People are complicated. They can hold two opposing views at the same time. This can, however, lead to cognitive dissonance, which is a sort of pain the mind feels :achilles-serious:
I understand that anger buddy π Feeling like you’re back to square one because everything you thought was foundational to reality just isn’t and having no idea where you went wrong in your thought process and deciding to double down on the incorrect line of thinking that used to work so well before…
These are gonna be some crampy growing pains, get him some ibuprofen
Buddy if YOU canβt figure your own stuff out, how do you expect anyone else to be able to? He needs to stop avoiding thinking about things that make him uncomfortable and confront difficult questions because itβs clearly not benefiting him anymore (maybe it never was to his benefit but he deluded himself into thinking he was happy and getting what he wanted)
Unfortunately, rejecting reality and substituting one’s own isn’t actually a thing that can be done. (Well, not by regular people, anyway. Clair clearly has more power here.)
Itβs good that Pepperβs allowing him to work through this on his own. Itβs painful, but turning off those critical thinking skills is how we wound up in this mess in the first place. Still. Be nice if the guy showed a LITTLE compassion here:clair-say:
Well, there is a question of how soft you can be with Achilles without running into a misunderstanding. Clair tried to make him feel good about the value of his work, and look what that turned into in his head.
Pepper’s right!!! If the only way for Mars to be happy is to punch Achilles’s lights out, she’d be eargerly doing FOR FREE!! But she’s set such a damn high price for that to even happen. Why would *she* put *that* limit on herself if that’s her supposed prerequistie to be happy with Achilles existence?? π
The answer moany of us knowβshe never wanted to hit the guy in the first place. Violence was never her true archetype, but Achilles believed in that so strongly in order to better grasp ‘people,’ how they tick.
Sounds like Pepper poking holes in Achilles’s simplistic narrative is shaking his worldview. Achilles and Mars’ relationship is obviously more than a cold business transaction at this point, they’re just both struggling to come to terms with it. :peachy-stare:
Achilles’s body language really says a lot here; his tail curls around himself when talking about what Clair taught him, and when he starts getting more frustrated, his tail puffs up and he bares his fangs (two things which we almost NEVER see from him).
This moment feels like a big culmination of Achilles as a character. As the last page revealed, it was a great struggle for him to make sense of the world around him when he first moved here, and it brought him immense relief once he thought he figured it all out. It’s because of this that he’s especially distressed about having his worldview challenged at every corner lately (first with Clair and the drawing of Ares, and now with Mars allegedly only doing it for the money).
after the last time they were cooking together, seeing those “chop chop chop” sounds I cant help but be nervous pepper might cut his hand sdgjksdjgks :peachy-aaa:
I really love this scene, but not as much as I love when the local pervert enters my home to complain, tell me about how he only thinks about what he wants, and then starts screaming in my kitchen
I hope Pepper doesn’t cut his own finger amongst those bell peppers :achilles-serious:
And I hope he kicks the little guy out of his restful home, and into Mars’ hΜΆoΜΆmΜΆeΜΆ fortress
Achilles is Not having a good time. thinking hurts sometimes bud.
also… this is very parallel to their last kitchen date… someone’s freaking out while vegetables are getting chopped. maybe Pepper will be the one to get cut this time…
achilles blocking the pet like a samurai catching a sword between their hands
ohhh so this is why achilles seemed so chill about finding out about the existence of stairs. because he wasn’t
maybe I shouldn’t, but I kind of find panel 3 achilles funny here. something funny about him trying to hash something out to pepper who just nonchalantly isn’t getting it
this reminds me of society and the difference between doing something for money and doing the same thing for love of the game. like doing something for free is great, and if I love it I’d like to do it for free. but I would hate to do it for money, yet even so if certain people want me to do it I would ONLY do it for them for money. like achilles’ dilemma is kind of an allegory for how our system of capitalism doesn’t really work if you break it down, it doesn’t jive with how people live, despite what fatcats would like to be true. which also ties in with the actual subplot of some of the characters moving past capitalism, what with ares talking to achilles about literally that.
and clair is kind of the symbol of capitalism, this old system that makes no sense. and the idea that clair taught him is helping drive achilles insane while he tries to hash out this connection between capitalism and love. when really the answer in a non-specific way is for everyone, achilles clair mars, to move past the capitalism. not that that really helps achilles at this moment tho
the last time they were chopping together was very emotional as well. they were talking about how ares was probably talking about clair. pepper saying there’s something WEIRD about her, achilles says “there’s something weird about me TOO!” it must be comforting to have a designated place in the world when you otherwise feel like you don’t fit in.
achilles was upset at the idea that clair is the villain. makes sense, that’s one of his best friends. something being up with her and halo head in general threatens his place in the world, and means he might lose everything for all he knows. at the time he didn’t want to accept what pepper was saying, but he heard pepper.
in the present, the situation is the same. his understanding of the world and his friendship with clair and now relationship with mars are being threatened. it’s stuff he was already avoiding, that’s recently been very strongly thrown in his face again, with even harder to ignore evidence. but he hears pepper, that’s why he went back, also he doesn’t have any other options. as an only choice, pepper is a good one, bc he’s great at throwing a wrench into whatever you are thinking. and he’s been going through the same thing as achilles this whole time.
Ah poor baby. Thought he understood the world and now its all coming crashing down
All comes tumbling down tumbling down tumbling dooooowwwn
Damn, angry Achilles is kinda scary.
People are complicated. They can hold two opposing views at the same time. This can, however, lead to cognitive dissonance, which is a sort of pain the mind feels :achilles-serious:
I understand that anger buddy π Feeling like you’re back to square one because everything you thought was foundational to reality just isn’t and having no idea where you went wrong in your thought process and deciding to double down on the incorrect line of thinking that used to work so well before…
These are gonna be some crampy growing pains, get him some ibuprofen
Buddy if YOU canβt figure your own stuff out, how do you expect anyone else to be able to? He needs to stop avoiding thinking about things that make him uncomfortable and confront difficult questions because itβs clearly not benefiting him anymore (maybe it never was to his benefit but he deluded himself into thinking he was happy and getting what he wanted)
maybe you gotta Stop Making Sense little man
Achilles yo-you okay?:clair-what2:
Oh geez ok dude, sure, whatever you want :clair-what:
“Things have to make sense.” Well, that’s two characters now who have had that sentiment. Which means more foils between Pepper and Achilles! π
Iβm really hoping this leads to mind-Achilles making an appearance that is visible and audible to Pepper
I love that idea! But idk if Pepper could deal
Consider: He makes an appearance that is -audible- to Piper, but he’s too busy cooking to actually see that there’s a second Achilles.
I don’t know how Pepper turned into the Peppered Piper while I was writing this comment.
He’s looking at it all wrong and he’s breaking down..
Aw, Scruffy buddies
Unfortunately, rejecting reality and substituting one’s own isn’t actually a thing that can be done. (Well, not by regular people, anyway. Clair clearly has more power here.)
Oh. Ha. I was about to say. ITβS A METAPHOR
Itβs good that Pepperβs allowing him to work through this on his own. Itβs painful, but turning off those critical thinking skills is how we wound up in this mess in the first place. Still. Be nice if the guy showed a LITTLE compassion here:clair-say:
Well, there is a question of how soft you can be with Achilles without running into a misunderstanding. Clair tried to make him feel good about the value of his work, and look what that turned into in his head.
People are complicated.
Pepper’s right!!! If the only way for Mars to be happy is to punch Achilles’s lights out, she’d be eargerly doing FOR FREE!! But she’s set such a damn high price for that to even happen. Why would *she* put *that* limit on herself if that’s her supposed prerequistie to be happy with Achilles existence?? π
The answer moany of us knowβshe never wanted to hit the guy in the first place. Violence was never her true archetype, but Achilles believed in that so strongly in order to better grasp ‘people,’ how they tick.
Sounds like Pepper poking holes in Achilles’s simplistic narrative is shaking his worldview. Achilles and Mars’ relationship is obviously more than a cold business transaction at this point, they’re just both struggling to come to terms with it. :peachy-stare:
Id like to point out that the last time achilles snapped in peppers house it also took place while someone was chop chop chopping something
Achilles: *lovingly, tenderly details his trauma-informed worldview*
Pepper: That’s dumb as hell.
I love him, Your Honor.
(Hmmm… Wonder if Pepper’s gonna cut himself this time.)
Achilles’s body language really says a lot here; his tail curls around himself when talking about what Clair taught him, and when he starts getting more frustrated, his tail puffs up and he bares his fangs (two things which we almost NEVER see from him).
This moment feels like a big culmination of Achilles as a character. As the last page revealed, it was a great struggle for him to make sense of the world around him when he first moved here, and it brought him immense relief once he thought he figured it all out. It’s because of this that he’s especially distressed about having his worldview challenged at every corner lately (first with Clair and the drawing of Ares, and now with Mars allegedly only doing it for the money).
Pepper cutting bell peppers :chloe-onice:
Things make sense to me.
after the last time they were cooking together, seeing those “chop chop chop” sounds I cant help but be nervous pepper might cut his hand sdgjksdjgks :peachy-aaa:
Ah theeerreee’s the cognitive dissonance.
Noticing that the characters progressively get more messy hair the further they fall into a mental struggle
except Chloe and Clair
they apparently can’t grow hair
When your religion doesn’t make sense anymore
Real
I really love this scene, but not as much as I love when the local pervert enters my home to complain, tell me about how he only thinks about what he wants, and then starts screaming in my kitchen
It’s always my highlight of the week when it happens.
whoa there man
Many things never make sense lil dude u.u
dude has been feeling emotions and thinking thoughts hes not used to after shoving everything out of his head for so long. scrambled achilles
I hope Pepper doesn’t cut his own finger amongst those bell peppers :achilles-serious:
And I hope he kicks the little guy out of his restful home, and into Mars’ hΜΆoΜΆmΜΆeΜΆ fortress
Achilles is Not having a good time. thinking hurts sometimes bud.
also… this is very parallel to their last kitchen date… someone’s freaking out while vegetables are getting chopped. maybe Pepper will be the one to get cut this time…
ohhhh. The cognitive dissonance ain’t workin no more…:peachy-stare:
Oughh… Achilles, buddy,,
achilles blocking the pet like a samurai catching a sword between their hands
ohhh so this is why achilles seemed so chill about finding out about the existence of stairs. because he wasn’t
maybe I shouldn’t, but I kind of find panel 3 achilles funny here. something funny about him trying to hash something out to pepper who just nonchalantly isn’t getting it
this reminds me of society and the difference between doing something for money and doing the same thing for love of the game. like doing something for free is great, and if I love it I’d like to do it for free. but I would hate to do it for money, yet even so if certain people want me to do it I would ONLY do it for them for money. like achilles’ dilemma is kind of an allegory for how our system of capitalism doesn’t really work if you break it down, it doesn’t jive with how people live, despite what fatcats would like to be true. which also ties in with the actual subplot of some of the characters moving past capitalism, what with ares talking to achilles about literally that.
and clair is kind of the symbol of capitalism, this old system that makes no sense. and the idea that clair taught him is helping drive achilles insane while he tries to hash out this connection between capitalism and love. when really the answer in a non-specific way is for everyone, achilles clair mars, to move past the capitalism. not that that really helps achilles at this moment tho
ugh that first comment was for the next page just shoot me
the last time they were chopping together was very emotional as well. they were talking about how ares was probably talking about clair. pepper saying there’s something WEIRD about her, achilles says “there’s something weird about me TOO!” it must be comforting to have a designated place in the world when you otherwise feel like you don’t fit in.
achilles was upset at the idea that clair is the villain. makes sense, that’s one of his best friends. something being up with her and halo head in general threatens his place in the world, and means he might lose everything for all he knows. at the time he didn’t want to accept what pepper was saying, but he heard pepper.
in the present, the situation is the same. his understanding of the world and his friendship with clair and now relationship with mars are being threatened. it’s stuff he was already avoiding, that’s recently been very strongly thrown in his face again, with even harder to ignore evidence. but he hears pepper, that’s why he went back, also he doesn’t have any other options. as an only choice, pepper is a good one, bc he’s great at throwing a wrench into whatever you are thinking. and he’s been going through the same thing as achilles this whole time.