there's a very especific type of Ace fic that has been annoying me lately, so small rant here
i know the solution is to simply stop reading, but i'm the type who likes Ace angst so when i'm searching for Ace angst i often find these fics
it's those were Ace hides his true, depressed self behind a mask, pretends to be a jerk and both intentionally and unintentionally mocks his friends and pushes them away
and everyone around him, including the first years, don't believe him and blame him for things he didn't do and forgets to invite him or go to see his games
you know, all of those can make a good fic, if used right
but lately i only find the most exagereted ones, at some point it becomes too unrealistic, Ace becomes just a poor depressed boy mistreated by everyone and no one notices his pain uwu
and it's just a loop of self comiseration, Ace getting sad again and again that others believe in the persona he puts on, that no one notices he is not ok, and assuming they don't care about him, when it is caused precisely by him acting like a jerk to keep them away
it's not the premisse because this self destructive behaviour would suit Ace, it's more about how exagerated this is, and how they repeat these points over and over and over and over again....
but the ones that annoys me the most, are the ones where for some reason everyone around Ace gets extra insensitive and a jerk with him, fitting of those ai neglect stories, especially the first years, especially the heartshackle group
like, you will never be able to convince me Deuce, Grim and Yuu would treat Ace this badly, they might acidentally hurt his feelings because they believe his liar persona but if they noticed he is acting weird or in a bad mood they would try to help and cheer him up
also were is Yuu in all this?!?! even with diferent yuusonas, looking at the main story the one person who could see for sure how much Ace deep down cares is Yuu (Ace runing to help them in book 4, the rant in book 6, Ace's dream)
plus i have seen so many times the idea that Deuce acuses Ace of stealling something his mom gave him and acusing him in front of everyone, and everyone gets against Ace, and it takes the rest of the fic for them to realize how wrong they were and apologize
ok assuming for some reason Deuce has a good reason to belive Ace did that, and instead of just going to him and ask "dude what the hell give me my stuff back i need it"
let's assume he has reason to assume such bad faith from Ace's part he explodes with anger
when Deuce realized he was wrong he would feel so awfull i can't see him not apologizing to Ace imidiatelly
plus i can't just see all the first year group just believing it with no evidence, or not trying to ask Ace if he really did it and try to hear him
it just seens like something that came straight from a bad manga with a mistreated/negleted mc
sorry for the rant guys i'm runing in like 5 hours of sleep and coffee