neil-jortson

[neil-jortson]

Every time I see someone call Neil an unreliable narrator I think about how cool it could be to have AFTG from like fully unreliable Neil. Like Neil in canon is mildly unreliable in the same way all 3rd person close narrations are: he has a point of view and priorities but he's not actually that unreliable. He's telling us the truth and he's telling us the story and he's telling us basically everything (I love these books but those early chapters of TFC were some exposition heavy chapters). But like Neil as a real actual unreliable who actually lies to us? Imagine spending like the first book and a half not knowing he's not Neil Josten? Imagine us believing his story and buying into it as much as Andrew and only learning the real story of Nathaniel as and went pieces are forced out of him. Imagine the post-Columbia scene and being so mad at Andrew because Neil is just a private little guy who's a fan of Kevin, only for Neil to then go "welp actually my dad was low level mafia guy who worked for the Moriyamas actually" and we find that out at the same time as Andrew. Neil who is so deep into his cover he doesn't even tell us unless someone has dragged it out of him.

(And no, this is not a "this is how it should have been written" this is a "imagine it and I kinda want to write the fanfic")

[neil-jortson]

Happy (belated) Valentines Day 🌹

Had to draw more Andreil, they still have me in a chokehold 😪

The rest of this illustration is available on my (brandnew!!) patreon btw 👀👉🏼👈🏼

[neil-jortson]

I don’t think the upperclassmen see Neil as sad and traumatized as much as they see him as a feral but deadly cat or chihuahua that they fed a couple times and is now theirs forever.

[neil-jortson]

You’re Neil Josten. You’re the starting striker of the palmetto state foxes. Your father is dead. You’re safe. ~ Andrew helping Neil through the aftermath of Baltimore 🥺 I might have stolen the shirt idea from @hamrikaa

[neil-jortson]

I bet andrews brain never shuts up, like sure obviously also in the sad traumatised way, but that medication didn’t make Andrew “Jean. Hey, Jean. Jean Valjean. Hey. Hey. Hello” Minyard think all of that hilariously unhinged nonsense but only made him speak it out loud, all I can imagine is anyone looking at a blank faced Andrew and wondering what ominous thing he must be thinking and it’s literally just “Neil josten, number 10, jos-10, cannot be a coincidence, Neil josten fortune teller perhaps?”

[neil-jortson]

I love that scene in tkm where Wymack tells Neil he's going to make him vice captain the next year and Neil tries to politely decline (on the grounds that he'll be dead by then) and Wymack is literally like too bad bitch. This isn't a democracy and i say you're the next captain so figure it out

[neil-jortson]

The voices told me to share this

[neil-jortson]

a prayer for wymack who had to live with neil skittish ass after picking him out from nowhere, arizona, before having him wreak havoc with his already disfunctional team and witnessing whatever the fuck was going on with andrew

not that neil didn't warn him that they should pick him but still, no wonder this man is tired 24/7

[neil-jortson]

Years in the future when Neil is playing pro he does the interview “Neil Josten breaks down his most serious injuries while playing professional Exy” but he does it… in the most Neil way possible.

Interview showing brutal tackle and the image of Neil laying on the court bloodied and not being able to get up. Neil: i was fine

.

Interviewer showing the video of Neil getting rammed into plexiglass by a mountain of a man Neil: here, exactly in this second you can see two of my ribs breaking :) Neil: Anyway I am still little angry coach wouldn’t let me continue playing

.

Neil: Did it hurt to have an arm break in two places? Yes, but have you ever been shot?

.

Interviewer showing the image of Neil with his shoulder dislocated Neil: All this talk about tolerances but It suddenly turned out that my pro team isn’t a safe space when you try to fix your shoulders yourself. And that “you’re crazy” and “you should calm the fuck down” and “no it doesn’t matter that you did it before and it turned out fine” Neil: Can you believe it?

.

Interviewer showing a photo of Neil with one oh his legs bend in unnatural angle Neil: I could have walked it off

.

Interviewer showing a video of Neil collapsing on the court Neil: Fun fact, Turns out that your coach will be really furious with you if you don’t tell him you plan to play a full game with a really high fever. I didn’t know. Also it turns out that going to the hospital is not something you can decide on or decline even when you are an adult with full decision making power. Its something the Team decide on, because “You are a fucking idiot, Josten and a lost case”

.

Interviewer showing a photo of Neil getting hit by another player in the stomach and collapsing. Neil: So it turns out In rare cases, blunt trauma can cause appendicitis. And you know what they say? That when your appendix bursts it hurts as much as when you get stabbed? Well it does not. I can tell because I got stabbed actually. Multiple times. 

.

Another video of horrifying possible carrier ruining injury Neil: shrugs

[neil-jortson]

Aaron may not have an eidetic memory like Andrew does but he has a damn good one and he can remember anything he puts even the smallest amount of effort into remembering.

After everything that happened in Baltimore Aaron starts to note every small possibly important (and unimportant) medical fact about the foxes. And he’s not even totally conscious he’s doing it.

He consciously remembers Andrew and Nicky’s blood types. He knows Nicky’s allergic to penicillin and he knows Andrew doesn’t react well to doctors so it’s best for everyone if he can be administered some kind of sedative right away.

And then he thinks he should probably know this stuff for Kevin, and begrudgingly Neil, because they’re part of his strange little family that Andrew’s created. So he quickly and easily finds this information on them (because he’s a Minyard and he just knows how to find the things he needs to know). So he knows their blood types and he knows Kevin still feels residual pain in his left hand but doesn’t show it and try’s to ignore it. He knows Neil heals annoyingly quick from his all too common injuries but he also knows he aggravates those injuries easily by pushing himself too soon.

But it doesn’t stop there, there’s a small itch in the back of his head driving him to find out the important medical facts about the rest of the foxes. So he allows himself to remember their blood types and allergens and tells himself he needs to know incase of an emergency.

But he also notices that Matt has a high tolerance to pain medication whenever he’s being treated by Abby for an injury during practice or a game. And he notes the one type that works for him and keeps multiple bottles on him and in their room. (It’s also the only type that works for Kevin and works best for Neil so he stocks their room with it too)

And he notices that Allison is a slight germaphobe and applies hand sanitizer anytime she has to touch a public door handle or they go out to eat. So he opens as many doors for her as he can despite the confused look he gives her every time and he just glares right back at her. He keeps an extra mini bottle of hand sanitizer in his backpack for her as well and silently passes it to her when she’s forgotten hers.

He notices Dans chronic knee and lower back pain that Abby is constantly treating and how there’s always a rotating rainbow of colorful KT Tape on her. So he keeps an eye on Abby’s stock of tape and when a color is running low he casually mentions it to her to order more and then walks away.

He notices how Renee always picks at the scabs on her knuckles that result from her sparring with Andrew. He figures the wraps she has are getting old and silently leaves a new pair on the counter the next time he’s in the girls dorm, along with a box of bandaids and a tube of antiseptic ointment. He leaves a matching set of supplies in Andrew’s dorm as well just to be safe.

He doesn’t consciously realize that what he’s doing is protecting and taking care of the Foxes. But the others catch on and smile fondly at him because he’s letting himself care for them and become part of their family.

And the one time Dan mentions what he’s doing for them he looks at her like she’s crazy. He tells himself, and her, that that’s not what he’s doing, he’s just a future doctor and someone needs to take care of these injury prone idiot athletes and no one else besides him and Abby are going to do it right.

Aaron would definitely be so observant and acutely aware of the Foxes physical well beings despite him insisting he doesn’t care and hates them all. But he basically becomes Abby’s right hand man and teams second nurse because it’s good practice for his future and he knows them.

[neil-jortson]

Aaron getting into medical school and leaving exy behind at Palmetto. He makes some friends, of course, and he doesn’t feel the need to mention to any of them that he’s family friends with multiple professional exy players, including the son of exy himself Kevin Day. He’s moved on from exy and while he’s proud of the Foxes he doesn’t want to be known for it while starting this new adventure.

But obviously he’s not gonna cut ties with the Foxes, so he continues to text them and call them and he’ll be included in some of their social media posts and occasionally he’ll post something with them in it. And his new classmates and friends start to catch on that he’s the Aaron Minyard, former starting backliner for the Palmetto State Foxes NCAA champions, brother of one of the best goalkeepers in the league and close friend of many other professional players.

And Aaron absolutely dreads it when they connect all the dots. Like he refuses to acknowledge that he knows them. People will ask him like “omg do you really know the Kevin Day?” or “is all that stuff about Neil Josten true?” or “are you actually Andrew Minyards twin?” and he’ll just deadpan stare at them and just go “who?” Even worse when someone tries to treat him like a celebrity or ask him about his time as a Fox and he just gives them the most disgusted stare until they eventually walk away.

Yet he’ll keep posting with them he even increases how much he posts with them because he proud of them because he thinks it’s hilarious to watch people get pissed off at him for pretending not to know who they are and then turning around and posting a picture of himself at their games or on their annual vacations.

And when Kevin signs with the team that’s located in the same city that Aaron’s in they start hanging out all the time. They’ll go out to a bar and his classmates are shocked that this kid from their anatomy class is taking shots with Kevin Day. Aaron will just ask them “who” when they confront him and immediately turn back to Kevin to continue their conversation.

Idk just something about Aaron being this random med school kid with 3 of the best professional Exy players trailing him is my favorite thing. Also him being proud of his foxes and showing it in his own asshole way

[neil-jortson]

Aaron makes a HUGE deal out of claiming that he’s the older twin. Andrew lets him. He doesn’t say a goddamned thing, because right after he moved in with Tilda, he tracked down their birth certificates. He knows the fucking truth. And one day, when it really matters, he’s going to knock Aaron flat on his ass with it.

[neil-jortson]

I can’t get over how funny I find it when I look through the AFTG AUs on AO3 and every single one tags Andrew’s job but no one tags Neil’s job because because in a ‘normal’ circumstance we’ve all collectively decided he’s just that one strange guy everyone knows who shows up places and always seems to have an abundance of money but is never actually doing anything apart from stress-running and looking out of windows suspiciously

[neil-jortson]

neil is to matt and dan what kevin is to andrew and neil

[neil-jortson]

andrew and neil are both initially quite touch averse, but in very different ways.

andrew, at least towards neil, has no reservations about reaching out. he pulls neil closer, gets in his space, feels his pulse, wraps his hands around Neil’s throat.

but, he doesn’t like to BE touched.

he begrudgingly lets some of his teammates touch him to help him when he’s going through withdrawal, but generally wants no one touching him without blatant permission.

then there’s neil, who gets uncomfortable from physical touch a lot of times because he’s not used to it. he’s so unused to affection that his response is essentially, “what the fuck I don’t know what to do with this”

[neil-jortson]

listen. i think that neil sits VERY still. like, when they're waiting for their food, or when he's simply not doing anything on the table. he just. sits like he's frozen. it's trauma, because, as we know, that piece of shit called nathan didn't like him moving around. andrew is the first one to notice his stillness, especially on the first time at eden's. and i think that after tkm, andrew starts helping neil sit more loosely. they're boyfriends

[neil-jortson]

Headcanon that Neil is touching Andrew at any opportunity (with permission, of course)

Sitting in Andrew’s lap at Eden’s

A hand on Andrew’s thigh underneath the table at sweeties

Laying his head on Andrew’s shoulder during bus rides

Sitting on opposite sides of their couch with their feet tangled together

Sitting between Andrew’s legs on the floor during movie nights with the upperclassmen with his head resting on Andrew’s thigh

Sitting with his legs sprawled over Andrew’s when they’re in the Fox lounge

Holding hands on the center console of the car

Or having Andrew rest his hand on Neil’s thigh when they’re in the car

Laying his head in Andrew’s lap at any time since he knows Andrew likes playing with his hair

Laying his head on Andrew’s chest when they’re sleeping

Having Andrew sleeping practically on top of him on the couch

Holding his hand whenever he can

Basically Andreil just being in love, and neither of them are afraid to show it