#aa post

aai2 spoilers

Matt’s scream pierces through the air. He rarely screams nowadays, and definitely not in the middle of the day--and this scream, in particular, sounds different. It’s not startled, not a call of cautionary alarm, it’s drawn-out and primal and loud.

His best friend (Souta Sarushiro) and his boyfriend (Simon Blackquill) rush towards him, and do what they can to protect him. In the frenzy, Simon is stabbed and nearly killed. Souta is paralyzed with fear, but manages to call for Dogen, who shows up in time to stop De Killer before he has the chance to slaughter his acolyte’s closest friends in front of him.

The guards weren’t good enough to stop the attack, but they were prepared enough that they manage to detain De Killer before he can make his escape.

So... Matt should be happy now, right?

No.

He’s shaken the hell up and traumatized out of his mind, and his boyfriend was almost murdered right before his eyes while trying to protect him. It also doesn’t help that his insecure ass feels like Souta would feel bitterly towards him if Simon were to end up dead “because of” him.

He’s spent so many years in terror, and he doesn’t feel secure in De Killer’s arrest. Doesn’t trust it. Even with De Killer’s execution date scheduled soon, he’s scared that either a.) De Killer will manage to break free in time, or b.) he has a protege who will come back and finish the job.

Long story short... he, Souta, Simon, and Dogen discuss the circumstances, and they come up with a plan that will... hopefully work. Something they consider to be their best bet.

‎

‎

The pieces of their plan fall into place, and after hard work and plenty of risk on their end, Matt has the opportunity to free De Killer.

There’s not only the risk of severe punishment if he’s discovered to have helped, but also the risk of De Killer finishing things right then and there.

The hope is that De Killer will see the risk he’s taking, the trust he’s extending that he hadn’t extended before, and will consider him saving his life as making up for betraying him all those years ago.

But... the only reason De Killer is in this predicament in the first place is because of Matt. And Matt’s clearly only doing this out of cowardice, not honor.

So before Matt can release him, De Killer tells him straight out-- you know I’m going to end your life the moment you set me free, don’t you?

Matt was aware of that risk from the beginning. But he sees no other way out of this. There’s no way he’s going to go through something as horrible as what happened the other week again, and there’s no way he’s going to spend another day fearing the arrival of De Killer or a vengeful protege.

Even when De Killer says this, Matt still has a hope, however small, that he’ll change his mind upon being released. And if not... well. He sees this as his only option. His last chance.

He starts crying, and with limited time to act, he takes the necessary actions that will set De Killer free.

‎

‎

That was, indeed, a test.

De Killer would have seen no honor in slaughtering Matt the moment he saved his life. While he did have every intent to kill him, even in that moment, he’d decided that if Matt were to accept his fate and not back out of the rescue, he’d drop the target. It would be the honorable and reputable thing to do.

‎

He was born on March 30, 1996. The reason I chose this date is because:

It makes him older, which allows more time for the whole Celeste-Juan backstory--because I’d like to THINK that at the very least, his manager didn’t date him when he was a minor

It’s during Spring (“refreshing as a spring breeze, dude!”)

March 30 is national “I Am In Control” day

His parents are Aaron and Karen.

He grew up in a mansion even bigger than the one he moved into as an adult.

His parents were frequently gone, and weren’t always around for even major events like his birthday. They had hired help to look after him when they were away, which was sometimes for longer periods of time, since actors sometimes have to temporarily move to another location while movies or shows are being filmed.

He went to a private school for performing arts, the same one his father went to.

It’s a wealthier and more prestigious school, although he still had more wealth than many of his peers

The expectations and competition there were high from a young age

Many of the students there had parents who were in the entertainment industry or were even in the industry themselves; it’s a school that specifically understands and makes accommodations for when students are physically gone for months at a time

Although he didn’t start to get particularly well-known / famous until he was about 17, he played smaller roles in movies and shows pretty much all his life (sometimes with significant gaps in between jobs, since his parents were mostly focused on themselves and it would be easier to let him be a kid at least a little bit).

That’s the quick version of it--child star born to wealthy parents, grew up in a prestigious private performing arts school, moved out on his own when he was 18 into a mansion that his parents bought for him, made it big, fucked himself over and got sent to prison.

There’s a LOT of details I could focus in on, but for the sake of not making my answer too long, I’ll just focus on a few:

‎

‎

His parents

tw for mentions of abuse!

✰ According to Matt, his home life was “normal”, minus the whole part about being a rich actor. He doesn’t view his experiences with his parents as that different than most people, and because of that, he brushes off the idea that it wasn’t a healthy home life. He doesn’t care about his parents, his parents don’t care about him, he (consciously, at least) doesn’t feel bothered by it.

✰ Karen has that stiff, tight-lipped smile kind of vibe. Formal and polite, focused way too much on being proper and Acceptable™. She’s very judgemental, and is quick to scold or “correct” Matt on things-- often in more subtle or underhanded ways. She’s gotten somewhat physical on occasion, in ways Matt would consider “minor” or “common”.

✰ Aaron has a bigger presence. Less stiff and formal, but still definitely places great value on his job and making a good impression on people--just in a more casual and familiar kind of way. He cuts Matt more slack, and may be more likely to tell him how to get away with something as opposed to outright telling him not to do it (though he has plenty of “Do Not Do This” moments as well). He can, however, get more frightening--louder, more intimidating, a scarier kind of anger behind closed doors. Quicker to outright rant and rave about his competitors, quicker to aim his aggression at his wife and child. He’s gotten more physical, though Matt internally downplays that as well-- “it’s not like he [did this or that]”, “he was worse when I was a kid”, “probably no different than what most kids experience”, etc.

✰ When Matt was younger and things were worse, Karen would do her best to protect him or get him somewhere safe when Aaron was at his most dangerous. Because of this, Matt was unknowingly shielded from a good amount.

✰ His father was misogynistic--not in the outright “women belong in the kitchen buh huh huh” way, but through his behaviors and attitudes and double-standards and the ways he spoke about and treated them. Both his parents held a great deal of arrogance and scorn for other people, and have a high amount of entitlement due to their wealth and status.

✰ It’s no secret to Matt that they have underhanded ways of dealing with things, that they sabotage their competitors, and that they can harbor a great deal of scorn and bitterness towards their competitors, especially when things don’t go their way. They don’t bother hiding it from Matt, and his father explicitly helps him get away with things, too. You know that line in the song “Our Word” from 36 Questions that’s “I was told to keep their secrets, and in turn, they’d keep mine”? Yeah.

✰ His parents weren’t very warm and caring. Didn’t bother to really stay in contact with him after he moved out. They celebrated holidays, but not because they wanted to be close as a family-- just because it was a normal thing to do. He didn’t have much of a relationship with his other family, either; mostly he’d just see them on the occasional obligatory family gathering, which honestly wasn’t that frequent. Because of this, he’s never particularly felt a connection to any of his family members, including his parents.

‎

‎

‎

Matt Engarde went to Prison A.

In Ace Attorney, fame and riches seem to make little difference when it comes to putting someone behind bars. However, the game does show that it can add complications, and affect things to a certain level. With that said, here’s how I imagine things went over with the arrest:

Things are a whirlwind of chaos and fear and pain at first, but it doesn’t take him long to get a deal set up with the prison. Sometime within the first week of his imprisonment. Thankfully, this is done quickly enough that his assets haven’t been transferred to his parents, yet.

His sentence is 10 years. No death penalty or life sentence, because the deal is that, for each year that Matt Engarde is alive and healthy, the prison receives $500,000. This would give them ample reason to take measures to protect him from De Killer.

Matt doesn’t have an endless amount of money, and he also doesn’t want to be stuck there forever. In his mind, hopefully De Killer would be behind bars or dead by the end of those 10 years, and if not... well, he’ll figure it out when he gets there.

He’s given the cell down the hall from Sirhan Dogen, the infamous assassin. This scares the HELL out of Matt at first, but the guards assure him that it’s for his own safety:

However, since he’s placed in this cell before the deal is made, there was an ulterior motive as well. Due to the fact that Shelly De Killer is another infamous assassin, Warden Roland considered it a possibility that he’s one of Dogen’s outside contacts. If Dogen were to rat out Matt’s location to him, the prison would be prepared to capture and arrest De Killer, and it would be confirmed that they had been contacts.

Obviously, Dogen could rat him out no matter which cell he’s in, but it’s more convenient to place Matt there as bait since the hallway is monitored so heavily--they’ll be prepared to restrain both De Killer and Dogen if/when that time comes.

If the deal were made beforehand, he likely would have been sent to Prison B; even though it’s a harsher atmosphere, no one in there is presumed to be a contact of De Killer’s. While he could have been transferred at this point, it’s decided that they’ll stick to their regular plan, just with added precautions and safety measures.

Matt, although suspicious, never has any sort of confirmation that he’s being used as bait--at least, not until years later.

BUT ANYHOW.

‎

‎

Interactions and Reputation

I get into it a bit in this fic*, but the gist is this:

There’s no point in continuing to act charming when everyone knows it’s BS, and any chance of Toughness or Good Standing he could have had are kinda... shattered by his frequent (very loud) panic attacks late at night.

For the first year, he doesn’t bother trying to make friends. He doesn’t care about them, they won’t care about him, and he’s not interested in playing a tug-of-war with power dynamics when he knows he won’t always necessarily come out on top. So he’s kind of a loner here. Occasionally entertains himself by picking fights.

*(Spoiler warning for AAI2 in the fic I linked!!)

‎

‎

Character Arc

From this point, I can see it going in several different directions. I have two different fic AUs where things turn out differently in each one, and I also have an extensive role-play I did with a friend of mine. In terms of imagining his “canon” life and his future, I definitely learn towards the events that transpired in the role-play, so I’ll focus on those.

(My friend and I made a post analyzing his personality and character arc, so most of the things I’ll mention here have been mentioned in this post in greater detail. HOWEVER the post is EXTREMELY long and also contains major spoilers for AAI2. So if you want to avoid spoilers and also want a summed up version, feel completely free to just read the summary below!) (oh also, with relation to the post I just linked, tw for?? a variety of common triggers)

I should mention that this might not be COMPLETELY spoiler-free, but I do avoid saying the spoilery name. It’s hard for me to accurately gauge what is and isn’t revealing, since I already know all the spoilers haha.

And, without further ado:

-Everything about his world has been turned upside-down. Instead of being adored, he’s despised. Instead of being the one with power, he’s the one under the thumb of others. Instead of a life of comfort and privilege, he’s confined to small, uncomfortable areas, and is barely paid anything for his labor. Additionally, he could be killed at any moment at any hour at any location--and this is something he’s forced to endure for years on end. The entire situation is incredibly stressful and traumatic for him.

-About a year after his arrest, a guy moves into his cell with him. Things align in just the right way that a friendship of some sort is formed between them: the guy is friendly, pretty, relatable, into some of the same hobbies he’s into, and he has power within the prison walls. It’s beneficial to form a friendship with him... and the guy isn’t annoyed with him for his (now much less-frequent) panic attacks, but rather, shows sympathy.

-Neither of them particularly trust one another, but they enjoy each other’s company.

-Humans need comfort, and Matt is no exception. Under the intense trauma and stress he’s enduring, it’s all too easy to form some sort of bond with the nice guy who dances with him and pets his hair and holds him.

-It’s important to mention that Matt is rendered unable to do his usual power & control shit. And he especially can’t get away with that kind of stuff when his new cellmate shows up. The guy is Very Alert to underhanded behavior (due to his own underhandedness + the fact that he’s dealt with one too many bastards), and is quick to call Matt out on even minor things. So Matt’s options at this point are either:

a.) try his manipulative shit and lose any small amount of power or comfort he may have had, with an added risk of retribution

b.) resist all forms of connection / interaction with other people, and just be miserable and alone and scared all by himself

c.) be friends with the guy WITHOUT being a shady douche, and getting to enjoy the comfort and benefits that provides

-So... YEAH. Long story short, he makes friends with the guy. And, also, lowkey catches feelings for him.

-Matt also makes friends with Simon Blackquill a couple years later (and that has its own backstory)

-His previous ways of moving through the world do not work at all here. In the end, Matt’s main goal is to get what he wants, and to feel good. With the circumstances, he has to completely change his approaches in order to meet that goal.

-Matt may be cold and uncaring towards other people’s emotions, but it’s clear that he does have very intense emotions. He shows much more vulnerability and pain now than he used to, because doing so makes him more sympathetic to his friends--but he also needs to learn to not be as manipulative about it, and to actually consider the other person’s emotions instead of making it all about himself.

-He does ultimately decide to make the overall changes necessary for healthy interpersonal connections, since it’s in his best interest to do so. It’s not easy, and he hits plenty of road bumps along the way. It definitely dredges up a lot of shit, a lot of painful emotions; he’s extremely self-protective, and genuine vulnerability is hard and frightening.

-The tl;dr is that he’s dragged through a healing arc, kicking and screaming the entire way.

‎

‎

That’s what his life in like in prison, overall! There’s a ton of aspects and details, but I figured it’d be best to cover the basic storyline ^^

I also have thoughts on how things would go after he’s released from prison.

‎

‎

...OH SHIT I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO MENTION THE SHELLY THING LMAO

I’m gonna make a post where I detail out what happens, and then link it here when I finish.