The King's Men - Epilogue

Day: Saturday, April 27th / 28th* Time: 3:10 AM EST

Neil waits off to one side while the others file out, knowing Andrew will be the last to leave. Wymack knows better than to stick around and follows his Foxes down the hall. Andrew brings Neil's duffel to him. Neil takes it but drops it off to one side. Andrew studies it for a moment, then shrugs out of his own bag and puts a hand to the wall near Neil's head. "Your close calls are getting old," Andrew says. "I thought you knew how to run." Neil affects confusion. "I thought you told me to stop running." "Survival tip: no one likes a smart mouth." "Except you," Neil reminds him. A year ago Neil had been a scared nobody, hating himself for signing the Foxes' contract and counting down days until he moved in with Wymack. Tonight he is the starting striker for the first-ranked team in the NCAA. In two years he'll be captain, and in four he'll graduate from Palmetto State. Neil will find a professional team first and then fight tooth and nail to make the cut for Court. Neil can already imagine the weight of an Olympics medal around his neck. He doesn't even care what color it is so long as it is his. Better than that bright future is what he already has: a court that will always be home, a family who'll never give up on him, and Andrew, who for once hasn't wasted their time denying that this thing between them might actually mean something to both of them. Neil didn't even notice the silence at first, too distracted by his dizzying thoughts. Now he can't help but smile and pull Andrew in. This is everything he wanted, everything he needed, and Neil is never letting go.

END OF ALL FOR THE GAME SERIES.

Art commissioned and used with permission by the incredible @hamrikaa!

*Due to the Leap Year, I have opted to highlight the day rather than the date to keep the events in occurrence to the 2007 year. I will continue to mark both days accordingly.

So we agree that our boys are the embodiment of the 3 classic responses to trauma.

Fight: Andrew

Flight: Neil

Freeze: Kevin

Now, may I present you:

Fawn: Jean-Yves Moreau

my feral angels that continue to push me through dark times

sketches & process on patreon! :- )

TFW ur being interrogated by the FBI and your wretched acquaintance pulls out the pad thai

andrew SPRINTED! i need you all to understand! andrew RAN FOR NEIL. i don’t know why this never clicked in my head because neil was about to get fucking killed and of course andrew was there. but the fact that andrew ran for him, after an entire series of neil running and realizing what it meant to stay—this was andrew’s final nail in the coffin that neil’s this isn’t nothing was real after all. i need to lay on the ground

Monsters pregame:

😈

I'm a firm believer that this is what Andrew looks like a couple years after college when he's on that pro athlete training regimen. My boy is solid!!

They taking selfies 🤳

Peaches 🍑

One of my most favorite headcanons I have for Andrew is that at the start of aftg he and Aaron have buzz cuts. The reason being someone had a thing for pulling Andrew’s hair when he was younger so he got rid of the weakness before it could be used against him again. Once he starts to really make progress in his healing journey though, he lets it grow out a little longer each time before he shaves it all off again and eventually, by the time he goes pro, he’s got himself a nice head of what I can only describe as sports hair. Just long enough that curls bunch just under the back of his helmet. It’s a little mulletie and is so blond and so thick and wavy. Andrew still buzzes it from time to time, whether it be impulsively or just because, but long hair Andrew becomes quite the media start.

Bonus: The reason Aaron didn’t fight Andrew on this one particular thing is because 1 his hair was already super short to begin with and 2 the reason for that was so Tilda had a harder time grabbing onto it. Aaron, too, grows his hair out eventually, but once it’s long it stays that way and he does this many years before Andrew.

Anyway, this was just a long way of me saying Andrew starts growing his hair out when he truly begins to heal. Okay. Love you, bye.

Thank you

Dear AFTG Fandom, Friends, and Family:

To say that it has been a tremendous honor would be an understatement. I am immeasurably proud of what this account has become and it’s due to every single one of you. Your passion for this account was the driving force at the end and I can’t thank this fandom enough for being a rock in the storm of all of this.

I began this account as both a love letter to a story that has consumed me since I was first introduced to it, but it was also created to prove that I could sustain something for this long and this intensely immersive. During this past year alone I have been dealt hands that were not always the best, but this account kept me above water, even through the many sleepless nights. It energized and empowered me through all of your retweets/re-blogs, likes, and comments.

I also want to highlight and thank all 40 artists that gave me permission to share their incredible work. The scenes came alive due to their immense talent and exceptional hard work. Every artist was kind and considerate, incredibly understanding and just as invested in this project as I was. I truly can’t thank them enough for their trust and support.

Thanks also need to be delivered to my wife and best friend who, without their constant push and patience, none of this would have happened. They were my first followers, my biggest fans, and were Abandoned so many times during the course of this and yet encouraged me to keep going. Maybe now we’ll finally have time to play all those games we’ve downloaded over the last year :).

I also want to thank Nora for…. so many things. For the creation of this story, for the encouragement when this account became so big YOU even saw it, and for becoming a dear friend in the process. You’ve been an inspiration throughout this in more ways than I can say.

And finally, I want to once again, thank all of YOU. The followers, the commenters, the re-posters, the veteran fans, the new fans, the obsessed fans, and the casual ones. Fandom can be such an intrinsic and beautiful thing. Pulling people together and bringing a life to these characters through our own individual experiences. We are all our own Foxes in a way, tied together with the understanding that second chances are immeasurable and the family we make are the best ones of all.

You gave this account a shot. And for that I am eternally grateful.

you were amazing.

🦊 🧡- Kelysium

i bet the aftg universe youtube videos of "neil josten and kevin day having the greatest exy friendship for 12 minutes" slapped severely

yk what i want wymack to one day follow through and actually sign the foxes up for a marathon. they make a day out of it and everyone is So Unhappy to be there at 6:30 in the goddamn am. except for. fucking neil. hes having a grand old time going for a fun little run with his team :)

meanwhile literally everyone else is wishing a thousand fiery deaths upon him for being a sick enough bastard to enjoy this. wymack went home early.

Taking part in @yolkylemon 's DTIYS challenge!

i think it's hilarious that while putting together aftg nora clearly didn't have in mind writing tsc, so in most of the first part of tsc jean's internal monologue goes NATHANIEL!!! my soulmate, my shadow, my lost partner, my broken promise while at the same point in the aftg timeline neil doesn't acknowledge his presence at all