The Foxhole Court Tumblr Part 2

Does the Fox-Trojan rematch happen? Also how do the Trojans & Jean get along?

tbh i fell in love with the trojans from the start, and my love for them only augmented when neil's backliner (alvarez?) said she'd love to play against the foxes the following year with the exact same number of players in the trojan's line-up as them. so, does that game ever happen? and how does jean collaborate with the trojans, seeing as the aggressive mentality and the toxic environment to which he's used to are so very different from the trojans'?

The Trojans are sweethearts; hopefully they'll keep it up throughout any & all future management changes.

The Trojans & Foxes do have a rematch the following year, albeit with different numbers – the Foxes have more players next year, so the Trojans are allowed to bring more to the court as well. This time the Trojans win, though it's definitely a close call! The Foxes are happy with their performance and with the Trojans' efforts, but losing there means going home – they draw straws for the second death match. So it's a little disappointing.

((USC goes on to win championships, soundly beating Penn State))

((Kevin is v v pleased))

((unrepentant fanboy))

Jean has a really rough time with the Trojans. I want to say "at first" but "at first" sounds so temporary, like a couple months of summer practices would be enough to really help him. In truth he has a rough time with them for the better part of his entire first year there.

He's had a pretty awful time of things, and everything in King's Men happened so fast – his abduction from Castle Evermore, his new unasked-for contract with Ichirou, the Ravens' defeat, Riko's death, and Tetsuji's resignation —- after so many years of the same relentless abuse it is too much too soon for him to absorb. Hell, he and Kevin don't even talk about Riko or Riko's death until after the Foxes & Trojans face each other .

The good(??) news is that Riko's death kind of breaks something inside him. Breaks? Breaks is a strange word, but I don't have a better one. When Jean arrives in SoCal, he's pretty numb. He is free and Riko is gone, he is free and Riko is gone, he is free??? It still feels like a trap. Riko is dead but the other shoe must drop at some point, right?

So yeah, Jean is a whole lot of Not Okay going into his new contract, but he's surrounded by a team that is both willing to absorb his hurt & rage and completely unwilling to tolerate Raven strategies & attitudes on their court. They can work around his sullen silences and smother his outbursts and stand calm in the face of his anger when it finally has to break, when their pacifism and good nature is just too much for him to take and Jean has to lash out, and then they can just pick up and keep moving like "OK but did that actually help?"

Jeremy occasionally appeals to Kevin for insight on how the Ravens' Nest worked so he can adjust his approach to Jean as necessary. Kevin helps where he can. Kevin is the one who warns Jeremy he cannot go anywhere alone, we Ravens don't know how. Jeremy wars with this concept for a while, because he doesn't want to encourage Jean to hang onto Raven ideologies, but he doesn't want to make the transition any harder than it has to be.

((That is one of the hardest things for Jean to adjust to, is the fact that the Trojans are allowed to do things outside of Exy that don't include each other. By the time he goes to California he's been away from the Ravens' hive mind for a couple months, but he's spent that time hiding in a bedroom at Abby's house. Being able to go to class or the grocery store or the gym without any of his teammates in attendance is just—unfathomable))

Renee is also hard at work behind the scenes, keeping in touch with Jean long-distance and giving him a safe place to vent about.

The further they get from Riko's death, the longer Jean is surrounded by the Trojans' easygoing attitudes, the more Jean talks to Renee and his new counselor, the easier it gets. Jean's fifth year is calmer than his fourth year was, though he'll never be true Trojan material. He's still not okay when he graduates, but he's significantly better, and he at least knows that he can maybe be okay one day.