#cant lose this one

[minyard-05]

hello! i am here to share more Aaron and Andrew thoughts™ though i won’t lie i had a little sleep since earlier and cannot remember whatever it was i was thinking so i will make up some new thoughts for u <3

so, in the extra content i think nora says that aaron starts playing exy to get out the house so he can avoid tilda, andrew starts playing exy in juvie, which was another way to keep andrew (and subsequently aaron) away from drake. so, for both of them, exy is a way out of abuse. so it’s fitting that they both use exy raquets to stop abusers - drake, and riko. i could honestly make a whole post about how exy appears to represent coping mechanisms in the series, but ill leave it at this - for aaron and andrew exy was an escape from abusers, so they helped others escape from their abusers by using exy equipment.

another similarity: they both immediately assume the other’s partner is a repeat of their abuser, whilst simultaneously hating the partner because they believe they’re taking their brother away from them. they’re both so anxious about losing each other but neither of them are used to getting the things they want. i fully believe the hatred that is displayed between aaron and andrew is, (whilst in part due to frustration and feeling betrayed) because looking at each other is like looking in a distorted mirror and more than anything they both hate themselves. and it’s very difficult for both of them to watch the other be in pain, but their self-hatred makes it equally difficult to actively care for the person who reminds them so much of themselves.

this one’s just a headcanon, but if aaron were to get a tattoo, i think he’d get an ouroboros. they symbolise the life cycle, representing death and rebirth. he’s an aspiring doctor with a murder charge, the concept of life and death is not something he can easily run away from. but crucially, aaron’s murder of andrew’s abuser is what breathes new life into their relationship; considering the ‘transmigration of souls’ that is tied to the ouroboros, you can consider aaron and andrew’s relationship to have been reborn off the back of drake’s death. thus, the cycle of life. death and rebirth. obviously other things have to happen before they truly start to heal, but drake’s death is the first step towards aaron understand andrew and everything he’s done. i think if he were to get it he’d get it on his wrist, of the hand he primarily held the racquet in to truly drive the point home. and if andrew eventually gets a matching tattoo, then what?

i read this ask literally like four times before i could respond because oh my GODDDDD you've got it you've got it so perfectly spot on i'm OBSESSED and PAINED

i literally cant stop thinking about the exy thing like. it's a sport they both agreed to a scholarship for because it got them out, it got andrew away from everything that wasn't the 2 people he cared about and it got aaron away from his mother's memory. i would love for you to elaborate on exy as a coping mechanism across the book but for them especially like they're both good at it but don't care, aaron's dropping it the second he gets into med school, and andrew just doesn't care. it's also one of the central factors that kind of holds them together as brothers, like neil says a few times, aaron and andrew function as this one defense Team despite whatever they hate each other for off court. they can trust each other to do what they need to do, andrew knows aaron will check anyone he has to whenever he has to, carded or not, and aaron knows that andrew will lock down the goal when it matters (i mean the guy blocked 137/150 shots in one game). so possibly even because of how they know each other off court, they're kind of an unstoppable force on it. that tied in with them both protecting people they care about with exy racquets? ough....

the MIRROR thing oh my god. part i actually had to read over and over because That's so right that's literally it that's literally all of it you've got them perfect. kind of everything that happens with the twins, what they do to and for each other really stems from a deeply skewed sense of justice and loyalty. i mean andrew says it himself, tilda was nothing and no one to him, not meaning he didn't know what she meant to aaron, but he told her not to hit him again and she didn't listen so for that she had to die. because that's how simple it is in andrew's head, that's where his justice, his protection comes from. initially he has nothing against you, it only starts if you hurt one of his own. i think the part that was hardest for aaron to process wasn't that andrew had done it, but that andrew had done it for him. it'd been a little over, what, five months since andrew moved in? aaron, after the 'fuck you' letter, probably always assumed his new brother hated him, and that Evidently didn't change when they got to palmetto, and we can see from his reaction to neil saying "so now you know why andrew killed your mother". like i think he might've suspected something, but didn't say it, but he chalked it up to the fact that tilda hit andrew instead of him. but neil says it himself, again, andrew will fight tooth and nail until somebody relents or dies to protect who matters, but when it comes to himself, he won't. aaron couldn't process that that's what andrew was willing to do for him, five months after meeting him for the first time.

but there's a difference between planning a murder and instinct. tilda's accident was planned, carefully. aaron simply was holding the racquet and able to move. but the outcome is the same, somebody dies, to save one of the twins. the other is the one who kills. intrinsically, they are linked, if andrew was able to kill tilda faster and get away with it, he would've. aaron doesn't exactly get away with it per se but the difference occurs when matts mom posts bail and andrew is gone.

just a quick aside with what you said about partners– that's exactly it, yes, and i think that's exactly what kind of justifies aaron's reaction to andrew and neil. like if we think about it, aaron was raised catholic, by the same and probably similar people to who raised nicky, aka a highly homophobic environment. this means everything aaron knows about queerness and queer relationships (note: set in 2006) is what they told him, and nicky. unfortunately, neither of those are particularly good references, aaron knows the stuff nicky says about neil in the first book, and, i hate to say it, his third point of reference is drake. its shitty and it sucks, but andrew will never talk to him and neither will neil so what's aaron supposed to think? he wasn't there in any of andrew's previous homes, so he couldn't know how to recognise it if that's what it was. whether thats what he actually believe by the time he confronts neil at the cabin is debatable in my book, but if anything, its the same as andrew 'talking' to katelyn in the library. it's nothing more than a scouting mission, aaron's not going to seriously do much to neil (except get punched by him), same way as andrew was never going to seriously hurt katelyn. all it is is the twins looking out for each other in the only way they really know how.

i LOVE that hc so much actually that's absolutely perfect. i think andrew does have one tattoo for aaron, and it's a two-headed calf (not mine i think i saw it somewhere on here) but the ouroboros idea is AMAZING i'm adopting that into the aaron in my head. literally the cycle of life and death and how he comes to terms with it in his own messy way, and how at any point in the circle, the centre seems to be his brother

[astronnova]

proposition: danny's hair turns white in random patches when he's used too much power, he just dyes it back to all black when he gets home

[newttxt]

no matter what kind of pirate you are, luffy /will/ get you

[m4g0hun]

lost child

[noornight]

Meow :3

[deimosatellite]

thriller bark . .

[puppppppppy]

so a few things

my brother and i have our rooms facing each other he recently got a mood light installed and he can change the color his favorite color is purple

which would normally be. FINE but every time i walk to my room its just been this

[heartorbit]

make a wish! 🍃

happy 1st anniversary, in stars and time 🤍

[tubbytarchia]

I don't know what this is all I know is that LimL Joel makes me really emotional

[kinnsporsche]

KINNPORSCHE THE SERIES (2022) dir. khom kongkiat — episode 14

[rbtlvr]

anyways ive only ever talked abt this on discord but the world needs to know so: hey guys did you know? loop's attacks in the twohats fight ALL do damage based on a percentage of your hp. did you know? the maximum base damage they can do in phase one is 17% of your health. did you know? even if you went into the game files and changed your own level to level one, loop could not one shot you from full health at any point in the fight. did you know? did you know about this?

[ephemerensis]

Thinking about academic rival Tim that pisses you OFF. Being top of your class was nothing new for you until he rolled up. He’s absent for more than half the school year, always on TV at some stupid event to help kittens or something, excelling in track and field, and somehow STILL scoring higher than you. And he doesn’t even think it’s a big deal.

The worst part is probably that he sits behind you. Every red Kahoot screen felt so much louder with Tim breathing down your back, and if you dared to risk a glance back he’d just smile at you in annoying consolation. When your papers eventually get handed back he always knows what you got, but he has the nerve to ask in a charade of “being polite.”

“What’d you get?” He’s too nice when he says it, so sincere it feels condescending. You couldn’t lie if you wanted to, and it wouldn’t matter because you know you lost anyway.

“94.” Maybe if you said it more begrudgingly every time he’d get the hint and shut up. And even though you knew you wouldn’t win, you always asked anyways. “What’d you get?”

“Oh that’s good! I got a 98.”

He had to be cheating or something. You couldn’t count the number of times he’d asked you to explain something he missed in class, and somehow he still knew more. It wasn’t improbable, it was impossible. Sometimes you considered feeding him false information, but you felt bad even thinking it. Tim wasn’t a bad person. You were just in denial.

You knew of course, but were still offended, that your one-sided rivalry wasn’t ever his on his mind. Thinking of Wayne Enterprises’ next business venture (or stopping Gotham’s evil forces) occupied him in more depth. This stuff was just normal. So when you stay up extra late to perfect your physics exam and finally score higher than him, he doesn’t even flinch.

“Hey, a perfect score!”

“Yes, what did you get?”

“82 this time, I forgot a few equations.”

It was almost cathartic. That was enough for you. Peace doesn’t come easy, you’d choose it this time. (And quite frankly, there were only so many all nighters you could pull.)

“I won?”

“What?”

“I beat you, I won.”

“I guess so, you’ll have to tutor me next time!”

[evilherehotel]

hey inanimate improv. hey. wtf was that

[batcavescolony]

To like comics is to ignore comics.

When your favorite character has existed for 80+ years, has had 100s of writers, has changed over and over again, sometimes they got it wrong. You have to decide what to ignore for your own sanity.

[theelmoarchive]

I just finished listening to The Suckening ☹️ like this very minute. I don't know what to do anymore. I need them back eufgggh urggh i love them so muchhh,,,

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Game night results (from this poll)

Character selection inspired from extraterezi's post!