#The Damage Tree

[ninja-go-to-therapy]

Easier Said Than Done

Thank you so so so much to @grungekitty-77 for writing the entire second half of this. You're amazing and I love u so much

Summary: the day of the trial has come.

Trigger Warnings: mentions of dehumanization, ptsd, and everything that comes with damage.

1361 words

Wes Sánchez was a prosecutor.

He’d only ever become interested with the judicial system at all after a movie about an optimistic girl going through law school and proving everybody wrong about her being some ditzy blonde airhead had come out when he was young. The interest had lingered over the years, and he’d started out studying defense. But he’d quickly learned that it wasn’t exactly what that movie had portrayed.

“Have a seat, Mr. Smith.”

“This is stupid. We all know he did it. Bastard deserves to rot in the cursed realm…”

Defense wasn’t so much about catching people in lies as it was demanding proof that it was a lie in the first place.

The nindroid sat in front of him, neutral and unblinking. Though Wes knew better, the guy barely even looked alive. 

Wes had found that he was more partial to the former. He could find a flaw in even the most airtight of alibis. But much more importantly than that? He needed to sort out the testimonies.

-“It’s not… abnormal for us to leave without telling each other,” the green ninja said, fidgeting in his seat. “But he wouldn’t answer his phone, and — and it had been a day… by the time we realized he was—”

-“Is this even necessary? Every other bad guy we’ve kicked the ass of has been hauled off to Kryptarium, no question!”

“Ms. Smith, I don’t have answers for other cases you’ve been involved in. I’m here now to prove this man is guilty. By all means, I’m on your side, here.”

She slumped into her chair, nodding, though she still didn’t look happy about it. The Smith siblings shared a bit of an anger streak, it would seem. That could quickly become… problematic, on the stand. 

-“It was… immensely hard on all of us. Our family was torn apart…”

Though the emotions were real, Wes worried that an argument could be made against the nindroid solely for not being human. 

-“He’s my best friend… I was so angry, I just…”

-“I can’t do this!” Cole heaved, breathing in short gasps that certainly weren’t helpful for his current state. “I can’t—!”

“Let’s take a break, Mr. Brookestone,” he offered.

Though he was no longer hyperventilating, he still shook his head rapidly, as if he hadn’t even heard him speak. “I can’t…” he repeated, hands cradling his head, “I can’t go back…”

The problem with ninja was that none of them were going to be easy. Each of them had glaring flaws that could be flipped on them in an instant in the courtroom. 

“Alright. I’m going to play the bad guy. I need to make sure you’re ready for whatever the defense is going to ask you. This isn’t going to be fun, but we need to prepare for this.”

-“—I’ll fry that man if I see him again, you can be sure of that!”

-“What the hell does that have to do with anything? That whole love triangle thing was stupid!”

“I understand, but it was very public knowledge that both of them were pursuing you. It will come up.”

-“No.”

“…no?”

“You’ve got enough angles for them to come at you from, you may as well be a circle. We’re not giving them that ammo.”

The green ninja frowned, but didn’t argue.

-“…I don’t see what my being a nindroid has to do with this.”

Wes sighed. “It shouldn’t, but it does. Your humanity will be called into question the second you open your mouth.”

Which narrowed them down to one option. The blue ninja certainly had his own set of issues, but Wes was confident that, if nothing else, at least the jury could relate to him.

But god, if he didn’t have his work cut out for him on this one.

“Cole, you need to breathe.”

“He looks sick!”

“Please say something… I know it’s scary, but we’re going to be right there the whole time, I swear! We won’t let anything happen.”

The first day of the trial started off poorly. 

-“Is it true that you electrocuted Mr. Hamada after breaking into his home?”

“Uh — yes… but that’s not—!”

“And is it true, Mr. Walker, that you proceeded to beat him with the aid of Mr. Garmadon, before dumping him on the steps of the police precinct? That hardly sounds like proper arrest protocol. Did you read him his rights while you were dragging his body through the snow?”

The fire ninja spent half of his time glaring at the accused, a red glow emanating from his fists. Wes suspected that the only thing keeping him in check was the ice ninja’s hand on his own, silent communication telling him to knock it off.

It certainly wasn’t helping the argument that the ninja were violent.

In retrospect, Wes should’ve predicted this. The case was so clean. The only flaw anyone could possibly find in it, the only hiccup anyone could point to, was the Ninja.

He was getting eaten alive in this cross examination.

“You were homeschooled, correct?”

Wes stood, desperate to end whatever this was.

“Objection! Relevance, your Honor.”

“Mr. Sánchez was the first to bring up the witness’s background, I’m within my rights to ask follow up questions.”

“Overruled then. Continue.”

Wes cursed under his breath. He felt like he had buried himself here. He thought the blue ninja would be the most palatable to the jury, but that might’ve been the wrong way to go.

“Yes. I was homeschooled.”

“Were you ever taken to the doctor?”

“Of course I was!”

“Were you ever given a tetanus shot?”

Shit. The Walker’s weren’t anti-vax, were they? 

“I don’t….I mean I didn’t…..I don’t know. Nobody ever told me that stuff.”

Jay was sweating. He was flustered and this was everything Wes had been afraid of.

He should’ve risked the love triangle with Nya, or leaned into the emotional argument and put Kai up. Jay didn’t look like the picture of normalcy that Wes was banking on.

“Leave my parents out of this!”

“If the witness would refrain from yelling in the courtroom.”

This was bad. After how hard Cole had tried to push through his trauma, it was going down the drain.

“Didn’t you have a very public feud with the supposed victim?”

“Have you ever completed any certified courses on conflict deescalation?”

“Are you even aware of the district you conducted this unlawful arrest in?”

“An affidavit from one Fugidove of his treatment upon quote and quote arrest by the ninja.”

“You mean to tell me that a trained ninja that fought the likes of the Overlord on more than one occasion, was helpless to a simple office worker?”

Wes watched everything slide down hill far in slow motion, but it still happened far too fast. He was suddenly giving his closing statement.

“I beg you not to get hung up on the details and semantics of this case. We have all the proof we need of what crimes were committed, and who they were committed by. I want you to remember the chains, the collar, the dog crate. I want you to think of Mr. Brookestone’s breakdown on the stand and ask yourselves if you truly want the perpetrator of these crimes to go free.”

He thought he did a good job.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have laws for good reasons. No one is above them. It is a reckless precedent to set if we allow one group of super powered individuals to act with impunity towards them. This is not a question of this man’s guilt, this is a question of how we expect justice to be done. My client, guilty or not, is entitled to rights. Rights I believe we have proven he was denied beyond reasonable doubt. This choice, right now, this is how you tell these very powerful people what they are and are not allowed to do in this city.”

Unfortunately, opposing counsel did a better job.

“We the jury find the defendant not guilty of the above entitled actions.”

Wes could barely hear the second half of that sentence over the absolutely enraged uproar behind him. 

[drenched-in-sunlight]

i love the DLC man

[milkywayes]

GARRUS VAKARIAN: DATABASE IMAGE ACCESS. > PT. 1 : 2160, 2166, 2170. > all files backdated according to user preferences: (terran_coordinated.calendar).

[webdiggerxxx]

ೃ༄ੈ✩‧₊˚

[whumpacabra]

I don’t have a posted DNI for a few reasons but in this case I’ll be crystal clear:

I do not want people who use AI in their whump writing (generating scenarios, generating story text, etc.) to follow me or interact with my posts. I also do not consent to any of my writing, posts, or reblogs being used as inputs or data for AI.

[thelurk3r]

so fun fact! only venemous snakes have fangs. "but what about the emerald tree boa?"

those aren't fangs. those are teeth.

Left is emerald tree boa, right is of a venomous snake. pretty sure it's a rattlesnake but not 100% sure. With teeth, there aren't just two big ones like the venomous snakes. Plus they're usually smaller. Emerald tree boas have the largest teeth of any snake.

Even in the black mamba, which has relatively small fangs, the teeth are tinier in comparison to the point where it looks like they're barely even there. just slightly spiky gums. Why am I talking about this? Look at rayquaza.

two visible fangs

rest of the teeth appear to be more like spiky gums

Based upon the evidence I have shown, rayquaza is venemous. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[creekfiend]

well boy howdy everyone I tell you what I sure did not enjoy being in the path of that hurricane one bit

[vertigoartgore]

Berserk's Guts commission by comics artist Matías Bergara (2019).

[sillybun33]

tea party doodle ft @herebecritters ‘s oc Nergal :3

[kismetscrows]

me when i make the funny autism bird (chemach) in pony town

[dykecadence]

just learned one of assad zaman's first roles was in apple tree yard like. the show from the sherlock conspiracies. imagine you start off with your show in a controversy over queerbait because a random episode of sherlock had an apple tree on a wall and then 10 years later you are in THE toxic yaoi of all time getting praised for how much you look like you wanna fuck that old man. he amazes me

[ninja-go-to-therapy]

I need to know if anyone literally ANYONE even gaf abt damage anymore

[an-albino-pinetree]

Anyone else hate the new IOS 18 update? :’]

[wineaunt420]

I need a Scriddler fanfic so tooth rotting fluffy that it brings me to tears.

I need something so raw and romantic where they find comfort and peace in each other, see each other for their flaws, their anger, their sadness and love each other regardless.

I need them to live the rest of their lives together with nothing but joy and happiness, getting old together and just being really corny old couple together

[cairamelcoffee]

“No climate justice on occupied land”

Respect for Greta Thunberg’s vocal commitment to the cause of Palestine.

via

Man interrupts climate activist, Greta Thunberg, grabbing the microphone to say "I came here for a climate demonstration, not a political [unintelligible]."

via

[herebecritters]

The D&D party HEHEHEH

Geshtu plays a vampire drow Warlock named Ilewela (iLewela).

Hopps (oc belonging to @ickyguts) plays a drow swashbuckler rogue named Atlas.

Kyle (oc belonging to @technicoloranimalviolence) plays a Cleric

Mime plays a bard, Toothy a fighter, and Giggles a druid.

Sniffles is their DM naturally hehe

Geshtu kinda stays glued to Hopps during the sessions, he’s still uneasy interacting with most treefolk. Luckily it helps having a character to hide behind. He slowly opens up more over time, but he still keeps his distance for the most part. The others find him odd and a little creepy, but….he’s a really good warlock and is really good at driving the game. Its almost like he has a lot of leadership experience or something.

Hopps spent WAY too much money on cosplays for them. But they sure do look fly as hell.

Geshtu in his Ilawela cosplay:

Ilawela in game:

They are the same exact person. Geshtu basically just plays himself. He thinks he’s a great role player.

I’ll post about the story of their campaign later but for now….have this >:3