#yes I have a rewrite idea

[yellow-faerie]

If the third HTTYD film actually wanted to end like the books, the dragons wouldn't have all left like that

[gumbootillustrations]

day 20 - quote

"you are garroth, protector of the innocent, sworn to care and love for those in need"

my take on what should've happened at the end of s1. context and uncensored image below the cut (tw // mild gore (blood splatter))

so uh... yeah. at the end of season 1 of ashes, ashes, garroth kills zane in irene's cathedral.

the setup for this series of events goes wayyyy back, back to the first war of the magi. in ashes, ashes, xavier was a divine warrior, the justiciar - i've talked abt this in a few of my other posts (specifically in this one), but essentially he founds the jury and carves off nine pieces from his relic to form the juror relics, which give the jurors their uh, for lack of a better term, juror powers. however, during the first ru'auni-tu'lan war (about 400ish years before the main story of ashes, ashes takes place), the relics went missing - leaving the jurors as little more than figureheads for a good few centuries.

then, about 20-25 years before aph shows up on the outskirts of phoenix drop, the high priest of o'khasis at the time figures out a way to give the jurors their juror powers without the relics via a blood magick ritual. said ritual is successful, but it upsets the balance of the universe so badly that the primordial gods intervene and sick a plague on o'khasis, killing roughly a quarter of the population and almost including lord garte ro'meave in that statistic (yes, this is the "near-death experience" that is cited as turning him from a kind-of-asshole into a right cunt). during the plague, a toddler-age garroth gets really sick, and goes for a wander throughout the ro'meave residence and ends up in the attic, where he finds a strange, glowing rock that seems to be calling out to him... he remembers bugger all of this, and what he does remember he puts down to a fever dream.

later on down the line, after nicole fakes her death and disappears about three or so years before the start of ashes, ashes, zane begins to show signs of what garte believes to be dissatisfaction with his regime, and in an effort to bring zane back under his control, he forces xavier's relic into his only remaining son. if zane had the spiritual constitution to wield said relic, this would be all fine and well, but because he doesn't, he begins to suffer the effects of relic corruption, which slowly drives him insane until he's the mad, devoted-to-his-interpretation-of-irene-and-her-doctrine-above-all-else, lawful-evil, war-criminal priest that he's introduced to us as during the wedding arc of season one.

then, during the battle for phoenix drop, garroth hands himself and the amulet over to zane in an attempt to save phoenix drop from a battle that he knows they're doomed to lose. and zane turns him into a juror via the ritual - and because garroth has (unknowingly) been holding esmund's relic in him this whole time, everything turns to custard, and garroth is rendered effectively comatose for pretty much the entire confrontation between zane, lillian, and the phoenix drop gang (aph, aaron, laur, and katelyn) - until zane moves to attack and kill aphmau right after she's absorbed irene's relic.

so you know how in starlight we're told that the relics are sentient? and you know how in starlight we're told that the relics have the ability to control the bodies of their hosts?

well uh. esmund's relic reacts to the threat against its matron that it senses. and with garroth essentially catatonic and in no state to fight back against the possession, he stands up, corners zane in a barrier, and rips xavier's relic out of his brother's chest - killing him almost immediately - before collapsing again, leaving the others to drag him out of the cathedral when zoey shows up with the portal. the entire time, zane is screaming at him to snap out of it, to remember who he serves, to remember who his brother is, and all the while the others can only watch on in horror as garroth condemns the one man hes spent the entire season trying to save to death.

garroth doesn't find out that he's killed his only remaining sibling (to his knowledge) until he wakes up two days later.

so yeah. ro'bro angst.

let me know if u have any questions! :3

[sparkles-and-galaxies]

There's nothing wrong with "Kai is the Green Ninja" AUs but I feel like we forget that a) elemental powers are hereditary and b) Lloyd is the descendant of the First Spinjitzu Master. Like forgive me for saying this but I think him becoming the prophesied savior of all Ninjago had less to do with his character or destiny and more to do with the fact that he's the literal grandson of god

which then would also explain how Misako knew before anyone else like

Wu: the Green Ninja will wield all four Elements of Creation at once, just like the First Spinjitzu Master

Garmadon, with baby Lloyd in his hands: oh wow I wonder who that'll be

Wu, patting baby Lloyd on the head: such a mystery indeed

Misako:

Misako:

Misako: are you two fucking stupid

[grishaverse-chaos]

hmmm something about dominik haunting the narrative in king of scars. everything nikolai does is at least a little bit for him. he learns about the life of average ravkan people by meeting dominik's family. he starts gaining influence in politics just so he can improve dominik's life. and then he promises dominik that he won't let ravka break him.

that promise fucking haunts him. it follows him wherever he goes. it's the driving force behind everything he does, every step he takes to heal the centuries-old wounds in ravka. it's what drives him to do better, be better.

dominik is always there, in the back of his mind: this country gets you in the end. always pushing him to do more, because he couldn't save dominik and so he has to save ravka (for dominik) (because he promised) (because he loved him)

[morganaseren]

Snippet Sunday

Tagged by: @blackjackkent Sorry this took so long!

Tagging: @illusivesoul, @writer86, @noeldressari, @this-is-something-idk-what, and @jellydishes No pressure if you don't want to participate of course!

Pairing: Leliana/Niamh Cousland

Rating: Teen

AU: We'll Lose Their Grip in Waters Dark

Note: Brief NSFW content will be under the cut.

-----

Niamh had always been a light sleeper.

Strictly regimented days within the Circle had long conditioned her to the... unique displeasure one would receive from the Templars were she and her fellow mages ever caught sleeping too deeply past the dawn. Granted, the surface beneath her was far warmer than the cold, coarse sheets she had grown used to. Her brows furrowed at that before she forced away the thick veil of slumber surrounding her.

She woke slowly to find herself in a soft bed curled up against Leliana’s side. The other woman's arm had cradled itself around Niamh's back sometime in the middle of the night while a hand rested itself against her hip—not with the sense of entitlement or possessiveness she had known of the Templars who desired her time and more than a little of her attention. Rather, Leliana's touch always brought thoughts of comfort and a silent reassurance.

Of course, as a mage, Niamh was more than capable of protecting herself, and Leliana had always made it abundantly clear that she had a wealthy respect and acknowledgement of her abilities. In Orlais, however, and beneath the Chantry's seat of power no less, it was better to err on the side of caution than risk displaying her magic too forwardly even were it in defense of herself. Thus, it wasn't uncommon for Leliana to step in on her behalf, and there were few who would dare test their mettle against Divine Justinia's Left Hand—the formidable shadow behind the Sunburst Throne.

And Niamh supposed it was futile of her to deny the burst of thrill she felt in those moments when she saw Leliana so fully in her element. Even beneath the dark cowl of her uniform, there was little hiding the malevolent danger lurking within the depths of those glacial blue eyes if met under the right provocation.

The other woman was a dagger's edge enrobed in silk.

Shifting her thighs together, Niamh looked up slowly to see her lover was still asleep, cheek resting against the pillows as her chest rose and fell in even intervals. Somewhat disappointed, and perhaps reluctant to greet the day herself, Niamh soon laid her head back down. With a seeming abundance of time on her hands, however, her mind set itself to wandering. As such, she found her fingers idly exploring the gentle lines of Leliana's stomach—testament to the physical work required to maintain herself in her profession.

Although not a warrior like the Seeker or the abundance of guards the Divine kept within her company, Leliana's skill with both bow and blade afforded her a strength that couldn't be underestimated. Such qualities combined with her overall agility led her to being able to outmaneuver far larger and physically-imposing opponents. That was reflected well in the collection of muscles in the woman's otherwise lithe frame.

"Good morning, Mon Amour."

Niamh looked up with a jolt to see sleepy blue eyes regarding her with an equally drowsy smile.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I... yes," Niamh managed to squeak out with some measure of embarrassment and more than a little bit of guilt for having woken her lover, but Leliana merely seemed pleased to have her in her arms.

"Très bien." Leliana's smile slowly transitioned into a very satisfied smirk then, causing Niamh's mind to momentarily draw blank at the sight. "I would not have let you rest so soon last night had I known I'd leave you so wanting come morning..."

Niamh could feel the way her face began to immediately flush with heat at her lover's amorous words, and her blush only intensified as she recalled last night's activities.

-----

She remembered the way her hands had braced themselves atop Leliana's shoulders while the other woman reclined herself against the piles of pillows at the headboard. Bare as they both were, it was difficult not to feel the warmth of Leliana's body so close to her own. However, Niamh also recalled the feeling of supple leather along Leliana's hips as her knees brushed against them while attempting to seat herself fully down into her lover's lap.

It was a somewhat trying exercise if only for the fact that it was new for them together.

As charismatic as Leliana was, Niamh was certain she'd had her fair share of partners prior to meeting her along with the experience to go along with such encounters, especially in a place so hedonistic as Val Royeaux.

Still, Niamh had worried she was taking too long.

As such, there were instances where she wanted to hurry the pace, but Leliana was nothing if not observant. She'd stop Niamh every time with a firm grip on her waist—keeping her in place—if she felt she was pushing herself too hard or too fast. While there was no disguising the clear desire in her lover's eyes, Leliana was content to let Niamh take her time and adjust to the size of the length inside her. The latter was certainly made easier with each murmured praise that spilled from Leliana's lips.

Thus, with each slow rocking motion, Niamh had achieved her goal, and she couldn't help but tip her head back with a low moan when she had finally taken all of Leliana. Her mind filled with hazy pleasure, and Leliana's words were a gratifying buzz in her ears as calloused hands ran themselves slowly up and down her sides. Almost unconsciously, she tried to rise herself up again to recapture that initial jolt of pleasure, but Leliana easily kept her seated atop her lap. Niamh was putty in her hands as she was drawn forward into a kiss.

"Slowly, Mon Ciel Étoilée," she purred against her lips. "We have all night after all..."

-----

"I hope you weren't waiting too long for me to wake." Leliana raised her head enough to press a long kiss to the crown of her head.

"No, no," Niamh assured, gently clearing her throat as if the sole action would be enough to rid her of more pleasantly-distracting memories. "I only woke up a few minutes ago myself."

"Wonderful. Well then. Shall we get ready for the day, or..." Her gaze then drifted down to Niamh's lips, and from such a close distance, she could see how the bright blue sapphire of Leliana's eyes darkened with sudden, building interest. "May I interest you in anything else while we're here?"

Niamh racked her mind for their itinerary of the day, and she was able to recall a piece of parchment on Leliana's desk that had been encoded with the necessary details—a brief, precise language that Leliana had taught her with implicit trust. "I... don't believe we're needed until much later?"

He lover's grin widened then, and Niamh felt the press of a hand against her hip. While it was a minor struggle with the sheets still twined around them, Leliana had soon expertly rolled her beneath her, reversing their position while looming over her with a wicked smile of promise that sent her heart racing.

"Then allow me the pleasure of spoiling you for the remainder of the morning..."

[paintsplash1712]

Guess who really REALLY wants to rewrite Disney's Wish?

Meeeeeeee

I saw the concert art of the Star as a human boy and got a spark of creativity!

Found the images on r/topcharacterdesign:

[chemzee]

Morg doodles

[owl-with-a-pen]

Winn had been in the future for way too long, how else could he forget just how heavy Kara’s infamous game nights could be? Add Lena and Alex to the equation as the worst enablers in history and he was certain he’d have a wicked hangover come morning.

But, hey, this was a party, and he was only back in the twenty-first century for a couple of days. So, consequences be damned, he was going to make every second count.  

At least, that’s what Drunk Winn thought. Future Winn, well, he might have had some choice words to say on the matter.

Good thing he was living in the present.

Winn was in no way close to being the worst offender of the night, he could thank his very human alcohol tolerance for that. That being said, games requiring strategy - or even general dexterity - were well beyond anyone’s ability right about now. So, they’d all taken to the floor of Kara’s apartment - some in better states than others.

Lena was the only one who had kept the high ground up on the sofa, wine glass deftly balanced between three fingers as she curled snugly into her chosen corner.

Down on the ground with the common folk, the couples had predictably coupled together. Kelly was lazing across Alex’s lap, resting her head against the cushions that weren’t currently being occupied by Lena’s legs. On the other side of the coffee table, Nia and Brainy sat arm to arm, an impressive hoard of snacks littered around them.

It was in that blissfully intoxicated state that Kelly had proposed the terrible idea of playing a game far less taxing to the ol' thinker: truth or dare.

Winn had expected outrage, a cacophony of booing, at least one person begging they switch to Netflix instead of trialling more party games – especially of the high school variety.

What he hadn’t expected was to find himself lured into an impromptu circle not ten seconds later, an empty beer bottle poised at the centre like a deadly snake ready to snap. Kelly had been immensely pleased with herself.

Guess Alex was rubbing off on her, now Winn had three enablers he had to worry about.

Thirty minutes and half a solo cup of questionable liquid later and so far, so good, Winn had yet to divulge any timeline altering secrets to the party. He had a pretty airtight plan to avoid that, in actual fact. It was a simple execution: he just avoided 'truth' at all costs.

Oh, the things he’d done already for those damned dares. He still wasn’t sure where his left shoe was. Or his Legion ring.

Another Future Winn problem. For right now, none of that mattered, especially when it was his turn to spin again. Winn couldn’t say his spin had been very eloquent; the bottle travelled impressively slow, a hollow warble echoing from the empty glass until, eventually, the bottle’s neck came teetering to a halt in front of one unsuspecting Coluan.

The second the bottle stopped, Brainy peered down at it as though its very presence had personally offended him. Winn smothered a snort with his hand. He’d been lucky to avoid the bottle’s judgement so far, but even a twelfth level intellect’s luck ran out eventually.

Unable to contain his glee any longer, Winn grinned broadly. “Well, well, well, Querl Dox,” he announced, slapping his free hand against his knee, “we haven’t heard much from you tonight. So, what’ll it be, buddy? Truth or dare?” He pointed to Brainy with an overgenerous hand, slopping the contents of his cup across his wrist in the process.

“Winn!” Alex scolded.

Winn rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright!” he said, making a show of putting the cup down. He wasn’t surprised when Alex thrust him a handful of paper towels to clean up his mess.

While Winn mopped up his sleeve and a good portion of the floor, Brainy sat with rigid posture as he pensively observed his options. His eyes flittered towards the ground, then back up again. Once or twice, he caught Nia’s gaze, who smiled at him encouragingly, brushing her hand across his knee. Her superhero name had never been more deceiving – it looked like Dreamer was the brightest eyed of the bunch by miles. The only close contender was Brainy, although it wasn’t a particularly high bar overall. With the alien grade alcohol sat between them, Winn knew for a fact that neither one of them was particularly sober.

Eventually, Brainy narrowed his eyes, lifting his head. “Very well,” he said, puffing out his chest as though he’d just volunteered himself for a suicide mission. “I choose truth.”

Winn’s eyes widened in surprise. Well damn, maybe he had.

He’d sort of expected Brainy to pick dare like just about every other superhero sat around the circle. The only outlier was Lena, who had promptly bowed out of the game before it had even started, electing to act as umpire from her perch on the sofa.

Winn drummed his fingers together beneath his chin. It was rare that he was ever given the opportunity to ask Brainy something that – barring certain prohibited topics – he’d answer honestly and without hesitation. Whatever he asked still had to match the vibes of the game, of course. In which case, he knew he had to play this safe.

“What to ask the smartest person in the room,” Winn wondered aloud, mostly to buy some time. The truth was, there wasn’t much he could ask that was game-night appropriate – otherwise, he wouldn’t get a fun answer. And he really wanted a fun answer.

Which only left, well, the most generic of all high school truth or dare questions.

A devious smile spread along Winn’s face. He could make that work.

“I’ve got it,” he declared, leaning in as though he was the one about to divulge a secret. “So, Querl, tell us, who was your first kiss?”

Everyone loudly oooo’d at that. Everyone except for Nia, who grinned mischievously into her cup. “This is gonna be good,” she muttered, taking a sip.

Brainy, however, looked vaguely wounded at the question posed. Picking up on his discomfort, Nia ditched her cup and took her boyfriend’s hand instead, squeezing his fingers reassuringly.

“Is it too late to change my answer?” Brainy asked.

“Absolutely,” Alex and Kelly said together.

“No take-backs, those are the rules,” Lena reminded him with a wink.

“You’re not even playing!” Kara objected.

“C’mon,” Nia said, bumping Brainy’s shoulder. “You told me, it won’t break the timeline.”

Winn eyed her suspiciously, but Nia only shrugged, offering him a not-so innocent look that very much read wait and see.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait for very long. Nia’s guiding touch seemed to be the final element required to sway him, and with an awkward shuffle so that he could gain closer access to the circle, Brainy lowered his voice to them all. “So long as it does not leave this room,” he told his friends with critical seriousness. “Can I count on you to uphold that?”

“Jeez, Brainy, now you have to tell us,” Alex said. “We promise.”

A volley of promises followed Alex’s, and although Winn could confidently say that no one here was sober enough to be believably reliable, it seemed Brainy was just drunk enough to trust in their honesty anyway.

“Very well,” he said, leaning in a little further. Collectively, everyone else did the same. Alex even removed a very disgruntled Kelly from her lap just so she could get a better angle on the action.

Winn scooped up his drink, coddling it close to his chest in anticipation.

Brainy took a deep breath, keeping his eyes trained to the centre of the circle. “The first kiss I ever had was with… Kal-El.”

The reaction was instantaneous.

Kara spat her drink straight back into her glass. Winn damn-near choked on his. He coughed, only to jerk when Alex clapped him so hard on the back that he felt his teeth rattle inside his head.

Up on the sofa, Lena stared on with a coy look of approval.

“Kal-El?” Winn repeated, his voice barely a squeak. When Brainy didn’t even try to elaborate, Winn cleared his throat viciously enough to burn. “Tell me you are not talking about the Kal-El… as-as in Clark Kent, Kara’s cousin, literal Superman?”

“Told you this was gonna be good,” Nia said.

Winn turned to her incredulously. “And you knew about this?”

Nia smirked. “No secrets, remember?” She tapped her cup with Brainy’s whose green skin was quickly beginning to darken into an awkward blush.

Winn shook his head, paused, then drained the last of his drink in one solid gulp. The fire in his lungs at least cleared some of the static in his brain. Or made it worse. At this point, it was hard to tell. “Woo boy,” he gasped out, “first off, I am jea-lous. Second, I have questions.”

“Truth or dare only permits one question per round,” Brainy cautioned, his voice tight.

“Screw that, I want the juicy details!”

“Seconded,” Lena said swiftly.

“Thirded.” Alex tipped her glass towards Brainy.

“Traitor!” Kara cried, shoving her sister playfully on the shoulder.

Alex scoffed, “What? He’s not my cousin!”

“Let’s call this part 1b of a multi-layered question, ‘kay?” Winn said, scootching forward. He’d practically thrown himself into the centre of the circle by now. “How was it? Was it more than once? Oh my god, when did this even happen?”

“A long time ago,” Brainy said, somewhat gravely. “We were both teenagers at the time, Kal—Clark, visited the future on several occasions when he was still learning to utilise his powers. He trained with us, for a time. And… we grew close.”

“So wait, you guys were actually an item? How has no one in the Legion ever mentioned this to me?”

“It didn’t last long,” Brainy said quickly. He lowered his gaze, raising his shoulder in a half shrug. “It couldn’t. Clark belonged in the twenty-first century to ensure the present day of the thirty-first.”

Nia bit her lip. When it was clear Brainy was done explaining, she cleared her throat. “Also… for our present to exist, a lot of Clark’s time in the future had to be erased from his memory.”

Kara’s face fell suddenly. “Oh, Brainy…”

Unperturbed, Winn raised an eyebrow. “So how far did it go? Are we talking just kissing or did you find out how hard the Man of Steel really is?”

“Oh Rao,” Kara groaned, throwing herself onto her feet. “That’s it, I’m going out to get more snacks.”

“It’s nearly two in the morning,” Alex said, frowning down at her watch as though this was news to her, too.

“Not in Paris it isn’t,” Kara announced with forced cheer. “At least from there, I won’t be able to hear any more of this conversation.”

“Can I get a croissant?” Winn asked, batting his eyelashes.

“Croissants aren’t for traitors,” Kara said, ruffling his hair. She patted Brainy’s shoulder as she crossed to the door, offering him a gentle smile before she sped out of the room.

In the awkward silence that followed, Kelly cleared her throat, looking over to Nia with a wince. “Sorry, is this whole thing weird for you, too?”

Nia laughed abruptly, shaking her head. “What? No way, I literally asked the exact same questions when he first told me. Believe me, you’re gonna have to try a lot harder before I start hearing anything new.”

“Well in that case,” Winn said, turning his grin back on Brainy. “What was Supes like in the sheets?”

Brainy only offered a strained smile in response, leaning helplessly towards Nia. “It appears we have opened a can of worms,” he muttered.

Nia wound her arm around his back sympathetically. “Only answer what you want,” she said, resting her head against his shoulder. “I’ll put them all to sleep if they get too nosy.”

“Uh, you know we can hear you, right?” Winn said.

Nia raised her free hand in warning, vibrant springs of dream energy already coiling around her fingers. “You know that was a threat, right?”

Winn lifted his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, well received. But seriously, Brainy, what was it like dating Superman?”

Brainy rolled his eyes, reaching for the nearest bottle and taking a lengthy swig from it.

Winn’s grin widened. It looked like things really were about to get juicy.

Thank God they had the rest of the night. Something told him this was going to be a long story.

And it would require an even longer recovery.

[bluuscreen]

bit of an experiment using (a rough design of) janus from an au of mine that i’ve barely touched since like 2019. he’s a witch :]

[killerandhealerqueen]

When you see your slowly growing pile of wips and you're just like...*whispers under breath* god damn it

[iridescentoracle]

So, I talked the other day a Whole Bunch about how I’d rewrite Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney to make it actually good. Obviously, I’ve thought about the subsequent games too. It took me a lot longer to figure out what I’d do with Dual Destinies, and I’m still not sure about Spirit of Justice, but one thing that made a lot of stuff click into place was thinking about the original trilogy, and how it ultimately can be boiled down to three main themes/plotlines:

Satire/Critique of the Japanese legal system

Generational Trauma Surrounding the Kurain Channeling Legacy

[gestures at Phoenix and Edgeworth’s relationship]

There’s a lot of reasons the so-called “Apollo Justice trilogy” games all feel wildly disconnected from each other and also mostly the original trilogy, but I think a lot of it comes down to how the themes/plotlines from the original games get lost or are irrelevant because we’ve got a new cast of characters, but there’s nothing tying the new games together but a shared (and much more dramatically expanding) cast of characters.

So for this proposed rewrite project, I’m fixing that. The Apollo Justice trilogy is going to be a trilogy, and that means shared/extended themes and plots that tie all three games together, and tie this trilogy back to the original even though most of the original cast, in this version, have even smaller roles (see: Apollo’s shitty mentor in my rewrite of AA4 being a separate person from Phoenix, who we barely see, etc).

So:

The legal system satire/critique stays consistent in rewritten DD & SOJ, instead of getting completely forgotten about/undermined in DD and doubled down to the point of losing all meaning in SOJ.

Generational Trauma Surrounding the Troupe Gramarye Legacy

honestly i haven’t figured this part out yet but it involves apollo somehow. this rewrite project is a work-in-progress and i’m mostly figuring it out as i go

I’m going to get to each of these in turn, starting (more or less) with the legal system critique, although it’s about to look like I’m mostly complaining about bad writing (in the form of character actions that seem to have been written without any thought actually put into making them make sense from the perspective of the characters in question), which is fair because I kind of am; bear with me, though, I promise it’ll be relevant and I think it’s a pretty solid illustration of how the thematic issues are inherently also narrative/characterization issues and vice versa.

So, let’s talk about Edgeworth and Blackquill’s plan and why the hell they thought that was a good idea. I swear to god, I cannot figure out how that entire plotline makes any sense, unless Edgeworth worked out that Blackquill thought he was covering for Athena and also that the real murderer was probably the Phantom purely via considering the parallels to his own life.

Because, like, the thing is. “this convicted murderer is allowed to be a prosecutor in the last few months before his execution (for murder), thanks to the machinations of a man who has dedicated the last like eight years of his life to being Staunchly Anti-Prosecutorial-Corruption” is just. completely nonsensical. So Edgeworth has to have some reason to think he wasn’t actually the murderer. But the canon trial makes it pretty clear Blackquill was the only suspect thanks to #1 nobody checking the security footage carefully #2 Blackquill making sure Athena wasn’t one, so why would Edgeworth think that? But for that matter, how did Edgeworth even know Blackquill, like, existed, let alone learn about the Phantom? Like, maybe he heard about Blackquill from a third party and got curious and looked into things, or was, like, looking through records of Prosecutors Found Guilty Of Crimes for some reason and found a case he and Phoenix hadn’t been involved in (for once) and had Questions, okay, but he wouldn’t have found out about the Phantom either of those ways, so even if he also somehow learned about him separately, why would he think to connect the two? So he has to have learned about Blackquill’s information on the Phantom from Blackquill, but why would Blackquill confide in someone else like that?

The only way I can make any of those pieces fit together in my head is if Edgeworth figured out Blackquill was attempting to cover for a kid who set off all of the Parallels To DL-6 alarm bells in Edgeworth’s head, and Edgeworth’s two mental options are “just fucking leave. run for it now. never think about this again” and “okay but what if neither the kid nor the other adult in the room was actually the person who murdered the kid’s parent. maybe there was a secret third adult who killed them for mysterious reasons” and he picks metaphorical door #2 (rather than leaving through literal door #1 and going home) and man do i want to see what that conversation/logic chess sequence looked like. At what point did Edgeworth contemplate the possibility of watching Phoenix cross-examine the defendant’s pet hawk

Also, crucially when i say Edgeworth picks #2, I mean he says that out loud, bc I really don’t buy that Blackquill would have just casually confided in him (or anyone) about the Phantom, but Edgeworth working out that Blackquill was trying to protect Athena (who he thinks really did it) and immediately going “okay i see why you assumed it was her but have you considered: what if there was secretly a third party who was the real murderer all along” does seem like the one thing that would actually get him to talk.

And tbh? I think everything makes more sense and is even more compelling if Edgeworth and Blackquill’s plan isn’t just to lure out the Phantom bc he’s a ~super spy with nefarious motives etc, but to lure out the real murderer, now that they’ve realized he probably exists.

To be clear, i don’t think that’s what was intended to have happened in canon, but i think it’s what would have to be true for Edgeworth’s involvement not to be hopelessly stupid and counterproductive.

And this is what I mean about the problems with the characterization/narrative choices being intimately intertwined with the thematic issues, because Edgeworth’s whole deal is fundamentally tied up in the legal system satire of the first three games (and Investigations 1 & 2, for that matter) and so it’s incoherent/inconsistent/nonsensical on a character/narrative level and a thematic level both at the same time. If we’re supposed to believe he did something as stupid as “letting a convicted murderer be a prosecutor without a reason to believe he had not, in fact, committed any crimes” then it undercuts his entire arc up to this point. Still, even that proposed backstory/context, while it would at least provide an understandable motivation/train of reasoning that would actually be in keeping with what we know about Edgeworth up to this point, is ultimately rooted in the Phantom plotline as it exists in canon, which I think is fundamentally flawed on three different levels, and genuinely fixing Dual Destinies requires completely rewriting it.

The three central problems with the Phantom plot, IMO, are actually pretty simple:

The legal system critique that ultimately was part of the heart of the first four games gets completely forgotten about.

Ableism

The stakes are too high and not personal enough, which undercuts the emotional impact and weakens the audience’s emotional investment.

To elaborate, because I’m not sure all of those are equally evident at a glance:

One of our main antagonists is a prosecutor who’s also a convicted murderer and… the worst thing he actually does is be mean to people. No evidence tampering, no forgery, no witness suppression, no actual murder. He’s just kinda scary-looking. The ultimate main villain of the game is a cop! He spends most of the game being nice and friendly and helpful but at the end of the day he committed a whole bunch of crimes, Dual Destinies says ACAB oh wait no never mind he’s actually an imposter and the real police detective he’s impersonating was probably genuinely a really good guy.

The whole “the Phantom has no emotions and therefore doesn’t really count as a person I guess so it’s okay to prove his identity even though the very explicitly established consequences are He Will Be Assassinated Right There in The Courtroom, Which Is Exactly What Happens but everyone’s pretty okay with that because hey, he didn’t have emotions, it’s fine, he’s exempted from, like, deserving basic human rights I guess???” is uh. you know. sure a choice they made

It sounds ridiculous to call the original games “grounded” or “realistic,” but like… at the end of the day, the culprits in the first four games are all just… people? The most powerful people who turned out to be murderers were, like, the CEO of a company, a chief of police, a popular actor, etc. Those are real kinds of people who do normal crimes in real life. The characters are ridiculous and over-the-top but at the end of the day the stakes mostly felt high because they were personal. Even when there’s magic involved, the actual crimes are ultimately things that could have happened for mundane reasons too! All the drama with spirit channeling and at the end of the day, half the spirit channeling-related crimes in the original trilogy come down to someone trying to kill or disgrace her sister and niece so that her own kid will inherit, or a teenage girl dealing with emotional abuse/neglect trying to escape and then trying to cover her tracks or get revenge on people she felt had personally hurt her. But now our stakes involve international espionage and a super-spy who can look like anyone? Absurd as it is to say, Dual Destinies doesn’t feel grounded the way the original trilogy did, and outside Athena’s trial, the personal aspects of the cases mostly come down to “the victim and/or suspect are cared about by the characters we care about,” which isn’t enough to bring the absurdly high stakes back down to something it’s easy to genuinely be invested in.

So. Let’s fix all of those. Conveniently, they all have the same solution: Bobby Fulbright is genuinely a cop. He’s exactly who he seems like up until the canon reveal. He is good-natured and cheerful and energetic and mostly pretty helpful to our protagonists. He’s also the man who murdered Metis Cykes and Clay Terran.

Instead of international espionage, he was engaged in corporate espionage. He was a security guard at GYAXA who got bribed to steal some of Metis Cykes’ research, but got caught and panicked and stabbed her. Even after Simon Blackquill was found guilty, he still felt too nervous to keep working at more or less the scene of the crime, and quit the private security guard gig in favor of becoming a cop. Seven years later, new Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth continued his whole signature anti-corruption deal, going through records of convictions of past prosecutors & law enforcement officers, and something about Blackquill’s conviction didn’t sit right, so he arranged to meet the guy in person. Hearing the story from Blackquill’s own mouth, Edgeworth saw some parallels between UR-1 and DL-6, figured out out that Blackquill had falsely confessed under the belief Athena Cykes had accidentally killed her own mother, and (mostly for DL-6 reasons) theorized that there could have been a third person on the scene who managed to escape undetected. Investigating the evidence, he found the security footage of someone in a security guard uniform and Metis Cykes’ jacket leaving the scene of the crime, and met with Blackquill again with that information and a record of Athena testifying at Blackquill’s trial that she’d seen a stranger in her mother’s lab before Simon arrived. At the time she’d been written off as lying or confused due to the trauma, but with the security footage proving her right, Edgeworth and Blackquill realize that she (unlike the security camera) likely saw the security guard’s face, and so would be the only person who could potentially identify him as Metis Cykes’ real killer—thus putting Athena in danger, if they ever happened to meet.

Without actual evidence linking the unknown security guard to the crime, though—no unidentified fingerprints had ever been found, and the footage didn’t show his face, so there was no way to figure out which of the security guards employed at the time was the real killer, if any records even still existed seven years later given that none of the security guards had been seriously considered as suspects at the time—the new evidence wouldn’t be enough to re-open Blackquill’s case, let alone overturn his conviction. (I have no idea if that would be true IRL, in the US or Japan, but this is Japanifornia, it’s fine, that’s how it works here because I say so. The burden of proof is on the defense and defendants are guilty until proven innocent.) Worse news: this whole discovery happened right after Blackquill’s execution date was finally set, severely curtailing their ability to investigate in any kind of normal sane way because Oh Boy That Time Limit, so: time for an absolutely terrible insane plan that would absolutely ruin the anti-corruption reputation Edgeworth has spent the last ten years working very hard to develop if it didn’t pay off. Also fuck it, Edgeworth says: let’s get Phoenix Wright involved, this is exactly the kind of batshit gamble he thrives on.

(Note: this game rewrite is set post–my Apollo Justice rewrite, in which Phoenix was never disbarred, and he and Edgeworth got together within a year of T&T. See here for elaboration and, like, a lot of complaining about how AJ should have been amazing and wasn’t.)

As in canon, the plan in question is, essentially:

Let Blackquill return to prosecuting crimes again while still a convicted murderer on death row

?????

The real murderer of Metis Cykes is caught and Blackquill is proven innocent after all

Profit

I have no idea what step two is supposed to be but given that step three of the canon plan seemed to be “the Phantom turns up to steal back the psych profile which he somehow finds out Blackquill had all along” and I didn’t understand step two there either, I don’t super care.

Blackquill agrees to the whole crazy plan, but only on the condition that both Edgeworth and Phoenix swear they won’t tell anyone about the real plan without his permission, and in particular they absolutely will not tell Athena specifically.

Phoenix, who just hired Athena like a week ago, and has definitely connected the dots to figure out she became a lawyer to save Blackquill and is seeing some parallels of his own:

…But Blackquill’s life is the one in imminent danger (his execution date has just been set) and the whole plan relies on his cooperation, so ultimately (after a lot of arguing), Blackquill wins and they agree.

It’s not easy; after 1-5 and 3-5, Edgeworth and Phoenix were not going to be easily convinced not to tell Athena. They have seen how Complicated Scheming With The Goal Of Protecting A Young Woman But Without, Like, Telling Her Anything goes before (not to mention the more general Bad Associations with the possibility that someone out there might be plotting the death of a kid for the crime of being inconvenient in some way, see 1-4 and 2-2 and arguably 3-1), but I absolutely do believe that Blackquill would listen to all their arguments and still be like “my only priority is Athena’s safety; if she finds out about any of this she will try to investigate and will not prioritize her own safety, I don’t care what you think, if you tell her anything I’m out,” so ultimately they’re stuck.

On a side note, Trucy (when she does turn up in Dual Destinies) is a delight, but her role is bizarrely tiny for someone who’s hands-down the best new character of the trilogy, so in this rewrite she actually spends most of the game investigating with Apollo and Athena. She’s not actually super happy about it, though, because she wants to be investigating with Phoenix but he won’t let her, or even tell her about what his current case is. She feels like he doesn’t trust her and she’s pretty hurt though she doesn’t want to talk about it, etc, and in general there are canon-typical levels of hinting at deeper issues without actually directly addressing them.

In the end, things get more or less wrapped up by Phoenix (and Edgeworth) being like “look we wanted to tell all three of you what was going on but we were sworn to secrecy, and it was Blackquill’s life on the line so we couldn’t risk breaking his trust,” with the implication of further discussions to be had off-screen/post-game abt the deeper insecurities and anything that still feels insufficiently well justified, but just like that, here’s Trucy in a larger role with a new emotional conflict/interestingly complicated relationship that nevertheless doesn’t require/get much screen time bc Phoenix isn’t there for her to be actively having this conflict with.

There’s also a whole new case added between 5-3 and 5-4 that revolves around the Gramarye family legacy, in which Trucy, Apollo, and Lamiroir all learn who they are to each other, but I’ll get to that later.

In the meantime, back to the Fulbright thing! As in canon, he’s both Blackquill’s assigned police detective and his parole officer, which definitely secretly kind of terrifies Fulbright because oh god oh fuck he was a suspect specifically because he used to hang around the space center with his sister & mentor back when I worked there, what if he recognizes me, but hey, keep your enemies close, right? Especially when they’re definitely planning something, and also the only person who knows they didn’t actually commit the murder they were convicted for that was actually your doing. So.

(If Athena notices that despite his cheerful demeanor and attempt to be casual about the whole thing, he actually sounds terrified of Blackquill, it’s ironically very easy to brush off bc like. Look he tries to be cheerful and good-natured but Blackquill’s a scary guy, okay, just look at him, etc.)

So, with Fulbright secretly there all along, not in on the investigation/unaware there’s new evidence that could help point at his guilt but still close enough to keep an eye on things, no further progress is actually made in the luring-out-Metis-Cykes’-real-killer project, and time starts growing short.

Meanwhile, GYAXA is preparing for a manned rocket launch. Time to rewrite some more backstory.

A bit more than seven years ago, Solomon Starbuck worked for a private sector rival of GYAXA, but their secret use of sub-standard materials nearly proved deadly for him, and upon returning to Earth, he quit and joined GYAXA instead. The rival company’s reputation took multiple massive hits (from the near-failure of the mission, the subsequent exposé about cost-cutting measures at the expense of employee safety up to and including materials used in rocket ships, and the newly-famous Starbuck’s resultant departure for GYAXA), and they promptly resorted to attempting corporate espionage (via bribing security guard Bobby Fulbright), leading to Metis Cykes’ death.

Seven years later, when GYAXA starts gearing up for Starbuck’s next trip into space, their rival company attempts to cause the launch to be canceled via phone calls claiming the rocket will be sabotaged otherwise. The hoax partially works: the director secretly arranges for the launch to be faked bc he believes better safe than sorry but he doesn’t have the authority to just straight-up officially cancel it, and meanwhile the police are also alerted of the claimed bomb threat, and a team is sent to ensure everything goes fine, which would’ve been fine, except Fulbright is on the team.

That would also be fine, except Fulbright is already concerned because Blackquill’s execution date is closing in so there must be something big going on that he doesn’t know about but even being Blackquill’s parole officer/detective hasn’t let him figure out what. (Ironically, he’s probably wrong; Edgeworth and Phoenix and Blackquill are all getting pretty stressed about things getting down to the wire, but don’t actually have any more concrete way to lure out the real killer or they already would’ve arranged it, and mostly what’s going on behind-the-scenes is arguments about getting more people (including Athena) involved in the investigation.) When he then learns about the bomb threat to GYAXA and (correctly) guesses that it’s likely the doing of GYAXA’s rival company who’d bribed him all those years ago, Fulbright is super paranoid about the possibility that the bomb threat might be real, and if it is that it might be the work of a new security guard, and if it is and they get caught, that the already-raised suspicions regarding Blackquill’s innocence will be basically confirmed, and Fulbright himself will finally be suspected of the murder of Metis Cykes.

As a result of his paranoia, Fulbright goes poking around in areas he wasn’t actually supposed to be, accidentally runs into Clay Terran, and (in a panic) kills him. Solomon Starbuck is deemed the primary suspect, Apollo takes the case, and a bomb squad specialist (disappointed the threat to GYAXA turned out to be a hoax) gets bored. The Cosmic Turnabout and Turnabout Countdown commence.

Things actually mostly go as in canon, just following on from the differences I’ve already established. The final major change is that while the hostage situation still happens, we’re lowering the stakes and making them more personal: it’s not a dozen people conveniently-for-Aura including Trucy, and there’s no fake robot uprising. Trucy is the hostage and Aura’s pretty open about it being her doing from the start.

Again, this is a sequel to my alternate version of AA4. Phoenix never got disbarred and he and Edgeworth have been together for years. It is common knowledge that Trucy is the daughter of Phoenix Wright + the new chief prosecutor. Since she’s Blackquill’s sister, Aura might even be one of the few people who knows Edgeworth found new information about the UR-1 incident (although she either doesn’t know about or doesn’t buy the security guard theory), and that this whole weird letting-Blackquill-prosecute-cases arrangement is part of some sort of plan to prove his innocence, so hey, win-win, right? Phoenix and Edgeworth try Athena for her mother’s murder, they prove Blackquill innocent just like Edgeworth was already trying to do anyway, and their daughter doesn’t get hurt.

Also there’s still room for an “oh no the robot uprising!” joke in there, potentially. The robots all start acting weird, someone’s like OH NO THE ROBOT UPRISING! CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL, I GLADLY SURRENDER TO OUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS etc and then via the nearest robot Aura is like “oh my god shut up” and it turns out all the robots are acting weird bc they’re all looking for Phoenix or one of his associates to let him know his daughter’s being held hostage and he better listen up.

Aaaand that’s about all I’ve got on that front. I know the culprit not being a super-spy and there not being actual bombs at the HAT-2 fake launch creates some plot holes but while I’m a life-long mystery fan, I’m not a mystery writer and that’s not really the part of this that I’m good at coming up with solutions to, although if anyone’s got ideas I am All Ears.

It’s not the most hard-hitting critique of the legal system, and I’m still working on figuring out how to improve it more; in particular, I’m honestly torn about Blackquill even turning out to have been completely innocent because it very much was a Whole Thing that all the prosecutors used to start out as corrupt and the ones we like had to become better, or, you know. go to jail for the crimes they very much did in fact commit. So it actually feels like a real step down, having the prosecutor in this one be a straight-up convicted felon who… turns out to have done nothing wrong and been a good guy all along actually, surprise! But I can’t figure out how to change that without undermining the whole resolution of the game and turning him into a fundamentally different character, so for now that part is what it is.

Meanwhile, at the end of the day: ACAB, including Bobby Fulbright who is actually genuinely a cop, and used his position to avoid being found guilty for crimes he’d committed (up to and including forging evidence to frame someone else). Which is to say, what the game almost said, without the haha nope nvm he was an imposter and the real Bobby Fulbright was probably a great guy actually of it all. Also in this version Fulbright casually tazing Blackquill is like. actually treated as fucked up and a reminder that oh right cops still suck and even if one seems friendly he will probably absolutely abuse his power over others given the slightest excuse, and also no one deserves to be subjected to police brutality. And while Edgeworth winds up being ethically in the clear in that he didn’t actually pull strings to let a murderer prosecute other people’s crimes bc he did know Blackquill was innocent all along, at the end of the day someone was in fact able to pull strings to let a convicted murderer etc. Which on the one hand requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, but on the other hand, like I just said about Blackquill: idk man I had to change this much just to make Fulbright work, I’ve only got so much to work with here and I’m not actually good at coming up with grand sweeping changes.

Also it occurs to me I haven’t actually established this yet but “the Dark Age of the Law” is stupid and we’re completely dropping that whole concept because if two relatively new lawyers apparently turning out to be bad people was enough to kick off a whole ~Dark Age~ and make the general public lose faith then where the hell was everybody during the reign of Demon Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, Chief of Police Damon Gant and Chief Prosecutor Lana Skye, and the forty-year win streak of Manfred von Karma. And so forth. There’s probably room for something interesting to be done with like, the ways in which public perception of a situation doesn’t always reflect reality and large populations can be slow to consciously react to major trends and sometimes one small incident can be turned into a symbol of something it isn’t really even an example of anyway or whatever but like… I have no idea how to do that in the format of an Ace Attorney game so personally I am simply ditching that plotline wholesale.

So that’s that. Now let’s talk about Troupe Gramarye. In canon, Apollo Justice sets the Troupe Gramarye rights up to be a major plotline, but then it gets completely forgotten about in Dual Destinies, and sort of half-heartedly continued but not really resolved in Spirit of Justice. In this rewrite, the Troupe Gramarye legacy is more or less what the Kurain Spirit Channeling legacy was to the original trilogy: a nominally magical element that at the end of the day is mostly the catalyst for a story about greed and complicated families and the trauma and destruction they create.

So, the Gramarye-related cases in my rewritten Apollo Justice go as established (i.e. actually basically like canon except Phoenix escapes unscathed), except with a couple more tweaks: Lamiroir’s face is hidden way better, and neither she nor the audience learn who she is to Apollo and Trucy yet.

That gets saved for Dual Destinies’ brand new Gramarye rights-centric case.

While it could probably go earlier, I think it would fit best between Turnabout Academy and The Cosmic Turnabout. I’ve already covered the latter, so some notes about the former: plot-wise it remains unchanged, but a lot of the dialogue is different because I would have thought it was unbearably preachy and condescending at age nine and this game was rated M. We Do Not Need The Lecture, Thanks. Also Aristotle Means looks slightly more human/less like an actual straight-up marble statue because that was so unbelievably distracting. There’s weird character designs and then there’s By The Way, This Literal Marble Statue Is Sentient I Guess.

The rest of the difference is that (following on from my proposed Apollo Justice rewrite) Klavier Gavin gets to be an actual human being with feelings and not 60% of a lovingly-painted cardboard cutout of a person. He shows up with a re-design—possibly a slightly different outfit in general, I don’t have strong feelings about that, but the important thing is that he’s gotten a haircut. In my head he’s got roughly the same style from the flashback portions of 4-4, but that’s partially just because I’m not good at picturing things like that. What matters is that his hair looks nothing like Kristoph’s anymore. Also it’s established in passing that he and Trucy and Apollo have had a whole bunch of conversations in the last year and are all on good terms now, despite [gestures at 4-1 and 4-3 and 4-4], and that Klavier is doing more or less okay. Emphasis on “or less” once his beloved mentor gets murdered, but in this version he actually gets to be part of the post-case denoument conversations and establishes that he’s pretty devastated (despite the return of his professional facade) but Apollo and Trucy and Athena are all well aware of that and are, so to speak, on the case, and with their support eventually he’ll be okay.

So. With that out of the way, here’s a new case about the legacy of Troupe Gramarye.

We start off by learning that Lamiroir is in town again and Trucy wants to go see her, because last time they saw her perform live things went pretty badly and it kind of soured the whole experience in retrospect, but she really did have such a beautiful voice that Trucy wants to see her again (hopefully with nobody getting murdered this time). She talks Apollo into going with her pretty easily; he might put up a token resistance, but he’s actually not really opposed since she’s performing solo this time and he likes her music a lot when the Gavinners aren’t involved. They go to the show, and it’s everything they could have hoped for and more, including that as it turns out, she’s working with Valant Gramarye again, and the effects are, again, super impressive.

But gasp, betrayal, after the show (possibly the next day, at the Wright & Co. Offices?) it turns out that Valant sucks even more than we thought (though, you know, framing his friend/in-my-version-brother for murder and abandoning the child of the woman he loved who had just also been abandoned by her father wasn’t exactly a great start): he’s suing Trucy for the Gramarye rights, based on the premise that she inherited them under false pretenses, because he’s discovered evidence that suggests Thalassa’s death was due to active negligence on Zak’s part, and he’s arguing that while Zak was the better/more talented magician, and thus Magnifi liked him better than Valant, Thalassa was Magnifi’s beloved daughter, and there’s no way Zak would’ve been given the first shot (so to speak) at earning the Gramarye rights if Magnifi hadn’t been blinded enough by grief to believe it was an accident, and while Trucy inherited the rights fair and square from Zak, he should never have had the rights in the first place, and Valant is the rightful inheritor.

I have no idea where the rest of the plot goes because I’m not a mystery writer and I don’t know how to come up with actual plots and red herrings and clues, but eventually there’s a dramatic reveal that there was active negligence involved, which Valant knew all along bc it was his fault.

…but that reveal is ultimately secondary to the one either shortly before or shortly after, that [drumroll] Thalassa wasn’t actually dead anyway

Which, again, I’m not a mystery writer, I don’t know if or how this would actually fit, but in my head there’s a great dramatic moment where the reveal happens for the audience—Valant, Trucy, Apollo, any Troupe Gramarye fans in the gallery, and the players—but not, for the first few moments, Lamiroir herself.

For whatever reason, she removes her veil/scarf, or they slip somehow, and so she’s there on the witness stand with her face visible around other people for the first time in years. The whole gallery (and Apollo) kind of collectively draw in a breath, while Valant says her name, genuinely stunned

And in almost the same moment, Trucy (who would sound five years old, if this bit was a cutscene) says “…Mommy?”

Cue discussion, Lamiroir learns who she is, the realization that Magnifi must have known she wasn’t really dead and the real cover-up was his doing all along etc, everything gets resolved, and Valant gives up on suing Trucy for the rights.

(The “hey that’s an awfully familiar-looking bracelet” reveal probably doesn’t happen until after the rest of the case is resolved, but I don’t have particularly strong feelings about that one way or the other.)

Everything winds up reasonably happy—Apollo and Trucy find out they’re half-siblings and their mother’s alive, Lamiroir resolves to get the surgery to restore her eyesight (and in the end credits we find out it helped restore her memory too), and Trucy gets to keep the Gramarye rights bc Valant’s suit was built on two different fundamental lies (that Thalassa’s death was Zak’s fault/that it wasn’t Valant’s, and that she was, you know, actually dead), and relatedly, in a shocking twist for the series, no one actually gets murdered, and there isn’t even an accidental death!

…but any hope of Trucy and Valant reconnecting/Valant becoming a positive figure in Trucy’s life again is pretty solidly destroyed, and there’s another two blows struck against the Troupe Gramarye legacy, bc not only was Thalassa’s accident actually Valant’s fault all along, Magnifi knew she wasn’t dead and abandoned her.

In a very direct parallel to Maya at the end of 3-5, Trucy spends most of the case uncertain whether she even wants these rights anymore—she ultimately decides the answer is yes, but it’s in question from basically the moment she learns Valant’s argument for why the rights should belong to him, and even him admitting the whole thing was based in lies and the rights are hers fair and square doesn’t convince her entirely right away.

Aaaaand then The Cosmic Turnabout kicks off and we’re back to the previously-established plot!

[fromtheseventhhell]

George establishing Sansa as an unreliable narrator and then making her the only POV observing one of the biggest schemers in the books is actually so big-brained.

[sparklemotiongalaxy]

A Vague Reason

Another Eriverse fic I thought was a good idea to write. Very short. Featuring Yinu with Kento Nanami (note: I have not read Jujutsu Kaisen, so I got Kento's personality from the wiki. Sorry if I messed him up in any capacity.)

Yes, the title is a reference to the soundtrack I found.

As always, the Eriverse AU is by @erigold13261!

"PLEEEASE!" "…I don't play the piano." "I know. But Mama told me you can."

With the Whitebloom Piano right in front of him, the person in front of Yinu sighed. He fixates his gaze on the piano, then back towards Yinu. Kento was here, and it felt strange for Yinu. Kento was someone she couldn't get. Even though he was supposed to be the half cousin of Dodo, she still didn't have the chance to properly talk to him. Dodo didn't even tell her that he had a cool half cousin! Well, until today. Kento was in the Spinose home because Yinu wanted a playmate who was not Peni. Sure, Yinu liked Peni. Kit was a great person to hang around with. But kit liked robots, and Yinu liked music. So Yinu wanted a friend who liked music, her type of music. So Mama brought in Kento. Maybe she thought he was better than someone who accidentally made Yinu smoke, hanged out with Ex-Jay, or stole ice cream from Professor Nova. At least Kento was really nice to Catherine. But this was awkward.

Yinu had no idea just who Kento was. But she can have him play the piano! It's a quick and great way to bond! Mama said she heard one of his friends say that he can! Yinu decides to use her ultimate move, her puppy eyes. "Please?" Kento sighed, even heavier this time. He now has a scowl on his face. "I have not gotten my hands on playing the piano for years. I have zero idea what Haibara told your mother, but I assure that my skill in the piano is nothing compared to yours." As Yinu thought about changing the topic to something else, he softens up. No more scowls. "However, it would be a shame to let you down. I'm going to play a song I was made to compose." "Hooray! You can sit here, and play." Yinu takes his hand, and guides him to the stool. "I already understand."

He sits down. Takes a deep breath, and puts his hands on the keys.

Yinu finds herself closing her eyes. He starts to play. Just pressing the same keys. In the same manner. An addition of repeating four sounds, rising. Soft and calming. Crescendo. A blossom.

For some reason, Yinu felt like a large hand cupping hers. Papa?

More rising, but more keys. He was using both his hands to the fullest extent. Up and away. Rising and falling. Like the lapping waves. Then. Quiet. Less sounds. Just pressing sounds. More of the sounds. The same chords, but in different ways.

Back to the same four notes. But with more background chords. Ending with a high note.

She swore she smelt the ocean.

Yinu opens her eyes. Kento looks back, and is… startled. At least, he looks at you with his eyes fairly widened. "Was my piano sound that foul?" It was then that Yinu found herself with her cheeks wet. Yinu takes out a handkerchief from her pocket, and dabs it around her face. When was the last time she even cried like this?

"No! It was… like the ocean. Quiet, but suddenly loud. Simple like the waves, but always changing. I liked it. Papa and Mama would like it very much too." Kento once again is back looking at the piano's keys. His fingers touch the keys, but not making sound. "Strange you think it feels like the ocean. I was thinking about all the things that got me to this point. All the choices I did not make, all the things I wish I did. The reasons, the excuses I made up." One thing she knew about Kento, was that he managed to get himself to Neuva York along with his friend Yu, but managed to get out with Peni and nyan friends. He probably had sure lot of regrets. "… does any of that have to do with the ocean?" Kento does not sigh. Yinu is unable to read his expressions with his entire body facing the piano like that. "Maybe. After all, my surname Nanami means 'Seven Ocean' if you take the kanji's meaning literally." "And you like the ocean?" "You seem to be fixated on that topic, but yes. I do." "Cool! Let's go someday!" It would be nice to make an album with beach themed songs. Then she could find some time to go. "Honestly Peni would be a better candidate." "But you're cool, I guess." "… thank you. And let's get your face cleaned before I get suspected of abuse." Yinu decides to ask her Mama to have more playdates with Kento.

[bellarashallaplush]

See the thing about me is like. I genuinely enjoy reading people's critiques of DATV more than actually playing DATV and I don't know what that says about me but it definitely says something.

[potatobugz]

biggest problem with writing is that I have all the ideas and themes I want to express in my head, but when I try to write it down the words come out. wrong

[bonefall]

wouldn't a big part of hollyleaf's century be that she becomes leader of a clan that falls to ruin? wouldn't that experience make her realize the responsibility and potential horrors that could come with being in power? all of that could make her a more passive force in general, kind of like scourge coming into clan life. she starts to appreciate the little and mundane duties a lot more. i think the biggest thing that would complicate her coming back would be tbc: there's no way she could be in the background with all that going on imo. but yeah, adding in my two cents. (itd give you one more lesbian couple at the end of the day too LOL)

I really DO want that extra queer couple, too OTL Hollycinder just works so much better, man

Fallenleaf would definitely end up being a lot more passive, with the events of Hollyleaf's Century having made her realize that power isn't something she wants to wield ever again.

The one thing holding me back is TBC, yeah... even if she'd be more passive, she'd surely recognize that Bramblestar is possessed much earlier than all the other cats. She can't be passive in that arc and that could end up changing the story a lot.

So... if she does survive, maybe I can put her on a bus for that arc? After all, her child Hollylark will have died horribly just before it. Maybe she can go traveling to learn from Midnight in response?

Having her be traveling, in any case, is a LOT more satisfying than the way that canon has her unceremoniously hanging out in StarClan... plus then I can kill two birds with one stone and un-bloat TBC ThunderClan a bit by sending Cinderheart with her.