#oh i got into the ace attorney games a while back been playing them with the irls

[brutal-nemesis]

E&T: Looking Towards the Horizon

It’s a-me Crisp Rat-Anyway hi yes this is real it is here sorry it took *checks watch* over a year 🤪 what can ya do. But it’s a chunky one so hooray 2nd longest chapter to date i hope it makes up for the wait a little bit (°ー°〃) have fun kids

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Ingredients: bones breaking, including a compound fracture, a little bit of gore but it’s rather vague, the usual noncon body mod being a thing that exists and those dubcon touching vibes, implied perceived threat of noncon kiss that is in fact not that, mention of butchering

Erebus didn’t think he’d ever been so hot in his life.

He’d suffered through the humid heat of the rainy seasons at home, preferring the hot dry season that came before. But now, with the late-afternoon sun’s rays beating down on him from above and the heat radiating off of the black sand below, he found himself missing the muggy humidity and torrential rains. He couldn’t believe Neteri expected him to fly out here in the desert, but it was the next logical step now that he’d built up more than enough strength to walk properly again.

He shot a glance at Neteri, who was wiping her presumably sweaty hands on the sides of her coat. She returned his look with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I know it’s hot out here. Pretty, though.” They both gazed out over the black dunes of the Greikala Naman Desert, the towering cliffs behind them stretching out to either side, remnants of an old mine cutting into the rock face to their left.

“Still, not why we’re here. I just thought it’d be a great place for you to learn how to fly since the sand should help soften the impact in case you fall, and no one’s around to see so we won’t have to deal with people asking questions or you getting too self-conscious-”

“I’m not that self-conscious-”

“Hold these.” Neteri had taken off her glasses and was now holding them out to Erebus. He took them, confused as he watched her bury her face in her hands and take a deep breath. “You’re so self-conscious, Erebus,” she mumbled into her hands before lifting her face and replacing her glasses. “You’re like the most self-conscious guy I’ve ever met, okay?” She shook her head. “Seriously. You can be so dense sometimes.” Erebus opened his mouth to argue, but…no, she was probably right, wasn’t she? He couldn’t help it; he’d lived in an environment where people’s opinions and perceptions of him mattered a lot for the vast majority of his life. 

He cleared his throat. “Anyway, um…am I just going to start trying to fly now?”

“Yup.” 

“Okay…so, do I just, um,” Erebus flapped his wings hesitantly, “do that?”

Neteri shrugged. “Probably? It’s not like I’ve ever flown before. Really, I don’t think any other human has, especially not like this, so…you’re kind of on your own here.”

Erebus felt his face flush slightly. “Right.” He turned away, looking out over the vast expanse of dark sand. He-he shouldn’t be nervous about messing this up in front of Neteri, since she’d said it herself that no one had ever really done this before, but he still found himself proving her point about him being self-conscious to be spot on.  Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. Don’t think about Neteri. Just focus. 

Slowly, Erebus started to flap his wings, shifting them as he did in order to find the best angle, the one that fought against gravity the most. He couldn’t really explain it, but he just knew when he found it, something in the way the air pushed against the wing membranes feeling right. Neteri was probably taking-no, no, don’t think about Neteri, just focus. Focus on his wings, on adjusting them bit by bit, getting them in just the right-

“Woah!” Erebus’s feet left the ground for just a moment, but due to the shock of it he forgot to keep flapping his wings and fell back to the ground, stumbling and falling down onto his back. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “Did you see that, Neteri? I-I was-I was in the air!”

Neteri smiled back, extending a hand to help him up. “I saw! I’m sure you’ll do even better next time.” He took her hand and stood, some part of him…excited to try again, to possibly succeed, to actually fly. Once she’d backed up enough, he tried again, able to find the correct angle faster than last time. Soon enough he was in the air again, actually staying in the air, rising higher bit by bit, but…how was he supposed to go forward? Maybe by moving his wings like-nope, down into the sand he went. It did help cushion his fall, just like Neteri said it would, so he was ready to try again right away.

Over and over, higher and higher, faster and farther, his take-offs getting smoother and his landings resulting in less scrapes and falls, and he was doing it, actually flying. He was rather clumsy still, but he ignored the burning in his muscles and lungs and kept trying. The feeling of freedom, of actual control over something was far too intoxicating for him to do anything but reach for it again and again.

But when he ended up falling gracelessly into the sand, his head spinning and breathing short, he realized he may have been pushing himself a bit too hard. Attempts at sitting up were met with waves of dizziness too strong for him to overcome.

“Hey, are you alright, Erebus?” Neteri knelt by his side, turning him onto his back as she felt his forehead. “You’ve been using a lot of magic to help you fly, huh? I was trying to keep an eye on your condition, but you were taking off again so quickly that I figured you were alright. Sorry about that. Here, let me give you some of my magic power.” She removed her glasses and took his hand, pulling him slightly. “Sit up, Erebus.” Shakily, he did so, his ears ringing as the world spun around him. But Neteri, she, she was moving towards him, moving her face towards his, like she was going to-

Erebus collapsed backwards onto the sand, resisting the urge to scramble away as she looked down at him in concern. “I’m sure you’re dizzy, Erebus, but I promise you’ll feel better if you let me do this, and, well…it’ll be less awkward if you’re sitting up for it, yeah?” 

He desperately shook his head. “I-if that’s-that’s what’s going to-to-I don’t want it so-so please just-” 

Neteri cocked her head. “What do you-” A look of understanding, and slight horror, dawned on her face. “Oh, no, no, no, Erebus, I wasn’t going to-that’s not how we-” She sighed. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected you to be familiar with how magic power is shared between wizards, seeing as you aren’t one yourself. Here, sit up, I promise it’s nothing like that.” Feeling he didn’t have much choice but to trust her, Erebus sat up once more, resisting the urge to flinch back as she leaned towards him, eventually just squeezing his eyes shut.

He felt her forehead and nose press against his, but that was where the contact ended.  “It’s alright, Erebus, this is it. Just breathe deep, in and out. When we share magic, we do it by sharing breath like this.” Erebus felt a puff of air on his cheek as she laughed a little. “It’s always a little awkward the first few times you do it, but after a while it’s just as normal as shaking hands.” 

“Huh.” It was a little awkward, but he was sort of used to Neteri touching him however and wherever she wanted that he was mostly numb to it all by now. Well, not numb but…he was okay with it. “Why…why is it done like this?”

“Because sharing breath is sharing life, and magic is life. Well, I mean, magic isn’t what makes us alive, but, like…magic power comes from your life force. The bond between your body and soul. That’s why you get weak and start bleeding if you use too much magic power, because the bond grows weaker, and…you’re closer to death. The bond grows stronger again over time, obviously, or else all wizards would die pretty young.” She laughed a little. “But…if you use too much all at once, it can kill you. Like, there are some spells that one person can’t do alone because they require so much energy that it would kill the caster. Not to mention that some require different elements of magic working together, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the amount of energy needed.” There was silence for a few moments. “Sorry for just dumping all of that on you-”

“No, it’s okay, I asked.” It felt weird having a conversation with their faces together like this, but Erebus wasn’t about to lean away since it did seem to be working. And…maybe talking was better than just sitting like this in silence. “It’s weird how little I really know about magic. I mean, I know a lot of what it’s capable of, but…I never really knew just how it worked or anything.”

“Well, it’s not like you’d need to know it to run a kingdom, right? You can’t use it yourself, so it’s not really something you’d have needed to know. But, for me, things you don’t need to know are the most fun to learn about, ‘cause then it’s all about learning for the sake of it.” She shifted slightly, her breath coming out differently for a moment, like maybe she was smiling now. “Curiosity is a wonderful thing, really. We’ve made so many advancements because of it, and, really, it’s why I’m doing what I’m doing now.”

Erebus sat back against his better judgment, gulping as he opened his eyes to look at Neteri. “I-is that why you did all of this to me? Because you were curious?”

“No, I-” Neteri sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head as if to clear it before putting her glasses back on. “That came out wrong. I was curious about demon anatomy in the beginning, and after so much study it led to-” She looked up at the sky, blue starting to fade into orange. “Look, why don’t you practice flying some more before it gets dark. You’ve got your strength back now, right? Just don’t go too far. And after that we can eat and…I can tell you why I’m doing this.”

Erebus stood, steady on his feet once more, and brushed the sand off of himself. “Fine.” He wanted to stay put, to protest, to not let the chance of finally learning the reason for all of this disappear, but Neteri sounded sincere enough, and he doubted standing his ground would result in him actually getting what he wanted. He’d waited all this time, so he could wait for a few more hours.

Besides, he wanted to try and fly again.

After a couple more attempts, he felt like he was really starting to get it, figuring out how to best move his wings and body in each different scenario. He was nowhere near feeling like he’d mastered it, but as far as the basics went, he was feeling pretty confident. For this next flight, he wanted to try and go high enough that Neteri’d look like a little white dot on the black sands below. 

As he rose up, he felt himself starting to get tired again, but upon looking down and seeing how much further up he’d have to go, he kept pushing. Going straight up was difficult, and he’d been finding it much easier to rise at an angle, sort of gliding, but he’d never tried going this high before. Neteri was getting pretty small below him, much smaller than normal, so maybe he’d stop here for now. He waved down at her, not sure how well she could even see him, before looking out over the vast desert stretching out before him, the sky above now stained with shades of orange and pink, making the dark sands below seem to sparkle. A feeling of joy welled up inside him, and he couldn’t help but laugh, the world around him so open, calling him to come explore, because he really could go anywhere now, and he couldn’t resist swooping towards the horizon, to fly as far as his wings could take him, to-

There was a harsh tug at the collar around his neck, and everything spun out of control.

Erebus began to plummet towards the ground as he choked, trying to get air flowing through his throbbing throat, flapping his wings desperately, trying to right himself befo-

Reality hit him, and it hit him hard.

Sand sprayed through the air as he hit the ground, grains taking his place in the sky before falling back down on him like rain. His arms were scraped and bleeding, little pockets of sand collected under the skin, but that stinging was hardly anything compared to the sharp pain in his legs. His lower left leg was roaring in agony, and his right ankle felt like it’d been stabbed through with a nail. Through the ringing in his ears, he could hear Neteri running over to him, shouting his name. He pushed himself upright slightly before looking down at his legs, hoping it felt worse than it looked.

All it took was the sight of white bone poking out of his torn pant leg for the world to go dark.

                                                            ~~~

Consciousness pulled Erebus to the surface all of a sudden, mercilessly dragging him back into his body. He jerked awake, crying out slightly as the pain in his legs returned full force. Neteri stood over him, and he was lying on his back in...the old barracks of the mine, on one of the bedrolls they’d laid out on the cots in here before going back outside so he could practice. She gave him a reassuring smile.

“Hey, Erebus, just breathe, it’s alright. You had quite the fall, and…not the best landing. Thankfully I know a spell that makes things lighter temporarily, so I was able to carry you here without much issue.” Erebus started to sit up, wanting to check the state of his leg, but Neteri pushed him back down. “No, no, I just finished cleaning the wound, Erebus, but I haven’t had the chance to heal you yet, and based on how you reacted to seeing it earlier…” 

Erebus sighed in defeat and laid back down. “H…how serious is it?”

“It’s going to take a lot out of me, but…I should be able to fix it. Most of it, anyway. You’re lucky that your t-no, you don’t know what bones are called, do you-your smaller leg bone? That’s the only one that completely fractured in half and broke through skin. Your…thicker leg bone is cracked, but not completely broken, which is good. The ankle on your other leg is also kind of messed up, but that I should be able to fix pretty easily.”

Erebus’s stomach sank as she kept talking, adding to the list of things she’s going to need to fix, the number of painful procedures that he’s going to have to sit through. “O-okay.” He gulped. Neteri didn’t seem mad at him, but…“I’m sorry I flew so far, I…I just got caught up in the feeling and I wanted to-”

“No, it’s alright, Erebus, I’m not upset with you. I told you not to go far, but I probably should have told you what would happen if you did. I have this ring, see, and when I wear it, it’ll pull your collar back towards me if you get too far away, and…I just didn’t think you’d be able to go that far so quickly so I figured it wouldn’t be an issue, but…I’m sorry.” She looked away as she apologized, but soon turned back to face him. “But everything will work out. I’ll get you fixed up and hopefully you’ll be able to try flying again tomorrow.”

The apology was a bit of a surprise, but Erebus wasn’t complaining. “So flying too far away from you so fast is what ended up making me…” Neteri nodded, and Erebus couldn’t help but sigh. He’d felt so free in that moment, but, really, he’d just been like a bird in a cage. One that flew straight into the bars. He couldn’t believe he’d deluded himself into thinking that he could actually fly away from all of this, even for a little bit. Just look where it got him.

Neteri gave him something to bite on and asked him to be still, and all he could do was comply and endure as she fixed the damage his naivety had caused. She started with the most serious injury, the bone sticking out of his torn leg, and he was already fighting back screams as she carefully worked the bone back into its proper place, but he knew it was only going to get worse. Memories of the surgery on his arm came flooding back, of the awful, fiery needles that stabbed through his bone as she worked her magic, and soon enough that same sensation returned full force, a dazzling array of stabbing pains surging up the entire length of his leg, paired with the sickening feeling of Neteri’s gloved hands probing around inside the wound, holding things in place as she lit them on fire, rearranging twisted muscle fibers and reconnecting ripped blood vessels.

At least, some of them.

Her hand left the wound behind, the pain telling him it was not fully healed yet. He shot her a watery-eyed look, and she smiled at him weakly. “I’m just going to fix your ankle up first. I had to use a lot more magic power than I thought I would just to get your leg bones fixed, so sit tight.” He swallowed and nodded, as if there was any other choice. The type and intensity of the pain in his ankle was much the same as it healed, and at one point Neteri had to hold his foot still so it stopped twitching in pain so much, despite his best efforts to keep it from doing so. At least he wasn’t tied down, able to grip the sides of the bedroll or wipe the tears from his eyes as he pleased. It wasn’t much to be grateful for, but he’d come to appreciate the smaller things.

Once she was done, Neteri practically collapsed to the ground, resting her arms on the side of the cot. Blood was steadily dripping from her nose, which she didn’t seem to register for a couple of seconds. After hastily shoving her handkerchief up her nostril, she sighed. “I fixed all of your broken bones, and I stopped the bleeding in your leg. I still have to…have to finish healing some of your muscles and close the skin back up but I…I just need a break.” 

Erebus couldn’t help but stare, now realizing what it meant when Neteri was wiped out from using her magic. “So you…you’re closer to dying right now? Because you used all of that magic power, your life force, to…to heal me. You…you put your life on the line to do this to me, Neteri, so why…?”

“Because I wanted to help people, can you believe that?” She laughed at the notion, her lack of lucidity almost making her seem more aware than ever. “I always thought anatomy was interesting, from the first time I saw my father butcher an animal as a girl.” She steadily crawled her way over to her bag, pulling off her bloodied gloves before rummaging through it. “I studied human anatomy, and then demon anatomy. I wanted to study dragons, too, but it’s basically impossible to get your hands on a cadaver, especially legally. So I studied humans and demons, demons and humans, and I got to thinking, what if demons didn’t come from dragons like we always supposed? What if they were humans to start? What if we’re similar enough to-” dropping the small package she’d pulled out of her bag, she laced her fingers together, “to become one?”

The silence that followed was impossibly loud, and Erebus ended up breaking it before he’d even fully processed what she said. “One like-like me?”

Neteri smiled dreamily, some of the jerky they’d brought along now clutched in her hand, the other wrapped around a familiar crystal. “Yes and no. What I really wanted to do was organs.” Her face fell, took on a coldness he’d rarely ever seen. “So many people need new organs. New limbs, even. We can only take so much from willing, healthy people. But demons,” she smiled, “demons can be butchered all we like. So I wanted to test my theory. Replace human organs with demon ones, see if they take. My proposal was accepted, but only if I made certain revisions.” 

Erebus could see in her face that she was coming back to herself, realizing everything she’d just said, realizing she couldn’t stop now that she’d started. And she’d promised to tell him, hadn’t she? “It had to be all on one person. Someone disposable. Seven surgeries, one part from each kind of demon. Things more tied to their innate magic. And that all was just to be phase one.” Her tone indicated that she didn’t plan on speaking any further. 

Someone…disposable. The phrase had made Erebus’s throat tighten. At the end of the day, that was him, wasn’t it? A prisoner of the Empire, branded as property and sentenced to live out the rest of his days in chains. His life could be thrown away without a second thought. But even worse than that…“Phase…phase one? What…what’s phase two, then?” Try as he might, he couldn’t imagine something worse than what he’d been through, so…maybe it wouldn’t be as bad.

“It’s…it’s the fate I want to save you from.”

“What?” Neteri was looking at him, determination in her eyes, and for a moment he wasn’t sure if her “saving” him was a good thing or not.

“At the beginning I thought this part would be easy. That my subject would deserve to…” she looked away, swallowing, “but you don’t. You didn’t deserve any of this to begin with, and I was too focused on my goals to see it.” She laughed hollowly before turning back to him. “I don’t want to freak you out, so…I’m not going to tell you what phase two is just yet. I promise I will eventually, once you’re out of danger. I just…don’t want anything to go wrong, and if you know what might happen if we fail…I just don’t want it to keep you up at night.”

“I can-okay.” What use was it arguing? Neteri was standing up now, putting her gloves back on, ready to get back to fixing him up, and this conversation was over. He laid back and tried to relax, but this was all a lot to process.

“Actually, Erebus…healing all this combined with the magic power I lent you earlier…I don’t know if I have enough energy to fix your leg and...do the other thing I need to do.”

“Which is…?”

She gave him a tired smile, leaning in close, her voice almost a whisper. “I’m going to remove the tracking magic from your brand.”

Erebus’s eyes went wide. “You…you’re serious?!” When she said she wanted to save him…he didn’t know what exactly he’d been expecting, but was she actually going to let him go? Was-was he really going to be free?

“Dead serious.” She straightened up. “I’m not going to get rid of it entirely, just transfer it to a crystal that you’ll keep with you until the time is right. It’s actually the main reason why I brought you all the way out here. Because I really am going to get you out of here.” A genuine smile spread across Erebus’s face at her words, as much as he was afraid that this was some sort of trick. But Neteri had always been honest with him. She’d hidden things from him, sure, but never outright lied, at least that he was aware of. “Thank…thank you, Neteri. Really, I-”

She shook her head. “It’s the least I can do. And I’ll do more to help you, I promise. But for now…is it okay if I save my energy for the brand and take care of this wound the non-magic way?”

“Yeah, that’s alright,” Erebus agreed, even though he suspected this meant he was getting stitches.

He was completely correct, but the gash in his leg wasn’t too long, so soon enough she’d tied the thread and bandaged his leg up neatly. She healed the scrapes on his arms, at least, since they were so minor that the amount of magic she used doing it was negligible, but the process of her cleaning the sand out of them first was far more painful than it had any right to be. Once that was done, they ate the portion of dried food they’d reserved for dinner, Erebus mostly making small talk while he thought through everything Neteri had said, hoping she was truly going to make good on her promises. 

He’d never been happier to hear her ask him to take off his shirt and lie down.

After he undid the knots of the special shirt she’d made to accommodate his wings, he nervously laid back, excited for what lay on the other side of the pain for once. Neteri told him that it would hurt, that it might be like being branded all over again, but he could handle it if it meant he was really going to be free.

He could handle it, right?

The burning was exactly like it was the first time, and before he knew it he was crying, biting back screams as Neteri slowly slid the crystal over his brand, igniting white-hot pain as it went, and suddenly he was right back up on that stage, rough wood pressing into the wounds on his back, all of his people watching, the collar tight around his neck, heavy chains on his wrists, the taste of blood thick in his mouth despite his missing tongue, the smell of burning flesh suffocating him, the Emperor’s almost bored expression as he pressed the hot metal to his chest, the sky above unfairly blue, unbearable heat overtaking him in waves don’t ever forget that you’re property now you’ll never be free you’ll never amount to anything more than a twisted science project everything you’ve studied and worked for means nothing and all you can do is watch as your very humanity is ripped away and torn to shreds and nothing will save-

“Erebus.”

Erebus tensed up, suddenly finding himself back in the present, Neteri looking down at him with concern. A rag was shoved up her bleeding nose again, but she gave him a weak smile as she wiped away some of his tears. “It’s over. I’m sorry it hurt so much, but it’s over.” She squeezed his hand, holding out the black crystal she’d bound the tracking spell to with her other one. He nodded and took it, numbly worming it into his pocket as he tried to crawl out of his daze. “Let’s go to sleep, then,” Neteri said as she started to pull her hand away.

“Wait-” Erebus sniffed, holding tightly onto her hand. “Please, could you…?” He still didn’t want to say it outright, but he hoped she’d get the message, and he couldn’t help but smile when she gave his hand a squeeze. 

“Alright. But let me get ready for bed first, okay?”

“Okay.”

She got ready quickly enough, even giving him something to help with the pain in his leg since she wasn’t going to be using magic on it anytime soon. Once that was done, she sat on the edge of the bed, holding out her arms and letting him bury himself in her stomach, causing her to laugh a little. “Would it be easier if I laid down? I mean, I have my own bed, but…I think I’m about ready to fall over.”

“T-that’s fine!” Erebus sat up quickly, scooting over to make room. He hadn’t been expecting this, but after what happened with his brand, he wasn’t complaining. Once Neteri had laid down, he cuddled up next to her, her arms around him so comforting. Before he knew it the tears he’d been holding back started to flow again, the horrible memories of that day still at the forefront of his mind. He’d mostly buried it under all the awful things he’d experienced since, but now it was all he could think about. Neteri mostly stayed silent, her hand stroking his hair and rubbing the base of one of his horns. After he’d started to calm down, she spoke up.

“You know, I’d never thought I’d lay like this with a guy.”

“Oh, I, uh-sorry, do you not want to-”

“No, no, it’s okay! I didn’t mean it like I don’t want to or anything, it’s just…weird? No…unexpected? Yeah. I never would’ve thought I’d do this, you know? Like if you told me ten years ago I’d be cuddling with a boy someday I would’ve laughed at you, you know?”

“Well, if you told me at the start of all this that I’d want to do this with you I would’ve…I would have been…” He sat bolt upright, trapped between her and the wall. “This isn’t…maybe I shouldn’t do this or even want this I-”

“Erebus.” Neteri took his hand, holding it firmly as she sat up slightly. “It’s okay to want comfort from me. After everything you’ve…no, after everything I’ve put you through, it’s only natural to want to be comforted, to need it, really, and, well… it’s not like you have anyone else to turn to. And I want to make it up to you, so, please, if you want to…it’s okay.” She smiled. “It’s not like anyone will know, anyway, if that makes you feel better.”

“But what if they did know, what if they all found out that I’m-they’d think I’m pathe-”

“You’re not a prince anymore, Erebus.” He stiffened like he’d just been slapped, jaw falling open slightly before he finally turned to look down at Neteri, his eyes wide. “You don’t have to worry so much about what everyone thinks of you. You’re not setting an example for anyone, you’re not expected to be a leader, you’re allowed to be vulnerable now, to want things without worrying about how you’ll be judged for it, to just be…you.”  She sat up fully, still holding his hand. “So if you want this, Erebus, it’s okay. Really.”

“I…am I ever going to see any of them again, Neteri?” he asked as his shoulders sagged in defeat.

She gave him a tired smile. “I don’t see why not. After we get away I can get you all fixed up, and…maybe you’ll be able to go home. Just as long as you keep it on the down low, it should be okay.”

Erebus smiled wide. “Okay. Thank you, Neteri. We can go to sleep now.”

“Alright.” She nodded sleepily, her eyes unfocused without her glasses on. She glanced over at her cot and bedroll before lying down and closing her eyes. Erebus hummed happily as he laid on her chest once more, his horn resting on top of her shoulder. As exhausting as today had been, he was almost too excited to sleep. The prospect of actually being free was…exhilarating.

Honestly, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt hope like this. For so long he’d been resigned to this life, the fate he’d been dealt, because he’d come to accept that escaping on his own was impossible and no one who’d cared about him would be able to save him.

For the first time in a long time, he let himself think about his friends back home, all the people he’d known and loved, of Lythia, and he remembered how they’d tried to save him. That…that was the last time he’d felt hope, the day he was whipped and branded and had his tongue cut off. Lythia had told him he was going to be rescued, and he’d believed wholeheartedly that he would be. And here he was again, being told he was going to be saved, and believing that everything was going to work out in the end. 

Last time he’d had hope like this, it had been destroyed right before his eyes.

Would this time be any different?

Next→

Tags: @dramaticcollapse @thehopelessopus @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @galaxywhump @as-a-matter-of-whump @mnmlover2002 @tears-and-lilies @yet-another-heathen @rippedjeansandfadeddreams @starnight-whump @unicornscotty @thebewilderer @kixngiggles @itallstartedwithharry @inky-whump @redstainedsocks @lonesome--hunter @his-unspoken-words @susiequaz12 @its-mysweetlittlesecret-blog @whumpasaurus101 @patheticlittleguy @jadeocean46910 @whumpinggrounds @pumpkin-spice-whump @suspicious-whumping-egg @befuddled-calico-whump @whump-in-the-closet

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 2 Part 9 Group 42

Propaganda and further images under the cut

Wright Anything Agency (& Company): Phoenix & Trucy Wright, Apollo Justice, Maya Fey, Miles Edgeworth, Pearl Fey, Ema Skye, Kay Faraday & Sebastian Debeste

221B Fam: Ryunosuke Naruhodo, Susato Mikotoba, Herlock Sholmes, Iris Wilson, Wagahai (& Gina Lestrade, Yujin Mikotoba, Kazuma Asogi, Barok van Zieks)

Wright Anything Agency (& Company):

THEY MEAN THE WORLDDDDD TO MEEEEEE for some reason a lot of people in the fandom don't play Ace Attorney 5 which is fair since it's kind of messy BUT. BUT. IT INTRODUCES ATHENA AND DOES SOOOO MUCH FOR THE WRIGHT ANYTHING AGENCY. In AA4 we learn that Trucy Wright made the Wright Talent Agency into the Wright Anything Agency in order to bring Apollo in as a lawyer when before it was just her (a magician) and her adopted father Phoenix (a poker player). and AA5 is all about Athena joining and Apollo learning how to trust her, at least it is to ME. they're so gooddddd aaaaaaa like you've got Phoenix and Trucy who are weirdos who love to scheme and you've got Apollo their longsuffering guy who deals with it all, and Phoenix is the mentor... and then Athena comes in and she has a lot of light and determination and trauma (just like the rest of them lol) and she's SO determined and I like her a lot!! And Trucy is my favorite and Phoenix cares about her SO much but he also has his other found family in the Feys!!!!!! Mia dies in the first game but her ghost stays with Phoenix and her sister/cousin Maya and Pearl are SO IMPORTANT TO HIM he loves them so much that's his sisters to me ;-; he would do anything for them and Trucy and he's growing as a mentor to Apollo and Athena too as the game progress... They don't write them all perfectly but they sure do a lot of things I like :) also feel free to split this up into their Wright Anything Agency or Phoenix + the Feys or Phoenix + Trucy if you need to I won't mind I just love AA's found family a lot

Picture this. You are a attorney in your mid 20s and somehow find yourself surrounded by weird little girls with every case you take on. You officially adopt one but really, all of them are either sisters or daughters to you. Especially your loud, burger-loving lesbian sister. Your childhood friend turned rival turned lover, who has a whip-wielding adoptive sister of his own, goes on a series of investigations while messing around with a furry for a couple of weeks and returns with two 17 year old children, a thieving lesbian and a child with a narcissistic murderer for a father who should've kept him back in school a few grades. Your lover has each of them under an arm, and they are appended to your stable of weird little girls but are very much hidden in the back. Then you find out that your daughter, the official one, has a 22yo trans half-brother with a musical diva mother and was half raised as a prince in Khura'in, so you divorce his boss (who is not your official lover, you just had a weird thing for a while when you were in your alcoholic phase, maybe while your actual lover was still messing around with the furry) very publicly while sending him to prison for murdering your daughter's father. Oh, but you have been disbarred, so you make your daughter's son send his own boss to prison, by planting false evidence on him. Of course the young man punches you in the face. Needless to say he works for you for a couple of years and never finds out that he's related to your daughter because that would require a straightforward conversation, now wouldn't it?

only one of them has never been arrested. only two of them arent lawyers. theyre all gay

Theyre very weird and misteruous and kinda fucked up a bit and they were through a lot but phoenix did his best and trucy well she's still just a kid but oh she's trying so fucking hard and always trying to wear a smile and it's breaking my heart the two of them. Also theyre weird i already said that but let me say it again they are WEIRD. and we love them<3 (the ace attorney fandom)

221B Fam:

I dont have much to say i am just constantly rotating them in my mind BUT i have to say the the last image i attached contains like MAJOR spoilers lol i just wanted the canon images in there

Ace Attorney has some wonderful found families, but this one's particularly special because of their circumstances. An exchange student and his unhinged weirdgirl assistant from Japan feeling so out of place in turn-of-the-century Great Britain, yet finding a completely batshit insane family during their time there...it's just so <3 <3 <3 Also Ryunosuke calls them "the greatest family in the world" and it makes my heart happy. Also they commit lots of crimes

[crimson-flash]

TOA Anniversary Munday Post

haha i haven't even been here for a month

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Penny

Pronouns: She/them

Birthday (no year): 8/19

Where are you from? What is your time zone?: I'm from the United States of 'Merica, Georgia in particulary.

How long is your roleplay experience? Uh, outside of Roblox, and a little bit of Amino, I basically have none, so a month!

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? I was introduced to roleplaying when I entered a Big Brother RP amino thingy when I was 12, and I won the whole thing while mascaraing as like double my age. It was crazy back then.

How were you introduced to TOA?: I was looking at Joshua art, and then I stumbled across an old Joshua muse which lead me to TOA. I know it sounds a bit crazy.

Do you have any pets?: I have a dog named Mellow! I will protect him with my life. He is my pride and joy.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period): Favorite season is Fall, favorite holiday is Christmas, and my favorite general period of time is whenever I don't have school.

What is your IRL occupation? I don't have a job at the moment, I am just a simple high school senior.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I enjoy coding little games, I like romhacking and just seeing my edits change the game, it's kinda like magic, lol. I enjoy going for walks, and racing other people, I also enjoy sleeping, who doesn't.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Pokemon, Stardew Valley, Wildermyth, Ace Attorney, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Kirby

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Water, Vaporeon (NOT IN THAT WAY)

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! Oh, a fun fact? uhhhhh

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I wanted to know where Marth from Smash Bros came from, so I decided I was going to play Awakening, and now I'm obsessed.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I have played FE7, FE8, FE11, FE12, FE13, FE17

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: FE13 was my first, and FE8 is my favorite!

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Nooo, I can't choose between my bab- Marisa, Henry, Clanne, Joshua, The 7th Platoon is it's own character right?

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! It was Clanne when I was playing Engage and got really good growths and he MVP'd like the whole entire game.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 A certain green-haired woman from a game I haven't even played yet.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: My first S support was Anna, and I would probably S support my baby Henry now. - Fates: N/A - Three Houses: N/A - Engage: My first S support was Ivy, but now it's probably Panette.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Armor Knight

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? I would be a reclassable very flexiable unit, but I would always been just below-average in everything, so just like very disappointing. One speed from doubling, and one attack from killing, but I force that luck will always be in my favor.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Yellow Team! Uhm, I mean Golden Deer

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Reason, Faith. Banes: Axes, Flying (fear of heights), Heavy Armor, Budding Talent: Bows

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Solm! I really love Solm and it's characters, it's like Jehanna if it was cool, and didn't have a queen who died in a pretty stupid way and didn't fight back EVEN THoUGH SHE'S A TRAINED SWOR-

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?): T-O-A, I will not accept any other pronouncations. 

[youngerfrankenstein]

force you say something nice... how about game recommendations! Or just games you like?

You got me into ghost trick, psychonauts and to finish the great ace attorney! Currently go through the curious village again thanks to you as well!

You got great taste in games!

Oh! Interesting :D

(Which reminds me I really need to get back to Bug Fables it was really cute I’ve just been doing a lot of game-hopping recently 😅 Which is nice in its own way!)

Hmm. I’ll try to think of games a liiiittle less well known.

First off!

Shadow Hearts is a bit of a strange game in that it is both one of the most stereotypical JRPG’s ever made and one of the most distinctive (at least from what I’ve seen)

A lot of this comes from the setting; Europe shortly before WW1. Albeit in a world very different from the one we live in, since this one has quite a few more monsters. In fact it takes quite a bit from the horror genre, and a lot of its enemy encounters are pretty horrific. The whole game is a blend of creepy and silly, which could easily go bad but it balances them pretty well! The game also plays fast and loose with real historical events and people (one of your party members is technically Mata Hari. No really.) And you travel around fighting demons and trying to protect a young woman being pursued for unknown reasons. (Like I said, JRPG.)

The combat system is also pretty neat! Basically every character and ability hits based on button presses timed to a line swinging around a ring:

Closer to the edge gets you more damage but also if you wait too long you miss the hit. Sort of a risk/reward thing. There are also a bunch of debuffs and items that mess with the ring which can make things easier or harder for you. You also have to manage Sanity Points, which go down every turn and can be used on abilities, but if you run out that character becomes incapacitated.

That’s not even mentioning the music, which is… I’ve heard it described as a mix of Final Fantasy’s music and Silent Hill’s. Somehow both melodic and discordant, but definitely interesting. I may replay this in October actually, it’s a good spooky season game.

There’s definitely some humour that.. isn’t great as well. (Oh boy! I sure do love pervert jokes!)

It’s technically a follow-up to the game Koudelka, and a couple of characters from there show up here. But it’s its own thing and not necessary to play that one at all. I haven’t, though I may try someday. From what I gather it’s a surprisingly well-written and well-acted game with an ungodly mashup of turn-based combat and survival horror for gameplay. There are also two sequels. I’ve played the first which… I still mostly enjoyed. But while I know a lot of people like it better I was not particularly fond of how it went much farther into silly territory and less creepy (though the spider made of human fingers was a neat boss) and as much as I LOVE Joachim and find it funny to have Anastasia Romanov on the team the cast felt weaker. I have not played the third and I hear it is bad.

There is also a spiritual successor coming out… sometime (supposedly next year) called Penny Blood and I’m curious how that will turn out. But overall I really like this one!

Next!

…I am going to be honest, I still do not really understand a lot of the story with this one. It’s here on atmosphere alone.

You play as Ashley Riot, sent in to a dead town to take out a cult and what follows is… something of a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler, but a more slow and methodical one. Part of the game involves crafting your own weapons from the ones you find to best exploit enemy weaknesses and getting your timing right. It is not perhaps the most spectacular, but it can be satisfying.

But you really do play it for the atmosphere. The Shakespeare references, the melodramatic tone, the unsettling feel of the town.

It’s also technically set in Ivalice but that doesn’t really play into anything.

Next!

If I’m being honest, this is a really basic game. With basic gameplay. …But it has SO much charm! You play as a gang of Sky Pirates! Who find a mysterious girl and set off to find out why she had been captured. Again very much genre staples but dang if they ain’t being adhered to with joy. The characters are loveable, the palette colourful and the music lovely! It just feels like a nice world to be in.

You probably won’t be in for much of a surprise, but you’ll probably have fun.

I will say that personally I found the airship battles could get a little slow, but they are there to break things up a bit and, I mean, if you emulate it��� (it’s uh. Expensive.) And at least on GameCube the skip button for specials is holding down “z” and you WILL be using it.

Also side note that the GameCube version has some stuff added, including most of the backstory for one of the game’s main villains. So maybe go for that one.

Also!

While I know you’re familiar with this one, still briefly bringing it up.

Don’t play this game while you’re depressed.

The gameplay is kind of neat in how it takes elements from shoot-em-ups in that you have to dodge waves of projectiles while hitting back (albeit much easier) but really this is a game carried by its main characters. The core group are just, really enjoyable to watch, even as worse and worse things happen to them and they do worse and worse things. You want to see them get through things even though this is very much a world where EVERYTHING FUCKING SUCKS. Also some very neat meta writing!

It’s odd because I normally hate things like this. Really bleak tones just lead to me not caring and if characters drop like flies why should I invest in them? …And yet.

But mostly I wanted to bring it up because I’m like 80% convinced that Papa Nier and Monkey from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West have the same character model. That one is a game which I’ll only really recommend to people who want to see Ninja Theory’s earlier work but it’s alright.

Lastly YES! The game propaganda is working >:D (I’m really flattered you think my taste in games is good!!!)

Edit: GRANDIA!

Honestly similar comments to Skies of Arcadia it’s just very fun and colourful!

[kuriboo]

hey have you seen the Nintendo direct today & if so how ya feelin

I saw some tweets earlier so I knew a bit of what I was getting into but I just watched it and HOLY FUCK MAN.................

under the cut i'll scream about everything i'm excited about! but this is one of the best directs of all time! this is SUPER long sorry but please know i am SO HAPPY this is one of hte best directs of all time i think

I WAS SO WORRIED MARIO AND LUIGI AS A SERIES WAS DEAD ;; I'M SO HAPPY IT'S COMING BACK!!! IT LOOKS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! THE ART STYLE, THE GAMEPLAY! IT'S MARIO AND LUIGI!!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!! I'm behind on this series I still need to play dream team (I should probably start it over at this point, I have this digitally it came on my original 3ds and I've transferred it between systems twice now) and paper jam (I OWN THIS SOMEWHERE but my stuff is in disarray from room renovations...I'll find it some day) but I'M SO EXCITED! FOR BROTHERHOOD!

I'm more excited for the Dragon Quest remakes than I thought I'd be! I saw they were being remade and I was like okay yeah sure...this already was released on switch my brother already owns these...but this remake actually looks way better than the previous release on switch! I'm into this! I'm down for this!! It looks a lot better! I beat dq1 a while back, I need to restart dq2 because I haven't played it in so long... and I was just told I should've started with dq3, which I haven't played, LMAO so

Super Mario Party Jamboree...a third Mario Party on Switch! I'm excited for the return of Western Land, I'm excited for another Mario Party, I love Mario Party it's a longtime family favorite (though we barely played any between 3 and super, we have super and superstar on switch though) so anytime there's new Mario Party content I'm happy! I think I would've preferred an update/dlc of superstars, but...I can see why it's not! I'd like to play this online with family! I'm just a little scared at the possibility of not being able to play with pro controllers again...joy con exclusive gameplay is scary

ECHOES OF WISDOM! FEMINISM WINS! I saw screenshots of this on twitter but oh the trailer has me so hyped.... ZELDA SAVING LINK LETS GO........ I LOVE ZELDA'S OUTFIT AND HER FAIRY COMPANION AND MAGIC LOOK SO COOL! This is gonna be so fun to play. And I'll probably be a lot less anxious playing this than botw/totk since there shouldn't be weapon durability? so this might end up being my favorite switch zelda pretty easily lol. I'VE WANTED PLAYABLE ZELDA FOR SO LONG I LOVE THIS

Hello Kitty game I might pick up depending on the price.... it looks cute!

The Looney Tunes game looks so funny I kinda wanna play it SPACE JAM!!!!!!!!!

I'm probably not gonna get Luigi's Mansion 2 HD anytime soon but I LOVE LUIGI HE'S MY GUY HE'S THE DREAMBOAT THE GOAT THE DREAMGOAT.... I've never played any Luigi's Mansions though! I think I have 2 on 3ds but again, I'm not sure where it is.... Idr if we have 3 or not? We might? I'd like to play a Luigi's Mansion game someday but it's not my biiiiiggest priority. As much as I love Luigi, I love him so so so so much, but without ever having played it, I have this nervousness that I might not like the Mansion series...

I WISH I HAD EXPANSION PACK I WANNA PLAY FOUR SWORDS SO BAD

I have been screaming about the ace attorney investigations collection ALL DAY dude. This games have SUCH a good story (I've only watched playthroughs) so I'm excited to play them myself!!! The fantranslation has definitely impacted a bit of my excitement though. The name changes in particular... Verity Galile is honestly a good name, Eustace Winner is growing on me (I'm worried what they're changing Blaise to...), but Eddie Fender............I'm sorry but that is RAYMOND SHIELDS i DO NOT like the name eddie fender i CANNOT get behind it sorry.... BUT THE STORY OF THESE GAMES MAN I'M SO EXCITED!!! I JUST GOT THE APOLLO JUSTICE TRILOGY FOR MY BIRTHDAY (a couple of months late, but, uh, extenuating circumstances led to my dad keeping forgetting to order it, i am not mad) so i wanna play that before AAI and I STILL NEED TO PLAY THE GREAT ACE ATTORNEY COLLECTION TOO..... BUT MAN I LOVE ACE ATTORNEY I'M SO EXCITED I WANTED TO CRY

metroid prime 4! i still need to get into the metroid series (i need to give it another try, i haven't been able to get myself to really enjoy it yet) but i'm excited for metroid fans! this is such a long time coming...and now it's so close! the graphics look really good! i don't have much else to say about this one.

AND MAN

OH

MAN

THE UNEXPECTED GOAT

I DIDN'T SEE THIS GAME BEFORE WATCHING THE DIRECT BECAUSE NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT

BUT OH MY GOSH

PHANTOM BRAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PHANTOM BRAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEW PHANTOM BRAVE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i love phantom brave SO SO SO SO MUCH i wanna CRY i'm SO SO SO HAPPY!!!!! ASH AND MARONA ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT WE MIGHT GET ANOTHER PHANTOM BRAVE! IT WASN'T EVEN A HOPE BECAUSE I JUST DIDN'T THINK IT COULD EVER HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!

PHANTOM BRAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

idk about the mech part that's gonna have to grow on me but YOU CAN FUSE CHARACTERS WITH MARONA AND GIVE HER CUTE NEW OUTFITS???????????????????????????

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

PHANTOM BRAVE PHANTOM BRAVE

when this came up in the direct i literally could not stop stimming and shaking i SCREAMED i am SO SO HAPPY

i think i'm more excited for htis game than anyone else because literally no one that i've seen is talking about it but!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PHANTOM BRAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[megaphonegirlk]

1. How many works do you have on AO3?  122 total works

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 1,374,515 words

3. What fandoms do you write for? All sorts, Urusei Yatsura, Metal Gear, Persona, Resident Evil. And lately One Piece! Look forward to it <3

4. Top five fics by kudos

Drawing the Line (Green Goblin x Doc Ock crime and gay sex fic) 813 Kudos

Games of Passion (Bernadetta x Hubert BDSM play) 276 Kudos

In Justice We Trust (Simon x Bobby Murder/Espionage Mystery. With Athena :D) 197 Kudos

The Primrose Path to Hell (Wesker x Rebecca Dark AU where seduces her in the STARS era. Novel length) 143 Kudos

Snow White (Luis x Leon fic, Luis survived , damaged, and Leon helps him heal and they reunite.) 123 Kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes, I try to always but sometimes it takes me a while because my mind is scattershot V_V

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? The Other Side of the Moon which is about Kotone (of Persona 3) trapped on the other side of the door her twin brother became, fending off Nyx. The idea was that the Arisato Twins were in SEES together, but when they sacrificed themselves she got shut out on the wrong side of the Sea of Souls keeping Nyx bound and in check, and thus faded out of everyone's cognition. It's about her being forgotten.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

oh gosh that's a really interesting question. I have a lot of shorts with happy endings. Maybe The Departure of the Great Returned Soul ? It's a Bunny and Raffles fic that ties in with the Great Ace Attorney, where they do a heist on the request of the mysterious Professor Moriarty. It ends with them gleefully escaping on a steamship together to start a life away from the oppressive English atmosphere after just having robbed the HECK outta Sherlock Holmes.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Only once, when someone jumped down my throat about one of my fics :shrug: Mostly I just get weird spam. Once someone dropped their whole idea of how they thought my xmen fic should be for three huge comments and I was just like 'what'.

9. Do you write smut?  Quite a lot <3

10. Craziest crossover? uhhhhhhh, none written yet but how about this! Pathologic fanfic where Tomoko from Watamote gets isekaied into the Town on Gorkhon to fix it , and she was the only one the fates could pull. She teaches Nina Kaina's ghost what a fujoshi is. I'm planning on writing this one eventually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?  yikes! hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Sadly not V_V

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?  yesssss...always @the-bar-sinister is my cowriter

14. All time favourite ship? MULTISHIPPER :D hehe, I ship so many things. But I'll be nice and answer OLDEST ship. Which is Lum x Ataru from Urusei Yatsura. My first big ship that I can clearly remember.

15. What’s a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Probably Only Yesterday V_V It was a metal gear solid fix it fic about Dr. Strangelove rigging a time machine and going back to her NASA days to try and save Joy.

16. What are your writing strengths?  Dialogue and characterization ^^ I'm often told i have the 'voice' of a character pretty down pat.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I'm a shit tier editor and tend to misuse commas in my excitement.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?  I try not to because if I don't know the language I don't want to google translate butcher it. I'd feel bad.

19. First fandom you wrote in?  uhh...gosh, going all the way back to my unpublished notebook fanfic? probably Ace Attorney with my goofy FanAttorney . Published, I think it's Metal Gear, with Only Yesterday.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? oh gosh don't make me choose! it's cruel!!! Deicide so far has been a blast to write (One piece) , but it's not far enough along for me to say that one. I'm going to go niche here to bring eyes to a very special project of ours though: Fly Me To The Moon It's an Urusei Yatsura continuation set after their high school graduation. Lum convinces everyone to go to space with her as part of her plan to finally get Ataru to understand Oni behavior, only for Shinobu to find out she's not only an alien descendant, but also the last heiress to the kingdom that once prospered on the Moon. Shenanigans, a polycule, and unique Oni sexuality ensue as for once SHINOBU is the one some rando space prince is trying to kidnap to marry.

@ikuina-takashi @flirtingxwithxphantoms if you wanna!

[i-llbedammned]

After All These Years

Title: After All These Years

Fandom: Ace Attorney

Pairing: Miles Edgeworth/Phoenix Wright

Summary: Phoenix is not feeling the Valentine's Day spirit so Miles, with some help, takes it upon himself to plan a day full of surprises to try and help him remember romance. Read more at AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45127795 Or Below Valentine ’s Day together was a bit of a trip, to put it lightly. Phoenix had celebrated a few of them before, but never quite this way. Previously it had been him pouring his heart out to people, showering them with flowers and kinds words, only to be met with the most mediocre of responses. This year he was determined to be different. This year he wasn’t going to care, he was going to live his life and not make too big of things. He would be cool, restrained, and effortless. Given the way that both of their lives worked, honestly, Phoenix should have expected that Miles Edgeworth would be the man to prove him wrong. He always was.

The first surprise was waiting in Phoenix’s office, specifically his desk, when he came to work in the morning. It was simple, just a cup of hot coffee waiting there for him. A note next to it read, This year, Valentine's Day is my treat. -Miles"

“Maya, when did Edgeworth drop this off?” Phoenix called in to the other room.

“He just dropped it off like ten minutes ago. Why?” Maya called back, not bothering to move from her seat.

Phoenix leaned in the doorway, taking a sip of mug. It was rich, earthy and exactly what he needed. “Did he say anything odd while he was here?”

Maya shrugged, sending off a text with her phone, “Something about the game being afoot now. Oh! And good luck! I just figured it was lawyer talk.” Phoenix sighed, “Yeah, something along those lines.” Maya popped her head up, looking over at him with suspicious eyes. “You okay? Usually you’re more bubbly. I thought that you’d be excited to give your boyfriend gifts.”

“He’s not- I just-“ Phoenix sputtered, nearly dropping the coffee, “It’s just tiring, okay? All this holiday stuff is tiring.”

He drank more of the coffee when something caught his eye. Ink, at the bottom of the mug. What the- ? A bit more, a bit more. Dumping out the coffee would be a waste and even though he wasn’t really a Godot about it he had grown up too poor to want to just throw away food.

Where we first met.

Guess that meant Miles was waiting for him somewhere.

Most would likely say the courtroom, but Phoenix knew that they first met at school. But he highly doubted that Edgeworth would expect him to go into a school. That kind of sounded like a good way to get arrested. All the same he hopped on his bike and started on his way.

It was a stupid holiday, but he didn’t want to leave Miles waiting. That would just be rude. And knowing their luck the longer he was left unsupervised the more likely that one of them would be accused of murder.

The bustle of the city grew more distant and the pace of the world became slower as he biked. The sun shone through the branches brightly on this surprisingly mild Valentine’s Day. A few people were winding their way through the stores.

It had been so long since he had been to the suburbs, he had almost forgotten how quiet it was. The cars in the center of the city were so loud, like a background buzzing of a hive. Here he could hear the wind blowing through the long grass.

Phoenix remembered them playing games together on days like this, running like nutcases over the playground and hiding from the teachers. They always got caught, but it was worth it every time to be so breathlessly having fun.

As he approached the school building, he saw that school was out. A sigh escaped Phoenix. Good, that meant less kids. His blue eyes scanned the area, hoping that he didn’t look too conspicuous. A few parents walking buy looked at him oddly but didn’t talk to him.

“Hey,” came a creaky old voice, “You the lawyer?”

Phoenix turned, looking at an older woman on the bench. She was wrapped up in a mess of purple scarves and long green skirts, her eyes barely visible over and under the scarves.

Phoenix put a hand behind his head, nervously laughing, “Yeah, who are you?”

“Just here to help. Mystic Maya told me you needed help.” She looked at him intensely with her brown eyes, “I still don’t see what he see in you.”

“Pardon?” An edge of sleight annoyance made its way into Phoenix’s voice. The last thing he wanted on this holiday was to be harassed for picking someone that “didn’t suit him”, whatever that meant.

“Edgeworth. I don’t know why he picked you. But he really likes you.” She handed him a heart, “Don’t break his heart or auntie will have to find you.” She cackled and for a moment Phoenix pictured her like a witch out of an old movie.

“Yeah, uh, I’m really lucky I guess.” He looked at the object she handed him. A box of chocolates in a little heart. He opened it. These were surprisingly good chocolates, filled with cherries. There would be time to eat them later. There! On the underside of the chocolate box, the long flowing script.

Where the Crime Happened that Saved My Life Phoenix smiled and put the lid. It would have been worrying if they weren’t lawyers, but Phoenix knew exactly where he meant. It was a murder, two gunshots in the middle of a lake. A man lost his life, but it was only through that Miles was able to reclaim his life and let go of over a decade’s worth of guilt.

After the trial they got dinner. Miles was practically shaking, the after effects of adrenaline flowing through him after having realized that he was free, that he had always been free, that he had never committed a murder in his entire life. He was doing a good job of hiding it, but Phoenix had been sitting next to him as the dinner whirled around them both. He saw the prosecutor’s hands gripping his legs in a death grip.

Without saying anything Phoenix reached down and poked at his hand with his fingers. Miles’ started, looking down and then looked over. Phoenix smiled, gently, and placed his hand over the other man’s. Miles relaxed and looked forward, but underneath the table his fingers curled around Phoenix’s. It didn’t last long, but after Phoenix kept tracing over the places where their fingers had met and grinning like an idiot.

The park, the lake, that is where that had all started.

There were gaggles of people clustering around the lake, all getting heart shaped balloon and trying to get little two person boats. Boats, Miles better not have gotten them a boat. He didn’t think his body could take a boat.

“Hooray! You made it!” came a small, excited voice as confetti rained down upon him.

Phoenix looked down, seeing a very excited Peal Fey grinning up at him, “You’re in on this too?”

“Of course! Mystic Maya asked if I could help you and Mister Edgeworth have a good day! I don’t want to let her down!” Pearl reached in a small bag she had, “He left this for you!” A rose, bright red, with a note at the bottom.

Where We First Kissed Phoenix went to go thank Pearl, but she was already whirling off to go and get a Samurai Dog from Larry at the hot dog stand. The defense attorney took the opportunity to escape before she got to questioning too much why Mister Edgeworth was leaving him roses.

His aching legs hoped this was the last step. The day was getting later and honestly, he wanted to see Miles not just his hand writing. Also biking all this way was a sweaty mess. Up a hill, to the restaurant where they went all those years ago. It was a low-key place with a lovely view of the city. They had drank wine and eaten lovely fish and rice, watching the sun go down over the hill.

Phoenix had gotten up to use the bathroom and when he got out, Miles was already standing. He thanks Phoenix for a wonderful dinner and then bent over, placing a kiss on his lips. Phoenix had been reeling from the emotions, so much so that he almost didn’t notice how worried Miles looked after he did so. The worry let up as Phoenix wrapped his arms around the other man and returned the gesture. Sometimes it was easy to forget how nervous the man was in social situations when he behaved so confidently in court.

The restaurant still looked the same, dark wood with white walls. Today there was the soft sound of violins coming from the building. Despite himself, despite how tired he felt with the holiday and the background, he wanted to show Miles the violins.

Phoenix parked his bike and looked around, appreciating the way the wind blew through his hair. It felt cool, nice and carried the scent of sandalwood.

“Glad you could make it, Wright.” Came Miles’ voice from behind him.

The sight was so beautiful that for a moment Phoenix was winded. Miles was wearing a regal looking black suit with a bright red rose pinned to it, standing out against the bright blue sky and brown buildings around them. In his arms was a brown bag that he handed off to Phoenix with a kiss on the cheek.

“You seemed tired. I wanted to do something nice for you.” Miles brushed his hands over Phoenix’s cheeks, sending up a thrill of bright red blush.

“So you sent me on a bike ride across the city?!” Phoenix said exasperatedly.

“Not that kind of tired.” Edgeworth shifted around, trying to find the right words, “Tired of life. Of cases. I got….concerned. I know how it can get.” He looked up at the sky, “So I figured I would remind you of the past, of the nicer moments. Do something for you since you often end up planning these outings.”

He was right, of course. Over the past few weeks everything had seemed like a chore, this holiday was no exception. Phoenix didn’t even notice it, til it was pointed out.

“How many people knew about this?” Phoenix marveled.

“A few. I recruited Maya to help. I truthfully am not sure who else she contacted.” Miles raised an eyebrow, “Was there a lot of people?”

There was something touching about this, about knowing how many people had to come together to just make sure he got to his date at the right time and place, and also utterly ridiculous. Phoenix began to laugh. And laugh. It was wonderful to feel something other than tired, to feel joyous.

“Now I look like a mess! How am I supposed to eat dinner like this?” Half-assed Phoenix began to try and smooth out his hair, to unwrinkled parts of his suit. So much for cool and effortless. It was sweet of Miles, but also he didn’t own a car!

“I didn’t expect you to wear a suit all day!” Miles laughed, kissing the top of Phoenix’s head, “But I just might have a solution. Check the bag, Wright.”

Phoenix opened up the bag he had been handed and inside was a new suit, purple this time and a rich silk. It felt sinfully soft when he touched it.

“Go change. We have a reservation to get to. I’ll see you at the table.” Then he was gone, drifting over the yard and talking to the waiter.

A few moments, and an awkward conversation with a bathroom attendant, later he arrived at the table. It was set up outside and the sun was setting, casting everything in an orange light. Miles’ face lit up, brighter than the sun surrounding them.

“You look beautiful.” Miles rolled the words around slowly, drinking in the sight of him in the new suit. Beautiful. Even after all these years he never got used to this man paying him compliments.

Phoenix grinned, “Coming from you, I think I can believe it. Anyone else I’d call a liar.”

“Why bother lying?” Miles shrugged his shoulders, “You could see the locks as soon as I did so anyway.”

Phoenix sat down let the sound of violins flow over them both. He picked up the wine glass, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Miles lifted his glass and the clinked them together, “To the past and the future.”

[ballwizard]

oh btw my ACE ATTORNEY dual destinies post game review. LONG RAMBLE CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS BELOW.. BEWARE!!!!!

ok SO. ending-wise it was fucking awesome. funnily enough while me and sal were on our own between playtime we ended up both getting spoiled on fulbright dying and something odd happening to him. On accident. So we both kind of knew what was coming, but not how or why. and id say it actually didn't take away from the surprise considering by the point you really hammer down on it, it's pretty obvious imo LOL. ALL the disguises threw me for a fucking LOOP!! i was like. Huh??? THIS GUY??? ironically all the big ones he did before the breakdown were ALL characters i voiced which was really really fun for me. i think the choice to have him impersonate phoenix last was so cool and the new sprites he gets RULE SO HARD. genuinely thought it was sick as hell. i miss you bobby every day of my life

something really funny that occurred was : Throughout the entire game sal decided they HATED Simon blacjquill. like genuine vitriol at seeing him. when we found out he was on deaths door they were like KILL HIM‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ OT WAS SO FUNNY. but by the end of the game they did nearly a complete 180 on him and he was the first character they doodled after finishing the game.Thwy were sooooo mad about liking him now

speaking of liking characters: my top fave new characters were DEFINITELY bobby fbright & damien tenma. i already talked about fulbright yadda yadda he's cute yadda yadda need him expoditiously yadda yadda cool ending. Damien on the other hand was the only side character that we were consistently SO happy to see literally EVERY time. (Excluding Bobby). Dude fucking rocks he's so weird and he owns. Cawwww caw caw caw

casewise i think the weakest might have been the monstrous turnabout? even though i LOVED damien the rest of the case was. It was okay? but with the rest of the cases being so interconnected jt just felt kind of out of place. hypocritically i found jinxie and filch and labelle kind of annoying despite liking damien... eye dee Kay. My Opinion. my fav case was the very last one i think. i would say it was the academy one but means just felt like a kinda weak villain. especially since it felt really obvious from the beginning with his whole shtick (which was ALSO annoying) and also his whole. Him. but i liked the whole bit with scuttlebutt & the trio. it was very cute. Also elephant in the room, robin, i felt DEFINITELY could have been handled better. but it really wasn't THAT bad, and i like that he retained her like, testosterone rage screaming despite him "getting revealed". In my beautiful mind they're gender fluid. Smiles serenely. it was also nice seeing klavier again but his 3d model is NOT DOING HIM WELL . i like his gay little intro animation though

oh yeah and the 3d. since we were playing the original trilogy concurrently to dd, we got to compare how the characters look pretty often and i found that it's kind of weird, but i understand why it was done & honestly it allowed them to do more fun stuff. like having bobby wave out of the window or all the shit with recreating the silhouette of the statue was REALLY fun to see and I thought it was cute as hell. Simon does look like he's poking himself in the eye though. the normal art in the game was cute too & i thought the cutscenes were fun when they showed up!

comparing it to the original trilogy, without rose tinted lenses of nostalgia & with direct referencing via.... playing them both at the same time... i really think it was a solid game. one thing i really, really liked about it vs the trilogy is that it's a lot more... easier?? straightforward?? it's hard to put into words but i NEVER felt like i had hit a dead end in investigating and didn't know where to go. the notes system as well as the button to look back at recent dialogue are SUPER helpful, and even if i might not have used them All the time, they really helped when we needed them lol. i LOVE. not having to present every single piece of evidence to a random during investigations and just PRAYINF that one of them make something happen. and especially since i was playing with someone else, and therefore took what could be week + long breaks between playtime, it was really useful to get back into the swing of things. ANYWAYS

Overall it was a really fun & engaging play!! me & sal enjoyed it a lot and it's got our gears turning and steam smokin and shit. we actually finished the second game right before finishing the last case of dd and it was fucking awesome. we started trials & tribulations (one case in!) and after that we might hit up the investigations games... and THEN we'll play spirit of justice. so that's the game plan teehee

Thank you for reading if you did lol ^__^ ❤️🌈‼️

[bagadew]

The Great Ace Attorney Playthrough: The Adventure of the Runaway Room (Part 2a)

Last Time: We stuck it to the Jury and snatched victory back from the jaws of defeat… only for things to start going wrong after an overcharging Beppo set our passenger theory up in flames! However, all was not lost! By simply calling Mr McGilded to the stand we were able to find out that we were right! …And that’s when the smoke bomb went off and I disappeared for a year…

Wow guys, it’s been a long time huh! Just over a year in-fact according to my notes. We’ve probably all learnt some things about ourselves during this time, for instance I’ve learnt that my kidney’s cant absorbed magnesium properly... which explains a lot. It turns out that your body and mind actually need vital salts to do a lot of things. Things like having the energy and brain capacity to play a lawyer simulator (to pick an example at random).

I’m now full of magnesium supplements, but while I’m getting back onto form and working out how much to take a day, I think I’ll be posting these once a week rather than my old schedule of: as soon as I can rattle them out. This way I won’t burn myself out!

Anyway, enough rambling on, let's play some Ace Attorney!

God it’s good to be back! I would say that I hope I’ve not lost my gameplaying skills, but looking at how many people I’ve falsely accused, I don’t think I had any.

Now, where were we… oh that’s right, evacuated from the courtroom because our client’s probably a murderer!

(I mean as I said, I’ve shot wrong before, so hopefully I’ve shot wrong again.)

What I really need to do though is talk to Mr McGilded. I’ve jumped the gun enough times this game I’d be happy to chalk my suspicions up to that...

So, we didn’t get that much time out of the courtroom, which begs the question: why drop the smoke grenade at all? There’s not enough time to ‘find’ more evidence, and from what I could see he didn’t try and make a run for it. So what’s it done other than raise a big red flag over his head?

I’ve got a hunch...

Ah. I think I know why the smoke grenade was let off now. And I’ll be honest it really doesn’t help in convincing me that Mr McGilded’s innocent.

We’d needed to produce the mysterious third party if we were going to get Mr McGilded off the hook. If Mr McGilded arranged for them to cause a scene and try and flee, they’d not only be found, but they’d have as good as confessed to the murder.

Yep, it’s the mysterious third party.

Yeah, there are a lot of things I want to ask him about too.

Oh, apparently he’s been summoned to the prosecutor's office.

Fucking typical, even out of the courtroom Barok still manages to be a massive inconvenience.

Also, what’s he doing there without me, his lawyer, anyway?

Wait, the third party’s in there too!

Again I feel like I, his defense attorney, should really be a part of this.

I have a terrible feeling she was bribed to be here...

I mean let’s face it, if anyone’s going to be susceptible to bribes it’s going to be the starving child who’s dependent on money to get her next meal.

Is it the fact that our client clearly singled for what happened?

Because I’ll be honest Susato, that's what’s troubling me!

Ah no, it’s the fact the money for the passengers is all accounted for now we know about Beppo’s swindling ways.

I’m guessing she was a stowaway then, hiding in that space under the seat.

Either way, we’re not going to know what the hell is going on until the prosecution decides to throw us a bone.

Ah well, let’s go see what the hell is going on in there...

She could definitely fit in the space under the seat. She looks about Mr McGilded’s height too, and she’s wearing a hat.

So she might have military connections then.

She’s not saying anything...

Her face is hidden, so I can’t work out if she’s just keeping her mouth shut, or if she’s too scared to speak.

Yes, speak Mr McGilded, and please make what you have to say good enough to convince me I’ve gone on another wild goose chase.

Please do.

So apparently, it connects to the events of the murder.

(Yes Ryunosuke, call them out on their bullshit.)

Anyways, Mr McGilded fell asleep at the back of the omnibus, before being woken up by a thud and a scream. Opening his eyes, he found Mr Mason collapsed on the floor, so he popped him back on his seat and saw that the scream had come from a child, curled up and hidden away.

...

Well there’s a lot to unpack here.

Like why was Mr McGilded’s reaction to WAKING UP TO A BODY to calmly pop it back in its seat.

And was the kid curled up in on the seat, or was she under it?

Also why is there no blood on the floor?

You know what, let’s start with this baffling reaction to a corpse.

Yeah that’s the right reaction.

Not when there’s been a murder! When there’s been a murder, it’s just tampering with the scene of the crime!

I can’t believe I’m with Barok on this one… I feel like I’ve reached a new low…

Remember when I addressed my dear client, whose case I (Ryunosuke) needed to win in order to be allowed to practice law? I said: Please prove me wrong, because I think you might have committed murder…

Well he’s currently doing the opposite of that…

Ok, this might be interesting. He’s talking about finding out the ‘whys and wherefores’ before trying call someone. I wonder if he thought there was something more going on than: someone with little regard for human life wants Mr McGilded out of the way.

My mistake! He’s just talking about the terrified 15 year old who was probably under the seat!

(Yep, definitely under the seat.)

Don’t worry Susato, I’ve already done it!

I’m sorry, YOU SAT HER NEXT TO A CORPSE!?!

That’s the right reaction!

I fail to see what this has to do with you sitting a kid next to a still bleeding dead body! She was already hiding underneath a gore free seat! Why not use that one?!?

Anyway, putting aside my outrage and focusing on the case at hand: Mr McGilded then heard Mr Furst scream, because he’d looked down to see the scene we spent the last cross examination picking at. Like we guessed, it seems that he saw our teenage stowaway sitting next to the victim, rather than Mr Mason, while Mr McGilded was sat in the seat at the back, out of sight.

Well that clears everything up! …except for the fact that stowaway girl still hasn’t said anything.

We’re only minutes into the second part of this case, and I’ve still got a nasty feeling about Mr McGilded I just can’t shake.

(Editor's note: Oh my god I can send things from my switch to my iPad, this is going to save me SO MUCH WORK! Anyway, these are all screenshots of my own gameplay now.)

I don’t think any of us did Ryunosuke. I thought I’d be getting a cheery romp of a third case to lift my spirits before things got serious… but that doesn’t look like it’ll going to happen does it.

(Also we might have to convict another terrified child!)

Ok, that was quite funny!

Hmm, Susato’s talking about investigating the omnibus again. I think I’ve pressed everything we should need clarifying on so maybe I actually need to. Besides, I haven’t seen the insides in forever, and while I’ve re-read my other live-blogging posts as a refresher, it’s probably a good idea to reacquaint myself with the evidence.

Ok, hold up… was that there before? I’m pretty sure the floor was spotless… but did I just not notice?

Like, I’m not a particularly observant person so perhaps… but something really doesn’t seem right here…

Yep, it’s new.

Oh shit. This was the reasons for the smoke bomb wasn’t it?

It wouldn’t have been enough to just have the kid bolt and be caught suspiciously. Mr McGilded needed the courtroom to be evacuated so the kid he’s controlling (or maybe even he himself) could tamper with the evidence.

Because it’s bad Ryunosuke…

Oh crap, he’s cleaned out the compartment too.

Why though? There already seemed to be space in there for the child to fold themselves. Unless there’s something incriminating in there? Maybe that button from the victim’s jacket was in there after all?

Well, there’s bugger all we can do now, so let’s just fall back on the Ace Attorney trick of pressing everything we can...

Ok, we don’t seem to have got much out of the pressing, except to get Mr McGilded to clearly state that the omnibus was empty when he got on. I feel like we already knew that, but nevertheless, I’m sure his certainty will come back to help us later.

Yes, let's move on and get to the good stuff!

Hern name is Gina Lestrade! A Sherlock Holmes name! If I remember rightly Lestrade’s was detective. I wonder if that’s the path Gina here will be on? Or maybe she’s connected to Herlock in some way?

Didn’t Sherlock Holmes have an urchin gang that helped him out sometimes? Maybe she does something similar for our Herlock?

Nope! She’s a pickpocket! Still, I suppose that doesn’t rule the second option out.

This does explain why she’s quite so good at holding her tongue though, especially in the face of the law.

(Also, it is very funny to watch her blank the Judge)

SHE’S GOT A GUN!!!

SHE SHOT THE JUDGE WITH A BATHBOMB!!!

Editor’s Note: Look my screenshots aren’t all going to be winners, OK? 

AND SHE’S DISAPPEARED!!!

THIS IS AMAZING!!!

Oh no, she’s not done a runner, she’s just showing off!

Style Ryunosuke!

F them up Gina!

I love her!

Look, Kazuma’s dead, Hosonaga’s gone back to Japan, and I have no idea where Herlock is… Gina do you want this friendship bracelet I’ve made?

It doesn’t hurt people much Ryunosuke!

Oh my god she stole it from Herlock!

These hijinks have gone on for too long, the Judge seems to say. Go back to facing hard truths and probably defending the wicked, he seems to say.

Well fine! But I’m not going to enjoy it… except I will definitely do that…

(See, Gina gets me!)

So, it looks like the omnibuses were something of a regular haunt for Gina. Though apparently this time she got nothing from her efforts. I wonder if that’s because Mr McGilded was on top of her seat the whole time so she couldn’t get out?

Also, it was pitched black inside, and the sound of the body hitting the deck was loud enough and sudden enough to make her involuntarily scream.

To be honest, as much as I love Gina, I’m not sure I believe that the noise of someone falling out of their seat would be enough to startle her. Perhaps she saw the crime being committed? But then either she’s lying about not being able to see anything, or she must have been able to lift the seat when he hit the floor (ergo, Mr McGilded wasn’t sat on it).

Either way my suspicion of Mr McGilded is definitely growing, and his smug, confident face up there isn’t exactly filling me with confidence.

Come on Mangus, this is it! Endear me to you and show me literally anything that makes me feel better about defending you!

He’s not throwing her under the omnibus like I expected… and he’s actually using facts and reason to show her innocence.

Maybe there’s hope for my (Ryunosuke’s) future after all!

Aaaand we’re looking at the compartment he almost certainly cleared out…

I still come back to asking why though.

Like I feel like Gina could curl herself into that space, and we couldn’t find any evidence among the stuff that was there.

God I want to believe this. The problem is that I just don’t anymore. I really hope that this is just me crying wolf again, and that I’m going to have another beloved character I have to apologies to… but I really don’t think I am…

Also, if he is guilty where does that leave Ryunosuke?

He’s either going to have to let a guilty man who buys his way through life go free, probably convicting another innocent person in the process (I’d love to avoid another Adrian Andrews situation if I can)… or he’s going to have to find another bargain that will let him continue practicing law.

And he’s a Japanese immigrant, they aren’t just going to hand him one on a silver platter. Even if he is the main character, he’d probably end up stuck under someone’s thumb (Strongheart perhaps), or having to look for some back-door way in.

Either way it’s not going to be great for him.

Anyway, we’ve convinced Juror Number 1 to change his verdict!

I mean given that a slight breeze changes this man’s standing, it’s nothing really to write home about…

But still. One step closer to victory!

Wait, she’s changing as well! But doesn’t that mean…

Six for Six!

SIX FOR SIX!

SIX FOR SIX!!

VIIIIICCCCCTTTOOOOOOOORRRYYYYYYYYY!!!

(Well apart from the fact that there are still about a mile of questions, the killers still at large, and we feel nowhere near done…)

Leg SLAM!

Ok Barok let’s hear it.

Look Barok, if you’re going to say he’s a cad, we already know that…

Also, to be frank you’re the last person who should be calling people out on that.

Ok, so he’s also noticed the mysterious case of the missing luggage.

I would be mad, but frankly I knew this was coming when I opened the omnibus and saw it had been tampered with.

So right now, frankly, I just want to find out what the hell this is all about!

I mean we’ve come to the same conclusion; I’ll give him that much.

And to think, only last session he was barely able to follow our chat about the bloody gloves!

Now how do I answer this?

On one hand, I’ve played enough Ace Attorney to know that, ultimately, attempting to: conceal, mask, alter or hide from the truth, doesn’t end well. Especially when you’re a lawyer. It’s a bad time.

On the other hand, I (Ryunosuke) am a defence attorney. It’s my duty to defend my client in the best I can… but is the best way to lie though?

So, directly contradicting Barok is out, and anyway, if it comes down to my word against his… and let’s be honest here, I (Ryunosuke), the Japanese immigrant, am not going to win that one. I’ll just paint myself in a bad way and make everyone even more against me than they already are.

Maybe I could say I didn’t look though?

It’s less of a lie than flat out denying it (can they prove I did), and I wouldn’t be going directly against Judges favorite Barok, or my client…

I did look though…

Also, it’ll make me look incompetent.

… plus, I don’t think it’s a good idea and I don’t think we should do it…

Would Ryunosuke feel the same though?

I mean I am playing as him, so I’d like to act as he would.

Actually I just remembered the last case, and I think that he would. I also think that, unlike me he wouldn’t have hesitated as much.

Let’s do it!

Oh dear, Mr McGilded isn’t happy. Perhaps we can style this out enough for him to convince Strongheart he should give us a job anyway?

(She said hopefully)

And Barok’s, amazingly, not happy either.

Ok Ryunosuke, here’s your time to talk about truth!

Uhh… let’s try and inspire a bit more confidence Ryunosuke…

Yeah alright, that’ll do it!

Barok finds it interesting. I think that means we passed.

Mr McGilded however…

Yeah...

You know I thought the same thing myself.

(God I hope I haven’t screwed this up…)

He’s putting the squeeze on us!

Ryunosuke, you beautiful individual, there is SO MUCH THAT IS NOT RIGHT!

Oh Juror Number 5’s going to clear this up. I can’t believe he’s actually pulling his weight for once!

I mean, he was swindling his customers, and you’re clearly drinking in court… all I’m saying is I wouldn’t put much faith in the responsibility of your coach company.

Oh, and he’s changed his verdict to guilty!

Wonderful!

(I don’t even know if I’m being sarcastic now or not)

And there goes Juror Number 3 as well, closely followed by Number 4!

Oh, how quickly these people turn!

And Ryunosuke is as fed up with them as I am!

Yeah, yeah Barok. We know. We dug ourselves away from victory and snatched defeat from it’s jaws. Let’s just get on with it shall we!

The right thing? …Maybe?

I mean I think we helped. Quite a lot actually.

Anyway, back to cross examination.

So, Gina says that after she heard the thud, the seat above her lightened up because Mr McGilded had got up sit Mr Mason on the seat opposite. Apparently she knows that’s what happened because she immediately lifted the seat up a little so she could have a peak. (Or a ‘butcher’s’ if you're speaking in Cockney Rhyming Slang!)

Unfortunately for her, her ‘butcher’s’ meant that Mr McGilded could spot her and dragged her out into the open.

She’s also saying that she cleared out the coach gear and crammed it in there before the omnibus set off. Which is clearly a lie because we saw it there earlier. But evidence is everything and we have no proof.

Also poor Ryunosuke is really struggling to keep up with the Cockney Rhyming Slang. Something deliberately designed to make it difficult for anyone not in the know to follow what you were saying.

Like he is literally doing everything in a second language, and now the person opposite him is literally peppering her sentences with criminal code. I’m struggling to remember what some of these words mean and I am Cockney, I live in London, I studied this at school!

What I’m trying to say is: Hang in their buddy! I believe in you!

(I am finding it quite funny though that reading Gina’s Cockney Accent is starting to make the Cockney notes of my accent bob back up to the surface. I mostly grew out of it when I was a kid, so it’s really weird reading a fictional person’s dialogue can spike it up!)

Anyway, Gina seems to be claustrophobic, which raises the question of why she was in there at all, especially if she was squeezed in there amongst the rope and brushes and all that. She says that it’s out of necessity, so maybe that’s all there is to it. Still, it might be something it’s worth remembering.

Yeah… it definitely seems like I should remember it…

Anyway so let’s get back to how our dear client, Mr McGilded, dragged this child out of her hiding place, sat her next to a corpse, and then-THE CARRIAGE LURCHED THE CORPSE ON TOP OF HER!?!

OH GOD!

That’s it! Gina I’m taking you into care! Please come and sit next to me and my other child Sebastian. He’s a good kid, please don’t pick on him.

Anyway, we’ve now accounted for the bloodied hands Mr Furst and Mr Fairplay saw from the roof. They must have looked down while she was being interrogated by Mr McGilded.

Well that was nice of him wasn’t it!

And I’m sure you came along today, armed with a smoke bomb you dropped on his signal, because you wanted to pay him back for his kindness!

(If you can’t tell, I’m not buying it.)

I think it’s this whole damn affair Ryunosuke.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure Gina talking about small, cramped spaces made Mr McGilded over there swallow a lung, so let’s hop on top of that.

Sure you do.

Look, you clearly don’t relate to her enough to not use her. Which you are definitely doing. Like literally right now.

Yeah, this is exactly what he was trying on with us earlier.

(And Gina isn’t at all acting like she’s being steered.)

I’m going to be honest with you Ryunosuke, whatever she says will be 100% in Mr McGilded’s favour and probably contrived.

Look at him standing smugly next to her… prick.

I’ll be honest with you, I (me) have no idea what about her probably contrived statement is useful to us. But my god I’ve played enough Ace Attorneys to know the answer here!

GET THEIR ASS RYUNOSUKE!

(Catch me, trying to look like I haven’t been doing that since we got here.)

Well let’s press the new statement while I try and work out what it’s about.

I’VE GOT IT!

GINA SHOULD HAVE HEARD THE DOOR OPENING WHEN MR MASON BORDED!

But if she didn’t, and we can get her to confirm this, then the only option is that he got onboard with Mr McGilded!

Which both suggests that Mr McGilded purposely met with the victim, and means that, what with Gina also saying he got on alone, there’s a massive contradiction in her testimony.

Basically she’s definitely lied about something.

Get off my tailcoats van Zieks!

Anyway, now to simply present a picture of Mr Mason and I’m sure I can trust Ryunosuke to explain the rest.

GET THERE ASSESS RYUNOSUKE! (I knew I could count on you.)

Thank you for that obvious lie Mr McGilded, it has now been stated before the court and will come back to bite you in the ass promptly.

Well then, he should have said something before now shouldn’t he? Rather than expecting the defense to do the prosecutions job for him.

Wow that’s a silent rain of guilty there!

Editor’s note: and basically unscreenshotable, however I do it!

… I feel like Juror Number 6 has seen and done some shit in her time…

CAN IT JUROR NUMBER 1!

THANK YOU SUSATO I CAN SEE THAT!

SHUT UP BAROK!

Ok Ryunosuke, only Juror Number 2 is left. Frankly it’s a miracle she hasn’t changed her verdict already. Given that she is almost certainly going this way, I suggest we get ready to demand another summation examination so we can sway these thickle fucks back!

(Pluss it means we get to push the Prosecution Shut Up button.)

Ok, I’m pretty sure Mr McGilded just said something racist, so he’s still finding ways to limbo under that low bar I keep readjusting for him.

Also Juror Number 3 is back licking his knife again, while saying concerning things about loving carnage. So that’s also happening now…

Well Juror Number 2 looks like she’s about to unsurprisingly change her stance to guilty, and frankly this time I don’t blame them. Mr McGilded’s own defence just fired cannonballs through this credibility.

Oh, ok! Ryunosuke seems to think we can win this back before we get to summation time.

Fair enough I suppose, we were barley granted the first one.

Shut up Mr McGilded, can’t you see that I (Ryunosuke) am trying to wiggle you away from death now! Like fair enough it was me who put you there in the first place, but even so you need me to keep talking.

(Side not though, I find it curious that Mr McGilded doesn’t want me to pursue this line of enquiry even though the horse has well and truly bolted. Does he have some trick that will only work if they don’t know he got on with Mr Mason? Or does Gina’s lie actually revile more that I though?)

We stop her! Nice one Ryunosuke!

Ok!

Wait, none of these options are ‘he came in with Mr McGilded’?

Well I guess Mr Mason and Gina could have entered the cabin together? He didn’t look very well off and he was in debt, so perhaps the two of them were in cahoots? Like Mr Mason pays the money and then Gina immediately lifts it back again?

Ok I’ll go for the first one!

MOCKED AND PENALISED!!!

Fine then! Let’s try another one!

Let’s see, I’ve crawled all over every inch of that cabin and I don’t think there was a secret way in. So maybe the point I’m supposed to be getting at is that he was already dead?

Perhaps it was him, not Gina who was under the seat? That might actually explain why Mr McGilded had the contents removed, perhaps he was worried it had traces of body on them, and perhaps he was right and that’s where we’ll find the missing button!

Ok number 3 it is!

THEY’RE LAUGHING ME OUT OF TOWN!

(And also penalising me again, so now I only have three lives left!)

Ok, we’ll say there was another way in then.

I’ll be honest Ryunosuke you’re on your own with this one. I have no idea what your plan is.

ARE ALL THESE ANSWERS SOMEHOW WRONG?!?

Oh no, something new’s happening!

OH COME ON! WHY MEEEEE!

Ok, let’s just relax and think this through.

We know it can’t be the door because the door never opened. We also know that it was the only door in the cabin’s four walls. Perhaps my under seat theory could come into that, but that’s not really a way into the cabin. In fact the only distinctive thing on this drawing that looks vaguely entrance like is the skylight.

I might be wrong, but for some reason I was under the impression that it couldn’t open?

Ah well, it’s literally the only idea I’ve got right now so I might as well go for it!

SUCCESS!

Ooh, actually that’s a good point. I did think the sound of someone falling to the floor wouldn’t be enough to make someone like Gina scream, but the sound of a body falling through the roof is another matter entirely.

Oh yeah, they would have…

Well, I guess we should call them up as witnesses again. Maybe we’ll find something in their statements that’ll open up a new possibility?

(Though I can’t imagine what that could be)

I don’t like this…

Ok, is this whole thing just a way for Mr McGilded to get rid of two clients who weren’t able to pay up, while being able to make himself out to look like the victim?

They came back to the stand!

AND MR FURST IS READY TO THROW DOWN!

GET HIS ASS MR FURST!

LOOK AT RYUNOSUKE’S FACE! THIS IS AMAZING!

Mr McGilded is loving this, and to be fair he isn’t the only one!

LET THEM SPEAK!

I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Jack the Ripper here. Dark times everybody.

SHUT UP JUROR NUMBER 1!

Ok, so this is something all the jury want. Well good, they’re finally taking their roll seriously.

Oh, neat voice acting!

Tes-ti-fy! Tes-ti-fy! Tes-ti-fy!

(Quick Ryunosuke, try and look like we weren’t also chanting)

Anyways, let's get cross examining!

Ok, so their statement (as I understand it), is that they were the only two people up on the roof deck, and definitely would have noticed if someone else had been there. They had absolutely no reason to kill Mr Mason, the skylight was shut the entire time they were there and they couldn’t have opened it. Also, they want proof.

Ignoring the request for proof for the moment, I could see them possibly missing Mr Mason if he was laying down on the seat in front. It was dark when they got on, and they would have been preoccupied with how cold it was up there… also the longer they spend up there the more I begin to feel that there’s some sort of romantic spark between the two of them. I’m definitely not going to bring that before the jury because they have already proven themselves to be true products of Victorian London, but I can’t be the only one who think that… right?

As for the proof they requested, I’ve got nothing and I’m probably going to have to guess wildly before the day is out.

Juror Number 4 still pulling her weight I see.

Also, I’m pretty sure she’s not said anything hateful while she’s been up there, so my offer for a breakaway court still stands. We can gossip about the nature of the witness's relationship there if you’d like, but none of the others are allowed to come.

Anyway, my own feelings aside, Barok has apparently looked into them and they definitely didn’t know each other before today.

Much like Phoenix had to be beaten up, accused of murder and nearly killed to learn to not go with Murderers into a private room and tell them you have evidence against you; it’s taking a man like Mr McGilded to teach Ryunosuke what it is to be manipulated and played like a fiddle. It’s harsh, but really, it’s something Mr I’LL BE MY OWN DEFENCE ATTORNEY needs to learn.

(Nothing to add here, I just enjoy this image)

Ooh, Ryunosuke’s on the same theory that I am! Truly our hearts beat as one.

I mean, I’m not sure that rules out the factor of darkness, but I suppose sleep is a good point to rule out.

That’s London Baby!

GET HIS ASS MR FURST!!!

It is interesting that they knocked on the door though. I wonder if they saw Mr Mason inside?

They did!

YEAH GET HIM!!! I’M RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!

(Damn I wanted to see Mr Furst fully snap)

Not the one I know.

Well, Mr McGilded coughed up another lung at this statement, and while I’m hesitant to give him any more speaking room I probably should so he can inevitably trip himself up over his own words.

Ok, not the best start…

Don’t rise to it you idiot!

Well, there you go Mr Fairplay. Wel done, you just gave yourself a motive.

Yeah, what do you want to do with our single helpful witness?

Don’t come for him and his bad hats!

Yeah, he’s only an apprentice! I’m sure he’ll get better with time!

>:(

Yeah, the customers like it probably! It’s modern probably!

Wait what

Oh god, he has one of his hats!

I just thought he wasn’t doing to well so he’d patched it up himself!

(… Maybe Mr Furst should consider a new like of work after all…)

Oh Mr Furst, your shining transparency and shining beacon of truth has come back to hit you in the face!

Up until two minutes ago I couldn’t picture Mr Furst being physically capable of quarrelling, but now that I’ve seen his dukes I’m a little more willing to believe it. (I don’t though, obviously.)

Well at least he’s stopped talking now…

Yeah, worrying isn’t it.

Wait, is the latch on the outside?!

I’m pretty sure, now I’m looking for it, I can see it right there!

(Is the out of context ace attorney blog still around? Because if so this is gold dust for it.)

… Mr Furst… why are you telling us this?

It sure is.

… again Mr Furst... I don’t think we need to know this...

I’m not really sure to be honest.

Oh thank god there is a point!

Well I think the problem here is that he was on the inside of the cabin, whereas (and I just went in to check), the latch looking thing is only on the outside. I.e. it can’t be opened from within.

Ok, I think I’ve pressed everything now, and from what Susato just said and Mr Fairplay’s demand for proof, I’m guessing I should be presenting evidence.

The only things I can think of though are the Ledger, which connects Mr Fairplay to the crime, and the Omnibus itself. I still can’t open the skylight, so I’ll go with the Ledger first.

Aaand be penalized for it!

Now I have literally one life left, so it’s probably an idea to make sure I’ve saved now before I try the omnibus… aaand it’s a good thing I did because I was just penalised again!

Well let’s return to the last save and not do that then. Side note though, it’s a nice touch how all the Jurors have their own spoken Guilty!

Right, I have literally no idea what to do now, so I’m going to scrabble around with the evidence for a bit, and probably get guilty a bunch until something happens. Because that’s not very interesting to write or read, I think I’ll end this write up here for now and pick the next one up once I’ve figured it out. Till next time everybody!

[diamondsandlemons]

Hi sorry for being the least normal person on the planet about this but I saw you rbing some The Locked Tomb stuff and it's only been like a week or two since I got extremely into the series and it's nice to see someone I follow also show interest in it around the same-ish time as me! Can I ask abt your take on the books so far n fav character/s?

well I've only read the first book (I'm definitely interested in continuing with the series but I probably won't get to it for a while, esp. since I wanna get back into playing Ace Attorney games, as playing a visual novel kinda takes up the same time slot in my day as reading a novel, yk?) so there's def stuff I don't know abt yet.

but anyway yeah! I did really enjoy it. I appreciate the comedy in it, which I wasn't really expecting since like the cover art is so grim and it opens with some really dense politics stuff and a bunch of long names (that I just know should be pronounced with a british accent but I can't really make my head voice do that) and like the actual plot is very serious with deaths and stuff but nonetheless This Book Has Jokes

and its best when they're the dumbest, simplest jokes you could think of and Gideon says them out loud because thats the kind character she is. love her

Palamedes is great too because he entertains Gideon's antics while also being the one most focused on solving the mystery castle puzzles. (this girl who's been here for like a month and has never spoken a word to anyone is talking to me now? and she's rude? thats fine I'll just roll with it). he's also like the most normal dude in the whole cast. you feel comfortable when he's around

(btw what the hell was up with the thing he discovered about the rooms in Canaan House being from different time periods? like the different rooms are literally different ages? I don't think that was ever explained or brought up again???)

Also, for "lesbian fiction" being basically the one thing everyone says about this series, I was kinda surprised at the lack of a romantic plot in this one? I mean maybe there will be more of that in the other books idk, but like. ok so from the beginning it's very clear that Gideon and Harrow are gonna be the main pair here. and I was a little skeptical they were gonna be able to sell me on that because of where their relationship started, but nahhh I had nothing to worry about. they were meant for each other and enemies to lovers works great it turns out. but like. their relationship definitely improves a lot over the course of the story, but most of the time they don't talk to each other about anything but their jobs. its all bones and skeletons and locked doors with them.

don't get me wrong it has strong gay vibes all the way through (and Gideon is constantly commenting on how hot other women are, which is great) but at no point are Harrow and Gideon actually like. dating. closest they got was when I think it was implied they fucked once, after the pool scene. which like, good for them, I'm glad they got the opportunity to do that before, ah, y'know.

speaking of which I have NO clue what'll happen next based on how it ended. and the brief glimpse of the emperor at the very end was not at all what I expected, so that's curious as well...

OH yeah and speaking of the empire. uh at least the copy of the book that I have has a bunch of bonus material at the end, like in-universe essays and reports (and a pronunciation guide where I frustratingly learned I'd been reading half the characters' names wrong). and ONLY in that bonus material was it ever acknowledged that other inhabited planets exist outside of the empire. like for the whole book it kinda seems like there are nine planets that comprise the empire, and that's it. no humans anywhere else in the universe. no life outside the empire.

sure, the Cohort supposedly fights "enemies of the empire" but that's all that's ever said about that. could be like evil skeletons or some other kind of space monster for all we know. but no there ARE other civilizations, which I guess might be at war with the necromancers? it's cool to know that, that this story's universe is bigger than we've seen, and if I had to guess I'd say bigger than we probably ever will see, since there's still so many ghost/death mysteries and House history stuff our beloved necros have yet to solve.

ok thats probably everything I have to say about Gideon the Ninth for now. thanks for giving me an opportunity to put it all into words, lol

[abluescarfonwaston]

Anyway this is @sapphire-wine fault so blame her.

Detective conan ace attorney au where Edgeworth gets reverted to the body of a child after he followed after two men dressed in black he suspected were a part of a smuggling ring. Gumshoe lost him and when Edgeworth woke up he was like 5 again.

Gumshoe finds him in a pile of his old clothes that he’s MANY sizes too small for now. But Gumshoe can’t afford to take care of him! And he Definitely cant go home. He can’t even reach the door handle! Luckily Mia, Wright and Maya are all at this theme park celebrating Wright’s first case win! 

Gumshoe: Hey can you hold onto this for me for a second?

Wright: Huh? Sure?

Gumshoe: *Hands him tiny Edgeworth but in glasses and baby*

Wright: ... *Miles sweating bullets as Phoenix studies him* YOU’RE SO CUTE!

Edgeworth, master of being where the murders are gets Wright and Mia a Lot of work. Edgeworth is trying so hard to track down this smuggling ring and get his body back. Wright laments to... Tails (open to a better/worse fake name for Miles) that the man he studied law to met has suddenly disappeared. Phoenix and Tails share Wright’s bed the first few nights before they buy a second futon. Miles looks at him so sadly. Then Wright starts snoring and he looks less fond.

Miles regularly wakes Phoenix up in the middle of the night with nightmares. Phoenix cuddles him back to bed with all the Dad he will one day master. Talks to Mia about getting Tails into therapy because clearly that kid has seen some shit and is not handling it well.

Miles has to sit through first grade. It is a nightmare of children he does not know how to interact with (just like the first time!) and mind numbing boredom. (Just like last time!) Phoenix gets Many requests from the teachers to ‘just let the kids write his own reports please.’ Phoenix has no idea what they’re talking about.

He’s in a class with uhh Kay, Sebastian, Athena and Cody. They are very impressed by the fact he knows so much about the Steel Samurai and they make him watch the Jammin’ ninja as well. They solve kiddy cases as the Detective Kids. Sometimes these turn into murders/mafia/kidnappings. It’s Fine.

Franziska flies in to see her Father again. (Read: To look for her missing brother that she’s terrified her Father killed.) She is absolutely Brutal in court and Tears Wright and Mia apart. They manage to eke out a second day by the skin of their teeth.

Edgeworth sees her leaving. All rage and pain wrapped up in fury. Scrambles to remember what it was that kid called her that had her preening for Days.

“Hey Ms. Whip Lady!” Oh he was getting hit for that.

The hit never came. “... What is it small child?”

“Would you like to play chess some time with me?”

“... If you would like,” (I am so lonely here) “I suppose I could.” (I just want my brother back) “My little brother loves that game you know?”

“I do.”

Edgeworth sneaking into Lana’s office to find some key evidence about the smuggling ring. Gant Almost finding him. Badd searching for the same group. Shields returning and putting together who Miles is after like 0.5 cases with him and proceeding to almost blow his cover every single time they meet. Edgeworth questioning the system that corrupted him. Badd being Deeply frustrated people keep letting the 5 year old Tails run around the crime scene. (Gumshoe why are you letting this happen?!)

Miles learning that Kay’s father was killed by the smuggling ring to stop the investigation. That Athena’s uncle/brother was framed for murder by them. Realizing that Sebastian’s father is the head of the organization that attempted to have him killed (you thought it was a coincidence we went after you? You sniff around a little too much and Von Karma wasn’t moving fast enough) Cody is- well he’s just a very good boy with a camera and a love of the steel samurai and justice. Miles loves him very much.

Phoenix getting so desperate to just Know if Miles is alive or not that he asks Maya to channel him. (Mia already refused) Maya accidentally pulling Gregory instead and Gregory, lost and confused, comforting Phoenix.

Ema developing a ‘cure’ for his deaged state but unfortunately it only works for a little while. “Phoenix I-” Love you too. He wants to say. But their isn’t time. There is Never enough time.

Them all tearing down the entire smuggling ring and uprooting the deep roots of corruption in their system. The sword raised above the guilty chest of the corrupted and damned ready to plunge it in for one final victory over evil and madness-

When Von Karma kicks the feet out from under him.

And suddenly their whole case is falling apart because their Lead witness is suddenly pleading guilty to his father’s murder and there are so many voices demanding his guilt and so many more asking where Tails went- No one cared about Edgeworth. Edgeworth should just Die. Let him just die boy. Don’t make us force your hand.

Miles curling up that Same Exact way Tails does after an earthquake. Phoenix who was So ready to defend him realizing that Miles has been manipulating him for Months now and leaving the courthouse in a rage. Franziska holding her brother that she’s been looking for so long as his bones Melt back down to youth. A glazed eye boy taking the stand and confessing to his father’s guilt. Mia griting her teeth and not knowing how to proceed.

Von Karma demanding a verdict because It’s rather obvious isn’t it?

Franziska yelling out Objection! Standing against her Father. Shaking and demanding a fair trial for him. Protecting her Little Brother from her Father. From Papa with shaking hands.

(I spent the last months thinking you’d taken him from me once. I’ll not stand by and let you do that to me for Real)

He delaying the trial enough that Wright comes back. Them fighting side by side. The kids yelling out things that Miles taught them. The Ballistic markings Mr. Nick!

Coming together at the last minute to save Miles Edgeworth. Uncovering the truth and exposing the corruption of the system. Miles and Phoenix talking. I wanted to save you. You did.

Edgeworth taking the detective kids out for trips to the museum after its all over. Them being surprised how little their dynamic changes despite the fact he can now drive. He is still an absolute pushover but now he can buy them candy.

Lana and Mia reconnect over this kid they got very attached to (Miles vs Tails) and swapping stories and dragging him mercilessly. Maya dragging Edgeworth in his full adult glory to their (previously established) weekly steel samurai viewing party that Does take place in a mountain of pillows and blankets.

Phoenix sitting up late that first night that Edgeworth went back home and Missing. Missing all the space that was filled by another person. By caring for another person. (Shouldn’t it be a relief? Why am I so empty?) Mindlessly calling Edgeworth who answers because he can’t sleep even though he’s exhausted. (i don’t want to dream and wake up alone.) Come over Edgeworth. Edgeworth sleeping on the futon on the floor and Wright dropping his hand over the edge for Edgeworth to hold. Edgeworth not waking up alone.

Detective Conan au.

[basicjetsetter]

The Rise of Deus

♡ Pairing: Mob!Peter Parker x BlackFemale!Reader

♧ Setting: The Terrace Room in The Plaza Hotel, New York

♤ Warnings: Language, Adult Themes, Violence, +18 Smut (If you are under age, please do not read this).

♢ Word Count: 7.2k

☆ A/N: Okay, so I got a little carried away. This is such an indulgent mess, I love it to pieces. If you haven’t read The Fall yet, I suggest you read it before you get to this part. It takes a while to setup, but I promise it’ll be worth it.  Please hit like if you enjoy it, leave me a lil’ comment and a reblog if you love it. Happy reading! (P.S. I like these two characters so much, I might just write some more moments for them).

The game is in your hands. Exactly as planned.

♢ ♤ ♡ ♧

You’re not a great poker player.

In fact, compared to Peter and even Rumlow, your skills are subpar at best. The idea of betting everything on chance rankled the very fibers of your being, and you never could quite remember which hands beat which. But you were excellent at reading people.

It’s how you became New York’s best attorney. That, and because you were sharper than most people assumed you were.

Exhibit A: Rumlow.

You have to give it to him, though. He was initially difficult to read.

Earlier in the game, you tried to gauge his tells as he demolished Peter. Everyone reacts when they have a good or bad hand, whether they’re aware of it or not. As an attorney, you study your clients, plaintiffs, and sometimes the theoretically impartial jury for their tells—how they react to damning information, or rather, how they choose not to react.

The truth is in their eyes. The way they hunch their shoulders. Touch their face. Purse their lips. Breathe. Everything is a tell.

Rumlow’s whole personality screams dominant knowing, and he strategizes that way. Like he’s seen your hand before you even pick up the cards.

He plays too smart. And when he’s drunk, it becomes all the more apparent.

The way he rubbed his bottom lip before bargaining the final bet, slow and methodical, sealed the game against him. It’s not much to go off of for some, but for you, it’s more than enough. It’s a nervous habit—the movement confirming that his hand isn’t crap, but it isn’t the best, either.

You glimpsed down at your hand, then back up to Rumlow with a pleasant expression.

No, you aren’t a good poker player. But Peter is.

“Save your time, sweetheart. Let’s just get this over with,” said Rumlow, leaning back in his chair. It creaked under his muscular weight. “Fold.”

You arched an eyebrow, then crossed one leg over the other, causing the hem of your dress to ride up and show a decent amount of skin. “Don’t I get to place a bet of my own? You know, just in case my hand is better.”

Rumlow’s eyes predictably feasted on your exposed skin before he dragged them back up to your face. “What makes you think your hand is gonna be better than mine?”

“Indulge me, Brock,” you nearly purred, internally gagging as Rumlow’s breathing became labored. “If you know your hand is better, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. I just want to have a little fun.” 

Part of you is grateful that Peter is handcuffed in the back of a police car, not here to witness your attempt at seduction. You needed to do it while Rumlow is still drunk enough to fall for it.

Rumlow contemplated your words for a split second, eyes dipping down once more to relish the sight of your skin while his thumb repeatedly ran over the top of his cards. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes.

He finally said, “Alright, I’ll bite. What’d you have in mind?”

Saccharine venom oozed into your words as you held a charming smile. “When I win, you’re going to give me $20 million, all of your inventory and routes to Peter, and I want your promise that the Scorpions will no longer operate in New York. You can go be someone else’s problem.”

The smug light fizzled out of Rumlow’s eyes, and his mouth hardened into a flat line. “Not going to happen.”

“And why not?” you asked innocently. You’re having way too much fun with messing with Rumlow’s head. “What’s so different about my demand from yours?”

“You don’t think you’re asking for too much?”

You leaned forward, letting your eyes slowly roam over his face before settling on his dark eyes, loving the way it made him uneasy, then said matter-of-factly, “Not at all. If you want everything from Peter, then I want everything from you. Only seems fair. That is, of course, if you want to renegotiate your previous proposal…?”

Rumlow sat up in his chair, staring too hard into your face. Searching for a crack in your armor. He wasn’t going to find anything that wasn’t already there. You’re sincere and know next to nothing about manipulating a game of luck, and it showed all over your face, clear as day. He’s got nothing on you.

“What is this?” He looked around the room as if there were hidden cameras on the walls, looked at the clueless faces of people spectating the game.

Tony muttered, “Well, this was supposed to be a party, but I’d say we’re miles away from that—ouch!” He groaned as Pepper elbowed him in the ribs.

“What do you think this is?” you questioned him back using the same inflection.

Rumlow’s head snapped back to face you, his eyes practically pitch-black. “A fucking setup.”

“It’s just a game, Brock. That’s all it is.” You’re surprised at how serene you sound because your heart is leaping around in your chest, about ready to burst free and fly away from the excitement of it all, but you’re conscious enough to keep the surprise off your poker face. “Do we have a deal or not?”

He filled his lungs with a ragged breath, expelling it out of flared nostrils. Pinched the bridge of his nose. Strategized. “$25 million. Everything else stays the same. His routes. His connections. You.”

You nod once. “And you accept my wager?”

Rumlow begrudgingly nodded. His knuckles turned white from clenching his cards.

“On three, we show our hands,” you said and waited, giving him one last chance to object. He doesn’t; he just keeps his hawk-like stare trained on you.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

You both turn your cards over at the same time.

Rumlow’s hand shows a Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven, all clubs. Straight Flush.

Peter’s hand shows a King, Queen, Jack, Ten, and an Ace, all hearts. Royal Flush.

“Bullshit!”

Rumlow shot up from his chair, threw his cards to the floor, and snatched the gun from one of his men, aiming it at you.

Gasps filled the room, and you’re certain you heard Tony shout your name in alarm. Just as they’d done with Peter, the venue's guards raised their weapons at Rumlow and his men. 

You broke out into a fit of giggles. There were uncontrollable, bubbling from your lips and almost doubling you over. Maybe it was your nerves finally getting the best of you, or perhaps it was the dumbfounded shock on Rumlow’s face as he pulled a gun on you. Either way, you didn’t have a hope of taming them.

Rage intensified the crimson flush on Rumlow’s face. He barked out, “Why the fuck are you laughing?”

You struggled to pull it together. “Di-Did you honestly think you could beat Peter at poker, of all things? Seriously? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I knew you were dense, but geez.”

“He cheated. Ain’t no way he got that hand. Ain’t no fucking way.”

“Oh, come on,” you said, trying hard to stifle the giggles. “You said it yourself. Peter's a lucky son of a bitch.”

Rumlow took a minute to process the loss, eyes spacing out while the gun remained pointed at you. Your giggles died down as you sat patiently, drumming your fingers against your thigh and staring right back at the gun, uninterested. He wouldn’t shoot you. Not if he valued his life.

If Peter were here, you knew he’d be proud. Furious, yet proud.

At last, the arrogance returned to Rumlow’s smile, and he scoffed, “Congratulations, I guess. But um, I don’t really have to give you anything, you know. All bets have been word of mouth, nothing written down.”

Your smile never faltered. “Don’t do that, Brock. That isn’t how this works, and you know it. You were fully expecting Peter to hand me over to you with a nice, shiny gift bow taped to my ass and $25 million. Right? Or are you pointing a gun at me just because you feel like it?”

Rumlow shrugged with one shoulder. A hint of his anger traced his features before it faded back into an impassive mask.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not giving you shit.”

You sighed dramatically. “Okay, fine. Be that way. But this is how it’s going to play out, regardless. You have three choices.” You ticked them off on your fingers. “One: You give me what I won and leave New York. Two: I sue your ass until you have nothing. Three: You get to deal with Peter. That last one won’t bode out too well for you.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked, snickering. “And what you gonna sue me for, sweetheart? Gambling?”

Your eyes firmed into a severe gaze as you spoke. “I had a nice little chat with Miss Shuri Udaku earlier.”

The dark look passed over his eyes again. A thick mask of indifference tried to hide his culpability before you could spot it, but you didn’t even need to see it in his face. The guilt in his tightened shoulder blared like a blinking neon sign.

Bullseye.

You forged on. “Now, if what Shuri told me is true, which, guessing by the look on your face, it must be, you’re in deep shit. And I’ll take an educated guess and presume she isn’t the only one you’ve…spoken with.”

You paused for him to defy your assumption. He remained silent, his jaw grinding.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” you inquired with a faux mask of concern. “Did I hit a nerve?”

Rumlow’s eye twitched as he lowered the gun. Defeat heavy in his furrowed brows. “I’m gonna make you pay for this. You and him.”

“Just be sure to run me my money, first,” you said. A sly smirk curled up the corner of your mouth. “I want the whole amount by tomorrow, and I want you out of this state by the end of the week, got it?”

A snarl rumbled in his chest. “Got it.”

“Good,” you smiled brilliantly. “Now get your ass out of here. And take the Dynamic Duo with you.”

Everyone lowered their weapons as Rumlow and his two shadows stomped out of the Terrace Room. You watched their backs until they were no longer in your eyesight. It’s over. You won. A rise of applause swelled after the threat ultimately left the room, catching you off guard as you moved to retrieve Peter’s cards from the ground. You curtsied for them and offered a humbled grin.

A rush of adrenaline is humming through your veins, and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever felt before. You’re positive you could scale the Empire State Building without so much as a harness, just running on pure pent up energy. Maybe you should do this kind of stuff more often.

Steve was the first to come up to you, confusion laced in his blue eyes. “We’re letting him go? Just like that?”

“Yes.”

“He pointed a gun at you!”

You brusquely scanned your unscathed body. “No harm, no foul, Lieutenant Rogers.”

“Jesus, you and that kid are a match made in Heaven,” Steve mumbled, shaking his head in shock.

“Wouldn’t be marrying him if we weren’t. And thank you for reminding me…” You trailed off, heading in the direction of Tony and Pepper.

You had to tell Tony the truth about you and Peter before your nerve wore off, or else you’d never find the courage to ever say it straight to his face. Even as you trudged over to him, a leaden ball of anxiety smothered your chest.

Shuri sprang at you without warning, tightly hugging you and jumping up and down as she squealed, “That was so awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“It was nothing,” you said mirthfully.

“It was everything! That man’s been breathing down my neck for months about those weapons. I couldn’t turn a corner without seeing him. I can’t thank you enough.” As you broke apart, she handed you an embossed card. “If Peter is interested, I would love to have a meeting with him. Maybe we could all catch lunch.”

“He is definitely interested. I’ll be sure he calls you,” you assured, beaming her a friendly smile.

She nodded in agreement then waved her goodbyes, walking away to find her companions.

Everything always falls right into place for Peter.

You shook your head in awe as you made your way over to Tony and Pepper again, this time scanning your surroundings to ensure no one else ambushed you. Once you were close enough, they both threw their arms around your shoulders and pulled you into a protective embrace. 

“We’re so glad you’re okay, sweetie,” said Pepper as she rubbed a comforting hand up and down your back.

“Don’t you ever pull something like that again, you hear me?” Tony chastised, his tangible relief choking up your throat. He pulled away to look into your eyes thoroughly. “I almost had a heart attack watching that. How could you just stare at the guy as he held a gun to you? You didn’t flinch or anything. I swear you’re turning into a different person right before my—”

You blurted out, “I’m marrying Peter.”

Tony blinked and opened his mouth to speak, but you cut him off, the floodgates bursting open as you spilled everything.

“He proposed three months ago, and I said yes because I am in love with him, Tony. I am in love with Peter Parker, and I know you hate his guts because of what he does, but I don’t care. And…” you stopped, sucking in a deep breath to steady your trembling words. “And I don’t care if me loving him means you hating me. You’re like a father to me, and I respect you, but I won’t continue to let you badger me about being with Peter.”

Tony interjected, “Woah, woah, woah, pump the brakes. Where did you get the idea that I’d ever hate you for being with Parker?”

Both you and Pepper raised an eyebrow at Tony, a universal look that easily translated to Your words said it all.

“Alright, sure, I never really liked the kid. He’s this devious little mastermind who circumvents the law to get what he wants and somehow even got you. But I can hate him and still love you, hon.”

You coughed up a laugh partly because of your relief and partly because of how ridiculous Tony was. “I want you to tolerate him at least. That means no more bringing up the fact that I am his Personal Attorney, no more threats of arrest, and no more nicknames.”

Tony sighed and said, “Okay to the first two, but I can’t make any promises for the nicknames. Baby-faced Criminal has a nice ring to it.”

Your smile brightened. “Deal.” You stepped back into his hug, pressing your face against his shoulder and exhaling. Finally, having the truth out in the open felt like releasing a breath you held in for three long months.

You heard Tony add, “ ‘Sides, I already knew you were engaged.”

“What?” you screeched, stepping back. “What do you mean you already knew?!”

“First of all, ouch,” Tony groused as he rubbed at the ear you accidentally screamed in. “Second of all, Pepper is not really that great at hiding wedding preparations as she thinks she is. And Parker came to me about four months ago.”

You’re so shocked you forgot to breathe, involuntarily pulling in a long drag of air as it dawned on you that your tormented lungs screamed for oxygen. “What—what do you mean Peter came to you?”

“Your young man thought it proper to ask me for my blessing before popping the big question, and I may have expressly told him to go swim in the Bermuda Triangle.” At your expression, he quickly added. “Well, he didn’t!”

“It’s just—He never told me that he asked.” You omitted the part where Peter held your refusal to tell Tony about the engagement against you. Tony wouldn’t understand Peter’s motives any more than you could. But you were going to make him explain himself. 

A brief impression of chagrin flashed in Tony’s eyes. “I admit I wasn’t that forthcoming about it. He probably thought it’d be better to keep it to himself than tell you I said no.”

That’s not what it was, but you hummed in agreement anyway.

“Welp, my party mood’s long gone,” Tony stated, unbuttoning his jacket and loosening his tie. “Anybody else up for some Shawarma?”

| Next Morning  |

Today wasn’t unlike any other day. Phillips told you your client's location, even though you both knew the area by heart. Third floor. Cell Block E. Number 7. Always Number 7. Lucky Number 7.

♢ ♤ ♡ ♧

One of the guards, a new hire with a tag reading Lang, shadowed you as you walked out of the detention center’s lobby and into the bustling dayroom, then up to Peter’s cell. An untrained eye wouldn’t notice the guard’s careful proximity, and an untrained ear wouldn’t hear his trepid footsteps. You knew better. 

Your fiancé is many things, and cautious just happens to be a large part of his make-up. None of the inmates lounging around the dayroom dared to glance your way, not because of the authoritative figure trailing behind you, but because of Peter and his imposing rap-sheet. 

While Lang’s presence was somewhat reassuring on your way around the crowded cells, you didn’t need the security detail. You weren’t afraid of anyone in this facility. The moment you propositioned to be his attorney, he should’ve known you weren’t one to be easily rattled.

When you stood in front of Peter’s cell door, Officer Lang moved up close enough to smack the door twice, then placed the key in the lock. As the heavy metal door swung open, you weren’t sure what you might see. 

He’s been away from the action, holed up in here all night. A tiny part of you expected Peter to be pacing the floor, running his hands through his hair and wringing them together in distress, beads of sweat trickling down his neck as he counted the seconds to your arrival. You wondered what it would be like to witness God panicking.

What you saw made you smile. Peter, sitting on his squalid mattress with his body propped up against the wall, his eyes closed and mouth slightly ajar, is sound asleep. Some of his brown curls are slightly lying over his forehead, giving him the perfect air of innocence.

Lang took a half step through the door, poked his head in the room, and loudly sang, “Wakey, wakey, Parker! You’re sprung.”

Peter jolted up from his position, looking around as if he forgot his bearings. The moment his eyes landed on yours, a sly smirk slid onto his lips, and the air of innocence vanished.

“Took you long enough.”

He got up from his bed with a low groan, stretching out the kinks in his neck. His dress shirt from last night is has a few more buttons open, exposing his black undershirt, and his shoes are in the corner of the room. The guards didn’t bother giving him a change of clothes because they knew he’d be out in less than 24 hours.

“I could always leave you in here, Mr. Parker,” you said, a small, teasing smile playing at your lips.

Peter grinned back at you, then retrieved his shoes. Lang stood against the wall like a statue, head forward and hands crossed in front of him. 

When he was out of the cell, and Lang locked the door behind him, Peter addressed Lang. “She can take it from here, Scott.”

And just like that, Lang’s stoic face melted into a rueful grin as he mockingly saluted Peter and walked off, leaving the two of you alone. 

Your mouth gaped for approximately two seconds before you caught on. “You hired him to play pretend-cop?”

“Oh no, Scott works here.” Peter slipped his shoes on and unbuttoned the rest of his dress shirt’s buttons. “He just also happens to work for me while working here.”

You wanted to ask how many Scotts he had in this facility but thought against it, deciding to quietly lead him out of the dayroom and into the lobby. No one acknowledged your departure. Every single one kept their heads down and tended to business as usual. 

Peter’s driver, Flash, leaned against the car, smoking a cigarette. Once he saw you both approach, he stamped it out and immediately opened the back seat door for you and Peter.

“Good morning, sir,” he said, always overly cheerful.

Peter clapped Flash on the shoulder and said, “Hey, man. How you doing?”

“Good, sir. Thank you for asking.”

“Dude, we talked about this. Stop calling me ‘sir’ so much. It’s getting weird.”

Flash automatically nodded, saying, “Right, sorry about that,” before closing the door behind Peter. He’d call Peter ‘sir’ again by tomorrow.

Peter groaned in instant satisfaction as he sank into the leather seat. It’s a low and throaty sound, and you felt its vibrations all the way to your core, leaving a flustered mess for longer than you’re proud to say. Two years you’ve been with this man, and the lust hasn’t dimmed.

Peter got right to the point. “So, how’d it go?”

You smirked contentedly, flattening your hands across the lap of your pencil skirt. “You are $20 million richer. And you have the Scorpions’ trading routes and connections, along with a guarantee eviction by the end of the week.”

“20 million… Damn, baby, I knew you were a hustler, but that’s in-fucking-sane!” Peter whooped, turning in his seat to face you fully. His face radiated with excitement. “I bet Rumlow’s pissed.”

“Oh, yeah. He was pissed, alright. He tried renegotiating, then tried to worm out of it. It was fun to watch him squirm.” You’d never mention the part where Rumlow pulled a gun on you to Peter. Not because you cared for Rumlow’s safety in any way, but because you’ve seen how Peter reacts when someone threatens his loved ones, and you never want him to go down that dark tunnel again.

Peter leaned his head against the headrest and wistfully said, “Wish I could’ve been there. Stark didn’t give you a hard time for gambling, did he?”

The topic shift smacked you with the remembrance of what happened last night, what Tony had said. It shouldn’t have kept you up all night, but you tossed and turned with the nagging fact that Peter both hid his confrontation with Tony and had the nerve to pester you about not telling Tony something that he already knew.

For a while, you stayed up wondering why Peter even brought it up at dinner. What was his purpose? Why act cold towards you if there wasn’t a reason? Or was it even an act? Did he genuinely resent you that much for being anxious about telling Tony? Would you ever see that side of Peter again? So indifferent, so cruel. So quick to discard you.

The rest of the night, you replayed over and over how he ignored you, how he minimized you. That wasn’t part of the plan. Most of what happened before the cards got into your hands played out unexpectedly, and you understood why that had to be at some degree, but the ambiguity of it all ticked you off. Did he not trust you?

When he dismissed you, you actually thought about leaving him there alone. Was that not real?

That ache in your chest was real.

“Babe?” Peter waved his hand in front of your face. “Babygirl? What’s wrong? What’d I say?”

You couldn’t bring your eyes up to meet his. They strayed to your lap, refusing to move even as Peter hesitantly took hold of your chin with his thumb and index finger. He emphatically called your name a few times, worry intensifying more and more as an unspecified amount of time passed. Peter never dropped his hand. His thumb caressed your chin while he waited for you to speak, knowing you would.

The desire to verbalize took longer than you expected. There just didn’t seem to be a right way to say what was weighing on your mind. Outright confronting him with only inference to go off of felt childish, but so did beating around the bush. You ultimately chose to address the subject of your silence.

In a tense voice, you said, “Tony told me that you asked for his permission to marry me.”

About thirty seconds ticked away. Peter sighed, “Are you upset that I didn’t tell you?”

You nibbled on your lower lip, then brought your eyes up to meet his. Mild concern drowns his warm brown eyes, somehow increasing their depth, and frown lines creased his forehead. If this were one of your typical squabbles and he stared at you with those damn eyes, you’d have been a goner.

“No.” You shook your head to clear the effect of his gaze. “I’m upset that you asked Tony and then proceeded to act like I had an obligation to tell him something you already told him. And then you got so mad about it last night…” you trailed off in a whisper, recalling his restrained animosity, something you never thought you’d experience with him.

“I wasn’t actually mad,” he rushed.

“So you were pretending?” You asked lamely, feeling the ghost of last night’s ache lash around in your chest. “All that wasn’t real? Ignoring me? Snatching your arm away from me? Dismissing me?”

He insistently shook his head, brown curls swaying across his forehead. “None of it.” 

To you, the truth is almost as bad as the lie.

“It felt real to me.” Your voice sounds so small, it’s humiliating. You shifted uncomfortably in your seat, severing the eye contact again. “The fact that you couldn’t just tell me that that’s what you were doing beforehand makes me feel like… like you don’t trust me. Like you’re willing to sacrifice my feelings for some stupid game. Like I’m a pawn.”

“Fuck,” Peter cursed, running a swift hand through tousled his hair. “No, baby, that’s not it. Come ‘ere.” 

Peter reached over the divider and pulled you into his lap despite your attempt to scoot away. You didn’t want him holding you, consoling you because even if you tried your hardest to resist him, an irrational part of your brain would immediately relent to his closeness.

You stiffened at the touch of his hand rubbing small circles on your lower back, then loudly to clear your throat. “What is it, then?” You spoke to him as if he were one of your clients. Professional. Distanced. But you couldn’t look into those eyes.

“I was giving you an alibi,” he confessed, not fazed by your tone. “In case anything went wrong. We needed to look distant so Rumlow wouldn’t catch on to how coordinated everything was.”

Okay, that’s nowhere near the answer you were expecting. Because, of course Peter would come up with a convoluted explanation that only made sense to him. Irritation rose in you like a brewing storm as you peered straight into his eyes, ignoring the visceral pull as they locked on you.

“Did it ever occur to you that I’m a grown-ass woman who can handle shit by herself? I didn’t need a fucking alibi, Peter,” you said, indignation souring your tone. “What, did you think I was going to fuck up that bad?”

“No,” said Peter firmly. When you scoff, he persists. “I mean it. I was just—I was just trying to look out for you.” He held your chin again, applying a slight amount of pressure to keep your eyes on him. “I’m sorry. You’re right, you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, and I love that about you. Sometimes, though, I want to be there for you as much as you’re there for me, if not more.”

You stubbornly held your tongue. You’re not going to cave with a simple apology… no matter how sincere it sounded.

Peter leaned in closer, poorly hiding his smirk as he heard your breath hitch while his lips skimmed up your neck. “I’m sorry, baby,” he murmured against your skin. “I apologize for not considering your feelings.” He placed a tiny kiss on the crook of your neck, trailing the tip of his nose against your jawline. “I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark.”

An undeniable heat flickered to life within you, building as Peter’s actions grew enticingly bold. The pads of his fingers glide up and down your stocking-clad thighs, and each motion brought his hands down further and further until his whole, warm palms flattened down to massage your calves and thighs. Unknowingly, you inclined your neck to allow him to access a larger expanse of your skin.

Any resolve you cemented against Peter crumbled as a pair of lips outlined the shell of your ear. His voice comes out hoarse when he speaks, hoarse and deliberate. “I trust you with everything I have. You know that, don’t you?” His lips hover dangerously near yours.

You exhaled out a breathy, “Yes.” You do know that. He wouldn’t trust anyone else to hold those cards but you, wouldn’t trust anyone else bargaining with his assets but you.

Peter held your lowered gaze steady as he hooked his hands under your thighs and hoisted you up so you fully straddled him, your pencil skirt elastic enough to permit marginal movement. A low whine emitted from your throat as he pressed a chaste kiss to your lips, then pulled away to stare at you, using the full force of his immorally brown eyes.

“Can you forgive me?”

It’d be as simple as sin to whimper out a pathetic affirmative and let him off scot-free. Excruciatingly simple. You knew he meant every word, and you were glad he let you express your anger before apologizing. You wanted to forgive him. But your mind currently wasn’t on the same circuit as your mouth, refusing to utter a single word, wondering where that would get you.

“Hmm,” Peter hummed pensively, contemplating while a predatory grin crept onto his lips. “Guess I gotta work for it, then.”

♢ ♤ ♡ ♧

Your back arched up off the bed, and you toss your head back as you gutturally cried out Peter’s name for the fourth time.

The moment you two entered the house, Peter was on you, guiding you to the bedroom with his lips attached to yours and his hands groping your backside. His hands never left your body, and once they did, it was only to tear off his clothes. You weren’t sure what you signed up for, but something glinting in Peter’s eyes, an erotic passion you’ve encountered several times in your relationship, bespoke of an intense afternoon headed your way.

Before you could even guess what that might entail, you were lying on your back in the middle of the bed, and Peter was parting your legs open.

Currently, his grip on your bucking hips remains vice-like as he keeps his face planted between your quaking thighs, still lapping up the rest of your orgasm and staring you dead in the eyes with wicked lust.

Each time he made you cum, he’d huskily ask, “You forgive me?” The first time, you were cheeky, shaking your head with a tiny pout on your lips and eagerly wiggling your hips and tugging on the silky strands of his hair for more. The second time, your body ached wonderfully, and you lazily nodded your acceptance of his apology, but he didn’t stop, tightening his hold on the swells of your hips and delving his tongue through your silken folds. By the third time, you were religiously chanting, “I forgive you,” grasping the sheets for dear life as Peter solely sucked on your clit and salaciously groaned into your core.

On the fourth orgasm, your whole body is aflame, your fingers are desperately clutching Peter’s wrists, and you’re a blissed-out, gibbering mess with tears of ecstasy streaming out the corners of your eyes.

“You forgive me?” Peter rasped, his breath fanning against your sensitive skin. He alternately kissed your inner thighs, sometimes gently sucking the skin until he left stinging love bites.

Knowing words were well beyond your reach, your jerkily bobbed your head up and down, gulping in air to calm your heaving chest.

A whine of relief breaks free when Peter finally lets go of your hips and leads a sloppy trail of kisses up your abdomen, between the valley of your breasts, along your neck, your jawline, until he claims your lips in a sensually slow kiss, one that stole away your regained breath. You mewled into it, wrapping your arms around his neck and threading your fingers through his hair. He lowered his body on top of yours, deliciously suffocating you with his body heat and his scent—an intoxicating aroma of smoky spice you only associate with Peter.

Your brain treads on a fine line near oblivion. All your mind can comprehend is Peter. His soft little grunts in your mouth, his toned chest brushing against yours, his hardened cock against your stomach as he ruts into you.

“I want you,” you panted, wanton need thick in your voice. You’re entirely spent, but you couldn’t help but crave more of Peter, couldn’t help but want him to thoroughly build you up only to tear you down all over again. 

Peter teasingly nipped at your lips, mumbling, “Where do you want me?”

You let out an impatient, low-pitched groan. “Inside me, baby. Please, Peter.” Your hips angled up on their own accord, grinding your dripping core against his cock. “Please, fuck me.”

His eyes rolled back, mouth slightly agape, and his face pinched in pleasure—what a pretty sight. Your eyes drank him all in. You loved the way he squinches up his eyes, almost as if all the sensations are too much to process. You loved how the flush creeping up his neck turned his skin a lovely scarlet. You loved watching him try to be attentive to you while being so engrossed in his own bliss.

Unhurried, Peter took himself in his hand, then slid his length through your folds before guiding his tip to your entrance. He always liked to draw this moment so he could hear the desperate noises you’d make for him. Your whole body sang out for him, from the broken moans spilling from your lips to the constant, stuttering pitch in your hips. 

At an agonizingly slow pace, Peter slid inside of you, hissing out a drawn-out Fuck. You jumped and gasped at the slight sting as he stretched you out, gripping onto his biceps and clenching around him as the sting built up to a toe-curling burn of ecstasy. 

He stroked into you with painstaking emphasis, hitting a deep spot within you that brought stars to your vision while capturing your lips in a blistering kiss. Your hands held his face as the kiss deepened, both of you moaning into each other’s mouths in carnal abandon. Yeah, it definitely tops the sex you had on the night he proposed.

Peter broke the kiss to dip his head down and favor the skin on your neck. His voice is a low murmur when he speaks, barely louder than your gasping breaths. “You forgive me?”

You practically sob out, “Yes! Yes, baby, I forgive you.” The flames are multiplying, licking up from your lower region and engulfing you as his strokes rock steadily. 

“You know you’re my everything,” he grunted, sucking down hard on your skin and laving it with his tongue after you yelp his name.

Your heart flutters as you moan, “Yes.”

“Say it, baby,” Peter mumbled, an undercurrent of firmness in his voice. “I wanna hear you say it.”

“I’m your everything.” The things this man does to you…

“Good girl.” Peter’s hand wedged between your entwined bodies, reaching down to rub your overstimulated clit, watching the tremors shaking through your body as your mouth hung open in a silent moan. “I want you to remember that,” he ordered. “You’re my everything, and I’m sorry I”—grunt—“Fuck, I’m sorry I hurt you.”

He carefully collects you in his arms before rolling over and putting you on top, wrapping his arms around your back so your bodies remain pressed together. Some of your twists cascade on either side of Peter’s face, but he doesn’t mind, keeping his head buried in the crook of your shoulder as he pumped up his hips, deeply thrusting into you. 

“You feel so good, babygirl,” Peter said roughly, his hips picking up into a bruising speed. “So wet for me.” His hands slide down your back and squeeze your ass. “Always take me so well.”

All you could manage were needy, shameless whimpers in response as his dirty words, his scorching touch, his soft lips, his slick body against yours all sent you reeling towards a rapturous release. Every stroke brings you closer to the edge, and you know Peter isn’t far behind.

With some effort, you drag yourself up to sit on Peter’s cock and brace your hands on his chest, lolling your head back as the new angle allowed him to hit a deeper spot within you.

Peter admired you through half-lidded eyes. “So fucking beautiful.”

You mustered up a beaming smile for Peter, then set your focus on riding him with the little energy you had left, slowly bouncing up and down on his thick length and loving the quick hitch in Peter’s breath as you took control. You wanted to see him writhe underneath you as he came inside you, wanted to see his pretty lips part as he called out your name. You’re so close, it’s maddening, but you’re waiting for Peter to fall off the edge with you. 

As soon as Peter’s hips began to chase yours in a broken pattern and a repeated mixture of your name and fucks streamed out of his mouth, your climax slammed into you, slightly choking you up as you came with a high-pitched, quivering gasp and cried out, “Peter!”

Peter’s crashed down on him with the same force. His hips stalled for an instant before jerking up into you one last time, your name tumbling from his lips in a hoarse groan as he filled you with his hot, sticky cum. It feels as if you’re riding the wave of your orgasm for hours, and you blissfully drown in it. Savor it. Bask in the absolute pride of knowing that this man is yours and yours alone even though you have yet to seal it with the promise of ‘for as long as you both shall live.’

The comedown is a sluggish process, like trying to swim the length of a 10-foot pool of honey. Your heart rate is the first to slow down into a stable rhythm, then the raucous hum singing in your body simmers down to a delicious buzz whose sole purpose is to remind you of the five breathtaking orgasms Peter drew out of you. Every part of your body aches when you merely think about moving, so you cave and slump onto Peter’s torso, eliciting an amused oomph from Peter as he wraps an arm around your waist. When he pulls out of you, his cum smears a sticky trail in between your thighs.

Peter brushes away some of your twists from your face to press a gentle kiss to your perspired forehead. “I love you.”

“I love you,” you echo back, leaning up a little to peck his jawline. You snuggle up closer so your head rested on his shoulder. “And I really do forgive you. Your intentions were pure, and I know you were just trying to protect me.” You reach up and grab his chin, making him look into your eyes. “But I want your complete trust, Peter. Trust that I can handle things on my own.”

“From this point on, you have my whole trust,” Peter promised. He took hold of your hand, entwined your fingers together, and then put your hands over his heart. Its slow thud matched yours. “You have my word. No more alibis.”

You laughed tiredly. “Thank you.”

For a while, you two just stayed in each other’s embrace, your eyes falling as Peter’s finger lazily traced an infinity sign around your knuckles. You’re still buzzing, and you know you should roll out of bed to wash up, but you try to save these soft moments in your memory, to help remind you of the kind man who can be, at times, too cruel for words. That’s when he’s Deus. Right now, he’s your Peter.

Seconds away from succumbing to sleep, a thought occurs to you, and you quietly ask, “Hey, babe?”

Peter sounds wide awake. “Yeah?”

“Did Tony literally tell you to go swim in the Bermuda Triangle when you asked him for his approval?”

He snickered. “I believe his exact words were, ‘Go to hell, Parker. Better yet, why don’t you do us all a favor and take a swim in the Bermuda Triangle, and become a cold case?’”

Geez, Tony. You bit your lip. “And you still asked me to marry you anyway, even though he didn’t approve?”

“I was going to, regardless,” Peter murmured, and you could hear a smile in his words. “I just wanted to try and, you know, see if I could make you a little happier. Me and Stark bump heads a lot, and I saw how it upset you, so I thought asking him for his permission would get us on the right track to some sort of civility. Wanted it to be a surprise if he did say yes.”

Unexpected tears gathered in your eyes, and your chin wobbled. He tried for you. Had been trying for you. He even noticed how his and Tony’s bouts caused you to be anxious about your future together and tried to mend the stupid rift between them, for your sake. You aren’t going to lie and say that you’re glad Tony refused. You wished with your whole heart that he could clearly see how much you loved Peter. But, from now on, you’re no longer going to be scared of what Tony thinks of Peter. You love him, and he most certainly loves you, and that’s all that matters.

You scooch up a little more and capture his lips in a deep, passionate kiss. He’s only caught off guard for a second before kissing back, wrapping both of his arms around your waist. When Peter felt the wet tear tracks on your cheeks, he brought up his hands and wordlessly wiped them away.

As you pulled apart, you rested your forehead against his and said, “I can’t wait to marry you, Mr. Parker.”

Peter lightly rubbed the tip of your nose with his, replying, “I’m already yours, Mrs. Parker.”

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 20 Group 100

Propaganda and further pictures under the cut

Reds and Blues: Grif, Simmons, Sarge, Donut, Lopez, Doc, Caboose, Church, Tucker, Agent Washington, Agent Carolina, Locus

Wright Anything Agency (& Company): Phoenix & Trucy Wright, Apollo Justice, Maya Fey, Miles Edgeworth, Pearl Fey, Ema Skye, Kay Faraday & Sebastian Debeste

Submissions are still open!

Reds and Blues:

My babies are all assholes but love each other deep down

Wright Anything Agency (& Company):

THEY MEAN THE WORLDDDDD TO MEEEEEE for some reason a lot of people in the fandom don't play Ace Attorney 5 which is fair since it's kind of messy BUT. BUT. IT INTRODUCES ATHENA AND DOES SOOOO MUCH FOR THE WRIGHT ANYTHING AGENCY. In AA4 we learn that Trucy Wright made the Wright Talent Agency into the Wright Anything Agency in order to bring Apollo in as a lawyer when before it was just her (a magician) and her adopted father Phoenix (a poker player). and AA5 is all about Athena joining and Apollo learning how to trust her, at least it is to ME. they're so gooddddd aaaaaaa like you've got Phoenix and Trucy who are weirdos who love to scheme and you've got Apollo their longsuffering guy who deals with it all, and Phoenix is the mentor... and then Athena comes in and she has a lot of light and determination and trauma (just like the rest of them lol) and she's SO determined and I like her a lot!! And Trucy is my favorite and Phoenix cares about her SO much but he also has his other found family in the Feys!!!!!! Mia dies in the first game but her ghost stays with Phoenix and her sister/cousin Maya and Pearl are SO IMPORTANT TO HIM he loves them so much that's his sisters to me ;-; he would do anything for them and Trucy and he's growing as a mentor to Apollo and Athena too as the game progress... They don't write them all perfectly but they sure do a lot of things I like :) also feel free to split this up into their Wright Anything Agency or Phoenix + the Feys or Phoenix + Trucy if you need to I won't mind I just love AA's found family a lot

Picture this. You are a attorney in your mid 20s and somehow find yourself surrounded by weird little girls with every case you take on. You officially adopt one but really, all of them are either sisters or daughters to you. Especially your loud, burger-loving lesbian sister. Your childhood friend turned rival turned lover, who has a whip-wielding adoptive sister of his own, goes on a series of investigations while messing around with a furry for a couple of weeks and returns with two 17 year old children, a thieving lesbian and a child with a narcissistic murderer for a father who should've kept him back in school a few grades. Your lover has each of them under an arm, and they are appended to your stable of weird little girls but are very much hidden in the back. Then you find out that your daughter, the official one, has a 22yo trans half-brother with a musical diva mother and was half raised as a prince in Khura'in, so you divorce his boss (who is not your official lover, you just had a weird thing for a while when you were in your alcoholic phase, maybe while your actual lover was still messing around with the furry) very publicly while sending him to prison for murdering your daughter's father. Oh, but you have been disbarred, so you make your daughter's son send his own boss to prison, by planting false evidence on him. Of course the young man punches you in the face. Needless to say he works for you for a couple of years and never finds out that he's related to your daughter because that would require a straightforward conversation, now wouldn't it?

only one of them has never been arrested. only two of them arent lawyers. theyre all gay

Theyre very weird and misteruous and kinda fucked up a bit and they were through a lot but phoenix did his best and trucy well she's still just a kid but oh she's trying so fucking hard and always trying to wear a smile and it's breaking my heart the two of them. Also theyre weird i already said that but let me say it again they are WEIRD. and we love them<3 (the ace attorney fandom)

[rivalsforlife]

Do you have anything you wished was different from Ace Attorney canon?

Hello I'm finally slowly starting to get around to answering some of these! Sorry for the wait.

Uh this ask got super long so a basic summary of it: narumitsu being canon in a well-written way would be nice even though I don't think it would ever happen, I stand by not bringing back Phoenix as a main protagonist in DD, and I'd also want to rewrite all of SOJ so that Apollo goes to Khura'in in place of Phoenix, to have more interesting character stuff going on.

So the longer answer is this:

Aside from some of the actually problematic stuff that I don't feel qualified to talk about, story-wise, I answered a sort of similar question about a year ago here. I have changed my opinions a little bit since then, particularly with regards to the canonicity of narumitsu... because while I do love narumitsu I feel like I don't trust Ace Attorney to actually do it properly. After all if this past November has taught us anything "making a ship canon" could actually be quite undesirable and I have no desire to see Phoenix and/or Edgeworth sent to superhell. (I literally know nothing else about supernatural sorry about that.)

If capcom were somehow able to make narumitsu canon but in an unobtrusive way and as a natural progression of the storyline, like oh hey, the court record profile for Miles Edgeworth's Obligatory Last-Case Appearance has Phoenix mention they're dating, and maybe there's a few lines suggesting they live with each other, but it's not like... taking the entire story to force them together and otherwise does not change the way they interact with each other and butcher one or both of their characterizations in the process? I'd definitely be happy about that. Not gonna lie even if they made narumitsu canon in the most terrible way possible I'd have a "holy shit I can't believe they did that it's the best day of my life" kind of moment before I could think about it critically. But I honestly see no chance of them ever actually making narumitsu canon, so that's quite unrealistic to hope for anyways.

Aside from that in that other ask I talked about basically the premise of an Apollo trilogy and not bringing back Phoenix as the main protagonist in DD, and I still stand by that, buuut in my other ask I did touch on making SOJ a different game where Apollo goes to Khura'in instead of Phoenix - and you know what I'm going to take some time to actually talk about my dream version of SOJ because there were a lot of little things about the one we got that I didn't like. And it's going to be very long. So it's under a cut.

SO yeah I talked about it a bit in the other ask. I think that Phoenix going to Khura'in is a rather weak idea both externally and in-universe. In one of the interviews, too lazy to find which one, Phoenix basically goes to Khura'in because the writers couldn't figure out how to challenge him anymore. ... And then they don't actually challenge him at all. Because oh well now we're going to this new country where they KILL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS WHO LOSE and then it's supposed to be *shocking* that Phoenix would risk his life for a kid or his best friend. you know the guy who ran across a burning bridge to save his best friend. you know the guy who got punched in the face, nearly killed by the mafia, and tazed trying to save his clients. This doesn't tell me anything new about Phoenix's character. His whole travel in Khura'in doesn't tell me anything new about Phoenix's character. Basically the only reason he's there is to see Maya - Maya who theoretically would be returning home in about two weeks. Maya who was still in her training for two more weeks when Phoenix visited so he wouldn't be able to see her anyways. ... And in the meantime Trucy had the biggest show of her life that was going to be on TV and Phoenix wasn't there for it. And of course Phoenix didn't return home after Trucy was accused of murder (yes he couldn't be there for the trial, but he definitely could have for the emotional support afterwards) and instead just sits for two weeks in Khura'in doing literally nothing after Ahlbi's trial.

(And yes I know about the anime prologue that has Phoenix think Maya's in danger... but that's not strictly canon since it's never mentioned in game, isn't technically a part of the game, and even still, why wouldn't he go home after knowing that Maya's safe and that Trucy had been ACCUSED OF MURDER. Honestly that's what makes me angriest about this whole thing is that it makes Phoenix out to be a terrible dad. We really don't need any more takes like that, especially not from canon.)

And what about Apollo, you may ask? Well, given case 5 of SOJ, Apollo actually has a personal link to Khura'in and ends up staying there afterwards... after being there for like a day or two. I should note here that it has been a while since I went through SOJ in its entirety so I am fuzzy on many of the details. But both through what I remember and some conversations with people who actually played the game recently, the motivation for Apollo to actually stay in Khura'in isn't that great. It mainly seemed like guilt about his dead dad who he hadn't been in contact with for years and had completely written off until a few days ago but oh he died and then went to go visit him so... better take up the law office!

If Apollo had gone to Khura'in in place of Phoenix and spent more time there, reconnecting with his childhood home and actually getting passionate seeing how corrupt the legal system is there (even though we have a corrupt legal system at home) and being driven to fix it, that would make for a stronger story, I think. The Khura'in plot is more personally focused around Apollo than it is Phoenix. Phoenix's connection to Khura'in is through Maya, but Maya doesn't really have much of a connection to it aside from "it's where spirit channeling is from and she trains there". But Apollo, I guess, grew up there. So it's so strange to me that they force all of Apollo's connection to Khura'in in the last case while Phoenix is running around doing who-knows-what for the rest of the game. Phoenix spends more time getting to know the state of Khura'in and the Defiant Dragons and case 3's whole thing but he isn't the one who in the end decides to sit down and fix it; that's all on Apollo. It almost feels like they forced one of the two plots in to everything. And it was probably conceived as a Phoenix story that they needed to fit Apollo into last minute because oops he's supposed to be a protagonist too.

Some other strengths to Apollo going to Khura'in include that it would shake up the character dynamics a bit. Instead of Phoenix defending Maya, it's Apollo defending Maya, and that's a particularly interesting thing to look at in the context of Khura'in's "we kill defense attorneys" system. Of course, Phoenix would risk his life to save Maya, 100%, every time. But what about Apollo, who hasn't met Maya, who only knows her as "Mr. Wright's former assistant" - would he risk his life for her? And I feel like Maya would argue more against him defending her because of that. "We're strangers, you don't know me, you don't have to risk your life defending me." (Sidenote that I was always upset that Maya didn't protest much when Phoenix offered to defend her, knowing his life was at risk - sure she knows him better and knows he's always been able to get her out of these situations, but at the same time, the fact that there was no "what about your daughter?" conversation sucks. I really wish SOJ wouldn't have like. completely forgotten about the phoenix-trucy father-daughterisms.)

Let's say Apollo goes to Khura'in. Phoenix stays at home. Phoenix gets a call from Apollo that's basically "uhh hi Mr. Wright you know your friend Maya, she's been arrested for murder, if I defend her and I lose we're both dead," then you can tie in to that moment in 6-2 where Phoenix (who can't make it in time for the trial!) believes in Apollo and his skills as an attorney, not just to save Maya's life, but also his own. It ties in a bit more to the overall challenge of defending someone at the risk of your own life. Again, Phoenix would have very few hesitations, if any, risking his life to defend Maya. Apollo may have more defending a stranger at the risk of his own life.

Then if you can actually have Apollo and Maya talk together that would be neat - Maya can tell him embarrassing stories about Phoenix's rookie days, for instance. Their dynamic would be quite a bit different from Phoenix and Maya's, and that would be an interesting thing to see, unlike what we have in SOJ where all of Maya's substantial interactions are with characters she already knows or brand new characters.

(It would also be pretty neat to know more spirit channeling politics and dive in more to Maya's perspective on Khura'in and also her role as upcoming Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique and where she plans to lead the village in the future and also reconcile with her family's bloody legacy, but I'm not quite sure how to fit that in right now.)

And how about Phoenix, back home in Japanifornia? Evidently he'd end up being in charge of defending Trucy. Now, I did love the siblingsisms in canon 6-2, but I feel like there is still potential for Phoenix defending Trucy. All of Apollo Justice has a bunch of good moments between Apollo and Trucy, and she's co-counsel on all his trials, but we've never had any substantial Phoenix and Trucy investigation or co-counsel moments. I feel like AU 6-2 would be a great opportunity to dive more into Phoenix and Trucy's relationship and how it may have changed after Phoenix got his badge back. Plus, Phoenix being "the only one who knows how she really feels on the inside", he'd have unique insider knowledge into some of the Gramarye stuff that comes up in the case and Trucy's personal connection to the Gramaryes, which Apollo knows a bit of, but Phoenix knows more of. ... Or at least, should know more of, given that he raised Trucy for nine years at this point and they're very close, and Phoenix knows her better than anyone else does, even if capcom has forgotten this.

... Of course having Athena defend the case would also be great because more Athena spotlight is never a bad thing, but it's hard to come up with a reason why Phoenix wouldn't be there to defend her. And doing more switcheroos in terms of role in the plot is a bit beyond the scope of what I have in mind right now. Sorry Athena.

Aside from that, Athena still gets Storyteller, Apollo still heads Turnabout Revolution, and Phoenix still gets the DLC case. Apollo stays in Khura'in in the end with a bit more to his motivations. Rather than it just being about carrying on Dhurke's legacy, it's also something Apollo is passionate about after all he witnessed here. While we're at it I'd still rework a lot of Turnabout Revolution to make it so that Phoenix genuinely believes in Atishon because that makes for sooo much more interesting of a plot and actual character development on Phoenix's part than "Maya was kidnapped again and Phoenix is only wrong when he has no other choice", but that'd require some more detail and this post is long enough already.

And in terms of other details that need to be sorted out, there's the question of why Apollo would need to go to Khura'in in the first place. I'd probably say something to do with Dhurke. Maybe he comes back a bit earlier - actually alive, maybe, though crossing borders would be a bit of a challenge, or he reaches out to Apollo remotely somehow and Apollo goes to yell in his face about abandoning him (or at least that's what he thinks he wants.) Then we could have some more Dhurke and Apollo bonding time, potentially? Idk, if you switch up Phoenix and Apollo you're pretty much writing a whole new game and obviously I have not worked out all the details, but I think if Capcom had tried to go with this route from the outset they'd have a stronger game. At least stronger character motivations.

So... yeah. Those are my opinions. If you read through this whole thing I'm very impressed because it got very long!

[ct-multifandom]

Miracuclass Amogus Cringe

I was going back and forth about making this post, but then I saw @charming-mage ‘s and I was like screw it we’re doing this. This ended up 10x longer than I thought it’d be.

Marinette (crewmate) - tries to organize everyone into a buddy system to corner the impostors, gets frustrated when people agree to her plan and then start running rogue. When discussions start she’s leading the conversation and asking the most questions. She greatly prefers crewmate over impostor because she likes the mystery solving element of discussions.

Marinette (impostor) - whenever she kills someone she goes, “ahhhh” out loud and panics while her avatar sprints away from the body. She likes coming up with convoluted plans, especially when she can communicate with her fellow imp(s), and tries to make it seem like she’s in two places at once wether it be through venting or falsified testimony.

Adrien (crewmate) - he has to unmute and ask how to do like every individual task to the point where he’s been voted out over it before because cmon, you’ve gotta be lying about it at this point, just piece it together and stop unmuting during task time. He makes puns and sings little improvised songs while tasking. When he suspects someone but they don’t get voted out, he offers to tail them at the cost of his own safety. Same with fixing sabotages late-game. To him, getting killed is just part of the game progression, and it’s not a big deal because he trusts his fellow crewmates to avenge him and doesn’t mind ghost-tasking.

Adrien (impostor) - okay maybe he lies about not knowing tasks sometimes. But it also took him a while to learn imp mechanics and he kept asking about them out loud like, “what’s the red square task on the floor? Why’s my name highlighted?” And somehow nobody noticed while his partner(s) were like nggggg Adrien no... At least he’s good at playing innocent/fake-detective-ing in discussions. Whenever he kills someone he makes some stupid one-liner about it out loud.

Alya (crewmate) - we got Sherlock Holmes over here. She overanalyzes every tiny detail and isn’t scared to sacrifice the sus for the greater cause. When she finishes tasks, she likes to hang out by security and snoop in case of the rare satisfaction of catching someone red-handed. If there’s an emergency meeting, it’s probably because she probably saw something. She supports Crewinette’s plans to corner the imps. She thinks tasks wins are boring and that it’s a lot more fun to win through voting correctly. If they task-win or lose she stops before the new game and asks who the imps were and for a recap of their actions.

Alya (impostor) - a force to be reckoned with. She’ll wait for the perfect moment to strike someone, and then cover her tracks, join a group and win herself a strong alibi anyways. Her reputation as a ruthless detective protects her, even when the game is set to show that the ejected person was innocent. She always chooses someone to kill and someone to blame for it, but sometimes she gets carried away and they vote her off for pointing too many fingers.

Nino (crewmate) - he’s just tasking, man. If he gets killed he’s like, “oh mf” and just keeps ghost-tasking. He mostly hangs out during the discussions unless he has something solid to say, only jumping in at the end to confirm, “so we’re voting for _?”. He leads his own little crewmate squad around when he finishes tasks to protect them while they finish theirs.

Nino (impostor) - mostly plays off the strategy of his partner(s). He likes playing the protective team-player type “innocent diversion” role while the partner(s) get to killing, so when discussions start he’s totally in the clear, which gives him an opening to dodge suspicion in the future if he needs to take over killing. He pretends to fix sabotages all the time because people rely on him to do that as a crewmate.

Max (crewmate) - freakishly good at the card scanning task. People always ask for his secret and he’s like? It’s so easy? He has every map memorized to a t so he can point out the contradictions in people’s stories like an ace attorney character. It’s surprisingly really helpful. He’s the opposite of Alya in that he’s a big supporter of the “guys, stop voting off random innocent people, we have like five tasks left. Whoever hasn’t done them, just finish them” strategy.

Max (impostor) - he tries his best to protect his partner(s) in the discussion while laying low himself, and sometimes he gets voted out for it, but if he senses that there’s nothing he can do, he’ll throw them even further under the bus to build credit for himself. He doesn’t like sacrificing innocents as a crewmate, so his defenses are only sus when he’s caught being wrong. He sabotages a lot to control people’s movements and vents liberally unless he committed to a tasking group. That being said, he can go whole rounds without killing out of caution.

Kim (crewmate) - he’s the guy who calls emergency meetings early into the game only to say, “I miss you guys :)” He gets voted out all the time for doing troll-y crap and ignoring Crewinette’s plans. He’s also severely confused by some of the tasks and game mechanics, but fakes it till he makes it, until the discussion where he rarely says anything valuable and just jokes around. Sometimes, though, he’ll offer a tiny offhand detail and everyone’s like Kim, I hate to say it, but you’re a genius or that’s the piece we’ve been missing! And he’s like haha ok. He’s always behind on tasks, sometimes out of laziness, sometimes out of confusion, but he’s one of the people Max is impatiently waiting on.

Kim (impostor) - he gets caught in the act a lot and it’s hilarious, but other times he gets away with everything the entire time, which is kinda scary. He’s weirdly good at introducing so much confusion and derailment to discussions that everyone gets totally lost and doesn’t know what’s going on, allowing him to survive when they could’ve easily figured him out. Unlike Max, he knows literally nothing about the maps and always says he was at the “slidey thing” or whatever and everyone’s like idk wtf the slidey thing is, and if this were anyone else they’d be gone immediately, but it’s Kim so he might actually be telling the truth. He refuses to learn the names of anything because this really helps him out.

Alix (crewmate) - always trying to convince her friends to experiment with ridiculous game settings. Occasionally, she gets to them, and they get games with comically unbalanced imp:crew ratios, awful lighting, an overwhelming load or lack of tasks, or hilariously low cool downs. She revels in the chaos. When she tasks she usually moves from place to place alone but tries to hop in with groups to confirm her movements. She’s pretty good at sussing imps out when they offer enough information, but otherwise she just makes goofy comments with Kim.

Alix (impostor) - not too worried about killing people and venting. She moves fast and dashes from place to place, joining a group on the opposite side of the map from her last body. If anyone says, “I saw someone vent but I didn’t see who” it was probably her. She likes the “stand in a clump and watch the chaos ensue when one person drops” technique as well as the gambling “hope that the UI for the task everyone’s doing covers your killing and venting” strat. Sometimes she’s forced to vent to a dead end and gets caught, and sometimes the big brain detectives catch her, but she’s usually pretty smooth.

Rose (crewmate) - a big fan of hide and seek mode. She likes grouping up for tasks, protecting each other at the cost of efficiency. During discussions, she has a hard time believing anyone’s the impostor, and everyone’s like, Rose, we know there are exactly three of them, you can’t defend every individual person. Whenever she gets killed she is like *gasp* et tu, Brute? No matter who it was.

Rose (impostor) - runs around with her squad when... oops... looks like something got sabotaged! Uh oh, wonder who could’ve done that? She’s in a battle against that task bar more so than the players, and tries to stay away from killing. She emulates crewmate behavior perfectly so no one ever suspects her until really late. If she’s the only imp left and she has to kill, it’s like an Agatha Christie locked room mystery level of drama and betrayal within her squad. But we were all together the whole time... omfg no way... it was one of us.

Juleka (crewmate) - she secretly prefers when everyone tasks alone, but goes with the squad for Rose. She only talks in discussions if she’s 100% sure about something, and she often incomprehensibly mumbles vital evidence. ~10 minutes later when they catch the imp she’s like iItoldyouso and the crew’s like ??? If she gets killed and her tasks are done, she haunts that impostor relentlessly. Sometimes she even organizes ghost brigades in ghost chat and gets everyone to follow them.

Juleka (impostor) - definitely gets a kick out of the kill button. Whenever she takes someone down she’s like heeheehee. If she was peer pressured into a task team again, she’ll anxiously try to slip away unnoticed for a second to catch someone in the hallway outside, but if she’s alone, she’s on a hunt. Nobody is safe. When she defends herself on voice chat she also mumbles incomprehensibly and everyone’s like sure, fair enough.

Mylene (crewmate) - seasoned task group leader. She also sings little task songs like Adrien. She tries to organize people into chatting regular status updates so they can tell if someone goes missing. She reports every body she finds and actively participates in the discussion, but whenever she makes good points, she gets overlooked. Then, the crew’s like Mylene, why didn’t you say anything sooner? And she’s like agjdjdhh Either that or she gets voted off for always reporting and being too eager to discuss on top of it.

Mylene (impostor) - gets her partner(s) inside her team and tries to tag-team anyone passing by, only for all the impostors to have alibis when she reports. If the ratio is right, they can destroy their own group, and then immediately point the finger at whoever is left, which works about half the time. Mylene is a pretty convincing actress, but the high IQ tricks only work a couple times.

Ivan (crewmate) - he’ll take one for the team if he has to, especially in those sabotage cases where you’d have to be isolated and vulnerable. Otherwise he’ll protect his group. He has an “innocent until proven guilty” attitude when he runs into other people on the map, and skips during a lot of the votes.

Ivan (impostor) - we all know he can’t lie to save his life. He usually gets voted out really fast if he kills someone because he gets nervous and starts saying contradictory things when questioned. That being said, he’ll do what he can to keep his partner(s) in the clear. He never vents because the risk is too high for him, instead just running around and saying, “sorry” out loud when he catches a victim.

Nathaniel (crewmate) - he’s the opposite of Adrien in that he’ll do anything to avoid getting killed. He runs around tasking on his own, but he’s usually behind because he’s so focused on avoiding everyone, to Max’s frustration. He also never reports bodies. This causes him to be sus at all times, so he gets voted out a lot. Wild Nath sightings are rare and terrifying because he’s never in the clear and he’s just standing there, menacingly. Imp!Alix sees him as a fun combo of Where’s Waldo and Assassin.

Nathaniel (impostor) - the millisecond that cool down timer runs out, someone is getting killed. Hit and run. He’s good at entering a fairly crowded large space, striking, and staying in everyone’s blind spots while he runs away, especially when the lights are out. He likes venting to isolated areas and killing as many people per round as he can, laughing when someone finally reports and everyone unmutes to go WHAT!? at the number of deaths. He tends to operate separately from his partner(s) unless they have an actual plan.

Chloe (crewmate) - gathers every single person in medbay and makes sure they all watch her scan. Yeah okay, we get, you’re a crewmate. She feels personally offended whenever someone kills her, which is often, since people tend to jokingly target her. During discussions, she accuses anyone and everyone of being sus, even if she just walked past them or saw them tasking alone. She likes stalking people as a ghost and spilling tea in ghost chat.

Chloe (impostor) - reacts similarly to Marinette when she kills. She will throw her partner(s) under the bus if it’s more advantageous in the long run, and she’s great at shifting the blame to innocents. People vote her out a lot anyways, and she says she can’t believe that they even like this stupid little game. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Unless she wins. Then it’s fun.

Sabrina (crewmate) - discussion detective supreme. She keeps track of every piece of evidence and testimony, every detail. She tails the sus at a distance, trying to catch them doing something. Sometimes it gets her targeted, but sometimes she catches them and calls emergency meetings to snitch. Somehow she manages to do this and finish her tasks at the same time.

Sabrina (impostor) - sabotages everything, and tries to get her partner(s) to do it too. Once she won because the crew just didn’t fix O2 in time. She avoids killing Chloe, but feels bad if she has to kill anyone else too. She typically just sticks to making other people seem suspicious, and likes the game mode where you can’t see if you voted correctly or not.

Lila (both) - she rarely joins these games. She isn’t even a member of the chat group they use. They occasionally invite her, and she usually lies about how busy she is, but she accepted a couple times to further her narrative. She pretends to be really bad at being an impostor to establish herself as someone incapable of trickery. Regardless of her role, whenever the body announcement pops up, she goes, “oh nooo, not [victim(s)]... nooo....” and Mari’s like stfu Lila.

Bonus Polaroid kids because,,, they <3

Kagami (crewmate) - hella efficient at tasks. Two discussions in and she’s done. She’s the interrogation specialist who stresses out the imps and crew alike with her barrage of questions. She likes moving either alone or in partners, three people maximum, unless Crewinette needs her, in which case she’ll stick to the plan no matter what.

Kagami (impostor) - you’re walking through the base / there’s no one around and comms are down / out of the corner of your eye you spot her / Kagami Tsurugi. She will have you cornered and you won’t be able to do anything about it. She always has a made up explanation for what she was doing, but sometimes it falls through solely because she’s always acting sus.

Luka (crewmate) - he likes crewmate a lot more than impostor. He’ll tag along with a task group until he’s done, and then he’ll go lurk in the corner and spy on people. He moves along the walls, and a few times this has led to him witnessing murders in the middle of the room while the imp only saw him after it was too late. Cue the mad dash for emergency meeting.

Luka (impostor) - works together with his partner(s) to perform some high level backstabbery. He rarely gets voted out unless he messes up because he builds bonds of trust with like half of the crew while he leads the rest into his partner(s)’ traps. He feels bad about killing sometimes, but he doesn’t mind sabotaging.

Zoe (crewmate) - she finds one or two other people she trusts and follows them around. She uses the logic of “well we could’ve both killed each other by now but we didn’t so they must be safe”. She immediately recounts everything that happened to her that round in discussions, even irrelevant details, just in case they might end up useful, and tends to bandwagon with voting.

Zoe (impostor) - tries to catch people in secluded corners or rooms with closable doors to kill them. She avoids taking risks, but sometimes she reports her own bodies and tries to act all surprised by the discovery. She’s a good actress, but she’s not the best bs artist, although the crew is used to her giving a ton of details right from the start, so they don’t suspect her unless there’s a hole in her story.

Marc (crewmate) - does tasks on his own but makes sure to stop near crowds when he can. Whenever he’s running around alone and sees someone else, he immediately turns around like ohmygodohmygod and anxiously dances around the other person who’s more than likely just another, equally anxious crewmate with places to be. He still gets killed a lot.

Marc (impostor) - he goes full anime villain mode. All according to keikaku. He’s one of those people who disproportionately rolls the impostor role and ends up with it like twice every five games. He plans out every move he’s gonna make, every complex lie and big brain play, and sometimes he gets that glorious evil win, but sometimes his plans are totally sabotaged by stupid things like Kim’s trolling.

[4ragon]

Simon keyes for the analysis thing?

Okay, so real quick

Hi! You should play AAI2! It’s the best Ace Attorney game! It’s full of interesting twists and turns and is so much fun! And if you want to play AAI2, PLEASE do not continue to read this post! I’m serious! It’s going to be nothing but spoilers! Get out of here! Go look at my post about how Godot is a weird dipshit. Please. Anything. Go on. Shoo.

Okay, they’re gone. Phew. Anyway.

Simon Keyes! I think he’s one of the most interesting, dynamic, well rounded villains in the series. More than Blaise, more than Kristoph or Dahlia (two other stellar villains but that’s a note for another day). And I think a lot of that comes down to his backstory, his character motivation, and the parallels between him and both Miles and Kay.

I actually wasn’t sure I liked him after my first playthrough. Or, no, I did like him, I liked him a lot, but I wasn’t sure if I was sold on him being the Big Bad, the Final Boss, the Mastermind, when I got to the end of the game.

There were a lot of little parts about that final case that I thought were a bit of a letdown, especially after The Forgotten Turnabout, which is one of the best cases in the entire series. After all, we’d already saved Kay from Blaise, from the PIC, that constant, nebulous threat that had been hanging over Miles’s head since case 2. And Blaise is a really good villain, he represents all of the stuff we’d been dealing with since the beginning, all of the corruption and cruelty inherent in the system that Miles is trapped in.

But after having spent some time ruminating on it, and chatting with my friends, I think I’ve come to understand that Simon Keyes is just as important of an antagonist for the purposes of AAI2, thematically and just as a villain. (I don’t want to take all the credit here but I also don’t know if I should tag anybody? I don’t know my friends are very smart and cool and I don’t want to bother them.)

To start, Simon Keyes represents a lot of things. He is the failures of the system. His story is directly opposite to Miles’s own loss of his father. He actually challenges a lot of this new worldview that Miles had gained over the course of the entire series, and particularly what he’s experienced in AAI2 alone. After all, Miles trusted in his client, and was stabbed in the back. He followed the ideals of his father and Phoenix, and it backfired on him. And in addition, Simon is right in a lot of the ways that he challenges Miles. A lot of the accusations he throws around are not wholly inaccurate, all things considered, even if so many of them are twisted to fit his own cold worldview. I think Simon has seen the absolute worst of the court system in these games, and as a result I think he became one of the most compelling villains to date.

And I think having a character challenge Miles in this way was so important. Like, anyone who played Dual Destinies or Spirit of Justice before getting into the investigations games knows that Miles sticks with his whole prosecutor gig, but I think the important part of AAI2 is the why. Why does he make that decision, especially when the rest of the series shows the importance of the defense attorneys defending the people who have nowhere to turn. And Simon Keyes proves to Miles that change needs to occur on both sides of the bench, that he can change things, protect the people who need protecting, while still being his own person separate from the father he lost. Simon showed some of the flaws inherent in always believing in your client, but also gave Miles a completely new insight that was crucial to that decision to stick with being a prosecutor instead of becoming a defense attorney.

Oh, gosh, I feel like I haven’t even fully touched on Simon as a character. He’s manipulative and cunning and conniving. You can really feel that he’s never really received the love that he deserved and needed as a child, and it really shows in all of his interactions, especially with Miles and Kay. It’s so clear that he can’t even conceptualize being able to care about someone the way that the people around him care about each other, all stemming from the cruelty of the adults in his life that used him and tossed him aside. I find it so interesting that his redemption sort of goes hand in hand with the ‘redemption’ of Sirhan Dogen. And I use the word redemption loosely, I don’t think either of them are redeemed per se, but it’s clear that Dogen cares about this horrible boy that he saved on a whim, and Simon needs someone to care for him, even, you know, the worst man on the planet. And I think that despite the fact that Dogen is, you know, a super murderer, the fact that they both can at least find some sort of bizarre peace in their punishment is weirdly satisfying? Particularly for Simon, like. He deserves his punishment, but you can’t help but feel sorry for him, and it’s nice that this other horrible person has decided to do something good at the end of a very horrible life he lead.

But yeah, Simon is so well fleshed out from beginning to end. He’s a bad man, and he deserves the punishment that he receives, but he’s also a tragic figure deserving of sympathy, and was integral in shaping Miles into the person that he is by the end of the game.