[She sits. She spent the past night sitting, angry to herself, thinking a lot of dark thoughts, but when she sits down, she starts - ]
I think the critical error was in assuming the person who left a bloody mess in the hot tub and the person who left a bloody mess in the kitchen were one and the same. It would be difficult to cave someone's brain in with a shovel and not become soaked in blood, so I don't know that it was a terrible leap to make, but once the shoes and needles within were revealed, the timeline stopped making any sense.
Instead, if the person who killed Steven merely washed their hands in the kitchen and then deposited their gloves there, and then returned Ming Yi's bloodied boots and shovel whereas the person who killed Luca and Vlad was the one who made use of the hot tub and med bay, it all comes together a bit better.
It also reopens the possibility that the one who stole the shovel was Vlad, and he was caught by a person attempting to murder Luca on his way back from leaving the shovel in Ming Yi's room. I can't be certain that's what happened, but if it's true, then it means our only hope was to catch the person who trod on those cactus needles.
. . . I'm aware you are most likely unable to tell me whether any of this is correct. But it is especially infuriating to feel as though we weren't far from unraveling it.
[well. they listen to all of this and don't seem to have much of a reaction other than to finish serving the tea and push a cup toward her, picking up their own as they wait for her to finish. when that time comes though they nod in understanding as if to indicate they've heard her.]
[Hmm. She sort of looks at him, wondering if she'll get a flicker of whether 'good instincts' means she's right or wrong. It doesn't mean wrong, but it doesn't necessarily mean right.
But then, she didn't expect to lay this out and get confirmation.]
I'm not certain I do, actually. That stupid man with his constant moaning all trial - I took it for something other than it was. [She's not sad about the holeman, but. She definitely misread it.]
And that is my conundrum. My instincts have been telling me something for quite a while, and I have not acted on them because I have not been able to put it together well enough to feel certain.
Let me ask you this then. [because unfortunately there isn't anything they can do about fukuda now, and the man is a bit unhinged anyway.] What are your instincts telling you right now in this moment? Don't overcomplicate it. Return to the basics and explain.
Very well. My instincts tell me that Ashiya Douman is a threat. Beyond that, I . . .
I became convinced, very early on, that he had killed Tamaki Suoh. Clearly I was mistaken in that, though the theft of Beauregard's quarterstaff remains an outstanding question. But none of the aspects of his behavior that have gave me pause then have changed - they have only grown more evident.
It occurs to me now that someone might hide damage to their feet by feigning a kicking effect which has never been explained, and that someone with feet far larger than anyone else's might be especially motivated to disguise their footprints. It occurs to me now how quickly he turned on and betrayed Fukuda. It occurs to me that the week prior, he caused an especially big distraction for no apparent reason and destroyed evidence.
Understand that I hear myself when I suggest that I am accusing him of three separate murders, and that I do not necessarily believe that to be the case, and therefore must question my own conviction that he is behind this one. I have long been prone to hallucinations, fits of madness, and more recently intense bouts of paranoia, and I cannot necessarily trust my own 'instincts' in the way you suggest. What I feel strongly, however, is that he is capable of all of these things, but is craftier than HK-47 and Fukuda and won't be removed without evidence.
[the thing about harrow is that she's very clever. they understand that, and they're well aware that she has good instincts when it comes to things. they've watched her perform in trials, they've seen some of the conversations she's had, and even now they listen carefully to her opening statement to understand where she's coming from.
there isn't much they can say, but it's familiar, in a way.]
The fact that you claim you cannot trust your own instincts is trusting your instincts, Harrowhawk. [wow. first name basis. what the fuck.]
You have belief that they are capable of doing these things, but you are correct in that you have nothing without evidence to prove it so. How will you go about proving this case and finding the truth? The trial may be over, but you are clever enough to recall the things you learned during those nine hours. Going back over what you've learned and seeing your mistakes will provide the clarity you need. No hallucinations. No paranoia.
[...] That man you saw in my memory. He has always defended his clients with the belief that they were innocent while my job was to prove they were guilty. He would apply all sorts of illogical reasons to why the evidence presented could only lead to his client's innocence...and it worked. That's the thing about the truth. There is only one correct answer. Sometimes it's simple to find, and other times it isn't.
My only advice to you is to apply what you know and continue to investigate. From there, you will be able to determine which path you wish to take forward.
[Damn. Phoenix Wright could never. Anyway, she listens, but beneath some of those calm explanations is the boiling over of an anger she's struggling to conceal this time around.]
How many tries will that take? I am more than merely clever, but not enough to untangle this with any clarity. I have continued to reflect. I have continued to try. But, as you say, the difficulty is time. Time in which someone else may die if I am to be paralyzed with inaction, hoping for a cleaner resolution that may never come.
[. . .]
I understand that there are some courses of action you can neither encourage nor discourage, but also understand that your position is clear to me. I simply fear that I find it unacceptable.
...you know what. okay. give him a second because he's going to push back his hood finally just to Look at her.
without the hood, she can see that his eyes are still glowing purple and there's a hollow sort of darkness around the eye sockets, like deep-set shadows that give them an almost skeletal appearance. there's wisps of shadows coming from his eyes and thick veins that seem to bulge slightly, skin crackling in places. when he speaks, the fangs protruding from his mouth are a little more obvious and his claws click on the table slightly.
anyway yeah the real reason he dehooded was so he can just raise an eyebrow at her like a judgmental asshole.]
To be clear, my only position is the one where I believe if someone wants something done right they must do it themselves. I only advise you to prepare yourself and be cautious. [there's a pause.] If you are wrong about your decision, will you be able to live with it?
[Good. She stares back at him, not willing to break the eye contact or stop looking defiant when she's being looked at by a judgmental asshole. But. . . she did come here to talk to him for a reason.]
I have lived with so much worse. I don't fear adding such a meager additional regret. Why should I?
Because going forward it won't be only yours to carry. [and he doesn't think that harrow will listen because, truthfully, harrow reminds him so very much of someone he grew up with. this type of willfulness and stubbornness will do as it's wont to do. but simultaneously he doesn't think it's worth just letting her do whatever. she came to speak to him, he has things to say, and if she doesn't like them, well. it won't be the first time.]
Fukuda spoke far too much about nonsense I doubt he understood, but there is something he mentioned that applies here. The idea of a collective. Wasn't it you who told me only last week you wished to see others obtain their desires as well?
[Are you sure about that? If she had made up her mind, why bother coming here at all?]
I do. That isn't irrelevant here. I can defend my own life adequately. I am not particularly fearful I will be killed in the night. [Well, yes she is, that's something else entirely.] Unless someone does something decisive, vultures and scavengers will continue to do what they do.
[the worst is that they have a similar way of doing things and it means that edgeworth is out here really just thinking things that may or may not apply. but her answer intrigues him enough and he tilts his head in thought.]
The longer this goes without catching a culprit, the larger the culprit list grows. Tell me then. What decisive actions are you considering?
[She is a girl who learned she had to do difficult things from an early age; couldn't ask for help, couldn't rely on anyone else. This feels like one of those moments - do the ugly, necessary thing. She has never required much hand-holding or reassurances about her decisions.]
Kill one of them, and give any others pause.
[Except that doesn't really make sense, does it. Not if no one knows why he was killed.]
And by doing so, the list grows. [repeating that point once more.] I spoke with Enomoto yesterday, and he wasn't quite able to grasp this but perhaps you can. You've yet to find a motive for any of these cases, correct? Even if there are others, without understanding why, how will you stop this from continuing?
Killing a culprit yourself will be a temporary reprieve. But only until someone else begins the same pattern.
[She frowns at him, distracted by, frankly, the appeal to being smarter than Enomoto, which she absolutely cannot refuse to demonstrate.]
. . . There is a motive. We must share in the rewards, and some don't wish to.
What I wonder is whether you refer to individualized personal motives we haven't found yet outside that - such as HK-47's desire to murder as many people as possible for little to know reason, or finding Vlad Masters a bit of a tool - or whether you mean there is a broader motive other than the one I suggested.
Knowing an individualized motive may help you narrow down your suspects in future cases and may prove why, precisely, those who have died were targeted at all. Even if the motive is as simple-minded as HK-47's it provides a context so you are not left floundering for the rest of your time here.
You say so, but we've killed all of the obvious scoundrels already. Without more, we're left guessing - perhaps Vlad was a pompous, irritating man who was tired of being voted for and wanted company for curfew. Or perhaps he was a more dangerous man, who saw which way the wind was blowing with respect to the votes, and decided to frame someone else.
It is all speculation. It was speculation when I decided Beauregard did not seem like a skilled liar who would deceive even her friends, and it was speculation when I decided Fukuda's interjections had become a pattern. One was correct, and one wasn't.
But it is, as you say, all speculation. [they don't entirely believe that given how things have gone, but they don't really think elaboration will help either.] At least until you decide on an action to take to obtain an answer.
I understand what you say. But I am sick of putting all of our hopes on finding out what happened afterwards. By the time the trials begin, we are already far behind where we ought to be. And then we fail, and are even further behind.
[So - it's fine, to think on the evidence better or whatever, but she just doesn't have the patience to hear it right now.]
Nothing you're saying to me is solving this problem!
Then do better to create a solution prior to the problem.
[that's all they seem to say though and they put down their tea. i hate to do this because my siz threads but also gestures at greed being who he is as a person.]
[No, don't worry, it's very good. She probably won't even try to talk to him again for a while but it is also absolutely the correct way to handle this.
She's - very angry with him, for cutting her off so abruptly, as though he no longer finds anything she's saying worth responding to. But also very angry with herself. Angry and sad and feeling extremely lacking right now for reasons that are hard to understand but have everything to do with her regretting having reacted so emotionally and disappointing him.]
That will be all, yes.
[She will get up very coldly, but she storms out.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[and once harrow enters the tea room, she'll find that greed is seated at a table far from the entrance and seems to be fixing two cups of tea.]
Have a seat. [they can guess what this is about, at least.]
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I think the critical error was in assuming the person who left a bloody mess in the hot tub and the person who left a bloody mess in the kitchen were one and the same. It would be difficult to cave someone's brain in with a shovel and not become soaked in blood, so I don't know that it was a terrible leap to make, but once the shoes and needles within were revealed, the timeline stopped making any sense.
Instead, if the person who killed Steven merely washed their hands in the kitchen and then deposited their gloves there, and then returned Ming Yi's bloodied boots and shovel whereas the person who killed Luca and Vlad was the one who made use of the hot tub and med bay, it all comes together a bit better.
It also reopens the possibility that the one who stole the shovel was Vlad, and he was caught by a person attempting to murder Luca on his way back from leaving the shovel in Ming Yi's room. I can't be certain that's what happened, but if it's true, then it means our only hope was to catch the person who trod on those cactus needles.
. . . I'm aware you are most likely unable to tell me whether any of this is correct. But it is especially infuriating to feel as though we weren't far from unraveling it.
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You have good instincts, Miss Nonagesimus.
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But then, she didn't expect to lay this out and get confirmation.]
I'm not certain I do, actually. That stupid man with his constant moaning all trial - I took it for something other than it was. [She's not sad about the holeman, but. She definitely misread it.]
And that is my conundrum. My instincts have been telling me something for quite a while, and I have not acted on them because I have not been able to put it together well enough to feel certain.
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Let me ask you this then. [because unfortunately there isn't anything they can do about fukuda now, and the man is a bit unhinged anyway.] What are your instincts telling you right now in this moment? Don't overcomplicate it. Return to the basics and explain.
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I became convinced, very early on, that he had killed Tamaki Suoh. Clearly I was mistaken in that, though the theft of Beauregard's quarterstaff remains an outstanding question. But none of the aspects of his behavior that have gave me pause then have changed - they have only grown more evident.
It occurs to me now that someone might hide damage to their feet by feigning a kicking effect which has never been explained, and that someone with feet far larger than anyone else's might be especially motivated to disguise their footprints. It occurs to me now how quickly he turned on and betrayed Fukuda. It occurs to me that the week prior, he caused an especially big distraction for no apparent reason and destroyed evidence.
Understand that I hear myself when I suggest that I am accusing him of three separate murders, and that I do not necessarily believe that to be the case, and therefore must question my own conviction that he is behind this one. I have long been prone to hallucinations, fits of madness, and more recently intense bouts of paranoia, and I cannot necessarily trust my own 'instincts' in the way you suggest. What I feel strongly, however, is that he is capable of all of these things, but is craftier than HK-47 and Fukuda and won't be removed without evidence.
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there isn't much they can say, but it's familiar, in a way.]
The fact that you claim you cannot trust your own instincts is trusting your instincts, Harrowhawk. [wow. first name basis. what the fuck.]
You have belief that they are capable of doing these things, but you are correct in that you have nothing without evidence to prove it so. How will you go about proving this case and finding the truth? The trial may be over, but you are clever enough to recall the things you learned during those nine hours. Going back over what you've learned and seeing your mistakes will provide the clarity you need. No hallucinations. No paranoia.
[...] That man you saw in my memory. He has always defended his clients with the belief that they were innocent while my job was to prove they were guilty. He would apply all sorts of illogical reasons to why the evidence presented could only lead to his client's innocence...and it worked. That's the thing about the truth. There is only one correct answer. Sometimes it's simple to find, and other times it isn't.
My only advice to you is to apply what you know and continue to investigate. From there, you will be able to determine which path you wish to take forward.
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How many tries will that take? I am more than merely clever, but not enough to untangle this with any clarity. I have continued to reflect. I have continued to try. But, as you say, the difficulty is time. Time in which someone else may die if I am to be paralyzed with inaction, hoping for a cleaner resolution that may never come.
[. . .]
I understand that there are some courses of action you can neither encourage nor discourage, but also understand that your position is clear to me. I simply fear that I find it unacceptable.
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...you know what. okay. give him a second because he's going to push back his hood finally just to Look at her.
without the hood, she can see that his eyes are still glowing purple and there's a hollow sort of darkness around the eye sockets, like deep-set shadows that give them an almost skeletal appearance. there's wisps of shadows coming from his eyes and thick veins that seem to bulge slightly, skin crackling in places. when he speaks, the fangs protruding from his mouth are a little more obvious and his claws click on the table slightly.
anyway yeah the real reason he dehooded was so he can just raise an eyebrow at her like a judgmental asshole.]
To be clear, my only position is the one where I believe if someone wants something done right they must do it themselves. I only advise you to prepare yourself and be cautious. [there's a pause.] If you are wrong about your decision, will you be able to live with it?
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I have lived with so much worse. I don't fear adding such a meager additional regret. Why should I?
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Fukuda spoke far too much about nonsense I doubt he understood, but there is something he mentioned that applies here. The idea of a collective. Wasn't it you who told me only last week you wished to see others obtain their desires as well?
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I do. That isn't irrelevant here. I can defend my own life adequately. I am not particularly fearful I will be killed in the night. [Well, yes she is, that's something else entirely.] Unless someone does something decisive, vultures and scavengers will continue to do what they do.
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The longer this goes without catching a culprit, the larger the culprit list grows. Tell me then. What decisive actions are you considering?
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Kill one of them, and give any others pause.
[Except that doesn't really make sense, does it. Not if no one knows why he was killed.]
Even if there are others, it's one fewer.
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And by doing so, the list grows. [repeating that point once more.] I spoke with Enomoto yesterday, and he wasn't quite able to grasp this but perhaps you can. You've yet to find a motive for any of these cases, correct? Even if there are others, without understanding why, how will you stop this from continuing?
Killing a culprit yourself will be a temporary reprieve. But only until someone else begins the same pattern.
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. . . There is a motive. We must share in the rewards, and some don't wish to.
What I wonder is whether you refer to individualized personal motives we haven't found yet outside that - such as HK-47's desire to murder as many people as possible for little to know reason, or finding Vlad Masters a bit of a tool - or whether you mean there is a broader motive other than the one I suggested.
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Knowing an individualized motive may help you narrow down your suspects in future cases and may prove why, precisely, those who have died were targeted at all. Even if the motive is as simple-minded as HK-47's it provides a context so you are not left floundering for the rest of your time here.
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It is all speculation. It was speculation when I decided Beauregard did not seem like a skilled liar who would deceive even her friends, and it was speculation when I decided Fukuda's interjections had become a pattern. One was correct, and one wasn't.
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But it is, as you say, all speculation. [they don't entirely believe that given how things have gone, but they don't really think elaboration will help either.] At least until you decide on an action to take to obtain an answer.
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[So - it's fine, to think on the evidence better or whatever, but she just doesn't have the patience to hear it right now.]
Nothing you're saying to me is solving this problem!
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[that's all they seem to say though and they put down their tea. i hate to do this because my siz threads but also gestures at greed being who he is as a person.]
Will that be all, Miss Nonagesimus?
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She's - very angry with him, for cutting her off so abruptly, as though he no longer finds anything she's saying worth responding to. But also very angry with herself. Angry and sad and feeling extremely lacking right now for reasons that are hard to understand but have everything to do with her regretting having reacted so emotionally and disappointing him.]
That will be all, yes.
[She will get up very coldly, but she storms out.]