madimpossibledreamer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2022-04-28 10:51 pm
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2022-04-28 10:51 pm
Not Looking for Words
was rewatching my favorite Mentalist episode. Did not notice the racism years ago (there is no need to tase the uncooperative black guy) and it definitely made me uncomfortable, which--yes! It should! I should notice these things and be uncomfortable, especially as it's kind of played for laughs. Means I'm learning, which is one good thing in all of that.but the rest of the writing is still fun, and it would have been so easy to just take that out.
When I write something problematic like that, because I will, either because society as constructed currently sucks, or because society as constructed currently sucks + I am not part of the minority group suffering, lemme know I screwed up, because I don't want to be a jerk, I want people to have fun reading my stuff, and it detracts from the work.
Anyway.
I thought about another blond who hides his pain behind smiles and flirting and a generally sunny attitude, started writing, went, "Wait, Apollo's more of the psychic...eh, that'll make it more interesting" and kept going. Patrick Jane as a character is interesting because here's a guy who's genuinely loving life and living in the moment and also 100% is living for revenge, and just--there's a lot of interesting nuance to the character that makes a fusion story fun.
Main Points:
Ace Attorney
Chapter Summary: Apollo gets accused of being a grump that hates fun, but it's a lot more complicated than that.
Word Count: 1753
Rating: Teen
Apollo and Klavier have a mutual crush
edgeworth is alluded to but does not actually appear
warning: hints of kristoph being a jerk
No—actually, that’s not right. Rewind.
It’s not his job he hates, particularly. It’s just one annoying…he doesn’t even know, does the man count as a coworker?
The man is far too pretty for his own good or anyone else’s, to start with. He’s almost the classic blond-haired blue-eyed beauty, except for one thing—he’s more tan than your average person fitting that description. “A hazard of so many outdoor concerts, ja?” he responds with a laugh because, seriously, it had taken Apollo so long to accept that the man was at least born in Germany.
A suspect had accused him of using a tanning bed because, you know, vanity, and, “Nein, it’s common in Deutschland, well, not unheard of, at least,” and Apollo had snorted. “Perhaps Herr Justice would like to vacation there, so I can show evidence to support my claim?”
It—He wants it to be easy to hate the guy. He’s too familiar, too flirty, too charming. He uses those charms everywhere and most of the time it has people eating out of his hand. He tends to wear a ridiculous amount of jewelry almost as distracting as the well-fitted clothing often not even fully buttoned. He’s pretty sure that’s a proposition for a romantic getaway during the middle of an interrogation, which isn’t entirely professional, but then, he doesn’t have to be, does he, when he can get away with almost anything.
But Gavin has some boundaries. Like, he doesn’t break out the embarrassing nicknames in German or in English around suspects, because while he’s the blond airhead to be underestimated, his actual colleagues on the force are to be respected. If he’s seriously making someone uncomfortable, or, well, unhappy, he backs off, and his ability to read people almost as well as Apollo means that he figures that out pretty quick. Unfortunately, that means that he gets that Apollo doesn't hate him or his flirting, just is annoyed by the fact that it's not professional, so Gavin's dialed it back to Schrödinger's flirting.
Being that the Gramaryes were a rival act, Apollo catches the tricks. Most of it is misdirection. With Gavin’s nimble fingers and brilliant smile and pretty blue eyes and hypnotic honey-voice purring over randomly interspersed German and English seemingly engineered to make one lose one’s train of thought, it’s easy not to pay attention to the things that really matter, underneath it all. Couple that with the ability to read people, and he can pull off the ‘psychic’ act.
It’s slightly unfair that if Apollo had just tried that stunt, he probably could have been paid more, actually, with more control over his own hours and less paperwork (most of the time he likes it, but the increase of Gavin-related paperwork has even him grumbling). It’s also unfair that the man has a steel-trap mind that’s just…constantly picking up the puzzle pieces, figuring out what’s relevant and what’s fluff.
He seems like he has it all-beauty, brains, money, fame—it’s not even like he needs the money from the consulting gig, he just takes it from the department anyway! It’s unfair he doesn’t have to work this hard, unlike Apollo. It’s unfair because Apollo was hoping to find a nice, serious job as a cop trying to actually make people’s lives better, and while yeah, okay, so they do a better job not being racist or sexist or any other nasty flavor of bigotry, half because of diverse hires and half because Chief Wright kicked the last guy who tried that to the Chief Prosecutor so fast it’s clear there’s a no tolerance policy for intolerance. But it’s also a weird workplace, and definitely doesn’t take it all as seriously as Apollo would like. Sudden bursts into song, sometimes accompanied by guitar, are unfortunately common. Apollo didn’t go into musical theater for a reason, people. And the unfortunate thing is, Gavin’s not even the weirdest employee. He’s just the flashiest, and takes up two parking spaces in the precinct garage, between the bike and the flashy high-end car Apollo wouldn’t be able to afford if he saved up for his entire life.
And it’s worse because as much as Apollo wants to, he…can’t hate Gavin.
Gavin’s aware of how pretty he is, pretty much all of his strengths, actually, and he uses them, but—he doesn’t have a swollen head. Sure, he’s ridiculous. He’s often snapping his fingers, or tapping his foot, or humming along to songs he, half the time, isn’t even listening to, with his fancy phone and headphones. He’ll burst into Apollo’s interrogations with annoyingly useful revelations, wander off during the middle of a crime scene investigation to buy everyone snacks, and sometimes (often) he doesn’t know when to quit, because it really doesn’t matter how pretty your face is, Gavin, if you make a nuisance of yourself and actually point out how yeah, that suspect actually did murder his wife with a shovel, they’re going to come after you with a kitchen knife, how many times does Apollo have to say it.
So, yeah, in addition to all of the above, he’s prone to coming up with goofy nicknames, he’s reckless and sometimes his brain will have genius jumps in deduction that none of them can follow and turn out to be right in the end. He’s annoyingly right more often than the rest of the actual professionals he works with and he doesn’t even have the decency to be smug or a jerk about it. Sometimes it’s like wrangling an enthusiastic, overly eager puppy that always has the energy to find more mischief, because unless he’s actually using music to focus his thoughts, focus is not always his strong suit.
He’s realistic about his strengths, as Apollo already mentioned, which for a man in his position is as good as being modest, and he’ll often explain how each of them contributed when praised for closing another case. He can actually pull off wearing sunglasses inside. And at night.
He’s annoyingly adorable when he’s tired, before he chugs down the office coffee with some added creamer. That’s pretty much the only time he’s low energy, either. And his “foul moods” are so rare Apollo almost was convinced it was a dream, the first time it happened. But they also prove he's a human and not only capable of one singular emotion. He’s genuinely thoughtful and interested in people. He’s always cataloguing and filing away things in his brain—favorite music, favorite coffee order, and the like, just so he can pleasantly surprise them all when morale’s low, never mind surprise meals for them all when they’re so stuck in work they’ve forgotten. And it’s not even a ploy—he hasn’t thrown a fit about how none of them have allowed him a one-night stand or anything. He’s genuinely doing this because seeing them smile after a two-day all-nighter is the only repayment he needs.
Apollo being Apollo, though, he can tell some other things, like it wasn’t already irritating enough knowing he can’t hate the guy. Like, he’s pretty sure that Gavin’s just sleeping in the office on his usual couch at night, because he doesn’t want to go back to the house his brother was murdered in. He doesn’t talk about it. No one does. Like, sometimes, when he thinks no one’s watching, he’ll get this sad, lost look in his eye. Ennui, he’d probably call it if caught. What makes it worse is that the smiles aren’t a lie. Sure, sometimes he’ll fake a smile to get through the day, and Apollo is ninety percent certain the blond former rock star has at least a little depression, but being useful, making other people feel better, genuinely makes him feel better, sometimes to the point that he’s almost pathetically desperate to please, even if most people wouldn’t catch that. Like, he’s not perfect, because sometimes, especially for the team meals, if he figures he’s going to get sucked in to trying to figure it out, too, he’ll set an alarm. Like sometimes it’s clear he’s no stranger to hard work, because if there’s a ton of stuff they have to read through he’ll buckle down with music just like the rest of them, because he’s a member of the team, not better than them. And he’s got tricks to keep himself awake and invested, so maybe he hadn’t had the world handed to him on a silver platter after all.
If anything, it just irritates him more, because how dare he actually be flawed and a real human being and therefore not someone Apollo can actually hate no matter how hard he tries.
Clay just laughs and tells him that means his job is a really good one, but then, anything Apollo knows about Gavin’s band before they broke up and anything of his (rather odd) solo career after that comes from Clay, so he suspects his best friend might be a little biased. He’d also claimed to be fully straight, but ‘some celebrities would just be worth it’, to which Apollo points out the clear contradiction in that statement, come on, he’s not even trying to hide it. At least Ema gets it. They mutually get together to complain about Gavin on a regular basis while she does her forensics analysis of the evidence.
And then there’s…well, there’s the Chief. If there’s anyone less taken in by the ‘psychic’ thing, it’s him. His daughter, Trucy, doesn’t believe it either, mostly because she’s got the same powers Apollo does, but the fact that Gavin’s faking it doesn’t seem to bother her like it does him. In fact, she does the whole ‘teenage crush’ over him, which is kind of awkward, although Apollo half suspects it’s to drive her dad crazy because she can. He doesn’t try to understand their relationship, either. It probably doesn’t help that they know an actual spirit medium, who’s also consulted now and then.
But the point is, Chief Wright had told him not to trust ‘a Gavin’, which makes Apollo wonder how much the Chief knows about Kristoph Gavin’s death. He’d also been told to keep an eye on the man, which, well, at least he’s fulfilling that, even if he can’t quite manage to bring himself not to trust the guy. He owes the Chief a lot, and he’s really more annoyed at himself than anything that he can’t even manage to follow the order about trusting Klavier.
When I write something problematic like that, because I will, either because society as constructed currently sucks, or because society as constructed currently sucks + I am not part of the minority group suffering, lemme know I screwed up, because I don't want to be a jerk, I want people to have fun reading my stuff, and it detracts from the work.
Anyway.
I thought about another blond who hides his pain behind smiles and flirting and a generally sunny attitude, started writing, went, "Wait, Apollo's more of the psychic...eh, that'll make it more interesting" and kept going. Patrick Jane as a character is interesting because here's a guy who's genuinely loving life and living in the moment and also 100% is living for revenge, and just--there's a lot of interesting nuance to the character that makes a fusion story fun.
Main Points:
Ace Attorney
Chapter Summary: Apollo gets accused of being a grump that hates fun, but it's a lot more complicated than that.
Word Count: 1753
Rating: Teen
Apollo and Klavier have a mutual crush
edgeworth is alluded to but does not actually appear
warning: hints of kristoph being a jerk
Apollo hates his job sometimes.
No—actually, that’s not right. Rewind.
It’s not his job he hates, particularly. It’s just one annoying…he doesn’t even know, does the man count as a coworker?
The man is far too pretty for his own good or anyone else’s, to start with. He’s almost the classic blond-haired blue-eyed beauty, except for one thing—he’s more tan than your average person fitting that description. “A hazard of so many outdoor concerts, ja?” he responds with a laugh because, seriously, it had taken Apollo so long to accept that the man was at least born in Germany.
A suspect had accused him of using a tanning bed because, you know, vanity, and, “Nein, it’s common in Deutschland, well, not unheard of, at least,” and Apollo had snorted. “Perhaps Herr Justice would like to vacation there, so I can show evidence to support my claim?”
It—He wants it to be easy to hate the guy. He’s too familiar, too flirty, too charming. He uses those charms everywhere and most of the time it has people eating out of his hand. He tends to wear a ridiculous amount of jewelry almost as distracting as the well-fitted clothing often not even fully buttoned. He’s pretty sure that’s a proposition for a romantic getaway during the middle of an interrogation, which isn’t entirely professional, but then, he doesn’t have to be, does he, when he can get away with almost anything.
But Gavin has some boundaries. Like, he doesn’t break out the embarrassing nicknames in German or in English around suspects, because while he’s the blond airhead to be underestimated, his actual colleagues on the force are to be respected. If he’s seriously making someone uncomfortable, or, well, unhappy, he backs off, and his ability to read people almost as well as Apollo means that he figures that out pretty quick. Unfortunately, that means that he gets that Apollo doesn't hate him or his flirting, just is annoyed by the fact that it's not professional, so Gavin's dialed it back to Schrödinger's flirting.
Being that the Gramaryes were a rival act, Apollo catches the tricks. Most of it is misdirection. With Gavin’s nimble fingers and brilliant smile and pretty blue eyes and hypnotic honey-voice purring over randomly interspersed German and English seemingly engineered to make one lose one’s train of thought, it’s easy not to pay attention to the things that really matter, underneath it all. Couple that with the ability to read people, and he can pull off the ‘psychic’ act.
It’s slightly unfair that if Apollo had just tried that stunt, he probably could have been paid more, actually, with more control over his own hours and less paperwork (most of the time he likes it, but the increase of Gavin-related paperwork has even him grumbling). It’s also unfair that the man has a steel-trap mind that’s just…constantly picking up the puzzle pieces, figuring out what’s relevant and what’s fluff.
He seems like he has it all-beauty, brains, money, fame—it’s not even like he needs the money from the consulting gig, he just takes it from the department anyway! It’s unfair he doesn’t have to work this hard, unlike Apollo. It’s unfair because Apollo was hoping to find a nice, serious job as a cop trying to actually make people’s lives better, and while yeah, okay, so they do a better job not being racist or sexist or any other nasty flavor of bigotry, half because of diverse hires and half because Chief Wright kicked the last guy who tried that to the Chief Prosecutor so fast it’s clear there’s a no tolerance policy for intolerance. But it’s also a weird workplace, and definitely doesn’t take it all as seriously as Apollo would like. Sudden bursts into song, sometimes accompanied by guitar, are unfortunately common. Apollo didn’t go into musical theater for a reason, people. And the unfortunate thing is, Gavin’s not even the weirdest employee. He’s just the flashiest, and takes up two parking spaces in the precinct garage, between the bike and the flashy high-end car Apollo wouldn’t be able to afford if he saved up for his entire life.
And it’s worse because as much as Apollo wants to, he…can’t hate Gavin.
Gavin’s aware of how pretty he is, pretty much all of his strengths, actually, and he uses them, but—he doesn’t have a swollen head. Sure, he’s ridiculous. He’s often snapping his fingers, or tapping his foot, or humming along to songs he, half the time, isn’t even listening to, with his fancy phone and headphones. He’ll burst into Apollo’s interrogations with annoyingly useful revelations, wander off during the middle of a crime scene investigation to buy everyone snacks, and sometimes (often) he doesn’t know when to quit, because it really doesn’t matter how pretty your face is, Gavin, if you make a nuisance of yourself and actually point out how yeah, that suspect actually did murder his wife with a shovel, they’re going to come after you with a kitchen knife, how many times does Apollo have to say it.
So, yeah, in addition to all of the above, he’s prone to coming up with goofy nicknames, he’s reckless and sometimes his brain will have genius jumps in deduction that none of them can follow and turn out to be right in the end. He’s annoyingly right more often than the rest of the actual professionals he works with and he doesn’t even have the decency to be smug or a jerk about it. Sometimes it’s like wrangling an enthusiastic, overly eager puppy that always has the energy to find more mischief, because unless he’s actually using music to focus his thoughts, focus is not always his strong suit.
He’s realistic about his strengths, as Apollo already mentioned, which for a man in his position is as good as being modest, and he’ll often explain how each of them contributed when praised for closing another case. He can actually pull off wearing sunglasses inside. And at night.
He’s annoyingly adorable when he’s tired, before he chugs down the office coffee with some added creamer. That’s pretty much the only time he’s low energy, either. And his “foul moods” are so rare Apollo almost was convinced it was a dream, the first time it happened. But they also prove he's a human and not only capable of one singular emotion. He’s genuinely thoughtful and interested in people. He’s always cataloguing and filing away things in his brain—favorite music, favorite coffee order, and the like, just so he can pleasantly surprise them all when morale’s low, never mind surprise meals for them all when they’re so stuck in work they’ve forgotten. And it’s not even a ploy—he hasn’t thrown a fit about how none of them have allowed him a one-night stand or anything. He’s genuinely doing this because seeing them smile after a two-day all-nighter is the only repayment he needs.
Apollo being Apollo, though, he can tell some other things, like it wasn’t already irritating enough knowing he can’t hate the guy. Like, he’s pretty sure that Gavin’s just sleeping in the office on his usual couch at night, because he doesn’t want to go back to the house his brother was murdered in. He doesn’t talk about it. No one does. Like, sometimes, when he thinks no one’s watching, he’ll get this sad, lost look in his eye. Ennui, he’d probably call it if caught. What makes it worse is that the smiles aren’t a lie. Sure, sometimes he’ll fake a smile to get through the day, and Apollo is ninety percent certain the blond former rock star has at least a little depression, but being useful, making other people feel better, genuinely makes him feel better, sometimes to the point that he’s almost pathetically desperate to please, even if most people wouldn’t catch that. Like, he’s not perfect, because sometimes, especially for the team meals, if he figures he’s going to get sucked in to trying to figure it out, too, he’ll set an alarm. Like sometimes it’s clear he’s no stranger to hard work, because if there’s a ton of stuff they have to read through he’ll buckle down with music just like the rest of them, because he’s a member of the team, not better than them. And he’s got tricks to keep himself awake and invested, so maybe he hadn’t had the world handed to him on a silver platter after all.
If anything, it just irritates him more, because how dare he actually be flawed and a real human being and therefore not someone Apollo can actually hate no matter how hard he tries.
Clay just laughs and tells him that means his job is a really good one, but then, anything Apollo knows about Gavin’s band before they broke up and anything of his (rather odd) solo career after that comes from Clay, so he suspects his best friend might be a little biased. He’d also claimed to be fully straight, but ‘some celebrities would just be worth it’, to which Apollo points out the clear contradiction in that statement, come on, he’s not even trying to hide it. At least Ema gets it. They mutually get together to complain about Gavin on a regular basis while she does her forensics analysis of the evidence.
And then there’s…well, there’s the Chief. If there’s anyone less taken in by the ‘psychic’ thing, it’s him. His daughter, Trucy, doesn’t believe it either, mostly because she’s got the same powers Apollo does, but the fact that Gavin’s faking it doesn’t seem to bother her like it does him. In fact, she does the whole ‘teenage crush’ over him, which is kind of awkward, although Apollo half suspects it’s to drive her dad crazy because she can. He doesn’t try to understand their relationship, either. It probably doesn’t help that they know an actual spirit medium, who’s also consulted now and then.
But the point is, Chief Wright had told him not to trust ‘a Gavin’, which makes Apollo wonder how much the Chief knows about Kristoph Gavin’s death. He’d also been told to keep an eye on the man, which, well, at least he’s fulfilling that, even if he can’t quite manage to bring himself not to trust the guy. He owes the Chief a lot, and he’s really more annoyed at himself than anything that he can’t even manage to follow the order about trusting Klavier.