Take the light inside you like a blessing, like a knee in the chest, holding onto it and not letting go. Now let it go.
RICHARD SIKEN / You are Jeff.

After a few hours' sleep, the father had a dream that his child was standing beside his bed, caught him by the arm and whispered to him reproachfully: "Father, don't you see I'm burning?"
SIGMUND FREUD / The Interpretation of Dreams.

Newton's Third Law decrees that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. When a small bug, so crushable beneath man's fingertips, flies into the windshield of a car, this last pattern dictates that it must impact. It's the greater force of the car that dictates the bug dies, even if it meets the car with its own force. Or when gravity pushes you towards the ground, knees scuffed with the dirt of Mother Earth, the ground is pushing up against you. This is a fact. This is science.

But this is life.

When a woman dies, no matter how young you are, the aftermath feels like a ripple. Even a flash—a photo, blemished by the pixels of a computer screen—is enough action to create crashing waves of reaction induced by grief. It begins a complicated process where the handle of an Exy racquet and the neck of a bottle are more reachable than the truth: Valentine Wymack is dead and Emerson Wymack has been left alive. Left with the pieces of a cracked mosaic; where she can still feel the arms of the woman who gave her the gift of breathing, only for her to be taken away too soon.

Picking up the pieces of herself and the rest of her Foxes, Emerson expects her 4th year at Palmetto State University to go the same as the last. A cycle: eat, sleep, go to class, play Exy, repeat. But she's swiftly proved wrong.

Newton's Third Law decrees that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. When a boy—built of lies and omissions, falsehoods and fabrications—arrives on the doorstep of Palmetto State, so clearly half-dead on his feet and scraping by to survive, there has to be an impact. This is the spark that starts the fire. It's the greater strength of outside forces that dictates the splatter, the web of repercussions.

There's no denying that Neil Josten is a recipe for disaster, but he's theirs now. He is a Fox, and Emerson wouldn't have it any other way, even in the brunt of the reaction. She will deal with it, like she always has.

Lizeth Selene as
Emerson Wymack.....
#15 / STRIKER.

HAMLET: O fuck.
( Exit HAMLET. )

Nicola Peltz as
Allison Reynolds.....
#7 / DEFENSIVE DEALER.

Just found out the world doesn't revolve around me.
Shocked & upset.

FEATURING:

The Palmetto State Foxes

Dan Wilds.....
#1 / OFFENSIVE DEALER.

Kevin Day.....
#2 / STRIKER.

Andrew Minyard.....
#3 / GOALKEEPER.

Matt Boyd.....
#4 / BACKLINER.

Aaron Minyard.....
#5 / BACKLINER.

Seth Gordon.....
#6 / STRIKER.

Nicky Hemmick.....
#8 / BACKLINER.

Renee Walker.....
#9 / GOALKEEPER.

Neil Josten.....
#10 / STRIKER.

David Wymack.....
#0 / COACH.

+++

Havana Rose Liu as
Maude Wu.....
PARTNER IN CRIME.

Madelyn Cline as
Aster Adler.....
THE DIVA.

Madelyn Cline as.....
Anaya Adler
THE MASCOT.

NEWTON'S LAW.

I THINK I'VE SEEN THIS FILM BEFORE.

no you haven't (yes you have) shut up.

📍first off, trigger warnings. ⚠️  absolutely do not read this or the series if you don't think you can handle mentions of any of these things or them in graphic detail. do not ever compromise your mental health for the sake of something like a fic. there are going to be mentions of death / graphic violence, alcohol, mental illness / some harmful stigmas surrounding it, unhealthy coping mechanisms, homophobia / racism / sexism, suicide, implied sexual assault, the gross and disgusting manipulation of people, abuse, conversion therapy, child abuse, eating disorders, torture and whatever warnings i've missed from the series itself. within the external link i have put the list of trigger warnings from the series and i'll include it here ( https://cabeswaterlovesthem.tumblr.com/post/142112202373/detailed-list-of-trigger-warnings-for-the-foxhole ). i also want to take this time to say my messages are always open if anybody needs to talk or vent and this is a reminder to take care of yourself.

📍second off, i obviously do not own content or characters from the aftg series. it obviously belongs to nora. BUT she can pry these characters from my cold dead hands bc she doesn't deserve them and their potential. some characters from her extra content (robin, jack and sheena) will appear later on but any others will be of my own creation and therefore are mine. steal any of this and i'll take a page out of andrew's book :)

📍third off, this is dedicated to my curran walters fanclub ( bayports, metalbenders and sweetjawregui ). especially park for being kind enough to make all of the graphics for this so that the story is possible. and taryn for allowing me to continue using maude. this is also dedicated to artemistics and pipcdream. aimee is to blame for me bringing this back. anyway, i love you all very much and thank you for standing me.

📍this is very much a character study. any romance that takes place will be extremely second to what emerson needs to work through and this is your warning now: if you came here for romance cuteness, you're not going to get very much of it. i'm choosing to place the integrity of my character's journey first rather than anything else. treat it like the character study it is or this isn't going to be very fun for any of us. however, allison and emerson's relationship will still have a steady focus within the story. it just may not go as quickly as you want it to.

📍this is a crossover featuring taryn's old oc maude from the original draft of this fic