Do You Think He Loved History So Much Because He Looked At The Ravens And Saw The Nest As Another Civilization

him not being able to fight is literally a whole subplot in my opinion. early on in tfc he actually says how he is an instigator through and through and can only start fights, not finish them, assumedly because of his smart mouth

“Neil was much better at instigating fights than winning them, but it'd be worth losing if he could just put a fist through Kevin's face once. Starting a fight was too out of character for who he portrayed "Neil" to be, though.” - tfc, chapter five

he realizes that he cannot fight, that he could throw a punch or two but would get his ass beat cause that’s not his strong suit. with weapons it could be a different story but like OP said, his training was when he was very young and mary took him before he moved on to cutting up the human body (it actually wasn’t EC, it’s in tkm which is cool)

“He didn't say he'd used knives before; one couldn't grow up a Wesninski without having a blade pushed into his hand. Nathan didn't have the time or patience to teach his son but he'd put two of his people to the task. Luckily Neil left home before he progressed past cutting up hunks of dead animals.” - tkm, chapter three

we can guess that on the run, he had to put his limited fighting skills into action to survive and that he might be a bit better if he had a gun or a knife but he is not close to renee’s level and that’s okay. he doesn’t want to be. he even admits that he doesn’t want to learn how to fight with knives because it reminds him too much of his father.

"So those knives [Andrew] brings everywhere are yours?" "Were mine," Renee said. "He was right; I don't need them anymore. If you need them, he will give them to you, and I will teach you how to use them." She wasn't smiling anymore. Neil studied her calm expression and knew she meant it. She'd put her faith in mankind and her Christian piety on hold and show him how to cut a man open throat to groin if he asked her to. […] "Thank you," Neil said, "but no. I don't want to be like—him." - tkm, chapter three

and him not being good with his fists is important because he feels a bit helpless after drake happens and goes to matt to ask him for help. because matt knows how to fight because of his mother and neil is aware of that, aware of his shortcomings, and asks for lessons

“That night he asked Matt to teach him how to fight. Matt looked surprised by the request but agreed, and they spent the rest of the evening figuring out when they could possibly meet up for lessons. […] Matt promised to get Neil a pair of gloves the next time he went out.” -trk, chapter fourteen

neil not being able to fight is important because it goes hand in hand with him being a runner. he knows how to start fights and how to run away from them. we can even assume he knows how to fight just enough to find an opening to run. but throughout the trilogy he is learning how to stand his ground and not run at the first hint of danger. learning to lean on others and how to fight is part of that journey meaning he has to be bad at it at first. and i don’t believe he ever gets great at it. because he doesn’t want to pick up a knife and while he learns how to fight from matt (which is phenomenal, i love their friendship so much) part of point of the books is neil healing and not needing to fight anymore. after riko dies and after baltimore, neil has less reason to know how to fight than before and i think he doesn’t put his full effort in mastering it. i believe that he learns how to stand his own in a fight because he wants to have the safety that comes with it but knows that he has andrew to lean on now should he need him

i keep seeing people say neil is canonically better at fighting than andrew??? genuinely confused as to where this is coming from outside of fanon...like genuinely why do people think he can beat andrew or even renee in a fight? neil is not physically intimidating like andrew. he is not capable of the same physical violence (maybe if u give him a gun). and yeah i see people point to his upbringing with nathan and MAYBE im cheating bcus im pretty sure this was only mentioned in the EC but his training never moved past dead animals. mary literally took him and ran before they could move to training him on live ones, and i think that's evidence that he wouldn't be some insanely crazy good knife fighter (also the fact all of this occured before he turned 10).

and call me crazy but there's No Evidence that Mary taught him Any physical fighting while they were on the run during those 8 years. in fact i think there's more subtextual evidence for her refusing to teach him both so that 1) he'd remain dependent on her and 2) so there was no chance he could become like nathan. like did we forget that his whole thing is getting his ass beat. over n over again. this is, i would argue, one of his most character defining traits. the foxes' battered wife in the wise words of one david wymack. mr "i start fights and let andrew finish them" josten.

love language of sharing cigarettes

Three and four

sorry to say but i desperately need an over 100,000 word slow burn of abbot and robby falling in love with them being idiots, them struggling to deal with their trauma, robby navigating his relationship with his religion, abbot having chronic pain, tragic backstory, nonlinear healing, etc etc etc

they are so so fractured and broken and i need them to be in love and messily figuring out how to heal with each other

jerejean fake dating au where someone wont leave jean alone and cat is like “wait! i have the perfect solution” and sets them up to date fake date.

she knows from laila and her own observations that jeremy needs to stop hooking up with those fuck ass guys because he deserves someone who doesn’t treat him like shit. and knows that jeremy is kind enough to help a friend of her’s out if she says it’s dire (which in her defense, it is) without looking too hard at her reasoning.

even in a fake relationship, jeremy won’t cheat, never mind that they have to keep up appearances, which means no more self-harm hookups. add on that jeremy’s demeanor will fight off jean’s harasser bc he acts as a trojan does and pulls shit like “oh! that’s rude, considering your current roster. i hope you apologize to them later” so cat is assured that they will be the perfect match for helping their current problems.

but while she mainly wants to help out two people she cares about, she secretly thinks they would be good together and for each other. (it’s not so secret, laila has heard her talk it up for hours)

and then, of course, they fall in love

What if agent Browning has a family and one day at dinner one of his kids tells them that they want to start playing Exy or they just get really into Exy and start watching it all the time and they don’t understand why their dad is so against it and he’s not allowed to explain. But also he doesn’t want his kids to feel bad or like he doesn’t care about their interests so he just has to suck it up and go along with it. Extra bonus if one of their favorite players is Jean, Kevin, Neil, or Jeremy.

This man will forever be haunted by this sport.

AND WHAT IF I SCREAM?!? AND WHAT IF I LOSE MY MIND!?!!? what then

you gave me a key and called it home.

One of many third book makeouts 🫡

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.

still thinking about this and i have another reason why neil should have fucked teeth: his smart mouth. like that boy is always struggling to stay silent and hold his tongue. and yes we know he canonically loses his cool and just accepts that he’s gonna die soon like oh well, why not say the crazy thing. but you can’t tell me that attitude problem hasn’t existed and hasn’t gotten him into some trouble before. and i’m just saying, i think it’s gotten him punched in the mouth before which i think would fuck up his teeth a little

you cannot tell me that neil doesn’t have wacked teeth. like he didn’t have a consistent dentist growing up if he even had a dentist at all. because dentist scans mean leaving unchangable, undeniable truths of your identity behind and mary would not have liked that at all.

so give me neil with a chipped tooth he got from a rough landing after jumping out of a car or a window. give me neil with a gap between his front teeth. give me neil with crooked teeth to match his crooked smile