Every Time Someone Draws Fem Andrew And Neil An Angel Gains Its Wings And Then Gets Given A Thank You

love at first sight

My canon: Neil is super weird, but in a way people don't expect and it catches them unaware. He will have a perfectly normal conversation with you and then you realise he doesn't ignore the first slice of bread of the loaf, uses it right after opening it to make a sandwich. He doesn't have a set way of replacing the toilet paper roll. He does sock-shoe-sock-shoe. He takes the peel of the banana off completely before eating it on the go. He unplugs the laptop yanking on the cable not the plug. He eats kiwis with the skin on like they're apples. He eats dry cereal then drinks a glass of milk.

Neil Josten is like an alien that has managed to blend in quite well with the humans but sometimes he does something that reminds you he's a martian

Jean “damn him for looking just as good as a blond as he did a brunette” Moreau

Jeremy “forgot everything else he could have said in favor of staring. It was the first time he’d heard Jean say his name. Hearing it in Jean’s accent put a wicked flutter in his stomach.” Knox

Jean “noticed the flick of his gaze over Jean’s face and down to his shirt: the deep blue top Jeremy had seemed so taken with yesterday.” Moreau

Jeremy “It was more endearing than it should be, and Jeremy hid a smile against his long-empty mug whenever Jean got particularly rude.” Knox

Jean “The sound of his language on Jeremy’s lips was enough to give Jean pause. He counted his heartbeats as he studied Jeremy’s face, committing the textbook-perfect sounds to memory” Moreau

Jeremy “it wasn’t the words that set his heart tripping; It was the heavy satisfaction in his tone that put a needy heat in Jeremy’s stomach.” Knox (all because Jean said he was very good.)

Jean “and like Kevin had accused him, Jean had been ultimately more interested in the accompanying photographs than whatever the text might have said.” Moreau

Jeremy “he couldn’t look away again. He watched colored lights dance off the sun-reddened cheeks until Jean finally caught him at it.” Knox

Jean “Jeremy’s smile was slow and radiant, and Jean had to look away.” Moreau

Jeremy “I’m not learning French for anyone but you” Knox

Jean “It makes you more interesting. Not your capacity for unkindness, but how fiercely you fight against it.” Moreau

Jeremy “It was enough to get Jean’s undivided attention, at least until Jeremy peeled his tank top off. Jean immediately found something else to stare at, like he always did when Jeremy was in varying stages of undress. It was horrifically inappropriate fighting for Jean’s attention like this, Jeremy knew.” Knox

Jean “didn’t have to look at Jeremy to know he was smiling, he could practically feel the warmth radiating off his captain” Moreau

Jeremy “would be lucky to know his own name when Jean was standing between his legs like this.” Knox

Jean “Fuck what I deserve. What about what I want? Moreau

Jeremy “Jean’s fingers on his neck killed his train of thought” Knox

Jean “I am not sorry. Perhaps I should be. But I will choose you every time. You, and Cat, and Laila, every time. I will lose them all if I must.” Moreau

Jeremy “What little Jeremy heard went way over his head; he knew nothing about motorcycles, and Jean was more interesting by far.” Knox

Jean “Brown like the gaze that sought Jean out in every room.” Moreau

💕 Jean “Tell Kevin to stay out of it” Moreau 💕

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

They’re gonna work it out on the remix

“As soon as the upperclassmen parked and got out, Andrew pointed at Neil. "Look, one piece."

"Are you bleeding anywhere?" Matt asked.

"Nowhere vital,” Neil said.” - tfc ch. 6

HE’S LITERALLY SUCH AN INSTIGATOR I WILL NEVER GET OVER IT SHDKSJDKJSJD

like babe you’re not bleeding at all stfu (so so lovingly) you just know the upperclassmen don’t trust andrew, have your own tensions with him, and are turning his sarcasm around as your own to instigateeeeee

she renders me speechless actually

if you see her smiling, duck,,

yes, fem!neil for your eyes only

(got inspired by a tweet so go say thank you to that person)

My son 😫🙏

bitchy older sister allison and bratty younger brother neil is actually a top tier dynamic

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.