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jtl-fics · 1 year

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Fluent Freshman - Part 09

Thanksgiving dinner really wasn’t that bad. It’d been years since FF had been to one as lively as this.

Kevin is loud and demanding when it comes to what needs to be on the TV and the exact perfect schedule to catch all of the Exy games being played. Wymack brought bourbon and has put it on the highest shelf in Abby’s kitchen right next to where Abby put the second pie for the exact same reason: Keep Andrew out of it. The Monsters and FF all get roped into helping Abby prep the meal.

He’s told that usually there are more people staying over Thanksgiving but this year more had gone home or gone to friend’s homes to celebrate. The only ones there are the Monsters, FF, and Jack.

Jack sits sullenly on the couch no matter what task Abby tries to give him.

Eventually, potatoes are mashed, turkeys are carved with appropriate knives, corn is creamed, macaroni is cheesed, canned cranberries have been de-canned, and the stuffing is…there on the table.

“Dig in!” Abby says not bothering with grace.

It’s good.

FF still misses his grandma’s cooking. It’s nice to have this loud Thanksgiving like he used to get but there’s something special about helping his grandma in the kitchen and the two of them sitting down to eat.

He definitely misses his grandma’s company when Jack starts to loudly complain about every last food item that Abby has so graciously laid out for them.

Wymack & Captain Neill both tell him to knock it off and threaten grueling exercises when practice starts back up while Andrew just threatens him with a knife multiple times to shut him up but FF can see Jack looking in the kitchen as he sits in silence after Andrew not so stealthily held a knife to his ribs.

Jack is looking at his grandma’s pie up on the top shelf.

Jack is going to complain about his grandma’s pie.

He looks at the Monsters and knows that there is only one person at this table who can POSSIBLY stop him is the person that FF fears the most.

Still….

He figures Andrew owes him a final request before he’s murdered in a basement, secondary location or (a new option he thought of on the way over to Abby’s in Andrew’s absurdly nice car), a secondary location’s basement.

“I want you to stop Jack from having any of my grandma’s pie.” He says in German drawing the attention of Aaron, Nicky, and Neil. Andrew blinks at him but says nothing so he continues. “If he says something mean about it then I’ll lose it.” He says.

FF means that if Jack insults his grandma’s pie that she had managed to get to him through some sort of grandmotherly wizardry then FF will burst into tears. He’s got what doctor’s call leaky eyes and there is no cure for these bad boys. He knows he’ll try to defend his grandma’s pie from whatever issue Jack will take with it but he also knows that he will be sobbing during that defense.

Andrew hears that and thinks that he might finally get to witness what FF looks like when he’s angry. From Kevin’s screaming, to Jack’s taunts, to Andrew’s own barbs, he has yet to see FF get mad. FF’s ability to stay in his own lane and regulate his emotions is one of the reasons that Andrew considers him a friend. He thinks about the bags under FF’s eyes and how desolate he had looked staring down at the ‘CANCELLED’ notification on his phone.

Andrew is getting into the art of doing something nice. For a friend.

He gives FF a singular nod and pulls one of his knives out of his arm bands and makes his way over to the pie. He ignores some various questions from the other, irrelevant.

“I want a slice at least!” Nicky demands and he nods as he cuts up the pie into seven normal sized slices. He puts each on a plate and Neil, every understanding of Andrew’s intentions, hands them out to the Monsters, FF, Wymack, and Abby.

“Good, finally get to try this stupid pie.” Jack says and Andrew levels a knife that has an apple slice slowly sliding off of it at Jack’s face.

“People who can’t appreciate the free dinner don’t get to have dessert.” He says and watches as Jack’s face goes through an entire range of emotions, “You saw what I could do to a turkey. I have no problem doing it to you if you try anything.” He says and Jack goes white before he trudges out of the dining area entirely.

Andrew watches him go before picking up the remainder of the pie (nearly a quarter) and making his way over to the fridge.

FF pipes up, “Try it without the ice cream first.” He says because even if he likes his pie à la mode the first bite has to be pure pie.

Andrew shrugs and eats the apple pie filling off of the knife.

It’s immaculate.

It’s the best pie that Andrew has ever tasted in his life and he has tasted some pies.

He has no idea what Jack would have complained about other than the fact that FF had an entire one of these all to himself. This pie had travelled across the continental United States and tasted like this. Andrew can only imagine what it is like when it is coming fresh out of the oven.

He grabs the ice cream from the fridge and watches everyone else try the first bite of FF’s grandma’s pie.

“I want to meet your grandma and shake her hand.” Wymack says eyes closed even as his hand reaches for some bourbon.

“I want to your grandma to adopt me.” Nicky says.

“She can adopt both of us if it means pies like this.” Aaron agrees.

“This is good.” Kevin says as he continues to eat it.

“Really good.” Neil agrees.

“Maybe she could share the recipe with me. I’d love to make this.” Abby says as she drinks a glass of milk.

“Thanks, she’ll be happy to hear it.” FF’s shoulders loosen as he puts away his own slice quickly.

There is some grumbling as Andrew hoards the rest of the pie himself and only gives bites to Neil. “I wonder if we should get the whipped cream out for it?” Neil asks him in Russian.

Andrew frowns and considers it for a long moment, “We have plans for that whipped cream tonight and the stores will be closed.” He says back in the same language. FF has paused in eating the last of his slice. “Problem?” He asks.

“Last bite.” FF responds back immediately and Andrew lets it go unaware that FF had spent 2 seconds wondering how whipped cream would play into whatever torture device Andrew was going to shove him into the second they arrived in Columbia before realizing that it was a sex thing.

He lets his hand go into his pocket and rub the paper of his grandma’s note to him.

It’s not a bad last meal.

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#Fluent Freshman AU #Before Columbia is 2 ungodly hours in the car where Andrew and Neil do not know that FF knows russian #But Nicky does #Buckle up (literally)#The pie was good enough that even Kevin couldn't bitch about it #Does Kevin do squats in front of the TV for 20 minutes while the rest of the Foxes help clean up #Yes #It was good but his body is a machine and he just put sugar in the engine #AFTG #AFTG AU #AFTG OC #AFTG shitpost #Andreil #FF - Pt. 09

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yourcasualfangirl · 4 years

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Foxes children!! Because they don’t get spoken about enough!!

Kevin-

- one son, born after a one night stand when he was around 26

- in the height of his career, he was still reliant on alcohol heavily but the mother (let’s call her sally) said he didn’t have to be involved

- his plan was to slowly clean up his act but still have exy as his main focus, he knew he’d be a shit father and he didn’t want the kid to have to deal with that. Plus the press would never leave that kid alone, the son of a legacy and all that

- the day Jack Andrew Day was born was the best day of Kevin’s life, even if he knew he wasn’t going to be very involved he knew it was better that way

- Andrew pretended to hate the namesake, but he loved it. It was a reminder of all the years Andrew kept Kevin safe, the first person who made Kevin feel as if he was more than the sum of his exy talent

- after Ri*o and the ravens Kevin knew he didn’t know how to be a father, to be a nurturing, kind and patient person. He had never been shown that and he didn’t know how, sure he had Whymack but he only met him when he was 20

- things were fine for a while, the foxes had met Jack a couple times and Kevin was never really alone with him (he didn’t know what to do if he was, babies weren’t around in the nest)

- but then everything changed

- Matt and Dan were visiting with their two year old son when Sally asked if he could watch Jack for the afternoon, to which of course he said yes, dan and Matt were there it was all fine. He couldn’t break or permanently scar the child in one afternoon

-except Sally didn’t come back. Hours turned into days turned into weeks. She was nowhere to be found.

- now Kevin had a baby, a baby he didn’t know what to do with. A baby that was legally his. He saw what the system did to andrew and he’d raise it himself before he let that happen to his son.

- he was also still playing pro, he was living in New York and playing on the team there. Neil and Andrew on his team as well, of course he could go stay with them but what did they know about children

- soon enough dan and Matt had to go back to Virginia, Dan was the couch of a high school exy team and Matt played there professionally

- and Kevin was stuck. He didn’t know what the fuck he was going to do.

- enter Aaron and kaytlyn. Also living in New York and working at the hospital, they happened to have spare time

- enter the rest of the foxes doing whatever they could to make sure this wonderful baby was safe, happy and loved because they had all known what it was like to grow up without those things

- so they all helped, they helped Kevin stop drinking, they took the baby when he had to play and sometimes they’d bring him to the games

- Jack and Kevin became inseparable, it took a while but they made it work. They travelled all over the place and jack himself grew up all around America, with Aaron and Kate in New York, with Andrew and Neil, with Allison in Boston and Renee in Maine, with Dan and Matt in Virgina and sometimes he’d spend summer with Nicky in Germany.

- Jack was always happy, laughing and grew up seeing the absolute best in people. He helped Kevin just as much as Kevin did him. Jack never hid his emotions, he never felt he had to, and for the first time in his life neither did Kevin

- when he was old enough to learn about what happened to the foxes, why they went to Palmetto he cried. They all tried to explain their story to him, they all tried to make it seem not as bad as it was

- for a little while Jack stopped believeing in the good in the world. He stopped believeing that people could be saved and that there was good in everyone. Because these people had hurt his family. They people he loved had been hurt so bad, Jack had to many emotions he didn’t know what to do with

- he was mad he didn’t know, that he had grown up oblivious to all the pain and secrets, he was so sad for the first time in his life.

- but eventually (with the help of all the foxes) he started to see the good again, he started to understand more and in the end he knew it made him a better person

- and now he knew, why uncle Andrew had taught him consent when he was so small (he used it every time, with everyone), he knew why uncle Aaron and Matt touched their arms when they were sad or upset, why Aaron couldn’t be in a locked room and flinched at loud noises, he knew why aunt Dan would always tell him to never be ashamed, he knew why aunt Allison always reminded him they’d love him no matter what, he knew why uncle Nicky made sure he always accepted himself, he knew why aunt Renee taught him about finding the good in people and always trying to be a good person, and he knew why uncle Neil sometimes had his bad days and couldn’t talk to anyone.

- the next time Kevin got that look in his eyes, when he wasn’t quite dad Jack day beside him and asked him if he could hug him. When Kevin said yes, quite confused, Jack hugged him and promised him it would be okay.

- None of the foxes quite understood how they raised a boy that good

- but they did

- when Jack came out to Kevin it was the scariest day of this life. He knew he’d accept him, he knew because uncle Nicky and Andrew and Neil and Renee. Because Kevin loved them all the same. But still he was terrified. How was he supposed to explain it, how was he supposed to tell him he got a boyfriend.

- Jack day came out as pansexual when he was 15, and he cried. He cried when Kevin told him he loved him and Kevin cried too and it was a mess. But that’s okay.

- Now Jack Day date’s. Oh god does he date. He loves people and everything that goes with it, he dates guys girls and everything in between, and he gives everything he has to everyone.

- also he plays exy. He started in little league because he wanted to be just like his dad and found a love for it. He was a captain and a leader just like his uncle Jeremy. He plays striker and when the foxes all get together during holidays back at abbys he and Kevin go head to head. He gives Kevin a goddamn run for his money every. Time.

- he grew to be 6’6 and a half, Aaron and Andrew were outraged

- hes so full of love and hapiness everyone’s so confused, hes Jeremy Knox reincarnated

- he looks exactly like his father

- also he speaks so many languages, French with Kevin and Jean and Neil, english ofc, German with the cousins and Neil, Russian with andriel, and then him and Andrew learnt Bulgarian secretly to fuck with everyone because they are Human Chaos

- also he’s a hufflepuff through and through with his uncle Andrew and gets them matching scarves

- him and Andrew watch crime shows together whenever he stays with them, they’re obsessed

This is so long but I have so many feelings about Jack Day being the sweetest boy ever and helping Kevin heal and AHHH.

There are more ideas about other fox children so I might post those later.

#aftg #kevin day #andrew minyard #neil josten #aaron minyard #matt boyd #dan wilds #renee walker #allison reynolds #all for the game #all for the angst #LET THEM BE HAPPY PLS #jack day is queer 2020

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kar3npage · 4 years

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The Wonder of You

Neil is in complete denial that he is struggling with panic attacks. Andrew thinks that a support animal would be good. They figure it out together.

Read it on ao3 here

“-was a disgrace. What the hell were you thinking out there? Nicky, start focusing on the ball, not Aaron! Allison, too much aggression-”

Neil’s brain was working in overdrive, switching between here and a house in Baltimore, filled with haunted memories.

“-I don’t know what the hell that was-”

A flash of light reflecting off of a knife blade. Andrews obnoxiously orange jersey in the corner of his eye. His mom shouting, morphing into his dad, and then into Wymack.

He can’t get his eyes to focus properly. He’s trying desperately to focus on Wymacks half-time lecture, but his eyes keep focusing on the space between them.

“Neil-”

He doesn’t think, just acts. Tossing an arm up in front of himself, Neil shrinks into the couch and waits. The waiting is always the worst part, he thinks. The waiting is torture.

Neil’s brain catches up slowly, noticing the horrible silence that pervades the room and Wymacks sad exhaustion as he puts his hands in full view so that Neil can see that they aren’t there to hurt him.

There are always times when the foxes get that desolate look on their face when Neil does something that shows his trauma, but the pity is suffocating this time. For once in his life, he completely forgets about the game and runs out the door into the full but empty parking lot.

He can’t run. His mind is present enough to know that. Nothing could break Andrews trust faster than leaving, and he knows that if he takes one more step into the parking lot his instinct will take over. And Neil knows that once he decides to run, it’s hard to convince himself that it’s safe enough to stop.

He sits down in the center of the parking lot, body shaking and breath coming in quick gasps. He thinks of the appointments that he has begrudgingly been showing up to with Betsy, how she tells him to pay attention to what’s going on around him.

That would probably work, if he could feel the concrete underneath him or hear anything besides his horrible wheezing.

It takes him a moment to realize that someone is out there with him, speaking slowly. He startles at first, flinching backwards before recognizing the soothing voice.

“You are Neil Abram Josten, you are at the Foxhole Court playing a game of Exy, because you are a striker,” Andrew says calmly, slowly inching towards Neil. Neil closes his eyes and uses all of his energy to listen to Andrews voice.

After a while, Andrew is right beside but not quite touching Neil, and Neil nods quickly in the hopes that Andrew will touch him, ground him.

Andrew edges closer so that he is between Neils legs, and gently pushes Neils head to rest against his chest. He wishes that he could enjoy this more, but now that the pervading panic has left, he feels empty and cold. Andrew puts one hand protectively around his back and the other tangles itself in Neil's hair. At some point Neil recognizes that Andrew isn’t wearing his equipment anymore. He can’t bring himself to care about the game, it’s too exhausting to even think about standing right now.

They sit there until Neil can feel the pebbles from the concrete digging into his legs and the discomfort of his padding constricting his movement. He sighs and sits up, missing the warmth when Andrew lets his hands fall away. Andrew’s hair is damp from a shower and he’s dressed in his normal clothes. He can hear people starting to stream out of the building on the other side.

They look at each other for a moment before Andrew stands up and offers a hand to Neil. The idea of showering and changing seems daunting, especially since he knows the team will be in the locker room too. He can just imagine the comments that will be going around about him from the new foxes.

However, when they get into the locker room, it’s already empty.

It’s not until they’re standing under the spray in the shower than Andrew speaks up again.

“I did some research,” he says, watching Neil with a tiny furrow between his brows. Neil feels a bit guilty that he’s the one that put that there. He hums to let Andrew know that he is listening. “There are animals that can help with panic attacks. Like dogs.”

Andrew looks intently at Neil, who shakes his head dramatically. “Absolutely not. I don’t need some sort of...of… I don’t need a babysitter.”

Andrew frowns. “They aren’t babysitters, they just help with PTSD.”

Neil scrubs a hand through his hair aggressively. He hasn’t really been using that term. He knows that he has it, knows that there are things in his past that probably no one could go through without getting it, but he refuses to admit it. Betsy has been slowly working him up to it, giving him work books to use and a journal that he has stubbornly left empty on the bedside table.

“Well, I don’t need that either.” Neil can feel the anxiety build again, so he starts counting in French. Andrew can read his expression, and he lets the subject drop. Neil wishes that the subject hadn’t been introduced to begin with.

Unfortunately, now that it’s been mentioned, Neil just can’t get it out of his head. He is completely exhausted, and guilty for letting the team down by not being able to play the whole last half and for flinching from Wymack again. But Andrews words keep running through his head.

He isn’t sure exactly what it is that has offended him so much with the suggestion. He wonders if maybe Andrew is tired of holding him up all the time. He wonders what it would be like to have something that he was responsible for, like a child. The thought makes him want to vomit.

He doesn’t sleep that night.

Andrew hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Neil. That isn’t unusual, since Neil pops up in his head all the time. This time, he keeps thinking about his denial of his PTSD, and the way he reacted to the suggestion of a support animal.

He had gotten the idea from a movie, strangely enough. A character had an emotional support dog, and Andrew had immediately started researching the steps that it would take to get one for Neil.

He had made sure that they would be able to keep it in the dorms, checked all of the paperwork that would be necessary, and learned about the training that it would need to be able to help Neil with his panic attacks.

At no point during this process did he think that Neil would react so strongly. Sure, there was always the chance that he would argue against the need, but the poorly concealed panic in his eyes was a different story.

Andrew was still cursing himself for nearly sending Neil into another spiral after the horrible one during the game.

This morning had been quiet. Kevin was worried about Neil and showed it by snapping at Neil for letting the team down. Neil looked like he was going to throw up his breakfast, and his eyes were shadowed and far away. Yet he still insisted on going to practice, and then class after.

Bee’s office was as warm and welcoming as always. Sunlight glinted off of the glass figurines on her bookshelves, and the room smelt of hot chocolate and some sort of lavender cleaning product.

It was familiar, and Andrew breathed it in while Bee spoke about her day.

“Is there something that you wanted to speak about in particular today Andrew?” Bee smiled as she passed over the mug of hot chocolate.

“Neil.”

Bee nods and gets comfortable, waiting for Andrew to find the right words. He has always struggled with choosing his words, since he wants them to be exactly right.

“He had a panic attack yesterday during the game. Wymack scared him during halftime.”

Bee nods and tilts her head while Andrew tries to figure out what he wants to ask her. He doesn’t want to tell Bee more than Neil would be comfortable with, even though Neil had given him to go ahead to say whatever he wanted about him during appointments.

“I brought up the idea of getting a support animal,” Andrew finally says. “And he did not like that idea.”

“Okay. Did he say anything about why he doesn’t like that idea?”

Andrew shifts. He doesn’t usually have this difficult of a time speaking to Bee, but it’s harder when it’s about Neil. “I almost made him have another panic attack. He said he didn’t want to be babysat.”

Bee nods again. Andrew wonders if she ever has neck issues with all the nodding she does during the day. “Perhaps we could come up with a way to explain what a support animal does, and why you think it would be helpful for him to have one? It sounds like maybe Neil has a different idea of what a support animal would do than you do, so if we can find a way to communicate your idea differently, Neil might accept it.”

They spend the rest of the session coming up with a script for Andrew to broach the topic again. He isn’t entirely convinced that it will work.

Neils bad day passes a few days later. He isn’t sure what caused it, or why it lasted so long this time. He can’t help but feel a bit irritated with himself for wallowing for so long. He’s grouchy with Betsy at his next appointment, and she gives him another workbook for him to try. This one has less writing and more space for him to use. It even has spots where it encourages him to doodle. He feels like a child looking at it, and he can’t meet Andrew’s eyes when he meets him at the car after the appointment.

It’s days later before he cracks the workbook open again. He had apologized to Wymack before practice, and he couldn’t get the kind way that Wymack spoke to him out of his mind.

“I’m not mad, kid. I’m worried about you,” Wymack had said gruffly. He had then told him that if he needed anything, he was there for him. Both of them left the meeting red faced and uncomfortable. It felt like a miracle that Wymack didn’t try to do the half side hug thing that he did when Dan was sad sometimes.

He waits until the dorm is empty before he pulls out the workbook. His homework is sitting beside him so that he can pretend he was working on that instead if anyone comes in. He isn’t sure why it bothers him so much to think of anyone knowing that he was doing this, but his face burns every time he thinks about the book that had been hidden away under his clothes in the drawer.

He reads each paragraph closely, having to take breaks constantly to get his emotions under control. The parts where he can write and draw are easier, and he gets lost in it for a while.

Until Andrew walks in, that is. He doesn’t notice the figure leaning against the door jam at first, and he freezes once he does.

He gives Andrew a look that would be close to a deer in headlights, one hand reaching out to cover the page that he was currently drawing on. Andrew looks more relaxed than he has in ages, and a corner of his mouth twitches up when he sees Neils expression.

“Do you want me to go?” he says.

Neil blushes and looks down at the book before shaking his head slowly. Andrew grabs his book and climbs onto the bed beside him, getting comfortable before slowly reaching up to touch Neils back. Neil leans back into the touch, and Andrew starts rubbing his back slowly, making sure to keep his gaze completely on his book.

After a while, Neil turns his attention back to the page he was working on, and they sit in the room until Kevin gets back for practice.

A week later, Andrew still hasn’t used the script that him and Bee came up with. She asks him about it at every appointment, and just gives him a knowing look every time he admits that he hasn’t brought it up yet.

He is contemplating it again as he walks home from class. The thought derails when he sees Neil standing in the center of the living room when he gets into the dorm. He looks lost, but not the kind that comes after a thought spiral. Andrew is furious at himself when he visibly relaxes when Neil grins at him.

His smile is a bit self-conscious, and he bites his lip as Andrew gets closer. Andrew has the sudden urge to grab Neil and kiss him, but he demonstrates an incredible amount of restraint by just raising an eyebrow in question at Neil.

“Matt and Dan gave me a movie that they thought I should see,” Neil says sheepishly. His whole body is moving slightly, hands fidgeting and foot toeing at the ground. Andrew is constantly fascinated with how much energy Neil has all the time.

He raises his eyebrow again, since that doesn’t actually explain why he is standing in the center of the living room like he doesn’t belong there.

Neil scratches at the back of his neck, a blush rising in his cheeks. “I thought that maybe you would like it. And that you would maybe want to watch it. With me.”

He gapes at Neil for a moment before grabbing the back of his neck and kissing him.

Neils whole face lights up, making Andrews chest hurt.

“Okay,” he tries to say impassively as Neil tugs him down on the beanbag and hands him a blanket and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. He can’t take his eyes off of Neil, who is currently getting comfortable in the other beanbag chair. He’s dragged it over so its right beside Andrew’s, but not touching. Andrew tugs it closer, and Neil grins again.

He can feel Neils eyes on him through most of the movie, but he lets it go. And he has to admit, the movie is actually very good. He taps a finger along to the music to show Neil that he is enjoying it, and Neil wiggles closer in his chair.

Andrew texts Kevin to stay out of the room after the movie is done, and completely forgets to bring up the support animal thing again.

He can’t ignore it anymore. Two nights later, and he decides that he will absolutely bring up the topic tomorrow morning. Neil has been back to his normal self for a while now, and he would rather discuss this now rather than wait for another bad panic attack or nightmare to hit. He’s running the script through his head when Neil moves in his sleep. Again.

Neil doesn’t normally move in his sleep ever. Something about his mom, Neil had never said specifically, but it makes Andrew feel ridiculously protective every time he thinks about it.

Tonight, Neil has been moving every few minutes.

Without thinking, Andrew brings his hand up to Neils forehead, mumbling his name as he does so. Neil doesn’t wake up, and his forehead practically burns Andrew's hand.

“Neil,” he says again, a bit louder. Kevin groans in his sleep before turning around. Neil doesn’t respond.

Panic wars with concern, and Andrew grabs his phone to call Abby. He stares down at Neil while listening to Abby’s phone ring, hoping that he’ll wake up and be fine before Abby picks up. Also hoping that Abby will pick up and he won’t have to go wake up Aaron to help him.

“Andrew? Is everything okay?” Abby sounds groggy, probably because it’s almost 3 in the morning.

“Neil has a fever. He won’t wake up.”

“Okay, have you taken his temperature?” He can hear the concern in her voice, but it quickly becomes professional as she wakes up.

Andrew doesn’t bother responding, just goes and grabs the thermometer and mutters something to Neil as he gently gives him the thermometer. Neil accepts it in his sleep, but his eyes stay shut.

“103.”

Abby sounds wide awake now. “Okay, I’m going to come over, is that alright? If it was just below that I wouldn’t be too concerned, but I want to make sure that he doesn’t need a more serious treatment.”

Andrews stomach clenches and he nods, despite knowing that Abby can’t see him. He stays on the phone, and she does too. He can hear her car, the radio on quietly as she makes her way to the dorms.

Andrew hangs up when he hears a knock on the door, and he almost doesn’t want to leave Neil alone while he goes to get the door.

Abby looks tired but alert when she comes in. She’s wearing sweats and a shirt that he suspects may belong to Wymack, her medical bag in hand as she comes in.

Kevin is still sound asleep as they come into the room. Abby gets his temperature again and starts ordering Andrew around to fetch things. He doesn’t mind, it’s easier to have something to do instead of just standing around waiting for Abby to proclaim that Neil would not survive.

He knows that’s not what is going to happen, but Andrews mind can’t help but come up with scenarios.

They finally move Neil into the couch in the living room so that they can open the window to cool off the room and not listen to Kevin snore.

There is a cool cloth on his forehead, and he has opened his eyes a few times. Abby even got him to drink some water and take some medication.

Andrew is hovering like a nervous mother.

It’s nearly 4:30 in the morning and the sun is just starting to come up, softening the sky. Abby and Andrew are watching the news on the lowest volume while Neil sleeps on the couch. Andrew keeps turning around to watch, trying to play it off so that Abby doesn’t notice. Abby most definitely has noticed.

Neil makes a sound in the back of his throat and Andrew whips around. A pair of very blue eyes are looking at him through a haze of medication and fever.

Abby grabs the thermometer again and kneels down beside him, speaking in a soothing voice.

“Abby,” Neil says in a slightly slurred voice. He looks young and vulnerable, cocooned in a nest of blankets. Abby hums.

He closes his eyes and mumbles something incomprehensible. Abby is doing her best to encourage him to sit up so he can drink some juice. His eyes are focused on the glass like he’s never seen anything like it before.

“I can’t take care of something,” Neil tells her earnestly. Abby smiles.

“You don’t have to take care of anything, we’re going to take care of you.”

He frowns. “No, I can’t take care of anything. I can’t do that, what if I killed it? Or forgot to feed it?”

Abby turns to look at Andrew, confusion clear on her face. Andrew is starting to see where Neil is going with this.

She finally gets him vaguely upright, and he looks exhausted as he leans against the back of the couch. Andrew reaches forward to tuck the blanket around him and gives Abby a blank stare when she gives him a fond look.

“I don’t want Andrew to get tired of taking care of me,” Neil says, letting his eyes fall closed again. Abby looks bemused, and she rubs his shoulder to get him to drink some more juice.

“Baby, Andrew will never get tired of that,” she says while looking at Andrew. He can feel his ears burn, and he gives her his best glare. She ignores it completely.

“And I don’t like dogs,” Neil slurs.

“What do dogs have to do with this?” Abby finally asks.

“Why don’t you like dogs,” Andrew says to Neil, ignoring her.

Neil’s fever isn’t as bad now, but he looks weak and pitiful as he leans to the side, obviously wanting to lie down again. He shudders a bit and says something that Andrew doesn’t fully catch. He only hears the name ‘Lola’.

Andrew refuses to regret things, but there is a feeling in his chest that he does not like at all when he thinks of Neil with Lola.

Andrew sits down carefully on the couch, then tugs Neil down to lie his head on his lap. Abby smiles gently and brings the empty glass to the kitchen to give them some space.

Andrew speaks quietly. He’s not even sure that Neil will remember this later, but he feels the need to comfort him for some odd reason.

“I was thinking,” Andrew says slowly. “And cats are much more our style. They aren’t as high maintenance, so you wouldn’t have to worry about it as much. And they can be trained just as well as dogs can.”

Neil hums as Andrew starts to card his fingers through his hair. “Would they help with panic attacks?”

Andrew can’t avoid the massive feeling of pride over the fact that Neil actually used the term. He’s never used it like that before, never accepted that those times when he felt ‘kind of nervous’, as he used to explain them, could actually be something with medical terminology.

“Yes, they could help with panic attacks.”

Neil nods, his body relaxing back into sleep.

Betsy helps with the paperwork and all of the logistics. Neil has three panic attacks during the whole process. Once when he sees the document that confirms that he has been diagnosed with PTSD, once when they go to visit the cats for the first time, and once on their fifth visit when a cat climbs on his lap.

Neil can’t get over the idea that he could be dangerous to such a small creature, but when he ends up with scratches on his already ruined arms, he decides that they are pretty strong little creatures.

Andrew doesn’t get irritated a single time. He’s a calming presence, always there. It’s even become a bit of a team exercise, going to visit the cats and volunteering to clean kennels and play.

They eventually end up with a ragdoll cat that has been following Neil around since their first visit, one that Nicky names ‘Sir Fat Cat McCatterson’ on the third trip.

Sir fits in to the dorm seamlessly, and Neil has to admit that the purring and weight of a cat does help with the anxiety.

On his first bad day after bringing her home she crawls onto his chest and purrs until he has stopped hyperventilating. Andrew comes back from class 20 minutes later to the both of them having a nap on the floor in the sun, and he feels something like pride at Neil for how far he has come.

#all for the game #fanfic #the foxhole court #aftg #tfc #andrew minyard #neil josten #andrei mozalev #andrew minyard/neil josten #betsy dobson #abby winfield #david wymack #coach wymack #soft neil josten #soft andrew minyard #soft andreil #ao3

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nekojitachan · 5 years

Note

”118: “ Are you mad at me? ” andreil? For the prompts

Grr, I started this and then my window crashed. Bah.

Warnings for Andrew’s past/Drake (nothing explicit), as well as very brief mention of self harm.

*******

It started with a dream about Drake - that wasn’t anything new, but not only was Drake there but Neil as well, and Drake was taunting Andrew by holding Neil down and-

And it wasn’t a good start to the morning when he woke up an hour early, skin clammy and stomach threatening to rebel, only to lie in bed until the alarm went off. He didn’t talk to anyone that morning, not even Neil, as they went on their way to the gym to work out and then to class.

Neil gave him a few worried glances but was soon distracted by Wymack and Wilds and Kevin, by Exy shit and making sure that the Foxes were ready for their game with the Hornets that Friday. Nicky kept him distracted during lunch by talking about his classes and some outfit he wanted to buy, and then Neil had to struggle to hold on to his temper during afternoon practice when Jack and Sheena were up to their usual antics of ‘let’s be assholes and see how much we can insult our new vice-captain’.

Andrew merely sat on the bench and watched it all, certain that Neil could handle it (had been handling it so far that season) and restrained by the mental image of where Drake’s hands were replaced by his own. He knew it was his fucked up mind playing tricks on him, was a hold-over from the nightmare…but something inside him went cold at the thought of adding to the marks already marring Neil’s skin, to harming him when he’d already overcome so much.

To becoming a monster much like those who’d left Andrew a broken, cobbled-together mess.

So he spent the evening up on the roof alone, and had ignored the flash of hurt in Neil’s pale blue eyes when he shook his head upon the quiet question of if he wanted company or not.

Neil remained subdued when it was time to return to the stadium with Kevin for practice that night, and didn’t push Andrew for an explanation or idle chat; he was so damn good about boundaries, about respecting the times when Andrew wasn’t ‘in the mood’ (or unable) to talk and willing to wait until that changed.

He didn’t do anything but give Andrew a reassuring smile when they returned to the dorm and Andrew merely headed the bedroom to sleep.

Unfortunately, the nightmares were just as bad that night, which made Andrew jolt awake and then lie in bed listening to Neil and Aaron’s breathing while he assured himself that they were fine, that he hadn’t let them down (hadn’t let Drake touch them). Morning found him aching with exhaustion and scraped raw from doubt, by all the awful ‘what might have beens’ in his head where Drake had gotten his hands on Aaron and Neil, where Andrew had failed to keep his promises to protect those who mattered to him the most.

It took so much to remain in bed, to not get up and fetch Kevin’s supply of alcohol or worse, peel back his armbands and press one of his knives to his forearm….

Yet he stayed there once again until the alarm went off then got up, silent once again; Neil interceded when Aaron snarked about him being a grumpy bastard and prevented violence so early in the morning. Kevin gave him a worried frown and mumbled something about not affecting the game on Friday, which meant that Andrew didn’t spot the asshole during weight training (Jack stepped in for him so Kevin couldn’t lift as much as usual and was in a foul mood as a result, how sad).

Neil appeared worried, too, which was why Andrew skipped classes that day - including the Russian language one he shared with his friend. He took off in the Maserati and ignored all calls and texts as he stared across an empty field not too far from campus while he chain-smoked as he sat on the roof of his car until right before afternoon practice, the raw feeling still clinging to his bones as he pondered just how much he had to be snatched away and destroyed right then.

Aaron complained about him taking off with the car and Nicky scolded him for skipping lunch when he finally showed up for practice, while Kevin proclaimed that he better be in the mood to do something for once. Neil was quiet, however, and merely stared after Andrew whenever he wasn’t busy out on court.

Andrew found himself both relieved and annoyed by that attention, even though he escaped it once again to go up to smoke on the roof alone that evening. He missed Neil’s presence beside him, missed seeing the slight smile on Neil’s attractive face and obvious desire in pale blue eyes, missed hearing eager ‘yeses’ and feeling gentle hands on his shoulders as he pulled the younger man close to be kissed.

He just didn’t know how to regain all of that while the nightmares weighed so heavily upon him, when the last thing he wanted was for the past to ruin what he had now. Those thoughts (the dreams) consumed him so much that he didn’t realize that for once Kevin finished changing out quickly from nighttime practice, which left Andrew and Neil alone in the locker room.

“Andrew.”

Hearing Neil call out his name made Andrew snap to attention and nearly drop his shirt before he could pull it on; he noticed that Neil was already dressed and appeared uncertain about something, that he had shadows around his eyes and had taken to chewing his bottom lip.

Realizing that he had Andrew’s attention, Neil stood up straight and stopped fidgeting. “Ah… are you mad at me?” When Andrew blinked at the question, Neil let out a slow breath. “I’m sorry, whatever I done, just tell me so I can fix it.”

Neil thought that he’d done something to upset Andrew. “No,” Andrew answered before Neil could say anything else, then pulled on his shirt. “It’s not… you didn’t do anything,” was all he said once he was dressed, then he went over to his friend and reached out his hand. “Yes?” he asked, needing that confirmation after the last few days, after realizing how much he’d hurt Neil with his distance.

“Yes,” Neil breathed out without any hesitation, as always an idiot about things, and smiled when Andrew reached out to clasp the back of his neck. Andrew could feel warm skin and muscles slowly relax beneath his touch, and for a moment he contemplated pulling Neil in for a kiss before he realized that wasn’t a good idea right then; instead, they merely stood there for almost a minute just gazing at each other before he shifted back and Neil sighed.

“Kevin’s waiting for us,” Neil said, all signs of apprehension gone as he grabbed his jacket from where it was draped over the bench, and smiled when Andrew huffed. “Do you… do you want company tonight?”

“No… not tonight,” Andrew admitted as they left the stadium; Neil’s smile slipped a little but he accepted it for what it was - ‘not now but soon’, aware that Andrew needed time to work through things and content now that he knew that Andrew wasn’t upset with him. Part of what Andrew appreciated about him was that he was able to give Andrew his space, yet be there when Andrew wanted (needed) him.

“Okay. Renee gave me a recipe for Mexican hot chocolate, maybe I’ll try making it while you’re up there,” Neil offered as he stared straight ahead.

Andrew thought about that, about clearing his head up on the roof (trying to lay a few demons to rest) then coming down to Neil waiting for him with something to drink before bed and reached out to grasp his friend’s right hand as they walked toward the Maserati.

*******

Again, not sure about this, especially since it started out one thing then turned into another. But here you go, @kittyfeathersflying

#aftg #andreil #neil josten #andrew minyard #poor andrew #nekojitachanfics

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thesffcorner · 5 years

Text

The Foxhole Court

You know that feeling, when you’re watching your favorite team play their rival, and they are neck in neck, and you’re on the edge of your seat, biting your nails? That’s what it feels like reading this book. The Foxhole Court is the first book in the All for the Gametrilogy written by Nora Sakavic. It follows Neil Josten, who has spent the last 8 years of his life running. When he gets scouted and forcibly recruited for the Foxes, Palmetto State’s Division I exy team, exy being the only thing he truly wants in life, he has to make a decision: stay and put up with his hostile, and dangerous teammates, or keep running and lose the only thing he’s even cared about. I don’t remember the last time I’ve had such strong, conflicting emotions about a book. This book made me angry, it made me emotional, it kept me on edge, and I loved it and hated it in equal measure. I have so much to say, so buckle up: this is going to be a long one.

Let’s start with the basics, namely: The Plot: Most of the major issues this book has, revolve around the plot. In theory, it’s rather simple: Neil is a new player on a team of underdogs and losers, with the additional adage that the Foxes are literary a type of halfway house for troubled teens. Everyone on the team seems to come from some kind of difficult background: runaways, abusive households, drug abuse, or criminal records. There is a rival school, King’s Row, which is the reigning champion, and their disgraced former champion comes to the Foxes, to help them improve enough to where they could potentially win the championship. The positive to this type of tournament arc, is that it naturally lends itself to some great character building and tension, and Sakavic takes advantage of both. The tension in this book is top notch; every major thing has excellent build up an payoff, from Neil joining the team, to him meeting the rest of the team, to their season starting, and the highlight, which is their season opener. I was invested in what happened, I wanted to know what opponents the Foxes would have, and just the tension during their season opener alone was worth the asking price for this novel. I also have to commend the pacing; this is possibly one of the best paced books I’ve ever read. Sakavic knows exactly how much time to spend on and off the court, and in between set pieces, to make the tension and intrigue last. There is tension and unease in every part of this novel, even slower lulls in between practice and matches. It’s possibly one of the best executed tournament arcs I’ve read, and we are only at the start of the season. The craft that Sakavic has over the structure and characters of this novel is truly to be commended, especially for debut author. However, there are problems, and the most obvious is: Exy: The absolute most infuriating and stupid thing about this book, is the sport it revolves around. I have so many problems with this, I don’t even know where to start. First off, exy is just intrinsically, a dumb sport. It’s basically lacrosse mixed with rugby, as if lacrosse needed to be even more violent. I remember reading somewhere online that the author invented exy because she didn’t want to learn the rules of existing sports, and she wanted the sport’s creation to be tied to crime, which… crime is present in every sport everywhere on earth. You don’t need to invent a sport for it. Second, she didn’t really invent a new sport, she just took lacrosse and tweaked some of the rules and way of play, so it has more checking. So why not just… use lacrosse? It’s already one of the most popular college sports in the US, and the pro leagues in lacrosse are already so insular. Why go through the trouble of inventing a whole new set of rules, and then having to seamlessly explain those rules, when you can just… use the rules of lacrosse? It’s not to say you can’t invent a new sport, or exy is badly made sport, just that the way it’s written on the page is so similar to the way lacrosse, that I just don’t understand the need to make it a new thing. To make matters more confusing, since we are firmly set in present day, and Sakavis has set this plot in the world of collegiate sports, we are constrained by the actual modern day rules and regulations of the NCAA, and as someone who has first hand experience with the NCAA, this drove me mad. Yes, the game is well written, and the match is exciting, but it’s very existence was such a hard pill for me to swallow, that all the positives failed short, when I couldn’t buy into the premise. In-universe, exy was invented in Japan, by two people, the main one being Coach Moriyama, a legend in the sport. How am I supposed to buy, that in the span of about 30 years, exy goes from an experiment, to a street sport, to local leagues, to a professional league, to a world league, to a college NCAA, Division I sport, and an Olympic sport? This would NEVER happen in the real world! Karate still isn’t an Olympic sport! Yes, new sports get invented, (just take a look at quidditch), and some of these sports become popular enough to have professional or semi-professional leagues. But they don’t become Olympic or NCAA sports, and certainly not in the span of a generation! Moreover, this is a co-ed sport. Let me repeat that. Exy is a FULL-CONTACT, CO-ED sport. Again, quidditch is also a full-contact, co-ed sport, but it’s also a not a D1 competitive sport. There are no professional or collegiate league in the real world that would allow for a full-contact co-ed sport, it’s just too dangerous. Can you imagine being a girl and having a 250 pound, six foot athlete do a bodycheck to you at the speed at which lacrosse or rugby players move? This wouldn’t be such a problem, if Sakavic hadn’t written in the real life NCAA, an organization so mired in controversy over its rules and regulations, and so worried about being sued, that the chance of this happening is ludicrous. I played for the NCAA; I was Division 3, but I still had to go through all the same tests, rules and guidelines. Sure, non-contact co-ed sports like mixed doubles tennis, mixed relays in swimming and athletics exist, but that’s about it; I was reading the match line up and I could not for a second suspend my disbelief. The other issue, is that there’s a really easy way around this, that would even make more in-universe sense if Sakavic wanted it to. Just make exy semi-professional/professional private league! Kind of like quidditch already is. You could still set it in college, and it being a cover for shady crime-related activities would make a lot more sense, when there’s not already a real world organization like the NCAA to govern it. Why would the Moriyamas want the NCAA involved anyway? It would be much easier and more profitable for them to run their private league where they’d have a tighter grip on all the players, coaches and teams, and then all this is significantly less insane. The Conference Switch: This is a specific plot point that drove me mad. For anyone who doesn’t know, the NCAA controls the collegiate sports in the US. The way it’s set up, is with various Conferences, most of which are region based; I played for the Skyline D3 conference, fox example. It is possible for a school to switch Conferences, but again, it’s based on region, and it’s not a swift process. West Virginia and North Carolina being in the same district? Fine. Kings Row doing a massive switch, where it switches from being undefeated in a higher tier Conference, to dropping to a weaker Conference in a matter of weeks, without any protest from any of the other schools? Bullshit. I don’t buy it for a second. Again, this could have easily been solved by just NOT USING THE NCAA AS THE SETTING FOR YOUR FAKE SPORT. Characters: Before you all yell at me, I think the characters are excellent. They are what sold this book to me, seeing as the sport itself just made me angry. I already said that Sakavic’s grip on her characters is excellent; she excels at crafting these really complex people, with lots of internal and external conflict that feels motivated and understandable, even though none of them are likable characters. However, even taking this into account, a lot of the decisions the characters make, seem completely unreasonable given their goals and the stakes involved, and it made me at various points yell in disbelief. The Foxes have 10 players, but I mostly want to focus on Andrew’s squad, or the team’s main group. It consists of Andrew, the goalie, his twin brother Aaron, their cousin Nicky, and Kevin Day, the former King’s Row player, and now this team’s star striker. Neil, our protagonist comes into conflict with this group the most, and the person I want to start with is Andrew himself. Andrew: Andrew is the most interesting character in the book, and my favorite. He’s also the worst. Let’s start with his backstory. Nicky, being Andrew’s cousin and also the only openly gay character in this book, gets attacked at a bar. Andrew beats up the attackers so severely, that he is facing jail time for a violent crime. In order to avoid that and continue playing exy, the court mandates that he is under constant sedation for 3 years. There’s… so much to unpack here. First off, even if I could believe that the court would be willing to switch out prison for medication, the likelihood of it being outpatient care is ludicrous. The way Andrew’s condition is described, seems to imply that he’s given antidepressants therapy to suppress his psychopathic tendencies, which a) is largely ineffective and b) would require more than just weekly meetings with the college psychiatrist. He would have to see a parole officer, a social worker, get a tag, or at least have some type of constant supervision, which he at no point has. Most importantly, there is no way he would be allowed to continue to play a violent, full-contact sport for the college’s D1 team! Andrew isn’t a superstar quarterback with Kardashian as his lawyer; he’s been in foster care for years, and he’s a college student who could grievously injure someone even under constant sedation! I refuse to believe, that the NCAA, the same NCAA which makes you sit through needless mandatory lectures on concussions, would ever allow a person like Andrew anywhere near the court! To make matters worse, the fact that Coach Wymack knows what Andrew’s condition is, and lets him play UNMEDICATED, is beyond irresponsible and crosses the line into outright negligent! Even sedated Andrew is violent; at various points in the book he: slams a racket into Neil, punches people when they touch him, pulls a knife on Nicky, shows no sympathy or remorse for his actions, and he does most of this, while medicated. No coach would EVER allow Andrew to play unmedicated (let alone be on the team, even if he was a master player) if he cared even a little about his players, and let me remind you, Coach Wymack is presented as a tough but caring, positive adult! Outside of this, there are other issues with Andrew. His violence is understandable, but it doesn’t excuse the horrible shit he does to the other characters, and he never faces any consequences. It’s heavily implied he bullied the former striker sub into attempting suicide; his little ‘weekend party’ leaves a teammate under psychiatric care for weeks; he forcibly drugs and assaults Neil into revealing things to him, and kidnaps him and isolates him from the rest of the team. And Coach Wymack knows all this, and looks the other way! There’s also a lot of weird subtext with lots of the characters, but again, Andrew is the most overt example. There’s a lot of talk of Nicky and Kevin belonging to him, he owns Kevin, he wants to own Neil. Kevin to asks Neil to give himself to Kevin, Coach Wymack owns Neil and Kevin… it’s just a really strange thing to focus on, because… it’s just sports. With Andrew, his ownership is never contradicted, never stopped; he is left completely unchecked, and unhinged, and the destruction he does on his path, in any other book would make him an outright villain. While I don’t like that Neil constantly refers to him as “a psychotic midget”, at least half of that statement is entirely correct; Andrew is psychotic, and he gets away with things villains in other books don’t. Neil: I don’t want you to think that I was only annoyed by Andrew; Neil makes more than his fair share of bad decisions and enables a lot of Andrew’s behavior. First though, I have to say that Neil is an excellent character. He is one of the most spirited, distinct and proactive protagonists I’ve read from. Very often authors will say that a character is ‘observant’ or ‘smart’, but often these end up being informed traits. Neil is a survivor, and truly observant and clever; he immediately sees through Andrew’s deception at the airport, he immediately realizes when someone breaks into his room and guesses who, he knows how to read people, who to win over and who to avoid. He acts like someone who has had his life would; there’s so much attention to detail with him, from the clothes he wears, to his haircut, to the way he acts around adult men. I really liked the half-lie he tells Andrew to placate him, and how proactive he was. He doesn’t wait for things; he makes a plan and executes it. He is the only one to stand up to Andrew, he even stands up to Riko on national television. That whole talk show scene was utterly ridiculous, but I enjoyed that Neil didn’t back down, even though he had both the chance and every reason to do so. He’s a contradiction that makes sense; who he is as a person actively clashes with who he has to pretend to be in order to survive, and that was very well presented. He still does some dumb shit, though. I know that Neil has to stay on the team; otherwise we wouldn’t have a book. But his decision to stay makes no sense given his backstory. He may want exy, but he literary can’t have it, if he wants to survive. Picking a fight with Riko Moriyama on national television makes no sense; it’s actively making surviving harder for him, to put himself in the limelight. Trusting Andrew with his life is a dubious decision at best; why does everyone think Andrew can protect them? He’s still a LITERAL child. Even if he had a black belt in 4 fighting styles, he’s still just one person. Also if Andrew put me through anything remotely like what he does to Neil, trusting him would be the last thing I do, sexual tension and exy be damned. Some Scattered Thoughts: I really loved the chapter where Neil and Kevin go through the inner court at the start of their season opener. The way the atmosphere and the court is described was so well done, it reminded me of being at live matches. It was such a well done part. I also loved the scene we get between Matt, Seth and Neil; I thought this simple humanizing moment for Seth was exactly what we needed, considering what happens later, and it was just a really good scene. I related to a lot to Seth’s conflicting jealousy and hatred for Kevin and his love for the game and knowledge that Kevin is just that good as a player. Unpopular opinion, but in that brief moment I found him a more interesting character than Kevin in all of this book. Kevin was kind of a dull presence. His genuine panic at seeing Riko and his reticence to tell Andrew about the Conference change were fine, but there’s just not enough personality for me to grasp on and care. He’s almost like a mcguffin that everyone wants/wants to possess, but he has no real character. He’s dedicated to the game, cruel to his teammates, twice as hard on himself, a prodigy, but these are things that have to do with exy. Outside of that, I don’t know who Kevin Day is, and if this book is going where I think it’s going, then he’s not the romance I’m rooting for. Also I have never heard of D1 athletes staying in college for 5 years. I don’t think that was an accurate thing, but given everything else that’s wrong with the exy plot, it’s a minor minor pet peeve in comparison. Conclusion: I think it’s pretty clear I’m conflicted on this book. There is lots of good here, but there is so, so much bad. If you can swallow the premise, and you are not as well versed in the American collegiate sports scene as I am, I feel like you will like this book a lot more. I heard it described as a CW drama in book form, and that’s exactly what it is; needless to say, I will be reading the rest of the series.

goodreads

#foxhole court #foxhole court review #moni talks #book review

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nickireadstfc · 6 years

Text

The King’s Men, Chapter 7 – In Case Of Zombie Apocalypse, Grab Your Racquets And Run

In which the saga of Gays On Rooftops continues, everyone is too sassy to handle, I cry at some beautiful Andrew/Renee normalcy, and Andreil are Andreil.

Sounds good? Then it’s time for Nicki to read The King’s Men.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, I had always heard of The Rooftop Scene™ from fandom, but oh, had I been a fool to assume there was just one of them.

Lads, we’re back to being in high places we shouldn’t be, and we’re in for a fun time.

“Give me one good reason to not push you off the side.”

Neil shook a cigarette stick out and lit it. “I’d drag you down with me. It’s a long way down.”

Two sentences into this conversation, and Neil is already being a sassy little shit.

Now this is the content I signed up for.

“I hate you. (…) Ninety percent of the time the very sight of you makes me want to commit murder. I think about carving the skin from your body and hanging it out as a warning to every other fool who thinks he can stand in my way.”

“What about the other ten?” Neil asked.

Perceptive little dude, look at you! Actually noticing stuff Andrew says, I’m so proud.

Also, I’m hoping this was a rhetorical question, because if not I may take my “perceptive” back.

“I warned you not to put a leash on me.”

“I didn’t,” Neil said. “You put that leash on yourself when you told me to stay no matter what. Don’t be mad at me just because I was smart enough to pick up the other end of it.”

I want it to please be known that I am resisting about 20 kinky leash jokes right now.

Thankfully, Andrew waltzes on with the conversation before I can utter any.

Good boy.

“I don’t think it was the money (…) why they chased you so long. I imagine at some point they realized it was far more important to hurt you than to recoup anything they’d lost.”

“So you stay, but you still won’t hit me.”

Neil has become being such a sassy shit to Andrew, I can’t even tell you how much I’m loving this.

Homeboy takes no shit from no one anymore.

Despite Andrew’s unfriendly words, his expression and tone were calm. He said these things like they meant nothing to him. Neil didn’t know if it was a mask or the truth. Was Andrew hiding that rage from Neil or from himself? Maybe the monster was buried until Neil crossed another unforgiveable line.

And of course, Neil being Neil, he instantly searches for that line exactly.

Neil and Andrew, pretty much.

“Good,” Neil said at length. (…) “I want to see you lose control.”

Damn right you do, honey.

Neil feigned confusion as he got to his feet. “Am I bothering you?”

“Beyond the telling.”

“Interesting,” Neil said. “Last week you said nothing gets under your skin.”

OOOHHHHHHHHHH.

Neil, my boy my dude my homie, you are on FIRE today.

Neil mic-drops out of the conversation and gets off the roof – only to be immediately thrown to the ground by the angrier, more vocal version of Andrew.

After several people are needed to wrestle Aaron and Neil free from each other, we find out what exactly has our second favourite twin’s orange boxers in a twist:

“Katelyn’s refusing to see me or talk to me until Andrew and I get counselling.”

DAMN, GIRL.

I knew Katelyn was badass, but this has just propelled her to the very top of the Takes No Shit Charts.

KATELYN YOU WONDERFUL TOUGH HEADSTRONG ORANGE SUNSHINE, LET ME LOVE YOU.

Nicky’s jaw dropped, but it sounded more admiring than anything. “Damn, Neil.”

Same, Nicks.

Aaron shot him a livid look. “Don’t you dare take his side.”

“Why not?” Nicky asked. “It’s not like you ever let me take yours.”

Shots have been fired, tea has been spilled, Aaron has been thoroughly shut up.

What is up with this team and sassy remarks today, you guys. Wonderful.

Neil reunited with Dan’s crowd, who immediately begin questioning the previous violent (and also German) exchange, as any sane person would do.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I’m doing what you asked me to do,” Neil said. “I’m fixing them. (…) If a bone isn’t healing straight, you have no choice but to break it. They’ll be fine.”

Neil has been taking metaphor style notes from Andrew, apparently.

Matt leaned against the doorframe and arched a brow at Neil. “That’s not exactly reassuring. From you ‘fine’ could mean anything from ‘I’m going to hitchhike across the state’ to ‘I’m beaten to a bloody pulp but I can still hold a racquet’.”

Damn, Matt.

This squad is not messing around today.

Matt, Dan and Allison play a fun goodnight game of Getting Drunk Off Their Asses, and while Neil and Renee clean up the mess afterwards, they have a lil talk about y’know, boys.

“Thank you,” she said, “for reaching him when I couldn’t.”

This just in: I still love Renee, thank you for asking.

Renee confirms what we kind of knew already: When Andrew started watching Kevin and the monsters’ backs, Renee was tasked with watching those of the rest. She even offered to take Neil when he arrived, bless her heart. But of course, we know how quickly Andrew snatched Neil’s dramatic ass up into his crew.

“That being said, I tried taking you off his hands at one point.” When Neil looked at her in surprise, Renee affected an innocent look that for once was not entirely convincing. “Andrew refused on the grounds he wouldn’t wish you on anyone except a mortician.”

“Drama queen,” Neil muttered.

First off – lmao @ Andrew for being the drama queen we treasure him for, and lmao @ Neil for finally commenting on it.

But second – how am I to interpret that not-convincing innocent look? Did she just wanna protect Neil from Andrew and now feels about it, for not trusting her friend enough? Or does she know about Andrew’s, ahem, possible ulterior motives?

I’m betting on the latter. As if Andrew doesn’t talk to her about his crushes during their BFF sleepovers. As if.

In order to avoid his teammates’ bad spirit about, well, everything at the moment, when it comes to warm-up on the court the next day, Neil – surprise! – joins Renee and Andrew on their jog.

A lil wholesome conversation will go a long way, folks, even if that long way just goes around the Court walls.

And what does my favourite Brotp in this universe do on their mighty distinguished Break Walks?

They discusss hypothetical WWIII scenarios.

LOVELY.

Seriously, I love this. This is exactly the kind of wholesome normal best-friends-havin-a-chat content I signed up for, and I can’t believe my poor heart is finally getting what it deserves.

Neil is equally delighted by the Goalie BFFs’ choice of debate subject, and his thirsty ass is immediately back the next day.

And it gets better – today, it’s zombie apocalypses.

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSES.

Surviving on the run was Neil’s forte, and it was interesting to see how his priorities compared with theirs. Renee stressed the importance of collecting survivors, which Andrew shot down immediately.

Because of course she did, because of course he did.

I LOVE THIS.

Every single thing about this is gold and I want a billion fanarts.

Neil wondered what he would do if an invasion really happened. (…) Chances were it’d be instinctive to abandon all of them if the undead put in a ravenous appearance. It wasn’t exactly an uplifting realization, but Neil could accept the ugly truths about himself.

This, this is so important to me. Neil isn’t magically over his entire upbringing now that he’s got friends, he’ll maybe always have these instincts his mother put in him, but he’s coming to accept this about himself. He’s being open and honest with himself, even if it means addressing bad emotions and bad truths and really man have I mentioned I love Neil Josten recently.

In other news: Renee is apparently texting buddies with Jean now!

And I’m p sure they allowed outside contact with the Foxy Orange Scum beneath their Holy Feathery Feet, so Jean is probably breaking a billion laws (and maybe risking a few fingers) sending memes to Renee, so props to you, my man. You have my approval to be engaging in contact with my fave sweetheart.

Neil is equally on board with this.

“I’m hoping she can weaking his blind loyalty.” Neil thought about it a moment longer, then said, “Maybe that’s why Matt stopped betting on the two of you?”

This is either Neil being the oblivious fuck that we know and treasure, or Neil poking the bear.

Either way, good shit right there if I do say so myself.

To close this chapter off – we’re in for another Prime Andreil Deep Talk. This time featuring: Money!

“It isn’t charity,” Neil said. “It’s revenge. It wasn’t my money in the first place, remember? I told you my father skimmed it from the Moriyamas. If you take some for your car, you’re making Riko fix what his fans destroyed.”

Can your stolen money also fix Riko’s attitude, asking for a friend.

“Revenge is a motivator only for the weak-willed,” Andrew said.

“If you believed that you wouldn’t be planning on how to kill Proust.”

OHHHH burn. Did I mention I’m here for Neil Take No Shit Josten lately?

Also yikes. Almost forgot about that guy.

I’m intrigued to see whether he actually appears in this book.

Andrew retaliates this comment by blowing a fuckton of smoke in Neil’s face, which Neil retaliates by breaking Andrew’s cigarette.

Actual fucking children, I tell you.

“You bought the last car with someone’s death. You can buy this one with someone’s life – my life. That money was going to buy my next name when I ran away from here. Thanks to you I don’t need it anymore.”

Yeah, hi, if anyone needs me I’ll be subtly crying in a corner.

“Make a new deal with me. (…) What would you give me?” Neil asked.

“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”

Neil frowned at him, lost, but Andrew didn’t waste his breath explaining.

Ah yes, and here we are back again with Neil being an oblivious idiot. Jeez, boi.

Ily, but use ya brain.

Mirculously, Neil does, but quite differently than I expected him to – he convinces Andrew to give up cracker dust.

Nice, I guess. One addiction less. Kind of anticlimactic, though.

Next!

Andrew thought it over a minute, then flicked his cigarette at Neil. It singed the material where it bounced off his shirt. (…)

“I’m going to take your temper tantrum as a yes,” Neil said.

The sass does not stop, you guys.

Wonderful.

If you like what I do here and you want me to continue writing fun things for you, why not buy me a coffee? Every lil bit helps, getting me through uni and all that jazz. Thanks so much!

#tfc #the foxhole court #aftg #all for the game #the king's men #tkm #nora sakavic #nicki reads tfc #this was a bit of a filler chapter but I still had fun with it #and a day earlier than I promised #hah suck that procrastination

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emmerrr · 7 years

Note

If you're still accepting prompts, maybe some father-son bonding with Kevin and Wymack? I've always headcanoned that Abby would be the one to make them do it, so maybe some of that?

a wymack prompt! anon, you are speaking my language :) I set this really soon after TKM so it’s very early days bonding and it’s more wymack focused (I find kevin so hard to write even though I love him so much) but I hope this is okay!

(read on ao3)

Following their championship final victory against the Ravens and the shock of Riko’s ‘suicide’, David would have really preferred all of his Foxes to stay close, stay together, where he can keep an eye on them all. As it happens, during the month off before summer practices start again, his rag-tag team are even more scattered than they’d usually be this time of year.

The upperclassmen have all returned home with the exception of Allison who has gone with Renee, and even Andrew’s lot have separated. Nicky’s in Germany visiting Erik, and although Aaron, Andrew, Kevin and Neil have all been staying at Abby’s for easy access to the court, Aaron is spending the last two weeks with Katelyn and her family.

David knows that Andrew at least would have preferred to have spent his summer vacation at the cousins’ house in Columbia, but Kevin has understandably had trouble coming to terms with everything that has happened, and Andrew has always actually been very supportive if you know what to look for, and David does.

So they stayed on campus, near the court for Kevin. Neil’s easy to do whatever Andrew does, and it’s not like having extra Exy time would be a problem for him; he and Kevin are of the same mind in that regard.

Even Andrew has his limits, however, and so for the last few days of their precious time off, he and Neil head back to Columbia alone to have some time to themselves. It leaves Kevin without Andrew for the first time in what feels like forever. He’s not under Andrew’s protection anymore — he doesn’t need to be — but old habits die hard, and David finds himself wondering how well Kevin’s coping.

David spends most of Friday morning at the tail-end of summer break working from home in his apartment, sorting out arrangements for the new recruits to arrive; who’s going to pick them up from the airport, room assignments and so on. When he’s finished, he hops in his car and heads over to Abby’s, picking up coffee and donuts on the way.

“It’s only me,” he calls as he enters Abby’s house without knocking.

“In here!” comes Abby’s reply, and David follows her voice to the kitchen. Abby is washing the dishes and so her back is to him, but she turns when she hears him put his offerings on the table. She eyes the coffee and smiles. “You’re a life-saver.”

“I try.” David pulls out a chair and helps himself to a donut. “Where’s Kevin? I got one for him, too.”

Abby dries her hands and sits down opposite. “I dropped him off at the stadium about an hour ago.”

David frowns. “He’s practicing alone?” At Abby’s nod, he sighs. “Everyone else is taking a break, he should too. It’s only a couple days until everyone’s back anyway.”

Abby’s look is knowing. “I think he’s just trying to keep busy. It’s too quiet around here with everyone gone.”

“He could have gone with Andrew and Neil. I know Neil invited him.”

Abby arches an eyebrow. “Would you want to play third-wheel?”

It’s a fair point. No one really talks much about Andrew and Neil’s relationship because it’s not worth the aggravation of getting either no response, or of incurring Andrew’s ire. But a relationship it definitely is, so David can understand Kevin not wanting to intrude.

“Maybe you should go down there,” Abby says. “Keep him company for a little while.”

David takes a long sip of his coffee without breaking eye-contact with Abby. She acts casual, but David knows what she’s getting at. “I’m sure he doesn’t want me getting in the way,” he says.

“David,” Abby says gently, then seems to struggle to figure out what she wants to say next. “It’s just — have you spent any time with Kevin alone at all since finding out he was your son?”

“Hey, I took him to get his tattoo covered,” he says defensively, because the whole, hey by the way, Coach, you’re my dad reveal is a touchy subject; it’s still a little raw and Abby knows that.

“Yes,” she allows, “and then you let him get blind drunk the night before a championship final.”

David scowls. “We won, didn’t we?” Kevin had plenty of time to sleep it off on the bus and David had known that which was why he’d let it happen, but still, he supposes Abby has a point.

Abby graciously ignores his comment and bulls on in that gentle way of hers, a thousand times more effective than her getting angry would be. “You’re his father, David. You should get to know him outside of Exy.”

David sighs. Kevin’s words before the final — my father comes to all of my games — are still circulating in David’s head. He knows how to be Kevin’s coach, he just doesn’t know how to be his father. He was never given the opportunity to learn.

He can’t make up for time lost, but he has time now.

He downs the rest of his coffee and picks his keys up off the table. He points at Abby on his way out the door. “You’re a fucking menace, by the way,” he says, but there’s no malice in it. Abby just smiles and shrugs innocently.

Inside the stadium, David can hear balls ricocheting off the court walls before he gets close, and when he opens the doors to the outer ring, Kevin looks to be doing accuracy drills. There’s a bucket of balls in the middle of the court, and Kevin is studiously picking them out one by one and trying to rebound shots to the same spot over and over again.

David watches for a couple of minutes. Kevin hasn’t noticed his presence yet, his singular focus evident in his narrowed eyes, his posture. His dedication and drive to always better himself are enviable traits, and David is struck once again by how proud he is of Kevin. He’s come so far.

David turns and heads to the changing rooms, pulling on some spare practice gear and grabbing a helmet and stick. Abby had said to get to know Kevin outside of Exy, but Exy is something they have in common, and it’s the perfect place to start.

Kevin whirls around in surprise when David knocks loudly on the court walls to announce his entry, and almost drops his racquet when he takes in David all kitted out.

“Coach? What are you doing?”

“I’m giving you someone to play against,” David replies. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

Kevin hesitates, then a small smile flickers on his face. “Not much of an opponent, are you,” he says, not a question.

He’s right, really. David doesn’t move like he used to, especially after his old hip injury, but even in his younger days he never quite had the skill that Kevin does. But that’s not really the purpose here. “It’s always useful to have someone trying to block you,” David reasons gruffly. “And don’t be so fuckin’ rude.”

For a couple of seconds David thinks Kevin might dismiss the exercise entirely as a waste of his time, but he tilts his head to the side, considering, and then he nods. Maybe he knows that running Exy drills isn’t David’s only agenda, maybe he just realises that playing against a person is better than playing against yourself. Or maybe he’s just lonely and appreciates the company.

Whatever the reason, David will take it.

Together they pick up the stray Exy balls that are scattered across the half court until there’s just one left. David moves the bucket down the opposite end of the court out of their way.

They face off at the half-court line, Kevin with the ball and David acting as a backliner. The game is simple: Kevin tries to score, David tries to stop him.

The first few times are child’s play for Kevin; David’s nowhere near warmed up enough, not to mention he hasn’t been on the court in a playing capacity for more years than he’s comfortable remembering. He half expects Kevin to get frustrated at not being pushed hard enough, but it doesn’t happen, and David soon finds his stride.

After Kevin gets past him for the eighth time, David steps back, makes an impossible twist and intercepts, cracking Kevin’s racquet with his own and catching the ball as it pops out of Kevin’s net. Behind his helmet, Kevin looks surprised and then impressed, clearly recognising the move, and David allows himself a small smile.

Kevin’s not the only one who was taught to play by Kayleigh Day.

They play for another intensive twenty minutes and David only manages to block Kevin a grand total of three times out of countless attempts, but Kevin doesn’t scoff, doesn’t slow down, doesn’t insult David by taking it easy on him or complain about the fact he doesn’t offer much of a challenge.

By the time David calls time, his hip is twinging from over-exertion — Abby’ll be mad — and he’s a panting mess. He lowers himself to the floor, leaning up against the court walls, removing his helmet and tossing it to the side.

Kevin takes off his own helmet, then jogs across court with the Exy ball and puts it back in the bucket. Then he jogs back over to David, barely looking out of breath.

David feels embarrassingly unfit.

But Kevin’s smiling slightly when he sits down at David’s side. “Good game, old man,” he says wryly.

David side-eyes him. “Back in my day, I’d kick your ass, kid.”

Kevin snorts. “Sure you would.”

They settle into silence, but it’s not uncomfortable, and it gives David a chance to get his breath back. When he has, he says, “You’re looking good out there.”

Kevin shrugs. “My accuracy is still a little off.” He holds his left hand up between them, the scars prominent, and he narrows his eyes at them, expression pinched. “It’s just not quite there yet.”

“It will be,” David says with utter belief. “It’s already so much better than it was. Just don’t push it too hard. You can play with both hands now, and that’s an important weapon.”

Kevin nods. “Yeah. I know.” He sighs. “It’s just frustrating.”

They’re still talking about Exy, but it’s different somehow. It’s not within the context of an official practice, and although they’ve talked about Kevin’s hand before, they haven’t since David found out he was Kevin’s father. And it does make a difference. David cares about all his Foxes, all his kids, but there is a difference. Kevin’s his kid.

“What are you doing for the rest of the day?” David asks.

“I was gonna call Abby and get her to pick me up. Read a book or something, I dunno.” He shrugs again, then looks at David. “Since you’re here, you can give me a ride instead though, right?”

“No problem.” He checks the time and reasons by the time they’re cleaned up and on their way, it’ll be a good time to eat. “If you want, or you’ve got nothing better to do, we could grab some lunch?”

Kevin pauses, starts picking at a thread on his jersey. “Just you and me?”

“And Abby, if she wants to come. We don’t have to,” David’s quick to reassure. Baby steps. No hard feelings. “It’s just a thought.”

“No,” Kevin says quickly, glancing at David and then away again. “No, that sounds good. We… we should see if Abby wants to come, though.”

Kevin gets to his feet and holds out his hand for David, a twinkling in his eye that reminds David painfully of Kayleigh. “C’mon, Coach, I’ve got you,” he says, all mirth.

David takes his hand and allows himself to be pulled up but he glowers at Kevin. “Just because we haven’t technically started the season yet, doesn’t mean I won’t sign you up for every fucking marathon I can for the next two years.”

Kevin grins. “You’re all talk. I know you, Coach.”

David smiles back. It’s a good start.

#the foxhole court #tfc #tfc fic #david wymack #kevin day #tumblr prompts

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years

Text

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND October 18, 2019 - MALEFICENT, MISTRESS OF EVIL, ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP, THE LIGHTHOUSE, JOJO RABBIT

We’ll see how far I get on this week’s column because I haven’t seen nearly as much as I want to, I don’t have nearly as much time as I’d like to, and I have a lot of stuff to write for my other gig at The Beat. I know… excuses, excuses.

Well, you can probably already guess that I haven’t seen Disney’s MALEFICENT, MISTRESS OF EVIL, starring Angelina Jolie, because I never saw the original movie, and I have only been invited to one Disney movie in three years. (I got into a few thanks to being in the Critics Choice Association and there being awards screenings, but I have zero interest in this, even less in Frozen 2, and I’ll probably just use my AMC A-List to see Star Wars.)

I did see Sony’s ZOMBIELAND DOUBLE TAP, and that I really liked a lot. You can read my full review of this over at The Beat. I also interviewed director Ruben Fleischer and have an interview with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick waiting in the wings. I’m pretty amazed that the three of them were able to get the whole gang back together, including Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin

Let’s just get to what I hope you’re reading this column for...

LIMITED RELEASES

I’ll admit freely that I just didn’t have as much time to watch stuff the past week as I’d like to, so some of the movies below I just haven’t gotten around to watching but hopefully they’re as good as others have said.

There are a few “special event” screenings this week, including Kevin Smith’s JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT (Saban Films), which screened nationwide via Fathom Events last night and will get another screening on Thursday night. It’s actually not bad, at least compared to his last movie Yoga Hosers. This one is a direct sequel to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which I wasn’t a very big fan of despite liking a few of Smith’s other films like Chasing Amy and Dogma. Reboot harks back to some of Smith’s earlier work with nods to many of his previous films and cameos from almost every actor who has ever worked with him? I also interviewed Jason Mewes for The Beat, and I’ll have an interview with Harley Quinn Smith soon, too.

Also, on Saturday, Bruce Springsteen’s doc WESTERN STARS will get a nationwide screening via Fathom Events. I haven’t seen this one, and I’m not really that big a fan of the Boss, but hey, it’s happening if you’re interested.

The on Tuesday, October 22, you can see Neil Young’s latest movie Mountaintop in a one-night only event via Abramorama, the movie showing Young and his band Crazy Horse getting ready to record their first album in seven years. I haven’t watched it yet, but it’s interesting that Young is letting fans into the process, and I only recently saw Jim Jarmusch’s doc Year of the Dog, so I’m kind of in a Neil Young headspace. This one is directed by Young under his film direction pseudonym “Bernard Sharkey.”

Another movie worth seeking out this weekend is THE LIGHTHOUSE (A24), Robert Eggers’ follow-up to The Witch, this one starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as two men who are sent to care for a lighthouse during a particularly turbulent storm season. Dafoe is a crusty and cranky seadog who really puts Pattinson through his paces, but as the two men are holed up together (and eventually trapped on the location), they each begin their own slow descent into madness. I’ll have an interview with Eggers up at The Beat later today where we talk about the intriguing way he made this film, and it rose out of his frustration with trying to get The Witch financed.

My Interview with Robert Eggers

The movie I was most excited to see this weekend was Taika Waititi’s JOJO RABBIT (Fox Searchlight), since I’ve been a fan of his work going all the way back to when Eagle vs. Shark debuted the Sundance Film Festival. I was really hoping I’d like this enough to feature it at the top of this column, but since it’s not there, you can read my review at the link below to find out why not. Based on Christine Leunens’s novel, it stars newcomer Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo, a 10-year-old German boy in the Hitler Youth who just can’t get his shit together, although he does have an imaginary friend in Adolf Hitler (played by Waititi) who urges the boy on. Injured in an accident, Jojo is homebound when he learns that his mother (Scarlet Johansson) has been hiding a young Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomas McKenzie from Leave No Trace) in the house attic, so he has to figure out whether to report them, or use her to learn more about Jews. You can read my review below to see that I can’t really recommend the movie wholeheartedly, but it will open in New York and L.A. this weekend and you can decide for yourself.

MY REVIEW OF JOJO RABBIT

French auteur Francois Ozon returns with BY THE GRACE OF GOD (Music Box Films), a very serious drama about three grown men (Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet, Swann Arlaud) who team together to expose a priest who molested them as boys but is being protected by the Catholic Church. The story is based on the real French scandal surrounding Cardinal Philippe Barbarin who was convicted earlier this year for concealing the conduct of a preacher, Father Preynat. Ozon is coming off his excellent film Franz and the equally intriguing Double Lover, so he’s definitely upped his game from the sometimes-frivolous earlier fare for which he became known. This is a really tough movie to get through and maybe that made it harder for me to enjoy, but it’s another fine piece of filmmaking by Ozon. It opens at New York’s Film Forum and the Landmark on 57 and probably in a theater in L.A. as well.

Opening at New York’s Angelika Film Center and the Landmark on 57 is Alexis Michalik’s Cyrano My Love (Roadside Attractions) set in Paris 1897 and dealing with the relationship between playwright Edmond Rostand and actor Constant Coquelin, for what becomes the play Cyrano de Bergerac. And I have absolutely zero interest in seeing this.

Another movie that I saw and absolutely loathed was Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe’s GREENER GRASS (IFC Midnight), a movie that I couldn’t begin to describe except that it takes place in a suburban neighborhood where a yoga teacher has been murdered by a seria killer and all sorts of other strange things are going on. The filmmakers play best friends and soccer moms Jill and Lisa, the latter who borrows the former’s baby, but honestly, the tone of this movie reminded me about the stuff on Adult Swim that I hate such as the Tim and Eric shows and such, where it just seems to be weird for weirdness-sake, and there’s absolutely nothing that kept me even remotely interested. It opens at the IFC Center this weekend.

I still haven’t found the time to watch all of THE CAVE (National Geographic Documentary Films), Feras Fayyad’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated film Last Man in Aleppo, but I hope to get to it fairly soon, since I was such a fan of that movie. I just need to be right in the headspace to watch this one, if it’s anything like that one.

Apple TV+’s first movie on the streaming channel will be Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone’s THE ELEPHANT QUEEN (A24), a documentary that follows the elephant matriarch Athena, who is forced to protect her family after they leave their watering hole. Although I understand the purpose of this movie to show how climate change is affecting these majestic animals, this one feels very much like something I’ve seen before from DisneyNature and others, so it didn’t really shed any new light on elephants, and it felt very much dummed down for kids. Voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor, it will get a limited theatrical release this weekend before debuting on the channel November 1.

There are a couple other docs out this weekend, including Barbara Miller’s #FEMALEPLEASURE (Abramorama), which follows five women fighting against their patriarchal societies; Serendipity: The Story of French Artist Prune Nourry (Cohen Media Group) directed by French artist Prune Nourry; opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday is Erin Derham’s doc Stuffed (Music Box Films) about taxidermists, and then there’s Julie Simone and Vicki Vlasic’s doc Fiddlin’ (playing at the Cinema Village) covers the Fiddler’s Convention.

If you’re not quite ready for Halloween, there’s the horror filmTrick (RLJEFilms) from Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine, Drive Angry) about a Halloween party in 2015 where Patrick “Trick” Wever killed a bunch of his classmate and then escaped after being shot five times by a detective (Omar Epps) so everyone thinks he’s dead. But guess what? He’s not!! It also stars Jamie Kennedy and Tom Atkins.

There are a couple other movies, but the main ones you should know about are above.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

The big one this week, at least in New York, is the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, which starts Thursday night with Jeffrey Brown’s The Beach House and continues through the weekend with Daniel Isn’t Real, Swallow, and the World Premiere Fessenden’s Depraved: Making Frankenstein a Brooklyn Loft, a making-of doc about Larry Fessenden’s latest.

Starting Friday at New York’s Cinema Village is the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, which I really don’t know very much about, although they seem to have an interesting selection of nature docs, both features and shorts, none of which I’ve seen.

In L.A., you can catch the Animation is Film Festival starting Friday with animated movies from across the group including I’m anticipating like Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You, and White Snake from China, which will be in competition with films like France’s I Lost My Body. There are special events for Disney’s Frozen 2, Netflix’s Klaus, a special screening of the Chinese hit Ne Zhan and Steven Universe the Movie before it hits Apple TV+ on November 1.

Also happenin’ in New York is the Nordic International Film Festival, which is taking place at the Roxy Hotel, in case you wonder why it’s missing from the repertory section below. That’s why.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Steven Soderbergh’s THE LAUNDROMAT will arrive on Netflix this weekend, and you can read what I thought of that in my previous column here.

Streaming on Netflix Friday is Ed Perkins’ documentary TELL ME WHO I AM about the relationship between two twin brothers, Marcus and Alex Lewis. When Alex wakes up after a motorcycle accident, he relies on Marcus to fill him on who everyone else is over the next 35 years, but Marcus may be keeping a dark family secret from his brother to protect him. (It also will open theatrically at the Quad Cinema on Friday.)

Sinister 2 director Ciaran Foy’s new film Eli will start streaming on Friday, about a boy who receiving treatment for an auto-immune disorder who finds out that his house isn’t as safe as thought. It stars Kelly Reilly, Lili Taylor, Max Martini and Charlie Shotwell in the title role.

There’s also the Spanish film Diecisiete (Seventeen) from Daniel Sánchez Arévalo about a 17-year-old named Héctor who forms a bond with a dog as part of a reintegration program at his juvenile detention center. When the dog is adopted, Héctor goes on a journey to rescue him.

One of the exciting debuts on cable this weekend is HBO’s WATCHMEN series, created by Damon Lindelof, and what I’ve heard about the show is that it’s pretty good, taking place in the modern day of the world created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in the comics (which took place in the ‘80s.).

Also, while I haven’t seen it yet, Iranian filmmaker Babak (Under the Shadow) Anvari’s horror thriller WOUNDS will debut on Hulu this weekend, and since I have Hulu, I’ll be able to watch it! It stars Zazie Beetz, Dakota Johnson and Armie Hammer, the latter playing a bartender who has all sorts of weird things happen to him when he picks up a phone at a bar.

REPERTORY

There are a few really awesome repertory series starting this weekend as well as the return of one of New York’s primary midtown rep houses, which has been closed for renovations for most of the summer.

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Before I get to the Metrograph’s great new series starting this weekend, I want to draw special attention to Metrograph Pictures’ new 35mm print rerelease of Edo Bertoglio’s 1981 film Downtown ’81. This is a really amazing movie that stars late NYC artist Jean Michel Basquiat, and while it does show him doing his graffiti art, the movie isn’t so much worth seeing for its amazing writing or acting but for it being an amazing time capsule of New York in 1981 with performances by Kid Creole and the Coconuts, DNA, The Plastics and other No Wave bands in the year when punk was transforming into New Wave but New York bands were still experimental and arty, doing whatever it took to avoid getting into the mainstream. Metrograph releasing this reissued restored film makes sense as they were one of the first to herald Glenn O’Brien’s cable show TV Party, so if you get a chance, get down to the Metrograph where the movie will be shown exclusively probably for a week or two.

Another exciting series at my local theater as Julie Andrews will be there in person for “Blake Edwards: A Film Selection by Julie Andrews,” celebrating the life and career of her late husband. The series will include That’s Life (1986), Wild Rovers (1971), 10 (1979), the Inspector Clouseau film A Shot in the Dark (1964), 1981’s S.O.B., 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s and a Members Only screening of Victor/Victoria (1982) with a QnA with the actress. Also, the Academy returns to the Metrograph for its monthly series, this one very Halloween-appropriate, as they’ll be showing Fulci’s Zombi 2 (aka Zombie) from 1979.

This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph is still David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. (2001) and also, because the Metrograph will make any excuse to show Brian De Palma’s 2002 dog Femme Fatale… they’re showing Femme Fatale again. what gives Metrograph? You now taking cues from the IFC Center by showing the same movies over and over? Tsk, tsk… This weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees is Brad Bird’s animated classic The Iron Giant from 1999. Welcome To Metrograph: Redux seems to be taking the weekend off, probably to make room for some of the above.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

The other series I’m really excited about is the three-week “Shitamachi: Tales of Downtown Tokyo” but I get to that, I want to mention that I had a chance to see Yoji Yamada’s Tora-San, Our Lovable Tramp (1969), which plays for two more days, and it’s quite wonderful so definitely try to get to it as this became a very popular series in Japan. Okay, back to the other Japanese series, this one runs for three weeks and it’s co-presented with the Japan Foundation. This weekend, you can see Akira Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel (1948) and Stray Dog (1949) on Friday and Saturday as well as Ozu’s Record of a Tenement Gentleman from 1947. Sunday and Monday is Kurusawa’s Ikiru (1952) and a couple others. There’s just an abundance of riches including a couple rare prints that were imported from Japan for the series. Apparently, the Film Forum thinks Milos Forman’s Hair(1979) which I just saw at the Metrograph is okay for kids, which is why it’s programmed as this week’s “Film Forum Jr.”

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

The Wednesday matinee is the classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), while Weds. and Thurs. see double features of P.T. Anderson’s Inherent Vice (2014) with Jacques Demy’s Model Shop (1969). Friday’s matinee is Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), while the weekend “Kiddee Matinee” is the Disney movie Blackbeard’s Ghostfrom 1968. (I wonder if that will be on the Disney+ service.) Friday night’s midnight movie is Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Til Dawnand then Saturday night is an “All Night Horror Show” which is sold out, sadly. Monday’s matinee is The People Under the Stairs (1991), and Monday and Tuesday nights are double features of Tom Laughlin’s The Born Losers (1967) and Billy Jack (1971).

MOMA (NYC):

It’s exciting news that MOMA reopens NEXT MONDAY, and their first two series are Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Filmand Vision Statement: Early Directorial Works. The first of these is an attempt to recreate some of the early film programs from the early days of the MOMA Film Library, including a screening of the 1914 film A Fool There Was on Monday, and I’ll write more about this next week. “Vision Statement” begins with Andrzej Żuławski’s The Third Part of the Night (1971) and Satyajit Ray’s 1955 film Pather Panchali, and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s 2003 film The Return and Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993) both screen on Tuesday.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

I’ll be at tonight’s “Weird Wednesday” Born of Fire (1987), which is almost sold out but has a few seats left. Monday night’s “Fist City” selection is David Fincher’s 2002 movie Panic Room, starring Jodie Foster and a VERY young Kristen Stewart, while “Video Vortex” presents the horror classic A Night to Dismember: The Original Cut. Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is 1983’s Devil Fetus, and what do you know? Julie Andrews will be there doing a QnA right after showing Blake Edwards’ 1982 movie Victor/Victoria – I wonder where they got that idea (or maybe Ms. Andrews is just doing a tour right now). Next week’s “Weird Wednesday” is the 1993 film Fire in the Sky and RottenTomatoes is hosting a party centered around The Craft (1996), which is already sold out.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Recent Spanish Cinema 2019 continues this weekend so no rep stuff but a couple movies worth checking out are the doc The Silence of Others and the animated film Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles.

AERO (LA):

A couple “Facing Off with John Woo” double features with The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992) on Friday, and then Face/Off (1997) and Hard Target (1993) on Saturday afternoon. Saturday night is a screening of Woo’s 1990 film Bullet in the Head. Sunday is a Lina Wertmüller double feature called “Swept Away Again by Lina Wertmüller” which isThe Seduction of Mimi (1972) with Love & Anarchy (1973). Tuesday’s “Tuesdays with Lorre” will a 35mm screening of Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Wednesday night’s “Movies with MZS” (aka Matt Zoller Seitz) is John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (1987). It doesn’t look like the IFC Center has set its Fall repertory series yet but Friday and Saturday night at midnight you can see the very first official James Bond movieDr. No(1962) and a 4k restoration of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981).That said, “Weekend Classics: May All Your Christmases Be Noir” does begin this weekend with Nicolas Ray’s They Live by Night (1948).

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

“See It Big! Ghost Stories” continues this weekend with screenings of one of my all-time faves, Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist, on Friday, and the Japanese horror classic House (Hausu) on Saturday, as well as the 1965 Japanese horror film Kwaidan, plus James Wan’s Insidiouscloses the series on Sunday evening. The “No Joke: Absurd Comedy as Political Reality” continues with 1985’s The Coca-Cola Kid on Sunday afternoon as well as William Klein’s 1969 movie Mr. Freedom, neither of which I’m familiar with. Saturday afternoon is a special screening of Marlon Brando’s 1961 film One-Eyed Jacks with an introduction by William Mann, who wrote “The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando.”

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

Freshly recovered from the New York Film Festival, FilmLinc is screening a 25th Anniversary restoration of Béla Tarr’s 1994 film Sátántangó, which also played at the film festival.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

Oh, it looks like the Landmark has been showing Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club Encore all week so you can see it through Thursday. This Friday night’s midnight movie is A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors from 1987.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Still showing Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’aime Moi Non Plus (1976) through the weekend.

Next week, it’s an odds and ends weekend including Deon Taylor’s new police drama Black and Blue, the high-tech horror/thriller Countdownand the historical drama The Current War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland and Michael Shannon.

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