#literally the only thing that makes ashton different from the sorcerer girlies is that our beloved rock beat them to the punch

[pink-ivy-vines]

ashton's speech about how it 'could have been any of us' isn't about pushing away their responsibility about the mistake that they had made nor about how everyone should immediately forgive them because the entire group is a 'ticking time bomb'.

their speech is about how every single person in that party is just as fucked up as ashton is. every single one of them is still trying to figure out who they are and how they matter.

ashton is a rock who believed that they were nothing. that they mattered to no one, that they didn't have a place, and that in the act of trying to matter to literally anything, they fucked up so hard that they deserved to be left behind just like every single other time before. over the course of these past days, they have found out that

they are not the only one struggling with these types of feelings and

bells hells has a dangerous affinity for accepting dangerous things in order to matter to someone or something (even if that's themselves)

just over the past 48 hours laudna has turned to delilah, imogen has wondered if she should just give in to the power of ruidus, orym has mentioned sacrificing everything to save people he doesn't know, chetney has spoken up about controlling the wolf and his own loneliness/abandonment issues, and fcg and fearne have both given in to do something that would help but that they both tend to avoid (ex. going murder robot for the sake of healing and taking the shard, specifically).

ashton is not advocating themselves of blame; they are stating "i am hearing what you're saying and i am acknowledging that i am not alone. that none of us are alone. and if someone does make the same mistake i did, that we would all still stand next to them."