brave. fearless. free.

freedom from the limitation of angular distance would be delicious.

[mushroomheadgirl]

now that we canonically know that andrew hated people knowing about the assault and abuse he went through as a child, now that we know he sees it as something that will make his family lose faith in him and view him as weak, I wonder if part of his "hatred" for neil is that neil knows all of this ugly history, put himself in harm's way to protect andrew from more abuse, and still views him as this strong and steadfast person. in andrew's mind, it seems pretty black and white - he is either the protector or the victim. he spent so long building this identity as a protector, but his abuse coming to light means he is now a victim. so for neil to see him as a protector but also believe he deserves protecting as well, it shakes something pretty foundational in andrew's world view, which we know he never takes well. there are many reasons andrew hates neil, but this makes for a very interesting development.

[bob-ross-is-a-mermaid]

Rereading aftg and

Not only did Andrew get him and Neil matching phones THEY HAVE MATCHING RINGTONES AS WELL. How Neil never picked up on this is crazy. This is the gayest pinning shit I ever read

[sethisonendgame]

It pains me to realize how much Jean wants but will not, under most circumstances, let himself have

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— Vladimir Nabokov, Letters to Vera

[minnyarrd]

Yeah, you read that right, I convinced my university to let me research All for the Game for my degree!

Take the (anonymous) questionnaire here!

The deadline for responses is 31 December. Please share this as much as possible – the more responses I get, the better! 🧡

@korakos claims to have done no marketing for the All for the Game series, and despite the oversaturation of the online self-publishing market, AftG garnered significant sales and formed a prominent online fanbase. My research aims to figure out exactly how that happened!

This questionnaire looks into the most common modes of discovery for AftG, the formats you first read it in, and where you interact with other readers of the series. You don’t need to be a fan of AftG, you just need to have read at least the first book. It’s completely anonymous, though please take a moment to read through the participant and consent information on the first two pages of the questionnaire.

If you have any more questions (or have any issues with the questionnaire), let me know! :)

[jnmoreau-deactivated20241222]

part 17! part 16 here

neil vs jeremy is back but now jeremy keeps smiling bc he knows it annoys neil and he's starting to like it, they are like a golden retriever and a chihuahua duo to me

[okjii]

rereading the foxhole court is so funny. like Andrew took one look at Neil and was like "idk what the fuck this kid is so paranoid for but he should not be planning to flee for his life. his ass should be in the CLUB"

[you-know-i-get-itt]

one of the best things about neil josten is honestly how painfully self-aware he is. he’ll be running his mouth fully aware of the consequences, and he’ll even care about the consequences a great deal, but he’ll still go “i can have a panic attack later! first i need to roast the mafia on national television” like my guy. no one's doing it like him

[itseyaaaa]

Nora once wrote "Jean was a starving dog on a short chain who'd learned years ago not to bite back."

and I've never been the same since.

[adr-3642]

I love studying literature because today during my lecture on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley we looked into the concept “monstrosity” and how monsters are culturally constructed and not found in nature

And how we have abnormalities within ourselves that we avoid to introspect but when we see it someone else it’s a monster because we found an other to hare rater than look into our own actions or tendencies. How monsters are only to be read, to be interpreted and how they are what reveals and what warns us.

Meanwhile I was thinking about Andrew Minyard how he was labeled as a monster and how Neil saying he has seen real monsters and andrew is not it. Because the others saw in him what they didn’t want to see in themselves and interpreted his actions as sinister because they avoided looking into their own actions. That’s what I love about Neil he knows what making an assumption is: it makes a fool out of everyone. He, himself makes assumptions which are sometimes true but he also observes and tries to understand. And Andrew is the revealer of most things in canon, Nicky is too in his own way but he misleads Neil when recounting Andrews actions. Andrew who warns and reveals and assumes his role as the “monster”. I don’t know if this was coherent at this point I just wanted rant about Andrew Minyard. Anyway I love them all but this discussion of monstrosity made me angry.

[centaur-dreaming]

Andreil how it started: Andrew drugging Neil to find out if he’s a threat to Kevin

Andreil how it ended: Andrew strangling Kevin to find out what happened to Neil

[dcvina-claires]

the year is 2006. you’re an avid fan of collegiate exy. kevin day recently transferred from the best team in the league to the worst after breaking his hand in a skiing accident. before the season starts, janie smalls attempts suicide. she’s a fox, so absolutely no one is surprised by this. however, this means that david wymack has to find a new striker. he picks up a neglected, unremarkable kid from millport. for some reason, this mysterious nobody thinks it’s okay to publicly humiliate riko moriyama, king of exy. apparently, neil josten and kevin day talk shit about riko all the time (this confuses you. kevin and riko are supposed to be best friends). not long after, seth gordon dies of an overdose. once again, it’s the foxes, so no one should be surprised, but something is… off. seth was clean, and it didn’t seem likely for him to throw it away. the foxes don’t get anyone to replace him. despite being short a player, they’re performing better than ever before. you don’t want to admit it, but neil josten can probably be credited with a lot of the foxes success. and something is off about that kid, too. he’s a 5’3 brunette with brown eyes, and then suddenly he’s not. he comes back from winter break with red hair and blue eyes, but more interesting than that is the number four tattooed onto his face, marked for the ravens, marked for the perfect court. the normal minyard twin murders someone in cold blood. neil josten is actually nathaniel wesninski. his father, the butcher of baltimore, tortures him and burns his tattoo off. the trojans throw away their shot at winning. kevin covers up his tattoo with a queen chess piece. he’s never been skiing, the theories behind what happened to his hand are endless. jean moreau transfers to the trojans. this isn’t helping with the abuse allegations. despite everything stacked against them, the foxes beat the ravens. the unhinged minyard twin shatters riko’s hand to stop him from murdering the mafia kid on live tv. for some reason, this is riko’s final straw and he kills himself. some people are blaming kevin, andrew, and neil, but you personally believe that it’s a tad bit dramatic to commit suicide after losing one game and breaking a hand. the rest of the ravens don’t seem to agree, as they’re all suddenly in the most fucked up game of “follow the leader” known to man. jean moreau is spotted being escorted from the foxes dorm room a bloody mess, but that’s only the beginning. one of the ravens stabs himself with a letter opener, another steps onto the subway tracks, and a third overdoses. it’s 2007, and you started saying that the ravens were in a cult as a joke, but you don’t know if it’s a joke anymore. you’re seriously starting to consider that your favorite sport was created solely as a front for the mafia

[adnrewminyard]

these social media aus are so funny bc there is NO way nicky hemmick could remain on the foxes if he had access to twitter dot com. he'd tweet something marginal and get cancelled immediately, screenshots would be sent to the university demanding his scholarship is withdrawn, kevin would have to write him a notes app apology to post and he'd probably post it with a sad face emoji - absolute nightmare

[silksufjan]

i think about nicky’s “who’s humanizing who in that relationship” comment a lot bc like

from an outsider it seems like neil would obviously be the one humanizing andrew since everyone thinks he’s a short blonde sociopath

however , neil came to the court as someone willing to sacrifice anyone to save his own skin (staying with the foxes knowing he was putting them at risk, ditching everyone in a zombie apocalypse, etc)

whereas andrew came to the court as someone willing to sacrifice his own wellbeing to save others (killing aaron’s abusive mom while he was in the car with her, beating the shit out of the dudes who jumped nicky and being put on terrible meds for it, living through drake’s abuse to protect cass, etc)

they both continue this dynamic when neil lets andrew be responsible for his safety (knowing that the mob was after him and thus putting andrew in danger) and andrew chooses to be put in that danger to protect both neil + kevin

and you can say that this changes when neil asks to be released from andrew’s protection but i think it really changes at the end of the king’s men when neil chooses to put himself in danger by promising to protect kevin & going to evermore to protect andrew while andrew is made to focus on his own health and safety by going to rehab

[silksufjan]

neil ‘calls a hit on his friend’s abuser’ josten and andrew ‘kills his brother’s abuser’ minyard

[odetojupiter]

andrew being in the foster system for 13 years before juvie, his home with nicky being his 13th, bee being andrew’s 13th therpaist, the ravens scoring 13 goals in their first match against the foxes on the 13th of october, there are 13 ravens drills, neil’s interrogation with the fbi lasting 13 hours, andrew and neil’s numbers adding to 13

andrew: do you believe in luck?

neil: only the bad sort

13 being the ‘lucky number’ of the series despite it being a superstitious sign of bad luck. mirroring the subversion of expectations within the series that starts with andrew and neil beginning to understand each other after a shaky start, and ending with the foxes beating the ravens.

[floretissogay]

need at least ONE chapter from the perspective of exy queen kevin day ... i think that would save me