Hi! Not a reaction, but just to let you know, the link to the Robin Cross Extra Content is broken. I managed to find the correct link in the section 'Neil's lonely fifth year', but I figured you'd want to get that fixed. Love the archive btw!
Hello! Yes, the links seem to be broken for me too! Does anyone know if the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is having issues? I will work on re-linking things to readable venues. Until then, here is a google doc put together by @peggyrose19 that has most if not all of the extra content: link to the Tumblr post about it
@brisketlungsminyard
Edit: Link updated because it was broken sorry! Thanks to @coldsaturn for pointing it out!
frankly i don't think any of us would've read aftg if it had been about a real sport instead of exy. imagine neil playing soccer or hockey or oh god lacrosse. the success of that series on tumblr was so dependent on the combination of our (1) detest for sports and (2) craving for queer found family narratives
For your consideration: Andreil’s Domestic Struggles. Brought to you by: your local unhealthily obsessed trash can.
So Neil leaves his socks absolutely everywhere. Andrew finds them in the most random of spots. Discarded in the middle of the kitchen, bereft beneath the sofa in the living room, oN tHe coFFEE taBle, but never in their designated spot. Andrew fails to understand how it’s humanly possible to be this level of careless, it’s almost as if the socks all gain sentience and teleport across the house. Andrew routinely just picks them up and drops them in the laundry without saying anything, until one day, he snaps just a little bit while Neil asks about a missing sock. “I burned it, “ Andrew replies. “I’ll burn any socks that don’t make their way to the hamper.” Neil starts being more careful, but one time, he leaves one of his socks lying around on purpose, just to see what Andrew will do, and catches him in the act of obediently chucking them in the hamper for him. “Thank you for putting up with me,” Neil will say. Andrew will just stare at him. “Next time, maybe I’ll burn them while they’re still attached to your feet.” And Neil’s thinking, sure you will.
Anytime Andrew will get up in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep for a smoke or a snack, he’ll leave the kitchen and hallway lights on. It’s because of an irrational childhood fear of something following him in the dark. Neil thinks it wastes electricity. When he confronts Andrew about it, Andrew, who is starting to learn that Neil treats his secrets like prized possessions, quietly admits to the truth. “Would it help if I was with you?” Neil says. When Andrew nods, Neil smiles. “Wake me up then,” Neil will say, even though he knows Andrew never does because he doesn’t like disrupting Neil’s sleep. “I’ll fight the dark off for you.” Neil adds, jokingly. This results in Andrew’s love hate percentage going up significantly.
On most mornings, Andrew will claim he won’t kiss Neil until he brushes his teeth. On other mornings, Neil wears him down (smugly) and Andrew forgets what it was that annoyed him about this in the first place, because kissing Neil just feels so good.
Andrew folds EVERYTHING, after ordering something from a fast food restaurant he’ll fold the box or bag it comes in. After sex, he’ll fold both his own, and Neil’s discarded clothes that they’d chucked around the room in the heated frenzy of the moment. This doesn’t annoy Neil at all, he finds Andrew’s need to keep things neat & tidy really endearing.
Andrew drinks all the milk in the house. So Neil starts to keep long life back-up cartons that he hides away from Andrew just so that he’ll have something for his cereal in the mornings.
Andrew only lets Neil eat on the bed if he promises to be extra careful about spilling. “Don’t leave any crumbs or I’ll make you clean it up with your tongue.”
Andrew’s condiment of choice is sugar (even for things like veggie stir fry), and Neil’s condiment of choice is salt. Everything Andrew cooks is too sweet, and everything Neil cooks, Andrew finds too salty. They recognize that they have slightly different tastes and respect that, and also tease each other incessantly about it. On mornings when Andrew makes the coffee, Neil has to remind him not to seep his in sugar like he does his own. “I just want to be able to taste the caffeine,” he’ll say, lovingly. “A pity,” Andrew will return, but obligingly. Andrew actually makes excellent coffee, but won’t have a sip of it if it doesn’t contain three packets of sugar at the minimum.
Neil will often forget to take his towel to the bathroom when he showers, pretty much on purpose so that Andrew has to physically come and give it to him. An excuse that ends up in Andrew joining him. (Not that Andrew minds, like at all. Sex, oral or otherwise; is something Neil has helped make sacred & full of beauty & their own).
Neil likes to pamper the cats and it drives Andrew crazy. “Do not spoil them,” Andrew will snap. “But they need our love,” Neil will argue. I’ll leave it up to you to guess who wins this argument in the end.
Whenever Andrew absently lifts his fingers to his mouth to bite his nails, Neil will lightly smack his hand away because he always whittles them down to the point where they’re a bloodied mess. Sometimes, to get Andrew to stop, Neil will put his own fingers to his mouth and joke about being hungry, too. Other times, he will gently take Andrew’s hand in his own and lace their fingers firmly together. “Now you’re trapped,” Neil will mumble. This makes Andrew bite into Neil’s neck instead.
Neil loves wearing Andrew’s clothes, even if they’re a size too small for him. Every single morning, Neil will lean over to the other side of the bed and pull on whatever t-shirt Andrew had stripped off the night before. “You’re stretching out all my shirts,” Andrew will say, without any heat. He can’t exactly deny that it doesn’t make his heart stutter like a hot blue flame in his chest whenever he sees Neil dressed up in his clothes with morning hair and pillow-creased skin. The material hugs him in all the right places and Andrew can’t decide if Neil does this on purpose, just to torture him like the little shit that he is.
See I just LOVE the idea of these little grievances they have with each other. Andrew and Neil being a happy, regular couple. someone hold me <3
TFC Meetup Germany/Europe or if you're rich from anywhere
Just figured this needed a single post. Would anyone like to have a Fandom meetup? My suggestion would be Germany because it's pretty central and I'm from there so I could organise a little Further suggestion would be Frankfurt/Main because it's super easy to reach from just about anywhere Date suggestion would be something from the 29. of july to the 2. Of august because literally EVERY school is on vacation, I just checked. And universities are on break I'd check for trains/flixbusses for wherever you're coming from and I'd be able to pick you up from the airport/main train station if you needed help I could not provide a lot of room for sleeping apart from our attic and garden and while my friends love sleeping there I doubt any of you would be comfortable with that So this is the very basic plan so far… @coldsaturn
tagged by the incredible @coldsaturn, ty so much!!.
tagging (but no pressure, this is long XD): @civilpigeon @my-nameless-bliss @ukininam @unfashionably-outrageous, @sorrythatwasamistake @madroxed
THE LAST
1. drink: water
2. phone call: mum of this kid i tutored last year who wants me to teach the kid again but I have too many students so I had to say no :(
3. text message: a family friend who’s house I had to go to for dinner today. he wasn’t going to be there so I asked if his parents knew the wifi password or if it was written down anywhere.
4. song you listened to: I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix) - Mike Posner
5. time you cried: March
6. dated someone twice: Nope
7. kissed someone and regretted it: nope
9. lost someone special: yeah
10. been depressed: yes
11. gotten drunk and thrown up: yup
3 favorite colors
12. black
13. blue
14. green
IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU
15. made new friends: yes
16. fallen out of love: nope
17. laughed until you cried: probably, my sister and I make each other laugh really hard.
18. found out someone was talking about you: surprisingly, no
19. met someone who changed you: yes
20. found out who your friends are: not really, I’ve been rooting out my friends for ages
21. kissed someone on your Facebook list: no
GENERAL
22. how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: all of them
23. do you have any pets: no
24. do you want to change your name: no
25. what did you do for your last birthday: had a birthday dinner with some of my closest friends
26. what time did you wake up: today at 9AM
27. what were you doing at midnight last night: listening to music/reading fic
28. name something you can’t wait for: the renovations in our new house to be over (they haven’t even started lmao)
29. when was the last time you saw your mom: today
31. what are you listening to right now: I want to be listening to other side by ruelle.
32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: yes
33. something that is getting on your nerves: when straight girls call their friends ‘girlfriends’. and anti-vaccine people.
34. most visited website: tumblr
35. hair colour: black/brown, a little bit of bleach.
36. long or short hair: medium
37. do you have a crush on someone: not a crush but I really like looking at will tudor these days
38. what do you like about yourself: I can push through crowds easily
39. piercings: two in each ear
40. blood type: I actually don’t know
41. nickname: Manya, from my parents
42. relationship status: single
43. zodiac: aries
44. pronouns: she/her is fine
45. favourite tv show: lmao top 5 are b99, black sails, avatar (they’re one show fight me), elementary, the halcyon
46. tattoos: nope
47. right or left handed: right
48. surgery: nope
49. piercing: again, nope
50. sport: nothing right now
51. vacation: just came back from singapore a few weeks ago! it was amazing, can’t wait to go back again
52. pair of trainers: I have a really old pair that needs to go but I always forget to buy a new one.
MORE GENERAL
53. eating: mostly potato chips
54. drinking: water/soft drinks
55. i’m about to: go to sleep and then wake up and tutor someone
56. waiting for: september, all the birthdays
57. want: more pants
58. get married: no thanks, maybe for tax benefits if I find a friend who is agreeable way later in life
59. career: hopefully immigration law
WHICH IS BETTER
60. hugs or kisses: hugs
61. lips or eyes: eyes
62. shorter or taller: taller but everyone is taller than me
63. older or younger: +/- 3 years either way is good
64. nice arms or nice stomach: arms
65. hook up or relationship: aro ace and sex repulsed lmao
66. troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant
HAVE YOU EVER:
67. kissed a stranger: no
68. drank hard liquor: i think so?
69. lost glasses/contact lenses: no
70. turned someone down: no
71. sex on the first date: no
72. broken someone’s heart: no
73. had your heart broken: no
74. been arrested: no
75. cried when someone died: no
76. fallen for a friend: kind of? not really sure what that feeling was.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
77. yourself: no
78. miracles: yes
79. love at first sight: yes
80. santa claus: no
81. kiss on the first date: sure
82. angels: no
OTHER:
83. current best friend’s name: 2 emilys and a josephine
84. eye colour: brown
85. favorite movie: top 3 are the Mummy, Potc Curse of the Black Pearl, and Indiana Jones and the last crusade
What do you think of Riko as a character inside the books? (no HCs)
Riko inside the books and also without Nora’s extra content is a petty, angry child that never knew how to grow up. I didn’t care for his temper tantrum or his attempt to get Neil to join him through torture(not the smartest move, imho), but I only started to hate him when Drake and Proust were on the table; and I still do (will always) hate him for that.
I think the only time I had pity for him while reading the books was when Neil brought out the drag of the yearthousand, and it must’ve hit all the bullseyes there were to hit. Sad Face™, but not for too long. Hah.
Any fave HCs you want to share?
That Kevin was his first and only true friend he ever had, but is that really HC, because I think it’s pretty much canon,-
I like thinking of Riko as someone who spends a lot of extra thought on grooming himself, and taking time looking at all the nifty little details to add to his Dark, Sleek, and Richer Than You’ll Ever Be aesthetic. Everything that sells him as more than his fans/the Ravens already think he is and tenfolds more than Tetsuji wants him to believe to be.
In addition to that, he will still end up beaten to a bloody pulp by Tetsuji, no matter how much self care went into it, but maybe it underlines why he pays so much attention at all: to keep a front, to experience this sense of control; that can be so easily broken by one single man, but he tries to stay sane(however that’s defined is on a whole ‘noter page). And, hey, at least he looks cool while dying.
Any pairings/ships you like with him?
In the books… none. I see him as incapable of affection, because he keeps looking for his family’s approval, while at the same time, feeds off the Raven’s obsession with him so much, I don’t think he can look anywhere else. Or, well, there is no one and nothing else to look at,.. non?
Aside that is also the fact that Nora said he and Kevin are too press conscious to do anything in that direction, so.. I’m not gonna assume there was anything going on in canon, but…
Outside the books…
Kevin & Riko is playing a into the childhood friends, young master/servant, and foe yay tropes, and I do dig at least two of those.
They’ve known each other for almost all of their life, they both suffered at the hand of the same man, and they were both the only thing keeping each other from breaking apart. That’s not to say they aren’t broken; both of them are, Riko more so than Kevin.
Riko doesn’t know anything outside of his tug of war rope life, in which he is the rope, and he’s been constantly pulled apart since the moment he could hold a racquet. He was never allowed to grow into his own person, it was only Star Athlete or Useless to his family he wanted to be approved of so badly.
And in this, Kevin is his only true friend, so it’s a given that he holds a special place for Riko.
Well now writing more here would be a rephrasing what I already talked about this here and here, so let’s stop for now, haha.
Riko & Neil would be something to explore, but I don’t have ideas on that or necessarily want to dive too deep, because I usually don’t go into ships that aren’t even hinted at, ever, not one bit, nuh-uh, in the canon(jerejean is an exception, but I also said ususally.)
Kevin&Riko - do they have/had feelings for each other?
Not in the books… well, not quite, imho. It depends on what you’re asking for. They have a relationship that was everything at once, friends, family, … not quite lover. Dependency, is the word. Knowing each other from the worst to the best, from inside and out, “I’m not afraid of Kevin. I know him.”, Riko says, because he does. And Kevin knows Riko just the same.
It’s a bond that goes beyond being lovers; the feeling of knowing how your chest rises and falls with each breath; how your fingers will move without you actively asking them to; knowing how far you can bend your finger before it finally breaks. Something like that, in human form.
So if you’re asking for “feelings” in the general sense of “romantic” feelings, no, not that. Beyond that, for better or worse.
fic recs? / art recs?
Not on Riko, no. I know some other people write about him, but I haven’t read any of them yet… I do write, too, though now it feels like an uncalled shoutout for myself. …hah…
Else, @bvccvrdi has lovely HCs and fics <3 I like Fox! Riko a lot.
Thoughts on his finale scene?
At first— disappointment, maybe shock, that it was so sudden and quick - maybe I would have wanted him to suffer more, because I still loathed him for everything he did to Andrew.
After thinking about how he died and who did it, I took pity on him; somewhere my distaste for him subsided enough I dived into the extra content about him. And somewhere around there I found him rather… human. A product of his environment. He’s still petty, and needlessly cruel, and so very desperate, and he’s also very, very broken, loney, and starved for something real in his life. Something for his own.
There was also a spike in hate when I read what he did to Jean, and as I said, there will always be at least a hint of disgust, when thinking about him.
I think it was better for him to die; with his arm broken and generally having screwed with the ties to his family, there was no way he could have redeemed himself, not as a person, and sure as hell not as a second son, anyway. He would have lost the chance for approval, his only purpose in life, one way or another, and he already lost Kevin; the only one who could have probably… well, ‘fixed’ is too much… he could have soothed. A little, after years and years to come, because that bond between him and Kevin would also be another life sentence, but at least this time, Riko would be chained to someone who cares.
Did you read Nora’s extra content?
Yes, most, if not all of it. I lingered the longest on Andreil & Riko ones.
