#it starts out sort of as well as you'd expect from biting into a lemon

[babaroqa]

dunno why i always approach kumquats like i would a medicine i expect to taste awful when they're such wonderfully joyous fruit. literally eating them fills me with sunshine

[characteroulette]

Why I ship Snufpollo (and you can, too!)

So I have been writing this strange crossover ship like a dog running out of time. Why is that? Hopefully, this manifesto can explain my vision when it comes to these two characters.

First of all, who are these guys?

Snufpollo is my portmanteau of Snufkin, from the Moomins series, and Apollo Justice, from the Ace Attorney series. Snufkin is a seasonal traveller, spending three out of four seasons with his beloved friend, and Apollo is a lawyer dealing with, frankly, far too much bullshit.

You'd think they'd be incompatible from their professions alone. Snufkin is, after all, some flavour of illegal in most depictions of him, owing to his grudge against the Park Keeper. But Apollo has a talent for dealing with wild rebels, being raised by them as a child and all. So the two fit together better than you'd expect.

It really helps that they're very much similar characters. I was thinking of the song Lemon Boy by Cavetown, a shoe-in for Snufkin (he's name dropped in the song!!), but realised it worked well for Apollo also. And mashing those two thoughts together led me to make connections between them, which then led me to write a fic where Snufkin is Apollo's childhood friend, and from there it very much spiraled out of control.

How can they be alike?

Apollo and Snufkin are two sides of the same coin. Apollo is Heads, Snufkin is Tails. They're both guarded and snarky, orphans who were abandoned who make the most of their lives, and truly desire to help others. Their differences make them easy to pair up as well; Apollo is put-upon by his protagonist status and not afraid to show it, Snufkin tries to keep his tone light despite being just as upset at being the focus. Both of them express their trauma in similar but vastly different ways, Apollo moving past it bitterly and Snufkin moving past it without thinking too hard on it. When they have so much to discuss with one another and clash over (this fear of abandonment tying them together can make them butt heads in the best and worst ways), it's very easy for me to plop them both down into a situation and let their dynamic guide me through the scene.

But, really, Verse said it best: Apollo is a coconut and Snufkin is a peach.

Apollo has a multitude of walls and barbs keeping others from his soft and sweet insides. He seems like a hard nut to crack, and he will be if you go at him willy-nilly. But he's also easy to give in when you hit the right points. He's incredibly vulnerable on the inside and does his best to coat over it, to guard his soft heart, because of everything that has happened to him in his life. He's outwardly brash and rude, but he's genuinely interested in solving cases and helping others. He'll moan and complain about it being a bother the whole time, but he won't abandon others who need his help. He will straight leave if he's not having a good time or doesn't want to be there. Once you start looking for that hard exterior and soft centre, it's easy to see how his mind operates and what sorts of actions he'll take.

Snufkin, meanwhile, is outwardly soft and disarming. He seems far more approachable than his counterpart, seems amicable and easy to get along with, even. This is, of course, a complete farce. He is holding everyone at an unfathomable distance so you cannot even come close to seeing his true self. You can think you know him, since he is soft and friendly on the outside. But there's a high chance you'll never get close enough to see even a glimpse of his true face. The closer you try to get, the more his hardness reveals itself to you. The more you get nicked and stabbed by his barbs and venom crafted carefully to hide his centre. He will fight you every step of the way, taking precautions such as running when it gets to be too much or being the one to bite first to make you back off. As friendly and polite as he can be on the outside, he keeps his true vulnerabilities closer to his chest and hidden beneath a mountain's worth of defences so you will never see a fraction of the true him.

This dynamic, so similar and yet fundamentally different, makes them so fun and fascinating to place together. Especially when taking into consideration my final point which cemented their dynamic to me.

Snufkin is Apollo's Clay Terran (childhood friend whom he is so attached to that he will go feral if anything happened to him) and Apollo is Snufkin's Moomintroll (childhood friend whom Snufkin returns to see every Spring and leaves every Winter).

What does this mean??

Well, to put it simply: I see Snufkin as fulfilling similar if not the same roles for him that Clay Terran does, while also seeing Apollo as filling the same roles for Snufkin that Moomintroll does.

Snufkin is the one who is going to leave Apollo (/has been leaving Apollo). Snufkin is the wanderer who, on first appearance, has his heart set somewhere far beyond the cosmos. He's someone who can help temper Apollo's abandonment issues, but never really resolve them. He's suffered the same as Apollo (no parents, a troublesome and unwanted orphan, desiring independence and self-sufficiency above all else) and therefore can be a sympathetic hand, an empathetic shoulder. He can pull Apollo out of his comfort zone, being wild and free and prone to adventure, as well as be an emotional drain on their shared heart. He has to leave to be on his own, Apollo knows this, yet it never truly stops hurting. It never truly stops being a fear that he'll leave for good and never return.

Meanwhile, Apollo is Snufkin's anchor point. Apollo is the one he returns to every Spring, whether he wants to or not. Apollo is his heart, his whole reason for sticking around as long as he does. Apollo is the reasons he acts polite and friendly as he does, for Apollo's love of the world and want to do good pushes Snufkin to mimic that behaviour. Apollo is the embodiment of the joy of Spring, the heat of Summer, the melancholy of Autumn, and the solitude of Winter. The world is a vibrant and lovely place, but it means nothing to Snufkin if he can't return to his friend. Apollo is the embodiment of yearning, of everything left unsaid in Snufkin's breast. He is a home, a place to put roots, and Snufkin hates that more than anything despite being unable to cut himself free. Apollo is both freedom in its absolute form and shackles which deny Snufkin any form of freedom. He is someone whom Snufkin would defend to his last breath, yet he also continually chooses to leave every Winter in spite of this.

Hopefully, this explains a fraction of how insane I am about this dynamic haha. They have really become everything to me and I will keep shouting about it from the tops of the mountains because I love them so.

Wait, so the appeal is just the same as Claypollo or Snufmin?

No, not even slightly. Haven't you been listening.

More seriously, there are definitely similarities there that I've built up. Clay and Apollo are practically the same character because Clay canonically has like three traits and all of them relate to Apollo in some way. (The fact that you have to build Clay's character yourself really doesn't help.) Snufkin and Moomintroll are THE classic yearning forever and pining purgatory duo. But the devil is in the details, just the same as it is when it comes to differentiating Snufkin and Apollo themselves.

Apollo has more teeth and anger than Moomintroll usually does. Snufkin is colder and more of a fully formed character than Clay could ever be. Apollo and Snufkin's friendship gets to start when Apollo gets abandoned, meaning they get both the childhood mischief and innocence as well as the adulthood pining and messiness. It's the best of both worlds with so much more to explore and dig into. At least, I've worked very hard to build it up as such.

There is so much I can do with their dynamic, from disagreements where their barbs rub too hard against one another to the softness of their love for one another. Sure, Clay has the advantage of being written as a fridge for Apollo to go insane, but I can easily twist that towards Snufkin. Sure, Moomintroll has the advantage of being the sweetest guy around whom I adore whole-heartedly, but I can lay on the pining and parallels so much thicker when it comes to Apollo. It helps that they're two of my favourite characters, bar none, also.

So what is their dynamic, exactly?

Here's a tl;dr for ya, since you're so insistent:

Snarky, reluctant protag Apollo Justice gets to have his seasonal, wandering friend whom he is very unwilling to talk about because he is a private person. Barbed but pleasant Snufkin gets to have his anchor point whom he is pining ridiculously over but is unwilling to break past that barrier of friendship and so will just devote himself to his sunshine dragon despite also wanting to tear himself from this tie. They're easily seen as being similar to one another, from their penchant for leaving situations they want no part in and their guarded handling of others, but their differences make them come together in softness and in clashes in equal measures.

Anyway, recc time. Because I have written like 30+ fics of these two and have made my argument in those as well.

Lemon Boy is the very first! And while also technically not Snufpollo (it is Klapollo ultimately), it does showcase them coming together in their childhood. (For more on that, see Savoury and Bittersweet.) This one also continues in The Tramp and the Sun!

For a more focused Snufpollo experience, I've got A Tune of Sunshine as well as Hand in Hand, Your Heart in Mine! Both small little fluff pieces where these two see another again in the Spring.

And then for my money, You Cannot Possess the Sun is the best unhinged Snufkin I have ever written. Take that as you will.

Anyway, thanks so much for reading about my silly crackship!! Glauxspeed to y'all!!

[fates-theysband]

What soups best represent each of your f/os

call me fuckin SOUPerliminalselfships bc i will answer this question for the whole damb (romantic) list. god i wish it wasn't still hotter than fuck out here i wanna make soup so bad. note that i have not personally tried all of these soups but if it's on this list i would like to try it.

tim wright is chili. i don't care what anybody says, the difference between a stew and a soup is the difference between a square and a rectangle, so for my purposes chili is a soup. anyway it's a southern favorite that warms you to your soul but has a bit of a kick so of course it's perfect for him.

brain says fate is avgolemono because it looks like it'd have a very rich taste bc of the eggs but also with that bite of acid from the lemons. heart says fate is clam chowder (new england, not manhattan, i think if someone gave me a tomato-based clam chowder i would scream) because it's one of my two favorite soups (the other being chili).

evan is potato soup. i dont have a concrete reason for this other than "athletic guy needs good carbs to maintain all that energy"

steph is minestrone for reasons of "she has a lot in common with my irl best friend, whose favorite soup is also minestrone, so she always has Minestrone Liker Energy to me"

tim stoker is beef noodle soup (either one, although i personally prefer the taiwanese version). appealing from the start, unexpectedly complex, and hot (sorry had to make that joke the man receives one word of physical description in canon and that word is "hot").

michael is binignit. unique, intriguing, and sweeter than you'd expect.

nikola is borscht. i also don't have a concrete reason for this one i just think she would like it from an aesthetic standpoint.

gerry is oxtail soup--well-traveled and endlessly complex.

sasha is lobster bisque--cafe fare that's classic for a reason.

jared is goulash--heavy and warm with a kick. side note i think it's bs that wikipedia lists goulash as a soup but not chili. there's barely any fucking difference.

kars is barley soup. ancient but powerful, and is still around for a damn good reason.

steely dan is gazpacho. it feels like the kind of soup you'd eat while on vacation to a pleasantly warm country so that's why it reminds me of him.

n'doul is haleem because of the soups i looked up for this ask that i haven't tried before that's the one i want to try the most, sort of like how i saw n'doul well before i watched part 3 because i would hang out with my brother while he played eyes of heaven and i was like "i cannot WAIT to see that guy when he shows up in the anime"

tonio is cioppino because i feel like that's the kind of thing he would serve at trattoria trussardi and it would heal you of all ills even without pearl jam cooked into it.

ghiaccio is ajoblanco because it's cold, light, and (at least sounds like it would be) refreshing.

weather is chicken soup. more complex than everyone thinks, but healing and comforting all the same.

rouxls is gumbo because it's made with a roux (something he is canonically good at making) and can be made with anything that crawls, walks, swims, or flies so technically it can include worms.

spamton is rose hip soup. kooky, offbeat, and intriguing.

bruce is lobster stew. pricy but something that makes sense to pay for because it is actually good.

selina is fisherman soup because cats like fish and for some reason i feel like she would have a taste for hungarian paprika.

eddie is butternut squash soup because he canonically likes pumpkin pie so i feel like he has an affinity for fall vegetables.

dak is saimin. man canonically loves him some noodles and i feel like he'd be a spam liker.

tech is cream of mushroom soup. i have no concrete reason for this i just feel like he'd like it.

z is pho also because i feel like he'd like it and because the contrast of the broth and the sour/spicy garnishes reminds me of his personality in some way.

akira is miso because he canonically likes it and because i always thought that it tasted kind of oceanic (i used to think it tasted like seawater lmao) so it suits him as a fisherman.

aurelia is salmorejo because it's cold but still very rich and fancy. seems like something that would be a first course at a fancy party.

artemis is soto--another one of those "well-traveled" soups that has a lot of regional variants.

lamplighter is acquacotta--like a lot of what's considered "peasant food", it's meant to give you a lot of energy for not a lot of money, which seems appropriate for his situation.

moneybags is brown windsor soup because it is comically british and it sounds like it was nobility food back in the day just judging from the ingredience.

bruno is pozole (which is mexican, not colombian; although a colombian soup i think represents him is ajiaco) because i personally associate it with home (because it reminds me of a beef and vegetable soup my mom makes) and kindness (because last week one of my neighbors i've never seen before brought me a bowl of it out of the blue)

bubby is hot and sour soup because. well. he is both (and i do mean hot as in attractive but i also mean hot as in pyrokinetic)

milton is cereal because i feel like they'd use the commonalities between cereal and soup as part of an argument that soup as a category is meaningless.

grady is chicken noodle soup because that's another southern favorite (at least in my experience).

and hollis is tom yum because a) i think she'd like it and b) it has a lot going on but still manages really well (like how she's stretched thin at the beginning of the game from being acting head of the psychonauts)