#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

[newttxt]

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

[m4g0hun]

lost child

[deimosatellite]

thriller bark . .

[noornight]

Meow :3

[puppyeared]

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

[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!”

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Game night results (from this poll)

Character selection inspired from extraterezi's post!

[s0fter-sin]

soap's whole deal being sniper and demolitions gets me going bc on the surface they sound so different but when you get into it, you realise it's bc soap's smart

sniping is all math; calculating distances and wind interference and bullet drop. something i think people overlook is he was listed as a sniper first so it can be implied that he's better at it than demolitions. he does more sniping in both campaigns than demolitions work; in capture or kill, ghost specifically calls on him to take down the aq snipers

and demolitions is math with a hit of chemistry; knowing what mixes with what, knowing how much to use, recognising environmental factors and adjusting accordingly. it's not just about the boom; so much work goes into contained/ planned explosions. especially when having enough power for a breacher charge and not bringing down the whole building is the difference between mission success and failure

the chemical bombs he makes in alone can't just be any old cleaners, they have to have the correct reaction to each other; he just knew off the top of his head what would mix with what to create what reaction. he would also potentially have to recognise them by sight/smell bc they would’ve been written in spanish

soap would also have to know architecture; recognising structural integrity and weak points so he knows exactly where to plant a charge to bring it down and how it'll come down

he has an incredible soldier's mind people just forget that bc he's sociable which itself is a skill

we know he tends to buck against orders he doesn't agree with like when he pushes back against ghost in capture or kill and shepherd when he tells them to release hassan

he gets closer to people and sees if he can trust them and that's when he follows them without question. really think about how he talks to alejandro and rudy; he asks about their home and alejandro's family and rudy's relationship with him. those aren't questions you ask a stranger after a few hours of knowing them. that's not even touching on his relationship with ghost

he also deliberately brings people of higher ranks down to his level; talking informally with ghost and giving him a shoulder punch, addressing alejandro (a colonel!!) by his first name and rudy by his nickname despite literally just meeting them. he personalises all of them and it’s in direct opposition to the reason most characters do that; it’s not due to insubordination or lack of respect, the more he respects and trusts someone, the more casual he is with them

he digs into people; he wants to know what makes them tick and that determines if he can one, trust them and two, follow their orders. once he decides that, he's the ultimate soldier; he bleeds loyalty which makes him vicious when that loyalty is taken for granted

he isn't naive or bubbly or insecure; he's an incredibly smart and aware soldier. he's aggressive and bloodthirsty and loyal and intuitive and i love him so much

[xxplastic-cubexx]

if i weren’t dead broke id comm u so hard for catboy fc!charles bc charles xavier is so cat coded that at least ONE iteration of him deserves to get the catboy treatment in earnest, don’t let the bald cats (2019) homage be his legacy PLEASE ✋😭

take him.

[hyakunana]

When you need to lie, but you're a good boy.

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

this is my natural blond wash propaganda

[awtysm-cryptid]

I adore the new perspective that the One Piece Fan Letter gives us on the Paramount War.

Because all you see when you watch the anime are glimpses of the smaller lives, it mostly focuses on the big players

But with Fan Letter you can really see how terrified some of the marines were from the guy who almost fell off the edge looked up and saw Mihawk to the brothers caught between Mihawk and Crocodile

The Captain protecting his men from being crushed and the marine just sitting next to his dead comrades body in the middle of all this fighting.

I do wonder how many marines either quit, were unable to continue due to physical injuries or who lost faith in their superiors because of it.

[ryssbelle]

N2 Floyd in the first movie

Sad little man got himself captured :(

He also gets punched in the face, but that's neither here nor there lmao

Also sorry for not posting for a fat minute I've been busy XD

Bonus: What John and Branch be doing

RIP in pieces John Dory, you were a brave troll and will be missed

I've got some more doodles of them going through it in the first movie, maybe we will see them soon teehee .