.

They’re complicated and ugly towards each other. They’re cruel and sharp and vicious, and they hit each other where it hurts, but nobody can ever tell me that the two of them are not best fucking friends.

I will never recover from the fact that if Neil and Andrew got married, Andrew picks Kevin as his best man, Kevin says yes.

what the fuck do you mean there are people out there liking jean's and thea's "friendship" ??? "she was like a sister to him" ????? the girl that asked him if he was back to his “old tricks” when she saw him in THAT state?? his old tricks being him getting fucked by older guys when he was 15/16 years old?? "riko made her believe he was willing" he was a kid??? "she is a victim too" i don't care let her heal far away from jean??? i hate u

one of my fave parts abt aftg is how realistic it is. like they're all college kids, 18-20 ish. they're just teenagers. like yeah obviously neil is going to retaliate on live television without thinking about the repercussions. obviously they're going to rely on their most violent friend for protection from the mafia even though he's just a 20 year old bipolar kid with a heavy ass racquet. obviously the trojans are going to have a cardboard cutout of a dog with a stupid name that they treat like a real pet. obviously they're going to take tourist photos when they go pick up the random dude from arizona that's going to change their lives forever. god i love them. god

thinking about the fact that Neil matched Kevin's and Andrew's freak almost immediately. just straight up figured out how they ticked and walked them like dogs for three books straight. to everyone else, Kevin and Andrew are insane. to Neil, they make perfect sense.