Is This A Thing We Do Now?

[rionaleonhart]

A new instalment of fucked-up murdersibling game The Coffin of Andy and Leyley has been released, and I am absolutely obsessed with these nightmare siblings.

I think I'm probably most of the way through the new release (chapter three of the Decay route), but I'm going to have to split my thoughts into a couple of entries, because I have written an embarrassing quantity of rambling notes while playing this. This post contains my thoughts up to the scene where you're investigating a lot of summoning circles.

NB: this entry, as with pretty much all my entries about The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, is going to talk a fair bit about fictional incest.



As a small negative point before I launch into an extremely positive ramble: I'm not sure about the new wording of the options that determine whether you're on the Burial or Decay route.

The original options, 'trust Andrew? yes/fuck that' and 'your mother is offering an olive branch; accept/decline', were a lot clearer about what you were choosing to prioritise. It made sense to me that I should choose 'trust Andrew' and 'decline Renee's offer' if I wanted to keep the siblings as close as possible (too close??).

The new options, 'trust Andrew? no, but trust the trinket/fuck that' and 'your mother is offering an olive branch; reflect/decline', feel a lot murkier. It's not immediately obvious to me that 'reflect' would be a betrayal of Ashley in the way 'accept' would be, or that 'fuck that' would be substantially worse for their relationship than 'no'. I think these new options are really going to steer new players towards Decay, and Decay already had an advantage because you have twice as many opportunities to get onto that route!

The good news is that, even if I think it's a little too easy to end up on, the Decay route is iiiiiincredible.

There's an honesty to Ashley that I find interesting, especially in contrast to Andrew. Which is worse: the person who's openly keen on murdering you, or the person who, despite claiming he doesn't want to murder people, will nonetheless kill you without remorse?

Ashley implied that her brother could have been fucking her in her sleep, and my first thought was 'oh, this reminds me of my fic!' My second thought was 'it doesn't feel great that this reminds me of my fic.' (NB: the fic in question is pretty horrible, as you might have guessed from the thing that reminded me of it.)

I laughed aloud at Andrew's expression when Ashley called his 'can I kiss you?' bluff in the petrol station. And I love his later 'Maybe I should've gone for it to give you some semblance of a consequence,' which is absolutely radiating 'just kidding! unless...?'

I love Andrew responding to 'What would you engrave on our rings?' with 'The biggest mistake of my life,' without missing a beat.

Andrew calling his ex just to fuck with Ashley and playing with Ashley's hair while he talks on the phone: kind of incredible? And then saying bizarre romantic things to Ashley under the plausible deniability of being on the phone to Julia! I originally chose not to call Julia, then reloaded my save and tried it just to see what happened, and I'm glad I did; what a scene!

Holy shit, I just double-checked the art in that scene, and there's a point where Andrew has his hand on Ashley's shoulder and his thumb under her bra strap. He's holding Ashley by the bra strap when he tells Julia 'you're the most alluring thing I've ever laid my eyes on'!

I love Ashley drawing the summoning circle in her period blood. As Andrew says: resourceful! (This might actually the first explicit recognition of menstruation I've ever seen in a videogame, come to think of it.)

Andrew said, 'Hey... Come here for a bit, Ashley. I need to tell you something,' while standing in the summoning circle, and I was instantly so tense on so many different levels.

I thought 'well, we look similar, so maybe it makes sense to tell the campers we're cousins rather than friends', having forgotten that the campers had already seen Ashley straddling Andrew and would probably be confused. But it did get us the incredible Ashley line 'Oh please, you prudes. What the hell is it to you if he was balls-deep in his cousin??'

Also incredible: Andrew dying inside while Ashley just keeps talking about it.

I laughed out loud at 'These people are nuts.' 'Must be all the inbreeding' and Andrew's internal (THERE'S BEEN NONE!!!)

Out of curiosity, I reloaded to see what the 'tell them you're friends' option gets you, and I enjoyed this exchange:

Andrew: Should I fuck you in the car to make you feel pretty? Fuck off.
Ashley: BHAhHahaHA!! Wow. Kill yourself.

These two are just so awful and I love them.

I did not murder the kid! I'm glad I realised not murdering the kid was an option prior to actually murdering the kid. I'm so proud of myself. ('Did you then reload your save and murder the kid to see if Andrew would react interestingly to it?' - no comment.)

One complaint I do have about this game is that the puzzles can be a little unclear. Sometimes I just can't intuit what the game expects me to do! I eventually had to look up the solution to the stars-and-flowers puzzle; I was convinced it was to do with the number and orientation of flowers rather than their placement in the wall.

holy shit, he's asking Ashley why she keeps making incest jokes, he's trying to feel out whether this is a 'haha just kidding! unless...?' situation

I love Ashley draping herself over him while asking, 'Aren't you overthinking it?' On second thought, Ashley, you're right; this relationship is totally normal.

'...What did you hope I'd say?' I CAN'T HANDLE THIS TENSION

THESE TWO ARE CONSTANTLY LOCKED IN THE MOST INCREDIBLE GAME OF INCEST CHICKEN AND IT IS SO STRESSFUL

Andrew can't handle this conversation any more than I can.

Ashley trying to push for incest because she feels it's a way to prevent Andrew from murdering her is kind of breaking my heart. And 'It could be fun. For you'!

'So we roll around and basically dry-hump on Mom's couch, but god forbid either of us ever gets off?' After all the oblique flirting and physicality, it's really interesting to see these two talking so directly about the weird sexual aspect to their relationship. (It's also good to see them talking directly about Ashley's fear that Andrew will kill her!)

Incidentally, I am delighted that these two remain just as weird and incestuous in routes other than the Explicit Incest Route.

I genuinely found myself letting out a near-silent 'AAAAAAAAHHHHHH' in real life when, after the Incest Conversation, Andrew kissed Ashley's forehead and nose and then paused, looking at her mouth. I am going to explode.

THE GAME FAKED ME OUT FOR A MOMENT, I THOUGHT THEY WEREN'T GOING TO DO IT, BUT THEN

Andrew needs the plausible deniability, the 'shut up or I'll actually kiss you' threat! But, once he has that excuse, that reason to tell himself there's nothing real behind this, he can't resist.

Afterwards, you can feel him being tempted to go in for another kiss. But, if he does, the illusion shatters; the excuse is gone.

I am losing my entire fucking mind about this game. I took forty minutes to get through that one cutscene because I kept pausing to take screenshots, process lines, make notes, freak out at th_esaurus over WhatsApp.

I very much enjoyed the surgeon saying he doesn't do his work 'for the money or the fanfare. It's sexual gratification. Cutting people up is incredible.'

Kissing her again before leaving her with the demon!! I am going completely insane about these two.



More rambling to come once I've finished this chapter! I'm having an incredible time with this game.