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sadboyayeron · 4 years

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Tapping at my Chamber Door (Nikoshi Doe) Chapter 1

All For The Game Fic Chapter 2>

(This is how everything started, this is Nikos mothers POV)

I was born in Jamaica. I moved to the states at a young age to live with my Aunt in the Bronx. I didn’t have a sad childhood besides the fact that I miss my mother who died and I didn't know my father. My aunt took good care of me. She took me to track practice everyday and worked hard to pay for the rent. I got a Scholarship to Edgar Allen University to run track for there school. It was one of the best scholarships I got that was closest to New York.

Thats where I meet Riko Moriyama. It was around the same time Kevin day left. I always knew he went to the school, who wouldn’t his face was plastered everywhere. He wasn’t bad looking, not at all. Sharp cheek bones and slitted eyes. Black pools of nothingness. I noticed him looking at me couple times. I figured it was because my name went around that I broke multiple school recorders and was rumored to be running in the next olympics. He only ever looked, no emotion etched on his face. One day I decided to approach him while in class.

“Like what you see.” I was trying to catch him off guard but he didn’t even look surprise. But then he smiled. Something sharp that left me feeling tingly, similar to how I feel before racing.

“Not to bad, no.” He chuckled, looked me up and down before he landed back on my eyes, “Want to sit.”

He left me in a trance and I took a seat next to him and sat my books in front of me. I tucked some braids behind my ear and looked at him again, he was looking back with a smug smile on his face.

“Are you from New York?” He asked.

“How do you know?” I replied.

“You have an accent, I've been there a couple times to be able to tell.” He looked back down to his work and the professor walked in. At the end of the class he passed me a note and left with out a word.

Like what you see

***-***-***

And thats how I got myself in this fucked up situation.

Rikos dead. I’m Pregnant. Rikos fucking dead and I'm 5 month Pregnant. I had to stop running. I had to quit my life and he killed himself. Dead. I didn't know what to do so I went to his Uncle. Tesuji who didn't bat a single eye when I told him. All he said was give him the kid when I have him and I get my scholarship back. My life back. Thats what I did. I went back to New York, back to my aunt who was disappointed in me. She had every reason to be. She tried to get me to keep the kid but I just couldn’t. I’m not ready to have to take care off another human being, maybe later but not now. The next 4 months went by and I found myself in the hospital. God it hurt like hell, the doctors looked panicked ad my Aunt was crying. I knew I was bleeding to much and I was probably going to die. Tesuji was in the hall way, my aunt called him when my water broke.

“Nico,” I whispered to her. “His n-name is Nico.”

Naima Dixon Died May 20th, 20**

Tesuji held the small vermin in his arms trying his best to look like he cared for it. The child was clearly Riko’s, just with small curls on its had and darker skin. As soon as he could he would drop this child off in the system but now he had papers to sign. “Nico,” is what the hag had told him the name would be. To close to Rikos. He decided to spell it Niko and add a Shi at the end out of spite. It only made sense, shi meaning death in Japanese.

Nikoshi Doe Born May 20th, 20**

About ten years went by and Tesuji found himself in New York again face to face with his older nephew. Tesuji’s time was up now. It only made sense he was useless and caused so much trouble to the Moriyama name after the ravens were tarnished. In the face of death he found his thoughts drifting to a little boy with brown skin and curly hair with eyes, lips, nose so smiler to the child he beaten with inches to his life so many years prior. He should have killed the thing when he had the chance. He looked his nephew in the eye and gave his last words. Of him having his own nephew. His late younger brother not being able to keep his hands to himself in ways besides torture. The child not living to far from this office. In the system. The offspring would have been nine or ten years old by now. Older then when he had to take in Riko. He watched as Ichirou thought about his claim.

“whats his name?” He finally spoke.

“Nikoshi Doe.” Fitting wasn’t it.

Not long after Tesuji was found dead in his home. Said to have been peacefully asleep. The best way to go out. Ichirou did some digging, calling numbers he knew could find him what he was looking for. Nikoshi Doe was not hard to find at all. He was currently living in a foster home with a couple other children in the Bronx. He was 10 years old and was in the 5th grade. He received a picture. The child was average hight for his age. He had milk chocolate skin, dark eyes resembling his own (Rikos), curly hair that fell all around his head in a afro. Slight bags under his eyes, full lips pulled into a smile that didn’t quit reach his eyes. He could see little studs in his ears. In the face he was definitely his brothers child. His nephew. Doesn’t mean he wants much to do with him, he has no time to deal with a child and can't have this ruining the Moriyama name any further. Killing a child is were he crossed the line though, leaving it would be the easy option. But of course he wants to have some fun with his investments.

Kevin Day has never gotten a text message from the lord so when he wakes up one day while he's sleeping on Neil and Andrews couch in Chicago to buzzing on the coffee table he is terrified. What he sees though is a picture of a child. Deja’vu hits him hard. Then his phone rings in his hand with the same number he knows so well.

“Hello My Lord.”

(I had to redo this because some reason it deleted ugh)

I decided I wanted to actually start writing. This has been stuck in my head for so long. I love reading how you view this and keep doing what your doing I love it @side-effect-of-the-meds. Can’t wait to go further in depth for how I picture this going hopefully I do okay. @andrewminyardamiright

@kevindayprotectionsquad

Chapter 2>

#nikoshi #nikoshi motherfucking doe #nikoshi doe #the only valid moriyama #all for the game #all for the game fanfic #fanfic #aftg au #aftg fanfic #aftg fic

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jemej3m · 4 years

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Devil wears Prada pt2 where Nicky or Matt or Alison or smth give Neil a makeover and Andrew is Too Gay For This Shit

mmMMmmmMMMmMmM

“He hates me,” Neil insisted, leaning his hip against Kevin’s focus board. The man was busy sorting out different approaches to the spring release, of which Nicky had been nagging on about all week.

Kevin hummed, ignoring Neil completely.

“I don’t want his validation,” Neil continued. “I just - we all work hard here. Harder than he does! And he gets all the credit?”

“You’re being melodramatic.”

Neil just huffed. “Well, what do I do?”

Kevin shrugged. “Andrew chooses who he listens to. You need to prove that your ideas are worth his time.” The man glanced up, giving Neil’s outfit a derogatory once-over. “And you’re going to get nowhere, looking like that.”

Neil looked down at himself. “I look fine.”

“You’re the secretary for the forerunner of the most lucrative fashion editorial that’s ever graced the planet, wearing Goodwill jeans and shoes that have superglue seeping out from the soles. Fix it.”

Neil just flipped him off, storming out of Kevin’s office. The man went back to his concept arrangements with little more than a roll of his eyes.

Before Neil could reach his desk the next morning, a hand wrapped around his wrist and tugged him sideways.

A blonde woman stood head and shoulders taller than him, grinning fiendishly. “Hello, Neil.”

“Hello,” Neil allowed, taking a step back. “Do I know you?”

She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Kevin gave me full reign over the sample closets with an order to teach you how to look less...like that.”

“You just gestured to all of me?”

“Well, yeah.” She pinched his cheek. “My name’s Allison. Model, entrepreneur, fabulous bitch and your saviour. Now, shall we?”

“Minyard will be arriving soon -” Neli argued as she towed him down the corridor.

“Kevin excused you for the morning,” she winked. “Appreciate it, I think. Now, where do we start? Underwear, presumably. Wait! Let’s tackle that mop of hair on your head.”

Neil just gulped.

Andrew was mildly pissed off. Kevin had excused the haggerty brat of a secretary from work for the morning and refused to disclose why: even Nicky had kept his mouth shut, typing away quietly at his desk. It meant Andrrew’s coffee was late and his scheduling wasn’t printed out in the format that he liked. He hadn’t even realised that Josten had picked up on that detail, which only served to piss him off even more. He was deathly busy: he had no time to be thinking about the likes of Neil Josten, his train-wreck of a secretary.

“I expect you to catch up on all this,” Andrew heard Kevin say.

“Do you take me for an amateur? I’ve already sorted out everything on this list,” Neil Josten retorted, shoving the clipboard back into Kevin’s chest. Kevin stayed by Nicky’s desk as Neil waltzed through into Andrew’s office without knocking.

Andrew couldn’t help but stare.

“I know you would’ve suffered through one of those bitter, watery espresso shots this morning,” his assistant said, placing down Andrew’s favourite coffee order on a coaster than Aaron had bought him. He then dropped down two books. “Here’s the manuscripts that you ordered for your niece and nephew, the most recent copy of the Palmetto edition unedited, and your correspondences. I’ll have you know that a Kengo Moriyama has asked you to an event, so I retorted with a scathingly professional rebuke. I’ve printed out the response for you to peruse, since I know you actually think it’s amusing -”

“Who dressed you?” Andrew demanded.

Neil looked down at himself. He was wearing black slacks that clung to his legs and glossy Dolce dress shoes. A midnight-blue velvet blazer was kept open over a white blouse that had a lace overlay, tucked into his trousers and extenuating an incredibly slim waist.

His hair was clipped and artfully curled. Worst of all were the smudges of eyeliner at the corners of his eyes, the blue irises outshining every Cerulean jewel.

“Allison toyed with me slightly,” he admitted.

Of course. Allison.

Andrew hummed, ignoring the poignant thrashing of his heart against his ribcage. “Out.”

Neil, inexplicably, grinned. With a two fingered salute, he left Andrew’s office, shutting the glass doors behind him.

Andrew tugged his cigarettes out from the bottom drawer of his desk, staring out at the landscape of New York City as the hour chugged by, ignoring every call and knock on his door.

Fucking dammit.

#devil wears prada au #pt 2 #jem writes #andreil #andrew minyard #neil josten #makeovers!#all for the game #aftg #kevin day #allison reynolds #neil is a snacc

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saywhatyouwillbut · 3 years

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grace's essential aftg fics

hi friends! i made a list of all my favorite aftg (read: andreil) fics to recommend to whoever wants them! all of these are either complete or regularly updating, so no waiting for a chapter that will never come. enjoy, and make sure to leave the authors a comment!

never fallen (from quite this high) by crystalcrow

For most people, a problem is a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful that needs to be dealt with or overcome.

For Andrew Minyard, it’s the word that fits Neil Josten with a capital P.

(or, aftg from andrew’s pov)

Chapters: 43/43, Words: 352140

why i like it: i'm a slut for andrew's pov, so this fic is kind of my everything. bonus points for being an alternate way to reread the series.

Every Time a Bell Rings by fuzzballsheltiepants

Nathaniel has been lost since his mother died. According to the authorities, he died too, in the shootout that killed his father. In reality, he's been dragging himself along from town to town, sleeping on the streets, lacking even a name. He's not sure how he's been surviving, or if it's even worth it anymore.

Andrew has been stuck in the waiting room of the Afterlife, reading the same stupid pamphlets and listening to the same terrible music, ever since he was collateral damage in the car wreck that eliminated his mother. Until he gets a chance to take over the guardianship of one particularly difficult person and possibly earn his wings--if he can keep the idiot alive.

Basically, an It's a Wonderful Life AU featuring our favorite Foxes.

Chapters: 17/17, Words: 56704

why i like it: it's sad, funny, and heartwarming, much like the inspiration.

Fencing with Reality by fuzzballsheltiepants

What do you do when you're bored out of your skull during social distancing and a spider has just taken up residence in your living room? If you're Andrew Minyard, you take up fencing and end up meeting someone who you can't get out of your head - even if you've never actually seen their face.

Chapters: 1/1, Words: 7230

why i like it: pandemic or no pandemic, taking up a new hobby because there's a spider in your house is both hilarious and ridiculously valid.

Magesong by fuzzballsheltiepants

Ten years ago, Neil and his mother fled from his violent Fire mage father, leaving the kingdom of Ravenar and his childhood friends behind. Now alone, his magic stripped from him, Neil finds himself a spoil of war, sold by the new king of Ravenar into marriage with the prince of Palmetto in an attempt to buy peace. Nothing goes quite as he expects: he regains his lost magic, makes new friends, and reconnects with old ones. But even as he starts to form a magical bond with Prince Andrew, a threat lurks on the horizon, and he must stop it before war breaks out again.

Chapters: 13/13, Words: 54753

why i like it: magic! but also the positive arranged marriage. mostly the magic tho.

light fires at night (to push back the void) by inthesea

The first time Andrew realizes he wants to hear the words, Neil isn’t even doing anything. He’s just sitting there, staring at the horizon with that stupidly dramatic faraway expression of his, and letting the cigarette burn down between his fingers all the way to the filter — an outrageous waste of good nicotine, if you asked Andrew.

(Or: 20+ times Andrew and Neil say I love you, and one time they say it out loud.)

Chapters: 3/3, Words: 61862

why i like it: a very good development of neil and andrew over the years. it's just satisfying.

The Bachelor of Baltimore by likearecord

Nathaniel Wesninski, the only son of the Butcher of Baltimore, has two options: choose a mob boss to marry for the benefit of the Moriyamas, or meet with an unfortunate accident. He thought he had it worked out. And then Andrew Minyard walked into his life.

Chapters: 5/5, Words: 32235

why i like it: it's a (slightly nicer) look at what neil might have been like if mary had never ran, and while we don't support the mafia, it's interesting to see how the foxes might have fit into that world.

Point Nemo by moonix

Neil meets his favourite Exy player of all time one starry night on a balcony, steals his cigarette lighter, gets asked out on a date... and has to pretend not to be completely, utterly obsessed with Exy in order to keep his interest. Easy. Right?

Chapters: 1/1, Words: 13814

why i like it: cozy winter vibes, chronic pain rep, and neil being absolutely ridiculous. plus, this kevin moment:

“Remember what happened last time you tried to set me up with someone?” Neil said, snapping his fingers at him.

“She wasn’t so bad,” Kevin said mulishly. “How was I supposed to know she was deathly allergic to peanuts?"

Not Nothing by TheRainbowElectric

Five times Neil tells someone that he and Andrew aren’t dating, and one time Andrew uses his words to set the record straight.

Chapters: 1/1, Words: 23148

why i like it: it's a nice, pretty realistic take on neil and andrew's relationship and the way it develops in the aftermath of tkm.

Blame It On My Youth by youreyestheyglow

10 years after the end of The King's Men, Andrew and Neil have decided to foster a kid. They have low expectations for themselves--they're not exactly ideal parenting material--but at the very least, the kid will be safe with them. But neither Andrew nor Neil do temporary very well.

Chapters: 126/?, Words: 1,425,633 (as of 2023-03-05, updates on Sundays)

why i like it: general domestic fluff (with some drama here and there), great character dynamics, and the fact that i laugh out loud at least once each chapter.

#aftg #aftg fic #fanfic #aftg fic recs #fic recs #said what you will but

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eightdye-art · 7 years

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wow look at me i made a bnha oc

no but seriously I think he's adorable

#bnha #bnha oc #please validate me #takumi moriyama #his hero name is a joke bc when i drew him i could only think of #baa baa black sheep have you any wool?#olive art

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91percentpynch · 3 years

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aftg characters and the sexualities/ gender identites i headcanon them as

i do this only becuause non-binary jean moreau got so much love. please don‘t attack me. hope you enjoy this!!

kevin day: genderfluid, i don‘t really see him as bisexual though??? or at least not the classic „men and women“ but „men and enbys“ thingy??? idk if this is offensive please tell me and know i never meant to offend you!! for me he‘s either only attracted to men (like c‘mon name one girl he was interested in), men and enbys (cuz nb jean and he WAS and probalbly still IS in love with jean) or he‘s ace aro but i‘m in my kevaaron feels so yeah. actually i always headcaonon him as asexual BUT he enjoys occassional hook-ups and he might actually also enjoy sex

aaron minyard: ASEXUAL BABY!!!! okay it‘s quite like with kevin, but he actually only enjoyed sex with kevin. he did hook up with katelyn, but he never told her he was ace, he was too scared he would leave him for something not even he himself understands, but when kevin tells him about his asexuality aaron is like „omg same“ and y e s acsexual demiromantic aaron minyard owns my ass.

alison reynolds: bisexual queen!! she had a thing for kevin and dan, but she would never admit it out loud. she loved seth, she really truly did and the only other time she loved like that was with renee and later her girlfriend!!

renee walker: acearo goddess!!! look first of all i want the representation and secondly i never got the vibes that she actually wants a relationship??? but her and allison cuddle a lot and platonically hold hands. they kissed once, it was when renee had an sexuality crisis and allison helped her figuring out!! allison was a bit hurt that she wouldn‘t never love her like that but eventually saw that the love renee had for her was so much bigger than romantic love and yeah!! i also feel like renee could be non-binary as well???

dan wilds: bisexual goddess!! look she had a thing for allison as well, but she really does love matt with her entire being!! because!! bisexuals!! do!! not!! have!! to!! date!! the!! same!! sex!! to!! be!! valid!!

matt boyd: bisexual disaster. neil walked in the room and he immediatly had a tiny crush on him. who can blame him tho? he also had a thing for kevin and seth!! but the love of his life is dan!!

katelyn (does she have a last name? if so i forgot it and i‘m sorry girl): anygays katelyn is bisexual, with a tendency for girls. she did love aaron, she really did, he was just not the one and when thea walked in her life she was so In Love, she K N E W she was The One.

thea mundani: lesbian non-binary icon. they/them lesbian, they exist, they are valid. she never dated kevin, they were just each others alibi!! anygays you can take that out of my cold, dead hands:))

ichirou moriyama: bisexual, he has a crush on neil. they are besties, he just wants m o r e

riko moriyama: i think he is either gay with super internalized homophobia (he had a thing for kevin and jean) or he‘d be acearo!! god this feels like an insult to both the gay and acearo community, i just i- i don‘t like riko, my brain just makes everyone gay okay

jeremy knox: either non-binary or genderfluid. i feel like jer wouldn‘t care which pronouns you use with him??? but i also love the trans!jer headcanon so much!! so anygays: demisexual and panromantic baby. jean moreau is his human. they are soulamtes.

jean morau: non-binary/ demiboy!! pronouns are he/them and he is sex-repulsed, asexual and demiromantic and his human is jeremy knox. jeremy accepts his sexual preference which is just no!!!!! and they just make me very emotional oops

sarah alvarez: pansexual icon!! i also feel like she could be trans (mtf)!! yes, yes she is trans.

laila dermott: lesbian icon who will end you if you say anything against her girl!!!!

okay that was all!! feel free to add more!! and you can always send me asks/ dms with prompts and ships if you want me to write something specific!!

#all for the game #the foxhole court #the raven king #the king’s men #jean moreau #jeremy knox #dan wilds #matt boyd #kevin day #thea mundani #sarah alvarez #laila dermott #aaron minyard #alison reynolds #renee walker

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bekaraar · 4 years

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Why Kandreil is valid

umm so imma start with this: I AM NOT TRYING TO FORCE MY OPINION ON ANYONE, THE PURPOSE OF THIS POST IS TO EXPLAIN MY BELIEFS TO YOU, IT IS YOUR CHOICE WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT.

So some people give the following reasons for why Kandreil is not valid and I’ve addressed them

Warning: Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Past abuse, mentions of choking

a) Kevin’s homophobic comment.

Ok so we know that riko is a sadistic controlling jerk, so it is safe to assume that Kevin never got to form his own opinion on anything. Any opinion he has is Riko’s and riko was a homophobic single minded little fuck and therefore Kevin carried all those enforced ideals with himself: for example “its better to be straight blah blah”. We also know that he is bi. Even if you don’t ship him with any man, he is obviously bi, lets face it, a fucking queen tattoo and the always scene is not straight. So here you have a person who has been told from his childhood that there is this part of him that is wrong, that a part of him will stop him from getting to his dream of being court. This is where internalized homophobia comes in. I personally believe that Kevin seriously has self worth and self esteem issues as well as internalized homophobia, and as it often is with any emotion humans feel, we try to project it and that is what he did. (His was, though, in the right place. He just wanted the best for them. He felt coming out would harm their career.) I do think that even if Kevin goes on and marries Thea or anyone else, one day he will come to understand that every part of him is amazing and that it is best live as you are, not hiding any part of yourself.

b) Andrew choking Kevin

Again we need to face it: Andrew has trust issues. Drugging someone who panicked on seeing a famous sports player is a little too extreme, even when the drugs are considered. So when he found out that the person he had been protecting had been keeping a life-threatening secret from him, he reacted in an extreme manner. That being said, i do not think that the way he reacted was at all rational or even possible for that matter because: He promised Kevin that he would protect him and then went and broke his own deal by choking Kevin (to the point of leaving bruises), and we all know how much Andrew values his deals. Therefore i think it was simply impossible and that Nora put it there only to dispel any notion of Kandreil ever existing.

c) Did Kevin uphold his part of the deal?

Um so I’ve seen many people give their take on this and here’s mine: Yes, he did. There are a few reasons for it. So, if we even only consider Andreil, then it was technically Kevin who recruited Neil, giving Andrew his literal soulmate and, by extension, a reason to live his life. Neil was always Kevin’s recruit so in that scenario the deal was upheld. the second thing is Exy. Now this is controversial, but personally i think after watching Neil play and derive joy from the simple acting of playing, i think Andrew would become more sympathetic towards the sport. Later in their relationship as he would notice how Neil absolutely lights up when Andrew agrees to play a game, he would like it even more, though there will be that little bit of hate surrounding it because of the Moriyamas. (These are scenarios only with Andreil. With Kandreil, there are more but that’s for another post.)

#Kandreil #andreil #aftg #tfc #long post #jay speaks #kevin day #andrew minyard #neil josten

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side-effect-of-the-meds · 4 years

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Okay so Nikoshi Motherfucking Doe

So, @sadivy2 dropped into my inbox and snagged my attention with a rather interesting ask and while I like most of the concept, I’m choosing to take a few creative liberties. Take what you want from this but, as always, I’mma do what I want bc I can :))) Bear with me as I tell the tale of the only valid Moriyama

In the months following Kev’s flight from the Nest, Riko begins to grow incredibly volatile and needs something to distract him. It’s in the middle of his English class that he sees the prettiest girl on the face of the Earth. On his way out, he swings by to talk to her and, one thing leads to another and she’s leading him back to her dorm.

About a year or so later Riko hears about the car crash that killed Evermore’s number 1 track star and orphaning her child. He doesn’t think much of it until a week later when he sees the shrine they’ve put up for her.

It’s the girl from English and in the photo is her four and half month old son, Nikoshi. For the most part, he seems to take after his mother. He’s only a few shades lighter than her with a more golden/yellowish undertone and the same cloud of corkscrew curls but his nose is thin and turns up just a little at the end. His lips aren’t as full and his eyes are rounder with irises as black as night. The child is beautiful and is unmistakably Riko’s.

By the time Riko gets his shit together, it’s too late. Nikoshi’s been shipped off into the foster care system. One would think that with such an unusual name, he’d be easy to find but Riko can’t for the life of him find the kid.

Make no mistake, Riko doesn’t give a damn about this kid. He wants to find him and erase him. If word got out that Riko had been fooling around and had fathered a child, there’d be a thousand women falling at his feet and attempting to claim that their child was his too. Nikoshi was a threat to Riko’s reputation. He had to be disposed of.

Of course, he never gets the chance to deal with the kid. Instead, he’s to preoccupied orchestrating the death of Seth, the return of Dr*ke, and Neil’s trip to Evermore to even think about Nikoshi. It’s not until the death of his own father that he even takes the time to think about his son. It’s only for a brief instant that the word flashes through his head. My son. Riko hates it immediately. Anger floods him and he beats the shit out of Jean. The next morning, by the time Riko wakes, Jean is long gone.

That’s it. That was the final straw. All of Riko’s self-control is gone. He’s lost Kevin and Jean. He couldn’t bring Neil back to Evermore. He couldn’t even find the child he’d fathered. When he steps onto the court at finals, he’s ready to burst.

He throws his all into the game and he still loses.

The defeat is crushing, not as crushing as Andrew’s racquet smashing into his arm, but crushing nonetheless. It’s almost a relief when Ichirou pulls out the gun.

“I have a final request,” Riko started, speaking in Japanese for fear of the Wesninski overhearing. “Find the child I’ve fathered. His mother died in a car accident when he was four months old, nearly five. His name is Nikoshi. Find him and kill him too.” The gun goes off and Riko’s lifeless body slumps to the floor.

For the next few months, all Ichirou can think about is Nikoshi. His curiosity ends up winning out and he ends up spending a few late nights researching. From what he’s managed to find, Nikoshi is the son of a woman named Renatta Beckford, a track star from Evermore who was being scouted for the Olympic team who’d never revealed the father of his child. Why she’d chosen to do so, Ichirou couldn’t figure out but he was grateful nonetheless. That made this mess a little easier to clean up.

It’s YEARS before Ichirou manages to actually track the kid himself down. Well, if you could even call it tracking him down. On Ichirou’s rare day off, he decides to head down to Brooklyn for the weekend. Wandering about the Brooklyn Museum, he sees a kid, no more than twelve balanced precariously atop a bench in an attempt to see.

“Nikoshi, if you don’t get down from there right fucking now!” a woman snapped as she yanked him off the bench by the collar of his shirt. As the shirt shifted, Ichirou saw the myriad of bruises blooming across the boy’s skin.

“But Mom-” the boy started to say.

“I am not your mother,” the woman hissed as she caught him by the hair.

“Surely not, seeing as no mother could possibly bring herself to hurt her child in such a fashion.” The words were out of Ichirou’s mouth before he could stop them.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” the woman asked, giving Nikoshi’s hair another savage yank.

“That is none of your concern,” Ichirou said breezily. “If I were you, I’d be far more concerned with who they are.” Immediately, a pair of officers moved to flank him. “I presume, you saw the bruises too.” One of the officers nodded. “Detain her and get CPS on the phone. Tell them Ichirou Moriyama is calling.” The woman’s face grew pale as her hand slipped out of Nikoshi’s hair.

A few hours later, Nikoshi found himself riding in the back of the nicest car he’d ever seen.

“I didn’t need your help,” he snapped at the man sitting across for him. When no response came, Nikoshi said it again, louder this time.

“No wonder your father didn’t want you,” the man said. His words knocked the breath out of Niko’s lungs.

“Fuck you. There’s no way you know my father.”

“No,” the man replied. “I didn’t know him but I know someone who did.” After that, no matter what Niko said or did, the man didn’t say another word. At some point, Niko gave up the fight and let himself be led out of the car and followed the man out to a plane. “Is there a problem?” the man asked when Niko stalled at the foot of the stairs.

“I’m not supposed to get in a stranger’s car,” he said suspiciously.

“You already let us drive you out here,” the man pointed out. “Besides, this isn’t a car. It’s a private jet. Now, come on. I haven’t got all day.” Tentatively, Niko made his way up the stairs and into the lounge. He took a seat as far away from the man as he could and curled up. No one bothered him for the remainder of the trip.

When the plane landed there was a second car waiting for them, just as nice as the first. Niko didn’t have any choice but to get in. He stared out the window, watching in silence as the houses passed by. They were massive. Each was three or four stories high with opulently decorated gates that towered over him. It wasn’t long until they pulled up into the driveway of one. The gates parted to let them through.

“Come, Niko. It’s time to meet your new foster family.” Niko slid out of the car and turned his gaze to the man standing at the front door. His mouth fell open as he took in the messy black hair and emerald green eyes. He watched as the man worked his jaw, the muscles beneath the chess piece on his cheek twitching. “Nikoshi, I’d like you to meet-”

“Kevin Day,” Niko whispered in awe.

and it’s really late now so i’ll finish this tomorrow if you guys are interesedt in my continued bullshit

#just a pipe dream #the foxhole court #all for the game #tfc #aftg #riko moriyama #kevin day #ichirou moriyama #nikoshi doe #bananna speaks #aftg hc #tfc hc

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palmett-hoes · 4 years

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since the first step in achieving your goals is to state them aloud, here's a list of aftg fics/ au s that i'd like to write some day

- pre-canon fic from aaron's perspective spanning the twins' first meeting till they're drafted by the foxes and graduate high school. i'm increasingly enamored with aaron as a character as well as with an outside perspective of andrew's actions and i think it would be very interesting to look at the foundation on which their fraught relationship is built and first developed

- even more pre-canon fic. andrew's early life in foster care. yes, we all know about the most... gruesome things that were done to him, but i believe that there is plenty more that has affected and shaped him, especially in relation to my interpretation of andrew as an autistic poc. this would not be a happy fic.

- anastasia au. neil as anya, andrew as dimitri. possibly a plot amalgamation from both the animated movie and the stage show, with changes as i see fit. (no, neil is not the prince of russia). what i find most compelling about this au is the story of neil and andrew as childhood friends and then the angst of having andrew, as an adult, teaching an amnesiac neil how to act like a noble while being convinced that neil is an imposter. good shit

- art school/dance club au. the foxes attend the palmetto school of art at prestigious edgar allen university. they're considered the school's charity cases, and they are NOT friends. andrew is a studio arts major with a concentration in sculpture who works in the campus coffee shop in the mornings and frequents night clubs that employ pretty boys in the evenings. neil is attending college completely on his father's dime, PROVIDED he study what his father wants, despite his desire to study dance and music. going crazy without an outlet, neil takes a secret job as a go-go dancer. look. this may slightly possibly be a result of me having planned to party hardy this summer, then having my plans ruined by the virus :c

- 1950s High School au. the 1950s aesthetics fucking rock even though the 1950s fucking sucked. kinda wanna tackle both. plus, andrew already has that james dean bad boy fast car appeal

- an exploration of mary and nathan's relationship and history. i get that neil's parents are both super taboo and both really really awful people, but i have questions and i want to answer them

- neil never returns from baltimore. in order to keep his deals, permanently, andrew kills riko and tetsugi, and gets over 20 years in prison. when he gets out, he just wants to be alone, but it seems there's a ghost haunting him. this was conceived for MAXIMUM angst, no getting around it. i got the idea from a badacts fic and it has haunted me ever since

- post-canon sexuality exploration fic. i have a real passion for quality sex education and healthy experimentation, and neil very clearly didn't get the chance for either. yet at the end of the books he finds himself in a very intense sexual relationship. i just really want to give him the opportunity to find out how desire works for him and what he likes, on his own terms. i read a lot of fics where neil's desires seem to be completely dependent on andrew's initiaton, and while i do believe that andrew is the only person neil is attracted to and will ever be attracted to, i also want to explore how his sexuality manifests on its own. the vibe i'm going for is, uh, HornySweet (tm), but also with a lot of genuine eductional material. i want this is to be something that offers real information to its readers that may have been inaccessible for a lot of people, on topics like like sexual hygiene, maturbation, and sex toys in a non-fetishy way. this will be very very E rated, but like,, in a very earnest and goofy way because sex and sexuality is neat and cool but it's also not all serious perfect fucking. it's just,, a topic that deserves to be DISCUSSED

- mobster au. andrew, having never met aaron, takes a job for the moriyamas to track down a runaway asset. Neil. upon completion, they make andrew the butcher's apprentice, and pull neil back into the fold as a commodity rather than a person. lots of violence, lots of shady underground dealings, lots of plotting, lots of secrets.

i'm gonna put some more under the cut, ones that i don't feel as strong a drive towards right now or that i haven't thought as much about. if you (yes, YOU) like any of these, or are interested in any of these, or wanna hear more about any of these, or are even inspired to write something yourself by any of these please, PLEASE, say something in the notes, or send me a message, or an ask or anything. ANYTHING. i am stuck inside, all the time, and i am so, so lonely. i answer from hoob-gooblin

- princess bride au. come ON. princess bride is one of the most romantic AND most snarky movies of all time, and andreil literally invented love and devotion sooooooo it's a perfect match. "yes or no" vs "as you wish" kings of consent and communication and unconventional love declarations. also,, he may not be how I imagine andrew, but a young cary elwes in dramatic black pirate getup is DEFINITELY a valid andrew

- hozier au. sometimes,, i listen to an album, and imagine a fic that encompases the whole thing. nothing speaks louder to me than hozier's discography. (also, yes, i am gay). maybe a little bit inside llewyn davis. neil wanders through a small town and takes up some small jobs, but sings his heart out through twisted metaphors once a week in a hole in the wall bar staffed by a very short, dead eyed veteran

- prince and the pauper au. on a stealth recon mission in enemy territory, andrew encounters a local lord who happens to have his face. in a moment of desperation to save himself from arrest, andrew knocks the lord out and assumes his identity. he returns to the castle just in time for prince moriyama to arrive with a shifty-eyed, red-headed handservant in tow. lord aaron of columbia, meanwhile, wakes up on a ship manned by crown traitor and fugitive kevin day, calling him by a name he's never heard before, and then he's in the hands of the guerilla rebel forces that have been attacking the kingdom. i watched barbie princess and the pauper as a child and that movie fucking slaps

- little mermaid/beauty and the beast/bride of the rose beast/ladyhawke au. in a last ditch attempt to escape his father, neil trades his voice and his tail for legs and washes ashore on a small kingdom with horrible secrets. because he cannot speak, read or write, prince aaron employs neil to serve the monster in the catacombs, the prince's twin brother. the twins are under a curse that turns them into terrifying monsters, andrew by day and aaron by night. aaron's affliction is a secret, as is andrew's humanity. this is such a hodgepodge idea lol. did neil also have to be a mermaid for this to work? no. is he? hell yeah

- new york private school/twin swap au. aaron wins a scholarship to a prestigious school that will guarantee him a future, but then he relapses. convinced he just needs a little more time to get clean, he makes a deal with his volatile new brother, andrew, to stand in for him at the school just until he can his shit together. neil and ichirou moriyama have been raised together their entire lives, always under the knowledge that ichirou will inherit the family empire with nathaniel as his right hand. they hate the idea, but they have no way to escape, and now neil is being harassed by ichirou's bitchass estranged brother at their stupid, fancy private school. LISTEN, we as a fandom do NOT take enough advantage of the twin swap possibilities presented to us. pathetic

- post-canon fic where ichirou, realizing that the life of a mob boss is a lonely one, decides that he needs... a friend. however, because of the nature of his work, he can't just make friends with anyone, so he decides to make friends with neil. without consulting neil first. cue a lot of very weird, very awkward coffee dates where neil is convinced he's about to be disposed of, and ichirou just wants to know about his cats. the thing i like about ichirou is he’s a complete blank slate. i can make him a good guy, a bad guy, an ally, the Big Bad

- Kill Bill au. mary survives a bullet to the head and wakes up from a coma over a year later. with nothing left to lose, she sets out to single-handedly dismantle the wesninski circle. good thing she used to be its top assassin

- single dad andrew au. except look, look, stay with me here, okay, aaron is his son, and he's adopted nicky and kevin. LISTEN. STAY WITH ME. JUST THINK ABOUT IT. tbh the idea comes from my interpretation of the andrew/neil/kevin dynamic as distincly parental, then extending that interpretation to andrew's protection over the rest of his family.

- fashion au. andrew is a fashion designer and photographer who frequently works with allison reynolds. one day she brings around a short, twitchy assistant who looks like she just plucked him out of an alley. somehow, he becomes andrew's muse. i watch a lot of fashion competition shows

- ghibli. either howl's moving castle (andrew as sophie, neil as howl) or spirited away (?). maybe both idk

- legally blonde au. legally blonde is so good guys

#aftg #fic #fic ideas #aftg fic #the foxes #neil josten #andrew minyard #andreil

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yuzuka-rei · 4 years

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foxhole court thoughts dump so they’re not in my head anymore

1, so okay just fuck im so so so into the kevin/riko dynamic,,, codependency is so my thing and to read/write about kevin’s slow decision that he doesn’t want to be overshadowed by riko anymore, his hope that riko will accept him as an equal/superior, riko’s betrayal by breaking his hand, leaving the Nest and realising that he knows he shouldnt want to go back but he wants to (think about breakups- you always want to breakup with a toxic s.o until you’ve actually broken up then you feel empty and you want to go back) just,,,

kevin/riko is at its heart an extremely toxic relationship between someone truly demonic and someone so very human and just to see how riko would give kevin glimpses of love so that he would continue to follow him is just---------- also like riko would definitely try to tempt kevin back with the promise of love and then how andrew gives kevin a reason to stay and just- why does no one write about it!!

i also want someone to rewrite riko as less of a caricature,,, a youtube review put it really really well which was that the sports storyline had to match the level of the mafia storyline and thus riko became too much of a demon. i want to read a version, at the expense of the unbalanced stakes, i want to see riko be human, selfish, needy, tries to please kevin but the minute said “pleasing” doesnt match his own desires he stops, just i want!! to see!! riko be human!! and hate him just as much as i UNDERSTAND him (like cersei god i LOVE cersei shes terrible and i would stab her if i met her but shes an amazingly human character and i understand and in her place i would make every one of her decisions without flinching...)

anyways, riko moriyama, i want to write/read him in a way, like if this portrayal makes you want to call him your son its exactly NOT what i want (if someone writes riko in a way that makes you wanna protect him, sorry, not my thing sis, misplaced burn but this sort of person is exactly the sort of person that would have proudly claimed and advertises that they are “slytherin”, because they’re “evil” and “cunning” and “selfish” you’re delusional dude why would you WANT to be in the “evil” house (people who want to be slytherin because they’re ambitious etc etc are valid though) no mentally stable person actively wants to be bad, its human nature to try to strive for good, but sometimes what is good for you is bad for other people and you don’t care)

like i want to see that, riko knows what hes doing is horrid and you know you really should hate him, i want it to hurt, i want you to want to despise him but at the same time you see yourself in him, that makes you fear at night that you will too one day become like this. i dont want riko to be EXCUSED i want him to be UNDERSTOOD.

2, okay so andrew/kevin. equally as toxic.

(toxic doesn’t mean its entirely impossible or morally corrupt it just means that unless they actively take.a lot of initiative to change their personalities all the relationship will do is hurt both of them, honestly apart from dan/matt/katelyn/neil/renee everyone else in these books would make pretty toxic relationships... like imagine allison and kevin... a fucking wreck sis)

i personally don’t think those two can possibly have a healthy relationship unless its coupled with neil [nora’s original idea of the threesome also sounds pretty unhealthy but so so so intriguing... im glad she wrote andrew/neil instead that was pretty healthy all things considered]

but just the IDEA of kevin being utterly utterly obsessed with riko, and to deal with these feelings he moves them entirely to andrew [i did this for my own relationship, like i got broken up with and to deal with the pain of that i latched onto the most unattainable person in my world... its ending fairly badly] and then he heals from riko and he falls in love with things about andrew that dont echo riko, then andrew pushes him away because andrew doesn’t want to hurt kevin (or himself) and just them dancing around each other, always protecting each other and always there for each other but neither of them are allowed to make a move... for any other pairing in this situation they would’ve become fuck buddies but that doesn’t work for andrew and people he actually cares about and its a mess

then neil comes along and they both “fall in love” with him, like they genuinely love neil but neil isn’t part of their codependency, they love him because hes a breath of fresh air, hes a pipe dream, hes perfect in every way but they’re also afraid of breaking him, you know? they both love in such all consuming and selfish ways. and neil literally loves like a first grader- this is his first relationship dude, he may believe that the world is a terrible place but you bet he still believes that everything in a relationship can be solved by love alone when it can’t. basically my point is that canon kandreil/kandrew would be a mess and while fluff fics are generally nice id love to explore exactly how much angst we can squeeze out of this shit

anyways this was a ramble feel free to disagree and only talk to me if you agree dude i have no qualms in admitting that i dont like talking to people who dont think the same way as me and i doubt you do either sis

#aftg #rikev #kandrew

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luobingmeis · 6 years

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hawk in the raven nest, chapter twenty-four

chapter summary: tragic: causing or characterized by extreme distress or sorrow

A/N: hey guys!!! im so sorry that i had to postpone today's chapter, i was had classes and then a swim meet and was out from 8am to 11pm last night and passed out the moment i got in

read on ao3

previous chapter

chapter list

Ever since Kevin began his time as a Fox on the starting line, the Ravens made it a habit of watching their games. Riko was the one who enforced that. Their teammates believed that it was so Riko could laugh at Kevin’s misfortune; Kevin left the best Class I Exy team for the last place Foxes, what was there that Riko couldn’t laugh at? Nathaniel, however, knew it was because Riko was paranoid. Kevin was always a threat to Riko, but before the Foxes, Kevin was a threat that Riko believed he could beat down. Now, with Kevin as an opponent, and an opponent who was drastically improving a team meant to amount to nothing, Kevin was a danger to Riko.

Riko became obsessive when watching the Foxes’ games. He kept note of every win and loss, the length of each point gap, which team they were playing and how they had fared against the Ravens. With each game that the Foxes won, and with that each large point gap, Riko grew less and less happy with his results.

With the Foxes winning game against Binghamton, Riko’s nerves were through the roof. He was past the point of a violent outbreak; at this stage, everything was internalized. His hands were clenched on the arms of his chair, his knuckles white. His eyes stared blankly at the screen as their teammates chattered around him in the lounge. Maybe they were nervous, too, but didn’t want to let on; maybe they didn’t see Kevin as a threat yet. Either way, Riko was panicking because championships were getting very close and the Foxes were going to be in the death matches. With the path they seemed to be going on, they might be able to get past Penn State. The Trojans could be the ones that stop them, but even that was too close for Riko’s liking.

Attention was brought back to the screen when none other than Kevin Day came back on it. He was the one who the reporters decided to interview that night. He was sweaty, with some pieces of hair clinging to his forehead. His green eyes shone with victory, and he flashed an award winning grin at the camera. The two on his cheek stared at them all, showing where he had come from, and where he was now.

“Kevin, what an amazing game the Foxes played tonight!” the reporter beamed, happiness obvious on her face at being able to interview Kevin Day.

“Thank you,” Kevin grinned, swooping his hair out of his face. “We’ve all worked really hard for this game.”

“Talk about working hard!” she exclaimed. “Look at you! Last year, no one thought you would ever step onto a court again. Now, here you are, right-handed, and picking up speed with the Foxes, who finally seem to really deserve their Class I rank. It seems that you’ve really been pushing your fellow teammates.”

“Actually, we all push each other. You see, while I definitely push the Foxes to be better, they push me, too, not just with their own drills, but with stamina in a game. The Foxes are really big on endurance training. Coach Wymack really emphasizes on it considering how few of us there are, some of us are out here playing full games with no subs. So, yeah, when I got here I was getting good training in. Not only was I coming off of not being able to play for months, but I also hadn’t gone on long runs in forever. Years ago, before we were even on the Ravens, Riko and I would go running around campus. But once we were official Ravens and had night practices, we haven’t done it since. We had no time, we would spend our time on the court before we would even think of going running. The Foxes and Coach Wymack really helped me get back to where I needed to be, I’m so thankful to be able to play again.”

The reporter wouldn’t realize what Kevin had said, and how it didn’t match up. She would realize it when she went over tapes, or had someone write an article about Kevin bouncing back from a hit and run that happened while Riko and Kevin were on their usual late nights runs. While she was talking about it, or someone was writing about it, they would realize the discrepancy in that story when they noticed that Kevin said very clearly that he and Riko hadn’t ran together in years.

At that moment, though, she just nodded along with a grin on her face. Captain Danielle Wilds came into view, but Nathaniel didn’t catch what she was asked. All eyes were on Riko, because while the reporter wouldn’t catch the discrepancy, it was all the Ravens noticed. They were told by Riko himself that something terrible had happened to Kevin, by Tetsuji that Kevin was struck by a car while they were on their usual run. Yet, Kevin himself, the injured party, blew that truth out of the water in just a couple sentences.

“Didn’t you say that you and Kevin would go on runs all the time?” Jenkins asked.

“He doesn’t know what he’s saying,” Riko managed out, his eyes locked on the TV.

“He seemed very confident in what he had to say,” Andrew unexpectedly said from besides Nathaniel.

“Shut up!” Riko shouted, and Nathaniel didn’t miss some of their teammates flinching. He wondered if Riko felt his own validity crumbling to pieces. Riko looked over at where Nathaniel and Andrew were sitting, except his eyes weren’t on Andrew. He was staring directly at Nathaniel. Riko didn’t know that Andrew knew everything, he didn’t know that Nathaniel and Andrew were constantly speaking with Kevin; Riko thought that everything that really happened with Kevin was just a secret between him and Nathaniel. He was waiting for Nathaniel to say something, to say anything that would give up Riko’s crumbling alibi. It was a threat; if Nathaniel said one wrong thing, Riko would kill him. Riko wanted to see if Nathaniel was smart enough to stay quiet.

Nathaniel had an attitude problem, but luckily for him, he knew when to save his remarks for a later date when they would be more beneficial. To reveal the truth now would give Riko an opening to destroy Nathaniel; Nathaniel was smarter than that.

Nathaniel met Riko’s eyes and said nothing. For right now, he would leave Riko the satisfaction of thinking that he scared Nathaniel into silence. He would let Riko try to convince his teammates that Kevin was delusional, because inevitably he would fail.

The lie that had been formed was finally being broken apart. The end never looked so clear and bright.

In the morning, Tetsuji was forced to call off another practice. Instead of practicing, the Ravens were corralled into their lounge. Nathaniel was sitting on one of the loveseats with Andrew at his side. Riko was alert, sitting tense on one of the recliners. The rest of the athletes were groggy with sleep, but anyone with a mind could see what was happening.

The door from above swung open, and all heads turned to the staircase. Down walked Edgar Allan’s Director of the Board of Education and the Athletics’ Director. After them came Tetsuji; he looked emotionless, though Nathaniel had a feeling it was just a facade. Even he had to know what was coming for them.

The Education Director stared down the athletes. “After the departure of two of your athletes, one with severe injuries, one in need of ‘time away’, we grew suspicious. We planned to have done this already, but we were told it would have been of no use,” he said, sliding a look to Tetsuji. “Now, though, it either seems that it was of use, or one of your top athletes doesn’t know how he broke his hand. We have a warrant from the board to search through your dormitories-” He held up a piece of paper. In his other hand were black garbage bags. “-You all will stay here as we do so, and no one is permitted to take anything from their dorm or leave.” He paused. “This team is in hot water right now. Even if all of you are confident in that nothing incriminating is in these dorms, it would bode best for all of you to listen and comply.”

Nathaniel hoped that they would see Riko as incriminating evidence, but he didn’t know if they could remove a person and take him to the Board of Education for inspection.

The Athletics’ Director looked over the athletes in front of him, and his eyes came to a stop at Nathaniel. It had only been a few days since Riko hit him, and the bruise on his jaw was an unmissable, ugly green. The Director didn’t say anything, but Nathaniel imagined that he would take note of that.

Both directors waited a moment longer, a dare to see if any of the athletes would disapprove. When they were satisfied with no one’s response, they headed down the hall that led to the red dormitories. They were the dorms for the athletes with two digit numbers; the ones suspected to leave no impact on the Exy world. They weren’t the reasons for the Directors being down in the Nest, but maybe the two of them hadn’t heard about their corrupt captain.

It wasn’t long until the Directors came back to the lounge. The bags in their hands looked empty, perhaps one or two items that were prohibited thrown in, but nothing major. Nathaniel didn’t expect them to find anything there in the first place. The black dormitories would grant them much more success in their search. The single digit players were the ones expected to yield success, five (now three) of which were expected to be stars in the Exy world, three of which were expected to earn the Moriyamas money, one of which was a Moriyama. The Directors would have fun in that wing.

Nathaniel believed some bloodstained clothes were still tossed in a pile somewhere in his room. Laundry was such a hassle sometimes.

Nathaniel also knew that Riko had knives somewhere in his room, along with who knows what else, and that Kevin’s belongings were still in their shared room.

The Ravens watched as they entered the black wing. Nathaniel shifted his eyes to Riko, who was staring blankly down the hall. The tension in the room seemed to shift from bad to worse. Just twenty-four hours before, the Ravens who were not Perfect Court hadn’t expected anything. They believed that Kevin broke his hand in a hit-and-run. They knew Riko was violent but they didn’t know the extent of it. Nathaniel found himself wondering if they knew what he did to Jean. He wasn’t going to ask to find out.

But now, everything had changed. Kevin had revealed that perhaps Tetsuji -who was standing perfectly still, watching over his team- and Riko had lied about what happened to him. Their rooms were being searched for evidence that the Ravens were a corrupt team, and how it was to be found in their captain’s room. Nathaniel always knew the corruption in the Ravens and how it tiered down from the Moriyamas, and he saw how blind they all were to it when they all believed Tetsuji’s words with no question, but now they couldn’t trust who they were forced to.

In this room, everyone’s lives were being flipped around. The rest of the Ravens couldn’t be blind, or play blind, any longer. Their team was at stake, and if Nathaniel knew any of these people, they either played Exy or they died. There was no way they could turn away from the corruption and the violence when there was a chance they would lose their only way of breathing easy.

What a tragic life these Ravens lived.

A couple minutes passed and the directors came back. Their bags were significantly more filled. The Athletics’ Director sweeped a cool gaze over everyone in the room before landing on Tetsuji. “We need to speak with you about some of the… belongings your athletes had, specifically in that room at the end.”

The room at the end was Riko’s.

Tetsuji nodded once. He followed them up the stairs.

When the door swung close, eyes shifted from one to another but, in the end, they fell upon their captain. Nathaniel turned to Riko and opened his mouth. The words he said next could have been borderline suicidal if Riko wasn’t under such heavy scrutiny. His next words told Riko that he had no secrets any longer; everything that he had done was bound to be brought to surface:

“Careful Riko, everyone’s watching.”

Riko said nothing, but he did tense his jaw. Out of his peripheral vision, Nathaniel saw Andrew give the smallests of nods to Riko.

It was enough to show that this secret between Riko and Nathaniel was never really between them at all. It was a sign that Riko was never as subtle as he hoped.

Nathaniel wondered if Riko’s stomach flipped at his fall from grace, or if it fell freely because, in the back of his mind, he knew everything would come crashing down at one point.

#neil josten #andrew minyard #riko moriyama #aftg #tfc #hawk in the raven nest #stuff i write

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sadboyayeron · 4 years

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Send some aftg hc promts!!!

Nikoshi ask would be great too!

(link)

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jemej3m · 4 years

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if the shoe (ring) fits

in which we meet ichirou, who’s a lot more tolerant to neil’s fuckery than expected.

“Condolences on your father,” Neil said, respectfully with a gentle bow of his head.

He had not liked Kengo Moriyama. The man had been brusque and ruthless, and sickeningly traditional. In a way it was why he and Nathan had be been so well matched together.

“Condolences on yours,” said Kengo’s son, looking out across the sea of milling individuals, dabbing their eyes with napkins and clasping each other’s wrists. Kengo’s brother was down there, somewhere, but not his second son. Nor his wife, who was killed for allowing Riko to exist.

The funeral was plasticky. Neil had never actually been to a funeral, seeing as his mother had been thrown into the bottom of a lake and his father had died whilst incarcerated.

Neil hummed, settling down beside Ichirou.

“We need to talk about your security.”

Neil paused a moment before rolling his eyes. “This again?”

“Yes,” the man said, one eyebrow arched. “How do you expect to continue a dynasty without a child?”

“I’ll have a child,” Neil said offhandedly, even if the idea terrified him. Every day he walked around wondering if there was a switch in his body that’d turn him into Nathan, or at least open up and shove him down the path to become him. Perhaps having a child was that trigger. As a coddling infant, Neil could remember one or two moments of peace and joy with his father, before Nathan decided Neil was a good target for his anger. “Anyone can have a child.”

Neil had never, and would never, have sex with a woman, so long as he was still with Andrew. Which he fully intended to be. But he assumed that it was relatively simple.

“You need a wife,” Ichirou’s voice was cold. “There are many good candidates that you can evaluate -”

“I’m already married,” Neil blurted out. Oops. Andrew was not going to be pleased that Ichirou knew before even he did.

Ichirou finally turned from overseeing his father’s funeral, up on his prestigious balcony, to look at Neil. His eyes were impossibly narrowed. “You’re what?”

“My lord,” Neil said, emphatically. “It has been successfully strategic. This person diverts police attention away from me and the Wesninski name, which in turn includes your name. I do believe I avoided telling you because I didn’t want to trouble you whilst your father was ill.”

“Bullshit, Nathaniel,” Ichirou bulstered, his calm facade broken. He looked very tired and a little incredulous. “I can’t believe you’re married to that fucking cop. Seriously? I could have looked around him being a man, but a police officer?”

Neil shrugged. “It’s worked for us.” He jostled the man’s shoulder. “I forget you’re only a few years older than me, with the way you act like a wall.”

“Yeah, well,” Ichirou muttered. “Neither of us can live up to how our fathers wanted us to be, I suppose. Gay and married to a cop,” he scoffed, but it was almost a laugh. “Your father would’ve had an aneurysm.”

“Not gay,” Neil muttered. “And he did. That’s how he died.” Blunt trauma to the head, clotting, aneurysm, boom: no more Nathan. No one was sad about it.

“You need an heir of your blood and bone, still,” Ichirou insisted. “Not letting you get away with that one.”

Neil waved him off. “Surrogacy with Allison. We’re in the modern world, Ichirou. There’s always a solution.” He wasn’t about to say that he didn’t intend on sticking around for that long.

Ichirou considered him for a bit, before turning back with a resumed stony expression. “Don’t forget your place, Wesninski.” After a few moments, he added “Congratulations.”

Neil felt something settle in his stomach. Relief.

Now he just had to tell Andrew.

The apartment was dark when Neil arrived home, lugging his little suitcase through the door. He’d only gone to New York for the weekend, of which Andrew had been thoroughly peeved about: they both worked long hours during the week, and weekend were meant to be their time.

It was easier now that they lived together. They’d moved in a year ago: it meant Neil only needed heightened security detail on one place rather than two, the rent was cheaper together (not that Neil really needed to worry about that), and it was closer to Andrew’s precinct than his old place.

The dusty yellow lamp was still on in their bedroom despite the late (or early) hour. Neil left his suitcase out by the couch and tip-toed his way into their room.

He had fallen asleep reading, the book on his chest and head at an awkward angle on the pillow. Neil grinned: Nicky had given him a set of grinch-themed sleep clothes last year for Christmas. He wondered how many times Andrew would stab him if he took a photo and sent it to his cousin.

Andrew had to be up for work and Neil wanted to avoid waking him if he could, so he dressed in pyjamas as quietly as he could manage and eased himself onto the mattress. The bed was pushed up against the wall so that Andrew could sleep with his back curled against it, so Neil could easily relieve Andrew of his book, settle it on their one nightstand and switch off the lamp. Then he held Andrew’s shoulder lightly, and tried to ease him into a better position that wouldn’t hurt his neck.

Andrew made a few light noises before rolling and almost squishing Neil underneath him. Neil laughed as Andrew’s arm came around Neil’s chest, his face settling into the crook of Neil’s shoulder.

Neil twisted around till his back was against Andrew’s chest and let himself relax. He’d worry about the marriage proposal later.

Neil knew, objectively, that Andrew wouldn’t say no to marrying him. They were kind of a forever package: The four years since they’d first met and just over three years since they first got together have been as smooth as any relationship between a mobster and a police officer could be.

Neither of them had really sat down and said that out loud though: they each had their fair share of problems than inhibited any such emotional conversation. But Neil still knew.

It was in the way Andrew cooked him his favourite meal when he got home at eleven at night, exhausted and haunted by screams, continually scrubbing at his hands. It was in every sacrifice Andrew made for Neil, the faith he put into Neil’s promises that they wouldn’t have to live they way they did forever.

“You have something to tell me,” Andrew said the following night, when he’d arrived home from work. Neil put dinner down on the table - mac ‘n’ cheese, with nothing remotely healthy about it - and Andrew arched his eyebrow.

Neil sighed and slumped into his chair opposite him, tugging at the collar of his shirt. It was suddenly very warm. Had he turned the oven off?

“Neil,” Andrew warned. “Did something happen in New York?”

“Oh, you know,” Neil said, lightly. “Nothing really. I, uh,” Andrew leaned closer, eyes narrower. “I may have told Ichirou we’re married to get him off my back?”

For a moment, Andrew stared.

“So, what do you think?” Neil asked, voice reed-thin. “I’d change my vows to be ‘CI till death do us part’.”

It didn’t seem like the joke went down well: Andrew’s chair skidded back as the man stood, immediately vanishing from the living room. The bedroom door clicked firmly shut behind him and Neil put his head in his hands. It was too soon, or Andrew didn’t feel the same, or maybe this was Neil’s final straw and now he’d fucked up one too many times for Andrew to tolerate.

“Fuck,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes. “Fuck.”

It’s not like Neil was hell-bent on marriage either - he’d seen the bloodied divorce between his own parents - but it put the two of them on a different page. There was no way that Neil would force Andrew into something he didn’t want - or that Andrew would let him - but it’d be a rift between them. Maybe even permanently.

Neil didn’t want to lose Andrew over this. He should have waited - it’s not like Ichirou would have actually checked legal records to see if they were properly married - they’d only been dating for three years, that wasn’t that long by modern standards, if Neil wasn’t so ridiculously irrational then this wouldn’t have been a problem. He wouldn’t lose Andrew over his loose tongue, when there were plenty of valid reasons for Andrew to leave him -

“Stop.”

Neil looked up, movements jerky and uncoordinated. His limbs felt dismembered. Andrew was stood by the table, watching him with hooded eyes and curled fists.

Neil made a weak noise of inquiry. It broke in his throat.

“Stop thinking,” Andrew clarified, slowly sitting back down on his chair. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

Neil snorted, rubbing the corner of his eye. After another moment of terse silence, Neil cleared his throat. “I can fix it. I shouldn’t have said anything, Andrew - ”

Lightning fast, Andrew reached over their food and put something on the table. For a moment the little velvet box didn’t register in Neil’s mind, but then his stomach was rolling on the floor, heart swooping and soaring. With careful fingers, he picked up the box and opened it.

Within were two silver bands, identical but for the size. Simple. Glossy. Neil took out the smaller one and slipped it on - it fit perfectly, of course. The new weight on his finger felt odd. Odd but good.

“How the fuck did you get my size?” Neil remarked, quiet. Everything was very quiet, but for his heart, which was probably thudding loud enough that even the corpses in Linkin Park could hear.

Splotches of colour appeared on Andrew’s cheeks. “You were napping.”

Neil laughed, admiring it. He wasn’t fussed about jewellery, or ceremonies, or titles or heirs or tradition. He just wanted to know that he’d go to sleep and wake up by Andrew’s side, every day that he could.

“Yes?” Andrew asked, just to be sure.

Neil took Andrew’s left hand where it was resting on the table top and slipped on his respective wrist, kissing his knuckles in lieu of an answer.

“You cannot have ‘Nathaniel Wesninski’ on your marriage papers, Andrew. Are you insane?”

“You’re not taking my name. Or hyphenating.”

Neil huffed out a laugh. “Wesninski-Minyard. No, thank you.”

Andrew scoffed. “I think you mean Minyard-Wesninski.”

Neil shook his head, leaning into Andrew’s shoulder. A lot of time had gone into not reacting to that name with visceral disgust, like it would have a few years ago. “I’ve been meaning to change my name for a while now. For real.”

Andrew looked at him. “They’d allow that?”

“Who cares about them?” Neil said, fierce. “It’s just a name. If they’re upset by that, they’ll be devastated by the knife in their stomach. Fuck them.”

Andrew hummed. “What will you change it to?”

Neil took the file of paperwork they were meant to fill out from Andrew’s la, already bored out of his skull. His legs filled the space, draped over Andrew’s lap. Neil pressed an open mouthed kiss to the corner of Andrew’s jaw, to which he rolled his eyes and muttered “Fine,” even though he was just as sick of the paperwork as Neil was.

“You already know what I’ll change it to,” Neil said, letting Andrew pick him up and carry him to their room.

“Neil Abram Hatford,” Andrew mumbled, laying Neil down atop of his side of the bed. It was unmade, as usual. He grinned and kicked the sheets away with two errant flicks of his feet, arms looped around Andrew’s neck. “Has a ring to it.”

“Hatford-Minyard? Minyard-Hatford?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Andrew muttered. Neil just laughed.

teehee!!!

#neil's bad at proposing #good thing he only has to do it once #andreil #mobster/cop au #butcher!neil #cop!andrew #proposal #marriage #andrew minyard #neil josten #all for the game #aftg #ichirou moriyama is not a robot #what a concept #jem writes

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glendowen · 7 years

Text

Big Bang

So, my big bang posting date was technically the 28, but I was at camp for the last week, and the wifi blocked tumblr and Ao3, and I ended up with a lot less free time than I was supposed to have, and it all boiled down to me not having the time to finish or post my fic by Friday (thanks to me scrapping my first draft completely changing my writing style two weeks before the deadline, because I’m so smart.)

So, my solution is to share little snippets every day until it’s all done, and by the end of the week, the whole fic will be posted. It wasn’t my original intention, but someties life doesn’t go exactly how you want it to.

I want to thank the mods at @aftgbigbang for putting this wonderful event together. I’m so sorry this isn’t exactly how it was supposed to be posted, but thanks for the opportunity anyway.

I also want to thank my wonderful artist @jojen-hewitt . Maaya put up with my crazy schedule and my internet break and made some truly incredible art for this fic, and I am absolutely amazed by everything she did.

So, here are the first ~2000 words. I’m really hoping to have the rest for you as soon as possible.

The mutant games were messy, a violent clash between humans with “extraordinary” abilities trying to prove that they were worth something in a world that only found their value in entertainment.

The games’ creators, Tetsuji Moriyama and Kayleigh Day, were just two mutants who understood the world’s obsession with violence and used it to reserve them a spot in history books. The mutant games were nothing more than a feeble excuse for validity in a cruel world that managed to catch on spectacularly.

They were a perfect convoluted combination of violence and acceptance. In a world overwhelmed by the existence of mutants, the games provided a way to let them exist without being normalized; they gave a marginalized group a voice, but not one strong enough to be heard.

The court was a place of acceptance, but it was still a cage.

It was the perfect setup for Kengo Moriyama: it gave an acceptable outlet for his mutant brother and second born son to succeed without being directly involved with the main branch of the family and provided the best mutants to work for him. It was a sea of profit and power, and he was Poseidon.

Mutants were desperate for the ability to just exist in a society that perceived them as a monster, and Kengo was willing to provide that if they were willing to do his dirty work. He took the best of the players in his brother’s game, used their skills and their ruthlessness, and sent them to work.

One of his favorites was Nathan Wesninski, a man with a taste for blood and an ability to manipulate metal with just his mind. He could slaughter entire buildings full of people without leaving a trace or feeling an ounce of remorse, and he was so useful Kengo could even overlook his involvement with the Hatfords.

The mutants games were useful, and Kengo Moriyama could appreciate useful things.

Nathaniel Wesninski grew up learning his importance was strongly founded in the mutant games. The only way he could exist was if he, along with the other kids on his team, could manage to sustain fewer injuries in the hour they were on the court than the other gaggle of children across from them.

Most eight year-olds played little league soccer and football and thought about running away when their parents made them eat spinach and only changed their names when they were playing make-believe with their friends.

Nath—Alex, was not an average eight-year-old. Alex could change his looks with just a thought, could steal people’s powers if he saw them in use, and could quite literally inhabit other people if he touched them. Alex changed his name almost every other month as he ran around the world with his mother, who could make people think or feel whatever she wanted them to, away from his father, who could manipulate metal. Alex was forced to fight other eight-year-olds who could do who-knows-what, and when he got too good at fighting other mutant eight-year-olds his mother panicked that his dad’s boss was going to kill him, and stole him from a fancy mansion in West Virginia in the middle of the night.

Alex really missed fighting. He would reminisce about it when he was pressed up against his mother with his hand wrapped around the gun under his pillow, living in a place where no one knew that his name wasn’t actually Alex, or Stephan, or Christopher, and where he didn’t quite speak the language. But if you asked him what he wanted most, he’d tell you that he’d give anything to be average.

Neil was alone.

He was a nobody kid with no parents, squatting in a house in nowhere, Arizona, playing in the mutant games for some no-name high school.

His mother’s voice was screaming at him, reminding him that no matter how far he distanced himself from Nathaniel Wesninski it wasn’t safe for him to go anywhere near that world; that a new body and a pretend power (He told them he could manipulate fire. Useful, but not too uncommon for people to raise an eyebrow at it.) weren’t enough to protect him, and that a moment of adrenaline wasn’t worth death.

He ignored her. She might be right, and playing in the mutant games might be a death wish, but she had forced him to watch her die in Washington and had abandoned him at eighteen without his consent, so he figured acting out a little was fair.

So he pretended to be adequate at manipulating fire, so he could play for some average mutant team in Millport, Arizona and tried to keep his head down as much as possible.

It had worked perfectly until they lost the championships in May. They had been doing surprisingly well, and now Neil was watching them tear down the only place he had felt at home at in years.

As he watched them tear up the floor, he planned his next life. He figured he could pick up some unassuming looks from someone in the airport and actually fly back to France like his mom had planned before she went and died on him. He would stay away from the mutant games for the rest of his life and everything would work out like it always had, until his dad found him for good.

It was the perfect plan until David Wymack showed up in his life.

David Wymack was the mutant coach for Palmetto State University, a group of college kids who would have been incredible at the games if they could ever get along. They had the reckless abandon needed to succeed in such a violent atmosphere since Wymack only recruited mutants who had lived through some genuinely terrifying shit.

Mutants like Neil.

Except, there was no reason that he should know just how fucked up Neil’s life was, nor that he should have any interest in recruiting him. Neil had spent most of his time in Millport acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary; the Jostens were rich, busy business owners who had no time for their son, and stuck him in the mutant games after moving to the small town as a way of helping him make friends. He had no prior experience in fighting, and Millport wasn’t exactly a place known for its athletes.

None of that mattered, though, because Wymack was here and he was offering Neil a place on his mutant team after his last member was “unable” to maintain her contract.

(She had attempted to kill herself and was now locked up in an inpatient facility somewhere. Neil had read the article online about her.)

Neil tried to escape, to give up on dreams of a high school diploma and create another brand new identity before Wymack could drag him back into the world of the Moriyamas. He knew joining the foxes would put him close to Kevin, and that even if he didn’t recognize Neil and it was all a coincidence, the moment he let his guard down his true powers would slip out and he would be dead.

It had been tempting, to reach out and grab the opportunity for a real life Wymack was dangling in front of his face; to become a permanent fixture in the world, to have a name more substantial than dust. But taking the bait was dangerous, and Neil hadn’t let his guard down enough to do something quite that stupid.

So, he ran.

He booked it past a shocked Wymack and an even more shocked Hernandez and pushed towards the exit, his hand tight on the strap of his duffel bag. He had the papers, the plane tickets to France, the money to make it for a few more years. He would swipe the unassuming looks of his English teacher (the dirty blond hair, the hazel eyes, the generic face structure) and disappear, leaving Neil Josten in the cosmos, just as he had all the other identities sitting in between him and Nathaniel Wesninski.

He would disappear once again, and the world would continue to spin.

Which was a wonderful plan that he had every intention of following, until he felt a solid hand wrap around his wrist and pull so hard Neil could feel the bruise forming, and suddenly the world fell away.

Not in the overly sappy, romantic way, where you meet your soulmate and suddenly you are the only two in the world. No, Neil meant that his facade was stripped from him piece by piece, and he was suddenly facing someone a mere three inches shorter than him, a crazed smile taking up the majority of his assailant’s face. He couldn’t see himself, but if the glint in the eye of the maniac midget (he belatedly identified him as Andrew Minyard, defensive player for the PSU foxes) was anything to go by, he was most definitely standing at a solid 5 feet 3 inches tall, with shocking blue eyes and hair the color of blood.

The psycho’s smile grew impossibly wider, and he tipped his head to the side as if in thought.

“Isn’t this interesting? I’m going to have a lot of fun with you.”

The crazed laugh that slipped out after the statement threw Neil off once again, and he was suddenly rendered useless as he tried to compose his thoughts into a semblance of order.

His slip up had left Wymack enough time to catch up, and after making some quip about not having nice things to Minyard, his attention was back on Neil, making sure that he wasn’t injured or incapacitated.

He brushed the larger man off with a solid “I’m fine,” and moved to separate himself from what felt like a pack of wolves surrounding him.

Andrew opened his mouth, most likely to make some witty response that would once again piss Wymack off when another voice cut him off.

“Great. If you’re fine you can sign the forms and we can head back to South Carolina with a full lineup.”

Neil’s heart stopped, his blood froze in his veins, and he suddenly wished that he had the power of invisibility or spontaneous combustion.

He hadn’t heard that voice in ten years, but no matter how much deeper it had become, Neil knew who was about to appear in front of him.

Kevin Day hopped down from Hernandez’s desk, closing up a file with a picture of Neil, with brown hair and brown eyes and a few added inches of height, taped to the front. He took up his place behind Andrew, his green eyes flashing to the pint-sized psycho he had adopted as his bodyguard following the “skiing accident,” and then towards Neil.

Kevin had hardly changed at all over the years, the only stark difference the permanence of the number two under his eye; Riko Moriyama’s 18th birthday had begun with the sharpie being wiped away and replaced by a tattoo gun. His eyes were far more sunken into his face, and the cloud of anxiety that had followed him was more subdued, but Kevin Day was still the recognizable son of Exy.

Neil felt trapped with all of the pairs of eyes on him; he knew that only Minyard could see him stripped down, but he still felt too seen. Up until this moment, Neil could categorize his memories into fight or flight, but for once his only response was to freeze.

Wymack seemed to be unaware of Neil’s internal dilemma, or purposefully ignoring it, but he shot a dirty look at Kevin and Andrew and spat out some harsh words that he couldn’t hear, and the pressure around Neil’s wrist disappeared.

Pleased with the privacy they had achieved, Wymack shot him a look that screamed exhaustion; he had seen a lot over the years of coaching his team of misfits, and one man can only have so much patience.

He gave Neil one last chance, reminded him that they could protect him from whatever he happened to be running from, just like they protect Kevin. They wouldn’t announce his name until the last possible minute, would provide him housing for the summer, would guarantee him at least five years of permanence, and would let him participate in a game that he had been desperately missing for a decade. Kevin obviously didn’t recognize him yet, and Minyard was far too interested in him to reveal his secret just yet.

He signed the papers and counted down the days until May.

Neil Josten was going to be real for as long as possible, and Mary Hatford was too dead to do anything about it.

He realized that he didn’t need to catalog any new faces in the airport, knew that he was actually going to look the same for a decent amount of time, but old habits die hard. People watching hadn’t just been Neil’s main source of entertainment as a child, but an integral part of his survival and airports were the perfect place to do it.

He found one of the Minyard twins and followed him out to the parking garage, deciding that it had to be Aaron because his apathetic look could never be achieved by his heavily medicated counterpart.

He followed him out to the parking garage and climbed into the passenger seat of a vehicle that looked far too expensive for an orphaned college student.

Their wrists’ bumped lightly together as Minyard reached for the pack of cigarettes in his pocket; his eyes met Neil’s, and they silently agreed to keep quiet.

Andrew pulled the car out of the parking garage, and they headed towards PSU.

#aftgbigbang #aftg #tfc #Neil Josten #Andrew Minyard #Moriyama #Kevin day #David Wymack #Kengo Moriyama #all for the game #the foxhole court #Mr. I'm fine #puts the exy in sexy #not paid enough for this #armed with apathy #Issy writes #Issy really meant for this to be posted in full on time #but life is a dick #I hope you enjoy this in the meantime

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shihoran · 7 years

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hi I love your work! you have such a pretty art style and I love your riko. I like the ciel/sebastian vibe for riko/kevin even if I don't like the pairing. your stuff is making me question tho. also I wanted to know why you like riko so much? not judging, I just am curious. your art about him is beautiful and I love it but not him, yknow what I mean?

Hello, and thank you for stopping by :D

Yes, I know what you mean. I don’t know if I really like Riko either, or perhaps I don’t want to admit it, because I know he’s … terrible, hahaha.

Though, there is a difference between liking a character for their actions, and liking the concept of that character. I’ll try to explain it as best as I can, and,.. well, I took 4hrs for this, so there is a TL;DR at the end, hah.

I hate what he did to his victims; I don’t have to reiterate his crimes, because everyone knows what he did. Given, that he had autonomy over his actions(no one forced him to commit those crimes), he still chose to do it. He still chose to hurt another person. Chose to be, what we know is, a Bad Person.

That’s what I do like, though. The concept - the idea that someone grows up in such a vile environment with his life narrowed down to one set path, but opposing to that, believes that he has all the freedom in his actions; because all he does is free from fault by the standard of the Raven Nest.

His judgement of what is right or wrong is based on the morality of that space, that is quasi-closed off from the rest of the world.

A similiar concept can be found in the book “The Lord Of The Flies”, written 1954 by William Golding. It’s a book about stranded Boys on an uninhabited island and their attempt to govern themselves. It doesn’t end well.

“Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality.” [wikipedia: Lord of the Flies]

Now take that theme and narrow it down to Riko and the Nest. While the rest of the Ravens that joined as teens, having lived their life outside the Nest and being able to found a moral standard, Riko had none of that time to actually develop any standard aside from what he’s been given to from Tetsuji and the Ravens, that were already integrated into that hivemind.

And even if Riko had the chance to know that for ex. violence against someone else was wrong, even the victims inside that hivemind would soon transform into attackers themselves - or they’d drop out and become out of reach/ uninteresting for Riko.

A thought play cue is the uninhibited island / the quasi-closed off Nest, in which the people follow their own rules:

If Person A hits Person B, and they both agree that “hitting someone is justified”, then who is there to judge this? And why would the voice of an “outsider” count, if A & B’s moral standards are already established?

If Riko hurts Jean, and even if Jean does not agree with being hurt(because I do believe his moral code from pre-Raven time is still very strong; and that he’s an overall mentally strong character), who in the Raven Nest would actually step up against Riko? Jean has been dehumanized to Riko’s property; Riko was King, and violence was normalized.

Another thing that I like about his character is that he is very… basic. His need for approval, affection - Love - is a very basic human need, that he hungers for like nothing else.

He has been denied all that from the moment he was born, as he was being passed off to Tetsuji, which formed part of why he became so obsessed with Exy.

“[…]Riko and Kevin would gurgle at each other in the locker room while their parents worked. These were the only times in those first years that Tetsuji interacted with Riko. Tetsuji wanted nothing to do with Riko until Riko was old enough to shape into a star. Riko was too young to understand any of it, but he could connect the dots on at least some level that Kevin being at the Nest = Tetsuji would actually look at him instead of just walk past him without slowing.” [from Nora’s extra content: Who is Riko Moriyama?]

Somewhere along the line Riko misunderstood Tetsuji and believes that, if he just becomes the best at the sport, that his family will actually acknowledge his existence. And he throws himself into improving and doing everything he can to come out on top, always, without fail; without even being allowed to think about failure, as he was a symbol - not a human - to the Raven, Tetsuji, and his fans.

It’s a bit ironic, or maybe it’s just natural, that he would dehumanize another person in the same way he had been dehumanized all his life. And for being someone capable of his degree of violence, well, he’s rather… naive, to believe he’d ever be acknowledged by his family. Perhaps, he believed that acknowledgement - telling him that they see him, that he exists, that he is the son of someone - would grant him a sense of worth. Of real worth. Of humanity.

We all agree that he is a bad person.We all understand that what Riko did was wrong. And most of those who know him also agree in their hate for him.

It begs the question, though, would we have been better people?If all your life you’ve been restricted to one path, wouldn’t you want to cross borders? Riko crossed them in the only way he could - using people as outlet for his needs - using them as landmarks, objects, things to pass around, things to pass time with; to reclaim his freedom over the people - over their minds and bodies - he doesn’t get to have.

It’s a tragedy, really, he tries so hard to gain affection from people he can never reach, but he himself is incapable of being a decent human being to those close and around him.

Speaking of tragedy, another reason I do like to think of him is because I take stance with Aristotle’s Theory on Drama, as written down in the “Poetics” a study of Greek dramatic art (384-322 B.C.). In which he writes about the protagonist of the drama (although Riko isn’t the protagonist of The Foxhole Court, he is the main focus in this reply) and claims:

“The aim of tragedy, Aristotle writes, is to bring about a “catharsis” of the spectators — to arouse in them sensations of pity and fear, and to purge them of these emotions so that they leave the theater feeling cleansed and uplifted, with a heightened understanding of the ways of gods and men. This catharsis is brought about by witnessing some disastrous and moving change in the fortunes of the drama’s protagonist[…]“ [from a Critical Essay Aristotle on Tragedies: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/agamemnon-the-choephori-and-the-eumenides/critical-essay/aristotle-on-tragedy]

I don’t necessary agree with all what Aristotle says, but writing my thoughts on that down here… would go beyond the scope of discussion…

On a different sidenote, because I’ve been writing a lot already anyway, so I might as well put it down now…

I don’t assume myself to be in any position to tell other people to change their mind about Riko; to stop hating him, or to start thinking of him past the kneejerk reaction. I’ve been there before, so I understand the general distaste.

However, by the end of the day, I hope that we all understand that Riko Moriyama is a fictional character, in a fictional world, thought up, somehow, somewhen, and then written down, and most importantly: Not real.

People’s feelings towards fiction are very real, and they are valid. That’s the beauty of fiction, no? It’s not real, and it still manages to make us feel some sort of way about it.

We can toy with fictional characters in our heads or on paper all we want, make them bad, make them good, destroy them, make them god - in the end, it’s all just thought plays, little mind games, to entertain and pass the time. And it’s not real. No one in real life gets hurt. And we still get to enjoy a hopefully quiet and overall white picked fence life, while our inner creators are free to be wild.

I’d rather live in a world where all fiction is unhinged and reality is peaceful, rather than in a world where only utopian literature exists, and real people hurt real people.

So, I thank you, Anon. For being plainly curious, for reaching out in good hope, for asking quietly, for opening a conversation.

We don’t have to agree on anything; maybe you thought of my answer as not what you had wanted to hear, and that’s also Ok. I do hope that my thoughts were somewhat entertaining, though, at least to some.

Thank you for reading!

[TL;DR] I don’t like Riko’s wrongdoings. I don’t even know if I like him as a character.However, I do like the concept of his character, the meta, the abstraction - I like that he’s not real. I like thinking about morality and immorality. I like thinking about What Ifs and Whys. I like entertaining and educating myself on tragedies.

Simply put, I like fiction.

#tfc meta #replies #the foxhole court #riko moriyama #in which i name myself SHIlexander HOmilton bc I can't shut up #here is a 94pgs letter about my torrid affair with maRIKO MORIYAMAnolds #please watch / listen to hamilton musical it's a riot #Anonymous

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