#au where phoenix gets partial guardianship bc Maya had only just turned 18 and having to take care of an 8yo at that age sounds like hell

[science-lings]

I love that Phoenix is so father figure coded in the main trilogy with Pearl. Like the official art where she's napping on his thigh or being held up by him to put up Christmas tree ornaments, and the whole vibe of him bringing her along to crime scenes, and in the stage play where she gets scared and freezes in place so he just picks her up like a stack of firewood. Even from the second game when he's only like 25 he's been irrefutably dad-shaped. It should've been the least surprising thing to happen when AJ first came out that Phoenix had become a dad. That's been an important part of his personality, he probably was born to be a girldad more than an attorney.

anyway it's also really funny to think about him lowkey adopting the half-sister of the woman who tried to kill him and her twin sister who tricked him into thinking that she was his girlfriend.