#It’s like right after he got disbarred and adopted trucy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bones-sprouts · 4 years ago

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SELF INDULGENT APOLLO JUSTICE ACE ATTORNEY AU BECAUSE IT BRINGS ME JOY ( SPOILER WARNING ⚠️‼️)

@burnoutandbookworms-ohmy you wanted to be tagged :>

okay so the cast would be as follows

apollo - tommy

phoenix - wilbur

trucy - tubbo

klavier - ranboo (this one's ambitious but hear me out-)

kristoph - dream

ema - techno

lamiroir - kristin

zak - phil (F in chat for mr minecraft 😔)

and then all of the filler characters would be various other smp members (suggestions?)

so then the plot would go as follows (we're bullet pointing this bitch you better run)

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

• so tommy arrives in the courtroom with dream, and he's nervous as hell, because not only is it his first trial

• his client is wilbur fucking soot

• world renouned defense attorney, now disbarred for forging evidence

• but tommy is 110% sure wilbur is innocent

• because wilbur is his HERO

• and then dream introduces them and damn he looks like shit

• i'm talking full pogtopia era get-up, plus a ratty beanie that has wilby painted on it and a crown pin

• so wil spouts the standard cryptic bullshit you'd expect from phoenix

• and tommy does an early smpe earth 'i am so cool and not at all starstruck' type act

• and they head in

• you meet the judge, who i didn't replace bc it's the judge

• tommy does his chords of steel, but with significantly more swearing then apollo would use

�� and dream seems to be just a bit off

• and he goes on this big tirade about blue cards

• the case goes smoothly, until

• tommy feels something akin to a burning from the compass he's kept as a necklace for as long as he can remember

• and he just knows that the witness is lying

• it's like he can see the tiniest of tells that tip him off

• dream doesn't quite understand it, but wilbur looks like he knows exactly what's going on

• before he calls this out, though, a recess is called

• wilbur and dream have a chat, so tommy's left to his own devices

• and this boy about his age in a green magician's outfit runs up to him

• and he looks like an older version of the picture of wilbur's kid that he showed off in court beforehand

• and he hands tommy a (bloody??) playing card and poofs away

• then the trial resumes as normal, with tommy grilling the witness and eventually accusing her

• but it just doesn't seem right

• he knows she's not lying about being innocent, her tells would have tipped him off if she was

• but dream pushes and pushes him to formally accuse her

• until wilbur fucking soot interjects with an OBJECTION!

• while tommy geeks the hell out, wilbur asserts that there must have been someone else in the room

• and accuses dream.

• tommy's confused, and the both of them argue back and forth for a bit, until wilbur starts explaining his theory with evidence from tommy along the way

• but it's seeming like they don't have any non circumstancial evidence

• until wilbur has tommy pull out the playing card

• (i haven't been explaining the case but it makes sense i promise)

• they win the case, with dream never faltering or showing emotion, even after being taken away

• tommy's shaken up, but happy, all things considered

• but before he can ponder on what's just happened, wilbur takes him aside to talk

• and admits the card was forged

• tommy's shocked, and he's sad, and he's angry, because how could wilbur fucking soot forge evidence??

• and he punches him in the face

• wil smiles and gives him an offer to work at his office, since tommy's boss is kind of in jail

• tommy leaves

• but he comes back a few months later, only out of desperation

• he's greeted by the boy from the trial (wil's kid?)

• who demands to know his name and his 'talent'

• tommy says he's a lawyer and introduces himself

• the kid says his name is tubbo and that the building hasn't been a law office in a long time

• tommy asks to see wilbur

• so they go to see him

• in the fucking hospital

• he managed to get hit by a car, which sent him flying 40ft back into a telephone pole

• and he sprained his ankle

• he's very lucky apparently

• so from there, cases 2 and 3 play out (i'm gonna skim though these bc if i write them out ill end up rewriting plot points and i don't have the energy)

• along the way, they meet a few interesting people

• ranboo, a prosecutor who's dream's younger brother and the guitarist for a popular band, that tubbo immediately gets along with and tommy despises

• dispite seeming cocky, he's impressively awkward outside of court

• technoblade, a detective who's fairly standoffish towards tommy and tubbo alike, but has a soft spot for wilbur (do they have a history)

• kristin, a singer with a past she can't remember (unbeknownst to tommy, his compass tends to point towards her and tubbo. odd)

also before we move on to the final case, a quick summary of the dynamics and other small shit bc seritonin

• though wil adopted tubbo, they have much more of a sibling dynamic, and cause general mayhem

• wilbur does actually warm up to tommy fairly quickly (beanix and apollo dynamic, my abbhorrent) and while tommy still doesn't 100% trust wil, they do end up getting pretty close as time goes on

• tubbo and ranboo IMMEDIATELY hit it off, much to the dismay of tommy, and the two of them act like the dummy named micheal that tubbo uses for magic tricks is their son

• tommy acts like he hates ranboo's guts, but that won't stop him from trying to sweet talk his way into getting evidence from him (it always works, ranboo has no spine.) he also, like in canon, vents to ranboo whenever he needs to, and ranboo ends up knowing more ab him then even wil and tubbo

• jack is eldoon. they all go to his noodle shop constantly and tommy always complains about them being too salty. jack hates him with a passion but adores tubbo and wil

• instead of snakooos, techno deadass just has entire bags full of raw potatoes that he eats like chips, this is terrifying to everyone except wilbur, who acts like it's completely normal

• instead of pretending to be taken hostage in case 2, tubbo deadass pretends to have a nuke and threatens to set it off unless a recess is called. after things calm down they go back in and he just,, doesn't get arrested. the law is fucked

• after case 1, dream wears a smiley mask in order to not show his face, paranoid that tommy or someone else like him will know his secrets though his tells

okay now final case here we go

• wilbur tells tommy and tubbo that he's been working on a special trial with the jury system, and that he needs them to defend

• they agree, and go to meet the client

• things generally go like any other investigation, but there's just something about it that feels game changing

• and as they power though the first part of the trial, they start to uncover that there might be someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes

• tommy clocks her tell (chewing her nails) and they start to make progress

• but before they can uncover answers from her, she passes out

• a recess is called, and so are paramedics

• it turns out she's ingested the same kind of poison as the victim, coming from her nail polish

• tommy and tubbo are shaken up, and they go to wil for help

• he decides they need to know the full truth, but he knows that some of the evidence is lost at this point

(and holy shit stay with me here i promise that as out of left field this is the original game made significantly less sense)

• he phones a friend that he knows is the only one that can help them

• karl

• he explains the situation, and karl agrees to help them

• and they fucking time travel

(again, the game makes even less sense i promise)

• they chat with the victim and defendant from seven years beforehand, right after wil was disbarred

• they watch the trial wil got disbarred over, where he defended tubbo's bio father, phil

• and they see a much smaller tubbo hand wil the forged evidence, saying that a kind man told him to give it to the man with the bright blue hamilton suit

• and they watch wil present it, only to be shot down by a much younger ranboo, who proves it's fake

• and they find out tubbo and tommy are bio siblings, which they're shocked about but decide to talk about later (fuck canon tommy and tubbo get to know)

• and they go visit dream in prison

• at this point wil is CONVINCED dream is behind everything, they just need the right evidence

• so they head to the cell, only for it to be empty

• naturally, they start snooping

• wil finds a letter, and opens it to reveal exactly what they need to win the case

• but before they can leave, dream, equipped with a smiley mask, stops them

• they exchange a few words before they leave, letterless

• luckily, wil has a trick up his sleeve, and reveals that his crown pin has a built in camera

• they examine the contents of the letter, and wil hastily makes a replica, and they head off to the trial

• since they're experimenting with the jurist system for the first time, they can't afford to wait for the defendant to heal, so they proceed

• they call dream to the stand

• they grill him for quite a while, with the help of ranboo who refuses to protect his brother, getting him to show his true colors, and then pull out the letter

• and he says that it's a fake, which the judge unfortunately agrees with

• so they don't have their evidence

• and even though they've shown pretty much everything and dream had practically admitted to bring a murderous bastard and the one who gave tubbo the fake to give to wil

• they don't have enough to convince a judge

• tommy and tubbo are crushed

• but wil is happy

• because they don't have to convince a judge

• they have to convince a jury

• and they win

• dream shatters along with his mask, going completely off the deep end

• their client is safe, and so is wil

• kristin also reveals to wil that she's tommy and tubbo's bio mom, saying that she'll tell them when she's really

• so things come to a close

• for now, anyway

so yeah, thats AJ but dsmp, to anyone who didn't play the game, i'm so sorry this makes no sense, and to anyone who did, you're cool as hell can we be moots 👉👈

#i could do dd but i won't bc i hate dd #dream smp #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #tubbo #tubbolive #wilbursoot #clingy duo #dreamwastaken #ph1lza #mcyt #ranboo #technoblade #sleepy bois inc #loyal duo #allium duo #bee duo #bench trio

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bevioletskies · 4 years ago

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(i wanna take) forever tonight

summary: Apollo liked to think he was the kind of person who always had a plan, no matter the circumstances. He didn’t plan on letting his sister drag him to a rock concert the night before his very first day in court. He didn’t plan on spilling his drink all over the lead singer or going home with him. And he definitely, definitely didn’t plan on his one-night stand being his rival prosecutor on the morning after.

pairings: apollo/klavier, phoenix/edgeworth (established)

word count: 25.5k (3 chapters; complete)

a/n: This fic takes place in an alternate universe in which things mostly remain the same, except Phoenix never gets disbarred and he goes on to adopt Apollo and Trucy around the same time. Fic title is from the song (I Wanna Take) Forever Tonight by Peter Cetera.

preview (from ch. 1):

A hesitation lingered in the air for just a moment, their eyes meeting, and then, Klavier was kissing him, clumsily reaching back to set his glass onto the coffee table so he could rest his other hand along the side of Apollo’s neck, thumb ghosting the underside of his chin. Apollo kissed him back enthusiastically, winding his free arm around Klavier’s waist and pulling him closer. After a moment, he pulled back, laughing.

“Ah - is something wrong, Apollo?” Klavier looked at him worriedly while he also set his glass down.

“Sorry, I was just thinking - ” Apollo let out another undignified snort, shaking his head “ - I’m no expert at hooking up, but don’t people at least make out a little before confirming they wanna sleep with someone? Like, isn’t it kinda weird we got to this point without knowing if the other person is at least a decent kisser?”

“You mean like a lack of chemistry?” Klavier suggested, trying not to laugh as well.

“No, I literally mean, like...what if I was a really aggressive biter, or you were the kind of person who keeps shoving his tongue in my mouth every two seconds?” Klavier finally let out a snort of his own. Apollo shoved him half-heartedly on the shoulder. “I-I’m serious! Then we’d have to make excuses to stop, right? Because, well, it can only go downhill from there.”

“You think of the strangest things, baby,” Klavier said fondly, pulling Apollo closer so he was settled between Klavier’s knees, their chests pressed together. “Well, if you’re so concerned, maybe we should try that again and see what we think, ja?”

“No objections here,” Apollo murmured, leaning in to kiss him again.

(read on ao3)

#klapollo #kyodoroki #ace attorney #klapollo fic #ace attorney fic #myfic #long post #this fic is a little more angsty than the preview might make it seem lmao #tysvm to everyone who read/commented/kudoed!!#this one was fun to write especially with them having a more playful dynamic

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iridescentoracle · 2 months ago

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also i really am so fascinated by the possibilities of the trucy-klavier dynamic in this rewrite tbh

because on the one hand i kind of want it to just be “exactly like their canon dynamic should be but isn’t” because what their canon dynamic should be is so interesting, but also if she’s not adopted by the lawyer who got disbarred over the gramarye trial, then she has less reason to hold a grudge against klavier? bc #1 she doesn’t wind up knowing & loving someone whose life klavier had a hand in ruining (unless you count zak gramarye, but) #2 even more interestingly tbh: she probably has no way to know the (ex-)lawyer was framed—sure, she probably knows the page she gave him turned out to be the forgery that he got caught using, but as far as she would know, the lawyer really was the one who commissioned it, because why would they keep in touch after the trial, and so how would she learn otherwise?

and on the flip side, her father wasn’t proven innocent of her grandfather’s murder and phoenix wright’s reputation remains excellent (and he and edgeworth are definitely married), so from klavier’s perspective trucy probably seems to have wound up doing just fine (vs in canon where, like, [gestures at phoenix’s appearance and place of work and nominal-and-actual jobs and the amount of money he appears to make at them] one of many reasons klavier should be Weird About This, Actually) but on the other hand on top of the weirdness of “i prosecuted your dad for murder and then he vanished and didn’t take you with him” (which is just as weird) and whatever he feels abt the disbarment/kristoph’s involvement/etc, there’s now “and now one of your adoptive parents is my coworker” (and depending on how far in advance edgeworth becoming chief prosecutor was a thing people knew was going to happen, "and probably my new boss eventually”)

which all feels like it should add up to a different flavor of weird on both sides, especially trucy’s?

which might be the only thing i’m sad abt w/r/t this au because no seriously i’m so obsessed with what their canon dynamic should be. so i go back and forth but i do think like realistically, like. klavier feels just as weird about trucy but only for like 80% of the same reason, but it still works out to “he tries very hard to maintain his Professional Rockstar Facade™ but if they actually have a conversation that lasts more than a couple minutes the cracks start to show, and also it never fools trucy for a second.”

trucy, though, realistically, i think actually feels less weird abt him than-i-think-she-should-in-canon—not not weird; on some level deep down i think there’s still a part of her that’s always going to be an 8yo girl that doesn’t know what’s going on but does know that man is the reason her daddy vanished and left her behind, because that’s the kind of thing i don’t think ever really completely goes away, but i think she probably learned pretty quickly that it was because he was trying to do the right thing and her daddy’s defense attorney was the one who actually did something bad, and she had no way to know just how complicated and messy the whole story was until the news broke about 4-1.

(and she didn’t necessarily learn that klavier even had a brother until then, either; that part is up in the air bc edgeworth could easily have faced him in court in the intervening years so theoretically it could have come up, but she has no reason to learn anything about him besides his name until 4-1 goes down regardless, so the broader point stands.)

…so what she does know is that klavier feels pretty bad about what happened with her dad, and also that he feels super awkward about her being his senior coworker/possible future boss’s kid, and she thinks both of those are pretty funny, so instead of just telling him it’s fine and she’s not actually holding a grudge about the gramarye trial (much), she acts like she doesn’t know anything’s weird and pretends she’s a huge fan of his stupid cop rock band just so he’s gotta juggle being in Rockstar Mode on top of everything else

like, it’s not as weird as canon should be, but it’s complicated bc in canon their relationship should be super weird but also apollo’s shitty mentor shouldn’t be phoenix, that’s bad writing and a deliberate slap in the face to the fans, etc etc. so if we accept that canon is canon, then trucy-and-klavier’s relationship should be really weird, but also canon shouldn’t be canon. so it’s complicated and i have mixed feelings about it. but also i'm obsessed

The Klavier Problems Post

so. i talked about a bunch of things in that post i made earlier about how to fix apollo justice (the game though also the character) including all the little things i would do but the two big changes i think are needed to fundamentally fix this game are 1) making apollo’s inscrutable asshole mentor a separate character from phoenix wright 2) make klavier gavin an actual goddamn person.

and i talked about #1 at length last time, so here’s the post about #2.

so, klavier gavin. i keep trying to come up with metaphors that don’t feel too clunky to actually use in a sentence and not being satisfied but to me he is several pieces of cardboard lovingly painted and assembled to make roughly half the shape of a person, held together by three staples and a prayer. what’s there is great! it’s just. not an entire character.

conceptually he’s fantastic. an actually nice and helpful prosecutor? WILD. absolute galaxy brain development. who knew you could have one of those. an apparently nice and helpful prosecutor who has ties to the game’s main villain and so might be playing the long game, leaving the audience and potentially protagonist suspicious and unsettled the whole time, only to eventually prove himself genuinely a good person when things get desperate? excellent twisty fun, and provides obvious and delightful room for things to get interesting and complex.

and even in practice, there’s parts of that that are genuinely executed well! there’s at least a half-dozen points over the course of 4-2 and 4-3 where he clearly knows what’s really going on and gives apollo the opportunity to figure it out/prove it when he could’ve just gone for an easy win. he actually plays way more fair than literally any other prosecutor so far up to and including edgeworth in the matt engarde case! he’s way more forthcoming with info during investigation segments than anyone else would’ve been, both directly and by providing access to crime scenes apollo was otherwise blocked from, and i swear during the first trial especially he, like, hand-fed apollo the win. that’s FASCINATING and so so different from anything we’ve seen before, i love it.

the problem is… kind of the everything else? or like, that there isn’t anything else. he’s set up to be this massively complex character who actually has by far the most difficult/horrible time over the course of the game, and the writers just… forgot to actually put the complexity in.

he’s got all the pieces of an amazing character—this consummate performer who’s always putting on a show, perpetually performing who he wants to be and how he wants his audience to see him, hiding his true feelings from everyone around him, that’s great, that’s always a good time. someone genuinely good-hearted and honest who truly believes in justice and doing the right thing and playing fair so sincerely and completely that they can’t even see that the people they love are secretly evil? again, that’s great! i love that! that’s so compelling!!

but like. [padme amidala meme voice] okay so he’s a consummate performer who hides all his feelings. he does have actual feelings, though, right? okay so he’s genuinely sincerely good and honest and kind and would pick justice and truth over letting his loved ones get away with murder if forced to make that choice? again, he does have feelings about that, though, right? that’s not an easy choice to make?

and while i do love the introduction of a prosecutor who plays fair and is nice and friendly instead of [literally every other prosecutor in the entire series both before and after this game], it’s really fucking weird how chill he is about interacting with apollo and trucy. like. really fucking weird. why are they all so normal about each other? why is klavier so chill about helping his brother’s ex-employee who proved his brother was a murderer and the daughter of the man his brother framed for said murder? like. even if he’s all Professional™ to the point of managing to hide whatever he must be feeling just about his brother being a convicted murderer, how how HOW is he so normal whenever he’s interacting with apollo and trucy. it’s WEIRD it should be SO WEIRD where is the tension??

even more weirdly, why isn’t apollo weird about interacting with klavier gavin, in turn? even if we want to assume klavier is Just That Good at maintaining his persona, apollo is not a professional musician and doesn’t seem like a very good actor. he should feel extremely weird about this guy and he just… does not seem to. for that matter, trucy should feel weird too! that doesn’t need to be something the game actually digs into, it could be implied in passing that she’s also doing the performance thing and hiding all her actual emotions in favor of showing a carefully crafted persona to the world and that she only shows what she’s actually feeling to phoenix, in private, but NOPE not even vague implications in that direction really, she’s just. actually totally normal around klavier gavin and is a huge fan of the gavinners somehow??

but the weirdness (or rather, baffling lack thereof) doesn’t end with apollo and trucy.

again, not wanting to talk about/show how he feels about his brother for most of the game totally makes sense, he’s a consummate performer with a well-practiced facade etc etc, he isn’t even in 4-1 so by the time we meet him he’s already had time to practice being His Normal Professional Self. he’s got this. in my hypothetical rewrite he’s got this slightly less around apollo and trucy specifically because of their very specific personal connections but if we hear him talking to ema or to other people he’s definitely got this.

but in canon he literally finds out during a trial that one of his bandmates/good friends is also a murderer and a smuggler and was the one responsible for setting his guitar on fire which he was SUPER upset about earlier in the case, and his reaction to daryan’s confession is… playing air guitar and saying “you’re not in the band anymore btw.” there’s a couple minutes in the last case where he’s like “oh shit my brother committed a LOT more crimes than i thought actually” before he goes back to not caring. like, setting aside his expression bc limited number of sprites etc etc, based specifically on the actual dialogue he’s clearly distressed about the possibility of kristoph having been responsible for poisoning vera, apollo openly says “but you clearly think it is possible,” and then klavier is like “eh fuck it, i knew something awful was going on, yeah let’s make my brother testify” and… that’s it. air guitar time. kristoph spends half his time on the stand insulting/manipulating klavier/attempting to undermine klavier’s confidence in himself and it’s clearly working! until suddenly klavier’s like “haha yeah no it’s all good.” in the credits scene he compares the trial in which he found out his brother had attempted to kill at least three different people and he himself was partially complicit in kristoph being convicted, positively, to a rock concert.

like. there’s maintaining a professional facade and then there’s that.

he deserves to be so goddamn compelling. but like. in practice he’s not even a person. why doesn’t he CARE. why doesn’t he care kristoph is a murderer. why doesn’t he care apollo proved it. why doesn’t he care daryan is a murderer. why doesn’t he care kristoph is a murderer again, and also forged evidence and used klavier to ruin someone’s career and presumably would’ve used the forged evidence himself to win under false pretenses in klavier’s first case if he had the chance and and and. why doesn’t he care in the next game that his mentor got murdered. let him be a person with interiority i am begging.

but like. this is what i keep coming back to. i could fix it. i could fix him. not in the “oh i could fix him” generally-dating-related sense. more like the opposite of that actually. i could make him psychologically MUCH worse. but as a character he would actually be good.

it should’ve been such an amazing dramatic reveal/twist in the last case when the scope of kristoph gavin’s crimes begin to be revealed and klavier stays true. all game, he’s too nice and too helpful and apollo and trucy feel more than a little awkward interacting with him even though he’s always perfectly polite to them despite little hints of something darker underneath, moments when his perfect facade falters. he should keep apollo/the player off balance and unsure what to think of him, and we should suspect that he’s just as bad as kristoph but playing the long game even better.

and we get to the final case and realize kristoph gavin has been behind everything and at first klavier acts like he doesn’t believe it, and we brace ourselves for klavier to show his true colors and push the judge to end cross-examination and let kristoph get off scot-free even though we know he’s behind everything and we know klavier knows—

and then he doesn’t.

he hasn’t known all along, he wasn’t in on it, he’d adamantly repressed any suspicions he’d had all those years—so the gradual reveal that kristoph was behind everything is completely devastating, not least because he has to learn and process it all on the stand in front of everyone (not least both apollo and kristoph himself), and so the evidence builds, and finally, klavier has a whole entire breakdown of his own, that’s if anything longer and more dramatic than kristoph’s

and then he collects himself, and he apologizes, and he helps us win the case.

that would be

so goddamn compelling

and i genuinely don’t understand why that’s not what the game gave us. we were so close to getting that, why did he just brush it off? why didn’t he care?

so in the secret good version in my head, that’s what happens.

there should be differences in how he’s written outside the courtroom, too, though. like i said before, in canon, apollo-and-klavier and trucy-and-klavier should feel extremely fucking weird about interacting with each other and be varying levels of good at hiding it but none of them should be perfect, and i think it’s a major writing/characterization flaw that none of that is true. in this version, though, the situation is a little different: trucy could still potentially be a little weird around klavier gavin bc he’s kind of part of why her original dad abandoned her (and vice versa), but she doesn’t actually have to be.

because here’s the thing: in this au, klavier hasn’t done anything to phoenix at all except (if he didn’t take the whole seven years off for his band—which, given that he did still get someone disbarred thanks to his brother’s tip and probably still had weird feelings to repress about that, he might have!) potentially face him sometimes in court (where, as in canon, he’s an entirely fair and reasonable opponent who doesn’t resort to anything beyond lighthearted insults and is an extremely graceful loser, and in general is an absolutely delightful change of pace from the paynes or who-have-you), and while he is part of why trucy’s original dad left, that was as much (as far as she knows) the fault of shadi’s defense attorney for forging evidence instead of proving him innocent fair and square, and if her dad had actually cared he could’ve come back for her eventually, so while she probably isn’t sure about klavier right at first regardless, i think it would be plausible for her to not have any sort of a grudge by the time the game actually happens?

conversely, though, if phoenix stays a defense attorney he and edgeworth definitely get married within, like, a year, tops. so while trucy might not be weird about klavier, at least by the time the plot of the game kicks off, he’s kind of nervous around her, just like. not bc of the zak gramarye trial. because one of her dads is his boss.

but then that just makes any conversation trucy-and-apollo have with klavier that much more fun bc as far as trucy’s concerned, here’s that cool prosecutor who’s one of the nicest people she knows from her dads’ jobs! while klavier is slightly terrified but in a normal polite kind of way, and meanwhile trucy and apollo have their canon pseudo-siblings-because-they-don’t-know-they’re-biological-siblings dynamic, and finally klavier and apollo interacting is every bit as fucked up and tense as they should be about each other in canon bc oh my god you’re why my brother was exposed as a murderer and got sent to jail / oh god you’re my evil ex-boss’s younger brother, and how the hell do you talk to someone like that? because that’s what their dynamic should have been in canon and frankly we were robbed

nyquildriver: klavier being polite and helpful but obviously taken off guard frequently by these two would be so entertaining nyquildriver: it gives us the tension that we want while not being like, bizarre about it and resorting to like. flirtation? that feels weirdly like pandering nyquildriver: although klavier disguising his uneasiness with flirtation? that would be an interesting choice iridescentoracle: YES i actually love the idea of klavier flirting reflexively as like. a defense mechanism. when he’s stressed and doesn’t know how to respond he leans harder into the rockstar persona which includes flirting with everyone whether he remotely means it or not. it fits into what we do see of klavier in canon so well but like. turns him into more of a real person?

nyquildriver: honestly the pieces are there! they just didn't arrange them into a complete picture of a person, argh nyquildriver: after their first meeting apollo: what the fuck was that trucy: was he… into you? apollo: I don't think he was, which is why that was weird as hell??? nyquildriver: trucy's favorite running joke now is klavier flirting with apollo like he's a fan nyquildriver: she buys gavinners merch to plant on apollo/his things on the off chance that klavier sees it because the reaction should be hysterical nyquildriver: and that is worth giving up her allowance for however many years

iridescentoracle: god. and the like, deeply comedic irony that of literally everyone in the world who he could have this awkward and specific a relationship with, it just happens to be the one guy who can tell he absolutely does not actually mean the flirting and is perpetually accompanied by his sister who can also tell iridescentoracle: like, if apollo was ANYONE ELSE he might be able to actually pull off using Flirty Rockstar Klavier Gavin as a façade to get through interactions convincingly normally. but unfortunately, nyquildriver: and it would be a great way to keep the player off guard and suspicious of him too!

#aa tag #AA4 #character: klavier gavin #character: trucy wright #aa posts #aj rewrite tag #my brain has been pingponging wildly between miraculous ladybug ace attorney detective conan and yuri on ice for a week #it's been an interesting time

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rivalsforlife · 4 years ago

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Different anon, but I for one enjoy reading 2k rants on Ace Attorney. Do you have any thoughts on the changes they made to AA4 Phoenix? Like do you think it worked? (also if these are getting annoying feel free to ignore)

Glad to hear I’m not completely annoying everyone for constantly dunking on AA!!!

AA4 Phoenix... I’ve got to admit that the first time I went through AA4 I did not exactly like him. But I feel like there’s a LOT of potential there that would have been great to explore in laTER GAMES -- ahem. Well, I did just play the first case of AA4 yesterday with my best friend, and honestly, Phoenix is an absolute delight. My perceptions of characters tend to change upon further playthroughs and reading meta/content on the characters (Iris and Pearl being others who I really started liking later that I didn’t like at first)!

Firstly, I think making Phoenix a dad was a great move, the man already had some good dad-vibes going with Pearl in the trilogy so making it official was good. I also enjoy how they made Phoenix a dad in a way that didn’t feel... off? Like, giving Phoenix an official love interest and him having a biological child would kind of feel weird. But Phoenix has kind of been accumulating children/teenagers that like to follow him around for a while, and having Trucy actually stick around and make it official is really sweet, and their relationship and dynamics are such a great part of the fourth game. It’s done in a way where at first I was like “wait what do you MEAN Phoenix has a child???” but upon learning how he came to adopt her, I thought it made a lot of sense, it fit so well with the Phoenix we’ve come to know over the past few games.

Also one of his first lines is just a dad joke (”I-I’m fine!” “Mr. Fine, was it?”) which made me laugh a lot when playing it yesterday.

It’s also good to see him be a little mean, and show just how much of a genius he’s really capable of being. He’s always had that snarky streak throughout the trilogy and having him actually speak it out loud is great. And he’s also always been a genius, even if people around him don’t acknowledge it, and seeing him take a leaf out of Mia’s book and be the Cryptic Slightly Ominous Mentor is an interesting development for him. Like, it’s been seven years, I can believe Phoenix went through a lot of growth in those seven years.

(I do feel like a lot of the hate AA4 Phoenix gets tends to be from people who projected too much onto Phoenix as the protagonist in the trilogy -- which makes sense since he was originally kind of just intended to be a blank slate protagonist. ... Which I might’ve bought if they didn’t give him the elaborate backstories about becoming a lawyer to save Miles and the Dahlia backstory. Anyways, point is, I don’t really ever see myself in characters because I have a very loose sense of self to begin with, so I never really had that issue...?)

The things I DON’T like about AA4 Phoenix... first, it does kind of sting that two months after his Great Big Finale where he’s finally come into his own as a lawyer, he gets disbarred, and that isn’t resolved for seven years. Seven years is a long time! But I can live with that. There’s also the fact that AA4 rarely brings up any of Phoenix’s friends -- which in the one hand I get, because it’s Apollo’s game, not Phoenix’s -- and it’s odd. I know that Investigations was written after AA4 and is not by Takumi, so he didn’t really have any say in this, but even BEFORE Investigations I can’t believe that Miles would presumably abandon Phoenix over the gap. Particularly not after the ending of the second investigations game. Maya, too. She gets a few offhand mentions, sure, but even in the flashback there isn’t any mention of Phoenix having any contact with Maya, Miles, even Gumshoe... Ema mentions she didn’t even know Phoenix had a daughter, implying they weren’t really in contact either... and of course when only Maya gets a mention about Steel Samurai stuff in the fourth game, it feels like all his friends completely abandoned him. Which is why there are so many older fics written before DD was released where Phoenix was completely alone over the seven-year-gap. And while of course having the characters make an in-person appearance wouldn’t make any sense, having maybe a few random dialogue lines mentioning Phoenix was still in contact with them and they were still close would have been nice. DD and SOJ kind of fix this, but... still.

The other issue is that he kind of ends up overshadowing Apollo’s story particularly in the final case. He is the one who connects everything, and sets everything up, pretty much just using Apollo as a puppet to take down Kristoph since he can’t. Also since the whole story is about Phoenix and uncovering his past, Apollo’s own choices have much less weight. This, again, is something that could be resolved in the sequels by having Apollo have a larger role and not be overshadowed by Phoenix. Haha. hahahahaha. imagine that.

Overall I think Takumi had the right idea making Phoenix not be the protagonist since his story was done with T&T, and it’s interesting to see his growth throughout the years. I don’t necessarily think the disbarment itself was necessary -- Phoenix could still be the ominous cryptic and slightly meaner mentor/dad with his badge, and not in the spotlight, which is what I think DD and SOJ should have done after giving him his badge back. Would have liked it if it wasn’t so easy to walk away from the game with the impression that all of Phoenix’s beloved friends cut contact with him, though.

#aa4 spoilers #if anyone still needs that warning #also I should start tagging these if people don't want to see them #aa rants #asks

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ratcourtjester · 4 years ago

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Phoenix yawned, locking the door quietly as he came in. Trying to step around the growing amount of magic prompts that were quickly accumulating in his old office since adopting his daughter, he peaked in the makeshift room to make sure his little girl was actually asleep. Surprisingly enough, she was. Thank God. He stretched and cracked his neck, maneuvering to the couch in the old client waiting area he had since claimed as a bed. He smiled a little seeing the little chocolate heart box sitting on the coffee table with a hand made card, the words 'For Daddy' written in blue crayon and decorated with glitter. Maya must of taken her to the store to get it before she left. He'd call and thank her in the morning. It had been a tough three years but fuck if that kid wasn't his little glimmer of hope for the future.

Polishing off the last of the candy, he decided he wasn't as tired as he had been when he came home from his game and headed over to the kitchenette they had made when converting the office into an apartment. He grabbed the step stool and grabbed the bottle off the top of one of the shelves Larry had helped him build and install his last trip down from the mountains. As much flack as he had given his childhood friend, the change in lifestyle really did seem to be good for him. Go figure.

His thoughts broke from one childhood friend to the other as he turned the bottle in his hands. He had never had this party brand of wine, never even heard of it, but considering who had gifted it to him, it was no doubt expensive. He grabbed himself a (semi) clean wine glass and paused a beat before grabbing a second. It didn't feel right to drink this alone. After assuring once again that Trucy was asleep, he dialed a familiar number before turning it on speaker. If his math was Wright then the other man would have been in his Berlin office for the past couple hours now. Sure enough, Miles picked up on the 3rd ring.

"Shouldn't you be asleep, Wright?" Miles asked in lieu of a greeting. He was right of course, it was nearing 4am in LA.

"I just got home." He argued quietly, popping the cork and pouring the wine into the glasses.

"That's even more of a reason to be sleeping, I'm sure Trucy will be waking you in a few hours regardless of when you got home." Again, he was right. Trucy tried to let him sleep most of the time but there was only so much an eleven year old could do to take care of herself and she was still uneasy using the old stove in their kitchenette to make breakfast. Nonetheless Phoenix grinned, recorking the bottle.

"And Truce has reserved that right. However, Prosecutor Edgeworth, " He teased. "You and I have a long standing date." His smile only widened hearing the long suffering sigh from the other side. He was gonna just let it slide this year but had been painfully reminded of their little tradition when he grabbed the bottle. He really did hate drinking alone.

"Wright," Miles said slowly, using the same tone he used when he was explained big legal terms to Trucy. "It is 11:43am for me."

"And no one is going to fault you for having a glass of wine with your lunch." He pointed out in his 'take that!' tone. Another long suffering sigh but sure enough Phoenix heard a cabinet being unlocked and the clink of glasses. Maybe he should feel bad that Miles had found it harder to tell him 'no' after his disbarment, but if it kept them being able to have their yearly Valentine's Day date even from entirely different countries then Phoenix couldn't bring himself to feel too guilty. Granted, they had really only started it after the whole Dahlia/Iris situation but it had meant a lot more to him than Phoenix thought Miles knew. And when they finally pulled their respective heads out of their asses and got together, of course it had to be the year Miles made the official move back to Germany. He'd come back to LA at some point, he had promised, and Phoenix really couldn't fault him. He was doing important work. That didn't mean he didn't miss him like crazy.

"You're insufferable, are you aware of that?" Miles annoyed but fond teasing brought him back from his thoughts, causing him to chuckle.

"No but I have a boyfriend to remind me everytime I call." He countered, sipping his wine. Damn, it was good. No surprise.

"I see, and what exactly does he get out of the relationship?."

"The honor of my delightful company, of course."

"Somehow I think you're getting the better part of that arrangement." Miles replied dryly, causing Phoenix to laugh again. They talked for a bit, about how Trucy and Kay were doing, about some of Miles' cases, Pess, how much Phoenix missed Pess, even made plans for him and Trucy to fly out to Germany in the coming months. Soon enough they lulled into a comfortable silence, sipping their wine and enjoying each other's company from thousands of miles away. However, eventually the wine was gone and Edgeworth had to return to his work, Phoenix had already managed to drag out the conversation much longer than he had intended and Trucy would surely be up soon. He took the phone off speaker and pressed it to his ear as he rinsed the glasses out, saying their goodbyes. He yawned deeply and stretched when they finally hung up. Flopping on the couch he turned on his alarms and texted Maya to let him know what time she left the train station so they could meet up for their annual Valentine's Day dinner later that day when another text came in. Phoenix smiled reading it and tapped out a reply before finally falling asleep.

Happy Valentine's Day, Wright. I love you.

Happy Valentine's Day, Miles. I love you too.

#wrightworth #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #valentine's day #writing prompt

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snezfics-n-shit · 4 years ago

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Home For The Holidays - An AA fic that’s way too long

I’ve been thinkin bout that post that’s like “character with the kink is sneezing a lot and their partner who usually indulges them is having fun with How The Turns Have Tabled” so now I give you a Wrightworth + snzfcker Phoenix fic based on that exact premise. In which Phoenix re-introduces Miles to Mama Wright, Christmas is celebrated for 2 months straight, and disaster man Phoenix is back on his bullshit.

Tbh if I kept this lying around I’d just keep editing and it’d never get done oof but please enjoy

Phoenix’s mother had clearly purchased a new doorbell. The tune echoed from behind the door at the press of the button; this year, it was much louder and played Jingle Bells a month too early. Speaking of a month too early, other than a rather articulate variant of a ‘no soliciting’ sticker, the decorations on the door were Christmas themed as well, completely skipping Thanksgiving and likely put up the day after Halloween. That was just how Mrs. Wright was: a major Christmas enthusiast through and through.

Just as expected, she greeted her son and his family while sporting a comfy Christmas-themed sweater. Cats in Santa hats, a design that had Trucy in awe at how cute they were. Christmas and cats, two of Mrs. Wright’s joys in life. Mrs. Wright had little contact with family members other than Phoenix and Trucy, so she resolved a lot of the resulting loneliness by adopting cats. The cats she adopted were a lot like her, having few blood relatives around and finding a home in a found family.

“Phoenix! You’re early!” Mrs. Wright looked up and down at her son, assessing just how many extra pies she would need to make; he was skin and bones since he had been disbarred! “You didn’t have to shave before you came, dear. The holiday is this Thursday, so you have time to make yourself look nice.”

“You tell me that every time I visit, mom.” Phoenix chuckled. “Today, I have a good reason to look nice. There’s someone I’d like for you to meet.”

“Well, I know I’ve met your adorable daughter before.” Mrs. Wright leaned down to give Trucy a big hug. “You have no idea how happy I am to have a grandbaby to spoil!”

“You tell me that every time, too.” Phoenix stepped to the side, showing off Miles, who had done a spectacular job at hiding behind him before the big reveal. “This is my boyfriend, Miles Edgeworth. I’ve been meaning to tell you since we started dating, but only now does he have a day off where you can finally meet in person.”

“Wait, Miles?” Mrs. Wright blinked a few times. Miles was certainly as well dressed as the boy she remembered Phoenix bringing home so many times, but was he the same person? “That sweet boy who would always help me with the dishes when he stayed over? This is him?”

“I believe so, Mrs. Wright.” Miles hardly remembered his youth well enough to give a definite answer, but that sounded like something he would have done. It sounded like something he would do even now, actually.

“Sounds like you found yourself a keeper, dear.” Mrs. Wright held the door open wider to let the trio in. “It’s awfully chilly today. Come inside before you catch a cold.”

The walls were lined with framed pictures of Phoenix, with unsurprisingly many of which being of him celebrating Christmas. The trend continued even with pictures of Trucy that Phoenix had sent to his mother. While there weren’t nearly as many, there were a few notable photos of Phoenix’s parents: the pictures taken when they renewed their wedding vows and when Mrs. Wright got her associate’s degree after Phoenix started working with Mia, for example.

“Ah, now I remember.” Miles looked a little uncomfortable with the holiday-centric décor. “Your mother’s Christmas obsession.”

“Be nice.” Phoenix whispered. “It’s something she really likes; it’s not hurting anyone.”

“I love Grandma’s reindeer!” Trucy lifted herself with her tiptoes, eager to see the skillfully crafted wooden reindeer lining the shelf above the shoe rack. “Rudolph’s my favorite! Because he made everyone real sorry for making fun of him!”

“He did, didn’t he?” Phoenix slipped off his shoes and hung up his and Miles’s coats on the coat rack. “I like him, too. He had a talent that really turned Christmas eve around.” That sounded much like how he used to be in the courtroom. He missed that courtroom a lot.

“I’m gonna go find Buster!” Trucy ran off. Buster was one of Mrs. Wright’s cats; his big personality quickly made him Trucy’s favorite. Phoenix, however, was more fond of Doily (formerly Dollie), a friendly and relaxed cat who was happy as long as she had somewhere to sit. There were three more: a senior cat named Gerald, a gray tabby named Della, and a new kitten named Harvey. While it seemed like a lot of cats, the home Phoenix’s parents resided in after Phoenix left for Ivy University was specifically picked to be spacious enough for even the most rambunctious cats.

“I believe you told me you wanted to introduce me to your parents’ cats, correct?” Miles followed Phoenix to one of the living room couches. “And you’re sure they’re not aggressive or anything?” While Miles knew dogs had a history of being working and companion animals, he couldn’t exactly say he had read any solid proof of cats earning a similarly high status. Even the nicest cats he had met always seemed more interested in leaving as many scars on his hand as possible than being friendly with him.

“I can vouch for all but Harvey, since he’s new, but my mom has always been something like a cat whisperer.” Phoenix yanked a tissue from the end table next to the couch’s arm rest. “I’m sure they’ll like you a lot.” He smiled before blowing his nose softly. “My nose must be thawing out.” He chuckled.

“I told you to bring your scarf when I called you.” Mrs. Wright called out from the kitchen. “Now you’re catching a cold, aren’t you?”

“No, I feel fine.” Phoenix rubbed the bottom of his nose with the tissue folded in half. “Just part of warming up.”

“I’m surprised you’d forget your scarf for someone who claims going out with a wet head spells ‘pneumonia.’” Miles hummed.

“Hey, you know it’s not scarf weather.” Phoenix chuckled and tossed the tissue into the trash bin, impressed that he made the shot. Miles found it amusing that Phoenix completely ignored the wet head comment, likely because he really did tell Miles and Trucy that all the time. “It is the perfect weather for mom’s homemade stew, though.”

“I’m eager to try it, considering you’ve been talking it up since she called to invite us over.”

“It’s really good!” Phoenix repeated the claim he had been making for weeks. “I can’t wait for you to try it.” He pressed his knuckle against his nose. “Hopefully it’ll be dinner soon.”

“That won’t be for a while, I’m afraid.” Mrs. Wright carried some glasses of water to the living room. “Your father is working late tonight.”

“What does he do?” Miles leaned forward.

“He works in construction. He’s very proud of his work.” Mrs. Wright smiled as she placed the glasses of water on the coasters sitting in front of Miles and Phoenix. “Before Phoenix was born, where he worked didn’t earn him nearly enough to support us. He’s been much happier ever since he’s found somewhere that lets us live comfortably.”

“Where did he work before, if you-” Miles was cut off by the sound of Phoenix blowing his nose again. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

“He worked with his father and other members of the community he grew up in.” Mrs. Wright explained. “It was actually looked down upon to earn the income we needed, or to even have a dream job. That’s why we’ve been so supportive of Phoenix pursuing his dreams; if he wanted to change his major a second time, we would have gladly let him.”

Miles couldn’t imagine being actively discouraged from achieving success. He assumed that pressure was always the other way around. He wasn’t able to lose himself in his curiosity, though. Phoenix’s deep sniffing made sure of that.

“Phoenix?” Mrs. Wright cocked her head. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

“Yeah, really.” Phoenix waved his hand as if to dismiss any concerns. “I’m sure this’ll stop before dinner.” His breath hitched for a second, but nothing came of it other than an exhale through his mouth.

“If you say so.” Mrs. Wright stood up and left for the kitchen. “I’m going to work on the desserts, so you two just relax and drink your water. I think you need eight glasses a day.”

“Daddy! I found Buster!” Trucy cradled the fluffy orange cat like a baby, Buster’s favorite way to be held. “He let me hold him this whole time! He’s so nice!” Phoenix gave Miles a reassuring smile, pointing to Buster as proof the Wright cats were much friendlier than past cats Miles had met.

“Hey there, Buster.” Phoenix beckoned Buster to sit on his lap. “Wow, he’s really liking me today.” He blinked a few times. “Normally he just walks away when I ask for him to sit next to me.”

“Maybe he can smell that you’ve been spoiling Pess,” Miles joked, “and he wants you to spoil him as well.”

“Cats are pretty smart. Ah!” Phoenix reached for another tissue, squeezing his eyes shut as he blew more heavily than the last time. “Guess I wasn’t done.” He laughed, dabbing the corners of his eyes. “But yeah, I think you’re right.”

“I hope he’ll like me as much as he likes you.” Miles reached to pet Buster and was shocked to hear the loud purrs the cat made. Buster was so soft, Miles thought he could pet him forever; there weren’t even any claws out. “He’s actually letting me pet him.”

“I told you so.” Phoenix sniffed. “Buster is really friendly. My parents have had him for almost as long as we had Doily. She’s my favorite. I’d show her to you but she’s probably asleep right now.” He pressed the back of his wrist against his right eye, putting on some pressure as he rubbed absentmindedly. Dropping his hand revealed the area around his eyelid to be a tad pink.

“Are you tired from the trip, love?” Miles removed his hand from petting Buster to caress Phoenix’s cheek. “Maybe you should lie down for a while.”

“Yeah, I usually do that when I visit mom alone, actually.” Phoenix gently picked Buster up to gently place on Miles’s lap, laughing softly as he watched Miles light up in fascination with Buster’s sociability. He disposed of his tissue before poking his head into the kitchen doorway to find his mother and Trucy taste-testing desserts. “Uh, hey, mom?”

“Yes?” Mrs. Wright looked up from the tray of finger food desserts. Quite a few were already gone, but knowing her, there would be more by the time she brought out her famous pumpkin pie.

“I’m going to lie down for a while. I should be up for dinner, though.” Phoenix directed his attention to his daughter, whose whipped cream decorated cheeks were proof she had her share of the desserts. “And Trucy?”

“Yes, Daddy?”

“Try not to eat too many sweets or you’ll spoil your appetite.”

“Okay.” Trucy nodded and proceeded to put another small dessert in her mouth.

“Go ahead and get some rest, dear.” Mrs. Wright sighed at the sight of Phoenix’s face. “You do look pretty tired. Your bedroom should be ready, but you might need to convince Doily to let you have some room on your bed.”

“Doily’s always been my sleeping buddy here, so I don’t mind.” Phoenix assured. He made his journey upstairs, sniffling once or twice and noting he needed to blow his nose again. The sight of only two twin sized beds in the guest room was disappointing, but considering Miles was a surprise additional guest, it was more Phoenix’s fault for not allowing his mother more time to make the appropriate accommodations. Maybe he and Miles could alternate between the bed and the living room couch while Trucy kept her bunny themed bed throughout the week of their stay.

As predicted, Doily was sleeping on Phoenix’s pillow and needed just a gentle nudge to let him have somewhere to put his head; not enough to chase her off the bed completely, just enough to make some room.

“Hey, Doily. Did you miss me?” His vision grew slightly blurry and his eyes felt wet. Phoenix didn’t remember yawning, but he must have been really tired. “I could use a nap, too, so I’d like you to… hh… to-- Hh’TTCCHHHhh!” He kept his tongue at the roof of his mouth as if that would quiet the sound. Despite his efforts, he scared Doily off the bed completely. “Ngh… Sorry.” He sniffled with his hand pressed under his nose. Maybe he was coming down with a cold after all.

He slid himself under the blanket, admittedly afraid of how he would be feeling whenever he would wake up. If he was getting sick, maybe it wasn’t completely bad, considering he was staying with his mother. His mom was good at that sort of thing, even long after he moved out on his own.

When the back of his head hit the pillow a deep, aggressive itch attacked the back of his eyes and sinuses. How was he supposed to sleep like this? No matter how hard he pressed, alternating between rubbing his eyes and nose, it only seemed to get worse. Was that his pulse? Behind his eyes?

“A’aschhHUUH! Aa’SSCHHHOOUuh! T’TTCHHuuh!!” He sat up, only just having a moment to get some air before he started again. “T’SHCHUUH!! TT’CHHHOOUH!!”

“Sweetheart, sorry to disturb you, but--” Miles stopped in his tracks at the sight of the state Phoenix was in. “Are you… feeling alright?”

“This has to be the weirdest cold I’ve ever had.” Phoenix squinted as he sniffled thickly. “I just wedt to lie dowd ahd-- Hh’TTTCHHOOH! I cad’t stop sdeezi’g.”

“I see.” Miles kept his mouth shut regarding how this was the exact sort of thing he’d tell Phoenix to make him flustered. He did, however, thought it would be amusing to see Phoenix’s face when offered a handkerchief. “Here, you could use this.” Phoenix didn’t look flustered at all, simply desperate as he took the handkerchief and sneezed thrice into it. What a shame. “You were fine when we left home.”

“That’s what’s so weird about it!” Phoenix aggressively rubbed at his face. “Dot to bedtiod everythi’g itches.”

“That doesn’t sound like a cold, love.” Miles wiped some of the tears from Phoenix’s face with his thumb.

“I feel pretty sick.” Phoenix muttered before blowing his nose again, unsure why he was even bothering at this point.

“I imagine you do.” Miles kissed Phoenix’s very wet cheek. “Poor thing. Do you have any ideas on what’s making you feel so bad?”

“Nope.” Phoenix shook his head. “I kinda just started a little bit when we got here and-- Aa’SSHHOOUH! T’TSSCHHOOUHh!! *snf* I can’t stop since I came upstairs.”

“Maybe you’ve developed an allergy to cats?”

“Don’t even joke about that!” Phoenix scolded, taking offense. “They’re my family!”

“I’m not joking. It’s a genuine possibility.” Miles made a small gasp and looked at his hand. “I touched your face after petting one of them, too. I’m so sorry.”

"Don't be sorry because I'm not allergic to cats." Phoenix huffed. He pushed the blanket off his lap and stood up, not wanting to discuss the topic further. “I’m going back downstairs.”

“Alright.” There was no point in arguing. If Phoenix was going to be so stubborn about this, then Miles just needed to make the best of the situation.

Miles followed Phoenix down the stairs, briefly interrupted when Phoenix needed to stop halfway so he could sneeze again.

“Bless you, sweetheart.” He thought saying that might push the envelope a little.

“Are you baki’g fud of be?” Phoenix glared at him through red, damp eyes.

“I wouldn’t dare.” Miles answered sincerely. “You just sound so awful.” Okay, maybe he was having a little fun, nudging Phoenix to hopefully see the amusing irony of his circumstances.

Phoenix grumbled something as he dragged himself to the kitchen, clearly still annoyed with Miles for what he had said earlier.

“I thought you were napping, Daddy.” Trucy looked up from a tall glass of chocolate milk. “Did you have a bad dream?”

“He couldn’t get any sleep, from what I can tell.” Miles leaned against Phoenix’s shoulder.

“I’m pretty sure I’m getting sick.” Phoenix scratched the back of his head.

“Oh, I knew you’d catch a cold standing out there without a scarf.” Mrs. Wright gently pushed Phoenix on the way to the living room. “Rest on the couch and I’ll get you some blankets.”

“I told you, it’s just a cold, really.” Phoenix made eye contact with Miles the whole time as he blew his nose with a fresh tissue.

“Perhaps you’re right.” Miles lied and kissed the top of his boyfriend’s head. “I certainly hope you’ll feel well enough to join us for dinner on Thursday.”

“Of course I will.” Phoenix insisted just before Mrs. Wright draped a large blanket over him. While Phoenix thought nothing of it and the intense itch that followed, Miles needed to hold his tongue as he watched short hairs floating around in Phoenix’s general direction. “T-Thanks.” He stuttered as he fanned his face with his hands, truly a sight Miles wished he could comment on with honesty. “Aa’IIISHHHUUH! T’TCHHUUh!! Ugh. Ow.”

“Your poor nose.” Miles cooed. “It must be so tiring, sneezing like that.”

“It is.” Phoenix furiously rubbed at his eyes. “Agh, my eyes, too.”

“They’re really bothering you, aren’t they?” Miles played up his sincere concern. “Driving you crazy, I bet.” He dropped a hint, hoping that extra pink in Phoenix’s face wasn’t just more released histamine. In the corner of his eye was Doily, who was staring intently at Phoenix. “Hey, little one.” Miles leaned over to pet the cat. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay here like that.” He whispered, not wanting to further offend Phoenix.

Doily, being hardly fluent in human suggestion, hopped onto Phoenix’s lap anyway.

“Doily, did you come to check up on me?” Phoenix could hardly keep his smile in place before he started sneezing again. “Gh… Sorry, Doily.” He scratched behind Doily’s ears; the sound of his sniffling accompanied her purring.

“Um, sweetheart?”

“I know what you’re about to say, and I still say no.” Phoenix pet Doily with both hands, almost out of spite.

“No, that’s not exactly--”

“Daddy! You found Doily!” Trucy stared at Phoenix and the purring cat for a while. “What’s wrong with your arms, Daddy?” Miles took hold of Phoenix’s right arm.

“Hey! You’ll scare her away again!” Phoenix protested, not even paying attention to what Miles was doing. Just as he warned, Doily was startled by the sudden movement and ran off somewhere else in the house.

“Hives.” Miles observed bluntly. “Trucy, dear, could you ask your grandmother to find some benadryl?” Phoenix raised no objections to that, which Miles hardly minded at all.

“Okay, Papa Miles!” Trucy ran off to find Mrs. Wright, leaving Phoenix and Miles alone to hopefully reach an agreement.

“Well, what happens now?” Phoenix looked down. “Do I just never visit my parents again?” Was that his way of saying Miles was right?

“Of course not, love.” Miles massaged the blotchy areas of Phoenix’s arm. “You’ll just need to be more careful, which you’ve been failing to do a lot lately. Feels like everyday I need to pull you out of trouble.”

“I can’t eat mom’s cooking if I’m asleep, though.” Phoenix let his head hit the soft back of the couch.

“Then we’ll pick up something non-drowsy while you’re resting this evening.” Miles made it sound so easy. In fact, everything he had been saying recently sounded just so… so… Oh.

“You’ve been talking like this on purpose.” Phoenix accused, punctuated by a thick sniffle. There was that flush Miles was looking for. “Is that what I sound like?” He hid his face behind his hands.

“I took some creative license.” Miles smirked before kissing Phoenix’s cheek. “I was starting to get worried when you said you ‘couldn’t stop sneezing’ with a straight face.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“And miss out on all this fun? I think not.”

“So is this all-- T’TCHHHOOH!” Phoenix pressed his hand under his nose, giving his voice even more of a nasal quality. “It’s all just payback, huh?”

“Not quite.” Miles held Phoenix’s free hand with both his hands. “You always make me feel so attractive even when I’m looking like you do right now.”

“That’s because you can pull it off.” Phoenix finally managed to chuckle.

“And so can you.” Miles didn’t let Phoenix protest that, shushing him with an index finger pressed to his lips. “I may not know one hundred percent how you see me, but I’d like you to feel every bit as special.”

“Miles!” Aha! Now Phoenix was very red in the face. Mission successful, if Miles said so himself. “Maybe when I don’t hear my mom’s footsteps coming down the stairs.”

#sneezing #snez #snz #sneeze kink #snez attorney #my fics #my writing #this took 5 million years but here you guys go

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vickyvicarious · 3 years ago

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I'm sorry I keep dumping things in your ask but I'm imagining Phoenix helping the Leverage team and endearing himself to them in the way he tends to do and them returning the favor a hundredfold when they find out he got disbarred. Phoenix's rent is mysteriously paid three years in advance courtesey of the Bank of Iceland. Shiny new magician equipment keeps mysteriously appearing in the office for Trucy. Eliot eschews the mystique and just comes over to cook for them.

I adore this. Phoenix being the one getting adopted for once, and just... not really knowing what to even do with it.

I - I can't imagine them not taking him on as a client when he gets disbarred, though! Like. He's not actually that great about going to people for help, so he wouldn't be the one to seek them out after getting disbarred. But maybe Maya would put in a call to Hardison, explaining that while she was out of town, he: lost a case, lost his badge, and adopted a child - all in very short order. She's convinced he didn't knowingly present forged evidence but he doesn't know what really went down or at least isn't talking about it.

Maybe they would come in to help and the whole thing would get resolved seven years early - or maybe six and a half or something, maybe it happened during one of their lay low breaks and she couldn't get in touch right away. But I feel like the Leverage crew would absolutely be able to help end things sooner for him. The question would be more if he would allow them to impersonate lawyers to get Kristoph to implicate himself in court... maybe they get him some other way and Edgeworth gets to prosecute him, that would be lovely.

On the other hand, it's also very cute to imagine that even if they couldn't implicate Kristoph or clear his name right away, they still would just show up and be family every so often. Hardison hooks up the piano so it sounds like Phoenix is actually good at it; the rent, the magician equipment; Eliot cooking dinner and teaching Trucy self-defense; Sophie being responsible for Phoenix's snazzy new suit after he gets his badge back. I love all of it!

#leverage #ace attorney #crossovers #leverage attorney #PLEASE keep dumping things in my ask i love this concept

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moonchopsticks-old · 4 years ago

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just finished aa4 and really liked it! quick thoughts:

-apollo has quickly become one of my favorite characters in aa! he really struck that sweet spot between admirable and endearing for me--a hardworking, quick-thinking young man, who grew up as an orphan and clawed his way up to success and a new family in the wrights, and who’s also unrelentingly snarky, can’t whisper for his life, is terrified of heights, and cries over people that he hardly knows. what a dork, i love him. i think they leaned a little heavily on the ‘greenhorn’ aspect of his personality-- quite a few moments where there were things i had figured out but wasn’t allowed to do anything with until another character jumped in and was like “apollo u sweet summer child THIS is the answer”. also i spoiled myself a little and i know that the next two games have “traumatize apollo” as a running theme so a little apprehensive and hoping they at least develop his character well or smth

-mixed feelings about the ‘perceive’ mechanic bc narratively it’s cool as hell but it was frustrating to crawl through the text looking around for a very slight change in the zoomed-in sprite, especially if it wasn’t clear what they’re fibbing about which is very often. had to use a guide on those parts pretty often. also it’s just like “hey you were twitching! you’re obviously hiding something!” “oh gee you caught me i’ll spill the beans” like i feel like it could’ve been a little more subtle or gradual, idk.

- love apollo and trucy’s relationship so much!! their banter is so cute and funny and they pull off the straight man/funny man routine really well. ik nick and maya have a similar thing but the vibes were just different, for some reason. they had very strong sibling vibes (even before the reveal), which i loved. them being half-siblings was pretty contrived (like a lot of things in this game and this series lmao) but i dont really mind too much

-on a related note, why can’t they know that they’re siblings. when’s the “right time” to tell them. why can’t they just reunite with their mother who has her memories back and loves them. phoenix wh

-on another related note i can understand how jaded and disillusioned phoenix got after he got disbarred but i honestly didn’t like the whole “mysterious cryptic mentor playing 4d chess” schtick that the game pulled. it feels ooc, especially considering you briefly play as present-day him in the final case and his internal monologue doesn’t seem too different from original trilogy phoenix, or at least the phoenix you see before disbarment in the final case (although i was rly invested in finishing up the case and wasn’t paying that much attention to phoenix’s characterization specifically, so i might’ve missed stuff). phoenix’s arc of growth was great and complete in t&t and it feels like they just...gave him a whole new personality. also phoenix goes back to being a lawyer in the next two games...does he just revert back to being regular ol phoenix? idk, maybe i’m missing some stuff right after my first playthrough but it just felt weird.

-plot was really convoluted and contrived even for ace attorney (havent played aa5 or 6 yet, so idk if it gets worse). lamiroir just happened to be apollo and trucy’s mom, if zak had just been frank with phoenix and given the original diary page to him OR valant hadn’t tampered with the crime scene this whole thing could’ve been avoided. why did zak want to take down phoenix in poker to the extent of planting cards on him to make it look like he cheated when phoenix was the one who defended him in court and he’s the one taking care of his daughter??

-way too many flashbacks to things that happened 5 real life minutes ago

-g u i t a r ‘ s s e r e n a d e

-kind of wish they had done more with trucy. i liked her but i feel like there was potential, especially since the game implies that she’s putting on a brave front for apollo, and i wish they had expanded on that a little more. like....her birth father who had been presumed dead for years ends up being alive right up until mere months before the reveal. she’s the one that ends up delivering the forged evidence into phoenix’s hands as a child, even though she was completely unaware of it at the time. she and phoenix latch onto each other pretty quickly, which was very cute, but we get little insight to how she thinks of her biological father, who we can tell she loved and misses but not much else. maybe i’m just digging for angst, idk, but it still felt like there could’ve been more. (also i really wanted more phoenix-being-a-dad content!! be a dad to ur daughter sir!!)

-klavier was pretty good! it was refreshing to have a prosecutor that wasn’t after ‘perfection’ or had a vendetta against defense attorneys/the protag, but he still managed to come off as a competent opponent. his whole rockstar persona was very cheesy but i liked it lol. (also really hilarious to me that the third case starts with him giving discounted tickets to trucy and apollo, his opponents in actual legal court) also i knew people shipped him and apollo but i wasn’t expected the game to be so forthright with it. like how else are you supposed to interpret klavier saying “i’m used to being inspected by the ladies but this is the first time ive felt like this with a man”????

-ema skye!!! loved her and glad to see her in a spotlight role but it was just kind of sad seeing her perpetually grumpy. ik people didn’t like that there were so many forensic touchpad/mic minigames but i didn’t really mind it, they were kinda fun if sometimes a little tedious

-i for sure thought that valant had been directly involved with the murder in turnabout serenade (my initial theory was that valant was masquerading as daryan during set 3 while daryan shot letouse, which was why 2nd guitar was off during the recording). also i hated daryan’s hair, why does he have a military grade skunk torpedo on his head,

-wright anything agency adopt vera challenge

-this has already gone on long enough so tl;dr solid 7.5/10 would play again once i forget what happens a little bit

#my echo chamber #long post #wow this ended up being a lot longer than i expected #now let me dispense my thoughts that nobody cares about into the void of tumblr....be well.....#ace attorney #aa4 #ace attorney spoilers #i liked this game a lot but i think og trilogy still has my heart #characters were great here but i really miss maya and gumshoe and edgeworth and original flavor phoenix....#been watching press buttons and talk's playthrough of it while i do work and it's honestly golden

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gaysneeg · 4 years ago

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okay so like. apollo justice. seven years have passed, and there's a new lawyer with a dumb as hell name in town >:)))

his name is apollo, and he's like one step away from a nervous breakdown at all times. he yells about the fact that he is fine like all of the time, even in fucking court

it's his first case !! he's nervous about the defending, but mostly nervous about his client, bc the man is a big deal, even though he looks like a fucking whore

so he heads in, and the trial of phoenix wright starts. yep. that bitch right there? that's phoenix wright. yikes ✨

so the trial starts, and apollo's mentor, kristoph gavin, is being fucking weird💛 but it's fine, and the trial starts off well, with the only hitch being when nick has the same locket that went missing from the victim, but all is revealed when he shows that it contains a picture of his daughter (yeah mans has a kid plot twist he is a dilf)

so they go on, and things go pretty well, they corner a witness, apollo unlocks his lawyer superpower, and they almost finish the case but then nick interjects with an objection, and accuses apollo's mentor of the murder

they argue back and forth like pretentious assholes for a while until a recess is called, in which this girl who's probably nick's kid shows up and gives apollo a playing card with fucking blood on it bc this case had to be more complicated ig

so they go back in, apollo manges to almost prove the murderer is kristoph, but he needs irrefutable proof, so he presents the playing card (it makes sense i promise but im not explaining this case it has MATH in it) and wins the trial. hes done it, it's great, he also doesn't have a job bc his boss is in federal prison for murder but it's fine !1!1!

he talks to nick after the trial, at which point he reveals that the playing card was forged evidence !! wow !! apollo gets mad and drops the bombshell that nick was disbarred seven years ago for forgery ✨ he never believed it and nick was his hero, but y'know its fine it's not like that was like the whole reason he became a lawyer or anything !1!1! so he punches nick in the face and then the bitch gives him a card for his old law office and tells him to stop by if he needs a job

he voes not to, but then he does anyway bc he has bills to pay ✨

he meets phoenix's kid, trucy, who's a 15 year old magician that he adopted after the case 7 years ago. they go talk to nick, who's in the hospital with a mildly sprained ankle after getting hit by a car and flying 40 feet into a telephone pole bc of course he did. he spouts some cryptic bs at them and they leave to do the filler cases

im skimming though these bc i hate the filler cases with a burning passion (a blind 14yo is accused of shooting a guy with a gun he couldn't have used without shattering his shoulder, it's bad) but the rival prosecutor is introduced. his name is klavier gavin, he's kristoph's brother, lead singer of a famous band, and his first trial was the one that got nick disbarred. so like drama insues his band breaks up various people fucking die yada yada LAST CASE TIME

you're gonna have to bear with me here bc this gets real buck wild real fast

so nick sends apollo to be the defense on a trial he's been experimenting with, one that implements ✨ the jurist system✨

he goes to meet his client, they talk and investigate, the only thing they really learn day one is that the victim was a famous forger and the stuff he was poisoned with came from a seven year old stamp

so they go to the trial and argue back and forth for a bit, and eventually prove that the poison came from a stamp that belonged to Kristoph Fucking Gavin, but before they can get him on the stand, the client drops down. PLOT TWIST !! her nail polish (given to her by a secret person) had poison in it and she ate it when she but her nails !!

so then the next investigation sequence happens, and

okay this is buck fucking wild but. nick appears in the fucking void, seemingly addresses the player directly, and then tells them about this fun thing he's been working on called the 'mason system' that allows them to 'see his experiences' by going from seven years ago to the present (yeah no it's not his experiences he has future knowledge in the past my man invented time travel) and several things are revealed, including

- apollo and trucy are siblings

- this one witness in the third case is their mom

- their dad is the victim from the first case

- phoenix was framed for forgery by kristoph

- he did this because the victim of the first case, who was the defendant in the trial seven years ago, dropped his defense for phoenix's

- phoenix has been aware of all this but never felt the need to mention any of it to apollo

so after it becomes absolutely batshit insane, they just kinda go back to court, and they manage to prove that kristoph did the murder and poisoned the client and framed phoenix, but the judge won't have it

luckily, it's the jurist system babey✨✨✨

so they win the case, and then go out for noodles or some shit, and like i would say they live happily ever after but both of the games after this are like. So Bad. like fucking rancid, they took the characterization and fucking squashed it and then ruined the point of the og games, -1000/10

these games are fucking wild though. also a very interesting read 10/10. love how they go out for food at the end that’s very neat.

I always just ignore bad game sequels or whatever. they did not exist if I do not want them to nope.

#ask #bones my beloved

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iridescentoracle · 2 months ago

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tbh one of the most interesting things to me about working out the secret good version of apollo justice in my head is just breaking down what’s still phoenix & what’s The Other Guy in this au, and what little things have to change for the big ones to still play out mostly the same?

like, if apollo gets hired by The Other Guy, then how does trucy actually wind up investigating with him?

answer: since phoenix doesn’t get disbarred and apparently stop talking to everyone he’s ever known, when ema comes back from europe obviously he reaches out to say hi and introduce her to trucy, so by the start of the game she and trucy are good friends, and sometimes trucy escapes getting roped into helping file papers or clean via a very impressive magic trick known as “oops sorry i totally have plans to hang out with ema today so i can’t help sorry byeeeee,” and so apollo meets them both when he arrives at people park to investigate, and all of that backstory is implied in, like, two sentences of dialogue in their first conversation tops.

ema, ofc, has no idea who apollo is or who he works for, but trucy would presumably know/remember the name of the lawyer from the gramarye case, and would also have at least some awareness of Lawyer Drama given who her adoptive parents are (bc as i have said before and will say again, i give post-3-5 phoenix and edgeworth six months tops before they get their shit together), so in this version trucy recognizes apollo’s name as being the guy who just got klavier gavin’s brother arrested for murdering someone and framing the ex-lawyer who was supposed to defend her first dad for it.

(side note: when ema introduces herself apollo goes Oh Holy Shit You’re The Ema Skye and gets completely starstruck because as far as he’s concerned anyone involved in one of phoenix’s trials is basically a celebrity, which of course sends trucy through the roof (which is particularly impressive given that they’re all outdoors))

also in this version i think apollo does introduce himself to klavier, but only after klavier leads the way to the crime scene, and klavier also knows who this guy is and is super uncomfortable. which actually probably contributes to trucy choosing to follow apollo around; i go back and forth on whether trucy should feel as weird about klavier in this version as i think she should in canon but either way, he feels almost as awkward around her as i think he should in canon, and given the way she canonically treats apollo i think if nothing else she would probably think that’s pretty funny. so she instantly decides to befriend apollo bc it’ll probably be really funny watching klavier try to not react to that (and also a little bc it’s weird that this guy is connected both to her first dad’s ex-lawyer and indirectly to klavier and she’s curious about what’s actually up with that), and then hey it turns out apollo’s kind of fun to mess with too, and then by the end of their first or second case together they’re just legitimately friends now.

but branching off from that, another fun little divergence: apollo has to find out about the different parts of the case in a different order, in this version, bc in canon trucy brings him to the hospital so phoenix can tell him to find the guy who hit phoenix with a car last night, then on the way out they meet guy eldoon who hires them to find the noodle stand, and then they meet plum kitaki (and alita tiala) because the hit-and-run was right outside the kitakis’ house & investigate the meraktis clinic because it’s near where the noodle stand was stolen from, and then they go back to the WAA to meet alita tiala, and it’s only after that that they finally head to the park and meet klavier and ema.

but if apollo only meets trucy at the park then i think he’s gotta get hired by guy eldoon first (which, on the flip side of the car accident still having to be phoenix, guy eldoon has to still know apollo’s inscrutable asshole ex-lawyer mentor or i can’t figure out a good way for apollo to get involved in literally any of this)—the kitakis’ house can be be between IAELM’s not-a-law-office (wherever that is) and the meraktis clinic/noodle stand, so apollo meets alita tiala on the way there, and maybe asks for directions? which she gives but then wants to know why he’s looking for where the noodle stand currently isn’t so he explains he’s a lawyer and has been hired to investigate the theft, and she asks him to defend her fiance on the spot, and he can’t say no, so now he’s got two cases.

admittedly the murder should probably be higher priority, but he’s already this close to where the noodle stand was stolen from so he pokes around near the meraktis clinic first (possibly with alita tiala temporarily following because Hey When Are You Going To Start Working On My Fiancé’s Case / oh shit please don’t notice any connections between the meraktis clinic & said fiancé), finds out dr. meraktis is dead, maybe notices the broken side mirror (or overhears the cops talking about it?), etc., then heads to the park to check out the scene of crime #2, where he promptly meets klavier and trucy-and-ema, and things proceed as established:

i.e. trucy promptly decides to “befriend” apollo (which ofc turns into being friends for real by the end of the case), so when apollo leaves to go to the detention center, and then back to actually meet plum kitaki (since on his own apollo probably avoided her but that’s now his client’s mother), trucy follows, and then eventually she says it’s been fun but she has to go visit her dad in the hospital because he got hit by a car last night and it’s been a couple hours since she checked on him, and apollo is like HE GOT HIT BY A CAR??? IS HE OKAY? and trucy’s like “oh he’s fine” because the entire reason it’s still phoenix who gets hit by the car is that no one else could have survived that with nothing but a sprained ankle, and “yeah so this guy got hit by a car and flung thirty feet into a telephone pole, which he hit head-first. yeah he sprained his ankle” is way too funny to lose. but she does invite apollo to come meet him and he feels like he should decline in favor of continuing to investigate but he’s still starstruck enough by the idea of Meeting Phoenix Wright that he can’t quite say no.

so in this version, phoenix isn’t getting totally knocked off the pedestal because he hasn’t actually become a total asshole who’s going to treat apollo terribly, but he is going to turn out to be a real person who is in some ways much more human and in some ways much less a normal human being than apollo expected, beginning with “the first time apollo sees him in person he’s in a hospital bed because of All That”

and so apollo does already know about the hit-and-run before winding up outside the meraktis clinic again, so they can spot the broken side mirror and make the connection, and the rest of the case can all play out pretty much like canon from there, i think!

okay so. potentially controversial opinion i guess but apollo justice (the game, though actually also the character) was kind of a mess. i wanted to like it, there was a ton of potential, but the execution just did not work for me at all. but it’s been haunting me for weeks and (unlike dual destinies, which also didn’t really work for me but i cannot for the life of me figure out why) i know exactly what i didn’t like about apollo justice and how i would fix it if capcom decided remake AA4–AA6 and inexplicably put me in charge. fair warning this is at least 80% complaining by volume about what they didn’t do/what they did do that i hated though.

like, okay, here’s the thing. it’s a new story. phoenix has had his arc, we’re moving on to a new main character, he isn’t the protagonist anymore. it makes sense to move him into a mentor/boss role while our new protagonist takes over as the plucky young newbie who doesn’t really know what he’s doing. the problem is that everything about how the game does that kind of sucks.

like. AJ phoenix gets totally shafted for the sake of not letting him be a good mentor, so that apollo has to figure things out on his own, but apollo isn’t really treated right by the narrative either, because the plot is so much about phoenix that apollo is like. weirdly peripheral to the whole thing even though he’s nominally the protagonist. like it’s super obvious that the whole reason phoenix isn’t an attorney anymore and is all ✨ mysterious✨ and ✨secretive✨ is literally just so that apollo doesn’t actually like. have a good mentor who can teach him things? like the entire plot/backstory is just a post-hoc excuse bc the starting point of the game was clearly someone going “well we’re not allowed to not have phoenix in the game, but we can’t let him be someone apollo can actually rely on, so we have to find some excuse to make him weird and mysterious and uncommunicative and also not a lawyer just for good measure bc otherwise he wouldn’t leave a kid hanging like that” and everything else was built up to justify that.

but as if it’s not bad enough that it all requires shattering phoenix’s perfectly good reasonably-happy-ending from the previous game, by extension everyone else gets screwed over too?? like, maya was very explicitly traumatized by the kurain channeling legacy to the point of briefly not wanting to identify herself as a spirit medium. pearl was sheltered from some of the worst of it but was aware of enough to blame herself for bad things happening to the point of trying to run away. the credits definitely made it seem like they both bounced right back after all but frankly i was not convinced they weren’t going to both collapse as soon as the figurative camera looked away again and the most plausible short-term outcome to me was that they would wind up both moving in with phoenix for a while in the near future like maya all but said she wanted to do!! she called herself “the assistant manager at Wright & Co. Law Offices” and said she “[didn’t] want any more to do with [the Fey clan],” that is IN the TEXT i am not reading too much into things here those are her words! i’m fine with her potentially changing her mind again and resuming her training again and moving back to kurain after all when she’s had some time to recover from everything but like. when she’s had some time. she deserved more than two months and i hate so much that she didn’t get it.

on the flip side, again, i get the choice to deliberately not-include edgeworth in this one but i swear to god it should have taken him and phoenix like. maybe four months to finish getting their act together and that’s being generous and counting the month it takes him to wrap things up in europe and move back to japanifornia. i’m pretty sure edgeworth figured out how he felt when he got the phone call from larry about the bridge if he hadn’t already by then and i think phoenix simultaneously realized and refused to realize how he felt during the year he thought edgeworth is dead, bc neither of them can just be normal about feeling things ever, so give them a second for phoenix to stop repressing shit and also mention that he’s absolutely not going to get back together with iris when she gets out of jail and they Will sort themselves out and they Will kiss and i give it like a year tops before they get married. they have a courthouse wedding obviously and get the judge to officiate. 50/50 chance they wind up proposing in the middle of a trial and get married during the next recess.

and in canon there’s not time for all that to have happened bc the next game requires phoenix to have promptly turned into an arrogant asshole and then gotten royally fucked over by the universe and become a totally different person (again, at that, because he’s already a completely different person in the flashback to his last case, why does he act like the paynes that whole time i hate it), but like. this is what i’m saying. phoenix getting screwed over by the universe/writing also screws all his friends over too.

so i just. this game does such a disservice to phoenix’s entire character, and all of his friends, and also the entire first three games and anyone who loved them. it’s not all bad and the person phoenix has been turned into—“has been turned into,” not “has turned into,” because the hand of the writers is so visible, i can’t engage with this game on a fully watsonian level for the life of me because phoenix’s hoodie might as well say DOYLE CHOSE TO DO THIS TO ME. this is a fictional character being written by real people and the real people wrote him in a manner entirely incompatible with his original characterization and i cannot get past it—is fascinating but it isn’t phoenix. i love the plot but i hate the execution. i like the ingredients but the recipe sucks.

but it could have been so good. and at this point i’ve mostly worked out how.

you have the exact same scenario with the gramarye trial, is the thing, up through the point where phoenix wins the poker game and shadi enigmar/zak gramarye asks him to be his lawyer, and phoenix accepts—and then phoenix, like, gets a phone call from maya or pearl bc it turns out one of them just got hurt, or they’ve both come down with some kind of stomach bug or food poisoning or something, some temporary emergency that’s just severe enough that they need more help/care for a day or two than phoenix could give while also handling a case, but that won’t actually last all that long.

so he turns down the case apologetically bc oh my god i’m so sorry actually, family emergency, i gotta go right now, best of luck, and shadi/zak moves on to defense attorney number three: a different, brand new character, another rising star defense attorney around the same point in their career as phoenix, and that’s who winds up using the forged diary page and getting disbarred and turning into the bitter jaded inscrutable asshole mentor who years later will manipulate apollo into exposing his own boss as a murderer, and then technically hire apollo but not actually, like, teach him anything or help out in any meaningful way, etc.

but meanwhile, three facts about this series of events:

8yo trucy is still the unwitting catalyst for the lawyer defending her father using forged evidence that destroys his career, and her father still vanishes and leaves her behind

within a couple days, pearl and maya are basically fine

phoenix wright’s best friend was once a kid barely older than trucy is now who suddenly found himself with no family, and as a result was taken in by someone who had a deep and abiding grudge against both him and his father because of what they did, through no real fault of their own, to him/his career.

and since phoenix did meet shadi/zak and turned his case down, he has every reason to be curious about how the trial went, and to pick up either from the general news coverage (which, considering what a big deal phoenix’s disbarment in canon was, i assume there is A Lot Of,) or to realize bc his personal curiosity/almost-connection means he actively looks into things, that there is a kid who has been left behind and who currently has no one to take care of her. and you cannot tell me that phoenix would look at this kid whose best-case scenario is currently getting swept into the foster care system bc god forbid she actually winds up getting taken in by the only adult even vaguely associated with her at this point, bc phoenix has seen that story before, and not decide on the spot to adopt her himself

and so just like that, we have

phoenix accidentally escaping the whole gramarye trial entirely unscathed

but still adopting trucy

pearl and maya still living with phoenix a couple months post-T&T instead of immediately getting packed off back to kurain

no changes that actually significantly impact apollo for most of the game bc all that’s really different for him is the name of his inscrutable jerk mentor and the fact that he’s gotta wind up meeting/being-befriended-by trucy a little differently

so by the time the actual present-day plot of the game kicks off, phoenix and company are still out there doing their thing with phoenix getting to be his best self and living his best life. he still gets his adorable adopted daughter who he loves dearly. we still don’t actually see maya or edgeworth or pearl in this version of the game but there’s allusions to them all being very present in his-and-trucy’s lives—trucy brings us over to their apartment at some point and we see a stack of steel samurai dvds in the corner and a laundry basket with unidentifiable clothes in suspiciously familiar shades of purple/pink/magenta, details like that. we only see phoenix himself for like, maybe five minutes total over the course of the first three and a half cases and it’s a little tantalizing but he gets to be the one who bursts into the courthouse with the decisive evidence that lets our protagonist win the last case.

and meanwhile, apollo’s current boss is shady and inscrutable and used to be a lawyer and can even be involved in some ✨ secret mission ✨ that he won’t talk about that turns out to be the jurist system, so we can hypothetically keep whatever the intended message of that whole thing was (which, argh, what do you DO with the jurist system. what is the intended message. i get that it’s satire of a then-contemporary development in japan’s legal system but i can’t figure out for the life of me what the satire is actually meant to say), and then at the end of the game Apollo’s Shitty Mentor is proven to have been innocent and will be allowed to take the bar again if he wants to but he’s not entirely sure bc at this point it’s been so long that he might just prefer to move on entirely now that his actual disbarment/disgrace isn’t hanging over his head bc he honestly did used to be a pretty stand-up guy but the last seven years have been rough and he doesn’t really like the person he’s turned into and maybe it would be healthier to treat this as a fresh start and try something entirely new so he’s going to take some time away from the whole legal system first to clear his head before he figures out whether or not he actually wants to dive back in.

and apollo’s like “well that’s totally understandable and sounds great for you but goddammit do i really have to go back to the endless nightmare that is job applications, i hate this actually” and phoenix (who is also in the defense lobby where this whole conversation is taking place) is like “why don’t you come work for me?”

you could even have it end on a joke where apollo is shocked about the offer bc he applied to work for phoenix six months ago and phoenix is like ???? i never saw that?? and it turns out apollo applied via email but phoenix still sucks at computers and only checks his work email like once a year.

seriously though i do not understand what we’re supposed to think about the jurist system. is it supposed to be that fucked up? i’m not actually sure how we’re supposed to feel abt that tbh but it sounds like maybe it’s not supposed to seem like an actually better alternative? like it felt to me like it was being framed as a triumph for our belovèd hero, isn’t this great that he was able to arrange things so everything would turn out all right after all etc, but it was so obviously fucked up and unethical—like, oh, yeah, having one guy in charge of assigning the defense attorney, the judge, and the jury sounds totally fine and like it’s actually going to be more reliably ethical than the system that’s already in place, for sure, not to mention the possibility that edgeworth was pulling strings to help phoenix make it happen and be involved, because nepotism and people in law enforcement/the justice system pulling strings to put people they like in positions of authority that they probably shouldn’t have specifically so that they can do things like “rig a jury,” on purpose, is fine bc i like these guys who are doing/benefiting from the nepotism so therefore it’s not wildly unethical and an obviously terrible idea, oh my god—that it feels like it has to be on purpose?

and like in practice it just… the jurist system as it’s actually implemented is worse actually. it’s genuinely worse and less ethical than the established system where the judge was about to let kristoph gavin off scot-free for the crimes he wasn’t already convicted of.

that said it’s like. very funny on a conceptual level. yet another thing that makes sense if the games are set in japan bc sure of course fictional kinda goofy japan has a more ridiculous version of the thing that’s being implemented in real-life japan right now, but when localized the implications are buck-fucking-wild

because. okay. japanifornia exclusively has bench trials or whatever they’re called for some reason. i have questions about why that’s legal given the existence of the sixth amendment but sure fine the japanifornian legal system is deeply fucked up in many new and interesting ways and that is clearly just one of them. but you’re telling me that the entire concept of trial by jury is strange and new to a lawyer? like. did the entire country just. ditch the sixth amendment before apollo was born? why is this a brand new concept instead of, you know, how things work in every other state. i have so many questions that do not need answers. thank god these games are old enough to have gotten localized it’s so much funnier this way.

ANYWAY. SO. yeah. make apollo’s inscrutable asshole so-called mentor someone other than phoenix wright, have way less of phoenix in the game actually bc he’s off living his best life and having a thriving career with very little reason to think about how kristoph gavin exists, and meanwhile write apollo with All That Backstory in mind from the start though 95% of the actual info should still be saved for game 6, we’re just trying to write apollo so he’s not completely flat and frankly pretty forgettable at times and also including foreshadowing so the khura’in thing isn’t a very obvious retcon when we get there, and turn klavier into an actual person, and that’s like. 95% of my frustrations with the game fixed right there (the other 5% is “i still can’t tell what we’re actually supposed to think/feel about the jurist system” but like. i can’t tell what we’re supposed to think/feel so i don’t know how to fix it).

well okay also the like, pacing and focus would need to be fixed so apollo’s incrutable jerk mentor isn’t the protagonist for half the last case to the point i forgot apollo existed, etc, but like. that’s the next level down of problems you know?

AND bonus points: splitting “phoenix” and “apollo’s inscrutable jerk mentor” into two separate characters automatically fixes yet another of the worst He Would Not Fucking Do Thats of the game, i.e. phoenix just. not telling trucy and apollo that they’re siblings and their mom is alive. bc apollo’s shitty mentor is the one who actually interacts with lamiroir offscreen, this phoenix never does, so apollo’s mentor is the one who has the opportunity to figure out who she is and that trucy and apollo are half-siblings, and they’re not his kids, apollo doesn’t even work for him anymore by the end of the game so what does he care whether she tells them, and meanwhile phoenix isn’t inexplicably hiding that information because he also doesn’t know. still relies on her continuing to hide her face professionally in the meantime (instead of being deeply stupid about the fact that she is super famous, twice, and if she goes around being Very Famous And Popular Singer Lamiroir someone will notice that she is very much also Very Famous And Popular Believed-Dead Magician Thalassa Gramarye and between the existence of the news and the existence of the internet her kids will inevitably find out, jesus CHRIST parts of this game are so badly written), but that’s a given

i have a whole bunch of other thoughts—mostly about klavier gavin bc he should be such a good character but he just doesn’t work, but also i think the structure of the last case would have to be pretty significantly modified to fix the pacing/structural/focus issues where our nominal protagonist is basically irrelevant for the bulk of the case, even while the plot would remain basically the same, but i haven’t figured out how the structure would be different bc that requires figuring out how to handle the whole jurist system thing—but that’s like. the coherent parts/the bulk of it, you know?

i think (really this is just a detail, not a major plot point, but it would have a pretty major impact thematically so it feels bigger than it is? so) the other main thing i would change—and this part isn’t actually real criticism bc it’s not, like, bad that they didn’t do this, and if they were going to make any changes there are a lot of things that should be higher on the list, but listen. zak and valant should’ve been brothers.

because like, first of all, the extra complexity of the relationship if they’re not just two random guys who met bc they were functionally coworkers/fellow students, and instead you have these two brothers with the same mentor and who are both in love with the same woman, and they both know that one of them is better at magic and their mentor’s favorite, and he’s also the one who the woman they’re both in love with loves back and has a kid with, etc? a favorite/least favorite child dynamic occurring spontaneously, presumably in adulthood, in their professional lives? like. it makes everything about their relationship with each other, and with magnifi, and zak’s relationship with thalassa, and valant’s relationship with trucy, way more complex and interesting without actually having to change anything else.

but then secondly, on top of all that, suddenly this is a game about siblings. zak & valant, apollo & trucy, and kristoph & klavier. suddenly you have these three different sibling relationships that are all very different but two of them actually get to be siblings but are super fucked up, and the last pair meet entirely by chance without any idea who the other person is or should be to them but wind up with the healthiest happiest relationship of the three? like, the tragedy of it, that apollo and trucy were separated by fate and literally no one knew they both existed except their own mother, who thought apollo was dead before trucy was ever born, and if not for whatever series of coincidences resulted in apollo happening to work for the man who ruined trucy’s father’s life and getting roped into that whole mess they might never have met at all, and as it was they lost however many years they could’ve had each other, etc etc, and yet despite it all they’re the ones who actually manage to be happy and, like, unconditionally positive presences in each other’s lives, while valant spends however long resenting zak for being magnifi-and-thalassa’s favorite and more talented and all that which presumably put a strain on their relationship bc being resented that deeply by someone that close to you for things that you don’t even actually control can’t feel good, and kristoph and klavier… [gestures vaguely] idk whatever they would feel about each other if the writers remembered klavier was supposed to be a person. and aside from the klavier bits all of that is in the game already, implicitly or explicitly, just waiting for someone to rewrite like three lines of dialogue so zak and valant aren’t Just Some Guys to each other.

anyway a lot of the other thoughts i have are like. details. it probably never gets established explicitly but phoenix probably never gets to know kristoph gavin that well, and conversely kristoph doesn’t care about phoenix bc he might not even know he would’ve been passed over for phoenix before the other guy. ema is friendlier bc even though she is still upset about being a detective and does still think klavier’s annoying, she doesn’t actively resent him for getting phoenix disbarred. also she’s already good friends with trucy. the biggest plot-difference that isn’t just a natural result of phoenix not getting disbarred is that i think phoenix has to be the one who gets hit by the car in 4-2 instead of that happening to apollo’s jerk mentor bc no other human being on the planet could get thrown thirty feet by a car and hit a telephone pole with his head and still only wind up with a sprained ankle out of the deal.

#aa tag #AA4 #character: apollo justice #character: trucy wright #aa posts #aj rewrite tag

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iturbide · 4 years ago

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@cianidix replied to your post:

The more you talk about this, the more I want to read it! Edgeworth-centric and also more Edgeworth-Maya interactions, ahhhhh. I’m also sooo interested in reading about how the relationship falls apart and how they (hopefully, maybe, I don’t believe Feenie is actually dead here… right??? Q_Q) eventually make better or move on and just- ahhhh I wish this fic was here already (if you get back to it)

(Trucy still exists, right? Even tho Wright wasn’t disbarred, right???)

Of course Trucy still exists I could never write her out of existence she’s too precious of a child to not be around in some way shape or form (and there’s nothing to say that Nick won’t end up with her at some point in the future, anyway -- he could always use another kid or two, and I think we all know it). Interestingly enough, though, one of my other big works was an AA4-compliant piece, also Edgeworth-centric, that involved a lot of Edgeworth-Trucy interactions because Trucy’s a part of Phoenix’s life now, and if he wants to have any part in it himself Edgeworth has to get along with the adopted daughter. It actually had a decent chunk of words in it, too (around 12k -- it’s the second excerpt from the link in the last post).

But in all honesty people getting excited about my stories gets me excited about those stories and since I still don’t know when I’m going to get around to writing the whole thing out, what’s the harm in dropping the summary?

Gonna give this another shot and Tumblr’s not gonna eat it this time mark my words

A couple notes before we get into things:

OCs are fair game in Ace Attorney as far as I’m concerned, and we’re certainly going to have a host of them. From the prosecutor on the case to all of those involved, I’ll be making a whole cast and crew to back this story up, and if I can manage it there will be absolutely terrible puns, because that just seems to be how AA games operate.

Lana Skye is hands down one of my absolute favorite characters in the series, and it’s a crime that they only put her into one bonus case and put her in prison at the end of it. For all of my continuities, I completely write out SL-9 as a case: Joe Darke never escaped his cell, Lana got into the prosecutor’s office and became chief by virtue of her own talents, and both the prosecutor’s office and the police department have cowboys running around.

I have a fairly non-standard view of Phoenix as a person, just based on everything I remember seeing in fandom back when I was more active. For instance: I love the fact that he was an art student, but I’ve always specifically thought he was aiming to be an actor and had a thing for Shakespeare; frankly, the ad libbing that has to go into acting when something goes wrong explains so much for me where Nick’s bluffing is concerned (when a man interrogates a parrot, you know he has a weird history). Unrelated but still relevant to that point, I think he’s actually a decent pianist and took lessons through most of his childhood and adolescence -- but he’s a classical pianist by training and not great at playing by ear, so people just think he sucks because he botches any modern tunes. So if you see something that seems Weird compared to fandom’s general take, just know that it probably has backstory.

So with all that in mind, let’s dive in.

In true Ace Attorney fashion, the whole thing starts with a cold open. As he finishes up the last of the paperwork associated with the case he wrapped up that afternoon, Phoenix gets a call from a familiar number, and though he dreads the conversation to come he answers anyway, refusing an offer to meet and saying that he can’t do this anymore before someone enters the inner office. He insists that they’re closed as he turns toward the door, and a voice replies that this won’t take long -- and then there’s gunshots. And then nothing.

The next morning, Maya is understandably shocked and horrified to arrive at the office and find that it’s once again a crime scene: bullet holes in the windows, blood on the floor, police everywhere...but no sign of Nick. Gumshoe is on the scene, though, and after a lot of badgering, he reveals that there’s been no sign of Phoenix, but the police are operating under the assumption that he’s dead -- and they’ve already arrested a suspect. Maya can’t imagine who would want to hurt Phoenix, and hearing that it’s Miles Edgeworth they’ve imprisoned just makes the whole thing feel that much more surreal. Sure, Nick and Edgeworth have had their disagreements --- including one the day before, in the recesses of their trial, and Phoenix had seemed really upset after that -- but she didn’t think it was something worth killing over.

But she’s still hurt, and reeling from the morning’s news. So her first order of business is to march down to the Detention Center to confront him. Edgeworth is...not surprised to see her, given the circumstances -- but when she demands to know why he did it, he insists that he’s innocent: he would never harm Wright, no matter the circumstances. As much as Maya wants to believe that, though, the fact that he doesn’t seem upset by Nick’s supposed death so much as the accusation that he had a hand in it rubs her wrong, and despite herself she can’t help but wonder if he did have some role in it; regardless, she still goes everywhere she can think of in hopes that there was a mistake, that Nick is okay after all, collecting evidence with every stop...but as it gets later, when there’s still no sign of him, she and Pearl return to the Detention Center.

With no defense counsel, Edgeworth is almost guaranteed to go to prison...but at Pearl’s urging, Maya steps up and offers to defend him, since she recently passed the bar and got her badge. She spends the rest of the evening doing her best to cobble together a case based on what little information she has, and reports to the courthouse the next morning for her very first trial as a defense attorney.

Her first case, and Nick isn’t even there to see it. She didn’t think it could hurt any worse.

Before they’re called into the courtroom, the defense gets a surprise visitor: chief prosecutor Lana Skye, come to deliver case notes and evidence files. Maya barely gets time enough to leaf through them before they’re called into the courtroom to start the trial, where she finds herself facing the rising star from the prosecutor’s office: Gayle Huntington, a young woman who counts Chief Prosecutor Skye as her inspiration and who is excited to add another guilty verdict to her record, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that one of her fellow prosecutors stands accused.

The prosecution declares it a crime of passion, and presents their theory of the case: following a heated confrontation outside the courtroom, Miles Edgeworth called Phoenix Wright to arrange a meeting. While he may have intended only to put an end to the argument, tempers flared, and in a fit of rage the defendant shot the victim three times before dragging the body down to the street and driving it off to be disposed of at another location. Their evidence includes the blood found at the scene, which matches Phoenix based on forensic testing; three bullet holes in the office window, though no slugs or casings were found at or around the office despite an extensive search with metal detectors; Edgeworth’s phone, which shows that the last call before he contacted 911 was made to Wright’s number; and a handgun found at the scene which shows evidence of recent firing, though no magazine was found in it.

Over the first day of testimony, Maya manages to shred the prosecution’s case based on that chain of events:

The gun, as it happens, belonged to Phoenix himself. One of the documents the chief prosecutor provided to the defense was a photocopy of a sign-in sheet for a local gun range, which not only has Nick’s signature on it, but included a copy of his firearm registration and permit, which was for the exact make, model, and serial number as the purported murder weapon. Lana Skye herself is called to the stand, as her name also appears on the sign-in, and she testifies that after court the previous day she happened across Wright at the range and they talked a bit; he said that he needed to blow off a bit of steam before going back to his paperwork, and she clearly recalls that he did not clean his weapon before leaving, instead saying that he would do so after he went home since his cleaning kit was there. On closer examination, it's discovered that while the weapon has mostly been wiped clean, the trigger was not, and a partial print matching Phoenix is recovered.

On calling Edgeworth himself to the stand, he admits that he did contact Phoenix late in the evening in the hopes of resolving the argument from that afternoon; however, he was across townpicking up his car from the repair shop when he made that call, and when he heard what sounded like a shot before the call cut out he immediately drove to the office where he found the blood trail leading to the curb. Cell tower records do, in fact, confirm that he was far from the defense attorney’s office when the call was made, and based on the time of his calls to both Phoenix and 911, there was far too narrow of a window to dispose of the body.

The next revelation comes with the filing of a new piece of evidence, courtesy of a frantic Gumshoe bursting into court and taking the stand. The police, in their search of likely dumping grounds for a body, dredged something out of the river that seems to confirm that they have a murder on their hands: a blue suit coat with three apparent bullet holes in the back...and Phoenix’s badge still affixed to the lapel. What little blood evidence they were able to collect matches Phoenix, as well.

For all that this is a stunning (and devastating) revelation, it brings with it yet more to undermine the prosecution’s case: namely the bullet evidence. When placed on a mannequin, even coupled with the knowledge that Phoenix left his suit jacket unbuttoned while working in the office, the placement of the bullet holes in the back would require that there be associated entry points in the front -- which do not exist. Maya draws the logical conclusion, then, that the shots must have been fired from outside the office -- through the window, and the reason no slugs or casings were found was because the shots weren’t fired from inside the office, and the bullets were still in the victim.

Despite the upset in court, the prosecution refuses to budge, and the Judge refuses to declare a Not Guilty verdict. Court adjourns for the day instead, and Maya heads out to continue her investigation. Making her way to the Gatewater Hotel, she manages to get information on who was staying in the room across from the office: four members of a jazz band in town for a show, who insist that they’re the only ones who have been in the room and that they were setting up for a performance on the night of the crime. Though she doesn’t know them herself, she hears vague rumors that they have a fifth member who’s been in some ‘legal trouble.’ When Maya relates the name to Edgeworth, he remarks that it seems somehow familiar, though he can’t quite place why. She also gets the prosecutor’s repair records and goes to check out the rental company he used while his car was in the shop, which nets her a copy of the damage and condition checklist the agent filled out when Edgeworth brought the car back.

While Maya has the case to occupy her mind, Miles has no such means of escaping his own thoughts in his prison cell. Between the confirmation that the jacket does, in fact, belong to Phoenix (something he had tried to deny at first, hoping that the coat was a look-alike and the badge stolen, only to have that possibility dashed by the presence of Wright’s initials on the underside of the tag) and the relative isolation in the detention center, he’s had ample time to think over how things had been with Phoenix -- including how he, himself, had been with the defense attorney...and he’s forced to face some very hard truths about his behavior toward someone he cares about far more than he wanted to believe.

With the start of the second day in court, the prosecution has changed its theory of the crime, but not its perpetrator: rather than committing the crime alone, Edgeworth had an accomplice, and his call to Wright was a ploy to get him into firing range while the shooter waited in the hotel for his chance. Leaving his rental car in front of the defense attorney’s office, he picked up his usual vehicle and upon arriving at the crime scene helped his accomplice load the body into the getaway car for disposal while he made a call to police. Their evidence comes from photos of the rental vehicle in question, which show damage not reported on the return checklist, as well as blood evidence taken from the trunk which matches Phoenix.

Once again, Maya tears through the prosecution’s case piece by piece:

The damage in the evidence photos compared to the rental return form make for the first order of business. On calling the man who signed off on Edgeworth’s car to the stand -- an amiable but nervous young Latine by the name of Novi Nada -- they swear up and down that the damage in the photos absolutely was not present when they checked the car in on the night of the crime. (In true Ace Attorney form, this gets somewhat ridiculous, as this witness lapses into Spanish when especially nervous; when pressed, they insist “no vi nada” -- I didn’t see anything -- to which the Judge responds “yes we know your name now what did you see?”)

Sensor data from the rental lot finally confirms the agent’s version of events, where the car is registered as driving onto the lot shortly before the time marked on the inspection form; more importantly, it also recorded the car being driven off the lot and then back on much later. Unfortunately, there is no additional inspection form, nor a record of who rented the car after Edgeworth, and therefore no record of who might have been involved.

Edgeworth is recalled to the stand to revisit his testimony, and he adds another key detail: while it was a sound that he took to be gunfire that sent him to the defense attorney’s office, Wright had said something strange during the call, mentioning that the office was closed -- as though he was speaking to someone else that had just arrived moments before the shots sounded and the call cut out.

Neither the defense’s office complex nor the Gatewater Hotel have video surveillance of the street; however, the Gatewater does take video of the lobby, which shows one of the four band members leaving around an hour before the crime occurred, two more leaving minutes before the shooting, and the last rushing through the lobby with a trombone case under his arm; notably, he’s the only one of the four to actually take his instrument when he left, as the others were all empty-handed. Most importantly, though, the video proves that no one else left the hotel between the time of the shooting and the time that the police started arriving, which calls into question the notion of an accomplice helping Miles dispose of the body.

This, however, provides the prosecution with a shiny new theory: that Miles hired the band to act as hitmen while he kept his hands clean. As it turns out, the reason the band name seemed familiar to him was because he was set to prosecute the fifth member of their group after his case against Phoenix wrapped up; the prosecutor posits that Miles promised to go easy on their incarcerated bandmate if they took out the defense attorney.

This is a damning accusation, and Maya has no ready response. The Judge adjourns the court for the day, and the defense scrambles to come up with a way to prove that Edgeworth had no part in what happened and place the blame on the truly guilty. She returns to the rental company and, while interviewing Novi further, finds out that the fifth bandmate has a sibling that works at the same agency. She also returns to the Gatewater to speak with the band, and notices that the trombone case in the room doesn’t look like the one from the lobby video. When asked, they say that the old case got lost...which seems odd to her, since the trombone itself is still there and doesn’t appear damaged.

While Maya looks deeper into the band, she reaches out to Miles for insight into the case he was supposed to prosecute. The fifth band member had been taken into custody on suspicion of murder, and while he suspected that the man did not commit the crime alone, he hadn’t yet been able to prove that when all this happened. For the first time, though, Maya starts to see real anger in the prosecutor -- not because these people dragged his good name through the mud with this set-up, but apparently because Phoenix’s blood is on their hands, and he can’t abide the thought of them getting away. He readily gives her access to his office for the other case file (which Chief Prosecutor Skye secures for her) so that she can use it in establishing her own case.

Despite her best efforts, though, Maya simply can’t pull together enough solid evidence to prove that Miles didn’t have a hand in the crime -- and without proof of his innocence, the court intends to find him guilty. But before the judge can hand down his verdict, the courtroom doors open, and a strident Objection! rises from the back of the room...and who should come limping up to the witness stand but Phoenix Wright himself.

The courtroom goes absolutely wild about this.

Understandably, the judge calls for a recess, and before the prosecution can drag him off to prep him for testimony Maya and Edgeworth at least get a minute with him. As it turns out, Maya had forgotten her phone that morning, and Pearl grabbed it for her; just as they were called into court, though, it rang, and Pearl stayed behind to answer -- only to be shocked to hear Mister Nick’s voice on the other end, at which point she rushed off to beg Mister Scruffy Detective to take her to get the defense attorney from the hospital where he’d been for the past few days as a ‘John Doe’ (since he had no ID on him when he was brought in). Maya is overwhelmed to see him alive, if worse for the wear, and Edgeworth…

...he can’t even find words for the feeling.

The celebration is shortlived, though, as Phoenix is dragged off to the witness lobby in short order to prep him for testimony. For all that the prosecution seems to believe he’ll help them, though, Nick gives them absolutely nothing, and instead confirms that he received a call from Edgeworth that evening, and while they were on the phone two strangers came into the office just before he was shot. They dragged him down to the street and threw him in the trunk of a car, then drove to the river and threw him in; most importantly, though, he remembers one of them asking what to do with the case, and another saying they would dump it at the club where it would blend right in; police are immediately dispatched there and find a bloody trombone case (since they’d thrown it into the trunk before loading Nick in) with a rifle inside.

The motive? Everyone knows the Demon Prosecutor’s reputation, and they knew that they’d all go down if he tried the case on their buddy. The enmity between prosecutors and defense attorneys is well known, though, and in particular they knew that Wright had broken Edgeworth’s old record and it had never recovered; they figured it would be easy to frame him for the murder with the right set-up. They had a small window of opportunity while Wright and Edgeworth worked through their trial, and they used it to put all their pieces in place, expecting that Edgeworth would go down and they’d all get off when a less competent prosecutor inevitably got their friend’s case. Clearly, though, that backfired on them: they’re all taken away, and Edgeworth is declared Not Guilty. Cue fanfare and confetti!

...and that’s where the fallout begins.

While Miles is taken to get things squared away with his release from detention, Phoenix is taken back to the hospital because honestly he should not have left in the first place. The man was admitted with a collapsed lung. It’s frankly a wonder he even managed to stand, let alone raise that objection. His recovery takes a while, and Maya and Pearl are frequent visitors...but so is Miles, much to his surprise. Only it’s not a good surprise for him, given what he’d been planning to say on the night he got shot. Things feel awkward, and all the more for how Miles is acting...different. Not like his usual self. Phoenix doesn’t know what it is or if he likes it, but he’s too tired to complain since it’s not bothering him, and visiting hours are relatively short since the prosecutor is still working cases.

Given what happened to him, though, the doctor recommends that Phoenix should stay with someone once he’s discharged: his condition, while improved, could deteriorate rapidly if something happens, so it’s imperative to have someone else around in case of an emergency. Maya and Pearl are still going back and forth between the city and Kurain semi-frequently, though, and he wouldn’t want to impose on them, especially since Pearls has been thinking about attending school in the city rather than just getting her medium training...but though he doesn’t even consider Edgeworth as a possibility, the prosecutor immediately volunteers when he hears: he has more than enough vacation time accrued and the chief prosecutor hounds him regularly about needing to take some, so he can be on hand for whatever Wright might need.

This does not, in fact, reassure Phoenix.

It’s okay enough at first, if only because Nick is just too tired and hurts too much to think about it or care about much beyond finding a comfortable position to sleep in and figuring out how to breathe without it making his chest feel like it’s full of broken glass. But as he starts improving, the tension slowly ratchets up, because Phoenix still doesn’t understand why Miles volunteered for this and the only possible explanations he can think of aren’t really good (most involve having him in the prosecutor’s debt, which is not what he wants). Miles, meanwhile, isn’t aware of this tension at first...but gradually he becomes more and more aware of the silence around Phoenix. It was understandable at first, because he was fresh out of the hospital and still recovering, but the longer it goes on the more noticeable it becomes, and he knows it means something but he doesn’t know what to do about it.

Eventually, though, it all does come out, because Miles finally broaches the subject of his own accord by asking Phoenix what he’d been planning to say that night: he’d said he can’t do “this” anymore, but he never said what “this” is. And even though he’s aware that nothing is likely to cme of it, Phoenix explains exactly what his problem is and has been for so long: the one-sided relationship where he’s the one doing all the work and making all the concessions and getting none of his own needs met in return. It’s exhausting, and he can’t do it anymore. And rather than fighting or arguing the point, Miles -- who has never had a relationship like this before -- asks what needs Phoenix has, and how can he meet them. He concedes the point, he admits that he’s been in the wrong and needs to change, and asks for help figuring out where to start -- because he came so close this time to losing Phoenix permanently, and that realization scares him more than he can say.

Phoenix is pretty well dumbstruck. But he recognizes, too, that this isn’t easy for Miles. He’s reaching out, he’s trying...and even though Nick had intended to cut his losses that night in his office before everything went so wrong, he decides to give this one last shot.

And when Miles listens to what he says, and actively responds and adjusts...he can’t help hoping that this turnabout will end up well.

#replies #cianidix #ace attorney #fanfiction #crime of passion #i wrote the whole thing out in a doc this time so there tumblr #only downside is that i had to go through and manually add formatting again #but that's a small price to pay for not losing my whole summary #also yes i promise that things eventually work out with them #communication is good okay and edgeworth learns this lesson the hard way #but he's able to save the ship before it sinks #and slowly he starts to really gain phoenix's trust #the relationship they end up with is so near and dear to my heart #but this is definitely my magnum opus for the ace attorney fandom #i seem to have one for every fandom i engage in #at present i have five total #it'll be six if i can ever figure out which of the 3h ones is my crowning achievement

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universal-kitty · 6 years ago

Text

.: We Make the End Our Beginning :.

Ship: Phoenix/Me ;; Trucy & Me (familial) Prompt: It’s Friday, April 19th. Another day working, another day for Phoenix at court. Though the night before was lovely [fic here], the new day promises more struggles than either of them expected...

Notes: I may be a day late, but nothing will stop me from getting. This. Done.

The day started beyond perfect. Phoenix woke up a little earlier than usual to prepare for his case, Rachel slept in another hour, and when it came time to get up, the sun was warm, a gentle breeze was around, and clouds floated through the sky. It was perfection, enough so that they even sat outside while drinking their coffee, people-watching all the while and wondering how the case was going. Phoenix’s cases tended to start around early afternoon... This one no different.

There was still time when Rachel checked their phone, so no rush. Soak up a little more sun, indulge in the sweet coffee they ordered, watch the clouds roll by and pick up light chatter... Wonder what Diego was up to in jail. Hopefully they had the kind of coffee he liked or they’d never hear the end of it.

With that amusing thought, they drank up the last of their cup, tossed it, and headed out for the courthouse.

The walk over was rather quiet, the only sounds aside from the ones the city gave being the tune Rachel couldn’t stop humming. Another song stuck in their head that wouldn’t quite leave... Doomed to repeat the part they remembered best until they listened to the song itself later. Eh, it was fine, though... Things would get worked out eventually.

The courthouse wasn’t far, now. They hurried their steps a little more, not staring at the man who passed them in an equal rush, his head tilted down. Rachel might’ve ignored the man, too- wearing a trench coat is reason enough, but with the collar pulled that high, there was no way they could get a good enough glimpse of his face- but what did make them stop was the spiky, black hair poking out in the back. Tilted down, it make the stubborn hair stick straight up...

“Phoenix?”

Heartache started the second he turned around. He looked lost, on the verge of a breakdown. Eyes were shiny with tears he hadn’t shed yet and with his hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his trench coat, he made for a striking difference for the man they’d come to love so, so dearly. What happened to their cheerful boyfriend?

“Is... Is the case over?” They asked hesitantly, stepping closer. “What happened, babe?” Phoenix didn’t respond, eyes moving all over his partner’s face before a hand left his pocket, grabbing theirs and dragging them with him. Not out here... Okay, but their anxiety was skyrocketing. What couldn’t be said out in the open?

What happened in this case?!

“Fake evidence? How does that even happen?” Rachel was in horrified awe, hands cupped around their mouth. Disbarred. He was getting disbarred for having fake evidence. How?! The prosecutor knew, too...but Phoenix would never!

“I don’t know,” he responded, giving a dry, humorless laugh. He’d sat down at his desk- the last time he may ever do so- and put his head into his hands. This might as well be their last time at the office...and their heart hurt at the thought. “His daughter even gave it to me, I don’t... I don’t understand, either.”

The lights should be on. They should be celebrating with Maya and Pearl... Maybe a few of their other friends, like Gumshoe and Maggey. But the lights were off, the AC quietly rumbling, and it was only them.

It was hard not to cry.

“So, what...what happens now?” Rachel hates how timid their voice sounds. They need to be strong for him, too, right? But now everything’s become uncertain. The future’s a mess and they’ve got to pull together...

Nothing’s pull them away from him since they first gave this relationship a shot. Not bringing a parrot to the witness stand, not any of the odd hijinks that happened along the way... Hell, even Iris was accepted with just as gentle of a hug as Godot/Diego had been. Through it all, things have stayed strong...and that wasn’t going to stop with Phoenix being disbarred.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, fingers sinking through and messing up his hair a little, before sitting up again. “I... I’m lost, honestly. I never thought of what I’d do if I wasn’t a lawyer. That’s...never been something I’ve had to think of. Plus... From now on, there’s somebody else to think of, too.”

“Someone else...?” Rachel’s eyes widened, staring at him. He still only looked at his desk, so they stood up, trying to draw his gaze in their rising panic. “Who- What do you me-?!”

A knock at the door. They paused, looking at Phoenix, then hurried to the door. Opening it, nobody was there...? A sniffle drew their gaze downwards, however, to what appeared to be a young girl in a pink magician’s outfit. So small, so cute...and tears coming from her big, blue eyes.

“I-Is Mr. Phoenix here...?” Wordlessly, Rachel moved out of the way, opening the door wider so this little girl could see him. She gasped, hurrying over and arms opening to hug him. Without hesitation, Phoenix held her, hugging her close before scooping the little girl in his arms, standing from his chair at last. He still looked so lost... Only now, he looked like a lost, single parent.

“My client today...was her father,” he confessed, eyes downcast. “He disappeared... Trucy doesn’t have anyone else, Rachel. I can’t... I want to adopt her. Look after her...from here on out.” He paused, swallowing nervously as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. “...You... You don’t have to join me on this. Not after all that’s happened toda-”

“Phoenix. Phoenix, look at me.” Hesitantly, he did. “I’m not leaving you now or ever. Even after something like this. Okay? If raising Trucy is what you want to do... I’ll help. You don’t have to be alone on this. This...” Rachel stepped closer, a hand on Trucy’s still-shaking back and another on Phoenix’s bicep. “This, right now? It can be the beginning of our family. An odd one, to be sure...but a family. Okay?”

All at once, the stress he was carrying was sighed out in relief, shoulders sagging as he nodded. He obviously thought this could’ve been the end... What a weirdo; they sure weren’t leaving him any time soon. Not even with his badge revoked and a child being adopted!

“Daddy...and Mommy?” Trucy’s voice hesitantly spoke up, peering at her new parents with a hint of uncertainty.

“Mm, Trucy? Do you think you could...call me Renny, instead? I would like that a lot better.” The girl blinked and then nodded...then slowly began to smile wide.

“So... You’re my Renny now?”

“I would like it, if you’d like us.” Trucy looked to Phoenix, then back to Rachel and nodded eagerly, humming her confirmation. Joyful laughter at her temporary boost in mood didn’t brighten up the dark office any, but somehow...made it bearable. Like it wasn’t oppressive anymore, but kind and secretive.

For that was the day Trucy Gramarye become Trucy Wright. She got a new family and Phoenix became a father, just as Rachel became a parent to the wonderful little girl. Wright and Co. Law Offices would suffer for many years yet...but something wonderful still came of it.

And the next morning, when Rachel woke up to see not only her boyfriend, but their adopted daughter between them... It was hard to say if life was worse off giving them such a picturesque scene.

Things would be okay, someday. They all would be okay...but for now?

It was nice to wake up to a new day as a family.

#self ship #self insert #self ship community #self insert community #self shipping #ace attorney self ship #Aki Stories #otp; our love is law #HA HA WE'VE GOT AN OTP TAG NOW #now to just....throw it on all the OTHER relevant things #whoops #anyways pLEASE READ AND REBLOG #THE SUPPORT IS NICE MAN #I'M DOING MY BEST HERE

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