Burial Route Sane Path Vision
Now one of the theories that’s been worrying me… the sane path Burial route. As we learned from the Decay route, that is a grime soul, and Andrew is a grime soul. Adding on that that grime soul has Andrew’s text color…
At some point in the future Andrew loses his soul, and with Ashley being there I assume that this happens while they’re in the Realm In-Between. Although Andrew’s soul should have stuck nearby in that case (see Shots and Such/Deadest of Dead Ends endings branch), unless it got frightened off and ran away.
From how Ashley treated the other souls verse how she treated this one, she definitely knows that this is Andrew’s soul. Following it up with them needing to get out of there before something finds them? It’s very likely that what took Andrew’s soul is coming after it. Or coming after Ashley as well.
Overall, this paints a very worrying picture of what’s to come, and it’s most likely unstoppable because Ashley might not have understood it. Although with how she woke up, panicking to where Andrew went, maybe she knew enough to understand that that was Andrew, to worry what happened to him. Yet she also dismisses the dream... so it's a 50/50
Now, onto how this happened. We know of two different entities, one unnamed (who I will just refer to as The Entity here) and Lord Unknown.
Starting with Lord Unknown, I doubt they’re behind this. They seem to want to help Andrew more, especially since they seem as interested in tar souls as The Entity, so they’d probably want him to stick around until he hatches. Of course, there’s a chance Andrew faced danger and thus Lord Unknown took his soul as a method to keep him safe, however I don’t know what would make being a soul safer so that’s probably not it. (If someone does think of a reason, please share, I’d love to know)
Now, The Entity. This one is hard to say because unlike in the Decay route, they have no reason to dislike Andrew. Ashley framed him in a much more positive light, making him sound important instead of useless… except she also claimed his soul as hers. I’ll return to that in a bit. So, the Entity has a more positive opinion on Andrew, to the point where it wants to bring him to the Realm In-Between too. However, they don't have a positive opinion on grime souls, thinking of them as useless, never to become tar souls. With this thinking, Andrew would still be useless to it, but would that be enough to take his soul? I suppose in the case of Andrew being extremely protective of Ashley and trying to stop them from doing what they're doing in the Decay route, and being more forceful makes him a genuine threat that the Entity wants gone. Or maybe it doesn’t mean hostile intent for Andrew at all, but with the invite to the Realm In-Between… I can’t help but think that’s where it’s going.
With Ashley claiming Andrew’s soul, and the mark on his hand, would that mean it belongs to Ashley? Sure she isn’t fully an entity, but tar souls aren’t too far removed. Andrew didn’t disagree with that statement, so does that solidify it? Is that Ashley marking his soul as belonging to her? Maybe that’s why Andrew’s soul escaped elsewhere, because Ashley already had a claim to it, stopping other entities from taking it. That would be a good explanation to how it escaped, although it does bring up the question of the souls around him. So maybe a bunch of souls got freed and fled once out of the demon’s realm. Issue with that is it’s likely Andrew’s soul wouldn’t drift from Ashley since he’d probably feel some lingering attachment to her, even if he doesn’t know why. This could be solved by Ashley not being nearby when freeing them though.
About the mark specifically, while it is the same as Ashley’s eye in her soul/entity form, that’s the exact mark that The Entity put on Andrew when Ashley made a deal where they will get Andrew’s soul if he misbehaves. Maybe that’s because it centers around Ashley, or maybe it’s just marking him for the deal, like a natural/immediate cause and effect. However, no deals were made in either Burial route, nothing that would indicate this at least. The Entity said it will summon Ashley again and to bring Andrew with her, which doesn’t really sound like grounds for that permanent of a deal? Maybe that mark is to be able to locate Andrew and bring him along too? But that feels like a very weird reasoning, especially with how ominous it was being shown off.
And the final possibility is that it’s another entity entirely, in which case I have no idea how that happens. Maybe it tries to take his soul but Ashley fights back? Maybe she does start shifting into something more entity like then human like, which is a whole other can of worms to think about. Her ascending into an entity worries me greatly in all routes, but that’s neither here nor there for this ramble.
There’s also the chance that this is what happens for going into a demon’s realm unsummoned? Although his soul would probably be trapped there in that case, which circles back around to Ashley freeing the souls.
The other thing I’m stuck on is the questionable path with this, due to the vision change does that mean this won’t happen? It’s a pretty big change to happen no matter how it goes down. The Decay route has a big split where one ignores the vision entirely, so I suppose that splitting a lot would be expected, yet the mark persisting worries me. Will the vision come true despite it not appearing? It’s not as lengthy as the Decay ones so Ashley recognizing it probably won’t effect much. Unless she realizes she needs to find Andrew’s soul/catch the others based on the vision, but with that happening before… maybe Ashley is given assistance in this, helped by a different entity on what to do.
That’s another point I meant to bring up before, how Andrew’s soul will get returned. Either Ashley learns how to, or they have an entity’s help.
Once again starting with Lord Unknown, similar reasons as above. They want to help Andrew, whether that’s for tar soul reasons or something else entirely, which means they would most likely be willing to return his soul. Might need a deal to do it, but I do feel like they’d help out in the end.
The Entity is complicated for this since they have a different starting opinion on Andrew. He didn’t try to kill Ashley nor did Ashley paint him in a negative light. With two of the big dislikes/distrusts of Andrew not happening here, they might also be willing to help, especially with Ashley’s convincing. They probably would make a deal out of it though, which if Ashley blindly steps into… it could be very bad news.
The third possibility is Ashley herself figuring out how to return souls. If this is at a point where she’s shifting into being more entity like, then it’s very possible she can do this. We don’t know that she can’t technically, sure she didn’t return Andrew in Shots and Such, but she didn't try so it's not impossible. Maybe she could and just didn’t realize. The Entity would refuse to tell her for her safety, or it’s because Andrew’s soul belongs to them in that route. This would circle back around to Ashley owns Andrew’s soul and thus can do whatever she pleases to it.
Final possibility is a third entity being involved, but we lack knowledge on how that will go. I doubt it would help without a deal though, so it’s pretty much ruled out.
Personally on all of this? As much as Ashley ascending worries me, it would be cool to see her with some powers in the other realms. It also would be hilarious for an entity to try and take Andrew’s soul and Ashley just yoinks it from them since she already claimed it.
Also Ashley discovering she has ownership of it would be interesting. Claiming Andrew’s soul in the moment was fully a thoughtless claim, one made of their codependent possessiveness. Andrew is hers, and no one can take him away from her, so of course this includes his soul as well. And since The Entity only cares about souls, that’s the part that mattered in the moment.
Additional point that I don't know where it fits in, but the symbol on Andrew's hand is the exact same as the interact icon used throughout the whole game. I'm not entirely sure what that implication means, but it does support the Ashley side of it all more.
