#i really want to go to their concert here so bad n apollo n i were fine w gen ad but

[noxtivagus]

the 1975 hdlfkahdfklasdd

[osakaso5]

IDOLiSH7 4th Anniversary Special Story: Best Wishes...

Chapter 1: A Job And An Idea

Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

Ryo Tsukumo: Happy anniversary!

Pop!

ŹOOĻ: .........

Toma Inumaru: ...That startled me...

Haruka Isumi: ...What anniversary..?

Minami Natsume: I wonder...

Torao Mido: The contents of his party cracker got in my hair...

Ryo Tsumugi: Come on! You're too lethargic! Do it over!

Toma Inumaru: And you're weirdly excited..?

Ryo Tsukumo: Happy anniversary! Yaaay..!

ŹOOĻ: Y-yaaay...

Ryo Tsukumo: WHOOO! Louder!

ŹOOĻ: Yaaay!

Ryo Tsukumo: Hey... Why are you so excited, when you don't even know what we're celebrating?

Ryo Tsukumo: If you get too carried away, you'll find yourselves buying magic beans before you know it. Are you sure you want that?

Torao Mido: Magic beans, eh. That sounds pretty interesting. So, what's this all about? Is it your birthday, Ryo-san?

Haruka Isumi: Ah, is it? How old are you now?

Ryo Tsukumo: 25 years old.

Minami Natsume: Lying about your age... Perhaps there is a human side to you, after all.

Toma Inumaru: Huh? But wouldn't he be saying "happy birthday", if it was his  birthday? What's this anniversary stuff  all about?

Ryo Tsukumo: You know that large shopping center, Sky Blue Mall, right?

Haruka Isumi: Yeah. The one they built in the city a few years back...

Ryo Tsukumo: That's the one. It was built in hopes of attracting people, but never boomed the way it was intended to.

Ryo Tsukumo: They're renovating the place just in time for its 4th anniversary.

Torao Mido: Renovating after only four years? That's a little early, don't you think?

Minami Natsume: It's most likely due to their poor performance. They're trying to reform their image with a quick makeover.

Ryo Tsukumo: Exactly. Their plan is to shamble from the dead with one last elixir, so they won't have to suffer a slow death.

Toma Inumaru: You didn't have to put it like that...

Ryo Tsukumo: It seems they're planning to put plenty of vigor and  budget into their 4th anniversary re-opening.

Ryo Tsukumo: They're advertising Sky Blue Mall quite a lot, whether rebuilding is going to help them or not.

Ryo Tsukumo: They were looking  for talents that could fit their four year theme, so I snatched this job for ŹOOĻ.

Haruka Isumi: But it's four years, right? We've only just debuted.

Ryo Tsukumo: It's not about your debut. This marks the fourth year since the four of you first met.

ŹOOĻ: Ah...

ŹOOĻ: .........

ŹOOĻ: Huh..?

Haruka Isumi: No, that doesn't add up at all.

Toma Inumaru: Four years ago? Literally none of us had met each other.

Ryo Tsukumo: What do you mean? Try to remember that time carefully. Torao, you were a high schooler four years ago, yes? What did you do back then?

Torao Mido: I was the student council president.

Toma, Haruka, & Minami: No way!

Torao Mido: It's true!

Toma Inumaru: Hey, stop playing along with Ryo-san's bullcrap. You're just digging your own grave.

Torao Mido: Maybe I should dig your grave. I was an honor student. Can't you tell?

Ryo Tsukumo: Alright, Torao was the student council president at a prestigious academy...

Torao Mido: What are you writing down?

Ryo Tsukumo: Nope, I'm not showing you. What about you, Haruka? What were you doing four years ago?

Haruka Isumi: Me? Four years ago, I sang in the choir of the neighborhood church...

Toma, Minami, & Torao: No way!

Torao Mido: You were such a good kid.

Minami Natsume: How adorable.

Toma Inumaru: I wanna see you in that choir uniform. You got pictures?

Haruka Isumi: No. It wasn't anything that special, really... A lot of kids from the neighborhood went there.

Ryo Tsukumo: Haruka sang in a church choir... What about you, Minami?

Minami Natsume: Four years ago, I would have been filming The Cursed Serpent's Mirror.

Toma Inumaru: Ah! That horror blockbuster..!!!

Torao Mido: I was too scared to go see that one...

Haruka Isumi: I had to close my eyes every time they showed commercials for it...

Minami Natsume: Here is a picture from back then.

Toma, Haruka, & Torao: Gyah..!

Toma Inumaru: Creepy..! That's you, Mina!? Is this special effects make up!?

Torao Mido: Normal humans can't make that kind of face...

Minami Natsume: Fufu. You flatter me. This movie is famous for its final scene. Would you like to see it?

Haruka Isumi: No!!! That's enough... I'm not gonna be able to go to the toilet tonight...

Ryo Tsukumo: I know what you mean. Horror makes even bathing scarier. You start imagining all kinds of stuff in the shower.

Ryo Tsukumo: Like deathly pale women in the mirror, or children's faces staring up at you from the floor, or dark shadows behind the frosted glass...

Haruka Isumi: Don't start describing things that'll make me more scared! You're horrible..!!!

Ryo Tsukumo: Oh? Haruka, behind you...

Haruka Isumi: Stop!!!

Ryo Tsukumo: Hehe. OK, OK. Minami was filming a movie. And you, Toma?

Toma Inumaru: I was still a part of NO_MAD. But I also went to school properly, so I was kinda like Haru is now.

Haruka Isumi: Ugh...

Toma Inumaru: Don't "ugh" me. Your school years are in important time, when you get to have lots of fun.

Ryo Tsukumo: Huh? And what about people who didn't have fun?

Toma Inumaru: That's... Well...

Torao Mido: I don't think there's anybody who didn't have fun. If you live normally, you'll get a girlfriend and excel in your club activities, doing something productive every day.

Haruka Isumi: Not everyone's a normie student council prez like you.

Minami Natsume: I didn't experience that, either. I could rarely go to school due to my work, so I have few proper memories to speak of.

Torao Mido: Really?

Minami Natsume: Yes. On the rare occasion that I went back to school, I'd have so many Valentine's Day chocolates piled up that I'd feel bad.

Haruka Isumi: You're just a normie, too!

Toma Inumaru: Haru, Haru! I got chocolates, too! Since I was an idol!

Haruka Isumi: Shut up! Even I've gotten chocolates before!

Toma, Torao, & Minami: From who?

Haruka Isumi: ........ It's a secret.

Toma, Torao, & Minami: Oh dear...

Ryo Tsukumo: Well then, next Valentine's Day, I'll have to use my own handmade chocolates to turn the holiday into a traumatic event for you all...

Toma Inumaru: Why are you always so quick to say creepy stuff...

Ryo Tsukumo: A student council president, a choirboy, an actor, and an idol. Despite living in completely different worlds, the four of you met by chance four years ago.

Ryo Tsukumo: Torao, do you remember your vice president?

Torao Mido: Vice president? There were two of them...

Ryo Tsukumo: The taller one.

Torao Mido: Yeah, I remember 'em.

Ryo Tsukumo: The park you took her out on a date once was actually being used as a filming location for The Cursed Serpent's Mirror at the time.

Torao Mido: Huh..?

Minami Natsume: Is that so? You were there at the same time as me?

Torao Mido: No, the vice prez was a guy. I wouldn't have taken him out on a date.

Ryo Tsukumo: Tsk...

Minami Natsume: Ryo-san... What are you trying to accomplish by fabricating stories?

Ryo Tsukumo: Wait, next. Haruka!

Ryo Tsukumo: As a choirboy who admired idols, you once went to a NO_MAD concert.

Toma Inumaru: Really!? You should've told me! I'm so happy to hear that!

Haruka Isumi: N-no, I never did that...

Toma Inumaru: Huh? W-what the hell. I got really excited there for a sec.

Toma Inumaru: Ryo-san, stop making shit up. None of us met four years ago.

Ryo Tsukumo: That's true.

Haruka Isumi: See!?

Minami Natsume: None of us thought otherwise.

Torao Mido: Oh. Too bad, it would've felt nice and fateful if we actually had met.

Minami Natsume: You're such a romantic, Mido-san.

Torao Mido: You don't believe in fate, despite being a fortune teller?

Minami Natsume: I do, but I have to wonder whether it applies to us.

Ryo Tsukumo: If not, then we have to make something up, since I accepted this 4th anniversary job.

Toma Inumaru: Don't make anything up! If we're caught lying, the people of Sky Bue Mall will be disappointed, too. It's their anniversary and everything.

Ryo Tsukumo: This world is full of fabrications. Edison didn't actually invent electricity, and Apollo 11 didn't actually land on the Moon.

Haruka Isumi: Really!?

Minami Natsume: Don't listen to him.

Ryo Tsukumo: If we turn the job down now, there'll be chaos. It's nicer if we  force some kind of connection between you guys. Don't you have any material?

Torao Mido: Even if you ask that...

Haruka Isumi: A student council president, a choirboy, an actor, and an idol...

Toma Inumaru: Hmm, how about this? You guys used to be my fans, and...

Haruka, Torao, & Minami: Objection.

Toma Inumaru: Why!? Isn't it nice and simple!?

Haruka Isumi: It's not fair if only you get to show off!

Minami Natsume: I don't want people to say that my music was influenced by NO_MAD. Their styles are completely different.

Torao Mido: How do you think I'll feel if all my future interviews will be   about how I used to be your fan?

Toma Inumaru: Hmm... Then what should we go with?

Haruka Isumi: What if we just met by chance? We could say we shared a table at a restaurant or something.

Toma Inumaru: That's a great idea! We ran into each other at a fast food joint!

Torao Mido: I don't go to fast food places.

Minami Natsume: I rarely visit them, as well.

Toma Inumaru: ........ Then, maybe we met at a trendy café...

Haruka Isumi: Cafés charge over 300 yen for a glass of juice! Do you really think a middle schooler's gonna go there?

Toma Inumaru: You've got a point... Now that we think about it, there's not many ways we could've ran into each other.

Haruka Isumi: I guess not...

Minami Natsume: I suppose...

Torao Mido: Right...

Ryo Tsukumo: That you met at all was a miracle... You should be grateful to the person who made it happen. That would be me.

Ryo Tsukumo: Hmm, I'm all out of good ideas. Let's just come up with something random. Like a school feud.

Torao Mido: A school feud!?

Ryo Tsukumo: Toma was a gang leader who challenged rival schools to duels.

Toma Inumaru: Isn't that something from over forty years ago, rather than four!?

Ryo Tsukumo: Haruka was the younger brother of Toma's girlfriend.

Haruka Isumi: Huh!? Don't just make up a sister for me!

Ryo Tsukumo: Torao was the student council president of a rival school. He was secretly a yanki gang leader.

Torao Mido: Sounds good. I can do that.

Ryo Tsukumo: Minami was a sukeban from a rival school. He called everyone "y'all" (1).

Minami Natsume: Ryo-san. What is a sukeban?

Ryo Tsukumo: Alright, it's decided!

Toma Inumaru: Seriously!? We're gonna go with that one!?

Haruka Isumi: I don't even have a sister!

Ryo Tsukumo: Sure, you do. I've met her.

Haruka Isumi: Huh..!?

Torao Mido: Stop lying to children.

Haruka Isumi: Oh, it was a lie. It was a lie, right?

Minami Natsume: Ryo-san. What do you mean by me referring to eveyone as y'all?

Ryo Tsukumo: Well then, now that we've got your origin story in order, I'm counting on you to do the job. 

To be continued...

Translator’s notes..? 

1) a sukeban is the leader of a (school)girl gang. also, ryo originally mentions minami using the first person pronoun “atai”, which is very informal and feminine, but since english only has one first person pronoun, i changed it up a bit to make more sense

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Turnabout Tree

Bullshit Defense AU. Miles finally learns, in the most complicated, roundabout way possible, something that Phoenix has been hiding about Trucy’s family.

[more Bullshit Defense AU fics] 

-

Even when everything is over, Miles still takes a while to be able to breathe again. Franziska and Simon have seen the phantom off under the tightest guard to the most secure prison; Aura and Starbuck are out of jail; and while Metis and Clay are still in the hospital, the prognosis is good for them both. It -- everything that it is, this past week and two bombings, and seven long long years -- is over. And still -- still it’s hard to breathe.

He’s still thinking about Franziska, who could have been in so much danger working on the Phantom case with Simon. He’s still thinking about Raymond, in the exploding courtroom; and Athena, forced to relive the worst moments of her life, forced to see a blade and a crime scene covered in her mother’s blood. Trucy isn’t home, is with Athena, like Pearls and Juniper are, and all of them at Simon’s. (Given the choice between two Blackquills to look after her, Athena will go to Simon, every time, no matter that Aura is her stepmother.) And then, Apollo, in the exploding courtroom, and attacked again in the ruins of it. Of everyone, all the coworkers to his family -- Trucy calls them all a family too, even Apollo, and the Blackquill-Cykeses -- Apollo is the one who Miles knows is alone. He doesn’t have anyone local. Maya had asked about him when she called, saying he had family who was asking after him; and she is in Khura’in. Apollo’s family, whatever he has, a brother Maya mentioned, is on the other side of the world, and he is here, and his friend in the hospital.

Miles is far from the person who should be checking in on Apollo. They haven’t ever spoken much -- they had a conversation in the hospital the other day and that’s probably more than Miles has ever said to him all other occasions. And Apollo isn’t on good terms with Phoenix, for justified reasons. Should he send Trucy after him tomorrow, once she gets home? Ask Raymond to -- to what, exactly? Raymond will be keeping an eye on him, of course, but -- still. Poor kid. He and Athena have taken the brunt of the pain these past days.

The couch is starting to swallow Miles up entirely, not feeling any less suffocating, when there is a knock on the door.

Which doesn’t make any sense, because it’s nearly 9 pm, and everyone they know would either call first or fling open the door without knocking.

But the knock comes again and it forces him up and out of his thoughts and his anxiety, all his fears of what could have been if they weren’t all lucky, so he gets up and opens the door. A woman stands on the other side, a woman with light brown hair in two low braids. Her face seems vaguely familiar, distantly, but her eyes - something about her eyes, Miles would swear he knows them like he knows his family. “You must be Miles,” she says. “I’m so sorry to bother you. Is Phoenix home?”

“I -- yes. He’s in the shower.” His head has started spinning but he thinks he has placed her face, at least, and figured out why he had so much difficulty: because what she wore, he never really could get a good look at her face. “You’re... Lam-orir?”

She smiles, a thin, tight-lipped smile, but it goes right up to her eyes. They’re still familiar. He doesn’t know why. “Lamiroir, yes” she says. “And is Trucy home, by chance?” She cranes her neck to look past him over his shoulder, into the apartment.

“N-no -- she’s at friend’s apartment. Why--” Even while he’s trying to ask her what is going on, he’s stepping aside a little to allow her in the doorway. He doesn’t know why she’s here, what this is about, but Apollo and Trucy met her personally during the concert investigation last summer, as did Raymond, and she was on the jury last October. Maybe she and Phoenix kept in touch? Maybe--?

She cups her hands around her mouth and screams, “Phoenix Wright!” And it isn’t really a scream, more of a bellow, something more befitting Apollo, not this slight, graceful woman, even if she is a singer, even if she must have powerful lungs as a singer.

Miles shuts the door behind her. The water from the bathroom stops and a moment later, the lock on it clicks open, and Phoenix calls down, “Aw fuck -- five minutes!” Miles can hear him wincing, knows that tone of voice, the one where he’s expecting someone to chew him out, be it Franziska or Maya or Miles himself.

Lamiroir tilts her head toward Miles and raises her eyebrows. “So is he bad at answering phone calls and text messages from everyone, or is it just me?” Her voice, melodic even while she is simply speaking, has a trace of an accent but less than Miles expected.

“Everyone,” Miles answers. He knows he sounds awkward, bad at small talk as he is -- but this isn’t even small talk, either, is something with depth, and only Lamiroir knows how deep it is. How well does she know Phoenix? Well enough to have his number, well enough to have been calling --

Because of the courthouse bombing, perhaps?

“Most people just go through me,” he adds, and that sounds even worse, like some kind of indictment of Thalassa, that she doesn’t know to or just doesn’t, and who is she to Phoenix, anyway? There’s an answer he knows is the simplest answer, but it would be the simplest answer for someone else, not Phoenix, who when he keeps secrets doesn’t and wouldn’t keep this kind of secret. Lamiroir hums something like acknowledgement. “He mentions that you are the one who keeps his head taped on straight,” she says.

Miles has no idea what to make of this, that Phoenix has told her of him, and that the reverse isn’t true.

The bathroom door squeaks when it opens and Phoenix’s footsteps are a scramble until he is within sight, still pulling on his shirt. His hair is dripping wet and there is still shampoo in it. “Listen,” he says, already on the defensive, his hands up in front of him, palms out. “Listen, Thal, I--”

“How many times did I call you, Phoenix Wright?” she snaps. “How many messages did you not answer?”

“Uh…” Phoenix rubs the back of his neck. “My phone died two days ago and I’ve just been using Miles’--”

Lamiroir (what did Phoenix call her? Thal? What is that? A real name, a Borginian word, a -- a Boriginian pet name?) reaches beneath her shawl and produces from somewhere a phone which she thrusts at Phoenix. “Look,” she says, an imperious command, and he silently accepts the phone and starts tapping the screen.

“I -- oh,” he says. “I -- that is a lot of texts, yeah.”

“Surely one or two of those arrived before you abandoned your point of contact!” Lamiroir says, snatching her phone back from Phoenix’s hands. “Surely!”

“It did, and I was preoccupied with other things, so I thought I’d text you back when things calmed down--”

“And you did not!”

“Because things didn’t calm down!” Phoenix cries. He’s still standing withdrawn, defensively, and Lamiroir is on the offensive, her hands on her hips, her face contracted into a glare. “It just kept escalating!”

“And you did not once think that I would like to know--”

“I’m sorry!”

Their argument is shaped the way Phoenix argues with Franziska, the way she berates him. It doesn’t feel like a lovers’ spat. Miles doesn’t know what is happening, but they both seem to have forgotten he is there.

“Trucy’s fine,” Phoenix says. “She wasn’t anywhere near any of this -- not even close. Her friend Athena was, though, had a really rough week, Trucy’s with her tonight.” Lamiroir’s frown has started to relent. “Apollo -- Apollo had it rough too, got bruised up in the bombing and then -- he’s fine, he’s fine.” Like Franziska, Lamiroir is shorter than Phoenix, but has the fury to cow him, and it is written on her face even deeper and angrier than before.

“Define bruised up,” Lamiroir says, her voice dangerously low. “And tell me, ‘and then’ what?”

Phoenix winces. “He was in the hospital,” he says. “Twice. Got hit with some rubble -- nothing broken, nothing broken!” His hands are up again, ready to intercept an attack. “And then concussed when a suspect attacked him to stop him investigating--”

“And you did not tell me!” Lamiroir throws her hands in the air. Phoenix steps back.

Why Trucy and Apollo does she ask about? How did Phoenix know they are who she wanted to know about? Did she say it in the messages she showed him; was it because they were the two who defended Machi Tobaye?

“Again, there was a lot happening,” he says. “And he’s fine, I swear! I promise--”

“He was in the hospital twice! What about that is ‘fine’?”

“The part where he’s out of the hospital?” Phoenix offers. Lamiroir doesn’t even answer, just makes a growling, exasperated sort of sound. She hasn’t asked Phoenix how he is, and while he’s visibly intact, that is still strange.

He clears his throat and they both flinch. “Ah…” There’s Phoenix’s sheepish grin again. “We should probably -- explain what’s going on. Introduce you.” He waves at Lamiroir.

“I think I can guess,” Miles says. Weird as this all is, there’s only that answer.

But Lamiroir snorts and Phoenix actually laughs. “No,” he says. “Miles, I promise you, you’ve got no idea where this is going.”

“I’m surprised you hadn’t told him,” Lamiroir says.

“You didn’t want to tell anyone,” Phoenix replies. Tell what? This still sounds like -- like it should be obvious what this is. But--

“Yes, but I had prepared to accept that you might make him the exception without running it by me,” Lamiroir says. “Given how everything you have said makes me presume that you two are attached at the hip.”

“We’re not--” Phoenix glances at Miles and then visibly slumps, giving up whatever further protest he was going to make. “But I didn’t tell him, so you wanna introduce yourself or should I?”

“I suppose you do know of me,” Lamiroir says, turning to Miles, and he can barely focus on what she’s saying, thinking back to Phoenix’s laugh, you’ve got no idea where this is going. He knows Phoenix, he knows Phoenix can surprise him, but how exactly is this not what it seems? “Of course you do. I… had amnesia, as you may or may not remember from… that case.” She frowns again, her forehead creasing heavily. “But I do remember now, and my name -- my real name -- is Thalassa Gramarye.”

Thal. And then it hits him, a bullet, that name, what the second part of it means to this, and that he has heard the first before as a woman already dead -- “You’re Trucy’s mother,” Miles says.

She nods.

“How?” he asks. “How did--” And Phoenix, standing there, correct, of course, that Miles couldn’t guess what was going on, but -- “Phoenix, how long have you known?”

“Since last summer,” Phoenix says. “That case. I knew before she knew -- I’d hoped the Jurist System case would jog her memory, and I was right, and then--”

“You’ve known for over a year,” Miles says. Phoenix nods. And it would be easy to ask why didn’t you tell me even though he knows, because even though Lamiroir -- Thalassa -- said it, Phoenix didn’t tell him. But that is nothing, comparatively. “Why haven’t you told Trucy? Why haven’t you introduced yourself to her? She would want to know, she would love to see you.” To know you, because she was so young that she doesn’t remember.

Thalassa and Phoenix exchange a glance, and there’s so much in just their eyebrows, so much more, and Miles locked out of the loop for over a year. “Her life is as stable as I could dream it to be,” Thalassa says softly. “I have no wish to intrude on the lives you have built and to upend her world further.”

“You wouldn’t be,” Miles says. “I know you wouldn’t be.”

She smiles sadly. “I am glad you say that,” she says. “But there is also something else to it that she and -- others -- must be told and I… I do not know if that would be so welcome to them.”

She lifts her right hand, pulling back her shawl from her wrist to show a golden bangle bracelet. “I don’t suppose you would know him well enough to recognize this,” she says, “but this is a Gramarye family heirloom.” Her eyes blink closed slowly, finally open again, and when she looks at him he knows why he thought there was something familiar about her. She has Trucy’s eyes. “I had two bracelets such as these. One I lost with my son.”

Miles shakes his head slowly. “You remember,” Phoenix asks, “that I told you what Zak told me about the Gramarye perception ability?”

“Why we can’t lie to Trucy,” Miles says. “And why you brought her with you to play poker.”

“You’re not still giving me shit for -- of course you are.” Phoenix sighs. “Yes, that. The bracelets are not quite magic--”

“Not at all,” Thalassa interrupts.

“It seems like it,” Phoenix says across her. “But they’d help Trucy focus her ability if she had one. And, do you also remember, after the Kitaki case, her talking about teaching someone to perceive witnesses’ tics on the stand? Him and his bracelet, I’m not sure you would have noticed that he has that.”

Miles blinks. “She worked that case with Apollo,” he says, “but he’s…” The answer is staring him in the face -- it wasn’t like Phoenix was being particularly cryptic right now -- but it makes no sense. “He does have a bracelet like…”

They’re both just staring at him, waiting. A Gramarye heirloom. Her son. Of course, but -- “Apollo is Trucy’s brother,” Miles says. It’s not a question. There’s no sense in the answer but it’s not a question.

“Half-brother,” Thalassa says. “Yes.”

There are a thousand things he could ask but he looks at Phoenix and says, “And how long have you known this?”

“Since the night Zak died,” Phoenix says. Died is a bit of a misleading statement. “He showed me a picture of Thalassa with those bracelets and I remembered -- some loud kid in Gavin’s office with a bracelet like that.”

“And you haven’t told them?” Miles asks. Didn’t he just ask, why haven’t you told her? Didn’t he just ask this.

“Consider my position with Apollo,” Phoenix says. “Not sure he’d believe me, and then he and Trucy started becoming friends and I figured, better not throw a wrench in the sibling bonding making it awkward dropping that on them -- then Thalassa showed up, and I wanted her to remember.”

“And I wonder if I am welcome,” Thalassa says. “If they would welcome knowing -- if Apollo would welcome this -- intrusion, to whatever stable life he must have built. I…” She closes her eyes. “And I was -- am -- afraid, I suppose. That they will reject me -- that other parts of their families will reject me -- or that I will lose them again, having lost them both once.”

“You never explained to me exactly what happened with Apollo,” Phoenix says. “That you -- er, y’know, we can probably sit down now…” He’s the first to move, over to the couch, and Miles sits on the other side of it, and Thalassa in the armchair.

“His father and I were traveling with him,” Thalassa begins. She is blinking furiously for a few seconds but she composes herself quickly, her head held high, her entire body tense and poised, a performer still, even here. “Jove was -- a wandering minstrel, I suppose you could say.” She laughs softly. “And I happy to wander with him. And then -- in one country, we stayed in the capital, Jove told me that he could take Apollo for the evening, give me a break, time to breathe, and--” Shaking her head, she still with her chin almost level with the floor turns her head away from them. “The government was unstable, contention within the royal family for the throne. There was an overthrow. They were right in the middle of it and I -- I never found out what happened to either of them. In the following days the entire country seemed to be on fire. There was no one to help a poor American girl searching for her baby and her husband. I was told to leave before it got worse. And it did and -- and I did, too.”

She doesn’t look very old, not much more than he and Phoenix. Apollo is in his early twenties, and either she just looks very young, or she is young. And either way, there is no age when that would be anything easy to bear, when that would be anything short of ruinous. (Miles tries to imagine if, eight years ago, when he was that much younger, losing Phoenix and Trucy at once. And not just losing, but the not knowing, the lack of closure. The guilt, to leave without knowing, to leave wondering if they were still alive. Miles can’t imagine, and ruinous can’t describe it.)

“I thought Apollo was dead,” she finishes. “I knew that Jove must have been, if he did not find his way home to me, but I assumed, Apollo must have died too.”

“You did a decent job of hiding how surprised you must’ve been once you remembered,” Phoenix says.

Thalassa snorts. The hair on her forehead flutters with her breath. “I suppose,” she says. “I still barely believe it, that Apollo survived, that I should ever find him again -- that he should come back to me.”

And Trucy’s family situation has always been unorthodox enough that she should have no trouble accepting her mother back into her life. A brother? Probably not, either. But Apollo’s family situation -- what is it? A brother, that’s all Miles knows, and that’s something he just barely learned, almost by accident, from Maya. A brother in -- “The country that this happened in,” Miles says. “That wouldn’t happen to be Khura’in…?”

Thalassa blinks again, this time in surprise. “It was,” she says. “How? How did you know? Did Apollo say--?”

Miles shakes his head. “My stepsister has been staying in Khura’in the past year. She called me the other day -- after hearing of the bombing she’d tried calling all of our family and only finally got through to me -- and she told me she’d met someone there in Khura’in who had a brother in Los Angeles, a lawyer, and he was worried if he was all right. And she asked me if I knew him, that his name was Apollo Justice.”

Her mouth falls open and stays open for several seconds, searching for words that don’t exist. “A brother,” she says softly. “Apollo has… a brother.” She slumps, sinks back in the armchair, finally looks more human than statue. “Someone -- some family -- must have found him -- adopted him. Someone Jove must have met, if they knew Apollo’s name that he is still -- still has his father’s name. Still is my Apollo.” Both her hands are shaking as she touches her bracelet. “Do you know his brother’s name?”

Miles shakes his head. “I can ask Maya. Why?”

“Just to know.” Her voice briefly comes out as a croak. “Just to know something of the other family my son has.”

They sit in silence for several minutes, Miles still trying to absorb everything that has happened, Thalassa staring at her own trembling hands twined tightly together. Trucy has a brother. Trucy has a brother and it’s someone they know, someone she is friends with. Trucy has a brother and Phoenix has known this for nearly two years. Apollo is a Gramarye. Apollo stood in court on a case that tried so integrally back to his own family and didn’t know that it was his. And he and Trucy met their mother and not one of the three knew it.

“Trucy’s got a bunch of pictures taped up in her room,” Phoenix says at last. “If you want to get some of an idea of who her friends are -- maybe put some faces to the names I’ve mentioned.”

Thalassa nods. “I would like that very much.”

Trucy’s room is a mess that Phoenix and Thalassa step through without a second’s hesitation, while Miles starts clearing a path through across floor. Is that something she got from her family or did she just learn disorganization from Phoenix? Behind him, Phoenix is pointing to people, a jumble of names followed by descriptors followed by more names. “Raymond, Miles’ uncle, he’s a defense attorney and Apollo works for him now” -- “Athena, that’s the friend she’s with now, and Pearls, she’s -- I have no idea how she’s related to us honestly but she’s family” -- “Franziska, Miles’ sister” -- “Jinxie, she’s a friend from school” -- “Apollo you know, obviously--”

Thalassa laughs softly. “And Prosecutor Gavin, too,” she says. Miles finally straightens up to look over their shoulders at Trucy’s collage wall. Thalassa’s fingertips are touching the picture, a selfie of Trucy and Apollo and Gavin, Trucy in the front and grinning widely, Gavin behind them with his chin nearly on Apollo’s head, laughing, and Apollo looking rather disgruntled at being squished by the two of them. “I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised,” she adds. “He’s quite friendly.”

“Yeah, our social circles started bleeding over into the Prosecutors Office at some point,” Phoenix says. “All the legal world, a magician, and some spirit mediums.”

Maybe they’ve been over that before -- enough that Thalassa doesn’t have to question what it means. “Unrelatedly,” Phoenix adds, “I don’t know where you’re living now but if you want to stay here tonight that’s cool. I can grab some blankets for the couch.”

“Thank you,” she says, almost absently, her fingers drifting to another photo of Trucy and Apollo, with Mr Hat looming almost ominously in the background. Phoenix nudges Miles in the arm and then jerks his head at the door. They leave her standing there, staring at the faces of the two children she barely had the chance to get to know.

“Sorry,” Phoenix says quietly. “She -- she didn’t want anyone else to know. She was worried about it getting out through the grapevine before she was mentally ready for it.”

Miles doesn’t know what to say to that, anything he can add to that, so he just nods. Standing in the kitchen, they’re both quiet for a few moments. “You didn’t think, before we explained, that she was my secret girlfriend or something?” Phoenix adds.

“Tell me what else you would expect anyone to think when a woman shows up at the door asking for you.”

Phoenix raises his eyebrows. “Okay, but you know me, Miles,” he says. “And you know I’m not going to be secretly dating anyone -- I would make sure you and Franziska and other people met them, so that if they murdered me, you’d know who to suspect.” He laughs, but it’s not really a joke, Miles knows; it’s a very real fear, based in very real experience. It’s why he knows Phoenix hasn’t ever dated since Dahlia. When he’d said that he was swearing off women after her, it seemed like joking as a coping mechanism, but Miles is pretty sure now he was serious. Dahlia didn’t manage to kill him, but she’d broken something in him. “Besides,” he adds, his voice even lighter but in the forced way that means another dark joke is coming, “Thal might be beautiful and have a gorgeous voice, but you could not pay me enough” -- his voice drops even lower and quieter -- “to marry into the goddamn Gramaryes, even if Magnifi, may he rot in hell, has been dead for eight years.”

Miles has no idea what to say to that either.

“And,” Phoenix continues, Miles having no idea how he’s manage to come up with a third objection, “she’s had two husbands murdered, so I’m not trying my luck at ‘third time’s the charm’, either.”

Miles nods. There really isn’t anything to say to that. The floorboards in the hall creak and Thalassa reappears, looking at the two of them with their heads together. “I think we should tell them,” Phoenix says smoothly, taking one step away from Miles and towards her. It all gives the impression that was what they were discussing, her children, their relation, instead of Phoenix cursing her father before implying that she herself is cursed.

Thalassa says nothing. “Trucy will be thrilled,” Phoenix says. “And Apollo -- he should know. He already knows so much about your family that -- he should be allowed to know. And he’s a good kid; I don’t think he’d just turn you away.”

Her face stays blank, carefully, deliberately so. “You’d be able to talk to them directly instead of fighting to get anything out of me,” he adds, drawing a laugh out of her. Miles finds that a convincing point. “And after all this shit that you’ve been worried about them, wouldn’t it be nice to get to spend Christmas with your kids?”

“You are frustratingly good at arguing,” Thalassa says at last.

“I’d hope,” Phoenix says. “I was a lawyer, after all. Is that a yes? Are we telling them?”

She closes her eyes and inhales a shaky breath. “Yes,” she says. “We will tell them. I -- I do want to see them,” she adds, as though either Phoenix or Miles didn’t think she did. “My son was in the hospital twice and I knew nothing.” Those words could easily be damning to Phoenix, but they don’t seem to be. “I want to see them. I just--” Her breath comes out in the same shudder.

“It’ll be fine,” Phoenix says. “I promise, there’s no reason to worry about mine and Miles’ family at large. There’s always been new people coming in, and everyone gets a warm welcome.” Even Lana, once she got out of prison. Even Simon, when their introduction to him was him stubbornly, staunchly, maintaining his own guilt. Even Gavin.

“I believe you,” she says. “And -- Miles.” He jumps a little in surprise at his name and she touches him on the arm. “I meant to thank you earlier. But thank you for everything you have done to be a father to my daughter.”

“I--” He wishes she had forgotten to say this entirely. “I’m really -- it’s really Phoenix who’s--”

She shakes her head, a smile tugging at her lips. “Certainly not from what Phoenix himself has told me,” she says. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but thank you. My daughter could not have found a better family, I am sure.”

“I think you’re part of it now,” Miles says. He’s never been the one to say that; he still sometimes feels lost in his own family, trying to figure out who is part of it, who all the others have claimed over the years. But this one seems obvious. Surprising, impossible almost, but still: obvious.

[hiroki-moriuchi]

2017′s best releases that you’ve missed

2017 was an interesting year in music. By that I mean that I went to a Breaking Benjamin concert, where someone asked me “Hey, do you play RS?” and since then I’ve been worried about how in the world a random guy could recognize me as a Runescape player, and how I can annihilate this part of me that shows this.

As for music releases, 2017 sucked. I know that’s not what I’m supposed to say at the beginning of a list of the best albums of 2017, but I can’t lie. There were few good albums in 2017. Thankfully, they were not entirely non-existent. I tried picking out the few good releases of this year, and here they are!

Artist: Moonfall EP: Empty Cage Genre: Alternative rock Rating: 7.5/10

NY-based alternative rock band Moonfall are back with another EP! With their first EP being a mostly progressive experimental piece, the band then experimented with other styles for 2 singles, and now they’re back with a new EP that seems to be more electronic than their previous works. A risky choice, because there have been many bands who incorporate electronic sounds into their music. What can make Moonfall any different? 

The answer is: their different musical influences. The track Colorless being inspired by EDM, while title track Empty Cage seems to be more influenced an indie sound. And, not to forget, the clear J-rock influences in the bass playing: where other bands often ‘forget’ about the bass, Moonfall incorporates the bass guitar as a full part of the music, not just as something that has to be added “because that’s just how rock works”.

Listen on Youtube: Empty Cage Buy: Official site

Artist: While She Sleeps Album: You Are We Genre: Metalcore Rating: 8/10

Maybe you know this about me already, but I’m a sucker for balance in music (with some exceptions, like Crystal Lake’s Machina). As a result, this album is a real treat for me. While being generally heavy - what else to expect from metalcore? - the stunning clean vocals and catchy choruses or cool verses bring moments of relative rest, before you launch into a heavier part again. Also, it’s great music for moshing, as I discovered at their concert. If you have the chance to see them, grab it.

Listen on Youtube: Steal the Sun Buy: iTunes Nuclearblast.de Stream: Various options

Artist: The Last Sighs Of The Wind Album: We Are Trees Genre: Instrumental rock Rating: 7.5/10

Okay, so I have a confession to make. I’ve always been an emotional boy, but this year something special happened. For the first time in my life, I cried about instrumental music. And the people who made it happen are the people in The Last Sighs Of The Wind, with their song Your Wave Caresses Me. This band knows how to catch your attention with emotion-driven songs, and they don’t need vocals for that. This band is especially recommended to people who like post-rock - this band is clearly influenced by that genre - but I’d recommend it to anyone who can stand rock.

Listen on Bandcamp: Your Wave Caresses Me Buy: Bandcamp ($4)

Artist: Blank Slate EP: I Have Considered The Following Genre: Progressive rock Rating: 8/10

This EP is an experience. It’s some chilled out progressive rock, but what really puts this band apart from other bands is the vocalist. I must admit: at first, I felt like she was the ‘weak link’ in the band, and that she had some practicing to do. I felt that she didn’t have enough power in her voice. But as I listened more and more, I grew to like her soft singing. It’s quite unique; it’s not overbearing, it’s just a part of the instrumentation. Her voice gently carries you through the EP. As for the rest of the instruments: they work together very well to bring intricately woven, but not overly complicated songs. I’d say: take a listen.

Listen on Bandcamp: Tangency Buy: Bandcamp ($5)

Artist: Crystal Lake Single: Apollo Genre: Metalcore Rating: 8.5/10

I’d say that, in metalcore, there’s different levels of heaviness. From heavy to heavier: something can be “heavy”, “really heavy”, “holy shit”, “what the FUCK”, or it can be plain irresponsible. The song Machina falls in the last category, and is the reason this single made the list. While the other two songs are great as well, I feel Machina is a must in your music library.

Listen on Youtube: Machina Buy: iTunes ($2.58), CDJapan (¥2100)

Artist: Julien Baker Album: Turn Out The Lights Genre: Indie Rating: 9/10

We Are Trees is not the only album that made me cry this year. Julien Baker also managed to do it with the first song I heard by her, Appointments. Her open-heartedness shines through in her music. Which, with her apparently sad heart, makes for some really sad music. Her soft music is genuine, filled to the brim with emotions. Her at times powerful voice conveys the emotions in this album well. And, fun fact, this album was recommended to me by many different people that I met in a Facebook group for a metalcore band. I just mean to say: this album is to be enjoyed by anyone. You wouldn’t normally say a piano and soft guitar-driven album would be well-liked by metalheads, but Julien Baker is talented enough to turn the tides in her favor.

Listen on Youtube: Appointments Buy: Matador ($8)

Artist: I, The Mighty Album: Where The Mind Wants To Go / Where You Let It Go Genre: Alternative rock Rating: 8/10

I’ll be honest: this album is disappointing for one very specific reason: the album starts with Degenerates, which is a song that is, without a doubt, worth a rating of 10/10. Every song after that can only be a disappointment relative to Degenerates. That being said, the other songs are certainly good too. I feel like I have to write more stuff about this album but genuinely, I don’t even know why I’m typing up a short review for each album when I don’t enjoy typing it. Just get this: this album is about as heavy as most of the songs on Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight, so if you like that, you’ll like this.

Listen on Youtube: Degenerates Buy: iTunes

Artist: MY FIRST STORY EP: ALL SECRET TRACKS Genre: J-rock Rating: 9/10

What a surprise. On December 12, Japanese news sites suddenly announced a new MY FIRST STORY EP, for sale on December 13. A nice surprise no one saw coming, considering that the band had released another EP (ALL LEAD TRACKS) just a few months before. So, for such a ‘secret’ release that didn’t have much of an advertising campaign going for it, I expected it to be less good than their previous EP, ALL LEAD TRACKS, which was advertised a lot. How wrong I was! With ALL SECRET TRACKS, MY FIRST STORY delivered a musically diverse, yet cohesive EP. The opening track The Anthem, though in my opinion a bit too similar to a previous opening track, Weapons, offers a good introduction to the album. Then it goes on with violin-driven 終焉レクイエム. Then, MONSTER offers us a powerful, heavy track. It is driven mostly by rap, but it is Hiro’s screaming that makes this track stand out. Next, we calm down a little with 君のいない夜を越えて, and later even more with the acoustic track See You Again. The closing track Love Affair is a bit more upbeat again, and ties the album up well.

This EP is MY FIRST STORY playing around with things they haven’t played around with before, and it works very well. It is very good, but I don’t think this is MY FIRST STORY at their best yet. I look forward to what they will release in the future.

Listen on Youtube: MONSTER Buy: CDJapan (¥1800)

And the best album of the year is...

Artist: Sufferer Album: Sufferer Genre: Post-hardcore Rating: 9.3/10

Sufferer is an ambitious project. On their bandcamp page, they say that they are “detailing a day in the life of a Sufferer, with three vocalists portraying the Subject, his Anxiety, and his Depression.” If you ask me, they succeeded flawlessly in their portrayal of what it’s like - both lyrically and musically. Lyrically, they don’t fall into self-pity the way many other song writers do. Rather, they show awareness of the self-pity, and how they think they make their own bed, but still cannot get out. This album is in a sense isolated from the world. It’s got a kind of madness that I can relate to, while, looking at it from the outside, you wonder what in the world is going on inside a mind such as the one portrayed. The desperation of the Subject also speaks from the music arrangements. The music is chaotic, nervous. Even with all the lyrics left out, the music does a good job of depicting the mind of the Subject. In short: Just listen to it. Though a short warning in advance: the album may not be suitable for everyone. It may get you down, or the subject matter (suicide, alcohol abuse, among other things) may be triggering.

Listen on Bandcamp: Chapter III Buy: Bandcamp ($10)

Honorable mentions

He Is Legend - few (Hard rock, rock n roll): Great album, drenched in loneliness. If you listen to this in mid-summer you’ll probably still be cold. How can an album have these kind of vibes?! Taiga Woods - Taiga Woods (Stoner rock): Some really good stoner rock. It’s got a fair replay value, but not an unlimited replay value. By the time I made this post I didn’t love the album as much as I did before. Movements - Feel Something (Alternative rock): A GREAT album but also really sad. KILL LE KILL - Cabin in the Woods session (Acoustic pop-punk): When you listen to this, it feels like you’re in a cabin in the woods and one guy whips out his guitar and starts to sing. It doesn’t matter that he’s bad at it because you’re in the woods anyway and it’s not about the music, it’s about the experience. But he’s still not good at it. Also, here’s a free, legal download link. Entheos - Dark Future (Death metal): Extremely good prog death metal, but I figured it didn’t fit this blog. Turn For Our - Silence in face of Injustice is a crime (Hardcore punk): I’m a sucker for hardcore punk. gotta love it. S’efforcer - Survive​}​•​{​Discover (Experimental metal): This album puts me at ease for some reason, despite it being quite heavy at times. This album would have made the list had I discovered it not on December 30th.

[lastritesprosecution]

{ hey hey hope ur all ready for yuty boy. i...am not bc i haven’t made like any icons for him yet, so i’m going to make some of those really quickly and THEN post a starter call

anyway here’s my mun intro

sylthfarn (sylth for short)

i’m 22 

i’m also agender and use they/them pronouns

i’m currently playing apollo justice for the first time and if ur like “wait why are you being nahyuta” i have never played an ace attorney game in order

i went 2, 5, 3, 6, 4 it’s a mess fam

i’m currently on the case “klavier gavin and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad concert”

anyway i’m like always a hot mess so hope ur into that sort of shit lmao if u want to check out my rp twitter i’m @ufemew_wexub n i’m probs yellin abt my muses. stay chill }

[notmyassistant]

@agrippaspoleto and @captainviolet tagged me in two separate music memes, so here goes... nine albums I love and ten songs I´ve been listening to recently. These are going to be very different because I´m discovering lots of new music right now - blame Marie Meimberg and Martif Fischer for introducing me to new artists. They do this wonderful YouTube show called Bongo Boulevard, which is pretty much the best thing to ever happen to music.

Going to go with albums first:

David Bowie - Heathen My favourite David Bowie album. Also, Everyone Says Hi is wonderful for testing headphones. It just sounds extraordinary on good equipment.

The Tragically Hip - In Violet Light Beautiful. Just dark and beautiful. Listen to The Dark Canuck. Then the entire album. Just do it.

Public Service Broadcasting - The Race For Space Public Service Broadcasting is a very weird band, using spoken word samples from old public information films to tell stories instead of having a singer. This is their concept album about the space race in the sixties. It´s all a lot more emotional than this description makes it sound. I get goosebumps when Apollo Eight is on the dark side of the moon in The Other Side.

Duran Duran - Medazzaland Because Warren Cuccurullo was a brilliant guitarist for Duran Duran, took their music in a really cool new direction, and because I didn´t go to the trouble of getting this CD through a personal shopper in Japan just to keep quiet about it.

R.E.M. - New Adventures In Hi-Fi Possibly the best album ever made by any musician ever. There´s just not a single bad song on it. Patti Smith is singing on E-Bow The Letter.

Scissor Sisters - Night Work Just so much fun. The only reason why learning to dance might be worth it at some point. Any Which Way has a brilliant bass line.

Shout out Louds - Our Ill Wills Another album without any bad songs. The whole thing sounds incredible. Hard Rain and Impossible are the best ones though. Bebban´s singing on Blue Headlights is something special too.

Morrissey - Southpaw Grammar The most problematic fave to ever be problematic. I mean, he´s a huge asshole and if anyone else had said half the things he´s said I´d want to send that person to the moon without an oxygen tank. I have no idea why people let Morrissey get away with it as long as he makes good music, but they do. I do. And he knows that and takes advantage of it. At least he actually makes good music. This album is very good, even though a complete moron made it. Reader Meet Author is a nice song.

Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space This is called Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, and it actually feels like you´re floating in space. It feels incredible. I can´t recommend one song. Just listen to the entire thing. It´s an experience.

And ten songs:

Nichts - Faber (You can´t tell me you love yourself if you´ve never been to a Faber concert. The best thing to come out of Switzerland since chocolate, cheese, and that sense of inferiority you get when you realize that no matter what you do, Swiss railways will always be better than your own one.)

Why? - Bronski Beat (The Way he sings “never feel guilty, never give in” gets me. Also, the second reason why learning to dance might be worth it.)

Two Paths - Death By Chocolate (Like Faber, Mine, and Tristan Brusch, I discovered them through Bongo Boulevard. I love “so much money he would never spend, sometimes he didn´t pay his rent, so he would know how it feels”)

Hinterher - Mine (Beautiful harmonies. Beautiful bass line. Beautiful singing. Just beautiful.)

Bleib Doch Einfach Hier - Tristan Brusch (Go become Tristan Brusch fans so you can say you´ve been fans before he became a huge deal. Because he will. He´s that good.)

Bitch - Von Wegen Lisbeth (Great lyrics. I´ve been listening to this band over and over for the last few days.)

I Wish You Lonely - Morrissey (Not going to go into the whole “can you seperate the artwork from the artist” thing again. He´s an arsehole and everyone knows. Still a good song is you can ignore that. Thing is, I don´t know how I´m actually able to ignore that...)

Los Ageless - St Vincent (St Vincent is a very unusual guitar hero. I love her. I´d learn to play guitar just to be able to play her signature guitar if I had the money, because that´s how much I love her.)

Was Machst Du Dann - Die Höchste Eisenbahn (”wenn dich alle lieben, bei dir einziehen woll´n, wenn du Menschen hasst und deine Hütte ist voll...” Faber and Die Höchste Eisenbahn sing about similar things, except Faber´s angry and Die Höchste Eisenbahn has already gone to accepance and melancholy.)

Paint It Black - Ramin Djawadi (The moment I fell in love with Westworld. Several days before actually watching a single episode. Possibly my favourite peace of music from a TV soundtrack)

That ended up being a bit long, but there you go. I always end up tagging the same five people in these things, so I´m just gonna skip that this time.