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1. Explain where the dealer who serves the ball in this sport goes after they serve the ball.

2. Neil transgender. “Why would he choose to name himself after his serial killer dad who hates him and wants him dead” I don’t know why is he already hiding from his dad Nathan by going by Neil when their names are both Nathaniel. He WOULD decide to do this to himself.

3. Challengers plot real. Kevin Day Tashi Duncan in the middle trying to get the other two to hook up because it will improve their game.

4. I take back everything I said about the Japanese Appalachian yakuza being a problem. It’s perfect just sublime world building. I just need more focus on what the lived experience of growing up in a preeminent Japanese crime family in fucking Charleston West Virginia is like. Riko Moriyama should also be a girl it makes more thematic sense. 

5. Kevin relevant

the raven king, chapter eight :

the king's men, chapter ten :

the king's men, chapter seventeen :

(the next lines):

thinking about kevin growing up in the nest and having to learn defense mechanisms to literally survive but are now the main criticisms his teammates have against him. and no one (besides jean) really know the fully extent of what he went through bc of the public persona and brick wall of self preservation he had to put up.

like he’s an asshole perfectionist about exy bc it was literally beat into him since childhood. running in 16 hour days since who knows how young he was and deprived of food and sleep when a drill was not performed perfectly

(Don't think Riko stopped thinking of Kevin as his best friend until he walked onto the court with his new tattoo.)

I absolutely fully believe in my heart and soul that until Kevin stepped onto that court for their final game together, Riko still believed in some way that he was going come back to him. Riko still saw Kevin as his best friend until the moment he saw that queen piece on his cheek, and it was then and only then that it hit home that he'd lost him.

Riko's feelings towards Kevin don't make sense, they never made sense; He wanted to kill him, he loved him, he can't wait to see him, he can't look at him, he wants to make his life hell, he can't lose him. He's mine, I hate him, I love him, I want to hurt him.

Riko knew Kevin wasn't ever coming back. But he kept his bedroom untouched and undisturbed. He wanted him back, but he wanted him gone. He's obsessed with him, and he's his biggest competitor.

I don't know if he actually wanted Kevin back, either. Was it a control thing? A need to have him in arms reach, to keep him in line, to own him again, just like how it used to be? They used to be best friends. They used to laugh with each other before interviews, they used to sit next to each other on the bus and talk about exy like it was the only thing that mattered - there were only ever three things that did matter in the world: Him, Kevin and exy.

But Riko forgets how he treated Kevin, or he doesn't want to remember it, or he knows and he doesn't care, or he thinks it's only right that Kevin looks past it all. Kevin is his best friend, after all. Kevin is his brother.

Without Kevin he has nothing, but with Kevin he is nothing.

I think Riko gets a thrill out of seeing Kevin. I think his lips twitch into a smile every time he waits for Kevin to turn the corner at a banquet, or a match, or a TV interview. That's Riko's best friend, that's the only person who knows him, the only person who has ever looked at him like he was worth anything (when Kevin only looked at him like he was a monster).

Twinyards banquet outfits

These are for that one person with the mtf trans Kevin hc🫵 I love you and I have an AU

(Hc that although Kevin looks exactly like Wymack, there are lots of things he shares of his mother. Ex: they have the same freckles in the same places)