burningrescue | Phoenix Catch-All

Huh?

[He's a little dazed by all of that at once. Was that goofy kid actually Phoenix? But he shakes his head at the question.]

You just saw. The Gov, Kray, he rescued me. I wanted to be able to save people from fires like he did for me.

[ it was a lot for galo to remember, handwaved..... ]

He rescued you, you say?

[ kind of looks like galo just went out on his own. ]

[Nodding. He looks kind of glum about that for some reason.]

Yeah. He saved me. That's how he first got famous, for being a rescuer. And then his research on anti-Burnish tech started getting noticed, and he founded the city.

[Hesitating, but.]

So, that girl. . . she tried to frame you for a murder?

[ combined with what he's heard from lio about this kray lack of hindsight fellow.... he's got a feeling. ]

Looks to me like you rescued yourself.

[ just saying. ]

[ ... ]

Yep. My college sweetheart.

[ sort of but it's complicated.... ]

. . .I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone.

[He doesn't exactly get what Phoenix means by what he said, though.]

I'm sorry she did that.

[ galo don't be sad and sincere he can't take it. ]

It's long in the past. I wouldn't worry about it.

....

But I'm going to take a wild guess and say that this betrayal you're talking about is related to why you were in prison. Am I wrong?

Edited 2020-03-14 00:37 (UTC)

[Let him be sincere!!! Anyway, the orange font gets his attention and distracts him from Dahlia. He nods]

The Gov is the one who had me arrested. Though he's done so many worse things to people other than me. I'm sure Lio's told you he's completely horrible, and I guess he is.

I just didn't know about any of it. To me, he was just the reason I'm here today. The reason I was able to become a firefighter at all.

[ no galo being sincere is illegal. it means phoenix has to drop his bullshit a little, because it's too close to home..... it's too ace attorney ]

He's not the reason, Galo. You are. How could a man who uses people for experiments teach you about preserving life? You did that on your own.

.... Wanting to believe in people isn't a bad thing, by the way.

Tch. I know that.

[He's a little pouty, like he's offended Phoenix thinks that's news to him. He's had that thought himself, he knows Kray is the one to blame and not himself for wanting to believe in his hero.

. . . It's still nice to hear from someone else.]

It's hard not to feel really fucking stupid for going along with it. I wish I'd known about all of the awful things he was doing, so I could have stopped him. But I didn't even know that he hated my nickname for him.

[He says it like it's a flippant comment, like, who cares, but it kind of does matter. He thought Kray cared about him. Maybe he just saw what he wanted to see. He never saw that Kray hated him the way he did.]

[ he's making 0.5 of an effort not to be a shitty hobo about it, galo please. ]

It was the same with me and "Dollie".

[ well it was more complicated than that but he's not going to go there right now. ]

And you didn't eat a poison bottle of evidence to protect him, so I wouldn't feel too stupid.

[Phoenix. That's so nice of you to say. He kind of gives a small pfff of laughter.]

Honestly, I might've done something like that. Felt like I owed him my life, like I'd do anything for him. But that was before I saw Lio with all those people he broke out of prison. They weren't terrorists, they were just old people and kids and regular people. So I knew something had to be up. And, well, when I confronted him, he admitted to everything.

It was convenient for him, wasn't it? That you felt you owed him your life.

[ he's gonna have to be less subtle to make this point but that's not happening yet. ]

Unlike you, I was warned away from Dahlia. But I didn't listen. At least you questioned him.

Edited 2020-03-14 01:43 (UTC)

Yeah. He'd know I'd believe in him no matter what. I'd support him and stand up for him and stop myself from interfering in anything bad if I thought it might cause problems for him.

[The last one stings most. But he gets what Phoenix is getting at, that his trust was used. But he's also not as clueless about some of this as he was a little bit ago. Someone's already pointed out to him the part of his profile about being put in units with high fatalities. . .]

I always thought he kept checking in on me and helping because he cared, but - it was just good for his image, that he saved some kid from a fire.

I'm not convinced that he saved you in the first place.

[ but yeah. this is typical ace attorney stuff. manfred, morgan, kristoph..... manipulative monsters who took advantage of vulnerable kids. some directly under their care. ]

[ it's been years for some of them, but it still burns. ]

I'm sorry, Galo.

I'm sorry, too. But what do you mean by that. . .?

After actually seeing the memory.... you ran out on your own. He was just standing there.

[ and missing an arm?? ]

Oh.

[Frowning, and shaking his head.]

No, that can't be right. He really did rescue me - he was even injured. He had to get a prosthetic for his arm.

[ i hate this. ]

Galo... I saw the memory. You ran out on your own. And when you did... he was standing there.

Yeah. . .

[He's frowning even harder!]

Maybe I'm remembering it wrong?

Let's start small. How did the fire start?

[Well, that's something he can answer.]

I don't know if they ever figured that out. But the Gov said a Burnish probably did it. I've always liked to think it was probably just an accident, though. I've been seen fires that a Burnish starts without meaning to, and it's scary for them, too. I don't want to be angry at someone like that.

That could be true. Do you remember seeing anyone else on the scene, or just Kray....?

Uh. I can't remember that well. I ran . . . [Out? Is that right? He ran out of the house?] Outside. And Kray was there. Some other people started coming around after, but I didn't see anyone else.

[But the more he thinks about this - ]

It doesn't really make sense, does it?

Yes... I remember, you ran out.... it was on fire, and Kray was there. By himself. The fire didn't start in the house, did it? So, a Burnish is the most likely explanation....

[ logic and trick plays in the bg. ]

Yes... there is something out of place...

Yeah. It would have started near the front; it took longer to get to my room. So the Gov. . . he should've seen what happened, right? He was there.

[The next step is probably obvious to an outside perspective, but the idea that Kray is a Burnish doesn't even occur to Galo. There's a disconnect there, even though he's willing to consider Kray could have told any lies at this point. It's like he's being prompted to click on a picture to show where Kray was at the scene, and he keeps clicking randomly until the game ends rather than pinpoint the killer.

It's probably all right, though. This isn't court - he doesn't need to make the connection right away. The part that matters is just - ]

He really did lie about all of it, didn't he?

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slobjection - 2020-03-19 07:02 (UTC) - Expand