#tune in for more @ 11...

[relicsongmel]

Iris, Miles, and their mutual "secret"

The Ace Attorney fandom is no stranger to discussions of homoerotic subtext in the game's script—pretty much everyone who's spent more than five seconds here will be able to tell you that. Screenshots of lines that imply romantic tension between same-gender characters are all over the place, to the point that many fans are drawn to the series purely by its reputation as "the gay lawyer game." Some scenes are more well-known than others, but one I find brought up fairly regularly is this conversation between Miles and Iris:

This is optional dialogue that can be triggered by presenting incorrect evidence on Iris' Psyche-Lock during the Investigation portion of Bridge to the Turnabout. The argument here is that the "secret" Iris is referring to is the same as her own: that being, a romantic interest in Phoenix Wright. Which is definitely hilarious when you consider that Iris has known Miles for less than a day and she's already reading him for filth (granted, she could have been clued in by the similarly infamous "indispensable friend" line, and she's also exceptionally good at reading people despite Miles thinking otherwise). As a Narumitsu shipper myself I am not immune to enjoying that interpretation; however, I feel like there's a lot of nuance in this scene that isn't often addressed by the fandom at large. Which is unfortunate because watering it down to just Iris calling out Miles for being the gayass he is (to be fair. she's not wrong) does a MASSIVE disservice to both of their characters, and I'll explain why.

My bone to pick with the usual analysis of this scene is mostly centered around the larger conversation to be had regarding the treatment of female characters in fandom spaces. All too often they tend to play second fiddle to the male characters, and a similar principle holds true for ships with their canonical male love interests: mostly ignored in favor of the the more popular M/M ship(s). At best these women are sidelined, at worse they are flattened into wingmen for the boys (as is frequently the case with many AA girls and Narumitsu, Iris included), and at the absolute worst they are demonized for their perceived "competition" with whatever gay ship is most popular and therefore the Only Valid One for the male characters involved (as exemplified by some very "passionate" fans that I generally try to avoid interacting with). Whenever this scene gets brought up, the focus is almost always exclusively on Miles and what the interaction says about his relationship with Phoenix; Iris is only relevant insofar as she's the one initiating Miles' Homosexual Moment™—you could replace her with almost any other character and there'd be a similar level of neglect for their role in the interaction. Only very rarely will you see attention given to what Iris' question about Miles' secret means when she is the one asking it, and what it can tell us about her relationship with Miles/what she thinks of him, and vice versa (absolutely wild how even Miles himself is often flanderized despite being the fandom's golden child). It's all too characteristic of the systemic misogyny that has plagued fandom since its inception, which is deeply frustrating to me as someone who adores Iris as much as I do (if that wasn't obvious by now). So that said, let's dive deeper into what I think the missing link is here: namely, the Iris-Miles dynamic as it pertains to their relation to Phoenix.

Iris and Miles is one of my favorite relationships to explore in the whole series—but as I've described above, unfortunately a lot of people get it wrong in my opinion. Discussion about the two is frequently centered around Narumitsu Love Drama—which is a conversation worth having, don't get me wrong—but the elements at play there aren't always represented the way I envision them, which again, is frustrating. Take the idea of potential jealousy, for instance: it's pretty standard love triangle fare that can be (and often is) quickly turned into demonization when it's used in a shipping context, character assassination be damned (re: Narumitsu fanfic authors that project their personal dislike of Feenris onto Miles via his jealousy of Iris and/or how they tend to portray Iris unfavorably). However, it's not inherently a bad thing to explore: personally, I do believe that there is mutual jealousy between the two of them. Miles might not have the full context of Iris' history when this conversation takes place, but he's emotionally intelligent enough to pick up on what Iris means to Phoenix, and vice versa. And him being a jealous hoe about it isn't out of the question when you consider that he's a bit of a loner by nature and doesn't have many close friends or outlets for socialization outside of his job. The crucial element that's sometimes missed, though, is that Miles not only lacks the self-awareness to realize he's a jealous hoe...he's also a self-sabotaging jealous hoe.

And the same can be said for Iris, who is similarly introverted and doesn't often leave her home at Hazakura Temple.

The whole reason Miles is peering into Iris' heart in the first place can be found in this exchange, after he breaks her Psyche-Lock:

Miles uses the Magatama in order to gain the answers he needs to bring the truth to light and get Iris acquitted, and he does so for the express purpose of reuniting her with Phoenix so they can find closure—in fact, he reiterates this to her multiple times. He obviously recognizes how Phoenix is suffering from what happened between them (I'd argue he sympathizes with Iris' plight as well) and has resolved to do what he can to help him heal, but there's no reason for him to be so insistent that she rectify things with Phoenix when it does nothing but harm his own chances with him. Unless, of course...that's the whole point.

To convince Iris to reveal her secret so he doesn't have to face his own, because he thinks himself undeserving.

And Iris, noticing this because she empathizes with that feeling of unworthiness, calls him out on it in an almost uncharacteristically forward manner when she asks him what he's hiding.

Takes one to know one, indeed.

Iris highly respects Miles for taking on her defense despite the risk to his job as a prosecutor. She's willing to trust him after hearing he's a friend of Phoenix, hearing him out and letting him reason with her. She still keeps her cards close to her chest in some regards, but she's more honest with him than she's been with anyone else in her life apart from her sister. She sees his commitment to the truth and how it starkly contrasts with how she's lived her life to this point, and thinks that this is the type of partner Phoenix deserves—not someone like her, who only knows how to survive using lies and deception. She sees so much strength in him but still recognizes the insecurity lurking beneath his tenacity, which is why when he falters in his logic, she takes a leap of faith and gives him one last chance to examine his reasons for pushing the burden of his unspoken affections onto her, as if to say: "Look in the mirror. Is this really for me? Or is it for you? Do you really seek the truth for its own sake, or do you merely hope to find one truth so you might run from another?"

Her question to Miles is a gamble—a coin flip of self-sacrifice. If she loses and he presses on, she has to face the secret within her heart she's been suppressing for five years. But if she wins and he gives in to the truth in his, she has to live the rest of her life watching it unfold and knowing she threw away her chance to finally stop living in fear of her own love.

Either way, there's no escaping heartache for her anymore.

Miles and Iris both want what's best for Phoenix and prioritize their vision of his feelings over their own. However, they are also both deeply emotionally repressed people who find difficulty in being direct with their feelings, and are predisposed to self-sabotage due to childhood trauma. These tendencies may manifest in different ways for both of them, but the fact remains that such people would likely not compete for a person's affection in the traditional sense, which is exactly what we see with how Iris and Miles deflect their feelings for Phoenix. These selfless, lovestruck idiots toss that man around like a game of hot-potato because their mutual self-hatred for the ways they've harmed him has rendered them terrified of the reality of what he means to them, and desperate to find a way out of admitting to it. It's the most compelling explanation I can think of for why the usually unassuming Iris makes such a bold judgment about what Miles might be keeping locked away, and why Miles goes to such lengths to make sure she talks to Phoenix and tells him the truth—his agreement to defend her was conditional on that exact promise. They go through this whole song-and-dance of playing wingman to ignore their own feelings while still trying to bring Phoenix the happiness they think he deserves—and then they wonder why seeing Phoenix give the other one attention burns them up inside.

Because they’re dumb. And I love them.

TL;DR the Iris Psyche-Lock scene in BttT is so much more than just "haha Miles gay" and I wish people talked about it more. Also Iris and Miles are way more similar than they appear at first glance and if I think about it for too long it makes me physically ill thank you for coming to my TED talk

[unkingly]

Canis: The Speaker (Manga) - English Scanlation

Summary: 'The Speaker' is a BL manga that follows three boys who were all raised in an American orphanage together. Sam is the book smart and inquisitive one. Hal is brave and confident. Nobu is shy and quiet, but he has a good memory and he's more capable than he thinks he is.

The boys realize that something sinister is going on at their orphanage, and they decide to investigate. As a result, they get forcibly separated.

Themes include: explicit (18+) material, polygamy, mafia madness, human and child trafficking, sex work, sex assault, child sexual abuse, and substance abuse

Read Chapters 1 - 10 here!

Read Chapter 11 here!

[krizariel]

Vicky Vale is going to have a field trip on this one... :P

Based on this barbie meme

[vampyric-dolly-draws]

I see Commander X-2 as an alternate universe version of Marvin….technically the same but very different, sharing some similar personality traits and physical traits as well has the two having their own differences.

in short, Marvin is a commander of his own fleet but acts on his own volition, however he does occasionally follow orders from a Martian known as "E=M.C. Squared", but it's not often he does only if he has to.

Compared to Commander X-2 who usually follows Queen Tyr'ahnee's orders when it comes to the Martian Empire.

Tyr'ahnee simply doesn't exist in Marvin's timeline, as who is currently ruling mars is currently unknown at this time.

In terms of physical appearance they are more or less the same except for their armor type and eye color as shown in the image above.

transparent alt

[snuggles-and-struggles]

I have probably half a dozen or more ideas around one or both halves of spicyhoney being a "gaster blaster dragon" shapeshifter beast thing, but the most recent addition to the pile is rattling around again so

In this specific version, they're more akin to werewolves in their alternate form than full quadruped "dragons" (or what have you), so still mostly biped, no wings, just bigger and pointier with the Signature elongated skulls with horns and the double jointed legs. And tails of course, I would never miss an opportunity to add tails.

Anyways. After meeting via typical machine shenanigans before surfacing, none of them are certain the others can shapeshift and sort of try to hide it while simultaneously finding out? But of course, eventually, they soon learn the truth, and are more comfortable discussing the odd trait amongst each other.

Except Edge. For whatever reason, he excludes himself from anything related to shifting, and hasn't done so in front of any of the others. To each their own, whatever, eventually, one by one, they're freed to a shared surface, and things are looking up.

Except for Edge. At least for the most part. Ever since surfacing, he’s seemed to have gradually increasing problems with his temper and magic control. This could be chalked up to how stressful his job is, or the same reasons other monsters had noticed changes in their magic control (just natural adjusting to no longer being underground). But Rus suspects it's more than that.

He enlists Stretch's help to figure out what's wrong with Edge, and primarily only manage to stress and upset him further. So Stretch takes one rare opportunity to talk to Edge alone, and with a lot of patience, ultimately learns that Edge's shifting ability doesn't work like everyone else's. It's almost like some sort of alter ego takes over, and he almost never remembers what he did while shifted.

It started when he was a young teen, and got worse over the years, especially as he gained LV. It really is almost like a stereotypical werewolf situation for him, as he, apparently, behaves very animalistic and aggressive. He used to be able to shift with his brother's supervision just to burn off the excess magic but it's become a bigger problem since surfacing, likely due to the improved quality of health and living.

Stretch listens, and then they talk, and ultimately, he offers to help Edge burn off some of the energy now and then. Edge is averse to the idea for the same reason he doesn't want his brother around anymore, fear of hurting him, but Stretch insists his reflexes are plenty good, and he has full conscious control in his shifted form, so he'd be more than equipped.

They back and forth a bit more, until Edge agrees to think about it, which leads to accepting some time a few days later. He can't keep letting this hamper him. Stretch is also hopeful that exercising his alt form more frequently might help him redeveloped his self awareness as he couldn't shift all that frequently back underground, which Stretch believes to be the bulk of the problem.

The story then goes on to follow Stretch figuring out the best ways to help Edge (starting with supervised romps through mostly empty woods), and Edge slowly slowly slowly regaining his consciousness even while shifted, and of course growing closer as friends as well. And then they kiss <3

/j but also /srs, although of course there's drama that comes up here and there, probably involving either Edge accidentally hurting Stretch, or someone else hurting Stretch and Stretch having to stop Edge from tearing them limb from limb lol, idk. But they're cute! After they're closer Stretch sometimes calls Edge puppydog and he fucking hates it (<- lie)

[moyni-handling-evidence]

Gonna make out with whoever wrote Into The Vipers Nest

[bigbobbiehorror]

I got the rolife robotime bar and decided to put the va11halla girls (and towa) in place. it’s a bit cramped but i’ll make it work

[magicalgirlsandcerulean]

YouTube short time: "Yeah, The Child Support's Getting Pretty Rough" from LOVE! LOVE! ep. 11.

At 11 pm (JST) today (the 25th of January 2025), Yamamoto and Shirai will be on Fun More Tune with Haruka Shiraishi and Hiroki Yasumoto.

Tomorrow is the on-stage speech by the director and the cast of the movie [1]. They're expecting a full house for this, so if you want to go, get in quick. More details here.

[Note 1: I have been calling this the "stage greeting event" since the words given literally translate to "stage greeting". However, I apologise for my neglect in checking whether the words together meant something slightly different.]

[autisticwho]

it's funny when a hyperfixation takes over your brain and you write like 10,000 words in four days and then what started as a reunion fic ends up becoming a full on episode rewrite and Oh no.

[yioh]

some of my fave ships over the last few years !!!

[applecherry108]

God I missed David and Catherine. I missed Russell’s writing. The first special was so fun. 😭😭

[pyrosex]

Ik that Mad Max Fury Road is mostly about female bodily autonomy, and I 100% understand and get that I really do but when I think of putting potential blorbos in that scenario my looney goon brain immediately goes to making it mpreg

[deus-ex-mona]

worming out of awkward conversations l i k e

[the-solar-panel]

The WHIPLASH he got from these two comments--

[fellhellion]

its so funny to me to listen to one of the artists in the old 2002 doco they made w the first raimiverse film talk about how the cops hating spiderman made him curious about the character because its like ooooo the cops hate a hero, what does this mean about his actions. when this is literally one of the best things about spiderman.

[discranola]

thinking about that time i saw a person with an evil jonathan joestar au and one of the ways they made him evil was making him a racist. the jokes on them because i can make jonathan a horrible person without resorting to that