#but also i connected the dots i see the age gap this is important ok

[evermoving]

just thnking about these

[herotheshiro]

ok i didn’t do a review of the phoenix wright trilogy but i’ll do a mini-write-up on apollo justice which i just finished earlier. this is mainly due to me looking up apollo justice/ace attorney afterwards and seeing ppl talk vaguely abt how and where the series and characters go after this... i wanted to add my 2 cents to the void of the internet i guess lol

spoilers for aa4 below

i think as a story, apollo justice is quite good but definitely a bit lacking in writing compared to the 1st trilogy. i feel like this is pretty much the common fan opinion, esp since the 1st trilogy was written all together as a 3-game-set and apollo justice has to conclude everything within 1 game. i think this game did real good at revealing info over time... i remember when they revealed the troupe gramarye poster and i was like WAIT... THAT’S SHADI SMITH... HOLD UP... personally though, i think the ending was not very strong for me -- i feel like we nailed kristoph almost a bit too easily at the end without much i guess concrete evidence linking him to everything even if basically everything was really pointing to him. [EDIT: lol ok reading summaries on aa4 and yeah apparently this is the point and why it being a jurist sys trial was so important… and the realization that he really could get nailed for the crime that he’s been paranoid abt for years made him break down at the end. Ok that makes sense I guess, I was just used to things playing out like the 1st trilogy where you would last min get decisive evidence lol] other than that, there was quite a number of loose ends that didn’t get tied up

so what happened to valant? i think the implication was that he was gonna turn himself in out of guilt even if he didn’t actually kill magnifi (sp?). and also w trucy having the rights i guess it would be complicated for the 2 of them to work that out. that whole aftermath wasn’t entirely clear to me esp since they didn’t give him a post-credits scene

so we’re not gonna get an explanation for why thalassa left her not-even-1-yo son to fend for himself? that was like my no. 1 thing i would’ve liked to get a reason for but the ending is just her being like oh yeah i remember now he’s my son and that’s it. no explanation for why she left him behind and returned to troupe gramarye w/o him. like at least a “oh it would’ve been complicated to bring a literal baby to raise back into that traveling group” would’ve sufficed, esp since we’re supposed to get the impression that lamiror is a kind woman. yet she left her damn kid behind with only a bracelet. were we just supposed to assume the explanation i gave above? i mean yes i’ve looked it up vaguely and i think we get more info on apollo’s growing up in later games but i’ve heard w very little mention of thalassa. which i mean i get, thalassa left him when he was around 1yo so he prob wouldn’t remember shit but man we never gonna get that explanation huh. it’s kinda messed up to leave this baby behind who i assume you care about; it’s another story if she didn’t want the kid and therefore didn’t care what happened to him but she left a bracelet w him which implies she does care

also the loose end of them not telling apollo and trucy they’re siblings. i’ll save this for a later paragraph though

also side note but when i was finishing the game up and before i saw the ending, i literally had a passing, very brief thought like “oh what if lamiror was actually trucy and apollo’s mom lol. what a crack thought” but then it actually happened... i mean it’s good to wrap up that mystery of lamiror’s past, plus they were insinuating so hard that maybe thalassa wasn’t actually dead lol so yeah you knew the mom was gonna pop up fr by the end

apollo himself as a character. now i’m not gonna nit-pick as much here bc he does show up again in later games w more backstory and character development as i’ve heard, but yeah he is very much a mystery character in aa4 i feel. he has basically no given history throughout the game, and the lack of detail made sense at first when you slowly started connecting the dots that he and the gramarye power were related, but then they never really shed any more light on him at the end. they really only reveal he and trucy are related just to explain why and how he has the power to perceive, not even to really indicate anything abt them as characters. i kinda forgot about this as i played the game, but i read a write-up by someone else being like “oh yeah phoenix you know his motivations as a defense attorney but apollo has basically none” and i was like yeah that’s right huh. bc the 1st trilogy reveals p early on that phoenix had a certain motivation to be a defense attorney but apollo you don’t get that, he’s just an attorney just to be an attorney i guess. which i mean is fine, you don’t always need a reason to do stuff sometimes, but it does make him a weaker character. i think maybe in the beginning they were like oh apollo respects kristoph as a lawyer but then they don’t really develop mpre  backstory there like how they met or why kristoph decided to take him on. i thought the latter was gonna be a point that was gonna come up, like maybe kristoph took apollo on as part of his large masterplan or something bc i think kristoph does mention being aware of apollo’s “power” but yeah they didn’t delve further into that. anyway i’ll go less on this bc i’ll just assume they had plans for him to show up in later games therefore they didn’t fully flesh him out here. otherwise that means they just didn’t bother on him other than him having the perceive power and having a personal relation to the whole gramarye case

how did drew misham or vera idk who painted it know abt all of apollo’s 3 cases? i thought it was gonna be like oh phoenix or kristoph saw all this coming and somehow told misham abt it who drew it but uh that didn’t happen. was that bc drew misham was following phoenix in the news and saw the stuff happening w apollo and was inspired to draw his cases? that was a dramatic reveal when apollo/trucy/ema found it out but i mean i guess it was just to show that misham was connected to them/the overall story more than just a simple jurist sys test case

the last writing thing i’ll mention is abt trucy and apollo being siblings. after the whole phoenix x maya crap in the 1st trilogy i suspected they were gonna do the same with apollo and trucy... thankfully they didn’t which was good bc i liked them a lot as a platonic duo, also since i actually thought apollo was 25yo for a while so that age gap is pretty weird too if you do it romantically. i suspected they were actually related p early on after discussing my playthrough w my sis who upon googling info said ‘lol i did say why not ship them but i will not say that anymore’ so i was like lol it’s prob bc she found out they were related or something. regardless i mean i would have suspected that anyway bc the game pushes the ‘oh this perceive power is really only seen in trucy’s family line’ so hard so it’s like not that hard to draw the line bw them, esp when they’re super vague abt apollo’s history and how he even got that bracelet in the 1st place. anyway i think it’s cute to imagine two siblings running all over town to solve shit. as expected tho, there are still ppl out there who ship them even after knowing the truth which is meh but i mean what do you expect of fandom/the internet.

although one of my biggest disappointments is the fact that apparently even in later games, the two never find out they’re siblings. i mean i guess it’s not a major plot point that NEEDS to be addressed as covered in point #3 above, but come on? their mom is literally still alive? a mom and her children reuniting and developing their family relationship again? i mean she’s been so distanced from them for so long that a family reunion would be awkward sure but zak literally made phoenix promise to tell trucy apollo was her bro so i’m surprised he never told her even before his conversation with thalassa at the end of the game. like i thought for sure they were gonna reveal their sibling relationship in aa4 but sadly my imagined revelation scene never happened

(i literally thought up a funny scene too... them seeing thalassa and both being like “MOM??” at the same time and then looking at each other in confusion before thalassa confirms that yes she is both of their moms. although this makes less sense on apollo’s part since he prob wouldn’t remember what she looks like but i mean same bracelets)

otherwise, gameplay was pretty interesting this time around. music was bopping tbh, i played aa4 right after finishing trials and tribulations and wow the music quality improvement was so obvious. the perceive thing was pretty cool and their tutorial on how to use it was super cute lol (apollo: that’s cool but i’m freaking out a little here // trucy: yeah your eyes are kinda bugging out); although absolutely hilarious on how apollo "explained” it in court... imagine a lawyer looking real hard at you and then being like ‘actually you swallowed weird when you said this therefore you’re lying’... i cannot even imagine how that sounded the 1st time to the judge and klavier... anyway i also thought the MASON technologies chapter was really interesting, w phoenix going back and forth through time and using evidence from the future for the past and vice versa. fun time traveling stuff!

ok and that’s kind of all i wanted to say i guess. i’m prob gonna try to stay in the dark on fan content stuff like i was purposely doing before playing aa... i was looking some stuff up and i was like ‘huh... i didn’t get this impression of apollo or the apollo/klavier ship when i was playing aa4...’ i don’t want to get my own opinion of these characters warped by fan content/others’ opinions so i might just take a bit of time to solidify how i feel about/characterize each of the characters before i trek out into fandom land. also it’s prob bc i haven’t played apollo’s later games since he supposedly gets more character dev later. tbh idk if i will bc to be frank i’ve been using emulators to play aa so far and i don’t think there’s a rom out for the later aa games on 3ds. i mean if there really isn’t, i’ll prob just watch a playthrough on YT so i can continue the aa story since i did like apollo as a character despite his lack of backstory.

i was considering skipping edgeworth’s games to go right to dual destinies and continue on apollo’s story/the aftermath of that game, but tbh i’m less incentivized to since i’ve heard that the story/character continuity aspect kind of goes out the window in later games (also the point abt apollo and trucy still being in the dark abt them being siblings. even though yes it wouldn’t change how they interact w each other, i would also prefer the fact to be known officially in-universe so characters don’t be freaks as apparently there are some lines in later games that are a little weird). i mean i could end up having a different opinion abt the continuity, but yeah seeing those comments did put a damper on me diving straight towards dual destinies. so i might just play edgeworth’s games first as i originally planned anyway since they were developed right after even if they take place before aa4

[crackheadcastle]

Will work for fun.

Time is an illusion some say, however I can’t seem to shake the fact that time’s running away like an abused pet searching for a better home, for better treatment.

Another grayish day. It’s cold enough to warrant me donning that crappy orange winter jacket again. New England seasons are often unpredictable, esp in May. I’ve seen it snow in late May before.

I blew off the massage parlor chop shop gig for a couple days and I doubt that I’m going back. Fingering the few hundred dollars in the pocket I stashed away, my confidence is hovering about knee high. I’ve a sense of some momentum and need to figure out another way to make money. Sticking with things has never been a strong suit of mine although I’ve always been a prolific starter. Since waking up in the graveyard last month I’ve done some hard thinking about what’s possible, about the beauty of my so-called circumstances.

I can think, I can wait, I can fast.

For an hour I watch the birds hop about the newly spring greened tree branches against the zombie grey sky. I listen to their thrilled throats expressing love, harmony, team work. I imagine myself as a bird, too. Pecking about this urban rubble, out for a variety of opportunities having to do with food, shelter, and warmth. I notice that I don’t tweet very much when it comes to the team work squabble. I seem to be a loner birdie. Whenever one of my feathered friends chirps: “responsibility”, I loudly chirp: “Cat! look out!”, then we all flutter away and forget about our work for the moment.

This thought pisses me off a bit. How is it that we don’t show up as we see ourselves in the mind? What childish demon controls the levers here? I don’t see myself as a crappy bird but this is my track record of showing up in the face of things. I let this go. I smile inwardly. The old me is dead. Jasper Fawkes is here now. He doesn’t know about time with it’s dripping reaper sickle. He doesn’t even know about death. No, Jasper’s numb with the spirit of Buddha light. He knows how to ascend to the 5th dimension simply by connecting the dots of people, places and things. The only thing that terrifies Jasper is the idea of being too comfortable. It’s important to experience pain.

Hungry, I head for the corner store and decide to go find Charlie. Time for a bike ride in a bit.

Crushed a cheap roast beef sandwich somewhere in Bed Stuy. All the bodegas’ bathrooms say the same thing on the outside: “Not, working. Out of Order.” I get used to the stank left behind by the others who come to steal toilet paper and wash up.

I find Charlie down on Lexington, a quiet enough street where nobody’s paying much attention. “Yooo, man.., what’s been good?” He says in jagged Nigerian American style. Before we roll out on our shitty bikes, we roll up a joint and savor the moment. It’s Friday, the evening is on it’s way.

“Let’s head north..” I say. Charlie laughs at my commanding call. “I wanna follow my gut, there’s an idea waiting to be found in Williamsburg!”

“Really?” Charlie says.. he’s so indifferent, but I know he’ll dig the girls walking about. We set out, slowly, careful not to overload our poor ten speeds and their rotten tires.

The sun sets somewhere in the west behind the gaunt evening’s ceiling of clouds now percolating with the bright twinkles jumping from the windows of city skyscrapers. People are out and about. They look lost. Charlie and I watch as they follow their glowing cell phones behind one another. “Be Hear Now.” I say to Charlie. “you want a beer?” He replies, knowing my way of thinking and making fun. “Naw, c’mon. Let’s keep going. I’m looking for problems.”, “Why you so serious, man?” Charlie asks. I don’t answer his question directly.

“I need money to do some bigger things in life. I need to establish trust with people again. All the money in the world is wrapped up in problems. Just look for yourself: from Parking Tickets to Plastic Surgery. Find a good problem to solve or create a new one and we can unlock sweet usury gratitude, my brother.”

Charlie is quiet in thought. “Damn. You right.”

“Shit is simple if you make it so.” I say. “I had a vision while watching some chirping birds this afternoon. I need a team to get things done. I have many brilliant ideas that I don’t know what to do with. I’ve had lots of money before, I’ve also been broke and struggling while attempting to rule one empire or another. At this point in my life, I’m ready to die. I can die happy knowing that I’m on the right path. If I’m to create personal success again I want to point myself in a direction where I can truly make a difference in the world.”

“Jasper, man. Let’s stop and roll another joint. My feet too tired from these rusty bike pedals.”, “Ok,” I said, “let’s drop our bikes by the park and walk.”

So then we walked along without a plan. Looking, listening, thinking. The smells of food pouring out from restaurants distract us. We had walked a bit further than anticipated I suppose, all the way down to the Williamsburg Bridge. “Let’s walk down to the water..” suggested Charlie. There was a construction site with an open chain link fence gap we could see. I trotted up along some steps of another restaurant with a great view of the bridge and I stopped dead in my tracks. I looked inside. People were huddled over their menus in quite a bit of darkness. They were struggling to read the menus, using their brightly lit cell phone screens to try reading the specials, bumping into their water glasses as they went bout all this. It all looked clumsy to me. A great idea came to me!

“Charlie, wait up..” I say and catch up excitedly. “I got it! Check this out! how cool would it be to have glow in the dark ink in the lettering of restaurant menus?” He smiled. “That’s fucking awesome, man. But, how you gonna do that?” I paused to think as he ducked into the open fence. “I need a team I suppose.. I can talk to some restaurants! I bet they’ll love the idea.. I know it’s a bit of work just for menu’s but the guests will appreciate it.”

“No doubt Jasper. No doubt.” I duck into the fence as well. “You gonna start a company er something?”, “Yea..” I say, half under my breath. “Well, what you gonna call it?” said Charlie, teasing, not entirely believing me yet. I think about teams of monkeys who get shit done, bird collectives, even bears and their little clans. Bears like honey, right?

Who makes the honey?

Bees do. They transform nectar into honey.

Kind of how the alchemists of the middle ages spent so much time learning to transform the elements, I can transform anything into gold!

“I’m gonna call this new enterprise: Honeymkr!”

Charlie is grinning at me…