[thenerdwithadhdanddeppression]

aaron minyard would be an avid watcher of House MD, and sometimes andrew would watch from the kitchen

[ladystormverse]

in andrew’s life, there’s a strict system of access. neil made his way into this system not because andrew loves him, but because he went through hell, didn’t betray, accepted the rules, and never questioned them. if andrew says there’s nothing between them, neil silently accepts it and understands that labeling their relationship is pointless. katelyn is an additional variable in his system, representing something from the world of normal people. he sees her as someone who won’t be able to cope with their reality. the desire to get rid of her is a normal reaction for him; that’s exactly how his primitive defense mechanism works.

besides, katelyn is aaron’s attempt to pretend to be normal, but he isn’t. aaron is just as broken as andrew. his girlfriend is a symbol of that “normal life” that andrew hates, because it’s all a lie. andrew knows that in a critical situation, katelyn will either run away or break down, whereas neil won’t. that’s exactly why he trusts neil unconditionally but disregards katelyn. until she proves she’s trustworthy, it’ll stay that way.

the truth is, katelyn doesn’t care about anyone’s approval. her goal is to be with aaron, not to win the blessing of his strange, silent twin brother, who looks at her as if she’s invaded enemy territory and is walking through a minefield. she doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone. it’s enough that aaron chose her.

andrew doesn’t know what she’s really like? she doesn’t care. andrew interpret her unwillingness to prove anything to him as a sign of weakness or indifference? katelyn considers his demands an absurd intrusion into her private life.

they mean nothing to each other, and if he wants to continue treating her like an enemy, so be it. katelyn knows that’s not true, just as she knows that it’s enough for her that aaron will always take her side, just as she will take his.

[serafinapickelda]

Obsessed with how Nora wrote Neil a beautiful love story where his demisexuality is something that his partner loves about him and which brings both of them joy.

Neil being demisexual is literally perfect for Andrew. When they first meet, Neil "not swinging" gives Andrew assurance that Neil won't be sexually interested, which allows Andrew to feel safe enough to eventually become close to Neil. I think that Andrew's fear of being the object of sexual attention is partly why he exclusively spends time with people who won't develop sexual desire towards him (the monsters: his relatives + a straight dude; and Renee, from whom he extracts the reassurance that "I don't kiss heathens").

Then, once Andrew gets close to Neil and starts developing feelings for him, Andrew ALSO gets the reassurance that Neil actually does swing. For him, specifically. And Neil's swinging is nothing to do with the physical features of Andrew's body or with Andrew being available and willing. Instead, Neil values and loves the parts of him that Andrew himself has already offered Neil. This couldn't be more perfect for Andrew! Neil is a pipedream. A man for whom loving and respecting Andrew as a person is a precondition for even wanting to touch; a man who won't ever push Andrew to cross a boundary, because his own desires are completely enmeshed with his love for Andrew. Andrew has won the lottery of life.

And for Neil, too, his demisexuality is overwhelmingly a positive thing. It means that Neil doesn't have his head turned when it would have been dangerous for him. Instead he falls for a man who makes him feel safe and cared for. In fact, Neil himself acknowledges this when he first decides to kiss Andrew, reasoning that "the idea of Andrew was so intertwined with the idea of Neil's safety that this too was a means of self-preservation". Also, once Neil recognises what he feels for Andrew, he never has reason to doubt it. Neil doesn't get casual crushes, so he knows that what he feels is The Real Deal.

Anyway, this is beautiful to me. Just the fact that aftg has a demisexual protagonist who finds love is amazing, but then that Nora also gives him someone who doesn't treat Neil's demisexuality as a burden or an obstacle or something to tolerate... that she writes his demisexuality as foundational for the main romance of the books, as fantastic for both Neil and for the man that he loves... infinite applause.

[sixseisliu]

On my ?th reread of aftg and i just realized that andrew got the fancy cars because AARON IS INTO CARS!!!!! When they get back with the mas and everyone sees it, matt is very very obviously gushing over the car, but neil mentions aaron twitching like he wanted to touch it. Bro does everything for other people, he is such a softie.

[actually-actually]

Literally this post 💀

[neilsdinosaur]

everybody acted like andrew was so crazy for columbia but if my new teammate were shifty as hell and had a binder full of pictures and news clippings of my friend and MYSELF, i’d be framing him for murder to get him off the team. honestly drugging him was an under reaction

[prettyboyneil]

Andrew puts a cigarette in his mouth but instead of smoke a heavy stream of bubbles comes out this is how Neil finds out Andrew quit smoking

[ronnyly]

If Andrew was a woman he would've already had 2 abortions

With a hanger

[feminyard]

to be honest I’d never want aftg to be adapted in any way. I think they’d fuck something up and I’m happy with the version we have already. getting andreil scenes would be cool but the thought of things changing scares me. I’m too passionate about this series

[dshr-art]

[ronanlyxch]

personally I don’t think andrew ever gets jealous of neil like if someone is flirting with him andrew doesn’t care However☝️andrew gets Very jealous if kevin gets too close to anyone who isn’t a fox even if it’s just platonic that boy does Not play around when it comes to kevin

[allfortherot]

that one hopecore message thats like "i WILL make it because i am crazy" but its neil josten who let his fucking countdown go down with no plan, no backup, no one even aware. lmao yes he is just that crazy. fate bows to his contumacious nature

[solflowers-and-solace]

“Riko called me on Christmas, said he inked him.” BLOCK THIS MAN KEVIN

[aidyaiden]

from @exylover32 dont keep this in the tags

[solflowers-and-solace]

@exylover32 I think you should, because I think you’re right and I want to read about it. To add on, Riko DEFINITELY had shit to say about Jean, all the time but especially after events where Jean was injured badly. Bet he had a lot to say around the time of Kengo’s death, I also bet he tried to communicate to Jean through Kevin’s phone cause of what happened to jeans phone during his time at Abby’s

[exylover32]

OH MY GOD. that is actually devastating but yes riko definitely played the "this is what i'm doing to jean in your absence and it's your fault" card, and yes there was for sure a lot of spam around the time of kengo's death/jean's escape. okay i need to start creating an outline/timeline for this ASAP. will credit you for the inspiration if i end up posting it !!!

[solflowers-and-solace]

Imagine Rikos last text was to Kevin on the night of the ravens game

[palmettoshenanigans]

"andrew grows up to be a cop" im sorry i feel like we read completely different source materials if you could EVER imagine andrew as willingly becoming a cop, like that boy didn't get a criminal justice degree to become a fucking pig, he did it for the jokes and possibly IF ANYTHING to become some sort of advocate for abused/fostered/troubled children but a COP???

[furiousfinnstan]

@stvksn on ig

[krillbeans]

I hope your god has asked for your mercy. I hope youve refused to forgive him.

[qillermeme]

i love this more and more every time i see it.

[thiskindoflifeisalliknow]

I have so much love for this person. The amount of empathy it takes to have these considerations about a person you will never meet, the eloquence and conviction with which they speak, the contempt for landlords. Sometimes I see something someone writes or creates and I wish with everything in me that I could meet and talk to that person for hours about what caused them to be this kind of light in the universe. This is one of those times.

[allfortherot]

wait i think neil would have days where he's touch averse to everyone but andrew. andrew just has a calm aura, he wants to be close to him even on these days.

but other foxes? its a no. but he has trouble communicating that when it does happen--because it happens a lot, doesn't wanna seem pitiful nor does he wanna hurt them by rejecting their attempted comfort. so he stands it, grimacing and body strung tight but not shifting away; just taking it.

on those days andrew doesn't touch him at all. the loss makes neil a tad bit more tired. he wouldn't care if andrew himself didn't want to for any reason. but he can see on andrew's good days and neil's touch averse days that even if andrew's fingers twitch in habit to reach out to his, he refuses. so he tells him, eyeing their hands, "its a yes, andrew" and he scoffs. he asks if its a yes for him like how its a yes for the others.

neil understands what he's saying. he lets the others touch him even when he doesn't want it, andrew doesn't want to do that if neil doesn't want it. he reiterates, "it's always a yes with you" but andrew just replies with a quick, "right" and walks off.

he doesn't get it. he says yes and he means it for him, but maybe the sight of him not clarifying with the others ticks him off? he doesn't know

so he sits with andrew on the roof, staring and half a foot from eachother. neil's not sure how to say this. he wants andrew, he wants to ask andrew to say no for him. he doesn't know if thats something he's allowed to ask.

[falafels]

rare but just frequent enough to be noticed Orange Blur sightings. driver equal parts scared and annoyed. discussions over potential cryptid. neil josten likes to chase the google maps car

[andrewsleftarmband]

Fucking most crack au ever holy shit

Google typically hires outside drivers from different places as opposed to using their own staff. Andrew likes driving. Gets hired to be the Google Maps car. Neil chases the car. Andrew chases Neil. They fall in love.

Outsider pov for like half the fic and it’s just socmed style cryptid blogs theorizing and arguing with each other.

[polarispost]

This sparked a similar but different idea in my brain of geoguessr pros discovering the Same Guy in literally every single country and starting a massive quest w their followers to track him down