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sylviesnrmts · 3 months

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My favourite things about Ace Attorney :>

𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ 𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ

~ Part 1 ~ Relationships

Narumitsu. // >:) It's my favourite ship ever atm, they bring me so much joy ahhh (I have thought about them non stop for 4 months omg)

Mia Fey x Lana Skye // In college they dated and or explored each others bodies so to speak. (not actual but that's my hc) (Also there's rlly good fanfics on ao3 that take place in a timeline where Mia didn't get conked and Lana didn't get Ganted which r rlly wholesome.)

The sheer intensity of Godot's love for Mia. // That is true passion.

Ron and Desirée DeLite // THE STRAIGHT COUPLE EVER. This is real love! At points you wonder if Dessie is just with him because he’s rich but no! She just really loves him. 🧡

Franmaya // Very swaggy. Wholesome and I LIVE FOR THE FANDOM INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM!! 🫶🫶

Klapollo // I haven't played Apollo Justice but I eat minor spoilers for breakfast. Klavier just decides from first sight. That is the one. "I've never felt this way about a man" And he just flirts with the short king while Apollo is oblivious but also is madly in love IDK AGAIN I HAVENT PLAYED THE GAME YET BUT I AM IN LOVE WITH THEM. (THE SHIP)

Faraskye // So cute, idk much about Kay Faraday but their designs together r rlly cute and I've seen a few edits of them which r rlly wholesome. 🫶

Doug Swallow.. x Feenie. // I read a fanfic about them and da bunch of objection.lols and I'm ngl they grew on me.

Maggey x Gumshoe // The age gap is iffy to me but they are extremely wholesome. (Weenie lunchboxes, anyone? :3)

Adrian x Franziska // They are similar, that's for sure. I can't help but feel the perverse power dynamic though that would likely be their undoing. Or maybe, They could change each other for the better. Adrian lets Franzy get more acquainted with her softer side, and Franzy teaches Adrian to be stronger and more confident! Ok now I have to write a fic about that. Feel free to use that idea, my treat.

April May x Ini Miney // I saw some fanart of them on Pinterest 😼 They both got a bit of an act goin, but they r very cute.

Dahlia Hawthorne/ Melissa Foster x April May // April and Ini's acts, dialled up to 11. I read a really good fic of them. I drew them too and I would do it again :)

Franziska x Ema Skye // (As adults) Pretty wholesome ngl.

Mia x Lana x Godot. // I dub them the hottest polycule in anime. This is assuming that Lana isn't lesbian (likely story.) and we would have to do some timeline gymnastics to give these three a happy ending but I think they would make a very good poly ship :)

Lana x Angel x Mia // Kinda popular on Tumblr, actually. (I just remembered I am ON TUMBLR right now...) Very cute. I want to draw them.

(I had a rainbow sherbet mother energy drink today 🤤 It tastes like nerds, would recommend.)

Edgeworth and Franziska siblings // They are bouncing in my head like a screensaver constantly. I love Sound the turnabout melody because it shows us how much love Franzy has for Miles.

“Why’d you go and dress him (Miles’ dog) up?”

“I thought it would make you smile..” IMSOBBING

And when Miles becomes Manfred’s disciple, Franziska is off to the side, literally in the shadows. But what does she do? The sweet girl who wants nothing more than to follow in her beloved papa’s footsteps and become a great prosecutor, watching as her papa gives his attention to the boy he took in as his own? She gives that boy the biggest smile she can muster. Her little head is filled with nothing but love and admiration.

Even as an adult, Franziska admires Miles. Her main motivation for even BEING in the second game revolves around him. It is made clear that she isn’t going after Phoenix because of her father, but because of Miles. She believed that Phoenix was the reason for Miles choosing death, and she was NOT going to let him get away with it. (I will add more later, I could go on about them for hours.)

Ema and Lana Skye // I think about them at least once a day, let Lana go see her sister PLEASE she's done her time ok let my girls be happy and investigate together... 🙏 anyway Lana risked and lost so so much to protect Ema..

Dahlia and Iris Hawthorne // Iris loves her sister so very much. Dahlia sees her as dirt. Been thinking abt them alot today. Iris was willing to help with Dahlia’s schemes despite not being evil herself.

Phoenix and Maya sibling relationship // They will forever be siblings to me lel.

By extension I feel like Mia and Phoenix were like family cuz they were like 🥲 all they had

Signal samurai trio // Especially as kids they r so fcking CUUUUTETETTEEE give me lifeee

Also narumitsu art where they are kids makes me so happyyyy cuz they r so!! adorable!! <3

Phoenix and Trucy being father and daughter // 🥲 Phoenix, can.. Will u be my father too? 🙏 (father issues) They are the adhd dad & adhd daughter representation we need but ya'll aren't ready for that information. (Direct quote from a post I made on my main 💀💀)

Gumshoe and Edgeworth friendship. // Trust. They have their own ways of showing their respect for each other 😭 but they work very well together and r close even if they don't act like it! (Or if Gumshoe's salary reflects it. 😭)

MIA AND MILES’ DYNAMIC. // I love how many interpretations there are of these two’s relationship. For one we got them being besties. I love this and yes I have drawn art of it. Then theres them hating each other’s very guts. This is reasonable! Also interesting. I wish we were able to see Mia’s reaction to the reason Phoenix became a lawyer. That would be very interesting. Anyway they live in my mind. Novice bimbos forever <3

Phoenix and Franziska friendship // When they manage to tolerate each other they r very cute and fun!

Trucy and Franzy auntie and niece relationship // This one is specifically because of the "How to court a fool in three months" fanfic. But they work so well together and I rlly want to see more ppl to utilize them :)

Miles and Gregory Edgeworth // All the art and posts about them are so very wholesome and Gregory seemed like a great dad. (I can't wait to learn more about him in AAI :3)

Manfred VK and Miles Edgeworth //

Drops this and runs but I run into a pole and get knocked unconscious 😵‍💫 I posted this btw 😵‍💫

Will be adding more cuz VK fam r the only thoughts in my brain rn.

Larry Butz.. and Maya Fey.. but their relationship is that of a fun uncle and silly niece. // This one may need some explaining. This is very much projection cuz these two remind me of me and my uncle (literally the funniest dude I know) Well not actually my uncle but a family friend. But yk.

Then I played... 😡 trials and tribulations 😡 And this bitch ass Butz was flirting with Maya! WTF?! Was that necessary?? Did anyone laugh at that? No! I could write a whole essay on how Larry's character got obliterated throughout the trilogy. He went from one of my favourite characters, to me actually cheering a little when he had something bad happen. (I still love him tho and choose to pretend that he doesn't become a shell of himself after the first game.)

(“Not exactly a friend… but yes, I know him” Cracked me tf up. Deserved lmao.)

---Not plot relevant spoilers for bridge to the turnabout ---

Going off from that I want to touch on Larry and Pearls friendship. // This had potential! Just kidding! It was ruined from before they even saw each other. Larry hears Pearl over the phone and goes "oH wHaT a CuTiEeE!" in a weird way. My c*nt that is a whole 8 year old child. But if we IGNORE THAT GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I like in the anime adaptation of farewell my turnabout, Larry is rlly nice to Pearl :) And in bridge to the turnabout, this could be a hot take but I think the whole 'loser shack' thing was hilarious. Larry was so enthusiastic and boisterous and Pearl was just like yeah guess I'm here.. and as soon as Phoenix comes around she turns her full attention to him. Idk I just thought that whole exchange was charming.

--- Spoilerz over ---

. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . . ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ. ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

-- Hints at sexual shit ahead if you don't want to read that then all g — I removed some cuz idk 😭

These ones are just for shits and gigs.

Phoenix and Larry college situationship. // Had to throw a bit of a curveball at ya. I don't fucking know why this is in the back of my head but it is.

Ema and Franziska // This was from like one person on twitter or Tumblr but I like it. Bitter exes, get it. 💅

If by some miracle Edgeworth isn't a virgin (and also isn't asexual of course!) by the time he actually gets with Wright then I think he would do it with Gumshoe or agent Lang. Trust. I refuse to believe he would ever think about a woman that way 😭 And also the man's just married to his work he don't got time for that.

But why Lang gotta go around telling him to be a good little pretty boy or whatever the fuck gay stuff he says to him. (I have only seen a few screenshots, I have yet to meet Lang in the game 💀💀)

Anyway I just had to get that out there lmao. Don't take this too seriously 🤣

That's all for now! I was typing this for about 2 hours longer than I expected. Anyway please share your thoughts in the comments or tags!

Have a great day or night and if it is night then... please go to sleep. (5:22am 😻) Goodnight

Update:

Stfu tryna give people advice on when to sleep when I pulled an all nighter this week and got very disoriented the next night or maybe the night after (last night?!) because the last 48 hours had merged together to form a blur 😭

#sylvieinfodumps #ace attorney #relationships #love #found family #we got it all #i am an only child lol.#phoenix wright #i like this game just a bit.#just a eenie lil bit.#this is the first of many posts like this.#prepare.#lgbt #there is one straight ship here 💀#lol

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coolcattime · 2 years

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I can't quite express the kinda angst I'm in the mood for right now. Like someone who goes away to war and just one day after fighting and surviving again and again just decides to leave. They drop their dog tags and just wander away. No one really knows what happened and they are reported dead. Years later they go back home the war ended and the long age of conflict has changed everyone.

One day they show back up at their home and instead of happiness and relief that they are still alive, they get anger and bitterness. "I mourned for you, i begged for you back every night, and just when i was starting to get over missing you... you just show up here pretending like you didnt leave me here to suffer."

That good selfish anger and angst

So this has very big "Prosecutor Edgeworth chooses death" vibes, which has already put very good angsty vibes in my head.

What you've put down really speaks to tireness as a movition, which is something I don't see often but really really love when it's used, especially when it's done in a situation where it's inhertiatly selfish to do so. ((I would love to tell you my favourite example of this in media, but I refuse to risk spoilers for that game, so I'm just gonna say that this trope can work SO SO well in death game/horror media)).

For this particular prompt, I can very much see this being a Jordan thing, just leaving because he can't do this anymore and needs time anyway from being anyone, though you can probably make the argument with anyone in Mianite. Like there's a real reason Jordan would want to leave, with the amount of pressure and how much that would were a person down, but then there's the people he left behind.

With Jordan gone, there's both the grief and mourning everyone would go through, as well as the fact that he's left a gap in a role that other people need to fill. So when he comes back alive and well, well people aren't exactly greeting him with open arms. The actual line given I'd probably give it to Tom? He definitely would be the one most emotionally effected by Jordan's death (expect Ianite, though I wonder if she would know that he wasn't gone, which would add to the angst that she never told anyone). I think everyone's reaction would be slightly different, with Tom being the most about emotional loss, and probably Capsize being the more pragmantic side of the responsibility that everyone else needed to take on, while they were also mourning (this could probably also be Sonja or Martha, the main reason I say Capsize is that she is kind of unique that I think she's one of the only Mianite characters that liked Jordan the less of any of the champions, and therefore in this kind of situation I think would be the most likely to talk reasonability rather than though anger, if that makes sense).

#mianite #captainsparklez #tom syndicate #captain capsize #lady ianite #angst prompt

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xerocomellus · 3 years

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farewell, my turnabout is such a well-written case and i think part of that definitely comes from the way it so expertly subverts our preconceived notions of what it’s going to be.

there’s the obvious-- our client is guilty. all of the cases before this one had set up the idea that our client is always innocent, and that we must have unwavering trust in them. the idea that the odds are so stacked up against you, that you are the only one who can save your client from death, is a central theme in the franchise and this case tears that theme right out of your hands.

but there’s also something to be said about the way this case subverts expectations from an earlier case in the same game: 2-2; reunion, and turnabout. in this case, we have to defend maya despite all of the evidence pointing to her being clearly guilty. i genuinely thought she, or her body, had committed the crime, though was not culpable for the actions the spirit committed! for most of the case, i wondered how i was supposed to argue that a dead person committed the crime! this was the one case where i had really believed that our client was guilty. of course, we later learn the truth: maya is indeed innocent and had no part in the murder.

but this set up a precedent that 2-4 would tear down: despite all of the evidence and the player’s own reasoning, despite how much it looks like there is no possibility anyone else could have committed the crime, your client must be innocent. this is part of the brilliance of the writing of farewell, my turnabout, in that everything goes against all that has been previously established.

additionally, the case gives us something that we’d never really had before in the series: choice. do you plead guilty, or not? both answers lead to the same thing, but first-time players wouldn’t be aware of this. the game gives this choice to us thrice: first after de killer’s testimony in which he names adrian andrews as his client, when you are given the option to request a verdict or let the trial continue; secondly after more of de killer’s testimony, right before franziska arrives; and finally after telling de killer about engarde’s true intentions. the first time is less weighty than the latter two-- you don’t choose between the words “guilty” and “not guilty”, but you’re still choosing whether engarde walks free or stays in the courtroom, however, both answers lead to phoenix stating that he can’t accept a not guilty verdict. the second time yields no answer from phoenix, as he is interrupted with franziska’s entrance.

by the third time we get this choice, we know there is no escape for matt engarde either way, but it is still a weighty decision. do we take the stance we always have, a “not guilty”-- it’s our job, isn’t it? but perhaps there is something deeper in that choice, a kind of selfish, twisted justice in letting matt engarde go free but die on the pavement right outside the doors of that los angeles courthouse. or do we plead “guilty”? it’s what the game has led up to, isn’t it, the idea that justice and truth is more important than personal beliefs and vendettas?

this illustrates the significance of a guilty verdict in the context of a person’s life, the seriousness of which has been considered before, especially in turnabout goodbyes, but it’s cemented here. the narrative makes the player measure the worth of a life. do we condemn adrian andrews to death, or maya? by the end, the player knows that andrews is innocent, at least of murder. but for a moment, some players genuinely did choose that first “request that the verdict be declared” or “not guilty”-- choosing to let adrian die. this also puts players in a similar position to that of a prosecutor like edgeworth, knowing that they were going to let an innocent die for their own gain. this helps re-contextualize edgeworth’s actions after the first game, in addition to subtly letting players know just how important the role of a defense attorney really is. when we see adrian andrews again in 3-2, the significance of choosing that “not guilty” is once again reiterated, letting players see tangibly for themselves the space that would be empty if that decision was made.

engarde himself pleads guilty regardless of the final choice you make. the game ends just the way it should, happily, with the guilty imprisoned and the innocent free. but the genius of farewell, my turnabout lies in how that choice is reflective of something in the player in a way nothing before has been, and echoes a central question the player and characters alike must reckon with: what is justice? the answer is left up to you.

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shatouto · 2 years

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a letter to edgeworth

read all the letters on ao3

December 28, 2017

My dear Edgeworth,

In the years that we have known and un-known and re-known each other, you had never answered a letter I sent you. I held out hope that one day you will – but now, beyond a reasonable doubt, you never will.

I don’t blame you for it. We were children, and then we were adults, and between “childhood” and “adulthood”, there was no space for anyone to really cultivate “friendship” – least of all for a man like you, who valued his pride and honor more than his own life. Your silence was your choice, and whether or not I understood it, I respected it. I respected and admired you deeply; I wonder if you were ever aware of that.

On this day one year ago, I felt like I had finally met you again for the first time – the real you, not the Prosecutor Edgeworth you showed to the world – when I learned the full truth of why you left. And I felt like I was going to lose you right afterwards. I was so angry, you know? Not at you, but at life. It hurt me to know that you had suffered so deeply, and all I ever did was obliviously chatter on about my childish problems. It wasn’t fair.

I often wished you were there. Now that I know what I know, I should have wished I were there for you.

I’m writing to you now, despite all odds, because there is one thing I regret not telling you. I regret it so much that my entire body hurts. I had so many opportunities and I took none of them. I could have told you in the letters – which you might or might not have read but at least there would have still been a chance that you would read them. Or I could have told you in person, because, hey, let’s face it: it was a miracle that I even got to see you again. I really should have taken the chance, but I never did tell you. It’s too late, but…

I love you.

I loved you then, and I love you now – and, call me stubborn, but I refuse to conjugate this verb in past tense. You, the memories of you, the mere notion of you, had been my driving force throughout the chapters of my life. You were in my life even when you weren’t. Miles Edgeworth, I don’t have the words to describe how important you were to me. And I think you will continue to be, even now that you are gone.

Despite what you might’ve thought of yourself, your legacy is one of brilliance and bravery. The world will remember you as such. I wish I could tell you that you didn’t have to choose death. I would beg you to stay even if that would be so selfish of me.

This letter, posthumous in terms of addressee, is not the first of its kind. Like all the others, I will burn it as soon as I finish it. I hope that it will reach you somewhere, somehow. You will call it whimsical, Edgeworth, but I don’t think I can stop writing you letters anytime soon.

Until the day I can say your name with a proper smile, I’ll keep writing.

Loving you,

Yours,

Phoenix Wright

#ace attorney #narumitsu #shatou writes #grief #mourning #edgeworth is alive we all know that so dw #never forget DL-6

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abluescarfonwaston · 3 years

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You know the difference in Miles Edgeworth between the first case he was assigned in aai and the man we meet during aa1 really distresses me.

Because during that four year time period we go from an Edgeworth that reminds Franziska of her manners. ‘say thank you’ ‘apologize’ ‘start conversations with a greeting’ and displays those manners to others to an Edgeworth who can’t even say ‘thank you’ audibly without the distressed sprite.

And during that gap we know 1. Franziska is off doing her own work. and 2. Miles gets incredibly isolated at work due to the rumors that surround him.

And Miles lived with Von Karma for years. So its not like he wasn’t subjected to years of abuse and grooming before then. I mean during aai we see Von Karma blow a fuse and berate Edgeworth - how perfection is something he can never achieve and Edgeworth just takes it.

But notably in that scene Franziska supports him. He gets to continue the investigation.

I just wonder. With Franziska out of the country and Manfred and Edgeworth working in the same place how much more free was Von Karma allowed to shut him down and berate him? I think about how Miles says that he thought Lana was looking out for him. That she was on his side. (How after 1-5 she’s just another person who was manipulating him for her own end)

I think about how Lana might have encouraged him to keep looking when Von Karma shut him down about a case. How she might have backed him and supported him as a detective and then as the chief prosecutor. How Miles thought he finally had someone in his court. How after the SL-9 incident she became much harsher but that was probably normal in Edgeworth’s world. How unlike Manfred Lana would probably actually praise him sometimes.

And then he finds out she fanned the flames of all those rumors. Rumors we never see himself defend himself from. Just like he never defends himself when Manfred berates him. How by the time he’s 24 the only person he has by his side is Gumshoe.

How that boy at 20 still has so much heart left in him. How in those Four years as a prosecutor Manfred manages to further isolate Miles to the point where he loses what little social skills he has. Look aai flashback Miles isn’t great at being social but he’s miles (heh) ahead of aa1 Miles. That if you follow the anime version you realize that Miles didn’t even start getting letters until that point (because Phoenix didn't’ have his address until then) and at that point Phoenix is 1. asking about things Miles doesn’t want to explain (why’d you become a prosecutor/the demon rumors) and 2. had a decade of Manfred teaching how distractions are to be cut out (and Phoenix definitely counts as a distraction)

Like. It just breaks my heart to see how much Edgeworth collapsed in that four year time period when he slowly lost what little support structure he had until were literally left with 1-4 Edgeworth that pushes the people who want to help him and the post 1-4 Edgeworth who is still incapable of utilizing the new support network he’s given (Phoenix& company) or what remains of the old one (Franziska& Gumshoe) and were left with

“Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth Chooses Death”

It’s just grim, you know?

#miles edgeworth #ace attorney #aa #meta post #tw child abuse #tw suicide #like wether or not he Did do those things (and I struggle to believe he'd break the law)#it's still devastating #miles didn't talk to the other students in his class #until phoenix and larry #he seems to have 3 reactions to bullying #cry get angry or shutdown #tw bullying #i just have a lot of feelings about miles edgeworth okay #call me phoenix wright cause i worry about him

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sirescumbag · 3 years

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AA7 thoughts

So I just finished Spirit of Justice and then I heard about Ace Attorney 7 apparently in the works, so my brain decided this is the time to make up potential plot twists to be excited about that don’t actually exist. I know this is divergent from my usual fanart posting but here’s a very long text dump of some new stuff I’d be interested in seeing but will probably not happen because it is all very specific and caters to my own desires, probably not the fandom’s in general:

Phoenix is still there, but not as active as an acting defense attorney, though he’s still key to the plot (as a mentor, or to be used as emotional blackmail). He’s not playable (or if he is, it’s not for long), but more there as a plot point in a Maya sort of way (oh the turntables). This time, he’s the one under threat or danger. Instead of switching around from lawyer to lawyer, I think that Athena should undergo some more development as a main character this time around since Phoenix and Apollo have had their time to shine. The removal of Phoenix and being all alone, I think, would also be interesting in her character development

On that note, bring on the major character angst!! Having a big tragedy occur, with a fairly major character. Usually the tragedy pulled is a murder/death, but how about a different sort of tragedy-- a fate worse than death/on par with it to someone who is still alive? Someone is severely incapacitated, a psychological injury (classic old memory loss, or perhaps a genius who is reduced to a very limited mental capacity), coma, or even a temporary death (like with Petenshy, Edgeworth), or perhaps a kidnapping (not Maya this time, please). If it happens to a major character, it’ll have greater impact, BUT there’ll be fan riots if it’s not reversible. So have the tragedy with the character get resolved, but not in a deus ex machina way-- recovery is slow and angsty but filled with hope.

There’s often a focus on the past haunting you-- let’s try shifting this to the present! Building suspense on a case that is happening in real time-- I am fond of the idea of a serial killer on the loose in the present and the dread of suspense in present time throughout trials as they continue to kill and hinder key advances in solving the mystery.

Very often, there are personal ties in court-- both the prosecution and defense are tied together in some way in the past, resolving their own personal backstory. Instead of oneself, maybe let’s have some focus on a client instead? It might be interesting to see a lawyer get so deep into protecting a single client-- instead of a new client for every case, protecting a single person over multiple cases-- that they get roped into an outsider’s story instead. A little idea in my head is of playing around with maybe witness protection, or say (off the serial killer idea) someone is expected to be the next target for a murder and you are tasked with trying to protect them in real time (and then a tragedy happens to them that moves plot forward, bonus if players gets to build an emotional connection between you and the client).

In SOJ and DGS, the stakes were big on “saving the masses” and government reform-- the stakes can still be high, but instead of something lofty like reforming the world or community, instead it could focus on the relationships with the people immediately around you, protecting them, or just some good old self-preservation.

Newer characters like Athena being really fleshed out! Whether there are new or old characters, really build and explore the depth of their character beyond that of a plot point. Not just slapping on relationship labels that immediately trigger emotion but have no context beyond it (like the killing off “my best friend” Clay in DD, or the classic parental death). I thought the fleshing out of Dhurke and building an emotional relation to him in SOJ was a lot more effective in making it really feel like a tragedy than with Clay in DD.

For introducing any old characters, please show some personality changes due to age. Or, maybe! Even a 180 change from the personality from the original trilogy for intrigue-- what happened to the old person I knew (and have it be integral to the plot)? I know I griped about the old “ah That Event 5/7/10 years ago” past plot thing being used but I wouldn’t mind this being used as a part of plot development either

Maybe try to bridge the feeling of separation between the old trilogy and newer characters’ worlds by, instead of kind of sequestering them into their separate spheres of interaction to preserve nostalgia (like in Turnabout Time Traveler, where the old gang is all together in the same dynamic, Maya and Phoenix and Edgeworth, etc), have old trilogy characters interact with newer ones in significant ways and build their own unique bond. So, not just a passing mention where the old encounters the new, having the old interact with the new and build a bond through going through significant conflicts together (for example, this has already been mentioned but if Athena is the main focus of the next game, there could be an opportunity to explore this if she confronts Franziska in court!).

I know there’s already so many gimmicks added (Apollo’s perceive, Athena’s widget) but if there has to be something new added, instead of making it individual-specific, maybe have be similar to spirit channeling as a concept-- have it be a broad phenomenon in the world that plays a key part in causing a case, rather than a tool for discerning the truth of a case.

Or, if we’re sticking with the same gadgets/tricks, instead choosing to tamper more with the tools of the trade that were supposed to never lead you astray-- this has already been seen in DD, where Apollo’s bracelet led him to the wrong conclusion about Athena, and AA4, where evidence was tampered with. Perhaps instead of adding new gadgets, let’s manipulate, tamper with, lose, have it used against them in new ways!

The use of a civil case in SOJ was very much unexpected but in my opinion a very interesting one! Would be very interesting to see more in-fighting among the prosecutor group or within the defense attorney group and see how that moves the plot along. Messing more with the court system instead of adding new gadgets would also be interesting.

More threats during investigation, not just in court! Remember when von Karma tased you in the evidence room? Let’s have suspense in AND out of the courtroom.

I’m sure there’s plenty of interesting psychological phenomena that could be used to complicate court cases (for example, that use of Justice Minister Inga’s cognitive disorder in recognizing faces coming into play)!

Different approaches for moral ambiguity for clients using psychology-- we’ve seen this with defending clients who are actually guilty, or being blackmailed. I’d be interested in seeing a Jekyll and Hyde situation where 2 different sides of one person commit a crime, but one side is unaware of it-- and how a defense lawyer would handle this!

Exploring the plea for insanity in court! Double jeopardy! Escaped convicts! A murder whose trial to find a good jury has been delayed for a long time and is forced to find its resolution outside of court due to the murderer striking again!

Also, to pull in some stuff I read about elsewhere, after reading about moral psychology in Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind and moral triggers that typically pull strong reactions (care, fairness, loyalty, authority, sanctity), I was also thinking about how ace attorney manages to build emotionally compelling cases in relation to this model. Ace Attorney imo so far has done pretty alright at hitting most of these triggers at some point to hype the emotion, but for the final case, it ends up being played in what I see as generally the same way (ex: character development starts from from my duty as a lawyer is my role as the defense/prosecutor into that of my duty is to find the truth, authority corrupt and that is bad, justice should be served fairly, I am loyal to my group of prosecutor/defense, also played with loyalty and betrayal in DD with Apollo and Athena splitting, also triggered sanctity a bit in SOJ with the religion, lots of other examples probably but that’s a few). I’d be interested in seeing these same moral triggers played upon in different manner for some variety! Maybe even pursuing some different themes than justice and truth and duty and all that jazz, but idk what else could be alright to explore cause the courts kinda embody all that and deviating to make a statement about other themes might not fit as well in the courts hmm

Also part 2, I wonder if there’ll be romantic undertone somewhere (or heavily implied) for any new or old major characters. Romantic love isn’t usually used with major characters as a plot point (usually platonic stuff, friendship, family, or duty to the truth is instead) but I’d think it’d be interesting if romance was used this time around as an emotional motivator to drive the plot

#ace attorney #ace attorney 7 #aa7 #i kind of wrote this all at once so it's probably really jumbled ahhhhfhhhh #basically i want that sweet major character angst #i might just end up making an AU with these ideas if they're not in AA7 because i want an excuse to see these in a plot hohohoh #anyway i'm trying not to have expectations but i got myself all excited anyway so here we are

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letapollojusticesayfuck · 3 years

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“would you come to my funeral?” + narumitsu

"I'm going to write something short," I say, and then come out with nearly 1300 words of Angst. But this really was the perfect line for some good angst, and so I hope you like it! (and please excuse any typos, I very much have not done any editing here)

Thanks, Sparrow! :)

Send me a randomly-generated line of dialogue and some characters, and I'll write a (relatively) short fic!

............

It’s raining. That’s the thing that Phoenix notices, first—the way the water collects on the pane-glass of the window, the office dark and silent otherwise.

How long has he been in the building for the weather to have changed so drastically? How long did it take to extricate himself from the aftermath of the trial, to escape the celebrations and cheer once he’d noticed the conspicuous absence where someone should have been?

Long enough for the cup of tea abandoned on the desk to have gone stone-cold, he realizes, when he presses his fingers gently against the side of the delicate china vessel. Long enough that Miles Edgeworth might be long gone by now, and he’d have to ride his bicycle home in the storm, without even getting a chance to check in with his oldest friend.

Motion, from the corner of his eye, and Phoenix swings around to a previously unexamined corner of the room, in the shadow of the vibrant pink sofa and the framed jacket on the wall. A hiding place, of sorts, and for half a second he feels the chill of adrenaline through his veins as he wonders if he’s about to be attacked in Edgeworth’s office, victim of a trap planted for the prosecutor and not for him.

But he relaxes, as much as is possible, when he recognizes the figure slumped against the wall by his distinctive cravat, his steel-grey hair. Miles Edgeworth, looking distinctly miserable, but Phoenix will take it if it means he’s here.

“Of course you’d manage to find me,” the man grumbles, and Phoenix laughs, awkwardly.

“Well, you know what they say about defense attorneys,” he jokes, hand combing through the hair on the back of his neck. “Always sticking our noses where they don’t belong.”

Miles huffs, as though he can’t be bothered to dignify that with a response. With some trepidation, Phoenix moves closer, kneels next to him, attempts to put himself on a level with the prosecutor. He doesn’t quite reach out, the way he so desperately wants to, because he’s never quite sure where exactly he stands with Edgeworth, these days. He’d hoped, that since they’d cleared up the history behind the DL-6 incident, that they would have properly reconnected, but…

Well. It’s unfortunate that they only ever seem to see each other at opposing ends of the courtroom, or so it seems.

But Edgeworth looks so downtrodden that Phoenix can’t help but want to help him, and so he crosses his legs and leans against the wall, nearly casually, and risks his life to ask his next question:

“What’s the matter? Why aren’t you out with everyone else, celebrating a job well done?”

“Wright. Really?”

“Well, yeah, maybe it didn’t turn out quite as well as it could have, but...we’re still a step closer to fixing the justice system, aren’t we? Sure, the Chief Prosecutor’s….in jail, and the Police Chief is...alsoin jail, but--”

“Wright, I’m going to stop you before you can jam your foot even further in your mouth than it already is.”

“That’s...probably a good idea, yeah.”

They pause, for a moment, listening to the wind and the raindrops against the window. A distant lightning strike illuminates the office, and Phoenix is reminded of quite how high up they are.

“Would you come to my funeral?” Edgeworth asks, apropos of nothing, and Phoenix’s head whips around almost faster than he can process the words.

“Your—Miles, what are you--” He can’t form a full sentence, finding his mind blank even at the prospect. Edgeworth sighs, deeply, and leans his head back against the wall, eyes closed.

“My funeral, Wright, it’s not that difficult of a question. At such a time as I perish, whether through natural or unnatural means, would you attend the event that I assume someone would inevitably arrange for honoring my memory or other such tripe.”

Phoenix is still stuck processing, the very prospect of Edgeworth and death and funerals all sparking associations he’d rather not think too hard about, calling to mind the ceremony they’d had for Mia not even six months ago—and, even earlier, the image of a far younger Miles Edgeworth in a black suit, surrounded by arrangements of lilies and with an unreadable expression.

“I—well, in a purely hypothetical scenario, because you aren’t going to have a funeral anytime soon—in that case, of course I would come to your funeral, Miles, what do you take me for?”

“Truthfully, I don’t know. I’m not—” and Edgeworth pauses, clutching at the fabric of his sleeve as he averts his gaze to the opposite corner of the room. “I’m not exactly a paradigm of innocence, and your reputation for...well…”

“Are you still trying to say that you’re guilty when we’ve proven that time and time again to be untrue? Miles, c’mon, that’s bullshit. And—my reputation?What, do you think I’d even care, if you were—”

“Wright, surely you’re not that much in denial. I’m as much guilty of evidence tampering as Lana Skye. And worse—you know the tactics us prosecutors employ. I did not gain the name Demon Prosecutor for nothing. I’m not—you shouldn’t even associate with me.”

Phoenix frowns, eyebrows furrowing. He’s clenching his hands into fists, he realizes, as he takes a deep breath and focuses on trying to have this discussion rationally, as much as possible.

“Miles Edgeworth, you can’t blame yourself for doing as you were taught. You were only a child, you should have been able to trust your mentor figures—it wasn’t on you to be able to construct a detailed critique of the legal system! And you think that I wouldn’t associate with you because of that? I guess…” he swallows, looking away from the prosecutor. “I guess you don’t know me as well as I thought you did, then.”

The silence is almost tangible, as they let Phoenix’s words sink in, settle around them in the dark office. In his mind, Phoenix begins to count the seconds that it’s taking Edgeworth to answer—one, two, three…

“I suppose I don’t,” he finally supplies, and that’s it, then, the kind of sentence you don’t continue a conversation from. It’s not the only thing he seems to want to say, Phoenix notes, but it’s the only thing he vocalizes, letting the sound of the rain fill in the empty spaces.

Phoenix breathes out, slowly, and stands up. His knees pop as he does, tiny cracking noises competing with the rumble of thunder from outside.

He looks over his shoulder, and Edgeworth’s still on the ground, avoiding eye contact. It’s not like he wants to leave, but…

Maybe Miles just needs some time alone. He seems to have a lot on his mind, and Phoenix probably isn’t helping by bothering him with conversation.

He lets himself out of the office, vowing to himself that he’ll check back in tomorrow morning, when the rainstorm’s let up and the world’s back to normal. He isn’t going to let Edgeworth wallow in his thoughts for too long, at least.

Overnight, the rain fades to nothing, clouds making way for soft sunshine, promising bright blue skies for the day and uncharacteristically warm weather for February. Miles Edgeworth’s office window lets in the sunlight, where it illuminates the grand desk and the items on top of it. In turn, the light falls on a pen, a nameplate, a lamp.

A teacup, still half-full from the night before. And…

A note, with one single line of neat cursive penned in the middle of the crisp, textured paper:

Miles Edgeworth Chooses Death

#ask #asks #ask game #my writing #ace attorney #exitcorners #thank you!!#let's hope i managed to fix all the bits where copy and pasting italics got rid of the space after them #sorry this is Sad #also uhhh rfta spoilers #if that's a necessary thing #angst #major character death #except not Really #that's spoilers though #ANYWAY #it is 2:30 AM which means i'll probably write the others of these tomorrow morning

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beevean · 3 years

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What do you think of the relation between Kazuma and Ryuu during the events of DGS2? Personally I think that they have both wrongly handling things. Kazuma was wrong to act that way since he has scared both Ryuu and Susato, even if he was confused+angry toward Barok. And Ryuu was wrong to reject him because of that, even if being trated that way after one year of grief must have hurt him. they have both hurted each other, even if they care deeply for/love each other and it was painful to see =(

Spoilers for Cases 4 and 5 of The Great Ace Attorney 2

I'll be honest, I'm waiting to replay Case 4 and 5 for myself to get a refresher on Prosecutor Asougi (currently at the beginning of Case 3).

Kazuma was absolutely in the wrong. He was behaving like Manfred von Karma, prosecuting with the sole objective of sentencing Barok to death, and being irrational about it. As for Ryuu, I don't remember much yet (I think I'll write about it once I get to that!), but I think they were trying to pull a "Phoenix is mad at Edgeworth for choosing death"? Imagine grieving someone for a year and then seeing them alive and well as if nothing happened - but in Phoenix' case, Edgeworth became a better person during his absence, while Asougi went off the deep end. No wonder Ryuu is angry, that is NOT his old friend!

I was sad to see the two parting ways, and if they make a GAA3, one of the things I'd love to see most is those two facing each other again as friendly rivals at least once.

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney #the great ace attorney 2 #dai gyatuken saiban #dai gyakuten saiban 2 #gaa2 spoilers #dgs2 spoilers #ryuunosuke naruhodou #kazuma asougi

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youngbounty · 4 years

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After being on Tumblr for a while and seeing all the Manfred Von Karma hate, I've come to realize that I might've developed a soft spot for our most dispicable villain. Honestly, the guy gets FAR too much hate than he deserves. Hear me out!

One of the things we learn about Manfred Von Karma is that he has a family. He has a wife, children and grandchildren. We also know that he loves them very much, considering how much he brags about them, takes pride in everything they do and his daughter Franziksa takes pride in being the daughter of Manfred Von Karma. If you play Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2, there's a part where Manfred Von Karma brags about how good his wife's cooking is despite being an amateur. It's clear that he's a loving father and husband to his family. He even took great pride in Miles Edgeworth and his accomplishments, despite being the son of the man he killed, and made him his heir.

On the outside, it does seem strange he would love any amount of pride and care for his pupil he's going to stab in the back in Turnabout Goodbyes, but there's also plenty to consider. Manfred Von Karma's only intention was to frame Miles Edgeworth for the murder of Robert Hammond, not his father. Had he succeeded, there's a good chance Manfred Von Karma would've been permoted as Chief Prosecutor and pulled a Blackquill on Miles Edgeworth as an inmate prosecutor. So long as Miles Edgeworth still followed him like that was his Lord and Savior, he'd take it as his mentor just doing his job. Miles Edgeworth confessing to murdering his father was one thing Manfred Von Karma didn't plan and it was after he realized the note from his mentor about the murder plan that we see Manfred Von Karma inside the Record Room. We see Manfred Von Karma trying to get rid of evidence from DL-6, but we also learn from The Grand Turnabout that if there is no evidence against the Defendant, they can be declared Not Guilty. Sure, Phoenix had files of DL-6, but Manfred Von Karma doesn't know that. Sure, Manfred Von Karma hates his perfect record being destroyed, but wasn't it already destroyed anyways thanks to the Not Guilty on Robert Hammond's murder? Manfred Von Karma's not Godot, he's not going to allow a Not Guilty verdict just to indict the defendant of another crime. He's a perfectionist, if he goes down, then how can he call himself a Prosecutor? Not to say Manfred Von Karma purposely lost to Phoenix when it came to DL-6, I'd definitely disagree on that, but it's clear he was ready to burst with his guilt tumbling down on him like an avalanche. He lost his perfect record and his star pupil. You can't expect this insane guy to walk away with his head held high. The moment Miles Edgeworth realized his nightmare was real was the moment Manfred Von Karma lost everything and had no one to blame, but himself.

Manfred Von Karma's relationship with Miles Edgeworth is the one that really sticks out. This is because, strangely enough, it's a very healthy student/mentor relationship that gives us a reason for why Miles Edgeworth looked at Manfred Von Karma as some sort of god. Think of how Miles Edgeworth looks to Phoenix Wright, setting the gay jokes aside. Doesn't Miles Edgeworth also look to Phoenix Wright the same or similar way as he did with his mentor? We all know the reason why: Phoenix Wright saved Miles Edgeworth. Miles Edgeworth looked to his father to the highest degree, because he saved innocent people. So, what's the reason for him looking to Manfred Von Karma as a character who looks up to those that save innocent people and would go heaven and earth to save himself? I think that speaks for itself.

Manfred Von Karma saving people seems laughable on the surface, after seeing what he did to Gregory Edgeworth and his star pupil, but let us think of this possibility. Wasn't it also Manfred Von Karma that defended Delicia Scones from being falsely accused and framed for murder? It isn't like he had a reason to do so. I'm not saying Manfred Von Karma is Superman, but I do think that his heroic side needs to be addressed to understand why Miles Edgeworth would look up to a man like him. We need to understand why Miles Edgeworth seeing Manfred Von Karma as a murderer is what led to him writing a suicide note and being left with uncertainty of his Prosecutor’s Path. The reason is simply because Manfred Von Karma was a man that has saved innocent lives and perhaps has saved Miles Edgeworth at some point in time.

If I had to sum up what brought such a soft spot for Manfred Von Karma for me, it’s the fact he’s an evil person with a moral compass. He believes in perfection, but also loves and cares about his family and those under his authority. He’s the kind of person that would kill someone for ruining his perfect record, but is also the kind to save the innocence without being asked. He will call anyone foolish for going against him, but will defend the honor of his lowly wife, because he loves her. Manfred Von Karma is a human being that feels emotion and holds some sort of moral compass. He’s also the only mastermind villain that only murdered out of the heat of the moment. Manfred Von Karma didn’t create the earthquake or plan on Gregory Edgeworth to be stuck in an airtight elevator, then pass out to give him a moment to murder. In fact, what Manfred Von Karma did to Gregory Edgeworth is called Voluntary Manslaughter.

It’s only once you consider that Manfred Von Karma’s murder was Manslaughter and compare that to all the other villains that did murder through methods that were calculating and deliberate with the sole intention of taking someone’s life that you also have to consider that Manfred Von Karma isn’t a cold-blooded killer. Manfred Von Karma is no Dahlia Hawthorne, Kristoph Gavin, Damon Gant, Blaise Debeste, Patricia Roland, Shelly De Killer, Matt Engard, Dogen, Ambassador Alba, Redd White, Tigre, Acro and many others who had planed and calculated murders with the sole purpose of murder without regrets. Manfred Von Karma fits in with the other murderers that did murder, but only had out of passion at the moment it happened such as Frank Sawett, Dee Vascez, Godot, Jaques Portsman, Melee, Gustavia, Alita Tiala, and probably more, some of whom have been proven to only be given a lifelong sentence.

I have often had Manfred Von Karma to be given the Death Penalty, but I also consider he may’ve been given a long or life sentence. Phoenix has hinted the possibility of Manfred Von Karma having been executed, but it’s also not certain either. I don’t think we’ll ever know. What I do know is that Manfred Von Karma is in the middle on the scale of the most to least evil villain in Ace Attorney. Even his murder cannot compare to many of the most colorful villains. Manfred Von Karma murdered out of circumstances. He never planned it or even knew the outcome of it. Also, unlike the number of the most evil villains in Ace Attorney, Manfred Von Karma showed love and pride toward his family and students. He never once used them to commit any crimes or schemes. Yes, he stabbed Miles Edgeworth in the back, but again out of circumstances. Had Miles Edgeworth not shown up at Gourd Lake, Manfred Von Karma would’ve thrown Yanni Yogi under the bus quicker than a speeding train. Had he found not found Gregory Edgeworth inside the elevator or if little Miles had been awake, Manfred Von Karma would’ve not picked up the gun and just went off his merry way. Any other most evil villain would’ve found a Plan B. Manfred Von Karma would’ve been angry, but would’ve cooled down after a long walk and a cup of tea. There wouldn’t be so many No DL-6 stories, if this wasn’t the case. You’d have to admit that there was a greater chance Manfred Von Karma could’ve not murdered Gregory Edgeworth had he not been found in that elevator.

I’m certain there will always be people that hate Manfred Von Karma, even after reading this. This is more of me speaking for myself. I used to hate Manfred Von Karma with a passion after the Trilogy. After playing Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2, I began defending Manfred Von Karma. I think it was mostly because it turned out that he didn’t plan or know that the Autopsy Report of IS-7 was forged. It made me wonder if, like Miles Edgeworth and Franziska Von Karma, if Manfred Von Karma never forged evidence and was just given falsified evidence for him to use from a much bigger villain. Not saying that Manfred Von Karma isn’t a horrible person, because he is, but I don’t think he ever was trying to be a horrible person. I do think he truly believed he was doing right and saving people. Think of it this way, if Manfred Von Karma truly wanted to make Gregory Edgeworth pay and suffer in the most cruel way possible, considering how he blackmailed Jeffery Master using his daughter, which one of these would Manfred Von Karma choose: kill Gregory Edgeworth or kill his son Miles Edgeworth. Which do you believe Manfred Von Karma would use against Gregory to make him pay, if he had everything planed and calculated?

I will leave you guys with that question to think about.

#Ace Attorney #manfred von karma #Gregory Edgeworth #Miles Edgeworth #DL-6 #Ace Attorney villain

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wardencommanderrodimiss · 4 years

Text

Witches, Chapter 21: post-trial wrap-up. No, seriously, finally, it’s over. It’s been....3000 years....

[Seelie of Kurain Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

[Witches Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

----

It’s all there, on the record, to end the case, to make the next trial go smoother: the victim, Jack Shipley, slipped and fell and Rimes couldn’t pull him back to safety; Orla and Sasha did nothing wrong, and neither did Ora, a year ago. Azura Summers’ death was a heart attack. Two accidental deaths, and Rimes trying to get revenge on the wrong orca for something that never needed to be avenged. All this pain and agony, all because the victim wanted to keep it a secret that there were two orcas.

It never needed to happen this way.

Sometimes Phoenix thinks it’s easier to deal with cases where one of the parties involved was actively a malicious murderer. Because it hurts, god does it hurt, if the victim or killer is someone that they knew, loved, trusted, and Phoenix has both been the one in pain and the one trying to console his clients, but at least there’s a feeling that justice was served. Someone got what they deserved, in the end.

No one deserved this nightmare.

The court officers don’t escort Rimes out right away; Sasha, out of the defendant’s chair, out of suspicion, hurries forward to speak with him. He doesn’t even seem to notice her approaching. He might not have blinked since Phoenix told him about Azura’s heart condition, since Rimes himself realized that everything he did just hurt innocent people, and demanded to know why Phoenix couldn’t just let him be called a murderer and punished as such. Yeah, he’s criminally liable for a lot, and everyone here knows it, the judge has even said it, but - he did not want to kill Jack Shipley, and that still means something. Rimes doesn’t deserve a death penalty like Rimes seems to think he deserves.

“Hey, Marlon,” Sasha says. He jumps, slamming his shin into the witness stand. He really didn’t notice her. “When this is all done, y’know - served out your sentence and rehabilitation - you’d better come back to the aquarium, you hear?”

“But…” He doesn’t even say anything else. He lets everything that’s happened in the past half an hour stand for itself.

“We’re pirates, remember? Cap’n Orla’s Swashbucklers! A pirate crew’s not gonna care about criminal records in hiring!” She seems to be deliberately missing the point. Rimes doesn’t say anything else. “Hey. Marlon. That whole, um, hulking out thing - you didn’t - that wasn’t some kind of catastrophic deal, right? You - you okay?”

And of course he isn’t, not in the broad scheme of things, and of course Sasha isn’t okay in that sense either, but she only means one thing and that’s the thing that Phoenix has been wondering, and Blackquill has already been escorted out of the courtroom but Taka is perched just off to the side, listening in too. What did he bargain away, thinking he’d gained something useful?

Rimes slumps until his forehead hits the witness stand. “Had’ta give up being a vegetarian,” he mumbles.

“Wait,” Athena says, “do you mean you had to give up meat or you had to—”

“I was a vegetarian.” Rimes doesn’t lift his head. The way he’s doubled over hurts Phoenix’s back and neck by proxy. “But I have to eat meat now.”

Whether he was a vegetarian for personal or religious reasons, or health reasons, or something as simple as he thought raw meat was gross to look at and hated cooking with it and had to functionally become a vegetarian (like Phoenix his first year having a kitchen except takeout sushi isn’t vegetarian and ramen and pizza aren’t a healthy vegetarian diet) - whatever it was, going back to meat in the diet is some sort of sacrifice. And that so often is the cornerstone of a deal: a sacrifice. Giving something up. A name, a soul, a skill, a principle, some cash for an all-you-can-eat buffet—

And it could’ve been so, so much worse for Rimes. He’s lucky.

“I made the deal for strength,” he adds, still hunched over, like his spine has been wrenched out of him and replaced with jelly. “I thought - I thought I could be strong enough then to help. But I wasn’t strong enough to hang onto the captain, and all the rest - physical strength didn’t matter. Didn’t help me at all.”

Which, Phoenix wouldn’t be surprised if whichever fae gave him the magatama knew that it wouldn’t. It’s a human thing - and a fae thing, it’s a people thing, to not know what would actually help. What they really need, versus what they think they need.

Sasha steps around the witness stand and pulls Rimes around into a hug, his head slumped down onto her shoulder instead of the stand now. Phoenix hears, and thinks he isn’t supposed to, Rimes’ ragged repeated “I’m sorry”s and “It’s my fault”s.

“Yeah and you’re still my friend, y’know that,” Sasha says.

The magatama slips from Rimes’ hand and hits the floor, shattering with a sound like it’s made of glass. Rimes shudders and trembles and his whole body shrinks, back down to the man he was before.

“You never cease to surprise me.”

Down the hall, at the top of the stairs, Athena is excitedly introducing Sasha to Trucy, and re-introducing Sasha and Apollo. Taka is long gone. And Edgeworth stands next to Phoenix, arms folded, drumming his fingers, and Phoenix can’t tell if he’s angry or begrudgingly impressed or wholeheartedly impressed. “So when Blackquill came to you to tell you that he was going to prosecute an orca, did you regret lengthening his leash at that point?”

Edgeworth shakes his head. “Prosecutor Blackquill was with me at the time. We were discussing - a case.” If it was Blackquill’s case specifically, Phoenix thinks he would have said that, but this just sounds like there’s even more, other cases, behind the scenes, above the security clearance of absolutely anyone. “And then I have a call from Detective Fulbright that he has a case that may be able to go to trial, and Prosecutor Blackquill is of course interested in that.” He shakes his head a second time. “If you think Blackquill is a thorn in your side in court, believe me, he is just as much of one to be outside of it.”

“That sounds consistent with what I’ve seen.” Phoenix glances around again to be sure that the hawk isn’t anywhere around. “Wait, you met with him - at your office? One-on-one? Without Fulbright around?”

“Yes, I have. Several armed officers on the other side of the door, of course - Detective Gumshoe stringently insists—”

“Good,” Phoenix interrupts. He should buy Gumshoe dinner for that. Someone has to keep Edgeworth’s dumb ass in one piece. “And Blackquill knows he’d still be rotting only in prison if not for you, right? And that if he—”

Edgeworth’s pale eyes flicker sideways at Phoenix. “Your concern is appreciated and entirely unwarranted and unnecessary. Prosecutor Blackquill, assuredly, has nothing against me, unlike certain others who you spent significant one-on-one time with.”

Oh. There it is. That gulf always between them, sometimes near closed and then it yawns, and they are here and here is further apart. “Good,” Phoenix repeats, more faintly than before. “Is there anything new you can tell me about him that would help?”

“Unfortunately not. He’s very stubborn in regards to his own murder case - as I said, a thorn in my side.”

“And maybe an ache in your head and a pain in your ass, too?”

Even if Edgeworth is, maybe not mad at him, but frustrated enough with him to bring up Kristoph, Phoenix is pleased to know that he can still make him snort in amusement. “I’m in particular agreement with His Honor about your need to watch your language.”

“Just in court though, right?”

“No.” Edgeworth turns his head to fully affix a glare on him, and Phoenix wilts. “In general. I can only imagine that good things would come of you choosing to fully speak and act like the lawyer that you are.”

The lawyer that he hasn’t been for eight years. The lawyer that Edgeworth pushed him to be, again. “All else aside,” Edgeworth adds, “such as and especially the orca, and that you are an utterly ridiculous man lacking a modicum of good sense and decorum—”

“That’s a lot to throw aside.”

Edgeworth ignores him. “—I am happy to see you standing in court again. You deserve this.”

“I—?” Are you sure? Do I really? After everything I’ve done? Everything that you know I am?

“You do,” Edgeworth says. “And I look forward to seeing what you do next, so long as you do not decide that you will - try and outdo yourself in finding a more outlandish defendant.”

“Hey, if they show up at my office, who am I to turn away clients? It’s not like I’ve ever had enough work to really be choosy with it. You’d said that yourself plenty of times.”

“Though I can’t say I expected an orca to be the logical conclusion of your manner of conducting business.”

They’re an Anything Agency. This was the place they were going to end up. “Would you think better or worse of me if I tell you I didn’t know the client was an orca at first, until we got to the aquarium and Ms Buckler introduced us to said orca?”

“You went all the way out to meet the client without having asked such basic information as name or species - yes, that does sound exactly like you.” He doesn’t answer whether that’s better or worse, just makes it clear that he knows Phoenix well enough to not be surprised. The more Phoenix thinks about it, the more he’s surprised that he didn’t ever get himself into a situation like this before. Maybe it could be said that there’s a lesson here, but he thinks he’s going to deliberately not learn it. “And the fact that from that, you pulled two victories, and cleared up the truth of a guilty man who was nevertheless not guilty of murder - also, very much like you.”

“You don’t need to flatter me,” Phoenix says. “I’m already on board to help you out with whatever, remember?”

He knows it isn’t flattery - or if it is, it isn’t hollow, because Edgeworth doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean - but he’s still locked into deflect, deflect. Edgeworth knows how much Phoenix feels he doesn’t belong here. He’s not going to address it straight-out - that’s not his style, that’s not their styles, but he knows, and he still thinks that this is exactly where Phoenix does belong.

The one word he wants to say, thanks, sticks his throat shut, but he hopes Edgeworth knows anyway.

“Hey, Boss! Hi, Mr Edgeworth!” Athena waves them over. “Boss, Sasha wants us to come back to the aquarium one last time so Orla can thank us in person, too! And we should probably pick up Pearly, right?”

Not that Pearl is limited in her movements in a way that necessitates them picking her up in a car, but if she’s still hanging around the aquarium, she’d probably be happy to see them and come back to the office with them. “Sounds like a plan,” he says. “Catch up with you later, Edgeworth.” He gives his friend a solid thwack on the shoulder.

“I can give Trucy and Mr Justice a lift back to your office, then,” Edgeworth says. Trucy beams; Apollo, terror-stricken, glances between Edgeworth and Trucy and seems to resign himself to whatever this fate is. Phoenix would like for Apollo to get to know Edgeworth better, but can’t blame him for the fear. Edgeworth’s scary even before he got the title Chief Prosecutor to cement it.

“Oh, Prosecutor Edgeworth,” Athena says. “There’s something I wanted to ask you - can I email you later?”

“Ah - of course.” Edgeworth still glances at Phoenix, raising an eyebrow, doubtlessly wondering what question she has that she isn’t going to the nearest adult in her life, the one right next to her. Probably something about cars or Europe or any of the other gaps in Phoenix’s life experience, something that she figures he’s too much of a mess to have an answer to. Maybe it’s something about Phoenix’s badge, the losing of it, that she wants to know without tipping Phoenix to the fact that she’s digging into his ugly past like this. Or maybe it’s the what the hell about Blackquill she wants to know. There are lots of questions it could be.

Phoenix shrugs back at Edgeworth. It’s sort of like they’re co-parenting another daughter. No real way around that now, and Phoenix follows her out of the courthouse as she hurtles herself down the stairs.

They arrive back in the orca pool room in time to catch the middle-end of a lecture Dr Crab is giving Sasha about taking her health seriously and taking it easy until her condition is fully, properly managed. She sits at the edge of the pool, patting Orla’s nose, her hair soaking wet, like she just jumped straight into the pool upon her return. “I was thinking Orla and I would put on a mini show for you when you got here,” Sasha says to Athena, “but that’s obviously not happening.”

“I’m inclined to agree with the doctor,” Phoenix says.

“He’s a vet, not a people-doctor!” Sasha protests. Jokingly? It sounds like a joke.

“And you, Miss Selkie, are as much seal as you are human.”

“Not at the same time!” She stands up, careful with her footing, no doubt thinking about the victim slipping and falling to his death. “But, really. Phoenix, Athena, I cannot ever thank you enough, and your office, and Pearl, too.” Sasha waves at Pearl, who is sitting with Rifle and the penguin chick, Sniper, over by the wall. “All of you! Thank you, thank you, for what you did for me, and Orla, and the aquarium, for everyone. You found us the truth, you got us closure - made me realize this guy isn’t so bad after all!” She elbows Dr Crab.

“Not sure I’m happy about that one.” Crab steps away from her second nudge.

“You really helped us out a ton, Pearls,” Phoenix says. “Definitely couldn’t have done this all without you.”

“Oh, it was nothing!” She starts to cover her face with her hands and decides to duck behind Rifle instead. “I’m sure you could have won without me, Mr Nick!”

He could have, yes - but not to this same end. He couldn’t have proven Rimes was trying to save Shipley in the end; he wouldn’t have had the time or patience to plaster fingerprinting powder over everything. But he’s not one to look a gift debt-forgiveness in the mouth, either, so he doesn’t point that out. Dr Crab’s eyes narrow, wondering, no doubt, how Phoenix got such a tricky, powerful faery to like him so much that she writes off all this investigation and assistance as nothing. What he had to lose to gain that. Phoenix shrugs back at him, and they watch Sasha and Athena head over to Pearl, Sasha animatedly explaining something to Athena and half holding her back from charging down Rifle.

“And thanks for spilling almost all of the aquarium’s secrets like that,” Dr Crab adds dryly.

“I’m only a little sorry,” Phoenix says. Better to be honest.

Dr Crab waves dismissively. “You said you would, and I was prepared for that. I’m almost glad I’ve got less to hide now. That writer lady, now that she’s not crusading after Orla anymore, said to me that she thinks that the aquarium’s in the right with the TORPEDO, and the law’s wrong, and she’d take up our case to advocate for its legality.” He grins, just slightly. “So we might be able to wiggle free of any serious consequences.”

“That’s—” Phoenix pauses to think over what he was about to say. “Speaking as a lawyer, I shouldn’t say that’s good, but I’m glad to hear that anyway.”

“I’m pretty good at keeping secrets, so don’t worry, I won’t go blabbing on you.” Phoenix laughs awkwardly, while Dr Crab’s face doesn’t twitch. He seems very serious. “Though, speaking of secrets, buddy, if you can keep your mouth shut when you don’t have a case hinging on it, I’ve got to tell you, there’s one thing you didn’t get quite right, back in that courtroom, and I wasn’t about to go correcting you on it.”

There’s a tanuki standing in front of Apollo, saying very similar words, and the blood left both Apollo and Athena’s faces, and if Apollo had vomited right in Filch’s face it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise. But Phoenix - Phoenix doesn’t know what he feels. Not this time. Dr Crab, unlike Filch, didn’t perjure himself willy-nilly all through this trial. If he held something back—

“Go on,” Phoenix says. His voice is strangled even to his own ears. Crab gives him a curious and suspicious once-over.

“The calendar with the meeting with Jack, seven am at the orca pool - that’s mine, yeah, and I did go to that meeting to wait for him, yeah. But.” His silence might be dramatic, or a last assessment of whether Phoenix is trustworthy, and he adds, “That meant the orca pool at Supermarine Aquarium, not here.”

“The Supermarine Aquarium?” Phoenix repeats. “That’s the dolphin therapy place, right?” Athena explained animal-assisted therapy, and that aquarium across town in particular, sometime last evening, while they compiled their last investigatory information, but Phoenix checked out mentally in the middle of it. And something about an open-ocean marine sanctuary too, for whales that had been rescued from bad conditions at other institutions but couldn’t live fully on their own in the wild. He has no idea what relevance Athena thought that had. She just likes to talk about whales. “I didn’t even know they had an orca.”

“They don’t,” Dr Crab says. “They’re just harboring her for us.” It doesn’t click right away. Crab goes on. “When I told you about how I’d fake Orla’s death if I had to - I have full confidence I’d be able to, because Jack and I already did it once. Ora’s been living there the last year - we tried to send her into the wild, but she didn’t want to leave Orla, and Orla didn’t want to leave us, and we couldn’t exactly just have an orca hanging out around in the harbor for everyone to keep running into.”

“And that’s why you and the owner were making those mysterious payments,” Phoenix says faintly. DePlume had some wild ideas about conspiracy involving that, but she couldn’t dream this up.

“Yep. Couldn’t exactly force that on the Supermarine’s budget, since she’s our orca, so we’ve been paying them for all her food and care. And orcas eat a lot.”

“I’d believe it,” Phoenix says, still thinking of someone else, someone who eats a lot and puts a serious strain on his wallet when she does.

“Since you’ve proven now that Ora was innocent all along, I figure we’ll bring her back here sooner rather than later,” Dr Crab says. “Not that I know how to budget and run an aquarium, and Sasha doesn’t, either. It’ll be a hell of a learning curve with Jack gone, but I don’t plan on going anywhere - but for now, I think it’d be better if you didn’t go saying anything about what I just told you.”

“Don’t worry,” Phoenix says. “I’ve been told I’m very good at keeping secrets.”

The bitter bend to the words would be hard to miss, but Dr Crab doesn’t move a muscle in his face. “Good. Hey, Sasha,” he calls over to her. “I’ve got my rounds to make and check in on the rest of the animals. Don’t do anything crazy as soon as I turn my back.” To Phoenix, he adds, “You seem to garner some sort of respect among young women in their early twenties, apparently, so I’m tasking you with making sure Sasha doesn’t start trying to show off.”

The average age is more like late teens, and the amount of actual “respect” he gets is up for strenuous debate. “Guess you have to be some sort of a crazy show-off to go get a job working with orcas when you’re a selkie.”

Dr Crab huffs. “Azura wasn’t like that. And I think your one in yellow is contributing to the feedback loop.”

“Athena’s got a - competitive spirit, yeah.”

“I don’t suppose I’ll be lucky enough that this is the last I see of you,” Dr Crab says. “Sasha’s keen on giving all your crew lifetime tickets, if we don’t run our place into the ground figuring out the management side.”

“I learned to run a law office on the fly,” Phoenix says. “Not really the same, but best of luck to you. And thanks for all your help, Dr Crab. I appreciate you being mostly honest.”

Dr Crab snorts, casting one glance back at Sasha and Orla, and he leaves.

Hell of a fortuitous thing, the doctor’s name. Herman Crab, marine veterinarian, weirdly cool with sea witches and selkies and fae. Phoenix doesn’t think names as given determine a trajectory in life, but the fae pick them deliberately. Courtney comes to mind. Or humans who escape the Twilight Realm and aren’t sure how they’re supposed to call themselves other than after what they are or what they do. Eldoon’s father comes to mind. (He wonders how Thalassa got her name.)

But like hell he’d ever ask. Azura‘s story was something Sasha asked, something relevant to all their questions. Case closed. Phoenix isn’t going to cast around trying to find someone with a more fucked-up story than his own. No one wins in that kind of game.

“Hey, Boss!” Athena calls. “Come feed Orla with us!” She and Pearl and Sasha take turns grabbing a fish from a bucket and tossing it to the orca. Phoenix watches her snap her jaws, full of bright white sharp teeth she doesn’t need to use because she just swallows these little fish whole. Thinks of someone else with a mouth full of teeth, not taking the time to chew. Wants to say no thanks. He could tell his girls it’s time to leave and head back to the office.

“All right, fine,” he says, and Sasha springs up with a fish ready to drop in his hands. “What do I do?”

Trucy is very quiet after Prosecutor Edgeworth leaves them back at the office. Apollo asks her if she’s okay and when she says “yeah” she doesn’t even manage to infuse it with her usual mask of cheer, and her fingers twitch red when she says it, her hand flitting up toward her diamond brooch and stopping. It would be easy to call her on it and she knows it, but there’s an unspoken social contract that has slowly coalesced between them all to let little things slide. Athena going quiet and staring off into space or furiously dragging legal textbooks off the shelves and paging through them; Trucy staring at the portrait of her father above the piano or at Phoenix’s desk and the bottom drawer there; Phoenix poking his head into whatever room the rest of them are gathered in if there’s a sudden silence like he’s afraid something happened, or several moments Apollo watched him studying for the Bar where he’d put his head in his hands and dig his hands through his hair about to pull it out. Apollo doesn’t know what makes Athena tick but the others he knows too well, and they let each other have breathing room.

Close to an hour later - it’s past five but Apollo doesn’t want to leave until Trucy has some company - she comes back and hops up onto Phoenix’s desk. “This is the first time Daddy’s been a lawyer since he’s been my daddy,” she says. “It’s his first trial that I’ve ever seen.” She unclips her cape from around her shoulders and tosses it into what looks like empty air, but it falls draped solidly over a wisp. “I was there for his - his last one, but he wasn’t my daddy then, and I was only paying attention to my other daddy to make a diversion for him to escape if he needed it.”

Apollo nods, silently.

“You know something, now, Apollo? I’ve been here half my life now. I’ve been Trucy Wright just a bit longer than I was Trucy Enigmar, and I’m gonna be Trucy Wright for the rest of my life and it’s only gonna be longer and longer now. And I love Daddy and I don’t want to be anywhere else but it’s…”

“Still weird?” Apollo asks. She nods. “I get that.” When he was sixteen it would’ve been about half his life away from Khura’in, except he didn’t have another loving father to ease the sting. Trucy was luckier.

“Did you ever have somewhere you stayed enough to miss it?” she asks. And then hastily she adds, “Never mind, you don’t have to talk if you don’t wanna.” He must have shown panic on his face, panic or pain, but those don’t narrow the answer to her question down. Panic and pain are responses that fit either meaning, that he spent his whole life never setting roots down to have a home, or he’ll spend the rest of his life aching for somewhere long gone. “You’re welcome to stay here forever, you know! You’re like family now!”

It’s a weird sentiment, all considered, that Apollo knows all about the Gramaryes and absolutely does not want to be a part of that, and he also knows that Phoenix is a mess masquerading as a person, and - and yet. It’s not about Apollo, and what he thinks, so much as it is something for Trucy, figuring out how to build a new family out of the ashes her old one left. The Gramaryes brought Apollo to this law office in some roundabout way, like they sent Trucy to Phoenix. Like Apollo can sometimes manage to think that if Dhurke hadn’t sent him away, he wouldn’t have been there for Clay. Or Trucy. Or anyone else.

“Um, thanks,” he says, and she beams, and though it had already been slipping away, he pushes further aside, for some other far future time, the thought of finding another law office to work at. This one case is not enough to expect he’s being pushed aside. And it would break Trucy’s heart and he doesn’t have enough friends that he can afford to do that.

“Here, come look at this,” she says, waving him over conspiratorially, the moment passed. “Daddy left this picture out on his desk. He must’ve been thinking about old times, too.”

Apollo joins her at Phoenix’s desk. “What am I looking at?”

“Uncle Larry argues a lot with Daddy and Uncle Miles about whether they look any older than they did back then,” Trucy says, holding out to him a photograph that she brought in earlier. “You can be the impartial judge!”

The three of them still wear the same colors, whenever this photo was taken. Larry shoved off behind the other two - did Apollo know that Phoenix’s flighty artist friend knew Edgeworth? - wearing an orange suit jacket thrown over what might be a t-shirt. Edgeworth, smiling, and Phoenix, with a golden badge tiny on his lapel. At least eight years ago. Then there’s a taller man in a dark green overcoat off to the right, and to the left, in front of Phoenix and Larry, a girl with long black hair and big, dark eyes, wearing robes almost identical to Pearl’s. “Who’s this?” Apollo asks.

“That’s Detective Gumshoe,” Trucy says. “He’s one of Uncle Miles’ best friends. They’ve worked together since ever. And that’s Maya, one of Daddy’s friends.”

“Is she—?”

“Yeah.” It’s easy to know the question. “I didn’t know that for a while about her, though. He didn’t say. And she didn’t come around enough for me to notice. Not like Pearly visits us.”

“No?”

Trucy shakes her head. “I met her the day I came to live with him and maybe one or two other times and then - Uncle Miles says she used to be here at the office all the time, helping Daddy with his cases and stuff.”

A fae mentor and why not a fae co-counsel too. “Maybe she got bored after he was disbarred,” Apollo suggests. That sounds fickle enough to be fae rationale.

“Pearly said they had a huge fight about him being disbarred and stopped talking so much to each other. About how he was handling it or something. I don’t know. I think Pearly said that Maya wanted to help.”

“I don’t think I’d be brave enough to give one of the - the Fair Folk, the silent treatment,” Apollo says. But he’s not sure he could brace himself well enough for the repercussions of accepting their help either, and thinking about all of those leaves him to trip and land on a euphemism for their name instead. Only some days is he brave enough to call them what they are.

“I’m not sure I would either,” Trucy admits. “But Uncle Miles talks like he and Maya got along well enough and he liked her well enough and he never sounds like he’s afraid of her when he’s always very weird about magic stuff and all of Daddy’s… everything.”

Apollo looks back down at the picture, into the face of the fae girl, her smile that looks like a human smile. “Do you think she still looks this age?” he asks. “Do the fae age like people do?” Or is their development slow the way humans growing up in their realm are?

Trucy shrugs. “Pearly seems to age the same as me, but I don’t know if she does that because she has me as a model for how people grow up, or if she actually would like that.”

There in the photo, behind the fae girl, Phoenix isn’t quite as gaunt and hollow in the face, and next to him Edgeworth isn’t wearing glasses, but though Edgeworth is smiling they both look exhausted, like they haven’t slept well in days, like they’ve been ground down to ashes. “I don’t think they look that much older,” Apollo says, tapping the picture, bringing them back to Trucy’s original question. “I mean, they look really tired there, and that’s about the same.”

“Is that what being old means?” she asks, eyes downcast, twisting her fingers together. “Perpetual tiredness?”

“Oh yeah. Once you turn twenty it’s over. It’s just wanting to constantly go back to bed.” Trucy whimpers. “Enjoy the next four years because that’s all you’ve got.”

“Nooo.”

“Oi! Apollo!” He didn’t hear the door open but there’s Athena appearing in the doorway, hollering at him. “Are you being mean to Trucy?”

“She’s always being mean to me!”

Trucy exaggerates her pout even further, fishing for sympathy, but when Phoenix follows Athena in he bursts out laughing. “Mr Nick!” Pearl scolds, and Phoenix jumps, literally jumps, away from her, avoiding her smack on the arm and knocking Athena into her desk. “You can’t be so mean to your own daughter!”

Trucy breaks into a fit of giggles. “Hey, so, Trucy, Apollo,” Athena says, hoisting herself up on her desk and dropping down behind it out of the way of Phoenix and Apollo. “Guess who’s got free lifetime admission to the shipshape aquarium now, and for friends, too!”

“Ooh, I know who you should invite.” Trucy kicks Apollo in the shin. He knows exactly the answer she has in mind.

“Vera,” he says.

“Oh you know I bet that would be fun,” Trucy says. “That’s not what I was going to say, also.”

“I know you weren’t.” He can’t really leverage himself to kick her back, so he knocks his shoulder into hers. Phoenix is giving them a weird look - not like he’s mad that Apollo is beating up on Trucy in turn. There’s nothing angry at all. Just kind of fond and kind of sad, and when he notices Apollo’s puzzled expression, his face immediately snaps back to lazy-eyed and closed off, a look Apollo’s seen less and less of in the past few months, but it’s always still there, the poker face underneath everything.

“So the answer is you and Mr Wright,” Apollo says to Athena, “because you’re the ones who defended her, right?”

“Ugh, nein, non, no, no,” Athena says. “I wouldn’t be bragging about it if you weren’t included! Sasha says everyone at the agency, and Pearly too! And whatever friends you want to bring, because I also specifically asked that too!”

Trucy kicks Apollo again. Apollo shakes his head.

“We’ll all go together sometime!” Athena says brightly. “And I was thinking, y’know, Mr Wright, I’m really glad you let me come on board here. I love working with all of you!”

“I - uh, yeah, of course.” Phoenix definitely was not prepared for that. There’s another weird look on his face, hesitation, and again he smooths it away with a bit of deliberate effort. “Glad to have you.”

“Good not to be the new kid anymore,” Apollo says with a grin, and Athena sticks her tongue out at him. “And Trucy’s probably glad to have two new kids to heckle.”

Trucy kicks him again.

“Really, anyone? Just - whenever I want to come back, I can bring anyone with me?”

“Of course! I don’t know when the Swashbuckler Spectacular will come back, with my health, or anything like that, but you all will be the first ones to know! And your whole office is welcome and anyone you want to bring along, I’ll hold the front row just for you! Because any friend of yours is a friend of mine, Athena.”

“I - yeah, of course. But - thanks. When this is all sorted out, for you guys here and me with - and everything, there’s someone who I always wanted to visit with and never got a chance.”

“Then c’mon! I’ll look forward to meeting them.”

“Y-yeah, heh, I - yeah.”

#roddy fanfics #fic: the witches of los angeles

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shoeshineyboy · 6 years

Note

will u write a story 500 words or less ft raymond shields

I wrote this specifically for this ask, from Ray’s POV; it’s after Miles leaves the note

“Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death”.

I don’t know whether I want to laugh, or cry. He lost, what, two cases?

Detective Badd sits in my office. I’ve not changed the decor since Gregory passed on, and it’s showing; the couch is fading, and the TV is still a box. Whatever. “Tyrell,” I exhale, because I know what he wants from me, “ why?”

“There is… only so much time…” he says, cryptic as ever, “his whole life… has been a lie.”

“Yes,” I protested, more vigorously than I’d intended, “but can’t he just… I don’t know… get over himself?”

My words were more harsh than I’d intended; this was the child I’d fought for, after all. But, there was something about Detective Badd being sat here, strong and silent, that made me want to fight. Lord knows, Gregory wouldn’t have wanted me to stand aside. He… he wouldn’t have wanted Miles to join von Karma. He told me so.

“Raymond.”

Badd’s word struck me to the core; he’d never spoken to me so abruptly.

“D-Detective?” I answered, feeling very much like that nervous teenager he’d met at Master’s home.

He took the lollipop from his mouth, holding it in his hand. “You… you hate the child, yet you’ve never met him. I wonder… I wonder why that is…”

“He turned to von Karma’s ways!” I protested, my hands slamming down on my guests. “He doesn’t care about Gregory - it was all just for show!”

The bones in my hands ached; I wasn’t one to act this way, even in court. I blew on them, as Badd watched me with a disdainful eye.

“You’re too caught up in the past.”

“I’m… I’m not, I’m trying to keep Gregory’s-”

“And you think that treating his son as a criminal is what he wanted? Are we talking about the same Gregory Edgeworth?” Badd’s tone was level, but there was something threatening in his voice, and I wasn’t about to argue with him. “We’re talking about Gregory Edgeworth.”

“He… he loved his son,” I admitted, “he talked about him all the time. But…”

“But what?” Badd snapped. He towered over me; I remember, now, why I’d hidden behind Gregory.

“Why did he… why did he turn towards von Karma?”

The way Badd stared at me… he knew. He’d been there, he’d been at the case, where I’d given my all to prove that I was a worthy guardian. He’d even taken my side, he’d tried his hardest to prove that Miles would’ve been better off in my care…

“I don’t believe it,” I admitted, finally. “I’ve known him since he was eight, Detective. He wouldn’t… there’s no way…. he wouldn’t.”

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ladyloveandjustice · 7 years

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Honestly, it really shows how far their relationship has come that Franziska is willing to give Miles a chance here.

I mean, when you take a second to think about everything with Miles for the last few years from Fran’s perspective- REALLY think of it- it’s just heartbreaking and it shows a strong bond between them that she’s trusting him enough to even hear him out after all of it.

She’s already stated that it hurt her and she felt abandoned when Miles just sort of left to be prosecutor at his home country and presumably didn’t even keep in touch with her. She was in another country and after not hearing from him or her dad for what was probably quite a while. Then out of the blue she gets a call that like. “So yeah, your dad’s been found guilty of murder. Turns out he killed your adoptive brother’s dad. He actually only adopted your brother in the first place so he could frame him for murder, apparently. And he nearly succeeded, your brother went on trial and everything and nearly got the death penalty, but then your brother’s defense attorney friend exposed your dad as the real killer”.

And you KNOW Miles did not contact her about any of this. This is Miles. He would have been afraid of what her reaction would be to break the news to her. Heck, part of him was probably scared she’d take von Karma’s side and blame him for getting her father arrested. If she tried to call him after hearing this, he would have ignored her calls, being too afraid and overwhelmed to deal with it. So she gets this huge bombshell unloaded on her and isn’t even able to talk to her brother like that. (And in a reflection of Miles’ fears, I can totally see Fran wondering if HE blamed HER and felt she was somehow complicit in her father’s actions)

Then would have also gotten a call that was like” Um, yeah, your brother is he’s missing right now. He left what appears to be a suicide note and we can’t find him.The note says “Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death” so I guess he feels like a failure as a prosecutor after everything? He lost quite a few trials to his defense attorney friend. Yeah, the same one that got your dad convicted.”

So here it is. Not only has she lost her dad, her brother has apparently completely fallen apart in response to everything, given up on his career he worked so hard to and vanished without bothering to talk to her. He didn’t talk to her about anything that happened, he didn’t tell her he was going to do this, even after all they’ve been through and how they studied together to become prosecutors, he didn’t feel she was important enough to talk to about any of this.

So she directs all her anger at the defense attorney who beat him, blaming him for driving Miles to do this, vowing her “revenge”. She refuses to accept he’s dead, he clearly just ran away (I wonder if Miles ever ran away and left weird notes behind when they were kids? I could see that.) Once she beats him, Miles will have to come back and acknowledge her.

When Miles DOES come back, she is angry at him for leaving without saying anything the same way Phoenix is and even expresses it the same way, telling him she never wants to see him again even though that’s specifically what she came here for. She couches it in him being a “disgrace” but the later admits she feels abandoned. And she finds once again Miles has moved on and decided something without her- he doesn’t care about winning anymore, he’s given up on being a “prosecutor” the way they’re supposed to be, once again, leaving her behind. So she gives up. She feels like a failure for not winning, for losing her father and its clear to her she’s lost Miles too, that he doesn’t care about her or how hard she’s trying to prove herself, that he’s left everything that tied them together behind.

But then he comes after her for once.He tells her that he’s not actually giving up on being a prosecutor, that he’s just doing it his way, that he’s continuing down this path he has chosen and he’ll never give up on it again. So if she wants to continue being a prosecutor too, he’ll be there, walking the same path. That’s still something that still binds them. He’s not giving up on all they’ve worked for and he’s not running away again.

And that’s enough reassurance to Franziska for her to keep going. He isn’t abandoning their childhood goal, their dream. And he knows she’s following that path too. She still has that piece of her childhood, that reassurance. She can compete against him and work with him and know she still has a family, that there’s someone else carrying the burden her father had left. As long as he doesn’t give up, she can’t let herself give up either- partly out of spite, partly out of that childhood competitiveness and partly of that desire to keep having a connection to her family as she pursues her goal.

They start to rebuild their relationship after this. They solve cases together, he even backs her up when she’s accused of murder and she starts to trust him again. That he really won’t leave her this time, that they’re actually starting to communicate.

Then Miles just quits being a prosecutor, like it’s nothing, directly going against what he’s promised her. That must feel like such a huge betrayal. She even says it feels like he’s abandoning her again.

But this time, her reaction is different. Franziska decides just because he gives up doesn’t mean she’s going to.She’s accomplished a lot on her own while working for Interpol, without him or her dad. She doesn’t need him to continue forward on her path, she’s going to continue to be a prosecutor for herself.

And then Miles reassures that he actually HASN’T given up, that he is going to keep doing what he did as a prosecutor even without the badge. He’s not running away and he’s still pursuing the truth. They’ve still got that same goal.

it says a LOT that Franziska trusts him enough now to accept this explanation and gives him the chance to prove it to her, even after all that. It says a lot about the bond between them and how much they’ve both grown. She takes him at his word that he’s not going back on the convictions that bind them together and thinks highly enough of him to accept the possibility he can accomplish things even without his badge. And she’s secure enough in their relationship and in herself now to accept this decision if that’s the case, even if she can’t help but feel angry or hurt.

I just...love Franziska. She’s come so far and it makes me proud. And even though it can be hard to tell, she and Miles really have come a long way and trust and believe in each other a lot at this point, in their own way. so I’m also just proud of these loser siblings and love that their relationship has been able to survive all this despite what huge disasters they both are and all the shit that’s happened to them.

#miles edgeworth #franziska von karma #ace attorney #the great ace attorney replay #meta #long post #aka why it's taken me so long to update this liveblog #aai2

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azuresquirrel · 7 years

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Isn’t It Rich? Are We a Pair? - All-Broadway All-Musical Narumitsu Fanmix

LISTEN HERE ON PLAYMOSS

Hey everyone, I’ve started the process of reuploading my old fanmixes to Playmoss so that people can actually LISTEN to them ever since 8tracks started sucking. So the obvious choice for the first one is my pride and joy, my sappy romantic All-Broadway fanmix for Phoenix/Miles from Ace Attorney.

Fanmix cover art by mustachossom.

Tracklist and notes under the cut here.

1. “Best Worst Mistake” from If/Then

It’s not that I don’t love you,‘cause I don’t not love you

And I’d lie to say I’m never sometimes always thinking of you

But when something’s deeply felt, it seems shallow just to say

The thing that’s expected, the same dull cliche

I wanted to start with an upbeat song before plunging into Feelings Hell. And as befitting the concept of the show “If/Then” I consider this to be the “what if” for these two. As in, what if they actually talked about their feelings from the start, these silly boys. With Phoenix as David and Miles as Lucas as if that wasn’t obvious.

2. “I Know Him So Well” from Chess

Looking back I could have played it differently

Won a few more moments who can tell

But it took time to understand the man

Now at least I know I know him well

WILL I EVER NOT ASSOCIATE CHESS TOO CLOSELY WITH ACE ATTORNEY (I still blame you, space). So in “Chess” this is two women singing about the same man (Florence, Anatoly’s mistress, and Svetlana, Anatoly’s wife, because WAY TO BE ANATOLY). In my twisted OTP version this is actually Phoenix and Miles singing separately about each other and how they’ve come to know each other but don’t think they can be together because they are silly and super bad at communication.

3. “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man” from Pippin

And I won’t miss his moods, his gloomy solitudes

His blunt abrasive style

But please don’t get me wrong, he was the best to come along

In a long, long while

Yes I will shove Pippin into everything. Here we have Phoenix’s point of view since it takes Miles a rather long while to learn a better way of coping with things than “FUCK OFF TO EUROPE WHENEVER I FEEL A THING.”

4. “There’s a Fine, Fine Line” from Avenue Q

And I don’t have the time to waste on you anymore

I don’t think that you even know what you’re looking for

For my own sanity, I’ve got to close the door and walk away

ANGST TIME AHOY. This is clearly Phoenix during the whole year of “Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death” and trying very unsuccessfully to convince himself that he’s okay with this.

5. “Anthem” from Chess

And you wonder will I leave her - but how?

I cross over borders but I’m still there now

MILES EDGEWORTH IS CONSTANT IN HIS OWN WAY. AND IS ALSO A BIT OF AN ASS. He may be constantly fucking off to Europe, but he can’t escape the unnecessary feelings in his heart. So in “Chess” this is Anatoly singing about his love for his land (hence the “she” pronouns because MOTHER RUSSIA). So I guess I’ve made the “she” his feelings for Phoenix? I think I lost track of the metaphor in a big way with this one, but we all know that what really matters is HIS LAND’S ONLY BORDERS LIE AROUND HIS HEAAAAAAAAAART.

6. “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music

Isn’t it rich? Are we a pair?

Me here at last on the ground, you in midair

FORGIVE ME FOR THIS ONE, SONDHEIM. Okay, so in the context of “A Little Night Music” this is a rather bitter reflection on a truly dysfunctional relationship, and not much of a love song. But listening to it on its own, I had the image of Phoenix reflecting on his and Miles’ relationship and how they can never seem to get it together or get the timing right (also with a dash of “well I messed up yet again” probably shortly post-disbarment, there should be clowns indeed). (also I may have had the image of Phoenix singing this at the wedding and Miles says “you’ve completely missed the point of the song as usual, Wright” and Phoenix is kind enough to not remark on the tear in the corner of his eye)

7. “Being Alive” from Company

Someone to crowd you with love, someone to force you to care

Someone to make you come through

Who’ll always be there, as frightened as you

Of being alive, being alive

Behold my maximum Miles Edgeworth feelings with this one. In the musical “Company” Bobby is not singing about a specific person, but rather finally accepting the idea of a true connection in his life. Now, however, it is Miles working through his love for Phoenix and how it does not match with what he wanted out of life, but is finally accepting that he does want to share his life with him.

8. “For Good” from Wicked

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood

Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

But because I knew you, I have been changed for good

Yes I have used this on a fanmix before. No, I do not care. I also do not care that it is a cliche, these two OTPs will collide, darnit. Finally they duet again as they speak truly of how much they’ve helped and hurt each other, and happily realize they’ve both changed each other for good.

9. “Bare” from bare: a pop opera

I’ve never been this bare / I’ve never been so scared

I’ve never felt such honesty / Don’t stop we’ll never leave

A moment of such peace / Each of us standing bare

Still you are here with me / Knowing who we have to be

I just needed a super feelsy male love duet for this, and lo here it is. While the story of Peter and Jason’s relationship in “bare” does not have a happy ending (IT VERY VERY MUCH DOES NOT), this romantic song still fits a happier ending for Phoenix and Miles, as they accept that no matter what happens in the future, even if they must part again, their love shall remain forever in their hearts.

10. “Unusual Way” from Nine

In a very unusual way, I owe what I am to you

Though at times it appears I won’t stay I never go

Special to me in my life since the first day that I met you

How could I ever forget you, once you had touched my soul?

In a very unusual way, you’ve made me whole

THANK YOU SPACE FOR THE FINAL PIECE. It seems a bit unfair to end with such a clearly Miles song, but this is my fanmix so what did you expect? It just seemed like the perfect ending, with Miles laying out the unusual and wonderful effect that Phoenix has had on his life.

Wow, still here? Then ENJOY!

#fanmix #my mixes #Ace Attorney #Phoenix Wright #Miles Edgeworth #Narumitsu #Wrightworth #playmoss #OTP #musicals #theatre #Broadway

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