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rowan ricardo phillips, the circuit

luck of the draw. novandy role reversal, 2.3k.

the thesis of this story is that if luck were not in novak's favor he would be much worse off than andy was irl (for structural reasons), whereas if luck were in andy's favor he wouldn't be as monstrously dominant as novak was irl (for personality reasons).

among other things andy wouldn't be tennismaxxing at age 36 in order to hoover up half a dozen extra majors, which is not to say he wouldn't be playing tennis. and if i ever get around to writing a second snapshot you'll see how i think his late-stage career would go down instead.

spent a fair amount of time pointlessly working out who won what slam but what really matters in terms of canon divergence is 1. novak never meets the magic bread doctor and figures out his gluten allergy 2. andy beats other andy in the 2009 wimbledon semifinal.

how do i think rio goes? well—

—ok look the truth is that for about 75% of the writing period i had london and rio switched around in my head and i did think i was setting the scene for a novandy olympic sf even more excruciating than irl. well............... given that the draws would be different since the seeding wouldn't have been the same maybe it did happen that way in this universe!!!!! Who's To Say.

anyway regardless of the bracket. i think andy still wins. :)

– put them in the navy, that famous hotbed of homosexual activity. probably i would make matteo captain of a nice frigate and flavio a younger officer, maybe first lieutenant? the fun thing about being at sea is the way it’s a completely different life than the normal world on dry land but also they import so many structures and rules and restrictions to try and make the ship a miniature england….. but violations of the social order persist and abound regardless!! (<- i am talking about gay sex) anyway there’s any number of things that could happen but i’m imagining flavio getting injured (not that bad!!) and matteo in agony over his desire to protect flavio from anything bad happening to him and how that conflicts with his duty

– matteo got injured in the peninsular war and now he lives alone in his country estate marinating in his misery until flavio teaches him to feel love & joy again (fun bc matteo definitely handsome enough to pull off brooding really well. might be fun to switch it up and write something where they haven’t known each other forever….. maybe flavio lives vaguely nearby and was out for a ride and got caught by a storm and turns up on his doorstep seeking shelter? lowkey that would be more gothic than regency but whateverrrr)

– maybe they first met in one of the more miserable campaigns of the peninsular war, and were close, but after the war ended and they were discharged they parted ways, but then a couple of years later they meet again in polite society and their surroundings are so different but the connection between them is still so strong…….

– okay if we were going to imagine a no homophobia regency au (difficult for me) maybe they grew up on neighboring country estates and when flavio was like eighteen he confessed to matteo, who (kindly!) rejected him bc of his youth and bc matteo believed that someone should have some knowledge of the world and of what they’d be giving up before getting married…. but he doesn’t express that quite well and flavio understandably takes it harshly and then goes off to have some kind of adventure (i have GOT to come up with something that does not involve the military but like what else is he going to do. go into law? join the clergy??? also he would really have to be a second son here but let’s ignore that). fuck it put him in the navy again. so flavio goes off and has Maritime Adventures and comes back four or five years later and matteo is like oh fuck. and then they’re acting like fools with matteo thinking “you rejected him and now he has so many options why would he ever give you another chance” and flavio thinking “he rejected you once already it would be the height of stupidity to confess a second time”. but eventually they do sort themselves out.