spring semester so horrible what do u mean its 75 out and im sposed to sit here and write this 12 page paper. i should be in the woods.
i know the obvious allusion with the title “the broken cage” is that jean is breaking free of the nest and finally taking important, meaningful steps towards healing. he’s the bird, he’s the raven turned golden that we have been following. and the nest and all its cult culture has been trapping him in a cage he didn’t know how to leave. and i do think this is true. i do think we will see jean breaking free of his cage
but i also think it’s an allusion to jeremy. because that man is very much in a gilded cage right now, locked up by his family. i think tsc3 will be jeremy breaking out of his own cage too and working towards healing and the future he actually wants
oh butch transmasc andrew minyard… oh save me. oh he has glasses and piercings (especially an anti-eyebrow) and acne scars and he’s chubby and he lifts so; much. he lifts so heavy. butch andrew minyard who wears black compression shirts and cargo pants and steel-toed boots. leather butch andrew minyard hanky and carabiner code butch andrew minyard. butch andrew minyard with hands tats and blackout tattoos when he’s older and and and. bitten lips and nails butch andrew minyard i’m blushing
not that anyone asked but the way my brain works means that any time i read anything, i am piecing together every room, every house, and every space. i need to create an image in my head so i can see the characters in it and see how they interact with the space. except it’s always vague and sometimes a throw-away line places a window or a wall where i didn’t think it was and i have to redo the entire space in my head…… it’s a struggle but after so many times rereading aftg, i have a pretty solid idea
this is just a long way of saying i have decided to take what’s in my head and make it into reality and i have made floor plans for aftg lol
so far, i have done the foxes’ dorm (both how i think the entire floor is laid out and each of their three rooms), wymack’s apartment, and abby’s house. i plan on doing the cali places later, don’t even worry
of course tumblr is corrupting the quality but in my head there are five rooms to each side of the hall and the stairs are right next to the monsters' room. that stray white box is an elevator supposedly.... i had no idea how or where the elevator should be so i just kinda threw it there, don't laugh. and we know the soccer kids live on their floor so they have the rooms across the hall
i placed everything based on descriptions gathered from the first four books (thank you jean for telling us they do in fact have stoves even if they are just two burners). i gave kevin's desk an extra monitor to watch games on lol and andrew has to be by a window to smoke out of it. also, the beds are bunked. i know this looks big but it was hard to get the spacing right..........
for the girls, i mirrored the monsters' room because i know that piping tends to make apartments laid out so kitchens or bathrooms are back to back with your neighbors. they also get a fancy extra chair and a bigger tv bc allison is rich and you can't tell me their room wouldn't have the nicest furniture. i feel like dan would have the bottom bunk, renee the top, and allison the lone lofted bed but that's just me lol
we know matt and neil shoved their three desks by the windows and in my head, matt and neil's bunk is on the left while seth's lofted bed is on the right. and matt and neil have their dressers underneath seth's bed and his is by the window
this was actually interesting because we know that the front door is out of sight from the doorway of the study and that there are windows in the living room so i put in this turn to the hall. again, the space looks huge here but that's mainly because i didn't want to have to shrink and rearrange all the walls over and over again
abby's was the hardest by far. i went back and scoured the books for more information about her house because i was struggling and have struggled with it since my first read through. we know that there is a doorway to the kitchen (so i couldn't give her the open floor plan i wanted) and that the bedroom jean stayed in was just down the hall from the bathroom. i ended up giving abby her own master bath just because i felt like it but i have no idea if that is canon. and the hall bath seemed too large so i put in a laundry room randomly but whatever. we also know she has a two car driveway so i made the shape of the house a little funky. and in my head, during summer break aaron and nicky stay in one bedroom and andrew and kevin are in the other one. i put kandrew in the bedroom down the hall because it is farther from the front door and andrew would like that imo. that is also the bedroom jean is in after renee takes him from evermore. and of course she needed a huge dining room table to fit everyone
ANYWAY, if you made it this far i am surprised and thank you for entertaining this. i can also share all the passages i used to piece together these floor plans cause they are all bookmarked but that felt like too much to include here and i doubt anyone cares. feel free to debate wall placements in the comments, i would love to talk to you about it as you can probably tell
and if literally anyone is interested, i can and will make these in the sims and then they will be real cute and colorful floor plans. i will probably do it anyway for my own enjoyment but whether i post them is up in the air
pt. 2 pt. 3 (cali)
slowly starting to make wymack’s apartment in the sims and let me tell you, it’s a struggle
why are there simultaneous so many options and no variety for kitchen cabinetry 😭 i have to keep repeating to myself this is 2006 this is 2006 this is 2006. bitch how the fuck did cabinets look in 2006…….
between that and trying to do decor choices like a middle aged man, i have my work cut out for me
funniest part of tsc was when trojans went to the beach and the whole time jean was panicking over only two things
1. the possibility of jeremy drowning
2. jeremy’s wet thighs in those shorts
men be fighting devils and the devils in question are phobia of water from being waterboarded & hot men
just got home after a night out and i’m drunk and thinking of the monsters getting to their columbia house drunk af and crashing the way i’m about to
dude i was dancing in a circle of my friends while leaning against the back of a stranger and i couldn’t think of anything except nicky and aaron on the dance floor week after week just getting drunk and turning up. partying with them would be so fun i can’t
there's this artist i follow @clementinecloudz who does younger version art of particularly andrew but they've started drawing lil neil as well and now my brain is full of kid headcanons.
- aaron and andrew live with betsy
- kevin and neil live with wymack and abby.
- kevin was obsessed when wymack started dating abby. he loved her, wanted to be her friend right off the bat. neil was suspicious asf and still isn't a big fan of her living in their house.
- aaron and andrew have entirely opposite tastes for food and it drives betsy crazy because whatever one likes the other doesn't so she's always making two different meals.
- andrew is all over the place and the thought of bringing him crowded places stresses betsy out because what if she loses him, but the first time they go to the zoo on a super busy day, he will not let go of her hand.
- aaron on the other hand, absolutely refuses to hold betsy's hand. he'll hold andrew's though.
- andrew, neil, and aaron are absolutely the kid who would shove another kid on the playground.
- kevin loves hanging out with the whole group, but will put on a show of rolling his eyes and complaining about having to hang out with little kids.
- the wymack household will go through a box of bandaids a week and solely due to neil.
- kevin and neil wrestle when they play and it stresses wymack out. they've broken a coffee table and two lamps.
- andrew, kevin, and neil are way more into exy than aaron.
- betsy meets wymack when he starts coaching the little league team for andrew/aaron's age group.
Thinking about Wymack putting up with Neil, alone, during his senior year. None of the other foxes are there to deal with his antics. Kevin isn’t there to talk about everything Exy related. Andrew isn’t there to keep him grounded and sane. Allison and Nicky aren’t pushing him out of his comfort zone with his style, appearance, etc. Matt isn’t there to be a friend. Dan can’t help him captain his team. Aaron isn’t there to annoy him. Renee isn’t there with her gentle, reassuring smile.
I know that some of the freshman from the EC become Neil’s friends, but it isn’t the same as the OG Foxes.
So, he turns to one of the few people he trusts, Dad Wymack™️. Neil joins him in his office for lunch and tells him all about Andrew’s most recent Exy game. “Did you see how many saves Andrew made last night?” 38. It was beautiful.” *heart eyes* Coach returns his attention to the paperwork he was working on when Neil walked in. He half listens as the striker explains a movie that Nicky said he needed to watch to understand current trends.
After a game night, Neil goes home with Wymack, who now lives together with Abby, and stays for dinner with the couple, yapping about everything that plagued him that day. “I talked to Andrew last night and he was telling me about this drill his pro team does at practice. He thinks it’s stupid, of course, but I think it could help us get through the other team’s defense easier.” He goes on to explain the drill between bites of pasta and sauce.
When Neil leaves, Coach looks at Abby, feeling slightly dumbfounded, “I never knew the kid could say so many words in such a short time.” Abby lets out a chuckle.
“I don’t get any paperwork finished anymore with him around so much.” He explains with fake annoyance. She gives him a soft smile, “He just misses Andrew and the rest of our Foxes. I think it’s says a lot that he trusts you with the details of his private life. We all know how hard that is for him.”
Dad Wymack sits in his thought for a quiet minute, thinking back to the locker room in Millport with the brown-haired, brown-eyed boy who was scared to live. To the airport before the new year with the red-haired, blue-eyed boy who was fighting for his family. To a cheap motel in Baltimore with a boy covered in scars who fought to stay and live. Neil has come a long way and Wymack’s chest swells with pride and love for the striker.
Two days later, on Monday, Neil shows up right on time for Wymack’s lunch hour, but the older man doesn’t mind the sound of Neil’s chattering over their shared lunch. “Allison told me my hair is getting too long, but the shampoo she sent me is making my curls look “delicious”. I don’t know what she means by that, how hair can look edible, but Andrew says not to worry about it. Speaking of Andrew, do you know how much he has been bench pressing in the gym? He’s up to—“
Wymack lets out a quiet, exasperated sigh as he leans back in his chair, accepting his fate for the next year as Neil continues talking. He may act annoyed about his new lunch time guest, but it means a lot that Neil feels safe with him, even if that means learning about pop culture and Neil’s distaste for broccoli.
am i the only one who thinks that walsh and abbot act like exes on the pitt
gabi (she/they) || tired english major, perpetual doc wearer, avid fanfic reader, root beer connoisseur || i fear i have never been normal about anything ever || i love aftg, arcane, and spiderverse
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