Belonnabells

the first one he does is with kevin because of popular demand

neil does it on the court after night practice with kevin and he reads a few questions that exy fans have commented on his previous posts

‘kevin, what are you a queen of besides exy? no I’ll answer this, the answer is nothing, kevin sucks”

“fuck off neil” kevin gets serious and the rest of the video is kevin extensively and aggressively talking about exy until the timer cuts off

he does dan next and it’s the cutest 60 second video out there okay dan is sitting next to matt on the couch while neil is filming

he asks her how it feels to be “the best female exy captain in the NCAA” dan gets the biggest smile on her face and scrunches up her nose before she answers

‘oh that’s sweet, who wants to know? I like this person. It feels great! but it’s stressful at times, there is a lot of sexism in the world but I usually ignore it in favor of focusing on how lucky I am to have such a great team.”

matt’s looking at her while she’s talking and u can literally see the love and admiration in his eyes, fans are crying in the comments about how cute they are, so am I

when he does renee, most of the comments are asking about her hair so she explains how she dilutes the bright colors by mixing them with conditioner to make them more pastel

“but that’s the easy part, root upkeep is the worst tho, I hate touch ups.”

neil vaguely knows what she’s talking about cause he’ll sit in the room when andrew helps her with her hair

nicky manages to tell half his life story in 60 seconds

neil uploads a second video of nicky giving advice to queer kids afraid to come out because of strict and religious parents or unsafe home lives

aaron walks away when neil tries to do his so instead neil uploads a five second video that’s just him zooming in on aaron sitting in a beanbag chair playing video games “aaron’s a dick.”

matt gets asked about his boxing background and he beams at the chance to talk about his mom

“she’s so badass, she taught me everything I know, she could kick anyone’s ass” he points at the camera “she’ll kick your ass. better watch out”

allison gives fashion tips, she also roasts neil for how he dressed when he first joined the team “god u guys should have seen him, fucking awful. nicky and I fixed him up tho, but it took a lot of work cause neil likes to make things difficult” 

when neil gets to andrew nobody expects him to actually upload anything but when he does the results are hilarious

neil sits next to andrew with the camera frontfaced so half of neil’s face is in the frame, andrew is curled up on the couch with a pint of ice cream and his glasses on “it’s time for your interview andrew”

andrew just stares at him

“why didn’t you sign with the rav- wait that’s a stupid fucking question, we’re not doing that one. alright. how many times have you and aaron been mistaken for one another?” 

andrew stares at the camera in silence

“tragic. next question. how are you so good at blocking goals?

silence

“incredible. what is your honest opinion about kevin day?”

andrew stares for a couple seconds before rolling his eyes and getting up to walk away, neil laughs and nods “I agree” 

BONUS: andrew has neil’s phone while they’re on the roof, neil is holding his cigarette and andrew starts filming, pointing the camera so you can only see neil

“hey junkie, it’s your turn to be interviewed” “alright” 

“how does it feel to finally have a real home?” 

neil smiles softly, but he’s looking at andrew not the camera “like I’m finally living, like I’ve got everything I could ever want”

Haha

I am halfway through the third book, which means Andreil is becoming real and. erm- explicit, let's say.

Haha I'm going insane!!

I haven't been that obsessed with a media since The Raven Cycle (from which I still haven't recovered to be completely honest), and I'm sooo eager to draw more of the foxes!!

I probably won't have that much time since I'm coming back to school tomorrow for my last year till graduation (It's already such a rush, I predict short nights incoming)… But I'll manage to find time to draw them anyway.

Him saying he had no choice because he had to stack the chances in Aaron's favor. After everything, still doped with those fucking meds, he was thinking about how a murder charge would destroy Aaron's dream of getting into Med school.

I get Neil being mad at the Foxes for calling Andrew a monster.

Have we read the same books? lol Jeremy barely even KNOWS Kevin, they only text about Jean and see eo once a year. In TSC Jean would have killed Kevin with his own hands if it meant being free from the promise he made him. He wished Kevin dead/would kill himself. And yes, it's trauma, but pretending that didn't happen is insane.

Literally nothing about them 3 says LOVE. Jeremy respects him as a player. Jean used to rely on him in the Nest and was betrayed and now can barely stand to be in the same room as him.

You Kevin fans need to face reality:

Nora has said Kevin has NO friends (this idea that Jean, Jeremy, Neil and Andrew are his bffs is pure delusion not supported by canon) and said that it will take him YEARS to make friends and he'll have to wait for retirement because he is too obsessed with Exy. The only person truly close to him is Thea (bc they're so similar, and even with her we see how distant their relationship is). She also said that whoever gets involved with Kevin will have to deal with his narcissism, and that the chances of a friendship with Jean died years ago.

Kevin was a victim of the Nest and Riko, he's not the villain of the story. But to pretend that everyone LOVES him when in canon (and extra content) people can barely stand him is madness.

Waymack and Thea are possibly the only exception.

Kevin is not a good person that everyone loves. No one in the Foxes is a good person that everyone loves. That's the point of the books.

This isn't hate. This is seeing him as he was written (and as the people around him were written). Him being a core character of the story doesn't contradict any of it.

So yeah maybe it's better if you stay away from the story if you can't stand how he is written in canon and what the author says about him.

As cowardly as hiding behind anon is, I'll humour this in good faith.

Interestingly enough, the world has multiple versions and definitions of love, just as there are infinite ways each reader may or may not interpret a piece of fiction. That is the point of literature, to provoke thought. Of which an occasional person can lack, clearly.

Personally, I'd like to see love in many interactions across aftg characters—all of which are flawed, yes, but that in no way makes them incapable of containing a multitude of traits, characters, like people, are contradictory—and it is clear to me that some readers have difficulty understanding that you can both hate and love someone at the same time, especially if the bond is rooted in some form of trauma.

Jeremy wrote to Kevin, trusted him enough to let a stranger into his home because Kevin vouched for said stranger, and (from what I've gathered thus far) felt very supported by Kevin during his scandal. Supporting openly queer athletes is a big deal in general, but especially in the 2000s.

Jean did not kill Kevin, nor would he ever actually initiate such a notion. He is a character that is sick of violence, despite being used to it; whatever makes you believe the fact that Jean would want to kill Kevin despite the fact that he appeared uneasy with Neil killing his literal rapist, is beyond me. Maybe I managed to read more of the book than you did. Also, the thought of violence is very different from actually being willing to physically enact violence, most people with regular impulse control who do not send aggravated anon messages are aware of this.

My 'facing reality' as a Kevin fan would be me shutting my laptop, because I'm an adult that usually avoids engaging in fictional discourse. In which case, perhaps we should discuss hypocrisy...

As for Nora's statements, I would like to wait for the Queen's duology to release, because it will undoubtedly shed some light and provide context for all of us. Who knows, maybe I'll end up hating Kevin, I'll be the first to admit that I disliked him on my first Foxhole read-through. I'm open to the notion, just as I am open to your opinion were it not written in a tone that indicates some degree of malice. Oh, look, I can type in bold, too.

"Kevin is not a good person that everyone loves. No one in the Foxes is a good person that everyone loves. That's the point of the books." "This isn't hate. This is seeing him as he was written (and as the people around him were written). Him being a core character of the story doesn't contradict any of it."

These are good points, I cannot entirely disagree with them; Kevin is most definitely widely disliked even amongst his own team, and the Foxes are meant to be flawed as a whole. I think that much is obvious.

My point about him being a core part of the story was not meant as a defence of Kevin the 'person', it was a comment on how I wouldn't personally indulge in a series if I hated a main character as much as some people hate him, because at that point the media is not as enjoyable to me. Therefore I don't particularly understand people who claim to be fans of the series while harbouring such aversion to its content...first-time readers are known to have assumed that Kevin would be the love interest instead of Andrew, which goes to show how pivotal he is.

"So yeah maybe it's better if you stay away from the story if you can't stand how he is written in canon and what the author says about him."

I could have almost believed that you simply wanted to share an othering opinion with a fellow fan, which could have been rather interesting, but you're underlying statement appears to be "if you don't like it, you shouldn't read it."

...In which case, why did you bother to spend time reading my post, typing out a lengthy response, and concluding with an assumption that indicates you lacked the literacy needed to understand my text. I did not mention disliking how Kevin is written, I did not state disliking Nora's comments about him.

I claimed to be saddened by petty ship discourse, which divides the fandom rather than unites it. Much like this, which "isn't" hate, but is rather tiring.

We know from Jean's narration* that when it came to Kevin's abuse in the Nest it was often more psychological than physical. He was made to watch Jean's torture at Riko's hand, tend to his wounds, and keep it a secret from the other Ravens. Living his life like this while in constant space / presence of his abuser meant Kevin's ability to shut off his own emotions was one of the few ways he could protect himself.

This also let Kevin in some small way protect Jean as any closeness between them would be seen as a slight against Riko. Why I think Riko breaking Kevin's hand had less to do with Kevin outplaying him but about the two of them learning French behind his back.

Even the "bitchy" side of Kevin is part performance as Jean explains he used it to distract the other Ravens from Jean's trauma & Riko's abuse. It also allowed him to have distance from the other Ravens and their own ways to taunt / tease / harm each other. Their words cannot hurt him because they are so far beneath him they're not worth listening to.

“I think Andrew should ask her and see if she can tell the difference.” Andrew’s smile was slow. “Okay.”

“It wasn’t me, it was the one-armed man!” Andrew yelled from out of sight.

Nicky and Andrew talked the whole way there, Nicky bouncing topics from movies to music and Andrew cheerfully arguing with almost everything he said

“Neil is a walking tragedy.” “You’re a pretty pathetic sob story yourself,” Wymack said. Andrew laughed.

Andrew went up front more interested in talking Wymack’s ear off

“You are a pipedream,” Andrew said.

“You’re not actually a sociopath, are you?” “I never said I was.”

Andrew touched Aaron’s temple where he himself was injured as if he expected to find an identical injury there.

Neil watched his knuckles go white as he leveraged himself into the car, but it wasn’t until Andrew laughed and said, “Ouch,” that Neil understood how much pain Andrew was still in.

Light flashed off the crystal figuring in Andrew’s hand as he passed it to one of the cashiers. Neil was too far away to see what shape he’d settled on, but he didn’t need to know. His thoughts were on a shelf of sparkling animals all set equidistant to each other.

“You said you’d go back for some of us. Five of us,” Neil said, splaying his fingers at Andrew. “You weren’t counting Abby or Coach. Since you trust Renee to handle the rest of the team, I’m guessing the last spot is for Dobson.”

Andrew tugged the blanket out from under them and draped it over Neil’s shoulders like a cape. Neil tried pulling the ends together over his chest but couldn’t get a good grip with bags over his fingers. Andrew watched him try twice, then pushed his hands aside and did it for him.

“Jean,” he said. “Hey, Jean. Jean Valjean. Hey. Hey. Hello.”

Andrew made himself comfortable on Neil’s left, a one-man barricade between Neil and the crowd.

His options to deal with this situation are: ignore it and let it blow over (publicist’s choice), deny deny deny and leave Lydia to deal with the angry hordes of righteous fans, confirms its true at great risk to his reputation, OR explain his own experience in the Nest and with Riko and that basically it was a fucked up place for everyone.

All his friends are messaging him like whats going on? are you okay? but the first person he reaches out to is Thea because surely she will understand. Instead she’s like why are you so upset it’s not a big deal 😐 Okay great thanks Thea. And then Andrew isn’t answering his calls because the whole thing is kind of trigger for him and Neil has to explain that Andrew isn’t mad at Kevin.

Soon enough the story breaks containment from exy circles and now everyone has an opinion and something nasty to say about Lydia or Kevin. The pressure is on for Kevin to say anything and give his side of the story.

Kevin is Andrew's biggest fan. He has secret merch of him hidden in a box under his bed. The rest of the Foxes know about it and won't stop making fun of him for it. Kevin once asked Jeremy for Andrew's number, but Jeremy played the "players' privacy" card.

Everyone assumes Andrew hates Nathaniel, but actually, he finds him kind of funny. The way he's so rude and smart-mouthed, how cruel he seems for someone so short, and most of all, how angry he gets whenever he can't score against him. There's always defiance in Nathaniel's eyes whenever they meet, and maybe a glint of something more.

Nathaniel is a mess of conflicting emotions every time he sees Kevin on the court. He tries his best to look angry, resentful, to make Kevin feel guilty for abandoning Jean, for abandoning him. But in reality, he is overwhelmingly sorrowful. He painfully misses Kevin, but that's something he won't even admit to himself.

Kevin is full of grief. Every day, he wishes Nathaniel would play with him again. He tells himself it's all for the sake of the game. However, deep down, he knows he just wants Nathaniel by his side. He spends his days daydreaming about Nathaniel as a Fox, being a normal kid, tagging along to all the silly hangouts the Foxes have in their free time. He dreams about them being normal friends for once, and sometimes, even more than that.

Nathaniel knows everything about Andrew. It wasn't difficult to get all the information he needed, not when Kevin seemed so fond of him. Nathaniel needed to know why. After reading Andrew's file, he can't get him out of his mind. How can someone who has suffered that much end up somewhere so golden? Is it really possible to change that much? Would it be possible for him to escape the Nest and shine like that?