Aaron Minyard Is Just As Perceptive As His Twin

love your hcs!!!! do you think you write one about the legacy neil left at palmetto and with the foxes. like he goes back when wymack retires. and next to where he carved his and andrews initials into the bed post just before andrew left, there’s other foxes initials and he sort of unknowingly created a tradition. or like eventually he gets his old exy racquet back from the cops and it sits at the court and before a game he slapped it so so did the rest of the team and has become a team ritual

hi anon - thank you so much! sorry for the delay, this week has really been something skhdskgjhd but i hope you enjoy <3 i had lots of fun with this :) 

years down the line, wymack is retiring (dan will be taking over for him)

neil and andrew are still playing pro together, but there’s a lull in their training and it’s nearing the end of the collegiate exy season, so they drive to palmetto together

andrew says he’s only going because he doesn’t want to have to deal with the cats alone

“you were alone with them for two weeks last year”

andrew pretends he doesn’t hear him

and then neil and andrew are standing outside wymack’s apartment, unannounced, and he grumbles that “at least you didn’t break in this time” but there’s fondness in his tone and he ushers them in

they have a night of comfortable chatter and silences, and andrew grabs the alcohol from the same cabinet it’s always been in. it’s familiar, and neil falls asleep on wymack’s couch with a smile on his face and andrew curled up on top of next to him 

and the next day, neil and andrew go to fox tower, and they walk the stairs that they know as well as they know each other

they get to the third floor, and a small group of foxes is leaving their dorm room, the one that used to belong to neil and andrew, when they see the two and just. freeze. 

it’s nothing new to be recognized by fans, but it’s weird for it to happen somewhere that feels like home. they tolerate it and ask if they could go into their old dorm room

the young foxes scramble to let them in and frantically pick up clothes and throw away trash to give the room some semblance of tidiness. neil and andrew don’t care

the bean bag chairs are gone, but there are still faint ash stains on the windowsill, and the crystal-clear memories of long since faded moments wash over neil

they drift over to the bedroom, and the young foxes leave them be as they silently make their way to the bunk. neil gingerly sits down onto his old mattress, andrew right beside him

andrew catches neil’s attention by tracing the carvings of their initials on the bed post, then trailing his finger down an array of other scrawled letters below. other initials, carved by foxes who came after them, and a smile ghosts over neil’s face because,,, he stopped running and he left solid evidence behind and people actually continued it after he was gone ?? and it’s such a weird thought but he loves it 

he asks the young foxes if there’s anything else that continued after he left

they show him the roof, fitted with new locks that have also since been sabotaged. it looks like their secret spot was less secret than they thought, but at least someone’s still enjoying it

they proudly demonstrate how they’ve all memorized neil’s riko roast which baffles him because that was never even televised ?? where did they hear it ????

andrew ofc will never tell him that he transcribed it when nicky asked him to. he doesn’t even really know why he listened, so there’s no way he’s ever going to try to explain it to neil

all of them have orange bandanas, which is a tradition that started neil’s second year and has apparently continued ever since

they don’t know that that’s where it started so they don’t mention it, but neil noticed from games 

they take neil and andrew to the court and show them the two lucky racquets (the drake one they got back from evidence when the case was closed and the one andrew used to shatter riko’s arm) and they all absent-mindedly tap them on their way in

it used to be a thing the foxes would only do before games, but slowly spread to. every single time they go to the court

apparently it’s also become custom for them to link arms on to way back to the bus after games, after neil’s kidnapping from binghampton

it took a while for them to get the order of the line right bc if they’re not careful, their attempt at keeping each other safe becomes a fist fight

bonus (not one of neil’s legacies): dan’s photo wall continues! they don’t ever take down pictures of the older foxes, just keep squeezing more pictures in. it expands beyond only one wall to every wall of the foyer, and they’re still having trouble finding room. sometimes they have to pile photos on top of each other

they also mention that movie nights are still a thing! they’re bi-weekly, and they always try to find a classic movie that at least one of the foxes has never seen bc of a shitty childhood

night practices are also still happening. not everyone goes every night, but a couple of the keeners do

“junkies”

neil is,,, stunned, honestly. he didn’t ever imagine he could have this concrete of an impact, didn’t think he could keep existing in a place even after he left it

before, he’d never wanted to be remembered. the idea slowly became more bearable over the years, but this is,,, he never expected anything like this

it’s overwhelming and it’s wonderful and he loves it

and later that night, neil and andrew go up to their rooftop (there are two young foxes up there that scurry away as soon as they realize who stepped onto the roof) 

and as they look out over the city, hands linked, neil’s heart feels so light and he can’t get rid of - doesn’t want to get rid of - the smile that seems to be glued to his face, even through the pang of nostalgia - another new feeling

and neil and andrew sit under the comforting blanket of the night and talk into the darkness

just like old times

and it’s comfortable and familiar and once upon a time, neil wished that it would never end

but now? now, neil knows that while he may leave,,, this will never end. not really

as he sits under the stars next to the man with whom he will spend the rest of his life, neil knows the memories and whispers of the past live on through love and legacies

i feel like everyone forgets that neil’s favourite colour is grey, not orange

@karmiky how could you hide this in the tags of your reblog omfg i’m CACKLING💀💀

aftg but every time the foxes travel anywhere, Medicated Andrew™ sings “the wheels on the bus” nonstop until he passes out

okay so in ch 3 of tfc andrew says they should throw a talent show to see what else neil can do. basically what i’m getting at is,, imagine if the foxes actually had a talent show ??? oh my god the Chaos that would ensue-

the hemmicks ask andrew to lead the prayer one (1) time at a “family dinner” and he goes “rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub, yay god”. they never ask him to say grace again

hc that neil knows how to braid hair bc of life on the run w his mom, but robin never learned (being kidnapped and all). so neil offers to braid her hair for her one day, when he notices her sloppy low ponytails and frustration. and eventually it becomes routine for her to find him before practices and games and they bond during their mini hairdressing sessions

andrew, after his car is destroyed by ravens fans: in terms of money... we have no money

neil, with a quarter of a million bucks: *hands over his binder*

I loved your hc about Neil doing Robin's hair so much 🥺 do you have any more Robin and Neil headcannons?

thank you so much!! and yes omg, i think about robin and neil’s friendship constantly, i’ll add a few of my hcs here :)

they go for runs together. it’s a good way for robin to become comfortable around him because they don’t really have the breath to talk, but she can get used to his presence. it took neil some time to adjust, since he’s used to running alone to escape his thoughts, but it’s nice to have a quiet, determined person with him. plus, it makes her faster on court, so its a sneaky way for neil to get her to be better at exy without actually playing exy 24/7, since she’s not quite as exy-obsessed as him

they bake together!! even though neil doesn’t like sweets, andrew does, and he normally saves them for him (he brings some w him when he goes to visit andrew after andrew leaves psu). robin likes knowing that she took all of these random ingredients and made something delicious. she shares with the team but also indulges in the treats that she’s been missing out on most of her life

sometimes the court is a bit too stifling, too cage-like, for robin, who has way too much experience being locked up. (even though it was the one thing in her childhood she associated w freedom, it’s different to watch the games than to have the heavy doors bolting you in). this is one area where neil and robin can’t really understand each other; robin was stuck for too long to want anything to hold her in place, while neil was on the run for so long that any hint of permanency is something that he latches on to. despite that, he’s always there to help talk her down from her panic, and never feels any frustration towards her when she needs to step out for a bit. those panic days are ones that always end w a quiet run together 

they have secret movie nights together where they try to catch up on the movies that the foxes reference all the time, since they both are seriously lacking in that department. (the movie nights are secret because they don’t want to deal with other people). sometimes they think the movies are worth the hype, sometimes they don’t, but they always enjoy each other’s presence. this is also a great opportunity for neil to practice more complicated braids, and to coach robin on how to do some simpler ones herself

robin slowly becomes more vocal, being so close to neil. she never has any speeches quite as iconic as “you know, i get it”, but her dry humor and sarcastic smiles make her fans go wild

robin learns german! she can communicate w the monsters privately that way, which is something that she’s immensely grateful for. and in neil’s senior year (when the rest of them have graduated), robin and neil become closer out of necessity, like nora said. the german is super helpful then for developing inside jokes and having conversations without fear of everyone eavesdropping

i have to go finish up a final project rn, but i hope those are the sort of things you were looking for! if you want more in the future, let me know :) and same goes for any other character combo hcs you’d like to see!!

neil spent his whole life trying to blend in and desperately avoiding being remembered, and i feel like a monumental moment that shows how much he’s changing is when he sees himself on the foxes’ photo wall. he even reaches out, ready to tear the picture down, but he hesitates and leaves it up which is just... huge

 he allows that small piece of himself to live on, he lets is stay there, and he even thinks ahead to the future. he thinks of being dead in a few months and of how that small picture will keep him in people’s memories, and for once, he WANTS to be remembered. he wants people to know that he lived and breathed and was a part of the palmetto state foxes. that he was, however briefly, part of their own little messed up, flawed, perfect family. for the first time in his life, he doesn’t want to let himself fade into oblivion 

and for the first time in his life, he’s ready to die if it means protecting the people he loves

jerejean fics are so much fun to read bc in aftg the characters more or less roll with the hits and just kind of accept what’s going on, and it doesn’t seem that out of the ordinary when you read it, but then you see how jeremy reacts to jean’s stories in the fanfics and it’s like... oh right... that’s actually probably how a normal person would react in this scenario