hi you can call me critter or raccoon! i go by they/she and just here to post about my current favourite characters!
if u know me from somewhere else pls act like you don't. this is my little house where i go silly crazy about my characters and draw self indulgent art that i just wanna share because why not.
if you're here because i mistakenly reblogged something from here instead of my main blog or Tumblr was evil and recommended you this blog plssss i ask very kindly of you to either leave or be nice to me i am easily scared and embarrassed. i just wanna have fun <3 ty<3
challengers in lime green, fluorescent orange, and blue ink
original illo and notes below the cut :]
the original illustration! i ended up turning down the blue a lot before printing because i was worried about it getting too dark, and i like the less blue version a lot better! (i might put one of these on my inprnt since i dont sell riso prints online currently...)
versions on yellow and pink paper and some closeups
the studio i print at just recently got lime green ink and i feel like lime green and fluorescent orange were made for challengers :)
also i realized while looking at refs for this that patrick plays tennis right handed and wears his watch on his left hand even though josh o'connor is left handed! so thats kinda interesting
I donât know about anyone else but Josh OâConnor has become my own personal Patron Saint of Keeping Me SaneâŠ. Emotional support celebrity⊠not parasocially I swear Iâm just making my own inside joke everyone elseâs problem
Anyway these are available as a print and stickers if anyone else needs a support Josh OâConnor
Fics that focus on Art and Patrickâs time at the Mark Reballato Tennis Academy! Boyhood. Homoeroticism maxing.
tear down these stars now by likeadeuce
Rated: T
Word Count: 1,926
Summary:
On their first night at boarding school, Patrick hears his roommate crying, and he has to decide what kind of friend he wants to be.
Rec: Theyâre babies, your honor !!!
hear it all and by the hour forget by averythinline
Rated: T
Word Count: 7,647
Summary:
Growing up, Patrick never really understood why people always claimed to hate hospitals so much.
To be fair, heâs never actually had to spend time in one, so he hasnât given it much thought, he supposes. It just seems like a common theme, a hatred shared amongst characters on TV and in movies, one that the masses can easily relate to. It never occurred to him to consider why.
Now, sitting on a hard wooden chair in a hospital waiting room, he thinks he understands.
or: art gets sick while they're at the tennis academy
Rec: Soft and sweet with all the obligatory yearning, just what the doctor ordered.
Motel by Anonymous
Rated: E
Word Count: 2,277
Summary:
Art got ridden last night. In a beer-drunken haze, he agrees to act it out for Patrick.
*Pre-Tashi
*Or: having sex in the least official way possible while bits of plot occasionally fly across the screen
Rec: Is it gay if you hump a pillow to completion in front of your best bro? Asking for Art Donaldson.
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Category #9: Roadtrip!
They hit the road. Pretty much what it says on the tin :)
games to play by CivilBores
Rated: E
Word Count: 7,717
Summary:
âThatâsâJesus Christ. This is not the way you invite someone for a threesome.â
âI didnât realize there was proper etiquette,â Patrick comments lightly.
âYou could actually ask me, for starters.â
Impatient, Tashi says, âWill you fuck both of us. There.â
âYou two are freaks,â Art deadpans.
-
Art agrees to go on a road trip with Patrick and Tashi, and gets more than he bargained for.
Rec: Patrick and Tashi should psy-op Art into a throuple more often. As a treat.
we three hunky-doryâs by paintedpomp
Rated: E
Word Count: 13,763
Summary:
were road tripping out to Stanford, Patrick texts Tashi.
*Weâre, she texts back.
oh good, so ur coming, Patrick replies.
(Patrick, Tashi, and Art, a car, and the open road)
Rec: Patrick and Art kinda sorta kidnap Tashi on the way to Stanford. Theyâre all better off for it.
2 die 4 by jaekyu
Rated: E
Word Count: 6,772
Summary:
âYou know, I could never hate you,â Patrick tells Art, still on his knees against the floor of the shower. âNot even if you ripped my heart out with your teeth.âThe after, immediate and otherwise; come take a bite in the middle of the night.
Rec: After the Challenger, Art goes on the run. (Kind of).
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Category #10: Art's Afflictions
Art Donaldson is afflicted with many things. Most of them are bisexuality.
no simulation (it's gotta be true) by pzweig
Rated: E
Word Count: 6,618
Summary:
Here Art is, horny and alone, looking for something that will help him forget, because itâs been years and heâs been so good, hasnât he? Hasnât he been good? Hasnât he kept his thoughts pure, hasnât he been focused on what matters? Hasnât he earned the right to be just a little bit bad?
Thatâs the mantra Art settles with as he scrolls past video after video, trying to settle on something quick before he loses his nerve. That is until one stops him dead in his tracks.
Rec: Art being left to his own devices is a dangerous thing, and this is no exception.
baby come and get you some (can you read my mind?) by Fairchild14Rated: T
Word Count: 3,429
Summary:
Patrick and Art take a late night trip away from academy tournaments to buy some cigarettes. Art complains about Patrick's stupid car and even stupider habits. Patrick just likes to be along for the ride.
Rec: A soft moment in a car, a gas station, a dreamlike fugue.
self control by wishicouldunderstand
Rated: E
Word Count: 22,993
Summary:
Again and again, Patrick almost makes Art lose his self control. Eventually, something's bound to give.
An exploration of Art and Patrick's messy, confusing relationship, over several years.
Rec: The only âArt is Gayâ fic that's allowed! Iâve decreed it, and so it shall be.
made it all look painless by sundaymournin
Rated: M
Word Count: 20,277
Summary:
If there's one thing Patrick Zweig has always loved, it's making Art Donaldson hurt.
Or, this author outright rejects that these three had the self-control to actually stay away from one another.
Rec: Itâs Artâs turn with the panic disorder stick.
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Category #11: Call Me Sometime
Long distance is a bitch. Phone sex...isn't.
when you own the world, you're always home by pacific_chiller
Rated: E
Word Count: 7,334
Summary:
âYou always have something to say, Patrick. Whatâs on your mind?â
âWell,â he says, trying to put the ball in her court, âIâm wondering why youâre bringing Art up while youâre touching yourself.â
âYou say that like youâre not also jerking off right now, you fucking hypocrite."
A late night phone call. Patrick finally goes pro, alone and far-flung from anything that matters. In his time of need, Tashi does what she does best: coach.
Rec: Drop into Tashi and Patrick relationship in 2007. Receive psychic damage. Collect $200.
when you call me, i'm all over the place by melobaby
Rated: E
Word Count: 5,111
Summary:
âYouâreâI think about what you say to her,â Art confesses. âOr what she says to you.â
âYou want to know how Tashi dirty talks to me?â
One time Patrick has phone sex with Tashi, and one time he has it with Art.
Rec: Patrickâs racking up his phone bill and he is not complaining!
i feel the rush by brideshead
Rated: E
Word Count: 2,842
Summary:
Yeah, Patrick is definitely touching himself. Art watches as his own hand, his free hand, comes down to his shorts. He pushes them down to about mid-thigh. His cock is a little hard. There is still time, Art thinks. There is still time to turn back. All he has to do is tell Patrick heâs buried knee-deep in biology homework, that he has to wake up early for tennis practice, that he needs to go take a leak. He could tell Patrick anything at all to put an end to this phone call.
Rec: If I had a nickel for every time Art and Patrick jerked off while talking about a woman they both thought was hot, Iâd probably have a dozen nickels. But Iâd happily take some more.
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Category #12: Meet The Donaldsons
Art and Tashi are doing great :) really :)
a whole cake (all for me)! by non_sporulating (radiodurans)
Rated: E
Word Count: 44,141 (wip)
Summary:
In which Tashi and Art absolutely do not care about Patrickâs absence from their wedding, or his stupid boyfriend either.
Rec: The lead up to Tashi and Artâs wedding is going exactly according to plan. Huh huh. Absolutely!
To Camelot by greenTeacup
Rated: E
Word Count: 19,942
Summary:
He takes a long sip of whiskey before he says a word. When he does, his toneâs deceptively light, chipper, brutally clipped.
âSo, hey,â he says. âWhat the fuck are you doing here?â
Patrick stares down into the bottom of his highball glass with a wry twist of the lips.
âFriend of mineâs getting married,â he says, and makes no effort at all to hide the bitterness. He lets it seep right through everything like red wine on white carpet, like the smell of sex on fresh sheets. âFigured Iâd come pay my respects.â
âThatâs for funerals.â
âI know what I said.â
Rec: Patrick shows up the day before Tashi and Artâs wedding. Theyâre all worse off for it (affectionate).
i think i'm waking up to us (we're a disaster) by somethinginwater
Rated: M
Word Count: 6,467
Summary:
April 2018, a day in the life of the Donaldsons. Art keeps having bad dreams and he'd rather do anything but play the Italian open. Tashi, as she's wont to do, pushes him a little too far.
(title from belle & sebastian, 'i'm waking up to us')
Rec: Fail Marriage at its finest, which is also at its worst.
Winning Some, Losing Some by turniflocked
Rated: G
Word Count: 1,288
Summary:
âIâd hate to think that anyone thinks I agree with Sandgren aboutââ Art is gesturing with his hands now, like heâs really trying to articulate something. âAboutâ the stuff he said about gay clubs. Not that Iâve ever been in one obviously, or that I would ever want to go to oneâ but that doesnât mean that I think what he said was okay.â
He deflates, looking at Tashi like she might yell at him, and it all clicks into place.
Two days before the 2018 Australian Open Finals, Art is acting weird
Rec: Art should crash out at least once a quarter, as a treat :)
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Category #13: Patrick's Disorders
Just wanna shake him around and see what falls out of his pockets.
tender mercy by owlinaminor
Rated: T
Word Count: 2,381
Summary:
Patrick never watches his matches.
But he watches this one. He sits, cramped, in his car in the parking lot of the New Rochelle Costco, phone balanced on the dashboard, hugging his knees to his chest.
Rec: Patrick should always throw his phone in a motel pool.
sun ashamed to rise by maxisnotokay
Rated: M
Word Count: 17,986
Summary:
âHypothetically, if you were completely fucked, what would you do?â
"What?â Art asks. His voice buzzes over the line like static.
---
OR:
Ten years after their falling out, Patrick develops a panic disorder. There's only one person in the world who he can possibly think to call about it.
Rec: As oomfs said, the truest sign for affection for a character is giving them a panic disorder. So true!
a faraway sound by comosum
Rated: E
Word Count: 8,209
Summary:
Tashi and Art together just doesnât make any sense to him. Every time he tries to imagine them together -- and he spends an embarrassing amount of time imagining them together, often late at night when he wants to make himself feel brilliant or terrible -- it just doesnât compute.
(20 years, before and after. or, Patrick never stops thinking about them - not in 2006, not in 2019, not in 2026.)
Rec: Sprawling and sparing, and with a gambling addiction as an aside.
The Art of Never Letting go by heliza
Rated: T
Word Count: 3,235
Summary:
'Being in a thirteen-year-long tailspin is different from being in a year long, month long, weeklong, day long one. Everything collapses, but over the course of so long a time that it is hard to recognise where rock bottom is.'
Lyon 2018: Patrick Zweig is two matches away from playing Art Donaldson.
Rec: Patrick gets close, but not close enough.
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Category #14: Inciting Injuries
Fics where an injury shakes everything around
doctors make the worst patients by themasterletters
Rated: M
Word Count: 3,489
POV: Patrick
Summary:
Patrick finds an album of Art's injuries on Tashi's phone. There are hundreds of pictures.
Rec: This is a fic about Patrick studying Tashi studying Art like a bug. Itâs beautiful.
History repeating by bibliophile232
Rated: E
Word Count: 12,250
Summary:
Art injures his shoulder right as his career is taking off. It changes everything.
"I can win,â Patrick said, with the breezy confidence that occasionally made him a phenomenal player but more often made him a bad one, confused when he found himself on the wrong side of a score line. She recognised some of that cocky confidence when he continued, âI thought you wanted to change the game, Tashi. Artâs good, and he has the potential to be great, but coaching one great player that youâre fucking isnât going to put your name in the history books.â
âBut coaching two players that Iâm fucking would?â
Patrick looked at her, strangely intense. âYeah, Tashi, it would."
Rec: Art gets hurt sooner - they all reconnect sooner than New Rochelle.
please, give me mercy (no more) by thcscus (blujamas)
Rated: T
Word Count: 11,085
Summary:
âThis is low,â she says coldly, âeven for you.â
âItâs not like I asked to be run over by a semi."
âOh, didnât you? This is a cry for help if Iâve ever heard one.â
âYou still came,â Patrick points out.
Tashiâs lips curl into a sneer. âI came,â she says slowly, âto take my boyfriendâs name out of your emergency contact list.â
///
Or, the highs and lows of Patrick Zweig's life, before and after New Rochelle.
Rec: Some suicidal ideation and a Chicago apartment. Whole series rips but this is my fav.
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Category #15: Never Failmarried, Twice Divorced
Divorced energy going crazyyyyy. No marriage required.
more than trinkets in your room by ercole
Rated: E
Word Count: 18,492
Summary:
It was seeing Tashi watching CNN World Sports in Czech, eying the English subtitles back and forth at hyper-speed, like watching a match. It was seeing that picture of himself and Patrickâgently intimate in a way that really couldnât be hand-waved offâblown up on the TV, his sleep addled brain trying, and failing, to catch up to what was happening.
It was hot shame curdling in his gut when he lost a match, it was his daughterâs terrified hiccups when she woke up from a nightmare, it was Tashi being in any sort of pain, it was that dead look Patrick got in his eyes whenever Art was deliberately mean to himâit was free fall.
(or: Three in a marriage is never easy.)
Rec: Somebody put a ring on Patrick's finger STAT.
neverland by ameliepoulain
Rated: E
Word Count: 14,079
Summary:
âThis is so sad,â Art says, shaking his head â but then he grins, the first genuine smile Patrickâs seen all night. Itâs so warm and familiar that Patrick forgets for a second, that heâs nothing and theyâre nothing, that the slight November chill is making them both shiver.
(Patrick and Art spend a confusing weekend together at the tail-end of the year)
Rec: Patrick Zweig is the most divorced man in America.
The teacher of all things by Charlotte_Stant
Rated: E
Word Count: 3,202
Summary:
Now that tennis was dead they all had weird hobbies.
Rec: This has married-divorced-remarried energy, and there's still some gas in the tack for another round.Â
negotiation by santanico
Rated: E
Word Count: 10,612
Summary:
âYo,â Patrick said, and his eyes swept the main living space so quickly Tashi almost could have missed the widening of his eyes when he saw the oversized 8k TV or the double-sectional couch - in all creamy white, as if to make a point, Tashi thought - if she hadnât been paying very close attention. He was dressed in jeans that fit him too loosely, a t-shirt with a button-up on over, as if that was somehow going to paint an illusion of professionalism to the look. He kicked off his shoes and handed her a bag. âChocolates,â he said, by way of explanation when she looked inside.
âI can see theyâre chocolates,â she said, mesmerized by his choice of Ferrero Roche hazelnut chocolates. Maybe they were meant to be funny.
âDonât judge,â Patrick said, brushing past her with intent and popping his head into the kitchen where Art was characteristically hiding. âHey.â
Rec: Even though theyâre trying to get together in this fic, it feels like theyâre already divorced.
in the way only you could by MacksDramaticShenanigans
Rated: E
Word Count: 12,677
Summary:
âSo itâs been⊠twelve years?â Patrick asks around the filter. He inhales deeply, and when he finally lifts it from his lips he blows the smoke in a steady stream past Artâs ear. He holds the cigarette out towards Art, an offering.
Art shakes his head. âThirteen, actually,â not that heâs counting, âand, no, thanks, I quit,â he says. âTashi wanted me to.â
It feels weird to say her name here. Feels a little bit like an invocation, Repeat Tashi Donaldson three times in the mirror while spinning in circles and sheâll appear right behind you.
âRight,â Patrick muses and takes another drag. âWhat have you been up to for thirteen years?â
Artâs eyes roll towards him with an unimpressed slant. âAs if you donât already know that,â he says. His lips press together and he tilts his head at Patrick, daring him to contradict.
Patrick shrugs one shoulder. âSure I do,â he says. Knocks the same shoulder into Artâs. Heâs close enough to do that. âBut I want to hear it from you.â
Or, shared cigarettes, shared lamentations, and shared breath after the Phil's Tire Town Challenger Final.
Rec: Patrick and Art have reached amicable terms. The marriage is back on!
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Category #16: Put me in coach!
Patrick joins Art's coaching staff, tennis (and Tennis) ensues
into the blue again by brokendrums
Rated: E
Word Count: 19,420
Summary:
After New Rochelle there's Cincinnati. And then, of course, itâs back to where it all started.
Rec: Tashi and Art are on the road and Patrick is invited along for the ride.
american doubles by stickyvalentine
Rated: E
Word Count: 19,165
Summary:
In the midst of the hottest sex of her entire life, in that tangle of limbs and improbably acrobatic positions only made possible by a decade of pent-up frustration between three people at a truly world-class-athlete level of physical fitness, the ever-turning engine of Tashiâs brain managed a single, coherent thought: Somethingâs wrong here.
Rec: Tashi plays mastermind post-New Rochelle. Sheâs tennis-maxing
AprĂšs-match by mnabokov
Rated: E
Word Count: 12,424
Summary:
After the matchâArt, Patrick, and Tashi return to Palo Alto.
Rec: You know itâs going to be good when they hate each other a little.
hit where it hurts by plastiswafers
Rated: E
Word Count: 29,127
Summary:
Art's still not good enough, and Tashi needs another favor before the US Open begins. Patrick is all too happy to oblige.
Rec: Patrick gets banished to the staff quarters. Sicko
that's a rap :) ty again all the challengers fanfic authors out there u r my heroes my comrades by silly rabbits. im ur biggest fan :)) here's to an incredible year!
"They are acting out for 13 years the possibility of going back to that hotel room to find again that beautiful moment of burgeoning desires and innocence. And at the same time, to feel at ease with one another, the way they were there. So, throughout the entire arc, thatâs what theyâre trying to do. And finally, with the rivalry at that heightened level, the triangle finally found itself sitting in the same place, but now on the court. I needed to get this very, very visually amped up and really immersed for the audience to understand how much it meant for them not to win over the other, but to be back together, all of them.â
