itsfairplay | Mingle and an Intro: Welcome to the Box!

Mingle and an Intro: Welcome to the Box!

[ On today, a long-time business has been bought for the day and paid well. Whoever paid it wants people to eat and make merry for some reason. Must be a holiday? Huh, all devices showing the date day it's the new year. It doesn't matter what day it was for you before now, it's not the new year. And you? You are at the Chloe Café at 1:30PM.

Waiters and waitresses will take your order. Really, it's a chill time. Even if you're supposed to be dead? You're alive now, somewhere in Los Angeles, Japanifornia. Welcome and have a good day, because eventually there's gonna be a murder to solve in this big ol' city. ]

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Already...? The big scandals were a few years ago now. It was a big deal, the whole framing Phoenix Wright thing for forged evidence and the murders he committed, including attempted murder of a teenaged girl. Of course he'd be an example in text books.

[ Klav your brother did a lot of bad. ]

[He was trying to be good, minding his own business at his table.

But he couldn't help but overhear that part about Klavier's brother framing Phoenix Wright for forged evidence.

He absolutely just did a spit take and nearly choked on his coffee.

His free hand comes up to the side of his visor, realizing he probably just drew attention to himself. Pay him no mind. Really. Please.]

Edited 2020-02-28 23:09 (UTC)

What?!

[ --EXCUSE HIM. He takes a moment to look back at Godot and honestly cannot blame him for the reaction.

Same man.

Same. ]

That's not just the kind of thing you can say without evidence so casually! Proof! Where's the proof!! ... I'll admit he murdered a man. I know about that. Everyone knows about that. It's disgraceful. And he certainly tried to pin it on Herr Wright, but...

[ Denial is not just a river in Egypt. ]

...

[ Kachessa is just going to look at him like he grew another head. ]

Were you not present for the revelation of all of this? D... Did you somehow miss all of that scandal?

[ Gods, okay, where's the nearest library. ]

I don't have my textbook on-hand, maybe...

[ Googling on her phone and then handing it to him to read a news article on the whole thing. ]

No?! Wha--

[ It says he was the prosecutor ON THE GODDAMN CASE WHAT. His eyes furiously look over what's written and he can't believe it. ]

I... I don't remember... any of this! Mein gott! ... This joke isn't very funny, Fräulein!

There's something strange going on here... I can't exactly fake a news article on a phone, after all. And if you'd like...

[ She'll take him back to the results page! There's more than one. ]

I definitely can't fake more than one. So something strange must be happening...

... Nein!

[ No no no no no. This isn't happening. So many images rush before him.

"Ah... I won't be appearing in the trial, actually."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I won't be facing off with you on your first trial, apparently. But in exchange, I brought information."

"Information...?"

"The attorney who'll be there in my place tomorrow is not to be trusted."

Kristoph had the most to gain. Kristoph had the most reasons for wanting Phoenix gone. All of them petty. But he's known Kristoph for years. Surely he'd never... surely he'd...

... But then, he didn't believe the murder charge at first, either. But it was true. He DID kill a man. He admitted to it. ]

... What kind of sick joke is this...?

...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause problems like this.

[ But now there's the mystery of why Klavier doesn't remember. ]

[ Oooh he is deeply not okay. ]

... He used me.

[ It's said through gritted teeth.

But surely he should already know. Isn't that all Kristoph had ever done? Found him a tool to be useful? He'd been the one to encourage his passion for law. He'd been the one to want him in the prosecutor's office.

... Had he ever actually cared? At all? ]

For seven years, I've wondered why he came to me about that phony evidence. I wondered how he knew. I wondered a lot of things. B-but this... I never... how? How is this possible...?

...Forgive me for floating this idea, but... Given you have no knowledge of this, despite being there, but I do... Hm... What year is it? Without looking at your phone.

[ She has a theory. ]

[ He maybe thinks he gets what she's driving at. But that explanation is no less insane. ]

... It's 2026. Isn't it...?

Now tell me... How could a boy born in 2022 be in school if it was 2026?

[ Sheeee has questions on this. ]

[ ... Pausing. ]

... I suppose that doesn't make much sense, no. What exactly is going on here?

I suspect something's gone wonky with time, if you don't know your own brother's trial or the beginning of the Jurist System.

[ ... ]

... I'm sure this is just a very elaborate dream I'm having. Ach! That's got to be it.

A dream where your brother managed what appears to be a conspiracy spanning seven years.

[ ... He really, really doesn't want to admit to it. ]

... That seems ridiculous, though, doesn't it? Why would someone go through all that trouble? I can't claim to understand why he decided to murder a random man, but...

We have spirit mediums who channel the dead including taking on their appearance. Do you really question things that are strange, still?

[ It's a Thing all right. ]

[ ... Well. He plays with his hair a little. ]

... I see you've read up on Herr Wright's cases. Well... who knows what I believe. But I've never encountered it firsthand. I'm a prosecutor. My job is to live and die by the evidence, ja? Anyone can write anything they want... but that doesn't make it factual.

...He's why I got into law, actually. I was passionate about it when I was young. Me and my ex used to sit together watch breakdowns of what happened in court. It was silly, but... We enjoyed it.

[ There's nostalgia there. ]

He pulled off what seemed like miracles in the courtroom at times. Matt Engarde, Manfred von Karma, so many cases that just seemed impossible. ...He's the reason for the Jurist System, you know. He felt the law was lacking--that because it require hard, decisive evidence and you couldn't get someone off on anything circumstantial short of a confession on the stand, that it was too easy for innocents to get hurt. ...That's why I became a defense attorney. To help give voice to those who might indeed be a victim themselves.

...

[ ... Oh. That's... sweet. It reminds him of himself, a little. ]

I just wanted to help people, personally. The law is imperfect. "Guilty"... "innocent"... what matters is the truth, even if that truth is painful. If there are people out there covering it up, trying to get innocents hurt... I want to be the kind of person making sure all the evidence is examined. Making sure I work with the defense, not against it.

That's how it should be, ja?

[ But there's a darkness in his life. Maybe there always had been, now that he thinks about it. His brother... what had lurked inside him, all this time...? ]

I... I went into law at my brother's suggestion. To be honest, music was also a passion of mine.

...People like your brother... I looked into him a little. On my off time. ...People like him? They become like that because they feel they can't trust anyone. There's a darkness in them, where something happened to them at a young age and it destroyed their innocence. Robbed them of it. ...It's a complicated feeling, seeing you and knowing you're related to him. You're so different.

[ ...She won't tell him. She can't. But he must know--the fate waiting for his brother. ]

....

[ He looks down. ]

... Funny you should say that. Because he always said I could trust him. You know, I went to Germany just so I could become a Prosecutor sooner. His idea. Their laws are a bit laxer. I started at seventeen.

...I'm an only child. I don't know what that level of betrayal feels like.

[ A sigh. She'll reach in her purse and produce a carton of pocky, offering him one. ]

Here. It's not much, but...

[ ... Small smile. The fact he doesn't make a joke about it says a lot about his mood on the subject. He'll take one. ]

... Thanks, Fräulein. You're unusually generous, to be flirting with the enemy like this.

[ ... Well, a small joke. But she can tell he doesn't mean it quite literally. Figure of speech.

He'll take it and toy with his hair with his free hand. ]

There's a part of me that wonders if I should go back to trying to divorce myself from him, like I did in my younger days... I kept my hair short then, ja? Now that I'm older, people don't say, "oh, you're Kristoph's younger brother!" to me quite so much... but... people know we're related.

There's no escaping that for me. You should've heard some of the phonecalls I got when news got out to the press about his initial arrest. "How does it feel to be related to a murderer?" "Were you his accomplice?" "Were all those songs you wrote literal?" "Do you have a bodycount, too?" ... Honestly.

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