Trabia Garden

I've slowed down a little on writing these, but I'm up to twenty fills for the 2025 threesentenceficathon! I'm still having such a blast with this event. You can find the current prompting post here.


( Death Note, Light, 470 words, prompt: antagonist time travels back to the start. )

( Death Note, L/Light, 290 words, prompt: 'Night by night, I let you eat me alive.' )

( Ace Attorney, Apollo/Athena and Apollo/Clay, 540 words, prompt: Clay's spirit gives dating advice. )


And, finally, a Severance ficlet! It's set in the first season and has no spoilers for the second, but please be aware that it contains, uh, severe and malicious misuse of tampons.


( Severance, Helly, 260 words, prompt: within you. )


I was so thrilled to see a prompt for Apollo/Athena specifically! It's my favourite Ace Attorney pairing, and it's a relatively small ship within the fandom, so seeing that really took me by surprise.

I've seen a couple of you posting ways to reflect on the year that looked fun, and I'm going to steal them for this post!

Firstly, doreyg posted this entry about favourite characters from the year, both new discoveries and returning champions.

I'm going to do something similar; I'm going to take a quick look at the longstanding favourites who've particularly occupied my mind this year, and then I'm going to comb through my 'first impressions' tag and give my favourite character from each canon I first posted about in 2024. (If no favourite character comes to mind, I'll skip the canon.)


( My favourite characters of 2024. )


My favourites are disproportionately male, I note, but my favourites are also disproportionately the main character, so perhaps the issue here is that the main character is disproportionately male. I'm pretty easily won over; I often just end up liking the character I spend the most time getting to know!

And that's the end of the character rambling, but APPARENTLY I STILL HAVE MORE TO SAY.

walgesang posted an entry on the three canons that had the largest impact on him in 2024. Here are the three that had the largest impact on me!

Our household gave Severance a try back at the start of the year, and it's one of the most compelling shows I've ever watched. We were all silently riveted to the screen. The concept - what if, when you're at work, you can't remember anything of your life outside the office? - is fascinating, and it's executed so well. The second season is expected to come out early in 2025; I'm looking forward to it!

Omori was a real rollercoaster of a game! Sometimes it's charming and whimsical; sometimes it's unsettling; sometimes it fucked me up so badly I had trouble sleeping. It's hard to think of another canon that haunts me in quite the same way. I finished it in May and haven't stopped thinking about it since.

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley captivated me when I played it in November. It didn't have quite the same 'wow, this is really cleverly executed' factor as Severance and Omori; it just went 'hey, I know what you want' and dropped a catastrophically fucked-up sibling relationship into my lap. And, yes, it turns out that this is exactly what I want.

Honourable mention to Metaphor: ReFantazio: I loved the hell out of it, but I don't think I can say it really impacted me. I had a great time while I was playing it, but I don't expect it to linger with me in the way these three canons do.


There are six minutes of the year left, so I suspect this is going to be my last post of 2024. Happy new year! I look forward to discovering what fictional characters I'm going to be weird about in 2025.

It's time for the end-of-year fic meme! Once again, I've become impatient and filled out this meme right at the start of December. I'll feel like a fool if I write anything else before the year is over.


Number of fics written in 2024: twenty-six. You can find them on my AO3 account: Riona. (EDIT: Wild Lands and Two Become One bring this up to twenty-eight!)

Fandoms: Severance, Erased, Scrubs, In Stars and Time, If We Were Villains, Danganronpa, Danganronpa 2, Death Note, Ace Attorney, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Omori, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, Life Is Strange 2, and assorted Final Fantasy games: VII, VIII, XIII, XV and XVI. (EDIT: And Divilethion and Better Half!) Thirteen (EDIT: now fifteen) videogame fandoms, two television fandoms, two anime/manga fandoms, one book fandom. A roughly even balance of new fandoms and ones I've written for before.

Two crossovers: Always Believe (Ace Attorney/Death Note), in which Phoenix Wright defends Light Yagami in court, and Crossroads and Crosshairs (Life Is Strange 2/The Coffin of Andy and Leyley), in which Sean runs into Andrew and Ashley and ends up in a great deal of trouble.


( End-of-year fic meme, 2024. )


I always feel bad for the fics that don't get mentioned when I make these entries! Sorry, guys.

Having written a couple of Ace Attorney fics lately, I've had Ace Attorney on the mind, and I've just managed to unearth a bunch of Spirit of Justice notes I never posted here!

I wrote these about four years ago, so I've completely forgotten the context for some of them. Rereading these notes is a puzzling experience!


( Long-overdue notes on Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice, up to somewhere in the fifth case. )


I never actually finished Spirit of Justice! I was playing this game in February 2020, and then the world ended, which was a bit of a distraction.

I should really get back to it at some point. I've forgotten everything that's happened, so I'd really be bumbling my way through the trials, but that is at least in the spirit of Ace Attorney. (In the spirit of justice, one might say.)

Many thanks to necrophilia for using an Ace Attorney icon to comment on a post I made about Death Note, thus inspiring a fic concept that absolutely delighted me.

It would probably make more sense to use Phoenix's Japanese name for this fic, but his localised name is the one I'm used to, so Phoenix it is. I suppose it at least fits into the tradition of Death Note characters having weird names in general.


Title: Always Believe
Fandom: Death Note/Ace Attorney
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,000
Summary: Phoenix Wright defends Light Yagami in court.


( Always Believe )

About a week ago, I posted an unfinished fanfiction meme to Tumblr, and I thought it might be fun to play here as well!

Name a canon you know I have at some point enjoyed, and I’ll dig up and post an excerpt from the unfinished fanfiction I’ve almost certainly got lying around. (If you name something I don’t have any unfinished fanfiction for, I may write a few lines on the spot. We’ll see!)

I’ve posted this before, many years ago, but don’t worry about avoiding canons that were requested back then; I’ll just try to dig up something else.

Here are the excerpts I posted in response to requests on Tumblr:


Cinder_Quill: For the fanfiction ask meme: any unfinished stories about DN Angel?

This was tricky! But I dug through an old notebook, and I managed to uncover a tiny paragraph. This was from a Kingdom Hearts/DN Angel crossover I have zero recollection of contemplating, in which Kingdom Hearts Riku is talking to Daisuke. Both Riku and Satoshi are self-loathing teenagers who are intensely in love with someone they feel they don’t deserve, and I have a lot of emotions about them.

“Maybe it’s not my place,” Riku says. He glances in Satoshi’s direction. “Or maybe I’m just… projecting or something. I don’t know. But I think you’re important to him.”


academicgangster: Ace Attorney for the unfinished fanfiction meme?

Here’s a snippet in which Apollo and Athena stay up working too late and end up accidentally falling asleep on each other.

( Ace Attorney unfinished snippet: Apollo and Athena. )


futuresoon: Danganronpa!

I took this to be a request spanning the entire Danganronpa series and dug up a little Danganronpa 2 snippet. Major Danganronpa 2 spoilers under the cut.

( Danganronpa 2 unfinished snippet: Hinata and Komaeda. )


wyomingsmustache: Okay so I know it's been well over a decade since you've written anything Top Gear related but I was showing my roommate an episode the other day and telling him stuff about my Top Gear fandom days so now I am curious if you've got any bits and pieces leftover from back when, so for the fanfiction meme, Top Gear? (And if you don't, completely understandable)

We’re really getting into the deep lore here. Here’s something… mildly weird and dark? By Top Gear standards, at least. Because apparently I decided I should write two crossovers between Top Gear and Silent Hill. But Silent Hill is in Wales, for some reason.

(I know the reason. It’s because this was also going to be a crossover with Torchwood. It’s probably for the best that it never got finished.)

( Top Gear unfinished snippet: the trio unknowingly approach Silent Hill. )


doreyg: Death Note for the unfinished fanfic meme!

I responded with a Death Note/Silent Hill snippet I’d previously posted on this journal. So it wouldn’t just be material I’d already posted elsewhere, though, I also uncovered a few lines from a notebook (a regular non-death notebook):

In another world, you might have been someone else. Nothing special, but enough. Light Yagami, an ordinary man with an ordinary life.

But this is the world you’re in, and you’ve become a god.


tweetymcbastardface: Waterloo Road. Do it.

I can’t believe anyone would do this to me.

( Waterloo Road unfinished snippet: Tom/Izzie/Lorna. )


And that’s all the unfinished fanfiction requests I received on Tumblr! Feel free to request a fandom in the comments here, and I’ll see if I have anything lying around for it, or, failing that, I’ll see if I can scribble something down.

I'm watching Tem play The Great Ace Attorney! We're very early in it - we're at the start of the second case and have just hit the first deduction sequence - but I'm enjoying it a lot.


( A few notes on The Great Ace Attorney, with spoilers up to early in case two. )


On an unrelated note, I've been trying to write Squall/Zell, the first pairing I ever really shipped, and it's just impossible. Who's going to make the first move? Obviously not Squall. I can't picture Zell doing it either. It's hard to picture either of them even recognising any feelings they might have for each other, so I can't even write pining.

I used to be confused that Squall/Zell wasn't a bigger pairing, but it turns out it's physically impossible to write. I suppose that explains it.

Strictly speaking, I have written Squall/Zell once before - it was my first ever attempt at writing romance - but I was thirteen and it was dire. (It's only seven hundred words, but maybe I could do a miniature Old Fanfiction Book Club at some point.) Perhaps one day I'll manage to write something less terrible for these two; they deserve it!

I've been thinking a lot about Final Fantasy VIII lately. I've gone through so many fandoms over the years, but every so often my heart will fly back to this game; it's the single work of fiction that's most important to me and the one I'll always, always, always come back to. I've loved it for twenty years, and I'll love it for the rest of my life. These messed-up teenage mercenaries are a permanent part of me.

If you have something similar, I'd be interested to hear about it! What's the story your soul is anchored to?

More of Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice! Here are my thought on the third case, and the remainder of the second.


( Notes on Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice, up to the end of the third case. )


Very pleased that the third case included another opportunity to incorrectly accuse characters of dating. I will take the penalty every time.

I haven't written in a couple of months, but Ace Attorney has apparently kicked me back into action! Here's a short piece set (mostly) after Dual Destinies, following up on what an absolute mess Apollo must be. Not actually Apollo/Athena, despite my best efforts.


Title: Remember the Living
Fandom: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: References to Aura/Metis and Apollo/Clay
Wordcount: 1,200
Summary: The space centre case has left Apollo with a lot of complicated emotions. With Athena's help, he's trying to deal with them.


( Remember the Living )

I've now finished the third case of Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, 'Turnabout Academy'! My boy Apollo is great and I love him. I also love that the law school festival was serving 'Culpable Curry'.

Slightly shipping Athena and Apollo, I think. A couple of exchanges that made me take notice:

Athena: (to Juniper) It's been seven years, but I still remember how all the boys wanted to be near you.
Apollo: I bet you used to get all excited when a guy handed you a love letter... and then got really bummed out when he'd say, 'Could you give this to Juniper for me?'
Athena: Agh! (How'd he know?! I'm sure it was just a lucky guess, but why'd it have to be Apollo of all people?!)

Apollo: A torrid love triangle? Juniper sure is popular with the guys.
Athena: Of course she is. She's pretty, plus she has such a sweet and caring personality.
Apollo: ...
Athena: I know what you're thinking. Why can't Athena be more like that, right?
Apollo: Argh! N-no, no! The thought never crossed my mind!
Athena: (Let's see... panic... sorrow... yes, that's exactly what crossed his mind. *sigh*)

I will concede that both of these exchanges could also be interpreted as Athena/Juniper.

Having said I ship Athena/Apollo, I'm not sure I can picture them actually being together, or indeed doing anything much more romantic than accidentally falling asleep on top of each other and getting really embarrassed when they wake up. Although that would be very cute.

The trouble with Ace Attorney shipping is that the defence is always strangely sexless. All the sexual energy ends up behind the prosecutors' bench. ('I made her pay long and hard penance for her sin. Did I not, my little box top?' Blackquill said after it transpired that Myriam concealed her body discovery, and I was momentarily shaken by how filthy that sounded.)

(For the benefit of anyone who's reading this despite not having played: he calls her 'my little box top' because she perpetually wears a cardboard box over her head. These games are weird.)

Still, I love how Apollo and Athena poke fun at each other.

Athena: Poor stressed-out, overworked Prof. Courte! I know exactly how that feels.
Apollo: You must, because your desk always looks like a tornado hit it.

Apollo's response when Athena asks about his friend is also great: 'Yeah, he's the best friend a guy could have. Which reminds me, we're supposed to meet up and gossip about the new girl in the office.'

Apollo keeps calling Athena 'tiger' ('Easy there, tiger') and I find it cuter every time.

I'm having some feelings about the Hugh-Robin-Juniper friendship, too. Hugh really loves the other two but thinks they don't care about him any more! He touches his neck when he's pressured because he's reminding himself of his friendship collar! Goddammit, Hugh, my first impression of you was 'what an arsehole' and I wasn't prepared to get hit with actual emotions about you.

I laughed aloud when Athena posed in the middle of the courtroom and demanded that Apollo wrap her in a cloth. God bless these idiots.

AND THEN:

Athena: Apollo, tie me up in a new pose! ...Wait, you're not into this kind of thing, are you?
Apollo: What? No! Besides, it was your idea!

I love them.

I've never had particularly strong fannish feelings about Ace Attorney before! I wasn't expecting to be this into Dual Destinies, but it's an extremely pleasant surprise. I'm hugely enjoying my ridiculous lawyer adventures.