[orteil42]

given the current climate this pride especially i feel i must mention that i love my trans friends, i stand with trans people in the fight against transphobic legislation and those who would enforce it, and this blog is not a good place for you to be if you do not vibe with that

[realmeowth]

the unique flavor of psychological damage they are giving to a specific demographic of gay 20-30 year olds by casting steven yeun as adult zuko and making him say gay shit

[ficauthor]

[schnuspi]

Showering Wesninsky Style

[visenyaism]

Honestly fuck AI for making me have to go on and on defending the dignity of toil like I’m some kind of protestant

[victorialovesstiles]

Kevin “It'll be easier if he remains heterosexual” Day and his “perfect court” which consists of two gay couples that he has complicated interpersonal involvement with.

[quietwingsinthesky]

i do think there should be more stories and shows and stuff about guys falling in love with butch women actually, i think that’d be a good thing. and not ‘this is as butch as twitter can handle’, i mean butch as can fucking be without apology, and making those boys weak in the knees about it. i think it’s great actually to have f/m romances that exist to break gender norms, too. i think it sucks that the only mainstream het romances that exist are either about women who are already feminine or with women who are just a little too scarily masculine and have to be fixed into being girlier. that’s shit.

[quietwingsinthesky]

it’s not like. taking away from queer people if you let “the straights” have some genderfuckery in their romance, too. that’s good, actually, the blurring of gender roles and performance and getting better understandings of your own sexuality is good for everyone. and it’s really fucking weird if you think that mainstream “het” romances shouldn’t feature women who are “too masculine” because that’s only allowed for queer people, somehow.

[mykelneedssleep]

Nora Sakavic made Neil demisexual because without it he simply would have been too powerful. I know that man would say some shit to Riko about how he must want to fuck him so bad if he spends this much time thinking about him. Bonus points if he brings up Kevin. They don’t even have to be together but I know for a fact that if those types of thoughts occurred to Neil he would most definitely make it seem like him and Kevin were fucking on the regular just to piss Riko off. Man would pull a “we talk about your intricate and endless daddy issues all the time, usually when we’re in bed together” out of his ass and laugh it off when someone brought it up

[instigatorjosten]

happy birthday to andrew and aaron minyard. my life has not known peace since i accidentally let them into it and im forever fucked

[kosmogrl]

you’ll be fine. you made it out of impossible situations before and you will do it again

[kosmogrl]

ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? YOU WILL DO IT AGAIN.

[instigatorjosten]

im calling it now.

yk how in Neil’s books the sentences “Neil’s stomach bottomed out” “Neil felt sick to his stomach” “Neil couldnt stomach the thoughts” “Neil thought he’s throw up”, etc is common every like two pages? Kevin is gonna have that but with breathing. “Kevin took a deep breath” “Kevin was out of breath” “Kevin couldnt breathe” “Kevin released a breath he didnt know he was holding”

that man is either out of breath on the court or mid panic attack but his lungs are On The Clock like Neil’s stomach is.

[silasplaskett]

jean moreau and andrew minyard too fucking similar for their own well-being. sexual trauma. refusing to verbalize their adoration for neil. thinking renee is the greatest human being to ever walk the earth. begrudgingly seeing wymack as a father figure. one sided semi-homoerotic situationship with kevin. they literally share a therapist. i could go on.

[weepingchoir]

So stupid when a piece of fiction impacts your identity. Like ok bitcj. It worked. Now what.

[instigatorjosten]

forever laughing about the fact Andrew, in trying to deny his feelings for neil were there and real and Deep, told Neil he wanted to fuck him. Because for Andrew sex isnt love. But Neil being Neil was like oh so youre in love, bc his demisexual ass can’t comprehend someone wanting sex from someone they dont care for

[str4wb3rry-newsboy]

no, i dont lose hyperfixations. theyre just moved to a different, slightly less used, shelf in my brain.

[jeanmoreau29]

Jeremy Knox 10/10 character because the way he was portrayed to be this happy go lucky down to earth normal guy and then we get his pov and he’s like hi I am Gay I have Mommy Issues my brother killed himself while I was being arrested for doing Cocaine and having Gay Sex, I sleep with men who Hate Me to have some semblance of control, Sometimes I will have a panic attack Cigarette and I Don’t Sleep :)

[musicshopofbabel]

i thought all for the game was a book about sports. what is this series about?

[jeanmoreau29]

He can do/be all of these things and still play sports

[threewaywithdelusion]

I'll get around to writing this fic at some point, but:

Jean and Jeremy get photographed kissing and it's all over the news. It's a problem for both of them because of their pasts, with Jean stressed because he got caught wanting a man and Jeremy stressed because of pressure from his family and because this reminds him of the banquet. The media is vicious, because they're the first confirmed-gay Exy players (Andreil does no PDA, Cat and Laila are obviously Just Good Friends, and I guarantee the 2007 press misgenders Cody).

They keep saying that gay players are ruining Exy, that they should be kicked off the team, that the founders of Exy would be horrified, etc.

And who should read all this bullshit but Kevin Day? Kevin "it'll be easier if he remains heterosexual" Day, who is now watching reporters bully the man he failed all his life and the man he has always idolized. Kevin Day, who is watching bigots online say that his mother would be ashamed of having gay people play Exy, like Kevin himself isn't bisexual.

It's the last straw.

So when they play the Trojans, Kevin decides to make a point. I imagine this is Neil's sophomore year, so the Foxes scraped past the Winter Banquet by the skin of their teeth but everyone knows they won't make it more than a match or two into the spring season. And they just happen to be up against the Trojans as one of their first games of the spring semester.

So a reporter gets to Kevin before the game to ask him about the new scandal and, thinking Kevin will be supportive, says something like, "don't you think Exy would be better if there were no gay players?"

And because Kevin is a diva and a drama queen, he says, "I'll answer that after the game." And he walks off.

He goes to the locker room and he asks Wymack if they've gotten their line-up to the Trojans yet. Wymack says no. And Kevin says, "Good. Take Neil, Andrew, Nicky, and I off."

Everyone looks at him like he's insane. The whole locker room goes quiet.

Neil asks if Kevin is joking.

Kevin looks at Andrew. "A reporter out there thinks Exy would be better without gay players. So I thought we should let him see what that looks like."

And then while Kevin and Andrew are having a moment of dramatic eye contact and understanding, because Kevin is finally prioritizing protecting his loved ones above Exy, chaos erupts.

(Mostly it's Nicky loudly asking why no one ever tells him they're gay).

Kevin hands the line-up to Jeremy and it's a mirror image of the year before, one team sacrificing a chance at victory for a greater cause.

Kevin Day, for the first time since his hand healed, does not play a single minute on the court the entire game.

Neither do Neil, Andrew, or Nicky.

The Trojans win.

At the end of the game, Kevin finds the reporter, in a sea of other reporters trying to ask post-match questions. They're all asking if Kevin's hand hurts, if the Foxes are ill, and what the hell happened that most of the best starters didn't play.

Kevin, in a speech that Neil would be proud of, says that he heard Exy would be better without queer players. So they all sat out, since they weren't wanted.

The reporters go quiet.

Kevin goes on about how Exy has always been a co-ed sport. It's always been welcoming to everyone. How the Foxes, started by Kevin's father, have always been about making sure everyone gets a chance to play. How the Trojans, perpetual winners of the Kayleigh Day Spirit Award, have always stood by their queer teammates. How last year's winners (the Foxes) and this year's future winners (the Trojans, Kevin is calling it a half-season in advance) wouldn't be half the teams they were without the queer players on them. And how Kevin can't believe the reporters dare insinuate that Kayleigh Day wouldn't want her own son playing Exy because he might taint the sport by being queer.

It's the most massive thing Kevin's ever done. Bigger than saying Wymack is his dad. Bigger than "I've never been skiing." Bigger than getting the two on his cheek covered up.

Because Exy is the Queen's game. Kayleigh and Tetsuji and Riko are all gone and only Kevin can now define what Exy is and what it was meant to be.

He's found his spine and decided that he's going to use it to fight for his right, and the right of those like him, to play Exy. He's going to fight for Andrew and Neil, who fought for him. He's going to fight for Jeremy, who embodies the spirit of Kayleigh Day's Exy better than anyone Kevin's ever met and who was the only sunshine he ever saw in the Nest. And he's going to fight for Jean, who he never fought for before but he never wants to let down again.

In 2007, with no out players in the sport and his entire career ahead of him, Kevin Day decides to come out, gambling that the world loves him more than they hate gay people, deciding that he loves his friends and his spine more than his spotless reputation.

And he's right.