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supercap2319 · 1 year

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Wanda: "Why was Ikaris naked and hiding in the pantry in the kitchen?"

Y/N: "Because you guys caught me before I could hide him in the bathroom."

Ikaris: *Blushes* "I'll go put some clothes on."

Steve: "Yeah, you better."

#x male reader #male reader insert #male x male #ikaris x male!reader #ikaris eternals #ikaris #richard madden x male reader #richard madden #young maximoff sibling #wanda maximoff #steve grant rogers

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softquietsteadylove · 2 months

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Let's turn the tables!

Sersi and Dane have the eternal/human relationship. What if Thena and Gilgamesh have this relationship? They've been married for a long time and live their lives together. But through an incident, Gilgamesh learns of Thena's true identity as an Eternal.

"So," Gil started as he took a seat next to her, among the other civilians who were caught up in the 'alien incident' and being treated by the first responders.

Thena inhaled and immediately sighed, budging over with her shock blanket over her shoulders. He took a seat beside her. She pulled the blanket tighter around her, "so."

He was used to having to guide the conversation between the two of them. Even if he'd gotten some pretty new information in the last hour. "So...you're not a wizard?"

Thena let out a faint kind of laugh, although her throat was tight. "I'm afraid not."

Gil nodded, looking down at his feet. He turned to her, looking at her hands tucked away inside the blanket. "Can you show me again?"

Thena pulled out her hand, and even regardless of the general masses mulling around, she furrowed her brows. But all that happened was a faint golden spark, fizzling as soon as it appeared. "I shouldn't have been able to do it at all."

Gil waited, as he always did, patiently biding his time as she sorted her words out the way she wanted. He was owed the explanation, of course, after witnessing her pull up her shield into her hand after hundreds of years of her powers being dormant.

"We're called Eternals, from the planet Olympia," she began. "We came here 7000 years ago on the Domo, our starship, to protect humans from the Deviants."

"Deviants," he nodded, looking around. The carcass of the beast in question was already being covered up and transported by the authorities. "That's what that thing is?"

Thena also looked over to the beast's body. "We thought they were extinct. I killed my last one over four hundred years ago, before my family parted ways."

Gil looked at her.

She fidgeted with the blanket again, "my, um, siblings."

"Okay," he said aloud more than in response to anything. It was his way of trying to talk through what he was feeling. It sounded just the same as when she would tell him she threw out his terrible smelling sourdough starter. Or when she had asked about getting a pet but only if it was reptilian. "So, you and your siblings fought these things...hundreds of years ago."

She nodded.

"So," he blinked, making a face. He was uncomfortable. "Why did you stay on earth?"

Thena looked down at her lap--at her useless, powerless hands. "We weren't called home, so we remained on the planet. But with the Deviants defeated, there was no reason to stay together for some of us."

"Some of you?" Gil asked with a frown. He had at least some of the story. He knew that she had favourites among her siblings, to say the least.

"There was something else." That was quite an understatement, even for her. She held out her hand again, still unable to get more than a few sparks. "There is a sickness you can develop as an Eternal. It's called Mahd Wy'ry."

Gil's face showed a mix of things, but she knew he wasn't entirely happy when he said, "does it give you migraines?"

Thena winced, but she knew that he wasn't saying it to worsen what was happening, or hurt her in any way. He had a right to feel deceived. Their entire marriage probably seemed deceptive given what he was learning.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, slipping his hand into the blanket to close against hers, even pressing her little fizzles of Cosmic Energy between their palms. "I'm just trying to understand all this."

She couldn't blame him, really. She squeezed his hand, their fingers woven together, as they often were. "Mahd Wy'ry degrades the powers over time. It slowly affects the ability to call upon the Cosmic Energy an Eternal possesses until they are all but estranged from it."

Gil squeezed her hand again. "You had a shield in your hand. It was gold and it looked like it was both clear and-"

Thena shook her head. "Gil, I haven't been able to do that in centuries. I don't know how I did it then."

Gilgamesh sighed, though. He pulled her hand towards him, out from the blanket until he could kiss her wedding ring. "You saved my life, hon."

That was how. Thena looked at the man - the human man - she loved, feeling as if her heart could weep. This sweet, gentle human man who had given her his whole heart was still here with her. Upon hearing she was ageless, that she was an alien and that she had powers lying dormant within her.

Thena leaned up and in, tipping her head up for a kiss. Once, years ago, this movement was completely foreign to her. But now, she was practised in it. And her husband granted her request, pressing his lips to hers.

"Hey," he whispered, pressing his forehead to hers and holding her cheek. The simple word brought tears to her eyes. "Look, this is a lot to absorb. But...you're still Thena, right?"

She nodded, too teary to speak quite yet.

"Okay then," he resolved with another kiss. He pulled back enough to look at her. "So, what else do I need to know?"

Thena sighed again. Oh, her sweet, sweet Gilgamesh. Always so ready to face whatever came his way. Even the positively poisonous dinner she cooked for him on their second wedding anniversary in an honest attempt to be romantic.

"Sersi really is a humanitarian, and she helped me adjust to living as a human for the first few decades when I was on my own. And she did go north to make it work with Ikaris, but instead of being stationed in Alaska, he just...flew off, one day. None of us knew why."

Gil made a face but kept silent. He knew how they felt about Ikaris.

"Druig was most worried about my illness," she smiled at the thought of her brother. "He offered to stay with me, make sure I was safe. But in the end he agreed that I should find a way to live my own life."

Gil nodded and kissed her hand again. He was a big believer in living life the way one wanted without regrets.

"After I managed to go a few years without questions about my 'oddness' or my skin routine, I figured it was safe to venture further. I travelled some, taught languages to cover for my knowledge of things," she smiled. She always did value those years. And she could see why Sersi fell so in love with the planet at first sight.

"How did you end up here?"

"I travelled with Kingo some. I liked the heat of the eastern continents and eventually I determined Australia was a good fit for me," she concluded, looking around them. There was damage, certainly, but Sydney as a whole would recover.

Gil squeezed her hand again, "will they come? If these things were supposed to be dead, I mean."

Thena nodded. She could imagine her siblings with the same issues, at least some of them. There was no telling what it meant for them if Deviants were indeed roaming the earth again. And for them to find her here, even without her powers, they could surely find Druig in his remote commune or Sprite buried in her illusions.

"Well," Gil cleared his throat and shifted his posture. He gave her his most encouraging smile, like when he was trying to tell her that just stirring what he had on the stove would not make it explode. "Think they'll like me?"

Thena pulled him in to kiss her again. In all honesty, she didn't know what they would think of her human husband. Even the siblings with whom she was closest wouldn't call her one to share details of herself. But she held his cheek as she told him, "I love you, so they will have to as well."

#Thenamesh AU #I love this idea!!!#Gil says get behind me!#man's trying to protect his wife #next thing he knows she's in front of him #and there's a shield materialised out of nowhere on her arm #his jaw drops but it's gone in the blink of an eye #no one else saw it #and the thing that was chasing after them is stumbling back like it ran into an stoppable force #or the immovable object #it gets taken down by human authorities #If only they had a brother who could wipe the incident from the minds of the entire city #they do come by the way #Ikaris and Sprite and Sersi arrive first #Ikaris looks at his sister holding hands with a human and is like #I'm going back to the arctic #Thena: good I hope you freeze to death up there #Gil: ah siblings

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eternalowl · 1 year

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Druig: I'm bored.

Thena: Would you like to commit first degree murder with me?

Druig: Yes.

Ajak, hearing them: Wha- No- Stop, don't do that! Put that knife down and dematerialize your weapons! Put Ikaris down!

#thena #druig #ajak #ikaris #eternals #tHEY ARE SIBLINGS-#eternals incorrect quotes

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terusiblings-ask · 2 years

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Does Makoto have any friends he seems kinda lonely barging into saikis house all the time to complain about whatever

[Of course I have friends! My little sister is my best friend~]

(...)

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bullet-rebuttle · 20 days

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Shiro, Ritsu, Tsubame, and Daigo Ikari

#⏳rika ikari⏳#Ikari siblings #ooc #musings

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sunshine-jesse · 4 months

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Ashley Literally Did Nothing Wrong, Fuck You, Fight Me

Alt title: Ashley Graves: The most convenient scapegoat in the world

I'm going to espouse a take here that will no doubt be controversial, as you can tell by the title. This is a take I've created from my hollistic understanding of the events of the game, and isn't dependent on any one single point I make in this essay. Because of that, I want you to read it with an open mind; if you hyperfocus on one or two smaller details I might've gotten wrong or are fallaciously interpretated, and either use that to discount the whole essay or go into the comment section and immediately try to debunk my interpretation of that event, that'll make it obvious to me that you're not trying to seriously engage with the core of what I'm trying to say. Because unless quite literally everything I've said here is wrong, I feel confident in saying this:

Ashley Graves did nothing wrong.

Moreover, I think Ashley is on the level of people like Rossiu, Shinji Ikari, and Skylar White as far as people who are mistreated by their fandoms goes.

At first this was going to be an essay about how I don't think the demons are evil, using textual and thematic evidence to show that they're just part of a system that deals mostly fairly with humans and doesn't have any nefarious plans, or at least nefarious plans that stand to fuck anyone over. But then I realized that, goodness gracious, that is boring as shit to write! But I looked at what I had written already and realized that I could write something else with it: something better. I could sum up a lot of the points made in my prior essays and elaborate upon them in much more detail, showing why I think certain themes are obviously present within this game. And here, I intend on doing that.

I've spoken a lot before about how Ashley is a scapegoat for all of Andrew's worst habits; and to a lesser extent, her mother's. The game makes it seemingly obvious that she's the bad one, and generally just a Very Not Good person. It shows her and her brother committing many different acts that are, under most moral systems, wrong, and implicitly implies that she's the reason that Andrew ever did those things. It implies that she's corrupting him, that he could be better and refuses- or is unable to- due to her poking and prodding. But… is that the truth? Is that how their relationship actually works, in practice? I don't believe so. I think I've made it obvious by now that I believe the exact opposite!

I'm going to start off by tackling the morality behind their actions, especially relative to the world they're in. Specifically, I'm going to tackle how the game presents the morality of their actions from a thematic point of view, and any statements it may or may not make.

First of all, TCOAL plays with a lot of different taboos- demon summoning, cannibalism, incest, murder- but the game goes through great lengths to muddy the moral weight of the siblings' actions. Every single action they commit is portrayed in the most neutral possible light- killings were done in self defense (with one notable exception), or done to people who greatly wronged them, cannibalism was a necessity to survive (also with one notable exception), incest is shown to come from a marked improvement in their relationship- leading me to believe that this game is taking a hard morally nihilistic stance. Else, they'd be shown to suffer for their actions, when in reality, the literal exact opposite is happening; they are being rewarded for it. This isn't necessarily glorifying the actions, but instead showing that even the worst of actions can potentially be excused, but whether or not you do is up to the reader. Hence, nihilism, or at the very least, skepticism (as noted by Lisafication). There's an existentialist reading of this too, but I think much of that is contingent on the events of chapter 3 so I won't get into that here.

It contrasts this mostly nihilistic perspective on interpersonal taboos with the deep societal ills that drive people to commit such actions. Evil exists at every level of analysis here, but curiously, the only thing that are shown to do direct harm to others without having a justification of some kind- be it self-defense or retaliation- are those societal ills. There is no (morally) good reason to quarantine people, starve them, and harvest their organs. There's no good reason to burn all evidence and then put a hit on the ones who did escape. There's no good reason to extort sexual favors from someone in exchange for food. These are deep structural problems that force people to either retaliate/lash out or enable people's most exploitative or abusive habits lest they just let themselves die.

And thus, the obvious evils become much less obvious. The game makes a point of subverting the obvious or the well-known when it comes to morals, and I think it does so when it comes to everything else, too. Outside of those societal ills (so far, ch3 might have something else to say), every situation where someone could obviously be shown as the bad person in a situation is immensely more complex than it first appears. So much so that I'd argue that displaying said complexity and subverting simplicity to force/encourage people to analyze things deeper is one of the central themes of the game.

So why, exactly, does he blame so much on her? It's because Ashley is the world's most convenient scapegoat, and the game is well-aware of this and displays it in ways both obvious and not.

First off: the title screen has Ashley wielding the cleaver, establishing that she’s the violent one. It's covered in blood, too, implying that she's the one more driven to kill. The reality of this is the opposite; Andrew is the one with less hesitation to inflict violence on others, the cleaver is his weapon, and most of the kills in the story are done by him (and fully justified). Ashley might push him to do these violent acts, but… does she?

Her reaction to the death of the first warden is one of utter shock.

And her expression afterwards?

This is not the look of someone who enjoyed the fact that someone killed for her sake. This is not the look of someone who finds joy to be had in violence. It's not even the look of someone who is apathetic towards violence. It almost seems to express shame or guilt, but at the very least, she's timid over it. At the very least, it's an "oh shit, he actually had to do that for my sake" face. Not a "haha, I am making him worse!" face.

Not to mention, not only does Andrew kill the first Warden without a care in the world, he proactively kills the 302 lady to eliminate all witnesses, and because he believes Ashley would want him to. But Ashley actually grills him for it; she didn't want the 302 lady to die, although she hardly had good-person-reasons for it. But that's not my point. The point is that she is not the violent one between the two of them.

The door doesn't open in response to violence, remember?

The game intentionally misleads us.

And what happens when Ashley tries to make him take responsibility for all this violence? To point out that she didn't force him to do anything and that he chose to do all of it, including lock Nina in the box? She lashes out, hits him a few times… and then he goes to strangle her, and doesn't let go until she acknowledges that he has no reason for her to be around. He literally doesn't cease his threat to her life until she acknowledges she's useless to him.

I acknowledge that this isn't the most charitable framing for Andrew, and maybe too charitable for Ashley. After all, she wasn't indignant. She was mocking him. She found it hilarious. But I have reasons for that charitability that I'll go over towards the end. But even with that charitability in mind, I don't think my reading is too off base. Defaulting to laughter or mocking in stressful situations is just what Ashley does. She's not indignant about it; she just finds it hilarious that people keep pretending to be better than her, when they're not.

Andrew killed the 302 lady and used Ashley as a scapegoat to justify it; this is indisputable, stated in the text during the dream. This alone validates Ashley's point of view. There is no interpretation of this event that doesn't paint Andrew as every bit as unscrupulous as Ashley, and thinking she corrupted him into this- when it was both one of the first actions he did on his own in the story and something he explicitly uses Ashley as a scapegoat for- is just ridiculous. It's frankly unreasonable. She has every right to be sick of being used as a scapegoat. And at the very least, whether or not you accept the idea that Andrew only let Ashley go once she acknowledged that she's useless to him, he's still so taken aback by his misinterpretation of Ashley's desires that HE goes to strangle HER.

This is NOT Andrew triumphantly standing up to his abuser. This is both of their masks slipping; Andrew revealing how violent and insistent on keeping up his internal narrative that he is, and Ashley revealing that she's getting tired of being blamed for everything.

And then, when he finally lets her go… she hugs him, and acknowledges that she's happy that Nina is gone, which makes little sense at the face of it. Why would that be her first response to being let go, when it was ostensibly what made Andrew so upset to begin with?

I think, to her, it's a conciliatory gesture. As chapter 2 showed us, she's more than willing to take responsibility for violence to relieve Andrew of stress over it, as evidenced by her finishing off their parents. This is an earlier instance of that; by acknowledging she was happy that Nina was dead, she took responsibility for it. She willingly framed herself as a bad person here, so Andrew wouldn't have to be.

She let herself be the scapegoat, because it's all she ever knew. She put the mask back on.

This alone is enough to challenge the idea that Ashley 'corrupts' Andrew in any meaningful way. How, exactly, can you define it as corrupt when society itself is twisted enough to force these actions to survive? In a more sane world, a lot of their actions would've been bad, sure, but they're also actions that the siblings probably wouldn't have done in a more sane world. Ashley's actions aren't making Andrew worse, they're helping to ensure their survival. You could say that this is still corruptive in its own way, but at that point it seems like your reasoning is motivated by having already had that narrative rather than making a good-faith reading of their dynamic.

At no point did she actually make him worse; he was already like that and just used her as an excuse.

Next up is the Nina situation. This one is obviously cut and dry- Ashley manipulates Andrew into killing Nina because she wants no competition between the two of them. It's not Andrew's fault and Ashley was an evil abuser from the jump. Obvious, right?

No. It's really not.

It's pretty strongly implied that Ashley was mistreated by people her whole life. The Lemon Cupcake scene shows this in more detail, about how people always neglect or ignore her birthdays, but she also says that nobody likes her because she's weird and loud in the Nina flashback too. But unless something big happened in between the two flashbacks, none of this behavior indicates particularly maladaptive or even strange tendencies on Ashley's part. She's a needy, bratty child, and the closest thing to a friend she has- Nina- wants to take away the one thing from her that's a source of comfort and emotional validation.

It's not entirely rational, sure! But it also -makes perfect sense-. NOBODY treated her well throughout her entire life; it's strongly implied that Nina never did either, given Nina's reaction to Ashley being there and the lower left-hand painting past the Questionable door showing her being distant from the two of them. We can also see a star bouncing off of her head, and stars represent closeness in this game, so it shows there was an attempt made somewhere along the line, it's just not clear as to who made the attempt.

At the very least, Nina's reaction of disappointment fed into Ashley's preconceived notions of how people treat her, and how she deserves to be treated. Although, from what has been directly stated, rather than implied, Nina was nothing more than an innocent victim in this scenario; I don't mean to take that away from her.

"But she didn't care when Nina died?"

So? If Nina treated her like trash for most of her life, why should she care? She didn't expect Nina to die. It was just an acceptable consequence. You can say "That's not how normal kids act!" all you want, but there's a level of spite and apathy that comes with intense bullying and emotional neglect that I don't think you really understand unless you've been there to the extent someone like Ashley has implied to be.

Andrew, meanwhile, was the one who told Ashley that they had to lock Nina in the box to keep them in there. He's the one who looked for and found the stick to keep them locked in. You could say he was coerced by an abusive person into hurting someone, sure, but you'd be wrong. Cataclysmically wrong, even. Like, if you actually think that a seven year old girl (nobody wears overalls past the age of seven) can have anything approximating an abusive dynamic with her as the perpetrator with someone both older and stronger than her, you frankly have some issues with women you need to work out. That's simply not how abuse dynamics work at that age.

Andrew wasn't entirely responsible for it either, mind- he was just a kid who should never have been saddled with this kind of responsibility. But that's not my point; the point is that it enables other people, Andrew included, to use her as a scapegoat to avoid his own responsibility. All this scene does is retroactively justify any preconceptions you might've had about them from seeing their adult selves first. But the moment you start digging, it becomes much less obvious who's really culpable here. Andrew was, as evidenced by the blood oath scene, fully aware that he held the advantage over her in strength, and managed to give up nothing when making the oath while he made Ashley swear to silence. He was fully aware that he could've chosen to do better, but he refused, and instead opted to reinforce Ashley's insecurities for the sake of exerting control over her.

I've said before that the 302 lady was murdered without any input from Ashley, but this is also relevant on a meta-level because it's done without any input from the player, either. Both of the murders in chapter 1 were like that, whereas all that we, the player can choose to do in that chapter is either solve puzzles, or hilariously, die. The only person with control here is Andrew, the character, and this is reinforced by the fact that we have no control over him for much of the Nina flashback, too. He locks her in the box regardless of our input, even though Ashley spends a lot of time trying to convince him. The main difference between the Nina flashback and the scenes in the apartment is that Ashley had absolutely no idea that any of that was going to happen in the present, whereas it's something she wanted with Nina- which isn't that big of a difference when discussing how much agency she really has.

As much as the game frames Ashley as a manipulator- and much of the fanbase uncritically accepts- she is given shockingly little in-game control over many of the actions committed. Even in the case of the Hitman- as a good friend of mine pointed out- the only choice the player is given is whether or not to check the closet and be killed; an impulsive decision leading to a swift and unceremonious end. In the end, Andrew is the one given the choice to kill the hitman, and we can consciously choose whether or not his reaction is panicked or measured. No such choice is given to Ashley, as most of her reactions are impulsive and spontaneous rather than planned. This is not the makings of a standard "manipulative evil bitch" trope. She's pretty consistently portrayed as someone with poor impulse and emotional control who loudly and aggressively states her intent in every single scenario she's in.

And you can still call what she says and does manipulative despite that, sure, but at what point are you just pathologizing relatively normal (if extreme and highly emotional) social interactions for the sake of fitting into a narrative you already held?

We see Ashley's status as a scapegoat for people to use to pretend to be normal reach its most blatant with the parents. This time it's pretty cut and dry to anyone that doesn't already have it in their mind that Ashley is evil and unforgivable. Mrs. Graves explicitly brings up the possibility of a normal life without Ashley to Andrew in the basement, and claims that Ashley was at fault for shutting her out. She would've been a normal parent otherwise, right? Well, no; the game wastes no time in showing that this wasn't the case in the Burial ending.

From when Ashley was a baby, Mrs. Graves was already tired of her shit, and too emotionally exhausted to be a parent. Despite her attempts at blaming Ashley, she would've never been a normal parent unless Ashley was a golden child in the same way that Andrew was. And yet Ashley didn't even deny shutting her mom out. She didn't deny the chance to be used as a scapegoat; it was all she ever knew. The fact that Mrs. Graves had the audacity to claim that she was a saint when she was never prepared to be a parent for a child who didn't make it easy, and when she was willing to sell out her children and let them die for a life insurance payment is absolutely astounding.

This alone should've been enough to recontextualize everything we supposedly know about how responsible Ashley really is in all of this, but bad parents have a knack for being great at manipulating both family members and everyone viewing from the outside, including the people playing the game.

And almost including Andrew.

Andrew almost accepting the mom's offer is the single most tragic moment in the game, by far.

Dandy said it best in his video essay: By Ashley leaving Andrew alone with their parents, she showed that she is capable of changing. That she is capable of getting better. She showed that she loves and respects Andrew enough to be able to put aside her usual role as the scapegoat and allow him to make the decision that was for the best for both of them. And make no mistake, it was for the best; if the mom really DID sell out the siblings, and given the two of them were already on the run for supposedly being dead, there was no hope of any of this ever working out. They saw through the conspiracy and knew the truth of how the quarantine operations really worked. They were an active threat to one of the most powerful entities seen in the setting so far, to the point where they had a hitman sent after them.

Mrs. Graves had every reason to sell them out again, for their presence in a public setting was more than enough to put everyone in their family in danger. Mrs. Graves had every reason to believe that the normalcy she wanted was nothing that could ever be grasped again so long as her children were alive, and as such, it was clear that she had nothing to offer either Andrew or Ashley. Ashley trusted Andrew to see through their obvious manipulations and lies, and understand that the parents had nothing left to give them. She trusted him to love her more than the false promises their parents could give.

…And yet. In spite of it all.

In spite of her love, in spite of clearly displaying that she can grow up and become a person that causes him less stress, and in spite of Ashley showing that all she wants now is their safety and security…

Andrew can still choose to consider Ashley the problem. He can still choose to use her as the scapegoat he always has.

He can still choose to see her as the one thing that caused him to be this way, that stands in between him and normalcy, when she, not once, forced him to do anything.

Were he to accept Mrs. Graves' offer, this would've been the single most tragic moment in the game. It almost was, and still stands to be, because he ignores every indication that things could be better for the sake of his own narrative, and a narrative echoed by much of the fandom.

But no matter what ending was picked, things could be better. They could've been better all along. Compared to chapter 1, their dynamic in chapter 2 is already much healthier. Their banter is less venomous, and while they still poke and prod each other in ways that aren't exactly great, they don't get into the same violent fights we saw in the 302 room. By all accounts, what happened in that room was an outlier. Even when they find themselves in their parents' house, where they stand to do the One Thing That Means They Would Never Be Normal Again, Ever (ignoring the fact that this is already a lost cause by then), Ashley doesn't get into any fights with Andrew in the same way she did back in the apartment. All she wants is affirmation and security. She doesn't even lay into her mom like she lays into Julia over the phone, even in their private conversations.

We’re led to believe that she’s still getting worse because the actions she’s taking are more extreme, but her attitudes and behaviors are much, much different. The actual actions they're taking are so obviously the right thing to do (both morally and practically) that I don't think it's until they eat their parents that you should make a double take and go "Wow, maybe these goblins actually are kinda fucked up," because until then, well… everything is justified! Perfectly so! Even then, eating their parents serves a purpose, even if not a mentally healthy one.

Maybe she’s calmer because she’s in control over the situation, but if the calls she made to Julia are any indication (independent of the theory that she didn’t actually say those things), were she unchanged as a person, she still would’ve lashed out at their mother over how much more useful she is to Andrew than their parents were, or something of that nature. Something about how nothing their mom offers could compete with what Ashley gives. But she makes no such claims. She feels no need to prove anything to her parents, or to reaffirm her place in Andrew’s life even in the face of her mother challenging it (or at least implying such a challenge). Regardless of her insecurities, she’s changed. It’s hard to see, but she has.

And then Andrew can ignore that and consider betraying her because he refuses to believe that she's willing to make their dynamic work, when she shows many different indications of being willing to concede as long as Andrew stops giving her mixed signals.

A friend of mine put it best, and I'm pretty much quoting her word for word here, because of how strongly I agree with it. When I look at Ashley, I find very few actual "flaws." I see familiar wounds.

The Burial ending, despite being triumphant and not nearly as "dark" as some people think, is still very, very sad. A lot of abusive dynamics are characterized by someone having to fight every step of the way to get what they need from the other person, usually some kind of emotional validation or relief. This is what happens between Andrew and Ashley for most of the game: Ashley wants Andrew to treat their relationship as special, to acknowledge there's something to it beyond just him going through the motions. And yet for most of the game, he refuses to, especially in chapter 1. And then, in Burial, when he does…

She's confused.

A lot of people view this as her being afraid of losing control over Andrew, since her "Andy," who she can push around, is gone. Andrew has changed, and the same tricks wouldn't work. But that's not what that is; it's not about control, it's about her finally getting what she wants from him without having to fight. She still thinks about using sex as leverage to keep him around, but that's because she's never understood what it's like to have someone actually want to be around her. And I speak from experience; when you no longer have to fight for every little bit of emotional validation or relief, when you no longer have to keep checking your messages to keep an argument going so you can finally be proven right, when you no longer have to force yourself to let go, to stop engaging, the reaction isn't happiness. It's not relief.

It's confusion. It's discontent.

Because something you've tied so much of yourself up in to is no longer there, despite it being more peaceful, it still feels wrong. The dynamic still has to be this way in your mind, because you've never known anything else. You latch on to whatever you can in order to justify that, and your actions are still heavily biased in favor of maintaining your place in that nonexistent dynamic. This isn't manipulation; it's trauma. And the fact that Ashley almost immediately understands that Andrew is changing is nothing short of a miracle. By consolidating past and present Andrew into a single person rather than splitting them into two, she showing that she can actually heal from that trauma. And all Andrew had to do to enable this is to acknowledge that she CAN change, that things CAN be better, and that everyone who claims to be better than her is full of shit.

I've analyzed the events of the story in a way that may seem needlessly antagonistic to some characters, and overly charitable to others. But I have to ask you, that if you disagree with anything I've said:

Where does that disagreement come from? What about my narrative clashes with your own? -Why- does it clash? Is it because the game presents your interpretation as obvious, whereas mine is not? Is it because you've experienced someone like Ashley before in your life, and you know it when you see it? Maybe you strongly identify with Andrew, and view his status as a doormat with no agency to be obvious? Or did you just accept the narrative that much of the fanbase has taken at face value, without further analysis other than building on top of it?

I don't believe these things to be contrarian; I've held most of these opinions since my first or second playthrough. I don't believe what I do because you don't, I believe what I do because I understand what Ashley has been through. I've experienced a lot of the specific traumas she had, such as deep feelings of isolation and being deprived of the emotional validation I need from the people who need to give it. I know what it's like to be misunderstood, to have who and what I am taken for granted, and to be terrified of being abandoned by the people I need the most. I see what I do because I understand.

And I want to give her that understanding that nobody gave me.

Maybe you should think about it. Why do you take it for granted that Andrew is a doormat who is strung along by Ashley? Why do you find it so odd when the trope of a woman corrupting a good man through leveraging sex is drawn into question? Why is Ashley seen as crazy, when all of her actions are so straightforward and rational? How is she corrupting him, when the single most needlessly violent act in the whole story- outside of the Nina flashback- is done without her influence? Why is Ashley seen as the abusive one when Andrew both threatens and resorts to physical violence and witholds emotional validation?

Weirdly personal tangent aside, Ashley and Andrew are two of the most well-written characters I have ever seen. They're not written like archetypes who interact with each other through a series of tropes; they're written like real people who's words and actions have astoundingly human motivations. They come from places that we can understand and relate to.

And just like people, they deserve respect. In spite of all they've done, they deserve love.

But make no mistake, Ashley is not the one stopping that love from happening. She just has the audacity to still want it in spite of everything telling her that she doesn't deserve it. We're led to believe she wants too much, but all she ever wanted was the bare minimum that she was never given.

And she has every right to be mad about it.

#andrew graves #ashley graves #the coffin of andy and leyley #tcoaal #tcoaal essay #gaming

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its-opheliasgarden · 2 years

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A Sims Lookbook and Story

Savannah’s parents, Janae and Marcel Price, moved her and her siblings: twin brother, Sidney and Jayden to Copperdale over a year ago. The Prices have quickly settled in and there’s never a dull moment. Savi, the eldest, and her siblings, each enjoy their own interests. Her parents are excited for Savannah to follow in their footsteps and attend Foxbury Institute, but Savi has other ideas. An up and coming Plumbite streamer (@IcyPricy) and president of the Computer Club, she dreams of skipping college all together and launching her own start up. Will Savi be able to juggle all her extracurriculars and trailblaze as the next future tech prodigy of Del Sol Valley?

Credits: All look details are under the cut.

Get the Looks:

Outfit 1: HSY braided ponytail, HYS top (@maxis) / animal print skirt ( @dyoreos) / aine earrings (@arethabee) / blaze boots (@trillyke) / heart chain necklace (@serenity-cc) / chloe nails (@ikari-sims)

Outfit 2: HSY bucket hat (@maxis) / kelani braids, aine earrings (@arethabee) / paper plane t-shirt, accessory belt (@trillyke) / macie jeans v2* (@aharris00britney) / aryana sneakers (@madlensims) / chloe nails (@ikari-sims)

Outfit 3: HSY braided ponytail (@maxis) / maru cropped top (@trillyke) / tori jeans (@fluffusnow) / aryana sneakers (@madlensims) / aine earrings (@arethabee) / accessory shirt, chloe nails (@ikari-sims) / fanny pack ( @jwofles-sims)

Outfit 4: braided ponytail mesh edit (@simancholy) / jessie sweater (@clumsyalienn) / freezing legs skirt ( @simandy) / TBF kit sneakers (@maxis) / aine earrings, michelle necklace (@arethabee) / chloe nails (@ikari-sims)

Outfit 5: HSY braided ponytail (@maxis) / oversized jacket mesh edit (@simancholy) / rei platform shoes, kumiko socks (@trillyke) / lane necklace, chloe nails (@ikari-sims) / lightspeed headset edit (@simkoos)

I tried my best to think about what Savannah’s personality would be given her traits are materialistic and geek. I tried to give her a retro sporty gamer aesthetic with lots of pop of color. I also tried to incorporate her love of white/black prints based on her original outfit she has in the game.

-d.

#ts4 #the sims 4 #ts4mm #ts4 maxis match #ts4 lookbook #ts4 high school years #ts4 copperdale #its-opheliasgarden

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justawaysimp · 2 years

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Just finished Umbrella Academy Season 3 and here are my thoughts in no particular order

— First off, I am loving the other version of Five we have not seen in the past two seasons: the more “human” Five who laughs along with his siblings, smiles, SHOWERS FOR ONCE, dances, SINGS, wants to travel, NAPS, gets drunk, swears more than usual, and gets weirdly excited over a ball of twine! so cute but don’t ANYONE dare talk to me about him and Delores

— The dance sequences are definitely my favorites in the show!

— Umbrella Ben 🤝 Drunk Sparrow Ben (but he’s too hard on himself)

— As much as I grew to dislike Allison to the extent that I would slightly itch whenever she’s on screen after THAT scene, I am highly applauding Emmy for such an effective performance and her realistic portrayal of what a mother and a hopeless woman in the midst of the apocalypses would do if she was on the same shoes.

— I don’t know what to say about Luther and Sloane. But their marriage is cute.

— I just found out that Ritu Arya’s a drummer? And that’s why Lila’s so good at it?! Well, she definitely deserve a fresh, new start with her baby and Diego, and I did have suspicions that Stanley’s not their kid in my first glimpse of him.

— Diego would definitely be a great father.

— Harlan deserved better. And the dog. And Fei.

— I personally think that Allison being the only one having a happy ending is unfair to the others who have lost so much by jumping from timeline to timeline.

— I also liked how Viktor found himself and he finally feels what he truly feels and most especially, not loved less by his family. Congrats, too, Elliot!

— I actually thought that the Sparrows would last longer that just THAT and the show’s about the two families kicking asses, constant bickering, and arguing and agreeing how and why their own families are better or worse than them but here we are with Reggie becoming another Ikari Gendo all over again but with FOURTEEN Shinjis bound by childhood trauma he himself inflicted upon them just to get sum posey.

Overall, it’s an EXCELLENT SEASON WORTH WATCHING AND REWATCHING and don’t get me started with the casting coz IT’S SO PERFECT!!! Robert Sheehan because IS Klaus and no one could change my mind.

#the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy season 3 #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #lila pitts #sloane hargreeves #fei hargreeves #elliot page #emmy raver lampman #aidan gallagher #robert sheehan #season 4 when

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supercap2319 · 1 year

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Y/N: “Tommy and Billy got into a fight at school today.”

Ikaris: “Did they win?”

Y/N: “That’s not what’s important, Iceberg.”

#x male reader #male reader insert #male x male #ikaris x male!reader #ikaris eternals #ikaris x male reader #ikaris #mcu eternals #marvel’s eternals #billy maximoff #tommy maximoff #richard madden x male reader #richard madden #young maximoff sibling #male maximoff

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karizard-ao3 · 2 days

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My reactions to Evangelion episode 21: He was aware that he was still a child

If I must be completely candid, I've been putting off watching these last few episodes because I'm very frightened that something really awful will happen to my beloved Shinji and I really don't know how I'm going to bear it. I think I would be okay if he just turned out to be evil, but if he turns out to be good and sweet and dead, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Anyway, my stomach is churning and I'm about to start the episode.

Super solenoid (?) theory.

The spear!

I had to go back and watch it with subtitles. So the Longinus Spear just came from the dead sea and there's talk about a donor. A personality donor, maybe?

They put DNA into Adam. Is that why he's so fucked up looking?

Gates of Guf.

"It's wings are spreading. It's going towards the surface." This makes me feel like they did create the Angel that caused the Second Impact but that it might have been the first Eva rather than an Angel. They were talking about an anti-AT field.

Am I imagining things or is there new stuff in the video during the opening song? I just saw an Eva with biblically accurate golden wings.

"One last job". He's fucked.

"We have no intention of creating a new God". Hmm. That's even more sacriligeous than I expected. Gendo is certainly Tower of Babeling hard right now.

So is Seele a super computer like the Magi? I assumed it was an organization.

I was expecting Gendo but it was Yui.

If her last name is already Ikari, then... Are she and Gendo actually siblings? Or did he take her last name...?

Unit 1 is a god now.

Okay, Gendo did change his name. Because he's a criminal.

Okay, no. It looks like I was right and Seele is an organization. They're just talking through giant speakers, I guess?

God, Gendo is just the worst.

A child to care for at home. But if I'm mathing right it can't be Shinji who would be no more than a twinkle in his father's eye at this point. So Rei? Please consider I am not very good at math.

Oh, wait, actually, if it's after the second impact Shinji could be a baby.

More Misato back story. Mute for two years.

Rei does look similar to Yui, doesn't she?

Mysterious, spherical underground caverns created by someone else. One in the Antarctic and one here. If I understanding right.

Ritsuko's Mom. And Ritsuko!

Adam and Eva. How glaringly obvious it's been all along.

Ritsuko dyes her hair.

So ostensibly Seele is trying to prevent the third impact.

Baby Shinji. I'm a puddle on the floor. He's patting his mom's face.

Oh, it's Shinji as a little guy!

Shinji was there on the day Yui died. Or, rather, disappeared and was presumed dead, it sounds like.

Gendo the godmaker. So is he trying to make humans gods?

Gendo and Ritsuko's mom, huh? Were they having an affair?

So Gendo shows up with Rei, claims she's a friend's daughter, but she reminds Mom Ritsuko of Yui, so... Clone Rei or kidnapped child given Yui's personality?

Rei lol.

Did she kill the (first?) Rei??

Did Dr Akagi kill herself?

Did Misato kill Kaji?

I can't tell. I just know she got her gun back and then he seems to have been shot. Maybe it was Ritsuko, though.

Shinji running away again.

"I was just a child."

In Conclusion

Yeah, idk. Just waiting for everything to come together.

Seeing Gendo's past was interesting. He's such a garbage bag.

Thinking about Yui and what happened to her. It was on the day of her big experiment and she believed it was going to show Shinji hope for a better future. I also believe that's what he was wearing when we saw the quick flashback of him when he realized that he had seen an Eva before and knew what they were. Maybe his mom developed Unit 1 and was dissolved inside it like he had been? Could explain its ability to act without the battery pack, perhaps?

How does this all end, though? Like, we're building up to answers but I'm having a hard time predicting what the climax will be. I assume Misato will discover something awful about the Angels, maybe Rei will try to protect Gendo and get hurt? Shinji is going to probably go through some horrific metaphysical experience. I don't know!

I'm going to watch one more episode and then it's bedtime.

#neon genesis evangelion #evangelion #nerv #shinji ikari #first watch #rei ayanami #misato katsuragi #ritsuko akagi #ryoji kaji #gendo ikari #yui ikari #thoughts #reactions

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softquietsteadylove · 9 months

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what do you think which kind of music every eternal is listening to? every eternal but makkari of course

Aww, this is so cute an ask!

Okay, so I guess there are a few layers to this answer.

Ikaris, I don't think he listens to music--I don't think he lets himself have fun like that. Like I know we see him in modern clothes, but I bet he's actually that old man who doesn't have a phone and he pawns ancient artifacts for cash. But if he does indulge in music, then I think he's like a gym bro who unironically listens to that, like, 'it's about drive, it's about power' song.

Sersi actually does listen to music. She loves it! What a beautiful expression of humanity! She likes all types, all styles, all cultures and languages! I think her personal faves are indie vibes, maybe First Aid Kit? She loves the emotional music of Adele and Florence and the Machine, and she definitely listened to the ten minute version of All Too Well on repeat when it came out. Poor girly went through the longest term breakup possible. But I also think she likes, like, Maneskin, maybe some J-pop/K-pop stuff? I think she would like the idea of the large group having a family dynamic (poor thing misses home).

Sprite listens exclusively to, like, emo music, I think. And I know that's a dated term, but seriously, emo punk from the 2000s was their thing. She loves angsty love ballads, but she would never tell anyone that, ever. Because no one understands her--she's not like other immortals.

Phastos liked old music, I think. Soul and blues and jazz and he likes love songs, because he and Ben dance to them at home. He definitely says things like he doesn't 'get' music these days. Ben tries to expose him to more music but Phastos is like I've heard it all before, babe. Jack listens to overstimulating remixes of songs at home and Phastos tries to figure out how to turn off all sound in the world.

Druig is such a hipster and only likes instrumental music. I bet he listens to ancient gregorian chants. Maybe he likes some classic Celtic music, some folk stuff and classical. Maybe when he's out in the modern world he's not opposed to some punk rock. He would love MCR and Fallout Boy with Sprite back in the day, and maybe Bivattchee and Asian Kung Fu Generation.

Makkari would love all kinds of music, I think, but she loves, like, dance and EDM, because she can feel the beat and the rhythm of the remixes so well. She loves jumping and dancing around to them, and she loves watching other people having a great time dancing to them too! Every once in a while, if Druig is listening to something with earbuds or something, she'll lean against him to feel what he's listening to.

Ajak likes mom/grandma music. I don't have any better way to put it. She likes old country songs (not American nationalist propaganda, I mean c o u n t r y music). She loves doo-wop and 60s bops and old songs from the 20s. Can't Help Falling in Love with You is what she sings while doing the dishes.

Gil loves love, because he's soft and sweet. He listens to the lyrics of songs more than genre or melody. He loves ballads and love songs and slow dance numbers. He likes old vinyls and puts them on at home on an old record player and dances with Thena around the kitchen. And I mean if we're talking about different circumstances, then he loves 'girly' music. And he would never be embarrassed about that! He loves love songs, and sappy pop ballads and happy, boppy songs. Look at the man's apron!

Thena likes whatever Gil likes. She's not a lyrics girly, so if it sounds nice, she'll like it, and if Gil likes it, she'll love it. If she's popping in earbuds at the gym or something, maybe she'll listen to wordless workout remixes, but I think her taste might be a little bland otherwise (sorry).

Kingo likes listening to himself. He's that actor who sings songs for his own projects, and he listens to them all the time. But otherwise I think he likes whatever's trendy. Just listens to top trending, has broad and diverse tastes. I do think he likes pop groups because he likes learning the dances. He's a performer, y'know?

#Eternals #and their music taste #I've heard of deaf people likong really beat heavy music #and being able to enjoy it in that way #and Makkari eould totally blast music just to piss off certain siblings on the right day #Kingo knows all the dances #especially for girl groups #and Ikaris is boring

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eternalowl · 1 year

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Thena and Druig: *laughing*

Thena: Hey, Ikaris, what does this remind you of?

Druig: *shows video of someone running around in circles in a revolving door*

Ikaris: ...

Thena: What does this remind you of? *dies of laughter*

Druig: *breaks down laughing*

Ikaris: WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AT THE WALGREENS IN CHICAGO.

#Eternals #Thena #Druig #Ikaris #aka #the Eternal Siblings of Chaos #as I like to call them #this may or may not be based off of true events…#we do NOT talk about what happened at the Walgreens in Chicago #eternals incorrect quotes