All For The Game - Blog Posts
jerejean fake dating au where someone wont leave jean alone and cat is like “wait! i have the perfect solution” and sets them up to date fake date.
she knows from laila and her own observations that jeremy needs to stop hooking up with those fuck ass guys because he deserves someone who doesn’t treat him like shit. and knows that jeremy is kind enough to help a friend of her’s out if she says it’s dire (which in her defense, it is) without looking too hard at her reasoning.
even in a fake relationship, jeremy won’t cheat, never mind that they have to keep up appearances, which means no more self-harm hookups. add on that jeremy’s demeanor will fight off jean’s harasser bc he acts as a trojan does and pulls shit like “oh! that’s rude, considering your current roster. i hope you apologize to them later” so cat is assured that they will be the perfect match for helping their current problems.
but while she mainly wants to help out two people she cares about, she secretly thinks they would be good together and for each other. (it’s not so secret, laila has heard her talk it up for hours)
and then, of course, they fall in love
jean is very prone to burning in the sun. he needs to be religious with sunscreen and even with it will not really tan, just get red. no matter how much he is outside, he never gets more than a few shades tanner
jeremy burns easily but also gets nice tans. he tries to be good about sunscreen but sometimes forgets and is often a little burnt on his nose. but he tans perfectly and it’s as if it doesn’t fade in the winter (it drives jean insane). however since he is outside all the time and tans so easily, he has so many funky tan lines
cat and laila do not burn. they are both religious with sunscreen for skin cancer reasons and less so they won’t crisp. laila can get burned if she spends all day under the sun and has no sunscreen but like barely and only in extreme circumstances. cat though will. not. burn. even on the rare occasion she forgets sunscreen (which is next to never) she doesn’t burn, she just gets tanner. and she gets tans with sunscreen on too while sunscreen makes jean tan less lol
everytime jean looked at kevin and riko, he saw what he and nathaniel could’ve had if mary hadn’t run. not the part about being the best, he never cared about that. he just wanted a brother. he wanted someone to suffer with him like everyone else had. everyone else around him had a partner, why couldn’t he? it’s jean starting to resent kevin for having everything he never would and then leaving it all behind.
in a raven! neil au, it’s the opposite. it’s kevin looking at jean and neil and wishing that’s what HE had. a partner that defends him and helps him instead of being the one to hurt him (both physically and emotionally). to get to be a great player without being forced in front of cameras. someone who he’s actually close with instead of just calling him ‘brother’ for the sake of them being the Sons of Exy. he just wanted to be (what he thought was) normal. kevin would start to resent jean the same way jean resented him in canon.
okay but i’m soooo interested to see how andreil’s rooftop cig moments will transform in the queen’s game now that andrew is quitting. because neil doesn’t smoke but he’s still holding a cig and i doubt he would keep that habit up with andrew’s decision
just realized we’re gonna see non-smoking andrew in the queen’s game……..
i need to know what jean thinks of mangos
because mangos fit that specific kind of sweet that i think strawberries and peaches have. not overly sweet and they can have a hint of tartness too. and they are such a fruit of warmth that i don’t think you can eat them without feeling homey. they only grow in warm climates and maybe it’s just me, but i think their flavor calls forth summer storms and heat
but most importantly, mangos are their own kind of rainbow and we know how jean feels about rainbows
What if The Queen's Game doesn't just refer to Kevin? What if it refers to Kayleigh, too?
I just– Kevin has always said that the Trojans play Exy "as it was meant to be played" and the award for excellent sportsmanship is the 'Day Spirit Award'. What if Kayleigh Day created the sport to be as the Trojans play, and her death left Tetsuji Moriyama free to twist it into something it was never meant to be?
Coach Moriyama taught his Ravens that rule breaking and fouls were just an acceptable part of the game. Tetsuji behaved like success in Exy was intrinsically linked to cruelty and suffering, but Kayleigh used Exy as a way to help people like David Wymack.
As the co-creators of the sport, Kayleigh and Tetsuji were the original King and Queen of Exy. But this King's ruled long enough—it's time to tear his castle down. With Tetsuji out of the picture, will Kevin Day, the new Queen of Exy, be able to push the game back towards what his mother always intended it to be?
omg if we get baby kevin and kayleigh, even for like a flashback or a chapter, i will sobbbb. i cannot handle that and yet, i want it so so bad
would also be so interesting to see a kayleigh and tetsuji interaction. cause why does he hate women so much (not that misogynists ever need a reason to be bigots) when he literally created the sport he bases his entire life on with a woman
have not been able to stop thinking about the kevin day duology and my mind went to the prequel and if we will get to see kevin falling in love with history……… i just know you would lose your shit (rightfully so). sorry this isn’t really a question lol, i just feel insane and need to know if that possibility crossed your mind yet
THE KEVIN DAY DUOLOGY HAS NOT LEFT MY MIND SINCE I FOUND OUT ABOUT IT
Everything in the prequel is going to kill me 57 times over like if we get to see baby Kevin its gonna be so over for me
The fact that we get to be inside his head is already great enough but now thinking about getting all the answers to Kevin’s time in the nest is making me vibrate at the speed of sound
Im also hoping we get more about Kayleigh and how much Kevin remembers about it like there’s so much that’s been alluded to
on my knees praying, begging, that kevin is an observant narrator. please kevin you’re so judgmental, give us so many details 😭 i need to have more than scraps in the sequel, i need your thoughts and comments on everything
do you think we will get the scene where riko breaks his hand? do you think we’ll get what goes through his head when the master pits them against each other and in the aftermath? do you think we will get him begging jean and escaping? do you think we will get him showing up on wymack’s door and all the complicated feelings of knowing that’s his father? do you think we’ll get a snippet of the monster’s freshman year through his eyes? do you think we will get conversations with betsy? do you think we will have gotten kevin discovering andrew and the meeting where he turned the ravens down? do you think we’ll get jean’s arrival through his eyes? do you think we will get him convincing himself to be straight?
i know the obvious allusion with the title “the broken cage” is that jean is breaking free of the nest and finally taking important, meaningful steps towards healing. he’s the bird, he’s the raven turned golden that we have been following. and the nest and all its cult culture has been trapping him in a cage he didn’t know how to leave. and i do think this is true. i do think we will see jean breaking free of his cage
but i also think it’s an allusion to jeremy. because that man is very much in a gilded cage right now, locked up by his family. i think tsc3 will be jeremy breaking out of his own cage too and working towards healing and the future he actually wants
OHHHHH MY GOD?!?!? i— this is insane shdksjdkskdksk i have not been able to pick my jaw up off the floor for the past ten minutes oh my fucking goddddd
it’s never over, kevin day i’m so fucking excited to get inside your head bbg
really need bishop or sheldon or who tf ever to swing by during lunch one day and be all handsy with jeremy because I need to see the vein that pops out of jean’s neck and the way his gray eyes turn to hard slate and his hands twitch with lethal intent and how cat or cody or whichever poor unfortunate soul has to somehow stop this 6’2” angry frenchman from committing murder in broad daylight, mhmm
started reading aftg........completely obsessed with whatever it is these two have going on
wait— i resisted the instinct and i get it. jean trying over and over again to save kevin and failing each time but unable to stop himself because what else would he do? he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he stopped trying. maybe it’ll be different this time. maybe he will finally outsmart it.
especially if this was the first and last time kevin told jean he loved him, knowing that it was reciprocal would make jean try even harder even though he knows it’s pointless
"You need to break the time loop. Stop trying to save me. I love you."
[This message has been played 18446744073709551615 times. Would you like to hear it again?]
funniest part of tsc was when trojans went to the beach and the whole time jean was panicking over only two things
1. the possibility of jeremy drowning
2. jeremy’s wet thighs in those shorts
men be fighting devils and the devils in question are phobia of water from being waterboarded & hot men
NEEEEED a scene of jean kissing jeremy against the bike. like they go on a little scenic ride and stop at an overpass. and jean just presses jeremy up against the bike and kisses him with all that hunger we know he has
Still expecting Jeremy Knox to have some "How to get away from your toxic/rich/influential/exy hating family" classes,by the expert herself : Allison Reynolds
They deserve a good nap 😴
has anyone ever said that this is a neil abram josten song…….
cause i mean look
And the blood of the man who killed my mother with his hand / Is in me, it’s in me in my veins
i don’t think these lines even need explaining. it’s him. it’s him and mary and nathan
So, touch my skin and tell me where you’ve been
to me, this feels like neil and andrew and their truths game. neil’s need to hear andrew’s past and to know his truth and the way their game makes him feel real
You showed me how to keep myself from burning out
and
You showed me how to hold my skin
neil learning to confront his truth and his lies and transform them into something real. andrew helped him figure out how to become something more than his lies and how to stand as himself instead of being a pile of lies that burns out and replaces itself with another fictitious person
imagine that jeremy knox has cowboy boots shoved in the back of his closet. jeremy knox who has a matching cowboy hat. jeremy knox that knows line dances. jeremy knox that has a complicated relationship with them because “he is not my grandfather” but a part of him loves the dances anyway. jeremy knox that teaches jean line dances after cat discovered jean doesn’t know how to dance and made it her mission to introduce them to him. jeremy knox who mimics tipping his hat. jeremy knox who sees jean picking up on the dance enough that he pulls his boots and hat from the back of the closet to show it to him properly. jeremy knox who learns to be okay loving line dances through doing them with jean. jeremy knox line dancing
afab twinyards but aaron is a trans guy and passes decently so he's really confused about how higgins got him confused with his twin sister. until he meets andrew and she's a butch lesbian. they have the same haircut
hold a magnet near the foxes and weapons start appearing outta hammerspace
love language of sharing cigarettes
him not being able to fight is literally a whole subplot in my opinion. early on in tfc he actually says how he is an instigator through and through and can only start fights, not finish them, assumedly because of his smart mouth
“Neil was much better at instigating fights than winning them, but it'd be worth losing if he could just put a fist through Kevin's face once. Starting a fight was too out of character for who he portrayed "Neil" to be, though.” - tfc, chapter five
he realizes that he cannot fight, that he could throw a punch or two but would get his ass beat cause that’s not his strong suit. with weapons it could be a different story but like OP said, his training was when he was very young and mary took him before he moved on to cutting up the human body (it actually wasn’t EC, it’s in tkm which is cool)
“He didn't say he'd used knives before; one couldn't grow up a Wesninski without having a blade pushed into his hand. Nathan didn't have the time or patience to teach his son but he'd put two of his people to the task. Luckily Neil left home before he progressed past cutting up hunks of dead animals.” - tkm, chapter three
we can guess that on the run, he had to put his limited fighting skills into action to survive and that he might be a bit better if he had a gun or a knife but he is not close to renee’s level and that’s okay. he doesn’t want to be. he even admits that he doesn’t want to learn how to fight with knives because it reminds him too much of his father.
"So those knives [Andrew] brings everywhere are yours?" "Were mine," Renee said. "He was right; I don't need them anymore. If you need them, he will give them to you, and I will teach you how to use them." She wasn't smiling anymore. Neil studied her calm expression and knew she meant it. She'd put her faith in mankind and her Christian piety on hold and show him how to cut a man open throat to groin if he asked her to. […] "Thank you," Neil said, "but no. I don't want to be like—him." - tkm, chapter three
and him not being good with his fists is important because he feels a bit helpless after drake happens and goes to matt to ask him for help. because matt knows how to fight because of his mother and neil is aware of that, aware of his shortcomings, and asks for lessons
“That night he asked Matt to teach him how to fight. Matt looked surprised by the request but agreed, and they spent the rest of the evening figuring out when they could possibly meet up for lessons. […] Matt promised to get Neil a pair of gloves the next time he went out.” -trk, chapter fourteen
neil not being able to fight is important because it goes hand in hand with him being a runner. he knows how to start fights and how to run away from them. we can even assume he knows how to fight just enough to find an opening to run. but throughout the trilogy he is learning how to stand his ground and not run at the first hint of danger. learning to lean on others and how to fight is part of that journey meaning he has to be bad at it at first. and i don’t believe he ever gets great at it. because he doesn’t want to pick up a knife and while he learns how to fight from matt (which is phenomenal, i love their friendship so much) part of point of the books is neil healing and not needing to fight anymore. after riko dies and after baltimore, neil has less reason to know how to fight than before and i think he doesn’t put his full effort in mastering it. i believe that he learns how to stand his own in a fight because he wants to have the safety that comes with it but knows that he has andrew to lean on now should he need him
i keep seeing people say neil is canonically better at fighting than andrew??? genuinely confused as to where this is coming from outside of fanon...like genuinely why do people think he can beat andrew or even renee in a fight? neil is not physically intimidating like andrew. he is not capable of the same physical violence (maybe if u give him a gun). and yeah i see people point to his upbringing with nathan and MAYBE im cheating bcus im pretty sure this was only mentioned in the EC but his training never moved past dead animals. mary literally took him and ran before they could move to training him on live ones, and i think that's evidence that he wouldn't be some insanely crazy good knife fighter (also the fact all of this occured before he turned 10).
and call me crazy but there's No Evidence that Mary taught him Any physical fighting while they were on the run during those 8 years. in fact i think there's more subtextual evidence for her refusing to teach him both so that 1) he'd remain dependent on her and 2) so there was no chance he could become like nathan. like did we forget that his whole thing is getting his ass beat. over n over again. this is, i would argue, one of his most character defining traits. the foxes' battered wife in the wise words of one david wymack. mr "i start fights and let andrew finish them" josten.
Listen, you know why Andrew loves Neil? Why Neil Abram Josten was the one Andrew would allow into his inner space, to allow growing roots where Andrew keeps the remaining fragments of his heart?
Because hardly anyone respects Andrew's boundaries. Renee does. Bee does. Wymack does. Andrew respects his own boundaries to the point of enforcing them at knife point.
But Neil? Neil Abram Josten?
He views Andrew's boundaries as sacred.
Renee, Bee, and Wymack would view crossing Andrew's boundaries as disrespectful at best and a violation at worst. They earned his trust that way.
But NEIL???
Neil views crossing Andrew's boundaries as a fucking sin. As blasphemous. A devoted disciple would sooner spit in their God's face than Neil ever conceiving of crossing Andrew's boundaries.
Some people would look at you erecting brick walls covered in barbed wire and would start looking for a good crack to aim a sledgehammer. Some people would watch you lock a door and try knocking, just once, to see if you'll open it for them. And some people would watch you draw a line in the sand and never dream of stepping over it.
Neil parked his ass on the other side of Andrew's barbed wired multi-layered brick wall surrounding his concrete bunker and stayed there, running his mouth. And when Andrew revealed the hidden door, Neil smiled, stayed put, and kept talking.
Andrew didn't fall for Neil because Neil wouldn't come in.
He fell because Neil waited for Andrew to come out, waited for Andrew to extend his hand, and waited for Andrew to lead him inside by his own volition.
And that's why Neil was the one who earned Andrew's "Stay".