#but i still stand by it

[blood-orange-juice]

It's been more than two years since Inazuma and I'm finally starting to appreciate Yae.

I think what threw me off was thinking of her as a trickster (although she is one as well) and what helped was thinking of her in terms of DnD alignments.

Yae is chaotic evil, and I don't mean it in a judgmental way, only in the way that her "meanness" is not a funny quirk, it's pretty much core to her character.

She's openly sadistic and she only does things for her own entertainment. She only behaves because of Ei, that beautiful trope of a fox falling in love with someone principled. Wrecking too much chaos would upset Ei so she plays nice.

Also I'm not even sure she's good influence on Ei most of the time. Evil fox advisor/courtesan is a Trope.

At the same time she's innocent in the way all yokai are innocent. She loves power in such self-gratuitous way, but she also loves mysteries of the universe and she's one of them.

I hate her. She's precious to me.

She also has the prettiest love confession I've ever seen.

"Let me tell you all that has happened over the last few centuries. [...] It will probably take me another few centuries to relay it to you."

We "liberated" Inazuma and left it with a lovely duo of a lawful evil ruler with a chaotic evil advisor/lover. Yay. The Traveler is a nice person indeed.

[correctlyme]

aa5-3 is lowkey bullshit in the fact that "the end justifies the means" would absolutely be taught by Phoenix to Athena.

Just thinking about the fact that Phoenix literally falsified evidence to get Kristoph jailed. He's done some sketchy ass things to help his cases. Sometimes, it's how he got results, aka the reason why people during the Dark Age of Law did sketchy ass things.

And the thing is? Mia Fey has used underhand techniques! In Turnabout Sisters, guess who literally blackmailed Redd White into confessing? (Ofc he deserved it but the principle is still there!).

Obviously, Prof. Means was morally wrong in how he was using that methodology, but that lesson just wasn't really effective to me. It's in the context of the Dark Age of Law, but "the end doesn't justify the means" thing doesn't work in Ace Attorney in the way they probably intended it.

The lawyers literally break into places, steal things for evidence, etc etc. Hell, even prosecutors do if we think about aai.

I get the point, but idk. I liked aa5-3 but that case also somehow affected my general enjoyment of dual destinies/Dark Age of Law.

[sailermoon]

they should invent a picking ur skin that’s good for u

[heartburiedingreece]

Is this a safe space?

[stickycircuits]

I’m going to take Stan on a date to the bass pro shop pyramid so we can steal the fish together <3

[sasukebabygirl]

i love naruto and sasuke more than i love myself and i think that gives people great insight into who i am as a person

[marsbutterfly]

do you ever read something about a character so incredibly WRONG that your soul curls up a little bit?

[azelle-intermisson]

https://youtu.be/P0OB9p0zqx0?si=4ur_dkYOH1g6JY6r

U asf to leo’s tissues

it's true if you let me in his car no force in the universe would be able to stop me from eating them all

[bookwormwithadhd]

lip kisses are overrated

non-lip kisses are my absolute favorite. absentmindedly kissing the back of someone’s palm as you hold hands. chaste forehead kisses and brushes against their cheek. silly boops on the nose. kissing fluttering eyelashes. neck kisses that barely touch skin but are no less passionate. kisses on collar bones or exposed tummies. sloppy kisses at the corners of someone’s mouth. kissing each and every fingertip with a delicate touch.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

License to Kitty.

[eosofspades]

i didn't have "i'm broken" teenage asexual angst i had "i'm literally being the only reasonable one about this concept and the rest of you are behaving like fucking freaks" perception issues

[fuckinnear]

everybody Must say hello to burger boy immediately

[clouder5]

you know sometimes I think "what the fuck am I doing" and then I keep doing whatever the fuck I was doing

[inkskinned]

you said you were stuck in a time loop, which was fine. i feel like late-stage capitalism has us all in a time loop, ammiright? you came barging in at 5:33. in the morning. i hadn't even processed the idea of coffee.

but you had this look of utter panic in your eyes. terror like the ocean. you grabbed my cheeks. im in a time loop.

i don't know why in movies the first reaction is to deny it. when someone is panicking like that, it's not appropriate to ask them to calm down. it didn't matter if i believed it, what mattered was that you believed it so much that it was consuming you.

so here we are. i pour you some of the dark roast. "you look like utter and entire hell," i say.

you push your fingers into your eyes. "you always say that."

i try to think of something funny to say that i wouldn't have said on previous time loops, but jokes don't land without the proper timing (lol). "remind me to think -"

"-yeah, of a joke that only works in the future. and before you say anything, i know you're pissed i just stole your punchline." you bolt the coffee, which is wild. it's very hot. you don't seem to notice.

i blow on mine to cool it down. i both am very pissed at you and also i can't see you in this amount of panic without wanting to help. but i'm also not really sure what we are, not since i saw you kiss her like that, no offense. it just was like, kind of rude when you knew i liked you.

and besides. i'm just like, barely a person. i write omegaverse fanfiction. i love the concept of a time loop, but what the fuck am i gonna do? send an alpha in there? i open my mouth.

you point at me. "you're about to ask why me. and then say some disparaging shit about yourself. i'm just a nerd who plays dnd or something. that self-own is slightly different each time." you sigh. "i know you think you can't really help me. i don't know who can help me. i only came to you because you fucking believe me." you check your watch, sigh, and throw your head back. you cover your eyes with one hand. "i've come here on 26 separate revolutions," you say. "you have believed me every time. and yeah, i have no idea how you fit into this but i just -" you sigh again. "i just like fucking talking to someone about it."

"do you need more cof-" i start, but you're already holding the empty cup out. i frown at it. "you're not getting any more until you promise not to bolt this one like an animal."

you laugh a little and sit up, pushing your hair out of your face. "okay, that's new dialogue. but to be fair to you, i'm not usually this rude. i'm still pretty new at all of this." you check your watch again. another sigh. i guess you're cruising for a personal best in the Sigh Olympics.

i almost tell you im not an NPC but i've played enough video games to know i'm very much an NPC. i pour you another cup. "so what happens in the loop?"

"really bad explosion." you mutter into the mug. you put your elbows on the table (rude) and bury your face in your arms like an angsty teenager. one hand floats up while you talk, because evidently you literally can't talk without your hands. "i have to save the day and there's this bomb and i have no bomb training and it keeps moving, you know."

"do i die?"

you peek up from your arms. "yeah. bigtime. you keep trying to run or stay or do anything and you always super die."

"oh."

"to be fair, like, everyone dies in it though.... so you're in good company."

i hate that you make me laugh. i hate that being around you always feels tingly and strange, this electric tension between us. something that is evidently (given how you stuck your tongue down a stranger's throat literally 3 days ago) (well. 3 for me) super one-sided. i take a sip of my coffee and close my eyes.

i die today, i guess. a little spark of panic starts at the top of my hands and starts whipping up my wrists.

"shit," you say. you look at your watch and jump to your feet. "i have to go. if i can come back, i will. i am still trying to figure out when is best to do everything, you know? the order of stuff. maybe morning isn't good for us."

i look up at you and think about how you keep kissing me in the back of my car and in alleyways and in the dark. and i can never fucking get a read on you. and i also think about how incredibly panicked you look. how broken. how long have you been doing this? "i don't want to die," i say.

you glance downwards. "well, you're not really dead, you'll come back in the loop."

"but i will have died." my hands are shaking. i am trying really hard to stay calm.

you push your hands through your hair again. "i really have to go. i will have this discussion with the next version of you, though. it is like, something i am thinking about."

"but i don't get a next version," i say. i don't really have the language for this, because i haven't had 26 tries with you. i only have my memories: you, a week ago. drunk and telling me you loved me in my ear. you, kissing her anyway. you, months ago, throwing up on my birthday, whispering to me i ruin everything i touch, always, over and over. please don't ask. i can't ever fucking have that be you.

i run my finger along the rim of the mug. "i don't want to die in this one."

you seem baffled by this. "i get that but - time will reset, you'll be fine, you won't even remember we talked about this."

"but i know now." i stand up too. "i have to live the rest of this day knowing i could die. knowing i probably am going to."

"you could always die, to be fair."

i feel my hands get out of control. "earlier, you said i always say a different insult about myself. what if you're just going through different parallel universes and those are all just different - but real - versions of myself? what if you're not in a time loop, you're in a fucking universe loop?"

"if it helps, i've wondered this too. also, you're hot in all of them. if that helps."

i point at you. "no flirting. i'm trying to figure out if i die today."

"who's flirting?" you catch my wild hands and give me that long, perfect smile. like we're in this together. "i won't let ya die." you check your watch and sigh again. "well. maybe not this time."

i grit my teeth. you are so not making quips at me while i try to explain the existential dread i'm having. "does the time loop reset if i fucking kill you?"

"honestly i don't know how long it continues after i die, because i just wake up. it could be that the loop goes until the explosion for everyone, and we're all in the loop, or it could be that when i die, the loop restarts. when i die i wake up, is all."

i pull away from you and stalk into the kitchen and start doing all 3 of my dishes. "okay, first, you know i was joking. and secondly, this is exactly my point. you don't know if this is just a parallel universe. maybe in the ones where you died, the explosion happened and nobody reset and it's just you travelling." i have to stop and push the heel of my palm into my eyeball. "... how often have you died?"

i look at you. you look at me. you give me this very sad, halfway smile and a little what can ya do shrug. something in that action seems so old and weary that i want to burst into tears.

"i have to go," you say. "really. for real. there's this family of five i save from getting into a car crash. and i know it's like oh but we're all gonna die in the explosion anyway, what's the point. and..." you shrug again. "it matters to me, is all. at least i saved them for now. at least i saved anything."

you pad over to me and wrap me in a tight hug. you always seem so tall against me. i feel your cheek rest against the top of my head for a moment. for a second, it's just us, and the space is warm, and my heart is a little broken hare.

you leave me there, and i stand in my stupid badly lit kitchen with my stupid mugs. i think about you. i start texting my mom that she needs to get out of the city, but it feels pointless.

i don't know what to do. tomorrow is the same day for you. but i have to prepare to die in my today.

[cobbbvanth]

#please don't take him just because you can :(

[smalldicksantiago]

armand: i could not prevent it

ⓘ Fact check: Armand could have prevented it.