#he's on justice for all now and i actually never finished that OR trials and tribulations so i'd really like to do that now

[whoslaurapalmer]

my brother's been playing ace attorney and like. our entire lives it's been 'my brother played this game when he was younger and now i am playing it or we're playing it together' so for HIM to be playing a game that i played when i was younger and for me to be the one doing 'oh yeah! i remember doing this or that in the game when i played it for the first time back in 2007 or 2008' about a game is such a wild experience

[jjmaybankswifeyx]

don’t play with me princess

zach justice x fem!reader

warnings • smutty smut smut, zach : daddy, kissing, use of yn, pet names, oral sex, flirting, angst, jealous zach, swearing , 18+

summary: you went on dropouts after being friends for years and him begging you for ages to come the podcast , you finally give in and things kick off.

*zach has his own place in this*

you were messaging zach all last night about the podcast, what time to come etc he was being so sweet telling you he’s gunna be with you the whole time but knowing zach he will probably bully you for it tomorrow on the podcast “i’ll be fine” you mumbled before dozing off to sleep.

you wake up at 11:06 to zach phoning you making sure your awake as you always sleep in, unfortunately you had just woke up and had an hour to get ready and leave as you had to be there for 12:30 and it takes 20 minutes to get there “yea you just woke me up” you say rolling out of bed “good can’t have my star guest not come” he says, you hang up the phone starting to get ready doing a natural look as you didn’t have time nor effort to do a glam look, once you finished your makeup you chose your outfit then left.

you got there about 5 minutes before the pod started saying hi to everyone “omg yn” alyssa shouts across the room running towards you engulfing you in a big hug “alyssa ahh i missed you so much” you say with a massive smile “alright alyssa she’s mine calm down” zach says appearing around the corner with a smug little smirk on his face “oh shut up zach” turning around to face alyssa again and walking into the studio.

“hello welcome or welcome back to dropouts today we have an extra special guest, my girlfriend yn y/l/n” looking at u in shock “oh you wish” looking at the mic “i do i really do, so yn” your quick to answer as your nervous as what hes gunna say “yes zach” already dreading the question “how have you been” relieved with this you start to smile “yea it’s been great honestly i’ve started my own clothing line and makeup and it’s going great!” smiling knowing how far you’ve come “wow that’s great! any boys recently ?” jared says adding to the convo “oh jared you know” you say winking at him before you both start bursting into laughter, you look over at zach and he looks like he’s burning a hole into your brain, he looks mad ? you chime in “no guys i’m jk don’t clip that” you say with a nervous laugh zach still does not look impressed until he spits out “oh yn you wouldn’t even kiss jared on the cheek never mind do the devils tango with him” smirking you reply “oh and how would you know that” he stares at you for a second “okay guys if your not subscribed to the patreon you get a 7 day free trial, you get extra bits from these podcasts also you get them earlier plus extra videos like the drunk episodes when we get me and some other people drunk and try spill some secrets” you just look at him unimpressed as he carries on.

by now your on the subject of sex and relationships jared talking about this girl he is going out with tonight and how he would love to have something with her as theyd been speaking for months “yea jared i think you just gotta go for it, no woman wants a man who takes their time, and they don’t want to beg for it either ” you say giving him a woman’s perspective “oh yn you were begging for it last night” zach says smirking earning an oh and oh shit from jared and alyssa you just completely gobsmacked on what this man just said to you “oh please like i would go to you for that your probably not even as good as you make out zach, actually alyssa can you relate to this a man always says he knows what he’s doing yet he can’t get it in the right hole” jared and alyssa start laughing hesring a very quiet yes from alyssa as zach says “oh trust me i know what i’m doing” you didn’t look impressed “hm ye still don’t believe it sorry zach” he’d had enough at this point he wanted to throw you over his shoulder, take you upstairs and prove it while you were screaming out his name “don’t play with me princess”, jared just gasped and alyssa just started laughing you however just turned over and said “of course i’m gunna mess with you other wise your gunna wind me up so” looking over at him letting your eyes drop for a mere second you saw him readjusting himself seeing a massive bulge in his pants looking up with him smirking at you.

alyssa and jared start having a conversation about something i’m not sure what i was zoned out thinking about what zach said and his bulge until you were pulled out by zach coming closer to you wanting to whisper something “i’m gunna fuck you so hard after this your not gunna be able to even speak and say i didn’t know what u was doing, you understand me gorgeous?” you nod while backing away just smiling jared and alyssa obviously caught on “um guys what you saying over there” knowing you were caught until zach chimes in “oh i was just asking yn about something i heard about her clothing line and it’s true but not able to say sorry. it’s a secret” you sigh knowing zach just saved your ass and his.

after 1 hour of you and zachs glances you started you flirt with jared to get a reaction out of zach, must say he contained himself pretty well until the pod finished you said your goodbyes to jared and alyssa claiming you were gunna hang out with zach for a while as you haven’t seen eachother in months they believed it obviously as it is true you did miss him but you needed him now, as soon as they walked out that door you said “so you gunna prove it to me or what?” walking over to him looking up batting your eye lashes without a word he smashes his lips into yours quietly letting out little moans and gasps as he picks you up taking you to his room he throws you on the bed hovering over you “hm you look so good today” moaning while he’s kissing your neck “you too baby, wanted to have my way with you since i first met you” you moan against his touch not knowing this as you thought you guys were just friends with the occasional flirt “take your clothes off princess wanna see you” he says throwing his shirt some where across the room, after hearing those words you have never done something quicker you were lying there naked while zack still had his jeans on he slowly started kissing down your stomach reaching down to your bare dripping pussy “this wet already baby? hm someone’s needy” saying with a grin before you could answer he dived into your pussy sucking your clit making you scream out in pleasure “hm zach more baby please” he starts to pump his fingers in and out of you sucking and licking your clit, you could hear his tiny little moans and the vibrations coming off, “could jared eat your pretty pussy like this baby?” he says hint of jealousy in his voice you shake your head unable to focus “words princess” he says picking up his pace “no! daddy you do it better than anybody” you say about to come until he stops what he’s doing and looks up at you “what did you just call me?” you now are very embarrassed yet the words come out you couldn’t stop it “d-daddy” he smiles looking at you “fuck princess i cannot do this i need to be in you” you sigh then spreading your legs for him as he unbuckles his belt letting the cold air hit your core “fuck gorgeous such a good girl for daddy” he says slipping into you, he’s massive so much bigger than you thought “fuck daddy your huge” that just gives him a boost and he starts picking up the pace, “oh baby you don’t how long i’ve wanted to do this” he says moaning in your ear “me too daddy needed your cock for so long hmm” screaming without a care who heard you “your mine princess” you moan at the words nesrly making you cum alone “all yours daddy” you say trying to fight for breathe “what princess didn’t quite hear you?” ramming into harder and deeper “i’m yours daddy all yours!!” shouting even louder before he utters “good girl” as his thrusts get sloppy “where do you want me beautiful” without even thinking you say “in me daddy i’m on the pill” he does a couple more thrusts before you both are cumming the hardest you ever have, nobody has ever made you feel this way and you loved it, he pulls out of you now all cocky “that prove it to you huh” saying all confident “wasn’t even that good” you say smirking “hm i wish i could believe that but your moans and words say different gorgeous” he says before getting something to clean you both up.

as you were laying there he says “i meant it you know” you look up at him confused “your mine now, not letting you go” you just kiss him as you fall asleep tangled up together.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

hope you guys like this, i am currently on the ganja writing this so i apologise if there’s any mistakes or anything❤️❤️

[volturiprincess]

Caius x reader who is always tired and wants only cuddles?

I apologize for the late post, I been slow with getting to my request but here it is💙.

I'm Tired

(a blessing of a man❤️, he's so pretty📸)

“Caius my love” I whine to him as he is currently looking at boring documents about who knows what.

“In a minute darling, let me finish this page”

“But I want to cuddle so bad, I can't sleep without your arms wrapped around me”

“So what am I? Just arms to you?”

“Mi amorcito con problemas de enojo, don't be like that, you know I love you but come here please” I am literally pulling all of my strings here to get him to bed. I spend a majority of the day sleeping but I sleep best with him by my side. There was actually a time I fell asleep on him in the middle of a trial. He does not mind having me in trials as long as I don't interfere. Sometimes I could be taking my daily naps and think that would help with my tiredness but it doesn't. I just want to sleep all day but not without my king.

“Please Caius, i'm tired and I need your cuddles”

“I said in a moment already, please be patient, im almost done here”

I walked over to him to stand right next to him where he is leaning over his desk. I crossed my arms to watch him with tired eyes. His gaze shifted to me slowly to give me an exasperated look, he tilted his head slightly at the sight of me, and then came the soft eyes. My weakness. He turned his whole body completely to face me and to pull me in.

“Awe my poor amore, you really do look tired”

He guides me into his laps and cradles me into his chest, his natural coldness being my blanket. He soothes my hair to help me fall asleep faster.

“What does amorcito even mean? I know amor means love but what about the cito?”

Of course he would ask that. At the point of passing out I still answer him “In the way I use it, it means my little love but it could mean sweetheart too”

“Mmmm…I like it, call me that from now on”

“Yea yea you big old softie”

We stayed in silence for a bit until he asked another question “Do I really have anger issues?”

“Definitely, but I love it”

Barely able to keep awake, I finally fell asleep. When I awoke later I was tucked into Caius' side in our shared bed. Funny, I don't even remember being moved or anything.

“Has someone finally woken up from their slumber?”

I do a small yawn as I turn to look up into the eyes of him. I give him a sleepy smile as I reach up to push one of his loose strands of hair away from his face. He’s so beautiful, he’s literally a walking piece of art, the way he looks like a come alive statue would be an understatement. I follow the lines that form his cheekbones down to his jawline. It didn't even faze me that he was watching me curiously and intently. My focus was purely just mesmerizing every little dip or sharpness his face had to offer. But soon enough I felt my eyes drop slowly. I want to stay awake and keep admiring his perfect face but my eyes are betraying me, my mind is starting to cloud with sleepiness. How can I be so tired already if I just woke up from a nap not even five minutes ago? 

“Sleep my regina, I will be here when you wake up”

Not having to be told twice, sleep overtook me once again. Being unaware of what is happening in the waking world, Caius spent that quiet time watching over me with adoration. Nobody has ever seen this side of him, this moment could only be described in one word, soft. He’s in awe of the way I curl into him each time I fall asleep on him, the way I cuddle him like he is not like some ruthless vampire who could kill me instantly. The way I trust him when I am in a vulnerable state leaves a bubbling feeling in his chest. He would have never thought he would ever feel this…happy and relaxed, for once he does not feel that natural feeling of rage or hunger for justice to be served. That side of him is tucked away like I am with him currently whenever he is with me.

In the periods when I am awake, and I visit his private art room, I notice  new paintings. What are they, you ask? They all have one thing in common, it's of me sleeping, it's amazing how he captures every little detail of well me. To the furrow my eyebrows might make when I face a slight discomfort in my dreams, or how sometimes a small smile might form when something happy happens in my dream, he captures that. Some of the settings the paintings take place in are when I'm sleeping on our love seat or on our bed but he likes to get creative. He might paint me sleeping in a lushful forest, to an open field of wildflowers, or the one that caught me completely off guard; sleeping in the clouds looking like an angelic being. 

My favorites have to be when he does ones where he is holding me while I sleep or we are cuddling. He does a rough sketch of us as we are settled in front of a full length mirror he has in his art room. We could spend hours there, me cuddling him without a single care of things we might need to do for the day. He once mentioned he had a small fear that cuddling with him would not be the best for it being he is cold and firm. I dismissed his fears by saying I actually like how he's cold because he keeps me from overheating as I sleep and his firmness keeps me locked into him. 

Bottom line he does not mind if I want to cuddle with him at any chance I can get, he enjoys me being in his arms. It's his way to protect me personally and to show his affection towards me without using his words. And with always being sleepy, he’s always there to keep me company, he enjoys the quiet atmosphere between us because it gives him time to admire me without me interfering with him. It even gives him time to talk out loud, I manage to catch him talking about what he loves about me and the feeling I give him when I am in his arms. Mi amorcito con problemas de enojo. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regina: Queen

Problemas de enojo: Anger issues

[genericpuff]

Seeing how there only 10 episodes left do you think Rachel will rush the ending?

The way I see she needs to somehow resign Apollo reign, reawaken the God's, have Persophone defeat Kronos, have Persophone create Elysian, stop the entered winner/killing of nymphs and humans, hell we don't even know what is Leto end goal and what is her whole role in this series other than manipulating Apollo to be king. We don't even know what exactly she did with Zeus (but knowing Rachel she made Leto the other woman despite the fact she was another respectable goddess)

Imo I think Rachel is officially done done with her series and know her viewers are fed up with her constant milking of the series. You can even see it in some of her work where you know she just gave up (unless it's her self insert scenes)

On a side note another thing I should point out is the anti climax of Leuce and Thetis. Besides the fact she made Leuce another other woman the way she made Leuce expression during Persophone home Invasion made it look like she wasn't going to back down. Only for her to make be forgotten 3/4 of the final arc and is never mention again. Persophone didnt even ask Hades how does he even know Leuce. So unless Rachel has plans for her again that was the last time we saw her making that whole plot unless.

While Thetis plot.........

I'll be honest she just got a slap on a wrist and Rachel just insert Achilles as a way to bait her audience/trying to make a cultural reference. Tbh I thought Thetis would have a bigger story like fast-forward she believes she gotten everything she wanted and is now Queen only for the Trojan war occur and she only lost her status bur her son. Thus making the scene a poetic justic/tragedy.

I'll finish this off since I don't want to run my mouth about this series so here's my 2 cent. Rachel is putting to many Greek mythologies in her series that a) she has forgotten about characters b) everyone is now expecting her to have this series be all wrapped up in a nice bow when it actually be worse c) and because she has so many subplots they are left unresolved or unsatisfied

Oh, Persephone created Elysium already. It was literally just this LMAO

Okay in all honesty I don't know if that was actually meant to be Elysium, but I remember seeing people comment on the S2 finale when she was bee-burping at Kronos that she was creating Elysium at the same time as fighting Kronos and I just... yeah okay? But they literally haven't even name-dropped it since the trial. This is what I mean when I criticize Rachel's writing for depending WAY too much on reader headcanon, because not only will she just roll with whatever her fans theorize, she'll do so without actually writing it into the comic so unless you're in the FB groups and Discord, you're probably not gonna pick up on every little decision Rachel made because she's making them with half a thought and a quarter of the effort needed to express it. It means people can say whatever and she'll just take credit for it like "yeah! that was Elysium! totally! you get it! okay moving on-"

As for the Leuce thing, Hades deadass met Leuce when Zeus offered her up as a bride, which Zeus explained to Persephone during the S2 finale arc-

-but again it suffers from a lot of the same issues of Rachel not expanding on her ideas and just resolving them with some other random plot convenience. Why would Leuce be so obsessed with getting with Hades that she'd make up fake text messages? Rachel just really didn't want Hades to be interacting with other women in the 10 years that Persephone was gone, so she had to make Leuce delusional for it to work ?? Why would she go so far as to tell Hades about the text messages if they weren't real the whole time?

-but then of course before Hades can respond to this, Persephone interrupts, meaning the plotline can be put on the backburner until Rachel comes up with a solution to it-

-and then we got to see Persephone 'resolve' the issue by harassing Leuce in her home, and it was only until after THEN that Rachel finally went "no it's fine that Persephone vandalized her home, the text messages weren't real!!! see??? Leuce is just a delusional nimwit! She deserves it!"

And yeah the Thetis and Achilles thing is yet another 'plotline' that Rachel only introduced to try and legitimize her comic as a Greek myth retelling. Just about every myth she tries to portray is done vaguely and without any thought for the world they're inhabiting, it's all just lip service.

At the end of the day, a lot of the writing in LO is 1.) trying to make up for the lack of plot development in the first two seasons (hence why we're now getting sudden lore dumping about how the seasons work) and 2.) trying to make up for its lack of Greek myth set pieces because Rachel has now been openly called out for being arrogant in her 'knowledge' of Greek myth and it has people analyzing just how little Greek there is in this Greek myth "retelling". It's especially apparent in the second season when the whole thing is just self-insert fantasies about Hades and Persephone living together until the plot finally has to get moving again. Every now and then Rachel remembers that this is supposed to be a retelling, so she'll throw in some random Greek myth reference like the Colchian dragon or Aphrodite marrying Hephaestus or Thetis and Achilles.

It's very evident that Rachel never learned how to write a longform story or planned to make LO as long as it is and the story has suffered all the more for it. And it sucks because that's not the story I got onboard with back in 2019-2020, but that's where we are. Ironically, as much as I criticize LO for not having enough Greek myth influence in it, I do think the story would have been far better off if it just stayed as a cheesy office romance fluff fic. It's clearly what Rachel wanted to write but either she or WT (or both) got ahead of themselves and took on more than what LO - and Rachel - were equipped to follow through on.

[please-help-this-little-lesbian]

So, I recently started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. The politics of the show are very interesting to me, especially considering I just finished reading The Animorphs series. Now, I know they aren’t directly comparable, what with being two different mediums (books vs a cartoon), being created at different times (Animorphs the 1990s, ATLA 2005-2008), and (slightly) different age ranges (ATLA 7+, Animorphs middle grade (specifically 9-12, though I’d argue it generally skews older.)) But both are very anti-war and anti-imperialism. Animorphs was the first series in that age range I encountered that truly goes “hard” with its themes. It asked a LOT of tough questions, and its protagonists were truly morally gray in the end. One of my favorite scenes in the series is where the villain is on trial for war crimes, and his lawyers bring up that the protagonist is ALSO a war criminal. The protagonist is acquitted by The Hague because it was self-defense. Incredible. But, back to ATLA.

An episode that really stood out to me was “The Puppet Master,” particularly Hana’s fate. Now, if I’m being completely honest, I was never afraid of Hama, and honestly, I didn’t blame her. I’m not saying she was RIGHT, she was torturing innocent people who had nothing to do with her original imprisonment, but I could understand how she’d operate on all Fire Nation citizens being a monolith. Honestly, I was a little disappointed that her arc ended with her being locked up again, the very same thing that drove her to blood-bending in the first place.

It really made me think about “justice,” particularly the western view of it. I feel like the west, particularly America (ATLA, though inspired by Asian culture, is an American made-TV show), justice is viewed as a punitive and retributive thing, where the ultimate goal is to punish the fact that a crime was committed, rather than address why, how, and the humanity at the heart of the situation. Wim Laven says, in an article for LAProgressive, “No criminal trial is motivated by healing or truth. Trials are about fact finding and fact exclusion,” (2021). Healing is a part of my problem with Hama’s story. She is someone who has suffered from immense trauma in being kidnapped, imprisoned, (probably) tortured, and lost not only her home but everyone she knew. Yes, continuing the cycle of violence doesn’t help you heal from it, but sometimes it feels like it’s the only option. Again, I’m not saying what Hama did was RIGHT, but to her it was something, something to deal with the pain and anger. And putting her back in the very same conditions that fueled this pain and anger doesn’t feel like justice to me.

Let’s take it back to Animorphs since I brought it up for a reason. There is actually a similar situation portrayed in the series. In book 20, The Discovery, we’re introduced to a character named David. He recently began attending the same school as the protagonists, and came across a piece of technology he shouldn’t have. This leads to him being targeted by the villains of the series and triggers a fight between the protagonists and antagonists. In this fight, David’s parents are captured by the villains, and his home is destroyed, leaving him at the mercy of the protagonists. They debate whether to leave David to be captured by the antagonists or induct him into their group. (The villains are parasitic slugs who can crawl into people's brains and take them over, and the protagonists can morph into any animal whose DNA they acquire. Because they take over brains, you have no way of knowing who is and isn’t actually a parasitic slug, so the protagonists must keep their powers a secret from everyone they know. Yes, IK Animorphs is weird. The point is, the slugs know everything about you, so either way David is a risk.) They ultimately decide to give him the power to morph and induct him into the group, but this ultimately ends up being a mistake. David repeatedly endangers the group, breaks their rules, almost betrays them to the villains, and tries to kill multiple of the protagonists. The group has no choice but to do something with David, but what? They don’t want to kill him, so they do something that’s honestly far worse. They trap him in rat morph (you can only stay in morph for two hours before it becomes permanent) and drop him off on a secluded island in the middle of nowhere. This haunts the protagonists for the rest of their lives. Later, through fever dream plot reasons, David comes back and begs to be killed. We never find out if he is or not. A key part of David’s story is that at the end of the day, he was just a traumatized, troubled kid whose life was turned upside down, and EVERYONE ended up suffering for it. Animorphs does a really good job of exploring the tragedy of war, and it's because of the focus on how war creates conditions where violence is the only option because it is easier to commit to a cycle of revenge than work to improve conditions so that war doesn't have to be inevitable.

I'm not saying Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn't talk about this, or that it has to! It's for a younger audience, I don't expect or need the protagonists to commit atrocities! But it's interesting that they introduced a character that is villainized for this, and disappointing to me. The situation isn't black or white, Hama is sympathetic, and we understand why she's doing this, but the writing presents the only solution as punishing Hama for the harm she caused instead of allowing her to redeem herself.

I'm not saying that's an easy answer, either. The gaang are kids, in Fire Nation territory where they're subjected to Fire Nation laws, and just freed her victims. With the upcoming invasion, they couldn't just take Hama back to the Southern Water Tribe. But why is locking her away the only solution? Why didn't they at least consider the route where they prevented her from committing further harm by taking her out of the situation? Maybe they ask her to join the invasion with the promise she'll stop blood-bending. Maybe they promise to break her out later. I'm not saying everything would be perfect, but letting Hama return to her home, surrounded by people who would help her heal, takes away the desire to do harm, does it not? This is a situation where punitive justice is NOT the only answer, yet it's presented as if it is. I wouldn't even be as upset at her fate if the narrative addressed this wasn't the only way, and the tragedy of this being their only option at the moment. But it doesn't because it sees it as right.

This also frustrating because Zuko IS given the benefit of tragedy and restorative justice. Now, I haven't finished the show yet (I just finished 3x11), but from what I've seen so far, I'm assuming Zuko redeems himself by not only working to heal HIS trauma but the trauma he caused OTHERS. And that's GREAT! I LOVE Zuko, he's my favorite character. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve a redemption arc. He DOES. But it's frustrating that he, a member of the royal family of an imperialist nation, who's directly harmed the gaang amongst other crimes, is given this opportunity while Hama, a victim of said imperialist nation, isn't. Yes, you can chalk it up to Hama admittedly committing far worse a crime than Zuko has, and Zuko being a child while Hama is an old woman, my main concern is still the optics here.

ATLA has a philosophy of actions defining character, and while this is fine, and I agree with it, I don't think it's given quite the amount of nuance it needs. Motivations for actions are just as important. Hama's arc is messy and nuanced, but that isn't explored nearly enough.

If we can all agree that Zuko is a victim who deserves a second chance, then why isn't Hama?

[pumpkinsouppe]

I haven’t played all of AA4 yet but I was thinking a lot about how uneasy the first case made me feel (in a good way) and I finally figured out why. (AA 4-1 spoilers btw) Part of it of course is the overall scheme: what happened 7 years ago and what are the answers to all these unresolved questions. But I genuinely don’t think I’ve seen a more accurate depiction of how I experienced GAD and social anxiety than I have with Apollo Justice.

Thankfully, I have learned to stand up for myself and I’ve controlled the majority of my anxiety but I can very clearly see that Apollo has not done that, at least yet. I am hoping hoping hoping we get to see him grow in this game because I know that AA5 and 6 won’t do that justice (lol). All throughout the first case, Apollo rarely spoke for himself. He was very much a follower and wanted approval, ergo he was very easy to manipulate. Kristoph and Phoenix both recognized this about him and were able to both use Apollo as their own puppets. He followed Kristoph’s orders whenever he gave them (‘expose phoenix’s lies’ ‘don’t embarrass me’) but he also was very willing to follow Phoenix’s orders too (‘point on the map for us’ ‘name the fourth person/killer’ ‘accuse Kristoph’). He followed who he thought was seeking the truth but he had to be told that doing these actions was for the truth.

I never was manipulated in court like Apollo experienced, but I was VERY quick to abandon plans for something else or act in ways if someone told me to. I remember sometimes even saying yes to things that made me super uncomfortable because I didn’t think for myself and didn’t want to disappoint or make anyone mad. And you can tell that Apollo really looked up to both Kristoph and Phoenix in that trial. He wasn’t sure who to believe so he followed both simultaneously until at the end when he realized both were assholes. I LOVE the unease I felt during the first case. It felt so real to me how Apollo was able to be so easily manipulated and how that was able to be used as a very interesting way to set up a new game and protagonist.

It’s amplified especially if you played all the past Phoenix Wright games. Hell, I finished PLvsPW an hour before picking up AA4 and that really influenced how much I wanted to also follow and believe Phoenix. So I absolutely love how this trial was used not only to play with the heart and mind of Apollo, but the players as well. There’s less reason to follow Kristoph since the players don’t have the same bond Kristoph and Apollo have since this was our first time meeting him, but because he’s our boss and he’s standing at the defense with us like Mia has, that adds to his credibility. Which is even better that Phoenix took Kristoph’s spot behind the defense bench when Kristoph was summoned to the stand. “Don’t believe that other guy, look at where he is now. Believe me instead, the person who just left that same spot.” You want to believe him, it’s Phoenix Wright! Teaching us the ways just like Mia. But what he’s actually done is replace Kristoph as the supposed voice of reason in Apollo’s ear. Yes that’s the spot for mentors, but does every mentor have your best intentions in mind? Are you able to distinguish genuine advice versus motivated advice?

I am truly fascinated and captivated by the writing. You can tell how much Shu Takumi has grown as a writer compared to the original AA1. I am so excited to play the rest of this game.

[commentaryvorg]

The Great Ace Attorney Final Trial Commentary: Day 3, Part 1

This is an ongoing mini-commentary covering the final trial of The Great Ace Attorney (Resolve) in line-by-line detail. It’s written from a perspective of already knowing the full truth of things, so there will be spoilers for facts that only get revealed later on in the trial. This is not a commentary to read along with one’s first playthrough!

(The commentary will update on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Check this blog to find any other parts currently posted, and if it’s not yet finished, follow to catch future updates!)

Now that we’re below the readmore, I can add that this isn’t quite a commentary for everything going on in the final trial. It’s focused specifically on Kazuma and what’s going on in his head, only covering things which are relevant to him in some way (for the most part). I already had a lot to say about him in a big analysis post over on my main blog – but I have even more to say about him during the trial in even more detail, so here we are!

Time for the final day of the trial!

Van Zieks:  “On what grounds is Kazuma Asogi permitted to continue in his role as prosecutor? He has admitted to colluding with the victim in a plot to assassinate an innocent man. He shouldn’t be enjoying the privilege of freedom, let alone be leading the prosecution.”

Of course it’s van Zieks who points this out, when nobody else was going to bring it up.

(Kazuma should be in prison right now for a lot more than just this, but we can’t have that, grumble.)

Kazuma:  “I submitted a written petition to Lord Stronghart… requesting that judgement of my transgressions be delayed by one day.” Van Zieks:  “You did what?”

This is probably highly irregular and not something that someone would usually be able to get away with. But Stronghart wants van Zieks convicted and figures Kazuma’s the best person to have do that… and Kazuma is so, so desperate to get to do this.

Kazuma:  “In today’s proceedings… I intend to expose everything. My whole life for the last ten years… has all been leading up to this one day!” Ryunosuke:  “Kazuma…”

Hnnnngh, Kazuma. The outcome of this trial is everything to him, everything he’s been working so hard for, for so long. And now he’s trapped himself in a situation where he has to finish it all today, or else he might never get another chance.

I enjoy Ryunosuke reacting to this, at getting a sense of just how huge this is for his best friend.

Kazuma:  “Whatever the outcome of this trial… I give my word that I will accept whatever punishment is deemed appropriate. However severe.”

Kazuma means this, too; I don’t think he was ever intending to escape repercussions for his actions forever. All the way back when he agreed to the assassination mission in Japan, and when he went with Gregson and threatened him – he probably did all this while fully expecting to face the consequences for it in the end. He just needs to be able to finish getting justice for his father first, before all that happens. Afterwards? It doesn’t matter what happens to him afterwards. So long as he can fulfil his mission, that’s the only thing that’s important.

The ”however severe” especially brings this home. Even if it was capital punishment, which might actually be on the table under the circumstances. He is and has always been determined to avenge his father at any cost, even if it’s literally the last thing he ever does.

Of course, it’s not like he didn’t also have other things he wanted to do with his life – he still did mean it about wanting to study in Britain to be able to improve Japan’s legal system. But all of that is minuscule next to his main goal. He would sacrifice anything for this. Anything.

(The game actually kinda drops the ball on what’s supposedly going to happen with Kazuma’s own trial after this main trial concludes. The writing sort of just forgets about it and doesn’t bring it up again? So I can only assume that the British legal system also kind of forgot about it, or at worst let Kazuma off with only a minor punishment. That certainly feels most fair to me, given that his only real crime was saying that he’d kill someone, which he was emotionally manipulated into in the first place, and that his own guilt over what he’s done is more than punishment enough already. It did rather bother me on my original playthrough, though, that there was this apparent nebulous future punishment for his transgressions hanging over Kazuma’s head, and the game acted like it kind of just didn’t care and didn’t want to push for him getting a reasonably happy ending… until suddenly his ending did come across as reasonably happy after all.)

Ryunosuke:  (Kazuma is bristling with hostility today. I get the distinct impression we’re heading into very dangerous territory.)

I dunno, Ryunosuke; while Kazuma might be even more hostile than usual today out of desperation, we were already deep in quite some territory regarding Kazuma’s twisted tunnel-visioning on van Zieks’s guilt.

Susato:  “Is that even really Kazuma-sama standing before us?”

Oh nooooo, Susato, my heart. Ryunosuke also said something similar during the intervening scene at Baker Street – that Kazuma’s no longer quite the friend he knew and that he’s changed. I really wish the game did more with this! Kazuma is still the person they both know and hasn’t actually changed; it’s just that he’s dealing with a hell of a lot more issues than either of them expected him to have. I wish the narrative had gone more into exploring this and having them realise in the end that he is still their friend, instead of, again, having things between them suddenly be okay again in the ending scene with no real transition.

(There would have been a perfect opportunity for such introspection and development regarding this if only Kazuma had been arrested for Gregson’s murder and Ryunosuke had had to defend him, just saying!!! Again, this is why I wrote my AU fic.)

Ryunosuke:  “The defence is ready, My Lord.” Kazuma:  “The prosecution is more than ready.”

Once again, Kazuma is more than ready. He didn’t say this on the second day of the trial, but today of all days, on which he plans to bring this to an end – on which he has to bring this to an end because he won’t get another chance – of course he’s more ready than he’s ever been.

Jigoku:  “Haah… So it was you who issued this, was it?” Kazuma:  “Your subpoena? …I did what was necessary.”

It’s interesting that the game highlights that it was Kazuma who issued Jigoku’s subpoena. Without that, Sholmes and Mikotoba wouldn’t have been able to bring Jigoku with them off the Grouse yesterday, and he’d have got away. They had the subpoena with them when they went after him, meaning Kazuma must have issued it shortly after the first trial day at the latest, just in case it became necessary.

This is in stark contrast to how Kazuma was on the second trial day, where he was absolutely convinced that Jigoku must have been killed, and it didn’t even seem to occur to him that the court could possibly want to hear testimony from Jigoku about what happened on the Grouse if he did happen to be alive. That is not a Kazuma that I would have imagined preparing a subpoena for Jigoku in advance at all.

I guess what this speaks to is partly a hint of that very small and buried part of Kazuma that isn’t actually sure if van Zieks is guilty and genuinely wants to give him a fair chance. But perhaps it’s also partly a sign of something else I’ve been meaning to bring up at some point – that Kazuma’s tunnel-visioning has been getting worse as this trial’s gone on.

See, I roasted him a lot for his terrible logic yesterday, but it actually wasn’t nearly as bad on day 1! There was that part near the beginning where Susato commended him for not trying to argue that the gun might have belonged to van Zieks – and yet, “this gun could have been van Zieks’s, and so that somehow proves it definitely was, which means he totally did it” is an argument pretty much on par with his day 2 arguments in terms of logic.

So it seems, perhaps, that Ryunosuke casting very valid doubt onto the Fresno Street crime scene on day 1 made Kazuma become more desperate. With less confidence in the actual evidence, he began pulling more and more from his own hatred and twisted justifications that van Zieks is the worst and must be the killer and the Reaper and everything bad, to the point that he ended up with logic as flawed as in yesterday’s session.

Jigoku:  “…but my decision is unrelated to this case. I can’t be bound to testify.” Stronghart:  “Unrelated, you say?” Kazuma:  “………”

Kazuma is again pointedly shown being silent, and I imagine what he’s thinking is similar to what he was probably thinking at the end of the trial yesterday. Jigoku’s actions on the Grouse totally are unrelated to this case, because van Zieks definitely killed Gregson at Fresno Street, and so bringing Jigoku onto the stand is just a dead end that’s going to do nothing but quickly put an end to Ryunosuke’s hypothetical version of events. Right?

Susato:  “It has ties to another murder. A case that was tried in Japan almost a year ago now.” Kazuma:  “A year ago in Japan… The murder of Dr John H. Wilson, you mean?”

Kazuma looks to be in thought for a moment here, as if he’s only just realising the connection Gregson’s assassination has to Wilson’s death.

Kazuma:  “What’s this all about? Why is my name on that list?”

Here, too, is an indication that Kazuma had no idea about this being an entire plot with multiple assassinations such that there’d need to be a list of four names and not just two.

Ryunosuke:  “K. Asogi and A. Shinn… are the names of assassins.” Kazuma:  “No…”

It seems like Kazuma was really hoping he could at least get through things without this assassination agreement also coming to light – but nope.

Ryunosuke:  “…were masterminded by a pair of individuals from each country as a form of assassin exchange! And the telegram the defence has acquired is proof of this international ‘contract’ to kill!” Kazuma:  “Wha… WHAT?!”

And again: Kazuma’s reaction to this is distinctly shocked. He did not have the slightest idea that the assassination he was involved in one of a pair – that back when he was furiously defending Ryunosuke from false charges in Japan last year, that crime was the counterpart to the very murder he’d been forced to agree to himself.

Kazuma:  “Judge Jigoku…? What’s this all about?!”

Kazuma’s pretty forceful in questioning Jigoku here. Obviously he already knew Jigoku wanted him to kill Gregson in England, that’s not a surprise – so this is about the other crime. He’s probably only just realising now that for the entirety of the trial for Wilson’s murder, Jigoku – who was the judge – knew who the real killer was and yet cheerfully tried to get Ryunosuke convicted as a scapegoat. Kazuma faced a lot of roadblocks back then to even be able to defend Ryunosuke in the first place, which he must have at least partially known were thanks to Jigoku; now he understands exactly why.

Meanwhile, Ryunosuke accuses Kazuma of having lied in court yesterday, because his mark wasn’t actually Jigoku but Gregson.

Kazuma:  “……… Very impressive, Ryunosuke. But actually, I didn’t lie.” Ryunosuke:  “…!” Kazuma:  “The name of the target I was ordered to kill never passed my lips yesterday. The idea that Seishiro Jigoku was the mark… came entirely from you!”

I like that we have this one moment of Kazuma getting to show off and draw attention to his incredible skill at hiding the truth without actually lying. He’s done it a lot more than just this once, but explicitly pointing out this one instance invites us to look for other times he’s done the same kind of thing!

He’s also smirking a little bit as he says this. Apparently he feels at least somewhat smug about his prowess in deception-without-lying, although he probably wouldn’t consciously think that.

Ryunosuke:  (You… deliberately avoided saying a name?)

Oh, Ryunosuke, there are so many more things that Kazuma has deliberately avoided saying than just that.

--- Testimony 1 ---

(The game’s chapter select calls this one “Testimony 3”, because it seems to want to treat this day and the previous trial day just one long extended day. Which is pretty silly, because it isn’t. We may have had much less of a proper investigation in between than usual, but it is still day 3 of the trial now! So anyway, I’m going to ignore the game and number these testimonies based on what number they are in this trial day. Add two to these if you want to match them up with what the game calls them.)

Susato:  “To use such a worthy practice as foreign study to coerce somebody to commit murder… It’s the most appalling thing I’ve ever heard!”

Usually-soft-spoken Susato is not pulling her punches! She is incredibly disgusted at her family friend for manipulating Kazuma into agreeing to be an assassin. The fact that she sees foreign study as such a “worthy practice” in itself probably stems from how Kazuma wanted so badly to study in Britain all along – and as far as Susato knew, that was entirely for its own sake and not for a specific purpose.

Jigoku:  “Asogi had a reason for taking his sword to that British inspector, you know.” Ryunosuke:  “What?!” Jigoku:  “Which is why he accepted the mission in the first place. Isn’t that right… Counsel?” Kazuma:  “………”

I’m not convinced I believe this claim of Jigoku’s. Obviously we know Kazuma does have a motive to have wanted Gregson dead, now. But I’m not sure about Jigoku’s implication that Kazuma was aware of that when he took the mission, a year ago. The only person who could have told Kazuma about Gregson’s connection to his father’s case is Jigoku. For one, I’m not entirely sure Jigoku even knew that much, since he was only involved in the prison escape half of the plot – but more pointedly, I doubt he would have wanted to tell Kazuma anything he knew, because that’d cast suspicion on his own role in Genshin’s death, something he very much would not want Kazuma figuring out.

Nonetheless, Kazuma is evasively silent in response to this, because while he may indeed not have known about Gregson’s involvement back then, it’s likely he was able to piece things together enough to suspect something. And of course, it all eventually came to a head with him actually wanting to kill Gregson in that terrible moment, which Kazuma must not enjoy thinking about.

Kazuma:  “As I said yesterday, I’ve killed nobody. I freely admit that I accepted the mission, but on the night the plan was to be executed, I backed out.”

Kazuma is still wording things carefully. While talking about the night in question, he simply says that he didn’t go through with it, and not that he didn’t want to go through with it, because that would be a lie.

Kazuma:  “Gregson was killed after returning to London. In the room on Fresno Street. And the perpetrator of the crime was the Reaper, Barok van Zieks! The prosecution’s accusation remains unchanged.”

Naturally, Kazuma wants to remind everyone that van Zieks, who is definitely the Reaper, definitely did the murder, and everything we’re talking about now is just an irrelevant dead end. He is still genuinely convinced of this.

Susato:  “It’s unforgivable! Using Kazuma-sama’s feelings to manipulate him into agreeing to such a despicable plan…”

In the testimony’s recap dialogue, Susato has more Strong Opinions. I love that she’s thinking about Kazuma’s feelings and fully realises that he was manipulated and should barely be morally condemned for this decision at all. Honestly, I agree with her – despite all of Stronghart’s many crimes, the thing that gives me the biggest emotional reaction out of any of the villains’ actions in this game is Jigoku doing this to Kazuma. He knew that Kazuma was so desperate to get to Britain that he’d agree to absolutely anything if it was presented as his only way to do so, and ugh. To his friend’s son, and all. What a bastard.

Ryunosuke:  “But I think Kazuma manipulated Judge Jigoku, too. He completely double-crossed him.” Susato:  “Oh dear… It’s hard not to see that as a stroke of brilliance on Kazuma-sama’s part…”

I wouldn’t quite call it “brilliance” when it was as simple as “not keeping the promise he never wanted to be forced to make in the first place”, but I’m still with Susato here. Kazuma didn’t do anything wrong by refusing to go through with Jigoku’s expectations when Jigoku was the one who wronged him first by expecting him to do it at all.

Susato:  “I know I shouldn’t let my emotions cloud my judgement… but you must destroy him, Mr Naruhodo!”

Yesss, Susato. Love her being so furious on Kazuma’s behalf, not even caring that Jigoku is a respected figure and a family friend.

Kazuma:  “I thought it was a joke at first, of course. But then… it was made clear to me that if I didn’t accept, I wouldn’t be considered for the study tour.” Ryunosuke:  “So, so you agreed to it… just for that?! I mean, I know how much you wanted to study in Britain, but… assassination?!”

Ugh, I get it, but it still hurts to see Ryunosuke react with horror like this. You know he wasn’t planning to go through with it, Ryunosuke! His only crime was agreeing to something shady without any intent to follow through!

But even then, it’s still not remotely something he would have expected from his best friend a year ago.

Kazuma:  “………”

Kazuma’s not trying to defend himself. No doubt he always felt guilty about hiding this from his friend, and always expected it would make Ryunosuke think less of him.

Ryunosuke:  “Why Kazuma? Why did you pick him as the assassin?” Jigoku:  “He was the most capable of all the applicants. And in addition… I knew his desire to travel to Britain was very strong. In fact, it was almost more than a desire. It was his whole purpose in life.”

Ugh. Jigoku knew exactly how desperate Kazuma was and took advantage of that. He couldn’t risk bringing up the assassination mission to any potential candidate unless he was already sure that they would agree, lest they just turn him in to the police. But Kazuma was someone he could be certain would agree to this, so long as Jigoku threatened his chances to ever make it to Britain if he didn’t.

And conveniently, the candidate who was so utterly desperate to do this that he’d agree to an assassination for it was also the candidate who’d studied ridiculously hard to the point that he was the most capable applicant anyway and it wouldn’t look suspicious. Funny, that.

Kazuma:  “There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done to get here. Be that agreeing to assume the role of an assassin… or betraying people’s trust.”

Guhhhhhh, Kazumaaaa. This line really punches me in the gut with how completely desperately determined Kazuma was and is. And it’s interesting that he’s saying this to justify his decision… but he didn’t do so just a little earlier when Ryunosuke was directly accusing him. This time it’s directed more at Jigoku, or just the court in general. Perhaps he doesn’t really feel like these words would be enough to justify his actions to his best friend.

The “betraying people’s trust” part especially hit hard on my first playthrough. What with the more distant and hostile way he’d been acting lately, it felt like Kazuma could have been talking about betraying Ryunosuke’s trust. Aaaagh.

Jigoku:  “Well, you certainly did a fine job of betraying mine, Asogi.”

What Kazuma actually means, though, is this. He promised Jigoku he would carry out the assassination, Jigoku trusted him with it… and then he betrayed that.

And yet it’s so incredibly grossly entitled of Jigoku to be angry at Kazuma over this when he was the one who betrayed Kazuma’s trust in the first place by forcing him into this at all. If he had any sense, he wouldn’t have trusted Kazuma’s promise, when it was a promise made out of coercion.

(I guess this is Jigoku being mad that this then meant he had be the one to murder Gregson in the end. Oh no, you had to get your hands dirty yourself instead of coercing the son of the friend you also killed into doing it for you, how terrible.)

Ryunosuke:  “But why was Inspector Gregson the target?” Jigoku:  “I have no idea. Those were the orders from Britain. I was in no position to question them.” Kazuma:  “You have no idea? Really? I find that hard to believe.”

Kazuma’s right to. Not only is he bound to suspect that Jigoku knew something about Gregson’s involvement in his father’s death from his time in Britain ten years ago, but also, Jigoku literally just told the court that Kazuma had a reason to kill Gregson, which definitely implies that he knows the reason too!

Ryunosuke:  “Obviously, Kazuma didn’t actually die at all. But he did lose his memory. Including all details about his special mission.” Kazuma:  “………”

This bit is very rude to me personally, because on my first playthrough, I thought, “Why are they making a point of Kazuma’s silence here? Surely this is meant as a hint that he didn’t really lose his memory?” Which led me to continue to entertain that fervent theory of mine just a little more, even after I’d mostly abandoned it. First-time-me had further ammo for it by this point, too, because wanting to pretend he’d forgotten about his assassination mission would have been a very plausible reason for Kazuma to have faked amnesia!!!

In reality, we can presume that the actual reason the narrative is making a point of Kazuma’s silence is that he’s thinking about how losing his memory was painful and difficult, but god forbid Kazuma ever actually talk about or openly acknowledge the suffering he’s been through.

Kazuma:  “But I’d never intended to go through with the assassination mission anyway.”

Again, some very careful phrasing. He had never intended. Meaning he’s referring to a period of time in the past, around when he accepted the mission, at which point he did not intend to go through with it. A certain point in time much closer to the present day? He’s not talking about that point in this sentence. That would be a lie.

Jigoku:  “So you were playing me right from the outset, were you? Is that it?” Kazuma:  “I’d sooner be guilty of that crime than of taking someone else’s life. I was prepared to do whatever I had to in order to get myself here to Britain.”

Yes, Jigoku, and you should have realised from the start that he was planning to repay you in kind.

It is something that Kazuma still considers this – simply double-crossing Jigoku and making a false promise he intended to break – to be a “crime”. Kazuma cares a lot about honour and integrity, and it really hurt him to have to tarnish that in order to make it to Britain! Even though he was only doing this to somebody who’d already done much worse to him. Really, Kazuma, don’t beat yourself up over this – Jigoku deserved it.

Ryunosuke:  “I suppose Inspector Gregson was there in his capacity as the Reaper… He was intending to take the witness’s life.” Kazuma:  “Exactly. As I’ve said numerous times now, I had no intention of killing anyone.”

Once again, Kazuma is referring to a specific time period here – the point at which he and Gregson entered Jigoku’s cabin. At that point, he had no intention of killing anyone. Later than that? He’s not talking about that. Because he doesn’t lie.

It’s also starting to seem just a little suspiciously specific that Kazuma keeps repeating that he had no intention of doing any murders. Overcompensating for that guilt much, Kazuma?

Kazuma:  “I stayed to talk with Inspector Gregson for a short while… and then I left him there and made my way off the ship alone.” Ryunosuke:  “Was the guard still at the door when you went?” Kazuma:  “Yes. He glared at me as I walked past.”

Yes, just a short, casual conversation in which nothing at all serious happened, don’t worry about the blade tip in Gregson’s trunk, it’s totally irrelevant to the case.

Given that Kazuma must have been in rather a panicked state of mind after finding himself wanting to kill Gregson and very nearly doing it, it sure is something that he then immediately passed by the guard glaring at him. He must have managed to put up one hell of a poker face.

It’s surprising that the crewman didn’t hear the sound of Karuma hitting Gregson’s trunk, honestly, but then that could easily have led to Kazuma being arrested, and we can’t have that, apparently

(…Actually, scratch that – there’s a specific reason he wouldn’t have heard it. Someone had muffled the speaking tube in the cabin with a piece of cloth, which likely wouldn’t have drowned out a gunshot, but I could buy it muffling less loud sounds. It’s never revealed who did that, but it could very easily have been Kazuma, given that he wouldn’t have wanted anybody to overhear him threatening Gregson.)

Ryunosuke:  “But a hole like that made by a bullet was found in your cabin, Judge Jigoku! That’s compelling evidence that a gun was fired in there!” Kazuma:  “What’s that? A bullet hole…?”

Yes, Kazuma, speaking of bullet holes—

…That aside, Kazuma’s reacting to this in surprise because he’s only just realising that Ryunosuke has actual evidence that the murder might have occurred there. What do you mean it could have actually been Jigoku who did it, and not van Zieks.

(Jigoku goes on to write off the bullet hole as totally just woodworm or something, and Kazuma probably justifies it that way in his head, too.)

Kazuma:  “All crewmen were… away from their posts?!”

Kazuma also reacts to this. He’d been seeing Jigoku’s testimony as open and shut, he obviously couldn’t have done it because the guard would have heard the gunshot – what do you mean it actually was possible after all?!

Kazuma:  “A twenty-minute window of opportunity… That’s an excellent find, Ryunosuke. But it amounts to nothing!”

Even though he’s proud of his friend for figuring something out, Kazuma is still quick to brush this off as definitely irrelevant, because a mere possibility isn’t proof that anything actually happened.

(Funny how he’s able to acknowledge that proving something is possible is not the same as proving that it definitely happened that way, now that we’re talking about it being someone other than van Zieks who maybe did the murder.)

Kazuma:  “Unless you have some decisive evidence […]… your accusation is nothing more than conjecture!”

So is yours, Kazuma! Someone is still managing to forget this.

Ryunosuke:  “Judge Jigoku! This was found in your cabin yesterday.” Stronghart:  “What is that? The crown of a pocket watch?”

Interestingly, it seems Sholmes missed out a few details when he passed the evidence from his investigation of the cabin onto Ryunosuke. The crown of the watch was actually found in Jigoku’s trunk, which is distinctly not the same thing as his cabin. It could have been in the trunk without ever actually being in the cabin itself, so this technically doesn’t prove Gregson was attacked in the cabin… but on the other hand, it being in the trunk pretty much already proves that Gregson was inside there at some point. That’s not something the game wants us to get to just yet, so instead we have this little discrepancy that’s honestly very easy to not even notice (and makes sense to have happened, since Sholmes could have just not mentioned it).

Ryunosuke:  “Moreover, this crown is a perfect fit on the spindle protruding from the victim’s watch.” Kazuma:  “…!”

Kazuma’s shown being alarmed as he realises that Ryunosuke has some actual compelling evidence here. But barely a minute later…

Kazuma:  “Expertly manoeuvred, Ryunosuke.” Ryunosuke:  “…!” Kazuma:  “And your argument sounds entirely plausible… at first. But rather like this pocket watch, it’s full of cracks.”

…even despite praising his friend (I love how Kazuma’s always proud of Ryunosuke for coming up with his arguments even as he’s shooting them down, they are friends), he’s already figured out a way out of it. It’s probably easier than it would otherwise be to come up with ways in which this still doesn’t prove Jigoku’s guilt when you’re utterly convinced that van Zieks must have done it.

--- Testimony 2 ---

Jigoku:  “When I walked through the door, a mustachioed Englishman was there, foolishly waving a gun at me.”

Here’s an interesting point: I don’t think Gregson actually did point a gun at Jigoku. Sure, he was technically supposed to kill him since Kazuma had walked out, but I don’t believe he actually wanted to, given that Jigoku isn’t the kind of irredeemable criminal that the Reaper usually kills. He was probably feeling pretty conflicted about this whole mission, especially with his imminent transfer to France in which he was going to finally be done with all this murdering.

That and, if Gregson had had his gun out during their struggle, it rather begs the question… why didn’t Jigoku do the murder with Gregson’s gun? That would have been much easier to pin on somebody else, because anyone could theoretically have turned Gregson’s gun on him. As it is, by using his own gun, Jigoku limited the possible suspects to other judiciary members who carry the same model of gun (and coincidentally happen to have misplaced theirs). Framing Hugh Boone, like he'd originally intended to, wouldn’t actually have worked, because where would that guy have obtained such a weapon?

Ryunosuke:  “Far from being impossible for you to do… the transporting of Inspector Gregson’s body back to Britain is something ONLY you could do!” Kazuma:  “What are you talking about, Ryunosuke?”

Kazuma’s leaning forward and seeming quite urgent with this. What do you mean, it was possible, and maybe Jigoku did do it, and not van Zieks.

Ryunosuke:  “The actual scene of the crime…” Kazuma:  “The prosecution’s stance is unaltered. The killing took place on Fresno Street when the gunshot was heard… as the accused, Barok van Zieks, shot the victim at point blank range!”

Kazuma’s still insisting on this, again. He has to be starting to think by this point that maybe Ryunosuke’s onto something, but no, it was definitely van Zieks, it has to be.

Stronghart:  “Since no tangible evidence exists to disprove the prosecution’s claim at this time…”

No tangible evidence has existed to prove it for quite some time now!!!

The part where you have to prove Gregson couldn’t have been shot at Fresno Street because he died instantly and couldn’t have curled up like that is a bit silly and unintuitive. This is something Ryunosuke could have pointed out at any point earlier in the trial, to support his argument that the murder took place elsewhere! I suppose it makes some sense that it’s coming up now, because now that we know Gregson’s body was in a trunk, we have an explanation for why he was curled up, but still.

(But then if Ryunosuke had brought it up earlier, that might have been seen as actual proof that Kazuma’s argument is all wrong, because apparently the scorch marks on the candle were not already enough proof of that, even though they were and just got conveniently brushed aside and forgotten.)

Also, we could have just skipped this awkward unintuitive bit by simply forcing Jigoku to present his trunk for inspection, which would prove it anyway.

Ryunosuke:  “…before it was coldly turned out on the floor… from the inside of a large travel trunk!” Kazuma:  “No!”

Anyway, here’s Kazuma with a powerfully shocked reaction as he realises how much sense Ryunosuke’s argument makes and that Gregson couldn’t have been killed at Fresno Street at all.

Jigoku:  “Present my trunk? I refuse!” Kazuma:  “What?!”

What do you mean Jigoku’s being suspicious in a way that implies he obviously did it?!

Stronghart:  “Well, Mr Jigoku… what’s it to be?” Jigoku:  “………” Kazuma:  “You can’t be serious! You did it?!”

What do you mean, Jigoku did it, and it really wasn’t van Zieks at all???

Kazuma’s reaction here goes to show that he had still genuinely managed to keep convincing himself it was van Zieks until only just now, when the truth becomes completely impossible to deny.

And then Jigoku admits to moving the body but accuses Kazuma of the actual murder in a last-ditch effort to defend himself, which is far too little too late, grumble grumble. There’s no interesting narrative tension surrounding the question of whether Kazuma really might have done it when it’s already so obviously Jigoku at this point!

Jigoku:  “As you know, there was one other person in my cabin that night. He had the opportunity.”

We’ve known that Kazuma theoretically had the opportunity to do the murder for a while now, which is such a juicy point, but the narrative’s done nothing with it until just now! Like, I get why Ryunosuke and Susato wouldn’t want to think about it, but why has nobody else even pointed out this possibility until it already became clear the killer was someone else anyway???? Bah.

Stronghart:  “Well… the prosecution counsel has already admitted to visiting the witness’s cabin on the night in question.”

And this is all we get from Stronghart on the matter – the vaguest indication that he’d be more okay with throwing Kazuma under the bus for this than Jigoku. Because somehow he was not more okay with sacrificing Kazuma rather than van Zieks, even after Kazuma had repeatedly shown himself to be impossible to keep in line.

There’s not even that much narrative weight behind Ryunosuke being the one to prove Kazuma’s innocence in this one brief moment here, because Kazuma could perfectly well have done it himself anyway!

The “Overture to Pursuit” music kicks in about here as Ryunosuke begins to do so, which is a track that I love and that usually gets me really hyped. But no matter how much the music wants me to be, I can’t get hyped here over the fact that it was always literally impossible for Kazuma to have done this murder. He just had a freaking alibi the entire time, removing any potential for tension over whether or not it could have been him!!! Why.

And the thing is, Kazuma’s alibi is a really incidental, offhand sort of thing. Him staying at that boarding house in Dunkirk is only mentioned one other time and isn’t connected to any other part of the plot – it could have been completely removed while keeping everything else intact! This is particularly notable when almost every other plot point in this narrative serves multiple purposes for the story one way or another. Kazuma’s Dunkirk stay is one of the only things that doesn’t! It’s just… there, purely to give him an alibi and nothing else.

This means that it would have been so, so easily possible to write a story in which Kazuma theoretically could have done the deed and we’d actually had something come of this! If he’d just been on the ship the whole time – perhaps because the cabin’s guard had actually done his job and refused them entry due to Kazuma’s two fricking swords, meaning they had to wait until that window when all the crewmen left – then Kazuma would have been a perfectly viable suspect!

But nope, he just gets an alibi, making it that easy to prove his innocence when things actually come to this. Grumble grumble grumble.

(I think I am probably done complaining about this, finally, now that we’ve got past this point. Please read my fic in which Kazuma does get arrested if this idea seems enticing to you too.)

Jigoku:  “To lure the man in, he was given a sham mission by the Reaper.” Ryunosuke:  “W-What?!” (The Reaper…?) Kazuma:  “But there’s only one person who could have done that! The mastermind of the entire operation: the Reaper himself!” Ryunosuke:  “Ah!” Susato:  “So… that means the assassin exchange was… It was all planned by the Reaper!”

Kazuma is the first person to jump on this and point out that Jigoku has just effectively told the court that the Reaper mastermind and the exchange mastermind are the same person. As I touched on earlier, Kazuma would already have been pretty sure of that himself due to the circumstances of him getting the mission to supposedly kill Gregson, and he’d have been itching for an opportunity to prove as much in court, so that he can use his father’s case as evidence that van Zieks is the Reaper.

Jigoku:  “I decided that man [Hugh Boone] would be the perfect person to set up as the culprit.”

Framing van Zieks was actually an unexpected accident! While it’s a little frustrating that this means that Stronghart’s insistence on using this trial to get rid of van Zieks (and not Kazuma for some reason) wasn’t even planned, it does actually matter that Jigoku’s intended scapegoat was not van Zieks, as we’ll see later.

Kazuma:  “………”

Kazuma’s shown silently uncomplaining as Stronghart accepts Jigoku’s confession. No doubt he’s just waiting until he can get to the part where he accuses van Zieks of being the Reaper and the man who ordered Jigoku to kill Gregson.

Ryunosuke:  “Mr Jigoku! One last detail! Who was your counterpart in Britain? Who was the mastermind behind the assassin exchange?” Jigoku:  “………” Ryunosuke:  “Nothing you say now can make matters any worse for you! Just tell us!”

Ryunosuke’s got a point here – Jigoku’s apparently going to go down for murder, so he really shouldn’t have anything to lose. Even the fact that Stronghart’s holding him shooting Genshin over his head shouldn’t really matter any more, because one murder or two doesn’t make a difference to the death penalty. (Although I do suspect that Jigoku might feel a certain amount of personal guilt over shooting his friend dead, to the point that he just doesn’t want anyone to know about that, regardless of the consequences.)

But mostly, I think the reason Jigoku insists he can’t say anyway is that, despite what he keeps saying, it’s not actually over for him. Not as long as Stronghart’s still able to pull some strings behind the scenes to get him out of this.

Stronghart:  “Seishiro Jigoku, it is the opinion of this court that you should be found… Guilty. And may I remind all those present of the strict confidentiality demanded by this closed court!”

Stronghart’s approach here certainly implies he’s planning as much. Look, everyone, he’s unofficially declared him guilty here, so that totally counts right? And nobody’s allowed to tell anybody that this happened – which means nobody can complain if Jigoku conveniently gets let off the hook in his actual trial later.

(It is a bit silly that it does the whole flames-in-the-scales thing for the Guilty, but not only is that setup for Stronghart’s breakdown later, declaring an unofficial verdict here actually does make some sense with the manipulation Stronghart’s trying to pull for Jigoku. See – most things in this story serve multiple purposes!)

Anyway, that was a point I found interesting and non-obvious enough that I wanted to talk about it even though it has nothing much to do with Kazuma, but let’s get back to Kazuma.

Stronghart:  “In short, the defendant’s innocence has therefore been established beyond doubt.” Kazuma:  “………”

Kazuma’s still biding his time, just waiting for the perfect moment to object and argue that no, it hasn’t.

Ryunosuke:  “I’m just a little troubled… by his silence.”

Ryunosuke notices it too! He knows his friend – which in this instance means he knows Kazuma’s fervent determination to convict van Zieks well enough to be sure he’s not just going to give up and accept defeat like this.

Stronghart:  “I hereby declare the defendant, Barok van Zieks………” Kazuma:  “Objection!”

Seriously, Kazuma, you really were just waiting for the most dramatic possible moment, weren’t you? Dork.

[jacksmusesdrv3]

ive been watching a blind ndrv3 playthrough from The Bittersweet Gamers and they have a LOT of interesting theories on kokichi i think you might be interested in, the duo is known for really diving into the theories and ideas and knowing a lot about japanese culture, for instance they get basically nearly all of tsumugis references, and they currently are wondering about if kokichi is in some sort of loop with the game because of how often he seems to just nudge things juuust right. They get so deep into their theories it took them up to the THIRD TRIAL for them to actually admit that kiibo might actually be a robot and not just someone in a robot costume who just THINKS they are a robot that's how deep they dig into these things

So I finally got a start on this, might as well embed the first part- finished the first 13 episodes now! I'm loving the energy from these two as well as a bunch of the commentary, though I haven't got to Ouma in details just... yet (I'm pushing on trying to get to that now that you mention it, haha). Love how they took the time to make a themed outro for this series too this stuff is extra

It sure is fun to see them get so suspicious of Kiibo's robot-ness, I could see why they did from their comments (also heartening since I too was suspicious of Kiibo's nature, but for a whole other reason). There's more details they picked out too that I never noticed before, such as a book from DR:AE on the floor of the library- I'm already suspicious about the library books because of how the books on Jabberwock Island were similarly in different languages, not to mention there's Sparkling Justice's mask in Korekiyo's lab, so to see another physical connection to lore is... curious too bad it was left there to gather dust but alas there was no motivation to look at it

Thank you for sharing this, Anon! I've a lot to catch up on but at least it's still ongoing and it gives me energy, might even get to see what they make of Chapter 5's craziness in due time :'D

[nine-fingered-entity]

it's been a bit because college and the horrors and actually yeah thats really all but. great ace attorney brain dump time. currently just met the 3 witnesses in trial day 1 of resolve case 4

i would like to buy ryunosuke a stiff drink (of tea. or sake. either works) this has been a week and a half or so of just. a lot. my man.

will admit it. i like van zieks. he may be the worst, but he's grown on me like some kind of mold. mold man. also i think ryunosuke likes him (begrudgingly) so its fine. (ryunosuke also might be too nice for his own good, but that's a whole other thing)

greg :(

he was going to go to Paris to protect Gina :(

the picture of him, Klint and Barok... smiling... :(

i think Greg is the first AA character death of a major character that does not serve as the opening turning point of a game (rip mia/kazuma (not dead but)) and so I was Stunned. Shook. Bamboozled. like you really get to know him. the epic highs and lows and then. he's Dead.

what was he doing though???? are we going to learn horrible dark secrets in this trial?????????

and why was Van Zieks investigating him...

i have a bad feeling about all this

okay. herlock. um. yikes.

he's been more unhinged lately. more douchey. i trust he has good? reasons for his lying and evasiveness and like. his attitude, but. y u like this bro. can you say one nice thing about ryunosuke without immediately making it about yourself?

truly the fics out there must... need to finish this game. do not ask who i ship.

also we still don't know his connection to the Professor Case. my crack theory is Mycroft. and Mycroft being another victim, but I have literally no evidence but vibes.

red hair herlock was kind of a look tho. go off.

ALSO

okay so the red haired league is one of the actual sherlock stories i kind of remember. in it, the whole job thing was a setup to get this ONE redheaded dude consistently out of his house, i think so they could search it??? okay i dont remember the reasoning, but. fascinated to see how it works out here.

Bepo -> Sandwich. I assume that's a consequence of his perjury? from the last game. got fired and such? idk

also okay these are disjointed but i have two facts

1. reaper thing is statistically real. and bad.

2. van zieks does not know what the hell is going on there (apparently)

fascinating. he quit prosecuting like 5 years ago-was it because of the Reaper? although he never seemed too bummed about the whole thing (till Albert. lol)

but the Reaper for McGilded was Audrey- so are all the rest of them connected? or not?

bleh.

KAZUMA WHAT ARE U DOING

ryunosuke is going thru it

kazummmaaaaaaaaa talk to your friends this vagueness is infuriating just... trust us. pls. man. stop the mixed signals :(

my thought is he wants to defend his father? clear his father's name?

other thought is that either He or Herlock will be the final defendant. i think???

Stronghart is the final villain and i will bet money on that. misguided sense of justice, woot!

im unsure if Genshin actually did it. i will not be surprised if the game makes him innocent in the end, but i honestly kind of think it might be more interesting to not take the easy way out. he did it. and now Kazuma and everyone else has to grapple with that. but idk. i think i trust them to do the path they pick justice

conclusion: dont know Shit. must keep playing

[sephyathredon-writing]

Dancing with the Reaper (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles)

((Warning: Do not read if you have not finished both Great Ace Attorney 1 and Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve!))

  ((This is my first time writing for the GAA fandom! I hope I did Van Zieks justice, he’s quite a hard character to pin down!))

   Van Zieks trying to do a court trial with an injury that he’s hiding, because he knows he’s the one best qualified to solve the case. An entry for Whumptober under the prompt “Hidden Injury”.

  “Lord Van Zieks?” Ryunosuke asked, “Are you alright?”

  Barok jolted suddenly, remembering where he was. Now was not the time to dwell on his thoughts, not in the middle of a trial, not in the Old Bailey. He looked across the Courtroom at Ryunosuke and his apprentice, Susato.

  They had no idea that he was hiding a gunshot wound just above his brother’s badge, that precious memento that was the only thing he had left of him. If they had destroyed it, he would have killed them without a second thought.

  “Yes, I am. There is no need to worry about me.” He replied, “What we need to focus on now is the case.”

  As with all other cases that he went against Ryunosuke on, this one seemed fairly simple but ended up becoming more complex under the surface. A man had murdered a woman on a London street in the middle of the night in cold blood. Despite it being so late at night, there were plenty of witnesses around. 

  The only problem was that the man that had done the murdering was in the dockett as the defendant, and Ryunosuke’s belief that the defendant is innocent, which had served him well in the past when they actually were, was starting to get on Barok’s nerves.

  Especially since he’d seen the murder happen. He’d tried to stop it from happening. He had irrefutable witness testimony, but he couldn’t reveal it because that would reveal the fact that he’d been shot and he’d be taken away to get treated, unable to finish this trial to its conclusion.

  No, he’d just have to try and prove that the defendant was guilty without revealing the fact that he’d been injured. As a man of the law, he hated hiding the truth this way. Barok tried to steer Ryunosuke in the correct direction, but he’d gone down a different rabbit hole insisting that the woman’s death was a suicide, or that it had happened before the defendant showed up. Normally Barok admired his ability to account for all possibilities, even if they may seem strange, but this time it was just annoying. 

  At least he managed to bind the wound with thick bandages so it didn’t bleed through his clothes. The bullet was still lodged in him, but it didn’t matter. He’d go to a hospital as soon as he won this case. Still, he kept his cloak on as a precaution.

  “Are you sure?” Ryunosuke responded, “You don’t seem to be yourself today. You haven’t even taken your cloak off.” 

  Barok winced, “It is colder than usual in the Old Bailey today. So I have elected to keep it on for the time being.” 

  He turned his attention to his chalice, pouring wine into it as was the usual routine. Despite how many times he filled his chalice, he never got drunk during a trial. To be inhibited in such a way would surely lead to a loss for him. In this case, the wine helped the wound to hurt less, so he drank more than usual.

  The way one of his hands shook as he raised the glass to his lips wasn’t lost on Ryunosuke’s assistant.

  “You’re shaking.” Susato spoke up, a concerned look on her face, “And you haven’t crushed a single chalice since this trial started.”

  “Susato is right.” Ryunosuke agreed, “At first I thought the fact that you hadn’t destroyed any of your hand crafted chalices meant that I was on the right track, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

  The sound of glass shattering broke the silence between the two after Ryunosuke finished speaking. Wine and shards of glass leaked out from between Barok’s fingers as he fixed Ryunosuke with a glare. 

  “I can assure you, I am more than capable of breaking my chalices. Now, I don’t see what this has to do with the case at hand.”

  The judge spoke up from the stand.

  “True, but if something was ailing you, Lord Van Zieks, surely you would need to go to a hospital-” 

  “I said I’m fine!” Barok shouted, his tone defensive as he turned his glare on the judge, “I don’t need any of you worrying about me. We’re here today to solve a murder case, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

  They dropped it for the time being, but Ryunosuke still wore a worried look whenever he noticed one of Barok’s few slip ups. Still, Barok believed he did a good job of hiding the wound. Heavy, shaking breaths were disguised by tipping a chalice with wine in it to his mouth, and whenever he felt a sharp stab of pain from the wound, he rested his hand on his brother’s badge instead, as he often did.

  The pain was manageable for half the court trial, but at some point it became unbearable. His whole frame tensed up as he tried to ignore the burning in his chest. He knew the bullet had to come out soon, or he’d be done for. 

  He was trying to finish up the trial as soon as possible, but Ryunosuke still insisted that the woman was already dead before the defendant had arrived, Based on some loose evidence that had barely been strung together. It was infuriating to say the least. After a summation examination, even the jury seemed to be on his side.

  “Lord Van Zieks?” The sound of the judge’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts, “Do you have somewhere you need to be? You really do seem to be in a hurry.”

  “N-No, your honor.” He cursed internally at the stutter and shook his head. His frame swayed a little before he tensed it again, it was just enough to catch Ryunosuke’s eye.

  “I think this charade has gone on long enough, don’t you?” He asked.

  Barok didn’t move, keeping his head down.

  “Clearly you have been injured.” He continued, “Don’t try to deny it this time. I have ample proof. You have been shooting down any other possibilities that I have tried to put on the table, you seem so sure that the defendant is guilty.”

  “It has occurred to me that there is an important question that I have forgotten to ask until now.” Ryunosuke slammed his hands on the desk and fixed Barok with a determined look.

  “Lord Van Zieks. Were you there at the time of the murder?”

  He couldn’t lie. Barok had been caught and he knew it. After a couple of moments of silence, he downed the rest of the wine that was left in his bottle and tossed it back into the public gallery. 

  “Your honor....” He addressed the judge, his expression solemn, “If you would permit me, I would like to call a witness to the stand.”

  “Oh, and who might that be?” The Jugde asked.

  “... Myself.” He responded, making his way over to the witness stand.

  “Then who is going to prosecute this trial?”

  “I will!” Someone viewing from the public gallery spoke up. Moments later, a young man hopped the wall and landed in front of the Prosecutor’s bench. It was Kazuma Asogi, Barok’s apprentice.

  “Kazuma!” Barok heard Ryunosuke exclaim from across the room.

  He’d been so caught up in the idea that he should be the one to put the defendant in jail, that he didn’t realize he already had someone that he trusted to do it competently. After all, the man had prosecuted his own trial and while he didn’t win, he had helped unravel one of the greatest mysteries the Old Bailey had ever seen, and he’d helped settle things regarding his father and Barok’s brother.

  It had been a few months since that trial and, while they weren’t exactly close yet, Barok had let himself learn to trust this man. During that trial, the two had found a sort of kinship in the similar struggles they had to go through.

  “Mr. Asogi,” The judge said, “I trust you have been paying attention to all the details up until now.” 

  He nodded, “And I recognize my partner here…” He gestured to Ryunosuke, “Has been spouting pure nonsense, just as Van Zieks suggested. This is a very clean cut case, as I’m sure Van Zieks is about to tell us.”

  “And you trust Mr. Asogi, Lord Van Zieks?” The Judge asked.

  Barok was in so much pain that his hands dug into the wood where it gripped the stand. He nodded in response to the judges words.

  “Very well.” The judge nodded, “You may take Van Ziek’s place for his testimony and, should he really be injured, the rest of the case. Though, I must stress that this is a most unprecedented turn of events. Never has a prosecutor called himself to the stand as a witness before.”

  Kazuma nodded and stepped closer to the bench, right where Barok had been standing.

  “You may present your testimony.” The Judge spoke, looking at Van Zieks.

  He took a deep, shaking breath and, with trembling hands, pulled off his cloak and dropped it to the floor next to him. Then he removed his sash, then his jacket. As each layer of clothing came off, the truth of what he’d been hiding became apparent. 

  Soon Barok was left in only his white undershirt and his cravat. Red blood stood out against the white fabric. A grim sight. The wound had been irritated so much from his activity that it bled completely through the bandages. After showing it to the court, Barok covered it with a white gloved hand to try and stifle the bleeding.

  “As you can see, I’ve been hiding a gunshot wound for this entire trial. I attempted to stop the defendant from killing that woman, but in the end, I could not save her life.”

  Silence filled the courtroom.

  “My goodness, someone call a carriage, he needs an escort to St. Barts!” The Judge exclaimed. The bailiff slipped away from the spot where he had been standing, presumably to call that carriage and to notify the hospital of an arriving patient.

  “No.” Barok grit his teeth, “I refuse to get this wound treated until I am done testifying.”

  “But, Lord Van Zieks…” Ryunosuke started, “If you got that gunshot wound at the time of the murder, that means you’ve gone almost half a day without getting it treated. How are you not dead already?”

  “To tell you the truth, I don’t know. But I will finish this testimony.” Barok snapped. 

  “Then by all means, do so.” The Judge continued, “The sooner you do, the sooner you can get treatment.”

  Barok nodded to the Judge and looked between Ryunosuke and Kazuma, taking a deep breath. He began to list off several pieces of evidence Ryunosuke found and explain how they fit into the case from his perspective, having been a key witness.

  “I apologize for hiding this from you all. Deception was not my intent, not in a malicious sense. I just wanted to be the one to put this man away for good. It feels… like the right thing to do… like It somehow makes up for the fact that I couldn’t save her.”

  Kazuma scoffed. “You idiot. Why didn’t you call me? I would have taken this case for you, just as I’m doing now.” 

  Barok’s arms shook and his gaze went from Kazuma to the ground, “I don’t know. Pride I guess.”

  “Well look where that’s gotten you.” Kazuma replied, “Sure, you’re on your feet, but for how long? How much damage have you done by waiting so long?”

  Barok didn’t answer. His whole form started shaking, his nails leaving long scratches in the wood.

  “Lord Van Zieks?” The Judge asked.

  Suddenly a piercing scream filled the courtroom. Barok’s voice echoed off the walls. He hated showing such vulnerability to the public, but he couldn’t take it anymore. The bullet lodged in his chest was killing him.

  He crumpled to the ground and soon some people arrived at the courthouse to take him to the hospital.

----

  The next time Barok opened his eyes, he was laying in a bed at St. Barts hospital. Immediately, he noticed that he wasn’t alone. Ryunosuke and Kazuma were there just as they had been at the courthouse.

  “Ngh… don’t the two of you have a trial to finish?” He asked. 

  “You’ve been out for a while, Lord Van Zieks.” Ryunosuke responded, “The trial ended already, two days ago.”

  “Yeah, it was easy to get a guilty verdict with what you revealed in your testimony.” Kazuma added.

  “I see, well that is good news. At least that woman’s killer is put to rest.” Barok’s voice sounded relieved as he spoke, though there was still some lingering pain that showed through from his injury. 

  Ryunosuke nodded, “I’m glad for that. This has taught me an important lesson. Sometimes a case is as simple as it seems and not everyone who is put on trial is innocent. I had briefly forgotten that the McGuilded trial taught me that. I’m sorry, Lord Van Zieks, if I had seen what was right in front of me, you could have gotten help sooner.”

  “He should have let me take the trial for him, so there’s nothing for you to be sorry about Ryunosuke.” Kazuma interrupted before Barok could reply, “Honestly, he’s lucky he survived at all.”

  “You’re right Kazuma,” Ryunosuke responded, looking at Barok, “You were in bad shape when they took you out of the courthouse. Everything you had tried to hide about your injury became known as they took you out the doors and loaded you into the carriage bound for St. Barts.”

  “They said the doctors were able to save you, but just barely, which is why you were out for two days.” Kazuma continued where Ryunosuke had left off, “So next time, don’t be a prideful idiot, okay? You could have died today.”

  Barok once thought it wouldn’t matter if he died. He’d once taken on the name of the Reaper to keep the streets of Britain clear, even if it meant he’d be the main target of london’s criminals. That was before he’d learned the truth of his brother’s death, before he realized that he had something to live for. His niece, Iris. His apprentice, Kazuma. and his eternal rival and closest friend, Ryunosuke. He owed his life to the last two, who had fought tooth and nail in court to uncover the truth when he was the defendant. 

  It would have been a shame to throw away his life today, when Ryunosuke had fought so hard to preserve it.

  “You’re right.” Barok finally spoke, “I will not be pulling something like that again. There is no need to worry…”

  He could see Ryunosuke release a breath he was holding, “Alright then. We’ll leave you to heal. We’ll be back tomorrow, and I’ll see if I can get Iris to come along as well.”

  Even if the kid wasn’t aware she was really Barok’s niece, she’d taken a liking to him, so he was sure she wouldn’t miss the chance to turn down a visit.

  “I think I would like that,” He responded, “So long as Mr. Sholmes doesn’t decide to tag along.” His antics were not what he wanted to deal with.

  Ryunosuke laughed, “I can’t make any promises.”

  And with that the two of them left, leaving Barok alone with his thoughts.

[akihikosanada]

finished ace attorney!!! thoughts under a read more because of spoilers and it got kinda long. only opinion i'll state here is that i enjoyed it a lot and i would recommend it to anyone slightly curious about it ❤

ended the trilogy with mia and gumshoe as my favs. mia was too cool to live and gumshoe is pookie no other explanations are needed for either of them

the music was so good!!!! i think the trial music for the first game was the best one by far, but some of the songs related to specific cases were incredible (shoutout to aa1 case 4, aa2 case 2 and aa3 case 1)

my favorite case absolutely was the fourth one in aa2, i didn't know a single thing about it. from the maya kidnapping, the involvement of a serial killer, phoenix losing his very first trial, being able to get a bad ending and obviously the matt engarde plot twist. i did genuinely think adrien was the culprit

related to the matt thing it was the one twist i was not expecting at all nor had spoiled, i mean at one point godot looked like the only culprit possible (and accidentally had it spoiled to myself. rip) and manfred von karma just looks guilty as hell. also his theme song slayed i was mad they reused it in aa3 for the trials and other moments. he did not summon a glass of brandy out of nowhere while in jail for you to do this to him!!!!

i still stand by what i said in an earlier post, the cases with a fey right in the middle of them were definitely the best ones. also i really liked how the third game was practically all about the clan, even the prosecutor introduced in it. it's good that miles got his own spinoff series because we cannot forget that the two protagonists in the aa trilogy are phoenix and maya (and by extension the feys) !!!! you think at first mia will be the deuteragonist but then it turns out it's actually her sister!!!! this is their world!!!! all miles got was one case and even the dl-6 incident was about maya and mia's mother!!!!

not a fan at all of the franziska whip thing. it got old really fast as well. i can excuse murder but i didn't find the whole hitting people with it thing funny or entertaining.....it bothered me to the point i couldn't stand her tbh. remake the entire trilogy without her hitting people with a whip and i'll stan

already said a negative thing above so i'll say another one now. the gumshoe shit salary thing got old extremely fast like by the third game it felt like he got reduced to only saying he can't pay the bills and how all he eats are instant noodles. no idea what happens in the investigations games but i hope miles gives him a huge raise or i will keep hoping gumshoe petrol bombs him!!!!

kinda related to the gumshoe thing since they are both comic relief characters but larry also got turned lowkey into a creep that both phoenix and edgeworth couldn't stand while in the first game phoenix literally describes him as a "likeable guy who has been my friend since grade school" and thinks of him as a "good guy at heart" (started the first trial for these two quotes alone) miles also never describes him as a bad person or even a loser, he's a bit too silly alright but that's it. justice for larry!!!!! the writers don't know shit!!!!!

a while ago i said mia was too hot to live (i stand by it) but now i can add to this that diego was also too hot to live (he technically didn't die but you know what i mean) had they both lived and continued dating they would have outslayed outserved outcunted every single attorney in whatever country the games takes place in i mean murder suspicions aside no wonder dahlia wanted them both dead

speaking of dahlia i mean yes i wanted mia to beat her ass in both of her trials but before finishing the final trial in the trilogy i replayed aa3 case1 and like. ok yeah dahlia was highkey a girlboss like come on she staged her death at 14, murdered her half sister, (almost) murdered a lawyer in the courtroom and quickly disposed of the poison, attempted to kill the PROTAGONIST, killed her ex, and as a literal ghost she tried killing maya???? shelly de killer wishes i'm not sorry

speaking of mr. diego armando/godot i do wish it had been foreshadowed even slightly in the previous games, i mean there is a huge chance they had not planned it that early on in the series but still you know. planting seeds here and there. maybe in grossberg's office or even in fey & co. wasn't grossberg involved in another case in aa2? was that the final case? i forgor but maybe show something in his office by then? considering from the morgan scene post case 2 they had already planned stuff for later idfk. the fact that maya knew of him but was never mentioned by her even in the third game feels weird

oldbag was the best witness character by far. missed opportunity to have her interact with larry on scren so they could both give edgeworth an aneurysm. wuved will powers too ❤ can't be a coincidence the two slayest mfs came from the same case (even though i consider it the weakest one in aa1)

i am acros-girl till the end. free my man (from jail and being in the floppest case)!!!!

aa1 case 5 despite the new features and fitting quite well despite having been added later wasn't that hot tbh. it felt too long and i couldn't really connect with ema and er. her sister i forgor her name. the damon gant reveal was obvious from the moment he popped up too. COME ON even his leitmotif was evil as hell. on the other hand it also was the case that made me realise how much i missed maya LMAO sorry ema but you will never be her. starr and jake slayed though

aa1 fucked severely, aa2 was kind of boring honestly i can only say i enjoyed the second and fourth cases. aa3 was really good, but even though i cried and everything i didn't think its final case was as good as the fourth cases in the previous two games. it started very well but it kinda lost me with the pendulum honestly. i can accept channeling the dead but i have my limits!!! i also felt that the final segment with maya and godot could have been done better, a lot of time got spent on the stupid ass pendulum, not enough time spent in the emotional beats

this is a thought i had yesterday but it made me laugh that both desiree delite and matt engarde are brunettes who wear red clothes and like riding motorcycles. also come on one is rich and the other likes spending money??? you would think desiree is actually a matt who escaped jail and started hrt so shelly de killer wouldn't find her #girlboss #dahliawishes

i thought the whole trilogy being in 2d fit the game really well, honestly i'm kind of worried re: apollo trilogy and tgaa because i know some of it is in 3d but somehow i don't think it fits the style? also this is stupid maybe but i like how the only people that are voiced are the attorneys saying "objection" or "take that" or "hold it" in court, idk if they are voiced in the other games or not but i'd fear that. giving them enough time to speak and hear their accents would ruin the experience for me SJFLSDJKFJSDKL

i liked that the final scene of the game was with pearl and maya, in case you haven't realized it yet this is the phoenix and feys trilogy!!!

ok i was finishing this and i realized i had not talked about the gay lawyers at all. i see it and everything but also i think phoenix could do better. all in all it was gay but nothing that drove me insane playing the games (phoenix becoming a lawyer "to save him" was homosexual activity through and through though. same with the "unnecessary feelings" line

final thoughts: the feys would survive succession but not a single roy would survive ace attorney. also i hope aa7 is about ami fey's spirit getting revenge for the amount of times her urn got broken

[mrscoulter5ever]

Truth Requires Bravery Ch 9

3 days had passed, when Alissa wearily awoke that morning, ready to eat her now normal breakfast of stale bread and cave water. This time, however, she had a visitor for breakfast. Alissa found herself staring up into Peter's lecherous green eyes as she cautiously ate her bread.

"Take your time, babe," he smirked, "we're going on a little trip once you're done. Try not to fall in love me with along the way," he winked. God she fucking hated him.

Alissa glared and finished the rest of what could barely be called a meal. Peter scanned an ID card to the front of her cell and the iron bars slowly descended into the floor. Peter walked into her cell and placed her in handcuffs.

"Come on, sweetcheeks, it's time for your trial," Peter said, slapping her ass. Alissa had to restrain a growl. Annoyed, she followed Peter up a set of steps into a more brightly lit area of Dauntless. From there he led her out a side exit to a grassy courtyard, where yet another Dauntless truck was waiting for her. Alissa couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu.

Alissa silently ascended into the back of the truck and laid there, taking deep breaths, closing her eyes, preparing herself to meet her final destination.

The familiar sight of Candor's marbled walls brought a tear to her eye. God she missed her home faction. But then she remembered how Kang had ratted her out - her and everyone else, and the knife twisted itself into her heart a little deeper.

She was led out into one of Candor's courtrooms, a room she had briefly walked past but had never before been inside. She was brought into a side room with a few other people. One was a middle-aged black-clad, dark-skinned man, who she assumed was a representative of Dauntless. The other two were two Candor lawyers in white and black suits. She recognized one of them as one of Candor's prosecuting attorneys. The other she assumed was her defender, but she had never met him before.

"Miss Mason," the prosecutor addressed her with a nod. It took Alissa a second to get used to someone calling her by her last name - she hadn't really experienced that since she left Erudite.

"Yes, sir" Alissa replied.

"As I am sure you know, you are on trial for the charge of Divergence. These charges have been brought against you by the Faction Council, represented here today by Max, Senior Leader of Dauntless." The dark-skinned man nodded grimly. The prosecutor continued, "You likely also know that while you have the choice to plead Not Guilty, such a plea in the case of a Divergence charge is rarely successful, especially considering all trials use Candor truth serum. As such, we as the prosecution would like to offer you a plea bargain."

Alissa held her breath. She didn't want to die, but she wasn't sure if she'd like their offer either. "Assuming you plea guilty in court today, your sentencing will be removed, so long as you agree to marry Eric Coulter."

Alissa's head snapped up. WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK. Having lived in Candor for several years, she knew this was absolutely not a normal plea bargain. Plea bargains usually involved lesser sentencing, community service, house arrest, etc. Not MARRIAGE! God, even in her trial this bastard was still a fucking problem for her! And why the hell would he want to marry her? He seemed to make it very clear that he literally couldn't care less if she died!

Alissa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "While I...appreciate the offer, sir, please relay to Mr. Coulter that if he is interested in proposing to me, that he should grow a pair and do it himself, rather than hiding behind the guise of Candor's justice system." The dark-skinned man raised an eyebrow with an amused smirk. The Candor prosecutor looked a bit taken aback by her words, but quickly regained his composure. "Very well," he said with a nod, before briskly exiting the room.

Alissa exhaled slowly. She hoped she wasn't sealing her own fate.

[hellsitesonlybookclub]

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Chapter Five

The whip-man

One evening, a few days later, K. was walking along one of the corridors that separated his office from the main stairway—he was nearly the last one to leave for home that evening, there remained only a couple of workers in the light of a single bulb in the dispatch department—when he heard a sigh from behind a door which he had himself never opened but which he had always thought just led into a junk room. He stood in amazement and listened again to establish whether he might not be mistaken. For a while there was silence, but then came some more sighs. His first thought was to fetch one of the servitors, it might well have been worth having a witness present, but then he was taken by an uncontrollable curiosity that make him simply yank the door open.

It was, as he had thought, a junk room. Old, unusable forms, empty stone ink-bottles lay scattered behind the entrance. But in the cupboard-like room itself stood three men, crouching under the low ceiling. A candle fixed on a shelf gave them light. "What are you doing here?" asked K. quietly, but crossly and without thinking. One of the men was clearly in charge, and attracted attention by being dressed in a kind of dark leather costume which left his neck and chest and his arms exposed. He did not answer. But the other two called out, "Mr. K.! We're to be beaten because you made a complaint about us to the examining judge." And now, K. finally realised that it was actually the two policemen, Franz and Willem, and that the third man held a cane in his hand with which to beat them. "Well," said K., staring at them, "I didn't make any complaint, I only said what took place in my home. And your behaviour was not entirely unobjectionable, after all." "Mr. K.," said Willem, while Franz clearly tried to shelter behind him as protection from the third man, "if you knew how badly we get paid you wouldn't think so badly of us. I've got a family to feed, and Franz here wanted to get married, you just have to get more money where you can, you can't do it just by working hard, not however hard you try. I was sorely tempted by your fine clothes, policemen aren't allowed to do that sort of thing, course they aren't, and it wasn't right of us, but it's tradition that the clothes go to the officers, that's how it's always been, believe me; and it's understandable too, isn't it, what can things like that mean for anyone unlucky enough to be arrested. But if he starts talking about it openly then the punishment has to follow." "I didn't know about any of this that you've been telling me, and I made no sort of request that you be punished, I was simply acting on principle."

"Franz," said Willem, turning to the other policeman, "didn't I tell you that the gentleman didn't say he wanted us to be punished. Now you can hear for yourself, he didn't even know we'd have to be punished." "Don't you let them persuade you, talking like that," said the third man to K., "this punishment is both just and unavoidable." "Don't listen to him," said Willem, interrupting himself only to quickly bring his hand to his mouth when it had received a stroke of the cane, "we're only being punished because you made a complaint against us. Nothing would have happened to us otherwise, not even if they'd found out what we'd done. Can you call that justice? Both of us, me especially, we'd proved our worth as good police officers over a long period—you've got to admit yourself that as far as official work was concerned we did the job well—things looked good for us, we had prospects, it's quite certain that we would've been made whip-men too, like this one, only he had the luck not to have anyone make a complaint about him, as you really don't get many complaints like that. Only that's all finished now, Mr. K., our careers are at an end, we're going to have to do work now that's far inferior to police work and besides all this we're going to get this terrible, painful beating." "Can the cane really cause so much pain, then?" asked K., testing the cane that the whip-man swang in front of him. "We're going to have to strip off totally naked," said Willem. "Oh, I see," said K., looking straight at the whip-man, his skin was burned brown like a sailor's, and his face showed health and vigour. "Is there then no possibility of sparing these two their beating?" he asked him. "No," said the whip-man, shaking his head with a laugh. "Get undressed!" he ordered the policemen. And to K. he said, "You shouldn't believe everything they tell you, it's the fear of being beaten, it's already made them a bit weak in the head. This one here, for instance," he pointed at Willem, "all that he told you about his career prospects, it's just ridiculous. Look at him, look how fat he is—the first strokes of the cane will just get lost in all that fat. Do you know what it is that's made him so fat. He's in the habit of, everyone that gets arrested by him, he eats their breakfast. Didn't he eat up your breakfast? Yeah, I thought as much. But a man with a belly like that can't be made into a whip-man and never will be, that is quite out of the question." "There are whip-men like that," Willem insisted, who had just released the belt of this trousers. "No," said the whip-man, striking him such a blow with the cane on his neck that it made him wince, "you shouldn't be listening to this, just get undressed." "I would make it well worth your while if you would let them go," said K., and without looking at the whip-man again—as such matters are best carried on with both pairs of eyes turned down—he pulled out his wallet.

"And then you'd try and put in a complaint against me, too," said the whip-man, "and get me flogged. No, no!" "Now, do be reasonable," said K., "if I had wanted to get these two punished I would not now be trying to buy their freedom, would I? I could simply close the door here behind me, go home and see or hear nothing more of it. But that's not what I'm doing, it really is of much more importance to me to let them go free; if I had realised they would be punished, or even that they might be punished, I would never have named them in the first place as they are not the ones I hold responsible. It's the organisation that's to blame, the high officials are the ones to blame." "That's how it is!" shouted the policemen, who then immediately received another blow on their backs, which were by now exposed. "If you had a senior judge here beneath your stick," said K., pressing down the cane as he spoke to stop it being raised once more, "I really would do nothing to stop you, on the contrary, I would even pay you money to give you all the more strength." "Yeah, that's all very plausible, what you're saying there," said the whip-man, "only I'm not the sort of person you can bribe. It's my job to flog people, so I flog them." Franz, the policeman, had been fairly quiet so far, probably in expectation of a good result from K.'s intervention, but now he stepped forward to the door wearing just his trousers, knelt down hanging on to K.'s arm and whispered, "Even if you can't get mercy shown for both of us, at least try and get me set free. Willem is older than me, he's less sensitive than me in every way, he even got a light beating a couple of years ago, but my record's still clean, I only did things the way I did because Willem led me on to it, he's been my teacher both for good and bad. Down in front of the bank my poor bride is waiting for me at the entrance, I'm so ashamed of myself, it's pitiful." His face was flowing over with tears, and he wiped it dry on K.'s coat. "I'm not going to wait any longer," said the whip-man, taking hold of the cane in both hands and laying in to Franz while Willem cowered back in a corner and looked on secretly, not even daring to turn his head. Then, the sudden scream that shot out from Franz was long and irrevocable, it seemed to come not from a human being but from an instrument that was being tortured, the whole corridor rang with it, it must have been heard by everyone in the building. "Don't shout like that!", called out K., unable to prevent himself, and, as he looked anxiously in the direction from which the servitor would come, he gave Franz a shove, not hard, but hard enough for him to fall down unconscious, clawing at the ground with his hands by reflex; he still did not avoid being hit; the rod still found him on the floor; the tip of the rod swang regularly up and down while he rolled to and fro under its blows. And now one of the servitors appeared in the distance, with another a few steps behind him. K. had quickly thrown the door shut, gone over to one of the windows overlooking the yard and opened it. The screams had completely stopped. So that the servitor wouldn't come in, he called out, "It's only me!" "Good evening, chief clerk," somebody called back. "Is there anything wrong?" "No, no," answered K., "it's only a dog yelping in the yard." There was no sound from the servitors so he added, "You can go back to what you were doing." He did not want to become involved with a conversation with them, and so he leant out of the window. A little while later, when he looked out in the corridor, they had already gone. Now, K. remained at the window, he did not dare go back into the junk room, and he did not want to go home either. The yard he looked down into was small and rectangular, all around it were offices, all the windows were now dark and only those at the very top caught a reflection of the moon. K. tried hard to see into the darkness of one corner of the yard, where a few handcarts had been left behind one another.

He felt anguish at not having been able to prevent the flogging, but that was not his fault, if Franz had not screamed like that—clearly it must have caused a great deal of pain but it's important to maintain control of oneself at important moments—if Franz had not screamed then it was at least highly probable that K. would have been able to dissuade the whip-man. If all the junior officers were contemptible why would the whip-man, whose position was the most inhumane of all, be any exception, and K. had noticed very clearly how his eyes had lit up when he saw the banknotes, he had obviously only seemed serious about the flogging to raise the level of the bribe a little. And K. had not been ungenerous, he really had wanted to get the policemen freed; if he really had now begun to do something against the degeneracy of the court then it was a matter of course that he would have to do something here as well. But of course, it became impossible for him to do anything as soon as Franz started screaming. K. could not possibly have let the junior bank staff, and perhaps even all sorts of other people, come along and catch him by surprise as he haggled with those people in the junk room. Nobody could really expect that sort of sacrifice of him. If that had been his intention then it would almost have been easier, K. would have taken his own clothes off and offered himself to the whip-man in the policemen's place. The whip-man would certainly not have accepted this substitution anyway, as in that way he would have seriously violated his duty without gaining any benefit. He would most likely have violated his duty twice over, as court employees were probably under orders not to cause any harm to K. while he was facing charges, although there may have been special conditions in force here. However things stood, K. was able to do no more than throw the door shut, even though that would still do nothing to remove all the dangers he faced. It was regrettable that he had given Franz a shove, and it could only be excused by the heat of the moment.

In the distance, he heard the steps of the servitors; he did not want them to be too aware of his presence, so he closed the window and walked towards the main staircase. At the door of the junk room he stopped and listened for a little while. All was silent. The two policemen were entirely at the whip-man's mercy; he could have beaten them to death. K. reached his hand out for the door handle but drew it suddenly back. He was no longer in any position to help anyone, and the servitors would soon be back; he did, though, promise himself that he would raise the matter again with somebody and see that, as far as it was in his power, those who really were guilty, the high officials whom nobody had so far dared point out to him, received their due punishment. As he went down the main stairway at the front of the bank, he looked carefully round at everyone who was passing, but there was no girl to be seen who might have been waiting for somebody, not even within some distance from the bank. Franz's claim that his bride was waiting for him was thus shown to be a lie, albeit one that was forgivable and intended only to elicit more sympathy.

The policemen were still on K.'s mind all through the following day; he was unable to concentrate on his work and had to stay in his office a little longer than the previous day so that he could finish it. On the way home, as he passed by the junk room again, he opened its door as if that had been his habit. Instead of the darkness he expected, he saw everything unchanged from the previous evening, and did not know how he should respond. Everything was exactly the same as he had seen it when he had opened the door the previous evening. The forms and bottles of ink just inside the doorway, the whip-man with his cane, the two policemen, still undressed, the candle on the shelf, and the two policemen began to wail and call out "Mr. K.!" K. slammed the door immediately shut, and even thumped on it with his fists as if that would shut it all the firmer. Almost in tears, he ran to the servitors working quietly at the copying machine. "Go and get that junk room cleared out!" he shouted, and, in amazement, they stopped what they were doing. "It should have been done long ago, we're sinking in dirt!" They would be able to do the job the next day, K. nodded, it was too late in the evening to make them do it there and then as he had originally intended. He sat down briefly in order to keep them near him for a little longer, looked through a few of the copies to give the impression that he was checking them and then, as he saw that they would not dare to leave at the same time as himself, went home tired and with his mind numb.

[xshinina]

Oumasai?

Saiouma was actualy my first OTP when I first finished V3, but as time has passed I've come to realize that there's actually not much chemestry going on, Shuichi seems more anoyed than anything (lacking the fun confrontation and back and forth that Ouma has with Momota) and Kokichi's really the only one putting in any interest and effort; I'll admit tho that their FTE and love hotel are pretty cute and actually enjoyable so I still kinda ship them but I like to see it as a mostly onesided crush that'll never move past that

The criminal x justice man is such and interesting and appealing concept, I just wish they could've had better chemistry together

And I'm about to go on an absolute rant here, but I'll never get people that compare Saiouma with Komahina, like, no???? It's fine if you do like both ships, and maybe I'm not seeing something, but as a Komahina lover I just can't see any parallels beyond "protag x rival"

Chapter 3 of SDR2:

Hajime when Nagito collapsed bc dispair desease: "omg Nagito are you okay?! Fuyuhiko help me get him to the hospital!"

An then Hajime a few days later keeps visiting Nagito and asking how he's doing, while wondering himself "you've done nothing but complicate things so why do I keep worrying abt you, I don't like having these unnesesary feelings"

Chapter 3 of V3:

When Shuichi found Kokichi collapsed on the floor being a bloody mess: "omg Kokichi are you-? oh, you're fine, doesn't matter that that's actual, real blood and that you injured your head quite severely, stop messing around; now then let me think of this clue that I found thanks to your accident while you wobble your way out"

Hajime in chapter 5's investigation:

"I can't believe you're actually gone, now that I think about it you've always helped me find the culprit during the trial, and I lament never getting to understand you, and here in your room I wonder what were you thinking? what were your intentions all along? guess now I'll never know..."

Shuichi not knowing who's dead under the press:

"please don't be Kaito please don't be Kaito please don't be Kaito please don't be Kaito please don't be Kaito please don't be Kaito please don't be Kaito please don't be Kaito please-"

Like I said, It's perfect that you do ship both, and I'm actually jealous that you are seeing something that I'm not, I want to like this ship as much as many people are passionate abt it but I can't right now

[dulcetpill]

post-canon musings

When I see people talk about how Juwon may not move to Manyang for several more years after the already-long-enough year of epilogue yearning... It simply breaks my heart. Both Dongsik and Juwon were so miserable and ultimately lonely (even though it were two different kinds of “lonely”) for twenty (20) years already, why must they suffer any longer? It feels so cruel to prolong it more than strictly necessary.

I think it was relatively easy for them to go a whole year without each other—technically, they’ve been doing that for twenty years prior. They had a lot to work through. Closing the case, all the trials... Dongsik finally finding closure, finding peace... and finding emptiness. Akin to a feeling after you finish a book. A long, long terrible, gut-wrenching read that you desperately want to end, but when it is finally over, you don’t know what to do with yourself. It’s been so long... Healing can be not only a painful process, but a confusing one. Much to do, much to think about—especially about what to do. Is Dongsik allowed to work in police while he’s on probation... or ever? Does he want to? What does he want now? Should he want it? Should he have it? Does he deserve to have it? Such thoughts plague his mind. He cleans his house. Replants the garden. Sleeps in his bed. He can finally enter Yuyeon’s room feeling not a gut-piercing pain and dread and hope and pain, but a bittersweet sadness. He doesn’t get rid of her belongings, but he cleans the room. It’s easier to breathe now.

Dongsik goes to Jaeyi’s shop and helps her renovate it. For so long she dreamt of leaving it behind, the hope of her mother returning keeping her bound to it, preserving this little miserable place as it was, as if nothing should be changed... only to realize that she doesn’t really want to leave, doesn’t have to, but a little change is good, actually. So she redecorates. Dongsik smiles at her when Jaeyi tells him her idea. She smiles back. They understand each other.

A year of longing isn’t that hard when you’re busy. And Juwon is busy. With transferring to a new substation, acclimating to the new surroundings, new coworkers, new restaurants and a new house. He does move out from his apartment in Seoul, and his new place is... decent. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just a place. There’s a butcher shop in town—but no one gathers here after hours to share rumours, drinks and their hearts’ warmth. It’s just a place.

His coworkers don’t look weird at him. When he just transferred, they complimented him on cracking that case. They tried not to talk about his father—but they said Juwon’s dedication to law and justice is remarkable. Juwon doesn’t know how to feel.

He gets more comfortable footwear, ready for a sudden call even on his days off. He takes calls on his personal phone. He says it’s his duty. He feels good about it. He tries not to think why he also feels guilty—and still unfulfilled. He doesn’t answer Oh Jihwa’s texts. He doesn’t text Dongsik—who once texted him asking about how he’s doing in the new place. Why is he asking Juwon that? How can he possibly worry for him—after, after everything? His father’s trials still aren’t over. Juwon wanted to fall from grace, go to hell, destroy his own life, yet people from Manyang are still reaching out to him. For him. He doesn’t deserve it, whatever this “it” actually is. Calls from Manyang are so alluring, like siren’s calls. He must withstand. Must be rational. (This rationality comes with a dull ache.)

When he receives Jihwa’s text on February, 5th, a guilt collides with a guilt, leaving only duty. To mourn chief Nam Sangbae, to pay respects. He was thinking of him anyway—it wasn’t exactly a coincidence that he chose to visit his mother’s grave on this day. So he comes to Manyang’s Butcher Shop, where not-so-weirdly friendly people are already gathered. Jaeyi welcomes him, her tone full of awkward teasing bitterness, as if he was a friend who left without a goodbye and never called in a whole year. Was he... supposed to? He anxiously looks past her, trying to see who’s gathered in the shop, if... But Dongsik is the last one to come, he’s right behind Juwon, and he looks well, and that’s—that’s good. Good. It’s good to see him, to know he’s alright. It’s hard to look away, and yet somehow shameful and painful to stare too long, as if simply seeing Lee Dongsik is a guilty pleasure, one that he mustn’t indulge too much.

They sit around the table, all smiles and elbows in each others’ sides. Han Juwon feels awkward. He feels... shy? He feels warm, even though it’s February. He likes the food, he genuinely does. He can’t stop staring at Dongsik, no, of course he’s looking at him—they’re talking, that’s normal,—and Dongsik, too, is looking, and that’s obvious, but—

Juwon’s heartbeat is stable, but a little too intense. He doesn’t feel like this when he’s anxiously looking around in the mountains for a lost person. This intensity isn’t scary, yet it scares him nonetheless.

When they’re alone on the bridge, Dongsik’s teasing is so gentle Juwon vaguely thinks of just falling down to his knees and begging for forgiveness—in the middle of the day, their... their people walking just below there. Because Dongsik looks warm, he looks healthy, he looks... shy? He looks hurt, underneath it all, and the thought of that makes Juwon’s insides twist. Dongsik shouldn’t look hurt of any kind now—or ever, for that matter. But Juwon has to go, he can’t just stare or run back to Dongsik for real—to fall down to his knees, to cry in his hands, to... to hug him? How does one simply hug someone? Juwon can’t hold back a smile, but he barely manages to hold back tea—

It’s two month since their conversation on the bridge (that they haven’t crossed yet, what with Juwon running away to do good things, and Dongsik staying in the middle, waiting for Juwon to return to him—perhaps some other time, but definitely return.) Juwon is busy, that is all. And, well, he can’t just randomly go to Manyang for no good reason, can he? He visits his mother’s grave again—it’s the anniversary of her death, after all—and he just happens to be nearby... He almost halfheartedly hopes no one is actually there—of course they are. It’s Sunday. Dongsik and Oh Jihun are having lunch, while Jaeyi is serving a customer.

Jihun is the first one to notice him, and after a second of disbelief he lights up with a wide smile, waving to Juwon to come in (he’s so exited he almost chokes on his food.) Dongsik curiously turns around and does choke on his food. He looks flabbergasted, as if seeing Han Juwon in the flesh after two months was somehow weirder than seeing him after a whole year of no contact. Juwon awkwardly stands beside their table: “I was around...”

“How sweet of you,” sneers Jaeyi, pushing a chair to his legs.

“It’s strange to see just the two... three of you,” confesses Juwon, because it’s true.

Dongsik gives him one of his cheeky grins.

“It’s barely past 1 p.m. on Sunday, you’re lucky you’ve met us here at all, Inspector Han. It’s just this guy here lost a bet and now owns me a meal of my choice,” he points at Jihun, who immediately crosses his arms in partially pretense annoyance.

“Yeah, and of course you chose Jaeyi’s best meat! Didn’t even hesitate!”

“Would have you preferred a date in Busan’s loveliest noodle restaurant?” Dongsik’s smile widens at Jihun’s pained face. “So you really are lucky, Inspector Han. Unless you actually wanted to find our Jaeyi alone, of course.”

Juwon frowns in confusion: “No, why—”

He’s cut off by Jaeyi’s snort. “Yeah, no,” she looks at Juwon, very pointedly barely suppressing an eye-roll, and shakes her head. “Aww, saying that just because you’re so happy to see him,” she smiles at Dongsik. “Han Juwon, you should come more often. It makes Lee Dongsik funny.”

“I’m always funny,” Dongsik says, a cute expression on his face, but he warily squints at Jaeyi. She squints back, eyebrows raised, and it’s as if they’re holding a private conversation on a matter discussed not so long ago. Jihun, cheerfully unaware of the eye-talking right in front of him, smiles at Juwon:

“It’s not just Dongsik who’s happy you’re here! All of us are! So do come more often!”

Juwon, his mind still filled with “Lee Dongsik... happy”, asks in quiet disbelief: “You’re... happy I’m here?”

The three of them look at him, Jaeyi with annoyed pity, Dongsik with sadness—even though he’s still smiling, Jihun with his own sort of confusion.

“Well, of course?.. I mean, I can’t speak for everyone everyone, and “happy” is a pretty strong word, but...” at this, Jaeyi interrupts him, once again pushing a chair against Juwon’s knees, forcibly making him sit.

“Whatever you think or want to think, there are people who do care, and seeing you alive and in good health right before their eyes makes them feel better.” She puts an empty plate for him and disappears to the backroom.

Juwon turns to Dongsik, a quiet question stuck on his tongue: “Are you happy to see me? Do you want to see me? Does seeing me make you feel better?”, but Dongsik smiles and, throwing a wink at Jihun, mischievously not-whispers, “Eat up. Jihun’s paying for everything.”

So Juwon eats, hiding a small smile in a bite of freshly cooked meat.

“Come more often” means Juwon comes to Manyang a whole month later. He’s busy. It’s Friday, and when he enters the shop it’s already past 23. Everyone is a little tipsy, so they only cheer and graciously ask him to join them. Just a half-an-hour later they start to disperse, but coming here strangely doesn’t feel like a waste of time. Juwon walks Dongsik home, and they don’t even really talk. It’s pleasant. Dongsik awkwardly pats him on the arm, wishes him a safe ride home, and disappears into the darkness of his house.

The touch burns for three more weeks. Juwon gets in his car and goes to Manyang right after work, already have taken a shower and wearing fresh clothes. He always takes an additional set of clothes with him to work, in case he gets sweaty or dirty on the job. It’s not that weird or special. He’s not in a hurry. He just likes long car rides.

Next time is two weeks later. The past few day have ended up being quite stressful for Juwon, and sitting alone at home is somehow uncomfortable, uneasy. Itching. He could’ve made himself a drink and tried to go to bed early, but his mind is filled with smiles and the vague sound of meat being cooked, and the mere thought of sleeping feels like drowning. So he goes to Manyang.

After that it’s just one week. Jihwa, eyebrows raised and all, tells him to just move to Manyang. Her tone is slightly ironic, but the glint in her eyes isn’t mocking. Everyone snorts at the suggestion, and Juwon, feeling blood rushing to his face, says, “Who knows. Maybe that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

At that, Dongsik gently laughs: “Please do, Inspector Han, please do. Our little town is not the same without your handsome face around.”

Juwon cocks an eyebrow and smiles at him. “I thought as much.” The room feels hot for the rest of the night.

He skips a week. Because he’s busy. He can’t help but let out a shaky sigh/laugh when later that night he receives a text from Jihwa, asking if he’s alright. He actually replies. Yes, he’s alright. It’s not like he promised to come weekly now.

He comes weekly.

By the end of August coming every Friday to Manyang feels less like a gracious ritual or a spontaneous whim, and more like going home. It’s weird, because he never stays the night, never spends the weekend there. It’s just a few hours of people and food and a feeling of belonging. It’s new and rather painful, and he tries to shake it off, but in the end it just makes the ache worse.

When he comes on the last Friday of August, it’s raining, and the only person at the shop is Jaeyi, preparing meat and very obviously intending to soon leave for the day. Juwon sits in his car for a second, a feeling of disappointment slowly creeping in his body. When he takes his umbrella and gets out of the car, Jaeyi notices him and waves, inviting him into the shop.

“I can’t imagine you’re here to gallantly give me a ride to spare me getting drenched while walking in this pouring rain, so I can only assume no one told you about the change in the plans,” she squints her eyes at him, but the tone of her voice is friendly. At his confused look she only sighs. “Thought so.”

“Dongsik got himself a cast today—don’t look alarmed, nothing’s broken—he literally slipped on some garbage on his way to a store, that idiot,” Jaeyi snorts and sighs again. “And now he can’t exactly go outside of his own house, you know, certainly not in this weather. So, a change of location has happened.”

“Then, you’re gathering at Lee Dongsik’s house?”

“We’re gathering, but yeah,” she pushes several stacked plastic containers in his hands. “Can you get this to the car? I need to close the shop.”

Dongsik’s house is bright. And loud. And smells of something delicious being cooked. Jihwa is comfortably seated in a chair, and her posture is so uncharacteristically domestic, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world to assume a pose of a pretzel when one’s in Lee Dongsik’s house,—Juwon almost thinks he hallucinates. Im Seonnyeo is looking through the CDs on the console table, and the music is already on. Kang Dosu’s voice is heard from the kitchen, the man not visible in the suspicious cloud of smoke slipping into the living room. Dongsik himself half-lays on the couch, engaging in a quiet conversation with Jihwa. He looks at Juwon and Jaeyi and beams.

At the same time, Jihun strolls out from somewhere holding a tray of snacks, and he too grins widely at them. He turns to Dongsik, “I think Dosu’s trying to burn down your kitchen,” he says while still smiling. “And it doesn’t look like we can stop him.”

“Well, I sure can,” sighs Jaeyi, power-walking around the couch towards the sound of Dosu’s panicked cries. Seonnyeo giggles and joins after her.

Dongsik makes a dramatic face as if terrified at the implication of his house burning, but then calls out to Juwon and cheekily pats the seat beside him. Juwon sits. It’s weird. The last time he was in this house, it was cold, dark and miserable—it was a place where life should be, but wasn’t. Even the basement felt more homey, not that Juwon had much experience with the concept. But now... but now the house is so warm. Not in a it’s-august-so-of-course-it’s-hot way, but simply pleasant. And Dongsik looks so pleased, as if he didn’t go through something mildly (physically) traumatic today, as if his day couldn’t be ruined by the cast on his leg or the rain or the potential Dosu-induced house burning. He is smiling, content and comfortable, and Juwon is mesmerized.

Twenty minutes later and a few snacks thrown around by way-too-old-for-these-types-of-games siblings they all move to the tiny kitchen, lured in by the smell of the pretty decent looking, seemingly non-burnt meal. They sit around a small, miraculously fitted technically-inside-the-kitchen table, even though, Juwon guesses, there’s definitely a perfectly functional dining room in the house. Conversations come and go, and very soon someone makes tea. Jihun gracefully tries to grab 7 cups at once, and is saved by Dongsik who takes them one by one from his hands and puts them on the table. Juwon gets an enormous white mug with a clearly handmade feeling to it. It has shaky wildflowers drawn on it and certainly-handwritten words “Best Brother In The World.” It’s amateurishly cute, and the mug looks well-loved. Juwon stares at it, and Dongsik smiles, gently scratching at the ceramic of the mug. “Oooh, this one is Yuyeon’s present for my fifteen’s birthday, I think. She was very into acrylics that year, even though she kinda sucked at it,” he points at Jihwa: “Everyone got their own mug. And Jihwa broke hers, like, two month after. Cried like a baby.”

“I did not cry,” Jihwa snorts. “I do not cry.”

“You did. Couldn’t even look Yuyeon in the face for a week, you felt so guilty,” he shakes his head and grins, pouring tea into the mug. Jihwa huffs, but doesn’t argue. A sad smile lingers on her lips.

“Do you... want the mug?” Juwon asks, barely touching its awkward patterns with his fingertips.

“Nah, it’s fine. Jihun will whine if I use anything but this monstrosity anyway,” Dongsik waves in reassurance, and Juwon stares at the cup before him. It’s... really something. Weirdly shaped, yet certainly not handmade, with a curious pop-culture print. Surely a reference to an inside joke of theirs.

“I don’t whine!” whines Jihun and throws a cookie at Dongsik, who moves out of its way, and the cookie, making an awkward landing at the edge of the table, falls right into Juwon’s lap. Juwon looks down, more confused than uncomfortable. Dongsik looks down too and simply reaches to carefully take the cookie and shake off the crumbs from Juwon’s legs with his hand. “Well, looks still edible to me,” he concludes and shoves the whole cookie into his mouth, a teasing glint to his eyes. Juwon doesn’t even hear the ugly snorting everyone around them makes.

It’s already past midnight when everyone starts to lazily gather their things to go home. Juwon is still holding onto his mug, cherishing its last droplets of warmth. He isn’t tired, yet feels oddly sleepy, as if lulled by the friendly whispers of the Lee house. It’s nice. Suddenly the thought of getting out of the house into the spitting rain, getting into the car, driving into the night, getting into his apartment, coolly and lonely, still empty... suddenly this thought is the most unappealing thought ever. His apartment feels like a place. This house feels like home. And suddenly Juwon doesn’t want to go. He stares at the decorated walls, soaking in every detail of well-used, worn-out drawers and bookshelves of the living room. He nods his goodbyes, but he isn’t making a beeline to the front door himself. He feels like a spoiled 8-year-old kid in a store who doesn’t want to leave without taking half of the store with him. This feeling annoys Juwon, and he sighs. For a moment, he lets himself imagine living in this house—no, in a house like this. Warm, bright and welcoming. Where everyone acts like they own the place, without looking arrogant or rude. Where someone smiles at him so, so gently, as if he means it. As if he doesn’t mind... Juwon wants to stay.

“Stay.”

Juwon slowly turns around. Dongsik is yawning, crookedly leaning on the wall, his leg cast covered in doodles left by the others. Dongsik smiles-pouts and says in a quiet, soft voice:

“I know you always go back, and I know you didn’t drink because of that, but you look like you really need a nap. Probably not the best idea to drive right now, especially in this weather. So, stay,” then after a second, he adds: “But only if you want to, of course. Wouldn’t want to pressure. And I do have a spare bed, with clean sheets and everything, so unless you can sleep only in your own very specific bed—”

“I do,” Juwon simply says. “Want to stay, I mean.”

Dongsik beams at that, awkwardly separating himself from the wall.

“Oh, that’s good then,” he says, smiling somewhat through Juwon, as if this whole situation is actually embarrassing for him. “Should I show you around the house? I assume you’re already quite familiar with the floor-plan, yet you’re still haven’t paid up your rent... Should I charge you for today?”

He says that looking Juwon directly in the eye, in such a classic Dongsik way, it almost makes Juwon giddy.

“If I like the bed, I might start paying,” he smiles.

In October Juwon talks about transferring. (His coworkers seem genuinely heartbroken by the news. It’s nice, in a way.)

By the end of December he realizes that it’s going to be a very first New Year he spends with his family.

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

A Failed Betrothal (5)

This is going to be the last part I am going to post in a while. My school is finally starting up again and I am sure to be swamped with homework. Without further ado. Enjoy ❤

[Masterlist]

(Part 1)(Part 4)

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Damian laid in bed, thinking about the recent turn of events. Lady, who told them that they can call her Marinette since they might as well get acquainted while the Waynes were in Paris. She had found out Jason’s identity after a few google searches and by extension, the rest of the Bats while they both were taking a shower. It had taken a few arguments and one sentimonster attack that cut one of the arguments short to trust the Dupain-Chengs with their secret identities. His bride was apparently a superhero too. Has been for a few years. In a different world, he might have actually dated her out of his own free will and fought crime with her together.

Damian shook his head at that thought.

That was the curse talking. Get a hold of yourself, Wayne. Resist. Don’t think about Marinette and her blue eyes.

Back to the akumas, Paris had been under the control of a magical terrorist for years. Lady Noire, formerly known as Ladybug, formed a team to battle against him. He also found out about the Guardian who chose Marinette and someone else, who wasn’t spoken about much except that his name was Chat Noir and she now wields his ring temporarily, to fight against Hawkmoth as partners. The same Guardian that promised her hand-in-marriage in exchange for protection from the League of Assassins. Sabine, the Blue Reaper, had to be restrained from killing the old amnesiatic man by her bear of a husband who was reluctant to do so and also wanted to help her.

Hawkmoth also had a partner who went by the name, Mayura, with a power similar to his and could create sentimonster out of negative emotions. Their top suspect was Gabriel Agreste, with much evidence pointing his way but they had difficulty trying to confirm it and had the time to gather evidence to do it. The local authorities were helpful but getting a search warrant for a famous, rich designer who was a known recluse with circumstantial evidence is not possible.

After informing their father of their kidnapping and the situation in Paris (and racking up the Dupain-Cheng's phone bill), they were told to stay there and help as much as they can. Tim, who was coming to Paris for a vacation (suspicious), got his plans hijacked and was now going to help uncover Hawkmoth’s identity.

When the Justice League had reached out a few years ago, they were rebuffed by the Mayor. Nightrunner got into contact with the one of the heroes, Ladybug who asked for a meeting outside of Paris with Wonder Woman and Batman came along, to assess her. They didn’t expect a young girl to be Paris’s heroine.

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3 years ago…

“Bonjour, Princess Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hippolayta, it is an honour to meet you. And you too, Batman.” The spotted heroine greeted both of them with Nightrunner besides her. Their meeting point was in the gardens in the Palace of Versailles.

“The pleasure is all mine, Ladybug. But I am confused as to why you have refused the Justice League’s help.” Wonder Woman was worried that the Ladybug Miraculous was active again and for many good reasons.

“I would be glad for some help but Paris is run by an incompetent fool. He wants no one outside of Paris to think that the city is unsafe due to Hawkmoth and keep the tourism numbers high. The other reason is that my Miraculous Cure can restore any physical damages done during a fight and involving you might result in more damages than I could cure. But I also think it would be better if there were less powerful heroes in Paris, akumas amplifies one’s power and I don’t want to fight you after you had a bad day.” Ladybug explained. Nightrunner murmured in agreement.

“Do you know how Hawkmoth operates?” asked Batman. He had read reports of the situation but wondered the true extent of it.

“Have Wonder Woman explained to you about the Miraculous?”

He nodded.

“Hawkmoth has the butterfly miraculous, and it has the power of transmission. In the right hands, they would be used to grant ordinary people powers as the user’s champions. But in the hands of Hawkmoth, he targets people with high negative emotions, a girl after a bad break-up or a student with a failed grade. He grants them powers to use for revenge or some obscure version of justice. In return, he asks for mine and Chat Noir’s miraculous. With our two miraculous, he can make a wish but wishes always come with a price so it is best if we keep it out of his reach.”

“How have you not captured him yet?”

“Hawkmoth is a coward who rarely comes out to face us. I have never met him face-to-face. He uses people to get what he wants. Not very honourable. The Mayor has refused to help my attempts to stop him or prevent more akumas because his bratty daughter isn’t given a Miraculous to be a hero. I don’t have the time or resources because I am still in school and have other obligations outside the suit. I can’t tell my family and ask for help because the Guardian’s ,the one who gave me the Miraculous in the first place, secret identities rule and some magic thing that makes me unable to tell them.”

The adults were all horrified at what the girl was going through.

“We could help in other ways. Not fight the akumas but provide you the resources to track down and capture him. Do you have any training? From the footage we have seen, you know martial arts and how to use some weapons.”

“I was raised in a forgotten temple somewhere in Asia with brutal training everyday before I ran away. I met someone on my way out who took me in and adopted me.” She said it seriously enough that they have no room for doubt.

“Batman, she just said she was adopted. She may have the features but the answer is no.” Wonder Woman said with a knowing look in her eyes.

“I wasn’t thinking about it. She has a duty to Paris right now and I am not going to take away from her life here. I don’t adopt every black-haired and blue-eyed child I see.” Batman denied.

“I am confused.” Ladybug said, tilting her head.

“Batman here has a bad habit of adopting kids with a tragic past, especially kids with black hair and blue eyes.” Nightrunner explained to his fellow Parisian hero.

“Well, Mousier, you will have to fight my parents for custody. While I have training, Chat Noir doesn’t and he hinders the battles with his ‘help’. I would give him some but he sees them as dates even though I have told him it’s not.”

“His incompetence is a liability. Why is he your partner?”

“The Guardian chose him too like he chose me through some stupid trial I somehow passed the requirements for. I am just hoping that there is a really good reason for choosing Chat Noir. I have some questions on how you are-”

“Ladybug, what are you doing?” A sharp voice cut in. An old man who appeared to be dressed as a tortoise landed in front of them.

“Master Fu, this is Princess Diana of Themyscira and the world’s greatest detective, Batman. I am asking for their help in finding Hawkmoth.” Ladybug explained, confused why Master Fu looked upset.

“Ladybug, that was extremely foolish of you. This is a matter of the Order. You shouldn’t have involved other heroes in it. We can resolve this on our own. I apologize on behalf of her for wasting your time.”

“But, Master-” “We will talk about this later, Ladybug. You are young and don’t understand things yet.”

“Guardian, with all due respect, my mother was a Ladybug wielder herself and the Amazons will lend a hand to any miraculous holders in need.”

“It is appreciated but Ladybug, Chat Noir and I can do it on our own. Come along, Ladybug.”

“Let me at least apologize for my mistake, Guardian.”

“Very well. Meet me later.”

“I am sorry but it looks like I have to fight Hawkmoth without your help. That being said please don’t try to look further into Hawkmoth’s identity and leave any notes of your leads in the mouth of the gargoyle on the northside of Notre Dame where I usually rest after I finish patrol. Salut, Princess Diana, Batman, Nightrunner.” She left using her yo-yo to swing away after giving them a wink.

Batman smirked. He had to give it to Ladybug, she was clever and resourceful and Diana was right, he wanted to adopt her.

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Present time…

(Words in bold are French)

Now that the previous Guardian was out of the picture, the Miraculous team would gladly accept any help they can get.

Damian and Jason had picked up Tim from the airport and they had already set things up in one of the Wayne penthouses in Paris. Less chance of nosy maids than in a hotel.

Bilal had already handed over all the evidence he could find. He was also one of the Miraculous team’s trainers when Sabine couldn’t make it. Jason and Damian were going to help in training and be back-up heroes when needed. (Bilal wore a miraculous once to help out. And that one time was weird enough to last him a lifetime and he was never doing it again.)

Sadly, all the magic users who were allies or part of the JL were busy with other missions or MIA so they couldn’t break Damian’s curse yet. Bruce didn’t see the problem with the curse so unless it causes major problems or someone is free to break it. They couldn’t go back to Gotham until they got the necessary things in order so it looks like they were going to be in Paris for a while.

The next morning, Tim was nowhere to be found. Because they were paranoid Batboys, they tracked his phone to see him at the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery with Marinette and a group of other people, having breakfast.

“There you are, Replacement.” Jason shouted as he entered the bakery, “So, this is where you were? I see you have already figured out who Ladybug is and met her.”

Marinette looked at Damian and Jason, then at Tim and back at them again.

Oh.

Oh.

She face-palmed as she connected the dots and realized what the nagging feeling she had around Tim was about.

“Oh my Kwamis, you are Tim Drake, adopted by Bruce Wayne aka Batman. Jason and Damian are your brothers. And judging by your build, you are Red Robin. I feel so stupid.”

Thankfully, there were no customers around yet to hear some of the world’s most important secrets being out.

“I am- We are not- Bruce isn’t- How?! How the hell did you find out? And you are Ladybug?!” Tim was floundering at Marinette’s words and the caffeine from his first coffee of the day hadn’t kicked in yet. He looked at her friends, who were looking at the Wayne boys with shocked expressions….and looked similar to the rest of the Miraculous Team.

The caffeine finally kicked in.

“Oh my God. I was talking to the entire Miraculous Team and I didn’t know it. That means Chloe Bourgeois is a hero. That bratty blonde I met as a child is a hero.”

“Speak for yourself, Timothy, my childhood friend is a hero too. I can’t believe we are all heroes.” Chloe said in total disbelief.

Introductions and alter egos were exchanged.

Nearly everything went swimmingly if it weren’t for Chloe jokingly elbowed Marinette and said, “You get to date a hero too. No need to worry about flaking out on dates.”

“What do you mean dates? Dupain-Cheng and I aren’t dating.” Damian said, “My mother wanted us to marry each other, not date.”

“Mari, looks like you need some explaining to do.”

Marinette gave the short story on how she met Damian and Jason.

“So you guys are absolutely not dating? Cool. Tim, are you still open to being Mari-bug's fake boyfriend?” Chloe asked. Tim looked at her incredulously.

“You called me all the way here to fake-date your friend. Why? Not that I am complaining about her or anything.” “There is this boy in our class, Adrien Agreste and he has a little obsession with Marinette.” Chloe explained. “Romantic Soulmates.” Nathaniel chimed in, doing air-quotes.

“So I volunteered on your behalf to be my best friend’s long-distance boyfriend in America who has video-call dates with her once a week. You are going to have little romantic dates coincidently where our classmates are going to be, especially Adrien. It might put him off from pursuing Marinette for a while. After you leave, we are just to mention you every now and then to prevent him from getting any ideas.”

Damian felt a hot, burning sensation in his chest and clenched his jaw at the thought of Marin- Dupain-Cheng holding hands, cuddling and doing all those romantic actions with Drake of all people. (No, he wasn’t jealous. Not at all. Don’t be stupid. )

“Tch, Drake is going to be busy trying to find Hawkmoth. He can’t go around Paris, being Dupain-Cheng’s boyfriend. Besides, he can’t be a proper boyfriend even in his most lucid moments. I will be her boyfriend instead.”

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(PART 6)