meow

the original illustration! i ended up turning down the blue a lot before printing because i was worried about it getting too dark, and i like the less blue version a lot better! (i might put one of these on my inprnt since i dont sell riso prints online currently...)

versions on yellow and pink paper and some closeups

the studio i print at just recently got lime green ink and i feel like lime green and fluorescent orange were made for challengers :)

Category #8: What the MRTA Can Do For You

Fics that focus on Art and Patrick’s time at the Mark Reballato Tennis Academy! Boyhood. Homoeroticism maxing.

tear down these stars now by likeadeuce Rated: T Word Count: 1,926 Summary: On their first night at boarding school, Patrick hears his roommate crying, and he has to decide what kind of friend he wants to be.

Rec: They’re babies, your honor !!!

hear it all and by the hour forget by averythinline Rated: T Word Count: 7,647 Summary: Growing up, Patrick never really understood why people always claimed to hate hospitals so much. To be fair, he’s never actually had to spend time in one, so he hasn’t given it much thought, he supposes. It just seems like a common theme, a hatred shared amongst characters on TV and in movies, one that the masses can easily relate to. It never occurred to him to consider why. Now, sitting on a hard wooden chair in a hospital waiting room, he thinks he understands. or: art gets sick while they're at the tennis academy

Rec: Soft and sweet with all the obligatory yearning, just what the doctor ordered.

Motel by Anonymous Rated: E Word Count: 2,277 Summary: Art got ridden last night. In a beer-drunken haze, he agrees to act it out for Patrick. *Pre-Tashi *Or: having sex in the least official way possible while bits of plot occasionally fly across the screen

Rec: Is it gay if you hump a pillow to completion in front of your best bro? Asking for Art Donaldson.

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Category #9: Roadtrip!

They hit the road. Pretty much what it says on the tin :) games to play by CivilBores Rated: E Word Count: 7,717 Summary: “That’s—Jesus Christ. This is not the way you invite someone for a threesome.” “I didn’t realize there was proper etiquette,” Patrick comments lightly. “You could actually ask me, for starters.” Impatient, Tashi says, “Will you fuck both of us. There.” “You two are freaks,” Art deadpans. - Art agrees to go on a road trip with Patrick and Tashi, and gets more than he bargained for.

Rec: Patrick and Tashi should psy-op Art into a throuple more often. As a treat.

we three hunky-dory’s by paintedpomp Rated: E Word Count: 13,763 Summary: were road tripping out to Stanford, Patrick texts Tashi. *We’re, she texts back. oh good, so ur coming, Patrick replies. (Patrick, Tashi, and Art, a car, and the open road)

Rec: Patrick and Art kinda sorta kidnap Tashi on the way to Stanford. They’re all better off for it.

2 die 4 by jaekyu Rated: E Word Count: 6,772 Summary: “You know, I could never hate you,” Patrick tells Art, still on his knees against the floor of the shower. “Not even if you ripped my heart out with your teeth.”The after, immediate and otherwise; come take a bite in the middle of the night.

Rec: After the Challenger, Art goes on the run. (Kind of).

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Category #10: Art's Afflictions

Art Donaldson is afflicted with many things. Most of them are bisexuality.

no simulation (it's gotta be true) by pzweig Rated: E Word Count: 6,618 Summary: Here Art is, horny and alone, looking for something that will help him forget, because it’s been years and he’s been so good, hasn’t he? Hasn’t he been good? Hasn’t he kept his thoughts pure, hasn’t he been focused on what matters? Hasn’t he earned the right to be just a little bit bad? That’s the mantra Art settles with as he scrolls past video after video, trying to settle on something quick before he loses his nerve. That is until one stops him dead in his tracks.

Rec: Art being left to his own devices is a dangerous thing, and this is no exception.

baby come and get you some (can you read my mind?) by Fairchild14Rated: T Word Count: 3,429 Summary: Patrick and Art take a late night trip away from academy tournaments to buy some cigarettes. Art complains about Patrick's stupid car and even stupider habits. Patrick just likes to be along for the ride.

Rec: A soft moment in a car, a gas station, a dreamlike fugue.

self control by wishicouldunderstand Rated: E Word Count: 22,993 Summary: Again and again, Patrick almost makes Art lose his self control. Eventually, something's bound to give. An exploration of Art and Patrick's messy, confusing relationship, over several years.

Rec: The only ‘Art is Gay’ fic that's allowed! I’ve decreed it, and so it shall be.

made it all look painless by sundaymournin Rated: M Word Count: 20,277 Summary: If there's one thing Patrick Zweig has always loved, it's making Art Donaldson hurt. Or, this author outright rejects that these three had the self-control to actually stay away from one another.

Rec: It’s Art’s turn with the panic disorder stick.

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Category #11: Call Me Sometime

Long distance is a bitch. Phone sex...isn't.

when you own the world, you're always home by pacific_chiller Rated: E Word Count: 7,334 Summary: “You always have something to say, Patrick. What’s on your mind?” “Well,” he says, trying to put the ball in her court, “I’m wondering why you’re bringing Art up while you’re touching yourself.” “You say that like you’re not also jerking off right now, you fucking hypocrite." A late night phone call. Patrick finally goes pro, alone and far-flung from anything that matters. In his time of need, Tashi does what she does best: coach.

Rec: Drop into Tashi and Patrick relationship in 2007. Receive psychic damage. Collect $200.

when you call me, i'm all over the place by melobaby Rated: E Word Count: 5,111 Summary: “You’re—I think about what you say to her,” Art confesses. “Or what she says to you.” “You want to know how Tashi dirty talks to me?” One time Patrick has phone sex with Tashi, and one time he has it with Art.

Rec: Patrick’s racking up his phone bill and he is not complaining!

i feel the rush by brideshead Rated: E Word Count: 2,842 Summary: Yeah, Patrick is definitely touching himself. Art watches as his own hand, his free hand, comes down to his shorts. He pushes them down to about mid-thigh. His cock is a little hard. There is still time, Art thinks. There is still time to turn back. All he has to do is tell Patrick he’s buried knee-deep in biology homework, that he has to wake up early for tennis practice, that he needs to go take a leak. He could tell Patrick anything at all to put an end to this phone call.

Rec: If I had a nickel for every time Art and Patrick jerked off while talking about a woman they both thought was hot, I’d probably have a dozen nickels. But I’d happily take some more.

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Category #12: Meet The Donaldsons

Art and Tashi are doing great :) really :)

a whole cake (all for me)! by non_sporulating (radiodurans) Rated: E Word Count: 44,141 (wip) Summary: In which Tashi and Art absolutely do not care about Patrick’s absence from their wedding, or his stupid boyfriend either.

Rec: The lead up to Tashi and Art’s wedding is going exactly according to plan. Huh huh. Absolutely!

To Camelot by greenTeacup Rated: E Word Count: 19,942 Summary: He takes a long sip of whiskey before he says a word. When he does, his tone’s deceptively light, chipper, brutally clipped. “So, hey,” he says. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Patrick stares down into the bottom of his highball glass with a wry twist of the lips. “Friend of mine’s getting married,” he says, and makes no effort at all to hide the bitterness. He lets it seep right through everything like red wine on white carpet, like the smell of sex on fresh sheets. “Figured I’d come pay my respects.” “That’s for funerals.” “I know what I said.”

Rec: Patrick shows up the day before Tashi and Art’s wedding. They’re all worse off for it (affectionate).

i think i'm waking up to us (we're a disaster) by somethinginwater Rated: M Word Count: 6,467 Summary: April 2018, a day in the life of the Donaldsons. Art keeps having bad dreams and he'd rather do anything but play the Italian open. Tashi, as she's wont to do, pushes him a little too far. (title from belle & sebastian, 'i'm waking up to us')

Rec: Fail Marriage at its finest, which is also at its worst.

Winning Some, Losing Some by turniflocked Rated: G Word Count: 1,288 Summary: “I’d hate to think that anyone thinks I agree with Sandgren about—” Art is gesturing with his hands now, like he’s really trying to articulate something. “About— the stuff he said about gay clubs. Not that I’ve ever been in one obviously, or that I would ever want to go to one— but that doesn’t mean that I think what he said was okay.” He deflates, looking at Tashi like she might yell at him, and it all clicks into place. Two days before the 2018 Australian Open Finals, Art is acting weird

Rec: Art should crash out at least once a quarter, as a treat :)

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Category #13: Patrick's Disorders

Just wanna shake him around and see what falls out of his pockets.

tender mercy by owlinaminor Rated: T Word Count: 2,381 Summary: Patrick never watches his matches. But he watches this one. He sits, cramped, in his car in the parking lot of the New Rochelle Costco, phone balanced on the dashboard, hugging his knees to his chest.

Rec: Patrick should always throw his phone in a motel pool.

sun ashamed to rise by maxisnotokay Rated: M Word Count: 17,986 Summary: “Hypothetically, if you were completely fucked, what would you do?” "What?” Art asks. His voice buzzes over the line like static. --- OR: Ten years after their falling out, Patrick develops a panic disorder. There's only one person in the world who he can possibly think to call about it.

Rec: As oomfs said, the truest sign for affection for a character is giving them a panic disorder. So true!

a faraway sound by comosum Rated: E Word Count: 8,209 Summary: Tashi and Art together just doesn’t make any sense to him. Every time he tries to imagine them together -- and he spends an embarrassing amount of time imagining them together, often late at night when he wants to make himself feel brilliant or terrible -- it just doesn’t compute. (20 years, before and after. or, Patrick never stops thinking about them - not in 2006, not in 2019, not in 2026.)

Rec: Sprawling and sparing, and with a gambling addiction as an aside.

The Art of Never Letting go by heliza Rated: T Word Count: 3,235 Summary: 'Being in a thirteen-year-long tailspin is different from being in a year long, month long, weeklong, day long one. Everything collapses, but over the course of so long a time that it is hard to recognise where rock bottom is.' Lyon 2018: Patrick Zweig is two matches away from playing Art Donaldson.

Rec: Patrick gets close, but not close enough.

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Category #14: Inciting Injuries

Fics where an injury shakes everything around

doctors make the worst patients by themasterletters Rated: M Word Count: 3,489 POV: Patrick Summary: Patrick finds an album of Art's injuries on Tashi's phone. There are hundreds of pictures.

Rec: This is a fic about Patrick studying Tashi studying Art like a bug. It’s beautiful.

History repeating by bibliophile232 Rated: E Word Count: 12,250 Summary: Art injures his shoulder right as his career is taking off. It changes everything. "I can win,” Patrick said, with the breezy confidence that occasionally made him a phenomenal player but more often made him a bad one, confused when he found himself on the wrong side of a score line. She recognised some of that cocky confidence when he continued, “I thought you wanted to change the game, Tashi. Art’s good, and he has the potential to be great, but coaching one great player that you’re fucking isn’t going to put your name in the history books.” “But coaching two players that I’m fucking would?” Patrick looked at her, strangely intense. “Yeah, Tashi, it would."

Rec: Art gets hurt sooner - they all reconnect sooner than New Rochelle.

please, give me mercy (no more) by thcscus (blujamas) Rated: T Word Count: 11,085 Summary: “This is low,” she says coldly, “even for you.” “It’s not like I asked to be run over by a semi." “Oh, didn’t you? This is a cry for help if I’ve ever heard one.” “You still came,” Patrick points out. Tashi’s lips curl into a sneer. “I came,” she says slowly, “to take my boyfriend’s name out of your emergency contact list.” /// Or, the highs and lows of Patrick Zweig's life, before and after New Rochelle.

Rec: Some suicidal ideation and a Chicago apartment. Whole series rips but this is my fav.

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Category #15: Never Failmarried, Twice Divorced

Divorced energy going crazyyyyy. No marriage required.

more than trinkets in your room by ercole Rated: E Word Count: 18,492 Summary: It was seeing Tashi watching CNN World Sports in Czech, eying the English subtitles back and forth at hyper-speed, like watching a match. It was seeing that picture of himself and Patrick—gently intimate in a way that really couldn’t be hand-waved off—blown up on the TV, his sleep addled brain trying, and failing, to catch up to what was happening. It was hot shame curdling in his gut when he lost a match, it was his daughter’s terrified hiccups when she woke up from a nightmare, it was Tashi being in any sort of pain, it was that dead look Patrick got in his eyes whenever Art was deliberately mean to him—it was free fall. (or: Three in a marriage is never easy.)

Rec: Somebody put a ring on Patrick's finger STAT.

neverland by ameliepoulain Rated: E Word Count: 14,079 Summary: “This is so sad,” Art says, shaking his head – but then he grins, the first genuine smile Patrick’s seen all night. It’s so warm and familiar that Patrick forgets for a second, that he’s nothing and they’re nothing, that the slight November chill is making them both shiver. (Patrick and Art spend a confusing weekend together at the tail-end of the year)

Rec: Patrick Zweig is the most divorced man in America.

The teacher of all things by Charlotte_Stant Rated: E Word Count: 3,202 Summary: Now that tennis was dead they all had weird hobbies.

Rec: This has married-divorced-remarried energy, and there's still some gas in the tack for another round. 

negotiation by santanico Rated: E Word Count: 10,612 Summary: “Yo,” Patrick said, and his eyes swept the main living space so quickly Tashi almost could have missed the widening of his eyes when he saw the oversized 8k TV or the double-sectional couch - in all creamy white, as if to make a point, Tashi thought - if she hadn’t been paying very close attention. He was dressed in jeans that fit him too loosely, a t-shirt with a button-up on over, as if that was somehow going to paint an illusion of professionalism to the look. He kicked off his shoes and handed her a bag. “Chocolates,” he said, by way of explanation when she looked inside. “I can see they’re chocolates,” she said, mesmerized by his choice of Ferrero Roche hazelnut chocolates. Maybe they were meant to be funny. “Don’t judge,” Patrick said, brushing past her with intent and popping his head into the kitchen where Art was characteristically hiding. “Hey.”

Rec: Even though they’re trying to get together in this fic, it feels like they’re already divorced.

in the way only you could by MacksDramaticShenanigans Rated: E Word Count: 12,677 Summary: “So it’s been… twelve years?” Patrick asks around the filter. He inhales deeply, and when he finally lifts it from his lips he blows the smoke in a steady stream past Art’s ear. He holds the cigarette out towards Art, an offering. Art shakes his head. “Thirteen, actually,” not that he’s counting, “and, no, thanks, I quit,” he says. “Tashi wanted me to.” It feels weird to say her name here. Feels a little bit like an invocation, Repeat Tashi Donaldson three times in the mirror while spinning in circles and she’ll appear right behind you. “Right,” Patrick muses and takes another drag. “What have you been up to for thirteen years?” Art’s eyes roll towards him with an unimpressed slant. “As if you don’t already know that,” he says. His lips press together and he tilts his head at Patrick, daring him to contradict. Patrick shrugs one shoulder. “Sure I do,” he says. Knocks the same shoulder into Art’s. He’s close enough to do that. “But I want to hear it from you.” Or, shared cigarettes, shared lamentations, and shared breath after the Phil's Tire Town Challenger Final.

Rec: Patrick and Art have reached amicable terms. The marriage is back on!

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Category #16: Put me in coach!

Patrick joins Art's coaching staff, tennis (and Tennis) ensues

into the blue again by brokendrums Rated: E Word Count: 19,420 Summary: After New Rochelle there's Cincinnati. And then, of course, it’s back to where it all started.

Rec: Tashi and Art are on the road and Patrick is invited along for the ride.

american doubles by stickyvalentine Rated: E Word Count: 19,165 Summary: In the midst of the hottest sex of her entire life, in that tangle of limbs and improbably acrobatic positions only made possible by a decade of pent-up frustration between three people at a truly world-class-athlete level of physical fitness, the ever-turning engine of Tashi’s brain managed a single, coherent thought: Something’s wrong here.

Rec: Tashi plays mastermind post-New Rochelle. She’s tennis-maxing

Après-match by mnabokov Rated: E Word Count: 12,424 Summary: After the match—Art, Patrick, and Tashi return to Palo Alto.

Rec: You know it’s going to be good when they hate each other a little.

hit where it hurts by plastiswafers Rated: E Word Count: 29,127 Summary: Art's still not good enough, and Tashi needs another favor before the US Open begins. Patrick is all too happy to oblige.

Rec: Patrick gets banished to the staff quarters. Sicko

that's a rap :) ty again all the challengers fanfic authors out there u r my heroes my comrades by silly rabbits. im ur biggest fan :)) here's to an incredible year!