The results are in for Match 2.
Jade had been building, and building, managing to shrug past the bullets sent their way and just eating the chips in their quite literal armor, able to easily replenish it with yet more mud. The mud had stopped Dread from chasing them, and she had gone off and burned the place to scare the people off. Whatever. It complemented what it was they had desired…
All it would take now was this finishing touch, this last gesture of nonaggression towards Sentient Oona, who they were certain simply wished not to be bothered, did not care for any of this commodification of its very existence.
It was crass. It was sickening. It drove Jade, who just wished to live their own life, mad to think about, and now, nobody would follow, soon as they were a short swim through the basin away. The shrine itself would be a sinking island of concrete silk soon. All that would be left then was to use the cover of the dirtying water to avoid the bullets of the fan club, the last guard unit perched within the shrine.
Yet bullets never came, and above them, Jade felt instead a terrible heat, noted the appearance of spiked rubber on their mud-caked back. Something with an exoskeleton like an insect’s stood above them, they careened their head to see who was above them. It was Dread, barely swerving her body past dragonflies which had caught on to her malicious intent and meant to fry her.
“You again… I said fall down… Off.” They spoke with guttural contempt. “How did… You even…”
“You ruined my new boots, Antlerhead, but I am afraid that as much as the ground by which we did our battle had been soiled… You miscalculated in, I think, a fateful way, to utilize that ghastly terminology.” Briefly, indicatively, she looked to her side, and Jade understood as their opponent continued. “You didn’t destroy the bridge first. All I needed to do was walk across, watch your movements… And hop on.”
“You... still talk… too much.” Jade grunted, then, and spat at her, putting on their strongest face.
Then they saw so many dragonflies, flying towards both of them as fell bladed arms raised and descended.
The winner is Dread, with a score of 73 to Jade’s 71!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Tie	15-15	The first two matches in a row, up to the final moments, saw decent turnout while resulting in a tie by deadline.
Quality	Red Carpet Renaissance	24-21	Reasoning
JoJolity	Black Hill Estate	24-25	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10

After a few futile moments trying to commune with the alien, Dread stepped over that bridge once more, back onto land and stood over the lake where they had left Jade. After that final confrontation, the dragonflies had all dissipated, Sentient Oona either sated or exhausted after that final exchange of blows, and for a few days, slumbering.
Both of the fighters had been covered in blood, covered in gore, covered in wounds. The fire raged on even as the trapped god’s rage quelled, heat counteracted by the cool of the muddy, bloody lake, which Dread, feeling theatrical, turned herself away from.
“How quaint! A beast such as yourself thinking you had a chance beating a woman of my stature. Cute, really. Your malodorous challenge was something indeed, and I will admit that you… That you…”
Dread’s lip began to quiver. Her trip was RUINED!
She didn’t even get a single souvenir! Her train of thought lost, tears well in her eyes. Joywave fell, and she turned away from Jade, beginning to sob. She needed to go hug someone.
To this end, then, she ran and ran, tromping across the edge of the marsh towards the direction of the evacuating town she’d last seen her friend head, who surely would be not judgmental over such a platonic request as consolation. Mr. Jones was surely-
Ah. He’d already left, huh?
All he had left behind, then, was the Green Flying Man, clutching a massive gash in his flickering, transformed torso, hand feebly fumbling with a rotary phone in one of the few buildings not on fire yet.
“H… H-hello? Matilda? It’s… Nngh, it’s an emergency situation! The… The Estate is empty, and the closest member’s here with me in Sentient Oona and I’ll try and get back with them, but a guy cut his own leg off and died and everything’s on fire and Memory… He grabbed Memory Management, and said he knew how to kill her, that he would if she doesn’t-”
Click!
A fell claw hung the phone up, then severed the line, and Green collapsed, having been tripped and sent to the floor.
“Y-you! But if you’re here, th-that means-” Green whined. “No… No, no, no…”
“Do not irritate me with your whining!” The crying Dread, using Joywave, brought her hand down, then the other, then raised them, then brought each down again, and repeated this, and repeated this. “I! Am in! A very bad mood!”
The Green Flying Man was not long for the world anyway thanks to the distinctive sabre wound which had gouged him (a normal man would have been dead already), despite what he had said to assure whoever he was on the phone with, already fading from being, but he practically disintegrated seconds into Dread’s onslaught, and she hardly registered this until she stood, breathing heavily in the aftermath of her tantrum.
If… If what he said was true, then the reason Mr. Jones has left me here, messy and with no souvenirs to my name… Still sniffling pathetically, Dread quivered, trying to stiffen her posture. Then he, at least, had his success…
There’s only a few hours left, as of posting this match, to vote in its predecessor, a duel between a cactus-mancer and a clone-summoner in a clock tower.
Scenario:
Elephant Bones 2 - Afternoon
The empty former diner and tax shelter, adjacent to the legitimate restaurant to which it was a sequel, had constantly had people watching after it since the incident before, when ANVIL militia members had occupied it with the intention of using it to raid and capture the restaurant proper. For Fira B, the place made for a fine space to do paperwork and generally not be easily found when she wasn’t outright needed, also serving double duty in how it kept hooligans from their hooliganry.
“I raise you better dental. It’s a top-secret dental plan - people like us normally don’t get to know about it. But... you gotta risk 8% of the raise you earned so far.”
Byte, sitting at the table opposite her, pondered it over, not typically the type to end up in poker games, but having wanted a raise and found himself very easily swayed by Fira, basically, implying he was afraid to handle it this way, worried he would lose. Sure, Fira was probably blatantly cheating, but hey, so was he, and as it was, his pay was about to go up 10%.
Thanks to his Stand, he already had everything he needed to make a perfect game… All saved in spades, card-counted to hell for the perfect moment, and this forbidden dental plan for teeth beyond compare had been his ultimate goal this entire time.
“Alright, I’ll call.” The final hands were dealt and played to, then, tensely, before he declared, putting it all down on the table, “royal flush, all spades! Those secret teeth are as good as-”
Fira, grinning, displayed her own hand, then, having prepared her own forbidden technique for this exact eventuality, this moment. Not one, two, three, or four Aces in her hand, nor even something so hackneyed as an errant fifth Ace. She had gone beyond Poker, and displayed a devastating, never-before-seen six Aces technique, all in different suits. Everyone in real Poker knew that that was even better.
“No way… Dammit, that’s cheating! No way you seriously got-”
“So were you. Don’t forget this loss, Byte. Work hard, and maybe one day you’ll be able to get any teeth you want. Even mine, if you’re ruthless enough.”
He was about to raise an objection, then, when another figure walked through the faux-restaurant doors, carrying with them a face-obscuring massive gift basket full of assorted soaps and candies that look like soaps. More troublingly, as both parties present immediately narrowed their eyes at, though, was the uniform the figure was wearing.
They were clad in body armor, aqua and blue with white accents, the unmistakable colors of VALKYRIE and its members, complete with the sidearm all were known for carrying idly resting at their side.
“What do you want.” Fira asked sternly, about to stand up.
“Oh, the boss asked me to drop these off to sweeten the deal!”
“Deal?” Her voice lowered, and she stood tall, Byte almost wanting to grin at the sight of what was to come. “I don’t know anything about a ‘deal’.”
“Oh, right, uh, probably should’ve led with that!” Awkwardly, the recruit, young-looking, Byte surmised, put the gift basket down on the table. “See, uh, he wants you to swing by the address on the card later, says he’s sure you could help with-”
Effie Linder was sitting outside, fiddling frustratedly with the wi-fi as she tried to remember exactly what the new password was, only to see the man who’d walked in in a VALKYRIE uniform literally thrown out, crying out and hitting the pavement like a ragdoll. It made her smirk, despite herself and her contempt for the boss.
Fira brushed her hands off, seething and staring before letting the doors shut. Byte, meanwhile, looked over the gift basket, smelling one of the soaps, and one of the candies, within.
“Not bad, actually… Whoever picked this out has some taste. Always bugged me how soap doesn’t taste like it smells…”
“Eugh, I swear… VALKYRIE is acting chummy with us now... It’s one thing for their enemies to fight us because of some bad timing, but we are not people VALKYRIE sends gift baskets to!”
“Never even heard of Ugo McBaise sending gift baskets to anyone…” Byte quipped, curious.
“Exactly. It’s a passive-aggressive thing, clearly. They’re trying to tell us to play nice.” Fira cracked her knuckles, turning to him then. “You can admire soaps later. What’s the address on that card? Let’s go there and beat the hell out of Ugo. Send a message that we’re not friends, and his bones should be broken right now.”
“Hey, alright, I’m down,” Byte said, finding some amusement in the situation as he stood, slowly, opening up the card. “Besides… I know, different branches and all, but you know what happened to Zebra… All because he was backing Peres up in her fight against this company. Like, dammit, I was on that trip, too… Like half of us were, and people risked their lives and died trying to get that Ocean Soul caught alive in the first place, and then some guys from this company show up and then it’s all for nothing. Maybe I’ll feel better calling this a sort of revenge.”
The Black Hill Estate - Afternoon
Inch Nine paced around her room rubbing her temples. Ever since the fight she’d had with Byron Oxbow, everything in her life had gotten more complicated. She’d brought it up with Klein once, and the conflicted expression in his face had stuck with her. Pretty much any friends she had made with connections to the Industrial District reacted that way, to various extents. Inch was a cool headed person, but even though she struggled to show it, it affected her.
Thoughts rushed through her head on who was at fault for this… Cairo, Fira, Byron, that commander of his. Even with all of that a thought kept flowing through her head. Maybe herself, even. If she had only been able to talk Byron down, been more forthright about where she stood, it might have been avoided. She could have worked something out and her relationships would all be fine and so much hurt could have been avoided.
No. No, that was stupid, too.
It was that bastard, Ugo McBaise, and that horrible company he ran. He couldn’t help but keep pushing and pushing forward, turning a security company into a household bogeyman. Of course everyone would have been less on edge, never would have been at war in the first place, had it not been for that lot.
Yes, saying that, Inch felt at peace again, if only for a moment.
As that thought finished a small knock came at the door. Soon enough, she heard a voice she recognized well - that of her teammate, Cabernet Sauvignon, who came through the other side of the door. “Hey, we just got a letter and a gift basket from these VALKYRIE guys… Actually quite a nice fellow at the door, said it was specifically for us.”
“Hm.” Inch tilted her head. It had an… Assorted smell to it, and everything did look quite delicious. To test the mettle of this goodwill, she thought to grab something, take a bite…
She was glad that nobody could see the lower half of her face, the expression on it, at the random item within that she had taken, the soapy taste overwhelming her senses now. With a continued coolheadedness as Cab sat there surely unawares, she asked, “did he say what occasion this was for? I am to understand that this is not a company known for actions such as this, even if many of us have helped ODIN.”
“Said he had somewhere to be, then ran off before I could possibly entertain him,” Cab answered, “though I suspect perhaps that he was intimidated by my attempts to strike up a conversation about the exotic cheeses and scented candles which would best pair with the provided basket…” His face darkened a moment, then, as he added in a suspicious, perhaps self-importantly quiet tone, “and aside from that, probably whatever this is is suspicious as hell.”
“We are in agreement, then. No matter how polite they act towards us,” Inch said, her eyes narrowing at the deceptively tasty looking contents of the basket, towards the letter within, apparently from the head of the company urging them to come, “we can not abide by working with a man like that, or even being seen as his allies.”
“You know, I don’t know much about this Mcbaise guy, except by the reputation you all gave him, and this may be an old hobby of mine talking, but…” Cab gestured for the card, then, to glance, for himself, over the address. “If they’re going to roll out the red carpet for us, what do you say we head over there just to knock some heads?”
“I could not have thought of a better message myself. Perhaps you are not all culinary knowledge and trivia, Cabernet.”
Business District, Noon
As one would naturally do when receiving a “suspicious as hell” gift basket, Inch and Cab soon decided to investigate further, going to the address mentioned in the card the next day, driving Cab’s truck over there.
That was a mistake; the two of them must have spent almost an hour trying to find any available parking spot afterwards. The odds were stacked against them, but they eventually managed to find an overpriced spot fifteen minutes from their destination that they could stay in for a while, and went on their way.
Inch and Cab made their way through the hustle and bustle of the district, but after a couple minutes of walking, Inch spotted something out of the corner of her eye that gave her pause - a teal-haired woman walking angrily through the street, whom she’d fought for her life alongside not long ago. Fira.
Inch casually walked over, Cab following along behind her, and made her way to Fira, waving. “Hello there, Fira!” She said, actually sort of pleased to see her.
She didn’t expect to see a friendly-ish face here, so it was a welcome sight. Per usual Fira’s expression right now wasn’t one many people would call “friendly,” which is to say that she seemed even more pissed off than she usually did.
“Oh, Inch. You’re here. Hello.” Verbose as ever, Fira B.
“I am. What brings you here, Fira? You live and work quite far west of here, non?”
Before Fira said anything, Byte stepped in, taking over from there. “Those VALKYRIE assholes sent us some kind of gift package filled with soap and candy... wanted to win us over, I guess, make us do something for them, so we’re heading over to tell them to fuck off and beat that Ugo asshole up.”
“Oh! We received a similar package too... I had just thought of what candles I might buy while out here to combine with it all, offer the perfect ambiance for some aged Caciocavallo Podolico, but we agree - something’s suspicious about this…” Cab said, Inch nodding along.
Inch spoke up again then. “If all of us are heading towards the same place… I suppose it is best for us to all go together, non?”
“Guess so.” Fira, though not exactly overjoyed at the idea, seemed receptive enough to it, and neither Byte nor Cab objected either, so the four stand users went on their way. Each, though imagining different melodies, were totally all picturing the scene as being paired with some kickass background music or another.
Making their way towards the address, they noticed that there seemed to be less and less of the tall skyscrapers common to the district surrounding them, and more and more buildings directly associated with VALKYRIE - that made sense, given that this was their part of the district.
As they went along, Byte kept looking around, even more so than the rest of them, always looking and commenting on whatever came to mind for him - “hey, that building seems like a pain in the ass to work in,” “oh, that dude actually looks kind of strong, I bet he could take those other guys over there. Not me though, obviously,” and other inane comments. Soon enough, everyone else simply started tuning it out, paying them no real heed and going on along their way.
Eventually, they reached the address - a building, larger than most others in the area, marking the entrance to a VALKYRIE training ground. Getting near the building, Byte noticed something - a man in a VALKYRIE outfit, walking towards them. He seemed quite well built, enough so that Byte figured he might even have to use BRB to beat him were things to come to that. “Hey, that VALKYRIE guy over there seems like he wants something with us, no?”
No response. The man got closer.
Byte wondered to himself how he could get the attention of Fira or the other two without pissing them off. Eventually, he decided to give Cab a light slap on the shoulder to grab his attention - he didn’t seem particularly threatening, especially when compared to Fira or Inch.
Cab, who seemed to be lost in thought looking at the building, turned to Byte with a sour expression. “What do you want, and why would it necessitate hitting me?!”. He seemed angry, but Byte simply shrugged in response. “Well, you weren’t responding to what I said, and-”
“Uh… excuse me? You’re the ones we called over, right? Inch Nine, Cabernet Sauvignon, Fira B, and-”
“What do you want from us.” Before the man, who seemed to be surprisingly docile considering his build and appearance, could finish, Fira interrupted him, and he found himself angrily stared down by all four of the stand users. The man stammered for a bit, unsure of how to respond or what to say...
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey… let’s all calm down, yeah?” The intense staredown was interrupted when a voice came from afar, one that was familiar to Fira.
“Hey, wait a sec…” She cocked an eyebrow in disbelief, grunting and adding as she turned, “no way… Is it seriously-”
A man clad in a dark suit colored like VALKYRIE’s armor, adorned with cute shapes had emerged now, clad professionally head-to-toe, dress shoes to black sunglasses, and lord, that hair.
Such long hair, vertical and striped.
Rushen Smith stood before the lot of them, strutting around like he’d owned the place or something. She’d beaten him once, but hadn’t been expecting to cross paths with him again.
“What do you want.”
“No need to be so hostile, yeah? We’re not calling you here to start trouble or nothing, so-”
“We’re?” Fira interrupted him. “You’re with VALKYRIE?” Well, if he was with VALKYRIE, at least Fira knew very well that she could still beat the shit out of him, given that she already had a good track record against him. Then, she’d move on to Ugo.
“So you’re like a… Miniboss, now.” Byte interjected, disappointed, yet ready to fight nonetheless.
“If I may finish.” Rushen sounded impatient
“To make a long story short… Ugo’s out. CEO fired him for everything he’s done. You’re not talkin’ to some crony to an NFL reject. You’re looking at the new head of VALKYRIE. For security and PR reasons, Allday has been been keepin’ quiet about it for now, preparing for just the right moment to tell the public, make sure I get revealed to the public with a good positive splash, but it is what it is. So… ready to talk now? Because I’m thinkin’ we can use your help, and we can definitely make it worth your while.”
Deeper within the premises - An Open-air training facility
Everyone had been disarmed by their confusion, and by Rushen’s goodwill, and by the thought that, just like that, one of the most threatening people in the city could just be fired like it was nothing, which made for Rushen a convenient situation. They were in line, following his lead, and as he did so, he brought them to a state-of-the-art training facility, one wherein dozens upon dozens of security officers in armor were walking around, shooting the shit, running, chatting by vending machines stocked with overpriced health food and sports drinks, and almost always giving Rushen a respectful nod and salute as he passed by, always meeting it with a cool, “at ease.”
“I still do not understand why we are here…” Inch, after some time being led around, spoke up. “I assume you sent those gift baskets to us, but even then, beyond wishing us here quickly, you did not say what you expect of us. Or even sign your name, beyond ‘the boss of VALKYRIE.’”
“Yes, like I said, my step into the private sector ain’t public knowledge yet… Trying to keep a lot under lock, ‘cuz I’ve inherited a backlog of things to take care of. Need-to-know basis… You know how it is.”
Fira nodded, saying bluntly, “so you’re planning something big. Want us to have a part. What? And why? Better not be wasting our time…”
“All Ugo ever taught people far as tactics went was a bullheaded, aggressive push forward… Rush, and rush, and rush, and just overwhelm opponents before they can think their way out.” Rushen explained. “It hasn’t been working, it got a lotta people on all sides or no sides hurt and killed who didn’t need to be, and while he used to have a man for handling stuff that took a brain, long story short… He’s no longer with us either. We’re trying to work on a way to save the people of this city from what’s up ahead, and no point in doing that if there’s no one to save, yeah? VALKYRIE needs to be better… We need to reorient, pick and choose better battles, get better at fighting them. No more bullcrap about raiding bars or stealing cows, yeah?”
“So you want us to… Help you retrain this security company?” Byte asked. “Why us?”
“The four of you felt right for it,” Rushen answered, looking each of them over in turn, “Byte, I know the part you played in that shipyard incident, and while I still ain’t pleased at what you were working for then, and it really messed Jesse up in a bad way, that’s all over now. The Ocean Soul business is done and in the past, and you’re real good at what you do.”
He was quiet, then.
“Fira,” he continued, “you’re another career criminal in this city, and you and I both know it, but we need someone who can think like that, someone with fight in her, for what I’m trying to get these guys ready for. Now ain’t the time to get picky… Long as you keep minding your business.”
“I try. Some people make it so hard.” Fira snorted, folding her arms.
“Inch, you used to be seen with Cairo a whole bunch, until right around when a certain incident happened… You know what I mean, don’t you?” She and Fira sneered, and Rushen raised a hand. “I’m not here to criticize, mind. I like your style, and that cool gator power thing you got going for you, hear you’ve got some real good learning techniques, and most important of all, I hear the two of you managed to survive bein’ in the dead center of Byron Oxbow at his angriest in thirty years.”
“You are… Praising me. It is appreciated, thank you.”
“And Cab,” Rushen continued, “you are the whitest man I have ever met, and I’ve got family in the same neck of New York as Douglas Jones. But hey, you’re a friend of Jesse’s, and these guys around here, they remember you at the battle on Capital Island, hurt and just popped outta this magic bottle, and still fighting with ‘em and helping people escape. You’re good people, and you got a particular edge to you I need too.”
“I saw I think a better side of VALKYRIE than most, by good circumstance,” Cab started, flattered by the mixed praise, ultimately happy to recognize it as stroking his ego, and a part of him warmed up for what was being praised turning out to be something besides the hobbies with which he’d filled the void. “Though I was just as willing to knock these guys’ heads in as everyone else here, you know… I certainly don’t mind this turnaround, though. And I think I’m starting to guess who it is you want to fight here, why you want a group like this in on it… Might you be planning to stake out the-”
“Not a word. Can’t let this get leaked.”
“Of course, of course,” Cab answered, quite confident in his mental answer nonetheless. “You mentioned this being worth our while… Can I ask what you mean by that?”
“The CEO’s gonna be watching this training sesh too, if you didn’t already guess… We’ll make sure all four of you are rewarded handsomely for this, of course, but if you really go above-and-beyond, she’s said she’ll throw even more bonus on top of all the dough. I recommend you shoot for that.”
“So we need to help train your guys better than these two, huh?” Fira answered, jerking her thumb at Inch and Cab.
“I mean, it probably is better for you to work with the person ya know primarily, but it’s not really a comp-”
“We are gonna blow whatever you guys are doing out of the water,” Byte interrupted, looking towards the Estate residents with a fiery look in his own eye. “We’ll show you the kind of training you can normally only see for a total premium at Dukes!”
“Yes, let’s one-up each other,” Cab agreed with an amused smirk, well aware that this competitive streak was unnecessary, but beginning to feel a certain fire in him, “what do you say, Inch? You up for the task of whipping these guys into crimebusting shape?”
“I suppose I am.” Inch herself was beginning to feel the air of competition, feel her blood pumping, “no hard feelings to either of you, if you are not selected for this… But we are simply going to do a phenomenal job.”
Rushen sighed, shaking his head. “Least you ain’t trying to kill each other… Alright! I’ll roll with it.” He clapped his hands, perking up quite a bit. “Both of y’all are in charge of sixteen recruits who need retraining fast, and we’re gonna compare what you did at the end. Just don’t kill ‘em or nothing, or do nothing stupid, and for four hours, soon as you got a plan together, what you say goes. Got it? Good.”
Man, now I’m feelin’ the competitive spirit a bit… Really is contagious, huh? Probably gonna make ‘em do a better job… Ah, hell, now I’m feelin’ a certain urge. I’m gonna say it. I’m gonna!
“Open the game.”
(credit to magistelles for the awesome art!)
Location: A VALKYRIE training facility in the middle of the business district.
The area consists of track fields, indoor gymnasiums, shooting ranges, training equipment storage, training towers and practical training buildings as well as other training sites. There is also general equipment storage and a small infirmary on site.
Essentially any sort of equipment or facilities you’d expect to find in a military style boot camp can be found here. Things like body armor and helmets, large tires, guns (both handguns and rifles), training dummies, etc. If you aren’t sure if something can be found here, just ask the judges.
There is also a large amount of spare wood used for building obstacle courses.
Goal: Train your group of recruits better than your opponents in a 4 hour training session!
Additional Information:
You can assume there is minimal downtime from getting area to area within the full facility.
Each team has a group of 16 VALKYRIE recruits to be trained. Each of them has 333 physicals and a 2 in gun handling and a 2 in hand to hand combat. While your session is a full 4 hours, you may still need to consider the stamina of the recruits and schedule breaks for them accordingly. They are in full uniform, with helmets, combat boots, and body armor as well as a pistol and baton each. They also have equipment that lets them see stands. They each have spare uniforms and can be refitted with training equipment from the equipment storage as needed. They also have assault rifles and walkie talkies in the equipment storage.
For the purposes of training they will generally agree to whatever you put them through short of anything that has significant risk of resulting in actual harm.
Teams are allowed to use/take anything from the facilities for the purposes of training.
In terms of Voting and Quality we are looking for a few different things:

• Having effective training: This can mostly be boiled down to how well their training either strengthenings their bodies or helps them learn muscle memories or techniques that improve fighting.
  
• Using your time effectively: Similar to having effective training, minimizing wasted time that could have been otherwise useful is also important.
  
• Having your recruits last for as much of the training as possible: Having guys needing to be sent to the infirmary for injuries or overworking them before the 4 hours is up will affect your score negatively. While accidents can happen through say sparring or other mishaps, you should try to minimize any lasting damages to the recruits.
  
• Having varied and well rounded training: Having them build skills in multiple areas, full body exercise over focusing on one or two muscle groups, and preparing them for a variety of scenarios.
  
• Discipline: While your recruits will be following your orders for training, being able to command their attention and respect can go a long way on making an impression and bolster training effectiveness. On the flip side, doing things that make the recruits not take you or training seriously can defeat the purpose of training.
  

In terms of training, you can also consider anything security personnel should be trained in, not just strictly combat. That can include rescuing, defending people, perceptiveness, team coordination, etc.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
The Graveyard Shift	Fira B.	“This pain-in-the-ass pillar is a reflection on that woman's personality...” You know, if you are going to be training these people, might as well make this fun for yourself. Personalize your training regiment as much as you can to make it unique with your abilities!
The Graveyard Shift	Byte	“Climb to the top of the pillar with just your hands. That's the only exit. If you can't climb out, you'll stay there until you die.” Anybody could just sit back and train people, that’s why you can’t bring yourself to do that. Be active and hands-on in your training!
Black Hill Estate	Inch Nine	“Climbing with something other than the ripple is not appreciated by the pillar... This "Hell Climb Pillar" only likes the ripple and knocks down everything else... Don't forget that.” No point in relaxing while they do all the training, might as well brush up on your own skills. Be active and hands-on in your training!
Black Hill Estate	Cabernet “Cab” Sauvignon	“It's the fault of the person who built that trap... whoever built this was really fucked up! Making me fall for that” While you could have them do just normal training, that is defeating both the point of the exercise and would be a complete waste of everybody’s time. Personalize your training regiment as much as you can to make it unique with your abilities!

Link to the Official Player Spreadsheet
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Two years ago we had the pleasure of watching one of the worst stretches of basketball for one of the NBA’s most lucrative and storied franchises come to an end. Ownership played the long game; their front office made a mixed bag of good and bad decisions on draft day, in free agency, and in the trade market. They watched the league market correct their respective front offices for trying to reach around or shortcut their way to playoff basketball leading to the decision to blow it up and focus on their youth. Their brass sold their fan base on watching a nucleus of young talent with distinct but interlocking skills grow together and learn how to play consistently winning basketball. The fans watched promising homegrown talent leave the team and then make all star game(s) for other teams but continue to be moved after those same all star appearances with fans faithful to those specific players carrying the hope that they found their home by now. Regardless, the question is now in front of Chicago’s front office as it was in front of the Lakers’ front office 2 years prior. A top 5 player isn’t on the market every day. We have a promising young core, but do we compromise it to put ourselves on this superstar’s timetable?
The 2 situations are not identical and I don’t want to act as though they are, but the question is the question. Chicago is quietly sitting at the poker table with a good amount of chips: young promising players at all 5 positions(Coby White, LaVine, Patrick Williams, Lauri, WCJ), and no one expects you to trade all 5 by any means. But what could/would a Chicago package for Harden look like?

Hypothetical offer:

Houston Gets: Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen, Cristiano Felicio, unprotected firsts in 2022 & 2024, the better of CHI or HOU’s 1st round draft picks for 2021, 2023, 2025, and a top-10 protected pick in 2027
Chicago gets: James Harden, Bruno Caboclo, the worst of either CHI or HOU’s first round draft picks in 2021, 2023, and 2025
1.) Zach LaVine, undoubtedly would have to be in the deal. The 2 best players in this deal play the same position, have mostly the same strengths and weaknesses (different ways of specifically expressing them, but at the end of the day mark a good amount of the same stats offensively), but are on either side of 30. Zach LaVine I’d say is one of the 10-15 best scorers in the NBA. He’s raised his scoring averages each of his first 6 years in the league, flies through the air in transition, and all the tape you watch of him makes you want to believe he’s an all-star caliber guy, but there’s one glaring reality holding him back from that echelon of the NBA. He’s entering his 7th season and he has yet to play .500 basketball or appear in the playoffs. The talent is unquestionable, the athleticism eye popping, but his negatives are unavoidable.
2.) Lauri Markkanen was once one of the NBA’s 10 most envied prospects. With length, range, touch, athleticism, and European heritage the Dirk comparisons were inevitable and unfair from the beginning but still tantalizing nonetheless. Athleticism and shooting are always at premiums in this league and Markkanen possesses both. With a spotty Games Played log and a lack of trust in his body on display at times in his third season his trade value is murky and for all anyone knows he could end up like Rubio, a young euro prospect dripping with potential never getting to fully realize it due to injury. However one of the best things for the rehabilitation of Rubio’s career and perception was ultimately making his way to a better team with better coaching, getting to display his consistency for a playoff team, and just getting to be a guy instead of the guy.
3.) Cristiano Felicio is only in the deal realistically to serve as filler to get CHI in range to take on Harden’s contract, but with the dearth of bigs on Houston’s roster it’s not unheard of for Felicio to get run as an 11th man if Boogie and/or Wood find themselves in foul trouble.
Why the Rockets do it: Houston has built a brand over the last decade and a half as one of the West’s most consistently quality franchises. One franchise has made the NBA playoffs every season since the 2012-13 season and that franchise is the Houston Rockets. While it can be argued it’s exclusively attributable to their defining superstar James Harden and his uncanny durability, once upon a time before Harden donned a Houston uniform the McGrady-less (and eventually Yao-less) rockets took the eventual champion Lakers to 7 games before exiting that series as they ran out of gas against Kobe, Pau, Odom, and co. And they did it with a lovable cast of misfit toys like Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry, Shane Battier, Aaron Brooks, Metta World Peace, and Kyle Lowry. The Rockets as much as they led the way for the league’s recent love affair with analytics also sport a track record that speaks to the appeal of being consistently competitive. They didn’t need to tank for McGrady, they didn’t need to tank for Harden, and transitioning into a team with a mix of veterans with chips on their shoulders (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins), young guys hungry to win (LaVine, Lauri, Christian Wood), and 3nD role players could be a lot more manageable and lovable group for first time head coach Stephen Silas. This package is also the most comprehensive out there for Harden right now. An AD or Holiday level return doesn’t seem to be materializing in the market right now, and the 2 media front runners for Harden (Philly and Brooklyn) don’t have a package with both a high level player and ancillary assets to make up the difference between the hypothetical 50-60 cents and the dollar that is Harden.
Why Chicago does it: First things first, the team that gets the best player typically wins a trade, and a trade without Wendell Carter Jr. or Coby White is also a win for the front office. A franchise with the youngest MVP ever, the GOAT, and the team that developed current NBA sweetheart Jimmy Butler is in their worst performance as a franchise since Jay Williams’ career was cut short. Harden on his own is a top-7 offense and a 45 win team, but some of the complementary pieces not in the trade offer could add up to be some of the best tailored supporting cast of Harden’s career. Coby White shows more promise as a heat check and off ball guard than the lead ball handler of an nba offense. With a season average of less than 3 assists his rookie year juxtaposed against 43% 3 point shooter and presence as a big-bodied guard, White poses a very interesting offensive (and defensive as a switchable perimeter defender) fit next to Harden. Wendell Carter and the other wings that Chicago has should be able to fill in the gaps on defense.
Personal opinion:
It’s ballsy of Chicago because if Harden doesn’t like how Chicago handles him when they get him he’s currently only able to be kept under contract for another 2 years, but if Harden has patience it could be a very savvy move into an easier path to a title. The floor of a Harden Bulls team would be the 4-6 seed in the East, and Harden would have to give up the least as a player going to Chicago versus Philly or Brooklyn. The championship conversation label wouldn’t immediately be there like it would going to Philly or to Brooklyn, but there would be a lot of young pieces around Harden that could be used in a second move in the subsequent offseason to bring a second top 10 guy next to Harden. The ceiling of this Bulls core is very difficult to pinpoint, but it’s hard not to see shades of the Lakers’ core before they signed lebron where as a group it’s hard to see them consistently winning games without a proven leader and top-10 guy in the nba.
For Houston it seems as though the market is either just a star level player and maybe a pick (Philly) and a lot of ancillary players and multiple picks (Brooklyn). For a player better than AD it is a frustrating and unenviable position for a front office to not be able to extrapolate the same value out of Harden, and I give them kudos for playing the trade offer patiently. However it’s on everyone’s mind that Harden wants out of Houston so they are on the clock to move him before he walks especially considering he turned down the extension he is currently eligible for. It’s lemonade-from-lemons time for the new Houston front office.
I’d like to hear other opinions or other potential destinations if anyone else has any other ideas or dark horse destinations for Harden.

This is an attempt at creating a complete database of all 3DS and Wii U games that didn't make the cut to the Switch (from Nintendo masterpieces to shovelware).
As it stands, the "raw data", consisting of just the list of the last-gen non-Switch games, is already gathered. This is, however, still a working progress as much more can be done, for example classify the games in categories such as "Third Party", "Indie Gem", "Shovelware", among others. Other information such as each game's developer would also enrich this list.
The idea behind this list is manly software preservation, because someday the other consoles' eShops will close and similarly to the Wii Shop channel some games may be lost, and with this database we know which of the bunch are not "safe" on Switch. But this is also a matter of consistency across Nintendo platforms, hence the inclusion of games with physical version. The Switch is such an amazing and successful console that, in my opinion (and of many here in this sub), it would be amazing if virtually every game was ported to it (or at least every Nintendo related one) .
There is some subjectivity in this selection of games, because we didn't include games that already have a improved version on the Switch (games that include the vast majority of the base game content), so for example Smash 4 is not here, because almost everything it had to offer is replicated in Ultimate. In the other hand, Mario Kart 7 is in fact listed, because very few of it's tracks are represented in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
The criteria used are as follows:
- Every original 3DS game not on Switch is featured
- If a game is in both 3DS and Wii U but not in Switch, it appears listed as 3DS game (because the 3DS outlived the Wii U and probably so will it's eShop)
- Every original Wii U game not on 3DS and not on Switch is featured
- This searched is based on the PAL games of the consoles and in Nintendo's official website
- If a game has a port/enhanced version/remake announced for the Nintendo Switch (e.g. Super Mario 3D World) it is off the list.
--
​
The idea of this post is creating this database together as a fun little fan project, seeing as it is incomplete and can have a much better organization and presentation that it has as of this moment.
​
Possible improvements/updates:
- Adding the other regions (NA and Japan)
- Tag the games as "Indie Gem", "Shovelware"...
- Associate to each game a possible reason for why the port hasn't happened yet (e.g. extinct developer, technical difficulties, irrelevance, etc...)
- Group the numbers in graphs or other more pleasant presentation
- Create dream ports to Switch (a favorite of this sub :) ) based on the games yet to port (not only of a simple game like Xenoblade Chronicles X for Switch but for example: Etrian Odyssey Collection, based on the fact that there are a bunch of games from that series "stuck" on the 3DS)
​
Well here it goes:
​
Legend:
N = Made/Published by Nintendo
TP = Third Party with physical version
IG = Indie Gem (subjective)
​
\*3DS*\**
​
​
*#\*
10-in-1 Arcade Collection
1001 Spikes
101 DinoPets 3D
101 Penguin Pets 3D
101 Pony Pets 3D
2 Fast 4 Gnomz
2048
35 Junior Games
3D Game Collection
3D Gunstar Heroes
3D MahJongg
3D Solitaire
50 Classic Games
7th Dragon III Code: VFD
​
*A\*
A-Train™ 3D: City Simulator
AERO PORTER
ARC STYLE: Baseball 3D
ARC STYLE: Football 3D
ATTACK OF THE FRIDAY MONSTERS! A TOKYO TALE
AZADA
Adventure Bar Story
Adventure Labyrinth Story
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!!
Adventure Time™: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW!
AiRace Speed
AiRace Xeno
Akari by Nikoli
Alien on the run
Alphadia
Angry Birds Star Wars
Angry Birds™ Trilogy
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiibo
Animal Hospital
Anime Workshop
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Around the World with Hello Kitty and Friends
As Aventuras de Tintim
As Misteriosas Cidades de Ouro: Caminhos Secretos
Ascent of Kings
Asphalt™ 3D
Atlantic Quest
Atlantis-6
Azure Snake
​
*B\*
B.O.O.L: Master labyrinth puzzles
BIKE RIDER DX2 : GALAXY
BLAZBLUE CONTINUUM SHIFT II
BLOK DROP CHAOS
BOX UP
BOXBOXBOY!
BOXBOY!
BRICK RACE
BRICK THRU
BUGS vs. TANKS!™
BYE-BYE BOXBOY!
Balloon Pop® Remix
Banana Bliss: Jungle Puzzles
Barbie Dreamhouse Party
Barbie Groom and Glam Pups
Barbie and her Sisters Puppy Rescue
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
Battleminer
Battleminerz
BearShark
Bella Sara 2 - The Magic of Drasilmare
Ben 10 Omniverse™ 2
Best Friends - My Horse 3D
Best of Arcade Games
Best of Board Games
Best of Casual Games
Beyblade Evolution
Big Bass Arcade: No Limit
Bike Rider DX
Bird Mania 3D
Bird Mania Christmas 3D
Blast 'Em Bunnies
Blasting Agent: Ultimate Edition
BlockForm
Bloody Vampire
Boulder Dash-XL 3D
Bowling Bonanza 3D
Brave Tank Hero
Bravely Default
Bravely Second™: End Layer
Bricks Defender
Bricks Defender 2
Bricks Pinball
Bricks Pinball 2
Brilliant Hamsters!
Brunch Panic
Bubble Pop World
Butterfly: Inchworm Animation II
​
*C\*
COLOR CUBES
CÓMO ENTRENAR A TU DRAGÓN 2
CRIMSON SHROUD
CUP CRITTERS
Candy, Please!
Carps & Dragons
Castle Clout 3D
Castle Conqueror Defender
Castle Conqueror EX
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate
Cats & Dogs 3D - Pets at play
Cazzarion
Cazzarion Adventureland
Chain Blaster
Chase: Cold Case Investigations ~Distant Memories~
Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D
Chibi-Robo! Let’s Go, Photo!
Chibi-Robo!™ Zip Lash
Christmas Night Archery
Christmas Wonderland 3
Christmas Wonderland 4
Classic Card Games
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
Coaster Creator 3D
Cocoro
Cocoto Alien Brick Breaker
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.
Collide-a-Ball
Colors! 3D
Comic Workshop
Comic Workshop 2
Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars
Conveni Dream
Cooking Mama 4
Cooking Mama: Bon Appétit!
Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop
Corpse Party
Crazy Chicken Pirates 3D
Crazy Chicken: Director's Cut 3D
Crazy Construction
Crazy Kangaroo
Creeping Terror
Crollors Game Pack
Crush 3D
Crystareino
Cube Creator 3D
Cube Tactics
Cubic Ninja
Cubit The Hardcore Platformer Robot
Culdcept™ Revolt
Cut the Rope
​
*D\*
DEAD OR ALIVE® Dimensions
DON'T CRASH GO
DRAGON QUEST VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past
DRAGON QUEST VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
DRIVER® RENEGADE 3D
Dan McFox: Head Hunter
Dark Island
Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe
Defend your Crypt
Dementium Remastered
Demon King Box
Detective Pikachu
Digger Dan DX
Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers
Dillon's Rolling Western: The Last Ranger
Dillon’s Rolling Western
Disney Magical World
Disney Magical World 2
Disney Planes: Fire & Rescue
Disney Wreck-It Ralph
Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights
Dodge Club Pocket
Doll Fashion Atelier
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Dot Runner: Complete Edition
Dr Kawashima's Devilish Brain Training: Can you stay focused?
Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure
Dragon Ball Fusions
Drancia Saga
Dream Trigger 3D
Dress To Play: Cute Witches!
Dress To Play: Magic Bubbles!
DualPenSports™
​
*E\*
EDGE
Epic Word Search Holiday Special
Escape From Forest
Escape From Zombie City
EscapeVektor
Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight
Etrian Odyssey Nexus
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth
Etrian Odyssey™ IV: Legends of the Titan
Etrian Odyssey™ Untold: The Millennium Girl
European Conqueror 3D
Ever Oasis
Excave
Excave II : Wizard of the Underworld
Excave III : Tower of Destiny
​
*F\*
F1 2011
FIFTEEN
FINAL FANTASY EXPLORERS
FISH ON 3D
FOUR BOMBS
Fallblox
Family Bowling 3D
Family Fishing
Family Kart 3D
Family Tennis 3D
Fantasy Life
Fantasy Pirates
Fat Dragons
Fatal Fracture
Fire Emblem: Echoes Shadows of Valentia
Fire Emblem: Fates
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Fishdom H2O: Hidden Odyssey
Flap Flap
Flick Golf 3D
Flipnote Studio 3D
Football Up 3D
Fossil Fighters Frontier
Fractured Soul
Freakyforms Deluxe Your Creations, Alive!
Frontier Days Founding Pioneers
Fullblox
Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH!
Funfair Party Games
​
*G\*
GALAXY BLASTER
GALAXY BLASTER CODE RED
GLORY OF GENERALS
GUIDE THE GHOST
Gabrielle's Ghostly Groove 3D
Games Festival 2
Gardening Mama: Forest Friends
Glory of Generals The Pacific
Go! Go! Kokopolo 3D
Gourmet Dream
Governor of Poker
Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters
Groove Heaven
Guia De Conversação Com Falas - 7 Idiomas
Gummy Bears Magical Medallion
Gummy Bears Mini Golf
Gunslugs 2
Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure
​
*H\*
Hakuoki: Memories of the Shinsengumi
Halloween Night Archery
Halloween: Doces ou Travessuras 2
Happy Circus
HarmoKnight
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning
Harvest Moon: Skytree Village
Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns
Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX
Hazumi
Heart Beaten
Heavy Fire: Black Arms 3D
Heavy Fire: Special Operations 3D
Hello Kitty & Friends: Rockin' World Tour
Hello Kitty & Sanrio Friends 3D Racing
Hello Kitty Happy Happy Family
Hello Kitty and the Apron of Magic: Rhythm Cooking
Heroes of Ruin
Hey! PIKMIN
Hidden Expedition® Titanic
Hiding Out
Hit Ninja
Hollywood Fame: Hidden Object Adventure
Hometown Story
Horror Stories
Horse Vet 3D
Hot Wheels World's Best Driver
Hotel Transylvania
Hydroventure™: Spin Cycle
​
*I\*
I Love My Cats
I Love My Dogs
I Love My Horse
I Love My Pets
I Love My Pony
I am an air traffic controller AIRPORT HERO HAWAII
I am an air traffic controller AIRPORT HERO NARITA
I am an air traffic controller AIRPORT HERO OSAKA-KIX
I.F.O
IRONFALL Invasion
Ice Station Z
Imagine™ Fashion Designer 3D
Inazuma Eleven
Inazuma Eleven 3: Bomb Blast
Inazuma Eleven 3: Lightning Bolt
Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks!
Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stones: Thunderflash
Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stones: Wildfire
Inazuma Eleven GO: Light
Inazuma Eleven GO: Shadow
Infinite Dunamis
Infinite Golf
​
*J\*
Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk
James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes
Japanese Rail Sim 3D 5 types of trains
Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey to Kyoto
Japanese Rail Sim 3D Monorail Trip to Okinawa
Japanese Rail Sim 3D Travel of Steam
Jet Dog
Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai
Jewel Master Atlantis 3D
Jewel Master Cradle of Egypt 2 3D
Jewel Match 3
Jewel Quest 4 - Heritage
Jewel Quest Mysteries 3 - The Seventh Gate
Jewel Quest The Sapphire Dragon
Johnny Dynamite
Johnny Hotshot™
Johnny Kung Fu™
Johnny's Payday Panic
Journey to Kreisia
Jump Trials Supreme
Justice Chronicles
​
*K\*
KAMI
KINGDOM HEARTS 3D [Dream Drop Distance]
Karous - The Beast Of Re:Eden -
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kingdom's Item Shop
Kirby Battle Royale
Kirby's Blowout Blast
Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn
Kirby: Planet Robobot
Kirby: Triple Deluxe
Kung Fu FIGHT!
Kung Fu Rabbit
Kutar (Collection)
​
*L\*
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
LEGO Legends of CHIMA: Laval's Journey
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
LEGO O Senhor dos Anéis
LEGO® Marvel Avengers
LEGO® Ninjago™: Nindroids™
LEGO® Ninjago™: Shadow of Ronin
LEGO® Pirates of the Caribbean The Video Game
LIBERATION MAIDEN™
Langrisser Re:Incarnation -TENSEI-
League of Heroes
Legna Tactica
Life with Horses 3D
Lifespeed
Lionel City Builder 3D: Rise of the Rails
Little Adventure on the Prairie
Little Battlers eXperience
Lola's Math Train
Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven
Love Hero
Lucky Luke & The Daltons
Luigi's Mansion
Luigi’s Mansion 2
Luv Me Buddies Wonderland
Luxor
​
*M\*
MYST
Machine Knight
Mad Dog McCree™
Mahjong 3D – Essentials
Mahjong 3D – Warriors of the Emperor
Mahjong Mysteries - Ancient Athena
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions
Mario Golf: World Tour
Mario Kart 7
Mario Party: Island Tour
Mario Party: Star Rush
Mario Party: The Top 100
Mario Sports Superstars
Mario Tennis Open
Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
Marvel Pinball 3D
Maze Breaker
Maze Breaker 2
Maze Breaker 3
Me & My Pets 3D
Mes Comptines
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D
Metroid Prime: Blast Ball
Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Metroid: Samus Returns
Miitopia
Mike the Knight and The Great Gallop
Mindfeud
Mini Golf Resort
Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge
Mini Sports Collection
Moco Moco Friends
Mononoke Forest
Monster Combine TD
Monster High New Ghoul in School™
Monster High 13 Wishes™
Monster High Skultimate Roller Maze™
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Monster Hunter Stories™
Mountain Peak Battle Mess
Murder on the Titanic
Music On: Electric Guitar
Musicverse: Electronic Keyboard
My First Songs
My First Songs 2
My Foal 3D
My Life on a Farm 3D
My Little Baby 3D
My Pet School 3D
My Style Studio: Hair Salon
My Western Horse 3D
My Zoo Vet Practice 3D
Mysterious Stars 3D: A Fairy Tale
Mysterious Stars 3D: Road To Idol
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst
Mystery Murders: The Sleeping Palace
​
*N\*
NARUTO Powerful Shippuden
NINJA SMASHER!
Nano Assault EX
Naruto Shippuden: The New Era
Navy Commander
Need for Speed: The Run
New Art Academy
New Super Mario Bros. 2
NightSky
Ninja Battle Heroes
Ninja Usagimaru - The Gem of Blessings -
Ninja Usagimaru - The Mysterious Karakuri Castle
Nintendo 3DS Guide Louvre
Nintendo Badge Arcade
Nintendo Pocket Football Club
Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique
Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique 2 - Fashion Forward
Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique 3 – Styling Star
Nintendogs + cats: Buldogue Francês e Novos Amigos
Nintendogs + cats: Caniche Toy e Novos Amigos
Nintendogs + cats: Golden Retriever e Novos Amigos
Noah's Cradle
Noitu Love: Devolution
​
*O\*
Ocean Runner
Of Mice And Sand
One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP
One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP 2
One Piece: Romance Dawn
Outback Pet Rescue 3D
​
*P\*
PAC-MAN & Galaga Dimensions
PAC-MAN Party 3D
PAC-MAN e as Aventuras Fantasmagóricas
PES 2011 3D
PES 2012 3D
PICROSS e
PICROSS e1
PICROSS e2
PICROSS e3
PICROSS e4
PICROSS e5
PICROSS e6
PICROSS e7
PICROSS e8
PIX3D
PUZZLE BOBBLE UNIVERSE™
PUZZLEBOX setup
Paddington™: Adventures in London
Painting Workshop
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Parascientific Escape - Crossing at the Farthest Horizon
Parascientific Escape - Gear Detective
Parascientific Escape Cruise in the Distant Seas
Parking Star 3D
Pazuru
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Petit Novel series – Harvest December
Pets Resort 3D
Petz® Beach
Phil'sEpicFill-a-PixAdventure
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice
Phoenix Wright™: Ace Attorney™ – Dual Destinies
Picdun 2: Witch's Curse
Pick-A-Gem
Picross 3D: Round 2
Pilotwings Resort
Pinball Breaker
Pinball Breaker 2
Pinball Breaker 3
Pinball Breaker 4
Pinball Breaker V
Pinball Breaker VI
Pixel Hunter
Pixel Paint
PixelMaker
PixelMaker Studio
Planet Crashers
Pocket Card Jockey
Pokédex 3D Pro
Pokémon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire
Pokémon Art Academy
Pokémon Dream Radar
Pokémon Link: Battle!
Pokémon Sun / Moon
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Pokémon Picross
Pokémon Rumble World
Pokémon Shuffle
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon
Pokémon Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon
Pokémon X / Y
Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World
Power Disc Slam
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Project X Zone
Proun+
Pullblox™
Pure Chess®
Putty Squad
Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition
Puzzle Labyrinth
Pyramids
Pyramids 2
​
*Q\*
Quarters, Please!
Quarters, Please! Vol. 2
Quiet, Please!
​
*R\*
RIDGE RACER™ 3D
RPG Maker Fes
RTO
RTO 2
RTO 3
RV-7 My Drone
Rabbids Rumble
Rabbids® 3D
Rabi Laby 3
Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology
Radiohammer
Rage of the Gladiator
Rainbow Snake
Rayman 3D
Rayman Origins
Reel Fishing Paradise 3D
Reel Fishing® 3D Paradise Mini
Regular Show: Mordecai & Rigby in 8-Bit Land
Resident Evil™: The Mercenaries 3D
Return to PopoloCrois: A STORY OF SEASONS Fairytale
Rhythm Paradise Megamix
Rhythm Thief: & the Emperor's Treasure
Riding Star 3D
Rising Board 3D
River City: Knights of Justice
River City: Rival Showdown
River City: Tokyo Rumble
Robot Rescue 3D
Rubik's® Cube
Runny Egg
Rytmik Ultimate
​
*S\*
SADAME
SAMURAI WARRIORS: Chronicles
SAMURAI WARRIORS: Chronicles 3
SENRAN KAGURA 2: Deep Crimson
SENRAN KAGURA Burst
SHOOT THE BALL
SPACE DEFENDER BATTLE INFINITY
SUPER MARIO 3D LAND
SWIPE
Safari Quest
Samurai G™
Samurai Sword Destiny™
Sanrio characters Picross
Sayonara UmiharaKawase
Secret Agent Files: Miami
Secret Mysteries in London
Shanghai Mahjong
Shift DX
Shifting World
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux
Shin Megami Tensei®: Devil Summoner®: Soul Hackers™
Shinobi
Siesta Fiesta
Silver Falls - Undertakers
Silver Falls - 3 Down Stars
Sims 3
Skater Cat
Skylanders SWAP Force
Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure
Skylanders SuperChargers Racing
Skylanders Trap Team
Slice It!
Smash Bowling 3D
Smash Cat Heroes
Snake3d
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice
Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
Sonic Generations
Sonic Lost World
Sparkle Snapshots™ 3D
SpeedThru: Potzol’s Puzzle
SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
Splash or Crash
Splat The Difference
SpongeBob HeroPants
SpongeBob SquarePants™: Plankton's Robotic Revenge
SpongeBob SquigglePants
Squarcat
Sssnakes
Star Fox 64 3D
Steel Diver
Steel Empire
Stella Glow
Stickman Super Athletics
Story of Seasons
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns
Sudoku - The Puzzle Game Collection
Sudoku Party
Sudoku by Nikoli
Sumico
Super Black Bass 3D
Super Monkey Ball™ 3D
Super Pokémon™ Rumble
Super Street Fighter™ IV 3D Edition
Super Strike Beach Volleyball™
Survivor - Heroes
Sweet Memories Blackjack
Symphony of Eternity
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*T\*
TABLE TENNIS INFINITY
TEKKEN 3D PRIME EDITION
THE DENPA MEN: They Came By Wave
THE DENPA MEN 2: Beyond the Waves
THE DENPA MEN 3: The Rise of Digitoll
THE STARSHIP DAMREY™
THEATRHYTHM FINAL FANTASY
THEATRHYTHM FINAL FANTASY CURTAIN CALL™
TOUCH BATTLE TANK - TAG COMBAT -
TOYS VS MONSTERS
Tales of the Abyss
Tangram Style
Tank Onslaught
Tank Troopers
Tappingo
Tappingo 2
Teddy Together
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze
Tenkai Knights™: Brave Battle
The 3D Machine
The Amazing Spider-Man™
The Amazing Spider-Man 2™
The Battle Cats POP!
The Cube
The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and his Square Mind
The LEGO® Movie Videogame
The Legend of Dark Witch 2
The Legend of Dark Witch 3 Wisdom and Lunacy
The Legend of Kusakari
The Legend of Legacy
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
The Magic Hammer
The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy's Grand Adventure
The Penguins of Madagascar
The Phantom Thief Stina and 30 Jewels
Thomas and Friends Steaming Around Sodor
Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter
Tiny Games - Knights & Dragons
Titan Attacks!
Tokyo Crash Mobs
Tom Clancy’s™ GHOST RECON® SHADOW WARS
Tom Clancy’s™ Splinter Cell® 3D
Tomodachi Life
Top Model 3D
Touch Battle Tank 3D
Touch Battle Tank 3D 2
Toy Defense
Toy Stunt Bike
Triple Breakout
Troca-Desenhos
Turbo: Super Stunt Squad
Turkey, Please!
Turtle Tale
​
*U\*
UP UP BOT
URBAN TRIAL FREESTYLE™
Ultimate NES™ Remix
Undead Bowling
Undead Storm Nightmare
Unlucky Mage
Urban Trial Freestyle 2
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*V\*
VAN HELSING SNIPER ZX100
Vacation Adventures: Park Ranger
Vacation Adventures: Park Ranger 2
Vamos Aprender Inglês com a Biff, o Chip e o Kipper
Viking Invasion 2 - Tower Defense
Virtue's Last Reward
VoxelMaker
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*W\*
WAKEDAS
WEAPON SHOP de OMASSE™
War & Romance Visual Novel
WarioWare Gold
Winter Sports 2012 - Feel the Spirit
Winx Club: Salvar Alfea
Witch & Hero 3
Witch's Cat
Wizdom
Worcle Worlds
Word Search 10K
Word Wizard 3D
WordsUp! Academy
World Conqueror 3D
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*Y\*
YAKARI: The Mystery of Four-Seasons
YO-KAI WATCH BLASTERS Red Cat Corps / White Dog Squad
YO-KAI WATCH 2: Bony Spirits / Fleshy Souls / Psychic Specters
YO-KAI WATCH™ 3
Yoshi’s New Island
Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal® World Duel Carnival™
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*Z\*
ZARA the Fastest Fairy
ZIG ZAG GO
Zen Pinball 3D
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma
Zombie Incident
Zombie Slayer Diox™
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​
\*WII U*\**
​
​
*#\*
3Souls
​
*A\*
A Drawing's Journey
A.C.E. – Alien Cleanup Elite
Absolutely Unstoppable MineRun
Aenigma Os
Affordable Space Adventures [IG]
Alice in Wonderland
Amiibo Touch & Play: Nintendo Classics Highlights [N]
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival [N]
Annihilation
Aperion Cyberstorm
Armikrog
Armillo
Armored ACORNs: Action Squirrel Squad
Art Academy: Atelier [N]
Art Academy: SketchPad [N]
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*B\*
B3 Game Expo For Bees
BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition [IG]
BIT.TRIP Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien [IG]
BLOC
BLOK DROP U
BLOK DROP X TWISTED FUSION
Batman: Arkham City Armoured Edition [TP]
Batman: Arkham Origins [TP]
Beatbuddy
Ben 10 Omniverse [TP]
Bird Mania Party
Blek
Blocky Bot
Block Zombies!
Bombing Bastards
Bridge Constructor Playground
Buddy & Me: Dream Edition
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*C\*
COLOR BOMBS
Cake Ninja 3: The Legend Continues
Call of Duty: Black Ops II [TP]
Call of Duty: Ghosts [TP]
Candy Hoarder
Canvaleon
Chasing Aurora
Chasing Dead
Chimpuzzle Pro
Chompy Chomp Chomp Party
Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus
Citadale - The Legends Trilogy
Cloudberry Kingdom
Cocoto Magic Circus 2
Collateral Thinking
Color Symphony 2
Cosmophony
Costume Quest 2
Cube Life: Pixel Action Heroes
Cubemen 2
Cycle of Eternity: Space Anomaly
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*D\*
Defense Dome
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director's Cut [TP]
Devil's Third [N]
Dinox
Disney Infinity [TP]
Dr. Luigi [N]
Dragon Skills
Dreamals
Dreamals: Dream Quest
Drop It: Block Paradise!
Dual Core
DuckTales: Remastered [TP]
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
Dying Is Dangerous
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*E\*
Eba & Egg: A Hatch Trip
El Silla - Arcade Edition
Epic Dumpster Bear
Evofish
Exile's End
Extreme Exorcism
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*F\*
F1 RACE STARS™ POWERED UP EDITION [TP]
Falling Skies: The Game
Family Party: 30 Great Games® Obstacle Arcade
Fire: Ungh's Quest
Fit Music for Wii U [N]
Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 [TP]
Flight of Light
Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure
Frankenstein – Master of Death
FreezeME [IG]
Frenchy Bird
Funk of Titans
Funky Barn
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*G\*
GAME PARTY CHAMPIONS [TP]
Game & Wario [N]
Gear Gauntlet
Gravity Badgers
Gravity+
Grumpy Reaper
Guac' a Mole
Guitar Hero Live [TP]
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*H\*
High Strangeness
Hot Rod Racer
How To Survive
Hurry Up! Bird Hunter
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*I\*
I C REDD
Infinity Runner
Injustice: Gods Among Us [TP]
Insect Planet TD
​
*J\*
JACKPOT 777
Jett Tailfin©
Joe's Diner
Jones on Fire
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*K\*
Kick & Fennick
KickBeat Special Edition
Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush [N]
Knytt Underground™
​
*L\*
LEGO Dimensions [TP]
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes [TP]
Laser Blaster
Level 22
Lovely Planet [IG]
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*M\*
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games [N]
Mario Party 10 [N]
Marvel Avengers™: Battle For Earth [TP]
Masked Forces
Mass Effect 3 Special Edition [TP]
Master Reboot
Midnight 2
Midtown Crazy Race
Mighty No. 9 [IG]
MikroGame: Rotator
Mon Premier Karaoké
Monkey Pirates
Mortar Melon
Mr. Pumpkin Adventure
Mutant Alien Moles of the Dead
My Style Studio: Notebook
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*N\*
NINJA GAIDEN 3: Razor's Edge [TP]
Need for Speed: Most Wanted U [TP]
Nano Assault Neo [IG]
Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) [IG]
Ninja Pizza Girl
Ninja Strike™: Dangerous Dash
Nintendo Land [N]
Nova-111
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*O\*
ORBIT
Ohayou! Beginner's Japanese
Olympia Rising
Os Rios de Alice: Versão extendida
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*P\*
PANDA LOVE
PENTAPUZZLE
PINBALL
PIXEL SLIME U
PSIBO
Paper Mario Color Splash [N]
Paper Monsters Recut [IG]
Petite Zombies
PictoParty
Pier Solar and the Great Architects
Pokémon Rumble U [N]
Plenty of Fishies
Preston Sterling and the Legend of Excalibur
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water [N]
Puddle™
Pullblox World [N]
Pumped BMX + [IG]
Puzzle Monkeys
​
*Q\*
Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut [IG]
Queen's Garden
​
*R\*
RADIANTFLUX: HYPERFRACTAL
REPLAY: VHS is not dead
RUSH
Rabbids Land [TP]
Race The Sun [IG]
Rakoo & Friends
Red Riding Hood
Rise of the Guardians
Rock Zombie
Rorrim
Roving Rogue
Run Run and Die
​
*S\*
SDK Paint
SDK Spriter
SHOOTY SPACE
SMART Adventures Mission Math: Sabotage at the Space Station
SPACE HULK
SPHERE SLICE
SPLASHY DUCK
STARWHAL [IG]
STEEL LORDS
STEEL RIVALS
SUPER ROBO MOUSE
SWAP BLOCKS
Sanatory Hallways
Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails
Scribble
Seasonal Assistant
Shadow Archer
Shadow Archery
Shadow Puppeteer [IG]
Shiny The Firefly
Shutshimi
SiNG PARTY [TP]
Sinister Assistant
Skylanders Giants [TP]
Skylanders SuperChargers [TP]
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric [TP]
Space Hunted
Space Hunted: The Lost Levels
Space Intervention
Spellcaster's Assistant
Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party [IG]
Sports Connection [TP]
Star Fox Guard [N]
Star Fox Zero [N]
Star Sky 2
Star Splash: Shattered Star
Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones [IG]
Stone Shire
Sudoku & Permudoku
Super Destronaut 2: Go Duck Yourself
Super Ultra Star Shooter
Suspension Railroad Simulator
Sweetest Thing
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*T\*
TABLETOP GALLERY
TANK! TANK! TANK! [TP]
TAP TAP ARCADE
TAP TAP ARCADE 2
TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT™ 2 Wii U Edition [TP]
TEMPLE OF YOG
TITANS TOWER
TNT Racers - Nitro Machines Edition
TOUCH SELECTIONS
Tengami [IG]
Teslapunk
Test Your Mind
Tested with robots !
Tetrobot & Co.
The Beggar's Ride
The Croods: Prehistoric Party!
The Gem Collector
The Girl and the Robot
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD [N]
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD [N]
The Quiet Collection
The Smurfs™ 2 [TP]
The Stonecutter
The Swapper [IG]
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Blacklist™ [TP]
Toon Tanks
Totem Topple
Toto Temple Deluxe [IG]
Twisted Fusion
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*U\*
U Host
Underground
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*V\*
VRog
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*W\*
Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper [TP]
Watch_Dogs™ [TP]
Wicked Monsters Blast! HD PLUS
Wii Fit U [N]
Wii Karaoke U by JOYSOUND [N]
Wii Party U [N]
Wii Sports Club [N]
Wooden Sen'SeY
Word Party
​
*X\*
XType Plus [IG]
Xenoblade Chronicles X [N]
​
*Y\*
Y.A.S.G
Year Walk [IG]
Your Shape®: Fitness Evolved 2013 [TP]
​
*Z\*
ZaciSa: Defense of the Crayon Dimensions!
Zen Pinball 2
ZombiU [TP]
Zombie Brigade: No Brain No Gain
Zombie Defense
Zumba Fitness: World Party [TP]
​
--
\WII U [N] Nintendo Games (26)\**
Amiibo Touch & Play: Nintendo Classics Highlights
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
Art Academy: Atelier
Art Academy: SketchPad
Devil's Third
Dr. Luigi
Fit Music for Wii U
Game & Wario
Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
Mario Party 10
Nintendo Land
Paper Mario Color Splash
Pokémon Rumble U
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water
Pullblox World
Star Fox Guard
Star Fox Zero
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
Wii Fit U
Wii Karaoke U by JOYSOUND
Wii Party U
Wii Sports Club
Xenoblade Chronicles X
​
--
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Well feel free to add or modify anything you want, obviously. And feel free to also ask why the inclusion or the lack of it of any game. There must be some errors on the list, naturally, so if you know any information about a game that would take it off or put it on the list (an announcement for example) please share it with us!!!

(Note the connections)
CargoMetrics Cracks the Code on Shipping Data
Scott Borgerson and his team of quants at hedge fund firm CargoMetrics are using satellite intel on ships to identify mispriced securities.
By Fred R. Bleakley February 04, 2016
Link to article
One late afternoon last November, as a ping-pong game echoed through the floor at CargoMetrics Technologies’ Boston office, CEO Scott Borgerson was watching over the shoulder of Arturo Ramos, who’s responsible for developing investment strategies with astrophysicist Ronnie Hoogerwerf. At Ramos’s feet sat Helios, his brindle pit-bull-and-­greyhound mix. All three men were staring at a computer screen, tracking satellite signals from oil tankers sailing through the Strait of Malacca, the choke point between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea where 40 percent of the world’s cargo trade moves by ship.
CargoMetrics, a start-up investment firm, is not your typical money manager or hedge fund. It was originally set up to supply information on cargo shipping to commodities traders, among others. Now it links satellite signals, historical shipping data and proprietary analytics for its own trading in commodities, currencies and equity index futures. There was an air of excitement in the office that day because the signals were continuing to show a slowdown in shipping that had earlier triggered the firm’s automated trading system to short West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures. Two days later the U.S. Department of Energy’s official report came out, confirming the firm’s hunch, and the oil futures market reacted accordingly.
“We nailed it for our biggest return of the year,” says Borgerson, who had reason to breathe more easily. His backers were watching closely. They include Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the world’s largest hedge fund allocator, and seven wealthy tech and business leaders. Among them: former Lotus Development Corp. CEO Jim Manzi, who also had a long career at IBM Corp.
Compelling these investors and Borgerson to pursue the shipping slice of the economy is the simple fact that in this era of globalization 50,000 ships carry 90 percent of the $18.5 trillion in annual world trade.
That’s no secret, of course, but Borgerson and CargoMetrics’ backers maintain that the firm is well ahead of any other investment manager in harnessing such information for a potential big advantage. It’s why Borgerson has kept the firm in stealth mode for years. In its earlier iteration, from 2011 to 2014, CargoMetrics was hidden in a back alley, above a restaurant. Now that he’s running an investment firm, Borgerson declines to name his investors unless, like Manzi and BAAM, they are willing to be identified.
“My vision is to map historically and in real time what’s really going on in economic supply and demand across the planet,” says the U.S. Coast Guard veteran, who prides himself and the CargoMetrics team on not being prototypical Wall Streeters. “The problem is enormous, but the potential reward is huge.”
According to Borgerson, CargoMetrics is building a “learning machine” that will be able to automatically profit from spotting any publicly traded security that is mispriced, using what he refers to as systematic fundamental macro strategies. He calls the firm a new breed of quantitative investment manager. In unguarded moments he sees himself as the Steve Jobs or Elon Musk of portfolio management.
Though his ambitions may sound audacious, one thing is certain: Borgerson doesn’t lack in self-confidence. Over the past six years, he has secretly and painstakingly built a firm heavy in Ph.D.s that can manage a database of hundreds of billions of historical shipping records, conduct trillions of calculations on hundreds of computer servers and systematically execute trades in 28 different commodities and currencies.
For his part, Borgerson seems an unlikely architect of such a serious, ambitious endeavor. Easygoing and fond of joking with his colleagues, he is a hands-off manager who credits CargoMetrics’ investment prowess to his team. His brand of humor comes through even when he’s detailing the series of challenges he had starting the firm. After using the phrase “It was hard” several times, he pauses and adds, “Did I mention it was hard?” Although Borgerson declines to provide any specifics about Cargo­Metrics’ portfolio, citing the advice of his lawyers, performance during the three years of live trading apparently has been strong enough to keep his backers confident and his team of physicists, software engineers and mathematicians in place. “Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we can make a more significant investment,” says BAAM CEO J. Tomilson Hill. Former Lotus CEO Manzi is optimistic about the firm’s prospects: “It has an unbelievable edge with its historical data.”
CargoMetrics was one of the first maritime data analytics companies to seize the potential of the global Automatic Identification System. Ships transmit AIS signals via very high frequency (VHF) radio to receiver devices on other ships or land. Since 2004, large vessels with gross tonnage of 300 or more are required to flash AIS positioning signals every few seconds to avoid collisions. That allows Cargo­Metrics to pay satellite companies for access to the signals gleaned from 500 miles above the water. The firm uses historical data to identify cargo and aggregation of cargo flow, and then applies sophisticated analysis of financial market correlations to identify buying and selling opportunities.
“We’re big-data junkies who could not have founded CargoMetrics without the radical breakthroughs of this golden age of technology,” Borgerson says. The revolution in cloud computing has been instrumental. CargoMetrics leverages the Amazon Web Services platform to run its analytics and algorithms on hundreds of computer servers at a fraction of the cost of owning and maintaining the hardware itself.
At his firm’s headquarters — where the lobby displays a series of colored semaphore signal flags that spell out the mathematical equation for the surface area of the earth —Borgerson leads the way to his server room. It’s the size of a closet; inside, a thick pipe carries all the data traffic and analytic formulas CargoMetrics needs. That computing power alone would have cost $30 million to $40 million, Manzi says.
CargoMetrics is pursuing a modern version of an age-old quest. Think of the Rothschild family’s use in the 19th century of carrier pigeons and couriers on horseback to bring news from the Napoleonic Wars to their traders in London, or, in the 1980s, oil trader Marc Rich’s use of satellite phones and binoculars for relaying oil tanker flow.
Other quant-focused Wall Street firms are latching onto the satellite ship-tracking data. But, Borgerson says, “I would bet my life on a stack of Bibles that no one in the world has the shipping database and analytics we have.” The reason he’s so convinced is that from late 2008 he was an early client of the satellite companies that had begun collecting data received from space and on land to build a large database of all the world’s vessel movements in one place.
That’s what caught Hill’s eye at Blackstone when he learned of Cargo­Metrics a few years ago. BAAM now has a managed account with the firm. “If anyone else tries to replicate what CargoMetrics has, they will be years behind [Borgerson] on data analytics,” Hill says. “We know that a number of hedge fund data scientists want his data.”
But too much reliance on big data can go wrong, say many academicians. “There is a huge amount of hype around big data,” observes Willy Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. “Many people are saying, ‘Let the data speak; we don’t need theory or modeling.’ I argue that even with using new, massively parallel computing systems for modeling and simulation, some forces in nature and the economy are still too big and complex for computers to handle.”
Shih’s skepticism doesn’t go as far as to say the data challenge on global trade is too big a puzzle to solve. When informed of the Cargo­Metrics approach, he called it “very valid and creative. They just have to be careful not to throw away efforts to understand causality.”
Another big-data scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of electrical engineering and computer science Samuel Madden, also urges caution. “What worries me is that models become trusted but then fail,” he explains. “You have to validate and revalidate.”
Borgerson grew up in Southeast Missouri, in a home on Rural Route 5 between Festus and Hematite. His father was a former Marine infantry officer and police official, and his mother a high school French and Spanish teacher. The family traveled 15 miles to Crystal City to attend Grace Presbyterian Church, which was central to young Borgerson’s upbringing: There he was a youth elder, became an Eagle Scout and received a God and Country Award. The church was across the street from the former home of NBA all-star and U.S. senator Bill Bradley, whose backboard Borgerson used for basketball practice.
When it came to choosing what to do after high school, Borgerson was torn between becoming a Presbyterian minister and accepting an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy or West Point. He went with the Coast Guard because, he says, “the humanitarian mission really appealed to me, and I had never been on a boat before.”
At the academy, in New London, Connecticut, Borgerson played NCAA tennis and was also a cutup, racking up demerits for such antics as placing a sailboat on the commandant of cadets’ front lawn and leading bar patrons in a rendition of “Semper Paratus,” the school’s theme song. Still, he graduated with honors and spent the next four years piloting a 367-foot cutter — which seized five tons of cocaine in the Caribbean — then captaining a patrol boat that saved 30 lives on search-and-rescue missions. From 2001 to 2003 the Coast Guard sent Borgerson to the Fletcher School at Tufts University to earn his master’s of arts in law and diplomacy. While at Tufts he volunteered at a Boston homeless shelter for military veterans and founded a Pet Pals therapy program for senior citizens.
Following graduation, from 2003 to 2006, Borgerson taught U.S. history, foreign policy, political geography and maritime studies at the Coast Guard Academy, and co-founded its Institute for Leadership. While there he would get up at 4:00 each morning to work on his Ph.D. thesis exploring U.S. port cities’ approaches to foreign policy. He would also travel to Boston to complete his course work at Tufts and meet with his adviser, John Curtis Perry.
Borgerson’s military allegiance runs deep. One weekend last fall he played football in a service academy alumni game. On another he attended the Army-Navy game. Still militarily fit at age 40, the 6-foot-5 Borgerson works out regularly at an inner-city gym aimed at helping youths find an alternative to gang violence; a few weeks ago he was there boxing with ex-convicts and lifting weights.
Leaving the Coast Guard was a hard decision for Borgerson, resulting in part from his frustration with the military bureaucracy’s stymieing of his bid to get back to sea for security missions. With his degrees in hand, he applied for a fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations. During the application process he met Edward Morse, now global head of commodities research at Citigroup. Morse was on the CFR selection committee in 2007 and recommended Borgerson as a fellow.
Morse introduced Borgerson to commodities, and to trading terms like “contango” and “backwardation.” Morse himself had, earlier in career, gotten the jump on official oil supply data by hiring planes to take photos of the lid heights of oil tanks in Oklahoma’s Cushing field.
Working for the CFR in New York reconnected Borgerson with his Missouri roots. Bill Bradley’s aunt called the former senator to say: “The son of a family who went to our church in Crystal City is in New York. Would you welcome him?” Bradley did — and would later play a part in Borgerson’s career development.
While at the CFR, Borgerson became an expert on the melting of the North Pole ice cap, writing numerous published articles on its implications; this led him to co-found, with the president of Iceland, the Arctic Circle, a nonprofit designed to encourage discussion of the future of that region. Borgerson recently spoke to 50 international generals and admirals about the Arctic and is co-drafting a proposal for a treaty between the U.S. and Canada that would help resolve the differences the two countries have in allowing international ship and aircraft travel through the Northwest Passage.
His Arctic research led to an aha moment early in 2008, while he was still with the CFR, on a visit to Singapore and the Strait of Malacca with his Fletcher School classmate Rockford Weitz and their former Ph.D. adviser, Perry. Seeing the mass of ships sailing through the strait, Borgerson and Weitz decided to build a data analytics firm using satellite tracking of ships.
Like many successful entrepreneurs, the two struggled to find financing before reaching out to a network of friends and their contacts. One was Randy Beardsworth, who had sat with Borgerson at a 2007 Coast Guard Academy dinner, where Beards­worth, then the Coast Guard’s chief of law enforcement in Miami, was the guest speaker. Borgerson “made references to history and literature, and I thought, ‘Here is a sharp guy,’” recalls Beards­worth. “We have been friends ever since.”
But Borgerson didn’t turn to his new friend in his initial fund-raising. “He came to me in 2009, after he had been turned down by 17 VCs, was maxed out on his credit card, was married and had a newborn son,” says Beardsworth, who was reviewing the Department of Homeland Security as part of the Obama administration’s transition team. Beardsworth came to the rescue, not only committing to invest a small amount but introducing his friend to Doug Doan. A West Point graduate and Washington-­based angel investor, Doan took to Borgerson right away. “To be honest, it wasn’t his idea, it was Scott I invested in,” says Doan, who provided $100,000 in capital and introduced Borgerson to a few friends, who added $75,000. Manzi came on board as an investor in 2009, having been asked by Bradley to check out Borgerson’s plan for a data metrics firm. (Manzi knew Bradley from the late 1990s, when the latter was considering a run for U.S. president.)
With Doan, Doan’s friends and Manzi as investors, CargoMetrics was finally able to garner its first venture capital commitment in early 2010, from Boston-based Ascent Venture Partners. That gave the start-up the capital it needed to hire a bevy of data scientists to build an analytics platform that it could sell to commodity-trading houses and other commercial users. In 2011, CargoMetrics added Summerhill Venture Partners, a Toronto-based firm with a Boston office, to its investor roster, raising roughly $18 million from venture capital and angels for its data business.
By then Borgerson had already begun to contemplate converting CargoMetrics from an information provider into a money manager; he saw the potential to extract powerful trade signals from its technology rather than share it with other market participants for a fee. Among those he consulted was serial entrepreneur Peter Platzer, a friend of one of CargoMetrics’ original investors. Platzer, a physicist by training, had spent eight years as a quantitative hedge fund manager at Rohatyn Group and Deutsche Bank before co-founding Spire Global, a San Francisco–­based company that uses its own fleet of low-orbit satellites to track shipping, in 2012. “We had lengthy conversations on how to set up quant trading systems and how [commodities giant] Cargill had made a similar decision to set up its own in-house hedge fund to trade on the information it was gathering,” recalls Platzer. So Borgerson reset his course. Doan describes the decision as a “transformative moment” for the CargoMetrics co-founder. “The military trains you to be a strategic thinker,” Doan explains. “Scott had been tactical until then, making small pivots, and like a general who sees the theater of war, he moved into strategic mode.”
Borgerson’s ambition to succeed was in no small part fueled by the early turndowns by many venture capital firms and a fierce determination to best the Wall Street bunch at their own game. “There’s a lot that motivates me, including — if I’m honest — I have a big chip on my shoulder to beat the prep school, Ivy League, MBA crowd,” he says. “They’re bred to make money, but they’re not smarter than everyone else; they just have more patina and connections.” (Bred differently, he spent last Thanksgiving visiting his parents in rural Missouri. After breakfast he and his father were in the woods, shooting assault guns at posters of terrorists, with Gunny, his father’s Anatolian shepherd dog.)
Borgerson’s plan was not met with enthusiasm from the company’s then co-CEO, Weitz. CargoMetrics had been gaining clients and meeting its goals, and was on its way to becoming a successful data service provider. Weitz, who now is president of the Gloucester, Massachusetts–based Institute for Global Maritime Studies and an entrepreneur coach at Tufts’ Fletcher School, did not return e-mails or phone calls asking for comment. For his part, Borgerson says: “A ship cannot have two captains. The company simply matured and evolved into a streamlined management structure with one CEO instead of two.”
Eventually, Doan went along with Borgerson’s plan. “We believe in Scott and that shipping holds the no-shit, honest truth of what the economy is doing,” he says. But buying out the venture capital firms several years ahead of the usual exit time would require a hefty premium over what they had invested.
Once again Borgerson’s early supporters played a key role. Manzi, a fellow Fletcher School grad who had mentored Borgerson since the company’s early days, put up more money (making CargoMetrics one of his single largest investments) and introduced him to a powerful group of wealthy investors. Separately, the CFR’s Morse suggested that Borgerson meet with Daniel Freifeld, founder of Washington-based Callaway Capital Management and a former senior adviser on Eurasian energy at the U.S. Department of State. Impressed by Borgerson’s “intellectual honesty, vigor and more than four years of historical data,” Freifeld brought the idea to a billionaire third-party investor, who took his advice and became one of CargoMetrics’ largest backers. “I would not have suggested the investment if CargoMetrics had not done the hard part first,” adds Freifeld, declining to name the investor.
A chance encounter in the fall of 2012 gave the CargoMetrics team its first taste of real Wall Street trading. Attending an Arctic Imperative conference in Alaska, Borgerson met the CIO of a large investment firm, whom he declines to name. When Borgerson confided his ambition and that CargoMetrics had developed algorithms to trade on its shipping data once it was legally structured to do so, the CIO suggested CargoMetrics provide the analytical models for a separate portfolio the money manager would trade. Live trading using CargoMetrics’ models began in December 2012. Manzi brought in longtime banker Gerald Rosenfeld in 2013 to craft and negotiate the move to make CargoMetrics a limited liability investment firm. Rosenfeld acted in a personal role rather than in his position as vice chairman of Lazard and full-time professor and trustee of the New York University School of Law. The whole process took a year and a half. During that time Blackstone checked in as an investor.
Bradley, now an investment banker, has yet to invest in CargoMetrics, explaining that he is unfamiliar with quantitative investing. But he may eventually invest in Borgerson’s firm, he says, because “we are homeboys. I believe in him and that things are going to work out ” — pausing to add with a smile, “based on my vast quant experience, of course.”
Borgerson has been in stealth mode since CargoMetrics’ early days, when he moved the firm from an innovation lab near MIT because the shared space was too open. He is much more forthcoming when boasting of the firm’s “world-class talent.” The team includes astrophysicists, mathematicians, former hedge fund quants, electrical engineers, a trade lawyer and software developers. Hoogerwerf, who has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the Netherlands’ Leiden University, built distributed technical environments for scientists and engineers at Microsoft Corp. Solomon Todesse, who works on quant investment strategies, was head of asset allocation at State Street Global Advisors. Aquil Abdullah, a team leader in the engineering group, was a software engineer in the high-performance-computing group at Microsoft. And senior investment strategist Charles Freifeld (Daniel’s father) has 40 years’ experience in futures and commodities markets, including nine with Boston-based commodity trading adviser firm AlphaMetrics Capital Management.
“All were self-made people; none were born with a silver spoon,” Borgerson notes. One of his blue-collar-­background hires was James (Jess) Scully, who joined as chief operating officer in 2011, after his employer Interactive Supercomputing was acquired by Microsoft.
“The team we built treasures team success, which is Scott’s motto,” Scully says. “We want shared resources, one P&L, not ‘How much money did my unit make?’” Both Scully and Borgerson say Cargo­Metrics is like the Golden State Warriors, a leading NBA basketball team known for putting aside personal glory and playing as a band of brothers having fun.
Borgerson says he fosters a no-ego policy with “lots of play because investment teams are built on trust, and playing together builds trust.” Team building at CargoMetrics includes pub crawls, picnics at Borgerson’s house, poker nights, volunteer work in a soup kitchen for the homeless, Red Sox games and visits to museums.
Trips to the Boston docks or Coast Guard base are intended to remind the CargoMetrics team of the real economy. There are also occasional “touch a tanker” days. On one visit to a tanker, everyone was amazed that the ship was the size of a city building, Borgerson says. “They could smell the salt on the deck,” he recalls. “Wall Street can lose sight of the real fundamentals in the world. I don’t want that to happen here.”
Unlike the Rothschilds 200 years ago, only a small percentage of the trades that CargoMetrics makes relate to beating official government data. Most simply are aimed at identifying mispricings in the market, using the firm’s real-time shipping data and proprietary algorithms.
At a whiteboard in his conference room, Borgerson sketches out CargoMetrics’ general formula. He draws a “maritime matrix” of three dynamic data sets: geography (Malacca, Brazil, Australia, China, Europe and the U.S.), metrics (ship counts, cargo mass and volume, ship speed and port congestion) and tradable factors (Brent crude versus WTI, as well as mining equities, commodity macro and Asian economic activity). Using satellite data with hundreds of millions of ship positions, CargoMetrics makes trillions of calculations to determine individual cargoes onboard the ships and then to aggregate the cargo flows and compare them with historical shipping data. All that leads to the final comparisons with historical financial market data to find mispricings. If CargoMetrics observes an appreciable decline in export shipping activity in South Africa, for example, its trading models will determine whether that is a significant early-warning sign by considering that information alongside other factors, such as interest rates. If Cargo­Metrics believes a decline in the rand is forthcoming, it might short it against a basket of other currencies. “This is like a heat map showing opportunity,” Borgerson says, noting that CargoMetrics is not trading physical commodities. “We are agnostic on whether to be long or short, and let the computers spot where there is a mispricing and liquidity in the markets.” He sums up his simple, but still less than revealing, process by writing on the whiteboard “Collect, Compute, Trade.”
Borgerson says CargoMetrics is building a systematic approach that will work even when cargo cannot be identified — on containerships, for instance. It already knows a large percentage of the daily imports and exports into and out of China and island economies such as Japan and Australia. And although the firm cannot glean from its calculations on satellite AIS data the type of cargo, such as iPhones from China, it can measure total flow, which shows present economic activity. Cargo­Metrics’ data scientists are working on linking such activity to the firm’s data set of the past seven years to measure the evolving global economy. That will lead, Borgerson maintains, to more trades on currencies and equity index futures and, eventually, trades on individual equities. “Uncorrelated” is a mantra of Borgerson and his team. Well aware that correlated assets sent the performance of most asset managers, including hedge funds, plunging in the financial crisis, CargoMetrics is determined to come up with an antidote. Careful not to say too much, Borgerson lays out the simple principle that the process starts with placing many bets among uncorrelated strategies in different asset classes, like commodities, currencies and equities.
The goal is diversification, staying as market neutral as possible and remaining sensitive to tail risk in different scenarios. CargoMetrics’ analytic models help find asset classes that are outliers. Those may include a publicly traded instrument such as oil, another commodity or an equity for which shipping information was a leading indicator during times when other asset classes marched in lockstep. The historical ship data is then blended with this new information to seek opportunities. Identifying mispriced spreads among different trades within an asset class is another way of avoiding the calamity of correlation. Borgerson says the firm’s models will find instances where one type of oil should be a short trade and another a long one. The same goes for whole asset classes — shorting one that will benefit if virtually all asset prices plunge and buying another that will rise when oil prices gain. “We’re counting cards with the goal of being right maybe 3 percent more than we are wrong, as a way of making profits during good times and staying afloat during times of sudden, unpredictable but far-reaching events,” Borgerson says. The key, he adds, “is to know your edge and spread your risk.” CargoMetrics’ uncorrelated approach worked during the dismal first three weeks of this year, says Borgerson. Dialing down risk as volatility in the markets soared, the firm was on track in January to have its best month since it began trading.
To improve the firm’s models, eight of its data scientists hold a weekly strategy meeting, nicknamed “the Shackleton Group” after the band of sailors shipwrecked in the Antarctic from 1914 to 1917. Hoogerwerf and Ramos co-lead the group. At one recent meeting they were deciding how much risk, including how much liquidity, there was in a possible strategy; reviewing whether to keep previous strategies; and assigning who would research new ones.
The Shackleton Group’s meetings are free-form, with a lot of “I’ve got an idea” interjections that disregard official roles. “We hit the restart button a lot,” says Ramos, a former director of business intelligence and a quantitative economist at law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf who joined CargoMetrics in late 2010. “That’s why our motto is ‘Never lose hope.’” A bet on oil, related to Russia’s production, was stopped at the last minute in 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Some currency-trading strategies have been abandoned in theory or after failing. Strategies the Shackleton Group likes are passed on to the firm’s investment committee of Borgerson, Scully and Ramos for a final decision. CargoMetrics has a unique set of big-data challenges. Historical shipping patterns may not be as useful in the new global economy now that shipping freight prices are plunging, a sign that trade growth rates may be changing. And analysts point out how hard identifying oil cargo can be in certain locations and instances, even in more-­predictable economic times. “While it may be easy to say that ships leaving the Middle East Gulf are typically carrying crude oil, knowing the type of crude is sometimes quite difficult,” says Paulo Nery, senior director of Europe, Middle East and Asia oil for Genscape, a Louisville, Kentucky–based company that analyzes satellite tracking of ships. Borgerson maintains his team is well aware of the dangers of data mining and getting swamped by noise. “If you run computers hard enough, you can convince yourself of anything,” he says. To make sure CargoMetrics’ algorithms for identifying cargo are valid, the firm spot-checks manifest data filed at ports and imposes statistical confidence checks to guard against spurious correlations.
Getting the jump on official government statistics is likely to become tougher too thanks to the recently formed High-Level Group for the Modernization of Official Statistics. Although the U.S. is not a member, Canada is a key player helping to lead the mostly European nation group (including South Korea) in coming up with a global blueprint for measuring and reporting economic activity.
Reflecting on his journey to Wall Street — raising money, hiring employees with different skill sets, making changes to Cargo­Metrics’ culture, overcoming legal and regulatory hurdles — almost gives Borgerson second thoughts about whether he would do it again. “I’ve sailed ships through tropical storms, captured cocaine smugglers and testified before Congress [on his Arctic research],” he says, “but this was the hardest.”

You’re such a disappointment.
It was only the once, Caroline.
What are people going to say?
No marriage is perfect. Brian is a provider, he knows all of the right people, you wouldn’t need your silly job if you just went through with it.
Why couldn’t you be more like your sisters? Margot and Jack have an understanding. They just bought a brownstone.
God. I’m going to have to call all of my friends.
Caroline sat up abruptly, tumbling off the lumpy Victorian style couch with its faded cranberry velvet, atop what was certainly rocks for padding, and landed with a thunk on the floor. One leg awkwardly atop a half empty cardboard box, toppling a stack of dusty magazines as she flailed.
The fat gray cat, with the judgemental green eyes, curled up in the chintzy patchwork armchair near the massive stone fireplace, blinked and appeared to briefly roll his eyes before stretching, paws out, back arched, and promptly returning to sleep.
Shivering, the disheveled redhead reached blindly for the moth eaten quilt she’d been using as a blanket. She had been able to swap her tropical ticket for an Edinburgh arrival, but her honeymoon luggage was still packed for Aruba and the ancient stone cottage with the charming flower boxes beneath original leaded glass windows was frosty enough to set her teeth on edge.
”Christ.”
Caroline dragged the blanket down into the floor with her and considered briefly whether she ought to simply go back to sleep. It would have proven a more appealing suggestion if she didn’t have the mental image of her recently ex-fiancé pounding his secretary on top of the monogrammed leather desk blotter she had bought him as a congratulatory new job present permanently burned into her retinas. Red soled manolo’s pointed at the ceiling, screaming like a cat in heat.
Scowling darkly, she swiped the bottle of wine purchased at the airport duty free store off of the carved Georgian end table, and upended the few drops that remained. The little bit of red at the bottom dribbled down her chin. Caroline didn’t even know what day it was. She’d been in Scotland at the ancestral home of her father’s people for nearly a week, and apart from drinking, crying, rummaging through junk, and attempting to befriend the surly cat, her days consisted primarily of being berated by her mother long distance. Libby’s shrill, Bostonian accent, addressed every one of her perceived shortcomings and failures in equal measure with demanding that she forget about this sudden nonsense about finding herself with her ‘father’s people’ and come home this very instant.
Just the idea of moving back into the penthouse apartment with a view of Central Park, where her mother and Kenneth held court with the rest of her Barbie and Ken doll half siblings, made Caroline consider selling herself into slavery. Could a person do that? Disappear into the void, never to be heard from again.
She stumbled to her feet, draped in the remains of her bedding, and shuffled through the hoarders paradise that was her paternal grandmother’s abode like the Labyrinth trash heap, feeling for all the world like the cat had used her mouth as a litter box. It turned out that having spent a half dozen summers at the all girls Camp Bondi did not, in fact, render her capable of starting a fire in the fireplace, no matter how hard she squinted at the logs waiting to be ignited or nudged the bit of kindling around with the fire poker. Neither had she unearthed any kind of thermostat which might make her beach themed attire and selection of snazzy lingerie a more appropriate wardrobe for the frozen tundra of Scotland in the mild temperatures of early Spring. Hell, at this point she would have liked to start the fire merely for the purpose of burning previously aforementioned lingerie.
With a sigh, and a glare at the sleeping cat, Caroline readjusted her makeshift quilted cape and threaded her way back through the piles of various goods to the tiny kitchen, fumbling open the cabinets in search of the coffee grounds.
Nothing.
Dammit.
She glanced forlornly at the trash can, registering that she had consumed the last of the caffeine the morning previous, and stumbled towards the back door to stuff her bare feet in the pair of oversized wellies she had discovered there. Either Granny Macnamara was built like an ox, or they’d been left behind by a previous visitor. Allowing the quilt to fall in a heap on the scarred wood floor, she grabbed a heavy purple hand knitted cardigan from the peg above the boots, ignoring that it smelled like whatever amalgamation of scents the little stone house smelled like too, and tugged it on over her ocean blue tank top and black running shorts. For the briefest moment she considered brushing her hair, and her teeth, maybe making some sort of effort not to frighten the neighbors, a thought which was instantly discarded when she caught a glimpse of the phone cord quite literally yanked out of the wall.
Caroline you’re making a scene. Get on a plane this instant!
Libby couldn’t berate her if she couldn’t reach her, though yanking the phone cord entirely out of the wall might have been an overreaction. Caroline compromised by bending at the waist and allowing her wild mane of auburn curls to flow towards the floor. Grasping the impossibly thick mass with both hands, she gave it a cursory finger brush before plucking a rubber band from her wrist and tying it all into a messy bun. There. Fixed. A small shiver of sadistic pleasure gleaned from leaving the house without a bra as she snagged a giant chipped coffee mug off the counter and shouldered her purse. Tromping out the door into the ever constant Scottish drizzle.
Moments later she was slumped into the drivers seat of a wholly unfamiliar car, fumbling both with the idea of driving on the right hand side of the road and with a five speed transmission. Gears grinding and shrieking as she attempted to back out of the minuscule parking space into a blind curve. Cursing under her breath. Given that her grandmothers home occupied land on the edge of a large estate holding, she’d been assured that the caretaker or watchman or whatever else he was called in the stupid note left on the counter by the estate agent would be happy to assist her. Now if she could just remember the man’s name. He’d be in for a shock regardless since it was now gone two in the afternoon and an American broad looking like some kind of crazed Cruella Deville was about to wind up on his doorstep.
After much bargaining, she was able to at last guide the car out into the winding lane. A feat which was overshadowed almost immediately by the realization that she was driving cheerily down the wrong side of an already narrow road, when a large lorry came screeching around the curve directly in her path.
Caroline panicked and jerked the wheel, sending the little red coupe careening off the narrow roadway while she clutched wildly at the wheel, screaming at the top of her lungs.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hello and welcome! Like what you see?
In general, Caroline is the misfit ‘first marriage’ daughter of a wealthy socialite family. After discovering her fiancé in a compromising fashion, she called off the wedding, and ran off to find herself at the ancestral home of her fathers people - an old stone cottage somewhere off the beaten path in Scotland, which once belonged to her grandmother, a woman she never met.
This is intended to be a MxF romance where you write for the M character.
Are you writing for a local landowner who comes across the accident while out for a ride, and rushes to help?
A tow truck driver annoyed by the failings of American tourists?
A bemused caretaker who’s hiding a dark supernatural secret?
Or does the accident cause Caroline to rip through the veil of space and time only to wind up in a the distant past, and with no way home again?
This could go more slice of life, or more action and adventure. There are a variety of angles possible, and I am open to exploring any of them. Bring me a totally different idea if you like.

• 3rd/Past
• Be 21+, older writers preferred
• Multi-para to novella (minimum 4+ paragraphs)
• Email, GDocs, or Discord
• Quality + Quantity
• Post frequently! 1x a day to multiple times a day preferred.
• Longterm. I would like this to last.

Interested? Send a message! One with a response to the prompt would be ideal. Please at least include an idea of the story you want to tell/character you want to play.
Feel free to look at my profile for other prompts, or to bring your own idea to the table if you like my writing style. Open to modern or historic tales, romance must always be included as part of the story.

You’re such a disappointment.
It was only the once, Caroline.
What are people going to say?
No marriage is perfect. Brian is a provider, he knows all of the right people, you wouldn’t need your silly job if you just went through with it.
Why couldn’t you be more like your sisters? Margot and Jack have an understanding. They just bought a brownstone.
God. I’m going to have to call all of my friends.
Caroline sat up abruptly, tumbling off the lumpy Victorian style couch with its faded cranberry velvet, atop what was certainly rocks for padding, and landed with a thunk on the floor. One leg awkwardly atop a half empty cardboard box, toppling a stack of dusty magazines as she flailed.
The fat gray cat, with the judgemental green eyes, curled up in the chintzy patchwork armchair near the massive stone fireplace, blinked and appeared to briefly roll his eyes before stretching, paws out, back arched, and promptly returning to sleep.
Shivering, the disheveled redhead reached blindly for the moth eaten quilt she’d been using as a blanket. She had been able to swap her tropical ticket for an Edinburgh arrival, but her honeymoon luggage was still packed for Aruba and the ancient stone cottage with the charming flower boxes beneath original leaded glass windows was frosty enough to set her teeth on edge.
”Christ.”
Caroline dragged the blanket down into the floor with her and considered briefly whether she ought to simply go back to sleep. It would have proven a more appealing suggestion if she didn’t have the mental image of her recently ex-fiancé pounding his secretary on top of the monogrammed leather desk blotter she had bought him as a congratulatory new job present permanently burned into her retinas. Red soled manolo’s pointed at the ceiling, screaming like a cat in heat.
Scowling darkly, she swiped the bottle of wine purchased at the airport duty free store off of the carved Georgian end table, and upended the few drops that remained. The little bit of red at the bottom dribbled down her chin. Caroline didn’t even know what day it was. She’d been in Scotland at the ancestral home of her father’s people for nearly a week, and apart from drinking, crying, rummaging through junk, and attempting to befriend the surly cat, her days consisted primarily of being berated by her mother long distance. Libby’s shrill, Bostonian accent, addressed every one of her perceived shortcomings and failures in equal measure with demanding that she forget about this sudden nonsense about finding herself with her ‘father’s people’ and come home this very instant.
Just the idea of moving back into the penthouse apartment with a view of Central Park, where her mother and Kenneth held court with the rest of her Barbie and Ken doll half siblings, made Caroline consider selling herself into slavery. Could a person do that? Disappear into the void, never to be heard from again.
She stumbled to her feet, draped in the remains of her bedding, and shuffled through the hoarders paradise that was her paternal grandmother’s abode like the Labyrinth trash heap, feeling for all the world like the cat had used her mouth as a litter box. It turned out that having spent a half dozen summers at the all girls Camp Bondi did not, in fact, render her capable of starting a fire in the fireplace, no matter how hard she squinted at the logs waiting to be ignited or nudged the bit of kindling around with the fire poker. Neither had she unearthed any kind of thermostat which might make her beach themed attire and selection of snazzy lingerie a more appropriate wardrobe for the frozen tundra of Scotland in the mild temperatures of early Spring. Hell, at this point she would have liked to start the fire merely for the purpose of burning previously aforementioned lingerie.
With a sigh, and a glare at the sleeping cat, Caroline readjusted her makeshift quilted cape and threaded her way back through the piles of various goods to the tiny kitchen, fumbling open the cabinets in search of the coffee grounds.
Nothing.
Dammit.
She glanced forlornly at the trash can, registering that she had consumed the last of the caffeine the morning previous, and stumbled towards the back door to stuff her bare feet in the pair of oversized wellies she had discovered there. Either Granny Macnamara was built like an ox, or they’d been left behind by a previous visitor. Allowing the quilt to fall in a heap on the scarred wood floor, she grabbed a heavy purple hand knitted cardigan from the peg above the boots, ignoring that it smelled like whatever amalgamation of scents the little stone house smelled like too, and tugged it on over her ocean blue tank top and black running shorts. For the briefest moment she considered brushing her hair, and her teeth, maybe making some sort of effort not to frighten the neighbors, a thought which was instantly discarded when she caught a glimpse of the phone cord quite literally yanked out of the wall.
Caroline you’re making a scene. Get on a plane this instant!
Libby couldn’t berate her if she couldn’t reach her, though yanking the phone cord entirely out of the wall might have been an overreaction. Caroline compromised by bending at the waist and allowing her wild mane of auburn curls to flow towards the floor. Grasping the impossibly thick mass with both hands, she gave it a cursory finger brush before plucking a rubber band from her wrist and tying it all into a messy bun. There. Fixed. A small shiver of sadistic pleasure gleaned from leaving the house without a bra as she snagged a giant chipped coffee mug off the counter and shouldered her purse. Tromping out the door into the ever constant Scottish drizzle.
Moments later she was slumped into the drivers seat of a wholly unfamiliar car, fumbling both with the idea of driving on the right hand side of the road and with a five speed transmission. Gears grinding and shrieking as she attempted to back out of the minuscule parking space into a blind curve. Cursing under her breath. Given that her grandmothers home occupied land on the edge of a large estate holding, she’d been assured that the caretaker or watchman or whatever else he was called in the stupid note left on the counter by the estate agent would be happy to assist her. Now if she could just remember the man’s name. He’d be in for a shock regardless since it was now gone two in the afternoon and an American broad looking like some kind of crazed Cruella Deville was about to wind up on his doorstep.
After much bargaining, she was able to at last guide the car out into the winding lane. A feat which was overshadowed almost immediately by the realization that she was driving cheerily down the wrong side of an already narrow road, when a large lorry came screeching around the curve directly in her path.
Caroline panicked and jerked the wheel, sending the little red coupe careening off the narrow roadway while she clutched wildly at the wheel, screaming at the top of her lungs.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hello and welcome! Like what you see?
In general, Caroline is the misfit ‘first marriage’ daughter of a wealthy socialite family. After discovering her fiancé in a compromising fashion, she called off the wedding, and ran off to find herself at the ancestral home of her fathers people - an old stone cottage somewhere off the beaten path in Scotland, which once belonged to her grandmother, a woman she never met.
This is intended to be a MxF romance where you write for the M character.
Are you writing for a local landowner who comes across the accident while out for a ride, and rushes to help?
A tow truck driver annoyed by the failings of American tourists?
A bemused caretaker who’s hiding a dark supernatural secret?
Or does the accident cause Caroline to rip through the veil of space and time only to wind up in a the distant past, and with no way home again?
This could go more slice of life, or more action and adventure. There are a variety of angles possible, and I am open to exploring any of them. Bring me a totally different idea if you like.

• 3rd/Past
• Be 21+, older writers preferred
• Multi-para to novella (minimum 4+ paragraphs)
• Email, GDocs, or Discord
• Quality + Quantity
• Post frequently! 1x a day to multiple times a day preferred.
• Longterm. I would like this to last.

Interested? Send a message! One with a response to the prompt would be ideal. Please at least include an idea of the story you want to tell/character you want to play.
Feel free to look at my profile for other prompts, or to bring your own idea to the table if you like my writing style. Open to modern or historic tales, romance must always be included as part of the story.

You’re such a disappointment.
It was only the once, Caroline.
What are people going to say?
No marriage is perfect. Brian is a provider, he knows all of the right people, you wouldn’t need your silly job if you just went through with it.
Why couldn’t you be more like your sisters? Margot and Jack have an understanding. They just bought a brownstone.
God. I’m going to have to call all of my friends.
Caroline sat up abruptly, tumbling off the lumpy Victorian style couch with its faded cranberry velvet, atop what was certainly rocks for padding, and landed with a thunk on the floor. One leg awkwardly atop a half empty cardboard box, toppling a stack of dusty magazines as she flailed.
The fat gray cat, with the judgemental green eyes, curled up in the chintzy patchwork armchair near the massive stone fireplace, blinked and appeared to briefly roll his eyes before stretching, paws out, back arched, and promptly returning to sleep.
Shivering, the disheveled redhead reached blindly for the moth eaten quilt she’d been using as a blanket. She had been able to swap her tropical ticket for an Edinburgh arrival, but her honeymoon luggage was still packed for Aruba and the ancient stone cottage with the charming flower boxes beneath original leaded glass windows was frosty enough to set her teeth on edge.
”Christ.”
Caroline dragged the blanket down into the floor with her and considered briefly whether she ought to simply go back to sleep. It would have proven a more appealing suggestion if she didn’t have the mental image of her recently ex-fiancé pounding his secretary on top of the monogrammed leather desk blotter she had bought him as a congratulatory new job present permanently burned into her retinas. Red soled manolo’s pointed at the ceiling, screaming like a cat in heat.
Scowling darkly, she swiped the bottle of wine purchased at the airport duty free store off of the carved Georgian end table, and upended the few drops that remained. The little bit of red at the bottom dribbled down her chin. Caroline didn’t even know what day it was. She’d been in Scotland at the ancestral home of her father’s people for nearly a week, and apart from drinking, crying, rummaging through junk, and attempting to befriend the surly cat, her days consisted primarily of being berated by her mother long distance. Libby’s shrill, Bostonian accent, addressed every one of her perceived shortcomings and failures in equal measure with demanding that she forget about this sudden nonsense about finding herself with her ‘father’s people’ and come home this very instant.
Just the idea of moving back into the penthouse apartment with a view of Central Park, where her mother and Kenneth held court with the rest of her Barbie and Ken doll half siblings, made Caroline consider selling herself into slavery. Could a person do that? Disappear into the void, never to be heard from again.
She stumbled to her feet, draped in the remains of her bedding, and shuffled through the hoarders paradise that was her paternal grandmother’s abode like the Labyrinth trash heap, feeling for all the world like the cat had used her mouth as a litter box. It turned out that having spent a half dozen summers at the all girls Camp Bondi did not, in fact, render her capable of starting a fire in the fireplace, no matter how hard she squinted at the logs waiting to be ignited or nudged the bit of kindling around with the fire poker. Neither had she unearthed any kind of thermostat which might make her beach themed attire and selection of snazzy lingerie a more appropriate wardrobe for the frozen tundra of Scotland in the mild temperatures of early Spring. Hell, at this point she would have liked to start the fire merely for the purpose of burning previously aforementioned lingerie.
With a sigh, and a glare at the sleeping cat, Caroline readjusted her makeshift quilted cape and threaded her way back through the piles of various goods to the tiny kitchen, fumbling open the cabinets in search of the coffee grounds.
Nothing.
Dammit.
She glanced forlornly at the trash can, registering that she had consumed the last of the caffeine the morning previous, and stumbled towards the back door to stuff her bare feet in the pair of oversized wellies she had discovered there. Either Granny Macnamara was built like an ox, or they’d been left behind by a previous visitor. Allowing the quilt to fall in a heap on the scarred wood floor, she grabbed a heavy purple hand knitted cardigan from the peg above the boots, ignoring that it smelled like whatever amalgamation of scents the little stone house smelled like too, and tugged it on over her ocean blue tank top and black running shorts. For the briefest moment she considered brushing her hair, and her teeth, maybe making some sort of effort not to frighten the neighbors, a thought which was instantly discarded when she caught a glimpse of the phone cord quite literally yanked out of the wall.
Caroline you’re making a scene. Get on a plane this instant!
Libby couldn’t berate her if she couldn’t reach her, though yanking the phone cord entirely out of the wall might have been an overreaction. Caroline compromised by bending at the waist and allowing her wild mane of auburn curls to flow towards the floor. Grasping the impossibly thick mass with both hands, she gave it a cursory finger brush before plucking a rubber band from her wrist and tying it all into a messy bun. There. Fixed. A small shiver of sadistic pleasure gleaned from leaving the house without a bra as she snagged a giant chipped coffee mug off the counter and shouldered her purse. Tromping out the door into the ever constant Scottish drizzle.
Moments later she was slumped into the drivers seat of a wholly unfamiliar car, fumbling both with the idea of driving on the right hand side of the road and with a five speed transmission. Gears grinding and shrieking as she attempted to back out of the minuscule parking space into a blind curve. Cursing under her breath. Given that her grandmothers home occupied land on the edge of a large estate holding, she’d been assured that the caretaker or watchman or whatever else he was called in the stupid note left on the counter by the estate agent would be happy to assist her. Now if she could just remember the man’s name. He’d be in for a shock regardless since it was now gone two in the afternoon and an American broad looking like some kind of crazed Cruella Deville was about to wind up on his doorstep.
After much bargaining, she was able to at last guide the car out into the winding lane. A feat which was overshadowed almost immediately by the realization that she was driving cheerily down the wrong side of an already narrow road, when a large lorry came screeching around the curve directly in her path.
Caroline panicked and jerked the wheel, sending the little red coupe careening off the narrow roadway while she clutched wildly at the wheel, screaming at the top of her lungs.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hello and welcome! Like what you see?
In general, Caroline is the misfit ‘first marriage’ daughter of a wealthy socialite family. After discovering her fiancé in a compromising fashion, she called off the wedding, and ran off to find herself at the ancestral home of her fathers people - an old stone cottage somewhere off the beaten path in Scotland, which once belonged to her grandmother, a woman she never met.
This is intended to be a MxF romance where you write for the M character.
Are you writing for a local landowner who comes across the accident while out for a ride, and rushes to help?
A tow truck driver annoyed by the failings of American tourists?
A bemused caretaker who’s hiding a dark supernatural secret?
Or does the accident cause Caroline to rip through the veil of space and time only to wind up in a the distant past, and with no way home again?
This could go more slice of life, or more action and adventure. There are a variety of angles possible, and I am open to exploring any of them. Bring me a totally different idea if you like.

• 3rd/PastE
• Be 21+, older writers preferred
• Multi-para to novella (minimum 4+ paragraphs)
• Email, GDocs, or Discord
• Quality + Quantity
• Post frequently! 1x a day to multiple times a day preferred.
• Longterm. I would like this to last.

Interested? Send a message! One with a response to the prompt would be ideal. Please at least include an idea of the story you want to tell/character you want to play.
Feel free to look at my profile for other prompts, or to bring your own idea to the table if you like my writing style. Open to modern or historic tales, romance must always be included as part of the story.

You’re such a disappointment.
It was only a hamster, Caroline.
What are people going to say?
No marriage is perfect. Brian is a provider, he knows all of the right people, you wouldn’t need your silly job if you just went through with it.
Why couldn’t you be more like your sisters? Margot and Jack have an understanding. They just bought a brownstone.
God. I’m going to have to call all of my friends.
Caroline sat up abruptly, tumbling off the lumpy Victorian style couch with its faded cranberry velvet, atop what was certainly rocks for padding, and landed with a thunk on the floor. One leg awkwardly atop a half empty cardboard box, toppling a stack of dusty magazines as she flailed.
The fat gray cat, with the judgemental green eyes, curled up in the chintzy patchwork armchair near the massive stone fireplace, blinked and appeared to briefly roll his eyes before stretching, paws out, back arched, and promptly returning to sleep.
Shivering, the disheveled redhead reached blindly for the moth eaten quilt she’d been using as a blanket. She had been able to swap her tropical ticket for an Edinburgh arrival, but her honeymoon luggage was still packed for Aruba and the ancient stone cottage with the charming flower boxes beneath original leaded glass windows was frosty enough to set her teeth on edge.
”Christ.”
Caroline dragged the blanket down into the floor with her and considered briefly whether she ought to simply go back to sleep. It would have proven a more appealing suggestion if she didn’t have the mental image of her recently ex-fiancé pounding his secretary on top of the monogrammed leather desk blotter she had bought him as a congratulatory new job present permanently burned into her retinas. Red soled manolo’s pointed at the ceiling, screaming like a cat in heat.
Scowling darkly, she swiped the bottle of wine purchased at the airport duty free store off of the carved Georgian end table, and upended the few drops that remained. The little bit of red at the bottom dribbled down her chin. Caroline didn’t even know what day it was. She’d been in Scotland at the ancestral home of her father’s people for nearly a week, and apart from drinking, crying, rummaging through junk, and attempting to befriend the surly cat, her days consisted primarily of being berated by her mother long distance. Libby’s shrill, Bostonian accent, addressed every one of her perceived shortcomings and failures in equal measure with demanding that she forget about this sudden nonsense about finding herself with her ‘father’s people’ and come home this very instant.
Just the idea of moving back into the penthouse apartment with a view of Central Park, where her mother and Kenneth held court with the rest of her Barbie and Ken doll half siblings, made Caroline consider selling herself into slavery. Could a person do that? Disappear into the void, never to be heard from again.
She stumbled to her feet, draped in the remains of her bedding, and shuffled through the hoarders paradise that was her paternal grandmother’s abode like the Labyrinth trash heap, feeling for all the world like the cat had used her mouth as a litter box. It turned out that having spent a half dozen summers at the all girls Camp Bondi did not, in fact, render her capable of starting a fire in the fireplace, no matter how hard she squinted at the logs waiting to be ignited or nudged the bit of kindling around with the fire poker. Neither had she unearthed any kind of thermostat which might make her beach themed attire and selection of snazzy lingerie a more appropriate wardrobe for the frozen tundra of Scotland in the mild temperatures of early Spring. Hell, at this point she would have liked to start the fire merely for the purpose of burning previously aforementioned lingerie.
With a sigh, and a glare at the sleeping cat, Caroline readjusted her makeshift quilted cape and threaded her way back through the piles of various goods to the tiny kitchen, fumbling open the cabinets in search of the coffee grounds.
Nothing.
Dammit.
She glanced forlornly at the trash can, registering that she had consumed the last of the caffeine the morning previous, and stumbled towards the back door to stuff her bare feet in the pair of oversized wellies she had discovered there. Either Granny Macnamara was built like an ox, or they’d been left behind by a previous visitor. Allowing the quilt to fall in a heap on the scarred wood floor, she grabbed a heavy purple hand knitted cardigan from the peg above the boots, ignoring that it smelled like whatever amalgamation of scents the little stone house smelled like too, and tugged it on over her ocean blue tank top and black running shorts. For the briefest moment she considered brushing her hair, and her teeth, maybe making some sort of effort not to frighten the neighbors, a thought which was instantly discarded when she caught a glimpse of the phone cord quite literally yanked out of the wall.
Caroline you’re making a scene. Get on a plane this instant!
Libby couldn’t berate her if she couldn’t reach her, though yanking the phone cord entirely out of the wall might have been an overreaction. Caroline compromised by bending at the waist and allowing her wild mane of auburn curls to flow towards the floor. Grasping the impossibly thick mass with both hands, she gave it a cursory finger brush before plucking a rubber band from her wrist and tying it all into a messy bun. There. Fixed. A small shiver of sadistic pleasure gleaned from leaving the house without a bra as she snagged a giant chipped coffee mug off the counter and shouldered her purse. Tromping out the door into the ever constant Scottish drizzle.
Moments later she was slumped into the drivers seat of a wholly unfamiliar car, fumbling both with the idea of driving on the right hand side of the road and with a five speed transmission. Gears grinding and shrieking as she attempted to back out of the minuscule parking space into a blind curve. Cursing under her breath. Given that her grandmothers home occupied land on the edge of a large estate holding, she’d been assured that the caretaker or watchman or whatever else he was called in the stupid note left on the counter by the estate agent would be happy to assist her. Now if she could just remember the man’s name. He’d be in for a shock regardless since it was now gone two in the afternoon and an American broad looking like some kind of crazed Cruella Deville was about to wind up on his doorstep.
After much bargaining, she was able to at last guide the car out into the winding lane. A feat which was overshadowed almost immediately by the realization that she was driving cheerily down the wrong side of an already narrow road, when a large lorry came screeching around the curve directly in her path.
Caroline panicked and jerked the wheel, sending the little red coupe careening off the narrow roadway while she clutched wildly at the wheel, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Part 1, Part 3
So, up till now, we've not done much interesting. Some writing fixes here or there, some choice revisions, and a completely changed ending for one case, but nothing that interesting.
Now we go off the rails.
For this, my purposed rewrite of Turnabout Succession is so utterly immense, altering about 90% of the story in some way, along with massively recontexualizing the rest of the game, that I will have to divide it into sections. Consider this the real part of the Apollo Justice rewrite, all before it was just the small fry.
First Investigation
For starters, not even the date is the same. Rather than October 7, the case opens up on September 3, for reasons which will become very clear soon at the end.
The case opens up with Phoenix acting surprisingly busy, which confuses Apollo until Trucy explains that Phoenix has a strange tradition to head out by himself every year out into the countryside. She doesn't know why, but reassures Apollo it's no big deal (Apollo just assumes that Phoenix has a mistress).
Like in the actual game, Valant has announced that he's making a big performance, but a notable change is that he's having Trucy come along as an assistant, wanting her to start getting some professional stage experience.
With Apollo left on his lonesome, Phoenix gives him a random job, giving a package to Eldoon as a "gift". Meeting up with Eldoon, it turns out that he's planning to get back in surgery now that his old rival is dead, and maintain the family noodle business at the same time (Apollo points out that's insane). Eldoon proceeds to ask how Phoenix is doing, and relays some outsider perspective on the Wright's. After Phoenix's disbarment, he took to doing countless odd jobs around the community before settling into his job as a "pianist", and still does even now, all for zero pay. He just laughed at every struggle he had to make, never once losing the smile on his face. He was, in every way, a hero.
Returning to the office, Apollo finds it empty, only to find a mystery envelope on the desk. Reading it, Apollo finds a baffling message.
"Within the frame of the portrait, there is something to reveal. The truth of MM-4 will not be forever sealed."
The letter is signed from Akashic.
Apollo is baffled by the note, but chooses to follow the address to studio anyway. There, he encounters Klavier, who was called to the studio with the exact same note, with them both aware of who Drew Misham was. Evidently, someone wants both of them to investigate this case. Klavier himself is the same as usual, but Apollo can tell he's still shaken about what happened two months ago.
The investigation of Misham's studio is basically the same, minus Ema not being so obstinate since the Jurist system isn't a thing in this version, though she does comedically sock Klavier in the gut when he gets on her nerves one too many times. After learning about Brushel, Apollo then leaves to go find him, though, Klavier asks for Apollo to see him at his office, for...some reason.
The meeting with Valant is basically the same minus Phoenix being there, then there's essentially a merged take on the two encounters in the detention center with the introductions of Vera and Brushel. Brushel, noticeably, seems unsurprised in this version about Apollo taking up Vera's case. Here, though, he informs Apollo and Trucy of a secret compartment in Misham's studio, which he learnt about during the interview.
Returning to the studio, Apollo puts in the lock Brushel told him, and finds a series of evidence, all critical to the plot:

• The stolen art revealing Misham was an art forger. Ema confirms the police had long suspected of his criminal activities since he made the original confession seven years ago, but no long-term evidence could be found.
• A strange old photo marked from seven years ago of Drew, Vera and an older boy with a "bad face".
• A stack of letters indicating a back and forth correspondence...with Phoenix Wright.

The last one shocks Apollo and Trucy immensely, only for any attempt to contact Phoenix to end up with no answer. Returning to the office, Apollo finds another letter, this time from Phoenix, informing the two of them he's had to vanish. He assures Apollo that he believes in him, and that, no matter what, he can pull through.
That evening, Apollo visits Klavier's office, which he sees has become much neater since the Gavinners have disbanded. Klavier exchanges some pretty friendly words with Apollo, only to clam up when Apollo notes that he's acting different. Klavier, suddenly, deflates.
Klavier reveals his backstory. His and Kristoph's father was an official of law who pushed his sons to be the greatest no matter what. While he was a great man who believed in the law, Klavier admits his methods were beyond harsh, and Kristoph bore the brunt of it, which Klavier suspects it the reason he turned out the way he did. He, on the other hand, got the easy deal in life, and lived the fulfilling life both as a prosecutor and musician.
This has changed now, though. With Daryan still at large, Kavier is stuck with the reminder that, no matter what, he's not what Apollo thinks he is. He, like every other person, is weak. Weak in spirit, weak in will, and weak in motivation. Everything, he says, which he thinks Apollo is.
"You know, Herr Forehead...I think we really are opposites."
Apollo ponders Klavier's words, then decides to show Klavier what he found. Klavier is left utterly shocked when he sees the photo, as he reveals a shocking fact, that "older boy" is actually Daryan. How on earth this is possible he has no idea, Daryan never talked about his past, but the truth is unmistakable. And, if that's the truth...who knows what else exists.
Klavier, despite being the prosecutor in the case, fully believes Vera is innocent. Together, he and Apollo are going to unravel the truth, and end what began seven years prior.
First Trial
The first half of the trial is basically identical to the actual game. Apollo and Klavier cross-examine Brushel. The only difference is Klavier is far less insistent, since here he wants Apollo to prove Vera's innocence.
Where it diverges however is once we get to the "proving what Misham was poisoned with" part, where, instead of a postage stamp kept in a picture frame, what Apollo pushes for is a recently sealed letter included in the correspondence letters in the secret compartment. As explained, the chain of letters were, in order to protect their security, were always matched with specific stamps for the responder to send with. Thus, when Misham was using the stamp sent to him, he ended up poisoning himself.
Obviously, the question then becomes why the letter was in the safe, only a bit of cross-examining answers that, Brushel did it on request of a dying Misham himself, who wanted both the "secret" to be hidden while still protecting Vera. Brushel's only mistake was not realizing poison residue got on the coffee cup, meaning Vera was implicated by essentially freak chance.
With this, Vera's innocence is proven, but, realizing that he's essentially implicated Phoenix, Apollo demands that Vera now testify so to get more information. This is where we go into the fact that, as a savant, she was the one comprising the forgeries, though purely on her fathers orders. Vera insists that, despite this, he was a good person, and was only doing this to help her.
Eventually, it comes out that there was actually a secondary correspondence chain besides Phoenix, but Vera claims her father burnt all of them out of shame. Before she can confirm, however, she collapses, having fallen into a coma, and is rushed to the hospital.
Apollo is left victorious and defeated, Vera innocent yet in intensive care, and the missing Phoenix now a murder suspect.
Second Investigation
The following day, Apollo is at the bar located at Sunshine Colosseum, drinking apple juice in frustration over the situation while talking to a not exactly inebriated Ema (Ema getting wasted is canon BTW, going off a piece of official art). Phoenix is still missing and a suspect, Vera is still in a coma with the strong likelihood of death, and there's zero way of proving the alternate chain of correspondence letters even existed. He's not really interested in the performance either, seeing Valant as just a criminal showboating about getting away with what he did.
Apollo, however, does come out for the segment at the end focused exclusively on Trucy, saying it's the least he can do for what might be one of the most important days of her life. Once her part is over, however, Valant returns for the final act...and then the show is suddenly halted. Trucy suddenly appears, looking horribly pale and genuinely shaken, and Apollo soon sees why as he heads into the underground parts of the colosseum, and finds a trail of blood leading into a storeroom. Standing there, a bloody sword in his hands, is Phoenix, with Lamiroir's body having been run through.
~~
A few hours later, the situation has been clarified. Lamiroir is alive, but in critical condition, Phoenix has been arrested and is now believed to be the culprit of both murders, and Valant not only believes that whole-heartedly, but is planning to testify in court that Phoenix is the murderer.
Apollo, obviously, doesn't believe for a second that Phoenix is the culprit, but can tell despite putting on a cheerful face Trucy is clearly even more grief-stricken and broken by the situation. Heading to the detention center, Apollo confronts Phoenix about what's happened.

• The Murder: Phoenix tells Apollo that in no way did he attack Lamiroir, not that there was any doubt there. As he explains, he met with Lamiroir that day with the intent of just an "important chat", only to partway into the discussion notice something "strange" in the background. He suddenly felt himself blacking out, and then, when he awoke, was holding the sword.
• Meeting With Lamiroir: Phoenix explains he vanished for the last few days because he was looking for Lamiroir. Apparently, there's a lot of people who have some kind of vested interest in her in some fashion, so going underground was the only option. Phoenix suddenly drops an oblique hint that Burshel might have the answers Apollo is looking for.
• The Letters: Apollo asks what exactly is up with the letters Phoenix was exchanging with Misham. Phoenix acts strangely evasive, before saying that such decisions are to be up to the people. Phoenix wants justice, so in void of his badge, he finds "his own ways". He's called for questioning after this.

~~
Visiting the crime scene, Ema delivers the low down on the situation. Lamiroir was stabbed through the abdomen, the weapon being one of the real swords that are used in the Trope Gramarye's acts (as is implied in canon, and explicit here, Magnifi's tricks involve the use of actual dangerous objects for authenticity). The storeroom has only one entrance/exit, and is otherwise completely inaccessible. Lamiroir's body was found on the table located in the middle of the room, with mild fractures located across her body. There's also an upper level in the storeroom accessible by a single ladder, and two strange holes in the wall on the far end, and an ornate knife which Trucy notes she doesn't recognize in the Gramarye props.
As Ema confirms, all evidence is pointing to Phoenix as the killer, but she refuses to believe that he's the culprit. Ema suddenly reveals a non-spoiler recap of the events of Rise from the Ashes explaining the actual relationship she has to Phoenix, and tells Apollo and Trucy that, no matter what, she has faith that they will be able to prove his innocence.
~~
Out on the stage, we have another meeting with Valant, giving more of the Gramarye backstory from the actual game:

• Apprentices: Magnifi made apprentices out of wayward orphans who were looking for a purpose in life, giving them a purpose in continuing his legacy. He took in many over the years, but the harsh training and genius needed to master the craft was enough to drive away everyone but those two. They were in many ways like brothers, who competed in everything, even love.
• Love: Valant gives all the basic facts about Thalassa, prompted on the basis that Trucy ultimately doesn't really remember her. He noticeably however seems to trail off when the circumstances of her death, only saying it was a "tragic accident".
• Zak Gramarye: More basic facts about Zak, he was Valant's rival and closest friend, Trucy's biological father, Magnifi's favoured heir, and Valant has no idea what happened to him.
• Phoenix: Valant bluntly says what he believes, this incident proves Phoenix is, and always has been. He is the one who scorned the Gramarye name with his deceit, stole Trucy away from her true family, and has now shown himself a vile murderer. Trucy unsurprisingly gets extremely uncomfortable about this, and Valant leaves in disgust after Apollo calls him out, saying Phoenix must have "brainwashed" her.

~~
Outside the colosseum, Apollo and Trucy run into Brushel, who says that he's heard all about the current incident. Information travels fast, and, in this case, there's a lot more truth to be seen than just the basics:

• Misham's Death: Brushel is secretive about why he lied about the true cause of Misham's death, arguing that it was his "journalistic integrity" he was defending. Apollo, despite being able to tell he's lying, realizes there's no way to get him to admit the truth.
• Lamiroir: Apollo tries to get Brushel to explain why Phoenix was trying to track down Lamiroir, and why she's so important. Brushel suddenly goes into a bizarre, unprompted tangent about the nature of the truth, asking if the Gramarye can truly be considered the lynchpin of the story unfolding right now. He does admit to knowing Phoenix, so that's something.

~~
Heading back to the office, Apollo is mulling over what they know, with Trucy admitting she always "knew" Valant's hatred of Phoenix, but didn't want to acknowledge it. Suddenly, Apollo finds a crudely written message from Akashic (despite the handwriting being completely different) hidden with a shocking piece of information, head to the Borscht Bowl Club.
Arriving at the club, Apollo is shocked to find Klavier, who is acting friendly as always, but quickly gets serious again as he admits that Vera's health not only isn't improving, it's getting worse, and chances of her survival are seeming slimmer and slimmer. More pressingly, though, he reveals why he's here, because the letter explicitly gave him a heads up that the club is where Daryan and Machi have been hiding.
The question is where, but Apollo quickly deduces it, it's the secret room from Case 1 (remember that? That's now an actual plot point). He and Klavier head inside, where Daryan is sitting there, glaring at the two of them with eyes ready to kill.
Daryan asks why the two of them are planning to do, to which Klavier says he's simply here to talk. His failure to persecute Daryan was his own failure, so here in the moment he's going to try and atone for that failure. Daryan calls Klavier a naïve moron, and just readies the gun, fully intending to shoot.
Apollo, suddenly, notices a single cocoon Daryan successfully preserved from the destruction of the guitar through a plastic wrap. Apollo realizes that, even if he was willing to throw all of it away, Daryan at least wanted to preserve a single one, which makes him reveal his motives. 12 years ago, he and his parents were in a fatal car accident, and Daryan only survived because of the Misham's being there at the time. He spent his life trying to repay his debt to them, only for "someone" to appear seven years ago and essentially take Vera's life hostage. To that purpose, Drew had to make forgeries for that person, while Daryan had the more pressing job, become "friends" with Klavier, and make sure he never found out the truth.
This continued until Vera, who always suffered from fragile health, developed Incuritus, which would likely kill her before she turned 20. Daryan, determined to save her, organized the plan to smuggle out the cocoons with Machi, acquiring the cure he needed to save her life while also appeasing the masterminds want for Lamiroir to be in the country.
Klavier is understandably shocked about all of this, saying that, if he knew, he would've tried to help. Daryan just calls him a moron, and pulls the trigger...
...Only for the bullets to harmlessly bounce off Klavier's chest. As Apollo reveals, while the two of them were negotiating, Trucy had secretly entered the room and swapped the bullets with dummies. Daryan, refusing to give in, attacks Klavier in a fit a rage, only for him to be overpowered, unable to fight with a dislocated shoulder, and is forced to the ground. Daryan has been defeated.
Machi, who's still in the room, clarifies his own motives for the smuggling, explaining that Lamiroir had remembered "something" about her old home, and her family. Due to her fame and some kind of past "agreement", however, Lamiroir was prevented from ever leaving the country except as a tour, never able to see her family again. The plan, as Daryan had convinced him of, was that selling the cure would get Machi the money needed to free her.
Klavier asks if Daryan regrets what he's done, to which he just laughs at it. He regrets nothing of what he did, and rubs it in that he never considered Klavier a friend. Klavier goes silent for a bit, and then says he will find a way to get Vera treated, and will actually help Machi find a new identity and life, acknowledging the two of them as victims of a world larger than either of them could handle. As for Daryan, he'll carry the weight of all his sins, for the rest of life.
Daryan hesitates, clearly uncertain to trust him, before deciding to just give up. If Vera survives, then his life is worth sacrificing. Apollo is left almost baffled by this act of sacrifice considering how vile Daryan had revealed himself to be, but tells Klavier that maybe that's proof that everyone is trying their own method to survive in the world.
~~
After Daryan is taken away by Klavier, Apollo and Trucy investigate the hidden room, and find a strange note of what appears to be prison escape plans of some kind, which say that it'll be easy because of everyone being "sheep". After Trucy poking around some more (because Trucy), something shocking is unveiled, another secret passage, this time leading down a much longer, windier path, before finding themselves in, of all places...the crime scene.
This leaves the two of them incredibly confused, and they go to meet Klavier at his office. Klavier is shocked at the possibility, but thinks whole-heartedly that this at the same time explains a lot, though he can prove none of it:

• Daryan: After turning himself in, Daryan explained most of his actions, but refused to give the masterminds identity. Apparently, they're so powerful that he could kill Vera the moment he spilt the beans, not that there's any way he could prove it.
• The Mastermind: Klavier admits he has no idea who could be pulling the strings behind the back of everyone. If what Daryan said is to be believed, then there's nothing they can't do. The world is their playground, their motives unknown, and their evil immense.
• Akashic: Apollo asks Daryan why he believed a random note, and he says it's because Akashic saved countless cases over the past seven years. He is the most powerful weapon the law has in the name of justice, an entity capable of defying all ideas preventing justice from being served. Apollo notes the suspicious timing of that, and makes a note of it.
• The Case: Klavier is certain that both Vera and Phoenix are innocent, and that the true mastermind is the culprit behind all these incidents. He asks Apollo to help him find the truth, saying that, without him, there's nothing that can, or could, be done. To that end, Apollo needs to confront Valant's honesty.

~~
Valant is found at his "office", which is horribly run down and filled with bottles indicating he probably has some issues he's not quite being honest about. After his extremely hostile interaction last time, Valant almost refuses to talk, but acquiesces at Trucy's request:

• Seven Years Ago: Valant continues to insist that Zak was the culprit of MM-4, and adamantly denies that he was the one at fault. He however takes far more heated the idea that Trucy was somehow taken away from him, insisting that it was his right to take care of Thalassa's daughter.
• Zak and Thalassa: Valant goes over the story of Zak and Thalassa, mentioning as well the story of Thalassa's first husband, the musician who died under odd circumstances. Thalassa never spoke much about her time with him, but he's sure they were happy.
• The Accident: Valant is hesitant to discuss any details of the accident which claimed Thalassa's life, but after some pressing admits to Magnifi's blackmail of him and Zak in the aftermath as punishment. Like the game, he frames this as a story of the dark side of a great performer, but has no way of admitting if that was a good thing or not. He does however let it slip that they never even saw her body, she vanished into thin air.

Apollo gets annoyed by Valant's obstinacy on discussing the current case, only for Trucy to find something, a letter asking him to meet the two of them "backstage", addressed by Phoenix! Why was Valant working with a man he actively hated?
~~
Apollo and Trucy meet with Phoenix yet again in the detention center. Phoenix asks Apollo if he understands the facts, to which Apollo admits he's just even more confused.

• Valant: Phoenix fully admits he sent the letter with Valant, wanting a proper discussion with him. He was surprised that Valant was willing to go along with it himself, but, since it was "for Trucy", it makes sense that he would do so.
• Trope Gramarye: Apollo asks Phoenix what exactly his feelings on the trope even are, given Valant regards him as a villain for adopting Trucy over him. Phoenix admits that he made the decision which seemed the most justified at the time, protecting the young girl from the dangerous criminal, and refuses the moralize it any more than that. He tells Trucy that, if she truly loves him, she'll be able to come to her own conclusion on the matter.
• The Disbarrment: Apollo asks if everything Phoenix is doing is because of bitterness for losing the career he stacked his entire life in. Phoenix laughs and says he's lived a life as blessed as it is cursed, so indeed he's lived a life as a whole.

Before he leaves, Phoenix drops a hint that, if he wants the truth, to give "him" the note Apollo has. Apollo questions how on earth Phoenix knows that, to which Phoenix just smiles, quotes Mia, and says he is placing his faith in the next generation.
Suddenly, Apollo gets a call from Ema, she's found Brushel, and he's willing to talk.
~~
Apollo and Trucy find Brushel talking with Ema at People Park. Brushel acts incredibly nervous and attempts to hide the truth, but, the moment Apollo shows the tipoff about Daryan to him, he cracks and begins the mother of all exposition dumps:

• Akashic: Brushel confirms that, indeed, Phoenix is Akashic, the legendary police informant said to know everything. After his disbarment, Brushel met with Phoenix, suspecting correctly that something was off about the forgery incident, and the two formed an alliance. Phoenix would gather scant bits of information through the extensive information network he had through his many connections, Brushel would investigate the goings on, and then Phoenix would inform his contacts inside the legal system of what he had learnt. Ema, as it happens, had become one of those contacts sometime after she returned from her studies, and knows plenty of other officers who trust Phoenix fully.
• Misham: After the disbarment incident, Brushel helped Phoenix track down Drew Misham, who quickly became the third key member of Akashic. Misham had developed a fascination with Phoenix's work during the trial, and thus a plan was set in place; he would take up forgery requests from clients, and leak the plans to Phoenix and Brushel on the outside via the correspondence letters. The official interview, Brushel reveals, was not the first time they had personally met, it was just the cover story in order to explain why he was there at the time of death.
• Zak Gramarye: Brushel had been a fan of the Trope since he was young, and began pursuing them after he became a journalist. While Magnifi and Valant dismissed him . After Zak disappeared, he and Phoenix worked tirelessly to track him down, but never did before he returned to the country a few months ago. The reunion, however, was short-lived, because Zak was murdered by Kristoph.
• The Murder: That night, Zak seemingly came with the intentions of a pleasant interaction, only to instead try to ruin Phoenix's career in a rigged poker game. Brushel admits he has no idea why Zak betrayed them like that, but is convinced he had a good reason.
• Thalassa Gramarye: Brushel confirms the truth, Thalassa is indeed Lamiroir. After her accident left her both blind and amnesiac, Magnifi, wanting to separate her from the life of the Gramarye, essentially sold her to the Borginian government under the basis that they would would grant her protection. She was watched constantly, and after she became famous, the control on her became explicit, as her fame became a valuable bargining chip for the fragile nation of Borginia.

Brushel admits that he knows all this is a lot to take in, but says that Phoenix was perhaps the man who impressed him more than anyone else in the world. A man who would gladly sacrifice his own life if it was in the interest of granting justice for another. He tells Apollo and Trucy that, no matter what, it's their responsibility to carry what he started, and to, perhaps, change the world. Before he leaves, he hands Apollo something Phoenix asked him to give, a fresh locket made from the one Phoenix found on Zak's body, showing Trucy as she is now. It is the proof of everything Phoenix now fights for, and what Apollo should be fighting for as well.
~~
At sunfall, Apollo and Trucy see Thalassa on her hospital bed.
Trucy admits she barely even remembers her mother. She was only five when she "died", and she had no idea what even happened to her. The only words she can even say are that she looks peaceful now, as if the cruel nature of the world is absent in a single instance.
Apollo starts pondering the meaning of what he's even doing, if even doing this means anything.
Apollo feels a grip on his hand.
Like a miracle, even though she is near death, her hand touches his.
For seconds, a happy memory appears in the back of his mind, of a loving woman's song.
"What...what was that...?"
Suddenly, Apollo's phone rings. Answering it, it's Klavier. Talking to him, he reveals he and Ema investigated Kristoph's jail cell while he was in questioning, and found not just an identical vial of nail polish to the one that poisoned Vera, as well as a envelope identical to the correspondence letters Misham and Phoenix were using! Klavier says he's certain there's a thread behind all of this, and that the two of them are going to prove everything in court.
"Everything's in place. You ready?"
"...If I don't do this, there's no reason why I'm even alive."
"Heh, all right then. Herr Justice...let's rock."
~~~
This got too long for one post, so read Part 3 for the final trial.