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Fence Summer Nationals Day 4–AU/canon divergence

Alternate universe in which Jesse chooses to go to King’s Row instead of Exton because he’s rebelling against his dad.

I feel like Jesse and Nick would become friends over their love for fencing and perhaps their association with Robert Coste :)

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Day 4: What If Robert Coste paid child support? (And wasn't as terrible of a man)

(This is from Nicholas's perspective)

I was an accident, my mother told me by the time I was 8. A fancy party that she was working at for an extra buck, she was supposed to keep the guests entertained and engage in conversations (I don't know why, rich people should be able to talk without extra help usually-). Then she met my dad, Robert Coste. He was going through a rough time with his wife, my mom didn't know he was married, and she found out when she found out she was pregnant. Fast forward to my birth, she expected he would just drop out, and why wouldn't he? He's rich and famous, people always try to pin babies on rich and famous people. But he didn't leave, he didn't really stay either, my mom and him realized that they didn't love each other enough for marriage, and Robert got remarried. He got full custody of his son Jesse Coste, so he and his "better"* family stayed together, but he still visited and made sure my mom and I we able to live a good life.

* Robert doesn't see Jesse and his new wife as better than Nicholas and his old wife, but Nicolas sees them as a golden family.

As I grew older, I got interested in fencing. My dad is a champion fencer, so he was excited that I wanted to be like him. Jesse also wanted to learn fencing, so dad coached us, and we got to learn fencing from the best guy we knew. Jesse and I grew closer, and dad would take us fishing, I also got to have sleepovers at his fancy big house, which was fun. Soon, Jesse and I got so good at fencing that we would get to fence older people!!! Dad always said we had an advantage since we were left-handed, but I thought we were just better. Then something changed, I kept beating Jesse, and he got more and more jealous, and slowly pushed me away. At 11, I wasn't really having bouts with Jesse anymore, and my dad hired a new fencing coach for me since "Jesse needs more help". The new fencing coach had some other kids for me to fence, and it was fun and all, but one stuck out to me, Seiji Katayama. He was a very shy kid, and very kind, he just couldn't tell when someone was upset sometimes, and therefore didn't help the situation much.

In high-school, I was sent to this fancy fencing school called Exton, which was one of the top fencing schools in the state. Jesse and Seiji were also there, and they became friends. I wanted to go to King's Row, which was my dad's old school, but he insisted on this one. As I talked to Seiji more, I realized that I liked him, but I thought Jesse did too. Seiji chose Jesse, and I never told him I liked him.

Fencing matches were really easy for me, I could just feel all the right moves. I was almost unbeaten... until nationals.

Jesse, Seiji and I all got into Nationals, and we were climbing our way to the top. Kings Row also had a few people who came, such as Harvard Lee, who got eliminated mid 30's, I was the one who took him out. There were so many matches for what felt like forever. Eventually, it was Jesse vs. Seiji, and me vs some random kid from iowa. Jesse and I won our matches and were the last two in the tournament. I saw his face before the match, he looked scared, but determined to win. I knew this was more important to him than it was to me, he deserved to win more, even my dad told me how hard he was working. So, we started the match, it was 8-0, then I threw the match. I didn't want it to be too obvious, so I gradually slowed my reaction time, and did win a few extra points. I didn't want Jesse to lose, he's supposed to be the golden child, he was on purpose while I was an accident.

Final Score: 13-15

Jesse won, he was happy, I was happy, my dad was especially happy, his sons are the 1st and 2nd in national ranks, we are carrying on his legacy. Later I saw Seiji crying, so I went over to him. Jesse broke up with him. Turns out Jesse only dated him to win something over me. After that, Jesse and I stopped talking. Seiji and I left for King's Row, and Jesse stayed at Exton. Seiji and I stopped doing Nationals after that, we didn't want to see him anymore, and we were fine getting milkshakes at the diner on our own.

#fence summer nationals 2026 #fence comic #nicholas cox #robert coste #jesse coste

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Fence Summer Nationals Day 3–Coaches

It always struck me how, in the first volume of Fence, Coach Joe was the one to text Nicholas on his first day at King’s Row with advice. Not Nick’s mom, and certainly not Robert Coste.

Coach Joe was probably one of the first positive parental figures Nicholas had in his life, and their relationship is very important to me.

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Fencing High School Concert Band!AU

Ms. Williams used to be a trumpet player in a jazz band, and she won’t let you forget it. She’ll often make comments about how jazz’s improvisation and small scale make it more interesting than concert band. And yes, she still has a wall of things you can’t say, and she still makes her students do suicide runs.

Phrases on Ms. Sally Williams’s wall of punishment include:

I forgot my music sheets

Jazz band is not better than concert band

I forgot my instrument

This song is too hard

I didn’t practice

I want a new roommate

And of course, everyone’s favorite:

Aiden dumped me

Seiji, Jesse, and Nicholas all play the alto saxophone. This is more for practical reasons than anything (since having them all play the same instrument makes the most sense given the type of rivalry they have), and I know saxophones are pretty well-suited to left-handed people like Nicholas and Jesse. It’s also an instrument that’s fairly easy for a beginner to pick up, so I think it would make sense for Nicholas to learn the basics of how to play it inside of a year.

Seiji and Jesse used to be in the same band, back in elementary/middle school. In auditions, Jesse would typically end up beating Seiji by a very narrow margin, but in their 8th grade year, they ended up tying and becoming co-section leaders after they both got perfect scores (yes, that’s possible, it happened once at my own school). Seiji thought that he had finally caught up to Jesse, that they were finally equals, and then they both went to a National Music Solo and Ensemble competition that Seiji ended up placing second in and. Well. You all know the rest.

Cut to one year later, and Seiji’s back in the US, competing in a Regional Music Solo and Ensemble competition while avoiding Jesse like the plague. He ended up meeting Nicholas because they ended up in adjacent slots, so Nicholas performed right before Seiji did. Nicholas says he hopes they have a great competition, Seiji rudely brushes him off and then beats by a huge margin, and their rivalry begins.

Ms. Williams ended up scouting Nicholas due to his fast fingers and impressive lung endurance, and he surprises everyone by getting second chair in the King’s Row band (as in, he beat every saxophone student in the audition other than Seiji).

Bobby is also an alto saxophone player, but the thing he stands out most for is his ability to compose and arrange music. For those of you who don’t know, music for alto saxophones is written in a different key than music for other instruments, because saxophones are Eb instruments, while most other instruments are either C or Bb. Arranging music for concert bands means you have to be able to “translate” music between these different keys, in addition to creating harmonies for instruments that play in higher and lower octaves. Sometimes he’ll take an iconic melody from a popular song, then build on it and turn it into something the entire band can play.

Harvard plays the clarinet. Every clarinetist I know has been fairly intelligent and level-headed, so the instrument suits him perfectly. He’s first chair and section leader (meaning that he’s the best clarinet player in the King’s Row band) and he has a habit of acting as a music tutor for other students in his spare time. He usually only tutors other clarinet players, but he ends up helping Nicholas to learn music terms he isn’t familiar with and bits of music shorthand he doesn’t recognize. (When Nicholas first comes to him asking what “andante” and “D.S. al coda” mean, Harvard is torn between excitement about being able to say he tutored someone who plays a completely different instrument than he does, and concern that Nicholas isn’t familiar with basic musical terms that Harvard learned back in 5th grade band.)

Eugene plays the trombone. He failed his audition his freshman year and barely made it into the band as a sophomore, but now that he’s a junior, he’s doing fairly well. He splits his time between band and the wrestling team, which is tough, but he manages to make it work.

Kally used to play the clarinet, but ended up switching to oboe just before starting his freshman year of high school. He was first chair/section leader during his junior year, but he ended up botching his audition his senior year, so he ended up being 3rd chair his senior year. He’s a good sport about it, but you can tell that he’s sad about not being a section leader anymore.

Tanner knows how to play both percussion and the trumpet, and Ms. Williams will have him switch roles depending on how many percussionists a piece needs.

Gian is both a fencer and a trumpet player in this au (we love a multitalented king). He still loves his flick.

Marcus Washington used to be a very talented saxophonist, but ended up quitting band after breaking his left hand in an accident. He came back for his senior year since his school band didn’t have any other saxophones. He’s still a pretty good saxophone player, but there are some notes he has trouble playing due to lingering damage to his hand.

Aiden is a flute player. Half the people in King’s Row’s flute section are just boys who learned to play flute in hopes of impressing Aiden and getting closer to him. Aiden’s also first chair/section leader, but he doesn’t take it nearly as seriously as Harvard does. He doesn’t really bother with the whole “leadership” thing, and he has a tendency to skip out on band rehearsals. He will practice with Harvard though, and you’ll often hear them playing duets together in their room. Sometimes Tanner and Kally will join them, and occasionally Bobby will drop by to ask them to help him test out a new piece of music he’s arranged.

Dafna, Kenzie, and Marcel are also flute players, and this has resulted in several people making jokes about Harvard having a type. Half of the people Harvard’s dated weren’t even in band, let alone flute players, but for some reason, pointing this out never seems to accomplish much. At least one person has told Harvard that he should date Aiden, since Aiden is clearly Harvard’s type, and that became the first and only time that Aiden has ever punched another student. (Harvard thinks that Aiden decked that guy because he hated the idea of going out with Harvard. Aiden actually decked that guy because that guy was being a jerk to Harvard, and because he hated being reminded that Harvard doesn’t return his feelings. I love dramatic irony.)

The jokes get worse when Harvard and Aiden finally end up getting together. Harvard fully expects Aiden to get mad, but Aiden barely bats an eye at them. Harvard tries to be like “I promise I’m not dating you just because you’re a flute player” and Aiden actually bursts out laughing. And then kisses him. Just alternates between laughing and peppering him with kisses.

It takes years before Aiden actually tells Harvard why he punched that guy. And decades before he admits that he only joined band because he wanted to stay by Harvard's side.