#but it was written in an ace way

[eagle-warri]

me, minding my own business:

my brain: [kicks down door] happy pride month remember that cover you did of jolene where she was ace but the town was too full of Disaster Bisexuals (tm) to notice

me:

lyrics under the cut

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene They say that I’m the one who’ll take your man Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene I do not want to even though I can My beauty is beyond compare With flaming locks of auburn hair With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green My smile is like a breath of spring My skin is soft like summer rain At least that’s what they say of me, Jolene They talk about me in their sleep There's nothing I can do to keep From crying when they call my name, Jolene Cause what they do not understand Is I don’t want to take their man They don’t mean anything to me, Jolene Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene They say that I’m the one who’ll take your man Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene I do not want to even though I can And I could have my choice of men But I’d not love any of them Cause no one is the one for me, Jolene I had to have this talk with you There’s no one that I want to woo And don’t say that you never knew, Jolene Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene They say that I’m the one who’ll take your man Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene I do not want to even though I can Jolene, Jolene

[into-fiction]

future fic blurb:

The first time Galinda realized something was truly deeply wrong with her was when she was just thirteen. Her mother had sat her down to explain the ‘birds and the bees,’ and Galinda had felt her whole face scrunch up in disgust. 

“What if I don’t want to have sex with boys?” she’d asked. 

Her mother had looked aghast, staring incomprehensibly at her like Galinda had just asked the most stupid, ridiculous question she’d ever heard. Eventually though, she’d just shrugged and said the words that still stuck with Galinda to this day. 

“Then you fake it.”

[sunriseindigo]

drdttober day 23: memories

do you remember?

(inspired by torn pages by eyitzme)

[franziska-von-karuma]

the most evil thing the aa fandom did was convince people miles was the most important person in phoenixs life when in game mia maya hell even iris and dahlia are all arguably more important for phoenix as a person then edgeworth

[ryllen]

Hi! I hope that you are doing well🥰💗💕 I really adore your art!! Your Yuu really wins me over to the very heart!💘💘💘

I wear lightning-shaped earrings and they really remind me of Sebek!⚡ I would like your girl to put them on and draw this🥺💓

But I also really love her black earrings that she wears when she's a teenager and green ones when she's an adult! It's really cute💕💕

And! I would be interested to know if Sebek notices when Yuu puts on other earrings or doesn't wear them at all if she doesn't want to?👉👈💗

Have a nice day!🥰❣️❣️❣️

decide ur ending, which feels more in character

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

On Kurapika's Self-Imposed Isolation

While I recognize that probably everything I'm about to say is going to be super obvious, I just wanted to briefly touch on Kurapika's self-isolation, and the reason behind his not picking up his phone or exchanging anything more than clipped words and business after Yorknew.

I think the obvious answer is that Kurapika doesn't want his friends in harms way, or to be used as a bargaining tool against him. This is an understandable and probably accurate conclusion. After all, Gon and Killua did get taken hostage, and Kurapika was forced to negotiate an exchange. Chrollo picked up on Kurapika's "weakness" right away - that he values his friends' safety before his revenge. Fortunately for Kurapika in this situation, Pakunoda was a whole lot more similar to him than he would've cared to admit, as she placed a value on Chrollo's life even though everyone in the Spider was intended to be replaceable. So, now that he's been through Gon and Killua having potentially gotten killed or seriously hurt, and Chrollo knows that he has a soft spot for them, it does make sense that he would try to push them away for their safety and for the sake of not having an exploitable "weakness" in future. He may also not want to burden them more when they have their own lives to live - he does slip off without telling Gon and Killua for the sake of not distracting them from Nen training, after all.

Except that he already tried all this earlier in Yorknew arc. He tried to tell them they shouldn't get involved, and they all agreed that the risks were massive - but his friends agreed to undergo the risks anyways to help him. Kurapika was even grateful for it - "I have been blessed with good friends."

So, for him to push them away solely for this reason after the fact, knowing that this was very much a likely situation to happen, is a little odd to me. Kurapika knows full well that Leorio would be frustrated, Killua would be offended and Gon would worry. So, I think there's a little more to it than that, and I actually would venture to say that "keeping his friends out of danger" is more a secondary reason for his actions - one that would come across as more of a reasonable excuse to others.

The primary reason is likely a lot more selfish than that. Kurapika has to ensure his mission comes first. And unfortunately, he is fully aware that his path and choice in abilities is deeply self-destructive.

Kurapika needs to make sure that he doesn't have exploitable weaknesses, sure, but he also just as much needs to purposefully worsen his headspace - and he can't do that with those three around.

Think back, what are the happiest moments we see from Kurapika in the series? The one that comes to mind first, and the one I'm sure most of us will think of immediately, is this:

[ID: A screenshot from the 2011 anime adaptation. Kurapika smiles - he looks at ease. End ID.]

It's one of the sweetest scenes of the series imo, right before the whole group is reunited for the first time since the Zoldyck Family arc, and it's even more notable because it comes immediately on the tail end of this...

[ID: Three panels from HxH Chapter 101. Kurapika removes his contacts over the sink. His expression is distant. End ID.]

...and this...

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 101. A close up of Kurapika's vacant and furious expression, his eyes wide and dangerous as he says "It might as well be you." Though the art is in black and white, it's apparent his eyes have gone scarlet. End ID.]

...and this.

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 101. A distant Kurapika speaks on the phone on a rooftop at night, the cityscape of Yorknew around him dark, but speckled with lights and stars. He says "The Spiders are dead." His face is not visible to the reader. End ID.]

This is, up to this point in the series, Kurapika at his lowest. In contrast to Gon, who is happy to hear that the Spiders are dead already because now Kurapika can focus solely on finding his peoples' eyes, Kurapika... is clearly not happy - and that's because killing the Spiders himself isn't just revenge. It's penance. It's survivor's guilt. Kurapika's powers, which Izunavi even comments sound much like he is chaining himself in the process of chaining his enemies, are oh-so-beautifully prophecied to destroy him - and Kurapika was aware of this from the moment he set off down this path of revenge.

(As a side note, this is why I'm really hoping we see Gon and Kurapika interact again after the Chimera Ant arc - while Gon has always been pretty attentive to Kurapika's emotional state, in Yorknew, he lacks a true understanding of why Kurapika would go so far... but as of now, he understands rage fueled by guilt and grief all too well. I know we're all rooting for Leorio to reach Kurapika, but barring that, I really think Gon could get through to him - after all, they are similar in several ways, and I find it fairly apparent that Gon reminds Kurapika of Pairo.)

But back to the main point here - I do suspect Kurapika expects (if not wants) his revenge mission to destroy him. I think a lot of times, we forget just how young Kurapika is, and how much his character is dictated by honour, and the abandonment of it.

Certainly, he can and will go against his principles for the sake of his mission... yet, almost paradoxically, he's bound to his promise to his fallen clan; a promise to avenge them made in anger.

But Kurapika... doesn't come across as a naturally angry person to me at all.

He seems like the stoic, vengeful type on his initial introduction... and then we get his panic at Gon's recklessness

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 2. Kurapika and Leorio wear matching expressions of panic in front of Gon, calling him out for his recklessness. End ID.]

...and his near-immediate forgiveness of Leorio after getting the first inkling of his character - of someone who cares just as fiercely as he does.

And after that point? Almost all through the Hunter Exam? Kurapika smiles so readily at them. He's sharp and funny. He mediates at times, but is stubbornly prideful in others. He's very amused by his friends' antics, and it really does seem like he starts to enjoy himself, with them. And, more than that, he counters Leorio's initial impression of him as an independent loner - on several occasions. He decides to follow Gon because Gon intrigues him. Asides from Gon, it is Kurapika who is the most unwilling to fight each other at the bottom of Trick Tower. Kurapika who makes the first move to team up with Leorio, even though that arrangement benefits Leorio much more than it does him. Kurapika who refuses to abandon Leorio to his fate in the cave, and who checks on Gon after noticing his bad mood. Who was furious enough watching him get beat down by Hanzo that his eyes went scarlet for the first and only instance outside of Spider mentions and Emperor Time. Who quite readily detoured to help rescue Killua.

[ID: Three screenshots from the 2011 adaptation Hunter Exam arc. In the first, Kurapika smiles at a sleeping Leorio. In the second, Kurapika stifles laughter as he pretends he's asleep. In the third, Kurapika has an open-mouthed smile as he acquires the airship tickets for them, Leorio and Gon standing behind him. End ID.]

Look at him! He's so bright! So happy!

...too happy. Too happy to do what he promised himself he would do. And that's his biggest fear, isn't it. Without his rage... what is he left with?

[ID: A panel from HxH chapter 2. A close up of Kurapika's eye as he says "I do not fear death. What I fear is that my rage will one day fade away." End ID.]

Kurapika is far, far less mired in anger when he's with his friends. I actually dare to say that at certain points, he was able to go for lengths of time without thinking much about it - alternating between almost forgetting in one instance and being hit like a sledgehammer on exposure to a reminder in the next. This violent swing is... actually the beginnings of the natural process of healing from loss and trauma. But to Kurapika, who's made a promise to his people's memories, this is not a relief. This is betrayal.

I think that actually scares him, that he can almost picture it. A life beyond his guilt. That he, too, could learn to be happy, even after unimaginable loss.

And so, as Kurapika continues his mission offscreen, finding more and more gruesome reminders of the cruelty inflicted on his people and losing more and more pieces of himself in the process (in his own words, no less), he prioritizes his responsibility to them, and pushes away his distractions. He cannot be a soul at peace until his work is done; he must be in turmoil. He pushes people away who he cares for, and binds himself, and keeps his people's eyes on him, quite literally, because respite, for him, is unacceptable. Perhaps that guilty part of him even hopes, by the end of this, that his soul will be so unrecognizable as to be fundamentally unsalvageable. But the truth of the matter is, or at least what comes across to me, is that Kurapika cares much more fiercely than he hates. He knows what matters most. And for as long as he does, he still hasn't truly lost himself.

[ID: A panel from HxH chapter 350. Kurapika looks down at baby Woble with a gentle, yet complicated expression. The inking is somewhat softer. End ID.]

Kurapika's soul is kind, really. And it wants to heal - but for the sake of his mission, he needs it damaged and bleeding. And so, he forces himself to exist in that pain. All alone.

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 344. Kurapika, dressed in a black suit, sits with his back to the reader, looking down at a photo in his hand. He is slumped a little before the church vigil he has prepared, all his clan's eyes lined up in their jars and honoured with flowers and candles. He thinks to himself "There is no home for me to return to... and nobody to welcome me back. I have nothing left." End ID.]

[t00thpasteface]

there's a lot of comparisons to be made between catch-22 and m*a*s*h, and i think those have a lot of merit, but the thing about catch-22 is that in addition to the dark humor and pointed social commentary, it's DEEPLY absurdist. and for this reason i would say the most apt popcultural comparison for catch-22 is not m*a*s*h, but rather... ace attorney

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

hey in DRDT if eden does end up being the mastermind like some theories say i can see her having actually killed arei for whatever reason and pulling a tsumugi shirogane and framing ace for it. like ace sees ppl will vote him guilty anyway so he pretends to have done the murder to get everyone killed out of spite. but then monotv says everyone voted right and he is the killer and he's wrongfully executed. then the others discover that in chapter 6 when they pin it on eden or whatever.

it would play into teruko's decision to trust eden. since teruko didn't pursue eden when she was suspicious, she would have let the real killer and mastermind get away and it would play into the theme of ppl betraying teruko, if that's what the dev is going for.

more interestingly for me rn though, it would play into ace's persecution complex he has this chapter. like imagine everyone ganging up on you and deciding you're the killer, so you lie that you are, expecting to get them killed. and then you're told that, nope, monotv has arbitrarily decided that you ARE the killer when you're clearly not. and everyone else survives but you and ONLY you are executed. for something you didn't even do. that's just confirms to ace that everyone, including the ppl who run the killing game, hates him, specifically.

[obssessivethorn]

I’ve been writing an ace x Yuu/reader piece but I kid you not I have only been able to write anything for it in the parking lot of my job.

I’ve tried to write at home or when I’m out doing something and get an idea but I stg the work parking lot is the only place this mfer is being written—

[ikemen-catcha]

this just made me realise that eijun and kazuya were the same age when they first met and it probably shouldn’t mean much but it means VERY much to ME.

only a 6 month age gap between misawa so if half the year they’re basically the same age then this fact alone lends itself to why it’s way easier for eijun to treat kazuya with less formality compared to everyone else in kazuya’s grade.

[alt-ernativewonderland]

Haven't seen Heartbreak High trend once on tumblr since it came out and I only have one question: WHY!?

[crescentfool]

having the hc that minato is ace is incredibly funny sometimes when you think about how ryoji is oh so very bi because it's like. "ah. death stole my ability to be attracted to people," in the same way that ryoji stole minato's eye color and energy level. like wow, thanks ryoji, you just keep finding things to steal from minato!

[transmasc-rose]

Ah. Ok. Hm. They did another major retcon and I'm not sure how I feel about this. (< story of Every Game after ac1)

In Brotherhood, when Desmond kills Lucy, you take control of him. He steps, very slowly, each action forced by the player, while he asks Juno (/you/himself) to stop.

In Revelations, when Desmond thinks back on killing Lucy, he says "I'm so sorry... it wasn't me.... it was that voice... Juno... she made me..." and collapses on the ground, either stuck in that memory or maybe desyncing with himself(?)

In ac3, Desmond says he DID choose to kill Lucy. Juno showed him Lucy taking the Apple to Abstergo, raising it into the sky with the satellite (a plan the Precursors had tried and failed, but the Templars don't know that), and failing, causing the world to burn. so he made the choice to kill her.

I think you COULD argue that the discrepancy between ac Revelations and ac3 was a mirror of the Apple's use in the ac2 DLC, with most marks confessing on their deathbed that they'd been the ones to choose, though a few maintained their innocence to their last breath.

But even the Apple has been wildly inconsistent. Whether it works on temptation or its Just Straight Mind Control differs! Pretty regularly! I don't think, for example, you could call Ezio's use of the apple in Brotherhood (forcing enemy forces to kill each other) or Altaïr's use of the apple in Revelations (forcing a man to kill himself) or Bloodlines (convincing a crowd to leave in a zombie-like state) to be a matter of "temptation".

The most obvious explanation is that the apple can do both/either (depending on what writer wrote that particular scene, or even maybe intentionally. Maybe) and that the scene in Brotherhood was written with the direct use in mind, until it was retconned to the temptation use in ac3.

And I don't inherently have an issue with Desmond willingly killing Lucy. If. You know. They wrote it like that. But I genuinely believe they didn't, and the plot makes LESS sense for it.

[kooabreen]

*holding my asl brother fics out with both hands, offering all my love and effort with my heart on full display*

🤲🤲🤲

[quietwingsinthesky]

Evie and Jacob preening each other's wings :)

u get it u get it. they’re like the product of weird assassin legends that a lot of people don’t believe are real until the day the frye twins start growing wings. and it’s definitely not something they can let just anyone catch wind of. so, probably, they’ve been the only ones preening each other since the wings grew in.

(especially assuming that like. eagle vision is something that’ll come in naturally, but the wings *don’t*, they require something to Activate them, some trauma that sets them off like a genetic defense mechanism. which i guess for the fryes might be That Time Their Dad Fucking Died. factchecking myself at the wiki but like. he got sick, would barely let them see him on his deathbed, and they were two of the only four people there to bury him. anyway in wings au <3 their dad is in the ground barely a day before the wing growth kicks in and a week and a half before it finally finishes. it does not help either of their respective daddy issues that they have no idea how he would have reacted to them having this “gift” or to how they choose to use it.)

anyway uhhhh also this appeared in my notes app.

“Evie, leave it.” Jacob means that to be a stronger complaint, but the pillow cushioning his head against the side of the couch is so soft and his wings are so heavy with cramps from being trapped beneath his outfit all day and Evie is gliding her fingers right down the sore spot where they jut from his back. His wings give an aching twitch beneath her touch. “Evie…” and that’s a whine, right from the back of his throat, like they’re children and she’s got him wrestled down on his belly just to prove that she’s been paying attention during training.

“Jacob,” she returns with a hum. He probably shouldn’t let his eyes drift shut, but her nails are running flat over the surface of his secondaries… He gives a little shudder at the the feeling. Nothing else in the world like it.

He’s never let anyone but Evie touch his wings. Hell, other than her, he can count the people he’s let see them that won’t soon be dead in a few minutes time on two hands. It’s an on-going debate with himself: to trust his Rooks enough to show them off. Among Assassins, he and Evie may be living myths, but to anyone else, they’re freaks of nature at the best of times.

Among Assassins. He buries his face in the pillow and resolutely does not think about Evie letting Henry preen her.

“Do you really want me to stop?” Evie asks, suddenly, and he can feel the warmth of her hand lingering an inch above the elbow of his wing. He lifts his mouth from the pillow to speak.

“…No?” He flops back down, irritation at Henry’s imagined intrusion fading because Evie’s got her fingers hooked in that way she learned lets her drag each feather out of alignment without risking plucking him. A light prickling sensation rushes down his wing and up his spine from the base of each feather she tugs on.

“You were puffing up. I thought I might’ve hurt you.” Unconsciously, his wings sweep wider. Papers drift forgotten across the floor of the train car. “But you’re just being dramatic, as always.” Jacob huffs, but it’s barely audible. He blinks slowly over the pillow. Evie’s other hand is steadying his wing, holding it firm in her palm. She knows exactly how much pressure they can take, how the muscles below the feathers bend and stretch, and if he lets her, she can maneuver his wings into any position she wants without putting any undue strain on them.

He doesn’t want to lift his head, even to look back at her, so he looks down instead at her shadow, lit from behind by the fading sunlight coming in from the windows. Her wings are tucked comfortably against her back. His other wing rolls and stretches over the back of the couch, pressing into the train car’s wall. Evie helps it settle. She puts on hand on the broad back of it and pushes it down into a comfortable resting position. If he twitches the tip of it, he’s pretty sure he can feel her folded wing near his.

“What is this?” Evie says under her breath, running her fingers over a patch of feathers. She makes a disgusted noise. “Jacob, there’s blood crusted in your coverts. Aren’t you able to keep yourself presentable?”

Jacob shakes that wing out beneath her hands. He feels the vague sense that he should get defensive or tell her to drop the subject or- But there’s not really room for him to be upset around the calm fog in his head. She’s right, and he knows she’s right, and he almost wants to tell her why he hasn’t made the time to clean himself up, but…

“Clearly not,” he mumbles into the pillow. He lets the whine come naturally this time, “Evie? Please?” Evie sighs, loudly, for effect.

She pulls away, and Jacob flaps his wings unsteadily, trying to reach for her with them.

She settles them with a touch. “Hold still. I think I still have half a flask of water on me.” She drums her fingers along the bridge of his wing, right against the bone. The rhythm works itself into his head, leaving even less room for thoughts that aren’t about being preened.

He listens to her rustle around looking for it, then the pop of the flask and the soft slosh of liquid inside. Evie presses some cloth—a rag? a napkin? He’s not sure and is too relaxed to look.—over the feathers, wet with lukewarm water, Her scrubbing is patient and methodical, turning the blood from dry splotches sticking the vanes of his feathers together into wet clumps that easily slide off of him.

Her other hand slides into the crook between shoulderblade and wing. Jacob goes completely limp, wings barely held up for her to keep preening. “If you fall asleep, I’m putting this on top of your head and leaving it there to soak your hair.” He hums, not really acknowledging the words as much as Evie’s voice, Evie’s touch, Evie there with him like she’s supposed to be.

His feathers ruffle, damp but clean. Evie takes to combing the water from them. Jacob’s eyelids are too heavy to open again.

Evie says something. He misses it entirely.

She says something else. Jacob grunts and scrunches his face against the pillow.

He manages to focus again when she scratches that spot low on his other wing that he can never reach. Evie keeps it up, sending pleasant shivers all through his body with each pass of her nails over a place only she’s ever touched.

“Jacob. Jacob,” she says, and he can hear her smiling, hear her feigning annoyance at how long it’s taken to get his attention back. “Little brother, are you still in there?”

She’s evil, is what she is. Diabolical. She knows exactly what a good preening does to him. He fumbles for a reply that’s even half-witty and loses it again as she goes up against the grain of his feathers, upsetting them in a way that leaves him frowning, just so that she can get to work putting them back the way they should be.

“Lost cause, then,” she says. Jacob opens his mouth to say… something.

Hard to remember what. Evie’s wing has stretched forward to cover his, and it’s heavy and warm and smells like her. He puts all of his energy into pressing back into the underside of her wing to feel where her feathers slip between his.

Evie curls her hand over the side of Jacob’s neck. He hums. She leans over him to kiss the back of his head.

Jacob’s pretty sure he doesn’t fall asleep, not for a little while longer, if only because when he wakes, he’s in a much more comfortable position then he was and his wings have been folded carefully along his back and covered with a blanket. He doesn’t remember what exactly Evie might have done in the meantime, but when he stretches his wings out, they’re perfectly preened and feel lighter than they have in a week.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

There's a small moment in the Hunter x Hunter 2011 anime that I thought was pretty cute. It's close to the beginning, during the Hunter Exam, when they're looking for pigs in the forest. Gon slides down a hill, and Killua follows him, only for him to crash because Gon had stopped at the bottom of the hill. This scene!

It's one of those rare little bits added by an adaptation that really add to the characters - because yeah, this was not in the manga.

I find this anime is really good at adding little moments that either

are just cute or endearing

are fun extra interactions that show off the character dynamics more

actually highlight something about the characters in question

This one, I feel, does all three. First of all, I just love seeing Killua a bit more involved in their group before the eventual reveal of "he just wanted to be friends". It's really sweet.

But mostly, I think it's interesting that Killua assumed Gon was just messing around, when Gon was actually focusing his efforts on beating the challenge. Because, sure, Killua finds Gon somewhat intriguing, and he really wants to stick around him due to his desire for a friend - but Killua still sees himself as a class above pretty much everyone else there, and also as an assassin in a category so firmly removed from "regular kid".

So, Killua totally misreads Gon here. He assumes Gon is just doing a regular kid thing and attempts to mimic it so he can join in. It doesn't actually occur to him that Gon was tracking the pigs, or focusing on the task at hand.

It's a far cry from later on, where Killua and Gon are primarily a team effort - in sync, aware of the others' strengths, and taking each other quite seriously.

And part of it, of course, is that they just don't know each other very well at this point. But I think another thing is that Killua, during most of the Hunter Exam, is more invested in what Gon represents than who he is, necessarily.

His first friend represents rebellion against his family, childish enjoyment, and the desire for connection and understanding that he is not receiving. And even though, as time goes on, he grows more and more impressed with Gon, I really don't think it fully clicked that he wanted that friend he wished for to be specifically Gon until he was confronted by Illumi.

I also think Killua takes Gon a lot more seriously after the fight with Hanzo, and especially after Gon went all the way to the Zoldyck estate to save him. Before the Hanzo fight, Killua was outright irritated by Gon being ranked higher than him overall, and was even a little bitter at the beginning of the fight ("I could've dodged that easily" comes to mind).

By Heavens Arena, I feel they both have a much firmer grasp on, and appreciation for, who the other is as a person. Killua is more consciously aware of his investment in Gon as an individual rather than an abstract, and Gon is aware of Killua's crappy upbringing and is quick to be very supportive of him as he figures things out for himself.

During the Hunter Exam though, a lot of the interactions between them feel a lot like Killua is either mimicking or acting out "regular kid" behaviours, either because that's what he thinks Gon is already doing, or he wants to see if Gon will respond in kind.

Aaaaand... he does. :)

So, while they do not have what I feel is a true depth of bond here yet, the foundation is already being laid down for their powerful friendship - Gon and Killua both show an immediate willingness and enjoyment to go along with what the other wants to do and to try out what the other is good at, and they wind up having a whole lot of fun together right off the bat.