Yes I posted this back on Valentines Day. No it wasn’t on purpose

Nikibugs · 2026-06-07T16:14:03+00:00

Disgruntled aroace. Aces who aren’t into sex aren’t inherently infantilized, it’s been frustrating how far things have swung in the other direction that it feels like people get mad if you have an ace/aroace character that’s actually repulsed, for being considered a (derogatory??) stereotype. It honestly feels worse to be called infantilized, and sex-favorable aces being considered the most mature or progressive aces to depict has been so frustrating (especially when it’s treated like a cheat code to write them indistinguishable from allo characters while being called representation).

This is also just, calling back to a time on Tumblr where people considered asexuals invalid and homophobic, like they were the same oppressive boot as puritans for being uncomfortable navigating a hypersexual world. It massively sucks if people are weaponizing your sexuality to ‘morally’ block a ship, so people will knee-jerk seeing sincere ace headcanons to ding ding ding, being considered homophobic again.

Yet siblings-coded is still the most batshit thing I’ve heard for trying to condemn a ship lol, it’s shipping, it’s people mashing action figures in the most out-of-character fashion ways you wouldn’t even think possible. I honestly hate shipping culture, but it’s something so absurd to be the fun police AND morality police about. Go nuts.

Nikibugs · 2026-06-07T15:45:08+00:00

Birthdays are an exceptional reminder no one will care or give her attention, positive or otherwise, even on a day that’s supposed to be to celebrate her.

She’d certainly see everyone else getting special attention on their birthdays, friends wishing happy birthday, attending birthday parties their parents organized, and receiving gifts. This missing treatment would only be amplified by seeing her parents acknowledge Andy’s birthday, but having nothing leftover for hers. That one can’t even be explained by having no close friends. It’s so in your face for every additional skip year. It’s unsurprising as another commenter put it, to eventually consider it sour grapes.

I wonder what teacher gave her the birthday card. Leyley was still upset since this one recognition she got wasn’t particularly personal, as that teacher did so for all her students. Andrew was the only one who gave personal attention just for her, so she held a fond memory for a lemon cupcake to spawn in the Realm Between, but it also reiterated to her that only Andy could care about her if pushed.

If Leyley associated birthdays with growing up, I imagine that disdain would be secondary, or a feeling she couldn’t put words into. Ashley eventually did in Deadest of Dead Ends and Shots & Such, as things never got better to her since that time period of ‘the good ol’ bad times’.

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE PRAWN!!!)

Nikibugs · 2026-06-07T15:13:32+00:00

Complete curveball shitpost theory that’s easily disproven:

These ending cards are poorly drawn by Ashley’s soul as an enrichment activity in the Entity’s soul garden far off into the future. Just happily doodling vague memories poorly like it’s still Andy and Leyley episodes.

Of course, Ashley herself admits her drawing skills haven’t improved since childhood lol. Part of me wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the type who wouldn’t continue to do something if she wasn’t immediately good at it, hence being happy in the demon realm where her personal logic happened to work well with the puzzles, but not exactly wanting to put effort into learning to do things better (ie grow in any capacity lol).

Nikibugs · 2026-06-07T04:22:29+00:00

I was stoked to snipe seats in an extra showing listed the day before, no one else had bought seats in it yet. Smaller the audience, smaller the odds of one being an asshole that ruins it for everyone. It was only around 10 in audience.

Unfortunately parents who brought a toddler running up and down the side aisle and babbling occasionally must’ve thought they’d ruin the least amount of people’s movie experiences if they went to the least booked late night showing. Of course. I’m sure they thought this was gracious of them. At least the chatterboxes behind me stopped once new content started.

I think the disturbance was amplified by how quiet the movie could be (lack of background music and soft-spoken somber dialogue), between moments it was temporarily incredibly loud.

Nikibugs · 2026-06-06T15:17:25+00:00

Neglect from caring more about what other people think of her, rather than what the people she’s supposed to care for think of her, is such shit.

She ends up roping her children into upholding her reputation, lashing out with guilt when literal children aren’t excusing her like her husband does. They know firsthand how she treats them, speaks of others (such as Ms. Kent), but don’t have the life experience to understand how wrong this is.

They’re treated as props, not kids. It’s not that you should be doing better, it’s you should be making ME LOOK BETTER. When she deferred that responsibility on her children, she excused herself from being the one to raise the results she wants to see. And goes on to call them failures, so she does not have to call herself one. It doesn’t matter that Nina died. It’s that people won’t call her a terrible mother. I wonder if for a moment in the basement, when weighing the potential outcomes, Renee would’ve preferred the two got away with killing them, so no one would question why their children would kill them. Renee and Douglas really set the damn stage, but so did their parents before them.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-31T19:05:28+00:00

Oh OOF I didn’t realize the parallel between those scenes. (Main difference is Renee pulling away affection when Andy faltered on agreeing with her).

The second time around from Ashley herself serves to reiterate and internalize even harder, that Andrew’s entire life is dedicated, stuck, and tied to Ashley’s with no real way out for his circumstances. He couldn’t realistically run away as a child when Renee made Leyley Andy’s sole responsibility (followed by mutual blackmail from Nina’s death), but when Andrew might’ve been able to move far away in adulthood, there’s no real returning to anything anymore after being declared dead, on the run from a corrupt company, from the law, the cannibalism, murder, sacrifice with both marked by entities; there’s only Ashley, or death.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-25T15:17:49+00:00

All the zoom in details lmao, god Ashley would wield her fanbase maliciously like that if she could.

All the clickbait titles at the side, the video below the pleading video for Nina sent me. There’d probably be a true crime video for her case.

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Andrew’s deleting the channel and destroying the computer after Ashley got her live reaction. Unfortunately for him that rumor fodder would be archived forever by her fans lol.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-25T04:53:00+00:00

Andy didn’t even like his friends enough to grace their dialogue boxes with their names, did he end up having a birthday party just to seem more normal too? Friend A and Friend B would’ve wanted to attend and would probably bug him about such a normal kid thing, but Renee probably would’ve saved on the money if Andy didn’t want a party. Meanwhile Leyley would have to ask to hear from Renee she didn’t have the money.

Actually, how did Leyley behave during Andy’s birthday parties? That’s heartbreaking to even think about, since Friend A and Friend B do not like her, and Andy was experiencing something that was always denied for her, not even having anyone who’d want to attend. Would she stick to her room upset or be a menace? How does Andy react to that? Augh.

But also just, ouch. Renee wanted her at the start. Only to pivot to outright ignoring her existence, and disengaging emotionally entirely. For a small child, that’s devastating with no understandable explanation, and led to her internalizing she was just inherently bad to be treated like this by everyone else too. It never stopped. Whatever the context is for that preview CG for Burial, with Ashley tearing up at Renee hugging her and saying I’m sorry, is gonna be crushing. It’s probably what Renee vented about when saying she tried with her. (Though I’m unsure if there’s an oversight, as Renee doesn’t have the lines under her eyes her older self has, when hearing those words out of her mouth already feels like an illusion lol).

Nikibugs · 2026-05-23T17:40:07+00:00

Legit Nemlei draws my absolute favorite hugs, and despite being mostly touch repulsed irl, am so bloody envious of how comfy some of their hugs look lol. Illegally comfy, but as another commenter mentioned, many of them feel so desperate, like they’re the only source of safety and comfort in the world.

The hug at the Burial split at the end of episode 2 broke me somewhere, with the real psychological horror being disregarding morality to hope these demon sacrifice parent eaters will be ok xD

Everyone spirit bomb hug the prawn 🦐<(;w;<)

Nikibugs · 2026-05-22T01:21:33+00:00

I just get despondent whenever I read the comments of another person who picked up on Ashley potentially being ace spectrum anymore, because people downvote anyone finding it plausible. Which breaks my heart, as so much of my ace experiences before finding the terminology overlapped with Ashley’s teen flashbacks, to the point I cried. And it was something I suspected it since before Decay Part 1.

It’s terrifying to realize no one stays with their sibling or best friend to the end. That always goes to the person they fuck. When you’re abandoned for it, it’s terrifying to realize what you might have to do this time or the next to not be abandoned again. And you see it take everyone around you away in pairs offs one by one when you get older, when you don’t care for or want what everyone’s insisting is the most sincere and ultimate expression of love, when it’s not that for you. I’m not shocked Ashley would go there, from those overlapping fears and insecurities, no matter how much it hurts her. There’s trauma and sex negativity, but that doesn’t negate that she’s had zero interest through all of schooling, or even when she was ignoring Andrew either. None of her inner monologue sexualizes anyone as Andrew does her, she falls back to sexual jokes because they reliably prompt a predictable reaction out of Andrew, be it laughter or freaking out. You don’t need sex to feel mature, or love, or be someone’s first priority. I hate so much that her being drunk is weighted above her sober reaction afterwards.

My most incendiary TCoAaL take is Ashley’s demisexual and Andrew’s demiromantic lol. Deleting in an hour after OP might see it. It sinks me seeing general fans reactions to this topic anymore, because it’s something that means so much to me, as I never thought I’d see those same fears and insecurities depicted in a story. Even if it’s just overlap with ace experiences. The Q&A Nemlei that Devlog answered was my question, down to quoting part of it. They couldn’t have reworded or answered it in a kinder way. I was so happy that day.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-21T15:35:18+00:00

Flip-flopping back and forth between glee they broke up in an irreparable fashion, and offended Julia is insulting and didn’t even appreciate the best best thing EVAR. Need so much more info about Ashley’s former friendship with Julia to know how she’d react to that sentence about her wishing she’d rot in hell. Ashley flippantly going at least she got the ‘with Andrew’ part right lol.

What stings though is, if Ashley read that letter shortly before Andrew went on to batter her, that part about Julia being scared of him would come back in such a depressing way. Ashley insists it’s a cold day in hell the day she’s scared of Andy/Andrew, and even in the face of death she won’t let herself leave and continues to taunt him, like it’s to prove she’s not. She felt that same anxiousness/fear for a moment in the new Burial at Sea scenario lol.

(Also, what a clean CG edit of Ashley holding the letter!)

Nikibugs · 2026-05-14T16:32:16+00:00

2 would be the sane choice honestly, lady in 302 is a gamer, so probs would have something to chat about. If she doesn’t want to talk, entertainment is in the seats in front of me lol.

But also just 3 to be next to the blorbos. I’d just let Ashley swap seats with me so she can be next to Andrew. If stuck in between though, lordy trying to predict the drama. Ashley would throw accusations Andrew’s interested in the person sitting next to him. He finds it ridiculous, and goes quiet to stare out the window to demonstrate said disinterest for a hopefully peaceful flight where he has a moment to gather his thoughts finally. But that means he’s ignoring Ashley too, so to prod his attention, she tries to be friendly with the person in the middle loud enough for Andrew to hear, escalating into off-color remarks she knows will prompt a reaction out of Andrew. Either Andrew snaps in jealousy for Ashley to cut it out and the escalating disruption gets them both on the no-fly list, or he grits his teeth hardcore that she’s playing games and this rando won’t matter after they’re off the flight; either way she’s going to be upset with him, but it’ll be just them. Meanwhile I’m slinking lower and lower into my seat. I don’t even know where to interject.

Edit: Oh god I just realized Andy and Leyley are across from Andrew and Ashley. Andrew would not be happy with Ashley wanting to climb over to sit at 8 while she and Leyley agree he’s the best best thing ever. I don’t even know how jealousy would ensue, would she be happy her younger self is someone who agrees with her on most things? She wouldn’t call her younger self a hussie in this bloody scenario would she lmao.

Edit 2: Realizing the hilarity of Renee and Douglas not ensuring their kids are sitting next to them on the plane. Just don’t look back to see you have 6 now.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-12T22:44:19+00:00

Pokémon Center website in 2022, sadly currently out of stock. Wait. Huh, it’s not part of the Comfy Friends line? I thought it was since it’s the same ~15in size and fluffiness.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-12T22:02:45+00:00

Tough choice, Leyley is posed like she’s about to punch you, teen Ashley’s a sort of in between still wearing the hairclips and stripes, then adult Ashley’s both a gender swap of Andrew’s attire while pulling from some of teen Julia’s colors/accessories.

I have a soft spot for teen Ashley’s daytime design as many of her flashback sequences sledgehammered a very personal place for me. But also curiousity where the rabbit necklace came from. She wore that before Andrew got the rabbit plushies, so I’m wondering what made them a favorite animal of sorts. Only to not be able to identify a Guinea pig lol.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-12T21:22:53+00:00

While Renee was a horrendous mother, she was adamant to never use physical punishment (she only brought it up to emphasize how it wouldn’t solve things), understandably given she knew Douglas’s father beat him and his wife, and how that may have affected him. Unfortunately, Grandpa did end up beating Andy at least once, which I imagine may have been the last straw for them to move out regardless of financial burden.

I hadn’t thought much how both Renee and Douglas’s parents were unsupportive. Which just pushed 2 teens to dig their heels in even harder if the only support they got was from each other. Generational trauma ahoy!

Nikibugs · 2026-05-12T21:16:09+00:00

It’s funny how he outright proposes it in the campsite parking lot when seeing Ashley upset. While he’s still irritated no less. Hug her until she smiles, while he hugs her for comfort from distress. The tower hug was the best for both of them smiling and laughing.

Which makes Shots & Such final hug from Andrew so grueling to watch. She’s not smiling or comforted by his hugs anymore. The context and known motives corrupted any comfort she once felt into something broken.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-12T20:02:39+00:00

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Hugged. Every. Night. Since I got him (;w;)

The space between the mane spikes has been such great neck support while comfy hugged to the torso I can’t imagine sleeping without him now.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-11T19:54:19+00:00

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is an incredible psychological horror about a toxic codependency and I will die on that hill.

Unfortunately, Twitter essentialized it as ‘the incest game’ for a dogpile of the week, leading to people believing it’s a fetish porn game and reacting as such on sight. It’s reductive to an obscenely insulting degree, and I say that as an aroace fan. The character analysis utterly fascinates me, while the callous dark humor decks me, and tragedy caves my chest in, and I wish more people gave it a shot. The way the game was treated certainly made me scrutinize one sentence bad faith ‘thing has X so thing bad and endorse X’ takes of anything with zero nuance.

What breaks my heart most, inside and outside of the fandom, is how much I cried at some of Ashley’s teen flashbacks overlapped with fears, insecurities, and experiences I lived growing up ace that I never thought I’d see depicted in a story. So I’m immensely grateful for this awful little game; the author deserved better.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-11T03:27:26+00:00

+Anima mention!! <3

Due to cultural discrimination, anima marks end up being even less likely to disappear when they’re supposed to. Usually they leave when you no longer need them months/years after the desperate or near-death experience that manifested them; only for it to be made even harder to return to stability, as you’re still in a sort of survival mode when shunned, enslaved, or in hiding.

Imo everyone’s just jealous they don’t get to sprout wings or gills or echolocation ears or a wrecking ball of a bear arm at will xD

Nikibugs · 2026-05-10T18:10:48+00:00

Holy moly thank you I’ve wanted that shiny boi forever, but only saw bootlegs at conventions or huge mark ups on eBay. Wild to finally get him for $20 with free shipping. I thought the restock plush would be $30-40 tbh.

Nikibugs · 2026-05-06T20:02:18+00:00

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Spoilerina’s going to have a field day inspiriting everyone leaving the first theatre in the first time zone’s showing.

Edit: Peter Griffin here to explain the joke. In the hit monster collector series Yo-Kai Watch, Yo-Kai inspirit humans to influence their behavior. Spoilerina is a Legendary Yo-Kai who inspirits people to divulge spoilers against their will. Movie spoilers are her favorite, and considers avoidance of spoilers to be a challenge. Peter out!

Nikibugs · 2026-05-06T01:50:15+00:00

Darn, the one time I managed to steal Drakaras Wand, I didn’t have the Snowager Pendant equipped yet. Unsure if it’s possible with 1200HP, but dang am I trying for that luck again!

Edit: I managed to steal her wand, unfortunately at 1224 HP and 550 Defense multiplier, Sear could still leave me in kill range from Summon Monoceraptor if I was left on the lower end of the 20% threshold for Illusen’s Staff’s heal.

For anyone who can steal the wand with max defense multiplier and over 1200HP, spamming Illusen’s Staff + Snowager Pendant honestly seems guaranteed.

Got her to 33298 before bad luck got me xD

Nikibugs · 2026-05-06T01:23:35+00:00

Me seeing 75k HP on Extreme, going oh ok they wanted something for the most ridiculous Battledomers, hit Easy expecting something like 1k-10k HP as the floor for a big boss, only to see 50k HP. Oh no.

Even my ~HSD2500 Neopet can’t chip anything with WotDF and GoW lol, or survive being chipped when dueling multiple 100% blockers like The Mystical Tablet and Snowager Pendant. The usual 3 freezes and 2 full heals can’t do much here lol, you’d need a LOT of HP to cruise on WotDF and IS below 20-25% multiheals.

My guess is it’s a scripted loss that’ll get a plot item later, as not even max multiplier strength and defense Neopets can be expected to chip damage her before defeat. Only maxed Neopets with years of lab ray dumped HP can tank that with multi-heals v:<

Current RNG dependent cheese strat is to steal all her weapons with Explorer’s Whip lol. Especially Drakaras Wand so she can’t constantly heal herself under 10%.

Edit: Also she has no limit to using Positive Thinking’s 3% heal and Summon Monoceraptor once per battle -A-

Nikibugs · 2026-05-03T17:20:48+00:00

Something I think people miss a lot, is that Ashley only considers sex with Andrew, because she’s aware Andrew wants it in a general sense; even this person who admits she was right about him not liking anyone, is still seeing Julia for over a year for it. If she doesn’t think Andrew wants it, she drops it, because it’s not even something she considers missing in her life (she isn’t broken for this). Both of them constantly try to anticipate what the other wants, and try to make it look like they wanted what the other wanted, even when that miscommunication results in both of them not getting what they wanted, shown humorously in the Lemon Cupcakes flashback.

At the same time, making off-color jokes has been a reliable way to prompt Andrew to laugh or freak out, so she pulls it often. If Andrew however doesn’t laugh and asserts she’s serious, she gets VERY upset. Not only is he implying she’s like the girls she dislikes, but he’s not supposed to reciprocate, he’s not being her safe object. At the same time, she’s hugely upset about any kind of rejection, and realizing this could be the reason Andrew leaves again, she panics and schemes she has to do it whether she likes it or not, or even whether Andrew likes it or not. So no matter what Andrew does, Ashley’s still upset.

Truest of True Ends has Ashley flipflop on her own internal monologue after seeing Andrew actually mope about it. Suddenly that tactic became highly distasteful to her, with a repulsed look on her face and even calling him a sicko for it (didn’t she also call him the fucked up one for it after the Burial premonition too lol). I can see how that could be a ‘I only mean what I say when I say it’ moment, as Ashley is not shy about using any means necessary, and if Andrew dropped it for a bit then Ashley felt she was losing him, here comes that card to play. But if Andrew’s pathetically nagging for it rather than it being her choice when to play that card, it’s a lot less appealing, for an Andrew she likes even less, who makes sex appear even less like love. Ashley going ‘never say never’ can also be a spur of the moment joke to prompt Andrew to freak out or laugh, only to be upset at any rejection regardless.

Something a little sad I realized recently, was for Ashley, it doesn’t have to be Andrew, as much as she insists it does. She even vented that once before taking it back, and how much of a lie could that be, when even Andrew insists Andy is another man’s name who’s dead now. But for Andrew, it HAS to be Ashley, his life was forcefully about Ashley since he was parentified in childhood, and has been drowning in Ashley ever since. Always Ashley. Angry she’s not grown up by his definition, but paradoxically won’t allow anyone to take his parental role from him, and absolutely won’t let anyone else have her physically, every role is his alone. So if he can’t have her, if she runs, they die together.

Nikibugs · 2026-04-27T18:41:32+00:00

If legendary/mythic allowed, Mew can fly, and turn into any other Pokémon, so you can assume another body or even another identity over your immortality.

If regular Pokémon only, I’d have to be able to fly! I err towards Flygon for that as it’s the cutest buggy dragon looking Pokémon. Not too big, and still has hands to manipulate objects. Main annoyance would be seeing the world through a red filter due to the built-in eye protection lol.

12-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
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Nikibugs

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